Trial Interlude 2

The wards were already reporting to Director Piggot when Panacea arrived. She was let in just in time to hear Clockblocker say that "We saw every inch of her body, there wasn't one of those Cs anywhere on her."

"And when I tried to convince her to come with us," continued Weld, "She responded by giving her civilian name and the names of her parents."

"So we can safely rule out that she's a case 53," director Piggot finished for her Wards.

"I'll say," interrupted Panacea, making her presence known, "She's not a case 53 at all."

Everyone in the room turned to face her. "Good, you're here Panacea," the director said to her. "What do you mean?"

"While I was in the bank," began Panacea, "I tried to using my power on Empress-er, Lilith"

The director interrupted, "I'm aware of her chosen moniker."

"Panacea nodded and continued. "Now, when I use my power, I can do more than just heal. I get a look at what's going on inside of someone, and I can make other changes. I tried to use my power to force Empress's glands to produce a tranquilizer and knock her out and… I've seen Case 53s and case 108s. They're usually human on the inside. Even when they're not, they're genetically human. Empress is… She's changed on a cellular and genetic level. She looks almost human on the outside, but on the inside she's the most radically inhuman parahuman I've ever seen."

Director Piggot blinked. "Please, explain?"

Panacea cleared her throat. "I'll start at the smallest level. Genetically speaking, Empress has too many chromosomes. Too much DNA. about a third of it is recognizable as human-like, but the other two thirds are unlike anything I've ever seen. Worse, one of those thirds comes in gene patterns that should be mutually incompatible with the other third." Panacea took a deep breath. The, feelings she'd had when she'd used her power on Empress were beginning to return. "The telomeres at the end of her chromosomes are regenerating faster than her cells are dividing. She possess enzymes that repair her DNA far better than the equivalent enzymes in a normal human."

The director spoke up and Panacea paused. "This is interesting, but what does it mean?"

"Well," Panacea began again, "in addition to that, Empress's cells are different from a humans, or anything else I've seen. The cell membrane is structured differently, her organelles aren't quite the same and she has ones that don't exist in anything else I've used my powers on. Her cells make perfect copies, and repair cellular damage near instantly." Panacea took another breath. "Between that and the changes to her DNA, I think that she's clinically immortal."

"Immortal," Shadow Stalker interrupted. "Like, she can't die?"

"No," Panacea answered. "Clinical immortality means that she won't die from old age, or even age at all past a certain point. She'll never get old, but… There's more." Another breath, this was gonna be a long report. "Empress doesn't scar, and the way her cells reproduce, her regeneration is at least partially natural. Her biology is so advanced and full of so many redundancies that… Okay, it's possible to kill her, but I can't see it being easy."

Stalker didn't reply, but Aegis asked "Redundancies, like me?"

"No. Empress's body… It's constantly changing. I think, I think that's her power, just, constantly changing and improving itself on every possible level. Permanently. In the bank, she said that she was getting bigger and stronger every day, and that fits with what I saw."

"Could you explain these redundancies, Panacea? And her other… unusual biological traits," Director Piggot asked.

"I've written the full list down," Panacea said, taking out such a list, "But the most notable ones are… She has two hearts, neither of which are completely human in design. All of her major blood vessels and some of her less important blood vessels have copies connected to the second heart and I could see more growing while I was using my power on her." Panacea took another breath. "Her bones… Some of them are like human bone, but denser, but her skeleton seems to be made mostly of metal and crystals in layers. Her cartilage is like human, but not quite. Her nervous system is completely inhuman. Her brain is far denser and more complex than a human brain and both her brain and spinal cord have dozens of redundancies. Also her hair? That's not hair, it's part of her brain."

Gallant raised a hand. "While Empress was engaged with Glory Girl, she claimed to be psychic."

Panacea gulped. "And Vicky said that Empress read her mind during the fight. I'm not going to say that she is but… There's one other important thing about her brain. She doesn't have a Corona Pollentia or anything remotely like one."

Everyone stared at her in total silence.

"So," Panacea continued, "either she's not a parahuman…"

"Or she's evolved past the point of needing one," the director replied. "Is there anything else we should know?"

"I have reason to believe that trying to fight her will just make her harder to fight in the future."

Clockblocker responded: "What?"

"Empress has, it's been what, four months since she triggered? At the rate she's been changing, she shouldn't be as changed as she is. I compared what she looks like now to what she looked like fighting Lung in that video. She's changed too quickly." Panacea's fingers began to twitch "She became stronger over the course of the fight, she put on more muscle mass, and Lung's attacks became less effective, all far too quickly compared to what I've seen," Panacea continued. "She also has things that don't quite make sense to have with a power that's 'my body constantly gets better." Her glands are capable of producing opiates and synthetic drugs of all kinds, in addition to the hormones and chemical messengers that are supposed to be there."

"Please," Said the director, "Please tell me that you're not saying what I think you're saying"

"She adapts," Panacea replies. "Everything you throw at her, if it doesn't put her down, it'll just make her stronger."

Clockblocker's response summed up the thoughts of most of the wards: "Bullshit!"

The director raised her hands to her head and began rubbing her temples "So, we have a Parahuman that's constantly getting stronger, might be psychic, and is most likely a second crawler. She has declared herself as a villain, she might be psychotic, she's prone to violence, and there's evidence to suggest that she might be a canbibal." The director sighed. "Please, does anyone have any good news?"

"The good news," Panacea said, "is that your initial analysis of her character is off."

The director blinked. "Explain?"

Panacea looked down. "I um, I had a bit of a panic attack when I saw exactly what she was inside. She immediately dropped out of the tough girl persona and was worried that she gave me a heart attack. Throughout the occupation of the bank, she insisted that she didn't want to hurt anyone." Panacea took another deep breath. "She only became violent when my sister, Glory Girl, entered the Bank, used… excessive force in disabling Hellhound, commented on on Empress's nudity, and threw the first punch. Empress deliberately moved the fight outside the bank."

"At first, when we engaged," added Aegis, "it was because we believed that she would have finished off Glory Girl, but she stated that she didn't want to fight us and apologized to both myself and Weld during the fight. She also gave me several chances to give up and let the Undersiders leave."

"Only you and Glory Girl was hurt too badly," interjected Gallant. "She was mad at Vista and I, after our gambit, but not to the extent she was against Vi-Glory Girl."

"On the other hand," weld said, "Empress did claim that if we went after her father to get to her that we'd wish that the Slaughterhouse Nine had gotten us instead."

"So, she's only excessively violent when civilians are at risk or her loved ones are attacked," the director concluded. "That's good to know, however it's inconsistent with her actions regarding agent Plissken."

"Empress claimed that taking his arm was accidental," Panacea replied. "She said that she thought he could handle it because of his armor and was unaware of her strength or the sharpness of her claws." Panacea sighed. "She also claimed that her attack on a student was simply a case of knocking the other student down on the way out of the school, and wants to know why she's being hunted like an animal when her only crime was having a panic attack."

"She's lying," Shadow Stalker interrupted. "The girl she attacked needed stitches." Panacea had thought this odd. She had noticed that Shadow Stalker had stitched scars when she'd healed the girl's broken arm.

"If she was telling the truth about Agent Plissken's dismemberment," the director stated, cutting off any reply from Panacea, "then it's possible that she wasn't aware of the extent of the she inflicted while fleeing. Panacea," the director continued, "do you believe her claims?"

"I don't know," the healer replied.

"So it appears that the PRT may have made an incorrect conclusion with the facts available to us," Director Piggot began. "But, this doesn't change the fact that Lilith-Empress, has openly robbed a bank and declared her allegiance to a group of villains. Nor does it change the fact that she is known to have stolen illegal drugs from the Merchants for who knows what purpose." The director sighed "Empress is still a criminal, a villain, even if she's one we made, and she still needs to be brought in. However, with this new information about her abilities and mental state, I feel it would be unwise to pursue her actively. Wards, if you encounter Lilith, Empress, or whatever she chooses to call herself, keep an eye on her and do not engage. If she is actively engaged in a crime, contact the protectorate immediately."

The director stood. "I can't fault you for engaging today. It wasn't smart, but considering the circumstances I can't fault you for it. However, I will be having words with… some of you, for your actions after engaging later. Now, if you find yourself in a situation involving Lil-Empress, and she engages you or the situation turns violent, disengage at the earliest opportunity." The director looked at Panacea. "Panacea, I would like to thank you for coming today and sharing what you know, Wards, you are dismissed."

Panacea left with the Wards, although Aegis stayed behind, having something to talk to the director about. As Panacea began to leave the building, Gallant caught up with her.

"How's Vicky," he asked?

"I managed to heal her injuries, but… she wanted to fight Empress again, to pay her back. It took me ten minutes to make her realize how close she was to dying. After that, and after Mom tore into her about how reckless she was… It'll be a while before Glory Girl goes patrolling again. Or until you get another date."

Gallant didn't react Panacea's last line. "And how are you?"

"I'm fine." A lie, Panacea was more shaken up than Vicky was. What she'd seen had terrified her and confused her and, and most messed up of all, part of her… part of her wanted to see inside Empress again. But the world had little time for Panacea's problems. "I need to go, I'm late for my rounds at the hospital."

Panacea left without waiting for Gallant's response.

*break*

Max Anders was frustrated. When Lung had failed to respond to the Empire's probes, Anders grew bold and sent a larger probe, 20 men led by Hookwolf and Alabaster, with Victor following behind, playing sniper in case Oni Lee arrived. Vicktor had been forced to disengage, however after Lung interfered. It wasn't until Hookwolf returned that Anders got the full story.

The problem began, Hookwolf had said upon his return, when the probe came to one of Lung's brothels. One of the newer recruits got trigger happy and gunned down one of the pimps. This led to a firefight with the Asian's security. The probe had managed to kill everyone, but they had lost both the man who had fired the first shot and another young recruit.

Hookwolf had said that he'd began a retreat, but that someone in the brothel had gotten a call out. Halfway threw their way back when a member of Lung's gang threw some kind of device at the retreating probe. It had flashed and Alabaster and five other men were turned to glass. Alabaster didn't change back, and that's when the Lung had charged the group.

Hookwolf had nearly complained when he had said that Lung had already been covered in scales. The Asian leader had charged and smashed Alabaster and the other glassed men, before exploding in flame and killing or driving off the remaining men. Lung had been angry, Hookwolf had said, and had asked why the Empire had entered his territory and killed his men. He had asked if they thought he was weak because he did not kill the new girl, who he had called a young dragon. He'd said that he'd spared the girl because he wanted to see how she would grow, and that he considered her more worthy a foe than Kaiser, and had asked that Hookwolf pass the message along when he was done with him.

Then Lung had attacked Hookwolf. Hookwolf had commented that Lung had grown faster than he'd ever seen, sprouting wings in minutes. He'd expressed both shame and anger when he described how one sided the fight had been, and how Lung had toyed with him and forced him to go where Lung had wanted him to go. He'd been seething when he had reported that, once Lung had driven him to Bastion's fortifications, and the Protectorate became involved, Lung had simply motioned for Hookwolf to leave while he personally fought the protectorate interlopers himself.

Anders hadn't been mad at Hookwolf. He was angry with the foolish recruit who started the mess, and with the people who deserted and had yet to turn up, but most of all he was frustrated. He'd inherited the Empire 88 from his father. The Empire had been in the city far longer than Lung and his pan-asian thugs. The Empire was the most powerful Gang in the city. Did that mean nothing to the dragon? Did Lung think this was a game? Did he seriously think that a young girl was more worthy a foe than Anders himself was?

Anders sighed. He was home now. He'd heard that the Wards had suffered an embarrassing defeat earlier. Perhaps there would be a story about it on the news, and he could have a good laugh at the expense of the PRT's child soldiers. That would lighten his mood.

He turned on his television just in time to catch the end of a report on the incident in question.

"Now, while 'Lilith,' or 'Empress' as she prefers to be called," said the reporter, "was seen fighting the Wards quite savagely, the hostages in the bank paint a different picture."

"It was scary at first, those kids coming in and yelling, taking us prisoner and damn those dogs," began one hostage. "But then Panacea-er, should it be miss Dallon since she was out of costume? She tried something or other on Empress, it didn't work, and she flipped the *beep* out. Empress started freaking out and begged Panacea not to have a heart attack"

"The girl was clearly driven to her wits end," said another. "Even then it was clear that she didn't want to hurt anyone."

"I threw up when she talked about how she got her powers."

"The Capes in this town should be ashamed of themselves, hunting a girl like an animal because of a bad day."

"A good lawyer could get her off-and get her millions."

"I was looking out the window, and I saw that video the other night. If she's telling the truth that the Parahuman Response Team *bleep* up. She could have been a hero."

Anders turned his television off. That was not the story he'd expected. The damn girl… She wasn't even a real villain. The girl who Lung thought a greater threat than Empire Eighty-Eight was just a scared child! A scared child with the audacity to call herself an empress in his city!

The path was clear. Max Anders needed to prove that he was still a force to be reckoned with. That Kaiser was still to be respected, before Lung's attitude spread. He'd start by convincing the monstrous girl to take a more appropriate name. Anders would need to do some research, however. Victor kept an eye on the media. He'd be able to find information on this, this child.

*break*

Coil was beginning to worry. It'd been hours since, in one timeline, he gave the order for his placed mercenary to abduct Dinah Alcott. In both timelines the Undersiders had, discounting a minor hiccup, completed their mission. True, they hadn't gotten as much money as he'd have hoped, and Empress had more than demonstrated her value but, but they'd more than provided the distraction he'd sent them out to create. Lung's battle with Hookwolf happening concurrently was nothing more than a stroke of luck on his part. However...

His fellow Ellisburg survivor's declaration of Empress's instability wasn't far from the truth. The girl had a temper and a trigger that set it off. She'd refuse to harm civilians and hated seeing her loved ones in danger. He could use that, but it would be risky. It'd require more time to plan out, he'd have to use a timeline to experiment, but he could use that.

Still, he should have heard back from his mercenary by now and-his thoughts were interrupted by a text. One he received only in the timeline where he gave the order. He checked it, recognizing the number as one of his mercenaries who had been on security detail.

Bastion is here. Cops assisting, security system out.

Coil sighed to himself and collapsed the timeline. It seems he'd have to acquire the Alcott girl some other time.

It was obvious what had happened, really. Bastion and his men had been assisting the police. He must have been near by when his mercenary made the grab, stopped it ,and captured the mercenary. The hired gun broke under interrogation and spilled the location of his base.

Bastion could be a threat again, later. He'd need to be neutralized… But it would have to be done carefully. It was patently obvious that he was Danny Hebert, the father of Taylor Hebert, Empress. Simply killing the man would set her off… Perhaps he could use her to neutralize him, while using him to keep her in line? Something to look into. For now, he needed to plan, to maneuver, because he needed Dinah Alcott's power if his plans were to proceed.

*Break*

Leet asked, "Maybe we could dress up like the Third Street Saints and shoot up an E88 base?"

"Nah," Uber replied. We did GTA a few episodes back. We don't want to do something too similar too soon."

"Oh, come on Uber."

"I know, I know. Once you get past the first game they're really different animals, but to the casual gamer there's not a major difference."

"Well," Leet began, "does it absolutely have to be a crime?"

"What do you mean, Leet?"

"It's just… We don't make that much from donations and ads on the sight and we get like, one successful heist a year? We've made more doing legitimate work for the boss in the last few months than we do in a year."

"I can see your point," Uber replied to his best friend.

"And I've been thinking: Earlier today, when we were out with the raiders." Leet cleared his throat. "I was just there, in the face concealing uniform, walking a beat with a street cop, and I just happen to stop a purse snatcher. The woman thanked me. It just, it wasn't that big a deal but it felt nice."

"Wait… I see where you're going with this." Uber looked at his friend quizzically. "Are you saying you want to go legit?"

"Why not? I mean," Leet began, "we already have. We're working for a hero and we haven't commited a crime in months. Why not make it official?" Leet laughed. "I mean, the show was never about crime. It's about the games and their right to be recognized as art!"

Uber laughed with his friend. "Yeah, I see you. Sure, why not!?"

The two friends were up half the night talking over just how to go about going into legitimate work.