Everyone was watching.
Taylor Hebert picking herself up off the floor after having been pushed down the stairs. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, YOU BITCH!"
Sophia stalking forward, punching Taylor Hebert over and over again until the girl finally went down and stayed there. There was a meaty crack as she stomped down on Taylor's neck.
"You better stay down, trash!" Sophia said, finally spitting on the girl sprawled out on the floor.
"Hah. Taylor. You gonna cry and run off again?" asked Emma.
Silence.
"What are all you looking at?" demanded Sophia of the crowd, which had gone silent.
"You just flat out killed her," said someone wearing E88 colors. "What do you think I'm looking at?"
"No, she's just faking," said Sophia, kicking the girl. "Pathetic little weeb."
Taylor didn't move beyond the results of the impact.
"Look, she peed herself, she's such a LOSER," declared Emma.
Greg Veder slipped out of the crowd, cradling his phone. He couldn't say anything because he'd just get beat up. But if he uploaded...
* One week later *
"Shadow Stalker, give me one good reason not to mail you off to the nearest Containment Zone." Director Piggot looked over the cape before her and saw everything she disliked about capes.
"I'm innocent, she started it, there's no proof," said Sophia Hess.
"The video evidence fits the physical evidence, and once an investigation was launched - a very large number of individuals were able to give us statements on how you attacked this girl over and over again," said Armsmaster. "We also searched your phones-"
"That's illegal!" said Sophia.
"Not with the court order, not when you're on probation, and certainly not when you're using your PRT-issued phone for coordinating attacks on someone who doesn't fight back," said Armsmaster.
"If it were up to me, you'd already be on your way to a Containment Zone - possibly Ellisburg so you could snipe targets all day," said Director Piggot. "As it is. You don't like the cold, do you?"
"No... not..." Sophia began looking around for an exit.
"Yes, the McMurdo Ice Shelf has a prison for special individuals. You can be a guard, unless you screw up again, in which case you get to be an inmate. Goodbye, Shadow Stalker. I'd say it's been a pleasure and I wish you well at your new posting. We both know it hasn't been and you likely won't."
* Elsewhere *
"Hello Dad."
"Taylor?!"
"You know the old phrase 'dead but not departed'? Turns out that actually can be a thing."
Danny Hebert took in the look of Taylor, standing next to her grave. There was no wind, but her dark green hooded cloak moved as if there was a wind. Pale white skin. "How?"
"I am... a Spectre. Returned to the mortal planes as a Spirit of Vengeance. My task is to destroy evil." Taylor's voice grew a bit of humor. "I have my work cut out for me."
* January 15, 2011 *
* PRT ENE, Conference Room 4 *
"...and the new villain Condiment King, Tinker-2, specializing in..." Armsmaster looked at the report and then sounded very disgruntled as he finished. "Specializing in pressurized liquids. Was active in New York until recently and may be in the area. Uses high-pressure mustard and other condiments in the commission of petty crimes."
"Okay, that may be the lamest cape villain I've heard of," offered Assault.
"If anyone is defeated by someone named Condiment King, a transfer and rebranding may be necessary," said Director Piggot.
"Which brings us to... Spectre." Armsmaster glanced around the room. "Battery, you encountered Spectre on patrol?"
"Subject is a girl, about 16 or so. Very pale - similar to Alabaster except her hair is black and mid-back length. Green hooded cloak. Not sure if she flies or teleports, one of those 'you look away for a second and she's gone' sort of things. Might be a projection. Spotted last night near the corner of Aparo and Orlando Lane. A pile of garbage turned out to be Mush. Initial indication was that when he used his power to wrap himself in garbage it included a large amount of roofing nails and broken glass. Spectre was apparently just watching from a distance. Investigating further found a drug lab which had suffered a catastrophic failure of containment and aerosolized heroin combined with a lack of air circulation. Fourteen dead."
"Nothing to indicate Spectre's involvement?" asked Director Piggot.
"No," said Battery. "Nothing obvious at least. We were able to take Mush into custody after initial first aid treatment. Glass and nails removed, antibiotics given, now he's in a cell."
"This fits the pattern so far, though it's only been three times the Spectre has been sighted." Armsmaster checked his tablet. "In each case, the group has had some major malfunction of equipment and had their own lack of planning or safety precautions come back to affect them. As of this morning, Spectre is believed to be a Shaker=5 with probability manipulation as her focus."
"Basically - bad luck?" asked Assault.
"Altering probability so that the worst outcome becomes a near-inescapable certainty," said Armsmaster.
"So... really bad luck?" asked Assault.
Armsmaster let out a long sigh that managed to combine exasperation, too little sleep, too much work, and very little patience left.
"If you encounter Spectre, talk to her and see if you can determine if she's hero or villain or what her powerset is. Moving on," said Director Piggot with a glare towards Assault. "Parahuman villain named Scarface."
"One of the suspects awaiting trial for the death of Taylor Hebert," said Armsmaster. "Her father posted bail. She attempted to sabotage another student's work in Chemistry class. An explosion resulted and she received a half-inch scar on her face as direct consequence of that action. The other student, a Greg Veder, received acid burns on his left arm. Upon discovering the burn on her face, Emma Barnes apparently triggered as a Changer/Striker. Changer ability gives her a clown-like appearance and considerable emotional instability."
"What kind of Striker ability?" asked Director Piggot.
"She can lengthen her nails, at which point they become functionally crimson-colored knife blades. She's injured herself three times scratching an itch before remembering to retract them."
"So basically she's scarring herself even more," said Piggot. Well, at least it wasn't some weird power that left her invulnerable to bullets. If they needed to, they could just shoot her.
* Orbit *
The Simurgh watched, the Simurgh could tell that something was seriously wrong in Brockton Bay. She...
Someone on that rooftop was watching her. She smirked at them. They smirked back. That... was unusual.
She could deal with any cape on the planet though, so one lone human wasn't of concern.
* Coil *
Spectre was sighted at a graveyard and his people were in place.
"Tattletale, do you have eyes on the cape?"
"Boss," came Tattletale's voice over the phone. "There's something seriously wrong here."
Tattletale's snark was conspicuously absent. He'd had her tortured in now-discarded timelines where her snark had lasted longer than one would consider with the pain level she's been in. She actually sounded both confused and frightened. Which just intrigued him more. "What does your power tell you about this 'Spectre'?"
"She's dead. No heartbeat, not breathing. Not a construct. Not human. Not alive, not human, dangerous. Dangerous." Tattletale's voice was getting higher pitched. Whatever she saw was unsettling her to a level he hadn't heard before. "Oh god. She sees me. She couldn't possibly see me with the glass and the distance and... oh god she SEES me."
"Pull yourself together, what power does Spectre possess?" asked Coil.
Tattletale started screaming.
Coil dismissed the timeline and considered. Then he split timelines again. "Tattletale, don't focus directly on Spectre - I believe she has an anti-Thinker defense. Instead I want you to focus on -"
"Oh, Thomas Calvert, you HAVE been a naughty boy haven't you?" said an unfamiliar voice over the line.
Timeline dismissed immediately and Coil stared at the phone on his desk in disbelief. What the hell had that been?
There was a chuckle behind him. "Oh, Thomas. Getting rid of me isn't that easy."
* PRT ENE HQ *
"What the hell is going on?" asked Director Piggot.
"Software glitch, a computer network tied into our own suddenly switched from 'Receive' to 'Send' and we're getting a LOT of details," said Miss Militia as she gestured towards where techs were running around and frantically typing away at terminals.
"What network?" asked Director Piggot, thinking of suppliers and vendors.
"A villain base located under the financial district," said one of the technicians, looking up. "There's at least four taps into our own network nobody found until they started sending data instead of just tapping into us."
"Oh? Do we know who is having a very bad day?" asked Director Piggot.
"Coil," said Armsmaster as he straightened up from watching files flicker across screens. "Who, according to several files here, is none other than Thomas Calvert."
"I see," said Director Piggot. "See if you can verify this and it isn't just an attempt to discredit Mister Calvert. If it checks out..."
* Coil's Base *
The voice had been right behind him but there was nobody there and after fifteen minutes of searching he couldn't find a speaker or any sort of mechanism to project that voice.
An alarm had gone off at one point but then shut itself off. He was rather more concerned with the possibility that someone had broached his private quarters.
"Boss?" went Tattletale's voice from the phone. "Spectre is just standing there in the graveyard. What you want me to do?"
"Take a guess," said Coil.
"Okay," said Tattletale. "Huh. That's odd. My power is refusing to give me any details. It's like she isn't really there or something."
Coil's head came up. "Say again."
"It's like she's not really there. I..." Tattletale's voice stopped.
"Tattletale?" asked Coil. "Squad One report!" Squad One was a general squad, in the alphabetic usual setup of his squads they were "H" which usually was expanded to "Harrier Squad" though being all female they were sometimes called something else. Just not to their faces.
Silence seemed to take on a sort of weight in his quarters.
"Squad Two, do you have eyes on the target?" tried Coil. The sniper squad was a good deal further away.
"Inquisition squad here. Eyes on target. She appears to be looking at the grave of one 'Taylor Hebert' - might be some connection there to investigate. Orders?"
Split timelines again.
Timeline #1: "Fire."
Timeline #2: "Observe target."
Timeline #1: "Sir, bullets and lasers both go through target without... She just disappea- She's here! She expected us! She expected all of us!"
Timeline #2: "Still just standing... she vanished? She's here! Oh god! Her eyes!" There was a brief scream.
Coil experienced a moment of indecision and then the dawning realization. She was reacting to things in the other timeline. Which meant... "oh shit."
It meant that the one advantage he had over the rest of the world didn't apply to Spectre - whatever anti-Thinker power she had was apparently able to deal with his power as well. Timeline #2 collapsed without any input from himself.
"Harrier Squad report. Inquisition Squad report." Coil waited briefly for either group to respond. "Tattletale - report."
Giggling. A little girl giggling. "We're heeeereeee." He recognized the voice. That was that little girl from last week who'd died on the table as he'd practiced his interrogation skills.
"Oh, Mister Calvert." That was the little boy who he'd had snatched from their parents at the boardwalk?!
"You is a bad mans, Mister Calvert." That was the one who'd screamed for her mother and father until...
"Confession is good for the soul, Mister Calvert." That old priest who'd cried out for salvation until he'd removed his tongue.
"You killed us, Mister Calvert. It took us hours to die. How long will it take you?"
Thomas Calvert split timelines again.
Timeline #1: He demanded answers.
Timeline #2: He ran.
Timeline #1: A woman appeared. She was pale of skin and wore a green hooded cloak. She snapped her fingers. Timeline collapsed.
Timeline #2: All the doors to his complex abruptly started opening, setting off numerous alarms.
He went to the computer access nearest his emergency exit. Log in. Set self destruct.
[I'm sorry, Tom, but I'm afraid I can't do that.]
Thomas Calvert, aka Coil, whimpered briefly as all across his base the lights started going out. Finally, he screamed out the obvious question. "WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!"
As the lights went out, he heard a whisper near his right ear. "Why, Mister Calvert? Karma's a bitch."
* PRT ENE HQ *
"We received an attempt to self-destruct the base, we canceled that and Dave here sent back an error message."
Director Piggot had settled down to sit on the edge of Renick's desk as the techs had worked. "How much damage would that have caused?"
"Major damage to the financial district, at least two of the skyscrapers would have been lost."
Director Piggot nodded. "Add it to the charges."
"It's going on the list, for he surely won't be missed," half-sang Dave at one of the consoles.
"Gilbert and Sullivan?" asked Director Piggot, recognizing the quote.
"We're pirating his servers and plundering data," said Dave as he continued to work. "Seemed appropriate."
Director Piggot was about to reprimand the man, but decided he was still typing several times faster than she did. "Keep your singing to off hours. Just notify me when we have the full list and Calvert in custody."
* PHO *
Topic: Mysterious Woman In Green
In: ►Boards ►Brockton Bay► Local
►Bagrat (The Guy In The Know) (Veteran Member)
Posted Jan 16, 2011
There's been photos (link)(link)(link) and two decent videos (link) (link) of the mystery cape. From what I've seen she's appeared and disappeared without leaving a trace. Originally speculation was that she was a projection of some sort, maybe shaped forcefields or the like from some new cape.
Mover or Stranger rating because of the disappear/reappear thing could be stealth or teleporting. Gives off seriously creepy vibes from what eyewitnesses have reported. Feeling of cold in the air, feeling that something isn't quite right, so far nothing that indicates anything other than the aforementioned projection, teleporter, or stealth type though.
People who have tried to speak to Mystery Girl have reported that she looks at them as if judging them for something. Or everything. Then she just vanishes.
Well, tonight I got to see Mystery Girl myself. (link)
She was standing near where a mugging had gone on. Except that the mugger had died from an overdose and the victim had died while waiting for an ambulance.
I heard her speak, which you can probably get from the bodycam. If you can't make it out, I asked her why she was there and her response was "He didn't deserve to die, much less alone." The gesture there indicated she was talking about the victim.
She looked young but I got a feeling she was a lot older somehow. I asked her name and actually got an answer. "Spectre."
►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Posted on Jan 16, 2011
Can confirm cape name Spectre. Can confirm Mover rating.
►MZenny
Posted on Jan 16, 2011
She was in my shop. Some Empire person had just done a grab-and-run with an armload of snacks. There was a scream. She walked in and told me my merch was right outside the window.
That Empire guy was curled up in a little ball. Crying. Telling his mother how sorry he was. Just to be clear - he was alone and I didn't see anyone nearby who could possibly be the guy's mother.
Police came 15 minutes later and took him in, guy didn't resist.
I have no idea what she did to him, and I don't think I want to know.
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Posted on Jan 16, 2011
I saw the footage but that can't be who she looks like. She's dead. I went to her funeral. I saw the green-hooded woman there but with the hood I never saw that face. Just the eyes.
Tin_Mother: No speculating on cape identities. You know better.
►ThornPrincess
Posted on Jan 16, 2011:
She makes Nazis cry? Which, by the way, might be a good name for my metal band.
In any case, good for her.
►Laser Augment
Posted on Jan 16, 2011:
Any chance she'll join the Wards? Or if she's a hero? Or a villain?
►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Posted on Jan 16, 2011:
Per conversation with Battery, Spectre is a rogue hero with Mover abilities. Further information is classified at this time.
►AllSeeingEye
Posted on Jan 17, 2011:
She's scary as hell, that's what she is.
But I owe her a big favor, so there's that as well.
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Posted on Jan 17, 2011
AllSeeingEye - She come to your rescue?
►BladeWorksFan (Kyushu Survivor)
Posted on Jan 17, 2011
So she's a Mover type cape with a green hood, that doesn't seem like a big deal. Though making Nazis cry does sound like an amusing and useful power.
On a related note, are you feeling okay, Cowboy? It's just that your posts haven't been as nonsensical and tin-foil hat territory of late. Not that this is a complaint at all.
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Posted on Jan 17, 2011
Just haven't felt like it. Someone I knew died in a pretty brutal fashion, and I had to face the idea that I'd be the next target.
It's something I'm still working through.
One minute there, the next minute gone forever. Can't even say it was painless or something because I heard bones breaking. To die like that, hurting and hopeless, trying to stand despite that, and then crushed underfoot while they mocked you?
I was too scared to say anything while things were going up to that. So I was loud and annoying to try and cover.
It all hit me at the funeral, and the funny thing was Spectre was there. I saw her eyes, emerald, for just a second and I just realized a lot of things.
Like I said, I'm working through it all.