NVAE, SUBLEVEL: WRECK ROOM (Martin; NPCs: Anne, Martin, Newton, Tatjana)
In the Wreck Room, Anne was in place, still containing Martin’s own doppelganger inside of the radiated chamber she had shifted into. It was a little unsettling that Newton had prepared such a contingency to be used against Martin’s family, but it made sense.
“Can he hear me?” Tatjana asked Anne.
“He can,” Anne said as the other Martin said, “Indeed.”
“Anne is going to let you out and you can change me back, but you have to promise not to attack anyone here.”
“It was never my intention to harm anyone. My bluff was an attempt to get everyone to stand down without inciting more violence.”
“You can let him out, Anne.”
Nothing happened.
“Anne?” Tatjana asked.
“There are only three individuals who may command me to deactivate the Curie Protocol. Given your relationship with Martin, it should not come as a surprise that you were not included on that list.”
“Who can deactivate it?” Tatjana asked. Newton, obviously, but she was curious what other two people Newton trusted with such a power.
“Anne, deactivate Curie Protocol,” said Newton from the doorway. “Epsilon-toolbox-maple-pontoon.”
Anne opened up and the other Martin spilled out of her. She shuddered as she stepped back, shifting back into a form more closely resembling a human than a cylinder.
True to his word, the alien Martin did not move to attack them. Instead, he sat there, slowly recovering himself, and his composure. “I… apologize for upsetting you and those who reside ‘ere.” It was clear that he wasn’t used to humbling himself like this. The word came hard. “Though it ‘as been many years since I last spoke wiz ze Lex Murphy of my world, I know ‘ow… ‘e can be. I doubt ‘e would accept my apology, but I am more zan willing to apologize to everyone for my rouse.”
“Thank you,” Newton said. “Whether or not they accept it, it would be a good step towards healing the rift between us. As I understand it, you have met the Drifter before? My students have had several adventures with her. If this is to be the first of our encounters with you, it would be best if we were all on good standing.”
“Oui. Ah, may I… ask somezing? In this world, do you know of a woman named Emma Decker?”
Martin knew of her, but he had never met her. Emma Decker graduated from the New Vindicators Academy of Europe three years ago. Codenamed Rote, she was an Esper whose ability allowed her to mimic any learned skill she saw demonstrated. She was an effective martial artist, concert violinist, deft painter, gifted surgeon, woodworker, welder, acrobat, swimmer… Anything anyone could do, Emma could do better. Apparently, that included disappearing. Since leaving the school in 2006, Emma and the other four members of the Vienna school’s inaugural graduating class had not been since again.
Claude Delacroix and his fiancé Camie Horne, Nadja Fromm, and the man known only as Diaspora were all in the wind. Martin didn’t know where any of them were, or even if they were together. Still, Emma was originally from the United Kingdom. Was it possible Dewhurst had intel on where she currently was? If needed, that might be a bargaining chip they could use against this Martin.
“Emma was a student here,” Newton confessed, “but she left after graduation. She has not been in contact with us since.”
This seemed to baffle Martin, who looked at the Curie native to this world. “‘Ow is it that she ‘as graduated but you ‘ave not?”
“What do you mean?” asked Newton, genuinely curious.
Martin understood: this was not a clone of Martin Curie, like he was. This was the original. In his mother’s mind were files—memories of a birthday he had yet to have. He was younger than the original was when he died. The original Martin was the same age as Emma and the rest of the first class, then.
Once it was explained, the other Martin explained further: “Emma was the love of my life. After we graduated from zis place, we chose to remain close by… We enrolled at universities ‘ere: ze Medical University of Vienna for me, ze Academy of Fine Arts for her. We ‘ad our first apartment in Liamgrube.” A smile spread across his face as he fondly drifted back to those innocent years. “I apologize, Tatjana. I know zat zis is not likely somezing zat you like to ‘ear: ‘ow ze man you love fell in love wiz someone else? I trust you understand razer clearly zat your Martin and I are not cut from ze same cloz.”
Fascinating though this was, they had more urgent matters to discuss. Armed with the knowledge MI-18 provided, Martin explained the stakes they now faced: the mafia had a clone of Tatjana, no doubt made by Entier, and that meant there was no telling what else they might have of the elder Curie’s design.
Newton looked to the other world’s Martin. “So,” he asked, “will you help us?”
“Of course,” he said without hesitation, “I am not a monster.”
Tatjana shifted. Her boyfriend knew her well enough to know she was holding back. She likewise understood the stakes and knew that diplomacy was instrumental in ensuring his cooperation.
“I will ‘elp you as best I can,” Martin said, “after I apologize to your school, and my doppelganger apologized to me.”
Tatjana could no longer stay silent. “What?” she asked incredulously.
“No matter what you may zink of me, I wished to ‘elp you from ze moment I arrived. I offered to ‘eal you, Tatjana. I did ‘eal zat boy’s eye. I would still be more zat willing to remove the tumor growing on Jack’s left lung.”
The other Martin faced this world’s Martin with a level look. “I came ‘ere to ‘elp, and you responded with snide comments, an insulting tone, and japes. I sincerely regret distressing everyone ‘ere. I admit zat I overreacted… but do you see zat you provoked me to do so? When I apologize to everyone, I promise you zat it will be nozing but sincere. Can you offer me ze same courtesy?”
NVAE, SUBLEVEL: HALLWAY (Lex; NPCs: Adam, Annalise, Benson, Kirstie)
At the approach of Annalise and Adam, Newton was forced to be brash. He motioned for Martin and Tatjana to go on ahead while he dispensed harsh words for the pair of hopeful students. “I apologize, but right now is hardly the time. We have an international crisis unfolding and several of your classmates are suiting up to take on opponents who I do not doubt would hesitate to kill them if it came to that.
“I understand that you view our guest as an answer to your problems, and you no doubt worry that the Drifter’s involvement creates a slowly closing window on this panacea… but I beg of you to trust me to do this right. Let us gauge first if we can trust him to do this, and to decide if this is truly what you want.”
Leaving them both, Newton followed Martin and Tatjana into the Wreck Room.
“Things are just as tense out here, huh?” Kirstie asked, shaking her head at the scene. “So, like our headmaster said so inspiringly, I might be charging off to die… I don’t suppose you’d want to go with me? Fiore’s leading a backup team. Abe and Otso and Ellen and… actually, Bea wasn’t in there. She’s sort of turning into a heavy hitter—more so’n me—so I imagine Otso’s going to bring her aboard.
“Wanna get suited up and come with? We’re only going in if this go pear-shaped for either group, but if they do… there’s this thing I’ve been thinking about. See, my powers… they take an attack and redirect them, but they also sort of supe them up, right? Way I figure, I might be able to take a blast of lightning from you and curve it right at someone else. I’m kind of curious if we could pull it off, you know?”
NVAE, SUBLEVEL: WAR ROOM (Dennis, Jack, Otso, Tamati, Violet; NPCs: the Drifter, Ellen, Fiore, Kas)
When Newton led Martin and Tatjana out to talk with their guest/prisoner, there was nothing to do but wait. Backlash sat down at the keyboard and turned the monitor to the news. A diplomat had been assassinated on live television by a Neo-Sapien today; he was no doubt fearing the worst. After all of the goodwill their kind had won months ago—saving Chicago and Vienna from two separate alien invasions on the same day—the world’s view on Neo-Sapiens was beginning to shift towards the positive. He no doubt hoped Black Ice hadn’t just undone all of that work…
“You’d best go get suited up,” Kiln said to Tamati—the only student who had been allowed to join the team going after Black Ice. The Vindicator knew this and his tone was uncharacteristically dark as he addressed the refuge. “We don’t even know where we’re headed yet, so you have a few minutes if you want to see anyone before we get shuttled.”
Not far off, Ellen let go of Jack’s hand and flashed him a sympathetic look before making her way to Violet. She put a comforting arm around her fellow Brit and sat down beside her. “I can’t even fathom what’s going through your head right now,” she said, “but I want you to know that I think you’re incredibly brave… I have an idea how much you hate that woman, and it takes a lot to not go after her—to not sink to her level…”
“Oh, you bloody berk!” Backlash swore at the monitor.
Pict leaned over him and turned up the volume.
“-criminal from another world, now stranded in ours,” the woman on the television was saying. Though the banner across the bottom was in German, the woman’s surname was not translated: Applebottom. This was Francine Applebottom, the director of MI-18 in the wake of William Arnett’s banishment to Row 64. The leading theory was that she was an undercover agent of Black Box, working to sabotage European opinions on Neo-Sapiens… like committing the full force of a group like MI-18 to arrest a sixteen-year-old boy based on grainy footage. “Though known as Black Ice, she was born Violet Lear and is a British Neo-Sapien. As such, MI-18 will dedicate itself to bringing this psychopath—and any other extra-dimensional outlaws who follow her example—to justice.”
All eyes went to Violet. “Did that bitch just out you as a Neo-Sapien?” asked Hubris.
“Blaine,” Pict warned.
The Vindicator began to swell up. His uniform was practically bursting from the strain of muscles on muscles. “I’m going to kill that bitch.”
“Blaine!” snapped Pict. “Cold as it may sound, we have more important things to focus on! Applebottom can wait.”
Ellen hugged Violet tighter. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry.”
Hero point to Violet.