Step 5.9

sys.v/ H[nvy].load_backup
sys.v/ system check;
sys.v/ clear
sys.v/ H[pnk].load_backup
sys.v/ system check;
sys.v/ clear
sys.v/ beginning fabrication

The words went by my visor, but they didn't really register.

I don't think I blacked out or anything. Maybe a concussion, but mostly I just felt exhausted. I drifted in and out of feeling like a dream and not really caring one way or the other. That didn't make much sense, but dreams sounded nice.

I wanted to nap, but sleep doesn't really come when there's sirens all around you and the ambulance is speeding down the street.

"I can't tell if she's responsive."

"She's a cape."

"And I can't tell if she's responsive. The visor is in the way."

"Give it to me. I already know her face."

"Are you trained?"

"I aspire to great things."

Dinah?

I did see a light in my eye at some point.

"What am I looking for?"

"Flick the light over her eye. I just need to know if her pupils react."

"Does twitching count?"

"It counts enough."

"Get her mask back on," a third voice said. "We're almost at the hospital."

"Hannah isn't breathing."

"She's going to be okay."

"How would you know that?"

"Life gave me a serving of suffering with super powers on the side."

There were lots of lights and shouting at one point, and then I lay in a bed…in the, Fuck I'm in the hospital.

Dark confined space followed by waking up in a hospital. What a wonderful reminder to throw onto my day. Fuck Ali, whoever he is.

I rose up quickly. Dinah slouched in the chair by my bed, head leaning to one side. Asleep? Green sat silently in her lap. Shadows moving under the crack of the door drew my attention.

Guards. They put guards on my door. Of course they did, why not?

Am I under arrest? I didn't remember much after blowing up O Gundam oh my god I blew up O Gundam.

"Her blood pressure was through the roof."

My head snapped around.

"It's a thinker thing," Panacea said. "I prescribed a nap. She'll feel a lot better when she wakes up."

She exhaled, blowing smoke out the open window.

"Should you be smoking here?" I asked.

Because that is the first thing to come to my mind.

Panacea gave me a dead even expression. "I'm blowing it out the window."

Okay, I'm not dealing with this. I need to-

I stepped onto the ground, feeling perfectly fantastic. Everything felt great after the first time Panacea used her power on me, but I hadn't been that hurt then. Nothing like having a knife stuck in me or my collar bone broken.

"Everything feel okay?" she asked.

"Yeah," I guessed. I didn't feel un-okay. Somehow.

I looked myself over, seeing the hole in my costume where the knife stabbed into my thigh. My costume hung open, the zipper pulled down to about my belly button. I pulled it back up and checked my mask.

All still there.

"You have a nasty concussion by the way. Nothing I can do about that, I don't do brains."

"I've heard."

"I told your attending about it. She's fixing you up with an MRI to survey the damage."

That bad? "Thanks?"

"You've probably got about seven minutes by the way."

I turned back to face her.

"I told them I needed fifteen minutes to fix you up, and about thirteen of those minutes were for my cigarette. Figured you'd want the time to get yourself together before Director Piggot and my mom rain hell down on top of you."

I- What? Piggot yes, but Brandish- Oh, right. Vicky.

"Which is my way of saying thanks," Panacea continued. "Vicky got hurt pretty bad, but you stopped her up good enough."

I wasn't sure what that meant. "Good enough?"

Panacea shrugged. "Good enough means the patient lived. Only thing that matters."

She exhaled one last time and flicked her butt out into the air.

"Welp. Good luck."

She turned on her heel and walked to the door.

I stammered. "You said there were seven more minutes."

"I did, but you also got my sister shot in the first place so…"

She just trained off, walked across the room and opened the door.

"She's awake."

I stumbled over my thoughts.

She healed me in a few minutes. She spent seven or so smoking. Then she told me I had seven more minutes, but she told everyone I was awake? Wait, if she healed me in a few minutes why didn't I wake up until right before she finished smoking…

…Bitch.

"StarGazer?"

"You are awake?" Veda asked.

"Yeah. What happened?"

"You were evacuated to Brockton General with Miss Militia."

"What happened to the asshole?" Ali?

"He is currently in custody and receiving emergency medical care at the Rig."

He's alive.

I remembered hearing Miss Militia's voice saying the words. Kill him. Did she mean that? Not surprised no one did it. He'd been beaten down and blown up by the time they foamed him. The PRT didn't kill prisoners. I think I'd like them less if they did.

So why do I feel angry?

"What happened to Lafter?"

"I'm okay," she said. The sound of gunfire echoed in the distance. "No, really. I'm fine."

"What is-" I stopped, hearing voices on the other side of the door. "I'll get back to you."

"Okay. Come here! I didn't say you can leave yet!"

I don't want to know.

What did the PRT plan to do? I tried to avoid thinking of that with that psycho running around, but I didn't have that excuse now. The downside of worrying about it later. Later always comes.

Piggot is going to jail me.

Maybe? Not like I got it wrong, in the end. He went after Relena, hard. If I didn't press for something to be done about it, he might have succeeded, killed me, or gotten away. Maybe all three.

Actually, kind of annoying in retrospect. I made one big mistake in going after him without full prep, and now the whole shit pile wanted to slide my way.

I eyed the window, but dismissed the thought. Only children ran from their problems, as tempting as it might be. Couldn't ditch Dinah like that. Probably on the third or fourth floor anyway.

Ramius is going to yell at me.

And it sucked, because I didn't know what would happen. Can't plan for the unknown. Can't predict it. If they simply put cuffs on me, said 'you're under arrest' or something. I could do something about that.

Not knowing sucks more.

The shadows under the door moved back and forth, and the voices slowly rose.

I straightened my hair and braced myself. Knowing my luck, Armsmaster would storm into the room and arrest me for vandalism. Might as well face it with dignity.

Dad is going to ground me.

And it would all happen in a fucking hospital room.

I hate hospital rooms.

I braced myself for the door to open.

Instead, I heard a brief struggle.

"Come on! I just wanna see Newtype in person."

"This is a restricted area. You're not allowed-"

"Just a peek!"

The door shook, and the shadows outside started shuffling. I approached the frame, hand reaching for my saber and not finding it. Did I seriously have a groupie trying to slip into my hospital room? Not sure if I found that flattering or terrifying.

No. No, definitely terrifying.

"Please?!" the voice asked.

"You're coming with us."

"Martinez, watch the door."

"I just want her to sign my butt! And maybe go out with me!"

I don't want groupies.

I turned the handle on the door and peeked outside.

Two troopers held a girl between them, her feet dragging along the floor as they hauled her away.

"You should go back inside."

My head snapped around, looking up at the trooper. Martinez, I guessed. He stood with his arms crossed, and other than him - and the troopers and groupie - I didn't see anyone in the hall. Made sense. They brought capes in who needed medical care, so they closed the area off.

"Um, where is-"

"Just wait. Ramius will be by soon."

I tensed. "Ramius is here?" I kept the 'already' to myself.

"She's talking to the bodyguard."

"The Count?"

The trooper shook his head, but I don't think he directed it at me.

"Sesame Street?" I asked.

He nodded. I leaned over, looking past him to the far end of the hall.

"Yeah," I admitted. "That was my first thought too."

"Shouldn't be long," Martinez told me.

"Right-"

Plastic and metal clattered behind me, and my head whipped back around.

The troopers held the girl at the end of the hall, just a few steps from the door. She started kicking all of a sudden and screaming.

"Help! I'm being repressed!"

I flinched watching them struggle with her. They said something, but she only screamed louder. One lost his grip and she pulled free. The other trooper held on and pulled. The girl ended up whipping around and falling through the double doors as her shirt ripped.

Some shouting followed and the girl yelled.

"Come see the violence inherent in the system!"

Is she quoting Monty Python?

"Wait here." Martinez walked past me. "Go back inside."

He walked at first, and then broke into a jog as the girl kicked one of the troopers in the knee. Outside I saw a few nurses and some more troopers. As he went, I glanced the other direction.

Big red letters spelled out the word 'exit' over top the door. Next to it, a sign read 'balcony access.' It didn't look secured. In fact, the sign said patients shouldn't go onto the roof without permission from their doctor.

Maybe I could just-

"Is everything alright?"

I tensed and turned back toward the scuffle.

"It's fine ma'am," Martinez said. "Just a groupie trying to get into Newtype's room."

Ramius' wore her helmet over her head, but I heard her frowning.

"How did she get onto this floor?" she asked.

"Probably heard we were closing it down and stuck around. Normal groupie stuff."

"Remind her that's a felony, get her information, and let her go." Ramius pointed a finger at the girl, a blonde with a red baseball cap and a leather jacket. "Consider yourself lucky."

"Is that the self-perpetuating autocracy's way of telling me don't do it again?" the girl asked.

"Yes."

Ramius turned toward me and stopped. We stared at each other for a second, and I skulked back into the room.

At least it's Ramius and not Armsmaster. Not the worst case scenario.

I walked over to the bed and checked on Dinah. Ramius entered quietly, and said nothing as her helmet came off. The silence dragged out longer than I'd like. And then kept dragging.

"Is Miss Militia, okay?" I realized I didn't ask anyone that thus far.

"Yes. Her condition was more critical than yours, so Panacea healed her first."

The silence returned, like Ramius fully intended to wait me out.

I sighed. "Sorry?"

"For what?" she asked with a grim expression.

"For trying to save a life?"

"That's not the point, Taylor."

"It should be."

Ramius grimaced. "I don't want to tell your father that you're dead, Taylor. I don't want to go to another funeral for someone who died too young."

"Ever think you're in the wrong line of-" I stopped myself. "Sorry."

"You should be," Ramius said.

I sat down on the bed. Felt like being scolded by mom. I felt guilty, didn't even know why, and had no clue how to make the feeling go away.

What do you even say?

How could I know he'd set all of this up ahead of time? Being found, the Merchants, the hotel. They didn't see it coming any better than I did. If not me, he'd have sprung that trap on someone else. He merely needed to keep people chasing him for two blocks, assuming he didn't plan on just moving to the warehouse to lay in wait.

And then what? Nothing?

Nothing isn't an option, no matter how much the PRT liked it.

"He killed people," I whispered. "Because he could."

Ramius crossed the room and sat down beside me. She gave Dinah a glance, but with her mask on Ramius probably didn't recognize her. Or she might. How many twelve-year-old girls could possibly be hanging around me?

"He tried to kill you Taylor."

"Only after I stopped him."

"That's not a reassuring mindset."

"What should I have done?" My fist tightened. "Nothing?"

"Piggot is floating the idea that you need psychiatric help."

I grunted. "Figures."

"Do you?"

I looked at her. "How is any of this any different than anything else I've ever done? Bad guy. Evil plan. I-"

"It's different, Taylor," Ramius snapped. "State is involved. There's still fighting in the streets. Capturing Skidmark and Whirlygig weakens the Merchants but strengthens the ABB and the Empire."

"He'd have pulled that stunt on whoever came after him," I protested.

"But it was you, Taylor. You went after him. You set it all in motion, and the worst part is you didn't even tell anyone. If you'd told us you found him two members of the Protectorate and troopers would have met you there and maybe none of this would have happened. It is different from everything else you've done. You went in half-cocked. Why?"

I turned away.

Probably going to be hearing that word a lot.

Why?

"He killed four people last night," I grumbled. "He killed six today, not counting all the people who got hurt in the fight he started." My hand tightened. Suppose the PRT preferred to sit back and do nothing. "He had to be stopped."

Ramius sighed. "Taylor-"

"Don't tell me to be like them," I snapped.

Ramius' brow went up. "Like who?"

"You know who," I snarled.

The people who stood by and watched. The ones who lied. The ones who laughed. The adults too busy with their own jobs to do their damn jobs.

I'll die before I'm anything like them.

"These events were unforeseeable," Veda said suddenly. "Even Forecast did not see it until the plan was already in motion."

"Forecast?" Ramius asked. She shifted her gaze from Green to Dinah. "A precog."

My hand relaxed a little. Crap. Hadn't thought of how to explain that.

"Sort of. She went to Chariot. Got him to show up in time to save us and set Ali up to get"-O Gundam-"exploded." I lifted my head. "She's the one who beat him."

I just stopped him from winning.

"What's going to happen to him?" I asked.

"I don't know," Ramius said. "They're still working to identify him."

Miss Militia didn't say anything? Not something she wanted anyone to know about?

"He'll probably be caged," Ramius said. "I doubt the bodies in Brockton Bay will be the only ones we tie him to."

"Is Piggot really coming after me?"

"I don't know. Calvert is trying to talk her down. At least until they know how the media plays this out."

Typical. "What are you going to do?"

Ramius frowned. "There's nothing wrong about being selfless, Taylor. But I'm worried you're too willing to put your life at risk. And it's not just your life now. You brought StarGazer into it, and Laughter, and now her." She nodded to Dinah. "What happens to them if you die?"

"They'll be okay," I said.

"Will they? I'm sure they have their own reasons, but what they're doing now they're doing because of you. You can't put a team together and act like your death won't matter."

"That's not what I think."

Ramius leaned forward and folded her hands together.

"Then get out there and start saying what you do think," she said. "Right now, in this moment, it's very easy to paint you as a public menace with no sense of responsibility."

She shook her head.

"If not the PRT, Blue Cosmos is going to do something, and you don't want to know what Brandish screamed when she went to see her daughter. State is furious. Two federal agents are dead and they're saying y-"

I flinched. "They weren't body guards? The two guys in suits? Guy and girl?"

Ramius shook her head. "Relena Peacecraft is a recognized head of state. She got a Secret Service detail the moment she stepped onto American soil."

Not sure why that made me feel even worse. Because they were Americans? Weird, how it felt more visceral because they were closer to home. They were dead. It shouldn't matter where they came from.

"Did they have families?"

"I don't know. It'll probably be in the news soon enough."

"Diana Sullivan," Veda said. "Mother of two. Richard Reese, husband."

A mother? She barely looked any older than me.

"He didn't have to kill her," I mumbled. "She was down already. He shot her just because he could."

Murrue sighed. "I don't know why, Taylor. And callous at it is, it's not my job to worry about them. They have their own friends and family to do that."

A small knot grew in my back.

"I lost my"-Ramius' phone started ringing-"suit."

She pulled her phone out and lifted it to her ear.

"Ramius. Now? Alright." She hung up and stood. "Unoa is here. She's down at imaging and wants to check how bad your concussion is."

And Panacea didn't tell me the psycho was my attending.

"Can I, not?"

Ramius gave me an even stare.

That's a no.

I pointed at Green. "Watch Forecast."

"Okay, okay."

I got up, and Ramius led me outside. The troopers were back, all three of them. Ramius told them that no one goes in or out of the room until she returned or Forecast woke up.

Ramius walked me to the elevator. A pair of troopers met us, and we took a ride down into the basement.

"This way," she said. "Are you feeling alright?"

"Fine."

"Well, just to be sure."

Right.

Imaging sat in the back corner of the basement.

Ramius opened the door and ushered me into a waiting room.

Miss Militia looked up at me, a domino mask over her face.

I stood outside the room, one foot wanting to go in and the other wanting to turn around.

Right. When that grenade hit the ground, she literally threw herself on top of me. If Trevor hadn't shown up…I mean we'd both probably be dead, but she tried.

"Hi."

"Hello."

Ramius' hand pushed me in. "Militia," she greeted. "I thought you were-"

"Unoa had another patient when I arrived," Miss Militia said. She pulled her eyes off of me. "I've been waiting."

MRI's all around, I guess.

I sat in the corner of the room. A very nice room. Three chairs on either side that didn't look very comfortable. Some old industrial lights that left the corners dark. Nice linoleum floors that peeled in a few spots. Very cold, and a little stuffy.

The room sucked and focusing on it didn't make the awkwardness any better.

Ramius' phone rang again, which I hoped might be Piggot ordering her to arrest me. Seemed less awkward than the current situation.

Ramius turned toward the door before answering. "Ramius…Who?" Her eyes widened. "He must have seen it on the news. Is he drawing attention? No. No. That's good. I'll come down and verify his identity just to be sure. Thank you, Commander."

She hung up and turned to me.

"Your father is at the PRT building."

I stiffened. "What?"

"Reporters got footage of you and Miss Militia being rolled into the building. It must have hit the air."

I'm so grounded.

"I'll be back. He's smart. Approached wearing a ski mask. I'll go get him and bring him here."

"Okay…"

Ramius went to the door. "And I'll see about getting those troopers back by the door. Just in case."

She left, and I…

I turned toward Miss Militia, and immediately turned back away. I couldn't look her in the eye.

I called her a coward. In my head mostly, but all the same. She threw herself onto me, and I'd thought of her as a coward.

The door opened, the sound of the crazy doctor's voice being the first thing to come through.

"Next!"

She followed the sound and right behind her-

"Ms. Peacecraft," Miss Militia said.

"Relena, please."

"And she's just fine," Unoa declared. "Which is what I told the scary bodyguard, but no one listens to me so waste the time of valuable medical equipment we did. Who is next?"

I started to raise my hand, though not without serious reservation. Nothing but shit choices all around. Subject myself to the mad doctor, or be alone with Miss Militia and Relena-

"You!" Unoa pointed at Miss Militia. "Let's go. Chop, chop." She clapped her hands.

Miss Militia rose up and followed her into the room.

Relena sat down across from me. "Do you mind?"

Mind? "Mind what?"

"Count asked me to wait here until she finished with arrangements, but if you'd rather be alone…"

Her voice trailed off. Odd request. I mean, awkward is awkward, but, "It's fine."

She wore a sleeveless top and slacks, the opposite of what I usually saw her wearing on TV. It seemed bizarrely normal, actually. I noticed the bandage on her arm, stained red.

"Are you hurt?" I asked.

"A minor injury. Others faired far worse."

Right.

"They were my friends," Relena said sadly. "They only came on this trip because I asked them to."

I raised my brow. "Who?"

"Melinda and Trend. The girls who…"

Oh.

"Sorry," I offered. The door closed behind me. "I didn't expect him to come in through the window."

"Even Count missed it."

She said Count, but I felt like she meant 'I.'

"You didn't plan for them to die."

"It's still my responsibility."

Great, a pity party. Just what I needed.

"Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to tire you with my troubles."

"I get it."

"It's not fair." Relena watched me from the corner of her eye. "You saved my life. You're the last person I should complain to."

"I just caught the guy," I replied. "Your bodyguard seemed to do most of the saving."

She shook her head. "I've never seen Count struggle that much with an assassination attempt."

There were others?

"And it is her job to protect me, even if it's a task she's taken up of her own volition. I barely even know you, and you seemed as dedicated to stopping that man as her."

Admittedly, "I didn't do it for you."

"All the same," she repeated. "He could have killed you."

"A lot of things might kill me."

She turned her head toward me. "Like Count, then."

"Like Count?"

"She's never seemed to put much stock in her own life."

Why does everyone think I want to die? There's a difference between being ready for it and wanting it. I didn't want to die, but I'm a cape. Everyone dies sooner or later. No point worrying about it.

"I wouldn't be here if not for her," Relena said. "She's saved my life so many times." Her eyes got sad. "She's the only one left now."

"Only one what?"

"Of those who were with me at the beginning. When I first started."

My jaw slackened.

It's an odd thing to think about. How many other times had someone tried to kill her? I didn't know much about the current state of Scandinavia. The Simurgh collapsed Sweden, and surrounding countries suffered, but how much? Enough to assassinate the person trying to fix it? Why?

Yeah, why would someone send an assassin like that after her?

"What's it like?"

"What?"

"The Sanc Kingdom. I've only seen it on the news."

Relena smiled. "It's not as picturesque as it sometimes seems, but it's not bad either. There's still much to be done to restore what we've lost."

"An odd way of talking about your country."

"It's not my country."

"What?"

"It's not my country."

"That's not-"

"Sorry. I didn't mean to snap. It's just not how I see myself. Not like that. I have little power. Most decisions in Sanc are made by the Executive Committee."

"But you travel the world and give speeches."

"That's more of a personal matter." She closed her eyes. "I'm worried about the future. About what happens tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

"Figuratively," she said. "Nuclear weapons. Endbringers. Capes. The world isn't what it used to be…" She smiled. "Ah. That's it."

"What's it?"

"I've been trying to find the best way to end my speech. What I have is good enough, but it hasn't felt just right."

"What speech?"

"The one I came here to give. I wanted to do it weeks ago, but things keep coming up."

I blinked. "You're going to give a speech?"

She looked me in the eye. "It is what I do."

"Someone just tried to kill you."

She got a solemn look in her eye. "All the more reason, or all the blood was spilled for nothing."

"I think they call that the sunk costs fallacy."

She smiled. "Human beings are trapped by the past. We can't escape it. It's a part of us."

"Okay…"

"I tend to wax philosophical. It's a habit."

She kept smiling, but that solemn expression returned. She sat quietly after that. Kind of disturbingly silent. How long does it take to get an MRI anyway?

Too quiet to have nothing but my thoughts.

I lost my suit. Navy and Pink needed new bodies, and half the cradles were gone. The gangs definitely knew about my van.

sys.t/ Veda, where's the van?

sys.v/ PRT parking garage
sys.v/ I feared returning to the workshop
sys.v/ Purple and Green are repainting the exterior

Hopefully that would be enough. Nice of the PRT to let us use their garage.

sys.t/ the solar furnace?

sys.v/ secure and operational
sys.v/ PRT technicians wished to assess it
sys.v/ I denied them

I frowned. Maybe they wanted to be sure nothing else exploded, or maybe they were just assholes. Maybe both.

Least I didn't have to rebuild it.

Still a total mood killer.

I'd need weeks or more to get a new suit together. My plans to capture Othala might as well be up in flames. The Empire would probably get Alabaster and Victor back too. The Merchants would probably do the same with Skidmark and Whirlygig if Squealer could make more of those mini-tanks.

Drug dealers probably had great cash flow for the enterprising tinker.

"Next!"

I flinched as the door swung open. Miss Militia stepped out, and Unoa grinned at me.

"My favorite patient."

What I wouldn't give for Miss Militia to throw herself on that grenade.

"You'll need to take off your mask," Unoa said. She turned her back to me and held out a piece of cloth. "You can use this while I run the scan."

I swapped my mask for the cloth, and then had to ditch my costume too. We put everything in a bin and tucked it into a sealed case, and I got a hospital gown to wear instead.

Ugh.

We left that room and entered yet another, this one with a large white machine inside. Unoa disappeared into even yet another room full of computers and instructed me to lay down. I shuddered when I laid down. Is the backboard supposed to be that cold?

"Alright. This is an older model, so it takes a bit to get going. Hold still, or else we'll have to do this all over again."

The machine moved beneath me, the back board sliding into the giant donut and trapping me in a confined space because I hadn't suffered enough yet. Then the banging started. It's like a loud metallic pounding in your ears. Very loud, considering how quiet the room outside was.

And then it got worse.

A speaker somewhere clicked.

"So, how has your day been?" Unoa asked.

Why couldn't I be arrested?

The scan took a while. A long while actually.

"How long does this take?"

"About twenty minutes."

I tried to sit up, but the machine surrounded me. I started fidgeting.

"I said hold still!"

"It's been forty minutes!"

"Oh, fine!"

The backboard wheeled back, and I got off of it as soon as I could.

"What is wrong with you?!" I snapped.

"Me?" Unoa asked. "What is wrong with you?"

She turned a monitor my way. I stared at the screen, but I had no idea what a bunch of white, black, and gray blotches were supposed to mean.

"That's your brain," she noted. "And it's not supposed to look like that."

I frowned. "I have the internet." I looked at the picture again, but still didn't see what the big deal was. "I know what the corona Pollentia and the corona Gemma are."

"Yes!" She pointed at the screen, explaining, "Your Pollentia is right here. It's the tiny one on the right."

She tapped the screen and then moved her finger over.

"And this is your Gemma."

She moved her finger again.

"And this is your other Gemma. We'll call that one Gemma Junior."

I stared.

"And this is Gemma the Third, king of the cerebellum. And I haven't thought up names yet for your fourth Gemma. Or your fifth Gemma. You've got enough Gemmas in here for a whole Ward team!"

I stared at the screen more.

My power being my power, I started working it out. I spotted my Pollentia clearly, the tiny black spot on the middle-right of my brain. Not a black spot. The closer I looked, it seemed more like a dark gray dot with little veins coiling around it. Another spot to the left of it would be the Gemma, but a little further down I saw another one. Then a third, and a fourth. More?

"What does that mean?" I asked.

Unoa turned the screen back her way, shouting, "I was trying to find out, but someone wasn't cooperating!"

I got back on the back board. The machine started again, and she kept talking.

"I thought it might be an error. But the second scan is the same as the first, so now I'm poking around to see how many of these things you have in that head of yours."

"Is it bad?"

"Do you feel like you're dying?"

"N-no?"

"Well, maybe you are, maybe you're not. I don't know. Hold still!"

"Panacea didn't say-"

"She doesn't look at brains very hard," Unoa said. "Not that she can't. She just doesn't. A peripheral look for concussions is as far as she goes."

Having tumors in my head always made me uncomfortable, but every cape had them and I'd never heard of any dying from it. So, no big deal? But how many could someone possibly have before something bad happened? I felt okay, but for all I knew I'd been dying for months.

"Why would I have more than one Gemma?" I asked.

"I don't know. It's possible your Gemma is just bizarre."

"Bizarre how?"

"The corona Pollentia and Gemma are never identical. They usually fall within a certain range of sizes, and are often found in the same places in the brain, but we've got parahumans on record who don't even have brains. Other times we can only find one of the growths, or neither."

My heart slowed down a bit. Then my brain might just be weird? Made sense. My power didn't act like other tinker powers I knew about.

"And if I do have more than one Gemma?"

"If I had to guess? You have more than one power."

"L-Like Eidolon?"

"Not like Eidolon, she has one power. Her power just happens to be obscenely versatile. The first Eidolon maybe had more than one power, but we didn't have some of the equipment we have now then."

Guess that depended on if 'any power you fucking want' counts as one or more than one power. I thought through all the capes I knew. A few had more than one power. Lung turned into a dragon, and controlled fire. The Pelhams could fly, shoot lasers, and make force fields.

All their powers seemed to follow in a logical way though. Like they had a package that fit a theme.

Me? I was a tinker, and my power made me…smarter.

Oh fuck.

"How much do you know about my power?"

"You make robots."

"Call Ramius."

"Why?"

"Call her. A-and tell her not to let my dad in here!"

Dad didn't need to know I might have a dangerous number of tumors in my head. Or that I might have more than one power.

She got me out of the machine and I waited.

Two.

If anything, I had at least two powers. My tinker power, and the one that kept feeding me all the science behind it. Could a power work that way? I didn't fly, or shoot lasers or turn into a dragon.

Could having two powers explain all the other apparent Gemmas?

I got up and crossed the room. Unoa kept her eyes glued to the monitor, a marker in her- Is she drawing on the monitor?!

I opened the bin with my costume and got my mask.

sys.t/ did you hear any of that?

sys.v/ hear what?

That's a no.

sys.t/ do a search
sys.t/ parahumans with more than one corona gemma
sys.t/ anything you can find

sys.v/ searching
sys.v/ why?

My fingers tensed on the edges of my mask.

sys.t/ just something Unoa said

Not really sure why I lied. I didn't want her to worry? To think I might die because my brain was being turned into pulp by my power? Powers?

But I didn't feel like I had more than one power.

"No," Ramius said when she returned. "No, this actually makes some sense."

"Explain," Unoa and I said at once.

"Your tinkering," Ramius said. "Most of what we understand about tinkers suggests your power should narrow until you figure out a niche you excel at. Your tinkering only seems to get broader."

More than she knew. The PRT still didn't know "StarGazer" was my power. Robots, artificial intelligence, quantum physics, classical physics, math, biology. If you included all the stuff my power let me do…

"I have multiple tinker powers?"

"Maybe," Ramius mumbled.

She leaned in, looking at my brain scan. Unoa marked all the Gemmas with a permanent marker, and two other spots with question marks. After twenty minutes she figured I had somewhere between five and eight Gemmas in my head.

"But then there's your other ability."

Unoa leaned in. "What other ability?"

"Classified."

Right, my 'thinker' power. Unless it wasn't a thinker power.

Unless, I wasn't "cheating" the rules about Tinkers at all. All those different tinker powers. Any one of them might obscure exactly how I built what I built, but then the others might end up letting more through? Different specialties all feeding me information, resulting in my learning things any other tinker didn't get a chance to.

That made sense. For some reason, it made a lot of sense.

"I'm ready to die to know what the hell that," - she pointed at my head - "means."

"Don't be overly dramatic, Unoa."

"Have you met me?"

"Yes, and I know you'll take it seriously enough when I say not one word of this leaves this room."

She stuck a USB into the computer, and the monitor switched off. Some code ran for a few seconds. It went too fast for me to catch, but Veda identified it as a program that copied the hard drive and immediately wiped the computer.

After that finished, Ramius ushered us both out into the waiting room. Three troopers stood outside, one of them holding the bin with my costume in it.

"Get dressed," Ramius said. "Commander Noa."

"Lieutenant."

"The room behind me needs to be cleaned. No data."

The man simply nodded. "Understood."

He handed me my costume, and I found another room to change in.

I caught the tail end of something as I reached for the handle.

"Not here," Ramius warned.

"But Shin has-"

"Not here, Unoa."

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing," Ramius said. Didn't sound like nothing. "Your father is upstairs."

I glanced to Unoa, who inconspicuously started whistling.

Ramius sighed. She put an arm around me and pulled me aside.

"You need to keep this quiet," she said.

"Because of Shin? Who is Shin?"

"I can't tell you. Same reason the PRT doesn't talk about Case Sixty-Six." Public panic?

"I'm not the first?"

"No. But it's something only PRT Commanders and up know about, and Protectorate team leaders."

But you're a lieutenant. "How do-"

"My career hasn't exactly been unexciting. Just don't say anything. I can keep this from Piggot, but if she finds out she might go nuclear."

Shin must be some kind of disaster if Piggot would nuke me for it. Another cape with multiple Gemmas?

I want to go back to beating up gang members now.

When we reached the top of the elevator, I froze.

Dad looked at me from the hall corner, eyes shaking behind his ski-mask.

He's going to yell at me. In front of everyone. At the hospital. All I needed was Emma around to laugh at the scene and you'd generate my worst nightmare short of being thrown back into the locker.

Dad took a step forward, the two troopers with him stepping back as he moved. I closed my eyes and braced for the shouting.

He didn't.

His arms closed around me, and he pulled me into his chest. I remained stock still, waiting for the moment he came down on me. Waited awhile.

"Dad?"

"You're grounded," he whispered.

There it is. "I'm okay."

"For now," Ramius said. Right. Ramius stepped in and whispered. "We need to go somewhere more private Mr. Hebert."

We ended up back in my hospital room. Dinah remained asleep, two guards standing watch at the door.

Not sure where the envelope on the floor came from.

"What's that?" Dad asked as Ramius closed the door.

I picked it up and-"Taylor!"-opened it.

Ramius groaned. "What if that was anthrax?"

"Anthrax?" Dad asked.

"They're concert tickets," I said.

"Concert tickets?" Dad asked.

Hastily printed ones it looked like. The ink seemed a little smeared in a few places, and they lacked any sort of scan bar or code.

Canary Live at Brockton Arts Center
8PM Friday May 27 VIP-Backstage Pass - 1 Guest Allowed
Guests: Fleur, Max Anders, Samuel Stansfield, and Parian.
Also, Relena Peacecraft

The last line was hand written, followed by a P.S.

I inhaled.

For life saving.
The Count

And exhaled.