Story 4 Hero Within, Monster Without Chapter 3

Granted a full eighteen-wheeler wasn't used to pull me across the city, but I actually managed to fit snuggled into the back of a larger-than-average pickup truck. Then Armsmaster escorted my ride being driven by two armored and black visor-helmeted PRT soldiers back to their base here in Brockton Bay. Which was literally an old drilling platform off the coast that was repurposed into a superhero base complete with a literal forcefield bridge that allowed us to drive across the ocean to it.

And let me tell you, driving over a forcefield wasn't comfortable as a monstrous form that you had no idea if you could actually swim in. But if the way my instincts were screaming at me? Yeah the Bashura instincts within myself were screaming that deep water was very bad.

But either way, I got to the PRT rig in one piece, wasn't tazed, covered in fast-growing hardening foam, or just shot. So I couldn't that as a win.

As I gingerly climbed out of the backseat of the truck I saw a red blur zoom over to the truck and then a man in a tight-fitting suit was actually visibly out of his insane speed and I recognized him as Velocity, the local nerfed Flash equivalent.

"Dude, I heard a purple yeti was on the way, but you didn't say he had four arms!" He said excitedly, and my face visibly twitched and I wondered if I could skip the dumbass across the ocean with how his suit was supposed to help reduce the drag he had when running at super speed.

I then put on an overly excited voice as I spoke quickly. "Holy shit! It's the Flash's inbred southern cousin!" Velocity went still but one of the PRT agents wearing the visors to hide their faces audibly snickered at my retort.

Even as Velocity opened his mouth to make some kind of verbal riposte, Armsmaster's brusque voice cut in. "Enough, get him... Do we even have a meeting room tall enough for him?" Armsmaster muttered and shrugged. "Alright, please follow us Mr. Barris so we can debrief on your status as an illegal immigrant to our United States of America."

'Holy shit... I am literally an illegal immigrant. Does that mean I can use the minority card now against the white oppressors?' I thought somewhat hysterically before shaking my head and saying wryly. "Alright, but don't think you can force me into the PRT, I am fully capable of making my way without major assistance as we still speak the same language."

With all the heroes wearing masks, you could a lot more easily tell their emotions and thoughts due to their bodies naturally becoming more expressive, especially as a hero who was literally trained to be expressive to mentally support the civilians they were trying to protect.

So I could see how his face twitched at my reminder that I wasn't some completely lost Case 53 with no previous memories and no idea how to live on his own. I wasn't helpless in other words.

Armsmaster then led me into the PRT via the garage we parked in and I frowned at the number of turrets placed in the wall and ceiling that tracked my form as we walked deeper into the Rig, to say nothing of the thick metal slide-down doors and bars that would fall down to cut off access to the hallways.

The Rig was clearly designed for siege and it reflected how heroes here in Worm were outnumbered and a lot of the time heavily outgunned with the villains themselves having more powerful powers and far less compunction in using them to their maximum effect.

Eventually, we got into a large meeting room, and sitting at the head of the meeting room was a woman wearing camo clothes and an American flag bandanna as a face mask leaving her eyes able to see freely. The woman inclined her head towards me and I think her eyes crinkled slightly showing she was smiling as she then spoke fairly warmly. "Hello, Jake Barriss was it?" At my nod, she continued. "My hero name is Miss Militia, and we would like to confirm your identity, and then we have questions about your powers, mostly pertaining, to if they should have Master or mind control effects within your powersets."

I only nodded not answering more and I wondered how Armsmaster's supposed lie detector built into his power suits systems was reading my reactions, as I most certainly didn't have a human voice, nor bodily reactions with myself having an extra set of arms and my extremely thick fur covering up my micro reactions.

After answering the questions on my identity and even getting the same question asked twice in different manners as though to trip me up and honestly it made sense with all the Mind Controllers and Strangers who had stealth-based powers. But either way, we finally got through the questioning phase and I emphatically denied having any mind control powers... 'At the moment.' Was in the back of my mind but for now I had no such powers.

"Alright, now let's get to the fun part, would you like to smash some government-sponsored and owned objects with no penalty for doing so. All so we can test your levels of strength and durability?" Miss Militia said clearly trying to hype me up and after a moment of thought I shook my head.

"No thank you, I wouldn't want to be a bother, and with myself having confirmed my identity, any more paperwork and I will need a lawyer to make sure I don't 'accidentally' sign a contract attaching myself to your organization." I finished and gingerly stood up from where I had sat on the ground in front of the table.

Miss Militia sighed and then said gracefully. "I see... In that case, you will be on your own then. If you need a roof over your head, food in your stomach and a job making the world better, then you know where to come."

I couldn't help my lips twitching as I was all too aware of how Brockton Bay was literally overwhelmed with villains and their supporting gangs. With the three main gangs here in Brockton Bay were, the Azn Bad Boy's or ABB which was an all-Asian gang that specialized in mid-tier drugs and prostitution with very unwilling girls and was famous for snatching people to be sent to their 'meat farms'.

The Empire 88 which was a literal Nazi organization funded and sent trained soldiers and more capes from Gesselshaft, the Nazi party in Germany that took over this version of Germany with the advent of capes, and the Empire dealt with more high-end drugs and weapons.

And lastly, the Merchants who were a small army of druggies and homeless people who slung the darkest heroin and crack, and their prostitutes were too blitzed out of their minds to have things like consent on their minds.

Each gang had its Capes which also kept the PRT capes away with those superhuman people taking up the leadership positions within the gang. And there wasn't much cops could do to someone like Lung the leader of the ABB who was basically the hulk in 'infinite' scaling strength but would also turn more and more into a dragon with fire creation abilities being well in his reach in his base form.

Either way, I wanted to try to make my way on my own, and in the worst case. I could give the PRT a try. "Thank you for the welcome, could I get a ride down to the docks or something?" I asked and Armsmaster agreed to have some agents drive me from the Rig over there.

I knew the Docks had a lot of ships that were all but abandoned on the coast which was why Brockton Bay was partly called the Ship Graveyard due to the Endbringer Leviathan killing the shipping industry. And I imagined those ships being used to water would have hull's I could make some kind of a home in while I practiced my shape-changing methods.