Summus Proelium

The Ministry, my parents, wanted to have the ability to take someone's powers away. Obviously, there were people that would be useful with. People like Pencil who abused their power to torture and massacre innocents. Not to mention dozens of people on Breakwater who would suddenly be able to be held in ordinary prisons if something like this was even possible. They would go from being the most dangerous monsters on the planet, to being able to be held in an ordinary cell.

On the other hand, the idea that something like this could exist at all was terrifying. Who could say that it would absolutely only ever be used to remove the powers of bad people? Once the ability was out there, it was kind of inevitable that it would end up in the wrong hands. And honestly, I wasn't sure which side of that I would count my family being on. Controlling crime in the city was one thing, but having the ability to remove the powers from anyone they wanted to? No, I definitely didn't like that. I didn't like that at all. This was a bad idea.

Oh, and it was even worse than that, I realize with a glance toward Qwerty. Would this stuff be able to turn a TONI back into an ordinary animal? Was that even possible? The idea made hot bile rise in my throat. None of them deserved that, none. Not even Shovel. The Scion dog might have been an incredibly bad boy, but even he didn't deserve to have his sapience erased. Locked up forever, maybe. But doing anything to turn him back into an ordinary dog, completely destroying his self? No.

And that was just one example of a very nasty TONI. I was adamant that even he wouldn't deserve it, but if this stuff got out there, there were people who would try to use it on plenty of others. TONIs were generally accepted by now, but there were plenty of people out there who saw them as abominations and would absolutely jump at the opportunity to change them back into normal animals. If even a hint of this stuff existing got out, those people wouldn't stop until they found it. Even if they did need DNA samples from before they Touched, it was still just… bad.

Yeah, the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to take all these vials and dump them down the sink. I wanted to destroy this stuff. It shouldn’t exist. It was too dangerous. Too dangerous for us to have, and definitely too dangerous for the Ministry. Hell, the moment certain people found out something like this was even possible, they would do their own work on it. Who was to say someone else wouldn't be able to make the same stuff if they got even so much as a hint?

We had all been standing there staring at one another for several long seconds. Finally, I gave a low whistle. “Right, okay, so that's a thing.” I was trying to keep the full extent of how much it unnerved me out of my voice, but I didn't think I was successful. Especially judging by the looks the others gave me. My head shook. “First things first, do we know if this stuff is anywhere near actually working? Is there any way to find out without, you know, trying to use it?” I grimaced at the thought.

Paige, holding one of the vials, turned it over to stare critically at the thing. “I really don't think this is the finished product. At best, it's one of several samples they have, and probably not one that's close to actually doing the job. Either way, It's not the only egg they have in that particular basket.”

Roald bobbed his head quickly. “Because they haven't come after it hard enough yet, right?”

Willow the penguin plushie, still floating there on her hoverboard, raised a wing. “But they don't know where in the city that stuff is, right? How could they come after it when they don't have any idea that you guys were the ones who broke into that place? Besides, it sounds like they've been kind of busy, you know?”

Oak gave a soft grunt, his little turtle face scrunched up thoughtfully. “My sister raises a valid point. But then, you very well might have seen the effects of them scouring the city much more urgently if the mysterious gang who broke into their secret base had actually made off with the only working sample of something that could erase someone's powers like that. I doubt they would take that calmly. Not that they seem to have been exactly calm as it was, but…”

Sierra took a bag of jelly beans from her pocket and started to munch on them while nodding. “That's basically what we were thinking. They’d have been pushing a hell of a lot harder to get those vials back if they were that important. Remember when we told them that those mysterious thieves stole from us too? They pushed a bit for information, but if that group actually had something that important, we'd probably still be sitting in a dark interrogation room. They definitely haven't pushed hard enough to get that stuff back.”

“And it wasn't protected enough in the first place,” I pointed out before waving my hand as they all stared at me intently. “I know, I know, secret underground base. But still, I feel like if this stuff was the real working deal, and their only sample, it would have been locked up deeper in a vault, not sitting in a lab like they were still working on it.”

We talked that through one a bit more before eventually deciding that it made sense to generally assume this wasn't the only stuff the Ministry had, but also not to take that for granted. If nothing else, they would have still had all the records on how it was made, so whether these vials were the only physical samples or not was almost immaterial.

And speaking how it was made, Wren insisted we not just destroy all of them. She wanted to see if there was a way to undo what the finished product was supposed to do, and the best way to learn about that was to have these here to study. Not that she was exactly an expert on this sort of thing. After all, her focus was on movement, not biology. But she still wanted to try. And she had help from Qwerty, Paige, and Sierra. At the very least, we had a better chance of understanding what to do about this shit if they could keep studying it. So I resisted that urge to dump all of it down the sink. But I also made it clear that they were to be really fucking careful. We absolutely didn't need to have any accidents with this stuff. Not considering the consequences that could follow. I made them swear that they wouldn't take any risks.

With that done, I was about to say something else, but Peyton spoke up first. “Hey, uh, I was just thinking, is there any way to find out how long they've been working on this stuff? I mean, there's a couple ways that could be relevant. It could tell us how far they've gotten in that time, and maybe even give us an idea of who they're actually targeting. You know, if we can narrow it down to a time period when someone was doing something they might want to stop or take control of.”

That was a fair point, and I looked over at the brains of our operation. They all consulted with each other before Wren gave a tentative nod. “Uh huh, I think there's ways we can narrow it down, but it'll probably take a while. And we’ll need more equipment to test certain things. Equipment I can't make by myself. So we gotta be really careful about how we get it.”

“Yes, yes, yes, very careful!” Qwerty chanted, bounding back and forth from the top of Paige’s head to the nearby table, then to Sierra’s shoulder, Roald’s arm, and finally over to me. He landed in my hands as I raised them for him, staring up at me. “It's gotta stay a secret!”

“Exactly,” I agreed, scratching the back of the little guy’s head, much to his enjoyment. “That sounds like pretty specialized equipment. Which means if the Ministry finds out we're trying to get hold of tools like that, it probably wouldn’t be hard for them to put two and two together and figure out we're the ones with those vials. At the very least, they’d take a good hard look at us, which we really don’t need. So yeah, take your time so we don't get caught. It’d just be nice to know everything we possibly can about this stuff, and why they're so interested in making it. Assuming they have a specific reason and it's not just another way for them to maintain control.” As I said that, my face twisted a little at the thought of the Ministry having another way to keep their grip over the city. Hell, if they did have this sort of thing, the ability to take away powers, they’d be able to move beyond just Detroit, or even just Michigan. They’d… yeah, it could be very bad.

But hey, at least we had something of an idea about what those vials were for. That was more than we'd had, and gave us a head start on figuring out what to do about it before that stuff became an immediate problem. Being one step ahead as far as that went was quite the treat, honestly. I couldn't even imagine how things would have gone if we had only found out that stuff was even possible after it had already been used. Especially if one of us was hit by it.

Yeah, I had that thought, of course. What if one of us--what if I was the intended target for that stuff? They knew I knew about the Ministry, so just the threat of being able to take my power away if I didn’t play ball could have been pretty effective. What would I do if they did make that threat and we didn’t have a way of countering it? Sure, maybe that wasn’t the most likely target for that ability, but still. Even if they used it on someone else, they could still use it as a threat for others. Not just me either, anyone who didn’t play ball with them. It could… it could give them a level of control that would be staggering. Between being able to remove any powers they didn’t like, and threaten anyone they wanted, that would essentially make them one of the strongest groups in the fucking world, right? Was I overthinking it? I really didn’t think so. The ability to remove Touched powers would be completely game-changing. No wonder they wanted it.

And yes, I did remember that they needed the earlier DNA sample. But who was to say that wasn’t just one stepping stone toward being able to create a version that could do that without the prerequisite?

Once Wren and the others had promised to be very careful and discreet when it came to getting hold of the equipment they needed to test this stuff more thoroughly, we decided it was time to eat something before making any other decisions. So, Fred, Murphy, and Roald went to get food they could bring back. Meanwhile, Oak was regaling the rest of the Cuddles with the story of what it had been like to go to school with me. They all seemed enraptured by the idea, and I was already trying to think of a way to set up a good system for taking them out. Not only to school, but other places too. We could easily take them to see a movie, to the arcade, or anything like that. It might be a bit more difficult to let them play any of the games at the arcade--but hell we could set up a game system here in the shop. They absolutely deserved that much. They deserved more than we could give them, but I was damn sure going to try.

As I was thinking about that, Paige approached me, casting a glance toward Pittman when I looked at her. She kept her voice low. “You know we need to do something about him.”

Swallowing hard, I stared at the man in question. She was absolutely right, of course. We had to do something with him. The whole reason we went through all that to get him over here in the first place was just to cure Sleeptalk, and now it turned out that he wasn't even the person behind the stuff. He couldn't fix it, and I definitely didn't trust that he wouldn’t eventually find a way to escape this place if we waited too long. So what were we supposed to do with the asshole?

As if in answer to that question, or maybe just to complicate it, my phone buzzed. Looking down at it, I let out a breath. “It's the Ministry,” I murmured. Of course they were calling now.

That got everyone's attention. Everyone who was still here anyway. Even the Cuddles turned our way, and everyone gathered around while I held that buzzing phone. It took me a moment to work up the nerve to answer. Finally, as Paige put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed, I hit the accept call button and held it to my ear. “Hey, are we having daily check-ins now or what? If so, I think I should be put on your payroll. What’s your sick leave policy like?”

“If you want to be employed by the Ministry,” Price informed me with what sounded like genuine amusement and teasing, “all you have to do is ask. I promise, we have a very generous signing bonus. And I believe with the competence you and yours have shown, it could be greatly expanded.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I promised while trying not to roll my eyes. Wait, why did I care about that? This was a phone call. I rolled them hard. “But something tells me you aren’t calling for that offer.”

“You’re a quick one,” came the flat response from the raccoon. “And if we’re not beating around the bush, let’s just say it’s come to our attention that you may have a certain escapee from Breakwater crashing on your couch. We’re going to completely ignore the question of how you managed something like that. Call it professional courtesy. Instead, let’s get down to the question of how much it’s going to cost to take him off your hands.”

Right, they were coming with offers of payment first. Of course they were, it just made sense. Carrot before the stick and all that. They’d want to see if they could convince us to hand him over without any bad feelings or real effort on their part. And honestly, I was honestly trying to figure out if that would be such a bad idea. We’d talked it through a few times, but I still wasn’t sure. Especially given that whole, ‘am I just being stubborn’ question that kept popping up. Would it be a bad thing to just let the Ministry deal with Pittman from here on out? Granted, he knew too much, but was any of it stuff the Ministry couldn’t figure out on their own (or, more likely, already knew)? He could tell them Poise was Paige, and… yeah, that Sierra looked like me. But again, I really didn’t think he’d do that. He’d want to be able to use that against them once he escaped. And he would obviously be very confident he would escape. Throwing away an advantage like that sounded pretty stupid. Especially since it wouldn’t actually gain him anything.

Paige’s hand squeezed my shoulder a bit more firmly, and I realized I’d gone silent for a few seconds. Price wasn’t saying anything either, probably content to wait until I had a chance to think it through and responded in some way. Well, somewhat content. I had a feeling he wouldn’t wait forever without getting at least a bit agitated.

It would’ve been stupid and insulting to everyone involved for me to flatly deny what they obviously knew. So, I just replied, “Well, let’s talk about what sort of resources you have that you could throw our way. We’ve been itching to get an ice cream machine.”

That, of course, led to an assortment of plushie, Tech-Touched little girl, and squirrel-parrot high fives. Which I ignored, focusing on Price’s response. “I believe we can swing that. And perhaps something even better as a bonus. Well, besides simply removing that particular problem so you no longer need to deal with it. And earning even more of our gratitude. Which, I assure you, is even better than an ice cream machine.”

Keeping my voice light, I replied, “I think we all enjoy gratitude and frozen dessert, but what’s this bonus?” I was really hoping he wouldn’t say something like, ‘we’ll let you keep all your limbs intact.’

Thankfully, those weren’t the next words out of Price’s mouth. Instead, he informed me, “Bring Benjamin Pittman to us, give him over to our custody, and we will deliver a large truck full of very advanced, very rare equipment and toys your Tech-Touched will love. Enough to keep her busy for months. All of which you may inspect to your heart’s desire to make certain there are no listening devices or traps installed. And just as an additional benefit, we’ll throw in the truck as well. I’d put a price on it, but some of this equipment is literally priceless. As in, genuinely impossible to buy. We look forward to seeing what she can do with it.”

Pausing briefly, I exchanged a look with Wren before replying, “Give me a few minutes, I’ll call you back.” Then I disconnected before explaining what they had offered.

Sierra whistled. “They really want that son of a bitch in their hands.”

“Of course they do,” Paige put in darkly. “Look what he’s done to the city just while being on Breakwater. Yeah, the actual work was from Cup, but we all know who put the idea in her head, and helped her get that far. Besides, he already tried to go after the Evans family. They let him get away with just being locked up on Breakwater once. I don’t think that’s a mistake they’ll make again.”

“He’s a Bio-Tech-Touched,” Peyton pointed out. “If they get him under their control, they could make him do all sorts of things. You know, like help with that power erasing stuff we were just talking about.”

Sierra was nodding. “Sure, that’s why they want him so badly. Not just to make it so he’s not a problem anymore, but to try to use the lying piece of shit. They want him in their custody, and they’re not going to take no for an answer.

“Either we hand him over, take the generous reward they’re offering, and deal with the consequences later, or we refuse… and they absolutely declare war on us right here, right now.”