Immortals [Worm]

Immortals
A Worm Fanfic
Chapter 11: A Day in the Life

​

12:14 PM EST
January 24th, 2010

Brockton Bay, RI
United States of America
Earth Bet

I had never been happier in my life. I had finally, finally completed the testing phase for my new power armor, and now my team and I were finally going to try it out by busting some real, live criminals. It had been almost two months since I’d last gone out in my cape persona, and I had desperately missed the thrill that fighting crime brought. Due to my status as one of the world’s premier Thinkers, or Tinkers, depending on who you asked, I had been extraordinarily busy as of late. Developing new technological marvels and un-scruting normally inscrutable Tinkertech physics using my marvelous mental powers was hard work. If you think it's easy, then I’d like to see you try it.

Haha, just kidding… I’m the only one who can do that. Well, Dragon can kinda, sorta do it too, but not well enough to gain any real understanding from the process. Mostly what she does is adapt other Tinker’s normally impossible to understand technology to her unique brand of impossible to understand technology. The superpower that belonged to the “World’s best Tinker” seemed a little bit underwhelming when you put it like that.

I’d actually finished up all of the testing for my armor yesterday, but I’d had to finish studying and writing up a report on three pieces of Tinkertech, commissioned by the United Arab Emirates. They had sent me a set of three interlocking pieces of technology created by a long deceased Tinker called Lonespark, whose specialty had been survivalism. He had created a set of small, relatively simple machines which could be combined together in different ways to sustain basic human needs, such as generating power, purifying water, creating basic rations, and the like.

The three Lonespark devices I’d been sent were an extremely efficient solar collector, an incredibly small and rugged battery, and a tiny, easy to maintain water desalination machine. Reverse-engineering the solar collector and the desalinator had been relatively straightforward for me, but there had been something strange going on with the battery. It hadn’t actually stored power at all, but rather, it used a type of resonance to leech power from the surrounding universe, using the collected solar energy to fuel this process. The device could only sustain the reaction so long as it had a continuous source of energy, but the process yielded orders of magnitude more power than the amount that it took to initiate the process in the first place and then keep it running.

I’d been beyond pleased when I found out what the ‘battery’ actually did. It was the first invention that I’d discovered so far that seemed to generate power ex-nihilo... and I had seen a lot of Tinkertech by that point. The reason Lonespark’s original ‘battery’ hadn’t provided indefinite power was because the reaction which produced an excess of energy only worked as long as the device’s internal capacitors were filled, and for some reason it didn’t include any means to use power from the reaction itself to fill them… only energy from the solar panel. It was a stupid oversight, and exactly the kind of thing I was getting used to seeing in the various pieces of Tinkertech I studied.

‘Tinkers!’ I thought with a smirk. I snorted at their crazy, hodgepodge inventions. It was almost like some vast, overarching alien intelligence had created Tinkertech by taking half-understood science and engineering principles from thousands of different civilizations and combined them together nearly at random until something interesting happened. I had fully analyzed scores of different Tinker creations by now, and so far, I’d seen several inventions with over a dozen different ‘flavors’ of technology in them, somehow managing to work together... albeit barely. It was like Tinkertech had been masterminded by an idiot savant with an IQ of a million and access to an entire galaxy’s worth of tech bases… and absolutely no creativity or any idea of how the scientific process worked.

The inner workings of most Tinkertech machines was almost darwinian, really, like they’d been assembled by same hit-or-miss process of natural selection that had given rise to complex organisms. Doing things that way was stupid, and it offended me greatly wherever I encountered it. It was also extremely inefficient, and the only reason that an intelligent being would do things that way would be if they were brain damaged or so moronically uncreative that they couldn’t even conceive of using a simple set of rules like the scientific method... while still somehow having the time, power, and inclination to collect the entire tech bases of thousands or millions of different intelligent species.

‘It makes no sense!’ I thought for the millionth time.

Still, despite being kludged together, Tinkertech was too ordered to have arisen spontaneously from nothing; the knowledge had to come from somewhere. I shook my head again; it would likely remain a mystery for all of time. It didn’t really matter where it came from, in the end. With me around, sooner or later Humanity would have all of the knowledge behind Tinkertech for ourselves, to do with it as we please. Already, the wheels of industry were at work churning out better tools and materials by the day... better building blocks with which to assemble the future. And riding on the forefront this wave of change was me, Hero, the world’s most important Thinker.

Still, it’s nice to take a break from my world-saving to do something fun like fighting crime. I had found that punching people in the face was really good at relieving stress.

When I’d built my own version of the perpetual motion device masquerading as a battery, it had worked perfectly. It was also over twenty times more power-efficient than the slapdash original, as I actually understood how it worked and designed the second generation version accordingly. Using the knowledge I’d gained from breaking down the original, I’d been able to fix the dozens of little problems that were preventing it from working as well as it should have been in the first place. Like all of the new devices I re-created, I was putting the prototype through its paces inside of a small, sealed off pocket dimension loaded with sensors of every type and description. I had to make sure all of the technologies I adapted were safe before I would allow them around real, live people. If there were no serious problems with this new device, than it looked like I might have found a way to produce energy from nothing. If this technology ends up working as intended, then the only cost for energy will be the materials and labor necessary to build an ERD, or Energetic Resonance Device, as I’ve been calling it.

Once I crack energy-to-matter conversions, something that I know is possible, then Earth Bet will shortly become a post-scarcity society. I’m not really sure how to feel about that, other than enthused. Curing hunger and want is a good start to fixing all of the problems that the human race is currently experiencing. Well, our self-inflicted problems, at least… we’ll still have to contend with Endbringers and S-Class threats after all. It might be a while before I can do something about those kinds of things, even if I do have some promising projects in the works for fighting the existential threats our species is currently facing.

. . .​

I was patrolling with my team on a beautiful winter Saturday while thinking these deep thoughts, bounding from rooftop to rooftop alongside my teammates. I was wearing revision 3.7B of my power armor, which was both stronger and more agile than the first set I’d fabricated two weeks ago. Wearing the high-tech suit felt downright comforting, and the enhanced speed and flight features allowed me to easily keep pace with my more mobile teammates. I was quite happy that I didn’t need to be carried anymore, as Mom had always insisted that I ride with her, rather than in Carlos’ arms as I would have preferred. My mother had been a fair bit more overprotective since she gained powers, of both myself and my new little sister, Riley.

To my surprise, I had actually become quite fond of the little psycho that we’d taken in. My parents had managed to adopt Riley after the terrifying tyke had hidden her former identity with cosmetic surgery. She was now Riley Hebert, a cute little girl with dark curly hair that resembled mine and Mom’s, something that I’m sure she had done to better fit in with our family. After I’d created a set of records for her in the Social Security Administration’s database, it was easy as pie to adopt her. Adoptions were unfortunately common these days, with things like Endbringers and S-Class threats roaming the world. We’d hardly received a glance when we’d taken Riley down to the courthouse to formalize things.

I’d watched her like a hawk for the first few months, and I’d only really been comfortable around her after developing several highly-effective countermeasures to her Bio-Tinkering abilities. I’d worked with the dangerous child extensively, both to learn more about her medical technology, and to make sure that she wasn’t going to try anything. Less than two months after she moved in with us, I discovered that Riley’s parahuman ability was stupidly versatile for a Tinker power. She hadn’t actually known her exact specialty at first, despite being an active Tinker for almost four years... mostly because she was able to accomplish so much without even know it. Medicine, prosthetics, alterations, surgery… if it was related to human biology then she could most likely do it. Compared to most Tinkers she was a veritable jack of all trades when it came to modifying or repairing living organisms.

I’d created a database and set of optimization criteria, which we’d used to figure out her specialty... after over a month of daily testing and asking Riley question after question. Her Tinker specialty could best be described as “Human Augmentation”; if it was even tangentially related to improving a human being, or even related creatures, then she was better at it than anyone else. Her specialty actually overlapped the specialties of several other ‘wet’ Tinkers, people like Lab Rat and Gro-Mo. She could do all that they could do, and more.

It had been Riley’s work that had made the Medi-Scanner possible; I’d created it based upon the prototypes and proofs of concept that she put together for me. At first she hadn’t understood why I would want to create a piece of technology like that, something with zero combat effectiveness... but she did seem to be growing as a person the more time went on.

I still remember one of the earlier conversations we’d had, back when I was still trying to decypher Riley’s Tinkertech. It was only after that day that I had finally begun to understand the content of the enigmatic young parahuman’s character.

. . .​

11:22 AM EST
August 28th, 2009

Brockton Bay, RI
United States of America
Earth Bet

I stood in front of my workbench, slowing dismantling and scanning various sensors into my mind. There was an entire pile of imaging Tinkertech sitting next to me, each of them built by Riley, each slightly different than the last. The little Tinker was sitting on a benchtop a few feet to my left, swinging her legs in the air as she watched me break down and devour her work as my power churned furiously to incorporate it into my mental archive.

“I still don’t get why you want to build this scanner thingy,” said Riley. “It’s not really going to do any good for boring old doctors to see what’s wrong with people’s bodies if they can’t actually fix it.” Her tone gave credence to her words as she spoke, conveying her disinterest in our shared endeavor. I don’t think she was being sarcastic of obstructionist… the little girl legitimately didn’t understand why I was trying to build such a thing. Thankfully, her ignorance could be remedied.

“I get where you’re coming from, Riley… but modern medicine can actually fix a lot of things.” She snorted at that, undoubtedly recalling the casual miracles she had performed in the past. “But in a way you’re right… Doctors and other medical professionals will find a lot of health issues that they will have no idea how to solve with our scanner.” The little girl looked smug for a moment, before her facial features once more began reflecting her confusion.

“Then why don’t you just make it so the scanner only shows the problems they can fix? It would be cheaper and easier to make a more limited version, and doctors wouldn’t constantly have their faces rubbed in the fact that the patient’s cancer or organ failure or whatever isn’t curable using their dumb old fashioned surgery and medicine.”

“That’s a really good question,” I said, causing Riley to give me a shy smile, which I returned with interest. “There are several good reasons to make the Medi-Scanner the most perfect diagnostic tool that I can.” I said, entering what she had playfully dubbed my ‘lecture mode’. “First, it’s not going to be that much more expensive to include all of the extra sensors. Secondly, I want doctors and medical researchers to get upset when they find that they can’t fix people’s problems with current medical knowledge.” I admitted, which caused Riley to scowl.

“What? Why would you want them to get mad!?” She looked at me oddly. “Isn’t that wrong?” Mom had been constantly drilling morality into the little girl, and right here was proof that my stubborn, hardworking mother might just be succeeding.

“I want them to be frustrated enough to make a difference,” I told her. “People don’t try to fix something unless they’re committed to it, unless they have a real reason. I’m giving the medical profession a perfect diagnostic tool, a tool that will allow them to try new techniques, to learn more about how the body works.” I looked Riley in the eye; the child was riveted, staring at me intently.

“The tool that we are creating will mean that the results of a surgery will never again be uncertain, and that doctors won’t have to guess if their patient’s infection is bacterial or viral. It will mean that doctors will know exactly how well their chemotherapies are fighting off cancer, and how accurately the broken bone they just set is lined up. We’re offering them perfect and instantaneous feedback… and that’s not even mentioning how useful it will be for medical research and developing new drugs. We’ll be able to tell in days instead of years if a new type of treatment helps, and exactly how much, with no ambiguity whatsoever.” Riley stared at me for a moment longer before hopping down from the far end the workbench. She walked over to where I was standing, and gently pushed against me aside.

“Move over, sis. I want to show you a little trick I learned for enhancing the resolution of my optical-type scanners.” I smiled down at the cute little brunette, gently ruffling her hair.

“Thanks, sis.” I told her, giving her a big, genuine smile. Riley hastily pulled her goggles down over her eyes, but the little girl wasn’t quite fast enough to hide the tears leaking from the corners of her eyes. Before she knew what was happening I had pulled her into a hug, squeezing her against my chest tightly. Riley hugged me back fiercely, holding onto me with so much force that it would have bruised anyone without a Brute rating.

I had been extremely doubtful when Mom brought Riley home… but maybe there was hope for her after all.

. . .

​

12:22 PM EST
January 24th, 2010

Brockton Bay, RI
United States of America
Earth Bet

I looked over at Riley, my little sister, who was bounding over the rooftops beside me. I can honestly say that I truly care about her, now… maybe even love her. I’ll always be wary of her, though, the same way people who rehabilitate abused animals are wary of their charges. I don’t think that she has any bad intentions for my family, or that she’s hiding some kind of agenda. I doubt that she’s planning to escape, either… by now she’s had plenty of opportunities.

What I do know is that Riley, like all of us, is capable of anything. And thanks to Jack Slash, the sweet little girl who helped me save so many lives will probably always be more willing to evoke the darker parts of her nature when she feels it's necessary. I know for a fact that she’s capable of doing things that the average person needs major justification to even consider… terrible things.

But she hasn’t actually hurt anyone, or even tried to since my family took her in… and for now that’s good enough.

Maybe I’m wrong to distrust Riley when she’s never shown me anything but love and kindness. Maybe I’m being naive to extend her any trust at all, considering what she used to do... who she used to be. In the end, though, she turned out to be a traumatized child who was psychologically tortured by a charismatic murderer for nearly half of her life. She was a killer, but she hasn’t taken a single life since we took her in, and she shows no signs of wanting to return to her old ways. Could I kill her if I had to? Would I? Yes. Do I want to? God, no. Riley is a member of my family now, and it’ll stay that way as long as she wants to be a Hebert.

Using the incredible depth of her specialty to hide Riley’s true powerset was pathetically easy. It took longer to come up with a new persona and a cape name for the littlest member of our team than it did to decide on a Tinker specialty for her… her incredibly versatile power just gave us so many choices. My little sister wanted to pick a specialty involving people or animals, but Mom and I argued right off the bat that picking anything like that was just asking for her true identity to be outed. After weeks of debate, we finally decided to have her mimic an organic chemistry Tinker.

Biology was based on chemistry, after, all, which gave her a huge breadth of applications that she could draw on using purely chemical means.

I’d really gotten into the spirit of things, and bought up every iota of information on chemical Tinkering that I could find, procured samples of each and every Tinkertech compound that was on the market. Having long since realized the worth of my power, the PRT and Toybox had been more than willing to indulge this new obsession of mine, and had parted with dozens of examples of Tinkertech chemistry that they had on hand. Dragon herself even provided me with the recipe for her patented containment foam, used the world over… a gesture that both surprised and flattered me.

The true find among the dozens of machines and vials that I’d received was a large, bathtub sized chemical synthesis engine that had been sent over by the local PRT director. It was a truly ingenious machine that recombined mundane things like milk and gasoline into Tinkertech chemicals that had all kinds of effects. You could program the chemical mixture that you wanted into the computer connected to the synthesis engine, and seconds later receive a small, spherical capsule full of whatever solid, liquid, or gas that you had selected. The odd thing was that this extremely advanced and well put together machine had been built by Leet, of all people. He was generally considered a joke amongst Tinkers, but after seeing a few examples of his work, I had found his tech to be extremely innovative… when it worked, at least.

Oddly enough, the chemical synthesis engine had been seized by the PRT when Uber and Leet had failed to pay the space rent on their storage unit. Armsmaster hadn’t wanted it, so the machine had been sitting in the depths of the PRT’s basement for over a year. The accompanying documentation explained the use to which Leet had put this amazing machine, which was capable of making unlimited amount of insulin, or any other medicine, out of common household liquids. The purpose for which Leet had built this astounding device, which could produce gallons of rare compounds like scorpion venom or LSD… a machine that could churn out an unending stream of effectively free gasoline from water and grass clippings… was to make paintballs full of capsaicin.

Yes, that’s right… The PRT had been sitting on an example of Tinkertech that could have been used to make any chemical compound at all, so long as you had the chemical formula and the correct materials to make it, and they had done absolutely nothing with it. Armsmaster, a Tinker who should have instantly understood the value of such a device, had neglected to even examine it. I didn’t know why, but I could only assume that it had something to do with Leet’s reputation for being unreliable. And the worst part of it was that the synthesis engine was such a simple piece of Tinkertech that it was only a step or two away from being wholly reproducible by purely mundane means… it took me less than an hour to dismantle it and reverse engineer it to the degree that modern engineering techniques could create a nearly perfect copy.

A good team of scientists and engineers could have learned worlds about chemical synthesis just from examining Leet’s paintball maker, possibly even enough to replicate it wholesale. At the very least, they would have learned enough to make a lesser version of the device… I was sure of it. Leet, or the PRT’s cadre of scientists, or any PRT affiliated Tinker with a relevant specialty could have revolutionized the world’s petroleum, chemical, and medicine markets overnight by studying this machine. They could have made billions, practically overnight, had they done the least bit of research on it. I guess it didn’t matter though, because I would be sharing the holy grail of chemical synthesis with everyone after I got through with the device.

OPEC and Big Pharma were going to be pissed. Oh, well… sucks to be them, I guess.

I’d used the knowledge that I’d gained from deconstructing the ever-so-interesting chemical synthesis engine to build a small, child-portable version for Riley to carry with her. By her request, the device looked like a large, colorful looking handbag. She carried it on a cross-strap around her shoulder so that it hung at her side, where she could easily reach it. Using her PSE, or portable synthesis engine, my little sister could whip up a polymer coated ball of whatever chemical she needed on the fly using the onboard computer interface.

Even limited to chemicals, Riley was an incredibly dangerous parahuman. Her Tinker-granted knowledge let her whip up everything from impossibly strong acids to healing cocktails that could bring someone back from the brink of death in seconds. She was able to program her PSE to make fluids that could freeze the ground an enemy stood on, or produce clouds of knockout gas potent enough to render entire city blocks unconscious. With her PSE alone, Riley already had a potent Blaster/Shaker rating… but that didn’t help her defend herself, or make her more mobile. For those things, I provided her with a slightly scaled down version of my own power armor. It was rated for higher speeds and reaction times than my own armor, which put her on roughly equal footing with me in those areas due to my Thinker and Brute powers. These changes to the armor reduced the strength and personal protection that her suit offered, but Riley had assured me that speed and mobility beat out strength almost every time… and due to the breadth of her ‘colorful’ early life experiences, she would definitely know.

Riley was a eleven year old girly-girl, and her her costume reflected that. The outer layer of her power armor was colored hot pink with orange highlights and it was shaped like metallic battle dress. Her armor was even sleeker than Armsmasters, and fitted her like a second skin. She was in that tall gangly phase that some girls go through in their tweens and early teens, but she was bulked out a bit by her suit’s systems and protective armor. Her armor hadn’t been thick enough to imbed the flight systems into it, as I had with mine, so I’d mounted Riley’s antigravity generator backpack-style. She’d asked for the same level of agility and speed in the air that she could achieve on the ground, so I’d put in a stabilization and maneuvering system mounted on a pair of foldable wings on either side of the flight pack. Her helmet, like mine, had antennas protruding from either side of the top, giving the pink headgear a slightly old-fashioned sci-fi feel. Each of our helmets were packed with sensors which fed our HUDs, allowing us to detect threats and locate object at range.

Wearing the costume that I’d designed, Riley looked more like a Disney character than a serious hero. I almost shuddered at the thought, but the iron control I could exert over my body allowed reactions like that to be easily controlled. The idea that a mass murderer like Bonesaw could be made in a cute, family friendly figure so easily was both astounding and disturbing on multiple levels. Probably the strangest part of the whole thing was the thought that she just might be able to pull it off… based on everything I’d seen of her so far, it looked like she might be able to become the kind of person who deserved to wear a costume like that, now that she was away from the corrupting influence of Jack fucking Slash.

I welcomed the change, and cast aside my doubts and negative thoughts. I had decided long ago that I would help Riley become the very best hero that she could be, and walk that path beside her hand-in-hand. She was my littler sister now, after all.

Still, though, I really wish Mom hadn’t let her pick whatever she wanted for her name. I’d made several suggestions for alternate names, but she’d been dead set on her first choice. When I pressed her for the reason that she wouldn’t even consider a different alias, she had tearfully admitted that it was the pet name that her birth mother had called her due to her sweet disposition as a toddler, and her bright yellow hair.

I felt like crap afterward; how was I supposed to know that she’d chosen her hero name to honor her first Mom? After learning her reasons, I told her that I would respect her choice, and even admitted that it was kind of catchy... but I still had a few reservations. Honestly, who is going to respect a hero who calls herself ‘Honey Lemon’?

She would have to earn every ounce of respect and acknowledgement the hard way. On second thought, maybe having a cap name like that was not such a bad thing.

One of the first things I’d done as a hero was to create new costumes for the other two members of my team. Carlos was sporting the sixth revision of his costume; he was much more active in the field than I was, and had a bad habit of constantly getting his outfits ripped to shreds. The perils of being an extreme regenerator, I guess. He had decided to formalize the name one of the girls that we’d rescued from camp had come up for him, so he was Raptor now. It wasn’t exactly his first choice, but I often reminded him that it was really his fault for choosing to wear a paper dinosaur mask that he’d found at camp to protect his identity that first night out, instead of the perfectly nice scarf I’d offered him.

I’d designed Carlos’s costume according to his cape persona. His current helmet was shaped like the head of a screaming Utahraptor, complete with a row of spikes on it’s head and realistic pigmentation. His heavily shadowed face was partially visible between the gleaming rows of razor sharp teeth in the monster’s yawning maw, his subtly glowing eyes giving him mysterious appearance. It looked like his face was exposed to the world, but there was actually a fully transparent forcefield protecting him from harm, with its own integrated HUD.

Previous versions of his costume hadn’t been quite so elaborate, but as I learned and grew as an inventor I had been steadily improving my teammates equipment. The rest of Carlos’s costume was an unpowered suit of extremely heavy armor over a synthetic spider-silk bodysuit. The armor was colored and textured like his mask, and it was as tough as I could make it with my current skills and knowledge. Carlos... Raptor... had become so strong and fast thanks to his parahuman power that his body was actually tougher than the Tinkertech alloys that his armor were made of now. I had to keep pushing my knowledge of material science to keep up with his steadily increasing durability, as I didn’t like the idea of him going out into the field without a set of armor worth the name. His ability to constantly grow tougher was a blessing… but also extremely frustrating for the girl who had to put together his costumes.

The final member of my team was my mother Annette Hebert, otherwise known as Silent Sparrow. Like the majority of our team, Mom sported a a set of power armor these days. Her suit was similar to Riley’s, though her outfit was the same distinctive blue as her Breaker state. Over her protests that she ‘didn't need it’, I had included a limited flight pack that let her rapidly ascend or descend from from the ground so that she didn’t have to wait until her breaker state was active to take to the air.

After seeing the effectiveness of her superpower in conjunction with projectiles, I had also built a pair of ranged weapons into her suit. The first was a regular ballistic cannon that launches self-expanding balls of foam rubber at high velocity. The special ammunition for this weapon was created through myself and Riley’s joint efforts, and allowed her to hit with lots of surface area, as kinetic energy wasn’t really an issue thanks to the fact that her powers allowed each shot to have a ridiculous amount of stopping power.

The second gun that I designed for Mom is robust particle beam that I had based on half a dozen different Tinkers work. It had several different modes, including pulsed energy bursts, a light-speed beam, and even included some of the crazy bullshit that Ledgend can do with his ridiculous powers. With her guns, Mom is easily a Blaster 8, and maybe more… though the charge time on the particle takes a while unless she keeps the blasts fairly low-yield. I’m working on a hot-swappable backup reactor that she can carry based on the ERD, but it will be awhile before that’s ready. All in all, our team is fairly well rounded, though we’re a bit light on Master/Stranger elements.

I smiled as I thought about how far we’d come in such a short amount as we shot across the rooftops, leaping and soaring as we used our flight packs to pretend we could jump like the guys in wire fighting martial arts movies… except for Carlos, who really could jump like that. Mom soared overhead as we headed downtown, where we would begin out patrol in earnest. As I looked over the bright, noonday skyline of Brockton Bay, I decided that nothing could top the feeling of hope and freedom in my breast, and that I was happier than I had ever been in my life. After the way my career as a parahuman began, I figured that I deserved it.

Of course, that was when it all went to hell.

The four of us stopped and stared at each other as the blare of very loud, very distinctive sirens filled the air, warning everyone within miles of the city of the approaching menace that was, even now, nearing Brockton Bay. Mom dropped from her Breaker state, looking incredibly grim, and even little Riley appeared to be shocked. Carlos had the most serious expression that I’d ever seen on his face, causing a stab of pain to pierce my heart as I stared into my boyfriend’s eyes.

‘It’s happening again…’ I thought, my heart feeling as though it were filled with lead. There had been other Endbringer fights since I’d triggered, of course, and upon order of the President of the United States of America, I wasn’t allowed within 100 miles of them.

Thanks to my unique and invaluable contributions to humanity, I was considered far too valuable to throw my life away like the common cape… like the other members of my team were expected to do. Quick, frantic hugs were exchanged with my teammates… with my family, and I prepared to depart. Unfortunately, I would be going alone this time… not even Mom could accompany me where I was going.

Feeling like a coward, I did the bravest thing I’d ever done and prepared to let my loved ones throw their lives away while I waited for the coming storm to pass in perfect personal safety. Tears streaming down my face beneath my visor, I said the words that I’d promised Director Costa-Brown I would all those months ago when she had prepared a plan for just this eventuality.

“Door me.”

A glowing hole in space opened up directly front of where I stood, and I stepped through into a featureless white hallway. Behind me, the portal winked closed.