As a guy who likes to consider himself a good person, I gotta say, it is shockingly hard not to cackle maniacally at a crowd of thugs while you liberally blind them from a rooftop.
"How you doing guys. Steve, I see you're still going out after midnight." I called down at them, even as Sophia and I continued to more or less liberally tear them apart with our weapons.
I actually didn't know if a guy named Steve was in this particular group of white supremacists, but it was a generic enough name that I figured I had even odds of giving someone nightmares over it later.
"Do you have to do that?" Aegis asked from nearby, having been following me and Soph around for most of the night like a lost puppy, and lacking anything to actually do since he didn't have a ranged weapon of any kind.
Which was dumb by the way. Giving your fliers some ranged weaponry was just basic tactics if you asked me.
"Do what? Ah, ah! No running now!" I asked, before swinging my arm wide to shoot the fleeing gangster in the face. As I did so, I could feel Merlin subtly fixing my aim, and with a flash like a camera bulb going off, the running man was on the ground, covering his face with both hands and making mewling noises.
"...Mock them," Aegis said flatly. Aegis was a nice guy in a general sense, but he drank so much of the PRT coolaid that sometimes it was hard to tell where his opinion ended and the PR departments started. It wasn't that he was showboating or considered himself a celebrity or anything. He just genuinely thought that he had to be this way to really grow into a Hero.
Which was cute and all but...
"Aegis, my guy, they're fucking Nazis. They're lucky I even classify them as sapient beings. Mocking them for believing in something so insanely stupid as the inherent superiority of their race, while literal Kaijuu rip cities apart, is pretty much my civic duty." I pointed out, returning my firearm to the much larger group of thugs still in the alley.
"Still I mean... it kind of feels like you're bullying them," Vista added. I'll give her this. She might not be in her edgy batman phase yet, but she certainly didn't seem to be bothered by the screaming mass of guys below us. Curious, at best really. Vista was honestly the hardest Ward for me to deal with. The rest of them had personalities roughly analogous with what I recalled from the story.
Missy Biron was so young that her personality seemed perfectly capable of changing moment to moment. Like she was trying on new clothes. It made sense. I doubt I could claim to be even vaguely the same person at eleven as I was at fifteen - but it meant that I had no idea what to say or do around her.
I had originally started out by just constantly noting that she fucking terrified me, only to realize that eleven year old Vista was still into being cute, and unicorns, and all that other stuff preteen girls are known for.
So now she either thought I was very weird, or very mean. Possibly both. Probably both.
"Eh. Probably. I still think being a Nazi puts you outside normal standards of measurement for those kinds of things." I countered lazily, lowering my gun to my side where it clicked into place on my hip.
"Fuck Nazis," Sophia added her two cents, jumping across the alleyway to land next to us.
"See?" I added.
We'd been seeing a lot of Empire guys in our neighborhood recently. I don't think they knew where we lived or anything like that. They just seemed to know that Soph and I tended to patrol around here. To say the Empire had been less than pleased with our attack on their safehouse would be putting it mildly.
They hadn't quite reached the point where any Capes were actively hunting us, but they certainly weren't above directing their thugs to just generally wreck up our home turf while trying to find and presumably kill us.
This was annoying because it meant that by getting Alabaster arrested I had actively made my own neighbourhood worse to live in. Even worse, he probably wouldn't even stay arrested, so I had effectively achieved nothing. I fucking hate this city.
Anyway, me and Soph had taken to running damage control, mostly by making our attacks on the groups of thugs that kept meandering into our general area as painful and demeaning as possible.
Well. Soph did painful. I did demeaning. Mostly by taking a page out of Spiderman's book and just continuously chatting at them. If I was in even a smidgen of danger I might have stopped, but as far as these low level goons were concerned I was basically Superman.
Add the constant Wards backup and the likely presence of at least one adult Protectorate member nearby, and yeah, I felt comfortable insulting the white supremacists while fighting them.
Vista wrinkled her nose at us.
"You swear a lot too," she complained, skipping into the open air off the ledge of the building and somehow ending up amidst all the downed gangsters, already bending over to zip tie their wrists together. I tried not to flinch at the casual way she could just do that without giving any visible indication that something was happening.
Unless she wanted you to, it was pretty much impossible to detect Vista's power at work. It looked more like teleportation than space bending alot of the time.
"Nothing wrong with some flavour in a sentence." I argued, leaping down next to her while using my jump jets to reduce the force of the landing.
"But it makes you sound like Skidmark!" Vista complained.
I didn't have a good counterpoint for that.
Fucking Skidmark, ruining curse words for the rest of us.
Instead of continuing to try to defend myself, I went from person to person, frisking them for their cellphones and then leaving them atop their prone bodies. I could technically help restrain them, but all that would do is leave samples of my stuff laying around for Armsmaster to examine, so I decided to make use of my permanent escort by allowing them to do the work for me.
"Anything?" I mentally asked Merlin, who had already started breaking into the phones one by one, and then compiling information from them for later. My primary goal was to see if this group knew about any other groups that might be here tonight - but there were other benefits.
Merlin was more than capable of backtracking the phones history and previous messages to determine if these thugs had ever been positioned at a stash house, and if so, where that stash was.
As things stood, I wouldn't say I was desperately in need of more funds, but I also wouldn't say no to them either. Once I hit level five the number of things I could make without my required purchases being both extremely obvious, and possibly illegal, would dwindle greatly. I could only push my tech so far using stuff from a civilian supplier.
What I would do when I hit that point, I don't know, but more money never hurt.
"Another group to the north, sir. I'll direct you." Merlin acknowledged, before a glowing arrow manifested in my vision - and presumably Sophia's - directing us back onto the rooftops overhead.
"You guys can catch up. Got another group further out." I told Aegis, who was in the middle of making a report when I rocketed back up to the rooftop he was on.
"How-" he started to ask but I rocketed off before he could finish.
I'd been getting a lot of questions from the Wards on the topic of my powers. I don't know if they were born from genuine curiosity, incredibly poor attempts at espionage, or both, but I was taking tremendous pleasure in deflecting those questions, or sometimes outright ignoring them.
At this point I had gathered that the PRT assumed I had a Thinker power, which in fairness, between Merlin and my future knowledge I kind of did.
Not that I was going to admit to it. If everyone assumed I had one, great, I could use that. If they didn't, or found out I didn't, well hey I never actually claimed to have one now did I?
Man, no wonder Lisa was such an almighty bitch.
"I still don't see why we need to let them follow us,"Sophia complained as we roof hopped towards our target destination.
"They're one of only two heroic groups in the city, and the only one with any clout. Someday we'll probably need to join them to get something we want, so it's best we stay on good terms."I explained.
For me, joining or not joining the PRT was a matter of convenience. I wasn't worried about all the rules and regulations because as Sophia had demonstrated in the canon timeline, those apparently only mattered if you fucked up. As long as you were succesful they'd just ignore it. Heck, I knew they'd literally forgive murder if they thought they could get a useful Parahuman on side.
So to me, joining the PRT was like making a faustian bargain. If I ever fucked up and got a kill count, they'd cover me. If I ever caved and needed Gerard handled, they'd cover me. If I somehow found a way to assassinate Coil-
Well, you get the point.
If I didn't have to join up I wouldn't. But if I did, it was probably for a good reason.
"We don't need them though. You can just do your thinker thing and solve the problem," Sophia countered.
Ah yes. The downside to telling Soph I just knew stuff.
She assumed I always knew what I was talking about.
Mind you, that was probably a combination of my future knowledge, the appearance of competence I managed to project by being a Tinker, and just generally knowing more than her about the world as a result of being an adult.
On the one hand, when I did shit like tell her about Coil, she just took me at my word. On the other, I was kind of afraid I was going to suffer the Tattletale treatment - where people assumed I was right so frequently that when I suddenly wasn't, it was immediately catastrophic.
"I can be wrong Soph. We're thirteen. Besides, do I need to make you read the Jungle Book again?" I teased.
"You didn't make me do shit,"She quickly countered as we continued onward.
"Soph, I had to threaten to take away your gun and never make anything for you ever again to make you read it,"I pointed out.
Fun fact. While the Jungle Book movies never got made on Bet - because Disney didn't succeed here like it did back home - the original collection of stories that they were based on did.
The fact that the book, on its face, claimed to be about the Law of the Jungle had helped it click with Soph's fucked up world view, which was hilarious, because not one iota of it was actually about animal behaviour. The Jungle Book was about human behaviour using animal archetypes.
Was it enough to completely reorient Sophia's insane opinions on reality? No. But it had helped her chill the hell out a bit when it came to being less of a bitch to people in social situations, and notably, she still hadn't given the book backto me.
Baby steps and all that.
"Yeah but you didn't make me read it,"she countered petulantly, once more reminding me she was a teenager.
I rolled my eyes at her mental tone, before catching sight of the group of inbred morons driving up the street in a pickup truck.
I groaned. Even if I technicallyknewthey were Nazi scum, I couldn't really do anything about them till they did something illegal.
So, as was becoming a habit of mine, I dropped down onto the road in plain view, and waited for someone to do something stupid.
And wouldn't you know it, it took them less than thirty seconds to start shooting at me.
Fucking geniuses, the lot of them.
--
I experienced my first Endbringer attack today.
Life had settled into a kind of routine for me. Monday's and Wednesday's I went to the gym. Weekends I tinkered, mostly maintaining my gear and puzzling out more spells for Merlin to work with, at least within the limited number of them we could cast in a day, and every other day I spent running around kicking Nazis out of the neighborhood.
I might have underestimated how determined those guys were to get revenge for the Stash House we knocked over.
I had kind of assumed they would eventually pull back and leave us alone if we stayed out of their faces for a while, but that was apparently not in the cards. The pressure from the Empire had only increased over the last month or so, to the point where their tags were starting to show up on walls, and the Wards were increasingly absent from our friendly joint patrol slash recruitment efforts.
So I was just kind of sitting in class trying to pay enough attention to the teacher that no one would bother me, when this ear splitting siren started going off.
Everyone in the room with me froze, like they were afraid any sudden movements would affect what would happen next. Then the siren wailed twice more before shutting off, and everyone relaxed slightly.
The teacher then quickly got us all up and outside in neat little rows, where we were counted, and then sent home. It was like a fire drill but somehow more tense.
"Are we going?" She asked me seriously the minute we met up outside the school.
Soph and I were in different classes, so I had only just found her as I was leaving. I did a quick scan to see if anyone overheard that, then shook my head in the negative.
I literally couldn't do anything about an Endbringer right now. I could heal, but I was hesitant to make that fact known to anyone but Soph. I could forward information about Endbringer cores, or how they were sand bagging, but that would just make things worse in the long run,anddraw attention to myself.
"Fuck." Sophia grunted, obviously hoping that wouldn't be my answer.
Technically, Sophia's phasing power meant she could hypothetically hurt an Endbringer, but I definitely wasn't going to tell her that.
Because then she'd try.
"Come on. Truce is on, we can rest for a few days." I said, trying to sound cheerful and failing woefully at it.
Sophia sent me a withering look at that. Unlike me, she was out basically every night. She didn't really have to be near me for Merlin to help her, since he could just piggy back our cellphone connections to communicate with her through her mask. As a result, her takedown count was easily three times my own, and shehadto be tired from the nonstop all nighters.
So naturally she resented even the mere implication that she could be tired.
Which wasn't, I'd like to note, a problem I had. So I spent the next three days catching up on blissful sleep.
--
A week after the Endbringer attack, the Protectorate announced a new Cape joining their roster.
Dauntless didn't exist yet, I don't think, so naturally I had assumed this was his debut, watching the video on my phone at lunch time.
"I'd like to introduce the newest hero of the Protectorate ENE, Dervish!"A spokesman was saying just in time for a woman wearing a sandy brown cloak and goggles to walk on screen.
"No," I whispered in shock.
"No fucking way," I continued when she started giving a very canned sounding speech.
Listen, I had nudged canon slightly with Whirlygig, but I hadn't expected it to stick really. I had almost half expected it to amount to nothing. So to see Whirlygig in the Protectorate was... something.
"Oh, and I wanna thank Star Finder and Shadow Stalker! They really helped me out at a time when-" she was saying, having obviously diverged from her speech. Her microphone cut off in the middle of what she was saying and a spokes person stepped into view to cover the sudden interruption.
"Dervish is a powerful Shaker, and we hope her addition to the team is a portent of things to come. Questions?"The spokesperson said succinctly before opening the floor.
I stopped the video at that point.
On the one hand, cool. I changed canon. Go me. On the other hand, I had this feeling like my life just suddenly got harder, and I have no idea why.
Eh. Probably nothing.
--
"Hey! Hey, I know you're up there!" Dervish yelled up to me from the street below where she was standing with an awkward Miss Militia.
"...Can I help you?" I asked them cautiously, peering over the edge of the rooftop.
"We heard you were having some difficulties with the Empire. We can't afford to let the Wards patrol here anymore, but we felt we could help push them back," Miss Militia explained. I'd spoken to her one time, and I got the distinct impression she didn't like me. Well, that, or I made her uncomfortable for some reason. God knows that seemed to be true for basically everyone I met nowadays.
At this rate I'd probably meet Taylor for the first time and she'd mistake me for a villain.
"Pfft. Ignore her, they were gonna leave you guys hanging until I joined up." Dervish interrupted.
I could instantly see why she had gotten along with the Merchants. She was irreverent as all hell. Like a girl version of fanon Assault. It was a trip.
"Uh...huh..." I muttered in slight confusion.
"So are you gonna stay up there or what?" She continued to prod. Miss Militia looked like she wanted to say something to that, but was too ashamed by Dervish's previous statement to do so. I turned to look at Soph, who just shrugged at me, then back.
Pausing, I tried to figure out why this situation was throwing me off so much, before it dawned on me.
I didn't know shit about Whirlygig. I didn't know her history, interests, goals, or character in the slightest, and it was throwing me off.
That, however, was a stupid reason to not get along with someone.
So I shrugged and jumped down to the street with them.
"So was there a plan involved here or what?" I asked curiously. I couldn't really see how they could actually help solve my current problems. I might not even consider them problems at all, except that my power apparently didn't consider mooks 'good enough' for me to level up anymore. Which meant instead of an infinite well of experience, the never ending cavalcade of Empire goons was just a drain on my time.
"We'll be regularly patrolling the area for a while, and have PRT officers set to attend any emergency calls in the area." Miss Militia explained, looking past me to Shadow Stalker, who was still overhead.
"They're pretty much claiming it as their turf so the Empire backs off." Dervish supplied afterward, earning an annoyed glance from Militia.
"What? You guys are a gang. Just accept it." She said with a one shouldered shrug.
"So, you asked nicely and the PRT just decided to help out of the goodness of their hearts?" I asked, knowing that probably wasn't the case.
"It's our job to protect-" Militia started heatedly.
"You'd be really helping me out if you came to get registered and do some power testing sometime soon, yeah." Dervish spoke over her.
I glanced back and forth between the two women - who I was beginning to think didn't like each other - and nodded slowly.
Like I said before. It was all just give and take. If all I had to do was show up and build a fancy toaster for douchemaster, then fine I guess. That seemed like a fair enough trade for being able to break out of my currently endless cycle.
Now I just had to hide Merlin, my Healing tech, my fake Thinker power, and everything Coil would inevitably find out by hacking the PRT later.
Easy peasy.