Coffee with GameBreaker!

"Woah!" I gasped, collapsing on the bed.

"Now what were you saying about my chest?" String Theory teased.

"You're seriously still hung up on that? It's been three hours!" I asked.

"You do not call a lady's chest small!" She said, pinching my side.

"Ouch! Fine. Yours are amazing. Happy?" I replied.

"Is that all?" She asked pinching me again.

This time I swatted her hand away as she gave me an incensed look, pouting.

"You were amazing too." I relented, rolling my eyes.

"Hehehehe you're goddamn right!" She said, with a smug grin, and smacked my butt.

I frowned and narrowed my eyes at her.

"What? After we did all that, this is what you're against? It's a compliment!" She laughed, rolling over with the blanket.

She really was the love child of Gru and Nagatoro. A complete megalomaniac, albeit, a very cute one.

Hmmm...maybe I could go for a round 8.

Just then, my contacts popped up an alert.

Noelle's surgery was scheduled in ten minutes.

For a moment, I considered just postponing it, but.....

Well, might as well get it out of the way.

Less work for later this way.

"Fine. Just because it was a good time, I'll allow it, this once." I smiled, smacking her back as I got up.

"Where are you going?" She asked, disappointed.

"Work. Now you stay here until I come back. I'll drop you off on the surface later. And don't try anything funny. I'll know. And you'll die." I warned.

"What about food? I haven't eaten anything all day!"

All day?

Oh right, I was asleep for eleven hours, and then this.

Might as well give her something to eat. And while I'm at it, maybe slip a contraceptive serum into it.

Don't want her getting pregnant over this.

If I hadn't already gotten myself a vaccine for all possible STDs, I wouldn't have even slept with her.

"Yeah, alright. I'll send a droid over with some food." I replied, put on my clothes and walked out, making my way towards the operating room.

A quick shuttle ride and sterilization shower later, I met Riley in the operating room.

It was a remote station, the size of a garage, with Noelle laid down by droids on a large deck below.

Above her hovered a myriad of robotic arms connected to medical equipment, all remotely controllable.

Usually, I used this to operate of the particularly giant fauna I had captured from Star Wars or even the mutated monsters and flesh blobs I created from time to time.

"Alright, Noelle, look up, here. Yes." I pressed the mic button and brought her attention to us.

"We'll be beginning the surgery now. And the first step, as you know, will be very painful. So for a start, we'll disintegrate your tentacles, before we extract your shard. We don't want you destroying our facilities after all, now do we? I'll inject you with an anaesthetic and we'll start in a minute. So take a deep breath, and relax while I get it ready."

I used my power to guide the anaesthetic to the awaiting nano swarm.

Why use the nano swarm for anesthesia?

It was simple. For Noelle to survive the extraction process, she would have to be injected with CodeRed. And CodeRed is a potent antitoxin and sobering agent, i.e., anesthesia won't work on her once we start the process because CodeRed will eliminate the anesthetic.

Unless, of course, there was a continuous supply of anesthetic being pumped into her body, to replace what was being consumed.

Now usually I would've just stuck a drip into her arm and be done with it.

Unfortunately, in this case, she was a ten foot monstrosity with regenrating tentacles. One thrash to the drip and she'll be off the anesthetic and rampaging through the lab in pain.

And I am so not keen on having to remake an entire lab because a baby endbringer crashed through it.

So here we are. Anesthesia via nano swarm, a method she can't just struggle her way out of.

Was it horribly inefficient? Yes.

Did I have another choice? Nope. Not at all.

It grated on my nerves just as much.

But eh, you make do with what you have.

I turned to Riley and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Are you ready?" I asked.

"Yes. Absolutely!" She smiled.

I switched on the cameras in the room and connected it to the worldwide network of media devices once again.

"Alright. Remember, this is a worldwide broadcast. It will shape the future of an entire group of capes. Not just the Case 53s but also capes like you, the medical tinkers and biological manipulators. So play along, and be careful and considerate about everything.

But, even if you mess up, it's fine. I'll handle the rest. So no pressure, okay?"

"Uuuu.....Yes!" She intoned, nervously.

"That's my girl." I said, patting her head, and grinned.

"Now let's make history for the thrid time this week!"

.

Gully sat in the unnecessarily plush chair and sipped on her cold chocolate, sulking.

"Gully....." Weld hesitated.

He didn't like this either. He wanted justice as much as everyone else. But he was their leader. They had chosen him. He had to look after their welfare in the long term.

And while he didn't like that they'd have to sit tight, keep mum and let Alexandria go, he knew it was for the best.

They were after all, monsters, no matter how much they tried to sugarcoat it.

They had no money, no memory, no place in the world, and if GameBreaker was right, no home or families to return to, no friends to mourn them, and no place to belong.

But this deal with the government, it could give them all that and more.

Money, power, prestige, even a future to look forward to. A place to stay and friends in high places.

Sure, people still treated them like monsters, but at least they would have the money to shut those nasty voices out. To live their lives for themselves, finally.

"GameBreaker wouldn't have allowed this...." Gully spoke.

"GameBreaker is dead-" Weld tried to reassure her.

"He's not dead! He's alive, I just know it. Didn't you see his robots take away all that tech. Of course he's alive up there. He's probably recovering. And...and once he comes back, he'll show you, he'll show all of them-"

"Show who what, Gully? Didn't you hear him? We were props to him, tools to be used and thrown for his own fame. And even if he's alive, and that's a big if, he won't care about us now!

He got what he wanted. He killed Scion. He's the big hero who saved the world. Those kinds of people don't care about us after they are done playing up the pity party.

We are old news. Baubles to be shown off, virtue signalled with and then set back right where they think we belong. In the back room, for storage until the next time someone accuses another bigwig of racism or some ist or ism or phobia, and then it's time for us to be paraded out again, like charity pieces.

Oh look at me, I'm so nice, I hang around with monsters. I tolerate their presence. Vote for me. Forget about that scandal. Let's just all move on!" He wound out.

"And you think this will change that?!" Gully snapped at him, "You think this will change anything?!"

"No! Of course not! But you know what? I'd rather be rich and hated than poor and spat on!" Weld cried, as he found himself back in the same stupid argument they had had for the past day.

"Well whoop dee doo! You're a big man now. Big money. And you think that's enough to protect you from the ones that hate you? The ones that look down on you...on us? You-" Gully shouted.

"Well at least I'll be able to shut them out! What would you have me do? Reject the hush money? And where would that leave us, huh? Back on the streets, scraping up shit and cleaning up wreckage from the hero fights, while the pretty faces get all the media attention. You wanna go back to that?!"

"....." Gully shut up for a moment, conflicted, as tears rolled down her eyes.

Weld caught himself, and ground his teeth. This isn't what he wanted.

This isn't what he wanted at all!

Thsi was the time for them to be united, to face the world as one. We couldn't be bickering amongst themselves like this when-

"I don't know what I want!" Gully finally choked out, sobbing.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do. I'm lost, Weld. This....our lives, our heroes, this world. It's all a big lie, it was all a big fat lie from the start. And now that we know, we just have to take it, and shut up? And then what? What do we do now? Where do we go from here?!"

Weld....he had nothing to say.

He just sat there, his face in his hands, thinking through white noise.

White noise?

His head snapped to the tv.

Was the tv on when they came in?

Unless...

A hope bloomed in his heart.

"Gully." He called out, pointing at the tv, and she looked up, just as the screen changed from the the monochrome buzz to the sight of a lab, and two figures, dressed in operating garb.

He recognised the glitched blur on the face of the taller figure, and a small smile crept up on his face.

"He's.... he's alive...." Gully gasped, unbelieving.

"Yes." Was all he could say.

And then the program began.

"Hello everyone!" The man and the girl beside him greeted, waving their hands in a friendly gesture.

"And welcome back to ... well whatever this is?

Expose time? Coffee with GameBreaker? You know what, you guys come up with a name. I'm too lazy to do it!" He shrugged.

"And yes, you nimrods. I'm alive. I got beat up pretty bad back there. Nearly died. But that's nearly! And with the power of advanced medical technology and a little helping hand, I'm back to full health!

And that's not all I'm back with!

Remember that aforementioned advanced medical technology?

Well, guess what else it can do?

Take a guess...go on!

If you guessed, Cure the Case 53s, you are absolutely.....correct!

And as always, I'm not just talking out of my ass. Here comes the proof.

As always, viewer discretion is advised. Things can get a bit queasy around here. But you already knew that!

So let's get to the meaty bits, or should I say, tentacly bits? Does that make sense?"

"It's sure does for me!" The girl beside him chimed in.

"Of course it does for you Riley, but let's make it crystal clear for the rest of our audience too!"

Riley. He just said Riley!

That's Bonesaw?!

Weld couldn't believe what he was seeing. Yes, GameBreaker had taken her along but to let that psychotic murderer operate on someone?

Weld didn't know if he could trust that.

He looked back up at the tv as the camera panned over to a window and showed what even he would call a monster.

A four headed, tentacled beast sewn to the body of a middle school girl.

Case 53, something told him.

It's the Case 53 he was talking about.

"This here, is Noelle Meinhardt, a Case 53, just like a lot of our viewers today. And she's a particularly nasty one too.

Look at those gnarly tentacles. So cool!

They're really soft to the touch too, I should know.

Though, she doesn't like to be pet. And I can understand. No girl would like a 24 year old petting their legs compulsively, no matter how soft they may be.

But back on topic! She's here to get treated for a bad case of disfigurement, aren't you Noelle?"

"Yes, doctor." The monster, no, Noelle replied.

"And do I have your permission to operate on you?" He asked.

"Yes. Please. I just want to be normal again." She cried.

"Of course, of course." He assured, "Soon you'll be a normal girl again."

GameBreaker turned to the camera again.

"Now, with Riley's assistance, I will be operating on Noelle here. But while I'm doing that, I will also explain what I'm doing, in case some of you don't trust me and would rather have this procedure done by someone else that you trust. I'm sure a lot of you don't trust me or Riley yet. And that's completely understandable.

So if you would rather have a preferred physician do it for you, that's fine too. Just make sure to note down this whole procedure. So go get a pen and notebook." He said, turning back to the machine before him as the feed cut to the patient, and waiting for a bit as Weld scrambled for stationary.

"Got it? Let's begin!"