We split up after that, to explore the new team base, although I wound up sitting down for a few minutes to avoid anyone noticing the effect Aquantis’ words had on me.

Yeah, despite Aquantis’ insistence, I didn’t consider myself huge or anything. If I were short, I’d probably be referred to as a big boy, but at my size? I just considered myself proportional. Hyde was gigantic, of course, but every part of him was gigantic. At over 7 feet tall, in Hyde form I was pretty sure I had biceps that could double as garbage cans. I had never used a ruler or anything, but that might be a fun thing to ask Mariah to check.

I used measuring tapes on my biceps, though. Every guy that spent any time in a gym had. Before I was kidnapped, I had 18 inch biceps, but right now I would bet they were darned close to 20 inches. Not Arnold’s 22 inch shirtbreakers, of course, but if you cannot be proud of your gains you cannot muster the willpower to keep going.

In the elevator I accidentally brushed Blackhawk again, and was in for a shock. Not only was the suit occupied, but it was occupied by someone that was definitely not the person I had analyzed before.

(Blackhawk)

Human 100%, class G

Aspects: body

Current age: 53

Blackhawk had been kicking around, fighting crime, for a very long time. His age made sense if he’d been playing vigilante since Proteus was founded. We were exploring the base labs, rather nice ones, I might add, when I managed to corner him alone. “Blackhawk” I said quietly, catching his attention from where he was inspecting the security interlocks on the bio containment facility.

He glanced up at me, “Yes, Alchemyst?”

“Louis.” I corrected automatically. Thank God that Aquantis, at least, was willing to use my actual name. “Remember that Elixir I offered you before?”

The intimidating helmet nodded, while the synthetically modified voice said, “Of course. Why, do you need it back for an update or something?”

I shook my head. “No. Don’t use it. If you do, you will die. Probably messily and with a great deal of pain.”

He straightened up, and I could hear clicks in his suit as I assume he armed some sort of defense system. “Why, is it poisoned or something? Were you trying to assassinate me? It seems like a pretty primitive method, and why are you telling me now?”

I sighed and lifted my hands a little. “Not at all. That Elixir was custom designed for the one who was wearing the suit at the time. He can consume it, and it will activate his meta abilities quite powerfully, albiet with a day or two of downtime while his body assimilates it. He has four aspects, which means, at a minimum, he could potentially become a class C. It should be perfectly safe for him as long as he’s not in the middle of fighting or operating heavy equipment or something when he takes it.”

He nodded again, and I could hear a synthesized “Oh. How did you know?”

I shrugged, “Analysis sometimes penetrates thin objects, like your suit. The guy that was wearing it the other day was a latent metahuman, you are not. The Elixir has very bad effects on those who cannot develop powers, as well as if the version designed for them escalates them beyond their body’s ability to handle. Right now, if the elixir is consumed by whoever was wearing the suit, he should awaken as a class E metahuman. If it is injected, they will be class D instead, but the downtime could potentially be much longer, and their awakening is likely to be very violent. It doesn’t affect their potential. If they have Class C potential that will not change no matter how it is taken in, but it hits their nervous system a lot harder and faster if it’s injected.”

I shrugged, “For all powers a price must be paid. Injection means that their awakening will likely project their strongest ability around them in an uncontrolled way. For something like body hardening, it would have a minimal effect of maybe mashing things around them, especially if they have increased density. But for something like fire control…”

He nodded, “If they awakened as a class C they could level an entire block, or maybe even part of a city. I have heard of bad awakenings before, sometimes they are so brutal they kill the person awakening.”

I nodded, “Exactly that. So please be careful if he uses it, alright? I offered it because that’s what I agreed to do. If I were there monitoring it I would be vastly more comfortable that I could get him through it unscathed, but if he does it on his own, I would feel awfully guilty if, at some point, your mansion or whatever you use for a base suddenly ceased to exist and took a big chunk of Chicago with it.”

He seemed to relax and I heard several clicks as I think he disarmed whatever it was he had set up. “The power classes seem to be awfully arbitrary. I mean, Proteus didn’t even define them until the 90’s. It’s weird that your power is so precise.”

I shook my head, “It’s not. It’s subjective, based on my understanding of power classes. It’s just easier to think of certain levels of power that way, just like aspects. I can feel certain types of energy running through them, and mentally class them as aspects like fire, wind, gravity, and that sort of thing. Sometimes I get it wrong, and sometimes it can develop in a totally weird way. I might read a power aspect as gravity, when it can increase the weight around someone, but it could also be that they can push things around telekinetically, increase their own weight exponentially to fly or become a living sledgehammer, or even open a sort of wormhole or white hole black hole combination to teleport from place to place.”

“I am getting old.” He explained.

I nodded, “Yeah, the big five-oh has got to be rough for a vigilante. You have been doing this for what, over 30 years now?”

He nodded, “Yep, and back when I started there were a lot more normal people that put on costumes and fought the big bads. The bad guys were weaker, and often normal themselves. Hell, I didn’t even have this suit made until the year 2000. With security upgrades, a higher level of hero powers, constant surveillance and cellphones, the villains running around now are sort of the culmination of decades of breeding and weeding out the weak. They are nastier, more brutal, and more powerful than their contemporaries even twenty years ago.”

I nodded slowly. “I sort of noticed that. Not to mention their tech is better.”

He nodded in agreement. “I am still in good shape, for my age, but I couldn’t even compete without the suit now. I was never as muscled up as you are, but now, if it were not for my armor, I doubt I could take one of your UFC buddies in a real fight, even with my training, much of which no longer exists. I should have retired when I hit 40, but there is still so much to do, so many threats that need addressing. That’s why I was willing to look into the new teams. Even ten years ago I would have laughed at the idea of organized vigilantes, but now it’s sort of my only hope of seeing innocent people protected against the hordes of new monsters.”

“So you are training a successor?” I asked curiously.

He nodded, “Yes I am. I trained them right from the beginning to use a suit, since before then I used to get mauled pretty regularly, and even once I started building them, it took me years before I could come close to my unsuited abilities. Even now, I am seriously considering using your elixir on them, because I don’t think just a suit, combat training, and a good set of detective skills will be enough.”

I sighed. “I hate to bring this to your attention again, but remember how I mentioned that he had meta potential?”

Blackhawk nodded.

“The actual term is latent meta. That means that, sooner or later, if he gets into severely stressful situations, he’s going to pop. Conflict brings it all out. Even if he’s in a suit. That’s why I was so confused when I noticed that Blackhawk was latent. You just could not do what you do without awakening.”

He nodded again. “I see.” came the mechanical voice.

I shook my head, “No, I don’t think you see. I assume your new apprentice is young? A few years after puberty, usually by the time their body finishes maturing at around 17 for girls and 22 or so for boys, awakening becomes pretty much assured. When Windfall arrives we can get her to run the actual odds. That means, even if he lives a perfectly safe life, sooner or later he might, for instance, get mildly irritated with his new fiancee’s choice in sex music while she’s bouncing away on his lap and suddenly her head is in a different county while her body stays behind. Four aspects means he is going to be powerful, and one of those is going to be physical might.”

I sighed, “That sort of thing happens a lot more than you might think. It would be safer to just awaken him while he has time and can get used to it before he’s thrust into conflict. His other aspects are all incredibly potentially damaging, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he awakened surrounded by wreckage and dead bodies as a class C. He has wind, energy, and matter aspects, and I am sure you can look up metas that have only one of those power definitions that have wound up accidentally doing horrible things, like using matter aspect to teleport into a wall causing a thermonuclear explosion enhanced by his energy aspect, or creating a devastating firestorm with wind and energy, and matter and wind? Ever seen what a tornado does to a farmhouse? Only without the farmhouse, just the people.”

He sighed, a very weird sound filtered through a voice-altering mic. “Okay, you have convinced me. What should I do? This is not the kind of situation I am used to dealing with. I have had sidekicks before, but they were always highly-skilled normals, and none of them had this one’s mental potential. Some of them dropped out of the heroing business entirely, and two of them went off on their own, one successfully.”

“Well, first you have to realize that a lot of meta abilities won’t work through armor like that. Hell, with body potential, the armor might just slow him down or he might destroy it because it’s not strong enough. Lots of powers require a clear line of sight, or physical contact, like my analysis… through your armor I can barely get a read. You might have to give up on the suit.

He shook his head, “I cannot do that. That suit is Blackhawk’s signature. Without it I lose half of my ability to deal with crooks from psychological impact alone. No one will believe my apprentice is me without it.”

I shrugged, “Maybe make him a costume that still looks like the suit but isn’t?” At his headshake I shrugged, “Let him awaken and see what he can do. If it works, great, but you are still going to have to let him train some without it. If it doesn’t work… well, you have had sidekicks before, you will have to do it again. Maybe have Blackhawk lay low for a while before he reappears stronger and better than ever.”

“As far as the actual awakening, you can either have me nearby in case something starts to go wrong, or just… give him the elixir and hope for a peaceful awakening. Ingestion is safer, but it’s not exactly safe. It’s like jumping out of an airplane towards mud instead of concrete.”

He shook his head. “I cannot really do that either. Secret identity.”

I chuckled, “Seriously? You know that my ability instantly gives me whatever name someone is used to going by. I have sworn never to reveal them. I might hamburger a murderer, but I wouldn’t give it away, and with my abilities there’s no chance it can be drugged or tortured out of me. I know the secret identities of more vigilantes than the DMA does, and they are safe. Heck, I am pretty sure that is one of the reasons Proteus and the DMA both are desperate to have me under their thumbs.”

I sighed. “You can do what you want. It’s your choice, your responsibility. I have done all I can to salve my conscience, but I will still feel guilty if something bad happens. It’s just that if you give him the elixir, please make sure you are way the hell away from anyone, like Alaska, or the salt flats. If you don’t give it to him I’d rather you be even farther away, like the moon. Remember the Catalon event? That was what happened when Galactica got her powers. I am pretty sure the reason she’s been fighting villains for a decade is out of guilt for the people her awakening killed.”

I thought about it for a moment. “I bet that’s why she’s still single.”

Blackhawk let out a little half-squawk and said “What?”

“Think about it. With her strength, a guy would have to be at least a class D body or have a major metal aspect or something, or the first time she came she’d pinch him in half. We are looking at a rare class D or maybe a class C for her to date him without killing him. She’s been seen with a lot of celebs and even The Commander, but she never really hooked up with anyone. At class D to class C, any superhero she hooked up with has their own career and celebrity to worry about. How many durability specialist Class C guys have you met that aren’t supervillains, gay, or celebrities that would want her for her money, fame, or both?”

“Dude, your mind changes track so fast. I thought you and Aquantis were an item.”

I shrugged, “What can I say? I can still look. I have class D toughness and don’t give a shit about my publicity. Maybe I should go meet her and tell her I just want her for her body.”

He chuckled hollowly, “I doubt that would go over very well, even if you weren’t someone Proteus wanted to take apart. She is, after all, Proteus’ golden girl.”

I shook my head, “Golden girl? What was she, fifteen when she awakened? After a decade, that would make her twenty five, which is younger than me, and she still looks like she’s maybe nineteen, tops. Golden girl.”

He chuckled a little gratingly, “Do you always think with your dick?” He asked. Ahh, the ice is broken.

I shook my head, “Not until yesterday, but now that I have started doing so, I find it has a great deal to offer. Thinking with nothing but my brain got me stuck, naked, in a cage for two years. How about you?”

He stood stock still for a moment, and then shrugged. “Do you remember Steel Vixen?”

I smiled a little, “How could I forget? I had a special part of my spank bank devoted to her until she…”

He nodded, “Right, she died. Before she joined the Prometheans, though, did you know she was a supervillain? Used to be able to blow right through any security, trick any computer into thinking she was a superuser.”

I nodded, “Yeah, cyberkinesis and an amazing body. Why?”

He said, “Well, I went after her a while when she drifted into Chicago. She literally peeled my armor off. I was already a little old at the time, but I started flirting with her, to buy myself time until she decided to throw me off a roof or something.”

“Huh.” I said, “Don’t tell me the two of you wound up in the sack?”

He nodded, “Yeah, we did. A lot. It was weirdly fun. She’d do some kind of minor crime, I’d catch her, she’d stop me, we’d wind up dancing. I mean, she never really did anything bad, mostly the only reason I caught up to her in the first place was because she taunted me as the second biggest hero on the block. She usually would go for whatever was the most heavily protected, even if it was worthless to her, I think to challenge herself. Once she proved she could get through any security, she’d let me catch her. And sometimes… ahh...punish her to show her the error of her evil ways. Eventually she joined the Prometheans, which I didn’t like, and we stopped seeing each other. I guess I knew that the stuff they got into would kill her, since she wasn’t super tough or anything.”

I sighed, “Dude, you have my total respect. It was truly a shame what happened to her, and I am really sorry for your loss.”

He nodded, “I have some thinking to do. I will be back when the rest get here. You should probably go find a room before the others push you to the end of the hall in front of the bathroom or something.”

I grinned, “Have you noticed that the team is predominantly female so far? In front of the bathroom sounds like a good place to camp out.”

He chuckled and shook his head, leaving the lab.

I did get a room for the week. It was by the bathroom, but apparently the underground base had plenty of room. The bathroom was in my room, as well as a kitchen, a bedroom, a lounging room or library, an eating area, and a place to put a TV, although the TV that was already there was a gigantic mess of projection tubes and reflectors, totally useless, and needed to be replaced. As did the mattress, most of the furniture, the linens, and a weird black and gold costume that looked like some kind of a robot. The stuff wasn’t actually decayed, it was just really old.

I returned to the living area to find that Grace and Windfall had arrive, both in civvies. They were struggling with the wayward chairs, and I came over and lightly tapped the patch on the top of Windfall’s chair, followed by Grace’s.

“Hey Grace, Hey Windfall” I said to them, flopping on another fixed chair. “The facilities here need to be completely revamped, Grace. The weight room is still mostly okay, although I have never seen five thousand pound free weights before, I approve. The labs have already been updated, as have most of the public facilities, but I think whoever did it assumed that people would make their own choices of room décor, but right now everything in the private area is falling apart, and you have no real place for any guests to set up.”

Grace nodded, “I will get them to send some furniture from a secure supplier. This place is really only intended as a temporary shelter and full time HQ, for about six people. The only guest facilities are in the brig.”

I chuckled, “Well, according to Baldwin this is my new home until we get some people in and checked out.” I glanced at Technomancer, who had just walked in. “Do you want to get this over with?”

He shrugged, “That depends, what do I need to do?”

I let out a hmmm. “Well, if you were a cute girl I’d say we have to get all naked together, but it just takes skin to skin contact to analyze your biology and see if there’s any major issues to deal with. If they are not too bad, I might be able to whip up a cure real fast, maybe an elixir, but someone might have to go out and get some ingredients. Even with the updated lab, most of the chemistry that’s available is too esoteric and technological to be useful.”

I looked over at Grace, “That reminds me, Grace, I haven’t analyzed you yet.”

The vivacious 30 something blonde looked nervous suddenly, looking around, “I wasn’t really… I mean, I am not part of the team, my insurance doesn’t really cover this sort of thing.”

I smiled at her, “Windfall is insisting that for some mysterious reason I cannot scan her yet, and Technomancer doesn’t have any reason to trust me. You know this won’t hurt you, so how about you allow me to demonstrate?”

“Alison.” Windfall stated.

“What?” I asked her.

“My name is Alison. The name Windfall sucks. It either tells people my power instantly, or it makes everyone think I have wind powers. I hit a guy with a broken branch falling from a tree one time, and the press labels me eternally as Windfall.”

I chuckled, and then nodded, “Understood Alison. You aren’t Windfall.”

She nodded, “Good. The name is as stupid as that white costume. I used to play roleplaying games. If bad guys saw me in that, they’d ignore the big muscled guy with armor and shoot at me instead. Kill the caster first.”

I nodded, “Sound logic.”

She smiled, “It should be, I projected an 85% chance of getting lethally shot in my first combat if I wore that stupid thing.”

I smiled, “Good. Don’t wear it. You look better without it on, anyway.” and I turned back to Grace, “Are you ready?”

She nervously nodded, “Does that mean you have to get naked with me?” She asked.

I laughed. “No, I was joking with Technomancer. Not that I would mind, you are nice looking for a talking head and you really care about what happens here, but I make it a rule not to sleep with my bosses. Just your hand will be fine.”

Grace cleared her throat, “Sleeping with your bosses has been a problem in the past? And I didn’t know I was your boss.”

I chuckled and just took her hand, rubbing the backs of her knuckles with my thumb. She was cute, a solid eight at least if a little on the wide shouldered side, but that only made sense for someone who was intended to interface with the public. A flared jaw and broader shoulders were considered attractive with celebrities nowadays. She also smelled very strongly of baby powder and whatever antiperspirant she was using, making it difficult

Grace Andrea Petty

Human 100%, class G

Aspects: body

Power: 50

Conditions: 4 days until menses. Minor obsessive-compulsive disorder

Projected lifespan: 45 years barring mishap. Current age: 33

healthy, aroused, nervous, convinced she is in love with you if only you would notice her.

Urinary tract infection, minor cocaine addiction

Ahh. I understood her nervousness. I stood up and took her hand, grabbing one of my potions, and headed towards the elevator, lightly tugging her from her chair, with a slight smile on my face.

“What is it?” Technomancer asked.

“Doctor stuff. We will be back in a moment.”

Grace followed along, looking a little confused, as the elevator door opened and I took her through it, allowing it to close and pushing the third floor button, for the residences.

“First, drink this, it will cure the urinary tract infection. There’s a reason you really want to go down on a guy first, before you let him have sex with you, that way you can make sure he smells right and is clean.”

She blushed, but took the little antibiotic potion and downed it. I took back the bottle, since those were good bottles.

“Secondly, I know it helps smooth things out when they all feel like they are going crazy and out of control, but you really need to lay off the blow. I am not going to moralize at you, but I have seen the end result of letting it get to you too many times. I don’t want you to get hurt, and if you need it, take the time to go to detox. It is not a weakness, it proves you are stronger than that, okay?”

She nodded again, being quiet. Possibly for the first time in my experience.

“Lastly, I think you are attractive too. But, and this is a big but, I could potentially hurt you terribly. One of the reasons I hooked up with Aquantis is because she has meta durability. This is not me being superior, or looking down on you for not being a meta, it’s simply that I like you too much to want to hurt you. You are good at your job, you are forcing things into order perfectly, but you and me cannot happen. I will not hurt or accidentally kill someone like you just to get my rocks off, okay?”. I was bullshitting a little, but telling her that she was simply not that interesting would hurt her feelings for no good reason.

She shook her head, “Not Okay. I could take one of your Elixirs.”

I sighed. “No you cannot. If you took an elixir you would either melt into a puddle or explode and leave goopy chunks all over everything. You are a real person, with a real life, you wouldn’t want to trap yourself into this endless cycle of children’s games of super hero versus super villain crap anyway.”

“Your life will be much more challenging, and much more real. You can get married, have children, leave behind a real legacy rather than faded posters that people look at and forget about in a few years as ‘just that dead hero’.”

She finally chuckled a little ruefully, “I thought that if you noticed me, when you moved on I would go with you, like Windfall.”

“Alison.” I said.

“What?”

“She said her name is Alison. Just like my name is Louis. Some of us don’t really buy into the whole superhero names thing, especially if we have powers that are subtle and are not bulletproof. I am betting, if you asked her, she’d say that calling her Windfall instead of Alison improves her chances of getting shot by some percentage.”

She nodded and I pushed the lobby button. In a few moments we were back in the meeting room, and Blackhawk and Aquantis had rejoined the team. “What was that all about?” Aquantis asked, back in her natural form.

I raised an eyebrow, “I am not sure what to call it. I am not a doctor so it’s not patient privilege, or a lawyer so it’s not client privilege, but it is private and not any of our business.”

Grace slumped back into a chair, and then wiggle for a moment, getting comfortable. “I will take your advice this weekend.” She offered, and I nodded, “Good. It will help.”

Technomancer finally took his glove off. “Okay, but if you note anything, I expect you to keep it to yourself.”

“Of course.” I nodded, and put my hand on top of his palm.

Ronald Kale Robinson (Technomancer)

Metahuman 22% class E(D)

Aspects: body, technopath, organokinetic

Power: 154

Conditions: permanently scarred lung, in love with Candace (Blacklight)

Projected lifespan: 88. Current age: 24

hopeful, intimidated, bravado

no current abnormal infections

Powers: assemble, empower, technopathic invention, improved endurance, improved intelligence

“Whoah.” I said.

“What is it?” he asked.

“You know what part of it is. Do you want it fixed?” I asked.

He nodded, “Oh, I thought… No, yeah, I want it fixed, if you meant the lung. I just thought you were talking about something else. It’s inoperable… can you fix it?”

I nodded, “Yes. Emotions and stuff are way out of my league, but you aren’t psychotic or anything. It looks like you aren’t even that fond of fighting. I need to make a better potion, though. I have a regeneration potion already, but it only works on new wounds or with a painful modification. Fortunately it’s not like a defect or anything, so it shouldn’t be hard, as long as you can get to a pet store and find a green anole lizard or a starfish. Frog serum just doesn’t have enough kick, unless you don’t mind getting electrocuted?”

“You want to inject me with a frog, lizard, or starfish, and then electrocute me?” He asked.

I shook my head, “No. Lizard tails and starfish arms regenerate. So do frogs, but you have to apply electricity to cause it to work on more serious injuries. I already have a potion based on frogs, but for an old wound like your lungs you would have to take a nice flow of electricity for several minutes. Not enough to knock you out or fry you or stop your heart or anything, but you will be jolted for several minutes, like sticking your tongue on a battery again and again.”

He nodded, “You have tested it right?”

I shook my head. “No. But it’s my power. I can see it will work. Can you imagine how much it would suck to have to try and test something like regeneration? Here, hold still, I need to cut your arm off. Nope, I am not the FDA. I know it will work the same way you know that a taser at one-quarter power will work.”

He nodded, “Yeah, it will… oh wait, is that how much electricity it will take?”

I nodded, and then he smiled, “I’d rather just get the shock then. Me and my buddies used to tase each other for fun. I know what that’s all about."

A few minutes later, after a potion and an almost magically-produced, weirdly organic taser had shocked Technomancer several times, I asked him quietly, “Is she joining the team?”

He looked startled for a moment. “Uhh.. yeah, I think so. Her boyfriend is joining it anyway, which means she will come too. They should be at the meeting tonight.”

I sighed, “Sorry man, that sucks. I was hoping… well… anyway, you know you won’t ever be on the Prometheans, right?”

Technomancer grinned at me, “Hell no. Proteus sucks.”

“Amen.”