Ch29 Brewing

 

Deleting memory #4f7563687468617468757274 data.sense;

Restarting Human.exe;

 

…

 

Yup, that felt better.

 

Poena’s power is truly unpleasant. It somehow caused pain to the human ‘psyche’ directly, bypassing the physical medium entirely as long as she fulfilled the requirement of hitting her opponent (I had to look up the word psyche. Humans have a word for everything). The result was that it caused damage to the mind while leaving the physical body intact. Still, an injury was an injury. A search on the internet for “pain damages human mind?” pulled up all sorts of results, the most notable of which was something called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I had no idea how one healed that, so I decided to play it safe, and just deleted the sensory data from the memory.

 

As for countering Poena’s power in the future… difficult. The early stages of her power hadn’t bothered me overmuch, but the last one had crashed Human.exe. Ifrit had been knocked out by the green ‘javelin’ Poena materialized, and Buzzer, Maz, and even Pebbles had all been knocked out by her power as well according to Maz. That meant Poena’s power had a very high success rate, so I would need to be aware that she could theoretically remove targets from a critical scenario at will, and for an extended period of time. Even now, Ifrit and Maz slumped against the walls of the elevator we were riding in for support, not completely recovered.

 

Normally I would just remove Poena, but both Ifrit and Trebla had warned me against killing or even permanently damaging the sidekicks. Maybe it was because they were young? Humans of all factions seemed to get overly defensive of offspring. Or maybe it was just the sidekick status; I’d need to ask Sandra what the ‘unwritten rules’ were concerning them. I didn’t like having someone around who could disable Human.exe, but it looked like I would just need to work around Poena for now…

 

… unless she had an “accident” in the near future. The sidekicks definitely weren’t as experienced as the heroes; mistakes happened, our fight with the sidekicks was proof of that. One more inexperienced mistake at a critical moment, and our fight could have easily turned deadly. It was practically more dangerous than a fight with a hero. I hadn’t appreciated the effort heroes put into not critically injuring people during a fight. Things like shoving instead of outright hitting, or aiming for armored or muscled areas when they could have easily smashed a temple or other critical weak point. Removing Poena would have to be carefully done; I didn’t want to escalate confrontations with the heroes any farther.

 

And maybe I should stop aiming at their eyes so often. They didn’t seem to like that.

As for the other sidekick Morph… not a major threat like Poena potentially was, despite his instantaneous shifting… that worked with no regard for chemistry… or physics. His combat designs had been sloppy and amateurish as well, so he obviously hadn’t done very well in whatever “training” he’d completed. If I had his shifter power I could use it seventy-two… no, eighty-nine percent more efficiently than he could. Shifting his skin into stone, and metal! What, he couldn’t use chitin like any sensible organism? Probably just showing off. I doubted he even knew how to align his nucleotides for rapid mitosis. A medium-level threat, at best.

 

…Maybe he should have an accident too.

 

Cough “By the way, thanks for grabbing me back there you two,” said Maz, breaking the silence in the elevator.

“Oh, no worries Maz, no problem at all,” replied Ifrit.

“Yes it was. It was tactically unsound… Ifrit you’re stepping on my foot.”

 

Maz laughed, “Well thank you anyways Tofu. I have little ones at home, and I hate leaving them with my nan.”

“Yes, that was why Ifrit wanted to retrieve you… Ifrit my foot.”

“Aww, did she now? Thank you sweetheart, I owe you both one.”

 

Oh right! She owes me lunch now!

“Um, it’s fine Maz. Just part of the job,” said Ifrit, “How are the twins doing lately anyways?”

 

Aww, it’s part of the job? Oh well…

 

Ifrit and Maz talked about the twins for a bit. Maz was indeed the ‘mother’ of the two twin mutants I met at the apartment. I found this curious, as all three of them had the same mutation of brown scales. Searching on my phone for “Can humans have the same mutation?” and “Offspring have similar mutations?” brought up a lot of conflicting results. Some claimed that once mutavus affected someone it was easier for the virus to transfer to family members, citing the ‘Donnar Family’ case. Others said that similar mutations came about only from similar injuries, and that similarities were superficial, but there was evidence both for and against that theory. Frustrating. Humans had good records of other subjects, but the moment it came to mutavus information became muddled. I decided to just ask Maz.

 

“Maz, I have a question.”

“What’s up?”

“I wanted to ask how you and your kids have the same mutation? Did you all have a similar injury?”

“Tofu!” said Ifrit, while stepping on my foot again.

 

Oops. I guess this was another ‘rude’ topic? I really didn’t understand why humans were so testy about mutations. Pebbles wasn’t at least.

 

“Oh. Sorry Maz.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’m not offended by questions as long as you’re polite. As for your answer I was already mutated when I became pregnant with the twins, they inherited it from me.”

“Ah, I didn’t know mutavus could do that.”

“I didn’t either. Only found out after they were born, imagine my surprise!”

 

We talked a bit more, mostly Maz about her kids, and I learned a bit more about ‘family’ dynamics. It was interesting stuff; apparently the twins could be “right little terrors,” and they made her “want to kill them sometimes,” but she hadn’t yet. Seems being a ‘parent’ required good self-restraint.

 

Our conversation was cut short when the elevator finally reached its destination. It had been a longer than normal trip since this elevator started all the way over at the E12/E13 border. The doors dinged and opened.

 

“Baby!”

 

Suddenly a human woman in red armor dashed in and grabbed Ifrit, crushing her in a hug. I almost attacked before I recognized her as Hellion.

 

“Oh my god I was so worried! Are you hurt? Are you okay? Lia sent the video over, and I saw you get stabbed, and I lit my desk on fire, but Trebla said you were fine, and-”

“Omigod, MOM! Let me go! I’m fine!”

 

Huh. I’d never been this close to my boss before. Small sparks and tongues of flame were coming off her suit in her agitation, and Maz and I edged around the two of them to leave the elevator. Imp and a few others were in the hall, and we joined the forming crowd of curious onlookers.

 

“That little bitch hurting my girl. I should pop over and give whatever her name is a piece of my mind!”

“Omigod please stop embarrassing me!” said Ifrit, as she tried to extricate herself from Hellion.

“The sidekick’s name was Poena,” I supplied helpfully.

“Her name will be charcoal when I’m done with her!” declared Hellion.

“MOM!”

 

I decided to slink away while everyone was distracted with Hellion’s display. It was an interesting example of family interaction, but it seemed rather troublesome, and even a little dangerous with how the sparks and embers were coming off of Hellion (barbecues…). These ‘families’ seemed rather beneficial if it meant someone like Hellion would retaliate for you, but at the same time somewhat… scary. I’m glad I wasn’t part of one.

 

Now, I just had to leave before anyone questioned my performance on this job. I didn’t want to have to explain why I left Pebbles and Buzzer behind to Hellion, or worse, to Sandra.

 

“And just where do you think you’re going?”

“Oh, um, hi Adder.”

 

I hadn’t noticed her among the minions. She walked up to me and poked me in the chest.

 

“What the heck was that?”

“Um, what was what?”

“Lia sent us the early footage of the sidekicks to look over. Couldn’t help but notice the terrible lack of my training you applied to fighting Morph.”

“But he had a power…” (and Ifrit said I couldn’t just stab him).

“So? And that chokehold was pathetic! Poena got up in less than a minute.”

“Well I…” (was sort of malfunctioning at the time).

“Follow me. Obviously I need to teach you a proper sleeper hold.”

“But I was-” (going to do tests with the plant).

“Excuses excuses.”

“But-”

“March!”

 

---

 

Heroes

 

The conference room for the E13 Hero Department wasn’t exactly “nice” as conference rooms went, but it was practical. The chairs were reinforced, the large table was holding up nicely (despite the many dents in its metallic surface), and a large flat screen t.v. hung on the wall. Normally the t.v. might be displaying the news, but currently it was displaying a video of the fight against Trebla outside the bank. Unlike the usual shaky cell phone or news cam footage Brick was used to watching after a fight, this video was cut together using crisp, high-resolution footage, and edited together by someone with obvious talent for choreographing dramatic action sequences. The result was a thirty-five minute long montage of the villain Trebla holding off four heroes and then dramatically escaping, which the villain had then posted to his goddamn blog.

 

Brick sighed and turned towards the six other people in the room. Magenta, Turbo, the team’s liaison Jerry, a man and a woman who were the case handlers for the sidekicks (he should learn their names he supposed), and one public relations official (whos name Brick definitely didn’t care about). He had asked for supers and somehow gotten paperpushers instead.

 

“Jerry, exactly who is this guy again?”

“Well, as you saw in the, um, opening credits, he goes by Trebla the Terrific. He’s a high-profile villain who operates mostly in the southern sectors, but he tends to pop up in other sectors randomly. Central intelligence hasn’t determined any overall goal beyond thrill-seeking.”

“I see. Can I assume this was a one-off then?”

“Er, maybe. Trebla’s general area of operation has been moving steadily east, likely due to the presence of Hellion’s Henchmen. He’s become a frequent client of theirs apparently.”

“Wonderful. So what’s the damage?”

“Well the bank was basically cleaned out. They haven’t determined a total, but it looks like something to the tune of a little under a million dollars stolen, plus whatever it takes to replace the other miscellaneous items like computers. The real concern is the account files, the bank is working to lock down everything affected before Trebla can use it, but the investigation is-”

“Jerry, skip the rest please. What was the casualty report?”

“Oh, some good news there actually: zero casualties. And there were only a few minor injuries, mainly just people who weren’t careful in the rush to leave.”

“I’d hardly call what happened to Morph and Poena minor injuries,” said one of the handlers. Micah, Marrie… Mackenzie? Brick just couldn’t remember her name. “Morph has a concussion, second degree burns, and several lacerations on his arms and legs from where the injuries carried through his power. Poena has a bruised trachea, shattered collarbone, and four broken ribs. All of which could have been prevented if their senior supervisors had stayed with them.”

“The hostages took priority,” replied Magenta.

“And I’m sure a fist fight with Trebla was the best way to go about it.”

“Excuse me?”

“She has a point,” said the PR official, “You’ve not exactly done much to convince the parole board you aren’t more than a thug on a leash. Not that I blame you, you’re fitting right in. Frankly this team is one more shady member from being a gang anyways.”

“Wh-, I, you-”

“Hey, up yours buddy!” said Turbo, “Think you can do better be my fucking guest!”

“A powered monkey could do a better job. God knows it would make mine easier.”

“You wanna try it?! I can drop you off in front of Hellion’s in five minutes! See how damn well you do monkey suit!”

“Turbo calm it down. And you’re out of line,” said Brick, pointing at the relations official in lieu of a name. He waited a few moments to make sure the arguing wouldn’t start up again.

“Concerning the sidekicks; they’re alive, and that’s what’s important,” continued Brick, addressing the handlers, “We’ll send a request to Central to send a medical super if they can spare one. Morph and Poena can decide from there if they want to continue as capes. I realize this was rather rough as first outings go, but better they come to terms with what they’re facing now rather than later. I’ll have a talk with them about it. As for my team, I agree with their plan of engagement. When a villain like Trebla shows up, and takes as many hostages as he did, it’s an all hands on deck kind of situation. Prioritizing the hostages was the right choice, and leaving the sidekick with the civilians while the hero deals with the villain is standard procedure while mentoring.”

“Still, that whole building was teeming with hostile supers, wouldn’t it have been prudent for at least one of you to have stayed with them?” asked the other handler. The name Collin kept coming to Brick’s mind, but he knew that was wrong.

“Actually, Hellion’s powered minions are composed primarily of mutants,” offered Jerry, “They have super status only because they work as a group, and I sincerely doubt Hellion’s organization actually has more than a handful of real supers among their ranks. With Morph and Poena’s powers there was no reason to think they couldn’t handle it.”

“Still…”

“Man, do you wanna baby them forever?” complained Turbo, “They collared a couple punks and took their licks, move on already.”

“As I said, I’ll talk to them when they are feeling up to it,” Brick interjected, before Turbo’s callous tone could spark another argument, “But frankly if Morph and Poena’s injuries are the worst of it then I’d like to move on. We have higher priorities that need to be addressed, starting with-”

“I’m sorry, but I beg to differ,” interrupted the PR official. Brick suppressed a sigh. “While you might not be concerned with recent events, everyone else is, and it’s becoming a PR nightmare. As funny as it might be to watch four professional heroes get tossed around by a circus act, I can assure you no one is laughing.”

 

Brick gestured for Jerry to pass him one of the folders in a stack on the table. The red one.

 

“What is worse is that this business with Trebla only punctuates a growing trend. One that has been building ever since Kandor died and you assumed leadership of the E13 team.”

 

Brick’s temple twitched at the mention of Kandor, but he opened the folder, and thumbed through to the section he wanted.

 

“Luckily this Trebla business happened in E12, and the liability falls mainly on their shoulders this time, but I have the bank’s lawyers breathing down my neck, and I’m having-”

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

 

Brick pulled a photo from the red folder, and flicked it across the table so that it landed in front of the official.

 

“-trouble arguing that you all aren’t somehow culpab-, culpa… what? What is…”

 

The photo was of a young woman, or more precisely, what had been a young woman. Multiple red lines crisscrossed her body where metal wires had sliced into her skin, and ultimately killed her. Held taut by the wires her corpse stood (or more exactly hung) in an alleyway, in a macabre parody of a person gesturing for help.

Brick flicked another photo over, this one of a man strung up in a similar web of wires in the same alley.

 

“From what officers at the scene could tell the woman died first, the man sometime after. Likely after noticing the ‘woman in distress’ and naively trying to help, getting him caught in the trap himself. The next person smartly ran first, and called the police after.”

“I-I see. But what does this-”

 

Brick flicked another photo. This one of a mostly eaten human corpse on a rooftop.

 

“An unfortunate victim of the banshee Magenta killed earlier this week.”

 

He flicked another picture: several corpses in a dumpster.

 

“These were found in a dumpster, a day after the banshee attack. Officers thought the bird did it because of the state of the corpses, but autopsy revealed that they were missing key organs, notably livers, bone marrow, fatty tissue, and sections of the brain. The injuries were strange, and the coroner couldn’t match them to any known monster types, so its officially a murder for now, with suspicion of cannibalism.”

 

Another photo; a man with a distinctive neck wound, his corpse a shriveled husk.

 

“This one is obviously a vamp, so I’ve already sent in a request for an extermination crew. I’m also making this one a priority,” said Brick, directing his comment towards Magenta and Turbo, “I’d like to go one summer without an infestation.”

“I-I believe I see your poi-”

“Here’s an interesting art project,” said Brick, ignoring the somewhat green-looking PR official.

 

Yet another picture skimmed over the table. This was perhaps the worst one so far, as this corpse was actually several. Different animal parts had been stitched together to create a chimeric nightmare, one which could only have been more terrifying if it had been alive.

 

Among the various pieces several could be identified as human.

 

The PR official covered his mouth and turned away from the table, breathing slowing as he tried to keep his stomach under control. Turbo snickered half-heartedly at his distress, but everyone around the table was looking pale, minus Brick and Jerry who had already gone over the reports.

 

“I understand your concerns; we haven’t exactly made your job easy,” continued Brick, “But frankly yes, we do have higher priorities. This assortment of homicides share only two common factors: they were all inside E13, and they were all within the last week. You haven’t been with us through an Odd Summer yet. I don’t know how it goes back in the inner sectors, but out here this kind of bodycount is par for the course, and it will only get worse as we get deeper into Odd Summer. You’ll have to forgive me if I don’t give two figs about an undoubtedly insured bank. Clear?”

 

The PR official recovered himself somewhat (helped by the fact Jerry gathered up the photos and put them away), but nodded towards Brick in acknowledgement, and held any further comments.

 

“Now, does anyone have any ideas for how to start approaching these murders? I’d like to get ahead of the curve while things are still relatively quiet.”

 

Suggestions were made, one of the best coming from Jerry. One of the two minions to be arrested had been Buzzer, whose power would be incredibly useful in finding the vampires. The minion’s lawyers were all too willing to make a deal if it included Buzzer and Pebble’s freedom. Brick loathed the idea of just letting them walk, but a vamp nest really did need to be destroyed as soon as possible, before it grew too big and split into new offshoots. They were about to move on to the next case when Jerry’s phone vibrated. He checked it and muttered a quiet curse.

 

“What’s up Jerry.”

“Trebla posted another video to his blog.”

“How does he even… Screw it. Just play it.”

 

Jerry set the video up on the flatscreen. Just like with the first video, an opening title scene announced the contents in an annoyingly loud font.

 

Super Sidekicks VS Mega Minions