AN: And so our (tentative) Heroes finally meet one another. This chapter had to undergo some overhauls since the other two members wont be joining this arc, but I think I made it work alright. It's probably for the best since the other two contributed basically nothing in the original version of this chapter. I think I'm pretty much done with Arc 1 once I finish writing the next three chapters, so that's something to look forward to.
I watched in excitement as the portal opened up. I was happy to see another person like me finally show up. My mouth dropped open and I nearly dropped my cigarette at the sight of brown hair and cutesy features that stepped though into the room. I could tell she didn't see me immediately, too caught up in the wonder at the sky. I closed my mouth, biting down on my cigarette, another reason to be mad since I'd have to light a new one. Her eyes finally came to the thrones and she stopped on me, stepping back slightly. I didn't know if it was out of surprise or the glare I was aiming at her.
We stared at each other in a long silence. She looked… apprehensive and small.
"T-Taylor." She said.
"Madison." I said, pulling my ruined cigarette from my mouth and destroying it. I stood and started down the steps, pulling out a new one. "Seeing you here is quite the unwelcome surprise." I said, snapping my fingers on fire and lighting my cigarette as a stopped in front of her.
"Y-yeah… Look, Taylor… I…"
I scoffed. I couldn't believe this. I didn't trust her enough to not think it was an act.
"Save it. I don't know what you're going to say, but I doubt it'll be anything I want to hear." I turned to go back to my throne.
"Taylor, I—." She stopped as another portal opened.
A blonde girl stepped out. She had green eyes, freckles, and was dressed in silk red pajama pants and shirt.
"What the hell is this?" She asked.
"This is where people with our power end up." I explained. "Apparently the universe finally saw fit to bring the rest of you, so I'll explain what I know when we're all here."
"What do you mean our power?" Madison asked.
"I mean we're not quite parahumans. Whatever this power is came from somewhere else. It's different. I realized I had mine after you and your friends shoved me in that locker." I said, causing Madison to flinch back.
"Taylor, please—."
"You two have a history?" The blonde asked. "You go to school together." She turned to Madison with furrowed brows, "You helped bully her to the point where she should have triggered. What the fuck is wrong with you?"
"I…" Madison didn't seem be able to explain herself. Not that I really wanted one.
Another portal opened and a pale skinned boy with curly haired stepped through.
"Huh. This is pretty cool."
"Alec?" The blonde asked.
"Lisa? The fuck are you doing here?"
"Me?! What about you?!"
"I don't know. I was playing video games then my body froze up and I opened a portal that brought me here."
"That's how it happens." I said.
"The fuck is she?!"
"I'm the one who knows how your new powers work. It took me a long time to figure this shit out so when the next three people show up I'll explain it all."
"Hey," Madison started, "Can I… Can I have one?" She gestured to my cigarette.
"Since when do you smoke?"
"Uh… For a while."
I hummed before tossing her my pack. "You should be able to light up like I do. Just think about a small fire on your thumb and it should work."
She nodded as she caught the box and pulled one out. She snapped her fingers, but nothing happened. She tried a few more times, snapping over and over. When she finally got it a pillar of green shot up past her face and into the sky. Her cigarette was completely gone and everyone was staring at her with wide eyes. Except for Alec. He was laughing.
I sighed and shook my head.
"I guess I won't blame you for that one. Though that never happened to me." I said. I stepped from the throne and was right in front of her, making her jump. I snapped and lit my thumb as she held her smoke over it before waving it away and taking my pack from her.
Another portal opened and a blond boy stepped through. He was only slightly shorter than me and had blue eyes. He was wearing a shirt and jeans.
"What is this?" He asked to no one in particular.
"This," I pulled my arms out to gesture to the area, "My new blond friend, is the hub area for people like us." I showed him the back of my left hand. "People with numbers and power that could probably rival the Triumvirate."
"You're serious?!" Lisa asked.
"I am. Why don't we get everyone a seat while we wait to see if the last two show up?" I asked. "You should find a number somewhere on your body. If you can't see it then it's probably on your back."
"I got three." Madison said, pressing a hand to the inside of her breasts. I waived her over and she took the seat on my left.
"I got a four on my chest." Alec said as he walked toward the thrones. "I always wanted to get a tattoo. At least this one doesn't hurt."
"I got seven." The blonde boy said, showing the number on his right hip. He walked over to the throne furthest left of me.
"I can't find mine." Lisa said.
I tilted my head to one side before popping up in front of her.
"Stick your tongue out." I said.
"Why?"
"Lisa doesn't swing that way! She swings no way at all!" Alec called.
"Shut up, Alec!" She called, giving me a glimpse of black ink on her tongue.
"Yours is on your tongue." I said.
"What? Why my tongue?"
"I don't know." I shrugged. I had an idea, but nothing to go on. "But your number is five."
"Okay, so now that we all know where we go…" I trail off as I get to my throne and sit down. "Table!" The room shifted, the thrones on the stairs sinking down to floor level and sliding until they were in a circle around a table. "Let's talk for a while."
"That was cool." The blond boy said.
"So, you're Taylor, right? Can you explain what's going on here?" Lisa asked.
"I can explain as much as I've figured out." I say, lighting another smoke up. "So, I know our numbers mean something, but I'm not sure what. The basic powers, like the thing I do to light my cigarette's and the speed thing I did are basic. You all should be able to do those, as well as a few other things. Then you'll have individual powers in a theme related to… Yourself, somehow."
"Related to us?"
"Yeah. For example, I've been alone for a long time. All my powers reflect that. They basically make it so that nothing affects me unless I let it. True solitude."
"You said 'powers' as in multiple." Madison said.
"Yeah. About four very overarching powers. I can become intangible, manipulate space, negate causality, and isolate myself from the regular plane of existence."
"NEGATE CAUSALITY?!" Lisa shouted.
"Yeah. I haven't been able to find a limit either. I can negate things pretty much without limit, but I haven't tried negating the cause of anything more than a few weeks past. Negating effect is always viable, but negating cause past a certain point creates… ill effects. I won't go into too much detail, but if you know what the words 'Implicate Order' mean, it's somewhere around there."
"That's bullshit." Alec said. I saw Lisa twitch and assumed she understood the implications of what I'd said.
"Yep. Anyway, the powers should feel instinctual as you try to use them. Most of it just kind of clicked for me and I've been refining my usage for the past few months. Which is why I can light a smoke without nearly blowing my face off with a Cero."
Madison looked embarrassed while a few others looked confused.
"What's a Cero?" The blond asked.
"What's your name?" I asked.
"Oh, it's Theo." He said.
"Theo. A Cero is what I call this." I pointed a finger up into the air and let a ball of blue energy form on the tip before letting the large beam fire.
"Oh… Wow…"
"Yeah."
"Why call it that?" Lisa asked.
"I don't really know. The Spanish naming felt right. That speed thing I was doing earlier I call Sonido. The portals I call Descorrer. You'll be able to open those without drawing a line after a while." I said.
"I like it." Theo said. "It's different than anything we already have in the bay."
"Right. Uh…" I trailed off to think for a second, trying to decide what else to say.
"We already know each others names. There's no point in talking about that part of the unwritten rules." Lisa said.
"Yeah, that." I nodded. "I guess since we already know each others names we don't have to do introductions or anything. At least not yet. But I think we should talk about where to go from here."
"Shouldn't we be waiting for the last two people?" Madison asked.
"We can just explain it again when they get here." I paused. "If they get here. They should have been here by now if they were coming at all. I know how hard it is to resist the urge to come here first thing."
"Then let's just figure everything out and explain it later when they show up." Lisa said.
"Yeah. So, as I was saying, where to go from here?"
"What we do with our powers." Theo said, beating Lisa to the punch.
"Right. I've been thinking about it for a while. I always wanted to be a hero as a kid, but I don't want to join the Wards, and I'm not really sure about going independent, despite how strong I am. Part of it was me waffling until the rest of the numbers showed up. Now that most of you are here I was wondering about input." I said.
"Do we have a choice?" Lisa asked.
"Doing anything would be entirely voluntary, so if you don't want to do stuff as a group, or if you already have a team, assuming some of you are already parahumans, then that's fine."
"I'll join you." Theo said.
"I will too." Madison said.
"Me and Lisa already have stuff to do." Alec said. "Though I'll join you for whatever if I'm not busy."
"I'll need to think about this." Lisa said.
"Alright." I said. "So that makes three members a partial member, and a maybe. Uh… You're still welcome here whenever. Not like I can stop you from showing up whenever you want."
"Where is here, anyway?" Alec asked.
"It's a sub dimension. I haven't come up with a name for it yet."
"Las Noches." Lisa said.
"Huh?"
"It always looks like night time here, right? Las Noches."
"Spanish for 'The Night'." I said.
"I like it." Theo said.
"I do too. Thanks."
"Yup." Lisa gave a vulpine smile.
"So, back to what to do with the group." I said.
"We could toe the line." Theo offered.
"What?" Madison asked.
"Toe the line between villain and hero. Control territory and all that, but try to not strictly get on the bad side of the law."
"Why? Is there any benefit to playing so close to villainy?" Madison asked.
"I'm… Sometimes to make things better you have to work outside the system." Theo said.
"Doing the wrong thing for the right reasons." I said.
"Exactly. So, say we take out all the gangs in the Bay, that just leaves Parian and the PRT and Protectorate. They can patrol all they want after the gangs are gone, but other gangs, maybe worse ones, would move in. Like what happened after Marquis got caught. Between him and Lung, I'd call Marquis the lesser evil." Theo said.
"So even if we aren't really a gang, controlling territory will help the city if we're actively helping people." Madison said.
"Right."
"It's actually one of the failures of New Wave." Lisa said.
"You're going to have to explain that one." I said.
"They're independent heroes, not Protectorate. Even though they have a partnership with the PRT and Protectorate. Because they're independents and they're a group instead of just one or two Capes, they're in the unique position of actually being able to carve out territory to keep villains away. They have day jobs and school, but so do some of the Empire. They aren't out and about all day every day. They don't even need to take a large part of the city, maybe just a few blocks and see how that works out before they decide on expanding. The point I'm trying to make, though, is that by controlling territory they effectively create a place where the gangs will actively have trouble acting without risking New Wave coming at them outside of major problems. It's making a reactive job proactive."
"So we'd essentially be trying something new for the first time. Heroes or at least Hero adjacent people controlling an area to keep gang activity within to a minimum or risk the heroes coming down on them. They don't have to worry about a gang war, but the constant threat proactive heroes present could cause problems for business. And if we're as strong as Taylor suggests, it shouldn't be hard to keep people out of our territory." Theo said.
"Exactly." Lisa nodded.
"This is actually an interesting idea." Alec said.
"I agree." I said. "I'm kind of… Apathetic to a lot of things now. Walking the line between Villain and Hero is something I'm willing to do, I think. Especially if we can get our hands on legitimate dealings to help fund us."
"So, now that we've got those details all hashed out, I have a little deal for you." Lisa said to me.
"I'm listening."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Alec asked, apparently reading into what she was thinking.
"Yep. See, Alec and I here are part of a villain group. Real small time. Petty thievery, really. Thing is, we don't have any fire power."
"You want us to help you if you need back up." I said.
"Well, I'd like for you to join, but since that's not quite an option, it'll have to do."
"What do you think?" I looked to Theo.
"Long as you aren't out hurting people like the Empire are, I guess we can help." He said.
I nodded. I could agree with that. I turned my gaze to Madison, who flinched back a bit.
"Uh… I don't really care." She shrugged. "We're supposed to be walking the line between hero and villain, and that means working with anyone we need to work with to get the job done."
"Of course this will be a reciprocal association. In situations where you don't have to be with your group, you come with us." I said.
"That's fair enough." Lisa nodded.
"Great. Then I guess we're in business."
She reached across the table to shake my hand, and I obliged.
"Now, before you leave, You have some things here that belong to all of you. If you'd go ahead and knock on the side of your thrones."
A few of them looked at me weird, but obliged. They flashed in white before the glowing stopped and they looked down at themselves.
"Oh shit!" Alec said as he looked over his new clothes. "We get uniforms?!" He was dressed in a pair of slim white paints and a tight long sleeved white shirt that showed off his chest and tattoo with a V that stopped at his solar plexus. His mask looked like a jester.
"What the hell?" Lisa asked. "This outfit is too revealing! And what the hell is this mask?" Her outfit was a long sleeve crop jacket that stopped just under her breasts and loose white pants that showed off her hips with a black sash to keep them up. Her mask looked like a mantis.
"I don't know. The masks are loosely related to our powers. For example," I pulled my cigarette from my mouth and waved my hand over my face, my mask appearing behind it, "Mine is a wolf, which helped me figure out my theme was solitude." I said, my voice distorted. "Cause the whole 'Lone Wolf' thing."
"Your eyes are gold and black." Madison said. Her outfit was easily the most conservative after mine. She had on a long white dress with long sleeves that reached the ground that was form fitting at the top and loose past her waist. It had a thick black line down the center and crossing lines to make an X across her chest. Her mask was blank save for the holes for her eyes.
"Side effect of the mask." I waved it off and put my smoke back between my lips. "You also have a sort of hammer space where you can put all that stuff. Once it's there you can put it on like a magical girl show." I snapped and my outfit appeared on me. It was simple, but I liked that it didn't show much of any skin. It was a white jacket over a double breasted vest and black pants with a white belt and matching gloves and black boots.
"Huh…"
"That's pretty sick." Alec said.
"As nice as this all is, I still feel really under dressed." Lisa said.
"It's not like anything short of Armsmaster's halberd could cut you. Depending on what that thing is made of." I said.
"Are we that strong?" Madison asked.
"Yup." I nodded.
"I think I might be a bit uh… pudgy for this." Theo said. He was dressed in a pair of loose fitting pants and an open short sleeve crop jacket that showed off his chest and and the tattoo on his hip. His mask was catlike. A Panther from what I could tell.
"Then work out." Alec said.
Theo sighed, but nodded.
"Then I guess we're done here?" Alec asked. "Meeting over?"
"Almost." I said. "We need a name."
"How about something like 'Aliens'."
"We could be… The Masters." Madison suggested.
"We might get sued for Alec's suggestion, and 'Masters' would probably get us the quickest kill order ever handed down in PRT history." Lisa said.
"We're sticking with Spanish theming, right?" Theo asked.
"I have something… It's right on the tip of my tongue." I said, struggling for the word.
"The Swords?" Lisa asked.
"The Espada! Yes, thank you!" I said, tapping my head.
"Guess that makes our symbol easy." Theo said.
"I can design a good sword pretty easy." Madison said.
I had the urge to tell her to shut up, but I just couldn't bring myself to really care at the moment. I was more interested in thinking about what to do with our new group.
"You know how to use design software?" Theo asked.
Madison nodded. "I'm pretty decent at computers."
"That could be useful at some point." Lisa nodded.
"Yeah. Though I wouldn't be able to pull off anything that required like, anything more than a basic college level of coding."
"Still impressive." Theo said.
"Alright. I think that's everything. So you can go home if you want. I'm tired, so I'm gone." I said. I ignored Madison trying to talk to me and walked through a Descorrer.