BamThe sound echoed in the training room as Taylor hit the floor, thrown over my shoulder in a single move. She let out a gasp, more in exhaustion than in pain.In fact, I had noticed that Taylor didn't very much feel pain."Let's take a break.""No. Let's go again." Taylor demanded, beginning to stand up. Her legs were a bit wobbly.I narrowed my eyes, glaring. She got the message and snapped her head to the side. Looking at the entrance.Where Number Man was standing."If you're so tired that you lost grasp of your surroundings. This shouldn't happen." I admonished Taylor as I began to walk towards Number Man."I find bugs unclean. It may be my fault that I made sure none could touch me." He spoke up, no emotion in his voice."Don't make excuses for me." Taylor shot back in response. I had told her about Number Man's past, so she rightly wasn't happy with his presence here. Besides that, unfortunately she was correct. I'd been training her so that she should be able to fight while also keeping track of insect senses aside from touch. Taylor should've seen him at the corner of the room, even if she was focused on the spar."Take a break," I tried to calm her down, "if I'm not back within the hour, do some multi-tasking exercises with the Arachne."Taylor - reluctantly - walked into another room to get some rest. I led Number Man in the opposite direction."You're making a little monster here, Blackwall.""I'm not 'making' anything here, Number Man. Most people would have already given up with this training regimen.""Mh. It's a shame that you recruited her before we could. Alexandria had-""Alexandria and all of you lost your chance when you decided to gamble on Coil. Who I'm assuming is dead at this point." I interrupted him, feeling anger well up within me."...yes. He's been decommissioned once we confirmed that his power couldn't help us work around precog blindness. There was no value in keeping him alive.""You called it the 'Terminus' project. Why did you choose Coil, instead of someone else? There were better options, surely.""Contessa informed me that no, there were no better options. Anyone else would have failed in taking control of Brockton Bay, and in America there was no city that could substitute for the project." He didn't clarify why the project needed to be placed in America. "Obviously that was before Leviathan attacked, which led to the Nine, and you. So the objective truth may be different.""Mentioning the Nine like this is really pushing your luck, Harbinger. Stop wasting our time, tell me what you are here for."Number Man nodded, unbothered by my comment, then continued:"It's about Noelle. And Tattletale. The math isn't promising about the monstrous girl, and ever since Tattletale began to more often interact with her she's become harder to predict herself. This wouldn't normally be an issue, except that now Tattletale is working against me. Trying to play the market in such a way to cut me off from some major players in Brockton Bay. This is where I usually would rely on Contessa.""You want me to talk to Tattletale? Make her reduce the scope of her operation.""Yes."And why was this coming from him, instead of Doctor Mother herself? Or Contessa?"They don't agree with you. The others.""No. They do not. Part of it is that they'd just replace me if I became useless to them, and part of it is that we decided to treat you as an ally. From Doctor Mother it could come off as an order. From me, it's a favour.""I'm not going to ask Tattletale to stop. She has done a lot for her city. The Teeth were kicked out before they could gain a foothold, and that was partially because she established a good financial relationship with the PRT." 'Financial' was the key word in that sentence. Director Piggot very much disliked Tattletale, and only 'collaborated' with her due to the terrible situation the city was in."I see. Then can you ask her if I can take part in her operations?"I glanced at him, quiet. Not answering."I know you have perfect hearing.""I was waiting for you to clarify.""Ah. It is my bad then. If it is not possible for Tattletale to slow down her operation, I want to ask if it would be possible to involve me in it. I would work towards Cauldron's objective first and foremost, of course, but there is a lot of leeway."That… Would be a significant boost to the Undersider's political power. It would mean that the PRT would never be able to retake Brockton Bay. But it would also turn the city into a stronghold against worse criminal organizations. As long as Tattletale acted with the city's best interest at heart. Which she wouldn't. She… Was not a good person."...I'm afraid that's an even worse option. I'll ask her to slow down, give you the leeway you need."Number Man nodded, then took out something from his pocket. Something that I had been staring at ever since we started talking. It was the strangest thing my sensors had ever perceived, in this life and the previous one.It was a vial, no bigger than a pen, with a black corkscrew. The liquid inside the glass was a semi-transparent red, looking like an alcoholic beverage.One of Cauldron's power vials."This one has been named 'Thanatos'. It is one of the few variations that has always resulted in death, no matter what we mix it with. Though that alone doesn't make it special. What makes it unique is that this one is always a quiet killer. No biological disasters. No violent deaths. The person drinks it and within thirty to forty seconds they expire. Brain death followed by heart failure.""Mh." I couldn't help but humm."This is my payment for the favour I'm asking. I have gotten permission from Doctor Mother to do this, so take it as another gesture of good faith. Or a reward for your progress with the Blasphemies." Number Man handed the vial to me.I carefully took it, watching the liquid swirl inside with interest."No instructions? Warnings?"Number Man shook his head."We believe that it would be more productive to see what you can manage without any of our biases.""I see. How many people died before you stopped using it?""Fifteen."He spoke the world naturally, as though it was the easiest thing in the world. There was no guilt in his tone, or in his expression.Only my perfect control stopped me from crushing the vial in my palm. Or from crushing his neck in a similar way.I recognized, rationally, that Cauldron was the culprit behind many tragedies. As they hid it from me, I could allow myself to feign ignorance in pursuit of our greater objective. But hearing it said so clearly…It took me a moment to steady my mind. To find my calm once again.Number Man watched quietly all the while.I put the vial away."I'll contact Tattletale. Now leave.""Very well. Door me, my office."Curiosity and hatred warred within me as I watched him step beyond the doorway.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.■
Crystal.An arrangement of atoms following a pattern. The most ordered structure in nature.On my desk lay brain scans, autopsy reports, and my own analysis of the black thread.Only one thing was in common among each of the fifty victims that had died in Nuova Corviale. None, not even one, had a Corona Pollentia.The black thread, meanwhile, was made of crystal, and showcased a similar organic structure to an active Gemma, though inorganic. That explained why the Master had not attempted to hijack Taylor. Or any parahuman, as far I could find.They could not. They were limited to people that didn't have a Corona, that could not trigger… Or maybe something similar.There was the possibility that they were tricking me, leading me to a false assumption, but why then had there been no real attempt to take control of me? And I found it unlikely that by grabbing fifty random people among Nuova Corviale they chose precisely those that didn't have a Corona. Even more unlikely that they had been prepared for my presence there…Furthermore, the process of taking control killed the host. The thread drilled into the skull and the brain, leaving little of the original person. All that was left were the base motor skills to move the body, to make it easier to puppeteer the corpse. But that too could be imitated by the black thread if the Master focused, as I had seen.Sighing, I focused my attention on the last of the brain scans. One that didn't fit among the others.A scan of my own head. I compared it to one I made more than a month ago, when I first installed an implant around my head. When my brain was fully organic.Crystal.The Corona had grown like a tumor, spreading to the rest of the brain and taking over all functions. It had not stopped there. After that, it had begun to change even more drastically, turning into another material.Now all that was left was a crystalline surface that rippled in tune with my thoughts. Synapses quite literally lighting the inside of my skull, escaping from my optical nerves and giving my eyes that 'ominous' red glow that Taylor had described.I was unsure of what it meant. Laying down on the chair I looked to the side, where a terminal had just finished compiling data about the Thanatos vial.Crystal, of course. One that behaved like liquid rather than a solid, but still it had that ordered structure.I shifted focus within myself, letting the physical world around me fall away.The Shardspace took its place. The island where my true self lay.What was once a barren island full of jagged hills, I had turned into an organized fortress. It had reshaped it, hollowing its center. Now an impossibly tall and long wall surrounded the island, sections shifting and moving as my inner programs worked to sort my thoughts and plans.I guess I liked the familiar shape, in a way.My visit to Cherish's island - or, more accurately, the Heartbroken archipelago - had been my last interactions with other Shards. Aside from Shatterbird's that is.In fact, now Shatterbird's island lay close to mine, almost at a constant distance. I had not done anything to cause this, it just happened. Sometimes I felt the urge to crush that island to nothingness, to absorb its mass into my own. But I wasn't sure I would be able to replicate Shatterbird's power if I did that, so I held off.There was so much here. So much info to process. So much to understand… I couldn't help but think of the monsters that dwelled in the real world. What were the Endbringers? What were the Blasphemies?What even was I at this point?
■
The smell of drugs, alcohol, weed and vomit hit me all at once. Frat boys, drug addicts and precocious kids were strewn all over the ground. I had to carefully walk around them, trying not to step over any of them.I had dressed to 'blend in'. And by that I mean that I wore a white oversized sweater over some jeans, barefooted.Even so early in the morning they were still playing music at top volume. A mix of techno and trap, jumbled together to create chaos. And that was the perfect word to describe the situation of this house:Chaotic. Intentionally so. A place where one could go and easily fall into the most primal of behaviours. The Crowleys used that to recruit people. That, plus a good share of religious fanaticism. Though what they followed was not an hypothetical god, but Leviathan himself.As I walked up the stairs I began to see some people that were awake. A boy, not even Taylor's age, walked up to me and began trying to 'flirt'. My stare shut him up fast.Further up ahead a man stepped in front of me, putting a hand out to stop me."[Stop. Party's downstairs.]"His face quickly popped up in the local criminal registry. I didn't want to make this louder than it needed to be. I took a step forward and brushed the edge of my knuckles against his torso.A quick shock sent him to sleep. I grabbed his falling body, swiping a key off his belt, and placed it on the stairs. It would blend right in with the amount of unconscious kids all over the place.I didn't knock on the door at the end of the hallway, I just used the key to open it.The other side of the room was filled with smoke. Not even weed, but rather a grand mix of multiple hallucinogenic brews. People were strewn across the various beds and couches, in various states of undress. Most tripping out of their mind.At the far end of the room, near another door that was slightly ajar, sat the ringleader of this party: his armchair was the fanciest of the furniture in the room. Two women sat over his legs, both naked, kissing the sides of his neck and face.The man himself had short blonde hair, with red highlights. The coiling tattoo of a red snake could be seen through his open shirt, continuing down to his legs and arms, coming out of the wrist. His ears were covered in piercings and earrings. What was most striking were his amber eyes, a hue that combined with an handsome smile made him extremely charming. The charismatic leader of the Crowleys."I'm not sure I was expecting a guest." Grayson Crowley commented, sarcasm dripping from his words. He was perfectly sober. The file had described him as cold and calculating.I took an aggressive step towards him, ready to grab him by his neck and throw him across the room."Oh, nono. Please don't do that." The edges of his body began to become slightly blurry, as though a transparent copy of Grayson had begun to overlap over his physical body. His power, though the file didn't mention the specifics. He pointed his thumb at the side door behind him. With a flicker of thought I sent a small echolocation that returned a blurry picture of what was inside.In that room, sleeping on the bed, was a prone man. Alone. He was fully naked. His long unkept hair, combined with the impossible density of his skin, made it very clear who was now sleeping in that room.Charybdis. Leviathan's cursed child."Let's keep this conversation civil, shall we?" Grayson grinned.