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Bio Forge Master (Rewrite) by Throwaway1971

Books » Private Rated: M, English, Romance, Words: 137k+, Favs: 57, Follows: 75, Published: Dec 12, 2023 Updated: Mar 15, 2024

29Chapter 26: Interlude: Good News

Psst*

I ain't done yet!~

Bio Forge Master

Interlude: Good News, part 2

Uppercrust

He remembers New York, that day years ago.

It was common knowledge amongst capes that nothing gives nightmares better than Endbringer battles and Trigger events. Endbringers being traumatizing isn't much of a surprise, but most outside of the cape community ever realize that Trigger events (or Crisis points if you want to be scientific) leave scars on the psyche and soul that never truly go away. Endbringer trauma? You could eventually overcome it, but Trigger events? Never, the event will always be raw and no parahuman has ever truly 'get over' it.

This of course led to having a psychiatrist stationed at every Protectorate headquarter across the country, after all parahumans are hopelessly traumatized citizens granted superpowers, it would've been foolish to think they didn't need some form of psychiatric help.

There is a saying, "If you want a villain to die, have them kidnap the hero's therapist."

He was old enough to have actually met the man who coined the term, a small-time villain, Doctor Titanium in Denver, he thought. He was the one who decided it was a genius idea to kidnap the PRT psychologist that worked in the area and torture her to get the identities of the heroes.

You'd think the PRT would've fallen on him like a sack of bricks, which happened but that wasn't the problem. His problem was that heroes don't take too kindly to one of the few people they open up to being hurt like that.

The local Protectorate, all the way from the recently graduated Wards to Protectorate leadership met without anyone from the PRT knowing and raided the villain's home barely disguised as vigilantes.

That villain was found strung up with barbed wire and brutally beaten to death, and the psychologist had to be ushered to a mental institution to recover from all that happened. And since that day they set up a rotation system for the psychological council. Everyone thinks that this was instituted because of Masters and other nonsense.

But no, the real reason? Is that they are some of the few people that capes form genuine attachments to, of course they would they're literally baring their soul to these people. They open up to them and share their deepest secrets, their fears, their insecurities, they tell everything to this one person, and they will go beyond what any rational person would do to protect that person.

It isn't exactly something the PRT wants, it's why capes are always held at an arm's length of the community. They certainly don't want members of the Protectorate to join local protests like that time in '02 or really become a part of the community, because that would clash with them being assets of the government.

Protectorate capes weren't allowed to join militias, despite it being a constitutional right, and are encouraged to live on base or in gated communities and are discouraged from volunteer work in civilian persona.

But that didn't explain why he was in Brockton Bay did it? No, it was just the random musings of a sickly man. While the newly created power vacuum was indeed ripe to exploit, and after he had finished his business dealings with Dr. Patches, he'd bring this to the Board to discuss, he was more interested in getting healed than anything else.

The city was in a far worse state than he was told, the economic downfall of international trade, it was honestly a miracle it had only lost ten percent of its population in the last ten years, and that is mostly due to everywhere else being too expensive.

It didn't take a genius to see how that affected the villain population, an incredibly stable agreement, similar to what Boston had with Accord, Blasto and the Teeth only far more destructive and expensive.

Piggot had overcorrected the mistake of the closest department and tried to not destabilize the cape system; it was something that usually works but not in a city like Brockton Bay.

Many people compare the city to a powder keg, that is incorrect, a keg was used for centuries as an effective and safe storage of gunpowder, the amount of time barrels with gunpowder exploded unintentionally was quite low.

This city was no powder keg.

No, the city was a shooting range, many never realize that guns don't consume all the gunpowder they use, so in a shooting range some small unburnt bits accumulate in the floor, and if you don't sweep often? All it takes is a single spark and the whole thing goes up in flames.

That is Brockton Bay.

Only, it didn't, the city had a massive pressure released by having its strongest cape die, normally this only leads to replacements, but the cape in question publicly stated that he wanted to travel which in turn massively caused problems for the city, because it opened too much opportunity, and opportunity was something that capes always sought.

The Empire was thrown into chaos, because it opened too many options, and didn't have the resources to seize them.

If they expand, they expose themselves in an area they never wanted, on a place they ideologically cannot occupy without doing something that will get them a kill order. Sure, they could expel the minorities rather than kill them, but that would take time, which is just as bad as the second option whilst still taking casualties.

Because the more they let the area sit unoccupied is the larger danger some outside force takes it, or naturally arises from triggers they most likely caused.

And having people trigger from your actions is a bad thing strategically, because it created trumps and people with powers countering your power is a recipe for disaster. Not to mention it breeds resentment more often than not.

The second option is to give the land to a lesser enemy, this would work on most cases except the Empire is ideologically motivated, people join because they don't want other races to succeed, so that option is out the table if Kaiser doesn't want to suffer a mutiny and have the gang descend into an internal civil war.

There was the issue that a sufficiently non-violent gang would simply be ignored by the PRT and focus exclusively on the Empire.

He was almost tempted to get the docks himself, but that could never be justified, even if Patches asked for it could never be economically justified, the city had minimal amount of money passing by, the most that uppercrust could justify giving was a coastal shield.

He sighed; it was no use thinking of your opponent's perspective when they were not going to be you enemies in the first place.

"Sir?"

Honestly destroying the Merchants wasn't even a consideration as without their armored vehicles maker they would even be a threat. Besides Uppercrust figured the gang was bound to implode due to its own actions, due to the tendency to 'sample their own goods' their entire business model (if it could even be called that) was simply unsustainable. While they may continue getting drugs in, the fact of the matter is that the Merchants have the highest turnover and mortality rates of any other gang or occupation in the city if not country!

"SIR!"

"Huh?" Uppercrust looked up from his book and at his escort.

"Sir, please look out the window." The man sounded almost hysterical.

What was about the win-

"Oh…" Now Uppercrust understood why his escort sounded that way.

"Yes,'oh' sir" If he wasn't currently dumbfounded, he would've chided his escort for his cheek…

But now? He had some plans to write down, didn't he?

Director Piggot

Meetings with the other Directors is a blessing and a curse. It's especially a curse after a cape dies, seeing as it's PRT policy to keep capes alive. It also tends to have either snowball into something worse or nothing happens at all. Nothing between, just it gets worse, or nothing happens.

Places either have high or low cape mortality rates, and unfortunately Brockton Bay happens to have the highest rate in the country, but one of the lowest for gang members and Protectorate members. Given the economic down cline and the crime situation, there were always new parahumans for the grinder that is this damn city.

But this meeting wasn't about the death of Lung, it never would've been actually. Strong as the parahuman was, the fact is he never made it to the national level. Lung contented himself with his little fiefdom in Brockton Bay since he arrived nine years ago and unified the Asian gangs into the ABB.

Besides Villain deaths never warranted a meeting unless the jurisdiction was in question, in which it isn't.

No, the meeting was over the fact that Weld was found to have sent Dr. Patches a sample of his metal in hopes that he could help him with his condition.

The only reason this was only discovered was because Weld came forward and confessed what he did, if he didn't there was a chance it would've never been discovered in the first place.

Hell turns out Weld had been responding to people and sending them paperclips of his metal since he became a Ward. He could've claimed it was an accident and they would've been able to do anything about it or prove otherwise.

The PRT knew the risks of giving unknown capes anything, there is a legitimate possibility of this being a repeat of Case 12 and Weld could be barred from getting clearance again, but she isn't that lucky.

And it wasn't like she could do anything about the hospital that biotinker had set up and was about to open. The knowledge that the parahuman was going to have plenty of desperate people coming to him for healing made her blood boil.

She didn't trust parahumans on a good day, she had her bias, but she did try to reign them in and work with them. But ever since that day at Elisburg when the capes left her and her fellow soldiers to die… she could never bring herself to trust them again.

And Nilbog… She hated him with a passion that makes the sun look lukewarm, and she always saw parahumans with any sort of biokinetic ability or specialization like ticking time bombs. She saw what happened when one biokinetic cape went off the rails, we lost an entire town and had to wall it off completely.

She refused to allow Brockton Bay to become another Elisburg no matter how much she hated the city herself. In her opinion parahumans with biokinetic abilities should have handlers and be monitored 24/7/365 under the most thorough and extreme measures. They shouldn't be given a second of privacy or a chance to experiment.

And the moment they show even the possibility of going off the rails they should either be shot or thrown into the Cage and forgotten!

"Reel it in soldier." She chided herself, "Just remember your training. Square breath, breath in, hold it, release, hold. Easy does it…"

Besides, even if she wanted to do anything about the hospital (clinic, whatever he calls it), the mayor was being incredibly uncooperative and well it wasn't surprising. He has the chance of having a second "Brockton Miracle" as they called Panacea back in the day, one that owned property and circulated money in the economy.

And it wasn't like he would deprive hospitals of patients, he had fairly high prices for non-essential surgeries and hospitals would be full either way. And the sheer amount of money coming from medical tourism was already insane. Already several hotels were full in anticipation for Dr. Patches hospital to open.

But the meeting wasn't about that either, it was about a misbehaving child that gave away something to every fan, and then felt guilty and came forward, because he was just too good of a person.

She could make him sound guilty even in her head, and she was the director pushing against having him punished ironically. Prejudice towards parahumans she may be, but she would never blame someone simply hoping to improve their quality of life.

Her computer chimed and several cameras started appearing on the screen, and eventually all were filled with the other directors. It is a small meeting, just her, Chief Director Costa Brown, Director Armstrong, and Director Wilkins. It was the bare minimum they could have, her 'job' in this meeting was to be the prosecution against Weld.

She didn't want to do it; she knew what it was like to be messed with by some mad man that thought they were a god-king and could entirely understand his need for healing. If not for his willingness to trust that… abomination.

She had seen the reports of the surgeries that thing had done to itself, she couldn't even bring herself to consider it a person any longer.

'Patches' had a physiology that was so vastly different from a human, she wasn't sure whether she should agree with the scientists wanting to study it or call for their arrests!

"Good evening, I would like to keep this meeting brief and to the point." Costa-Brown said signing the official beginning of the meeting, "We're here to discuss Weld sending a sample to a non-Protectorate independent hero. I will simply be here to decide any jurisdiction issues there might be and hope you can resolve this issue amongst yourselves."

We'll, she's fucked.

The way it was said completely poisoned the well of her case, she called Patches an independent hero, which meant she accepted that he is in fact a hero. So, she would have to go at this from an entirely different direction.

It would serve little purpose to attack his character now, so time for Plan B.

"He sent his own flesh to a tinker that we still have little knowledge of that worked with Accord and whose self-claimed brother killed two parahumans in my city." Going at him through his associates was rather weak but it was the only thing she could do at the moment.

The city would offer very little help in Al Caponeing him, and apparently, he even paid his taxes on time and were filed perfectly the first time! Usually that was a sign of the Elite but there was no evidence besides Uppercrust visiting the city.

And God was that meeting an utter nightmare, you couldn't be rude or threaten Uppercrust. If he decided to not build a coastal shield in your city and blames you personally your career was thoroughly over and no matter how much ass you kiss you aren't coming back from that.

No, she had to practically kowtow to the guy, a man willing to let a biotinker do surgery on him. He must be either sicker that we realize or desperate.

She didn't even expect the man to establish a cell in the city. The land was worthless. Hell, even if he did, he would have to build a coastal shield which is useless in a blocked off city like Brockton Bay since there is no shipping to protect.

Hell, she'd even welcome him despite being a villain, the Elite at least didn't have the fucking sex slave brothels she discovered twenty-five minutes ago!

"The boy is desperate and sought a fellow hero out to help him, one of good standing as he had previously defeated and gifted us Chain Man when Weld first met him, and managed to hold off the Butcher for minutes until the building could be evacuated! The boy even came forward despite us never being able to detect anything wrong, and frankly I don't think he even did anything wrong!" Director Armstrong argued he had always been considered soft by PRT Director standards, more interested in studying capes than fighting villains, one of those people that took pity on every parahuman because they had trauma.

"Must I remind you of the circus that was Case 12?" Piggot asked, "A similar power could be had, that if Patches doesn't construct a bio-metal machine army from that paper clip alone, we all know tinkers take inspiration from the world around him! What if he makes a robot with the ability to absorb metal like Weld? One trip to the Boat Graveyard and we'd have a fourth man-made endbringer on our hands!"

"Wrong, Weld is Manton Limited and his metal has never shown any properties in testing aside from being an undetermined alloy of whatever he has recently absorbed. He is also immune to every Master effect we have tried and several Thinker abilities. Besides, your theory assumes that any self-duplicating creature couldn't have been created without Welds' sample in the first place, which is extremely unlikely as Tinkers are known to substitute materials." Armstrong replied, making Piggot reluctantly nod.

She needed time to think, he knew more about Weld than she did, she only skimmed the file before the meeting whilst the boy is like a son to him.

"By the way, what was that thing with Lung? I haven't been keeping up with the news out of your city recently." Piggot mentally thanked Director Wilkins for that great segway and giving her time to think.

"Two hours ago, the suspected Biotinker creation known as Dr. Patches was at one of the city's cafes when the villains known as the Undersiders traveled to his location for healing, which he appeared to be expecting and didn't resist. They in turn were being pursued by Lung, an escalating brute/changer." Piggot said before pausing to gather her thoughts.

"He then proceeded to heal the villains while Armsmaster engaged the villain despite the risk to his safety and health, the encounter resulting in him being critically injured. If Panacea wasn't in the city, he would've died due to the severity of the injuries." She added before pausing to take a sip of water before continuing.

"During the engagement an associate of Patches, an unknown high-level shaker, proceeded to interfere in Armsmaster fight, potentially being responsible for the hero's injuries, and proceeded to brutally kill both Lung and Oni Lee through use of tinkertech grenades." She said, did she sound desperate? Possibly but she sure as hell didn't care, the more opportunities to be rid of this monstrosity the better, even if she knew the title wasn't fair.

Lung and Oni Lee were more deserving, but they weren't biotinkers and so they weren't monsters in her mind. A little messed up? Yes, but that's what severe trauma and PTSD will do to a person.

It was then Chief Director Costa-Brown intervened, leaning forward in her seat and frowning.

"Incorrect, the Undersiders despite their crimes are all minors and were all severely hurt. Dr. Patches isn't culpable for healing people that solicit his services, and we all remember the shit show that trying to arrest someone for consensual healing caused." She paused and adjusted herself, "Esper has also shown exemplary behavior despite the gruesome circumstances of Lung and Oni Lee's deaths. We all know the rules of engagement with telekinetics, it's the exact reason why PRT officers do not use lethal grenades."

She knew she had already lost this fight; she wasn't even all that against Weld anyway so that was no skin off her nose, hell she was sure if Patches had any other power, he would've been a good hero. Sadly, reality doesn't conform to our wishes.

"Well, I get it. Actually, do we have any policy in the books about… sending body parts…" Director Wilkins paused for a moment before resuming, "That sounded so much worse than intended, apologies. I meant samples like the paperclip through the mail?"

"Weld has always sent paperclips to his fans, and he never brought it up. But no, I don't think we have any specific policy against Wards say, some heartthrob sending a lock of hair to a fan..." Armstrong said with a smirk, trying to play the old Americana teen celebrity that they pushed for the Wards.

It is an irritatingly effective tactic.

"Well, I don't think I can blame him, even if he didn't already expose himself to potentially all of his previous fans. Doctor Patches doesn't sound particularly more dangerous to have Welds metal than any other person, especially since it may or may not do anything useful for a tinker." Wilkins commented.

"It's an irresponsible thing to do, Patches actual specialization is poorly understood, and Weld has to be kept in a special unit of the PRT building. It's entirely possible that whatever Patches could be made will be similarly destructive." Piggot didn't notice until she already spoke just how badly it had come out.

"Excuse me?" Armstrong asked in an indignant tone as he narrowed his eyes at the wincing Piggot, "Weld is not 'kept' anywhere. He is an exemplary Ward that requires specialized care for his quality of life!" He said, raising his voice slightly.

"Damnit, come on soldier! Get it together!" Piggot chided herself for letting her grudge get the better of her.

Costa-Brown intervened however before things could escalate further, "Have you attempted to ask him for the clip back?"

That alone settled her as the losing party, there was no way she could retort to that without looking like an idiot of the highest order.

"... No, no I have not…" Piggot answered, trying to keep as much dignity as she could.

"Well, it seems like the matter is resolved, we c-" And then the Endbringer sirens started to go off.

Panacea

Out of all the places Amy has been rushed out of for emergency healing, school has never been one of them. For whatever reason the hospital staff seems to think her learning math and science is more important than saving lives, so for the most part when she is in school, she's left alone.

Except barring extreme emergencies of course.

This happened to be one of those days, and Amy honestly didn't mind it that much as it saved her from a trigonometry test, she didn't study for.

So, she was quickly escorted to Brockton General, flown by her perfect beautiful sister so see what the fuss was all about. She just hoped it wouldn't be something utterly benign… she'd hate to imagine the cost of it.

See, Amy believed that luck, good and bad, were transactional. If you found a penny on the floor you would hit your shin on the coffee table, it's just how it always worked for her through her life, so she knew she'd see some horrific shit.

When Vicky flew her to Brockton Central hospital, she was concerned, especially when she saw the blue glowing mushroom cloud, and immediately began to think about radiation. Reactors were blue if she wasn't mistaken.

It was only when Vicky flew in close to investigate did her concert wane a bit, Vicky wasn't suffering any radiation damage nor was her skin microbiome, so it 'probably' wasn't radioactive. And if it was, it was simply a type she wasn't familiar with.

Probably Tinker shit in all honesty, you can never really tell what you'll get from that stuff.

Still, she arrived at the hospital, and it looked like the president had been shot! There was security everywhere, reporters were either waiting in the hospital lobby or literally chasing ambulances, she figured, and the doctors were shouting for people to get out of the corridors!

All in all, it was the same semi-organized chaos that always happens when something big happens.

Of bigger concern was that there was already a nurse, Sarah… maybe Sasha she wasn't entirely sure, on the roof with a paper in hand. This normally meant that they didn't have time to wait till she went to them.

Getting out of Vicky's arms she immediately focused, "So, who's the VP?" Panacea asked preempting any questions.

"Armsmaster." The nurse answered, "Intracranial bleed, Hemopneumothorax, the entire exposed part of his face was burned, alongside severe burns where his skin went into direct contact with his armor's metal. We suspect at least thirty bones are broken as of current and we didn't even get an x-ray yet, and we suspect severe spinal damage." She rattled off, she'd been chosen as the official Cape representative of the hospital for her ability to deliver information quickly and precisely… and not fanboy.

Now if only Panacea could recall her name she'd feel less like a heel.

Vicky was utterly horrified and gaping like a fish, not that her sister blamed her at all. Sadly, she wasn't a stranger to extreme trauma like this in her time as Panacea.

"Right, let's go." Panacea said honestly, she had seen worse, what happened to the hero was tragic, but it also happened a few months ago to a guy that challenged Hookwolf to a fist fight.

They entered the hospital, old and with linoleum full of holes, dug in from time and people walking, the curtains billing blinders.

Carol once asked her why no one fixed this thing; she thought it obvious herself really. The city simply had no economic value, with the dying maritime trade people moving to more economically prosperous cities like Detroit and Cleveland while coastal port towns were abandoned almost entirely.

Even still, most other cities in the coast could at least trade with one another, except for Brockton Bay that had only one entrance to the bay which was blocked off by the huge tanker. She only learned of the riots through personal research, and even to this day she wondered what the hell the rioters were even thinking.

Did some fuck seriously think that blocking off the bay would actually be a good thing!? If they did, she has some prime real estate for them in Elisburg! Fucking morons!

Because without access to the ocean they could be no trade, and with no trade there could be no profit, which in turn led to the economic decline of Brockton Bay, a Port City, and the rise of crime!

Now there was little to no investment into revitalizing the ports, much less removing the tanker, and there was even less now. All because of some stupid fucking rioters thinking blocking of the bay was a good idea!

The hospital suffers from this due to not getting new machines, as overland costs more, and radiation treatments are incredibly unpopular due to Behemoth.

She finally arrived at the room that Armsmaster was in, a private one on the top floor, with a window facing the entrance. She saw two PRT agents at the door, and an additional two at the end of the corridor. There were probably more throughout the hospital, but that didn't matter to Panacea.

The nurse (she really should ask her name sometime) had stopped following a few feet behind us, and the guard immediately opened the door allowing us entrance before closing it behind us.

The first thing that hit her was the smell, pork barbecue alongside the hot metal of the oven.

The second layer was the silicone spray that Kid Win was using to remove Armsmasters armor, as slowly as possible. In the farthest corner of her mind Panacea felt bad for the young tinker having to do this to his mentor, she really hoped they had a good therapist on staff.

"Oh wow, great. Someone has been messing with molecular biology… exactly what I need! Greeeaaaattttt!" She knew better than to voice her thoughts, she is snarky and bitter but not completely heartless.

Miss Militia was also in the room as well, calmly looking out the window, like she was ready to take a sniping position if there was any villain nearby. The fact that her power had already taken the shape of what she figured was a high-power sniper only reinforced the image.

"Jesus fucking Christ!" Vicky hissed, unused to the smell, she wasn't wrong, she could see that Kid Win was using some sort of nose plugs, the type you used in swimming classes in school.

He was removing the armor bolt by bolt, she could at least see his broken leg, it had been fully exposed, his patella was burned, probably due to being exposed to the outside metal directly. And without any prompting she touched the man. And before her eyes everything broke down to her, from the surface level all the way down to the cellular and genetic level.

And what she saw did not paint a pretty picture and despite herself she felt respect for the hero.

"You should be dead, the fact that you are not… is both horrifying and impressive." Panacea said.

Panacea often downplayed the injuries people suffered, the human body is pretty good at healing itself, but that still took time, care and effort. Something that was in short supply in Brockton, so when she saw something like this. She couldn't bring herself to downplay it like she normally would, plus she knew Armsmater could take it.

God what wouldn't she give to be a shaker that could stand inside a bullet proof box, it'd make the entire thing easier.

Miss Militia interjected, "He fought Lung harder than ever before; the damage was caused by him."

The nurse was correct in the first assessment, the damage she described did occur, but she failed to mention the near full torso hematoma, intestinal bleeding and what looked like shockwave damage to most of the muscle and skeletal system.

"I can see it" Vicky said in a disgusted voice, "Oh god PHO will make memes about his beard pershing in combat, won't they?"

The vertebra suffered damage and some of his disks were compressed, thankfully no actual ruptures or breaks, that makes her job easier. Everything that could've distracted her was relegated to droning as she hyper focused on saving the hero's life.

Priority of healing when the same way as armor Head, Heart, Spine, Filtration, Digestive, and lastly Limbs

Intracranial bleeding is her first stop, then the lungs, then the spine.

"Most likely. " Kid Win said, "But hey he can say "You should have seen the other fellow" and be completely serious." He added with obvious gallows humor.

After that she said, "Wait, what do you mean?"

"Oh yeah Lung is dead, like totally dead." He said removing the breastplate, "Pretty sure some people are calling it the Great Dragon Meatball on PHO."

"What the fuck? How gemme deets!" Vicky flew forward into his face, it a truly brilliant display of tact and subtlety.

"Kid." Miss Militia spoke of the trouble sound, the same her mom made, the narrow eyes were identical.

"Ahh emm you should ask Militia that. She knows the details better; she was at the scene." He deflected and went back to disassembling the armor, jeez how long does it take to put this thing on?

"Honestly, what's the point of subtlety with this? You can't exactly hide that." Vicky complained.

"The director has not yet decided in a course of action, we will likely mobilize the police force to clean up the remnants of the gang." Miss Militia responded as diplomatically as possible.

It was at that moment that Armsmaster regained consciousness, she usually turns off the patient's pain receptors, but as he was unconsciousness, she decided it wasn't nessacery. Also, there was a strange drug keeping the pain from registering to his pain receptors, so she didn't see the point of messing with it.

He tried to speak but couldn't make words, so he started to tap on the bed with two fingers.

"Put his hand of the table!" Miss Militia ordered, which Kid Win did immediately.

The taps came audible, she didn't know morse code so the contents of the taps were lost to her, but she could make it up with the context. If anything, she imagined he requested an update on the situation.

"The remains have been taken to a PRT cell. The director declared we will wait an hour to see any signs of regeneration, after that we will make the announcement." Miss Militia reported.

He tapped again.

"He brought you to Patches who then proceed to inject some unknown cocktail to presumably stabilize you and do something for the pain, after which he positioned you for pick up after ensuring no further complications would occur before he left with Faultline's crew to his hospital so he could treat the Undersiders more thoroughly." Miss Militia explained.

"Well that certainly explains these drugs." Panacea thought.

Dr. Patches, the man terrified and puzzled her, she'd never say that to Vicky, however. She would think it was romantic or something else as idiotic, but no she was legitimately… curious? Intrigued? Panacea didn't know how to really describe it in a way that Vicky couldn't attach romantic connotations to it.

But the one thing she did feel towards the doctor was a very deep sense of… jealousy in truth. The fact that they essentially had the same powerset, and yet Dr. Patches used them openly where she was terrified to?

Yeah, she was jealous and wasn't ashamed to admit it. If anything, she would love a chance to work with him and ask him how he did it! Healing is a core aspect of her hero identity, if having a hero name being based off the mythical panacea wasn't a big clue, but she was just… getting so tired of doing the same thing over and over again!

Maybe if she figured out his secret, those fantasies and nightmares she had would finally go away…

Shaking her head, she decided to shelve those thoughts for another time. She would get a meeting with him eventually, either he'd come to the hospital to help out or she would visit him at his own hospital. She didn't care which happened first.

Armsmaster tapped again.

"The director has not ordered anything; she is still dealing with the fire and testing the blue cloud for signs of radiation." Miss Militia responded.

"I can confirm that neither Vicky nor the bacteria in my skin were affected by the cloud." Panacea commented for all the good it'd do; chances are they'd still test the cloud for radiation regardless.

Miss Militia nod, "I'll pass that on to the director then."

The taps came back, they took longer now.

"No, there has not been any warrant or charges brought against Esper, nor is there likely to be, AND I would strongly recommend against you as your number two, the men fought two villains that attempted to kill you, the Undersiders, and possibly Dr. Patches and his companions. He started the fight non-lethally and only escalated when one of Lungs subordinates visibly attacked him with knives, with the video evidence it would be almost impossible to call it anything but self defense." Miss Militia explained, though Panacea swore she could hear a faint amount of exasperation in her voice.

Armsmaster became agitated and tried to get up, and Panacea wasn't about to see all her work ruined because of a hero's wounded pride!

"Oh no you're not! Here let me turn your pain back on for you to see how bad you currently are." Immediately Panacea flushed the drug suppressing the pain from his system causing the hero to abandon his attempts to move.

"Please turn it off again he is very sorry and will rest until you finish healing him" Miss Militia said quickly.

Panacea just snorted, "Fine but if he breaks himself it's his own damn fault." She said with a faint scowl as she shut his pain receptors off, "Honestly don't people know you shouldn't piss off the one healing you?" She snarked.

"Damn sis, we've got to work on your bedside manner." Vicky said but Panacea just shrugged at her.

"I deal with stubborn patients and complete idiotic jackasses daily." Panacea deadpanned, "I have long ran out of fucks to give."

And with that the next hour and a half passed in silence as Panacea had to go back over his injuries to make sure Armsmaster did undo her work in his few seconds of motion.

By the time the healing was complete Armsmaster was incredibly thin, his cheek and eyes sunken in, and he looked like some of the worst chemo patients she had ever seen. Regardless she was done and after a few thanks from Kid Win and Miss Militia Amy and Vicky left to the roof only to stop and stare.

Years after the fact, Amy would look back on this moment and say it was only the second most shocking thing she had seen that day.

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