Interlude 6.14.5: Penelope Myers

2002, January 3: Phoenix, AZ

I… I still had no clue what the hell happened back there. A week later and I was still trying to process the last few seconds of the battle.

'A battle you were hilariously unprepared for,' I thought derisively. It sounded uncomfortably like Andy.

They were winning. I'd occasionally look up to the dogfight. Each time I did, the Simurgh seemed to be sporting more injuries. Missing wings. First one arm, then the other. A leg hanging by a thread. A hole through her breast. Neck torn to ribbons. She should have died. Even a single one of those could have been fatal on a human. But of course, she wasn't human.

Andy was up there worrying me sick but making me so, so proud.

They were winning. And then they weren't.

I heard some capes go down but I did my best to help the people before me with what I had. Before I could understand what was happening, my kid brother was in front of me. The only reason I noticed was because of the unnerving aura his new costume seemed to give off. It made every hair on my body stand on end, like I was staring down some inevitable calamity.

His ridiculous scissors-sword became a flash of light that slashed at something I hadn't noticed. A pillar of ice rose up from the ground to cover us. A bomb, I realized now.

Then he spoke two words. "Lamb's Respite."

If existential dread had a soundtrack, it'd be that voice. It was Andy speaking, but his voice was layered with someone else's. A woman's. The lamb-like Case-53 next to him. Their voices melded into one and… And I wasn't sure what happened next.

There was a flash of light. The bomb went off and my world became a kaleidoscope of confusing colors.

The next thing I knew, we were in a forest clearing. It had to have been further south because there was not even the hint of slush on the ground. Lots of leaves and sticks. No snow. Small mercies.

I thought I died, only to find myself surrounded by dozens of people. Had Andy done that? Or the bomb?

All I knew was that I wasn't good enough. I'd gone to that endbringer battle out of concern for my little brother. He was in danger; I wanted to protect him, to at least hear that he had been evacuated with the rest of the Wards and was safe. I saw him lying there, wisps of that pale mist coming off his armor, and knew I failed miserably. Frost coated the ground around him, creeping outward like a corrupting force.

He was breathing and that was all I could discern. No one could approach him without getting that sinking feeling in the pit of their stomach. When a volunteer nurse tried to remove his Mask, that wooden thing he'd been so proud of, she died. She touched it. And she died.

What the actual fuck, Andy?

I wasn't good enough. If anything, I was a burden. Work with what I had? What if what I had wasn't enough?

I gave away the last of my potions so I did what I always did. I threw myself into busywork. I organized civilians, set up a watch over Andy, gathered firewood, and… and did the best I could.

I wasn't cut out for wilderness survival. Perhaps Raquel would have been better; she was the one who worked with the fire department and the forestry service. Even Yasmine would be better, the girl who could be good at anything, dressed for any occasion. I… I was just the girl who punched things.

I thought I'd come to terms with myself. What I had was good enough. A loving boyfriend. Great friends. Cool bosses. Until suddenly, what I had fell short of what I needed once again. I set off a GPS signal and awaited rescue. One day. Two.

I quickly gave up leadership to one of the civilians, a backpacker hobbyist better suited for our circumstances. He divided us up into teams for different tasks and guessed by the stars and climate that we'd somehow jumped across the country to somewhere in the Cascades, thankfully not too far up a mountain.

It wasn't an impossible place to survive in, he'd reassured. The climate was mild this far south. Water was plentiful. We could go without food if necessary. We could sit in one place and rely on my GPS for help to find us. It was the safe option.

We sat there doing nothing and listened to the screams of women being butchered alive that the hobbyist assured me was just the sound of mountain lions fucking. They apparently had no set mating season so Christmas was as good a time to fuck as any.

I… I could have happily gone the rest of my life without knowing that…

When no one came in three days, someone suggested we leave and try our luck finding civilization on our own. Suggested we leave my brother behind.

I saw red. I grabbed him in my gauntlet and squeezed until I heard bones snap. He wasn't up for leaving anymore.

Day four was when the guilt hit. I was a hero. Hungry. Tired. But a hero. Who just broke someone's ribs like matchsticks because he pissed me off…

Some hero…

'What should I do when what I have isn't enough?' I wondered.

David once described his second trigger to me. Amidst the empathy I felt for him, a part of me felt flattered that he trusted me so much. It was a general truism that the fastest way to pick a fight with a cape was to talk about our triggers. That went doubly so for second triggers.

Now I knew why.

I didn't get any stronger as far as I could tell. Instead, my power's versatility increased like I wanted. I could do more than punch at a distance. I could grab, push, and pull now too. Whatever I could do with my hands, I could do to anything I saw, like ghostly hands extending from my gauntlets.

When I first found out, I broke down into hysterical laughter. Here I was, survivor of my first endbringer battle, and the thing that made me second trigger was being lost.

I could see why Andy was so dismissive of these though. I'd gotten the versatility I'd wanted, but it still didn't change our situation. If anything, it just terrified the civilians more. From there perspective, I must have seemed unstable. Truth be told, I probably was. Here they were, stuck in the woods with a woman who could kill them all in a minute at most, and she just broke down into hysterics.

God, I was such a shitty hero.

Day five was different.

The sun was peaking over the horizon when a portal opened in the middle of our crude campsite. At this point, any amount of caution was overridden by the desire for rescue, any sort of civilized company that wasn't ourselves.

A woman in a sharply pressed suit appeared. She was gorgeous in that natural way that models spent countless hours trying to mimic. Her brown hair fell in soft waves and her fedora was skewed just slightly to the side as if to add a hint of coquettish personality to an otherwise rigidly professional attire. She even smelled nice, like some weird but awesome mix between sandalwood and something floral. It was a rich fragrance that made her seem that much more assertive. It was the most unique perfume I'd ever smelled and I wanted it.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Most of all? She looked like she had her shit together.

She walked into the clearing and drew every eye. We breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that whoever this was, we wouldn't be here for much longer.

After her came two robots that rolled on three textured wheels, a gurney between them. They were odd-looking, with heads shaped like wrenches, but I was just relieved to see that they could handle Andy without dying or something.

She introduced herself as a friend of Hyunmu, saying something about a path that had been cleared. When I questioned it, she opened another portal and showed off the Dream Blossom Censer. I knew that he'd rather commit murder than give that to just anyone; I could hear her out.

Not five minutes later, I was back in Phoenix. Andy had been carted off somewhere by those strange robots, but I couldn't check on him before I was swamped with debriefs and reassuring my family that I was indeed still among the living.

It was only when I was home that I realized she never gave her name.

X

I sighed as I plopped down onto my bed. I felt a bone-deep exhaustion overtake me. Recovering from my impromptu camping trip wasn't the issue. God knew Phoenix was practically drowning in potions. Even what I did to that poor man was waved away as a trigger-related accident. Red Sands precedent.

God, he wasn't even conscious and he was still protecting me.

No. I was a mess because the country was a mess.

DC was… gone. Our capitol, the seat of power of the free world, was turned to so much rubble. Even now, countless heroes and volunteers were combing the city for bodies. They'd yet to announce the estimated death toll, but it was bad. Over four hundred thousand were displaced by the Simurgh and that number was only rising.

Phoenix had it easy. No matter what anyone said, Phoenix was Rubedo's home. Hyunmu's home. Director Lyons had a huge soft spot for him and so she'd pushed the construction of the refugee camps hard, hard enough to support an additional forty-four thousand residents in short order. Sure, housing wasn't glamorous or anything, barely more than four walls and a roof. Communal showers and restrooms, no electricity, and a prison-style mess hall. But it was something at least.

We were called the model city, proof that the Worldstone Network was worth every penny. Hell, if Chief Director Costa-Brown retired, Director Lyons would probably be a major contender from the sheer amount of goodwill she'd garnered.

Of the six of us who joined the battle, only two didn't make it back: Calavera and Cloudstreak. Both names were added to our endbringer memorial. Yeah, Calavera was a Mesa and one of the worst villains we had, but she deserved that much.

I turned out the lights for bed. I turned and nestled into a huge pillow David got me for this exact purpose. Then I smelled something different, sandalwood with a floral hint I'd only smelled once before in my life. My eyes flew open and my fist was already sailing for her head before I could think to pull back.

Apparently, she was the snazziest dressed ninja in the world because she dodged my straight by a hair. In the dark. At point blank range. There was a soft whump as my power struck my gym bag in the opposite corner.

Before I could do anything else, she leaned forward and booped my nose! Like a child!

The sheer indignity of some crazy spook-ninja coming into my room to make a mockery of me forced me wide awake. She flicked on the light and shot me a knowing smirk that made me want to take another swing at her.

"Who? How? Why?" I stuttered.

"A friend of Yusung's. Door. Because I can," she answered with an infuriating poise that practically screamed high-end thinker. Andy called that look the "thinker-smug." I totally understood what he meant now.

"I hope you know that the only reason you're not a paint job on my wall is because you're Andy's friend," I grouched.

"Oh, there are more reasons than that, Penelope," she tutted condescendingly. She even had the gall to reach out and ruffle my hair. I was nineteen!

I sat up and did my best to pat down my hair. "Anyone ever tell you you're infuriating?"

"Yusung. Practically daily."

"You were a thinker in DC?"

"Something like that."

"Do you ever give people a straight answer?"

"I do. To Yusung."

"Well how 'bout you start talking? Where is he? How is he?"

Then everything about her changed. It wasn't just that she cut it out with that enigmatic smile. It was that every single inch of her body seemed to work together to radiate an aura of seriousness. Playtime was over.

"He is in a coma," she told me, all pretense and riddles gone.

"C-Can I see him?"

"You may. Door, Babylon." The same portal I saw in the woods appeared. I wondered if it was another expression of her power or some sort of tinkertech. And where was Babylon? Was it even a place or just the name of a secret facility somewhere? Who even named it that? "Coming?"

Still a bit lost at the suddenness of her arrival, I stumbled through the portal and found myself in a hospital room. There was a single bed, with a lot of expensive-looking equipment. The room was cozy despite the large window that overlooked a snowy expanse. Of course, my eyes zeroed in on the sole occupant.

Andy was hooked up to the machines with a blood pressure monitor. Someone had evidently taken him out of that intimidating costume and clothed him in hospital scrubs before wrapping him warmly in a blanket.

"He looks so small."

"He is ten," the spook-ninja said matter-of-factly.

I shot her a cross glare. "Must you be right about everything?"

"When it's my power, yes."

"What? Being right?"

"Winning."

"Bullshit."

"So I've been told."

I sighed. I clearly wasn't going to get anywhere with her. "Alright, Ms. Know-It-All, when's he going to wake up then?"

She shrugged. "Not a clue."

"I thought you-"

"There are exceptions. Yusung is one of them. I know that he is well. He is physically healthier than you or I could ever be. Nor will his body deteriorate with the potions supply I've reserved for him."

"Oh…"

"Indeed." And for a moment, I thought I could see a flash of pain. Was it annoyance that Ms. All-Powerful Thinker didn't know something or was it genuine care? Whatever I saw on her face, she must have seen the question on mine. "I care, believe it or not. Yusung is one of the few I can call a friend."

"What? Can't find anyone your age to play with?"

She stared at me blankly until I looked away. She couldn't have been much older than me. Why did she remind me of nana? "Do stop the sass while you're still endearing, Penelope."

"Yes, ma'am," I grumbled, cowed in an instant. Someone this young shouldn't have nana's "Don't make me get the paddle" look down, but she did. "Is there… some kind of healing cape we can find?"

"You're looking at him."

"Right… There's got to be someone."

"No, there does not. There will not be for three years. The world is unfair. And even if there was, they would be unlikely to be of any use. Yusung's coma is induced by the strange energy he exudes when he fights. I'm sure you've felt it, that sense of impending doom."

"I… yeah…"

"He overtaxed himself and seeing how the only one who understands how this 'mana' works is currently the patient, patient is all we can be."

"Heh. Wordplay?"

"Quite. You may leave and return by saying, 'Door, Yusung's room.' The Door will not open for you in any other location. Visit at your leisure."

"I… Thank you," I said. I looked around once more but found no identifying insignias or logos. It was a well-maintained hospital room, but with zero hints as to its location. "Where exactly is this? What's Babylon?"

"Somewhere safe."

"That's not what I'm asking."

"I know," she said. That same thinker-smug smirk was back. She turned around and called, "Door, Rebecca's office."

A familiar portal opened up to reveal the chief director in a generic office space. That at least told me she was working for the PRT. I could rest easy knowing that if nothing else. The portal closed before I could ask the chief director anything.

I sat there looking at Andy sleeping, lost in thought. Little fella had clearly been involved in a lot more than he told me… Or maybe it was natural for the bigwigs to take an interest in his safety like this. After watching him make an endbringer piss herself, I certainly would. Ten years old and already so strong…

It was only minutes later that I realized she'd once again left without so much as a name.

"Fucking spook-ninjas," I grumbled.

Author's Note

Wasn't sure about doing the aftermath from Sting's POV, but seeing how she was the last to see our MC, it only seemed fair. There's an obligatory PHO chapter later this evening, but other than that, arc 6 is done.

Why is Andy in a coma? Because I refuse to allow him to have something as broken as the Kindred without consequences. You put death on hold so you get put on hold too. Seems fair. And just as important, it's an excellent chance to do the time skip that everyone's been harping on about since arc 3.

One of the big challenges with time skips in a tinker-fic is trying to account for things the MC will build in the meantime. This is doubly true for fics where the MC's power scales exponentially like Celestial Forge or Tinker of Fiction. While this is neither, it does share some of the same mechanics so if I were to do a normal time skip, Andy would basically show up a god, reveal he struck a deal with Aurelion, then one-shot Scion before fucking off to who knows where to become a hermit-inventor or open a bakery or whatever the fuck he'd do.

Coma = no creating anything = no runes. Easy.

Thank you for reading. To reach a wider audience, and because I enjoy a more forum-like setup to facilitate discussion, I like to crosspost to a wide variety of websites. You can find them all on my Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/fabled.webs.