Justice for All Chapter 7 (Original chapter Chapter 78)
With Emily Piggot
Lobby, PRT Building
There were times that Piggot could wish that she could have died back in Elisburg to avoid the sheer number of headaches that this job was giving her. Like today, for example.
All of the Wards, barring Shadow Stalker, had been kidnapped in broad daylight by a Cape calling himself Hamelin. The kidnapping had continued on, after he had somehow manged to avoid being captured by Battery and Velocity, when both Panacea and Glory Girl had been captured right outside the hospital that the world's greatest healer had been working in today.
With New Wave incensed and the Protectorate out for blood, even Kaiser and Lung had decided to keep their heads down. Skidmark had tried to take advantage of the distraction of the Protectorate, but had been dealt with by Lady Photon as she passed.
Hamelin had led the two hero teams on a merry chase, especially after he broke into the Wards base to try and kidnap Shadow Stalker. The former vigilante had barely managed to flee long enough for Armsmaster to rescue her and Hamelin had managed to get away, again!
The chase had continued up until a while ago, when Hamelin, who had stopped in front of the PRT building for some reason, abruptly vanished in a shower of golden sparks and the Wards, Glory Girl, Panacea plus the teenaged villain gang known as the Undersiders, appeared in his place.
That was good news, but the fact that Aegis had been arguing with Gallant for the past five minutes about whether a mini-Endbringer Truce inside a dimensional pocket, of all things, counted.
Finally, a minute ago, Armsmaster had gotten fed up with it and asked Dragon for her opinion.
"I have to agree with Gallant here." The world's foremost Tinker said firmly. "Any situation that can be described as an Endbringer Truce situation must have the Truce upheld, both in word and in spirit. If it isn't, then the entire Endbringer Truce will fall apart."
"Fine." Piggot growled. The entire situation was ridiculous and she would have let the Undersiders go earlier, if Aegis hadn't acted like such an obnoxious, rule bound idiot.
Grue nodded and flexed one hand, a cloud of darkness the size of a grapefruit appearing above it. "Looks like Justitia was right; we have our powers back."
"I am going to kill Hamelin for overusing my powers like he did." Tattletale groaned as she staggered towards the exit. "Ohhh, my head."
"Later, bitches." Regent called cheerfully as he followed her jauntily, Hellhound stomping after him with a scowl on her face.
Once the villains departed, Piggot sent a scowl towards Aegis, who flinched back.
"Aegis, you will be sent for training on flexible thinking, as it is clear that you require it." She said crisply. "Gallant, who is this 'Justitia' that Grue mentioned?"
"A new Independent Hero, ma'am." The armoured faux-Tinker answered crisply. "She was captured by Hamelin approximately a short while after we were. She was in her civilian clothes at the time, but her power is…well, bizarre. It works, from all appearances, like the system of an RPG, quantifying her physical and mental abilities in numeric form and allowing her to improve them, as well as granting her the ability to gain loot from defeated enemies. She was the one who got us out of Hamelin's dimension, but at the cost of being trapped there herself."
Piggot was about to say something more when her radio squawked. "Console to Director Piggot."
"Piggot here." She sighed as she grabbed the device. As the Wards had all been absent and the entirety of the Protectorate mobilised, the console down in the Wards base was currently manned by one of her troopers.
"New Wave is inbound to collect Panacea and Glory Girl, ma'am. Lady Photon and Brandish are looking…determined, according to Velocity." The man said.
"Roger that." Piggot sighed again. Dealing with Brandish was never easy, but the woman was on a crusade at the moment, making dealing with her twice as arduous as normal, which was quite the feat. "Have Velocity lead them in."
"Acknowledged, ma'am." The trooper replied before going silent.
The members of New Wave swooped into the PRT building minutes later, grabbing their two formerly-missing members into hugs. Brandish, she noted, kept away from Panacea, however.
"Where is the…monster…that kidnapped Glory Girl and Panacea?" Lady Photon asked coldly once she had been reassured that her nieces were alive and unharmed.
"If the Wards and your nieces are to be believed, then he has a dimensional pocket that he can escape to." Piggot answered. "Presumably, that's where he is currently."
"Hamelin is a Glaistig Uaine-style Trump, although he requires the Parahumans in question to remain alive and unharmed unlike the Fairy Queen." Armsmaster stated. "Although the Wards, your nieces and the Undersiders were able to bring back a dozen or so kidnapped Parahumans, the sheer size of the dimension, comparable to a city the size of Boston at least, practically guarantees that he has other Parahumans to draw powers from. In addition to the difficulty posed simply by getting to his dimension pocket, Aegis informs me that any Cape who falls unconscious there has their power usurped by Hamelin."
"That was Justitia's best guess, anyway." Vista piped up. "I hope she's OK."
Gallant patted her on the shoulder bracingly. "She'll be fine. I actually think she chose to stay behind just so she could face Hamelin alone. The reasons she gave were good, but I think getting grabbed in her civvies really made her mad."
"I can imagine." Lady Photon said with a scowl.
Just then, Clockblocker burst into the lobby, mask a bit askew. "Director, you'll really want to see this!" he half-shouted, drawing attention from everyone present. Piggot almost screamed in frustration. What NOW!?
He hurriedly led the Wards, New Wave and Protectorate members down to the Wards base and pointed at the widescreen TV mounted on one wall that usually was used for when the Wards gathered for group bonding and relaxation. Armsmaster had been dubious about it, feeling that teambuilding exercises were sufficient for the former and that the latter could happen when they were off the clock.
This was coming from Mr 'Free-time equals Free-to-work-time' so Piggot had ignored his pro-forma protests.
Displayed on the screen was a dirty brown valley with two figures in it; one was instantly recognisable as Hamelin, in his multi-coloured robe, while the other almost had to be this 'Justitia' character. She was a tall person, dressed in a brown costume that blended in very well with the dull landscape. On her head was a crown that seemed to be made of rats.
"-recapture them once I have dealt with you, but at least I'll have your strange power to use against the Protectorate and New Wave." A male voice, presumably Hamelin, was saying.
Justitia scoffed. "Ha. It was one thing to attack them when they were off-guard and unaware of you, but now? It may as well be suicide for you. Besides…I plan on stopping you here and now."
"Damn." Glory Girl whispered as Hamelin grew amused.
"Ha! As expected, that was your intention when you stood back to let the other children go." The robed villain chuckled. "Arrogance precedes many a fall, child. This time, the fall is yours."
"Kindly don't go declaring your victory before the first punch has been thrown." Justitia shot back in a growl, plainly irritated by being underestimated. "Last time I checked, all of your power sources were taken out of your control zone. You should only have your original power left to you."
"She's being cocky." Armsmaster muttered. "There was no way to tell if that's the only place where Hamelin kept his victims."
"We never saw any place like that town in the rest of the dimension, Armsmaster." Vista spoke up, her voice strained slightly with worry for her new friend. "I think he only has that one town to keep people in."
"I may not have my organic batteries anymore, but I still have the residual powers left in this dimension from those who were here for at least a month to draw upon. I can only use them while in my dimension, but as we're here already…well, it is most unfortunate for you." Hamelin informed Justitia smugly.
"Shit." Kid Win cursed.
"Language." Aegis and Piggot chimed in at the same time.
"Iustitia, Form One!" Justitia snapped softly. In a flash, a European-style one-handed sword appeared in her right hand, while a golden set of scales appeared in her left hand.
"So that's why she took the name Justitia; her armament takes the form of Lady Justice's symbols." Piggot mused. "But why call out 'Iustitia'? It's just an alternate spelling of Justitia."
"Her power manifests as a girl who can transform into those weapons." Gallant explained. "She calls herself 'Iustitia, Maiden of Justice' and claims to embody Justitia's views on Justice. She seems as fully human as any that I've met and even gave us a lecture on how she came to be formed and why Justitia is a good 'Mistress' to her."
"She even knows who tortured Justitia into Triggering." Glory Girl growled. This made all of New Wave and the Protectorate stand straighter. A Trigger Event was no laughing matter, especially to First Generation Parahumans. A Trigger Event was the worst day of their lives, when they were at their weakest, when everything about them broke down and was reborn as a Parahuman.
Most of the time, Triggering was as the result of coincidence, pure happenstance. Other times, such as with Armsmaster, it was a drawn out affair that boiled over one day after years of frustration. The very worst times though were when it was as a result of human cruelty. Those who Triggered as a result of the last category were almost always powerful Parahumans, something that villain organisations such as Gesellschaft had noted and experimented with.
"Ready? Then let us begin…" Hamelin said before putting the flute in his hands to his lips. Moving faster than a human normally should be able to, Justitia charged towards the villain with her sword made ready for a stab.
With a three-note tune from his flute, Hamelin was surrounded by a dome of light that blocked Justitia's path to him. Ignoring this fact, the sword-wielding Cape struck the barrier like a giant ballista bolt. Cracks appeared on the dome, spreading outwards from the point of impact amid Hamelin's uttered oath of surprise.
"Get the bastard!" Glory Girl cheered, ignoring the chiding 'Language!' from her mother and aunt.
As if she had heard the tiara-wearing Cape's encouragement, Justitia drew her sword back and swiped hard at the barrier, shattering it. Miss Militia, who had entered just then, peered at the sword as it completed its arc.
"There was a glow around her weapon as she swung it." The heroine stated. "Some sort of Striker effect?"
"Her powers are like an RPG game character." Kid Win repeated. "This includes Character Classes. The one she's using right now is [Swordswoman], which gives her the ability to use a sword, as well as 'Skills' involving a sword. The two that she used just now she referred to as 'Blade Charge' and 'Blade Sweep' which are seemingly basic moves that increase the power of the strikes."
Powers, Piggot sighed to herself, were so entirely bizarre.
"What I want to know is how we are seeing all of this." Armsmaster rumbled as Hamelin and Justitia clashed repeatedly on the screen. "Dragon, any ideas?"
"The signal is being beamed straight to the PRT Building and funnelled down through the network to this TV set." Dragon spoke from another screen on the wall. "I have no clue how it's getting here or where it is coming from. Judging from the reports of captured Tinkers that the Wards brought back, I would guess that the tech comes from one of them. I wouldn't even begin to know how to reverse-track it."
"Terrific." Piggot groaned. She was going to have to put everyone through Master/Stranger Protocols, wasn't she? She really should do it now, but knew that the Wards and the two young ones from New Wave were going to want to see this through to the end.
Onscreen, Hamelin had been forced back by Justitia's advance until he suddenly flew up, a shimmering shield surrounding his body as he took off. One that made Glory Girl howl in indignity.
"That's my goddamn power!"
"That's Glory Girl's powerset you're using!" Justitia exclaimed onscreen. "She was only ever asleep here, not unconscious! How do you have her powers!?"
"Unconscious can mean a lot of things, girl." Hamelin sneered down at her. "I fully usurp their powers if someone is knocked out in my dimension, trapping them like that unless woken by an external source. If someone just sleeps here, I usually gain at least some of their powers; although it is both temporary and I can only use them here. As Glory Girl is a mere imitation Alexandria Package, she is not my first choice to use, but needs must when demons drive!"
With him swooping all over the place now, firing off various solid light constructs as projectiles, Justitia was having a much harder time of it now.
"What's the matter 'Justitia'?" he gloated. "Can't fly, can you?"
"Smug bastard." Panacea muttered.
Justitia dodged and slashed at the flying objects, deflecting them, but didn't manage to avoid a couple, which slammed into her side, sending her flying. She recovered in mid-air though and managed to land on her feet before tearing off towards the town.
"Smart thinking." Lady Photon nodded in approval. "Hamelin isn't used to being a flier, so Justitia will be able to use his inexperience against him in the more restricted environment of the town."
"The place is made of cheap wood and badly built brick." Glory Girl disagreed. "I coulda smashed through it easy. So could Aegis."
"And thus so can Hamelin…still, he isn't used to being a Flier or a Brute." Her aunt persisted. "Hamelin has displayed Shaker and ground-based Mover powers, not to mention the Tinkertech screens you told me about earlier, but no Brute or flight-based Mover powers. It takes quite some time to become accustomed to them, as you well know. That inexperience may prove beneficial to your new friend, Glory Girl."
"Come back here!" Hamelin shouted and fired off coloured blasts that had Gallant cursing.
"My emotional blasts! Damn, this sucks." The empath grumbled. His girlfriend patted his shoulder in sympathy.
"This is highly unpleasant to watch." Miss Militia was twitching with every close hit that the Independent Heroine dodged on the screen. "Dragon, isn't there any way to track this dimension's entry aperture down?"
"I wish there were." The Tinker sounded just as frustrated as Miss Militia felt. "Dimensional Tinkertech is hard to come by, so Masamune and myself haven't had the chance to analyse any. There was one Tinker in Canberra who was skilled at dimensional phenomena and would have been more than willing to help, but he either died or got turned into a Ziz Bomb in last month's Endbringer attack."
"Dammit…" Miss Militia cursed.
The rest of the room ignored the interplay between the Tinker and Heroine, focussing instead on the battle onscreen, as the brown-clad heroine reached the outskirts of the town.
With Justitia
I panted as I practically flew through the gates of the town. It was so damn unfair that he now had access to the powers of all of the Wards, Glory Girl and Panacea. Not only that, he was able to mix and match them, because Gallant sure as hell couldn't fly without his armour and I was pretty sure he'd just blasted at me with a beam of some sort!
"Come back here!" Hamelin roared from above and behind me. Jeez, what an obstinate dickhead!
With him able to fly now, I had to improvise. Restrict his flying space with the buildings, as I doubt he wants to destroy the walls that he built (however sloppily built they may be) and have to go through the ordeal of rebuilding them later.
I ducked into the alley between the first couple of buildings I found and broke through the window of the one to my left. It was a multi-story building (how did Hamelin build these, anyway?), so there were at least three floors including the roof.
"Accursed child! Come out so I can take your power!"
Fat chance.
Stealthily, I headed up the steps to the roof and peered out, seeing that he was floating in the middle of the street, randomly shooting the buildings around him with Gallant's Blaster power. Oh, how I wished that I could fly.
Fortunately, my improved physical stats meant that roof hopping was a very real reality. After ducking, jumping and hiding, I put more power into a jump and leapt at Hamelin, sword drawn back. He wheeled around just in time for me to score a cut right across his neck that would have ripped his throat out had Glory Girl's shield not stopped the blade of my weapon. I grabbed his arm before I sped past him and used him as leverage to throw myself above him again, raining blow after blow down onto his body.
Glory Girl had explained to me that most of her defensive Brute power was a shield around her body that let her mimic the invincibility of an Alexandria-type. A certain amount of damage over a period of time, or a lot of damage all at once, was what it took to bring it down, and it took a handful of seconds to regenerate and restore itself, long enough for someone to do serious damage if they were quick enough.
This had been after a couple of giant rats had clawed her leg in the outer chambers. Now I was using that knowledge against Hamelin. The shield finally broke and I scored a shallow cut down his chest. As I drew the sword back for another strike, he finally exploded at me.
"ENOUGH!"
In an instant, the space between us was several meters wide…Vista's power. I spun and landed on the roof that Hamelin had conveniently positioned me over. I noted that he had rushed to the ground awfully quickly there. Had his store of Glory Girl's power run out? If so, good. One potentially killer power, down and out.
"What's the matter, Pied Piper? Running out of juice?" I called at him as I moved to the edge of the roof. Although his face was in the dark from the shadow of his hood, I could tell that he was glowering at me. And, judging by how he hadn't blasted me with Gallant's emotion lasers, he'd probably run out there as well.
"Stumble in the darkness!" he hissed and the next thing I knew, I was surrounded in a cloud of darkness. Right, this was Grue's power. Gallant had told me that it was an obscuring cloud that no-one could see through, but I also noticed that sounds were distorted and I had no sense of where anything was either.
Fortunately, I had a counter to this situation. "[Justice is Blind]!"
With a hum of power, my sword's blade glowed white and I heard a shout of panic as Grue's darkness was also inflicted on him, along with the sound distortion effect. So [Justice is Blind] did work on Shaker powers. Good to know.
Evidently tired of being blinded, Hamelin dispelled the darkness on me, which also removed it from himself. He was standing slightly closer than when I had last seen him and was definitely glaring up at me now.
'I think he might be a touch peeved at you, Mistress.' Iustitia opined.
'No shit.' I thought back quickly.
"You have a set of scales that decreases the strength of your enemies, a sword that can somehow reflect powers back at their user and a club that hits like a Brute…what the hell are you?!" Hamelin demanded.
"Your worst nightmare." I shot back before leaping at him from the top of the building with my sword raised. In response, Hamelin created a sword out of light and raised it to parry. We clashed, with me getting thrown back at the same time as his sword shattering.
"Dammit…that's three powers used up already!" Hamelin hissed quietly, but I was still able to hear him.
Ha! Looks like he used up the last of Lightray's power too. Three down, who knows how many more to go. The joy.
"You…" Hamelin glowered at me. "I am going to make you pay for this!"
"I would like to see you try." I scoffed. "So far all you've done is run around like an idiot blasting things randomly with powers you only barely know the basics of. You became too used to letting your minions do the fighting and never practiced your powers for any decent length of time. Am I right?"
The twitch of one hand betrayed how accurately my guess had landed. What a waste of such a flexible power. What I could do with it…
I shook my head slightly. If wishes were fishes, we'd all be eating seafood. I was happy with Iustitia and my power was kicking Hamelin's ass at the moment.
"DIE!" he shouted, charging towards me, obviously drawing on the power of another flier now that the small reserve of Glory Girl's power he had possessed was used up. Aegis' power, perhaps?
My [Swordsman's Eye] skill told me he was going to launch a punch at my head, so I ducked and stabbed upwards, impaling his arm with Iustitia's sword form, eliciting a strangled snarl of pain from Hamelin. I then twisted it around and ripped it free of his arm, which annoyingly started to regenerate. One of the Capes he had captured must have been a regenerator. How irritating.
"Precognition now? Just how many powers do you have?!" he snarled. I realised quickly that he was tapping into Tattletale's own power now, which was a pain. From what little had been said about it, she could kind of cold-read people with frightening accuracy.
"More than you think and less than I want." I jibed at him. Then we got back to trying to hit each other. Unfortunately, he kept getting under the reach of my sword when he was this close to me, so I decided to show him my close close combat weapon.
"Iustitia, Form Shift!" I called out as I backpedalled away from a roundhouse kick. "Form Two!"
"Aye, Mistress!" Iustitia cried and, in a blaze of light, my tipstaff appeared in my hand, replacing the sword and scales. With a shout, I used the club skill [Mighty Blow] and slammed the club into Hamelin's body, sending him back several meters and right into a wall. I winced when the wall collapsed on top of him.
'Iustitia, exactly how low is my stamina right now?' I asked silently.
'You have less than 800 Stamina remaining, Mistress.' My Embryo replied instantly.
I blinked in surprise. I'd only been fighting for just over three minutes! 'How exactly did my Stamina deplete so fast? I fought against giant rats and the humanoid projections for longer than this before my Stamina dropped so low!'
'I suspect that Hamelin possesses a Stamina leeching power and used it to try and drain you dry of Stamina in the first few minutes of the fight.' Iustitia answered thoughtfully. 'Even now the Stamina consumption is almost double what it normally is. Thankfully you are wearing the helm that you received from the [Rat King of Hamelin], so the power of his Shaker Effect was reduced greatly as well.'
Sneaky bastard. Guess he didn't hear me talking to the Wards earlier about what my [Cudgel of the Law] could do. Wearing down my stamina was a Bad Idea thanks to this bad boy -or bad girl as it's Iustitia- of a club.
"RAAAGGGHHH!" Hamelin roared in fury as he forced his way out of his temporary prison. His cloak was ripped and torn in places and trickles of blood seeped from cuts and wounds all over his body. I also noticed that although he was straightening, he was also being very careful about it. Looks like whatever regenerator whose power he is using isn't very good at dealing with internal injuries.
"I'll kill you! I don't even care about your power anymore!" Hamelin shrieked, now completely enraged beyond all reason. "I'll kill you, then track down and torture your family to death! Yes…then you'll regret getting in my way. It'll serve you right!"
Ice and fear seized my heart in a death grip. He could do it, if for no other reason than he knew what I looked like underneath my mask and helmet. If he got away, he would keep his word. He'd discover my real name. He'd track down my Dad, my only living family. And he would kill me, then him.
No.
"No you won't." I snarled back. "I'll end your threat here, once and for all!"
This actually seemed to amuse him. "Foolish girl. If I die, this dimension will collapse." He scoffed. "And even if you somehow miraculously manage to escape, the useless PRT and Protectorate will pursue you for murder!"
"Justified self-defence." I growled back. "Plus, I really wouldn't be surprised if you have a Kill Order on you. Kidnapping Wards AND Panacea? If New Wave isn't leading the charge for a Kill Order for you, I'd be very surprised."
Now he was veering back to being angry. "My goal is a short distance away and you dare to stand in my path." Hamelin snarled. "I shall not allow it!"
"What the hell even is your goal?!" I demanded.
"I seek the deaths of every S-Class and A-Class Parahuman on the North American Continent." The robed lunatic stated fervently. "Hero, villain, rogue…I don't care what they call themselves. A fight between A-Class Capes killed my family! Then the Slaughterhouse Nine rolled in and murdered my girlfriend! They'll pay! They all have to PAY!"
Uh-oh. Houston, we have a nutcase here. He was mad…mad with grief and loss.
Suddenly, Hamelin's form shifted, blurred and then several more Hamelins appeared in a circle around me. I looked around wildly. A cloning power?! What fresh hell was this?!
Raising their hands, the clones plus the original fired chunks of ice that appeared from nowhere at me! I dodged a lot of them, but one dinged off my helmet and sent me to my knees, dazed. It was then that Hamelin's clones vanished and I was hit with an ice boulder the size of a hotdog cart.
I think I blacked out for a moment because I woke up abruptly, feeling a lot of pain. I stared blankly at the cavern's ceiling for a moment.
'Iustitia?' I asked weakly.
'MISTRESS! You're OK! Thank any god that exists!' my Embryo yelled in relief. 'You were only unconscious for a minute or so. Hamelin himself is exhausted and has not yet come at you again.'
'HP?' I enquired.
'Less than fifty.' Iustitia answered. 'Apparently, being struck while afflicted with [Dazed] raises the damage you receive by a set percentage. Were it not for your armoured costume and new helm, you would be defeated right now.'
Perfect. Just great. I made a note to ask why she referred to it a 'defeated' as opposed to 'dead' at a later time.
I groaned aloud and shakily, carefully, sat up. Looking around, I saw Hamelin whip his head up and around to stare at me in disbelief.
"IMPOSSIBLE!" he shouted. "No one who loses consciousness in my dimension through artificial means can ever wake up themselves! What are you?!"
"As I said before…your worst nightmare." I answered in a pained voice as I once more staggered to my feet, [Cudgel of the Law] in hand. I personally suspected that it had been Iustitia who had woken me up with her frantic calling, but I'd figure it out later.
"You…!" he seethed before visibly forcing himself to remain calm. "No…it doesn't really matter. Your left arm is broken, at the very least and I imagine simply standing up is painful for you. No matter what you do, it's hopeless."
Blinking, I looked down at my left arm and sure enough, it was broken halfway down the forearm. Looks like my [Pain Resistance] Skill was helping at this point, along with the adrenaline rush.
What he said was a bit true; I was far too badly wounded to attempt close combat again. I had a plan though, and communicated it to Iustitia at the speed of thought.
Hamelin stated to wearily walk forward, shaping a sword out of ice as he went. "I give you praise for pushing me to this extent. No one has done so in my entire time as a Cape. Any last requests?"
"Yeah…as a matter of fact, I do." I drawled. "Stay still."
Quick as a flash, the tipstaff vanished from my hand, which then flew into my pouch and withdrew Kid Win's Laser Pistol. I levelled it at Hamelin, feeling everything going into slow motion as I did it.
"Gun beats sword, you son of a bitch." I said coldly before I pulled the trigger.
Tsshew!
Red light burst from the muzzle of the weapon, which was still set to lethal mode, and stabbed through the space between Hamelin and me, piercing through the centre of his hood and out the back in a blink of an eye. Just as I was, he was too spent from using so many powers one after the other, especially that cloning one. He couldn't move fast enough. Hell even with his health and energy at max there was one thing he couldn't do.
Outrun light.
The hood fell back as Hamelin's body collapsed, revealing the face of a middle-aged man. Clean shaven, a little too thin, a slight overbite and a weak chin. He looked like any guy you would see walking down the street…aside from the gaping hole through the centre of his face.
A second later, time went back to normal and Hamelin's corpse hit the ground with a dull thud.
You have slain the Unique Boss Monster [Hamelin, the Pied Piper]! You gain 1500 EXP!
Generating Boss Loot…generated!
You receive [Dimensional Cloak of the Pied Piper]!
I clapped a hand over my mouth as my gorge rose. I had just killed someone. Granted, it was kill or be killed, but still…
[Congratulation!]
You have levelled up! Your level has automatically been assigned a class due to the manner in which you slew the boss!
You are now a [Gunslinger] (LV2)!
[Dexterity] Stat unlocked! Starting Dexterity: 15!
You gain 20 Dexterity!
You gain 20 Wisdom! (10 from Gunslinger Class, 10 from Iustitia, Maiden of Justice)
You gain 10 Intelligence!
You gain the [Quickdraw] Skill!
You gain the [Improved Accuracy] Skill!
It is highly suggested that you equip your new cloak at once, as the dimension you are in is about to collapse!
Shaking my head, I realise that the voice was right; the entirety of the cavern was…melting, for lack of a better term. I hurriedly pulled my mirror out and had a look at the cloak in question.
[Dimensional Cloak of the Pied Piper]
Rarity: Epic
A cloak formed from the Parahuman power of Hamelin, the Pied Piper. One of his powers was the ability to create, sustain and travel to and from a dimensional pocket. This cloak allows the wearer to travel to any pocket dimension they are aware of, as well as return to where they entered the pocket. It also increases the wearer's stats by a modest margin and has two known active abilities and one unknown ability.
Worn Ability: [Dimension Step]: Simply by focussing on the dimensional pocket you wish to enter, you can take a step forward and be there. To leave, simply picture your entry location and step.
Active Ability #1: [Dimensional Shift]: Allows the user to 'shift' to any location within ten meters of themselves. Ten second cooldown after use.
Active Ability #2: [Dimension Warping Barrier]: Creates a barrier to protect that exists in three separate dimensions at once and is able to withstand a tank's main cannon firing at it for five minutes straight. Five minute cooldown after use.
Active Ability #3: [?]: Unknown.
I equipped it, replacing the rat one, and a knee-length cloak appeared over my shoulders. It shimmered with all the colours of the rainbow and was (somehow) fluttering in a breeze that didn't exist. Great, I've got a dramatic piece of equipment.
Taking a deep breath, I dredged up the sidewalk I'd been walking along when Hamelin had picked me up. Taking one last look at the Cape -the first man- that I had killed, I concentrated hard on that road and sidewalk and stepped forwards.
Whew. This took way longer than expected. Mostly because I discovered the madcap antics of How Ridiculous on YouTube. Those guys are funny as hell. Seriously, I HAD to watch their videos, couldn't stop. A curse upon my fascination with people doing ridiculous things in the name of fun and awesomeness…
So, someone commented a while back that seeing Taylor meet the Undersiders all the time is boring. I will grant you that, but I do it because I like them, even Regent (!?) for some odd reason. See you later. Read and review, if you please!