Walking into the outpost the next morning, you notice a distinct lack of immature taunting from Alec and your apprentice is missing as well. The most obvious answer to her absence is that she just isn't awake or is busy with something else at the moment, but considering the high likelihood of the boy attempting to use her as a powerful minion with his power, you decide to ask Moira anyway.
"What? Oh, the boy." She responds, already distracted with her work. You're not even sure at this point whether or not she sleeps. "He left late last night after Louise healed his friend. Since she didn't come back through the portal with him, I would assume she's with her sister or Hinata."
Worries eased for the moment, you approach the operating theater to find Vista unconscious with several tubes connected to her arms. "She still has yet to awaken?"
"No, she woke up around midnight screaming at us for killing her friend. Doctor Moore tried to assure her that it was an accident and that you could bring him back, but she attacked him and we were forced to sedate her." The woman shrugs. "I took the liberty of identifying each of our guests' dimensional links, so if she becomes a bigger problem, we could attempt to close the connection."
"Simply killing her is easier. I can reanimate her and hopefully maintain use of her abilities."
Giving you an expression of distaste, Moira replies, "I may not be some paragon of morality even among X-com, who as a whole are accustomed to making heartless decisions, but you know my stance on children. I won't take part in this. We all have our lines we won't cross, you understand."
"I can do it on my own." You tell her simply. "Either way, she has to go. She is not only a physical threat, but a threat to our security as well, since she knows our location and has reason to turn potential allies against us."
"Yes and I'm not arguing against that, but I'm warning you that doing it this way is going to earn you enemies both inside and out if the others learn of it. Which, while I won't be the one to tell them, I have no doubt that they will." Moira says, gesturing to all the bleary eyed personnel going about their morning routines. "Clockblocker was an accident, everyone understands that and knows that it can't be helped, but now you're talking about intentionally murdering a little girl for the sake of expedience! Surely there's a better way."
Running a hand over your beard, you sigh, "Fine, I will give it some thought, but do not be surprised if I choose to do so anyway. An enthralled zombie is much less likely to cause us problems after all. Now, on to something more pleasant, I believe it is time we attempt a solution for our mutated allies."
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"Hey Vicky!" Amy called out in amusement as she pulled her shirt over her head. "Dean just pulled up!"
"'Kay!" Vicky replied through the wall as the brunette tried in vain to get her hair under control. Throwing it aside as a lost cause, she rushed out into the hall and down the stairs, hoping she wasn't too late. Hearing the front door creak open, she dove over the railing of the stairs as a keening sound came from who she knew was her sister's boyfriend.
Landing on the massive form of her sister's sort-of-twin, Amy momentarily reveled in the fact that while she could still slightly 'see' the other Vicky's biology, the dirt and ash-like makeup of her body kept Amy from having any influence. It was as if each and every one of the cells in the girl's body was actually some terracotta substitute that her power stubbornly tried to read anyway just because it was the same shape. It was nice not to have to worry about affecting her sister... even if it was only half the time, since while their personalities were almost identical, their powers weren't.
Pushing those thoughts away, Amy stood from her crouched landing and hopped off Vicky-two's back to see Dean's gaping expression flick back and forth between the two blondes before becoming glued to the spider-Vicky's chest. Not that Amy could blame him, since her boobs were big before and her size increase was proportional, those things were bigger than his head now and even their dad's baggiest shirt couldn't hide them. It'd been awkward when they'd first met and she was glad nobody noticed her own staring... or if they had, they chalked it up to the giant spider parts instead.
After a second, he admirably managed to tear his eyes away and nervously ask, "You said there was something important to talk about?"
"Well... the two of us were talking-"
"And the topic of dating came up-" Alternate Vicky interrupted, leaning a bit closer with a predatory smirk.
"-And then she said that she broke up with her Dean before... this happened." Vicky number one finished, waving a hand toward the other Vicky's spiked carapace and glistening maw... that had it's tongue lolling out in complete defiance of natural spider anatomy. "So we wanted to know what you thought."
"So what do you think, Dean? Am I still sexy enough for you?" Spider-vicky asked sweetly, leaning in even further until she was almost horizontal.
Normally Amy would be annoyed by the topic, but thanks to gravity and the lack of any fitting bra for Vicky, she was having a hard time focusing enough to be amused, much less upset. She didn't mind the puppy-like spider half of the new Vicky that much, not enough to really lessen her affection. Sure it was weird, but at least it was friendly and eager to please... as long as it wasn't under Glory Girl's aura. If being adopted and not actually genetically related wasn't enough to make her interest acceptable, would being from technically different adopted families and a total lack of genetics make it better? It was a nice thought that it might be, but she knew better than to hope, so she would just have to make do with indulging her guilty pleasure from the sidelines... Which was much easier with two Vickys.
"Are you okay?" The original Vicky asked, waving a hand in front of her face. "You're not sleeping are yo-eww, you're drooling!"
Wiping her mouth, Amy turned a halfhearted glare on her sister and hissed, "Am not."
Not anymore. "Don't you have a boyfriend to harass?"
"-o, I wasn't.. I mean, you're very pretty."
"Pretty? Please, I'm smokin' hot!" Spider-Vicky laughed, earning a high-five from her twin and a groan from Amy. "Don't think I didn't see you staring."
"Yeah Dean, what's up with that? How could you look at another girl's boobs right in front of me?" Smaller-Vicky demanded, floating over to place herself between him and Spider-Vicky.
Looking over to Amy for help, the nervous teen tried to hide his reaction to seeing her emotions, so she flipped him off with a scowl. Of course he had to ruin her fun by being a judgemental ass. He always did that when they were alone, she definitely didn't need him arousing the Vickys' suspicions just because he doesn't know what to do.
Deciding to try and defend himself on his own, Dean shakes his head. "I didn't mean to, they were just there. Besides, you're the same person, right? So it shouldn't matter."
"So what, if we were twins does that mean you just get both of us?" They asked in unison, having expected that response when they were rehearsing the interrogation earlier.
"No, I didn't mean it like that!"
Crossing her arms, the original Vicky huffed, "Fine, since you obviously like her better, then why don't you just date her instead."
Amy almost felt sorry for the guy, being so used to knowing what somebody actually felt thanks to his powers. It was the main reason him and Vicky broke up all the time, since he couldn't tell when she was serious over things like this and despite being smarter and more social than Amy, the blonde just didn't seem to understand.
Then the idiot went and crushed whatever pity she felt by falling into his usual damage control attempts, "Oh come on Vicky, you're being unreasonable! She's half spider for crying out loud, I'd never choose her over you!"
Slapping him across the face, though nowhere near hard, Vicky looked absolutely scandalized. "Don't be an ass,
Gallant!"
"Hey, don't worry... we were just joking around, remember?" The bigger Vicky reassured, but Amy could see that she was upset. No matter how many times she just laughed it off when other people mentioned her looks, hearing it from someone she'd dated for so long obviously meant more. "We probably shouldn't have done it anyway... I'd feel terrible if your Dean broke up with you for me after I dumped my own."
With that said, she quickly left the house, somehow squeezing her way through the door that was way too small just like a real spider and the other Vicky hurried to follow. Left alone in the room with the idiot, Amy gave a cruel laugh at the look of shock on his face, "Good going, dickhead."
"How is this my fault?! I don't even know what just happened."
Sneering at the confused boy, she shook her head and chased after her sisters, though she barely made it outside before her phone began to ring. She couldn't hold back a groan at the caller ID though, since Armsmaster was among the last people she wanted to talk to at the moment.
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"Ugh... can we just do this already?" Newter asks, having cleared up the confusion about his name when a quick inspection showed that he was not in fact a eunuch.
Blood, sweat, tissue, and mucus samples collected as well as entire organs that were then immediately replaced through magic, you nod in agreement. "Of course we can, just step through the Oblivion Gate and we can begin."
"Right... that's not an ominous name or anything." The orange one replies, hesitantly following his quieter companion into the fiery portal.
On the other side, your apprentice should be restoring their bodies to baseline human and one of Vahlen's people will then surgically remove their abnormal brain structures before putting them through a Meld treatment to change their DNA. Since it will be using unmodified human DNA, the Meld required to ensure they do not reject the changes should be negligible.
While this is going on, you and Moira spend the next two hours sending Scamps to the worlds containing the symbiotes. While many are unsuccessful, you manage to collect roughly forty pounds of flesh from the creatures, though Vista's managed to evade all attempts. Still the amount gathered from the others is sufficient and you managed to use up the majority of the base's stockpile of Magicka potions... the ones without drawbacks anyway, since most of the novice alchemists have yet to reach the level of skill required to filter out all negative properties.
How somebody could be so incompetent as to not properly use an alembic is beyond you, but it is a common occurrence throughout Tamriel, so it doesn't surprise you.
Upon finishing the collection of materials, you notice a large, box shaped vehicle pull through the gate, the letters 'PRT' stamped on the side.
Status: Healthy
Magicka: (650/650)
Choose:
[] Go through the Oblivion Gate and leave them to X-com.
-[] Speak with Cattleya.
-[] Find Shen and see what he's up to.
[] Approach the PRT people and-
-[] Show them around the outpost and answer any non-incriminating questions.
-[] Attack swiftly and mercilessly.
[] Go to Vista, cast Paralyze and Invisibility, and remain close by until they leave.
-[] Mix up more eldritch flesh potions.
-[] Test your previous potions on somebody. Write in.
-[] Experiment with Case 53 samples.
[] Write in.
If asked about the Wards:
[] Clockblocker came for a cure, but Vista started acting strange so they left.
[] They never arrived.
[] Tell the truth, then you can kill these people in self defense.
Final solution for Vista:
[] Kill her and send her reanimated body through the Gate.
[] Get her drunk, inflict blunt force trauma to her head, then send Zombie!Clockblocker to take her back to the city and arrange for him to get destroyed.
[] Write in.
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A/N: I could have been needlessly antagonistic and had the Undersiders come demanding about Rachel, but it's pretty hard to justify that when there's so many others around to remember that she needs healing. If there was a more heavy vote in favor of killing Vista, it would have happened, but I delayed it for one last vote to be sure since it would probably have been a tie if we had an even number of voters. If that happens again in the next one, I'm just going with the winning option regardless.
