Evelyn escorted Juniper from the Matriarch base to a remote medical facility near the 'dead town,' a puppet town OBB had set up. It housed some of Evelyn’s agents, under the guise of being a ‘closed-neighborhood.’
Inside, the facility it was cold and sterile, covered in an almost oppressive shade of blue. It was unwelcoming, sterile like a sanatorium long since abandoned, the kind of place where ghosts of the past felt more present than the living. The air was thick with a faint sting of chemicals.
She’d been forced to wear some hospital tunic, some utilitarian underwear which made her feel exposed and vulnerable. Juniper pulled at it, it didn’t fit her, and that made it irritating. She turned to her ‘guardian,’ concerned.
“Is it really necessary to wear this, Bigsis?” She asked, voice low.
Her face softened, but her eyes narrowed, like she wasn’t sure whether to embrace or reject the name. Perhaps she was used to only Annemarie calling her that. “Unfortunately, It’s procedure, you’re going into that room over there, it’s airtight and controlled.” she pointed at the spartan medical room, glass walls everywhere, see through. “The SCRA takes bio-contamination from Capes very seriously, a few outbreaks have happened, in the past. They won’t do it any other way.”
Juniper frowned.
“I’ve been bleeding in alleyways, fighting up close. If I were a biohazard, we’d know by now.” Juniper frowned. If I were some walking hazard, wouldn’t half the city already be contaminated?”
“I don’t make the rules, I tend to break them. But I assure you, if they get out of hand, and they sometimes do I’ll step in.” she said, assuring. “Three winks, just blink three times if you’re uncomfortable, and I’ll get you out of there grasp.”
Now, why would government doctors get out of hand?
Juniper sighed, lowered her head. “Can I ask, what’s the deal with you, and the heroes, why are you running an organization like this? Why cooperate with the SCRA.”
Evelyn looked away, turning her face from, Juniper. “It’s a tale for another time. But the government gave us a choice: us or them. I conceded. People lived because I did.”
“Us, as in operation bell brigade?” Juniper prodded.
“No, we were more back then, different. I was– leave it. I’ll tell you the complete tale, when you’ve earned my full trust.”
Juniper piped down. She wondered what else lay in the skeletons of OBB’s past. She had many suspicions.
Evelyn’s eyes wandered like she was in a different place now, Juniper had a feeling she wasn’t speaking about Cape affairs. She’d seen that stare before, in her absent father’s eyes. He had served briefly during the secession, a time still fresh in half a generation’s memory. They were still culturally American, but the scars would remain.
Vehicles came to a stop, doors slammed shuts. Then came the footsteps of heavy men, marching in.
The SCRA detachment had arrived, trailing behind them, were two doctors in medical lab coats and a small entourage of SCRA folks. A lot more armed guards than she expected, about 4 weaponized individuals. One particular man had stood out. He was silent, completely weaponless, the other’s stood well away from him. He had a particular aura about him that Juniper could sense, heavy muscles Evelyn seemed taken a back his appearance. She stared him down, eyes settling on the figure intent on accessing him as a possible threat.
“Lady Arkangeal,” the doctor held out his, gesturing for her boss to take it,“A pleasure to work with you again. It’s not often you get new capes.”
Evelyn scoffed, shoved his hand away, and started tapping her feet on the cold and sterile floor. Crossed her arms. “Cut the pleasantries, Engelman, I don’t want to engage with you anymore than you want to with me,” She walked forward. “So, please, get this over with, and try not to do anything inappropriate.”
Inappropriate!? She hoped he wasn’t a creep, she’d much rather preferred a female doctor inspect her, only because it made her more at ease.
She grabbed juniper by the shoulder, wrapping her arms tightly around her. “This is my newest protégé, it would be a shame if you hurt her under the guise of Medical examinations. So I’ll be keeping a close watch.”
The doctor bowed.
“Fear not, Ms. Pinewell, I have a daughter around your age, I promise to be gentle.” the mention of her own name sent a jolt up her spine. She hadn’t introduced herself. Of course, they already knew. The government always knew. Even if Evelyn hadn’t told them.
None of his words made her at ease.
The doctor lowered his head. He was frail and pale, like old crumpled paper, ready to tear in half. “And of course not, Lady of the hollow nights, we come under obligation not visitation.” He said, his voiced raised allowed, tension amplifying in the room.
Evelyn clicked her tongue at the remark.
Lady of the hollow nights?
Juniper became antsy, she didn’t like being forced into a room with several men, a lot of men, it made it uneasy, under the loose hospital tunic she was bare and that irked her. She felt self-conscious and vulnerable, she wanted more support anchors with her. To anyone, Evelyn, was a wild card.
It’s just a few tests Juniper, nothing, weird, nothing a bunch of men and suits could do to you. You aren’t alone.
Was this absolutely necessary, though, really?” They couldn’t arbitrarily give her a rating from drone data?
Shivers went up her spine, and her body instinctively settled on the big guard, the weaponless one.
Her new passive skill, [Otherness Recognition], had activated on its own. The feeling radiating from the cape in the center, fully masked and unassuming, no baton, no stun gun, no firearm.
Strange. Intriguing even, the second most important point of interest in the room besides her.
Sys-chan, I need you awake! NOW!
The words scurried in her mind, and a like a magic word, her little ping was heard in her head.
[Huh… what’s this?]
Strange SCRA individual, feels weird, like a cape. Definitely cape-y.
[Hmmm, I see it. Confirmed cape energy. You should definitely observe—like, right now, sister.]
But before Juniper could, the doctor gestured to the entrance of the room. “Shall we, Ms. Pinewell? I’m sure eager to get this over with.”
Engelman pointed to the bed, a hovering light hung over the bed frame. Juniper moved towards it, unsettled but in full compliance. There was no reason to resist anyway, just punished to be taken.
They laid her on the a surgical bed, and her skin chilled against the bare cold of the sting. It’ started out like a normal doctor’s appointment. They’d ask her how she was feeling, how was her day, then they started checking for blood pressure, her heart, reflexes. She breathed in and out as the doctor Engelman put a digital Stethoscope to her chest.
“Breath in Juniper, then breathed out.” he said in a whisper
Oh, god, this going to take forever.
[Not if I sing you a song.]
Please don’t
[Too late. Cue ominous humming in your head. hummuuuu~~OOOOOOooooaaaaahhh~]
Syschan, your throat singing!
[And you’re stressed, Juniper, ease up.]
How? When I’m practically naked in this thing.
The doctor stirred next to her, relaying information to doctor number two, who remained nameless, his assistant perhaps.
The assistant started jotting down notes on a little notebook, his hands scribbling all over the page.
What the hell was he jotting down for?
[Oh-ho… they’re watching you real close. Studying you. Evaluating. My guess? These freaks love poking at capes, and they’ve got a ticking clock to do it.]
The doctor, stroked his old beard.
“Your vitals are strong, Miss Pinewell. Too strong. Much stronger than they should be. Even for a superhuman” he looked at her. “It doesn’t match the hospital records after you awoke in the hospital after you were run over. Yet, somehow you also recovered nearly completely in the span of a few days…”
Juniper snapped, frustrated. Her upper body took to the air, sitting upright, confused.
“Calm down, just accessing your abilities.” he held out his arms. “I just want to know why your body reacts the way it does?”
How would– Oh. Of course
They also had access to all her records, she didn’t want to think about that, the shock and the impact of the pain that day, she didn’t want to think about it. She looked at Evelyn, who gave her a small nod. Permission granted to speak.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
“M-my body,” she started, “It adapts over time, to pressure,”
She kept the fact that the effects were semi-permanent over a long time, best to keep most of the information contained. If they found out she could get stronger by simply exploiting strange activity, they’d surely start making more plans for her.
“Yes, yes… you are a transformer of a kind yes, body changes in accordance to its environment, adaptation, the purest form of evolution, able to affect you in the span of a few moments.” he pondered for a while, then settled. “Very interesting, but let us move onwards. I’m being given a small window for assessment, it’s really not ideal.”
She noticed the masked cape tense up at this statement, still hiding under the SCRA uniform, like he didn’t like to hear what she was saying. His fists visibly clenched. Juniper started to actively catch him with the flick of her eye.
“Now, ms. Pinewell we’re legally obligated to take and store a blood sample of you, as we do all capes.”
Perhaps They’ll sell her genetic material the moment they get the chance.
[I think they’d store it as a counter measure, say you become a problem, it would take a geneticist, and a chemist to whip out a poison, designed for your body alone.]
They make more problems than fix them. Useless, government.
The doctor retrieve a tourniquet and a needle, brought it around to Juniper’s arm. He brought the needle around and prepared to pinch.
Oh, great needles.
[Relax, it’s just a little pinch. In and out, like a bad date.]
The needle slid in, Juniper didn’t flinch, letting it slide out again, as the doctor’s started wiping it away. The hole slowly closed on its own. He stares. At the blood. At her arm. At the small wound sealing itself before his eyes. Then at his assistant. Neither of them say anything, but the scribbling of the pen picks up speed.
Engelman continued to exchanged glances with his assistant, said nothing, but the man was jotting down. Her unease grew. The trickled down blood was stored in a small vile not a lot, enough to make her uneasy.
What are they looking for exactly. The easiest way to dissect her?
[Don’t worry; I’ll scream.]
Reassuring, but I can hear you.
Next up, they strapped a machine to her head, like a VR headset. Meant for visual stimulus. It took her into a microscopic world. Fractals and splashes of discolored visuals appeared in front of her, in her eyes was a small moving ball, changing shapes and size.
“Track the ball with her eyes.” She did as it whizzed and whacked and zipped across the display. It was getting harder over time, and just when she thought she had lost it. A ping flashed in her ears
[Reflexes +1]
Her vision regained focus, attention span doubling, and she saw the little tiny object hiding behind strange visuals that looked like cholera and bacterial patches.
She heard the Engelman gasped. She panicked and pulled off the headset. The two’s attention were locked to a monitor. The masked cape watched her closely. Evelyn watched him from the corner, silent but unflinching.
Next, they brought in a drone to scan her X-rays. It zoomed around, small and compact. Large enough to hide a 9 mm if they wanted to execute her.
Blue light flashed from its beacon as its ray went up and down. Her scans were displayed over a nearby computer. The doctor lingered on it way too long, staring at her cranial compartment. Juniper noticed this, They were definitely inspecting her top to bottom. It was unnerving, she was naked under the skeleton, naked.
[Oh no, they might see thiccness of your femurs]
And what if they see you, joker?
It was a valid point, could they detect Syschan; or was every cape brain, anatomically fucked. Every inspection was slowly irritating her, frustration was building up in her system. Engelman stopped again, ordered his lackey to write something down.
Next came the perceptions and reactions. He made Juniper stand up, and ordered his assistant to throw little balls past her head, her goal was to catch this.
The assistant, pitched and bowled, Juniper moved instinctively to catch the balls. Her arms, unathletic, typically let go of the ball, making them slip and slide.
Next up. The hearing test. He motioned for her to listen, and clicked his fingers near her ear. “I know you can selectively hear well, When you hear gunfire, turn your head.”
Gunfire, why would she hear gunfire of all things.
She activated super audition complying.
He snapped his fingers, the first time, there was nothing. Just the wind of the desert plains outside. Then he did it again. She turned her head, it sounded like a long rifle going off maybe a hunting one, a .308, she didn’t know much about guns.
He nodded. “Yes…yes…”
The doctor moved onwards swiftly, like he had an epiphany. He went to a machine and started playing very soft beats. She could hear it, very low frequency sounds, barely audible.
“Can you hear the music,” she nodded.
He took the page from the young man’s hands, and started writing himself. Engelman’s hands went ham on the paper.
The scientist brought a cold metal instrument to her forearm. the device vibrated from afar, a small, bulky thing resembling a metal suitcase.”
This makes it clearer and more fluid.
He held it out.
Thousands of little prickles tickled her. [“Phantom Reflex”] activated. And she sensed it way before it could touch her. She jerked away, but said nothing.
“Tell me when you feel this.” he said, bringing the thing closer Juniper shivered, even as the thing was a meter away, her body’s reacting strangely to it moving in her direction.
“Please stop.” she pleaded.
The man nodded, fascinated. Then started pulling dozens of tools out, all representing sensitive stimuli. A block of ice, pressing against her skin. He pressed it against her, and her body reacted to it, warming up, sensing danger, it melted faster than it should have.
The doctor raised a brow.
He zapped her with a low frequency taze gun, on the hand. Juniper twitches, hardly in a pain, more like her muscles was moving on her own misfiring. She caught the observing cape leaning, inspecting her reactions.
Was he judging her for weaknesses?
Two more tests left Ms. Pinewell. You might fell some pain in a moment. Of course you’d need to give your consent, most people aren’t comfortable with this part, but you’ll get some extra repertoire from our reputation for cooperation.
She tensed. Evelyn gave her a nod of approval. Juniper didn’t want to feel pain.
“We want to test your regeneration. We are mild aware, that you seemingly can recover from most wounds overnight”
“Is this really necessary?” She asked skeptical.
“It would make our jobs, easier, of course, you’d experience a little additional pain.” Engelman insisted.
Juniper braced herself a self as a small scalpel sliced into her arm. Slow. Painful. Surgical. No anesthesia. She bore it.
The pain stung, and even though she had worse wounds before–there was no adrenaline here, no Iron drive. Just her raw nerves, She gritted her teeth, refusing to flinch. But the tears came anyway. She sniffled, barely holding back the sting.”
“There, there, it’s hardly thicker than a centimeter.”
The doctor pulled away, watching as the wound stitched itself shut. Slow. Bit by bit. Juniper gritted her teeth, she just willingly let herself be cut open.
“Fascinating…”
The cape doesn’t say anything just watches, tense…
“Alright, he motioned, one more test before we go on to the practical.” the Doctor said.
A seemingly unassuming guard stepped forward, one of the armed ones, he gave his gun to his comrades. And walked closer, without a word, masked.
The doctor turned to her. “We need to see how your power interacts with others. You possess the ability to mimic powers, yes, permanently I believe,”
Juniper observed, the man. He didn’t seem like a cape nor did he feel like one. She observed.
Power: 20
Endurance: 25
Dexterity: 24
Reflex: 35
Durability: 24
Energy: 70
[Neuro-Spike Physiology]: Activates a artificially, enhanced hyper-adrenaline state. Grants user near-instant reaction speeds and time, bullet-time precision and perception, peak agility. In this state, User can move quick enough gunfire, process sensory data faster than most humans, predict enemy movements.
[Drawbacks]:
Cortical Overload: Brain processing speed enhancement comes with pushing beyond safe limits, may cause intense headaches, migraines, hallucinations, micro-seizures and limb convulsion. Worsen with over use.
Addition: body will crave the activation, withdrawal symptoms cause muscle spasms, paranoia, memory loss, schizophrenia.
[Nuh, uh, bad news, that comes with serious drawback, I wouldn't risk it. I think they’re trying to set you up. Encourage you to use, like they did this poor man in front of you, no wonder he’s mute.]
Like-minded minds then. She was going to take poison, not all powers were equal. She could probably handle it better than anyone else, but the fact they try to pass this on to her irked her. Likewise, she had principals now, and self-respect.
“Something wrong?”
“I can’t accept that, his power, it’s not for me?” she frowned. She had to be careful what she said, she shouldn’t allude that she could see powers for what they are. “I’m sorry, I draw the line here,”
“It’s just for research, his powers are fairly useful in combat” he whispered. “We won’t push you beyond safe limits.”
The doctor persisted, and his assistant leaned inwards, the notebook held tightly. The SCRA guard, stood awkwardly, like he didn’t want to be here either.
shit!
“This is standard for power mimics.” he said “Don’t you want to know how far you can go? How strong you really are?”
“NO!” She shouted, a bit pissed off. She let gravity lightly distort the weight in the room, instruments and objects, slightly lifting off the ground, her hair rising into the air, shaking wildly. The SCRA soldier stood obediently peering to the masked cape.
“You’re being disingenuous.” Juniper said.
They’d prodded her long enough, what was next, a violation of her body.
The Doctor looked stress, backed away slightly, his assistant, noped the fuck out of the open room. Evelyn looked amused, but did nothing yet, accessing the situation.
“What makes you say that Ms. Pinewell?” he giggled nervously.
The quiet observer moved forward swiftly, gesturing to the soldier to move back, he stood in front of Juniper then leaned forward and spoke. “Cooperation would have made things easier for everyone. Every case is different, you know. You’re asking to fail because you can’t control yourself, all you had to do was play along? Are you sure you’re making sensible choices Juniper?"
He called her by her first name, like it was personal. The voice was gruff like she’d heard it somewhere, Juniper tensed up, cornered. She looked at her boss, who was waiting for her signal, and winked three times and Evelyn came fast, heels hammering the floor, she didn’t raise her voice but the room stopped.
“Enough, you’re in my base, act like it.” she said. “Juniper isn’t state property. She already signed several SCRA documents stipulating her non-aggression agreement with the city and it’s organizations. This isn’t a forced experiment. You people have no authority to force her to absorb that power, whatever it is. You're clearly taking advantage here, there’s no need to test it, as I’ve noticed that it puts my protégé under considerable strain. You're asking to hurt her.”
The scientists don’t argue. But they don’t look happy, either. The observer—stares at Evelyn. Silent. “We need some kind of leverage, Arkangeal, We don’t need any more capes running wildly amock, but we’re in your territory so we’ll play nice.”
“No, You’ve confirmed what you needed to know, Shall we hurry up the practical none of us wants to be here.” Evelyn turned to the mask man. “That’s enough, Aegysthos. This is pathetic—even for you.”
Juniper panicked, her eyes went wide. Aegysthos, the Aegysthos, the same one who taught team new hope to be capes, The very same, hailed as the hero of the city.
She rarely felt frightened, but something about his presence put her off, made her weak..
She backed away slowly, moving as far away as possible. Her mind stormed, something was off. Her heart started racing away, feeling like it wanted to hop out. She relaxed her abilities, pressing herself behind, Evelyn. Tense.
[Juniper, don’t tell me you’re afraid of that dude. Pffft. You killed a fucking alien last night, what’s he to you? In 7 years, you’ll be a goddess, and where will he be? At your heels.]
You don’t get it Sys-chan, he’s actually commits to what he says.
They stare at her like a lab rat.
He crossed his arms, and the doctors go tense. They started packing up their lightweight equipment, moving out of the way. They feel the weight of the moment.
Aegysthos breaks the silence.
“I want to see her in the field.” he demanded, “The Eight highly recommends it.”
Evelyn narrows her eyes.
“The eight can go fuck themselves, including you. I’m strictly against it, Juniper suffered enough trauma last week because the SCRA didn’t clean up their little arsonist problem.”
Aegysthos doesn’t care. “You don’t have a choice. We have agreements signed on paper.”
Silence ensued, but everyone started to collectively walking out.
Juniper left the table, mentally exhausted. The doctors had seen something they weren’t supposed to, she felt the weight of her notes as they went over it.
Evelyn walked beside her. It was a calm but tense reassurance, and there was an edge to her bosses voice.
“Are you okay, Juniper.”
“Yeah,” A lie.
“Don’t worry, he’s not allowed to harm you.”