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House Of Brockton Bay (SplicerWorm SI) by BatRou-Dawg
Misc » Book X-overs Rated: M, English, Supernatural & Drama, Words: 53k+, Favs: 29, Follows: 40, Published: Jan 11, 2023
9Chapter 2
Stepping through the opening as it formed, I felt the hard carapace under my feet give way to a woven, fur-like covering under my feet as I used a towel to dry my hair after stepping out of a shower to get rid of the byproducts of using a Host Armor. I grimaced slightly, while the use of the 'Wonder Snot' was needed to fully commune with my Host Armor and ensure that I could control it as if it was my own body, that didn't make it any less annoying to deal with, especially since I had to be naked to use a Host Armor. I was still working to create a subtle work-around that could be used to get the same result without me having to be submerged in what was, effectively, a massive mucus membrane.
Sighing to myself as I wrapped the towel around my shoulders as I moved into my workshop, looking over the well lit room as I saw the Host Armor in question standing off to one side, the head having retracted back and the collar having folded back. The opening that had created was large enough for me to slip into, being where my body rested while I controlled the armor, something that was a strange and interesting sensation, especially given the fact that the suit transferred all physical sensations to me, meaning that I could feel wind over myentirebody when I flew.
... Definitely not something one got used to quickly, that was for sure.
Walking over to the Host Armor, I moved to the side and lifted up a specific piece of the shell, it having come unlocked after I had left the armor and allowed me to see the organic port within as I connected to it with an organic wire from a bio-tech device to the side. A push and twist, and the connection was made, a flurry of colours suddenly appearing on a small, previously blank, section of the wall as pigmentations rapidly shifted and changed, testing to ensure that they were working in the proper manner that they should have been. I smiled as I saw the tests finish and information starting to flow, data about both the armor and myself being shown within the bio-screen as I saw it as a wire-like frame flashing in colours, annotated with different shapes and short-handed codes that made it easy to understand what was being meant by what. I knew the system well enough to translate it automatically, but anyone else would have had a much greater difficulty in doing it. Pressing on it with two fingers, I pulled them apart and watched the image zoom in, quickly moving at my command as I shifted the image around and watched the data responding as I looked at a visual feed from the input, the memories of the Host Armor itself.
I watched back over the footage for a specific point, flashing through it until I reached for what I was looking for.
"There we go..." I muttered as I looked at the exact point when I had felt Glory Girl's Aura hit me for the first time and caused me to take a step back in caution. I frowned as I zoomed in on the part of my brain that was effected, the shifts in brain chemistry having been recorded and were now there for me to see. I watched as my brain was hit by a flood of serotonin and dopamine, feel-good chemicals that are commonly released as part of emotional responses for happiness, among other things. Furrowing my brows, I looked closer still, seeing the effect, but failing to see either the cause or the mechanism by which my brain was manipulated. I saw neither, but I definitely the way it happened and made a note of it. I'd look into it further, but I'd have preferred to have some kind of defense against it first before I went and did anything else.
Looking at the bio-screen for a moment longer before wiping my hand over it, dismissing it as I considered my ever-growing, self-appointed, list of things to do.
"Well... May as well get started..." I muttered to myself with a slight smile, at least I could start with the fun and interesting stuff first.
XXX
The outside of my base wasn't anything particularly impressive, a few dozen metres tall and looking like a rather thick tree, the branches were fake and all of the various leafs were, in truth, specialized membranes to catch sounds and vibrations through the air. The bark was a false appearance, really a layer of carefully grown and shaped carapace to hide the true nature of it all as tendrils of flesh threaded through the upper 'branches'. Stripped of all the concealment that I had carefully applied to allow my home to remain hidden, one could remark that it might look like the concept art of Nushi from Lost Planet three. That wasn't through any particular work on my part, merely a point of happenstance as I had been crafting the organic structure into form.
Still, even with all the time I had put into crafting it's concealments, I had also put in an equally large, or greater, amount of time into crafting the defenses by which any intruder would be dealt with. Super Light Cells clusters dotted the outside of the bark, hidden under retractable panels and acting as a way of pelting anything that came close with organically produced laser-light. Bio-rockets were hidden in the upper branches while a dozen holes and ports in the bark allowed for Casting guns and light Bore cannons, the former firing hardened waste fragments while the latter fired short-lived grubs to eat a target from the inside out. Surrounding the area, I had all manner of bio-tech plants ranging from the fungi minefields of the Boom Shrooms, the impassable fields of bladed Sawgrass, waiting patches filled with Razor Willows or other, far more dangerous, creations that awaited someone stupid enough to try and head straight for my base.
Still, such things were not attacking indiscriminately. No, they were directed and controlled from my base, my Lair. If someone wondered into the killing field, then I would be informed first before anything was done. If I allowed it, the intruder would die a horrid death from a dozen different causes, perhaps even eaten alive by the swarms of bio-tech insects that I had in hives throughout the area, or something else, but I doubted that anyone was living to tell the tale of surviving the gauntlet to attack my base and escape.
Regardless, I found myself needing to upgrade all of this with even greater numbers of defenses and bio-tech defenses with the revelation of where I was.
Such things pushed me to look for other things, other options to add to the already impressive defenses of my home, both offensively and defensively even as I tried to consider what to add that I hadn't already added. The entire thing made for an interesting thought exercise even as I layered armor on top of armor, Bio-Force Field emitters upon multiple redundancies, crafted circulatory systems intent on carrying poisons, toxins, acids and corrosive agents designed to eat anyone alive, should they have intended to force an entry point. Internally, much the same could be said as sensory systems quickly lined corridors and numerous weapons were crafted into the walls. Organic blast doors, Bio-Force Fields and numerous area-denial systems were built into the chambers and corridors both above and below ground in an complex system designed to defeat Movers and Strangers who might try and bypass the defenses.
Strangers could be potentially defeated by simply using different sensory inputs to detect them. Movers could be defeated by preventing them from moving in one way or another. I ensured that everything was built to an exacting standard with the intention that any hostile forces, or intruders that came from a...Certain group, didn't make it far, or even make it in passed the first step.
Still, I had my doubts about what my defenses could stop even as I resided at the very heart of my complex, a hidden room surrounded by armor belts and regenerative systems. My lab was the heart of my fortress, a bulwark against any assault that I planned to continuously update with any and all improvements I made. It was meant as a panic room as well as a lab, but the fact it served as my lab also acted as a bonus for my rampant paranoia.
Within said lab, I stood before a console that was covered in flesh and carefully cultured muscles, exposed nerves and needles of bone with a monitor made from a complex mesh of colour changing pigments. Beyond the console, a massive pod, currently empty, lay in wait as I pulled my hands free from the console as the screen went blank and I saw the clear membrane of the pod retract into the floor and ceiling in turn as a sigh escaped my lips.
"Well... Here goes...Something..." I muttered to myself with a certain level of apprehension as I stepped into the pod, it closed behind me as I felt oxygenating liquid pooling around my legs before slowly rising, moving up my shins to my thighs before crossing my waist and moving over the pair of thin shorts I was wearing as a matter of course. I felt the cold sensation of the liquid running up my spin, slowly lifting me up as I felt something attaching to my skin below the waterline and hold me in place even as I started floating in the yellow liquid and just breathed normally even as it passed my mouth and covered me completely.
Panic filled me at the thought of liquid filling me even as I forced it down, breathing normally even as the utterly alien sensation filled me of liquid filling my lungs, yet I wasn't drowning like I should have been. A tingling sensation ran up my spine a moment later, needles of bone and keratin slipping through my skin and making contact with nerves and veins as I felt injections across my body. Pain flared through me for a moment before everything faded into darkness.
My last thoughts as unconsciousness took me were that I hoped this worked...
XXX
"So, what can you tell me about this new Bio-Tinker... 'Dreadnaught' that you encountered, Armsmaster?" Asked Director Emily Piggot even as she gazed over at a screen displaying the utterly alien form of the new Bio-Tinker as she suppressed the involuntary shiver as she looked at it. Flashes of old memories played out through the Director's mind as she looked at the utterly inhuman creature, reminded of the Goblins of Nilbog as she remembered the disaster of Ellisburg with fresh pain. The pain of seeing comrades being torn apart and of seeing civilians being used as little more than food by the inhuman, and cartoonish-looking, creatures of the mad Master Cape. Still, she still thanked God for small mercies as she looked at the 'Host Armor', and thanked God and Scion once more for utterly different design of the creature. The massive creature that, according to Armsmaster, was a suit of biological Power Armor was clearly designed for an inhuman appearance, it's form designed for function over some kind of aesthetic preference with thick plates of armor, scales and multiple visible weapons, not to mention a dozen hidden ones that Armsmaster hadn't seen until he reviewed footage taken and posted on PHO.
"Difficult to say, Director. Psychological modeling won't be effective until we can get a baseline of behavior and personality down, something that I can't do from a single meeting, let alone the limited amount of footage that we have of Dreadnaught in action. Truth detection methods are also slightly less than effective, my prototype Lie detector wasn't able to come up with anything conclusive thanks to the slitted speech he spoke with. Not only that, but based on the size of the armor, and the way it moved, I would guess that it was less armor and more like an exoskeleton with his real body being confined within the main body. Given his neutral body language throughout our conversation, I would say that such a thing is likely. Dragon was with me and her own suite of psychological modeling tools were about as effective as mine." Armsmaster stated as he stood before the Director in his full costume, fresh from the field to give his report. Piggot had already seen it, Armsmaster having already sent her a draft of it using a transcriber and complex system of Tinker-tech shortcuts that he had built into his network, lab and armor.
"And about his capabilities and offer of tinkertech?" Piggot asked next, skimming over to the summary that was added around Dreadnaught working on some kind of regenerative fluid and wishing to have it tested before being released. Few Tinkers sought such things out, even fewer Bio-Tinkers bothered with it, especially since a majority of them had chosen to fall on the other side of the Law. However, the opportunity was too good to a pass over, especially when one considered the potential lives that such a creation could save if it was allowed to go into some level of production, assuming that such a thing was possible. Armsmaster seemed to pause at the question, giving it consideration before he spoke once more.
"In terms of capabilities, I would give Dreadnaught a solid Tinker 7 with sub ratings in Thinker, Mover, Brute, Blaster and Striker, due to his 'Host Armor' as he called his Power Armor. Mover due to the flight capabilities of the armor and his land-speed, Thinker for his reaction time, Brute for the strength of the armor, Blaster for the multiple projectile weapons built into the armor, and Striker for the resin and web-like substances that were extruded by the armor. Chemical analysis shows that both substances were far stronger than naturally possible for any currently existing creature in the animal kingdom. A cross-reference of that analysis shows that the webs have more in common with carbon-nanotubes than with natural spider silk while the resin is more like some kind of cement than anything naturally produced." Armsmaster reported easily as Piggot nodded along, information flashing through her monitor as she brought it up in response, mostly to remind her of key points as she went along with the Tinker's report.
"And the tinkertech he was offering?" Armsmaster seemed to pause in consideration as he seemed to gather his thoughts before speaking.
"I'm not a Biotinker, Director, so I'm afraid that such things are not my area of expertise. However, I can say that I ran the basic facts I have by Dragon and she agreed that, if it worked as described, we could be looking at the beginnings of a truly universal medicine. Currently, our best guess is that Dreadnaught might be looking at a early stage prototype of finished mark one design, but if either are even remotely as capable as we predict, then wecannotafford to let this one go, Director. The advantages alone, it would be game changing, especially if we have it in the field to use in case someone falls into a critical condition with Panacea not reaching them in time." Armsmaster stated with full confidence as Piggot nodded in turn. The Director fully understood the implications and agreed, such a valuable material could not be allowed to slip through the fingers of the PRT and Protectorate, and Piggot would be damned if she allowed it to happen on her watch.
"The implications of such a resource are not lost on me, Armsmaster. For that reason, I want you to see what you can do to expedite testing of it. I don't care what you have to do to get it done, so long as you do so. If you have to call in others to assist you, then please, do so. When it comes to the final trials of the material in question, we could probably speed things up further by having Panacea present to check the work it does. If that doesn't get it green-light for mass production, then I don't know what will." Piggot responded even as Armsmaster nodded and turned to leave, recognizing the dismissal for what it was as he turned to leave, already probably considering the most efficient methods of testing the new materials to the absolute extreme in the shortest possible amount of time.
Then again, Piggot could hardly blame him, her own memories providing her with reminders of situations where such a miracle product could have saved lives...
XXX
Slipping through the door of the Hospital, Glory Girl smiled as she saw her sister already there, waiting for her as she walked briskly towards the woman known as the world's best Healer before wrapping her arms around the woman in question and holding tight, careful not to let her strength get out of hand.
"Hey Ames!" Glory Girl remarked excitedly as she nearly bounced on the spot with the news that she now had, thinking that it would mean the world to her sister. The Healer smiled at the contact, leaning slightly into the touch of her sister as the Aura washed over the both of them even as she wrapped her arms around her sister in turn.
"Hey Vicky, how have things been? Anything interesting happen while you were out?" Amy asked as she reluctantly pulled away from her sister's warmth and stood before her sister, who smiled widely in turn with a half-hearted shrug even as they started walking out the door.
"Not much, was mostly quiet today." Vicky said, trying to seem coy as she smiled widely even as Amy narrowed her eyes in response to the attempt, far too used to her sister's antics to be fooled for a moment.
"'Mostly'?" Panacea asked with a raised eyebrow before Vicky smiled widely, her hands up in mock surrender.
"Ok! Ok! I'll share!" She said with an exaggerated motion even as Amy crossed her arms over and stared her sister down in silence as Vicky scratched the back of her head nervously.
"Ok... Uh, so, I was doing a petrol of Downtown when I heard something happening, figuring I should look into it, I saw one of Squealer's junk heaps beside an upturned Medhall truck, probably trying to steal the shipments in it or something, I don't know." Vicky said with a sigh. Amy nodded and gestured for her to continue, knowing that something else had probably happened, if only due to the sheer amount of effort that she was putting into evading her sister's attention.
"Ok, so I got there to stop them after flying at full speed, dropped down, ready for a fight, only to find them already taken care of. A new Cape had beat me to the punch and had already taken out Squealer and Skidmark, plus a few dozen Merchants, and literally gift wrapped them for Armsmaster and the PRT." Vicky finished with a sheepish look to her face as she itched her cheek a bit with a bright smile even as Amy nodded with a pleasant look to her face. Internally, she let go of any worries she might have had for the day, glad she wouldn't need to bail her sister out from a near-death for someone that she attacked with a flying tackle.
Again.
"A new Cape?" Amy asked, her words loaded with questions as Vicky nodded happily as they moved along at a sedate pace.
"Yeah, big guy who said his name was Dreadnaught. I caught him when he was munching on a piece of metal that he'd ripped out of Squealer's mobile junkyard. He was pretty damn big, too. Well over six foot, and then some, and looked like someone crossed a lizard with a crow and made it stand on two legs, plus a few dozen extra eyes, spikes and what looked like plates of bone. Guy was also packing some serious power behind him, too." Vicky remarked with a casual ease born of someone that had lived as a Cape for most of her live, completely unfazed by the bizarre nature of some powers. Amy nodded at that, cupping her chin in thought at that before asking her own question in turn.
"So... He's some kind of Changer? A Case 53?" Amy asked, getting a shake of the head in turn as Vicky smiled slightly.
"Nope!" Vicky exclaimed happily as she popped the 'p' before continuing. "Armsmaster asked him what his powers were, Dreadnaught said he was a cross between Tinker and some kind of Striker or Shaper. The best part is that he's aBio-Tinkerwith an ability to manipulate any kind of flesh but Human flesh." Amy heard that and nearly skipped a step at that as her eyes shot wide at hearing that. Vicky could guess what she was thinking, especially due to just how rare heroically-inclined Bio-Tinkers were, mostly due to the heavy restrictions that the PRT and Protectorate often placed on any Tinker or Cape with the ability to even remotely interact with the Human body. Even then, Vicky knew Dreadnaught was more or a Rogue than anything else, with slight Heroic leanings.
If he was out and about, and saw a crime in progress, he'd help, but unless he saw something, he'd do nothing. Not something she fully agreed with, mind, but something that she could grudgingly understand. Still, as she spoke, She grinned widely as she came to the best part.
"Anyway! After the fight was finished, Dread talked with Armsmaster and asked about having some tech of his tested before he started making it in large amounts, the technical stuff flew right over my head, but the best I figured, he wanted to make some kind of healing cream or something like that. Said it was base off stem cells and some kind of bacteria I can't even pronounce." Vicky said with a grin as she saw Amy pause in her step, eyes suddenly going very wide as she looped an arm around her sister's shoulder and pulled her close.
"You know what that means, right Ames?! You won't need to work so hard! You can relax!" The Brute offered with a jubilant smirk at the thought, finally being able to get her sister to relax for a change as she pulled her sister closer as Panacea came closer in turn, wrapping arms around the blonde girl and burying her face in her shoulder and long hair.
"... I'd... I'd like that..." Amy managed out with a slight smile even as tears of despair and joy intermingled as she tried to balance her self-imposed duty against her need to make her sister happy, something that was difficult to consider, but she finally decided that duty could take a backseat for a change once this material proved itself. If it worked as advertised, then Panacea already fully planned to thank this 'Dreadnaught' for all he did.
Maybe he could make better use out of the power they seemed to share than she could, certainly, it sounded that he was already off to a better start than she was...
XXX
Awareness came back to me in an instant as I felt the rush of liquid rushing away from my body even as I felt needles pulling free from my skin even as I twitched and felt my muscles contract and my brain itch and spike with pain as the new additions slotted into place. Neural rewrites meant that I could use the new abilities I now had as if I had been born with them, but that didn't help the fact that the changes still needed to settle, especially given the sheer length and breadth of the changes I had undergone in order to make it all work. The membrane me chose that moment to unseal, causing the remaining liquid to suddenly rush out from around me as I grimaced in slight pain and reacted with a speed that shouldn't have been possible for a, relatively, normal Human. I landed easily and jumped to my feet without issue, a headache raging in the core of my brain, but something I was used to from a lifetime of dealing with such things via just bearing through it. Looking down, I looked at my hands and saw the difference immediately.
For one thing, I was no longer a skinny as hell bastard with more flab than anything else. My arms were well muscled with a solid definition, looking like they were primed for use rather than for display like those of a body-builder. Looking down, I saw my abs and felt a grin stretch across my face as I saw the six-pack that was now present to replace what had originally been a mini-keg. Still, pushing such thoughts away, I moved passed the superficial differences between how I looked and how I now looked and found myself grinning like a loon as the options registered in the back of my mind. There was no discomfort at having them, it was like a sheathed blade that was always there, a comforting weight that was always present as I reached for one and slowly drew it from my mind.
Within a moment, I felt my skin tingle as I looked to my left hand and saw sparks dancing across my skin and between my fingers for a moment even as claws extended from my hand and the flesh of my forearm changed as I tapped into a few more changes. Thick hide and scales suddenly covered my arm as claws over five centimetres long slowly grew from the newly enlarged limb even as I watched them grow. I smirked as the dark hide finished growing as I flexed the new muscles and allowed myself to feel proud at what I had done, even with the consideration of just how stupid it had been.
Then again, I was a fan of the old saying: "If it's stupid, but it works, then it's not stupid."
A thought, and the changes reverted a second later as I suddenly found myself with a normal limb once more. My grin didn't move a nanometre as I saw that happen, the success of what I had done and the feelings of pride I got from knowing that it had worked were all I needed to know even as I worked through the pain. Said pain was growing less and less pronounced with each passing moment as I took fresh steps into the world without difficulty.
Moving to the edge of my lab, I pressed a point on the wall and watched as muscles shifted to reveal the passage beyond and my Host Armor awaiting me as I smirked widely. I didn't have anything else to do, especially with the Medical Fluid still being distilled and the sample for the PRT not being ready for another day, at the least.
... Stretching my legs sounded like a good idea, along with a rather nice flight.
XXX
Swooping through the sky was something I was rapidly coming to enjoy as I banked sharply and turned before diving through the clouds and diving for the deck, my wings tucking in as I suddenly headed for the surface of the bay before flaring my wings wide. The sudden pressure and G-forces being put on me should have caused me to black out, I felt them hitting my body, yet there was no creeping darkness at the edge of my vision, not feeling of being about to black out and certainly no feeling of fear as I felt completely in control. Thoughts turned into actions faster than I thought possible before they shifted, my wings making minor corrections as I suddenly spun around and flew along the surface of the dark water. Moonlight bounced off the water as a trail of it was left in the air behind me, pulled up by my sudden passage and disrupted further by the Bio-thrusters hidden between the feathers of my wings. Another thought and a shift of weight before I suddenly tipped one way before tipping the other in a lazy swaying motion even as my wing tips touched the surface of the water, easily slipping through the resistance offered by the water even as I moved onwards without difficulty.
I felt the splash of water even as wind shot by me, I felt it rushing by my face, over my body and along my legs, the connection to my Host Armor ensuring that I was completely aware of everything around me as I banked sharply again before twisting in and flapping my wings again, gaining altitude just as I neared the Docks and pulled up before spreading my wings again, further this time. The massive surface area acting like a massive airbrake as my feet touched the ground without pause even as they tucked away behind me.
Across the reptilian face of my Host Armor, I was sure one could have seen the massive smirk that was an exact copy of the one that crossed my face as I stretched out, feeling the changes, even the initial benefits of having not trained them were impressive. The changes had been extensive, but worth it as I felt my armor far better than I thought possible, a connection between myself and the Host Armor that meant we might as well have been one and the same, a man and his horse, as it were.
Still, for all that, I couldn't wait to consider what to do once I got home, the ideas already flowing as I wondered what to train first. Should I train my ability to project Lightning and create Bio-Force Fields first? Should I train my Metamorphic abilities first and then train with all my current Forms? Should I train my reflexes and gain better control of my body now that it basically ran on fibre-optic wires? The chose were multitude as I considered each of them even as I turned and looked back out at the calm water of the bay.
The scene was one of serenity, a false calm that could have reflected the city rather well at the current moment; calm until something caused a ripple, creating a tidal wave once it had sufficient chance to grow. The end result of a dozen fights between capes of one side or another had ensure that violence was always present, merely hiding under the surface, waiting for a chance. Still, it was nice to enjoy...
... For a moment.
A growl suddenly filled the air behind me as I suddenly became aware of the fact I wasn't alone as I cursed myself for not noticing sooner. Superior abilities didn't mean that I could let my guard down, especially not to admire the background, and certainly not in Brockton Bay, because Brockton Bay clearly couldn't have nice things...
I turned to look over my head just as a pair of monster dogs the size of a bus stepped into the light, their bodies covered in spikes and thick plates of bio-armor even as drool dripped from their muzzles before I looked beyond them to see a figure behind them, a person wearing thick clothing, a ragged hoodie with a corner-store dog mask of a growling bulldog with a spiked collar.
It didn't take a genius to figure out who the figure was.
"Brutus! Angelica! Hurt!" The person I assumed to be Bitch shouted.
... So much for a quiet evening...
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House Of Brockton Bay (SplicerWorm SI) by BatRou-Dawg
Misc » Book X-overs Rated: M, English, Supernatural & Drama, Words: 53k+, Favs: 29, Follows: 40, Published: Jan 11, 2023
9Chapter 3
There wasn't any time for thought in what came next. Luckily for me, I didn't really need time to think, a slight change having fused my reactions with my senses and created a series of automatic reactions to certain situations. Such situations happened to include getting the hell out of the way of anything charging at me at high speed.
As the two massive dog-beasts charged, I moved.
As the first one approached, it lowered itself, head raised and jaws wide as it snapped at me even as I leaned out of the way as it raised its claws to swipe at me while it ran right over me. Conscious thought finally came back to me long enough for me to see the underside of the first dog before I finally counter-attacked by snapping an arm out, Bone blade extending from the back of my forearm as it slashed across the belly of the creature. A second later, I heard the creature howl in pain and rage even as momentum carried it past me and into a wall of a warehouse, said wall lasted less than an instant to the sudden impact, concrete and brickwork suddenly giving way to a void of darkness pierced by an occasional spot of light coming through a broken roof.
Conscious thought left me once more an instant after the impact, as I jumped to avoid another attack from the second dog even as I landed behind it. A thought and my tail had already struck out at the creature, the bladed tail slicing at the hamstring of its hind legs. Claws came out an instant later as the sound of concrete being cracked and broken was heard, I glanced back just in time to see the dog trying to stop itself with its paws, breaking the concrete in the process as it tried to prevent itself from diving straight into the Bay.
I smiled at that, even as I saw it trip over the edge, but hold on by its paws and not fall completely over the edge. Still, with it like that, I felt that it wouldn't be a threat to me even as I turned to look at the charging form of Bitch. I felt an eyebrow rising as I saw her grabbing a rusted pipe and charging, growling at me even as she crossed the distance.
"Nobody hurts my dogs!" She shouted as she leapt at me in a blind rage, pipe in both hands as she did so. I didn't think about it as a hand lashed out and grabbed her by the throat, squeezing slightly as I heard her gasp for breath as I felt motion behind me and to the side. A look around with a few concealed eyes and I saw the cause, the dog in the wall finally getting back to its feet while the one hanging over the edge of the docks was scrambling back up, I frowned at that even as I kept the pressure on Bitch's throat for a moment before I let it go, my wings extending outwards and flapped, a rain of Quills and razor-edged feathers impacting the massive creatures at multiple points.
The results were as I expected them to be. The quills impacting the one on the edge of the docks caused it to howl in pain before managed to fully get on to the docks, it's body suddenly going stiff even as more spikes impacted it's flesh and shredded muscles while injecting more paralytics. Said dog collapsed to the ground an instant later, unable to move for the most part, but alive. The second dog suffered similarly, it was already starting to move at me when the projectiles impacted, causing it's front legs to fall away as momentum carried it as it flipped over and it's face slammed into the ground before grinding to a halt at my feet. I tilted my head down even as I looked glanced at Bitch with one eye, I saw her glaring at me even as her hands grasped around my wrist, I saw hints of her face and neck as I saw her eyes filled with hate and rage. I glared back even as I took the two steps needed to take me close to a nearby wall before I slammed Bitch into it, rocking her even as I squeezed her throat slightly before letting go as I glared more fully at her, bringing all my eyes around and down, focusing them on her.
"Surrender." I ground the word out with a growl, the maw of my Host Armor twisting into a snarl as it showed teeth fit for a Great White. I heard her growl at me once more, lower, but still present as I saw her attempts to free herself grow more desperate, legs starting to uselessly kick at my chest while her fists beat against my forearms. I narrowed my eyes at that before pulling Bitch back from the wall and slamming her into it again, harder this time. I saw her rock with the impact, a whimper escaping her lips as I held her against the wall and glared down at her, meeting her eyes unflinchingly even as she glared back for the longest moment.
... Then she looked away.
Internally, I smiled. Bitch may have looked Human, but her mind had more in common with a feral dog, and pack dynamics were something I knew thanks to the fact I had the ability to make Gorehounds. As such, I felt it was a reasonable guess to make that, if I showed her that she wasn't the top dog, she'd back the hell down.
Seemed I was proven right when she stopped resisting against my hold on her even as she refused to look at me.
"Fine..." She growled out through grit teeth as I loosened my hold on her neck, still holding her, but not enough to hurt.
"Good. Now, hold still..." I said as I reached over with my other hand, retracting the Bone Blade as I did so and grasping one of her hands, followed by the other before I allowed resin to leak through the palm of my hand around her hands. I watched as the brown goo quickly hardened around her hands before I pulled her up further and did the same to her ankles, bunching up her trousers as I did so before I dropped her to the ground.
With her immobilized, I turned to her dogs and looked at them both; Both of them were incapable of movement, the local paralytics of my quills made sure of that, but neither of them made eye contact with me, whimpering as I looked at them for a moment. My smile widened slightly at that, I knew I'd get no resistance from them.
XXX
Ten minutes, a fair amount of resin and no small amount of webbing, later and I looked at my previous opponents as they were restrained, having dragged them into a warehouse through the 'massive dog' shaped hole in said wall. The two dogs were still massive monster dogs, probably still being powered by Bitch even as the Parahuman in question was hanging by her wrists from a line of thread, her feet not touching the ground even as she refused to make eye contact with me as I moved around her. Not only that, but she whimpered whenever I came close to her, or even looked at her for more than a moment, her eyes glancing down even as her chin raised slightly.
Now, with everything secure, I sighed to myself as I leaned against a rusted shelf that had, probably at some point in the past, held massive numbers of boxes from arriving ships before they were sent off to the rest of the country. The light of the moon was the only light in the area, provided by the hole in the wall and what few holes in the roof that were present as I stood back up and walked over to the restrained Parahuman and looked her over more thoroughly.
Looking her over, I came to the conclusion that, while Bitch's power had affected her in some way, it seemed to have been less than what was present in canon since, for one thing, she wasn't covered in muscles and nearly indistinguishable from a male, if given the right clothes. It was subtle, hidden well by layers of ragged, loose clothing, but I saw the slight curves of her hips and chest, rising and falling with her breathing, I was half tempted to take her mask off to see if the rest was the same, but decided not to. Her identity may have been known, but I didn't feel the need to go around and rip masks off. As such, I considered my own meta-knowledge and theories I had, but said nothing of the sort aloud as I approached the Master/Shaker cape and lowered myself slightly until my eyes were level with her own.
"Why did you attack me...?" My Host Armor rumbled, a bit of time having allowed me to let the vocal cords finish growing fully and letting me speak more easily. I had altered them slightly, but only to let me keep the previous mode, for reasons. Bitch didn't respond immediately, refusing to look at me until I growled slightly at her and grabbed her throat again, pulling her up to look at me.
"Why. Did. You. Attack. Me...?" I repeated, growling each word as I realized that a soft approach would do me no good with this one. I heard a whimper from her as I held her throat once more, her eyes flickering around with a rather noticeable trace of fear coming from her, the pheromones swimming through the air. The silence continued for a moment, then two, but was broken as Bitch whimpered into my hold and her body went slack.
"... My territory... You came... My Dogs heard you... Wanted to make you leave... To not come back..." I heard her say, her voice quiet with an almost submissive tone to it as I felt an eyebrow raise before considering it and nodding to myself. I already knew that Bitch was very much like a dog in terms of mentality, hearing that she was territorial wasn't something unexpected, but it did explain the attack.
"I see." I stated as I let go of her throat and stood back up and glanced around. I looked over to the dogs and saw them whimper as I looked at them, submissive and unresisting to my gaze as they raised their chins and lowered their eyes, baring their throats to me. I turned back to Bitch and hummed slightly, the sound rumbling through reptilian lips even as I cupped my chin.
"... I didn't mean to intrude on your territory... I was... Out for a flight... Sorry." I said simply with a shrug as Bitch sniffed as she heard that, looking up at me for a moment before looking back down to the ground even as I smelt the shift in pheromones in the air.
"Doesn't matter. Still lost. They got hurt. Couldn't protect them." She growled slightly as she spoke, hate and rage in her voice, but a hint of sadness as I heard it and looked over at the dogs once more before I looked back at Bitch. I considered what had happened, and, looking back, it was stupid and ridiculous, but it had happened and I was now stuck with a sad Parahuman with the mind of a dog and her submissive pets. It wasn't an ideal situation, but Ididsee opportunities in it. Quickly, two thoughts came to my mind as I considered them carefully for my next course of action. The first was that I simply hand Bitch over to the PRT and be done with it. Doing so would have probably bought me a fair deal of good will with them along with a fair amount of good PR for taking down the 'insane murderer' that was Hellhound. It would also help to solidify myself as a Heroically inclined Rogue, but it would also mean that there was a chance for others to try and recruit her, Coil being the most prominent of them. The other idea, I smiled at, was to recruit her to my side.
Simply put, I was still in Worm, and, as such, I wanted all the firepower I could get on my side as quickly as possible. By myself, I knew I had potent abilities and Bio-tech at my beck and call, but having Bitch on my side would mean that I could have a potential partner to back me up when things hit the fan. Not only that, but having her on side also meant that whatever dogs she had were also on my side and would help me by proxy.
And if I gave her a pack of Gorehounds...
I smiled at the thought, her dogs, when under the effects of her powers, were already potent, but I wondered just how much more powerful they would become if they had been Gorehounds in the first place.
"... What if I said I could help you protect them...?" I asked, slightly curious as Bitch's head snapped around to look at me, not even bothering to be submissive about it as she looked me dead in the eye. I could see her eyes widening slightly at the thought as she spoke.
"How...!?" She shouted, seemingly desperate to know as she tried to rush forwards, only to fail to move as her limbs remained trapped in resin. Already, the beginnings of an idea were starting to come together in my head as I considered the future and just how much of an impact I could have with the meta-knowledge I had in my head.
"I'm... Forming a new team, a new pack, and I'm looking for pack members. I can help you protect your dogs, make them stronger, tougher, if you join." I stated, mentally swapping words to make it appeal to Bitch's canine-like mind as she looked at me. A part of me felt like a prick for doing this, for effectively taking advantage of her while she was in a bad place, emotionally and mentally, but the more pragmatic part of me had already realized that, as the old saying goes, needs must when the Devil drives.
Pragmatism beat idealism when it came to survival.
Bitch was quiet for a long, long moment, just looking at me as though she was trying to figure me out like some puzzle that she couldn't understand. I didn't flinch, my fear response having been disconnected from both physical and mental functions, which was further isolated through the Host Armor. I could still feel fear, but it didn't bother me enough to cause me to flinch back from something, and Bitch certainly wasn't someone I feared, especially after out little fight a few minutes ago. Still, the stare down continued for a minute before Bitch finally stopped, offering a single nod to me as I allowed a smile to cross my Human face. I clapped massive hands together in happiness even as I moved forwards and grabbed a line of webbing before pulling it free. Said line was attached to the Parahuman and her dogs for ease of travel while keeping them either restrained or prevent them from falling.
"Then let's go..." Was all I said before I tugged, pulling the webbing free and jumping, my wings already spreading as I jumped back outside, the matrix of webbing following behind me as I pulled it into the sky on the beats of powerful wings and took off into the moon-lit sky.
... I will forever deny the amusement I felt from hearing her whimper slightly from taking to the air, if only because I knew better than to pick a fight with someone that I wanted on my side.
XXX
Looking around the room with curious eyes, Bitch examined the centre of her new Alpha's territory with a critical eye even as she tasted the air around her, breathing it in through her nose as she noted it. It was clean, lacking the salty scent of the Bay and without the smell of filth from the Docks and a dozen men in rags. No wind filled the chamber, but it was pleasantly warm and she felt the heat rising from the walls as she reached out and touched one, feeling the smooth shell under her hand, but it was warm to the touch.
Turning away from the wall, she took to examine the chamber in more detail as she caught sight of her dogs, both having shed the meat suits they normally wore, huddled near the meat suit that their Alpha seemed to wear. Bitch approached, sniffing the air as she kneeled down by her dogs. Looking them over, Bitch felt the tension leave her as she checked to make sure they were alright, Brutus and Angelica were both fine, a bit roughed up from the fight they lost, but nothing that hadn't healed by being in their meat suits. Said meat suits had long since fallen off and the meat was now lying in some random room that their Alpha had set aside for the meat. Bitch didn't really understand why, since said meat wasn't something she'd touch since it had been on her dogs and been covered with shit, but her Alpha clearly knew something she didn't, so she let it be.
Sitting down, Bitch simply enjoyed the feeling of being with her dogs without feeling the need to constantly look around, to jump at every shadow and every sound now that they were safe in the heart of their Alpha's territory. Angelical quickly moved over and placed her head in Bitch's lap while Brutus came over and tucked himself into Bitch's side, nuzzling against her side as he did so and enjoying the shared warmth even as Bitch's hand drifted down to scratch him behind the ear. They stayed like that for a long time, merely enjoying the sensation of being safe and unlikely to be attacked within their new home before Bitch stopped, her thoughts of her new pack were disturbed by the sound of a muscle-powered door being opened as she turned to look at the source of the sound. Idly, she noticed that both of her dogs had gone still at the noise as their noses twitched. Bitch recognized it as meaning they recognized who was coming in as she turned her head to face the source of the sound.
Stepping into the room, she saw her new Alpha, the one who would lead this new pack. Outside of his meat suit, she got a good look at him as she saw him slipping into the room with ease, not bothered by the presence of Bitch or her dogs as he looked at them without a trace of fear. Bitch instinctively lowered her head as they made eye contact, said instincts having been honed well enough to know that one didn't offend an Alpha predator in its own home, especially one that could probably rip you to shreds without even noticing in the process. Still, Bitch allowed her eyes to catch a glimpse of him as he stepped into view, clad in a pair of black shorts, a loose T-shirt and what looked like a pair of sandals that disappeared into the fur-like carpet under his feet. His hair was wet, a towel around the back of his neck even as he rubbed some water from his head and walked into the room before throwing the towel over a random section of his meat suit as he approached her.
"Right, sorry about taking so long. Just needed to wash up before I showed you to your room and everything." Her Alpha stated to her as Bitch didn't look him in the eye, her eyes never moving above the jaw line even as she offered a half-hearted shrug.
"Doesn't matter." She muttered back as she gently rubbed her dogs, making sure they were comforted and happy even as she saw him nod in return.
"If you say so, this way please." He stated as he gestured for her to get up and follow him. Standing up, Bitch did just that even as she heard the sound of muscles shifting and the smell of her new Alpha. Following at her heels, she heard her dogs padding along behind her as they stayed close to her, a glance down showed them nervously shifting as they took in the strange world around them, exposed muscles showing through walls of tough shell while light seemed to glow from odd bubbles that looked like they were made from jelly. Bitch stopped for a moment to pock one before moving on, seeing it not react as she heard her Alpha stop moving as she poked it before turning to see him looking at her with a slight tilt to his head, curious or amused, Bitch couldn't tell.
Soon, they arrived as they reached a new door of shell before the Alpha touched something next to the door, a yellow bit of meat that squished slightly at the contact before the door revealed the large room beyond even as he turned to her and moved to the side for her to look inside.
Glancing at him in cautious deference, the Alpha gestured for her to enter and she did, her dogs following as she looked around at the spacious room beyond her. Said room was large enough for her to easily have both Brutus and Angelica covered in their meat suits without touching the ceiling of the room, let alone the fact that she could probably have a dozen such dogs in the room. In the corner, she saw a massive bed that smelled of more meat, and was covered by a blanket made from thick fur. Bitch's eyes squinted as she approached it, curious and cautious as she felt her hand running over the fur before she let the tension in her shoulders bleed off.
It wasn't dog fur, it was soft and warm, but it wasn't dog fur that the Alpha had used to make her bed. Bitch allowed her relief to fill her as she leaned down, partially collapsing on to the bed as she did so and found herself enjoying the sensation as the bed supported her, making her feel like she was lying on top of a giant jelly. Allowing herself to relax, she rubbed her face into the covers of the bed even as she felt her dogs climbing on to the bed around her, sniffing the bed before curling up around her. Silence filled the air for a long moment, Bitch taking it to simply enjoy the comfort of the bed before the sound of footsteps reminded her of the presence of the Alpha as he strode into the room.
"I take it that you approve of your new room?" He asked, his lips twisted up at one side from what she saw. The dog-minded Parahuman merely nodded, muttering into the covers even as the dogs closed around her in a small pile.
"Nice..." She muttered as she saw the Alpha stand by her before approaching and taking a seat on her bed, now knowing that it belonged to her even as she felt the weight shift around. Glancing over, she saw the Alpha at the edge of the bed, slightly turned to her with his lips turned upwards, his shoulders relaxed as she looked at him, still refusing to meet his eyes as they were forced to see up to the base of his nose due to the way she was lying. As such, Bitch saw him nod at that.
"Glad to hear, just tell me if you need anything else and I'll see what I can do." He stated as she looked at him in confusion at the offer. Alphas didn't offer things, they shouldn't offer. Alphas should tell their lessers what they get and the lessers should be happy with what they get. Bitch felt the instincts and understanding clash as she tried to rationalize what was happening and only found herself getting confused since she kept getting conflicting signals from her Alpha, making her brain think that he both was and wasn't an Alpha, something that only muddled the already confusing signals that she got from him as she looked at him.
"... Why?" She asked quietly, meekly even, as she didn't want to offend the Alpha, who merely shrugged in return, something she recognized as something people did, which could mean a thousand and one things.
"'Why?' I assume that is 'Why am I giving you this room?', or is it 'Why am I being so considerate to you and your dogs?', right?" Her Alpha asked, Bitch didn't really care for the details, but she was glad that the Alpha understood what was being said as she nodded in turn. Again, her Alpha shrugged.
"Partly because I want to, and partly because we're now teammates, pack mates, I suppose. We're members of the same pack and I won't just leave a fellow pack member out in the cold when I can help it. If it means that I have to house you and your dogs, then so be it. Not really a big problem anyway, but it's something to do." He stated simply without difficulty as Bitch considered that for a moment before nodding in understanding, somewhat hesitantly, as she finally rationalized what kind of Alpha he was. Looking at him, he stood from the bed, causing it to wobble slightly as she saw him take a few steps away from the bed.
"Of course, this also makes it easier for me to help make your dogs stronger. Something that will only make the pack stronger as a whole." Her Alpha paused again, cupping his chin in thought as she saw him consider something before he turned back to regard her once more.
"... Though, if you want, I can make you stronger as well, I can make you stronger the same way I can make your dogs stronger, if you want?" Bitch looked up at that, considering the thought of becoming stronger, the thought of being made stronger to help protect her dogs, and her new pack. She considered it and looked back at her Alpha, still not meeting his eyes, but looking directly at him enough that she saw brown eyes looking back at her with hints of curiosity flickering through them even as she nodded.
"Do it."
XXX
"This way." I stated as I lead Bitch along the corridors towards the lab I was setting up for the transformation of both herself and her dogs. It wasn't finished yet, but it would still be able to handle what I had in mind even as I knew it wasn't at full capacity. Said room was designed to be a kind of production centre for Gorehounds, both for creating them from scratch as well as transforming normal dogs into Gorehounds. The actual room, once finished, would be able to either create or convert at least fifteen dogs at a time, the actual length of time for the process would vary between each dog depending on what enhancements they were to be given, but Bitch didn't seem to care for those things besides making her dogs tougher, stronger and more able to fight.
I rolled my eyes at that, knowing that, at the moment, giving them any kind of ranged weapon was probably right out the window, leaving anything that was meant for a melee and CQC.
"Alright, here we are." I stated as I heard Bitch coming up behind me while I pressed the contact needed to activate the muscles that moved the door before me, a thick section of carapace and keratin that was at least half a metre thick. It was a standard for all chambers in my base, something to ensure that attackers wouldn't be progressing quickly, even with thicker doors lining the corridors every few metres.
The door shifted a moment later, revealing the room beyond, a half-finished chamber of flesh with the general shape finished while various pods lined the walls, only five of which were finished, but that would be enough for the current time, if nothing else. Walking in, I entered the room and walked into the centre of the cylindrical room, a podium with a raised console waiting for me as I pressed a hand against it and felt it wake up. I blinked a few times as I pulled my awareness back, a problem I always had when I had been using these consoles due to the sheer amount of information that was flowing through them. I felt the signals passing through artificial and carefully crafted nerves and often had to shut down my Bio-detector sense to prevent an overload of data. I was getting better, but it was taking time, practice and exposure to do as such.
Sighing to myself, I started up the process as the pigmentations that made up the screen before me shifted and changed, allowing me to select the first three pods as they opened while I brought up the options of what to do with them beyond turning them into Gorehounds of their particular breeds. With that in mind, I set the pods up and began the process of having the system doing the number crunching, the beauties of a DNA computer being that, while it was slow, it could do dozens of parallel processes at the same time and had a frankly ridiculous amount of memory space.
An example I remembered being that one litre of liquid with six grams of DNA in it had a memory capacity of something like 3072exabytes, a ridiculous amount for something like that. Then again, Tinkers could probably do better, but I had to work with what I had.
"Ok, that's the pods ready for the process. Your dogs can go in the two open ones furthest from the door. I'd recommend taking anything off of them, any collars or anything like that." I stated as Bitch nodded as she looked over to her two dogs before kneeling down, pulling a pair of collars off as she pointed to the two pods in turn.
"Brutus! Move! Angelica! Move!" She barked as both dogs moved over to each pods before they closed up. I glanced over to her as she did so.
"Anything you want in particular for them to have?" I asked as the process started, liquid slowly starting to fill the pods as Bitch watched while needles attached to slim tendrils stabbed into flesh as painlessly as possible.
"Doesn't matter. Make them tougher. Stronger. More bite." Were Bitch's suggestions as I nodded and set things up. With those in mind, I decided that regenerative abilities plus stronger hides and a mix of vibro-claws with Ripper Maws would work best. I considered giving them acid blood, but decided against it, since I was already giving them what amounted to biological chainsaws for mouths.
"And for yourself?" I asked as I gestured to the last pod that had yet to open. Bitch looked at it before she shrugged.
"Don't care." Again, I rolled my eyes as I heard that, opening the pod as I started setting things up, altering the settings in the pod along with using my power to cause flesh to shift to ensure that Bitch could be changed in this process like I had been.
"Fair enough. Though, before you go in, I'd recommend taking your clothes off. They'll either be ruined or destroyed otherwise." I stated without looking as I heard fabric shift as I altered another setting to make Bitch's pod less transparent even as I heard fabric rustle and drop to the floor behind me. I didn't look around even as I kept my power to myself and focused on what I was doing as I heard the pod open.
"You ready?" I asked over a shoulder as I got a grunt in return. Nothing was said after that as I heard the dog-minded Parahuman walk into the pod, pressure sensors told me that she was in the pod as it automatically sealed itself shut and begin its work as I turned around and saw the cloudy membrane and the figure beyond it. Along with that, I saw a pile of clothes on the floor and made a note to have them stored away, though, I wasn't too sure about cleaning them since I had yet to fully figure out how to make a fully functioning washing machine and dryer using Bio-tech. Allowing my power out a bit, I caused the flesh of the surrounding base to shift and form into a structure that looked something like an oversized clam before picking up the clothes and collars and dumping them into the new storage location.
With that done, I turned back to the console to check over the final choices of augments for Bitch before nodding to myself. It wasn't too impressive, certainly not as potent as my own stuff, but I figured it was better than just throwing her in the deep end... With one exception.
One thing that could be done to Biotics was called a Savant augment. It basically worked by implanting an instinctive understanding of a skillset into a person's brain to let them do such a thing easily enough. In game, such an augment was limited to only being able to be taken once per individual. In the reality I found myself in, I found that not to be the case as I found that itcouldbe taken more than once, but doing so was a difficult process due to both needing the knowledge in the first place and needing to allow the person gaining it to take the time to understand it. Not only that, but it also required you to literally take half a person's brain apart before putting it back together afterwards, again, difficult but possible to do.
In the case of Bitch, I had set it up so that two skills would be going to her: The skills to read and write, and an understanding of the Human mind-set. The former was an easy thing to get, taken from my own memories, while the latter was a basic mental framework that I was working to assemble with the aid of the other DNA computers in the base.
I sighed as I rubbed my eyes while looking at the console and at the progress of things as they were, a murmur of my inner thoughts escaping my lips.
"This is going to take a while...I just hope she appreciates this..."
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