+++++++Prelude 0.2 Hungry Woman, Hungry Man
It was a beautiful day at the Broad Walk, and Sarah was hungry.
Turns out, a few thousand dollars lasted way less than she originally believed.
Even with all the dine-and-dash and pickpocketing, she was down to her last few hundred dollars and had to choose between giving up her motel room and skipping meals.
Maybe she should give up and try to go to Protectorate under a fake name? What were the chances they would identify her and send her back to her parents?
TT Very high TT, her powers told her.
So she decided to procrastinate finding a permanent solution and decided to just go to the Broad Walk for more coins like the day before. If she got lucky she could take the wallet of some distracted rich guy or something.
The worse thing that could happen, is being taken in by the police. She thought, naive.
But really, how could she have predicted calling up the attention of someone with money for some serious mercenaries and to pay off the enforcers?
TTIdentified as a ThinkerTT
TT Not many clues left for detection TT
TTPursuer experienced in hunting vulnerable parahumansTT
So my pursuer is a competent kidnapper? great Thanks a lot power
Their actions started subtly but after she took too many turns and quicken her pace a little too much they gave up on pretense and straight up grouped up to run after her.
Sarah was good for deducing, she was good for inferring, therefore she was good at knowing when and where to run.
TT Leading pursuer being questioned by followers TT
TT Orders coming from a subject not in the group TT
TTMultiple groupsTT
TTGot Nervous When you walked closer to the right side of the streetTT
TTNo. Group is ready to ambush If you turn rightTT
TT Body Language indicates 2 of the mercenaries are anxiousTT
TTAnxiety about a specific part of the missionTT
TTThe ones in charge of restraining you in case you get troublesomeTT
TTHave unconventional ways of restraningTT
TTBrought DrugsTT
Shit, shit, shit !
Sarah started running. Turning south like her powers instructed her. She found herself on a less populated street. The one she was in previously was pretty empty already but this one only had one or two people visible. For a second she ordered If going to a more populated area or entering the Chinese restaurant at the end of the street wasn't a better plan.
TT Easier pathways to more populated areas already guarded TT
TT Kidnapper knows places that will be harder to take you from TT
TT Has access to security cameras and vast intelligence network TT
TT residential buildings and restaurants will not offer protection in this section of townTT
TTWould have closer to the broad walk TT
TT Has been following you since the broad walk TT
TT Has failed to kidnap you before TT
Wait, that makes no sense! No one ever tried something like this before! Are you saying I forgot or did not notice a bunch of freaking mercenaries trying some shit like this ?!
TTHas tried to kidnap you beforeTT
TT Has failed beforeTT
TT Being more Careful TT
TT Worried about heroes TT
TT Heroes would have intervened If mercenaries engaged you closer to Broad walk TT
TT Did not expect you to notice being followed this time TT
TT intended to take closer to home TT
How fucked up was her life If even her power was already calling the shitty Motel she had been staying for only 2 months her home? She tried to separate herself from her power, but ultimately she deduced it worked through unconscious - Ok no time for this specific crisis now! Focus on the creepy guys wanting to sell me to a creepy parahuman collector!
TT Pursuer intends to employ your powersTT
TT Active on parahuman community TT
TT Likely experienced villain TT
TT Empire 88 main-
Something useful! Please!
TT Lack of groups waiting in this area is not a coincidence TT
TT Low populated area TT
TT Violent ocurrances TT
TT Recent TT
TT Generally avoided area TT
TT Something avoids in this general territory TT
It means they will stop -
TT Not afraid enough to pursue TT
Just my luck!
She ran through the shitty buildings populated mostly by Asians with scared expressions on their faces. She did not need her powers to tell that had something to do with seeing a bunch of burly white men running around. the few who crossed eyes with her immediately gave her the same response
TT Not helping you TT
Of course not, what would they have to gain from it ?
No gain. No motive. People only risked themselves for the chance of reward. She had no time to bargain, no time to gather leverage. She was worthless, powerless.
" Here!" One of them shouted.
They were in front of her now. Around 3 of them at the end of the alley - Shit when did I really enter a freaking alley? TT Was trying to get to the Temple on the other side of the block TT - and the ones behind her were approaching fast.
TT Not enough time to slip through their TT
She was surrounded. No Windows and doors to slip through. Nothing. Probably better to surrender. Watch for chances to escape later ...
Sarah deflated. Looking from side to side to trying to pick on something might be useful. A weak link, a weakness to explore. Something ... but her power stayed silent.
Wait! It never shuts up! Even If there was nothing to see! What is happening ?! Is any of them a Trump?
A scream cut her out of her train of thought. One of the biggest guys was bleeding. Stabbed.
" What the fuck?!" The goon right next to him started cursing, the one she pointed as the leader had his hand on his ear, begging for instructions from their unseen commander.
Another scream. One of the ones from the other side. This one had a large burn on his face.
One by one they all fell. Another two burning, clothes were set on fire. One hit by some Blaster power. The last two- including the leader - were stabbed and bleeding.
Sarah knew not what to feel. On one having her kidnappers took down was a relief, on another, she has never seen so much blood.
Their screams were filling her ears and she had no idea If he should run, or stay and hope she could deal with this new threat.
It was obviously a Stranger. Maybe she could negotiate with them.
Oh, who am I kidding, I am gonna die or become the slave of some crazy villain.
A loud noise echoed behind her. Turning around she found a small man crouching, the asphalt cracked under his feet. He had jumped from the roof of the buildings. Probably shot them down from above
" Hey!" A high-pitched voice, unbecoming of someone who was making almost piss herself in fear, called casually. " Who are those?" He asked, not angry or aggressive, but certainly impatient like there was something he needed to attend urgently. " And who are you? Did you hurt anyone with your powers?"
He knows ?! Is he a Thinker too? Knows from the people who sent the mercenaries? Godammit power from all the times to shut up, why now?!
" Please answer." He said, that impatience stronger and, at the back of her mind, she noticed that the mercenaries pursuing her were all gone. Meaning he at least held back enough so they could run away screaming.
Oh, that is why the screaming stopped. Damn did I used to be that bad at picking up details before my power came along?
"Answer!"
" Yes! " She yelled back. " I do not know who they are aside from that they are mercenaries. I am no one, a runway, don't even have a damn cape name! And Yes, I did hurt lots of people. Half a dozen of people I drove to tears because it made me feel better, blackmailed 3 people into doing crimes, stole 20,000 $ from-"
" Enough." The man, boy really now that she took a good look, said, approaching. Both his voice and posture were less aggressive, but he still had this weird urgency about him that reminded her of the junkies she had met over the last year. " Give me your arm."
Not wanting to anger the possibly unstable parahuman, she extended her arm, mentally steading herself to whatever might happen next.
The scary cape's ( surprisingly small) hand grabbed her by the wrist. His fingers hardened and glowed as they dig into her flesh.
Pain. Horrible pain. Worse than the injures this size should. She felt like her entire arm was on fire. The pain spread to her skull and made her scream.
The last thing she saw before passing out was her torturer's ( weirdly boyish) face, looking at her with hunger as weird crystal-looking things burst and glowed in his skin, and his face tore into a satisfied smile.
###
Sarah lively had neither been sick nor hurt much in her life.
So when she woke up with her entire body tingling in burning pain and unable to move or think straight, she honestly prayed to god to just kill her and make it all stop.
Yet, instead of god, it was the source of her pain that came to her aid.
A needle with what she would later learn was homemade morphine pricked her neck. The relief was not total, but it was enough that she could at least think straight.
She found herself in a shitty looking apartment, laid on a sofa, arm bandaged where the crazy fucker grabbed her and said fucker putting a plate with food on the table right next to the sofa.
" I would offer to feed you but that would sound creepy as hell." He said. " So the food will be here for once you can move again."
Reaching into his pockets he summoned a bunch on cash - all crumbled and in different value notes- that he placed next to her food.
"The door is unlocked. It will take a few hours but you will recover. Just go away once are sure you will not fall down the stairs."
Wearily he eyed the guy, them the food and money he offered, really wishing her power would come back to her soon.
" Your power will not work while you are around me. Most Thinker and Trump powers don't." He shook his head sitting on the worktable on the other side of the room. " The food is fine. The money is an apology and I really will not do anything else to you. If you cannot deduce by the fact I took you out of that alley and treated you, I am actually sorry for all the pain, but is not something I can really avoid yet."
She tried to speak but her mouth would not move properly yet. In her silence, she was left to think.
Shaking off the rust from her natural deductive skills, she analyzed the situation. By how shitty this place was, and how it had several escape routes all around, this guy was confident in his ability to contain her or really had no better place to hide available.
From his clothes and the lack of mask, she could guess he was that poor and inexperient in the cape business.
The way he moved and how he organized everything on this place did not feel like a recent trigger, a total mess of a human being though. And the way his behavior changed from before and after hurting her...
A huge tired sigh broke her from her thoughts. " I am not keeping you, hostage, I need not keep you contained. I will take you to a freaking hospital right now If nod your head. And I AM pretty poor but is not something I think you should be judging me on, Miss runway from a mansion. Seriously, could you not have just waited 3 more years ? Your parents sound bad but they were not abusive or anything. If you had just rebelled in a less extreme way you could have all that money and status and there ain't much they could do against your people breaking thinker power, once you had legal adulthood. Heck, you could even have fucked turned that subtle abuse story in a weapon to get yourself emancipated early for god's sake."
Sarah's eyes reddened with tears of anger and she really wished she had her voice so she could tear this guy to pieces. Break his mind and make him- Wait!
What he just did...
" Yeah, it was your power. I am starting to think it rewards for saying mean things because damn, that felt good." He said, abandoning whatever he was doing on that table to crouch down next to her.
" Answering the question on your face : No I did not steal it. Not all of it. Once you are away from me it will work again as I said... It might be a little weaker though. Mush complained about it at least."
She really did not know what to say. She rather felt like cursing her luck for, from all the capes in the world to stumble into, she got on the sight of a villain with mercenaries and on the maw of a hobo-fairy-queen.
" Oh yeah... almost forgot. The reason I did not just call the ambulance to get you was that your power, plus another two Thinker powers, told me the guy who sent the mercenaries also could be found pretty easy in a hospital." The guy added with a grimace. " Still take you to the protectorate or to panacea If you want... will have to leave you with some unpowered associates though. I almost killed Assault and I do not trust myself near Anyone from New Wave."
Sarah's eyes widened, and her mind flew through the possibilities as her beat-down body tried to handle the panic.
" Wha- I - Damn, stop looking at me like that!" He snapped at her, only too little guilty at how worse it made her feel.
The next minutes were spent in silence as he got up and returned to whatever work he was doing.
It took several minutes for her to hear his voice again. this time, he sounded ashamed. " I... you are smart. You know powers are weird, and do weird things to people." Still at his table, still with his back to her, he explained. " Me- I get hungry. Crazy hungry. The type of hunger a normal person gets from staying 5 days without eating, I get If I spend a month without stabbing through a new Parahuman. After 3 months without using that part of my power, I go completely berserk."
Lisa tried to process what she was hearing. It sounded like a well-crafted sob-story, but after how casually he mentioned almost killing a hero, she was hard-pressed to believe the guy was all that guilty about it.
A low chuckle echoed through the room. "Getting a new power also works a bit like a drug. Gets me numb on the head and eager for more. One of the reasons not to meet up with any heroes right now. I learned that the hard way... The whole incident with Assault and Battery was right after I killed Trainwreck. Poor bastard got me while I was starving."
Finishing his weird confession the stranger returned to his work leaving Sarah to digest all she had heard and seen in the last 12 hours.
###
It took around 3 hours for her movements to come back to her.
She suspected her voice was working again as well, but, as with walking, she did not test it until it was the right time.
Even in all her hunger she ignored the food and tested her control over her feet in very discreet ways. Once the clock hit 11 PM Mark the man left the city living room to enter, what looked like, a closet-sized bedroom.
She counted a good 20 minutes before getting up and moving to the door.
Stumbling and shaking, she left the weird apartment without making a single noise.
###
Adam woke up feeling like shit as usual.
Getting to the living room he smiled at the full plate of food that was still in his coffee table. The Thinker Passengers had told him she would not eat the food, leaving it for him to munch as breakfast the next day.
He hoped the blond would be okay, even If his adopted Passenger told him that she had more than 54% chance of being caught by whoever sent the mercenaries, and 12% chance of ending up killed by the same people.
His calculations told him he would have to deal with the same guy going after him, unless he did something really dramatic again, like when he fought Oni Lee.
He hated both the extra work and the trouble it would cause, but ultimately it was better than having the guy thinking it was worth attacking and hunting Adam down.
Make them scared enough to leave you alone. Without being scared to the point they escalate.
Was probably the best lesson he could take out from the good old dragon.
He had just finished his food and was about to come back to drawing when his doorbell rang.
Adam massages his temples. There was only a 13% chance this would happen, but ...
" Open up already!" The familiar voice yelled.
At the other side of his door, he found the runway girl, with a bag in hand.
He thanked his Thinker passengers silently because without their warning about this possibility he would probably be slack-jawed at the sight of the teen actually doing something like this.
" Can I at least know why you did not try the Protectorate first?" He asked.
She frowned at him barging into the apartment. " It is really not fun being at the other side of this, you know. Make sure to watch out for that." She ordered, sitting down on his sofa as she owned the place. "I could yes, have tried the white hats, but my power - which is slower, thank you very much- told me the villain who sent the idiots you maimed would still try to get to me If I did. Surprised you did not figure that out." She teased, obviously trying to establish an illusion of dominance with every word, tone or action.
TT will not stop trying to impose herself upon you even If you point it out TT
TT already came to terms with having to use you to keep herself safe and is already making mental genetics to turn this into an act of revenge against
TT Fully understands your psychology after using her power intensely on making your Model and has plans and conclusions about you pre-made to try to circumvent your stranger
TT knows you will give in and protect her and already understands the types of strategies you might make use of to convince her to give upTT
TT Has made her new life purpose to annoy you and use you in most ways she can without actually angering
Adam let his head fall as he walked to the kitchen" Aaaand that is how things get 375% more complicated" He grumbled, taking an Apple to offer his new roommate.
" I am Lisa by the way. Did not have a chance to properly present me during your whole kind-hearted vampire routine."
" ... Kind-hearted vampire...please do not say that ever again." He complained weekly offering an apple to the girl whose name sure was not Lisa.
She took a bite, allowing the sweet silence to survive for around 6 seconds." That is the part where you answer all of my questions." Her smile was almost predatory." And I have a 4-page list of them."
Rubbing his face to relax his muscles, Adam took the bottle of gin he left under the coffee table and took a few generous gulps.
" Soon I will be drunk enough to pass out for the rest of the day, I will allow you one question before I lock myself up in my room and leave you to snoop around as I know you want to."
The blond locked him with a frustrated glare. It took her a little while to decide what specific question would annoy him the most and give her a good amount of information.
She decided on: " Who is the woman from your drawings?"
" Ah... of course you notice that." He says sighing.
" You spent at least an hour yesterday finishing a drawing of her when you already have two of them hanging on your bedroom wall." She pointed in the direction of his room, where the largest drawing he made was visible through the open door.
Shaking his head and closing his eyes he leaned on his chair. Forgetting to be annoyed at Lisa in other to reflect on his personal mysteries.
" To be honest, I do not remember. " He answered. In the eye of his mind, he traced the woman's features for the 100th time. Dark round face; cold yet shiny dark eyes; maybe 50, not younger than that; and hair pulled back in a tight bun. " But I will find out."
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
A This was actually the second chapter I have written.
The first was the Cauldron chapter. Still deciding on what order to post it