2.5
Brockton Bay
April 8th,2011
18:04 EST
In comparison, the rest of the day goes by without any excitement. I wander the local mall for a bit, before detouring to a department store to obtain some more clothes, as well as other essentials. I drop a change of clothes off at my temporary room. Note to self: obtain an apartment ASAP.
Luckily, the change of clothes doesn't put me back much, so I'm left with enough money to tide me over until tomorrow, assuming Tats actually delivers on the promised money. I really hopes she does. The only thing I remember about the Undersiders base in canon is that it's a) somewhere in the Docks, and b) it's in an abandoned factory, and I don't want to search the entire Docks looking for it.
Regardless, I need a place to eat for the night, and knowing Worm, there's really only one place I can chose on my frist night. Fugly Bob's.
In reality, Fugly Bob's is far from the best burger I've had in my years, though it's up there, no doubt. I'm actually disappointed. Fanon seems to alternate between Fugly Bob's being the best burger joint in town, and drastically failing to live up to the hype. Just being above average is nowhere near as exciting. Regardless, this all leads to the present, being my hotel room.
There's an attached bathroom that I never took note of, so I pop my head in there to investigate. The bathroom actually isn't too bad, as it certainly looks better than the rest of the room. The pure white tile is pretty standard, as is the towel and generic soap and shampoo that I've never seen anyone use. I don't see any bugs crawling around, thank God. Wait, is the whole 'thank Scion' thing canon or fanon? I don't really remember either way. Oh well, that can wait until later.
I hesitantly get ready for a shower, but the worst part I'm expecting is the smell of my costume after wearing it all day. Said odor turns out to be almost nonexistent. Odd. Regardless, I'm ready for my shower, complete with generic brand soap and shampoo(TM).
In the shower, my mind inevitably wanders to the events of the past two days. Yesterday, everything possible went wrong. I've almost certainly got the Protectorate on my tail, and while I could probably get off on a spot in the Wards and probation, that'd come with all kinds of things that I don't want. There's only one other superhero team in BB, and I don't think that I even need to justify not joining them. Any out of town teams come with issues and obstacles, or otherwise wouldn't want to piss off the Protectorate. Unless I made my own team. Like that's going to happen.
Still, even if I want to do some good,or even just survive, I'll need income. The easy answer is to become a parahuman mercenary. I can't imagine the prices that someone would pay for the ability to have my almost unrivaled hit and run abilities at their beck and call, but the issue is that I'm flying solo for the time being. Still, I can probably charge what I want, when I want, and set my own terms. I know that Faultline's crew supposedly has never killed anyone, so I could probably dictate similar terms. I've already show that I've got the talent by breaking that guy out of the convoy, so it's not like I don't already have some street cred.
I'm not even considering being a supervillain.
While becoming a mercenary has its appeal, and certainly seems to be the best option, it doesn't change anything. I'm going to be a hero, even if it's on my own terms. I've already accepted that my chances of changing public opinion on me is going to be difficult, but I'll just keep going one at a time. Still, that's not much of a plan.
I'm already working on taking out Coil, and E88 and the ABB should collapse soon without any effort on my part. The Merchants croaked during the Slaughterhouse 9 arc, so assuming that the Slaughterhouse is still set to come to town, I don't need any effort put there, though I think that I'll try to take them out beforehand if I can. I don't condone mass murder, and with the leaders of the Merchants behind bars, I'll be able to indirectly save their lives, even if they don't deserve it.
As it stands, the rest of the gangs are either too powerful to be taken down at this point, or I don't have a good enough lead on where they'd be to deliver a decisive blow. There's only two other groups in Brockton Bay I haven't considered yet, Uber and Leet, and the Undersiders. I already have plans for the Undersiders, so so that leaves us with Uber and Leet. While they are slightly sympathetic, they still beat up hookers and cause general chaos, so I'll have to either get them out of the game or take them down. I step out of the shower, and taking the towel hanging on the wall, and walk into the room. I glance at the time: 8:04. My costume is still in a pile on the floor, though a sniff test reveals that it still smells neutral. I super-speed it on. The night is young, and I have work to do.
A/N: Huge thanks to Saphrae for betaing for me and otherwise putting up with me. As always, feedback and concerns are welcome, and will be addressed to the best of my abilities.