All things told, we were able to excuse ourselves from the restaurant relatively quickly. Even if Dr. Jurassic was only passing nearby, nobody questioned that we wanted to cut our lunch short and leave immediately. Once me and Dad jumped into the truck I took out my phone and checked my messages.
As expected I found the message that had arrived a few minutes ago. It was an all hands on deck call to the wards to report for crowd control and potential search & rescue operations. I speed-dialed the console and after a single ring I was connected.
"This is Manes reporting in from the downtown area. I've received the message but I'm currently out of costume. Where should I go to be picked up?" I glanced at Dad, who was getting ready to start the truck.
"This is Vista on Console and I copy that. I can dispatch a van with your spare costume to the alleyway nearest to your GPS location. You said downtown? That's pretty close to where Dr Jurassic was sighted." she said, with a little concern in her voice. Missy could be a worrywart when she was on console.
"Yeah I actually saw him. Heard him too. Pretty hard not to hear him actually. But don't worry, he didn't get close." I tried to reassure her.
"Good, I see there's an alley between Marcus's Greengrocers and the Sassafras office building that's near your location. Does that sound okay?"
"Between Marcus's Greengrocers and the Sassafras office building? Yeah, that won't be a problem. I'll be there in five, copy?"
"Copy, I'll meet you out there once I get relieved by one of the officers."
"Looking forward to it. Over and out." I finished the call and looked over to Dad. He had a concerned look on his face. So I asked "Is something wrong?"
"He doesn't seem like the average everyday villain." He stated with a questioning tone, without asking his real question of 'Are you sure you don't want to sit this one out?'.
I decided to sidestep his implicit question "You wouldn't be wrong, he's actually a mercenary."
He raised one of his eyebrows "Like Faultline?"
"In that he works for money, yes. As for everything else he works very differently. But that shouldn't be a problem because I'm just doing crowd control with the other wards. We're not going to be anywhere near him. Honest." I tried to reassure him.
He sighed, turning his keys to start the truck, and replied "Okay. Just promise me you won't take any risks alright?"
"I promise." I said with the sincerest tone I had.
After that we made the very short drive to my pickup point, and arrived just before the PRT van arrived in the cramped alley. I quickly said my goodbyes to dad before leaving the truck. ("Love you, maybe we could get pizza for dinner tonight when I'm done." "Love you too, and I'll think about it."). I greeted the van driver and he pointed me to the back of the van, where my costume was waiting.
One of the virtues of my costume was that even if it was a bit uncomfortable, I could put it on over my civilian clothes easily. Power Armor could have many benefits, but ease of putting on was rarely one. I got dressed in record time and stowed away a few things, like my sneakers. Then I knocked on the dividing wall between the driver and me to let them know I was ready. He heard me, and the van started moving almost immediately. Then the driver spoke over the intercom.
"We're going to make a quick detour to pick up today's ward patrol, ETA to the rendezvous point is two mins." the driver announced.
I pressed the intercom button "Roger that."
I tried to remember who was patrolling today but my mind drew a blank. There usually wasn't much of a point remembering other people's patrol schedules so unless I had a reason I rarely committed them to memory. I took a seat and braced myself as the vans sirens started up. The van was clearly going at high speed as each bump and turn jostled the van heavily. Then the van screeched to a stop.
Opening the back doors I saw Gallant and Shadow Stalker outside. Ugh, just when this day couldn't get more annoying now I was going to be dealing with Shadow Stalker's attitude all day. Gallant is nice and all but even he could only mediate her bitchiness so much.
I greeted them "Funny meeting you guys here. Come on in, there's plenty of room."
They started climbing in, with Shadow Stalker speaking first "So you have any clue what's going on? Everyone we try to call has been too busy to fill us in."
"Actually yeah, you guy's know about Dr. Jurassic?" I answered. That got both of their attention.
"Shit, is that maniac really here?" There was a bit of fear in Gallants voice. The van started moving once he shut the door behind him.
As they settled in I told them "Saw him myself actually when I was getting lunch with my Dad. He was in his big T-Rex mech and had a couple pterodactyl robots with him."
"Oh that's bad. Any clue what he's after?" he asked.
"Not really, he was heading north so maybe it has something to do with the docks?" I guessed.
"Why do you care? You know they're not going to let us anywhere near him." Stalker said dismissively.
"Someone has to do crowd control Stalker. And if it's Dr Jurassic we're looking at tons of collateral damage. Did you guys hear about what he did in Buffalo?" Gallant asked.
"Was that where he ended up smashing like three bridges?" I tried to recall. I kept abreast of cape news but sometimes it blended together.
"No, I think that was in January near Albany. He completely demolished a parking garage in Buffalo when he was fighting some plant cape. Hardwood, I think his name was." Gallant explained.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot about him." I responded.
Hardwood was an up and coming villain that was looking to challenge the Elite down in New York City for some territory. His power of growing trees really fast didn't seem that threatening at first until you found yourself trapped under a giant redwood with wood harder than steel. He was looking like a threat until Uppercrust got the better of him and the Elite sent him packing out of NYC.
Dr. Jurassic only came in at the end when he conveniently took care of Hardwood in Buffalo where he had holed up. When gang leaders needed to get rid of a powerful rival, and they didn't care about collateral damage, they called him in. That was his niche, a wrecking ball with plausible deniability. With multi-ton weaponized dinosaur robots there were very few capes that could fend him off.
"Pfft." Shadow Stalker let out. "Is that why you're worried about a guy with some tinker toys? So he plays rough with other capes. I actually think it's kind of funny to see someone take the supervillains down a peg with a T-Rex."
"Not so funny when it's your city he's smashing up." I retorted. I didn't bother mentioning all the people he's put in the hospital, cause I suspected she wouldn't care.
"Don't be some stick in the mud. Besides, it's not like the villains he's beaten were ever going to just wave some white flag when the police showed up. Sometimes it takes a little excessive force to get results." she argued.
Gallant decided to take a side in our debate. "You do remember he's not actually a hero right? He's only interested in whatever someone pays him to take out another cape."
"So he gets paid better than the Protectorate's heroes. I'm not going to judge someone if they know how to get the job done."
I probably should have suspected that Shadow Stalker would secretly be a Dr. Jurassic fan-girl. I bet if she had triggered with tinker powers she'd be spending all her free time trying to make robot apex predators.
"Maybe when he's done you can get him to autograph your crossbow. I'm sure he'll be flattered that he has a fan." I teased. That got a patented Stalker glare out of her, honed to have the maximum amount of disdain you could convey while wearing a mask.
"Just… shut up. I don't have to deal with your crap today." she retorted. I could say the feeling was mutual but I held my tongue for the sake of peace.
The van skidded to a stop and we all braced ourselves on the handles attached to the inside of the van. The intercom blared on.
"This is where you guys get off. I need to pick up more troopers from headquarters. Follow the police lieutenant's instructions until you get further orders."
Gallant opened the doors and outside we were greeted with a standard police roadblock. It looked like we were going to be watching Anson Avenue today. I took stock and saw four police cruisers setting up like they did earlier this week, which felt like a lifetime ago. After we exited Gallant closed the doors and the van was on its way.
"They're really pulling out all the stops for this." I commented. This would be the second time in a week we've had a big cape fight. Not unheard of in Brockton Bay but not common either. Unless a full gang war was on, capes tended to just skirmish or ambush.
"Yeah. I'm just wondering which one is the Lieutenant. I think they must still be in their car…oh!" We each got an update about the situation from our communicators. Eagerly we turned our attention to them to get updated.
1137 EST Zookeeper and Precaution sighted inside the perimeter on Upton street going west. Unknown whether they are being targeted by Dr. Jurassic. Heroes are advised to not engage them. Dr. Jurassic is to remain the priority focus.
I felt my blood chill. Why were they there? Of all the places, why would they be in that neighborhood? Then I mentally kicked myself. They were there because I had suggested that exact area yesterday. Of all the goddamn times for Taylor to follow my advice it had to be now! My mind kept racing trying to make sense of things.
The logical part of my mind said it didn't make sense for them to be the targets. The Empire could have hired the doctor to go after them, sure. However they should have been small fry that Kaiser would've preferred to handle with his own capes. It was more likely that this was just a massive stroke of bad luck.
But I couldn't pretend it was impossible either. And even if they weren't being targeted they were dangerously close to a crazy cape that didn't care much about collateral damage. I had to do something, so I tried to make an excuse to call Taylor.
"Hey guys, I just remembered I need to check on someone. Could you give me a second?"
"Sure, me and Stalker will go see if we can find the lieutenant. Take your time." Gallant graciously said. Stalker just grunted and followed Gallant as he walked towards the police cruisers. Once they were out of earshot I grabbed my phone and speed-dialed Taylor and pressed it to my ear.
"Come on, come on, cooommme oooonnnnnn…." I chanted as I heard each ring. Then my hopes fell as I heard her voicemail.
Hi, you've reached Taylor. Thanks for calling. I can't answer your call at the moment, however if you leave your name, number and message, I'll get back to you as soon I can.
Goddammit, why isn't she answering? I was about to try Julia's number before I remembered it was her home number. That wouldn't help at all right now if she was with Taylor. I tried to think of alternatives before I came to my dilemma.
There was no hope she and Julia could take Dr. Jurassic. He had destroyed much tougher capes than them. So either I could sit tight and hope Taylor didn't get caught up in this, or go looking for them and drag her away from danger. I didn't have nearly enough information and time was critical.
I tried to think, what would Dad do? As much as he wanted for me to be safe, he cared about Taylor too. Then I remembered some advice he had given to me; when it was I couldn't remember. It was that when I didn't know what to do I should choose the choice I'd regret least if it went wrong. Looking at it from that point of view it felt clear what I should do. I wasn't going to stand idly by while my sister was in danger.
I saw Gallant walking back towards me as I resolved on my course of action. When he got near me he asked "Apparently the lieutenant had to find a bathroom. So your friend, are they fine?"
I paused for a second, I could lie to him. I could pretend like everything was fine and slip away later. But I didn't have time for that, this was too important. "I don't know. They won't pick up their phone. I think I might have to go check myself."
He looked at me, probably gauging my emotions. I hoped he saw that he wasn't going to talk me out of this. After a few seconds he responded.
"I think we should be fine here by ourselves. So if you need to do this I won't ask any questions."
My worries suddenly felt like they were melting away "Really?"
"If anyone else asks we'll just say you went to help man another roadblock. Everything's so chaotic right now it'll be believable enough. Just be careful okay?"
"Thank you so much. I owe you big time." And I meant it. I'm not sure what I could get Dean since he was rich. Maybe be his wing-woman next time Vicky breaks up with him?
"Don't mention it. Plus I doubt Shadow Stalker would argue much if you went off somewhere else right now." Suggesting he didn't have entirely altruistic reasons for letting me go, which I was entirely fine with.
"True, I'll call you when I'm done."
"Sounds good. Also, if you see Dr Jurassic just promise you'll run like hell. I'd rather not have to ask Amy for help. She's going to be extra busy today." he warned.
"Don't worry, I'll be so hard to find that I'll be like a ghost" I joked.
"Ha ha, very funny." I couldn't see his face but I was sure that he was grinning inside his power-armor.
Waving goodbye I sprinted towards an alleyway that would let me bypass the roadblock. Remembering where Upton street was I started jogging at a quick pace. Thankfully it was only six blocks away from where I started (they can't afford to make the perimeter too big after all). The roadblocks were also keeping traffic away from the area as intended. So after about 15 minutes of jogging I finally arrived at the street.
It wasn't a particularly high traffic area so it wasn't a surprise that there weren't any cars around. As I came to a stop to catch my breath I looked up to see the robotic pterodactyls nearby, to the west of where I was. That concerned me because not only were they close, it was the direction Taylor and Julia had been headed.
What puts me in a bind now is that I have no more leads to follow up on once I check this street. Granted my ghost could cover a lot of ground, but that meant leaving my body vulnerable. There was always the ultra risky option of following Dr Jurassic. But I decided even at over 100 meters as a ghost that it would be too close for my real body. I was probably pushing it already.
As I surveyed the street and weighed my options I suddenly had a pigeon land on me.
"Gaaahh!" I shouted. A model of poise and grace I was not.
The pigeon skillfully jumped off me as I momentarily flailed. Once I calmed down I zeroed in on the little sky rat that was now on the ground. Did Taylor do that? I know for a fact that Taylor can control birds. Then I noticed on the pigeon's leg was a bit of paper secured with a rubber band. That sealed it.
Putting aside my embarrassment at being taken off guard by the bird equivalent of vermin, I gingerly stooped down and carefully removed the paper. On it was scrawled an address which directed me to a specific alleyway, which was located almost a block away. I guess I should've expected that Taylor would find me first. At least it's working in my favor right now.
When I went to put the paper away in my pocket the bird jumped up and landed on my shoulder. Thankfully I kept my composure this time. Taylor must want to keep an eye on me to make sure I get to her spot. I just reluctantly accepted it.
"I swear to god Taylor if your bird poops on my costume I will make you pay" I didn't care if she could or couldn't hear me through the bird. It was the principle of the thing.
Since I was still a bit winded from my earlier jog I took this a bit slower. Also, each time the pigeon fell off my shoulder it almost immediately flew back on, which got annoying the third time it happened.
A few minutes later I turned a corner into the designated alleyway and there I saw my sister and Julia in their costumes. As soon as I was in her sight she came running up to me. At least she dismissed the pigeon off my shoulder before she started yelling.
"Sam, what the hell are you doing here!?" She demanded of me with the same tone she used when she caught me drinking from the milk carton.
As she grabbed me by the shoulders I tried to calm her down "Happy to see you too. Maybe you could not shout my name when we're in costume? Bad idea for a lot of reasons."
She continued gripping my shoulders for a moment before letting out a mournful sigh and asking a bit more politely "Why are you here Manes?"
"You should say please too, that's just good manners" She started to growl in disapproval at that so I gave her an answer. " I was looking for you. Why didn't you answer my phone calls?"
She huffed and answered "We decided not to keep our personal phones on us when we're in costume. Too much of a risk we might lose or break them. That's why we got a burner. We were about to leave before you showed up and almost stumbled into that giant robot T-Rex."
"Oh good you noticed that too. I had gotten worried you might have missed that."
As usual she didn't appreciate my attempts at humor. "I repeat. You were literally almost about to run into it. I spent like five minutes trying to subtly get your attention while you were running before I gave up and just landed the pigeon on you when you finally stopped."
If that was true I must be really off the ball today to not notice that. "In my defense I get really focused when I jog. And what, did you run out of crows and ravens or something?"
Julia decided to join the conversation. "We left them back at the base. We were scouting this area before the giant robot T-Rex showed up. Also could you please explain what the fuck that's doing here? I'm pretty sure you didn't mention one of those being here yesterday."
"You didn't go close enough to hear him explain? Dr. Jurassic is pretty upfront about what he does." Julia and Taylor stared at me for several seconds.
"His name is Dr. Jurassic?" Julia asked like I was trying to punk them or something.
"Oh yeah, he's a fairly big shot mercenary tinker cape. He worked in Toy-Box for a while before he decided to switch to mercenary work. Apparently it was more profitable." I explained.
"And why is he here? He's been wandering around for the last fifteen minutes looking for something." Taylor asked.
"Not sure, he usually gets hired to deal with really hard to beat capes. But most capes around here aren't that… shit I just realized who he's going after." I'll admit I got scared when I realized who Dr Jurassic was looking for. And judging from the body language from Taylor and Julia, they realized who I was referring to given who's territory we were in.
We remained silent for a few moments pondering the possibility before Julia broke it by asking "You don't think he's really going to fight Lung right?"
The scary thing was that I knew that the answer was almost certainly yes. Honestly I was less concerned about who would win then the fact that Brockton Bay was about to suffer some very grievous damage to its infrastructure. It definitely was a bad situation when of the two capes, the local rage dragon crime lord was probably the one who was more concerned about collateral damage since he lived here.
"I think right now it's less a question of 'If they're going to fight' than 'When they start fighting'. In any case I think we should get out of here before that happens." I tried to suggest.
"Is there really nothing we can do?" Julia asked quietly.
"Probably not." I tried not to be a defeatist but facts were facts. Maybe if we had the rest of the local heroes backing us up, we would stand a chance.
"For once I agree with her, we're not ready right now. I think-" *BOOM* Taylor was cut off by a sound like a distant clap of thunder, which was followed by a small tremor. She quickly keyed into the direction it was coming from. "Crap, Lung found the dinosaur guy first."
"Okay, it sounds like it's past time for us to leave. Taylor, you have the best senses so you can lead us away from them." I suggested.
She nodded and we hustled our way out of the alley. I was glad to see they hadn't been slacking in their daily running, since we made decent time running down the street. But then things took a turn when Taylor suddenly stopped a couple dozen yards in front of an intersection.
"Get down!" Taylor screamed frantically as she grabbed both of us and dragged us behind a parked line of cars.
I realized what she was freaked out about when I saw Dr. Jurassic's mechanical T-Rex sailing through the air right over us. We had just flattened ourselves on the ground when an almighty smashing sound assaulted our ears and caused the ground beneath us to shake.
On top of that bits of asphalt and dirt then rained down on us as we covered our heads. Thankfully the cars we had hidden behind took the brunt of the heavier debris coming from the impact zone.
As the tremors stopped and the dust settled I looked over at Taylor and Julia. Blessedly they both were picking themselves up from the ground, dirtier than before but not that bad off. I got up and dusted myself off, though there was probably too much dirt on me now to get completely clean that way.
Once I had stood up I saw there was a large crater in the middle of the street a couple dozen yards away. We almost certainly would've been dead if Taylor hadn't noticed anything. I guess my notion of saving her life had ended up completely backwards; she had ended up saving my life instead. It felt a bit humbling to realize that. But then I remembered we weren't the only ones who could've been hurt.
Looking over at Taylor and Julia standing up I suggested "You want to go check to see if he's dead?"
They looked at each other and Taylor sighed "I guess even if he's a bastard we might as well check on him."
So we ventured to the crater in the street. Looking over we saw the T-Rex remained in one piece. Up close I could see the polished steel skin, with interlocking scales that left no gaps we could see. A couple underground water pipes had been impacted, and the crater was slowly filling with water.
Julia started talking first. "You don't think the electric systems are still working right? If they are I'm not sure we can get at it without being electro-" *RUMBLE*
But she was cut off as the mechanical monster began to stir to life. Before we could run away the eyes opened and the speakers came to life.
"- A MINOR SETBACK. I SHOULD TAKE INTO ACCOUNT HIS UPPER BODY STRENGTH GOING FORWARD." his speakers roared. He seemed to be in the middle of musing to himself.
We backed up instinctively as the robot nimbly sprung up, as if it had merely tripped. As it rose up it noticed us. Each of us seemed to be paralyzed as it wasn't clear which way we should run. Unfortunately we made a very misleading impression.
"I SEE SOME OF THE LOCAL CAPES HERE ARE FANS OF DR. JURASSIC. THOUGH I'M AFRAID THAT I'M NOT GIVING AUTOGRAPHS RIGHT NOW. BUT IF YOU'RE WILLING TO HELP I WON'T TURN YOU AWAY." he assumed. I tried to dismiss the implication that there were actually people crazy enough to approach him of their own free will out there so I could focus on the situation at hand.
Taylor seemed to be the bravest among us as she tried to correct him "I'm sorry but we're not actually-" *THUMP* *THUMP* *THUMP*
But she was drowned out by another set of footsteps, who's owner turned the corner at the other end of the street. There stood Lung: almost three stories high, covered in muscles and scales, and whose anger was fueling an inferno of fire around his body. I had seen a few pictures of him this ramped up but in real life it was both awe inspiring and completely terrifying.
As we found ourselves standing between the two giants, Dr Jurassic decided to break the momentary silence.
"WELL, WELL, WELL. BACK FOR MORE I SEE? DON'T EXPECT THAT TRICK TO WORK AGAIN. FOR DR. JURASSIC NEVER GIVES UP WHEN THE TARGET IS AT HAND! MY GRANDMA COULD THROW ME HARDER THAN YOU. IN FACT I BET THESE TEENAGE CAPES COULD KICK YOUR KEISTER BY THEMSELVES IF THEY FELT LIKE IT!" he taunted, and my stomach dropped realizing our hope of Lung not noticing us had gone straight out the window.
"OOUU TALK TOO MUCH." Lung loudly growled out from his maw.
Unbelievably, I found that I was in perfect agreement with Lung.
A/N
-As you can see things are about to really escalate as our three heroes get thrown way into the deep end. This is the point they're dealing with opponents way outside their weight class both metaphorically and literally.
-I hope I'm striking a good balance for Dr. Jurassic where he's both a goofy over the top villain while also being legitimately terrifying in his destructive power. My impression is that most villains in Worm tend to be focused on hurting or manipulating their opponents, so a villain that's known for collateral damage would definitely get an outsized reputation among other capes. As for why he's getting called into Brockton Bay in this timeline as opposed to canon? Let's just say it's one of the butterfly effects of the New Years battle and leave it at that for now.
-I find it's best to do character development in little steps here and there, like in real life. So Sam realizing that Taylor had legitimately saved her life was a real important moment for her. Of course it'll take a little time for it to sink in with more pressing thoughts on her mind.
-Feel free to leave any feedback you have. I'm always looking to improve.