I stand looking at what we've created. Next to me stands Bakuda, or in her civilian identity – Tomoko Hideoshi, she doesn't know what to do with her hands – first folding them across her chest, then shoving them in her pockets, then scratching the back of her head.
"Will it work?" I ask aloud, not turning my head toward her. "Or will it blow up after all?"
"It shouldn't... I think," Tomoko says uncertainly. "I checked everything."
"Hm," I say and walk around our creation. It looks, honestly speaking, horrible. Half of Alexandria's body, her upper part, torn off by the Zero Time Bomb, sticks out from a tangle of wires and tubes attached to her below. Like a wheelchair from a mad scientist movie. Professor Dowell's head. And here we have Alexandria's upper half. Tits, shoulders, arms and head – all here. No legs and ass – they were torn off. They're lying in a stasis chamber.
Alexandria's death is a PR bomb, and definitely not in Administration's favor. However Big A behaved, she's a public opinion leader and that's that. Even if we pour buckets of dirt on her, it won't stain her bright image, we'll just get dirty ourselves. In this regard, I undertook desperate efforts to resurrect Big A. Right after I realized I couldn't do anything with her body, I plunged her back into Zero Time to postpone the issue. However, now that the most important measures to establish order in Brockton Bay have been taken, it's time to return to Alexandria.
I proceeded from the assumption that despite her "immutability," Alexandria still had to breathe, blood flowed in her veins and in general – she was alive. And if I can't heal her with Panacea's abilities, can't modify or change her body (which was unexpected, I admit) – then we can try to simply simulate her lower part. That is, close the blood circulation and model the waste removal system and intestines. Yes, for now this doesn't look... elegant, for now it looks nightmarish, but we need to try. Because otherwise, as Tattletale says – "we'll be eaten alive." And I think she's not exaggerating. Another thing – if I save Alexandria, then I can start bargaining for Coil... maybe Cauldron has a way to bring him back. Just in case, Coil's body is now also immersed in Zero Time stasis.
I have the powers and abilities of a tinker – that's Clockwork, his power is to create everything based on clockwork mechanisms. Tomoko "Bakuda" Hideoshi can create a bomb with almost any effect. Together we assembled this Frankenstein's monster. And now it's time to test it. We're on the lowest, reinforced level of the base, in an armored room – in case Alexandria, coming to her senses, starts rioting. And for the same case, stasis bombs are built into the "lower half" simulation machine.
"Alright," I say. "Why waste time. Let's test it. What's wrong, Tomoko?"
"Nothing," she fidgets in place. "It's just... you... you're incredible. This is Alexandria! And you tore her in half! And... I wanted to say thank you. I feel very calm with you. And... well."
"Well... to start with, it was your bomb that tore her in half. But yes, I still can't come to my senses. She's Alexandria. I have a poster on my wall."
"When I went to college, I had one too," Tomoko says. "And then..." she waves her hand. "A lot happened. We villains, there are no posters and t-shirts, figurines and keychains for us."
"By the way, that's unfair and completely wrong. We need to set up production of 'Administration' merch, t-shirts with Tattletale's face and the inscription 'Smartest in class' or with an arrow to the side and the inscription 'I'm next to idiots in Brockton Bay,'" I say. "Or a badge with her impudent, fox-like smirk and something like 'Know-it-all.'"
"My God, I knew it," a voice sounds and Tattletale enters the room. "They're talking behind my back."
"No, the inscription should be 'Show-off,'" I smirk. I knew Tattletale was about to enter the door, but how did she know they were talking about her? Show-off.
"If we're talking about merch, it should be a black t-shirt with your face on it, Taylor, and below the inscription 'I tore Alexandria's ass off and all I got was this t-shirt,'" she stops, puts her hands on her hips and surveys our Frankenstein's Monster, the machinery on wheels with Alexandria's body mounted on top.
"How horrible," she says. "Just a nightmare. She can't be shown to anyone in this state. And we have fifty calls from New York, from the central PRT office, from the Protectorate, and even from the government. The President's Administration called, asking what's with their beloved 'Alexandria, smash!' I can't tell them you and a cute Asian are shoving phallic symbols into all the heroine's orifices... technically that's exactly what it is."
"Lisa, stop talking dirty," I say. "For you, everything that's longer than it is wide is a phallic symbol. These are life support tubes. Besides, she doesn't have genitals anymore. Well, she does, but they're lying in stasis chamber number seven. Unnecessary."
"Thanks for calling me a cute Asian," Tomoko says. "The boss improved me. Ass... Asians always have problems with that. But here..." she looks over her shoulder down. "It's nice for me too. You have a cheat ability, boss."
"Oh, you're always welcome. I'm a simple person, I like beautiful bodies," I say. "If anyone wants a beautiful body – please. But yours is now also reinforced. Especially the skull. And... if you get an X-ray, don't be surprised that inside your skull there's another one. To protect the Corona Gemma and Pollentia. Turns out, if a bullet hits there, resurrection becomes impossible. Well, possible, but as a vegetable. And you haven't worked everything off yet, it's too early for you to become a vegetable."
"Yes, Tomoko, since Taylor made you an ass, you'll have to shake it properly," Tattletale nods. "Besides, you still owe me. For moral damage. Where's my orgasm bomb?"
"I'm working on it, working!" she defends herself. "Look how much work piled up! I also had to make a bomb in the form of a life support chair!"
"'I drove my friends and colleagues to heart attacks and all I got for it was this t-shirt.' That's what the inscription on your t-shirt should be, Lisa," I say. "Leave Tomoko alone, she's having a hard time now."
"Who's having it easy now?" Lisa asks rhetorically. "But you mixed up the tubes. Again. She'll choke on fecal matter... or is this your subtle mockery and subconscious desire to humiliate the Heroine? Is this how you realize your complexes? How petty..."
"What?" I climb inside the machinery with my hands, send insects to check everything again, Tomoko just throws up her hands and stands nearby to help.
"Well... I see everything's fine with you," Tattletale says, pacing around us like a straight-A student around failing students – hands behind her back, rolling from heel to toe.
"Get out of here while you're intact," I growl at her. "Can't you see people are busy!"
"Really, you're interfering with us," Tomoko adds. "Boss, I found it! Right here..."
"Yeah..." I reconnect the tubes, check everything again.
"There's only one cape who can make all this work," Tattletale says aloud and puts a finger to her chin. "But I just forgot her name. Now if you, Tay-Tay, gave me a power burst for five minutes..."
"Lisa!"
"What Lisa? Lisa's not made of iron. I'm not Alexandria, and you even tore her in half. Like paper. Snap and Alexandria's separate, and her ass is separate. No, terrible business. You're a tyrant and..."
"Lisa!! If you know something, say it, don't play on nerves!"
"How tense you are. Anyway, you owe me a burst. And only Amputation can make this work. But she's busy. She has important work in the Slaughterhouse Nine... and I know what you'll say."
"We need Amputation," I say. "Where are the Slaughterhouse Nine now?"
"If I had just come to you and said – Taylor, I need a burst, what would you have answered? You'd have given me a lecture about the inadmissibility of addiction and sober living, about how you can't depend on your abilities and all that," Tattletale jumps up and sits on the lab table. "But when I come and say – Taylor, to establish the approximate location of the Slaughterhouse Nine, I need a burst, then I'll get a burst. How interesting..."
"There are bombs on this table. Two acid ones and one with Null T," Tomoko says. "And you're sitting on them with your ass. And instruments. Precision ones."
"Lisa, stop testing my patience. I need a living Alexandria, which means I need Amputation. If you need a burst so much, I'll give it to you."
"Oh no," she wags her finger. "No, no, no. Stop exploiting me and getting me hooked. Make me a burst mechanism, install it in me. So I can myself..."
"Lisa, you won't do anything, just press the pedal all day! Like a rat from that experiment. Addiction to..."
"Taylor," Tattletale jumps off the table and approaches me. Her face is serious and focused, not a shadow of a smile. "You and I are now in such conditions that any advantage is important to us. Coil is dead, you only have me left. Right now we're in a critical situation, everything hangs by a thread. The government may well declare us outlaws. The Protectorate might send Eidolon and Legend with Myrddin after us. Cauldron... you saw what they're capable of. The most important thing now isn't even your powers and abilities, Taylor. The most important thing is information. Unfortunately, Dinah refuses to answer some questions, or rather – she answers, but they don't pass the answers to me. I... guess what's in them. But no more. Understand, right now we can't afford to act at half strength or save resources for the future. There is no future, Taylor. And there may never be. You're worried about my addiction? About me becoming a junkie hooked on cognitive ability bursts in a few years? I'm worried that you and I don't have those few years. And if we're destined to lose, then I'm going to fight to the end. So don't fool around, do what you're told. I decided this. It's necessary. You trust my judgment, don't you?"
"..." I'm silent, looking into her eyes. She's serious. She really wants me to install an enhancement in her head. So she can give herself bursts! And... I have to say, there's some truth in her words, we really are rapidly flying into the abyss, I bit off ten times more than I can chew, I don't know how to manage a city, and Coil, who could handle any administrative work, is lying in stasis chamber number six. Dinah Alcott gives this world five years at most... and that's very serious, she doesn't make mistakes. Tattletale is right – information rules the world, if I knew who's behind the mysterious Cauldron, how exactly they manage to trade powers in vials, what abilities the cape who killed Thomas Calvert has, what their goals and objectives are, what their strategy consists of, if I knew all this... maybe his death could have been avoided. And if a burst of Tattletale's capabilities gives us more information about Cauldron, about Endbringers, about the Protectorate, about the Slaughterhouse Nine, about the nature of powers and abilities – then there's really no choice.
But... what I definitely don't want is for Lisa to turn into a problem-solving apparatus, into a computing machine, into what she turns into every time after a burst... she doesn't spare herself at all, always walks the edge. And if you give her the button... she'll press the gas and won't let go until she arrives in hell at full speed, with smoking tires and a body falling apart.
"Lisa," I finally say. "I can't decide for you. You're an adult and you understand everything yourself, sometimes even better than me. I'll make you a trigger in your head. Because I have no right not to trust you and your judgments. But I beg you – be more careful with it. Please. Nothing in the world is worth you tearing yourself to pieces, trying to... please. Keep in mind, I won't let you die. I'll resurrect you, if necessary – I'll invade hell and take you from there, don't make me spoil relations with Lucifer more than necessary. I'm serious."
"Yeah, I understand," she snorts and her face is again lit by her usual mocking smirk. "I'll try not to die, otherwise you'll invade hell. By the way, who told you that after death I should be looked for in hell? I'm a good girl and deserve heavenly groves. Though... in heaven, of course, the climate's better, but in hell the company's more interesting..."
"I don't care, Lisa," I say. "Just try to die. Just try. I'll give you such trouble that hell will seem like paradise. I warned you, Lisa Wilbourn."
"Okay, okay. I swear I won't die. And I won't press the button all the time," Tattletale answers me. "By the way, did you know that Tomoko started crushing on you a little?"
"What?! That's not true, boss, don't listen to her!"
"True, true. She used to be like 'oh, I'm only into boys,' and then like 'no man could do what the Boss did.' Such substitution. She always needed approval from an authority figure. And you're the most authoritative here... within the state, maybe more."
"Boss! Don't listen to her!"
"Lisa, please stop. Or you won't get any button."
"Fine. Why are you all flustered. We'll release a t-shirt with the inscription 'I like my boss, but HR forbids workplace dating, so how about after work?' and... kha! Kha-kha-ptui! Taylor! A fly again! In my mouth! Ptui!"
"I prefer practical jokes," I squint. "Stop spitting poison, Lisa. I'll make you a button, I will. Just... be careful with it, okay?"
"Okay, okay," she jumps onto the nearest lab table and pulls her blouse off over her head. "I'll just undress now."
"Lisa! What are you doing?!"
"Well, you always say 'need to undress completely,' or have you been deceiving me all this time? That's what I always thought, why take off panties if you're fixing the head?"
"I... I think I'll go, Boss!" Tomoko "Bakuda" Hideoshi squeaks in an unexpectedly high voice and sideways rapidly squeezes through the doorway, slamming the door behind her. Tattletale and I are left alone.
"And what's this performance for?" I sigh. "Really, sometimes you're like a child."
"Said the person who tore the Main Heroine in half. And I asked you not to kill her," Lisa grumbles, pulling off her bra. "What are you staring at? Come here."
"You yourself said that to fix a head, you don't need to undress."
"And who said we're going to fix a head now? The button can wait. I have too much stress from recent days... fucking Endbringer, hypocritical shit-eater Armsmaster, Alexandria, stupid thug, that bitch from Cauldron who shot Coil... and then you tore Big A's ass off. Well, fuck. I need to relieve stress somehow, and I know one ancient method... known since Ancient Egypt. So to speak, steeped in antiquity and ancient wisdom..."
"Method? What method?" I say, approaching her closer and placing my palm on her thigh. Her skin is smooth and silky, and her breath smells of strawberries and mint.
"Oh, it's a very ancient method..." she says and her voice suddenly becomes low and husky. "You take one naked girl and lay her like this..."