So basically, they wanted him to play hard to get with the news people. His first time on television would be two weeks from now, when every question would be scripted, and every answer would be screened. They were taking no chances putting him in front of a crowd of reporters that might just ask some very tough questions(like how he really felt about the white supremacists or the Asian slavers).
He hadn't imagined that being a celebrity would involve this much work, but he actually enjoyed it. This was exhilarating, in a way that even healing wasn't.
He was gonna be famous. The world was gonna know his name.
No one would ever treat him like dirt ever again.
So lost in his thoughts, he didn't realize that he was still standing in Mr. Carmicheal's room until a familiar face poked her head around the door.
"You okay in here?" Velyra asked curiously. "Been in here for a while."
He let out a soft sigh. "Just thinking. You don't have to trouble yourself every time you don't see me for more than a minute."
The giant woman shrugged as she entered the room. She still had to duck as she came through the doorframe, but she could stand at her full height in the room without her head brushing against the ceiling. Hospital rooms were surprisingly roomy.
She leaned against the wall as she considered him.
"You've adapted to this world quite well, for one of us," she said softly. Her voice had a bit of what he thought was a Russian accent to it, and it added a bit of rumble to her voice. "I've been here for a year, and I still find myself awkward around them."
He shrugged. "Most humans are simple creatures. They'll gawk and stare and whisper, but treat them with kindness and they'll repay it. Even thieves honor that."
"It's more than that though. You…you seem to belong in a way that most of us-the Case 53's-can't. You talk like them. You walk like them. You smile like them. If you didn't look like one of us, I'd assume you were one of them pretending to be us."
-I swear to god, if another person finds out my fucking secret-!
"But you don't smell like them," she continued. "People born on this Earth have a certain scent to them; it smells like…loss, fear, and acceptance. But you? You smell like…hope. Victory. Happiness. Your scent… it's unique, even among us."
That surprised him; he didn't really know much about Velyra. In the two days that he'd known her, she hadn't talked much after their introduction, and she was surprisingly stealthy. Once he lost sight of her, it was nearly impossible to find her again unless she let him. Which was very surprising, considering she was a grey-skinned seven-foot-tall woman with a spear.
"You can smell emotions?" he asked.
"Yes…and no. People give off a combination of scents," she explained. "Things like their clothes, the soap they use, the perfume they wear, and the emotions that they feel can give off a mix of scents that come together like a signature. People from Earth Bet all have the same undertone in their scents, with other factors differentiating them, whilst Case 53's all have different, unique scents. It makes tracking people very easy. I can find someone even if they've been missing for a month, as long as I have something with at least two of their scents on it."
"So that's your power? Super tracking, along with the brute build?"
Pretty good powerset for a bodyguard.
"Not quite," she said with a smile. "The scientist examined my body and came to the conclusion that I'm sort of an amalgamation of a bunch of animals on Earth. My skin looks smooth, but if you rub it the wrong way, it'll tear you up, like shark skin. My nails are comparable to that of a tiger. My muscle fibers are reminiscent of a gorilla's. My hair isn't actually hair; they're quills that I can command to relax or attack on command. Look."
Flexing some unseen muscle, he watched as her curtain of hair suddenly became thin and needlike. In a way, it reminded him a lot of Jiraiya's Needle Hair technique.
"My eyes see the same as a hawk, and I can see clearly at night. My ears are sharp enough that I can hear through walls and ceilings, and even echolocate if needed. I'm as fast as a cheetah, and I have the healing factor of an axolotl. I can't exactly show you this, but my fangs-specifically, my canines- are hollow, and filled with a painful paralytic venom. My tongue is rough like a lion's; I can scrape the meat off of bone in just a few licks."
The sharp-toothed smile she flashed him at that last part felt like a threat, but he didn't know why.
"That's an awesome set of powers! If you can do all that, why'd they stick you in a dump like Antarctica?"
Velrya winced at that.
"Now, we come to things that are somewhat classified. Can't tell you everything, but I can give you the main three reasons why PRT Antarctica exists in the first place. Number one, it exists as a training site; people with extremely destructive or dangerous powers can freely practice their abilities there. No one lives there except us, penguins, and seals. Blasters and Shakers can go wild.
"Number two; It is a punishment site. Fuck up hard enough, you spend a few months there with us. Wake up at five, patrol for a few hours in ice and snow, bathe in cold water every day, and see if you misbehave again.
And Number three; Technically, PRT Antarctica is a containment site."
That piqued his interest.
"A containment site? Like Madison or Eagleton?"
Velyra nodded. "Yes, but the thing being contained is tentatively classed as benign."
"What is it?"
"We're getting on the border of my NDA's you know."
"C'mon, just tell me! It's not like I'm gonna spread this on PHO. And besides, I'm pretty sure you watch over me even when I'm off duty; you can keep an eye on me if you want."
"Eh…"
"Please?"
In Velyra's defense, he technically cheated; he gave himself puppy dog eyes on purpose.
"...portal."
"Portal?"
"Specifically, old Haywire Portal. Weird things come out of it. Sometimes normal stuff like dead dogs, books, packaged food, and tools come through. Most times, weird shit comes through; biotinkered remains of experiments, caustic chemicals that ooze radiation, dead bodies without a clear cause of death, Tinekrtech that activates for one minute at midnight, and then shuts itself off for the rest of the day-"
Velyra suddenly shifted.
"And…very occasionally…living things come out too."
It didn't take much guesswork to realize what she meant.
"You came out of that portal."
She shrugged. "That's what the PRT says. Someone found me in the same place it deposits things, naked and injured, with a big C on my back. When I woke up, I didn't know who I was, but I knew how to speak English and how to read, so they gave me a contract and let me stay."
He gave her a sympathetic look. "You didn't get a lawyer to look over it when you signed?"
"Never even thought of it until months later."
Ouch. Sucks to be her.
"So, you came out of the portal. Did you ever try to go back in?"
"People who go in don't come back out; no exceptions. I put my arm in once, and when I pulled it out, my forearm was gone. Took a week to get it back. The watchdog said they think it's a Haywire's version of a garbage chute. Things can leave it, but nothing can get in. Probably leads to one of their labs, so it likely has defensive measures."
Dead animals and bodies, weird chemicals, and failed experiments were the kind of things he expected a Tinker to throw out. But why throw out food, books, and tools? And why the hell had someone like Velyra come through?
It seemed there was a lot more to Earth Bet than he thought.
"Anyway, I actually came in to tell you that you're done for the day," the woman in question said, grabbing his attention. "You've reached the two-hour limit."
"Already? I've only healed-"
"A couple hundred people," she said flatly. "And you didn't even take a break, like that Panacea girl did."
Wow. Okay. Go me!
"We should get back to base soon," Velyra continued. "You'll have to fill out your paperwork and other things for today, and after that, you can do as you wish."
"Actually, would you mind terribly if we stopped to get a bite somewhere?"
She raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You have a place in mind?"
***********************************************************
Fugly Bobs was not a chain restaurant like he'd been assuming. It was a part fast food restaurant, part bar, and part shack located at the edge of Brockton Bay's Market, overlooking the beach. It smelled of grease and despair as soon as he opened the door, and the number of people gawking at them as they walked in wasn't a plus either. Despite changing into more casual gear(a pair of jeans and t-shirt), the two of them were still clearly inhuman. It made him feel uneasy. This wasn't the kind of attention he wanted; these people didn't look at him with awe in their eyes, they looked at him like he was a freak.
Like before.
But Velyra perked up at the scent as soon as they walked in.
"I don't usually go to places like these," she said, her eyes darting back and forth as she took it all in. "Most of my meals were in the canteen."
"You don't go out to eat? Would have thought you'd want the whole American experience," he commented as they walked towards a booth.
"Unfortunately, McDonald's has yet to expand to Antarctica," she said dryly.
Even when they took their seat, she towered over him. He was five foot eleven, but she just made him look like a child standing next to him. When she slid into the booth across from him, it felt like he was sitting in front of the principal's desk. He was tempted to boost his height a bit, but realized it would take forever for him to grow without the other portion of his soul.
Which was the entire reason he was here.
He could feel it, the missing portion of himself, just hiding out somewhere. If he was able to get up and move around a bit, he could probably find it.
"What's it like, being a healer?" Velyra asked suddenly.
Well, that came out of nowhere. "Why do you ask?"
"Curious. I'm not good for much outside of combat. Don't get me wrong, I like to fight, and Brockton seems like an excellent place for a quick tumble. But it would be nice, to know how to fix things. To do something besides spill blood."
There was an almost wistful look on her face as she said that.
"Don't disparage the power you have," he countered. "Healing… it's' giving part of yourself to others. It's making sure that people don't have to suffer, and knowing that you contributed to their lives in a meaningful way. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel wanted. But throughout history, the ones that have captured people's attention, the ones that have led to greater change have always been warriors. People like having a healer on hand, and yes, they're thankful for health. But people have always admired those willing to put their lives on the line for a greater cause. Healers inspire hope.
"Warriors inspire courage."
There was an almost shocked look on Velyra's face as she listened to him speak.
"...thank you," she said softly. "That is…one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me."
There was a change in the atmosphere, and he wasn't quite sure what it meant, but her eyes dilated as she looked at him, and it sent a chill down his spine even as his smile grew larger. He always loved powers that could affect cosmetic stuff.
I wonder if she's doing that on purpose, or if it just happens.
"Hello! Welcome to Fugly Bobs! May I take your order?"
However, the promise of food was enough to distract both of them.
"Yeah, can I get a bacon cheeseburger and a side of fries?" he asked. He didn't really want to eat, but it'd be weird if he asked to leave without eating anything.
"And for you ma'am?"
She's taking our appearance very well. Might have to tip her after this.
Velyra pointed to the Challenger.
"Two of this, but only meat."
The Waitress blinked.
He blinked.
The very rude people watching them blinked.
"I'm sorry?" the waitress said after a moment. "I think I misheard you."
"This Challenger thing? I want it. Two of them. But no bread, no pickles, no onions, no mushrooms, no cheese, no tomatoes, and no sauce," the grey woman said slowly.
"So…just the two patties, and the two pans of bacon?"
Velyra smiled, and the woman paled.
It was just at that moment, when everyone was distracted, that someone stood up, winked at him, and walked nto the bathroom.
It took his mind a few seconds to process what he had just seen.
Kento Nanami had just walked into the bathroom.
Not a man who looked like him, or had a passing resemblance to the man. No, this was a full-life recreation of the man with his weird glasses, blue shirt, ugly tie dress pants, and leather shoes.
His clone.
"I'm gonna use the bathroom real quick," he said to Velyra.
The woman nodded absently as she gave the waitress their menus, and with her taken care of, he walked in after his clone.
**************************************************
There was no talking between them, no conversation needed. As soon as he walked in, the clone held out his hand, he grabbed it, and two suddenly became one.
One thing he didn't anticipate was the memories of his other self slamming into him like a freight train.
He stood there for how long he didn't know, as memories of his clone and the fight with Lee surged into his mind.
Shit.
Taking Lee…it was a smart choice, but it was the kind of choice he'd wished he had made when he was whole.
But it was much better than just taking his iteration of the man's power and then killing him.
He had a sort of rule against killing, but not becuase he abhorred it.
It was because it wouldn't be fair to the victims.
Everyone deserved to see the monster under the bed pay for their crimes, no matter if that monster was a product of the imagination or a man with a knife.
Death was the end. It was an escape, the ability to flee from your responsibilities and fears.
Life was the punishment, and he wanted villains to live as long as possible.
He had learned that Dumbledore was right even before he came to this world.
Don't pity the dead; pity the living.
Shaking himself from his thoughts, he decided to continue with his mission.
Cloning Technique.
This was much smoother, and it didn't feel like his soul had been split unevenly this time. Instead, it felt like his oil had been duplicated. For lack of a better word. Or shared so evenly that he didn't notice the difference between now and before.
Two perfect clones grinned back at him.
"Quickly, use Idle Transfiguration!" he urged.
The clone on the right did so, and he felt his awareness of the power disappear completely. It seemed that even with perfect clones, they still couldn't use the same power at the same time. Pity; that cut down a decent amount of his options for the future.
There wasn't enough time to dedicate a look, so the clone on the right became a tall blond with a passing resemblance to the suited man who had entered, and the clone on the right became a slightly shorter man with dark hair and brown eyes.
"Wait at least thirty minutes until I leave before you come out. Hopefully, we'll be gone by then."
The two clones nodded, and with a deep breath, he left the restroom.
There. Phase one of the plan had finally started. The clones couldn't share thoughts, but they had the bare bones of the plans within their minds, and they knew how to contact him in the future.
This was the start of a better, stronger Brockton Bay-
"Jesus Christ, woman," he grimaced as she saw what was on Velyra's plate. "You know I won't heal you if you die from this, right?"
The red-haired beast of a human being merely let out a laugh that was surprisingly hyena-like.
"If I die like this, it'll be one of the better ways to go!" she replied cheerfully.
Four patties, soaked in grease, almost as big as the platter it was served on, with thick slices of bacon in between each patty.
It was enough to kill a man on his second bite.
Half of it was already gone.
I truly hope that saving Brockton is worth all of this.
***************************************************
The two clones left the restaurant long before anyone noticed them. They didn't stick together for too long. After walking together for about a mile, they gave each other a nod and headed off in separate directions.
One clone would steal a car later that night, and drive to Boston to start on the second half of the mission.
The other would head into ABB territory, to start on the first half of the mission.
Even with Idle Transfiguration, the Six Eyes, and Kurourushi, they had come to realize that when separated, they were horribly outmatched. They could not compromise the original cover as a healer, so that meant that Idle Transfiguration was off the table for both of them. That meant they only had access to the Six Eyes and Kurourushi. Together, those two abilities were extremely powerful. Separated, the one with the Six Eyes would be hilariously outgunned, and both of them had no way to actually defend themselves.
They needed more powers.
So they devised a plan to get as many as they could in the shortest amount of time.
The original would provide healing to the Wards and the Protectorate and would gain their powers.
The other one that stayed in the city would attack the villains, gathering powers they felt were useful. He had a priority list of ten parahumans to copy.
Lung. Bakuda. Alabaster. Crusader. Kaiser. Othalla. Circus. Trickster. Sundancer. Labyrinth.
Those were his main ten targets. Anyone else would merely just be the cherry on top. The main thing they hoped to get out of this list was a fire technique, a tinker specialty, hopefully a better cloning technique, Reverse Cursed Technique, an area of denial technique, Utahime's Solo Forbidden Area, Boogie Woogie, and hopefully a Domain of some sort.
The one headed outside the city also had his own list, but his was considerably more…risky.
Lizardtail, either I or II. Edict. The Butcher. Felix Swoop. Spree. Hemorrhagia. Vex. March. Barrow. Amayon.
From this list, they hoped (again) for RCT, Cursed Speech, Kenjaku's technique, Black Bird Manipulation, what they hoped would be the Ten Shadows Rabbit Escape, Blood Manipulation, either the Inverted Spear of Heaven, the Soul Split Katana, Disaster Plants and Ino's Auspicious Beast Summon.
They needed more powers for the coming fight. The only two fights that actually mattered in the long run.
The tri-monthly Endbringer Fights, and Golden Morning.
Fighting the Endbringers would be good training for the final fight, and he could possibly gain something from the creatures themselves. Though what powers he might get from them, he wasn't quite sure. But the fights would only improve his battle prowess and increase his popularity for all of his forms.
And as for Golden Morning, they only had the vaguest of plans for it, but they had a rough idea for it.
And for that to happen, they needed Kenjaku's technique, and for the Echidna incident to happen. If those two things happened, then they had a decent chance of winning.
And tonight, they started on that path.
"Kurourushi."
The dark portal opened, and his servant stepped through.
"Master?"
"Did you accomplish the task I sent you to do?"
The Cursed Spirit nodded.
"It was surprisingly easy to find him. His iron, it burns hot. A unique flavor from all the other humans I have tasted. Tracking him was easy after that."
He nodded.
"Take me to him."
***********************************************
"Mahito!"
"Aegis!" he said with a laugh as the boy swept him up in a damn near bone-breaking hug. Velyra was…somewhere. After walking through the doors of the PRT base, he'd turned around, and she was…gone. He could probably find her if he had access to Six Eyes, but one of his clones had it, so it was gone.
"You don't call, you don't write! And after all the effort you put into your pitch, I thought I meant more to you than just a bump to your paycheck."
The boy gave a sheepish laugh. "I tried to come see you, but I was kind of forbidden. They really didn't want you interacting with anyone until they were sure you would sign on. And I thought you were with the Protectorate now?"
"I am, but they decided that I would fit in better with the Wards."
"Um, Aegis?" said an unfamiliar voice behind the two boys. "Mind introducing us?"
There were four boys, besides Aegis, and two girls. He didn't recognize them on sight, especially not with the domino masks that they were all wearing, but he knew who they must be.
Gallant. Kid Win. Browbeat. Clockblocker. Shadow Stalker.
And Vista.
The main reason why he was here.
"Guys, this is the newbie I was telling you about Mahito. He's the new healer."
The black girl snorted as she went back to doing what he presumed was homework.
"Great; more dead weight. At least this one might be actually worth lugging across the battlefield," she muttered under her breath.
Go choke on a crossbow.
"Stalker, be nice," said the blond one with a warning tone. "Names Gallant. Nice to meet you."
"Don't mind Stalker; it's that time of the month, and you know how the ladies can get," said the redhead with a smile. He also neatly dodged the shadowy wisp of a pencil that had been thrown at his head.
"Clock, please stop being gross," said the brown-haired boy who was messing with a tablet in his hands. "I'm Kid Win, resident Tinker. Nice to have a healer on the Team."
"Hey, don't blame me! She's like this whenever the month is about to end! Even Vista's starting to get cranky like she does!"
The younger girl rolled her eyes. "Shut up Clock. I'm Vista, obviously. It's nice to meet you."
Browbeat just waved from the couch before going back to his bag of chips.
"Nice to meet you too!" he said with a wide smile. He had to look approachable for this…
"So, did you come by to meet the team?" Aegis asked.
"That was part of the reason," he started. "I actually wanted to give everyone here a check-up. I doubt any of you have pressing injuries, but I'm sure it would be a relief to everyone here if they could get checked out for cancer, at the very least."
Browbeat looked up at this. "I heard you can fix the brain."
Surprised, he nodded. "I can."
"I have schizophrenia. Would your powers be able to heal that?"
"...I haven't the slightest idea," he admitted. Mental illnesses weren't something that had been brought up in testing, and he wasn't sure how Idle Transfiguration would deal with it. Technically, whilst a mental illness was an aberration of the soul, if it was something you'd had since you were born, then it was a part of your soul. However, trauma could also cause mental illnesses, and whilst he should be able to remove those, if they were strong enough to imprint on one's soul, then he'd be messing with a significant part of themselves like he had with Amy, and that wasn't something he wanted people to potentially make a connection with.
Either way, he'd be walking out of here with more than just powers.
Surprisingly, Sophia was the first one to get up and approach him.
"Yeah, whatever. If you use this as an excuse to feel me up, I'm breaking your face, healer or not."
You act like you're something worth touching.
Outwardly, though, he smiled.
"Don't worry. This should only take sixty seconds each."
And if everything went to plan, then the Six Eyes and Limitless would be back together once again.
************************************************************
"…the children, just shoot. Doesn't matter your aim, just shoot. You see one lying on the ground? Shoot the little bitch twice more to be sure. We give them no chances to be clever or lucky, understand?"
Had it been Taylor Hebert skulking around, she would have come to the horrible misunderstanding that Lung was about to murder innocent kids. Here, he knew that Lung was definitely gonna murder the teenage robbers who had stolen from the Ruby Dreams Casino.
Taylor wasn't here, however. Kurourushi had checked subtly, and there was no one besides them in this alleyway. That was one thing that changed.
Another was that rather than chasing the Undersiders, Oni Lee was standing right next to him. The man was unquestionably loyal to him now, to the point that he was willing to kill his former boss on his say so.
But he wouldn't use Lee for this fight.
Not yet, at any rate.
He had thought long and hard about this fight; how he was going to present himself. Would he jump down, quote a witty one-liner, and then start the battle, fighting side by side with Kurourushi? Would he formally challenge the man in front of his men, using Lee as a surprise weapon?
Instead, he realized he didn't need to do any of that to win.
After all, Taylor had shown them the path to victory; if you wanted to beat Lung, make sure the only thing he's capable of doing is regenerating.
"Kurourushi."
"I await your command, Master."
He pointed down at the Dragon.
"Feast, till you are full."
**************************************************************
Mahito was not one of them.
It was obvious that he was a human, but it was just as obvious that he was a human from a different world, probably someplace like Aleph.
He just fit in too well here. The way he interacted with them, the way he smiled, and the way he knew how to lie…it was all very human.
Not like them. Not like the people who had woken up, knowing nothing, and had to acclimate to a world that felt vaguely familiar but so very different.
Weld had given her this analogy once;
"It feels like everyone's a puzzle piece, and most people fit together. Sometimes, they have to be put in a different piece of the puzzle, or forced to bend in a different shape, but more often than not, a lot of people just fit together. But us? We're not even part of the same puzzle as they are. And I don't think we belong to each other's puzzles either.
At least in that, Mahito was like them. A puzzle piece desperately trying to fit himself in a world that had no place for him.
She knew the Protectorate wanted her to do more than just protect him. She was supposed to be a spy. She was supposed to watch him and see if he was a threat to them, to the status quo that was about to shatter.
She should tell them that he was lying. That he was just pretending to be one of them. That he was using their existence to run from something.
But…
"Warriors inspire courage," he said, his smile honest as he looked into her eyes.
No one liked to look into her eyes. It made them feel like they were starting down a predator. Like she would devour them. Even to those like her, who had woken up in a strange world, she felt dangerous.
But he hadn't flinched. He hadn't looked away.
He had leaned in closer.
...she would withhold her worries for now. After all, the contract had said nothing about reporting every little thing to the PRT.
And the main clause was to protect him.
This wasn't her first stint as a bodyguard, and it likely wouldn't be her last, but she felt that she could really enjoy this one.
The only thing that troubled her was something that had happened today.
Well, more like a series of events that had happened today.
First, there had been that blond man with the exact same scent as Mahito, something that had surprised her greatly.
Humans didn't typically have the same scents. Even twins had minute differences that made telling them apart possible. Not easy, but possible.
So it didn't make sense for this random man to have the same scent as her charge.
And then, when Mahito had gone in after him, the scent had faded briefly then seemingly tripled in strength.
As if there had been three people with matching scents in there, rather than two.
And finally, the snippets of conversation she had caught.
Something about transfiguration.
People underestimated just how good her hearing was; it was one thing to say how you could hear through the walls and ceilings. It was another to realize you could do the same in a noisy restaurant with a bunch of gossiping humans.
She didn't know what was going on with that boy, but for now, she would just watch.