Escalation Falls In

Escalation Falls In

by Eric Johnson

(This story takes place after the story "Escalation", a story arc in the Mission Architect system of the online game City Of Heroes.  Stoyarc number is 6143)

Escalation is the creation of Eric Johnson.
All concepts and ideas related to City of Heroes are copyright Paragon Studios.

*****

Portal Corporation Storage Room 37-C, Peregrine Island, Paragon City, Primal Dimension,  Continuum C.o.H.

Darkness turned to light as the top of the crate was pried open.  A technician peered into the revealed contents, and his frown was echoed on the reflection on the glass tube.

"Hey, Fred, I don't think this is the right thing in this here crate.  It's a little odd."

The senior technician walked over with a clipboard in hand.  "Of course it's odd.  Says here it's a bunch of distilled Kora fruit, taken from the lab of Dr. Erica Lashion after her arrest."

Another technician wandered over.  "Lashion?  Wasn't that the woman who called herself Escalation?  The one who took over Atlas Park a few months back?  Saw her on the news, she was freaking huge.  Put a few heroes in the hospital, too."

The senior technician nodded.  "Yeah, I guess that Kora fruit was one of the many, many things she was using to enhance and empower her clone bodies, to make them tougher and stronger.  And since Kora fruit comes from another dimension, the stuff was shipped back to Portal Corp for analysis."

"That's just the thing, you see."  The first technician pointed into the crate.  "I don't think this any Kora Fruit, refined or otherwise."

Everyone gathered around and peered into the crate.  The light sparkled off the 10 foot long translucent tube covered with high tech circuity.  Inside a dark-haired woman floated peacefully, suspended in some kind of thick fluid.

"Oh, jeez, this must be one of her clone bodies."

"Is it dangerous?  Could she wake up?  Do we need to call in some heroes for super-powered assistance?"

"Calm down.  Calm down."  The senior technician looked over the clipboard and compared it to the manifest.  "Okay, I see what happened.  Shipping paperwork screw up.  Looks like instead of 10 crates of refined Kora fruit and related technological devices, we got 1 crate of Kora refined Kora fruit extract and.... 3 crates with cloning tubes, and 6 crates of other clone-enhancing technology..."

"How the heck does THAT happen?"

The senior technician grimaced.  "I think we were only supposed to get the first crate.  All the other crates were meant to go to other labs or government agencies for analysis or disposal or storage.  Some idiot typed 'one-zero' instead of 'one', prints up too many Portal Corp shipping labels, and we get all ten crates instead of just one."

"So, we've got an entire 'create your own powerhouse supervillainess' kit just sitting right here?  Isn't that a bit dangerous, even for a place like this?"


"Relax.  From what I've read, the main consciousness of Erica Lashion is stuck in her most powerful clone, which is locked up in The Zig super-prison."

"Since when are you an expert the current status of supervillains?"

"Since that multi-page interview spread in Paragon Weekly Magazine included lots of pictures in prison of Escalation, an 8-foot tall amazon with chest that's big even by the generous standards of the Paragon super-powered community."

"Okay, but this one the tube isn't as big as all that..."

Three heads tilted over the crate and inspected the woman in the tube again.

"Not bad though.  Tall.  Pretty athletic looking, if you go for that type."

"From what I read, she had several stages of clones.  The smallest ones were only 4 feet tall, but she could crank those out fast.  If she left the clones in the tubes longer to mature, they got bigger, stronger and tougher.  And then there were her really extreme clones that she only had a few of, because she had to pump them full of all sorts of expensive enhancement chemicals and power boosters, and not all of them survived the process."

"Okay, sounds like you know your stuff about this Escalation woman.  I'll accept that this clone can't wake up because her mind is locked up in The Zig. But what do we do about this shipping snafu?"

"This is why we do inventory of all incoming shipments.  We'll just fill out some paperwork and..."

A sudden klaxon interrupted the planning.  As everyone jumped at the noise, a loudspeaker blared.  "Level Two Alert.  Portal Corporation is under attack by Praetorian extra-dimensional invasion forces.  Make your way immediately to a safe room with dimensional stabilizers.  They are using focused rift projectors and we are blocking them with an interference field.  The clash of energies may cause unpredictable cross-dimensional rifts throughout the complex.  Make your way immediately to safe room with dimensional stabilizers.  Heroes are on their way to repel the invaders.  This is not a drill.  Make all preparations for a Type 3 lockdown."

"Okay, handle the shipping problems later.  Let's get out of here."

"You don't have to tell me twice!"

"Hey, isn't it wrong to leave her in that tube here?"

"There's no mind in the clone, it doesn't count. Move it!  They'll lock down those safe rooms soon!"

As the technicians scrambled out of the room, the air crackled with static and small arcs of extra-dimensional energy. A tiny indicator on the cloning tube beeped.  Briefly, a readout read "Brain activity stimulated.  Clone will be ready for deployment in 30 minutes."

******


The offices of Portal Corporation's security department were always an interesting place.  Today the men in the room looked haggard and tired.

"That was a tough one."

"Tell me about it.  Those Praetorian robots nearly made it to the main computer core.  Thank goodness those heroes got here, just in time."

"Seems like they always do."

"Even they can't get lucky forever."

"Don't worry.  Word is on the grapevine there's plans to strike back at the Praetorian Dimension.  Tyrant and his lackeys will regret messing with Paragon City someday.  In the meantime, our job is to clean up the mess and Portal Corp and keep the place running.  Any of those dimensional rifts cause major damage?"

"Looks like our science guys kept the dimensional energy blowback to the minimum.  The worst tear in reality was formed in the middle of..." He ruffled through papers, refreshing his memory.  "...Storage Room 37-C.  Looks like over half the room fell into a nasty rift."

"That's not good.  We might have dropped some of our equipment right into the laps of one of our trans-dimensional enemies."

"Actually, I've got the reports from the investigating science team right here.  The rift was also pretty high-energy, and the particle readings are way, way off from the usual results of any dimensional resonance we get from our portals, or the portals of anyone we know of."

"What does that mean?"

"Brain boys say that wherever that storage room went, it was outside the normal continuum of dimensions accessible from Paragon City... or any of the dimensions we interact with.  A fluke of both us and the Praetorians using our technology in non-standard ways under combat conditions.  Wherever that stuff ended up, we couldn't get there again if we tried."

"Then we should celebrate."

"Why is that?"

"It's not often at Portal Corp that we get to write something off a Out Of Our Jurisdiction.  But today we can."

"Heh. Good point.  I'll write up a report, and close the file.  It's someone else's problem now."


*****

The tube flashed with lights and beeps and then opened in the darkened room.

Dr. Erica Lashion (clone #107, series 3) started awake and sat up, dripping fluids.  Her eyes darted about anxious and unsure.  After a few seconds, she calmed down, and removed her breathing mask.

"Hello?" she asked of the darkness.  "Am I there?  I mean, is there any other copies of me here?"

She stood up.  "That probably sounds quite odd to anyone who isn't me?"

She walked around.  "Some kind of office.  At night. After hours.  My cloning tube is in a crate.  There are 9 other crates."

Dr. Lashion paused.  "And I'm talking to myself... why am I...."

With a far away look in her eyes, she froze, as if listening carefully.  Then her face changed to curiosity, then shock.  "I... I can't hear any other of me in my mind.  I'm separated from the Primary Consciousness body, somehow."

Fear came to Dr. Lashion's face.  "I can't sense any backup clone bodies to jump to, either.  Ah!  If this body dies, I'll die!"

Frantically, she rushed over to the other crates and began pulling them open with her bare hands.  "Curses.  This is only a stage 3 clone body.  Only low levels of superhuman strength.  This is harder than it should be."

After a few minutes of effort, Dr. Lashion sat upon one of the crates, looking over some frantically scribbled notes.  "All right.  I've got 3 cloning tubes, and two other clones already maturing.  Plus, I've got a fair amount of equipment from one of my labs. I should be able to cook up a stage 4 clone, maybe even a stage 5, if I can acquire the right chemicals from somewhere around here."

She stood up and walked over to one of the office computers, turned it on, and accessed a search engine.  "Which leads to the question:  Where exactly is 'around here'?"  She began typing away, and took some more notes.

Nearly an hour later, Dr. Lashion was tapping a pencil thoughtfully against her chin.  "So, I'm in a city called Angel Falls.  It's clearly a bit different from.... wherever it is that I come from.  My memory is hazy.  A side effect of separating from my primary consciousness, no doubt.  But some of the heroes and vigilantes look familiar.  La Femme Punisher.  Dynaia.  I've either run into them or their counterparts in another dimension."

Dr. Lashion's eyes lit up.  "That's it.  That's how I got separated from my main body and mind.  I must be in another dimension.  One far enough away to become totally isolated from... well, from myself.  And my memories are fuzzy because I didn't have a full download."

A smile crept across her face.  "I am no longer just a clone body.  I am the primary consciousness of Escalation, as far as this world is concerned.  And likely, no one in this world knows me. I can turn that to my advantage."

The mad scientist worked franticly at the computer.  "I've got a few more hours until someone shows up in the morning to open this office up.  Time enough to hack in and embezzle a few funds.  And find a warehouse that doesn't get used much, where I can set up a new secret lab.  Then I need to get  myself relocated... Then, grow several more clones of myself.  Stash backup clones all over the city as fallback positions.  Finally, I make a really powerful new clone body, before I make my debut in Angel Falls."

Her smile broadened and became more sinister.  "It's a fresh start.  I may be starting small, but it won't be long before this city sees the results of some serious... Escalation!"