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Rating:
Mature
Archive Warning:
Graphic Depictions Of Violence
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Gen
Fandoms:
Parahumans Series - Wildbow亜人 - 三浦追儺 & 桜井画門 | Ajin - Miura Tsuina & Sakurai Gamon (Anime & Manga)
Characters:
Taylor Hebert | Skitter | WeaverDanny HebertBrockton Bay WardsLisa Wilbourn | Tattletale
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Canon-Typical ViolenceCanon-Typical Body Horrorshard-altered psychologytags to be added as we go
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English
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Timballisto's Curated Works
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Published:2019-05-24Updated:2020-03-11Words:99,568Chapters:29/?Comments:226Kudos:730Bookmarks:266Hits:29,370
(Restricted) The Shadow Over Brockton Bay
Temeritous
Chapter 12: Lich 2.6
Chapter Text
I couldn't help the nervous flutter in my stomach, but I could push the emotion itself away to let me think clearly. It was never a good thing to be singled out, but I couldn't think of anything I'd done that was bad - aside from disobeying the plan, and I thought Armsmaster and I had been on the same page there.
I knocked on the door to his lab, taking a calming breath and clearing my mind. Whatever he wanted, whatever happened, I would survive. Nothing could touch me.
The door swished open, receding into the wall, and I poked my head through. "You wanted to see me, Armsmaster?"
Armsmaster's lab was neat but full, spare halberds and other weaponry on the left wall, three sets of armor assembled on standing mannequins behind plate glass set into the right one, and the back was taken up entirely with industrial-type shelving, packed with neatly-labeled bins and drawers. In the middle of the floor was a U-shaped table with extending legs to allow it to rise or lower itself depending on whether the person using it wanted to sit in the chair in the center, or stand.
The man himself was seated at a desk partially set into the same wall the door was on, in civilian clothes but with his helmet on. As he stood and faced me, the desk pulled itself back into the wall and a panel came down to cover it, leaving no trace that there was a computer there at all.
"Lazarus," he nodded. "I wanted to talk to you about Sunday night."
"I figured." When I'd gotten the email this morning, it had been difficult to convince myself to go to school as normal instead of just coming right to PHQ. I was finally in the internship program, so at least I got out at lunch instead of suffering through the whole day. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No," he walked around his table to the center of it, set his phone down and tapped on the surface. The whole thing lit up with a faint glow, and then one section of the floor in front of the table rose up into a straight-backed chair. "Please, sit. I was allowing you some time to adjust, but you've been with us for about two weeks now and you seem to be settling in okay. I'd like to study your resurrection process and your minion more closely, specifically this invisible black matter you call Dust."
I sat at the same time he did, putting my backpack on the floor next to the chair, and he removed his helmet. Coryn crouched next to me, her position loosely defined by just the cloth part of her costume.
I tried to parse what he was saying. He'd been wanting to study my Dust for a while, but was letting me get used to the Wards and being a hero first. Something had changed his mind and sped up his schedule.
"What did I do?" I asked.
His eyebrows went up, faintly surprised. "Do you know what a Manton limit is?"
I did, because it was glossed over in school and training and Vista had explained it more when talking about her powers. "Keeps telekinetics from squeezing your heart in your chest, or causing brain aneurysms." After a moment, I got it. "But my power isn't really telekinesis."
"It has similar effects, force over distance applied invisibly. There are telekinetics who would kill to have the power to choke people from afar like you did, and I'm sure that isn't the limit of your Dust. I reviewed the camera footage from inside the transport truck."
I guessed he wanted me to tell him how I stayed standing with my chest blown open.
"When Clockblocker got shot, I tried my best to stop the bleeding but there wasn't a lot I could do. If his heart had been hit, I couldn't do anything about that, and I think it got one of his lungs." I explained. Sometimes I heard the rattle of his breath in my head, when everything else was quiet.
"So I figured, I could keep that from happening again by making it so the blood flows without a heartbeat." I put my arm on the table and pulled up the sleeve, showing him the pristine skin on the inside of my forearm. "Before our mission, I cut into the bloodstream here and put in as much Dust as I could without clogging my own circulation - got that wrong a few times, do not recommend heart attacks as a form of death. Hurts like a - lot." I changed wording right before saying like a bitch to my favorite hero. "Then when Victor shot me in the chest, I could just move the Dust and keep my blood going. That also gives me a sense of where the bleeding is, so I can cover it pretty much instantly, like forming artificial veins where the walls are Dust."
Armsmaster - Colin? He didn't have the helmet on, but I didn't feel comfortable thinking of him as that - nodded along as I explained. "And do you think you would be able to do the same to someone else? Put Dust in their bloodstream?"
"With an open wound? Easily," and then I hurried to add, "Uh - not that I would."
"Really? Clockblocker told us you were trying to staunch his wounds with Dust when he was shot."
"Well, yeah, to save him. Not to give him a heart attack."
"Exactly." he seemed satisfied by that answer. I thought I might have lost the point of this conversation a little. "You bypass the Manton limit in a unique way because of the matter you create and control. How long would you be able to keep someone alive in the absence of a heartbeat?"
I stared up at the ceiling as I thought about it. "I'm not sure. When I was experimenting, the thing that kept killing me was the heart attacks when I got it wrong. When I had it right, I had Coryn take out my heart and I kept going for a while. Um, I think shock would eventually be a problem. It doesn't really affect me anymore, but the first few times I did stuff with physical trauma it hit hard. And I think I can keep the lungs breathing by pushing on the diaphragm with Dust, but I'm not sure for how long. I haven't tested it, I wasn't sure how to stop myself from breathing automatically."
Armsmaster leaned forward. "Do you want to? I have access to paralytics that can stop respiration."
I began to grin. Finally someone who understood the need to experiment, learn your limits, and move past them. "Sure."
"How was your thing with Armsmaster today?" Dennis asked, vaulting the back of the sofa and dropping onto the cushions. "Can't believe you're getting to miss the stupid after-school lessons."
I rolled my head to the side, shooting him a look. "I am technically dying a lot during them. I could be getting traumatized. Shouldn't you be in costume?"
"Nah, you like dying." He flapped one hand toward the cluster of screens. "And I'm on Console today, no point in getting all dressed up with nowhere to go."
"Emergency call?" I suggested, giving the reason that I'd been given for why even the person on Console needed to be in costume. "It's not like we have a ton of prisoners in the cells or anything, just waiting to be busted out."
He blew a raspberry and picked up the remote, switching away from the news program I had on. The broadcaster had been talking about the capture of nearly half the Empire's capes, her expression solemn as she predicted doom to follow.
Fenja, Menja, Alabaster, Hookwolf, and of course Rune had been shipped out. Half of the Empire's biggest hitters, and Armsmaster had told me that Purity was claiming she'd split off from the gang a while ago to take on a solo 'vigilante' career. After her no-show for the biggest Empire showdown of the year, he was starting to take her seriously.
It wasn't all good; the Empire still had connections to Gesellschaft, who might send reinforcements, and with what capes they had left they'd be fighting harder than ever. They wouldn't pull punches, and they would probably enforce their dominance somewhere else soon to regain some face.
I got up from the couch and looked around for Vista, my patrol partner tonight. It was nearing the time to start patrols, and I knew she liked to go early. Aegis caught my eye instead, jerking his head over toward the little kitchenette.
I followed him, wondering what he could want that he hadn't said when we greeted each other earlier.
"Hey, careful with Vista tonight," Aegis' voice was pitched low, not wanting to be overheard.
I responded in kind, a little hurt that he didn't trust me. "What do you mean? I always watch out for you guys."
He shook his head. "No, not like that…. She's really pissed her parents didn't let her go with you guys on Sunday, and when she gets pissed because people hold her back she can get a little reckless. Just, if you see a situation you're not sure of, don't let her make the decision for you because you think she's more experienced. She is , but she might not be thinking clearly. She had Console on Monday and she's been with me the last two shifts, but I think she's starting to get suspicious. I had to trade with Gallant for Wednesday."
I felt a little offended on Vista's behalf, because she'd always seemed very level-headed to me - at least any time she wasn't around Dean. She thought the sun shined out of his ass and I didn't agree with that, but I'd found her judgement solid on everything else.
Still, Aegis had known her longer. He might know what he was talking about. "I'll keep an eye on her. We've got Console, too."
Aegis' eyes flicked between Dennis and me, wide and meaningful.
"Yeah, alright, but the processing is automatic and it lights up red or green. Even Dennis should be able to relay that information."
I'd spoken too loud. "Hey!" Dennis called out. "I'm colorblind, I'll have you know!"
Both Aegis and I turned on him.
"What, really?" I asked.
"Dennis, you're kidding, right?" Aegis demanded.
He shrugged, still watching cartoons on the television. "I ain't saying, so I guess you'll never know, judgy. Serve you right if I am."
Aegis glared at him some more, and then looked back at me as if for reassurance. "We'd know, right? They'd tell us that kind of thing. It would be in his file…. I've never read his file. How do we get his file?"
I patted Aegis on the shoulder. "I will steal you his personnel file."
"Wait, no, you actually would. Lazarus… Lazarus!"
I had spotted Vista coming in from the locker rooms and kept walking away, waving back at him.
I dodged Gallant, who was walking into the room blindly while staring down at his phone, costume on but helmet tucked under one arm.
He flinched and glanced up, throwing me an apologetic smile, then turned toward Dennis and Aegis. "Hey, Clock wanna trade shifts? I'll take your Console."
"Yes!" Aegis said, both hands on his helmet in exasperation. He'd been arguing with Dennis again.
"Sure!" Dennis exclaimed, throwing down the remote and climbing over the back of the sofa. He started for the hallway to the boys' locker room.
"Thanks, I've got this thing, Vicky's been - "
Dennis reached out and put his finger over Gallant's mouth as he passed; Gallant's head drew back like a turtle retreating into its shell, his nose wrinkling up. "Shhh, I don't care. I just don't want to be on Console."
"Thank you," Aegis added fervently.
"You know that means you're on patrol with him, right?" Vista asked, looking between Gallant and Aegis.
"...Shit."
Vista and I strolled up and down Lord Street Market for an hour, forbidden from deviating off to side-streets. A van full of PRT troopers was parked at the North end of our route, another at the South; they were on high alert for pushback from the Empire.
"What'd Clockblocker do when you told him to bail?" Vista asked. "'Cuz I'm imagining he didn't take it well."
"To be honest I was afraid he'd try to stick around, pull the whole I'm a guy, I have to protect you bullshit," I waved my hand in front of us, indicating that whole flawed concept and snorted.
"Ha! I beat most of that out of the boys, you're welcome."
"Yeah, he eventually realized that sticking around would just give them someone to use against me. Did he tell you what he did to Alabaster?"
Vista crowed with laughter. "Only like six times! Him and Assault have to work together more often, together they could call themselves a Blaster rating."
"Just have Assault throw him around, right? And then if he gets in trouble Clock just freezes his costume, problem solved, or at least delayed."
"What about you, though? How'd you face down Victor without Coryn? Didn't he, y'know…." Vista put one finger out and mimed a gun between us, where the civilians wouldn't see it.
I was explaining my new ability to delay death - and the Dust knife I was thinking might have to make a part of my regular kit - when Gallant's voice crackled through our comms.
"Vista, Lazarus, report back to base ASAP. Take one of the trooper transports, you're closer to the North one right now."
Vista and I looked at each other, although we couldn't exchange a real speaking look with the masks in the way.
"What's going on?" I asked, setting off at a light jog. Vista kept pace beside me easily despite her shorter legs; I still wasn't in great shape, although I knew I'd improved a lot.
"Don't know," Gallant replied. "Piggot just had me pull you back. Maybe something going down somewhere else and they want backup on standby."
"She there now?" Vista asked.
The PRT van was in sight, already idling with the side door open to receive us. I wondered what the rush was.
"...Yeah, but she's on a call with someone else. See you guys when you get here."
The troopers didn't have any more information when Vista and I questioned them, so we settled in to wait out the drive in silence. Vista, I'd noted, didn't like to talk in front of adults unless it was as a hero. She worked hard to seem like just a very short adult.
I sent sensors down through the air exchange into the Ward base as soon as it was within my range, about two blocks away. Right away I found Gallant and Piggot in the main room, along with Aegis and Clockblocker back from their own patrol. Kid Win, out paired up with Velocity tonight, wasn't there but might still be on his way. By the entrance was another squad of PRT troopers in full gear.
Aegis was talking to Piggot, his voice pitched low, while Gallant watched the Console screens with too much concentration. Clockblocker was what really caught my attention: he was standing alone, leaning against one wall facing away from everybody with the bottom half of his mask in his hands, his mouth moving.
I sent a sensor in closer, resolving not to tell him I'd spied on him talking to himself. " - dad. Laz, if you're listening, the Empire knows your name, they went to your house and took your dad and outed you. They said they want to trade for your dad. Laz, if you're listening, the Empire knows your name…."
In the van, my body's eyes slid shut.
The PRT would never let me trade myself for my dad.
Vista and the troopers with us probably didn't know yet, and that was on purpose. Gallant did know, because he was watching the PRT troopers clear my house on the Console. Aegis was arguing with Piggot over what to do with me.
Piggot wanted to lock me up to keep me from doing anything stupid.
All of this came to me at the same time, along with the exact position and movement of every speck of Dust in my range - but that was always there in the back of my mind.
In the second moment after I heard Clockblocker's message, only one thing filtered through:
I couldn't stay here in this truck and let them drive me into a cage.
I felt some emotion battering on the door to my consciousness, something big and unimportant. I pushed it and everything else away, focusing on what I needed to do right here and now.
The troopers would have orders not to stop and not to let either of us get out, so asking nicely wouldn't do it. Any action I took would need to be sudden and finished quickly, before they could react to pin down my human body with containment foam.
I pulled back all but one sensor from the base. The one I left behind was already next to Clockblocker, who had repeated his message again; I broke some of the Dust off the sensor and used it to cover his mouth. He stopped whispering immediately and sighed.
"Got the message?" he asked.
TY , I wrote in Dust on his cheek.
"Good luck. I'm sorry."
I pulled back the last bit of my Dust and opened my eyes in the PRT van. Vista's visor was turned toward me.
I couldn't ask her to help me, but she probably wouldn't stop me either.
The van was set up with benches lining the sides in the back, enough room to squish three people on each bench. Past the benches were two sliding doors, one on each side, and two separated seats in front of those - where Vista and I were sitting. Up front were the usual driver and shotgun positions, with an open aisle between them to get to the back.
Coryn had been following from above us, but I'd brought her in close and now I dropped her costume to let her Dust filter into the van. Inside, she reformed invisibly right next to the driver and reached out to press slowly on the brake pedal.
"What the fuck?" I heard the driver say, looking down at his feet. The van was braking fast, everybody leaning with momentum.
"Why're you stopping?" the trooper in the passenger seat asked.
"I'm not - something's hitting our brakes!"
Coryn's unoccupied arm yanked on the emergency brake, sending us to an abrupt lurching stop. The troopers were gripping their guns tightly, on alert, and even Vista had unbuckled in preparation to get up.
She noticed that I wasn't reacting. "Lazarus? What's going on?"
I pressed my lips together. Coryn darted out of the front just as the passenger got up and moved into the aisle, and I had her stand up between Vista and me. "When you tell them, ask Gallant why I had to run like this."
Coryn ripped through the roof of the van, talons rending steel with an unearthly screech. She picked me up and took us both out through the hole, tearing skin off my left arm and hip as we scraped through in my heedless rush. I clotted the wounds with Dust so that we wouldn't be spattering biohazard all over the street, and looked down. The last thing I saw of the inside was Vista staring up at me.
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