Chương 58: Calamity

Even the lightest clicking of a door's latch felt like the kiss between the lunette and bascule of a guillotine. More answers than there are questions, Sam had. But none of them fit the questions she was presented with. The room Sam had just left carried a girl about her age who lost a leg in a valorless dispute between psychopaths and child soldiers, both tainted by delusions of heroics. Down the hall sat three of her allies.

One the deepest believer in valor, who was rewarded with impotence and inability to face the current threats. Another seeking to live his own life, barred from it by forces of nature beyond comprehension. The third one who simply wanted to live his life, punished by nature of his birth to reach an inevitable conclusion of undoing the birth of another. They were segregated via one door, that kept the third away from the first and second.

The first, Christian Lofield, had just finished bypassing that segregation against the common sense someone would have. Especially when it came to talking with a boy who could likely register on the Richter scale.

"Leo just wants to spend some time by himself. When he's ready for a chat, I'm certain we'll know," he explained before making his way off to another section of the office. Likely out of it entirely. It didn't surprise her. Her vision flicked over to the second. Jairo Carter. A victim of a kaiju's own parasite, he was doomed to live in a fringe position no matter what. Despite this, he always seemed to have a smile on his face. Flicking through his phone, he never knew how to turn the volume down on it.

"The Firmament!? Take these chains off and say that again!" He chuckled at that video. A great little joke to him, apparently. She couldn't judge him for it. He was likely doing his best to compartmentalize. Too young to really grasp the weight of the situation.

"Jairo," Sam said, slipping her hands into her coat pockets. Jairo perked up, looking at her.

"Oh, hey, Dr. Way. What's up?"

"You should probably be heading out with Christian. He gave you the ride here, right?"

"Huh- Oh, yeah! Are you gonna come too?" The dr. shook her head, looking towards that door keeping the two of them out of earshot from the brand new killer in the team.

"No. I need to do another evaluation on Leo before I'm content with going home. Billy or Tancred will likely end up taking me home, so don't worry about it, okay?" The boy watched her for a few moments, before just nodding and getting up.

"Okay, sure. Are you alright, though?" She nodded.

"Yeah, no, I'm fine," she lied. Jairo gestured to his own face in a mirroring movement.

"But uh, you're still all red and-""Just from the stress earlier. It's over, I'm fine." Another lie.

"Go, Chris is probably waiting for you." A little shooing gesture to emphasize her point, giving up the armor of the labcoat's pockets for that. A fair trade to get him to wander off. He finally conceded, rushing off towards wherever the cars were kept. She admittedly didn't bother to remember. She could likely recall it in a few seconds of thinking. She failed to really forget anything, but it wasn't necessary at this moment.

"You sure you wanna do another check-up on him so soon?" Coarse, gruff, unpleasant. The voice of the agent who brought them all to this point. She couldn't even hate him, since the hand that pulled them here was also what pulled them out of Hell.

"I swore an oath to apply all required measures to treat my patients, Tancred." A scoffing sound that came closer to a cough.

"Yeah, but you gotta remember that it's a twin trap. It's not just about avoiding therapeutic nihilism, it's also about avoiding..." She knew the oath to the letter.

"Overtreatment. Right." She finally turned to face him. He was drinking from a little paper cup, steam broiling out of it, rich with the stink of coffee.

"I get that you wanna help him. You two seem to be closer than most any other duo you could mathematically come up with among the Sentinels. Probably because you two were always pariahs." Clenching her fist sent little jabs of agony into her elbow and shoulder. Her joints couldn't handle that tension, and the pain signals convinced her to loosen her grip.

"We weren't pariahs, we-""He can kill someone by accidentally slapping them too hard. You have a fundamentally alien brain to the average human being. Alien to the average Mensa member, too. So you both got treated differently. And unlike everyone else, you and Leo both did Firmament-level big bad crimes. You see him in you, and since he's just a little younger, you think there's some fix exclusive to you."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you're not gonna admit it out loud, moron. Smartest lady I've ever met, and you're still too dense to grasp that nothing fucking makes sense if the only place you keep it is behind your eyes and between your ears." He took a sip of his coffee, his other hand coming out of the pocket it was hiding in to gesture to her, palm up.

"Look at yourself. You've packed all this shit in to the point that you're a sobbing wreck. You think that's useful?"

"What do you care about how I feel?"

"I just asked. Do you think this mental breakdown you're having is useful? I get it, we're in a worst-case scenario. We've got two dogs who've tasted human blood now. One on fucking camera. There's a terror cell that's killing people, more than we realized given none of those people were on record as going missing. And that's not even going into Technofiend, or Clowncar, and some other shit I can't talk about. Me personally? If I had a chance I'd go take a visit to the loony bin."

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author. Another sip.

"Fuckin' empty already," he complained, tossing the cup into the trash bin before continuing.

"But we can't afford that. This same stuff happens to every superhero. Every single one. I've never spoken to The Saint, for the best since I think he'd probably dislike me, but even I know he's been through a lot."

"The Saint has been fighting crime for eighty years, Tancred. If he looked like a twenty-something back in the thirties like he does now, he's at least a hundred years old. He's got a lot more experience than us. Leo has the most and he's only been at it for six months as a vigilante. And that's not including the fact the oldest among us only became old enough to drink last year."

"Don't remind me, I've earmarked a budget in case you morons need to get into a twelve-step progra-""Could you stop it with the sardonics, Tancred?" Sam took a step forward, her heart doing a tango behind her sternum as it finally found reinforcement from that spine that'd refused to support her earlier.

"You were talking about useful, do you think it's useful to me whenever I express a complaint you need to make some snide commentary? I imagine everyone gets that from you if you deign them worthy of a conversation, too. Can you please give me a normal, serious conversation?" Tancred's eyebrows raised past the rims of his sunglasses, and his hand reached up to rub at the lack of chin he had.

"God damn, kid. Didn't think any of you would finally grow a pair of hefty swingers. Fine, fine, I'll play nice." Letting out a slow exhale, he turned to face one of the walls as he spoke.

"Leo, realistically, was going to end up killing someone because of that brain thing. I was fully aware of the kill risk when he first told me about lapses in focus. Your exams confirming his brain genuinely starts shutting off bits and pieces at times just boosted those odds exponentially. We had him on the raid without Christian or Jairo for a reason."

"You were actually trying to-""Yep. The SC was aware of Brother Gleditsia, didn't bother to tell me until one of the pre-raid meetings. They said they wanted a Sentinel who could kill. Leo is the most vicious among you, so I picked him. May was there to avoid an isolation risk driving him nuts. Couldn't pick Christian and Jairo because they would have stopped him, easily. Also why I let you bother with that EEG in his brain. I knew it wouldn't work."

"You let me do that in vain-""Yeah, I did. But you wouldn't have let Leo go forward if I didn't. Plus it gave you useful data on how his brain works. We were trying to assassinate Gleditsia and this was the only method possible." Sam took a deep breath, hands climbing to her face. The labcoat wasn't armor anymore. There was no point in hiding more of herself in it. She needed better sensory responses to try and soothe her body. Skin across skin. Fingers in her hair. Anything.

"Oh my God. Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you keep fucking blaming yourselves, Samantha. Letting it all get to you. It's my fault. You get it now? I'm the bad guy here, and it's to make you all good guys. Leo was sharing the burden for this one because no one else could. He didn't know, mind you, but he'll pick it out when he finishes his stewing. So stop dreading all of this crap and acting like your little stray cat's delicate mind is in danger. One of the best clandestine limbs of the United States has his best interests in mind."

"A-and you use that to turn him into a fucking killer?" Tancred clicked his tongue, turning to face her.

"It was going to happen. Something would run his emotions high and he would've killed regardless. All we did was put that bomb in the right bunker. Now you can help rehabilitate him, fix his brain, and you and that freak cunt Casney can figure out what the Hell makes him so strong." Sam's eyes moved up towards the auditor, tears forming around her lids.

"You're evil. You are so fucking evil, Tancred. What kind of fucked up mind decides something like this is okay?"

"Because the alternative is so much worse. And now you know the truth. You can still go in, treat Leo if you want. You can even tell him all of this. Of course, if you do, he's gonna snap. He'll come to kill me, and he'll rip apart all of Charlottesville to get me. With his strength, it'll be treated like a kaiju attack. Patriot Project'll be here within the hour. Wave of Hope might show up too if we get ahead of the narrative to paint him as a villain."

"You're fucking evil." He walked towards her, his trajectory resulting in him walking past her. Tancred stood there, shoulder to shoulder with her. The back of his hand tapped her upper arm, causing her to flinch.

"I can't be that evil. You know what'd be evil? Telling him and setting the little orphan boy up to fucking die. Have a good night, Sam. Just keep in mind this is for everyone's good." The agent strode off, leaving her alone in that little room. She faced the door, where she considered just giving up everything and letting that same bomb go off. Then she thought about the obvious aftermath. Leo would die. The New Sentinels would likely be disbanded.

Tancred would be dead, but the Super Commission would likely just start a new program with more broken kids. Sam would lose her income, her lab, her resources. Her kids would lose their home. She would have to explain to Samara and Samuel that because she wanted revenge for a situation far too complex for either of them to understand, they're going to be homeless. The loss of The New Sentinels would likely undo the pardon conditions, and she would face legal troubles, where they would take her children.

They would be in the same foster system that failed Leo. And unlike her or Leo, they lacked the powers or super-intelligence to still survive on their own. They'd be fully victim to the mundane human's systems. All the answers in the world, but every question wasn't from this world. It was from a different one, where monsters in suits consigned others to do things they never would. She opened the door, regardless. There he was. Leo Holt. Hercules.

A bomb and a lost child and a hurricane and a weak whimper coiled into the body of the strongest teenager she'd ever met. He was staring at the wall until she entered, where his gaze snapped to her.

"I said I wanted to be left alone." Sam said nothing, she just approached him with casual gait; no hindrance in her pace. In her trail, she left her professional background. Government contracts, Tancred's warnings, her Hippocratic oath. It was all detritus left behind. She couldn't tell him the truth of what Tancred did. But she could demonstrate the truth of what Leo deserved.

Quick movements were torture for her shoulders and elbows, but she let the pain scream out to her as she snapped her arms up to pull him into a hug. Her hand reached up to curl her fingers in his hair. Someone needed to comfort him. Finally, she spoke, sobs shaking her voice. But she refused to let them go unuttered.

"We're going to fix this. You're going to be the best hero in the world. You're going to help so many people. And you'll be okay. This thing that's happening to your brain is going to be cured. We're going to figure it out. You, me, everyone on the team. No one's gonna care what happened because they'll know you did your best. I know I don't care." A weak mutter from Leo. Strained, maybe. Or just trying to avoid letting it be heard out loud.

"Thank you."

"You're going to be okay, Leo." He sat limply in the hug. Didn't try to reciprocate. She could tell it was because he didn't know how. But it was okay. She'd give him that short embrace and let him feel warmth that wasn't the blood of a dead man. He deserved this.