Hopebringer

Plenty of people get dragged into situations they really don't want to be in by ROBs, but very few get chosen by ROB's for more than basic amusement. I was unlucky enough to be one of them. Now I'm in Worm with a mission to save the world. Unfortunately, raw power isn't what works around here.

Urg, I probably shouldn't but fuck it, I like the idea and everything else is giving me a headache. I'll get back to them later.

Chapter 3

Taylor gritted her teeth as she pushed herself to her knees. The pain in her shoulder and arms was practically an old friend by this point, but that didn't make it any less unpleasant. Still, there wasn't anything she could do other than endure, alone and without help. She ruthless pushed down the tears that threatened to flow as she picked up her bag and reached for the books she'd been holding when Sophia had barged into her, only to find that someone else had already picked it up. She swallowed and looked up, half expecting it to be one of the Trio's hanger ons ready to make the moment worse.

Instead, she found herself looking at a boy she didn't know or even recognize, which was rather surprising considering that he was quite the looker. He wasn't massive or jacked like a footballer, but he was tall and slim, with wavy, pale blonde hair that reached his shoulders and unusual dark brown eyes that almost looked red. His skin was pale, with dark circles under his eyes, although he looked healthy despite that, and his features held the image of eastern European nobility somewhere in his heritage. Compared with his almost exotic looks, his clothes were more mundane, just a black jacket, red shirt with a design that looked like an eye on the front and jeans.

"You OK?" he asked in a rather rich voice that carried a hint of an accent.

"I...I think so," said Taylor as she got too her feet.

He glanced after the Trio and indicated after them.

"That happen often?" he asked.

"All the damn time," said Taylor, "Um, are you new? I don't recognize you…"

He smiled and nodded, revealing a mouth full of pure white teeth in the process.

"Yep, me and my Sister moved to town recently," he said, "Names Adrian. Adrian Tepes."

Taylor blinked.

"You mean like Dracula?" she asked.

Adrian snorted.

"Yeah, I get that a lot," he said, "It certainly doesn't help that my family is originally from Walachia, so theres actually a fairly good chance I am related to the Impaler Prince."

He flashed a grin and Taylor snickered despite herself.

"So, you like gothic literature?" asked Adrian.

Taylor nodded.

"I like all kinds of books," she said, "How about you?"

Adrian grinned.

"Sure, I love reading," he said, "Got anything interesting to recommend?"

Taylor smiled and the two headed off down the hall to the first class of the day.

By the time lunch rolled around, I was about ready to have Saber burn the school down and have Ruler do something horrible to the remains, just to make sure it couldn't pollute the world any more. Calling this...place a school was giving it way to much credit, it was barely even an institution. Barely any of the teachers actually gave a shit and those that did were either utterly useless or to interested in being 'cool' to actually teach. Seriously, LOCKHART made a better teacher than Gladly did and I'm pretty damn sure that at least one of the teachers had been high during the lesson.

"It wasn't that bad," said Taylor as we left the Maths classroom, a lesson we shared, watching in apparent amusement as I muttered a number of inventive insults under my breath in three different languages.

On a side note, I'd apparently inherited some of Valerie's other skills in the process of being transformed, which included being able to speak Romanian, Italian, German, Hungarian Mandarin and Japanese.

"Taylor, he was so drunk he couldn't stand up straight," I growled, "Not only that, but he was drinking in class!"

I shook my head in disgust.

"I knew this place had a reputation for being bad, but I didn't think it was this bad."

"How did you end up here anyway?" asked Taylor.

'Because I wanted to keep you from getting locked in your own locker full of shit,' I thought.

"Because I couldn't get into Arcadia this late in the year and my sisters way to busy to homeschool me," I said instead.

"Couldn't your Parents do it?" asked Taylor, before she seemed to realize why I didn't mention them and winced, "Sorry."

"Its fine," I said, "Anyway, lunch?"

Taylor twitched.

"Ah, I'd rather not," she said, "Plus...it might not be such a good idea to be seen with me…"

I fixed her with a flat look.

"We've worked together in every class so far and have been seen by a load of people since we started talking," I said, "Besides, a bunch of idiots whos only way to feel relevant is to put others down don't really scare me."

Taylor shot a rather startled look my way.

"I have some experience with bullies," I said.

She flinched and looked away.

"Hey, theres nothing to be ashamed of," I said, "Some people just can't be happy unless they're putting other people down. They are the type of people who end up locked up for a very long time. Or they grow up. Kids can be cruel and yet grow into decent people."

I smirked.

"However, for now I can deal with a couple of idiot girls with nothing better to do than be cruel to others."

Taylor stared at me for a moment, before she shrugged.

"Its your funeral," she said, although she looked a little relieved.

I just smirked as I followed the taller teenager down to the cafeteria.

"Right, next time I'm bringing my own lunch," I muttered as I eyed the grey slop they were serving.

Despite the fact that I was basically immune to poison and disease, even before I granted myself hyper-regeneration with the Grail, I still wasn't entirely sure if I'd survive actually putting any of that stuff in my body. Unfortunately, I still needed to eat and I somehow doubted that snacking on a skinhead would go down to well, so, with great reluctance, I picked up a tray from the stack at the end of the line.

As I did, I paused as I felt something flow through me and into the plastic, making it glow faintly with a network of circuit-like lines. I stared at the tray for a moment, before prodding the odd feeling I now had in the back of my head that seemed to connect to the tray. In response, it twitched in my grip.

"The fuck?" I muttered, glancing around.

No one seemed to have noticed anything, which suggested that I was the only one who could see the markings. I looked back at the tray and frowned. Where had this new power come from? I was fairly sure it was similar to Runes, but I was pretty sure I didn't have anything like it in my repertoire, not even vanilla telekinesis. Then again, I did have the power to absorb abilities through blood and the power I was currently using seemed to be providing me with a countdown. The only question was how I'd got Runes blood into my system when the only person whos blood I'd drunk had been…

"Oh crap," I muttered as I put two and two together, "That girl must have been Rune. That...could end badly."

I didn't regret saving her, not when I knew what the ABB did to girls they...acquired (although I doubt Rune would have had much trouble dealing with them if needed), no, my problem was that my choice of words and the fact I was a new Cape might result in the E88 trying to recruit me. It wouldn't go well, but it would likely be very noisy.

Still, while it was mildly annoying and would likely cause me trouble, I wasn't about to turn down a potentially useful resource. I knew that the power wouldn't last much longer, I hadn't taken in enough of her blood for that, I did know I'd have it for at least another half an hour, mainly because I hadn't used it until now. With that in mind, I quickly ran my fingers over the rest of the trays in the stack and moved on, grabbing my cutlery and casually marking as much of the rest of it as I could. I couldn't do anything to obvious, but I could think of a few ways I could use this lot to cause some chaos and distract the Bitches Three.

I quickly bought a pre packaged sandwich that was horrifically overpriced but hopefully not instantly lethal, a bottle of water and a rather sorry looking flapjack, also obscenely expensive for what they were, before heading over to where Taylor had found a seat in the corner of the room where she was unpacking her lunch while looking around nervously. She was so on edge, she nearly jumped out of her skin as I sat down across from her.

"Jumpy much," I said as I opened the packaging of my lunch and took a bite of the limp sandwich.

I pulled a face as the dry bread practically disintegrated in my mouth and took a gulp of water. Fortunately, its rather difficult to fuck up on bottled water, even the really cheap stuff, so that didn't taste to bad.

"I've had some bad experiences in here," muttered Taylor as her eyes darted towards the door as it opened to reveal the Bitches Three, "Speaking of bad experiences…"

She sighed and shot a slightly pleading look my way.

"Last chance to avoid social suicide," she said.

"Oh, I don't think it'll come to that," I said with a slightly feral grin.

And I didn't. After all, Vampires are, at their core, ambush predators. While they could certainly chase down and overpower their prey if needed, that tended to be loud and obvious and their myriad of weaknesses meant that an aware Humanity could hunt them down and deal with them with surprising ease. That was why Vampires remained hidden in the shadows and only took what they needed, despite their power.

Accompanying that was an instinctive ability to navigate the Human social hierarchy with ease and an instinctive grasp of body language that allowed Vampires to be either incredibly attractive, vanish into the background or let out just a hint of their true nature to scare whatever poor schmuck pissed off the monster witless, all without using a hint of their supernatural abilities, although their hypnotic gaze was certainly helpful in that regard.

In short, I was much better armed for a bout of social fisticuffs than any of the Bitches Three.

That said, I really didn't want to have to deal with them, so I clenched my fist under the table. There was a startled yelp as Madisons foot came down on a tray that had just mysteriously shot off a table and landed in front of her. Her foot shot out from under her and she face planted rather spectacularly, catching Emma on her way down while trying to keep from breaking her nose on the floor. A second twitch of my fingers caused the tray to land directly in front of another student who was carrying a full tray, sending them flying as well, causing the bowl of food on said tray to hit Sophia on the back of the head, covering her in mystery meat chili. Sophia's response was to turn and deck the unfortunate student, just as the lunch monitor barged into the room to investigate the chaos.

"Huh, dinner and a show," I said, "They shouldn't have."

Taylor looked from the scene of chaos I'd created with just a few twitches of my finger to me and back again in utter shock while I mused as to whether or not I could convince Rune to join me for a bite some time. Her power was rather useful all things considered.

With Madison and Emma in the nurse's office with bumps, bruises, a sprained ankle and a pulled shoulder and Sophia undergoing an in school detention for punching the poor guy who'd accidentally thrown his lunch all over her (apparently whatever leverage she had didn't extend to keeping her out of trouble when punching someone other than Taylor in full view of the staff), the rest of Taylors day was blissfully quiet. That was probably a good thing because she was deep in thought about her new...friend? Yes, that descriptor would do for now.

To be honest, Taylor wasn't entirely sure what to make of Adrian Tepes. On the surface, he was a perfectly average teenage boy, albeit one with some slightly unusual looks, but there was something about him that set her on edge. Just what that was she didn't know, but she was almost certain that he was responsible for the kerfuffle at lunch...somehow. She wasn't sure how he'd managed it, but it was almost certainly the result of some kind of power.

The idea of him being a Cape was one she was a little nervous of. There hadn't really been any reports of new Capes joining the Wards and they all went to Arcadia anyway. That meant that he was either new and independent or a Villain. She was leaning more towards the latter, especially considering the implied sticky end of his Parents and the fact he was clearly new in town.

The one thing she wasn't unsure of though was what she was going to do with the knowledge. She was going to keep her mouth shut. Capes were notoriously privet and, friendly or not, she had no real interest in potentially alienating the only person who'd actually been nice to her since the start of highschool, to say nothing about not wanting him to do something ill defined but likely unpleasant.

Plus, she was curious to see what else Adrian could do to the Bitches Three.

She snickered at the thought, for once heading home with a spring in her step and a smile on her lips. Life was looking up for her.

I entered the apartment I now shared with my Servants, ignoring the slightly odd sight of two identical blonde women sat at the table, and dropped into the other seat between the two Servants.

"How was your day?" asked Ruler.

"Pretty good," I said, "I managed to make friends with Taylor and got to humiliate her bullies. Now I just need to make sure they can't make a mess of my rep and things'll be dandy."

"Let me know if you need any help Praetor," said Saber with a grin, "I would be happy to assist in dealing with the miscreants."

"I really don't think that your brand of justice will be needed Saber, but I appreciate it," I said, "That said, I don't want you getting bored while I'm at school, so I don't mind if you go out to punch some idiots in the face. Just try to avoid killing anyone and don't take over the city."

"Don't worry Praetor, the Grail provided me with the information of the 'Unwritten Rules' and Ruler was nice enough to explain why they are needed," said Saber, "I don't fully agree with them, but I shall acquiesce and follow them...within reason."

I smirked.

"That goes without saying," I said, "There are a few people in the city who don't give a damn about them and will fight with the intent to kill. Those you can meet with equal force, although I would prefer that you don't actually kill them unless they prevent a clear and present threat to innocent bystanders, if only to keep the PRT from throwing a hissy fit."

"I understand Praetor," said Saber, inclining her head slightly.

I nodded back, then lent forwards with a toothy grin.

"Now, lets talk about just what we're going to do to shake things up," I said.

The two blondes glanced at each other, then grinned identical grins that did not bode well for Brockton Bay.

"Alright, so tell me whats been going on," said Director Piggot as the last of her little herd of cats took their seats for the end-of-the-month meeting, "Starting with our new friends."

The projector screen at the other end of the room lit up to reveal three pictures of the new Capes that had appeared on the scene and made a rather impressive splash. There was a round of mutterings and Miss Militia blushed behind her scarf, before Armsmaster stood and the noise disappeared.

"From the left, Saber, Ruler and Alucard," he began, indicating to the images in order, "Saber appears to be a high level Brute with a rather impressive amount of skill with a sword, some kind of pyrokinesis and a Thinker ability that let her take control of one of Squealers vehicles with no trouble. She is known to be friendly, bombastic and has a tendency of flirting with both men and women who attract her attention."

At this, Miss Militia, Dauntless, Triumph and Battery blushed and squirmed in their seats while Assault just grinned smugly. Armsmaster ignored his colleagues discomfort as he continued the report.

"She doesn't seem to have a secret identity as she doesn't wear a mask and blatantly dislikes the Gangs, especially the Empire, and has been reported to be a little...enthusiastic in taking down any criminals she catches, which tends to lead to a rather large amount of collateral damage. PHO has theorized that she might be related to New Wave, but both parties have denied it. On a side note, Saber appears to get on well with Glory Girl."

"Thats...a little worrying, but not surprising," said Piggot, "From what I know, they are rather similar in terms of personality and tastes."

"And tendency to not know their own strength," muttered Aegis.

"What are the chances that we could recruit her?" asked Piggot, ignoring the Ward leaders comment.

"Fairly low I think," said Miss Militia, "While she is most definitely a Hero, she has also expressed a fair amount of distaste for the PRT as a whole."

Piggot frowned.

"That...could be bad," she said.

"Oh, don't misunderstand, shes definitely on our side," said Miss Militia quickly, "But she won't be joining us anytime soon. Plus, its not like she really needs any help. Shes powerful and very skilled, so its unlikely that she could be press ganged."

"True enough," said Piggot with a sigh, "Alright, next is…"

"Ruler, a Tinker with a fair amount of talent and connections to somehow build some high quality equipment, despite never having been heard of before," said Armsmaster, bringing up an image of the blue and gold clad Tinker, "Shes not as...prolific as Saber, but her tech is impressive and she seems to have a knack for finding trouble and putting it down. We still haven't managed to defrost Alabaster and Hookwolf hasn't been seen in weeks since she somehow melted his blade form. She and Saber also seem to know each other since they've been spotted together a few times."

"Let me guess, we won't be recruiting her either?" asked Piggot.

"Unlikely," said Armsmaster, "While Tinkers are more vulnerable at the start, once we get set up, we can be VERY effective. Its the setting up thats the hard part."

Piggot grumbled something rude under her breath.

"Alright, whoes the last one?"

Armsmaster clicked the mouse and brought up the image of a teenager in a red hoodie, black jeans and a red domino mask perched on a lamppost with a rather impressive pair of wings folded against his back.

"Alucard, 15-17 years old and with a powerset that can best be described as a Vampire," said Armsmaster.

Piggot's eyebrows shot up.

"A Vampire?" she asked incredulously.

"He has exhibited enough strength to flip cars, is fast enough to be a blur to the naked eye, can transform into mist and bats, has wings and also seems to have retractable claws and fangs," said Armsmaster, "Additionally, he has either a high Brute rating or rapid regeneration because hes been seen taking a shotgun blast to the stomach and just being annoyed by it."

"Guess thats why the kid went with his name," said Assault.

He glanced around as everyone looked at him in confusion.

"What? You guys didn't notice that his name is Dracula backwards?"

"Its also the name of Dracula's son in the Castlevania games," said Triumph.

There was a moments silence as everyone digested that and Piggot rubbed her eyes.

"Great, a Cape who thinks hes a Vampire," she muttered, "Thats all we need…"

She sighed.

"Chances…"

"Minimal."

"Of course."

She sighed again and shook her head.

"Fine, fine, whatever, so long as they are nominally Heroes and not chewing on innocent people, I suppose we can leave them for now," she said, "I do want you all to soft-sell joining up if you run into them, but I'd rather have them as independent heroes than Villains."

"I thought you didn't like Independents," said Assault.

"I don't, but I'm pragmatic enough to accept them if it means not having even more Villains to deal with," said Piggot, "Now, moving onto a more serious matter, have we managed to uncover anything about the recent rash of murders?"

The atmosphere in the room shifted, going from slightly jovial to serious in the blink of an eye and for good reason. Over the past couple of weeks, a number of people had turned up tortured to death, including a few PRT agents. The crime scenes were incredibly gory and it was clear that the victims had been put through intense agony before they died, often thanks to having vital organs removed while they were still alive.

"Actually, we have," said Miss Militia, "While there is little obvious pattern among the victims, an examination of their backgrounds have turned up some rather worrying connections."

She took Armsmasters place and brought up a list of images of the victims on one side and a very familiar black suited Villain on the other.

"Every single one of them had evidence in their homes pointing back to Coil," she said, "Most of the victims so far have been Mercenaries who apparently worked for Coil and those PRT Agents who were killed have been revealed to have been spies working for him. We are investigating and using the information lifted, have managed to identify more spies and a frankly terrifying number of back doors, traps and other malicious programs within our systems. Dragons doing her best to get rid of them, but there are so many and a lot of them are wired to go off if removed, so shes having to be extremely careful."

"I see," said Piggot, her voice flat as her knuckles went white from her clenched fists, "So, Coil finally annoyed someone dangerous enough that they are going after him with both barrels eh?"

"What do you want us to do?" asked Battery.

Piggot stared at the screen for a moment, before glancing at Miss Militia.

"Is there any evidence that the perpetrator is a Cape?" she asked.

"Other than the fact that whoever it is has taken down multiple highly trained Mercenaries?" asked Miss Militia, "Not really."

She hesitated for a moment, before flicking to another slide.

"That said, there are two things that have been noted," she said, "The first is this."

The image on screen was of a blood splatter where part of a handprint could been seen. A handprint much to small to belong to an adult.

"Are you trying to tell me that the killer is a child?" asked Piggot incredulously.

Miss Militia shrugged.

"Unlikely, but its the only bit of evidence we have, other than the method of killing," she said.

"What do you mean?" asked Piggot, narrowing her eyes.

"All of the victims have been killed by two slash wounds to the throat and their abdomen slashed open," said Miss Militia, "The latter is done with precision only found in someone who knows their way around the Human body."

Assault suddenly sat up, looking a little confused.

"I'm sorry, but are you about to imply that we have Jack the Ripper running around the Bay?" he asked.

Once again, a lot of odd looks were directed his way.

"I like marcharb history and gothic literature," he said, "I'm not completely uncultured."

Miss Militia sighed and nodded.

"Yes, one of the detectives investigating did note the similarities to the Whitechapel Murders," she said.

Piggot stared for a moment, before dropping her face into her hands.

"First a Vampire and now Jack the Ripper?" she groaned, "Whats next, Frankenstein's Monster and the Wolfman?"

She took a deep breath and shook her head.

"Never mind, not important," she said, "For now, we have no evidence that the murderer is a Cape, so we'll leave it to the police. Miss Militia, Armsmaster, I want you two to ferret out any and all spys you can find. I'm sick of all of these leaks that I know for a fact we have, so we'll use this opportunity to deal with them."

"Yes Ma'am," said Miss Militia while Armsmaster just grunted and nodded.

"Good, now if theres nothing else…?"

There was no response, so Piggot continued.

"Good, keep up the good work everyone. Dismissed."

The Protectorate Capes filed out, leaving Piggot alone as she stared at the screen for a moment longer before heaving herself to her feet and heading off to get her blood cleaned, inwardly hoping that nothing else bizarre would happen before next months meeting. She wasn't sure if her blood pressure could take it.

I glanced up from my computer as the little bundle of joy and murder that was my Assassin skipped into the room and dropped a stack of papers onto the desk beside me, before parking her bum on the sofa beside me and snagging the TV remote. I'd summoned Jack the Ripper as Assassin a week ago after a run in with some of Coils mercenaries who attempted to...convince me shall we say, to work for their boss. The conversation had not gone well for them, but it had revealed some interesting facts about my power and bumped Coil up the list of things to deal with, especially after he tried to have me shot.

How do I know about that when he would have binned the timeline as soon as the plans failed? Well, I'm not entirely sure how, but I apparently had the ability to remember both timelines, so long as they involved me. I think. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I occasionally end up with two sets of memories when one of Coils plans happens in my vicinity. Its all very confusing, but it was more than enough to piss me off, resulting in me summoning my Assassin and sending her after Coils goons in an attempt to find the bastard. Plus, it got me an adorable younger sister, so I can't complain.

I put aside my laptop and picked up the file Jack had given me, idly flipping through it. The information Jack had been gathering for me was mostly info about Coils bases and the defences around said bases. I wanted to take the bastard down in one fell swoop, which meant taking out as many of his bases and assets as possible in one go. I intended to approach Lisa about it at some point, mainly because I knew I could trust her to play it straight with me if it meant dealing with Coil. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with the Undersiders yet, but I suspected I'd need Tattletale to help take Coil down one way or another.

"Hey Big Brother," said Jack, making me look up at the little Assassin.

She was watching some kids sitcom with a slightly strange look on her face.

"Whats up Jack?" I asked.

"Whats school?" she asked.

Dinah Alcott sighed as she dropped into her seat. It was the sigh that every 12 year old makes when they realize its only Wednesday morning and there are still three lonnnnng days before the weekend. She didn't really mind school, but she didn't have many friends and was a lot smarter than most of her classmates, leading her to become bored in lessons. Plus, it was getting towards the end of term and she was looking forwards to the christmas holidays.

"Alright kids, enough looking glum, I've got exciting news," said the ever enthusiastic english/Homeroom teacher Miss Fujimura as she slammed the door open and stepped up to her desk, "We've got a new student joining us today, isn't that great!"

The class sat up straight and looked forwards, interested at the break from the monotonous routine that was school.

"There, I knew that'd get you excited!" said Miss Fujimura, "Come on in honey!"

The door opened again and a girl entered the room. A quiet round of muttering sparked up and Dinah couldn't blame them. The girl was certainly rather odd looking, with short, pure white hair, lime green eyes and pale skin that looked like it'd never seen the sun, not to mention a scar over her left eye and another on her other cheek, she was certainly eye catching. Compared with that, her choice of outfit of a white, sailor collar shirt, black skirt, stockings and pink shoes was relatively normal.

"Hi everyone, I'm Jacqueline Tepes," said the girl with a friendly smile, "But you all can call me Jack."

...well, I see no way that can end badly. On the up side, this version of Jack is a little less sociopathic than her counterpart, mainly because her Master is actually stable. That doesn't make her any less stabby in combat though.

Incidentally, I got the idea for Jack going to school from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid.

Yep, Adrian has the ability to temporarily use a Capes power by drinking their blood...or not so temporarily taking it if he drains them. That could result in some issues when it comes out.

On a completely unrelated note, I recently got done watching Fate Apocrypha (and holy shit, what a ride!) and I couldn't help but notice that Spartacus' Noble Phantasm was rather similar to Crawlers power. Anyone else notice that?

I...honestly can't think of anything else that needs to be said here. Maybe I'm just tired...eh, whatever, its done so I'm going to sign out. Don't forget to leave a review!