ARC 3: ROSE
"Would you do it all over again? Knowing what you know now? Knowing that you end up here, at gunpoint?""I… know I'm supposed to say yes," the words made their way past my lips. "But no. Some-somewhere along way, it became no."
Rose 4.1
"... and that's the ratings as defined by the PRT. It's an approach guide, more than a scientific categorization. In fact, the scientific community at large hasn't reached an agreement on how to define parahuman powers. In some cases, even the term 'parahuman' is thought to be too general." Amy explained."Such as?" The professor asked."Scion. The Endbringers. The Blasphemies… Well, once, the Three Blasphemies. They're very different from even the strangest showings of parahuman powers, both in terms of scope and application. Like Behemoth being able to ignore the Manton Effect at close range.""Mh. Very well Miss Dallon. I must say, rather excellent, I'm glad to give you full marks." The professor closed the book in front of him, and smiled at Amy, dismissing her.Amy jumped up from the chair, almost too excitedly, before getting her emotions under control and thanking the professor. She quickly walked out of the room, where her friends awaited. They happily celebrated Amy's passing with full marks, and began discussing plans for the afternoon. Under the Los Angeles PRT Amy had found her balance. She still had bags under her eyes, and still spent too much of her time in the hospital. But Alexandria had put a strict limit on it, threatening house-arrest if Amy did not comply. It was extreme, in a way, but also necessary. I realized that Alexandria was fully comfortable with taking the role of a 'villain' among the PRT. The same role she had likely taken with me.She noticed me as I walked towards her. It hadn't been hard, given that I was wearing my white formal suit and dress pants. I did carry with me some cold soda drinks for Amy and her friends, just to be polite."Amy," I said as I walked closer "can we talk?"Vantage, a fellow Ward, immediately took a step towards me and put himself in front of Amy, in a sort of protective stance. But Amy grabbed him by the sleeve to pull him away."Amy…" Vantage whispered."It's fine. She's Blackwall, I know her.""Blackwall? The Rome Blackwall?" Vantage asked. The mention of my name seemed to convince him, and all of the other Wards nearby, as they took a step back. I extended my arm and offered one of the drinks towards them, but none took me up on my offer.Amy began to walk away and motioned for me to follow. She grabbed one of the cold drinks and popped it open. The heat was terrible after all."You look extra creepy with all those drinks. I don't think that's what you were going for.""It's hot.""It is, and I like this drink so thank you. You still look creepy," Amy shrugged, "So, why are you here?"I raised an eyebrow at that question."Alexandria didn't tell you?" I asked."Tell me what?""Mh. I see. It's related to your power, Amy." That made her frown in displeasure. She had come all this way because she feared her power, and because her life had been partially ruined by it, so it was a sore spot. Mine was an important enough request that I still had to ask despite my own misgivings with using her. But before I could continue talking, Amy's phone began to ring and a message popped up on my interface. Before I could even open it, I heard a voice speak through my comms:"I'll take care of it." Adriana said.In the distance my sensors perceived a large silhouette appearing near the coast. Lord of Loss, activating his power and turning into a building-sized monster of iron. Adriana would be a good match for him, especially with her new equipment. Besides, there were other heroes.Amy still got her phone out and read the message, then glanced at me. My calm demeanor seemed to alleviate her nerves, as she put the phone away and waited for me to continue."Unfortunate timing, but my teammate is taking care of it. Going back to what I need from you: it relates to the nature of powers."She immediately frowned at my words, "I still don't do brains.""I'm not asking you to. Come." I walked out of sight of the crowd, ushering Amy into an alley. There, I took out the black knife and quickly cut at air, creating a portal that I walked through. Amy hesitated for a moment, then followed me.We appeared in the local Protectorate headquarters, within one of the unoccupied labs. An alarm almost triggered before Dragon immediately suppressed it.On the table was an array of vials, each transparent in color. Next to it, was a single crystal shard."What's this?" Amy asked, walking closer. She almost touched the crystal, but held off."These," I grabbed one of the vials and unscrewed the cap, "are powers in a bottle."She hesitantly approached me and put a finger in the vial. She froze the moment her skin grazed the surface of the liquid, then immediately took a step back."Wow. Wow." I could see the greed, the desire in her eyes. The way she wanted to let go of all of her inhibitions to better process what she had just felt. The Amy I had met in Brockton Bay would have given herself to those impulses, but time under Alexandria and far away from her family had tempered her mind."It's… So much…""What did you see?""What… Oh…. It's just, such a large organism. I don't think I've ever come into contact with something so big… But it's in such a small vial…"I raised an eyebrow at that, "You felt the Shard beyond?""Shard?""The name we use for the creatures that give you your powers. Cauldron calls them Agents. Bonesaw uses the term 'passenger'.""Shard…""So, what did you see?""...I don't think I saw it all. It's strange. It's like my power… didn't tell me everything. Instead, I got the surface info. That liquid, it felt like an anchor. Or an organ that helps with balance, in the same way the auditory system helps humans. But it also didn't feel like that - like it was, and also wasn't? I-I don't know…""Amy," I walked closer and slightly crouched to be eye to eye with the healer, "take a deep breath. One thing at a time.""O-Okay… Yeah, as I said, it felt like a very large organism, but one that shifted. It was like the inside of a cocoon, except there was no outside shell. I didn't like it.""You don't have to do this if you don't want to."She glanced back towards the other vials on the table, towards the crystal shard."No. I feel like this is important. Really important if you're here, rather than out there dealing with other monsters.""I won't lie to you. It is. And you're one of two people on this planet that I believe can help with it.""The other one is…""Yes." She didn't say the name but I could see that she thought of her. Bonesaw.Amy paled for a moment, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then exhaled. Before saying:"Let's continue."
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The door on the other side of the room opened as Adriana walked in. Amy was still focused on the content of the vials, to the point that she'd begun taking notes."I neutralized the threat." Adriana spoke with a slight accent."You were quick.""The Lord of Loss becomes much stronger in prolonged skirmishes, I decided to go all out from the beginning," she tapped one of the cyberware implants that surrounded her black metal ankle. "These are game-changers."Amy didn't even notice as I and Adriana talked."Don't rely too much on those. They're bound to fail when you need them most." As most cyberware was wont to do.Adriana nodded, then pointed her head towards Amy. "Any progress?"If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation."A lot of it.""Useful progress?""...not as much." I admitted. "She's confirming many of my theories, but the Shards are mostly blinding her to the details, as they do with all other Thinker powers. Thankfully each Shard is hiding different details, so Amy is slowly piecing new things together.""Hm. I'll hit the shower." Adriana left the room.I didn't look as she walked away, and after a quick glance at Amy I stood up and walked over to her. In my mind, a timer reached zero."That's enough." I tried to jostle Amy out of her haze.She didn't hear, or didn't care about me, so I reached out with my hand and gently placed it over her wrist.Her head snapped in my direction as the skin-to-skin contact activated her power, allowing her to see in clear detail what was going on with my faux-organic body. "Amy, that's enough. Take a break. You've been at it for a full hour. You need to drink something.""I…" Amy seemed taken aback by what I said, "An hour? It felt much shorter.""Your power, trying to get you addicted to using it in new ways. You are close enough to a Tinker that I'm not surprised you sometimes lose control of yourself. That's why it's important for you to take breaks."She frowned, but also nodded, taking a step back from the vial."There is so much to learn from so little material. I feel like I could create terrible monsters from just what I've seen in the past hour…""But do you want to?"Amy didn't answer.So I asked something else."The vials I brought to you today are for specific sets of powers. The first one you touched-" I grabbed the first vial, "-is from a mix we call 'Balance'. Meant to reduce deviations and mutations in the host.""Mutations?""You've seen how some parahumans have odd details about them. Glowing eyes, animal features. Those are the best case scenarios. The worst cases… The PRT calls them Case 53s."Amy made a small gasp. "Does that mean…""Yes," I sighed. "These are how they are created. I've already hunted down the ones responsible for it, and they will face justice. In fact, your help would go a long way to make sure that no more Case 53s are made.""I'm not sure what you're asking me.""The other vials-" I continued to explain, "-are for Trump and Striker powers that enhance or modify living organisms. They are the mixes that are most likely to produce healers or power-amplifying capes. Sometimes, both."Except that those sets of abilities are powerful, and the more powerful a vial is, the more likely it is to cause mutation or even sudden death. That's where you come in, if you wish to.""I-I can't fix Case 53s. I tried and their mutations resist my power.""I know. I'm asking you to prepare hosts for the vials. Mild changes to their bodies so that they react much better to the vials. And I'm only asking you to do this for these types of vials. Because after that…""...after that, if you get powers similar enough to mine out of the vials, then you can scale up the process. And eventually use it for other types of vials."I looked towards Amy. "Yes.""And the crystal? I haven't got to it yet…""That's secondary." It was my own attempt to imitate the vials. A failed attempt that is. I hoped that Amy would be able to tell me where I went wrong, or where I went right. She, instead, looked disappointed for a moment. Overwhelmed by her power's desire to experiment and interact with strange organisms. But soon Amy forgot all about that, focusing instead on something that she truly cared about."How is… Victoria?" she asked.Amy had not had any contact with her family for a long while. She still talked to Victoria on some odd days, but never in depth. And talking was much different to what she was used to, that being seeing her sister every day."Victoria is doing good, last I checked on her. Your family has moved to New York, as you know, and the move has not been kind to them. But Victoria is thriving among the Wards.""Good. Good…""You should talk to them, to her at least," I proposed, "if we're going ahead with what we're planning… You'll be a target. Victoria could protect you.""Like she protected me from you, last time?" A sad smile appeared on Amy's face. "No, I'd rather that she didn't even know about it. Besides, I've talked at length in therapy about her and… It's better if I don't see her. For a while longer."There was something unsaid there, but I did not pry. Instead, Amy continued:"I can do brains, you know?" She sighed. "I always could, really. There's nothing… 'holy' or special about the brain. It's an organ like any other. And seeing these vials, now it's clearer than ever."I nodded. "The Corona Pollentia and Gemma are just the tail end of the Shards pinning themselves to a human host. They choose the brain because it's the one that most fits our 'expectations' of magical organs, and because it's the closest to the center of human thoughts.""But really," Amy continued from what I was saying, "It's an arbitrary choice. I've seen plenty of parahumans that don't have a Gemma. Sometimes they have a similar organ to that lodged somewhere else, like the heart. But sometimes there's just nothing like it. Breakers are the most obvious example..."We are meat bags, in the end." I glanced at her, initially unsure how to respond. The girl in front of me had become disillusioned with the importance of humanity, and I couldn't blame her.But I also did not agree."In the grand scheme of the universe, sure." I conceded. "We are dust that thinks of ourselves as more than dust. We began as nothing, and to dust we will return. There is no flaw in your logic, we are, empirically, bags of meat. But logic alone does not control us."I grabbed one of the vials and brought it to my face, watching as the liquid inside swirled under the motion."These vials, these Shards, come from something that is so beyond our understanding as to look like magic. Organisms that have lived since before the dawn of our planet, and will likely live far beyond the end of our solar system. Yet, even in their power, they break themselves and offer their bodies at our feet, to find even the slightest hint of something new."There is no inherent meaning to our actions, nor to our existence. There is no right answer. But there is also no wrong answer. 'Value' is not a measure by which the universe works, and it is not the measure by which we humans continue to live."We set the universe aflame with our existence. We impose our importance, because no meaning has been assigned to us by something greater. We are the meat bags that control the universe, not vice versa."Amy was quiet at my words."...of course this is just a bad synthesis of what other people have thought of before me. I'm not the first, and won't be the last, to fight against the nihilism of life. And this is not the only answer, as well." I concluded.I didn't say all of that to convince her. Rather, those were my true feelings. My own way to fight against the powerlessness of my previous life, stuck in a metal box. And my way to steel my resolve against the overwhelming threats of this new life."Alright," Amy said, with renewed fire in her eyes, "I will help." There still was a struggle in her words. Uncertainty. A weak attempt at an answer, one that she had to find on her own. I smiled, and extended my hand to welcome her to the team.But the universe had a way of fighting back.Amy's own phone began ringing, and I could similarly hear multiple ringtones coming from the hallways just around us. My own interface was suddenly overwhelmed by notifications. The trumpet announcing the beginning of the end.I quickly connected to Dragon."Where?" I asked, even as I caught up with the data and got my answer."Toronto. Simurgh." Dragon answered, voice flat.I unsheathed the black knife and cut across the air, creating a rift for me to walk through.Amy's face was pale. All of her resolve was immediately broken. An intentional move on the Simurgh's part, no doubt."I'll take care of it. Stay safe."I walked through the portal, ready to face whatever was to come.