Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

Amelia, Ch 356- Nelson


I awoke to soft kisses along my neck. "Oh, hey, you stayed."


Vicky's head moved up into view. "Didn't have anywhere else to be, and I slept with Clarice enough to..." she paused and smacked my arm. "Not like that, you perv! She's thirteen and has nightmare issues."


I almost objected to the comment, I hadn't thought anything dirty at all. But the way she was smiling, she already knew that, so never mind. Wait a second. "Huh, I'd have sworn she was at least fifteen or sixteen."


Vicky shrugged. "Yeah, welcome to the Amelia side of the family. Bunch of biomanipulators, one way or another. The Thinkers are convinced I got my powers from Clarice, although I'm definitely a better Brute and a worse Thinker." Okay, that's good to know. She jabbed my shoulder with her finger. "Also, if you go updating our ability profiles based on what I tell you when we're bed together, I will do horrible, unspeakable things to you. Then have Amelia put you back together so I can repeat the process."


I raised both my hands in mock terror. "I promise not to update any of your profiles at all. Seriously, though, it's a pretty distinct conflict of interest for both of us, so anything I do say is suspect by definition."


Vicky rolled her eyes. "Ugh, conflict of interest. Hate that term." She hopped out of bed to continue her rant. "Seriously, we're the fucking heroes. Our jobs are 'find bad guy, punch bad guy until he stops fighting back, brag about it to other heroes and with our adoring fans, live up the celebrity.' That's it, that's the sum total of our career path. What asshole got the power to piss on everyone's parade by taking the one thing where you can do the right thing and have fun with it, and injected politics into it?"


I was so glad I didn't have to feel bad about checking her out anymore. "I'm pretty sure that power comes pre-installed with 'homo sapiens', right along with bipedal movement and opposable thumbs."


She looked at me with mock horror. "Oh god, you're a nerd. Oh god, I'm dating a nerd!" She covered her face with her hands and pretended to cry. "What's wrong with me? How could everything go so wrong? I should have seen it. The cosplaying as a knight, the obsession with swords, the cheesy pre battle speeches, the lack of complaining at doing a bunch of paperwork. It all seems so obvious in retrospect!"


I watched her for a few seconds, doing my best to pretend I was offended. "Are you done, now?"


"Yeah, probably," she answered cheerfully, looking up from her hands with a brilliant smile. "Oh, as much as it pains me to say this, you should get dressed. It's still a work day."


Dammit. "I know." I climbed out of bed, completely aware that it was now Vicky's turn to watch me move about, because she wouldn't let me forget it while I went through the morning routine of brushing my teeth, shaving and getting dressed. She even let out a wolf whistle while I was bent over to put on my pants. Given that her power let her know every eye that was watching her, and at least a general idea of what they were thinking while looking, this was probably me coming close to exactly what she experienced all the time.


I pulled on a cheap shirt and then went over to my real outfit, the high tech battle armor that Hecate had built for me. The chestpiece was always the first to go on, which gave the antigrav field needed for me to effectively put on the leggings, followed by the arms and helmet. By the time I was done suiting up, Victoria had been waiting for about a minute and a half.


I glanced over at her clothes from yesterday. "Are you even wearing anything under that armor?"


"Hey, under our clothes, we're all naked," she answered. "And now you'll be thinking that while talking to the Director."


Oh god damn it, she's right. "I think I just threw up a little."


Vicky's face went stern as she looked me straight in the eyes. "Hey, I would have you know that Director Dunn is a perfectly normal and attractive woman. I just haven't figured out for which species, yet."


....


What species, indeed? I though as I entered the Director's office for our morning meeting. She wasn't nearly as bad as Vicky liked to say, but age and military lifestyle had not done the woman any favors. Worse by far was her attitude. "Good morning, ma'am."


She didn't seem terribly impressed as she looked up at me. "Chevalier," her tone was as angry as she ever allowed herself to be. "Please close the door behind you."


This can't be good. I complied with her request, making sure the door was shut firmly before walking in.


She gestured at a chair. "Have a seat." Again, she waited for me to comply. It was her ritual method of establishing power over me. Making me follow a series of mundane tasks like someone training a dog. "I have been hearing rumors that you and the Dallon girl are romantically involved with one another."


Really? People know already? I hesitated a moment. No, that doesn't make sense unless she either had someone specifically watching us to tip her off, or it's just one of those general rumors that had the good fortune to be correct. Either was possible, under the circumstances. I couldn't hide behind 'personal life' under the circumstances. This job functionally meant I had no personal life, especially given how important the Victoria/Chevalier interaction was as a healer. "Yes, Director, as of the start of the weekend. We'd prefer not to advertise this fact to the world, however."


She held up some papers and tapped them against the desk, before clearing her throat. "Yes, I would imagine not."


I found myself getting more than a little annoyed by the attitude. "There is nothing illegal or inappropriate about our relationship. She doesn't work in the Protectorate or PRT's chain of command, and I do not have the authority necessary to consider me a security risk for any possible conflicts with Avalon."


"I'm afraid you misunderstood," Dunn interrupted me. "I have no objections to your relationship with the girl."


What? "Pardon?"


She tried to smile as she leaned forward, handing the papers to me. "Quite the contrary, in fact. As you've said, there's nothing inappropriate. Miss and Mrs. Dallon have both gone out of their way to make it clear they're independent of both the PRT and Avalon. I believe we've worked together long enough that I've come to know you, perhaps not as a friend, but certainly as a colleague. You won't allow this to interfere with your duties, including those of the healing interaction."


I set the papers in front of me, we'd get to them in time, no doubt. "Of course not. Everyone understands just how critical that resource is. Our interaction is the most effective known healer on the planet." Except possibly her sister, since we lack the ability to influence DNA. "The only one known to work for the Case 53s. We would never do anything to jeopardize it."


Her attempt at a smile faded. "In your case, that is certainly true. Victoria, however, has historically been difficult to anticipate or control." I was not enjoying the direction this conversation was headed. "Pardon me for sounding callous, but hopefully this will also be a stabilizing element for her. An incentive, perhaps, to be less brash and more inclined to voluntarily accept a larger workload than the current contract compels."


I was stunned at the implication. She hadn't outright said it, but she wanted me to use our relationship as a way to manipulate her into following the PRT's marching orders. "I suppose it might, at that. Of course, her brash behavior has reduced villain activity in the city to nearly nothing."


Director Dunn reached over to her computer. "Which brings complications all its own. Rime is already scheduled for a transfer and promotion as soon as a leadership position becomes available. A position we all agree that she deserves. They're asking about Shockwave and Arc being moved to Baltimore, which would leave us understaffed. Tide and Hopscotch have already agreed to temporary transfers to Chicago, conditional of moving to work under Rime when she gets her own command."


As much as I hated to admit it, she wasn't wrong. We'd be limited to only four remaining adult Protectorate members in the city. A quiet city, granted, but a quiet city that still needed to hold its infrastructure together. "That is a problem, but hardly one that relates to Victoria. We're understaffed everywhere, and the M7s aren't being produced fast enough to fill in the gaps." Or, more accurately, a lot of cities aren't willing to agree to the Yggdrasil construct needed to maintain the M7s being put in their land.


"All that in addition to Victoria's quarterly contract coming up for review and renegotiation," the Director added. "There's a real possibility her mother will go out of her way to make life difficult for us, for both professional and personal reasons, that may culminate in Victoria moving to a different city."


I nodded. On that, we agreed. Carol was not a fan of the Protectorate in general and me in particular. "I'll talk to Victoria when I get the chance." At least about the risk of her mother interfering with the contract, that I could do in good faith.


Dunn looked visibly relieved. "Thank you. Let's discuss this week's patrol roster and then move on to the healing requests."


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A/N- This chapter got away from me, it'll now be a two parter.

 

Amelia, Ch 357- Nelson


The phone was answered on the first ring. "Director Costa-Brown's office, this is Patrick speaking. Please state your business?"


Patrick, huh? Usually I dealt with a machine. Oh well, the phone system would still flag my number and rank for them to view. Since the phone itself was Tinkered to only respond to my biometrics, and only these specific phones could call this number, it made for an effective filtration system. Which was why it was usually automated. "This is Chevalier speaking, I need to speak with the Chief Director. High priority, non-Emergency, Pantheon related. I'll be in my office for the next hour."


"Understood, Sir, will that be all?"


"Yes, thank you," I hung up and got to the paperwork. For the most part, our healing priorities were automatic, based upon scale of debilitation and need. Need itself was filtered by other healers that could do the job with less difficulty. All I had to look at were the 'request' files, the ones that didn't strictly need healing, but wanted the boosted abilities, for any number of reasons. We could only afford a small number of those, so it usually went to heroes that were getting older and losing the ability to make good use of their powers, Thinkers that wanted improved senses and reduced migraines, or the occasional Brute that could get even more out of their body with a few muscle structures modified.


I did flag a few extra for the 'maybe' list, including a couple of crippled villains who were willing to surrender and switch sides in exchange for restoring them to health. I may not have liked Dunn's plans to manipulate Victoria, but if we could squeeze two or three extra out of each week's sessions, it would be very convenient from a political viewpoint. Might even let us justify keeping more of our people. If Vicky was spending too much of her efforts in the high priority medical setting to indulge the relatively minor goal of punching criminals, then we'd need them to cover the streets.


It only took half an hour before the Chief Director got back to me, alerting me immediately. I didn't even bother setting down my pen before accepting the call. "Thank you for getting back to me so soon," I opened, even as I finished the signature on the current sheet. Not done by half. "Sorry, just getting a little paperwork done while waiting."


She looked at me impassively. "That's quite alright. I was told you had high priority information on Pantheon." The woman was in remarkably good appearance for her age and the stress of her position. Sure, she wasn't without a few wrinkles, but I suspected she had the occasional healer treatment, herself, to stay so apparently young and healthy.


I finished my signature and set it aside. "Right, actually there are a number of things to speak of. I have learned of a new power interaction between Alexandria and Minerva, one that they have been aware of for some time now."


Costa-Brown regarded me for a moment. "That is a serious concern." She knew the implications of interactions, and the danger of Alexandria not only having one with a high ranking member of a foreign nation, but keeping that information secret from the Protectorate and PRT. "You're certain about this?"


I nodded. "Quite, in fact it goes deeper than that. Victoria shared some information about the Gaea/Khepri Interaction that I'm going to call a pairbond for this discussion. It seems that they can communicate directly through their powers, allowing them to functionally share their feelings with each other. It creates what is effectively a low level Master effect making both parties emotionally dependent upon one another and violently unwilling to break their pairbond. It thus far tends to create romantic behaviors in the bonded, well beyond what would be natural for the individuals in question."


She looked confused for a second. "Victoria? You are referring to Gaea's sister?"


I nodded. "Yes. I doubt she realized the significance of what she was telling me, but coupled with my own Thinker ability, I can confirm a superficially romantic link between Minerva and Alexandria."


"One of whom is a publicly declared asexual teenager, and the other a presumably heterosexual woman in her late thirties?"


Hopefully she wouldn't reject this based upon that. "Correct. As I said, a Master influence that causes those involved to break from their natural tendencies in favor of deepening the relationship with their pairbond. In addition, as this is a constant power interaction between the two, it would disrupt precognition and other power based behavior prediction methods."


The Chief Director stayed silent for a minute before speaking. "It is an interesting theory, and would explain the Empresses' ability to confound our predictive models. Let us say for the sake of this discussion that you've convinced me of the Gaea/Khepri 'pairbond', as you call it. What leads you to believe Alexandria and Minerva possess one as well?"


"It fits the model," I stated. "To date, the only confirmed pairbond is between two powerful Thinkers, both specialized in organics. In spite of a number of other power interactions on record, they're the only ones. It stands to reason that Alexandria and Minerva, both highly capable perception based Thinkers, would be able to interact on a similar level."


She regarded me quietly. "Interesting speculation, but nothing we can follow up on. Even if true, we could only confirm it by noting that their behaviors don't follow precognitive ability models. And given their regular interactions with both Endbringers and the various methods that we know Pantheon has at their disposal to disrupt precogs, I would find it highly suspect if they were predictable at all. To say nothing of Alexandria's association with Eidolon."


I stayed quiet for a moment, she wasn't wrong about that. Alexandria not registering properly would be meaningless. "There is also my own power-sight. Interacting powers carries strong clues that I can see fairly clearly." Despite the supposed 'Taboo' that should prevent it. I had to wonder what secrets Pantheon pulled from that. "Alexandria and Minerva show many similar themes to others. Of all the ones I've observed, only they and the Gaea/Khepri interaction last for more than a brief second or so."


"That's more significant, but not replicable," the Chief Director responded. "I believe you said something about Victoria also being able to observe something?"


"And a number of others," I confirmed. "Victoria can see their emotional states as directed at each other, and she believes they show signs of romantic involvement. Apparently, Hecate recognizes the pattern as well." Costa-Brown would recognize that name, she was responsible for the M7s and charging a small fortune for my armor and sword. "As does their new power manipulation Tinker, and Aceso." I wasn't sure she knew who Aceso was, but she could look it up. "All of whom may have come to the same conclusion through different methods. Although they seem to consider it to be 'cute', while I don't feel it's quite so benign."


Costa-Brown frowned, clearly unhappy about the news. "Are there any potential health risks to long term exposure?"


"Addiction to the bond," I answered smoothly. "Beyond that, nothing observably different than two people falling deeply in love in an unnaturally short period of time."


"You said something before about pairbonding being between long term, Thinker, interactions?"


I blinked at the sudden change of track, recovering after a moment. "There's not enough examples to be certain, but that seems to be the case."


"Both you and Victoria have Thinker powers and a long term interaction, if my information is correct."


Oh fuck me sideways. "That is true, but I don't think our powers interact in the same way. If anything, it's closer to both of our powers interacting with a third person as a medium, than them interacting directly with one another."


"Much as Gaea and Khepri do through their bioconstructs," the Chief Director reminded me. "Should this 'pairbonding' theory prove accurate, it's possible that there will be one between the two of you."


She's not wrong. Oh god, she's really not wrong. "I can't rule out that possibility." I didn't admit that Vicky and I were already involved, and simply had to hope Costa-Brown didn't ask if that were the case. "I will instruct Director Dunn to keep an eye on the possibility of that occurring. Or, perhaps you should do so yourself, to make absolutely certain the information is received and acted on." If the two of us just the result of some weird mind powers... dammit.


She nodded slowly. "I probably will have to do just that. However, as you're coming to me with this sensitive information, it suggests that either you are not, or the pairbonding won't have a drastic influence on the personalities of the possible victims."


Victims? Is that what we are? Victims. I couldn't answer that question even in the privacy of my own head, I honestly hated Costa-Brown for suggesting it, and I still had a job to do here. "Of more immediate concern are the potential security risks. Given Alexandria's status in the Protectorate, and Minerva's high level position in Pantheon, there is a significant risk for conflicts of interest."


The Chief Director sat forward a little. "I take it you haven't heard, then? Minerva has quit her position in Pantheon."


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A/N- I almost didn't put that last line in, for fear of people focusing too much on that and not enough on the rest of the chapter before it. We'll see how that turns out.

Also... I am *strongly* considering changing to writing long chapters twice a week instead of these small chapters twice a day, just to let my cliffhangers actually cliffhang and promote dialogue.