I hummed the tune of Delusion Express, which was the best Snake OP in my opinion, as I strode near soundlessly beside Armsmaster's armoured jackboot crunch. The other Wards barely ever got to patrol with Colin, but I as his apprentice got access to his considerably valuable time, and he always got the most exciting routes; we even stopped a robbery once! That had been awesome, the call came in on his police scanner and I got to spook them with smoke while he just walked up and they surrendered.
He was just so gosh darn cool, and one day I would be even cooler. Maybe on the day I won our fight. I had just over a month and I think I really had a chance, even though I was dead sure he was doing everything in his power to win. His Power Armor only gave him forty fives in STR, DEX and VIT so while he'd be physically stronger I would be faster.
Plus I was so close to developing physical buff spells and maybe I would just conveniently forget to report them before our fight. I would also conveniently forget to tell him I was developing a change in electricity mana that would allow me to create abilities with enhanced piercing type damage, because I'd already figured out how to run paralysis through my knives and it would be hilarious to see his face when I cut his Anti-Greg halberd in half.
"Look, while I agree that sounds like an interesting premise the Protectorate cartoon is rated E and I don't have any editorial say so over the content."
"Yeah," I said. "But you're Armsmaster, surely if you shot them an email and said you had some ideas for an episode they'd bite."
"They might," he agreed. "If my ideas were acceptable to be watched by small children, which with you as the hypothetical ghost writer they would not be."
I clicked my teeth together a few times, "yeah. This would have to be MA at least, but really, is cosmic horror really such an abstract concept for kids to grasp? Even if it couldn't be aired I think they'd like it."
Armsmaster grunted, "I know enough about focus group trends to say that they would, in fact, not like it. I don't even like your version, good premise bad plot."
Whatever Colin, like you'd know a good fuckin' plot if it sounded your halberd in front of you, you-
"Guten Abend, Gentlemen!" said a masked man brightly, stepping out from inside a car. I Observed-
Turned and tackle grabbed Armsmaster, hefting him into a fireman's carry and sprinting as fast as I could in the opposite direction. God he was so fucking heavy. I pitched him off my shoulder and whipped around to stand at his side, facing the man who was still getting out of his car.
"Explain."
It took a second for me to realise Armsmaster wasn't accusing me of something.
"Gesellschaft," I said, voice quavering. "Shaker, fifteen meters; seven. Blaster, bolts; seven. Godfrey Mayer, goes by Cymatic."
It was him, the Exploding Man.
"So he vas right," the man slammed the door hard enough to rock his Volkswagen Beetle. "You're the little rat who's been sniffing out my good friend's Empire."
"Distance priority?" Armsmaster whispered through gritted teeth.
"Maximum. Automatic defence, triggered by ill intent. Exploding man quest."
Armsmaster cleared his throat. "Neither the Protectorate, PRT or any of its affiliates were responsible for the leaking of the identities of James Fliescher or Steve Moran."
Cymatic scoffed, gesturing to me. "You'll forgive me if that is maybe not quite believable, given his little spiel after seeing me for only one second."
He stepped forward.
We stepped back.
"I rather think the boy got too ahead of himself and let slip," Cymatic continued as we mirrored each other's steps. "And for the trouble it's caused my good friend, and the trouble it will continue to cause?"
I understood the threat left hanging. But, I could beat him at his own game.
I dry swallowed and stopped backing away.
"You must be pretty uh, dumb and idiot to challenge me," I took a wobbly step forward.
"Smoke!" hissed Colin.
I turned to give him my bravest smile, "I'm not scared of him, and he's practically harmless. He might even be a nice dude, he looks like the kind of guy who appreciates Moe."
"Stop!" Colin barked. "Dark Smoke Puncher, stop!"
"It's fine," my breathing became haggard as I walked toward the source of my nightmares, the only thing stopping me from becoming one with them in a pile of blended entrails was my absolute terror. "He can't kill me if I won't attack him."
I reached out with a hand wracked with tremors as Cymatic stopped in his tracks, shock colouring his posture as he realised what I knew. As my fingers made the barest contact with his shoulder he jerked back, and I could see his eyes widen behind his cymatic patterned mask and it was obvious he was not expecting this.
He back peddled, lifting his hand up and aiming his palm at me. A deluge of sweat soaked my leathery uniform as I kept a close eye on his Observe window, waiting for his Wave Motion Aura condition to switch to Wave Motion Canon; that tiny window of opportunity would mean I would get the chance to attack before he turned me into pâté. Not that I wanted to attack him, that would be absurd.
If my power was to just read names, no doubt his plan would have worked, we would have stayed in close quarters and been pulped the moment we thought about arresting him, thank god for the schmuck who gave him false info.
Cymatic's eyes hardened and his status changed, I lunged in batting away his now glowing hand, fist reaching out to clean his clock at mach speed-
-26
My ears rang as I bounced off the road and helicopter kicked myself back onto my feet. I looked around wildly, hands up in guard, but I couldn't see what had hit me.
"Fall back!" Armsmaster barked and I retreated to his side. "You can't keep doing this," he growled. "Twice now is unacceptable. Smoke the area, we're retreating."
-17
I bounced face first off the road as something slammed into my back, and again I whirled to my feet. I felt cold tears run down my face as I rotated my head like an owl; trying desperately to catch a glimpse of what hit me through cracked visor.
"Ve can't have you leaving just yet," Cymatic snarled. "You know decidedly far too much."
It couldn't have been Cymatic, nothing in his power set let him do this, it felt like I was being stuck by an actual person.
"In five minutes our whole roster is going to come down on your head," Armsmaster levelled his halberd defiantly. "Walk away."
Cymatic muttered something about fine messes before raising his voice, "and waste our only chance at destroying this menace? You'll put him away after this, somewhere where he can ruin more lives and expose secrets. You vere already on our trail, this needs to end now."
I cast Smoke, but the second it began to leave me I was struck again from behind and ok, plan.
I totally pretended to burst into tears as I crawled to my feet, hands coming up again shedding mystical vapours. Then I Shielded.
Something crunched into my spinning shield the millisecond after it burst into being around me, a dark shape standing out starkly against the brilliant blue, and was flung across the road. As my shield ran its course I managed to get an Observe on the man shaped thing before it vanished again; taking the Observe window with it.
Some guy called Hans, apparently.
Cymatic snarled and fired a glowing green, patterned bolt at me which I barely managed to jinker out of the way before it turned the asphalt behind me into pulp.
"You should have walked away," Armsmaster growled, tightening his grip on his halberd as the axe blade morphed into a wickedly barbed spike.
There was a moment, just before he fired, where Hans appeared and crashed into the halberd skewing Colin's aim. The harpoon and wire lashed out into the Volkswagon, puncturing a hole through the windshield before retracting smoothly into the haft.
In the glimpse I got of Hans' health bar before he vanished again he wasn't doing too badly for a guy who just got spiked into the road.
Oh god please, Quest Giver, give me your strongest quest.
New Quest! 'A good day to die hard!'
You're one wrong step from getting ganked by real Nazi's, do something about that!
Condition 1: Defeat both Cymatic and Hans; optionally kill both.
Condition 2: Escape back to the PRT building; optionally with no casualties.
Success: rewards depend on victory condition.
Failure: losses depend on victory condition.
I mean, I guess. First time I've ever had a quest to kill something that wasn't a mindless flesh-crafted beast.
"Armsmaster!" I panic Hazed, which should have been my first reaction really. "I got a quest for us to get the fuck out of here!"
"Goo-"Armsmaster's head jerked as Hans appeared just out of his reach and fired once with a pistol before vanishing. The rest of his mask folded out of his helmet to cover his face and when he spoke again it was in clipped robotic tones. "Good, Dauntless is en-route with Battery. If you can leave, do."
I turned to bolt and almost ran right into Hans who was squinting his Kraut eyes to track my tell-tale shimmer before he disappeared into thin air. Teleporter fucking shits!
And now to the main problem with this plan, I'd have to drop Haze before I started moving or it would chew through my Mana like a bitch and I'd have nothing left to cast with. I could move a theoretical maximum of two thousand three hundred and thirty five meters with it active before I ran out of juice, which was now minus my Shield and all the other miscellaneous bits I'd spent and one n' a bit miles was fuck all distance for a Teleporter to keep track with.
Even at my speeds.
Why couldn't I be fighting, like, Uber or something? Maybe those new Undersiders? Shit, even Skidmark would do, I'd be pretty hard for him to splatter.
Hans appeared again some ten meters to my right and disappeared again before I could get a read of his power. Fuckin Movers! I glanced back over my shoulder to see Armsmaster and Cymatic circling each other and aarhg, if I left that would mean Colin would get double teamed and probably exploded. All it would take is Hans bumping into him at the right time. Shit. Fuck. Shit fuck shit.
I palmed one of my old throwing knives, from back when I used to juggle as Dr Wu, and hurled it at Cymatic. He staggered back as it took him right in the gut, tripping over his own feet and landing flat on his ass, mouth agape in affronted surprise.
-14
I hit the road again and this time it took a strip off my chin and Armsbeard, removing my Haze with it.
-20
Something cracked in my general ribcage area as Hans hit me again. I Hazed up and rolled, catching a flash of his boot as it appeared where my head was a second ago.
Cymatic howled, an ear-splitting pained shriek, but I didn't get to see why as I commando rolled backwards and onto my feet to avoid another booting.
I kept Dempsy Rolling as Hans appeared and disappeared, swinging a knife where I used to be and keeping his gun ready. I shimmered more when I moved but he was still having trouble keeping track of me, but as much trouble as he was having I couldn't get a bead on him either; he was just way too quick and none of my skills really had the oomph to put him down.
So I would just have to make one.
Or finish one of the dozen, mostly finished spell designs I had cooking on the backburner in my mind.
But that would mean dropping my Haze because I still couldn't dual cast.
But I had to do something, I was still bleeding Mana as it was.
But if I did he'd shoot me.
I'd messed up.
Should've run.
I couldn't feel it, the heat in my blood. I had no battle tendency. Everything was cold, sound drowned out by a ringing whine in my ears.
Fuck me, I doubted I'd get too many shots at this. I cupped my palms together, waited for Hans to teleport away, then cast.
It failed, but I was already dodging and Hazed as his knife grazed my back.
-4
Come on, Greg you piece of shit, let it do what energy does.
I cast again, burning my palms. That was almost it. You almost had it.
I ducked his blade, this time by the barest whisper of a millimetre.
Power prickled in my grasp, a blinding flash knocking out my stealth mode and this was it fucking crunch time.
You have created the spell 'Arc Flash'!
I chucked the volatile lump above my head and dropped-
-30
Taking Hans' knife with me. There was a popping whoosh as the spell burst.
-156
'First Degree Electrical Burns [low]'!
'Concussion [low]'!
Someone was screaming, oh it was me? And Hans? I was nearly dead? Yes.
I crawled to my feet, vision swimming into greys and blots of light. The blur that was probably Hans was clawing at its facial area.
I stumbled to my knees, bent over and threw up, and lurched on through it back to my feet. There was jackbooted clumping and big metal hands gripped my arms masterfully, robot voice demanding to know how I was.
"Back." I rasped hoarsely.
I was spun around, the sudden motion almost making me puke again, then Armsmaster called me an idiot and made a spraying sound. Instant relief like I'd never known as the inferno I hadn't fully noticed on my upper back cooled to something bearable, making me go weak at the knees. Or weaker, anyway.
Then I was made to sit down on the curb, head between my knees. Twenty three minutes, in twenty three minutes my health would be back up to full and I'd be fine. I tried to focus on the timers for my debuffs as the street got steadily noisier, heroes and PRT guys showing up.
Quest 'A good day to die hard' complete!
Condition 1 fulfilled!
Success: reduced reputation with [Colin Wallis, PRT ENE, Protectorate ENE], 50 000xp, increased reputation with Colin Wallis, decreased reputation with Empire Eighty Eight
You have levelled up!
Benchmark Level reached!
+10 stat points
Coolio. I started allocating-
DEX has reached 50!
You have gained the Trait 'Kinaesthetically Talented'!
Kinaesthetically Talented
A trait gained by one with solidly inhuman motor skills.
Total speed increased by 10%
Accuracy increased by 5%
Critical hit rate increased by 5%
Dodge chance increased by 5%
Physical Skill experience gain increased by 5%
Worth it?
Gregory Veder
Level 10 Electrogenic Mage (0%)
HP: 365/365
MP: 475/475
STR: 29
DEX: 50
VIT: 30
INT: 31
WIS: 9
CHA: 10
LUK: 7
Remaining points: 8