Chapter 46: Twenty-Five Days Ago

7:32 PM

July 3rd

Diana

“I don’t know how I didn’t see it soonerrrr…” My drunk rabble spilled over the table to Yvette, her face held in the awkward responsibility of her having to be the sober one for once.

“They fucking always stay back late.” I groaned. “Indra’s been wearing turtlenecks all the time too now… and she’s with Rorshe constantly. It’s… god, it’s so wrong.”

“Hey-hey, darling… it’s all okay.” Yvette held me supportively. “So it’s a little office romance, what’s the biggie with it? I know you better than to think you’re hung up on Rorsche.”

“Fuck no!” My voice slobbered in her face. “It’s wrong because it’s sexual harassment! You should hear the things he’s said to me, about how he got her… fuuuuuck. I hate him so much.”

“The tenth time today you said it.”

“I hate him. Eleven now…” I chuckled proudly. “And what the fuck is up with these jobs now? Help an old lady find her lost cat? Look for an expensive piece of jewelry that went missing during a corpo’s stag party? He’s… toying with me. I’m Intelligence, not a lost-items-retriever!”

“At least they pay well.” Yvette rasped. “All that corpo money’s the first reason why the police even looks at them in the first place.”

“Fuck the Shards… I just- I need to prove myself.” An urgency burned through me.

“To your father?” Yvette knew by now to steer clear from that topic, so when she brought it up… even drunk me knew that something was off.

Holding myself together, I grabbed something from my bag. A recent pricey purchase, a Warp Converter strapped onto an arm-bracer as suggested by Dr. Faltest. I slid in one of the Iron Shards I’d purchased, the thick coil of motors and gears charging with a gray glow that sparkled electric threads through my arm.

Absorbing them cleared my mind, the Electrical Neurogenesis Mutation quickly broke past my inebriated state of mind and gave me some sense of sobriety. “More than just him now, for years I’ve been consumed by the thought of him… strangely, now I barely even think of him when I’ve got other problems to deal with. Even if he’s closer than ever.”

“Other… problems?” Yvette looked mildly bemused for all the wrong reason. “Wait, did you just sober yourself instantly! What the fuck, unfair!”

“Deal with it.” I was glad I was sober for this, I knew I wanted to say it. “Yvette… I’m trusting you with this. My Implant isn’t what I said it was, and it’s going to become pretty obvious eventually. You deserve to hear it from my mouth, everything, because lately having secrets hasn’t been a choice. For all you’ve done for me, pulling me off the streets like that… you should know.”

“Know what?”

“My Implant is from the MAL attack… it’s…” I whispered closer to her ear. “Gold.”

…

“I fucking knew it!” Yvette gripped my shoulders tight. “Oh I’ve been wanting to ask for so long, but I was scared it was a sore topic. But honestly… I couldn’t have chosen a better person to give it to.”

“Really?” I was both surprised, and not surprised. Yvette may have been a wildfire in human form, but she was my closest friend. I didn’t make alot of those, let alone close ones… so my judgment had some merit after all.

“Yes, really! God, it’s killing me… how does it feel? Is it as nuts as they all say it is?” Yvette pointed to the converter I’d just used. “Do you constantly fry your laptop? Like your shocks won’t just leap up right?”

“No, no.” I explained. “I used it all up to get through my drunkenness. It’s been… nice. Alot of things I didn’t think possible now realize themselves into my body. It doesn’t really make me think faster, it… Normally you don’t grow new neurons but this changes that. Improves them somehow, Faltest wants a biopsy but… Founder’s nutsack that happens.”

“Just a tiny scoop of gray matter?” Yvette teased, but I could see the jealousy in her eyes. “Ugh, I envy you. But I’m also happy. Both. Couldn’t have chosen a better host myself if I was a tiny insect of questionable alien origin.”

“You know… I never got rid of that Silver, the one my dad gave me.” I teased her for a moment before making my intentions clear. “I’ll give it to you.”

Her erratic blur of emotions paused, a chill air steering between us. “You serious?”

“I need a friend alongside me. I can’t be the only one experiencing something as fucked up as this.”

“Then, yeah.” She nodded. “Don’t have to ask me twice… Silver’s… Silver’s big. I can’t say no to that, my family would kill me but… how could I hide that fact?”

“We’ll find out a way… SIMs don’t show their grade much unlike BUGs — at least at the lower Tiers. Faltest is covering me, but until we find someone who can properly detect Grades, we’re fine. I’ve looked it up, Anthony helped me out with the research, they’re rare and often taken in for special training for the Swarm. Mostly Special Investigators or in the SIO department.”

“Still gonna shit my pants everytime I enter a room with the bigwigs.” She said, to which I raised my eyebrows until she conceded. “Not that I get to experience that as much as you do.”

“I get the feeling, you really begin to hone in on all the stares. All the… terrible things people would do to you if they figured you out… but also. I need you to take it.”

“Why?”

I locked my eyes on hers, my fingers curling into her arm like I’d never hold her again. “Because you’re in danger.”

No more secrets between us. I told her everything, about Ripley and how we killed the MAL. About Missy, Inquisitor Tusk and Ruby. The Dogwhistler. Soul Killer. What Rorsche said he would do…

A fire broke out into an inferno within Yvette’s gaze. “You’re in deeper shit than an Iron MAL ambushed by a Herald. Tell me the word and I’ll help.”

“You’ll need to get promoted… think you can get noticed by September? By then, I don’t think my Implant can be a secret anymore.” My hands still curled around her arm, I needed her more than she knew.

She pouted. “Does that mean I’ll have to actually put in work?”

“I’ll rip the Implant out of you myself if you aren’t an Investigator by then. I’ll pull some strings, make a show to my Special Investigator… maybe I could… even use Rorsche to my advantage. Not in a weird way, just try and trick him or something.”

“You gotta be careful… I might sink my teeth into his neck otherwise… and not in the good way. Got any idea what the Implant’s supposed to do?”

“Faltest said it was mostly protective. Muscle enhancement, force absorption and redirection. You’ll have 3 innate Mutations as a Silver, I’ll help get you some more.”

“You’re already doing so much.”

I stared into the empty cup I’d drank myself to sadness with. “I’m not doing enough.”

———

Stolen novel; please report.

9:09 PM

We stood atop an old rooftop we used to practice our aim on during our years as cadets, it’s been untouched since then, the toppled cans and bullet casings still fallen over the floor. This part of the city was quiet, away from the hustle and bustle… we’d even gotten our old sleeping bags, it was nice to just be us for a night.

“Okay, you promised me that you would show me what you could do.” Yvette reorganized the cans up, propping them in a pyramid even if they were crumpled and deformed by the elements.

“Not much power at range… but that’s changing slowly.” I tensed up, feeling my heart beat quicker as I brought my Warp Energy to a surge.

“For starters…” I began, my body crackling with sparks in the night’s darkness. “Don’t need to absorb electricity any longer, my body stores it in… I guess wherever it can, Faltest said it formed a specialized electrogenic organ around my heart. Some variant of my heart’s conductive tissue but now it’s a unique organ that my Bioelectrogenesis Mutation acts from.”

A tingle spread from my chest and ran up my spine, a sharp sting ringing through my head as electrical impulses folded over my thoughts. My gun blurred to motion, six shots streaking out in a perfect triangle pattern of electricity. The six cans each sparked and blew up in an immediate onslaught. “My newer nerves can use my old Pacemaker, there aren’t that many right now but what’s there improves my processing speed by a shit ton. Hurts like a bitch though, can’t keep it on for more than a few seconds before I get a blistering headache.”

“Badass.” Yvette cooed.

“Not all, I used to have an awarness of electricity but now… it’s different. Flickers of light within Shardware arms, the coursing veins of buildings, I can see the electricity run within them… I can… even see a person’s nervous system with it. Electromagnetic Vision, some sort of on-and-off switch in my eyes changes the spectrum I can see… I think? I don’t know, all light is electromagnetic but apparently this is different.” My gaze faded into a black and whitish sliver, the faint shape of an amorphous oval in Yvettee’s head slimmed down into her back.

“Can you… read minds?” Yvette tried to block my sight by putting her hands over my eyes. I still saw the world around me in perfect detail — in terms of electric flow.

“Nope.” That wasn’t entirely true. “But I think… I think as my vision improves, I could become a real scourge to anyone with Shardware, see them act out the second they think it through. It’s a pain though, I started studying neurology but can’t make heads or tails out of the hundred possible ways your brain can send a signal.”

She kept her hand on my eyes, pulling something out of her pocket. It was… her holopad? “Shoot it.” She said, firm in her voice. “Shoot it without seeing it.”

The white rectangle flung into the air, and I shot it alright. Electricity tangled up my arm, a combined force of action and reaction pulsing into my gun’s shot. The white splattered into the darkness.

“Damn!” Yvette shrieked. “You really did it!”

“Of course I could, not lying about my genes.” I smirked as she pulled her hand off my eyes, color pulling into my sight.

“You know your eyes burn a really creepy silver light when you do that right?” She picked up the burnt scraps of her phone, not feeling sentimental in the slightest.

“Can’t really see my own reflection when I tune in like that but… You’re not mad?” I destroyed her phone after all.

“It was a gift from an old ex, needed a new one anyway. Besides, you’re fucking giving me a Silver! Don’t you dare talk to me about wealth!” Yvette said with an offended sputter, I smiled, I laughed. I enjoyed.

I enjoyed spiking out the numerous tin cans she flung into the air, Yvette howling and applauding me as I performed with a more exaggerated flair. Three cans burst with one shot, my eyes lining them up perfectly, before I leaped and cut through one of them with my sharpened nails.

“Woah! How’d you do that!”

“A mutation called Compact Tissues, it can take in my Warp Energy and toughen up my muscles and skin… but it’s weird since I feel it sort of just generally makes me stronger. It also… basically prevented me from losing weight.”

“How much…” She leaned in, eying my curves.

I peeped. “182 Pounds…”

“182?! Girl, get the fuck out of here!” She shooed me off, before dragging me back into an embrace. “How and when does 182 look as good as you?”

“It’s nothing… just… condensed muscle mass… and tighter fat storage I guess?” I tried to rationalize it, but she continued praising all the things I’d become. It reminded me of why I stayed with her, it wasn’t just because she pulled me off the streets.

It’s because she might have been the only person in my life to have never wanted to exploit me. Implant or no Implant, Cradleborn or not, Jones or Ulrich, I was simply ever… Diana to her. Even if I was as ugly as a cockroach, she would beam my confidence up until I believed I was wasting my life away by not becoming a model.

That’s just who she was.

“Yvette… thank you.” I took a quiet seat leaning on the torn billboard atop the building.

She smirked, following me in my rest. “I would ask for what, but it’s been pretty clear you’ve held onto this shit for too long.”

“Yeah, you could say that.” I sighed, my head tilting to rest on her elbow. “I love you, you know that.”

“Love you too, babe.”

We stayed quiet there, not a word needing to be exchanged as she rest her head on my shoulder. In the silence, it was easy to become… nothing with her. To free myself of the weight and expectations that everyone put on me… and especially what I burdened myself with.

“Yvie?” I pulled her closer to me, her eyes lit up as she nudged in.

“Been a while since you called me that… when was the last time? The Cradle?”

“Maybe.” I chuckled. “Actually… sort of what I wanted to ask you about.”

“Shoot.”

“Do you regret being born there?”

“If I wasn’t born there… then I wouldn’t have been born at all.”

“That- that’s not what I meant.”

“I know, Diana.” She nestled in closer to me. “I don’t regret it. Otherwise, I’d have never met you. And we… we’re far away from it now, those baseline testing. Mandatory lectures. Punishment…”

“You were the one who got punished, don’t drag me into that.” I shoved her lightly.

“Bitch, I’m trying to cheer you up!” She clawed into me with a playfulness. “But seriously, I don’t regret it. Everything sucked for those years, but…”

She stilled, her voice coming out with a warmth I’d never lose love for. “I can’t deny that these last few haven’t sucked for you.”

“They have.” My voice broke slightly.

“Do you… regret me dragging you to the police?” Yvette held me tightly.

“No. Not a minute.” I choked my tears back. “Otherwise… I would have never gotten this.”

Lightning crackled in my fingers, their glow etching into my eyes like a burn. “With this… we can make a difference.”

“Shut it, bitch. You’ll be the one making the difference.” Yvette laughed, but unable to hide the slight sadness in her eyes, it hurt me to see her exclude herself. As much as she was there for me, I knew… she was afraid I would leave her behind.

I wouldn’t.

“No. I’m dragging you to the top.” I let a thunderous omen settle into my voice. “Whether you like it or not.”

———

As we settled into my apartment and bedroom, Yvette held the casing in which I’d received the Implant, a small cylinder no longer than my index finger but a bit wider. Her gaze basked in the sight of the Silver-coated insect within it. “Does it hurt?”

“Yeah.” I flinched just thinking about it. “Like you’re being dunked into a pool of acid and it’s flowing through your veins.”

“Thanks for the encouragement.” She grumbled, popping the casing off and feeling the slimy insect’s shell on the tips of her finger. “A drop of blood, right?”

“I… think so?”

“You think so? Didn’t you take one of these?” She couldn’t tear her eyes off the Silver SIM, veins of Silver glow pulsated under the segments of the chitinous orb it presented itself as.

“It sort of… flew to me?”

“Flew to you? Implants can have wings?”

“It looked like a butterfly.”

“That’s cute… I wonder what I’ll have?” The curiosity got to her, and she poked a needle into the skin of her index finger, a thin blood droplet burrowing out.

It steamed into a scarlet mist upon contact with the Silver shell, burning deep into the Implant which awoke with a sudden unraveling of it’s surprisingly large body.

It was a scorpion, or at least vaguely so. She shrieked as she took a glance at it, but it clung to her. It’s body was mostly a long segmented tail with legs branching off it like roots, while the stinger pushed deep into the flesh of Yvette’s palm. Sinking.

Before I could even exhale my shock from the Implant’s awakening, it had disappeared into her bloodstream, leaving a bloodless wound where it had entered. Silver veins creeped up her arm like vines, twisting and turning as their glow spread through the rest of her body.

Yvette collapsed in my hold, her entire body freezing as her genes were forcefully altered by the process. She couldn’t even scream, it held such a vicegrip on my friend’s mental endurance that not even a syllable could slip by for the next minute. I just held her, letting her know I was there.

And that was enough.