Syringe in One Hand, Gun in the Other 5 (Patreon)

Syringe in One Hand, Gun in the Other

Chapter 5

-VB-

“I need more syringes,” Contessa demanded and then stepped aside, showing me crates and barrels of metal fragments, cloth, and oil. I had half a thought about shooting her but then I also remembered that this bitch was “Path to Victory, haha I win” Contessa.

“I’m keeping half of it,” I replied as I stepped through, dragged the crates to my base, and made the medical syringes through the crafting menu.

I knew why she was coming back to me. My medical syringe was probably the best goddamn medicine in the entire multiverse she had access to. Sure, Panacea and Bonesaw could individually do more, but I could mass-manufacture them. If that wasn’t all, then the medical syringe can be used to create Large Medkits, an item that guarantees revival to a downed individual. Whether being downed was caused by bullets, poison, hunger, thirst, or fall damage, the large medkit could pick you back up and give you another chance at survival.

… could large medkits work on coma patients?

“Syringes, now,” she demanded without an inflection in her tone.

Grumbling, I pulled out a lunch bag and stuffed as many syringes as it could fit. “There,” I  said as I shoved it at her. She took it and opened another portal by saying “Door me.”

And then I remembered what was supposed to be happening after the Oil Rig Battle ended. Cauldron’s base would get overwhelmed by the enraged Case-53’s, Doctor Mother would die, and then Khepri would happen.

Would I … find myself there? Could Khepri control me?

“Oi, did the Cauldron base fall yet?” I asked her and she suddenly froze.

… Oh ho, could my knowledge not be something her power could calculate?

She glanced at me over her shoulder for a moment and then left through the portal. It closed behind her.

Grumbling, I quickly began to make more syringes. If Khepri happened just like canon, then I might get mind-controlled to fight Scion. It might happen within the next twelve hours for all I knew, which meant that I needed to be ready.

… But my mind stayed with what had just happened with Contessa and I. She didn’t expect my question. Her power hadn’t pathed it. She might not be able to path my actions based on my foreknowledge.

That meant, for a short window of time, I can kill her.

And killing someone whose power would eventually go berserk and become a Titan? Someone who might drag me into a dungeon and force me to work for her and Teacher once Teacher subsumes Cauldron in the future like it did in canon?

‘I’m only securing my future,’ I thought to myself as medical syringes began to flow into my inventory. I used the extra metal fragments to begin making an auto-assembly system, starting with electric smelters. ‘I’ve killed Teeth fuckers for killing strangers; I can definitely do more than killing for my own sake.’

-VB-

Three days later, it happened.

I only saw it when the portal opened behind my new family of six clones because we were eating at the time. From the corners of our eyes, we saw the purple-rimmed portals opening behind us. Hell, if it wasn’t for the fact that they gave off light, we might not have noticed, but our rooms were generally dim and that gave us enough lack of light to notice. That and the fact that there was light pouring out of the portals.

Unfortunately, being unable to notice was not the same as being able to do something about it, and we found our bodies no longer in our control.

We all stood up and walked through the portals unhurriedly, and found ourselves in an open field turned campsite. There were many others here, some without masks and some with, but overall, they all had portals of varying sizes around them.

And we saw her, standing almost perfectly in the middle of it all.

Taylor Hebert, aka Khepri, looked a little worse than I imagined. Maybe it had to do with her missing arm or the scoffed Ward costume, disheveled hair, or the blood splattered here and there. Oh, and she was standing still in the middle of a crowd that was moving diligently with purpose.

We too began to work, first by distributing the syringes we had in our hands but not our inventory. Strange. Couldn’t Khepri force parahumans to use their powers? If so, then why were the medical syringes and large medkits in our inventory not touched?

Tinkers came over and gave us tinkertech guns, and soon, all but one of us walked through a portal again along with hundreds of other capes.

And we saw him.

Scion.

He floated above a ruined city, exuding a golden aura without a smile. He looked like a god. A false god, yes, but he still looked like a god with the power he liberally dished out.

Portals opened up all over the city and the sky and capes poured out from those portals by the hundreds.

We lit up the sky like fireflies during the night as the sun began to set on these ruins.

It was very … cinematic.

And then we opened fire.

My clones and I were movie go-ers in one of those VR headsets. Yes, we watched a movie. We marveled at the raw power Khepri brought to bear and how they lit up the world. We ooh’ed at Scion’s own power that matched the firepower and more and the ease of which he dismissed the attacks with a wave of his hand. He unleashed a danmaku, flooding the world with energy projectiles that rained down upon us. Most of my clones and I survived, and the one clone who died got revived back at our base without Khepri controlling them.

Nice.

We just sat back, mentally, and watched the show.

Actually, no, what would happen to Khepri after this? Contessa would leave her to die by herself.

… Would it be … presumptuous of me to, perhaps, look for her? Be ready to help her back up when Contessa leaves her to die? It would, at the very least, get me in the Undersider’s good grace.

We watched as another one of us died, this time to a “stray” steel beam through the chest.

Yes, we knew Contessa couldn’t path us all of the time. If we can ambush her right after she double-taps Khepri, then we can kill her. Kill her, rescue Khepri with medical syringes, and then return her to the Undersiders. We’ll use their power and influence as a shield so that more capes don’t come looking for us.

More of us died. It was just me, the original, left in the field and still under control.

The last clone still under control was still in that campsite where Tinkers like us continued to make things to use in the battle.

I watched as Scion threw a plasma javelin at me. Wounded as I was, I couldn’t run quickly enough to dodge it.

As my head got blown clean off of my neck, we found what we needed.

The campsite clone saw a tinkertech also opening portals. Apparently, Doormaker couldn’t make as many as Khepri and Contessa needed to wield an army of this size.

We waited… and waited … and waited …

The battle raged on for days.

And then …

And finally…!

Khepri’s control cut off.

Our clone immediately began crafting a research bench and rushed for the portal making tinkertech. There were others, but most of them were too disoriented or trying to just get away from it all. We snatched the tinkertech, tossed the research bench down, added scrap metal, and placed the portal maker.

The bench… showed me that I could research it. We could travel to other worlds. With a grin, we researched it.

-VB-

A/N: Golden Morning is something that the SI couldn’t be involved in at the heart of it all because of, well, how powerless he is superficially compared to those needed to fight Scion, and so he isn’t involved in the battle for long. But a single clone making more meds? That’s something Contessa wouldn’t ignore. The tinkertech is not canon.