Dawn 05

"Okay, Hardlight, are you ready?" the technician - scientist?, worker?, researcher? - asked.

I had to fight not to roll my eyes. "This isn't hard for me, so yes, I'm ready."

"Okay, we're all set here."

Nodding, I reached out my mental arm and flexed. Minions popped into existence all around me filling the grey room. I hit my limit and breathed out slowly, giving a thumbs up to the man in the lab coat. "Okay, that's what I can get to. That's what? Fifty-five? Sixty?"

"We count 56, Hardlight. Are you at a hard limit or just exhausted?"

I bit my lip and took stock before shaking my head. "My limit. It's not tiring to summon them, it's more like I hit a wall."

The researcher - Dr. Lydel? - hummed, then nodded. "Interesting. Many projection powers have caps like that, though most are limited to only a few copies instead of dozens; though there are outliers of course. Let's try something. Can you switch to a different type of projection? We'll see if your count goes higher, lower, or stays the same depending on the, well, species I suppose."

"Hmm, I think 'variety' is a better word," I dismissed my seraphs and summoned the lancers instead.

"These aren't much different and we're seeing the same figure. Do you have any that are a significantly different size?"

"Um, most of the templates I've made are about the same general size…Oh! I have a dog." I let the lancers pop and pulled out the dogs, filling the room with them instead.

The researcher nodded, and checked his tablet. "72. A fairly significant difference. How about anything larger than the seraph variety?"

I shook my head. "Nothing premade. If you give me a minute I can come up with something though."

"Oh excellent, we had wanted to see the creation process as well so this should kill two birds with one stone!" He nearly ran over to me as the dogs vanished. "Are there any prerequisites for a new alteration?"

I pulled up a seraph and stared at it as I made a circuit of the little guy. "No, just whatever I'm imagining really. Hmm, maybe a knight this time? Or should I go for a floating disc? Some of you can fly now, but could the disc fly? Maybe if I started with a throne instead…"

Waving my hand, the seraph vanished and I pulled out a throne. Yup, the eye'd wheel was still creepy.

Dr. Lydel stopped and stared at the throne. "You created that?"

"Yeah. I was aiming for historical accuracy. Hit it. Realized historical accuracy is way overrated. Resolved never to use them except to freak people out. But they can hover and move on their own; I don't really know why, but it works. If I use them as the initial base and then flatten them out and…" My voice trailed off as I stepped over to the throne and squeezed the outer edge of it between my hands. It started to flatten, the floating hollow circle beginning to fill in. I turned the minion in my hands, even as I kept squeezing. Within another minute the entire 'wheel' was filled in and it was more of a 'floating circle' now. Moving to the edges, I started wiping my hands along the sides and the eyes vanished as I passed.

By the time I was done, I had a hovering white circle that was about 6 feet across. Nodding, I clapped my hands together. "Platform."

"Fascinating," Dr. Lydel murmured. "Do all of your alterations start with a base?"

"Not necessarily. I can build a new one from scratch, but it takes a long time doing it that way. It's much faster to just alter an existing one and rename the new template so that I can save the new one."

"And you have to name the templates to be able to resummon them?"

"I think so? It might be a mnemonic thing, I'm not really sure. I know it's hard to remember any templates I worked on that I haven't named."

"Well, we can revisit that later. Would you mind trying to fill the room to your limit with these platforms, Hardlight?"

"Sure." I gestured again, and more platforms popped up around us. "Alright, that's all I can get."

He consulted his tablet again and nodded. "Just as I thought. We're down to 35 now. I believe you're limited by a certain measure of 'volume' for lack of a better word. Smaller projections will allow you more leeway before reaching that limit, larger projections hit the limit faster. Let's test the Brute strength of the different sizes next shall we?"

"I'm pretty sure they're all just as strong, but okay."

After a few more tests, I found they were actually not all the same in stopping power. Apparently the larger versions could take an appropriately larger amount of punishment before bursting while the smaller ones would burst almost immediately. In contrast, the smaller minions were ready to be redeployed much faster than their big brothers. An interesting trade-off really, but I guess it made an odd kind of sense.

None of my current minions were able to fire any blaster abilities. I was a little sad to see that considering I lived with Purity, but I was still plenty versatile and most of them were fast enough that I could just swarm people from a distance anyway.

"Any idea why you can't summon more than one variety at once, Hardlight? Perhaps a mental hangup?"

I shook my head at Dr. Lyder's question. "I don't think so. It's not that it's painful to do it, or that I'm scared, I just can't. If I try to reach for a second version while one is already out, I get like, an error message in my brain."

He nodded. "That does track with several masters I've encountered in the past. Alright, well I believe we've spent long enough on this track. Shall we move on to the most intriguing aspect?"

"What's that?"

He stared at me for a moment, then chuckled and shook his head as he waved to the room's door. Aegis walked in, an easy smile on his face.

"Hi, Hardlight. Purity mentioned that your critters can heal?"

"Oh!" I blinked, swallowing hard as I felt a blush spread on my cheeks. "Yeah, I uh, I guess that would be…important. It's minor though, I didn't really think it would be…Not many people have healing powers at all though so I guess I really should have thought it would be a big deal."

"Well that's what I'm here to help with! My power helps me to heal fast, and it also stops me from feeling pain…mostly." The last was under his breath and I was fairly sure he didn't intend for me to hear it. "So I'm a control group for parahuman healing. Once we see if you can affect me, then we'll move onto volunteers among the non-cape populace."

I frowned. "I'm not comfortable with someone cutting themselves just so they can see if I can heal them…"

"It's volunteers and they're already hurt, Hardlight," Dr. Lyder quickly stated. "We also have Panacea on site to check your work and make certain that there are no nasty side-effects."

"Oh. Uh, I guess that's…okay then."

The loudspeaker in the room crackled and Kayden's voice came through a moment later, "Honey, you don't have to do this if you're uncomfortable with it."

"No, no, I'm fine. We need to know. I could help out a lot more if I can actually heal people besides myself." I scratched at my arm, trying to hide my wince.

Aegis apparently noticed anyway as his eyes dropped to my hand before I hurriedly let it fall to my side. "Like Purity said, we don't have to test this today."

"No, we should. I just - don't expect much, okay? My minions heal me, but they don't…they don't work entirely."

Dr. Lydel turned to his tablet and flicked his finger along it a few times. "Can you elaborate on that, Miss?"

"Hardlight, you don't have to answer that," Kayden said over the speaker again. "Hang on, I'm coming down."

"They don't heal my scars," I murmured.

Dr. Lydel looked up, his mouth quirked to the side, giving me a small nod before turning back to his tablet. "Trigger scars possibly. We've seen it before. Also possible that there is a hard limit on the regeneration that can be imparted. I'm inclined towards the former, it's more common. It could also be mental trauma. You consider the scars part of yourself, so the healing will never take for that aspect of your body. It really depends on the method of healing. Shall we try a few things? See if we can't narrow it down?"

The door to the room opened and Kayden walked in with Armsmaster behind her. Most of her Purity costume was in place, though she wasn't glowing like usual; she had a mask on instead. I gave her a small wave as she stepped to my side. "Hi."

"Hey. Sorry it took so long. There was quite a bit I had to discuss."

"It's fine. Want to watch me heal Aegis?"

"Only if you're up for it."

"It would be helpful to get a baseline," Armsmaster said. "Aegis' healing rate has been well documented. The nature of his adaptations are fluid, but his regeneration is not. This will serve as a good estimation of your own ability."

"Okay." I pulled out a warden, which was basically just a cherub with a floating halo and let it stand beside me at attention. "Ready when you are."

Dr. Lydel glanced up from his clipboard and nodded once. "Do you know if the rate increases with more?"

"Uhhh…"

"No worries, that's what the testing is for! Aegis if you would be so kind?"

"Wait," Purity said, stepping forward with a small frown. "Shouldn't Panacea be here as well? I would hate for the boy to hurt himself on purpose twice."

"Well I'll be doing it at least twice anyway, but thanks." Aegis shook his head. "Panacea is not going to join us just yet."

"Why? This seems exactly like the sort of thing that - "

"Purity!" I hissed. She cut off and glanced towards me. "Remember where you come from? And what happened to her aunt?"

Purity's expression collapsed and her posture visibly wilted. "Ah. Maybe I should go."

"Panacea is perfectly able to maintain a professional working relationship with an affiliated entity," Armsmaster said. "Shall we continue?"

Purity looked at me, I shook my head. She needed to get used to working with heroes and they needed to get used to working with her. Maybe if she was forced to meet people the Empire had hurt in the past it would help to keep pushing her away from bad habits in the future. It probably didn't work that way, but…Well if her presence was really going to be a problem then one of the other three people in this room would have said something.

Aegis precluded any further comments on the matter by taking the small scalpel offered by the researcher and slashing across the back of his arm. He held the limb in front of him and eyed my minion. "So, does that guy have to grab me or is he already working?"

"He has to touch you. Close to the wound too. Can you bend down? You're a bit tall for him and it seems rude to have him climb all over you."

Aegis chuckled and knelt as my warden ran forward wrapping its hands around his arm right above the cut. "You want to watch it heal right?" I asked. The doctor nodded and knelt as well while Armsmaster just centered his visor on Aegis.

"It'll probably be a minute or two. It doesn't look like the cut is deep, but their healing isn't exactly fast. I've mostly just used it to cover up some bruising that I got while trying out my powers and - " I snapped my mouth shut as a memory surged forward of the disastrous day I had tried to go to school before Sophia's little clique had fallen apart.

"And?" Armsmaster asked, his focus not shifted from Aegis.

"Um, other…things," I finished, trailing off.

Purity made a noise I had trouble recognizing, before she stepped forward and hugged me. I let her hold me for a minute before squirming away. "You should have said something."

"I did. You took me out of school the day after," I mumbled.

"Fascinating," Dr. Lydel murmured. Turning back to the others, I saw that Aegis' arm wound had almost closed. "Three minutes. That's fairly impressive even if it just turns out to be an increased regenerative rate."

I frowned as I knelt down. "That's fast. Why did it heal you faster? My bruises took a lot longer to heal."

"Probably has something to do with my own regeneration," Aegis said, shaking out his arm as the last trace of his cut was wiped away. "So, Doc, I'm guessing you want me to cut my arm again and have her try with two this time?"

Dr. Lydel chuckled. "Ah, sometimes I think we do this with you too much."

"Yeah well, let's just say that, on some level, I'm actually a bit relieved there's not more healers triggering in this city. Hardlight, ready when you are."

I manifested another warden and nodded to him. He cut his arm again and this time I had both latch onto him. No one tried to make small talk this time however as we watched his wound heal.

"Hmm, still the same time frame. So it does appear that it is restricted to one rate per target. It's a shame we don't have two regenerators on hand. Being able to test if the rate drops for multiple targets at once would be beneficial."

"I can cut my own arm," I volunteered, trying not to grimace. Just because it would heal didn't mean it wouldn't hurt.

"No." Armsmaster and Dr. Lydel both replied nearly immediately. I let out a soft sigh of relief. Thank god.

"Contrary to some opinions, we take every effort to avoid hurting people here or pushing them into situations they would find uncomfortable. Testing the limits of powers are important, but not to the degree that it would cause distress or discomfort." Dr. Lydel stood and brushed off his pants legs. "Now, I'm satisfied with this portion of the test. Armsmaster, I believe it's time to bring in the non-capes. Let's start with the simple abrasions and work our way up to actual diseases. We'll save Mrs. Johnson for last."

The hero nodded and pressed a button on his gauntlet. A moment later the door to the room opened letting in a few people as well as Panacea.

I turned to the Doctor in an effort to avoid staring at the girl. "Who's Mrs. Johnson?"

"She was involved in a car accident a few weeks back. She has brain trauma that has shown no real improvement. As Panacea can't work on the mind, we've been hoping that someone else might be able to; should they have a healing ability."

"Oh." So no pressure. Perfect.

Panacea stopped next to Aegis, not even looking at me as she laid a hand on him. She nodded after a second and stepped away. "He's clean. No side-effects and nothing visibly wrong. Are we going to do this or what?"

Well considering you just got here. I had to school myself to avoid scowling. I had just gotten done saying that Panacea had a reason to be pissed off, but still, that seemed excessive.

Dr. Lydel and Armsmaster brought forward the first man who introduced himself as Kevin Pruder. I smiled back at him and made sure he was okay with what we were doing and a few seconds later we were off. Panacea had her hand on his free arm as my minion was clamped around his scraped knee. She frowned as we watched his small wounds scab over and drop away, leaving healthy new skin behind.

"That's regeneration, but you're not increasing the body's response. You're altering their physiology to force the damaged part back to health. And it's not using mass from the body. Where the hell are you pulling that mass from?" She glared at me and I nearly took a step back from the intensity of her gaze.

"I have no idea. I don't even know what I'm doing when I heal someone. I'm not speeding things up?"

"You are, but you're just tricking the body by making it think it's fixing itself when you're doing it yourself, mimicking what the body would be doing."

I frowned, thinking that over. "So why's it slow then? If I'm doing the legwork and if I'm pulling the mass out of hammerspace then why isn't it a fast reaction?"

"How the hell should I know, it's your power."

"Panacea," Aegis sighed, "there's no need to get angry. She's here so that we can all try to understand exactly what her power does and how it works."

"No need to get angry?" Panacea sneered. She let Mr. Pruder's arm drop as she glared at Purity, a scowl etched on her face. "She's standing there with Purity, the murderer. As soon as we're done here she's going to go running off to all of her little Empire friends and then they'll have two healers on hand instead of just one. We have enough problems with just that bitch. We're gift-wrapping another one for them! The only reason I'm here is to make sure that she doesn't hurt any of these people in the meantime."

My eyes narrowed and my nostrils flared. "Lay off, I'm not going to be joining the Empire."

"Oh like I haven't heard that one before."

"Panacea." Armsmaster growled. He had just walked back over from showing Mr. Pruder out and he seemed to be glaring at the healer.

"Do you know how many gangbangers I heal on a daily basis? Too many!"

"I knew I should have left," Purity murmured.

"I'm not joining the fucking Empire!"

"You're associating with - "

"Panacea that is enough," Armsmaster stated. He stepped between me and the teen. "We have already had multiple difficulties with relations surrounding Hardlight solely because of her familial ties. Hardlight herself has had exactly one incident of ill repute which is far less than any in New Wave have had individually, including yourself. If you cannot restrain yourself, then leave."

"Holy shit," Aegis muttered.

Panacea just scowled. She took a single step back and crossed her arms, still glaring at me and Purity over his shoulder. At least she kept her mouth shut.

Armsmaster nodded once and turned to Dr. Lydel. "Are we clear to proceed with further tests?"

"Oh. Uh, yes, certainly. Ms. Newton, please come forward."

The rest of the healing proceeded fairly uneventfully, though I had managed to craft a taller version of the warden which I was tentatively referring to as a 'custodian'. The difference in size hadn't changed the pace of the healing imparted at all, which didn't really surprise me. Panacea continued to glare at me and the rate stayed steady for each person. By the time we got near the end, Dr. Lydel was confident enough with his data that he had me splitting my minions between people to no noticeable difference in rate of regeneration either way. When we got to the people with liver disease I was extremely surprised to find that I was actually able to fix that. I resolved to have Kayden make an appointment with some of the local clinics with cancer patients. If I could save some of those people with a few trips, anything that I did as a hero would just be icing on the cake. That would make getting powers all worth it.

Finally we were just down to Mrs. Johnson. She was wheeled into the room by a nurse, and I had to force my hands to unclench as I looked at her. "No pressure, no pressure," I muttered to myself.

Purity laid a hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently. "This is just a Hail Mary, Hardlight. No one is expecting a miracle."

Panacea centered her gaze on Purity and me, scoffing as she laid a hand on Mrs. Johnson. "Well? Let's get on with it. I want to go home."

Aegis grumbled under his breath. My warden popped into existence just to the side of Panacea. She snapped her head to the right, gasping. I tried not to snort as the warden took two steps forward and climbed into Mrs. Johnson's lap, reaching up with its stubby arms to latch onto her head. Then it leaned forward, resting its own forehead against hers.

Aegis sidled up next to me, murmuring, "Petty."

"Yup," I whispered back.

"Kinda amusing though."

"Yup."

"Anything?"

"No idea. I get some feedback from them, but not anything that would translate to whether this was working or not." He sighed and together we watched the woman.

A minute later, Panacea frowned. Her gaze lifted from Mrs. Johnson to center on me, her eyes narrowed enough that I could barely even tell if they were open. "You're…rebuilding her brain."

"I am?!"

Armsmaster and Dr. Lydel aimed more instruments at Mrs. Johnson while Purity just squeezed my shoulder again. Panacea didn't shift her gaze. "How do you know you're fixing it correctly?"

"How many times do I have to say that I don't know? I didn't even know it was working until you said it! Is she going to be okay?!"

Panacea was silent for almost ten seconds, her eyes never moving. Finally she lifted one arm in a small shrug. "Keep the projection on her for at least another ten minutes. Whether or not she'll be the same person she was - we'll find out then."

I nodded and we all stood in silence once more. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the minion stepped back, clasped its hands, approximated a small bow to Mrs. Johnson and popped, leaving its glittery, quickly fading, residue in her lap. The woman herself shook herself, a small chuckle leaving her mouth as she stared at where my warden had been. She cracked her neck and lifted her head.

"Ma'am?" Armsmaster asked. "Do you remember your name? Do you remember where you are or why?"

"I'd imagine I'm in the PRT building since I work here. I assume there was an accident and that I required healing? That car came out of nowhere. Panacea?"

Dr. Lydel stepped forward, a huge grin on his face as he laid a hand on her arm. "It's good to have you back, Martha. Yes, there was an accident. There was some brain damage. It's been almost three months."

Mrs. Johnson frowned, Panacea's hand still locked on her bare skin. Her eyes narrowed as she glanced around the room. "Brain damage? But then why would Panacea be…Oh. This is the testing chamber." Her eyes locked on me as I stood frozen. "And would this young lady be the person who we're testing? Another healer? Who can do what Panacea can't?"

"She appears to have healed you, yes," Armsmaster said.

"Someone help me up! I want to shake this girl's hand and thank her for saving my life."

You couldn't have moved me if a hurricane came through the room at that moment. I just stared at Mrs. Johnson. Panacea seemed torn between glaring at me and gazing - almost longingly - at the woman. Dr. Lydel eventually helped her to her feet and they walked the five feet to me. I must have said something, because the next thing I knew, Mrs. Johnson was gone and it was just me and the other heroes in the room.

"Hand."

"Wha-?" I mumbled. Shaking my head I tried to pull the world back into focus. Panacea was in front of me, her eyes narrowed to slits again.

"I said, 'give me your hand'. Pull up one of your projections and heal yourself. I heard that your scars don't heal. I want to see why. You can fix brains. You should be able to fix scars."

"I - I don't - Okay." A warden grabbed my arm just below the elbow, while another two lowered themselves to hold my calves. They held on for only ten seconds before Panacea dropped my hand, scowling.

"Nothing. You're not doing anything."

"But…that doesn't…why?"

"Dr. Lydel said it earlier," Purity stated, her voice low. "Psychosomatic. It's trigger related. You won't be able to heal them. I'm sorry, sweetheart."

Panacea stepped back, her expression unreadable. "I'm not healing you. If your power can fix brains, great. I still don't believe you aren't Empire affiliated and I'm not going to help you just because you're being friendly."

"Then kindly leave and stop insulting my daughter," Purity said, stepping between us. "Your problem is with me, leave her alone."

"Yeah fine, whatever. Go back to your friends." She twisted on her heels and started to storm away.

I shook my head as I watched her stalk off. Pride and anger warring in my chest. I had just healed Mrs. Johnson! And Panacea was still going to dangle my stepmother's associates in front of us while ignoring everything else? She was just going to walk away?

"I said I'm not joining the Empire!" I shouted. Panacea flipped me the bird without even looking over her shoulder. She was at the door. I scowled, my fists clenched. "They tend to have a problem with lesbians!" Panacea halted mid-step. Then the door slammed closed between us. "Bitch."

Aegis groaned and slapped a hand to his face.

Worth it.