Hmm, even though I don't think I'll drop anything from inventory, just in case that does happen, it would look bad. What can I leave here? They told me I have the room for a few nights, so it should be good for a bit. Presuming they don't search the room for some reason. I'm probably just being paranoid again.
Still having Julia's gun and tinker-tech fall out of my inventory space while getting surgery would be bad. The room has a safe though, I can put some stuff in there. Damn, Bonesaw's brain wave thing won't fit. Neither will the OR gown. I lock the gun and the neutered spider-bot in the safe. I should play with the safe later to train Disable Device. I hang the gown up in the closet, and shove the gloves and the Brainwave scanner under the bed. I'll leave the pizza box and the pen in my inventory as a test.
I swap out to free camera and spy on the parking lot. The three stooges are still there. Damn, did they have to sleep in the car? What the hell? Curly isn't there at the moment. I should just have them give me a ride to the hospital since they're going to follow me anyway. Of course I need to troll them first.
So I wait behind the door ready to leave, watching with my camera and stealth turned on. Eventually Curly comes back with coffees and a box of donuts. While they have their attention distracted and their head in the box, I slip out the door. Good, still not seen, I slip around the corner and head downstairs.
I walk around the building so I can approach unseen and wait as a van goes by in the parking lot to come up behind right rear car door, and loudly rap my good hand on the window.
There are several curses and Mo spills his hot coffee in his lap. I have my masked face smashed against the window glass. Curly has his gun out of his holster. Not pointed at me, but still, maybe I shouldn't have scared the crap out of the armed men.
"Whazzup?" I yell at them.
The rear window rolls down. "God damn it Stasis, you could have been shot." Larry says to me from the driver's seat.
"Sweet donuts." I try to open the door but it's locked so I just crawl into the window.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Mo yells after tossing several soggy napkins out the car window in the front seat.
"Be cool Mo..." I say as I as I right myself into the backseat. "Also, don't litter."
"My name's not Mo."
"Well you didn't tell me your name yet. Anyway, I figured y'all might as well drive me to the hospital rather than waiting for Piper or Ms. Clark to drive here. If y'all are gonna watch me it'd be easier for me to just ride along, right?" I touch an unattended donut in the box, and suck it into my inventory. Then pop it back out in my hand and take a bite. Delicious, blueberry.
"It's Sergeant Peters. Did you just take one of our donuts?" Mo asked me.
Sure his overhead tag says differently but it feels funnier in my head. "I haven't had breakfast yet," I respond.
"So I guess we leave?" Larry says as he starts the car engine.
"You couldn't have waited an hour?" Curly asks me, "our shift would have ended then."
I shrug and eat more of my donut. Mo pulls out a phone and calls someone.
"Yeah, kid's in the damn car." I hear Mo speak into the phone, another voice responds, sounds like Agent Piper.
"How the hell did he do that? You're supposed to keep an eye on him."
"How the hell you sneak up on us Stasis? You got some stranger power or something?" Larry asks me, possibly pre-empting what Sgt. Peters was wondering.
"As if… it's called a window. I waited until Curly brought back coffee and stuff, slipped out while ya'll had your heads rooting around in the box."
"Did you just call me Curly?" Curly asks me. "That's not my name either."
"He waited for us to get distracted and slipped out on purpose. He wants us to take him to the hospital." Mo says into the phone.
"Fine, do so, I'm driving to the hospital," the voice on the other end of the phone says.
"Call the other shift up and send them there. We're off after we drop the kid off. I spilled coffee all over myself and need to change." Mo says, finishing up his conversation with Agent Piper.
"Don't you dare call me Larry either." Not-Larry says. "You're too young to even know that reference"
"Uh…" I stammer, actually where did that reference come from? Some old memory blocked by my amnesia?
"Put your seatbelt on," Not-Curly says as we drive out of the parking lot.
****
Minutes later we arrive and they drop me off at the same side entrance, but don't follow me in. The stooges drive off instead.
I make my way up to Chela's floor, but I'm over an hour early for the shift change. The station nurse says she's still in the ICU resting. I know her room number, so I sit back in the waiting area and fly about with my free camera. I see her there, on her back in bed. There's monitors hooked up to her, an IV in her chest, a breathing tube, and her arm and shoulder is all splinted up. Observe.
What? That's, hold on. Can I sort some of these skills? What are the ones with plus signs? Skills granted or enhanced by powers, sure, put those at the top. That's better.
Name: Chela Sánchez
Level: 3
Alias: 'Juanita Cierva'
Gender: Female
Age: 14 (14)
Ethnicity: Hispanic
Race: Human (Parahuman)
Class: Traumatized Orphan / Teenager
Faction: None
STR: 8 (-4.0) 4.0
AGI: 11 (-6.00) 5.00
CON: 15 (-10.0) 5.00
INT: 19 (??) ??
PER: 16 (-16.00) 0.00
WIS: 15 (??) ??
CHA: 13 (-5.25) 7.75
LUC: ?? (??) ??
Allure: 3.0 (-1.5) 1.5
Armor: 0.07
Speed: 2.67 (-2.5) 0.17
Attack: 5.9 (-4.0) 1.90
Dodge: 20.76 (+26.0) 46.76
Health: 75/230
Stamina: 140/260
Stress: 27/350
H/T/F: ...
Summary Description:
Chela is a 14 year old Hispanic immigrant from Yucatan, Mexico...
...
Status Effects:
Mental: Extremely Stressed, Sedated, Unconscious, Conflict Seeking, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Latent), Major Grief (Latent), Minor Depression (Latent), Revenge Obsession (Latent), Minor General Anxiety, ...
Physical: Puncture wound: Right Torso (Treated), Lacerations x14 (Treated), Second Degree Burn x2 (Treated), First Degree burn x3 (Treated), Bruises x22, Sprained Left Wrist (Treated), Sprained Right Ankle (Treated), Teenage Acne
Currently Feeling: Nothing
Motivations: None
Power Summary:
Primary 1: Portal Creation (Active), Enhanced Awareness [Spatial, Temporal, Dimensional] (Passive)
Secondary 1: Danger Sense (Passive), Shard Sense (Passive)
Secondary 2: Exothermic-Endothermic Pyrolysis Manipulation (Active), Exothermic-Endothermic Pyrolysis Resistance (Passive)
Secondary 3: Adaptive Hacking Self (Active/Passive), Adaptive Self Improvement (Active)
Equipment list:
Patient Hospital Gown, IV tubing, Oxygen tubing, Bandages x17, Stabilizing Wraps x2, ...
Perks:
Precognitive Perception, Danger Sense Dodging, Creative
Flaws:
Shy, Overweight
Skills:
Spatial Awareness (Superhuman Perfection)+
Temporal Awareness (Superhuman Perfection)+
Basic Human Motor Functions (High Master)+
Dimensional Awareness (Professional)+
Damage Resistance (Fire & Heat) (Talented)+
Basic Physical Athletics (Proficient)+
Pyrolysis Manipulation (Skilled)+
Basic Empathic Modeling (Expert)
Spanish-Language (Expert)
Cleaning (Adept)
Social Interaction (Talented)
Fruit & Vegetable Picking (Proficient)
Cooking (Skilled)
Fish Dissection (Competent)
...
Click to expand...
Okay weird. Why do only some of her powers also get represented as perks and skills and some don't?
Well, time to Parapedia all this new shit. Wow that's a big perception bonus on that perk, except its totally negated right now due to being sedated and unconscious. So the plus bonus by stats is the sum total of all effects. That's what I always figured, but first chance to confirm on someone else. Another big bonus on Danger Sense dodge, hell I saw that in practice when we were running.
That's.. god damn too many mental stuff. Latent? She's going to get hit with all this when she wakes up? Fuck, 27 stress too, I mean yeah, that confirms how I thought it works. Not been very long since it must have been at zero when she triggered. Revenge Obsession, against… oh shit. She'll need help, a lot of help…
Help I can't give her where I'm going, fuck, but I already knew that.
I don't want to read anymore. Close out the window and turn of free camera. She's alive though. At least I saved someone.
Fuck it, I'm not going to get anything done if I start getting all existential and feeling sorry for myself. I still haven't used Observe on myself in a mirror, I forgot to last night. I need to do that when I get back. I need to get my quest textbooks back. they didn't auto-fail so maybe I can get replacement books. I need to make sure Chela gets what she needs, physical and psychological help, and stability; whatever will satisfy that quest, but…
No, fuck the quest, it's for her, not for the quest. I don't even want the XP. Give it to her, she needs it more. Is that even possible? If she got some kind of partial power from me, and it seems that way if that how nearby triggers work, then if it even slightly works the same, she might have some kind of XP component thing. No answer huh? Not gonna give me any prompts? No snarky quest popups?
"Stasis?"
I look from my introspection to see agent Piper looking down at me in the tiny waiting room. "Oh, it's you."
"Yes, it's me. You gave our agents a bit of stress this morning."
I shrug. "Why are you secretly trying to watch me? Seems they're not too good at laying low."
"Well that's because they're not trying to lay low. We're not being secret about that at all, not to you anyway."
"Then why?" Agent Piper takes that as an invitation to sit down next to me and talk quietly.
"Well do you want to get broadsided by the press? Wait, don't answer that. The PRT and the Protectorate would prefer you not talk to the press, at least not yet, preferably not at all. That's the main thing we're trying to avoid. They already know there was a Nine sighting, and an related incident here at the hospital."
"And how did that happen?"
"A hospital worker probably talked. It's not easy to perfectly hide a bio-tinker response preparation. Being this close to their sighting plus the incident you turning up in central Virginia caused, it's not hard for people to link the occurrences. The Nine do watch the news, precisely to get info about how they're being watched. They've even hunted down prior survivors to their encounters that boasted or said too much to the press."
"Fuck man, don't you think you should have told me that already?"
"It was decided not to put additional stress on you, since you had not shown any inclination toward going that route to begin with."
"Geez man, point received. I'm not going to talk to the press, not that I really wanted to…wait actually, could you use something like that to bait them out and take them down?"
Piper raised his eyebrows at me in surprise. "That's brave of you to consider, but no. The Protectorate tried that once, several years ago. It went, very badly."
"Shit"
"That's why we need all the intelligence on them we can get. I read the report you gave Ms. Clark, it was very detailed, but you said there is more."
"Yeah, but… Where is she anyway?"
"She's on her way here with Leech. So what more can you tell us? I'd like--" Piper's said before being interrupted by his phone buzzing. He pulls it out and glances down at it. I do a quick swap to free camera to also look.
It was a text message, 'We're here, where r u?'
"Looks like they're here now." Agent Piper says without looking up as he texts a reply. 'ICU waiting room, we'll meet you on Dr. Frasier's floor'
"Guess it's time to get ready for my hand thing. Hope this will work." I say.
"Indeed" Piper says as he stands up.
I stand as well as we head out of the waiting area.
****
Ms. Clark came into Dr. Fraiser's waiting room and a young man came in behind her. He was wearing basic blue jeans, sneakers, a long sleeve shirt, gloves, a black and white bandanna on his head and a dark grey full face mask. Observe.
Name: Craig Pritchfield
Level: 14
Alias: Leech
Gender: Male
Age: 24
Ethnicity: African-American
Race: Human (Parahuman)
Class: Rogue
Faction: None
STR: 17 (+0.00) 17.00
AGI: 15 (+0.00) 15.00
CON: 20 (+0.00) 20.00
INT: 17 (??) ??
PER: 15 (+0.00) 15.00
WIS: 18 (??) ??
CHA: 12 (+0.00) 12.00
LUC: ?? (??) ??
Allure: 5.0 (+0.0) 5.0
Armor: 0.12
Speed: 3.00 (+0.0) 3.00
Attack: 18.60 (+0.0) 18.60
Dodge: 20.92 (+0.0) 20.92
Health: 365/370
Stamina: 350/350
Stress: 350/350
H/T/F: ...
Summary Description:
Craig works as a Rogue selling his abilities to those that have need of a temporary disruption or nullification of their own powers.
He once worked as part-time welder and mechanic to support an acquaintance he later learned was a recently triggered Tinker. When a gang came calling to forcible recruit said Tinker, he was caught in the brief ensuing fight.
A villainous cape with amorphous stretching limbs subdued and strangled Craig to the point of near suffocation, while non-powered members of the gang kidnapped the Tinker. Unable to breathe and fearing death, Craig triggered with the ability to disrupt and nullify powers temporarily on physical contact, which depowered the cape strangling him and allowed him to escape.
Lacking any true offensive ability, and nullification on physical contact only being of limited utility, Craig fled the city and...
Status Effects:
Mental: Caffeine Buzz, Minor Narcissism, Trypophobia, ...
Physical: Minor Bruise x3, ...
Currently Feeling: Impatient, Distracted, ...
Motivations: Get paid for this job, Call the Cape-chaser met in the lobby, ...
Power Summary:
Primary 1: Tactile Power Disruption (Active), Enhanced Awareness [Dimensional:Tactile, Restricted] (Passive)
Secondary 1: Hyper-flexion [Shallow, Restricted, Underpowered] (Passive), Enhanced Awareness [Tactile, Shallow, Restricted, Underpowered] (Passive)
Equipment list: ...
Perks:
Cute, Multi-double jointed...
Flaws:
Greedy
Skills:
Tactile Awareness (Competent)+
Dimensional Awareness (Dabbling)+
Basic Human Motor Functions (Expert)
English-Language (Expert)
Basic Empathic Modeling (Expert)
Social Interaction (Talented)
Basic Physical Athletics (Talented)
Welding (Skilled)
Automotive Mechanics (Competent)
...
Click to expand...
"Stasis, this is Leech. We'll see if he is able to assist you in getting healed up today." Sara says to me as they enter the room.
Leech holds up a gloved hand in a fist-bump pose. "Wassup homes, we'll save the real handshake for later, my powah's touch based, I can't turn it off."
"Yeah, sure." I reply and fist bump him with my not-fucked up hand. "So uh, Leech, that's…"
"Yeah, dat name wasn't my choice. PRT stuck me with it years ago, still won't change it; even after providin' my services out to dem mo' than a few times. Your hand's pretty fucked man. Cape fight gone wrong? Dey said it was a case of yo' power stopping the doc from doing what dey need to yeah. Happen mo' often dan ya dink. And just so ya knows, even dough dey says you weren't no Case-53, and ya sure-don't look it either; My powah don't work on permanent body changed stuff and shit like dat."
"So I guess you've done this a few times. You work for the PRT?"
"I'm neutral man! Rogue. I work for whoever pays me, and I ain't cheap neither! But yeah, man, done dis lots. It can get pretty damn weird man, but it pays the bills. One time I helped some cape dad hold his baby for the first and only time, for like an hour; cause he had like some weird always on ding going on with his arms and legs. Dat was cute an all, but den dey ask me if I can help him and his baby momma get it on again dat night. Nah, I did dat once for a couple early on in this gig. Shit got weird. Not again, only dreesome's I be doing gotta involve two fine bitches, you know what I'm saying?"
"I think he gets it." Agent Piper interjects. "And since you're already on the clock, Leech, we'd really like to get the initial test out of the way to make sure this will be viable at all."
"Yeah, yeah, penny pinchin' PRT. I still gotta explain my shit to da recipient dude, so chill G-Man." Leech says back to Agent Piper. "Alright…" Leech says turning back to me. "So I take my damn glove off, I shake your hand, and if my shit works on your shit, your power turns off. Simple right?
"Sounds simple."
"Yeah usually is, except for weird power interaction, so make sure you ain't got nada going on dat can go bad when your power goes off. My lawyer makes me force people sign a form saying you won't sue my ass fo' any reason in case shit goes wrong. I already got one from the hospital and the PRT, so now it's yo' turn." Leech says while he pulls out a set of stapled papers in legalese. "Please do take plenty of time to read dat. Not even on your dime I hear, so you fuckin' milk it man."
"Heh, sure I'll be extra careful…" Well he's a character. I had some concerns over the name of Leech, though it might imply more was going on with his power nullification, but Observe reassured me. He does have some kind of secondary, which mean he hit some nearby parahuman, when he triggered. It would have to have been the cape that was strangling him, I guess hyper flexion or whatever could be a rather underpowered version of 'a guy with the powers of amorphous, stretchy limbs'. Does Leech know he has that secondary power? Probably, why wouldn't he. He just was didn't advertise it. Though, why would he? Not like its marketable.
I read though Leech's legal forms while Dr. Frasier comes out and they all introduce him to Leech.
"…so presuming this test works. Leech will have to be in the operating room to maintain physical contact. He'll need to be suited up in sterile garments. Holding on to the good hand may not be viable. Does it matter what body part you touch?" Dr. Frasier asks as I finish up my reading.
"Nah doc, anywhere is good, well not anywhere, ya know?"
"Probably the foot instead, so the nurses can be situated near me and the upper body of the patient."
"Stasis are you ready for the initial test?" Sara asks. "Please take everything you have in stasis out as a precaution."
"Sure." I say as I sign the form and hand it to Leech. "Hold on." I pull the pizza box out of my inventory and hand it to Agent Piper.
"Fuckin' Pocket Dimension! Sweet deal man! You could smuggle all kinds a shit. I know some peeps…" Leech exclaims, before Sara very loudly clears her throat. "Uh, yeah not dat I condone dat kinda a ding."
"This Pizza is still warm." Piper wonders aloud.
"Temporal Stasis, duh, still fresh from last night" I say. The pen is still in my inventory. I'll leave that in as a confirmation test.
"You ready man?" Leech says as he take one glove off.
I hold out my good hand. "Put 'er there, partner" and he grasps it.
Your Null Resistance skill has increased by 1
Yeah, expected that, how do I not resist? Leech gets an odd look on his face as the seconds ticked by.
Your Null Resistance skill has increased by 1
"It usually don't take dis long" Leech said after nearly a minute. Yeah I was pushing the grind gains, but my HUD was barely starting to flicker now.
"So it's not working?"' Sara asked.
"It's doin' something, but dis be weird." Leech says.
"Stasis are you alright, do you feel it taking effect?" Agent Piper asks.
"Yeah it is, hold on." I dismiss the first set of skill reduction notifications that scroll by.
Your Null Resistance skill has increased by 1
"Well if it's not, we don't need to keep Leech here any longer…" Piper begins to say.
That's enough, to null or not to null, well NOT NULL, I mean yes null. I want the null to work; NULL.
Suddenly my HUD disappeared.
"There it goes" Leech says. "See, I got the touch baby!"
Skin Deep Eh? Jack flicks his wrist and stabs me in the eye. SURVIVE THIS! Crawler yells and spits of a mass of acid onto me. Bonesaw's bloody Bonesaw spins above my forehead. Chela's mother, blood pouring out of her neck before fire engulfs her body. Ruben's body impaled a thousand times with shards of glass as he bleeds out on the rooftop. Burnscar's face necrotizing under the poison as she convulses and my arm burns. Chela herself, Mannequin's harpoon finger bursting out of her chest. Shatterbird's skin melting off...
I scream.
****
"STASIS!" Sara is yelling.
My HUD is back; there's a big orderly holding me down on the ground. So is Agent Piper. "Wait, wait, I'm okay. I'm okay." There is a mass of unread notifications.
"What the hell was that Stasis? Leech?" Agent Piper demands.
"I swear I didn't do nothing! Ain't nothing like that ever happen before, and warned ya you can't sue me for nothin'…"
"It wasn't him, not directly" I stammer out, as I get my breath and heart rate back under control. "It worked, it worked very well…"
"Then what happened Stasis? They were going to try and sedate you but I told them that wouldn't work when Leech let go right away."
I make sure speech is still turned on, it is. "My power put things in temporal stasis. But what qualifies as a 'thing' is really weird. It can include my own emotional states. That's why I was able to stay mostly calm after waking up in the prior hospital, and uh sorta stay that way since then, considering the ordeal I went though. Honestly it was the main thing that let me stay focused enough to get away. Now, suddenly take that ability away…"
"And it all catches back up to you, at once." Sara says calmly.
"We had suspected a thinker power." Agent Piper says. "This is something you should have warned us of in advance."
"I didn't think it would hit me that hard!"
The door suddenly opens and security bursts into the room. "We've got it all under control now." Piper says flashing his PRT badge and addressing hospital security. "Thank you for the assistance."
"Considering the ordeal you went through," Sara says, "that's remarkable."
"How is this going to affect our ability to proceed with the operation?" Dr. Frasier asks as the hospital security guards leave the room.
"It works so I'd really like for it to go forward, I want my hand fixed. So uh. Restrain me, Leech does his thing, then IV me and knock me out?"
"That can work." Dr. Frasier responds. "You would need to be under sedation anyway for the surgery pain."
"Anything else critical you need to mention?" Piper asks me.
"My power might put some of the drugs into stasis also? I'm not sure, but they seem less effective sometimes."
"And what happens when they go out of stasis, do they go back into your bloodstream all at once? Did that just happen now?" Dr. Frasier asks, alarmed. "Combining that with anesthetics could make you overdose. I don't know if we can proceed if that's the case."
Okay, that's a worrying point. I don't want this to get cancelled. Did I fail a hidden speech check? I quickly check my status effects and see nothing unusual, even though I didn't expect to see anything. "Apparently not. Or it would have hit me right now. I've been taking pain pills for this thing for a while."
"What, like you can't get high or drunk? That's gotta suck balls man." Leech helpfully added.
"I didn't say that…"
"Still, I'd want better assurances than that." Dr. Frasier says, "but we can't even do a blood test unless your power is turned off again."
"When Leech nullified my power it didn't make me drop everything that I had in stasis." I say as I pull out the Pen I had stashed in there. "I just couldn't access it. So no, no drugs dumped back into me."
"Stasis, you left something in, that could have been dangerous." Agent Clark rebukes me.
"It wasn't, I just needed to be sure."
"It was still utterly reckless," Piper chides
"Far less so than you think." I already suspected what would happen because of Hatchet Face.
"And why is that?" Piper asks, continuing to press the issue.
"Getting fused with a Pen sounds like it would fuckin' suck man."
"Leech, please. Step out for a moment, we'll let you know what the plan is in a moment." Sara says as she escorts him out the door.
"Sure thing, I'm still on the clock, so you all just chat away while I chill."
Shit, mentioning the drug thing at all was probably a bad idea. But I don't want to wake up mid surgery, depowered and screaming.
"Well?" Agent Piper asks again.
Okay, fuck him. "Really man? Hatchet Face. Now rub a few fucking clues together, and back the fuck off. The only reason you got that report at all was because I've managed to…" The door opened and Sara came back inside. I'm being needlessly angry.
"What's going on? I heard more shouting," She asks.
"Your conversation doesn't need to be held in my waiting room. Now please, I cleared my schedule this morning for this, so I need to know if we're going to proceed or not, otherwise I have other things I can attend to." Dr. Frasier says diplomatically.
I hold my forehead with my good hand. I just need this to be over with. "I want to proceed, please. Leech's effect worked. I'll try my best to be more prepared when he has to do that again. It just, made me relive everything I just went through and put me on edge. Calmness, and not feeling pressured to answer unrelated questions before I'm ready, would help a lot."
"There's nothing left that your holding then?" Sara asks.
"No, nothing tangible or intangible that I can choose to take out remains. Y'all just asked for anything else critical to know and I wanted to make sure I didn't wake up in the middle of the surgery. So I mentioned that possibility."
"We'll take it under advisement then, If you're ready I have the OR room set up."
"I'd like to take a look at every item you're going to put inside my hand before you actually begin. I don't exactly know what's going to happen when my power gets restored," I tell Dr. Frasier.
"We will test that beforehand as well." Dr. Frasier says. "A standard IV was what I was going to suggest anyway. If it stays intact and functional after your powers are restored, then I imagine the pins and plates for your hand will as well."
"Sounds good then."
"Then I will go and get ready." Dr. Frasier says before departing.
"I'll go and tell Leech we'll be proceeding then. Mark could you accompany me?" Sara tells me before they head out the door. I follow them with my free camera.
"What the hell was all that in there Mark?" Sara asks after they get into the hallway.
"The kid's been nothing but reckless, stubborn and demanding since he came to our attention. You yourself said he should have removed everything as precaution and that it was dangerous not to. Do you disagree?"
"No, but it's not about that. His very obvious worded request about not answer things he is not ready to yet is basically saying, back the fuck off. Do you not see that?"
"Of course I see that, I'm not blind. But his report yesterday? We fast tracked it to Watchdog and they re-flagged him Critical Priority 1, or his information at least, what we still don't have of it. If not for information about the S9, then for other stuff I'm not privy to."
"He won't give it before he's ready. I told you and Johnson that multiple times. He's fragile. I knew he was using a mask, and not the physical kind. I just didn't expect it to be power based. He's like a social thinker, or even a master that masters himself. No one can survive an encounter with the Nine without being a complete psychological wreck, not even counting the physical trauma. The idea of getting useful information from their victims, not just ones that saw the carnage from afar or indirectly, but those that directly experienced it, is something that takes weeks at best, but more often months."
"I well aware of that, but that just makes this more critical. Days after the attack, he writes up a highly detailed, objective report describing wholesale every action he witnessed. Once we got something physical in their hands, Watchdog gave a 98% accuracy rating, and only a couple of evasion flags. That's a hell of a lot better than before when a third of the task force were saying they're getting headaches when double checking the leads. This might be our closest chance at getting something useful to help us kill those bastards, but they've already gone and disappeared like a fart in the wind, just like they always do. So how many people has he condemned by holding back? How many more will there be before he finally stops dangling it like a lure? If he stops at all."
"Yes, and we already believe it's a thinker power that enabled that him to produce it. His word choices about the subject have been telling. He 'relives' it. Maybe he has to write it, and needed the peace and to be alone. That phrase may be a lot more literal where powers are concerned. I know it's more personal for you, but because it is, you should be more sympathetic. I have a feeling that what he's told us so far, was the easy part."
"So we doin' dis!" I hear Leech exclaim as they go into the room he was waiting in.
"Yes, so get ready." Agent Piper says aloud. Then whispers to Sara. "He mentioned Hatchet Face. He was probably nullified in his encounter, so knew his held items would be alright. Still I need to call in that Hatchet Face is probably still in play. Though I think it's already expected due to the thinker tracking difficulties."
"Presuming he had that emotional self-mastery during his encounter with the Nine…that. That would have just spurred them on harder, to break him more. Since it's power based, Hatchet Face would have enabled them to do that."
Shit, am I being that much of an ass?
They follow along after Leech back toward the room I'm in. Piper is dialing his phone, but by the time it connects they're at the door and I swap back to my normal camera. Piper stays outside to talk.
"So I hope you're ready for round two man." Leech says.
"Yeah, and there will be a round three, since the Doc wants to test some stuff first. I'll try not to scream this time. Though hey, you got a business card or something?"
"Sure as shit I do, in case some-ding like this happens again, am I right?" Leech says as he fishes one out of his pocket and hands it to me.
"Guess I'll keep it in a real pocket this time and not a dimensional one. For now anyway."
"Alright is everyone ready?" A nurse,
Ms. Clark and Agent Piper stay behind, while we go into another room, and dress for the OR.
"These are all of the items that will be put into your hand, you said you wanted to see them first." Candice tells me. "I'll be putting in your IV."
"Give me a moment." I made sure FRAPS was still on, it was, but I toggle it anyway to start a new file, observe all the items, then toggle a new file again. "Alright I'm ready." the Nurse straps me in and I nod to Leech. He takes a glove off and touches me.
Your Null Resistance skill has increased by 1
It's doin' that again man, oh wait never mind." Leech says as I flip the internal switch to NULL after letting myself grind another level.
I manage not to scream this time, but I clench my first and fight off the images and sudden feelings of dread as best I can.
"Your blood pressure is spiking" Candice says. "Almost done though, you're okay."
The physical pain spikes tremendously as the resistance Gamer's mind and Damage Resistance Physical stops working. It still pales in comparison to the emotional flood. A torrent of traumatic stress bubbles over, and I find myself sobbing in the chair.
Your Empathy skill has increased by 1
"Done," I barely hear Candice say, then my HUD comes back to life,
"It's cool man, I won't judge. Leech's touch brings people to tears."
I stop my inner troll from making a comment.
"IV is holding well. I'll get Dr. Frasier to take a look before we continue." Candice says as she looks over her work, before getting up and departing.
"Hello Nurse, man she be a fine ding. You see dat ass?" Leech says.
"My mind was kinda on other stuff."
Leech started to say something else, but stops as the door opens again and Dr. Frasier comes in to inspect the work.
"Well it's holding up. We'll feed fluid into it and make sure it stays, then put you under. That way you won't even know when Leech starts again."
Crap do I need to be conscious to change my null resist settings? "Uh, you'll make sure it works while I'm unconscious right? If it doesn't I'll need to be woken up. You saying your nulling power hasn't been working right away like normal does have me a bit worried." I guess I just leave it in the null position?
"It will be obvious during the operation." Dr. Frasier assures me. The rest of his team files into the room including the anesthesiologist, who puts a mask on my face.
"Can you count backward from 100?" She asks me.
The nurse takes my socks and shoes off for Leech to touch when it's time to. A minute later I reach zero.
Your Drug and Poison Resistance skill has increased by 1
"Okay, let's make a bit more of an adjustment to this, and try again. Count back from 100 one more time please."
"99, 98, 97…" Fuck what if my resist levels also go down while Leech is using his power on me. "82, 81, 80…" will I… "54, 53, 52…" OD like the doc, "42, 42, 42 iz za meaning ta life, univerz an' everthin'…"
****
I wake up in a hospital bed yet again. A slew of unread notifications greet me. I dismiss all the nullification and restoration spam and check my gains.
Your Drug and Poison Resistance skill has increased by 1 x3
You have unlocked the 'It's in your Blood' feature for Drug and Poison Resistance
"Stasis?"
I look up and see Ms. Clark sitting in the room with me, on the visitor's couch, a college textbook in her lap. My hand is bandaged up and throbs with dull pain.
"What time is it?"
"It's early evening. You took longer to come to than anyone was expecting. We were a bit worried."
"Oh…my hand?"
"The doctor said the surgery was successful."
They amputated the blackened knuckle too, but they were supposed to. Now I'm missing one and two thirds of my fingers. I flip null resist back to 'not null', and look over my hand.
"Stasis…"
"Huh?" Still groggy though, and hungry.
"Chela is awake…"