Tribulations [Worm, cultivation, multicross]
By: Saligia
[NSFW] - Tribulations [Worm, cultivation, multicross] by Saligia
Status: ongoing
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-06-25
Words: 128056
Chapters: 21
Original source: https/forum./threads/14340
Exported with the assistance of
Tribulations [Worm, cultivation, multicross]
Introduction
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 6.5 Interlude 'higher powers'
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 11.5 interlude: Taylor
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 15.5 Interlude: Emily Piggot Lisa Willbourn
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 1
Bloody hell, it really has been a few months since I last posted here? Where has the time gone? Oh right, I lost my job and my laptop finally died completely, causing me to lose everything I'd written for my other stories.
I had to save up for a new pc, and then trying to start up my old story without all of my notes seemed almost impossible, I tried for several weeks and not really getting anywhere. So I started a new thread instead, because I have no idea what I'm doing and am just muddling along like everyone else.
With that, here's hoping attempt number….four is the charm!
I hadn't expected to wake up after I died.
As a lifelong atheist with no real faith in a life after death, my expectations of what happened to me after my neurons stopped firing involved being slowly digested by bacteria, bugs and worms. Having my biomass consumed to feed and give birth to a new generation of living things as part of the world's circle of life.
Taking that into account, jolting awake, flat on my back feeling like every hangover in the world distilled itself in that very moment was a completely unexpected but not unwelcome surprise.
I lurch to my feet and instantly regret it. I feel sore, battered and bruised in a way that defies explanation. The weariness going further, or deeper, than merely physical harm.
I don't remember dying.
I don't remember anything leading up to that moment, in fact. My last memory before… this, was climbing a nature trail up a small mountain in Germany, near the Schwarzwald, I had been travelling and touring Europe for several months and then… nothing. Just the cold, unflinching realization that I died.
Strangely, no matter how much I couldn't remember what happened, I was completely, unalterably certain that whatever happened had killed me. I found myself unable to even contemplate otherwise, I knew it with the same certainty that I knew… I was going to go with ' my name' but it seems I have forgotten that as well.
I was still wearing the clothes I'd last remembered myself wearing so hopefully the gap in my memory wasn't more than a day or so.
The inspection of my body ended with a small chirrup coming from something electronic deep in my backpack. And it was my backpack, filled to the brim with almost everything I owned in either world. That meant I had a tent, fresh clothes, food for the immediate future and a small, hidden cache of money, folded and held together with an ornate silver clip.
Yes, I am the type of person who carries 350 bucks in a hidden pocket. Having a non-trivial amount of cash can save your ass when you're out on your own, and I've been mugged before, so storing it away from my wallet has saved me more than once. Backpacking around the world has given me plenty of reasons to be cautious and well prepared.
What I was after was a small bundle stashed nearer to the bottom of my pack, a waterproof sealed bag that held my electronics. It had my phone, my e-reader and a small unfoldable solar cell that could charge them both. I fished out my phone, hoping that whatever messaged me would shed some additional light on my situation.
My phone had three messages. All of them Illuminating in their own way.
I'm really sorry for getting you killed!
I know dad fixed you, but when you couldn't go back you seemed sad.
I felt really bad you know!
Even though mom filled your book thing, and dad gave you a gift, I still felt bad for killing you!
I didn't mean to! You're just so much frailer than I'm used to!
I really hope you'll be happy with your new life.
I know you love adventure, so I tried to aim you somewhere fun.
I hope it makes up for severing your Karma completely like that.
I hope the memories you lost were terrible, and that the new ones you make are all nice.
May you live well!
To balance the scales of Karma my daughter has incurred, we bestow upon you three boons.
The first, for the mother, the knowledge of the arts you sought.
The second, for the father, a young body that can practice the art, an awakening of your bloodline.
The third, for the daughter, support and assistance. The ring and the app. A measure of the corrective impulse of the world.
A life in a new world to call your own, to replace the one you lost.
In return, you will allow your karma to be severed, to remove any possible trace of debt my daughter might otherwise be forced to bear. Your old life in return for your new.
Do not seek us out.
May you live well.
Hey me, it's me. Setting up this message to fire in a couple of hours while they're not paying attention.
Munchkin your new chance at life, you're not going to get another.
Pick a new name, get your feet back under you. Improvise, adapt, overcome.
Check your reader and get to work, recommendations in order:
Heavenly Medicine Manual
Tenfold Wheel of the Breaking Heaven
The Dao of Crafting
The Tribulation body
That's all we have time for. I wish us the best of luck.
Huh. That's… huh.
I can figure out roughly what happened to me from those messages, though the exact details are probably going to remain a mystery. I could have done without knowing that I am the type of person who, if given limited time to craft a message to myself, went with a meme.
A quick mental evaluation reveals what I suspect they meant with 'having my Karma severed'. I had already noticed I couldn't remember my name, but it was quickly becoming apparent that I couldn't remember any names, not of anyone I'd actually known anyway. The closer the person was to me, the less I remembered about them.
It probably didn't say anything positive about my home life that I remembered everything about both my parents except their names.
Well, to hell with it. Some people would pay good money for a totally clean slate and a new life. I had spent decades wandering the earth, I was used to being dropped in a new locale with nothing but the pack on my back.
My phone chirruped again as it finally managed to connect to a satellite, making google maps start working as intended. Once it finished loading, it revealed that I was currently smack dab in the middle of the docks of Brockton Bay.
Fuck.
Out of all the places I could have possibly landed in, Worm's Brockton Bay is pretty far down on my list of destinations. It's not Warhammer or Eclipse phase, but all in all, Worm's setting is pretty awful.
Even worse for my current situation, I only read part of the story, and that was years ago. I'm sure some people know the setting intimately enough that they could cruise through this even without any other advantages, I'm just definitely not one of them. I only remember the broad strokes of the story.
Okay, things aren't ideal, but let's see what 'art' I'd been given to get myself through this situation in one piece. Please be magic, please be magic, please be magic.
I first checked my phone, the messages had mentioned there was an app…
Fount it, under the icon of the Vitruvian man. I had found the one thing almost any recently dimensionally displaced person would long to see.
I had found my status screen. Up to date, with several tabs for feats and titles.
Status
Name: --
Skeletal age: 16
Soul age: 34
Status Effects: Karma severing backlash (12:45)
Physique: Mortal Body Foundation
Race: Human (demonic bloodline awakened)
Foundation
Body: Mortal - level 0
Soul: Mortal (reincarnator) - level 0
Qi: Mortal - level 0
Skills
Feats
Legacy of the Pantao - Amalgamation & Propagation
Titles
Reincarnator
Blessed by the little miss
No gamer's mind, no gamer's body. No Hp or mana. Also, I've got no idea what the hell a Pantao is. I've got more questions now than I did before. But having Qi was promising as hell, I don't know a lot of systems where Qi isn't amazing.
Okay, hopefully, the 'information on the art' I'd supposedly been granted would help me figure out at least some of my questions.
Booting up my E-reader, I quickly found the addition to my own literature in an unassuming extra folder and swiftly realized I'd been given the motherload, the holy grail, my absolute saving grace.
I possessed a library on Cultivation.
From A to Z, a complete compendium of all knowledge related to the subject. Many, many times more books than could fit on even the latest generation e-reader I had, hundreds of thousands, more. Evidently not a concern for whatever godlike entity had put them in here, things like logic and reality ignored due to what I can only assume is something close to omnipotence.
I quickly searched and bookmarked the four titles I had recommended I start with, and sat down in the filthy alley I'd woken up in. These clothes were due for a wash anyway, and I could hobo it out for a day to study my new superpowers.
Opening the first book, The Heavenly Medicine Manual and blink in confusion when it opens smoothly. It's only five pages long, and there are no words, just a title page and four pages filled entirely with an incredibly elaborate swirling pattern.
If I'm going to have to manually translate these from whatever moonspeak Cultivation-land uses into practical language I'm going to be pissed. I page through all four images, hoping that maybe something would happen if I studied all of them in sequence.
Nada. All four pages have a distinctly different image, but I don't feel particularly enlightened, and I know nothing about medicine that I hadn't already picked up from… somewhere, another hole in my memory.
In a sudden burst of inspiration, I imagine all four pages side by side in my head and promptly pass out as knowledge burrows itself into my skull with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer.
Fucking. Ow.
Second time waking up in the same dirty alley as the last time. It was rapidly losing what little charm it had. Also, I was sad to be present for the return of Migraine for the ages part two, the reckoning.
So, these books aren't 'read words and learn stuff', these books are like jade slips. The kind where you focus on them and they just unceremoniously dump their contained knowledge directly into your mind. I can't say I understand what I just read, the knowledge is all there, but even mentally brushing up against the parts I don't understand feels like acid coursing through my brain.
I open my status screen and see two noticeable changes. First, I've gained a new status effect.
Status
Karma severing backlash (2:15)
Crown Meridians overstressed (3:14:55)
Skills
Mysteries of Life and healing (Transcendent) 0.3%
And there we have it, in pure numerical form.
I understand about a third of a percentage of the manual I just tried to read. And the process of absorbing even that much stressed the meridians in and around my head to the point where it'll be a few hours before they recover.
Which isn't as big a deal as it might otherwise be. I'd normally be worried or concerned with the delay before I can learn an actual cultivation technique, but even what little of the manual I've actually absorbed, I still know a lot more about mortal bodies and life in general now.
And I learned that I am halfway hosed, and why I had recommended I read that book before any other.
My meridians are pretty much completely blocked. Of the twelve mortal meridians, and the eight meridians exclusive to cultivators, I've got one that's only halfway unblocked. The governing vessel, running from my stomach to my head, just barely enough to give me a vague, blurry image of my internal workings. Even my spiritual root, the four meridians that form a circuit between all three Dantian is pretty much entirely calcified with impurities.
The good news!
My brand new, encyclopedic knowledge of the mortal condition shows all the steps required to fix the issue.
The bad news!
I don't have any of the tools required, and the medicine I need to prevent further damage to my meridians flat out doesn't exist in this world. If I was willing to accept long term damage to my meridians, I'd still need a significant source of Qi to flush out the accumulated filth. Qi which again, doesn't occur in any significant concentration in this world.
I might be able to refine a substitute from a great enough source of naturally occurring Qi, but that would require medication of a Yang nature made from old herbs. Centuries, at least. The odds of me being able to purchase something like a centuries-old Ginseng with the few hundred bucks I had to my name were slim to none.
… dang, I really hope that I can find an answer to my problems in one of the other manuals I had recommended for myself. But I should probably give my meridians some time to recover before I absorb another manual like that. That gives me just over three hours to kill, no time like the present.
I leverage myself upright, swaying a little as my epic migraine threatens to topple me back to the ground. A brief application of acupressure to my own skull dampens the worst of the pain, and I start exploring the new city I'll be forced to call my home for the foreseeable future.
Four hours later, I allow myself to sag on a public bench in the library with a weary sigh.
I figured that if Taylor Hebert can use the computers here for research, it should be relatively safe for me to do the same.
I have many years of experience in a truly dizzying number of professions. I don't think I've had any specific job for more than a few months at most. Even with all of my practical experience, Brockton Bay simply doesn't have any entry-level jobs, none.
All the work that can possibly be performed by unskilled labour has been filled for years, and any new openings are snatched almost immediately. If they aren't filled through nepotism or favouritism that is.
Four hundred bucks aren't going to last me for very long, especially not since I really need to purchase myself a set of acupuncture needles for pretty much any medical practices I plan to perform on myself.
It stings slightly that I now know how to cure cancer with a set of needles and a couple of seconds of Qi manipulation, but with my Spiritual root clogged, sending Qi outside of my body is effectively impossible.
Aside from how few people I expect would be willing to be operated on by a completely unknown parahuman.
So I'm homeless, jobless, and my one marketable skill requires me to fix my meridians before I can do anything with it.
It wouldn't be my first night sleeping on a park bench, and technically I'd been homeless for years, but the difference between then and now is stark.
I have a path to ultimate power at my fingertips, it's so close it's all I can think of.
But I am still subject to all the foibles of a mortal existence, and with no income and with the increased amount of food a new cultivator requires, I'm going to run out of resources long before I transcend the need for food even if my blocked meridians didn't prevent me from cultivating entirely.
Everything seemed to revolve around my blocked meridians, if I could manipulate Qi even slightly, I could unblock my spiritual root, with an unblocked, low-grade spiritual root I could unblock the rest of my meridians in a few days of dedicated work, increasing my spiritual root to a flawless one over time.
But that first hurdle, I could not overcome with medical skills alone.
So I was going to absorb the next manual, and pray that it had an answer to my problem in it. I was temporarily skipping the second manual I had written in that note to myself since it sounded like an actual cultivation method. Not of use until I had fixed my meridians, probably.
I was skipping to the third, The Dao of Crafting, I expected that if a solution to my problem could be found, it was probably there. The Dao of Crafting was significantly longer than the previous manual, almost twenty pages in all, and I was more than a little concerned as I read through the larger number of images.
Four pages had knocked me on my ass for a couple of minutes and given me a migraine that lasted for hours, I'd only just gotten over it, even though my status effect had declared me healthy over half an hour ago.
Nothing for it.
Nothing ventured nothing gained and all that. I ensure that I am in the most isolated part of the library I can find, and mentally put the images of the pages I'd just read in order, and I can vaguely hear someone cry out in pain as everything blacks out.
I wake up for the third time that day, thankfully still left alone by the mostly apathetic inhabitants of this shithole of a city. I also had not missed The return of the Migraine three, the Vengeache.
There's blood coming from my nose, the old psychic headache malady. My new medical knowledge tells me that if your meridians are stressed to the point of rupturing the delicate blood vessels surrounding them, stop what you're doing.
Since it could result in a relatively harmless nosebleed, but the blood vessels in your brain were almost as thin and delicate as the ones in your nose, and a brain haemorrhage was a lot less easy to shrug off.
Thankfully, a quick check on the app proved what my medical knowledge was telling me, I'd gotten close to something disastrous, but I was fine for now, I'd recover by tomorrow, something my Status screen agreed with, giving me a countdown of eighteen hours.
More importantly, most importantly even, I had a basic understanding of how to incorporate Qi into crafting various wonders. Alchemy, talismans, formations and forging. Four cornerstones of the Cultivation world.
Best of all, a combination of those disciplines could create something akin to a Qi engine. It wouldn't solve all of my issues and create several new ones. But with the right materials, I might be able to create a device that would create an area with a high Qi density.
And if the Qi in the air was dense enough, I might be able to forcible push it through my meridians using my knowledge of acupuncture.
Making one wasn't going to be easy though, a Qi engine, surprise surprise, was supposed to made with qi in the first place, I think it's possible to improvise a working version even from purely mundane materials, the output would be atrocious initially, but even a relatively shitty Qi engine would solve most of my issues.
I'd need to get some materials, and a place I could work in peace, since making this knock-off Qi engine would take a couple of days at the very least.
I can't absorb any more manuals for the rest of the day, and I've already got the internet at my fingertips, so let's find what I need.
The next few hours go by surprisingly quickly, I've always had a habit of getting really into things once I actually get started on them. I find a place online that buys and sells scrap, and it's close enough to the docks that I can get there on foot in a reasonable timeframe.
I'm going to have to pinch every penny, for now, I only hope I have enough cash to buy everything I need.
After that visit to the metal place, I wander various pawn shops looking for a piece of gold with sufficient purity. I don't need a lot of it, but it's still likely going to be the most expensive part of the whole machine.
I look over the materials I'd gathered so far with a critical eye. The results of a couple of hours of searching and haggling, and almost half of my available funds.
A pound of tin, the metal associated with utmost Yin.
A pound of copper, the metal of utmost Yang.
A golden ring, to serve as a barrier between the two, symbolizing the balance between Yin and Yang.
A second hand soldering iron, and a metric boatload of solder to go with it.
This will serve as the core of the engine, it's heart. Half for yin, half for yang, with gold as an insulator to keep the energies separate. The problem now is that the rest of the machine is normally made from Qi, swirling in a pattern around the core that makes the whole thing self-sustaining, powering the act of creation with the energy it generates.
My plan is to make a sort of scaffolding around the engine from solder and coat it with the most Qi conducting material I have access to. If I then introduce a large enough concentration of Qi to kickstart the engine it should start working. Making the swirling loops of Qi in three dimensions out of solder is going to be a cast-iron bitch to get right, since it's both the most vital bit, and the easiest to mess up by far.
I've only got one more place to go today, and then I'll have all of the materials I need that I can expect to actually purchase.
My last stop of the day takes me into the Asian district of the city. Moving into Asian gang territory in a city that also houses Nazi's is a bad idea if you're even half as white as I am, but there's really no other way I can see myself getting my hands on a proper set of needles.
I try to stay out of sight where I can, making my posture as unassuming as possible, but I still garner more than my fair share of truly dirty looks.
I hurry along as best as I can and manage to make my way to the store I'd found online. Despite the looks of disdain I get from the little Asian man behind the counter, I still manage to acquire a professional, sterilized set of needles that should work for acupuncture.
The problems start when I leave. I see more angry looks thrown my way, but unlike before, these aren't coming from local civilians who see my sheer size and look down on me for it, thinking I'm a thug, probably the E88 with how I look.
These dirty looks are coming from a group of what I can only describe as Yakuza wannabes. Gangly teens tatted up with eastern dragons and open shirts, strutting down the street as if they own it.
It's well past time to leave.
I hastily stuff my purchase into the pack on my back, turn around, and run my ass off.
I'm a big guy, even in my teens I probably weigh close to double the jokers now on my tail. But as a guy who's been in his fair share of bar fights, if you pick a fight with a dozen angry teens?
You're going to lose.
I can take a beating and if this was a fistfight I'd take my chances and just accept my ass-whupping as another life lesson, but these jokers are carrying bats and pipes.
I don't need the life lesson I'd learn during a lynching, methinks.
I have long legs, and despite the heavy pack on my back I'm in better shape than these Yakuza knockoffs, if I can shake them I'll get away with just a scare.
I haven't even finished the thought properly before I turn the corner, and run smack into the second group of gangbangers I hadn't known was waiting for me.
More youths who probably can't even drink legally yet, but these guys are accompanied by a tatted up man who is visibly missing a few digits. This guy is not a Yakuza wannabe, this guy is Yakuza or some Korean or Chinese variant.
Humourless, comfortable with violence, and hard, cold eyes that look me over like I'm an insect, set in a face that's been on the losing end of more than a few bar brawls.
This guy looks like he's going to kill me, and worse, I think he's perfectly comfortable with that.
You know me of a couple of hours ago, it sure would be useful if I had a basic grasp of supernatural martial arts right about now, wouldn't it?
I turn around to see if I can go out the other way, but the first group has caught up.
Shit.
It's obvious these guys would know this place like the back of their hands, they couldn't have picked a better place for a pincer manoeuvre if they tried. No side alleys, nothing I could grab and maybe use as a weapon, just a bare street filled with angry assholes with something to prove.
Okay then.
I take a deep breath, and slowly let the pack drop from my back. No more use running.
"You should have stayed in your own neighbourhood, Gwailo." The man I'd identified as the only proper gangster in this clutch speaks up, no surprises that he's the leader of these thugs.
Also, Gwailo? Who the hell taught this guy his racist slurs, 80's comics?
"Man, I'm not looking for a fight." I hold up my hands, trying to keep half my attention on the guys behind me, slowly moving towards the closest wall, having something at my back will help at least a little.
"That's unfortunate," The man says with a heavy, nearly illegible accent "Because one found you." He follows it up with a barked order in Korean, which I only speak enough to ask for a beer, the loo, and how to call someone a motherfucker.
I don't have to guess, the rapid pad of feet behind me say all that I need to know.
I spin, and hurl the pack in my hand directly at the kid leading the pack about to catch me from behind. He tries to juggle his pipe enough to catch it, but it's heavier than he expected and it bowls him over, some of his friends trip over him and go down in a tangle of limbs. Six more coming from that direction, and almost an even dozen guys backed up by their boss on the other.
If I can just break through the inexperienced crowd I might be able to make a getaway with my skin intact, losing my pack hurts, but not as much as getting killed by some teens picking a fight with some random white boy.
Six more guys, skinny, beanpole Asians with no real combat experience from the looks of it.
I try to angle myself so that they get in each other's way, forcing them to come at me alone or in pairs. The first guy has no idea what he's doing, relying on adrenaline and enthusiasm rather than anything resembling skill.
I step close to his swing, robbing it of all its force and flatten the kid with a single punch to the mouth that has the kid spitting teeth.
It costs me. The guy right behind him doesn't spare his injured companion a single glance, swinging a lead pipe and smacking it directly against my forearm. I flinch and try to power through, but this guy seems to know what he's doing more than his companions so far. He uses the increased length of his pipe to deliver fast, overhand blows with the full length of his weapon.
When I try to rush him, he just steps back into the group he came with, and I have to abort or get my teeth smashed in by the whole group.
I try, God knows I try. But one smack against my arm turns into two, then three, somewhere around smack five I can feel the bone in my forearm break. I only know some of the words they're spitting at me, but as far as I can make out, these guys think either think I'm E88 or just consider me white enough as an acceptable stand-in.
I start taking hits to the body, and when the bruises rob me of my mobility, I finally take a swing to the head that floors me completely.
To my surprise, they stop their assault, until the big guy who I'd pegged as their leader rolls me over.
My day and mood don't improve when I see the long knife in the guy's hands, nor the flat, shark-like look on the man's face.
Reality blurs in and out of focus as part of me diagnoses it as a concussion. The man is holding some kind of speech to the teens who look at him in what I can only describe as something like rockstar-awe.
Am I really going out like this? Battered down because these racist jerks want to vent their frustrations on someone?
Maybe.
My odds of fighting myself free are zero. My odds of convincing these guys baying for my blood to show mercy are zero.
That leaves one real course of action available to me.
I press my thumbs against my temple and spin them in a pattern of motion that I know will temporarily suppress my nausea and vertigo. My good hand, now steady, darts towards my boot and comes out with the dagger I kept there but have never drawn in anger.
The man sees my movement and stomps down on my chest with a sneer.
So I stab him in the dick.
I twist the blade free, cutting down along the femoral artery and dousing myself in his blood. His squeal is high pitched but turns into a bellow of rage as he realizes that unless he gets medical help in the next thirty seconds, I've just killed him.
He stabs me in the chest, dropping on top of me as his leg buckled underneath him driving the tip of his knife down with his full body weight behind it. I twist sideways at the last moment, turning what would have been an impaled heart into merely a stab through the lung. I grab his wrist with desperate, adrenaline-fueled strength. I grab him with my broken arm, and he punches it to make me let go.
I snarl and stab the trapped arm directly through the wrist, pulling the man closer and cut up, carving a wound from his wrist to his shoulder in one violent movement. He punches me again and despite my mind commanding it to hold on, my arm spasms and releases the man. He tries to get up off me, visibly debating which of his two gushing wounds he should clamp shut.
While he's making up his mind, I cut at his leg, hacking messily through the man's heel and toppling the big bastard right next to me. I try to force myself back to my feet, but I'm done, whatever reserves of strength I had left in me were tapped.
The teens around me are still stunned at the sudden reversal of the fight, but the moment they get their shit together I'm going to die.
The acupressure technique I'd used to suppress the symptoms of my concussion wears off, and I collapse all the way back to the ground.
I can see them gather their resolve, their shock turning into anger as their hands tighten on their makeshift weapons and I know that my time is up.
Then, to my enormous surprise, one of them sprouts a crossbow bolt right from his chest. A heavy, black bolt with a weird, syringe-like tip. Everyone stares at it in surprise, until the kid's eyes roll in his head and collapse to the ground.
The last thing I see before I lose consciousness is a wraith drop down from something high up, materializing into a black-clad form, wrapped in more black cloth and wearing the mask of a severe-looking woman.
Something about it tickles my memory, but before the thought can materialize, everything goes black.
Chapter 2
It was the beeping that woke me.
I'd never been a big fan of hospitals, probably because you only went there when something was genuinely wrong with you, and the stinging, antiseptic smell that permeated the building seemed to universally remind people of death, myself included.
This marked the second time I'd woken up after dying in two days. Once is happenstance, twice is a coincidence, but the third means enemy action. I'm only up to two so far, but the day is young.
Pain radiates out from the right side of my chest, and struggling to look down I saw a swath of bandages covering my otherwise naked chest, a small red stain showing where my wound was still bleeding. I didn't see anyone else in the room, and for lack of anything better to do, I started treating my own wound. No Qi meant that anything I did relied completely on my normal physical body, but I could use acupressure to stimulate the area and force it to heal faster in return for a higher energy consumption, if I was willing to bear a certain amount of discomfort I could push that rate of healing to several times the norm.
I'm still working on the rather involved process when the door to my room opens. A man in powered armour walks in. It says something about the day I've had that this doesn't elicit much more than a glance in his direction, before continuing what I was doing, stopping the process halfway after I'd begone could cause further damage.
Armsmaster crosses the room, unfolds a wooden chair and despite logic telling me there's no way it'll hold him, he settles down in it next to my bed. It doesn't even have the good grace to creak when he does it.
"Good evening, it's good to see you are awake." He pauses for a moment "I know you must have had quite a scare, but would you be up to answering a few questions?" Polite, well-rehearsed and not nearly as wooden as I'd expected coming from the man. He sounds like he cares, even if he has a million things better to do.
"Yeah, I'm honestly surprised I woke up at all, thanks for asking. You would not believe the day I've had."
The man gives a rueful chuckle "I've had days like that, believe me, I know the feeling."
"You would not be willing to make a small wager to that effect, possibly to the tune of my current hospital bills by any chance? When I say you wouldn't believe it, I wasn't joking."
The pauses to consider it for a moment "I'm sorry, even if I wasn't effectively a government agent, I'm also on the clock." He relaxes minutely and shows a brief smile "Unofficially, Mouse protector is one of my personal friends, it gives me a truly insurmountable advantage. And don't worry about your hospital bill, the PRT is footing the bill due to the circumstances of your hospitalization."
"Because of the person who jumped in and saved me? Do you pay the hospital bill of everyone who gets hurt around your team?" I bet that gets expensive quickly, I'm still somewhat groggy, I vaguely realize it's the painkillers, but I can't counter those without a set of needles.
"In an ideal world, yes." He says it with such sincerity I can't really doubt that he means it. "Sadly, the PRT's budget isn't as infinite as the rumours suggest it is. However, it's been theorized that you have recently triggered. Even before your assault, we were informed there was a potential new tinker when you purchased several small volumes of metal and visited several pawn shops. We monitor those due to the inherent vulnerability of freshly triggered tinkers."
"Isn't spying on freshly triggered parahumans against some kind of law?" I can't help but ask.
"No. The gangs have long ago set up a surveillance of pawn shops, garbage dumps and most other methods of getting raw materials, your assault was likely a direct result of surveillance like that." He grimaces as if remembering something unpleasant, before reluctantly adding "We are already horribly outnumbered, a tinker would be a fine prize and force multiplier for any gang."
Motherfucker. I hadn't considered that, not for an instant. I might not be a tinker officially, but my power certainly followed the same progression as one, especially early on.
"These guys didn't strike me as the recruiting sort." I object even as I mull over the possibility "They were more like the modern-day equivalent of a pitchfork mob. Or some kind of gang initiation thing, I don't think half of those kids need to shave regularly."
Armsmaster nods in agreement "So far, the leading theory is that they feared you already joined the E88, the interrogations of the captured members are ongoing and their motivations are pretty unclear. However, would they have been right to go after you, thinking you were a parahuman?"
I notice that he very deliberately doesn't mention that the questioning is probably complicated by the fact that I killed the one guy who seemed to know what was going on. I expect that conversation will wait until after they've determined if it's worth their time to protect me or not.
"I'm… honestly not sure," I admit after giving it some thought. I'm going to need the PRT's help with my identity at some point, if only because I don't actually exist in this world. I don't have a bank account or even a real name yet. "The situation is both new and more complicated than you know. As I said, you would not believe the day I've had."
Armsmaster mulls it over for a second before he comes to a conclusion that visibly horrifies him. He noticeably moderates his voice to be calmer and soothing as he asks "Are you telling me, that you had your trigger yesterday?"
I finish the treatment of my stab wound with a small sigh of relief, it's already stopped bleeding and the whole wound itches like the devil. According to what I understand of the process, that means I did it right. I hold up one hand and wiggle it back and forth a bit. "Kind of? Assuming I haven't been in this bed for more than 24 hours, otherwise, yes. But also no, I'm not sure if I would classify as a parahuman under your laws. No Corona Pollentia for one."
"You seem very certain of that for someone without access to an MRI," He thinks it over for a moment, before dropping it for now " How about this? I'll explain the situation as we understand it from our position, and then you fill in the blanks for us?" With no guarantee that he explains everything they know, making it easy to find out if I'm lying or not.
"We were made aware of your existence yesterday after your purchases triggered the flags for a new parahuman trigger. This alone would not have been enough until a cursory check of what we knew of you revealed that, to the best of our knowledge, you don't exist. No name, no address, no sign of you entering the city or existing at all before that."
It's pretty clear that Armsmaster is reading from some kind of report, as his tone takes on the familiar cadence of someone reading out loud.
"The first sign we have of you existing at all is when you left the alley between Boson's bakery and a long-defunct warehouse formerly owned by Nautilus, a trading company that went under after Leviathan's emergence. Further observation revealed no stranger powers that could explain your absence before that. Since you were not immune to being observed via cameras, and we could find no evidence of you entering the city of that alley in particular, it was suspected that you were a new Case 53 with low visible tells." He pauses for a moment, before explaining that a bit further "It's not uncommon for Case 53's to appear fully human until they use their powers, an easy example is Weld, a famous Ward over in Boston. Ah, Case 53 are parahumans with noticeable non-human features, they tend to pop into existence with little warning, we do not know what causes those effects."
Damnit Worm, 1984 called and wants it's omnipresent governmental surveillance back. It might all be bullshit though, for all I know Contessa just threw that report on his desk and intercepted the real one. I don't have anything like blank to the best of my knowledge after all. Taking that into account, even though she'd make for better eye candy I'd still prefer Armsmaster doing this briefing rather than the shard puppeting Fortuna like a marionette.
"We were lucky that a cape duo with fast response capabilities was nearby enough to observe the whole altercation."
Hold up, what.
"Are you saying that you guys were just watching as those assholes nearly clubbed me to death?" I ask with no small amount of mounting indignation and anger.
Armsmaster gives me a look that I think is meant to cow me, but I'm not going to take any of that…
"Vista is eleven years old." He nearly hisses "Shadow stalker is a teenager and neither of them can reliably fight twenty armed men. It was my call, and I ordered them to stand down, over objections from both Wards I might add. Orders that Shadow stalker disobeyed when she decided to stop your assailants anyway."
"Saving my life in the process." I point out stubbornly, vaguely realizing that expecting two teenage girls to fight off a small army of thugs might not be very fair to them and that I might sound like an asshole right now.
"At danger to her own," Armsmaster responds instantly "I accept full blame for the danger to your life, but I cannot in good conscience ask two young wards to fight off an entire mob! Not when I thought they would try to recruit you and I was already on my way to assist."
To recruit me for the PRT instead, a more pessimistic part of me points out. The larger, more rational part of my mind acknowledges that the man has a damned good point.
He takes a deep breath, before slowly letting it go. "I apologize, it's been a long day. Two of my wards were in life-threatening danger. Even though they stalled your attackers long enough for me to arrive and fight them off, I still resent the need for them to step in in the first place."
He takes another deep breath and visibly wrestles himself back under control "But it's not your fault either, I should not have been curt with you, I apologize again. I accept full responsibility for your situation."
That's… you can't be mad at someone doing his best like that. Or at least, I can't.
"I understand, I'm not faultless either, I didn't recognize the situation I was in until it was way too late, so apology accepted I guess." I may have been jumping to conclusions or projecting the worst-case scenario of what I expected Sophia to do in that situation. "I just didn't relish the thought of bystanders just watching me get hurt. Edmund Burke was right after all."
Armsmaster gives a small nod. "To finish our story, you were brought to the Protectorate ENE headquarters under my authority, where our medics performed emergency surgery on you, we reinflated your collapsed lung and splinted your broken arm. When we searched through your belongings in an effort to find some form of ID, we were made aware of the anomalous properties several of your belongings displayed, officially putting you under the jurisdiction of the protectorate."
"Anomalous properties?" I ask, realizing I sound like an idiot even as I parrot his words back at him. I can't hear the word anomalous without thinking of SCP's, and given that I've recently been given proof that other dimensions exist, that's not a can of worms I'm eager to see opened, the scarlet king can stay on his side of the dimensional divide thank you very much.
I can almost feel his raised eyebrow even through his mostly face-concealing helmet. "Were you unaware? Every piece of identification in your possession cannot be read. The whole thing is perfectly legible, except for your name. This goes for your passport, your credit cards and anything we've found with your name on it, plus, the ring on your finger cannot be removed and is made from something we've never seen before."
"Hah!" an unexpected laugh bubbles from my lips before I can stop it, I regret it as a sharp pang of pain radiates out from my chest when I do. "Sorry, it's just that I guess when a higher being cuts you free from your previous life, they really cut you free."
I study the ring on my finger, A thin black band segmented into three even sections by small gold bands. When you look deeply into the black surface of the ring you can see a starry sky.
I knew it was there of course, but without any Qi of my own, I can't even see what's inside of it, let alone open it. The amount of power required is minuscule, but it's still more than I have access to right now.
"A… higher being?" Armsmaster asks cautiously, giving me a look that says he can't decide if I'm being serious or not.
"Yeah, something close to a god."
"I'm sorry, a god? Like the biblical God?" Armsmaster asks. I can almost hear the disappointment in his voice.
"No, just, an omnipotent being? You know, something like Scion, or any other entities you might know of that from our perspective have essentially limitless power." I explain further. "I'm not religious, but it seems asinine to deny something exists when I met them personally."
"And you met one of these beings?" Armsmaster asks, sounding hopeful as he can slot 'something like scion' a lot easier into his worldview than an actual god.
"I met a family of three, I think one of them killed me. They seemed very apologetic about the whole thing, even though I have no idea why they wouldn't just resurrect me instead of booting me to another dimension."
I have to admit, the look on Armsmasters face is hilarious. I don't think he could have looked more flummoxed if I had slapped him with a fish.
"I think… I think I'm ready for that unbelievable tale of yours now." Armsmaster finally says, leaning forward with renewed interest.
"You died." Armsmaster summarizes flatly.
"Like a doornail."
"And they booted you to another dimension" He summarizes in the same flat tone.
"Like a football"
"And they, in this case, are at least three entities you don't remember, but who you identify as either gods or close enough to omnipotent for it not to matter despite your inability to remember anything else about these entities?"
I simply nod in reply. I'd told him most of the actual events since I woke up since I saw no real harm in him knowing, only hiding the library I had access to and the exact details of my power, simply claiming that I was predominantly a healer. I had the knee-jerk reaction to keep everything a secret if I could, but I'm going to have to interact with the PRT eventually anyway, and it's no skin off my nose if they think I'm a crazy person. This is the agency that employed and worked with a guy calling himself merlin who thought he had magical powers after all.
" Why?" He finally asks after a few moments of being lost for words.
I shrug "No idea, and I wasn't in a position to ask any questions. Plus, they kind of wiped my memories of them too." I point out helpfully.
"Right, you mentioned that," Armsmaster mutters to himself. "You were not kidding about having an eventful day. I'm kind of glad I didn't make that bet with you. So, have you decided on a new name yet?"
"No, not yet. Hold on," I hold up both my hands and motion for him to stop for a moment "You actually believe me? I thought you'd boot me into a psychiatric hospital the moment I finished talking."
"I believe that you believe it, and it neatly answers all of our questions if it were true. I'm willing to accept it as real and give you a chance to prove your claims." Didn't he have some kind of lie detector thing in canon? Or maybe they have a thinker on speed dial listening in or something.
"Trust, but verify?" I cheekily point out.
"Exactly." He answers in all seriousness. "Life has proven to be stranger than we knew, maybe gods are real, and we already have evidence of other earths in parallel dimensions, it's not so unbelievable as you seem to think." He points out with the mien of a man who has genuinely seen some shit.
"… thanks. A chance at proving I'm not crazy is honestly a lot more than I expected." I'm honestly grateful, nor am I too proud to accept the help when it's offered. Not to mention that I expect making a Qi engine would go a lot faster with his help.
He shrugs and gets back up. "It's a heroes duty to help people in need and it sounds like someone with a lot of power over you messed up your life. It's only natural that I help when I can. Rest up, we'll talk more tomorrow. Which reminds me, tomorrow is the earliest we could possibly arrange parahuman healing for you, would you be amenable to having your injury healed?"
I don't have to think about that for more than a nanosecond. Let someone, most likely Panacea root around in my body? No, not just no but hell no. "I think it's best I heal myself using my own abilities, I don't know how your healing works and it might make my total recovery take a lot longer."
He simply nods and accepts it without further comment, as he leaves, he pauses and turns back to me.
"I'm sorry, one last thing. Do you know who I am?" He hastens to correct himself when he sees my confusion "I mean my real name?"
"I don't. No." Colin something? It's been way too long since I read Worm. "Why do you ask?"
"When I was looking through your gear, I found your phone. The screen had been broken, presumably when you threw your pack as a projectile. It repaired itself, and when I tried to see how it had done so, it threatened me. Threatened me by name, my civilian one."
I look at the pristine phone, placed next to my hospital bed. There's not a mark on it, but I notice it's still fully charged. In fact, quickly checking the percentage of its charge simply shows a lemniscate.
"I didn't know it could do that." I say softly, though I can't help but wonder "And it threatened you how? It's a phone."
"It threatened to destroy my mind." Armsmaster admits, giving the device a cautious look "It told me not to poke my nose in things that didn't belong to me. I thought it best to err on the side of caution in case it actually could."
"I don't think it can do that." I give it some more thought. If my phone displays the same kind of memory implanting pictures as my e-reader it might actually be able to dump a fatal amount of information into someone watching the screen "I wouldn't test it to be safe though." I add kind of lamely.
"Because a god fixed it, and you don't know everything they did to it. Right." Armsmaster shakes his head as if he can't believe what he just said, before turning around and exiting the room without further comment.
Well, I've got nothing to do except lie here and focus on recovering. I've already done what I can with what tools I have available, so I've got nothing to do. I'd really like to read the next volume I'd recommended to myself, but seeing how much stress that put on my body, it's probably wiser to hold off until I am at least somewhat more recovered. It would be a pretty inglorious way to go if I died in bed from reading a book.
Maybe I can spend my time some other way? I open my e-reader and look up what the hell a Pantao is, it turns out that only the books directly related to cultivation itself came with that download-to-memory feature, so I eventually found a primer on them that wasn't threatening to possibly kill me from reading it, and sat down to study like I never did in school.
Which is how I learned that at some point, one of my ancestors definitely fucked a tree.
Pantao aren't demons in the way I'd expected. It turns out that the Cultivation worlds have a very different meaning to the word 'demon' than the western world, they're not necessarily evil or even particularly malicious.
Demons in this case seemed to just refer to anything nonhuman that cultivated to the point that they could assume human form, and a lot of those entities both could and did procreate with humans, for various reasons. Does an animal take human form? That's a demon. An enduring storm elemental figures out how to condense herself to human form? Demon.
They were responsible for at least part of the dizzying amount of possible bloodlines and races wandering worlds like that.
The Pantao was a specific species of peachtree that provided the peaches of immortality to the jade emperor and the court of heaven, but it's used as a catch-all term for any kind of celestial tree that knows how to take human form, sort of like a dryad but not exclusively female, also like dryads they're spirits of nature, growth, life and fertility.
Their descendants are really rare, and awakening the bloodline is notoriously difficult. We've also, as far as I can tell from these books, been hunted almost completely to extinction, their lineage tended to have powerful dominion over the fertility aspect of their ancestors and like most bloodline gifts, could be forcibly stolen.
Blood from anything with the Pantao lineage, if used during any sort of power theft ritual can improve the odds of success by up to 50%. A pill refined from our marrow can act as an aphrodisiac so potent it affects Cultivators regardless of their rank. The book says if you're lucky enough to find one that has cultivated a golden core, they can be rendered down into a pill in some of the most disgusting and stomach-churning processes I've ever imagined let alone read. That pill gives the person who ingests it a weaker and less flexible version of the Pantao's most Iconic abilities.
Propagation, the ability to share traits with any of their sexual partners, and Amalgamation, the combination of bloodlines into a superior hybrid.
Whatever the name of the god that awakened my bloodline ensured I had both. I take back every negative thought I had about the guy for not taking the extra second of effort on his part to clear out my meridians.
Now, almost any ability that can copy powers, regardless of limitations tends to be absolutely top tier. Propagation is better than that, because the power can go both ways. I can not only acquire the powers and abilities of anything that shares my physique, but I can then spread those traits to anyone else I end up intimate with. The only exceptions were that I could not pass along either propagation and the target I was intimate with had to be of the same family of species. For Pantao themselves that meant other divine trees, for me, that'd be anything I could procreate with.
I have sex-based superpowers, or will once I start cultivating at any rate.
This is also with little real competition the worst world to have them in. I'm something like 90% certain that shards are alien enough for them not to be valid targets for power copying. Even if they were, I'd have to be intimate with the shard, not their host, which would take some doing if it were possible at all.
So I had a power I couldn't use unless I found someone with an inherent superpower or an undiscovered cultivation bloodline. One that would get me into trouble if the locals found out I had it. Unsurprisingly, Sex-based superpowers have a damned bad name here. Every single local example I could think of were super-rapey villains.
Still though, as far as eventual potential goes I don't really think I could do any better than a power copying ability married to a cultivator powerset. It might even give The Gamer a run for its money as far as absolute late-game power goes.
Now if only I could get out of this damned bed. They haven't explicitly locked me in, but I'm absolutely certain I'm not going to be allowed to leave, not in the least because I killed a guy.
With nothing else to do, I settle down with my Kobo and dive into more of the cultivation knowledge stored therein.
"Congratulations, you officially fall under the PRT's remit," Armsmaster announces the next morning, striding through the door without knocking.
"Was that in doubt before? Even if I was just a normal guy with some kind of Tinker gear I'd fall under the PRT's umbrella of authority right?"
"Yes, you would have. However, we had never considered someone from another dimension showing up with no real power but with knowledge of technology that effectively gives them abilities mundane law enforcement is ill-equipped to handle." Armsmaster looks incredibly pleased with himself for some reason "I have managed to get the PRT to officially if temporarily assigning you as a Case 70, talks are still underway at higher levels of the Protectorate as to what this exactly means, but I have gotten them to promise that you could join the protectorate as a full member if you so desire."
Is he so pleased because he can now claim to have been the first to discover a whole new brand of parahuman? I have a brief mental image of Armsmaster as voiced by Steve Irwin and have to stifle a rather inappropriate and unmanly giggle.
I give the offer some real thought. My first instinct is to turn them down, be tied down to mortal authority? Nuts to that. I had planned to go at things by myself, make a Qi engine, fix my meridians, make some money from my alchemy or healing abilities and take things from there.
But the more I think about it, the more advantages I see in taking their offer. I get a place to stay, since I'm effectively homeless, I get back up from a large and dedicated group of people who I can reasonably expect to have my back. Most of my mundane needs can be met simply by joining with the protectorate and if their demands on my time or secrets get too onerous I can always just leave.
I've got no idea how difficult it'd be to leave the Protectorate once I've joined up, but we're not slaves. I'll probably have to sign all the NDA's in the world but I couldn't care less about spilling the Protectorate's secrets.
Negatives… More oversight, having to obey the laws and rules of engagement heroes (foolishly) adhere to… and that's it?
That's really it?
I'm going to be spending all my time working out and practising my cultivation anyway. Getting paid on top of that and having most of my immediate issues taken care of in one fell swoop isn't a bad thing at all. It'll even give me an unending supply of people to use my cultivation on, giving me experience in combat with the backup to all but ensure that I survive the initial stages of my cultivation where I'm still weak enough to be threatened by everything under the sun.
While experienced cultivators are essentially gods, for the foreseeable future I'm going to be only slightly stronger and tougher than a normal human. Even someone twice as tough as a human isn't bulletproof, let alone rage dragon proof.
"I've got a few questions and concerns, but I'm not against joining the protectorate," I say cautiously. "The only thing I could really see that I'd object to is being ordered to spend my time on things I'd consider non-essential."
Armsmaster looks like someone just told him he won the lottery "I know the exact amount of work one is allowed to put in tinkering or active hero work per week, and every loophole to squeeze more time out of those regulations. For the record, what would you consider as non-essential?"
I give it some thought, stating my thoughts out loud as I go along "Well, I outright refuse to go to school for instance. I told you yesterday that I got significantly de-aged right? Physically I'm sixteen but I've got zero interest in spending my time learning at the slow pace of a public school for things I'm never going to need or use. I don't mind being placed in the wards even if I'd prefer I wasn't. I don't want to spend all my time making medicine and materials for others to use, I don't mind it in moderation, but I'd want to be allowed to place my own limits on what I can be forced to make. Other than that, I don't care about my costume or supranym or whatever. As long as I can spend most of my day either working out, patrolling or creating I'd be content, the less time I spend on PR or dealing with Piggott the better."
Armsmaster gives a real, honest smile "I think that could be arranged."
Rebecca Costa Brown, the Chief Director of the PRT, secretly the Triumvirate member Alexandria, a member of a global conspiracy and one of the most powerful women on the planet looks down at the report that had crossed her deck this afternoon.
"What."
Chapter 3
"You've been given the heroic designation 'Apex'," Piggot informs me the next day after I'd officially been released from the hospital. Armsmaster had guided me to her office and it only then struck me as kind of peculiar that he'd been the only person I'd interacted with since I found myself in the PRT's medical ward. It's something I expect will continue until they thoroughly test my powers to see if I'm not secretly a human master.
Armsmaster has a spring in his step, and Piggot seems to have taken that as a form of personal insult. Her mouth is set in a grim, disapproving line and she studies me the way I'd study a turd I'd just stepped in. I wonder what it was I did to piss her off, maybe it's just the extra bureaucratic load I'd dumped on her desk by sheer virtue of my existence?
"We have opened an account under your hero's name until you get over yourself and just pick a real name." She all but spat the word 'Hero'. Jezus Emily, who pissed in your Wheaties this morning? "Your meeting with the costume department and mandatory power testing is suspended until you build this device you claim to need to use any of your 'powers'."
"As Director of the PRT ENE, I like to meet new members of the protectorate to get a feel for them." She looks down her nose at me and gives an audible snort of disgust as a demonstration of what she thought of meeting me. "You have professed a desire to avoid wasting time and I'll accommodate that desire as best I can, we're only likely to interact when you truly screwed the pooch, so I'll keep this brief so you can get out of my sight. Armsmaster has offered to tutor you and to give you what training you are likely to require as a prospective member of law enforcement. You are to be placed in the Wards due to your apparent age, but since you made attending a school a sticking point of you joining the protectorate, we are willing to accept a GED instead of more formal education, you will not be allowed to go on patrols until you've been certified to my satisfaction. Any questions?"
"Thanks, Armsmaster," I say to the man who's trying very hard not to involve himself in this weird dressing down. I've done nothing wrong and having this woman act like I just shat the carpet just rubs me the wrong way. "And I've got just one. Are you this pissy because you're feeling slighted, or is it the racist thing?"
It's only because I turned to the otherwise stoic man that I can see the inappropriate little smile he wipes off his face as fast as he can. He's obviously not fast enough because Piggot's frown deepens even further when she spots it.
If I expected bluntness to catch Piggot off guard I'd have been disappointed, as she fires back with equal candour. "You professed a desire to avoid dealing with me specifically, why?"
Ah. That. So Yes to the feeling slighted thing.
"I'd prefer not to answer that," I answer the harridan of a woman as politely as I can.
"Thankfully, as your superior, I don't need to give a flying fig about your preferences." Piggot snipes back. "Answer the question." Technically bitch, I haven't joined yet which means your superior attitude can suck my dick.
I shrug and decide that if she wants my opinion she can get it. I've never been a fan of Piggot and she did ask. "Very well. I think it's inconvenient and a little demeaning that I have to take orders from… well, you."
"Oh? And how were you planning to finish that sentence? Woman? Non-parahuman?" Piggot jumps upon my last attempt to evade the question, clearly feeling even more slighted than before. That wasn't going to be improved by dragging my opinion of her into the daylight, however.
"A coward," I say quietly. I have no doubt I was heard though, as things turn very quiet indeed.
"What did you just call me?" The woman hisses in a voice as poisonous as any I've ever heard. If I wasn't so convinced of her self control I'd think she's about to have me killed.
"A coward." I repeat, making no mistake I said exactly what I meant "You know, someone who gave in to their fear? I don't even care that you're a racist or a bully, though that certainly doesn't help. It just stings that I have to take orders from someone weak enough to be defined by her insecurities."
Piggot's glare could strip paint from the walls, we were never going to be friends, the moment her deep-seated hatred for capes extended to me there was no chance of that. We didn't have to be enemies either, but I torpedoed that chance into the ground in a hurry.
"And what," Piggot all but whispers in a voice that turned dead fast. "do you mean by that."
"You're dying," I state it plainly, my medical knowledge gives her about four more years on the low side, six if she's lucky. "You could easily be cured by a whole host of methods. You don't because you're afraid, saddling your successor with your shit because you're too craven to get over yourself enough to do what needs to be done." I throw her own words back in her face, causing her to flinch for just a moment before she doubles down on her previous opinion with a vengeance.
"Get out." Piggot all but spits at me.
Armsmaster takes me by the arm and almost literally drags me out of the room. I think I really nailed that first impression. It's always more exciting if your boss absolutely fucking hates your guts.
"Even when people ask for your opinion, you should try to moderate your response and coach it in more pleasant terms. The director is likely to take offence and has the means to make your life difficult." Armsmaster explains this to me as if it's hard-earned wisdom not to call people out on their shit to their face. I think he genuinely means well, so I take his advice in the spirit he gave it. Hell, this might actually be something he's genuinely struggled with and he's trying to help me not make his mistakes.
"Yeah, but she did ask, and even pressed when I tried to evade it after all," I explain my somewhat brusque actions. "Also, I have a thing against racists and bullies, and miss Piggot is both."
"She has her reasons." Armsmaster tries to excuse the bitch's actions, though it's clear his heart isn't in it. I can sympathize, Piggot is a hard woman to like.
"So do the Nazi's" I point out "and her reasons are almost as moronic as theirs which precludes me from being able to respect them at all. And besides, I'm perfectly willing for her to hate me if it guilts her into getting her health looked at by someone competent. Soft healers cause stinking wounds."
Armsmaster doesn't respond, having delivered his advice and then leaving it up to me to use it or disregard it as I see fit. It's a stance I can appreciate, helpful without being overbearing even if the advice itself isn't great.
"It's officially been made a priority to have you create that engine you said you required to use your abilities. We have your pack and the copper and tin you purchased, but are there any other materials you need to create it?" Armsmaster switches tracks with typical aplomb.
"The core of the Qi engine is made from those two metals formed into a Taijitu bordered on all sides by a thin but even coating of gold. I can create the whole thing with nothing other than a forge but I'm open to suggestions or advice on making it faster, making the whole thing by hand is going to be a pain. Once I've got the engine, I need to make a scaffolding around it and coat the scaffold with cinnabar. The only real thing I need after that is a set of needles, jade ones if I am truly going all out and a source of Qi to kickstart the engine."
Armsmaster gives me a polite smile "I'm certain we can figure something out."
I had expected to spend at least a week making the Qi engine, I'd need at least a full day to make the Joined halves of metal that formed the core, and creating the elaborate looping pattern the Qi would have to flow from any material was always going to be an incredible pain.
Armsmaster took me to a nook of his laboratory and did the whole thing in about an hour. He helped me machine the core into a perfect circle and showed me how to electroplate a specific portion in gold, using far less gold than I expected or would have used if I'd have to do the whole thing myself.
I expected to have issues with getting my hand on the mildly poisonous cinnabar but Armsmaster just placed an order for some to be brought to his lab and it got delivered less than an hour later no questions asked. It must be one of the perks of being one of the premier tinkers in the US.
The whole process, from start to finish takes maybe three hours. He even had a better idea than solder for the scaffold around the core, supplying some kind of stretchy foam that is malleable like clay but more than strong enough to bear its own weight when not disturbed. A failed prototype of containment foam or so he tells me.
Even if I didn't like the Armsmaster-Dragon pairing for being one of the only wholesome things in the entire Worm universe, I officially shipped them once I heard Armsmaster talk about helping Dragon with some minor details on her invention. The sheer pride in his voice would have been clear to me even without foreknowledge, despite being outwardly stoic he is more than happy to talk about Dragon at great length.
Even with the aid of a far more forgiving material to work with, making the scaffolding is easily the most time-consuming portion of the build. The whole scaffold loops and folds in on itself and for this to work it has to be pretty close to perfect or it simply won't work at all. Armsmaster proves himself an able student and assistant, lending his hands where my own two simply won't do and listening to me explain some of the theory behind it with an eagerness that makes him a joy to teach even if his font of questions never seems to run dry.
I'm not overly worried about scion finding out anything that's going to pose an immediate concern from just this design. It really is an ad hoc temporary solution and recreating it without my supervision is far more likely to get its creator killed than have it do anything useful. I've made sure to hide one of the biggest flaws in the design from Armsmaster for that very reason. If Scion gets himself killed trying to recreate this thing without understanding the basics behind it? Well, that'd be a shame wouldn't it?
After a surprisingly entertaining afternoon, I look over the finished product with the satisfaction of a difficult job done well. Armsmaster looks over the final product with a critical eye, even as I check the scaffolding for what feels like the hundredth time that day, running my eye along every loop and swirl to see if I can spot a flaw that might prevent the machine from working.
I can't, it's as perfect as I could hope it to be.
"So once we toggle this on, it's going to generate the energy you need?" Armsmaster asks as we put the finish touches on the design, slotting the tin and copper heart of the engine into place.
"It's a lot more akin to a waterwheel in function. It takes the surrounding energy and processes it, creating unaspected energy from tainted energy, the greater the concentration of energy the faster it runs." I lie to Armsmaster for the first time since we met, even if it's a lie by omission. It does operate faster the higher the ambient concentration of Qi is, it does however generate Qi on its own. Even if the amount of Qi it generates in an environ as devoid of Qi as this world is minuscule this will generate Qi Ex-nihilo.
"And it's harmless?" Armsmaster asks for at least the third time, even after we wheel the device into an empty room that I am told is to be my lab eventually. It's good to see he takes security seriously, though given that he's worked with Tinker's before I'd not be surprised if he'd take a minor explosion from time to time in stride.
"Not harmless, but not dangerous either. You've long since been exposed to this energy and in a far more dangerous and harmful form, it will eventually reach a concentration that would be harmful to an unprepared human, but I'll have precautions in place long before that could possibly become a problem. Qi is a naturally occurring energy, and it's universal anywhere there is life, though the concentration varies."
I pick up the can with what remains of the liquid Cinnabar and start applying the first of seven inscriptions, one for each wall, the ceiling, the floor and the last one blocking off the door. "And with this, even if I dropped dead right now it should contain the energy to this room. Worst comes to worst you could just block off this door and call it problem solved for the next century or so."
"What would happen if we kept that engine running and concentrating the energy in this room?" Armasmaster asks, curious as ever to learn more, though it makes sense to ensure I'm not irradiating the whole Rig with this thing.
"Well, if the concentration of Qi here becomes high enough, it'll condense into a gaseous form and become visible to the naked eye. If you wait even longer, it'll keep condensing and start slowly forming into a liquid, that's roughly the sign that you should leave the room. Once the entire room is filled with liquid form Qi, it'll crystalize into a solid. You could physically interact with that stuff. In fact, big clans tend to use it as a form of currency, though they try to find natural pockets of the stuff instead."
"If natural pockets of that crystal could be found, why don't we know it exists?" Armsmaster follows up immediately, spotting what he thinks is a potential flaw in my explanation.
"Because the concentration of Qi in this world is far too low for that to happen, you'd have noticed the effects of a Qi rich environment if it wasn't. Some of the effects Qi can have are hardly subtle."
"What kind of effects would a Qi laden atmosphere have then that you can instantly deduce the concentration is low?"
"Qi, if used properly, mostly has effects that improve or strengthen already existing stuff. There are exceptions but those aren't terribly relevant here. So you'd have predators the size of a city bus, considerably more dangerous animal and plant life even aside from the super predators, stuff like that." You'd also get ghosts, sentient inanimate objects and a lot more stuff you'd be unwilling to believe in since they're pretty much the Qi version of magic.
"Fascinating. Does that strengthening and improving effect apply to you as well?" Armsmaster is an endless font of questions, I sometimes wonder if it's the man asking, or the shard in his head kicking the endorphin button to reward him for learning new things.
"Yes." I answer flatly "If done exceedingly carefully and with sufficient energy and time invested, you can permanently strengthen yourself using Qi."
"So you could use this to empower the normal PRT troopers for instance?" Armsmaster asks eagerly, already imagining the possibilities.
"Theoretically yes, but practically? No. This isn't something you can just study for a bit and then use to give yourself a convenient new superpower, I know this stuff and it's going to take me years before I can do anything genuinely impressive. If I'd have to teach someone this stuff from scratch and you can safely bump that timetable up to a decade at least. It's the same way you could build power armour for everyone in theory but the practical issues make it untenable. You'd have to have studied this from a young age to use it the way I plan to, even then the odds of surviving to become a real expert is by no means certain. Depending on the quality of their knowledge, maybe one out of every ten thousand practitioners rises to genuine mastery, considerably less if they're using incomplete or second-hand techniques."
I give the whole idea some more thought. Producing armour made from Qi enhanced materials might be possible, but without their wearers unable to use Qi themselves eventually the Qi in the items would run out.
I could train people to use Qi mind you, and if I speed up their progress with alchemy or a decent boning it won't take nearly as long as I'm implying. It strikes me as a phenomenally bad idea though. Not just because even a poor cultivation method would be irresistible to scion, but also because Qi is holy-hell abusable. It's not solely because only yesterday I've read a book detailing how best to boil my kind to best preserve their medicinal properties. Frankly, a minor amount of cannibalism is small potatoes compared to the absolute depths of depravity cultivation can sink to. Devil path practitioners start off rapey and vampiric and rapidly go downhill from there.
"Training them in the exact arts I plan to use is too dangerous for too little effect to be worth it, but talismans and general life-saving equipment common to cultivators might make a real difference." I muse aloud.
"I'm sorry, talismans?" Armsmaster inquires, eager to learn another facet of something utterly unique he's never encountered before.
"Oh, right. Sort of a single shot item. Shields are very popular, they burn out after one use but they block the hit that would otherwise have killed you. A properly prepared cultivator has at least a couple of methods that would let them cheat death like that a couple of times. From shields that can block a single blow regardless of strength or medicine that can restore you back to full health no matter how badly you are injured."
"I can see why you were nervous about possibly being forced to spend your time doing nothing other than craft for the PRT. It's an issue I've struggled with more than once, I can assure you that if you are set on being an active hero the protectorate will assist you with being one. Purely theoretically, I could have a greater impact on law and order in this city if I crafted nothing but powered armour for the PRT troops defending the city. A long time ago one of my personal heroes inspired me to work towards the greater good, I would never have become what I am if it hadn't been for his example. Heroes are exemplars in a way that troopers wearing a uniform can never be."
And there it is, at the heart of things, no matter his social issues or how poorly he emotes. When it comes down to it, when it really comes down to it, Armsmaster is a good man. Inflexible, unsocial and more eager for personal glory than might be proper for some idealized hero, but the man tries.
Maybe his intentions aren't 'pure' or 'selfless' but so what? It takes a specific kind of man to live the life Armsmaster has, and his city is undeniably better for it. As someone who's personally benefitted immensely from his desire to do good, I can only respect the man for it.
"And with that, I have one last thing before I leave you to your work." He reaches out and a compartment I had no idea was there popped open on his armour. He pulls a roll of cloth the approximate size of a soda can from the compartment and hands it over. "Consider it a welcome gift to a fellow tinker, even if you are an unorthodox one."
I unroll the cloth bundle and find it filled with three rows of glistening green needles, half again as long as my pointer finger and thin enough to be used as acupuncture tools. Fifty per row gave me enough needles to last me a lifetime if used and cared for properly. How in the absolute sodding hell did Armsmaster make me a custom set of jade needles in the couple of hours since I told him I'd consider it an extravagant luxury for my craft.
"The needles you had risked assault for had been damaged, you mentioned that jade would be better." Armsmaster claps me on the shoulder with one armoured glove before leaving me alone with my new Qi engine.
I made a mental note to do something amazing for Armsmaster in return for one of the most thoughtful gifts I'd ever received.
I forced myself to pause and take things easy. You can't imagine how badly I wanted to sit down and start poking away, but I forced myself to do things in the proper order. First I checked the Qi engine one more time to see if it was actually working. The scripts I'd put on the walls would concentrate the local Qi into this room, causing the centre of the Qi engine to turn as the concentration of Qi rose enough to be noticeable.
It turned painfully slowly, to the point where it was hard to tell it was moving at all, forcing myself to take a shower to clean my skin of all pollutants that might interfere with the process gave me enough time to confirm that yes, the heart of the engine was turning, and that meant it was now effectively self-sufficient, it would churn out Qi tirelessly until someone broke the metal heart of the device entirely, something that would become harder and harder the more Qi the engine processed.
I forced myself once more to sit down and read the second book I'd recommended myself before doing anything. I'd feel particularly awful if I started to cleanse my meridians but only then found out that my ideal cultivation method required me to prepare in some fashion before that.
Maybe it was the experience or maybe it was because the cultivation method was remarkably short for what it was, but I didn't collapse when I looked up and mentally downloaded what I assumed was the cultivation method I had recommended myself.
The tenfold wheel of the breaking heaven, what a damned mouthful. I'm already mentally shortening it to the Tenfold Wheel.
It's a remarkably simple technique, created by a demiurge who, upon rising to ultimate power wanted to create a 'flawless' technique, one that incorporated everything he had learned in his long life. As far as I can tell from this book, he never actually taught it to anyone, he simply created it as a thought exercise for what technique he'd wished he'd cultivated if he had to do the whole thing over again. How the folk that killed me got their hands on it, I've got no idea.
I also feel somewhat vindicated, it does require a flawless set of meridians, and nothing in the book would have helped me unblock them. Even the set of martial arts in here would not have helped me in the least, not without an absolute Sisyphean amount of hard work at any rate.
I wait, impatiently checking my phone from time to time as I try to meditate and clear my mind, waiting until I have recovered enough to read the last of the books I'd recommended.
The tribulation body.
An amazing cultivation technique focussed exclusively on the physical body but peerless in that category. Somehow even less immediately useful than the Tenfold Wheel had been. It did require someone to have never cultivated any other body arts. Something that was complicated only slightly by it requiring a pure source of Tribulation lightning as a base. Which wasn't something I was going to get my hands on in the near future. It did however convince me not to practice any other body cultivation techniques or ruin my chances at one of the supreme methods for strengthening the body.
I had waited long enough, I could feel the pressure of the local Qi on my system, manifesting as a feeling not unlike being underwater. I hoped the local Qi would be dense enough for the next step.
I slap my head, forgetting one last thing. I move over to the tiny supply cabinet attached to my lab and remove a piece of vital equipment I had nearly forgotten I'd need.
The honourable, nay the venerable bucket.
It would prove to be vital pretty quickly.
I disrobe entirely, stripping myself naked before sitting down on a small pillow I ripped from one of the seats. Now, the next part? The next part of this is going to be awful.
I apply the connecting needles first, using my one, partially opened meridian to deduce where exactly each of my meridians flows and gently placing a needle in each intersecting point along the line. There are four main pathways I have to open all in one go for this to work, unsurprisingly the four meridians that make up my spiritual root.
From my Dantian to my heart, from my heart to my brain, and then mirrored on the opposite side of my body. They're not exactly even, the meridians are almost mirrored images of each other but the minor differences I carefully plot out are the difference between a cleared meridian and a ruptured one. If I mess this up and damage my spiritual root beyond what I can fix? Well, then I'm fucked, with no miracle herbs to undo the damage my journey will end there and then.
So you might understand that I take things very slowly. Knowledge of how to apply the needles is included in my newly acquired medical knowledge, but the actual skill to do so precisely is not. I check and double-check each and every single needle, only pushing the needles in when I've absolutely convinced myself I got things right, going slowly even if that makes the discomfort worse to ensure I get them properly aligned and to the proper depth.
It's a laborious process, taking an immense amount of concentration and no small amount of pain as I jab myself again and again. Slowly the pathway of my meridians is outlined with a fairly neat and orderly path of needles.
I finish with the pathways around my face, having saved them for last so my endorphins could be juiced enough for this to be merely painful instead of agonizing. Pressing needles into the bridge between my nose and upper lip on my path to the crown Dantian is the absolute worst, having to press them in frighteningly deeply to get them to connect with the meridians properly.
After at least fifteen minutes of careful effort, I finally place the last of the connecting needles, double-check them and then finally let out a deep sigh of released stress.
Part one, the most labour intensive process of this whole operation is completed without a hitch. And I haven't crippled myself and ruined my life forever! Jaaay.
Now comes part two, and it's a lot simpler than part one. I take the last three needles I'd prepared and carefully dip the outer ends of them in Cinnabar, making them extremely conductive to the heavy Qi swirling around the room by now.
Then, before I can second guess myself or properly appreciate how much this was going to suck I press the three needles in, using everything I learned so far to press them in one after the other as rapidly as I can.
One almost directly into my belly button, one deep enough in the chest to almost be touching my heart as it beats a now frantic pace, and the last right between the eyes, completing the circuit.
My now Cinnabar stained fingers are trembling as I cautiously release my grip on them, taking in a deep breath and focussing on my Qi as best as I can.
The heavy Qi swirling around me is drawn into the three dantian and starts pushing against the blockages, pushing the filth staining my meridians out through the nearest opening. Openings that I've spent the last minutes carefully poking open with needles, the highly Qi conductive jade needles not impeding the Qi at all as the filth starts spreading up all four meridians at the same time.
A black line starts to become visible, connecting the dots of the needles plugged in my skin as the blockage starts having pressure exerted on it. I sit as still as I can, focussing on keeping my breath slow and controlled as I wait. There's nothing for me to do, either I did things right and the rest will take care of itself or I did it wrong and I'm too late to do anything about it.
Either way, there's no point worrying about it. Or at least that's what I tell myself as I try not to freak out.
Slowly, gradually, I start to stink. Black, filthy goop starts being forced out of the needles closest to my dantian, as the stubborn filth that has been blocking those meridians is forced out by the continuous pressure of the Qi flowing down into each dantian.
I now have the added task of not gagging on the absolutely hideous smell coming from my skin. It's almost indescribable, rancid, corrupted filth. Death, decay and decomposition, it stinks of everything bad that hits me on a more than purely physical level as my very spirit quails at the touch of that horrid slime.
Of course, the more of my meridians are cleared out the more control I have over the Qi flowing through them. I can moderate the force little by little, preventing any further damage to my meridians. Unfortunately, the more my meridians are cleared out the more my senses improve, my eyesight grows sharper, my skin becomes more sensitive and to my great despair, my sense of smell improves by leaps and bounds.
The more agile my Qi moves, the faster it flows down my meridians and the faster it breaks down the innumerable clogs in my spiritual root, cleansing them and improving them in a fundamental way even as I struggle to keep down my lunch.
It takes a veritable eternity, slowly and patiently guiding the ever-increasing amount of Qi through the delicate strands of my meridians until finally, with one last great heave the remaining filth breaks down completely, swept from my body on a cleansing wave of purified Qi as it forms the first ever circulation of Qi through my body. It doesn't just stop at the four meridians I've just painstakingly cleansed either, the fortifying wave of Qi flushes throughout my entire body, weakening the filth in my remaining meridians and pushing a truly shocking amount of putrid slime to the surface of my skin, breaking through and coating me thoroughly as I sweat out what feels like almost ten litres of the filthiest muck ever conceived.
I waste no time in using the very first and arguably the most important mystical ability I'll ever practice. I use my tenous grasp of Qi to billow forth from the meridians that normally contain them, sweeping the disgusting slime off of my body and into the enormous bucket, filling it almost halfway.
I had more corruption in me than I'd thought, I only hope I picked a bucket large enough, it may only be half-filled, but I'm sadly also only half done.
The wave has pushed a lot of filth out of my skin, but about half of it has been forced into my stomach and intestines instead. I only barely manage to stumble to the bucket before throwing up a thick, cloying liquid with the consistency of tar.
I'm sad to say that my sense of taste has been augmented as well, and if it's remotely possible the taste is even worse than the smell, forcing my body to empty itself again and again as wave after brackish wave of concentrated waste spew forth from me, far past what I'd thought my body was capable of holding. Finally, finally, it tapers off as I empty myself of the last bits of filth I can.
The bucket is sadly nearly entirely full, the concentrated sick is, unfortunately, useful for one very specific pill I happen to know how to brew. Even if I'm really, really not looking forward to taking anything made from this awful stuff.
My stomach growls in warning, making me realize that there's one more orifice I can expel waste from. I make a mad dash for the bathroom, thanking every god willing to listen for its proximity.
After taking a shower and scrubbing myself until I've shed an entire layer of the epidermis, I look over my body again. Even knowing ahead of time what unblocking my meridians would do to me, I'm still slightly disgusted with the sight.
My formerly fit frame is a wasted shell of what it was before, I look like I've just survived a prison camp of some sort. I can count each individual bone on my ribcage and I am parched to an extent I hadn't thought possible. I'm stick thin, but even then I've still got wider hips than almost anyone I've seen. Barring Piggot.
My grandma always said that our family wasn't made in the form of show horses, but plodding draft horses. I only barely remember the old woman at all, which probably means we used to be close, strangely, I'm still convinced she didn't have horses, so who knows where her crazy sayings came from? My long mane of hair has gotten the consistency of straw and every ounce of excess fat I might have had has been shed along with no small amount of muscle mass.
I'd have to build that back up before I tackled the next set of meridians. Assuming I cleaned four per session it'd take four more sessions to clear them all, each one of them comparable to this one.
The results, however…
I clench one emaciated fist and I can feel what remains of my muscles cord and bunch with power. Even with just four meridians unlocked I've taken my first step on the path, I'm slightly more than I was before. I feel like I could crush stones in my bare hands.
My stomach growls in angry protest, reminding me that there are definitely better things to do than stare at my own emaciated figure in the mirror.
I should learn the whale swallowing technique, and then see if there's a place where I might acquire roughly all the pizza.
Chapter 4
The PRT has strangely excellent catering.
It took me some stumbling around before I located something resembling a mess. I think it says something about life in this city when people barely even blink at my suddenly emaciated figure, nor by my request for 'as much food as you're legally allowed to give me.' Sure thing zombie looking dude we've never seen or heard of before, do you want some soda to go with that?
I was expecting them to just hand me a box of ration bars or something, but no, turns out the lunchroom had an actual kitchen attached, with staff manning it 24/7. It turns out they've run out of frozen pizza and are having trouble with their resupplies for some reason. There's no Pizza but they're willing to set me up with a truly gut-busting amount of curry. It doesn't take very long for me to draw a crowd, most of the people filling the cafeteria seem to be troopers at the end of their shift, and like most men of action I've known in my life, they seem perfectly content to stare and gawk at things that grasp their interest, like me going back for my twentieth helping of curried rice.
People are placing bets and they've long since taken to getting me more food instead of making me get more, watching in horrified fascination as I scarf down meal after meal, pushing meals at me as they try to find a limit to how much my stomach can hold.
The joke is on them since my library did have a copy of the classic cultivation technique the Art of the swallowing whale. Pretty much throughout my binging, I'm circulating my Qi to stimulate my intestines and stomach to process food at frankly ridiculous speeds. Even if I eat fast enough to fill my stomach it just takes a few moments of slowing down and taking a few drinks instead to give my stomach some time to digest more and more food, breaking it down into spiritual Qi to the extent that there's no waste remaining at all.
My stomach feels like a bottomless hole and It slowly becomes apparent that I'm going to run out of Qi to fuel the swallowing whale technique before I'm going to finish filling that gaping void. Even though the food is turned into Qi, my nutrient-starved body snatches the energy before I can use it to refill my reserves, making eating like this a net loss for my usable Qi.
I eventually slow down and take one last platter of food filled with all of my favourite meals I'd tried in my dedicated attempt at eating the contents of the kitchen. I admit to the gathered crowd that this is going to be the last dish and I can see quite a bit of money trade hands to the lucky trooper that had guessed the number of plates correctly. Seventy-eight.
I look a little bit better, some of the gauntness is gone from what I can see of my limbs. Several of the troopers sit down to eat a meal with me as I take my time eating my last plate, actually taking the time to appreciate how weirdly good the food is. I make some small talk with the troopers that mostly involve answering questions about who I am and if I'm a new hero.
It's strangely soothing to be amongst people again, I get the impression that I've spent a lot of time in my life with people like this, salt of the earth, hard-working types. All I'm missing is a good beer after a hard day's work, but putting booze into my system while I was still recovering from cleaning my meridians sounded like a bad time.
They're honest folk. Their genuine pleasure at finding out I'm a new hero is nothing compared to when they find out I'm probably going to be the local protectorate's dedicated healer. It turns out that troopers get seriously messed up on what seems to be a weekly basis. Their hazard pay is ridiculously high, but it doesn't sink in until they tell me that the average life expectancy of the troopers that regularly see combat is Five. Freaking. Years. The turnover rate for PRT troopers in Brockton Bay is monstrously high, hovering steadily near the very top of America's rankings despite the relatively small size of the city.
That means that the troopers who stick around here long enough are some of the toughest, most dedicated folk you're likely to ever find. All of them have various scars to show off, trying to outdo each other for the most horrid scar that they actually somehow survived.
We eventually decide that a trooper named Hernando is the dubious victor, for a horrid, mangled scar that covers him from his heel going all the way up to just below his ass. It turns out he survived Hookwolf being thrown into his squad car by Lung during one of the villains initial matchups, only making it through alive because Hookwolf was far more interested in getting back out to support his fellow nazis than shredding the poor trooper.
Even then the grizzled Latino man dryly states that being 'mostly' ignored by a blender crawling over you is still going to go poorly for the bits of you that aren't covered in class 4 armoured vests.
I'm genuinely enjoying just talking to people, for all that Armsmaster was surprisingly decent company, it's still something of a relief to talk to simpler people. Even then I'm not committing myself to the conversation, though I laugh along and take part in the conversation a part of me is focussing on my breathing, drawing in Qi and using it to refill my reserves so I can get back to eating more food. I expect Piggot to bitch me out since I eat for thirty men and will continue to do so for as long as they're footing the bill for my food, so I'm going to take advantage of as much guilt-free food as I can.
I've got something of a shaky timeline to work with. I know that Brockton bay is going to be assaulted by an Endbringer sooner or later and that's not a fight I'm looking forward to. Nothing I'm likely to learn in the next year at the very least is going to do anything to the sheer bullshit most Endbringers bring to the table.
So I was going to push myself and push myself hard. Work on my cultivation every waking moment and rush towards greater power so I can at the very least escape with my life intact. I was also going to low-key look into a method to leave if I had to. I'd feel awful if I had to ditch these people to face the coming apocalypse by themselves, but it'd be a different thing entirely if I could switch to another dimension and come back when I am significantly more Swole.
Dimension hopping heroics are the absolute best heroics, after all. Hell, since I'm not from this dimension I guess anything I do to help here counts.
A high levelled cultivator would absolutely destroy Scion, let alone his Endbringer toys. No matter how much power Scion has to throw around, he's completely reliant on the physical and material world. No matter how great his power it has to operate on the laws of reality. That sound you hear in the distance is the sound of thousands of cultivators laughing derisively, presumably because they think the laws of reality are more suggestions that only apply to lesser beings.
I was going to have to do so many crunches to get to that point though.
I realize my Qi is as refilled as it's going to get. I have to snort at the minuscule amount of Qi my body can hold with a mere four meridians unlocked. Hopefully, I would be able to recover faster once I had more Qi to focus on healing.
I go back for my seventy-third plate of curry. The faster I get this over with the better.
I tense the muscles in my arm and appreciate the way I can see the muscle tense in perfect definition. A definition I certainly didn't have a couple of hours ago. Cultivation early on is pretty ridiculous, at my level, it mostly involved strengthening the cultivator's body so I could actually withstand proper cultivation without exploding. That turns out to be an actual thing that can happen to a cultivator that slacks on the physical conditioning even if they're not genuine body cultivators, at least for the initial few stages.
I'm still a mortal at this point, not even actually cultivating yet. All I'm doing is cleaning my meridians but it's already having a transformative effect on my body. I've only just taken a small first step down my path, but I was already pleased with the results.
After confirming that yes, I do need to eat that much to stay healthy with what I'm doing, the kitchen staff had been friendly enough to scrounge up an entire boxful of MRI's and another full box of ration bars for me to take back to the lab with me so I could pre-load myself the next time I tried the same stunt since I had to do it at least four more times.
With me being confined to the Rig until I passed Piggot's nebulous exams, I moved back to my lab instead of exploring the rig or meeting any of the other heroes, I fully expected and planned to spend as much of my time training as I physically could. I could burn a small amount of Qi in lieu of sleep for quite some time, and the faster I got some small measure of personal power the better my chances of controlling my own destiny instead of relying on luck to save me.
With renewed determination, I made my way to the lab. Normally, even with the Whale swallowing technique and an abundant source of food you'd need several days to recover from the sheer abuse I'd put my body through. For a given value of Fortunate my medical mastery was more than up to the task of speeding my recovery along far faster than that. I had to burn almost all of my recently refilled reservoir of Qi to accomplish it, but that just meant that I had some free time in which I could start practising my martial arts.
The tenfold wheel came with an elaborate set of martial arts, five of them in total. One for every classical Chinese Element, Fire, nature, metal, water and earth. Before I could decide about which one I was best off pursuing first, I had to do a small test, though I was almost completely certain of the results beforehand, it'd be silly to neglect the basics and practice the martial arts in the wrong order.
I pricked my finger with one of the needles and put pressure on the finger until I had a good dollop of blood. I focussed on the complicated swirl of Qi I had picked up from a book on the absolute basics of cultivation. To absolutely no surprise, the tiny droplet of blood grew an ethereal vine, broadening and thickening into a tiny tree with lightning crawling over its crown until the tiny amount of Qi in the drop of blood ran out, causing the ghostly flora to first wilt and then fade entirely.
So my Qi is naturally Nature aligned. For a guy who has a tree elemental in his ancestry, this isn't exactly a surprise. Going by the cycle of elements, Nature encompasses both wood and air and feeds the element of fire. Ergo, of the five that go along with my cultivation manual the first martial art I should practice is the Path of Fire, since my own Qi most effectively fuels Qi of that nature.
Of the five, the Fire arts most closely resemble traditional martial arts, a hard style as opposed to a soft style that focussed on raw power and explosive bursts of speed. The initial preparation for the art was relatively simple but sucked furious amounts of dick.
Run while punching and kicking in a pattern that involved a lot of leaps and almost dance-like movement, do this at the absolute fastest speed you can perform for as long as you can manage, stress every last ounce of effort possible into as brief a moment as you physically can. Do this at the highest intensity you can until you collapse. Then recover and do it again.
See? Simple, but my god did doing it for any length of time suck.
Thankfully, recovering stamina and healing the body when all its bits are still intact is the absolute simplest thing my healing could accomplish, allowing me to go from completely collapsed to fighting fit in a matter of seconds, expending less Qi than I'd gathered during my exercise.
So I did it again. Run and punch, run and kick, run until you vomit, punch until your arms can no longer move, kick until your legs collapse from under you. While doing this, remember to perform the correct breathing cadence that feels like you're drowning on dry land or you better start all over again! Then use medical arts to recover again and start from the beginning.
I performed these exercises until I had completely recovered my Qi reserves and then sat down to open the next set of meridians.
With Qi smoothly flowing through my body, finding the next set of meridians was significantly easier, though not necessarily any faster. Maybe it's my increasing familiarity with the needles or maybe it's the first effects of cleansing my body of some of it's accumulated drek, but actually placing the needles happens in the blink of an eye. Unlike before I can instantly sense when I'm at the proper location and my hands are steady as a surgeon's, the minor discomfort of the needles pushing through my skin is a small thing to ignore. I'd be willing to do a lot worse for this chance in all honesty, which is good because that's pretty much what I'm collecting all the accumulated filth for.
Something a lot worse.
It's an easy rhythm to fall into. Martial arts until I can't move, unblock new meridians, eat like a maniac until I've recovered. Rinse and repeat.
It strikes me that it's downright poor planning that they have tinker labs without a clock, or more usefully a calendar.
I've finished unblocking the last of my blocked meridians a couple of hours ago and polished off the last MRI's and nutrition bars I had, and I've got no idea how long I've been at this. I haven't seen any of the local heroes, in fact, the only people I've been talking with are the kitchen staff and the troopers.
I'm technically ready to properly start cultivating now. Take the first proper step into gaining some small measure of power, but I decide that I've got to take at least a little rest, settle my mind and find some sort of inner balance that I simply know is missing.
It has nothing to do with the fact that the constant stress on my meridians means I feel like a wrung-out dishrag or that one can only run in a cramped room while doing high kicks so often before they start contemplating that which should not be contemplated.
No sir, I am going to be a cultivator which means stoically punching brick walls forever until the end of time.
Maybe taking a small break won't kill me though.
There's still a ton of things that I need to do and build, the smart move would be to start making an alchemy cauldron or a Qi forge so I can start working on imbuing clothing and weapons with the stuff. Realistically, I've been going full bore for days and need to do something that isn't work. I try to contact Armsmaster but he's locked in his room and all I get from his intercom is a prerecorded message not to bother him unless there's an actual disaster, I don't think me getting cabin fever counts, so I'm somewhat at a loss at what to do next. I haven't gotten out these last few days, I occasionally talk with some of the troopers but the fact that I simply eat when I have to instead of holding myself to any kind of schedule meant that I ate alone more often than not.
Should I simply start exploring the rig? By myself, without knowing which areas are off-limits and with none of the local heroes having met me? Maybe not the smartest option.
"Hey, new guy!" I hear an upbeat voice come from behind me.
I turn around and see a man in a body-covering, armoured red suit. His entire suit is a deep red, with his face uncovered except for a weird visor thing that leaves the lower half of his extremely animated and expressive face free. He looks friendly, an easygoing type of man.
… I have no idea who this is. My life would be so much easier if I had access to the worm wiki, or even just remembered the story better.
"Hey you, sorry, I forgot your name, I've been busy and I haven't properly checked up on my new teammates yet" I greet the smiling man "Did you know you're the first member of the protectorate outside of Armsmaster I've met? I've just been working on my power since I got here."
The man grabs his chest in an overly dramatic gesture. "Oh man, right in the ego." He switches from dramatically swooning to extending a hand for me to shake. "I'm Assault, but you can call me Ethan. I hope you know that you being real is going to cost me, when I heard Armsmaster had actually made a 'friendly acquaintance' I was sure you were made up."
I take his hand, his grip is firm yet without exerting any dominance. He shakes it eagerly. "Apparently I'm to go by Apex and I don't actually remember my real name. I didn't think Armsmaster was that bad, he really helped me out, yaknow?"
Ethan looks at me shrewdly "Not that bad eh? You can count yourself lucky that you're on his side, I don't think I've met a man with a more black and white view of the world. People are either with him or against him, you just happen to tick every possible box of traits that the man actually approves of." He holds up a hand and starts ticking those traits off on his fingers. "You're a tinker, or something very close to it. Going by how you've just locked yourself in a room and worked without slowing or stopping for almost a week you're almost as dedicated to hard work as he is and you joined the PRT with minimal prompting. You even hate Piggot the respectable amount." It strikes me that Ethan is remarkably well informed about me for someone who claims to have thought of me as Armsmasters imaginary friend before meeting me.
"Hating Piggot is respectable around here?" I ask, amused at the man despite myself. Even though I'm savvy enough to spot the deliberate attempt at levity for what it is Ethan is a remarkably easy man to get along with.
"Absolutely. I have a working theory that she's placed there as a common enemy for the protectorate to rally against. Once we have finally gotten over all of our differences and work together as a flawless team she'll turn out to be the final boss that requires everything we've learned about friendship to defeat."
"And how much magical girl anime did you watch when you were creating this theory?" I ask, smiling despite myself.
"What can I say, the old ball and chain enjoys the cutesy stuff. I've absorbed it through pure osmosis over time." Ethan defends himself weakly, grinning even as he says it.
"I would love to see you explain this theory to Piggot, she might get a laugh out of it."
"She knows." Ethan says proudly "Always assume Piggot knows. But getting a laugh out of the woman is impossible, I've tried for years and haven't managed it so far. Gotta keep trying though, maybe one day she'll slip out and I'll get a smile for my efforts."
Assault shakes himself like a dog as if to physically shrug off his failure at getting Piggot to engage with his particular brand of comedy at all. "Anyway, I was here for more than just touching base and getting to know the new member of the team. I was on my way to collect you, the higher-ups have decided that a week is more than enough preparatory time for you to show some result from your work. So what do you say, big man? You ready to demonstrate some miraculous healing abilities yet?"
Was I? I was sad to realize that the benefit from opening more meridians was mostly additive, so with all twenty meridians clear and unblocked I had about five times more Qi to work with than I had before. Aside from that, healing mortals without any cultivation at all uses next to no energy, though that is assuming I have healing herbs to bolster my abilities. With no herbs, I'd have to supply all the energy for healing myself. Ah, what the hell, they know I'm currently the weakest I'll ever be, even if I can only partially heal someone it'll show that I am not just talking out of my ass.
"Ah, what the hell, I might as well. Lead the way."
The gym is located in one of the massive pillars holding up the Rig. Assault explains that it used to be the storage for the oil the Rig extracted and was converted to a gym when it was determined that it was the largest open space available.
I spot several people there I do actually recognize.
There's a whole gaggle of scientist looking men and women milling around what looks like a portable lab of some kind, talking and preparing equipment for what I assume is the first bout of power testing in my near future.
The two people I recognize are a young teen wearing long white robes marked with red crosses, Panacea, the unofficial woobie of the series, the most powerful biokinetic in the world and future supervillain. She's standing with her hands on her hips and is angrily talking with the only other person in the room I recognize. Clockblocker, another young man wearing a white outfit covered in clocks, the joker and prankster of the Wards.
He doesn't look to be in a very joking mood, as he is almost as angrily talking back to Panacea. There's an older man with a patchy red beard watching the two with no small amount of amusement.
The man is bald, and I don't think by choice. I take a deep breath and focus on my expanded senses. The man smells of antiseptic and ill health. Cancer then. If it's been long enough since his last chemo for his beard to partially grow back it's probably the chronic type too.
Assault stops us when he sees the argument, motioning me to give them some privacy. "Best give the kiddo's some time to themselves, no need for us to poke our nose in right away." He looks me over and at the small cotton package containing my needles "Are you going to be able to cure cancer with those things?"
"I am a doctor of miracles," I say with little pride since it's hard to be proud of a skill you've simply downloaded into your brain "If you're not dead when you're put on the slab you'll survive without complications. Until I run out of energy there is nothing I cannot cure."
"Hah! Nothing wrong with your confidence at least. Now some more information before you blunder into that situation and make things worse. That man" He points at the patient I'm pretty certain I'm here to heal to prove that I really do have powers. "Is called David Murray. The docs" Here he points at the scientists milling about "are going to test your healing ability on small mammals first, rats and the like." His finger then points to panacea, who is now angrily gesturing with her arms at the young man across from her. "Panacea is here to test your work. If the doctors give the all-clear, we're going to test your healing ability on David to see how your healing works on humans. I have no idea why Clockblocker is here though."
"Other than getting chewed out by panacea? I would assume he's here to support his father." I fill in easily, knowing that Ethan definitely knows. I get the impression that he's a lot sharper than he acts, even if that is a low bar to clear.
"Huh, so you know. How?" Ethan asks, giving me a measuring glance.
"Their body language concerning each other, their incredibly similar smell and the way he looks about a second away from telling his kid to just kiss already." I point out each in turn.
Assault gives a laugh but I can detect the worry in it "Best not tell them that or they'll start yelling at you next and we'll never get anywhere. It looks like their argument is just about done, come on."
Indeed, Panacea seems to have given up on trying to convince Clockblocker and is now just sullenly glaring in the manner teenagers around the world seem to be fond of. Clockblocker is harder to gauge since his uniform covers his face completely but I recognize the body language of a stubborn idiot not budging from his position even if others don't like it.
"Clockblocker, Panacea, David." Assault greets each in turn. "This is Apex, the healer we're going to evaluating today. Panacea, thanks for making time for this today, I know how busy you are."
Ouch, I haven't seen a face go dull that quickly outside of actual fights. The teenage girl simply shrugs "Mom arranged it."
I can see Ethan suppress his wince at the girl's tone, though he rallies quickly, clapping his hands and turning to the various scientists. "Are we ready to get started over there as well?"
One of the scientists, an older man with a grey goatee and long, stringy hair, walks over.
"We're setting up the last of the scanners, we're almost done." He turns to me and shakes my hand "Apex right? It's a pleasure to meet you, My name is Doctor Spiner, a pleasure. So, what can you tell me about your power?"
I heal the same rat for what feels like the hundredth time, passing it to panacea so she can do her own check before the rat is handed to the researchers for yet more tests.
If healing a human with no cultivation is easy, healing something as small and uncomplicated as a rat takes no real effort at all, the breaks I get when they investigate the rat are more than enough to refill my Qi reserves in between each test.
"How much longer is this going to go on?" I ask wearily to no-one in particular. "I get testing pathogens, poison, broken bones and cuts, but exactly are they going to learn from healing the same injury type for the tenth time in a row?"
"We're testing if repeated applications of your healing abilities can cause any unforeseen difficulties." Doctor Spiner answers absentmindedly as he studies one of the computer screens showing the results of whatever test they subject the poor rat to before injuring it just so I can heal it.
"I told you it doesn't work that way Doc, Hell I even explained why it doesn't work that way." I had, you'd think testing real-life superpowers could not possibly be made boring, but you'd be shockingly wrong. The breathing pattern I had to do to refill my Qi reserves felt unnatural and under the slightest amount of strain I'd feel like I wasn't getting enough air. So cycling between discomfort and boredom was leeching all the fun out of actually using powers.
Panacea looks as done with the whole deal as I am, though she's far too sullen and upset with Clockblocker for us to bond over shared misery. Clockblocker has been attentively following everything so far, obviously worried and not wanting to miss anything that might prove to be dangerous to his father. The scientists go about their business with the utmost professionalism, not engaging me the few times I tried to strike a conversation. The only relaxing of their professional demeanour is how they're humouring Clockblockers presence there, other than that they might as well have been robots.
"You yourself admitted that you have not fully mastered your abilities, what if your inexperience causes side effects on people in this dimension? It's best to test things like this carefully in a controlled setting." Doctor Spiner answers with the unshakable stubbornness of a dog with a toy it doesn't want to let go.
"I'm sure that settling the brass's concerns about any mental effects have nothing to do with it," I mutter more to myself than anyone else, though a snort from both Ethan and Panacea show that I'm not the only one who thinks their checks are starting to get excessive.
After the last round of tests finally conclude, the doctor gives a signal to David, who's so far been patiently waiting, observing the tests and occasionally talking with Clockblocker.
"It looks like I'll be in your care," David says with a laugh that seems to come easy to him. "Don't worry if you can't fix me, kid. Just take your time and do your best. That's all anyone can ask of you."
"Chin up old-timer. If I somehow fail to heal you I do not doubt that Panacea will cure you anyway. Regardless of what happens, you're walking out of here disease-free." I tell the older man, guiding him down into a chair.
"That girl works too hard." David gently admonishes me. "I'm afraid my son agrees, even if she doesn't seem to appreciate it. Don't take her frustration with the situation personally, they're both good kids."
"From what I know, you've got every right to be proud of your son. Though given how Assault danced around the issue I thought you wanted to keep that a secret? I'm perfectly willing to go along with it, I'm just surprised you flatly came out with it."
"I heard you talking, so I doubt there's a point to playing coy," David explains with a grin. If it's true, the man has good ears. Following a conversation, while you're next to two arguing teens and the noise from an entire gaggle of scientists setting up lab equipment is no easy feat. Heaven knows I didn't manage and I've got enhanced senses, even if I'm still mostly within human limits. "Do you need me to be quiet or sit still during this?"
"You could dance a Jig while I'm doing this for all I care. Sitting still makes it easier but moving around a little is no big deal."
The man nods to show he understands before trying to remain as still as he can. Before I can start doctor Spiner covers the man in sensors, though at my request he places most of the monitoring patches on David's back instead of the chest, giving me free access to David's torso.
"Now, first things first I'd like you to walk us through the whole process." Doctor Spiner orders, causing me to stifle a groan. "None of that now, this will be the first application of your power on a human so we're observing the basics here."
"Fine. The first step of the process is the diagnosis. Even if I didn't already know beforehand, I can tell Mister Murray has cancer from the flow of Qi throughout his body, it bunches and stagnates in places which is a pretty clear sign of internal damage. Since the internal damage isn't foreign to the body it's pretty much guaranteed to be Cancer." I stretch one finger and gently place it on the man's stomach "It started here as pancreatic cancer. He's had treatment for it several times, doing more and more damage to his body since Chemo is pretty awful for the body. His pancreatic cancer has been killed, but the methods used were too slow, by this time it had spread, entering the bloodstream and moving to most of the other organs."
I point out each organ in turn "Currently, the cancer is focussed in his liver, his lungs, his kidneys and some of his marrow. Though if left untreated there'll be secondary outbreaks in various other organs."
Doctor Spiner is taking rapid notes, though he glances at Panacea for confirmation. Panacea brushes one delicate hand over David's shoulder, before nodding "He's right" Is all she says, before stepping back.
"Now the only thing that makes my treatment slightly more difficult is that the bone marrow isn't wholly his, there are untainted patches of what I assume is donated tissue. The more foreign material is introduced into a person the more difficult my treatment gets."
"So the bonemarrow transplantation he's had was the wrong treatment then?" Doctor Spiner asks, risking a glance at Clockblocker. Ah, so that's where the marrow came from then. It would explain the air of depression around the kid.
"Wrong? Without it, I doubt he would have lived until now." I correct the doctor, causing Clockblocker to perk back up again. "It just makes things more difficult for me since the Qi it produces isn't inherently his. It's nothing I cannot compensate for. To finish my diagnosis, I've so far only used my passive ability to observe Qi flowing through his body, to ensure there's nothing I've missed, I'm going to perform a single active scan. Doing this without permission would be unspeakably rude, somewhere between peeping and sexual assault."
I turn to the man I'm treating fully "Do I have your permission to check your health using my power? I must warn you, if I do this I'll have a clearer understanding of your body than you fathom, though it will assist me in curing your illness."
The man laughs it off with ease "If you think I have any shame left after years of being in and out of hospitals you'd be dead wrong kiddo. I officially permit you to use your mystical peeping on me."
"Please never call it that before it's entered into the database under that name," I say with a grin, even as I send a single pulse of Qi from my coils through his.
Blocked, of course. Filled with the pollution and mortality from breathing in tainted Qi his whole life. Like a sonar, my Qi spreads through his body, giving me an almost perfect understanding of his health you'd be hard-pressed to match with any amount of modern equipment.
I show off just a little, using my Qi to grab the needles from my pouch and pressing in the dozen or so needles I need for his treatment into the man all at the same time. David jolts in surprise but calms down almost immediately since the needles are thin enough not to be overly painful, as long as you're not pressing them into your face at any rate.
"I've inserted the needles because the human body naturally resists foreign Qi to a certain extent. My own Qi is strongly aligned with life, so this is less of a concern for me than it would otherwise be, but even then these needles are made from jade, which conducts Qi better than most. It amplifies the speed and dexterity with which I can manipulate my own Qi into someone else's body. One moment please." I move from needle to needle, grabbing them and twisting them gently, inching them in just the tiniest fraction deeper or shallower, spreading my Qi through his body as I work.
"I am now pushing Qi through the needles into the affected tissue, regenerating the damaged tissue and dissolving the cancerous cells at the same time. Doing this empties my own reserves of energy, the more I need to replace or bolster the more energy it requires. My reservoir of Qi will grow the more I use it and the more time I focus my own Qi on myself." from time to time I send another pulse through David's body, making sure each time to fully remove all of the injected Qi, checking my work and my progress.
"Since mister Murray's life is not in immediate danger, I'm opting to do this slowly. It's gentler on my own energy reserves but most importantly it's less of a shock to the body. I can heal the damage he would incur if I forced things to go faster, but that will take more energy as well."
"It seems that rationing your source of energy is the limiting factor to how much you can heal then?" The doctor asks curiously.
"Very much so. It's a running theme, my entire power could be described like that. I can do a great many things with Qi if I practice at it long enough, but all of it draws from the same pool of energy and when I run out I'm pretty much powerless." I finish up my work, having drained over half of my energy reserves in the process.
"I'm sorry mister Murray." I finally say even as I remove the needles from his chest.
"What? Didn't it work?" The man asks, remarkably calmly all things considered.
"I did my best, but you're still a ginger," I say with a small grin.
"You little shit!" David breaks out laughing, joined by Assault. "I nearly shat myself you brat!"
Clockblocker almost whirs to Panacea, who's studying David and watching as my Qi stitches the man back together. "His cancer?" The boy asks with hope and frustration in his voice in equal measure.
"Gone." Panacea answers him absentmindedly, still mostly focussed on studying the effects my Qi is having on the man's body "Well, not gone, but growing smaller by the second. Its already filtered completely out of his blood and the only remnants are the larger concentrations, but they're all breaking down at the same speed. About twice as fast as what I would have expected if the human body was set to efficiently break down the cancerous cells, I'm trying to see why he's healing faster but I'm not getting anything."
Good, like I expected Panacea has no way of seeing Qi, just it's effects on the body. I'd deliberately prevented her from coming into contact with me, and I'm still not going to, but it's good to get some kind of confirmation at least.
The knowledge that his father was going to be okay seems to have released Clockblocker from his melancholy. He almost imperceptibly straightens and takes off his helmet. Clockblocker is another redhead, with blue eyes and a youthful face set to a near-permanent vulpine grin only slightly marred by the tears streaming down his face. He throws himself into his fathers arms and starts crying, great blubbering heaves as he releases what has to be years of tension and despair. For his sake, the older man just clasps his son to his chest and seems to have no intention of letting go anytime soon.
I turn from the scene to give them some semblance of privacy. Panacea doesn't, she seems weirdly affected by the scene, though it does seem to get rid of most of her sour mood. Didn't Panacea have a whole host of issues with her adopted mother and father? If so I could imagine that seeing the affectionate father-son duo has to be somewhat bittersweet. For a variety of reasons.
"We'll have to run some more tests of course," The doctor says once most of the crying has stopped. "And we're going to have to do another check in a few weeks to see if the healing is permanent, but I see no reason why you two shouldn't be allowed some time to yourselves. After all," Here he turns to me "I heard you had a Brute powerset that we could test for?" sounding disgustingly eager after what has to be hours of repetitively doing the same thing.
Assault consolingly pats me on the shoulder.
Fuck me.
Chapter 5
I can't put into words how grateful I am that testing is over with. For now. Since I need to be re-tested every few months as is usual for parahumans with a growing powerset. Joy. I didn't even get to hear my current power rankings.
It wasn't just the testing itself that got on my nerves, it was the relentless paranoia that bothered me. I can understand testing me for any possible master powers, I get that my story is weird and unusual. I get it. That didn't make their endless tests to try to spot any duplicity any less grating. I know they've been monitoring me, if there weren't any cameras in here I'd eat my shorts and I'd be very surprised if my every word and action wasn't studied by someone.
Cauldron, for being a weirdo with unknown extraterrestrial ties. Piggot, because she hates my guts and hopes to catch me out so she can officially shoot me and get away with it. Any number of thinkers, to see if I really was someone with powers on a completely different paradigm from any other parahuman like I'd claimed. If I was them, I'd have bugged everything. I simply assumed I was under 24/7 observation and acted under that assumption.
It's not as if they're going to learn anything useful from what I'm doing. It's not as if my specific method of throwing a high kick is going to shock their view of the world, most of the interesting stuff looks a lot like normal meditation from their point of view. Other than that, I do a lot of martial arts, I vomit a lot of disgusting stuff after performing medical operations on myself which causes me to lose a ton of weight, and then I eat that weight back on in a single day. That's the absolute maximum amount of useful information they can possibly have gathered so far.
I'm currently in my Lab, meditating on the things that I learned from this round of tests. Most of it involved sparring with Assault, after a mercifully brief series of test that got a rough gauge of my physical stats. Nothing stood out to me as being particularly impressive, I'm just slightly over the upper limit of human capability across the board. Slightly stronger, slightly faster, slightly more agile and even slightly faster cognitively. Every test I'd performed I'd refrained from boosting myself with Qi to get the real baseline of my body, which was harder than I'd expected. Qi wanted to keep flowing in a given pattern once it started, and suddenly stopping the flow to a limb while also using that limb for anything took a conscious effort on my part.
No, none of the physical tests surprised me, I'm still working on getting my body up to where it should be, but even then my cleansed body is better than a normal man's. Just not enough to matter worth a damn.
Assault destroyed me. Seemingly without even trying. Joking around and generally acting like a clown even while casually slapping me around the ring with very little effort on his part.
Without the use of Ethan's power, I could probably beat him since I'm physically superior and more skilled in pure martial arts even if he does have far more practical experience. But the moment Assault stopped joking around and used his power in any way I lost and I lost hard, fighting someone who can redistribute kinetic forces in hand to hand was the pits.
I knew it would take time, I knew it would take years and years of hard work to 'git gud' but it was honestly still pretty discouraging to be kicked around a ring with no real possibility of fighting back like a damned beanbag.
Cultivators grow stronger over time, I am barely a cultivator at all, just a mortal man who could use a little bit of Qi. I knew that, I expected that. Yet I discovered something important about myself today.
I'm proud, and I hate losing with a passion I've not experienced in either lifetime. I want to be stronger. Unless I've got some measure of personal power, I can only rely on the grace of others to ensure my own survival, and I hate it. I hate relying on others with an intensity that scares me.
I look at the three buckets filled with unmentionable filth I slapped a lid on to prevent myself from gagging at the smell. Even then the mere presence of the stuff made my skin roil as I could detect my very spirit flinching away from the stuff subconsciously. The stuff doesn't have a proper or official name I'd been able to find so far. Most texts simply referred to it as either filth, corruption or mortality, and used those three terms interchangeably. My medical knowledge went a little more in-depth and considered it some kind of antithesis to immortal Qi. It was concentrated mortality, utterly corrupted and completely inimical to me spiritually, physically and mentally.
It's the largest concentration of Qi utterly antithetical to me in the world, there's nothing that could be made from it that won't be utterly, viciously poisonous to me. But I knew how to poison myself with it in a way that would benefit me in the long run. It wouldn't increase my Qi any, it couldn't, but pure power isn't everything, not to a cultivator.
But I'd need to make a proper Qi cauldron to make a pill out of it, and to use a Qi cauldron I'd need to have at least a basis of Cultivation to power the whole process.
I'd have to take things step by step, no matter how badly I wanted to rush to the end and just get my power already, the more time I spent on making a firm foundation the better off I'd be in the long run.
So, the first step is to start cultivating the Tenfold wheel. I'd gone over the basics several times now, mostly reading it when I was too wrung out to keep practising. The first step required a large source of Qi, the denser the better.
My Qi engine had been running non-stop ever since I'd finished restoring my meridians. As a matter of fact, it couldn't be stopped to the best of my knowledge. At least not without destroying the whole thing, something that grew harder and harder the longer it was kept running. With nothing draining the Qi away it had slowly reached the point where it was starting to condense into a thin, wispy mist in the room I kept the engine in.
I sat down in the centre of that room, breathing in the Qi laden air and prepared myself mentally as best as I could, pushing away any distracting thoughts and focussing myself completely on the present, getting ready for the first step. Going over one last mental review of the technique I'd chosen and it's properties.
The tenfold wheel was based around splitting your dantian into several smaller and weaker cores that were then balanced and attuned to different elements to make a formation of cores that were greater than the sum of their parts. It's greatest strengths were the incredible flexibility of having access to all the elements in equal measure and the customizability as several cores could be attuned to specific non-traditional elements to produce a variety of effects. It's weakness lay in the fact that ten cores required many times the usual amount of resources and time to push them to the next level, though the synergy between the cores thankfully meant I didn't require a flat tenfold increase.
It was almost certainly not the ideal Qi cultivation technique for someone alone with no real resources to speak of, but I had no-one fighting me for the resources this planet did have either.
Currently, my dantian only had the natural Qi my body generated in it. A small, weak amount of nature aligned qi. I breathed in the dense Qi surrounding me, the unaspected Qi easily converting into more nature Qi. I directed the Qi towards my dantian, filling it until it could hold no more.
I took another deep breath, and then before I could doubt myself or put it off any further, I split my dantian into two equal halves, hammering a spike of Qi from my meridians into my core to split it down the middle.
I screamed then, the Qi was more than just a lump of metaphysical space. It was intimately tied to the spirit, the very soul of a creature. Damaging it deliberately like I was doing felt a lot like willingly ripping off your finger, it hurt like the devil and damaged the spirit in the process.
Spiritual pain wasn't necessarily worse than physical pain. But it was different, completely other than anything I might have gotten used to, there also weren't any useful chemicals swimming in my brain that could blunt the effects. It hurt, and that hurt was unfettered by anything. The only way to mitigate it was to grit your teeth and bear it with sheer willpower, and I don't think I possess the supernatural levels of will most cultivators end up acquiring over time. I had better hurry, carefully.
I hastily breathed in the Qi in the air around me, sending a torrent of Qi towards my shattered dantian, using almost a hundred times more Qi than my body could hold to repair the jagged edges on both of my new dantian. There was no time to relax, no time to take a breath and gather myself for what I had to do next.
Flexing the Qi in my second dantian in a very specific fashion, the Qi inside that dantian slowly changed, turning from pure nature Qi into more and more fire aspected qi, until the delicate balance between the types of energy was disturbed and the whole dantian simply ignited.
Wood feeds Fire.
The nature qi of my first dantian fed into the fire, growing from a small, newly kindled spark to a roaring bonfire with worrying speed. Two dantian could not be balanced, if left alone that fire would grow until it consumed me or the fire dantian sucked all the Qi out of my first dantian, dying when itself with nothing to feed it.
So I split my fiery dantian into two halves again. More qi rushed into my body, repairing the two split halves until I had three dantian, one aligned with nature, and the next two in the loop of fire. That made the imbalance worse, so I had to keep going, compressing the third dantian, shifting it's nature until once again it crossed over the stable equilibrium, collapsing into a heavy, dense, earth aspected Qi.
Fire makes Earth.
My nature dantian flowed into the fire dantian, the fire dantian flowed into the earth dantian, which was growing at an alarming rate as it was the end of a chain of two dantian fueling Qi into it. Three dantian could not be balanced, I was now using up the Qi in the air around me at a noticeable rate, I just hoped there would be enough to finish the process. If I stopped now I'd hurt myself, badly.
I split the earth Qi dantian in half. I grit my teeth and could taste copper in my mouth. It didn't grow any better the more times I did it, every time hurt just as badly as the first time. More, since I didn't have the time or focus to heal properly, compounding the spiritual harm I was inflicting on myself.
Another cycle, drawing ever more Qi into myself to keep the unstable balance intact, while sending a portion of that energy to fix the damaged cores. Just one more time, the end is in sight.
This is the critical point, the imbalance between four cores is the worst, as bad as a dantian can be, it's only sustained by the torrential surge of Qi I am desperately absorbing.
I rush it now, pushing the second Earth core to evolve as fast as I dare.
Earth creates Metal.
One last time, once more and then I'm done mutilating my soul for power. For now at least.
Like before, the Metal Qi is at the end of a chain of four dantian, all that power flowing into the newly formed core like a tidal wave. It balloons in size, and I desperately clamp down on it with all of my will. If it shatters I'm not sure if I have enough Qi or presence of mind to split that earth core once more.
I wrench the metal core into two halves, and for one long moment, the whole process wobbles precariously. Teetering on the brink of collapse as the pain almost robs me of my senses.
Finally, Metal gathers Water.
Five cores. Wood feeds Fire. Fire makes Earth. Earth creates Metal. Metal collects Water and Water nourishes Wood. A flawless, perfectly balanced cycle, growing in strength as it follows the cycle of creation.
Then I take another shuddering, gasping breath meant to refill my reserves, and only then realize that the Qi in the room has been sucked bone dry. I flounder, gathering the qi now distributed across all five of my dantian and rushing to repair the damage to the last of my split cores.
I seal the last of the leaks in my new cores before I run dry of energy. I then take some time to mentally observe the flawless spiral of energy, each core produces it's own elementally aligned energy, sending it to the next core in the cycle, growing in strength and purity as it does so. They're somewhat smaller than the lone core I started with, but I can strengthen and grow them to a proper size later.
It's flawless, but it's still not stable. The cycle only goes one way, strengthening without end until it grows past what my body and meridians can handle without rupturing. If I left it as it is, I would grow very powerful, very quickly. And then I would explode.
So I grow five more connections, changing the pentagon formation of my cores and adding one more link to each core. A destructive cycle to balance out the creative one already there. Yin to balance Yang.
Wood breaks the Earth. Earth absorbs Water. Water extinguishes Fire. Fire melts Metal. Metal splits Wood.
The last connection snaps into place, and the whole system settles into the most stable pattern possible. A flawless foundation of all five elements that can strengthen or limit each aspect of itself as I see fit. Already the excesses of energy from each core are slowly brought under control by an infusion of their opposing element.
Now I've made something to be proud of. I've taken my first step as a proper cultivator without faltering, laying the foundation of everything that comes next.
The things that come next can fucking wait their turn. I think to myself as I pass out.
"Holy shit!" I hear someone shout uncomfortably loudly, disturbing my peaceful rest. I really, really need to get some rest that isn't just being unconscious one of these days.
For all that I slept on the metal floor after collapsing unconscious from once again pushing myself probably a little bit faster than was truly wise. I feel amazing. My dantian is sore, my meridians ache from channelling so much Qi for so long and I'm probably only good to use minimal Qi until some of that strain is fixed.
But fuck the discomfort, I'm officially a cultivator baby!
I kip-up effortlessly, marvelling at how strong my body has gotten now that I have a steady supply of Qi to draw from my cores, passively strengthening my body past its former limits. I look around to see who's barged into my lab. Clockblocker seems to have dropped by, god only knows why the young man is allowed into a Tinker lab unsupervised. He's not wearing his mask on top of that, what if I'd been working on something caustic or toxic? I should find a way to lock the door, there is no danger now but he had no way of knowing that.
"Hello, is there anything I could help you with?" I ask, curious as to what he's doing here. He doesn't immediately answer, staring down at me with shock clear on his uncovered face. I look down to see what he's looking at.
I'm covered in a thin layer of oily grease, flecked with the occasional concentration of foul-smelling black filth. There's quite a lot of blood on my chest, I follow the trail of blood up to my chest with my fingers until I eventually arrive at my face. I find a rather substantial amount of blood on my chin and some coagulating on my upper lip. Ah right, I vaguely remember tasting blood while I was splitting my cores.
I should also probably put on some pants.
"Ah. Right. Gimme a minute." I calmly walk out of the room. There's a small shower in the main room of the lab, it's probably meant for disinfection but I've just been using it as a rather tepid shower. I quickly rinse all of the filth off of my body, there's no point in collecting these smaller amounts of corruption, I've got more than I need for what I have planned. I finish my brief shower before going off to look for a set of pants. Digging my only non-ruined pair out of my pack, I make a mental note to either go out and purchase a few more sets of clothing or get to work on manufacturing my own before I'm reducing to wearing hospital gowns again.
"Dude, are you okay?" Clockblocker asks the moment I return after freshening up a little.
"Mhhh? Oh sure, just a little bit of blood, nothing to worry about." I answer, not really seeing what the big deal is. Sure my body suffered some damage, but that was just a part of cultivating, I could heal it easily, nothing to get upset or concerned about. "You're Clockblocker right? We didn't really talk during the testing."
"Yeah, sorry about that. I was kind of focussed on other stuff." He says sheepishly "I was going to invite you to meet the rest of the wards now that you've had your powers tested, I offered to come to get you since I'm the only ward you'd already met. I wasn't expecting to find you passed out and covered in blood. Are you sure you're okay dude? I thought you were straight-up dead." He sounds worried about me. It seems that I have made a friend. Or at least earned someone's gratitude.
"Don't worry about me, Clock. My healing ability is pretty thorough and works on myself, if I get hurt I can just heal myself." I try to reassure teen hero, but it seems to have had the opposite effect I was intending.
"Protip, don't put it like that unless you enjoy meeting with the PRT's rotating staff of soul-sucking therapists. Anything that even remotely smacks of self-harm is not treated as a joke. Trust me on that one." He says as he starts to lead me towards what I assume are the rest of the wards.
"I'm sensing a story there," I ask curiously partially to keep the conversation going but mostly because the more Clockblocker talks the easier he finds it to slip a smile back on his face, he looks a lot more natural with one.
"Not a very epic one. I tried hamming up a bit too much during one of my jokes only to find out a bit too late that Miss Piggy was standing right behind me, listening to the whole thing. Aaand that's the reason I once had to spend an entire month convincing various PRT shills that I'm not suicidal. I eventually just claimed I was acting out since I was in the closet, then laughed at them trying to handle the whole thing sensitively. The youth guard means well, but they're probably secretly led by the devil."
"A bit harsh as a joke." I point out
"Ugh, yeah. That joke got me a couple of extra-long session of sensitivity training, again." He looks over my way, curiosity plain on his face. "So I've got to ask, how did you get out from having to go to school? Officially you've been placed in the wards but they haven't even introduced you to the public or even the other heroes, what's up with that?"
"There's a weird bit of debate over my actual age. I told them I'd rather go rogue than go to school, so they're now demanding a GED as a compromise. I'd have preferred not to be put on the youth squad, but I've got no idea how they're going to handle the whole situation everything considered."
"How can they debate over your age? Unless we're talking time travel shenanigans?" He suddenly looks very interested indeed.
"I've got three possible ages depending on how you look at things, I've had a weird time since I got powers." I try to explain.
"Well, if you wait just a minute you only need to tell us all about it once, we're almost there." He's right too, not ten seconds later we arrive at what I'm told is the Wards common room. It's almost at the opposite of the rig, I have no idea why they place the labs so far away from the wards.
The labs, where tinkers build unstable, dangerous super weapons before they're certified.
Never mind, I figured it out.
The door eventually opens after a long delay, showing a relatively small room filled with teenagers. I recognize Sophia Hess in full costume lurking in the corner. The tiny girl is Vista, and I've got no idea who the others are in all honesty.
"Behold!" Clockblocker instantly announces the moment the door opens "I have dragged the unknown Cryptid from his Dark Lair into the Light, so we can Gawk and Stare at the unknown Man of Mystery. I bring you, Apex!" I can hear every capitalization in that speech, it's uncanny.
"Two out of ten." Vista immediately shoots back "You went from cryptid to man of mystery and only part of the speech was alliterated."
Clockblocker adopts a posture of utter defeat even as we're bustled into the room by the others. He perks up after he's gotten a small laugh from some of the teens present, and starts pointing out everyone.
"So! We have out fearless leader, Triumph, who will only be our fearless leader for another few months before he'll be replaced." He points out a man who has an actual lion-headed costume. I'm somewhat surprised Clock didn't go with a Wizard of Oz joke there. "He is flanked by our most veteran member, Vista." He swings out his arm, holds it for a moment before angling it down at the cute, tiny girl who seems to be successfully staring down the older boy, daring him to say anything about her weapons-grade adorable. Proving himself wiser than I'd have expected, he carries on with his introductions without further comment.
"We've got Aegis, who's the next oldest after Triumph. He's a fearless leader chrysalis. If given enough nutrients and time he will one day grow up to be the next incarnation of fearless leader." He fakes a cough, quickly mutters 'and do all of our paperwork!' before faking a second cough.
The long-haired Latino youth gives me a long-suffering look. Before flashing me a quick smile when Clock isn't looking and giving me a friendly wave.
"Next we have the brave Gallant knight… Gallant." He finishes a little lamely, to the immediate booing of Vista. The youth clad in futuristic armour with a clear knightly influence is the last remaining member of the wards with his helmet off. He's giving me a strange look, almost as if he's trying to see through me somehow. "He's flanked by the lovely Miss Dallon. Though I have no idea why she's here," he mumbles half beneath his breath.
Victoria Dallon, Glory girl, Alexandria junior.
She's beautiful in that natural girl-next-door way, with an easy smile and the arrogance that comes from a lifetime of having people bow to her wishes and having everything go her way. I can feel a small tug on my mind as her aura washes over me, but to my surprise, nothing more. It's more grating and annoying than awe-inspiring.
… Did I have some kind of mental resistance going? Does her aura just not work on cultivators? Or is she doing a better job of controlling it than I'd expected?
Clockblocker seems to be counting on his fingers, mumbling beneath his voice in a way that carries through the room. "Vista, Gallant, Aegis, Triumph, Glory girl, me… I'm forgetting something."
He pauses for another moment "Oh. right. I guess Shadow Stalker is here too."
The girl skulking in the corner had been giving Clockblocker the finger since he started counting. I clasp my hands together and giver her a small bow, before straightening and giving Vista one as well. "Thank you." I say, putting as much sincerity into my voice as I could "If you two hadn't saved me I would have died. If there is ever anything I can do to help you, don't hesitate to ask."
Shadow stalker seems surprised, but Vista doesn't hesitate for a second "You could start by taking off your shirt."
"Vista!" Gallant instantly turns to her, sounding genuinely shocked.
I meet her challenging look even as I grab the bottom of my t-shirt and quirk an eyebrow back at the girl.
"Apex was just about to explain how he has three different ages!" Clockblocker interrupts the moment.
Just for that, I'm going to have to send her a shirtless selfie.
"It's a bit of a story," I say, rubbing the back of my head awkwardly. "So I've lived for thirty-four years, right?"
"You're thirty-four?" Victoria squawks out.
" Physically I'm sixteen." I continue on, ignoring the girl for now "but in the process of dying, being de-aged and getting kicked into another dimension I've effectively been socially lobotomized. All my memories of anyone I felt strongly about, good or bad, are simply gone."
Heh. I'm getting a lot of shocked looks, everyone is gaping at me much like Armsmaster was when I first told him. Except for Gallant, who's still looking at me with a look I can't decipher.
It'd help if I remembered what his power was. And probably even more if I didn't remember reading a lot of porn featuring his girlfriend.
I laugh as I settle into their couch, preparing myself to explain the whole story to my new teammates.
"This afternoon, your lessons are going to cover public relations, pitfalls of the superhero lifestyle and things to pay special attention to." My teacher of the day is telling me, starting up the next PowerPoint presentation, the fifth of the day.
I just smiled at the insufferable man, cycling my Qi as I focussed more on my breathing than the man who drew the short straw and had to teach the newbie the does and dont's.
"On the list of things to be careful of, are a certain awareness that we are always in the public eye, meaning you are expected to act as if you were in a professional setting at all times." The man gives me a gimlet stare.
Breath in, breath out. I keep smiling gormlessly at the man, who audibly grinds his teeth.
"Assume that you are under observation and that your actions will reflect on the PRT, good or bad. Try not to make any inflammatory statements and if at all possible follow the PRT's guidelines when posting any information online."
The man clicks to the next slide, showing…
Is that PHO? It is! Wait a damn second, that's a thread on me, how the hell? I haven't even left the damn Rig since I got here! It's got my name and everything.
"We are trying to condense a great many lessons in a short amount of time since your existence has been leaked to the world at large, and for whatever reason, you have garnered a great amount of attention in a very short amount of time."
I take a small sip of water from the glass in front of me, still smiling at the man simply because I know it pisses him off. I've been getting the distinct impression that the PRT assigned teachers have been ordered by Piggot to be as obtrusive as possible.
He clicks to the next slide, causing me to damn near choke on my drink. It's not the title that grabs my attention so.
[New Ward!] Apex! Newest member of the Brockton Bay's wards.
It's the first post of my thread. It features a picture of me. A picture of me shirtless, from the neck down, snapping a picture of myself.
There's a small subscript beneath the picture.
Don't worry, he's legal!
The man gives me a grin of utmost schadenfreude, while somehow still managing to look extremely upset at my behaviour. "Now, on things we would advise you to be careful of, is being careful of who you send pictures too." The man visibly gloats "especially when those people are underage themselves."
I have to smother a very inappropriate laugh. Vista, you bitch, why?
Chapter 6
Of all the people I expected would give me shit over the whole Vista situation, Miss Militia would have been at the top of my list, so when she showed up that morning at the crack of dawn I expected the worst.
"Good morning, we haven't been introduced yet. I'm Miss Militia, are you still going by… what the hell is that!?"
"Good morning," I looked up from the thermos sized glass jar I had was studying. "And no, I go by Apex. I'm still trying out normal names but haven't found one I like yet."
She gave me a supremely unimpressed look. "That's not what I meant and you know it."
I chuckle a little and hold up the glass jar, showing her the small golden thing inside. "It's a celestial dragon, as opposed to an earth dragon." Or, an eastern style dragon instead of a western one. I shake the jar, causing the irate animal within to buzz from location to location faster than the eye could see "It's made from lightning."
"Astonishing, what a beautiful creature. Is it a part of your power?" She asks, studying the jar with renewed interest.
"Not yet. After testing yesterday I finally achieved a level of Qi sufficient to start using the ring I'd been given." I hold up my hand so she can see the black band, separated into three equal pieces with a thin golden band. "It's a storage ring, which is what I'd hoped it was. There are three equally large storage compartments in it, two of them were empty but the third had this thing in it. Also, despite how it looks it's neither alive nor an actual creature, it's a form of energy that just prefers to take animal form."
"I'm sorry, what do you mean by a storage ring?" She asks politely, looking over the admittedly beautiful ring, before going back to studying the little piece of living lightning.
"Oh, right. You don't have any of those. A storage ring is a small piece of folded space locked to an item, usually a ring, though they come in all shapes and sizes. Bracelets, gourds, pouches and necklaces are all pretty common, though they're most often rings since the size of the artefact has no relationship with the size of the folded space they come with. They're sort of like mobile storage lockers, or vaults."
I focus on my qi, touching a thin strand of it to the ring. The twisted space bound to the ring reaches out and under the direction of my will swallows the jar back into its dimensional space. From her perspective, my hand is simply suddenly empty, like a magic trick.
"Now unless I die and someone forcibly binds this ring to themselves, the only one who can take the stored items back out is me." God only knows if this ring can be bound by anyone other than myself, literally. I demonstrate it on a few more small loose items to show her it was not a fluke and I don't need to be touching the items in question.
She gives me a queer look, surprised, upset? It's surprisingly hard to tell with the lower half of her face covered "And you can use it on anything? What are the limitations?"
"Sure, anything that fits. For a divine artefact the storage space is surprisingly small, maybe a steamer trunk of volume each? The actual limitations vary from artefact to artefact, and I simply don't know what the rules for this ring are yet, I need to experiment with it a bit, see if time flows inside of them for instance. Commonly, nothing living can fit into the rings, though there are exceptions. What's with the look?" I ask bluntly. I don't like dancing around issues if I don't need to, best to just get things in the open and talk about it.
"Sorry, it's just that… your ring alone gives you a flexible and highly useful power that you could base a cape persona around, that is on top of the wide range of secondary powers you claim you can develop over time. I'm a bit jealous, and a little concerned," Well, that's a more honest answer than I expected.
"I didn't call my power effectively an entire tech tree you simply haven't discovered yet on a whim. It's no more outlandish than the ability to take a picture and send it across the world in a second flat, but you carry a device capable of doing exactly that and a thousand other things. A device small enough to fit in your pocket." I hold up the PRT issued phone I'd been given, giving it a single shake before sliding it back into my pocket.
She studies me for a moment before her face softens a bit. I hadn't even noticed how tense she'd been until she relaxed that tiny bit. "Life in your world must have been very different." She eventually settles on.
I haven't come right out and said it, but I've been letting everyone conclude that I was from a world where cultivation was commonplace. Miss Militia seems to have drawn a certain conclusion from that, though I don't know her well enough to reason out what that conclusion is.
"In many ways, people are still the same in either world." I reason out slowly, trying to be as honest as I can be "Taking into account that I've got gaping holes in my memory? Yes, our worlds are very different, from basic laws to your morals and values."
"Is that why you've locked yourself away in this lab? We had a welcome planned for you, you know? You've never even visited your quarters since you got here. I don't need sleep, I've checked from time to time but you've not slept there, not even once."
I give her the blankest stare I can manage "I have quarters here?" This is complete news to me.
She looks up at that, visibly startled "You joined the team and you had nowhere else to go, of course you have quarters here! Didn't Armsmaster explain any of this to you?"
"Armsmaster showed me to the Labs," I defend the man, thinking I owe him that at least. "Then he had a ton of ideas from helping me make my first piece of Kit and he left to go work on those, I haven't seen him since."
Uh oh. I think I might have just gotten Armsmaster in trouble going by that look on Miss Militia's pretty face. "That man!" she pauses as she visibly realizes something unpleasant. "Where have you been sleeping then? Do you need to sleep at all?"
"I can burn my inner energy in place of sleep," I explain to ease her worries. "I do need to sleep from time to time to prevent myself from burning out so I usually just rested where I collapsed while working." I shrug, one of the perks of having an all-round tougher body is that I can sleep on a metal floor and wake up feeling perfectly refreshed. Waking up feeling like shit because I slept weird is officially a thing of the past.
This does not seem to be the answer she was looking for, going by her facepalm "Oh gods. Right, that's it. Come on, I'm going to show you where you should have been staying." She grabs me by the arm with a surprisingly firm grip and physically drags me out of the labs.
I knew I had holes in my memory, but had filling those with knowledge from Xianxia worlds distorted my values? Maybe a little, judging by how upset Miss Militia seems to be about something that's really no big deal. Since she seems to be upset on my behalf, I'll just chalk it up as a win and follow along with the beautiful woman dragging me to my bed.
Miss Militia is a far better tour guide than Armsmaster, I admit to myself. She showed me all of the facilities available to me as a new member of the Wards. So far I'd only been to my labs, the gym where I'd been tested, the mess and the Wards area.
Almost a full quarter of the Rig was taken up with living spaces for the Protectorate's local heroes. I had a small room with basic furniture that Miss militia assured me I was allowed to personalize however I wanted. It was located almost directly next to the Wards area, straddling the area between where the wards had their own space and the more mature heroes lived.
Miss Militia was patient, perfectly willing to explain anything I didn't understand and she swayed her hips back and forth as she walked which I could have watched happily for hours. No, I might be grateful to the man but Miss Militia was an upgrade to Armsmaster in all aspects when it came to being a guide or eye candy.
I also got to meet all the other heroes. None of them was wearing their full masks since the rig was where they relaxed and let their guards down. As such, I was introduced to the remaining heroes I hadn't met yet and mostly learned their civilian names.
I'd met Ethan before who was standing alongside Battery, who I learned was both his wife and named Leah in her civilian identity, though she informed me somewhat cooly that she'd prefer battery. I had no idea what I'd done to offend her, but she seemed the least pleased to meet me of all the hero's I'd encountered so far, including Shadow Stalker.
Fair enough.
The rest of the heroes were a lot more welcoming, doubly so once Miss Militia covertly took each of them aside and had some quiet words with them. From what I could overhear she was explaining that I hadn't intended to snub them, it was just that Armsmaster was an idiot. Which was nice of her. Hilariously, not one of them needed more explanation than that.
I met Velocity, who seemed every ounce as energetic as you'd expect from a speedster. He introduced himself as Robin Swoyer. He was the second cape I'd seen in Brockton Bay with a predominantly red suit, though unlike Assault's his was covered in racing stripes, terminating in a V shape on his chest. He seemed pleased to meet me, or generally just pleased to be here at any rate. He seemed like another easy going guy, though I could tell he was a military man or had been at some point.
The last member of the local capes I hadn't met yet was Dauntless, who was wearing most of his costume reminding me somewhat of a gladiators outfit. He was fiddling with his shield and spear and honestly didn't seem very interested in meeting or talking with me, he gruffly introduced himself as Shawn and that was pretty much the extent of our interaction. He also differed the most from what I'd been expecting physically, he had the physique of an athlete but, well… Let's just say I understand why he'd gone with a full face covering helmet. When he didn't bother with his superhero voice he both looked and sounded like a redneck, which was pretty fun.
I sat down with the group and tried my hardest to get to know the people I would hopefully be fighting alongside for the foreseeable future. There's no reason not to be friendly, I'm still not fully convinced I'm going to be staying with the PRT and Protectorate long term, but for now, I'm going to be working with these people. The better these people think of me, the fewer issues they're likely to cause me in the future.
Besides, I didn't start a new life just to be dragged down by petty rivalries.
"If this guy makes one more comment about how flawless my skin is, I'm going to assume he stopped measuring me for a suit and is now measuring how best to make a suit out of me. Surely at that point, I'll be legally allowed to kick this guy through a wall?" I ask Miss Militia, who'd come along when a PRT stooge came to collect me for my costume fitting. She seemed determined to be friendly as if she was making up for lost time.
I'd then been introduced to the head of the costume department, who'd been flown in from out of the state to work on the design of my new costume. His name was Pierre and he was almost offensively, stereotypically camp. There was a limit to how blatantly and how long you could stare at someone before it stopped being flattering and started being mildly offensive and Pierre crossed that line somewhere in the first ten minutes of meeting him. Now, standing on a small raised dais wearing nothing but my boxers for over two hours, I was pretty done with the guy.
"Come on, he's not that bad." Miss Militia defends him half-heartedly "I didn't think you'd be body-conscious given how quick you are to strip down." Her gaze sweeps down my mostly undressed form once, so quickly I nearly miss it. I have to admit I appreciate her Oggling a lot more than Pierre's. She might complain, but she hadn't left when I stripped down either. A fact I'm growing more and more thankful for since this is how Pierre acted while he was observed.
I didn't expect anything to come from it any more than I expected it from Vista, for almost the opposite reason. I had no idea what my lower limit was as far as starting a relationship went, but eleven was definitely too young, conversely Hannah wasn't too old for me, but the fact that I was physically sixteen would be an issue. More for her than for me, I thought. It's not as if a decade difference in age will matter a ton when I plan to live forever after all.
"Just because I've got a well-developed sense of self-respect doesn't make this any less sexual harassment." I counter, folding my arms over my muscled chest. I'd been stocky enough before this, but a week of almost uninterrupted exercise and a body cleansing that improved me at a fundamental level meant I looked a lot better nowadays. I hadn't exactly been body conscious before that, now? I'd probably be fine with going out in body paint for all I cared.
I wasn't going to mention that anywhere near Pierre though. I wouldn't get much use out of armour once I started cultivating my body properly, but until then I'd prefer a solid layer of Kevlar between any threats and myself thank you.
"Not everyone he gets to work with has a body that fits the civilian ideal of a superhero. He's just happy he doesn't have to do any extra work to make you look good."
I dubiously looked at her, then at Pierre who was occasionally sending me lovestruck eyes from behind a canvas even though he sent his designs off to the people who did the actual work on them almost an hour ago. Thankfully, Pierre's team comes to my rescue, wheeling in three mannequins each covered in a costume with wildly differing designs.
The first costume lands somewhere between Conan and the Dragonborn. The underlayer is some kind of high tech gunmetal grey material I don't recognize, but the covering is leather scale mail that wouldn't look out of place in the middle ages. The costume leaves my upper arms and legs bare, with the greaves and bracers lined with a layer of fur. The helmet is vaguely Norse in design and even comes with period inappropriate horns, covering all of my head except my mouth and chin.
The second costume looks like someone googled 'cultivator clothes' and just picked the first design they landed on. The pants are loose-fitting and look to be designed to offer the widest possible range of motion, which is pretty important for most of my martial arts but the upper portion I can only describe as a robe. They're robes designed for a man, but they're still calf-length robes that look straight out of a wuxia. The mannequin has no mask aside from a bog-standard domino mask.
The third design is almost… bland. It's a suit heavily Chinese in design. Black pants, white shirt with a black knotted set of buttons on the front. It's the one that least looks like an actual costume and it's almost aggressively inoffensive. It's less like a costume and more just vaguely Asian clothes. The mask is the most elaborate out of the three by far, it's a red and orange foo dog. It's the one that covers my face the most, but I'm going to get shit from the ABB for certain since it kind of looks like Oni Lee's mask in design.
"Now, none of these designs are final," Pierre says as he bounces from behind his easel to look at the costumes on display "They're going to have to be run through the in house PR team before we're sending you out in any of them. Sometimes PR wants us to go with a certain theme or there are cultural or religious issues with aspects of what I came up with." He shrugs as if it's none of his business. "All three have at least a lining of a tinker derived material that is fully capable of deflecting most calibre bullets you are likely to face in the field, do you have a preference so far?"
I know for a fact that he's full of shit, there's no such thing as bulletproof, just bullet resistant. In a world where amoral assholes can just buy tinker made weaponry, I'm certainly not going to assume that I'm safe with just the armour they intended to use against small arms fire. As for preference?
The first design is out, I don't care that the whole Norse thing will likely piss off the local Nazis and Hookwolf especially, I'm just not much of a fan of the whole medieval mercenary aesthetic. It also paints me as a warrior more than a healer, and that's not the attention I want or need right now.
Now, both the other costumes are likely to piss off the ABB, seeing a big blonde westerner dress in Asian clothes? They're going to get pissy for sure but since they tried to kill me and I murdered one of their members already, I think that ship has sailed. So fuck em.
The second costume is most like what I'd expect a cultivator to wear. They're kind of stylish but I'm going to seriously have to get used to wearing a long robe. Cultural insensitivity aside, I don't have anything against the costume, it covers me from heel to toe and shouldn't really constrict my movement at all.
The third costume? The fantastic mask is it's only redeeming feature, I'd like for people to immediately realize that I'm a cape, it'll save time during any confrontation whether that is with the local police or the criminal element. Also, I'm reasonably certain those shoes have no business being on anyone that doesn't work in the circus.
Before I can finish my choice, an alarm starts sounding throughout the building, a weaker echo coming from my phone as well as from Miss Militia. Pierre freezes and I can hear the sharply indrawn breath coming from Hannah. I look at her, confusion plain on my face.
"That's the Endbringer alarm," She explains curtly, suddenly all business. "There's no expectation for you to come along, you haven't had any real training and it's madness to make your debut during an Endbringer fight."
Right, nuts to that.
I yank the second costume from the mannequin and start pulling it on as fast as I can, Pierre drops the camp persona as he quietly and professionally helps me put on the elaborate costume in less than a minute flat. It's thankfully been made with ease of use in mind so despite the seemingly complex build of the robe it's fairly simple to figure out.
On a whim, I pull the mask from the third mannequin and settle it on my face. Pierre's face is disapproving but he says nothing about me mixing the two costumes. Hannah is waiting impatiently, all hints of teasing or fun wiped from her face, leaving her looking wan and stressed.
"Pierre, thank you for your time, Apex, follow me." Yikes, I guess fun time Hannah takes the backseat to military Miss Militia when she's worried. I may be a fool, but I'm not an idiot. I follow her without further comment.
"Do we know which Endbringer we're dealing with?" I ask on the way there. Miss Militia was busy switching through screens on her PRT issued phone. I can use most of the normal phone functions, but there's no way I can look it up nearly that fast.
"It's confirmed to be the Simurgh, the location is uncertain but it's been confirmed to be in the continental USA," she says worriedly "Last chance to back out, no-one will think less of you for sitting this one out, the Simurgh is widely accepted to be the worst of the three."
"I'm not great at sitting by when people are in trouble, I'm not up to punching Kaiju, but I can make a difference as a healer for now."
Miss Militia simply nods her acceptance, not saying another word as she guides me towards some kind of mustering area at the top of the Rig. Most of the protectorate members are present, Assault and Battery are standing a ways off, checking each other's costumes with a few more lingering touches than is probably entirely appropriate in public.
Dauntless is there, looking completely badass with his energy shield and spear. Thankfully he's wearing his helmet which allows me to take him seriously at least a little.
Velocity is performing stretches, what I can see of his face is chalk white, but he's still here.
Armsmaster is the last to arrive, jogging up to the rest decked out with his full gear, a high tech halberd held loosely in one grip, the shaft of the weapon looks completely overhauled from the last time I've seen it. He has no time for conversation, he just gives us a small nod and starts his own preparations.
Eventually, all our phones give the same Ping as we all get an emergency message at the same time. The final target has been confirmed. The Simurgh is attacking Madison, the capital of Wisconsin.
While we're waiting, a few more local heroes trickle in to be transported as well. The only heroes I recognize are the members of New Wave coming along. They've brought all their fliers and Panacea. I make a mental note to stick close to the girl, there's no doubt she's going to the healing area and that's probably where I can do the most good.
As everyone awaits the teleporter I'm told will bring us to the fight, I can't help but wonder.
Wasn't the Simurgh supposed to attack Canberra next?
Madison is fucked up.
It's a pretty sizeable city, but the white bitch floating above it seems dead set on ruining the place. I can see various smaller figures flirt around her and energy of every description is being launched at her from the ground, most of the attacks are intercepted by the hurricane of debris surrounding the Simurgh in an amazing display of telekinetic power. Despite all of that it's the golden man fighting the Simurgh that draws all of my attention rather than Ziz herself.
Hello Zion, you're looking remarkably on the side of good today. Best keep my head down since you've been looking for someone who can do what I can for longer than humanity has been a thing.
I'm pretty happy I'm not going out there to fight. I have maybe a week of preparation on my side, I don't have any talismans or movement techniques and I haven't even finished setting up the full ten cores my cultivation technique relies on. I wouldn't even be a speedbump to the Simurgh, let alone her creator.
No, I'm not going to involve myself in that monster mash. Not until I'm good and ready. I follow Panacea to the healing tents only to be shocked at what I find.
With the addition of myself and panacea, we just doubled the available number of healers present at this thing. The only other capes present are a big man with a full beard in a costume that looks like a whole bunch of kegs together, and a guy dressed like a goatherd with a goat mask. The kegger looking man is pouring a truly ridiculous amount of liquid down the throat of some of the critically injured people present, while the goat looking man is treating the less seriously hurt capes brought in and filling the tent.
Awful, sloppy, inefficient. I can see a dozen people just waiting their turn, barely holding themselves together as they desperately clutch their injuries, being tended to by terrified doctors with shaky hands, some capes look an inch away from turning violent as they have to wait for life-saving medical help.
I grab Panacea by her upper arm, preventing her from just wading in. "Hold on a second, this is shit. Everyone!" My voice easily carries across the large open tent. Most of the people present look our way, and I can see more than one person's utter relief at spotting panacea. "Form an orderly line!" I turn to Panacea, who's looking at me like I'm a crazy person, she's not the only one "Do you recognize the others?"
Panacea nods "Those are Scapegoat and Cask. Cask is a tinker who can only affect those who drink at least a litre of his concoctions, limiting how many people he can help. The other is scapegoat, he can heal anything but has to take their injuries himself in the process, meaning he can't heal anything too serious without dropping himself."
"Any you can heal anything except brains, and I can heal anything period but not an unlimited number of times." I mull it over, considering the strengths and weaknesses of all the healers present, forming a plan in the couple of seconds I have before I lose all credibility.
"Alright, here's how things are going to go. I'll act as Triage, anyone brought in will see me first, I'll heal you if your injuries are minor, more serious injuries go to the healer best suited for their specific case." The people look at me gormlessly. " Move people, the longer you stand there the longer it takes until you get healed, people are dying as we speak, move!"
"Who the hell are you and who died to put you in charge?" The voice is young, brash, terrified. And they're still standing there like lemmings.
"No-one yet." I pull my roll of needles from my storage ring and yank all of the needles out at the same time, orbiting me in a far smaller display of telekinetic prowess that should be very familiar to the people now, more than one person takes a cautious step back when they see the dozens of glittering needles aimed their way. "But I'm willing to make that casualty you if you don't move!"
Finally, finally, someone steps up. Either willing to take the chance or simply in too much pain to care if I'm crazy or not. I have no idea who they are, they might be a villain for all I know or one of the hundreds of minor characters who never got their stories fleshed out. I look him over with a single glance before making a diagnosis. A broken arm and burns down his side with heat damage to his stomach and liver.
I hold the man still even as I poke four needles straight through the man's thin clothing into the tender flesh underneath it, he doesn't even flinch. I apply a minor amount of Qi through the needles into the damaged tissue beneath my hands, snapping his bone back together and flushing his system, supplying Qi to allow his burn to heal in a couple of minutes instead of months.
"You're healed, your arm will be tender and your organs will heal over the next ten minutes. Take it easy for that length of time before going back at it. Next!"
I quickly separate the incoming capes into four groups. Those with catastrophic injuries that don't touch the digestive tract go straight to Cask. Catastrophic injuries that do involve the digestive tract, straight to Panacea. Lesser injuries can be healed by scapegoat or the local doctors in a reasonable amount of time, and those who are out of the fight regardless of how much healing they receive. I do as little healing as I can, instead focussing all of my attention on stabilizing the critical cases, healing the bare minimum I need to keep them going until they can be seen to by panacea, only when I top off on Qi or the line for Panacea grows too long do I heal people myself. Saving as much Qi as I can for the moments where the line grows too long.
My greatest strength right now lies in how easily and how quickly I can diagnose injuries and sort them by how much time they have left. There's some more grumbling from time to time but no-one wants to argue with the blood-spattered maniac in a dress who has to stab you to heal you.
I'm sure it also helps that since I started sorting people, we haven't had a single fatality. If you're alive when you're put on the bed in front of me, I can patch you up enough to the point that you'll survive for at least another hour. More than enough time for Panacea or Cask to stabilize people the rest of the way.
It goes on for hours. After the third hour Cask runs out of supplies, doubling Panacea's workload. I send some of the more horribly injured patients to Scapegoat, but that means that he runs through his supply of biotinkered constructs to offload injuries on even faster. Though he tries for as long as he can eventually he is too injured to keep going.
After that, I end up working solely with Panacea and the normal doctors and the quality of capes we send back out into the fray starts dropping. We simply don't have enough time to fully heal people if we want to stay ahead of the critical cases that keep coming in batches.
I eventually slip into a routine. Diagnose the injuries, stabilize the dying before sending them over to Panacea, heal lesser injuries as I can. I keep breathing in Qi as I empty and refill my reserves, again and again. Ignoring the bite of Yin as I breathe in death and despair tainted Qi.
Just when I think the fighting is slowing down and we're about to get another break, the next complication walks in. Movers of all sizes and shapes have been funnelling the injured capes towards the tents, the vast majority of them in our tent because Panacea and I do the work of dozens of normal doctors in a fraction of the time it would take normally.
So you can imagine my displeasure when I see one of the movers dropping off an injured friend and I spot the absolutely mangled Qi around their head. It looks like someone used brute force to restructure the insides of their brain without any care for how much damage this might do to their Qi circulation.
I have a good idea of what would cause that kind of injury in this situation.
I take the injured cape from the new Simurgh bomb with one hand while almost lazily slapping a needle into their neck with the other, neatly blocking the Qi supply to their brain. Their eyes roll up in their hand and they would have collapsed if I hadn't caught them with the same arm I'd just used to render her unconscious.
I look at the injured cape that was just brought in to see what I'm dealing with, missing leg, internal bleeding, brain haemorrhaging? I stab two needles into the damaged leg and another two in each of the capes temples. Staunch the blood seeping into the brain and heal the permanent damage, close the bleeding on the leg and drop the cape on a stretcher to await Panacea's touch when she has time from more critical cases.
I drop the unconscious cape on another stretcher and turn to one of the veritable army of nurses hovering around the medical theatre. "He's unconscious, put it on his chart that he'll be unconscious for another three hours at least. If I haven't had time to look him over until then give him anything as long as it keeps him under. He's a Ziz bomb, I can heal that, but not if he blows himself up and us along with it."
It's been long enough and I've been right often enough that the woman doesn't even question me, she just sticks a sticker on the man and starts wheeling him from the tent.
That adds another wrinkle to my duties, not only do I have to keep up with the flow of casualties as they're supplied, but I keep half an eye on the people delivering them as well.
I add five more unconscious bodies to join the first in the hour after that. The breaks I'm forced to take are longer and longer, I've long since lost the ability to take a couple of minutes in between patients to top my Qi off, I can now only inhale as much as I can before the next patient is dumped on my stretcher. Twice I'm so empty all I can do is point out the order of patients Panacea is best off healing.
But at the end of the day, when the Simurgh is chased away by Zion and the capes assisting as best they can, after some giant reservoir of tinker tech has been plundered by the great white bitch, not a single cape has died in my tent, not one.
There have surely been plenty that died on the spot, who didn't make it to the tent in time to be healed. But those are outside of my control, nothing I could have possibly done better that would have helped those people. It's a cold solace, but I take some small measure of pride in it.
The flow of capes to our tent slows and eventually tapers off completely. I don't remember sitting down, I just wake up when someone prods me with a cup of coffee blacker than tar. I absolutely loath coffee, but I take the cup and gulp it down in a single pull.
My meridians ache, I've been channelling more Qi than my meridians could handle. I've been soothing the ache with Wood aspected Qi but eventually even using that much energy was doing more harm than good. I could only tough it out and occasionally spend some time healing myself whenever I had some time or Qi to spare.
"Thanks" I mutter absentmindedly, looking up at what I thought was Panacea, who'd been working like a machine for hours without rest herself.
It wasn't, I was looking into the visored gaze of Alexandria, promptly causing me to nearly choke on my coffee.
Motherfucker! You have got to be fucking joking. Of course the triumvirate would be present at an Endbringer attack, and I do not want to have to deal with the bitch yet. Or at all if I could help it!
"It was brought to our attention that you can identify people influenced by the Simurgh, is this true?" She sounds about as cuddly as an iceberg and half as friendly. It's hard to see properly under her visor, but she sounds fucking exhausted. I also do not doubt for an instant that Alexandria could slaughter me with little remorse or effort on her part.
"Yeah, it's part of how I diagnose people. I can see the flow of energy through your body and the Simurgh isn't really subtle, people under mental influences stand out like a sore thumb." I answer her truthfully, hoping she can't use her Thinker abilities to find out anything I don't want her too.
Sweet lord I am tired, I don't think there's a worse time for me to handle Alexandria than when my Qi is bottomed out, my meridians are fucked and I can barely string two sentences together without slurring. I might have overdone things just a bit.
She simply nods and accepts that at face value "What would it take for you to identify those afflicted?" she continues inexorably.
"Line of sight and about a second of concentration." I fire back, which is why not five minutes later I'm on a podium where Legend is holding an uplifting speech to every damned cape that came to this thing. There's only so much you can do after effectively losing an entire capital city while being mostly useless to prevent it, but the man tries his best.
He seems startled when he spots Alexandria, maybe it's because she always floats a few inches above the floor and thus really doesn't make any noise when she moves, or maybe Alexandria isn't the uplifting speech kind of person. Rather the opposite, from what I recall of her personality in canon.
"Alexandria?" He asks surprised, though he rallies admirably, turning back to the crowd watching them and holding out one arm to introduce his teammate. "Ah, as a welcome surprise we have a few words from another member of the Triumvirate."
If looks could kill, Legend would almost certainly have just been killed by his fellow triumvirate member, though she does stand up to the mic. "I do not have a lot of time because there are a lot of issues we still have to resolve in the aftermath of this crushing attack. I was informed of a cape with a rather unique ability after the Simurgh was fought off, and I've brought him here to demonstrate. Apex?" She actually motions me towards the Mic and is she out of her goddamned mind?
I have absolutely no idea why on earth she's doing things this way, but since it gives me a chance to help people, I'm willing to take it and think of possible reasons why this benefits her later.
I look over the entire crowd, sending a painful pulse of Qi to my eyes to highlight the rough outline of the Qi system of everyone present. "Some of you might know that I'm a new healer, I'm a Ward based out of Brockton Bay, I was still getting fitted for my costume when the call came down. What most of you probably don't know is that, unlike the amazing panacea, I can heal brains, and I've got a sight-based method of diagnosing people's injuries to go with it."
Alexandria is giving me a foul look that almost screams 'get on with it' while Legend just looks confused.
"That being said, would the people I point out please come forward to receive further healing?" I point out a woman with a green costume and stag horns, the malignant Qi writhing around her head clearly visible from this distance.
She comes forward, visibly confused but thankfully she doesn't respond aside from a flinch when I poke her skull with several needles. You'd think healing the brain would take more energy than any other organ, but for a normal mortal? The difference ends up being negligible. The only real complication is that I have to refrain from healing away her Corona Pollentia in the process.
She might be willing to lose her powers if it cured her from being a Ziz bomb, but I'd prefer to get out of this without a target on my back. The guy who can detect and heal Ziz bombs is amazing and valuable, the guy who can heal powers away is dangerous and scary. It's enough for me to confirm that yes, if I had to I could purify Parahuman powers away just like any other parasite.
The whole process takes only a couple of seconds, as I mentioned before Qi wants to keep flowing in the same pattern, it's just a matter of figuring out how the Qi flow used to be and switching things back in their proper order.
There are no complications from any of the next six people I call forward to be healed, it's not until there's only one more Ziz bomb left that something seems to trigger in the final remaining cape. The moment he's singled out and seems to realize what's going on, I can almost see something snap behind his storm grey eyes. None of the capes who answer the call to fight an Endbringer is weak, and this guy seems to have powers styled after Legend. Meaning that he flies and can apparently throw energy blasts powerful enough to damage an Endbringer.
But not Alexandria. She blurs forward in a move almost too fast to see, grabbing the affected cape and wrestling him to the ground in a second flat, the lone blast of energy he got off bouncing off of her invulnerable boobs like it's a thrown spitball. She Pushes the snarling man's face into the ground and holding his hands in a position where he can't blast anyone and looks calm while doing it.
Noted, Alexandria could indeed kick my ass if she had to.
With that, even the dimmest cape present seems to realize what's going on, and they look on in wonder as I heal the last remaining cape twisted by the Simurgh into something monstrous. More than one of these people have still been twisted into something monstrous by the shards in their head, but that change is slower, more gradual, harder to cure.
It's certainly not something that I'm going to attempt here and now, exhausted and in easy reach of the Triumvirate, who are most certainly not my allies or friends. No, that can wait until I've had some rest, until I couldn't feel my meridians burn like an injury rubbed with lemon juice, maybe until I've had some real sleep and an amazingly skilled blowjob thrown in the bargain.
I look over the assembled capes one more time, noting that by now more than one cape seems afraid to meet my eyes. But there are no more capes here who've been influenced by the Simurgh, I've got them all. "You're all clear, the bitch didn't get what she wanted out of any of you today. You're safe."
The sheer volume of cheering that goes up after that is nearly deafening. I'm sure they're going to test me to see if I'm full of shit sooner or later, but for now, they're willing to take my word for it.
God damn, I am ready for this day to be over.
Chapter 6.5 Interlude 'higher powers'
Rebecca Costa Brown, also known as the hero Alexandria was not having a good time.
On paper, she had it all. Her power was globally considered one of the absolute greatest of her generation, her civilian identity was the head of the PRT and with the two combined it wouldn't be unfair to call her one of the hidden rulers of the whole United States. This wasn't even taking into account her role as one of the leaders of Cauldron, one of the unchallenged most powerful secret societies in the world, the power brokers, selling superpowers for a price. Cauldron had capes that owed them favours throughout the world, and they knew better to refuse when Cauldron came calling.
It was however her role as a member of that conspiracy that was currently causing her headache.
"You're sure you don't know what Contessa is up to?" She asked the black woman she was calling in what little downtime she had. Since she was still dealing with the after-effects of the disastrous attack on Madison as well as the disappearance of one of Cauldron's most effective agents, it was the first free moment she'd had in almost a week.
Doctor mother, the only human member of Cauldron's leadership and for that very reason its true ruler gave Rebecca a simple raised eyebrow in response. "No." The well-spoken black woman answered her curtly. "You're not the only member who is struggling with her sudden absence Alexandria, we can only assume that Contessa is following the steps of her path."
Alexandria grimaced, Contessa was a terrifying cape, her path to victory ensured that the otherwise human woman would win absolutely if victory was possible at all, even if the odds were millions to one. As long as the odds were not zero Contessa simply… won, always. She was one of the great lynchpins that allowed Cauldron to operate as smoothly as it had. Alexandria had nursed a small hope that maybe Doctor Mother would be more informed, but that hope seemed to be in vain. Much as it galled her to admit, despite all of her power. Be it physical, mental or political, Rebecca was running into issues without Contessa's absolute power assisting her.
"I know, but the sheer number of plates that Contessa kept spinning is astonishing. Her sudden disappearance is putting significant strain on Cauldron's resources. Twice now we've had to send out Eidolon under various guises instead of being able to handle it more subtly with Contessa's usual flair. I'm not saying we can't handle it, I'd just feel a lot better if I knew anything about what was happening." Alexandria wasn't willing to expend any energy in pretending she wasn't worried, Doctor Mother knew the stakes and the workload they were under.
"I had actually planned to talk to you about it," Doctor Mother admits, slightly adjusting her well-tailored suit. A sign that Alexandria had learned meant that the woman was somewhat more worked up than she was willing to admit. Of course, nothing showed on the woman's stoic face "As I understand it, you were the last person Contessa interacted with."
Rebecca is surprised for a moment, she hadn't known that. "Was I?" She thinks back, her enhanced memory effortlessly reviewing the whole encounter in a fraction of a second. "Contessa opened a Door in my office, naturally no-one else was present at the time." For anyone else, it would have been a minor miracle that they found Rebecca in one of her few calm moments alone, not so with Contessa.
Contessa had probably planned the visit months ago, precogs were bullshit like that.
"Contessa did not act in any way out of the ordinary, though given her power I'm certain I would not have picked up on anything even if that were the case if she did not want me to notice. She gave me an extensive list of actions that she required me to take, I was unaware that she was offloading a good portion of her normal tasks on me. She didn't speak, which I did not think of as unusual at the time. Normally everything I'd care to ask was already included in her report, I only later learned that the rapport she gave me lacked a lot of her usual refinements. She left immediately after that via Doormaker and I haven't seen her since. The whole scenario couldn't have taken more than a couple of seconds." Alexandria couldn't help but let some of her frustration show in her voice. She was busy enough normally, having to take over the monstrous workload of her team member was not helping matters.
Doctor mother looks slightly worried, though it was only a combination of long familiarity and her own formidable Thinker power that allowed her to spot it at all. Alexandria hadn't met a lot of people who emoted as little as Doctor Mother.
"Eidolon and The Number Man report similar occurrences at roughly the same time. They also both report a similar lack of polish in their lists." Doctor Mother admitted. "As best as we're able to tell, a sudden change in the Path required Contessa to make a large number of adjustments. I assume I do not need to tell you what could be responsible for changes of that nature?"
A rhetorical question, of course. Alexandria was well aware of the newest wrinkle in their plans that might one day prevent the world from being destroyed. It was a desperate plan, with a low chance of success but since the alternative was the destruction of all life on earth, what other choice was there?
"No, you do not." It wasn't every day she got a message on her desk that a dimensional traveller with powers not originating from Scion had willingly joined the PRT. She might have thought it a joke or simply a mildly delusional cape like Myrddin if it weren't for Contessa's message explicitly ordering her to stay the hell away from him. She was not to investigate his powers, set up meetings with him or acknowledge his existence beyond the bare minimum.
She'd almost choked when she found out that the completely untrained new cape was going to show up at an Endbringer fight she'd already made an appearance at. It would have been too out of character for her to leave at that point, so she had to dance around the strange new cape while trying to obey Contessa's orders to strictly leave him alone.
It would have been easy since the new cape, Apex, had decided to strictly assume a supportive role as a healer and it's not like she was likely to need to meet him considering her invulnerability. Except then she got a message from several eager capes who told her that Apex could both identify and cure Ziz's corruptive influence, absolutely forcing her to react.
She tried to minimize her interactions with Apex since their most powerful precog's last standing orders were to remain absolutely hands-off with that cape, while still doing what was expected of her as a member of the Triumvirate. Two vital tasks that seemed to be mutually exclusive.
She hadn't even had time to work out if Apex's weird diagnostic ability caught 100% of those afflicted and already capes were clamouring about building a large stadium that would allow the new cape to check every single civilian or cape present during Ziz's attack, scanning thousands at a time.
Even if Apex caught all those Ziz influenced and even if he could use his ability on numbers like that, Alexandria was incredibly loath to expose that many people to a cape with powers she didn't know. Even if his ability only diagnosed people, who knew how much more information he'd learn about those he scanned? For all she knew simply by meeting him she'd effectively been unmasked, she'd have to stay away from him in her civilian guise as a precaution just to be safe.
And it was incredibly frustrating that she couldn't even find out why. Maybe her digging into Apex's files would cause her to learn whatever it was that made Contessa warn her in the first place. That was the problem with taking orders from a precog, all she knew was that disregarding the most powerful precog in the known world was almost certainly folly. Even if Rebecca's curiosity burned in her chest.
"Do you know anything more about Apex?" Alexandria couldn't help but ask.
"Stop digging Alexandria, Contessa told you not to investigate for a reason." Doctor Mother fired back almost instantly, though after a moment consideration relented by the smallest margin. "All I know is that both Kurt and David had orders similar to yours, don't investigate the new cape, stay away if at all possible and whatever happens do not seek him out."
Alexandria parsed that for just a moment, before forcing herself to ask the obvious. "What about Legend?" A small feeling of dread wormed her way down her back, she had brought Apex right to Legend during the Endbringer attack, what if he really was dangerous enough that Contessa had to handle it alone? Had she exposed one of her oldest remaining friends to a master power or worse?
"Didn't receive a message at all, I can only assume that his current actions suffice for the plan." Legend was kept a lot more in the dark than he knew, but that meant nothing to a woman with Contessa's power, If she wanted to slip him a message to alter his future actions without knowing who it came from, she could have easily managed. It was a shame, she would have gladly handed some of Contessa's less questionable tasks to the most heroic member of the Triumvirate.
"You understand that I am forced to interact with him in my capacity as head of the PRT? His demonstrated ability to detect and cure Ziz's influence all but guarantee it." Alexandria finally relented, throwing out the last clear problem she had with the situation.
Doctor Mother's eyes narrow imperceptibly, and Alexandria knew what was coming even before the black woman opened her mouth. "No digging means no digging Rebecca. Delegate it to your body double, delegate it to Piggot, hell, delegate it to mouse protector for all I care. There are only three people in our organization that have been ordered to stay away from him, send out one of the thousands of others. Until such a time that Apex proves to be a threat we can no longer ignore, we are going to leave it to Contessa. No wiggling around what Contessa told you, assume that knowing too much may pose an existential threat to the world or the plan so Leave. It. Alone."
Without waiting for Rebecca to respond Doctor Mother breaks the connection, causing the viewscreen to turn dark. Alexandria takes a deep breath, holds it for a few seconds and slowly lets it go. She forcible suppresses the brief desire to punch the dark screen, even if it would make her feel marginally better. Sometimes dealing with Doctor Mother was more taxing than usual.
Alexandria hated being told to ignore a situation but she saw no other way around it. Besides, it's not like it was the first time she had to take it on faith that Contessa knew what she was doing, and it's not as if she didn't have enough work on her plate as it was.
Taking one more fortifying breath, she shook off her misgivings and went back to work. Even if a part of her still wanted to know more, she would just have to deal with it.
The possibility that Contessa might fail never even occurred to her.
Thomas Calvert took a deep, fortifying breath in his safe timeline as the second timeline he was running suddenly cut off with the wrenching sensation he'd learned heralded his death. He had no idea what killed him, but that was nothing unusual this past week, he'd gotten a few steps further than before, but that was scant comfort considering how things had gone wrong this time.
Worse than the sudden death, he knew what was coming now that his multi-day unsafe timeline had been terminated so suddenly. For all that he hated what was going to happen, at least it was consistent. He counted down in his head. Five, four, three, two, one… nothing, just long enough for Thomas to start hoping that maybe this time she'd be more understanding.
Then he felt the soft tap of a cold gun barrel lightly push his head coming from a corner of his office he knew was empty a second ago. He couldn't help but flinch away from the touch of cold steel to his head, twisting around in an instinctive panic to show the unamused look on his visitor's face.
Contessa, Cauldron's enforcer and boogeyman.
He'd been reprimanded by her once before when he tried to use his power against Cauldron's interests to see if it was possible at all. It was not. Contessa had threatened him, beat him with an effortless grace that proved her power was leagues above his own. He was self-aware enough to admit that the cape scared the hell out of him, scared him more than anything had since he got his power.
He'd not been pleased to suddenly find her in his lair and that didn't improve when she informed him that she was calling in the favour he owed Cauldron. He was to use his power to capture the newest Ward, alive.
He had no idea why, initially. A pure healing cape was rare, the only other cape with so little restrictions on how and what they could heal was Panacea but she was famously unable to heal brains. Maybe Contessa needed someone with brain damage healed? It quickly became apparent that he was not to question her or her motivations, he was simply to follow her commands until he succeeded, no matter how long that might take.
He'd spent years paying off Cauldron for his purchased power, he was used to being patient to achieve his goals, but why on earth did the woman pop up all the time? She seemed to be invested in this project full time, which seemed unthinkable if she was half as important as he suspected she was. Though the results of his last split timeline gave him an inkling as to why Apex was so important to the woman and her organization.
He couldn't even admire the otherwise beautiful woman, the last time he'd entertained thoughts about what she'd look like underneath that tux she habitually wore she'd appeared out of nowhere and broke his nose in his safe timeline. It was still tender and forced him to explain to his coworkers that he walked into a door, like some kind of abused spouse.
"You've failed, again." Contessa's collected voice informs him "What went wrong this time?"
It hadn't taken him long to realize that, whatever Contessa's power was, whatever it allowed it to so perfectly guide her actions it malfunctioned around the new cape. He was a weak spot in what Coil had assumed was an utterly flawless power. He'd briefly entertained the idea of using this known blind spot against the woman somehow, but that time when she showed up she'd pressed that little pistol of hers against his dick before he'd even finished asking the question in the comforts of his own mind.
He'd refrained from thinking along those lines as much as he could after that. Coil had absolutely no doubt at all that Contessa could force him to do her bidding less pleasantly than merely threats of physical force.
"I did, though things were going to hell anyway. The primary objective had long since failed but as per your orders, I let the situation play out as much as possible. I confirmed that his healing ability requires conscious control, whatever that berserker brew you had me administer to him successfully drove him insane, preventing him from curing himself. He is still incredibly resistant to mundane poisons and drugs, but whatever Tinker mixture you got your hands on worked like a charm. On a personal note, whoever brewed up that toxin should be shot on principle, monstrous stuff and that's coming from me."
Contessa dipped her head to show that she was still listening. For whatever reason, whenever he used his split timeline to significantly interact with Apex Contessa seemed unable to just intuit the results like she normally could, he actually had to deliver his report even though she seemed to pick up most of the details without him having to explain them, though she occasionally asked for some clarification or indulged him with the smallest amount of conversation.
He rubbed his eye, still blackened underneath his suit. She also seemed to know the very instant he even tries to lie about the results. Whatever Contessa's issues were with Apex's power, they didn't extend to coil enough to shield him from her power.
The whole situation was remarkably unfair, Thomas thought.
"The person who made that mixture is in the birdcage" Contessa supplied, fulfilling her daily quota of small talk and returning to business with all the warmth of a robot "What were the results? Did you get a workable combat model out of the test?"
"A comprehensive report? No, he did remarkably little fighting personally, as far as I was able to determine. He assaulted several of the wards and a few of the PRT personnel sexually, all women. He subdued and ate most of the males."
"He has demonstrated a remarkable ability to eat more than would normally be possible, did he eat the victims whole?" Contessa asks, seemingly not at all bothered by the gruesome report.
"No, he went for the brain, the heart and a limited degree of intestines in that order. Anyone he ate like that got back up as a zombie under his control. Not fun zombies either, super strong, super fast and they ignored all wounds that didn't destroy them completely. They captured women to drag them back to Apex and otherwise ate people in the same fashion. Every time Apex had sexual intercourse with a new victim, or the zombies ate someone, the whole horde of them got stronger, faster and tougher. By the time they emptied the Rig of all life they were solid mid-tier Brutes and movers and there were almost three hundred of them, they swept through Brockton Bay like a plague." He shuddered, he'd seen some fucked up things in his life, but the whole situation had been bad enough when watched through remote cameras and drones. Near the end of it, there were reports that the zombies were getting additional powers, though he died before he could tell one way or the other.
"Did the zombies exclusively focus on males?" Contessa asks, of all the things to focus on.
"No. They ate women almost as much as men, most of the women that were dragged off were younger, teens or younger. Though I'd seen several older women dragged off as well and a few teens that were eaten, so youth wasn't the only qualifier."
"Was there anything notable in the response from outside Brockton bay?" Contessa prods him further.
"He killed Alexandria," Thomas admits, the superheroine had arrived via a teleporter halfway through the whole debacle. "I don't even know how. She arrived, flew towards the rig and partway there she just screams and drops like a stone. On your orders, I sent out a retrieval squad but they vanished with no further contact."
"Fascinating, how would you compare his performance with an Endbringer attack?"
Coil feels a shudder down his back, so this does have to do with the Endbringers. Could this be how they're made? Once he finished this errand for Cauldron he was going to pack up and get the hell out of Brockton Bay. There were other cities, he could start anew in a city that didn't house a potential S-ranked threat. He gives Contessa's question some real thought before answering, she'd accept nothing less. "Favourably. Less direct power perhaps but not even Behemoth emptied a town of all life that quickly. From the time the inhabitants of the Rig hit the shore until the last pocket of resistance was killed maybe ten minutes had passed, maybe fifteen minutes until everything in the city was dead. Nothing really slowed those zombies and they were getting stronger and faster all the time, I don't even know what killed me, my base wasn't under attack yet, I simply felt the coldest I'd ever felt and then, nothing. I just… died, near enough instantly."
"Fascinating. We're going to have to repeat this experiment under different circumstances to see what changes, if anything." Contessa simply says, which Coil knows means she's about to get up and vanish into thin air.
"How much longer do we have to do this?" He asks before she can pull her disappearing act, he'd barely gotten any sleep and he'd been running simulations non-stop for almost a week now. "Killing the kid is easy, but capturing him seems near enough impossible. If he's given some time he can just destroy the whole city, if he realizes either of us are involved he either simply keels over dead or violently explodes with sufficient force to destroy most of the city anyway. You want to talk to this guy but he really doesn't want to talk to us."
"You are to continue doing so until I tell you to stop." Contessa actually answers, to Coil's surprise. "Every failure you experience teaches us something new. Your power is perfect for probing him in various ways without arousing his suspicion. Eventually, we'll figure out a method of approaching him that works." She seems to have a sudden thought "There are other capes that I might be able to influence that are almost as adept as you at prying information from this situation, we'll spend the next few uses of your power on getting that introduction right, it should speed up the process somewhat, though expect another long time split to prevent any long term issues from arising from that meeting." With her piece said, Contessa simply walks away. Coil knows the moment she's out of view of all prying eyes she's simply going to vanish, he's tried to get how she does it on camera several times with no success. He also knows she knows, though she just seems amused by the attempt.
Coil hoped Contessa learned what she wanted to learn soon. He'd long since learned not to rely on hope, he feared he might just be in this for the long haul. With a little bit of free time, he starts sending orders to the mercenaries on his payroll. He can't spend nearly as much time on it as he'd like, because he's going to have to get at least some sleep before he'd have to start the whole process over again.
Chapter 7
When I return to the rig, I want nothing more than to collapse into my bed and sleep for twenty-four hours. It is with some regret that I have to admit to myself that I simply don't have the time to laze around, so instead of going to sleep like literally everyone else who went out to deal with the Endbringer, I drag myself back to my lab.
Maybe it's just because I got a good look at the sheer level of power present on earth bet, but I am almost desperate to advance my cultivation. I am acutely aware of how fragile my current situation is, I am rich in knowledge but poor in power. I might have the potential to match anything on earth Bet if given enough time, but that is the whole crux of the matter.
Even if I had gotten here significantly earlier than the start of Canon, I simply didn't have a decade to dedicate myself solely to getting stronger without any worries. I might be able to get a few extra years by wiping out the Slaughterhouse 9, but that was certainly a hell of a lot easier said than done. I didn't remember any details about the S9 that would let me hunt them down, the only victim of them I remember was Mouse Protector, but I have no idea when that is set to happen.
I am sure however that if I stuck close to her to find out, my mere presence would almost certainly butterfly away that meeting anyway. I have certainly caught enough people's eye to guarantee that much.
Hell, I wasn't at all certain I could fight the S9 anytime soon. I might be slightly superior to a normal human physically since I cleaned my body of all pollutants but converted to the local power settings I'm not even sure I'd count as a Brute 1 at the moment. There's not a member in the Slaughterhouse 9 past, present or future that wouldn't absolutely slaughter me as I am right now.
But as long as Jack Slash survived, he would sooner rather than later talk Zion into trying out a little murder-therapy as a cure for its depression. Zion would oblige him and wipe out most of earth Bet's civilization during Golden morning, with the remnants collapsing into a horrible, mad-maxian dystopian hellhole.
An excellent scenario for a cultivator to practice and grow stronger it might be, but it would be an absolute shithole to be forced to live in. I'd prefer to avoid the whole situation if even remotely possible.
Sadly, even without Jack Slash earth bet is living on borrowed time. Eventually, Zion was going to flip the board eventually and unless we got spectacularly lucky, he'd take humanity with it. That was sort of implied since the 'playing board' in that analogy was the world I was standing on. I didn't think I'd get to the point where I'd survive something like that anywhere this century, so I had to think of some other way to handle the whole situation. I didn't particularly like earth bet, but I didn't want it to be destroyed by a depressed space whale throwing a temper tantrum either.
The problem was that doing this properly, step by step was the fastest way I had available to me, and it was feeling almost painfully slow. I wheeled one of the ubiquitous whiteboards in the lab within easy reach and started making a to-do list. I spent some time working out the correct order of steps I still had to take.
Start cultivating the Tribulation Body.
The requirements for this were some Qi infused silver to subdue the tribulation lightning to something more survivable, and a set of inscriptions to throttle the lightning so I'm not hit by the entire charge at the same time, since that would kill me really thoroughly. Tribulation lightning could destroy my soul, so I'd like to take my time ironing out the kinks before jamming an utterly unsurvivable amount of power into my body. I had prepared the silver before leaving for Madison since I assumed this was going to be the next step, I assumed it would be usable by now, the only thing I was missing was a tattoo gun but I bet the PRT could get one for me.
Forge an alchemy cauldron.
With only ordinary materials I had no hope of making anything other than a low-grade cauldron, but I could always take my time and slowly raise its quality by using it. I absolutely required a cauldron sooner rather than later, thankfully with Armsmaster's rapid prototyping equipment I could probably produce the physical vessel in a matter of minutes, then it was just a matter of carving the right inscriptions into the steel and applying a judicious amount of Qi to the whole ensemble.
Brew disgusting sludge into pills
The worst step on the list by an astonishing margin. Since the first step on the list involved potentially destroying my soul, you could imagine how much I was looking forward to this step. Requirements? A cauldron, obviously. Maybe a technique that helps someone deal with pain and discomfort? I'd look over my library for something suitable once I have some time.
Start heroing.
The only flaw in cultivation as a path to power was that it required practical experience, I couldn't just sit here sequestered away from everything and practice until I was a god. It required practise and preparation sure, but relying on just that would never let me achieve true mastery. That required a cultivator to live life. Interact with the mortal world, use their techniques in real-life scenarios. That I got to do this and punch racists, slavers and super villains was living the dream.
Make friends? profit?
I was locking myself away with nothing but practice for a damned good reason. It wouldn't do anyone any good if I lazed around and lived an ordinary life. I hadn't made any friends or even any real social contacts with any of the locals yet, I'd only met most of the local capes once. As a cultivator, as a social creature and as someone whose bloodlines requires a harem for maximum effect, I really don't want to go through an eternal life alone. I just didn't want to spend any time making friends if that time ends up being the reason I doom the world. Once I got most of my preparation done I could afford to spend some time living a life worth living, if I survived the upcoming trials I had a literal infinity to get it right.
I looked at the list, I hadn't put any additional practice anywhere because I was just going to assume I'd spent at least half of every day doing that anyway. Though I'd probably really benefit from going through my library and start cherry-picking techniques sometime soon, or at least make a list of useful techniques to study. It'd be pretty useful if I had a movement technique that gave me a mover rating before I started my hero career, as an example.
I studied the board a bit longer, before taking a fortifying deep breath and going to work. I paused, turned back and wiped out what I'd written before shaking my head as I turned back to my Qi engine.
This place was going to end up making me paranoid I fucking swear.
Armsmaster is the very first person who uses the intercom before entering my lab, he even proceeds to knock on the door I keep my Qi engine in when he bypasses my lock and can't find me in my main lab. I appreciate it, and I'd love to answer him, but I'm kind of in the middle of something that prevents me from doing so.
As my direct superior, I'm not surprised that he can override the lock I placed on the door, I'd still have preferred if he waited a bit, I'm kind of preoccupied here.
Armsmaster strides through the door, sees what I'm doing and freezes mid-stride, even he probably doesn't handle this kind of situation very often. I give him a small wave, the motions of my body causing a small wave in the shallow puddle of blood I'm lying in.
I admit I probably don't paint a pretty picture. The tribulation lightning In my ring has to be applied directly towards the dantian that governs the body, which means it's going straight to the heart. Zapping your heart with a lightning bolt is pretty unwise, zapping your heart with divine lightning is not much better. My mortal, fleshy body has no chance of withstanding that kind of energy whatsoever. I need to apply a whole series of scripts that will, if done correctly, slow down my death long enough to merge with this fragment of the heavenly tribulation.
That does mean I have to apply those scripts to my heart and it's not as if I can just paint them on the constantly moving organ and expect the paint to stick. I'd have to apply the pattern in a somewhat more permanent fashion.
I was pretty happy that my first requisitioned item I couldn't just pick up from storage, a modern tattoo gun, was delivered within an hour of me asking for one.
I had prepared a source of silver before leaving for Madison, carving the scripts that forcibly poured Qi into the metal, dumping the complete output of my Qi engine into it. When I came back, it was fully saturated, and the environment had gained a pretty decent supply of unaspected Qi again as it overflowed from the small silver ingot. I'd then crushed the resulting Qi enriched silver into powder and mixed it with a tiny amount of ink and mercury that went into the tattoo gun.
Which was why the ink I injected in my pericardium was glowing with a faint silver hue. It was beautiful, and fairly poisonous due to the mercury in it, but that was pretty far down on my list of concerns for this project.
I removed the tattoo gun from my splayed open chest, plucking the needles from my chest to allow my heart to resume beating, keeping the needles that were responsible for keeping most of my blood inside of my body by restricting the blood flow of my body at key points. I had two more sets of needles inserted in my body, one to stimulate the production of more blood clustered in my kidneys and one set to fully block my ability to feel physical pain.
The effects of oxygen deprivation fade as my heart frantically beats to pump enough oxygen-enriched blood around my body to fix the effects of having stopped for around twenty seconds. I'd been stopping and re-starting my heart in spurts because I needed a stable surface while tattooing, and I had to allow my heart to resume its function from time to time because I needed my heart to live.
Armsmaster looked at the whole situation, thought things over for a moment, before delivering his judgement of the situation "You should never attempt self-surgery without someone else present in case things go wrong, preferably in the med-bay so we have medical tools on hand in case of an emergency. I guess you should also be careful with operating on yourself, the paperwork is extensive, more so for wards. In fact, I am legally obligated to attempt to try to talk you out of self-modification." He nods, duty discharged "I think we're past that point though, should I sterilize, do you need me to come back later?"
"You can stick around until I finish applying this pattern." I can talk, just not while doing anything else since I need my body to be perfectly still while I'm working. I'm not in danger of keeling over if I slow down for a bit, but for obvious reasons, I'd like to get this over with sooner rather than later. "After that, I'm going to crack the tube and if you're here for that you're probably going to die." I point at the tube sitting on the movable tray next to me. The golden dragon is looking at my chest as it undulated as if it were underwater, it's otherwise uncharacteristically passive. It's almost as if it knows what's going to happen and is saving its strength for it.
To his credit, he accepts my words without further comment. "I was sent to inform you that due to your performance in public as a healer, the date of your debut has been pushed forward, I was to escort you to a meeting with the PR department to finalize issues and to prepare for your televised debut. I think this would be a poor moment for it?" He poses it as a question as if I'm going to go:
No Armsmaster, just hold on and I'll put my open heart surgery on hold so I can attend a talk on political correctness. Just need to seal up this gaping chest wound and I'll be right behind you.
"This is not something I can just stop halfway Armsmaster, I'd appreciate it if you could tell them I'll be unable to attend for the rest of the day." I'd have thought that'd be obvious from the fact that I was halfway through performing open-heart surgery on myself, but no reason to be rude about it.
Armsmaster nods, as serious and composed as ever. He shows no signs of leaving, looking at the pattern I'm placing on my heart with faint fascination. "Doesn't that hurt?"
"Not at all." I reach out and tap the trio of needles along the side of my neck "These make it so I effectively feel nothing at all." As long as I didn't jostle them too badly anyway, I couldn't just leave them in while moving around.
"But surely it would be easier if you had help with this? Why are you doing this alone, laying on an autopsy table meant for a morgue?" Armsmaster sounds faintly upset. Is he concerned about me? That's surprisingly thoughtful of the man, even if I halfway suspect it's more because he doesn't want to lose access to my 'tinkering' knowledge than concern for me as a person.
"Well, this has to happen in a Qi rich environment and this room is the only place in the world that counts." Barring some hidden Qi enriched valley or cave somewhere, though the Qi on earth bet is thin enough that I highly doubt one exists."There's also the minor issue that the dangerous part of this operation is liable to destroy everything and every one in the room once we get to that point." I admit, reinserting the needles, watching in the mirror suspended over my chest as my heart slows and then stops entirely.
I nudge the tattoo gun back to life, checking if it still runs smoothly before finishing the connecting line I was working on. After only a few seconds I remove the needles, allowing my heart to pump life-giving blood through my body once more.
"Is there any danger to the rest of the Rig?" Armsmaster asks.
"No. The scriptures on the wall will contain any potential damage to this room." I hope, since if it bursts out of my chest with sufficient force to overload the scripts I'll be super dead. "Pretty much everything else here is almost certainly going to get wrecked, I thought it'd be a bad idea to destroy the Rig's medbay if I didn't have to."
"The protectorate is here to help you just as much as you are supposed to help them. Rebuilding the medbay would be expensive and a serious crimp in the budget." Armsmaster rebukes me, voice hard and uncompromising. "But I'd burn down a dozen medbays myself if it kept a single one of my wards alive. Gear can be replaced, people cannot." He sounds as if he's quoting someone else, but that doesn't make me appreciate the sentiment any less. "It has become clear to me over the time you've been here that you are very used to handling things on your own, I'd like you to try to keep in the back of your mind that you no longer have to go at it alone, we're here to help if we can."
Getting a stern you-don't-have-to-do-everything-alone speech is of course, incredibly thoughtful from someone as stoic as Armsmaster. That being said, I have no idea how he could possibly say that with a straight face. I bet Armsmaster enjoys the great visibility from that all-glass house of his.
"… I'll try to keep it in mind." I relent. Then I stop my heart again, finishing the next stroke of the script. I mentally swear as the line is a bit too wide, meaning I have to use my Qi to pull the excess silver out of my emerging tattoo, soothing away the irritated tissue to leave a smooth surface for me to work on. "But I hope you'll accept that this is not the time. I'm almost ready with this, so I'll see you once I'm mobile again. This might knock me out for the rest of the day, so please wait for me to contact you, barging in while I'm working with this" I tap the tube with the tribulation lightning again "is probably going to kill me." And the person who interrupts, alongside everyone in the Rid depending on how much Tribulation lightning is left.
Armsmaster nods "I'll seal the door with my codes, that will keep out everyone except director Piggot." Part of me almost wishes she'd try, Renick is a lot more reasonable than Piggot after all.
"Thanks. I'll try to visit you once I'm finished with this." Armsmaster nods, bids me farewell and leaves, indeed making sure to lock the door behind him. I relax and jab myself to once again stop my heart. There's work to be done after all.
I twist the mirror above my chest, observing the elaborate pattern on my heart from every angle. Even after my third time checking it for flaws, I can't find any. Part of me realizes I'm stalling, but I don't think anyone can blame me for being a little apprehensive about hooking my heart up to what's effectively a bolt of divine retribution. While betting my survival on a chunk of silver I might as well have enchanted via a process that I learned less than a week ago.
I fortify myself, taking deep breaths to psych myself up for a process that I know is going to suck pretty spectacularly even if it works the way I want it too. I grab the thermos sized jar and place the adjustable opening to the one free space on the elaborate tattoo that wraps fully around my heart.
I take one more moment to mentally review the process I'd learned from reading the book on the Tribulation Body technique. I have to knot my Qi into a very specific pattern, concentrating and containing it in my heart, following a pattern that should integrate the lightning into my heart. The whole thing absolutely requires that I manually force my Qi into that pattern until I succeed.
If I pass out before I'm done? My qi snaps out of the knot and the lightning is free to do what it does and I die.
If I lose control over my Qi due to the pain, I die.
If I don't get the pattern just right, I die.
If I run out of Qi before the lightning is mostly integrated, I die.
If there's more Tribulation lightning than I can handle. I die.
If I give up, if I hesitate, if I flinch during this process? You guessed it, I die.
And Tribulation lightning doesn't stop damaging you once you died, if I foul this up I might blast my dumb ass off the wheel of reincarnation entirely, I could outright vaporize my soul if things went wrong.
But I had to have known that when I recommended this technique to myself. Hell, whoever sent me here gave me only one supplement for my cultivation and it was useless for almost anything other than this. So if the gods that sent me here and a more knowledgeable version of myself all tell me to do this, surely they have to know what they're doing, right?
Without waiting for me to chicken out of doing this, I twist My qi into a tangled knot over my heart. Immediately I feel the rush of weakness as the Qi normally flowing through my body is dammed and contained.
I turn the valve on the side of the container I'm holding to my heart. The top part of the canister slides open just the tiniest bit, a tiny hole appearing in the dead centre of the cap like the opening of an eye. The previously placid flood dragon blurs and tries to rush through the opening the instant that hole appears, flowing down into my heart like a bolt of lightning
The bolt of energy impacts my chest with the force of a speeding car, slamming into me and driving the air from my lungs, collapsing the gurney I'm on like tinfoil and sending me rolling down the floor of my lab. I expected the first shock to be bad, but not that bad. I ignore the damage rolling across the floor with my chest carved open might cause as I focus every iota of my being on containing that rampaging energy, whirling my Qi in the pattern that slowly, painfully starts integrating the energy with my heart and the metaphysical dantian it contains.
The energy bounces across the inside of my heart as it looks for a weakness, a flaw in the cage I'd build for it with silver, mercury, Qi and will. I can see the flashes of energy where the lightning touches and shines straight through my heart, making it momentarily look like I'd replaced my heart with a strobe light. Shining out of my splayed open chest in a way that would be distracting if I could spare any of my attention to it.
I cannot.
The lightning resists my absorption as if it were a living, sentient creature. Once it realizes it cannot escape through any kind of flaw, it settles in the centre of my heart, wrapping around my dantian. Right as I dare to hope it's going to let me absorb it, the dragon seems to collapse in on itself for just a moment as it expends some of itself to try to break through by brute force. I hear the crackle of lightning and smell ozone and burning flesh as an arc of lightning forces its way through the protection I'd wrapped around it.
The arc of energy carves through the steel shelving of my lab but scatters into indistinct energy when it hammers into the protection of the scripts on the wall. The edges where the tribulation lightning touched the steel are molten into slag, dripping on the floor close enough for me to feel their heat.
But the tangled knot of Qi holds.
The flood dragon rages, rushing down the convoluted eddies of power caging it to try to find a way out. Worse, it finds one. In my shock I come very close to losing my grip on the pattern, causing the smell of burning flesh to intensify as I desperately clamp down on it. But the lightning doesn't take advantage of the momentary weakening of my Qi, as it found a gap in my defence where neither my scripts nor my Qi prevents it from rushing into my body.
The valves where blood is pumped into and out of my body could not be covered in scripts, leaving a small gap in the protective mesh I hadn't accounted for. Worse, while the Qi wrapped around my heart contains all of the power my body can hold, it seems to have a gap where the Qi can follow the flow of blood into my body. The flood dragon gives an audible, crackling cry as its found a path to freedom, rushing down the twisting maze of Qi at the speed of the lighting it's made of.
But the pattern it forces itself into as it flows down the path my Qi left alters it, changes it according to rules I do not begin to understand. I can both see and feel the dense, glowing blue pulse of combined energy and blood that flows out of my heart. It crackles along my veins, destroying and rebuilding them as well as every ounce of flesh it touches as it travels through my body, losing energy in the process until nothing is left.
The flood dragon clearly thinks it found a way to escape and goes absolutely wild. It expends energy recklessly, most of it is caught by the whirling vortex of energy surrounding my heart and integrating it with my flesh and dantian in equal measure. The remaining energy pushes through my body, destroying and rebuilding my veins time and again.
I think I might be screaming, or possibly crying since I can feel something sizzling as it runs down my cheeks, it's hard to tell. All of my focus is on my Qi, ignoring the pain and anything that might distract me. Small currents of energy occasionally escape my veins as my body reaches a point of saturation, but still the lightning caged in my heart thrashes and wails, blasting energy into my body with reckless abandon. My Qi reserves start to run dry, letting more and more energy pass through the barrier protecting me even as the dragon shrinks rapidly.
My Qi runs out first.
My body, toughened by the energy I'd been flowing through my veins, is all I've got left to rely on now.
The tiny flood dragon seems to sense the changes to my body, and with uncanny intelligence seems to realize what's happened. The heart, the organ that has continuously absorbed the vast majority of the energy the little dragon sent out has toughened to an incredible degree, saturated with Qi according to the Tribulation Body technique. The dragon lashes out the moment my Qi runs out, and slams headfirst into the wall of my heart, the lightning refined flesh now proving to be a barrier to the energy that simply burned through earlier.
The dragon's strength is all but faded, but I know this is the most critical moment, if I had absorbed the dragon completely, then I'd not have gotten enough energy to make the technique take hold. If the remaining energy is more than my body can handle, I'm doomed. It's a delicate balancing act, but I hoped that the gods that arranged for this energy took that into account, I certainly know of no other way to measure out a specific amount of lightning.
For the first time, I connect to the dantian at the centre of my heart, manipulating the lightning tinged Qi and wrapping it around what remains of the tribulation lightning trying to fight its way through my toughened flesh. With a flex of that energy and a supreme amount of will, I fight the struggling animal tooth and nail as I drag it into my dantian.
The flood dragon lashes out wildly, almost panicked, damaging what it can once it realizes it's not going to get free, trying to cause enough damage to kill me at the cost of its own life.
But my heart has been tempered in that lightning, damaged and restored more times than I could count. My heart heats up, partially cooks and is lacerated internally, but to no avail. My heart has grown too strong for me to die from this now.
The Tribulation body, or the body of trials, grows in strength as it passes a test of itself. The more it's placed under certain stress the more the Tribulation Body fights against that stress naturally, without exerting Qi at all. And I just bathed myself in the wrath of heaven for what feels like hours, my body has gained a measure of resistance to divine power, to fate, to destiny.
The tribulation body was designed to fight anything, but the heavens first and most of all.
I laugh, victorious as the struggling piece of animated power slips into my dantian and merges with it with one final cry. But I'm tapped, everything I possibly had to give was only just barely enough to pull through and I can feel myself slide into blissful unconsciousness.
I wake up from unconsciousness, again. It seems to be a pretty common occurrence when cultivating that I press myself to my limits only to collapse when I actually hit said limits.
I kip-up effortlessly, feeling almost weightless as I leap to my feet without any effort at all.
My Qi cultivation technique is still in an embryonic state, I'm still building the foundation for the Tenfold wheel which should be obvious since I only have half of the cores in my dantian that the technique requires. I haven't even touched my spirit for cultivation. While I had a technique for the body and my Qi cultivation from the start I hadn't found one even remotely as good for my spirit. I could pick a lesser cultivation technique, but that would leave my spirit a flaw and weak point that I could never fix.
But my body? My body had laid its foundation in one fell swoop, pushing me from a completely mortal body to the first layer of body cultivation in a single session, burning away a part of what made me mortal in the process.
I could now officially consider myself a cultivator.
Part of my mortal body had been reforged, improved on a foundational level. I study the effects my latest bout of cultivation has wrought as best as I can.
My injuries are healed, of course, reforging my body as completely as I've just done has fixed everything that might be wrong with me. Where I'd already shed a lot of flab simply by exercising and purifying my body, I now look like I could grate cheese on my abs. I slap my stomach and there's no give to it at all, it might as well be steel. The outer layer of my skin is weirdly smooth and soft, but everything else is just… better.
I jump a few times, laughing with abandon at the sheer joy of moving now that it feels like gravity lost some of its grip on me. I start to move through the first kata of the fire path, luxuriating in the feel of how smoothly my body snaps from one movement to the other, faster and with more precision than I have ever managed before. My senses are way better, my balance, stamina and resilience are all miles ahead of where they were.
After spending a few minutes just cutting loose and enjoying moving in my new body I stop and take stock of everything else.
My lab, well, the walls are intact, kinda. I can spot a circle on the floor where I've partially molten the floor, that spot seems to have acted as the focal point for an effect like one of those plasma balls, if the arcs of energy coming from them could carve through steel and spot-weld the places where it touched the wall.
I wonder who's going to be responsible for cleaning a half-melted lab. I sure as fuck hope it's not going to be me, I wouldn't know where to begin to fix this place. I'm going to take Armsmaster's advice and delegate this cleanup to someone else, the very definition of teamwork!
But that was an issue for later.
I have finally hit a point I'd been dreading for some time now. My last set of clothes was part of the ashes coating the floor, I still had my costume but that one was coated in unidentifiable fluids from my stint as a healer.
The pants were okay, and I slipped those on, but I was officially in need of a good shopping trip. I wonder if I could invite some people along and get a head-start on that whole making friends thing.
For now, I have two priorities. First, I need to find some clothes, though part of me wants to see how the public would react if I just never wore a shirt again. I bet I'd be popular as hell with at least half the world's demographic and it's not as if I have any reasons left to be body-conscious now.
Second, I could eat a horse. A literal horse.
While I prepare to leave my lab, I kick against something that isn't destroyed. I look at the pristine tube rolling on the floor, and the irate piece of inanimate lightning buzzing around as the tube rolls alongside the ground.
What the absolute hell?
I pick up the tube, looking at the exact same animate piece of lightning I just got done fighting. The manifestation of divine power is a little smaller I think. However, even with my newly improved eyesight, it's hard to tell for certain. The difference, if any, is minute.
… how much tribulation lightning did they give me? Why? Is this canister self-refilling or did they just decide to give me a couple thousand times more energy than I needed on a lark?
My stomach growls in audible protest, and I decide to table my questions until after I've eaten. I pull the jar of tribulation lightning into my ring and go out in search of food.
Chapter 8
"Dude, you've seen me eat before, would you please stop staring at me?" I ask Ethan, who has indeed been staring at me since I sat down with a meal.
"I was going to come over and poke fun at you for going shirtless, but what the hell have you done to yourself?" Ethan asks, still staring. Rude.
I look down at my still uncovered chest, shrugging before finishing my footlong. "I've finally gotten around to refining my body for the first time, it's a thing."
"Man, you know I'm not as read up on whatever madness you're pulling in that lab, but real talk. Are you wearing makeup? Is this going to be another one of those conversations that ends with me being sent to sensitivity training? Again?" Ethan asks, looking a little worried at the thought.
"For the layman then, I absorbed an incredible amount of energy which directly improved my body. So I'm stronger, fitter, better senses. All that jazz." I sigh contently, swallowing down the last of my meal "But every time I do it, I get airbrushed a little. My skin becomes smoother as it heals from any imperfections, my lips grow a fuller shade of red, silkier hair, the works." It wasn't something I was going to be able to stop either. A thorough improvement of the body meant everything got better, including my looks. Far off into the future it would reach the point where I'd have to don a disguise to interact with mortals in any meaningful way.
If you were wondering why some female cultivators wore veils despite being supernaturally beautiful? It's because it's pretty awful to be unable to have a normal conversation with someone without them falling in love the moment they see your face. It's not something I'm looking forward to. It's probably at least part of the reason Immortals tend to stick to their own people and form sects. Unless you're shallower than a puddle that kind of adoration would get old , fast. It sounded kind of flattering for about five seconds, and then mostly just awful after that.
"Hold on." Ethan holds up his hands, gesturing for me to slow down for a moment. "You're saying that your refinement thing is an exercise that actively makes you prettier?"
I grimace a little, it always struck me as a weird masculine quirk that it's kind of insulting for a man to be called pretty, even though in all other instances it's a positive thing. "Pretty much, yes."
Ethan seems to parse this information for a couple of seconds "So, I heard that you could teach others?" Ethan says with a big grin. "You can't just hoard all that prettiness yourself. You'd steal all of our groupies and I'm pretty sure that's against the bro code."
I start to wipe my hands on my pants, realize it's literally the last groin-covering garment I own and think better of it, using some napkins instead. "Sure, just come down to the lab so I can start tattooing the sigils on your heart so you'll have at least a small chance of surviving the energy transfer." No, I'm not actually considering giving any parahuman a guide on cultivation, but the look of doubt on his face is pretty amusing . Ethan is easily the cape most likely to roll with it when someone pokes fun at him. Even now I can see him debate on whether to call my bluff and take the risk that I'm serious. His look when Miss Militia pulls up a chair at our table is hilariously grateful, even if I'm sure that he's exaggerating for comedic effect.
"Ethan, Apex. What are we talking about?" Miss militia asks, digging into her meal.
"Ethan's unwillingness to suffer to be pretty." I say at the exact same time as Ethan says "Apex's new makeup."
Miss Militia looks me over once, takes another bite and doesn't remark on it any further than that. I think this proves that Ethan is making this into a bigger deal than it actually is. Either that or Ethan is a lot more susceptible to my looks than Miss Militia, which I hope for many reasons is not the case. Why the hell does Assault look so amused at Hannah's lack of a response though?
She seems to consider which statement to reply to, she eventually turns to me "So are we talking about plucking his eyebrows or…?"
I try to muffle my laughter, failing when I see Ethan's extreme put-on expression, furrowing his relatively bushy eyebrows in the process.
"You guys are both jerks. This guy was not offering to pluck my eyebrows, he was offering to tattoo my heart! A little caution is warranted when you get an offer like that when you're not sure if the other guy thinks that's a reasonable course of action!" Ethan tries to defend himself.
"But Assault, won't you think about your groupies and fangirls?" I ask, trying to sound innocent through my occasional guffaw with rather limited success.
Miss Militia's amusement fades "I wanted to briefly touch base, Apex. Imagine my surprise when Armsmaster comes to me with concerns that you're working too hard."
Ethan chokes on that, his earlier affronted expression vanishing under new mirth. "I'd be surprised too! Do you think he just doesn't see the irony or is this a situation where he can get away with it because he's the boss? A real do as I say not as I do situation?" Assault chokes out while still laughing.
Miss Militia doesn't laugh, she looks worried. "It seems that Armsmaster walked in on young Apex here mid-surgery. It seems he has some concerns about the lengths Apex seems to be willing to go to for power. He was understandably freaked out, he's not a machine Ethan."
"He's close enough to count by my reckoning, and you!" He turns to me, poking me in the chest with one finger "You weren't joking about the tattoo!"
"Don't worry, I was," I reassure the man, I wait for him to relax a little when understands I'm serious. "I just offered you the same procedure that I'd just done to myself, for your fans."
"And you performed this surgery on your heart, on yourself?" Ethan asks incredulously.
When I nod Ethan throws up his hands in exasperation before demonstratively turning his back to me.
I chuckle a little before getting to the harder part of this conversation. Assuring Miss Militia that I know what I'm doing and that I'm not going to do something foolish.
Which was slightly complicated by the fact that I very much was. Cultivation was dangerous, a little bit of death-defying antics were so common I don't think I could honestly tell her not to worry or anything in that vein.
"You don't have to worry about…" Is how far I get before Miss Militia interrupts me.
"Was what you were doing dangerous?" She looks me straight in the eyes, and I can't lie in response to the honest concern I find there.
"Yes," I admit, seeing the concern intensify as I bluntly tell her the truth.
"Could you have died?" She presses me again. I've never been able to lie very well, but when people directly ask me for something I can't do it at all, I never could.
"Yes."
"And you knew this ahead of time? You knew that what you were doing could have killed you and you still did it by yourself, to yourself?" By now her concern is tempered with an equal amount of… sadness?
"Yes," I say, since what other defence is there? I knew damn well that I could have killed myself, I could have destroyed my soul. I still did it. I did it because it gave me an exceptionally useful power, I just hadn't expected anyone to care if I hurt myself. I don't think anyone ever has.
Miss Militia sighs, something in my expression must have clued her in because now she just looks sad instead of concerned. "What… would you not be prepared to do, to grow stronger?"
I give the question some real thought, the truth of the matter is that I could accelerate the rate at which I grow in power if I was willing to do anything, so I was certain that there were things I was naturally opposed to.
"I don't think I'd be willing to hurt others for it," I answer after some thought, though that's not quite what I meant. "No, that's not quite it. I'm perfectly willing to fight if it comes down to it. But not… senselessly? I want to be able to look myself in the eyes in a mirror at the end of the day and not cringe away from what I see there. I don't think I could do that if I was the sort of person who'd deliberately set out to hurt others for personal gain."
"Don't worry, I understand what you're getting at. But let me clarify, what wouldn't you be willing to do to yourself?"
I give it some more thought, and find to my surprise I'm drawing a complete and utter blank. I'd been willing to destroy myself utterly, I'd come pretty damned close to it not a few hours ago. Compared to that, nothing else seemed to matter, nothing even came close.
Pain? Pain was just something to be endured, possibly used to make your will stronger. Hadn't I planned to do exactly that? Hurt myself? Obviously, I was willing to do that. I could always heal myself, my medical skills were good enough that if I was given enough time I could probably recover from anything. It made damage to my body a minor inconvenience at best.
Was there something, anything that I would not be willing to do to myself, given that I knew I'd recover completely, would benefit from it with my new cultivation body?
"No. No there isn't," I finally admit, to both myself and Miss Militia.
"Kid…" I can feel Assault's armoured glove land on my shoulder, carefully, almost as if he's afraid that he'll set me off in some fashion.
"Cultivation involves pain." I try to explain "The heart of cultivation is self-improvement, but there are limits to how much you can improve without breaking down what's there and rebuilding something better. The stronger the structures in place, the more effort and the more damage you incur when you try to improve that structure."
"For how long?" Miss Militia finally asks "How long will you have to hurt yourself before you're satisfied with where you are?"
"Decades at least." I admit "I don't think I've ever heard of a Xian who got there without sixty years of work at the absolute low end. There's not really something like an average number of years that it's expected to take, but if I had to guess? Around three hundred years or so? Outliers may take double or even triple that." Assault's hand briefly tenses on my shoulder, in surprise or solidarity I cannot say.
"Three hun…" Miss Militia starts to exclaim before visibly composing herself. When she continues she does so in the same soft tone of voice I associate with people talking to a skittish animal. "Apex? What is the life expectancy for a cultivator?"
"It depends on their technique, their attainment in their technique and the resources they have access to." With minor variations for physique, race and the amount of lifeforce they were born with.
"No, what is your life expectancy, if you never got any further than you are now?" Miss militia asks, looking as if she's figured it out, but forcing herself to ask in case she might be wrong.
"Me, as I am now?" With a body cultivation in the first realm of viscera refinement, I had probably added another fifty years of life and youth to what I could otherwise expect, but I had a fairly complete grasp of alchemy and medicinal techniques on top of that. If I focus on making the herbs I'd need to refine the right pills for myself? "About a hundred and seventy years. But as long as I had the right resources I could just keep healing my old age, I could keep myself hale and hearty for millennia before hitting some kind of theoretical limit." I'd run into pill toxicity eventually, but as long as I focussed on refining that away I could probably keep my body running until it was my soul that gave out. Even that limit was mostly because I didn't expect to be able to refine a medicine that improved the soul without a far greater reservoir of Qi.
"And those Xian you mentioned?" She asks after a few moments of dreadful silence.
"A Xian is immortal unless killed, they are free of ageing, of disease, of mortal needs and desires. They have cultivated such an understanding, of themselves and the world, that they are rendered eternal. They're often simply called Immortals as a result, though their official name is a golden core cultivator."
The shocked silence from both Assault and Miss Militia is stifling, it never quite picks back up after that either.
"You're immortal?" Clockblocker asks in shock. Guilty looking around if anyone heard him after he realizes we're not in a place where it's safe to talk. Our other two companions look no less surprised, though they were at least a lot quieter about it.
When I brought up my lack of clothes to Armsmaster, it turns out that I was allowed to leave the Rig, as long as it was under some kind of supervision. He said it was for my protection, but I can't help but feel like some kind of prisoner in need of a guard.
So I took Clockblocker as an escort, both because I got along with the red-headed teen and because I hoped his gratitude to me for saving his father's life would make him at least a little bit less likely to spy on me in the process.
"Technically I'm unaging, no, not even that. I'll end up unaging if I work at it long enough, right now I could just heal old age, kind of." I explain.
Clockblocker had picked up on my funk and had weaselled the cause for my gloom from me with remarkable speed. Sadly he was almost as surprised as Miss Militia and Assault had been.
"Probably not even that," Panacea adds her own opinion, "I'd be perfectly happy to believe that you could make yourself long-lived enough to appear to be unaging, but entropy is a thing. You're going to run out of time eventually."
No, no I won't. I've read plenty of stories where cultivators simply gain a longer and longer lifespan the higher they climb the ranks of their cultivation system. But either those rules were simply incorrect or maybe my technique was simply better. I'd checked just to see if what my medical knowledge was telling me was correct, and had confirmed it.
If I rose my level past the Cultivator stage and into the Immortal stages, my lifespan would no longer end naturally.
But explaining this to Panacea would be a bad idea as long as she's still hooked up to a hostile parasite looking for that very thing, not to mention within arms reach of me. She was only here because Dennis had called her since he knew next to nothing about fashion himself.
"Thanks for helping me with this by the way." I heft the pile of clothes I was holding. "I'm garbage when it comes to this stuff.
"Hey, no worries. I'm just glad to get out of the house. I know I'm eternally grateful for you healing my dad and all, but let's just say that my father is feeling a lot better. I expect siblings in my future." Clockblocker gaze gains a far away, horrified look "… so many siblings."
"Hey I'm glad to be invited, there's never anything to do right after an Endbringer attack, it always takes a few days before the criminals figure out that they can do their thing without running into the 'no profiting off of Endbringer attacks' rule." A happy looking Victoria Dallon pushes another flowery abomination of a shirt onto my pile. "Aren't you worried that you might be outing yourself right now though? I mean, Dennis is known to be one of our friends from school so he's safe, but you showing up out of the blue while a new ward is introduced isn't terribly subtle."
I think it's worth mentioning that no-one invited her, she just tagged along with Amy under the assumption that if Amy was invited, so was she. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad for her help since Panacea's tastes are about 99% hoodie related but no-one actually invited her. Victoria is having the time of her life, I've been dressing up in whatever she shoves my way with bemused tolerance. And if about half of the clothes she shoves me in are somewhat tighter than I'd prefer, giving her a chance to ogle to her heart's content doesn't really cost me anything.
The small mountain of clothes will, but I've gotten my first government paycheck and I've got nothing better to spend it on anyway.
"Pffff, my arms are not long enough for the wanking gesture that is in my soul right now. What are they going to do? Drill to another dimension to threaten my long-dead parents? I don't even know my real name, I don't have a civilian identity for these yahoo's to figure out. If I didn't worry it might be causing the PRT even more headaches I would have just gone out as an unmasked cape." My senses are more than sharp enough to confirm that there's no-one close enough to overhear me as long as I keep things at a reasonable volume.
"So you're not a big fan of the whole secret identity thing? It might be weird coming from me, but think about it carefully, once you're unmasked it's forever." Victoria advises me, holding up a ruffled shirt that I throw into the discard pile the moment her back is turned "I've gotten used to it over the years, but sometimes it's a bit much you know?"
"It helps if you look like a model," Clockblocker throws in, deliberately giving glory girl an exaggerated once over, tongue hanging out of his mouth.
"I could rock a catwalk," I say with a shrug, getting a contemplative nod of assent from Clockblocker and Victoria, hilariously, after a moment's contemplation I can see Panacea nod as well.
Victoria clearly catches it, since the rising enthusiasm on her face is only matched by the slowly dawning horror on Amy's.
"Not like that!" Amy blurts out, "It's just that, he's big!"
"Phrasing" I mumble at the exact same time as Dennis.
Amy dope slaps Dennis without even looking his way, though going by his grin it's part of their normal interaction. "No, it's just… no." Amy tries to stammer out through her now luminescent blush.
"So, A… lex! Alex, so what do you think of our Panacea?" Victoria asks me slyly, only momentarily tripping over the fact that I don't have a civilian name. Sidling up next to me and gesturing at her sister. "My sister's shy, I've been trying to find her a boyfriend for years and she's never admitted she thought a guy was handsome before." She turns to her sister "I really approve of your choice Ames, but I've got to know. Is it blonde hair? That jawline?" She grabs my cheeks and smooshes them a little as a demonstration "Or is it the muscles?" She asks even as she pulls my shirt up, showing the aforementioned muscles to the now hopelessly blushing panacea, who looks almost desperate to escape the conversation.
It should be noted that Victoria has no sense of propriety. I should help her sister though, it's part of the self insert dream to help out Panacea with her issues right? This looks like a good moment to jump in and help.
"Victoria," I say gently "Can't you see that you're embarrassing the poor girl?" Amy throws me a look of immense gratitude. It almost makes me feel guilty enough not to finish that setup. Almost. "Don't you see that I'd break the poor girl in half? She's so small! I can understand her terror at the mere idea."
"Size should not be a limiting factor in love!" Victoria declares proudly, hands on her hips. "And don't you dare look down on my sister, she may be small but I bet she could deal with any size issues!"
The look of betrayal on Amy's face is priceless.
I murder my smile with great effort, keeping things going "Could you imagine the headlines? Newest villainous cape murders beloved healer in blind date turned massacre? I'm just not sure I dare take that risk,"
"I don't know Alex," Dennis puts in his two cents. "I admit that our dearest Amy has been truly blessed by nature, but do you really think that it'd be enough to put your life in danger, and calling yourself beloved healer when you haven't even debuted yet? For shame."
It takes a second for the joke to set in, causing Victoria and me to burst out laughing, and Amy to whirl to her friend with a loud cry of "Dennis!"
Dennis looks as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth as he calmly answers "I was referring to your healing of course, what else were you thinking of?" Even as he deliberately looks down at Panacea's generous hips.
It takes her a few moments to realize that she's being teased, though I can already see the shadow of her depression start to settle back on her as her innate self-loathing starts to twist the joke in a way that was certainly not intended. Damnit, getting Amy to stop automatically putting herself down is going to be a pretty involved process.
Then I hear the screaming, as clear as if the people yelling were right next to me.
It's obvious that Amy and Clockblocker don't hear it yet, Victoria seems to be listening intently so I think she might have heard something, or maybe she's just responding to my sudden distress. The sudden spike of adrenaline at the unexpected situation jolts me into action. I throw the entire pile of clothes in my arms directly into Clockblocker's arms "Call for help!" I tell the startled teen. I don't wait for a reply or response, I simply turn and sprint out of the store without a second thought.
With my memories in the state they're in it's hard to tell for certain, but I think I've always been the type of man who rushes towards the screams.
Any ideas I might have had about limiting myself to a human pace to preserve my identity flee my mind the moment I hear a scream of pain, coming from a child. I was already moving slightly faster than one could reasonably expect a human to pull off but still within the realm of human ability, but fuck that. I tense myself and hurl myself down the street at my maximum speed, crossing almost a dozen feet per step as my feet pound the pavement in an uncomfortably fast rhythm.
Moving almost twice as fast as the fastest human could ever hope to manage is drawing a lot of attention but I could not possibly care less. I hear the sound of flesh striking flesh like thunder in my ears, drowning out the shocked gasps of the people I blaze past. Realizing there's a whole street of shops between me and where I need to go, I jump almost two stories straight up, grabbing the roof of the store and hauling myself in one smooth motion.
It's hard to accelerate to my full speed with so little space to work with, but I reach enough speed to jump to the next store, crossing a street in the process. I'm close now, that leap took me from the edge of the reasonably wealthy and well-maintained Boardwalk straight into the more decrepit docks area.
I vault over one last street, dropping down from the roof onto the streets with an audible clatter as my heavier than normal body briefly grips the fire escape to break my speed before hitting the ground with a dull thud.
I see the family, a young couple in their early thirties. The man is on the ground and some asshole is literally kicking him when he's down. The wife is screaming, partially muffled by the hands of two of the assholes holding her down. The girl I assume is their daughter can't be much older than ten, squaring off against the rest of the group of racist fuckwits, her tiny fists raised and trembling. Her face is set in a determined grimace, a clear bruise marring most of her cheek and one eye, obviously delivered by the laughing fuckwit who is talking shit. To a ten year old girl. That he punched in the face. Something ugly, almost rabid snarls in my chest. I feel like I have trouble breathing through the lump of utter rage in my throat.
It's not an alley, it's not hidden away or obscured, this family got stomped into the ground by a group of violent assholes in broad daylight, in the middle of the fucking day not two hundred meters from the supposedly 'safe' area of town.
The group of Empire thugs consists of three clear groups. Four members are doing the actual fighting with the black family, they're the youngest but they are all cut from the same cloth. They're all young, they're all blonde and they all look out to prove something. The only guy who doesn't look like he's having fun is one of the guys holding down the wife.
The next group has a mere six members, and they look like the first group but older. Covered in tattoo's, with visible scars and obviously used to violence and comfortable with it, they were yelling encouragements until my arrival shut them up.
The last group consists of three people. Two men, one woman, with three masks between them. A cage for the woman, a tiger and a wolf for the men.
"A fucking child!" is all I get out before I'm on top of the guy 'fighting' the little girl. He tries to snap out a punch but I take the blow to the chest in return for decking the guy right in the face. He flies backwards surrounded by a cloud of what used to be his teeth, his mouth a gaping ruin and his body going limp like a doll that had its strings cut. He doesn't seem to be eager to get back up, rolling over the floor and moaning through the ruin cratering his face. My chest aches from the blow but it fades to nothing in moments, either buried under my monstrous anger and adrenaline or healed by my Tribulation Body, I don't rightly care.
"You cowardly motherfuckers." I growl out at the suddenly silent group, punctuated by the sound of blood dripping from my fist onto the stone road. The hairy, shirtless man I'm pretty certain is Hookwolf gives me an appraising look, before turning to the younger members whose gang initiation I just thoroughly wrecked.
"Well, sometimes shit like this happens. Fight him, don't kill him." Hookwolf orders his flunkies. The two guys -I refuse to call them men- holding the woman throw her to the ground while the guy kicking the father simply walks towards me.
"We have a nigger lover out playing hero boys, at least we get to show what we can do now yeah?" the boy sniggers at his friends, completely disregarding the dude I just ragdolled, stepping over his prone form without so much as glancing at him.
I can hear some of the older gang members snicker, far more aware of how a fight between a cape and a normal human is likely to go. I realize that Hookwolf is just throwing his goons at me to get an accurate gauge of my abilities since I'm new, but I'm so incredibly angry I don't give a shit.
The first guy is a freebie, standing too far away from either of his friends to help him. I close the distance between us in a heartbeat and come down on him like the wrath of God. He only has a second to realize how outmatched he is a second before I slam a heavy blow straight through his hastily thrown defences and into his stomach hard enough to lift him completely off the ground. I flow back from my blow and snap into my normal stance, throwing a second blow before he's even hit the ground, hitting the airborne man with a blow into his face that sends him flying off hard enough that he bounces once like a skipped stone. The sound he makes when he rolls over the floor is awful, a rapid crackling sound as bones and shards of bone rapidly shift position inside the ragdolled man.
The other two members look a lot less eager for what their friends got but that train has left the station. The guy I noted as not being into this hesitates, and that costs his friend an arm. He overextended his punch and I punish him for it almost without thinking, snapping his arm with a grappling motion that drags the man whose arm I've just broken between me and his friend.
It takes the hesitant nazi a long second to manoeuvre around his friend, a long second during which he is completely at my mercy as I pepper him with a flurry of rapid-fire blows to whatever I can reach. The third attacker simply collapses under the assault, too bruised to stay standing leaving only one scared guy against a body cultivator in a towering rage.
He doesn't last either, he throws a panicked punch I could have dodged before all of this and after that, all he can do is desperately try to stay standing as I punch the little snot into unconsciousness.
I feel the cold spike in my back as one of the more experienced members gets a cheap shot in, I twist around with a backhanded blow without even thinking about it. I feel bone break underneath my hand, but the guy proves to be a lot tougher than my previous victims. His jaw is distorted, clearly broken, but he is still standing despite that.
The long knife in his hand is red to the hilt.
"Not bad." Hookwolf judges. "You're what, a low levelled brute? You've got the instincts for it, but you're green as grass. I'd be willing to trade a visit to a healer for that pinprick if you're willing to sit down and have a chat with kaiser."
… Is this guy serious? Is he trying to recruit me under these conditions just because I'm blond and white?
"I got four of you, there's nine of you left and I've got shit to do today." I hold up one hand and beckon the no longer smiling Empire members forward "It took five of you and even then the only hit you got on me is by literally stabbing me in the back you dickless cowards."
The Empire capes just snort in amusement, waving the rest of their unpowered members forward. "Try to keep him whole if you can my bullies, but teach him a lesson he's unlikely to forget," Hookwolf says, stepping back and letting the six more experienced gangers attack me all at once.
Fighting six on one is a lot harder, even now that I'm faster and stronger than a human can be.
I estimate that I'm roughly twice as strong and fast as I used to be, clearly superhuman but not to the point where the fight is a cakewalk. The six of them are obviously used to fighting together as a team, and also clearly not fazed by having to fight a parahuman, I think these guys are some of Hookwolf's pit fighter buddies.
The guy with the broken jaw goes down first, his shattered jaw far too clear a weakness to handle me targeting it deliberately. His buddies try to rush in to take advantage of my momentary distraction, but I'm a fast learner, I twist aside from another knife aimed at my back and kick the offending nazi straight in the face, my shin smacking into his head like a baseball bat.
Two down, four to go. Two of the remaining Nazi's pull out knives richly decorated with swastikas straight from world war two and the remaining two don bronze knuckle dusters, the four of them advance on me as a single block. Their strategy quickly becomes clear the moment I try to attack any of them. The group as a whole tries to foul my blow with the remaining Nazi going on the attack.
I try it twice before a long cut down my arm proves to me that pushing my way through this with brute force isn't going to work, not with my current level of skill at any rate.
While I'm still contemplating my options, glory girl slams down from the air like a missile, landing directly between the empire capes with a thunderous crash. If Stormtiger hadn't shoved his fellow capes aside at the very last moment she'd have crushed Hookwolf, possibly fatally since Hookwolf was still completely in his human form, clearly not considering me any sort of threat.
11/10, easily the most beautiful and timely entrance of a superhero I've seen in my life.
The four gangers I'm facing all look towards the sound of the crash, they try to recover the moment they realize they've lost sight of me but their mistake was a costly one, with me pushing past the reach of their knives I can fully leverage my superior strength to quickly subdue the remaining Empire soldiers. I make sure to break their limbs to prevent them from getting up and joining the fight once I focus on the Empire capes, the whole thing doesn't take more than a few seconds.
I look around, and holy fuck Hookwolf is a lot more intimidating in the flesh. He's almost ten feet tall and completely quadrupedal, shaped like a wolf the size of a small bus made entirely from shifting blades that effectively turn him into an immense blender. The grinding noise coming from his blades digging into the ground is loud enough to sting my enhanced hearing and honestly scary as hell.
He's trying to get to Victoria, no, Glory girl when she's doing cape stuff, best get used to it. She hovering just out of his reach, throwing quick jabs like a boxer that nonetheless punch deep divots into Hookwolf's metallic body while floating just out of his reach. The creature doesn't seem to care, trying to get to the flying cape and completely ignoring the damage he takes in the process.
Stormtiger is trying to get in a position to support his leader, but where the hell is Cricket?
I feel a sharp line of fire down my back, and my returning kick misses her by a mile. Found her.
She ducks under the kick and nearly severs my Achilles tendon when she swings one of her kama in an uppercut that only misses because I see the hit coming and twist my whole body to throw her target out of her reach. I land neatly on my feet and sway through two more of her slashes that come uncomfortably close to disembowelling me entirely.
But I've been holding back a trick I could only pull once, so I'd been saving it for the Empire capes. For the first time in the fight I draw Qi from my dantian, pouring the energy I gather into a single pulse into my muscles, for just a moment boosting my muscles far beyond what they are capable of with raw strength alone.
Cricket responds with inhuman speed, starting a dodge and aborting it when she realizes how much faster I am for this moment. By the time she realizes she should have been using her sonic abilities on me from the start, it's far too late. Sandbagging under the assumption she'd seen everything I could do was a costly mistake. My fist slams into her solar plexus and lifts her clean off of her feet leaving her with no contact to the ground and thus has no traction at all. At that point, all her reflexes are good for is to show you just how fucked she is.
I land three more hits on the Empire cape as I follow her down, punching her out of the air and crushing her into the floor with terrible finality. Hard enough that I waste a full extra second checking her over in fear that I'd killed the bitch.
She'll live, though she'll spend that life in a wheelchair without parahuman healing.
The fight was short enough that Stormtiger hasn't realized Cricket is down yet, so I decided to try to catch him from behind. I run over to the cape, feeling like my feet barely touch the ground as I close the distance in absolute silence.
At the very last moment before I'd have slammed into the Nazi's back and gotten rid of my second ever cape he turns around and dodges my blow with the barest of margins grinning underneath his tiger's mask.
Stormtiger swings one arm down, the cutting winds from his claws visible as distortions in the air. I move faster than him, snapping back into my form far faster than he could take advantage of, or so I thought.
Which is how I learned that Stormtiger can throw those blades of his, slamming into me despite my dodge and exploding with all the power of a concussive grenade. I'm blasted back, tumbling across the floor and only catching myself when there's far too much distance between me and the Empire cape now staring me down, Hatred and murder in his eyes visible behind that ridiculous mask of his.
"Did you really think you could take on the Empire and win newbie?" Stormtiger hisses at me, new blades of cutting wind swirling around his hands like cyclones.
I could throw out that so far, eleven of them couldn't, but decided to go with the truth instead. "No." I have no counter to Hookwolf's blade wolf form, I need a weapon or a lot more Qi before that has a chance of working.
"Then what the fuck do you think you were doing? Saving those pieces of genetic trash?" He angrily waves at the family, huddled together. I'd have been pissed that they hadn't run yet if I couldn't see that the father's leg is mangled.
"What kind of a coward only fights when they know for certain they'll win?" I ask the racist cape honestly.
He looks at a loss for words, and it becomes clear that he doesn't have an answer to that when he attacks me with an enraged yell.
I might not have been able to fight Hookwolf, but Stormtiger was the one cape in Brockton Bay I'd been certain I could handle. Using Aerokinesis against a Qi Cultivator of the wood element?
The element of Wood governs spring, Life, growth, plants, flexibility, the Azure Dragon, windy weather, lightning and storms.
I reach out with my qi, I already know that I lose my ability to manipulate it further than a foot away from my body but within that foot have more than enough control to simply still the air. I throw myself directly at the angry cape and the violently swirling wind of his technique collapses within a foot of me, and that just leaves a reasonably talented pit fighter against an injured but murderously angry body cultivator. I can feel something with vastly more power than I try to regain control over the air, but by then I have already dropped my technique, it's served its purpose after all.
Stormtiger tries to block my first blow, but that merely means I snap his arm instead of his face when I make contact, after which it only takes a few more blows to put the tenacious man on the ground. He's not unconscious, but after a good stomp to his heel he's also not going anywhere. The brittle and delicate bones in his foot crackle and snap under my boot, causing the man to scream.
A scream that alerts Hookwolf, who suddenly finds himself alone with all of the other members of the Empire unconscious at my hands. He starts to move towards his unconscious companions but Glory Girl lands between him and the other Empire capes, even then I think he would have chosen to fight.
But then we hear the signature horn of a very tricked out motorcycle the next street over. Armsmaster comes drifting through the turn at the end of the street so quickly the side of his bike nearly scrapes along the pavement before righting itself like a top and boosting towards us way faster than a bike has any business going, his halberd clenched underneath his arm like a lance.
The great wolf gives us one last baleful look, before turning around and running, Armsmaster not even sparing us a second look as he races after the Empire cape on the most futuristic-looking bike I'd ever seen.
I want one. I don't care if I can learn how to run faster than that machine could ever hope to go, I want one.
"You do realize" Glory girl finally says, speaking up a little to be heard over the groaning men on the ground "that you did all of that without a mask on?"
I look around the street, looking at the civilians coming out of the woodwork now that the fight seems to be over, I spot at least a dozen phones pointed my way and god only knows how many caught me while I was moving over here. I can hear the incoming sirens of the PRT coming in to hopefully handle the aftermath of this whole debacle.
"Whoops" I ponder the implications for a moment, before shrugging since as I mentioned before, I don't really care about a secret identity "Ah well, no harm no foul right?"
"Glenn you should take a look at this"
This was pretty far down the list of things Glenn Chambers wanted to hear at the tail end of a double shift. He'd been called in to handle debuting one of the new wards. It was a fairly routine part of his job description, but the last-minute nature of the whole affair meant that it was all hands on deck to get things ready in time for the interview. He was already a little bit salty that due to the impulsive actions of the new cape in question he would have absolutely no input on the cape's unfortunate choice of costume. Once you were seen in public in a given costume, you were pretty much stuck with it. Other than that, it was a relatively painless project. A photogenic cape with healing powers? That was a lot easier to manage than a cape that looked like a giant fanged lizard, and Glenn's team had even managed that.
He'd just finished cherry-picking the members of the press for the rounds of questions after the televised debut and had just sent out the last invitation when one of his aides came in, flushed from exertion and carrying a laptop.
Glenn chambers then watched a five-minute youtube video that already had well over a hundred thousand views, which was pretty spectacular for a post not even an hour old. It also featured the cape he'd imagined as a peaceful healer cape violently beating down members of the Empire 88.
Out of costume.
Glenn looks at the manilla folder containing the end results of sixteen hours of his team's work. Mockups of memorabilia and merchandising options, guides for the speech and everything that would have gone into debuting Apex as a family-friendly cape.
He shoves the entire folder into the trash and rests his head on his hands for a moment, covering his face and groaning as he realizes he's going to have to do all of that work again, on an even shorter schedule since the debut was set in stone with the invitations already sent.
"You want a coffee boss," His aide asks him sympathetically, having already seen the clip and realizing those five minutes simply invalidated the last sixteen hours of work they'd all put in.
"Make it a double please." Glenn all but whimpers through his hands.
Chapter 9
I've always hated television.
I hated people watching other people pretend to live interesting and exciting lives instead of taking some of that time to enrich their own lives. I hated soaps and procedural cop shows, I hated the endless parade of misery that was the evening news and I hated every tv celebrity I could put a name to with very few exceptions.
I was wrong, ignorant of the world. Heh, I had eyes but failed to recognize Mount Tai. Watching tv was not the great evil that I had imagined it was. No, there was something far worse than any amount of watching tv, an evil far greater.
I stare into the cameras while sitting behind a veritable wall of microphones and realize that the only thing worse than mindless television is having to be on mindless television. I'd rather face another dozen nazi's led by Hookwolf and his posse than sit here, baking in the too-bright studio lights in an itchy, refurbished variation of my costume after I ruined the previous one.
There's a rather specific series of steps you need to take to get bloodstains out of fabric and if you leave it for too long then your outfit is pretty much fubar. In my defence, it wasn't an issue I'd ever run into before.
"Apex, how do you feel about being the newest member of the Brockton Bay wards?" One of the people sitting in front of the stage asks me, and it was one of the expected questions. I'd been briefed with a full list of what I could expect from this media circus beforehand and I'd been given a list of acceptable responses to choose from. I tried to stick to it because I assumed Glenn Chambers knew what he was doing even if he did look like a zombie in the gaudiest shirt ever designed.
"Excited, mostly. A little scared, a lot nervous." The only compromise I had to make with the PRT's head of PR was that I outright refused to lie, with that in mind we refined my responses into something that would make me seem 'approachably human' in Glenn's words. "I imagine it's like starting any new job that way." I have to bite off the end of that sentence
Glen had stressed repeatedly that I was not to mention how dangerous I expected my new job to be. Apparently, the Wards were the safest little angels in the world, suitably kept from all harm until they turn eighteen. After that, their fate was in the hands of God, Destiny and the Fates but before that, I was not to even hint or suggest otherwise.
One of the PRT's people points at another reporter. "Sabine, from Cape weekly. Apex, could you shed some light on the rumours that you are dating Brockton's Bay's local celebrity Glory Girl? Your trending debut video shows you working alongside her, and pictures have surfaced of you and her being quite close before that."
Wait, what? Oh, right. In the store, where Victoria draped herself all over me, and kind of flashed my abs to Amy. I know people weren't close enough to overhear, but if someone took pictures of any of that scene I could imagine where people were coming from.
"Me and Miss Dallon are just friends, she was helping me pick out a new wardrobe since I am hopeless when it comes to fashion. I'm a jeans and T-shirt kind of guy, all the way." I flash the young woman and smile and have to keep myself from flinching as cameras instantly start going off, their flashes uncomfortably bright to my enhanced eyes.
Sabine is writing in a notepad furiously, far more than I figured that answer warranted, but whatever. Next?
"Mulhauser from the Brockton Gazette. Is it true that you refused to heal the teenagers you crippled? If so, could you explain for the record why you refuse to heal the victims from your violent assault?" There is a silence as all the reporters fall silent simultaneously, either shocked at the question or to better hear my response, I'm not sure.
"No, of course not, I healed all the victims on the spot." I fire back instantly "The Shay family were lovely people, they even got my very first ever autograph right afterwards. It turns out I'm now their little girl's new favourite hero. But if you are referring to the Racists who were beating on that family you're completely correct. I stabilized them so they wouldn't die but that's as far as my mercy extends to anyone willing to hurt a child." That question sure as hell hadn't been one of the expected ones, it's also more than a little aggressive for a question to lobby at someone they think is underage.
I take a deep breath through my nose to calm myself, and as I do so my newly enhanced senses pick up something… interesting. Huh. That would neatly explain why the reporter was being so hostile I guess.
"Don't you think that it's unethical to refrain from supplying healing while you're fully capable of restoring those… misguided youths when it's fully within your power?" The stubborn reporter keeps pushing.
"I'm sorry sir, but you seem to be labouring under several misconceptions. First, I am in no way obligated to spend any of my time healing anyone. In fact, I am in no way obligated to spend any of my time doing anything at all. America got rid of slavery years ago. Second, my healing is a limited resource, I am strictly limited in the number of people I can help in a day so it would be a far better use of my time to only heal critical cases who were actually in danger of dying without my aid. Third, I haven't taken the Hippocratic oath or anything resembling it, I'm not so kind as to heal people who so very clearly are my enemies. Your brother will just have to learn how to walk again through his own efforts, sir. Perhaps his time spent rehabilitating will give him a new perspective on life?"
Mulhauser sputters and starts to deny my accusation, I shut him down by bulldozing over his objections. So there is a benefit to having all those mics painted right at my face, it means my voice carries over his effortlessly. "There's no trying to deny it, sir." I tap the side of my nose "As they say, the nose knows. Enhanced senses are a pain most of the time honestly, but occasionally you do learn something interesting with them." I'm just glad that I seem to subconscious filter out a lot of the bogus information I absorb passively. There's no getting around the fact that the modern world is a rather foul-smelling one but it's more annoying than debilitating.
There is a brief silence, none of the reporters seems willing to speak up, maybe they're worried about how much I know about them from their smell? More than I wanted, that's for sure. Ideally, everyone should be forced to take a shower before interacting with me, deodorant should be outlawed and mints should be given to anyone with a speaking role or any other reason to open their mouth for any length of time.
Thankfully the awkward silence doesn't last very long, Sabine realizes that she can use the silence to probably get away with asking me another question for what I can only assume is some kind of gossipy paper aimed at teens.
"Apex, since you're still an eligible bachelor, what would you say is the most important characteristic you look for in a partner?" The peppy young blonde asks, completely ignoring the heavy atmosphere.
"There are of course a lot of factors that go into whether I'd be willing to date someone." I answer the reporter, glad enough for her help to answer a few more personal questions "If I was forced to pick just one or two things that I look for most? Loyalty, trustworthiness and an open mind are probably what I'd have to go with." When you were going to spend eternity together being able to count on each other no matter what was kind of important.
With the ice broken again, the next question comes from another reporter. "Apex, could you share your views on the cape climate in Brockton Bay, or your experiences with the Cape community so far?"
I groan internally and get back to answering questions. I was definitely not a fan of this aspect of fame. Ah well, one plays the hand you're dealt.
"I think that went well," I say to no-one in particular as I'm led away from the stage to our next destination. I'm going on my very first official task as a Ward, I have high hopes for it being less awful than the damned interviews. Admittedly that is a low bar to clear.
One of the two troopers escorting me there snorts in amusement. I turn to him and recognize him by his smell, we've met and talked before when I was recovering from cleaning my meridians. I really should take more of my meals there, I don't approve of the heroes keeping themselves separate from the unpowered humans backing them up.
"What?" I ask the trooper.
"You all but accused a well-respected reporter of being a Nazi sympathiser on live television. If Glenn heard you say that I think he'd try to choke you with the sheer number of spreadsheets he's going to have to reevaluate." The trooper explains.
I shrug "I did no such thing, I'm just saying that I found his brother beating up a black family, I only later learned that to join the Empire you have to have seriously harmed a minority, lovely people. Everything besides that is just assumptions that can be inferred from that. Also, not to brag here, but I'm running on enough positive PR that I could have walked up there and slapped him in the face at the end there with no repercussions." Well, no repercussions I care about anyway.
"Weren't you getting a lot of flack online for how violently you put down those nazis?" The trooper replies, and I recognize him by his voice. It's Hernando, the trooper Hookwolf had scarred pretty badly.
"Oh yes, the sheer number of armchair generals that have jumped in with advice on how they could totally have handled that whole engagement without harming a single Nazi baffles me. Still, it's not just online, I'm pretty sure I've lost almost as much of the public's favour due to excessive violence as I've gained for helping people in need. The public wants me to be some flawless paragon of heroism from day one, which is retarded even without factoring in that I haven't had a single training session on how to handle a situation like that."
"I think it was assumed that if you're facing down half of the Empire's most violent capes the sensible thing is to run away." The trooper tells me humorously.
"I easily could have," I admit "It would have probably cost those three people their lives, but I could have run and left them to die. I've heard more than one person say that I should have, in fact." I'm still a little angry over the comments I'd overheard to that effect. I'm sure that it would have been smarter not to have gotten involved, in fact, the smartest thing for me to do now that I've gotten a working Qi engine is to get the hell out of Brockton Bay and huddle down somewhere so I can dedicate myself to practice without any interruptions.
But I don't think I could live with myself if I heard a child cry out for help and did nothing. Sure there are probably a dozen other people that need help at any given moment and Earth Bet is far too fucked up to be repaired by anyone's fists alone.
Even knowing that, being told that it would have been better if I'd done nothing still rubbed me the wrong way. The thought of standing by and letting shit like that go uncontested fills me with clear and instant revulsion. I'm almost certainly not classic good-guy hero material, but letting that sort of shit stand is just… wrong. If I didn't have my relationship with the Protectorate to worry about, I would have probably killed most of the Empire present, capes included.
I even think I would have been right to do it since both Stormtiger and Cricket were taken away by the PRT and neither of them even made it as far as the damned jail. It's not like the other Empire capes busted them out either, they were simply put down as 'having escaped custody' which is pretty damned impressive since Stormtiger had only one unbroken limb left and Cricket was a paraplegic last I'd seen her.
Hookwolf had gotten away too, his fight with Armsmaster eventually threatened the nearby civilians and Armsmaster was ordered to break off, an order he had followed but with noticeable poor grace. He was still salty about it days later, he had upgraded his halberd with a sensor suite more powerful than anything he had come up with before.
Armsmaster had explained during the debriefing that his inability to detect anything of my work had spurned him to create the most comprehensive, powerful and miniaturized scanning system on the planet. Leagues better than anything any other Tinker had come up with so far and almost certainly qualifying him for a thinker rating all on its own.
With it, there was practically no way for him to lose Hookwolf's trail and with the Tinker being prepared for it, he could eventually hard counter the Nazi cape. Piggot overruled his decision, way too much collateral damage to be worth it, which is the biggest crock of shit I had heard since I got to this world. Hookwolf's folder of suspected crimes read like a fucking novel.
Heh. Nazi werewolves, so much worse than nazi vampires.
"Just through here." One of the troopers says, pushing open a door and showing considerably fewer people than I'd expected. Triumph and Vista, both in costume. "Ahh and here is the man of the hour, did you enjoy meeting the press?" Triumph asks me with a knowing look.
"I think it's the worst thing to happen to me this week. Take into account that I was forced to perform surgery on myself two days ago and was stabbed in the kidneys by a knife covered in Swastika's just yesterday." I tell the young man, clasping his arm in a friendly greeting.
Triumph laughs "Don't worry, you're unlikely to knock Clock off of his throne of worst-debut-ever. Just keep in mind that this is how the reporters act when they've been carefully vetted, screened and trying to make a good impression."
"That makes things worse, not better," I replied, deadpan.
"Who said I was trying to make things better?" Triumph asks, pretending to be confused and doing a poor job of concealing his grin. "Dealing with the press is the absolute worst. Anyway, is there anything you need to get before we go do our thing?"
"You mean aside from a couple of months of training, a thorough overview of the rules of engagement and a better understanding of how the PRT and Protectorate communicate in case of an emergency? Nah, I'm good." I quip back.
"Don't worry, you're going to be drilled on all of that until you get sick of it," Vista chimes in, arms folded over her non-existent chest "Until then, you can always rely on us."
"Thanks Vista, but speaking of 'us', where the hell is everybody? I thought the other wards were going to be here?" I vaguely remember being told this morning that all available Wards were supposed to go on this thing.
"Language, you're going to be someone people look up to so you can't swear like a sailor in public." Triumph warns me, advice that I'm probably going to have to be reminded of in the future.
"Well, Kid Win is at the Rig behind the console, he takes our calls and puts us through to older heroes if there's an emergency," Vista replies, counting off on her fingers. Wait, what? I thought that was well established Fanon? Why on god's green earth would you put your extremely limited supply of superpowered heroes behind a desk job that could be performed by an untrained monkey? Maybe to familiarize us with the importance of communication and its rules or something? Weird.
Vista keeps counting on her fingers "Clock is on punishment detail because Piggot was pissed he didn't stop you yesterday." And again, what?
"Hold up!" I demand, holding my hands in the time out gesture "Why the hell did Clock get in trouble, there's literally nothing he could have done?" I ignore Triumph's exasperated cry of 'language' "He's not a mover so there's no way he could have kept up, he didn't hear the cries for help since he doesn't have senses like me and he instantly called for help the moment something happened."
"I think Piggot was just angry honestly," Vista answers with a shrug "she would have taken it out on you, but technically you did nothing wrong. As you said, you haven't gotten any of the training for this sort of thing. Also, she's weird when it comes to you." She tacks that list bit on as an afterthought, and I honestly haven't noticed any changes in her behaviour. Remind me to do something nice for Dennis to make up for getting him in trouble.
"Anyway, that's Clock and Kid Win out, Shadowstalker had something to do at her school today, Aegis had a thing with his parents and Gallant is, well…" Vista seems to be at a loss at how to put it gently.
"Fighting his girlfriend. Again." Triumph says bluntly, not as concerned with his reputation as Vista was "Though I guess it's ex-girlfriend, also again."
"Huh, that was quick, what happened?" From what I'd learned talking with the Wards, they'd only recently got back together, their relationships usually last longer than that.
"It's a new record," Vista says, slightly maliciously "Ony four days. Technically it's your fault this time too. He called Victoria to talk to her about how she'd been photographed together with you. He didn't ask his questions as delicately as he maybe should have."
Triumph snorted beside me "Didn't need any enhanced senses to hear her side of the conversation that's for sure. Gallant tried to calm her down but, well. That never works."
"So it's just us?" I ask, wanting to make sure.
"Try not to sound too disappointed," Triumph drawls. "And trust me, three people are more than plenty for this action-packed task."
"I have been lied to, there's been some kind of grievous oversight here," I tell my fellow Wards, who are almost visibly basking in Schadenfreude.
"Can you fly?" One child asks
"How strong are you?" asks another
"Jason leggo!" I hear from behind me, where a suspicious weight trying to climb up my back just doubled in weight.
"Was it scary to fight the Empire?" A soft angelic voice asks me. "And wouldn't it be better to kill them so they can't escape?" She finishes.
"Alice," Comes the teacher's lazy voice from the front of the classroom. "That is inappropriate darling."
"Sorry teach!" The cherubic little girl answers back, contritely. Making sure the teacher can't see her miming a quick stabbing motion.
"Can you fly!" The first child asks again, almost drowned out by the absolute gaggle of children almost literally crawling all over me, pulling on one of my long sleeves to get my attention.
Attention he's unlikely to get, as there are a dozen other little kids around me who had the same idea, if my suit wasn't armoured it'd have probably ripped by now. Their apprehension at meeting a new cape lasted for about thirty seconds, after that, it's all been like this.
"Look how high I am!" I hear from the child who has successfully climbed on top of my back. He throws his hands in the air and shouts "I'm king of the world!" Naturally, the moment he lets go he starts to slide and actually falls off, forcing me to quickly snatch him right out of the air.
There's a moment of silence as all the children realize how fast I just moved.
"That was amazing!" They cry almost unanimously before I can feel the next child try to climb on top of me with renewed vigour, digging their little arms into my back in search of a handhold that isn't painful so much as uncomfortable.
"Vista, Triumph, little help?" I ask, trying to avoid hurting any of the little ones swarming around me. Superstrength and children should never mix damn it!
Triumph seems to consider my request, shares a look with Vista, before they both nod to each other. "Great catch Apex, you really nailed it." Triumph says encouragingly, still leaning against the wall and grinning like a loon.
Vista beside him nods "Yeah, you're doing great rookie." She throws me a thumbs up.
"Not that kind of help you…" Language. Right.
I have no time to think of a softer word, I hear a child whoop with laughter as she jumps off of my shoulder. I whirl around and catch the little girl, holding her suspended in mid-air.
All the kids ooh and ahh appreciatively.
"You guys suck," I say almost an hour later, once more safely encased in one of the PRT's vans as we're being driven to what I was told was going to be the last school of the day.
"There's gum on your back," Triumph says, grinning. "You're good with kids though! Didn't drop a single one, Kudos!"
"And glue in your hair" Vista says with the exact same grin "Aren't kids just adorably precious?"
"Precocious enough to plaster me half-naked across the internet," I fire back at Vista
"I regret nothing." She says, though she can't quite hide the blush she sports at the reminder "seriously though, there's very little that makes a cape look quite as harmless at showing them surrounded by kids. We do these outreach programs from time to time, to show off how cool the wards are, I actually kinda like doing it." She admits this like it's some kind of grave sin.
And the Protectorate is probably eager to have any recently triggered kids think positively of the Wards. One can never have enough child soldiers with superpowers, after all. There is no way for that to backfire in any way at all.
"How many more schools are we going to visit today?" I ask, inexplicably tired despite not having done anything physically taxing enough to warrant it.
"Just one more," Triumph says, "It's not going to be nearly as bad. The kids that go to Winslow high aren't the kind that gets pumped up from seeing a cape. They're going to be older too, so they're less likely to climb on your back." Triumph waggles his eyebrows at me, looking absolutely ridiculous with his helmet mostly off.
Vista looks a little sad "Yeah, it's a school in the poorer district. It's a bit of a shithole."
Triumph doesn't admonish Vista for her language, merely nodding along "Yup."
"Great, I'm not sure how many more kids I would have caught before deciding to just dop one so the rest would cut it out," I admit, only mostly joking.
"Apex, as your superior I hereby officially forbid you from dropping anyone if they jump off of your shoulder." Triumph answers back calmly.
"Curses, foiled again," I mutter, finally removing the last bit of gum from my costume. So that was the paint gone, the food removed, the gum plucked off of my costume. All that was left was the glue in my hair and then I'd be set.
You can't be mad at a kid for showing off their arts and crafts project so enthusiastically they brain you with it though. Not even if the glue hadn't completely set yet.
"Why on earth am I visiting the schools though?" I ask Triumph, combing my fingers through my hair to loosen the largest globs of glue.
"It's the absolute safest thing they could have you doing. No one, absolutely no-one is going to start anything in the vicinity of a school, that's how people get slapped with kill orders for their first offence. If there's ever a cape unhinged enough to attack a school they'd get a third of the heroes in the state after them, probably some of the villains too honestly."
Yeah, that makes sense. Just because they're criminals or villains doesn't mean they're completely amoral. I'd probably lead the charge myself. The only cape I knew who did anything at a school was Bakuda, and she was insane even by Worm standards.
"Wait, then what about Hookwolf? He was attacking a kid yesterday!" I point out.
Triumph is already shaking his head though "Nope. Hookwolf was watching other people beat up a kid. The Empire would have slapped her around a little bit, whereas they'd have most likely hospitalized the parents. I don't know a lot of capes that hurt a kid themselves and lived to tell the tale. Killing people is already against the unwritten rules, but killing a kid? No, that's a death sentence or suicide by cop waiting to happen."
That's a pretty damned convenient distinction to make, but that's probably also the reason Hookwolf was pretty easily absorbed into the slaughterhouse nine without any real issues. He was simply that kind of man.
Winslow high was a shithole.
I only had vague memories of my own high school, but I was pretty sure that it had been nothing like Winslow. There had been a few attempts at camouflaging the poor state of the school, fresh layers of paint over graffiti, glass windows that had been replaced instead of boarded over. Stuff like that. But there was no disguising that the school was in decline.
I could feel the gloom hanging over the school like a shroud. That wasn't just hyperbole either, The negative Qi wafting from the dilapidated school was considerably thicker than anywhere else in the city I'd been to so far. I actively had to stop my breathing exercises, I wasn't powerful enough yet to breathe in this much tainted Qi without suffering from side effects. Young people generated more Qi than most to start with, having them do so while suffering at a low burn for months at a time made this place a cesspool of stagnant Qi.
I was extremely glad that Triumph was doing all of the talking. Vista was mostly there to look cute, even if telling her that would have likely offended her. Not that my role was any different, I just stood on the stage and tried to look like I knew what I was doing while simultaneously forcing myself not to yawn.
Whatever it was that the protectorate was trying to achieve here I was pretty sure that they were failing. Only something like half of the people attending Winslow had even shown up and the people that had shown up only intermittently paid attention, using the Ward's visit more to get out of class than any interest in anything that we might have had to say.
Not that I was paying careful attention to what Triumph was saying either, I was far more busy trying to indulge a bit of curiosity I had. I'd spotted Emma Barnes easily enough since her red hair made her easy to find. After that, it was easy to assume that the cutesy brunette standing next to her was Madison Clements.
That left only one of the Trio unaccounted for, which was weird because I should have been able to find Sophia Hess the easiest, I'd already met her as a cape after all. I had to stifle a small laugh when I spotted her as she tried to sneak into the auditorium when the speech was almost over, pretending she'd been there all along. Poor form Sophia, what would your parole officer say if she notices that you're cutting class?
Probably nothing, considering everything else she got away with.
Speaking off, with my curiosity about the trio sated, there was one more person I'd have liked to at least see while I was at Winslow anyway. It's not as if I plan to visit here regularly. But try as I might, I could not find Worm's main protagonist, Taylor Hebert had not come to the auditorium to meet the wards.
A shame, she was one of the people I would have liked to help. Maybe I could drop by later and at least give her some words… of… advice?
What the hell?
My spiritual perception was garbage, absolute shit tier. With only my body in any of the cultivation stages, my divine sense didn't extend more than an inch from my body.
So why the hell could I feel Qi here?
I know of only three things that can put out Qi on their own in an amount high enough for me to notice. A cultivator, a cultivator's weapon or a divine treasure. Something like a precious herb or material, or maybe a naturally occurring formation of some kind.
Already, I could feel the sensation of Qi flowing through the air diminish in strength, in maybe a minute it would be too faint to find. I poke Vista, eyes wide, and move towards the side of the stage.
Vista, bless her jailbait little heart followed along without comment. I all but ran from the stage, leaving Triumph to face the apathetic students alone. For a second I thought he was going to follow after us, but he eventually decided against it.
"Apex, why am I suddenly running through a high school?" Vista asks me, not even remotely out of breath as she keeps pace with my far larger stride, only occasionally cheating with her power to catch up.
"I sense something weird," I reply, my heart sinking when I notice that we're moving towards the entrance of the school.
And the lockers right next to them.
No way, right? I'm here way early, Taylor isn't due to be shoved into her locker for another year at the very least. It's got to be a coincidence. It has to be.
I'm not even surprised when I turn the corner and find a crying, gangly girl with long beautiful hair standing in front of her open locker. Her expressive mouth is pressed to a thin red line as she desperately tries to keep from crying out loud, but I can smell the salt of her tears from here. What little figure she has fully covered by dark, form-covering clothes.
And Negative Qi is flowing from Taylor Hebert in a noticeable if decreasing amount.
I wrack my brain for what I could say to start that conversation when Vista steps forward, a single step covering the rest of the hallway for her as she stops right in front of the visibly upset girl. "Hey, what's wrong?" Vista asks bluntly, she looks at me "Is this the weird thing?"
Taylor almost visibly flinches at the word 'weird' and I can sense the Qi she's putting out increase a notch, though it's still fading away to the point where I'll probably be unable to notice it in a couple of seconds. "I have enhanced senses" I explain to Taylor quickly "I felt something was wrong. What happened?"
Taylor takes a few more seconds to get herself under control, I can see and feel the Qi swirling around her head as it assists her ever so slightly. "It's… someone stole something from me, a flute. It was my mothers." Taylor bites her lips, despair almost threatening to spill over for a moment "It has… a great deal of sentimental value." Because her mother died, and Taylor thinks she is responsible, right.
I glance at Vista, somehow managing to convey to her that she should let me handle this in a single look. "Do you know when it was taken?" I ask her quietly.
She nods "I put it in my locker before the lesson, so somewhere in forty minutes."
I reach for the girl, ignoring how she shies away from my hand "Then I can almost certainly find it, would you mind?"
Taylor freezes like a statue but still gives me a small nod after a moment. Clearly having no idea what I wanted from her, but willing to do anything if it might help.
I grab a single curl of her hair, bring it to my nose and breathe in deeply. I then lean to her locker and breathe again, letting the stale air from the locker wash over my senses. I then lean back from the locker and sniff the air around it. "This way.," I say to both girls, following the scent of Taylor lingering on the flute. Both girls follow after me, Taylor throwing a mystified look at Vista as I guide us towards where we need to go.
I'm no bloodhound, and tracing something in a school filled with stinking teenagers might very well be the worst possible place to try to sniff something out, but my nose is more than good enough to determine which way it was taken. Even if it's as simple as determining if it was taken left or right. After maybe a minute we arrive at another series of lockers, and it doesn't take a whole lot of effort from that point to determine exactly which locker smells most strongly of Taylor.
"Vista, do you mind opening this locker?" I ask the girl. I have several ways to open the locker myself, just not without breaking the damned thing.
"Apex, are you really asking me, a Ward" she stresses that word "to break into some high schoolers locker like a common thief?"
I simply raise an eyebrow at her.
She gives me an impish grin "Okay." Missy is one of the most powerful spatial warpers in Worm, capable of affecting space to a frankly ridiculous degree. She pops open the door of the locker in a second with absolutely no effort at all.
The locker is almost empty. There are a few school books, some sports clothing, a set of running shoes and a beautifully ornate, silver-plated flute.
Taylor snatches the flute from the locker the moment she spots it, cradling it to her body. I give the girl a few moments to compose herself. It takes a few moments before Taylor can look us in the eyes again. "Thanks." She mutters.
"It's no problem, but I'm sorry if this is rude, but could you do me a favour in return?" I ask the girl.
Immediately Taylor's eyes turn wary, suspiciously looking at me and clutching the flute even tighter, before she nods cautiously.
"I know this is going to sound really weird, but do you think you could prick your finger on this needle?" I pop one of my needles from my dimensional ring, giving the jade tool to the girl. "I need a drop of your blood. I need it to check something, something important."
"What do you need to test?" Taylor asks me cautiously.
Instead of answering her I poke the needle into my own finger, showing her the single drop of blood on the tip before twisting my Qi around it in a pattern I'd used once before. Much like before, my blood acts as a seed, sprouting a small, ethereal tree with lightning crawling across the crown. After a few seconds, the tree starts to wilt before fading away entirely.
"That reaction proves that my Qi is naturally Wood aligned. Vista?" I hold the needle towards the young girl.
Unwilling to be shown up, Vista almost angrily takes the needle and pokes her own finger, deeper than she really had to. I take the needle and its droplet of blood, sparing a second to heal Vista's literal pinprick before repeating the same trick. Vista's blood seems to expand to maybe a basketball in size, forming a clump of earth shaped exactly like the earth if it had no oceans to cover it. Vista's ethereal clump of earth fades just as mine did after less than a second.
"And Vista's Qi is naturally aligned with Earth." I hold the needle to Taylor, hoping that was enough to get her to go through with it.
Taylor cautiously takes the needle, and after a moment's hesitation pokes herself in the finger with the razor-sharp tip, squeezing her finger until a single droplet of blood appears.
I take the needle with her blood, and for the third time swirl my Qi around it.
Taylor's droplet of blood vanishes like a heat haze, before something that almost looks like a tiny three-dimensional projection appears above the area her blood just vanished in. It shows a rather familiar silver flute, then it flickers to an older woman with hair so identical to Taylor's it has got to be her mother, then to the three of us standing in front of the locker and then finally to an image of me topless before fading into nothing.
Vista is looking incredibly amused, and Taylor looks mortified "So… what does that reaction mean?"
"Those were Illusions." I look at Taylor Hebert, one of three people I was almost guaranteed to either run into or look up while on this world. "And that means I've just found a natural cultivator of the spirit."
Chapter 10
"Armsmaster, I need a favour," I tell the leader of the Protectorate ENE without preamble. Taylor is trailing behind me, still looking as if she cannot believe that she's here, a visitor's badge pinned to her hoodie.
Armsmaster carefully puts down the tools he'd been using, taking his time to store them in their proper place before turning around to face me. He actually smiles when he sees me, though he looks surprised at Taylor's presence. "Apex, good to see you. I finished that cauldron you asked me to make, I dropped it off in your laboratory. Who is the civilian?"
"Thanks, you're a lot better at using that rapid prototyping machinery than I am so I'm grateful for the assist. The girl is a complication I ran across while visiting the schools. Do you have the time to walk with me?"
Armsmaster thinks it over for a moment "Is it important?" He asks eventually.
"Very," I answer simply.
The man nods and shuts down the machines he'd been using. Shutting down the rest of his lab in the process "Very well, you have not once wasted my time so far. I'll take it on faith you're not starting now."
"Don't forget your halberd, there's not going to be any combat but I'd like you to use those sensors you developed." I'm something like 90% certain that the only reason he developed those sensors is that his shard is eager to learn more about a unique power source, they might as well be of some use to me in the meantime.
Now actually somewhat interested, Armsmaster snatches his halberd from the wall and follows along. Taylor looks like she's a moment away from hyperventilating when Armsmaster walks right next to her, famous halberd in hand. Wasn't she a fan of Armsmaster before real life kicked that to the curb in canon?
"Remember I said that I could not teach my abilities to anyone without something like a decade of intensive training?" I ask Armsmaster as the three of us travel to my lab.
"I remember, you said that there were practical issues that prevented it." The man answers, thinking it over for a second before turning to Taylor with a curious expression. "So the girl is not a cape, but someone you could teach." Armsmaster intuits.
"Naturally predisposed towards one of the cultivation arts, with a cleared meridian leading to her head as a result," I confirm. "It shaves down the years of preparation I'd need to start teaching someone to something closer to a month."
Armsmaster nods as if that makes perfect sense to him "I had wondered how the cultivation of your world got started, I noticed quite early on that almost everything you do requires experience or assistance from someone who could already use Qi. So there are people born who naturally have some skill in it. I assume that they're rather rare?"
I look at the man with some surprise, I honestly hadn't expected him to reason that out. "Yes, that is pretty much it, though simply having the potential doesn't mean anything without training. Most of the people with a natural talent or unblocked meridians go their entire life without realizing anything is amiss."
"So it requires a natural talent, and even then that talent only does something useful if they spend years training a skill they can't know they possess?" Armsmaster asks incredulously.
"How many people do you know who spent their entire life practising martial arts, meditating and fasting?" I point out "There are monks and fanatics aplenty who live their lives that way. Then it's just a matter of realizing they have Qi and what rules govern its use, they can unlock Qi in others and before you know it, Qi is a thing." And the world gains an insular sect who probably hoard their secrets like dragons, but that's how a lot of sects get started. It's no surprise that every cultivation world I know of has at least one sect of monks.
Armsmaster puzzles over that, before asking "How… rare would this type of talent be?"
"With the world population the way it stands? There are maybe sixty people in the entire world with a bloodline of some description, maybe one in ten of those will have a bloodline that can be detected before they've started cultivation."
Armsmaster looks at Taylor with renewed interest "So one in a billion odds, give or take?"
Yeah, and hadn't that been a kick in the balls? I had several theories that might explain Taylor's aptitude, but nothing I can prove or verify either way.
My easiest explanation, God did it. With no idea how powerful the people that put me here are, it's fully possible that they looked into the future and altered the girls I'd be most sexually interested in. It's the explanation I favour because while it would be slightly existentially terrifying that people like that exist, it would neatly explain everything without requiring any additional steps and proved very little threat to me. Hopefully.
The explanation after that, one I think is considerably less likely but might be possible, is that Taylor always had some unblocked Qi and it just never came up, especially not after she triggered with her shard altering god knows what up there. The only effects from that unblocked meridian leading to her brain is a slight reinforcement of Taylor's desire, mentally. It might explain her superhuman levels of willpower, but maybe she's just stubborn, who knows?
The third explanation, the one I fear might be true, is that my presence not only altered local destiny, but destiny is replying and altering things as a result. Taylor in canon was, arguably, the most pivotal character in the world, the weight of a fate like that could have god-knows-what kind of effects. If Taylor was destined to destroy Zion, the heavens themselves were more than capable of altering things in such a way to still come to that conclusion.
The only one I could actively disprove either way is the second explanation. Since it would mean that Taylor's unblocked Meridians are almost certainly unique to her. If that's all it was, that's fine. But either of the other explanations might have far-reaching consequences I have no way to foresee. If the gods that dropped me here were throwing me a couple of freebies that was… fine but then who knows what else they changed? If it was fate twisting things? Well, there's a reason Cultivators talk about defying the heavens so often and it's not because of how benevolent they tend to be.
"It's considerably less than that." I tell Armsmaster "The only reason I found out was because Taylor here was in an extremely emotionally charged state, the window in which I would have to be within maybe a couple hundred meters can't have been much more than a minute at most. I'm quite frankly considering probability altering powers involved somewhere."
Which was another good reason to be very wary of Taylor's sudden good fortune. I don't think cauldron could pull something like this, but I'm not sure.
I can't put into words how much I want to leave earth Bet. There are so many corrupt, stupid people messing with the global situation it's impossible to keep track of. Fucking paranoia.
"Do you mean that seriously?" Armsmaster asks, sounding rather dubious himself.
"I doubt it, but the odds are so poor. Meeting Taylor like I did may very well have been the luckiest I've ever gotten." I try to flash the girl a friendly smile since we're not really involving her in the conversation, but she seems unwilling or unable to meet my gaze, hiding her face behind her long hair and staring at her feet.
Weird. I'd hoped I'd have gotten to the girl before she could become this shy.
Thankfully, we arrived at my lab, it's not far from Armsmasters lab since all the labs are kept in the same spot for security reasons.
"Alright, what did you need my help for?" Armsmaster asks, walking over to the enormous cauldron in the centre of my lab. Looking over the steel construct he made on my request.
"I'd take it as a personal favour if you scanned my entire lab for anything that could be used to spy on me."
Armsmaster turns to me, and I can see the surprise on his face "Apex? The protectorate isn't secretly spying on you, you've been a model hero as far as I'm concerned and I doubt they'd jeopardize that by making you feel unwelcome or under observation."
I give him my most disbelieving expression. "Armsmaster, I've been working under the assumption that the protectorate had both visual and audio devices recording my every move. I'm almost positive that I'm being observed here. Hell, I don't even blame them for it since as you well know my story is a bit out there. I don't mind if it's just people spying on me, but I really need my conversation with Taylor to be private."
Armsmaster shrugs his shoulders "If it'll put you at ease, I'll sweep your lab for bugs. Just don't be surprised if I don't turn up anything."
He calibrates several dials on the shaft of his halberd and sweeps the weapon around in a rough circle. I can hear the blaring of alerts from his helmet from where I'm standing. "That doesn't sound like you found nothing." I can't help but rub in slightly.
Armsmaster's face turns positively stormy. "You are correct, it does not." He starts stomping around the lab, removing several tiny components from various out of the way locations. "Spying on a ward? In his labs? Without informing me?" Armsmaster mutters, visibly getting more and more worked up with every device he pulls from my lab.
The whole process takes a comically large amount of time, like one of those skits where a guy has to disarm but then it goes on forever. Armsmaster has to sweep two more times, finding the last few devices, small metal discs thinner than paper the exact colour of the wall.
At that point, Armsmaster is properly pissed off.
"Apex, I'm… sorry, for doubting you, for having missed this." He eventually admits, holding the large pile of bugs in a small bag he'd pulled from one of his pockets. A small bag fully covered in a diamond-patterned lattice of copper on the outside. Because clearly, sometimes you just really need a portable Faraday cage bag I guess.
He thinks it over for a while, before moving over to the small console on the side of my door. "I'm officially locking your door with my personal codes." He finishes putting in a rather lengthy sequence of code before turning back to me "The only people who will have access to your room now are myself, Miss Militia and Director Piggot since their codes can be used to override mine. I've also set it so that if the door is opened for any reason, I'll be alerted. I promise you this will not happen again." He gives me an apology, making me feel rather awkward since I don't blame the guy at all. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to bring these to my lab for later study and then I'm going to yell at everyone who has had access to your lab until I get some answers." He gives a solemn nod to me and another to Taylor, before angrily marching out.
Whelp, that sounds like a couple of PRT and/or Cauldron patsies are going to be reassigned to Antarctica. Not my problem and not my concern, I've got bigger fish to fry.
"Well, that certainly happened. I know you must have a hundred questions but could you hold on for just a few more minutes? It's not that I don't trust Armsmaster or his competence but this is one of those situations where you can't be too careful." I take out a small supply of Cinnabar I've stored in my ring just in case I ever need to draw out an inscription on the fly. Dipping a small brush into the red Liquid I draw out a complex diagram on the floor, it's significantly faster going now that I have a cultivated body but it's still a fairly involved process.
I don't think there are any listening devices left in here, but god only knows what other abilities Cauldron has access to, I'd really prefer if no-one finds out anything I've got to say to Taylor. I've been pretty loose with a lot of information to the PRT but I haven't told them anything I think they can use against me. There was never a chance to lay low, once I had the PRT's attention after the whole disaster with the ABB beating my ass into the hospital I was in their sights.
Quite frankly, I'm surprised Cauldron hasn't made a move yet. With Doormaker and Clairvoyant on their side, there's no way I can run or hide from them, I was kind of banking on my usefulness and popularity as a hero to make it harder for me to just 'vanish' into some Cauldron facility and spend the rest of my short life being milked for my secrets before ending up in a shallow grave. Being forced to feed Eidolon some pills to make him a decade younger to see if that re-powers him is a price I'd have to pay if it came down to it.
It was a shitty defence sure, but what other options did I have? I've been spending most of my resource time looking into dimensional abilities, partially because I want to get the fuck out of this place but also because Scion uses dimensional nonsense to pull off about two-thirds of everything it did. Without some kind of defence against it, I was pretty sure that most parahuman powers would work on me, and that meant I was hosed.
Which is how I learned that performing dimensional stuff using Qi is possible but almost without exception incredibly difficult and almost exclusive to the later stages of cultivation. Not something I could just pick up and hope to challenge even the Shards of Scion with, let alone the real thing. That was even true if I disregarded the incredible power difference between us.
The Shards that gave parahumans their powers might be barely sentient crystal computers, but they had several stellar masses worth of power to burn, each. That wasn't something I could match anywhere this millennium, I'd tire and run out of Qi long before a parahuman power ran out of juice.
I finish the inscription on the floor and pour in a significant portion of the Qi from my dantian. I spread the energy throughout the entire pattern until with a sudden pop the whole thing snaps into place. Immediately all the background noises coming from the rig cut off as a barrier of Qi surrounds us like a bubble. I had deliberately made it as frail as possible, any attempt at passing through the barrier would instantly pop it like a bubble, hopefully, it would notify me if we were spied upon, even with dimensional trickery. I hope.
There, that's as safe as I can make this conversation. I get off of the floor where I'd been painting and stretch more out of habit than any actual discomfort. I turn to Taylor Hebert, who's been quietly taking everything in, she's still trying not to look directly at me but it's clear that she's listening. "Okay Miss Hebert, let's talk. What have you figured out so far?"
Taylor looks more than a little overwhelmed still. "You are friends with Armsmaster" she managed "Armsmaster knows who I am now, he made you this thing." She says, waving vaguely at the cauldron that now dominated the centre of my lab.
"All true, he's a hard man to befriend, but I think he approves of my work ethic and stance on heroism funnily enough." I grin, somewhat pleased that for all his depictions as an emotionless asshole, it was pretty easy to get along with the gruff man. All you had to do was never bother him unless you had to, work yourself to near death regularly and be a Tinker. Easy.
"But I wasn't referring to you meeting the local heroes Taylor," I add gently.
"No, I know, it's just, it's Armsmaster you know? He's famous, I own… merchandise with his brand on it." She says, blushing faintly, though she wrestles it back under control quickly "But you can give other people powers, and you think I'm a good pick."
"Well, that's pretty much why you're here, yes." I tell the nervous girl "There's a couple of conditions and things we need to agree on before I'd be willing to teach you. First things first, do you want to be a hero? The hours are long, the pay isn't sufficient for the amount of trouble you get into and you are going to get hurt. There's going to be days where it won't seem worth it and it's going to be absolute murder on your social life."
"Yes," Taylor replied instantly, with no hesitation whatsoever. "I'm going to assume there's going to be costs involved?" She asks, already anticipating that things won't be that easy.
I nod "Yes, there are. I'd have to pull you from school, for one. There's no way you're going to get good enough in the amount of time we have if you have to worry about school on top of that. I'll endorse you testing out, but this is going to be a pretty full-time thing." I tick off on my fingers "Second, It's going to be a pretty full-time thing." I repeated "My powers are more like an actual skill and it requires an absolutely bonkers amount of training to use them at all. Thirdly, before I teach you anything, I'm going to have to thoroughly heal you first."
Taylor looks rather surprised at that last one "How is getting free parahuman healing a cost?"
"Because if after hearing everything you change your mind, I'm going to accept your desires and drive you home without teaching you anything, but you'll have lost your ability to possibly get another power the normal way. My healing is thorough enough to remove the structures in your body that normal parahuman powers require." Probably shouldn't mention that I'd effectively be doing brain surgery on her if she agrees, but I'm not going to teach Taylor anything while Queen Administrator might be looking through Taylor's eyes. I had no idea how much information QA or shards in general could pull from their potential hosts pre-trigger, but it'd be stupid to take any chances.
"So if I turn you down, I go home without powers, but I'll have lost my ability to gain powers any other way?" Taylor asks for clarification.
"There's no guarantee you're going to get powers regardless," I point out "But yes, if I heal you properly there's no doubt that you're not going to get them at all." She could still gain powers from a Cauldron vial after that, but Queen Administrator would just have to find a new woobie.
I can see Taylor weigh the loss of a potential power against what she might be able to gain if I teach her. "What… are your powers? I've seen your thread online but all they agreed on were that you are a healer of some kind."
"I'd be perfectly willing to teach you how to heal people as well, in fact, I recommend it." I tell the girl "but without going into too much detail, I am more akin to Dauntless than any other local cape. I grow stronger in ways I can choose myself over time. The more time I spend practising and working at it, the stronger my power becomes."
"Dauntless, the hero people think is going to be at the Triumvirate level one day? That dauntless." Taylor asks me, her tone incredulous.
"I've been practising my power for a little over a week, and I've gone from being nearly beaten to death by a single gangster with some thugs backing him up to being able to fight the empire with multiple capes present and if not win, at least not lose either," I tell Taylor, somewhat amused at how vivid her reactions her, her face is incredibly expressive and with no bugs to offload her emotions onto it's pretty easy to identify every single emotion that crosses her face.
"And you plan to give that power to me?" She asks, still sounding as if she doesn't believe me.
"There's not a lot of giving involved I fear, it's going to take some real effort and dedication on your part, but other than that, yes," I confirm.
"Then yes, a hundred times yes. I want to be a hero." Taylor says, squaring her shoulders and for the first time since I've met her she meets my eyes while straightening her back. The difference is startling, standing upright she's a lot taller than she'd appeared hunched over, and her determined gaze makes her look a lot older. "I have one condition myself though." She says, seemingly realizing something now that she's made her decision
"Sure, name it," I reply, curious as to what she might want from me.
"You have to tell my dad about pulling me from school."
I'd expected there to be some further delay, or some complication coming from Taylor's shard, but I was pleasantly surprised.
Removing the Corona Pollentia was almost trivially easy, damaging it beyond repair using Qi and then getting Taylor's body to breakdown and remove the offending bit of tissue took a couple of seconds and just like that, I'd severed the connection between Shard and host.
Maybe I'd been overthinking things? In canon Contessa depowered a far more mutated power by shooting the offending bits of brain matter, compared to something as brutish and traumatic as that, using Qi healing to get rid of it was far easier and with noticeably less risk.
I think I could even use this method to depower any cape I can subdue for the required amount of time. It's going to be a last resort kind of thing though, as I mentioned before, the ability to heal away someone's power was going to get me an awful amount of the wrong attention.
I hadn't really told Taylor anything yet, she'd leapt onto possibly being a hero hard enough that she wanted to get it over with before she lost her nerve. Nothing I wanted to tell her couldn't wait until later, but I'd probably better stick close for when she meets Sophia and realizes one of her bullies is a Ward, or when she realizes the PRT is corrupt as fuck, or when she realizes that the world is doomed, or that I plan to leave this world until I'm strong enough to deal with things here. On second thought, I should probably keep a close eye on Taylor for the foreseeable future, for those reasons and many others.
There was a reason I was rushing things as well. The sooner I got Taylor started on her own Cultivation, the less chance anyone in the PRT would outright forbid me from taking Taylor as an apprentice. I'm pretty certain that the higherups in the PRT are understandably wary of my powers and they'd probably baulk at having more than one of me running around.
This is why it's far better for me to ask for forgiveness than permission.
I'd deal with Piggot's undoubted displeasure when it came up, and Taylor's dad would more than likely be upset as well, but I honestly don't give a damn about either of their opinions, so that thankfully works out.
I remove my hands from Taylor's temples and pull the needles from her head with the same motion, causing the girl to let out a deep sigh of relief. I'd gotten good enough with my needlework that I knew I hadn't caused the girl any pain, but it was still uncomfortable to have something stuck through your skin. "Okay, step one has been completed, you're now as healthy as could be expected from a teen. Slightly underfed, slight depression and with poor vision, but those things are going to fix themselves soon enough, there's nothing that might be dangerous."
Taylor visibly flinches when I bring up her depression but doesn't mention it any further than that. "So that's it?" she asks, thankfully growing more comfortable with my presence. She still has trouble looking directly at me but she's been growing less tense since we started.
"Step one of four." I correct her absentmindedly "making sure you're completely healthy isn't technically a required first step, but it's a good idea to be sure before doing anything drastic. The second step is clearing your Spiritual core, the four meridians that are required to be clear and unblocked to use any Qi abilities. Step three is more of the same, clearing out the other sixteen meridians to increase the speed and quantity of Qi your body can handle. Step four is going to be training, which will take a long time Taylor. We're talking decades of dedicated effort at the very least, and more likely centuries if not millennia. Cultivators live for an extraordinarily long time, possibly forever. And you're going to have to spend a significant portion of that time training and mastering your abilities."
"But with it, I could help people?" Taylor asks, appearing outwardly completely calm.
"Yes, if that's what you want to use your power for, you can. But Taylor, there's no reason to do this now, I planned to give you some time to think it over, make sure you knew what you were getting into before passing the point of no return." I don't want to delay things, but having Taylor rush into this and then resent me for it later would be awful. I know she doesn't understand what she's getting into, not really.
Taylor stays quiet so long that I almost think she hadn't heard me before speaking up, haltingly but with gathering certainty. "If I didn't… If I went home now, I think I'd regret it. Nothing would change, I'd be safe, but tomorrow? Tomorrow would be the same as yesterday, and the day before that going back… months, maybe years. I'd still be stuck at school, still bullied, still… sad. My dad." She stops, taking a deep breath before continuing. "My dad is stuck too, in the past, in his grief. I don't… I don't think he's going to get better, certainly not without help. I'd do almost anything to make him proud, to shock some life back into him. I don't know what I want from life, but I've always dreamed of being a hero, of being the person that helped others. So I don't… I don't care how hard it is going to be, how much time I'll have to spend training or doing" She waves her hands in a helpless gesture, encapsulating all the potential horrors of cultivation, "whatever I have to do. I think this is the kind of situation I've always dreamed of, of being able to make a difference. I'd be a fool to pass it up because things are going to get hard."
She gives me the single most uncompromising look I've ever gotten. "Before anything else, shouldn't a hero be brave? So come on, let's get this done."
… well hot damn, alright.
"Okay then, if you're that sure, strip." In any other situation, watching Taylor's face go from scared but determined to a blustering, awkward teenager would have been funny.
"What?" She finally squeaks out after trying to talk for several seconds and failing, blushing as deeply as anyone I'd ever seen, a flush making her face cherry red.
I raise an eyebrow at the girl. "I'm assuming you've got a bra on, under your hoodie?"
Some more strangled attempts at conversation before she finally just gives a short, wooden nod.
"Then you're going to be as covered as you'd be on the beach. I need access to your skin from your stomach to the crown of your head." I explain to the girl, as sympathetically as I can since I know the girl's got body image issues.
"Not, I don't… I don't wear bikini's on the beach." she hisses at me. Despite her words, she takes a deep breath and takes off her hoodie before awkwardly shrugging off the black shirt beneath it, blushing all the way down to her bra covered chest as she covers herself with her arms, strictly not meeting my gaze.
Taylor is thin, not unhealthily so but close, despite that she has a small belly, where an unhealthy diet has deposited her fat reserves instead of on her almost nonexistent chest, because Nature is cruel like that.
I give the girl an encouraging smile, before unrolling my collection of needles and gently put Taylor on the cold steel floor. She's still covering her chest and stomach with her arms as best as she can. "What are you going to do next?" She asks, more to get her mind off of her situation than anything else I think.
"I'm going to insert needles along four meridians," I explain to the girl as I get to work, using my own Qi to determine where her meridians are and then swiftly placing a needle in the appropriate location before moving on to the next node down the line "Once I have covered the length of both of your meridians I'll use my own Qi to remove the corrupted Qi that has calcified and blocked those passageways. It's not going to hurt, but you're going to be violently sick afterwards as your body expels the detritus." I give a small snort "Just be glad you've got someone who knows what they're doing around, doing it the way I was forced to do it on myself has a far higher chance of killing or crippling someone than the far more gentle method I'm using on you."
"Just… do what you have to do," Taylor says, biting her lip and holding herself completely rigid.
"Don't worry," I say, tongue poking out a little as I focus on getting this right, slowly working my way down from Taylor's head, already more than halfway done "This isn't going to be painful in the least. It's just going to be awkward for the both of us."
"You think this is awkward for you?" Taylor asks incredulously, actually opening the eyes she'd been clenching shut to look at me for a moment. "You're not the one shirtless in front of someone they just met!" She actually sounds offended, and a little bit… disappointed?
"No, but we're going to get there. There's a very good reason that this is usually done between members of the same sex." I finish applying the needles and pause for a moment. "So, a quick lesson on Qi, because it's going to be relevant in a moment. Qi becomes aspected, which means that it takes on the aspects of a certain element. Fire Qi, wood Qi, Metal Qi, Water Qi and Earth Qi are the most common but there are thousands of types of Qi, none of them terribly relevant right now. What is relevant, is that aside from its aspect, Qi also tends to lean one of two ways. Yang, the masculine and Yin, the feminine."
Taylor goes somehow even more rigid, genuinely terrified for just a moment before she once more forces herself to relax. "Is this a sex thing?" She squeaks out, sounding rather close to panic.
"No," I tell the girl in no uncertain times. "It can be, mind you. But that's not what we're doing here now." Thankfully, Taylor relaxes a little again. "But Yang and Yin are two halves of a whole, they don't quite mix but they do interact. Which is why I said this was going to be a little awkward."
"I'm glad" Taylor bites out "That things haven't gotten awkward yet."
That startles a laugh from me, I'm still grinning when I give her one last chance to change her mind. "Last chance to back out Taylor, once I unblock your meridians you're stuck with me. Possibly for a long time."
She seems to think it through for just a moment, but the brief bout of snarky humour seems to have loosened the girl up farther than I expected. "And let you get away with stripping me with nothing in return? I thought it was the girl who was supposed to chicken out in situations like this." She looks me right in the face, even if she's still blushing madly, obviously uncomfortable with being undressed next to a near-stranger. "Just get on with it… chicken."
… you went there?
I gather my Qi and quickly apply the last three needles in sequence, one for each dantian. Then I mould my Qi against Taylor's, showing her how to move her Qi and letting her draw on my qi for strength. At the end of the day, it's best for Taylor's future progress if she does this by herself, I'm merely showing her what to do in the Qi equivalent of holding her hand.
Taylor's eyes nearly bulged from her face as our combined Qi starts slowly flowing through her meridians, cleaning them as we go.
Mixing Yin and Yang Qi isn't painful, quite the opposite. I wasn't lying when I said it wasn't necessarily sexual but what it is is intimate. I get brief flashes from Taylor, it's nowhere near as simple or straightforward as reading her mind, the interaction is far more reciprocal than that. I get vague impressions of Taylor as a person, nothing I wouldn't have gotten from sitting down with her and having a long, drawn-out heart to heart conversation. While slightly intoxicated. While she was sitting on my lap the whole evening.
It's distractingly intimate, as I said.
I wish that I had an idea of what Taylor is getting from me but that's not how it works. I don't learn anything I didn't know already, Taylor is a thin layer of grief and depression wrapped around an iron fucking core. I can feel her excitement and tentative hope at what's to come, I can feel her frustration, love and sadness aimed at her father.
And yes, I can feel arousal burning through her body. It hadn't been a surprise exactly, my nose is really sensitive this close, I was just slightly surprised by the sheer depth of it.
must… not… pop… boner.
The whole process takes maybe a minute at most. Partially it's because half of her spiritual root had been cleared to start with, the channel from her Dantian to her crown had been mostly clear, allowing her to subconsciously push Qi up to her head but being unable to cycle it away since the rest of her meridians were blocked. The Qi that was then forced from her was what I'd picked up on.
But mainly it's so effortless because Qi, balanced between Yin and Yang is pure, flawless in a way that only Yang or Yin aligned Qi is not. It's part of why dual cultivation is so incredibly potent, even with all of the side effects and issues that can arise from mixing Qi like that.
I withdraw my Qi from Taylor's body, struggling a little as neither of our Qi wants to let go of each other. One of the more pervasive issues with dual cultivation, but possible to ignore with enough willpower. The moment my Qi completely snaps free from the death grip Taylor's Qi had on it, Taylor herself sags back to the ground, going almost completely limp.
"That was… awkward." She finally manages, keeping her eyes closed but a lot more relaxed around me than she was before.
"Told you it would be. It's not dangerous but it's just, weirdly intimate to do with a stranger. Not unpleasant, but weird."
Taylor nods, before she suddenly jerks upright, one hand covering her mouth. I pull a bucket from my ring and place it in front of the girl, sympathetically patting her on her unclothed back since I know what's going to happen.
"Apex, Piggot has ordered you into her office at your earliest convenience." A voice echoes from the intercom, a mere moment before the door slides open and Miss Militia walks in, freezing when she sees the unclothed girl violently throwing up into a bucket.
At least she kind of knocked this time.
"I'm in the middle of something Miss Militia," I tell my… friend? Co-worker? "I'll finish up here and make my way to Piggot's office afterwards."
"I know you're not used to things like this, but when your superior commander tells you 'at your earliest convenience' what she really means is 'start running'," she says in a warning tone.
"Unless you're working on something volatile that could destroy the Rig, in which case I assume it's customary to ensure things aren't going to blow up the moment I take my eyes off things. Piggot can wait thirty minutes."
"Apex, Miss Piggot seemed… upset, I advise you to hurry if at all possible," Hannah says, still flicking her gaze at Taylor every few moments. "I don't know what the issue is exactly, but I think she's planning to give you a dressing down, be careful."
"Thank you for the advice and warning," I tell Miss Militia, gently rubbing Taylor's back as she throws up foul-smelling gunk. "But Piggot can wait, this can not."
"Apex, thank you for finally joining us." Piggot's acerbic voice greets me the moment the door slides open.
"You're welcome" I greet the woman back, causing her already piggish eyes to narrow even further. Wonderful, this is going to be fun, I can tell.
"Do you remember when we last met, what I told you?" Piggot waspishly asks me.
"Sure, you wanted to know why I didn't want to obey your orders, and you forced me to tell you anyway, I called you a bitter old racist and you kicked me out of your office," I reply blithely. I know it's probably not wise to tweak the woman's nose, but her constant aggression and hate aimed my way got old fast. It might serve to intimidate the Wards and maybe even some of the Protectorate, but I'm not going to back down from a bitter old bitch just because she has a killer glare.
"I told you that we wouldn't interact unless you had truly screwed the pooch," Piggot asks, speaking through clenched teeth. "Have you noticed that you are, in fact, in my office?"
"I had noticed," I tell the woman, keeping a small, placid smile on my face at all times.
"Then what, in god's green earth, made you think it was a good idea to reveal your enhanced senses on live television? Do you have any idea how many issues the power to so casually unmask capes can cause?"
"My thought process was roughly 'hey, this aggressive dickhead was a family member of the violent coked-up nazi I beat into the hospital a couple of days ago, I'll bet I can use it against him and make him look like an idiot instead of looking like a violent thug myself'," I explain to the woman glaring at me. "I bet there are hundreds of capes who can do something similar, as long as I don't actively go around unmasking capes I don't think it'll be a big deal."
"Oh? Your long experience with the parahuman climate made you ' think' that did it?" Piggot asks, turning a rather unhealthy shade of puce in the process. She takes a deep breath, before pushing on "When were you planning to inform the Protectorate about this new ability?" Miss Piggot asks.
"In about three weeks." I answer honestly "during the next power testing session I'm scheduled for."
"And it didn't occur to you that this might be something that had to be handled professionally, had to be accounted for and adapted so that it wouldn't disrupt the delicate balance we have achieved with the gangs?"
"I considered it, and then discarded it." I admit freely "I've got a thousand things to do, running towards you to inform you of every damn action and achievement I make isn't one of them."
Miss Piggot's steel grey eyes stare me down, trying to force me to yield to her authority. I meet her eyes squarely, I've done nothing wrong and Piggot can sit on it and spin.
"I don't think you understand the relationship between us." Piggot finally says, seemingly forcing herself back under control with nothing but her iron will. "I am your superior, I lead the protectorate ENE, I am responsible for all your fuckups, so when you do cause a scene, I am the one who has to handle it. Because of this, what I say, goes. As far as you are concerned, my word is law. Do. You. Understand?"
"No. I found a new recruit" I fire, completely from left field "someone who can be taught the same powers I can use."
"This would be the civilian you brought onboard the rig? I forbid you from teaching the girl." Piggot fires back instantly "This is what I mean, you don't think things through. You just think you know the right course of action to take and do it, with no thought for the consequences."
"Oh no, I realize the consequences just fine. I thought that'd be your response, so I helped her along to the point your opinion on it becomes moot." I tell the woman, suppressing a smile when the woman actually flinches a little.
"You what?"
"Taught her, specifically I pushed her along to the point where she can probably start to use her power. I left her with my stash of food to recover from getting her meridian cleansed, though there's a lot less damage since she both had my help and was halfway there already."
"Apex, what do you think I'm here for? What do you think I do?" Miss Piggot asks me, eyes still narrowed but now in contemplation rather than fury. The switch between the two extremes of anger and contemplation catch me off guard.
"Uhm, I think you're here as a roadblock, I consider you an obstacle to work around," I tell her, "You direct the local unpowered PRT members to back up the heroes, and you are either hopelessly corrupt or shockingly incompetent."
Piggot doesn't react past motioning me to continue.
"From what I've seen, most of the troopers I've met so far are good folk, but your operation leaks like a sieve. The Empire capes who escaped had to have had outside help. There's no way they got out on their own, not in the shape they were in. That means that Kaiser learned his people had been taken and learned of it quickly enough to intercept the prison transport before they made it past two blocks."
"And you don't think that I'll punish you, make your life difficult for defying me?" She asks, still weirdly intent and calm.
"Of course I do. I weighed your displeasure against having another healer and decided any amount of punishment would be worth it. Taylor will probably reach the competency I had at Madison with my method of healing before the next Endbringer attack. A capable healer might save thousands of lives in her lifetime, you really think I'd weigh that against my discomfort and decide it's not worth it?"
"What about her father? Have you gotten parental consent for performing what could be argued is a dangerous surgery on a minor?" Piggot asks me in that same, eerily calm voice. Frankly, her sudden utter calm is creeping me out a bit.
"No. From what I understand he's useless as a father, too trapped in the grief of losing his wife to bother with his daughter, I value Taylor's opinion on the subject of her future over that of anyone else, including her father. As for having a court object, I'd be very amused to watch them trying to prove that. I could argue, truthfully, that I fixed a problem I encountered before it became a catastrophe. If they want to contest that, they'd need to find an expert on Qi healing, which your world doesn't have. Even if they did find one, I'm right."
"So the girl's power is dangerous then?" Piggot asks me, thinking very hard about something.
" All power is dangerous. Your political power is dangerous, the gun you're pointing at my chest under the desk is dangerous, the money in the Mayor's coffers is dangerous. So far, I haven't determined exactly what kind of power she is most capable of using, but assume a limited form of telekinesis, extrasensory perception in a small radius and some form of Illusionary power."
"But no master powers?" Piggot asks, thoughtfully.
"If she works at one, she can probably teach herself one with enough practice. That's how my powers work."
"That wasn't in your power testing report." Piggot points out.
"Yeah, talking about incompetence. Do you know that the person in the building with the best grasp of my abilities is Miss Militia? Simply because she asked? Those scientists you set on me were so busying checking my powers for anything dangerous that they didn't even bother to ask me a damned thing." I counter.
"Interesting. You've given me several things to think about. I'll contact Miss Hebert's father and have him report here. We will continue this conversation later. You are dismissed, for now"
A few seconds later I am standing outside of Piggot's office.
What the absolute fuck just happened? Should I go back in there and search her room for a human controlling Master or something? What the hell?
I'm still standing there, absolutely confused when Miss Militia passes me by, going into the director's office.
… I have no idea what was up with that conversation, but I'm going to go back to Taylor and see how she's doing, then I'm going to start working on my alchemy until the world makes sense again.
Author's note: It's pretty fun to watch you guys argue over things I'm already working on while writing the next chapter. I'd like to quickly clarify one minor issue I saw crop up. Keep in mind that anything anyone says is (if I do things right) based on their in character knowledge. If someone says something that doesn't mean it's true. It just means that character believes it. I also expected the sheer amount of Taylor hate, but it still caught me off guard a little. Give the poor girl some love gentlemen. I can imagine you're not pleased if she overtakes the whole story, but please, a little trust. (I cannot stab you in the back without it you see)
Chapter 11
"Are you okay?" Taylor asks me, noticing the mood I was in when I got back from my baffling visit with the director.
"You know, I have no idea? I expected to get chewed out by the boss lady, and that's how things started, but then halfway through it she just… stopped. She's going to call your dad though, he'll probably show up here eventually. Until he gets here, we should probably get you settled. How far did you get?"
Instead of replying, Taylor closes her eyes to focus, a bad habit I'd have to break her off eventually. After a few seconds of nothing happening, a bog-standard ballpoint pen starts to float around the lab, with no visible means of control. Even when I fully focus my Qi senses on the task, it's incredibly difficult to spot the thread of mind aspected Qi going back to the young lady in front of me. I really need to start practising my ability to sense Qi, it hadn't been a priority since there were no other Qi users alive, but to teach properly it was important for me to realize what she was doing so I'd know if she got it wrong.
"Nice!" I observe the pen, it wobbles from time to time whenever Taylor's concentration wavers or she loses control of the minute amount of Qi she's using. "It's looking decently stable too, is that the limit weight-wise?"
The pen makes one more orbit around the room before floating over to Taylor, dropping out of the air into her waiting hand. Taylor opens her eyes, pride and giddy excitement beaming off of her "Right? It was a lot more wobbly when I just started, but it's been getting better the more I practice it. I can lift a second pen, but when I tried to lift a screwdriver I burned through my Qi way faster than I was recovering it. You said that was a good sign to stop so I just kept practising with the pen."
"Hey, good job Taylor, seriously. I hadn't expected you to pull that off so quickly, let alone with any sort of control." Taylor preens under the praise, she tries to get herself under some sort of control but she keeps failing, her smile is radiant and absolutely refuses to go away. I think it's the combination of getting amazing new superpowers, finding out you're actually good at using those powers and getting some of her depression washed away when I cleansed her meridians. The first refinement of the body kind of pushes the body back to factory settings, removing all traces of damage people tend to accrue during their lives. It won't alter her personality any, but the chemical imbalances in the brain will fix themselves pretty rapidly. Speaking of which.
"Did you get a good grasp of the Swallowing Whale trick? I know I left you in a bit of a hurry but duty called." Taylor already looks a lot better than when I left her, the slight emaciation was simply gone after eating a good portion of my food stash.
"Yeah, I figured it out after a bit. I'm not very good at it yet, sometimes I was completely full while I was eating but then I'd just stop and practise the technique until the bloated feeling was gone. Please tell me I won't have to eat like that permanently now, I'm not sure if the Hebert Budget will stretch to feed me two dozen full courses every mealtime." She wrinkles her nose a little at the thought, slightly concerned about the future but not enough to break the high she's riding on.
"Don't worry, you're going to need a ton of food at the start, but that'll pretty quickly level out. Eventually, we won't have to eat at all, only eating for fun and pleasure." I reassure the girl. "But before we can get to any of the proper training, there's something you need to do first."
I grab the e-reader from my ring and cautiously give it to the girl. I'm not concerned she's going to go mad with power right off the bat, but I don't want my library to kill my new apprentice. "Here, I've highlighted a few books that you're pretty much going to have to start with. The first one I'd recommend you read is the basics of Cultivation. It's a pamphlet some cult made as a guide for people who have no idea about cultivation at all." Because they often kidnapped mortals by the busload and forced them into deathmatches and needed a quick way to get them up to speed. "After that, there's a book on a useful bloodline and then the cultivation techniques I'm using."
Taylor takes the reader almost reverently. "I thought you had no idea what my bloodline was, and had to do some tests before you could figure out the most suitable cultivation technique?" Taylor asks, refraining from diving straight into the lessons I'd just handed her.
"That's because it's not your bloodline we're talking about, that second book is about mine. It might be relevant for you to learn, and I think it's best if you learned ahead of time what it involves. Now get to it, If you get a headache while reading those texts I want you to take a break. No using your Qi during those breaks at all, if you doubt whether you're good to move to the next book, ask me and I'll check you over? Okay?"
Taylor clutches the book to her slightly more filled out chest and nods her head at me, still grinning like a loon. Already the little bit of flab she used to have on her stomach was simply gone, her curves were ever so slightly more filled out as her body mass redistributed to a slightly more healthy configuration. Taylor seems to notice my gaze as I give her a once over, which makes her realize that despite me leaving for quite some time, she still hasn't put her shirt or hoodie back on. She flushes but doesn't make a move towards her clothes, she clenches her hands nervously but she still lets me look without comment.
I am really curious to find out what she's learned from merging our Qi now if that brief, minute-long interaction made her comfortable or trusting enough of my presence to let me eye her that blatantly.
Also, Gnnhhh! adorable Taylor shyly realizing I think she's cute is great. Great I say!
I give the girl the most encouraging smile I can muster, and leave her to her own devices. After all, training Taylor is important, but Armsmaster also finally got around to making a Pill cauldron to my specifications. I still had to carve in a ton of scriptures to make it something more than just a chunk of machined steel, but once I had I could finally start applying some of my alchemy knowledge to hopefully speed up both of our cultivation.
The contents of the cauldron exploded violently, the rampant energy it was bottling up escaping only barely under my will, just enough not to damage the cauldron. This does mean that I take the brunt of a pretty energetic explosion at point-blank range. The kinetic energy slaps me in the chest hard enough to lift me off of my feet, sending me flying backwards and causing me to slide the last few feet, stopping me just short of the door.
"Ouch."
Taylor, having had plenty of time to get used to it by now, merely looks up from the crate she's sitting on, reader in hand. "At least you're no longer flying far enough to hit the wall." She tries to encourage me after my latest failure. I look back at the unyielding steel wall right above my head from my horizontal position, looking at the cushion I'd taped to the slightly dented wall there.
Okay, fair point .
I don't need her to comfort me, alchemy is devilishly hard at the best of times. Starting out without the improved control from spiritual cultivation, a poor alchemy furnace and substandard ingredients it was always going to take me a lot of practice to get things right.
Even if it did smart a bit that with this latest failure I passed the double-digit mark and officially accrued my hundredth failure.
I let out a deep sigh "at least the ingredients I'm using are cheap and plentiful."
"I'm still not sure how you can turn ordinary sugar into a pill that does anything other than cause diabetes." Taylor opines, drumming her heels on the crate she's sitting on. She's recovering from reading the first book I'd recommended her, gifting her a basic understanding of the terms used in cultivation.
"Alchemy is funky like that, but in this case, the physical material is just to make a shell around the end product and to give me something to carve an inscription on to keep the internal part in stasis. The actual active part of this pill is pure Qi, which is partially what makes it so difficult." Good practice though, my control over Qi in general but the fire aspected Qi that went into the pill especially had grown with leaps and bounds.
"But how do you get a healing pill from Fire Qi? I mean" Here she waves the reader around a bit "I get that the elements encompass a lot more than just actual fire, but I'd still have thought that healing would be the ballpark of Wood or maybe Water."
"Because what this pill does is burn away a certain amount of impurities in the body itself. The pill is pretty much useless to us, but crafting it over and over is excellent training and this world has plenty of sugar for me to practice with. Better practice as much as I can when the cost of failure is minimal before I start to work on pills that have far more limited resources." I could also imagine that there were quite a few people in the world who'd be willing to do almost anything for another two to three decades of life. There were more types of power a cultivator could use than just physical or mystical after all.
Ugh, I really had to start up a garden. Getting ordinary plants to go from mundane plants to Qi enriched spiritual herbs would be a project all on its own. I was rapidly coming to understand why sects were so large, doing everything by yourself doesn't only require an uncommon amount of skill in every aspect of cultivator life, but it also took forever.
I'd have really liked to get Amy's help with making Qi adapted plants, but I couldn't trust her with that knowledge as long as the Shaper shard was looking over her shoulder and if I removed it, she also lost the power that would allow her to help in the first place.
… I think.
I wasn't completely ruling out that Amy would end up having some sort of undetectable bloodline because Amy is definitely one of the three girls in Worm who I'd consider as prime Harem candidates. Though I don't know how much of that is sympathy for her situation talking.
Mental note, I really need to find a better way of identifying potential bloodlines. Though I don't want to just pick girls I want to spend eternity with, based solely on what powers I could leach off of them.
But even without their powers as a consideration, I don't think I could fall in love with anyone whose life would only last a fraction of a fraction of my own. To an older cultivator, a human lifetime was like a blink of an eye, watching someone you love grow old and die would be awful, doubly so for a cultivator. The more a cultivator grew in power the more they grew… eternal, unchanging. Grief for a cultivator never really faded, nor did love or hate, not entirely. It made them more suited to an immortal life but it also made them less human in the end. I might be able to share my immortal life with others via my bloodline abilities, but I simply wasn't sure.
No, I was going to teach Cultivation to every last person I got romantically involved with. I could then hem and haw over being betrayed by them later when they grew equal to me in power, but frankly, if you can't trust the people you love, then what's the point?
I'd accept a thousand betrayals if the other option was to go through life without ever trusting anyone. Maybe thousands of years later I'll change my mind and grow more callous and harden my heart, but I hope not. Right now, that's not the kind of person I want to be.
My musing is interrupted by the door chiming. For the very first time since I got to this world, it seems a locked door actually prevented someone from just barging in. Progress!
I open the door, wiping some of the soot off of my face with a towel I'd been using for that very purpose. It's happened often enough that I'm more smearing the soot on my face than actually getting clean. I'd given up on that somewhere around the third time I had to switch to a new cloth despite washing them.
The door slides open when I press the button on the intercom, bringing me face to face with a reasonably frantic Danny Hebert. He's a tall, gangly man with a prominent balding spot on his head and a rather weak chin. He has a visitor's badge pinned to his work clothes, his anxiety at being called by the government to talk about his daughter fades into confusion when he takes in my bedraggled appearance.
I must make quite a sight, I'm mostly covered in soot except for my face, my shirt has long since been sacrificed to the pyre of alchemy and my pants are the only identifiable piece of clothing I still wear. His gaze then goes from my mostly undressed state before moving over to his daughter, who is still sitting topless in the same room. She seems to realize exactly what he's looking at when she squawks and rushes to her clothes, Danny's gaze snaps back at my own with frightening intensity.
For just a moment, I wonder if this is how I die.
But no, Danny wrestles his temper under control with the ease of long practice. He takes my hand and further surprises me by not going for the crushing grip. Instead, he shakes my hand with a firm grip before he steps through the door, rushing over to his daughter who is hurriedly shrugging her shirt back on but stopping several feet away, awkwardly looking like he wants to go for a hug but not sure if he should.
"It's not what it looks like!" Taylor blurts out before Danny can say anything. "It's just… I wasn't…"
I roll my eyes at both of them for being idiots. I take careful aim and then lightly kick Danny on the ass. Causing him to stumble forward only to land straight in the arms of his daughter, who immediately tried to catch her dad. Finally having crossed those last few steps Danny crushes his daughter to his chest in a desperate hug that frankly they both look like they needed.
They say nothing for quite some time, just luxuriating in a moment of physical contact that's been long overdue. Taking comfort in their shared presence, reaffirming to themselves that they still love each other. Everything else is just details.
Bam! Problem solved via applied hugs. Is there no emotional situation they cannot solve or at least improve?
Eventually, the hug has to end. Danny breaks it first when Taylor starts to fidget, taking a moment to wipe his eyes before turning back to me. "I'm sorry, we haven't been introduced properly. I'm Danny Hebert, Taylor's father. I got a rather confusing call from the PRT and I feared the worst. Could you tell me… what exactly is going on?"
"Taylor has powers." I explain without preamble "The same type of power that I have, which is why I've offered to help her practice and master her powers. She's mostly undressed because the practice we require is notoriously hard on normal clothing, case in point." I hold my arms wide, showcasing the ruins of the garment I was wearing. With pinpoint comedic timing, the tattered remains of my shirt chose that very moment to disintegrate the rest of the way, falling off of me and revealing small pink strips of clean skin underneath.
Danny seems to age a decade when he hears that his daughter has powers. Aside from that, he takes things rather calmly. "I see." He takes a deep breath, squares his shoulders and faces me directly, he looks remarkably similar to his daughter when she does the same. "What… does that mean, for my daughter?"
"Practice, an absolutely disgusting amount of training." I start to list for the man "I'm planning to pull her out of school so she has sufficient time to grow to the point that she can at least guarantee her own safety."
Danny started to work himself up when he heard I was going to pull her out of school, but when I phrased it as making sure she wouldn't be hurt he almost deflated. "What about her diploma, interaction with peers, friends?" He tries to argue. I get it, from his point of view getting that piece of paper was important for his daughter to lead a good life. "It's very likely that the PRT is going to insist on testing out or getting a GED instead of finishing school the normal way. But given that she has no real friends due to a rather vicious bullying campaign, I think interacting with the other wards will provide more options for healthy peer relationships." Barring the obvious issues with Sophia, which I had to dismantle without Taylor killing Sophia in the process. Don't think Danny has to worry about that right now though.
"Apex!" Taylor cries out, embarrassed as Danny whirls to his daughter, surprise on his face. I can see him work it out in his head as that surprise is replaced by a deep sense of shame instead.
"She didn't want you to worry. She loves you, didn't want to burden you on top of everything else." I carry on, completely ignoring Taylor's objections. Keeping things from her dad had always been stupid, I respected the desire to be self-sufficient but there was no shame in needing help. I'm also deathly allergic to the easily preventable drama that arises from people that love each other keeping secrets from one another "Your daughter is brave, clever and stronger than you know. She'll be a great hero one day."
When I compliment her like that, Talor loses the ability to look me in the eye along with most of her anger, blushing and trying not to bask in the compliment. Danny just nods, like the knowledge that his daughter is amazing should be self-evident to anyone with eyes. "I have some experience with the cape scene, I'm still concerned about the sheer amount of danger it'll put her in. I'm not at all comfortable with thinking of my little girl as any kind of warrior."
And again, I've never had kids myself but I would be pretty worried if I heard my daughter planned to be a soldier. I get where he's coming from, and unlike the other objections he has, it's not one I can just wave away, not in Brockton Bay, not in Worm period.
"I'll initially be focussing pretty heavily on making Taylor more survivable, I'll give her every protective measure I can think of, from armour to shielding. Even then I plan to mostly have her be known as a healer, much like Panacea a reputation as a powerful healer might be enough to keep her safe all on its own." I try to assuage the man. "No one wants to hurt a healer, who knows when they'll need one?"
"But you can't guarantee her safety, can you?" Danny points out.
I have to bite down my initial response, which would simply be 'can you?'. It's not me Danny is upset with, it's the situation he's in. Getting angry or lashing out because of that would be childish and wrong to boot.
"No. I can't. I can help her wherever I can, but Brockton Bay is a dangerous city, the local villains are powerful and well-entrenched." I admit instead " I can fully empathize with your caution and concern but nothing I do will guarantee your daughter won't be hurt. That being said mister Hebert, there are a few things you should keep in mind." I take a deep breath, settling myself before meeting the man's piercing green eyes "I can heal anything short of death, I might not be the most powerful cape in the city but I'll lay down my life for hers in a heartbeat, and sir." I make sure that there is absolutely no doubt that I mean when I say when I continue "If someone did target your daughter deliberately, they'll never find the bodies."
I'm not joking either. I'm not an overly violent man by nature but if someone comes after me or mine I'll kill you without a moment's hesitation without losing a microsecond of sleep afterwards. If it kept those I care for safe I would use any means I had to, do anything, use any power.
I knew my own weaknesses well. The people I cared for were a glaring flaw and weakness for my enemies to exploit. They'd just have to make sure that when they did they actually got rid of me permanently, because my retaliation against anyone stupid enough to try would be epic, in the classical meaning of the word. They'd write songs about the aftermath.
The man searches my gaze, searching for something in my face before giving a slow, cautious nod. "I think, kid. That you should call me Danny. Do you mind if I talk with my daughter for a bit? Under four eyes?"
I nod, leaving the Hebert family to talk things over between themselves. I've got plenty to do, and I'm sure they've got plenty to talk about.
Danny's talk with Taylor laster a lot longer than I expected, more than long enough for me to finish my first successful batch of pills. Of course, the misshapen, burnt lumps weren't exactly flawless representations of the alchemist's craft, but I was still pretty pleased that I'd gotten a handle on most of the alchemical processes in a single afternoon.
"Uhm, Apex was it?" Danny eventually comes up to me. "I'm going to take Taylor home for now if that's okay. We talked things out and if she's going to spend as much time here as I suspect you both want, there are a lot of things she's going to have to grab from her home. Clothes, toiletries." He looks at the furiously blushing Taylor, who is looking more mortified than back when I asked her to strip. "Lingerie, that sort of thing."
"Yeah, that's fine, but hold on a for a bit. There's something I have to give Taylor before you go." I move back over to my workbench, I hadn't been able to perform alchemy without breaks, every pill I created, regardless of my success, required a hefty chunk of my total Qi capacity. I'd been working on a little something for Taylor ever since I realized that I was invested enough in the girl's well being that she could be used against me.
"Hey Taylor, give me your hand for a bit."
Taylor looks curious but obeys without question, putting her slim hand in my own, far large appendage. I slip a ring on her finger, her right hand's finger because I'm not that insensitive. The ring is a slim band of gold worked with fine flecks of obsidian. It's pretty enough for an amateur job, but the really important bits are the scriptures flowing over the obsidian, cleverly hidden by the construction of the rest of the ring.
"I'm fine with you going home, but until you get back here you have to keep wearing the ring. Don't take it off for any reason, baths, bathroom, doesn't matter." I tell the girl, who's trying very hard not to meet her father's amused gaze. When she finds out that the ring has a practical purpose she seems to be far more at ease with the piece of jewellery, funnily enough
"What does it do?" She asks, checking the slim band and even pressing her Qi into the ring in a clumsy attempt at figuring out what it's for "Your Qi is in it!" She says, sounding pretty proud of that realization and looking disproportionally happy about it.
"Yeah, there is. I've got an identical ring." I hold up my hand, showing the nearly identical golden ring right above my storage ring. "If you're hurt or in trouble, that ring will not only notify me, but it can lead me right to you no matter how you're hidden. I'm not expecting anything like that, but better safe than sorry." I say awkwardly.
Danny gives a rather unconvincing cough after a moment, startling Taylor. "You're going to have to let go eventually little owl." He says, amusement clear in his voice as he pointedly looks at Taylor's hand, still holding on to my own. Taylor rips her hand free of my grasp and Danny just laughs, grabbing my hand in return and giving me another handshake, this one a lot less hostile than the previous one. "I know I might not have shown it, but I'm grateful for all your help Apex. I'll drop Taylor off when I leave for work tomorrow, somewhere around six?"
"That's fine Danny, don't give her too hard a time eh? It would be a shame if Taylor got so used to teasing that she stopped blushing."
Danny just laughs, causing Taylor to grab his hand "Thanksforeverythingwereallyhavetogookaythanksbye!" she forces out in one breath, dragging her still laughing father out of my lab just short of a sprint.
… that went well I think.
The silence in my lab after Taylor left feels a lot more oppressive than it did before. I try to go back to work, but the silence is deafening and ruins my ability to concentrate.
Fuck it, let's go with option B, I had several promises to keep after all.
I made my way back to the general mess hall, filled with PRT troopers and bureaucrats just taking a break. I've gotten dressed in casual clothes again, only taking my needles with me. I'd promised to help with the healing for these people, but I'd been so busy focussing on growing as strong as I could as quickly as I could that I had neglected to actually do anything about it.
"Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have attention please?" I yell out through the hubbub of many people talking through one another, causing everyone to fall quiet and turn to me. "I've been busy, but can I interest anyone in parahuman healing? I heal anything, no questions asked, patient confidentiality assured!"
There are other things to do than just focus on myself and my growing strength. These are good people and a little bit of my time can help a lot of these people. I can't fix this world, not yet, but I can help the people around me to make things a little bit better.
Surprisingly, I ran out of patients before I ran out of Qi. Most of what I had to deal with were old injuries, wounds that didn't heal properly or hadn't been tended to due to a lack of time or materials. Old wounds did require more Qi to heal than a recent wound, but most of the wounds were effectively combat-related injuries, something Qi absolutely excelled at healing.
Whether it was my increasing reserves or just me getting more familiar with my own healing skills, I had fixed almost everything with only minimal complications. There were a few people I have asked to come back for a second round of healing but in general, everyone I treated walked away whole. Twisted joints and more bruises than I could count simply melted underneath my growing medical prowess.
When I ran out of people to heal, I went back to my lab for the next skill I wanted to master. I'd found a movement technique that scaled up well for a very long time and wanted to make it my next project, to focus on whenever I wasn't practising my alchemy which remained my primary concern for now.
I was still practising the heaven's boundless steps when my ring started blaring a mental alarm, snapping me out of the required concentration I needed to maintain the technique, almost falling flat on my face as I jolted to an incredibly sudden stop. Really? Really? The first fucking day? I was going to find out who was messing with my new apprentice and then I was going to go on a killing spree that might very well end up luring the Slaughterhouse nine to the city.
I activate the scripts I'd carved on my ring, the pieces of obsidian on this ring came from the same source as the ones on Taylor's ring, I reach back to that shared sympathetic link between the two and I project a comprehensive flash of Taylor's immediate surroundings right into my mind.
My mounting rage flickers and dies, though the situation doesn't help me calm down any.
Huh.
I'd set Taylor's ring to a complicated set of triggers. The ring measured her physical condition in various ways and whenever one of her values dipped or rose beyond a certain limit it'd activate. It was a fairly simple mechanism but I thought it'd cover most bases, I even considered that it would inform me if Taylor was experiencing a lot of stress or anxiety, hopefully warning me if she went out and did something ill-advised, like fight Lung for instance.
I had not thought things through quite as well as I'd hoped.
Because it also triggered if the person wearing them was masturbating furiously enough to sent their heart rate skyrocketing to the levels I'd estimated would only be achieved in life-threatening situations. It also didn't have an off switch, now that I'd triggered the script it would feed me information until her values dropped back to normal levels.
This was a problem because the ring was currently on one of the two fingers Taylor had buried in herself, the ring pressed against the sensitive nerves of her clit as Taylor rocked back and forth, biting on her pillow to muffle her voice as she was frigging herself to what couldn't possibly be her first orgasm, going by the sheer amount of fluid that was covering her sheets, let alone the ring that was currently acting as my viewpoint of her surroundings.
Taylor was curled up on her bed, one hand tweaking her adorable peaked nipples while the other was rubbing away at her sex, she was rocking back and forth to add extra friction to her movements, letting out little breathy moans muffled by the pillow she was biting down on.
I should remove the ring from my finger and allow the girl her privacy, but that would leave her vulnerable for however long I wasn't wearing the damned thing. I wasn't going to endanger Taylor's life because I was uncomfortable.
My decision had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Taylor's breathy little moans kicked me straight in the libido, no sir. My absolutely diamond erection had no say in any of my decisions. I was going to sit here, patiently wait out Taylor's… session and then we'd handle this like adults when Taylor got back here.
Taylor shakes, her absolutely dripping pussy clenching around her fingers. The clenching of powerful muscles milking her finger, forcing lubricant around the intruding digits as Taylor goes completely limp.
I think that is it before Taylor rocks the ring lightly over her engorged little clit, slowly gathering speed until she's once again moving in the same rhythm as before, working her way to yet another orgasm with me as an unwitting voyeur.
Wait, my ring, the ring Taylor said she could clearly feel my Qi in.
Okay, at least now I know one of the effects my Qi has on the girl. It's… good to know, but I can't help but feel like a bit of a creep. I pull the ring from my finger with a small pang of reluctance, telling myself to check every few minutes until I no longer tune in to the show Taylor is putting on without her knowledge.
In the meantime, I am going to take the absolute coldest fucking shower in the world.
Chapter 11.5 interlude: Taylor
Things were quiet on the trip back home. Taylor knew she had so much to tell her dad, but neither of them seemed to know how to get things started. Any other day Taylor Hebert might be terrified, the thought of talking things through with her emotionally distant father somehow, over time had grown into this complicated, horrible chore that she feared more than anything. When had talking to someone she loved so turned into something to fear?
But then she remembered her father hugging her, at the love she could feel down to her soul, transmitted clumsily and inexpertly through her father's hug, his undeveloped Qi lightly pressed against hers.
Taylor rubbed the ring on her finger, feeling the small nugget of comforting Qi swirling in a loop around her finger. She drew strength from it, from the memory of the weird boy she'd only met today, of the way it felt when for just an instant the two of them were almost one. She didn't think Apex had any idea how much information she'd drawn from that brief contact with his Qi, feeling it intertwine with hers like the arms of a lover, intimate and exciting all at once. Maybe it was because her powers governed the mind, but she was certain she got a far better understanding of the strange boy who'd saved her mother's flute than he'd gotten in return.
Apex was a hero from a story. He wasn't just so handsome that it was unfair, but he was righteous. A good man down to his bones with no guile in him at all. Virtuous in a way she'd slowly stopped believing people could be in real life. And he'd saved her, sweeping in when she needed help most simply because it was the right thing to do. He'd stood up to his boss for her, told her secrets she knew scared him because he thought she needed to know. She knew he still had secrets, but she also knew without a shadow of a doubt that he'd tell her if she asked. So she would trust him, she'd wait until he thought it best to share his secrets because she knew he would.
Taylor was going to be a hero like that, it was a done deal, no going back. Apex had given her plenty of chances to back out, to change her mind or to take more time to think things over. She'd declined, for the first time since her mother died Taylor had a spot of hope, a view of the future that featured her both strong and confident. She'd needed no time to make that choice, she'd grasped it with both hands. For the chance to make her parents proud, she'd be a hero.
Before anything else, a hero should be brave.
Bravery was facing that which you feared.
"Dad?" She finally said, breaking the oppressive blanket of silence permeating the car on the ride home "I'm sorry, for not telling you, about the bullies and… and everything else." She finally forces out, fast, like ripping off a bandaid.
Her father sighs, almost like letting go of a breath he'd been holding since they left the rig. "I'm sorry too little owl. For more things that you can possibly know." Her father lets his head fall against the backrest of the driver's seat "I'm scared for you little owl, you have no idea what you're getting into, what life is like in that community. I want you to outlive me, Taylor. Please don't ever make this old man visit your grave, I'm sure my heart couldn't bear it, not again."
She almost choked on the most inappropriate laugh of her life. The book she'd read at Apex's behest casually described people with her power who lived for Millenia, America itself wasn't even that old. If she worked at it hard enough she might outlive humanity as a species. But God, what do you say to that? She knew her mother's death had almost broken her father, if she died as well she doubted he'd survive. "I'll try dad. I'll do anything I'll learn, I'll try to stay as safe as I can be."
"But you're not going to stop being a hero." Her father calmly states, as if he knew nothing could change her mind on it. "Sometimes, when I'm most proud of you, I wish you were just a little less like your mother and a little more selfish you know kiddo?"
"I'm going to be a hero dad. I need to be brave, selfless and do the right things no matter how hard it is. I don't think I'll be as stoic as Alexandria, or as fun-loving as Mouse protector, but I'm going to try dad, so very, very hard." Taylor said, only halfway to her father. Part of her was talking to herself, reaffirming what kind of person she'd chosen to be.
She could hear the tremble in her father's breath, she knows it's going to be hard for him but it's her life, her choice. The silence drags on for almost a minute as Danny slowly wrestles himself under a semblance of control again. "Then let's make a deal." He eventually croaks out, the lump in his throat clearly audible "I'm not a superhero, kiddo. I'm just your old man, but if it ever becomes too much, if you ever need someone with whom you can be selfish, can be cowardly, you come to me okay?"
"Oh, dad." Taylor grabs Danny's hand and doesn't let go "You're my hero dad, you always were even… even after mom. It's because of what you taught me that I wanted to be a hero in the first place, it'll be okay, we'll be okay dad."
She ignored the tears on her fathers face, she doubted her own cheeks were any drier. Not once did either of them consider letting go of each other's hand, even while Danny was driving. The rest of the trip home was still silent, but that oppressive feeling was gone like it was never there in the first place.
They have dinner together for the first time since Taylor can remember. She eats her portion in three quick bites to the hilarious surprise of her father, but they talk of things. By unspoken agreement nothing heavy, no talk about heroes, nothing about school or her bullies or anything like that.
They discuss happier times, vacations they'd been on, nostalgic places they'd visited, things like that. It doesn't accomplish anything, it doesn't smooth things over or fixes any of the issues that still hang between them, unspoken. But at the end of the meal, Taylor feels better than she has in years, feels closer to her dad than any time since her mother died. When she talks about some meaningless small memory her father listens, as if her experiences at summer camp are the most vital thing in his world.
The shade of Emma hangs over the memory of that summer camp, but for once her former best friend has no place in her heart, not at this table and not at this moment.
They finish the meal and both of them clean the table, Danny helps her and even follows her up to her room, clearly not willing to let the conversation die just yet. He eventually ends up sitting on her bed after lugging two heavy suitcases from the attic, talking and occasionally offering advice.
"Taylor," Her father eventually says, folding the clothes Taylor is pushing into his hands so they can be stored neatly "I have to ask, Apex… didn't take advantage of you did he?"
Taylor chokes on nothing but air "What!? Dad, what the hell?" she eventually sputters out. Trying to banish the thought that she might not be completely opposed to being taken a little advantage of.
"Look at it from my perspective little owl. I come rushing into the Rig because I hear there's been an incident and I find you sitting topless next to an equally topless boy. I know you are a sensible young lady, but I'd never even heard of Apex as a Ward, I don't know him from Adam."
"I thought you realized nothing happened! You didn't raise your voice or get angry or anything!"
Danny merely raises his eyebrow "Hun, the kid is a superhero and he's built like a fridge that sprouted arms and legs, he must weigh twice what I do or more. Do you really think getting angry was the way to go there?"
"But, I thought you got along!" Taylor tries again. "You were both teasing me and you weren't… I mean." Taylor tries to explain but her words fail her.
"Little owl, as your father it is my sacred duty to mercilessly poke fun at you if you ever bring a boy home. Normally I'd have given the boy in question the shotgun speech, but I was unprepared for the incredible flex of bringing me to his energy shielded lair. I talked to him a little to see what he was like and he seems like a good kid. But while I'd normally trust my instincts for people, I don't trust them enough to take your safety for granted little owl."
"God, you don't have to worry there dad. He is pretty much exactly the way he appears. I trust him, completely." A girl could dream though.
"Well, I assumed that from how comfortable the two of you were, I just want to know if I can trust him not to do anything you're not comfortable with. I was young once too Taylor and I'm not blind. I'd have to be to fail to notice the way you think of him."
Taylor closes her eyes, the conversation comes close to breaking the comfort they'd achieved tonight, but it doesn't push too far, not yet. Her dad is worried because he loves her, she just has to remember that. "Dad, I'm not going to do anything stupid." An evil, evil thought crosses her mind, and she knows she shouldn't, but after all the fun her father had been poking at her all day, embarrassing her in front of a boy that she might just have the smallest crush on. "He's a medic and we both have ways to prevent pregnancy. You're not going to be a grandfather anytime soon." It took all of Taylor's composure to say it with a straight face, but the look of utter shock and horror on her dad's face was totally worth it. So maybe teasing people was fun, she saw why her dad kept it up all day.
He spots the corner of her mouth trying to twitch up into a smile and finally ends up throwing her pillow at her head. "Okay, I think I deserve that." He finally says, letting out a small laugh that ratchets the tension back down again "I just worry, that's all."
Taylor takes a deep breath, her father worried because he cared, he would never deliberately hurt her. "I wouldn't be against it." She finally admits to both of them quietly "He was really very dashing, and I'm not blind either. He's a good guy dad, I don't think I've got much of a shot but if he was willing I'd probably at least give it a shot." So maybe she would be willing to do a whole lot more than that, but she didn't think either she or her dad was ready for quite that much honesty.
Her dad shakes his head "I do trust you, Taylor. I just… don't want you hurt. By evil villains or pretty boys, it doesn't matter, I just want you to be safe and if I can't have that I at least want you to be happy."
Taylor just gives her father another hug, the second one today.
It's every inch as good as the first.
Taylor thought that after the day she'd had, she'd be dead asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.
So it was somewhat of a surprise that she found herself, tossing and turning in her bed, utterly unable to sleep despite her clock telling her it was well past midnight. Despite what logic would suggest, she wasn't even the least bit tired. Her mind just kept replaying over the events from today, the emotionally heavy talk with her father, the moment of sheer terror when she realized her mother's flute was missing. Meeting Apex and Vista, the trip to the Rig, meeting Armsmaster, talking with Apex and finally deciding to be a hero.
And more than anything, the moment Apex's Qi moulded with her own.
She didn't like that she knew for a fact that he was almost certainly getting a lot of insecurity and drama from her side of the link, she pretty much wanted to die whenever she thought about it, in fact. But the rest?
She felt safe, respected, appreciated… wanted. She'd never imagined herself as particularly pretty, her mouth was too wide, her limbs too thin, her stomach too fat and her boobs were a constant source of despair, especially whenever she'd measured herself up to her considerably more gifted former best friend turned enemy Emma.
But Apex hadn't cared at all. He'd looked at her with arousal clear in his aura, she could almost feel his gaze as it travelled up her body, which she'd bared more than she ever had in front of a boy. She would have been mortified if there was even a hint of distaste or rejection in the man she'd briefly been bonded with but all she felt was… reciprocated lust, strictly leashed by his will for fear that it'd upset her.
It hadn't, knowing he looked at her like that? Well, upset wasn't the word.
Taylor freezes when a shockingly powerful burst of pleasure unexpected surges through her body. She realizes that while deep in thought about her meeting with Apex, her hands had been tracing the path of his gaze, and when she'd reached her still incredibly modest chest, the sheer pleasure caught her by surprise.
God, she hadn't even taken the chance to take a good look at what else had changed. She'd been so busy with everything else that she hadn't taken the time to worry about something as minor as her appearance. Taylor hit the light on her desk to have some light to see by, and then looked in the mirror. After a moment's thought, she shrugged off her pyjamas, she wasn't cold in the slightest anyway.
Taylor looked a lot like her mother. Her thin limbs had slightly more curve to them, her stomach was flat as a board and her chest had the barest beginnings of a chest now, still an A cup but… Taylor ran her hands over her stomach and lightly cupped one small breast, not even a handful yet and nearly collapses from the shockingly powerful burst of pleasure coursing through her.
Sensitive.
God, it had been ages since she last… took care of herself, months at least. She just… never been in the mood, she'd rubbed herself occasionally but she'd never really gotten herself to orgasm from just that. But whatever had changed in her body, she'd never been this sensitive, so maybe… what's the harm?
Taylor lifts her butt off the bed, stretching to give herself the room to slide her panties down her legs, leaving them on but giving herself room to work with.
Now, she'd always needed some time to get started, so she gently slides her hand down to her nether lips to reacquaint herself with the terrain so to speak, but that plan is ruined before it could properly get started because the moment Taylor so much as brushes past her outer lips she finds herself wetter and more ready than she's ever been in her life, her usually closed shut hole flowering open lewdly, almost begging for attention.
… She'd never gotten much more than the first digit of her finger inside of herself before she clenched up and couldn't go any further without discomfort, but she was so incredibly wet that maybe now? It was worth a try, right?
She puts the smallest bit of pressure on the finger tapping against the hole to her channel and the whole digit sinks into the pliant flesh without a hint of resistance. The cold ring slaps against her own clit with full force, the shock causing Taylor to clench down on the finger now buried to the knuckle inside of herself with almost painful force as her whole body shudders with overwhelming pleasure.
… wow. So that's what an orgasm is like?
She tries to withdraw her finger from herself, but the pleasure hasn't decreased at all, if anything it's even more powerful now than it was before. Her body was even more sensitive but not unpleasantly so. Taylor slides the finger back inside experimentally and has to quickly bite something, anything to keep from waking up the whole neighbourhood with a scream that she has trouble keeping down. Her pillow takes the brunt of it as she desperately tries to muffle herself.
Oh god. Oh god.
She pulls her new favourite finger all the way back, the friction of her lubricant coated digits almost more than she could stand. She slowly presses it back down, her body eager swallowing up the finger with plenty of room for more. Maybe…? The next time she draws her finger back, she adds her middle finger to the digit she'd been using and is shocked by how easily her body envelops both fingers, but not nearly as shocked as she is by the overwhelming pleasure as her virginal channel stretches slightly to accommodate the second finger.
Just when she thinks that nothing could possibly feel better, Taylor once again buries her fingers all the way until her knuckles are plugging up the soft, spongy cushion of her labia, the ring a cold band against the burning heat of the lubricant pouring out of her. Every time she delves her fingers in as deep as they go she scoops out more and more fluid with every stroke of her fingers. Until she's laying in a pool of her own arousal, until her entire hand is coated with her slick, sweet-smelling arousal.
Taylor comes again, more powerful and even longer than the first.
But her arousal is still not going down, the small band of Qi around her finger is resting directly on her sensitive little clit, weakly interacting with her own Qi there in an infinitely lesser version of what she experienced that afternoon.
But it revs her engine again like nothing she'd ever experienced before. No thoughts of any movie star or any pretty boy that had ever caught her eye got her worked up as fast as the merest hint of warmth coming from the ring around her finger.
But she's got nothing else to do and nowhere else to be, so surely there's no harm in it?
Taylor slams her fingers back down, her free hand coming up to cup her own breast and lightly pinching her nipple with the same cadence as she's furiously stroking her quivering little hole. She rocks her body back and forth to get more friction, to feel just a little bit more, just a little deeper, trying to scratch an itch that seems just out of reach from her fingers no matter how hard she tries.
Taylor learns that she is insatiable, she gives up counting how often she's achieved orgasm after the sixth time, just luxuriating in the sensations as she experiments with her new body. She learns that her nipples are almost as sensitive as her clit and she can cum from them without any additional stimulation. She learns that her upper thighs are as sensitive as her nipples used to be, it's the same for her narrow cushiony ass.
That leads to an experimental brush against her unused, clenched tight anus and Taylor almost blanks out her thoughts entirely as the sensation almost threatens to knock her out. Nothing can stay clenched shut with the moisture dripping from her fingers, she merely switches hands and presses her head as far into her pillow as she can, biting down as the fingers she'd thoroughly coated in her own juices earlier sink into her incredibly tight arse with a slow but steady push, stretching with the same overwhelming degree of pleasure as her pussy had earlier.
She then tries both of her holes at the same time, switching it up in as many different variations as she can manage until her whole body is one sticky, overly sated mess.
She doesn't eventually stop because she can't go on, it's not as if she sated, but she did end up biting straight through her pillow. She had to clean it up because discussing what had happened was one conversation she never wanted to have with her father, after she'd patched up her pillow as best as she could, she had to air out the room because the smell left no doubts whatsoever as to what had happened.
Taylor lies back in her bed, not having bothered getting dressed after her earlier exertions. Still unable to fall asleep, it's not long before Taylor realizes the moment her attention drifts back to how amazing it had felt she starts to feel herself up again.
Maybe it was time to take a shower. She'd considered taking a cold shower but since under the stream of warm water she wouldn't have to worry about the smell or making a mess, well…
She might as well try a few more times right? To figure out her new limits? For science.
Author's note.
Something pretty amazing happened earlier this evening. Someone actually sent me almost fifteen bucks as payment for writing this story. This is the first cash I've ever received for any of my writing and I find it hard to put into words how grateful I am that people enjoy my rambling writing enough to pay me for it. Fifteen bucks won't break the bank but it still amounts to almost an entire day's wages for me. For writing, as a hobby. I can't tell you how cool I think that is.
So if you think that you can bribe me, pay me off just to get me to write faster? well, buddy, you have another thing coming because you're absolutely right. That is how it works. I was so stoked I wrote an entire additional new smutty interlude because I wanted to explore a little of what Taylor was going through. It may not add the most to the story, but she was the only person masturbating to Apex this evening. As far as we know.
Considering that I think I made the right choice here.
Chapter 12
I was approaching the final stretch of the preparation I needed to do before I'd consider myself capable of at least defending myself. There were a lot of threats in this world I was simply ill-equipped to handle, but I was rapidly reaching the end of what I could easily manage with the resources I had at hand. I had a few more ideas to try, but most of them wouldn't show any real results in a reasonable timeframe.
I'd started the process of reforging my body into that of a body cultivator, and the room I kept my Qi engine in had almost reached a sufficient level of oversaturation to allow me to finish laying the foundation of the tenfold wheel, there was a thig fog of dense Qi swirling through the room by now. I hadn't started cultivating my spirit yet, but once I'd found the technique that best fit Taylor's bloodline I would probably start practising that technique as well.
That was assuming that I'd be able to seduce Taylor at some point so I could use her affinity myself, which considering the show she'd unknowingly put on for literally hours yesterday seemed plausible. Side note, as a body cultivator I had a vastly improved tolerance to heat and cold. Taking a cold shower did nothing to me. I could have tried to take care of things manually, but Taylor was good evidence of how useless that project would have been. Cultivators, even baby cultivators, didn't tire easily.
But if I pulled everything off, I would officially be a cultivator of all three realms. Body, Mind and Qi.
At that point, I'd need to start looking for situations that stressed my abilities to their limits, both because I needed more experience and because stress testing my abilities was the fastest way to grow better at them. You'd think that being a superhero in one of the most crime-ridden cities in the US would net me plenty of situations that would allow me to practice and use the skills I'd been building up for over a week now, but so far I hadn't gone on so much as a single patrol. I had gone out to the Endbringer fight in Madison, but that had been strictly in the role of a healer.
I still thought that marketing myself primarily as a healer was a good idea, both because I actually enjoyed helping people and because as a true healer I'd be of incredible value to the PRT. But there were obvious disadvantages that started to become apparent as well.
Like being essentially confined to the Rig since I got here. I was forced into an almost completely passive role by my association with the PRT, I couldn't really go out and change things the way I would have been able to if I was free to do as I pleased.
I had been given just enough freedom that I couldn't call myself a prisoner, but it wasn't too far off the mark either. It wasn't helped that in the two instances I'd gone out I'd caused more issues for the PRT. The first time I'd been forced into a fight with the Empire, and the second time I'd dragged home an apprentice without informing anyone until it was too late for them to prevent it.
So I was spending this morning locating the proper ass to kiss that would put me in more life-threatening situations. My life had grown considerably weirder over the last few weeks to make that sound like a good idea but c'est la vie.
I'd originally thought that I'd have to get in contact with Armsmaster since he was the leader of the local Protectorate team. I had hoped so at any rate, because talking Armsmaster into letting me fight would probably be as simple as me just asking him. He might have some objections, but since he himself struggled with a similar situation, I don't think he'd cause too much of a fuss.
Unfortunately, Armsmaster had once again isolated himself in his labs and wasn't accepting any calls. He'd been going through the Rig with a fine-toothed comb, his sensors might not have been capable of picking up anything related to Qi, but he sure as hell had found a veritable ton of bugs throughout the protectorate headquarters. If I thought he'd been upset to find bugs in my lab, it was nothing compared to his reaction when he'd found some very well hidden monitoring devices in his own lab.
After that, Armsmaster had gone on the warpath, I had heard that at least a dozen people had been either fired or outright jailed, with ongoing investigations in dozens more. Armsmaster had eventually passed over the task to Miss Militia, locking himself in his lab with all the Tinkertech he'd found so he could reverse engineer the devices to find out whose bugs they were. Possibly also to learn something new and interesting from them of course, but he seemed angry enough for that to genuinely be a secondary concern for him at this point.
But with Armsmaster incommunicado, and with Miss Militia swamped with the incredible workload that came from the ongoing investigation, that left only one avenue of command I could contact.
I take a deep, fortifying breath before I knock on the door I'd once more found myself in front of. There is a moment of silence before Piggot's voice comes through the door. "Enter."
I open the door, step inside the director's office and close the door behind me.
Emily Piggot looks up from her work, and calmly puts it away when she notices who entered. She folds her hands together on her desk and looks me straight in the eyes, giving me her undivided attention. "Apex? How fortuitous, I was just about to have you brought here. May I ask what brought you here on your own accord?" She still sounds brusque as ever, but I can't help but notice that the hostility in her voice has decreased noticeably since the last time we spoke. Curious.
"I'm growing stir crazy just sitting here," I explain without preamble "I'm reaching the limit to what I can produce or achieve in isolation. I wanted to ask someone about actually going on patrol and doing something, but both Armsmaster and Miss militia are busy, and you're the only other person I know to ask." I've never seen much point in dancing around an issue, and I suspect that most people secretly appreciate it when you explain clearly what you want or expect.
Piggot raises one of her eyebrows in an impressive display of disbelief. "Despite last leaving this office so I could formulate a proper punishment, you still come to me for help?" She asks, sounding genuinely curious.
"Of course, shouldn't I have?"
Miss Piggot seems to give it some genuine thought before she replies "Perhaps, it depends. I've spoken to Miss Militia after our last conversation you know. I've also since then reviewed every interaction between PRT personnel and yourself since then. Before I answer your request one way or the other, I'm curious, what would you consider a suitable punishment for disobedience?"
I had contemplated that question more than once, so it's not hard to answer. "It depends on what you want to achieve with the punishment ma'am"
She looks amused "Assume I want you to learn from your mistakes and not repeat them."
"Those are two separate things," I point out "Since I still think that trying to help someone who desperately needs it can never be a mistake I would argue that I haven't made a mistake to repeat. But working under the assumption that you disagree? It's surprisingly difficult to punish me, ma'am. I am pretty much immune to boredom from repetitive tasks, I can just meditate and almost sleepwalk through it. You could starve me of food, which would be mildly harmful and very uncomfortable, but if you persist in it past a certain point I would presumably just leave. That just leaves pain as a punishment, but setting aside the fact that I'm not sure whether you'd be willing or even capable of torturing someone for disobedience, pain is the weakest possible threat to levy to a cultivator."
Piggot stares at me, disgust and shock warring on her face for a moment before she manages to smooth it away. "What about withholding you from training your new apprentice, or preventing you from training, period?" She asks.
"Taylor has enough of a grasp of her Qi at this point to pose a danger to others but mainly to herself. I would be unwilling to endanger her life as punishment for what surely has to be my mistake. Withholding me from training would effectively lessen my capabilities as a healer for when it's needed most, every day I train I grow more capable, healing more, faster and for longer. It wouldn't damage me if you kept me from training ma'am, but it would certainly kill the people I would be too tired to help which I might have otherwise saved." I point out. Piggot might be willing to forbid me from training despite that, but she'd be cutting off her own nose to spite her face, I expected her to be more rational than that.
"What… would be considered a normal punishment for disobedience? For other cultivators." She asks, carefully wording it.
"It depends on the circumstances." I answer, thinking it through "Death if the consequences of the disobedience are grave enough. Years of isolation training if the student is capable enough, still allowing them to grow in power so they can be of use to the sect. Or possibly just a physical punishment, a beating that beaks bones, numerous lashes with a whip, things of that nature. Painful, but a cultivator will fully recover from most damage." With medicinal help, even a relatively inexperienced cultivator could regrow a limb. For a body cultivator like myself, almost anything short of death would heal eventually.
The silence after that explanation is deafening. Piggot seems at a loss for words, staring at me in disbelief. She speaks up eventually "Apex if I so much as suggested starving a Ward as punishment I would lose my job so fast I'd be suspected of travelling through time to achieve it. If I had a child whipped I'm not sure I'd survive long enough after losing my job to stand trial."
I shrug my shoulders "You asked, ma'am."
"Yes, yes I did," Piggot says, deep in thought. "You said you were reaching the limits of what you could produce. Did you get around to making those talismans you promised Armsmaster?"
I actually had, once I realized that I was going to spend the rest of the evening frustrated I had decided to put my energy to better use and crank out some talismans since I'd promised I'd do so. I reach into my storage ring and draw out a thick bundle of yellow paper, each of them has the same complex symbol drawn on them with Cinnabar mixed with a little bit of my blood. I put the bundle of shield talismans on Piggot's desk.
"There are instructions on the back of the top talisman." I tell the director "I'd assumed that they would have to be tested before being issued to anyone. I tried to outline all of the weaknesses and limitations as best as I could."
They weren't spectacular examples of the craft by any stretch of the imagination. They were pretty stupid about when to activate, for instance, they triggered without taking armour into account at all, so they'd block a bullet even if armour would normally have stopped the round anyway. They could only activate once and they'd burn through the subpar ingredients I'd used in a couple of seconds regardless of the intensity of the attack used so they were mostly useless against any assault that lasted for more than a second or two.
But these were drawn in the specific pattern that would only allow them to work with my bloodline, there was no way to reverse engineer these into anything useful, not even for a space whale. And blocking any single life-threatening attack despite that was still pretty useful to the 'mere mortals' working in the PRT. They also had one last surprise build into them that would let me shut them down if they were ever used against me. Because I was growing more paranoid with every day I spent in Brockton Bay.
Miss Piggot looks at the stack of yellowed paper, before carefully pushing them to the side with a ruler. "I see." She looks at the stack of paper with distrust, before relaxing a minute amount "Apex, I still think that you are wrong to do what you did, in the manner in which you did it. Since it does not seem as if I can change your mind, however, I would instead ask that if something similar happens and you are forced to take action for whatever reason, inform us first. Even if you disregard our advice, it will give you additional perspectives that might change your approach to things. If you want to go out as part of this team, I need to know that you can work as part of the team. Do you understand?"
I nod since that is an easy promise to make and keep. I can always just disregard their orders after they've given them if I have to. "I can do that."
She seems pleased with even that much of a concession "Fine, then I will allow you to start patrolling the moment you complete the required courses, to be taken whenever you feel capable of doing so. Before we wrap things up here, had you given any more thought to what you plan to use as a civilian name?"
I think back to the whiteboard in my lair, filled with names from dozens of sources that I thought were even remotely appropriate for my situation, from mythology to games to books by the hundreds. Every single name had been crossed out. "I have, but I haven't found one that I like enough to keep."
Something vaguely like humour crosses Piggot's face for just a moment "Then I recommend you try to inform New Wave's Miss Dallon of that. She has been a notable presence online in both her own and your threads ever since your debut and she seems to have stuck you with the name Alex, and if you don't wish that to be permanent you should probably come up with an alternative as soon as you can. Names tend to stick you realize?"
… Victoria, what on earth are you doing?
Taylor swings a fist at my head, and I swerve aside at the very last moment, gently tapping her on the chest and upper leg to demonstrate the holes in her defence. Even when I limit myself to roughly her own strength and speed I'm still running circles around her.
Taylor took to martial arts practice with all the zeal I could have possibly hoped from a student, she rarely made the same mistake twice, she never complained no matter how often I kick her legs out from under her and her sheer talent surprised me. She was picking things up at a frightening pace.
I think I would have enjoyed the practice more without the opinions from the peanut gallery.
"Damnit girl, kick him!" Missy shouts from somewhere behind me, unfalteringly throwing out encouragements to my student even as I toss her around the ring every time she makes a mistake in the basic forms I'm drilling into her.
"No! Swing for the jaw Taylor, the jaw!" Dennis shouts his own helpful commentary from the edge of the ring we were practising in.
Taylor has to ignore the distraction from both of her new teammates, while simultaneously trying to remember the proper steps in the sequence we're currently practising and to my surprise, she's still managing.
But we've been at this for a good three hours now, and I've been pushing Taylor to move as fast and as hard as she could all that time, only occasionally bolstering her own Qi whenever she threatened to run out. Nothing lasts forever and eventually Taylor's stamina completely fails, she tries to sidestep past one of my blows and her legs just collapse underneath her, sending her sprawling to the mat. She tries to get back up, but her muscles are completely rubbery, there's no strength left in time at all. A clear sign that she's completely run out of Qi, and has been running on the strength of her body until it was pushed to the very limit.
Good, time for the next step.
"Aww, I was hoping she'd actually hit you at least once," Vista says, sounding disappointed. With an incredibly nauseating twisting of space right next to me Vista is suddenly in the ring as well. "She's picking up that stuff fast though isn't she?"
I chuckle a little "She really is, and she still might." I tell the pint-sized superheroine.
"Doesn't feel like it." Taylor wheezes out from where she'd fallen.
Vista looks at me in surprise "I'm pretty sure that she's completely done. There's only so much you can push a body before it starts to harm them. I want to see her land a hit as much as the next girl, but I'm pretty sure it's not going to happen today."
I haul Taylor's torso off of the ground, plopping her on her little tush as she's desperately inhaling big lungfuls of air. "You seem to have forgotten what my power is best used for," I tell the other girl, putting needles into Taylor's back straight through the practical gym clothing Taylor's wearing. "Also, what's up with wanting me punched in the face?"
"Female solidarity," Vista replies primly, looking at Taylor's back as I push in a couple of dozen needles in the space of maybe a minute. "Shadow stalker doesn't count. I'm just super thrilled to have another girl on the team. I want her to do well."
I press my hand to the back of Taylor's sweat-soaked shirt, pulsing a single wave of Qi down the needles and into Taylor's almost completely exhausted body. Taylor's body jolts as my Qi travels through it, her body cannibalizing my Qi to restore her stamina and leaving her almost as fresh as when we started. I simply put all of the needles back inside of my ring, removing all of them at the same time.
"You okay Taylor?" I ask, already handing the now ravenous girl one of the hundreds of energy bars I'd stored in my ring for this very reason.
Taylor almost inhaled the bar, and the next five I give her before she starts to slow down, getting back up and stretching her body experimentally. "I'm… surprisingly fine? Still a little sore, but less like I was just in a car crash and more like I just had a good workout yesterday."
I nod, proudly "That means we did it right. As long as you have food to restore the energy you use up you could keep this up for days before your meridians give out from channelling too much Qi. With that said." I grab Taylor and easily throw her at the opposite edge of the ring. The girl Squawks in surprise but she's been thrown so many times that her body responds on instinct, twisting and contorting itself in mid-air and letting her land on her feet, bouncing once as she uses her long legs to absorb the impact with the ground.
Vista has already left the stage again.
"I'm very glad you weren't my teacher." Dennis's voice drifts over from the bleachers. "I would have died."
I rush back at Taylor, upping my own physical abilities to stay just out of reach of Taylor's current progress. Allowing her to weather my attacks if she gets things just right, determined to hammer martial arts into Taylor as rapidly as I can.
"If you kept healing me in between bouts, then why do I feel like a dishrag someone just wrung out?" Taylor asks, moving gingerly on account of being sore in her everything.
We'd practised for most of the day until even with healing Taylor was only barely able to keep herself upright. Afterwards, we'd trailed off to my labs since with the scripts on the floor this was the safest place I knew of.
"That's what Qi deprivation feels like. You've got the Qi that's supposed to keep you alive and pretty much nothing else, you're completely tapped for today. I could forcibly restore it, but it's better for you if I let you recover on your own."
"And you could restore my Qi by mixing your Qi with mine right? Like you did before?" Taylor asks, sounding somewhat eager to repeat the experience but tinged with wariness in light of what I'd just taught her.
"Yes, for the record pretty much anything that has to do with mixing Qi like that is referred to as dual cultivation. Since you need at least two people to make it work. It's also the branch of techniques that feature about ninety percent of all the sex-related stuff cultivation has access to."
I'd just finished having Taylor read through the remainder of the books I'd promised to let her read. Not only effectively teaching her both of the cultivation techniques I was using, but also neatly explaining everything there was to know about my own bloodline in the process. She'd taken it with far better grace than I expected, going by yesterday I expected her to be a flustered mess over the whole situation but she'd accepted it with aplomb so far.
"Apex?" Taylor eventually asks, still trying to find a position that made her muscles ache just a tiny bit less and failing. "Why did you have me read that second book? I mean, I guess it's interesting to know more about your bloodline, but do you expect me… ?" she trails off, not knowing how to finish that sentence without just bluntly asking me if I expected her to sleep with me.
"There are two options I could have taken once I started teaching you." I explain to the girl, trying to set her at ease "I could have tried to keep it a secret from you, or I could have told you upfront. If I'd tried to hide it, I would forever run the chance of you finding out eventually, with all of the drama that you could expect from finding out your teacher has supernatural sex powers and never told you. It would taint every interaction between the two of us, probably irreparably so."
Could you imagine? Finding out that someone you'd been close to for possibly years at that point had mind or emotion affecting powers and just never told you? Everything you experienced together, every feeling you ever had around that person would be suspect. Even if the other person had never used them in truth, how could you ever be sure?
"Or I could just tell you upfront, ahead of time. Sure things might be a little awkward for some time but it gives plenty of time for the both of us to get used to it. If you somehow can't live with the fact that my ancestry comes with weird sex-related shenanigans then at least we'll both find out sooner rather than later. It's more honest, safer and with far fewer chances of causing later drama." I finish my explanation.
Taylor seems to think it over for a few moments, before accepting my explanation, mostly. "It's not your fault or anything right? You had no say in it, it's just something caused by one of your ancestors?"
I nod, glad I don't have any memories that would prove otherwise "None. I don't know if the gods that dropped me here just awoke the bloodline in me or transplanted it wholesale. Either way, I had no choice or say in the matter, not to the best of my knowledge at any rate."
Taylor simply nods, accepting my words at face value. "Okay." She says in the softest voice I'd heard from her yet, blushing enough to put her earlier stoicism to shame. "I mean, It's still slightly scary to think about, but I can't blame you for something that's not your fault. I'll get over it." Almost as if she's trying to talk herself into believing it, I can see her perk up the more she talks it over with herself.
"Now, that being said, do you want a massage?" I ask, taking some slight pleasure in seeing Taylor go completely red again. She's really easy to tease since she flushes at the drop of a hat, I have to admit to kind of enjoying it more than I maybe aught to.
Then again, I never did see a point in going through life like some arrogant young master, looking down on the whole world and clutching my arrogance and honour to my chest like they weren't poisonous more often than not.
"What?" she squeaks out, looking like a deer in the headlights.
"Your muscle ache, I can get rid of it if you want me to. I won't go any further than that, you have my word." And I had to be careful with how I worded my promises in the future. I could swear on the Dao and be shackled to the promise by the heavens itself. Not impossible to duck out of, but almost always far more trouble than it was worth.
To my surprise, Taylor actually goes along with it, shrugging off the still sweat-soaked garments leaving her in just her sports bra and delightfully tight cycling shorts. She wastes no time in hastily lying down on the padded floor, shivering under my gaze but still determined to go through with it. Still trusting what I say despite knowing most of my secrets now.
I sit down on my knees, hovering a few inches above Taylor's long legs, positioned directly behind her cute little rear. I reach down and apply gentle pressure on Taylor's shoulders, making sure not to hurt her with my greater strength as I carefully start to massage the tension and aches from Taylor's body. The moment my flesh touches hers I can feel the thin tendrils of Qi beneath her skin, desperately trying to reach out to my own. Curious as to what it's trying to do I gently push a small amount of Qi into Taylor's mostly empty coils, watching her Qi grab hold of my own and swirl around it in the pattern it had adopted yesterday.
Curious, yesterday it took far longer for our Qi to mix to that extent, it shouldn't do that, not so quickly. Is it because of my bloodline? Taylors? I gently rub Taylor's aching muscles, rubbing her back in long strokes and simply enjoying the feel of Taylor's body beneath my own.
With the tiny amount of Taylor's Qi still in her body, the impressions I get from the young girl are heavily muted. Which given what my nose is telling me is probably a good thing, I can smell the musk of more than just Taylor's sweat sting my nostrils. I pause the massage for just a moment, taking out a single needle and quickly slapping it into the back of my neck, feeling the heavy arousal I'd been fighting taper off into almost nothing immediately.
I had promised not to do anything other than a massage, and that'd probably be more than a little difficult if I was feeling Taylor's arousal sympathetically through her Qi melding with my own. Because there was no other possible reason for my arousal, certainly not the heady scent of her liquid lust in my nose, or the feeling of smooth feminine muscle gliding underneath my fingers, or the feeling of Taylor's little butt just barely rubbing against my groin.
No sir, this rubdown of a half-naked girl who wanted me with an almost desperate intensity was completely platonic. I'd not scare the girl off by breaking my word and jumping her on our first official day of training, I had more self-control than that.
I stare at the smooth expanse of feminine flesh quivering under my hands and swallow thickly. I probably had more self-control than that. Almost certainly.
"Can… can you lie like this?" Taylor asks me, startling me somewhat out of my introspection.
"You mean, can I massage you dishonestly?" I ask, not entirely certain what she means.
"The feelings I get from your Qi, can they be trusted, or is it possible to lie through it?" Taylor clarifies, sounding very invested in the answer.
"No, I don't think you can. Not even if I were to rise to the rank of an immortal and you remained a mortal." I give it some more thought, going through everything I know about cultivation and trying to think up a single way to pull it off. "No, no I don't think it's possible at all. It's not a question of difficulty or complexity, I'm almost completely certain that it's fundamentally impossible."
The impressions we're getting from each other aren't from anything so pedestrian as reading each other's mind, that might be fooled by a sufficiently clever technique. In a very real fashion, I was touching Taylor's soul, just as she touched mine. Along the edges where our Qi mixed, we were metaphysically a single person. Lying in that situation? Impossible, not without deceiving yourself to the point that it'd impacted your own soul. Doing that without the other person finding out that something was wrong is… unthinkable.
Under my hands Taylor relaxes the rest of the way, going almost completely limp and just letting me massage her without further comment. I wasn't just doing this because I wanted to get my hands on Taylor. In a very real sense, this is dual cultivation, if a weak and unguided example of it. My Qi helps hers recover far faster than it would have by itself, and even I reap some small benefits to the growth of my Qi during this time.
Eventually, the massage has to end, with Taylor's Qi once more completely filled, though her meridians will take more time to recover.
"Now," I ask the girl, preventing her from getting self-conscious now that the situation is slightly less erotically charged, trying to distract Taylor from the deplorable state of her underwear. "Would you be interested in performing the required tests to see what bloodline you possess exactly?"
"Ugh" Taylor finally complains, the first time she's done so today, no matter how hard I'd pushed her earlier. "How long is this supposed to take?" I can understand her point of view though, it's been hours and we've still not nailed it down.
"Well, most of the tests we've done are to completely rule out any kind of demonic bloodline, which narrows down what kind of bloodline you naturally possess immensely. The vast majority of bloodlines originate from a non-human ancestor, my own included." I explain, calmly, not at all bothered by how long it's taken so far.
"Hey, Apex?" Taylor finally speaks up, still keeping the ping pong balls I'd given her floating around her in a halo "Why is there such a difference between your techniques and what the basics of cultivation mentioned is normal?"
"Ah, it's good that you mention it. I was going to bring it up before too long anyway, but we've both been busy. You have to keep in mind that none of the techniques we're studying is in any way usual. The Tenfold Wheel was created by some ancient demiurge who climbed his way to the top and then used his near-omniscient knowledge and power to create a technique that he thought was without flaws. The Tribulation body was created by an unknown cultivator who, upon getting utterly fucked over by the heavens decided to fight against them to his dying breath and got a lot closer to outright destroying fate than anyone had ever thought possible. Both of the techniques have been created by people who, to us, might as well have been gods. The Heavenly medicine manual is a copy of the findings of the primordial elemental of life studying the origin of all things for thousands upon thousands of years, it's then been annotated by the single greatest healer to ever live after he got his hands on the original manuscript. The Dao of crafting despite its simple name was created by someone who became an immortal through his sheer skill in creating things. Normal cultivators would go to war over a single chapter of any of our manuals."
"And you have a library of books like that?" Taylor asks, dropping several of the balls as she lost focus due to her surprise.
"Its value is beyond our ability to estimate. Priceless in every meaning of the word." I agree softly "Even if I gained it at the literal cost of my life, I can't help but consider it a bargain. If you ever wonder to yourself why you progress through your cultivation so quickly, assume it's at least in part because the sheer quality of the techniques you practice would drive anyone who realized its value insane with greed. Never reveal the name of your techniques to anyone who might possibly know of them, never share them with anyone if you have any other choice."
Taylor nods her head in assent, completely serious.
"Well, all of that aside you can drop those balls now. I'm reasonably certain that whatever bloodline talent you possess, it doesn't interact in any meaningful way with inanimate objects.'
Taylor thankfully lets all of the balls drop, sending them bouncing to all the corners of my lab before Taylor sheepishly gathers them back in an orderly pile with nothing but her Qi and a couple of seconds. "I thought I was doing really well with manipulating things and moving them though?" Taylor opines after cleaning up the balls.
"You are, spectacularly so. But the higher-end bloodlines that focus on the mental aspect of Qi feature a general boost in skill in all of its aspects. There are no clear indicators of something special happening and we've finished checking for all the subtle indicators."
"There has got to be an easier way than saying 'Mental aspect of Qi cultivator' over and over. Isn't there an official title you use?"
"Mind cultivators, soul cultivators, Psions, mental cultivators, heart cultivators. Take your pick. One moment, have to go grab something from my other lab." I move over to the room that houses my Qi engine, grabbing one of the literally thousands of boxes that have been delivered over the course of the day and take it back to Taylor after checking that its occupant is still alive.
"I like the sound of a heart cultivator," Taylor says after thinking it through "Isn't the heart what you use for body cultivation though?"
"I'm not saying it made sense, I'm saying it's a common name for them. And they don't mean your physical heart, they mean your mental state and your emotions." I hand the small box to Taylor, and she takes it gingerly.
"This is from the room I shouldn't enter without supervision, right? Is it dangerous?" She asks, looking as if she wants to shake it to hear if there was something inside. Holding it up to her ear and almost dropping it when an angry buzzing sounds from inside of the box.
"Yes, to both. That is a poisonous insect, a wasp or bee of some description I think. It's been infused with Qi but not to the extent that it's going to be any more dangerous than a normal animal, not yet at any rate." Not until they ate their fill, right now it was still just a bug.
"Can you wrap your Qi around it, try to see what it does?" I ask Taylor, who is holding the box with her arm fully extended, giving the box a distrusting look.
She nods, and I can sense the fine strands of Qi emitting from the spot between her eyes, wrapping around the box and lifting it from her hand, keeping the box suspended as her Qi goes straight through. I can tell the very instant that her Qi touches the little animal inside, as a small amount of Qi seems drawn in, sucked into what I now can clearly sense is indeed a bee of some variety. The whole insect is lit up to my senses like a lightbulb, though already her Qi is settling into the creature, supplanting the tiny amount of Qi the animal naturally had.
Shit. Of all the luck and all the bloodlines in the world. What are the fucking odds indeed?
"Ahh, Apex?" Taylor asks, sounding more than slightly worried. She extends another tendril of Qi, coming both from her and a far smaller strand from the insect inside the box, sliding the cover off and allowing the bee to fly free, clumsily trying to flap its wings until instinct takes over and the bee, thoroughly stained with Taylor's Qi lands easily on Taylor's outstretched finger. "I think I've… become the bee?"
I sigh deeply "Not quite Taylor, when you tried to push your Qi forcibly into it you shattered its little insect soul and placed a small connection of your own into it. Technically you're just puppeting it. Can you try something for me?" When Taylor nods I continue. "Try to blot out every distraction, focus solely on the bee. On the senses you get from it, from the way your Qi flows through its tiny coils. Can you do that?"
Taylor nods again, and I can see as she grows more comfortable with her possession of the bee It's flight becomes smoother, and despite the jarringly different senses it only takes a few seconds for Taylor to compensate for it, eventually flying through the air with a joyful buzz coming from the bee as it flies through the air at top speed.
"Excellent, now, can you try to lift anything, or push your divine sense out from that body at all?"
Taylor tries, and this time I can clearly see the Qi try to come from the bee's head before the Qi remaining in the bee run out, causing the bee to drop out of the air dead as a doornail.
"Shit!" Taylor curses, extending a tendril of Qi and catching her bee body, surging back through its depleted coils and breathing fresh life into it.
Fuck and double fuck. There's a TON of bloodlines that let you possess others, there's even a lot that comes with a boost to the related skills. But possession so potent that it bypassed the utter alien sensations from a new body, solely done through Qi with no other influences required, with a connection back to its host while still retaining the full use of the host's mental prowess? One that can be snapped back into place at the drop of a hat even? There's only three or four like that. All of them are powerful, none of them is very heroic.
"Can you split your focus between the two? Leave your bee body running on autopilot while your body does something else?"
I wait patiently as Taylor tries a few times, hesitantly at first but with growing certainty until the bee is doing loops and Taylor is moving through the complicated Kata of the martial arts I'd been teaching her all day.
And that leaves only one, with the possessed still capable of running independent thoughts and running on the knowledge it possessed in life, completely absorbed by the possessor.
"Well, I've got a classic good news, bad news situation," I say after I've collected my thoughts. "Which one do you want first?"
"Always the good news first," Taylor replies, still happily letting the bee fly circles around her head, enjoying the novel sensation of being in two places at the same time. "Dad always said that it softened the blow of the bad news."
"Congratulations, I've figured out the name and capabilities of your bloodline, it's also stupidly potent and flexible. One of the absolute greatest potential powers you could have." Maybe it lacked a little in up-front power, but the eventual power was… unfair, even more than usual for a cultivator.
Taylor waits for a few seconds before her face falls. "If that's the good news, I can only imagine how bad the bad news is."
"It's also well known as one of the evilest," I admit. "It's got several names, each one more pretentious and overbearing than the last. The weaver of fate, the thousand faced mirror, the web weaving puppeteer. Most famously, it's referred to as The Hollow Queen."
The bee stops its buzzing and both it and Taylor turn to stare at me. I can honestly say I wasn't expecting to be stared down by a bee today.
"My power is evil?" Taylor asks, her voice undercut by the angry humming of the bee.
"Think things through for just a moment." I ask the girl, pointing at the stupid bee zooming as it absorbs part of Taylor's frustration "Do you think a human is any more immune to you doing that to it? You killed it the moment your Qi pushed its own out of its body. It dropped dead because a bee doesn't produce enough Qi to use any of your abilities at any level. Do you know what does?"
"I can possess people with this." Taylor finally makes the realization.
"Without limits. You could possess thousands, millions even. There isn't any appreciable limit. You absorb the full knowledge they possess while you do it, enabling you to pretend to be the person you just replaced effortlessly. Even worse, while you're limited to the Qi the new body can use at any one time, any body you focus on sufficiently can use your full breadth of abilities, including your ability to take over new hosts. Depending on the quality of the hosts you encounter you can spread through a city or even a nation like a plague."
The last famous user with Taylor's bloodline had conquered entire realms before anyone caught on. It had taken people a shockingly long time to figure out that every peasant, every noble, every animal great or small in the entire world had merely been an extension of the queen at the centre of it all. Its only flaw was that it merely established a link back to the possessor, leaving one, glaring weak spot which if taken out would kill all the possessed bodies at the same time.
The hollow queen herself. She did not possess a thousand bodies she could hop to, she had one body that controlled untold billions of others. Even if she could drain Qi from all of those bodies, or work almost her full powers through a select few prepared hosts.
Until the user grew powerful enough to overcome that restriction.
No one, no one with Taylor's bloodline had ever grown past 'merely' an immortal. Without fail, every single user had abused their power and been destroyed by the righteous sects before it got to that point. Often at a ruinous cost to the people that tried, Taylor's Bloodline was genuinely fucking terrifying.
For an easy comparison, if she focussed solely on wiping out the human population Taylor could wipe out the whole of humanity faster than even I could. There might be a few capes capable of resisting and the Endbringers and Zion were immune for sure, but humanity as a whole? Gone, in as little as a day if she had enough Qi or was willing to fatally drain the majority of the people she took over for power.
It also, coincidentally, allowed her to almost perfectly replicate any of her feats from canon, from controlling roughly all the bugs to taking control over the world's Cape population. Just more fatally and permanently in this case.
… I could also gain all of those abilities myself if I was willing to take the minimal effort on my part it would take to seduce Taylor. I'm almost completely certain that if I had torn off Taylor's shorts during the massage that Taylor wouldn't have objected in the slightest.
"… you don't have to take over human hosts." I puzzle out, trying to imagine how I'd use those powers without wanting to turn evil. "You could possess bugs or anything without real sentience by the truckload without impacting your karma in the slightest, you could probably even taken over specially prepared vessels. It'd be slower of course, but on the plus side you wouldn't be genociding all of the people you possess." It was also only possible because I knew how to prepare a vessel that could house a consciousness. I could make a basic one from nothing more than wood, mercury, cinnabar and blood.
"I'd… appreciate it if you helped me," Taylor says, stiff-backed and clearly afraid of what she'd learned, but still determined to be a hero. Thank absolutely everyone willing to listen that I'd gotten Taylor's personality right, that she was determined to be a hero despite the awful potential for abuse with her power.
"I'll always be willing to help you, Taylor," I give the girl a comforting hug, it looked as if she rather desperately needed one right then. "Almost no power is inherently evil, all that matters is how you use it. Just… warn me if you ever think it's a good idea to use it on something sentient okay?"
Suddenly, with a flash of insight and empathy I hadn't expected, I felt a lot more understanding of Miss Piggot's earlier concerns and frustrations. It's not very fun to be the person holding the leash of someone with dangerous powers. But unlike Piggot, I could just trust the other person to not act like a total asshole.
… Since I got to Taylor before she'd been turned into a total headcase. Hopefully.
Taylor returns my hug, her tumultuous Qi grasping at my own and quickly merging with mine the moment I lower my barriers enough to allow her Qi in. I could feel her clearly again, scared, but drawing support from my lack of judgement or fear.
Though I have to admit I almost hesitated for just a second before I'd lowered my defences. Almost, but not quite.
This is definitely going into my pile of things that fell under the 'take it to your grave' label. I shudder to imagine the reactions of the locals if they figured out just what Taylor could do if pushed.
And it still won't help me deal with Zion or the Endbringers, damn it!
Ah well, I'll hold the comforting hug until Taylor realizes she's still in her underwear and then it's back to the books for me. I've got to find something that either lets me Kill Zion or leave before he goes off the deep end. I'm getting the feeling that my time of relative peace and tranquillity can't last much longer. Best get ready to face whatever is coming while I've still got the time.
Author's note: Fuck. Me. So writing this chapter took somewhat longer than the eight hours I'd set for this and took me closer to *checks watch* Twelve. I'm still grateful for anyone who's donated anything or just took the time out of their daily lives to read the imaginary conversations I've had with fictional people.
But I promised you a chapter today, so today a chapter you shall have. Now excuse me, I'm going to ice my hands and possibly nap for a couple of hours. And hey, I'm free tomorrow as well, we'll see how much writing I get done.
Chapter 13
I take a deep breath to centre myself, sinking into the meditative frame of mind that becomes more and more natural to me the more I practice the meditation exercises that came with my cultivation manual.
I ignore the buzzing, chirping, zooming and skittering sounds that come from the veritable mountain of neat boxes stored in my Qi room with the ease of long practice. I feel the thick Qi in the air be drawn into my lungs and wash through my system even though my reserves are completely topped off already, they have to be for what comes next.
I cycle Qi through each of my five cores in turn, checking one last time that each of them has grown as large and as solid as they can get at my current non-existent level of cultivation. Each of the elementally aligned cores almost groans under the strain of being overfilled, incapable of expanding any further, not without risking them snapping like balloons, with explosive and almost certainly fatal results.
It's time then, I've waited for more than long enough, time for the last step of building my foundation. I focus my Qi inward, sending my perception down through my meridians until I'm looking at the pentagram of elemental cores, gently spinning in their place and coursing power along the connecting lines to one another. Perfectly balanced, the view of my cores is beautiful, I feel a sense of wholeness and contentment just from watching them do their thing. The five-phase wheel is flawless but it's not complete, not yet, it's balanced, but there's room for it to expand.
Thankfully, what I've planned for today will unbalance my Qi a lot less than building my current cores initially had. I'm leaving the core of my technique relatively intact and it's mostly without danger as a result. Earth will be the final core to split, so I start with the next core in the cycle, metal.
There's no way to do this gently or without harming yourself at least a little, I forge a thin needle from the fire Qi core since it naturally disrupts metal and before I can hesitate I drive it into the metal core, splitting it into two jagged halves. I immediately start patching the massive damage, cycling the thick Qi from the atmosphere to refill my reserves even as I spin my Qi along the pentagram of cores to repair both cores until I'm left with two slightly smaller cores. I keep one in place of the metal core, letting the other one drift away from the cores I'd already built.
With one core drastically diminished in size, the wheel is starting to lose its natural balance, so I quickly move on to the next core in the cycle, water. Again I forge a needle of its disruptive element, slamming the spike of earth aspected Qi into the core and splitting it in two like it was a rock. I ignore the pain from doing so, far too focussed on my work to pay attention to my spirit's complaining.
I then do it again, and again, the sharp sting of purely spiritual pain growing more and more with every core I damage in rapid succession until I'm left with four diminished cores with only earth its previous larger size, and four aspected lesser cores floating loosely around the five cores. Almost done. Earth is last, because earth is the element of stability, it represents a balance between all things. When I forge the final needle and strike my earth core it doesn't break off as smoothly as the others had. I cycle my Qi in the pattern the tenfold wheel demands of me, the four loose cores start to rotate around the pentagram of the cores I started out with, forming an outer ring with an equal amount of space between them. The tenth and final core does not break free, it sinks into the pentagram, coming to a rest at the exact centre of my dantian. I start drawing in Qi from my surroundings, thankfully almost completely unaspected since it was recently created by my Qi engine. I send the vast surge of Qi into my dantian, pouring into the cores circling the outer ring, twisting and pouring into them until every last trace of the aspected Qi is completely gone, washed away under the torrent of unaspected Qi.
I release the breath I was holding, this was a relatively minor adjustment, all things considered. I just needed the time to fully heal and reinforce my new cores before I could risk splitting them again. As a fun fact, the amount of unaspected Qi I just used would normally only be found in spiritual stones, I just used enough of it to beggar a king. Even a relatively large sect might not have enough raw spirit stones to use as wastefully as this, though there are alchemical ways to cleans a core of its aspect that would waste a lot less energy.
I look at the completed tenfold wheel. There are still five elemental cores, cycling and keeping each other in perfect balance with connecting lines forming a perfect pentagon. There are four more cores, unaspected for now but acting as Qi generators in their own right spinning in a wider circle around the centre wheel. And at the heart of my dantian lays the final core, already the balance aspect of earth is interacting with the creative and destructive energies created by the five-phase wheel. It'll be a long time before that core is 'ready' but one day that core will become the linchpin on which the tenfold wheel turns. Yin and Yang. Creation and destruction, the duality and balance of all things.
At any time I can aspect any of the remaining four cores, all I need is a certain amount of the Qi I want to aspect the core to. I could choose the last four elements to specialize in, though I was reasonably certain I was going to make at least one of them something like 'dimensions' or 'spacetime'. Partially because the uses for it were endless, but mostly because it's the one thing I'd found so far that might get me out of this dimension. I just had to either find or refine a sufficient quantity of the right Qi for it.
I'd try to save this world if I could, but I had no intentions of dying for the sake of Earth Bet. It might be callous to just write off an entire world of people, most of them innocent but I could always return at a point where I was powerful enough that fighting the forces arrayed against this place would be a lot less like committing suicide.
Also, being a dimension-hopping hero, visiting various worlds and exploring the multiverse is a pretty damned sweet goal to set for myself. Having infinite worlds to explore would really pair well together with an infinite lifespan. I just wish my first foray into the multiverse hadn't been Earth Bet.
I shake myself like a dog, being down in a funk is not how I want to spend my time, I've got plenty to do and look forward to. No reason to be upset over my situation at all. It could be worse, it could be Warhammer 40K, or Eclipse phase, or Chtulhutech or any of a dozen other universes
Instead, I cycle my Qi since I'm finally a proper cultivator. Doubling my cores has more than doubled the Qi I have access to, the formation my cores are arrayed in acting to multiply the output they are capable of. No, it feels complete now in a way it never has before. My foundation is completely solid and my Qi reacts to my will with a speed and precision it never has before. I toy with it for a while, just reaching out with it to see how far I can extend it from my body and switching between the six different Qi aspects I now have access to, though the unaspected Qi I can now generate is pretty useless, only really suitable as fuel for my other cores.
I reach out and grab one of the many boxes from the wall with nothing but my Qi, Nature, my natural affinity and still the one that feels most natural for me to use. The box wobbles since lifting things purely with Qi is hard, but my range has exploded from what it used to be before. My range used to be within a foot of my body, give or take, now? Now I could reach my Qi in a tendril across the room with sufficient focus and effort.
I laugh out loud, startling all the various insects in the room into silence. I stamp my feet, a far thicker tendril of Qi snaking through the metal floor and coming into contact with the pallet of Clay blocks I'd gotten yesterday. I mould my Qi together with the material, shaping it, forming it into a larger reservoir. The resulting cauldron is more than large enough for me to climb into, even if it's uneven and slightly wobbly due to my lack of control and practice.
I take another minute to shape the clay, forming it into a giant pot and smoothing away the rough edges until I've got it looking the way I want to. I withdraw my Qi from the earth, switch my aspect to fire and press heat straight into the clay, blasting the moisture out of the vessel I'd made and baking the clay over the course of maybe a minute.
I finish pouring heat into the cauldron I'd made, checking my reserves of Qi and realizing I've not even used up half of it. I grin, switching my Qi to its Metal aspect and extending it like a small blade from my fingers. I pass it over the clay, still radiating heat from where I baked it solid with nothing but my own Qi, cutting and carving the scripts I want into the enormous surface of the pot.
I take a step back and laugh again. Five minutes. I just created a massive clay pot and finished inscribing it in just a few minutes. If I had enough practice I bet I could get that time even further down.
I look at the massive pot I made, then I look at the equally massive pile of boxes filled with insects. Well, I got the easy part done, now for the significantly more labour intensive bit.
I exit the Qi room, trying to keep from scratching my arms and trying to ignore the absolutely infernal itching. I find Taylor pretty much where I left her, sitting on the floor of my lab with my e-reader, the only thing that's changed is that now she's bent over yet another iron bucket, vomiting up everything she'd eaten. Going by how dry her heaves were she'd been at it for some time.
I walk over to her, plopping down next to her and putting my hand on her back. Her Qi leaps to mix with mine with the same eagerness and speed as before when I push my Qi into her body, flowing through her organs and soothing away the aches and forcibly suppressing her vomiting.
"I take it you finished reading about the Hollow Queen. You okay?" I ask the girl, sympathetically. I'd been in her position before, for mostly the same reason. I'd only found three people with my bloodline that had avoided their fate as medicinal ingredients, and reading about their lives had me hunched over and throwing up as well.
"What the fuck is wrong with people?" Taylor asks, taking the handkerchief I offered her and wiping her mouth. "Apex, can you do me a favour? If I ever start using anything I just learned? Kill me."
"Cultivation is like any power Taylor, it can be abused. Horrifically, monstrously so. If I didn't trust you not to go down that route, I'd have stopped you well before now." I tell the girl, rubbing her back to soothe her further, knowing she finds both the physical contact and the feel of my Qi comforting. "And I can't make that promise, maybe one day you'll encounter an enemy where it makes sense for you to go all out."
"… I read a lot." Taylor finally says, slowly relaxing now that I'm here. "I thought I'd read the worst things people could do to one another, I thought the slaughterhouse nine were pretty close to how low a human being could sink to. I didn't think I could be that wrong. Gods. Even the heroes that finally killed her! They nailed her soul to her body so it'd rot away when they imprisoned her, mutilated but alive, unable to do anything. What the hell? Those were the good guys!?"
"They were trying to see if any of the people she'd taken over could be saved," I explain gently. "And destroying the soul is pretty much how you get rid of a Heart cultivator Taylor, they were just angry enough to be dicks about it. And the orthodox sects are not the 'good' guys any more than the unorthodox path is 'evil'. It's slightly more nuanced than that, even if it is generally how things work out. Did you at least get anything useful from the Hollow Queen's biography?"
"Her cultivation technique relies so heavily on having human bodies and minds to manipulate that I don't think I could bring myself to use it at all. I'm going to have to make a technique from scratch, the Hollow queen did it, so I should be able to make a non-evil version if I work at it. I did write down a list of the books she drew inspiration from." Taylor waves her hand at the small post-it note that had maybe a dozen names scrawled on them in a tidy, neat script.
"I'll help you with it, of course, and I'm not just saying that because I still have to find a proper mental cultivation path for myself," I tell the girl, somewhat cheekily. Besides, it had been her idea to find a biography of the Hollow Queen's life so we could find the name of her cultivation technique. It was frankly a great idea I'd wish I'd have thought of myself. I had tons of cultivation techniques, but actually separating the dross from the more powerful techniques requires an understanding of Qi and cultivation that I simply didn't have yet. It's the same reason I planned on teaching the same techniques I was using, I simply didn't know any other truly supreme techniques even remotely in the same category.
Taylor throws me a grateful look and flinches away from me the moment she sees me. "What the hell did you do!" She grabs my wrists, extending my arms. I have to admit that the raised, black veins crawling up my arms look rather disgusting.
"I have learned important information about poisonous insects." I tell the girl seriously, trying not to smile at her concern "They do not like being forced into a giant creepy cauldron that's already half full of other poisonous insects."
"Ugh, idiot!" She slaps my upper arm, having noticed that I was more amused at her reaction than anything else "Shouldn't you take care of that though? It looks rather gruesome." She looks back at my arms and shudders a little.
"I could forcibly heal myself, but I'm in no real danger. If I let my body handle the poison I'll grow more resistant to poison in the future. Even if it's just mundane venom I can raise my immunity to poison pretty high with repeated exposure." Even if I was tempted to get rid of the damned itching.
"Why are you filling a big pot with bugs in the first place?" Taylor asks me, clearly exasperated at how blase I treat my poisoning.
"Well, originally I just wanted a Gu so I could milk one for venom. But with your bloodline, I thought it'd be a pretty sweet trump card to play if you controlled a couple." I explain. "Since we're limited to ordinary insects and animals we can't expect anything better than a minor Gu, but that's still pretty useful for us right now."
"What the hell is a Gu?" Taylor asks, now completely confused.
"It's a cultivated, shapeshifting, venomous bug monster." I explain "Its venom is extraordinarily potent. In fact, as long as you have a biology for the venom to infect it should work on anything. There's a training thing you can use the venom for, but it'll also be really useful to deal with high powered regenerators. People like Lung or Crawler."
"Won't they just heal or adapt to the poison? Crawler travels with Bonesaw, I'm pretty sure he has been exposed to roughly all the poison."
"No," I say, confident for once that something cultivation related will actually trump shard bullshit. "Gu venom is unique and interesting because it affects people universally, attacking both their body, their mind and their soul simultaneously, zeroing in on the one they've got the least resistance to and concentrating on it. If it works at all, it's probably going to go straight for the mind or soul rather than the body in both their cases. It probably won't work on most changers or people with biology radically different from the human norm, but if it can be poisoned by an insect in the first place, they're pretty much doomed."
If I knew of an insect that had a venom that would work on a… whatever the hell crystalline space whales were made of, I could have solved that problem easily enough. Zion may be powerful enough to easily count as a minor god, and its soul was probably untold aeons old, its mind was easily the softest target the being had. It was a moping, depressed mess mentally. Nudging that over into completely suicidal was kind of cruel, but by far the easiest method I knew to get rid of the damned thing.
But it would be a long time before I'd be confident in either Taylor's or my own ability to interface with a mind like Zion's to mentally assault it and not be driven insane as a result.
"Is the venom lethal?" Taylor asks, now looking a little disturbed.
"Without Qi to ameliorate the effects? Yes, invariably. Curing it even with Qi is a stone-cold bitch. I can do it, but once, maybe twice before running out of Qi if I'm fresh. That's taking into account my new and vastly improved reserves too. It's not something you whip out to use on the first mook that gives you a hard time, but I'd like to give you a lethal option for when you absolutely need one. If it comes down to your life or that of a criminal, I'd pick yours every time." And cue blush.
Before we can talk it out any further, the buzzer rings through the lab, ever since Armsmaster locked my door with his personal codes I haven't had a single person just waltz in, it's pretty great.
I open the door, revealing Vista, though, given that she's out of costume I guess technically it's just Missy now. Her hands are balled into tiny fists and she's almost vibrating with excitement, a wide, cat-like grin on her face.
"Hey guys, don't you ever check your phones? Come on!" Vista grabs my hand, and due to a twisting of space I can feel behind me she grabs Taylor's wrist as well, despite Taylor being on the other side of the lab. Mhhh, that does make me wonder, could I abuse either Vista or Clockblocker's ability to somehow saturate Qi with a spacetime aspect?
Vista starts trying to drag me out of the lab, and I'm curious enough to go along with it.
That, and I'm fairly weak to weapons-grade cute. Which Vista despite all of her objections to the contrary definitely is.
The moment Taylor takes a single step through the twisted space she's walking beside me, looking as bemused as I'm feeling.
"Sorry, but while in the lab we usually put out phones on silent, I thought emergencies would still go through though?" Taylor explains, quickly matching Vista's enthusiastic stride with her far longer legs, easily keeping pace.
"Yeah, Kid Win does the same, but you miss a lot of notifications the wards sent amongst each other that way. It's not an emergency, but it's still exciting!" Vista says, beaming over her shoulder, finally letting go of both of our wrists "You guys really need to get out of your lab more often, I've barely seen either of you, you guys are on our team aren't you?"
That was the second time in as many days that people reminded me that I wasn't spending a whole lot of time integrating with the team, which was fair, since laying my foundation definitely took precedence over socializing.
"I'm sorry we missed it," I say, causing Vista to look me over as if trying to determine if I'm genuine or not. "Though now I'm kind of curious as to what it is."
"I'm not going to tell you," Vista says, trying to aim her tone for haughty and missing it by a mile and solidly hitting adorable by mistake. "You'd have known if you'd checked your phones more often, besides, it'll be cooler as a surprise." I can't suppress the urge to ruffle Vista's hair, making her squawk and try to swat my hand away. I'm more than fast enough to dodge her swipes and ruffle her hair at the same time, eventually causing Vista to look up at me, lips in a devastatingly adorable pout.
I share a glance with Taylor, who's looking at me interact with Vista with a small, wistful look on her face.
"What?" I ask Taylor, who just shakes her head in response.
Vista is so brimming with excitement that she can no longer refrain from cheating, she'd been lengthening her stride with her power to keep up with both Taylor and me, but it's pretty soon that we cross through most of the corridors we have to go through in a single step. We arrive at the other end of the rig in less than a minute, Vista still bouncing with youthful enthusiasm and energy.
She throws open the door, showing one of the giant open spaces that had been converted into a gym. I'm guessing it's more because of its sheer size than anything else. We needed the space since almost all the superpowered members of the Protectorate are present. All of the wards are here, including Shadow stalker. I hadn't deliberately been keeping Taylor away from meeting her high school bully, but in retrospect, I was glad that I had. It would have been beyond tragic if Taylor had learned she could rip the souls out of beings on something a lot less harmless than a Bee.
Armsmaster is present, in full armour which was fairly unusual inside of the rig. Miss Militia is talking with Piggot near the ring the overweight woman is standing on like it's a podium. Assault and battery are off in their own little world, talking to the side of the ring. If I remember the schedule correctly, that means everyone who's on duty is present. If it managed to lure Armsmaster out of his lair, it must be important, he'd have waved it off otherwise.
"Ah, with that we're complete. Thank you for collecting the wayward pair Vista." Piggot speaks up, not needing a microphone to be clearly heard throughout the large room. "I realize that I called you here on short notice, but we've had a new applicant that wanted to join the Wards. Preliminary testing has been concluded and we've given her a temporary designation of Thinker four."
While Piggot was still talking I was getting a sinking feeling in my gut. I was the first to admit that I didn't remember Worm as well as I should have. Since I successfully cultivated the Tribulation Body all new memories I made were crystal clear in my mind, but every memory before that was as muddled as it had always been. But muddled as my memories might be, I was pretty damned certain that the Wards didn't have any thinkers. In fact, going by what I'd learned pure Thinkers very rarely joined the wards, it was far more likely for them to be incorporated into a Watchdog think tank instead.
And I really only expected one thing when we were told there'd be a female Thinker joining the Wards.
I wasn't even remotely surprised when the cute freckled blonde bounced up on the stage, Lisa Willbourne's eyes scanning over the gathered heroes and instantly zeroing in on me and Taylor. I only noticed how wooden her vulpine smile got and how quickly she shifted her eyes away because I was specifically looking for it.
Motherfucker.
Shit!
Crapcrapcrapcrap!
Oh sure, let's put the girl with the power to ferret out secrets on the same team as Taylor and me. It's not as if the both of us are hiding secrets of the apocalyptical variety or anything. No, I can see nothing going wrong with having our secrets potentially uncovered by the girl with the biggest fucking mouth in the setting! The one whose power made her naturally predisposed to revealing people's secrets. To the point that in Canon her cape name had been fucking Tattletale!
Taylor is close enough to realize my unusual reaction, and I can feel her Qi cycling next to me, both preparing for action and reaching out. I can feel her Qi brush mine, sinking through my clothes and mixing with my own for just a moment. The moment she realizes that I'm afraid I can feel Taylor's guard slamming into place like a fortress wall. I can't help the surge of affection when I realize that Taylor is perfectly willing to take my side over every other hero present combined.
"That girl's Qi is acting weird." I can hear Taylor whisper behind me, soft enough that I hope no one else would pick up on it.
And of fucking course it does, why not.
I reach out my own Qi, vibrating the air directly in Taylor's ear in an improvised method of silent communication. "Don't move, don't even blink. That girl is Sarah Livsey, probably going by Lisa Wilbourne at this time. Her power is an incredibly powerful deductive one, her power lets her ferret out secrets with remarkable speed and accuracy. I'm almost completely certain someone sent her here to learn ours."
I can feel Taylor next to me stiffen up, forcing herself to relax a moment's later. I'd be glad at how quickly she mastered her own responses if I didn't have a clear line of sight to Lisa's narrowing eyes, flickering between me and Taylor and clearly already drawing conclusions as fast as she could, disregarding the headache she was sure to be due for using her powers in this fashion.
My mind is racing, but I see no easy way out of this. As a member of the Wards, Lisa may very well be untouchable, even attempting to handle her even if it's just to shut her up might ruin me. I could lock myself in my labs as a short term solution but something told me that the moment I'd left my labs she'd be there, waiting.
But leaving her alone is no option either, the moment Lisa learns anything that might give her leverage over me she will use it and I literally can't avoid her forever. Not to mention that since Lisa has no possible way of knowing that I was here, or even remarkable in any way, she almost has to have been sent by someone.
My money is on Cauldron, though didn't she used to work for a villain in Canon? I wrack my brain for more information, but I run into one of those gaping holes in my memory. Did I feel strongly enough about a fictional character for it to be wiped from my mind? That probably suggests that the villain in question is a real character.
I can't just kill her either. Well, actually I could, but I'm not going to. No matter how convenient it would be for me if Lisa just quietly died in her sleep from something plausible and hard to detect.
… Maybe just paralyze the girl's throat? No, slippery slope. No matter how tempting the thought might be.
I can see Lisa's smile grow a little bit firmer, just a little bit smugger as she gives a friendly smile to everyone and starts her clearly rehearsed introduction. I don't hear a word of it, far too busy trying to come up with any sort of plan.
It also doesn't escape me that no matter what Lisa is saying, her gaze never strays from me or Taylor for very long, her mischievous features lending themselves well to the smug smile permanently affixed on her face. I can almost see the gears ticking behind the girl's green eyes even as they measure me up, judging, weighing, thinking.
How the absolute hell am I going to deal with this?
Author's note: Slightly smaller chapter than average, but it was a good bit to stop before the next part.
Chapter 14
The wards are getting ready to throw an impromptu party to welcome their newest member, but for a change I want nothing to do with a social event and instead want to leave as soon as I can. Since I'm still convinced that Lisa is almost certainly here to steal my secrets, I want as little to do with her as possible, as such, I wait for the very first even remotely socially acceptable moment to slip away. It's simplicity itself to determine when this moment has arrived, I just keep one eye on Armsmaster and wait for him to try to slip away from the gathering the very second he can get away with it.
The moment he does, I grab Taylor's wrist and drag her with me, slipping away to follow the leader of the Protectorate, uncomfortably aware of Lisa's eyes on me the entire time we make our exit. I'm aware that I'm probably acting suspicious enough to trigger Lisa's interest, but not as much as if we'd stuck around to give Lisa's passenger more data to work with.
"Armsmaster, can we talk for a moment?" I call out to the power armoured man, rapidly catching up with the retreating hero.
"Of course Apex." Armsmaster takes off his helmet, studying my hurried exit before stating confidently "You're worried about Miss Wilbourn." Armsmaster is a lot more approachable when you can actually see his whole face, I wonder if that's why he took it off to talk to me. He looks a lot more like a normal human being like this instead of Armsmaster the hero. He looks tired which is nothing new, I can smell the stimulants sweating out through his skin.
I simply nod before explaining. "Having a thinker specialized in acquiring information try to join the Wards the very moment you remove all of the bugs from my lab struck me as profoundly suspicious," I admit to the man. It's a little bit manipulative but I think it's a good idea if my direct supervisor and leader knows that I'm suspicious of the new Thinker, it would excuse a lot of possibly weird actions on my part.
"I had the same thought." Armsmaster admits freely "Let me try to set your mind at ease, first of all, Miss Wilbourn was only brought to the protectorate's attention by complete happenstance. She was found to be blackmailing several wealthy civilians after she used her power to figure out a shockingly long list of their infidelities and embezzlements, it only came to light due to a slighted mistress of one of the people she was blackmailing went to the police, bringing the irregularities in his accounts to light. This was five days ago, before anyone realized how thoroughly the Rig had been compromised. Once I started locating the various bugs and hacks in our system, we also upgraded Miss Wilbourn's background check to be as thorough and pervasive as we could manage. I feel uncomfortable sharing the details with you as one of her peers, but suffice to say she fled a rather abysmal home situation, after that point, we have conclusively proven that at no point has she knowingly come into contact with anyone who might have possibly sent her here. Her crimes are relatively minor and a direct result of her life after her trigger, they are easily excused for a new member of the wards."
Ah yes, join our shady government-sponsored team of superheroes to make all your past crimes go away! The recruitment slogan a lot of the protectorate's capes got. It's not an uncommon story sadly, natural triggers messed people up something fierce and quite frankly blackmailing some shady politicians and entrepreneurs for living money is absolutely small potatoes on Earth Bet. Sveta in canon was caught killing well over a hundred people during her trigger event and she ended up a hero. Compared to that, pretty much anything is small potatoes.
This fucking place, I swear.
"Secondly, it was not her idea to join the wards. Honestly, I don't think she even considered the possibility." Armsmaster's face twists in distaste to show what he thought of that "Once she'd started committing criminal acts just to survive and at the behest of her parents she seems to have thought the option to join the 'heroic' side was no longer on the table. If left alone, I suspect she would have continued working her way up to bigger and bigger crimes until she'd inevitably overreach and end up as a member of one of the local gangs."
It wouldn't be a gross exaggeration to say that's exactly what happened. Just with the PRT as the gang in question.
"Every thinker analysis I could bludgeon from WEDGDG corroborated her story, she's an idiot teen running from her parents, not some kind of poison pill or spy inserted to ferret out all of our secrets."
His face twists in remembered annoyance. "I think it's fairly safe to say that even if she had been sent as a spy, we'd have figured it out when she inevitably started gloating about it. I'm sure there are people in the world worse at keeping a secret, somehow. I've just never met one, in fact, I have a hard time imagining one. She seems utterly incapable of keeping what she's learned to herself."
… That's a pretty fair characterization of Lisa, I have to admit. The whole thing might even be reassuring if it wasn't for the fact that Cauldron could arrange for her to be sent here without her knowledge effortlessly. In fact, given that Lisa was never caught in Canon one way or another I have to be responsible for Lisa being in the wards, either directly or by butterflying the canon events far more than I had expected at this point.
"So don't worry." Armsmaster finishes "While her power lends itself well to finding out secrets, she seems smart enough not to share those secrets with anyone else, she'll just lord her knowledge over you. Her desire to join the Wards might be motivated more by selfish and personal reasons than anything else, but we're almost completely certain she's not malicious, just annoying."
"That's… a lot more thorough of an investigation than I expected the PRT to perform, no offence." Having actually met and interacted with the PRT properly for some time now my opinion on their competence hasn't improved any.
"None taken." Armsmaster assures me.
"I mean, for fear of shooting myself in the foot here, my recruitment has to have been at least as suspicious as Lisa's. Why haven't I been tested anywhere near that thoroughly?" I ask, curious enough to actually voice the question. I honestly would have expected the paranoid and corruption-riddled Earth Bet to go over anything I did or said with a fine-toothed comb on general principle. They still might have, but I've seen no evidence of it at all.
"Watchdog has been tasked to look through some of the information collected on you, but we ran into pretty foreseeable problems when investigating the past of someone from another dimension," Armsmaster says with a small smile. "Piggot initially wanted harsher questioning, with more invasive thinker support, lie detectors, empathic screening." He gives a small shrug "As the leader of the Wards I overruled her on almost everything."
"… why? I can imagine many reasons why that kind of screening would be a good idea." I can't help but ask. I'm aware enough of my own situation to realize that by all rights I should be suspicious as hell. I make a mental note to do something cool for Armsmaster one of these days. It's not the first time I think so either, the man's gone out of his way to be helpful, far more than I expected, more than any other hero has in fact.
"Because I don't think someone willing to work themselves to death to be an actual hero is likely to be a villain, far too many of the local protectorate treat this." He waves his hands around, somehow indicating the whole of Brockton Bay and everything in it "as a job, something to put in nine to five hours and then just clock out and go home. You don't. I have checked some of the biometric data the bugs in your lab gathered. As far as I can tell you've worked until you collapsed all day, every day since you got here. So no Apex, I don't think I need to worry about your motivations, as far as I'm concerned you're a hero and the protectorate should be glad to have you, end of story." Armsmaster says, squarely meeting my gaze and awkwardly clapping me on the shoulder, clearly uncomfortable with the contact but wanting to make a point.
Shit. I can actually feel my cheeks burn with embarrassment. I don't think I've had anyone put that much faith in me… ever, with the possible exception of Taylor. I really don't want Lisa to spill any of my secrets that might prove him wrong.
I stammer out a thank you and watch the man put his helmet back on and march away to his lab. I can clearly feel Taylor's stare and I turn to look behind me, meeting her gaze. "What?" I ask the girl.
"Oh, nothing." Taylor says, doing a rather poor job of trying to hide her smile.
I roll my eyes and drag the girl along to my lab.
"So, crisis averted?" Taylor asks the moment I power the wards in my lab and finish my now customary search for any more bugs, ensuring that the whole room is as safe as I can make it.
"Sadly, no," I tell the girl, before buckling down and explaining as much of the whole Cauldron situation to the girl as I remember, focussing especially on the cape who makes the whole things possible. Taylor's face when she learns that her childhood hero Alexandria is one of the leaders of a global conspiracy is heartbreaking but other than that she absorbs the whole tale stoically, simply nodding occasionally to show that she was still listening. I end up telling her about a whole lot more than just Cauldron, to explain why they had to kill Zion I had to explain him, and then I had to explain how I knew any of that. I told her everything, I had never planned to actually keep any of this from her, it just never seemed like the right time. But Lisa's presence forced my hand, far better for Taylor to find out from me than have it thrown in her face by Lisa at the worst possible time. In my experience secrets like that had a nasty habit of popping up at the absolute worst possible moment even without superpowers thrown in the mix.
"Shit." She finally says once I finish my explanation.
"Succinctly put," I tell the girl with poor humour.
"So this Contessa woman, or Fortuna or whatever her name is, her power not only makes her nearly omniscient but as long as there's any chance of success at all she'll be able to guarantee that success comes to pass?" Taylor asks incredulously, waiting for my nod before continuing on. "And this woman is only one of the several capes trying to save the world, the other leaders being the triumvirate and a former member of the slaughterhouse nine?" another nod, though she didn't mention Doctor Mother. "And they're trying to do this by killing Scion, who is actually a 'crystal alien space whale'?"
" Interdimensional space whale." I correct her "But otherwise correct, yes."
"And you think that this group, who, by the way, are the leaders of the organization we both joined. Are spying on you?"
"I don't think that, but by now it's a fairly safe assumption to make. The fact that Contessa didn't appear and conk me over the head immediately the very second I arrived proves that she's probably got issues with seeing me, but I've been here long enough and made more than enough noise for them to have become aware of my existence in a more mundane fashion." Even if Cauldron's powers didn't work on me directly, they effectively had a stranglehold on this world, doubly so locally in the US.
"Because you are almost completely certain that Qi is an outside context problem, so the shard of the godlike alien in her brain is unlikely to properly simulate its effects?"
"That's more 'hopefully' than 'almost completely certain'. Because if I'm wrong and shards can just pull information from my mind I expect this universe not to survive the fallout of the resulting clusterfuck and there's nothing we can realistically do to stop it. I'm quite honestly surprised I haven't been kidnapped yet for my knowledge on how to become immortal alone."
"And you know this because you know the future, but never told anyone?"
"I know A future, and since I wasn't in that one it sure as hell wasn't this future. I can't prove it worth a damn either, I could prove just enough to paint a truly massive target on my back, on both of our backs."
Cauldron's plans and members. The civilian identities of a ton of capes. Teacher's plans. The Endbringer's controller. Scion. The future. The extent of my powers. The dragonslayers. The list of things that I knew that could cause me serious issues if someone found it is… extensive.
"Which you know because the story of this world is pretty well known in the world you came from," Taylor asks, quirking one eyebrow at me in an impressive display of scepticism. "A story in which I am the main character, mind you."
"In an infinite universe every world is a story in other dimensions, but Taylor? If this world can be said to have a protagonist, it's you. The world doesn't revolve around you, but your future actions and efforts would have determined the course of somewhere in the vicinity of a nonillion people. All the living things on every world Zion might have destroyed if you hadn't stopped him. Some ten to the eightieth worlds if my memory serves me correctly." Not all of them would be occupied by humanity or even life at all, but still.
Taylor gapes at me rather unflatteringly, mouth open and completely stunned.
I roll my eyes and grab her hand, once again sending a thin tendril of my Qi into Taylor's body through the physical contact we share. Her own Qi eagerly, almost hungrily wrapping around my own, mixing and merging until that connection is once again established.
"Why?" She finally asks "haven't you endangered all of those worlds, billions of worlds by changing my future?"
"Yes," I answer simply, knowing she can feel the truth of my words like this.
"And you don't have a plan to fix it, to ensure that Scion dies so the potential death of all of those people doesn't come to pass?" Taylor asks, sounding horrified at the idea.
"I have several," I admit to the distraught girl "Cultivation can be used to kill even gods. There are several ways we could manage even now, though we'd have to rely on local help and talent a lot more than I'd like."
"But you're not certain, are you?" Taylor asks after digesting my answer for a bit.
"No. I could still die before then, I'm not even bulletproof yet and there are some heinous powers on this world, powers I probably won't have a defence against for years. I will never be able to match Scion in time before he goes crazy, brute force simply isn't the answer."
Maybe if I got access to a hyperbolic time chamber of some sort, but even then we're looking at several centuries spent inside to rise to a level where mundane threats can no longer harm me. I know cultivators get there eventually, but it all boils down to time in the end.
"Then wouldn't it have been safer… safer to let me be?" I can almost feel the distress radiating through our link when Taylor imagines it, but it's banked by an equal amount of determination to go through with it if she had to. TIme to block that train of thought before she leaps and does something stupid.
"You're several days too late, I already removed the power you'd have used to give this world a fighting chance. I had no guarantee whatsoever that with my presence here the future I knew would still be viable, but even if I had that assurance I'd still not have just left you there. I've never been a big fan of 'for the greater good' thinking. I can acknowledge the reality of it, but I also think it's far too often used as an excuse for inaction and cowardice."
"But helping me might have doomed the world," Taylor says in a tiny voice.
"Yes. There's a chance it has." There's no use in sugarcoating it "But Taylor, if you keep asking yourself 'what if?' you'll go crazy. All of us can only do the best we can with the options we've been given, I don't regret saving you in the slightest, do you?"
Taylor thunks her head against my chest, the movement breaking the link of Qi centred on our hands before she wraps me in a powerful hug, staying silent for a long minute before answering softly "No."
"Then since we can't change that, how about we focus on the problems we can change," I tell her gently, gently rubbing the top of her head and luxuriating in the soft silky feeling of her hair sliding through my fingers.
"Right, Lisa, the new ward. Uhm, couldn't we just kill her?" Taylor breaks the hug and surreptitiously wipes her eyes before she starts to help me plan on how to handle my newest problem.
I have to suppress the urge to facepalm. Taylor would have done well in Xianxia land, she's surprisingly comfortable resorting to violence but given what I knew of her actions in canon I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
"It's plan Z. When all else fails you can always resort back to violence, but it's almost never the optimal choice. I might be able to pull it off without anyone else realizing I'm responsible, but I'm pretty damned uncomfortable with just killing someone for something they might do."
"I'm sure it doesn't help that she's a leggy blond?" Taylor asks. While she tries to sound casual I can hear the uncertainty in her voice.
"Really Taylor? Do you really think that's something I care about? I'm not that shallow." I'm not going to be one of those guys that say that looks don't matter, they do, but between my medical and alchemical skills I could make anyone look however I want to. Better and faster than the most advanced plastic surgery in the world with none of the downsides. It meant that looks were… not as big of a concern as they might otherwise be for me.
"No, sorry. Okay, so killing her isn't out but it's not ideal. Can we subvert her? Seduce her or master her somehow?" Taylor suggests, trying to gloss over her earlier moment of teenage insecurity.
This time I do facepalm.
"Taylor, I'm reasonably certain that if someone is willing to make trouble for us, they can argue with some merit that I've mastered you. How do you think people are going to react if I've got two of the Wards hanging off of me?"
"If you think there's never been any public romantic drama in the Wards then I've got bad news for you, but uhh, hold on. You've mastered me?" Taylor asks, sounding surprisingly okay with it.
"Okay, let's put it this way. You try to explain to me why we're as close as we are without making me sound like the world's biggest creep or something along the lines of a cult leader who's brainwashed you. Go on, I'll wait." I cross my arms and wait for Taylor to try.
Under my expectant gaze, Taylor starts trying, with predictable results. "Well, you healed away my depression… and no, that won't work. Uhm, you used your power on me to teach me… wow that doesn't work either. Uhm, we… regularly mix our powers and the pleasurable… side… effects…" She trails off again, clearly realizing how she sounds. "Huh. Even if I don't even mention our souls or any of the mystic mambo jumbo I keep getting variations off 'you used your power on me and now I feel fantastic and grateful' I hadn't realized how creepy that sounded out loud."
"Right? I know that my intentions have been good, you know it, but technically speaking I have used my power on you to influence how you feel, I think that's the classic definition of a master power. But even putting all of that aside, would you be even remotely okay with me mastering another girl, seducing another girl?"
Taylor staunchly refuses to meet my eyes as she answers "You don't need my permission to do anything at all Apex. We're not even officially dating or anything."
I sigh, cupping Taylor's chin and forcibly lifting her eyes up to mine "Taylor, I would not be okay if you dated anyone else without talking it over with me first. I'd be jealous as all hell." I didn't remember any relationships that might guide me here, but the tactic of honesty hadn't let me down before.
"You've got to be joking." Taylor blushes furiously as I force her to meet my gaze. "You have to be if you think that you would ever need to be jealous of me. I'm just… me."
Ahh, good old fashioned insecurities. I don't miss those at all.
I realize that being put down by every single one of her peers had done a significant amount of damage to Taylor's self-esteem, but I hadn't thought it was this bad. Thankfully, I can cheat even this, no, especially this.
I focus on my Qi, on the places where Taylor's Qi wraps around my own and the areas where the two mix in a greater whole. Through that contact, that shared space where our essences are one I communicate my impressions directly, not bothering with anything as clumsy as the spoken word.
Communication like this is by its very method of operation void of all subtlety. Free of all attempts to obscure the truth and without any elaboration possible. It's true that like this it's absolutely impossible to lie to one another, but there's a side effect as a direct result of that. When someone tells you something in this fashion, you can't disbelieve it. You might believe it's not true or you might think that the other person is wrong, but you will know with absolute certainty what the other party you're dual cultivating with thinks or feels. The message is almost childish, horrifically simple but no less powerful for that.
I like you.
That's it. No more, but also no less. Completely unsophisticated but true and heartfelt in the most literal way possible.
Taylor tries to deny it, to instinctively disregard my opinion, but she can't. With her Qi merged with mine she can feel my feelings on the matter as clearly as she can feel her own, clearer even. Every excuse she comes up with, any attempt to deflect it away shrivels and dies under the ironclad knowledge of how I feel.
There are dangers to dual cultivation, especially when done between the young or inexperienced and we count as both. It's possible to get lost in one another, to merge into one being in truth, which would most likely kill us rather gruesomely. But if done as shallowly as this, most of the dangers are emotional. It's very, very hard not to care for someone you understand even half as deeply as you end up understanding your dual cultivation partner if you kept it up long enough.
If this was done in a one-way street, this would be a remarkably powerful brainwashing tool. In fact, I knew how to do that, one of the ancestors I'd studied with my bloodline had gotten very good at it, had based his Dao on it until he had learned to imprint his own desires on anyone, willing or not.
He'd enslaved thousands with it of course, because I think it's important to note that while not to the same extent as the hollow queen, the people who shared my bloodline and had survived for any length of time had been absolute fucking lunatics.
But I wasn't, I could feel Taylor's emotions affecting me even as my own wrestled her insecurities into submission. Because while I had suspected, I now knew without any possible doubt that Taylor liked me back. It wasn't love, not really and not yet. But it was admiration, it was physical attraction, it was respect and trust above all else. Taylor trusted me with an intensity I could barely put into words and I had no real idea why.
Taylor believed with the same ironclad faith that I was better than I was. It was hard to agree with her, difficult to reconcile her views with my own. But unlike with Armsmaster earlier, I don't just want her to keep that same level of faith in me.
I want to at least try to live up to her vision of me. To be as heroic and great as she's convinced I already am.
It's Taylor who breaks the contact, gently and reluctantly, but she still breaks it. She coughs, suddenly awkward the moment the connection between us snaps and we're two distinct people again, even if we're both slightly more than we were before.
"Yes." Taylor finally says once she's gotten herself mostly under control again.
"I'm sorry, yes?" I ask, confused.
"I'd be okay with you seducing Lisa, or even mastering her if that's what it takes."
Jezus girl.
She meets my eyes, a lot more confident in herself than she was minutes ago. "Would it change anything? Even if you got together with Lisa, or anyone else, would it change how you felt about me?"
She seems to already know the answer, but I have to say it anyway. "No, of course not."
She nods as if that was all that she needed to hear. "Then I don't care. If you think you could get Lisa to join our team, then go for it. Do whatever you need to, I'll back you, to the hilt. Whatever happens." Taylor's faith in me radiates from her, I come to the uncomfortable realization that Taylor means exactly what she says. She's on my side, almost unconditionally. Taylor's faith in me wasn't just the result of puppy love as I'd expected, it was the faith of a zealot, of a cultist, it was trust bordering on madness.
Maybe she only had that level of faith because she knew I was not the type of man to take advantage, but Taylor's trust in me genuinely scared me. It was one thing to know that someone would have your back in case of an emergency, it was another thing entirely to realize that the person you're talking to would kill someone if you asked it of them.
"… I'm honestly not even sure where to begin. Getting Lisa on our side would solve our problem neatly, but I'm fairly certain Lisa is almost impossible to seduce."
"Do I need to mix us together again so you can feel how badly I think you're underselling your charms?" Taylor asks me impishly.
"Minx. No, it's a result of her power. Imagine trying to chat to a guy who can effectively read your mind."
Taylor just quirks one eyebrow at me with a small smile, jabbing a single tendril of qi into my chest, merging our Qi together just enough for me to feel her amusement before fading again. It was still somewhat eerie how easily Taylor could do that, Taylor's Qi leapt to mix with my own even when we were separated.
"Not like that. Imagine if you were chatted up by a guy, but you could read his mind. Every time you open your mouth your power tells you 'this guy wants to shut you up with his dick'. Every motivation laid bare without any filter."
"… I'd probably stop reading people's minds pretty quickly," Taylor says, making a face at the thought.
"And Lisa can't. It's not just stuff like 'this guy hasn't washed his hands after he went to the bathroom.' It's not just the uncomfortable sex stuff that people don't bring up until later in the relationship, it's not just divining people's motivations before they've said a word to you. It's all of those things combined and more. Lisa is drowning in information, most of it uncomfortable or a hard turn off. The moment I approach Lisa to seduce her she'll realize almost instantly and that'll be that."
"Can't you cheat?" Taylor asks me "I mean, dampen her power somehow, or do something that makes her try to pursue you?"
"Dampening her powers is a hard no. It's a planet-sized alien supercomputer in another dimension remember? I wouldn't even know where to begin to hamper that thing's senses. As for the rest… I can but really don't want to."
"Not even if it helps us remove Lisa as a potential threat?" Taylor stresses.
"Assume that I'm more than a little bit uncomfortable with using my power to mentally coerce someone into a relationship under any circumstances. I can do mind control, but I really, really don't want to. It's uncomfortably close to rape as far as I'm concerned."
I've got to live with myself for the rest of eternity, I think it'll be a lot easier to do so if I kept some self-respect, a man only has so much of it to lose. Which was good advice even for people that didn't have a chance to live forever.
"Yeah, ick. Motion withdrawn." Taylor mimed removing a paper from an imaginary table. "What about bribery?"
"Bribery? I'm not exactly bursting at the seams with money Taylor." I mean, I was getting a fairly comfortable reimbursement for my work as a hero and I wouldn't mind losing it all that much, but I'm pretty sure my secrets warranted a better offer than small change.
"And I have no idea if Lisa is mercenary enough to accept money to keep her mouth shut." I did. Yes, yes she was. "But you can bribe her with a lot more than just money, can't you? As long as your offer is good enough she might be willing to lose her power in the bargain. Offer her immortality, her heart's desire whatever that ends up being. Given enough time there's not a lot you can't deliver on, is there?"
… no, no there isn't. The problem then becomes that I don't know what motivates Lisa. I mean, from what I remember she wants the basic things most people do, stability, money, entertainment, companionship and all that jazz. But I don't know Lisa well enough to accurately gauge what she might be willing to give anything for. Taylor had been far simpler in that regard. She wanted out of her school, she wanted to be a hero and she wanted somewhere to belong. I could effortlessly give her all three by simply having her at my side.
But Lisa? I've got absolutely no idea. I remembered enough of Lisa's backstory to recall that she triggered because of her brother's suicide, but would she be willing to lose that power in return for getting her brother back? I simply didn't know. The only thing I can recall genuinely motivating the girl in canon was self-preservation, and that didn't really help me any.
Any further planning will have to wait, I can feel the agitated state of Qi in the other room. Taylor is looking that way herself, her face set in a mask of confusion rapidly turning to horror "What the hell is that?"
"That was fast, come on, we've got to decant this thing because without anything else to eat it's going to break out sooner rather than later." I cross over to the room housing my Qi engine. Since I've still got some time I spend some time studying the engine itself. I've been so busy I've been unable to do any maintenance on it.
Any and all flaws in its construction have long since been smoothed away. The materials that used to be copper and tin are clearly turning into something else, one half of the engine bleaching towards an unnaturally flawless white, and the other half looking like it was painted with the blackest colour in existence. The supporting scaffolding has long since burned away, though the swirls of Qi the engine itself produces swirl in the same pattern. The engine is still turning slowly, but already it's noticeably faster than it was before. It used to take over a minute for the wheel to turn enough for it to be noticeable with the naked eye, and now despite moving almost painfully slowly it's clear that the wheel is turning.
I had hoped making the engine out of sub-par mortal ingredients would make the engine usable for longer, but the conversion was happening a lot faster than I had expected. This engine, with no limiters placed on it at all, is only good for another month at most before I'll lose the ability to destroy the engine entirely.
While I was studying the engine Taylor had moved over to stare warily at the clay pot, past the wards I'd carved on the wall I can feel the hunger emanating from the jar, radiating out of it like heat from a furnace.
"So that is a Gu?" Taylor asks, unable to tear her eyes from the pot "I can feel how hungry it is, like a hole that can never be filled." She shudders a little "What an awful thing."
"Yeah, Gu are a good source for three distinct types of aspected Qi. Insect, poison and hunger qi. I expect most of what you're feeling to go away when you hollow it out. The consciousness inside of a gu is kind of like a tiny hunger elemental, miserable things."
"Okay," Taylor shakes herself like a dog, forcibly getting rid of her apprehension "how do we do this?"
"Well, technically that Gu is of a higher cultivation level than you, but its mind is… simple and it's still trapped. When I disrupt the scripts on the lid of the jar, I want you to push your Qi through the walls of the pot and try to repeat what you did with the bee."
Taylor nods to show she understands what I told her, firming her stance and concentrating on her qi.
The reason I had to deactivate the scripts first is because on the centre of the lid is a plate-sized character that can mean either 'endless hunger' or more simply 'void'. It filled the jar with hunger aspected Qi and rapidly forced all of the bugs to start eating each other, as long as it's still pouring hunger into the centre of the jar any Qi inside of it will just be consumed to make more hunger Qi. Hunger Qi is dangerous stuff, one of the most powerful demon beasts in existence uses it almost exclusively. It's not as useful in a low Qi world like this one though, for obvious reasons.
I don't need to check to see if Taylor is ready, I can feel her Qi hovering just over the surface of the pot. I grab the lid and with a minor flex of earth aspected Qi I changed the structure of the hardened clay structure, warping and thus disrupting one of the symbols on the script. The whole thing wavers for a moment and falls.
Instantly, the bug inside of the pot starts going absolutely wild, no longer partially suppressed by the hunger Qi filling the jar. Taylor's Qi effortlessly slips through the physical shell and surrounds the snarling animal inside. I have my senses completely focussed on the jar, so it's pretty simple to see that while the bug tries to use its own Qi to fight back, Taylor's Qi effortlessly crushes and absorbs the animalistic and insane mind of the critter in question.
I remove the lid, confident that the danger is passed. Taylor leans over to the side and grabs her stomach, looking faintly sick. "Damnit! Ugh, what a little monster."
I look inside the jar and have to dodge as the creature inside flies out, revealing… a bee. A perfectly ordinary, fat, bee. It's a fun trick, but I can feel the rolling Qi inherent to the beastie inside of it, proving that this is a Gu. It's probably a bee because that was the insect Taylor understood the best since she already consumed one with her powers before.
"Can you change it?" I ask Taylor, putting my hand on her back and banishing the girl's physical nausea.
"Yeah, it was mostly done figuring that out when I got it. Just give me a second."
The Bee starts bobbing up and down, before changing into a scorpion the size of a small dog in less than a second. It lands on the floor with a heavy thud, scuttling a few steps before speeding up, growing more and more legs as it switches to a more centipede-like configuration. The resulting abomination grows thick bladed pincers and a set of wings a moment later. Despite how its comparatively tiny wings should never be able to bear its weight the resulting monstrosity effortlessly lifts itself into the air.
It shoots up in the air with remarkable speed, a speed that only increases when its wings change shape and eventually split into four dragonfly wings, buzzing around and zooming around the room a couple of times before flipping upside down and slamming into the ceiling, where it sticks effortlessly, scuttling over the ceiling with the same speed it had on the ground.
"Well." I say, looking at the horrid thing "Something tells me that this little critter is never going to be a part of your toyline. But it's pretty cool right?" I'm really, really glad that I'm not particularly upset by creepy crawlies, because the abomination on the roof just grew six extra eyes before shrinking down to the size of a tick.
"So it can adopt traits from any of the animals that were in the jar?" Taylor asks, looking up at her little abomination.
"Up to the maximum weight limit of all the bugs combined and with a minimum of the smallest bug in the mix. Its size can be increased quite a bit but a minor Gu like this won't ever grow much bigger than a medium-sized dog." I explain, looking at the animal as it grows to the size of a beachball and shrinks down to the size of a flea in rapid succession "Now as a warning, Gu are dangerous. If you jabbed me with that stinger I would die. I don't think it'll work on most changers, but if it can be affected by insectoid venom then a bite or sting from a Gu will kill anyone in this world stone dead. You can keep it nearby or even hidden on your person easily enough, but please, be careful with it. When we're alone feel free to mess around with it, but I'm pretty sure that making that thing counts as bio-tinkering and it's very uncuddly."
Taylor nods "I think I'm going to call it Suu." She tells me in all seriousness, holding out one finger and having a blue swallowtail butterfly appear on it like a magic trick. She got used to controlling that thing fast, even knowing that it's a side effect from her bloodline controlling something that quickly and with that much finesse is impressive as hell.
I'm about to tell her so when, for the second time today, we're interrupted. A small alarm chimes from my lab, and I rush out back to the main lab. Taylor hot on my heels with the butterfly fluttering behind her.
I had almost gotten used to people no longer being able to just barge into my lab, so it's an uncomfortable surprise indeed to find several of the female heroes in Brockton Bay looking around in my main lab. Vista is eagerly chatting with Lisa and the pair of them are observed by a gently smiling Miss Militia.
"Hey Apex, sorry for barging in." Vista blurts out enthusiastically the moment she notices me "When we realized you guys had vanished again we decided to drag you guys out of your labs so you could at least say hello to the new girl!"
… I can't be mad at Vista, not really.
But I can be mad at Lisa, who'd been curiously studying the patterns inscribed on the floor but whose attention had shifted to Taylor and the bug still circling around her. I've got a prime view of Lisa's gaze turning chalk white, her power clearly telling her that the butterfly is not just a normal bug.
"Hey girls, we had to take care of something important before things blew up in our face. Lisa, was it? Please don't use your power to steal Armsmaster's access codes, I'm not as read up on the rules as I could be but I'm pretty sure that it's the kind of thing that could get in you in trouble."
"You what?" Miss Militia asks, whirling on the still horrified looking Lisa, who's trying to rally her normal smug smile back on her face but failing, unable to pull her eyes away from the butterfly that has landed on top of Taylor's head like a living ornament.
"Ahh, well." Lisa stammers, at a loss for words for the moment "I didn't know whose codes they were, I just guessed the access codes required to open the door. Sorry." She says, turning to Miss Militia and trying to give her an innocent smile and failing because she naturally defaults to smug instead of apologetic.
"Just…" Miss Militia takes a deep breath, almost visibly telling herself that the girl was new and should thus be given some slack. "please don't use your power to get into restricted areas, there's a reason Wards aren't allowed in most of them."
"Like how if you'd have open the room we were just in you'd have died." I point out, watching Lisa finally tear her eyes from the bug in Taylor's hair, swirling to me and then the door we just came from.
"What?" She asks, still off guard.
"Tinker labs are dangerous, I have no idea why people keep barging in here. It got so bad that Armsmaster locked my room with his personal codes to prevent any accidents. It's pretty easy to open the door and have something horrible happen to you because I'm mid-experiment." I explain with no small amount of schadenfreude.
Ironically, I think it's Lisa's realization that I'm enjoying her being on the back foot so much that snaps her out of her shocked state. Her smug grin slides back on her face like a mask, though it's still somewhat shaky and her gaze snaps back to the bug in Taylor's eyes from time to time. "I just wanted to meet all of the Wards," Lisa says with a voice as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth "When I realized you guys had run off I thought you might be trying to hide from me. I'd heard so much about you that I just had to meet you in person."
And she'd been smart enough to drag along a couple of extra witnesses for security. Leaving me with no other option than playing mental games with someone who was better at it than I'd ever be.
Bugger.
Author's note:
Spoiler: /resources/images/article_assets/2019/12/Jan20_03_523718404.jpg
Some chapters flow from my head to my keyboard and onto the internet in one long stream, almost effortless on my part, simply requiring me to write down my train of thought and then a chapter comes out.
This was not a chapter like that. This chapter fought me every step of the way. I'm still not entirely pleased with it but I've hit all of the notes that I wanted to hit.
Chapter 15
I quirk my eyebrow at the Thinker who barged her way into my labs unannounced.
"And you thought that the best way to meet me would be to chase me when I was clearly trying to avoid you?" I ask the girl incredulously.
I'm pretty much hosed here, Lisa might not be as omniscient as fanon often assumes, but I'm fairly certain that she's learning a whole lot more about me than I am comfortable with. There's not a lot I can do about it now without doing something drastic.
"I hadn't pegged you as someone who went out of their way to avoid social situations. From what I'd seen so far you should have been all over meeting me." Lisa throws me a grin, almost certainly knowing full well why I've been avoiding her. Also, is she low key throwing her knowledge that I find her attractive in my face, or am I just overthinking things?
"Yeah!" Vista jumps in with her own opinion, completely ignorant of my dilemma. "You should just be obedient juniors and let us drag you to the party!" She nods a couple of times, happy and determined to quite literally drag us to have fun with the other Wards. She's also taking just a little more joy in her seniority over us than I think is sporting but I'm just happy to see the girl smile for a change. Missy far too often looks borderline depressed, her homelife visibly weighing on her.
In any other situation, I'd have been perfectly happy to go along and just have fun with everyone. Relaxing and taking care of your mental health was just as important as training or pushing yourself past your limits as far as cultivation was concerned. But as long as Lisa was there she'd be picking away at my secrets the entire time, and I just couldn't take the chance that she figured out something disastrous. There's a good chance I'm too late to prevent that already.
"I was avoiding Lisa because I was almost completely certain that she was a spy," I state in what I was learning was my preferred blunt manner. "Armsmaster took dozens of bugs from my lab and the very next day a Thinker specialized in ferreting out people's secrets shows up? I thought it was suspicious as hell and didn't want to take any chances."
"Oh? Are you really so afraid of what I might find out?" Lisa jumps on that perceived weakness, trying to keep her smug grin going. I can hear Taylor shift her weight behind me as my apprentice crosses her arms, the roiling Qi inside the Gu, still in its butterfly form, focussed completely on the other girls in the lab. Lisa's smug grin grows considerably more brittle when her gaze flickers behind me at my partner. I can only begin to guess what kind of information her power is feeding her.
"I know at least two secrets that are guaranteed to outright kill you if you figure them out," I tell the Thinker bluntly. Lisa's eyes snap to mine as she searches my face to see if I'm telling the truth. It's clear that she doesn't like what she finds there as she swallows loudly, looking as if she is rapidly starting to regret her decision to hound me here.
"Apex?" Hannah interjects, sounding understandably worried "are you saying that it's possible that an interaction between your power and Miss Willbourn's might be dangerous to her?"
Lisa, still studying my face goes chalk white. Which is by itself good enough of an answer I think. Lisa is starting to sweat and looking around my lab as if she was searching for a way out. Yup, that's the reaction of someone who realized just how much she might have screwed the pooch.
" Yes, almost certainly so. I was going to talk things over with Director Piggot, maybe try to keep us separate to prevent any incidents. Armsmaster assured me that Lisa here wasn't deliberately spying on me so I didn't expect her to break into my lab not ten minutes later. I haven't had time to talk it over with anyone else because one of the things I was working on was nearly done and I had to take care of that before it could harm anyone." That jar I'd used to make Suu wouldn't have held it down forever and if it had broken out it would have probably gone in search of food. Gu strictly speaking didn't really need to eat to live but they were always hungry no matter what or how much they ate, if an unbound Gu had broken free it'd have gone on a rampage in search of food that would have certainly resulted in casualties.
Taylor's comforting presence right behind me reminds me that even now that it's bound it still might. It's incredibly reassuring to know that Taylor very literally has my back, but I don't want her to start killing people in my defence either. Certainly not teens and one of her personal heroes. It's easy to dismiss her Gu because her tight control over it lets it actually keep itself in that ridiculously cutesy butterfly form, it makes it hard to remember that the Gu is almost certainly the deadliest thing in the room, maybe in the whole city if it comes down to it.
The only reason I'm not absolutely certain of the Gu's theoretical ranking is that there's a pretty good chance that Taylor herself is even deadlier. With no one else in this world having any cultivation at all I don't think there's anyone who can do anything to resist the girl if she decides to start devouring people's mind and souls. The only things that I know of that might resist it at all are the Endbringers, Scion himself and maybe the machine army. Merely being a non-biological lifeform by itself wasn't a defence against the hollow queen, but I didn't know if the machine army was close enough to 'life' for Taylor's powers t interact with it. Dragon for instance was certainly sentient enough for the hollow queen to work on her with no real issues.
"Should we leave?" Miss Militia asks, practical as ever. "If Lisa's continued presence here might harm her then separating you two until we can determine that either way is probably for the best, right?" God if only things were that simple, I'm sorely tempted to just wash my hands of the whole situation but I'm afraid that it's simply too late.
"Unfortunately, there's a good chance that Lisa already picked up on one of the secrets that would be truly disastrous for her to learn. Given that, I'm going to have to ask Lisa what she's picked up so far."
"Wouldn't exposing us to those secrets be dangerous?" Vista asks, far too understanding of the situation for an eleven-year-old. Some part of me flares with impotent anger at the look on Vista's face. Far, far too resigned to horrible situations for anyone, let alone a cute girl who should not have to deal with any of this shit.
I was fully aware of the incredible damage early trauma could cause to children. Suffice to say I had issues with the whole situation. The only reason I hadn't raised a proper stink over the whole thing was that Missy was actually better off in the Wards than at her home. Because, as I've harped on before, earth bet is simply one of the worst places in existence.
"Yes." I agree with Vista, trying to moderate my tone a little for the youngest ward, the uncomfortable situation threatened to make my tone harsher than I intended it to be.
"Vista." Miss Militia says in a tone completely unlike her normal one. Vista snaps to attention when her superior officer addresses her like that "I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I'll take care of the situation, please excuse our absence to the other Wards."
Vista nods like a good little soldier and it breaks my heart to see the previously smiling girl like that. "I'll do my best" Before she leaves she turns to me, a brief flicker of incredible sadness crosses the young girls face "I'm sorry Apex. I… I just wanted you to come to the party. That's all."
Before I can say anything that might reassure the girl she all but flees from the room. She might have turned away in time but there's no real way for Missy to fool my senses, I can smell the salt of her tears from here.
There's really no way to feel more like an absolute asshole than the knowledge that you've just made a child cry.
I'd be angry at Lisa for being the cause of this but it's not really her fault either, I was the one keeping secrets but what other choice did I have? Earth bet and Worm in general were just awful like that. The list I trustworthy people I knew of was so small as to be almost non-existent. Even Miss Militia who was one of the more duty conscious heroes in the city couldn't be trusted with my more sensitive secrets. No parahuman could. It was important to remember that every single one of them had a hostile alien looking out through their eyes and I didn't want to kick off the apocalypse early. I simply didn't know how close Scion was paying attention to what his shards were learning.
It couldn't be actively plugged in like a full hive mind, because the events of Canon prove that he's not paying close attention to things parahumans certainly knew. But the gap between paying little attention and no attention at all was broad enough to fit several dozen apocalypses quite comfortably. I had no way to find out, and that forced me to assume the worst.
"I didn't mean for that to happen," Lisa says in a small voice, unknowingly voicing some of my thoughts out loud. "I just wanted to know what you were hiding and to ask you some questions about your power" She tries to justify herself.
"Miss Wilbourn." Miss Militia continues, all business now that things have come to this. "Can you tell me what you've figured out using your powers?" She gives me a worried glance before turning back to Lisa "specifically anything that you fear might be enough of a secret to be dangerous to you?"
"Apex isn't a parahuman, in fact, I don't think he's fully human at all. He's mastered the girl behind him and she wants to jump his bones something fierce. That bug in her hair is some kind of shapeshifting biotinkered abomination that's dangerous as all hell. Apex can teach his exact powerset to others and I'm one of the people he could teach, being taught by him can extend your lifespan." Lisa rattles off in quick succession, sounding a hell of a lot more scared and out of her element than I'd expected. "More than anything else, Apex isn't kidding when he says he's keeping secrets. He's willing to do almost anything to keep them."
It's weird. Lisa's power should have been tailor-made to get her through a situation like this without stepping on anyone's toes, but it's clear that she is having more trouble than I'd expected. She doesn't strike me as someone who is particularly good at pretending to be in control either, which is doubly weird according to what I expected her to be like.
… How long has she had her powers if I'm in worm a year early? I don't think she's anywhere near as comfortable with their use as she was at the start of canon. She is… softer than I'd have expected the girl to be, not quite as venomous or jaded.
Hannah turns to me, her face stony and on guard. "Are any of those secrets the ones you were worried about Apex?" Damn, Miss Militia sounds pissed. I wonder what part of that actually upset her?
"No, they're not," I say, somewhat relieved despite the situation and Hannah's anger. "I can't be certain that she's listed everything she's learned, but those aren't secrets I particularly care about keeping."
"You mean to say that that wasn't the worst of it?" Hannah asks me, waspishly and with her eyes narrowed at me. I can't help but notice that her hand keeps drifting to the holster on her hip.
"They're not even things I was really hiding." I tell the irate woman "Lisa is mostly wrong about me mastering Taylor, the 'bug' is a Gu and not a biological creature in any real way, shape or form and I finished making it less than ten minutes ago. I haven't told anyone about it because I haven't met anyone since I completed it."
"You can get rid of powers, you're contemplating doing so to mine by force." Lisa chimes up from behind Miss Militia.
I wince a little.
"That was something I was trying to keep under wraps. But it's still not anything I would consider to be dangerous." I admit to the two women. "I thought having it widely known that I could forcibly depower parahumans would cause a lot of issues and until recently I didn't trust Piggot to handle that knowledge wisely."
I still don't. Piggot is not a woman adept at inspiring faith and trust in others. Even if I did trust the bitch her superiors were guaranteed to be compromised. The PRT's corruption very literally went all the way to the top.
"I'd be okay with it." Lisa chimes up, trying to sound casual and failing rather badly, it's clear that we're breaching a topic that she thinks is important. "You'd consider removing my powers a requirement before teaching me anything anyway, right?" She tries to play it off casually and I can actually hear Taylor behind me give out a short laugh as she realizes what I just did at roughly the same time.
You have got to be fucking kidding me.
"You have got to be joking," I repeat out loud, looking at Lisa and seeing the sheepish look flit across her face. " Please tell me that I'm wrong."
Lisa winces a little at my tone of voice but pushes on anyway. "I don't suppose you'd accept my apology and teach me anyway? There's a lot more money to be made as a world-class healer than as a Thinker and I had no way to know coming over to talk would be an issue."
I think Lisa had come here to try to bully me into teaching her when she realized I could.
Had she picked up on the potential my powerset came with?
… No, I don't think so. She did mention that she knew that I could give people a greatly extended lifespan, was that it? Wanting the cultivators extended lifespan was one of the most common reasons why people would start on the path to ascension after all. Hell, there's not a lot I wouldn't have done in return for eternal life if I'd been offered the chance.
"Apex, under no circumstances are you to do anything to Lisa without the approval of myself, Armsmaster and director Piggot." Miss Militia looks decidedly uncomfortable now. The weapon shaped by her power flickers through forms in a constant and accelerating tempo, green arcs of lightning flash along the contours of her weapon in the process.
"We've officially reached the point where I'm not comfortable making a decision using just my authority." Miss Militia finally decides "Considering what I just heard there's no way I'm leaving Lisa alone with you because I frankly don't doubt that you'd just go through with removing her powers anyway and accept the punishment."
That's pretty fair since I was considering doing exactly that. I'm still considering knocking out miss Militia and doing so anyway as a matter of fact.
"Lisa…" Hannah pauses for a moment, before asking one of the questions that were clearly bothering the woman "Why on earth would you be willing to have Apex wipe away your power anyway?"
"My power isn't as bad as some others. It's kept me reasonably comfortable and alive even after I fled my home with little more than the clothes on my back." Lisa reminisces "But that doesn't mean that my power is all that great either. The crippling headaches are only part of the issue, it's not even the way my powers simply murdered what remained of my family and social life." Lisa explains to Miss Militia "I learn the most awful things, about everyone I meet. My future with the PRT will see me using that power to ferret out the secrets of everyone I meet to further the PRT's goals."
When Miss Militia opens her mouth to object Lisa cuts her off with a swift motion of her hand.
"No, we both know it's true. Piggot is a politician through and through. She doesn't care about my discomfort any further than the regulations force her to. She'll use my power to gain as much leverage over as many people as she can manage. Your leader doesn't have much of a personality outside of her job and I'm just another useful tool to do that job. Tell me I'm wrong." She states defiantly, meeting Miss Militia's gaze and holding it until the older woman is forced to look away in shame.
She throws me another glare, snapping back to Lisa and waving one arm in my direction.
"That won't change if you become a healer either." Miss Militia counters, speaking softly as if she's trying to calm Lisa down, despite Hannah herself easily being the person who's most worked up. "but even if it did, are you really fine with him mastering you instead? With him twisting your emotions around to… change how you feel?" I get the impression that she was going to say something else but changed her mind at the last moment.
Also, what the absolute hell? Of all the local heroes I've spent the most time with Miss Militia by far. By rights, she should have the best understanding of my personality and powers. Is she really this angry because she is willing to believe that I've secretly been heartbreaker 2.0 all along?
Not going to lie, the fact that she's that willing to believe I'm a brainwashing villain stings. God knows I'm not perfect but as far as I know, I've not given her any reason to be this hostile either. But for her to just accept Lisa's accusation without any evidence or proof?
Yikes.
Lisa is looking right at me, watching my emotions play across my face and she hurries along, clearly seeing that I'm quite close to doing something drastic. "I'm not willing to have my emotions messed with by him or anyone else." Lisa quickly assures Miss Militia "but he said I was wrong about him mastering the girl, and I do get things wrong sometimes." She grimaces almost reflexively when she is forced to admit that.
I'm far more interested in the way her Qi jolts when she says that, responding to some kind of trauma as far as I can tell. I highly doubt that she hates admitting she doesn't know something that badly. Interesting.
"There's no way to be certain, I've got reasons to believe you might not be as far off the mark as you seem to think." Miss Militia argues back.
Lisa has finally stopped being startled by Suu and is instead giving Miss Militia her undivided attention. "He hasn't mastered you." She finally says bluntly "I'm certain we're all going to go into MS quarantine after this anyway, but I'm as certain as I can be. He hasn't done anything to you. Whatever it was you felt? It's all you."
… you've got to be kidding. I may be a fool, but I'm not stupid. I can read between the lines and pick up on what Lisa is hinting at. Miss Militia is willing to believe Lisa's claims of me being a master because she has evidence pointing to it.
I have found alternate earth's female Judge Claude Frollo.
She's this hostile to me because I gave her the female version of a boner a couple of times? Are you for real?
"Hannah," I say, taking a step towards the older woman. She reacts pretty much as I expected, whirling her focus back on me and drawing her weapon from her holster in one blindingly fast movement. It's hard to describe just how fast a quickdraw pro can clear a gun from their holster, and it's clear that Miss Militia is good. She doesn't raise the barrel of her gun all the way to me, but she's most of the way there, it'll take a small jerk on her part to point that weapon at me.
Good gun control, poor judgement.
I don't use any Qi at all, even when she takes a step away from me. "Stay back!" She barks at me, her gun rising another couple of inches my way. I can't even muster up any real anger, I mostly just feel sad. Sad and disappointed.
"Or you're going to shoot me?" I ask her calmly, keeping an even pace, moving straight towards the two women.
"I don't need to shoot you with anything fatal." Miss Militia replies back equally calmly, the gun in her hand turning into a taser with a dizzying flash of green light. "But you're going to stay back until we've proven you're not a Master."
"That's what all of your tests so far have focussed on." I point out calmly, still walking forward. "Piggot I understand, she's a paranoid bitch at the best of times but I had honestly expected you at least to be different."
Hannah shoots me straight in the chest with her taser mid-rant, keeping the trigger pulled and sending thousands of volts coursing through my body.
My adaptive, Tribulation forged body. I've deliberately blasted my own heart with a divine thunderbolt. A taser, even a beefed-up version for use against capes needs about an order of magnitude more oomph for me to even feel it.
"So no. I'm not going to leave the potentially apocalyptic cape alone because you suddenly feel a little awkward. She's asked me for help, she wants to get rid of her power and even if medically speaking she didn't have a damned good point, leaving her alone at this point might pose an existential threat to humanity. That means that you can take your accusation and shove it, I'm healing Lisa whether you want me to or not."
Hannah doesn't miss a beat, taking another step back and shifting her taser into what looks like a harpoon gun, levelling it down at my legs. "I'm warning you Apex, I will literally nail you in place if I have to. I don't care if it upsets you, you're not getting close to either of us until we've looked into Lisa's accusation." Miss Militia's mouth is drawn in a grim line, resolutely staring me down.
It might be impressive if it wasn't also incredibly stupid.
"No, we're not," I tell the woman bluntly. "And not just because leaving her alone is almost unconscionably stupid, but because I'm certain, absolutely certain that you're not going to stop me."
Miss Militia actually fires her harpoon at my legs the very instant I say that, and I'm not going to tank it just to show off. I shift my weight aside, the spear missing me by inches as I hurl myself forward with speed greater than any human athlete. Miss Militia doesn't need to reload, her gun simply flickers once back to a loaded and drawn state, firing a second harpoon less than a second after she realized I'd dodged.
I take one of heaven's boundless steps.
My Qi twists and I take a single step partially unbound by causality. It's not teleportation, not really. I 'simply' take one step that carries me as far as several steps would have. I can't move through walls or reach any location that I would not have been able to reach on my own, but I can interfere with basic cause and effect, removing the cause but keeping the effect.
The distance I can cross so far is only a few meters at most, and using the movement technique in this fashion burns power at a frightening pace but it allows me to cross the distance between me and Hannah in a single step, slapping her weapon aside at this range with contemptuous ease. She reacts with the ease of long practice, spinning aside and turning her harpoon gun into a significantly more deadly little submachine gun.
But she did move aside.
I deliberately turn away from her, and take another step towards Lisa, cupping her chin gently in one of my hands and preparing to do what I set out to.
"Apex!" I hear Hannah call out, and I stop for a moment to see the incredibly large, futuristic rifle pointed directly at my head. "Stop!"
"Or what?" I ask her calmly "Will you shoot me with the intent to kill me? In the back?" I snort and deliberately turn my back towards her "I don't think you will."
I can feel Hannah's gaze on my back, uncomfortably aware of the gun aimed at my head. I wait patiently for some of the longest seconds of my life before finishing what I started. A lance of my Qi passing through Lisa's skull, twisting through her brain and targeting a very specific part of it, damaging her Corona Pollentia, killing it.
Even as I break down the alien material in her brain, I keep sending my Qi into the girl's head. This is the first time I've been able to really take my time studying the brain of a parahuman who's had an active power for a while.
I really don't like what I find.
"Taylor? You can stop hovering, come over here and look with me." I can feel Taylor's Qi unwrap from around Miss Militia, retracting back into the bug she'd somehow managed to sneak almost on top of the distracted heroine at some point.
I'm rather grateful for Taylor's restraint, which is not something I ever expected to say. After all, if Taylor had turned hostile then Miss Militia would be dead. No ifs, no buts. She'd have dug that Qi into Miss Militia and hollowed her out as yet another shell for her to wear. Which would have been… disastrous, for many reasons.
Taylor carefully walks around Miss Militia, far less willing than me to turn her back on the heroine after the stunt she pulled earlier. Eventually, she settles next to me, her real body's attention on me but Suu still hovering around the older heroine in the room, seemingly forgotten in the chaos.
"What would you have done if she'd shot you?" Taylor finally asks me, watching me and Lisa with as blank a face as any I'd seen from the girl so far.
"Tanked it with one of the defensive talismans I didn't give to Piggot and then knocked her out," I answer easily, showing her the complex pattern on the tag hidden under my clothes. "But thanks for having my back Taylor, I appreciate it."
I'd been willing to believe that Hannah wouldn't shoot me in the back, but that was no reason to be stupid about it. Trust, but verify. And wear a protective talisman at all times to avoid sneak attacks while you're verifying. Just to be safe.
"Come on, mind helping me for a bit?" I ask Taylor with a small grin.
She looks almost angry at how blase I treat being attacked, but thankfully she does send a tendril of her own Qi to mix partially with my own, travelling along the paths of Lisa's meridians until her own consciousness spreads out through the girl's skull just as mine has. It takes her a little bit longer to notice what I'd noticed when I removed Lisa's powers but I can chalk that up to my greater medical experience.
"Is something wrong?" Lisa asks anxiously, even less okay with the violence earlier and obviously worried about how long things are taking.
"Is that brain damage?" Taylor asks at almost the exact same time, spotting what I'd noticed earlier.
Note to self, put 'bedside manners' on Taylor's list of things to learn.
"A little bit," I answer both girls at the same time, ignoring the older heroine who is in the process of calling in reinforcements. "Look how carefully contained it is though, there's not a single bit that's damaged outside of the limbic system." More specifically, Lisa's hypothalamus showed signs of very deliberate scarring, so incredibly fine I would have missed it if I wasn't actively looking for it, with damage done to individual neurons. I recall what happened earlier, when Lisa's Qi flinched as if she was physically hurt. I'm getting the sinking feeling that that's exactly what happened.
"… please tell me you can fix it," Lisa asks, quietly terrified but trying to play it off. Despite what she said it seems the loss of her power has left her rather vulnerable and uncertain.
"I can fix anything, if you're not dead when I start my treatment you'll be fine eventually," I assure the girl, studying the damage and trying to spot a pattern. Taylor spots it first, even with me having a pretty solid suspicion about what to look for. There's a reason I asked for her to help me with this, she might not have any of my brute force but her control over her Qi is exceptional.
"The emotions she feels are off, they don't match up to her Qi," Taylor murmurs to herself as she studies the damage dealt. That pretty much confirms what I was expecting, and when Taylor realizes that I know what's going on she withdraws her Qi from Lisa's system, taking a step back so she can better keep an eye on the still wary cape in the room.
"You're going to get in trouble for this." Miss Militia says behind me, though she makes no further motion to stop me.
"Neither of us cares," Taylor responds in my stead, confused about exactly what just happened but certain of her own position with unshakable determination and confidence. "She needed help, and so we're helping her. I think it's weird that we had to come to blows over something so simple. I'd have thought the desire to help would be universal in people willing to call themselves a hero."
I suppress a wince at that. I think Taylor just lost a solid chunk of her faith in her childhood heroes. It's sad, but seeing as we're in Worm? It was pretty much Inevitable.
"Was I mastered?" Lisa asks, having followed what's going on from Taylor and my conversation.
"Conditioned. Well, in the process of being conditioned, I don't think it finished doing whatever it was planning yet." I correct "Very Pavlovian, with focused damage to dampen some of your emotional responses if I'd have to hazard a guess. I'm pretty certain that your thinker headaches are responsible, or utilized for that purpose anyway."
Maybe blunting some emotions would make Lisa a more effective host or something? I have no idea what her shard was thinking honestly, it's pretty clear that Zion and his ilk aren't exactly master researchers with a clear understanding of science but it's still rather stupid to influence the experiment you're trying to get novel data from.
I was still busy healing Lisa five minutes later when a group of heroes stormed into my lab in response to Miss Militia's emergency call for help.
They put everyone involved into cells, of course, even Miss Militia.
I got them to put Taylor and Lisa in a cell with me on the grounds that I was still in the process of healing Lisa and needed Taylor's help to do it. Despite what happened I had enough goodwill left for the troopers that escorted us to the holding cells to go along with that without further comment, not wanting to be proven wrong and bear responsibility for getting one of the wards killed.
"I hope you realize that I joined the PRT specifically so I wouldn't end up in jail? Somehow I not only lost my power but somehow still ended up in jail despite joining the wards for the express purpose of preventing that." Lisa says, arms crossed and pouting a little.
"If you can lose your abilities the moment I remove what is essentially a parasite from your brain, then is the power yours?" I ask the young woman pointedly, still holding her head in both of my hands. "And your 'powers' were messing with your head, to the point that even with Taylor and me working on it for almost an hour now we're still picking apart what is deliberate damage or indoctrination and what is just you changing your mind."
Which was a bitch and a half. Human brains are the most complex anything in the known world. Just healing the damage wasn't actually enough to undo the conditioning, after several months of being conditioned by pain there was damage to Lisa that extended past the purely physical.
"And if you wanted to avoid jail time then you should probably not have been such a poor spy," Taylor adds, her smaller hands clasped on top of mine, her Qi interwoven with mine and interacting with Lisa's brain in a fashion I only understood because of the connection between us.
"Or dragged along the one person who couldn't have her memory altered in any way," I add on top of that. "If you'd been alone I might have been able to handle things in a more subdued fashion, but when you told Hannah that I was mastering Taylor to make her sexually attracted to me we were always going to end up here."
I was still a little salty over how effortlessly Miss Militia was willing to believe I was a Master like that.
"You two are ganging up on me," Lisa says, fidgeting a little since she'd been forced to hold still with two stranged holding on to her head, which couldn't be comfortable.
"Well, we are in a cell because of you." Taylor points out "This morning I was the newest ward with a promising future career as a hero, right now I'm in a cell waiting to see if I'm going to have to get used to it."
"Okay, that's fair," Lisa admits, slumping a little. "But then, why are you still helping me?"
"The sage has no interest of his own, but takes the interests of the people as his own. He is kind to the kind, but he is also kind to the unkind for virtue is kind." I tell the girl in my best ice cream Koan voice. "The golden rule, the most important guiding ethical and moral foundation I know of."
Lisa's eyeroll is pretty impressively scornful.
"If the Taoist explanation doesn't do it for you, how about the Doctor's explanation?" I try instead. "Never cruel, never cowardly. And if you are, always make amends. Always try to be nice but never fail to be kind."
"I just think that I would be in some way lessened if I just stood by and let you be hurt when I could have done something to stop it." Taylor tries to explain her own point of view. I can see the memory of the trio and the many bystanders who turned a blind eye pass over Taylor for just a moment before it's buried under her resolve. To be better.
"Ugh." Lisa says, making a face "I miss being able to instantly tell if people actually mean that sappy nonsense or if they're just saying that."
I can feel Taylor's amusement, but I can just as easily feel her utter faith that helping people is right. She's sad about how it happened, but Taylor isn't exactly the kind of person to back down from doing what she thinks is right because it's hard.
"He/she means it." We both say at the same time. We share a look and laugh a little despite our situation.
"What can I say, we're both idiots but we're sincere about it," I say with good humour.
"So I'm letting a pair of idiots do power-assisted brain surgery on me. That's reassuring." Lisa snarks "How much longer do you think you're going to take? My head itches from the warmth and I kind of need to use the bathroom."
"Don't rush me, sonny. You rush a miracle man you get rotten miracles." I quote in my best Miracle Max impersonation.
"We're trying to reassemble your unaltered personality, Which is a pain because we have no real way of seeing what's been altered artificially and what just changed because of trauma." Taylor tries to explain the instinctive feedback of what our Qi is telling us.
"Isn't there an easier or faster way to do this?" Lisa complains in what is definitely the beginning of a whine.
Taylor thinks it over for a moment, her Qi halting its own movements as her focus is completely derailed by the idea she's just had.
"Apex? I'm not happy to agree with Lisa about this but isn't there an easier solution to all of this?" Taylor's Qi squeezes mine, drawing my attention to our intermingled state and the benefits it can bring.
I sigh, not happy with it but forced to agree that this isn't really working. "Yeah, I'd hoped the damage would be easier to undo. Okay, Lisa listen up! there's a quirk of the energy Taylor and I both use that could restore most of the damage done to you in about a minute."
"But let me guess, there's a good reason you've been taking things the slow way instead. Is it dangerous, painful?" Lisa asks, causing Taylor to give the girl a wide, expectant grin.
"No, it doesn't hurt, but I'd have preferred if you were completely in your normal state of mind before asking you. It'll fix you, but it'll be awkward. Doing so with you essentially unable to meaningfully consent is pretty close to a line I'm never crossing."
Because I did have sex-related superpowers at the end of the day, and if I was ever comfortable with using them by force then I'm no longer the person I'd hoped to be.
Lisa helplessly spreads her hands "If you say this will fix whatever's wrong, then just get it over with. I could always be upset at you afterwards but if this is how you can fix my brain, then please, just do it."
I share a look at Taylor, asking without any words if she's really alright with it. She just gives me a surprisingly lewd grin and takes a step back, giving me plenty of space before settling herself on the floor so she can properly observe.
Well, nothing for it.
"Come on, sit down with us," I tell Lisa, settling down on the cold steel floor and shrugging off the temperature issue with ease. "Just to warn you, this is going to be distinctly uncomfortable."
"Uncomfortable isn't the word I'd have used," Taylor says with a poorly hidden grin.
"Neither of you are making me feel better about this." Lisa points out, and okay, that's fair.
Instead of uselessly trying to reassure the girl I extend a tendril of Qi and pour it back into Lisa's body. People naturally resist foreign Qi, but I've spent the last hour or so pouring Qi directly into Lisa's system and for lack of a better explanation her body has at least partially gotten used to it.
Simply pouring Qi into her isn't enough, for this to work I need my Qi to merge with Lisa's at least a little. Unlike with Taylor however, Lisa's Qi is closed off and stubbornly refuses to interact with my own, lending further evidence to my theory that it's part of Taylor's bloodline that allows her to intertwine her Qi with my own so swiftly and so effortlessly.
It was also what I'd been afraid of, because that meant that the next step was genuinely going to be uncomfortable, for both of us.
I force the connection into place, using the far greater purity and power of my own Qi to dominate Lisa's Qi. I can feel the girl stiffen immediately as a one-way connection snaps into place.
This isn't technically speaking how you start dual cultivation with anyone. This is the first step you take if you want to plunder someone's Yin, I could tear our merged Qi from Lisa, using the purity of dual-natured Qi to boost my own significantly.
But doing so would kill Lisa, or at the very least cripple her future cultivation.
Instead, I force an impression of my will through the tenuous connection I've forced in place. Slowly, slowly I can feel Lisa relax again, realizing that I truly don't mean her any harm. The connection between us isn't particularly strong, nowhere near as powerful or involved as my connection with Taylor.
But thinking of another woman while doing this is rather rude. I focus completely on Lisa, shoving past the burning knot of fear, worry and embarrassment she feels until I reach a depth sufficient for my purpose.
Slowly, painstakingly, my Qi cycles together with Lisa's. The levels of my Qi plummet, Lisa's struggles against it making this far harder than I had expected, since I am the only donor of Qi in this link all the burden and drain falls on me.
But it is working.
Lisa's Qi is inexpertly drawing on the strength I so haphazardly pour into her, using it to heal her body into the proper shape to house its own Qi, hopefully undoing Lisa's indoctrination in the process. I'm kind of grateful now about how eager Taylor is to mix her Qi with my own, I've gotten a lot better at dual cultivation in the process, I'm not sure if I'd have been able to pull this off even just a week ago.
I still can't block the impressions I get from Lisa's Qi like this, it's simply too inherently intimate for that. She's afraid, and she feels… trapped but I can feel the small kernel of hope and optimism that her life hasn't managed to stamp out of her yet. I learn that she's a lot less comfortable with losing her power than she pretended to, but I can also feel that she is cautiously optimistic about learning a better power from me.
I can feel her opinion of me change as she inevitably learns more about me, getting a peek into who I am as a person at a far greater speed than would be possible in almost any other way.
I don't have any Qi to spare to unblock her meridians just yet, but it's not really necessary right now. I have to spend some extra Qi to force my it through her blocked and corrupted meridians but that is a drop in the bucket compared to what I'm losing from doing this on someone who was actively resisting.
Though I'm glad to notice that her instinctive struggles against a foreign invasion of Qi are slowly going away as she grows more comfortable with me inside of her.
Heh.
I spend the next few minutes just sitting there, holding hands with Lisa and cycling our now almost properly mixed Qi into one another.
Even as I can feel Lisa's expenditure of my Qi cease as she is finally properly healed once more, I can't help but think to myself.
What am I going to do now?
Author's notes. Feel free to ignore.
Sweet monkey Jezus, this chapter. I've deleted it several times, I wrote parts of it while I was literally burning up with fever. Then I had to type the rest of this while wracked with coughs and just generally feeling like shit.
Babysitting my nephew, who knew kids were such incredibly virulent disease-carrying little monsters? turns out daycare is just a spawning pool of diseases, who knew?
Damn. Anyway, the next chapter won't take anywhere near as long, I'm aiming for Friday, but don't quote me on that.
Lastly, I just want to give a personal note to everyone who donated anything at all. You guys are almost entirely the reason I got through this month without going into the red since I've been too sick to work for three weeks straight. I'm incredibly grateful for all of your support. Thanks a million.
Chapter 15.5 Interlude: Emily Piggot Lisa Willbourn
Emily had always hated the master stranger protocols.
They never seemed to actually catch anything when you really wanted them to, and yet every time they came up they put several of her troops under effective quarantine, putting them out of commission for days at a time. So it was easy to understand why she was particularly displeased this afternoon when she heard that Miss Militia was placed into an MS holding cell, along with her newest ward and then the next two newest heroes on their roster. This group was then expanded to include both Vista and Shadowstalker as possible targets for a human controlling master after the initial report had come in.
That displeasure turned into outright anger when she heard what had actually happened.
"Renick, do you have a few moments?" Emily asked after having spent the majority of her day going through the bureaucratic hoops required whenever anyone got so much as a whiff of a Master.
"That depends a lot." Her deputy director answers from her neighbouring office. A second later her deputy director comes wheeling through the door, still sitting on his chair and clearly having just kicked himself over. "On if you mind if I remain seated throughout whatever it is you need me for."
Renick had just come off a double shift and was then prevented from leaving when the whole Rig effectively went on lockdown. He'd been awake for close to forty hours at this point, and he'd been invaluable during the whole situation, even if the actual harm so far was thankfully negligible. Just for that, Emily would cut the man some slack.
"I need a devil's advocate, lounge away," Emily says, grabbing the report she'd been working on and sliding it over to him.
"One second," Renick replies, shifting a little into the most lounge-esque position he can assume in his high backed chair. "Alright, I'm ready. Gimme." He takes the report from her desk and starts reading it.
Emily shakes her head at her co-worker's antics, patiently waiting for Renick to finish reading. She allows herself to relax ever so slightly, there was no one else observing her anyway. Renick had been her companion and even friend for years, one of the few people she unbends around at all.
After a few minutes, Renick puts down the report, takes off his glasses and tiredly rubs his eyes. "Jezus." is all he contributes "where to start? First things first, please tell me that I somehow missed you firing our warden? He let a suspected master explicitly work on the brain of one of the people he was mastering? What the hell was he thinking?"
Piggot pursed her own lips into a fine thin line. She'd been just as horrified as Renick had when she'd heard that. "Unfortunately, Renauld's logic was sound in that pedantic rule lawyer method of his." Renauld was the anally retentive bureaucrat responsible for their cell block. A former trooper and one of the physically largest men she'd ever seen, he attended to his duties with the grim humourless intensity that had made him perfect for the mindnumbing task of watching their prisoners.
"He argued that he had to make a choice on letting Apex continue healing the new ward or separating them. If he was wrong either way then he'd either be responsible for the newest ward being mastered or being killed, with no way to know which one more likely. Then if he assumed that both are equally possible, then it was better to have the new ward alive albeit mastered than not mastered but dead."
Renick took a few moments longer than usual to mentally debate that, before reluctantly nodding "I can… kind of see the logic. Yet every fibre of my being, every natural instinct tells me that it's critically stupid."
"Thus my dilemma, this whole thing is just… a disaster." Emily waves at the report "So I needed a second opinion to argue against my own, see if I'm just biased or stupid about it."
"Walk me through it." Her deputy asks, long since used to being the person Emily bounced her ideas off of. "I mean, what set Apex off? He's been almost as bad as Armsmaster, he does nothing but work. What made his meeting with miss Wilbourn so different?"
"It turns out that Miss Wilbourn possesses the same energy that Apex does, one of the maybe ten people in the entire world that he could teach his abilities to, at least according to him."
Renick's mouth twists into an expression of supreme distaste "It's awful that he is the only source we have on his abilities. We almost have to take his word for a lot of this stuff and it frustrates me, especially since he's so… different, from the other parahumans."
"Which might not be a bad thing, all things considered." Piggot points out "He's got his own hangups and idiosyncrasies sure, but he doesn't seem to have that same burning need to use his powers that most parahumans suffer from. I made the mistake of assuming he was similar initially and paid for it. He's remarkably different from other parahumans in a fundamental way that is hard to put your finger on."
"But… okay, so Miss Wilbourn can use his abilities, great, I can't imagine many disadvantages to having more healers. Why would that be such a big deal though?"
"Because according to Apex, Miss Wilbourn was being mastered." Emily admits "Someone had wired her to be way more combative and aggressive. If Apex is to be believed, Qi, the energy he uses, makes people more of what they already are. Having it amplify that unnatural aggression would have turned her into something not unlike the slaughterhouse nine but worse."
" Please tell me we're not just taking Apex's word for that." Renick all but begged his superior.
" God no. Thankfully, as a thinker who's been introduced into the wards, miss Wilbourn has had a rather thorough mental screening. It's making it surprisingly easy to see what has actually been changed or altered mentally."
Emily had read Lisa's reports with mounting dread. Her personality was potentially disastrous. ' a real troublemaker, an instigator and provocateur.' That had been the summary at the end of that report. Not an ideal report on someone who knew far too much about everyone, interacting regularly with mentally unstable teens with superpowers. Unfortunately for Emily, Lisa's thinker power had been too useful to simply jail the girl for what had been essentially petty crime.
Though perhaps that was former thinker.
Emily's interrogation of Apex had allowed the PRT's researchers to focus heavily on what he said he'd altered, the results of which were in a preliminary report somewhere on Emily's desk. They were still going to do a thorough screening of her mental state to try to spot any hidden mastery effects, but they had confirmed that Apex had at least been honest.
"How did you get Apex to cough up the details on his mastering though?" Renick asks, some curiosity glimmering in his tired eyes.
"I can't really take credit. I asked him, and he told me." Emily admits.
"You're joking?" Renick exclaims, looking about as surprised as Emily had felt.
"Sadly, no. For whatever reason, Apex seems either unwilling or perhaps even truly incapable of lying. If you ask him something he'll give you an honest answer even if that answer negatively affects him, it turns out."
"Huh, that almost has to be something related to his power then, right? I guess it's always possible that we've found the most honest man in the world but I'm willing to bet it's a side effect of one of his powers."
"You know the rules about betting between government officials," Emily says, trying to sound imperious.
"Nothing of any value, monetary or otherwise." Renick parrots back, continuing the long-running joke between the two of them. "So I'm willing to bet a full three days of my vacation time."
It was a private joke between the two of them. Since the rules forbade them from gambling with anything of value they had long since decided to make wagers on the most useless thing they owned. Neither of them had taken anything resembling a vacation in years.
She was also up two weeks, Renick might have a poker face that could stare down a stone but he didn't have her instincts for people.
"Sucker bet" Emily declines with a small smile shared between the two.
"Right, anyway, so to summarize." Renick carries on, scrambling to gather his thoughts together. "Miss Wilbourn breaks into Apex's labs, escorted by Miss Militia, who by the way should have known better. Apex realizes that Miss Wilbourn has this Qi, which combined with her being mastered in some fashion, would have been disastrous, so he tries to disable her power to prevent… something. Miss Militia objects, Apex ignores her, so she tries to shoot him with increasingly lethal ordinance, all of which he pretty much completely ignores. He removes Miss Wilbourn's power. He then calmly walks into custody, but convinces Renauld to put all of them in the same cell, explicitly to continue messing with her brain, am I reading that correctly?"
Emily nods "Pretty much. To fill in the blanks, Apex was certain that Miss Wilbourn could have used her power to learn something about the way he used his abilities. If she'd gotten it wrong she'd have died, with collateral damage that went anywhere from the room she'd been in at the time needing a new layer of paint to the destruction of the Rig."
"And what if she'd gotten it right?" He asks with horrified fascination.
"Well, if Apex is to be believed? She'd have gone insane with power and tried to kill everyone."
"How much damage would that have done?"
"It depends on if Apex could have shut down Miss Wilbourn in time. If he'd failed, which he assumed he would? The almost certain destruction of the earth's biosphere, with the all but guaranteed destruction of humanity following. It turns out that when Apex says she'd have tried to kill everyone he wasn't joking or exaggerating in the least."
"Excuse me, fucking what?" Renick asks, shock and adrenaline hitting his system and waking him up faster than any amount of caffeine had so far.
"Oh yes." she answers, her face grim "It turns out that improper use of Apex's abilities might very well wipe out all life on earth. A superlative ranking on the threat scale. Even if we'd have succeeded in killing her, she'd have produced enough unshielded energy to mutate most life on earth."
Renick gaped at her, there were only six known S-ranked threats in the world. The Endbringers, the sleeper, the collective slaughterhouse nine and Nilbog.
"So I've got not one, not two, but potentially three S-ranked capes in this Rig right now. All three of them are in cells but they are nominally aligned with us."
Renick's mind stops and falters. He can almost imagine the sound of a needle scratching on a record as the implications of that hit. "But looking at it another way, the three potentially most powerful capes in this city have just been thrown into a cell on what might very well prove to be frivolous charges, and you're not sure what will happen when they object to their treatment."
"Thus my dilemma," Emily answers, her face grim. "Logically speaking, I should be able to find something to slap Apex with. A fine, some form of punishment, even just keep him locked up while we do more research so we can have a clearer picture of what we should do. But every minute he spends in that cell is the one that might convince him he's better off on his own."
"… but so far, all he has are healing abilities right? Even if he does want to escape, it's not like he could just leave? His powers might grow over time but until that happens he's under our control either way, right?" Renick asks, realizing Emily's problem.
"Mhhh, I don't know. Let me check." Emily answers back, typing a command into her computer. A moment later, the crackle of an established connection comes from some of the speakers hidden in her room. A view of the cell flickers on the whiteboard dominating one of the walls of Emily's office.
"Hello Miss Piggot, did you have any more questions?" Apex's patient voice crackles from the speakers. The figure in the cell is sitting with his back to the wall, completely motionless. If it wasn't for the distortion on the screen Renick wouldn't have been able to tell that it wasn't just an image, he was that still.
"Yes. Apex, could you escape that cell if you were thus inclined?"
"… is that a joke, miss?"
"Not on my end, does that cell suffice to keep you contained?"
"These walls are unscripted." Apex waves one hand at the bare walls surrounding him, finally proving that it was actually a live feed. "My core is unbound, you haven't even shackled or crippled my limbs." Apex's raised hand twists, and the reinforced door to his cell slides open, seemingly on its own. A second later Emily can hear the alarm go off in the distance, a report on her screen instantly alerting her that a cell door had been opened improperly. "No, I am not bound here."
"Thank you Apex." she forces out, unnerved but not showing it in the least. "that was all." She sees the young-looking man nod once, before sinking back into a meditative position. Not once had he so much as made a move towards the open door and his freedom. Emily then spends a few moments dismissing the alerts, sending a note to Renauld to inform him that it was a false alarm.
Though she does wait until the door on the screen slides shut again. Even though he'd just proved he could open the door at will it made her feel better anyway. False confidence, she supposed.
"Fuck me." Renick breathes out once some measure of calm has been restored to the rig.
"I can keep trying to force him into complying with our demands." Emily admits after a few moments of thought "but I can tell you from painful personal experience that he is stiff-necked to the extreme. I don't think he's ever likely to simply accept orders. He'd make an awful soldier."
"But if he goes, he'll take his trainee along with him." Renick reasons "We might be able to keep hold of Miss Wilbourn but if Miss Hebert wants to go with him then legally speaking there's not a lot we can do to prevent it. Even then, Miss Wilbourn has already lost her power and her value as a cape along with it. If you keep pushing him he might decide it's not worth it and leave, isn't it better to keep him in-house even if he is a source of discord? Three potentially S-classed capes, on our payroll." Renick looks dreamy for a moment, clearly imagining using the power of their local capes to wipe out all their issues. A daydream, even though he knew that Brockton Bay had plenty of issues that couldn't be punched into submission, it was still a pleasant thought.
"On that note, I did order the wards to submit to a screening." Emily continues her explanation of her current issues. "When Militia allowed herself to be quarantined she pointed out that she had reason to believe that the female members of the wards might have been compromised along with herself, we tested everyone just to be thorough."
"Damn, I can almost forgive her for firing a gun at a ward if she had reason to believe that. Almost. Please tell me she was wrong. I'd rather deal with gun-happy Miss M than potential Master Apex, do you have any idea how many of our troopers might be compromised if he turns out to be hostile?"
Emily winced a little. The issues that would arise if and when the youth guard ever learned that Miss Militia had fired a lethal weapon in the same room as two other wards while aiming for a third were definitely an issue for later. And unfortunately for both of them, she had the exact count of their troops that Apex had healed in his short stint as a healer. Ninety-two local troops, and up to two hundred capes during the disaster at Madison.
They'd be doing spot checks just to make certain, but as far as they were able to tell Apex was telling the truth when he said he hadn't mastered anyone other than Lisa or Hebert.
"She was wrong." Emily quickly waylaid that fear at least. "Though she had… decent reasons for her doubt. Vista and shadow stalker were revealed to have some kind of romantic interest, which, combined with her own inappropriate feelings set off Hannah in the first place."
"Not to belabour the point, but Apex is an extraordinarily handsome man." Renick points out.
"Which we determined was the extent of Militia's issue," Emily admits, keeping quiet about her own opinion. She couldn't think of Apex without thinking of that cold, imperious, arrogant look on his face as he called her a coward to her face.
No one was pretty enough to handle that.
Even if she did think of him now whenever her back hurt, that cold tone explaining his reasons for his distaste of her. She'd actually found herself contemplating approaching Panacea just to spite Apex and prove him wrong.
She might have done so, despite her feelings and opinions on the matter if Miss Militia hadn't told her that that had been exactly why he'd done so. To shame her into getting a healer to fix her kidneys.
"Vista just likes how he treats her normally instead of a child, and Shadow Stalker…" Emily digs through her papers for a moment "Admires his willingness to fight, and the brutality with which he does so. That's a direct quote from her psychiatrist, which due to patient confidentiality I never shared with you, understood?"
"Jezus, Mary and Jospeh. We really need to get that girl either more or better therapy. But, no signs of mastering at all?"
"None, just a pretty face and teenaged hormones," Emily admits, slumping a little further in her seat. It had been a long day.
"So then, the person most at fault is clearly Miss Wilbourn, for barging into a secure area." Renick summarizes.
"But she's lost her power, and all signs point to her being mastered when she made that decision. There is no way to make her take any responsibility at all, legally speaking. If we tried, and it got to court we'd lose." Emily counters, having already come to that conclusion herself.
"And after that, the person most at fault would be Apex since he definitely went about this in an aggressively stupid way." Renick continues his line of thought.
"In his defence, he did mention that explaining why he wanted Lisa to leave would have almost certainly caused the very incident he was trying to prevent. But yeah, I agree."
"But even if we could nail Apex as the culprit, we probably shouldn't because politically speaking Apex is simply more valuable than Miss Wilbourn or Miss Militia are, and we don't know how much more it would take for him to simply ditch the PRT and leave. Which we can't afford, not really."
"I was afraid of that." Emily admits "Because your logic follows my own. The only person that leaves is Miss Militia, whose only real crime is not stopping Miss Wilbourn from entering Apex's lab."
"Are we really going to cut him this slack? Chalk it up to Miss M being overzealous and let him walk just because he's more useful?" Renick tries to argue, but he's realized the way things were likely to turn out. He'd long since gotten used to having to compromise on things he hated, Brockton Bay was that kind of place after all.
Renick throws her carefully compiled report back on her desk with a look of disgust on his face "What a damned mess." He finally admits, mirroring Emily's earlier statement.
Lisa hadn't enjoyed her time since joining the PRT.
She might have been forced into it due to her circumstances but the plan to join the PRT had been brewing in the back of her mind for several days, it was only when due to an utter fluke she ended up being caught that she grew determined to go through with it.
Because Lisa, at the end of the day, didn't want to be controlled.
Not by her father, not by the PRT, not by any of the gangs or anyone else. She wanted to be free to chart her own course in life. She thought that she had a real chance at it, back when she saw Apex on the TV. That was the moment she realized the extent the PRT was willing to go to, just to accommodate people with a useful power.
Here was a violent cape, with a violent power who didn't toe the company line. None of that mattered to the PRT, they seemingly cared about his power and the potential benefit it might give them and nothing else.
It might not be true freedom, she'd have to force herself to play by the PRT's rules at least a little but she thought that her power would be useful enough that she could get away with a shocking amount of leeway. Not freedom, but something close to it.
It was… difficult, to remember the logic of her own thoughts back then. The difference from before and after Apex had… forced her to heal, was stark. With the benefit of hindsight and the -monstrous- forced clarity during her healing she had been forced to confront the fact that she'd been changing. She was not completely like the person she had been, she'd learned too much, grew and understood more than she had back before she triggered. Before her brother killed himself and she realized just how broken her family had been. The depths her father and mother were willing to sink to, exactly what kind of people they still were.
But she was close enough to how she'd been pre-trigger that she realized that she'd been growing into something… else. Something worse, if she was honest with herself.
No, for all the clarity and information her former power gave her, Lisa decided she didn't miss it, not at all. Not at that price.
Not only could she think clearly again, but it was immediately obvious that her previous issues with intimacy had vanished like snow before the sun, without her power feeding her turn-offs as fast as she met people she could conceivable have a normal relationship again, huzzah!
Even if the relationship she was contemplating was anything but normal.
Apex had warned her that it'd be awkward, but that hadn't done justice to the feeling of being dominated like that. Since Lisa hadn't trusted him, he'd been forced to wrestle her into submission. Something that he'd done with almost effortless ease, forcing her to submit which affected her in a way that would definitely have been blocked by her power. For all of her desires to be free, being controlled by someone in a non-malicious manner was, humiliatingly, rather stimulating to her newly rediscovered libido.
Followed by the even more humiliating realization that Apex could feel her emotions, might as well have been reading her mind in fact. She recalled trying to twist herself away, to disengage from that intrusive, male presence inside herself. She'd instinctively tried to hide, out of shame, out of fear.
And she couldn't.
Which had heated her core even more, which made her more embarrassed, in a feedback loop that was definitely going on the list of things she would further contemplate when she was no longer being recorded.
Apex had kept that connection in place for what to her had seemed like an eternity, holding her still until she calmed down, had forced her to interact with him in a way that she lacked words to describe. He'd been complete without judgement, calmly and patiently forcing her to inspect his motivations until she'd relax enough for him to forge a connection with her that was strong enough to do what he wanted it to.
She'd healed then, sucking down his power in a way that would have been beyond awkward if she'd caught so much as a hint of amusement or arousal from him. But he'd been in control, had patiently helped her through the process of patching her body and soul back together. In the process, she'd gotten a horrifyingly clear picture of what had been done to her. Realizing the exact conditioning her mind had been subject to, the physical damage that would steer her to rely on her power more. Even the remnants of something completely and utterly alien to herself, still breaking down. The broken remains of part of the horrible, monstrous thing that had been in the process of making her into little more than a tool for its use.
So she'd joined the PRT to be free, which had led her directly to a cell. A cell in which she was now closer to being truly free than at any point since she'd triggered, maybe even longer considering the rolling dumpster fire that was her family.
The irony was not lost on her.
If… no, when she got out of here, she was going to take the implied offer Apex had left her with, to train in the same kind of power he could use. She had no idea what good she'd be without her power to help her, but she was curious to find out.
Her gaze flickered back to the mirrored wall of her cell.
In the meantime, she had to figure out, if she had completely lost her power, and she had very good reasons to believe she had.
Then why could she kind of tell what was going on around her?
She knew Apex was in the cell opposite of her own, sitting with his back to one of the walls. Specifically, the wall between his cell and the one Taylor was in, who was sitting against the same wall. In fact, Lisa knew with a certainty that worried her that they were effectively sitting back to back, only separated by the wall of their cell, their Qi pushing through the thick steel and interacting with each other, pushing and pulling at its opposite in a way that made Lisa feel more than a little voyeuristic to watch.
With what Lisa was worried might grow to be practised ease, she shoved how that made her feel into the growing list of 'feelings to examine later' as well. She even thought she was able to feel something like an echo of the feelings she somehow knew flowed between the pair, lost in each other like lovestruck fools.
If it was just that, she could chalk it up to the weirdness or some kind of lingering aftereffect of Taylor and Apex rooting around in her brain for as long as they had.
Her gaze returns to the mirrored glass.
But there were two people in that room, looking at her. Observing her, trying to figure out something important.
Gallant, and someone else. Someone she hadn't met long enough to put a name to yet.
Still puzzling over the weirdness of her situation, she settled down to await the PRT's response.
Chapter 16
"Why is it taking you so long to recover this time? I've seen you heal from meatball surgery on yourself in a fraction of the time it's taking you now." Armsmaster asks me, giving me a worried glance as he came to collect me from my cell. When the results came back that I really hadn't maliciously mastered anyone Armsmaster simply took it at face value and acted as if nothing untoward had happened, as far as he was concerned if the data showed that I hadn't mastered anyone then I hadn't, it was as simple as that. So far, he's been giving me well-meaning if unnecessary advice on how to best handle isolation for the next time we have to go into MS quarantine for whatever reason.
I can't really use the advice, but I appreciate the effort he's putting in.
I'd love to say that stretching my legs for the first time after having been cooped up for a couple of days while the PRT got their act together is a blessed relief, but Armsmaster is right, I'm still kind of wobbly. I feel like I have to pay close attention to my balance or risk falling flat on my face, like I went on the mother of all benders just yesterday.
"Recovering from purely physical injuries is simple enough, I've got my own medical skills as well as a 'power' that lets me recover way faster than I otherwise would have, but my tribulation body does exactly fuck all for mental or spiritual damage." I complain in reply to his question, somewhat salty that even after three full days of recovering from taking my first ever pills I still ache in a way that has nothing to do with my muscles. My mind was still a little fuzzy and I had a headache as well as stressed meridians that throbbed in tandem with my pulse.
"I'm also officially asking you to throw away my portion of horrifying gunk," Taylor tells me aloud, walking beside me. I've spent the last few days with my Qi entangled with Taylor's, the thick steel wall of our cell no real barrier to either of our Qi. Even with that it's good to hear her voice, I've had nothing but the static-y voice of Piggot demanding answers from time to time for several days now. "I don't care how great the results from pills made from that stuff might be, it is vile and the effects it had on you make me think it's definitely not worth it." She pointed doesn't look my way when she adds "Besides, I know there are other ways to get the benefits from that pill without effectively torturing myself."
Well, someone is growing more comfortable with the idea of dual cultivation.
I know she's right, but I'm still happy with the benefits I've already noticed from taking the first set of the Mortal Dans, the pills I'd refined from my own shed mortality. I had refined nine pills in total. Three grey pills intended for mortals and cultivators, three almost completely dark pills intended for golden core immortals, and three pills so black that they looked like a hole in space intended for everything past that. Each containing an ever greater concentration of what was effectively poison tailor made to oppose me.
I thought that since I had several days of forced downtime, that I should just bite the bullet and force myself to take the pills. I had finished making them long ago, pretty much ever since Armsmaster finished making me a cauldron to make them with. I'd just been stalling, I'm not a masochist, I don't enjoy being in pain and I knew when I made them that taking the pills would hurt. They'd hurt a lot.
In fact, from what I understood the pills hurt absolutely. They hurt as much as it was possible for a mortal body to be hurt. One pill affected the body, one the mind, and the last the soul itself.
There was no shortcut to power, you had to put in the work to receive the results. Qi, for all of its almost magical abilities, didn't get around that. But you could shuffle things around. Instead of suffering through years of hard work to master your own body and mind, you could use alchemy to cram all of that pain into, oh, about fifteen minutes. Averaging to about five minutes per pill. It wouldn't increase my power any, but it would give me skill, it would give me precision and control far beyond what I could hope to gain in a reasonable timeframe any other way.
I thought I'd prepared enough, I'd done everything I could think of to improve my chances of getting through poisoning myself without any long term injuries. I'd even rigged it so that I would benefit from the pain, using it to temper my own will in the hopes of giving me some of that indomitable resolve that cultivators were famous for.
Ironically, despite all of my preparations, despite everything I had done to tip the odds in my favour, I don't think I would have gotten through it if it hadn't been for Taylor metaphysically holding my hand through it. Her Qi tangling with mine had proven a buffer for my sanity that mere pain couldn't touch, it had kept enough of my mind safe and whole that I'd gotten through my fuckup intact.
It was kind of humbling and a little humiliating. It turns out that while I might have decent pain tolerance, my will was not much greater than that of a normal human, and even talented cultivators had been driven insane from what I'd attempted.
The results were impressive though. I'd been, painfully, made aware of every last muscle in my body, and my awareness of those muscles gave me an enviable amount of control over them. My control over my own Qi had likewise increased tremendously, far beyond what it had been even from practising my alchemy. The greatest growth was easily from my own mental senses and abilities, however. I was of course no match for Taylor but my divine sense now spread out from my body for several meters. I still didn't have a proper cultivation technique for my mind yet, but the difference from before was astounding.
Speaking about things that had changed…
I use my own divine sense to look behind me without turning my head, my now enormously enhanced Qi perception easily sensing the hazy awareness that I learned meant that Lisa was spying on us.
Again.
I'd only noticed her this morning when I'd recovered enough to start using my own mental perception. Her own divine sense eclipsed my own by an order of magnitude despite the difference in our cultivation levels for some reason. Where I could stretch my senses out to cover maybe twenty meters if I really pushed myself, Lisa's was a smooth sphere centred on herself that easily encompassed the entire rig. As far as I could tell she'd been using her time to spy on literally everybody .
I was looking forward to telling her that while she might be invisible to everyone else, I could tell whenever she focussed her attention on me. You see, I'm pretty damned certain that she doesn't realize my senses can spot her, either that or her long-delayed hormones hit her hard. She's pressed her Qi through my clothing to get a better look more than once now, and that's just since this morning.
Her reaction is going to be hilarious.
There was something weird about the way she used her Qi, however. Her meridians were still sludge-filled and utterly blocked, but despite that, I recognized the method she was using. It was pretty easy to figure out since the only other person in the entire world who used Qi was Taylor. It made the fact that Lisa's divine sense was copying Taylor's improvised, self-made technique extremely blatant even if I hadn't spent days pretty much mixed together with Taylor's Qi.
It wasn't a shock at this point that Lisa's abilities lent themselves well to gathering information, not with Taylor's own abilities mirroring her canon powers so closely, but I was still somewhat concerned.
If Lisa's powers of perception were powerful enough to understand even a small portion of Taylor's cultivation technique even with her meridians still completely muddled then they were strong. Worryingly and scarily so.
"Apex, I'm afraid that I didn't just visit you for social reasons. I've been tasked with ensuring that your… pet? Is not a danger." He pointedly looks at the blue butterfly that Taylor wore in her hair habitually now. "I know you said that it wasn't a real biological creature, but even a potentially biotinkered construct has to be tested for safety reasons."
"Yeah, I figured that would happen sooner or later, I'm just surprised you waited until now." I surreptitiously ask the man.
"One disaster at a time, to quote the director," Armsmaster answers my question. "To be honest, given the director's history I had expected her reaction to learning of any kind of tinker created creature to be a lot worse."
"Could you wait five minutes?" Taylor complains, taking the small creature from her head and cradling it in her hands. " I'm the one linked to it, and I kind of sense everything it does. I'd probably have to come along, but I would really like a change of clothes and a small shower before that."
Armsmaster looks incredibly excited at that, latching onto the information relevant to his interest immediately "Are you capable of using it as a remote drone? What is the ceiling to its flight, its top speed?" He pauses, reviews his questions and sheepishly adds"… would you be any discomfort if we test the creature?"
"It's called Suu, and that depends on the testing. Even if you killed it I wouldn't be hurt, but I'd still experience everything she did until the moment she actually died. So, try not to test it destructively if at all possible?" Taylor answers after thinking it over for a bit.
"I'll see what I can do." Armsmaster replies, not willing to make a promise he might not be able to keep "… I have to ask, why did you make a dangerous creature? What purpose does it serve?"
"The biggest local threat is Lung." I answer absentmindedly "Gu are a hard counter to anything that relies on stuff like regeneration or recuperation. As far as I know, you can't tank a Gu's poison." Not without prior exposure and something like my tribulation body at any rate. Even then you need similar defences for your meridians and your mind. "It'll also easily take care of capes like Alabaster or Crawler. I'd have to do some tests to work out a PR friendly dose, Gu venom is very much not a non-lethal weapon, but I thought it was good to have it in case we did need to put down Lung or something like it." Like Noelle, for instance.
Armsmaster looks at the beautiful blue butterfly, easily one of the least threatening creatures in the world, then back at me with one eyebrow raised. "… really?"
"Taylor? Mind showing off a little?" I ask my companion. She gives me a worried look before nodding. In the blink of an eye, the butterfly balloons out to its full size, hitting the floor on a full eight hairy arachnid legs. Suu is still in the process of growing armoured chitin and a large stinger as it scuttles up the wall at the speed of, well, a dog-sized spider/scorpion hybrid.
Armsmaster had snapped into a defensive stance, his halbert all but teleporting from his back to his hand as he looked at the enormous, horrifying bug monster. "… shit." He says when it becomes clear the bug is just sitting on the ceiling, staring down at him with far too many eyes. "I think that might win the coveted 'least PR friendly' anything I've ever seen." He doesn't relax when Suu collapses back into its butterfly shape, and he can't help but look at it distrustfully from time to time even then.
"Yeah, that's why I keep it in a kid-friendly package most of the time," Taylor admits, stroking the head of her second body with one finger. "Better to have and not need than need and not have, right?"
"That kind of depends on how certain you are about your control over it." Armsmaster states, his gaze still riveted to the bug he now knows is a dangerous bioweapon. I guess there's a difference between reading about it and having something seemingly harmless turn into a horror right in front of you.
"I control it absolutely." Taylor answers "It doesn't just need my Qi to live, it doesn't have a will of its own and I can kill it with a thought."
"… yeah, I can see why they want that thing tested," Armsmaster mutters to himself, shaking himself and forcing himself to focus. "Anything else you'd like to tell me about it?"
"When I learn some, I can use most of my powers through it," Taylor answers, causing me to wince slightly. Maybe she's copying it from me, but she's almost as free with her secrets as I am. "So far the only things I've really worked out is some minor feats of telekinesis and really basic illusions. I'm still working on getting better with both."
Inexplicably, that seems to cheer up Armsmaster. "Fascinating. Would you mind if I tested it without you present to determine the exact limits to that?"
"Feel free," Taylor says with a dismissive wave, sounding almost relieved. "As long as I get my shower first."
Taylor had indeed taken her shower. She'd stopped to grab some nutrition bars from her own room, some fresh clothing and vanished into them for an unseemly long time, leaving me and Armsmaster alone in the Rig's quarters for quite a bit longer than the five minutes she asked for.
It was good that Armsmaster was willing to discuss his work with me at length because all the other heroes stayed well clear of us. Maybe they'd relax again later, but despite having been cleared of the charges levied against me it was obvious that I'd still been smeared with some of the stigma of being a master.
Because I had been right. My ability to heal people's brains was likely to get me a Master rating, even if it was only an unofficial one. The same way that Gallant and Victoria weren't rated as Masters despite definitely being able to affect emotions themselves. Anything that let someone control other entities counted as a Master, as I understood it.
I didn't understand the logic behind it, I just thought they made masters more likely to go the villain route since the PRT most definitely were prejudiced against masters and Masters were overwhelmingly more likely to be villains than heroes as a result.
And now I was probably going to get one, Taylor too. Even just for her ability to control Suu she was all but guaranteed to get one.
Taylor came out of the showers freshly washed, her curly hair still drying and mostly hidden by the fact that she was wearing one of her old figure covering hoodies. Taylor's self-image had been taking massive strides ever since she started cultivating with me, as far as I could tell this was the first time since then that she'd hidden away again. She usually wore sporty clothing, easy to move in and surprisingly tight, something I knew she did because she knew I liked her in them.
Alarm bells started ringing in my mind when I noticed Taylor's body language.
Maybe she was just nervous about handing away Suu, it was a rather powerful protector, after all. Not to mention that she was basically getting the full experience of being taken away for testing since for most intents and purposes she was that bug.
But I didn't think so.
In fact, I think Taylor is hiding something. I could try to find out, she's easily close enough for me to use Divine sense to just look under her clothing like Lisa had done earlier. But she'd know I'd done so, we'd been getting along great and I didn't want to ruin her opinion of me because I smelled trouble.
So instead I reach out with my Qi and tap her on the shoulder. Her Qi wraps around my own with indecent haste like always in the metaphysical equivalent of wrapping her hands around my own.
Taylor is excited, anxious, slightly worried and… proud? Like she's just figured out something important and can't wait to share it with me.
"Apex?" Taylor asks me, right on cue. "We've been locked up for days, would you mind if we didn't go back to the lab? I would really like to get some fresh air."
"You'd have to leave your construct here." Armsmaster cautions us both.
"Of course." Taylor instantly agrees, causing the alarm bells in my mind to kick it up a notch. She extends one hand, a small butterfly resting on the tip of her finger.
Armsmaster takes a full step back, producing a palm-sized plate from one of his many pockets. It unfolds into a good-sized box, it even has air holes on the top. Instead of letting Suu jump in, he puts it down and takes another step back for good measure.
Taylor tries to muffle a smile as Suu flutters from her finger and flies straight into the box.
Armsmaster seals it shut with unseemly haste. He relaxes fully for the first time since Suu turned into a giant spider, giving Taylor a thankful nod. "I'll start testing as soon as possible, enjoy your day. Stay out of trouble."
He gives me a last nod before gingerly picking up the crate and leaving with it.
I look at the other heroes present, Battery, Velocity and Dauntless. None of them is willing to meet my eye. I nod to Taylor. "Yeah… yeah, let's get out of here."
Taylor takes me exactly where I expected. Some of the PRT troopers took us in a car with tinted windows, dropping us off within walking distance of Taylor's house. We walked the remaining distance hand in hand as Taylor points out various things about the neighbourhood she grew up in, trying to share some of her better memories and important parts of her youth with me.
We take an indirect route, zig-zagging through the neighbourhood as Taylor shows me various places that had some significance for her. It's clear to me that she's nervous about something, working her way up to something and I don't quite know what. I don't push her, I just enjoy spending time with her.
I can sense Taylor's apprehension grow when she runs out of places to show me, instead quietly dragging me towards her house. All too soon, I find myself sitting in the Hebert family kitchen, Taylor had actually started to move towards her bedroom before almost visibly changing her mind and plopping me down here instead.
I take a sip of the thee she'd made for me, looking at the increasingly nervous young woman, curious as to what exactly the deal is.
I've got some ideas as to what it could be that's making Taylor so nervous, but I fear that my mind is pretty firmly stuck in the gutter so I'm probably wrong.
Eventually, Taylor sits opposite me, grabbing her own cup with both hands to stop them from fidgeting.
"Just ask me, Taylor," I say as gently as I can, giving the girl a little push when it becomes clear that she can't bring herself to start. "I don't know what's got you so tied up, but I'm always willing to listen."
Taylor takes one more fortifying breath, before meeting my gaze squarely. "You told me before, back in the rig. The reason you didn't lie was because you were fairly certain that it was against your path, your Dao right?"
I raise one eyebrow at the non-sequitur, but I'm willing to go along with Taylor's tangent for now. "Yes. It's not that I can't lie, I just hate it."
"Right!" Taylor exclaims, pointing at me like that was the point she was trying to make "And you can tell that things are against your Dao because you hate them right? Because it's not being true to yourself?"
"Kind of an oversimplification but not wrong. Where are you going with this Taylor?" I ask, wondering what my unwillingness to lie has to do with anything.
"Apex, I think studying with you is the best thing that's ever happened to me, but I've hated almost all of our interaction with the PRT." Taylor admits in a soft voice "I actually have some power now, and we're spending all our time with the PRT studying how to act, how to preserve the status quo instead of actually being heroes. Apex, do you think the PRT can be trusted?"
I snort, instantly knowing my answer to that "Hell no. They're one of the most corrupt organizations in the history of… well, organizations I suppose."
"Then why on earth did we join them? What are we getting from it other than being held back?"
"I didn't have a lot of choices when I joined Taylor." I admit to the girl "I was broke, sans any powers and freshly hospitalized after nearly being killed. They've shaved months of hard work off of my plans simply by letting us use their facilities and resources. Besides, the PRT may be corrupt, but there's a lot of good people in there as well."
"But I don't think they're going to save the city," Taylor admits like she's ashamed of the admission. "They're not like I expected them to be. I know they try, but they're not going to succeed, are they?" She asks, all but asking me if, in the future, the PRT manages to save the city.
I sigh, already knowing how this conversation is likely to end. "No Taylor, they won't. The PRT is corrupt to the top. They're not trying to save the city, remember?" reminding her of the PRT's real end goal.
Killing Scion.
"What if we could?" Taylor asks. I instantly know that this is what she's been trying to work her way up to all this time. "Just you and me, what if we tried, really tried?"
I think it over, I owe Taylor that and more. "We don't, technically, need the PRT at this point." I muse out loud "We've gotten as much from free access to their resources as we're likely to get, the things we need can't be made with mortal means anymore, mostly. But just the two of us can't stand up to the PRT and the gangs Taylor, cultivation is powerful as hell, but parahumans are nothing to sneeze at, not now, not anytime soon."
"What if it wasn't the two of us?" Taylor presses me "you know Lisa has been sniffing around ever since she got even a little handle on her power. We could recruit her, I know she'll join if we asked."
"Taylor, it'll take weeks before you are combat-ready, Lisa is starting from scratch. She won't be able to help for at least a month." I counter, not saying no but not seeing where Taylor is going after all. "I'm not saying no, I'm just also not seeing what we stand to gain from leaving the PRT right now either."
Taylor takes another deep breath, reaching one hand across the table and grabbing mine. "Apex, I want to be a hero. I don't think the PRT are likely or even capable of helping. Will you help me, please?"
… shit.
It's not what I'd planned. I wanted to play it safe, slow but steady.
I still could. All it would cost me was, well, Taylor. I knew that Taylor wanted to be a hero, but she'd grown tired of the PRT's shit before even me. If I went back there, I think it would change her perspective of me, for the worse. Am I willing to pick the PRT over Taylor?
Well, when I put it like that the choice is a whole lot simpler for me. I planned for Taylor to be one of my Dao companions, I wanted her to be by my side literally forever. Someone I thought of like that was looking me right in the eye and begging me for help.
"Yes, Taylor. I'll help you." I say with a sigh, rubbing the back of my head as my plans for the foreseeable future alter drastically. "You do realize that currently both Suu and Lisa are still under PRT control right?"
The look on Taylor's face when I justify her faith in me is worth all the trouble this is likely to bring us and more. She squeezes my hand once more and I can feel a blast of affection course down that connection like heat from a blast furnace before she releases my hand, standing up so suddenly her chair topples over.
"Well, about that…" Taylor says, biting the bottom of her lips before firming her resolve and pushing on. Taylor proceeds to grab the bottom of her black formless hoodie and shrugs it over her head. I've seen Taylor dressed in just her underwear before, but when she grabs even those I damn near swallow my tongue. She doesn't take them all the way off, she just pulls them away from her body, not seeming to care that it gives me a good view of her modest chest.
I'm so busy staring from the sudden and unexpected boobs that it takes me a couple of long seconds to spot the movement from the corner of my eyes.
Butterflies, an even dozen. I can sense Taylor's Qi coming from every single one.
I stare, I stare longer than is decent, let alone polite. Taylor had smuggled a dozen Gu in her bra out of the Rig.
Taylor looks back at me, concern shining in her eyes. "Uhm… surprise?"
"Gu… Gu can't reproduce." I stammer out, truly at a loss for words. There shouldn't be a dozen Gu.
"Ah, they can. They can do anything the animals making them up could, remember?" Taylor points out. "They just don't because their personalities are little hunger elementals, they'd eat each other rather than mate. But, I seem to have a pretty decent grasp of what a creature can do when I hollow them out. And… well, it turns out that, biologically speaking, some bees can reproduce asexually." She motions towards the small swarm of butterflies flying around her, all but going 'tada!'
… just when I thought I had dodged the birdcage. I am 100% going to super-prison. Poor Piggot. I really do owe that woman an apology, if not for what I've done then for what this is likely to do to her heart.
"They don't have the same Qi that Suu had." I point out numbly, observing the… baby Gu more closely. The horde of baby Gu. That were practically adults already because they were shape-shifting monsters.
Super prison.
"I made them in the shower." Taylor admits "They don't have the Qi from a thousand bugs to draw on so their venom isn't as Qi laced as the original Suu. But that's just a question of getting them more Qi. You know there's a connection between me and the Guu right? I can power up maybe a couple of them in an emergency, but I figured out how to run the Swallowing Whale technique as a Gu."
And for the second time, excuse me? What?
"I think they just need a couple of dozen times their body weight in food to convert to Qi. That'd be enough to refill their Qi reserves." Taylor babbles out her plan as quickly as she can, her arms waving around as she explains. "And they can eat anything, they can eat plastic, or debris, or hell, I could start eating away the wrecks blocking the Bay. There's enough metal Qi stored in those hulks for a million Gu."
Super prison . On second thought, forget the birdcage, this is definitely kill-order worthy.
It's also worth noting that adapting a technique made for humans so that an insect can use it is in no way simple. That has got to be a side effect of Taylor's bloodline. Mental note, experiment with that later.
But a swarm of Gu would annihilate the local gangs. Hell, it would wipe out all crime in the city in the span of… Taylor spent maybe fifteen minutes in the shower and one Gu turned into twelve.
Bug controlling Taylor Hebert from Canon could have likely wiped out a truly impressive amount of the local gangs if she hadn't targeted Lung as a first opponent and took him on in a straight-up fight. Gu controlling Taylor might very well conquer the world.
But if we spread slowly, if we just took the city I don't think it would set off Scion. He doesn't give a rat's ass about stuff like that, Ellisburg proved that.
I don't care about taking the city, what would I do with it? Taylor herself probably knows that taking the city won't help in the long term, but she just desperately wants to help.
And since I'm not willing to abandon her, it seems that the time for gathering power the slow way is over with.
Chapter 17
I've changed.
I don't remember all of my past life, but I remember vividly how I dealt with my problems. It can be summarized with 'not well.' Or possibly even shorter, simply 'leaving.' I'd run from my problems so far that it carried me across the whole of my old world.
It's amazing what even just a few weeks of dedicated training can do when combined with heart-rending pain, bullish dedication bordering on stupidity and haphazardly jamming mystical energies into your own body.
So now that I wanted to clear my head, when I had an issue in front of me I could see no easy solution for, I went into Taylor's backyard and settled into a routine that I'd done so often recently I could mostly zone out and think while doing it.
I move through my martial arts practice with a grace and speed I'd never managed before. Taking the Mortal Dans might have sucked furious amounts of dick, but the effects were every inch as good as advertised. With flawless control over my own body, I glide through the opening steps of the fire path at record speed.
Until the final swipe of my hand is caught by the softer and smaller hand of Taylor, disrupting my stance in a textbook perfect nature style deflection. Yesterday if I'd been caught off guard to that extent I'd have fallen, but now I just twist my fall into a controlled roundhouse kick that lifts Taylor a full foot into the air, sending her skidding backwards as she barely manages to catch the unexpected blow on her forearms.
"I know you have a lot on your mind and I'm partially to blame, but you can just talk with me." is all she says, shaking out the numbness in her hands before settling back into her own opening stance.
"I'm thinking about the future," I reply, closing the distance between us at a far slower pace, matching my speed to hers. "I'm debating on where we should go from here, on what issues we might face if we leave the PRT."
"I'm sorry if I upset you," Taylor apologizes softly, flowing through her own practice with noticeably less grace than my own. I guess the pills I took worked better than I thought, I tone down my speed even further, catching her opening blow and tapping her twice on the ribs to show the hole in her defence.
"I'm not upset Taylor, and certainly not by anything you've done." I try to reassure the girl "But I do need your help with something. Walk me through what you planned to use your Gu for."
Taylor switches her stance with a grimace, going through the previous attack once more but this time with her elbow in position to catch my counterattack. Much better.
"Well, I hadn't really thought things through that far," Taylor admits, twisting under my attack that leaves her weight critically on the wrong leg. "I just thought… the Gu are so amazing, if I have enough of them I could fix things. I worked on it a lot when I was in that cell. I just… I've watched the Bay slowly spiral to its doom my entire life, the damage the local villains do, the lives ruined or ended because the wrong asshole got power. I thought I could get rid of the gangs at the very least, with enough Gu I might be able to pull it off."
I drive forward, using my greater weight to disrupt Taylor's poor balance, sending her tumbling back on her bum gracelessly. "That's what I was afraid of." I reach down one hand and help Taylor back on her feet. "I don't really doubt that with enough Gu you might be able to start a fight with all the gangs at the same time and actually win. If you do it right, if you wait patiently enough until your Gu are spread out across the whole world you might be able to fight injustice on a global scale. It's the most dangerous application of relatively low levelled techniques I've ever seen or heard of." I pause for a moment as Taylor finds her balance and meets my eyes again. "And they'll kill you for it."
Taylor flinches, it's clear she realizes how serious I am about this. "What? why?"
"Because as far as your current power goes you're basically Nilbog but worse in every way," I answer bluntly. "You've got most of the advantages of a self-replicating von Neumann weapon, lesser Gu like Suu might not be particularly powerful in combat, but if you're willing to use stealth and a little discretion I figure you've got an excellent shot at outright murdering everyone who opposes you." I pause for another moment, making sure I've got Taylor's full attention when I continue. "Taylor, your Gu swarm idea terrifies me, and I think I know you better than anyone else in the world at this point. How do you think the heroes are going to react when you start your career by committing localized genocide?"
Having had some time to think, I realized that Taylor's Gu swarm was amazing. Powerful, versatile, deadly. But simply not enough to handle everything in Earth Bet. We could fight mundane humans easily enough, but her Gu by themselves were simply not powerful enough to give us the overwhelming advantage in power we'd need to handle the repercussions of actually using the Gu swarm as a weapon.
And Scion or any of the Endbringers could burn through an unlimited number of Gu, they were just too frail for a fight of that calibre.
"But what if I only used them to fight crime?" Taylor implores me, no longer moving through her practice with me, having gone utterly still as she digested my reply.
"The Gu are terrifying Taylor. I know it's easy to lose track of but they're basically distilled nightmare fuel in motion. How do you think the city is going to react when they find the inevitable video of some villain being horribly murdered by a swarm of monsters?"
Slowly, Taylor continues her practice, mulling it over in her mind. I'm perfectly willing to let her. Instead, I focus on using my nascent divine sense to once again scout our surrounding area. I'd been getting better at doing so while using my martial arts at the same time and it was good practice regardless.
I'd used a combination of divine sense and Qi to sweep Taylor's house of bugs before our conversation. To be fair, I'd done so because I thought Taylor was going to jump my bones instead of delivering heavy news, but still.
So far the only thing I'd really figured out with my Qi was to manipulate the basic elements with it, and even then only within a fairly limited area of effect. It was good for finding and wrecking electronics though, or manipulate it enough to open a door for instance. I'd work on combat applications for it later, the Fivefold Path had several techniques that were relatively simple to master but scaled well for a very long time.
"The protectorate would try to stop me, wouldn't they?" Taylor eventually asks.
"Taylor, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they effectively nuked the entire city to get rid of you once they realize what's going on. Never forget that you are the weak point of your cultivation technique. The shield talisman I gave you is proof against almost any type of direct assault but only for a couple of seconds. I'm pretty certain it'd fare poorly against the USA collectively deciding the carpet bomb the city because you're Nilbog 2.0. There are plenty of capes around who I'm certain are pretty much completely immune to your Gu as well."
Maybe not to the Hollow Queen itself, but if Taylor starts eating heroes to keep herself safe then we're not really helping anyone anymore.
"I thought you said that the Gu were poisonous to the extent that it'd floor anyone." Taylor objects, though I can already see her bright mind working through the ramifications herself.
"Taylor, lesser Gu are still stuck in mostly animal form, no matter how you shift things around, their brain is still in their head and they still rely on normal albeit oversized pincers and stingers to deliver their venom. Alexandria could be buried underneath a literal mountain of Gu and not be overly bothered. If you fight the whole world with those Gu, you're going to lose."
"I could use them stealthily." Taylor stubbornly argues back.
"Are you ready to eat the entire local villain population then?" I counter bluntly.
I can't put in words how glad I was when I saw Taylor recoil from that in horror, so disturbed at the thought that I can effortlessly sweep her legs out from under her, sending her tumbling to the ground once more. I was glad to see there were still clear moral limits she was unwilling to cross.
"What do you mean eat them?" Taylor replies from the ground once she's caught her breath.
"If you merely poisoned people with the Gu then the moment they identify the poison they'll know it's us." I point out, once again helping the girl up. She looks too distracted to continue practice so instead of continuing and possibly getting her to learn the wrong instincts, I work her through some more of the forms instead. "And then they'll realize we do have more 'biotinkered' monsters, and shortly after that we are back in nuke territory."
"I… hadn't thought about that," Taylor replies softly, moving through the next sequence of movements in an exaggeratedly slow manner. "I don't think the Gu have tastebuds the way you or I do. I didn't mind the idea of eating unappetizing stuff because of it but to eat humans?" She gives a clear shudder at the idea.
To be fair, I'm not sure at what number of 'people eaten' it became impossible to think of yourself as a hero on the side of good but I was pretty sure it was less than the triple digits it'd require on the low end even if we limited ourselves to just the Bay's gangs.
There were some pretty clear downsides to personally experiencing everything your other bodies did with no flawless way to filter it out.
Though I'm glad that at the very least Taylor not once brought up dealing with it the way the original Hollow Queen handled that particular problem. Because separating your trauma's and then shunting them into bodies so you could kill them was profoundly fucking unhealthy. Not just because deliberately cutting off bits and pieces of your own memories like that was sure to cause havoc with your mental stability but also because karma wise it was up there with killing your family members in how quickly it put you in the minus.
Turns out killing people to make yourself feel better is not great for your Karma, though the original hollow queen probably jumped that particular hurdle after her first million or so murders. That monstrous Karma might very well be one of the things that contributed to such incredibly bad luck that no hollow queen had ever survived their tribulation.
"You also realize that we can't just immediately cut our ties with the PRT?" I follow up when it becomes clear that Taylor has nothing further to say.
"It's not as if I'm unwilling to work with them and it's not as if I want them to be our enemies." Taylor argues "I just… chafe under their rules. Their methods."
"Yeah, you're not the only one." I acknowledge with a deep sigh.
Though I can't help but wonder how much of that was her and how much of it came from me. It was one of the dangers of dual cultivation, we'd been mixing together for long enough for our motivations to join together at least a little as well. "But I'm worried about Lisa, and the Qi engine. Also, I know that you just want to drop them and chart our own course, but I think the Protectorate deserves better." I think of Miss Militia, the other heroes unwilling or unable to look me in the eye after the rumours had gotten started. "Well, Armsmaster at the very least deserves better."
I make a mental note to apologize to Vista as well. I don't want her to think she is responsible for chasing away three heroes in a single afternoon, which she well might considering the circumstances.
"I don't mind if we try to recruit Lisa. Her having a bloodline to add to both of ours makes her a logical pick after all." Taylor says it with such aplomb that I'm actually caught off guard for a moment. She got used to the idea quicker than even I did. My mind still boggled a little whenever I thought about the idea of me being in a polyamorous relationship. "But what's wrong with the Qi engine?"
The Qi engine doesn't have anything like a regulator." I explain "it doesn't develop a consciousness like anything else with that much Qi because all of its energy is used to flow along the strengthening path. It'll grow and grow, the more Qi in the surrounding area the faster it'll grow in power. Using it the way we've been using it ends with the shortest possible use of a given engine, but we needed that Qi density to get anything done." I shrug, this iteration of the Qi engine was never going to be a permanent solution.
"Out of curiosity, what is the best way?" Taylor asks, honestly curious.
"Wrap it in Qi draining scripts and ensure the area around it remains as empty of Qi as possible. Eventually, no matter what you used to make your scripts, the Qi engine will outpace the volume of energy your scripts can handle and then the Qi engine will fail. Catastrophically and spectacularly."
You could only fight something that grew exponentially for so long before sheer math buried you. You could slow the curve of the exponent, keep it in a stable area for longer but eventually, the Qi engine would destroy itself. Which is what had happened to its creator, who pretty much swallowed one down under the assumption that it'd give him limitless power. It did, and then he exploded as a result.
Brilliant artificer, poor mathematician.
"So we need to go back to disable it anyway," Taylor replies, deep in thought. "Do… do you think they might try to stop you from leaving, by force I mean?"
"I don't know." I think it over for a few moments. "I hope not," I add after thinking things through.
I honestly don't know, the PRT and Protectorate are almost certainly not going to like me just ditching them. I'm not just a pretty solid investment of theirs at this point, but I'm potentially a vital resource. My ability to heal Simurgh victims is unique and valuable, even me just coming by at the end of every attack and healing all the capes might prevent an enormous amount of trouble, not to mention everything else they suspect or might have picked up on so far.
Losing what might well turn out to be the next Dauntless of even Eidolon would sting, and I can't discount the possibility that the PRT will do something stupid. Because Earth Bet.
Taylor takes a deep breath, squaring her shoulders and facing me head-on. "So, we have the rest of the day off right? They're not expecting us back before tomorrow?"
"We've both been at the Rig, working without breaks for days on end. We can take some time to ourselves sometimes Taylor." I certainly planned to take some time to enjoy myself, growing stronger was fine and all but not at the cost of everything.
"No, that's not what I'm concerned about." Taylor denies, blushing a little. She takes another deep, fortifying breath before grabbing me by the hand, her Qi swirling together with mine as naturally as breathing.
Taylor is a little scared, more than a little apprehensive and a lot determined.
"I know you don't sweat when you train with me anymore, but getting kicked into the dirt several times has left me filthy." Taylor tries to say casually and failing, her blush increasing by the moment. "W-would you help me wash my back?"
… well then.
Taylor gives a cute little yelp when I effortlessly sling her over my shoulder, carrying the girl into her house at a light jog.
Knowing what Taylor is feeling doesn't make it any easier to hold me back from just jumping her then and there, even as I carry her into the bathroom and settle her on the soft downy carpet there.
"I wanted to take you out on a date first." I rumble as I grab the young girls hoodie and peel it off of her, revealing the same sporty bra I'd seen her in several times before. Taylor obediently held up her arms, letting me undress her even as intently studied my reactions. "I planned to take it slow until you had some time to get used to me, to be sure of what you wanted."
Taylor takes hold of my own shirt and I raise my arms, letting her remove my own shirt. Taylor stares, running both hands slowly over my now exposed torso. I can feel her arousal tingling my nostrils. "I know." is all she says. She stops her ministrations and hugs me instead, her head resting right over my heart. "But you've given me plenty of time already. I do know what I want, I just want you. I don't care about anything else."
Taylor's only active dantian is located squarely in her head, the one she is resting right over my earliest awakened centre. Her Qi is twining through me, and I can feel the affection and desire blast from her in waves, rushing to my head and making my pants situation significantly more critical than they'd been before.
My greatly improved bodily control was no match for Taylor's sympathetic arousal and my own bloodline slowly coming to the front. I can hear the moment my superpowered body overcomes the frail denim restraining it. My pants partially rip through from my body with an audible tear.
Taylor glances down, giving a startled squawk before looking at the damage done to my clothing and the likely culprit. Her hands shoot up to her face, muffling the laughter coming from the girl.
I try to give her a stern glare but my own humour at the situation overcomes my irritation almost immediately, leaving the both of us clinging to each other while laughing at the absurdity of it for a while.
"Last chance Taylor," I force myself to check one last time once I get myself under control again, slowly rubbing Taylor's back. "Make no mistake, if you don't back down now you're going to lose your virginity. I'm going to ravish you, Tay. You have no idea what you're in for."
Taylor looks at me, biting one of her full lips before she gives me a sly grin. She gets up on the tip of her toes and kisses me full on the mouth as an answer to my question. Unlike other first kisses I've been involved in this one isn't awkward at all, the two of us fit together perfectly, her taste driving all thoughts from my head as my tongue wrestles with hers.
"Do you really want me to say it? Do I need to spell it out for you?" She gives me a sultry grin, sliding her hands through her bra and letting it drop to the floor "Please, fuck me."
Repeated and enthusiastic consent, get. The train has left the station, full steam ahead.
Taylor's breasts are small, even after refining her body she is still little more than a B cup, with adorable pink nipples that are almost painfully hard. Her pale breasts fit perfectly in the palm of my hand, I can't help but give them a quick taste test as well. Her breath stocks as I slowly run my tongue over her chest, carefully sampling her.
Taylor's taste is unique to her, the scent and taste I ascribe to her. Of a clean, healthy, eager young woman.
I step out of my ruined jeans, letting the torn cloth fall to the ground before kissing my way down Taylor's body, slowly kneeling in front of the girl in the process. I peel Taylor's jeans down as well, revealing Taylor's utterly drenched underwear. I grab hold of those as well, and slowly peel them from her, getting my first ever view of Taylor's fuzzy mound. Her underwear, sodden with her secretions falls heavily to the ground, the scent coming from her like this is overwhelming, intoxicating.
There is something magical and exciting about the first time you're ever naked with someone, and while Taylor might not have the curves of a porn star the recent exercise and body remodelling has given her the figure of a model, with long legs that go up to a truly fantastic ass.
I have no complaints.
I can't help myself, I grab hold of said ass and pull her a step towards me, getting her to step out of her underwear at the same time. I take another deep breath of her scent, before giving her another kiss, this one directly on her lower lips. Her taste hits my enhanced senses like a hammer to my libido.
I grab a better hold of Taylor's body and lift her in the air, her legs going around my head as she squawks at the sudden and unexpected motion, pressing me deeper into her sodden lips in the process. I effortlessly lift her into the shower, pushing her as gently as I can manage against the back of the shower. Without once removing my face from Taylor's thighs I turn on the shower, twisting them and dousing myself with cold water that quickly heats up.
Taylor hasn't even noticed the water yet, her fingers desperately gripping my hair to have something to hold on to as I start eating her out against the back wall of her shower.
I have no idea how long I stood there, water spraying all over us as I delve my tongue into Taylor's sex, getting as deep as I can, drinking from her. I do know when she first came, though only because of how hard she pulled my hair when she did. I only noted it in passing, a meaningless detail as I kept ravishing the young girl with my tongue. It turns out my immense knowledge of the human body was good for more than just medicine after all.
I noticed that Taylor was naturally quiet, muffling her voice and biting her lip even as she came with my tongue buried inside of her.
It irked me, something about her trying to keep quiet like that almost offended me.
I kept her there, toying with her body and licking her through at least two more muffled orgasms until finally their boiler gives up and the water becomes cooler and cooler. For the first time in at least twenty minutes, I slowly lower Taylor back to the ground. I can't help but grin when her legs pretty much instantly buckle when they try to hold up her weight.
Taylor tries to glare at me for laughing, but her somewhat dopey grin simply won't let her. Eventually, we devolve into another round of completely immature giggling. It feels good to laugh, to forget the pressure we're under all the time and just live.
While the water is still somewhat tolerable we take turns soaping each other up, washing each other clean of the day's accumulated grime. There is a simple joy in running your hands over another person, in smooth skin yielding under gentle pressure.
After some more playful grab-ass on both sides, we're as clean as we're going to get. I dry Taylor with a brief application of water-based Qi, before once again lifting her, turning it into a proper princess carry as I carry her to her room.
"I can walk you know." Taylor manages with a little huff, still a little breathless. I can feel the tremor in her legs though.
"I like carrying you," I tell her honestly and enjoying her resulting blush. I use my nose to pinpoint Taylor's room and navigate us both there. I carefully set her on her bed, sitting next to her. She says nothing, just studying me as I take the jar of Cinnabar from my storage ring and draw a quick and dirty seal on it, slapping it on my back where the Qi I laced into it burns it into my skin.
Because this is the worst possible time and place to have a child in.
"God, so much has changed since the last time I was here." She mumbles, looking around the old familiar room. "I'd almost given up hope on ever having someone over, let alone someone like you."
"I'm just me, I'm just as glad as you to be here," I answer, turning to her and lifting her up to give her another kiss. "With you."
I take a brief moment of watching Taylor writhe on her bed, her naked limbs twisting from the pleasure of the kiss. I slide myself down until I'm resting on my elbows over her, never once breaking our kiss.
Taylor opens her eyes, and while I can feel her fears, she nonetheless opens her legs, letting me settle in between her now spread legs and slowly rubbing myself against her, feeling the incredible moisture slowly soaking the tip of my dick.
"I ah, don't think I need to say it." Taylor mumbles, pushing me back a little so she can speak "But this is my first time." She looks down between our bodies "and you're… bigger than me. So please, be gentle?"
I nod, I already knew that and I had planned on taking it slow initially anyway. After all, I wanted her to enjoy this just as much as I was going to.
Instead of just plunging in, I rock back instead. Sitting on Taylor's legs I take my time, once more slowly massaging her, using acupressure to alter her blood flow, cranking her arousal up ever higher and relaxing her at the same time. "I'm not going to hurt you," I murmur, sweeping my palms down her flawlessly smooth skin and watching the girl relax by inches. "But you've been an incorrigible tease all this time, and I think at least a little payback is in order, don't you think?"
Taylor opens one eye, looking almost sprawled out and completely boneless after my massage. " You think that I'm the tease?" She says, going for a mock offended tone. "You were the one who insisted that we train almost in the buff around each other. That first day I honestly didn't know where to look, and then all that mixing our Qi together for days on end?" Taylor tries to prop herself up on her elbows, but only gets halfway before flopping back in her bed with a giggle. "I can't feel my legs and you haven't even been inside me yet."
I waggle my tongue at her for a moment, getting a slap to my shoulder in reply.
I give her one more kiss, enjoying the simple feeling of Taylor's body moulding to my own. Writhing underneath me. I gently thrust my hips forward, sliding in slowly.
I might have overdone it with the preparation a little.
While Taylor is incredibly tight, she is so incredibly aroused and lubricated that I simply slide home in one smooth thrust. I can feel Taylor flinch in anticipated pain, and then I can feel her clench as the feeling of suddenly being full hits her. I keep my mouth locked to hers, slowly kissing her as I give her some time to adjust.
After only a couple of moments, I can feel Taylor start to wriggle as she tries to stimulate herself, exploring the sensations of me filling her and desiring more of it. I pull back and give her a happy grin and slowly drag myself out of her, having to struggle a little to withdraw myself from the death grip she has on me. I take it slow for several more thrusts, slowly feeling Taylor relax again, going languid and stretching like a cat while I'm slowly plumbing her depths.
I slowly increase the pace over time, going faster and faster, simply getting lost in the feeling of Taylor's impossibly tight quim gliding over me like the smoothest velvet. I paw at her body, I like everything I can reach, I use my knowledge of the human body to its greatest possible effect. I wasn't interested in just getting Taylor off, I wasn't just trying to reach my own peak either. Every time I could feel Taylor coming close to becoming completely undone I'd distract her, I'd slow down only to start all over again once the danger of her cumming too early was gone, driving her higher and higher with every cycle.
But nothing lasts forever, and eventually I sense I'm reaching the limits of what Taylor can handle. I speed up even more, loving the squelching sounds of Taylor's juices being forced from her body as I ravage it. I relax the tight grip I held on my own arousal, realizing only then how close I'd been myself as I go off just before Taylor does, my entire body seizing in one giant climax as I empty myself deep in Taylor. The feeling of my seed pumping into her body seems to set her off in turn, lifting her lower body to give me full access even as her entire body trembles from the incredibly powerful orgasm. Screaming hard enough to wake the dead all the while.
Much better.
"I love you" She mumbles once she's recovered somewhat, trying to meet my gaze, her hands reach for me to give her another kiss. I oblige her, kissing her again. I would have dismissed her claims, said as it was in the heat of the moment, if I couldn't feel her emotions radiating off of her. The affection, trust and lust she felt before morphing into something deeper and altogether greater.
Without warning, the barriers Taylor naturally had in place completely vanish, and the connection between us snaps into place like it always has, but I can sense the difference immediately. I had thought the connection between us had been reasonably deep and well-entrenched already, but I was wrong, incredibly so it turns out.
The connection that we're forming now goes past every defensive layer I knew either of us possessed, finally settling down very close to the core of our being, all the rest of our combined energies start to freely mix between us. I can feel energy pouring from my dick directly into Taylor's body, where she cycles it and breathes it out into my body through the shared contact of our kiss.
We cultivate like that. I'd hauled her upright, clutching herself to me on my lap as she breathed our mixed energies into me at the same time as I slowly pumped into her, sending my share of our connected energies back to her through that intimate contact.
Yin to Yang. Yang to Yin. The duality of all things, the greatest and second oldest of all the Qi sources in the universe, when combined like this it approached a purity bordering on the divine. Greater by far than would otherwise be possible on this mortal world.
I can feel my own bloodline fully activate for the first time.
There is no copying of powers, not in any way I'd understand it. I mixed what was mine with hers, she mixed what was hers with mine. An imprint, not a copy but an offshoot, a sapling, watered by the incredible pure energy we were both still generating. I am distantly aware that my final dantian forms, painlessly and effortlessly, the immediate increase in clarity of my divine sense giving me a better grasp of what's going on.
Our bodies are draining Qi, at a rate I hadn't believed possible. Dual cultivation generates Qi naturally, and since I can feel the absolute purity of Taylor's vital Yin breathing into my own there is enough Qi circling through our systems to raise both of our levels significantly. Instead, the Qi is draining into both of our bodies at an unprecedented pace.
But when I probe Taylor's body I immediately understand where all of that Qi is going towards. I hadn't been conscious enough of the process to decide what I shared, so I shared it all. Taylor's cores were unaspected but she had ten of them, in a similar set-up to my own. Her body likewise was still strengthening, her resistance to fate and divine power increasing to a similar level to my own. The dantian in her heart lacked the trace of divine power mine had, we were unable to produce the required divine energy.
No wonder the process was draining power like a sieve.
Still buried as deep within Taylor as biology allowed, still locked lips to lips I withdraw an item from my storage ring, placing the container with the contained tribulation lighting dragon to Taylor's sweat and fluid soaked chest, and trigger it.
The bolt of divine lightning that strikes Taylor was many times greater than the one I integrated on my own, probably adjusted for her far greater resistance. Despite that, we never once stop our languid thrusting, Taylor's levels of resistance to lighting were approaching my own and she could draw on the full might of our combined Qi. Her body had already learned from mine what to do on a level surpassing even instinct. Without any fanfare or danger we succeed, giving Taylor's body not just a resistance to divine tribulation greater than my own by far, but a complete embryonic version of her own Tribulation body.
And then that increased resistance flows from Taylor back to me, the energy boost from the lightning we poured into Taylor's body more than enough to facilitate the change.
I have no idea how long we spent like that, I lost all track of time, of our surroundings, of the environment. I never once flagged or grew tired, Taylor likewise was never sated and ever wet and ready.
Like that, for an indeterminable amount of time, Taylor and I were almost one, cultivating and making love. Deaf to the world and to everything else.
Until after what might have been an eternity our bodies had grown as far as they could, until we were equal, until all was balanced perfectly between the two of us. We broke the contact gently, moving at the same time as our Qi settled into our own bodies again. Taylor rests her sweat-slick forehead against my own as we slowly fall sideways, hitting her bed with a small bounce.
Only then do I realize the incredible lethargy I feel. The utter exhaustion for the first time since I cultivated the tribulation body, finally pushed past the limits of even its endurance. As I fall asleep I can't help but wonder about the many mysteries around us.
If we'd started in the afternoon, then why was the sun coming up?
What was that smell of ozone and burned wood?
Why was Taylor's bed almost level with the floor?
Who was that other source of Qi in one of the other rooms?
Why the fuck was I still hard and ready for more?
My tired mind considered this for a moment, before shrugging and deciding that this was a matter to be handled later. I clutch Taylor's cooling body to my own, getting a small whimper from her as I realize that I'm still inside of her.
Like that the both of us fall asleep, feeling utterly content for the first time in either of our lives.
Author's note: Lewds! blessed, glorious, (amateur) lewds! blessed be the day. Brought to you by the music of Joe Hisaishi, who I could listen to forever.
Chapter 18
I woke up to the sound of Taylor's laughter.
I had long since gotten used to how quickly I snapped awake nowadays, my enhanced body waking up with all cylinders firing from the start, no more drowsiness in the morning or cold showers for me, no sir. I sit up, stretch a little and look around.
Taylor… Taylor was dancing, laughing as she moved across her room with the ease and grace of a world-class dancer stepping over the clutter on the floor with an unthinking grace that made it very clear that she'd really advanced just as far with the Tribulation Body as I had. The smile on her face was radiant, joy visible in every graceful movement of her long limbs.
"Good morning." Taylor says, never once stopping or slowing her movements "I thought I'd be sore when I woke up after all we got up to yesterday." Taylor grabs the back of her chair and lifts herself with a single arm, balancing herself on a handstand with another small giggle. "Instead I feel like I could outrun a car, like I could dance all day and never miss a step. Is this what you feel like all the time?"
"Pretty much, though in my case it's been long enough for some of the novelty to wear off." Though honestly being superhuman was still pretty damned cool, I hope the sheer ridiculousness of my situation would never become boring or commonplace. "And we've got a couple of hours of sleep while completely filled up on Qi, the Tribulation Body's ability to recover from damage is astonishingly high, even compared to normal body cultivation methods. We'll recover from literally anything that doesn't kill us. We can regrow limbs, compared to that a little bit of muscle ache is not really worth mentioning."
Technically all the specs of the Tribulation Body were simply superior to almost any other cultivation technique I knew of, better endurance, better defence and offence, better metaphysical protection, better everything really.
There was a reason that I was simply going to teach it to everyone I cared for, I hadn't encountered any other technique with results anywhere near as universally amazing as the Tribulation Body. There were a couple I'd found, divine techniques that might equal it in one area, but they generally came with blatant weaknesses in return. The Tenfold Wheel was much the same, flat out better than anything else I'd found so far. The only real issue was that it would normally be prohibitively difficult to find a pure source of tribulation lightning, but the vessel I'd been given had neatly solved that issue for me.
Speaking off.
I located the tube from where it'd rolled after I used it yesterday, having to shift some debris aside to get to it. Just like the last time I used it, as far as I can tell the energy inside the tube hasn't decreased a single iota. So either the energy stored in this tube is almost incomprehensibly huge, or it's self refilling. Both are scary for different reasons. I quickly stow the tube away into my ring, just to be safe.
I then look at what I just moved aside, it turns out to be a machined piece of wood that has clearly snapped off from something else. Though given the size of the remnants I think 'splintered' is more accurate than broken off. I look around the room and try to determine where exactly it came from.
"Damn, we really thrashed your room," I note, determining the piece of wood to be a part of the ruins of Taylor's bed peeking out from underneath the mattress I was still sitting on, the apparent source of a lot of the debris on the floor.
"I don't think the Hebert household was made with superstrength in mind," Taylor agrees, looking at the imprint of her back pushed into the cracked drywall next to her bed. "I wonder if they make furniture with brutes in mind?"
I don't even remember doing that, Taylor and I had been deaf and blind to everything outside of the two of us while we'd dual cultivated. It was one thing to read about it, another entirely to be so immersed in another person that I couldn't even tell how much time had passed.
Thankfully modern technology came to the rescue, I still had a PRT issued smartphone. I couldn't help but be somewhat proud that it wasn't enough to check the time, but I actually had to be safe and check the date as well.
Taylor and I had spent over twelve hours dual cultivating and slept for a couple more right after. Our first day of free time in weeks and it was just… gone.
Though I wasn't exactly complaining about how we'd spend our time, for obvious reasons. It was still a bit worrying to realize that since physically we never really reached a point where we had to stop there was a very real danger that we'd lose track of time and just end up banging away an entire decade. For now, we still needed to eat and even sleep at least a little but those needs would decrease further and further if given enough time. There'd come a day we'd both transcend the need for material sustenance of any kind.
Problems for far into the future, we just need to invest heavily in alarm clocks or something.
"You sleep like the dead." Taylor notes with a soft smile "I went and made breakfast and you didn't even twitch when I left."
"I'm normally a pretty light sleeper, but I guess I was tired from doing all of the heavy lifting yesterday," I say, slightly teasing her.
"Humpf, see if I make you another breakfast again if that's going to be your attitude," Taylor says, her arms crossed in affected anger. There is a small twist of Qi coming from Taylor, and suddenly there's a plate of waffles sitting in my lap. I can feel the heat right through the plate proving they're still warm.
I hadn't smelled them before now. They hadn't been in the room until just now.
Immediately my gaze snaps to Taylor's hand. I only now realize that she'd been holding it out for me to notice all this time, clearly trying to see if I'd notice by myself. In my defence, the sight of Taylor swaying across the room in her undies was very distracting, even after how much more of her I got to see yesterday.
But there, on the little finger of her left hand is a ring, a familiar ring. I snap my eyes to my own hand, but my own ring is still there. Is it sexually transmissible? What? I knew they were more complex than normal storage rings, but I hadn't messed with them aside from that. Partially because I had been very busy with other things, partially because I lacked the tools to investigate them safely.
Taylor steps over to her bed, removing the waffles from my lap just long enough for her to drop herself in their place, holding out her hand so I can study the ring a bit closer. She uses her other hand to slowly tear off pieces of waffle that she proceeds to feed me.
There are slight differences, my ring is slightly larger due to my larger finger, and slightly wider due to that increased size, but other than that it's exactly the same as my own. It's a black band separated into three even pieces with thin bands of what looks like gold, but isn't. Taylor's suddenly appearing waffles proved that it was a storage ring like my own, but it was clear that there were other functions besides that.
Also, these waffles were amazing.
I ensure that the tube filled with tribulation lightning is still in my ring before I ask Taylor the obvious. "Can you pull that tube from your ring, or is it a separate storage space entirely?"
"My ring is still completely empty." She confirms my suspicion "so they're not linked to each other. Well, at least not like that. I'm pretty certain that these are more than just storage rings though."
"I hadn't tested them thoroughly yet, I know they're as indestructible as divine artefacts always are, but as someone who has a better grasp of the amount of energy tied into these things, be careful with them." I don't think they were intended to be dangerous, but there were plenty of things that could aid cultivation that would 100% cripple you for life if you messed around with them.
Case in point, my ring had come with a source of energy that I was beginning to suspect was actually limitless. It was an amazing boon for my cultivation, but being careless with a source of infinite energy could potentially be… catastrophic? Apocalyptic might be better.
"Apex?" Taylor asks after I finish off the last of the breakfast she made for me.
"I really need a civilian name that isn't shit," I mumble, suppressing a flash of annoyance that my lover is calling me by a name made up by the PRT. I had gone through an incredible number of possible options but none of them had seemed… right. Like before I just shoved it away to deal with it later, I'd figure something out eventually. "What's wrong?"
"How strong are we?" Taylor asks seriously.
I let out a deep sigh, scratching the back of my head. "That's not an easy question to answer." I tell Taylor "If we were in a cultivation world, it'd be easy. We're cultivators at the start of their journey, there'd be children with deeper cultivation than either of us have. I could say that we're beyond anyone in the Jianghu, the martial world, but that doesn't say anything either. So if I want to put a proper category to our strength, I can only use examples. We're at the point where humans with melee weapons no longer pose a threat to either of us unless they come in extreme numbers. With your Gu and your bloodline gift, no amount of troops or warriors could reasonably face you in a fair fight and live."
"If I understood how your bloodline gift works, then you're now capable of doing everything I can, right?" Taylor points out, content to remain on my lap, snuggling.
"Yes," I answer bluntly. "Though I expect to have to practice a little to reach your level of control over it."
"My control over my enhanced body was pretty much instantaneous though," Taylor notes curiously. "If it wasn't I would have fallen flat on my face trying to do that one-armed handstand earlier. If I'd done that yesterday I would have fallen down no matter how much we've been working out lately."
"But you are not capable of using the movement technique I've been practising, are you?" I point out in return "Techniques are the one thing that aren't freely shared by my bloodline. If we sparred right now I'd manhandle you, even if you're as strong and fast as I am now."
Taylor pouts a little but nods to show that she understands my point.
"To finish answering your question, both of us are very powerful, compared to a normal human. But we're frail, glass cannons to the extreme. Compare us to… Eidolon for a second, we have a near-infinite amount of cooky powers we can learn and use, but if we're shot we still die."
"I think it's frowned upon to use guns precisely because they're so lethal to the vast majority of capes," Taylor explains.
Though I think it's got more to do with how the logic of this world would collapse like a house of cards if lethal force was a thing, there's a relatively tiny amount of capes that can't be handled with a good old fashioned high powered ballistic shot to the head. Ironically in Worm as a setting, this problem is actually more prevalent than elsewhere, with Toybox and the many rogue Tinkers it wasn't even particularly difficult to get a laser rifle that no amount of modern ballistic armour will even slow.
"I've been working on it." I admit "I highly recommend you try to learn a movement technique yourself, when combined with the shield talismans I gave you, you should at least have the option to flee under almost all circumstances."
"Isn't there a technique that renders us impossible to mundane harm?" Taylor asks "It wouldn't matter how easily other Qi users could pierce through it since there aren't any."
"Hundreds, no, thousands." I answer glumly "the simplest to learn I've found will still take months of dedicated work to achieve even minor success. Learning one that would let us survive the worst-case scenario of Scion literally tearing this world apart? A decade on the low end."
Taylor's grimaces in an adorable pout and I can't help but quickly steal a kiss. "Once again it boils down to him huh?"
"Killing Scion won't fix this world, but it's pretty much the first step we have to take. I can counter anything in this world Taylor, I can kill the Endbringers, I can bring ruin to Nilbog and destroy the three blasphemies in such a way that they'll stay dead. The two of us already have almost everything we need to outright conquer this world, except for a few stubborn outliers."
"Of which Scion is the worst huh?"
"By an incredible margin. Whether by dumb luck or design, Scion is immune to almost all of the ways I have of killing something that much more powerful than me."
I can't kill him through his Karma since he's effectively a newborn. I can throw an attack that will destroy his human form but that won't hurt the actual creature behind the golden fool any. I can't damage his soul since he's a hivemind and I doubt he has a single soul to lose. I can't attack him mentally because Scion might be a fool but I bet he'd crush us like a grape in mental combat.
"Almost. So you do have a plan?" Taylor asks, faith and trust burning in her eyes.
I scratch my cheek, somewhat uncomfortable with the unshakable faith Taylor has in me. "So, nothing we're going to be capable of doing in the next century is likely to be able to kill Scion by force. He's a full cosmic threat, interdimensional and powerful beyond compare. We're a street-level threat on the low end."
"Then how did we end up killing him… you know?" Taylor asks, clearly uncomfortable with asking about her own future accomplishments despite how thoroughly the both of us have swept the house for bugs.
"His weakness is that emotionally he's essentially a toddler. A coalition of capes worked together, punching him in the feelings until he effectively committed suicide." I summarize the incredibly convoluted sequence of events that killed Scion in canon. "The problem is that right now, I'm not certain if he's emotionally mature enough to even contemplate stuff like that. He didn't start emotionally maturing until he'd started destroying the world. Which I think is why Cauldron let things devolve to that point."
"… I don't like the idea of letting him kill billions just to have a shot at taking him down," Taylor says with a grimace.
"No one did, but it was the only way they had. Even then it took a giant heap of luck and random chance to pull it off. Thankfully, I hope to be able to sidestep the entire fight. There's exactly one cape that I know is capable of talking to Scion and convince him of… anything really."
"You want to convince this cape to talk Scion into killing himself," Taylor states confidently, having realized my plan. "Can you just ask him or her to help us?"
"The communicator shard is responsible for giving superpowers to a man called Jacob. You probably know him better as Jack Slash. Of slaughterhouse nine infamy."
"… fuck." Taylor summarizes her feelings on the matter.
"So no, he's not likely to help us. If we explained everything he's far more likely to kickstart the apocalypse rather than help, which is pretty much exactly what's fated to happen by the way."
"… can we fight the slaughterhouse nine?" Taylor asks, sounding worried about the possibility of going up against some of the true bogeymen of this world.
I just give the girl a wide, confident grin and receive a shakier one in return. I give the uncertain girl another peck on her lips, causing her to wrap her arms around me, settling herself completely on my lap. Her Qi reaches out and wraps together with my own, snapping a completely solid connection in place in a single heartbeat. I can feel Taylor's growing ardour, mirrored by my own. Ah well, it's not as if we can destroy her bed more than we already have.
Just before Taylor and I can properly start a proper second round both of our phones ring in eerie synchronicity.
"What's the emergency?" I grumpily ask a waiting Armsmaster the second I step out of the car that had been sent to get the both of us.
So I didn't appreciate being cockblocked and called in on my very first free day in weeks. Sue me.
"Something's happened to Lisa," Taylor replies confidently, looking around the garage with more than just her physical senses.
I give her a startled look, sending my own Divine sense rushing out of me and trying to spot whatever it was that Taylor realized. I spot nothing and turn to her for an explanation.
"What? She's not listening in and the garage was well within reach of her divine sense when we left yesterday." Taylor replies as if it ought to have been obvious.
I then realize what had been missing. The omnipresent feeling of Lisa spying using her divine sense wasn't there. There was something else missing though, something else that had been here when I was last in this room and wasn't now.
That can't be good.
"You know what's going on?" Armsmaster asks, sounding as close to upset as I've heard from the man since that very first day, where he'd been held responsible for two wards getting into a potentially life-threatening situation. "We were in the process of testing Lisa since she was supposed to have lost her powers. Not only did we find out that she still had extrasensory perception they had changed and grown in power. During the testing she suddenly started growing incoherent, slurring her speech and running a dangerously high fever. There was nothing leading up to it, one moment she was fine the next she… simply wasn't. She started convulsing before collapsing entirely, she's been delirious and fading fast ever since. Our medics have no idea what's wrong or how to help her."
Armsmaster pauses for a moment, hesitating before adding a final piece of information. "When she collapsed, the rig was struck by a bolt of lightning. Apex, the bolt was large enough to overload and destroy our shields in a single hit." He actually sounds afraid, his normally unflappable confidence visibly shaken. "I've done some math on the bolt that hit us since I had nothing else to do except wait for you to arrive and hope you knew how to fix things. If we hadn't been shielded? The rig would have been… gone. Blasted into plasma from that single exchange of energy. I thought we were under attack by Behemoth and even then we've never seen an output like this. Brockton Bay is close enough that it would be like it was nuked."
Ho-ly fucking shit. That's what had been missing! The background humming sound of the machines operating the shield was gone!
"Fuck me running," Taylor whispers next to me, sharing a single wide-eyed stare with me before the both of us start running. Accelerating to our top speed in a blink of an eye, hurtling down the garage.
Armsmaster manages to match our pace, if only barely. The servos of his powered armour whirring in protest as he pushes them to their limits. "You know what happened?" He yells at our backs.
"That's tribulation lightning!" Taylor yells at the man, still wide-eyed and hurling down the familiar corridors of the rig at our full speed.
"That wasn't a bolt of lightning as you understand it," I say, my mind racing as I try to think of anything Lisa could have possibly done to have attracted a bolt of tribulation lightning as a mere mortal. "That was the heavens themself trying to smite Lisa."
"… that can actually happen?" Armsmaster asks, sounding markedly out of his depth.
"Not for a century or more, it's one of the final stages of mortal cultivation," Taylor says, taking a turn so sharply she's running on the wall for a couple of steps. "The only other times it happens is when something does something terribly wrong."
"Against the laws of the heavens." I correct Taylor, leaping over a shocked trooper who has the presence of mind to hit the ground when he notices the three of us barreling down on him. "It's best done in a desert or something, it tends to destroy the surrounding area for miles."
Taylor and I both spot Lisa at roughly the same time, her body lying in the medbay with a swarm of medics buzzing around her. In perfect lockstep, we adjust our route to directly take us there. Without a word spoken between us we work in perfect synchronicity, our systems still perfectly attuned after the dual cultivating session of yesterday. There is no finer way of getting your Qi in tune with someone than a romp between the sheets. Both of us realize that we have seconds left to reach the dying girl or we'll lose her.
And she is dying, fading incredibly fast. Her Qi system is a mess, partially cleansed and blocked in equal measure, filled with incompatible Qi drawn from the environment and contaminating her still undeveloped Qi system to the point that she's simply shutting down.
We're almost there, we're so incredibly close. But I can see the dimming candle of Lisa's life force wink out while the door slides open with what feels like glacial speed.
Heaven's Boundless Step!
I'd been practising my movement technique, pushing it as hard as I could every day. Despite my talent, despite all my advantages, I'd only mastered the first of the nine stars of Heaven's Boundless Steps.
Half of my Qi reserves simply vanish and I cross the distance between myself and Lisa's table. I completely disregard cause and effect, it doesn't matter that I started my movement too late, as I had only mastered the first of the nine stars I could only manipulate a second, a single, lousy second's worth of cause and effect.
But it's enough.
I arrive a second before I'd left, ignoring the time it'd have taken me to cross the distance or the people in my way. I ignore the information paradox of effectively travelling a second back in time because of knowledge that I only learned too late to be of use. This technique could be used to dodge retroactively, and I apply that use here.
Unbound by the heavens.
I slap my hand on Lisa's chest and send my Qi rushing into the girl, bracing that feeble flickering candle of Lisa's life and preserve it before it can slip away, catching her on the very cusp between life and death and refusing to let go even as the violent clap of displaced air sends all the doctors sprawling.
I can sense a far off rumble, the heavens noting that I've gone explicitly against their will and making sure I knew that I'll pay the price for it when it was my turn to undergo my own tribulation.
Fuck you heavens, fate or whatever else decides these things. Bring it.
Taylor arrives beside me in the next second, connecting her Qi to my own and once again plumbing down into Lisa's body. Our combined Qi smashing through some of the blockages and alleviating some of the enormous strain that was still killing Lisa.
"What the hell has she done to herself." Taylor muses, our hands flying over Lisa's body without ever needing to slow down or getting in each other's way, plugging needles into Lisa's mostly unresponsive body as fast as we can. "Has she tried to cleanse her meridians by herself?"
"Looks like it, and she messed it up," I note, my Qi branching into a dozen branches and flickering between the needles we'd inserted in Lisa's body, trying to drain the taint from Lisa fast enough to outpace her imminent death.
"Apex, pill!" Taylor snaps, and it takes me a moment to realize what Taylor is talking about. The only pills I'd made were the mortal dans and… the fire aspected Qi pills I made as practice! The one intended to burn through someone's meridians to purify them. Which is pretty close to what we need in this situation.
I pop one of the pills into my hand, forcing it into Lisa's mouth and observing the pill as it dissolves, releasing the Qi stored inside as it does what I made it to, purifying some of Lisa's meridians and loosening the load on both Taylor and me.
With the aid of the pills we finally start to outpace the damage, healing Lisa faster than she is dying.
"What I want to know," I growl as I start patching the meridians that have ruptured under the strain "is how the hell she learned enough or got enough Qi together to even make the attempt."
"I… reverse engineered your inscriptions, from your lab, your cauldron, and the weapon under that revolving star." Lisa breathes out in a wheeze, staring up and clearly completely out of it. "Broke them down to their constituent basis and applied them to myself." She tries to cough up the fluid in her lungs, but I reach out and forcibly suppress her reflex, jostling the needles inside of her will kill her at this point. "The way your body processes food is beautiful." She tells me dreamily "I think I did it wrong though."
I reach down into her body and simply pull the fluid in her lungs back into her bloodstream, giving her the first clear breath of air in quite some time. It also neatly prevents me from having to re-oxygenate her blood manually every few seconds to prevent further damage. I quickly check and she is trying to apply something very much like the Swallowing Whale technique on herself.
"Lisa?" I ask my patient, sending a pulse of my Qi to slow down the haemorrhaging in her brain while I work together with Taylor to undo the utter mess corrupt Qi has done to Lisa's organs. "What were you doing when you collapsed?"
"I think… I was learning." Lisa answers in a faraway voice "They kept asking me to look at things, to figure things out. And the more I did it, the easier it got."
"What did you learn to make you collapse?" I continue asking, moderating my voice to make sure I don't startle Lisa while she's as fragile as she is.
" Everything ." Lisa answers, turning to me with the first sign of lucidity in her eyes I've seen since I got here "They… they were pulling cards. Asking me about them. They wanted to know if I could tell what card they were going to pull, before they did it."
"And you did." I say soothingly "didn't you?"
"I… I went swimming. But not in water, in something like… thick mud, or rock, clawing my way forward." Lisa's head flops to the other side, looking at Taylor. "You eat the world a lot. When things go wrong I mean."
Taylor throws a panicked look my way but doesn't stop her aid.
Lisa twists her head, looking back at me, one eye refusing to focus. "And I'm… I'm glad you're not a monster now." She reaches out one hand and tries to pat my cheek, missing and slapping me softly instead. "You're never happy as a monster, not even when people love you for it. I guess it depends on how they love you for it eh, eh?" She tries to waggle her eyebrows at me but lacks the facial control for that as well.
I finally have enough space to paralyze Lisa's vocal cords without the loss of attention to the rest of her body killing her.
Jezus wept.
"Well, on the positive side I now know what a mere mortal can do to get smote," I replied snarkily.
"Is she going to die?" Armsmaster asks softly from behind me, I catch his gaze in one of the many mirrored surfaces in the operating room. He looks wary, of me.
Damnit, Lisa. I thought getting rid of your shard would prevent this very thing.
"Despite the enormous amount of stupidity on her part. No. She'll live." I answer him anyway.
"… you just travelled through time, I've got you on camera while you did it too," Armsmaster says as if he still can't believe it. "And miss Wilbourn is a precog, isn't she?"
"If that was all she was, she wouldn't be dying," I argue back. "Prophetic abilities can be trained like anything else, she somehow tried to cobble a cultivation technique together from merely observing some sloppy seal work and studying our bodies for a horrifically short amount of time. I've never heard of anything even remotely similar to it."
"Some kind of natural comprehension boost?" Taylor offers, finally slowing a little as the actual danger to Lisa's life finally ends.
"A comprehension boost that gets her smote by the heavens in the first week?" I give a short whistle "That would be impressive if the implications of that weren't horrifying."
"Is there any danger to the rig?" Armsmaster finally gathers himself enough to focus on what's important.
"Lisa managed to divine the future without full use of her Qi, without any training. She then tried to unblock her meridians by herself, without fully understanding the danger in doing so. I'm quite honestly surprised she hasn't managed to kill anyone by accident. The reach of her abilities fully covers the rig and everyone in it."
"… and those… lightning bolts?" Armsmaster pushes.
"Unlikely but far from impossible. If she did it once then she's likely to be able to do so again. Her complete ignorance in things like this honestly makes her dangerous as fuck, to herself and others." I admit.
Armsmaster nods and reluctantly presses a button on his arm. "Miss Piggot? We have a situation."