Chương 97: Meet

The powers that be decided I needed to attend a meeting, at least according to the text May had sent me yesterday. If she knew about it, it was likely a group meeting. So no condemnation to the Firmament yet, thankfully. Maybe I was being too over-reactive to it anyway. But I know that evaluation wasn't going to look good. The cat was, literally, out of the bag, so I didn't bother leaving Shivvy behind in my room. It's not like I could really force him anywhere anyway.

He went where he wanted, as he proved when he hid in my suit. Honestly, part of me was grateful for that. I wasn't sure how much longer I'd last fighting Gleditsia. He sat on my shoulder, still in that cat-like form. He must have snuck out a few times to observe wild cats, since he did seem to keep trying to move in ways cats did. None of it really looked right, though. Like he would take a paw and just… push it through his head, in the same slow strokes of a cat grooming itself.

Combine that with the otherwise static body and being perched on my shoulder, and it caused a few staffers to have double-takes when they looked at the two of us. Making my way up to the meeting room, I could see my teammates had already gathered, taking their own separate seats. Sam included. She sat at the furthest seat away. She looked pale, deep bags sitting behind her glasses. She didn't even look at me. For the best. Alongside them was Tancred and a woman. Maybe early 30s. Short, bright brown hair.

Easily a head and a half shorter than me. Wore a suit similar to Tancred. She looked like an auditor, though her sunglasses were tucked into the collar of her button-up shirt. Tancred looked up from speaking to her, glancing at me. His brows furrowed behind his sunglasses.

"You brought the fucking cat-" He threw his hands up.

"No, not gonna focus on it. Sit down." He exhaled, loudly and aggressively, as I pulled up a seat.

"Shivvy," I mentioned. He cocked his head.

"Excuse me?"

"His name's Shivvy."

"Of course you named it-""I didn't name him, his last owner did."

"Whatever! We'll have that conversation later." He pinched the bridge of his nose, as the woman seemed rather amused by his predicament.

"Right. Right." He looked back up towards us, hands on his hips.

"This meeting's pretty important. I will no longer be the sole operator and administrator of The New Sentinels. Per the Superhuman Investigation Taskforce's own analysis, backed by Congress, that with the escalation of significant threats, I am to oversee you with an SIT representative." He then gestured to the woman.

"This is Patriot Project Agent Richmond." My eyes snapped towards Chris, who just shrugged. He seemed to be just as in the dark as me as I looked back towards the agent. Agent Richmond gave a wave, one hand resting behind her back.

"Pleased to meet you guys!" She sounded smooth. Professional. But not like a government person. Just… almost like a saleswoman.

"I hope we can get on well. I'm mostly just here to help make sure that when threats get bad enough, you guys can be properly managed and delegated." She then tapped Tancred on the shoulder.

"I actually used to be an auditor in the Super Commission, but the SIT head-hunted me around the same time there was getting to be a few too many supers in the Commission."

"Too many supers?" piped up Jairo. Tancred scratched at an itch in his mustache as he spoke." Fox in the Henhouse Statute. No more than ten percent of auditors can be superhumans, so as to avoid the investigative branch of Cape Law being an asylum run by the inmates." My brow furrowed. This would've been a moment to out Tancred's power, but I didn't know Richmond's power. That would've been a high risk.

"Wait, so how many auditors are there?" the croaking boy added on. Tancred shook his head.

"Unknown number. I estimated three hundred, but they're not giving out that kind of information for free when there's a specific ratio they're tracking. And sorry, Richmond, keep introducing yourself." Agent Richmond nodded, bringing both hands behind her back.

"Right, so like I said, I was with the Super Commission almost right out of college, but it took me a couple years of pretty rigorous testing after joining as a staffer to get the auditor spot. Having superpowers doesn't just put a fancy job in your lap, unfortunately."

"What are your powers?" I asked, bringing a hand up to Shivvy to idly stroke along the sleek metal. He couldn't purr, but he seemed to understand the notion. So he compensated by vibrating in such a way you could hear his body whirring. Richmond just gave this knowing smile.

"You'll know it when you see it. But I lose the surprise if I just tell people." Tancred gave a similar excuse. Did they have similar powers?

"But!" She exclaimed, bringing both her hands up defensively, almost laughing through her words.

"I promise you guys, it's not really anything relevant to how you all operate. If I have to go out and do stuff, something's probably gone really wrong. I'm mostly in the administrative side of things and handling interpersonal stuff." Then why was she in the Patriot Project? The only other two agents I'd heard of from Tancred seemed a lot more destructive than that. What the fuck could she do then that justified her being in that program?

"Oh, um," May piped up, raising her hand.

"I thought Patriot Project superheroes were anonymous, why are you showing us your face?" she asked. Agent Richmond gestured to her face.

"Do you recognize me? Do you know me from anywhere?"

"…No," she admitted.

"Do you know my name?"

"No, I guess not." Richmond flourished her hands in a jazzy motion, laughing.

"Sounds pretty anonymous to me! But to more seriously answer your question, the anonymizing process is mostly clerical work. A lot of Patriot Project people do wear full costumes and face-masks, though. But honestly," she plucked up her sunglasses, slipping them on.

"People are less likely to recognize you if they can't see your eyes."

"Well, I guess that makes sense," May answered, looking almost a little deflated. Did she want to see a costume? Maybe any argument to get out of the blue and orange.

"Glad you get it," Richmond stated, slipping her sunglasses back off and putting them where they originally were.

"And I just chose the suit and shades to keep waving the flag for the Commission. They're my home!" She blurted out, tapping Tancred on the shoulder.

"Besides, I know Abe here missed working with me."

"We shared a building for maybe two years, tops," Tancred pointed out.

"I can count the number of conversations we had on both hands."

"But that means you remember them all!" She pointed out. The auditor dismissively groaned, crossing his arms as he looked across the meeting room.

"Do any of you have any other questions?" Chris spoke.

"So what exactly is your role going to be with us? Like, is it just more of what Tancred does?" This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Agent Richmond nodded.

"That's basically it. We'll both be on comms during missions and patrols, working as communication bridges between you guys and the relevant authorities, all of that." She spanned her hands out.

"This is so that I can help make Tancred act within our legal boundaries, and keep him from having to oversee up to five people at a time by himself. And of course, working with you guys, learning more about you, and doing what's best for you all." Yeah, because Tancred was a great example of that. Clapping her hands again, she tilted her head a little.

"Any other questions for now? You guys can always reach out to me if you come up with any others later or prefer asking in private, by the way. I've got an open door policy." There sat an awkward silence, none malicious but definitely awkward.

"Alright," Tancred conceded.

"Sounds like everyone's all set and ready to go gossip privately. Dismissed. Except Leo, we need to talk." God damn it. The others all made their way out at varying speeds and different paces, ranging from normal strolls to a limp shuffle out until it was just me, Shivvy, and the two government superhumans. They gave it a minute before Tancred started speaking.

"We've got a few things to discuss. Mostly," he gestured to Shivvy.

"Can you actually explain what the fuck that is? It showed up in the fight with Brother Gleditsia and you've been carrying it around as a pet ever since." Glancing at Shivvy, I just pet at him before slipping him off of my shoulder and onto the table. Stretching like clay, he made his way back on regardless. I was convinced to not bother again with just that motion.

"Shivvy. The uh… alien weapon the guy had when you first arrested me." Richmond raised an eyebrow.

"Alien weapon?" She asked, glancing at Tancred." Alleged alien weapon," Tancred clarified.

"The individual he's referring to stated he had a pet creature of liquid metal he got from an area that was pretty heavily beat up during the Interstellar War and got repurposed into a landfill. How did you even fucking get it?" I shrugged.

"Apparently it ended up in the sewers. Two losers found it, used it to mess with an old guy in an apartment. He tried to tear my face off, but I used cat food to calm him down. He mostly eats meat and tree bark now."

"Meat? You're feeding it meat-""Oysters. I don't think it actually has a taste for people."

"Well that feels so much better!" He griped, throwing his hands up. Richmond spoke, resting her hands on the back of the chair.

"And it… cooperates with you?"

"Kind of. He listens, but I dunno how he actually hears or anything like that. Short," I said to Shivvy, who turned himself into a ball that I tossed up and down in my hands.

"Long," I then called out, causing him to stretch out into a rod I held up. At that moment, I realized I hadn't done any shape-change training since he became a cat. Maybe…

"…Cat?" I asked, looking at Shivvy with a raised eyebrow. After a few seconds, the rod piled itself back together into a cat-like form, which glooped its way up my shoulder.

"Okay, there we go," I noted.

"You don't even know what vocal commands it'll respond to?" Tancred asked, rubbing his head.

"Did the other guy not do any?" I furrowed my brow.

"No, actually. He kind of just, held his arm out and Shivvy turned into a really ugly-looking sword." Hefting Shivvy off of my shoulder, I held my hand out with him sitting directly on it, trying to emulate the way the gangster's hand was when Shivvy turned into that blade. Shivvy did nothing except lift a leg, shooting a metallic coil out of his mouth to… try and lap at it with a fake tongue, I would imagine. Except from far too far away. I squinted, before looking back up at Tancred.

"Still need to figure that out."

"Was it just you who knew about this?" Richmond added on, crossing her arms.

"No, uh, Sam was helping research it." Tancred similarly crossed his arms.

"When the Hell was she researching it? You two haven't even been in the same room since today outside of training."

"I let her look it over for a bit, but why the fuck would we be talking? Did you forget that you, Casney, and her decided the first day of training would feature her designing and putting a fucking shock collar on me?"

"A shock collar-" Tancred started, while Richmond looked at him like I just accused him of being responsible for 9/11.

"You put a shock collar on him?" She called out.

"No! Jesus! How technologically illiterate are you!?" Tancred asked me.

"What the fuck else do you call a collar that fucking tazes you!?" I called out, standing up from my chair. Shivvy bristled against me, starting to stand himself up. Tancred took a step forward.

"For starters, moron, what you had was an electrical nerve stimulation device against your brain-stem and your scalene muscles. While they do use electricity because technology uses electricity, it is not meant to taze you. Those kinds of devices are normally designed for physical therapy. Medical equipment. It was designed to go off whenever your brain was dipping out. The idea was to make it proportional to activity." Sam said something similar. Was she actually telling the truth? He then pointed up.

"Brain activity goes too high? The zap gets stronger." The pointing hand clenched into a fist to emphasize his point, before lowering it.

"In rational human beings, a little jolt no different than static shock to the back of your neck that tenses you up, makes you flinch and snap back to reality. It's based on the falling sensation that some people experience when they fall asleep, called a hypnic jerk. However," he started, gesturing to me." You are a fucking idiot caveman. Half the time I think you're a product of time travel and you're meant to be throwing sharp objects at mammoths. When you do anything, you gracelessly overdo it.

In return, the device overreacted and produced a jolt that was paralyzing you."

"And you didn't think to put an upper limit on it!?"

"We did! You were so goddamn past the perceived metrics that it got confused! Our current theory is all the out-of-wack readings resulted in a microphonic effect so potent that the resistors literally stopped working. You broke your own safety mechanism!"

"Bullshit I did!"

"Yeah, fuck trying to take responsibility for the fact you couldn't control yourself. Not like we weren't training you specifically because of that exact fucking problem, you little shit!" He yelled, spit flying. Richmond stepped forward, putting a hand on Tancred's chest, causing him to step back.

"Both of you need to relax," she hissed out.

"Let me make an outsider's perspective on this." She glanced at me.

"Leo. The Super Commission legally cannot torture people. We do not have provisions in place for torture. Torture was proven ineffective in 1989 by the CIA in their Human Resource Exploitation Training Manual."

"So what, you think they can't just renam-" She raised a finger, interrupting me.

"You're completely correct in that they can just call it something else. My point is that Agent Tancred is CIA. He's read that manual. You think he wouldn't know torture is useless on you?" My fists clenched.

"You think he'd want to torture me because it's fucking useful? He treats me like shit constantly." Tancred raised a finger at me.

"I call you out on your bullshit, you little rat! My own consideration for you is the reason you're not in a concrete bubble in the desert, if I wanted to torture you I'd have signed off on your permanent detention."

"Yeah, but you're more than happy to fuck with me about my own memories and hold out on the truth about my life!"

"Both of you," Richmond reiterated.

"Enough. What happened with the shock collar, Abe?"

"It isn't a fucking shock collar!" Tancred called out.

"I just explained that! When it turned out using it was causing Leo terrible fucking pain, I canned it. Casney kept pushing for it since he thought it'd be a spectacular learning aid. Sam threatened to quit the fucking program entirely. You know how hard it is to convince a mad scientist to quit a fucking research topic? Especially one with zero ethical oversight!?"

"So what, everything else was fine?"

"Yeah, everything else was fine, doofus! Casney teaches you fucking kickboxing and lets you beat the shit out of him. You're eating a diet for someone actually your size. Is learning how to take care of yourself and temper your fucking powers that much torture for you?"

"It is when you're dangling me being violent over my head like you're not hovering your finger over a button to let out the pack of licensed killers like Agent Richmond over here. And apparently no one cares about them doing it!" Agent Richmond spoke.

"Because we're soldiers, Leo." Solemn. No more performance in her voice.

"We're specifically brought on to fight for the country anonymously. No one knows our names, we're not marketed, we're very closely monitored, and people make conspiracy theories about us like they're going to be Shanghai'd into the program if they have superpowers. You guys are meant to be everything we could never be. Do you think I've got a life worth living, this way?" I just stared at her, before she shook her head.

"Just go. Tancred and I are going to work out how you can keep your pet." My gaze didn't leave them for a good few minutes, before I finally backed out and left back to my room, shoulders heavy with stress. Shivvy attempted to lick my face. He wasn't very good at it.