Another chapter that really fought me, this is the third draft. The other ones were... muych worse than this.
Let me know your thoughts on the various scenes, i'm not a fan of the scene transitions in general, but i struggle with those anyway.
The situation with the ending is currently... fluid. I have plot drafts for most iterations of how this arc ends so if you have an opinion please feel free to state it as it may sway me one way or the other.
Next chapter should be the last of this Arc, then a timeskip and maybe a couple of interludes depending on how my muse hits.
I need a PHO chapter covering Archons public appearances in the various chapters. If anyone knows how to write one and is interested then DM me because ive tried 5 times and i cannot get it to look right. Even using the tool.
(See the end of the chapter for more notes.)
Chapter TextArc 2 – Chapter 8
Sunday 27th November 2010
Yet again I don't manage to get a good night's sleep. I have another one of those strange forge dreams again. This time a large portion of a different continent is shaded in.
I now have internet and phone access inside the workshop.
And just in time. My PRT phone is ringing.
At five am. Ok I doubt this is a social call.
"Archon, it's Assault. Panacea has been seriously wounded by an attempted kidnapping and we need urgent medical attention for her at Brockton General. Can you get here quickly with your healing tech?"
"I'll be there in minutes."
I suit up, armour up and grab my mask, and my standard loadout of stims and chems. I additionally fab some blank injectors with the omni-tool. I quickly pop into my Alchemy workshop and grab some tranquilizers and paralytics.
Just in case.
I decide to leave the sword here, I can always portal it to me if need be and carrying only the baton makes me look less intimidating.
I create a clone with instructions to finish off the small cybernetic reactors, and when he finishes to start working on creating the nanobiotic tanks. If he finishes that I want him to start on the wings as they use a peculiar and oddly energetic form of antigravity that will take some research to implement.
This takes me a total of 30 seconds then I'm out of the door scarfing down a mover wrap to give me the 10%. I have a door a block down from Brockton general.
I literally blur past people pushing my armour faster than it has ever been pushed. I catch some startled looks, but I don't have time to stop and apologise.
I arrive at Brockton general 50 seconds after the call with Assault. He's waiting on the ground floor for me.
He pulls me towards the elevator, "5th floor!".
I shake him off and run for the stairs.
"Faster this way!"
He sprints after me.
We sprint up the stairs at full pelt, almost in a blur. In no time we hit the 5th floor. He leads me over to a surgery prep room.
"She's in here, thanks for coming."
I step into the prep room with Assault with me. I startle him by disengaging my armour and the locking it up.
"Make sure no-one messes with it please Assault, they won't appreciate it."
I turn to the sinks and quickly scrub up, I sterilise myself and my equipment, before throwing on a surgical mask and cap.
I step into a room in chaos. Glory girl is present but at the edge of the room wringing her hands while a blonde woman in a white is comforting her. This must be Brandish.
I wonder why the surgeons have allowed them in, then again, If I was a regular surgeon I wouldn't want to tell mini-Alexandria and arsenal in a can to get out either.
Brandish turns to me as I approach the surgeons working on Panacea, the lead surgeon notices my presence and sags.
"Archon?" he questions hopefully.
"At your service, how is she?"
"We are still counting the injuries; she caught a backhand off Trainwreck powered by one of Skidmark's fields. Its left her torso in a mess."
"Ok, step aside so I can evaluate please."
Brandish steps between us.
"Who qualified you to work on my daughter?"
"Brandish, Mrs Dallon. I am a fully qualified doctor and surgeon before I am a parahuman, even if not in this country. My tinker speciality is personal enhancement and healing. There is nobody I know of more qualified to help your daughter. I owe her a debt; she saved my life. Let me return the favour please."
She backs down thankfully.
"Do I have permission to work on your daughter?"
"Yes, please help her, she didn't deserve this."
I engage the omni tool and start a scan.
She is a mess. I start to dictate out loud and one of the surgeons starts writing.
"5 fractured ribs on the right side of the ribcage, 3 on the left, punctured lung on the right, partial puncture, second through and through puncture on the right lower lung. Myocardial contusion indicates a massive amount of force to chest area, contusions and lacerations across chest and down back all the way to hips, contusion in the spinal area. Concussion, definite head trauma. Broken left arm, fractured left collarbone. Cracked hip on the right side. Minor damage to all internal organs in the torso, including a lacerated kidney."
She's a real mess.
"Has any anaesthetic been applied to miss Dallon?"
"Yes she's currently under standard propofol anaesthesia."
"Ok good."
I pull out 6 stimpaks.
"Start saline infusion immediately, two at max dosage. This is a potent diuretic on its own let alone applied in 6."
I turn to two of the surgical team and hand them 2 stimpaks each.
"Start applying these directly to the area of her worst injuries systematically.. I'm going to deal with realigning her ribs and her chest, the stimpaks will do it but it's more effective to heal what you can without them, to allow them to work on other areas."
I turn back to her chest without delay and use the omni tool to scan for bone shards. She's lucky, it's mostly all clean breaks. I use a nearby scalpel to open her lower chest and then prise the rib that's gone through her lung out. I then manually reset the rest of her ribs and apply a stimpak to each side. I then prep a package of medi gel injections.
"Mrs Dallon, this medicine will leave a heavy load of exhaustion on her when used in these amounts. She will be fully healed but I'm barring her from working for at least 7 days. 3 large meals per day. Enforced."
She nods. And I start administering small injections of medi gel.
Finally, I pull out Hypatia's energy and cure disease potions.
I pass them to a nearby nurse.
"Please arrange to have these loaded into IV bags and return them for intravenous application asap."
She runs out the door.
Panacea's wounds are visibly regenerating, and the colour is returning to her skin.
I initiate another scan. All of her wounds are slowly regenerating internal and external. She has some minor infections developing internally, but I can counter those with the cure disease potions. No infection on outer wounds, likely down to her own power.
"She would likely have died from these wounds Mrs Dallon, if he intended to hit her, this is attempted murder."
"He was trying to hit Victoria. Amy threw herself in between them to block the hit."
I contemplate this, I'm not technically supposed to know how Glory Girls power works, so I question this.
"Not to be offensive Mrs Dallon, but isn't Glory Girl a brute? Why would Panacea need to sacrifice herself to defend her?"
She sighs wearily.
"Victoria's power can be taken down for a short while under specific circumstances. Trainwreck accidentally happened on to those circumstances."
So, Glory Girl took a big hit and then almost a rapid second big hit.
I beckon the Dallons to leave with me.
"She's healing now, let's step outside to allow the doctors here to do their work."
She seems resistant but follows anyway.
I turn to the head doctor
"She needs to be on double doses of saline until no earlier than tomorrow morning. Monitor her hydration levels until her fluid stays stable. With this amount of healing, the drops could be rapid, and spike at random times."
He nods approvingly.
"Thank you Archon, and thank you for your help, I don't know if we could have gotten Othala here fast enough to save her, and I would rather we not owe favours to a Nazi."
I smile warmly at him.
"Always best to not owe favours to Nazis."
I leave the Surgery Bay and the Dallons follow me. As we step back into prep, I reengage my armour. I decide to answer Assaults unanswered question.
"Difficult to sterilise armour like this, and while she doesn't likely need it given her power, old habits are hard to break."
They aren't technically speaking *my* old habits. But try telling brain that.
After making our way to a private waiting room. I ask the question bugging me.
"What happened?"
Assault is the first to answer.
"We are still investigating, but it looks like something has happened to Squealer. Skidmark was apparently yelling about how the healer 'Better come heal my bitch or else' and the lack of Squealer present points towards this."
I contemplate this.
It doesn't feel like Skidmark. Skidmark might be high on his own supply a lot, but he isn't stupid enough to attack someone that would bring every hero and gang in the bay on to his head.
"Listen I'm no expert on Skidmark. But this isn't his method of operation. He isn't stupid he knows that even Kaiser and Coil will be three feet up his arse if anything happens to Panacea. She's guaranteed neutral everywhere. Especially in this city. Lung likely wouldn't give a shit but can't guarantee that either."
Brandish sags.
"They caught up with Amy and Victoria at the rear entrance of the hospital. He asked Amy to come heal 'her' whoever her is. Amy refused. Skidmark made a move towards Amy and Victoria took it as a kidnapping attempt and threatened him. Trainwreck and Whirlygig took exception to the threat towards Skidmark and moved to defend him. They got into a scuffle and Whirlygig took down Victoria's brute rating as Trainwreck moved to hit her through a Skidmark field. Victoria was stuck defenceless, and Amy pushed her out of the way and took the punch head on."
So, the Merchants were likely not stupid enough to grab Panacea, I wonder what they planned to offer her. Still looks bad for them from the outside.
"You need to set the narrative that it was collateral damage unless you want a gang war in the northern docks. Empire will use this as an excuse to attack the Merchants and will likely get a lot of support. Lung will not appreciate Empire being in his territory. This can get very messy, very quickly."
Assault agrees with me.
"Brandish we've worked together a while and Archon is right. You need to de-escalate this urgently."
Brandish looks furious.
"Why should I de-escalate this after they tried to kill my daughter?"
"Daughters you mean." I wonder to myself which daughter she meant in the statement.
She gives me a withering look at my interjection.
I understand where she is coming from, but I don't back down.
"Listen for god's sakes Brandish. It's not about what they did or didn't do. You aren't doing it for them, it's not like the Protectorate isn't going to go at them ten times as hard now." Assault nods at my point. "It's about not allowing your daughters to become Nazi propaganda and for the people living in Docks South to not have a warzone on their doorstep."
She visibly calms herself.
"Fine. I'll speak to Sarah and make a statement from New Wave. But Assault. Put Piggot on notice. I expect to see a strong response from the PRT."
"Noted, Brandish. I'll make sure she is aware."
He turns with me towards the door, and we walk out together.
"So, what will you do now?"
"I'm going to see a friend of a friend. I have contacts who pass me info on merchant activity, and I'm going to try to find out what happened to Squealer to make Skidmark take a risk like this."
He stops and turns to me.
"Be careful Archon."
"I will. Don't worry."
The forge hits me twice…
Expansion deferred by active situation…
200cp are available.
Attempting expansion…
Quality Appearance - Success!
Beauty in the Arts – God of War
I've been hoping to get another appearance perk for a while. Forerunner tech is great but intimidating and it makes me look far too dangerous in most situations. This perk is more general and allows me to appeal to form without sacrificing function. Anything I make I can leverage this perk to make it worthy of the gods. Well, I say 'can' leverage it. But unlike aesthetic architect, this one is automatic and always on. I can pick the general theme, but nothing I make can look bad anymore.
Hopefully this doesn't have ramifications in future.
Back to the workshop, and a quick reequip and clone scouting mission sees me carefully entering the lower floor of the old apartment building again. Time to see Dave.
I'm going with a full loadout this time. No chances taken. The clone is dispelled and a new one sent back to the workshop to continue research on the Mercy tech.
The area is pretty much dead. There are a few druggies knocking around, but none of them are in my way, after a quick recon of the lobby of Dave's building I notice the usual loiterers are sat at the entry steps, I step across the road using my doors, and use my scanner to confirm I have a path to Dave's door. There are a few signs of life in the adjacent apartments, but nothing immediately important. I instruct EFA to maintain scans of my immediate area so I can't be ambushed again.
I knock on his door, however as soon as my knuckles hit the door, it creaks open.
That's not right.
I tentatively push the door open,
It's incredibly dark in the hallway, only the light behind me illuminates the corridor.
"EFA ramp up all scanning activity, if a mouse farts in the area I want a breakdown of the chain of events."
"Got it boss."
I step inside, the smell is eye-watering. The rancid stench of unwashed people, and rotten food.
As I enter the living room, my eyes are immediately drawn to the middle of the room.
Dave is hanging from a noose in the middle of the room.
That explains some of the smell at least.
I engage my scanner and scan the body and the area. Cause of death is definitely strangulation. I don't see anything he could have stood on to kick out if it was suicide though. I'm also picking up bruises up and down his torso.
I stoically scan the area for more clues, I don't know why I feel so sad? He wasn't a friend, barely an acquaintance. Hell, he tried to help Skidmark kidnap me, but maybe it was the potential for him to redeem himself I could see. Was I mourning the person he could have become if I had found the answer to the gangs sooner?
There are signs of other people here, multiple joints in different ash trays, footprints of varying sizes.
"Boss, the people in the adjacent apartments, they've all moving out at the same time."
I felt a chill down the back of my neck. I can see them at the front door on the scanner.
I run to the bathroom to dip out to the forge and get a better position.
Someone has removed the door.
Why didn't I realise this when I walked in, the only door in the damn place, wardrobes and all is the front door.
Every other door has been removed.
Fuck.
"EFA ready a support call but don't put it through unless I need it, get ready for a fight."
I draw my baton and power it on. No kids gloves this time.
Eleven life signs.
This is it.
The door explodes inward and Skidmark steps in.
"We'll if it isn't the cunt in the fancy armour. Fancy seeing you here."
I nod at the body.
"Thought you were friends?"
He laughs.
"That faggot? He was useful. Good recruiter. Speaking to you was a betrayal. No-one fucking betrays me."
I chuckle dryly.
"Well look at you. The big bad gang leader, head of a gang that the PRT only bothered to learn the name of this week you were so weak-"
He grits his teeth as I continue.
"-desperately scrabbling for relevance against bigger and better gangs. The laughingstock of the city."
He scowls at me and forces out between grit teeth.
"At least I didn't walk into a trap twice you dumb cunt."
I make eye contact and laugh, drawing my baton in one hand. I reach for my sword with the other.
"I don't see a trap."
He smirks at me.
"What do you see then you retarded cum-gargling dick stain?"
"A room of people with a choice to make." I pop a Med-X and a mover wrap.
"Obstacles exist either to be bypassed-" I draw my sword "-or removed."
I activate the helmets combat mode. It closes up.
"I'll let you decide."
I whip my baton at Skidmark and surprise him with the extension ability. I manage to hit his leg, but I have to withdraw it as one of his goons charges me.
I charge him back and shoulder check him, he flies back out into the entrance hall like a bowling ball into his comrades, I hear snaps and cracks. Some bones have just been broken for sure.
Skidmark is prepping fields around the room, taking attention off this man is dangerous in a fight.
I whip the baton out at him again, but it's deflected by a field, he's shielded himself quite well.
I need a ranged option before I ever go into combat again.
I charge at the entrance hall and start beating the goons. If Skidmark's going to make the room unviable, I'm not playing to his tune.
He yells at me unintelligibly but I'm uninterested.
Four baton hits later and a copious amount of applied electricity, four goons are down.
I hear rapid thudding.
The front wall of the room facing the street crumbles in as Trainwreck charges me.
"Time to fucking drop" he charges me like a bull. But I know his secret. None of these limbs are real.
I charge the sword and run straight at him, he doesn't expect it and his mouth opens as he approaches. As he reaches me he swipes, but I drop to my knees and slide, chopping out at his legs.
I sever the left leg entirely and he does not expect it.
"What the fuck, you bastard! Do you know how fucking long it took me to make this shit?"
He tries to get up, but it isn't happening for him. He really underestimated me.
I take one of his arms too, just to make sure.
Skidmark hasn't been idle and after the initial shock of the wall crumbling, he is using accelerated fields to railgun bricks and debris at me, I manage to dodge most due to trajectory and I get instruction on how to deflect others with by baton.
I am bored with this. Skidmark looks absolutely furious.
His fields are layered at floor height, he's almost entirely surrounded by them.
I point my sword at him.
He missed a bit.
The blade suddenly rapidly extends out at him, as his eyes widen in shock.
The sword enters his shoulder and runs him through.
I drop a nice shock through it to drive the point home.
He drops like a sack of potatoes.
The goons approaching me from behind stop and look at each other.
I don't understand the point of this fight. In fact, I don't understand any of this.
Why attack Panacea, why attack me?
I turn to the goons and electrify my weapons again.
"Five seconds to leave. Anyone still here after that I'm counting as part of this attack and defending myself."
They make the logical choice. Which surprises me.
Skidmark is unconscious and bleeding, I'm not sure if his fields are still there and I'm not risking it so I use the matter manipulator to raise the floor beneath him and roll him over to me that way. I bandage up his wound but no healing.
I turn to Trainwreck.
"So, what was the point of this, and where's the rest of your sorry lot."
He curses at me.
"That dickhead beat the shit out of Squealer for failing to take you out at the breakout. She's in a coma. Whirlygig ran away after he went after Panacea to force her to heal Squealer and Mush went to bring her back."
Things start to make sense.
"Why set up this trap then? Why kill Dave and why lure me here? You might have had a chance against me if you took me seriously, but he didn't have a chance if he didn't catch me properly off guard."
He laughs.
"The whole second point of going after Panacea was to get you here, you are the only other healer in the city who wouldn't refuse on principle to heal for a black guy like Skidmark. Skidmark's a clever guy, he knew you would come and check with Dave if we went for Panacea publicly after the last time you snuck in here. It was 'easy bait'. Didn't fucking think you were a shark on the end of the line though?"
"How did you even know I was here last time, there were no cameras I scanned, and no-one saw me?"
"There was a camera outside, you just can't scan through Squealers invis tech. Plus Dave was an idiot who couldn't keep his mouth shut. Even if you weren't caught entering the building, Dave told people you met, bragged about it even."
Well then. Looks like I need to come up with a way to detect electronics through whatever form of invisibility Squealers shard is letting her add to her creations.
"So where is Squealer?" I ask.
He laughs in response.
"Why, gonna arrest the vegetable bitch too?"
I activate my sword and he quickly gets the message.
"Bedsit at this address." He rattles off an address which I memorize "Few of our guys there but he was trying to keep it low key."
"This better be correct."
"Or what, you'll chop off my other shit? Piss off you jumped up pansy."
I quickly heavily restrain Skidmark and put in a call to the PRT.
"PRT Dispatch this is Archon. I have captured Skidmark, Trainwreck, and a few unpowered merchants at the following address." I read off where I am "Dead body present at scene executed by Skidmark according to statement from Trainwreck."
"Acknowledged Archon, Protectorate support is inbound."
"Dispatch I need to move on a time sensitive tip I have received, I will leave the area with the suspects restrained."
"Ok thanks for the heads-up Archon, Velocity and Battery are on their way and will be at the scene shortly."
I hang up.
I quickly jump to my northernmost docks door from the front door of the apartment and then sprint in towards the trainyard.
The address is just inside Merchant territory, in a block of houses and apartments just outside ABB territory.
Pretty brave place to keep Squealer even if it is 'in territory'.
I arrive at the two-story house quickly, there are a few merchants around but it takes me no time at all to subdue them. I break into the house and make my way cautiously upstairs.
Squealer is slumped onto a cot in the corner. There's a dried trickle of blood from her nose, and she is covered in bruises.
I quickly start scanning.
She is severely injured, huge concussion, swelling of the brain. Her excessively poor mental state reinforced by withdrawal, injuries both internal and external all up her body. No brain bleed thankfully but there are fractures all over her including her skull.
Even if she's a villain, no-one deserves this.
I should have put my blade through Skidmark's heart instead of his shoulder.
I inject her with a stimpak and then apply medi gel up and down her limbs.
I decide to break my rule.
I put her on my shoulder and take her into the forge. As I arrive in the forge I dispel my clone, and create a new one. I tell him to grab the ingredients we have already for addictol, and I go and start my new chem synthesizer making hydrofluoric acid.
Nasty stuff definitely don't want to get this on you raw. It's an important part of Addictol though.
I need to clear out this withdrawal before it kills her.
The first stimpak wears off and I inject another. I infuse her wounds with a Hypatia healing potion too.
While she is healing, I quickly knock out a cot and a temporary cell in the corner of the warehouse, I plan to release her when she wakes up, but I won't allow her free reign of the workshop.
I set EFA to monitoring her, and then I go to get some quick sleep myself. It's been a long day even though it's still relatively early in the evening.
Before I go to sleep, I instruct the clone to wait for the synthesizer to finish and then make some addictol. I tell him to wake me just before he dispels so I can create another, as I want Squealer watched all night.
The forge decides now Is a good time to ping me.
Expansion deferred by active situation…
200cp are available.
Attempting expansion…
Mundane Large Scale – Success!
Vibration/Oscillation warhead - Arpeggio of Blue Steel.
I just received a shipment of ship class torpedoes. Incredibly powerful torpedoes that disintegrate to the molecular level through finding the targets resonant frequency and vibrating it apart. It can penetrate any normal armour too from nanomaterials to meter thick steel. It requires no special exotic material or nanotech to create. I gain a full loadout for a ship, plus the schematics to make more.
This is an incredible boon, while I don't have an easy way to scale it down for low-level conflicts, this has potential for future S-Class encounters.
But I need to drink a lot of water, and then sleep before I crash from the Med-X.
I quickly knock out a text to Assault apologising to the Protectorate for leaving the scene to follow a lead.
I ask EFA to monitor the Squealer situation and I head to bed.
Notes:
Perks Gained this chapter.
Beauty in the Arts - 200 - God of War - Quality Appearance
The Greeks and their gods have an eye for the aesthetics of their surroundings. Whether it is the statues around them, or the floors they walk upon, or the things they carry and wield, it is better if it is appealing. Your ability to design any of your crafts has increased with this knowledge, able to appeal to form without sacrificing function. Regardless of what you create, it's going to look good enough that the gods might take notice... might. Whether this is a good thing, or a bad thing is for you to decide.
Vibration/Oscillation warhead - 200 - Arpeggio of Blue Steel - Mundane Large Scale
Humanity's version of the Corrosive torpedo. Disintegrates the target at a molecular level by finding the target's 'resonance frequency' and literally vibrating it apart. The Vibration torpedo can defeat any armour made of normal matter nanomaterials or meter-thick steel, makes no difference, but can't punch through Klein fields on its own. Superior to the corrosive torpedo, the Vibration warhead requires no exotic matter or nanotech: it can be mass produced by any reasonably sophisticated factory. This is a full load for your vessel, plus the schematics.
+50PRCP Gained
Rolling… Failed.