Chapter 8
April 3rd, 2015 09:00 PM
“One, I can’t believe you actually have a place you call a ‘hideout’.” Melody said. “Two, I know how much you make, so how do you afford all of this?” She said as she looked around the warehouse that was built into an awesome looking ‘hideout’.
Chancer had changed vehicles in a parking garage in the middle of nowhere, and then drove around, seemingly in circles around New York, and then to another parking garage to change to another vehicle. They had finally ended up in a run-down looking warehouse on the Hudson River, which overlooked Governors Island. The whole process had taken nearly three hours.
The inside of the run-down looking warehouse was built as a living area that was basically one room. Everything looked new, and expensive. The kitchen had a long island and all stainless steel appliances. The bedroom was on a raised floor, and had monitors built to look like windows, obviously with cameras outside where the windows should be. The garage area housed three expensive looking race cars and the average looking car they all drove here in, plus six motorcycles, all crotch rockets. There was also a video game area, with arcade style games, and an entertaining area with a television so large it looked like it took up the entire wall, and plenty of antiques scattered throughout the entire warehouse.
“First of all, I’ve had this place for years. And second of all, I wasn’t always the fun-loving Agent Chancer you know.” he said as he grabbed beers out of the fridge and passed them around. The doctor passed, immediately unpacking the tablet he had taken from Mrs. Oslett and reading everything it had provided.
“So what are you, some millionaire action junkie?” Melody asked.
“I was going to say playboy thief with wicked-good looks.” Chancer said with a smile.
“So you stole all of this?” Eagle-Eye asked.
“Stole is a harsh term. I like to think I acquired it by mostly legal means.” he said as he looked around.
“He means he used his power to gamble and won, a lot. Probably too much, which is why he hides and has getaway vehicles.” the doctor said as he was reading the tablet. “You should look at this.” he told Chancer.
“What the hell is that?” he asked as he looked at a drawing of a chemical and its name, which took up half the page.
“The short name is ‘XP-89’. It’s what we were given.” said the doctor as he scrolled through the text.
“Extreme Power Eighty Nine!” Chancer said as he flexed.
“Shut up.” Melody said as she was looking over the doctor’s shoulder.
“Powers receive exponential growth for eight to twelve hours.” the doctor quoted from the tablet.
“Why would Mrs. Oslett make something that would make supers stronger when she needs to catch them and keep them imprisoned in order to make money on her contracts?” Eagle-Eye said as he sat in one of the bar stools on the far side of the kitchen island.
The doctor scrolled and tapped on the tablet a few times as they waited for an answer.
“When a power is under the influence of ‘XP-89’,” the doctor started.
“Extreme Power Eighty Nine.” Chancer cut in.
“The power becomes ninety-eight percent more powerful,” the doctor said, not being distracted by Chancer. “and allows twenty three percent more spinal fluid to be harvested.”
“Is that what these are?” Melody asked as she picked up a vial from one of the satchels. “Gross.”
The doctor scrolled and read for what seemed like hours, but was really only about five minutes. “No.” he said as he picked up one of the vials himself. “These are a concoction of Mrs. Oslett’s that allow a power to be given to anyone else, but only after she has removed a super’s spinal fluid.” he said quickly.
“Which would kill the person she removed it from, correct?” Eagle-Eye asked with a little shutter.
“Absolutely.” the doctor said as he hit a link on the tablet, which brought up a video.
“Test number thirty nine, December fifth, twenty fifteen, one oh three A. M.” A camera showed Mrs. Oslett preparing a syringe to inject into a super that Chancer and Eagle-Eye had taken down over a year ago. “I’ve managed to isolate the powers themselves, and am currently attempting to add the power of regeneration to Mr. Joseph McKay, A.K.A. “The Whiz”.”
The video showed her injecting her syringe into the arm of The Whiz, who was strapped to the same metal table Chancer and the doc were strapped to hours ago. After one minute on a timer near the table, she spoke again after disposing of her syringe.
“I will now test the injection.” She said as she took up a scalpel and sliced The Whiz’s arm open. He screamed.
Everyone surrounded the doctor to watch the screen as it zoomed in on The Whiz’s arm. Slowly, the wound started healing, and then The Whiz started to spasm, his whole body started jerking – luckily he was strapped to the metal table on his stomach, just as Chancer and the doc had been. After a moment he stopped jerking around and lay still, blood pouring out of the cut on his arm.
“Test number thirty nine is a failure. I believe the power of regeneration saw his base power as a threat and attempted to heal it, which I already know cannot be done. Note for next test, try using a power that doesn’t involve healing.”
The video stopped.
“What the fuck…” Chancer said out loud.
“We saw The Whiz in Cell Block Five earlier today, remember?” the Doctor asked chancer.
“No, I was too busy trying to save our fucking lives.” Chancer said.
“I saw him, he was there.” the doc said.
“How could he be there today if he died in December?” Eagle-Eye asked.
“No idea.” Chancer said.
“You said Cell Block Five? I just processed a workman’s comp claim for one of our electricians yesterday. Said he was electrocuted installing the biggest electrical panel he had ever seen.” Melody said quietly.
“What would they need that much power for?” Eagle-Eye asked.
“Each Cell Block runs off its own power grid, with generators for redundancy if the city’s power goes out. And all the electronic locks fail closed in the event of a power loss of even one second, meaning they stay locked if power is cut. They don’t require much more power than a normal building.” Chancer said. Everyone looked at him. “What? You guys never fucking wonder if we’ll end up in one of those cells one day?”
“No…” Eagle-Eye said. “Why would they put us in there? We’re the good guys.”
“Until they decide we’re not. It’ll be just like the people who inhabited America before us – a slaughter.” Chancer said.
“How many of these tests are there?” Melody asked the doctor, changing the subject.
“Eighty-four.” He answered.
“Skip to the last one.” Chancer said as they all crowded around the tablet again.
The doctor hit the link on the tablet and another video appeared.
“Test number Eighty-four, April first, twenty fifteen, one oh seven A.M.” Mrs Oslett said.
“That’s the strongman we
just
brought in.” Eagle-Eye mentioned.
The man strapped to the table was wrapped nearly head to toe in gauze, with only a small portion of his back and arm cleared to the skin. Mrs Oslett prepared a syringe.
“After I managed to stabilize the injectable powers, the problem now results in the patient being thrown into a rage that will not subside. Only certain powers can be combined, and I’ve charted all the successes and failures. I’m hoping the combination of Mr. Ralph Foretta’s powers will lead me in a new direction. He currently has a super strength that has a maximum upper limit of four tons, and a denser bone structure that helps support his body when using said strength. I’m going to attempt to inject the power of regeneration into his body. If this works, it will be the first step in giving myself more powers.” she said as she injected the syringe into Ralph’s arm.
“Wait, that’s not Ralph Foretta, that’s Tony Blanchett, right?” Chancer asked.
“The two guys you asked me to get more details on?” Melody asked.
“They’re the same person.” the doctor said as he moved the video to the side of the screen and brought up another window detailing the medical records of both men. “She renamed Ralph Foretta to Tony Blanchet after she improved his power of strength permanently, and added the power of a denser bone structure to help support his newfound strength. The combination resulted in him going into a rage, so she released him into the public to find out his new upper limits.” he said as he read from the medical file that Mrs. Oslett wrote.
“And then she gets paid for both Ralph and Tony being prisoners.” Melody said. “It’s genius.”
“But how does she prove that she has both men imprisoned? Surely someone would have figured it out by now.” Eagle-Eye said.
They watched Ralph Foretta spasm and die, just as The Whiz did.
“Test number eighty four is a failure. So far, the only power I’ve managed to combine with my own without killing the host, or the host going into the rage, is the power to disable other powers. I don’t understand why that power combines so easily with my own.” Mrs Oslett said as she sat in front of the camera. “My clone, Agent Douser, is still stable after six months.” she lowered her head to her hands and rested her face in them. She looked back at the camera. “Note to self. Hire a team to find more supers. Hopefully I can find more like The Soother.” she said as she looked behind her. “I’m nearly out of her powers, and without being able to add it to myself, I’ll never be able to move to phase three.” she sighed. “Perhaps I should consider bringing Doctor Perry in. His powers may be able to unlock this puzzle.” she said as she reached up and turned the camera off.
Everyone looked at the doctor, who looked as shocked as the rest of them.
“Who’s The Soother?” Melody asked.
The doctor tapped the screen a few times. “The Soother. Real name is Jennifer Wellington. Powers include Being able to permanently disable a person’s emotions.”
“Douser’s name is Jennifer Wellington.” Eagle-Eye said, confused.
“But she’s a clone of Mrs. Oslett, how can she have a different power than her?” Melody asked.
“Is there a picture?” Chancer asked.
The doctor brought up a picture of an older woman who looked nothing like Mrs. Oslett or Agent Douser.
“So she killed The Soother, and named her clone after her.” Chancer said.
“Psychologically speaking, the only reason for doing something like that would be that the Soother would have had to have been close to Mrs. Oslett.” The doctor mentioned as he tapped the screen a few times. “Oh my god.” he said quietly.
“What?” Eagle-Eye said.
“Her plan. She wants to aerosolize The Soother’s ability and spread it across the globe.” He said quietly.
“Why does she want to take away everyone’s emotions?” Melody asked.
“How about we fucking ask her.” Chancer said, pulling out the automatic pistol that he had in his jeep and slamming a new magazine in it.
“And then what? She’ll capture us and experiment on us?” Eagle-eye asked.
“We need a better plan.” the doctor said. “We can’t allow her to keep doing this to these people.” he said as he started watching another experiment.
“What about us?” Melody said, jumping out of her chair. “I quite like my emotions!”
“Settle the fuck down people.” Chancer said as he slammed his gun on the counter. “Let’s figure this out.”
Chapter 9
April 3rd, 2015 11:30 PM
“Why not?” Eagle-Eye asked loudly. “All I have is this one eye that can zoom. Why not give me something useful, like…” He said as he searched through the satchel. He picked up a vial and read the label. “Like this one! Creating force fields.” He picked up another. “Or this one! Rapid learning! Then I could be more useful to the team!”
“You saw what happened in the videos. It will kill you. Or turn you into a monster.” The doctor said, gently taking the vial from him and putting it back in the satchel.
“What happens if you inject a person who doesn’t have powers with one of these?” Melody asked as she casually picked one of the vials up. It said ‘Teleportation.’
“I don’t know. I don’t think Mrs Oslett’s tried it yet.” The doctor said.
“So her ability is regeneration.” Chancer said, seemingly to himself as he walked around his hideout. “So killing her is probably not going to work. But if we imprisoned her…” He said with a thought.
“Don’t forget about that robot of hers – Miranda.” The doctor said, obviously listening to Chancer while trying to keep the other’s hands off the vials.
Chancer, Doctor Perry, and Eagle-Eye all attempted to formulate some kind of plan as Melody sifted through the vials. She finally found one she liked, and put it in her pocket. She stood up and headed towards the one bathroom in the place, which was near the bed.
No one even gave her a second look.
April 4th, 2015 01:30 AM
“How did you get all this in such a short time?” The doctor asked as medical equipment was being rolled in by a few men in grey overalls.
“When you have almost unlimited funds, you can get pretty much anything you fucking want in such a short time.” Chancer said with a smile. “You concentrate on making some Extreme Power for us. Eagle-Eye and I will work out the kinks in our plan.”
“I could use some help.” The doctor said.
“Melody!” Chancer yelled, and looked over to his bed where Melody was sleeping.
“Just let her sleep.” The doctor said as he stopped Chancer from running over there and probably jumping up and down on the bed. “I can manage alone.” He thanked the people in the overalls and walked over to his new medical area, which was now stocked with everything from his old lab – and more.
Eagle-Eye yawned. “I could use some sleep too.”
“Tough shit. Let’s hammer this plan out.” Chancer said as he looked at his watch. “We don’t have much time.”
April 4th, 2015 03:45 AM
Eagle-Eye had pretended to sleep as the others slept for almost an hour before getting off the couch. The only one still awake was the doctor, who was surrounded by his medical equipment. Eagle-Eye had watched him closely for about fifteen minutes before deciding that the doctor was too absorbed in his work.
He snuck as silently as he could over to the kitchen counter where the doctor had left the satchels of vials. The light from the doctor’s area spilled across the room enough that Eagle-Eye could see near perfectly as he opened the first satchel up. He picked up a vial marked “Plant Manipulation.”, then put it back. The next said “Fire Manipulation.” He smiled and nodded as he looked through the rest.
“Improved Jumping.”
“Improved Hearing.”
“Lie Detecting.”
“Improved Physical Abilities.”
“Metal Manipulation.”
“Projecting Illusions.”
“Flight.”
“Improved Memory.”
“Memory Recall.”
He flipped through power after power before finally picking the one he wanted. He picked out the injection gun out of the side of the satchel, and snuck over to the bathroom - which seemed to be the only room that had any privacy. He closed the door as silently as he could and flipped the light on.
Above the large counter, the bathroom had a giant mirror that curved at the top so that it was partially on the ceiling as well. He looked at himself in the mirror. A short, plump, balding man with glasses looked back at him in disgust. He shook his head.
Pulling out the injector gun, he looked at it to make sure he knew how to use it. He shrugged at its simplicity and popped the vial into the back of it. There was a small hissing sound as the liquid drained into the gun. After that it was pretty simple – put to skin and pull trigger.
He put it to the skin on his upper arm with a shaking hand. He tried to steady it with his other hand with some minor success. He closed his eyes tightly, hoping against hope that this was going to work.
After a minute or two, with a very deep breath, he pulled the trigger.
He felt it immediately burn his arm as it coursed into his chest, and then he collapsed.