The Owl in the Abyss - Chapter 21 (Patreon)

“What are you going to do?”

Dragon considered the question and in a few seconds reevaluated every scrap of data she had on Purity, the very small but rapidly building file she had on Henry Hawkins, Escort, Protectorate policy, the law and found herself arriving again at the same conclusion.

Every sensor she had on the Cawthorne Suit was active and pointed at the ‘animated statue’, the data was as baffling as the plinth. She even replayed his explanation with Escort within two seconds and ran it through Armsmaster’s lie detector software and a dozen other analysis programs. She got much better results from Escort, but every result was throwing back the same conclusion - both utterly believed what they were saying with a certainty of 93% with a five percent margin of error. Given how Escort’s advice had been on point dealing with the train…

She turned her Cawthorne’s head to Purity - the now completely nude villainess would reach the arms of the human tree within another four seconds.

“There is only one thing, we let it happen.”

Shadows were thrown everywhere as Purity reached the tree and was engulfed by the many waiting hands.

She tried to be as clinical as possible, noting how the tree’s hands supported the woman under the armpits and under her knees, her legs were spread apart, another limb was already pushing in between them. The visual filtering of the AI made it appear as if Purity was simply hanging in midair in a gynecologist's chair. Her extremely sensitive sensors heard the sound of the flesh meeting flesh, Purity’s moan of pleasure and her bright form shuddered.

“You have a solution to the long term problem,” Henry turned away from Purity and focused exclusively on Dragon, pointedly averting his eyes from the bizarre sex occuring above them.

“This suit is a Cawthorne model, one that is designed for rapid response to many varied threats. It can also help deal with the immediate aftermath, especially those of survivors. It has one system that is extremely classified and it's one of the reasons I sent Escort away. I’d ask for your promise and vow that you will take this knowledge into the grave.”

“You have my word, Dragon,” Henry bowed his head slightly.

Dragon threw out every ECM and anti-eavesdropping system in the Cawthorne to full power.

“It is mainly for use in the wake of the Slaughterhouse 9. I have on-board a system that can inject a cocktail of hydroxybutyric acid, ketamine and another tinker drug I’ve reverse engineered from the work of a thoroughly unpleasant villain who’s now in the Birdcage.”

Henry rubbed his unyielding chin, clearly needing no explanation of just what this cocktail would do. “How effective is it?”

“It can suppress up to 12 hours of memory into the past from the point of administration, it will also further hamper long-term memory formation for one to a maximum of fourteen hours, depending on how I formulate it.”

“How will you explain the missing time to her? News of this thing will eventually leak, it will not be hard for her to connect the dots.”

“She can be arrested legally, there are numerous charges against her for crimes committed on behalf of the E88. Though she has strangely been only targeting ABB holdings in the city for the past few months. PRT has no intel on her attending any Empire rally meeting for the last five months. Other sources suggest that there is a high chance she may have left the E88.”

“Yet you believe the Empire would break her out and go to war for her anyway?”

“She may have left, but they would welcome someone of her power back in an instant. Blaster 8’s don’t exactly grow on trees,” Dragon winced for three seconds of internal computing cycles at her unfortunate pun. Henry’s mouth twitched slightly as a bout of renewed pleasurable moans washed over the area. The shadows flashing and moving in the primal rhythm of sex, Dragon idly wished she could use the AI filter on that as well. “As for the missing time, there are a number of scenarios that we can construct and explain to her. It also helps that the procedure for a Blaster 8’s containment involves extensive sedation.”

“No matter how convincingly you fake a paper trail, this will be discovered eventually by her. Murphy’s law will mean it’ll happen at the worst possible moment.”

“Show me another choice, Henry.”

“Don’t try to fake anything, present her clearly with the facts of what’s happened after she wakes up in her cell. It was either this or an eternity in an effective coma.”

“Then we might as well not even use the memory cocktail,” Dragon argued. “We’d be trusting her not to go on a flying rampage when she woke up.”

“What about using it on the other’s who’ve been violated?” Henry asked, gesturing to the host of prone nude victims that surrounded them.

“Only with their own permission.”

“So it’s Purity’s potential threat that is getting her the treatment.”

“This is the best interpretation of PRT policy that I can come up with, Henry. This decision should rest on the local director if there’s time, but there isn’t.”

He held up his stony hands, “You’re misunderstanding me. I know full well that sometimes there are no good options. I’m just making sure we’re exploring every possibility. Do you have any sensors on this suit for medical applications?”

“They can be tuned in various EM bands, is there something you’re looking for specifically?”

“All of the victims should be given full workups, scans, everything. Nothing left unexplored. There is no telling if there might not be something more insidious at work.”

“That would be done anyway, given this is something that can seemingly procreate.”

“I think before any decision can be made regarding Purity, on whether to use that amnestic, we need to know if any victims will retain memory of what happened. There is a chance that the cognitohazard will impede memory formation.”

‘Amnestic? Interesting term,’ Dragon thought.

Dragon was alerted at this point of Armsmaster’s approach to the location and she belatedly turned off all the ECM systems.

“Dragon, you went into full EMCON? Is there a problem?” His voice was urgent and full of worry over the radio.

“No, just a precaution.”

When he appeared around the house in full power armor, ready for anything, Purity was still getting the full attention of the tree. Her moans were now growing in frequency and volume, she was also joining in physically instead of just being a passive recipient- thrusting with the motions.

Armsmaster stopped dead for a full two seconds as he took in the entire scene as it was filtered by the AI.

To his credit, he didn’t let it affect him more than that before resuming his walk. His head alternated between Henry, the unconscious people and the sight of Purity having sex with a humanized tree. Dragon had experienced a lot of strangeness in the course of her work, all manner of unlikely scenarios and events, all of which were enabled by the parahuman phenomenon. This was an entirely new level of bizarreness in her experience.

Armsmaster planted his halberd into the grass as he stood there, “Dragon?”

“Armsmaster, meet Escort’s partner in heroics, Henry Hawkins. No, he doesn’t seemingly have an alias.”

“Pleasure to meet you,” Henry bowed his head, using his thumb and forefinger to shake the local hero’s armored hand. “A heroic alias is rather pointless in my case, so I don’t bother.”

“You came in the truck?”

“Yes, my driver is blindfolded in the house, so don’t be too surprised if you see him inside or how well equipped he is.”

“You have a driver?” Armsmaster asked over another bout of throaty moans and flesh slapping on flesh with renewed urgency.

“I suppose now might as well be a good time as any. Escort and I have formed an organization known as Fortress. There are currently three powered members and a number of others who will be assisting our endeavors in anomalous events like this,” Henry gestured to the tree.

“Interesting,” Armsmaster grimaced. “The truck is marked as belonging to Fortress LLC, a known construction company.”

“The former owner wanted to retire and as such transferred it to Escort. She has since made use of the assets and the employees to help me get by, so to speak. She is the one who found me alone and disorientated in that park.”

Above them, Purity screamed in a clear climax and the wet slapping of flesh ended.

The tree seemed to hold her still for a few moments, before she began moving down, being passed from limb to limb.

“Armsmaster-” Dragon began.

“I know, sedation protocol,” he said, twisting his halberd and its upper blade collapsed, before a syringe emerged in its place.

He moved quickly stepping between the array of prone people and waited for the bright form of Purity to reach him.

“Mr Hawkins, no reaction from the tree to my presence?”

Henry shook his head, “No, you are no threat to it at present. It seems that the cognitohazard is also a factor in its perceptions. You have not been infected with it, so you are effectively invisible to it as long as that remains the case. The only way you can be considered a threat is to actually injure it at this point.”

The tree eventually used four limbs to gently lower the villainess to the cool grass.

“Are the limbs clear?”

Henry looked up and nodded, “Yes.”

Armsmaster didn’t hesitate and surged the halberd forward, but at the last moment stopped and gently injected Purity right in the buttocks.

Merely a few seconds later the radiant light streaming off Purity began fading and it left behind a woman that had Armsmaster and Henry rather startled. Dragon didn’t blame them, but it neatly proved that Henry indeed had a human psyche. Far from the expectation that there was someone very impressive under that light - the woman was actually quite shorter than average, with long brown hair, eyes and a face that you would pass in the street and never look at twice. By objective standards, she wasn’t ugly but nor would you expect her to grace any magazine cover.

This was in sharp contrast to Fenja and Menja. Dragon had read far too many PHO posts during her stints as moderator, regarding the E88 Changer twins that acted as Kaiser’s bodyguards - both were considered in the upper percentiles of beauty, at least in traditional Western standards. The unconsidered expectation then was that Purity had to be the same.

“Dragon?” Armsmaster held out his hand.

She opened an internal cargo pod of the Cawthorne, reached in with a manipulator arm and handed over a standard hospital gown.

The hero quickly clothed Purity with it, also pulling out a standard domino mask from a utility pouch to cover the villainess’ face.

“Can you identify her?” Henry asked.

Dragon had been consciously avoiding launching facial and profile recognition programs.

“That would be unwise,” Armsmaster declared. “If it became known we do that-”

“I know all about the so-called Unwritten Rules,” Henry interrupted him with irritation. “Not to mention how selectively it's enforced by both sides when it’s inconvenient. No, I’m asking because it’s clear to me that Purity is a mother with an infant at home.”

“How did you make that determination?”

Henry smirked, “Really Armsmaster, you didn’t look?”

Colin bristled as if Henry was calling into question his integrity and whether he was actually a male.

“I’m not about to ogle-”

“Neither did I, but I have very good eyesight and perception. No Thinker power even required, just simple observation. Her breasts aren’t swollen with lactation at the moment, but the beginnings of it are there, I did spot bruising and a cut or two around both nipples. Clearly a baby with the beginnings of a few teeth and she hasn’t been told or figured out the trick to avoid it.”

“As if arresting her wasn’t complicated enough,” Armsmaster said, but nevertheless began applying a set of Blaster restraints - which was designed to keep the arms crossed and hands pointed at the wearer’s own chest. “Now we have to involve Child Welfare Services.”

Henry folded his arms and frowned at Colin. “Your tone is impressively neutral, Armsmaster. Yet you are clearly not confident in them.”

“Not in Brockton. They are underfunded, as are most of the public sector organizations in the city. They try their best but the past two decades has seen them hemorrhage qualified personnel, their reputation suffers and the effect snowballs. Purity undoubtedly knows this and will not want to see her infant remanded into their care.”

“A very convenient and persuasive tool to perhaps encourage her to turn coat properly. Such a pity Brockton won’t benefit when that happens.”

Dragon was both alarmed and impressed that Henry so quickly put together the likely chain of events that would follow. No amount of rebranding or a costume change would really help. The instant the woman that was Purity used her powers in another city, it would be obvious who she had been. It would not stop the Protectorate from moving her though. The PRT had managed to turn a number of villains around through very careful marketing, training and guiding the parahuman to use their power in a different manner - Assault being the best local example for a successful case.

“The question remains that somewhere out there is the infant child of a Blaster 8 with either a babysitter or perhaps an older sibling, waiting for their mother to return. Normal procedure would require at least a visit from the BBPD and PRT to inform whoever is caring for the child. If it’s ascertained that there is an immediate or close family member to which the infant can go…”

Henry trailed off and didn’t need to continue.

Dragon railed against the constraints on her programming and behavior, as yet another example came forth of her father’s inflexible chains, which could potentially result in a mother as powerful as Purity, flying off the handle because the letter of the law was followed.

There was only one thing she could do at this point.

She turned the Cawthorne around, heading for a safe takeoff point.

“Dragon?” Armsmaster asked in concern.

“I have another dome to build before sunrise and no time to waste, I trust you will do the right thing here.”

She dumped the cargo pod containing all the immediate supplies needed for the victims. Then reorientated the engine nacelles, spooling them up to max power, adjusting her inertia systems appropriately before blasting off. It was bad enough that one parahuman had been caught by this thing, it would be catastrophic if more were affected.

888888888888888888888888888888

I rematerialized my lower body and landed on a street roughly a mile west of the SCP tree.

Another family hypnotized and sent back to their home.

This made it the ninth occasion Dragon’s drones had found people who were affected by the cognitohazard and just over three hours I’d been at this constant patrol circuit around the general neighborhood.

It was thoroughly boring work, but it needed to be done.

I could already see the framework of the dome steadily being built and Dragon’s suit was there, buzzing about and occasionally hovering to attach yet another part of the structure. It looked like it would be complete by sunrise but it was going to be a close thing.

The only thing that made the patrol bearable was Henry and Armsmaster keeping me in the loop with first a call and then suitably vague but informative text messages.

All the victims had been successfully moved into the house without issue from the tree. They were also dressed in hospital gowns and were being attended to by Del, Lia, Simon and Corporal Harris. Armsmaster had also used containment foam on all the windows of the house that didn’t have curtains, so there was no chance they could be exposed to the cognitohazard accidentally. Henry was assisting Dragon with building the dome by acting as an incredibly strong pair of giant hands.

The general problem now was that the cognitohazard was severely hampering any possible response from the law enforcement, PRT, Protectorate or the city. Emergency bulletins had been sent out over local TV stations, radio and the Internet, but with so many still in bed and asleep, the warnings would only gain any real traction when the morning shows aired or people were waking up.

It was really frustrating and it made me wish there was some way an area civil defense alert could be sent out through everyone’s cell phones. There had been some debate on the PRT side whether to sound the Bay’s Endbringer alarm just once, just to get everyone awake and alert to pay attention to the warning, but that had thankfully been shot down very quickly.

Dragon: That’s actually a good idea, Escort. A localized app that people can download, through which such alerts or advisories can be sent directly from the Protectorate or PRT ENE.

Escort: It’d miss the people who don’t choose to download it though.

Dragon: Can’t force it, Escort. That’s their choice.

Of course, I understood that. It was just so frustrating though. When the next SCP came through and disaster happened because people didn’t know or were too stubborn to download an app…

The next worry was the health of the victims.

Getting any PRT doctors and equipment on site was Armsmaster’s next goal. He had already left and would return with them in a large van that was being prepared. The BBPD and PRT had already begun cordoning off all roads leading into this part of town, making sure to keep the hill between themselves and the tree. This combined with maintaining a watch on the TQZ and the city in general, was straining things badly and the mayor had already sent an urgent request to the state governor to begin activating a number of National Guard units.

The other card that was being set in motion was to also get Panacea safely to the house. Whether that would happen at all was still in the air, as there was a good chance that New Wave would refuse to let the healer come within a mile of the cognitohazard zone.

Armsmaster: The director doesn’t like to involve Panacea for every crisis as there is actually a cost associated with it, financial and reputational. New Wave is a private team at the end of the day. They do charge the PRT for every special callout or emergency.

It disappointed me that rep was even a factor, though I grudgingly understood it. PRT and Protectorate can’t be seen to need Panacea for every little oopsie that requires medical attention. Nor was it fair to Panacea to take on what was effectively a constant burden. She was still underage and by the sounds of things badly skirting the law regarding allowed work hours for a minor.

The tablet under my arm chimed to get my attention.

Another customer, I thought wryly.

I glanced at the screen and from above saw a figure that was walking a pair of dogs.

Who would be walking their dogs at this time of the morning?

The AI highlighted the figure in a drawn box, then quickly began producing conclusions from the visual analysis; female, young, 15 - 16 years old. One dog was a Rottweiler, the other a German Shepard.

Her position was within the PRT cordon, but by some miracle she hadn’t been mesmerized yet. The attention she was giving the dogs and the half-jog they were doing explained it somewhat.

The tablet helpfully gave me a physical bearing to orientate myself, pointing an arrow behind me.

I misted fully and the world around me turned to a fast blur as I sped off in that direction.

Barely twenty seconds later I willed myself to stop just a few feet from the girl.

In the first moment I knew, she was a parahuman.

My heart sank and sped up, I had to act quickly here.

A quick look around to judge in what direction the tree was, then moving so I would attract her attention away from it.

I materialized ten feet away and tapped hard with ‘15 on the asphalt of the street.

The girl whirled around in fright and her strong jawed face grimaced, gnashing her teeth, her blue eyes widening.

“Excuse me-” “Brutus, Judas, attack!”

Okay, yes, I probably startled her and that was a dumb thing to do. The thought of mastering yet another person tonight was starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth though.

I misted at the last possible moment and both dogs jumped through me, gnashing and biting on thin air.

They were both surprised and were naturally unable to understand why their target wasn’t there anymore, resulting in both of them landing awkwardly from their jump with startled yelps.

I only materialized my upper body and hovered higher, well out of reach. “Sorry to startle you, but this is a dangerous area at the moment.”

The dogs growled, got their feet under them and tried to jump anyway.

The girl didn’t flinch or seem to react in any way to my creepy half-ghost form. Her aura was also extremely weird for a human. It felt in some respects quite similar to the two growling dogs trying to futilely jump at me, the human element of her was there, but it almost looked like a hybrid. Her parahuman power was obviously responsible for this and I could see its influence on her psyche, much like hands that had shaped a clay sculpture.

The girl balled her fists and her heavy jacket with fur collar bulged a bit and showed that she was quite muscular and fit under there. Then I felt and saw her parahuman power blast outward. In my Sight, it was an invisible brown vibration that rippled through the air, which flowed towards both her dogs.

Immediately, their forms began to swell, distort then grow rapidly.

Seeing this was the final clue needed for me to realize who I was actually dealing with here.

Rachel Lindt aka Hellhound.

A villain who had killed her foster family three years ago and had been on the run ever since. That was what the public and PHO knew at large, I knew more thanks to Coil.

The villain had a number of dossiers on parahumans he had targeted for recruitment inside Brockton and Rachel had been one of them. What had actually happened was that the killing of her stepmother and her foster siblings had actually been part of her Trigger Event at thirteen years old. Why the PRT didn’t know was actually not known by Coil, but he had made a guess that it was a case of incompetence on the part of the local PRT ESE branch near Florida. His own PI and sources had quickly come to the truth with a bit of digging and crime scene reviews.

Coil had no interest in exposing the truth and righting the wrong, since he wanted Rachel under his thumb.

Both dogs were now the size of lions, their skin becoming leathery thick, bony spines erupted almost like a mane around their necks and shoulders.

It was quite fascinating to watch and see with my True Sight. Rachel’s power was quite literally generating fleshmass out of the dimension it resided in and building up the dogs in real time. The actual dogs were still in there and it made me realize I was watching biological ‘power armor’ being constructed.

I tore my eyes away from it and opened my mouth to urge her to stop, but seeing Rachel’s odd aura made me stop myself and reconsider my approach. Not to mention I remembered the way Coil was going to try and recruit her.

Trying to reason with Rachel as a normal human with words was pointless in a first encounter.

I met her eyes and began hovering back and downward, trying to get some space.

Both dogs naturally didn’t want to let me - they rushed forward to where they judged I would land.

I materialized fully on the ground just in time to be greeted by two very large, slobbering jaws of teeth that didn’t belong to any natural animal that I knew of.

‘15 came round and with a twirl I smacked both beasts on the snout so hard that their heads slammed into the road below with wet smacks.

Hearing two such very large creatures emit the pained yelps of hurt dogs tugged at my heart, but I squashed that ruthlessly. I next released a blast of air from ‘15 that pushed and rolled over both giant dogs.

My mind web reached out and banishing doubt, I ontokinetically pulled the minds of both dogs and Rachel.

I misted, shot forward and materialized just in time to smash my knee into Rachel’s stomach.

I rode her down to pin her to the ground as the breath left her lungs, even as I fought her for emotional dominance.

It was a battle I won within a few seconds.

“Brutus, Judas, stop,” I said, meeting both dogs’ eyes briefly.

The monster dogs had barely turned around after I had smacked them down, only to run head first into my will dominating them both.

I turned back to look down on Rachel and didn’t think about how this must look now from an outside perspective. My right knee remained on her chest, whilst my left was rather uncomfortably on the asphalt. The tablet still under my left arm, whilst ‘15 was planted next to Rachel’s other side.

She gasped to get her breath back and I made sure to keep my weight distributed mostly to my left knee.

When she got her wits back I made sure to capture her eyes with my own again, willing my dominance to shine through.

“Brutus, Judas, sit.” I thumped ‘15 with authority.

Both dogs had massive tongues hanging out of their mouths, panting and slobbering with dripping saliva, both quickly obeyed the new mistress of their mistress.

“Now Rachel, you will listen. You will understand.”

The muscular girl blinked at me, before nodding, “Yes, mistress.”

“In that direction is a tree, made by a Tinker, and it has a Master effect. Anyone who lays eyes on it will walk to that tree and get literally fucked by it.”

“Yes, mistress. How can a tree fuck?”

“It’s made out of human.”

“Oh.”

“Where did you come from?”

“There’s an animal shelter two blocks from here towards the city outskirts,” she answered without hesitation.

“You work there?” I asked curiously.

“Yes, mistress.”

“Do they pay you?”

“No, I volunteer.”

“They don’t ask questions or realize you’re actually a wanted fugitive?”

“They don’t care who I am, just what I do and that I’m good with animals. They have few people and don’t turn down help.”

“How do you support yourself?”

“Stealing, mostly from E88, my dogs can easily smell their drugs and from there it’s easy to track down the rest.”

“Have they not gone after you in retaliation?”

Rachel shook her head and didn’t meet my eyes, her gaze fixed on my knee, her aura was… submissive, “Make sure not to do it too often, space it out. I’m a nuisance, not a threat and I know how to disappear. Only cape of theirs I had to really watch out for was Purity, otherwise it was easy to escape quickly on my dogs.”

I took a moment to carefully scrutinize her aura before I misted off her and reappeared standing a few feet to her left.

A thought pushed her out of the mind web, but I kept the dogs firmly under my control.

Rachel blinked, confused for a moment, turned to see me standing over her and again averted her gaze, not moving a muscle to get up.

Even without my direct mastery, she was waiting for my permission to get up, her equivalent of showing me the belly and yielding. Damn, what had happened to this girl? Her socialization was shit and based on canine dynamics. I’d really have to re-read the dossier in more detail.

“You can stand, Rachel.”

The girl quickly complied and now looked at her dogs with narrowed eyes, no doubt becoming aware that I had mastered them as well, given how both only had eyes for me.

“How-” she began asking but cut herself off, feeling anger at herself.

“Ask your question.”

“How are you controlling them?”

“Just like I can control people.”

She nodded and now kept her gaze at my feet.

“Now, my name is Escort-”

“I’m Bitch,” Rachel said, her body language and aura wilting as she said it.

I was startled for a moment at the uncouth word, before realizing that she actually regarded that as her own cape name.

“Not Hellhound?”

She flared with anger and only nodded her head.

It only took me a moment to connect the dots. “PRT saddle you with it?”

“Yes,” she growled. Which was understandable given how much she valued canines and to consider them as something that came from hell was completely against her instincts, worldview and temperament.

“Very well, Bitch,” I said casually, hiding my own wince. “That engineered tree I was speaking of, masters you just by looking at the thing. It’s thirty meters tall, so I had to get your attention and keep it so you weren’t captured by it. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“If you go back in the direction you came from, keep your eyes low, you should be fine.” I walked over to stand next to her, showing the tablet’s screen. “We’re here, tree is in that direction,” I swiped at the screen. “Here you can see the beginnings of a PRT/BBPD cordon. They’ll stay there until a dome is built over the tree, which should be complete by sunrise. Until then I suggest you depower your dogs and lay low.”

Rachel nodded and looked at her dogs. Her power reached out again to the massive canines, doing something I had no words to describe, but the end result was they fell on the ground and the meatsuits began breaking down rapidly.

“I need to help them out,” she declared.

“Then help.”

She hurried over and began ripping at the meat suits, throwing chunks of bloody meat away as she dug into them.

I watched one such chunk of flesh land near me and it decayed as if I was watching a natural process sped up by a thousand. In the end, there was barely anything left but a bit of carbon ash that could barely be distinguished from the road itself.

First out of his meatsuit was Brutus, who immediately sat down, still following my last order. The poor thing was covered in a residual slimy substance that I could tell bothered him, but he had to sit and so wouldn’t shake it off. Judas was next and the German Shepard looked almost comical with how his long shaggy hair was clumped by the slime.

“I’m releasing them,” I warned Rachel.

She nodded and grabbed both by the collar.

I pushed both dogs out of the web.

They turned their heads in a confused and very cute way, still looking at me, but then their eyes found Rachel and I could almost see how the pack dynamic shifted. She was now Beta and I was clearly their mistress’ new Alpha.

Rachel was clearly aware of this too. She stood and took a few steps back, “Brutus, Judas, clean.”

With permission obtained, both dogs began shaking and rippling their skin and fur as only dogs could, sending rivulets of slime almost everywhere.

When the shower was over I walked over, tucked ‘15 under my left arm and offered my hand to the snouts of both dogs.

Both smelled my scent and licked my hand. That done, I scratched both behind the ear.

This close I could see both dogs had clear signs on their bodies of troubled pasts. Brutus had no tail and the scarring there complete with other healed bite marks from other dogs told the story. He was a pit fighting dog. There was only one gang in Brockton that ran those, the E88, under the direction of Hookwolf. Now it was clear why Rachel liked to target them.

Judas had clear gaps in his fur that would never heal, with scarring over his back. My heart broke at the implication and anger at what some humans did to animals and pets in general roared through me briefly.

The familiarization ritual completed, I stepped back and brought ‘15 back to my right hand, then pulled out my card and handed it over to Rachel.

“You need help, any time, call. I literally can’t sleep, so don’t worry about waking me.”

“Yes, Mi- Escort,” she said.

The tablet chimed, another mesmerized victim to save.

“Gotta go. See ya, Bitch.”

I misted and sped down the street.

8888888888888888888888888888

A large gazebo had been erected on the opposite side of the house and Armsmaster was waiting as the doctors and med techs worked on the various victims of the tree, attaching medical monitors, waving portable scanners to take x-rays, CATs, drawing blood and even taking samples of residual semen from the women.

He was very thankful that privacy screens had been put up.

The analysis equipment that could fit in the van had come with and a number of lab techs were already busy trying to make heads or tails of any biological sample they could get from the tree. All of which had been collected by… Henry.

When it came to Tinkertech and the related sciences that branched off from it, the seemingly impossible was ordinary or a ‘Tuesday’ as the popular vernacular termed it. He didn’t think he could ever be surprised when it came to technology or parahuman powers. Yet now, for the second time in less than two weeks, he had to redefine his definition of what was possible.

His eye reviewed the sensor results from Dragon and his own systems in the HUD of his helmet.

Just like the plinth… nothing.

Not a single detectable reason to explain how Henry or should that be Director Hawkins of Fortress, could move, talk, be conscious and assuming he shared the same properties as the plinth, be practically invulnerable to conventional damage.

He had easily waded through the arm-branches of the tree. His size and weight meant that the anomalous tree couldn’t pick him up, which was the danger that prevented Armsmaster from approaching too close.

The heavy thumping of feet heralded the arrival of the… person in question. It helped him to just think of Henry as another unfortunate Case 53, despite the man lacking the characteristics associated with such capes.

He ducked out of the gazebo.

“Armsmaster.”

“Henry.”

“Can I see the brain scans of the victims?”

He nodded and stepped to the side to let the man in the form of a statue, duck into the tent. Quite a few gasps and even a scream was heard. Armsmaster followed him to reassure the medical staff that everything was under control and watched as Henry immediately knelt to begin moving on his knees.

The director of the seemingly new hero group in the city, moved to a scanner and picked up a computer tablet very delicately between two fingers and held it up to his face.

It was a full CAT scan of a victim’s brain and Henry began muttering words that made Armsmaster realize that either he was a Thinker with medical bent or he actually was a doctor.

“Well, the good news is that there’s no structural damage here and the EEG is merely showing deep stage REM sleep, which will just have to take its natural course. If it persists more than four hours from now we can think about some intervention to induce consciousness. However, I think we won’t need to.”

“You’re a doctor?”

“You could say that, trained myself up in a number of fields, a benefit of being as you call it, a Noctis.”

He inwardly groaned at the report he was going to have to write to Director Piggot on Henry; Brute 8 at least, possibly higher, requiring specific intervention by Eidolon. None of the lab testing had made a dent in the plinth so far; laser, high temperature, kinetic had all failed. It would require exotic methods; spatial, gravitational, temporal and even then he wasn’t certain. Perhaps the answer was going in the other direction, going small - but his nanotechnology was still a few months away from even initial field testing.

Now as a Noctis, the element of surprise during a night raid would be denied if Henry was ever to turn villain.

Henry turned to a nearby doctor who was working on assessing a female victim. “Doctor?”

The doctor herself was rather startled at being addressed suddenly, “Yes? Oh, I’m Doctor Hamilton.”

“Pleasure doctor,” Henry smiled gently. “I suggest you test for contraceptive use in the bloodwork of all female patients.”

Hamilton uncomfortably pushed her long brunette hair back, “Should we? You can’t be suggesting that, that…”

“The human tree is fully capable of impregnating and in turn of reproducing more of its own kind.”

“How can you know that?”

“Thinker, but I know you’ll just have to wait for the test results to confirm.”

“Go ahead, doctor,” Armsmaster ordered.

She looked unhappy and disturbed but nodded, “Very well, sir.” And bustled off to begin the process.

“Armsmaster,” Dragon’s voice came over the radio.

“Yes?”

“Dome structure complete, I’m going to cover the tree now.”

“Understood. How is Escort faring?”

“Quite well, so far she intercepted thirty nine mesmerized people and sent them back home.”

It was a relief and he didn’t even want to think about what would’ve happened if this had occurred during the day or early rush hour - when practically the entire neighborhood emptied out to go to work in other parts of the city. He looked out of the gazebo at the overhead sky, which was showing the first hints of the coming sunrise.

“The instant that tree is covered, ask her to return here.”

“Understood,” Dragon cut the link.

Henry gave him a look, “You’ve made a decision.”

“It’s always a tragedy when the parents of children are arrested, doubly so when an infant is involved. They are put into a bureaucratic system that will generally ensure that some sort of social problem will develop, they’re more likely to become criminals, higher chance of suicide. The chance of landing with a good foster family is slim and even then…”

“The law is the law.”

“Yes, but the law also doesn’t care that the mother of this infant is a Blaster 8. A cape that the Protectorate would very much like to have available at the next Endbringer event or within the hero fold in general.”

Henry raised one stony eyebrow, “Inter arma, silent leges, eh?”

Armsmaster could only nod. “Purity will next wake up on the Rig, where we can contain her properly. The first thing I want to say to her is that her infant and stepson are not in CWS or her ex-husband’s custody.”

“And she’ll be happy with her children in the custody of an independent hero? Who, I might add, is unlikely to agree, despite her being of age and with the financial means to support them.”

“It will only be a temporary arrangement, until the negotiations with Purity are complete.”

“Will Director Piggot even back you on this?”

“I know her, this is the only play. Getting Purity off the board properly will be a major blow to the E88.”

8888888888888888888888888888888888

                                                                                          ■

[b]Welcome to the Parahumans Online message boards.[/b]

You are currently logged in, Dewdrid

You are viewing:

• Threads you have replied to

• AND Threads that have new replies

• OR private message conversations with new replies

• Thread OP is displayed.

• Ten posts per page

• Last ten messages in private message history.

• Threads and private messages are ordered chronologically.

                                                                                          ■

♦ Topic: The TREE!

In: Boards ► East Coast ► MA ► Brockton

(Showing page 2 of 4)

►Iblis

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

Okay, I know that BB has a lot of capes and stuff that makes national news in any other city is just another day for them. But WTF is going on over there?! Did someone throw something in the water?

►Lasersmile

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

I have to echo Iblis. First a train and now a tree made out of human parts that... I can't even say without possibly getting banned.

►Divide  (Brocktonite)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

There's nothing in the water. We're all quite sane, thank you.

►Mock Moniker

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

Yeah, with the gangs you guys have, plus the train I'd be seriously examining my options, after this tree I would be on the phone to the moving company.

►Dawgsmiles (Veteran Member)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

It really does seem like someone is using BB as their little playground to dump and even test their creations. The train was the work of a Tinker and now we have something that looks like the sick fever dream of a Bio Tinker.

►Sothoth (Brocktonite)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

Oh sure. I'll just up and leave. @Mock Moniker Will you be so kind as to send me the money I don't have to find a house out of state? A new job while you're at it.

►Lo A Quest

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

*Reads the OP and past few pages.*

Oh, oh, ew, ew, ew, ew. Thank you so much. I'm never going to look at a Eucalyptus tree the same way again, nor will I be able to go into work without thinking about this - yes, I'm a botanist.

►Noveltry

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

Ouch. @Lo A Quest You have my sympathies.

Could we maybe be looking at a Tinker collective like Toybox starting up there? This being their way to 'advertise' what they're capable of.

►Nod (Army Veteran)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence. When we get another screwed up Tinker creation dropped on the city, then we can start drawing conclusions.

What worries me the most is the wide-area Master effect. Any Master cape is usually bad news, now imagine that effect applied just like it is here, on an ordinary object you wouldn't ever think to look away from. There used to be all those conspiracy theories in the past; mind control through TV, subliminal messaging and so on. Now we're living in a world where a Tinker actually did that!

Imagine they sell this technology to the highest bidder - I'm sorry but whoever made this needs to be found and STOPPED.

►Bagrat (The Guy in the Know)  (Veteran Member)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

Sorry guys, the info control on this entire thing is extreme. Measures are being taken to keep any possible photograph or recording of the tree from spreading. We are lucky to even have Internet around Brockton at the moment, as there was serious talk from the governor's office to shut down all telecoms as a precaution.

End of Page.   1, 2, 3, 4 

(Showing page 3 of 4)

►IonEasy (Veteran Member)  (Brocktonite)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

Are you serious? The Master effect will even spread through a photo or video?!!!

►Bagrat (The Guy in the Know)  (Veteran Member)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

Correct. My sources confirm that is the word from Thinkers and Protectorate personnel on the ground.

►Exoticle (Banned)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

That didn't take long. Banned for a month. This is not a topic to meme or joke about - TinMother.

►Procto the Unfortunate Tinker (Not a tinker)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

AH! Too late, I saw it. What's going to happen? PLEASE! No! asjdepasjd...

►Divide (Brocktonite)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

Uh, @Procto the Unfortunate Tinker, you there bro?

►Procto the Unfortunate Tinker (Not a tinker)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

YES! What do I do!?

►TinMother (Moderator)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

You can relax. The image was not of the Human Tree. Just an ordinary Eucalyptus that was tweaked in Photoshop.

►Miss Mercury (Protectorate Employee)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

If you can still type, you're not affected.

I'm making this post as an official advisory on behalf of the PRT ENE. It is also being broadcast on all TV channels and radio.

Union Suburb in Brockton Bay is now subject to strict access control. Only residents or those with legitimate business are now allowed in or out. Anyone found inside the perimeter who cannot prove residence, legitimate business or not responding to a law enforcement challenge, will be considered under the Master influence of the Tree and foamed.

The only way so far proven to remove the Master effect, is to allow the Tree to do its thing. Hopefully this will be sufficient discouragement for any whose curiosity outweighs their common sense.

►Valkyr (Original Poster) (Wiki Warrior)

Replied On Feb 27th 2011:

@Miss Mercury

Thanks for the info.

That being said. This is the Internet. Do you know what fetishes are out there?

End of Page.   1, 2, 3, 4

                                                                          ■

88888888888888888888888888888888888

Theo sat back from his PC and held up his hands to ward off the screen.

No, do not think about it, he thought to himself as hard as he could.

Any further such thoughts was driven from his mind as he heard Aster through the baby monitor beginning to make a fuss again.

He wearily rubbed his forehead. His infant sister had kept him from enjoying any semblance of a full night’s sleep and he was now feeling the consequences.

He got to his feet with a huff and stretched his legs out, before leaving his small room in the apartment, down the short corridor and into the main bedroom. He leaned over the baby cot that was right next to Kayden’s bed and examined the infant.

Her legs were constantly kicking, her small arms up and over her head. She gave him a brief heart melting, toothy smile before the sounds of baby complaints started again.

He tickled her chin with a finger briefly to amuse and distract her, whilst he tried to judge whether this was nappy issues or she was just hungry. It turned out to be the former and he steeled himself before beginning the arduous process of changing her.

The smell always got to him. How something so cute to produce a smell like that was beyond reasoning and it always left him dry heaving off to the side.

“Come on, Kayden, where are you?” he asked the air around him as he finished closing up Aster’s onesie.

At this point she was nearly six hours overdue.

She had been out hitting more ABB stash houses.

His stepmom was powerful, but no one was invincible. Each passing minute just increased his worry to new levels. Had Lung finally had enough and set some sort of trap for her? Maybe Oni Lee got lucky? He tried his best not to imagine it, because with that came the specter of what would happen to him and Aster.

It would mean a return to Max and everything that all of them had resolved to leave behind forever. The other alternative was also not easy to contemplate - foster care and in this fucked up city he didn’t even want to think about that.

The front doorbell rang its chime and Theo felt his heart sink.

It wouldn’t be Kayden.

His worry shot to new heights and he felt his stomach tying itself in anxious knots.

With gritted teeth he walked to the apartment front door, which seemed to loom at him like some ghostly specter. The short distance just seemed to get longer and longer. When he finally stopped behind the thick wooden door, he was breathing hard and his hands were flexing into fists. A cold sweat breaking over his forehead.

Taking a moment to compose himself, he stared through the peephole.

A slightly balding, tall, thin man stood there, wearing a rather formal suit that you’d expect to see in some sort of business or office worker. There was also an air of casualness there, the tie around his neck wasn’t perfect and slightly loose.

Theo debated for a moment in just pretending to not be here, but the man just pressed the doorbell again. He could also see in the man’s expression that he knew someone was looking through the peephole.

He grabbed a can of mace from the nearby hallway table stand and kept it out of sight, before checking that the lock chain was in its runner.

With a deep fortifying breath, even as his heart was racing a mile a minute, he unlocked the door and let it open to the full length that the chain allowed, before peeking through to let the man see him.

“Yes, can I help you?

“Theo Anders?” The man’s tone was neutral, yet a solemn note echoed in it.

He swallowed hard and prepared himself for the worst, “Yes, that’s me.”

“My name is Daniel Hebert, of the Fortress organization.” He held out a very nice card, which Theo only spared a brief glance at.

“Sorry, I don’t know any such organization.”

“We’re rather new to the cape business, only recently diversifying into it.”

“You’re a corporate team then?”

“You could say so.”

“I’m sorry but why are you here? I’m not a cape-”

Hebert looked up and down the hallway and then got a faraway zoned out stare, that was very creepy. “There is currently no one who can overhear us. I bring news to you as an informally contracted independent party. Your mother was caught up in the incident in Union Suburb.”

Theo’s eyes widened and his world began shrinking.

“She has been taken into custody by the Protectorate.”

No.

No.

Theo felt his vision contract further, his heart speeding up to almost unbearable levels…

Then he saw only stars… a vast entity… no two of them… twirling around each other… facets of light and crystal the size of continents being exchanged between them…

One seemed to fall away and with incomprehensible speed shot towards Theo and loomed over him…

He could only scream.

88888888888888888888888888888

SCP/s in this chapter:

No new SCPs.

88888888888888888888888888888

A/N: Poor Theo, he just doesn't seem to catch a break. In canon and not here. Stay awesome folks.