I watched from a distance as ambulances gathered around the building, carrying away covered bodies.More people came out of the many apartments, trying to see what was happening. Some forced their way past the paramedics once they realized what was happening.Many fell to their knees, shrieking in anguish. Crying. Unable to accept what happened.Fifty people.Fifty lives snuffed out within a matter of minutes. A moment's whim. A mistake on my part, one that I could not have avoided.I walked away.
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The last camera within the apartment was destroyed within seconds of the door being knocked down."Malacoda is fast with her metal. She flattened it and used it as a sort of tactile wave to quickly find all the cameras, and then destroyed each by crushing them. She also crushed some things she thought could be cameras, so at least her sense isn't perfect. Thankfully she hasn't spotted my flying bugs." Weaver continued to keep me updated to what was happening within the apartment. I was reading through the intel she'd gathered, even though I had already memorized it. I needed something to keep my mind busy."Make sure your bugs don't touch it. Malacoda's metal is highly sensitive to all interactions, even a fly landing on it would be sensed.""She doesn't have enough metal to cover all of the apartment. And she's already done.""Anything else?""Mh… There are a couple other guys with her. Blackbranch I think. One is wearing a large cloak that covers his body and a white mask. Scarm I believe? And another guy covered in power armor, though it's made of something organic rather than metal.""The first one is Scarm, yes," Scarm was the second in command of the Blackbranch. A Breaker. "The other likely is Barbar. The Tinker of Blackbranch.""Right. PHO calls him the 'crab-tinker'. He's the one?""Yes. Don't underestimate him, his specialization is close enough to biology that he can likely work on humans too."Weaver's swarm froze at the thought. Likely reminded her of Bonesaw. And Rachel in turn. It was a passing thought, before she focused back on the operation.Within twelve hours the media had picked up on the incident in Corviale.After I had left the building, the controlled people began hitting their heads against the walls in self-harm. But neither the police nor the media reported that, instead attributing all deaths to the fight that had happened. Blaming me.The police told everyone it had been me who killed all of those people. No surprise that they too were compromised.A notification reached me from a secure channel. One I had reserved to communicate with Cauldron.'Tinkers and Thinkers are keeping an eye for any communication with people you know. Don't contact anyone for now. Everyone outside of Italy knows you've been set up but Thinker blindness is causing a mess. Italy has forbidden the PRT or Guild from sending anyone. Doormaker remains available to you. -C'Nothing I hadn't expected."We're on our own.""But we have leads. We can work with this, can't we?" Weaver asked.Indeed.Weaver had luckily found something.Underneath the Vatican there was an impenetrable structure. Something that was being particularly protected. One that wasn't present on any historic records I could find. Weaver hadn't managed to actually enter with any of her bugs as they perished the moment they came too close to the Vatican itself. But she had managed to map out the structure by carefully tracing the building itself. And had found an inconsistency in the building. Then she'd placed one of her invisible wasps and waited the full day before a member of the Swiss Guard opened a hidden hatch and poured water down it.By following the very same Swiss Guard for the rest of his shift, she'd eventually found out that he, too, had black veins running across his skin, hidden underneath one of his gloves.Three leads. Crowley's parties, the Swiss Guard we now knew was controlled, and whatever was underneath the Vatican. Maybe the Master themselves was hiding there.Online research on past accidents didn't turn up anything. 'Black veins' was a bit too broad of a search term, it was too hard to sort useful info from plausible lies. Plus I suspected that the Master had already purged what they could."We can't risk another massacre. It's troubling that I'm not sure how I was followed. Or even if I was followed.""Maybe you said something that triggered an automated response? Or maybe whoever is behind this has kept a closer eye on us than we think."Those black threads couldn't escape mine or Weaver's senses, so they hadn't snuck within the apartment when we left through Doormaker's powers. Had the Master begun to follow me once I left the apartment? Why not Weaver?Assuming that I'd been followed ever since the fight in the Colosseum, why hadn't the black threads attempted to hijack my body? Or Weaver's for that matter. Something didn't add up.I sighed and instinctively massaged the bridge of my nose. A pointless action, given my implants."Let's go visit that guard."
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Every member of the Pontifical Swiss Guard was, as one could tell from the name, a trained military force made up of Swiss citizens. To join the guard, one needed to be an unwed male that had trained under the Swiss Armed Forces.That mostly remained with the arrival of parahumans, though many other things changed. Namely, the Swiss Guard had been increased in size, becoming much more than a symbolic force. They'd also begun recruiting parahumans, giving them Swiss citizenship if necessary, and using them to increase the Vatican influence in Europe.Around twelve parahumans were publicly part of the Swiss Guard. Most of them were stationed in the southern side of Italy - in cities that had fallen to criminal control, like Naples - and others were on missions in Europe. This policy had allowed the Vatican to come back to the political stage. The Swiss Guard Parahuman branch was a sizable enough force that it could make all the difference in A-Class threats.The man whose house I'd just broken into was just a regular human, though."No secret compartments that my bugs can find." Weaver spoke up from my earpiece, waiting on a roof across the street.It was a three room apartment, rather minimalist in decorations. Kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and nothing else. The kitchen itself was barren, cooking utensils dusty. The fridge was empty. This wasn't somewhere a person lived."The security system wasn't tinkertech." I had easily picked the lock, and disabling the alarm was only a matter of finding the security company and breaching their servers.The bedroom had one bed, a small couch and a television. There was no wardrobe, the few clothes present were perfectly folded on the couch. I grabbed the remote control and turned the television on.An error message popped up from the screen. The owner didn't have the subscription license necessary to access any channel.I crouched down to look at the dust over the floor. It had been gathering for months, if not more… The only pattern that could be visible in it were the footprints that led from the door to the bed and vice versa. There was a perfect pattern to it, like the guard took the same steps every day without any error. A pre-programmed pattern. It was certain that he was just a puppet.No matter how I searched I didn't find any document or book that could tell me more. I exited the apartment and almost knocked on the neighbour's door, before stopping.I sighed and turned back. There was too much risk in involving other people.Searching online for the name of the guard didn't turn up anything, no social media or family, barely a mention in an article talking about graduates from a Swiss Military School a few years back. So I went back to the apartment and waited quietly.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
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The guard, one 'Agnes Lichtsteiner', fumbled with the keys in his pocket just outside the door. He eventually unlocked it. The moment he took a step inside his expression changed. Losing all emotion, face going slack. Like an actor throwing away their mask.But he stopped just beyond the boundary of the door, noticing something was wrong. He narrowed his eyes and glanced more closely at the apartment, even as I was sure I had left no trace.Not that it mattered."Door me. Desert." I whispered to nobody. And 'nobody' listened.The bright doorway appeared just behind him, blinding him for but a second. Agnes snapped his head around and opened his mouth to scream - or roar. I couldn't tell. Black veins spread from his chest, covering his neck and reaching his eyes. I could see the muscles in his leg tense as he prepared to jump back, while his left arm reached for a gun he had holstered.But I had already made my first move: my arm closed around his neck and began to cut off his oxygen supply - silencing his scream. A swift kick to the back of his knee shattered the bone, forcing him to kneel. There was no resistance as I pulled him within the doorway. Even the 'black vein'-boosted strength and speed could not compare to my implants when I went all out.On the other side of the portal was a golden desert, empty of life. The gateway closed in an instant.I let Agnes go as soon as the portal closed. He tumbled over the sand, falling down a dune and coming to a stop some few meters away.I watched as awareness filled his eyes, black veins receding.He raised his head in alarm, trying to understand what was happening."Where… Where am I? Who are you?" He asked in English, barely a hint of accent. "My… Head… Hurts…""Agnes," I walked up to him, "stay with me. What do you remember?""Agnes? Ah… That's my name, right?" He was frowning in pain. "I remember… Yes… I was called to the Colonel's office, to welcome me to the Guard. He was there, but there was someone else, two people I can't remember. A man? I think? And… a woman. Then nothing. Why am I in the desert?"I crouched down, getting at eye level with him. Concerned."What year is it Agnes? Please. It's vital.""Year? It's…" His face became blank for a moment, struggling to think. "It's 2006? Wait… What is the month? Thinking is…"Then the spasms began.He began to claw at his neck, as his veins began to bulge in rhythm with the spasms of his body. Suddenly he froze, head falling back. Completely still.Dead.I grit my teeth. I hoped that by getting the puppet to another dimension I could avoid the host's death. A gamble that had now resulted in one more death. Whatever these black veins were, they neither behaved like Heartbreaker's or Taylor's Master powers. Yet the puppets in Corviale had moved with perfect coordination among themselves, and I'm confident that the Master had directly taken control of one of them to speak to me.Was this death a pre-programmed outcome? Or simply a consequence of the Master's power?Crouching, I checked him over more closely, scanning his internals. He was pretty much braindead, and given the spread of necrotic tissue, he had been in this condition for years. Agnes speaking had been a last breath of lucidity before his body caught up with him.From his nose, strings of black metal began worming their way out. They tried to drill into the sand and hide beneath, but I quickly snatched them out of the ground. The thread didn't even attempt to pierce my hand to take control of my body or similar. Rather, it just tried to wiggle its way out of my grip. I put it into a steel vial and carefully sealed it, then placed it on the sand, leaving it in this world."Door me. Rome. River."
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"It was Malacoda. Again." Weaver informed me as I stepped out of the Tiber river. "The Blackbranch reached the apartment within five minutes of you leaving.""We have an answer on who of the heroes is on our target's side. Though this doesn't fully mean Julius isn't involved."Weaver hesitated for a moment."You have an opinion." I said, trying to get her to share her thoughts."...I think he's not allied to the Master. And he's not a puppet. He can turn his body fully into bronze, right? He'd be immune to that Master effect, whatever it is and however it works. Like Weld. I think at least.""That's a good point." Weaver hadn't had the time to carefully study Julius' PRT file, so she had correctly guessed how the bronze man interacted with other powers. Impressive. "But you're not saying it just because of that, aren't you?""Yeah." Weaver confirmed, sighing. "I tracked down his civilian identity. Followed him for a while with one of the Wasps. He seems… Sad. Broken, even. His apartment was filled with documents regarding Charybdis."No surprise about that. The rivalry between Julius and Charybdis had continued on for many years. Julius had probably seen too many die at the villain's hand."You want to involve him? He's still a Swiss Guard. Maybe not controlled by the Master, but still compromised.""He's already involved, especially if Charybdis is so close to the city. I'm just saying that Julius doesn't look like a bad guy.""You think the same of Malacoda?""Fuck no. I don't believe it's a coincidence that her damn metal is so similar to the black threads.""Yes. It's uncanny. Family maybe? Like Cherish and Regent.""Maybe. But that's not the only way that powers can be similar, if I remember correctly. The Master could have had a very similar trigger event to Malacoda… Didn't Malacoda trigger during the Leviathan attack on Naples?""No. She…"I stopped in place. That could be it. It would explain the precog blindness that the Master induced."Malacoda triggered during Charybdis first attack the following year," the trigger stressor involved a parahuman, meaning a high chance of a Trump rating, "though the PRT doesn't have the details. But it does match up with her first appearance some months after, in Naples. The time it would have taken for her to become comfortable with her power.""So there is a chance that Malacoda is who we're looking for, isn't there? That makes Julius even more valuable, given that the two hate each other almost as much as Julius hates Charybdis. At least from what I've read.""Mh. I'll keep it in mind. For now let's rendezvous, we'll get out of the city, and I'll go back to check on the black thread.""I can stay. Nobody is on my tail.""No," I wasn't saying it only out of worry, "if you become a puppet the rest of my plans will become compromised. I myself am at risk of being controlled if I'm not careful. Until I understand how to counteract those threads we won't be stepping back in Rome.""Understood. Meeting at the rendezvous point in fifteen minutes."The call ended. I stopped walking and turned around. Glancing at the lit Vatican. The sun had yet to finish over the horizon.It was just that morning that fifty people died.Including kids. Some just barely older than Taylor. Lives thrown away to hurt me.…a drop in the ocean, compared to the damage the Three Blasphemies had already inflicted. Compared to the damage they were going to inflict in the future.But I could not think of it like that. I could not rationalize those deaths. Maybe there was a way that all of this could have been avoided.Those people, those kids, had lives. They had dreams, ambitions, fears.All of them destroyed at a parahuman's whim.Nobody should hold that much power.Nobody.