189 Waking Up

189 Waking Up

Let's do this. I thought and chose the 'skip unconsciousness' option and resumed the world.

The world faded in around me and I found myself on a hospital bed in a private room. I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was the startled face of a mousy brunette with curly hair. She also wore heavy white robes and looked really tired.

“I've died and gone to heaven, for I see a beautiful angel before me.” I said as I stared into her eyes.

Amy Dallon blinked those eyes several times and then blushed. “You actually believe that.”

I glanced down at her hand touching my bulging bicep and back up to her face. “I don't let just anyone touch my voluptuous body, Miss Dallon.”

Amy looked surprised and then let out a soft snort. “Women are voluptuous, Mister Veder. Men are well built or stocky.”

I had to smile at that and looked down at her chest, her robe hiding almost everything, and I looked back at her face. “I humbly request more proof of that concept, Miss Dallon.”

Amy laughed and shook her head. “At least you're feeling better. You had a lot of nasty things in your system after being in that locker.”

I raised my eyebrows at that. “How did you know about... no, wait. Who got me out?”

The door of the room opened and I couldn't see who it was.

“You got yourself out, about half an hour after Sophia Hess locked you in there.” A male voice said from behind Amy. “A few of the students skipped class to keep recording the locker with their cell phones.”

“To see how long I'd last before going crazy?” I asked.

“No, to record that you died in there.” The man said and stepped into view to stand beside Amy. He wore a Parahuman Response Team uniform and had several file folders in his hands. “They were all shocked when your body expanded to what it is now and busted the locker door right off the hinges.”

“Oh.” I said and Amy's face showed sympathy, because no one had tried to help me.

“Miss Dallon?” The man asked and she nodded slowly. “Thank you for the confirmation.”

Amy sighed. “It's not like you needed it. He's pretty much all over the news and ParaHumansOnline, so everyone already knows he's a cape.”

“Don't worry about that.” I said and they both looked at me. “I wanted to get a haircut today and no one will recognize me without the bowl cut.”

Amy looked surprised for a moment, then her hand gripped my bicep as she let out a soft laugh. “You really do believe that.”

“Yeah, no one I know has ever looked past what they can see or bothered to get to know me, so why should I put any effort into how I look? It wouldn't make any difference.” I said and then huffed. “Then again, it will now.”

Amy nodded and left her hand on me, probably to keep being a living lie detector.

“Being publicly outed isn't going to be good for you.” The PRT officer said. “Or your family.”

Amy's eyes narrowed at the man. “Excuse me?”

The man coughed and looked embarrassed. “I meant to say his parents aren't capes and they can't protect him and handle the gangs like your family can.”

“Gangs?” I asked, just to keep the conversation from going where I knew it was going to go.

“You were a born and bred blond-haired white boy before today, Mister Veder. Now you're about a foot taller, muscular, and have unknown powers. The Empire 88 will come after you to recruit you with both your trigger event and your identity going public.” The PRT officer said. “On the plus side, I doubt the other gangs will make a play for you before the Empire does.”

I had to think about that. “Why would Lung try to recruit me? He only takes in Asians.”

“You're a cape.” The man said and didn't elaborate.

I glanced at Amy and she gave a little shrug of her shoulders. “Okay. Why would the Merchants want me? If I'm what you just said, a good ol' white boy, I wouldn't fit in at all.”

“They'll get you addicted to...”

“I've always wondered if New Wave was a family only thing or can any cape join up if they choose to reveal their identity and accept public accountability?” I asked her.

Amy's mouth dropped open and no words came out.

“Can I get Photon Mom's phone number from you? She's the team leader, isn't she? I wonder if there's an application form I have to fill out. Maybe a face-to-face meeting instead or after that. I'll need a costume that fits in with the rest of the team if I'm accepted, too. Do they still do full patrols or is it just Vicky and Laserdream?” I asked her.

Amy just kept staring at me with her mouth hanging open.

“GREG!” My mother's voice yelled as the door burst open and she rushed into the room. Surprisingly, she didn't shove the still stunned Amy out of the way and went around the bed to almost lay on top of me to hug me as she cried. “My poor baby!”

I used my free hand to pat her back. “It's okay, mom. Thanks to Panacea, I'm okay.”

She lifted her tear-streaked face from my chest and looked at Amy. “Thank you for helping my boy, Panacea. You're a godsend.”

Amy finally closed her mouth and nodded. “You're welcome.” She said and took her hand away from my arm. “I should leave and give you some privacy.”

I reached out and took her hand to stop her and her eyes widened. “At least give me your number so I can call you later about joining up.”

Amy closed her eyes for a moment and nodded, because she knew I was being serious about it. I was an outed cape and I didn't have a lot of options. She let my hand go and pulled out a tiny crumpled notepad from under her robes and wrote out her number. She tore the small page off and handed it to me.

“I should be out by tonight and I'll call you tomorrow. What time is good for you?” I asked and she looked surprised that I asked.

Amy let out a sigh and took the paper back and wrote a few things on it. She gave it back to me and glanced at my cuddling and crying mom. Her face showed envy before she could stop it and then she walked towards the door. She opened it and glanced back, just like I knew she would, so I awkwardly waved at her to make her smile. She did and shook her head as she left and shut the door behind her.

I consoled my mother for quite a while and she asked about what happened. I told her and that I had powers because of it. That didn't reassure her and she cried harder. She had lived in Brockton Bay her whole life and knew what the cape scene was all about. With me as one of them, our lives were going to change.

*

Max Anders, aka the villain known as Kaiser that ran the Empire 88, sat at his desk in the Medhall building and watched the video clip again. His gang owned a full quarter of the city in an iron grip and he hated that they were known as the neo-Nazi gang that terrorized the city's minorities and bred fear and bigotry. He wasn't going to give up what worked, even if he didn't believe his own rhetoric.

He picked up his phone and called one of his trusted lieutenants. “Hello, Brad. Yes, it's about that.” He said and listened. “No, we should give him a day or two after he's released from the hospital. Let him think we aren't coming for him.”

There was a little rant from the other end of the line and he chuckled.

“Take Rune with you if you want. Tell her to go for the soft sell at first. If the boy refuses, let your blades out near his mother and he'll come around to our way of thinking.” Max said. “If not, then only near his mother will not be close enough.” He paused and nodded at the response. “I'm glad you understand. I'll leave it to you to handle it.”

Max hung up the phone and started the video again. He saw the scrawny kid going into the locker and jumped ahead and saw his body bust out without even using his hands. His body alone had freed him, which gave him a Brute rating of 3 at least. Yes, Max could use more impressive muscle in the Empire and just hoped this Greg Veder wasn't as simple-minded as his other brutes.

*

I made it home after my mother very reluctantly signed me out of the hospital. I had only convinced her because I had promised to stay in bed for the rest of the day and wouldn't leave her sight. So, that's where I was, back in my bed, in my room, and I stared up at the ceiling.

The bed was surprisingly comfortable and I went over in my head what had happened to me. I had blamed myself for choosing to come here and causing myself problems, only it wasn't really my fault. How was I supposed to know the method of insertion my system used would conflict with whatever it was that cut this section of the multiverse off? I wasn't omnipotent.

Then again, now that I had encountered it, maybe my system wouldn't be hampered by such things in the future. There was no popup or anything confirming that, so my revelation wasn't really noteworthy, and then I felt a reassuring presence in my mind.

Ah, they're working on it. Good to know. I thought and that feeling faded away.

I looked around my room and didn't see my backpack. I sighed, because it could have been left in the locker, cut off and tossed in the garbage, or collected for evidence. With the way that PRT officer acted, I doubted the last one and suspected it was the second one. Why keep evidence of a crime they want to cover up? Sophia was one of theirs, after all.

I closed my eyes and thought about what I had to do, what I should do, and what I could forget about. There were so many things I could change in the story and almost none of it reached past the local level, thanks to Cauldron's experiment with cape feudalism and keeping nearly everything localized to the bay.

My eyes went to the clock and I picked up my cell phone. It was a crappy model, so I used a few powers on it to enhance it and made it better. It was stronger, more powerful, and had a phenomenal data rate. I had a while before the time that Amy said I could call her, so I laid back and closed my eyes again.

It was only my first day and I already encountered three pivotal capes that affected the story. Then again, I stopped one of them from becoming a cape and replaced them. It made me wonder why Taylor didn't try to get me out, so I opened my eyes and looked up the video on PHO. I watched myself become a cape and it was not that impressive.

In fact, I looked like a dork going in and a muscular and filthy dork coming out. Yeah, I am definitely cutting my hair tonight and changing out some of my clothes after watching that.