Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
And Critical Hit. PRT fucks up yet again!
H+ Mayhem (Worm)
- Thread starter Jurric
- Start date
-
- Tags
- worm tinker transhumanism mayhem
1.5
- Location
- Australia
If I was going to join a gang that was morally dubious at best, and whose core philosophy I despised, I was going to need insurance.
I'd built up a lot of energy. Some from saving it over the last few weeks, most from the recent fights with the PRT. I didn't really have a way of measuring it, which was annoying, but I did know I had enough to seriously improve something. I could climb higher up the Human Augmentation tree, start learning how to cybernetically enhance limbs, get pretty close to full body replacement. I could continue up the Neural Enchantment tree, which mostly seemed to involve Master abilities, techniques for controlling someone with a neural or spinal chip.
I roved the schematics in my head and, eventually, one caught my eye. That could work…
I breached a new tree, and started buying the basic tools, knowledge, and techniques to become an 'Espionage' tinker. It wasn't anything terribly impressive yet. Some basic skills in the field, knowledge of how to mimic accents, how to move in ways that displayed confidence, assurance. Lock-picking, a bit of an improvement to my ability to hack computers. How to properly place and prepare some basic bombs. The bombs themselves were in the weapons tree, but they were very closely linked, I could probably snatch them from this tree without much hassle.
It was all subtle stuff, but very useful. There was some disguise tech further up the tree, before it started to branch into 'Electronic Espionage' 'Industrial Espionage' and 'Miniaturized Technology,' but I ignored that in favor of some basic chemical creation schematics and subtle tool creation skills.
I still don't quite know how my power ranks things. It wasn't really by danger, or utility or anything like that. Nuclear bombs were only halfway up the weapons tech tree. It wasn't quite how difficult things were to assemble either. In fact there were these sort of… knots in my tech trees, where there was a huge cluster of tools and skills to make one standard blueprint. At first I thought it was just standard progression. Make one thing and it gives you what you need to make the next, but while that was close, it wasn't quite that either.
Probably some combination of all of it.
Oooh, there was an EMP in here as well. Quite low on the tree too, I doubt it would work on Armsmaster, if I can make electrical shielding for my neural chips, he could easily shield his own gear. Still, I imagined it would be a hard counter to Kid Win. Poor fellow. Don't know why my power stuck a grappling gun in the Espionage tree, but I ignored that as well. I didn't need a grappling gun when I could just rebuild the jetpack and fly.
No, I was after something else. It would still be a few weeks before I had the energy to unlock it, but that was fine. I'd need a week or so to physically make the equipment I'd need anyway.
Finding E88 gang members was frustratingly difficult considering I was probably doing some permanent damage to my ankle every time I put weight on it. It was still only about nine in the morning, not the time of day you normally find gang bangers on the streets.
In the end the E88 found me. Lucky really. It was either them or the PRT, and I only had two minutes of Mayhem left before I started collecting brain damage.
"Mein friend. It seems that you've been causing trouble in our territory." Krieg said, a slightly hostile note in his voice. His mask was a pure white theater mask, covering his upper face, so I could see the slight grin on his lips as he eyed me. Telekinetic, probably wouldn't be able to get close without Mayhem, and even then, I didn't know what the other one could do, other than flickering occasionally.
I'd been deliberately searching the seedier parts of E88 territory, and I was currently in an underground parking lot that had been heavily tagged with the E88's gang sign. Krieg wasn't alone. He had someone I didn't recognize with him, a pale albino, whose face wasn't covered. Probably a Breaker/Changer state. Wouldn't pay to assume though.
I was high enough up the Espionage tree to know that Krieg's accent was fake. Quite a good fake accent though. Should I put one on to? Bet I could do better than he did. Needed a rubber band around part of the tongue though, and a scalpel and some glue to get the vocal cords just right.
Nope. Wait. Not my sister. I had control still. I could do this. I didn't need to mesh Human Augmentation and Espionage like that, I could just practice for a bit. Or I could focus on the conversation. The one with the two potentially hostile capes that was happening right the fuck now.
Fake fear. Fake respect. Excitement probably didn't come into it. Note to self, turn those back on ASAP. Piggot probably picked up on it, and it might have had something to do with how disastrous that all turned out.
"Um. Yes. Sorry. I probably frightened a few people… um, I can rebuild the phone and give it back if that's a problem. I only took it apart a little bit." In other news, I had circuitry dangling from the side of my mask. At least I didn't need to hold it together to see properly anymore. "I um, heard you might be willing to recruit a tinker. Give me a lab and resources, and I'll work for you." I said.
I should have kept the halberd, instead of tossing it back in the alley. It was proof that I was, at the very least, a parahuman. As it was, unless I opened my skull up, I didn't have any obvious tinkertech. Oh there was the tech dangling from my mask, but that wasn't tinkertech, that was a kid's arts and crafts project. A mobile phone did not make for the best glue, but I kind of didn't have any actual glue, so a mobile phone was improvised into a brace and an extension of a couple of cut wires.
Still, I was wearing a mask and covered in blood; both were pretty good signs I was a parahuman. They'd probably believe me, and the PRT would have to have some sort of press release soon, I doubt my escape went completely unnoticed.
Krieg looked me up and down questioningly, and his posture slowly changed, a tad less combative, but still wary.
"You want to join? Well, we're always happy to have new members. Have you killed anyone?"
I shook my head, then realized that I didn't actually know that, not for sure. Well… hopefully I hadn't killed anyone. Krieg must have picked up on my uncertainly, and I kicked myself for not using the espionage skills. I had them, but it was a conscious choice to activate them, and it took work right now, because I didn't actually want to blend in with racist pricks. It was like forcing a smile in a horrible customer service job.
"Look, we might be able to help you, we might not. Depends on what you've done, and to who. If you're really sincere about joining though, you can come with us, we'll take you somewhere safe. From there Kaiser will review the situation, and make the final decision. How about that?"
"I… wouldn't mind some medical treatment too?" I said hesitantly.
If they left me in a clinic I could patch myself up, maybe even build something to help me escape, if it was necessary.
"That can be arranged, it will be a few hours before Othala is free, will you last until then?" Krieg asked.
"I'd prefer a clinic, if that's all right. I'm not sure what my specialty is, but I have biological leanings. Pretty sure I can fix myself up quite well with the right tools."
Krieg and the pale man exchanged a look.
"If you'll excuse me, I need to make a brief call." He told me.
I shrugged.
"Mind if I sit down?" I asked.
"Go ahead." Krieg told me.
I sat.
"So uh… sorry, I don't think I've read about you. Are you new?" I asked him.
He nodded.
"Yeah, fairly new. Name's Alabaster."
"Nice to meet you." I said tiredly. "Mine is Mayhem. I don't recommend it, it's exhausting."
"Yeah, what did you do?"
"Wish I knew. Might be able to grab some footage from my mask. Might not. I was in a tinker-cybernetic-drug-fueled fighting-coma."
"That's the official term is it?" Alabaster asked.
"I made it, I name it." I said, closing my eyes.
Krieg was true to his word, the phone call was quick. Wish I'd built a tinkertech microphone into the mask so I could hear him. I didn't have the blueprint for that yet, but it would cost me less than a normal day's worth of energy. Might be worth it in the near future.
"I'd be happy to deliver you to a clinic, but there is a small logistics issue. I will need to drive you there, and I was in enough of a rush to find the new cape wandering our territory that I didn't take the 'company car.' Would you mind if we blindfolded you?" Krieg reported.
I took the mask off wordlessly. Alabaster was quiet. Wonder if I squicked him out. Or maybe he was just shy, the new guy letting the experienced one run the show.
"Ah, I see. Not a problem then." Krieg said, sounding uncertain. "If you'd follow me…"
They lead me out of the carpark, and down the street. I didn't see the car that they ushered me into, but the seats were comfortable, and for a minute there I had assumed that they'd make me ride in the boot, so that was a welcome relief.
I had slightly less desire to join the E88 than I did the PRT, but there were several subtle differences that came into play.
Firstly, I didn't mind lying to the E88. I could build them stuff with inbuilt detonators, and blow it when I left the organization, which I would do once I had the tools and tinkertech I needed. Maybe even take out some of the worst members of the gang. Classic infiltration. Might even be able to buy my way back into the Protectorate's good graces with insider information. Or I might be able to bring them in on my own. I think one of my blueprints might do it… but it might not. I didn't have it yet, which meant my understanding of how it worked was based entirely on a fairly vague impression of the item I wanted.
Secondly I didn't see the E88 restricting what I made with my tech like the PRT would. For one thing, as far as I knew they didn't have any tinkers of their own. No one who would understand my work. No one who would be able to figure out what exactly I was building. For another, as a gang, I expected them to have a slightly looser stance on the more dangers aspects of technology. I could build bombs, I could build biotech weapons, I could make the sort of things that would damage the Nine.
Thirdly, they'd fought the Nine before, they'd been instrumental in driving the Nine out of Brockton Bay the first time that they came here. I had no illusions that they'd protect me, but if I succeeded in luring the Nine to the Bay, I'd have skilled cannon fodder around me. Expendable capes. I might not be happy with the Protectorate right now, or the Wards by extension, but that didn't mean I was willing to kill them as readily as I was a bunch of Nazis. It could go quite well, all they'd need to do is distract the Siberian for a few seconds while my reactors wound up…
I needed to build new boots soon. Wouldn't pay to be caught without them.
I'd built up a lot of energy. Some from saving it over the last few weeks, most from the recent fights with the PRT. I didn't really have a way of measuring it, which was annoying, but I did know I had enough to seriously improve something. I could climb higher up the Human Augmentation tree, start learning how to cybernetically enhance limbs, get pretty close to full body replacement. I could continue up the Neural Enchantment tree, which mostly seemed to involve Master abilities, techniques for controlling someone with a neural or spinal chip.
I roved the schematics in my head and, eventually, one caught my eye. That could work…
I breached a new tree, and started buying the basic tools, knowledge, and techniques to become an 'Espionage' tinker. It wasn't anything terribly impressive yet. Some basic skills in the field, knowledge of how to mimic accents, how to move in ways that displayed confidence, assurance. Lock-picking, a bit of an improvement to my ability to hack computers. How to properly place and prepare some basic bombs. The bombs themselves were in the weapons tree, but they were very closely linked, I could probably snatch them from this tree without much hassle.
It was all subtle stuff, but very useful. There was some disguise tech further up the tree, before it started to branch into 'Electronic Espionage' 'Industrial Espionage' and 'Miniaturized Technology,' but I ignored that in favor of some basic chemical creation schematics and subtle tool creation skills.
I still don't quite know how my power ranks things. It wasn't really by danger, or utility or anything like that. Nuclear bombs were only halfway up the weapons tech tree. It wasn't quite how difficult things were to assemble either. In fact there were these sort of… knots in my tech trees, where there was a huge cluster of tools and skills to make one standard blueprint. At first I thought it was just standard progression. Make one thing and it gives you what you need to make the next, but while that was close, it wasn't quite that either.
Probably some combination of all of it.
Oooh, there was an EMP in here as well. Quite low on the tree too, I doubt it would work on Armsmaster, if I can make electrical shielding for my neural chips, he could easily shield his own gear. Still, I imagined it would be a hard counter to Kid Win. Poor fellow. Don't know why my power stuck a grappling gun in the Espionage tree, but I ignored that as well. I didn't need a grappling gun when I could just rebuild the jetpack and fly.
No, I was after something else. It would still be a few weeks before I had the energy to unlock it, but that was fine. I'd need a week or so to physically make the equipment I'd need anyway.
Finding E88 gang members was frustratingly difficult considering I was probably doing some permanent damage to my ankle every time I put weight on it. It was still only about nine in the morning, not the time of day you normally find gang bangers on the streets.
In the end the E88 found me. Lucky really. It was either them or the PRT, and I only had two minutes of Mayhem left before I started collecting brain damage.
"Mein friend. It seems that you've been causing trouble in our territory." Krieg said, a slightly hostile note in his voice. His mask was a pure white theater mask, covering his upper face, so I could see the slight grin on his lips as he eyed me. Telekinetic, probably wouldn't be able to get close without Mayhem, and even then, I didn't know what the other one could do, other than flickering occasionally.
I'd been deliberately searching the seedier parts of E88 territory, and I was currently in an underground parking lot that had been heavily tagged with the E88's gang sign. Krieg wasn't alone. He had someone I didn't recognize with him, a pale albino, whose face wasn't covered. Probably a Breaker/Changer state. Wouldn't pay to assume though.
I was high enough up the Espionage tree to know that Krieg's accent was fake. Quite a good fake accent though. Should I put one on to? Bet I could do better than he did. Needed a rubber band around part of the tongue though, and a scalpel and some glue to get the vocal cords just right.
Nope. Wait. Not my sister. I had control still. I could do this. I didn't need to mesh Human Augmentation and Espionage like that, I could just practice for a bit. Or I could focus on the conversation. The one with the two potentially hostile capes that was happening right the fuck now.
Fake fear. Fake respect. Excitement probably didn't come into it. Note to self, turn those back on ASAP. Piggot probably picked up on it, and it might have had something to do with how disastrous that all turned out.
"Um. Yes. Sorry. I probably frightened a few people… um, I can rebuild the phone and give it back if that's a problem. I only took it apart a little bit." In other news, I had circuitry dangling from the side of my mask. At least I didn't need to hold it together to see properly anymore. "I um, heard you might be willing to recruit a tinker. Give me a lab and resources, and I'll work for you." I said.
I should have kept the halberd, instead of tossing it back in the alley. It was proof that I was, at the very least, a parahuman. As it was, unless I opened my skull up, I didn't have any obvious tinkertech. Oh there was the tech dangling from my mask, but that wasn't tinkertech, that was a kid's arts and crafts project. A mobile phone did not make for the best glue, but I kind of didn't have any actual glue, so a mobile phone was improvised into a brace and an extension of a couple of cut wires.
Still, I was wearing a mask and covered in blood; both were pretty good signs I was a parahuman. They'd probably believe me, and the PRT would have to have some sort of press release soon, I doubt my escape went completely unnoticed.
Krieg looked me up and down questioningly, and his posture slowly changed, a tad less combative, but still wary.
"You want to join? Well, we're always happy to have new members. Have you killed anyone?"
I shook my head, then realized that I didn't actually know that, not for sure. Well… hopefully I hadn't killed anyone. Krieg must have picked up on my uncertainly, and I kicked myself for not using the espionage skills. I had them, but it was a conscious choice to activate them, and it took work right now, because I didn't actually want to blend in with racist pricks. It was like forcing a smile in a horrible customer service job.
"Look, we might be able to help you, we might not. Depends on what you've done, and to who. If you're really sincere about joining though, you can come with us, we'll take you somewhere safe. From there Kaiser will review the situation, and make the final decision. How about that?"
"I… wouldn't mind some medical treatment too?" I said hesitantly.
If they left me in a clinic I could patch myself up, maybe even build something to help me escape, if it was necessary.
"That can be arranged, it will be a few hours before Othala is free, will you last until then?" Krieg asked.
"I'd prefer a clinic, if that's all right. I'm not sure what my specialty is, but I have biological leanings. Pretty sure I can fix myself up quite well with the right tools."
Krieg and the pale man exchanged a look.
"If you'll excuse me, I need to make a brief call." He told me.
I shrugged.
"Mind if I sit down?" I asked.
"Go ahead." Krieg told me.
I sat.
"So uh… sorry, I don't think I've read about you. Are you new?" I asked him.
He nodded.
"Yeah, fairly new. Name's Alabaster."
"Nice to meet you." I said tiredly. "Mine is Mayhem. I don't recommend it, it's exhausting."
"Yeah, what did you do?"
"Wish I knew. Might be able to grab some footage from my mask. Might not. I was in a tinker-cybernetic-drug-fueled fighting-coma."
"That's the official term is it?" Alabaster asked.
"I made it, I name it." I said, closing my eyes.
Krieg was true to his word, the phone call was quick. Wish I'd built a tinkertech microphone into the mask so I could hear him. I didn't have the blueprint for that yet, but it would cost me less than a normal day's worth of energy. Might be worth it in the near future.
"I'd be happy to deliver you to a clinic, but there is a small logistics issue. I will need to drive you there, and I was in enough of a rush to find the new cape wandering our territory that I didn't take the 'company car.' Would you mind if we blindfolded you?" Krieg reported.
I took the mask off wordlessly. Alabaster was quiet. Wonder if I squicked him out. Or maybe he was just shy, the new guy letting the experienced one run the show.
"Ah, I see. Not a problem then." Krieg said, sounding uncertain. "If you'd follow me…"
They lead me out of the carpark, and down the street. I didn't see the car that they ushered me into, but the seats were comfortable, and for a minute there I had assumed that they'd make me ride in the boot, so that was a welcome relief.
I had slightly less desire to join the E88 than I did the PRT, but there were several subtle differences that came into play.
Firstly, I didn't mind lying to the E88. I could build them stuff with inbuilt detonators, and blow it when I left the organization, which I would do once I had the tools and tinkertech I needed. Maybe even take out some of the worst members of the gang. Classic infiltration. Might even be able to buy my way back into the Protectorate's good graces with insider information. Or I might be able to bring them in on my own. I think one of my blueprints might do it… but it might not. I didn't have it yet, which meant my understanding of how it worked was based entirely on a fairly vague impression of the item I wanted.
Secondly I didn't see the E88 restricting what I made with my tech like the PRT would. For one thing, as far as I knew they didn't have any tinkers of their own. No one who would understand my work. No one who would be able to figure out what exactly I was building. For another, as a gang, I expected them to have a slightly looser stance on the more dangers aspects of technology. I could build bombs, I could build biotech weapons, I could make the sort of things that would damage the Nine.
Thirdly, they'd fought the Nine before, they'd been instrumental in driving the Nine out of Brockton Bay the first time that they came here. I had no illusions that they'd protect me, but if I succeeded in luring the Nine to the Bay, I'd have skilled cannon fodder around me. Expendable capes. I might not be happy with the Protectorate right now, or the Wards by extension, but that didn't mean I was willing to kill them as readily as I was a bunch of Nazis. It could go quite well, all they'd need to do is distract the Siberian for a few seconds while my reactors wound up…
I needed to build new boots soon. Wouldn't pay to be caught without them.
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Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
Joining the Nazi's? That's certainly a first.
- Location
- Poland
I know right? When I beta'd that chapter it was my favorite line too.
Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
Yeah, it sums up in one line why strong arming is the absolute worst tactic to use against a teenager that is likely prime material for going through teenage rebellion.
theflyingbiscuit
"Titanic neechan"
...This is going to be a worse infiltration then Skitter.
- Pronouns
- she/her
But it's springtime for Kaiser and Brockton Bay!
The Stormbringer
Worm Fanfic & Crack Connoisseur
- Location
- Spaaaaace~!
Nonsense! He's got an actual power that allows him to do Espionage! What could possibly go wrong?
Oh right, him forgetting to turn it on.
Man... A video must be made.
"Hello, My name is Mayhem. I walked into the PRT with intent to point out Shadow Stalker was abusing a civillian on a daily basis and offer to sell them some tinkertech. I planned to self i prove, stay neutral and eventually participate in Endbringer fights under the name H Plus. I walked out as a villain and joined E88 as they were the only one who were able and willing to cooperate in a reasonable manner. If you live in Brockton bay and become parahuman? Just join a gang or travel to a different city to join the protectorate. Ps, Jack Slash? Fuck you. I'm coming to save my baby sister eventually you sadistic fuck."
The camera turned off. Kaiser smiler.
"Hello, My name is Mayhem. I walked into the PRT with intent to point out Shadow Stalker was abusing a civillian on a daily basis and offer to sell them some tinkertech. I planned to self i prove, stay neutral and eventually participate in Endbringer fights under the name H Plus. I walked out as a villain and joined E88 as they were the only one who were able and willing to cooperate in a reasonable manner. If you live in Brockton bay and become parahuman? Just join a gang or travel to a different city to join the protectorate. Ps, Jack Slash? Fuck you. I'm coming to save my baby sister eventually you sadistic fuck."
The camera turned off. Kaiser smiler.
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Khepri14
Thus kindly I scatter...
- Location
- Following the wind
Not the best idea. Kaiser would kill you for bringing the Nine's attention to the Bay or keep you alive and throw you at the Nine in hopes of appeasing them. Plus, you definitely don't want to do that until you've got a lot of the trees completed or better yet, nearly 90% of every tree unlocked so then you'd be basically ready to take on the Nine. Provided, of course, that Bonesaw doesn't have the same power you do and this is not based off the Twin!power from the Worm CYOA(?) thing. Other than that, not really a bad idea as far as I can tell.
Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
Personally I think his power is based on Inspired Inventor.
Yeah he needs to get a video of the meeting out there.
Hit the Public Relations Taskforce where it hurts.
Hit the Public Relations Taskforce where it hurts.
1.6
- Location
- Australia
I kept track of the turns, but considering I didn't know this part of the city well, I was still hopelessly lost when we stopped. I was, however, feeling quite positive. Perhaps it was good that Coil hadn't answered my call. Betraying him wouldn't have nearly as positive an impact on this city as betraying the Empire, when the time came.
Someone opened the car door for me, and I was given my mask back. It didn't work. Whoever had been holding it had jostled things. Deliberate sabotage? I ran my fingers over the wires. No, not deliberate, or if it was deliberate, incredibly clumsy. Just a pair of wires that I'd hastily wrapped together while I was patching the mask no longer connected to each other. It might even have happened naturally. I wasn't really thinking when I made the repairs, and I didn't have the tools to do a proper job.
I twisted the wires back together, and winced as distorted, loud, vision was restored to me. I was going to have to make fixing that a priority, but I could still see, I just had more than the normal amount of Synesthesia.
I was at some sort of private clinic. No advertising on the front face of the building, indicated it was open, or even it's nature as a clinic, but I could tell that the doors had been designed to open for a stretcher, so Krieg probably hadn't just kidnapped me to a random holding area.
Alabaster helped me up, and I leaned on him to take the weight off my bad ankle, which now had a nasty tendency to roll whenever I put weight on it. Too many of the supporting tendons had been torn. I was probably going to have to grow new ones and attach them surgically. Or chop it off and use a prosthetic. I wasn't at the stage where I could make a prosthetic better than the original yet, but I was close, and I could still make less effective ones. It would only slightly reduce my speed.
The clinic was an opulent one. The floor was lined with marble, there were small statues and well watered plants in every nook, and the walls were lined with certificates and awards.
There was no desk or reception office. This was the sort of building that didn't have wait times, or queues, probably not even appointments. Just a small group of very select clientele, who could walk in at any time to receive no questions asked care.
There was a greeter though. A pretty young woman with her face seemingly locked in a permanent cheerful smile. She looked from me, to Krieg, to Alabaster, and then back at me. All three of us were masked, and that didn't seem to bother or surprise her.
"How can I help you today?" She asked, her voice almost chirping with happiness.
Human Augmentation did include some fairly extensive knowledge on drugs, but I still wasn't quite able to identify what she was taking. Probably some sort of personal mix. Taste was an excellent indicator, but I was self aware enough to avoid trying to lick her skin to find out. Barely.
"Our friend here needs medical attention. He is to be afforded every courtesy." Krieg told her.
"Of course. If you'll follow me." The girl said, leading me deeper into the clinic.
She was leading me to a GP's office for analysis, but we passes a sign pointing to the operating theatre on the way. I pointed at it, and looked at Krieg.
"Do you mind?" I asked.
He pursed his lips, and then nodded.
"All right. Go ahead."
I turned that way, Alabaster helped me, and we ignored the girl as we headed for the large double doors of the surgery.
"Never actually thought I'd be in one of these." Alabaster mused, keeping me steady when we entered the clean, well organized room.
Krieg placated the girl, who was probably a nurse, as I started rummaging in boxes full of surgical tools. Step one, lock ankle in place so I could hobble on it. Step two, fix mask. Step three, glue ribs back in place. Step four, sew up hand. I could do this.
I improvised a splint with several rolls of bandages and some medical tools, and then shrugged the pale man off to explore the room on my own. Not everything I needed was here, but most of it was, and I imagine that they had at least some of the other stuff, just not in the surgery itself. They had their drug fridge in here though, fortunately large and well stocked. I could work with that.
"I don't think that splint is properly made, you're going to hurt your leg more, walking on it like this." The girl said, as cheerful as ever.
"I know. Don't really care, I can work on that later. Might amputate, go for something robotic. Quicker than making a recovery the normal way." I told her.
She smiled, and let me work.
Alabaster stuck around to guard me. Eventually Krieg left, and was replaced with Victor, who watched my work wordlessly, like the hawk his mask was stylized after. By the time Victor arrived I had a small chemistry lab set up near the electrical outlet, and I'd already begun injecting myself. The bone glue finished first, so I pulled my ribs into the proper position, injected the glue, and then held the rib in place for the thirty seconds the glue needed to set, then moved onto the next rib.
I'd already stitched my wounds closed, so I applied the cell growth formula, and wrapped them in bandages I'd already dipped into a very potent disinfectant. Then I drank the immune booster I'd made, and set to work on fixing the mask with a small soldering iron the nurse's mother had been able to dig up from somewhere.
Eventually, I was done. About as patched up as I could make myself, due to fully heal in about five days, provided I kept up the right doses of the right drugs. The mask was working, but it was an ugly fix, and I would probably have to make a new one if I wanted the smooth white surface back.
Still wasn't quite certain what to do about my ankle. I was torn between replacement and tendon reattachment. On the one hand I didn't mind the idea of a prosthetic, and it would cut recovery time by about a day. On the other hand it wouldn't be quite as good as a normal foot, and it would be metallic, leaving it open to attack by capes who would normally be stopped by the Manton limit. On the third hand, I'd have more room for the reactor in my rocket boots. Bigger explosion, more chance of catching the whole Nine…
In the end the problem was solved for me. A young woman in a skintight red bodysuit walked in past Victor, and he ceased leaning casually on the doorpost to walk in at her side.
"So, you're a new Tinker, huh?" Victor said, speaking for the first time since I'd seen him. His voice sounded smooth and reassuring, which was nice. Pretty sure he sounded like whatever he wanted to sound like, and if he wanted to reassure me, I'd take my odds that it wasn't so a knife could be planted in my back.
"Fairly new." I told him. I think the woman was Othala. Couldn't be sure though, she was new, not a lot of footage of her on PHO yet. If it was her then I was golden. She was the Empire's healer, they wouldn't send her into a straight up fight.
In fact, considering I couldn't see Hookwolf anywhere, I could be pretty sure they were going to accept me. It made sense to send a brute who could take just about anything against an unknown like myself.
"And you came to us? Why exactly?"
Part of infiltration is knowing when, and where to lie. I wasn't high enough up the tree to fool someone like Victor yet, he'd doubtless stolen a lot of social skills over the years. So instead I told the truth.
"Money. Desperation. The PRT knows where I live, and I didn't have any tech to fix myself up. I admit, I'm not to sold on your… central philosophy, but I can supply you tinkertech in exchange for a lab and funding." I told him.
It was hard to read someone with a mask on. Othala had this weird diamond-egg thing on her mask, which was just a flap of fabric tied around her ears and over her nose. A diamond with two legs coming out the bottom. Wonder what that was about? I was staring at it when she gently touched my arm, and my body started tingling.
Ah, healing. Or more accurately, gifting me regeneration. That could be quite bad, depending on how it worked. I blinked, put my hands on the back of my skull, felt the edges of my implants… no, it seemed to be a more efficient form of normal regeneration, and my work was designed not to require constantly re-cutting myself. My wounds were already sewed shut and the my bones were lined up and sealed together. I'd need to take some staples out in forty five seconds, but it wasn't life threatening if I missed them. Naturally it decided what I was going to do about my ankle as well, no recovery time made surgery a much better option.
"Krieg said that your name was Mayhem? You want to keep that, or can we rename you?"
And end up with something German or racially prejudiced? Not if I could help it.
"I like what I have, sort of told it to the PRT before I fought them… I kind of don't know how that fight went. Do you…?"
I went silent.
"Still getting the news now, but it looks like you tore them a new asshole. Kaiser wants to see you in person, you good to come with us?"
"Uh, yeah, sure. Do you want me to take the mask off again?"
Victor eyed the mask, and shook his head.
"Nah. You're good. You're obviously a tinker, you fought the PRT, we can extend you a little bit of trust. Follow me. You can keep the scalpel if it makes you feel safer."
Well damn. I thought I was being subtle about that. It was a simple stainless scalpel, razor sharp and coated in the fastest acting sedative I could create. I was keeping it bound to my left wrist with some bandages. Still, if Victor knew about it, and wasn't going to take it away, that was a good sign.
The car ride from the clinic to some kind of safe house was boring. I was a little worried about being seen, despite the tinted windows, but this was the heart of E88 territory, where the cops knew which cars to stop, and which not to, and the windows were well over the legal tinting laws. I was as safe as I could be, at least without some kind of cloaking technology.
The room I was shown into was metal. Made of metal, lined with it. The door swung open unaided, guided by some sort of hidden mechanism. The walls… shifted. Growing as I watched them, complex lines and geometries of structural reinforcement growing in patterns across the walls.
Kaiser was sitting on a throne at the far end of the room. He gestured, and two iron chairs rose from the floor.
"Please, have a seat." He said.
Victor took one of the chairs, and I took the other, trying not to appear as if I was sitting on the edge, ready to run. Not that I could do that. The door had been pushed closed again, the room was surrounded. Might be able to use Mayhem to nick Victor and Kaiser with the scalpel, might not. Either way I'd still be stuck in here, just waiting for the other gang members to open the iron tomb…
That really wasn't the way I wanted to be thinking right now.
I'd readjusted my emotions again. Respect, excitement and embarrassment were back, and fear was allowed, but only at five percent normal levels. I wasn't used to it, after all this time. It felt foreign, but I think that, on the whole, I needed a little. Just not much.
I gulped, faking the fear response. Kaiser expected me to be afraid, and my infiltration skills were urging me to play on that. He wanted a subordinate, I could play that role. Victor was good at reading people, very, very skilled at it, but only as much as a human could be, he wasn't perfect, and my responses weren't baseline human anyway, considering what I had done to my brain.
"Word came in from our spies in the PRT while you were driving over." Kaiser observed.
"And, did I kill anyone?" I asked, forgetting the infiltration for a moment.
"Indirectly, yes. A PRT officer died in the car chase. Panacea was able to save everyone at the PRT office itself, although there were several people there who would have died without her care."
I breathed out a sigh of relief. I knew the rules. If I killed a cape, that was a big deal. Maybe not a death sentence, in and of itself, depending on the circumstances, but one officer? Canon fodder. Hookwolf killed a couple every month, and if it was in a car chase, it wasn't directly my fault. The E88 would probably be fine with this. It was something to bind me to them, something that meant I needed their protection, but it wasn't something that they wouldn't allow.
I shouldn't have felt relief, a human had died. Later, I learned his name. Malison Haralds, a twenty seven year old man, divorced, one daughter, eleven, who he loved and spoiled as much as his career would let him. His life ended because of me, and I felt relief.
That, I think, was where things started to go wrong.
Someone opened the car door for me, and I was given my mask back. It didn't work. Whoever had been holding it had jostled things. Deliberate sabotage? I ran my fingers over the wires. No, not deliberate, or if it was deliberate, incredibly clumsy. Just a pair of wires that I'd hastily wrapped together while I was patching the mask no longer connected to each other. It might even have happened naturally. I wasn't really thinking when I made the repairs, and I didn't have the tools to do a proper job.
I twisted the wires back together, and winced as distorted, loud, vision was restored to me. I was going to have to make fixing that a priority, but I could still see, I just had more than the normal amount of Synesthesia.
I was at some sort of private clinic. No advertising on the front face of the building, indicated it was open, or even it's nature as a clinic, but I could tell that the doors had been designed to open for a stretcher, so Krieg probably hadn't just kidnapped me to a random holding area.
Alabaster helped me up, and I leaned on him to take the weight off my bad ankle, which now had a nasty tendency to roll whenever I put weight on it. Too many of the supporting tendons had been torn. I was probably going to have to grow new ones and attach them surgically. Or chop it off and use a prosthetic. I wasn't at the stage where I could make a prosthetic better than the original yet, but I was close, and I could still make less effective ones. It would only slightly reduce my speed.
The clinic was an opulent one. The floor was lined with marble, there were small statues and well watered plants in every nook, and the walls were lined with certificates and awards.
There was no desk or reception office. This was the sort of building that didn't have wait times, or queues, probably not even appointments. Just a small group of very select clientele, who could walk in at any time to receive no questions asked care.
There was a greeter though. A pretty young woman with her face seemingly locked in a permanent cheerful smile. She looked from me, to Krieg, to Alabaster, and then back at me. All three of us were masked, and that didn't seem to bother or surprise her.
"How can I help you today?" She asked, her voice almost chirping with happiness.
Human Augmentation did include some fairly extensive knowledge on drugs, but I still wasn't quite able to identify what she was taking. Probably some sort of personal mix. Taste was an excellent indicator, but I was self aware enough to avoid trying to lick her skin to find out. Barely.
"Our friend here needs medical attention. He is to be afforded every courtesy." Krieg told her.
"Of course. If you'll follow me." The girl said, leading me deeper into the clinic.
She was leading me to a GP's office for analysis, but we passes a sign pointing to the operating theatre on the way. I pointed at it, and looked at Krieg.
"Do you mind?" I asked.
He pursed his lips, and then nodded.
"All right. Go ahead."
I turned that way, Alabaster helped me, and we ignored the girl as we headed for the large double doors of the surgery.
"Never actually thought I'd be in one of these." Alabaster mused, keeping me steady when we entered the clean, well organized room.
Krieg placated the girl, who was probably a nurse, as I started rummaging in boxes full of surgical tools. Step one, lock ankle in place so I could hobble on it. Step two, fix mask. Step three, glue ribs back in place. Step four, sew up hand. I could do this.
I improvised a splint with several rolls of bandages and some medical tools, and then shrugged the pale man off to explore the room on my own. Not everything I needed was here, but most of it was, and I imagine that they had at least some of the other stuff, just not in the surgery itself. They had their drug fridge in here though, fortunately large and well stocked. I could work with that.
"I don't think that splint is properly made, you're going to hurt your leg more, walking on it like this." The girl said, as cheerful as ever.
"I know. Don't really care, I can work on that later. Might amputate, go for something robotic. Quicker than making a recovery the normal way." I told her.
She smiled, and let me work.
Alabaster stuck around to guard me. Eventually Krieg left, and was replaced with Victor, who watched my work wordlessly, like the hawk his mask was stylized after. By the time Victor arrived I had a small chemistry lab set up near the electrical outlet, and I'd already begun injecting myself. The bone glue finished first, so I pulled my ribs into the proper position, injected the glue, and then held the rib in place for the thirty seconds the glue needed to set, then moved onto the next rib.
I'd already stitched my wounds closed, so I applied the cell growth formula, and wrapped them in bandages I'd already dipped into a very potent disinfectant. Then I drank the immune booster I'd made, and set to work on fixing the mask with a small soldering iron the nurse's mother had been able to dig up from somewhere.
Eventually, I was done. About as patched up as I could make myself, due to fully heal in about five days, provided I kept up the right doses of the right drugs. The mask was working, but it was an ugly fix, and I would probably have to make a new one if I wanted the smooth white surface back.
Still wasn't quite certain what to do about my ankle. I was torn between replacement and tendon reattachment. On the one hand I didn't mind the idea of a prosthetic, and it would cut recovery time by about a day. On the other hand it wouldn't be quite as good as a normal foot, and it would be metallic, leaving it open to attack by capes who would normally be stopped by the Manton limit. On the third hand, I'd have more room for the reactor in my rocket boots. Bigger explosion, more chance of catching the whole Nine…
In the end the problem was solved for me. A young woman in a skintight red bodysuit walked in past Victor, and he ceased leaning casually on the doorpost to walk in at her side.
"So, you're a new Tinker, huh?" Victor said, speaking for the first time since I'd seen him. His voice sounded smooth and reassuring, which was nice. Pretty sure he sounded like whatever he wanted to sound like, and if he wanted to reassure me, I'd take my odds that it wasn't so a knife could be planted in my back.
"Fairly new." I told him. I think the woman was Othala. Couldn't be sure though, she was new, not a lot of footage of her on PHO yet. If it was her then I was golden. She was the Empire's healer, they wouldn't send her into a straight up fight.
In fact, considering I couldn't see Hookwolf anywhere, I could be pretty sure they were going to accept me. It made sense to send a brute who could take just about anything against an unknown like myself.
"And you came to us? Why exactly?"
Part of infiltration is knowing when, and where to lie. I wasn't high enough up the tree to fool someone like Victor yet, he'd doubtless stolen a lot of social skills over the years. So instead I told the truth.
"Money. Desperation. The PRT knows where I live, and I didn't have any tech to fix myself up. I admit, I'm not to sold on your… central philosophy, but I can supply you tinkertech in exchange for a lab and funding." I told him.
It was hard to read someone with a mask on. Othala had this weird diamond-egg thing on her mask, which was just a flap of fabric tied around her ears and over her nose. A diamond with two legs coming out the bottom. Wonder what that was about? I was staring at it when she gently touched my arm, and my body started tingling.
Ah, healing. Or more accurately, gifting me regeneration. That could be quite bad, depending on how it worked. I blinked, put my hands on the back of my skull, felt the edges of my implants… no, it seemed to be a more efficient form of normal regeneration, and my work was designed not to require constantly re-cutting myself. My wounds were already sewed shut and the my bones were lined up and sealed together. I'd need to take some staples out in forty five seconds, but it wasn't life threatening if I missed them. Naturally it decided what I was going to do about my ankle as well, no recovery time made surgery a much better option.
"Krieg said that your name was Mayhem? You want to keep that, or can we rename you?"
And end up with something German or racially prejudiced? Not if I could help it.
"I like what I have, sort of told it to the PRT before I fought them… I kind of don't know how that fight went. Do you…?"
I went silent.
"Still getting the news now, but it looks like you tore them a new asshole. Kaiser wants to see you in person, you good to come with us?"
"Uh, yeah, sure. Do you want me to take the mask off again?"
Victor eyed the mask, and shook his head.
"Nah. You're good. You're obviously a tinker, you fought the PRT, we can extend you a little bit of trust. Follow me. You can keep the scalpel if it makes you feel safer."
Well damn. I thought I was being subtle about that. It was a simple stainless scalpel, razor sharp and coated in the fastest acting sedative I could create. I was keeping it bound to my left wrist with some bandages. Still, if Victor knew about it, and wasn't going to take it away, that was a good sign.
The car ride from the clinic to some kind of safe house was boring. I was a little worried about being seen, despite the tinted windows, but this was the heart of E88 territory, where the cops knew which cars to stop, and which not to, and the windows were well over the legal tinting laws. I was as safe as I could be, at least without some kind of cloaking technology.
The room I was shown into was metal. Made of metal, lined with it. The door swung open unaided, guided by some sort of hidden mechanism. The walls… shifted. Growing as I watched them, complex lines and geometries of structural reinforcement growing in patterns across the walls.
Kaiser was sitting on a throne at the far end of the room. He gestured, and two iron chairs rose from the floor.
"Please, have a seat." He said.
Victor took one of the chairs, and I took the other, trying not to appear as if I was sitting on the edge, ready to run. Not that I could do that. The door had been pushed closed again, the room was surrounded. Might be able to use Mayhem to nick Victor and Kaiser with the scalpel, might not. Either way I'd still be stuck in here, just waiting for the other gang members to open the iron tomb…
That really wasn't the way I wanted to be thinking right now.
I'd readjusted my emotions again. Respect, excitement and embarrassment were back, and fear was allowed, but only at five percent normal levels. I wasn't used to it, after all this time. It felt foreign, but I think that, on the whole, I needed a little. Just not much.
I gulped, faking the fear response. Kaiser expected me to be afraid, and my infiltration skills were urging me to play on that. He wanted a subordinate, I could play that role. Victor was good at reading people, very, very skilled at it, but only as much as a human could be, he wasn't perfect, and my responses weren't baseline human anyway, considering what I had done to my brain.
"Word came in from our spies in the PRT while you were driving over." Kaiser observed.
"And, did I kill anyone?" I asked, forgetting the infiltration for a moment.
"Indirectly, yes. A PRT officer died in the car chase. Panacea was able to save everyone at the PRT office itself, although there were several people there who would have died without her care."
I breathed out a sigh of relief. I knew the rules. If I killed a cape, that was a big deal. Maybe not a death sentence, in and of itself, depending on the circumstances, but one officer? Canon fodder. Hookwolf killed a couple every month, and if it was in a car chase, it wasn't directly my fault. The E88 would probably be fine with this. It was something to bind me to them, something that meant I needed their protection, but it wasn't something that they wouldn't allow.
I shouldn't have felt relief, a human had died. Later, I learned his name. Malison Haralds, a twenty seven year old man, divorced, one daughter, eleven, who he loved and spoiled as much as his career would let him. His life ended because of me, and I felt relief.
That, I think, was where things started to go wrong.
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Khepri14
Thus kindly I scatter...
- Location
- Following the wind
Looked at Krieg.
Oh, boy. This should be good.
Malbutorius
C'est le bien qui fait mal
Ah, the sensation of lost humanity. Isn't it grand?
- Location
- Somewhere down the road~
Ooooh, how melodramatic. "I've killed a man and now I'm on the road of eeevvvviiilll~". Get some popcorn, everyone, Mayhem is going to brood us to death. Guess what, guy, you aren't a saint. Even a paragon space marine needed to kill a few (baker's)dozen people to save an entire world.
Comes with the job, bro. Suck it up and take it like a man. This ain't a "road to hell paved with good intentions" it's a "climb to heaven on a stairway filled with everyone trying to kill you."
Comes with the job, bro. Suck it up and take it like a man. This ain't a "road to hell paved with good intentions" it's a "climb to heaven on a stairway filled with everyone trying to kill you."
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- Pronouns
- she/her
CRAWLING IN MY SKIN
NOW I'M A CYBORG NAZI
So I think Coil dropped the timeline where he answered because Piggot will take a much bigger hit from driving a teen into the E-88 when Coil reveals it.
Either that or timeline went badly.
If Mayhem proves to have a talent for Villainy Piggot may regret her actions.
If Skitter finds out Mayhem was driven to Villainy because he tried to help her I pity the PRT.
Either that or timeline went badly.
If Mayhem proves to have a talent for Villainy Piggot may regret her actions.
If Skitter finds out Mayhem was driven to Villainy because he tried to help her I pity the PRT.
GameDragon
Too Hot To Handle
- Location
- Challenger Deep
You don't pity them, you grab a bucket of popcorn and watch the coming of the 3rd, 4th, and possibly 5th plague of Egypt.
The Stormbringer
Worm Fanfic & Crack Connoisseur
- Location
- Spaaaaace~!
Especially if they decide that his evidence was suspect because he turned villain and therefore they don't act on it in the least.
- Location
- The Internet?
Great updates, loving the new stuff you've added since you showed me the rough drafts! Here's a few things I found on the read through of the thread posts:
1.5:
A bit of a spacing issue here. You can probably backspace it a line or two easily enough.
I mean, you can use grappling guns for other things. But at least you have the jetboots for when you jump out of windows
You need an apostrophe: "Name's Alabaster."
You might mean "take the weight off of" or even just "take the weight off." "Of" sort of makes it sound like Alabaster is holding Mayhem's foot.
Aaand 1.6:
You said in the last snip that Alabaster was unmasked. As a Case 53, either with amnesia or not he probably doesn't have to worry too much about a civilian life. Did he mask up on the way over? Could add a sentence or two to the car ride if he did.
No grammatical issues or anything just, yeah that does sound kinda scary. Regeneration: "Here, let me fix you!"
Delicate tinker gear: *shoved out of brain by new growth*
Mayhem: *RROD*
Poor fella, he's so screwed he'd try to attack a metallokinetic with a scalpel.
Overall, good updates, glad you decided to split the snips.
1.5:
A bit of a spacing issue here. You can probably backspace it a line or two easily enough.
I mean, you can use grappling guns for other things. But at least you have the jetboots for when you jump out of windows
You need an apostrophe: "Name's Alabaster."
You might mean "take the weight off of" or even just "take the weight off." "Of" sort of makes it sound like Alabaster is holding Mayhem's foot.
Aaand 1.6:
You said in the last snip that Alabaster was unmasked. As a Case 53, either with amnesia or not he probably doesn't have to worry too much about a civilian life. Did he mask up on the way over? Could add a sentence or two to the car ride if he did.
No grammatical issues or anything just, yeah that does sound kinda scary. Regeneration: "Here, let me fix you!"
Delicate tinker gear: *shoved out of brain by new growth*
Mayhem: *RROD*
Poor fella, he's so screwed he'd try to attack a metallokinetic with a scalpel.
Overall, good updates, glad you decided to split the snips.
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