Force Your Way Chapter 2 (Original chapter Chapter 74)
The Next Day
Cafeteria, Arcadia Highschool
After yesterday's surprise visit by a PRT officer, I was in something of a foul mood. Oh, it wasn't because of the visit itself; Hannah had been a nice person and had listened attentively to me when I'd talked about my problems at Winslow. Not to mention the fact that she'd made a pretty damn good breakfast.
No, what was bothering me were the memories that the visit had stirred up. Those three damned bitches had managed to get away with bullying me (to put it very mildly) for over fifteen months, and I had long since given up on any kind of justice for what they had done, but...this wasn't Winslow's lethargic and Trio-enabling staff I was dealing with; this was the PRT. Even if it wasn't a Master/Stranger situation, they'd investigate to rule it out...maybe even passing their findings to the police.
Despite myself, a traitorous seed of hope had been planted, hope for justice.
The sound of laughter drew my attention from my casserole to the table where Victoria Dallon, Glory Girl of New Wave, sat with her boyfriend, sister and friends. All of them were pretty/handsome and made me look like a scarecrow.
Returning my attention to my food, I started eating it before it got cold. The cafeteria food was a LOT better at Arcadia compared to Winslow, but hot casserole gone cold isn't pleasant, regardless of its origin.
With Amy Dallon
Amy spotted the girl looking up at her sister briefly before returning her attention to her food. She knew who this girl was very well; Taylor Annette Hebert, the only person aside from Alexandria, in Amy's entire time as the healer Cape Panacea, to have outright resisted her powers. She had laid hands on her and gotten a big 'nope' from her power, at least when it came to the two badly scarred pieces of skin on her wrists. Everything else was able to be affected (even the brain, although Amy hadn't broken her Rule) but not the wrists.
It had been driving Amy mad with curiosity, and having the girl just sitting there was almost too much to bear. She wanted to find out more, but she could well imagine the girl's reaction to being asked by Panacea to see what made her body tick and why it resisted her power.
"Interested in the new girl, sis?" her sister asked with a smirk.
The brunette squeaked in slight outrage at that. "Vicky!"
"Oh? Do I hear a crush being born?" Dennis teased, making Amy scowl at the civilian identity of Clockblocker.
"Ha. Ha. Ha." she said tartly. "As it so happens, I was asked to heal her and my power didn't work on the part I was asked to fix, actually."
"Seriously?" Dead Stansfield, Vicky's on/off boyfriend, asked with surprise in his voice.
"I could affect everything else I normally can, but not her wrists."Amy said with a slight harrumph of displeasure.
"That isn't normal. Is she...?" Chris, Kid Win, asked with wide eyes. He only asked that thanks to a tinkertech doohickey that made all conversation at their table seem innocent being present.
"Not breaking the Rules, Chris." Amy said stolidly. It was true though; Taylor Hebert was a Parahuman, with the most unusual Corona Pollentia and Corona Gemma she had ever seen. Most Pollentia and Genma were just indistinct lumps of various sizes and shapes, whereas Taylor's had a defined and uniform shape. It was most bizarre, but not nearly as much so as her wrists were.
"Ah...shit, sorry." the Tinker flinched.
"it's fine, just think before you ask...unlike Dennis." Amy replied with a small smirk.
"Oi! I do so think before I talk." the boy shot back. "I just tend to discard it."
"And that's why the Director put you on console duty for over two months after your debut." Carlos, the Ward Leader Aegis, spoke up for the first time in a while.
"Feh. My idea was better than the one that Glen chose." Dennis scoffed. "I mean c'mon, Clockwise? That would've made me sound like some old dude who fixes clocks!"
"You've got the humor of an old dude, so it fits at least." Vicky snarked.
As Dennis clutched his heart dramatically at the words, Amy rolled her eyes. The Striker known as Clockblocker was more irrelevant than half of the population of Arcadia put together. He was funny, on occasion (although she'd never tell him that), but he sometimes didn't know when to stop.
Sneaking a look over to the table where her subject of interest had been sitting, she was disappointed to see that the other girl was gone. She did have a couple of classes with the girl, so she could at least talk to her at some point. It might be nice to make a friend...and have another opportunity to touch her and try to figure out what the heck blocked her from fixing her wrists.
That Night
Unknown Location
Waking up in the weird place where I'd gotten my Venger Blades, Athena's Aegis and Veil of the Forgotten Queen from wasn't a surprise as it had been the first two times. I had gone to bed, tired from my practice in the Docks warehouse that I had taken to going through every night after school.
As I had done the previous time, I had appeared in front of the last plinth that I had been at, the one which had carried Hestia's Veil on it. Presuming that my powers wanted to give me something else, I advanced forwards past it. As before, the shadowy red and black landscape was filled with ruined buildings, fighting figures and a general air of combat.
I wasn't entirely inured to it, but I was able to ignore it to a point without freaking out. Go me, I guess? As I walked, I found myself clad in Athena's Aegis and with the Venger Blades strapped to my back, the chains stretching down and wrapping around my forearms.
After an indeterminable amount of walking, I came face to face with what looked like a massive gate set in my path. It was made of finely crafted bronze and parts of it glowed with a powerful yellow light. The illuminated bits resembled a man in armor similar to that of the Armor of War that I had turned down before. Set in front of the gate was a brazier filled with flickering flames the same color as the glowing gate.
As I approached, words in Ancient Greek appeared above the brazier and, like before, I could read them.
FOR THOSE WHO WOULD SEEK THE TRUTH, ARES' FIRE HAS NO BURN.
Ares? The Grecian God of War? I suddenly had the idea that it was a very good thing that I hadn't chosen the Armor of War earlier. Still, I basically had to get this power, whatever it was, or just remain standing at this gate all night.
Driven by instinct, I reached back and unsheathed the Venger Blades from their place on my back. Flipping them around into a reverse grip, I drove them into the center of the fire in the brazier, where the yellow light started to flow into the blades. After a while, the fire vanished inside of my weapons and the brazier cracked in half before disappearing. Then more words appeared.
DEFEAT THE ENEMIES WHO ASSAIL YOU TO UNLOCK THE GATES.
"Enemies?!" I yelped, looking around, holding my weapons up defensively. Then I spotted men approaching from the side...no, not men...skeletons! Undead?! What fresh hell was this?!
All of the skeletons, about twenty of them, were wearing a helmet I recognized as being referred to historically as a Corinthian-style helmet, with red horsehair crests atop them. They carried bronze short swords and shambled towards me faster than fiction would have made me believe.
Well...this is a dreamscape or something, right? And these were the reanimated dead, right? So...killing them should be OK...right?
Oh, to hell with it.
With a shout, I threw my blades into a long reverse-scissor move that decapitated the first skeleton soldier easily before the bones were consumed by a crimson-red fire. Astounded, I lashed the Venger Blades back to my hands and examined them for a moment. The blades themselves were wreathed in the same crimson fire that had burned the skeleton and at the base of the blades, just above the hilt, was a stylized engraving of a flame, outlined in glowing yellow light.
"Oh, you guys are in so much trouble!" I snarled happily as I understood what had happened. I charged in and started hacking and slashing with the fire-infused Venger Blades, felling skeleton after skeleton with ease. The rush of combat filled me and I laughed as I cut down my enemies.
As the number of skeletons dwindled to five, I reared back, extended my Blades on their chains and then slammed them into the ground, creating a massive eruption of fire all around me that engulfed the skeletons and obliterated them. It was a move which I somehow knew was called the Inferno Slam.
With a hollow creaking sound, the gates swung inward, glow fading and allowing me passage. Cautiously, I advanced down the path, one Blade drawn, with the other ready to be drawn at a moment's notice.
After another interminable time walking, I came across another plinth, similar to the one that had held Hestia's Veil. This time, what was hovering on the plinth was a golden Corinthian-style helmet, with a red and black-striped horsehair crest standing proudly atop of it.
The Three Furies grant you the Helm of the Erinyes, to block the sight of scryers and protect your mind from delusion.
Wait...the Furies?! As in Alecto, Megaera and Tisiphone?! In mythology, Alecto punished moral crimes, Megaera punished those who were oathbreakers, thieves and those guilty of infidelity, while Tisiphone punished murderers. While not gods, they were still feared figured in Greek Mythology.
As for the description...scrying is the art of remote seeing or even just a general term for foretelling the future in most terms, which leads me to believe that this item is designed to block precogs and far-seers. The latter part is interesting, as it implies it protects me from mind-warping effects. This could mean Master abilities, Shaker abilities and...possibly even the Simurgh's scream.
Shaking my head to drive that last thought away, I reached for the helm. I was not going to even try to go against Ziz if I could help it. I was not suicidal and I was not stupid. She wasn't known as the Hope-killer for nothing.
As soon as I touched the helmet with my hands, I was wearing it. Surprisingly, I could see right through the metal, so there wasn't any loss of sight, and I could hear perfectly fine as well. My hair, now that I came to notice it, was tied back into a braid to keep it out of the way. All in all...I quite liked it.
Then everything went white...again.
Next Night
Rooftops, Docks Area
I stood on top of the roof of a warehouse in the Docks area, looking for crime. Something that I hadn't noticed until today (thank you, prankster with a stink bomb) was that my senses had jumped up in sensitivity since the last time I had entered my dreams. I could see, hear and smell far more keenly than before The Locker and my little coma, and every time I visited the dreamscape, the effects were more pronounced.
Ever since I'd woken up this morning though...I'd started to have the urge to go out on patrol. I had the feeling my powers thought it was time to be used for something other than practice, given the abilities it was giving me access to. Manifesting my armor and weapons was a solid Shaker power, the protections against precogs, distance viewing, Master/Shaker/Ziz powers and having my face seen were almost certainly Thinker and Stranger powers, while granting myself powers like I seemed to be doing without conscious effort was a Trump rating. The Fire of Ares was definitely a Striker power.
So, here I was, out on the town at night while Dad snored away after a hefty helping of Mom's recipe lasagna. Thus far, the closest thing to lawbreaking that I'd seen was a drunk guy urinating on someone's car. I did not need to see that.
Huffing in irritation, I leapt to the next roof, landing with a light thud. As nice as Athena's Aegis was, it still wasn't light. Only my enhanced strength let me wear it without being unable to move, and the actual aegis part of it was hard to get used to flapping about as I jumped. It was getting easier every time I moved, which I suspected was a part of my powers; the more often I used them, the more knowledge I gained about them and the faster the motions were ingrained into my muscle memory.
That sounded a bit like what PHO described Über's as, a Thinker power. I had quite the wide variety of powers, which worried me. Most so-called 'grab-bag' Capes had a smattering of weak powers, all rather weak compared to more specialized powers, at least according to PHO. One example of a local grab-bag cape would be the thief-for-hire Circus. He (or she, no one knew what Circus' gender was) had a smattering of low level powers that made them useful, but nothing special to write home about.
Now, this was PHO that we were talking about, so I was taking any information I got from it with several large pinches of salt, but I needed some information to work off of.
Looking around in irritation, I muttered a curse to myself as I once more spotted no criminal activity. What the heck? Had Kaiser given his skinheads a paid holiday? Were the ABB on sick leave? Had the Merchants gotten too drugged up to do more than lie around, giggling and drooling like idiots?
That last one was likely, but the other two weren't. The more obvious answer was that tonight was simply a low-crime night; even in a place full of crime like Brockton Bay, they were bound to happen, somewhat like a blue moon, really, except rarer.
Just as I was about to turn and head for home, a snarling roar made me freeze. Aside from the occasional bestial robots made by L33t, there are only two Capes in Brockton Bay who roar; Hookwolf and Lung. I doubted it was the latter though; Lung would be lit up like a beacon with fire, and it was still dark and sullen out here. Besides, there was also a metallic echo to the howl, as if it was being shouted town an old megaphone.
Leaping across the street, I headed straight towards the source of the howl, which also had the sounds of metal on asphalt and people running and panting. I tracked it until I landed on top of yet another warehouse and spotted Hookwolf loping along. It was obvious that he wasn't going all out, not even close to it, and considering there were three people fleeing him, it didn't take much of a deduction to see what he was doing.
He stalks them like a hunter, plays with them, toys with them before he closes in for the kill. Such an act is unworthy of a warrior.
Whoa...OK, where the hell did that come from? I got the impression of a beefy dude with a voice like grinding rocks and enough blood on his hands to fill an inland lake, at least.
Shaking my head, I focused on the fleeing trio. One was a blond in a purple bodysuit and wearing a domino mask, one was a guy in motorcycle leathers and helmet, while the last was wearing some kind of large and loose-fitting shirt with a Venetian-style mask and a little crown on his head. As I watched, the crown boy frantically waved his hand at Hookwolf, making the large metal wolf stumble and change direction to slam face-first into the wall to his left, only to roar again and charge out in pursuit of the three masked teens, who were presumably Capes of some description.
Given the overwhelmingly skewed hero-to-villain ratio (in favor of the villains) in Brockton Bay, it was safe to assume the three fleeing Capes were villains. I wasn't sure who they were, PHO being untrustworthy as it was, but regardless of their alignment and allegiances, I wasn't about to sit back and let them get killed by Hookwolf.
To face a worthy foe and emerge victorious is a warrior's glory.
Okaaaaaayyyy...just gonna ignore that for now. I had a big wolf on campus to deal with.
I reached for the Venger Blades.
With Tattletale
I am going to fucking murder Rachel!
She'd asked us to help her raid a dog fighting ring run by Hookwolf. That we had no problems with. Fuck Nazis, and fuck people who paid Nazis to make two dogs fight to the death for entertainment, after all.
It had gone wonderfully...right up until there were twice as many dogs as expected and the canine Cape had ordered us out of the getaway van to make room for the dogs, just as Hookwolf turned up! Seriously, I was going to shoot her for this...if I managed to somehow escape from a pissed off metal wolf the size of a car which was bristling with claws, blades and hooks ready to turn Grue, Regent and me into so much mincemeat.
I glanced back for an instant at just the right moment to see Hookwolf being drop-kicked into the ground by a new Cape. I say 'new' because I certainly hadn't seen a female version of Dauntless flying around the Bay!
As the Cape leapfrogged off of Hookwolf's head and somersaulted to land lightly on her feet a few meters away, I sicced my power on her.
Tall, definitely female in stride and stance. Armor looks like gold but is likely many times stronger. Resembles Ancient Greek armor, specifically Hoplite armor. Corinthian-style helm, but subject lacks the telltale signs of blocked vision and distorted hearing associated with a full-helm. Cloth similar to armor, many times stronger than it looks, as strong as several inches of steel. Blades on back designed to offer maximum utility in combat, sharp enough to cut through most body armor easily and can be wielded at mid-range by using the chains attached to them to throw then in a scything or scissor motion. Blades, helmet and armor possess Trump effects that protect and enhance wearer/wielder in combat.
Holy shit, this girl (tall, gangly, muscles developing faster than what is normally biologically possible as power is used, estimated to be sixteen to eighteen) was a fucking powerhouse. What the hell was she doing here?!
Hookwolf growled as he tore himself out of the ground and I belatedly remembered that I was supposed to be running for my life. I took three steps before the metal wolf growled, sending a message labeled 'Primal Terror' to my hind brain.
"Bitch! This is Empire business!" he snarled at the new Cape, who calmly reached up and unsheathed the axe-like blades, holding them firmly in each hand. "Who the fuck are you?!"
"Call me Bia." the Cape spoke softly, yet firmly. "And I could care less about your 'Empire', little dog. You want those three? Come get them."
Bia. Ancient Greek personification of Force, Anger and Raw Energy. One of the daughters of the Titan Pallas and Oceanid Styx, sister of Kratos, Zelus and Nike. Name taken to subtly declare her power. Name taken to emphasize her femininity. Used as link with [?].
The migraine that developed at the last incongruity was, by the standards of Thinker Headaches, fairly mild, sort of the power equivalent of a slap on the wrists. Still, it was sharp, sudden and distracted me enough that I stumbled and had to quickly change my course to collapse behind some crates stacked haphazardly nearby.
Regent and Grue had already left by this point, obviously not realizing that I had fallen behind them. Damn my thirst for knowledge!
"You really think that you can fucking take me on and live, race traitor?!" Hookwolf sneered, more blades sprouting from his body threateningly. "I'm HOOKWOLF!"
Bia tilted her head to the side slightly. Smiling, amused, contemptuous of Hookwolf. Sees him as beneath her. Dislikes him for being a Nazi. Dislikes him for being a gang member.
"For those who seek the truth, Ares' Fire has no burn." she recited. "Let us see how open to seeking the truth you are, Hookwolf!"
With those words, a symbol appeared at the base of the bladed portion of her weapons, a stylized flame, and then her weapons erupted in an orange-red flame that made me flinch back as a deluge of information rushed into me.
Flame is powerful, of unknown origin. The more open-minded a target is, the less the flame will harm and burn them. Conversely, the more closed-minded the target, the greater the damage they shall receive. The wielder of the flame is totally immune to both the flame and the heat unless they wish to be affected by either.
I had wide eyes as this processed. Against a Nazi, that fire may as well be a deadly weapon! Being a closed-minded/narrow-minded bigot was basically the definition of being a Nazi or fascist, after all.
Bereft of the knowledge granted to me by my power, however, Hookwolf was not impressed.
"That it? A little fucking fire? Gonna have to do more than that to impress me, bitch!" he roared before charging straight towards Bia, who drew her arms back and flung them up, sending the blades in her hand flying out, the chains extending (can extend several meters in any direction and are unbreakable) and turning the blades into a powerful blades whip in the process.
When the weapons hit Hookwolf at the exact moment he entered Bia's range, he was flung up wards, spinning, twisting and flailing as he went. Bia leapt up after him, drawing her bladed whip chains around in a diagonal spin before bringing them down, wrapped in an enormous plume of flames, sending the chief enforcer of the Empire 88 shooting down into the ground like a bullet, a pair of long lines cut through the solid steel of it body, with fire eating away at him as well.
Even as Hookwolf slammed into the concrete ground with an earth-shattering 'CRACK!', Bia descended, weapons bearing down on her enemy in their whip-form.
"INFERNO SLAM!" the armored Cape shouted just before the blades struck Hookwolf, creating a massive explosion of fire that engulfed the Empire Cape, as well as everything for several meters around the point of impact.
"Holy fuck!" I whispered as I instinctively clenched my eyes shut to protect them from the light after the semidarkness.
As the light dimmed, I cracked first one, then the other, open to gauge the situation. Then I was scrambling to my feet as Bia loomed over me, one of her blades still in hand. I couldn't make out her face through the eyeholes in her helmet (Stranger field, designed to protect her identity) but I could tell, somehow, that she was looking at me curiously. Behind her, I could see Hookwolf, back in his human form and unconscious, some minor wounds on his torso the only sign of the damage dealt to him in his Changer form.
"Y-you beat Hookwolf like he was nothing!" I gaped.
"He is resilient, but too used to being the big wolf on campus." Bia replied smoothly. "I take it you are a villain, yes?"
I froze slightly before relaxing. Regardless of what I did, she could gut me like a pig easily, so I may as well be honest.
"Yup. Name's Tattletale, a small time thief." I answered. "My team, the Undersiders, raided a dog fighting ring run by Hookwolf. We got the dogs out, but there were more than we'd expected, and my teammate, Bitch-"
"Wait, seriously? She calls herself 'Bitch' as her Cape name?" Bia interrupted, incredulously.
"She became more doglike than human after she Triggered." I shrugged. "Anyway, Bitch is more concerned with dogs rather than humans, so she kicked us out of the van just as Hookwolf showed up, so we started running."
"Huh...you may want to do something about 'Bitch' when you return to your team." Bia commented before looking down sharply at her drawn blade, which had burst into flames all of a sudden. "What on earth? I didn't activate the Fire of Ares!"
Abruptly, a tongue of the flames lashed out and wrapped around me and the sensation made me gasp before my body was surrounded by a corona of fire. Then, a strange voice was whispering into my head.
For one who seeks the truth, Ares' Fire has no burn. Continue to seek the truth, and the fire within shall grow in power.
After the voice stopped talking, the fire faded outwardly, but I could feel, somehow, that it had merely retreated within me, awaiting my call. Bia stared at her weapon in disbelief before extinguishing the flame and sheathing the weapon over her shoulder before looking at me curiously.
"So what the heck was that?" I asked.
"It looks like my power likes you for whatever reason, and gave you a seed of the Fire of Ares." the armored Cape said with a hesitant note in her voice.
Doesn't like that her power acted outside of her control. Curious about why it chose to empower a villain. Wary because I'm a villain with a power she has a fair idea about how powerful it is.
"I really am just a thief." I assured her hurriedly. "The Undersiders just do hit and run robberies that harm no one. We don't do drugs or anything like that. We aren't like the big three gangs at all."
That made her relax, fractionally. "Misuse the Fire of Ares and I'll have you in jail so fast you won't see a transition between places."
Serious about that. Accepts self-defense against heroes and other villains as a legitimate use of the fire. Accepts careful use against non-powered people in self-defense. Accepts using the fire in defense of others as acceptable. Deviating from these standards will result in her pursuing me with a vengeance.
"I'll toe the line." I said with a gulp.
"Good. Now...what to do with him." Bia turned to regard Hookwolf thoughtfully. "I don't have a phone to call it in, and I don't want to have to haul him to the nearest police station, the cops won't be able to handle him if he wakes up..."
"I think I have an idea for that..." I started with a smirk.
Later that night, I laughed my ass off at my flat when the security camera feeds she'd hacked from her laptop showed Hookwolf, strung up by his wrists against the warehouse where he and Bia had fought, with a message carved into the metal above him saying 'Bad Dog'.
I was so amused that I wasn't going to be as harsh when I tore a strip off of Bitch when I saw her next.
Upper Earth Orbit
The Simurgh
The fifteen-meter tall and winged humanoid bei8ng known to mankind as the Simurgh shifted. Alone of the so-called Endbringers, she, or more properly 'it' as it had never been alive and was a construct, was anything close to sentience. This was because of the powers that it used, which required a proper mind to be used to their fullest potential, and the Thinker had been nothing if not exacting in the construction of the tools it built.
Up until a few weeks ago, the youngest of the three deployed Conflict Escalation Engines had simply been going through the motions, following the unspoken, unknown command of the human known as 'Eidolon' to provide him with a worthy foe to test himself against.
Shortly after the Simurgh had caused Canberra to be walled in, however, the remnant of ancient entities native to the blue and white planet had arisen and communicated with the winged being. At the end of the discourse, a bargain had been struck, and the Simurgh had fulfilled part of its end by pinpointing the exact time and place of a powerful Agent that would act as the remnant's herald on the planet's surface.
A slight frown crossed the angelic-looking Hopekiller's face as it ran simulation after simulation on what to do next to complete its side of the bargain. The new Herald needed challenges, needed prey to defeat and gain strength from in order for the remnant to regain the power it needed to fulfill its side of the bargain.
Fortunately, there was a readily available resource on the continent that the Queen Administrator's Host currently resided on. One that the humans had already trapped behind walls, forcefields and other barriers, leaving the Host of the Maker Agent completely vulnerable to the Simurgh's efforts.
With an unnecessary beat of its wings, the Hopekiller descended once again. Its destination...the former city of Ellisburg, home of Nilbog, the Goblin King.
And that's it for this chapter.
Some of you may wonder 'Why has SeerKing given Tattletale power in addition to her Thinker?' The answer is simple: because plot. Plus I actually like Tattletale and think she could do with a power to confuse the hell out of Coil. The Fire of Ares is NOT a Second Trigger, so he will be practically treating his hair out trying to figure out how she has it. A Teacher-type or Othala-type Parahuman is the obvious answer, but it doesn't fade and has no addictive negative qualities to it.
In other news, James Rinke is going to have a VERY bad day...