Current Energy: 8
Current Training: None
Saturday, January 22nd, 2011
Oathbound Headquarters, Brockton Bay
"You fly like this?!" Your Master asks you in dismay as she unsteadily wobbles up and down in the air while you gently float in circles around her.
"Yes dear, it isn't that difficult." You answer in amusement, reaching out to retrieve a cup of tea from a Gap and then stopping when it occurs to you that using a Gap to obtain a beverage that probably won't even exist in this reality might be something of a waste of energy.
"This is literally insane! You just politely ask the spirits around you to float you around! They're literally mindless! And you have to constantly give them course corrections!" Your Master yells in frustration as she lists to the side and ends up drifting an inch off the ground while completely sideways.
"Well, I think it's the easiest way to get around." You sniff, lazily corkscrewing through the air about your Master.
"Yeah well, you taught me three characters and thought that was enough for me to learn Japanese!" Taylor fires back, barely righting herself and then attempting to float towards you.
"You learned didn't you?" You point out.
"Yeah, all at once, like thirty minutes ago!" She counters, pointing angrily at you.
"Five bucks she bounces off the ceiling." You can hear Trainwreck saying from where he is watching things on 'his' side of the garage.
"I'm not going to gamble with you." Aspirant replies flatly, although you note that he's watching your Master putter about with an almost equal amount of amusement to his Tinker teammate.
Your Master had completed her training in the art of Onmyodo some thirty-odd minutes ago, and had very quickly determined that while she was almost prodigal in the use of seals and talismans, she was significantly less talented at the direct manipulation of spirits. In a general sense, she could still do it, and with time she would eventually be just fine at it, but for the moment her use of the art was going to be very preparatory in nature.
The bright side, of course, was that you found her frustrations surprisingly cute.
The downside, is that you are fairly certain your current Emulation is a mild sadist.
"I can hear you you know!" Your master snipes at the two men, trying to point at them and ending up in an awkward looking frontal spin that she hurriedly moves to correct.
"I know. Makes it twice as fucking funny cus you spin out everytime you acknowledge it. Hey tiny, five buckets she ignores this just cus I pointed that out." Trainwreck says, elbowing Aspirant - who is currently in his normal teenage body - in the side.
Jamie opens his mouth with a slight smile on his face - likely to agree to the bet - but pauses as Taylor narrows her eyes at him threateningly. The effect is somewhat muted by the fact that she is still spinning slightly, but he shuts his mouth regardless, hurriedly shaking his head and lifting his hands in surrender.
Eventually your Master relents in her glare and sighs, returning to pseudo swimming through the air as she practices.
"So does anyone have any ideas on how we can find that cape I mentioned earlier? Spitfire?" She asks the room tiredly.
"Could explode her name into the clouds or something. You can do that right?" Trainwreck offers, seemingly seriously.
"What? No! Why would I- I mean I could but-"
"Please. Please do not, call out another cape by 'writing their name in explosions'." Jamie jumps in, turning a withering stare on Trainwreck.
"Divination is one of the most used abilities of Onmyodo." You put forth, surreptitiously shooting Jamie a thankful nod. Your Master makes a face at that, then scrunches her nose in concentration as she tries to remember the process for Divination. There are a lot of ways she could do it. You prefer reading tea leaves personally.
It lets you drink the tea first after all.
"We could just leave a message for her on PHO." Jamie says in exasperation, pinching the bridge of his nose.
"...But... my new power?" Your Master replies hopefully.
"If you use your power to find her, what are the chances you accidentally find out where she lives? She might take it the wrong way." Jamie answers dryly.
"...Fair..." Your Master answers slowly. "But I still wanted to pl- test my new power." She says slightly petulantly.
"There are two very dead heroes in the bay that might be to your interests..." You point out with a slight cough.
"OhmygodIforgotaboutMissMilitia!" Your Master blurts, suddenly accelerating into the air and bouncing off the ceiling.
"Hah! Five bucks!" Trainwreck cackles, opening a palm towards Jamie.
"I never... fine." He replies in annoyance, pulling a small bill from one of his pockets.
Well. You know what you'll be doing tomorrow at least.
Saturday, January 22nd, 2011
Brockton General Hospital, Brockton Bay
An hour and a single very obvious post on PHO later, and you and your Master find yourself at the Hospital.
You had some trouble at first - mostly because your Master insisted on arriving in costume and therefore, caused something of a commotion when she appeared at the front door of the Hospital by more or less rocketing out of the sky at it. There had been a lot of yelling from what little security was located nearby, though the notable PRT presence was unbothered by it. There had also been a mild scramble to locate and hide Panacea - the Doctors, not being familiar with your Master outside of her single appearance, likely assuming she was here to kidnap the healing cape.
It was all very organized of course. None of the Doctors acted agitated. But, being invisible and bored, you had very quickly noticed the scramble to get the other teenage cape present out of the building.
At least, until your Master told someone she was a Healer and wanted to help however she could with the aftermath of the Empire's short-lived war with the PRT.
Then they had eyed her warily and marched her directly to Panacea, leaving the two of them in a break room together and stepping back as though dropping two beetles in a jar and waiting to see if they would fight.
"Um. So... do I just start healing people or...?" Your Master asks cautiously, obviously very aware of the unimpressed stare Panacea is leveling at her from across the break room table.
"Have you been vetted by anyone? Does the PRT know you can heal? Are there side effects?" Panacea rattled off waspishly, tapping one foot and crossing her arms in front of her.
"...No, Yes, I don't think so?" Your Master answers after a second to process the verbal barrage.
"Then no. You don't just 'start healing people'." Panacea snarked.
'Is she always so suicidal or is she just feeling particularly tired of living today?' You ask your Master conversationally.
'She's probably just under a lot of stress. I hear most Nurses get PTSD pretty quickly and that's not even in the Bay specifically.' Your Master chastises you.
'That doesn't mean she has to be so rude.' You harrumph back, but resist the urge to physically appear and strangle the other teen.
"So, is there a test I have to pass or...?" Your Master continues on, much to Panacea's annoyance.
"If Panacea will oversee you, we can have someone non critical sign a liability waiver and see what you can do." One of the watching Doctors chimes in. You have no idea why so many of them are just milling about the room. You would have assumed they would be busy because of the aforementioned gang war.
Then again, you suppose having Panacea around might take some of the pride out of ones profession.
"Works for me. So you'll call us when you're ready?" Taylor asks, perking up.
"Yes, that should be fine." The Doctor answers agreeably before shuffling out of the break room.
"Don't you have something better to do than this? Punch gangsters or something?" Amy asks your Master snidely.
"Not really no." Your Master replies, allowing some of her own annoyance to peek through her aggressive politeness.
Neither of the two speaks after that, and once the Doctor from before returns, the pair are quickly shuttled to a room with a patient in it that has been hooked up to a number of machines nearest his bed. He appears unable to speak, if only because of the tremendous tube sticking out of his throat.
"This is non critical?" Your Master asks incredulously.
"He'll survive if left alone. Many others won't." The Doctor replies blandly, like he is stating a fact of life and not declaring the deaths of an unspecific number of people.
"O...k... So should I just-"
"No. Let me establish a baseline first." Panacea cuts her off, quickly taking a seat next to the injured man and placing two fingers across his exposed wrist. She goes quiet for a few seconds, muttering something to herself, and then nods sourly at your Master to proceed.
Hesitantly, your Master lifts both hands, glowing a shining gold and lays them across the mans side. They pulse, once, twice, thrice, and then she removes them, taking a step back.
All the machines plugged into the man immediately go haywire, blinking a fuzzing over, causing the Doctor to yelp and step toward them in an attempt to fix them, but they quickly right themselves, returning to normal functioning.
Panacea is staring blankly at the man, neither moving nor speaking, until his hand spasms, and he begins hurriedly trying to pull the tube out of his throat.
"...How many times can you do that?" She asks suspiciously, turning an eye on your Master.
"Many as I want really. It's not super energy-intensive. I mean, it is, I think, but I've got a lot of energy I don't really use for anything else so-" Your Master responds, obviously pleased with herself.
"She's good. I'll take this floor and she can take the next." Panacea spits out, immediately and turning to leave the room, leaving your Master to stare after her in confusion.
'Did I... do something wrong?' She asks you anxiously.
'No dear. She's just a bitch.' You comfort her, causing your Master's head to swivel towards you in shock.
'What?' You ask.
'It's the first time I've heard this version of you swear.' She responds curiously.
'I do try to maintain a facade of politeness. As befitting of a proper lady.' You snicker at her.
"Ah... this way if you will, Miss Nexus?" The Doctor speaks up hesitantly, looking back and forth between your Master and the door.
"So do I need permission to heal... everyone?" Your Master asks slowly as she hurries to catch up to him.
"Yes. Anything else constitutes assault with a Parahuman power. We think." The Doctor explains.
"You... think." You Master says, clearly unimpressed.
"Parahuman healing is rare. There basically isn't another Cape like Panacea who spends any length of time in a Hospital. Most Capes that can heal can only do so as a side effect of some other power, so they spend most of their time wearing their underwear on the outside and suplexing each other. We basically had to make the entire process up." The Doctor says with a scowl, then turns an apologetic look on your Master as he notices the unintended insult.
"Sorry, I just-" he begins to splutter.
"No, it's fine. I get it." Your Master answers, before returning to her previous line of questioning.
"Do you think you could get permission from everyone on this floor ahead of time?" Your Master asks, a slight twinkle in her eye that you've come to recognize as her being what she thinks is 'mischievous.'
"Certainly. We often do the same for Panacea when the Hospital is too full to take new patients." The Doctor answers immediately.
Fifteen minutes later, he returns with two nurses, he quickly range ahead of your Master, going in to each room and coming back out with affirmative nods. Contrary to what they likely expected - which was your Master to go into the rooms behind them - she merely stands at one end of the hallway, waiting, until the nurses reach the final room.
"Miss Nexus...?" The Doctor who has been waiting with your Master asks, slightly worried.
"Give it a sec." She answers with a snicker, rubbing her hands together as they begin to glow gold again and flickers of blue energy begin to waft off of her.
"Skadoosh." She calls happily, clapping her hands together and sending a pulse of golden energy across the walls and up the hallway.
"...Did you just-" The Doctor asks slowly.
"Yup. Next floor?" Your Master answers with a wolfish grin. It makes sense you suppose. It isn't often your Master gets to show off in a way that isn't also innately violent and unpleasant for her.
An hour and some change later, which only took so long because she needed to get permission from everyone on each floor, your Master is sitting on the roof watching the clouds go past.
"Well, that wasn't so bad." She muses aloud. You are about to answer in the affirmative and suggest she practice flying some more when the door to the roof bangs open to reveal an incensed Panacea.
"Amy?! Are you okay?" Your Master asks anxiously, jumping up to rush towards the Healer.
"No! I'm not 'okay'! Why can't you just leave me alone?!" She yells at your Master, causing her to jerk back slightly and pause in her rush towards the other girl.
"I don't understand. I've never done anything to you. I thought I was helping by-" Taylor says, frustration clear in her voice.
"You nearly got my sister killed twice! And she never shuts up about you! It's always Taylor this or Taylor that! Just because you can do whatever you want doesn't mean the rest of us can!" Amy yells at Taylor, her hands clutched at her side in fists.
"You think I can just 'do whatever I want'? Are you insane? My Dad was kidnapped. I got my powers by being locked in a box with what amounts to biohazardous waste! I have to spend, every day treating the world like it's made of cardboard so that I don't accidentally break it. Why do you hate me so much?" Your Master yells back, obviously aggravated by Amy's apparent belief that she leads a charmed and perfect life.
There are many things your Master is liable to tolerate. Being told her life is too easy certainly isn't one of them.
"I-" Amy opens her mouth to speak and then clamps her mouth shut, allowing the tension in her shoulders to relax and turning away from your Master.
"Whatever. I don't care anymore. Let's just wait for Vicky to get here so we can go to her party." Amy says with a sniff, walking to the edge of the roof and away from your Master.
"Yeah here's the thing, Vicky told me to bring you," Taylor responds snidely.
"...Of course, she did." Amy says with a tired sigh.
Taking that as your cue, you appear from the ether next to your Master and curtsy politely towards the bi- the other girl.
"Good afternoon. Today you will be riding with me. I do apologize for the inconvenience." You say, before stepping forward and lifting the both of you into the air with your Magic.
Amy looks like she wants to argue the point - obviously not trusting you to float her the entire way to your destination, but since the alternative would, therefore, be your Master carrying her, she chooses to tolerate it.
You'll give the girl this, she's dedicated.
Also stupid, since you consider dropping her 'accidentally' several times along the way. But still. Dedicated.
Saturday, January 22nd, 2011
Fugly Bobs, Brockton Bay
Fugly Bobs was the kind of establishment that seemed like it could survive just about anything. In the entire history of Brockton Bay, not once had the many, many gang wars, parahuman battles, or other miscellaneous disasters that tended to strike the area periodically, manage to force the owner to close its doors. Not even once.
This is a fact that you deeply resent once you finally lay eyes on the slop that 'Fugly' refers to as 'Food'.
"Are you sure you guys should be here without masks?" Your Master asks the assembled Wards curiously as they take seats in the restaurant, which is curiously empty. She doesn't seem that worried really, given her own lack of a secret identity, but she seems to be largely worried about Amy's unspoken dislike of her more than anything else.
"Nah, Dean's parents rented the whole place out for us. And Fugly doesn't really care." Vicky chirps from where she is hanging - literally since she can float - off of the aforementioned rich boyfriend.
"They're just happy everything is back to normal," Dean says in a conciliatory tone, glancing back and forth between Amy and your Master with a furrowed brow but not actually commenting on anything.
"Maybe that's been his plan all along! Gather the secret identities of every cape in the bay and release them all at once! Dastardly!" Clockblocker - Dennis you've recently learned - says, elbowing Chris - Kid Win - in the side with a laugh. The smaller sandy-haired boy blinks once at the joke and chuckles slightly, but only slightly, his mind obviously elsewhere.
"You know, I always did wonder how they made the Challenger Burger. Tinkertech seems as likely an explanation as any." Carlos - Aegis - chimes in, gesturing at the aforementioned burger sitting half-eaten on his plate.
"Because it's so big?" Taylor asks, ignoring the way Missy - Vista - kidney punches Dennis before he can respond.
"Nah, because no one has died while eating one yet. It shouldn't be possible, and yet..." Carlos muses, gesturing to the wall of photos that represent everyone who has successfully completed a Challenger alone.
Your Master takes the time to look sheepishly at her own Challenger, nearly done being consumed by her prodigious appetite then shrugs and continues eating, much to everyone else's amazement.
"I don't understand why we're celebrating," Chris says finally, breaking into the conversation with a slightly dour tone.
"Because we won. Duh. Empire's gone. ABB is gone. Merchants are gone." Vicky points out, absently stealing one of Dean's french fries.
"Yeah but half of that is because the Empire killed Skidmark and Lung. Dauntless and Miss Militia are dead. I just don't see how any of you can be celebrating." Chris continues adamantly, causing the mood at the entire table to drop precipitously as the group struggles to find away to address the point without sounding callous or flippant.
All except your Master. Because of course.
"I was actually planning to do something about that. Maybe." Taylor says slowly, gently putting down her drink.
"Like a vigil or something? No offence but you didn't even really know them." Chris says. For what it's worth, he really doesn't seem like he means anything rude by the statement. To him, it's just a statement of fact. It's very... Armsmaster of him.
"No. I mean. That too I guess, but no. I meant, do something about them being dead." Your Master explains hesitantly, as though not sure she should fully explain.
She shouldn't have, but you choose not to comment. You assume she's just trying to make Chris feel better. You're not sure it's working.
"What, so you can raise the dead now too? I don't think the PRT wants you to make zombies out of their Hero's." Amy sneers, the first time she's spoken since arriving at the restaurant.
"No, I - My new power lets me bring back dead Parahumans. I think." Taylor explains, and you appear behind her to nod affirmatively at the statement.
"You think?" Vicky asks incredulously.
"I haven't exactly tried it yet," Taylor answers defensively.
"...I'm calling Piggot," Chris says immediately, standing up and withdrawing a cellphone from his pocket.
The tension at the table takes on an entirely new dimension to it, as the rest of the Wards shoot Taylor speculative looks ranging from hopeful to angry.
'Shouldn't have said anything should I?' Your Master asks you eventually, apparently only just realizing how disturbing her declaration might be for some people.
'Probably not no.' You answer in amusement. Then put a finger to your lips in thought.
'What do you think about a Fox?' You ask.
'...What?' Taylor belated responds in confusion.
'A fox. For Miss Militia. She'd look cute with the ears.' You explain, miming the ear motions with your fingers.
Your Master pointedly doesn't talk to you for a bit after that.