"Here it is, the rotten system of social privilege," I say, looking at the bodies of Manpower and Shielder lying before me—or rather, Neil and Eric Pelham. They were dressed in black suits, their faces clean and peaceful, wounds stitched up, hair trimmed. Moreover, they looked even better than they had in life, because their faces were covered with professional makeup.
"What are you talking about?" Victoria asks me, stopping behind me and looking away from the bodies. On her shoulder is a plastic bag, and in the bag—the body of one Taylor Hebert, and I had just seen it—no makeup, no one had bothered to wash the dirt or blood from the face, much less change clothes or stitch wounds, no one had even bothered to close the eyes. No, my corpse was a grimace of a half-open mouth, frozen in death throes... my body looked like the broken corpse of a stray dog hit by a truck and rotting in a roadside ditch—broken horror and bared teeth, cloudy whitish patches for eyes.
"About this. You saw my body. And here before us are clean and well-groomed bodies, prepared for tomorrow's ceremony. Half the city is in ruins, but someone has both money and connections to embalm, dress up, and apply makeup to bodies. Privileged class, what can you say." I sigh, examining the bodies and touching them with my hand. The damn butchers from funeral homes had already pumped them full of embalming fluid. At least they didn't pull the brains out through the nose with hooks like in ancient Egypt—then I definitely wouldn't have been able to do anything.
"Don't talk nonsense, Taylor. Aunt Pelham is just a regular consultant in the mayor's office. Middle class... well, maybe upper middle class. They have savings, but Crystal never threw money around," Victoria replies to me. "So, can they be... revived?"
"Take these and let's go," I say. Victoria looks at me, I meet her gaze.
"Take them?" she hesitates.
"Of course. You don't think I'm going to do everything makeshift, in a refrigerator, do you? Look, all the bodies are cold, they need to be warmed up. How can you work with organics when it's frozen? Besides, security could burst in here at any moment... and I need equipment. Take your uncle and brother and let's go. I already wrote to whom I needed to—a car will drive up to the back gates, don't worry, you won't have to fly around the city like that." I say, and Victoria sighs. She sizes up the bodies lying on the table.
We exit through the back doors of the facility, past the guard lying on the floor peacefully sleeping (special offer from Panacea—eight hours of healthy sleep!). Vicky barely squeezes through the doorway with three bodies on her shoulders. At the ramp stands a huge black pickup truck with the engine running and parking lights on. Behind the wheel sits Lisa in a baseball cap pulled down over her eyes. She's chewing gum and blowing bubbles.
"Oh! There you are," she says, lowering the window and putting her elbow on the door. "Put the stiffs in the truck bed. See, Taylor, and I told you I'd dance on your grave! Well, I didn't get to dance, but having your body in my truck bed counts too. I'll dance at the base."
"When did you ever tell me that?" I reply. "I don't remember."
"Didn't I? Well, fine. I still won," she pops a pink bubble of chewing gum and peers into the rearview mirror while Victoria loads the bodies into the pickup bed.
"What did you win?" I walk around the car and sit in the passenger seat, moving closer to Lisa to leave room for Victoria.
"Your favorite game. First one to die loses!" she smiles and shakes her head. "And before me, everyone lost. Lung, Butcher, Oni Lee, Hookwolf... pathetic losers."
"I demand a rematch," I say. "We'll see. Why are you driving yourself? You're an important big shot now."
"Who else can I trust? Of ours, only Mama knows you're Panacea now, and she's already been on her feet for twenty hours, so I got behind the wheel myself. More caffeine, less sleep. Hi Victoria! I'm Lisa, I'm your little sister Amy's friend!"
"I know who you are," Victoria narrows her eyes, getting into the car and closing the door behind her. "I'd smack you upside the head, but I'm afraid it might burst. And your smart tongue would fall out."
"Nobody loves me," Lisa sighs pretending sadness, pulling away from the curb. "What a nightmare. You're all I have left, Amy!"
"Stop calling her that name!"
"Honestly, Vicky, you need to take a laxative—you're so tense you're about to crack in half," Lisa smirks, turning onto the main road. "Still don't get it? You're in the same boat with us, sweetie. In for a penny, in for a pound."
"If that's the price, then I'm ready," Victoria clenches her fists. "I don't care about the consequences."
"You know what?" Lisa responds, unexpectedly stopping her wisecracking and looking at her seriously. "Everyone's like that. Every person who steps onto this path has their own reasons and foundations. And everyone's are important, believe me."
"Taylor, make your girl shut up," Victoria addresses me. "We had a deal, but not with her. If she keeps flapping her tongue, I'll tear it out and..."
"Stop it," I say, and I feel I sound extremely unconvincing. After all, Panacea never had a commanding voice.
"Tear it out and what? Stick it somewhere? Oh really? Try it. Come on, scary Glory, show what you..."
"Shut up, or I swear..."
"STOP!" my voice sounds completely different and everyone immediately shuts up. Silence reigns in the car. I catch Victoria's gaze on me. Her eyes have widened. Well yes, Number Five's ability—he's a persuasive orator.
"Usually I'm for pluralism of opinions and all kinds of democracy, but not today," I say in my normal voice. "Vicky, you're new here, so I'll spell out the rules. It's all very simple—we're one big family here. Just like at your home, only I have this insufferable show-off, another bastard comparable to her, and a crazy bomber. Oh yes, and almost a hundred armed thugs. And they're all one big loving family. Welcome."
"That's right," Lisa adds her two cents. "And whoever doesn't want to love Tay-Tay, something happens to them. Like Lung didn't want to back in the day, and what became of him? I understood right away that it's better to love her—really helps with survival. I've lasted this long, and even Taylor herself died, but I'm still alive."
"So while you're new here—don't anger Lisa and everything will be fine," I say, "because Lisa is my deputy. Lisa!" the car swerves to the side and goes over the curb, we bounce in our seats.
"What?"
"Drive more carefully, we have people in the back."
"Well, let's say they're still just bodies for now. When you resurrect them, then we'll talk," Lisa replies, turning into an inconspicuous garage. Lights turn on, the gates lower behind us, Victoria looks around in confusion, and at that moment the garage floor shudders and begins to descend. A freight elevator.
"You villains really have everything covered," she says, watching the platform descend. "Is this like a whole city under the city? No wonder you can never be caught. Where does all this come from?"
"From here and there," Lisa replies, letting go of the steering wheel and leaning back in her seat. "And besides—not 'you villains,' but 'us villains.' You're a villain now too."
"No way!"
"Oh, both of you shut up already," I say. "Bodies on gurneys and into the lab." The freight platform stops. Before the platform stand gurneys, the kind used in hospitals to move patients. Nobody around—Lisa took care of that. Usually at the freight entrance there's at least security standing, but today it's empty everywhere. Well yes, we don't need extra witnesses, even if they're our own workers. We transfer the bodies to gurneys. We wheel them to the laboratory.
"What now?" Victoria asks, rolling in the last gurney and closing the door behind her. "Right now?"
"We'll wait a bit," I reply, "for the bodies to warm up. The colder they are, the harder it is to work, and these were all kept in a freezer... good thing Manpower and Shielder were being prepared for the ceremony. We'll drain the embalming fluid, wait a little, and get started. Lisa—help me."
"Two seconds, boss." Lisa extracts two frightening-looking needles with transparent tubes attached to them. "Everything's already connected. And I prepared the bath with organics, the composition as you requested, everything's there."
"Excellent. Victoria—undress Manpower, take off all those rags, we'll immerse him in the solution bath, it'll reach the right temperature faster that way."
"Taylor! That's my uncle!"
"Handsome man. Let me undress him myself..." Lisa's voice becomes thick as molasses, "and touch him... everywhere."
"Hey! Hands off! That's my uncle, I'll undress him!" Victoria immediately shields Manpower.
"How manageable you are, Glory Ho—"
"WHAT?!"
"Girl, I meant to say Glory Girl."
"Stop it already. Lisa—insert the needles into the carotid artery and jugular veins. We'll pump out the fluid first. Vicky—undress him already. And I..." I step aside and unzip the black plastic bag. Inside lies the body of Taylor Hebert. My body. I look at myself. The grimace of a half-open mouth already frozen in death throes, dull cataracts of open eyes, a broken leg, a torn-off arm. There's nothing dignified about death, nothing comforting. Pale skin with dirty streaks, already beginning to turn blue. And... the smell. Well yes.
I place my hand on the pale and cold skin of the face and close my eyes. Aha... I see. I have practically no brain left, all functions were shut down, only the life-sustaining ones remained, like heartbeat and breathing, but even those at the lowest level, barely-barely. Panacea is terrifying.
I glance at Victoria, who's cursing as she strips the black tuxedo off Manpower. First I'll have to remove this lovely feature Amy gave Vicky—killing any Hebert with a touch.
"Vicky," I say, "leave him alone. Come here for a second, I completely forgot to change the composition of your sweat."
"Sweat?!" she straightens up, spreading her arms to avoid touching her clothes. "What are you talking about?"
"That's how Amy killed me. With your sweat. There's a powerful allergen in it that shuts down higher nervous activity."
"I thought she invented a virus..."
"A virus is dangerous, a virus can spread... but here anyone who carries Hebert DNA gets their dose of Amy's care and that's it. That means if, for example, my dad touches you, he'll also..."
"Why would your dad be touching me?!"
"I'm just giving an example! Nobody's going to touch you. You're not that desirable. My dad has a girlfriend. Come here, I'll fix your sweat, make it like before."
"Well... okay." Victoria hesitates but takes a step toward me and extends her hand. "Like this? Or..."
"That's enough." I give Lisa a warning look—she had just opened her mouth to utter another vulgarity, but seeing my look, hastily closed it.
"To think what Amy could actually do," Victoria says thoughtfully while I change the composition of her secretions to normal. "I had no idea. She could have achieved so much."
"You don't even understand half of it. No. A tenth," I say, releasing her hand. "For you it's routine. I'll tell you this, Vicky—what you did to Amy was a crime against humanity."
"What? Taylor! Explain yourself!"
"Explain?" I take a step back and cross my arms on my chest. "Okay, we have about twenty minutes before the bodies warm up, we have to wait anyway. So... listen."
"If thou didst ever thy dear father love!" Lisa interjects. "But that I am forbid to tell the secrets of my prison-house, I could a tale unfold whose lightest word would harrow up thy soul..."
"Yes, yes, Lisa. We know you're a well-read girl," I say. I look around. I hop up and sit on the laboratory table and swing my legs underneath me. "But she's not entirely wrong. Do you know, Vicky, that once I got Panacea's abilities, I started developing 'Plan B'? What is 'Plan B'? Look, nobody denies that humanity is going through terrible times. Endbringers tear civilization apart, ripping it to pieces. Even simple forecasts say that if this continues, civilization as we know it will be destroyed in sixty years. Endbringers attack cities, have virtually destroyed international sea trade, destroy major infrastructure projects, and kill a lot of people. And Panacea... Lisa—open the door."
"As you wish, master." Lisa opens the door with exaggerated obedience. Through the open door flies a huge beetle, the size of a human head. Victoria recoils and involuntarily takes flight, turning her aura on full blast and preparing to repel an attack. The beetle flies up to me and lands on my hands.
"Who's such a pretty boy? Who's such a sweet thing?" I ask the beetle, and it purrs barely audibly right into my chest. "Who's the very best? Yes, that's you, that's you my handsome boy. Yes. Okay, give that to mommy, give it here." I take from the beetle a leather bracelet with a greenish bubble where the watch face would be.
"Okay, fly away." I release the beetle and it flies away through the open door.
"Well, I've never been a doorman for beetles before," Lisa says, closing the door. "New day, new experience."
"He's too big to fit through the ventilation grates, sorry," I say. "But here's one example of what your sister is capable of, Vicky." I toss her the leather bracelet with the greenish bubble. "It's a first aid kit."
"A first aid kit?"
"Though I probably expressed that wrong... hmm... it's..."
"It's a cheat first aid kit," Lisa adds. "Fasten it on your wrist, and if you suddenly get your leg torn off or get a wound in the stomach—just slap it with your palm. A needle will pierce the skin, and you'll get full Panacea inside your organism. I think this thing can even regrow a head. I can't vouch for what will be inside that head, but I can guarantee it will be a perfectly healthy head."
"Really?" Vicky looks at the bracelet with completely different eyes. "But then... if Eric and Uncle Neil had worn these bracelets..."
"Starting to understand, eh? If they had worn these—they wouldn't have died. But this is only the beginning of the path, young Alice. Let's go further and I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes..." I jump off the table and extend my open palm to her. In my palm lies a seed.
"Uh... impressive," Vicky says, looking at my palm. "A seed. What is it? Wheat? Barley?"
"This is Mars. Martian valleys where people live without spacesuits, without needing to hide underground—a whole planet gifted to humanity. Plan B," I say, and I see her pupils dilate. "If humanity on Earth is doomed, then your sister's power can give us the opportunity to create civilization elsewhere. Powers don't work in space, and that's wonderful. We'll never see Endbringers on the Moon or Mars. But modified plants and animals can live anywhere."
"But Mars has no atmosphere!"
"There is one, but very thin and unsuitable for breathing. However, these plants can grow in exactly such conditions. They reproduce incredibly fast and release a lot of oxygen. Other organisms process oxygen into carbon dioxide—everything together creates a greenhouse effect. A couple of decades and Mars will not only have an atmosphere, but flora and fauna, ready fields of vegetables and fruits, and animals too. Your sister can create a sausage tree, damn it—bushes with fruits that contain all the necessary composition of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates for humans. Plus a multivitamin complex. Energy, nutrition, shelter—all this can be grown by plants modified by your sister! Or rather, by her power. Do you understand? Your sister could have saved all of humanity, and you locked her up in one hospital. What is that if not a crime against humanity?!"
"But... Mars is very far away. Humanity doesn't have the strength now to create such rockets. Even the Lunar program was curtailed because the economy is collapsing..." Vicky says. "It's amazing, Panacea's abilities, but what the hell Mars? Any complex projects are impossible now."
"You're right," I nod. "That's true. But... first, your sister's power in my hands will be able to unite humanity."
"What?! You..."
"And second. Who said spaceships necessarily need to be built? Here." I raise my palm. A second seed has joined the first one.
"Taylor! You're planning to unite humanity?! In my textbook, that's written down as an attempt at world conquest!"
"Oh, let's not go there," I say. "It's only an attempt while I haven't conquered it. When I do—it will be the Beginning of Bright Ages and Humanity's Noon. Humanity spends too much time on stupid things anyway."
"Exactly," Lisa nods. "Such nonsense it does. Instead it should glorify Great Taylor and her unchanging Head of Death Squadrons Lisa!"
"You two are always joking around," Vicky huffs and glances at my open palm. "Okay, I get it. The first seed is the red valleys of Mars sown with plants that terraform the planet. And the second?"
"The second is the delivery method. Why build a spaceship when you can simply grow one?"