1.5
Wearing a nice pair of polarized sunglasses, I reappeared in someone else's home. I had relaxed for a few hours until I realized no, abandoned beaches or warehouses do not get free wifi. Indeed, even with the purchasing of overpriced refreshments from other dimensions, I could only relax so long on the beachfront.
Any sunburning that had occurred vanished with the jump thankfully, though it sort of ruined the 'beach' look I had going. By beach look, I meant just sunglasses honestly. It was way too much of a hassle to change clothes if the uniform just reappeared whenever I teleported. It turns out even if I was wearing other clothes, the uniform forced itself underneath them, ripping and tearing the articles of clothing.
If I wanted a change of clothes, I would have to carry them around.
Surprisingly, I was not invading another person's home to knife the occupant(s) to death. In fact, I was here to cut through a massive load of teen drama. Truly my masochistic tendencies surprised even me sometimes. Yes, I had arrived to solve the problems with a distant father and daughter pair. Such a touching event poked my heartstrings, hopefully not literally.
Yes, I was coming to rehabilitateTaylor HebertAmy Dallon. I totally didn't need to search New Wave up and remembered her name immediately.
The girl in question was currently sleeping in on a school day. What a monster! How dare she burn out from volunteering at hospitals nonstop! I pulled out my cellphone and took a picture of her sleeping face. I very carefully ignored the fact that I was taking a picture of a teenage girl who was still sleeping, and very much a stranger. Unless you counted the information I knew about her anyways.
My next stop was the entrance to the Birdcage. I didn't want the reunion to be ruined by the father being ejected into a cold uncaring vacuum after all. After loitering around the dimly lit entrance, the black screen I was waiting in front flickered to life.
"You are trespassing on Government territory unregistered parahuman," came the Canadian accented voice from speakers. It was slightly distorted to "hide," the speaker's identity. A large metal claw had descended from the ceiling to restrain me though.
"I am jusht here to visit a prisoner. Is it not visiting hours?" I asked, head half-cocked in the grip of the claw.
"The Baumann Detention Center is private property. To insure the integrity of the center, you will be detained and questioned about how you found the coordinates," she continued, ignoring what I said.
"Vell, you see I'm here jusht to varn you not to freakout ven I--," I materialized next to the Marquis, "--do zis."
I made sure to smile for the cameras. I then l took a look around at all the people who probably wanted to kill me. In the sea of gray uniforms, my perfectly neat Hitler youth uniform stood out like a beacon.
"Vy hello zere, Marquis?" I asked questioningly to the man I had appeared beside me. When he nodded, I continued. "I am here today on zis fine day to shpeak about yourdaughter."
His face didn't change when I said that. I was surprised, didn't he care a lot about her again? Maybe he would stab me just like everyone else later. I pulled out my phone, and opened up the image. To my supreme surprise, he didn't stab me right there and then.
"I have decided to hosht a Q and A session vith your daughter! Vaht vould you like to say to her?" I asked, bringing up the camera and pointing it towards him.
"Are you part of Empire Eighty-Eight?" he cautiously asked. I smiled and stopped recording.
Back in the Pelham's home, I poked the still slumbering Panacea. She rolled over and said something that was probably normally directed at her sister.
I started recording again, and yelled at her, "ARE YOU PART OF EMPIRE-EIGHT!?"
"Wh-What?" was her response. I paused recording again, and reappeared in the cell.
Turning the phone volume all the way up, I played the clip. The Marquis didn't seem to change his face other than to smile back at me. What an understanding fellow who appreciated my humour.
"Zee Q and A session is foryou and your daughter. I am merely zee middle man," I said. "How vould you like to reshpond to your daughter's shtatement?" I didn't forget to bring the phone up after speaking.
The Marquis thought for a few seconds. His response was to impale me with blades of bone. Didn't he have a code against attacking children!? I reappeared next to him, phone still held towards him, wagging a finger in my open hand while shaking my head. The Marquis smartly decided to think about an actual statement to make.
"I'm sorry I could never be there for you Amelia, but you've--" I vanished mid statement. Was this going to make proceeding ten times as long and convoluted? Yes, but this way was actually fun for me.
"Suprise! You've von a free Q and A session vith your eshtranged father!" I said, playing the video at full volume.
"Is this some kind of sick joke!?" she asked. I mean, the video was pretty long and included the parts where my blood got all over the camera, but still, what made her think this was a joke?
In the cell, I played back her response. "Next question/statement please!"
A crowd had begun to gather around the cell block. Word spread fast I suppose. Wouldn't be long before someone else tried something probably.
"I know you probably don't remember me very well, but I'm your father--" there was no warning for my jump. Once again I played the video.
"Who the hell are you!? Why are you in my house?" she asked while the video was still playing. B-but how was I supposed to record her response then?
"I'm jusht a passerby who zought a touching reunion between father and daughter vould be beautiful to see," I said, wiping imaginary tears.
She grabbed my arm and I fell over, body paralyzed. I instantly reappeared of course.
"So vat vould you like to say to your eshtranged parent?" I said, replaying the video. Finally the gears in her head clicked, as she realized what the man had said. She stood almost as paralyzed as I had been a few seconds ago, stock still at the mention of her father.
"My father's a Nazi?"
Wow, there was a really big crowd now, it looked like some of Marquis's enforcers had been put to use to keep them out. I played the clip and looked at the Marquis with a cheerful grin. He sighed before responding.
"Let me introduce myself to you as Marquis, though my real na--"
Wow, he almost managed to sneak in a second statement. What a disaster that would have been.
Amy was rapidly texting, I could take a guess at who or what. Well, it's not like anybody on Earth Bet bar Scion could stop this Q and A session. I played the clip at full blast as the norm. She took a second to compose herself.
"So my absent dad isn't a Nazi, he's Marquis. Soo--" I cut off the bitter quip before it could even begin.
Imighthave started a prison riot just by myself.Mightbeing the important thing. Well, just another item off the bucket list either way! Anyway, clip played, hands splayed.
"No matter who you are, I'll always be proud of you," he said. I stayed around after stopping the recording, waiting. He opened his mouth to speak again, and I vanished. I don't think it would be possible to hear him over the raucous prisoners anymore either.
"Zis is zee last message by zee vay," I said, playing the clip. The background noise was way louder than I thought. Panacea seemed to flickering between confusion and anger. "I shall now dishpense some advice. Straight from me, Schrodinger!" I said faux-excitedly.
"Your incestuous zoughts are only probably due to your sishter's emotion-powers. Your own power is making you depressed as all do if you do not cooperate vith it," I said wagging a finger. "To sate it, all you need is conflict or maybe a little tinkering on zee side."
"If you vish for more advice, reach me at my PHO account," I said, handing over a notecard with the username "Everynowhere" written on it."Auf Wiedersehen!"
That went surprisingly well, I only got killed once which was actually very low considering how often I popped into the Birdcage. Ah yes, that reminded me.
"Hello Saint, I can tell you're vatching," I said, knife placed right on Teacher's neck. "Disable Iron Maiden, or Teacher vill be having a far vorse day zan zee vun you're having. You have twenty-four hours."
What else was there to do? I had gone a full seven hours without brutally murdering somebody. How very exciting! Almost as exciting as Shatterbird's head exploded off. No need to leave someone with city-killing powers and personality around especially without Jack around to reign her in. I didn't really care about what Cauldron had to say anyways.
She had split off from the remnants of the Nine as far as I could tell. Thankfully, in the ten or so hours since Jack's death, she had not immediately gone for a large population center with the intent to kill. She was actually sleeping, something I didn't expect from a Bonesaw modified person. Well, grenades to the face were generally something people didn't get up from. Here Bonesaw's favouritism was obvious. Jack had actually had enough of his vital organs to survive four point-blank grenades.
Shatterbird…
Shatterbird shattered.