51 Lunchtime
"Somer's Rock?" I asked, confusion evident in my voice. "The Bermuda bar?"
Brian's face instantly shifted from grim and determined seriousness to a mirror of my own incomprehension. "What?" He asked, quickly glancing between me and Tattletale.
The blond girl sighed and set down her burger. "That's a myth." She paused before continuing. "Well, not a myth. It's a rumor that was started when the bar changed ownership in the eighties. The buyer was a big fan of The Tempest and wanted to create some history for the place. In reality it has no actual connection to George Somers or Bermuda. Somer's Rock was founded in the nineteen thirties by a Ukrainian immigrant and changed hands five times since then, currently family owned."
Survey happily confirmed the details for me while continuing to track and monitor everyone in the park, an understandably light crowd for a Saturday, given recent events. Brian looked like the floor had fallen out from under him as whatever momentum he'd been trying to establish at the start of the discussion had been torn away by the brief exchange. Frankly I was right there with him.
"Right, thanks for that, and I kind of figured." The Bermuda thing was the kind of story that got passed around campus. Not something people seriously believed, but it made good entertainment when you were heading out. "But why exactly are we talking about a dive bar?"
Honestly, I'd never really been that big on it, only visiting the Rock a couple of times. Some of my class made it a mainstay of their nights out but it wasn't for me. Even a place with as comparatively lax about I.D. checks as Somer's Rock was always a harrowing experience for me. Despite clear evidence to the contrary there was always a feeling that it was going to end in disaster, arrest for underage drinking and any number of other tragedies. Really, it wasn't the best mentality to enjoy a night out. Add in the fact that in second year Sabah was part of the group and was religious enough not to drink, then what was an infrequent event pretty much stopped entirely.
Whatever my own feelings about the place were, they were in sharp contrast to Brian and Tattletale's. My skill with the Dragon's Pulse had expanded tremendously from the last time I met with the Undersiders, taking what had been a rough sense of life energy to a precise mapping of tensions, stresses, and involuntary reactions within their bodies. Combined with my expanded pyrokinetic senses, I could clearly see the dire importance they were placing on this discussion.
While I may not have known why they were adamant about discussing one of the more run-down locations of Brockton's bar scene, my passenger was certainly excited about it. His reaction was the kind of blanket enthusiasm that I hadn't really felt from him since before the incident at the bank. On one hand it was kind of endearing to experience that kind of thing again. On the other, I knew where the last round of that kind of excitement had led me and wasn't keen to repeat it.
"Somer's Rock is neutral ground for the city's gangs when they need to meet." Tattletale explained. "And there's a summit coming up."
A villain summit. It was immediate confirmation of the importance my passenger had placed on the location, but the cognitive dissonance induced by the information was seriously off-putting. I tried to piece together what I remembered about that bar with the idea of it being used to set the future of the city's underworld. I was seriously supposed to believe that the place where Rick Jacobs had downed ten pints of the cheapest beer imaginable, vomited in the bathroom, and had to be hauled back to the bus stop was some kind of secret villain meetup? Apparently I was, based on the information of both my passenger and Tattletale.
Still, the logic of it… Okay, it was out of the way and low traffic, even at the best of times. It wasn't exactly popular, even for people from the college. More of a known place that occasionally came up. Still, it was hard to believe. Not impossible, but still hard.
"This is serious." Tattletale emphasized. "Beyond any personal experience, you have to know what this means."
Brian looked like he wanted to press me some more about the Bermuda thing, while personally I was kind of shocked he seemed to be under the impression that someone would hear Somer's Rock and instantly think 'villain meetup' instead of 'shitty dive bar'. But this wasn't the time for that. Tattletale was right, and my passenger was pressing hard on this issue, not just in enthusiasm but in real concern over the event.
"The gangs are getting together, right?" I considered what that meant, and who qualified under that category. "I'm assuming that doesn't just mean the Merchants and Empire?"
She shook her head. "Pretty much every power bloc on that side of the law will be making an appearance. Merchants and Empire are guaranteed, and Faultline's crew will make an appearance. Coil will be there." I felt my passenger's familiar flashes of concern as she mentioned him, and could tell that she was clearly picking up on it. Not from any visible reaction, but from shifts in the energy and heat patterns of her body. I could also tell that she could tell I could read her. It turned into a completely nonverbal game of 'I know you know I know you know'. Fortunately, Brian didn't seem to notice and Tattletale continued as if nothing was happening. "Probably a few independents as well."
"And the Undersiders." Brian explained. With that the full significance of the event fell clearly into place. "We had a meeting about it this morning. Unanimous vote. We'll be there."
I tried not to show my reaction as I processed things. Considering I was on multiple layers of self-control at the moment pulling that off was something of a balancing act. I was controlling my posing, managing my efficiency power, and trying to moderate my behavior while also operating under the effect of a disguise talisman. It was a lot to keep track of, so really the best I could hope for was that any honest representation of my feelings got lost in the shuffle, because they weren't exactly favorable at that moment.
The Undersiders were going to be taking a chair at a city-wide villain summit. Two weeks ago, robbing a mob casino was seen as an ambitious project for them. Now Brian was going to be sitting across from Kaiser at some conference to determine… what exactly?
"What is everyone going to be meeting about? I would have assumed the ABB, but that's not exactly going to be a problem going forward, so what is it?" Tattletale gave me a flat look and even Brian seemed to share her sense of knowing exasperation. It didn't take a genius to put things together from there. "Oh, of course."
The Quality constellation passed by as I reflected on the obvious topic of discussion for the villains of the city.
"It is kind of a big concern." Tattletale gestured towards the north. From here there weren't any visible signs of the attacks, or my actions to counter them. We were insulated from any direct effects of the conflict and by now even the smoke had cleared. Two days was also long enough for the atmospheric disruptions from Fleet's maneuver to fade away, leaving a perfectly normal sky. Still, her meaning was obvious.
Brian jumped in with a more diplomatic tone. "People are scared." He glanced around at the scattered college students who were getting a Saturday lunch. The idea of the city being shell shocked didn't really resonate this far from the Docks. Here, the only sign of what had hit the city was a somewhat quiet mood among the park goers and maybe a few less food trucks in the area.
Despite local evidence to the contrary Brian pressed on. "We've had a week where everyone was focused on the ABB, basically every group in the city either going to ground or gearing up for war. Now that's gone and you have a lot of powerful, high-strung people trying to figure out what's next."
I clenched my teeth briefly as I let his words sink in. Really, with everything I'd been focused on, the reaction of the villain community hadn't been on my map. In a brief flash I realized that mentally I didn't include the Undersiders in that 'villain community' category. When you got to know somebody it was hard to see them as part of the general blob of supervillainy that made up the backdrop of Brockton Bay. For me they were individuals. I didn't think of them in the context of that group and I certainly didn't want them involved with this mess.
That was the kicker here. What we were basically dancing around. The Undersiders were connected to me and as such they had become one of the most prominent groups in the city. Honestly they were probably some of the most sought-after people in the country right now. I knew the amount of effort people were putting into reaching me. As perhaps the only people with a direct line and confirmed business relationship they would be a natural focus.
I didn't want the Undersiders involved in this. Frankly, I didn't want to be involved in this. My natural reaction was to try to get away from it and hope it blew over, but that was stupid. I'd seen how that had worked with the public reaction to my activities or with the official policies of the PRT. As much as I wanted out of this, I could recognize that was a terrible idea, and not just because it would mean throwing the Undersiders into it on their own.
That was the other kicker. Right now, Brian was fulfilling the terms we had set on Wednesday and informing me of the group's activities. This might not count as a job in the traditional sense, but it was completely within the spirit of the agreement. And in the spirit of that agreement, I would be entitled to be upset at the level of risk they were taking, but carry no actual authority to moderate their actions.
"They want me to come." I said mechanically. "It's not about reacting to my actions or dealing with the aftermath. They want me there to… what? Pick a side? Make a statement? Prove my credentials?"
Tattletale shook her head. "This past week has turned everything on its head. Nobody's sure where they stand anymore. Throwing around power like that, between you and the ABB, any balance that was in place is out the window. The city has gang territory effectively up for grabs and new balances between the players being sorted out. Either they meet and sit down to work things out, or they sort them out in the streets. Violent clashes until some new balance is reached."
I let out a long breath as her words sank in. Of course they couldn't just sit back and let the city recover. That would be too much to expect of them. After all, what were they, not terrible people?
No, that wasn't fair. Well, I wasn't inclined to be fair towards the Merchants and Empire, but it was wrong to think that this was just destructive impulses and a lack of self-control. Without any kind of assurance in place it would come down to who thought they could benefit most from taking the initiative. You have multiple groups vying for first move advantage and it's a recipe for disaster. This summit was the kind of thing that could stop that from happening.
But I wasn't naïve enough to think that was all that was happening here. An agreement to stand down could have been made through whatever system of communication was used to set up the meeting in the first place. You didn't bring everyone to the table if your only goal was to keep people from acting like idiots. People would have agendas. They always did, but this was the place where they could be advanced.
I glanced between Brian and Tattletale. Agendas. Where did the Undersiders fit into that? From a high level they were going because they were connected to me and because it would bring me to the summit. That was something I wasn't in any doubt about. There were good reasons for me to be there, enough to probably override my reluctance to attend, but the Undersiders presence took that out of my hands. I'm not sure the entire team knew that, but they probably suspected, and Tattletale certainly did. I would be concerned enough about their safety at a meeting like this even without my absence essentially putting them in a position where they would be speaking on my behalf.
"Violent clashes." I said. "They don't want that on the streets, so they're cramming every supervillain in the city into a crowded bar and hoping everything will be perfectly fine?"
"There's a truce." Brian explained. "Neutral ground. Anyone attacks at the summit and everyone there works to put them down. It's the oldest convention of the site, going back to before Marquis."
I could feel how certain he was in that statement. He was bubbling with anxiety, but in a general sense. Whatever his concerns, the safety of the summit wasn't among them.
That only brought me to my personal concerns, namely what the hell the Undersiders were doing here. If all they wanted was to get me to make an appearance Tattletale could probably have made a case without involving the rest of the team. This was specifically about the future of Brockton's criminal underworld, which made me seriously concerned about how the Undersiders fit into that.
The concerning answer was that it had to be connected to their boss. That long, menacing shadow that Lisa was struggling under. The presence that threatened Taylor's safety and basically acted as a Sword of Damocles for the entire group. Whatever the objective of the bank had been, it was connected directly to their boss. Some kind of distraction that was dangerous to even investigate. A thinker with a power so strong that even knowing what it was could tip him off.
The boss had funded the Undersiders, brought them together and built them up. Now he was clearly working to leverage that investment. There was serious, building concern from my passenger regarding the Undersiders' boss, both from the current threat he posed and what was possible in the future.
It wasn't the sharp, desperate, apocalypse level panic that had been associated with March, a concern evidently related to a dimension shattering attack power, insanely strong thinker ability, and insider knowledge of the mechanics of passengers. It was a combination that could have any number of horrible results, as the breach at the container yard made clear. If March could have seen through whatever her ambitions were, I had no doubt that the 'worse than the Endbringers' assertion could have come to fruition.
The man behind the Undersiders was a different kind of threat. A land mine or IED rather than the assault team that March had represented. He was clearly dangerous, someone who couldn't be ignored, but also not someone I could just charge in to deal with. If he was as strong a thinker as Tattletale indicated there were any number of reasons for why that could be the case. Horrible contingencies, leveraged connections, or devastating power held in reserve. My passenger wasn't completely clear on the matter, either an indication of uncertainty or the inaccuracy of predictions with everything that had happened, but it was clear about the threat. If their boss wasn't handled carefully it could have disastrous results.
"Alright. So there won't be any risks from the people there. Just from the potential of how things will play out in the discussions and the aftermath." I gave Tattletale a hard look. She was supposed to be working on this. I was relying on her evaluation for the go ahead, for the moment when I could move, could help the Undersiders. Then she came to me with this. Brian was pitching it as a team decision, but I had little doubt as to who the offer had come from.
She was adamant in her resolve on this matter. I could feel it through my expanded senses, and she knew I could. Figures that Tattletale would take a potential weakness and immediately turn it into a secondary avenue of communication. Even through the muddling influence of the powers regulating my body, I was sure she was reading me, and she knew I was reading her. I had no doubt she was a talented liar, but it was unlikely that extended to every autonomous response of her body. Through that she was being totally open about her intentions, but in a completely covert way. It was a method of communication that seemed somehow completely appropriate for Tattletale.
Okay, Tattletale was pushing for this either as a stalling tactic for the boss or hopefully out of some plan to get things to a point where he wouldn't be a threat. The frustrating part was I couldn't be sure which it was, or what she was actually doing to deal with things. Tattletale liked being the smartest person in the room, the puppet master, the person in control. It wasn't something I particularly enjoyed dealing with, too many bad associations, but my passenger seemed to relish it. He liked the idea of smart manipulator Tattletale, probably a bit too much in my opinion.
There was a sympathetic edge there. Something had happened. Something personal, which with capes meant trigger. It wasn't something I was going to dive into, now, where she might be able to read me, but the idea of a traumatic event that caused her to have the power to know and analyze everything presented a lot of painful possibilities.
"That risk is why the meeting is so important." Brian explained. He had taken an experimental bite of his cilantro riddled taco and seemed to be debating whether it was worth pushing through. The decision was delayed in favor of focusing on the discussion at hand. "After your… After the ABB was taken out there's a power gap. Not just in territory, but in the balance of the city."
I took another bite of my chili fries, using the act as an excuse to work through the situation in my mind. "What exactly are they expecting me to do?" I eventually asked.
It was Tattletale who jumped in to respond. "They aren't expecting anything right now, and that's the problem." Brian nodded slightly while looking down at his lunch. "Everyone knows that if you throw in with someone, either in a contract or just from personal preference then that's pretty much it for the rest of them."
"I'm not taking contracts." I protested. "And I'm not picking sides in pissing matches between gangs."
She nodded in response. "Fine. Show up, say that, and then you can basically sit out the rest of the summit, or even walk away then if you want to." Her tone and emotions suggested that probably wouldn't be the best approach. "If you show up and take a seat at the table it means you're probably not going to throw a terror weapon at them."
Brian's eyes sharpened at the mention of weapons, and I could feel the tension from both of them. It was pretty much what I expected, but I wasn't looking forward to it.
"It's not going to be that simple." I said. "You know that. I'm going to be grilled by offers and question the entire time. I mean, I know you want to ask…" Brian at least put on a show of polite disinterest, but Tattletale didn't bother.
"Not going to lie. It's a major concern and priority." She sighed. "I've seen your call with Weld, transcript and recording."
"Figures. Leaked already?" I asked.
She shook her head. "Hardly a leak. They're pulling in everyone they can on it. The thing's spread further than the Panacea Debrief." She leaned forward. "Brian is right. People are scared. Look, we're all grateful for what you did." She didn't show it but I could feel the relief from her. "But the only thing more dangerous than what you stopped is what you used to stop it. Nobody knows anything right now, and they're grasping at whatever they can get. I know you like your privacy, but that's not an option anymore. Not after Thursday night."
Brian leaned forward to support her. "Frankly the hope that you might show up at the summit is probably the main thing keeping the city from going up like a powder keg. You showed some scary stuff, and they just want some assurance that it won't be pointed at them."
I leaned back from my lunch as the Magitech constellation passed by. I had been enjoying my down time, my isolation and ability to focus on other problems. It let me put off the reality that eventually I'd need to face the music and actually explain what happened in my fight with Lung. I could dance around it to some extent, but Tattletale was right. Uncertainty brought fear. People didn't know more than 'scary tinker stuff', and when that was all they had to go on it wouldn't send them to good places.
And that wasn't just for the villains. The Protectorate had taken as light a touch as possible during my call, but I could tell they were desperate for information. If I was in a weaker position I would guarantee they'd want me dragged in for interrogation. The power disparity was the only thing keeping me safe from that, and I had the sense they didn't know how to handle that. The policy was usually to call in more support if you had someone you couldn't handle, or if that wasn't enough it jumped to S-class designations, kill orders, or quarantine sites. Possibly all three.
"You're worried about that stuff as well." It wasn't even a statement. Tattletale maintained her poker face, but Brian was more open on the matter.
He leaned back and let out a long breath. "Yeah. I mean, who wouldn't be?" He gave me a serious look before continuing. "Look, I know you don't owe us anything, and we still literally owe you for saving us last week, but understand, we're probably closer to you than any other cape out there and we still had no idea what was going on during that fight." He shook his head. "There was a lot of concerning stuff and we were barely processing it." With another sigh he leaned forward. "Also, probably should have said this earlier, but communication wasn't exactly easy, and nobody wanted to bother you in the aftermath of that."
Tattletale gave him a serious look and I found myself wondering where this was going.
"It's good to know that you're doing alright, and we're all glad you made it through that safely." He glanced at Tattletale. "All of us. And beyond any of the obligation stuff or negations let me just say, thank you for saving the city." I blinked in surprise as he continued. "You probably haven't had a chance to hear that, but seriously, thank you. I have family here, and anyone could see where things were headed in that fight. So, I want you to know, no matter what comes next, I appreciate what you did for all of us that night."
Brian's earnestness took me aback. My eyes darted to Tattletale, but that revealed nothing. My other senses showed that she wasn't surprised by his statement, as well as convincing me that he was sincere about it.
The impact was lessened a bit by the realization that Tattletale might have brought him along for that reason, more layers of manipulation because it seemed she couldn't do anything in a straightforward way. I was prepared to tolerate that as long as she was playing shadow games against their boss, but even I had limits.
I turned back to Brian. My natural instinct when it came to stuff like that was to brush it off and downplay my actions, but considering he was talking about the safety of his family that seemed a little insulting. "You're welcome." I said as directly as I could manage. "And I get that what I brought out in that fight worried a lot of people." I clenched my hand and forced it to release. "Most of that, it was kind of an emergency measure. March's hit wrecked everything I brought into the field. I was down to my last reserves."
Brian glanced at Tattletale before continuing. "Lisa explained what that meant, the strength behind that kind of attack."
"I was lucky." I admitted. "And I'm not going to let that happen again." My eyes darted around the park and I mentally reviewed data feeds from Survey as well as my own expanded senses. An intrigued look from Tattletale told me she'd noticed my directed attention, but that was fine. This wasn't the kind of security measures where knowing about them provided any meaningful help in bypassing the defenses.
"With what happened after the attack?" Brian looked seriously nervous about the line of questioning, but he pressed on. "It looked… I mean, are you alright?" He gave me a critical glance. "I mean, you look…"
He seemed unsure about how to continue, so Tattletale stepped in, though with a less obnoxious tone than usually accompanied her lectures. "Your build is slimmer, but nobody was sure how you were bulking up in the first place. Your hair is longer in areas. You're carrying yourself differently, but downplaying it." She leaned in and intensely focused her attention. "And I'm pretty sure there's something different about your respiration and heartbeat. Definitely your heart beat."
It was delivered as neutrally as she seemed to be able to manage. No judgement or push for more information, just an open declaration of what her power had detected. Knowing what I did about how it worked I couldn't really fault her for picking up mostly surface level details and bringing them to light when the conversation pushed that way.
I gave Brian a slight smile. "Everything that was brought out during that fight and that's what you want to know about?"
He shrugged. "Everything else was stuff you built. That thing after that attack, that was you. People are concerned about it. Hell, Rachel is concerned."
I blinked. "Rachel? Seriously?"
That brought a smile to Tattletale's face. "You'd never guess it, but it turns out she was a screen junkie waiting to happen. She's been practically living in her watch since you gave it to her." Her right hand moved slightly, feeling the light band around her left wrist. The other reason for the meeting, and one that was constantly being kicked down the road to deal with the matter of Somer's Rock and my growing reputation.
"She watched the broadcast of the fight. A lot." Brian explained. "Especially when the… transformation thing happened." He looked uncomfortable even mentioning it.
The nice little mental block I'd been maintaining to prevent me from dwelling on the fact that I had turned into a primordial wolf monster during a live broadcast came crashing down. I reinforced my self-control to keep from cringing and pressed on.
"What did she have to say?" I asked.
Brian shifted his eyes to Tattletale before responding. "She said it was clear you were really angry and not thinking straight. And that you were in a lot of pain and were basically lashing out. She was actually frustrated that other people couldn't see it that way." He gave a slight apologetic shrug. "She wanted us to make sure you were alright."
I took a breath. Back then, after the transformation, I'd basically been running on instinct. Rachel clearly had a way of connecting with her dogs. Some understanding of behavior and psychology. Enough to connect with them better than she could manage with people. I didn't know how far that extended, but it wasn't impossible that she had picked up on the feedback loop of pain and rage that I'd been caught in. I mean, anyone could get angry, but I don't think most people realized how badly my judgement had been compromised.
Though that might just be wishful thinking on the public's part. It was probably better to believe that everything that had unfolded was a deliberate, if desperate, act rather than the results of what amounted to blindly flailing at my opponent until I'd been able to get a handle on things.
Rachel's possibly sincere interest in my welfare was another point, another thing that made the safety of the Undersiders important to me. It also was another indication of manipulation by Tattletale, but that was par for the course by now. I wondered if she picked this location to essentially be upfront about trying to play me towards the summit. If everything was manipulative to some degree then nothing really stood out. Or maybe I was just overthinking things.
"Most of the changes were from treatment." I explained. "I was in pretty bad shape after the fight. It took a lot of work to get me back on my feet."
Brian's expression was somewhere between concerned and skeptical. "Even with your healing?"
"There were complications. I had to work around them." I lifted one hand slightly, positioning it so that it was concealed from sightlines of the surrounding area. I extended the index finger and focused. A day ago I would never have been able to manage something this delicate, but with an expanded talent for transmutation and an arcane focus built into my clothes it was child's play.
The two of them watched as the nail on my index finger shifted to a long claw, then back to a normal human fingernail. It was only for a second, but it was confirmation. Confirmation of the transformation, and the fact that it was controlled, not a bomb waiting to go off at the worst possible moment. "That was something else. It's complicated, and I didn't want to bring it out in that fight, but it's not a problem."
"Right." Tattletale said. Her tone was steady but I could feel her apprehension through the Dragon's Pulse. Brian at least seemed to be willing to accept things as they were.
"So, you know why it's important? Why we need you to come?" He said earnestly. I looked between him and Tattletale. At this point, between the stakes, the risk to Taylor, and every semi-dirty trick that had been pulled out with this meeting there wasn't really a choice. Or at least no good choice. I had been roped into this, but I could at least make sure to do this on my own terms.
"When is the summit?" I asked. It wasn't confirmation, but I could feel a wave of relief from both Brian and Tattletale at my words. She was the one who jumped in with a reply.
"Tomorrow. Seven in the evening." She said, and I held back another reaction.
"That's not a lot of time." I said flatly. I was getting flashbacks to the first rush order I had built for the Undersiders, and the bad decisions based on sleep deprivation that had contributed to it.
"It would probably have been sooner, if not for everything that was going on. This was in the works from before the last attack, but March was keeping everyone too off balance to have a chance to come together." She explained.
I nodded. There were a lot of unfavorable coincidences that had lined up in the ABB's favor over the past week. After my fight with Lung and the clear demonstration of March's power most of them were being attributed to her. Possibly too many. I'm pretty sure some of those points were a combination of bad policies and general incompetence that March had at most taken advantage of. Still, it let authorities dump the issue on a deceased cape and considering a significant number of those issues had previously been attributed to me I wasn't going to object to someone passing the buck. Everybody got to look better by throwing the rabbit girl's corpse under the bus.
I was about to ask a follow up question when I felt a connection to the Knowledge constellation. It wasn't a large mote, but it was one of the ones that came with memories. Well, sort of memories. Not as clear as I had gotten from Gadget Master, but still prominent. Not the kind of thing I wanted to deal with when sitting across from Tattletale, but I didn't really have a choice in the matter.
It was called Peak ADVENT Technology, and the Gadget Master comparison was actually quite apt. It also focused on government work in black ops, though of a very different character than what I learned in what may or may not have been Q's lab at MI6.
The spycraft I'd learned from that power hadn't exactly been harmless. For every 'fun' gadget or innovative miniaturization technology there were three covert methods of assassination. On reflection from what I'd seen in that lab, I'm pretty sure that Q was responsible for more deaths than Bond, and probably on more prominent targets as well. With a thorough background in espionage wet work it would take a lot to stand out. Peak ADVENT Technology managed that easily.
To start with, this was alien technology. I could identify its nature easily enough from the insight of my other powers. Specifically, it was a blending of alien and human technology, though not in the way I saw from things like Class: Engineer. It was more alien technology scaled down or simplified for broad use. Extremely broad, like across an entire civilization.
This was the kind of tech you'd need to manage an entire civilization, but 'manage' in a very aggressive way. The knowledge was encyclopedic, and covered every aspect of the organization's projects. Everything from synthesized pseudo meat to mass produced cities on the surface level, and then significantly darker stuff beneath that.
I think I may have just gotten the entire knowledge base of an alien dominated totalitarian regime. It was an extremely useful knowledge base, and as disturbing as the gene therapy was, it still held incredible potential, but that didn't arrest my concerns about where it came from.
But right now I couldn't address those concerns. My duplicates were active and already working through the new wave of technologies, including a frighteningly comprehensive understanding of psionics and psionic based technology. I could trust them to at least manage things until I had time to work through the implications.
I swallowed and shifted my attention back to the conversation. Tattletale had clearly picked up on something, though I doubted she knew exactly what had happened. Brian was waiting for my followup, and I elected to dive in with the lightest tone I could manage at the moment.
"Right. So, for the start time, when you say seven o'clock, do you mean like actual seven o'clock, or Brockton Public transport seven o'clock?" There were other concerns about the meeting to address, and they were in addition to the complications of my latest power, but the question of when people were actually expected to arrive and start talking was one I wanted cleared up immediately. Fortunately, Tattletale got my meaning.
"It's going to be all over the place. Some people will want to get set up ahead of time, others are going to want to make the biggest entrance they can. That means parading their entire gang past anyone who's already in attendance." A ghost of a smile crossed her face. "Kaiser's probably going to have the Empire capes standing by and have people watching the place to make sure he can roll in with the maximum amount of drama."
I frowned. The entire Empire wasn't a small detachment. "How many capes are we expecting?" I asked.
"A lot." Tattletale admitted. "The Empire has brought Purity back into the fold, and a few other stragglers with her. The Merchants have picked up recruits from the aftermath of attacks, mostly fresh triggers or displaced capes, but they've doubled their starting lineup. Faultline will be there in force and Coil's committed to arrive, but nobody knows what that will entail." She shook her head and I could pick up the tension the uncertainty caused her. "There might be appearances by other independent or mercenary capes operating in the city, either on their own or folded in with one of the major groups. The only major possible outlier is Uppercrust." I raised an eyebrow and she continued. "He's in town working on the coastal shield and the Protectorate headquarters. The Elite don't have any investment in the city, but he might show up for the sake of appearances."
Uppercrust. That was a surprise. He wrote the forward for the informational booklet that came with Sphere's moon set. Of course, that was back when they were both active rogues, before Uppercrust switched to standardized defense systems and Sphere… happened.
Okay, setting that aside the Elite had a serious reputation. A rapidly compiled assessment from Survey flowed into my mind including a breakdown of various chapters and the activities they were known for. While some of the branches, particularly on the west coast certainly earned that reputation, Uppercrust's cell was exactly what it made itself out to be. The worst that could be attributed to them was near ruinous fees for systems and maintenance contracts, though Survey's assessment indicated the charges were not nearly as heavily padded as people seemed to believe.
"Alright, as long as we aren't expecting any other leaders or major parahuman gangs to make an appearance." I quipped, but Tattletale didn't register the humor in my statement.
"That's actually a big reason why there's a push to meet as quickly as possible." She explained. "Not Uppercrust in particular, but the city has a lot of open territory and a power vacuum. As long as it's sitting unclaimed somebody is likely to try to fill it. Given the state of the city, and what you pulled against Lung anybody who shows up will probably be desperate, stupid, powerful, or some combination of the three."
"A bad combination." Brian echoed. I nodded in agreement. This actually brought me to my next concern, which circled back to my first impression of the news.
"To be perfectly clear, I'm willing to go to this thing to stabilize the situation and make my stance clear. I'm not interested in whatever power vacuum has sprung up. If anyone is expecting me to step into Lung's shoes, that's not going to happen." Tattletale nodded and Brian seemed on board as well. "That said, where do the Undersiders stand on this? What are you trying to get out of the meeting?"
I honestly couldn't see them trying to hold territory or run a gang. The idea of teenage warlords seemed ridiculous, but absurdity and parahuman abilities seemed to go hand in hand. Really, I couldn't rule anything out, and I did not want to get blindsided by some secret agenda at the start of the meeting, particularly if there would be the implication that I supported it.
They exchanged a look and Brian took the lead in responding. "For us, this is mostly reputation." He explained. "Before this mess started we were small time. That's not the case anymore. The city's going to be a different place from now on. A seat at the table at Somer's Rock will make sure we have a place in it moving forward."
I could understand his sentiment, particularly in what he wasn't mentioning. The bank may have been the incident that launched them into the public spotlight, but it was my tech that let them make that kind of impression. They may have handled themselves well at the storage yard, but that didn't change the fact that everyone but Taylor had been taken out by the time I arrived, and my actions had overshadowed things to a significant degree, particularly over the following week.
Nobody doubted that the Undersiders were a threat. The bank and their rallying moves at the storage yard showed what they were capable of. Even without knowledge of the force fields from the watches any group in the city would need to take them seriously. But their own abilities were secondary to their connection to me. After what had happened that was overshadowing everything. Tattletale was right. People were desperate for any confirmation or assurance about my powers or intentions. The Undersiders' ability to provide that outweighed the significance they had as a villain team.
Brian wanted a chance for the team to stand on their own. Probably to show that they were aligned with, but not an extension of my cape identity. I understood where the intention was coming from, and would frankly be happy to have a bit more distance between us, if only so that everything aimed at me wouldn't catch them in the blast radius.
But there was a counterpoint to this. It was about the long term stability of the Undersiders, and the Undersiders in their current form were a cat's paw of their boss. Tattletale knew that situation wasn't stable, that it would have to come crashing down at some point, but Brian clearly didn't. My impression from my passenger was that he would be resistant to the idea. Too connected and reliant on what was being provided. Too important to who he was trying to protect.
His mention of family and concern for their safety provided an easy guess as to who he was worried about. That kind of thing was complicated, particularly with a powerful thinker involved. The sense I was getting suggested was there wasn't as much risk as Brian assumed, but it also indicated he would be seriously resistant to risking his current arrangement.
When I considered what would be needed to get the Undersiders out from under their boss, the obstacles I would face, I never really considered that the Undersiders themselves might be included in that list. I had a feeling Rachel would come around if I could get her a better deal, and I wasn't sure about Alec, but Brian was definitely in deep. There was also Taylor with whatever dire circumstance she had mistaken for the world ending scenario I'd been spelling out to her. I doubted she'd be willing to abandon that on a moment's notice.
That left things to Tattletale's judgement once again. I was forced to trust the girl and hope she knew what she was doing. My passenger was certainly confident in the idea, and with March out of the way and not scrambling her power there was a chance I might actually see that ability in action, pointed at someone other than me.
"What about the rest of the gangs?" I asked. "What are you expecting from them?"
Brian turned to Tattletale and she shifted in response. "Most of the low-level players will just be there to find out if a major conflict is on the horizon and either pick a side or get out of the way." I imagined the Undersiders fit into that category, but Brian at least seemed opposed to considering themselves 'low-level'. "Uppercrust, if he's there, is just going to make an appearance and probably push for some kind of non-interference with his work in the event of a conflict. The main push will be from the Empire and Merchants, but that will depend on where you stand."
Really, I didn't want to stand anywhere near them. The Alchemy constellation passed by as I contemplated my options. All I wanted was for the city to have something of a break from the damage caused by the ABB. And by me, but I think I was entitled to blame the aggressors for any collateral effects. There was a certain grim satisfaction in the idea of taking a stance of enforcing the peace. As appealing as the idea was, a policy of 'don't make me come over there' probably wouldn't go over that well with actual crime lords. Additionally, anything I committed to I would need to be willing to follow through on.
Looking across the table I saw Tattletale being conspicuously silent. There was some satisfaction in the fact that she wasn't trying to dictate my stance at the meeting. She had fully thrown out the stops to create a situation that would get me there. Pushing any further wouldn't be well received, and she seemed to realize it. No, this was something I was going to have to address on my own. She knew my broad intentions, and that was probably enough to work around, to at least some degree.
So I just had to figure out a public stance on the situation in Brockton Bay's villain community, how I would present it, and how far I was willing to go to enforce it. And I had Just over thirty hours to pull it off.
I shifted my attention back to Tattletale and Brian. I knew I could handle things, so that left trying to make sure the Undersiders didn't get themselves killed. Well, the chances of that happening at the summit were remote, but a misstep here could be disastrous going forward.
"How are you going to handle this?" I asked them directly. Brian glanced at Tattletale before he responded.
"We're arriving at twenty to seven. Lisa wants to be able to get a sense of people as they come in. Anyone arriving before then will be doing so for a specific reason. Like Lisa said, the major players are going to want to make an entrance. Uh, with regards to your arrival…"
I caught the meaning. "Probably best not to show up together." I agreed. "I'll make my own way there." I put on a half grin and turned to Tattletale. "Any advice on that 'make an entrance' thing?"
Her eyes flashed and I could practically see the mountain of analysis and advice that she was holding back. There was no doubt that if I let her, she'd want to coordinate my arrival down to the millisecond, managed in real time to account for any emerging factors. It was the kind of mentality that reminded me of Garment. Thinking about it, the two of them would either get along like a house on fire or be at each other's throats within five minutes.
"Making an impression is important. Power use is seriously frowned upon, particularly if anything adversely affects another member of the summit in any way. Nobody's going to call out showmanship, so a display of power is a good idea. At this point anyone who challenges you is doing so for the sake of appearances. Come in with a strong position and make sure you keep it. It's basically wolfpack rules, don't show weakness and you'll have an easier time holding your position." She explained enthusiastically.
I nodded and smiled. "I think I can handle a bit of showmanship." Brian didn't look as excited with the idea as Tattletale clearly was, but seemed to accept its inevitability. That actually brought me to a second point. "To be clear, this is the first full official outing since last Saturday, right?" They nodded. I didn't like reminding them of this, but it was important. "Does anyone but Taylor actually have an intact costume?"
Their faces said it all. The impact of the night flashed through my mind. Alec's costume was a scorched mess. Tattletale's was missing portions wherever she'd been merged with the contents of the locker where Bakuda had caught her. The bomb Bakuda used on Brian only warped flesh, but the early portions of the shift hadn't been kind to his costume and some parts of it were never recovered. Rachel didn't have much beyond her dog mask to identify her as a cape, but even that hadn't made it through the night.
"We're picking up replacements for everything later today. My stuff is off the rack, Rachel is dead easy, and we have the rest of the day tomorrow for any modifications for Alec and Lisa." Brian explained.
I remembered the sketches that Garment had been working on for days now. I also considered her reaction if I let the Undersiders go prêt-à-porter when she had five variations of haute couture waiting for them.
"No." I said flatly. "I'll take care of it."
There were a series of nervous looks exchanged before Brian replied. "Um, you don't have to do that. I mean, with the way you work, and seeing as we're trying to establish ourselves as separate…"
"And appearances aren't just important for me. You're still connected with me, and how you arrive is going to reflect on me. You're not going to be showing up in rush modified costumes scrounged from what stores are open post-disaster." I explained.
Brian was still clearly uncomfortable and was trying to put his thoughts into words. "I appreciate that, but with the way you design things, I mean, even with just the knives, and then how things have gone from there, it's a little much."
I glowered. "I am perfectly capable of restraint in my work." That was a lie. I literally couldn't make anything that wasn't a masterpiece of design. Intentionally trying to make something ugly would just turn it into a subtle commentary of the base nature of existence. No, this work was getting farmed out to Garment with as much help from Matrix as she needed. That would also save me from unintentionally imparting my various quality and enhancement powers. "These will just be basic costumes, nothing fancy, and you'll be able to focus on the Somer's Rock summit without worrying about things."
Brian relaxed a bit at that. "Really?"
I nodded. "I have some hyper-fibers from a week ago that I can use, so the costumes will be bulletproof and flame resistant. Oh, and self-repairing on the same timescale as the knives." I assured them. "Standard stuff, nothing crazy."
Brian just stared at me blankly while Tattletale leaned towards him. "Yes, he's serious about that." She assured him. He still seemed to have some doubts, but eventually was willing to trust her on that.
"Just so you know," Tattletale offered, "Taylor is pretty attached to her costume. Whatever you make might be better, but she's going to want to stick with her own."
I nodded. "That's fine. I can reach out to her about that." Frankly, NOT putting Taylor in a completely bulletproof suit might possibly encourage some restraint, but I wasn't convinced. Maybe some enchantments with less overt defenses would be a good idea.
I took a breath and considered things. The Undersiders already owed me a debt. They had called a meeting and asked for what amounted to a favor that I couldn't turn down, and they were walking away with additional equipment. It didn't really set the best precedent for our relationship. Really, any hope for an equitable exchange was off the table while I was invested in keeping Taylor safe. At least Tattletale seemed to realize that there were some limits to how far she could push things.
I smiled as I remembered the idea of storing Taylor in a stasis field until doomsday. Really, it was never more than a passing thought of a frustrated mind, but it was still reassuring in a way. I wasn't trapped in this situation. It would be messy, but I could brute force my way through my problems. Any of my problems, all the way up to Endbringer level. A lighter touch meant I could minimize the impact and avoid massive collateral damage and public panic, but the option remained.
I looked to find Tattletale giving me a very concerned look. I'm not sure how much of that she picked up on under all the moderation I was doing, but in this case I wasn't that concerned. I was pretty much past the point of any level of anonymity. People knew what I could bring to the table. If anything, that should assure Tattletale of what I would be able to handle when the time came to move.
Concerningly, it didn't seem to reassure her. In fact, there was a growing dread that I could just discern thanks to my expanded alchemy skills. Whatever was going on, it was something where being stronger wasn't going to be a blanket solution. That could happen with thinkers, but the connection between my own strength and her concerns for the situation was troubling.
I didn't let myself get tied up in that line of thinking. I had my own things to focus on, and there was no point to half measures here. Either I trusted Tattletale to make the right call on this situation, or I needed to take it entirely in hand. There was no middle ground when it came to an unknown thinker.
Instead I transitioned to the part of the meeting I had been looking forward to from the start. I snacked on the last of my chili fries and looked across the table at the pair of teenagers. "So, is that everything?" I asked with a smile.
Tattletale's face fell as she seemed to realize she had used up all her easy concessions on the meeting, leaving nothing that could gloss over her watch problem. Brian looked uncomfortable with the issue at hand and seemed to be desperately trying to find a way to excuse himself. Finally, Tattletale bit the bullet and leaned forward, raising her left hand.
"I'm sure Taylor told you…" She dropped off, apparently realizing that wasn't her best approach right now. Instead she sighed and dropped her hand to the table. "I screwed up the watch you gave me when I was trying to figure out how it worked."
I raised an eyebrow and waited for her to continue. Brian seemed to realize he was now an unwilling witness to things as they played out in front of him. The reaction was one familiar to anyone who's seen a sibling get chewed out.
Okay, I did not like the role that thought cast me into. The dislike wasn't enough to give Tattletale a free pass, but the realization that you have basically become a parent figure with almost no authority for a pack of destructive teenage villains wasn't a pleasant one.
Finally, Tattletale seemed to realize that she would have to go further than just admitting the situation existed. "I was coordinating things on Thursday night, so I was working with the watch. A lot. I started to get clues, piece together how the system worked and what the scanners were doing." She gave the watch a longing look. "I don't know, maybe it was the lack of sleep." She quickly glanced up. "Not that that's an excuse."
I kept my face neutral, but it hit harder than I think even she meant it to. I gestured for her to continue and after taking a breath to center herself she pressed on.
"It was just picking my way through the command structure, at least to start. Once I realized what I had accessed…" She trailed off. I knew she had gone for root access and she clearly knew I had that information. Any attempt to downplay her intentions wouldn't go over well. "I wanted to see if I could connect to the sensors directly." She admitted. "Rather than through the interface. That's when it locked down."
I watched the conflicted emotions dance across her face. I didn't want to be unnecessarily cruel here, but it was technically an attempt to subvert my work. "You want the higher-level features back?" I asked patiently.
There was a hungry look in her eyes I recognized from when she had first realized the capacities of my omni-tool. She furrowed her brow and shook her head. "Fuck. Alright, yes, I fucking do. I want them back. I want access to those sensors. I want to actually be able to use the computer you built into that thing, not the virtual machine floating on top of it. I want it."
Brian gave her a concerned look as she took a breath before pulling herself together and continuing. "You know how insane the stuff you make is. Most people have a vague idea, but aren't even scratching the surface. You want me to admit it?" She paused and looked at me seriously. "Okay, no you don't. Fine. Stay as insufferably modest about it as you want. Your watches are God damn miracles even when running at minimum levels. I'm sorry I dug into the code like that. Please, can you put it back the way it was?"
It was more of an outburst than I expected and unusually candid for Tattletale. I sighed and called up the operating system with my implant. "You know, everything I promised is still there. The forcefield, the medical scanner, the unblockable communicator. All you really lost was a high-end cell phone."
Her watch chirped in response to my access, drawing her attention down. "Stupidly high-end. Phones don't go that far. It was a supercomputer in a cell phone mask."
I gave a shrug as I reviewed the access logs and countermeasures. There was Tattletale's trademark thinker power. From the response given to a sequence of seemingly unrelated commands she had been able to piece together enough of the architecture of the watch to start accessing the underlying systems. "They're not that advanced."
"What do you…" She looked up at me, then the realization hit. "Of course."
"Of course what?" Brian asked. He had sat uncomfortably though Tattletale's outburst, but seemed to be grateful that the mood had turned less confrontational.
"What?" He asked again, looking between me and Tattletale.
"Brian, when did I make those watches?" I asked with a half-smile.
"Wednesday morning, right? Why?" It took him a moment to piece things together. "No…"
"Three-day old technology." Tattletale said. "It's not just a meme."
Brian looked down at his own watch, then over to Tattletale's, which continued to beep, largely unnecessarily, as I worked through the OS and details of the virtual intelligence. His eyes jumped to my own watch, a rebuilt black band of cybertonium and adamantium precisely shaped and enchanted, acting as the container for my lantern shield and anchor for my subspace pocket while also boosting computational systems and defensive technologies I could only have dreamed of a week ago.
"So, how far ahead of these watches are you right now?" He asked.
"Honestly?" I said, finishing the reset on Tattletale's watch. "At this point they wouldn't even be worth scrapping for parts." He gave me a horrified look, his eyes briefly darting to the sculpted timepiece on his wrist. "Hey, I made them three days ago, and they weren't even my best work back then." Tattletale's watch beeped and there was a brief flicker around the watch face as the system fully restored itself.
Denigrating the quality of the watches compared to my current standards was totally honest, but it was also somewhat strategic. The reality was the watches weren't impressive by my current standards. They had been designed strategically to provide security without drawing attention or making the Undersiders overconfident. By downplaying their importance now I could pass off the repairs as incidental.
I still didn't like the fact that Tattletale had dug into the watch, but I would be a horrible hypocrite if I wasn't willing to accept the impact of sleep deprivation. I didn't want to give her a free pass because it was clear she would pounce on any crack she could find and take things to their limit. At the same time, I didn't want to come down on her to the point where she couldn't do the job I was relying on her for.
"You're set back up. Full features, but as a warning, pushing the boundaries again is going to trigger another lockdown, and sooner than before." I dropped my voice just enough for her to pick up on the meaning but not enough to tip off Brian. "If sensor access is critical to a mission we can figure something out, but do not try to subvert the tech again."
She gave me a direct look before responding. "I understand."
And there it was. The closest thing to an apology the Tattletale was probably capable of, and a reminder that she can actually ask for support with what she's dealing with rather than trying to prove she can manage the entire situation on her own. It would be nice if I could trust her to take me up on that offer, but I regrettably had no choice but to trust she had the situation in hand.
Our meeting wrapped up with packing up of the remains of lunch and depositing them to various conveniently placed trash cans. Brian had managed to make it through about three quarters of one of his fish tacos before the cilantro proved too much for him. He was giving one of the burger trucks a hungry look as we said our goodbyes.
"I'll get the costumes to your hideout this evening. If there's anything wrong with them I can make adjustments, but it should be good to go." I explained.
"You don't need our sizes or anything?" Brian asked.
"Medical scans from the watches." Tattletale explained. "He has everything he needs there."
Actually, Garment knew the size of anyone she cared to as part of her power, but it was as good an explanation as any. "I'll look after it. Let me know if there are any other developments, but we should be good for tomorrow."
"We will." Tattletale said. She looked down at her watch with an expression of relief, and I could tell from the Dragon's Pulse that it was completely genuine. "Thank you, for putting this back. And sorry for messing with the commands."
"Just remember what I said." If nothing else came of this but Tattletale leveraging resources against the boss without going behind my back, then I would count this as a victory, despite the violation of trust.
We departed the park in different directions, with me heading towards the most secluded location I could find in the area. Security had been excessive for what we had actually seen during the meeting, but you only need one mistake for it to be the one that counts. To that point I once again ducked through less populated areas, confirmed a complete lack of surveillance, whether human, technological, or power based, and drew my elven cloak out of my subspace pocket.
This was the best part, something I greatly enjoyed and barely had the chance to do outside my workshop. Enhanced strength was a strange thing to actually experience. You didn't really notice how much it could affect you until you tried moving. Previously I had mostly carried divine enhanced strength in my upper body, so this wasn't really a possibility. Now, being fully rebuilt, it suddenly was.
If your strength greatly exceeds what is necessary to move your bodyweight you can propel yourself basically as fast as your limbs can move. Even without any increase in speed or agility that's enough to launch yourself dozens of meters into the air.
Coordination, targeting, and landing were more difficult, but I actually had the enhancements necessary to pull that off gracefully. Additionally, being out of the public eye I could relax the moderation of my Efficiency power and enjoy the perfect elegance of movement as I launched myself from standing to the roof of a nearby building, then danced across rooftops towards the docks while cloaked in divinely enhanced elven magic.
It was a wonderful, liberating, freeing sensation that did wonders to release the tension from an admittedly stressful lunch meeting. And managed to accomplish that for all of the two minutes before the Forge made a connection to a tiny mote from the Clothing constellation and I was shocked to the point of nearly missing one of my cross-street jumps.
I pushed everything else aside. The item that came with the power could be forgotten for the moment. The enhanced academic abilities could be put on hold. What I desperately and immediately needed to deal was with the tiny power that came bundled with the cluster. One that had the potential to cause me no end of trouble.
The first thing I did was send out a mass text to everyone on the watch network. So all the Undersiders and a separate one to Aisha.
Joe: 'Just wanted to tell you not to worry about the effect. There's nothing to be concerned about.'
I didn't even wait for a response before I turned my attention to PHO. Thankfully my duplicates had recognized the seriousness of the situation and had everything ready to go. Honestly, I wouldn't have minded them just handling the message themselves, but it was probably better that I deal with this myself.
►Apeiron (Verified Cape)
Posted On Apr 23rd 2011:
Weld, I know a lot of people are going to be freaking out about this, but I wanted to assure you that it's fine. The effect is completely benign and there's nothing to be worried about.
There was an interminable period of waiting as I watched the data feeds for responses on any front. And of course, they all came at once.
Alec: 'What the fuck Joe? Seriously?
Taylor: 'Is this dangerous? Are you sure we shouldn't be concerned?
Lisa: 'What the hell did you do in the two minutes since this meeting that was able to bring this on?'
►Weld (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 23rd 2011:
What's going on? Who's the Enigmatic Artificer?
I let out a sigh and I considered how to respond and in what order. Aisha's call had been thankfully intercepted by my duplicates and I was happy to allow them to manage things on that front. In the end I decided it was probably the people with the capacity to hand down official government policy who deserved my primary attention.
►Apeiron (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 23rd 2011:
It's the same kind of effect as the attack names. Like I said, the effect is totally harmless. There's nothing to be concerned about.
I realized that was about as likely to be effective as announcing 'there is no cause for alarm' on a crowded, shaky airplane that's started to lose altitude, but I felt I had to try.
►Weld (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 23rd 2011:
What caused it? Seriously, why do I know that name?
►Weld (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 23rd 2011:
Why does everyone know that name?
►Apeiron (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 23rd 2011:
Like I said, same kind of effect. It's not going to progress or cause anything beyond recognition of the title. I get that this is a surprise and people are going to worry about it no matter what, but I can assure you, it's not dangerous in any way.
Yeah, that would do the trick. I groaned internally as I reviewed my latest power. Well my latest connection of powers. A glove, two powers for learning and teaching, and a global master effect connected with a ridiculous term.
The power that was causing the problem was called A Thing About Names. It gave me a specific title, a combination of an adjective and noun, and ensured people would refer to me as it. By some microscopic sliver of mercy it was only connected to my cape identity, so I didn't have my civilian life totally exposed, but everyone who knew the name Apeiron also knew he had the title of the Enigmatic Artificer.
I started back towards my Workshop, not because it would be any easier to deal with things there, but because I was desperate any kind of refuge when dealing with something like this. As I moved I accessed the text messages again and sent out a response.
Joe: 'Same kind of thing as the effect behind the attack names. Absolutely harmless, didn't mean to cause it.'
That was a hard admission, but one I was more comfortable making to the Undersiders than the PRT. There was a delay in responses from Weld, probably as various handlers struggled to figure out what the hell they were supposed to ask about a situation like this. As it stood, Alec was the first to text back.
Alec: 'Holy shit Joe, you're on the news for this.'
Alec: 'International even.'
I grit my teeth as I powered over rooftops, my ninja training covering for whatever deficits might exist in my cloak's concealment effect. I drafted another text as I moved.
Joe: 'Need to deal with this. Let me know if there's any trouble, but I have to go.'
Alec: 'Trouble? Why would there be any trouble related to a global master effect that makes everyone call you by a title that sounds like the name of a bad seventies fantasy novel?'
Lisa: 'Alec's being an ass, but he's not wrong. This is going to freak people out.'
I shook my head. It wasn't like I could put the power back in the box. I just had to move forward.
Joe: 'They'll adjust. Got to go.'
I kept moving as I shifted my attention back to the PHO thread. I had no doubt that without the super science router my access would have been traced by Dragon and every official agency on the planet, but I could at least be confident in the security of this link. As a consequence, I was able to give some reassurance, even if it was basically platitudes at this point.
►Weld (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 23rd 2011:
People here are really, really concerned about this. They want to know what caused it, how it works, and dangers need to be accounted for. They're really insistent about this.
I felt bad for Weld's situation, but there wasn't much I could do for him. The answers were 'my power', 'I have no idea', and 'none' respectively. I figured the last one would be the most important.
►Apeiron (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 23rd 2011:
There are no dangers. As I said, it's a completely harmless effect. It's like the attack names. I understand the concern, but you aren't going to find any danger associated with it. I know there are concerned people right now, which is why I wanted to offer this assurance, but my previous conditions still stand. I'm not revealing details of my technology or abilities, not even for this. I'm telling you it's harmless. I trust the Protectorate will want to investigate on their own, but I assure you, they'll find the same thing.
There was a pause before his next message.
►Weld (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 23rd 2011:
The PRT wants me to ask a bunch of questions about this and other things. They go against your terms, so for the sake of goodwill we're letting you know ahead of time that these come from upstairs.
I sighed, but understood where he was coming from.
►Apeiron (Verified Cape)
Replied On Apr 23rd 2011:
Go ahead. No harm in asking, and I might get to some of them eventually. No promises though.
Weld's next message opened with a smiling emoji before launching into a list of technical and personal questions that told me they really needed to control who had access to Weld and his account. I'm pretty sure some of them were just copied and pasted from technical reports. I stepped back from the mess and let Survey take over as I finally shifted to Aisha's call.
"Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?" She exclaimed in an excited voice.
"I sent out the message as soon as I could." I said in my own defense. "People were freaking out about the name and I had to deal with it."
"Who cares about the name thing?" She replied. "I'm talking about this."
Aisha transferred a file, a picture taken from inside my workshop near the lockers where new items appeared. The picture showed Garment cradling a bulky bright green right-handed glove. It had a very organic looking eye at the base of the thumb joint and sharp teeth lining the outside of the index finger and inside of the thumb. Despite the predatory appearance of the single eye and pointed teeth the glove seemed to be nearly purring as Garment picked at the seams along its cuff.
"Were you and Garment waiting to make the announcement? I always wondered about you two." Aisha teased.
I frowned as I closed the distance to Garment's shop. "It's not like that." I said sharply.
"Ah, so more like pet adoption?" Aisha quipped. "Still a big step forward."
My mind jumped to the kinsect that had recently appeared and the happy time when I thought that was the standard for a disruptive arrival. "I think I have enough pets already. I mean, you must count as at least a dozen…"
"Hey!" She protested. "At worst I'm a freeloader."
I smiled at that. "I might be willing to go as far as vagrant." She stuck out her tongue at me and I couldn't hold back a laugh. "Aisha, I need to go. I'll reach out once I have a handle on this."
"Right. Don't stress yourself." She said seriously. "People are kind of freaking out, but mostly in a novelty way." She smiled. "I think they might have different standards for what to worry about when it comes to Apeiron."
"Thanks for the reassurance." I said dryly as I ended the call and slipped back into first Garment's studio and then my workshop. A quick check showed one duplicate was still working on the Orwellian alien technology granted by Peak ADVENT Technology while the other was doing what he could to manage the fallout from apparently mastering the entire planet to know an addition to my name.
Well, not the entire planet, but from the look of things, anyone who knew the name Apeiron now connected it with the title of The Enigmatic Artificer. If someone learned the name Apeiron the title came with it. If someone other than me went by Apeiron the title didn't come with it. It was being suggested that it was some kind of identity verification technology or some variation of that, which wasn't a terrible idea and honestly sounded better than 'I just got beaten over the head with this power'.
As if that wasn't bad enough, there was a rumbling in the workshop as a Connection was made to the Toolkits constellation. I had just received something called the Crucible of Eight Trigrams. As expected, it was a giant crucible that could render items down to base components. The big thing was the ability to extract magic and enchantments for later use and experimentation. That was something with incredible potential, but not something that took priority over getting the Avid Glove away from Garment.
"Garment, yes, I know it's very cute," It was not cute. It was a bitey little hand shaped monster that was trying to be animal, mineral, and vegetable at the same time in a way that was only possible with a complete disregard for nature's laws. Did I mention the glove had the same origin as the Prismatic Laboratory? "But you have to put it down."
Garment indicated that she wasn't inclined to put the glove down, and that the seams could use a touch up and some additional embroidery, and potentially some additional sequins. The eye on the glove stared at me, then rolled up to look at Garment and suddenly I was seeing in offset stereo.
I was convinced Garment knew about this effect. She knew about all my powers so there was no reason for there to be a blank spot here. The Avid Glove was a miracle of surgery and tailoring, an impossible creation that could only exist beyond the laws of nature, and most importantly it was mine. There was something that linked me to the glove. Given its unsettlingly biological nature, in addition to being clothing, machinery, and a technical weapon, that didn't lead to many pleasant possibilities. The consequence of that link was that the glove was something of an extension of myself, a third hand or extra eye as it went. I could see through its eye and, as I'm sure Garment knew, feel through its skin. Or leather, as it went.
Garment was happily ministering to the glove, outlining new design options and potential modifications as I did my best not to react to the shared senses. It was the kind of thing that could actually be incredibly useful if I could only get it away from the person who had decided to treat it like an accessory puppy. It was too much. I had a possible global crisis, an entirely new branch of technology including never before seen psionic principles, a physically impossible item of clothing, okay a second physically impossible item of clothing, and a giant crucible with an eastern theme that completely changes the way I approached crafting. I did not have time to deal with this right now.
Miraculously, it was another potential crisis that proved the catalyst to drag Garment away from her new pet. Fortunately, this was one I was reasonably confident I could manage by just throwing Garment at it.
"Garment, you need to get back to your studio." She perked up and inquired why. "There's a pair of Wards at the door." I said. "Flechette's here to see you."
Jumpchain abilities this chapter:
Peak ADVENT Technology (XCOM 2) 200:
Before you defected you were working in some of the most top secret black projects any human had access to. You have an encyclopaedic knowledge of all ADVENT technology, minus some of the genetic manipulation techniques and basically anything that would give away ADVENTs dark secrets.
Flack Jacket (XCOM 2) Free:
A set of pre-invasion armour that offers some protection from gunfire and plasma weapons. Comes in a verity of patterns and styles
Avid Glove (Fallen London) 100:
A miracle of surgery and tailoring, though it may bite any hands shaken. Who can say no to another set of eyes and fingers?
Amateur Academic – Trivia (Fallen London) Free:
A classical training in grammar, logic and rhetoric. You could fit in with the learned and flighty. This has given your memory a boost, entire books can be memorized.
Dabbling Academic – Fool Proof (Fallen London) Free:
Not only must one learn and understand, but to understand at a level that even laymen can comprehend. Your knowledge can be taught to those far below you.
A Thing About Names (Fallen London) Free:
Following the example of HRH Queen Vic- I mean the Traitor Empress, many citizens of the Neath have taken to calling themselves the Adjectival Noun. Prominent individuals include the Fidgeting Writer, the Sardonic Singer, the Amused Lordship and so on. It is fashionable to do so, though choosing not to do so is a choice in itself. The name chosen will become the title others refer you as.
Crucible of Eight Trigrams (Journey to the West) 500:
A big ass crucible that can render down *most* objects into their base components. Magic and enchantments can be removed this way and used for later experiments, although this will take some time to accomplish and is not an exact science. You can't use it to break down living creatures.
