Justice for All Chapter 2 (Original chapter Chapter 78)

Abandoned Warehouse, Docks Area, Brockton Bay

Swish!

"Ninety-seven!"

Swish!

"Ninety-eight!"

Swish!

"Ninety-nine!"

Swish!

"One-hundred!"

I sagged down panting after that last swing. Iustitia had been counting out the swings for me so I didn't have to waste oxygen on doing so myself. Swinging a sword the length of a ten-year-old one-handedly might not sound like much, but the repetitive motions of doing so were sore as hell on my poor muscles.

On the bright side, I got two extra points of Strength and Endurance each from my efforts.

Iustitia changed into her Maiden form and smiled at me. "Congratulations master. You've levelled up and gotten access to the Job Dendrogram."

"The what now?" I panted weakly. Damn, I was going to need to start exercising more.

"Basically, the Job Tree." My partner explained. "You unlock jobs based on your actions, your equipment and the weapons you use. Furthermore, the Jobs are divided into Low-Rank Jobs, High-Rank Jobs and Superior Jobs. Anyone can acquire Low-Rank Jobs, and you can have up to six of those equipped, each capping out at Level Fifty. Mid-Rank Jobs are harder, as they require you to perform certain actions, have certain jobs already equipped and to have defeated certain enemies. Harder, but not overly so, so you can have up to three equipped. Superior Jobs are insanely difficult to acquire, but have almost Legendary-level stat bonuses and skills. Superior Jobs are so powerful that you can only have two equipped at any one time."

"Whoa…" I said, somewhat recovered from my exertions. "So, how many jobs can I take now?"

"Only the one, as you only levelled up once." Iustitia answered. "But the next time you level up, you can choose another job, so you can level up more frequently, although I'd advise reaching level twenty in a job before trying to acquire a second one."

"He who tries to be strong everywhere is strong nowhere." I quoted. Mom had had a bunch of translations of philosophers, including Seneca the Younger. I liked them, go away.

"Exactly, Master." Iustitia agreed. "Now, choose your Job."

Smiling, I reached inside my hoodie and pulled out a flip-mirror I'd found in a second-hand shop. It had been donated because it had a scratch across the cover, which I thought was just wasteful. It was still perfectly good for its intended purpose. Humans were so wasteful sometimes.

Flipping it open, I ran a finger down it and waited as my status screen appeared. Following Iustitia's instructions, I tapped the 'Job' name and a new set of words appeared.

Available Jobs:

- Fighter

- Soldier

- Swordsman

- Duellist

- Academic

I raised my eyebrows at the last one. That was probably from my status as a student at Winslow.

"You have a good selection." Iustitia remarked as I read them out. "I would advise against Duellist; they use thinner, lighter blades than my First Form. Fighter…that's more of a 'specialist in everything, master of none' job that isn't really useful for getting other jobs. Soldier will be useful once I gain other forms, but as you only have my First Form available, I would say Swordsman would be the best bet for you."

I agreed with her reasoning, so selected the Swordsman job.

[Congratulations!]

You acquired the [Sword Mastery] Passive Skill!

You have levelled up!

You are now a Swordsman (LV1)

You gain +50 HP!

You gain +500 Stamina!

You gain +5 Strength!

You gain +5 Toughness!

You gain +5 Endurance!

You gain the [Blade Charge] Skill!

You gain the [Swordsman's Eye] Skill!

You gain the [First Health Boost] Passive Skill!

The pain that was in my body washed away as the new job locked into place. Whew! What a rush! I checked my status again and smiled.

Name: Taylor Hebert

Gender: Female

Level: 1

Title: None

Job (s): (1) Swordsman (LV1)

EXP: 13/150

Embryo: Maiden of Justice Iustitia

Embryo Type: Maiden with Arms

Embryo Forms Achieved: 1/7

Stats

HP: 250

STA: 1500

MP: 155

Strength: 17

Toughness: 15

Endurance: 17

Intelligence: 20

Wisdom: 15

Luck: ?

I frowned, as something didn't look right here…oh yeah, my HP was too high. Maybe it was one of my new skills?

As it turned out, I was right. [Blade Charge] was a Swordsman's basic Attack Skill that was a powerful stab, while [Swordsman's Eye] allowed me to predict the movements of my enemies slightly, currently at a couple of seconds in advance. [First Health Boost] did exactly what it said on the tin and boosted my HP by fifty. It was a skill that levelled up as my Swordsman Job did, so the boost would increase over time.

"Well Master, this is looking promising." Iustitia said, clearly pleased. "Do you want to try out your new skills?"

I thought it was a good idea, so I did. Iustitia changed back into the Sword and Scales of Justice and I grabbed her two forms. The Sword was what I channelled [Justice is Blind] through and the Scales are for [Balance the Scales].

"So, how do I use [Blade Charge]?" I asked my Embryo.

"Simply mentally designate a target and utter the name." she answered. "With practice, you will be able to just think the name in order to use it."

A target…right. I looked around the warehouse and spotted a barrel that was lying on its side. Righting it, I double-checked that it was empty before taking a ready stance a couple of meters away.

"[Blade Charge]!" I said firmly as I mentally designated the old barrel as a target. I found myself leaping forwards, my blade drawn back. When I came within striking range of the barrel, the Sword of Justice shot out and pierced through the barrel's centre.

"Christ." I said as I pulled my sword out of the barrel. "No way can I use this against people unless they're a regenerator."

"I see your point, but what of the one you call Hookwolf? He would resist it quite well." Iustitia pointed out.

I blanched. "I really hope I don't run into him for a good long while, Iustitia. Hookwolf's only avoided a Kill Order because he's had other people rein him in before he goes too far. He's vicious and ruthless."

Seriously, the man was an ex-pit fighter who could change into animals made of steel covered in hooks. Until I was Level 100 at least, I didn't want to get close to him. Or Stormtiger. Or Kaiser. Or…Ok, most of the higher-ranked members of the E88. And Lung. And Oni Lee.

Urgh. Why did Brockton Bay have so many damned villains?

"Master, we had better start heading home." My Embryo said. "It's almost six."

"Crap." Dad was due home late today, but I still had dinner to make. Maybe I should order takeout?

Returning Iustitia to my Crest, I pulled on my gloves so no one would see it. My Embryo didn't like it much, but that was life.

Walking back home, I noticed that familiar prickle of my [Danger Sense] skill acting up. Looking around, I could see that the streets were almost deserted. What the hell? It's almost never like this in the Bay, especially not at this time!

'Master, ahead!' Iustitia called out in my mind. My eyes snapped towards the front from their roving and I saw…

…a multi-coloured hooded robe? What the hell?

"Hello there, young girl." A male voice said from the robe. It wasn't a robe, now I came to look at it properly. It was a man wearing a robe. He turned around and I saw the half-face mask he was wearing. Oh hell. A Cape!

"Who are you?" I asked. "What's going on?"

I was sweating, but ready to fight if needed.

"I? I am merely an actor on the stage of life." The masked man bowed. "But if you wish for a label for this dramatis persona, then do call me Hamelin."

My mind kicked up at that. Some Capes chose names that matched their powers, while others didn't. Armsmaster was rumoured to have picked his name out of a hat. In this case though, I had a feeling that this guy had chosen this name for a reason.

"As in the Pied Piper of Hamelin?" I asked for confirmation.

"Ah, so you know of it. Lovely." Hamelin chuckled and reached into the sleeve of his robe, drawing out a flute. "Enter the world of Hamelin, child, and grow."

Before I could do anything, he put his flute to his lips and played a quick three notes. A yellow cage snapped into place around me once the notes were finished.

"What the…?!"

Hamelin then played several longer notes and I was swallowed up by darkness. I was floating, somehow, and then I was landing on my butt as the darkness receded.

"Ow!" I said automatically. Looking around, I saw that I seemed to be in a tunnel made from a natural cave of some kind. Had I been teleported somewhere? Mover/Shaker rating there. Definitely a Shaker rating for the energy cage.

"Master, are you OK?!" Iustitia asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, Iustitia." I said, getting up and dusting my butt off. "Where the hell are we?"

"I don't know…" the Maiden of Justice answered.

"Well, if his name is anything to go by, we are either somewhere he's prepared beforehand on Earth Bet, or we're in a pocket dimension he controls." I theorised.

"Oh…the Pied Piper of Hamelin…I see." Iustitia said in realisation.

The Pied Piper had taken an infestation of rats from the town of Hamelin and then drowned them in a river. When the town refused to pay him, he had taken all of their children into an opening in a mountain, never to be seen again. If he had named himself Hamelin based on that last portion of the legend, it would make sense, not to mention the musical component he seemed to need to activate it.

If he did need the music to activate it. For all I knew it could just be a prop. Anyway, the important thing to do was to find a way out of here. Sitting on my ass in this kind of situation wasn't going to get me anywhere.

"Should I come out, Master?" Iustitia asked.

"Not yet." I replied. "If there's no reason for you to, say in my Crest. Last thing we need is to advertise the fact I'm a Cape to anyone else here. Without a good enough reason."

"Will there be other people here, Master?" the Maiden of Justice asked.

"In the original tale, the Pied Piper took every child aside from three from a town. A hundred and thirty of them." I informed her in a low voice as I went left and started walking. "Also I doubt that he started with me. The streets were deserted for a while before he found me. I'd guess that he's been hunting kids for a while."

After all, why would he go out of his way to capture me? My Dad was only important as the Union Representative of the Dockworker's Association, and that was pretty much it. As one of a series of seemingly unrelated kidnapping though? That made a lot more sense.

We were both silent for a while as I walked through the tunnels. They were seemingly without end and just as deserted as the Boat Graveyard. It had been…ten minutes or so since I had arrived when I heard the sound of something large running in my direction.

"Iustitia, be ready to deploy into First Form." I said tensely.

"At your command."

Seconds later, out of the darkness came a monster of a rat. It was the size of a Labrador at least and had foam frothing from its mouth. And, had I forgotten to mention that it was charging at me like a bat out of hell?

"Now!" I ordered and in a flash, Iustitia's Sword and Scales of Justice were in my hands. I held up the scales.

"[Balance the Scales]!" I ordered and the scales shifted. They went off-balance for a moment before snapping back into a level balance. A wave erupted from me that struck the giant rat. It stumbled for a moment before resuming its charge, but I could tell that it was having more trouble moving than before.

Raising Iustitia's sword form, I then said, "[Blade Charge]!"

Exactly the same as last time, I leapt forward smoothly and buried my sword into the gut of the rat, which had reared up to try to claw me. I reacted on automatic and twisted the sword around, ripping it out through the side of the monster's chest before leaping back.

The giant rat keened loudly before falling to the ground and twitching for a moment and falling still.

[Victory!]

You have defeated a Giant Rat of Hamelin (LV3)! You earn 75 EXP!

"Whew…" I sighed before shuddering at the sight of the corpse before me.

"Master, tap me on the head of the beast." Iustitia said. "I'll gather your loot for you."

Nodding, I gingerly tapped the tip of Iustitia's sword form on the head of the rat. It glowed for a moment before vanishing, along with the blood on the Sword of Justice.

Loot from Giant Rat of Hamelin:

- [Rat Fur Half-Face Mask]

- $10.00

"Iustitia…?" I said slowly.

"I can…influence what you get as loot a bit if you do the tap-method." She admitted. "You need a costume, a mask at the very least, so I...tweaked the drop."

"That's…actually good." I said with a sigh. "Just…next time, a bit of warning, ok?"

"Yes, Master." Iustitia promised.

Sighing again, I pulled my mirror out and scrolled through my screens until I found the inventory. I had a look at the mask.

[Rat Fur Half-Face Mask]

A basic mask made of rat fur. Conceals the user's identity at a glance. Adds +1 to all damage.

It was basic, but I'd take what I could get. Equipping it was as easy as the push of a button. It was nice and soft on my face, which was something, and it looked good on me too.

Grinning, I returned Iustitia to my Crest and continued down the tunnel.

I killed another Giant Rat and levelled up to a Level 2 Swordsman, which gave me stat boosts similar to my first level, sans the Stamina, but apparently that only came every ten levels. Skills were similar, coming every so often dependent on what they did. I was almost certain to get another Attack Skill at Level 3, so that was something to look forward to.

"Seriously, is this entire place one long tunnel?" I complained as I tapped another dead Giant Rat to retrieve the loot it held. By this point, I'd earned $30 and a cowled cape of rat fur. It was grey rat fur and 'raised the level of the [Cameleoline] skill' (basically giving me the skill while I was wearing it to boot), allowing me to fade into the background if I wasn't moving, so long as I was wearing it with the hood up. Once I earned enough EXP in the skill, it would go up to Level 2, meaning I'd have learned it at Level 1.

I love gaming the system.

This time, I got some [Rat Skin Leather Armour]. It added armour to my arms and chest, which was nice. A few of those talons had come a little too close for comfort.

"Master, I think you should have a rest." Iustitia said worriedly. "You're down to barely five hundred Stamina."

"OK." I decided that it wouldn't do me any good to be exhausted if a rat came up to me while I was out of Stamina, so I followed her advice. I sat down, pulled my hood up and wrapped my cloak around me as I rested and regenerated my Stamina.

I stilled even more as I heard voices, the first human voices in a good half-hour. They were a mix of male and female, a group of them.

"-I'm telling you this place is a giant loop!" one male voice insisted.

"Clock, that's unlikely." Another, younger male voice countered.

"Why, Kid? We got zapped here, wherever 'here' is, by a weirdo doing a Joseph and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat impression and you really think that a tunnel in a donut shape is unlikely?" 'Clock' countered.

"How would this place've been built then?" 'Kid' challenged. "The walls haven't any sign of a doorway of any sort, nor are any of them curved horizontally. It makes no sense for this place to be a 'giant donut' Clock."

"Urgh, can you two please be quiet?" a younger still female voice groaned. "Your argument about this is stupid."

"Sorry, Vista." Kid apologised.

Holy shit. The Wards. Hamelin had kidnapped the fucking Protectorate Wards!

The sound of feet stopped at vista's order. "Wait. I can sense someone here."

"What are you, Spiderman now?" Clock asked sceptically.

I could barely see the petit form of Vista at the head of the Wards. Gallant, Clockblocker, Kid Win and Aegis. No sign of former vigilante Shadow Stalker though.

"My powers are Manton Limited, Clock." The Shaker retorted. "If I can't use them, it means organic matter is presence, something other than moss."

"Oh."

"I can sense someone too." The large armoured form of Gallant spoke up. "Whoever it is, they're human and not hostile."

"Excuse me, could you come out?" Aegis asked politely. "We're the ENE Wards."

Well hell.

'Iustitia, only speak telepathically to me unless I order you aloud.' I sent to her.

'Understood, Master.'

Letting out a deep breath, I stood up, making the Wards jump in surprise. To them, it must have looked like I melted out of the wall.

"Holy-!"

"Clockblocker!"

"His name is Hamelin, Clockblocker." I informed him. "As in the Pied Piper of Hamelin."

Kid Win palmed his mask. "Of course. That explains the flute. Urgh, I'm an idiot."

Gallant nodded to me. "Nice to meet you…?"

"Call me…Justitia." I said with a small smile. "How long have you guys been here?"

"About two hours." Aegis answered. "We've been walking for most of that."

"Find any giant rats?"

"Nooooo…why, have you?" Clockblocker asked.

"Three of them the size of Labradors that tried to eat my face." I answered.

Vista's face, the parts I could see anyway, blanched. "Christ."

"Tell me about it." I grumbled. "I've only been here for about half an hour. Aren't you missing someone?"

"Stalker was on Console Duty today." Kid Win said. "We were on a visit to a mall when this Hamelin guy walks up, plays a flute and the next thing we know, here we are."

"Were any of the Protectorate around?" I asked with a frown.

"Only Battery and a couple of PRT Troopers." Vista answered.

"Still, how'd he get away from her?" I wondered.

"Less important than finding our way out of here." Aegis interrupted. "Justitia, care to join us to break out of this place?"

"Um…sure." I nodded. "I just came from over there though, so we'd have to walk half an hour just to arrive at where I came in."

I nodded in the direction the Wards had been walking to make my point.

"Well, we've covered everything back there for the last two hours, so your old direction's a better one than ours." Clockblocker shrugged.

"OK." I shrugged before walking over to them.

"Just to know, what's your power, aside from your Stranger power?" Aegis asked.

"It's a power Trumped into the cloak, actually." I corrected. "My actual power is...well…Iustitia, First Form."

"Yes Mistress." My Embryo answered and the Sword and Scales of Justice appeared in my hands.

"Whoa…!" Vista gave the impression that her eyes were wide open, despite the opaque visor she wore.

"Nice." Clockblocker said appreciatively.

"That…" Gallant sounded as if he were frowning. "I can sense emotions from them."

I blinked. "You're an empath?"

"Be a bit hard to choose my emotional blasts if I wasn't." he answered.

"Oh. Makes sense." I nodded. "OK then…Iustitia, Maiden Form."

"Yes, Master."

In a flash, the little Maiden of Justice was standing next to me. "Greetings. I am Mistress Justitia's Embryo, Maiden of Justice Iustitia."

There was silence at this. Then Vista glomped Iustitia. "So cute!"

"Does she do that a lot?" I asked in bemusement.

"Any time anything adorable, fluffy or cute is involved." Aegis answered dryly. "So…Master?"

"Master/Shaker/Trump." I corrected him. "She gives me the ability to quantify and improve my physical and mental abilities in numeric form."

"Wait…like an RPG?" Kid Win looked at me sounding shocked.

"Basically." I confirmed. Then, I froze as I heard the sound of running clawed feet. "Iustitia, First Form!"

In a flash, my sword was back in my hand. And I turned to see a Giant Rat charging towards me.

"God!" Vista sounded disgusted.

"What the hell?!" Kid Win pulled a laser pistol from somewhere.

"I'll handle it." I said and held up the scales. "[Balance the Scales]!"

Once again, the scales shifted and then rebalanced. The by-now familiar wave of energy washed out of the instrument and struck the rat, making it stumble for a moment, more than long enough for me to dash in and use [Blade Charge] to deal a critical blow to it before stabbing it a couple more times to finish it off.

"Oh god…!" Vista started heaving behind me. Dammit. Poor kid.

I quickly tapped the tip of Iustitia's sword on the head of the rat, making it and the pooling blood vanish.

"You're pretty hardcore, you know that?" Clockblocker said mildly.

"They're either projections or bio mutants created by Hamelin." I said with a sigh. "In either case, killing them is needed. They won't stop their attack unless you put them down for good."

"Noted." Kid Win gulped, but snapped a switch on the side of his laser pistol. "Lethal node online."

"I thought Armsmaster had to authorise that?" Gallant asked nervously.

"Our link to the Console is gone." The young Tinker shrugged. "Armsmaster set things so if that happened without a signal from him beforehand, I could access the lethal mode."

Damn. No reinforcements from the Protectorate then.

We all started walking down the tunnel in silence before Aegis spoke up again.

"Justitia, what was that ability you used against that rat?"

"It's…well, a Shaker power that lowers the physical abilities of all enemies within ten meters to match my own." I answered. "Or raise them."

"Huh?"

"The name of the power is [Balance the Scales]. That means the power's purpose is to equalise the abilities, the physical ones at least, between me and my enemies." I explained. "Either they get lowered to my level if they're stronger than me, or they get raised up to my level is they're weaker than me."

"That's…pretty scary." Clockblocker remarked. "What kind of tests have you done with it?"

"None. I've only used it four times, including just a moment ago." I answered. "Heck, I wasn't even in costume when Hamelin up and kidnapped me. I've only been practicing my power for a day."

"Holy fuck." Aegis swore. "This guy's breaking the Unwritten Rules, going after a Cape out of costume like that!"

"I'm more worried about what him going after us in particular means." I said with a frown.

"Whaddya mean?" Clockblocker asked in confusion.

"This guy's modelled himself after the Pied Piper. That means he goes after kids. And for whatever reason everyone he's gone after is a Cape." I stated. "Following that logically, he could be going after Shadow Stalker, Glory Girl, Panacea, Shielder and maybe Laserdream too."

"Aw fuck!" Gallant groaned. "We should have thought of that."

"Triumph isn't here and he's twenty or so." Aegis said thoughtfully. "I think that eighteen's the limit of this guy's criteria. Laserdream should be safe as she just turned nineteen not long ago."

"Any other teen Capes in the Bay?" I asked.

"Parian the Rogue Cape, Rune from the Empire and the entirety of the Undersiders." Kid Win volunteered. "Unless any more fresh Triggers like you are targeted, Justitia, that should be everyone from the Bay that could be or come here."

"Great. A pacifist, a Hitler Youth girl and the Masters of Escape." Clockblocker shook his head. "Not useful to get out of this place."

"It isn't like a healer, shadow-Breaker, Alexandria-type and a forcefield user are going to do much either." Vista pointed out.

Then the sound of a female roaring in fury could be heard echoing down the tunnel to the Wards and I. One by one, all of the others turned to look at Gallant, who slapped a palm to his faceplate.

"Vicky!"

Heh.