Chapter 53 Safe to Say
“This aint going to work lil brother…”
Arcturus sighed as his little brother Tiberius pushed his two mind-slaved scientists out of the way as he reached for a bottle of water.
It was something, seeing his brother arrive on a submarine that he had been using for his enterprise.
Part of him thought the plan that his niece came up with was bull-honkey.
A prison breakout in Blackrock? It wasn’t only far-fetched, it would have taken a massive amount of luck to pull it off.
Until she showed him her ability.
Honestly, after he witnessed that, Arcturus was pretty sure he too had some kind of trigger handmade for him.
She was her brother’s blood, and his brother trusts people less than he could throw them.
And Tiberius was weak by nature.
Still, it was impressive how he strolled up with the thing.
Now he was raiding his mini-fridge in the home that he built near his workshop.
“It will, Archie… it has to.”
Arcturus sighed, “because you have faith? Come on Tiberius, your whole plan revolves around-.”
“Enough, do not say anymore.”
Arcturus was laughing now, “Or what? She’s gonna read my mind or something and find out about your stupid lab?”
Contrary to Arcturus’ expectation, his brother rounded on him with a fist to his shoulder.
“Do. Not. Speak about it! All it would take is one of your cells and she could locate it. I am not prepared to deal with her yet.”
“Oh come off it brother. You think your experiment is stronger-”
“Yes, She IS! Before… no. The experiment was supposed to be driven to find me, but with my incarceration, it has pushed toward other goals and grown! To think it would go for heroes of all things…
Now it has access to genetic materials it was never meant to have! The genetic materials from superheroes will make capturing it fundamentally harder now than before! My foolish daughter’s plan is starting to interfere with the final goal, and now I have to prepare a countermeasure before it finds me and completes its only directive!”
“Directive? Brother, why would you do such a thing in the first place? Painting a damn target on your back was a stupid choice.”
His brother shook his head, “there is no greater motivator than vengeance to make someone predictable, to make them follow you and chase you. It was the only way to be certain that she would return to me, so that I could complete her, and finally uplift this diseased world.”
Tiberius sipped the cold water in his hands, “I took the girl’s mother. I killed her father. All for my own selfishness… it felt only right that I be the one that incurs her wrath.”
Arcturus watched as his brother pulled out a device, a personal computer that his brother had hidden in his flesh. It was something he never thought his brother would have the stones for.
According to Tiberius, he had his daughter Aura stash the thing near his heart for safekeeping, so that the orderlies of the prison would not find it.
It was smaller than a pen, but it contained all of his brother’s knowledge of the project that he and the Bockman’s worked on.
The Alien DNA, the Genetic Templates, all of the keys to human evolution and the reason for the rise of superhumans.
His brother’s fool dreams of creating Homo Superis… or Huma.
Not that Arcturus really cared about people becoming Huma, as his business would only grow with more material to work with.
His fool brother, who wanted to be the hero of mankind.
What brother would he be if he didn’t help?
“Alright, so you got your data back, what now then? Are you heading out to the location?”
His brother didn’t take his eyes off of the monitor the pen was connected to.
“Yes, the time has come for the next stage of the plan, and hopefully I can find my countermeasure there. You… will likely be targeted, brother. I don’t know how, but my experiment is getting closer to finding me with every step, and it is likely she will find out I was here.”
His little brother turned to pointed the pen at him, “I can erase your most recent memories, but there is a chance it-
“What–”
“Wajsalllslal”
“DOn’t lAET HAER FIINDS TEM.?!!”
…
Chimera shook her head as the memory ended, the string of thoughts simply disconnected.
It felt like someone cut the feed of a movie reel.
She knew there was more, that there had to be something about where the doctor was heading.
He must have found a way to, at the least, scramble recent memories.
Chimera gritted her teeth.
“So you all saw that then?”
Her clones nodded, while Sarah was squinting her eyes at the recent information they received.
“He wanted us to find him, but it seems he doesn’t have a way to deal with our new powers.”
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Copy nodded as she opened the door to the inner sanctum of the meat processing plant.
“It would seem that the creator of Crimson R is nervous about his creations' new freedom! If we were to stop our pursuit now, we may give him the time he needs to find a way to destroy us!”
Mimi shook her head as she side stepped a… non-descript pile of flesh.
“He wanted to use Crimson R for those Huma things he talked about. He won’t kill us, he’ll enslave us!”
Clone nodded, “and I bet Monica is the key to that plan.”
Chimera pushed ahead of the group as they found an office with a dissection table.
It was covered in gore, and a few organs were splayed out on ice racks near the table.
Chimera and the clones grabbed the parts to absorb the organs and check the DNA within.
Hmm, scales… but they’re incredibly resistant to fire… and oddly absorbent to concussive force.
This must have been what he was working on before we got here.
Chimera thought about the hero Booze that they had run into and how his battle went.
She got her answer as she saw a robot broken to pieces and splotched with viscera.
Next to it was an old man without pants, a smile on his face.
He wasn’t moving, or breathing.
“...Damnit…”
Chimera walked up to Booze’s corpse, taking hold of his hand to check his vitals.
She wanted to be wrong, but the tendril found nothing but cooling blood and organs within.
The data of his ability came shortly after.
Alcohol… ignition? The sweat glands of his body would secrete it from his liver and a gel from them could allow him to launch and ignite it in air.
Chimera covered his eyes, closing them.
“Rest in peace old man, you were a hero to the end.”
“I hope he has a good afterlife…” Clone said with a peaceful air.
“May his journey to the next life be better than this one.” Mimi nodded.
“May his body be donated to science.”
Copy nodded with her eyes closed, which caused everyone to stare at her.
“...What? There is no greater cause to go further than the sciences!”
“Some people don’t like to be dissected!”
“Those people are fools!”
“Enough.”
Sarah silenced them all as she moved to the desk, finding a button underneath the desk and pressing it.
The dissection table moved, slowly moving to the side as a hatch appeared where it used to be,
It looked like one that would be found on a ship, like a spindle on a vault door.
Mimi, after spotting the door, jumped at it in her blob form, an excited air coming off of her.
“Oh my god! This is a Wabajack T200 with a glass pane safety panel and real tungsten carbon alloy locks! This thing can take a tank shell to the face and walk away unharmed!”
Mimi proceeded to inject the safe into her body as she jumped around for joy.
“I can’t wait to show this to Meghan! The alloys on this thing could make for great armor, and the chance to crack it open is icing on the cake!”
Sarah nodded, “the content within might be important as well. The warehouse though…”
Chimera and the others nodded.
Their home in the port district was likely exposed, now that the Hero’s League knew about them, not to mention that Glow was still after them.
Meghan would no doubt be moving on, but where could they meet up now that they were exposed like this?
“Does anyone have a way to contact Meghan discreetly?”
Chimera asked the clones who shook their heads.
All except for Copy.
“I had grabbed one of the Bottys before we left, making sure to treat it with care so that it would serve as a camera and a means of communication! They are very adorable things, yes!”
Chimera shook her head.
“Alright, so let's get in contact with her then.”
Copy nodded as the Botty was turned on.
It lit up, its red eye looking around at all of them before shifting to a blue led light.
It was a sign of a call coming in, at least, that’s what Copy said as she pointed the Botty at the ground.
A small hologram of Meghan appeared, grabbing boxes in her power armor.
She looked worse for wear; her face was covered in oil, her brown hair was sticking up on end, and her powers were sparking through the connection.
“Hello! Wait a second!” Shots fired as Meghan blasted something off screen from the hologram.
“Get Printy into the crates! We got five minutes before the rest of the heroes arrive, god damnit! Jade! Point Defense drones to the rooftops, I want us to have a clear skyline before we get the hell out of here!”
Sarah, Chimera and the others felt they’re hearts clench as Meghan was hit by something that looked like a piece of the sidewalk.
Chimera tried to reach out to her trees that she planted at the warehouse, only to find that they were scorched into ash.
“Meg! What's going on?!”
Meghan got back up thankfully, launching a tesla bolt off screen, followed by a scream from a woman.
“Take that, Neanderthal! I never liked your comic series anyway! You throw rocks! That’s not a superpower!”
Meghan turned back to them as she picked up the Botty in her hologram and placed it on her shoulder.
“Hey Copy, guess that Botty was useful after all. Please tell me you guys aren’t coming back here!”
Chimera and the other’s shook their heads, “No, we got a lead on Pox and were trying to locate him. Glow’s on our trail though and she said that the Hero’s League are onto us!”
Meghan spat out a glob of blood from the look of it as she cursed, “fuck, that explains some things, but not what I’m seeing. Botty 34, turn to face behind me.
The Botty showing Meghan’s hologram turned to face behind her as it showed the warehouse was burning, and marked with holes.
“It’s insane up here. The Hero’s League has gone full martial law, and have started rounding up all of the non-affiliated superheroes. Not only that, but some of the City was hit with a massive Iguana that popped out of nowhere. It’s that Zlo guy again. How the hell do you even make a thirty meter tall iguana?!”
In the background, as Meghan was gaining speed and running from the warehouse, a large lizard with shifting eyes spat out a glob of fire at a few people in super suits.
The Botty turned to face Meghan again.
“I’m heading for my father’s place at the outskirts of town. Ask Sarah, she’ll know where it is!”
The hologram was turned off as the clones all stared at Sarah.
Sarah stared at the spot where the hologram used to be, her face scrunched up as she turned to the others.
“We’re meeting up with Meghan, and after that… We’re going after Monica.”
All of the clones nodded solemnly at those words.
While the iguana was keeping the rest of the Hero’s League busy, this was their best shot at finding Dr. Pox, and the only one who would know where he is would be Monica Ferrous, the CEO of ChemTech.
Once they started this, there would likely be no turning back.
As they all merged back into Chimera’s body, Chimera shifted into a flying form as she shot from the ground and through the concrete below.
She was soon joined by a levitating yellow blob with a metallic sheen.
“Thought you were leaving me behind for a second there.”
Chimera hit herself on the head.
“Sorry! I got distracted by vengeance. We’re heading to my friend’s house to plan stuff. Wanna come along?”
Chimera held out her hand as her wings flapped, and soon, Lark changed to her human form, a hand wrapping around Chimera’s own.
A mix of awkward feelings lashed through them as they flew over the city skylines, away from the madness below.
…