The Owl in the Abyss - Chapter 25 (Patreon)

She shut the front door to her house with more force than necessary, unable to suppress the impulse. Her nerves were twisting up and down her spine, tangling her stomach up in knots and she struggled to regain some form of calm.

Her head leaned against the cool thick wood of the door and she took deep breaths, closing her green eyes to just shut herself away from the world.

The fucked up world that left her with parents that had to be going through the weirdest divorce she’d ever heard of. At this point, either of them should’ve moved out and some sort of custody agreement worked out. Legal proceedings should’ve started and court dates set. Instead, they remained in the house, simply using separate rooms and each day like clockwork, the arguments began at breakfast then continued when both parents came from work.

The reason was as obvious as the sky is blue.

The economic benefits of having a parahuman child in the Wards.

It was almost as if she had used her power inadvertently to warp spacetime to keep her parents glued together. Simply by the fact that she had triggered. What a joke that it had happened during one of their fights.

Missy Biron forcefully turned her thoughts away from that loop of useless thinking. After two years, it still resonated and hung on her like a yoke. 

She picked up her school bag with a resolute motion, burying the stupid tears and began a determined stride down the house driveway.

To bring her thoughts to more pleasant territory, she immediately thought of Dean; narrow waist, broad shoulders, perfectly cut blonde hair. With practiced ease, she avoided the fact that he was dating her best friend to continue the pleasant daydream.

She absently thumbed the gate remote and emerged into the street to begin the walk to the nearby school bus stop.

By all rights, she should’ve been driven to school by one of her parents, but she had long since taken up the mantle of being as independent as the law would allow her to be.  

She wrestled her thoughts back to Dean as she walked, keeping her own situational awareness up, pushing her power outward and perceiving the ‘shadows’ where her control of spacetime was ‘off’, due to the fact a living person occupied that space.

Coming to the end of the street she turned the corner and was rather startled by the presence of a dog sitting patiently, waiting directly in her path.

“Aww cute,” she couldn’t help but say and smiled at the large Border Collie, an orange brown coated variant she couldn’t remember the name of.

Her mind recalled with fondness her mom’s two dogs, a Maltipoo named Chi-chi and Hans the Beagle. Just thinking of both was tinged now with bitterness, as both pets had been one of the first victims of the war between her parents. Her dad selling them off to get back at mom. 

The Collie had its tongue dangling out of its mouth, breathing in that excited energetic manner that all sheepdog had. Something about its eyes and the way it was looking at her, made her stop. There was also something else odd that was nagging at her, but her mind just slid off the idea in the face of the cute doggy.

Missy shouldered her bag to free both hands and displayed them for the dog, smiling and making sure to feel and project her good vibes.

Sure enough the dog had no objections to her coming closer and she chanced stroking… him on the head.

He definitely enjoyed that, leaning into her touch, so she knelt and scratched him on the neck as well.

He was well cared for, not dirty at all and while he did smell like a dog, there was a hint of minty shampoo and clear evidence of grooming.

“There’s a good boy, so cute you are,” she couldn’t help but coo. “No collar, eh?”

The dog just chuffed at the question, as if he was saying, ‘Obviously’.

“ID chip implant then, where’s your owner, boy?”

The dog naturally didn’t answer and just continued enjoying the scratches. Missy enjoyed the distraction for about a minute or so, but she had a bus to catch and reluctantly stopped. Standing and giving her surprise visitor a wry smile.

He clicked his teeth, then his jaw widened into a yawn, showing them off. His teeth were as pristine as a human’s, which given the level of grooming, wasn’t a surprise.

“Well, it was nice to meet you, but I gotta go. Get back to your owners, okay? It seems like they take good care of you.”

Missy walked past the dog and it wasn’t a few steps before she heard that he was following.

She stopped abruptly and looked behind her with a frown.

The dog immediately stopped and sat, just staring at her with a happy tongue hanging out of his mouth.

She resumed her walk for a few meters and stopped abruptly again.

Sure enough, the dog was intent on following.

“I have to go to school in five minutes,” she said, putting her hands on her hips to emphasize her seriousness. “Go home, boy.”

Again, she resumed her walk, a few steps later, the dog followed.

Missy bit down on the reflexive annoyance she felt and kept walking, hoping that giving him no further attention would give the dog the right message.

After two streets through the suburb and with the bus stop in sight, the Collie was still trotting behind her. Looking for all the world like he was dutifully accompanying his owner. Inside her heart and mind, a war was going on, between her love of dogs and the practicalities telling her it was impossible to adopt this one. Mom would love it, but dad would set the dog out the yard the first chance he got.

All the signs pointed that he had a loving, caring home. He had probably just snuck out through the automated gate when his owner’s weren’t looking, to go on an adventure. She knew Collies were high energy dogs and if you didn’t let them vent enough of it then trouble would follow. The only odd thing was how the dog seemed to attach himself to her so quickly.

She could see the bus approaching from down the street and the dog sped up a bit to now walk right next to her.

“Seriously? Boy, go home!” she repeated, pointing back down the street.

The dog just chuffed twice rapidly, almost laughing?

She shook her head. Has to be my imagination, she thought.

There were a bunch of middle schoolers gathered, chatting and gazing at the oncoming bus, seemingly oblivious to the four legged company that had joined them.

“See, the bus,” Missy pointed. “You can’t come with me on that.”

The dog just sat down and she got the distinct impression just from its eyes and subtle movements of its mouth, ‘Watch me.’

“This is ridiculous, you’re going to get me in trouble.”

The hiss of the pneumatic brakes startled her as the huge bus came to a stop.

In retrospect she could’ve escaped the dog with a quick use of her power, scrunch space ahead of her, take a step, and relax it behind her.

She wasn’t Vista at the moment though and the chance she’d be observed in the neighborhood was just too high, no matter how quick she went about it.

The children began boarding.

“Fucking hell,” she muttered under her breath. “Shoo, go home, boy!”

The dog sat down next to her feet and looked up with what best could be described as the dog version of a shit eating grin.

Everyone was aboard and Missy suddenly jumped up to the step, hoping to catch the dog off-guard, then use the bus door to slam it in his face.

The instant she had both feet on the first step of the bus, she whirled around, grabbing a hold of the steel folding door.

Only to find that the hydraulics firmly prevented manual operation.

The dog jumped and boarded as well, snaking through her legs like a wet eel.

“Eh hem,” the middle-aged bus driver said pointedly. “No dogs on board, Missy.”

“Mr. Douglas he’s not my dog,” she denied instantly.

The Collie turned in a tight circle, then sat down and looked at her expectantly, as if waiting for an order.

“Are you sure about that?” He gave her a wry look.

“Yes, he’s just some stray that followed me from my street!”

“Strays don’t exactly look like that,” he pointed sternly.

“I know, but I swear Mr. Douglas. He’s just a neighbor’s, that probably rushed out of the gate and now took a liking to me.”

Mr. Douglas frowned skeptically but seemed to accept her explanation. “Hey! Go on, get!” He shouted at the dog.

The canine turned his head to simply acknowledge that he had clearly heard the human, but turned back to Missy with an expectant air.

The situation became apparent to the children sitting in the front of the bus, their chatter growing excited, laughing and wondering what the cute dog’s deal was.

Mr. Douglas had a schedule to keep and children to get to school safely. He switched on the hazard warning lights and got up to show his full six foot one bulk to the dog, which wasn’t all fat. He had been a college football player in his own youth before a long term injury prevented him from going pro.

With still impressive reflexes he reached down to scoop the dog into his arms, grabbing for the spots which would keep the Collie from being able to bite him if it was so inclined.

Missy blinked in astonishment when the dog moved.

Mr. Douglas grabbed nothing but air.

If it wasn’t impossible, she’d have sworn that the dog had blurred in a manner not unlike Velocity did for the briefest of instants. Now the Collie was just sitting patiently a few feet to the right, further down the bus aisle and still giving that goofy grin at her.

What the fuck? She thought.

Mr. Douglas tried again, the dog blurred and sat in his previous position.

It was ridiculous. Impossible, yet she knew what she saw.

The dog had a Mover power.

The dog was a para… paracanine?

Her Protectorate training managed to kick in at this point and it told her one thing - the dog was fixated on her and therefore there was only once choice she had to protect Mr. Douglas and the children on this bus.

“Mr. Douglas, I’ll get off and you get this bus moving to the school, stop for nothing!”

“Wait-”

Missy turned around and jumped.

The instant her feet hit the street again she began running with all the speed she could muster.

She looked behind and sure enough the supposed dog was happily running after her, easily keeping up using conventional movement.

The bus still wasn’t moving.

Mr Douglas you idiot! She thought. Now is not the time for heroics on your part.

It wasn’t fair, protecting everyone in the bus was his job, which included her. The problem was it was her job to protect him from a possible parahuman threat. Could the dog be a Changer? It was certainly more plausible than a dog triggering.

The clock was ticking and her stamina for the sprint was running out, at which point she’d have to resort to her own power.

She considered her next move and made a decision.

Procedure dictated she activate her distress beacon, but it would mobilize the Protectorate to converge on her without any information and this was clearly something unknown and new. She had to give them at least some heads up.

She pulled out her phone and with some effort managed to keep running, swipe to unlock her phone and navigate its interface to dial the proper number. She also pulled out an emergency mask and pulled it over her head. It was a thin half-balaclava with inserts to break up the profile of her face to screw with image recognition programs and neatly hid her hair as well.

The instant it was secured over her head she slowed down to a jog.

The dog playfully barked and drew level with her, for all the world still acting like he was a Collie enjoying the energetic run with his owner.

She sank her power into the space ahead of her, the entire suburban street was thankfully empty of people or cars at that moment, then pinched it.

She took one jogging step then another, covering 270 feet in an instant.

She normalized the corridor of spacetime behind her and looked behind.

Just in time to witness the dog blurring briefly in the distance and appearing right next to her with a happy bark.

“Fuck,” she gasped incredulously as the phone vibrated in her hand.

She held it up to her ear and her jog was now making her school bag bounce uncomfortably against her back.

“Console here, code in,” said Triumph promptly.

“Six… one, Alpha… Omega, four, one… hash, nine, nine,” she said between gasps of air, using a partial duress code.

“Understood, what’s the situation?”

“Being chased… by either a Changer-Mover… masquerading as a dog or an actual dog… with para-abilities.”

In the silence on the line, she could practically imagine Rory’s jaw falling to the floor as his brain tried to comprehend that sentence.

“Wh- wh- Roger that. Is there hostile intent?”

“None, he just wants… to run with me… and won’t leave.”

She pinched space ahead of her when a car ahead had finally turned out of the way, making another warp-step.

The Collie blurred again, keeping pace and barked in delight.

“He’s keeping up…  with me, even with… warp-steps.”

“I’m dispatching Velocity. Keep moving.”

“Got it.”

She pocketed her phone, slowing her jog further to a light one that she knew she could keep going for much longer with her fitness level, which she kept as high as possible without running afoul of the PRT or the Youth Guard. Heaven forbid that a Ward actually becomes properly fit for the role they’ll be called to perform one day.

She warp-stepped once, covering the distance to the intersection, turned left and warp-stepped again.

“Woof!” he barked in delight, right next to her.

“Fine!” she snapped. “You wanna go for a run? I’ll give you a run.”

The warp-steps came faster, the only thing giving her pause was to dodge out of the way for a distant car or pedestrians and the time it took to pinch space. She wished her power worked faster in that respect. If it did, she could’ve done a fair imitation of Velocity’s own power, with the only limitation being that she needed to see the space she was warping and the shadows of living people.

She led the Collie on a vague circuit around her neighborhood, which bordered Lord’s Park to the south.

The containment dome for the Human Tree came into view and she couldn’t help but shudder, turn her head away and make another warp-step.

That thing still gave her nightmares after she had read the clearly sanitized report given to the Wards. What made it worse was that no amount of vague phrasing, redaction or language tricks could truly make that monstrosity of a thing ‘acceptable’ for Ward eyes. The Youth Guard had clearly tried, but there was no getting around the fact that the Wards had to know all the details in case of an emergency breach in containment.

The nightmares made her angry.

She had faced down Hookwolf in all his savageness, and was nearly murderblended by him with the scar to prove it. Yet, it was just reading a report and seeing an artistic rendition of the cognito-hazard tree which ended up giving her occasional sleepless nights.

Even now as she ran from the damn dog, her memories of the nightmares boiled up to the surface.

“NO!” she punched the air in front of her, imagining the tree being obliterated.

Thankfully, it did the trick and brought her focus fully back to the present to make another warp-step.

She looked back as the dog reappeared and her focused spatial awareness picked up on a glaring detail that flabbergasted her.

It was so astonishing that she stuttered to a stop and gaped as the Collie slowed down to a trot, his own breathing rapid with exertion. The dog stopped a polite three feet away and sat down, staring at her with expectation that the chase game would continue.

An air displacement hit her and between one blink of an eye and the next, Velocity had arrived.

She wasn’t even flustered by the muscular Protectorate hero with his very thin, skin tight red and gold costume that left quite little to the imagination. An either fortunate or unfortunate consequence of Velocity’s breaker power, was that it left him unable to truly affect the world around him the greater speed he achieved. The more he carried, the more he slowed down relatively, which included his costume. The fact he had a two way radio at all in his tight face mask was only thanks to Armsmaster’s Tinkering which allowed for the smallest and lightest radio in the world.

“Are you okay?” Velocity asked immediately.

Missy could only look back at the dog, double check what she felt with her power before nodding.

“Yes,” she took a deep breath, in through nose, out through mouth, focusing and calming down. “Just… seems like.” She coughed. “I’ve got a new doggy friend, who isn’t alive.”

Velocity put a hand on her shoulder in concern and gave the dog a weird look, “Looks pretty alive to me, Vista.”

“You’d think that. I was petting and scratching him before all this. He smells, he has body heat, he’s clearly very smart and even emotes quite well for a dog, but according to my power, he’s not alive.”

“What? You mean you could-” he trailed off in astonishment.

“I could stretch and pinch the space he occupies with no problem,” Missy nodded. “Naturally, I won’t do that, because this is a dog.”

“You’re certain of that now?”

“It was just a theory before, might still be the case. Just my gut speaking.”

She wanted to slap Velocity for the patronizing look he sent her way. As if he couldn’t believe that little Vista could be experienced enough to develop those gut instincts yet. He stared down the Collie, “I’m Velocity of the Protectorate, are you able to resume a human form?”

The dog huffed, closed his mouth and sniffed briefly, glancing at the speedster, before turning all attention back to Missy and happily waiting for the game to begin again.

“I think that answers the question.”

Velocity gave her an annoyed look, “Villains are capable of long term plans and infiltration.”

“Wow, what a dastardly plan, change into a cute dog and stick like glue to a Ward, hoping she’ll adopt you.”

He winced, “Yeah, when you put it like that. However, this city just had two very strange phenomena happen in it. Now we’ve got a dog that can seemingly keep up with you-”

Velocity blurred and the Collie blurred.

It happened in a moment and the Protectorate hero was back where he had stood, wincing as he flexed his right hand.

“And he can keep up with me too,” he said wryly. “Gave me a mild bite when I managed to get my hand near his neck.”

As if that would’ve achieved anything, the faster Velocity went, the less he was able to actually do. He would’ve had to slow down significantly to pick the Collie up. As much as she generally liked Velocity, his power, while amazing on paper, was basically to just arrive very quickly at a trouble spot and be a baseline human being. He could only keep himself safe and provide intelligence on a problem. That was valuable but it did little to actually resolve a conflict.

“Have you tried your other methods?” he asked.

Missy winced, “I was a bit too caught up in the moment to try a treadmill trap. I can’t set those up on a whim and he was sticking too close to me.”

“I see,” Velocity held up a finger to his ear, listening likely to either Armsmaster or Miss Militia. He eventually nodded, “Orders are to stay put, keep the doggy entertained until we can get transport here.”

She sighed with relief as she moved over to the sidewalk and dumped her school bag on the nice exterior lawn of the nearby house. The Collie followed as expected and made a slight whine of disappointment as Missy sat down.

“Yeah, you might have tons of energy, but I have a whole day still ahead of me,” she groused to the dog. “Any thoughts on a name?” she asked Velocity.

“You want to name him already?” he chuckled and she quickly looked away as the hero sat down next to her.   

“A dog should have a name, no collar and until we can scan for his chip, might as well,” she shrugged.

“Oscar.”

“Oscar? What kind of name is that for a dog?” She gave him an unimpressed look.

“We still use working dogs in the military, you know? One of my buddies was in a unit dedicated to them. Oscar was a beautiful Dutch Shepherd, explosives sniffer. Saved a lot of lives that mutt, including yours truly.”

Missy really didn’t want to ask, but her curiosity won out, “What happened to him?”

“Enemy snipers always went after our dogs when they could,” Velocity said sadly.

She felt a flash of anger in her heart at the mere thought of it. “No, all respect to Oscar, but I don’t want to think of that every time I look at this cutie. I think… Ziggy.”

Velocity chuckled, “Well, I’ll give you that it certainly fits with his speed ability.”

With determination she pointed at the Collie, “You’re Ziggy from now on.”

The dog’s ears flattened and his happy tongue retreated.

“He doesn’t like that one, it seems. Care to try again?”

“Nugget?” she asked eagerly.

The dog huffed and lied down, giving her an unimpressed look.

“Wow, now that is one smart dog, rather suspiciously so,” Velocity frowned. “We just had a tree given human characteristics and a para-ability dumped on this city. Could this be from the same source?”

“Maybe,” Missy agreed. “The problem is that both the train and tree were rather… awful, disgusting, and could get you killed or violated in nasty ways. A cute dog with super speed is not in tune with that theme.”

“We have to assume that the dog is just a wrapper for something nefarious. What better way to allay suspicion, Vista.”

He hated that he had a good point. “True, but until that’s a sure thing we’re treating Scotty like the cute doggo he is.”

The dog grumbled, ears staying low.

“Oh come on,” Vista moaned. “How about Monty? Peanut? Lucky? Spencer?”

The Collie yawned after all the suggestions.

Missy grabbed her phone, swiped a few times on the screen to bring up a browser and started searching for more names to try.

“Well, at least it’s something to pass the time,” Velocity laughed.

8888888888888888888888888888888888

“I hope you’re happy.”

Missy glared at the unrepentant Collie from her nice bed inside what was affectionately known among the Protectorate as the ‘Dunk Tank’ or as it officially known - Master/Stranger Containment Cell Number One. Adding insult to injury, she now wore only a plain white jumpsuit that might as well have been a sack cloth.

At least it wasn’t totally uncomfortable, but the bra she had been given was so bad that she didn’t even bother and only went with the standard issue panty under the suit.

Everything else in the absolutely featureless room was white, which combined with the lighting, gave the impression she was lying on a bed in an infinite expanse. Only the Collie, who had also helped himself to the bed and was now lying with contentment next to her feet, was the only bit of color available to her eyes.

A trick everyone knew was to simply put a hand against the nearby wall, to break the illusion and visually remind your own brain that, ‘Yes, I’m in a room’.  

Right now, she knew they were being scanned by every sensor that was available to modern science, including those of Armsmaster’s own creation. 

She had a wonderful two days of this level of scrutiny to endure, before they’d move on to a lower level containment for another three. At least there, she would have access to school work and the Internet.

The lights in the room abruptly changed color to a deep red and the startling difference made it almost seem as if the lights had gone out.

She felt movement on the bed and she looked down to see the Collie sneaking closer with a look in his eyes that just melted her heart. His head was now scooched next to her hip and she couldn’t help but lay a hand on his neck and begin scratching.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s horrible, I know.”

She had tried to read the science and reasoning behind the Dunk Tank during her early days as a Ward at orientation and hadn’t got past the first page before giving it up. Even now with two more years of middle school education under her belt, she doubted it would be any different.

Missy could only guess that the colors were causing some sort of effect and that the sensors were reading the effect on her brain waves or something along those lines.

“How about Bernie?” she smiled at the dog.

No reaction, another bust.

“This is going to be a long two days.”

8888888888888888888888888888888888888

By the time she was escorted with the clingy Collie to quarantine she was practically kissing the floor in thankfulness for seeing proper textures in her own environment again. Not to mention finally getting an idea of what the time was.

This was only her second time in the Dunk Tank and the first time didn’t really count as that had been a thirty minute familiarization exercise.

She barely heard Miss Militia telling her what all the scans and testing had revealed so far.

“X-Ray and remote CAT scans came back clean. We did find a very small RFID chip, but we can’t make heads or tails of the coding on it and there’s components on it that even Armsmaster and Kid Win can’t identify.”

“Are they going to remove it?”

“No, the chip was surgically implanted near the brain in a way that should’ve killed the dog, at least, from the perspective of our own science. Remote scanning will have to do, for now. DNA profiling is still underway and so far nothing infectious has been detected in all samples gathered.”

Miss Militia and Missy were nevertheless still wearing medical grade surgical filter masks as a precaution.

They stopped at a door, with a swipe of a keycard and typing in a code, it opened to reveal a modestly appointed all in one living area that had a nice view of the Bay itself and city skyline. She always liked the views of the city from the Protectorate HQ Rig.

“In the bag is a change of clothes gathered from your house,” Militia pointed to the floor next to the desk. “Including lessons for the week of school you’re missing.” She also handed Missy a PRT issue smartphone. “You can go online, but you’re behind an active moderation filter program.”

“Thank you,” Missy said with feeling. The Collie slithered between their legs into the room and began practically spinning like a dervish on the central carpet. “Yeah, he’s been very antsy.”

“We know,” Miss Militia laughed. “All the essentials for him have been moved here already.”

“Good, anything else?”

“A nurse will be coming by for some blood samples from you later today.”

Missy scrunched her face in disgust, “I thought we were done with that in the Dunk Tank.”

“Now that you’re experiencing more natural stimuli, it’s important to keep up testing. Relax Vista, we’ve all gone through this.”

“Have you checked for a vampire among the medical staff?” she joked semi-seriously.

“I’m quite sure we would’ve noticed one of them spontaneously combusting when they walk outside in the sun,” Miss Militia smiled behind her mask. “Lunch will be brought in an hour and in the meantime, I suggest you catch up on school work. Which reminds me.” She brought forward a rather hefty book she had been carrying under her arm.

Missy accepted it and read the title, “Am I going to veterinary school now?”

Militia shook her head, “No, you’ll see a bookmark inside that goes over the procedures for drawing blood from dogs. We think the Collie will eventually trust you enough to allow it, so long as you’re the one doing it.”

The dog finally stopped its crazy spinning, then promptly jumped onto the bed to get comfortable there, staring out the window.

“Fine, I’ll give it a shot,” Missy sighed. As a young girl she had hated it when her parents took the dogs to the vet. Simply because of the stress it induced and the dogs knew when they were going to visit the man with the nasty needles.

“Also your parents have been informed of the general circumstances, they send their love and best wishes for a full recovery.”

Miss Militia’s tone was studiously neutral, but the older heroine knew full well what was going on in the Byron household.

“Do they think I’m sick or do they actually know I was in the Dunk Tank?”

“The latter. They know you encountered a parahuman phenomenon on the way to school and reported it in.”

“And Mr. Douglas and the children on the bus?”

“We’re lucky that he was rather reluctant to leave you, the delay allowed Armsmaster to catch up with them. They’re all under a precautionary observational quarantine.”

“I’ve made a lot of work for all you guys,” Missy observed wryly.

“If the Collie had been an actual vector for the spread of a disease or a cognito-hazard, we’d have far more work. As it is, you’re going to receive a ‘good work’ commendation on your record for getting yourself out of there when you realized the situation. The only mild correction to give was that you should’ve advised Mr. Douglas to stay in place, but we recognize you were not in any position to actually order him to do so.”

Missy nodded, it was just a shame that it wouldn’t actually lead to any improvement in her capabilities or career.

She was classified as a Shaker 9 and yet the most they would allow her to do was look ‘cute’ for cameras, go on patrols that had only the most marginal chances of seeing any action and put down control effects on any battlefield or crisis point.

It was a point of pride that, despite all the hamstringing thrown her way by PR and the Youth Guard, she had the most arrests on record for any Ward on the East Coast. That little fact was also not widely circulated as that would run counter to the impression that the Image Department of the PRT wanted.

“Anything else you want to talk about, Vista?”

“No, thank you, Miss Militia.”

“See you at the end of quarantine, slam the panic button if anything unexpected happens that the cameras can’t see. You have full privacy in the adjoining bathroom.”

The Protectorate heroine left, locking the door behind her.

Missy threw herself into the chair behind the desk, looking at the pile of school work stacked on it in a disgruntled manner.

“Let’s get this over with.”

88888888888888888888888888888888

“Welcome back from the Tank!”

The rather pathetic blowing of a single party popper was what greeted Missy on her return to the Ward common room at PRT HQ.

Dennis approached in his skintight white costume decorated with clocks minus helmet, a big grin on his pale eager face. He seized her own right hand and shook it with overblown fanfare. She knew he wouldn’t do his usual prank, because he liked his balls and shin too much to risk her wrath, so she tolerated the antics.

“Thank you, Clock,” she rolled her eyes.

He turned his attention to the Collie at her side and grinned. “Hey Buddy, good to meet you.”

The dog barked once and sat down, eyeing the Ward wearily. Dennis knelt to carefully scratch his head but flinched backward when the Collie snapped his jaw.

“Okay, sorry Buddy. I won’t do it. Can I pet you now?”

Missy blinked as the dog actually huffed in response, before Dennis carefully pushed his hand forward again to successfully scratch the dog behind the ear, which he seemed to enjoy.

“Wait a tic, you wanted to prank him with your power?”

“Of course, it’s practically tradition, since Buddy here is eventually gonna be the bestest boy of the Wards, isn’t he? And now I have to tell Armsmaster that Buddy can read my intentions well enough that I can’t use my power on him. No separating him from you that way.”

The dog barked again as if in agreement.

“Guess I shouldn’t be surprised at that one,” Missy muttered. “And what’s with that stupid name you’re giving him? We’re not calling him ‘Buddy’.”

The dog barked, gave Missy a slight growl and even a side-eye.

“Oh come on, Missy. He’s a ‘Buddy’ if I’ve ever seen one. Watch this.” Dennis stood and took a few steps back. “Buddy, sit,” he ordered with a kind firmness.

Missy gaped as ‘Buddy’ sat down properly and gave a half-bark in acknowledgement.

“Buddy, lie down.”

The Collie gave a half-growl, but nevertheless lied down on its legs with an air of grudging obedience.

Dennis grinned at Missy in a satisfied manner that made her want to slap him. “See, he’s so obviously a Buddy. Well trained too it seems.”

She sighed and wouldn’t admit in a hundred years that she had tried nearly the entire duration of her quarantine to bounce names off ‘Buddy’ to see what the dog responded to. She hated that Dennis only needed one look and a few seconds. “Fine, Buddy, get up. Let’s go.”

Buddy barked and got up as they walked deeper into the common room. 

Aegis was the only other Ward here, sitting at a PC in his full armored costume and busy as usual with the minor administrative duties given to him as leader of the city’s Wards. Kid Win was probably in his lab as usual and Gallant was a curious no-show. The mid-afternoon weekday was usually a time when they were supposed to be in the Common room, unless otherwise occupied.

“Missy,” he greeted her. He gave a look down to the dog that had seemingly adopted her. “Hi Buddy.” He lowered a hand and held a dog treat of some sort. The Collie immediately approached the offered food, sniffed it, then Aegis, before a quick single bite removed the treat from view. Carlos immediately smiled and scratched the dog’s head as Buddy chewed on it.

“Anything happen while I was away?” Missy asked curiously.

“Nothing from the gangs, except the usual. Few scuffles, injuries, hospitalizations, unpowered gangers only. Only blips on our radar really have been a few independent villain sightings and actions. No arrests, unfortunately. By the time the Protectorate or PRT arrives it’s usually too late.”

“They have to be slippery by nature to survive at all.”

“True, most of those identified are visitors. Testing the waters so to speak, to see if they can set up shop now that the local PRT and Protectorate has to manage two quarantine zones.”

“We’ll just have to convince them Brockton is not their new playground then,” Missy said firmly.

“Amen to that. Those who’ve been identified have profiles that you should review on your PC. Oh, thought you should know we’ll have a replacement for Shadow Stalker soon.”

“Really? Anyone I know?”

“Bit far from our usual neck of the woods. Nightleaf from Denver.”

“Yeah, doesn’t ring a bell.”

“Blaster 5. Very versatile, but doesn’t have any Mover powers or durability besides being Manton limited to be immune to whatever she shoots out of her hands.”

“That’d give a nice leg-up on the E88, now that they don’t have Purity anymore. Anyway, when am I getting back out there?” she asked eagerly.

Carlos winced, “Sorry, Missy. If Buddy here is going to stick to you then there’s a bunch of stuff that has to be cleared first. The eggheads at the PRT needs to first figure out how he does what he does or at least quantify his ability to make sure it doesn’t pose a threat to you and the public. There’s also a bunch of national interest and there’s probably a formal Case file designation going to be opened for him, as the first non-human lifeform on this planet to have Triggered with a power.”

She pulled out a nearby chair and collapsed on it, and gave a double facepalm. “You have to be kidding me!”, she snapped at the ceiling.

“Unfortunately not. There’s even some talk that you might even be transferred to New York where the PRT science facilities are better.”

“Please tell me you’re going to fight that,” she begged.

“Of course I will, Director Piggot even said that she’d fight it too. We’re short staffed as it is to be losing you for months just so Thinkers and Tinkers can poke at Buddy. No, I think she’s going to make them come here. She even said she’d use a favor from New Wave to have Panacea have a look and shove her report in the direction of the PRT upper ranks.”

“Good, but I can guess what the next issue is going to be. So when can we expect Glenn to show up?”

That overweight, overbearing head of national public relations for the PRT had been the one to personally design the image of Vista.

It was a costume that she didn’t like completely, but had learned to live with. It leaned too much into the cute and magical girl themes. A proper armored helmet would’ve been much better but that was contrary to the way she was ‘approved’ to fight in a cape action and gave an appearance that was too ‘martial’.

“Given the way things are around here, he’ll probably make a video conference call before he shows up in person. That’s another thing that happened whilst you were in isolation. The city’s been officially raised to an Amber B-class threat level.”

Missy gaped, “Seriously? On a permanent basis? Not temporary?”

“Provisionally permanent, pending a review within six months. Given we have two active quarantine zones that need managing it should’ve happened sooner.”

“That means quite a lot of things could be changing around here,” she said with an eager smile.

“Yep, bigger budget, which already has Kid Win jumping for joy, considering the projects that he has on the backburner because of lack of funding. It’s also why we’re getting Nightleaf so quickly and two more Protectorate members are coming onto the city’s roster.”

“Finally-”

The common room rang with a specific two tone chime.    

“Mask up!” Aegis called reflexively.

Missy whirled and ran with a brief warp-step to her own locker, pulling out her green visor and settling it onto her head. It clashed horribly with her current civvies of blue jeans and orange shirt, but there was no time to correct that given the visitor warning bell.

She was also surprised at the fact that Buddy hadn’t joined her, but it was understandable as she saw him getting fed another treat by Aegis.

The common room door opened and a fully suited Armsmaster entered and scanned the room briefly. His gaze paused on Buddy as the dog sat next to Aegis, still munching on the treat.

“Aegis, you’ve managed to increase the dog’s separation from Vista by seven meters... by offering him treats?”

“He’s a dog, sir,” Carlos said with a clear effort not to sound as if he was mocking his superior or judging him in any way. Missy restrained her own giggle with some effort and she bet Dennis was grinning like a loon behind his mirrored full face visor. “Clockblocker also found a name that the dog responded to, ‘Buddy’.”

“I see,” Armsmaster eventually said into the silence that followed. “Well, good work, both of you. As you’re aware, Protectorate Thinkers with the scope for long range sensing are having problems with the Brockton Bay area. Some have even visited in person for short amounts of time, with no improvement. However, there are two independent Thinkers who are still able to apply their powers within the city limits we know of. I thought having one of them look at Buddy will be of benefit.”

He stepped forward and to the side, allowing entry for…

Missy’s eyes widened, Dennis coughed suddenly and Aegis froze in his seat behind the PC.

“Hello everyone, pleasure to meet you,” said Escort politely, from behind the long unbraided perfect hair that dangled over her face. Her signature iron pipe weapon clanged on the floor as she rested it there, keeping it in hand. Her curved hip flaring as she leaned on it.

Missy idly and irrationally wondered if the young nude heroine could use it for a pole dance if she anchored it into the ground.

Any response from them was interrupted though when Buddy stood on all fours, tensed and started growling at Escort.

The independent hero tilted her head, hair parting slightly to show a single shadowed eye that stared down the dog.

Buddy kept growling, taking a half step forward.

Escort remained visibly relaxed despite the threat, even when Buddy started showing teeth.

The tension in the room grew thick enough to cut.

Before Missy or anyone else could even think to do something, Buddy blurred and Escort vanished into thin air.

The dog reappeared snapping his jaws onto the air that the Escort had occupied, before blurring with speed again.

Missy felt her ears pop with a sudden ringing pain, she cried out, trying to instinctively shield her ears with her hands, only to feel the edges of her visor getting in the way.

There was a thump of metal hitting something… flesh?

Then the sound of a dog yelping with pain.

She looked up just in time to see Escort standing in the middle of the common room with Buddy in her grip with unyielding arms around the dog’s midsection and neck, his paws helpless in the air and frantically twitching.

He growled fiercely, wriggling in Escort’s grip but he failed to escape, still trying to bite the heroine.

Escort’s mouth thinned with a fierce anger, the wriggling of the dog had whipped her hair apart and Missy saw a vaguely familiar face she’d definitely seen before.

“Armsmaster!” Escort shouted.

The hero’s signature halberd was already out and had finished assembling itself. With perfect power assisted precision he aimed and a large injection dart was launched which stabbed itself directly into Buddy’s chest, just beneath the soft tissue of the rib cage.

In barely a second, the dog’s struggles began to visibly weaken and after ten seconds, ceased entirely.

Escort’s face looked pained and conflicted, her eyes filled with a grim determination.

She put down Buddy gently, then stepped back some distance, keeping her eyes locked on the very still form of the dog, which was now absolutely still and his tongue drooped out. His eyes were blank, missing the spark of life and intelligence that had been in them.

“You- you- killed him,” Missy muttered in disbelief, switching her gaze between Armsmaster and Escort.

Any further explanation was interrupted when a flash of light and heat washed over them.

Buddy’s body erupted with intense white flame.

Missy could only look away as the brightness threatened to sear her eyes. It was like looking into the sun.

After a few seconds, when the harsh hissing of flame died down and the heat no longer washed over the room, she warily looked where the dog had been.

A pile of ash was all that remained.

“What the fuck was that?”

88888888888888888888888888888

SCPs featured in this chapter:

Based on and with a few tweaks, "SCP-6842" by DrowningDutchman, from the SCP Wiki. Source: https://scpwiki.com/scp-6842. Licensed under CC-BY-SA.

88888888888888888888888888888