Chapter Text
“Try moving the fingers,” said Armsmaster.
I bent the fingers one by one, and they responded as fast as my own. The prosthetic was covered in simili-skin, hiding the metallic structure within. It even had nails.
“It connects directly to your nervous system, which I find gives better fine control over the motion of individual fingers,” he explained. “Now, try picking up this pen.”
I did, and while the sensations were different, duller than with my remaining hand, I could still tell that I was holding something and have an idea of the texture.
“It sends feedback by electrical impulsions to your nerves, mimicking the real thing. It’s not perfect yet, but I’ll update it in the future, as I fine-tune my own prosthetic.”
I nodded.
“Now, for the extra functions. First, there’s an integrated taser. To use it, tap the thumb and pinkie finger twice, then touch the target with your index and pinkie.”
He made the gesture, and I imitated it.
“Yes, like that. Then, there’s the emergency beacon, same principle as the one I gave you before. It’s EMP-resistant, and will transmit your position and need for help to the console and PRT officer on duty. To activate it, bring all your fingers together, twice. Do the same to cancel it.”
I didn’t try it, not wanting to cause a false alarm.
“There’s an EMP, in case you ever end up in another situation with a machine canceling your power. To use it, snap your fingers twice, then aim a finger gun at your target.”
I didn’t try it either.
“Finally, there’s a range extender that I’ve been working on based on the scan of your power, that should double your range when activated. To do so, touch your middle and ring fingers with the thumb, three times. Same thing to turn it off. Don’t use it all the time, though, as it will drain the batteries faster. You’ll need to recharge them about once a week, maybe more, depending on your use of the taser and range extender. The USB port is inside the prosthetic.”
I touched the fingers three times with the thumb, and felt my range expand in every direction, new bugs falling under my power. Then, I turned it off, and my range narrowed back to its usual size.
“That’s about it for the baseline. I’m working on a few other functions integrating your power, but they’re not quite ready yet, and I wanted you to have the prosthetic as fast as possible. Don’t hesitate to come and see me if there are adjustments to make, and I will need to do maintenance and updates every once in a while too.”
“Thank you,” I said, and I meant it.
“I also have this for you,” he said, raising what looked like a powder compact. “Contact sedative, potent enough that only a small dose is necessary, but safe enough to avoid overdoses.”
He handed it to me, and I opened it to find a translucent cream inside.
“And you’ve been cleared for use of containment foam grenades,” he continued, “though there will be some mandatory training before you can deploy them in the field. I’ll send you the schedule by email.”
“Okay,” I said.
He rose from his seat to escort me to the door.
I made my way down to the Wards headquarters, finding Vista on the console.
“Hi,” she greeted me. “How’d it go?”
I raised my left arm, wiggling the prosthetic’s fingers. She rose from her seat to take a closer look.
“Wow, it looks like the real thing,” she said after inspecting it.
“I can feel through it too, though it’s not quite the same.”
“That’s pretty cool. I guess it’s a good thing Armsmaster is still around.”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, Maureen gave us the bodysuits you made. I wanted to say thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“It’s pretty neat that your power allows you to do that. I wouldn’t have thought.”
“That’s how I made my first costume,” I told her. “Took me longer because I didn’t have as many black widows then, though, and since I could only work on it in the evening and on weekends. But it’s knife-proof fabric, and bulletproof too according to the scientists who tested it.”
She nodded. “Still, it’s really nice of you to do that for us, even if we didn’t exactly start on the right foot. Sorry about that, by the way. It was just a really bad timing, with Leviathan and everything.”
“It’s fine,” I said. “I didn’t expect anyone to welcome me with open arms right away.”
The comms beeped, followed by a message from Weld: “Emergency meeting in five, at room 307.”
Vista checked in with Kid Win and Glory Girl, who were on their way back from patrol, then we made our way to the meeting room.
When we arrived, the whole Protectorate was there, as well as some of the Wards, and Director Renick. He motioned for us to take a seat, and I sat between Flechette and Vista. Once Kid Win and Glory Girl arrived, the meeting began.
“Thank you for being prompt,” said Renick, pressing a remote toward the screen behind him, which came alive with a map of the city divided in colored zones. “We’ve received confirmation that over the last couple of days, the Undersiders and Travelers have all claimed territory in the city.”
The casual mention of the Undersiders was like a slap to the face, after so many nights of them haunting my nightmares, my memories of Jack’s game mixing with my worry about their fate.
I was grateful for my mask, concealing my expression. I didn’t want to have to explain it.
“They appear to be doing this in concert, neatly dividing the city between themselves,” Renick continued, oblivious to my turmoil. “We also know thanks to Apiary that this is part of Coil’s plan to seize control of the city. As such, we cannot let it happen. With the Slaughterhouse Nine gone, they are now our number one priority.”
He pressed the remote again, and names appeared in the colored sections.
“We have Grue in the upper downtown area, Hellhound in the Trainyard, Imp on the Boardwalk, and Regent in the college neighborhoods. Only Tattletale hasn’t made an announcement yet, but we presume she is at the center of downtown, since this is the only part of the city that wasn’t claimed.”
A pang of worry knotted my stomach at the mention of Tattletale’s noted absence. What if she hadn’t made a claim because she simply couldn’t? There were a lot of ugly scenarios to consider, with Bonesaw and Panacea at play.
I forcibly pushed the thought away.
He continued. “North of the lake, we have Ballistic, Sundancer in the shopping district, Genesis at the downtown coast, near the South ferry station, and Trickster in the towers.”
“So far, they appear to mainly be fighting the other villains on their claimed territories,” said Battery, “which means that we are looking at a possible outright war between them and the Chosen, the Pure and the Merchants.”
“Our priority remains to protect the civilians,” said Miss Militia.
“As it should be,” said Renick. “But we cannot lose the city. To help us, we’re arranging some temporary transfers to bulk our numbers. Adamant from New York will be joining us, as well as Sere and Dovetail, who are itinerant members. They’ll be here shortly.”
He turned to Weld. “Wards, for now, I want you to be aware of which territory you cross during patrols. They have avoided confrontation with us so far, but we don’t know how long it will remain this way.”
He turned off the screen.
“Protectorate, our goal is to take them down before they can root themselves too deeply. It should be easier now that they are scattered across the city. You are dismissed.”
As we went back down to our headquarters, I couldn’t help thinking about the Undersiders. What if one or several of them were brought in custody? As much as I wanted to confirm that they were okay after being targeted by the Nine, the thought of seeing them again in that context twisted my stomach.
What about Dinah?
I’d tried not to think about her while I was recovering, but now, with the reminder that Coil was still at play, I couldn’t avoid it.
Déjà Vu had said that I couldn’t find his base with my bugs, either because it was too inconspicuous or because of tinkertech, which meant that I’d have to find another way to locate it.
Later, on patrol with Flechette, I asked her: “Mind if we take a small detour? There’s something I need to buy.”
“Where to?”
We were on Lord Street, downtown, where several shops had hurried to reopen, despite the occasional looters.
“The electronic store on Pine Avenue. I’ve got stuff to replace, that got destroyed by Shatterbird.”
“Sure.”
We took a left on Pine Avenue, and found the store. The front window was boarded up with wood, but several laminated sheets displaying a letter each formed the word “open.”
“I’ll wait for you here,” said Flechette, saving me from having to ask her to stay out.
I didn’t actually need to replace anything.
I entered the store and went to the counter.
“What’s the smallest GPS tracker you have?” I asked the clerk.
I left the store after pairing the three trackers I’d purchased with my phone.
As we continued our patrol near the towers, in the nicer part of town that was barely affected by the disaster, I activated the range extender in my prosthetic hand and searched for Trickster, since it was his territory.
I didn’t find him. But as we finished sweeping the area, Flechette’s phone rang, and she picked up.
“Flechette,” she said. “Wait, slow down. Ballistic?” She glanced at me. “Apiary and I are on our way.”
“Trouble with Parian?” I asked as she hung up.
“Ballistic is attacking her, saying that she’s on his territory without permission. She lives there! She was there first!”
Flechette’s fists nearly shook with rage as she half-walked, half-ran. I jogged to follow her, my attention on the uneven ground.
“Console,” she called out, pressing her earbud, “Ballistic is attacking Parian. Flechette and Apiary stepping in.”
“Apiary’s not supposed to fight against parahumans in Coil’s organization,” protested Kid Win, but Flechette didn’t slow down.
By the time Parian’s block fell into my extended range, I could detect three giant animals looming to protect the block while Ballistic pelted them with debris, trying to level the building.
I hesitated.
I had the contact sedative Armsmaster had given me, but taking Ballistic down would mean I couldn’t plant a tracker on him to follow him to Coil’s base. Even if we managed to bring him into custody, would the Travelers and Undersiders try to break him out, as they had done with Trickster?
On the other hand, if I didn’t use the contact sedative, it would be hard to justify why once the higher-ups confronted me.
Was it better to play by the rules even if it cost Dinah more time in servitude?
“Can you feel them?” Flechette asked as we grew closer.
“Yes. He’s attacking Parian’s stuffed animals.”
She clenched her teeth and jogged faster, so much that I had to break into an outright run to keep up.
Would she forgive me, when she learned that I had the means to stop him and didn’t?
I made up my mind.
This wasn’t a situation where I could get away with not using the sedative. Anyways, Ballistic might injure Parian and the people who were hiding inside the block. Just looking at the injuries Glory Girl and I had suffered at his hands, I knew we needed to protect them.
I stopped, taking the compact out of my pocket and opening it. A fly landed on the edge, then dipped the fruit fly it was holding in its mouth into the cream. I repeated the process two more times, in case one of them missed, then sent them forward.
Flechette was ahead, far enough that I had to use the comms to call her rather than shout after her.
“Flechette, it’s handled.”
“How?” She asked as she stopped running, allowing me to catch up.
“Contact sedative on my bugs. I got it this morning. There, it’s done,” I said after one of the flies managed to make contact. I still sent the two others after him, just in case the first dose wasn’t potent enough. “He’ll be down in a minute. Better call this in.”
“You sure?”
I nodded, and she pressed her earpiece.
“Console, this is Flechette. Ballistic ready for pickup near Dolltown.”
The sedative acted fast. Ballistic stumbled, then fell to the ground as Flechette and I arrived at the yellow line in front of the block. She plucked the string twice, and Parian appeared after a few seconds, looking out of breath. There was a crack going down her mask.
“Are you okay?” Flechette asked, her voice laced with worry.
“Yes,” Parian answered. “He mostly did damage to the building. Everyone is more or less intact.”
“Good. I’m glad you’re okay.”
“Thank you, for coming so fast to help me.”
“It was all Apiary.”
“Still, you came. That means a lot to me.”
I awkwardly stood to the side as they continued their conversation.
When the squad arrived to cart off the unconscious Ballistic, we went back to our patrol, Flechette with more pep in her step.
This time, we were prepared for the Undersiders and Travelers to break him out, with everyone in the PRT HQ wearing gas masks until he was transfered after interrogation.
They attacked the van transferring him the following day instead, despite a ride-along by Miss Militia, Assault and Battery, and a last minute change of trajectory by Déjà Vu. They managed to defeat the heroes and walk away with Ballistic, sending us back to square one.
I couldn’t help but feel that it was predicable. Of course the teams would band together to free him. Of course Dinah’s power, and possibly Tattletale’s, interfered with Déjà Vu’s visions. Of course he would walk away scot-free.
I’d learned the full list of crimes attributed to the Travelers, and felt very little sympathy for Ballistic, especially after he nearly killed me.
I learned through Weld that Miss Militia and Déjà Vu had interrogated him about Coil’s plan, and the only thing of interest Déjà Vu was able to wrench out of him through unknown means in her simulations was a confirmation that Coil had ordered them to seize and keep territory, establishing order and control over it, and that he hadn’t told them anything about the next step of his plan.
For the next few days, I spent all of my patrols searching my extended range for one of Coil’s minion.
I was patrolling with Kid Win near the Towers, using the range extender, when I felt one of the people I’d tagged be teleported, my bugs along with them. It only took me a few seconds to investigate and recognize Trickster by his long hair and top hat.
He was fighting what appeared to be a dozen of unpowered Merchants, and was busy enough not to notice any unusual insect activity around him.
My bugs hid the tracker beneath the collar of his tuxedo, sticking it in place with a piece of duct tape.
“Did you find anything?” Asked Kid Win.
“No,” I lied, and we went on our way.