Chapter 5
I sat in Schneider's chair next to his dead body and tried to ignore the pain in my leg. The adrenalin was mostly gone and with nothing else to focus on I was having a hard time doing anything but sitting there. I heard what were probably PRT vans pull up outside. I called out to them.
"Hey! Do you have an ambulance or something out there?" I knew they didn't, but hopefully that would get them to hurry up getting me to the hospital.
I saw Armsmaster walk in wearing his intimidating blue armor— halberd out and prepared to fight. Those vans I thought I heard were probably Armsmaster's bike.
"Oh, hi Armsmaster. You wouldn't happen to have something for a mild gunshot wound in that bike of yours, would you?" I said gesturing to my leg. That might have been a little overly blasé, but who gives a shit?
"Who are you?" he asked. "And who is he?" He motioned to Schneider on the ground.
"I'm a new rogue, Aceso. I registered the day before yesterday. He… well he got caught between us and he died before I got a chance to get to him." I shifted uneasily.
"I need to make sure Victor and Hookwolf aren't going to get away. I'll be with you in a minute" I said trying to conceal my irritation. I probably succeeded considering that this was Armsmaster I was talking to.
"They aren't going to be getting up anytime soon. That's what I was making sure of when he died." I snapped.
"Fine, I'll get you something. Wait here." He turned around and walked back outside. Yep. He didn't need to hurry or anything. It wasn't like I had lost a lot of blood.
A few seconds later he returned carrying a small round cylindrical object. Like a large tampon.
He knelt down in front of me and started rolling up my pant leg.
"Is this going to hurt?" I asked. It was already burning more just from my pants moving.
"Yes. But it shouldn't for very long. It includes an anesthetic." That was a relief.
He held the tampon close to the hole in my leg, pressed a button and a grey liquid squirted out and splashed into my wound. It burned even more intensely for a moment, but it quickly subsided and became far less painful than it had before. I could probably stand up now without almost fainting.
"Don't stand up," he instructed.
"I know," I replied. Back when I was still part of New Wave, I had seen plenty of patients that I hadn't treated do something similar and I wasn't going to imitate them, even if I could stand up.
"I'm going to arrest Hookwolf and Victor now. Don't move." He left. Well, now that I had some time to myself and wasn't bordering on delirious from pain, maybe I should call Faultline and try to join her crew.
I pulled out my phone and dialed the mercenary.
"Aceso, we haven't decided if we were going to take your deal yet."
"Something has come up and I was thinking of forging a stronger relationship."
"Oh? What kind of relationship?"
"I join your team. I'll offer enhanced physiology on top of the healing and I could also assist with jobs you took." This was more nerve-wracking than it should be. Or maybe it wasn't. If she turned me down I would be in a pretty rough spot. I would probably have to join the Protectorate or go full villian. Being nervous was entirely reasonable.
"... What happened?" She was suspicious. That was fair. I did say something had come up and it had obviously radically changed my plans.
"I got in a fight with the Empire. A civilian got caught in the crossfire." I tried not to look at Schneider next to me. "I suspect the PRT aren't going to be too happy with me. They'll force me into the Protectorate if I'm lucky," I said bitterly
"You fought the Empire?"
"Victor and Hookwolf. Armsmaster arrested them so I don't think Kaiser is going to try and make an example out of me. You don't have to worry about that."
"Would Hookwolf? How much did you hurt him? Did you just harass him or was it you and Armsmaster equally?"
"I don't think Hookwolf will care about Armsmaster at all. He didn't show up until Hookwolf was unconscious," I said hesitantly. I wasn't sure if that was a good thing to tell her or not. She was framing it like she was more worried about Hookwolf, and this was definitely bad in that regard, but this did tell her I was strong enough to beat him.
"You beat Hookwolf alone," she said flatly. Unless she didn't believe me.
"I spent most of the fight running away," I explained.
"Well we can come pick you up and discuss it."
"I should mention that Armsmaster is already here and I'm gonna have to go to the hospital or Panacea before I can do much."
"What happened to you and what does Armsmaster want?"
"Victor shot me in the leg. He hasn't said what he wants yet, but he probably wants a statement about what happened." I saw Armsmaster come back inside and I gave him a little wave.
"Capes can usually get away without giving a statement, but you might want to say something anyway to get the story straight with the civilian."
"I did that when I saw him, so I guess you could pick me up now. I'm at 436 7th Street. Maybe if you hurry you'll get to meet Armsmaster," I said with a teasing voice. That would let her know that the hero was here, but wouldn't tip off said hero that I was warning her.
"I'll send someone to pick you up. She will call herself 'Amanda,' okay?"
"Got it." She hung up and I looked to Armsmaster expectantly. I didn't mind telling him a little of what had happened, but I wasn't going to just volunteer up everything.
"What caused the altercation between you, Victor, and Hookwolf?" he asked bluntly.
"They wanted me to join the Empire. I wasn't interested."
"That's good. Do you already have someone to take you to the hospital?"
"Yeah. She should be here in a few minutes."
"Before she gets here there's something we should discuss." That was ominous. Was he going to try and pressure me into the Wards now?
"Who gets the credit for their take down?" Oh. That was good. I was perfectly fine giving him the credit, but it was kind of odd that he was asking considering I had done all the work. "Now what you've done here is fantastic, but the consequences could be dangerous. The Empire would be incentivised to go after you to save face."
"That makes sense," I interrupted him. I was already planning to let the PRT take the credit so I didn't need to be convinced to give up the credit for my own good.
"I'm glad. Does that mean you don't want the credit?"
"Yeah, you can have it. I don't really want Kaiser breathing down my neck." I heard a vehicle of some sort pulling up outside. That could be the PRT or Faultline. "Do you know if that's the PRT or my ride?" I asked Armsmaster.
"The PRT shouldn't be here for another two minutes. I would expect it to be your ride."
"Since I still probably shouldn't walk, do you think you could help me out there?"
"I will do that. Let me make sure it's them first." At my nod he went out to check. Several seconds later he and a teenage girl I didn't know wearing a domino came in. She had curly brown hair and even through the mask I could tell she had almost as much freckles as face, though I wasn't one to talk.
"Hey, Aceso. It's me Amanda!" Her enthusiasm was a little odd. Maybe she was trying to distance herself from her identity.
"Hello Amanda." I turned to look at the Protectorate leader. "Do you want to carry me or something or should I hop to her car?" He glanced at "Amanda" then scooped me up in a bridal carry. I imagined that most teenage girls dreamed about being in this position. I unfortunately was less straight than Legend's laser beams and only found it moderately embarrassing.
My transportation walked out the front door, Faultline's envoy, trailing behind us. Outside I saw two large blobs of containment foam where I had left Victor and Hookwolf. The thought of them waking up trapped like that made me chuckle. In the middle of the street was a grey SUV, presumably Faultline's car.
We walked towards it and my driver scampered over to the back door and hurriedly opened it. Armsmaster put me in and buckled me up. I considered objecting that I wasn't a child and had use of my arms, but I didn't really care enough to do so. He closed the door and "Amanda" got in the driver's seat.
When she closed the door, and Armsmaster had left to begin securing Hookwolf and Victor for transport, she started talking to me.
"Do you want to go to the hospital or do you have some other arrangement?" She lost some of that pep, but remained fairly cheerful.
"Both, I have another arrangement at the hospital. I know Panacea."
"Oh? I guess that makes sense; you have a lot in common." My lips quirked at that.
"You have no idea." I didn't think past me would be too happy to make a new friend only for them to immediately ask her to heal them, but I hadn't exactly planned this and I figured it was only polite to call ahead. "I'm gonna call her now and let her know I'm coming, if that's okay?"
"Sure go for it." I saw her nodding her head from the back seat.
As I dialed and waited for her to pick up, I considered how to minimize the fallout of this. I couldn't pay her the way I would get paid considering she wasn't old enough to be a rogue and a hundred thousand dollars was too big to be ignored by the government and I felt giving her twenty bucks or something was kind of insulting. I would just offer her a favor or something.
"Hi, Jade. What's up?"
"I feel really guilty for asking this, but I kinda… got shot?"
"HOW DID YOU GET SHOT?" I winced. She dealt with people getting shot everyday. Why was this such a big deal? My driver giggled. I glared at the back of her head, then my eyes flicked to the rear view mirror and our eyes met. The corners of her eyes crinkled and I could feel her grin. I thought that was a Miss Militia thing. This girl's like sixteen, she shouldn't even have eye crinkles.
"The Empire wanted me to join and when I refused they got pushy."
"God fucking damn it. Where are you?" I didn't really expect this level of vitriol, but I didn't think she's mad at me.
"I'm on my way to the hospital."
"You'll fucking owe me for this. Are you coming in your civian ID or as Aceso?" she growled out. Maybe she was a little mad at me.
"Aceso. I definitely appreciate it." And I was glad I wouldn't have to argue with her into healing me. I was confident I could, but not without alienating her.
"I'll tell them to direct me to you when you get here. Don't die in the meantime."
"Okay. Thank you." She hung up.
"So," a still damnably cheerful voice said. "She sounds fun."
"She is, when I'm not giving her even more work."
"Yeah, I can imagine she's pretty busy." She sounded sympathetic, which grated on me. She could not imagine how busy I had been, but I knew that my reaction was dumb. She was being nice and who knows maybe she did have an idea. Capes tended to lead crazy lives...
Assuming "Amanda" was a cape. She was wearing a mask and had been sent by Faultline, which did imply she had powers, but certainly didn't prove it. If she was part of Faultline's Crew and not just hired help there were only a few possibilities. She wasn't a Case 53 or a dude so she wasn't Newter or Gregor, too young to be Faultline herself, Labyrinth wasn't a good choice for this sort of job. Spitfire was a possibility. I wasn't sure if Shamrock had joined yet.
"Yeah, and she doesn't even get paid," I sympathised.
"That was always my problem with being a hero. How are you supposed to make any money?" she grumbled.
I saw the hospital up ahead. My driver followed the red highlighted signs to the ER.
"Do you want me to drop you off right outside the ER doors or should I park and help you walk there?"
"You can just drop me off in front of the doors." I figured I should walk as little as possible.
She stopped and I opened the door and got out. I tried to avoid putting pressure on my leg and I ended up moving in an intentional limp since it didn't actually hurt. I told the receptionist that I had a gunshot wound and had already been treated by Armsmaster. After learning my name they ferried me to their resident cape.
"So," she paused, "What the fuck." Had I really used to be this bitchy? While I responded she grabbed my hand and began healing me.
"The Empire sent Victor and Hookwolf to recruit me while I was healing someone and didn't take kindly to me rejecting their offer." She nodded, but was oddly quiet.
"Where'd you get those scars on your arm?" She gestured to my brachium. I had a few faint crescents on my upper right arm from a fight Vicky and I had gotten into when we were younger.
Oh shit. It hadn't even occurred to me that she might notice the similarities between us and be suspicious. I can see the same scars on her arm. Quick, something reasonable, anything. Broken plate cut me? No, that wouldn't result in this kind of scar.
Amy was staring at me intensely. And holding my hand. I couldn't lie to her while she was still using her power on me. Aside from that, she could see my heart rate, which just spiked. I was being very suspicious.
I needed time to think and come up with a good explanation. Maybe it would be the truth, but I wanted time to frame it and right now I needed to talk to Faultline.
"I— I don't… I'll talk to you later. I have a meeting now." I pulled my hand free and headed towards the parking lot where Spitfire, or whomever, was.
I saw "Amanda" talking with the receptionist. I walked up to them and tried not to look like I was having a panic attack.
"Done already? That was fast," Spitfire commented.
"Panacea does good work." I was not looking forward to talking with her. Just don't think about it.
"You ready to go?"
"Yeah." Was that a little brusque? Not really, and I was always unfriendly, so that was nothing new. Should I be though? This was probably a future teammate of mine I should build bridges.
"So what do you like to do?" I asked as we walked back to her van. She looked at me, then glanced away and a bit of red colored her cheeks.
"I uh. Sometimes I like knitting." Show interest. I could also buy her knitting supplies.
"Oh? What kind of things do you knit?"
"Just kind of whatever. I make a lot of scarves since they're simple. I've made a couple of shirts that turned out okay too." Should I ask for a scarf? Is that appreciative or needy? Should I make her something instead? I didn't know how to knit. I could make her something with my power, but I didn't know if that would interest her. Silkworms! I could make modified silkworms to make her thread. Would that be gross though? Maybe I should give her thread and just not tell her that I made it. But what kind of thread does she use? I needed to find out. I could just look around in her room when she wasn't around. Unless she didn't live at the Palanquin. Then I needed to break into her house. But what if someone caught me. I didn't want to kill another person for some dumbass reason like that.
No. No. This entire thing was stupid. I was stupid. I could just ask her. Not even that. I didn't need to give her something. That was weird. I didn't even need to be friends with her. We just met. I should just stop talking.
"..."
"So what do you like to do?" Should I just ignore her? I didn't have anything against her and I was going to be working with her soon. I just had that thought three minutes ago and it lead to crazy yandere stalker town. I needed to be reasonable.
In the meantime just— I didn't know, talk about the robot thing.
"I sometimes do tinkery stuff with my powers. I got Panacea to help me make a robot."
"Wow! That's actually really cool. You can make stuff for fights without being limited to it in battle like most tinkers are!" That was really nice, but it wasn't nice enough to make me cry. Why then, was I fighting back tears? My leg didn't even hurt anymore! Hookwolf hadn't even touched me and I sure as hell didn't feel guilty about what I did to them.
Scheider, slumped next to the chair, arms splayed out and chest still, flashed through my mind. He wasn't pale yet, his blood hadn't had a chance to pool in his back. His hand was still warm. He seemed so alive except for being oh so still. I remembered a picture of his wife on a table. Maybe he had kids. They would never see him again, all because of me.
My throat ached. It throbbed behind my eyes. It felt like a migraine except I was drowning. I gasped raggedly.
Spitfire looked at me and a look of panic appeared on her face.
"Er— Are you okay?" she asked haltingly, trying to look at me and the road at the same time.
"I killed someone." My voice was flat. Or maybe it was stunned. I didn't know. I shouldn't feel like this. I've done worse. What I did to Vicky was much worse. I didn't just kill her, I made her life a living hell for years. She was still terrified of me when I fixed her, and even after.
"It's not your fault. You were just defending yourself."
"Not from him." My dad has done worse. I know he had, I'd even seen him kill people in the Birdcage. They had always attacked us though, directly or not. And it wasn't like people in there were innocent. Even Canary had mutilated her boyfriend, even if it had been an accident. "He was supposed to be my patient. And then the Empire showed up and I didn't care enough to not kill him too."
"You killed Victor and Hookwolf?" She sounded concerned now.
"No, I just knocked them out. And what I did to them killed—" My breath hitched and I gasped. I felt hot tears running down my cheeks. "It killed him. He was already sick." I wiped my face violently. I shouldn't be upset. I didn't even care about him.
We pulled into a parking lot and I was about to protest that she didn't need to stop for me, but I noticed that we were at the Palanquin. Of course she didn't stop to comfort me. Why would she? She didn't know me.
She parked then came around to the other side of the car and stood in front of me awkwardly.
"Do you… want a hug?" she trailed off. I didn't know how to feel about that. I didn't really have anything against her, but I didn't like her either. I shrugged.
She slowly reached out and pulled me into her embrace. Almost against my will I felt myself relax. She smelled nice: faintly of roses, honey and smoke. My arms wrapped around her and my head rested itself of her shoulder. I let out a heavy sigh and pulled back.
"Okay, I'm good." I really was. Maybe I should hug people more. I didn't have a lot of close friends right now, but I was working to change that. And not in a crazy way either.
"Are you okay to have a meeting now?" Probably Spitfire said, sounding concerned.
"I'm good, really." I smiled at her and tried not to look too melancholy.
She nodded reluctantly and opened a backdoor into the Palanquin. I followed her up the stairs to a closed door where she told me to wait apologetically. She went inside and I sat on a bench that had been placed there, possibly just for this purpose.
Not long after, Faultline came out and offered her hand to me. I stood up, shook it, and greeted her.
"Hello Faultline. Thank you for considering me for your team." Shit! That was such a weak opening. That's the kind of thing you say after she rejects you. No, no. Calm down. It's not the end of the world, and when I get the job it's not going to be full of power plays. Within our own team at least.
"Hello Aceso. I hear you've had quite the day. Would you like something to drink?"
"Yes please." I had found I liked vodka, though Dad had been nearly offended when I told him I preferred it to his favorite: whiskey. I probably shouldn't drink right before a job interview, but she was offering and I wasn't sure I cared.
She swept her arm toward the door from which she had exited and I obligingly entered first. Her team was nowhere to be found, except for Newter who was sitting at a table doing something on a laptop. He was wearing some nice leather gloves presumably to stop his psychedelic from getting on the keyboard.
"What do you feel like? We've got a pretty wide selection," my host offered.
"Vodka martini?" She walked past me to a leather couch with a blue glass coffee table in front of it and a flatscreen TV behind that. I noticed her giving Newter a small nod as she sat down. She motioned me forward with a pleasant smile.
"Come Aceso. Take a seat." She was being much nicer and less formal than she had been before. I suppose it made sense, but it made her seem duplicitous and false.
I sat beside her and tried not to retreat into myself. I looked around the room and took in the calm ambiance. Newter made my drink quickly and skillfully behind a minibar that was to the left side of the room. I wondered how he knew how to do that. I didn't think Faultline would order him to serve drinks just because. He probably asked her to teach him. He thought it would be fun or would help him with the ladies. I wondered if I should learn bartending.
"So why are you interested in joining now?" Was that meant to be accusatory? Her tone didn't give me that impression, but I wasn't sure. I was probably just freaking out over nothing. I thought I was still feeling a little emotionally unstable.
"I'm worried about the Protectorate. I did… kill someone. So I'm worried they're going to be hounding me to join or something. I did talk with Armsmaster and clear up what happened, but I'm still worried and your team doesn't kill people, so I'm hoping they'll think you're a moderating influence or something and I'm also kind of worried about Hookwolf because he might be mad that I beat him and got him arrested and Victor might be too, but he doesn't seem the type to get really angry and hold grudges, but maybe he is—" I gasped for breath and realized I'd been rambling.
I noticed Newter standing next to me with my drink in one hand and what looked like scotch in the other. I took the martini from him with a murmured thank you.
Faultline slowly nodded and accepted the other glass. "You said before that you didn't think the Empire as a whole would be after you, right? Could you tell me what happened?" I didn't really want to, but this was a chance to explain why I killed someone and to show that I wasn't a risk to have on her team.
I told her what had happened and tried to keep in mind what "Amanda" had said about it not being my fault.
"If you are in a similar situation in the future I need you to warn whomever might be put in danger, particularly someone from our team." I pulled my knees up to my chest and tried to keep my breathing even. "I know you didn't want to tip off Hookwolf, but you can tell bystanders to get out of there well before a physical confrontation develops. We can construct some sort of code for different situations. We'll help you with it." I hurried to nod.
"Yeah, I'll warn you," I promised. I seemed desperate. I felt desperate though, so I guessed it was fitting.
"Then we don't have a problem with you joining our team." I stared at her for a second before I processed what she said and my heart leapt into my throat. Relief flooded through me and I smiled. I wouldn't have to worry about the PRT arresting me or Hookwolf coming after me or whomever else might come after me now that I didn't have the protection afforded to me as Panacea or by my dad.
"Thanks," I looked down and smiled to myself. It was nice to have a team again.
"You want to get to know the team?" The couch shook and I saw a flash of orange as Newter swung an arm around my shoulder.
"What's up? I'm Newter. Glad to have you with us." He had a big goofy grin on his face.
I returned a small smile and shook his hand that wasn't over my shoulder.
"Good to be here. I'm Aceso." Faultline got up, opened the door, and called through it.
"Everyone come meet our new teammate!" I heard some shuffling, then Spitfire burst out, followed by Gregor and Labyrinth. I stood and offered a hand to Gregor. He took it and welcomed me.
"It's a pleasure to have you on our team. I hope you feel at home." His hand was pleasantly cool and slightly softer than normal human flesh. From my power I could tell his entire body was a little gelatinous, excepting his bones and some of his organs. He reminded me of a jellyfish, though his tissue had more structure than that, which was why he could stand on land.
"Hello." Labyrinth said softly. Her eyes flickered away a moment later to look at something only she could see.
Spitfire beamed at me and exclaimed "You joined! We're teammates now!" She laughed and leapt forward to hug me.
Her laughter was infectious and I couldn't help giggling a little with her.
"This was the plan, you know. Don't be so surprised," I ribbed her lightly with a small grin. I looked around. Everyone was smiling, even Labyrinth, distracted though she was.
After she calmed down a bit, Spitfire straightened and pulled back. She reached behind her head, undid a seal of somesort, and pulled her mask up over her head. Revealed was a mop of brown hair above a familiar face splattered with freckles. She grinned.
"Hi. I'm Emily."
"A much nicer name than Amanda." I complemented. I returned her smile and reached up to remove my own mask. "And I'm Jade."
Faultline shifted and pulled off her helmet to uncover her civilian identity. She had a very pointed nose, sharp cheekbones and piercing brown eyes. "My name is Melanie."
Labyrinth finished off by introducing herself as Elle.
It occured to me that I hadn't told them the truth about my power. That might have been useful for getting me on the team, but I hadn't been sure that I wanted to tell them before I joined. Oh well, I could just do it now.
"I should also mention I can do a few more things with my power than I let on," I said, glancing at Melanie.
"I'm not surprised." She nodded. "Most capes keep something close to the chest."
"I said I could only do small chemical things to animals. That's just a lie. I could grow back limbs in a couple minutes given enough material to work with."
"Wait! So does that mean you actually can cure us?" Newter chimed in from behind me on the couch. I moved out from between him and Gregor so that I could address both at once.
"Not really." They had a similar reaction to the last time I turned them down: resignation and disappointment. I continued, "There is something I can do by changing your Corona Pollentia, but that's almost certainly a bad idea. It would change your powers in weird and unpredictable ways and probably cause some sort of catastrophic brain damage." I hesitated for a moment. Should I mention what happened to Weaver? I probably should.
"The last person that asked me to change their powers went insane in a few hours." My voice lowered and I looked away. I didn't feel guilty, not quite, not anymore. Regretful was a better word. I didn't particularly like Skitter, but I think she wanted to help people in her own fucked up way. I wish that hadn't happened to her, but I didn't think it was my fault. Dad had convinced me of that, though Tattletale had ripped me apart pretty good after it became clear that I couldn't fix Skitter again.
"So you can heal any injury, illness, or birth defect quickly and with few resources. As well as being able to create offensive biological weapons," Melanie said. That sounded bad. I looked at her and was about to defend myself before she continued. "You sound like a strictly better Panacea." At that I came up short. That was kind of… true, but not entirely.
"In... some ways."
"How is her power different from yours?" Emily questioned innocently. When I didn't immediately answer she backtracked hurriedly. "As far as you know! I don't expect you to know everything about her power. And you don't have to answer if you don't want to!" Her contrite and worried expression was pretty adorable. I didn't want to tell them about the whole time travel thing, but I felt I should mention how we shared a power.
I sighed and smiled a little. "I'd rather not go into it too much, but I do know that Panacea and I have exactly the same power."
Newter and Emily appeared to only barely withhold their exclamations, while Gregor was staring at me a touch more intently. I realized what he was looking at. The only times two people have the same power are when they're identical twins, like with Menja and Fenja. What Amy looked like was public and now he could compare me to her. And of course we did look very similar. I figured I would just let that misunderstanding lie. It was close enough to the truth and explaining would be complicated.
I imagined that Newter was usually the one to fill awkward silences, but in this case Melanie stepped in and changed the subject. "Last time we met you offered to see if normal body modifications would work on case 53s." Newter perked up at this.
"Yeah! Could you give me a couple of extra fingers?"
I couldn't help a startled snort from escaping me. No one had ever been as gung-ho and eager as that for anything other than normal healing. I was also surprised that he wanted to be even less human. I would think he would be desperate to be normal. Maybe he just wanted control of his body and this was his way of exercising that. Something to think about.
"Sure. I can do that." I grinned at him. "So first, an extra finger on each hand?" He nodded.
"Just to make sure, you can undo this if it doesn't revert on its own?" Melanie interjected.
"Of course." Then I remembered Vicky and how easy it was to forget what how everything was set up before. "I'll take pictures before I start so I know what it's like at the start too."
I turned back to Newter and resumed my questioning. "How can I touch you in a way that won't trip me out?"
"Be right back." he said before running off.
"He has some wet wipes to clean off his hands for stuff like this." Emily mentioned after a second.
Newter came rushing back in with wet wipes as Emily said. He sat down and rolled up one of his sleeves. "Your power works from anywhere, right? You can use my elbow?"
"Yeah, that's fine," I agreed.
"I can control how much I produce to a point, but I always make some, even if I try not to. My elbow does it the least and I'll clean that off too." Right before he was about to grab a wipe he hesitated. "Photos first, right?"
"Yes." I pulled out my phone and took a photo of the back of his splayed out hand. "Other side, please." He flipped his hand over and I took a photo of his palm also.
"I'll try and get it all off, but if it still affects you or starts affecting you in the middle we can just stop and wait for it to wear off. That should only be like a minute. Okay?" I didn't know Newter had such good leadership skills. He wasn't fantastic, but he knew how to take charge if he wanted to. And no one tried to keep him from doing so.
He thoroughly wiped off his arm and then held it out to me. I placed a finger on it and awareness flooded through me. His biology was surprisingly similar to an ordinary human's. His tail was a natural continuation of the human coccyx. His fingers and toes were more padded and stickier, though not nearly enough to allow him to climb walls the way he could. His sweat glands were also all much bigger than they normally were in humans. They also contained some sort of chemical, his psychedelic, though it wasn't coming from anywhere. It just appeared there magically.
That was a recurring theme to case 53s I had found. It almost looked like their powers were purely biological in nature, but it was never the case. Their passengers stepped in at the last moment and made everything work.
I had a job to do though and couldn't keep gawking forever. I started by creating a few more carpals and two metacarpals in his palms for his new fingers to attach to. I also formed tendons and muscles attached to them. Visibly this looked like two large bulges on the side of his hands. Then I finally started creating the phalanges. Now that he had proper fingers I had to make sure the skin was uniform across his hands. I copied the padding and tiny hairs that allowed him to stick to walls, as well as the modified sweat glands.
The trickiest part was next: nerves. I had incorporated them into the new fingers, but I also had to connect them through the arms to the spinal cord and then the brain. The spinal cord was relatively easy, but the brain I tried to change as minimally as possible. I could develop the connections more thoroughly, but that risked changing memories and maybe how his brain connected to the rest of his hands. I didn't do that. He would have to learn to use them the normal way: with some minor physical therapy.
I refocused on what I was actually seeing with my eyes and realized I had forgotten the fingernails. That was embarrassing. I couldn't see them directly with my power, but I could see the effect they had on the tissue under them. I quickly forced them to start growing thousands of times faster than they normally did and soon I was done.
"Okay. How's that? Feel okay? You probably can't move them independently yet." He slowly made a fist with one hand. At first his new finger didn't move, but at about the halfway point it started to follow the other fingers. It was rather similar to how trying to move your middle or pinky finger without moving the ones next to it is difficult.
"Yeah. It feels okay." He poked new finger on his right hand with one of his old fingers, testing if he recieved sensation from it correctly. I let him experiment for a few moments.
"There's a few exercises you should do to get better control of them." He looked up to me at this. "First, try to close your entire hand, including your new finger like you were before to build muscle memory. Second, use your other hand to bend your finger, while trying to move it without your other fingers on that hand." I demonstrated, bending and unbending my pinky with my other hand. My ring finger bent too. "If a couple of your other fingers bend too, that's okay. Do that for a couple weeks. You should be able to get some independent motion." I smiled, remembering that I would be around him and this wasn't the one and done deal I was used to. "If you don't, ask me."
He grinned and nodded at me. "Got it."
Emily leaned over him to get a close look. "Wow, Newter. You're brave." Her eyebrows shot up in panic once again. Her head whipped toward me. "Not that he shouldn't trust you it's just—"
I cut her off. "Yeah, I'm impressed too." I returned Newter's grin. "Most people are a bit more hesitant about this kind of thing."
His grin lessened a bit and I wanted to inquire further, but I did have some tact. "Ah, well. It should give me better dexterity and I can tag people in fights a bit better." I nodded politely.
I wasn't sure what else to say so I turned to Melanie and asked, "Are we doing any jobs soon or is there anything else I should know? Kind of general policies for how this team works?"
Melanie gained a sort of satisfied look. I think she liked that question. "We don't have any jobs planned right now, but we'll probably get something in the next week. As for policies, we try really hard to avoid killing people." I looked down. "Ah ah ah!" she stopped me, holding up a finger. "We already covered this, you're fine. I'm just going over everything. We follow what are called the unwritten rules: don't go after people in their civilian identities, don't kill other capes, no sexual assault of any kind. Other capes also tend to follow these rules, because if they don't everyone else will band together to put them down. We follow those and we try to avoid causing too much trouble in Brockton Bay. We don't want the authorities coming after us here."
"That's it for policies, but we do have a bit of a more long term goal than just make a lot of money. We're looking into where case 53s come from." I knew that. It was the one thing that made me pretty uncomfortable. I knew where case 53s came from. I was there when the Alexandria clone Echidna had made outed Cauldron, but if I told them that I didn't think any of us would live to see tomorrow.
I lay in my bed and stared at where the ceiling met the walls. It was sharp. That was pretty normal in houses. Rooms usually had corners and creases, but with my house being made of a living tree it looked weird and unnatural.
I used the contact I had with my bed to connect to the room and smooth out all the edges and creases, making it a little bubble-like. I kept the connection between the floor and the walls relatively sharp. I didn't want to have weird slopes in my house, but I smoothed the wall corners and made the rest of the walls more concave so that my house was more like a cylinder than a rectangular prism. I also curved up the ceiling to make it more hemispherical and slightly reminiscent of the observatories I had seen.
Now the bioluminescent lights were too far away so I made them come down on thin stalks and hang from the ceiling and fill the room with their soft blue glow.
I layed there, exhausted, for a moment and couldn't think of anything else to distract myself with. I had to deal with Amy. Other Amy. I rolled over onto my stomach, pressed my face into my pillow and groaned. I didn't want to think about this. I had to anyway.
The major problem I had was that I had already given myself away. I had panicked when she had become suspicious and now any answer I gave that wasn't sufficiently bad for me would be known to be false.
Telling the truth would certainly solve that problem, but it had the drawback of being really fucking creepy. I didn't think I would like the idea of me from the future showing up and stealing my life, particularly Vicky. That was not entirely an unreasonable fear. I would like to have Vicky all to myself, even if I realized how bad an idea that was for a multitude of reasons.
If Amy told anyone about me it would also be really bad. If Carol found out she would freak out about having a second version of me running around and Sarah or Vicky would only be marginally better. They would want me to join New Wave and I was definitely happier with Faultline's Crew.
I couldn't imagine either of them, but especially Vicky, reacting well to me refusing to go back to New Wave in favor of Faultline.
I might be able to convince them on the basis of it making Amy uncomfortable, but I wasn't sure how considerate they would be of her feelings.
Unfortunately I was lacking good alternatives. Not replying to Amy wasn't really an option. She would probably freak out and call the Protectorate to let them know that I was suspicious and possibly impersonating her.
I was going to have to tell her the truth. My goal was to find a good way to present it, then.
I would need some way to calm her down. I could tell some sort of joke to cut the tension. I could let her use her power on me to see that I was telling the truth. When she realized that I could use my power on her though that would backfire. I could start off by showing my unique knowledge, but that had the downside of outing her secrets and would be guaranteed to freak her out.
I could try and explain it to her by saying I was from the future as a metaphor and then telling her it was literally true. That was a little silly, but it didn't have any real problems.
I wasn't sure it solved that many either. The real problem wasn't her jumping to conclusions, but her being freaked out by the truth.
Being able to commiserate with her about her problems might work, but I didn't have most of them any more, so that might just make her envious or jealous in the case of Vicky. I could try and offer solutions, like getting away from New Wave, but I wasn't sure she would appreciate it.
I might be able to portray myself as sad and harmless. To a degree I was. I missed dad and seeing him again seemed hopeless. I didn't want to steal her life either. It sucked. That might be enough to calm her down. Though it might offend her too for some reason. It would offend me.
I opened my phone and called Amy. She picked up on the second ring.