The third was another Frankenstein hodgepodge of two individuals, emerging from the hallway where the amalgamation of Oni Lee and Hatchet Face -Hack Job- had exploded.
I’m going to take this a confirmation that Hack Job is meant to be taken as a name for the amalgamation itself.
The lower half was a man who must have been built like a gorilla in life, rippling with muscles, walking forward on his knuckles. His upper body grew up from the point the other body’s neck should have begun, an emaciated man with greasy brown hair and beard, grown long. He was not unlike a centaur, but the lower half was a brutish man.
Oh wow.
That’s quite the look.
Then there were the other things. They weren’t alive. Spidery contraptions of scrap metal, they lacked heads, only consisting of a box half the size of a toaster and spindly legs that moved on hydraulics, each ending in a syringe or scalpel.
These would be some of the robots Bonesaw mentioned, I imagine.
A dozen of them, climbing onto the walls and floor.
I doubt Taylor could control robots just because they’re vaguely spidery, but it’s still fun to imagine that.
Bonesaw smiled. “I thought you’d appreciate this more than anyone.”
Does she know Amy from before? Amy doesn’t seem to know Bonesaw from anywhere other than pictures.
I suppose it’s just the profile Cherish put together of her, the public knowledge about Amy, the fact that they’re both medically inclined, and whatever surveillance Bonesaw might’ve done.
“Appreciate this.”
Hah, I love how you can just hear the flat dryness of this line.
“You’re the only other person who works with meat. I mean, we’re different in some ways, but we’re also really similar, aren’t we? You manipulate people’s biology, and I tinker with it. The human body’s only a really intricate, wet machine, isn’t it?”
That is a perspective I share, to be honest, though a machine people have a strong sense of ownership over. Which is reasonable, considering that machine is them.
Others were entering the room now. From the kitchen, a woman, the structure of her face altered into something that was more rat-like than human, conelike, ending in a squashed black nose that had staples around it.
Are these the other fusion experiments?
I don’t think I recognize this one.
Bonesaw had added a second set of teeth, all canines, so that the woman would have enough as her jaw was stretched forward. Drool constantly leaked between her teeth in loops and tendrils. She was pale, except for her face and patches all down her body, where patches of ebon black skin were stapled in place. Her hair was long, dark, and unwashed, but most unnerving of all were her fingers, which had been replaced by what looked like machetes.
Looking sharp. Ey? Eyy?
The clawtips dragged on the hardwood as she stumped forward on feet that had been modified in a similar way, no longer fit for conventional walking.
I love how Bonesaw is treating Amy like an old friend (even though there’s no solid evidence yet to suggest that that is actually the case, like it was with Burnscar and Labyrinth) and gushing about her work like a child proudly showing her latest drawing to her parents and waiting eagerly for their response.
“Had to add in a control frame and perform a spot lobotomy so Hatchet would obey me, you know. He didn’t lose much. Was never very bright.”
Ouch. And that’s after whatever Cherish did, and before being mashed together with a man who would obey any order.
“And Oni Lee?” Amy was almost afraid to ask.
“Oh, I barely touched his brain. He suffered some moderate brain damage from his close brush with death, but I revived him. His brain’s more or less intact, even. He can’t control his body, but he’s alert and aware, and he feels everything Hatchet does,” Bonesaw smiled wider.
Ahh, I see. This is more similar to the Voldemort situation from Philosopher’s Stone than I thought.
It’s also more horrifying.
“That’s horrifying.”
Hey, that’s my line!
“It’s not a perfect mesh. I only just started doing these mash-ups. Still practicing.
Hm, that suggests she’s done a decent number more of them, but not that many.
Hatchet’s power isn’t working as well anymore, and I’m worried about physical wear and tear as they teleport, but it’s still one of my better works.
For Oni it was mental wear and tear, but now we’ve put a body not entirely adapted to the teleporting in the picture.
Took me four whole hours.” Bonesaw clasped her hands in front of her, shifting her weight from foot to foot, waiting expectantly.
That honestly seems like quick work for something like this.
“Yes! I can’t even begin to tell you how hard it was. I mean, I had to conduct the operation from a remote location, using robots, because I would lose my Tinker powers if I got too close to the big lug.
Oh yeah, that must be an odd sensation. I mean, for a lot of other people, it’s just a matter of not being able to do a thing you usually can’t, but for a tinker? It must feel rather weird to suddenly not be great with technology, or able to figure out how to do these crazy things their specialties allow them.
And I had to fit their bodies and nervous systems together so that they could use their powers without messing up the other.”
I suppose she did manage to make the teleportation work out fine, even if the destruction of the clones got a bit messier.
“Oh god,” Amy mumbled. Is this what she’s going to do to me?
If she were to, whom would she mash you up with? Mark?
Okay, so here’s what we know about the chronology of the Arc 11 Interludes so far:
11b (Jack) takes place before 11a (Siberian) and 11h (Bonesaw): Oni Lee was still a separate entity.
11a (Siberian) and 11h (Bonesaw) take place at the same time. In 11h, Glory Girl and Brandish go out to deal with the situation they arrive at in 11a.
11c (Burnscar) probably takes place after 11b (Jack), possibly after 11a and 11h. Burnscar alludes to Hatchet Face being “sort of” around, which was probably in reference to Bonesaw’s Hack Job.
11f (Crawler) takes place after 11e (Shatterbird). Coil receives news of the attack on the Chosen and the death of Leah the spy.
It seems like it’s probably mostly chronological, with the exceptions of 11b > 11a&h > 11c, but that’s still noteworthy because it’s the first time we’ve really seen unmarked but provably non-chronological presentation of the events in this story.
If that were actually the case, they’d be up to ten people even as they’re looking for someone to fill the ninth slot of the Slaughterhouse Nine (Siberian, Jack Slash, Burnscar, Mannequin, Shatterbird, Crawler, Cherish, Bonesaw, Hatchet Face and Hatchet Face).
Then again, Hatchet Face appear not to be counted after whatever Cherish did.
Then the first one exploded into a cloud of white dust and blood spatters, momentarily filling the room. Amy could hear Bonesaw’s giggling, felt her heart sink.
This reminds me of Bakuda’s decoy gangster bombs, except these aren’t holographic.
The white dust and apparent teleportation/cloning also remind me of Oni Lee, who last we knew was being taken back to the Slaughterhouse Nine, though that might’ve happened after this. But if it didn’t, it’s quite plausible that Bonesaw studied him and in some way adapted his power into some of her technology, much like how one of Bakuda’s bombs was based on Vista’s power but with the Manton effect overridden.
“Get it? You figure out what I did? Turn around, Hack Job.”
Hmm. Or did she modify Oni himself to look like Hatchet Face?
Amy had figured it out, but Bonesaw’s creation demonstrated anyways. He turned his back to Amy, and she saw what looked like a tumorous growth on the back of his head, shoulders and arms.
Oh jeez.
Except the growth had a face, vaguely Asian in features, and the lumps inside the growth each roughly corresponded with organs and skeletal structure.
Hatchet Face is still around, Burnscar said, “sort of”.
Bonesaw fused them. She fused too broken men together.
And now they have one body and probably both powers, though Oni’s power doesn’t work flawlessly with Hatchet Face’s body – thus the bloodspray accompanying the usual white dust.
As for any similar incompatibilities the other way: If Hatchet Face’s anti-power field didn’t allow picking and choosing targets (though I suspect it did), maybe Hack Job’s teleportation doesn’t work while the anti-power field is up.
I thought Hack Job was just a disrespectful nickname Bonesaw had for Hatchet Face, but it makes sense to give this fusion its own name, and it seems like an appropriate one.
The jaw of the figure that was attached to the back of Hatchet Face’s body was working open and closed like a fish gasping for air. The stitches were still fresh.
So while this does tell us that Interludes 11a and 11h take place after 11b (and probably before 11c), it seems it wasn’t too long after. She’s just finished this affront to nature.
“Runnn,” Mark moaned, urging her. She didn’t give it a second thought.
Yeah, that’s probably not a terrible idea, though I don’t think they’re here to hurt her.
She dashed for the front door, threw it open with enough force that a picture fell from the wall.
Hatchet Face stood on the other side, blocking the doorway.
Um.
His power isn’t supposed to be teleportation or self-cloning. Is this Bonesaw’s work?
Hell, is this even actually Hatchet Face, or is it a set of fakes by Bonesaw?
“No,” she gasped, as she backed towards the living room, “No, please.”
This looks like one of the more genuine fear reactions we’ve had in the story, honestly. For all the scary people running around, most of the characters we typically follow rarely show much fear when faced with a scary enemy.
How? How had he gotten there so fast? She turned around and saw he was still there, still in the hallway.
The possibility of this happening is why I added “or self-cloning”.
“Hi,” Bonesaw gave a little wave of her hand. A wide smile was spread across her face.
Hiya!
I think I like her already.
“What- What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to see you. Obviously.”
Of course, what else?
I like how this doubles as somewhat meta, in that it is pretty obvious to the reader by now, even though it comes completely out of nowhere for Amy.
Amy swallowed. “Obviously.” Was it possible that Allfather had arranged for a member of the Slaughterhouse Nine to murder her?
Not an unreasonable guess under these circumstances, but I highly doubt that. And if he were to do that, Jack or Mannequin would probably be better choices. More reliable.
Amy’s eyes roved over the room, looking for Bonesaw’s work. Nothing. She looked over her shoulder and a shriek escaped through her lips.
Welp, what’s she got, and how did it get behind you?
A man was not two feet behind her, tall and brutish, his face badly scarred and battered to the point that it was barely recognizable as human.
Hatchet Face! Finally, we meet!
A long-handled axe sat in one of his massive, calloused hands, the head resting on the floor. Hatchet Face.
Nice, I called his weapon choice. Not that that was a difficult one to predict.
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