Chapter 15 Tuesday 4:00 PM
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Brockton Bay Docks
[Taylor]
Lacey had dropped Erwin and I off at his boat before heading home to "get properly drunk." Erwin then asked me to stay in the cabin below deck and sit tight while he went out and made some "arrangements'" saying he'd be back in a couple of hours after setting up a meeting with those "two rascals" who owed him favors.
Which left me with some time alone to... ponder over everything.
I hadn't told Aunt Zoe why I had to go. This morning I'd considered not telling her anything. For me to just vanish into the ether, another victim vaporized in that fireball. I couldn't do that though, hide like some coward from the rest of the world. Erwin and Lacey already knew about most of what had happened to me. One more person I could trust being made aware I still lived didn't seem like that much more of a risk. I would probably need her help later on.
But with Uncle Alan gone and Emma lying broken in a hospital bed like I imagined... She wouldn't be able to handle the full truth right now. Aunt Zoe had lost just as much as I had this week, maybe more. I couldn't add to that burden by telling her Alexandria, the Protectorate and the PRT were part of some vast conspiracy or something.
And so, I sat cross-legged on the bunk and waited. Tried to settle the lingering turmoil of my mind. Breathing slowly just for the sake of feeling that little bit of humanity. Inhale blue, exhale pink. Let my mind drift like the soft rocking of the boat and be at peace, as I had when I watched the sunrise.
"Taylor?" Erwin called, knocking on the bulkhead. "You awake?"
I blinked in surprise... The Sun had moved significantly in the sky while I'd been out of it.
"Sorry Erwin... Must've lost track of time." I was going to have to be careful about spacing out like that. Something else to watch out for.
"Well, come on then. There's an empty warehouse a few minutes walk from here." He tossed over a wool ski mask. "Put this on and pull it down when we get there."
I nodded and put the hat on. "Isn't that cliché?"
"Only if it's in the dead of night. Now if anyone sees us, we'll just be stepping inside and talking a breather out of this hot summer sun."
"But I LIKE the Sun..." I whined.
A black SUV pulled into the warehouse. Two men wearing very dark sunglasses and plain black suits got out and greeted us.
The first, taller and quite muscular spoke up: "Erwin. You requested our assistance?"
"For my friend."
"Good afternoon to you both, then. My name is Agent Jay and this is my associate, Agent Kay, but you may know us better as Uber and Leet." Uber's voice was a rich, deep bass. "And what might we call you, friend?"
I smiled as I understood the reference "Elle's fine." I replied.
"Now dat's what I'm tawlkin' about!" Kay... Leet said with a smile.
Uber nodded and turned to me. "Miss Elle, Has Erwin had a chance to discuss some of the issues that might arise with you regarding wanting a new identity?"
I shook my head.
"We'll try and sum things up simply then. Unlike what you've probably seen on TV, establishing a new persona takes a large amount of resources. The US Marshall's Witness Protection Program is NOT something done on a whim. It's a lifelong choice. They will set you up, move you across the country to a little town in Nebraska where you may spend the next twenty years being the quiet unassuming neighbor that doesn't really socialize. Of course, nowadays, people are wary of mysterious strangers moving in all of a sudden. You might be Jack Slash after all."
Leet jumped in "Your immediate problem is that you're obviously underage. Which makes people think 'runaway' at best and eventually some concerned citizen will care enough to call the cops. Then CPS gets involved and they start making their own calls. Either because they're actually decent people trying to help or jerks wanting to cover their ass and foisting off the problem." before walking to the SUV and starting to rummage around in the back.
Uber continued "So a new ID won't work without some sort of a support group. I'm guessing your family is... not currently a viable option?"
Erwin and I shook our heads.
"Which means you're homeless. That makes you a prime candidate for being forced into one of the gangs."
"I wouldn't join them."
"They can be VERY convincing. Offering a sense of belonging, of purpose. Being with people your own age who might stand up for you. Who help keep the REAL bad guys away from you. Who'll sit down and just shoot the shit with you over a pizza or give you a shoulder to cry on in the middle of the night. It's a compelling offer to an impressionable young lady."
Leet called back. "Especially if the other thing is a factor."
"What other thing?" I replied, having a sinking feeling I knew what he was talking about.
"Powers." Uber said. "Powers make you VALUABLE. That means groups like the Empire or the ABB or even the Teeth will want you for them, whatever they may be."
"The ABB? But I'm not Asian."
"Lung wouldn't care and just tell the world that you were if he thought you were useful to him. He's a lot better than Kaiser, but he's still a criminal vice lord."
"Lung is better than Kaiser?"
"Lung runs brothels and casinos, but he's also semi-legitimate. He's professional. The casinos may strongly favor the house, but he wont blatantly rip you off. His joygirls... and boys... are willing adults that run a clean service with some of the best health plans in the city. He doesn't try to pass Drano off as meth like the Empire will to poor suckers who're willing to give their last bucks they collected cans for on a dime bag of pure poison."
"Wait, the Empire's responsible for all that?"
"They run guns and get away with hate crimes on a daily basis. They've got a better PR machine than anyone else though and people accept them because fearmongering is easy. Plus Kaiser and his goosesteppers are entrenched. They're been here since Allfather. Piggot and the PRT can't do anything about it because they're outmanned, outfunded and barely able to keep this crazy place from boiling over into full scale DMZ anarchy.."
"I can believe that."
Leet came back and spoke somberly then. "Twenty three years."
I gave him a confused look.
"Despite the antics we get up to on our show, we're not dumb. Before we got started we put our heads together and crunched the numbers. Twenty three years... twenty one now, before civilization goes into full scale unpreventable collapse. Nations reduced to roving Mad Max bands scrounging for the last scraps. Africa and South America are just the start. The Teeth know it and got on the bandwagon early. Things weren't looking good for our species' long term survival."
"And then Friday happened." Uber said.
"Yeah. President might have ripped off that speech, but he was right. We've got a chance now. We've got Hope."
Hearing that from Uber and Leet, even with all the pain and suffering I might have inadvertedly caused... made me feel just a little bit better. I looked to Erwin and he gave me a tiny nod and a smile.
Uber spoke up them. "So, change of subject. Why did Erwin ask us for help?"
"I can't trust the PRT." I said.
"Fair point, none of the rest of us here do. But that's awful cynical from someone your age."
"I've had a LOT of expectations shattered over the past week."
"Well then, let's see about giving you some new ones to meet. Any suggestions?"
An absurd thought came to my lips. "Can you teach me how to fly?" I said with a silly grin.
Uber and leet turned to one another and each raised an eyebrow before looking at me and speaking in unison. "Neither of us know how to throw ourselves at the ground and miss. You THINK you can fly?"
"I know I can jump good, but its very loud and I can't stick the landing."
Leet went to the SUV for a second, then came back holding what looked like a Star Trek tricorder and the Silver Lark from the Maggie Holt books. "Well then, with your permission, let's take a look at you."
I stood with my hands out as the Lark slowly flitted about me. It was doing something that felt like brushing me with a feather duster. Erwin had gone over to Uber and Leet as they looked over a tablet display they had attached to the tricorder.
"Bro, you got any ideas on how to explain this to her?" Leet said
"Not really."
"Explain what to me?"
Both Uber and Leet cringed. Erwin just shrugged with a "No idea, I don't know this shit." look.
"Well... as far as we can tell, you're not human."
"What a surprise." I said with dripping sarcasm. "It seemed a little obvious after I figured out that breathing was just a convenience. Rip the Band-Aid off. I can take it."
Uber flipped the tablet around for me to see as i walked over. "I mean, you're not human. Hair, skin, nails, teeth, all of that looks normal. Underneath though, it's just a solid homogenous mass. You've got hollow spots where your lungs and digestive tract should be, but organs, blood, bones, muscles, DNA... there doesn't appear to be any of that."
"So... I'm not real? I'm like Pinocchio? I'm just some kind of DOLL?"
Leet spoke up with a cheery grin. "I'd say that you've got a prosthetic body, which is honestly FUCKING COOL AS SHIT! Peak transhumanism for the win! Being a ghost driving a skeleton clad in meat armor is one thing, but you! Damn!"
Uber explained. "He's excited because you're essentially a player character avatar."
"But... I'm still me. Aren't I?" Existential dread began creeping into whatever now passed for my brain.
"Yes, you are. It's a little old hat for us because we've already died a half dozen times."
"What?"
"We're not superhumanly tough and sometimes things happen that are WAY more energetic than 'Am I missing an eyebrow?'. So we've both had to use a few extra lives in one fashion or another. You know the transporters in Star Trek? They don't 'beam' you anywhere. They disintegrate you and make a copy somewhere else. Except for a few silly episodes from the Aleph remakes there's no experience of time passage while being torn apart at the subatomic level. It's 'blink and you're somewhere else'. No interruption of consciousness. Pretty sure that how Oni Lee's power works."
"You think that's why Oni Lee's becoming more of an asshole lately? He's spamming his clones too fast and getting Xeroxing errors?" Leet asked offhandedly.
"I'm not going to be the one to go walk up to lung and tell HIM that."
"Maybe send him a note in an anonymous birthday card?"
"That might work, but we don't know what his birthday is, buddy." Uber turned back to me. "Sorry, got distracted. Anyway, there's a memory Tinker in Toybox, Cranial, that can do mind uploads. Backup clones? Blasto's bailiwick. There's a new Case 53 Ward in Boston whose body is solid metal, and I'm sure there's someone out there who can shape flesh like clay. That sort of power was common enough in the old comics anyway. Point is, is that regardless of the container, you are still YOU up here." He tapped me on the forehead. "You ARE a Soul, you HAVE a Body."
That was... surprisingly profound coming from him. "Okay... so now what?"
"Well, now we try and figure out if you can actually fly. Because you're obviously doing something screwy with the laws of physics."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm guessing you weigh... 100, 110 pounds?"
"That's kind of rude."
"I'm being clinical. But The Lark had to use TinkerTech Bullshit to actually image you."
"You mean like an X-ray?"
"It's got a ThermoAcoustic Neutrino Kollision Backscatter Sensor!" Leet cried "ThANK BS!"
"That's... not a real thing is it?"
"TinkerTech runs on technobabble. If you think about it too hard, it's likely to stop working. The normal scans weren't cutting it so Leet pulled out the big guns. All we could really tell about whatever you're made out of now is that it's denser than flesh and blood. A LOT denser. If it was ordinary steel you'd actually weigh six or seven hundred pounds. Gold or tungsten would be closer to a ton. So you've got a Shaker or Breaker effect going on with gravity, mass and/or inertia to make you seem normal."
"So I can fly?"
"Maybe. Probably some variant of super strength too. Might help if I knew what else you could do. You said you could jump good?"
"More like set off an explosion under my feet."
"Explosion?"
"Yeah. I've got Explodey Hands. And I can make them really hot so Melty Hands too, I guess."
"Hmm... One second." Uber went over to where Leet was muttering to himself and cuffed him over the head. "Hey, focus. You got a tungsten carbide bit in here?"
"Yeah." Leet quickly pulled one out from a toolbox. "What for?"
Uber started walking to a nearby empty shipping container and beckoned to me "Mind coming here for a minute?"
"What is it?"
Uber handed me a heavy drill bit the size of a pencil. "I want you do go in here and try to melt this. Not yet, we want to test this properly. And... you might want to take your clothes off. Wouldn't want to set them on fire or anything."
"Erwin?"
"I'll make sure these two don't try nothing."
"Erwin, that's a double negative so..."
Uber and Leet put their hands over their hearts. "We shall not sully thine virtue, fair maiden." they chorused.
"Thanks... I think."
"Just go in there and stand a little ways from the end of the container. We'll stay out here and get a tricorder reading of how warm this end of the container gets. Do you heat up all over or just your hands?"
"I can do it all over or keep it down to one hand."
"Just the one hand please. Hold this bit in your fist and try to melt it as fast as you can when I say go. If you can't do it, I'll tell you to stop after a minute and we can extrapolate your potential total output from there. Sound okay?"
I nodded.
"Okay, go on inside and holler when your ready." Uber called from behind the SUV where he, Leet and Erwin were standing.
"Ugh, can't believe I'm doing this." Taylor grumbled to herself as she took her shirt off, then went down to the back and stood with her arm fully extended to the side, holding the bit as far away from the rest of her as she could. "Ok, I'm ready." she called, her voice echoing tinnily in the large metal box.
Leet pushed a button on his tricorder as Uber pulled out a stopwatch. "3. 2. 1. Start!"
The tricorder made a rapid and ominously rising beeping before there was a soft WHUMP from inside the container.
"Um... oops. I think I vaporized it." Taylor called out. "Do you have another?"
Uber and Leet simply stared at the readout with wide eyes.
[Taylor]
Lacey had dropped Erwin and I off at his boat before heading home to "get properly drunk." Erwin then asked me to stay in the cabin below deck and sit tight while he went out and made some "arrangements'" saying he'd be back in a couple of hours after setting up a meeting with those "two rascals" who owed him favors.
Which left me with some time alone to... ponder over everything.
I hadn't told Aunt Zoe why I had to go. This morning I'd considered not telling her anything. For me to just vanish into the ether, another victim vaporized in that fireball. I couldn't do that though, hide like some coward from the rest of the world. Erwin and Lacey already knew about most of what had happened to me. One more person I could trust being made aware I still lived didn't seem like that much more of a risk. I would probably need her help later on.
But with Uncle Alan gone and Emma lying broken in a hospital bed like I imagined... She wouldn't be able to handle the full truth right now. Aunt Zoe had lost just as much as I had this week, maybe more. I couldn't add to that burden by telling her Alexandria, the Protectorate and the PRT were part of some vast conspiracy or something.
And so, I sat cross-legged on the bunk and waited. Tried to settle the lingering turmoil of my mind. Breathing slowly just for the sake of feeling that little bit of humanity. Inhale blue, exhale pink. Let my mind drift like the soft rocking of the boat and be at peace, as I had when I watched the sunrise.
"Taylor?" Erwin called, knocking on the bulkhead. "You awake?"
I blinked in surprise... The Sun had moved significantly in the sky while I'd been out of it.
"Sorry Erwin... Must've lost track of time." I was going to have to be careful about spacing out like that. Something else to watch out for.
"Well, come on then. There's an empty warehouse a few minutes walk from here." He tossed over a wool ski mask. "Put this on and pull it down when we get there."
I nodded and put the hat on. "Isn't that cliché?"
"Only if it's in the dead of night. Now if anyone sees us, we'll just be stepping inside and talking a breather out of this hot summer sun."
"But I LIKE the Sun..." I whined.
A black SUV pulled into the warehouse. Two men wearing very dark sunglasses and plain black suits got out and greeted us.
The first, taller and quite muscular spoke up: "Erwin. You requested our assistance?"
"For my friend."
"Good afternoon to you both, then. My name is Agent Jay and this is my associate, Agent Kay, but you may know us better as Uber and Leet." Uber's voice was a rich, deep bass. "And what might we call you, friend?"
I smiled as I understood the reference "Elle's fine." I replied.
"Now dat's what I'm tawlkin' about!" Kay... Leet said with a smile.
Uber nodded and turned to me. "Miss Elle, Has Erwin had a chance to discuss some of the issues that might arise with you regarding wanting a new identity?"
I shook my head.
"We'll try and sum things up simply then. Unlike what you've probably seen on TV, establishing a new persona takes a large amount of resources. The US Marshall's Witness Protection Program is NOT something done on a whim. It's a lifelong choice. They will set you up, move you across the country to a little town in Nebraska where you may spend the next twenty years being the quiet unassuming neighbor that doesn't really socialize. Of course, nowadays, people are wary of mysterious strangers moving in all of a sudden. You might be Jack Slash after all."
Leet jumped in "Your immediate problem is that you're obviously underage. Which makes people think 'runaway' at best and eventually some concerned citizen will care enough to call the cops. Then CPS gets involved and they start making their own calls. Either because they're actually decent people trying to help or jerks wanting to cover their ass and foisting off the problem." before walking to the SUV and starting to rummage around in the back.
Uber continued "So a new ID won't work without some sort of a support group. I'm guessing your family is... not currently a viable option?"
Erwin and I shook our heads.
"Which means you're homeless. That makes you a prime candidate for being forced into one of the gangs."
"I wouldn't join them."
"They can be VERY convincing. Offering a sense of belonging, of purpose. Being with people your own age who might stand up for you. Who help keep the REAL bad guys away from you. Who'll sit down and just shoot the shit with you over a pizza or give you a shoulder to cry on in the middle of the night. It's a compelling offer to an impressionable young lady."
Leet called back. "Especially if the other thing is a factor."
"What other thing?" I replied, having a sinking feeling I knew what he was talking about.
"Powers." Uber said. "Powers make you VALUABLE. That means groups like the Empire or the ABB or even the Teeth will want you for them, whatever they may be."
"The ABB? But I'm not Asian."
"Lung wouldn't care and just tell the world that you were if he thought you were useful to him. He's a lot better than Kaiser, but he's still a criminal vice lord."
"Lung is better than Kaiser?"
"Lung runs brothels and casinos, but he's also semi-legitimate. He's professional. The casinos may strongly favor the house, but he wont blatantly rip you off. His joygirls... and boys... are willing adults that run a clean service with some of the best health plans in the city. He doesn't try to pass Drano off as meth like the Empire will to poor suckers who're willing to give their last bucks they collected cans for on a dime bag of pure poison."
"Wait, the Empire's responsible for all that?"
"They run guns and get away with hate crimes on a daily basis. They've got a better PR machine than anyone else though and people accept them because fearmongering is easy. Plus Kaiser and his goosesteppers are entrenched. They're been here since Allfather. Piggot and the PRT can't do anything about it because they're outmanned, outfunded and barely able to keep this crazy place from boiling over into full scale DMZ anarchy.."
"I can believe that."
Leet came back and spoke somberly then. "Twenty three years."
I gave him a confused look.
"Despite the antics we get up to on our show, we're not dumb. Before we got started we put our heads together and crunched the numbers. Twenty three years... twenty one now, before civilization goes into full scale unpreventable collapse. Nations reduced to roving Mad Max bands scrounging for the last scraps. Africa and South America are just the start. The Teeth know it and got on the bandwagon early. Things weren't looking good for our species' long term survival."
"And then Friday happened." Uber said.
"Yeah. President might have ripped off that speech, but he was right. We've got a chance now. We've got Hope."
Hearing that from Uber and Leet, even with all the pain and suffering I might have inadvertedly caused... made me feel just a little bit better. I looked to Erwin and he gave me a tiny nod and a smile.
Uber spoke up them. "So, change of subject. Why did Erwin ask us for help?"
"I can't trust the PRT." I said.
"Fair point, none of the rest of us here do. But that's awful cynical from someone your age."
"I've had a LOT of expectations shattered over the past week."
"Well then, let's see about giving you some new ones to meet. Any suggestions?"
An absurd thought came to my lips. "Can you teach me how to fly?" I said with a silly grin.
Uber and leet turned to one another and each raised an eyebrow before looking at me and speaking in unison. "Neither of us know how to throw ourselves at the ground and miss. You THINK you can fly?"
"I know I can jump good, but its very loud and I can't stick the landing."
Leet went to the SUV for a second, then came back holding what looked like a Star Trek tricorder and the Silver Lark from the Maggie Holt books. "Well then, with your permission, let's take a look at you."
I stood with my hands out as the Lark slowly flitted about me. It was doing something that felt like brushing me with a feather duster. Erwin had gone over to Uber and Leet as they looked over a tablet display they had attached to the tricorder.
"Bro, you got any ideas on how to explain this to her?" Leet said
"Not really."
"Explain what to me?"
Both Uber and Leet cringed. Erwin just shrugged with a "No idea, I don't know this shit." look.
"Well... as far as we can tell, you're not human."
"What a surprise." I said with dripping sarcasm. "It seemed a little obvious after I figured out that breathing was just a convenience. Rip the Band-Aid off. I can take it."
Uber flipped the tablet around for me to see as i walked over. "I mean, you're not human. Hair, skin, nails, teeth, all of that looks normal. Underneath though, it's just a solid homogenous mass. You've got hollow spots where your lungs and digestive tract should be, but organs, blood, bones, muscles, DNA... there doesn't appear to be any of that."
"So... I'm not real? I'm like Pinocchio? I'm just some kind of DOLL?"
Leet spoke up with a cheery grin. "I'd say that you've got a prosthetic body, which is honestly FUCKING COOL AS SHIT! Peak transhumanism for the win! Being a ghost driving a skeleton clad in meat armor is one thing, but you! Damn!"
Uber explained. "He's excited because you're essentially a player character avatar."
"But... I'm still me. Aren't I?" Existential dread began creeping into whatever now passed for my brain.
"Yes, you are. It's a little old hat for us because we've already died a half dozen times."
"What?"
"We're not superhumanly tough and sometimes things happen that are WAY more energetic than 'Am I missing an eyebrow?'. So we've both had to use a few extra lives in one fashion or another. You know the transporters in Star Trek? They don't 'beam' you anywhere. They disintegrate you and make a copy somewhere else. Except for a few silly episodes from the Aleph remakes there's no experience of time passage while being torn apart at the subatomic level. It's 'blink and you're somewhere else'. No interruption of consciousness. Pretty sure that how Oni Lee's power works."
"You think that's why Oni Lee's becoming more of an asshole lately? He's spamming his clones too fast and getting Xeroxing errors?" Leet asked offhandedly.
"I'm not going to be the one to go walk up to lung and tell HIM that."
"Maybe send him a note in an anonymous birthday card?"
"That might work, but we don't know what his birthday is, buddy." Uber turned back to me. "Sorry, got distracted. Anyway, there's a memory Tinker in Toybox, Cranial, that can do mind uploads. Backup clones? Blasto's bailiwick. There's a new Case 53 Ward in Boston whose body is solid metal, and I'm sure there's someone out there who can shape flesh like clay. That sort of power was common enough in the old comics anyway. Point is, is that regardless of the container, you are still YOU up here." He tapped me on the forehead. "You ARE a Soul, you HAVE a Body."
That was... surprisingly profound coming from him. "Okay... so now what?"
"Well, now we try and figure out if you can actually fly. Because you're obviously doing something screwy with the laws of physics."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm guessing you weigh... 100, 110 pounds?"
"That's kind of rude."
"I'm being clinical. But The Lark had to use TinkerTech Bullshit to actually image you."
"You mean like an X-ray?"
"It's got a ThermoAcoustic Neutrino Kollision Backscatter Sensor!" Leet cried "ThANK BS!"
"That's... not a real thing is it?"
"TinkerTech runs on technobabble. If you think about it too hard, it's likely to stop working. The normal scans weren't cutting it so Leet pulled out the big guns. All we could really tell about whatever you're made out of now is that it's denser than flesh and blood. A LOT denser. If it was ordinary steel you'd actually weigh six or seven hundred pounds. Gold or tungsten would be closer to a ton. So you've got a Shaker or Breaker effect going on with gravity, mass and/or inertia to make you seem normal."
"So I can fly?"
"Maybe. Probably some variant of super strength too. Might help if I knew what else you could do. You said you could jump good?"
"More like set off an explosion under my feet."
"Explosion?"
"Yeah. I've got Explodey Hands. And I can make them really hot so Melty Hands too, I guess."
"Hmm... One second." Uber went over to where Leet was muttering to himself and cuffed him over the head. "Hey, focus. You got a tungsten carbide bit in here?"
"Yeah." Leet quickly pulled one out from a toolbox. "What for?"
Uber started walking to a nearby empty shipping container and beckoned to me "Mind coming here for a minute?"
"What is it?"
Uber handed me a heavy drill bit the size of a pencil. "I want you do go in here and try to melt this. Not yet, we want to test this properly. And... you might want to take your clothes off. Wouldn't want to set them on fire or anything."
"Erwin?"
"I'll make sure these two don't try nothing."
"Erwin, that's a double negative so..."
Uber and Leet put their hands over their hearts. "We shall not sully thine virtue, fair maiden." they chorused.
"Thanks... I think."
"Just go in there and stand a little ways from the end of the container. We'll stay out here and get a tricorder reading of how warm this end of the container gets. Do you heat up all over or just your hands?"
"I can do it all over or keep it down to one hand."
"Just the one hand please. Hold this bit in your fist and try to melt it as fast as you can when I say go. If you can't do it, I'll tell you to stop after a minute and we can extrapolate your potential total output from there. Sound okay?"
I nodded.
"Okay, go on inside and holler when your ready." Uber called from behind the SUV where he, Leet and Erwin were standing.
"Ugh, can't believe I'm doing this." Taylor grumbled to herself as she took her shirt off, then went down to the back and stood with her arm fully extended to the side, holding the bit as far away from the rest of her as she could. "Ok, I'm ready." she called, her voice echoing tinnily in the large metal box.
Leet pushed a button on his tricorder as Uber pulled out a stopwatch. "3. 2. 1. Start!"
The tricorder made a rapid and ominously rising beeping before there was a soft WHUMP from inside the container.
"Um... oops. I think I vaporized it." Taylor called out. "Do you have another?"
Uber and Leet simply stared at the readout with wide eyes.
This ran long with exposition and worldbuilding elements, but U&L are pretty smart guys to explain some of this stuff.
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