World Wonders

by James Perrone

  Getting warrants based on supernatural, particularly vampire, information was always a dicey thing. First, most of them weren’t exactly in good standing. While the O’Dells certainly were, most of the vampires were seen as little better than a gang member who’d sell out their mother to keep the cops off their back. Or worse, point us at one of their enemies because they could. Think SWAT-ing, but with the SWAT team being just as likely to die as the person being SWAT-ed.

  [56] An insight into Vampire politics for a second. Previously, there was a head Vampire who ruled over the shadowy part of the city who was often referred to by an official title such as Governor, Prince, or Master. They ruled through a combination of information, bribes, connections, age, personal power, and favors. The person with the largest combination of those was generally on top. These days, that power was also supplemented by the endorsement of the US Government who tended to support vampires who played along with the policy of “I don’t care about your internal power structure, you ultimately report to us,” rhetoric. Madoc, with the support of the O’Dell’s, had overthrown the previous structure to put one in place that would be amenable to that logic. In exchange for being an early adopter, he was allowed certain flexibility in internal policing. His magistrate, a man by the name of Dominic Torres, was that local law. While the O’Dells were our official contact with the vampiric world, anything coming directly from Torres meant that it was also coming with the full support of a man who was able to keep the vampires of Chicago under his thumb.

  [57] McCoy is tall for a woman, somewhere around 5’10”. Makes her about three inches shorter than me and far too tall for your average man. She was also several pounds overweight, but it didn’t seem to ever phase or slow her down at all, which suggested there were some muscles hiding under there. Still, the entire appearance was slightly off putting.

  [58] I suspected that part of that was due to the fact that Milwaukee’s MCD was two guys who had barely made it through the training and didn’t do it full time. If Chicago was one of the best funded MCDs, Milwaukee was one of the worst. Part of that was because Wisconsin’s Governor, Bart Lancer, had run on the promise of not spending a single penny of state money to support the MCD, arguing that the existing Marshals and police departments could handle any issues. Which largely meant that metahumans in Wisconsin were not well regulated and we in Chicago had to pick up the slack. It also earned the universal ire of the MCD, but Governor Lancer didn’t seem to care. His unwillingness to give money to what should be a federal expenditure got him lots of votes, which is all that really mattered to him.

  [59] Many metahumans had notable physical mutations that made holding down a legal job effectively impossible. While Muldoon v. the State of Texas had ruled that the Civil Rights Act protected metahumans and as such discrimination against them was illegal, it didn’t stop people from discriminating against them the same way women, african americans, and other minorities had suffered for years. As a result, a number of metahumans with physical mutations had to find other alternatives for employment. An alarming number of them had found their way to the circus, carnivals, and other freakshows of the world. I tended to avoid them for the simple fact that no one likes being confronted with their privilege.

  [60] There was a period of time where I was pretty much mandated by the government to donate blood and my cells to science to see if my healing factor could translate to other people, via things such as blood transfusion. It doesn’t. Apparently, with my super healing comes with a super aggressive immune system. If they transferred my blood wholesale, the white blood cells went into overdrive killing everything “foreign” in the new body. Man they tried it on doesn’t have functionality in his right arm at all any more. If they filter out the white cells, whatever makes the healing go doesn’t work anymore, so that’s useless. They tried cutting hair and taking skin samples, but those didn’t grow back or heal. Thankfully, the government mandate stopped short of cutting off body parts. I’m still not exactly sure if those will grow back. Nor am I in a hurry to find out.

  [61] I had considered lying, but while I know she normally couldn’t read my surface thoughts, I didn’t put it past her to be actively reading my mind after that little throwdown. Plus, we needed some levity after a near shooting.

  [62]Well, maybe not redefine. Metahumans and the such had cast the definition of cutting edge into question and there were so many new ideas and research that it was hard to keep up with. All I was hoping for was that people would stop trying to requisition my blood.

  [63] I was all for morally right. Just not stupid. I wanted back up.

  [64] I spent some time down at the VA working with people suffering from PTSD and survivor's guilt, while working through a few issues of my own, so I was used to seeing it. Carlisle, a Vietnam vet, sprung to mind. Sweetest guy I knew, came down every morning with donuts to help out and volunteer to get the new people talking about their troubles. I also know that he spends months working for habitat for humanity and building houses. Back in ‘Nam he was a bomber pilot and when he had finally seen the photos of how much damage he did, it nearly broke him. Get him drunk enough, and he’ll loudly proclaim to anyone that he deserves to be put on trial and put down for his sins. He largely channels it into doing good community service to atone, but I know that he thinks there’s no hope for him. And he’s not the only one with that much accumulated guilt. Breaks your heart.

  [65] Werewolves, regardless of generation, are tougher and stronger in their base human form. When they shifted into their wolfman form, their strength and toughness increased again and they grew claws that could shred metal. Now, during the full moon all werewolves shift, but young werewolves only changed during the full moon. As werewolves got older or if they were particularly powerful they could push those initial conditions and start doing things like shifting outside of the full moon or controlling when they shift. I had never seen a werewolf keep their pronounced canines outside of a morph, but ARCHIVIST records indicated that partial transformations like that suggested a high degree of control and thus a high degree of danger.

  [66] If we had silver rounds on us, maybe. But carrying silver generally required special requisition orders and time. I had the standard shotgun in the trunk of the car loaded with silver slugs for situations like this, standard operating procedure since San Antonio. No matter how tight budgets were, no one skimped on silver ammunition anymore. But the car might as well have been on the moon given that the werewolves were ten feet away from us.

  [67] Classic difference between people who were in the military and weren’t. There were days where it was joked that taking a break to piss required calling it in for approval. I think that has something to do with the reality that any most military units rarely acted without support somewhere nearby. A phone call was vital for making sure that support knew when to roll in and that it was a position to do so. Even though I wasn’t in active combat, calling for support early was ground into us in basic.

  [68] How becoming a werewolf isn’t exactly well known, and it seems to vary from case to case. Common consensus at the moment was that it had something to do with the saliva and an infection of some kind. Unfortunately, that didn’t account for all the transmission cases. Jennings posited it had something to do with mystical energies and belief structures and something. I had kinda tuned out at the technical details, but got the major takeaway of: “Treat every contact with a werewolf as if it might turn you into a werewolf.”

  [69] I was rather impressed with the double utility there, but I’d be lying if I said I had thought that out in advance.

  [70] I think I heard Keitner gag, but to his credit he didn’t comment or vomit. Better than most people do. Pretty sure the only reason I didn’t vomit is because the muscles required for that weren’t attached.

  [71] One of the rarer powers second gen werewolves displayed was the ability to “fade out”. Where they went, no one’s really sure, but we knew it wasn’t invisibility or anything. I ha
d once gotten caught listening to Danvers and Jennings argue about what they thought happened when something faded out. Danvers posited that our world was a lot like a Dungeons and Dragons world where there were many different planes and forms of existence stacked on top of each other and werewolves went there. On the other hand, Jennings guessed that since had effectively there were infinite worlds by the Many Worlds Theory, werewolves ducked into one of the other planes of existence when they faded out. I liked Jacob’s better, but only because it came with the supposition that these alternate planes weren’t exactly easy to navigate, which is why we didn’t have random werewolf attacks. That, and I feel that shifting between realities would make physics cry too hard.

  [72] Not the first time this had happened. Between a nasty bicycle accident when I was 9, a car accident when I was 17, and a few other incidents, I had spent my fair amount of time in hospital beds. Granted, that amount of time had pretty much flatlined since the Event.

  [73] Providence’s Miriam Hospital received a young man come in, severely mauled during a full moon. Doctors tried their best to save him, but eventually his heart started fibrillating, which meant they had to shock him. That shock caused him to transform into a werewolf immediately instead of waiting for the next full moon. By the time the MCD had arrived on the scene, there were 4 dead and 19 maimed. Of those 19, 15 were infected. Unfortunately, Heizenholtz wasn’t a thing yet, so come the next full moon, we had 15 new werewolves. It was a minor crisis to say the least.

  [74] Regeneration is well known to burn a lot of calories. It’s theorized that’s why werewolves eat so much meat.

  [75] McCoy wasn’t a slouch when it came to putting calories away herself and had probably put away a comparable meal herself. One night of drinking she confessed that she used to be a health nut and very active in high school sports. By all appearances, that muscle was still there, just hidden behind the weight that had crept in when the sports had stopped and the metabolism slowed down. I was personally convinced that if she stopped eating donuts and drinking, she’d start turning heads. Which is why I also thought she kept eating donuts and drinking. Still, it didn’t get at all in the way of her job, which proved that the BMI was just utter bullshit. In fact, it probably helped her since by acting as a natural deterrent from the creeps and their disturbing thoughts.

  [76] Standard operating procedure for most law enforcement agents who have discharged their weapon is to have them put on desk duty until the matter can be investigated. The MCD, while accepting of this idea, tended to be a bit more pragmatic about it’s implementation. Ever since the Mayan event, the amount of things where lethal force was the appropriate response had shot through the roof and as such the investigation was either postponed to slower times or was waived altogether in the cases of things such as werewolves and ghouls.

  [77] Porter is the Director of the US Marshals and the only person allowed to authorize kill orders. He only did so only when the threat to the public was severe enough to merit lethal force. The legal methods for such things were so convoluted and widely debated that it didn’t happen often.

  Often Associate Director Meyers, who was officially in charge of the MCD, would pass along directly to division heads a directive that “Officers who feel threatened for their life need not bring the perpetrator in alive,” or “The deputies need not worry about the perpetrator’s wellbeing.” Such unofficial orders weren’t ‘allowed’ but didn’t need such clearance and were a lot easier to manage. Especially framed as an extension of a police officer’s right to defend themselves in the light of a ‘reasonable belief of a threat.’ No one was going to argue that a mass of muscle with six inch razor blades for hands wasn’t a threat. There was no cry of ‘Metahuman Lives Matter’ or some such equivalent.

  Still, I didn’t find much solace in the statement, since one day it might apply to me. What was worse, is that I actively benefited from the legal gray area. As a former military man, the criteria for self-defense were a lot stricter than they were for most police agencies, which meant my hesitation to shoot was a lot higher than most officers. And sure, I would probably heal from the damage, but that extra second of hesitation could mean the difference between an injury I could heal from and one I couldn’t. Especially when dealing with something much faster than the average human.

  To call the entire situation uncomfortable was a massive understatement. Even back then, I had already lost count of the nights of sleep I had lost trying to figure out how I was okay living under rules that could justify my death.

  [78] I knew it was coming. I was banned from two different Chinese buffets and a Golden Corral due to my impressive caloric intake after regenerations. Still, Eckles generally out ate me. If regenerating was a high calorie activity, I’d hate to think about how many calories setting things aflame was.

  [79] The concept of waking Slate up or disturbing his personal life didn’t even cross my mind. Slate lived for the job and was always on the clock, and I’ve never seen him enter or leave the office. I always imagined these late night conversations as Slate moving from his unending reverie at his desk, disturbing the spider webs that had started to form on his statuesque body, to deal with the intrusion to his quiet staring contest with the wall.

  [80] Three reasons I took point here. 1. McCoy was the better shot, which meant I wanted her easily able to pivot between watching our back and our fronts. 2. A pistol is more maneuverable than a full barrel shotgun, which made me better at going around corners. 3. The point person is generally the one something awful happens to. I was the person most likely to survive that encounter without being permanently crippled.

  [81] There are some differences between Military and Police hand signals, but since they come from the same tactical roots and considerations, learning one allowed you to generally communicate with someone who learned the other. Personally, I was grateful we had reviewed them in Keane County since my time in the military had been less tactical and more about translating the nuances of idioms.

  [82] I was also suddenly glad for over-eating like a pig. I had calories to spare, at least for now.

  [83] In hindsight, I should’ve just run. Blocking the first door was totally ineffective, but in a panic situation you think about what would stop normal people, not monstrosities.

  [84] Actually normally lit, but my eyes had adjusted to the emergency lighting on the 4th floor.

  [85] Explosive Ordnance Disposal Specialist. As he said, he was in charge of making the enemies explode and stopping the enemy from exploding them.

  [86] Including, but not limited to, my desire to go into the service myself (continuing the legacy), my lack of consistent education (we moved between the bases frequently), and my general introversion (hard to make friends when you move every eight months).

  [87] Causing my father to swear in shock had earned me: a laugh, a scolding, and a pat on the back. In that order.

  [88] Thank god for practicality. I was worried that I’d have to convince them to run. Make a big heroic speech like they do in the movies or something.

  [89] McCoy’s telepathy isn’t supposed to be that good. But if it wasn’t, I’m not sure how she knew that Miles needed to feel helpful towards me to help ease his guilt complex, but this was exactly what he needed. Something I intended ask about later. Ya know, when my leg wasn’t broken.

  [90] That’s the Marines. Hooyah would be the appropriate term for the Navy people, but your average civilian can’t tell the difference. I wasn’t about to correct McCoy though. She had brought me food twice. If she kept this up, I’d save her donuts until the end of time.

  [91] This is a legal gray area. The Posse Comitatus Act formally prohibited the Army and the Air Force from acting in domestic disputes. The Navy and Marines are not explicitly named, but are generally expected to adhere to the rules, which gave the MCD enough wiggle room to work with. In theory, all it would require is to declare Voigt a terrorist (like Mary Morbid), natural disaster (like Harry the Hurricane), or som
ething of the such and the Defense Authorization Bill allowed them to step in, but the U.S. Government generally didn’t do that until the media and the public pressured them. I was personally grateful for that, since declaring metahumans natural disasters seemed like a highly dangerous slippery slope.

  [92] After the Mayan Event, people realized that if other myths and legends had become true, then maybe the Native Americans had gotten some of the purported ancient magical powers that scared settlers and made for B-movies. This meant that people thought they could just flood to Indian Reservations and through some combination of spending money, time, favors, or badgering get their life sorted or helped by the spirits the Shamans could conjure or talk to, which brought up all sorts of angry complaints and legal friction. Between the Government pressing down on people to leave the poor Native Americans alone and the lack of magical remedies and cure-alls from both the Natives and the Metahumans in general, the tide eventually slowed down, but never stopped. I guarantee not a week goes by that someone drives into the town center like we did and try to buy their way free of cancer. All this has done is made the rather isolationist reservations far more stringent in their enforcement of their sovereign borders.

  [93] I am, to this day, not entirely convinced those signs aren’t painted with actual blood.

  [94] Native American tribes in Reservations are qualified as Domestic Dependent Nations, which grants them Tribal Sovereignty in the reservations, meaning the Tribal Councils are in charge of the laws and operations of these areas. No one from the U.S. Government has authority or Jurisdiction in those lands.

  [95] Normally, I would’ve fought against referring to anyone by their first name tooth and nail, but between his soothing voice, lack of other options, and desire to stay alive with a mass murderer ten feet away, I rolled with it. I mean, seriously, what else was I going to call him? Sparky? Killer?