Chapter 48: 4-15-5 Eugene Lewis

Interlude 4.15.5 Eugene Lewis

2000, September 15: New York, NY, USA

I walked through the Door and emerged on a rooftop overlooking the Big Apple skyline. Alexandria and Legend were already waiting for me. I took a moment to appreciate the wind on my face as the sun began to set.

"Alexandria, Legend," I greeted, suppressing the urge to call them by name. I always did have the most trouble separating the mask from the man beneath. "Dr. Manton's gone rogue then?"

"Yes," the gray-clad heroine said clinically. As chief director, Rebecca and I worked in the same city most of the time but to avoid any awkward questions, we typically arrived at any destination separately. "He had a psychotic break and stole two vials from Cauldron before fleeing. He has since been excluded from Doormaker's network."

Just then, Eidolon came through from a Door of his own. As usual, flight was one of the powers he'd arranged for himself.

"Let's get this over with," he said impatiently. "We all have better things to do."

"We should try to talk him down first," Legend tried. "He's a friend, not a criminal to be hunted down. We need to find him before he does anything regrettable. What caused this? Do we have any idea where he might be headed?"

Eidolon snorted. "Does it matter? We need those vials back. What was Contessa doing in all this?"

"Number Man thinks Dr. Manton's breakdown was caused at least in part by his messy divorce. He's had a strenuous relationship with his wife as she believed that his research cut into time spent with her and their daughter. He recently lost the custody hearing," Alexandria explained. "Contessa believes the doctor timed his betrayal for today. Her foresight is limited with the looming endbringer attack. It is also possible that she did not foresee this because his actions do not influence the Path in a meaningful way."

"Whatever, do we know where he is?"

"Yes, he is not beyond Clairvoyant's sight."

Legend took a step off the roof and began to hover. "Then that's where we're going. We'll try to calm him down. Get the vials back and see if we can get the man some help."

"Ever the optimist," Eidolon muttered, but allowed our friend to take the lead.

Alexandria and I followed. I adjusted my flightpack and brushed my hand against something that wasn't typically there: Hyunmu's Wayfinder.

I promised to keep it on my person so I stuck it in my utility belt, but I promptly forgot about it. He had no way of knowing of course, but while I appreciated the thought, a portal-gun was a completely redundant tool in my hands, especially with such a limited destination. Still, I figured it'd do the young man some good to be able to brag that he contributed to my kit, however minor.

In some small way, each of my former Wards had left their marks on my costume. Armsmaster helped me design the utility belt I was wearing for optimal ergonomics. Pyrotechnical helped me adjust my focusing array for my flightpack and Glace gave me the eureka moment I needed to better manage excess heat. Not every idea made it in to the final product, but there were enough tidbits that bled through that a small fingerprint of theirs remained.

Was this what parents felt when they hung macaroni art on the fridge?

Thinking about the littlest Ward was a poor distraction. His ambition and desire to help made me proud to call him a Ward, but that same jaded pragmatism that drove his work ethic made me wince with regret.

Cauldron was supposed to better the world, make sure that children like him wouldn't have to have eyes like that.

We were proving tonight that we couldn't even clean our own house. Were we really good stewards of the world?

We arrived before I could ruminate further.

Dr. Manton was smart enough to relocate. He'd taken his daughter from his ex-wife's flat and rented a room in an inconspicuous hotel, blending in among the thousands of visitors to the city.

The security was a joke so we had no trouble entering without alerting anyone. Half the video cameras weren't working and a literal child with a toy magnet could have picked the electronic lock.

When we entered, it was to find Dr. Manton cradling a monster.

She was vaguely feminine in shape, with bleached, bone-white fur that sprouted in patches all over her distorted form. The right half of her torso had merged with the corresponding arm, forming a mouth that stretched from her hip to her breast, jagged teeth and drool running down matted fur. The left half of her body, from her sternum to the crown of her head, had also fused, like a soda can crunched into a disc. A drooping, cat-like eye glared outward. Black growths of stone, similar in appearance to basalt, clung to her torso like an unwieldy mockery of a tiger's stripes.

"Abby," the doctor moaned. "Abby…"

The… thing groaned, a half growl and wheezing whimper.

"Oh my God," I heard Legend whisper.

His daughter. We knew her. Dr. Manton had been the proudest man I'd ever seen when he showed off a photo of her years ago. She was holding a trophy then, from her eighth grade science fair, with the good doctor's arm draped over her lovingly. She wasn't a genius like the doctor and the project was nothing special, just a hamster-wheel attached to a digital clock, but that didn't matter to him. The smile he wore nearly split his face open from joy; his daughter was taking after him, he'd bragged.

We'd all happily put up with the man's doting antics then.

As the years passed and his marriage started to fail, he'd gotten even worse, devoting all his attention on his daughter rather than a wife who didn't love him anymore.

Last I saw, Abby had grown to be a beautiful young woman of seventeen, with waist-length, dark-brown tresses. She took after her father, his full lips and strong brow. He was the sort of father who fretted over every little thing, anything for his baby girl. I remembered the doctor going out of his way to look for high quality nail polish because she liked to wear her nails long.

Funny what one remembers in moments of crisis.

She looked nothing like him now.

"Doctor, what have you done?" I heard Alexandria whisper, a rare moment of shock for her.

"It was supposed to work…" he mumbled. I didn't think he even knew we were here. "The research… been a hero… better than her… show her…"

"Doctor," Legend tried. He placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "William, it's me. Keith."

"Abby…"

His daughter moaned in piteous agony, halfway between a whimper and a growl; none of her organs were where they were meant to be and the Agent clearly wasn't compensating.

"Wil-"

Dr. Manton whirled, slapping Legend's hand away. "You!" he shouted. He grabbed my friend by the collar and shook him. "Fix this! Fix her!"

"William, I-"

"Fix her!" he wailed. "Bring her back! Abby!"

Tears and snot streamed down the broken man's face as he continued to shake Legend. His eyes were glassy, so wracked with grief that he wasn't seeing anything. For all his shouting, he wasn't truly registering my friend in front of him. Legend for his part knelt there, taking the man's bawling with tears in his own eyes.

That was the difference between Keith and I. He always was the most empathetic of us. I could be nice. I could be fun. But it was one thing to be with someone in the good times and a whole different matter to weep with them. Keith was always able to do that, to break his heart for what broke theirs in a completely sincere way. It was what made him the best choice as head of the Protectorate.

Alexandria floated towards them and separated the two. "I'm sorry, doctor. There is nothing we can do."

Dr. Manton hit her. His fists pounded against her chest even as she held him firmly by the shoulders. He bawled and swung as hard as he could until his fists began to bruise and bleed but Alexandria remained unmoved.

"Fix her…" he moaned, "please… Abby… I'm so sorry. Dad's so, so sorry."

He collapsed to his knees and held Alexandria's costume as he wept. The man had truly lost everything.

Eidolon and I… We stood there. A wave of shame flushed through me. I'd never been good at consoling others. Play with the Wards? Give them a childhood? I could do that. Tell a mother her son died fighting Behemoth? That was beyond me.

Still, I swallowed thickly and stepped into the room.

"Doctor," I started. I had no idea what to say. My throat was dry. Words just wouldn't form. A thousand platitudes ran through my mind and every last one rang hollow.

What could I say? The world knew me as the tinker who could make anything, the man with a nifty gadget for every problem, the answer to every question. Then why was it that I kept drawing blanks when I most needed a miracle?

"…all your fault…" I heard him whisper. It sounded like he'd finally begun to register who we were. "Cauldron…"

"Doctor," Alexandria began. "William-"

"Your fault… It's all Cauldron's fault…"

"We need to move Abby." She turned to do just that. Gently but firmly, she pried the doctor's fingers from her costume and lifted Abby into her arms. "Door, Cauldron HQ."

The all too familiar portal appeared against the wall.

"No, you can't take her!" He grasped at her cape and pulled desperately, a feather straining against a hurricane.

"If there is any hope of stabilizing her, we need to get her to Contessa."

"Contessa, yes. She has the Path. She saw this! She could have stopped it!" I saw his grief turn to unbridled rage, the kind of white, all-consuming fury that blinded the brightest of men. "This is her fault! You can't have her! You can't take Abby!"

His flailing became desperate before some shred of his normal brilliance entered his eyes. He let go of Alexandria's cape and reached into a coat pocket, withdrawing a familiar vial.

"Abby, daddy will protect you," he promised no one.

He brought the vial to his lips.

"Alex!" I shouted, too late as the doctor collapsed to his knees.

"Aaaaahhhhh!" he screamed out in agony as the Agent reached out.

Then, the world became a kaleidoscope of stars.

A waltz of constellations filled my vision as two entities swam through the cosmic sea. They were hauntingly beautiful. Seeing them again was almost a religious experience, albeit an omen of Armageddon.

The four of us had hit the ground without realizing.

I staggered to my knees and readied my blaster. I felt for the man but quashed my emotions and locked them in a box for later. There was no telling what his power would be. Would he mutate like Abby? Be driven insane as the Agent capitalized on his instability? Or would it stabilize his mind like mine restored my body?

I didn't know and so I waited, praying for the best but prepared for the worst.

"All your fault," I heard him mutter under his breath and my heart sank.

The rest of us were still down, clutching their heads to banish the trigger-vision. Still on my knees, I reached out a hand towards him. "Doctor, can you hear me? It's Eugene."

"You took Abby from me!"

He let out a wordless shout and lunged for me.

I tossed myself backwards and upwards, engaging my flightpack with the UI over my eyes. I had no idea what kind of power he received. A striker ability could kill me dead before I had a chance to reason with him.

"Doctor! Get yourself together," I yelled, trying to reason with him. In the back of my mind, I scolded myself. Screaming at a man undergoing a mental break probably wasn't the right way to handle this, but I had no fucking clue what I was doing.

My blaster snapped to my hand and I readied the stun setting.

"Shut up! Bring Abby back!"

"Please, we have to get her help," I tried to reason with him but it was futile.

Then, something appeared in front of him. It was like a monochrome Abby, a nude young woman clad only in black and white stripes. She jumped, running along the air as if it were solid ground.

I fired before I consciously registered the master projection. I was on target, perfect center mass, but the stunning bolt splashed off her sternum harmlessly. Desperately, I tried to maneuver in the cramped hotel room. It was only the flight assist system that kept me alive through the fog of the trigger-vision.

A hail of lasers from Legend similarly splashed against her without doing any damage.

"William, you've got to turn it off," he pleaded. "We want to help you!"

"Shut up! This is all Cauldron's fault! I never should have joined. I'll end it all!"

"Enough," Eidolon declared. A sphere of black that visibly distorted the space around it collided with the zebra-striped projection, popping both out of existence. "This has gone on long enough."

He was about to say something else, but the projection was back and looming behind him. The doctor didn't need to summon it directly in front of him.

"Behi-"

I tried to warn him but I wasn't fast enough. Not-Abby's nails were sharpened into claws and already lunging for my friend's back.

Then, a gray blur shoved Eidolon out of the way.

"Ahhh!" The strongest brute collapsed to the floor shrieking in agony as rivets of red ran down her cheek.

Dr. Manton's projection had gouged out Alexandria's eye. Somehow. A woman who regularly wrestled endbringers suddenly found herself on the back foot. It caught everyone by surprise, so much so that the projection paused in confusion. Not even the doctor had expected this. The implications were massive. Legend was by our downed teammate's side in a flash.

Eidolon wasted no time in taking the obvious route. A nearby lamp tore itself form the wall and streaked towards the doctor. When in doubt, take out the master.

The projection whirled and popped like a soap bubble before teleporting to the doctor, shielding him with her body. She then grabbed the bedframe and swung it like a club, ripping through the hotel walls with contemptuous ease. I noted belatedly that she could grant her durability, likely by touch. The doctor jumped onto the bed and they were making their escape out the window.

Seeing no other choice, I flew after them and holstered my handheld blaster before equipping the cannon I used every endbringer fight. Things had escalated enough and I couldn't imagine the damage the doctor could cause with a power like that. Behind me, I could see Eidolon give chase.

He soon caught up with me.

"Where's Manton?" he spoke, voice carried by the miniature comms unit installed into each of our outfits.

"He took a corner there," I pointed. "What are you using?"

"General gravity, black hole, and telekinesis, thought they'd be versatile enough," he grunted, voice tinged with frustration. "It'll take a few minutes to swap one out."

We flew after the doctor. Down below, I could see people start to take notice. Eidolon and I were easily identifiable, though I didn't know how well they could see Dr. Manton with the bedframe in the way.

"We're drawing too much attention," I told him. "We need to end this, fast."

"I know."

Just ahead, I saw the doctor and his projection race into the sky. He made sure to run towards the setting sun, making him harder for Eidolon to aim at. My mask's scanning software compensated for the excessive glare and I fired off a shot towards the projection. My disintegration ray should be strong enough to pop the projection; it drew energy from different dimensions and fired a hyper-dense wave along photon channels. Its output wasn't too far off Eidolon's best.

Should. It didn't.

My trademark golden laser lanced out but Not-Abby slashed it apart with a wave of her hand as if it were a solid object.

"Thought you wanted to end it fast?" my green-clad teammate snarked. "Doesn't that thing go any higher?"

"It's at what I use for endbringers."

"Shit. Run distraction? I can pop it, but the black hole is slow."

"Got it."

With a bit of effort, I managed to outpace them and circled around to cut off their escape. I didn't know if Not-Abby could run faster, she seemed to selectively ignore physics at will, but she shouldn't be able to influence her master directly, which meant he was still feeling the inertia of flight.

A Manton limit, coined by the very man I needed to stop.

I toned down my cannon's power in favor of volume and let loose a salvo of stunning bolts towards the pair. I hoped that like most masters, the projection would take care of itself if the master was unconscious. So long as I could tag the doctor, the power wasn't relevant.

A moment later, the sky was flooded with blue-white lasers that covered the clouds. Clearly, Legend was done looking after Alexandria. I hoped that meant good news.

The lasers fell like rain, forcing the doctor to descend. Just when I thought he wouldn't be able to avoid or block them all, his projection dropped the bed.

He began to fall but before he could get far, she tore the bedsheet from the bedframe and swirled it around the doctor, hiding him from view. I never thought I would see the day the Founders were stymied by a bedsheet, but here we were. Legend and my lasers bounced off and she carried the cocooned doctor through a building wall, disappearing into a skyscraper.

The doctor knew our abilities. Seeing that he couldn't outfly us, he was choosing to hide from my friend's superhuman vision. How willing he was to put bystanders at risk remained to be seen.

I descended into the Abby-sized hole. She'd left a clear path of destruction into the heart of the building but had been smart enough to make detours and winding turns, making sure to avoid line of sight and forcing us to slow.

The three of us followed her into what had been an office kitchenette to find a person missing an arm. Legend stayed behind, his power much less useful in close quarters. Six floors and the odd corpse later, we'd lost them.

Not for the first time, I lambasted myself for prioritizing offense over utility. My scanners were designed to make me superhumanly accurate, an "aim-bot" that tracked the disturbances in wavelengths caused by objects as they moved through the atmosphere. It was designed for use in the open to track Leviathan. A much smaller target in the building wasn't ideal.

"Anything?" Eidolon asked.

"No, either there're too many obstacles in the building or she's somehow made herself invisible to my scanner," I said bitterly. I had an anti-personnel scanner back at the lab, too! It was a collaboration project between me and Bluesong that used a combination of infrared and sonic vibrations to trace a person no matter the distance. I just never considered that the good doctor would lose his shit like this.

"Sixteen seconds until my power swaps out. I think I found one that lets me focus on heartbeats."

I nodded. It'd help, but who knew how many people there were in the building? That was the big problem with Eidolon. His Agent seemingly had access to every power, but he couldn't just pick and choose what he wanted. He likened it to trying to guide a drunk elephant. Doable, but precision wasn't exactly an option.

Before we could propose a solution, I felt my body grow cold. The world began to teeter and say as I tried to right myself.

"Hero!" I heard Eidolon shout. He reached out for something behind me.

I felt myself go slack. Looking down, I saw a pale hand emerging from my stomach. Turning, I saw her. Abby's deep brown eyes were a sinister yellow. With a predatory grin, she slashed her hand to the side, tearing out through the left side of my torso.

'Are those what my ribs look like?' I found myself thinking nonsense. My arms twitched, trying to bring my cannon to bear with strength I no longer had.

Then the pain came. If the shock was cold, the wave of burning agony brought my mind back into focus. I heard Eidolon shout something but I couldn't make sense of it one way or the other.

'He can't attack because of me.' I had time to realize that and commanded my legs to move but my spine was rent to shreds.

"Fire," I mouthed with what faculties I could control.

My eyes were fluttering, the pain too much to ignore. I still managed to engage my flightpack to its maximum output with the visor's UI, launching myself forward and off her hand. Belatedly, I felt my left arm go numb and realized that she as holding me by the shoulder as well.

'I'm going to die,' I thought. 'It's cold… Cauldron… There was so much to do…'

My vision faded to black. Then there was a flash, a halo of pale white light that beckoned me home.