21

Explosion 3

I felt someone patting my cheek. "Wake up! Wake up! Oh please, Eunoia, you can do it..."

I was groggy. Shit. Splitting headache. Without opening my eyes, I could tell my costume was nearly gone. Most of my bots had been destroyed, but I was surprisingly healthy. I think I must have instinctively hardened my costume into armour when I realized he was going to explode. Sadly, too many of my bots had been destroyed in the blast. I wouldn't be much help until I rebuilt.

I looked around. Beige. Not the familiar ceiling of the hospital. I looked around with my bots. We were outdoors, not too far from the hospital. The entrance to the ER had been blasted open. Surrounding us were lots of patients, laid on the ground haphazardly. Lady Photon, Brandish, Shielder... practically all of New Wave was here, shuttling patients from inside the hospital to this makeshift medical area. And my dad, but he was asleep on the ground nearby.

Panacea was laying in another stretcher beside me, bruised but not in critical condition. She had a few minor burns to her skin, and her hair looked like it had been singed.

Glory Girl was looking after me. "Great! You're awake! Look, don't do any healing, just rest here, alright? You've done enough. You saved my sister's life, so take a break."

I guess I didn't have the equipment I needed to do much healing. Most of my bots had either been destroyed, or scattered by the blast. At least, the ones nearby. My bots in the streets seemed to be fine... and already returning to me.

You're welcome, one of my brains told me.

Right. Even while I was unconscious, my other brains were still active. Neat. Memories came flooding in about what had happened while I had been knocked out – which, unfortunately, wasn't as informative as I liked. The bomb blast had killed several in the immediate vicinity; it wasn't actually that powerful as far as bombs went. Unfortunately, it had been strong enough to fry my bots in the area, so all my other brains were basically blind.

Piecing together what had happened didn't take too long, nor was it complicated. Panacea had saved my life just before passing out herself, healing my wounds just enough. The nurses managed to take care of us after.

Bakuda had nearly killed Panacea. Amy. One of the few friends I had. At first I had wanted to stop her, now I wanted to kill her. The only problem was I had no way to find her. I hoped that the Undersiders were following through with their desire to hunt down Bakuda. Goodness knows that the PRT and villains didn't seem to be doing the job.

My main phone was wrecked, but my secondary phone had survived the blast. I guess being smaller and cheaper actually translated to more durable. Even though the outer plastic casing was basically shattered, but it was still functional. I could send a message to Lisa. Get a handle on what was going on, what all the gangs were doing, what the Undersiders were doing.

Meanwhile, I needed to take control of Abyssal and the rest of my bots. I needed to canvass the city with my bots. Make more brains, search for the criminals. I needed more mass. I needed –

Already on it, several of me told myself.

Huh. My brains had come to the same conclusion while I was unconscious. Of course they had, they were me. Except without a body, so they were even more inclined to get more bots to get things done. The first problem was supply. I had been cautious about using just about anything with carbon before – including plant material and such. But currently, given the state of the city, nobody would notice if their lawns got slightly trimmed. Or that, among all the debris, there was less plastic garbage laying around. Or that the car that had been blown up had less gas in its tank than earlier.

It wasn't as easy to process as the charcoal that Lisa had been supplying, but what it lacked in quality, it made up for in quantity. My bots had been hard at work manufacturing; I was manufacturing more and more bots at an explosive rate. Even while I was unconscious, my other brains had added over a dozen to the... network.

Hi, I said to them.

Hi, they all replied back. My range was still centered around the hospital for now, but boy was it spreading fast. With close to twenty brains spread around the city, I was down to less than half an hour to make each new one, and getting faster already.

"Panacea, you shouldn't be up and about yet!" I said to her. It had only been two days since the hospital got bombed, and we were still operating out of tents.

Evacuation was slow, the emergency room was closed, but people who hadn't heard the news were still coming. The hospital was still being evacuated while engineers tried to determine whether the building itself needed to be condemned or if it could be repaired. For now, we had set up new beds in the parking lot. At least the PRT had quick-deploy medical tents, originally designed for Endbringer scenarios but were useful for all sorts of disasters.

That was where we were operating from now. The doctors and nurses, and our families, all insisted that we take a break. But neither of us could, especially when we were right there seeing all the injured and sick right in front of us. I suppose the old saying was true; doctors were bad patients. Not that I was officially a doctor, but medical capes were probably just as bad.

"Speak for yourself," Panacea replied. "You're the one who got half your body burnt off. Again."

Right. I hadn't even known about that, since I had been unconscious at the time. Apparently my injuries had been worse than I initially estimated. No wonder I was feeling so hungry.

"Yeah, but you healed me. You can't heal yourself!" I responded.

"I can walk just fine," she said as she demonstrated by going to the next patient, with her IV pole still attached. It didn't roll across the parking lot cement nearly as well as it did on linoleum.

"Well at least let me make an exoskeleton for you," I told her. "Take some weight off." I was building bots like crazy with everything I could get my hands on, so I could spare some to protect her. Plenty of condemned wooden buildings I used as salvage, because of Bakuda. The bombings had slowed down, but not stopped.

"Fine," Panacea said, relenting. My bots would give her more protection, and move her IV pole for her, at least. I kept the bots on the outside of her clothes, just under her costume's coat. "Huh. That's actually pretty comfortable," she said. "Thanks Eunoia." Secretly, I dedicated an additional brain to pay attention to her vitals and surroundings, just in case.

My bots had been working day and night producing more. I needed to cover the city, scour every inch until I found Bakuda. I was a quarter of the way there; with brains buried underground or hidden in the sewers, covering an area that spread outwards from the hospital. Even my house was within my radius now.

And I still hadn't found any trace of her.

There was still plenty of fighting going on, sure. But nothing that would indicate a base of operations. ABB members were out in force, clashing with the police, Protectorate, PRT, and other villains. And amazingly, they weren't backing down. Mainly because of the super-powered grenades and bombs.

Glory Girl and Laserdream flew by in the afternoon, dropping off several heavily-injured gang members. She dumped them on the ground unceremoniously. I think I heard a bone cracking, but they were all still alive, judging by their moaning.

"Ames! Tay-tay! You two doing okay?"

"We're managing," I said. We had divided up the work between us in an odd way – I was managing all the "normal" injuries, while Amy took on the... weird ones. Bakuda's bombs didn't just explode or burn. Some of them had strange effects. Some patients came in with massive radiation poisoning. Others had basically stage III cancer that covered one side of their body, that only hadn't spread because they had gotten it all at once ten minutes ago. Then there were the frostbitten patients, the paralyzed, the ones whose arms had turned to glass... Only Amy could do anything about them.

And those were only the patients that had survived the trip to the hospital. I had witnessed plenty worse through my bots.

Bakuda wasn't just a bomb Tinker, she was practically a Trump, recreating cape-like powers as long as the powers could take the form of an explosion.

I was worried for our teammates – even Glory Girl's invincibility didn't mean much in the face of such weird powers. Normal bombs she could survive. Bakdua's? I wasn't sure. Amy seemed even more stressed.

"Vicky... GG. I'm telling you, be careful! They said on the news Oni Lee has weird bombs now, and he can teleport to you..."

"I'll be fine, I'm not going solo! Crystal's watching my back! Ain't that right, Cryssie?"

Laserdream nodded.

"But still..."

"But nothing!" Glory Girl said with her hands on her hips. Nobody's gonna hurt my sister and get away with it! Bakuda's going DOWN!" With that, she and Laserdream flew off again to continue their patrols. They'd done this quite a few times already, beating up ABB gang members, and then dropping them off at the hospital following a session of "enhanced interrogation."

Not that any of them were able to reveal Bakuda's location.

If they happened to be within range of my bots when it happened, I listened in. I secretly texted Lisa any information I thought might have been relevant, hoping she would figure something out.

I honestly felt a little exposed at the hospital, and it wasn't just because we were stuck in tents. Dedicating all my bots purely to expansion left me with little to defend myself, even if I could see the danger coming. I could see plenty of fighting going on, and even caught a glimpse of Oni Lee once. Some of that fighting was getting uncomfortably close to the hospital. So, I had to slow down a little, and I focused on having a copy of Abyssal patrolling around the hospital area at all times, with a few extra batches ready to deploy just in case.

I didn't want a repeat someone to finish off the hospital while we were even more vulnerable. Thus, I was considerably worried when I saw a bunch of capes approach the hospital.

They were instantly recognizable as Faultline's crew. I hadn't had any significant interactions with them, and I hadn't seen what had happened outside my range. One of them did look injured – the orange one, Newter. The others were supporting him, wearing full-coverage rubber or leather gloves while he struggled around in their grip. He was conscious, but not very aware of his surroundings. He seemed to be straining and writhing against some heavy restraints, with his eyes shut and teeth gritted in pain.

Abyssal formed in front of them. I could guess what they wanted, but after Bakuda's suicide bomber, there was no such thing as being too cautious.

"Wait, truce! Truce! Newter's hurt, he needs medical attention! We've been fighting against the ABB," Faultline explained.

The semi-translucent man spoke up. "Eunoia works there, yes? I am Gregor. Newter has limited options. Biology is strange, normal doctors might not work. Skin is hallucinogenic, may hurt Panacea. Drugs do not have effect on him, medicines do not work normally. We come in peace, see if Eunoia will help. Please."

I made Abyssal step aside, but very clearly made his helmet move to track them as they walked past, then had him disintegrate while they still had their eyes on him. Just so they would know he would be watching. Even the hardened mercenaries were a little creeped out by him and picked up the pace to the hospital.

Back in my actual body, I tried not to look like I had been expecting them. They were explaining things to the admitting clerk and were taking up a lot of space, though that was more for everyone else's safety. Newter was sweating and bleeding, while still spasming in pain. The rest of the crew was trying to make sure none of his fluids touched anyone or accidentally struck a bystander. At least the good thing about being outdoors now was that there was more space to spread out.

Soon enough, I heard the overhead speakers. "Eunoia, please report to Triage. Eunoia, report to Triage."

I was only in the next tent over. I popped my head out and asked, "Whats up?" I tried to act surprised when I caught sight of Newter rolling around on the ground.

"Case 53 here's got some issues. Can't touch his skin though, he secrets some kind of drug. They asked for you specifically. Want to give it a try?"

"Sure. Just keep in mind I can't do everything," I agreed.

"Anything's better than nothing," Faultline said. "Newter's suffering. We want you to do whatever you can to help."

That was as close to permission as I could get, as it looked like Newter wasn't cognizant enough to actually give permission himself. I reconfigured my costume to inject my bots from a longer distance, and watched as they flowed through and around his body. They certainly detected a lot of strange proteins on his skin and blood that were too complex to analyze, but at least those proteins didn't do anything to my bots.

"That's it?"

"Give me a few minutes, I'm still trying to figure out his body," I said. I glanced over at the translucent man – Gregor. At least I could see how his organs were arranged from here, and it certainly wasn't normal. Neither was Newter's. The circulatory system was the easiest to figure out, even if his heart was in the wrong place and didn't have four proper chambers. The skeleton and musculature were different to humans on a molecular level, but functionally close enough. That's not even mentioning his tail. Still, I managed to patch up his burns and clot up the damaged blood vessels – they were only minor issues.

But why was he still in so much pain, even though his body was mostly okay? That usually pointed to brain damage, or nerve damage. I started investigating both. His brain, too, was mostly-human. It had the structures I could recognize, sure, but things seemed out of proportion and oddly shaped. I started to map it out as best I could.

What I found was that all of his pain receptors were firing full blast. I had my bots surround the cells and clamp down on them, effectively numbing the signal. Inside the brain, the areas responsible for processing the pain were also going nuts. Likewise, I had to use my bots to suppress those areas. Unfortunately, that caused Newter to fall unconscious.

"What did you do to him? Is he okay?"

"I think he'll be fine. I've just cut off his sense of pain, but he'll have to be in a coma for now. What was he hit with? Some kind of drug?"

Faultline shook her head. "No. Newter's immune to drugs of all kinds. He was hit with a bomb of some kind. We thought it was an EMP or something, since it caused no damage to the surrounding area, but, well, this started happening to him."

"Crap. Well, we might have to keep him here until the effect wears off, then I'll stop numbing him," I explained.

With some extra time to burn, I decided to investigate Newter's brain a bit more. It was different. Educational. I had never seen a Case 53's brain before. His Corona Pollentia seemed almost normal, though in the wrong place in the brain. I almost didn't recognize it at first, and thought it was a tumor before I realized it. Very strange. It was a little bigger, and more dense. It seemed to have more connections to the rest of the body. Not just to his extra organs, like the secretion glands and the tail. Everywhere. Almost like a... second, miniature brain that was piggybacking on to his. On normal capes it was just another part of the brain. I wonder why his turned out that way.

I wouldn't actually mind scanning Faultline's crew for free, if they wanted to volunteer. Out of personal curiosity, though I'm sure Dr. Akagi would like to have the data, too...

Work at the hospital was relatively constant, but working to extend my range kept speeding up. As I saw more, I fed what information I could to Tattletale via text. I could only tell her for certain that Bakuda wasn't anywhere within a twenty-block radius of the hospital. And some of the movements of other capes and gang members. Maybe she could figure something out about Bakuda. Nobody else had, so far. Not even me.

And that was including all the additional capes on the street – especially the out-of-towners that dropped in after the Kill Order had been signed.

Kill Orders weren't exactly something the PRT used lightly. It was a significant cash prize to capture Bakuda, dead or alive – hero, villain, civilian. Any villain who came to collect the prize was also granted immunity from capture and prosecution during their visit to the Protectorate to do so. It was, in essence, a truce from the Protectorate.

On one hand, that was a good incentive to get many, many more willing participants in hunting down someone dangerous.

On the other hand, it meant there would be a free-for-all in the city. One mad bomber destroying the town was one thing. Dozens of superpowered mercenaries, heroes, villains all descending into a battle royale in order to lay claim to the prize could easily cause even more damage than Bakuda had caused herself. Lastly, kill orders were final. No matter what Bakuda did after this, even if she surrendered, anyone who killed her would still have a right to the bounty. It meant that Bakuda would be truly backed into a corner with no way out. And cornered animals acted desperately.

That had been true in Minneapolis a few years ago. Some electricity-wielding cape, Zeusinator or something like that, had killed a few too many people and was deemed unfit for rehabilitation. His murder count was somewhere in the hundreds. Once the order had been made and dozens of capes were out for his head... well, he fled to the local power plant, killed everyone inside, then overloaded all the power lines in an attempt to escape. The final death toll more than doubled, if you counted all the people on life support who died, and those killed in traffic accidents, and the resulting fires sparked across the entire region, and so on.

Then again, Bakuda was trying to hold an entire city hostage and had a murder count that rivaled Lung's, in only a few days. I think it was the bombing of the hospital, nearly killing me and Panacea, that really convinced the people in charge to authorize it.

And even then, with all those capes searching around, people still hadn't found Bakuda. Not without a Thinker power.

My phone buzzed. Tattletale had messaged me back. She'd sent me an address, and a time.

Author's Note: A bit shorter than usual, but story-wise I just felt like the next scenes just work better in the next chapter.