My Body is the Shield Chapter 3 (Original chapter Chapter 47)

The Next Day

"Damn."

I was at the particular part of becoming a Cape that didn't involve my little Holy Shield interface…well, aside from the quest I had received when I thought of what I was going to call myself.

[Quest Alert!]

Name It: You need to think of a name for your Parahuman persona. Come up with one before your first trip out in armour and receive a reward!

Quest Completion Reward: Title 2 Change to [Independent/Rogue Parahuman], Hidden Title 3 Added (Cape Name), +100 EXP, $50.

Quest Failure: Title 2 Change to [Independent/Rogue Parahuman]

Accept?

Yes | No

I had accepted, of course and, thanks to my deceased mother's job as an English Professor, I had plenty of potential names to try. And, thanks to the computer at the library and its access to PHO, there was a list of the names of almost every single Parahuman on the planet, so the chance of me taking someone else's name was pretty slim. There was only one wrinkle in my plan.

A lot of the good names were already taken.

My first choice had been Escutcheon. One of its three meanings was 'heraldic shield' and was almost custom-made for my power set. Sadly some Cape from Florida already had it. And his powers had nothing to do with pictures, crests or shields.

Mantle, Device, Emblem, Shield, Myriad, Crest, Motif, Insignia, Badge, Logo, Symbol…they were all taken!

My eyes narrowed at the first choice before I typed in a single word almost challengingly into the Cape Name finder.

Heraldry.

- Searching…no Cape with that name has been found.

"Gotcha!" I whispered before erasing my search history and closing the computer down.

[Congratulations!]

Name It: Quest Complete!

You have taken the name 'Heraldry' as your Parahuman alter ego and now need only step out as that identity to claim it permanently as your own!

Quest Completion Reward: Title 2 Change to [Independent/Rogue Parahuman], Hidden Title 3 Added (Cape Name), +100 EXP, $50.

I had my name. It meant not only the shields of coats of arms, but the way they were laid out and what they had on them as well. It fit my power very, very well.

Now that I had Heraldry as my Cape name…should I go out as Heraldry? As an independent Hero? I hadn't even tested out my powers outside of switching the shields around.

I reflexively looked at my chest, where my shield hung as a necklace. I was currently in the process of unlocking the [Battery Chicken Meat Shield (Small)] and it looked like a square with a plucked chicken emblazoned on it. I had already unlocked the [Needle Shield (Small)], the [Black Thread Shield (Small)] and the [Leaf Shield (Small)]. Turns out though, I have to be conscious for the shield to unlock things, so I couldn't sleep and unlock a shield.

As for the SP I had acquired yesterday when I levelled up, I had decided to hold off on assigning any until I had my first batch of shields unlocked. I mean, some were really useful, like the [Leaf Storm] skill from my [Leaf Shield]. With what I had available, I could Max Out one of them, but I didn't think that was a very good idea, as that would make me overly dependent on that skill.

There again, spreading my points out over all of my Active Skills seemed to be a Bad Idea too. If I did that, they'd all be too weak. No, balance was the idea. I had sixteen points; I'd divide it in half and sink half of them into my Passive Skills and half into my Active Skills.

There was no rush.

Later

Note to self: Don't tempt fate. Oh, and fuck the ABB and E88. And the useless PRT and Protectorate while I'm at it.

My neighbourhood had been turned into a warzone by both of them. And I could see the PRT and police blocking entry into it on one side. Guess which side of the barricade I was on? If you guessed 'the side with all the blood, bullets and violence' you'd be correct.

I had been home for half an hour when this shit started. From what little I had gathered, it had started as some skinheads harassing some ABB gangbangers and had snowballed into a huge clusterfuck from there. This, just so you know, sucked ass.

It was only a matter of time before some of the skinhead or gangbanger reinforcements started breaking into houses to drag out some conscripted meat shields or something and I wasn't about to wait like a fatted calf for the blade to drop.

Hurriedly calling up my Active Skill list, I wavered before dropping four points into [Shield Bash] and the other four into [Needle Spray]. The stat pages updated as I watched.

[Shield Bash] (MLV 5/20) [Unlocked]

For other warriors who use a shield in concert with their weapons, smashing your enemy with your defensive weapon is typically a feint or a last ditch tactic. For a Shielder, it is your primary form of physical attack. At higher levels, your [Shield Bash] can stun enemies for a short period of time.

MP per Use: 16.

Range: Hand-to-Hand.

Damage Dealt: STR+ATK.

Bonus Damage: +8%.

Cooldown: 4 Seconds.

[Needle Spray] (MLV5/10) [Unlocked]

Fire a barrage of 35-40 needles at the enemy from either the surface or from any of the edges.

MP per Use: 15

Range: 1.5 Metre

Damage per Needle: 4-6

Cooldown: 10 Seconds

While not what you might call overwhelming, they were what I had to work with. I also noticed that cooldowns had been added. This was slightly worrying. I mean four seconds doesn't sound like a lot of time, but when you're in a fistfight, it can feel like a long time.

Moving on to my Passive Skills, I bit my lip when I realised that in order to activate the Passive Skills from the shields, I would have to pay SP to active the 'slot' they were in before I could even start to level them up. That was more than slightly irritating.

Deciding that, as none of the Passive Skills from the newly unlocked shields (including the [Battery Chicken Meat Shield]) were worth the SP expenditure to bring them online at the moment, I would simply level up some of the ones I already had active. One of those would be [Defence Up (Small)], of course.

As to the other one, I was torn between [Lesser Pain Resistance] and [Auto-Defend]. On the one hand, I really, really didn't want to feel pain. On the other, defending properly would prevent me from feeling pain in the first place. Decisions, decisions…

Shrugging, I put four points into [Auto-Defend] and four into [Defence Up (Small)], which changed to reflect their new power levels.

[Auto-Defend] (MLV5/30) (Unlocked)

A part of a Shielder's instincts is when and where they will be attacked. Channelling that instinct, taking chance into account, this skill automatically moves your shield to intercept any close-combat attacks directed towards you. At higher levels, it will even intercept ranged attacks.

Note: While your [My Body is the Shield] Status makes your entire body carry the same defence rating as your shield, intercepting an attack with the shield has far less risk of the attack breaking through.

- Chance of Attack Interception: 65%

[Defence Up (Small)] (MLV5/10) [Unlocked]

As a Shielder, Defence is your greatest strength. This skill adds to your already impressive defence by a small amount per Mastery Level. It isn't much, but every little helps.

- Defence Added: 37

Again, it wasn't what I'd call overwhelming, but I would take what I could get at this point. Now the only thing I needed to do was figure out how to put my armour on…

[Equipment Tutorial]

There are three options when you wish to change your equipment.

First, you can change the old fashioned way.

Second, you can press and hold each square and drag them separately to the correct body location.

Finally, and this is what is recommended, you assign a particular outfit a code phrase. Once you speak the code phrase, you will automatically have that set of armour equipped in less than five seconds.

I was definitely interested in the last one. Following the instructions, I set it up, titling the armour as 'Heraldry Set 1' and the code phrase as 'Raise the Banner.' I didn't think I'd ever say that in casual conversation and I'd simply dissolve the armour set if I ever did.

"OK, let's give this a try…Raise the Banner!"

The next instant, I was surrounded in a flash of light as my clothes dissolved (not my bra, panties or socks though, thank god) and the armour appeared in their place. Fortunately, all of the armour had some sort of fabric beneath the metal plates, so they acted as clothes as well as armour. Really damn convenient that.

The armour was solid steel, with green highlights on some of the plates. It was just basic light armour rather than full-on heavy armour. Thanks to my [Light to Medium Armour Proficiency] skill, I would get even more defence…I think. I hadn't examined the skill, which was a mistake, in hindsight. Better rectify that.

[Light to Medium Armour Proficiency] (MLV1/30) [Unlocked]

Light armour is often the choice of scouts or those who find mobility to be the best defence. It offers protection without inhibiting movement and flexibility to any great degree. Medium armour is the middle ground between Light armour and Heavy armour, offering considerable protection with only minor movement and flexibility impairments. This skill increases the defence of any Light or Medium armour you wear, as well as mitigating any AGI penalties imposed by medium Armour.

- All [Light] or [Medium] armour gains +2 to their Defence Value when worn by you.

- All [AGI] penalties imposed by armour worn by you are reduced by 3.

Ooohhh…this would be good once I level it up a bit. Shame it's stuck down at MLV 1, but beggars can't be choosers.

Time to take out the trash.

Outside

The forty or so Empire thugs had been joined by Stormtiger and the ABB gangbangers had Oni Lee join in and the battle had been about to get really violent when a hunk of concrete flew between the two sides, making them look at where it came from.

An armoured figure in impressive steel armour and a tasteful red cape stood atop a house nearby, arms crossed. One hand bore a silvery shield, but there were no other weapons that they could see.

"Kindly move elsewhere to fight." The obvious Cape said firmly, "This is hardly a suitable place for such a thing."

Oni Lee looked at the figure before crumbling into ash and appearing behind them, a knife arcing towards the spine of the armoured figure. In a blur of movement, the knight-like figure spun around and blocked Oni lee with the shield before forcing his arm back and slamming the shield into the tele-duplicator's gut.

The enforcer of Lung actually staggered back before vanishing again, this time back with the ABB grunts. He snapped something out in Japanese and pointed at the armoured figure, which had turned around again and walked to the edge of the roof. The gangbangers looked grim as they readied their weapons.

"Can I assume you'll be wanting help putting these slants in their place?" Stormtiger called as he floated in place.

"No, you cannot." The armoured figure replied, "I'm no Nazi. I'll take care of these losers and then move on to your goose-stepping gimps."

"A shame." The Nazi Cape sighed theatrically, "Do you have a name so we can stop calling you 'that Cape in Armour'?"

"My name is Heraldry." The Cape said before jumping down to land lightly on the ground, "And I'm going to enjoy this far more than I should."

Stormtiger narrowed his eyes behind his mask. He couldn't tell if the Cape was male or female. It wasn't that they were disguising their voice….it was that he couldn't remember what gender the voice sounded like, even while listening to it. A Stranger power?

"Get him!" he barked at the E88 troops he had at his command. Male was a default for unknown gender Parahumans.

The first to reach Heraldry was an ABB gangbanger wielding a katana. The armoured Cape blocked the downward chop with his shield before kicking the man in the balls and throwing him to one side as he shrieked in pain. The next was an E88 skinhead with an aluminium bat. He didn't manage to block, so the weapon slammed against his armour…and bent as if it were made of rubber.

"…Huh?" was all he could say before Heraldry smashed him in the face with his shield, laying the man out.

"That's quite enough of that." Stormtiger growled and sent several wind blades at the Cape, who was advancing forwards, shield up. The blades slammed into the shield and dispersed, not even scratching the surface.

"That's quite the tough shield." He muttered, "I'll give it to Kaiser when I take it from your broken body!"

Oni Lee teleported in again, this time with a grenade pulled out.

"Shield Change: Black Thread Shield." Heraldry muttered and the silver shield…turned into a ball of thread. What?

"[Black Thread Binding]" Heraldry said and ten strings of thread about a metre long each sped from the shield and wrapped around Oni Lee, just before he crumbled to dust. The tele-duplicator appeared behind the ABB grunts, still bound by the thread, although that didn't last for long. Still, it was an interesting revelation about his powers. Evidently he carried along everything that was attached to him when he teleported.

"Get your guns out and shoot him!" Stormtiger barked and two men hastened to obey, pulling out a handgun apiece and pointing them at Heraldry.

"Change Shield: Holy Shield!" the Cape Hissed and the ball of thread became an ordinary-looking shield with a large green gem embedded near the top, just as the two men fired a couple of shots at Heraldry. With a couple of 'pings', the bullets ricocheted off his armour harmlessly, although this time the armoured Cape did wince slightly.

"What the fuck?!" one of the men shouted in disbelief. Stormtiger snorted. It wasn't as if the Empire didn't have Brutes that could tank a few measly pistol bullets, so what were those idiots so freaked out about?

"Change Shield: Leaf Shield." Heraldry said, and the shield changed again, this time into a shield shaped like an oak leaf, "[Leaf Storm]!"

From out of nowhere, a raging tumult of leaves appeared, engulfing everyone within a couple of meters of Heraldry, including Stormtiger, who cursed himself for not noticing that, even as he was fired upon, the armoured Cape had been advancing on the temporarily mixed group of ABB and E88.

Suddenly, a silver shield appeared out of the storm of leaves and slammed into his face, breaking his nose. Reeling back with a bellow of pain Stormtiger lashed out with wind formed into claws, but they skidded off the surface of the shield to no visible effect, right before the shield slammed into him again, this time right into his solar plexus, driving the air from his lungs.

Slumping to the ground on his knees, clutching his ribs with both arms, he didn't notice Heraldry come up behind him and slam his shield onto the back of his head, driving consciousness from him completely.

With Heraldry

Breathing deeply, I pulled my shield back as Stormtiger slumped to the ground, unconscious. The entire fight had been terrifying, but the only things that had breached her defences had been the bullets, and they had only cost me five HP. Granted, I had less than a hundred HP and I had forgotten to use my AP before coming out, but I would know better next time.

As the [Leaf Storm] died down the Empire thugs were freaked out when they saw I'd defeated their Cape leader and beat a swift retreat, abandoning their comrades. Oni Lee looked at me and I tensed, ready to fight, but he shook his head and spoke in a rusty voice that made it sound like he hadn't spoken English in a good long while.

"On this day, Gaijin, you have made enemies. The Dragon of Kyushu shall burn you to ashes for interfering with the ABB. For now though, you have a grace period for defeating Arashitora there."

With that, he barked more words in Japanese to his subordinates and vanished in a cloud of ash again, this time not to reappear in my vicinity.

Well that was troublesome. Looks like I'm going to have to watch out for Lung stomping up my street at some point. Oh joy. My attention was caught by a small window popping up.

[Congratulations!]

You have defeated:

- ABB Gangbanger X1

- Empire 88 Skinhead X1

- Empire 88 Cape, Stormtiger!

You earn 555 EXP!

You earn achievement [Grab the Tiger by the Tail]!

You earn achievement [U Can't Touch This]!

You gain a level! LV2-LV3!

You gain a level! LV3-LV4!

You gain 10 AP!

You gain 25 SP!

The [ABB] now dislikes you!

The [Empire 88] now dislikes you!

I had to blink at that. I'd levelled up twice? Wait…the amount it had taken me to level up from Level 1 had been 50 and the next number to get to Level 3 had been 150. I'd already earned 100 EXP for choosing my name, which meant that I'd just needed 50 more to level up to Level 3. If the amount of EXP needed to level up kept tripling, then I'd only needed 450 EXP to get to Level 4, and the amount I needed to get to Level 5 was 1350, although I could deduct 55 EXP from that, so I was at 1295 to level up again.

Sweet.

Absently, I changed to the [Black Thread Shield] and fired off threads that wrapped around Stormtiger and trussed him up nicely. I fired several more, just to be certain before doing the same to the ABB guy and the Skinhead.

Time to go and drag these guys to the police.

People were curious about her name in this, so I decided to help you out. ^_^