From Author:
Ehm, hello everybody. I'm pteradon and that's my first story translated on English. Yep, you're not misread it. This story is already written (but not finished for now), but in another language on another site. So quite obvious that my native language isn't English and to that circumstance i must apologise for terrible grammar, inaccurate and unreadable sentences et.c. I' m really trying to improve (and looking for beta of course)
So, hope you will enjoy it.
Prologue
Velocity and Assault slowly made their way through the empty hospital corridors. Though, strictly speaking it was impossible to call this place "hospital". Hospice, no more than that. However, it was like a miracle, how could a hospice exist in conditions of such city as Brockton Bay, where Panacea was actively practicing. But it existed. Before today.
This place was … died out. And it was the best definition of that state of silent horror that heroes were experiencing right now . Patients, medical staff of a hospice, all these people were dead. There were no horror masks on a face, there were no broken bodies specifying violent at all. They seemed to have died instantly, as if they had just fallen to the ground in order not to wake up anymore. It was terrifying
Miss Militia and the Armsmaster were in an opposite wing of the building now. That allowed to cover bigger radius and to narrow the search for the causes of ... This Terror. Remaining heroes stood in a cordon now, without allowing somebody to enter the building and wha was more important... To leave it. Also there were forces of the New Wave in full strength on a case of unforeseen circumstances in three minutes from there. Whatever happened here, the Protectorate could not allow it to go beyond this building. Otherwise the victims count could be much … much more.
Suddenly, attention of heroes was drawn by the strange sound. It was dreadful mix between a scratch, shout, growl and ten more sounds which they cannot recognize in all desire. But this sound was illogicly wrong. Un-natural. Un-human. at his partner, Velocity realized that he was not the only one who heard this. Having exchanged glances, the two heroes rushed towards the source of the sound.
It was small hospital ward in section for hopeless patients. It was a Hospice, after all, but here lay people with most complicated cases, people whose life was completely dependent depended from life support devices. As it approached, the sound grew louder and became more and more unnatural. It would seem that sound was not reflecting from walls, on the contrary - It pierced through them. Velocity felt that his head slowly started to ache. About himself he sighed, being absolutely sure that after this he would be inevitably placed under the Master/Stranger protocol . And he'd be damned if that voice...sound, whatever hell it is has something in slightest similar to that voice of Simurg.
At last they reached a door.
Velocity looked back on nodded at the door and prepared for battle. He quietly and slowly opened a door and looked inside. In his superspeed-mode, of later he freezed out on a place, falling out of the accelerated status.
He managed to see a lot of disgusting and terrifying things during his career as a cape . Several years of fight against various threats, from supervillains to Endbringers - the monsters who were capable to destroy whole nations. He remembered what happened in Ellisburg after Nilbog's madness. But even this life experience was not enough to remain quiet and indifferent in case of that picture he saw.
It was a small chamber. Even smaller than the rooms in which they had looked in before. Almost all the free space of the chamber was occupied by numerous medical equipment for life support. Apparatus for respiratory support, artificial dialysis, intravenous nutrition from droppers. Dozens of wires and tubes separated from the snow-white apparatus and converged in the center. But the centerpiece of the room was ... Something.
It... it had a humanoid form, dressed in some sort of army overcoat of some grayish fabric with a red border and metal buttons. On the hands of this creature were immaculately white gloves. In combination with the same immaculate white jackboots and a huge broadsword attached to the belt with a huge golden badge, he would create the image of some military officer... if not for the triangular bone mask with huge teeth and eight coffins that soared under the ceiling, creating a kind of halo .
The creature paid no attention to Velocity. General Attention of this creature was focused on the hospital bed standing in the middle of the ward. Creature's hands, clad in white gloves, shook the bed back and forth, as if shaking a cradle with a baby. The bed creaked plaintively, opposed to the unnaturalness of these movements, but the entity clearly possessed superhuman strength.
It took a certain amount of effort to allay the trembling and find the strength to transfer the view to the hospital bed. Covered by a thin blanket, a young girl was lying on her...
….what should have been a young girl.
But with all of his tact, Velocity could not say that the girl looked good or healthy in any degree.
Pale face with huge bruise under her only visible eye. Another one was covered with a huge white patch bandage and Velocity seriously doubted that it was done without reason. Many terrible, ugly scars on the entire surface of the hands, as if someone had torn the pieces of meat from her body. Concealed chest, general dystrophy. Velocity did not know what exactly happened here, but looking at the monster that rocked the girl who was at least unconscious, he definitely had some thoughts about what could have caused this.
Velocity swallowed nervously. It was quite obvious that the cause of everything that happened here was precisely this ... being, apparently some kind of Projection. And if his assumptions were correct, then without the participation of the girl, this projection cannot be removed.
Having coped with the emotions, Velocity left the room, carefully closing the door behind him and turned to Assault looking at him. Their exchange of views lasted for a few seconds, after which both simultaneously reached for the radio
- Assault - PRT, we found the probable cause of the incident. One of the patients. Little girl, probably trigger, right now in coma or something like that, there is a projection hanging above her in a meter, which publishes inhuman sounds. Requesting assistance from Panacea.
- Understood, Assault. Stay where you are and wait for the Armsmaster and Miss Militia to arrive. You need to make sure that the projection is safe before New Wave allows Panacea to begin treatment.
- Acknowledged, Assault out.
Three hours ago.
Her world was like a pile of broken glass. The once-solid canvas of her mind was now as if they were crushed into tens and thousands of shards, each of those had its sharp and obtuse angles. And putting those pieces together was practically impossible.
Consciousness returned to her with excruciating pain. The pain was everywhere. Splitting her head, crumbling her legs, burning her skin. Every cell in her body ached and groaned in agony.
Who is she? How did she get here? What happened? - all these questions surfaced in her pain-filled mind. Her memory now was like a sky puzzle for a thousand details, which a curious three-year-old child scattered around a huge azure-painted room.
Thinking was painful. Thoughts flowed with the speed of a viscous jelly and did not want to clarify.
Taylor.
She remembered. Her name was Taylor Hebert. Was she ... fifteen? She had ... parents. Yes, she had parents.
But then…
Then…
Someone died. But who?
Head pierced with pain. More than before.
Annette!
The one who died was named Annette?
Then her mother died? It is so?
The question addressed to her own memory remained unanswered.
She tried to open her eyes. Muscles ... muscles did not obey her, as if rusting mechanisms from long non-use. Her eyelids seemed to be made of the heaviest lead she had ever seen.
But she kept trying. She continued and her attempts were rewarded with success. A light that she seemed not to have seen for an eternity struck her in the eyes. More precisely on the eye. It is not clear why her second eye saw only darkness.
Eyes immediately watered, trying to adapt to an abrupt change and her gaze began to blur. She felt that the other feelings begin to return to her.
First came the hearing. The measured buzz of unknown devices was accompanied by a non-stop squeak of other machines whose purpose she probably knew, but for some reason could not remember.
The next sense was smelling, immediately catching some strange and slightly harsh smells that surrounded her. And again she could not remember where she was and what this place looked like. As if the associative chain broke off, not reaching the end. The puzzle detail did not want to fall into place.
All she could see was only a gray ceiling, with some lighters which looked damped for some reason. Body refused to obey to her and she could not move at all. Her tongue felt like as if it has rooted to the top and refused to move.
Meanwhile, her awakening clearly did not go unnoticed. In any case, her newly-established hearing caught the sound of an opening door and someone's quick steps that approached it. After a few seconds, she felt the upper half of her body begin to rise, as if some kind of mechanism lifted the bed.
Her eye focused on the man who stood before her. He was a man about forty, with a small beard and brown eyes with thin glasses. A white dressing gown was thrown over his shoulders.
The man caught her eye and interpreted it correctly.
- Miss Hebert? If you understand me blink twice.
Taylor fulfilled the request of the man, still not quite aware of what was happening. The man Еnodded in satisfaction.
- Well. First of all, you are safe. Our department was created specifically for such patients as ... - the man continued to say something, but Taylor no longer listened to him.
Did he say "patients"?
So she is in the hospital? How did she get here?
Where is father?
What happened?
Taylor tried to find her latest significant event in her memory.
Was it January 9th? Typical day. Friday. Lesson with Mr. Gladley. She saw Emma, Sophia and Madison again ...
Emma?
Sofia?
Madison?
If earlier her head just hurt, now it seemed as if someone had driven a thousand red-hot nails into her brain all at once and let electric current pass through them in a couple of tens of thousands of volts.
Δολοφόνοι
What was that? Strange language. Unfamiliar, unknown.
Whence? No, what's going on? Why did she think about the Trio, how she ...
Οι εκτελεστές αθώων
Again. This voice. Where is it from? Why does it seems so familiar? Why can't she remember what happened? Where is her father?
The doctor seemed to understand that something was wrong, as his voice had become sharply restless.
- Miss Hebert, what happened? Please calm down, nothing threatens you!
Nothing threatens?
And something threatened her?
Yes? Not?
Why can't she remember?
Πέθανε
This voice. Is it answering to her? She had a feeling that it is telling something important, but she can not understand. She went crazy? But then why doesn't she even understand the voice in her head? Questions. Too many questions in her head and too few answers.
Why can't she remember?
Ψυχή σου φώναξε
It really answers to her. Unfamiliar voice. Such ... inhuman. Such ... Extraterrestrial. But ... she knows him. Definitely knows. But from where?
She must remember. Must.
The pain began to intensify again, which apparently affected the apparatus.
- Miss Hebert, calm down! Sister, sedative in the 314th, quickly! - the doctor almost shouted into a small walkie-talkie attached to a bathrobe.
Η Θάλασσα των Ψυχών σα άκουσε
Madison. Sofia. Emma. Winslow.
Madison. Sofia. Emma. Winslow.
Madison. Sofia. Emma. Winslow.
Four words. Associative series. Emptiness. Open chain of memories.
Taylor again stopped seeing anything, the darkness covered her eyes again, and the headache that with each heartbeat increased more and more.
Madison. Sofia. Emma. Winslow. #! eK√╓ → /.
Madison. Sofia. Emma. Winslow. #! eK√╓ → /.
Υπογράψατε τη [σύμβαση]
Winslow. It all comes down to school. She knew that.
What happened?
Something happened to her. Something bad enough for her to be here.
Trio.
It must have been them. They did something.
Have done with her.
Madison. Sofia. Emma. Winslow. T! eK√╓ → /.
Madison. Sofia. Emma. Winslow. Tr eK√╓ → /.
Madison. Sofia. Emma. Winslow. TrieK√╓ → /.
Madison. Sofia. Emma. Winslow. Trig K√╓ → /.
Trigger
A revolver drum clicked in her head, replacing an empty nest with a loaded one.
Ανακαλύψατε [Προορισμός]
Madison. Sofia. Emma. Winslow. Trigger
The puzzle fell into place, the integrity was restored, the picture was assembled from fragments. A headache that tormented her mind in an instant receded, leaving her mind in the crystal clarity of thin crystal.
She opened her one eye to look into the eyes of the doctor who was now leaning over her. But catching her gaze, he seemed to recoil, turning a little pale.
Father. She did not see him. The doctor did not say anything about him. She didn't like it.
Was it a premonition?
No. Knowledge.
Something went wrong.
She tried to say, but her tongue seemed stuck to the palate, and the tubes in her throat prevented her from speaking.
But she said. She didn't know how, but she said.
What about my father?
From the side, her voice seemed to be a dead man's whisper, devoid of emotions and full of some inhuman lifelessness.
"Miss Hebert, your father, he ..." and then the doctor made a fatal mistake that launched a chain of very unpleasant events for many people.
Dr. Stevenson hesitated.
Είτε το όνομά μας
- What happened to father? - she repeated her question, not really thinking about how she could speak. It didn't matter. Secondary.
Danny was more important.
- Listen, Miss Hebert. I don't want to lie to you, but you need to calm down. Now the nurse will come and give you an injection ...
- I must know.
"Miss Hebert ..."
- Tell me!
The doctor sighed.
- Fine. Your father, he ... passed away. Almost three weeks ago.
Tηλεφωνήστε μας
- How did it happen?
- Heart attack. I am very sor... - Dr. Johnson did not have time to finish his words. The last words in his life. Because at this very moment, Taylor Hebert screamed
[Ανα άτομο]
Six hours later. Protectorate Tower. Briefing room.
Emily Piggott tiredly rubbed her nose. Today could hardly be worse.
- So, what do we have at the moment? - she looked in the direction of one of the officers, who was holding a tablet. He got up and clicked on several sensors, leading out information onto the big screen.
- The identity of parahuman discovered by Assault and Velocity is established. - A picture of a young girl with black curly hair and simple black glasses appeared on the screen, - Taylor Hebert, fifteen years old. High School Student Winslow.
- "The one that the Shadow Stalker goes to," Piggot affirmed the obvious fact. The officer nodded, confirming what the director said. Then he continued:
- Parents: Annette Rose Hebert and Daniel Hebert. Both deceased. Annette died in August 2008 in a car accident, Daniel - two weeks ago, from a heart attack.
"Hebert ... somehow I know that name ..." Jessica Yamada muttered to herself. After thinking for a while she snapped her fingers - was it not him who was the spokesman for the Dockers Union?
"Yes, he was," the Armsmaster's voice replied through the communication systems. All the heroes of the Protectorate were now connected to the intercom in the hall, and several screens on the far wall broadcasted image from the cameras on their suits. - met him several times while discussing the problem of cleansing the Brockton Bay.
- Enough. - the director stopped unnecessary conversations, returning everyone to the main subject, - what happened to her? Is that really trigger-like situation?
Officer nodded, continuing the report.
"We have no reliable data on what exactly happened, but with the help of an analysis from Dr. Yamada — the officer showed a psychologist who nodded her thanks — could establish that with a high degree of probability Miss Hebert was systematically subjected to bullying for a very long period of time.
"Miss Yamada, on what basis did you draw your conclusions?" - Piggot switched to a full-time psychologist. Mean hurried to answer.
- I came across a similar events earlier. Her schoolmarks, which were so consistently high, suddenly began to leap, especially for homework for which she received F's, due to lacking of that homework, moreover, the work performed in the class and not requiring interaction with other students she performed at the same consistently high level. This is not enough, but it is most likely outcome.
Piggot rubbed her nose again. There always were problems from these teenagers, Wards and their antics were enough for her, and now this Hebert ...
- Thank you, Yamada. So, we suppose, that they bullied her. But what brought her to a coma? She tried to make a conflict with her offenders?
"We don't know that, ma'am." Four weeks ago, Miss Hebert asked for leave from the second lesson and never returned to class. Six hours later, when classes ended, janitor found Miss Hebert in the back room where the inventory was kept. She was half-dressed and there were obvious signs of sexual violence on her body. Also Miss Hebert was under a pile of biological waste. Judging by the data of criminal examination - various used tampons, garbage and so on. At the time of discovering, the girl's pulse was traced as filamentous. Paramedics were able to stabilize Miss Hebert's condition and deliver her to the Brockton Central. There has already been an examination. According to the results, it turned out that Miss Hebert recorded multiple genital ruptures, severe brain concussions, irreparable damage to the left eyeball, three fractured ribs, as well as multiple infectious diseases as a result of which she fell into a coma from which she did not leave until today.
"Why didn't she get an appointment with Panacea and what the hell were she doing in the hospice?" - Miss Militia voice was heard from the intercom.
The officer nodded.
- Actually an interesting question. As I understood, after the incident, Denny Hebert raised all his connections and cleared out all bank accounts in full to pay for his daughter's treatment and simultaneously sued Winslow. But it did not work. We managed to find out a little, but apparently they were actively trying to hush up the case. But who - we do not know. The school's lawyer was Mr Alan Barnes.
- Isn't that Barnes who achieved a probationary period for Shadow Stalker six months ago? - clarified Piggot. In her mindscape this whole situation right now turned to a very foul-smelling one.
- Yes. It's him. He works in a law firm that is headed by Brandish - the officer nodded and waited for the Director's resolution, continued, - Mr. Hebert did not find enough money for a lawyer, because the lion's share was spent on the maintenance of his daughter, and therefore he had to defend his honor himself. But since the case was clearly not in favor of Winslow, he won, and Winslow undertook to pay for the treatment of Miss Hebert. And everything would be fine if Mr. Hebert did not file a lawsuit a second time, against Mr. Barnes, accusing him of allowing his daughter to mock Miss Hebert.
"Can't say that was the the smartest step ..." commented one of the Protectorate workers present, but remained unrecognized.
- Forced to agree. This case Mr. Hebert lost, and then received a counterclaim for defamation, which Mr. Barnes immediately won, suing himself a good compensation. As you already understood, the financial condition of Heberts at that moment was far from ideal ...
"And as a result of all this, a heart attack happened ..." Piggot finished gloomily.
- Yes ma'am. Since Mr. Hebert did not leave a will, and Heberts didn't have any living relatives, a leapfrog began with juvenile responsibility and guardianship, aggravated by paperwork, during which Miss Hebert showed no signs of recovery, so somebody decided for her to be transferred to Saint Brute's Hospice to maintain life support. Where she stayed until today ...
- .. Where she woken up. Without a family, with memories of a trigger, about the circumstances of which I don't even want to think, and without any particular hope of recovery, do I understand everything correctly? - having waited for a nod, Piggot continued, - gentlemen, I understand this whole situation. But in all this I am interested in two things. Why do I find out about past month events only today? Events which took place in one of Wards schools? And how the hell is Alan Barnes is connected to all of this?
"Actually ..." the officer said.
- Yes? Simmons, do you have anything to say? - Piggot turned back to the speaker.
"Ma'am ... our men visited the Hebert house. And they found something …"
- Do not torment me, officer.
Simmons nodded and took from his briefcase a sealed evidence package, inside which lay a thick common notebook. He carefully handed the package to the Director.
"This was in the case of Hebert vs. Barnes as evidence of bullying."
She opened the package and removed the notebook to the light. Opening the notebook at an random location, the Director read the notes.
After ten seconds of reading, she froze. Then she reread the same fragment again.
All this time, her face turned paler and paler, acquiring a painfully white shade.
Finally, with trembling hands, she put the notebook on the table and looked around at those present.
- Immediately put all Wards under the M/S protocol. Isolate them at least for a few hours from each other. Armsmaster, escort Shadow Stalker directly to me. And somebody, call Panacea for Hebert girl.
Already leaving the briefing room, Piggot muttered to self
"If only you could forgive us, girl."