I think four updates in one week is an all-time record for me.
ESCAPE pounds into the Asset's brain, over and over. It is part of the mission, has been since they were captured. Now that Harry the Handler has given the order, it becomes an even greater priority.
Completion is unlikely when the Asset is immobilized.
FAILURE IS INEXCUSABLE.
The nurse fusses over Harry the Handler, who refuses to let go of the Asset. With her weaponized stick, she transforms a pillow into a dark toy bear, which she offers to the child as if it will help her gain his trust.
She has not gained the Asset's trust. Harry the Handler eyes the bear as if it contains a bomb.
CHECK FOR EXPLOSIVES.
What other reason would a weaponized stick make a toy?
The nurse had clearly hoped for a less suspicious reaction on the handler's part.
Harry the Handler continues to cling to the Soldier as the nurse sets the bear aside and fetches two glass bottles. The bottles contain unidentified liquids that, if ingested, could assist interrogation or produce any number of other negative or even fatal symptoms.
The Soldier remembers drugs that made fire course through his body's veins until even he could not hold back his screams, other drugs that made the world seem distant and far away. Paralysis drugs that made the body limp rather than rigid, but paralyzed him as he is now.
He hears birds outside the window as sunlight streams onto the stone walls. Every other time he recalls being restrained to a bed, it had been in a windowless room. The presence of birds and sunlight does not make this environment any safer.
Harry the Handler turns to the Asset, as if awaiting his orders. "She wants me to clean." the boy whispers.
"Clean?" the nurse looks shocked. "This is a nutritional potion, Mr. Potter. You are entirely too thin for your own good."
The newer voice agrees that the handler is severely malnourished. The Soldier does not trust the nurse, despite the fact her examination had not hurt.
Despite imminent danger to his handler, the Asset's mind malfunctions. He briefly flashes to attempting to coax the skinny blonde man to accept liquids and food. He does not recall a former protection mission, but he must have had one at some point.
The nurse is an enemy. Fortunately, the boy seems to remember that. The handler regards the 'potion' with suspicion, pressing his lips together. "You'll fatten an' eat me."
"I'm a healer, Mr. Potter- a doctor." the nurse almost sounds offended. "My goal is to help you, not eat you."
"You'll eat me!" the boy exclaims.
THE ASSET WILL TERMINATE ANY CANNIBALS THREATENING THE HANDLER.
"Mr. Potter, stop that nonsense. I assure you that witches and wizards do not eat people. Your parents were both brave, kind people." the nurse pauses, seeing that the Handler still does not believe her. "I saw your father James in here quite a bit, I'm afraid. Never as young as you, young man, but James was quite the troublemaker."
Thinking of the wrong man there, says the voice in the Soldier's head. You mean the punk.
The description strikes the Asset as familiar. Someone always got into trouble, was in and out of the hospital, but James sounds incorrect in that context. The Asset does not know why.
The nurse sighs heavily and held up the bottle of purple liquid. "This is Dreamless Sleep."
Harry the Handler turns to press his face into the Soldier's neck again. "...'m not s'leepy."
The nurse mutters about difficult patients. The Asset expects her to try to force the handler to drink the liquids. Being immobilized, his only option to stop her is to stare her down. Both civilians and many agents find the appearance of the Soldier intimidating. The Asset recalls times when targets had been petrified by his presence, reduced to begging or silent pleas.
Intimidation is 57% less effective when the Soldier is restrained to a bed with a small child pressed tight against his chest.
The nurse raises her weaponized stick. The Soldier does not know what to expect. Will it lock his jaw? Levitate him? Reveal some power he is not currently aware of?
She flicks the stick, and Harry the Handler yawns.
Nodding with satisfaction, the nurse once again retreats to her office.
The Asset strains his muscles in an attempt to pull his limbs free from the bed.
The boy seems to fight sleep. His speech becomes slurred as he briefs the Asset. "Dumb-Bell-Door tried to cook me in da fire."
"Unacceptable." the Soldier is referring to the old man's attempts to cook his handler, as well as the entire situation. The mission is compromised in his current state. Until he is able to move again, he cannot proceed with the mission.
The Asset recalls how his handler had been stuck to him, and then was slowly unstuck by the old man's weaponized stick.
Harry the Handler has done inexplicable things without a weaponized stick. He had attached himself to the Asset with an invisible adhesive. Is he capable of reversing the effects, as old man had unstuck the handler?
The Soldier is not allowed to tell superiors what to do.
He does not attempt to order his handler, instead asking in a low murmur "Are you able to counteract the adhesive effects with your abilities?"
Harry the Handler's brow furrows in confusion. "What?"
The Soldier unused to child handlers, and had forgotten to account for a more limited vocabulary. He should be punished for not speaking in a satisfactory manner, yet is certain this handler will not punish him.
"You made yourself stick to the Batman." the Asset uses the codename designated by this handler.
The boy shakes his head with wide eyes. "No, sir! It wasn't me!"
The Soldier is supposed to trust a handler's every word. If the handler says it wasn't him, then as far as the Soldier is concerned, it wasn't. Despite all his conditioning, doubt sticks in the back of his mind. The new voice has doubts as well. It has to be him, he made a force field.
The enemy asset had made shields with his weaponized stick during the Soldier's first encounter with him.
The Asset does not report what the voice said. Instead, he states "The mission is to escape."
The boy nods, glancing at the office the nurse had entered, then the door she had slammed in the faces of of the other three enemies. "Let's go. Please."
"The Asset is compromised. It cannot complete the mission in the current state."
"But they're bad guys!" Harry the Handler's face shines with horrified disbelief. His expression should morph into anger at the Asset, disappointment in its failure, but his face remains shocked. "Bad guys can't win!"
"If you use your abilities to unstick the Asset, the mission could continue." the Asset is careful to keep the tone neutral and quiet, merely stating relevant information, not telling the handler what to do.
Harry the Handler bites his lip. After 4.2 seconds, he speaks softly "You won't be mad?"
"The Batman exists to complete the mission."
The Soldier should not need the handler's help, should not require assistance to complete the mission. He is not performing to standards. His body feels cold at the thought, as if he has just emerged from the cryogenic chamber.
The boy nods almost imperceptibly. He stares intently at the Asset, his eyes drooping before he widens them again. He shakes his head to wake himself up.
"I can't." the handler whispers in a broken voice. "I wan' ta go. Not get cooked."
The Asset recalls the other instances when Harry the Handler used his enhanced abilities. When forming a shield while jumping on the train, the boy had been a mix of terrified and exhilarated. When the streetlights had exploded, the boy had been frightened. Sticking to the Asset, he'd been desperate not to be pulled away.
The Asset knows that emotions compromise mission success. Yet Harry the Handler seems unable to use his abilities without experiencing intense emotion. The adults with the weaponized sticks are certainly highly trained, but Potter is young and untrained.
The Asset takes a breath.
"The enemies will return." the Asset says. "If you do not unstick the Batman, they will wipe the Batman's memories. They will take you away."
"And cook me." the small hands of the handler tug at the Asset's prosthetic shoulder. "Get up, Mr. A'set! Please!"
The Soldier is used to being moved by handlers, maneuvered to be wherever the handler wants him.
As the boy tugs the Asset with increasing desperation, the invisible adhesive weakens. First by 12%, then 26%. After 15.9 seconds, the effect is weak enough for the Asset to tear himself free of the bed.
Harry the Handler gasps and a slow smile spreads across his face.
The mission can progress.
He shoots a look at the office, but the nurse did not seem to hear. The Soldier's enhanced hearing picks up the voices of the enemies from beyond the thick wooden doors, but he cannot comprehend the words.
ELIMINATE WITNESSES
Neutralizing three enemies would not be an issue under usual circumstances, but the weaponized sticks pose too great a threat to mission success. They would simply immobilize him again, take his memories and take the handler away.
Forget about them, get out of here!
Harry the Handler stands up on the bed, wobbling slightly as he reaches for the Asset.
The Asset lifts his smaller handler and silently approaches the window. The room is on the second story of the castle, the drop is inconsequential. The Asset lands smoothly and looks at Harry the Handler.
"Let's go." Harry the Handler looks back at the castle fearfully.
The Asset moves swiftly but silently, slipping out of sight of the hospital's windows. Despite his recent malfunctions, his expert stealth remains.
"We got out!" Harry the Handler smiles. No handler has smiled at the Asset before, even after a successful mission with much fewer drawbacks than the current mission. "'Cos you're strong an' bad guys never win."
"Your abilities made escape possible." the Soldier must give the handler credit, even though he should have been able to handle it himself.
"Me?" the boy frowns. "...I'm a freak like them."
"You are not an enemy. You are the handler."
After the Soldier has walked 296 meters, Harry looks back at the castle. "We left Nighty."
The Soldier stops, smoothing out a scowl before it shows on his face. Nighty had been part of the mission, but going back would put Harry the Handler in more danger.
He waits for the order to extract the dog, but a distant, familiar bark silences both the boy. Nighty the dog appears over a grassy hill 29 meters away, running towards them.
"Nighty?" Harry the Handler blinks. "I t'ot they cooked him."
"Where yeh goin'?" a voice booms after the dog.
Nighty is complicating the mission, drawing too much attention.
The Asset slips behind a tree as an enormous man with wild hair and a bushy beard follows Nighty, accompanied by another black dog with sagging skin. The Soldier studies the man- 2.5 meters tall, enhanced strength is almost a certainty.
Threat assessment: high.
"There yeh went." the giant chuckles, reaching into his overcoat. The Asset tenses, but the giant does not draw a gun or weaponized stick. Instead, he holds out a dog biscuit. "What d'yeh see?"
The Asset's fingers twitch. If he had his guns, he would be firing already. He waits, hoping the man will leave, but the man approaches the dog, his footsteps thundering on the ground.
"Nighty," Harry the Handler says, completely blowing their cover. "We gotta go."
"Harry?" the giant gapes at the child, then his eyes narrow at the Asset. The prosthesis clenches into a fist. He would prefer to slip away undetected rather than engaging the giant in combat.
The giant steps toward the Asset with thundering footsteps. The giant is possibly more effective at intimidation than the Asset. "Put him down."
The Asset places the handler on the ground, not out of compliance, but to keep the handler out of harm's way as he charges.
He slams into the giant's stomach, but the man does not budge. He is clearly enhanced.
Hands the size of trash can lids grip both the Asset's arms, lifting him high enough that his feet leave the ground.
The Asset plants a foot on the giant's chest and pushes off, using the leverage to break free of the giant's grip. Unlike many opponents, the giant does not stagger backwards.
The Asset lands in a crouched position. He has no weapons other than the prosthesis, which is 65% less effective against an enhanced opponent.
The giant takes several swings, but the Asset ducks the massive arms. He hears the handler shout as he grabs an arm the size of a tree trunk with the prosthesis, attempting to throw the giant.
Pick on someone your own size, says the voice in the Asset's head.
"Fang, get Dumbledore." the giant grunts to the droopy dog, which had been slinking away in a cowardly crouch. The dog barks and lopes quickly toward the castle.
STOP IT.
If the Soldier had a knife, it would already be flung and buried into the dog to prevent the message reaching the enemies. The Soldier is trained to be adaptable, resourceful. In seamlessly fluid movements, he kicks up a stone, catches it in his flesh hand and hurls it at the dog Fang. The impact renders the dog unconscious, but it is not fatally wounded.
The giant roars, wrenching the Asset into the air by his throat before slamming him back down. A massive boot presses down on the Asset's chest, forcing air out of the Asset's lungs.
"No!" Harry the Handler screams.
"Harry, run!" the giant looks toward the small handler, his weight lessening slightly. "Get a professor. Get Dumbledore."
Harry the Handler does not obey the enemy's command.
The Soldier takes advantage the distraction to knock the giant's leg out, rolling away as the giant crashes to the ground.
Pouncing onto the giant's broad back, the Soldier locks his flesh arm around the giant's throat in a chokehold while he slams the prosthesis into the giant man's head.
With another bellow, the giant rears up and back, slamming the Asset into a tree trunk.
The Asset grits his teeth, and does not relinquish his hold as the giant rams him into the tree again.
His grip is weakened enough for the giant to extract himself, flipping the Asset around to attempt to smash him face-first into the tree.
The Asset uses the prosthesis to snap the tree's trunk before he is slammed into it. The lack of impact makes the giant stagger slightly as the Asset swings the trunk up and back, knocking it into the man with enough force to shatter a non-enhanced target's skull.
The massive man drops. The Asset hits him with the tree three more times, before pinning him under it.
Functionality of the prosthesis is impaired 28% after the fight. The Asset clenches the fist, the metal ripples as it attempts to recalibrate.
He quickly frisks the giant's coat pockets for weapons. He keeps three keys, knowing nine different methods to incapacitate or eliminate non-enhanced targets with a single key. He discards six dog treats covered in fungus, a dented kettle, and is about to discard a pink umbrella when he notices the tip suspiciously resembles a weaponized stick.
The Soldier keeps the umbrella, even though it does nothing when he waves it. Perhaps weaponized sticks have fingerprint scanners that prohibit access to their abilities.
The giant groans, opening his eyes. The Asset snarls.
The nurse, or the other three enemies have undoubtedly noticed their absence by now. He does not have time to thoroughly eliminate the giant man.
Scooping up his handler, he sprints across the grounds.
As he runs past a large tree, the entire tree shudders, despite there not being any wind.
Before the Soldier has time to consider this, a branch whips at him. The Soldier dodges it, realizing it is not someone swinging the branch at him as he had hid the giant. The tree is swinging itself.
The Soldier growls. Even the trees are hostile in this place.
He catches a different branch, but is not able to snap it with his prosthesis as he had the other tree's trunk. The Soldier twists his torso to put himself in between the handler and another branch.
Harry the Handler is screaming, the volume increasing when he is knocked out of the Asset's arms. He falls to the ground, and another branch whips down towards him.
The Soldier takes that blow as well, pushing the handler out of harm's way. The handler scurries backwards, disappearing into a hole among the tree's roots.
FOLLOW. PROTECT THE HANDLER.
The Soldier dives into the hole, barely avoiding another branch. The tree continues to attack for 4.2 seconds, then shudders to a stop.
Harry the Handler breathes heavily next to the Asset, clinging to his chest.
The Soldier is certain they will be attacked if they exit back through the hole. He observes the enemy asset, the stern woman Minerva, and the old man making their way down a hill.
Had they been detected?
The Asset is on alert. With the way the mission is going, something will attack them down here as well, something the Asset will not recall ever fighting before. He does not remember encountering weaponized sticks, a giant or a moving tree on any other mission.
When his breathing has returned to baseline, Harry the Handler peers down the dark tunnel. "The under-gwound? Where are the trains?"
"The Batman did not detect any locomotive vehicles, Harry."
"Oh." the boy ducks his head. After 30.2 seconds of silence, he speaks up tentatively. "Does this go to the Batcave?"
"Unknown."
"We'll be safe." Harry the Handler sounds hopeful as they make their way through the tunnel. "Nob'dy can find us in da Batcave!"
I got into a debate with my brother yesterday and had to flip through Goblet of Fire to find the part where Hagrid slammed Karkaroff into a tree.