SSV3 Chapter 7 (Patreon)

After the lair tour with Obsidian, I headed back to the Bureau for another day of being a superhero manager.

Thankfully, the wave of organized crime that had been sweeping the city had stopped targeting me. Apparently, a few inexplicable deaths and the frequent protection of my women had made me an undesirable target.

But that was part of my struggle. There were often hard to explain moments in my day to day when I needed to use my power to help somebody or protect my women.

And I was now working in an organization filled with smart, analytical brains. While most trusted me, there were a few that I worried about, like Beatrix. She could easily notice a thread that didn’t make sense and pull on it. Then she could pull and pull until she found the truth.

Whenever I stepped into the bureau and my tablet lit up with messages, I braced a little, wondering if I’d missed something and my secret was out. And when Beatrix was the sender, it was ten times worse.

I wasn’t sure what I would do if she ever found out and came to me.

My historical reaction would be to get rid of the problem cleanly and permanently. But that was also when I wasn’t letting myself grow attached to anybody. Even if Beatrix and I weren’t close, the idea of just removing her felt uncomfortable. And even if I wanted to, Beatrix disappearing would likely lead Kim to dig deeper.

My tablet pinged, and I glanced down.

Doctor Wells wanted me.

That I could handle.

My heroes were all conditioning their powers in the morning, which meant I had time to go see the good doctor.

I headed towards the elevator. The mad scientists all worked below the BSH in a large white room.

Stepping into the elevator and sending it down was always spooky. Apparently, the mad scientists didn’t like the way it had jarred them or what they were bringing, so it moved so smoothly that I couldn’t even tell that it was moving.

It messed with your head to have the doors close with one location and open with another, when nothing in the elevator had changed.

The elevator pinged as it opened on the lab’s level.

The area was wide open and had an almost morgue-like smell from the strange chemicals and cleaning equipment they used.

Plastic tents surrounded some of the work areas, while others were a mess with the latest monster fruit victim.

But this time, the majority of the scientists were huddled around tablets, going through masses of data.

General Pratt had moved the R&D hunt for the cure for the gender differences to the BSH.

And that meant our mad scientists had a lot of catching up to do.

Doctor Wells was at her desk, oblivious to her surroundings even as I walked up to her desk and cleared my throat. She wore her typical sweater under a lab coat. They kept the lab pretty cold, probably for all the bodies they had down here.

“Wells, you called for me?” I said it loud enough to make her startle and put down her tablet.

“Deputy Director, sit. You weren’t home last night for testing.” She pulled out the device that measured ki, as well as a blood pressure cuff and a vial for blood.

“Date with Stella.” I told her as I rolled up my sleeve. I was getting used to her tests.

She nodded, lifting the gun at me and taking a reading. “Given what I know about your power, would you indulge me? Can you try to flex your reading up and down?”

I frowned, making sure nobody was listening. But she knew I could do it, and so far Wells hadn’t pushed too far in what she asked. Besides, there were benefits to understanding my own powers better.

“Ready?” I confirmed, and she nodded.

Pushing more ki to the tip of the sensor, I held it there and continued to add to it.

The number on the reader climbed up and up as Well’s eyes showed the first sign of shock I’d seen.

I decided that was enough and then pushed it all away, bringing the sensor back to zero.

“Was that all you could do?” She asked, setting the sensor aside and getting the blood pressure cuff around my arm. Then she positioned a clip on the end of my finger, taking additional readings.

“No. I could have brought it higher. Concentrating it in the air doesn’t really have a limit. But stuffing it in a person stretches something inside of them.” I explained, making sure to prevent others from listening in.

Wells nodded and scribbled on her tablet. “You’ve mentioned this before. There are channels inside of people that represent their powers. You describe they flow like blood vessels, almost.”

“More like water piping. If there’s enough pressure, they just push out their ability.”

“Supers can exhaust themselves.” Wells considered. “So, that’s when their… pipes are too empty to provide enough pressure?”

“Pretty much. And when I increase someone’s power, I increase the pressure by adding more or cycling it through faster.”

Wells’ brow rose. “So it has fluid properties if you can increase pressure through turbidity. Interesting. But you cannot access your own ki?”

“Correct.”

She already knew the answers, but she seemed to confirm information multiple times during our sessions.

The cuff on my arm swelled and deflated as she jotted down numbers.

“You’re in fantastic health. Your age has halted?”

“Slowed at the very least.” I told her. “I tried to give myself a new power, but I ended up just giving myself some basic enhancements, including enough regeneration to slow my aging.”

Wells nodded several times. “What if you tried this with someone else?”

“It’s temporary, unless I continue to refresh it.” I explained.

“Are the girls in your home receiving this treatment?” Wells' interest was piqued.

Pausing, I hadn’t thought of it that way. But every time I boosted one of their powers, it would have the similar side effects.

“Unintentionally, yes.” I realized. “Is that why Melody had such a short recovery time for her arm?”

“It could be. I noticed it there, but I didn’t have enough time to observe it. She healed completely with the transformation of the monster fruit.” Wells continued to take notes. “I would very much like your assistance in continuing to experiment with monster fruit. With your ability to manipulate ki, I want to see if we can’t give someone a power.”

“Too dangerous. It would risk my secret.” I hoped the scowl on my face would dissuade her, but she just calmly put her tablet down.

Wells focused entirely on me for the first time during the conversation. “You will be the end beneficiary of this research. I want to give you the power of your choosing. From my short study of you, this appears to be the only condition in which I can get you to risk your secret.”

That had not been what I was expecting her to say.

“How?” I pushed her for clarity rather than arguing about it. If she could give me a new power, then I wasn’t going to pass it up.

“Project Cerberus appears to be the source of monster fruit. The fruit is an adaptation of the original research, as far as I can tell. There are particular struggles with this approach, though. I believe the growth of the monster fruit produces a second set of these channels you observe when it is a separate organism, along with increasing the host’s propensity for ki absorption from the atmosphere.” Wells eyed me, watching my reaction before she spoke again.

“If that is true, then you may be able to shape the growth of these channels. Have you ever tried to make them within a living human?” She asked.

I nodded. “I can’t create the channels themselves. Even if I put the ki into the right shape, it falls apart.”

She continued to nod. “That’s even more evidence that my hypothesis is correct. From the samples we’ve collected, the cancerous giants do not obtain a new power. Thus I postulate that those have failed to create these new channels and instead of the increase in ki going into their powers, it overflows into their cells, causing accelerated growth until they reach a point where their body forces equilibrium with the new form of energy their bodies are acquiring.”

I frowned. “But if they never make new channels; I can’t help.”

She shook her head. “That is where we will need to experiment and understand the formation of these channels better. It could be something as simple as the new power channels are too weak and are broken as part of the transformation. You mentioned…” She trailed off and checked her notes. “That you feel you could break these channels if you stuffed them too much, but you could stretch Melody’s.”

I hadn’t told her that, which meant that she had gotten that information from Melody herself. “That’s correct.”

“Then I believe there are several possibilities, all of which I have designed experiments to test. And I would like to test them with your assistance. If you assist me in this, we will give you a new power of your choice.”

I sighed and rubbed at my face. “Any power?”

“Even whatever Cerberus used to survive your fight, or Wrath’s immortality.” Doctor Wells did her best to get my attention. “If you could help me crack these channels, then we could potentially solve the real problem of male birth rates. Everyone else is shooting in the dark because they are missing a critical piece of the puzzle. No one else has the same view of powers that you do.”

Unfortunately, I wasn’t altruistic enough to do it to solve everyone else’s problem of birth rates. “The rest of my family?” I asked. It was quite the promise to give them all the ability to alter and improve their powers.

Wells’ jaw tensed. “I will do my best to give you all the top of the line medical treatments and have it for you as soon as possible.”

I crossed my arms and leaned back. Her points made sense, and she’d certainly figured out how to motivate me.

But there were problems with her plan.

If the kind of technology to manipulate or create super powers ever got out, the level of powers in the city would go through the roof.

It would be a complete disaster. Even if just the BSH tried to keep it, it would go to the military with time.

“Are people able to take monster fruit more than once?”

Wells shook her head. “After consuming the foreign body of the monster fruit, their bodies react too quickly and kill it if they take it again. A trained immune response.”

“What about children of people who took monster fruit? Would each generation be able to tack on more powers?” I asked.

Wells was smart enough to understand where I was going. She opened her mouth and then paused. “Your concern is about the general population having access to this.”

“Yes. Or even the military. I can’t be sure they won’t abuse it.” I extrapolated even further. “The ability to give powers would also mean figuring out how to avoid bursting some of these channels. Wouldn’t that lead to the ability to burst them? What about that sensor? Being able to detect something is only a few steps away from being able to manipulate it.”

I sighed. “Doctor. This technology you are pursuing is dangerous for all of us.”

She nodded slowly. “At present, you are the only one who can see and interact with the ki and channels to produce the desired results. And so far, powers aren’t inherited. The propensity for them and general correlations of strength of the power are.”

She put her tablet to the side and watched me. “We have no data on what functionality monster fruit will have in offspring. You are correct, we need to understand that better. Would you be willing to give me samples of your sperm?”

I slapped my face into my palm. “No. I will not let you use my sperm for experimentation and seed some woman. Can’t you create some computer models based on the available data you have?”

“Simulations are often faulty when compared to actual biology, but if that’s a line you draw, then I will have to take that route.” Doctor Wells didn’t fight me much.

I wondered if she was giving me the easy win in the conversation to make me more amenable to her other ask. I wasn’t about to get into a battle of wits with a mad scientist.

“You need people to perform the procedure on, and I can’t have my secret leaked.” I told her.

“Obsidian. She’d do it for the money, and I suddenly find myself with lots of potential funding after Melody’s procedure and successfully preventing her from becoming a cancerous giant.” Doctor Wells explained. “Once we can get it to a point that you can work from afar or even a room over, then we’ll work on other opportunities. The Bureau will be full of people wanting to undergo the procedure if we have even a modest track record of success.”

She was right, and we both knew it.

“Seems you have thought all of this out.” I told her as she prepped a vial to sample more of my blood.

“I have. But I cannot do it alone. You are required.” She held the vial with a needle up to my arm.

There was a hesitation as she held it here, a question in her eyes.

“Alright.” I said to both the blood draw and the testing. “But I want to make sure whatever we release to the military or the bureau only has the ability to create random abilities or very weak ones to just help with the genders; it would be best if others cannot replicate our success.”

Wells nodded. “As long as my curiosity and my success are both satisfied, then I’ll work with those conditions in mind.”

I felt like I’d just made a deal with the devil as she sealed the deal by taking my blood.

Sitting there, I noticed a large object covered in a tarp that hadn’t been there on my last visit. “What’s that?”

“Kim’s project. It was fairly simple to make it.” Wells waved negligently.

“What’s it for?” Something about the tarp had my curiosity.

“She said it would summon Void, but I’m not sure how it would perform that function.” Wells frowned at the tarp. “It’s top secret. I can’t show you it, but I suspect you’ll end up seeing it sooner or later.”

If I was supposed to summon Void, and it worked, I most definitely would.

For now, I would ignore it and everything else as I got another workup from Dr. Wells.

The tests took a little longer, but they went well. I was in peak physical condition.

“Now, I’d like you to use your power on me. Increase my powers.” Wells asked.

I frowned, but did it, speeding up what I suspected was the power connected to her significant intellect and her other weaker power.

“What is your power? I know it must have something to do with your brain.” I asked.

“Multiple cognition and near perfect balance.” Doctor Wells said smoothly.

“Multiple cognition?” I wondered what that meant. Perfect balance was an interesting power, but not especially useful for her work.

“It’s a poor analogy, but it would be the same effective difference between a single core computer processor and a sixteen core processor. I’m able to maintain more conscious trains of thought and reasoning.” She explained.

“Do they each have their own personalities?”

She frowned. “No. I am still a singular mental entity, just capable of multitasking at extreme levels. It’s like being able to pay attention to and watch sixteen TVs at the same time or listening to sixteen dictations of research papers at the same time.” She tapped behind her ear where her comms were stuck to her like the rest of us. “It is one of the reasons that I am in charge down here. My ability to stay up to date on all projects is currently without peer.”

Huh. It was a strange ability, but she’d clearly found her success with it.

Which also meant the intelligence was all her own. She was just processing the information faster.

“It also allows me to keep up on all the conversations at your dinner table.” She added dryly.

“If you could get another ability, which would you choose?” I asked, having a feeling which one it would be already.

She wouldn’t want my power. She’d want something that would help her accomplish more tasks.

“Obsidian’s clones intrigue me. I often find myself wanting more hands than I actually have.” She stared at her two hands. “There are more trains of thought in my head than just a pair of hands can do anything with.”

I nodded, understanding her logic.

“You can cease increasing my power. You brought me from sixteen to twenty-one multiple cognitions. Very strange, but we’ll do a few more tests, and then you can go about your day.” Wells leaned back with my vial of blood and more data as she turned to her desk and started working.

I guess I was done.