Chapter 256: Infestation (Patreon)

Lightshow (Mandy, to her friends) sprinted up the stairs and out the emergency exit.

What the hell was that? She thought as she ran, her heart pounding in her ears.

Agh, cramp. I really should work out more, Stacy keeps telling me I’m never gonna catch a man with love handles.

While Stacy was full of shit, if she did exercise, maybe at least she’d be able to run without the stitch in her side.

Mandy caught her breath and kept running for a moment before finally remembering she was a super and activating her hardlight jetpack.

A million questions assailed her mind:

What was that? How did it get there without me noticing? How did Paradox know? Was he using me as bait? Is Solaris actually sick? Is there more of it?

First thing’s first: Get safe.

Mandy flew to her Lair, landing in the front lot of an abandoned warehouse, seemingly torn apart by super fights.

This isn’t my Lair, Mandy thought, frowning as she pulled a remote from her pocket and pressed the button. I don’t have a lair.

A door made of hardlight swung open, revealing the dilapidated building to be a façade. Behind it was a massive bunker with automated cannons on top big enough to make a Prawn question it’s decisions.

Mandy cocked her head to the side as she began walking towards the gaping maw of the bunker This isn’t mine. Why am I walking towards it?

Thankfully, Mandy wasn’t a particularly suspicious individual, so her consciousness faded away before she had time to put things together and get really scared.

“Good evening,” A voice came from behind ‘Lightshow’ as the mimic held a hand up to the keypad in the front of the bunker, entering the code with unnerving precision.

The mimic turned around, still looking like a dumpy aunt. The hardlight disguise flickered for a moment as it struggled to keep up with the presumably melting features underneath.

The canons on the roof and sides of the bunker sprang to life, following her head movements as she tried to pinpoint the sound.

“Lightshow, by my authority as an Anchor of Franklin City, you’re under arrest,” Chemestro said, allowing himself to become visible hovering behind and slightly above her. “You will be tested for the presence of alien biolo-“

Lightshow snarled and motioned with a hand.

The bunker’s canons started spitting lead nearly the size of Chemestro’s fist.

Chemestro made himself permeable, gliding forward and down through the dirt as the lead passed through his body and Lightshow’s hardlight prison failed to stop him.

No comes the hard part. Chemestro thought, re-emerging behind Lightshow and detonating the air next to her ear.

Now he had to pretend like he was only winning by a little bit. Which was much harder than simply disintegrating the creature.

There was a reason for this, however.

If the creature thought it could turn the tide by summoning just a little bit more reinforcements, then it would.

And Chemestro could exterminate them too.

Listen, Chemestro, since you’re a misanthropic asshole who keeps to himself and does nothing but practice killing all day, you’re the least likely to be compromised, through lack of contact with others and sheer fighting ability. So I’m gonna request that you to do a little sweeping up, keep the monster distracted while we get Solaris’s scans.

Which was why Chemestro allowed one of the lead bullets to hit him, spinning him violently around before he came crashing down to the ground.

Moments before he hit, Chemestro made himself intangible and dove into the ground, dodging a hail of gunfire and Lightshow’s razor shar hardlight constructs, which tore up the parking lot above him.

While underground, bit his inner lip until it bled, then rose back up above ground, ambushing Lightshow again.

Another minute into the fight, Chemestro allowed himself to catch another bullet. It was stopped by his hyperweave, but he coughed up the blood gathering in his mouth to sell the damage he was taking.

In retaliation, he created hundreds of explosions around Lightshow, tossing the matronly woman’s form like a ragdoll caught in a tornado.

Where’s her backup coming from…There.

Directly behind him, a C-list super named Mongoose was sprinting his direction.

Directly in front of him, the Bunker disgorged half a dozen other supers.

Chemestro floated there for a moment, frozen in ‘stunned surprise’ at the wall of hyperweave charging, flying, and bounding towards him.

Mongoose leapt up at the distracted super’s back, his muscles bulging as he entered into a fight against a stronger opponent.

Mongoose exploded into dust, claws inches away from reaching their target.

With a dismissive gesture, the other C-listers crumbled to dust, along with Lightshow.

Chemestro turned away, about to leave, when a thought occurred to him.

If the MRI machine could be compromised, what about the Lair itself?

Chemestro glanced back over his shoulder and flinched out of the way of a car-sized talon aimed straight at his head.

Ah,Chemestro thought as he dodged laser-fire from turrets emerging from the massive tentacles of the building-sized monster.

“Attention Citizens of Franklin City:” The Emergency Announcement voice came over the PA system distributed throughout the city as Chemestro began disintegrating away large swathes of the monster.

“This is a Buddy-System Quarantine:” The nine-time winner of ‘Franklin City’s Sexiest Voice’ explained the rules:

“Whoever you are currently with, or the first person you meet, is your buddy. You are required to stay in the same room as your buddy at all times until the quarantine is lifted. Make sure both you and your buddy have your phones turned on and Nexus on speed-dial. If you see something out of the ordinary, or someone, or someone tries to separate you from your buddy, call Nexus Immediately.”

“Thank you for your cooperation and have a fantastic day!”

It wouldn’t do anything to directly protect the mimic’s victims, but it made it significantly harder for the mimic to pull any shenanigans off without getting caught, which indirectly protected thousands of civilians simply by slowing it down and giving Nexus time to root the infestation out.

Chemestro was under no delusions that the massive bunker he was fighting was the only one.

Between swiped of the creature’s tentacles, Chemestro pulled out his phone and contacted Warp.

‘Yeah?’ Warp asked, his voice hoarse, like he’d been up partying the night before.

Chemestro’s eye twitched.

“Did you hear the announcement?”

“Eh?” Warp asked.

“Buddy system quarantine,” Chemestro said, turning a large swath of metal-studded tentacle to ash. “Get the kids organized and start patrolling the streets. In pairs, obviously.”

“You know most of them have graduated high school at this point, right? All but the six thousands. They’re hardly ‘kids’.”

“Do I have to repeat myself?” Chemestro asked, flying through the window of a hurtling truck.

“Do I have to repeat myself when I tell you that 2420 is already twenty-two, and still has a serious crush on you. You guys have a lot in common, you know, what with being in the Program and all.”

“She’s my sister.”

“Technically, but I mean…not in any sense that means anything. You guys have only met like half a dozen time, and she doesn’t share any DNA with you, so she might as well be a stranger…who thinks you’re cute.”

“Can we not do this right now?” Chemestro asked, wishing he could reach through the phone and slap his lothario brother.

*** Paradox***

“Is this where I turn my head and cough?” Solaris asked.

“Hah!” Perry chortled before he could stop himself. “Role asked the exact same thing.”

“He is good at that,” Solaris said, glancing at Role, who shrugged.

“Let me just run one last diagnostic on the machine before we start,” Perry said, pulling out a knife and stabbing the MRI machine in the side. The carbon nanotubes crumbled aside under the force of Perry’s enhanced knife, which sunk deep into the machine’s side.

Nothing.

Solaris raised a brow, glancing between Perry and the MRI machine.

“We’ve been having some trouble with Mimics trying to infiltrate the process and kill you,” Perry said as his machine healed itself, sealing the gap in a matter of seconds and restoring full functionality.

“Ah.”

“Now let’s hurry up and get this done before the universe throws some more bullshit our direction.” Perry said, patting the tray.

After the ‘stealing’ incident, Perry had pilfered enough spare lenses to make a backup and replaced them with fakes.

If the original MRI machine hadn’t been compromised, Perry would’ve apologized to Lightshow and produced the working lenses.

But in this case, it seemed like it had turned out well enough. He’d tested all the lenses as best he could to make sure they weren’t mimics.

“If the machine tries to eat you, say something,” Perry said, giving Solaris a thumbs-up. Naturally he’d be watching the whole process from nearby but there was a possibility something might happen out of his line of sight.

Never hurt to be careful.

“Let’s do this,” Solaris said, nodding before laying back on the tray.

“Alright, hold still,” Perry said, clicking the button.

FWOMP!

A wave of electromagnetism washed over the room in a pulse that strained the limits of human mathematics, then receded in a fraction of a second.

“And you’re done.” Perry said, turning off the machine.

“Done? Freddy Steel asked with a frown. “You said this would take fifteen minutes.”

“Yeah, that was a lie,” Perry said, ignoring Freddy’s indignant protestations.

He’d told everyone it would take fifteen minutes in case anyone – or anything– with ill intent learned of the procedure. He gave these hypothetical saboteurs a convenient-sounding window of fifteen minutes so they would build their plans around false information, missing the chance to do anything problematic in the fraction of a second it would actually take.

“Okay, you’re good,” Perry said, tapping the tray and pulling Solaris out of the machine.

Solaris frowned as he sat up.

“How did I get here?” He asked, glancing around. “Is this a hospital?”

“Sort of. It’s twenty-twenty-eight, shit happened, and you’ve got Alzheimers, which we’re trying to fix.” Perry said, pulling out a tablet and forwarding the brain scan to Hippocrates and Truthslayer.

BOOM!

“ACK!”

Faster than even Perry could see, Solaris rammed him up against the wall, lifting him off his feet by the forearm pressed against his neck.

“If it was twenty-twenty-eight, I would be over a hundred and ten years old,” Solaris said. “You wanna try that line again? Did somebody roofie me? Was it Tony trying to get my contacts?” He glanced off to the side. “No, that doesn’t…They’re dead…”

Perry saw Solaris’s brain hiccup and reassert itself, but not all of it.

“You the Minder messing with my head or are you just working for him?”

“Paradox,” Perry croaked, tapping his chest.

“Claudette’s kid?” Solaris asked, frowning.

Perry nodded vigorously.

“Claudette’s kid is a Minder?” Solaris asked.

Perry shook his head. “Alzheimers.” He pointed at Solaris.

“I’m sure you’d like me to think that,” Solaris said, pressing a little harder, making Perry’s scalp tingle as the concrete spider-webbed behind him, gradually giving way beneath the stronger force.

“Tom!” Truthslayer shouted.

“May, what are you…wearing?” Solaris said, frowning at Truthslayer, squinting at the Anchor, his eyes seemingly struggling to focus.

“Tom. Paradox is trying to help you.” Truthslayer said. “Aren’t you, Paradox?”

“I am trying to cure your Alzheimers, yes.” Perry croaked, nodding around Solaris’s forearm.

Solaris glanced at Truthslayer, who nodded.

“If May says so, then you’ve gotta be trustworthy. Although…”

Solaris let Perry down and turned to face Truthslayer. Perry saw the wildcard’s heartbeat skyrocket in her neck.

“When did you start wearing tight black leather?” Solaris demanded with a disapproving frown.

“Since I Triggered,” Truthslayer said. “I’m Truthslayer, remember?”

“Right…right.” Solaris mumbled, staring down, lifting his shaking hands, opening and closing them. “We gotta get this under control.”

He glanced at Perry.

“You think you can fix it? I’ve never seen anyone but the robot bastard able to do any lasting damage.”

“I’ve got everything I need, far as I know,” Perry said. “There’s an AI working on it right now. Once it spits out a solution for a normal human, I’ll adapt it to your physiology and create a spell that will make it stick.”

He’d reverse engineered the curse that had allowed the sickness to bypass Solaris’s natural defenses.

Solaris nodded.

“I can make these kinds of things work pretty damn good, too.” Perry said.

“Alright. How quickly can you have it done?” Solaris asked.

“Hippocrates, how long?” Perry asked his tablet.

Narrowing remedies. Ideal solution in 12 hours. Will need advanced chemistry labs with a focus on RNA.

“Alright. I need to go build an advanced chemistry lab and plug Hippocrates in.” Perry said. “Are you guys good here?”

Solaris waved him off, sitting back down in his wheelchair.

“My AI says twelve hours to design a cure, but it’ll likely take a few days of refining and testing. Can you skip forward three days at lightspeed?”

“Can I? Yes. should I? Probably not,” Solaris said, glancing at his palm, which had little sparkles of light coming off of it. “I slipped a bit and nearly burned down a forest, If it’d been in the city… probably would’ve killed somebody. Several somebodies.”

“Then we’ll try to make it even faster.” Perry said. “Get some sleep.”

After you’re fixed, we’re going to need your speed rooting out the mimics from Franklin city. Perry thought as he ducked out of the room.