Because I Am... 4 (Patreon)

“...ase Three,” the least mutated of the individuals was saying as I flew down, coming to a stop ten feet to the side.

“Would someone care to explain why there’s a number of wrecked cars on the overpass?” I asked, looking over everyone. “Preferably without…”

My request for a dialog was cut off by the most heavily mutated individual letting out a bubbly snarl, snapping his...her...their arm towards me which turned into a mass of tendrils, resembling raw muscle turned into wet, almost gooey webbing. I moved out of the way, turning my head enough so that I could both keep the rest in my sight while also tracking…

Okay, the Meathulhu limbs can apparently merge with concrete, good to know. As the flail like appendage swung towards me, I flew up, avoiding the attack. At the same time, the chunky, red haired mutant let out a snarl and leaped towards a pink clad redhead teen. From the looks of it, the teen was almost certainly a kid who’d just gotten her powers and immediately dived into the deep end.

Dashing over, I kicked the mutant in the side, controlling my strength enough that I didn’t tear them apart, before landing lightly on the pavement and asking the girl behind me, “You alright, kid?”

“Uh...y-yeah, yeah I’m okay,” she said.

Turning my attention to the leader, the least heavily mutated of them, I asked, “What’s their deal?”

“They say they’re my siblings, but I’ve never met them before now, and I think they’re dying,” came the answer.

Any further conversation was put on the back burner, as all three came charging at the girl and I. My eyes tingled as I severed several tendrils sent my way with a blast of heat vision, then began bobbing and weaving around more attacks. The two that thus far had only made animalistic noises focused on me, while the apparent leader raced past me to attack the girl.

Fighting the two was difficult, but not because of the impact of their various attacks. While I did my best to dodge, because both Immortal and Holly beat it into my head that taking blows from opponents whose powers you don’t know is stupid, the sheer fluidity in which they moved, along with how their bodies shifted and morphed, was quite literally inhuman.

“Right,” I muttered, catching a car that one threw at me and setting it aside. “I think it is high time that you two SIT DOWN!!!”

As I shouted the last two words, I could almost see the rippling sound waves emanating from me, the two mutants stumbling and falling to their knees. To my surprise, the more heavily mutated one’s arms fell off from the force of the sonic shout. More than that, the other one’s skin sagged, some spots opening up and exposing the muscle underneath.

I didn’t spare any time to express disgust, instead flying past them towards the leader who’d taken an entire car apart and merged the pieces into his hands, forming massive bladed clubs on the end of his arms. He turned, trying to rush at me, only for me to grab him by the neck and toss him back, sending him over the railing.

Turning back to the teen, I said, “I think it’s high time you get out of heeeeeeeeee-”

I was interrupted when a mass of tendrils wrapped around me and pulled me off my feet. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground, then being dragged through the air. Then, I felt something hard slam into the back of my head. My vision went dark as I was slammed face first into the pavement. With a growl, I lifted up, my flight overpowering the strength being used to try and keep me down.

“Fine,” I said, my voice rumbling in my throat. “You want to play rough, I can play rough.”

Immediately, I began to spin my body, faster and faster, until the tendrils wrapped around me shredded to pieces. Stopping, I narrowed my eyes on the most heavily mutated one, and fired my heat vision, cutting off its arms and legs. Just in case, I made sure to incinerate the limbs.

If my understanding of Greek mythology and some of Immortal’s stories were correct, then regenerative powers tended to have a hard time dealing with cauterization. There was a shrieking bellow from another one of them, leaping through the air at me, misshapen limbs shifting into massive clawed tentacles the size of my torso.

By this point, I’d felt like I’d gotten the measure of these things, and I was comfortable testing my durability against them. So, rather than flying to avoid the attack as I had thus far, I instead flew directly into its path. The claws of what looked like bone cut through the fabric of my costume, but against my skin they may as well have been feathers.

With a shout, I landed a punch against the mutant’s face, taking care to moderate my strength to what an ordinary human could…

To my shock, the bone and soft tissue of the mutant’s head parted like jello, turning into a pale, pinkish goo under my glove. Turning to look back at the one I’d crippled, they too had all but dissolved.

“What the fuck?” I asked in confusion.

“Look what you’ve done!” the leader shouted, and I forced myself to focus.

Flying down to stand between him and the girl, I leveled a glare at him and said, “You were the ones attacking. Had I realized that your bodies were degrading so quickly, I would have acted differently. For now though, if you stay calm, I can contact some people who might be able to help you.”

He stared at me, the sagging of his brow ridge giving it an almost sinister cast, before he started chuckling, “You don’t know. You’re their puppet, and you don’t know.”

What he said sent a cold chill down my spine. My memories of my first life were a little scattered, but I do remember there being something about Vought having labs where they were doing human experimentation to try to make a more stable form of Compound V. Were these escaped experiments?

Slowly, I floated closer to him and quietly said, “It doesn’t have to be Vought, I do know some other people I can contact.”

Pieces of his skin were flaking off, his body turning gray and ashy, but I could still see the confusion on his face as he asked, “Who’s Vought?”

Before I could respond, his body turned entirely into dust and blew away. I blinked, my one hunch about who was responsible was quite thoroughly dead, as the sound of car tires squealing made me turn around as a white haired hobo looking man got out.

“Samantha! Are you alright?” the hobo asked, running towards the girl.

“Who are you?” I asked, rising to my full height as I inflected my voice to exude command.

He stopped, holding his hands up as he said, “My name is Doctor Elias Brandyworth, I was a scientist that helped develop the compound that gave her and them their powers. I was able to include a subconscious block on her mind to keep her from using her powers on organic materials, to let her have time to develop control over her powers without them being turned inwards...”

The hobo, Brandyworth, kept talking, but my attention was drawn away as a number of trucks and hummers pulled up, a black man in crisp military dress blues and a man in a white lab coat with a cybernetic eye getting out of the leading vehicle.

“Thank you, Homelander,” the black man said, his voice low and smooth, but with a baritone that screamed ‘Bond Movie Villain’. “We will handle it from here. The GDA thanks Vought for your assistance.”

I narrowed my eyes as the girl gasped and moved closer to Brandyworth. Instead of taking the man at his word, I racked my brain for the lessons I’d been given on what to do when another agency swooped in to claim jurisdiction.

“Name, rank, and service number,” I said, making him blink, before smiling.

“Steven Erickson, Special Administrative Agent, GDA #564-32Δ. By all means, feel free to check,” he said smoothly.

Stepping backwards, I held my hand out behind me and asked, “Can I borrow a phone, kid?”

“Oh, uh…”

There was the sound her powers made, and keeping one eye on the self proclaimed GDA agent as I took the phone she placed in my hand. Using a bit of super speed, I connected the phone to the internet and checked the credentials he’d given. They were, unfortunately, legit. Keeping an eye on Erickson, my mind raced, temporarily speeding up to give myself more time to think.

An idea hit upon me, and I quickly pulled up a notepad app and quickly typed out a message onto it. Turning around, I knelt down in front of the girl and held the phone out towards her.

“Any chance I can be the first one to get your autograph, from one new hero to another?” I asked aloud, giving her a wink as she read through what I’d written.

Hesitantly smiling, she held out a hand, the phone glowing with her power. Turning back to Erickson, I glared at him and said, “I’ll be checking in on you, Agent Erickson.”

“By all means, you won’t find anything out of the ordinary at our facilities,” he said, a smirk on his face that made me want to punch him into next week.

Instead, I restrained myself, flying straight up in the air. When I was above the clouds, I looked at the phone’s screen, and let out a sigh of relief upon seeing that the girl had gotten the message. Instead of a regular phone screen, there was a cliche radar feed, with an atom symbol right in the middle.

That step taken care of, I had some calls to make. This was probably a stupid plan, and it would certainly get me in hot water with both the GDA and Vought. But I didn’t trust that guy Erickson, and I had two people that I was comfortably sure would back me in this.

Pulling out my actual phone, I dialed a number, and waited for the other end to pick up.

“You’ve reached Holly Galani, if this is a business call-” she began.

“Holly, it’s John. I need a favor, without the rest of your crew,” I interrupted.

When she answered, her voice had lost the subtle changes she used while in her civilian identity, “What is it?”

I explained the situation, about the girl, Erickson, and the gut feeling I had. Thankfully, she agreed to help, and we agreed upon a meeting place in an hour’s time. That done, I made the other call I had, explaining the situation and getting her to help as well. Soon, the three of us arrived at the meeting point, and Maeve stared bug eyed at Holly.

“W-War Woman? J-Homelander didn’t say that you’d be...that is to say…” she stammered out, and while in other circumstances I’d enjoy it, right now my mind was elsewhere.

“Focus,” I said, snapping her out of it. I pulled out the phone turned tracking device, and checked it. Finding the direction, I pointed and said, “The girl’s this way. Let’s go.”

As the three of us flew, I made sure to keep my speed at something they could keep up with. I’d noticed during some of my training sessions with the Guardians that, outside of Omni-Man, I was by far the fastest flier. With the various supes in Vought’s employ, it was hands down no contest.

Off in the distance, far beyond the hearing range of any other supe I’d talked to, I heard Erickson talking to Brandyworth, with the sound of metal on metal and the clacking of keys on a keyboard next to them.

“-e’s just a child!” Brandyworth protested.

“No, she’s a weapon! My weapon, and it’s taken me years to get her back,” Erickson shot back, making me grit my teeth.

“That son of a bitch,” I growled.

Before this day, I’d seriously been considering jumping ship from Vought to the GDA. Now, there was no way in hell I’d do more than work alongside the Guardians unless there was some serious shit going down.