Snake 5.7
January 27, 2011, Brockton Bay, 4:21 PM
This was bad, this was very bad. A Simurgh bomb and a true monster cape whole capabilities I had no idea of. Couldn't say which one was worse. I closed the hole and shifted to a corner of the vault. Noelle, the chimera girl, was crawling into the vault in a lumbering, awkward, but deceptively fast gait on the multiple limbs and tentacles that came out of her lower body. Trickster was standing at the door near the intercom and control panel.
They were talking to each other. Of course I eavesdropped.
"You should tip the driver, the trip was very smooth." That was Noelle, she had a deceptively meek yet chirpy appearance, if you could ignore her bottom half.
"I'm sure Coil is rewarding him handsomely. Are you sure you're not hungry?" Trickster sure had a very lah-di-lah manner of speaking, though one could tell it was a cape persona affectation.
"I just ate a whole pig a few hours ago, I'm not that far gone yet."
"Come on now babe, I didn't mean that!" And the accent had lost it's edge, "Just holler on the intercom if you need something okay, Coil mentioned he'll have supplies of meat ready."
"I know, I know. It's just... y'know..." Noelle shrugged, a few arms at the bottom shrugged too, it was grotesque, "do you think Coil will come through?"
"I think so, he sure has the infrastructure to back his claims. And this is the city where the world's best healer cape is. Even the new guy Maker was apparently seen at the hospital healing with Panacea."
"Krouse, that's who you're supposed to especially keep an eye out for... I don't think you should bite the hand that feeds you." Duh, Krouse, I think that is exactly what you should do!
"Well, I'm not suggesting we do. I'm sure Coil will deliver on his promise. We'll get you healed, trust me. Even if we have to go against that guy, we can try to get our hands on some of that tech..." Gah! I'd heal her for free you moron!
"I miss home." Wow, deflection much, Noelle?
"We all do, babe. We all do. Baby steps, we'll get there. Anyway, I'll go have a chat with the others. Should also report to Coil while I'm at it. You get comfy, I'll see you later." Trickster blew a kiss at Noelle and tapped the control panel, the Vault door closed and locked with a solid thud and hiss. Noelle heaved a deep sigh, a giant wolf head jutting out of her lower body mimicked the motion.
I almost felt a twinge of guilt at spying on that intimate moment, but the severity of the situation took priority, I messaged Taylor. "I need to scan her, can you flicker the lights of the vault level exactly on my mark?"
"Let me see... Yeah, give me a moment to set it up... Okay, ready."
Noelle's bulk was pretty close to me, I opened another microscopic hole inside her body, "Mark!" I sent out a mana scan, she flashed blue as the lights flickered.
Whoa! That scan cost 430MP, Mana Scan was a ridiculously cheap skill, scanning my whole house had cost me 22MP! What the...?
She jerked up and looked around, then went up to the intercom and slapped a giant hand on the button. "Uh, hello. Did the lights just flash or something?" Who was she adressing? I asked Taylor and she told me that there was a guard who'd taken position outside the vault when Trickster left.
The merc's voice came through, "Yeah, the lights did flicker, ma'am. The breakers must have tripped. No worries." Thank you oblivious merc, I'll ask Lisa to give you a bonus before firing your ass once we take over.
"Oh, okay then. Thank you." Noelle settled back down. That was a major risk I'd taken, but recent trends had taught me that unless I took some risks, the situation continued to escalate quietly. Huh, I got a WIS +1 for that thought... Right.
January 27, 2011, Brockton Bay, 8:04 PM
"That's it! Madison!" Lisa slapped the table truimphantly.
Taylor whipped her head up from the screens, "What?!"
"Not that Madison you worrywart! Madison the city, but not just our Madison the city." Lisa's grin stretched from ear to ear. I'd called for a meeting the moment I was sure there was no further info to glean immediately.
Taylor shrugged and said, "Ah. I see." and went back to watching the screens. I was still keeping an eye on Coil, but he'd gone off to PRT HQ and was currently Calverting. We were sitting in our warehouse base, and Taylor had not stopped monitoring his Lair since the Travelers arrived. The camera feeds from the vault and their rooms were open in multiple screens in front of us. I was projecting the conversation between Noelle and Trickster in front of us and Lisa was lapping up all the data like a sponge.
What she said suddenly clicked, "They're Parahumans from Aleph's Madison, brought in by the Simurgh during her attack?"
Lisa shook her head, "They were baselines when they were brought in, the murder angel made them trigger somehow, the rest of them triggered fine, except for Noelle, and this guy Oliver." She pointed at the page of observe result summaries I'd printed out for her. Sundancer's were partial like Coil's, and Noelle's was a stub full of question marks.
Taylor asked without turning her head, "Oliver is a monster cape?"
Lisa shook her head again, "No, faulty triggers, both of them. Oliver's power is... incomplete, Noelle's is... an abomination? Both of their powers are biology based, and has got something to do with whoever they come in contact with. Noelle's appetite keeps increasing, and all she eats adds to her mass. Poor girl was anorexic before her trigger. Trickster is her boyfriend, the Simurgh has done something to him... I have no idea. But his obsession with her is unnatural."
I shook my head, "How can she be this dangerous? Her threat level is..."
Lisa bopped my head, "Stop worrying about threat levels you paranoid freak! This is an opportunity! All you need to do is heal Noelle, and they're out of Coil's grasp. Promise to send them back to Aleph when you can - which you will at some point of time I'm sure - and their loyalty to you is cemented. That's all they want! And the tentative plan that we have in dealing with Coil neither coincides nor interferes with this if we can do it quitely enough."
I nodded, "Fine, and I'm not being paranoid, they've been specifically warned about me. But yeah, I agree. I've gone through her scans, the upper body is human, but her brain only has the corona pollentia, the corona gemma... is... warped, it's spread through each and every lovecraftian nook of her lower body, the biology there is fucked up and unsustainable without power bullshit, mind you. The gemma is a radiating mess of ganglions from a core in her centre of mass, now that has got some weird physics! It's much more massive than it should be - but not heavier. Something to do with compacted or warped dimensions I think. I couldn't go deep into..."
Taylor interrupted me, "Nerd out later with Amy about that. Question is, can you heal her?"
I shrugged, "I can reconstruct her lower body according to her proportions and based on her DNA. That's not difficult. But I have no idea how to reconcile her corona. If I leave out the gemma, best case she's an untriggered cape, worst case she might just revert."
Lisa shrugged, "Just delete her whole corona, there's no love lost between her and her power."
I nodded, "Okay, but it'll take me quite a few hours to prepare the template. I'll do it tonight and keep it handy. Happy?"
Lisa got up and bussed my cheek, "Very happy. Now, I have to get to the loft, we're hitting the casino tomorrow at seven in the morning. After that, one final meeting with Coil, and I'm all yours..." Then she offered her hand to me and said, "Do me before you drop me?" before shooting a pointed glare at Taylor who promptly swallowed her wisecrack with a huff and went back to watching the screens.
I chuckled and took her hand, Cleanse, Scan, Refresh.
January 28, 2011, Brockton Bay, 5:02 PM
Fwip-THUNK!
Fwip-THUNK!
Fwip-THUNK!
Fwip-THUNK!
Fwip-THUNK!
"Aveek! Go practice in an ID or something! I'm trying to work here!" Taylor said testily, the girl needed a break, she'd been glued to those screens since yesterday. Didn't even go out patrolling with me last night, said that a single laptop screen was not optimal, and she'd also reminded me that she'd already stopped 3 and prevented 8 crimes in her 3km radius. Bloody showoff...
I stopped throwing construct shurikens and knives at the realized-construct wooden wall, I was training mana persistence, it was already up to 9 seconds before the constructs dissipated from the wall. "Fine! when will Danny get home?"
"Later, and I've told him that I might be a bit busy for the next few days."
"You're worried aren't you?"
She sighed, "A bit, yes, the situation with Noelle is precarious. Did you know a stray slap from her tentacle left an indent in the vault wall? Anyway, I'll feel slightly better once you add Lisa tonight."
I nodded, "Ditto, let me know when Coil asks her to meet. Has he come out yet?" The Ruby Dreams heist had gone perfectly smooth. They were going to move the cash on 30th, so they'd have heightened security from the 29th. Today morning at 7am their security was almost nonexistent. I wanted to watch the heist from an ID but Lisa would know and she might feel I was doubting her capability. I'd get the details from her later. She'd called once to tell me that all was good and she'd go back to her apartment from the loft around noon to get some sleep. She probably wouldn't get up till Coil called for her, which she said was a sure thing.
Taylor shook her head, "No, still at the PRT HQ"
I shrugged, then dropped into an ID and started throwing construct knives again.
Fwip-THUNK!
Fwip-THUNK!
Fwip-THUNK!
"Come back out, there's an anomaly."
I quickly dismissed the ID and walked over to her, she was pointing at some screenshots of Coil's phone, "Look here, these are his message logs for today morning. There's the confirmation of the successful hit from Tattletale, which he has congratulated in reply - slimy ass. As if he doesn't know that the ABB will be out for their blood. Look at the next ones, here's him sending his daily password to the merc in his Lair's monitoring station, to which he has received an Alpha Charlie as usual. But look at this next one, just two minutes after the alpha charlie, he's received a Sierra Charlie, and this is from an online SMS service number... This hasn't happened before!"
I nodded, "Could be another failsafe, we'll just need to keep it in mind. Has he reacted in any way?"
She shook her head, "He's been at the HQ, but no, no texts, no calls other than a few office calls. A called confirmation from Lisa's Tail that she's reached her apartment. No activity on his server other than his early morning login to read reports."
I gave another pensive nod, "We'll proceed with caution then. Once Lisa is in tonight, then we can move on to Healing Noelle, then taking Coil down. We've neutralized all his known failsafes right?"
She nodded, "Yeah, the ones on his server, the ones on his phone, all the authorization codes and check-ins up to his weekly ones, the security systems of his Lair, we can override and take control of all of it in one fell swoop. I even have his banking details and his hooks into fortress. We still need to prepare for the transfer procedures and breakups, but with Dev and Number Man's projected assistance, I'm not much worried."
I nodded, Taylor looked back at the screens, "Hey, looks like Coil just left the HQ... Le'ts check the phone's GPS... Hmm, yep, he's probably heading to Casa Calvert, will reach in half an hour, you want to go?"
At that moment we both received a precog ping. Taylor just rolled her eyes, once we'd started surveilling him, we'd often get these pings... Possibly one whenever he split timelines. We'd gotten used to generally ignoring them unless we were actually planning something that would interact with him.
I shrugged, "In a while, I don't like to watch him change y'know."
Taylor smirked, "I'm sure Lisa would be happy to hear that. Wouldn't you rather watch..."
"Tayyloorrr!"
"...the new text that Calvert is sending?"
"Huh... Good save. Yep, let's see it."
"Yeah, here it is, Execute Sierra Lima. I don't know which number this one's going to. This is an anomaly I'm telling you. Wait, let me check the database... Oh, he got a reply - Commencing. Commencing what?... Okay - here's the number, oh, this is that other guy who tails Lisa often, the one you said is trained..."
"...as an assassin... Oh fuck." I equipped the Maker Avatar, "Taylor, grab your mobile and get changed." This, was not in my calculations. What the fuck happened?
"What? Do you think..." Taylor complied, she seemed confused. Oh, right.
"Taylor, Lisa's birth name is Sarah Livsey." I grabbed her and dropped us in an ID, then ran out in full boost through the wall of the warehouse.
"FUCK! DROP ME OUT. I NEED THE NETWORK!" Taylor screamed in a message.
Yeah, that made sense. Shit, I was panicking in all my minds, I suppressed it as much as I could. Dropped Taylor on a rooftop, dismissed the ID, recreated it and ran again, my sole focus was reaching the apartment. My running speed on full boost with flight assist was much faster than pure flight. She lived about 15km away, about 4 minutes at my top speed.
I was more than halfway to Lisa's apartment, Taylor messaged me to hurry, she'd opened the feed that Coil had from the single audio bug that Lisa had allowed him to keep. She trashed any other bug that he tried to put in her apartment. She'd also called Lisa but she was tired after the heist, she'd not be wakened so easily. Then Taylor said she heard what sounded like a scuffle.
I released the extra minds and dumped as much mana as I could into boost and flight, my mind was awhirl, what the fuck happened? Why this now? How!?
I angled myself from the rooftop opposite her bedroom window and jumped, smashing through the window and landing on the floor, I dropped out of the ID.
The assassin was standing in the middle of the room, cellphone in hand, he looked up at me with a startled expression, his hand going inside his vest.
I turned to look at the bed, Lisa was lying there, a deep purple mark around her neck, a wire ran through it, was that a garrote? Did this guy think he was Agent 47 or something? There were marks on her arms were her nails had scratched repeatedly... All of these observations ran in the background of my sole active mind, but there was only one thing that I could consciously notice.
There was no blue label above her head.
...
For the second time, Gamer's Mind was a bit too slow to react to me looking at Lisa, white hot anger, frustration, and pure rage blinded me for just a fraction of a second.
Everything was fire.
Gamer's Mind activated. I was not calm, but I was thinking clearly. My MP started counting back up from zero.
"Aveek? Are you OK? I just read the message from the assassin. I'm so sorry."
Taylor's grief was palpable. Stupid emotion messages.
I realized that the assassin had shot me in the head, no worries on that. All that remained of him was a charred skeleton-y thing, part of his boots and a molten gun. As for Lisa's body, I was closer, it was just ashes, with most of the bed. The floor I was standing on had also a thick layer of carbonized concrete in a neat circle. I also realized that there was a scan saved of the whole explosion thing. Hmm, might come useful to create a skill later. There was also the matter of Lisa... Again, I neither had the fortitude or will to deal with that at the moment.
First things first.
"Taylor, where are you? And where is Coil?"
"I haven't made it much far, I'm about halfway there. Coil isn't heading home, looks like he's headed for his Lair. The second tail called him about an explosion, he's going to check it out. Was that you?"
"Yes. You're closer, get in range. The moment he enters his office. Cut him off from all comms. Then put the fear of Swarm into him. I'm on my way. We're still good on the tentative plan, but I'm going to add a twist."
"Yes." Grim resolve blazed through that single message.
I remade my construct armor, seems like it too was cannibalized for mana. Anyway, I walked to the front door. In a few moments, there were footsteps outside, the lock turned and the second tail guy came in, the infiltrator that I first saw. I wasn't boosting, so the glow was low, he didn't notice me till he was halfway in, I scanned him, fleshcrafted him into biomass and inventoried him. All implications to be considered later.
I dropped into an ID and headed for Coil's Lair.
The trip was almost meditative, Swarm was sending me a live feed of what was happening at her end. Only one thought hovered uncertainly around the edge of my mind.
Why would she scratch herself in the arm?
A/N: To the conveniently anonymous reviewer who thinks the story uses the gamer power in convoluted ways instead of just number crunching:
It's alright, you're not the target audience.
To all the other reviewers: Thanks for your appreciation and critique. They're always welcome.
