1.7
The situation was stable enough for the moment. No more ticking deadlines except for the ones I scheduled myself!
I wasn't sure about the situation with the Travelers. Cauldron had probably called in a favor or two, but Coil most likely remained in town. I checked my phone, and finally received a response in regards to the note I had dropped of earlier.
Appearing in the same home, I stood for the second time. In front of me, was a short girl probably a few years younger than my body's age. She looked at me with a mixture of curiosity and fear. A small blue backpack lay at my feet. She had probably just arrived home from school.
"You're the one that's been changing all the numbers," Dinah Alcott, the strongest precog in the world after Scion, the Simurgh and Contessa. Oh and Coil too. Maybe Coil was weaker? I could never remember.
"No, zat's zee Number Man," I said a joke that probably only Clairvoyant and Doormaker heard and would also get.
"Vat do you see now Dinah?" I asked in a patronizing tone. It was the tone I talked to Cauldron with, and rapidly becoming my favorite after "maniacal glee."
"The end of the world, or rather the lack of one occurring in two years," she said. "Will my kidnapping be rescheduled too?"
"I'm so glad you asked!" I said gleefully. "Vy yes, I am going to be postponing such an event, probably jusht by existing."
"I have a little homevork for you however," I said, enjoying the brief look of pain she experienced probably from trying to predict me. "You vill tell me about any majorcatashtrophes and I vill do vatever it takes to shtop zem."
She had reminded me of Coil however. I mean I was okay with all the organized crime sort of thing considering how no amount of killing would actually stop crime, unless I killed all the homeless and criminals. I wasn't however okay with drugging up a twelve year old. Very hypocritical, I know, but there were bigger issues to worry about than the primary warlord of a city, despite the fact I had killed Kaiser.
So I popped into Thomas Calvert's little PRT office and gave him a good smack on the face.
"No kidnapping Dinah Alcott, or I kill you vith zis knife," I said, waving the trusty tool in question. Nothing personal really, just keeping one of the most powerful precogs worried about actual world issues rather than the intricacies of one city would probably be better.
I didn't even mind it when he shot me two times in the head and two more in the heart. He had pretty good aim at close quarters! I idly wondered where the bullets went as I reappeared, right next to him bringing the knife to his neck.
Giving him a too-wide smile point-blank, I wagged a single finger with my free hand, in the universal no-no gesture.
I wasn't exactly sure where to go next. I went down the list of individuals in my head who needed a healthy dose of violence and finally decided to pay a nice little visit to Chinatown. Less Chinatown than actually China, but a prison camp totally counted as a town right?
"Ni hao, woa di ming zhi shir Schrodinger!" I said happily, stabbing Null in the neck. It was really weird hearing Chinese in a German accent, I thought while blood spurted all over my uniform. Looks like the alarm got raised, or rather sounds like it. Also the bullets inhabiting my torso. There was this guy, and also…
"Ni men zhen de shir hua!" I said, knife whistling through the air. Tossing and teleporting was something new I was trying out. This was the power-amplifier guy, Two? Wouldn't it be, "Er," if they were Chinese? Eh, he died like any other. Now there was only One.
"YEEEEEEEE!" I shouted while once again stabbing. These were supposed to be the most vital Parahumans to maintaining the Yangban right? There was some other Parahumans and a few assorted bodyguards who killed me a dozen times, but they couldn't stop me from stabbing until he was dead.People die when they are killed after all.
Killing the Imperial family was probably a bad idea. Then again, so was killing the parahuman powerhouses, but that hadn't stopped me. Popping back to my warehouse, I grabbed an item before appearing before said royal family.
"Jin tian zhen she yi ge zhou lou di hao tian!" I cheerily said, casually tossing and catching the circular object. I had taken the duct tape off my armband because clearly Gesellschaft was not receiving enough flak. A received a faceful of lead and other esoteric projectiles, falling down dead almost instantly. In another second I stood among the royal family in looking where my body had been.
"Ta chu le na li?" I said mockingly, dropping the unexploded grenade, still unarmed, before waving and vanishing. I guess that was my first act of terrorism. Well, as they say when there's still daylight hours in the day…
I returned to the warehouse to duct-tape up my armband. I had gotten rather proficient at making faces with different colours of tape by now.
Was Panacea still in Master-Stranger containment? Why yes she was! She muttered something likely rude under her breath but I was already gone. On the subject of wards, even though Panacea wasn't one, why not help out the autistic kid.
"Your shpecialty is modular equipment," I whispered in his ear before vanishing.
I was back in the Birdcage, taking a visit to one of the more knowledgeable individuals there. It was such a pity everyone believed her insane. In front of me stood another young girl, though her appearance belied her true age. Behind her drifted two phantom-like figures.
"Vat a fine day it is Faerie Queen," I said to Glastig Uaine.
Her face twisted as realization hit.
"You have no Faerie,"she said, voice discordant and terrible.
"I indeed do not, yet here I shtand," I said, taking a bow. Nobody was in the vicinity to see our conversation. I suspect prisoners wisely stayed away. "Vat vill you do ven I kill Scion and end zee cycle permanently?"
"Abomination,"she hissed.
"And here I vas hoping vee could be zee best of friends," I said, mock injured. "Scion is broken vithout zee other. Zee cycle is broken eizer vay vee go about it."
"Lies,"she said,"The cycle is eternal."
A massive gouge of flame punctuated her response, reducing me to a charred body.
I promptly reappeared in the smoke-filled cell. I spent so much time on making the duct-tape on the armband look good too!
"Vee all have our roles to play," I said smiling and leaving the cell.
It was too bad she had proven hostile.
I was fairy certain I could have convinced her after all.