"They're not answering," Campanile reported.
"Then there's nothing we can do. Hell's bells, it may have already happened," I answered.
"Less worrying, more stopping these Werewolves," Revel commanded.
"Hexenwolves, I mean, it's a rather important distinction," I replied, but Revel was already flying away.
"Wait, I thought we were worrying about a Loup-Garou?" Campanile joked.
As I looked around, I saw that Tera was already leaping after Revel, followed by a running Alpha squad. Or maybe it was Aleph squad, that stuff was terribly inconsistent.
"You coming with us?" Campanile asked the teenage girl that was currently climbing on top of the malformed, animated wreck of what looked like a cement truck.
"Uh-huh," she replied, nodding.
Going by what I remembered from the classes on parahuman psychology that the PRT had provided, she probably wouldn't be very talkative for a while, while she was internalizing recent events.
She'd recently gained powers, abilities that made her far stronger than anything she'd ever come into contact with before. For the past few weeks, she'd been working under the presumption that she was basically invincible, even more so than the average teenager. Just now, she'd realized that she wasn't, and that there were a lot of people more powerful than her. For now, her mind was far too busy trying to figure out her place in the world to actually talk to anyone about it.
Just as I was thinking about the girl, Campanile grabbed me by the back of my robe's collar, lifting me up into the air.
"The fuck! Why are you lifting me like this? I'm not a cat!" I yelled out.
"I wish. Cats hold still when you grab them like this. Anyway, let's get going, last one there is a shitty wizard!" he replied, and he started running, the girl following behind us.
Eventually, while we made our way through Marcone's now completely torn up private golf course, courtesy of a few heavy trucks driving around, I saw the site of the battle. Or rather, the hostage situation.
The Hexenwolves, having quickly taken stock of the situation, had come to the obvious conclusion.
They wouldn't be winning this fight. In fact, they didn't even stand half a chance. They'd been relying on superior numbers, the element of surprise, and the utmost disregard for the unwritten rules in order to bring them this far. Right now, they had none of those at their side.
Both of them were in human form, wearing urban conflict gear. High quality stuff that wasn't exactly available to civilians, but it wasn't tinkertech either. Both of them had a hostage in their arms, a pistol to their heads. One of them was holding an unconscious Dovetail, while the other had a middle-aged man, built like a barn. Tera's fiancé, the Loup Garou. He didn't look as French as I'd expected, which made sense, because his name was MacFinn, not MaqueFinnes or anything like that.
They were surrounded on all sides. Or rather, most sides. Sure, there were PRT troopers to the left and to the right of them, and Revel was looking at them from the front, meaning Tera was probably hidden behind them somewhere. But that left both the earth and the sky completely open, in addition to any extradimensional approaches. Had they the skills, they could simply pop into the Nevernever through a portal to escape.
Of course, such a move would quickly be followed by them being eaten by something horrible, but that was kind of beside the point.
"Just listen, okay. We analysed the belt, there's a mentally degenerative effect on it, which you might have noticed. Turn yourselves in, and we'll be able to get you the help you need." Revel said.
"You? Help us? Don't you get it? That's the entire problem! Everyone always relying on you incompetent idiots! Do you know how many people get away because you fuck up and don't want to go in?"
"So you're putting hits out on teenagers. Sounds like a great plan!" I said from my position, dangling from Campanile's hand.
I used my staff, trying to use a trick I'd been practicing for a while now. I created an almost invisible opening to one of my pocket dimensions. In this case, one of the pocket dimensions without gravity. Then, I focussed my mind, trying to use one of the little bits of earth magic I knew
"Gravitus" I mumbled, using my magic to extend the gravity from my pocket dimension into the real world. As the spell completed, I felt the weight lift off of my neck, and when Campanile let loose, I floated in the sky.
It wasn't flying, not yet at least, I was still working on that. It was, however, a pretty neat way to float around in one place, looking all impressive. Luckily, there weren't any cameras around, or Image would start forcing me to carry around a broomstick as well.
"Shut up! Don't you guys know anything? You can't just let people go because they have superpowers, that's basically the definition of corruption!" the man yelled at me.
"Funny, I thought that was using your connections to hide your secret killing squad. But hey, you're the expert here."
"Myrddin, we're in a difficult hostage situation here. Could you maybe shut up?" Revel asked.
"Aye-aye cap'n."
"As I was saying, put down the hostages, and we'll get you the help you need," Revel said to the two villains.
"I've got a better idea. How about you guys leave, and we'll let MacFinn here get rid of the biggest scumbag the city's ever known. You won't have to lift a finger," the man replied.
Revel's hand went to her chin, thinking about the statement. She was actually thinking about it, not just dismissing it out of hand like the ridiculous plan it was.
"Boss, you can't seriously be thinking about this…" Campanile said.
"Fine, you release your other hostages, and we have a deal," Revel said, eliciting gasp of surprise from some of the troopers.
"I knew you could listen to reason," The Hexenwolf said. "Harris, drop her and come over here."
The other Hexenwolf, a rather skinny ginger man (no, they're not soulless, even though you'd think they were from looking at them,) hesitated for a few seconds, before doing as his boss said, and dropping an unconscious Dovetail to the floor, and slowly walking over, gun still in his hands.
"So, what now boss?" the guy mumbled.
"We wait, and we run like hell. Marcone will keep him busy," the boss said.
"Wait, who exactly will Marcone keep busy?" I asked.
"MacFinn here, you fucking idiot," the man replied, pointing at his gagged hostage with his free hand.
"Oh really? Because I don't see anyone there," I replied, quickly sweeping out my staff, pointing it at the poor, ridiculously rich, man that was about to be transformed into a tremendously powerful monstrosity.
The Manton effect is this thing with parahuman abilities that makes them even weirder than you'd expect. There's lots of stuff to it, but it tends to have to do with living stuff, and weird limitation regarding clothes and that kind of thing. It's a whole area of research that I'm not all that interested in. What I am interested in, is what it means for my powers.
I could suck things into and out of pocket dimensions, and do a whole lot of weird shit with them. The problem was, I only had one pocket dimension that was really optimized for carrying people. The negative side of it was that I could only hold one person in it. The positive part of it is that my little brainbuddy takes that very literally, and will carry that specific person (plus clothes, somehow. Don't ask me why,) into the dimension.
In this case, that person was MacFinn, and not the man holding him.
The moment I gave them my cue, the rest of the team sprang into action. Revel launched an orb of force into the Hexenwolf leader, campanile used his gravity aura to make things difficult for his sidekick, Shuffle created a canyon between them and Dovetail, and I was pretty sure I saw Tera running for the prone body of Parian, who had, unlike MacFinn, been drugged, since it was probably impossible to stop her from using her powers to break free if she hadn't been. Can't really bind someone whose whole power revolves around manipulating stuff like string and rope.
To complete the picture, one of the nearby vans started spraying a ridiculous amount of containment foam, covering the half-battered Hexenwolves in sticky goo. And I don't care what people say, I'll always keep thinking that that's a funny way of saying it. If they didn't want me to laugh they shouldn't have made that stuff white.
"I have to admit… that went easier than I expected," Campanile said.
From that sentence alone, you could see that Campanile was a total rookie. Sure, I hadn't been in the game as long as some of the more experienced people, but even I knew that no, you did not give the universe a chance like that.
Within seconds of Campanile saying it, the moon rose, shining through a treeline at the border of Marcone's ridiculously large estate.
For just a second, I thought we'd be okay. Sure, the moon was there, but MacFinn was safely hidden in a pocket dimension, in a place where the sun never shone, nor the moon.
Then, my usual luck asserted itself, and I felt a surge of power move through me, or rather, my parahuman ability.
I really should've known better.
The curse of the Loup-Garou is no simple enchantment. Most magic fades away with sunrise, a time of renewal. Even powerful spells need to be maintained, or they're eroded over time. A major curse like the one on MacFinn, one that has lasted for hundreds of years? That needs a ridiculous amount of power, and some sort of anchor. Or in this case, two anchors, that create the curse when coming into contact with each other.
One of those being MacFinn's bloodline, the other being the moon itself.
Like I said, major mojo.
And if a big old containment circle couldn't stop the cursee from transforming, my little pocket dimension wouldn't work either.
By placing myself between the two halves of the curse, all I'd done was force it to go through me. And, powerfull as I might be, I wasn't strong enough to handle all of that energy.
My only saving grace was that I'd used my staff as a focus.
I flinched, as it quickly heated up, before exploding into red-hot cinders. I'd spend a whole lot of time creating a tool that would work with both my magic, and my parahuman ability, and it wouldn't be easy to create a new one.
As my staff was utterly destroyed, and my parahuman ability on the fritz, I was very happy I'd bound my inner demon. Or rather, space parasite. Almost the same thing really. I felt it reeling, trying to lash out at me for making it do too much. Were I someone else, I'd have a pounding headache right now, but the binding meant that I'd just be unable to use that side of my abilities for a while.
Then, just when I realized that that meant I wouldn't have access to my zero-g dimension anymore, I dropped to the floor like Wile E. Coyote.
Then, I noticed the Loup-Garou clawing its way back into our dimension through a rift in spacetime. Yeah, that wasn't going to be a problem.
Before it had fully torn its way through, the former cement-mixer crashed into it, pushing it back, and tearing the world a new one in the process.
It didn't take, and the beast threw the cement-mixer to the side before fully stepping into our dimension.
"Campanile, grab the hostages. Alpha squad, get out of here, Shuffle, Beta and Charlie, limit its movements," Revel called out, putting on her command hat.
I switched my blasting rod from my left hand to my right, and got ready for a fight, using just my magic.
It probably wouldn't work, but we needed to do something to stop this thing from rampaging.
From behind me, I felt three more metal monstrosities run past me. Felt, because they stomped the ground while dashing forwards to a ridiculous degree.
As the metal minions tore into it, the beast roared out in pain, even though its wounds healed almost immediately.
"Forzare" I yelled out, bashing the beast in the head with a bolt of pure force, twisting its neck backwards in a way that didn't look healthy.
Of course, half a second later, the neck twisted back, and the beast was completely healed again, and looking straight at me.
It roared, and dashed straight at me, completely ignoring the metal beasts trying to tear at it.
In the corner of my eyes, I saw one of the vans move into position, and lay out a spray of containment foam, making use of the wolves' straightforward path to lead it.
The foam landed on the beast, and started expanding, covering the beast in a thick layer of white goo.
Again, it's just not getting old.
Then, just as the beast was about to reach me, Shuffle used his ability, and a large chunk of earth and boulders appeared between me and the beast.
I wasn't sure what happened next, because it was out of my view, but I saw some orbs flying from Revel's lantern, and heard some bones crunching, so I could make an educated guess.
Beside me, I suddenly saw the girl again, this time standing on a smaller critter.
"He's just gonna keep healing," the girl said, speaking from experience.
"So, we have to find some way to contain him," I replied.
"How? Your banishment didn't work, and he's gonna tear through the foam."
"A magic circle, one he can't cross. Problem is, we'd need to trap him, and we don't really have the time to set up anything like that."
"So… we're fucked?"
"Basically. It's either that or strike with inherited silver, that's its only weakness," I said.
"You mean, he'll die?"
"Yes, he'll die."
"That's not… it's not his fault, it's a curse…" she said.
"I know, but it's either that, or let him run around killing people, and something tells me he'd rather die," I said.
The girl looked dejected, completely out of ideas. Behind me, back in the arena Shuffle had created with his powers, I could hear the sound of metal being torn apart, and Revel's orbs of force crushing supernatural beast bones. I could only hope that Campanile had been able to get the hostages out of there, I wasn't really in any condition to do anything right now, what with half my abilities being on the fritz.
"So, the circle's gotta be magic right?" the girl asked.
"Pretty much, yeah. Anyone can make it, but without something to power it, it's just a geometric shape on the floor. I'd need to empower it first."
"So, if someone else made the circle-"
"Then I can empower that instead," I finished her sentence.
"I uhmmm. I don't I can though, I mean, he'll probably just tear it apart if I get my minions to do something," she said.
"Let's see. Campanile can't go into melee against this guy, Revel's blasts won't be too useful either, Shuffle is too imprecise… Say, Parian's a telekinetic isn't she?
"Don't know, Tera said she knew magic."
"She does both. I think. Anyway, I don't have any better ideas, so let's see if we can find her," I said, hopping on behind the car-destroying hooligan.
Then, about five seconds after we started jumping around, I was reminded of the fight going on by a PRT van flying through the air, landing right in front of us.
Luckily, it seemed like the trooper had managed to get out of it before the Loup-Garou had reached them. At least I couldn't see any body parts.
There was blood, but that could've been werewolf blood. At least I hoped it was werewolf blood.
Without a pause, the girl jumped down, sending me forward on the minion she'd been riding. She walked towards the van, and gave me a good view of just what exactly she'd done to the Blue Beetle.
Panels, axles and engines twisted around on themselves, the metal of the van creaking with a horrible noise.
The Loup-Garou, recognizing the sound, jumped up, and I saw it dash towards the girl. It was covered in a mixture of blood and foam, but completely unbothered by it.
And in about three seconds, It would rip out the throat of the girl that was helping me find Parian.
I have this old-fashioned thing about women. I'm kind of a chivalrous guy. Sure, you might think me old-fashioned, what with people like Alexandria and Revel constantly in the limelight, but it's just me.
And if there's anything I hate more than I hate people who go after women, It's people who go after little girls, even if the girl in question managed to completely destroy my car for no reason at all."
I gathered my will, drawing in energy from my surroundings, and channelled it through my blasting rod, a device specialized in helping me control fire magic.
Not that I needed any control right now, I just needed power, a lot of power.
"Pyrofuego" I yelled, unleashing a devastatingly large fireball from the tip of my blasting rod. It was almost like a spear, only larger, and the flame was blue and white, rather than the average red-yellowish fire. Heh, white-ish stuff coming from my rod, almost as good as containment foam.
The column of flame flew through the air, and smashed straight into the Loup-Garou, sending it flying, and setting it on fire. When it landed, I could see its fur burn in a bright blaze, the regenerating hairs only serving to further fuel the fire. It wouldn't last, almost nothing would last against this thing, but it would buy the girl whose cape name I still didn't know some time.
As my steed turned a corner, it slowed down, slowly falling outside of her control, its movements becoming simpler. I jumped off, and ran in the direction in which I thought Parian had been. Shuffle's power was useful in restructuring the battlefield, but it made it rather difficult to keep your bearings in a place like this. The only fixtures were the moon, and Revel's position in the sky, throwing balls of hurt at the Loup-Garou. From the way she was spacing them out though, it seemed like she was running low on her reserves of energy.
After a minute or two of searching for Parian, I suddenly decided to stop being an idiot. Instead of running through the broken, hilly terrain like a madman, I climbed up on a rock, and looked around for Campanile, who had been in charge of the hostages.
Of course, that had been at the beginning of the chaotic fight. Right now, I saw him fighting the Loup-Garou, using the barely recognizeable cement-mixer as a bludgeon in order to give him extra range.
All things considered, close quarters combat is dangerous, especially for brutes. You'd think the opposite was true, and it is, but that wasn't the point I was trying to make.
The point is, a brute is supposed to get in there, and fight the enemy with overwhelming force and resilience.
Against most people, that means you overpower them instantly, doesn't matter if you're a twenty-feet tall Campanile or a sky-scraper lifting Alexandria. Doesn't matter if you're twenty time as strong, or a hundred. You're not going to lose that fight. Against another brute though, you tend to be completely at the mercy of your respective powers. If your enemy happens to be stronger by an order of magnitude, you're completely fucked, no doubts about it.
In this case, it seemed like the Loup-Garou was the one that was having intercourse, thanks to Campanile's ridiculous reach. Whenever the Loup-Garou attacked, he simply took a large step back, attacking again the moment it stopped moving.
Problem was, strength and reach weren't the only factors in such a fight. Right here, it was resilience, stamina and regeneration that would prove conclusive.
Sure, Campanile could keep the beast at bay for a couple of minutes, but he was still a person, and would quickly tire, while the Loup-Garou wouldn't.
"He is going to kill them," a voice said.
I turned, and was that it was Tera West, standing right next to me. I hadn't heard her approach, hadn't even heard her breathe before she'd said something.
While my eyes were busy inspecting her rather naked body for possible wounds, (I promise I only looked as much as was strictly necessary to make sure she was okay) she started speaking again.
"He was always worried this would happen. That he wouldn't be able to stop himself. The beast, it is everything he is not. Angry, vengeful and out of control."
"Vengeful… that's why he went after the girl," I said.
"A stupid child playing stupid games. She heard rumours about things being afoot at his manor during the full moon, and she wanted to explore, like you humans are wont to. She found him, transformed but sealed in his circle, and she panicked, freeing him in her foolishness. She managed to fight him off until moonset, but only barely. When he returned to her senses, he forgave her, thanked her for making sure he didn't hurt anyone, while all I wanted to do was to rip her throat out.
"You humans, most of you are horrible, worse than the animals whose superiors you claim to be. Then, there are people like my beloved, who are better than I could ever be."
"And now, he's stuck like this, fighting us," I said.
"You should know, wizard, that I am helping you because he would not want to harm anyone. If you harm him, I will have my revenge," she said, calm and collected as if she hadn't just threatened to rip our collective oesophagi out. I was pretty sure that, if I had an ex-wife, I would've made some kind of twisted comparison here.
"Well, I'm trying to stop that from happening, but I'll need Parian to do that. Do you know where she is?" I asked.
"Lady Sabah? Yes, the giant carried her away before he went to fight," she responded, before shifting to a wolf again.
I was about to hurry after her, when I heard a blood-curdling scream in the distance. I looked again, and saw that what I'd feared had happened. Campanile had gotten tired, and made a mistake, and now the Loup-Garou was wrapped around one of his arms, biting down.
There was little I could do, it was out of range for an easy hit, and I'd probably hit Campanile as well if I threw something at it.
Revel, however, was still soaring above the battlefield, periodically throwing around balls of force.
I looked at my right hand, and the ring I was wearing on it. The ring was made out of three rings of an Iridium/Rhodium alloy, created by a tinker to hold large amounts of energy. The alloy had been designed for some sort of interdimensional tinker-tech bullshit, but that property had carried over for magical work, and I'd used my Protectorate contacts to get a fair amount of it.
The design was based on an earlier device I'd created, a small ring that would save up a little bit of energy each time I swung my arm around, and release that all at once. This one, however, got its kinetic force from a little doohickey Tecton had made for me after I'd explained the principle, and it was a lot more powerful than my earlier work.
I aimed it at the point of light in the sky that was Revel's lantern, gathered my will, and released the energy, pounding an enormous blast of force straight into her weapon.
Revel, used to my hijinks by now, didn't even act surprised when her weapon was suddenly overcharged with energy again. Instead, she simply looked at me, spotting the wolf right next to me, and gave me a nod while she flew towards Campanile and the beast, unleashing a vast array of glowing orbs in the process of flying there.
"Let's get going," I said, and Tera started running, following her nose, while Campanile was screaming in the background.
There was nothing I could do, I told myself. I wouldn't be able to reach him in time, and my time was better spent creating a containment plan.
I wasn't sure how long I spent rushing after Tera in the near darkness, my path lit only by the faint glow of my amulet, the one I'd inherited from my mother, and which was now available in tacky tourist stores all across the city.
It was also, of course, made out of silver. Inherited silver. The one weakness that a Loup-Garou had.
Sometimes I was such a fucking idiot.
Eventually, we came upon an impromptu medical outpost, containing the hostages, as well as an unconscious Shuffle and three bleeding troopers, and one guy playing medic.
"Where's Parian?" I asked, and the sole capable PRT trooper left pointed at one of the bundles lying on the floor.
As I came closer, I recognized Parian's Middle Eastern features. She was sleeping, probably still out from the drugs the Hexenwolves used on her.
I then did what all good wizards did in such a situation. I grabbed a little vial of smelling salts from my utility pouch, and held it in front of her nose, because mind-affecting magic is a no-no. Really I'm serious, it's against the laws of magic because it tends to twist the mind of the victim, their subconscious fighting against the changes you made. That was why I couldn't help people with the binding. The parasites interact with brains, and therefore the mind. The whole binding was based upon subtle differences between the brain, as in the chemical machine in your head, and your metaphysical mind.
Using some sort of love spell on someone, for example, would lead to them hating and loving someone at the same time, eventually ending in someone's psyche tearing itself apart, probably.
In this case, well, maybe her subconscious would tell her she was still sleepy or something. But hey, it's a slippery slope, and the laws of magic mean that you'll be executed by the council the moment you set a single step over that line.
So I just used the natural equivalent, found in a small vial with stinky gasses, a quick slap to the face, and a thermos of cold water applied directly to the face.
She woke up, and was obviously confused as to the situation, and wondering why her shirt was wet.
So a little bit of water had slipped from her face to her shirt, sue me, the layers of clothes she was wearing meant I couldn't see anything anyways.
"What… where… what happened?" she asked, obviously still tired.
"Long story short? You got kidnapped by transforming FBI agents, and now there's a rampaging Loup-Garou running around slaughtering its way through my teammates. I need you to grab some string and make a circle around it, so that we can empower it and keep it sealed."
Parian looked at me, her mouth gaping open, before nodding, standing up, and removing a long string from her skirt with her power. "Will this do? I mean, I've never tried it before, but I think the principle is sound. You're the wizard here anyway," she said, her voice not entirely confident, but not trembling too much either.
"I think it will, or at least, I can't figure out a reason why it wouldn't, so let's go!" I said to both the wet and tired Parian and the naked wolf. Although, now that I thought about it, most wolves are naked.
We made our way towards the fighting sounds, while I explained my circle plan. In the distance, the sounds of Revel's orbs were joined by grenades and gunfire. Apparently, Marcone's men had gotten involved.
As we reached the fight, a bloody scene was unfolding.
Most obvious was Campanile's arm, lying on the ground, twenty feet long and several across, it was mauled all over by the Loup-Garou. Somehow, it had gotten lopped off in the fight, and wasn't returning to normal size.
The rest of his body, however, was normal sized, -still big mind you, but normal for Campanile-, lying on the ground nearby with a PRT trooper working on the bloody stump.
Behind that, I saw smoke grenades, concussive grenades, incendiary grenades, and a couple of other things flying to the air, as well as a whole lot of gunfire coming from Marcone's mansion.
In the distance, I could see Snaptrap's power, flinging grenades forward. I idly wondered if Revel was still angry at him for failing to live up to his self-imposed expectations. Probably. Revel could be a hard-ass and Snaptrap was kind of a dick.
The Loup-Garou, driven towards the mansion by Revel's attacks, was busy smashing its way through walls, destroying the structural integrity of the building and munching on cheap henchmen.
"Hey, Lard-ass!" I yelled, before following up with a "Fuego!" and a fireball.
The Loup-Garou, its mouth red with blood that, this time, I was quite sure was not his.
"Sup," I waved at it.
"Growl," it replied. It was obviously very good at small talk.
Hyper mega circle telekinesis attack! Parian said, or at least, she said so in my mind. In reality, she just hid behind a werewolf-person-thing while doing her power thing, stealthily moving a long piece of string in a circle around the Loup-Garou.
As the circle was completed, I gathered my will, and focussed it on the circle. Then, I poured energy into it, imagining a wall going up at the edge of the circle, and creating a barrier around the beast.
This time, the barrier didn't stop the energy that turned the man into the beast. Instead, it just stopped it from leaving.
It dashed forwards at me, angry at my fireball, and crashed against a supernatural wall.
It was sealed, and wouldn't be able to break its way through the circle. At least, that had been the idea.
The Loup-Garou however, didn't quite agree with the fact that I'd just beaten it, and while I pumped more energy into the circle, it smashed itself against the invisible walls around it, trying to break out.
"Good thinking Myrddin," Revel said, landing beside me. "You think it will hold?"
"I sure hope so," I replied, keeping the circle clear in my mind.
Sure, technically speaking, the circle is mostly a prop. Any circle will do, if given enough energy to hold its integrity. The thing is, the really fancy ones are a lot more reliable, and a piece of Parian-controlled string was not the kind of triple binding I'd prefer to have in a situation like this.
'So, what now? Any ideas?" Revel asked.
"Wait until moonset? I don't think we're going to get through its regeneration, and the foam didn't seem to work," I replied.
"Nothing else? None of that arcane advice of yours?" she asked sardonically. After all, she thought that my advice working just meant that my powers worked in mysterious ways, making enemies weak to something just because I thought they should be weak to it.
"Inherited silver should do the job, but…" I replied
"Growl," Tera added in, still in her wolf-form.
Revel just looked at the woman, before looking at my amulet.
"Didn't you say you got that from your mother?" she asked. This elicited another angry growl from Tera.
"Look boss, I respect you, but I'm not going to-"
My little speech was cut off by a roar from the Loup-Garou, who had just smashed through my barrier after a moment of inattentiveness on my part.
It was loose again, and it was coming for me this time.
I readied my blasting wand, trying desperately to figure out some way to use fire magic to get rid of this thing, but Revel was faster than me, and she grabbed at my amulet, tearing it from my neck.
Then, she threw it into the air between her and the rampaging Loup-Garou, ready to launch it forwards with one of her orbs.
Tera, having almost immediately shifted to human form, jumped forwards, trying to catch the amulet out of the air before Revel could launch it forwards.
She wasn't fast enough, and an orb of force flew forwards from Revel's lantern, straight at the amulet, and the Loup-Garou behind it.
"Noooo-" Tera screamed with the kind of wail you expected from widows in war documentaries. I guess she was about to be one.
The orb hit the amulet, and all of the force was expended, launching the amulet forwards at ridiculous speeds, straight at the heart of the Loup-Garou.
Something roared at the barriers in my mind, and I was floating through a void, side by side with something else, extending and converging at the same time, scanning and travelling. My mind's eye was set on a ball of rock, at once barren and chemical, but also green and blue. It was empty and filled, beautiful and horrible, filled with potential. Then, it started to solidify, becoming one instance of itself, instead of a multitude of possibilities.
I thought of my partner.
"UNKNOWN"
I signalled at it.
"CURIOUS"
It replied, although the word itself did not really cover the meaning of the word.
Our multitudes made its way towards the specific instance, readying plans, dividing ourselves into shards, spreading around for more information from the cycle. Plans were formed. The other would focus on the new phenomenon that had been detected, while our collective would do as we normally did.
Something went wrong, and the partner crashed into a wall between dimensions, partially crushed, paralyzed, hurt. It was too late to help. Too late.
The amulet flew forwards slowly, and it was like every second took an hour.
No, in retrospect, every second only took like a minute or so.
I felt my heart beat, slowly but surely, and tried to move, but my body wouldn't react. Or rather, it reacted slowly, very slowly.
I saw my amulet, sent spinning by Revel, moving in slow motion towards the Loup-Garou's heart.
Towards Tera's fiancé's heart.
Everything moved in slow motion, except for the amulet, which moved at reasonable speeds. Slower than a run, faster than walking.
Something was fucking with time, and from the vision I'd just had, I was pretty sure it was a parahuman. A new one.
I looked around, trying to figure out who had triggered. One of the troopers? One of Marcone's men, or, god-forbid, Marcone himself? Was it a second trigger for Revel? Or maybe for Campanile.
Then, I tried to slap myself, although my arm moved at an agonizingly slow pace.
West, whatever she was, had apparently counted as human enough, at least for the entity that had decided to find some living accommodations in her brain.
Now, to figure out what kind of power it was.
Also, to save MacFinn's life.
I readied my will, using my shield bracelet as a focus. It was made to protect me from incoming forces, but I could improvise. After all, I had all the time I needed, whatever kind of temporal effect Tera had created, it obviously didn't affect my mind.
I gathered my will, channelling the energy through my shield bracelet, and send it after the amulet, placing a shield just in front of it.
"Riffle-" I was about to say, only to find that my tongue was responding very slowly.
Of course, my mind was normal, my mouth was not.
I tried again, this time without verbal components, as the amulet moved ever closer to the Loup-Garou.
This time, I didn't go for the perfect shield, I just went for good enough. I placed the shield diagonally, deflecting the amulet, but not stopping it entirely.
The amulet hit, and was deflected by the shield, moving slightly downwards, aimed towards the beast's legs.
Happy that I'd managed to work out that one, I tried to take a deep breath of relieve, only to find out that my body was, once again, moving too slowly.
This was going to get annoying real fast, I thought.
The amulet struck, hitting the beast in the right leg, and time resumed at its normal pace again.
As the beast roared out in pain, it's paws went to its leg, nursing the first wound that had really hurt it.
Revel, not wasting a moment, took the opportunity to strike out with several more of her orbs, smashing the shocked beast to the ground while some of Marcone's men resumed firing at it uselessly.
Behind us, I heard a couple of footsteps. I turned around, and spotted Snaptrap, who was running over to us, not wanting to miss the fight and the glory.
"The fuck happened? You all went real slow for a couple minutes there," he said.
I went over the sentence, and over the implications.
The effect was localized, affecting everything but our minds. In addition to that, it was a real effect, not a simulation created by giving everyone some sort of Thinker power.
Of course, in a fight, you still moved at normal velocities, and your enemies would also have extra thinking time, so it was of limited usefulness.
Unless your enemy was dependent on the full moon, a full moon that was, of course, located far outside of Tera's area of effect.
"West! The moon doesn't slow down, use your ability again!" I yelled out.
I was barely done yelling when the effect hit again, slowing everything down to a crawl.
The rest of the night was both boring, tiring, and fascinating.
Bullets flying at about a hundredth of their normal speeds were kind of beautiful, like when you're looking at those slow-motion camera videos. After seeing a thousand of them though, it gets kind of boring.
The Loup-Garou, slowed just as much as we were, tried to put up a fight. But, with the feral killer instincts that the transformation gave to MacFinn, he'd lost his capacity for planning and rational thought. Given time to plan, to look what others were doing and work in tandem with them, we were easily able to hold him off.
Every fifteen minutes or so, Tera would drop the effect, taking a quick breather, before putting it up again. She looked exhausted and confused, but she had an amazing level of mental fortitude.
The worst part of it was that, while my body was slowed down, my mind was growing tired, and I couldn't exactly go and get some coffee. Which meant I'd need to prepare some sort of coffee dimension, just in case I'd fight side by side with Tera like this again.
After quite a few hours – you never realize how long the moon is up until you have to wait through it- The moon went down, and MacFinn started transforming again, this time back to human. 100% completely naked human, because that was just the day I was having.
Seeing him, alive and well, except for the gaping wound in his foot, a naked Tera West ran forwards, jumping straight into the arms of her beloved.
Hugging each other, the man kissed her, and she kissed him back. The naked couple completely forgetting about the assembled superheroes, the manor house filled with gangsters, the promptly redesigned golf-course, courtesy of Shuffle Inc. or the array of completely ruined cars, courtesy of a girl whose name I still didn't know, and who was conspicuously absent from the scene of the crime.
I'd catch her someday, and I'd make her repair my car, or buy me a new one, or whatever creative punishment I'd thought of by that time. For now, I was just happy that things seemed to be relatively okay here.
In the distance, I saw several of the Wards approach, followed by director Heathrow and several more PRT troopers. The director had a talk, first with Revel, then with MacFinn, and with Marcone after that. The troopers went for the Hexenwolves, who apparently were still covered under a thick layer of foam.
The Wards, or rather, Tecton, Wanton and Grace, told me that one of the Hexenwolves had tried to take out Taylor back at HQ, and Tecton told me that a freak electrical blowout had disabled all the unshielded electronics in the building. From the way he said the word shielded, I thought there had to be more to it, like he didn't just mean EMP shielding.
Wanton started asking questions, wanting to know how I'd used my 'magic' to take down the baddies, but I told him I wanted to get a couple of hours of sleep in first. I'd figure out what to do after I'd rested a bit.
Grace… Grace had wanted to say something about Cuff, but then seen the naked kissing couple. I managed to use one of my wizardly powers (it's this new thing called a ridiculously billowy robe,) to block her vision, and asked them to escort me back to one the vans, were I plonked down, too tired to think, after doing almost nothing but thinking for about eight hours straight.