Paradiso 1.8

Azure and I walked on the rooftops of Lord Street Market. Using the same mirror-like device that allowed them to watch over Earth, Caritas had personally picked tonight's target. We had argued a bit before finding an agreement. The main problem was that I wanted a good fight to take my mind off my encounter with Emma and Sophia and Caritas wanted that I pick an easy target, which meant as little parahumans as possible.

"Sometimes, I feel he acts like an overprotective father!" I mused. "Don't do this, don't do that. Go here instead of there. Make sure you have your swords with you, avoid bad boys and parahumans…"

Azure gently nuzzled me. I caressed him.

"Yeah, I know he worries. But I can take on any man in a straight on fist fight and I defeated dozens of angels with magic alone! What else does he need?"

Azure cooed and I nodded.

"Yeah, he'll always worry about me. Well, time to prove he doesn't have to."

Our target was a warehouse located a little away from the main street, at Archer's Bridge. The Merchants were holding a "party", understand: a kind of orgy coupled with an auction on the most illegal products to be found on the black market. The noise and bright lights made it easy to find. From my vantage point on an opposing roof, I had a view over the event thanks to a wide window near the ceiling. There were thirty-so people carrying colored tissue wraps around their biceps, all dressed more or less trashy. There were four stands and a weird kind of arena where two people fought under the hoots and yells of the crowd. One stand had substances I was willing to bet was drugs. The other had a rather huge array of scavenged mechanical parts. The last had several women wearing clothes that calling "revealing" would be an understatement. Prostitutes. I could see their faces if I squinted, and they didn't look happy at all.

I turned to Azure. Near the arena was Skidmark. I had recognized him from a picture seen on Parahuman wiki. Squealer was at his side, curvy but with such a bad fashion sense that her clothes made her almost repulsive. I saw Mush patrolling among the crowd while Trainwreck was handling the mechanics stand. I scanned the area for the best place to cast my spell. After a moment, I decided to go for the ceiling and muttered the word out of habit.

olpirt

The light flashed with twice the strength of a flash grenade and blinded everyone in the warehouse. Azure jumped first in full cherubic splendor and tackled Mush, zapping him lightly to make him unconscious. I jumped after him by the broken window and rushed to the prostitutes, who were just recovering their sight.

"This way! Hurry!"

I guided them to the exit and told them to hide in a dark alley. Once I was done with the warehouse, I would call the PRT for a cleanup crew. When I returned outside, I saw Azure with Trainwreck at his feet and as unconscious as Mush. Most of the customers had fled or were hiding away and Skidmark and Squealer were facing my guardian angel. A fast-moving vehicle rushed at him, so I jumped between them and drew a sword. It sliced the vehicle in half near effortlessly and sent both halves crashing away. I drew the sword in front of me and held the second one at my side.

"Three things are important in a fight." I remembered the words of the Valor I had healed and who had later become my teacher after the Ardor. "Strength, efficiency and style. In a pinch, style can slide."

Skidmark and Squealer weren't too great a threat that I'd have to drop style. I would beat them hard, fast and with panache. I inwardly chuckled at the word. Azure came to my side and cooed before taking a stance. Skidmark gave us a bewildered look.

"C'mon, I'm not even that high! What the f*ck is that shit!?"

"A bad trip, man." I answered. "A very bad trip… to a PRT cell!"

I ran at the duo, Azure at my side. Squealer pushed a key on a remote and a new vehicle ran at us at top speed. I could feel pressure against me when I moved. Skidmark's power was pushing everything away from him and his girlfriend. It worked well to make projectiles faster and hamper our moves, but Azure was still a Cherub and I was fitter than most humans. While my friend jumped over the vehicle, I just sliced through it, jumped, landed behind the two and delivered a roundhouse kick in Skidmark's jaw, followed by a whip kick that sent Squealer on her butt. A knock on the temple later, she was out. This left me with Skidmark.

"You f*ckin' asshole are goin' the f*ck down! Who do ya think you are, stormin' one of my parties like one of those prissy New Wave pansy asses!?"

"As if you had any room to talk…" I muttered. "I don't have a name yet. Wonder how long it will take for the Protectorate to give me one. For now, let's say I'm not exactly in the best of moods right now."

Skidmark starred at me.

"You… Yer doin' that as stress relief!?"

"Some drink, some smoke, some take drugs… Either I kick ass or I heal people. I felt like kicking ass tonight, but I'll think I'll hit a hospital afterwards. Healing people helps me empty my mind."

Skidmark was speechless for a moment. I used his confusion to sheathe my swords and raise my fist. I had almost reached him when he applied his power at full strength and I nearly tumbled. Azure wasn't as hampered and jumped above him. His stinger tail hit him in the back of the head the moment my fist collided with his chest. The gang leader fell on his knees and I slammed both of my fists on his head. This was enough to knock him cold. I nodded to Azure.

"Let's go."

We waited to be back to Lord Street to call the PRT and didn't wait for them to leave the area. Our next stop was a hospital in Central Downtown. Azure chose to stay behind and I cured the whole psychiatric and emergency wards. I felt quieter and more at peace when I was done. I didn't lie when I told Skidmark healing people helped me empty my mind. It felt soothing. When I came home that night, I felt good and awoke in full shape the next morning. It was a good thing because I would need all of it to undo the damages of the disaster to come.

After training and healing in Heaven, I returned on Earth around one in the afternoon. The gas bomb exploded at three, in the middle of one of Arcadia High's amphitheaters that hosted a conference led by Battery and Velocity about capes. I was on site as a civilian half an hour later, doing my best to catch what was going on. Panacea was there too. She hadn't been in the amphitheater and neither had Glory Girl, so the two had escaped the bombing. However, that my role model was making a face didn't bode well. I snuck to her side.

"So… what's going on?"

"It's a brain gas." Glory Girl hissed. "Sis says it causes damage to the brain similar to Alzheimer, but it develops much faster. If nothing's done, those guys will be gone in a week!"

I froze. Brain damage. Panacea couldn't heal it. It was all up to me. No wonder she and Glory Girl looked angry. She turned to a gurney. There was a blonde boy on it that was rather attractive, not exactly in a pretty boy-kind of way but he wasn't a hunk either. If anything, he looked noble.

"My boyfriend." Glory Girl looked away. "He was in the amphitheater when the bomb exploded. They say it was most likely made by Bakuda. Poor guy… He's about the sweetest man I've ever met. He doesn't deserve to go through that shit!"

"No one does…"

I looked at the ambulances. Assault was at Battery's side and looked broken. Battery was still unconscious, and I couldn't help but wish she remained so. Seeing a loved one unable to remember you had to be horrible, though I couldn't tell how much since I never had a boyfriend. I was too ugly. But Assault and Glory Girl did and now, they were living an ordeal. I put a hand on the girl's shoulder and massaged it.

"If anything, there's still that cape in white and gold. Did they find a name for him yet?"

"No." Panacea answered. "But I heard he paid Skidmark and the Merchants a visit. Skidmark was rambling about a 'big blue griffin in a golden armor', but he's always stoned so he most likely had a bad trip. He and Squealer also had several head wounds so maybe the cape hit them a little too hard."

I half-smiled. My stunt had worked just as planned. A little away, a young teen with messy brown hairs and chestnut eyes had gathered with a younger teenage girl with neck-long blonde hair and another teen with a black buzz cut. They were looking at two gurneys on which were a Puerto-Rican teen with mid-long black hairs and a redhead roughly the same age with freckles and half-opened blue eyes. The three teenagers looked deeply worried.

"Hasn't Bakuda crossed a line with that bombing?" I wondered aloud.

"If she didn't, she sure as hell came damn close to it. My boyfriend's parents are rich and influent. They'll push the Protectorate into retaliating and fuck the ABB's feud with the Empire! This time, it's personal."

I believed her. Even if I healed every victim of the incident, it wouldn't erase the act. Brockton Bay was headed toward some troubled times and it made me feel nervous. I left Arcadia, went to my usual hiding spot and teleported to Heaven. I landed not in a flower bed like I thought I would, but in a temple of white marble, with gigantic stone pillars and domes of crystal and gold that played light games on the ground. I could hear angelic voices gathered in choirs, singing in Enochian songs that I only half-understood. My bond with Caritas pulled me further and further in the building that I slowly started understanding the purpose: it was the Temple of Stone, Credo's domain. Those choruses I kept hearing were prayers and songs of worship destined to the Infinite One. My steps became cautious. Why had Caritas taken me to the Temple instead of the Gardens? I reached the core of the temple and the question died in my brain as I witnessed the Heavenly Virtue of Faith for the first time.

Credo's body was fully wrapped in three pairs of immaculate wings. Azure and Caritas were standing at his side, with Caritas in his reduced form. Then Credo unfolded his wings and by heart missed a beat. His feet were a single cone of stone, polished and white. His torso was made of three rings of pure gold that kept moving and turning, with in the middle the brightest sphere of light I had ever seen. It was brighter than a lighthouse, brighter than the sun. The light of Faith, I understood. Atop the three moving rings, levitating horizontally was a single ringlet from which departed dozens upon dozens of golden chains that connected to pristine floating hands. Finally, Credo's head was a floating oval stone hovering above the ringlet and perfectly polished save for the three eyes, the nose and the mouth. A simplistic design. The wings were connected like petals of a flower at the sphere of light's level.

The Virtue was insanely huge. I estimated it in size to only a little smaller than a full-sized Caritas. I knelt before the being and spoke in my most polite voice.

"Beholder of Stone…" It was Credo's title, like Caritas was the Guardian of Light and Fortitudo was the Bringer of Flame. "It is an honor to be allowed within your domain."

Credo's head inched toward me. His voice was rich and filled the air almost like an echo. It wasn't the same as Caritas's honey-like voice.

"And it is an honor to meet Caritas's prized student. I heard but the utmost praises about you, and my brother was kind enough to share your first night out with us. Fortitudo and Spero are still laughing about it."

I sighed. I, too, was still giggling when thinking about it.

"I am glad my actions pleased you."

Credo nodded and turned to Caritas.

"We are here to speak of a different matter, though. Early in what appears to be your afternoon, Spero felt a disturbance in the heart of a certain number of people in Brockton Bay. Sensing the disturbance was made easier by the fact you were in town, and as such, we have an easier time sensing the heart of your neighbors. People started losing hope. They started giving in to despair."

"Bakuda's brain gas bomb." I muttered. "Brains are the only thing Panacea, a parahuman with healing powers equal to mine, cannot cure. Whoever set that bomb off chose its effect with care. Unless I rescue them, those people will die in a week from brain degeneration."

"Which is why you are there." Credo smiled.

I raised my head to him. The Virtue explained.

"Prayers have arisen. Most are toward Scion, but I can sense a distinct lack of faith within them. They will not be answered. Some are turned to our Lord, the Infinite One." Credo sighed. "The current lack of faith in the Infinite One has slowly deprived me of a good amount of power. I am no more the lighthouse guiding the believers toward salvation. But there are still people praying, even in Brockton Bay. You will answer them."

I flinched. Even awed by the Virtue, I still didn't like being ordered around. Following orders wasn't part of the deal. All there was was for me to give Caritas a student to teach – and for Caritas to pass his knowledge into me. Never had it been question to run errands for the other Heavenly Virtues. Caritas understood because he took his full shape and grabbed Credo's hand.

"Taylor does not enjoy taking orders. She is my student and I am her teacher. Nowhere was it said she would become our herald. She alone decides when to use them and when not."

"I apologize, then." Credo bowed. "I do still hope you will use your powers to rescue the victims of the bombing…"

"I've come to Heaven to prepare for that." I answered. "I planned on healing angels in the Gardens, but…"

"Caritas had a better idea in mind."

I hadn't noticed the golden light filling the area like wispy smoke. I could feel its warmth. Heaven's will. The source of my magic. Credo and Caritas nodded.

"Faith is the cornerstone of our strength. The power of Creation and Heaven's will existed long before mankind came to be, but when it came, the faith humans had in us made us stronger and stronger, and the same is true for Hell. Heavenly and Hellish magic can exist without faith, but they don't have the same strength. This place, the Temple of Stone, is where all the faith of mankind gathers. It is where Heaven's will gains all its strength and is spread across Heaven. The only place where the will is stronger is the Cradle of Creation, realm of the Infinite One."

I could feel it. Simply standing near the altar alongside the two Virtues was making me stronger every passing minute.

"This is why you are there. You plan on saving those people. We plan on making it a miracle. Step on the altar. Let Heaven's will flow in you. Soak in it until your body radiates with grace. Little will beat Jesus resurrecting the dead, but you can give him a run for his money… by simultaneously rescuing every victim of this gas bomb with only three words."

My outfit appeared on me, complete with the mask and the swords. I stepped on the altar. Light surrounded me in a golden cloud. I shivered. It felt like warm, liquid honey running through my veins but ten times better. The power of Creation, pulsating through my body. The ability to create and restore filled every single part of me, to the point my head felt like floating. I wouldn't be surprised if I looked down and saw I was flying. I felt free. No pain, no problem, nothing wrong, just the liquid warmth that made me want to curl in a ball and soak in it until the end of times. Good didn't feel just good. It felt so much better.

I felt my feet on the altar as I recovered from my high. Heaven's will always felt good when I used my powers. Soaking in it as it was empowered by faith? It was outright intoxicating. I panted and held a giggle. I had never felt so strong before. Caritas and Credo smiled at me.

"Go. It is time to make your first true miracle."

I nodded and teleported in the hospital, straight in the wing where the victims of the bombing were being kept. The first room I found was Velocity. He wasn't wearing his costume but still had his mask on. Nodding, I put two fingers on his forehead.

miketh talb luseroth

The cape flinched and groaned softly as a soft glow remained where my fingers had been. The next room held Battery. She was also wearing only her mask and Assault was sleeping in a chair at her side. I noticed Battery's stomach was bigger than I remembered and put a hand on it. Caritas instantly gave me the answer. The next second, I was running a complete restoration spell on her. I saw her shift in her bed before leaving the room. I wondered how Assault would react when he found out, or even if he already knew he was going to be a father in four months. I hesitated when I reached the last room, a large hall where every other victim of the bombing had gathered. Glory girl and Panacea were at the entrance and I didn't really want to face them. The door was open, though. If I flash-stepped past them…

Glory Girl raised her head and saw me. Her eyes widened and she elbowed her sister. I took a step back when Panacea opened her eyes. I shrunk a little and took another step back. Looks like I could forget the stealth run… Really, I didn't want the heroes witnessing me use my powers. Cameras were alright but direct witnesses? No thanks. Then I saw the sisters. Panacea gave me a friendly look and held a hand, inviting me to come inside. Glory Girl looked halfway between hopeful and resigned. I sighed. The next second, I had flash-stepped in the room and closed the door. No witnesses, not even these two. I felt Heaven's will thrum in my body, wanting out. I smiled. Time to make a miracle…

miketh nip luseroth

I was standing in the middle of the room. One by one, a little light appeared on the teenagers and the adults' foreheads and I knew they were cured. Three words, Credo had said. Was it still a boast when you made good on it? I felt Caritas's approval and happiness through our bond and laughed softly. Then I vanished. When I found myself in a flower bed, I didn't hold back and my laugh echoed through the Gardens.

"It feels good, doesn't it?"

"It was awesome." I muttered.

I lay in the flower bed, gathering my head and calming myself. Using Heavenly magic like that made me feel almost like getting drunk and I wanted a clear head when I got home. It took a moment but, as soon as I felt good enough, I removed my outfit and teleported in my room. It was four in the morning so I would get some sleep before having to wake up and go through my routines. Heaven's will hadn't fully left me, so I could run on it to compensate for only having two hours of sleep… Unless I didn't sleep at all that night because Dad and I were talking. My room was lighted and my father was sitting in my desk chair, a familiar book in his hand. My Enochian book. Given the small bags under his eyes, he had been waiting for most of the night. I crossed my arms in my back and lowered his head.

"I… guess you want explanations."

"Two months, Taylor." His voice was soft and his eyes were sad. "The school called several times, said you haven't been in class for two months. I received mails, letters. And I couldn't explain. Until I found that book."

"When?"

"A week ago. I… I read it. Then that cape showed up and started healing brains, something Panacea couldn't. It was you, right? I found the formula in the book. Miketh talb luseroth, restore the soul. You… You are that mysterious cape. Am I right. And… you just spent the night healing the victims of that bombing."

I gulped and looked away.

"That was me, yeah."

"How. How did you get those powers and when? Wait, you got them two months ago, when you started skipping school. Now, I want to know where they come from. Obviously, if this book is anything to come by, they aren't like parahuman powers."

I nodded. Caritas's voice echoed in my head.

"He must swear. The word is in the book. If he swears in Enochian to keep the secret, then he will be allowed to know the truth. If he betrays his word, we will know. And we will strike back."

I nodded and took the book, then showed Dad the word.

"Say it. Then I'll be allowed to tell you. But, just to warn you, if you mention any of what I'm going to say to anyone, there will be retribution. Those who gave me my powers are pretty strict on confidentiality…"

Dad cringed.

"Given the efforts you made to remain unknown, I can tell! Between you waiting two months before showing up and the game of hide and seek at the hospital, it's pretty clear you want to avoid eyewitnesses!"

"The two months were training. So?"

Dad nodded.

"Znrza. I swear. Whatever you're going to tell me will remain between the two of us."

Warmth and approval flowed into me and I nodded. Sitting on the bed, I told him everything.


Sorry I haven't updated for so long. I kinda lost sense of time... Anyway, here is the new chapter. One Interlude remaining and the next arc starts: Vigilance. So, 154 people healed in five minutes, how is it for a miracle?

For the reviews...

- DarkEmress: missed again! It was Skidmark. And the Administrator Shard didn't connect to Taylor. It was another, more benign Shard that did. cion didn't really notice.

- ultima-owner: attacking a bunch of stoners with your blue griffin angel is the best way to conceal the fact that thing is an angel.

- xbox432: Heavenly magic only shorts out parahuman powers for some time. The more Heavenly magic is used, the longer the powers will malfunction, with written Enochian outright striping a cape of its powers.

Alright, that's all for now. See you soon!