Chester Chapter 2 (OR: The Original Seven)
Next Day
Annette Hebert's Hidden Base
Wincing at the headache that I'd woken up to, I drank some more water from the flask I'd pulled from a machine that was labeled 'fresh water from the aquifer' in the living quarters. It was surprisingly nice to drink, cold and pure as spring water.
Mom had obviously put in the bare minimum necessities for living here. There was water, sourced directly from the aquifer beneath Brockton Bay, fish farming tanks which were totally automated, not to mention a hydroponics sector that grew all kinds of vegetables. And that was among the most mundane aspects of the base.
The entire base was something like triple the recommended structural integrity for an Endbringer shelter, not to mention freaking huge to boot. Just looking at the 3-D hologram of the layout gave me a headache. Why in the name of all things sane had Mom built a base capable of housing several thousand people comfortably and twice that with some difficulty? And again, how had she managed to build it while just a regular housewife and college professor?!
The answer, once I dug into it, was simple: robots. She had built a really, really useful robot that eroded earth and stone into dust with almost mathematical precision, as well as another one explicitly for building the base. This was while she was finishing her last year at college, while planning her and Dad's wedding, mind you!
Sheesh, Mom had been supermom or something to do that!
Anyway, my investigation into Mom's tech had ultimately led me to the creations she was most proud of; the Original Seven. Seven robots, each optimized for a fighting role on the battlefield, each fashioned after a weapon, and each codenamed for a day in the week.
Diablo of Monday, was, according to the notes Mom had left, a pure Brute in combat. Taking the motif of a great axe, and bearing one in close combat, Diablo was designed to be a line-breaker, assaulting the enemy from the front and smashing them apart.
Metsä of Tuesday was a robot that operated entirely on the opposite principal of Diablo. As opposed to the Brute-type's straightforward and simplistic axe, Metsä wielded an elegant and swift rapier in combat. Being much slighter and less armored than its counterpart, it focused on swift, decisive strikes and hit-and-run strategies. Coupled with its twin laser blasters for mid-ranger attacks, it was a force to be reckoned with. Uniquely, Metsä was one of the only robots of the original Seven to be designed for extended combat without being refueled here at the base, capable of being deployed for several days without rest.
Dahlia of Wednesday was a robot built around the concepts of less-lethal take-downs and capture. Feminine in appearance, I could see why Mom had named it after a flower, as it looked like one when transforming. Equipped with a three-section-staff, it was ranked third among the Seven for agility and maneuverability. The blue fluid that filled the Original Seven and allowed them to move so fluidly was called the G-ER Fluid, short for Generation – Electronic Response Fluid. Dahlia could fire it off to capture and entwine enemies from short to middle ranges, which made it a very useful unit for a perspective hero's perspective. As an aside, it also had mini-rockets for long-range combat, and had an optical camouflage system for stealth.
Dann of Thursday, the unit which had rescued me, was what I'd call the generalist of the Seven. Its motif was the longsword, and it could turn its blade to offense and defense equally well. It was fast, agile, strong and tough, but it didn't excel at any particular point overly much. The longsword had a second blade hidden on it, and it could bat aside solid projectiles with ease, but it was like Diablo, truly without any long range options.
Sin of Friday and Sen of Saturday were an oddity among the Original Seven in that they were non-humanoid in appearance; Sin looked like a hunched-over beast of burden, while Sen was the shortest of the original Seven, and had a very alien-looking head. They were designed to fight as one unit, even being able to combine into a single unit to bombard enemies with laser cannon fire, or separate for attacks with their handheld weapons, a tonfa and a chakram.
Finally, Saudade of Sunday was the most advanced member of the Original Seven, and could operate for an almost unlimited number of days away from base thanks to its eight 'wings' in humanoid form, which were solar panels as well as wings to allow for high-speed flight. Its basic weapon was an energy gun with a razor-sharp bayonet slung underneath the muzzle. It was also capable of interacting with any tech that Mom had built.
All of the Originals could transform into alternate forms for being deployed; Diablo was an axe, Metsä was a lance, Dahlia was a staff, Dann was a sword, Sin was a tonfa, Sen was a chakram and Saudade was a musket with a bayonet. They all also had air-jets that allowed for flight and what Mom had called an 'electromagnetic shield' for repelling ranged attacks.
Again, how the hell did Mom build all this stuff?! She even built a goddamned Mass Driver to launch them into Brockton Bay if needed!
Just to put the cherry on top, she had built what she called 'full-sized versions' of the robots as well as the seven human-scaled ones. These 'Neo Originals' were all the height of buildings! What the hell had she been planning on using them for?!
As I delved deeper into the diary-like reports Mom had left, I understood that she couldn't have used them. In order to pilot any of the larger versions of her robots, someone would need to undergo the 'reconstruction' surgery that I'd been put through. In addition to giving me increased reflexes, stamina and slightly increased strength, it also boosted my ability to control my own bioelectricity, which was the medium through which someone controlled the Neo Originals.
The G-ER Fluid, which made up about 70-80% of the interior of any Original, acted as muscles, nerves and power storage, all wrapped up in one package. It was both the main selling point and greatest downside to the Neo Originals. On one hand, even as large as they were, their movements were fluid and easy like any living being. On the downside, most people would see having to undergo surgery to operate any kind to technology wouldn't be seen as useful or even humane. Mom's research on the rules for Tinkers in the Protectorate, two-years out of date as it was, made it clear that any kind of Tinker who delved even slightly into biology was hamstrung by rules more-so than almost any other kind of Tinker. The only kind of Tinker who suffered more rules than them were AI Tinkers.
I'd have to check to see how up-to-date and accurate Mom's research was, but if even a third of this stuff was anything approaching being in place, I was noping my way out of the Protectorate as an option. My 'inner-tinker', as Mom put it, was essentially a copy of what hers had been, with some expanded options in the robotics department, so what would have been bad for Mom was bad for me too.
The other power that I possessed, ironically enough, would have made the need for the reconstruction surgery a moot point; it allowed me to finely manipulate my internal bioelectricity, amplifying it to the point that I could have piloted any Neo Original without needing the reconstruction surgery. As it was, I could combine my power and the reconstruction to amplify my control over any Neo Original, even finely manipulating the G-ER Fluid or widely manipulating it as I pleased.
Even outside of a Neo Original, I could use my power to give me the reaction speeds more akin to those of a shark, as well as artificially amp my strength up to well above the human norm As an added bonus, by entering a Neo Original, I could heal myself of most minor injuries and even tiredness with just a few minutes of entering one.
Still, short of an Endbringer attacking Brockton Bay, there was literally no possible use for a Neo Original; it would be literal overkill to use one against the gangs, even if it was just Sen. Unless Mom was planning on rising up against the government, there was no good reason to build the damn things.
So why had she?
"Urgh, c'mon Mom!" I groaned, slumping back in the chair. "Throw me a bone here! Why build the Neo Original Seven?!"
Much to my surprise, the screen lit up again.
Searching database for: Purpose for Neo Original Seven...
One (1) recording found.
Play File?
"Yes!" I said, straightening up.
Mom appeared on the screen again, looking serious, not to mention tired.
"Taylor, this was set to be played when you asked about the Neo Originals." Mom said, a small smile on her face. "Likely, you think I'm insane to even think about building them, and ordinarily you'd be right. But there is something deeply wrong about the way the National Protectorate and PRT is acting. Ever since the death of Hero, the two organizations have become less about keeping the peace and more about maintaining the status quo. By my projections, in Brockton Bay alone, there should be far more funding for the PRT, not to mention more heroes in the Protectorate."
I...couldn't really argue with Mom about that. The arrests that were made among the gangs were almost always very temporary, even for those moronic drug-peddlers in the Merchants, at least for the Capes. Any one of the Capes that were caught were almost always freed before they could be shipped to prison.
"I have no proof, but I'm almost certain that the Triumvirate at least know why it's happening." Mom continued. "They are the most respected heroes in America, and helped to found the Protectorate; they have to be aware of what is going on to some degree. Either they're being made to turn a blind eye to it...or they're directly complicit in what is going on."
That made me gape in shock. How...I just...!
"I know you admire them, especially Alexandria and Legend, but it's the only option that makes sense to me, dear." Mom said, as if reading my mind. "I hope they're simply being blackmailed or something, but I'm taking no chances. That's what the Neo Originals are for; providing you with a way to fight back against the Triumvirate if the worst come to the worst. If my theory about your Tinker power is correct, you should now have the knowledge to perform the reconstruction surgery on others. If you find anyone who is trustworthy, you can perform it. Unlike you, however, I would recommend implementing the original version of the surgery as opposed to the modified version you were the recipient of, or the other one I derived from it."
Thinking on it, I could see what Mom was talking about. With the original version of the reconstruction surgery, a person would be bound to one of the Neo Originals and only be able to ride that particular one. Additionally, they would have to ride their Neo Original at least once per fortnight or so or they would fall ill. This was due to the bioelectricity within them needing to be 'charged' by the Neo Original.
In my case, I apparently Triggered a quarter of the way through my surgery, so Mom was able to take advantage of that to create a brand new procedure that removed the binding element, and also got my own power to charge my body, keeping me from that fatal weakness. Afterwards, she created a third procedure that would use the recipient's own kinetic motion to charge their body.
My Mom had been an awesome Tinker.
The video ended at that point, just in time for an alarm to start blaring.
"What now?!" I asked in irritation. I had a lot to think about already, and I din NOT have time for this bullshit, whatever it was!
My irritation turned in ice-cold fear as words scrawled their way across the screen.
WARNING: Disturbance reported at Barnes Household! Rogue Parahuman Shadow Stalker/Sophia Hess has taken Emma Barnes hostage and fled.
"That fucking bitch!" I cursed, seeing red. Now it made sense! I'd changed my locker's lock combination weekly, and the bitch had still somehow managed to get in. Well, I guess I knew how she was getting in!
Recommended Course of Action: Deploy suitable [Original Seven] to track and capture Subject Shadow Stalker, whilst retrieving Subject Emma Barnes.
Execute?
"Do it!" I growled, not caring that this was a Bad Idea. This was my sister-in-all-but-blood we were talking about here, who had tried to stay near me at school even although I'd tried pushing her away. I wasn't about to abandon her now!
The screen flickered before words scrolled down it rapidly.
-Original Seven-
*Dahlia of Wednesday*
Boot-up: A-OK
LZ-C: A-OK
Chester Vitals: A-OK
EXECUTION
Minutes Later
Barnes House
Alan Barnes winced as his wife Zoe cleaned and dressed the arm wound he'd gotten from the damned Parahuman who had kidnapped his daughter. It was insane. One minute, they were relaxing and helping Danny through the kidnapping of Taylor. Then, in the next minute, Shadow Stalker had come charging in and threatened them all with a knife, demanding to know where 'that little bitch Hebert' was.
"How's Danny?" He asked as Zoe finished with her ministrations.
"I've done some basic first aid on him and called an ambulance, along with the police and PRT." she replied, glancing over at where Danny Hebert sat, a crossbow bolt lodged into his shoulder. "The bolt's keeping pressure on the wound, so he won't bleed out, but he's in a lot of pain."
"I'm going to sue the PRT and Protectorate until they're penniless." the lawyer swore. "One of their Wards broke into our house, threatened us at knife-point, assaulted us, shot my friend with a crossbow and kidnapped our daughter. I swear, Zoe, they won't know what hit them!"
"I'd settle for h-having our daughters back." Zoe sniffed, and Alan immediately pulled her into a careful hug, making sure to keep pressure off of his injury.
"Taylor's a smart, strong girl." he comforted her. "And Emma knows to keep her head down and not antagonize someone when kidnapped. I drummed that much into her."
"That girl, Shadow Stalker...she sounded unhinged." Zoe said with a shiver. "Why did she kidnap Emma? And why did she want Taylor?"
Both were excellent questions. When Emma had heard the voice of Shadow Stalker, her eyes had widened in realization. (Of what though?) The (clearly unstable) Parahuman had seen that and grabbed Emma, which was when he and Danny had tried to jump her, to obvious results. He'd been slashed across the arm, while the teen-aged Parahuman had been forced to use her power to avoid Danny's tackle, and had followed up with a crossbow bolt to his shoulder.
She'd grabbed Emma again and fled quickly after that, with the remaining inhabitants of the Barnes home too wounded or hysterical to do much than patch their wounds and call for assistance. He was never more relieved that Danny had convinced him years ago to keep a first aid kit in the house, just in case.
BANG!
Zoe shrieked at the loud noise, swiftly followed by the earth shaking as something landed in the street outside. Alan staggered to his feet and peeked out of the living room curtains to see what was out there.
A long staff floated above a large crater in the middle of the road before flipping around and transforming into a humanoid robot in a sequence that greatly resembled a flower blooming.
"Wake up, Dahlia!" a female voice said aloud, one that Alan recognized.
Feminine in appearance, with pink armor contrasting with blue unarmored sections, it had a pair of wing-like appendages emerging from its back and it looked around the area with thin red eyes before it shimmered and vanished.
"That was..." the lawyer muttered, eyes narrowed. Emma had told him that the robot from yesterday had spoken with 'Auntie Annette's' voice as well, but he had quietly expressed disbelief at that. Now he had heard this robot speaking using the voice of his best friend's deceased wife.
Looks as if I have more things to think about." Alan mused as he spotted the ambulance coming up. "Zoe, get Danny ready! The Ambulance is almost here!"
With Emma Barnes
Abandoned Building, Docks Area, Brockton Bay
The redheaded girl did her best to keep her whimpers down; the Cape she now knew to be Sophia Hess was in a bad enough mood as it was, stalking around and glaring at everything and everything as if it had personally offended her.
"Fucking Hebert...! Weak-ass PRT...gonna make 'em pay!" she muttered as she paced.
Emma herself was bound hand and foot by duct tape and thrown haphazardly in the corner of the room.
'I should have seen that this bitch was a Cape!' the redhead thought as she looked at the wall. 'She had way too much clout at school, and was so damned confident that whatever she did to Taylor wouldn't draw attention!'
The memories of the past year and a half just pissed Emma off so much she wanted to blow her stack. First Auntie Annette dies in a car crash (fucking Merchants!), then when school started, Taylor started to get picked on by the Bitch Trio, as she called them.
Had Taylor wanted to, she could have punched them into the next week. Several times over at that. But she had promised Auntie Annette not to use her strength on others without reason, and she had been clinging to that promise even more literally since the funeral, so the most Sophia, Charlotte and Madison got was Taylor overcoming any of the physical pranks they tried on her; dodging dropped water, easily landing on her feet after being pushed down the stairs, dodging punches and the like.
To make things more annoying for Emma, Taylor had pushed her away to try to protect her from their attentions. She ignored her at school and pretended they were acquaintances at best. It was so darn frustrating that it made Emma want to pull her hair out!
And then yesterday had happened! Emma knew that a prank had been planned, but she had no clue it was something like THAT! She'd told her father about it and he was going to sue Winslow High into dissolution!
Worst of all, something had kidnapped Taylor from the locker, which was something of a mixed blessing; yes, she got out of it sooner, but she was also missing now, and Emma didn't like that in the slightest!
Suddenly, Shadow Stalker stopped ranting and looked around sharply, grabbing her crossbow and loaded a fresh bolt into it, while Emma looked on in surprise.
"Show yourself, you bastard!" the former Ward growled. "I know someone's nearby, so show yourself!"
Silence filled the room before something punched through the concrete wall near Shadow Stalker several times in half a second, smashing it down afterwards. The rogue Ward leapt away from the wall in her shadowy Breaker form before returning to normal, bringing her crossbow up in a smooth, practiced motion and firing it into the dust kicked up from the concrete.
An iridescent bluish-white light flickered into existence, sending the bolt pinging off to clatter harmlessly on the ground. As the light faded, two slits of red light appeared out of the dust before a very...elegant robot appeared out of the cloud. While it was certainly different to the one from the previous day, Emma could see that it had enough similarities to the previous one for it to be a sister-unit.
'What's it doing here for, though?' she thought furiously.
"Bastard!" Shadow Stalker roared. "You're with the dick from yesterday, aren't you?!"
"Attacker Detected. Target Number One, Shadow Stalker, located." the voice of Annette Hebert said as the eyes flashed. "Threat Level: Negligible. Objective: Capture and detain."
In an instant, a thin staff telescoped out of seemingly nowhere and into the hands of the robot, which lashed out with it at the rogue Ward. Stalker leapt back to avoid it, but the weapon extended longer, slamming into her left arm and sending her into a wall before she had the time to react properly.
"Gaaah-!?" the black-clad Cape choked out as she hit the wall before dropping to the ground.
"Dispensing G-ER Fluid, Entrapment Mode." the robot stated, before both of the winged appendages spat out streams of bluish liquid that covered Shadow Stalker from neck to knees before hardening.
"What the fuck is this shit?!" the Cape bellowed as she struggled. She tried to use her Breaker form to slip through it, but screamed in pain as the electricity still present within the solidified G-ER Fluid shocked her. Thanks to her Breaker form's extreme weakness to electricity, it hurt a LOT more than normal.
"Subject: Shadow Stalker has been pacified." the robot remarked aloud. It panned its head around to lock onto Emma, who was frantically trying to work her hands out of their bindings. "Target Number Two: Emma Barnes, located. Objective: Retrieval and Return."
It moved towards her in, there was no other way to put it, a strut. The damn pink and blue robot was strutting along like a catwalk model and making Emma slightly jealous at the perfect motions that it was capable of. She was a model, but only small time and never on a catwalk.
"Cease struggling and hold still." the robot told her. As it was in the voice of the woman that Emma had considered her second mother, she obeyed on instinct.
Shing! Shing!
With two slices of its weapon, both of Emma's restraints were cut in half, which was quite a relief for the girl. She ripped what was left off of her limbs and massaged feeling back into her poor wrists. Sophia hadn't been kind or gentle in wrapping the tape.
Then the redhead eeped as the feminine robot grabbed her around the waist like a sack of potatoes and leaving the building through the hole in the wall, with Shadow Stalker impotently shouting profanity at both Emma and the robot.
"Mission Completed. Securing Target Two. Return via Autopilot." the robot stated before blue strands of that 'G-ER Fluid' stuff wrapped around Emma before the damned thing transformed into a giant staff and started taking off!
"Wait, you're going to fly off like this?!" the redhead tried to struggle away to no avail. "No way! I'll die! I'll-! ARRGGHHH!"
With a shriek, Emma went from standing to who-knows-how-fast in thirty seconds, blissfully blacking out before Dahlia of Wednesday reached her flight's apex.
Later
Original Point
"Yah!" Emma abruptly woke up feeling...odd. Blinking, she took in the room around her, including Taylor wearing a tuxedo...
Wait.
"T-Taylor?" Emma blinked again.
"Hey, Ems." her childhood friend smiled back awkwardly. "Sorry Dahlia was a bit rough with you."
"Dahlia?" the redhead blinked. What did a flower have to do with anything?
"The pink and blue robot that kicked Sophia's ass and brought you here." Taylor informed her. "Look, there's a lot to tell you, and I know you'll have a lot of questions, but...this place? The robots? They were built by Mom. She was a Tinker."
Emma tilted her head slightly, uncomprehending. "Tay, I could have sworn you just said Auntie Annette was a Tinker."
"I did."
"No way."
"Way."
"How? She worked all day and took care of you and Uncle Danny in the evenings." Emma pointed out. "Are you saying that she worked at night or something?"
"There is a hidden passage in my basement leading to an underground tram system that comes here, so yes." Taylor replied dryly. "But she also had a remote system for building and experimenting with stuff as well."
Emma felt a headache brewing. "Tay...can we start from the simple things and go on from there? I don't know about you, but I've had one hell of a day so far."
"Right, of course." her friend looked apologetic. "Let's get some food and water into you. Then I'll give you the ten cent tour."
As Emma stood up, rather shakily, she had to ask one thing. "What's with the tuxedo?"
"Blame Mom for that." Taylor said sourly. "Remember your eighth birthday party, when we dressed up as Legend and Alexandria at their wedding?"
"Yeah, that was fun." the redhead chuckled. "I was Alexandria, and you were Legend...in a tuxedo. Wow. Auntie Annette really liked you in that kinda outfit, huh?"
"She thought I looked very 'adorably dapper' in it, whatever that means." the dark-haired girl said sourly. "She thought it would make a good costume for me. When Dann, the robot from yesterday, brought me here, I was automatically changed into this getup by the service bots."
"Costume?" Emma blinked as they entered what looked like a small kitchenette-slash-dining room.
"Yeah, that's something that I've still to unpack myself." Taylor sighed as she slide into the kitchen and started pulling things out of the fridge. "According to a recording Mom left behind, I was fatally stabbed by some gangbanger when I was four. In the rush to save my life afterwards, I Triggered and became a Parahuman. I'm a Cape, Emma."
Abruptly, Emma stumbled and, thankfully, managed to land in a chair. "What?" she asked weakly.
"Er...oops. I guess I should have broken that bit to you a bit more gently." Taylor said in embarrassment.
"No, your usual chatterbox syndrome decided to show itself for the first time since Auntie Annette died." Emma sighed tiredly as she leveled a pointed look at her friend.
"Now. Start talking from the beginning."
So...yeah, this came out. Man. I've had this GunXSword cross broiling in the back of my mind for a while. It finally refused to stay buried, so here it is. I will be getting back to the others in the Asylum shortly, so no worried on that front.
Just got my Covid Booster a couple of days ago. Ow, my poor arm hurts. Doesn't hurt to take it, but the side effect is a bitch.
Later.
The Original Seven
Diablo of Monday: Brute 5, Mover 4, Striker 5, Shaker 4, Changer 4.
Metsä of Tuesday: Brute 3, Mover 5, Blaster 4, Striker 3, Shaker 4, Changer 4.
Dahlia of Wednesday: Brute 3, Mover 4, Blaster 5, Striker 4, Stranger 4, Shaker 4, Changer 4.
Dann of Thursday: Brute 4, Mover 4, Striker 4, Shaker 4, Changer 4.
Sin of Friday: Brute 5, Mover 4, Blaster 4, Striker 4, Shaker 4, Changer 5.
Sen of Saturday: Brute 3, Mover 4, Blaster 5, Shaker 4, Changer 5.
Saudade of Sunday: Brute 4, Mover 6, Blaster 5, Striker 4, Shaker 4, Changer 4.