Looking up as her dad tapped on her partly open door, Taylor smiled at him. She was lying on her bed in her pajamas reading her computer textbook while making notes, wanting to get down her ideas at least roughly before she went to bed. His mouth was open to say something, but it slowly closed before he faintly sighed and rubbed his forehead. He seemed to be doing that a lot recently, she thought with amusement.
"Most people would turn the bedside light on," he pointed out with a certain amount of humorous weary resignation in his voice.
"Most people aren't me," she pointed out entirely accurately.
"For which we can be duly grateful."
She grinned and wiggled the insect antennae she had sticking out of her hair at him. The ends of the appendages were glowing a quite bright blue-green, providing more than enough light to read by. "Look, I managed to work out how to change the color. Still working on red, but I've got violet, blue, green, and yellow now," she said with considerable satisfaction. It had taken a lot of experimenting and prodding her Changer power, but she'd finally cracked it. And the more she learned, the more she seemed able to learn, which was really fun.
Her dad shook his head wonderingly, then seemed to just decide to roll with it.
"Fine. I'm almost past the point of being surprised," he chuckled as he went and sat in her desk chair. "I was going to say that tomorrow I'll be calling the hospital legal team for an update. From what I've read online there's quite a lot of new developments in the case and I wanted to see what, if anything, that meant for us. I also have a Union meeting after work, so I'll be back late again. Probably around nine or so. Are you comfortable with that or do you want to come in with me like you did last week? You're welcome to if you want."
"I'm fine, Dad," she assured him. "I can look after myself well enough."
"That much is abundantly clear after what you did to Hookwolf," he remarked with a slight wince, but a proud look nonetheless. "I wish you hadn't had to though."
Lowering her book to her chest, she gazed at him, then at Vespa who was sitting on her lifted knee, Taylor's left foot being tucked under the right calf. The hornet body looked back. Meeting her own eyes she sighed. "So do I. I didn't want to hurt anyone. But I had no choice. He was definitely trying to kill Vista and if I'd got there even a couple of minutes later he'd have done it. It was pure luck I was close enough to hear what was going on." Looking back to him, seeing the sympathy in his eyes along with knowledge she could only guess at from his own life, and pride too, she added softly, "I regret that I had to do it, but not what I did. I'd do it again without hesitation if there was no choice."
He nodded slowly, the look of pride growing. "I hope you don't have to even as I know you probably will. The world we live in, and the city, is a dangerous place at the best of times. I'd much prefer to hide you safely away from it but I know I can't. Just be careful, and if you can avoid violence, do. That's all I ask." He sighed again. "I wish things were different but we all have to live with the hand we're dealt."
"Yeah," she muttered, feeling melancholy. "We do." They were both silent for a little while, busy with their own thoughts. Eventually she looked back at him again with a small smile. "My hand improved a fair bit recently though, I guess."
"That it did, and while I deeply regret how that happened, I can't help agreeing that it seems to be good for you." He smiled back. "You're happier than you've been for far too long. Which has helped me just as much."
Taylor giggled. "It's so much fun it's probably illegal," she said, causing him to laugh. "And I'm learning so many things. It's incredible. I keep having new ideas, and even if it's hard to pull off, even if I fail, I learn more every time." Lifting the book she waved it for a moment. "It even helps with schoolwork. Everything connects to everything, I guess."
"The holistic theory of the universe," he commented with a grin.
"Pretty much, yeah."
"And still no urges to run around fighting crime while wearing spandex?" His expression was mischievous.
She shuddered. "No. I don't have the body for it aside from anything else."
"I think you're doing yourself a disservice, but as a father I'm glad to hear you're not interested in skin tight costumes in public." She stuck her tongue out at him and wiggled her illuminated antennae, which made him chuckle.
"I could do skin-tight chitin," she mused out loud. "Skin-replacing chitin, more accurately." Lifting her free hand she looked at it, turning it back and forth a couple of times, then concentrated. A second or two later she grinned triumphantly. "See?" From her elbow down now her arm had a dark blue-black exoskeleton covering it, based on a mix of crab and scorpion chitin. The fingers were formed into sharp claws. She wiggled then, making a rattling sound as they brushed together. "That works really well," she added admiringly. "Wow."
Her dad shook his head wonderingly. "That will never be normal," he commented wryly. Leaning forward he tapped her arm as she held it out, his fingernail clicking on the surface. "How strong it is?"
"Not sure, really," she replied, thinking. "I need to experiment. But… it's got to be at least as strong as my super-hornet exoskeleton and that was easily able to take hitting Hookwolf at about a hundred miles an hour. So pretty tough."
"Impressive." She turned her arm back to normal as they watched, her with satisfaction and him with mild wonder.
"But even if I can do a neat costume from scratch, don't worry, I don't feel like charging about hitting people just because," she assured him. "I mean, if something needs to be handled, I'll do it, because I can and saving people is never a bad thing, right?"
"Right," he agreed, watching her with a small smile.
"I don't have any particular urge to go out trying to find a fight though," she went on, tapping her fingers on the cover of her textbook as she tried to work out the best way to explain. "I've read that powers want to be used, and I can see that, I guess. I mean, my power sure likes me using it, but it's my power. It works for me, not the other way around." She grinned as he snorted with humor. "I want to learn how to do interesting things, not find new ways to destroy the street and beat up a villain. I've heard you complaining about how stupid all the damage cape fights produce is and I've learned a lot. Mom taught me lots too. I really don't get why so many Parahumans always seem to be fighting like idiots." She shrugged as he nodded slowly. "There must be better ways to do things. Easier and more fun ways to use your powers. But it always seems to end up with crime, either causing it or stopping it, and that usually goes along with normal people getting hurt."
"I can't disagree with you," he replied thoughtfully.
"Panacea is one of the few capes who seems to just fix things not break them, or be involved in breaking them," she carried on quietly. "She's helped so many people in only about a year since she got her powers. I admire that. Dragon… she makes all sorts of useful things other people can use. And she doesn't just fight random idiots, she does important things. Armsmaster… he's a really good Tinker and seems to be pretty careful when he's involved in something. They're at the good end of the Parahuman scale, I suppose. Panacea at the top, sure, but Dragon, Armsmaster, lots of others too. Yet even there, a lot of the heroes definitely seem to end up having massive fights rather than… I don't know, de-escalating the problem, maybe? If that's the right word."
"I know what you're saying," her dad nodded.
Waving a hand rather randomly, Taylor said, "Then you get all the gangs. I'm not really talking about the smaller villains, the thieves and so on. Like Circus, or that new group the Undersiders, or even Leet and Über, never mind all the less famous ones we have. It would be better if they didn't do all that crap, but they're mostly fairly harmless to people. They're sure not going out of their way to hurt anyone. But the Empire? Murderers from the top to the bottom and they like it like that. The ABB aren't quite as bad on the whole from what I've read and you've told me, but they're sure not good. And Lung, Oni Lee… those guys are dangerous. I've got no idea how many people they've killed but it's a lot. Sure, they don't go out hunting down people they don't like the look of like the Empire does but that's not that much of a benefit. The Merchants are idiots and mostly accidentally kill people, but they still kill people. And I really can't figure out why so many villains end up causing so much mayhem and violence. I can probably think of at least a dozen methods to use any of their powers for profitable crime that doesn't kill anyone."
He looked at her with a blank expression, making her giggle. "I'm not entirely sure that is as comforting to hear as you might think, Taylor," he said blandly after a moment. "I also believe you." His face slid into a smile, which was rather evil. "I can think of quite a few myself, for that matter, and I'm pretty sure your mom had an actual list."
After they'd both laughed for a moment, he nodded again. "I do see what you mean, and I agree. The propensity for violence capes so often have is odd. But they seem driven to it most of the time no matter what side of the law they're on. I'm very glad that you aren't, believe me."
Standing, he moved next to her, then stroked her hair between the antennae for a moment. "I just want you to be safe and have a good life. I failed on both counts for far too long, but things have changed. Hopefully for the better. And if making hideous aberrations of nature amuses you and doesn't hurt anyone, or at least anyone who didn't seriously have it coming, that takes a great deal of weight off my mind. Knowing you can handle yourself if something goes bad also does, because we live in an unpredictable world."
Putting her hand on his where it now lay on her shoulder, she squeezed it, feeling the affection in his words. "Thanks, dad. For everything. And if I do ever decide to run around calling myself the Avenging Drider or something I'll talk it over with you first." She grinned up at him as he closed his eyes and sighed heavily. "Unless it's a spur of the moment thing and I don't have time, of course," she added with a snicker. "If so I'll tell you after all the excitement is over."
"Oh, god," he mumbled, as he turned to leave. "Just like your mom."
With a wave he left and she heard him go into his bedroom. Grinning to herself, she went back to reading the chapter on how a microprocessor worked, her imagination running overtime.
It would take a little effort, she thought as she turned the page, but the results would probably be more than worth it.
Time would tell.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Studying the photo on her laptop's screen, Amy frowned slightly as she recalled the incident when it had been taken. She'd been thinking about that weird interaction ever since, at the back of her mind, and she couldn't work out just why. Sure, it was bizarre as hell, because the mere concept of an insect that fucking huge was absurd, but she'd been kneeling on the floor no more than two or three feet from the damn thing. It had definitely existed, it wasn't a projection or something of that nature, it had been as alive as she or Vista was. She was as sure of that as she was of anything. Her own Parahuman abilities gave her a much more accurate sense of how a living thing moved than probably anyone but herself realized, and she'd swear blind that it was a real living creature.
Which happened to look exactly like a normal if rather distressingly large hornet from the far east, blown up twenty or thirty times in all directions and apparently as sapient as she was. Even at the time this had struck her as unlikely for several reasons, the primary one being from her own studies of biology that you couldn't GET insects that big. Never mind ones that were human-level intelligent or anything even vaguely close to that. Everything she'd read after the event, when she'd dug up several ebooks on entomology, just proved to her she had remembered correctly.
Yet she'd had a conversation with the fucking thing.
Amy rather wished she'd had a chance to touch the insect and see for herself what it was. Two things had stopped her, one being that she was more than busy with the immediate problem of keeping Missy Biron alive, the other one really coming down to fucking huge hornet that one-shotted Hookwolf. It might not particularly like being touched and while Amy was many things, a complete idiot wasn't one of them. Leaving aside medical ethics, risking annoying something that self-evidently dangerous seemed like a poor choice in her opinion.
So the back of her mind urge to reach out and touch abdomen had died unformed, stomped flat by every other part of her mind screaming no…
Even so she regretted the lost opportunity to learn something. Oh well. Perhaps she'd have another chance at some point.
Sighing faintly, she closed the photo and went back to reading the now rather long thread about the events of last night. The reactions of people in general were kind of hilarious, and she was genuinely concerned about poor Laotsunn who seemed to have drunk himself into a coma. Wondering how someone managed to type at all while going through what sounded like a positively unsafe amount of alcohol she kept reading, occasionally adding a comment here and there, sometimes just to stoke the crazy because honestly it was kind of funny.
She might have had a strange sense of humor, she thought with a small dark grin as she watched the reaction to one of her comments. Nearly as strange as Dennis's was, although she wasn't going to tell him that. And she was going to make him pay for somehow getting her PHO name changed.
Although she was just slightly amused by it. Again, he wasn't going to find out from her.
Shaking her head and correcting someone who was being an idiot on the internet, she finally closed the lid of the laptop and put it on her bedside table, before sliding under the covers, yawning. It was late and she was tired, and tomorrow was probably going to be weird at school with everyone running around spreading rumors about enormous hornets that didn't seem to like Nazis.
Which in itself was enough to make her quite well disposed towards the insect in question, even aside from her friendship with the younger girl the thing had saved. Amy very much did not like or approve of Nazis or their ilk, and sometimes felt it was a pity she wasn't more willing to suppress her own wish to be a good person and do something about the fuckers…
The reaction on Carol's face would almost be worth it, she thought with a tiny smirk. It would be a mix between AHA! I KNEW IT! and FUCK THE NAZI SCUM YOU DESERVE EVERYTHING YOU GET!
Her mother would probably lock up in indecision, Amy thought, giggling to herself for a moment. Not a single one of New Wave had any time at all for the Empire and she was fairly sure that even if none of them would admit to it in public, they were pretty pleased about Hookwolf's fate. Which was likely to be quite short on remaining time, she felt. Whatever toxins were involved with what the hornet had done to him, presumably stung him good and hard, they were really vicious. The neural damage alone pretty much guaranteed he had a limited shelf life before his body just stopped working regardless of his regeneration ability, which itself was the only reason he'd lived more than seconds after he'd been exposed. She was sure he was never going to regain consciousness. There was far too much damage, and she wasn't entirely certain that she could have fixed it by that point even if she wanted to, and was willing to ignore her own self-imposed moratorium on fiddling with brain structures anyway... Which she didn't, and wasn't.
Not for a Nazi. And definitely not for an unrepentant mass murdering bastard who had gleefully killed probably dozens of people by now and seriously injured far more, before he finally bit off way more than he could chew.
Served him right, she mused. With any luck the rest of them would annoy the hornet and meet the same fate. She for one wouldn't shed any tears, and doubted that a very large majority of the population of the city would either.
Except the other Nazi supporters, and fuck them.
Rolling over having turned off the light, she closed her eyes. The one she was worried about was Missy. That kid had experienced a really horrific event and it had shaken her to the core, Amy knew. The way the normally cheerful girl, who tried far too hard to show she was mature and professional, had broken down in her arms concerned her quite a lot. She liked Missy, for lots of reasons, and what she'd gone through was appalling. If the hornet, which she really did need to find a real name for, hadn't stepped in, Missy almost certainly wouldn't have made it and the younger girl knew that all too well.
Resolving to track down a therapist who was cleared for Parahuman identities, or willing to become so, regardless of what Director Piggot might say, for her friend tomorrow, Amy drifted off to sleep. A sleep that was filled with odd dreams revolving around insects she couldn't recall more than fragments of the next morning. Fragments that stubbornly refused to go away...
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
The mood in the penthouse was somber. And mixed in with that was anger, confusion, and dismay.
"What happened to that idiot?" Kaiser, although out of his armor as he was now it was Max, queried through clenched teeth, a tumbler of expensive spirits clutched in his hand. "Who did this?"
Several people exchanged glances, none of them looking particularly keen on answering and finding out what his reaction might be. Finally he sighed and pointed. "James. What happened?"
Krieg shrugged. "I'm not honestly completely sure," he replied in lightly German-accented English. "Brad went off on one of his 'team building exercises'," he added with a mild grimace and a certain amount of sarcasm. "You know, taking a number of the more bloodthirsty normals on a mission to deal with the undesirables. Normally in the most unsubtle manner he could think of."
"It's popular with the lower classes," Victor commented. "And keeps them loyal."
"It's also something that draws far too much attention and was inevitably going to backfire sooner or later," the other man replied with asperity. "There's a certain level of care required in such operations, even if the operations themselves are perfectly sensible. Brad has no idea how to even spell subtle never mind pull it off. You know what he's like."
There were a number of nods, although Stormtiger looked annoyed and was glaring at James. They didn't particularly get on, the former being of a similar mindset to Hookwolf, and Krieg fancying himself something of an intellectual and preferring to cause smaller amounts of property damage combined with much more terror. Max knew there was a place for both in achieving the goals he publicly espoused but didn't particularly believe in, as they were essentially convenient for his own end goal. Which was power, of course. It was always power. That's how the world worked.
Brad wanted the power to kill anyone he wanted to or didn't like.
Max wanted the power to control people like Brad and make them dance to his tune.
And lots of money, of course, but that went without saying.
But now Brad was in hospital, gravely injured, apparently due to some weird Case 53 or something taking an exception to his actions. And making its displeasure rather abundantly clear.
Just as Stormtiger was about to say something, almost certainly something inane that would spark another argument, he held up his hand. "Not now, Simon. Just… stop talking before you start," he ordered with a certain amount of irritation. Simon closed his mouth and folded his arms over his chest like a surly toddler, making him internally sigh. It was like herding fucking cats sometimes to get these idiots to all pull in the same direction…
Krieg, who was looking smugly pleased at Stormtiger's expression, continued when Max motioned to him. "What I've been told, although I can't prove most of it, is that Brad's group were merrily torching a couple of places where undesirables lurked, shot a few of them to force the rest back, then ran into a group of either ABB or Merchants on their way to the next location he'd decided on. It's a little unclear which although bearing in mind where it all happened my money is on Merchants. That caused a firefight, and the fucking idiots wiped each other out to the last man."
He shrugged as Max's hand tightened on his glass to the point the crystal made a warning cracking noise, causing him to carefully put it down before he ruined yet another extremely expensive and rare possession. Folding both hands in front of himself, he composed his face. "So it didn't even need another cape to cause Hookwolf to end up losing, what, a dozen or so of my people?"
"About fifteen, actually, and no," James replied apologetically, flinching a little when Max slammed his palm down on his desk.
"Fucking idiot!" he snarled. Simon started to say something and he pointed at the other man without taking his eyes off James. "Not a fucking word."
No one said anything while he took a few deep breaths. Eventually he waved at Krieg to continue. "So how did he end up in hospital," he asked at the same time.
"That's where it gets weird," James replied with a worried frown.
"I assume it's also where Vista comes into the picture?" Max queried.
"As far as I can figure out, and from asking around, a couple of people said they saw Vista heading towards where Brad was doing his thing about ten minutes before the firefight," Krieg replied with a nod. "As you know her power causes a strange visual distortion and sometimes people bother to look up. I don't have a clue if she was following him, randomly wandering around, or what, but she definitely got involved at some point. Brad lost the plot entirely based on the limited information we have and did his best to kill the little bitch. And nearly succeeded considering how badly hurt she was when she was dropped off at the hospital."
"And now we come to the meat of the problem," Max growled, leaning forward. "Dropped off by what?"
James was silent for a few seconds, looking at the other people around him, before he turned back to meet Max's irate gaze. "I'm... not entirely certain." Hastily he added, as Max felt his blood pressure spike, "No one is entirely certain. The PRT is getting pretty worked up about it from what I found out. It's hard to dig up much because since the fucking legal explosion with Brockton General and that damned hell pit of a school, everyone is running around like madmen and all manner of problems are coming to light. Including a hell of a lot of useful sources, who are being grabbed left, right, and center. We've lost insight into more places than I like to think about. PRT, BBPD, the city administration, you name it. So our information gathering is really bad right now. It's a big problem."
"We can deal with that in time, I'm more interested in the immediate problem, in this case Brad and his foolishness."
Nodding, James went on, "Most of the real information we have came from PHO. I know, I know," he said quickly when Max put his hand over his eyes, "It's a stupid place full of stupid people doing stupid things, but we have to work with what we can get at the moment. If you filter out the obvious trolls, lunatics, and idiots, the rest is at least helpful in some ways. We got photos, some video, a description of events that seems to hang together with other reports and the limited information we retrieved from the few sources in the PRT we still can get access to… It's not wonderful but it's better than nothing."
"Debatable, but go on," Max replied with a sigh. He really wasn't happy about any of this. Fucking Hookwolf.
Krieg picked up a high end tablet from the table and fiddled with it for a few moments, before handing it across to Max, who looked at the photo and recoiled in shock. "Jesus Christ, what the fuck is that?" he said somewhat more vehemently than he'd intended.
"The biggest fucking insect I've ever heard of," James replied, his voice grim. "According to one guy on PHO who purports to be an entomologist, it's a hornet. Asian Giant Hornet, to be exact."
"I knew it was the fucking slants!" Simon remarked loudly.
Max threw an ashtray at him. "Shut the fuck up, when I want your opinion I will tell you, idiot," he snarled as Stormtiger reflexively ducked, the heavy cut glass object bouncing off the wall behind him. He looked angry but didn't respond, meeting Max's eyes defiantly with his own before he eventually lowered them and nodded. Looking back to James, who was watching with only slightly hidden amusement, he said, "There is Giant Hornet then there's that fucking monstrosity. I highly doubt Japan or whatever is infested with something that big. Or it would be known as Hell Insect Island or something."
"Yeah, it's a bit bigger than normal," James admitted, shuddering slightly. "As in roughly four feet long." Max gaped, looking back at the photo on the tablet in his hands. Comparing it to the rest of the room he was forced to agree that the description fitted what he could see, as horrifying as the mere thought was. Panacea, seen in profile close to the creature, was a good gauge as he'd met the girl a couple of times in public and knew how tall she was. The fact that she was able to work with that ghastly thing right there amazed him despite himself, although he was never going to admit that to anyone.
"A bit bigger?" he echoed somewhat faintly. "That's… is that even possible?"
"Evidently," James shrugged, waving at the tablet. "That's the problem. One of the problems, anyway. The PRT is still trying to figure out what it is and where it came from. PHO is of course coming up with suggestion after suggestion, each more inane than the last. Case 53 is one of their favorites, tied with Biotinker minion and the projection of a Master with a mental issue. Someone else suggested it came from hell, because of course they did, another guy said probably Aleph or something like that, there's yet another one who claims it's an alien… Leet says it's obviously from a video game I've never heard of and was wondering if it wanted to help with one of those idiot's capers." James rolled his eyes in disgust. "Fucking degenerates, that pair."
"True," Max nodded, still inspecting the photo. "What do you think?"
James shrugged again. "No idea, really. Projection or Case 53 seems the most likely. Biotinker is possible but we've never heard of one that makes insects before, and the problem there is that it can't be an actual insect no matter what it looks like from researching it a little. Insects can't grow that large. I don't understand the science but there's a limit, and that fucking thing is way past it. So leaving aside the appearance it's got to be something other than a normal insect on a huge scale. Projection is probably the least unlikely explanation, I think."
"How did it get Brad?" Max asked after a few more seconds of staring at the photo, finally putting the tablet down with a slight shudder. He wasn't at all fond of insects, especially stinging ones, and the idea of one so large it could steal a dog was making his skin crawl.
"It apparently has some pretty impressive venom," James responded, wincing. "Stung him or something. It's a fucking hornet. Just think how big the stinger must be, and how much venom it could inject…"
Max did. He felt ill.
"But how could it even get it into him when he was in his Changer form?" he asked, having tried to forget about the image that had come to mind.
"Bad luck, maybe? I don't know. All I know is that it did, somehow. Dropped him in his tracks according to the PRT report I got a redacted copy of. The only thing that kept him alive was his regen, and that barely pulled it off. Anyone else except maybe Ben," he nodded at Alabaster who looked smug, "Or Lung, would be fucked. I don't know if it was the quantity of venom or the toxicity, or both, but it absolutely screwed him. They're not expecting him to recover." He shook his head as Max rubbed the side of his cheek with one finger, thinking about what he'd been told. Simon appeared like he was angry about the fate his friend had suffered, and without a word Max pointed at him and shook his head slightly. Now was not the time for the sort of arguing these meetings so often devolved into.
"Anyway," James continued after letting him stew on the information for a while. "That damned hornet-monster took out Brad, then picked up Vista and flew her to hospital. Panacea said it was the only reason the kid survived. Which at least means we're not looking at the Protectorate going crazy because one of ours killed one of their Wards."
Which was a valid point. Max had no particular reason to refrain from removing a Ward, or any hero, from the playing field, but he very much didn't want to do it in a way that could be traced back to the Empire. Or at least provably traced back. There was a certain amount of value in making people know full well who was behind something of that nature but never have enough evidence to do more than claim it to be true. Spreading fear without sparking reprisals was a delicate game. But worth it in the long run.
Just look at New Wave. One of theirs died, and they'd become far more cautious about doing anything particularly effective. He was more than pleased about the small investment in money and time that had required to engineer. And constantly amused at the thought of the impotent rage those assholes must feel, knowing he was untouchable without them ending up causing themselves more trouble than him…
The PRT was a different kettle of fish though. They had a lot more resources than New Wave did, and federal backing. Luckily they were also incompetent by and large and hamstrung by their own politics and ponderous nature. A shrewd operator could keep slipping through the cracks, as he had done for years, and his father before him. Being directly implicated in the death of a Ward at the hands of a known violent maniac like Brad would, on the other hand, make spinning it to their advantage far harder. Not worth the risk, to put it in plain terms.
If he wanted a Ward dead, it would be done quietly and untraceably, leaving only rumors and no hard evidence at all.
James was right. Brad definitely didn't have a subtle bone in his body. His approach was often useful even so but this particular fuckup was entirely his fault.
Looked like he'd paid for his mistake though.
The big problem was that Max couldn't afford to just quietly pretend nothing happened and move on, no matter how much simpler that might be in some ways. Their supporters would expect a response, some demonstration that they were still in control, and the public who didn't support them would be in even more need of something to stop them believing that the Empire had a weakness. Projection of a united front and invincibility was all important in this game.
"The girl lived?" he asked after a moment.
"Yeah, Panacea got to her in time. Brad damn near killed her, you can see the blood right there," James nodded, indicating the tablet which Max wasn't particularly keen on looking at again. "I'm told she's still in hospital recovering though. No idea when she'll be back on the street. The PRT finally turned up to take statements, then went out and looked at the scene. They recovered Brad, Panacea checked him over, and she said he wasn't likely to wake up and there's nothing she could do because his brain was fried."
"What brain?" Victor asked snidely, having been following the discussion with interest. Even though he agreed Max gave him a warning look, as did Stormtiger, the latter's rather baleful. Smirking slightly the blond went quiet again.
"So at the moment we have no idea if he'll recover without healing. Panacea won't or can't fix him. I don't know if Othala's power could," James went on. "We'd have to get access to him to try it and that will be a hard job. They have a lot of security at the hospital right now, both PRT and some private company the administration hired. I'm almost certain they're a PMC pretending to be a security company. Not sure who yet, but I can't help feeling that we want to be careful. Not to mention I'm not sure it's worth trying to retrieve him in the first place."
"Explain," Max suggested, curious to hear his rationale while thinking he was probably right. Hookwolf was extremely useful as a weapon, but if his judgment was so bad that he thought kicking off a war with the PRT was a good use of his time, he clearly had more than one screw loose. Not that this was the first time Max had thought that, merely the point where it became so obvious anyone could see it.
"He's been getting worse for months, we all know it," James said, having clearly thought through his words carefully. "Some of the things he's done have been… not well considered, let's put it like that."
Nodding slowly, Max listened.
"When he was doing the dog fights and the occasional blooding of the troops, he was useful. And on the street in a fight he's a massive force on our side. But he's been wandering off more and more often doing things that attract the wrong sort of attention, and that stunt that let the PRT grab him was the worst of them. Right up to this one anyway. Not to mention that after he slaughtered two squads of troopers when he escaped they really did take the gloves off. I'm not surprised they finally put a kill order on him after that. It takes a lot, but he went way over the line. But at least he didn't drag the rest of us into it. Saturday night would have done, I can almost guarantee it, and we're not ready yet for that sort of problem."
There was silence in the room for a while as everyone considered his words. Stormtiger still looked truculent but even he seemed to, for once, to be thinking. Finally Max sighed and replied, "Your points aren't invalid, unfortunately. For the most part I agree. I still find the fact that he got his ass handed to him by a fucking insect completely insane though."
"Oh, sure, so do I," James replied, shaking his head in disbelief. "It's ridiculous. Still, it happened."
"And we're just going to let that bug get away with it even if Brad did fuck up?" Alabaster demanded.
"When did I ever say that?" Max asked pleasantly with a dark look in his eyes as he gazed at the extremely white young man. "We can't let this insult stand no matter who or what caused it, or whatever internal issues we may have had with our sadly fallen comrade."
Stormtiger and Alabaster grinned nastily, although Victor and James were watching him warily having exchanged a glance. They didn't look particularly convinced, he noticed. Most of the rest were appearing various combinations of confused, concerned, and cautious. Rune was staring at the tablet she'd quietly picked up a few minutes ago, her face somewhat paler than usual.
"How do you want to go about expressing our displeasure then, Max?" James asked after a couple of seconds.
"First we need to find the damn thing," Victor pointed out quite accurately. "We have no idea where it lives, or if it's a projection where the Master lives."
"Somewhere roughly in the Docks as a whole, I'd guess," James suggested thoughtfully. "Considering that Brad was right on the edge of that zone, and how many places there are you could hide a small army, it makes sense. Going to be a huge problem searching for it."
"Especially since there are Christ knows how many tunnels and that sort of thing all over the place there," Alabaster commented. "I doubt even those crazy dock workers know most of them. I read they go back to the time the city was first founded in some cases. If it's down there it would be a nightmare to dig it out."
Nodding, Max pondered the problem. They were both right. Very few people thought poking around in that whole sector of the city was fun, because historically it so often wasn't. Even Marquis and his own dad had avoided it since a couple of incidents had proven it to be far more trouble than it was worth. There was nothing much there other than decaying infrastructure no one living knew the full extent of, hard people who lived hard lives and tended to become highly irked when someone from outside turned up telling them what to do and reacted badly, and a level of general weirdness that made one wonder what the point was anyway. Far easier and safer to avoid it and pretend it didn't exist.
Even the PRT did that. Even the Teeth had done that and those lunatics were absolutely insane.
He wasn't, if he was completely honest with himself, entirely sanguine about throwing caution to the winds and delving into an area his dad had more than once commented should be nuked just to be safe…
It was, after all, the only way to be sure.
"We keep an eye open for that bug," he finally decided. "At the moment we don't know enough. If we get a chance, we can try dealing with it, but without more information we don't even know where to start, so I don't want to waste resources going in blind. Victor, you talk to your contacts, see if we can get eyes inside the PRT again and find out what they know. Don't take chances, we're shorthanded without Brad, but see what you can do." Victor nodded acceptance of the order.
"James, you see if you can find out more about what actually happened to Brad. How did that fucking thing take him down. What defenses do we need against whatever it did. And if there is any hope of getting Brad back and fixed up."
"I'll do what I can but it'll take time. I wouldn't count on the last point being something we can do either."
"Fair enough, but try anyway."
"I will, Max."
"Everyone else, keep your eyes and ears open. Don't take chances if you do see the thing though. If it could take out Hookwolf, it's dangerous." His eyes were fixed on Stormtiger and Alabaster who had been having a whispered conversation he could easily guess the subject of. "I mean it, do not fuck around."
"And if we do find where the bug is?" Alabaster asked. "What then?"
"If it's a Master, we make an offer they can't refuse," Max replied in a low voice. "Same with a Case 53. I'm sure we can come to an arrangement."
"If it's a Biotinker?"
"Burn them to the ground and salt the earth," he said immediately. "I do not want a repeat of Ellisburg. Not even a lunatic would."
He could see that every one of them agreed. Rune was still looking at the tablet, but nodded absently.
"What if it's an alien?" James asked with a grin, making Max sigh. Sometimes that man had the strangest sense of humor that came out at the most inopportune time. Typical fucking German…
"It's not an alien. Just… go do your jobs." As James smirked a little then got up, he turned his eyes to Stormtiger, then Alabaster. "Do not disappoint me, either of you."
"Of course not, Kaiser," the latter replied, smiling back at him. He got up as well, Stormtiger following suit, and both left the boardroom together.
Max had the annoying feeling there was going to be a problem with one or both of them at some point. He might have to make an example…
"I wonder how many more of them there are?" Rune said very quietly, before putting the tablet down, rising, and hurrying away after Othala, Cricket, and the twins, none of whom had apparently heard her. Moments later Max was alone in the room.
And thinking hard about the teenager's question.
Not liking some of the scenarios it raised at all…
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
As she was getting ready to go into work, Emily felt her phone vibrate. Putting her coffee pot down having poured a second mugful, she retrieved the device and tapped it a couple of times, then read the message.
Staring at it for some seconds thoughtfully she finally put it back in her pocket and added sugar to her coffee, then slowly drank it wondering what the Empire would do when they heard Hookwolf had been removed as a problem for good.
And wondering who or what was due the reward from his kill order...
