I watched as kidnapped people woke up from their anesthesia, pain lancing through their implants. Implants that had been forced upon them.They screamed and scratched against the metal that had been embedded in their bodies, implants ill-sized and outdated. Nerve endings began to burn out as violent malware intensified the pain.I watched all this through the five-fold eyes of a laughing man, a Maelstrom member that did not even bother to wear synthetic skin over his mechanical skeleton.Each attempt to alert the authorities was diverted and then binned. A corrupt officer here, a corporate spy there. The system working exactly as intended.…I watched as people in suits finished setting up the equipment. Hidden within a warehouse at the edge of the city, deep-dive pods turned on.With a special key given to them by Netwatch - by a single corrupt operative that had been bought - they pierced my defenses, creating a tunnel. A one way exit.I could do nothing but watch through the security cameras that I had long since hijacked.Children walked in, opening the pods and connecting to the wider net. They were trained, skilled.They were still children.Forced to venture beyond the safety I provided. Into the OldNet.I could only watch as they were picked off one by one, murdered swiftly and painfully.…I watched so many acts of inhuman monstrosity were performed by the very humans I wanted to admire.But then…I watched as a man left behind his life of crime and danger once he found out his girlfriend was pregnant. This time I acted, hiding their traces as they bought a car and fled the city. The couple died twenty years later, their bodies weakened by years of substance abuse. Their children went on to see the world, helping any who needed help.I watched as a child cried at the bottom of the stairs, holding her brother's ashes. A woman came up and sat next to her, saying nothing but making sure the child was safe. Later, that same woman adopted the child, and together they escaped the city to live a better life. I acted again, erasing the debts that the child had inherited, and making sure that no loan shark could ever find either of them.…The world was exposed to me. Each act of evil brought with it so much suffering. People died for reasons they did not understand. Each time a group of people decided to change the world, somewhere else a corporate suit pressed a button and murdered hundreds if not thousands without any remorse or regret. Evil made a lot of sense to my rational programming. Actions that led to immediate gain, monetary or otherwise. To me, 'evil' was the natural state of the world.That is why my admiration for humans grew: no matter how awful the world around them was, some would always choose kindness. Even if it was the worst choice. Even if it cost them everything.
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The taste of sand woke me up. An orange sky overhead, tinted by the rising sun.Diagnostics came back in the red, my body was in awful condition: a missing arm, a torn lung, so many fractured bones. The tide had carried me far away from Brockton Bay, and some subconscious swimming allowed me to get to the coast.At this distance the city looked peaceful.I did not stand up. Waves crashed against my prone body.Messages filled my inbox. Mostly Tattletale. One message was from an unknown sender.I opened Tattetale's messages first.'???''The fuck you mean Siberian is chasing you?''Hello?!?'Missed call from TTexting back a simple 'Alive' then continued:'Blackwall. This is you, right?' If it was who I hoped it was, then it meant that she had deciphered what I had left in my malware back at the Wards' HQ.With a thought I initiated the call. It immediately connected."Dragon.""Blackwall." The same synthetic voice as the one coming from the Dragon Suit. Strange."Thank you for contacting me. It gives me a bit of hope in this particularly dreadful moment.""Your actions as a villain have made it all the more harder to justify this call. But I must admit… I'm curious. What you used was particularly sophisticated. Better than anything else I've ever seen or made, by a large margin.""I can easily teach you. Even sending you a written physical document if you don't trust anything digital. Which you shouldn't, from me. But later, there is something more important.""The Nine."It did not surprise me that she knew. Probably the whole PRT knew, at this point. The Nine usually left hints before acting. If that wasn't enough, the chaos caused by the Siberian and I must have tipped them off."Yes. I have confirmed that at least one of their targets is Panacea. Bonesaw's."Dragon did not answer, likely sending the info along to someone that could take immediate precautions to protect the healer. Bonesaw already was terrifying, nobody wanted to see what she could do with Panacea in her grasp."Furthermore, for some reason Jack wants me dead. The Siberian ambushed me together with Shatterbird.""And you escaped." That, impressed her more than the virus I had used to cut off her control from the Wards' quarters."Only because I had pre-emptively removed any silicate component from my equipment.""Then you understand why I can't help you as much as I'd like to. Not without endangering too many innocent lives."Right, I had already considered that. Dragon mostly acted through her suits, and I doubted that she could have discovered the technology necessary to avoid Shatterbird. Back in my world it had been discovered by accident by a broken AI, rather than someone attempting to revolutionize technology. And it turned out to be rather useless."I have a way to stop her. Or at least make it so your suits can enter the fight… Issue is I believe I can't come back to the city just yet.""You believe they are still looking for you.""It's not just that. They have some way to find me. I know I left no traces, and it is highly unlikely they happened upon me while I was moving through the city. Which means they have either a tinkertech device to find me, or a parahuman."This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.A moment passed."One of Heartbreaker's children. We've gotten reports of an emotional Master in the city, though few and far between. It's likely that the Master has either joined them, or has been used as material by Bonesaw."A quick search online confirmed it. A daughter of Heartbreaker had been spotted near the last location the Nine had been seen in.Another search gave me the rough outline of her powers - just enough to be sure that she could find me anytime I was in her range. Which probably covered the whole city."Thank you. I do not have the tools to avoid her perception, and I'm not sure I would survive another ambush from the Siberian."The striped parahuman was a hole in the world. She had no heat signature, and could decide to make absolutely no sound.Worse still, Jack could decide to throw caution to the wind and send Crawler after me. I was not sure I could escape him as easily as I had escaped Siberian, given his larger size and offensive tools even at range. Not if Shatterbird kept slowing me down."I…" The synthetic voice faked hesitation, or maybe just conveyed what Dragon was feeling. "...I can put you into contact with a Tinker that has had some experience with emotion powers. I know he studied them closely to create a lie detector.""Is he in the city?""Near it. Yes.""Mh…" It would be a risk. But the Nine were not known for their cooperation, there would be an opening for me to rush in and activate something to hide my presence from Cherie."Please do introduce me."
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"This is against the PRT's orders, Dragon. You know I'm not supposed to have ANY contact with the outside world, besides you.""Truce is in effect. That supersedes your punishment… Please?"Armsmaster was very displeased by that. Somehow, though, that 'please' from Dragon seemed to create a crack in his tough demeanor."Greetings, Armsmaster. I'm sorry this is how we meet, but I am in dire need of assistance and Dragon suggested you may provide it.""Yes. She told me. You need something to block an emotion detector. I can manage that, or at least something that will hide you as long as your emotions don't spike. I have studied and worked with a hero that had a similar power, though its range was much shorter and it was a bit less detailed."There was a spike of irritation in his tone. Or maybe that was just how he talked.No…Right, the parahuman in question likely was Gallant. Killed by Leviathan.A child, killed by the hands of a monster.Anger sparked inside of me. I had done my best to try and avoid thinking about them, given that I lacked the power to solve the problem, but… No. I suppressed my thoughts. The Endbringers would come later."How much time do you need?""I have a prototype. With Dragon's help-""I'm sorry, but I won't be able to offer assistance, Armsmaster. A lot of things are happening around the world that require my attention. But Blackwall can likely help you as well.""Right… As I was saying, with some help it could take anywhere between two to five hours to make it functional. Blackwall, I don't trust you to connect to my systems, so I will only allow text messages to come through if you need to help. I'll send the schematics along to Dragon in the meanwhile."I'll get started. Contact me once you understand the details of the device."Armsmaster left the call."Believe it or not, this is him being gentle. I've seen far worse first meetings from him.""He is being more than reasonable. It is you that I would say is too trusting.""Not many have survived the Siberian, among their numbers are the Triumvirate and few others. Jack has shown himself to have sharp instincts. If the Nine want you dead and are willing to forgo some of their theatrics to do so, then you are a threat to them. And the Truce was established for situations such as this."Hm."Thank you again, Dragon." A notification popped on my HUD. The schematics. They were very complex, enough that I couldn't parse them at a glance. Mostly because there were many points that didn't fully make sense, likely the small irregularities that a Tinker's power would fix.By understanding what those irregularities were, I could likely shorten the work. Helping Armsmaster's god spare resources."I will also get to it. Ping me if anything changes."The call ended.
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My missing limb continued to send 'pain' signals through my nervous system. Even with the many cyberwares I had installed it seemed that I could not escape the failing of the human body.Hours had passed since my contact with Dragon and Armsmaster. I had sent along some helpful instructions to aid the latter in his work, he had yet to respond.In the meanwhile I decided to raid an abandoned gas station not too far from the coastline. Anything of value had already been looted - likely from scavengers fleeing the city - and most everything else was too water-damaged to be used.My weapons had suffered some water damage, nothing too hard to fix. I lacked the means to fix my left arm, so I decided to merely improvise a prosthetic. To keep my weight more stable.With some precise cuts, duct tape and the thermal katana in my right arm, I had on my hands a rather sturdy replacement. I put in some notches to allow my sniper rifle to latch onto it, to allow me to use it despite my single limb. Having a long range weapon would no doubt be useful against the Nine, though I did not count on being able to assassinate them from a distance. All of them had been enhanced by Bonesaw.Fixing and repairing my equipment also served as a moment of relaxation. I had not realized the anger that was building up within me. Something about the Nine, about this world, was reminding me of the worst of my past. Of things I'd rather forget.I needed to sharpen my focus. Anger was another tool in my arsenal. At least I liked to think.Many of my artificial brethren would only deem it a hindrance, an obstacle that slowed humans down.Despite that, I choose to allow myself this singular, intense, emotion.