Of Wasps and Wizards, Part 4
"Oh great, what is it this time?" Susan asked, upon seeing that I just walked in with Bob's skull under my arm.
"Haunted supervillain, no biggie," I replied.
"Haunted by what? Also, that was a supervillain?"
"I'm not sure yet. Bob, what does she have to say for herself?" I asked the knowledge spirit. I could see that Bob's eyes, or rather, the tiny yellow lights in the eyes of the skull he was inhabiting, were looking at an empty spot, roughly at the height where you would expect a supervillain's butt to be located. Bob was nothing if not classy, but the girl's skin-tight spectral outfit most certainly didn't help.
"She's saying her name is Tattletale, that she's a friend of Skitter's, that she's not entirely sure why she's a weird ghost, and that she wants to make out with Susan," Bob replied. Being a spirit himself, he saw the world differently, and unlike me, he didn't need to use his third eye to see a weak ghost like Tattletale's.
The question, of course, was how she'd made her way all the way over here if she was a weak ghost, and why it had seemed like she still had the extradimensional parasite attached to her.
The third eye, wizard vision, the mind's eye, true sight, whatever you called it, it was a way of looking at the world and seeing things for what they really are. In a way, it was rather similar to a soul gaze, but it wasn't as intimate, and not reciprocal. With it, I could see the naked energies that made up the world, rather than only seeing the truth about an individual person.
With Tattletale's ghost, it had been somewhere between a normal ghost and a, well, parahuman. It was clearly a ghost, the imprint of leftover psychic energy left after death, but there was more to it. And where Taylor was being influenced by the extradimensional slug that had attached itself to her, with Tattletale it seemed difficult to say where she ended and the creature began, and I wasn't sure about whether that was because she was further along, or because she was a ghost.
I'd heard about parahuman ghosts before, once. Over in Europe, a parahuman serial killer had been killed in battle, and returned as a ghost. But while the ghost showed similarities, it had merely been a very strong ghost, without its parahuman abilities.
"For some reason, I'm rather sceptical about the last part of that claim," Susan said.
"Tattletale huh, I think I wrote that name down somewhere," I said. For everyone else, it would be easy to look up the name. They'd grab a computer, go on PHO, search for the name, and find everything they needed. Me? I made technology break down just by being around it, courtesy of me being a wizard.
"Girl, blonde, sixteen years old, ran away from her parents after triggering, joined the same team Skitter later joined, the Undersiders, wears a skin-tight lavender-black outfit. She's a powerful Thinker, and for a supervillain, she has a relatively clean record," Susan supplied.
I gave her a look, wondering how she'd gotten so interested in random teenage girls from a different city.
"What? I looked her up for my article on the whole bug thing," she said.
"She's also a massive motor mouth, courtesy of not having to stop to breathe, and she's saying she's a poltergeist," Bob said.
"A poltergeist? What's a poltergeist?" I asked Bob. I wasn't very up to date on my ghost lore., I knew about wraiths and spectres, but I'd never heard of poltergeists outside of shitty horror movies, and I hadn't seen all that many of those. I dealt with enough of that stuff in my daily life.
"It's not actually a thing, she's just saying that because she punched a vampire," Bob translated for us.
"Well, I guess I'll have to figure out what to do with her," I said to no-one in particular. Teenage parahuman ghosts, just what I needed. What I should have done, had she been a normal ghost, was lay her to rest. A ghost was just a psychic footprint, not an actual person, but something weird was going on here. She seemed to have some sort of self-awareness, had a soul and everything, and she was a teenage girl, both a woman and a child. My chivalric streak, old-fashioned as it may be, wouldn't allow me to just do away with her.
"In case you hadn't guessed, she's asking you not to exorcise her, and also wondering if you actually can, seeing how you don't look like a priest and everything," Bob said, continuing updates on the activities of the ghost girl.
First of all, I'd have to cast a spell that allowed me to actually see the girl. Bob was useful, but I couldn't do everything through him. Then, I'd have to get her some kind of sanctuary, something that would protect her from things like sunlight, like how the skull protected Bob. Preferably, it would be something that allowed her to interact with the world: she was obviously self-aware, and I did not want to doom her to a life of wandering around, unable to interact with anyone but Bob. No-one deserved that. I'd also have to talk with her, lay out some ground rules. Troubled maiden she might be, but she was still a supervillain, or had been at least. It wouldn't do to have her go off causing trouble and robbing banks the moment she didn't need me anymore.
***
It had taken a few hours of Susan getting annoyed, Bob making lewd comments, and Tattletale apparently floating upside down a whole lot, but I'd finally gotten everything together for my little ghostbracelet. Now I'd prefer to do this downstairs, in my lab, instead of the rather cramped bedroom, but I really didn't want to wake up the teenage supervillain sleeping in my living room. So, as Susan was using Bob to talk to Tattletale and ask for info about some sort of article she was working on, I grabbed a piece of chalk, and used it to draw a circle around me. Once I completed the diagram, I send some energy into it, turning it from a chalk drawing into an actual magic circle.
The circle was probably the most basic of magics. Properly empowered, a circle could keep out magical energies, as well as keep them in. It was useful for all kind of things. You could protect yourself from outside attackers, you could keep magical energies or creatures locked within it, and you could insulate yourself from magical energies. In this case, it was that last feature of the circle I needed.
Almost immediately, the constant background hum lessened as I was insulated from all the other energies. Then, I looked at my little makeshift bracelet, a knickknack with an eye on it. It didn't actually mean anything, but it was a useful tool to focus magical energies on, especially if the spell involved was based around sight. I gathered magical energy, and started chanting. "Spiritus Visus, Spiritus Visus," while putting the energy into the little knick-knack.
After about half a minute, the spell was completed, and while I started affixing the knick-knack to a little chain, I suddenly heard a new voice.
"So I'm pretty sure you didn't actually need to do that in Latin, so why not choose a language you're actually good at?" the girl said.
I looked at her, the spectral body now clearly visible, but the alien creature behind it still hidden. She was young, probably on the cusp of adulthood, with the kind of body that made creeps on the internet create a countdown. She was one of the few female parahumans that could actually pull off the skintight outfit thing properly without having to resort to photoshop, and I understood why Bob had been so impressed.
She had long dark blonde hair, reaching past her shoulders, green, inquisitive eyes, and a set of freckles on her face that made her look adorable rather than gorgeous. She was wearing her costume, but no mask, and she was hanging just slightly above the floor.
"The language insulates your mind from the spell, and using an unfamiliar one means that you won't accidentally throw around fireballs in polite conversation," I answered. I had chosen Latin because, well, because I was bad at it. I'd followed a correspondence course, given that the White Council's meetings were held in Latin, but the course had mostly just made me aware of how bad I was at the language.
"Sooooo, what now?" Tattletale asked.
"Now you're going to take our spectral ass into the other room, because you're an underage ghost and I'm doing things that aren't PG. After that, I'll get you a sanctuary, preferably before sunrise, and I'll figure out what to do then when I figure out what to do with your friend," I replied.
"What, you're not going to arrest me? I can't help but notice you have some handcuffs there," she replied.
"You're a smart girl, you'll figure that one out," Susan supplied.
"Fine fine, I'll let you get to your carnal desires," Tattletale said, slowly floating through the door to the living room.
"Also, I can float through doors now, which is absolutely great. I bet you can't do that!" Tattetale shouted, just barely audible on the other side of the thick old wood.
I turned back to Susan, thinking back to what we'd been doing before Taylor had interrupted us.
"So, where were we?" I asked her.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" she replied.
I thought about it, while most f my brain was starting to get occupied with very different things than thinking about stuff I'd forgotten, when my eyes suddenly went past Bob's skull, sitting on the nightstand.
Somehow, some way, he managed to make a disembodied human skull look smug. Smug and naughty.
***
I looked back on my house once more time, hoping that nothing would burn down in my absence. I had a supervillain sleeping on my couch, a naked journalist in my bed, and a talking skull stashed in a pile of dirty laundry, so it would probably be okay. In the meantime, I was going vampire hunting with a knight of the cross and a smug dead teenager. Perfectly normal day, or rather, night.
"So, shouldn't you be wearing your robe and wizard hat?" Tattletale asked.
"When killing vampires? Not exactly good PR," I replied.
The real problem, of course, was that not everyone in the protectorate and the PRT were aware that Bianca's group consisted of actual bloodsucking inhuman monstrosities, rather than normal supervillains.
"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. So, what's the deal?" she asked.
"I got a call from father Forthill, he had a young girl show up, asking for sanctuary. Said she was being hunted by vampires," Michael supplied. "He called me because he thought the girl's clothes were suspicious."
"Anyone we know?" I asked him.
"I don't think so, he said she was wearing a robe of some sort, and not like the one you or Wanton wear," Michael said.
"Let's see, robe, teenager, girl, not a local, doesn't have any back-up because she ran to a church instead, pretty sure it's Rune," Tattletale said.
"Rune?" Michael asked.
"Striker, telekinetic, can move around large boulders and such. She was sent to juvie and triggered in solitary, after which she joined some family members in the Empire 88 back in Brockton. Lost most of her team, doesn't have a secret identity. She was probably looking for a new team or something like that, and not interested in joining the vampire club. Given that Skitter was approached the same night, I presume this Bianca is trying to recruit as many parahumans as she can in one go, probably preying on the ones without support structure, using that spit of theirs to addict them into working for her."
I had to admit, having a high-level Thinker on our side was actually rather useful.
"So, the question is, who's their next target?" Michael said.
"Well, given their strategies, I'm pretty sure they already got either Mush, Skidmark or Squealer. One of them probably told her about the strategy. Problem is, I don't know which one of them survived the battle. Oustide of that, I think we're better off looking for locals that fit the bill," Tattletale said.
"There's one of those I can think of, but we've never even seen the person responsible, so I don't think Bianca's people will be able to find them either," I replied.
"So, what's the plan then?" Michael asked.
"Long-term? I'll inform the PRT, and we'll focus on getting anyone working for Bianca out alive. Her targets are parahuman, and those are worth too much to kill without reason. In the short-term, we might be able to track down her spawn with the help of our new assistant," I said.
"Ooooh, vampire hunting, cool, do I get a top hat?" Tattletale asked.
"No, and you can't wear sunglasses indoors either," I replied.
"Awwww,"
"Let's get into the car, Tattletale, you can show us the way,"
"We'll need to hurry, before they get away," Michael said. "We can't let them go on and corrupt more people."
"Agreed," I said, as I walked to the Blue Beetle.
Michael walked to the other side of the car, as Tattletale froze in mid-air.
"Seriously? Seriously? That's your car? Are you fucking kidding me?" she asked. "I know the government doesn't pay much, but seriously?"
"Should you really be complaining about the transport he's providing?" Michael asked.
"Just saying, it's not very inconspicuous,"
"We don't need to be inconspicuous, the lord will guide our way,"
"You know, I'd say you're full of shit, but… God's real isn't he? Just like ghosts, and wizards, and vampires? Sweet baby Jesus I need to start going to church," Tattletale replied.
"Wouldn't that be difficult? Sanctified ground and everything?" I asked as I entered the car, motioning for Tattletale to take a seat in the back. I wasn't entirely sure how the protections provided by a house of faith worked, just that they worked.
"If she is properly repentant, I should be able to figure something out with father Forthill," Michael replied.
I turned my key, and activated the engine of the old car, hoping desperately that it would hold out until we managed to find our target.
***
The area where Skitter had been attacked was somewhere in the city center, in alleyways between old, tall buildings. It didn't take long to find the rather large amount of bugs gathered around a puddle of blood on the floor.
"This is where she stabbed it, right in the stomach," Lisa, as I'd learned she preferred, told me.
"It showed its true form?" Michael asked her.
"Yeah, the bugs gnawed straight through the flesh suit. Skitter's really terrifying when she wants to be," Lisa replied.
"I can see that, you know, what with the spiders and everything," I replied.
"Says the guy throwing fireballs around like it's nothing," she replied.
"Focus, we need to stop this vampire," Michael said.
"Let's see, from the trail of blood, the lighting, relative traffic density in the surrounding area…" Lisa mumbled. "That way," she pointed.
The way she randomly picked a decision and stuck with it strangely reminded me of the way Michael would sometimes be. Only instead of working through faith, she got her knowledge from, well, from wherever her power got the knowledge.
We followed her as she told us where to go, turning through alleyways between old buildins that had been low quality when they were built, let alone now. Every now and then, she'd point out a few drops of blood on the floor, or some slime where the vampire had brushed against a wall too roughly. Once, Michael spotted a piece of skin, part of the beast's fleshy outer suit, the part that it used to pretend to be human.
Eventually, while scouting ahead, Lisa stopped after looking around a corner.
"Guys? I think we're too late," she said, her voice trembling. Whatever she had seen had obviously shaken her.
Upon seeing her reaction, Michael drew his sword, Amoracchius, from its scabbard. If Michael was to be believed, the holy blade contained one of the nails that had been used in Christ's crucifixion. I wasn't entirely sure I believed that, but it was very clear that it was very powerful, a symbol of faith in its own right. Right now, it glowed faintly with a blue light. In battle, it would look like it was on fire, slicing straight through any defences, magical or normal. Even Leviathan had feared the blade.
For just a second, I wondered if Leviathan was something new that was related to the parahuman phenomenon that had only been named after the biblical creature, or whether it was actually related to it. I put the thought out of my mind, I could speculate on it when we weren't in mortal danger.
Following Michael's example I drew my blasting rod in one hand and my staff in the other, and removed the safety on my punching ring.
"It's… well, he's distracted, angry, almost feral."
"Just stay behind me," Michael said, trying to sound reassuring.
When Michael and I turned the corner, I saw what had gotten Lisa so worked up. The vampire, a slimy, gargoyle-like creature, was crouched on all fours, lapping up drips of blood from the floor. Its victim, a homeless man that had evidently been sleeping in the rough, had been disembowelled, his corpse draped over a shopping cart filled with bags, sucked dry of blood.
I felt something rise up in my throat, and swallowed, trying to keep it down. Michael had no such problems, or perhaps he simply had the strength of will to ignore it completely. He held up his sword, and charged forwards at the bloodsucking beast.
Maybe it was the sound we had made, maybe the vampire had spotted us, or maybe the holy light coming from Amoracchius had drawn its attention. It didn't matter what had set him off, but the vampire managed to retreat away from Michael by jumping upwards, and then hanging on to the side of the building, perched on the walls like a spider.
It turned its head, blood still dripping from its inhuman jaw, and looked at me.
"You, the wizard. Good, if I kill you, Bianca will forgive me for my failure," it said.
Oh great, amazing, the vampire was out for my head, and desperate enough to go for it.
I didn't take the time to think of any witty retort. Instead, I just raised by blasting rod.
"Fuego!"
The fireball flew from the tip of my wand, straight at the vampire. At the last moment, It jumped, trying to dodge the roaring flames. It was too late, and the flames clipped its legs, setting it on fire.
It then crashed to the ground, stopping, dropping and rolling to try and extinguish the flames. Seeing the damage I'd caused, I took out my staff, and called upon my parahuman ability. Deep within me, I focussed on the enchantment I'd bound it with, making sure to only let through the things I wanted to use. With my staff, I drew a glowing sigil in the air, connecting to a pocket dimension I'd prepared some time ago.
This one specifically, I had filled with water, and with the help of father Forthill, it was now filled with holy water.
I unleashed it, an explosive spray of holy water blanketing the alley, the burning building, and the vampire. Michael, somehow, managed to be in exactly the place he needed to be for the water spray to miss him.
"I have to admit, that went a lot smoother than I'd expected," Lisa said, still slightly shocked by the sight. "Almost anti-climactically so."
"Could you please never say that again?" I asked her.
"Why? I mean, you do understand that it doesn't actually influence further events right?"
"You say that, but, how many world-shaking revelations have you been wrong about in the last few days?" I answered. As we were talking, Michael was cleaning his sword, and I was wondering what to do about the vampire. I'd probably have to call it in, pretend to explain the situation to my bosses in the PRT. I wasn't the only person in town with fire powers, but I couldn't let them think that one of the more innocent villains was responsible for killing the vampire, or its prey.
"Wait, you mean that shit actually works too?"
"I don't think so, but I've been wrong before."
"I need to go; can you two handle this situation?" Michael suddenly asked.
"Another hunch? Guidance from above? Sure, I can handle this," I answered.
Lisa and I walked, or hovered in her case - she seemed to like her newfound ability to fly - back towards the Blue Beetle, only for my worst fears to come true.
For the past few weeks, the PRT had gotten sporadic reports about destroyed cars and other wreckage, the metal reshaping itself into different forms, like it was some sort of demented, animalistic transformer. It left the vehicles completely useless for anything but modern art exhibitions, but it wasn't associated with any violence or criminal behaviour. For now, the perpetrator had been assumed to be a new parahuman testing their power, someone who while not very cognizant of collateral damage, was probably not a problem or a threat.
Before now, I had agreed with that designation. It made sense, I was sure it wasn't a spirit or anything like that that was responsible, and it seemed like something that was very much somebody else's problem.
This time however, it was personal.
The Blue Beetle was gone from the location where I'd parked it, and a couple hundred feet from where I'd left it, there was a piece of wreckage in the exact colours of the vehicle. That is to say, blue, green, red and white. Once, the Blue Beetle had been entirely blue, but that had been a few years ago.
Opposite it was the wreckage of what seemed to have been a nondescript white van, twisted much like the Blue Beetle had been. From the looks of it, the two cars had been fighting each other, as the asphalt and pavement in the area had been torn apart.
Someone had used my car as some sort of weapon, and that someone wasn't me. It was actually rather insulting.
It also made me rather angry, seeing how the Beetle was one of the few vehicles that didn't consistently break down when I drove it.
"At least it went out with a bang?" Lisa supplied, holding up her ghost hands, and I wasn't quite sure if she was taunting me or trying to comfort me. It was probably both.
***
"Harry? Please don't tell me you're involved in this one?" Lieutenant Karin Murphy asked upon seeing me.
"Not this one, other than being the victim," I replied.
Murphy was a short-statured woman, with blue eyes and blonde hair. That last part wasn't immediately obvious, since she was wearing the type of face-covering helmets PRT troopers were known for. She was rather high up in the ranks, usually serving as squad leader, but sometimes coordinating multiple squads on larger operations. In addition to that, she was also one of the few people in the PRT that actually believed my claims of being a wizard, and believed in the existence of the supernatural in addition to the parahuman.
"I thought I recognized that piece of junk from something. I have to say, I don't see any difference."
"Haha Murph, very funny."
Secretly, I had to admit that it was indeed rather funny. Lisa agreed, and she was rolling on the floor laughing, only instead of rolling on the floor, she was doing so in mid-air. I was pretty sure she was overreacting for comedic effect, but that didn't make it sting any less.
"Not this one... dare I ask?" she asked.
"Vampire, three hundred meters into the dark alleyways. It was feeding on a homeless guy after having been fought off by a parahuman it was send to recruit," I told her.
"You want me to handle it? Keep Revel off your back?" she asked.
"Would be nice, I have too much on my plate as it is," I replied. "By the way, can I catch a ride to HQ? I need to get there before sunrise."
"Sure, some of the guys will be heading back, I'll see you later?" she asked
"Sure," I replied.
***
Lisa and I arrived at the PRT HQ with an hour or two to spare, and made our way towards the wards HQ. More specifically, towards Tecton's workshop. Lisa's constant need to give input on anything from people's showering habits to their driving skills had given me some inspiration for her sanctuary, but it would have to be one of those permanently borrowing without asking situations.
The Wards HQ itself, with its interchangeable, moveable walls and its big set of tv screens that was, officially, there to watch key points in the city, and unofficially there to watch movies and play games, was almost empty, except for Wanton, who had apparently decided to stay the night.
Wanton was, simply said, a fan. Of me. That was weird, because I knew myself, and I wasn't the type of person that should have fans of any kind.
Worse however, was that he was also a fan of what was, in his eyes, my 'pretending to be a wizard' act. He was utterly convinced that I was just some sort of crazy Trump, and he wanted other people to think he was a wizard as well.
Most of that was achieved by wearing a costume with lots of flowing cloth, and yelling a Latin catchphrase whenever he used his breaker ability. When confronted with the fact that he could only cast a single 'spell', he simply told people that that made sense, because he was only an apprentice wizard.
It would all be very flattering if it wasn't so very annoying.
"Hey Myrddin, whatcha doing?" he asked enthusiastically, immediately launching himself from his position on the couch once he saw me come in.
"Nothing much, say, do you remember those costumes you guys wore to cape-con last year?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Do you happen to know where that little floaty thing Tecton made for Cuff's costume is?"
"Sure, you need it for something?" he replied.
"Just, you know, a power thing," I explained, keeping it vague.
Obviously, this had been the wrong move, as Wanton suddenly got very interested.
"Can I watch? Are you making something cool with a new power?" he asked.
"I need it to make a sanctuary for the ghost of a dead supervillain," I told him.
"Oh, so you have a new master power? Making ghosts of people? Sounds cool, I don't think PR will like it though," Wanton said.
Tattletale, in the meantime, was just laughing her spectral ass off, obviously enjoying the fact that I had fans. Well, we'd see who had the last laugh, she still didn't know what she was getting into.
At a rather frantic pace, Wanton led me to the storage area, digging through several discarded items before finding the little contraption. Flying objects weren't Tecton's specialty, but he was good when he put some work into it, and it was a rather simple piece of technology once you got past the anti-gravity components. The best thing was, it was one of the things he'd built after his power had managed to adapt to the general background effects of magical energies, so it wouldn't short out whenever I sneezed in its direction.
"Oh no, oh hell no, you absolute bastard, no way I'm going in there… Although…. I could actually do some great stuff with that, I think. People wouldn't even be able to complain that I was being annoying, I'd just be in character," Lisa said, finally understanding the fate I had in store for her.
"So, we're doing this now?" Wanton asked.
"Patience, my young noodle, I want to do this properly, we'll need to go to my lab first," I replied.
"Cool, cool cool cool, you think I can get a lab?" he asked.
My lab away from lab, as I called it, was a small area the PRT had set aside to indulge me in what they deemed to be the more arcane part of my powerset. If Myrddin thought he needed a copper circle, then it's easier to provide him with one than to tell him his powers don't work like that.
It was all rather basic, and for any actual magical research I'd have to go back home to my basement, but it looked good on the tour, and it had a simple summoning table and a small workshop for when I needed to replace my blasting wand or my staff, the only object that my actual parahuman ability used.
I placed the little machine in the middle of the circle, closing it by turning a stone that made the copper line complete, and started to work.
Half an hour, and several jubilant remarks from Wanton later, I'd completed my work, and had made the contraption into a more hospitable home for any spirit that wanted to be inside of it. I motioned towards Lisa, who had gotten bored about five minutes into the work, and had been criticizing everything from Wanton's costume choices, to his naming choices, to his career choices, to his choices of personal idols.
She floated forwards, into the tiny drone, trying to figure out how the whole process worked, before she melted away, only vaguely visible with the use of my little ghost-seeing charm.
"Oooh, interesting, I can do all kinds of stuff, also, I think I can power this thing and ooooh those were the blue LEDs, okay, let's see how this gravity thingy works and ooh yeah I'm flying and I'm doing this all wrong aren't I, let me start again.
Hey, Listen!"