Whatever happened to good old "his or her" or the dehumanizing "its"?
Dreams of Green (Worm CYOA, SI)
- Thread starter Lost Demiurge
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- worm cyoa self insert
Especially considering the pronoun isn't even needed in the sentence, it just distracts from the story.
Although I for one probably wouldn't have recalled who Circus was without it.
Eukie
Powered by furious Canadian redheads
[warning=Warning]It is not acceptable to use homophobic slurs on SV. SV is supposed to be a welcoming place, and language that shows hostility towards the people we want to be welcome on SV is obviously not acceptable. Do not do this again.[/warning]
- Location
- St Joe MO
Shouldn't that be holding down a stool at the end of the bar or was that intentional.
BrokenAscendent
Unum prae omnibus aliis
- Location
- Auld Lang Syne
The mods man! Their here, thought the story is going alright currently, thought there is the worry, I think that our character ending up using his powers in those super ways would be a great character development story.
@Lost Demiurge I always preferred the gender-neutral 'they' instead of hir. Was Circus referred to as hir in the series, though?
They isn't really appropriate though, as it is a plural, and Circus is not the combination of two people.
REAPING 2.2
I seed my mangaboo heroes into the city. The Flower Knight is a lady inspired by the anime Utena... Her power is teleportation from flower to flower, with a side dish of plant toxins. I've amped up her cognitive and reaction speed to anime levels... She's fast. Hella fast. She's got a sardonic wit, an androgynous look like a renaissance fair swashbuckler, and a tabard. The Green Knight, well... I stole him from a Connery movie back in the day, and added more of a plant theme. The man has ridiculous levels of regeneration with no real counter that I can think of. He's also got the ability to harden wood into somewhere above the toughness of steel, something he uses to enhance his axe and armor. A slightly boosted strength completes the package. Dryad, despite my best efforts, comes out looking like a tribute to the Batman Animated Series take on Poison Ivy. I give her the ability to grow a subset of my healing fruits, and plant-based pheromones. I give the already fun fairy the additional trick of short-term duplication. Now she can hurl a seedpod that spawns other faeries, dumb ones that are slaved to her willpower. After a thought, and observation of Taylor's power and its effects, I make the dumb faeries compatible with Skitter. That'll be a fun surprise for the kid when she figures it out...
The last two are pretty much in there for my own enjoyment. Green Man is a giant, with the power of growth. Also the ability to send great roots through most nonliving materials. He can use them as a form of teleportation, disappearing into them and popping out of root structures within a mile. I figure he should be able to have some good fights with Fenja and Menja. The last one is effectively a plant dragon. I call him Mandrake, and aside from being a freaking physical dragon, he can breathe clouds of various sorts of spores. I give him a useful mix, including one fire-resistant soporific. Lung's weak to poison, after all.
All of them have green or plantlike skin, and similarities to each other. All of them have at least one weathered human bone hidden in their shells, a sort of reliquary. All of them seem to be able to communicate with each other via a mental link. And though it won't be obvious to start, all of them have the ability to be raised from the dead if their reliquary can be recovered and given the care by the last of them, Oberon.
Oberon is a crippled, tired man made of regular meat, with patches of plant-bioware replacing many of his organs and some of his outer shell. He fully believes that he was one of Werewolf's victims, only saved by a trigger when the beast tried to possess him after killing his friends and family. He believes that his nigh-godlike power lets him create facsimiles of his loved ones by causing damage to himself that can't be repaired and giving them at least one of his powers, at the cost of losing it himself. Oberon does NOT reveal himself to the Protectorate. He hides in Brockton Bay in an abandoned building, lives like a homeless guy, and sets up a lair of plantlike structures.
The mangaboos are processed in by the PRT, sharing some of their backstory but not all. They say that they were beaten to the punch against werewolf the last time around, and retired to try and find some peace. But now that he's back, they're gonna help end his threat once and for all.
And they do. They get split up between the patrols. Dryad has little combat ability, so she gets assigned to help the medics, and paired with Panacea. Right where I want her.
Panacea notices the pheremones right off, Dryad apologizes. She says they have to stay on constantly (Truth, the way I've built her), but she knows they cause trouble. But she can set them to be the type of pheromones that undo mental influence, is that all right?
Panacea says yes, and I grin. That ought to help the poor kid against Vicky's charms. Especially since Dryad's sticking around, and I gave her the sort of personality that should let her and Amy get along fine. Just having another healer around to share the burden and be friends with ought to work miracles.
Panacea will eventually touch her and notice the reliquary in her and the others. Or it'll get seen when one gets killed. Eventually their tragic backstory will come out.
It takes a day or two for the heroes to run "Werewolf" to ground. To everyone's great joy, the cure they developed for his old strain works on the new one. And finally the time comes where he's cornered in a wreck out in the boat graveyard, in the heart of ABB territory. To my surprise and joy, Skitter makes her debut then, holding off Lung until heroic backup arrives, while simultaneously tracking and stinging werewolf. I decide sure, why not, and give him a weakness to wasp venom. I use Mandrake to help out against Lung, and once he sucks down a breath of flame-resistant opiates, he shrinks down to the point that he can be captured. Skitter gets acclaim and admiration, and offers from several heroes to help her if she joins the Wards, or their group. A check of her emotions, and she's practically weeping with joy, and planning out her future as a hero. I smile. Guess she didn't need the Undersiders at all.
But then I think about the rest of the ABB, and this precipitates another choice... I go searching for people with toe rings, and manage to locate Bakuda. She's sleeping. A quick look around confirms that she hasn't started the "Forced recruitment" plan... None of the gangers have anything like bombs in their heads. Good. I'm free to experiment on her.
And I do.
After observing the number of parahumans I have, getting down to the most intimate levels of their cell structure, I believe that I've isolated the Corona Pollentia. I file a snapshot of her DNA and her Corona away for cloning purposes later if need be, and I dissolve her connection.
She wakes up screaming.
Some observation as she fumbles with bombs, and the temper tantrum that follows, is enough to convince me that it worked.
It's when she starts gathering her gear that I decide she's not going to go away without collateral damage or a death toll, and have the flower knight pop in, and stab her with a wooden knife coated in paralytic venom. A fun little exercise ensues where the Knight gets to go up against Oni Lee and the nearby ABB gangers, straining her super-reflexes to the limit. That's fine. The Green Knight calls in his patrol, and assists with the fight.
The two nights of the Werewolf end in a hard-won victory. And the slight hints and clues that Tattletale seeds into the PRT network and in the city to the investigators to find, link Werewolf's presence here with the Gesellschaft. And formally link the Gesellschaft with Empire Eighty Eight.
And much mention is made of the fact that none of Werewolf's "victims" this time around were white.
"IMPERIAL WEREWOLF"? Read the headlines. I grin. Good luck with that, Kaiser. Especially with the amped up hero presence in the town. Sure, most of the heavy hitters were heading out of there with the immediate threat resolved, but enough of them had gotten a good look at how bad Brockton was, and their consciences pricked them to do something about it. And my mangaboos would be staying around long-term, after confirming werewolf was truly dead and gone. Now that they'd outed themselves, they preferred to stay in the city that loved them. That they'd come to care about. I set things up so that they'd start growing in independence and personality. Eventually they'd be their own people, after I was gone and couldn't puppet them. Though I did put in limiters... They'd top out when they were most humanlike.
While all this is going on, Tattletale oversees the fallout from the destruction of Winslow, and the swiping of Sophia's phone. She also works with me to figure out the tricky parts of my power, and consolidates her grip on Coil's resources. She's busy as hell. I let her work.
And four days later, she calls me.
"I've cracked it."
"What, the phone? I'm surprised it took this long."
"Pff. No. That's already done and released to Arcadia, the cops, the PRT, and the Winslow emergency committee. You know, the folks in charge of recovering records?" She grinned. "Shadow Stalker's gonna have a horrible day when this peaks. Piggot's already started the memo chain of blame."
"Good. So when you say you cracked it, 'it' must be..."
"Relays." She sobered up. Then she squinted into the mirror. "And now I come to my choice."
I nodded. "Yep."
She got up and paced... "Given what you've been doing, given what I know of your methods... This is gonna turn you into a living god."
"Yeah." No point in mincing words.
She exhaled, hard. "I wouldn't trust ME with that power. I don't know if I trust you with it."
"I don't completely trust me with it either," I admitted. "So if you choose no, then I'll find another way to do this."
She rubbed her face. "No. Fuck, no. You... You'd crack this eventually. Weeks at the latest. Sooner if you decided to significantly alter your brain, amp up your smarts. I still don't know why you haven't done that."
"I'm stubborn that way. And worried it'll change me to the point where I think it's okay to be a living god permanently."
"That's the thing... You plan to give it up, sure. Are you gonna think the same when you're the planet?"
I sighed. "One way to find out. No way to stop it. Shall we?"
"Fuck me running. This is a horrible idea."
"So's letting the CUI have a pair of mass production wartinkers. Yangban in replicable mecha and power armor?"
She shuddered. "All right. We need to talk endgame after this, though. Don't take me the wrong way, but I want you gone."
I frowned at her, made a pair of angry eyebrows in her vision. "Sure, now that you've got everything you wanted, I can go, huh? Deus Ex Machina?"
She rubbed her forehead, and frowned back. "You're putting a lot of weight on me. You want me to take care of the future."
"I'm GIVING you the future. You wanted in. Full responsibility. This is it. The alternative is me sticking around, and I'm not doing that. I'm not... I didn't ask to be here. I just thought I was playing a damn game. Then I woke up in the rain." I let self-pity creep over me, hating it. "I had a plan to go slow, use minimal impact, treat the disease rather than the symptoms, get things stabilized, but I knew it wouldn't work if you saw through it. I asked for your patience, and you didn't trust me, so you went for the advantage. Effect follows cause, and here we are." I shook it off. "I'm doing the job and going home. And leaving stuff good enough that you PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE can pick things up afterward."
Her lips pressed together, she narrowed her eyes into the mirror, finding my own. Then she sighed, and breathed out. "You remind me of my dad."
Ouch.
I rubbed my eyes.
"Fine. Give me relays and we'll be done with each other. Early out termination, and you'll never hear from me again. Fair?"
She broke eye contact. Shook her head. "I'd be a fool to discard your resources, or give up influence of this level. But don't think I'm your friend. This is business."
That hurt, but I let it go. "I can live with that, I guess. I'll have to. It's your choice."
She gave me the stinkeye. "Is it really?"
"Yep."
And she told me what I'd been missing, explained the secrets of the relays. I blinked, and frowned. "That's... Hm. It's going to change my brain regardless."
"Yeah. You're going to have to face one of your fears. Good luck with that." No real sympathy there.
I weighed my options.
Tattletale smirked. "It's your choice," she parroted, mimicking my voice.
"Is it really?" I chuckled, feeling the irony. "All right. Here we go..."
She arched an eyebrow, as I made the necessary alterations.
I let her stew. Finally she poked the mirror. "Well?"
I sent thoughts directly into her brain. "SO INEFFICIENT! THE OVERMIND WILL NOW BEGIN ASSIMILATION! PREPARE FOR UNITY!"
It took her power half-a-second to see through it, but that was a half-a-second of beautiful horror on her face before she starting shrieking insults and throwing things at the mirror as my prank sunk in.
"You fucker!" She swore, and reached for a bottle of bath salts.
I laughed and laughed, and let her rant. Eventually she started laughing too.
Eventually Brian came up to ask her what her problem was, and I took my leave of her.
-----
I spent the next few hours converting my already established sporebird and sporefish patches into relays. All of them. I found that my fish hadn't followed expected patterns, and set them right. The Sporebirds made more progress...
I was spread over a good chunk of eastern CONUS (Continental US, for those who don't know military speak.) Also part of southern Canada. I set them to going faster, east and west respectively. At my current rate of progress I figured I'd reach China in days. And as my range grew, I started looking around for a group of people with unique identifiers.
And I found them in Virginia, not too far away in the grand scheme of things.
A man chopped into segments by his own will, living in ecosystems of his own design, if you could call that living. A creature who was evolution personified. And a cluster of augmented people, holes in their body filled by metal and circuitry and biology. And a mile away, an old man with a bird tattoo on his hand.
They'd holed up in a hotel, rigged the people at the desk with Bonesaw's spiderthings... The desk clerks checked people in with smiles, trying to hide their sweat and fear. And once the visitors were up the elevator, it was too, too late.
I switched on Invictus, left it on as I surveyed what they'd done, looked over the mix of remnants and barely-living people that filled the six floors, and I felt my lips peel back from my teeth. I'd been a fool to think I could ever ignore this, or resist the temptation to do something.
I'm a lousy hero. But that wasn't what they needed here, was it?
I manifested my original body a few blocks away, grew a set of luggage, and marched towards the hotel. I was wearing my Hunter S. Thompson tribute outfit again. The one with the shorts, hawaiian shirt, and bucket hat. I felt he'd understand.
And I went and checked in. The man at the desk happily assured me that yes, they had vacant rooms. I made a show of looking for a credit card, sighed, and said that I guess I'd lost it and I'd have to look for lodging elsewhere. He practically fell over, sobbing, and insisting no, it was fine, I could use his.
I checked his memories. He'd cut a deal with the Nine, for every person he personally checked in he got two more hours of life.
I couldn't say I'd have done differently in his place. I'd like to think so, but... I checked in.
The elevator door opened to a flood of blood and viscera. I looked down at it, shrugged, and took a pull from my cigarette holder. A loudspeaker crackled to life. A man sang, so poorly and off-key that it had to be deliberate.
"Welcome, my friend, to the hell that never ends! Your precious flesh we'll tear and rend, step inside, step inside..." So that was Jack. His voice sounded exactly like I'd imagined it. I stepped inside, shook blood off of my luggage, and squished organs underfeet as I travelled through the halls. I didn't say a word.
"Well well well, we got a tough guy here, huh? Or maybe that's more than tobacky in that cigarette. You poor sonuvabitch."
"Language!" A little girl's voice squeaked.
"Sorry Cherie. Heat of the moment. So, here's the deal fella. You got nine floors to run and hide in. We're coming after you in five minutes. Have fun!"
I found my room, went inside. The inner part of it had been redocrated, Doom-style, with dripping bloody flesh and a cluster of shrieking heads. Chains and hooks dangled from the ceiling. I sat the suitcase on the bed, eased my backside into the bloody, slime-covered chair, and flicked a kidney off the armrest before settling down. I continued to smoke.
Up in the penthouse, I felt Cherish turn to Jack. "Something's wrong. I can't get a read on him at all."
The man himself was grinning a lazy grin, flipping a knife up and down as Bonesaw cuddled in Siberian's arms. "A cape, huh? Good. I was starting to get bored. Anyone else? Any response?"
She concentrated. "No. He's alone. Nobody outside knows what's going on, not within my range."
I flipped on the TV. Snuff films. I turned it off. Then I considered... And took a copy of each of their DNA, including Manton's. Took a snapshot of their Coronas. If my endgame didn't go as I thought, I could use some of these powers. And if it DID go like I planned, I'd need that broadcast shard anyway.
Jack continued, sneering slightly at Cherish. "Well, you're gonna be useless. Let's spin the wheel of awesome, see who this lucky guy gets as the welcome wagon."
They'd actually made a wheel of fortune setup in the corner of the room. A spin, and it came up with a cartoon picture of Siberian's face. "Looks like you're up. Sorry Cherie."
"Yay! Go gettem!" She cheered as she slipped from the Siberian's arms. The catwoman moved in that unnatural way I'd only heard about, bounding out of their vision.
I waited until she arrived at my door, a striped arm whipping through it and turning the doorknob from the unside. She slid in, studying me, stalking me, clear and catlike eyes peering into my aviator glasses.
I pulled the plug on Manton's Corona. And listened to him howl, as Siberian disappeared. I puffed out a cloud of smoke, crossed one leg.
Upstairs, Jack frowned.
Bonesaw was at the monitors, looking like a kid who'd lost her birthday cake. "Where'd she go?"
Jack's eyes widened. I had a feeling that was the broadcast shard at work, trying a ping and coming back empty. And I knew what he'd answer with. "Meh, this is boring. Shatterbird, hit his room."
The optimal solution would have been Hackjob, at least from his point of view. But they hadn't hit Brockton Bay yet, had they? No Oni Lee. Hatchet face's remains (or whatever his name was) were probably in a life-support box somewhere around here.
The glass in the room exploded, ripped through me. I healed the damage as it hit, stayed sitting in the ruined chair.
And I killed her Corona as well. She screamed in pain and loss, and went to the floor, puking.
And I grew tired of it. Sickened that I'd even pretended to buy into their game, annoyed that I'd tried to be cruel to them. I had no heart for it. I turned off all their Coronas at once, rose and walked through the halls as they realized what had happened. Then I went to work on their cyberware, ejecting it from their bodies and healing the damage as it went.
Some of them tried to flee, while they still had movement. I encased the inside of the hotel in a sheathe of flesh and bone, and repulsed every attempt. Jack went after hostages, and I whisked them away on tentacles, removing booby traps or healing up the damage they did, putting them asleep as I did so to spare them more trauma. Everyone I saved was whisked down the elevator shaft on giant tentacles, deposited in the lobby with some wreckage. I looked at Bonesaw's minions, and sighed, ripping their organic components free of the cyberware and growing them new bodies before putting them in the pile of unconscious with the rest... With the exception of Murder Rat.
It had always bugged me, Mouse Protector's fate. Even with my power, I wasn't sure if I could save her. If there was anything left to save. I made her dormant and gave her warped brain a temporary body. I'd have to try to untangle her later.
Bonesaw took time. She had so many damn dead-man's switches and redundancies that I just put her unconscious and ported her brain into a new body, neutralizing the old one with a cocoon and insanely strong organic acid. The story indicated she was redeemable, maybe. But the Bonesaw she was now wasn't the Riley she would've become... I didn't know if it was doable. I did know that I couldn't do it. That bugged me, but I'd have to live with it.
And at the end of it, I was standing before them... Crawler was human again, over in the corner cutting himself and weeping. Mannequin was likewise naked and wailing, clutching at the broken remnants of his shell, trying to fit himself back in there. I looked at his wounds. If he kept at it they'd be lethal. Oh well. The rest, save for Manton, were staring at me from their various positions about the now-gory penthouse suite.
Jack opened his mouth, and I pulled down the avaiator glasss, and looked him in the eye. "You're boring, Jack. Goodbye."
And then I turned and walked back to the elevator, and away. He spoke, but I ignored it, shutting the door on him mid-speech.
I snagged a cell phone as I stepped into the lobby and collected the ex-murder-rat's temporary body. I turned it over in my mind... Yeah. Yeah, I think that we were sufficiently far enough into phase four that I could do this. I punched in the PRT's number.
"Manassas PRT, is this an emergency?"
"Yeah. Hi, my name is Demiurge. The Slaughterhouse Nine took over the Red Velvet Suites hotel. I've neutralized them and saved their hostages. Can you come take charge of the situation?"
They hung up on me.
I laughed. Should have expected that. With a spare body I hauled Manton into the lobby, kicking and screaming. I looked him over, shrugged, and turned him into a depowered duplicate of Siberian before having my body throw him in the tentacle elevator, conveying him up to the penthouse suite with the rest of them. After some consideration I branded them all with tattoos, causing scarlet "9"s to rise up all over their skin. Jack was still a slippery customer, after all.
Eventually, I saw a cruiser pull up. I looked at the lobby full of groaning and unconscious people, and nodded, before dissolving the body and the internal sheathe that blocked off most of the upper floors. I did use organic glue to jam all the doors leading out of the Penthouse. They could be broken open with time and effort.
I used my spare body to haul Murder rat outside, poking around in the city until I found a storage unit in a bad part of town. I dropped her off in there, settling in to see what I could do while another part of my mind continued spreading my influence.
-----
I took my mind off the Nine with a hike through the woods. Now that I had relays in Philadelphia, I ran overwatch as Highwayman and Butterfly ran the op to get Canary free of the Pitt. Turns out those dump trucks full of thermite hadn't been a joke, and they were useful for burning through the barriers in the way. I didn't have to do much, beyond creating a few duplicates of Highwayman and Butterfly now and again, and using them to shut down remote security or distract or fight guards. The benefits of having friends who were good at their jobs... Canary was retrieved, protesting to start, but given a brief explanation and a choice she ended up going with them. Reluctantly, but that was fine. Between the cosmetic surgery-equivalent I could offer her and the fake ID's my friends could generate, she had a fresh start elsewhere if she wanted. Or if she wanted to stay in the game, my friends were willing to offer her a spot. Her choice.
In the dimness of the early morning, I finally managed to disentangle Mouse Protector and Ravager. Now in the bodies of children, they shivered on the cold concrete floor. Their brains had been so warped and traumatized that I'd had to go back to their childhoods to find a place where they'd be stable and sane going forward. Well, as far as I could tell, anyway. I'd done what I could, edited out the tainted parts. What was left was somewhere around 9 or 10 years old. I couldn't give them back their old lives, but I could give them a fresh start on the new ones.
I took their hands, clothed them in plant fiber smocks, and walked out into the daylight. They blinked, and I patiently handled their questions and reactions. "No, I'm sorry. I don't know where your parents are. No, I'm sorry, I can't explain, it... No, I'm sorry, it'll be fine. Hey, hey, don't cry, huh? C'mon. We got this. Yes, yes you can have ice cream. Yes, the police will help you, that's where we're going now, to the special police."
The Manassas PRT building was less touristy than Brockton Bay's, all steel and glass and whitewashed linoleum tile floor. I smiled at the lady behind the desk. "Hi. I'm Demiurge. This is what's left of Mouse Protector and Ravager. Let's talk."
That was a fun five minutes. The kids were whisked away. I answered questions about the kids, keeping it broad and telling what had been done to them. Saying what I'd done to fix them, and watching the chemicals of alarm and horror starting to rise within the brains of the listening officers as they realized the amount of power involved with this feat. They asked me to come to a conference room, to talk with the local Protectorate team leader, and I declined.
"I'm not a hero. And he or she is busy enough, I'm quite sure. Now if you'll excuse me..."
They followed me when I left. And as I walked, something passed my relays near Maryland. Something fast and flying, and with weird biology. Alexandria? I wasn't ready to talk with her yet. Not in this phase.
I walked toward a tree growing off to the side of the street, made the trunk of it open like a mouth and engulf me, and was gone.
-----
The papers the next morning had no headlines, beyond a note that the Red Velvet Suites were closed for renovation. I smiled to see it. Good ol' Cauldron, so predictable. I'd felt Shatterbird and Manton leave my range that night, just there one second and gone the next. They'd be taken to Doctor Mother for further scrutiny... And the microbes I'd sent with them would separate, and do the jobs they'd been programmed to do after eliminating traces of their presence on their carrier hosts. Unless something went horribly wrong, I'd have my entrance into the Cauldron facility ready and waiting when Phase Six rolled around. So long as Blank did its job, they wouldn't notice a thing.
As long as nothing went wrong.
This was the Wormverse. I couldn't bank on that. So I went back to my alternate plans, and checked my range. Not far to China now... I'd gotten to parts of the ocean that weren't monitored too well, so I could amp my sporefish speed without anyone likely to notice.
At one point I brushed against the slumbering Leviathan and shivered. His biology was... Alien. I didn't know how much of it I could mess with if I tried, or whether or not he or his little sister would notice. I left him be. If I succeeded then it wouldn't matter.
China grew closer by the minute, and I sat back and weighed the good I'd done with the bad I'd done. Was it enough?
I could do a little better.
I borrowed Violet's laptop and started to browse the internet, looking up fun facts on satellites and orbital dynamics...
I seed my mangaboo heroes into the city. The Flower Knight is a lady inspired by the anime Utena... Her power is teleportation from flower to flower, with a side dish of plant toxins. I've amped up her cognitive and reaction speed to anime levels... She's fast. Hella fast. She's got a sardonic wit, an androgynous look like a renaissance fair swashbuckler, and a tabard. The Green Knight, well... I stole him from a Connery movie back in the day, and added more of a plant theme. The man has ridiculous levels of regeneration with no real counter that I can think of. He's also got the ability to harden wood into somewhere above the toughness of steel, something he uses to enhance his axe and armor. A slightly boosted strength completes the package. Dryad, despite my best efforts, comes out looking like a tribute to the Batman Animated Series take on Poison Ivy. I give her the ability to grow a subset of my healing fruits, and plant-based pheromones. I give the already fun fairy the additional trick of short-term duplication. Now she can hurl a seedpod that spawns other faeries, dumb ones that are slaved to her willpower. After a thought, and observation of Taylor's power and its effects, I make the dumb faeries compatible with Skitter. That'll be a fun surprise for the kid when she figures it out...
The last two are pretty much in there for my own enjoyment. Green Man is a giant, with the power of growth. Also the ability to send great roots through most nonliving materials. He can use them as a form of teleportation, disappearing into them and popping out of root structures within a mile. I figure he should be able to have some good fights with Fenja and Menja. The last one is effectively a plant dragon. I call him Mandrake, and aside from being a freaking physical dragon, he can breathe clouds of various sorts of spores. I give him a useful mix, including one fire-resistant soporific. Lung's weak to poison, after all.
All of them have green or plantlike skin, and similarities to each other. All of them have at least one weathered human bone hidden in their shells, a sort of reliquary. All of them seem to be able to communicate with each other via a mental link. And though it won't be obvious to start, all of them have the ability to be raised from the dead if their reliquary can be recovered and given the care by the last of them, Oberon.
Oberon is a crippled, tired man made of regular meat, with patches of plant-bioware replacing many of his organs and some of his outer shell. He fully believes that he was one of Werewolf's victims, only saved by a trigger when the beast tried to possess him after killing his friends and family. He believes that his nigh-godlike power lets him create facsimiles of his loved ones by causing damage to himself that can't be repaired and giving them at least one of his powers, at the cost of losing it himself. Oberon does NOT reveal himself to the Protectorate. He hides in Brockton Bay in an abandoned building, lives like a homeless guy, and sets up a lair of plantlike structures.
The mangaboos are processed in by the PRT, sharing some of their backstory but not all. They say that they were beaten to the punch against werewolf the last time around, and retired to try and find some peace. But now that he's back, they're gonna help end his threat once and for all.
And they do. They get split up between the patrols. Dryad has little combat ability, so she gets assigned to help the medics, and paired with Panacea. Right where I want her.
Panacea notices the pheremones right off, Dryad apologizes. She says they have to stay on constantly (Truth, the way I've built her), but she knows they cause trouble. But she can set them to be the type of pheromones that undo mental influence, is that all right?
Panacea says yes, and I grin. That ought to help the poor kid against Vicky's charms. Especially since Dryad's sticking around, and I gave her the sort of personality that should let her and Amy get along fine. Just having another healer around to share the burden and be friends with ought to work miracles.
Panacea will eventually touch her and notice the reliquary in her and the others. Or it'll get seen when one gets killed. Eventually their tragic backstory will come out.
It takes a day or two for the heroes to run "Werewolf" to ground. To everyone's great joy, the cure they developed for his old strain works on the new one. And finally the time comes where he's cornered in a wreck out in the boat graveyard, in the heart of ABB territory. To my surprise and joy, Skitter makes her debut then, holding off Lung until heroic backup arrives, while simultaneously tracking and stinging werewolf. I decide sure, why not, and give him a weakness to wasp venom. I use Mandrake to help out against Lung, and once he sucks down a breath of flame-resistant opiates, he shrinks down to the point that he can be captured. Skitter gets acclaim and admiration, and offers from several heroes to help her if she joins the Wards, or their group. A check of her emotions, and she's practically weeping with joy, and planning out her future as a hero. I smile. Guess she didn't need the Undersiders at all.
But then I think about the rest of the ABB, and this precipitates another choice... I go searching for people with toe rings, and manage to locate Bakuda. She's sleeping. A quick look around confirms that she hasn't started the "Forced recruitment" plan... None of the gangers have anything like bombs in their heads. Good. I'm free to experiment on her.
And I do.
After observing the number of parahumans I have, getting down to the most intimate levels of their cell structure, I believe that I've isolated the Corona Pollentia. I file a snapshot of her DNA and her Corona away for cloning purposes later if need be, and I dissolve her connection.
She wakes up screaming.
Some observation as she fumbles with bombs, and the temper tantrum that follows, is enough to convince me that it worked.
It's when she starts gathering her gear that I decide she's not going to go away without collateral damage or a death toll, and have the flower knight pop in, and stab her with a wooden knife coated in paralytic venom. A fun little exercise ensues where the Knight gets to go up against Oni Lee and the nearby ABB gangers, straining her super-reflexes to the limit. That's fine. The Green Knight calls in his patrol, and assists with the fight.
The two nights of the Werewolf end in a hard-won victory. And the slight hints and clues that Tattletale seeds into the PRT network and in the city to the investigators to find, link Werewolf's presence here with the Gesellschaft. And formally link the Gesellschaft with Empire Eighty Eight.
And much mention is made of the fact that none of Werewolf's "victims" this time around were white.
"IMPERIAL WEREWOLF"? Read the headlines. I grin. Good luck with that, Kaiser. Especially with the amped up hero presence in the town. Sure, most of the heavy hitters were heading out of there with the immediate threat resolved, but enough of them had gotten a good look at how bad Brockton was, and their consciences pricked them to do something about it. And my mangaboos would be staying around long-term, after confirming werewolf was truly dead and gone. Now that they'd outed themselves, they preferred to stay in the city that loved them. That they'd come to care about. I set things up so that they'd start growing in independence and personality. Eventually they'd be their own people, after I was gone and couldn't puppet them. Though I did put in limiters... They'd top out when they were most humanlike.
While all this is going on, Tattletale oversees the fallout from the destruction of Winslow, and the swiping of Sophia's phone. She also works with me to figure out the tricky parts of my power, and consolidates her grip on Coil's resources. She's busy as hell. I let her work.
And four days later, she calls me.
"I've cracked it."
"What, the phone? I'm surprised it took this long."
"Pff. No. That's already done and released to Arcadia, the cops, the PRT, and the Winslow emergency committee. You know, the folks in charge of recovering records?" She grinned. "Shadow Stalker's gonna have a horrible day when this peaks. Piggot's already started the memo chain of blame."
"Good. So when you say you cracked it, 'it' must be..."
"Relays." She sobered up. Then she squinted into the mirror. "And now I come to my choice."
I nodded. "Yep."
She got up and paced... "Given what you've been doing, given what I know of your methods... This is gonna turn you into a living god."
"Yeah." No point in mincing words.
She exhaled, hard. "I wouldn't trust ME with that power. I don't know if I trust you with it."
"I don't completely trust me with it either," I admitted. "So if you choose no, then I'll find another way to do this."
She rubbed her face. "No. Fuck, no. You... You'd crack this eventually. Weeks at the latest. Sooner if you decided to significantly alter your brain, amp up your smarts. I still don't know why you haven't done that."
"I'm stubborn that way. And worried it'll change me to the point where I think it's okay to be a living god permanently."
"That's the thing... You plan to give it up, sure. Are you gonna think the same when you're the planet?"
I sighed. "One way to find out. No way to stop it. Shall we?"
"Fuck me running. This is a horrible idea."
"So's letting the CUI have a pair of mass production wartinkers. Yangban in replicable mecha and power armor?"
She shuddered. "All right. We need to talk endgame after this, though. Don't take me the wrong way, but I want you gone."
I frowned at her, made a pair of angry eyebrows in her vision. "Sure, now that you've got everything you wanted, I can go, huh? Deus Ex Machina?"
She rubbed her forehead, and frowned back. "You're putting a lot of weight on me. You want me to take care of the future."
"I'm GIVING you the future. You wanted in. Full responsibility. This is it. The alternative is me sticking around, and I'm not doing that. I'm not... I didn't ask to be here. I just thought I was playing a damn game. Then I woke up in the rain." I let self-pity creep over me, hating it. "I had a plan to go slow, use minimal impact, treat the disease rather than the symptoms, get things stabilized, but I knew it wouldn't work if you saw through it. I asked for your patience, and you didn't trust me, so you went for the advantage. Effect follows cause, and here we are." I shook it off. "I'm doing the job and going home. And leaving stuff good enough that you PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE can pick things up afterward."
Her lips pressed together, she narrowed her eyes into the mirror, finding my own. Then she sighed, and breathed out. "You remind me of my dad."
Ouch.
I rubbed my eyes.
"Fine. Give me relays and we'll be done with each other. Early out termination, and you'll never hear from me again. Fair?"
She broke eye contact. Shook her head. "I'd be a fool to discard your resources, or give up influence of this level. But don't think I'm your friend. This is business."
That hurt, but I let it go. "I can live with that, I guess. I'll have to. It's your choice."
She gave me the stinkeye. "Is it really?"
"Yep."
And she told me what I'd been missing, explained the secrets of the relays. I blinked, and frowned. "That's... Hm. It's going to change my brain regardless."
"Yeah. You're going to have to face one of your fears. Good luck with that." No real sympathy there.
I weighed my options.
Tattletale smirked. "It's your choice," she parroted, mimicking my voice.
"Is it really?" I chuckled, feeling the irony. "All right. Here we go..."
She arched an eyebrow, as I made the necessary alterations.
I let her stew. Finally she poked the mirror. "Well?"
I sent thoughts directly into her brain. "SO INEFFICIENT! THE OVERMIND WILL NOW BEGIN ASSIMILATION! PREPARE FOR UNITY!"
It took her power half-a-second to see through it, but that was a half-a-second of beautiful horror on her face before she starting shrieking insults and throwing things at the mirror as my prank sunk in.
"You fucker!" She swore, and reached for a bottle of bath salts.
I laughed and laughed, and let her rant. Eventually she started laughing too.
Eventually Brian came up to ask her what her problem was, and I took my leave of her.
-----
I spent the next few hours converting my already established sporebird and sporefish patches into relays. All of them. I found that my fish hadn't followed expected patterns, and set them right. The Sporebirds made more progress...
I was spread over a good chunk of eastern CONUS (Continental US, for those who don't know military speak.) Also part of southern Canada. I set them to going faster, east and west respectively. At my current rate of progress I figured I'd reach China in days. And as my range grew, I started looking around for a group of people with unique identifiers.
And I found them in Virginia, not too far away in the grand scheme of things.
A man chopped into segments by his own will, living in ecosystems of his own design, if you could call that living. A creature who was evolution personified. And a cluster of augmented people, holes in their body filled by metal and circuitry and biology. And a mile away, an old man with a bird tattoo on his hand.
They'd holed up in a hotel, rigged the people at the desk with Bonesaw's spiderthings... The desk clerks checked people in with smiles, trying to hide their sweat and fear. And once the visitors were up the elevator, it was too, too late.
I switched on Invictus, left it on as I surveyed what they'd done, looked over the mix of remnants and barely-living people that filled the six floors, and I felt my lips peel back from my teeth. I'd been a fool to think I could ever ignore this, or resist the temptation to do something.
I'm a lousy hero. But that wasn't what they needed here, was it?
I manifested my original body a few blocks away, grew a set of luggage, and marched towards the hotel. I was wearing my Hunter S. Thompson tribute outfit again. The one with the shorts, hawaiian shirt, and bucket hat. I felt he'd understand.
And I went and checked in. The man at the desk happily assured me that yes, they had vacant rooms. I made a show of looking for a credit card, sighed, and said that I guess I'd lost it and I'd have to look for lodging elsewhere. He practically fell over, sobbing, and insisting no, it was fine, I could use his.
I checked his memories. He'd cut a deal with the Nine, for every person he personally checked in he got two more hours of life.
I couldn't say I'd have done differently in his place. I'd like to think so, but... I checked in.
The elevator door opened to a flood of blood and viscera. I looked down at it, shrugged, and took a pull from my cigarette holder. A loudspeaker crackled to life. A man sang, so poorly and off-key that it had to be deliberate.
"Welcome, my friend, to the hell that never ends! Your precious flesh we'll tear and rend, step inside, step inside..." So that was Jack. His voice sounded exactly like I'd imagined it. I stepped inside, shook blood off of my luggage, and squished organs underfeet as I travelled through the halls. I didn't say a word.
"Well well well, we got a tough guy here, huh? Or maybe that's more than tobacky in that cigarette. You poor sonuvabitch."
"Language!" A little girl's voice squeaked.
"Sorry Cherie. Heat of the moment. So, here's the deal fella. You got nine floors to run and hide in. We're coming after you in five minutes. Have fun!"
I found my room, went inside. The inner part of it had been redocrated, Doom-style, with dripping bloody flesh and a cluster of shrieking heads. Chains and hooks dangled from the ceiling. I sat the suitcase on the bed, eased my backside into the bloody, slime-covered chair, and flicked a kidney off the armrest before settling down. I continued to smoke.
Up in the penthouse, I felt Cherish turn to Jack. "Something's wrong. I can't get a read on him at all."
The man himself was grinning a lazy grin, flipping a knife up and down as Bonesaw cuddled in Siberian's arms. "A cape, huh? Good. I was starting to get bored. Anyone else? Any response?"
She concentrated. "No. He's alone. Nobody outside knows what's going on, not within my range."
I flipped on the TV. Snuff films. I turned it off. Then I considered... And took a copy of each of their DNA, including Manton's. Took a snapshot of their Coronas. If my endgame didn't go as I thought, I could use some of these powers. And if it DID go like I planned, I'd need that broadcast shard anyway.
Jack continued, sneering slightly at Cherish. "Well, you're gonna be useless. Let's spin the wheel of awesome, see who this lucky guy gets as the welcome wagon."
They'd actually made a wheel of fortune setup in the corner of the room. A spin, and it came up with a cartoon picture of Siberian's face. "Looks like you're up. Sorry Cherie."
"Yay! Go gettem!" She cheered as she slipped from the Siberian's arms. The catwoman moved in that unnatural way I'd only heard about, bounding out of their vision.
I waited until she arrived at my door, a striped arm whipping through it and turning the doorknob from the unside. She slid in, studying me, stalking me, clear and catlike eyes peering into my aviator glasses.
I pulled the plug on Manton's Corona. And listened to him howl, as Siberian disappeared. I puffed out a cloud of smoke, crossed one leg.
Upstairs, Jack frowned.
Bonesaw was at the monitors, looking like a kid who'd lost her birthday cake. "Where'd she go?"
Jack's eyes widened. I had a feeling that was the broadcast shard at work, trying a ping and coming back empty. And I knew what he'd answer with. "Meh, this is boring. Shatterbird, hit his room."
The optimal solution would have been Hackjob, at least from his point of view. But they hadn't hit Brockton Bay yet, had they? No Oni Lee. Hatchet face's remains (or whatever his name was) were probably in a life-support box somewhere around here.
The glass in the room exploded, ripped through me. I healed the damage as it hit, stayed sitting in the ruined chair.
And I killed her Corona as well. She screamed in pain and loss, and went to the floor, puking.
And I grew tired of it. Sickened that I'd even pretended to buy into their game, annoyed that I'd tried to be cruel to them. I had no heart for it. I turned off all their Coronas at once, rose and walked through the halls as they realized what had happened. Then I went to work on their cyberware, ejecting it from their bodies and healing the damage as it went.
Some of them tried to flee, while they still had movement. I encased the inside of the hotel in a sheathe of flesh and bone, and repulsed every attempt. Jack went after hostages, and I whisked them away on tentacles, removing booby traps or healing up the damage they did, putting them asleep as I did so to spare them more trauma. Everyone I saved was whisked down the elevator shaft on giant tentacles, deposited in the lobby with some wreckage. I looked at Bonesaw's minions, and sighed, ripping their organic components free of the cyberware and growing them new bodies before putting them in the pile of unconscious with the rest... With the exception of Murder Rat.
It had always bugged me, Mouse Protector's fate. Even with my power, I wasn't sure if I could save her. If there was anything left to save. I made her dormant and gave her warped brain a temporary body. I'd have to try to untangle her later.
Bonesaw took time. She had so many damn dead-man's switches and redundancies that I just put her unconscious and ported her brain into a new body, neutralizing the old one with a cocoon and insanely strong organic acid. The story indicated she was redeemable, maybe. But the Bonesaw she was now wasn't the Riley she would've become... I didn't know if it was doable. I did know that I couldn't do it. That bugged me, but I'd have to live with it.
And at the end of it, I was standing before them... Crawler was human again, over in the corner cutting himself and weeping. Mannequin was likewise naked and wailing, clutching at the broken remnants of his shell, trying to fit himself back in there. I looked at his wounds. If he kept at it they'd be lethal. Oh well. The rest, save for Manton, were staring at me from their various positions about the now-gory penthouse suite.
Jack opened his mouth, and I pulled down the avaiator glasss, and looked him in the eye. "You're boring, Jack. Goodbye."
And then I turned and walked back to the elevator, and away. He spoke, but I ignored it, shutting the door on him mid-speech.
I snagged a cell phone as I stepped into the lobby and collected the ex-murder-rat's temporary body. I turned it over in my mind... Yeah. Yeah, I think that we were sufficiently far enough into phase four that I could do this. I punched in the PRT's number.
"Manassas PRT, is this an emergency?"
"Yeah. Hi, my name is Demiurge. The Slaughterhouse Nine took over the Red Velvet Suites hotel. I've neutralized them and saved their hostages. Can you come take charge of the situation?"
They hung up on me.
I laughed. Should have expected that. With a spare body I hauled Manton into the lobby, kicking and screaming. I looked him over, shrugged, and turned him into a depowered duplicate of Siberian before having my body throw him in the tentacle elevator, conveying him up to the penthouse suite with the rest of them. After some consideration I branded them all with tattoos, causing scarlet "9"s to rise up all over their skin. Jack was still a slippery customer, after all.
Eventually, I saw a cruiser pull up. I looked at the lobby full of groaning and unconscious people, and nodded, before dissolving the body and the internal sheathe that blocked off most of the upper floors. I did use organic glue to jam all the doors leading out of the Penthouse. They could be broken open with time and effort.
I used my spare body to haul Murder rat outside, poking around in the city until I found a storage unit in a bad part of town. I dropped her off in there, settling in to see what I could do while another part of my mind continued spreading my influence.
-----
I took my mind off the Nine with a hike through the woods. Now that I had relays in Philadelphia, I ran overwatch as Highwayman and Butterfly ran the op to get Canary free of the Pitt. Turns out those dump trucks full of thermite hadn't been a joke, and they were useful for burning through the barriers in the way. I didn't have to do much, beyond creating a few duplicates of Highwayman and Butterfly now and again, and using them to shut down remote security or distract or fight guards. The benefits of having friends who were good at their jobs... Canary was retrieved, protesting to start, but given a brief explanation and a choice she ended up going with them. Reluctantly, but that was fine. Between the cosmetic surgery-equivalent I could offer her and the fake ID's my friends could generate, she had a fresh start elsewhere if she wanted. Or if she wanted to stay in the game, my friends were willing to offer her a spot. Her choice.
In the dimness of the early morning, I finally managed to disentangle Mouse Protector and Ravager. Now in the bodies of children, they shivered on the cold concrete floor. Their brains had been so warped and traumatized that I'd had to go back to their childhoods to find a place where they'd be stable and sane going forward. Well, as far as I could tell, anyway. I'd done what I could, edited out the tainted parts. What was left was somewhere around 9 or 10 years old. I couldn't give them back their old lives, but I could give them a fresh start on the new ones.
I took their hands, clothed them in plant fiber smocks, and walked out into the daylight. They blinked, and I patiently handled their questions and reactions. "No, I'm sorry. I don't know where your parents are. No, I'm sorry, I can't explain, it... No, I'm sorry, it'll be fine. Hey, hey, don't cry, huh? C'mon. We got this. Yes, yes you can have ice cream. Yes, the police will help you, that's where we're going now, to the special police."
The Manassas PRT building was less touristy than Brockton Bay's, all steel and glass and whitewashed linoleum tile floor. I smiled at the lady behind the desk. "Hi. I'm Demiurge. This is what's left of Mouse Protector and Ravager. Let's talk."
That was a fun five minutes. The kids were whisked away. I answered questions about the kids, keeping it broad and telling what had been done to them. Saying what I'd done to fix them, and watching the chemicals of alarm and horror starting to rise within the brains of the listening officers as they realized the amount of power involved with this feat. They asked me to come to a conference room, to talk with the local Protectorate team leader, and I declined.
"I'm not a hero. And he or she is busy enough, I'm quite sure. Now if you'll excuse me..."
They followed me when I left. And as I walked, something passed my relays near Maryland. Something fast and flying, and with weird biology. Alexandria? I wasn't ready to talk with her yet. Not in this phase.
I walked toward a tree growing off to the side of the street, made the trunk of it open like a mouth and engulf me, and was gone.
-----
The papers the next morning had no headlines, beyond a note that the Red Velvet Suites were closed for renovation. I smiled to see it. Good ol' Cauldron, so predictable. I'd felt Shatterbird and Manton leave my range that night, just there one second and gone the next. They'd be taken to Doctor Mother for further scrutiny... And the microbes I'd sent with them would separate, and do the jobs they'd been programmed to do after eliminating traces of their presence on their carrier hosts. Unless something went horribly wrong, I'd have my entrance into the Cauldron facility ready and waiting when Phase Six rolled around. So long as Blank did its job, they wouldn't notice a thing.
As long as nothing went wrong.
This was the Wormverse. I couldn't bank on that. So I went back to my alternate plans, and checked my range. Not far to China now... I'd gotten to parts of the ocean that weren't monitored too well, so I could amp my sporefish speed without anyone likely to notice.
At one point I brushed against the slumbering Leviathan and shivered. His biology was... Alien. I didn't know how much of it I could mess with if I tried, or whether or not he or his little sister would notice. I left him be. If I succeeded then it wouldn't matter.
China grew closer by the minute, and I sat back and weighed the good I'd done with the bad I'd done. Was it enough?
I could do a little better.
I borrowed Violet's laptop and started to browse the internet, looking up fun facts on satellites and orbital dynamics...
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Jeez that Shaper power is terrifying and with Invictus activated it quickly becomes I-dont-give-a-fuck mode.
Sad that Lisa ultimately fears Demiurge but understandable, he simply has to much power for her to trust.
Oh, that was satisfying.
Sad that Lisa ultimately fears Demiurge but understandable, he simply has to much power for her to trust.
You troll.
I wonder what that could be for. Deorbiting the Simurgh? Setting up Orbital relays for an eventual space fight? Looking to put backups on the moon or beyond? Seeking for a way to help Scion get to his next planet without blowing up the sun? Putting up biologically created infrastructure to gift Earth-bet the stars when you leave? Because who else is going to be capable of, or prepared enough to fight against the rest of the Entities species across the stars and realities?
-edited for clarity-
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- Location
- ROB's House
That made up for every bit of moral annoyances earlier in the story. Best chapter ever!
Invictus
For those days where you wanna be a badass.
Hm , this part confuses me on a second read.
How does Demiurge remind Sarah of her dad?
From what I got out of canon Sarah's dad/family wanted to use her for his selfish means, while Demiurge has made it apparent to her and her power that he wants Sarah's help to aid the world.
I wonder if that is even possible?
Their species reproduces at a staggering rate all across the limited Multiverse, hunting down every last one would be extremely difficult.
Perhaps with inspired Inventor/Power Manipulation and Shattered Limiter he could do it.
Unless he copies Edens and Scion's shards, refines them and begins a reverse cycle of empowering various races and subtly manipulating them to work together?
Heh, Demiurge the Bizzaro entity.
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Pheromones.
No capital letter on the second word.
Thanks for the chapter!
BrokenAscendent
Unum prae omnibus aliis
- Location
- Auld Lang Syne
Hilarious, demands an interlude for alexandria, cauldron and the two police, name em jim and harry.
The goals are different, but both are older men who are using and valuing her only for her powers (or at least that's the perception she has).
- Location
- Madison, WI
This is my favorite part of the chapter.
REAPING 2.3
I'd always wanted to see Hongkong. That glittering city, the towering skyscrapers, the teeming masses of life below, the fleets of junks and the markets that never closed.
Wormverse Hongkong was a disappointment.
Oh yeah. Japan, Endbringer, devastation of nearby ports... By the looks of it, Hongkong had been languishing ever since. And given that the CUI was more of a hardliner in this continuity then back at home, I supposed I shouldn't be surprised that the place was a shadow of what I'd heard about back home. Cameras all over the place, troops in the streets, everyone looking pale and hungry. So many of the tall buildings were falling to bits or were abandoned.
I was a bit entertained to see that Kowloon was still around in this continuity. The infamous walled city without laws or government... Here it was kept free of interference by a small group of capes who called themselves the Western Tigers. A proper hive of scum and villainy, it was known for being a place to acquire anything you could imagine. They played the game, bribed the CUI officials they needed to bribe, and made sure that Kowloon business never interfered with the Emperor's desires.
And it was one of those Tigers I was meeting today.
Since I'd upgraded my brain to accomodate the alterations necessary for the relays, I had no problems adding in a few things here and there... The main Chinese dialects, Japanese for my cover, the local cultures, customs, and mores as distilled from a selection of locals that met my age range and demographic. A few snippets of memories that weren't mine, and a little practice with my assumed powers, and I was good to go.
I was Jimmy Han. Smuggler, snakehead, and occasional dealer in tinkertech among the ruins of what had been Japan. A face for one of the criminal organizations that had survived the island's drowning, and half-chinese. Money and a web of lies had gotten me an introduction to One Sun Glory, the Western Tiger who had deigned to grant me an audience today.
I looked at the sign bearing a simple number "4" above the old church through aviator sunglasses, letting my gaze drop to the bodyguards dressed in white, their faces masked with demon masks out of Buddhist mythology. White was considered an unlucky color in this part of the world, as was four. The color of death, the number of death too. But it was appropriate, for his power. And it engendered fear among those he fought.
His men showed, simply by wearing the white robes, that they did not fear death.
I adjusted my suit, bowed, and offered my card in the bizarre British/Chinese mix that was his preferred way of doing business. One of my servants, a veiled girl of perhaps twelve, offered the gift I had brought. The other one folded her hands nervously into her golden dress. The guards gave no sign of emotion as they took the gift, opened it, and handed it back into the church.
After a time, four guards emerged and beckoned with gauntleted hands. These were actually armed, I noticed. Steyr TMP's by the look of it... My father would have drooled. I simply followed them without hesitation, and the girls fell in behind me, as was proper.
One Sun Glory met me at the altar, curtained off from the rest of the main structure. There were no crosses in sight that I could see, but an image of buddha sat elevated high in the room, the eyes of the statue covered with a cloth bandanna. The man himself bore robes of white, his nails silver and long. Gold adorned him, chains and rings and necklaces, and the high black hat of a minister rose from his head. His face was hidden behind a mask that was in the shape of a golden wheel. He sat to the side of the Buddha, on a lacquered wooden chair that put him an inch higher than the statue.
Jimmy Han's manufactured memories told me that this was presumption of the highest order. That by blinding Buddha and taking the wheel of reincarnation upon himself, he was stating that his path was superior.
I noted that my gift had been placed to his side, untouched. That was ominous.
Nonetheless, I kowtowed, and when his nails rattled as he made motions with the fingers of his right hand, I rose to my knees. Behind me my girls stayed with their heads to the ground.
"Mr. Han."
I kept my face expressionless. The language was english, but the mannerisms were Chinese. It was a difficult mix for me, and I was glad for my borrowed memories. "Sir."
"We may need to discuss your arrangements for transportation."
"Of course. Hopefully, there is no trouble, sir."
"No, no. Your payment was in order. The items you requested were... Esoteric, but within our grasp."
He tapped his fingernails on the armrest of his chair. "However, Jimmy... The travel arrangements were for you, and two others. They were assumed to be adults when we made the arrangements."
I nodded once. "Sadly, sir, my usual contact only had Jiao and Li Hua here to offer. Fortunately they take to training... Well."
I put my hand to the leftmost girl, let it linger on her back. I'd let some unsavory rumors circulate about Jimmy Han, to discourage people looking too closely at his background.
My senses felt her anger roil. Ah, she'd get me back for that later. Still, the emotion helped sell the cover, as One Sun Glory picked up on it, and chuckled. He had a deep voice when it came down to it, deeper than my regular one.
"Aaaaaah. Well Mister Han, that's a problem. As you well know, it is more difficult to... Convince eyes to look elsewhere, when children are involved."
Ah. So that's why there was no gift. I owed him for this, from his perspective. I closed my eyes. "Of course, sir. I can offer... More."
So, it turns out heroin is easy to make and refine when you've got the powers of a god of nature.
I'd given the White Tigers a few hundred thousand bricks of the finest stuff for the services to date. For the parts, for the esoteric tools, for the raw materials, and most importantly for the antiquated freighter that we'd use to get out of here. After arranging the deal with a lower-level functionary, I'd departed for "A pleasureable vacation" inland. There I'd found my companions, and through various shenanigans, returned them here with none the wiser. But now we were hitting difficulties. Something had tipped the Tigers off. Or maybe they'd planned to put the squeeze on me all along.
We'd gotten back to our rented quarters in Kowloon, and waited days. We were supposed to leave after two. It was day six.
"Quite," he said, and stood, his feet sliding down the chair. Out of the corners of my eye, I saw the guards shift... Two moving to flank him, two putting them between me and the exit.
"However," he continued, "it is not a matter of quantity." And as I felt the loathing in his emotions, I swore to myself. A tap of his memories confirmed it... I'd made myself out to be too vile. And from his perspective I was vile enough to be scorned, and weak enough to be cheated.
"No Mister Han, your ship awaits, but you will board it alone."
I put my hands on the girl's backs, and rose. They rose with me. I was kicking myself for stupidity... By all accounts the Tigers were bastards, but I'd overestimated their moral delinquency. Didn't do enough homework.
"I see." I nudged the girls toward him. They approached hesitantly, and he stretched his hands out to rest them on their heads.
I shook. "Of course, sir. May I ask the name of my ship?" I put a quaver in my voice, and a tremble in my lip. He was still a bully, and seeing me as weak would put him in a good mood.
"Of course. It is the Song Hua. You will find it most accomodatinAAAAHHHH!!!!"
Kim had tazed him. Jammed her tinkertech stunner into his crotch and let fly.
Nagase whirled, and threw what looked like a doll toward one of the bodyguards. It was growing as it hit the ground, ceramic sliding aside to reveal the joints and plating of the miniaturized mecha beneath.
I closed my eyes. Goddamit.
I whipped around and punched the first guard behind me in the solar plexus. The other one whipped a knife out and cut me, before I managed to grab his throat and squeeze. I hit them both with a bull-strength dose of opiates, then applied it to the bodyguards still standing...
I turned around to find I needn't have bothered. Robodoll was currently kicking one downed bodyguard, and Kim had gotten the other before he could react. But it had made noise, and I could *feel* the other guards approaching. Fast.
"I could have gotten you back afterward!" I yelled, pulling off the sunglasses. "He wouldn't have hurt you!"
"I'm not taking it up the ass from this freak!" Kim yelled, her voice all wrong for a twelve-year old. I sighed, and shook my head. It had been so easy, dropping duplicates of them in their cells, and shrinking them down to child size to disguise them once I'd gotten the real ones free. Really, finding them had been the hardest part, followed by the cloak and dagger infiltration once they were located. I'd come perilously close to breaking my no mindrape rule several times, but fortunately knockout juice didn't count.
Unfortunate fact of life: Hard-looking businessmen hauling underaged girls through mainland China don't get looked at twice. Everyone knows the score, no one wants to look too hard at it. At least in the wormverse. But here in Kowloon, I HAD to hit the one villain with some scruples there...
The first guards burst in, and I pulled the thornshooters. They looked like nine millimeter pistols from the outside. Inside the casing they were organic guns with regenerating ammunition, tipped with knockout poison. I let them have it, dove for cover as they opened fire in return.
"Let me get us out of here at least. The ship can't be far!"
"I'll find it!" Nagase drew and threw what looked like a grenade... And shrieked as bullets riddled her.
"FUCK!" I shouted, and kicked in the specialized neural net I'd installed. The world slowed down...
I healed Nagase's wounds as I moved, shot each of the guards two times. They were One Sun Glory's, they'd be tougher than normal. It was one reason I had dosed the original bodyguards so strongly. His power enhanced them. Made them tougher, stronger, meaner than most. Equal to low-level brutes, and he could amp it up as he wished.
I'd wondered, when I first found out about him, why the CUI hadn't snatched him up. After I found out about the downside, I wondered no more.
I shot my way through the church with apologies to John Woo, the girls following behind me. Nagase's "grenade" folded itself out from a ball, growing rotors and whirring off into the night sky. A little spy drone, and the best she'd been able to do with the tools we had. Robodoll had been trickier, and I had taken a risk getting her the parts she wanted, but I'd had to prove goodwill somehow and the sisters seemed to relax once they were armed again.
Freakin' Kim. Had to go and use my goodwill to taze the local high muckety-muck in the crotch.
At any rate, we fought. I could have cheated in so many ways, but I didn't. Jimmy Han's guns and two-fisted lightning style put paid to the opposition, and when someone actually DID score hits on us, instant healing made it look like a near miss. After a time Nagase's drone found the Song Hua, and we detoured Kowloon Bay. As we ran down the pier, the girls under my arms and the surviving opposition behind us, I felt some of the knocked out guards getting back up.
One Sun Glory, you goddamn proud idiot. I closed my eyes and sighed.
The Song Hua was a fishing trawler, about middling-sized. Big enough for the tools in its holds, small enough to move at a pretty good clip. I ran up the gangplank, flipped it up, and threw off the mooring ropes. Nagase and Kim fled to the cabin, and started the ship moving.
And as we pulled away, white-robed figures leaped up out of the city, and started bounding through the piers, legs pumping as if they were running on air. To my lifesenses they glowed with brilliant, vibrating energy.
One Sun Glory could enhance his troops, yes. At the cost of incredible strain and wear, the higher they were enhanced. If a teen entered One Sun Glory's service, he usually lasted about four battles before dying of a heart attack or stroke, his now aged and withered body more appropriate for a centenarian. It was why white was his color...
He gave his troops glory, but oh the cost. And not a good one for the Yangban, not until they had someone in their ranks to counter the downside, anyway.
I'd tried to settle this without breaking cover, but after thinking about it I saw a loophole. Kim had hit him with a tinkertech taser... It wasn't impossible that sort of thing could have a delayed effect... I reached back into Kowloon, found the now-conscious and angry One Sun Glory, and sent stabbing pains through his crotch before knocking him out again. The figures pursuing us fell mid-leap, grounded as their boosts faded.
As I turned, two more flying figures launched themselves from the main isle, heading Kowloon-ward. Figures armored in red. Yangban.
My breath hissed through my teeth. We'd stopped firing once out of the Walled City, stuck to the streets... No, the leapers had drawn their attention. But if they got the story too soon, that could cause all sorts of problems.
Well. Distraction time.
I started forming the creature below the bay. Flesh piled upon flesh, growing from biomass, extruding upward... Until a dragon's head breached the water, sending nearby boats washing away.
It roared out a challenge, and the Yangban swooped down, as every vessel in the water booked it in all directions. By the time the dragon fell, we were out and gone.
-----
"That could have gone better," I remarked in the mess hall of the fishing trawler. I'd gone to work with biomass, putting a spackle of plant material over the hull to simulate paint, giving it an outer coating, and using bone structures to change the profile of the ship. It now looked like a small cruise ship, was named the "Periwinkle", and moved quite a lot better thanks to the fleshy flukes on the underside. We were outside of CUI territorial waters, and on the open sea.
Kim and Nagase Cho, now returned to their natural forms and clothed in plant fibers of my making, ignored me in favor of tucking into the cans of ravioli we'd found in the cupboards. I'd offered to grow them fresh food, but they were still a little squicked about the idea. Eh, so be it.
Another plane roared overhead, and I checked the emotions of the pilot. Nope, nothing suspicious. We didn't match the profile he was looking for.
I lowered my gaze to find Kim staring at me. "Problem?" I asked.
"I'm still not happy about you giving them that much heroin," she said. "That shit ruins lives. The places we grew up, each of us knows families who lost loved ones and friends due to it."
I blinked. "Oh. Is that all? Give me a second."
I felt around until I found the seeds I'd left in the packaging of the bricks. Yeah, he'd kept it all in one place, most of it. Didn't want to flood the market all at once. From there I eyejacked around until I figured out where it was, grew a body nearby, gave it something that looked like a gas can full of organic kerosene. I waited a bit to make sure I had the guard patterns down, then coated the shipping crates it was in before setting fire to them.
"There. Destroyed." She looked suspicious. I sighed, pulled out an organic projector, and synched it to one of the panicking guards. The wall of the trawler flickered to life with a projection of his eyesight... They were watching it from a distance. Smart, as breathing high concentrations of burning drugs'll kill ya.
I added sound, and Kim laughed as the guards speculated about how much the Tigers would ream their ass for this. Meanwhile I let them catch a glimpse of my fake arsonist fleeing the scene, and it turned into a chase for a little while there. Even Nagase cracked a smile.
She was the more solemn of the two. Shy, where her sister was bold. Contemplative, where her sister would ask questions. They balanced each other well.
Finally the pursuit ended, and I plucked the projector back, melding it into my hand. Kim watched it go with a shudder. "I still think that's creepy as hell."
"Yeah," I said. "I don't think of it much anymore."
"Powers like this, I'm inclined to wonder why you need us in the first place. You're top-class."
I nodded. "Yes. But I can't do everything. And I won't be around forever. To leave a legacy, I'll need your help. And the help of a lot of other people, while we're at it. I can get humanity started, but following through is going to be up to the generations to come."
Nagase was tense. "It sounds... What is it you want?"
"The moon."
They looked to each other, looked at me. I shrugged. "Did you know it's only about two-hundred and forty thousand miles up? That's a good distance for my relays and support organisms, but not impossible if I chain them in orbit, and set more out there in the void. Oh, it'll take time, but I can start the network growing. And once they're in place... Terraforming organisms, skyhooks, things to give it an atmosphere. Solar power's easy to come by, and I can generate enough raw biomass to give that ball of rock an atmosphere all its own."
I sighed. "But it's up to humanity to go from there. That's where you come in. Spacesuits, space shuttles, habitats... You can do a good chunk of that. Oh, and weapons, too. There's always going to be stupid people with guns or powers. And too much at stake for the usual bullshit. We're goin' up Heinlein style, and the rest of the species can follow or get out of the way." I shrugged. "Once we make it profitable enough they'll follow anyway."
Kim shook her head. "The Simurgh will have your ass."
My grin was devoid of humor. "Ziz will not be a problem by the time I'm through, one way or the other. I have plans."
"You ask much," said Nagase.
"And I offer much. Come on, let me show you the hold."
They followed, curious. And when they saw the top-grade industrial equipment sitting next to stacks of steel girders and boxes full of circuitry and more esoteric components, their twin shrieks of glee were fun to hear.
Kim dove in immediately. Nagase hesitated, looked back. "Your terms?"
"Build what you like. I've left some notes on what I want to see for the future. So long as you work on the things I need every now and then, I'll provide more resources and support. Call me with this gesture, three times in front of a mirror if you want to talk or a problem comes up." I showed her the motion, like the jerking of a bus pull cord. "In the meantime, go where you please, sail where you will. I have friends and allies making sure the boat has the appropriate papers to go anywhere, and you have fake ID's waiting if you head to America. We're working on other nations, but it's taking time."
She tilted her head. "You are not staying?"
"I'll be back in to check from time to time. But I'll always be watching. Hell, the me you see is just one of many bodies."
She looked me up and down, in blatant appraisal. I looked away. Maybe not as shy as I thought, that one.
Maybe I should flirt back?
When I had figured out a good response, I turned back to find her gone, hard at work next to her sister and ignoring me. I shook my head and made my exit. Eh, it was for the best anyway.
-----
I caught up with Highwayman, Butterfly, and Canary in the safehouse near Lake Cayuga. They've ditched the one outside of Putnam, given their recent high-profile job and the money from my fruits, it's no great loss. I do mourn the location a bit.
The new safehouse at least has a kickin' view. Canary's a hesitant, gentle woman who's currently got black-dyed hair and a worried expression when she meets me. I shook her hand with a smile, and headed out to the back porch to look at the water. After a while, Violet and Mark joined me, flanking me to either side on the railing. "She settling in?" I asked.
"Yeah. It's taking her a while to cope with the notion that she's going to be on the run. Doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. Doesn't have too many skills to fall back on that don't involve singing."
"Think she'll join you?"
"It'll definitely pay the best out of her options. But she's not a combatant, we'd have to train her, and she's nervous about the notion of violence in general." Mark sighs. "It's a damn shame. We get along pretty well."
"I sleep with earplugs now, they get along so well." Violet grinned. "Girl's a screamer."
He punched her shoulder, and she hit him back, and I scrunched in trying to not get hit as they pummelled each other around me. Finally I'm laughing hard enough as I raised my hands, and pushed them away from each other. "Easy there. Don't muss the suit."
"Been meaning to ask... Why are you asian?"
"Oh." I'd honestly forgotten. My face snapped back to its regular shape. "My mistake."
Watching through the glass doors of the kitchen, I saw Canary's eyes grow wide. I shrugged at her and gave a small smile, and she made her way out to join us. Bless her, she brought along a bowl of popcorn. I took it and munched, as Mark cracked open a microcooler and we enjoyed a drink as the sun set against the lake.
"I've been giving it some thought," I said. "With the sisters on board, there's no further reason to hold off on the Legacy plan. That means stepping up production on the various plant lines. Making reproducing specimens, finding people to market them. Can't keep using the black and grey markets forever, and Toybox probably won't play ball, if they're like you said. Besides, the sisters will need parts if we're to colonize the moon."
"Toybox is pretty exclusive," said Mark. "Don't know where you got the idea they were nice or easy to work with."
I nodded. "Kim and Nagase confirmed it when I asked them why they hadn't sought sanctuary there. I guess I just had some notions... But the reason I point this out... Ah, how to say it. Violet, you told me once that there were no old capes? Something like that?"
She nodded. "No one ever retires. Well, maybe one in a million gets lucky, but the life expectancy shrinks as the years go on." A shadow passes over Violet's face. Canary looks away.
"What if I told you I might be able to do something about the aggressive tendencies that powers give?" I mused. "Maybe. Would you be willing to settle down, then?" Canary nodded. Mark shrugged. Violet thought hard, staring at her laager. "I'd have to see how I felt when I came to it, you know? If it's as subtle as you say, I don't know how long the power's been influencing me. I'd have to see if I'm literally a different person without the push to conflict."
"Yeah. I feel ya." I poured a shot of whiskey, downed it. Mark took a shot as well. "If you do... I need people to run the corps that we're setting up. Good people, people I can trust to see it through. But it'd be good, steady money. Nothing illegal about it." I shifted my eyes over to Canary, and she smiled. "We could use a good spokeswoman if you're interested."
"I... My voice is fairly distinctive."
"I can change that if you want. Same with your features."
She sighed. "How long do I have to think about it?"
I checked the progress of my relays. "Perhaps a week. After that, things get fun and the endgame starts."
Leviathan hits May 15th, according to my memory of continuity. I want to have things wrapped up before then, so he never shows.
She nodded, and I felt a flush of pity for her. "Hey, don't sweat it. I'm working on a berry that'll let you rearrange your own features at will. You can always shift it back later if you don't like it." She seemed mollified by that.
Mark put his chin in his hands.
He spoke after a while. "You're talking about transhumanism. Some of these things you're making..."
"Yeah. Being able to shift at will has opened my eyes. Having complete mastery of your body would open up so many options for people, make so many folks happy. Settle so many problems."
"And create more," interrupted Violet. "I could see a ton of issues with that gender-flip fruit alone..."
I grinned. "Eh, it's the human way to abuse new technology. It'd happen sooner or later anyway. This way, you get to make pots of money on it."
"Speaking of that, have you been out on PHO lately?" Violet asked. "There's a lot of buzz about someone called the Demiurge, conspiracy theories tying him to some pretty wild stuff."
I raised an eyebrow. "No, actually. Hm." I remembered my login name, when I first got here. Whoops... "Don't suppose you've got a burner tablet around?"
"Sure..."
-----
I was in the middle of looking over the threads speculating about me, when I get a request for a private chat.
From Dragon.
I exhale a long breath. Well, what the hell. I hit "Y", and get bumped to private chat.
Gonna have to be careful, here. Anything I say here, Saint will learn. Although he's a minor threat to my plans, at this point.
>LostDemiurge
Hey there.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Thanks for responding.
>LostDemiurge
No problem. I'm honored.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
If you're the person I'm thinking you might be, the feeling's mutual. Though I have to verify it, of course.
>LostDemiurge
Okay...
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Can you tell me what happened at the Red Velvet Suites?
>LostDemiurge
The Slaughterhouse Nine happened. I noticed, and got pissed about it. Copious usage of my powers followed.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
And what powers are those?
>LostDemiurge
Biology.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
That's kind of vague. Biological tinker?
>LostDemiurge
No. Complete and total control of biology.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
I'll take that as verification. It matches some of the effects we were able to confirm. So, I have to ask... Why Raoul Duke?
>LostDemiurge
Technically, Hunter S. Thompson. He's one of my favorite authors. Well, some of his work. It was a bit of an homage.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
It's certainly an interesting costume.
>LostDemiurge
Not really a costume. Just the clothes I felt like wearing. I'm not a hero, not a villain, not a rogue. Just a guy. Or girl, depending on what I feel like.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
And yet you did what hundreds of heroes before you failed to do... Are you sure about that?
>LostDemiurge
Lady... I'll let you in on a secret. I've got an on-off switch for my conviction. When it's on, I'm not slowed down by anything, regardless of the horribleness involved. I haven't turned it off since that hotel, because I know I'll never sleep right again if I do.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Would it surprise you to know that many heroes would say the same? The Nine have broken many, many people. But you stopped that, forever. I think it's safe to call you a hero.
>LostDemiurge
Mm. You can only really get a sense of victory over things that you have to work for. The Nine were easy to me. Now, Mouse Protector and Ravager... That I felt a victory over. Small as it was. How are they doing, by the way?
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Fostered out to a good home. The PRT tried to split them up, but they're inseperable. They'll be raised with love and respect... The foster mother was saved by Mouse Protector years ago. I have it on good authority her foster-brother loves them both.
I smiled. Good. Maybe someone else could have done better, but all things told that wasn't a bad outcome.
>LostDemiurge
Thank you. I'm glad.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
So, an on-off switch for your conviction? Sounds interesting.
>LostDemiurge
Not telling you about my weaknesses, lady. Nice try.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
How about off-season fish migrations? Know anything about that? ::Sly smile::
Shit. Of course she'd notice, especially the ones that jetted along at 90 MPH a week ago.
>LostDemiurge
Ah, yeah, my fault there. Had to set something up to save some friends. Don't worry, I'm done with that.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
I think it'd be good to talk face to face. The Triumvirate would very much like to meet you. Congratulate you for what you've done, talk about future help.
I thought about it. It was still too early...
>LostDemiurge
Honestly, I'm a pretty low-key guy. I don't know if I'm comfortable with that.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Is there anything I can do to help make you more comfortable?
>LostDemiurge
Eh... Let me ask you a question. Do great powers come with great responsibility?
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
I would like to say yes, but that's not always the case. In my estimation, great powers only add great complexity to the lives of those who receive them.
>LostDemiurge
Yeah. No lie there. ::Sighs:: Thanks for being honest.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
If not them, would you like to meet with me? I could send a suit pretty much anywhere within North America, with advance notice.
>LostDemiurge
Let me ask you something in return. Do you think humanity's future lies in the stars?
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Goodness. I think it's a possible future. Of course, the Simurgh is a large obstacle to an already formidable task.
>LostDemiurge
Is it a good one?
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
I'd like to think so. Asimov wrote a lot of interesting stories, I'd like to think that some of them could come true once we get through the current time of troubles.
>LostDemiurge
Then I tell you what. I'll meet with you in three days. Yellowstone park, the Old Faithful Lodge. You can pick me up there.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
May I bring friends? And what time do you wish?
>LostDemiurge
Bring one. Not anyone in the Triumvirate, please. Someone you trust, who's skilled in technology. Don't worry about the time, I'll be on site before you get there and know when you arrive.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Thank you. I appreciate your trust.
>LostDemiurge
And I yours.
I logged off, and smiled. If I played my cards right, and if Saint took the bait...
I'd always wanted to see Hongkong. That glittering city, the towering skyscrapers, the teeming masses of life below, the fleets of junks and the markets that never closed.
Wormverse Hongkong was a disappointment.
Oh yeah. Japan, Endbringer, devastation of nearby ports... By the looks of it, Hongkong had been languishing ever since. And given that the CUI was more of a hardliner in this continuity then back at home, I supposed I shouldn't be surprised that the place was a shadow of what I'd heard about back home. Cameras all over the place, troops in the streets, everyone looking pale and hungry. So many of the tall buildings were falling to bits or were abandoned.
I was a bit entertained to see that Kowloon was still around in this continuity. The infamous walled city without laws or government... Here it was kept free of interference by a small group of capes who called themselves the Western Tigers. A proper hive of scum and villainy, it was known for being a place to acquire anything you could imagine. They played the game, bribed the CUI officials they needed to bribe, and made sure that Kowloon business never interfered with the Emperor's desires.
And it was one of those Tigers I was meeting today.
Since I'd upgraded my brain to accomodate the alterations necessary for the relays, I had no problems adding in a few things here and there... The main Chinese dialects, Japanese for my cover, the local cultures, customs, and mores as distilled from a selection of locals that met my age range and demographic. A few snippets of memories that weren't mine, and a little practice with my assumed powers, and I was good to go.
I was Jimmy Han. Smuggler, snakehead, and occasional dealer in tinkertech among the ruins of what had been Japan. A face for one of the criminal organizations that had survived the island's drowning, and half-chinese. Money and a web of lies had gotten me an introduction to One Sun Glory, the Western Tiger who had deigned to grant me an audience today.
I looked at the sign bearing a simple number "4" above the old church through aviator sunglasses, letting my gaze drop to the bodyguards dressed in white, their faces masked with demon masks out of Buddhist mythology. White was considered an unlucky color in this part of the world, as was four. The color of death, the number of death too. But it was appropriate, for his power. And it engendered fear among those he fought.
His men showed, simply by wearing the white robes, that they did not fear death.
I adjusted my suit, bowed, and offered my card in the bizarre British/Chinese mix that was his preferred way of doing business. One of my servants, a veiled girl of perhaps twelve, offered the gift I had brought. The other one folded her hands nervously into her golden dress. The guards gave no sign of emotion as they took the gift, opened it, and handed it back into the church.
After a time, four guards emerged and beckoned with gauntleted hands. These were actually armed, I noticed. Steyr TMP's by the look of it... My father would have drooled. I simply followed them without hesitation, and the girls fell in behind me, as was proper.
One Sun Glory met me at the altar, curtained off from the rest of the main structure. There were no crosses in sight that I could see, but an image of buddha sat elevated high in the room, the eyes of the statue covered with a cloth bandanna. The man himself bore robes of white, his nails silver and long. Gold adorned him, chains and rings and necklaces, and the high black hat of a minister rose from his head. His face was hidden behind a mask that was in the shape of a golden wheel. He sat to the side of the Buddha, on a lacquered wooden chair that put him an inch higher than the statue.
Jimmy Han's manufactured memories told me that this was presumption of the highest order. That by blinding Buddha and taking the wheel of reincarnation upon himself, he was stating that his path was superior.
I noted that my gift had been placed to his side, untouched. That was ominous.
Nonetheless, I kowtowed, and when his nails rattled as he made motions with the fingers of his right hand, I rose to my knees. Behind me my girls stayed with their heads to the ground.
"Mr. Han."
I kept my face expressionless. The language was english, but the mannerisms were Chinese. It was a difficult mix for me, and I was glad for my borrowed memories. "Sir."
"We may need to discuss your arrangements for transportation."
"Of course. Hopefully, there is no trouble, sir."
"No, no. Your payment was in order. The items you requested were... Esoteric, but within our grasp."
He tapped his fingernails on the armrest of his chair. "However, Jimmy... The travel arrangements were for you, and two others. They were assumed to be adults when we made the arrangements."
I nodded once. "Sadly, sir, my usual contact only had Jiao and Li Hua here to offer. Fortunately they take to training... Well."
I put my hand to the leftmost girl, let it linger on her back. I'd let some unsavory rumors circulate about Jimmy Han, to discourage people looking too closely at his background.
My senses felt her anger roil. Ah, she'd get me back for that later. Still, the emotion helped sell the cover, as One Sun Glory picked up on it, and chuckled. He had a deep voice when it came down to it, deeper than my regular one.
"Aaaaaah. Well Mister Han, that's a problem. As you well know, it is more difficult to... Convince eyes to look elsewhere, when children are involved."
Ah. So that's why there was no gift. I owed him for this, from his perspective. I closed my eyes. "Of course, sir. I can offer... More."
So, it turns out heroin is easy to make and refine when you've got the powers of a god of nature.
I'd given the White Tigers a few hundred thousand bricks of the finest stuff for the services to date. For the parts, for the esoteric tools, for the raw materials, and most importantly for the antiquated freighter that we'd use to get out of here. After arranging the deal with a lower-level functionary, I'd departed for "A pleasureable vacation" inland. There I'd found my companions, and through various shenanigans, returned them here with none the wiser. But now we were hitting difficulties. Something had tipped the Tigers off. Or maybe they'd planned to put the squeeze on me all along.
We'd gotten back to our rented quarters in Kowloon, and waited days. We were supposed to leave after two. It was day six.
"Quite," he said, and stood, his feet sliding down the chair. Out of the corners of my eye, I saw the guards shift... Two moving to flank him, two putting them between me and the exit.
"However," he continued, "it is not a matter of quantity." And as I felt the loathing in his emotions, I swore to myself. A tap of his memories confirmed it... I'd made myself out to be too vile. And from his perspective I was vile enough to be scorned, and weak enough to be cheated.
"No Mister Han, your ship awaits, but you will board it alone."
I put my hands on the girl's backs, and rose. They rose with me. I was kicking myself for stupidity... By all accounts the Tigers were bastards, but I'd overestimated their moral delinquency. Didn't do enough homework.
"I see." I nudged the girls toward him. They approached hesitantly, and he stretched his hands out to rest them on their heads.
I shook. "Of course, sir. May I ask the name of my ship?" I put a quaver in my voice, and a tremble in my lip. He was still a bully, and seeing me as weak would put him in a good mood.
"Of course. It is the Song Hua. You will find it most accomodatinAAAAHHHH!!!!"
Kim had tazed him. Jammed her tinkertech stunner into his crotch and let fly.
Nagase whirled, and threw what looked like a doll toward one of the bodyguards. It was growing as it hit the ground, ceramic sliding aside to reveal the joints and plating of the miniaturized mecha beneath.
I closed my eyes. Goddamit.
I whipped around and punched the first guard behind me in the solar plexus. The other one whipped a knife out and cut me, before I managed to grab his throat and squeeze. I hit them both with a bull-strength dose of opiates, then applied it to the bodyguards still standing...
I turned around to find I needn't have bothered. Robodoll was currently kicking one downed bodyguard, and Kim had gotten the other before he could react. But it had made noise, and I could *feel* the other guards approaching. Fast.
"I could have gotten you back afterward!" I yelled, pulling off the sunglasses. "He wouldn't have hurt you!"
"I'm not taking it up the ass from this freak!" Kim yelled, her voice all wrong for a twelve-year old. I sighed, and shook my head. It had been so easy, dropping duplicates of them in their cells, and shrinking them down to child size to disguise them once I'd gotten the real ones free. Really, finding them had been the hardest part, followed by the cloak and dagger infiltration once they were located. I'd come perilously close to breaking my no mindrape rule several times, but fortunately knockout juice didn't count.
Unfortunate fact of life: Hard-looking businessmen hauling underaged girls through mainland China don't get looked at twice. Everyone knows the score, no one wants to look too hard at it. At least in the wormverse. But here in Kowloon, I HAD to hit the one villain with some scruples there...
The first guards burst in, and I pulled the thornshooters. They looked like nine millimeter pistols from the outside. Inside the casing they were organic guns with regenerating ammunition, tipped with knockout poison. I let them have it, dove for cover as they opened fire in return.
"Let me get us out of here at least. The ship can't be far!"
"I'll find it!" Nagase drew and threw what looked like a grenade... And shrieked as bullets riddled her.
"FUCK!" I shouted, and kicked in the specialized neural net I'd installed. The world slowed down...
I healed Nagase's wounds as I moved, shot each of the guards two times. They were One Sun Glory's, they'd be tougher than normal. It was one reason I had dosed the original bodyguards so strongly. His power enhanced them. Made them tougher, stronger, meaner than most. Equal to low-level brutes, and he could amp it up as he wished.
I'd wondered, when I first found out about him, why the CUI hadn't snatched him up. After I found out about the downside, I wondered no more.
I shot my way through the church with apologies to John Woo, the girls following behind me. Nagase's "grenade" folded itself out from a ball, growing rotors and whirring off into the night sky. A little spy drone, and the best she'd been able to do with the tools we had. Robodoll had been trickier, and I had taken a risk getting her the parts she wanted, but I'd had to prove goodwill somehow and the sisters seemed to relax once they were armed again.
Freakin' Kim. Had to go and use my goodwill to taze the local high muckety-muck in the crotch.
At any rate, we fought. I could have cheated in so many ways, but I didn't. Jimmy Han's guns and two-fisted lightning style put paid to the opposition, and when someone actually DID score hits on us, instant healing made it look like a near miss. After a time Nagase's drone found the Song Hua, and we detoured Kowloon Bay. As we ran down the pier, the girls under my arms and the surviving opposition behind us, I felt some of the knocked out guards getting back up.
One Sun Glory, you goddamn proud idiot. I closed my eyes and sighed.
The Song Hua was a fishing trawler, about middling-sized. Big enough for the tools in its holds, small enough to move at a pretty good clip. I ran up the gangplank, flipped it up, and threw off the mooring ropes. Nagase and Kim fled to the cabin, and started the ship moving.
And as we pulled away, white-robed figures leaped up out of the city, and started bounding through the piers, legs pumping as if they were running on air. To my lifesenses they glowed with brilliant, vibrating energy.
One Sun Glory could enhance his troops, yes. At the cost of incredible strain and wear, the higher they were enhanced. If a teen entered One Sun Glory's service, he usually lasted about four battles before dying of a heart attack or stroke, his now aged and withered body more appropriate for a centenarian. It was why white was his color...
He gave his troops glory, but oh the cost. And not a good one for the Yangban, not until they had someone in their ranks to counter the downside, anyway.
I'd tried to settle this without breaking cover, but after thinking about it I saw a loophole. Kim had hit him with a tinkertech taser... It wasn't impossible that sort of thing could have a delayed effect... I reached back into Kowloon, found the now-conscious and angry One Sun Glory, and sent stabbing pains through his crotch before knocking him out again. The figures pursuing us fell mid-leap, grounded as their boosts faded.
As I turned, two more flying figures launched themselves from the main isle, heading Kowloon-ward. Figures armored in red. Yangban.
My breath hissed through my teeth. We'd stopped firing once out of the Walled City, stuck to the streets... No, the leapers had drawn their attention. But if they got the story too soon, that could cause all sorts of problems.
Well. Distraction time.
I started forming the creature below the bay. Flesh piled upon flesh, growing from biomass, extruding upward... Until a dragon's head breached the water, sending nearby boats washing away.
It roared out a challenge, and the Yangban swooped down, as every vessel in the water booked it in all directions. By the time the dragon fell, we were out and gone.
-----
"That could have gone better," I remarked in the mess hall of the fishing trawler. I'd gone to work with biomass, putting a spackle of plant material over the hull to simulate paint, giving it an outer coating, and using bone structures to change the profile of the ship. It now looked like a small cruise ship, was named the "Periwinkle", and moved quite a lot better thanks to the fleshy flukes on the underside. We were outside of CUI territorial waters, and on the open sea.
Kim and Nagase Cho, now returned to their natural forms and clothed in plant fibers of my making, ignored me in favor of tucking into the cans of ravioli we'd found in the cupboards. I'd offered to grow them fresh food, but they were still a little squicked about the idea. Eh, so be it.
Another plane roared overhead, and I checked the emotions of the pilot. Nope, nothing suspicious. We didn't match the profile he was looking for.
I lowered my gaze to find Kim staring at me. "Problem?" I asked.
"I'm still not happy about you giving them that much heroin," she said. "That shit ruins lives. The places we grew up, each of us knows families who lost loved ones and friends due to it."
I blinked. "Oh. Is that all? Give me a second."
I felt around until I found the seeds I'd left in the packaging of the bricks. Yeah, he'd kept it all in one place, most of it. Didn't want to flood the market all at once. From there I eyejacked around until I figured out where it was, grew a body nearby, gave it something that looked like a gas can full of organic kerosene. I waited a bit to make sure I had the guard patterns down, then coated the shipping crates it was in before setting fire to them.
"There. Destroyed." She looked suspicious. I sighed, pulled out an organic projector, and synched it to one of the panicking guards. The wall of the trawler flickered to life with a projection of his eyesight... They were watching it from a distance. Smart, as breathing high concentrations of burning drugs'll kill ya.
I added sound, and Kim laughed as the guards speculated about how much the Tigers would ream their ass for this. Meanwhile I let them catch a glimpse of my fake arsonist fleeing the scene, and it turned into a chase for a little while there. Even Nagase cracked a smile.
She was the more solemn of the two. Shy, where her sister was bold. Contemplative, where her sister would ask questions. They balanced each other well.
Finally the pursuit ended, and I plucked the projector back, melding it into my hand. Kim watched it go with a shudder. "I still think that's creepy as hell."
"Yeah," I said. "I don't think of it much anymore."
"Powers like this, I'm inclined to wonder why you need us in the first place. You're top-class."
I nodded. "Yes. But I can't do everything. And I won't be around forever. To leave a legacy, I'll need your help. And the help of a lot of other people, while we're at it. I can get humanity started, but following through is going to be up to the generations to come."
Nagase was tense. "It sounds... What is it you want?"
"The moon."
They looked to each other, looked at me. I shrugged. "Did you know it's only about two-hundred and forty thousand miles up? That's a good distance for my relays and support organisms, but not impossible if I chain them in orbit, and set more out there in the void. Oh, it'll take time, but I can start the network growing. And once they're in place... Terraforming organisms, skyhooks, things to give it an atmosphere. Solar power's easy to come by, and I can generate enough raw biomass to give that ball of rock an atmosphere all its own."
I sighed. "But it's up to humanity to go from there. That's where you come in. Spacesuits, space shuttles, habitats... You can do a good chunk of that. Oh, and weapons, too. There's always going to be stupid people with guns or powers. And too much at stake for the usual bullshit. We're goin' up Heinlein style, and the rest of the species can follow or get out of the way." I shrugged. "Once we make it profitable enough they'll follow anyway."
Kim shook her head. "The Simurgh will have your ass."
My grin was devoid of humor. "Ziz will not be a problem by the time I'm through, one way or the other. I have plans."
"You ask much," said Nagase.
"And I offer much. Come on, let me show you the hold."
They followed, curious. And when they saw the top-grade industrial equipment sitting next to stacks of steel girders and boxes full of circuitry and more esoteric components, their twin shrieks of glee were fun to hear.
Kim dove in immediately. Nagase hesitated, looked back. "Your terms?"
"Build what you like. I've left some notes on what I want to see for the future. So long as you work on the things I need every now and then, I'll provide more resources and support. Call me with this gesture, three times in front of a mirror if you want to talk or a problem comes up." I showed her the motion, like the jerking of a bus pull cord. "In the meantime, go where you please, sail where you will. I have friends and allies making sure the boat has the appropriate papers to go anywhere, and you have fake ID's waiting if you head to America. We're working on other nations, but it's taking time."
She tilted her head. "You are not staying?"
"I'll be back in to check from time to time. But I'll always be watching. Hell, the me you see is just one of many bodies."
She looked me up and down, in blatant appraisal. I looked away. Maybe not as shy as I thought, that one.
Maybe I should flirt back?
When I had figured out a good response, I turned back to find her gone, hard at work next to her sister and ignoring me. I shook my head and made my exit. Eh, it was for the best anyway.
-----
I caught up with Highwayman, Butterfly, and Canary in the safehouse near Lake Cayuga. They've ditched the one outside of Putnam, given their recent high-profile job and the money from my fruits, it's no great loss. I do mourn the location a bit.
The new safehouse at least has a kickin' view. Canary's a hesitant, gentle woman who's currently got black-dyed hair and a worried expression when she meets me. I shook her hand with a smile, and headed out to the back porch to look at the water. After a while, Violet and Mark joined me, flanking me to either side on the railing. "She settling in?" I asked.
"Yeah. It's taking her a while to cope with the notion that she's going to be on the run. Doesn't know what she wants to do with her life. Doesn't have too many skills to fall back on that don't involve singing."
"Think she'll join you?"
"It'll definitely pay the best out of her options. But she's not a combatant, we'd have to train her, and she's nervous about the notion of violence in general." Mark sighs. "It's a damn shame. We get along pretty well."
"I sleep with earplugs now, they get along so well." Violet grinned. "Girl's a screamer."
He punched her shoulder, and she hit him back, and I scrunched in trying to not get hit as they pummelled each other around me. Finally I'm laughing hard enough as I raised my hands, and pushed them away from each other. "Easy there. Don't muss the suit."
"Been meaning to ask... Why are you asian?"
"Oh." I'd honestly forgotten. My face snapped back to its regular shape. "My mistake."
Watching through the glass doors of the kitchen, I saw Canary's eyes grow wide. I shrugged at her and gave a small smile, and she made her way out to join us. Bless her, she brought along a bowl of popcorn. I took it and munched, as Mark cracked open a microcooler and we enjoyed a drink as the sun set against the lake.
"I've been giving it some thought," I said. "With the sisters on board, there's no further reason to hold off on the Legacy plan. That means stepping up production on the various plant lines. Making reproducing specimens, finding people to market them. Can't keep using the black and grey markets forever, and Toybox probably won't play ball, if they're like you said. Besides, the sisters will need parts if we're to colonize the moon."
"Toybox is pretty exclusive," said Mark. "Don't know where you got the idea they were nice or easy to work with."
I nodded. "Kim and Nagase confirmed it when I asked them why they hadn't sought sanctuary there. I guess I just had some notions... But the reason I point this out... Ah, how to say it. Violet, you told me once that there were no old capes? Something like that?"
She nodded. "No one ever retires. Well, maybe one in a million gets lucky, but the life expectancy shrinks as the years go on." A shadow passes over Violet's face. Canary looks away.
"What if I told you I might be able to do something about the aggressive tendencies that powers give?" I mused. "Maybe. Would you be willing to settle down, then?" Canary nodded. Mark shrugged. Violet thought hard, staring at her laager. "I'd have to see how I felt when I came to it, you know? If it's as subtle as you say, I don't know how long the power's been influencing me. I'd have to see if I'm literally a different person without the push to conflict."
"Yeah. I feel ya." I poured a shot of whiskey, downed it. Mark took a shot as well. "If you do... I need people to run the corps that we're setting up. Good people, people I can trust to see it through. But it'd be good, steady money. Nothing illegal about it." I shifted my eyes over to Canary, and she smiled. "We could use a good spokeswoman if you're interested."
"I... My voice is fairly distinctive."
"I can change that if you want. Same with your features."
She sighed. "How long do I have to think about it?"
I checked the progress of my relays. "Perhaps a week. After that, things get fun and the endgame starts."
Leviathan hits May 15th, according to my memory of continuity. I want to have things wrapped up before then, so he never shows.
She nodded, and I felt a flush of pity for her. "Hey, don't sweat it. I'm working on a berry that'll let you rearrange your own features at will. You can always shift it back later if you don't like it." She seemed mollified by that.
Mark put his chin in his hands.
He spoke after a while. "You're talking about transhumanism. Some of these things you're making..."
"Yeah. Being able to shift at will has opened my eyes. Having complete mastery of your body would open up so many options for people, make so many folks happy. Settle so many problems."
"And create more," interrupted Violet. "I could see a ton of issues with that gender-flip fruit alone..."
I grinned. "Eh, it's the human way to abuse new technology. It'd happen sooner or later anyway. This way, you get to make pots of money on it."
"Speaking of that, have you been out on PHO lately?" Violet asked. "There's a lot of buzz about someone called the Demiurge, conspiracy theories tying him to some pretty wild stuff."
I raised an eyebrow. "No, actually. Hm." I remembered my login name, when I first got here. Whoops... "Don't suppose you've got a burner tablet around?"
"Sure..."
-----
I was in the middle of looking over the threads speculating about me, when I get a request for a private chat.
From Dragon.
I exhale a long breath. Well, what the hell. I hit "Y", and get bumped to private chat.
Gonna have to be careful, here. Anything I say here, Saint will learn. Although he's a minor threat to my plans, at this point.
>LostDemiurge
Hey there.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Thanks for responding.
>LostDemiurge
No problem. I'm honored.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
If you're the person I'm thinking you might be, the feeling's mutual. Though I have to verify it, of course.
>LostDemiurge
Okay...
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Can you tell me what happened at the Red Velvet Suites?
>LostDemiurge
The Slaughterhouse Nine happened. I noticed, and got pissed about it. Copious usage of my powers followed.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
And what powers are those?
>LostDemiurge
Biology.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
That's kind of vague. Biological tinker?
>LostDemiurge
No. Complete and total control of biology.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
I'll take that as verification. It matches some of the effects we were able to confirm. So, I have to ask... Why Raoul Duke?
>LostDemiurge
Technically, Hunter S. Thompson. He's one of my favorite authors. Well, some of his work. It was a bit of an homage.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
It's certainly an interesting costume.
>LostDemiurge
Not really a costume. Just the clothes I felt like wearing. I'm not a hero, not a villain, not a rogue. Just a guy. Or girl, depending on what I feel like.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
And yet you did what hundreds of heroes before you failed to do... Are you sure about that?
>LostDemiurge
Lady... I'll let you in on a secret. I've got an on-off switch for my conviction. When it's on, I'm not slowed down by anything, regardless of the horribleness involved. I haven't turned it off since that hotel, because I know I'll never sleep right again if I do.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Would it surprise you to know that many heroes would say the same? The Nine have broken many, many people. But you stopped that, forever. I think it's safe to call you a hero.
>LostDemiurge
Mm. You can only really get a sense of victory over things that you have to work for. The Nine were easy to me. Now, Mouse Protector and Ravager... That I felt a victory over. Small as it was. How are they doing, by the way?
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Fostered out to a good home. The PRT tried to split them up, but they're inseperable. They'll be raised with love and respect... The foster mother was saved by Mouse Protector years ago. I have it on good authority her foster-brother loves them both.
I smiled. Good. Maybe someone else could have done better, but all things told that wasn't a bad outcome.
>LostDemiurge
Thank you. I'm glad.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
So, an on-off switch for your conviction? Sounds interesting.
>LostDemiurge
Not telling you about my weaknesses, lady.
Nice try.>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
How about off-season fish migrations? Know anything about that? ::Sly smile::
Shit. Of course she'd notice, especially the ones that jetted along at 90 MPH a week ago.
>LostDemiurge
Ah, yeah, my fault there. Had to set something up to save some friends. Don't worry, I'm done with that.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
I think it'd be good to talk face to face. The Triumvirate would very much like to meet you. Congratulate you for what you've done, talk about future help.
I thought about it. It was still too early...
>LostDemiurge
Honestly, I'm a pretty low-key guy. I don't know if I'm comfortable with that.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Is there anything I can do to help make you more comfortable?
>LostDemiurge
Eh... Let me ask you a question. Do great powers come with great responsibility?
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
I would like to say yes, but that's not always the case. In my estimation, great powers only add great complexity to the lives of those who receive them.
>LostDemiurge
Yeah. No lie there. ::Sighs:: Thanks for being honest.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
If not them, would you like to meet with me? I could send a suit pretty much anywhere within North America, with advance notice.
>LostDemiurge
Let me ask you something in return. Do you think humanity's future lies in the stars?
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Goodness. I think it's a possible future. Of course, the Simurgh is a large obstacle to an already formidable task.
>LostDemiurge
Is it a good one?
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
I'd like to think so. Asimov wrote a lot of interesting stories, I'd like to think that some of them could come true once we get through the current time of troubles.
>LostDemiurge
Then I tell you what. I'll meet with you in three days. Yellowstone park, the Old Faithful Lodge. You can pick me up there.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
May I bring friends? And what time do you wish?
>LostDemiurge
Bring one. Not anyone in the Triumvirate, please. Someone you trust, who's skilled in technology. Don't worry about the time, I'll be on site before you get there and know when you arrive.
>Dragon (Verified_Cape)
Thank you. I appreciate your trust.
>LostDemiurge
And I yours.
I logged off, and smiled. If I played my cards right, and if Saint took the bait...
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- Location
- ROB's House
Saint is going to get such a kick in the teeth haha
- Pronouns
- They/Them/It/Its
Another good chapter. Minor nitpick though:
As a Seneca County native, everyone calls it Cayuga Lake. Don't think I've ever heard anyone say it the other way round in my life.