Enter_the_Hive_Part1.docx

As usual, the TL;DR is there for the generals, but this log has some important information regarding a major threat facing S.A.V.I.O.R and Century Station.  Choose your own path, and walk it.

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SHE… GOT… AWAY!  How could I have been so stupid!?!  Why? How? That daughter of a motherless goat, the BugQueen, got away.  And it was All… My… Fault. Well, Miss Amazing was also there, but I don’t blame her.  If I did, I may get the leader’s wrath. ;P

So, what were the events that lead up to me letting the Lady Hive – whose name honestly sounds like an STD to me – slip through my fingers?  Let me start a bit before I ended my last journal entry – around 10AM that day.

My phone rang, and since it’s more of a firmware cell phone than a physical cell I hold with my hands, the information scrolled along the top right hand corner of my HUD.  Along with some less succinct data, for instance the cell towers it was bouncing through and the MAC address of the phone, was the Caller’s ID. “Dr. Carla Santiago, PsyD, LCPC.”

Normally, if I don’t know who the caller is, I don’t answer.  Since this seemed a bit more legitimate than some random spoofed “neighbor” number, I thought the caller was leaning more toward legit.  I answered, “This is Caedechron.”

The lightly accented voice on the other end came through a smile, “So you have forsaken your mortal name, then?  A Meter Maid friend of mine said you hadn’t done that yet. Oh, I’m sorry. That was incredibly rude of me. My name is Dr. Santiago.  A mutual friend asked me to reach out to you.”

I put my back up immediately, and replied, slightly snapishly, “I only use my real name with friends.  So, This is Caedechron, what do you need?”

A very soft chuckle made it to the phone’s receiver, though to a human’s ears it might not have even registered. “Again, I am sorry for dispensing with propriety.  Since you seem like you’d not appreciate an invitation to my office, I had better give you a reason to not hang up, yes? I am very close to Officer Lunet Braga, CSPD.  She told me that we are both part of a select few that knows the real circumstances of her position as a Parking Enforcement Officer. She also told me to tell you, ‘Stop bein’ a bloody baby, and Moira says hi.’”

The comforting armor of indifference I’d put up was taken away.  Lunet asked a Psychiatrist to call me. Did she know about the Church? I thought to myself.  Well, she must have already been contemplating speaking with Dr. Santiago, since it happened so soon after that death.  “Ok. Why did she tell you to call me?”

“Your friend is worried about you.  She cares deeply: You’re the closest thing she’s ever had to a sibling.  She saw signs of distress, and came to me to talk about them. After our discussion this morning she asked me to talk to you, and help you through this transition you’ve faced.  I specialize in Super-powered individuals, and I am uniquely qualified to help them. I came to my powers during a traumatic event in my late childhood, and the way in which it happened scarred me deeply.  

“After seeking the help I needed – later than I should have, I might add – I was able to face the world with the tools I needed to return to healthy citizenship.  From what Lunet has told me, you’re struggling to keep yourself together, and it is not shocking that you are. You have experienced things that would have broken most minds.  

“I am not calling you to condemn you or label you, but to set up a meeting to talk, give you some tools to deal with your new life, and see if we are a good fit.  If you don’t feel good after our chat, then you have no obligation to return, or even to seek out another counselor. So, what are your thoughts on that?”

I was a little shocked at the candor with which she was treating the conversation.  The childhood trauma was a bit manipulative, I thought, but all in all, it was a decent sales pitch.  But the bigger issue here was that I was struggling with my own sanity before this lady called me. I probably should have seen several warning signs before, and reached out to someone… But I guess that’s how it happens sometimes.  Family and friends notice a change or warning signs, and they initiate change. I kinda wish that Lunet had talked to me about this before she talked to her, though.

“Yeah, sure.  We can meet. I’ve got an appointment this afternoon, so how about sometime Tuesday?  I’ve got a day of mourning on Monday.” I said.

“Ah, yes.  Jake Thompson, LLC.  He was a member of the Sponsored Hero group you’re now a part of, right?”

“Yeah.  He’s kinda the reason I joined.”

“Right.  Well, Tuesday morning at 9. Does that work for you?”

“Sure.  We’ll meet then.”

“I look forward to meeting you in person.  Good luck with your appointment today, and have a great weekend.”

“Yeah, you too.” I said, and disconnected the call.    I put a reminder in my Calendar app, and processed what happened for a bit.

I had several things I needed to pick up before meeting with Dr. Wendel Moore, so I got out and got going.  I went to Home Depot, and picked up some heavy-rated Zip Ties, ones used to secure lumber before nailing, and a couple of rolls of Gorilla Tape.  I had called Lunet in the middle of the night, and asked if I could get some Superhuman Rated Restraints, but she didn’t have any on hand she could give me.  She told me she’d requisition some, so I made a backup plan to use in the meantime.

Shopping done, I met up with Savior and we went to Dr. Moore’s office.  No sooner had we landed in the street outside the building than we heard an explosion inside.  Gryphon rushed to the side of the building, and I brought everyone up to the floor I could hear the disturbance on.  We broke through the glass, and the face of the super villain sent me into a memory…

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The Beast and I arrived at Indbur Enterprises, and as we got closer, the status of the building became clearer – It had been attacked by supers, or military insurgents. Even with my limited real-world experience I knew that something hit the walls with some heavy force, to make holes that large in the cinder-block walls.  

My telescopic sight trained in on objects littering the ground, mixed in with the rubble.  After a beat, I finally understood what I was seeing – various overlarge insect corpses littered the ground.  As we approached the building, I scooped some of them um and put them into a compartment.

Though there were several passages we could follow, we decided to follow the path that looked like a sandworm from Dune had tried to burrow itself through the center of the building.  We arrived at a beautiful office, or at least it had been beautiful before the insectoid attack. Anthony Indbur, identified later to me by Beast, lay unconscious on the floor. Though I have no formal medical training, he didn’t seem to be in immediate danger to me – no labored breathing, sweating, gushing wounds, etc – but we definitely felt we needed to get medical attention to him soon.

Beast seemed to be mesmerized by a glowing 3-D display, looping through visualizations of the Thanatos software.  He pressed a button on the screen, and a physical and mental battle ensued. The black tumor on Beast’s arm spasmed, and started to creep higher, toward his heart.  With another spasm it melted, dripping from his leathery brown arm.

I bent down and scooped a bit of them up, an empty compartment while he was distracted. I immediately noticed, using my microscopic vision, that the technology is extremely advanced, complex, and damaged.  I noticed a monitor displaying several windows of information as well as a SQL command window. Thanking my luck, I went to the keyboard and started writing a script to search for information on the nanites and the “Black Box” technology.

No sooner had I added a double backslash on the third line than the screen flickered black.  A face appeared on the screen, and it returned to black. The last drops of nanite sludge pattered to the floor behind me, and he started to move again, broken from his trance.

“There’s nothing else in here, from what I can see, “ Beast said, looking around.  All of the LED indicators that had been flickering on the different pieces of equipment around the room had turned off. “Let’s hurry to find out what else happened here.”

“I’ll call the paramedics.” I said, opening my digital cell phone app and dialing 9-1-1.  I gave them the information, as well as the passcode SAVIOR, and ran to catch up with Beast, who had followed the path of destruction down the hall to a destroyed secret entrance. Past the formerly inconspicuous door was a set of steps into a visibly fortified sub-level.  

My chemical analysis sensors registered heavy amounts of formaldehyde in the air, and as I reached the bottom of the stairs the source became clear – a human-sized incubation tube stood on a plinth against the far wall, smashed and empty.  The fluids that were inside were covering the floor, reaching to halfway across the large room. Several pieces of equipment, tables, and chairs were destroyed, and even the walls had signs they had been impacted by heavy objects .

Scattered about in the rubble, I saw pieces of an Android, and the head had a familiar face.  It was the face that appeared just before all of the computer systems upstairs shut off. “Beast, Does she look familiar?” I said.  He was staring at the specimen tube, and seemed to have passed the robot by.

“Oh, yeah.  Her name was Melissa Fabricus, or at least that is the one I was given – she was Anthony’s assistant.”

I picked my way through the littered remains of the lab, so as to not destroy something that may be valuable later.  I picked the head up, and hooked a power cable to the base of her spine.

The head’s LEDs started to flicker, but they stopped soon after.  

I went to the closest computer terminal, and plugged my jury-rigged data cable into the integrated CAT-V port – yeah, it had a CAT-V port.  Just because someplace does cutting edge scientific development doesn’t mean all of their electronic infrastructure is wireless or uses optic cables.

I started a conversation with the AI that immediately tried to destroy me for creating a hardwire connection.  The conversation did not go well at all, even though I tried to express our intentions and that we were allies, but it took Beast’s diplomacy to get through to her.  The monitor nearest us came on, and a CGI version of the Android’s face appeared, looking at us. It told us her designation: M.E.L.I.S.S.A.

I tried to ask her about the data from the labs, what was taken, and what was in the tube, but she refused any interaction on those subjects without Anthony Indbur’s explicit approval, and she added, that after the Black Box fiasco involving Beast, she’ll advise him strongly against any release of sensitive information.

Though, she she did tell us of her experience with those that attacked the labs, and of her retreat into the systems when her android chassis was destroyed.  

“They were three villains known to be members of the villain group Sinistry, named Lady Hive, Obelisk, and Phaze. I have no camera footage of them in the building proper because Lady Hive instructed her insects to cover all the cameras and sensors, but from my Android system I do have video of the combat in this room.”

At the start of the video, an older male humanoid figure was seen floating in the now-destroyed incubation tank at the edge of the frame, the being was very muscular and fit. It did not appear to have any life support or signs of life. The figure isn’t shown in the rest of the clip.  With my experience dealing with sensory equipment, I could tell the footage was edited, but there was not much I could do to get the real footage out of M.E.L.I.S.S.A, so I just paid attention to the video.

A mountain of a dark stone statue with piles of ugly, rock-like muscles – ostensibly Obelisk – breaks down the door after only a couple hits – his strength is obviously immense. As soon as the door is smashed into the room a massive swarm of flying and crawling insects enters, directed by Lady Hive. The average-sized woman hovers in the air with insect-like wings and has large, round, dark eyes, a large mouth, virtually no upper lip, a small nose, and a pair of antennae coming from her forehead.

The insects quickly swarm M.E.L.I.S.S.A., blinding her and disabling many of her senses. The video shows her cycling through other types of optics, with heat working best and eventually showing a third villain as well. This third one stays back and out of the way, occasionally seeming to teleport around. She identified this one as Phaze.

Obelisk rushes M.E.L.I.S.S.A. and is stopped several times by walls of force. He punches through them with little effort. Her other actions are difficult to see but once Obelisk reaches her, her robotic strength is no match for the raw power he has, and her android frame is summarily dispatched. The third villain huffs, “Will you stop playing and get what we came for already?”

Obelisk shatters something off-camera, there’s a sound of liquid spilling out onto the floor, then the three of them left with a fourth body draped over the back of an enlarged insect.

Melissa said she had no footage of their exit, and so they could be anywhere, and without Anthony’s approval she wouldn’t say anything else. I got a notification that that Emergency Services arrived on scene, and M.E.L.I.S.S.A. locked down the computers again.

With blinders on, I rushed through the hallway, telling Gryphon over the comms the situation.  It was decided that he would deal with the wrecking ball, Obelisk, and the rest of us could deal with the other threats.  I was ok with that, since I had only one thing I wanted. To destroy Lady Hive, after she told me what they did with the being they stole from Indbur.

Screams erupted from every direction, and it was obvious that innocents were being attacked.  I knew it must have been the swarms of insects Lady Hive controls, but I didn’t care. Incapacitate her, and I’d incapacitate them.  

Miss Amazing, Beast, and I spent our efforts wearing her down and tying her up.  Several dive-bombs from Beast’s new steel wings, wrestling moves from me, a few particle cannon shots to dispatch her ride, and Miss Amazing to immobilize her, and she was out of the fight – though in retrospect it was obviously just an act.  She surrendered, allowing herself to be taken by mortals who hadn’t just proven immune to her insects, and she left in the back of their vehicle.

But I should have thought.

The fighting hadn’t taken longer than 1 minute.  The SWAT team we handed her off to were there way too quickly.  SWAT doesn’t patrol, and the rest of the force wasn’t going to be there until the 4 minute mark hit.   I left Lady Hive to be taken, and flew off to get a lower-powered gruntling who was fleeing the building.

I SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT!  But I didn’t.

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TL;DR

I got shrunk, picked up a serial killer kit at Home Depot, had a flashback, and focused too much on a super villainess with an unfortunate STD who then got away.