Chapter 4
We didn't finish that day, but we came close enough that any biologist or engineer would be jealous. I hadn't received a tinker rating after I got out of the Birdcage, but that was mostly because what was left of the government was more interested in self perpetuation and staving off societal collapse than having updated records on capes that weren't causing problems. I expected to be at least a tinker four after Dragon saw what Amy and I had made. Victoria was surprisingly helpful though, so maybe I was just underestimating the human ability to problem solve.
Aside from that Victoria did offhandedly mention that since I didn't own the property my house was on I was technically breaking the law. I wasn't in a hurry to give the Protectorate any ammunition against me so I decided to buy the land. Because it was supposedly an empty plot of land with nothing built on it, it cost far less than any house would have, so I ended up being able to buy it and the surrounding few acres for $80,000. The only reason it was even that expensive was that it was just outside a city.
The next day I went and talked to the utility companies to get water and electricity to my new house and that was going to cost $30,000. At this rate I was going to run out of money in a week.
I wasn't actually of course; setting up utilities wasn't going to be a daily expense, nor was buying the land, but if I had to make large purchases on short notice, I would want to have money in the bank. Maybe I would need Faultline to do something that wasn't covered in our agreement or
I got arrested and needed to pay my own bail.
Luckily, I was the best healer on the planet. Aside from Scion, but fuck Scion.
There was some dude with brain cancer that would pay $300,000 for me to take a look at him and would pay for repeated visits since I "couldn't heal tumors in one session." That sounded like a great deal of money for relatively little work.
I gave him a call on my newly acquired phone.
"Hello Mr. Schneider, I heard that you were in need of my services and were already in Brockton Bay."
"Yes! Thank you so much! I live at 436 7th Street. Do you know when you would be available to meet me?"
"I'm pretty open right now, but I would prefer sooner than later if that works for you. Today even, but tomorrow or the day after work too."
"Today! That'd be great! I can be ready in a couple of hours if that's fine," he cried. His excitement was understandable, but it still annoyed me. He didn't have to shout everything.
"One o'clock? That works. See you then." I hung up and contemplated how I was going to spend my time until then.
Research. My memory of what capes were present was shaky. I knew the ABB and Empire were still strong and the Merchants were mostly just stoners and not nearly as powerful as they were after Leviathan hit and fucked the economy even worse than it was before.
Frank Schneider's house was so stereotypical of a middle class family living the American dream that it stood out in Brockton Bay. A medium-sized two story house with four windows, a nice green lawn and even a goddamned white picket fence.
I was surprised he didn't live in a mansion with how much he was paying me, but there weren't many mansions in this city. I wondered why he didn't move. Maybe he was perpetually trying to get onto my—Panacea's waiting list. Or maybe it was for some obscure reason I couldn't possibly know.
I knocked on the front door and a few seconds later an old man appeared and grinned at me.
"Aceso! I'm so glad you're here. Come in, come in." I thanked him and stepped inside. He was wearing a nice flannel button-down shirt and slacks, giving him a happy grandfatherly air about him.
Looking around, his house seemed nice. Clean, a little sparse, but he had some awesome photos of nature stuff. A beautiful picture hung on the wall depicting a Japanese maple tree with orange and yellow leaves with the blue sky shining through against a background of green foliage. In his living room another art piece sat on his mantle displaying a man sitting on a small platform built way above the ground, around a thin tree looking down a mountainside.
The only other things of note were an American flag hung a few feet above the fireplace and a rifle mounted about half way between the two.
"So, do you have a solid diagnosis or do you want me to take a look?"
"I'm pretty sure that I have central nervous system lymphoma because of my AIDS, but I haven't done a lot of extensive tests. I just got diagnosed," he mumbled, sounding ashamed.
"I'll give you a more in-depth look then," I said and offered my hand.
He hesitantly put his left hand in mine and I got a look at him. The most obvious thing was that his immune system was heavily compromised and the cause was immediately apparent. His blood was full of HIV. I could heal that and likely would today, but first I was going to take a look at the actual cancer. He was still in the relatively early stages of CNS lymphoma. He only had two tumors. One in his right arm, impeding nerve signals to the point of paralysis. That would be why he used his left hand to grab mine. His other tumor was in his visual cortex, but small. He was probably having some vision problems, but nothing debilitating. Might as well ask.
"Have you been having any vision problems?" I asked.
"Uhh, yes. My vision in my right eye is somewhat blurry. I can still see, but when I first noticed it scared me."
"So your diagnosis was right. You have two tumors: one near your shoulder, that's the one causing the paralysis, and another in your left visual cortex causing your blurred vision," I explained. "You're correct that I can't heal all of it at once, but I can definitely fix it all eventually and prevent it from spreading in the meantime. AIDS is way easier for me to cure though. I can do that today." His face lit up like I had just told him I could cure his debilitating and often fatal illness.
"Really! I can give you five hundred thousand just for that!" I mentally stumbled as he grinned at me. FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND! He's supposed to be haggling down, not up! I knew he was already going to pay way more than that for the cancer treatment, but he's going to throw around that kind of money after he's got my attention? That confirms it. He was either rich beyond all imagination or he just didn't value money.
"Can you cure me now?" he asked and grabbed my arm desperately. I was about to comply when something occurred to me. Maybe, he didn't intend to pay me. This was part of why I registered with the PRT: I can call the cops on him without getting myself in trouble for having an illegal business.
"Sure, but can you pay me first? It's just a little hard to believe you'll give me 500k so easily." He looked a bit taken aback. Was that rude? Probably.
"Er—Yeah. Sure." He let go of me and fiddled with his phone for a few seconds, then looked up. "It should go through in a minute," he said. I pulled out my phone and opened the Number Man app and waited for my balance to double.
Ha. Dean had nothing on how much I could spoil Vicky now. If I actually did that I had no doubt that she could burn through a million dollars in a week, though. She was totally the type to lose all her money in an instant if she won the lottery. It was even more infuriating because she knew the statistics and how to manage money. She just wouldn't. She went through her allowance the moment she got it because "$20 isn't enough to do anything important anyway."
Maybe I shouldn't be so critical. I was going through my money really fast. Maybe I would be dirt poor again in a week. Then I could just make it again, so I might be more sensible than her anyway.
I got a notification that I had just received a wire transfer and I did indeed have nearly a million dollars now.
"Your hand again please," I asked him.
I broke down the virus throughout his body and then made his bones start producing huge amounts of CD4 cells.
"You no longer have HIV and your immune system should be in reasonable condition in a couple of days."
"Wow… That was…" he trailed off.
"Anticlimactic." I finished.
"I was going to say amazing, but I suppose it was that too." He smiled at me.
I shrugged and returned my attention to his remaining ailments, namely: cancer. I made the cells bind to each other a bit more tightly to prevent metastasis. I marked a bunch of the cancerous cells for apoptosis and stopped the cells replicating.
"You should be doing better now. It won't spread, won't grow and should be shrinking. I wouldn't expect your vision or arm to get significantly better in the next couple of days though. Maybe after my second visit."
"Thank you so much. I can't thank you enough," he said earnestly. Then he fiddled with his phone again, presumably sending me more money. After he finished, he looked up and glanced at me a bit nervously, like a schoolboy with a crush. I hoped to god he didn't have a crush on me. "From what I hear the cape scene is very dangerous," he stated nervously, "and I happen to know some people that might be able to keep others, like the ABB, from trying to hurt or exploit you." I did not expect that. I was going to have Faultline to protect me pretty soon, but if he knew someone in the PRT or something, that could be really helpful.
"I might be interested in something like that," I said cautiously.
"I could give them a call now if you want? Or if you would rather wait I could do it next time we meet."
"Now is as good a time as ever." Really it was better than usual since my relationship with Faultline was still in flux, but I didn't want to sound desperate.
He nodded, dialing this friend of his and then speaking into his phone.
"Hello. There's a new cape that doesn't really have any support and she's worried about being harrassed by the ABB or other groups. I thought your organization might be well situated to help her… Okay." He hung up and looked at me. "Someone will be here in 15 minutes to talk to you about it."
I no longer felt quite so good about this. The way he talked before made it sound like he knew someone personally. Now it sounded like he just called the PRT help desk or something. Maybe he just knew someone a bit higher ranked and I was gonna get a deal later. But it didn't feel like that. If he called the PRT, I was going to be in a horrible position from a negotiating perspective.
Unless, he called Accord. Shit, that would explain some things, like why he talked a little stilted into the phone, and why his house was a perfectly normal American home. This was bad.
Wait, was it? Accord would be a great person to have on my side. Wait, no. It was definitely bad because I was in no way prepared to deal with Accord. I wasn't completely opposed to working with him, but he wouldn't be in my top five people to ask for help, even with a friend advocating for me.
Aside from that, Schneider knew I wasn't prepared for Accord. There was no way he would throw me into a negotiation with Accord of all people with no prep time.
The criminal side wasn't something I had considered. Did Schneider have criminal ties? It would explain the absurd amount he was paying me. Merchants? No way. Empire?
…
His name was German. That was barely even evidence though. There were tons of people with German names. There weren't a lot of other possible culprits. It wasn't the ABB so unless it was someone from far away it was probably the Empire. Well, it could be the Elite, but they didn't have that much of a presence on the east coast. Probably not.
Empire definitely made the most sense and I was even less inclined to work with them than Accord.
There was a knock on the door. Well, I figured it was time to see if my guess was right. Schneider went to answer the door and when he returned Victor was in toe. That wasn't so bad. There are far worse people it could have been, even in the Empire. Night, Fog, or Hookwolf would all be much worse matchups for me. He was wearing a black metal breastplate, which wouldn't really shield him from anything I could do. He was wearing a blood red shirt. I knew that was part of his costume, but I found it an odd choice. It did go with the Empire's color pallet so that was probably why he picked it, but I still thought it looked dumb.
"Hello, Aceso. My name is Victor. I've heard you are worried about the ABB or Merchants attacking you or trying to obtain your services."
"Or the Empire," I interjected.
"The Empire's job is to protect people like you. We just want to keep anyone that might want to take advantage of you from doing so."
"People like me? White people you mean. I'm not really interested in being protected by a bunch of nazis."
"Are you sure about that? The ABB or Merchants would have no hesitation about abducting you and forcing you to work for them."
"I'm sure. You never want to piss off your doctor and if they do, I can always call the heroes."
"I think you overestimate the Protectorate's ability and willingness to assist you." Oh? He moved on to threats that fast? I was being pretty hostile.
"I'm not worried."
"Really? We have a lot more capes than the PRT and are more willing to use them." His tone shifted to something a bit darker. It was kind of hilarious.
"I am not in the least affected by your amateur attempts at intimidation. You could even bring Hookwolf in here. You really don't faze me." He looked at me a little suspiciously, then he pulled out his phone and called someone.
"We're not fighting, but could you come in here?" Shit. He was actually bringing Hookwolf in here. I should not have said that. Well, I guess I can prepare a disease to knock them out or something. A suped-up flu for fainting or something like POTS that gave you sudden uncontrollable fatigue? I can do something like that, just attack the autonomic nervous system in the right way.
I made the bacteria I would need, but releasing a super-flu on Brockton bay was a good way to be put on a list with Bonesaw and Nibog, so I made sure it would die in just a few minutes so there was no chance of it spreading.
The door banged open and someone started down the hall toward us. Schneider appeared to be growing increasingly concerned. Wait! Schneider still has a shit immune system and I'm about to release a super-flu!
Well, I'm out of time. I'll deal with him after I take care of Victor and Hookwolf. Or I could not. No, I wasn't going to kill everyone that pissed me off just because I felt like it.
I released my newly created "morpheus influenza" out of my mouth with a heavy sigh.
"Oh my god. It's a murderous metal dog. I hope it doesn't kill me." I said flatly.
"Bitch, you think I couldn't rip you to shreds? I don't mind getting some blood on this dude's carpet."
"Aceso, Hookwolf is an extremely strong parahuman and would certainly be able to defeat anyone likely to attempt to harm you. He can also be quite bellicose, so I would not recommend insulting him." Victor seemed to be having a hard time getting a read on me and was going back to attempting to appeal to me instead of threatening me. That was good. They would be more hesitant to attack me which would give morpheus a few more seconds to knock them out.
"Yes. He's very scary and I'm sure he would be able to beat the shit out of Skidmark if he wanted, but I'm thoroughly unenthused about having him as a bodygua—" Schneider's hacking cough cut me off. He stumbled backwards a few steps and collapsed onto a chair.
"I'm sorry, I just am suddenly feeling very tired. Please excuse me I'm going to…" he trailed off as his eyes unfocused then started to close when he passed out.
"Hookwolf, attack her." Victor said, looking concerned and raising a hand to his throat. Damn, should have filtered out more of the symptoms.
Hookwolf briefly gave Victor an annoyed glance before inverting to reveal his plethora of blades, which was now hurtling toward me. I dove left, turning it into a slightly awkward roll, and ran up to the fireplace to grab the rifle.
I spun back around, pointing the barrel at Hookwolf and pulling the trigger. It completely failed to fire and Hookwolf laughed at me, while only slowing down a little. Luckily that gave me enough time to run back toward the front door, while Hookwolf crashed through the fireplace and probably the wall.
Walls were not going to be a good solution to this problem.
Damn, I wished Faultline had gotten back to me a little quicker. Could I call her now? Well yes, but I really doubted that she would agree to the previous terms and get her team to fight Hookwolf and maybe more of the Empire right now and drop whatever they were doing. And even if she did, I probably didn't have the time it would take for them to get here.
No, I had to play this like I'm not getting any back up, unless I find a really good stalling strategy.
I heard crashing behind the house and figured he was crashing through the backyard or something. I did get him with morpheus so he should be out in a few minutes if I can survive that long.
I started running down the street. Before I got too far my leg burst into agony and I fell to the ground. Looking back I saw Victor pointing the rifle at me. I must have dropped it in my hurry to get away from Hookwolf, which I was certainly regretting now. Before he could get another shot off he stumbled to the side and passed out on the sidewalk.
Hookwolf was going to be coming at me any second now so I had to get myself in a condition to walk now. I glanced at my leg. The bullet had hit my calf off center so I should be able to walk, but the pain would be a big problem, not to mention the blood loss.
Not much I could do about either of those things now, so I pushed myself up and stumbled to one side of Schneider's neighbor's house, hopefully blocking Hookwolf's view of me and buying me some time.
My leg burned and I felt the blood running down into my shoe. I slid down the wall and tried to breathe. My heart stopped as I heard the crunch of gravel and I suddenly knew Hookwolf was about to come around the corner of the building. Then I realized it was just my uninjured foot shifting over the gravel.
I needed to put pressure on the bullet wound to stop some of the blood loss. I started pulling up my pant leg to get a better look at it, but my hands were shaking too much for me to do so without agitating my leg. I did anyway, trying to work through the burning, stabbing agony.
It was a small wound on the outer side of my right calf muscle. It was clean, which was good, but there was also an exit wound, which meant I was bleeding more. I reached out to cover both holes with my hand and had to steady myself for a moment before I found my resolve and pressed down with my hand. Blinding agony shot through my flesh and I tried to muffle my scream with my now bloody hand.
I was not doing that again, it was a small wound. I would be fine. I looked down at my leg and noticed the larger pool of blood. Then looked back to the street and saw the trail of blood leading right to me. Please let Hookwolf be knocked out by now.
And I still needed to go fix Schneider. I hoped he hadn't died already, that would be very bad for my burgeoning career as a healer.
I wasn't hearing the crashes of destruction I would expect if Hookwolf was still rampaging around looking for me.
I pushed myself up with my good leg and started hopping toward the corner of the building so I could peek around. I tried to keep my leg steady as I jumped, but I couldn't completely keep it from being jerked a bit. Around the corner I saw Hookwolf laying face down in the center of the street naked. That would be one hell of a sight for anyone that happened to look out their window right now.
He wouldn't stay unconscious very long, the disease was probably already dying out and he and Victor would be up and kicking my ass any minute. I hopped over to him ever so slowly and painfully and bent down and set my hand on his shoulder.
I didn't want him getting up and coming after me when he woke up, and the Empire had Othala, so he would be fine as long as I didn't kill him. I weakened his spinal cord about half way down his back so he wouldn't be able to come after me. He would still be able to attack me as a metal wolf though so I also gave him cataracts.
Victor was next, then I would check on Schneider.
I hopped slowly over to Victor who was lying on the lawn with the rifle under him. He was lucky it didn't go off and blow his brains out. He started stirring. I hopped faster. No this wasn't going to work, I had maybe five seconds before I would have to fight a mostly functional Victor, while I still had a bullet wound. I was even beginning to feel faint. Victor's eyes snapped open and he scrambled to get up.
My eyes widened in panic and I finally put my right foot down and ran at him. Just as he got up I tackled him and used my power to constrict his carotid and vertebral arteries so no blood could get to his brain, which should knock him out in a matter of seconds.
We hit the ground and I felt the breath get knocked out of me from a blow to the diaphragm. Victor passed out and I immediately unconstricted his arteries. While the thought of him dying did give me a certain satisfaction, killing him would earn me much more attention than I would like. Instead I gave him the same treatment as Hookwolf- I dissolved part of his spinal cord and blinded him.
I wished I could do something that Othala wouldn't be able to fix, but there wasn't much I could do without getting caught. Well, actually I didn't care if they suspected me as long as the heroes didn't get pissy.
I gave him lung cancer.
Now I had to prevent Schneider from dying. I pushed myself up off of Victor and looked next to him where he'd dropped the rifle. I could use it as a crutch. That was probably not the safest thing, but if I kept the barrel pointed down it would probably be fine. I hopped over to the rifle and picked it up. Maybe it would be a better walking stick? It wasn't really long enough to be a full on crutch.
I made my way inside and to the living room where we had left Scheider. The wall was mostly gone and the fence separating this house from the one next door was similarly demolished, and finally the wall of the other house was scratched up, but wasn't severely damaged.
Schneider lay on the ground next to a chair, unconscious. He must have fallen out of it or maybe Victor pushed him off of it? No that was dumb. Why would he do that? And why did I care? I sat down, giving myself a rest and letting the lightheadedness that had begun to develop fade. I bent over and grabbed his hand and was surprised when no map of his body appeared to me. Did he trigger as a trump? No. I would have passed out if he had.
He was dead. That was really bad. Should I… try and cover it up? I could probably make it look like Hookwolf mauled him. The Empire would deny it, but the PRT wasn't going to trust them.
I could cut him with something to try and frame Hookwolf, but whatever I used would be obvious evidence that Hookwolf didn't kill him.
I heard sirens approaching. I would probably only have a few seconds to do whatever it is I was going to do. I couldn't think of anything. I would open up big slash wounds in Schneider except for the fact that he's dead so I can't use my power on him. I might be able to frame Victor instead by shooting him, but the PRT would hear a gunshot now since they're so close.
If I told the PRT it was an accident they wouldn't just ship me off to the Birdcage, not for something as minor as this. They probably wouldn't even send me to prison, just press gang me into the Wards. No Protectorate, I was an adult now. Would they still do that then? I think so. I was still a teenager so they would probably consider me impressionable and go for it.
Joining was… not really acceptable to me. I wouldn't have the autonomy I wanted and while I was more familiar with the problems of the Wards, I couldn't imagine that the Protectorate was free of all those problems. Armsmaster, the leader of the Protectorate, was going to break the Endbringer truce when Leviathan showed up. That was a sign of deeper problems if I ever saw one.
I could call Faultline and get her to break me out, but what then?
Thinking about it, Faultline's Crew had almost all the qualities I was looking for. Maybe I wouldn't be completely free to do what I wanted, but it would be a far sight better than in the Protectorate.
It was decided: I would join Faultline's Crew. If they would let me.
Now, how to deal with the PRT.