I took a deep breath and concentrated. A light tug on my clothing; a loose fitting sweatshirt pulled close and wrapped until it was snug against me, my pants followed in the same manner. Then I flattened my hair down to my skull. With that taken care of, I could begin the real work.
A layer of air locked tight against me. It moved with me like a second skin, but was airtight except for mesh openings around my nose, mouth, and ears. A second layer followed less than a millimeter away with the same mesh openings. I closed the gap between the layers of mesh, creating a locked pocket of air between me and the world outside.
A few movements made sure everything stayed as it should. Elbows and knees thinned, but didn't open. I took a deep breath, in through the nose and out through the mouth, listening as it rustled around the holes.
The final step was about to start and I fought against the excited energy I felt building inside me. I closed my eyes and took a second deep breath to calm myself and I fixated on the gap between the air layers. My power was eager and so was I.
I started to pull. More and more I pulled. I could feel the strength building and yet more I pulled. After maybe fifteen seconds I felt the crescendo and everything locked into place. I could pull no more and everything felt good. Better than good. It felt like the hot bath I took after my first run.
Everything was in place. I was ready. Tonight would be my first night out.
I opened my eyes and was greeted by an all encompassing darkness. I realized my problem and knew I started blushing in shame. I had left no eye holes. The most obvious requirement of being able to move, maybe not for me, but it still shouldn't have been something I forgot. With a little bit of concentration I opened two eye holes, adjusting as needed to make sure that I wasn't blocking any peripheral vision.
Yes, now I am ready, I thought. Totally.
I spent almost five minutes making sure no one was awake or looking towards me. It was close to midnight and I stood in my backyard, safe in the knowledge that Dad was asleep. That the neighborhood was asleep. Grabbing myself with my power I lifted off the ground.
Gravity was my power. For two blocks in every direction I could feel the… weight for a lack of a better term, of every object. I had that for free; I didn't need to spare any real awareness or mental effort to know what was where. If I took a moment to pay attention to a particular object, I could mentally grab any sub part I wanted.
I gave a steep negative slant to space inside me and I fell upwards, quickly accelerating. A bare few seconds and I was at least half a mile in the air. I cut the gravity slope and just hovered. I smiled and a shiver of excitement rolled through me.
I am going to be a hero. It was a thought that sustained me. Drove me. Kept me sane. Now, as I floated above the city and saw the lights it was just starting to sink in.
Gravity was my power, but that was an incomplete way to describe it. After some time with a physics reference book from the public library, the sole Winslow book that might contain what I needed having so much damage that it was illegible, I started to get a better feel for how to describe what I could do. It wasn't that I increased the mass to affect the gravity, nor did I simply grab an object with my mind and force it to move how I wanted, exactly. I directly shaped the curvature of spacetime. Rather than forcing something to fly, I caused an object to fall.
Imagine a cloth that stretched forever in every direction. Objects placed on it make it deform. The heavier the object the heavier the deformation. Easy. Earth is a huge object and its deformation is massive. So big that since I had gained my powers I always felt like I was standing on a steep hillside. You may have walked uphill both ways to school, Grandpa, but every direction I walk is uphill.
With that, I shaped the cloth again so that I was pulled by gravity up and flew even higher adding a slight twist to my slope so I started to spin mid air. I caught the sight of the moon and began to slow both my rise and spin. I started hovering, my back to the ground, staring up at the moon.
I felt calm and relaxed, lost in the glow of the waning moon. My awareness started to contract without me even realizing it, until everything was just me and the moon. I couldn't say how long I floated there, at peace; all the worries of school, of my dad and how little we talk anymore, of everything wrong in my life fell away.
Calm.
"Hello?" A shadow suddenly blocked the moon to go with the voice and it shook me out of my reverie.
"AH!" I let out a startled yelp and dropped all my power connection. I felt the rush of wind as my armor dropped away and I started falling.
"Sorry! I've got you!" I heard just as I reasserted my power and stopped falling. Just as I felt an impact on my chest. Just as all the wind was knocked out of me.
"Fuck! Sorry again!" I gasped and reflexively tried to push away from what had just hit me.
"Okay, I'm going to let go, are you ready?" I pushed again and then was let go, dropping for a second before reasserting my control over gravity and floating. I exhaled any last air and then took a glorious breath, finally getting a moment to look around.
Someone floated just a few feet from me, the moon behind leaving nothing but a silhouette; the cape fluttering in the wind mixed with hair doing the same, a skirt and high boots. The tiara that sparkled through the moonlight tied everything together and left only one person that my antagonistic helper could be: Glory Girl.
She was a local Alexandria package hero. Strong, invincible and able to fly were the baseline for the package. How that happened changed for every cape, but that was the gist of it. Glory Girl was a teenage hero with New Wave, a family team of capes that had revealed their identities several years ago.
I think she was talking to me but even with just a dozen or so feet between us the wind made too much noise to hear over. I set up a sphere thirty feet in diameter, with a thickness of a couple feet, and randomized the gravity. The noise cut out almost immediately and it became eerily quiet.
"Woah, cool trick." Glory Girl said. I was still getting my breath back from her knocking it out of me, so I just waved vaguely in her direction and then patted my chest.
"Right, sorry. I'll let you get yourself back together." She floated a little closer, "Oh, your costume is uhhh, gone?"
Shit, I had forgotten that my armor, and costume, had fallen when Glory Girl had startled me. I held up a finger in a classic please wait a moment pose and turned my back. With another deep breath I copied what I had done at the start of the night.
A rough outline a foot away from myself I pulled the cloth of spacetime up, like a mountain of near infinite height. An inexorable force that pushed everything away, built slowly at first to make sure the air vacated the area, then faster and faster. A moment and the force could repel anything, a warping so extreme that to touch it felt like the smoothest of glass.
I pulled and shaped this so that it snug around me without being constricting.
Then the peak of this near infinite mountain collapsed. Passed neutral and kept falling and didn't stop falling. Space and time twisted and cried out, reality itself warped and died and my armor was restored.
A black hole.
"That was pretty crazy looking. What is that?" Glory Girl said.
I ran through what had happened. She had scared me, through no fault of her own. She had hurt me, but in an effort that was to help me. She had apologized for both, and not in the cloying voice I was so familiar with, but a sincere apology. With all of that in mind I made my decision.
I turned, gave a small wave and said, "It's my armor, and my costume."
"Neat." She said softly as she floated closer to a normal talking distance. "A breaker power, I think, but I don't know the specifics."
It felt a little rude that she was talking more to herself than me. "Gravity, if you wanted to ask me yourself."
She paused and refocused on me instead of my power. "I am so sorry! I am just fucking up this whole meeting you thing." She took a breath for herself and gave a little shake of her head. A friendly smile spread over her, she reached out her hand to shake, and she said, "Hi! I am Glory Girl, nice to meet a new cape in the wild."
I reached out with a small smile myself, she was just so openly friendly and it had been so long since someone was even vaguely nice to me. Shaking her hand I said, "Hi, I would give you a name but I am still trying to decide on one."
"Oh man, a name was the first thing I had worked out. Can't wander out the door not knowing who you are can you?" It didn't sound too accusatory, but still it kinda stung.
"Just wanted to get out. See what I could do."
"Oh yea, I get that. How is your first night out going?"
"I floated up and got lost in the moon. You know the rest."
She floated next to me, turned to the moon, and leaned back a bit. "It does look nice. How long were you there?"
I readjusted a bit so we were back to a talking distance. She was out of silhouette and I could make out the gold highlights on a lot of her costume. "Don't know. How did you find me?"
"There was a black smudge in front of the moon. I wanted to make sure nothing… untoward was going to happen."
"Still nervous about String Theory?" I said.
She let out a huff. "Oh yea. Knocking out the moon!" She waved her arm at said moon. "Who does that?"
"Crazy people."
"You're not crazy, right?" Her tone was playful in a way I had forgotten; it left echoes of what once was and I basked in it. "Right!?" Glory Girl's tone was a little more panicked, but she definitely thought I was playing it up. It was surprising how easy she made this simple banter.
I let out a small snort. "Right, no knocking the moon out of orbit."
"Right." She nodded to herself, likely in assurance.
"I could walk on the moon though." I said.
That took her a second to process. "Wait what?"
I smiled a bit, letting her surprise wash over me. I couldn't help but feel more relaxed talking about my power. "Oh yea, similar to the air baffle around us, but trap in all the air in a much larger volume. It should be enough to reach the moon and back. Want to go?"
"Quite the offer, but if I startled you again on the moon, what would happen?"
"All the air would explosively decompress and our eardrums would rupture. Depending on how much air was in our lungs, they would do something similar. In either case we would quickly start passing out. But we would not freeze; without air heat wouldn't transfer. I'm going to guess we're not headed to the moon?"
Her mouth was hanging open. I waited a good fifteen seconds before she collected herself. "No moon please."
"Yea, definitely sounds like something to prepare before going."
"Ok! Moving away from horrible death." She gave an exaggerated shudder "Name! Did you have a shortlist or are we starting from scratch?"
That was quite the topic jump. It took me a moment to adjust gears. "I have a shortlist."
"Great, what's your top choice?"
I cleared my throat dramatically. "I present to you, Accretion Disk."
Glory Girl floated up to me with a grave expression, reached out to grab my shoulders, and with a tone to match her face said to me. "As your newest friend I say this with nothing but good intentions. That is, bar none, the worst name I have ever heard." She leaned in even closer, her eyes so close I could make out the moon reflected in them. "I need to know why that name."
"It isn't that bad is it?" Even with how she told it to me, couched in platitudes, it hurt that she was so blunt. Yet, it was so direct and forthright it didn't trigger any alarms for her trying to cut me down, to try and belittle me. It was simply what she thought.
Glory Girl let go of my shoulders and floated back a bit.
"I have studied everything I could about parahumans since I learned to read. Before even. One of the most important things a cape can have is a name." She started floating back and forth, as though pacing. "Some are immediately great, like Legend, Hero, and Chevalier. Some are a bit harder to love right away but push their way in your head and make a nice place. Eidolon and Alexandria, The Library of Alexandria to use her full name, do that. Some names are gimmicky and last for how silly they are. Über and Leet here in town are like that." She was so full of earnest teaching energy… it suddenly hit me.
Lecture mode.
Just like Mom used to have.
Mom was an English teacher at the university and she loved to go on these same mini lectures; sometimes she would even practice her whole class lecture in front of me. I loved it so much. All this snapped into focus and I both tightened up in the pain of the past and floated closer so I could take in as much of the lecture as possible.
"It is the actions taken and the deeds done that can make a bad name a great one, and the worse the name the greater the deeds that would need to be done. Accretion Disk is just so bad. I'm sorry, but it is. People will shorten the name too. They do it with mine, but Glory Girl shortens to Glory or GG and both are good. But Disk is very generic, boring even, and Accretion is just… ugh. It sounds like the junk around the shower drain. It accretes there, just waiting for you to step on it and slip up. Stupid tub, need to clean that."
Lecture mode disengaged.
"Okay, I get it. My naming sense is really bad." I started feeling a little targeted with her criticism, but it still felt like it was coming from a place of constructive criticism rather than destructive. I was very familiar with the latter.
Glory Girl turned back to me, fully leaving her lecture mode. "Sorry, I don't mean to be mean, just letting you know that a bad name can cling to you. What's your second place option? I'll try not to flame it so hard."
"Event Horizon."
I braced myself for more castigation but instead a thoughtful look came over her face.
"That's not bad at all. Not great mind you, but not bad. Event is much more active than disk and horizon has pretty good connotations. Shortened almost certainly to Horizon so not bad there either. I think Horizon is taken, but that isn't a big deal. Event Horizon. I like it. So how 'bout it? Ready to choose your name?" She had a sly smile and I could tell she knew what I was going to say.
I nodded. "Yes. I am Event Horizon."
A full smile broke out and she did a little twirl and bounce. "Hah! My first time crowning a new cape! I dub thee Event Horizon!"
I couldn't help but give a small smile and relax now that I didn't have this hanging over me. I didn't even realize it was a problem, not having a name.
"Thank you Lady Glory." I said with a flourish and a bow.
"Mmm, not quite, but I do like the direction. I do need a name for when I get older. Can't be twenty-five and be Glory Girl. I could be Duchess Glory. No. A bit long. Well, for another time." She re-focused on me after another of her tangents. "So Event Horizon, how does it feel to be a named cape ready to bring justice and truth and righteousness to the world?" she said with a wide smile.
I found myself really liking the way she said my name. Almost no emphasis on any particular part and just letting it roll off her tongue. It was also the first time she really asked me an open ended question. I realized this had been a very one sided conversation. Well, I hadn't been putting anything forward, and now it wouldn't be so one sided.
"I'm excited. Do you have any advice?" Ok, well I really turned that around. I thought with a mental eye roll.
"Yea, start small and avoid the gangs. Seriously, they will kill you if you mess with them too much. Or at all really. Stick with muggers and try to join someone or join the Wards."
Oh wow, that got dark fast. "I really don't want to deal with the Wards." I said.
"Like, personally know them and don't want to?"
"No. Just in general I want to escape the highschool of people my age." I was already shrinking away from this line of thought. I had enough drama and attacks at school, I didn't need it to happen at my escape from school too.
Glory Girl looked at me for a moment and said, "Okay, I won't bring it up again. But promise me you won't go looking for trouble against the gangs. Join me for some patrols. I can show you the ropes. No drama."
"That sounds way better. Thank you."
"Okay, off the heavier topics. Event Horizon sounds familiar but I can't place why."
"Oh, it ties directly into the strongest part of my power. Accretion Disk does as well, just at different points. Both deal with black holes, the event horizon is the point at which nothing, even light, can escape. Accretion disks commonly form outside the event horizon."
Glory Girl's eyes had gotten wider as I talked and her mouth finally dropped open. "Wait, are you telling me that your black armor isn't a breaker form, but a shaker effect you wrapped yourself in, and that effect is a black hole? And I touched it!" She tapped all her finger tips together then clapped her hands.
"Don't worry, it's safe. I made sure before I did anything. I really wanted to make sure I wasn't going to eat all the atmosphere just existing."
"Can you actually do that?" She looked torn between fascination and horror.
"Oh sure, though I'm not sure about all the atmosphere, there is a lot of it after all." I put my hand palm up and formed a singularity above it about the size of a marble. It started whistling with all the air falling into it. After a second or so I let up and the wind subsided pretty quickly. "See? Easy."
Her expression fell off of awe and went full horror. "Oh wow. Okay. Yes, please don't do that. It is… scary."
I smothered the part of me that felt schadenfreude and gave a small apology. "Sorry, want to see a less destructive side of the power?"
"Isn't literally anything less destructive?"
"Yes, but this is non-destructive. So, want to see? It's pretty neat." I was excited to show this off. A party trick. For the parties I will never go to. I brushed off the dark thoughts with a mental shrug.
"Okay, show me."
"Alright, flip upside down."
"Excuse me?" There was clear disbelief in her voice and I had no idea why. "I am going to take that as an oblivious request and not a lascivious one."
"What? Why was that an inappropriate request? I need it for the trick."
"Because I am wearing a skirt. I might be wearing shorts under it to make sure people can't look up while I fly around, but that doesn't make me flipping upside down any less risqué."
I might have blushed a bit in embarrassment. "I am really sorry, I definitely didn't mean it like that."
"Good." She was still a bit annoyed.
"Sorry, okay I can still do the trick. Float like 20 degrees off center." It wouldn't have the same direct impact, but Glory Girl was right that asking her to flip upside down wasn't the most upstanding thing to ask.
Glory Girl crossed her arms with an annoyed expression and then tilted her body around what I asked her to. Her hair fell straight down and her skirt flared a bit but for the most part it wasn't much of an effect to her floating at that angle.
"Okay, I am fulfilling the dreams of xXVoid_CowboyXx just by doing this much. Show me this great trick."
I gave a small shiver of disgust at that; even I knew that xXVoid_CowboyXx was a poster on PHO, the parahuman posting board, known for being a perverted idiot. Regularly getting banned for speculating on identities and lewd comments about female capes, it was insulting to be even tangentially compared to them.
I pulled a floor together just under her feet by doing the same thing I did with the protective layer around the black hole armor; an area of extreme gravity pushing outwards. Then I set the column of space from her feet to several feet past her head and wide enough she could stretch her arms out and not touch the edge to be at one gravity.
Glory Girl's skirt and hair stopped falling towards the Earth and started falling to her relative down. Her expression changed to a bit of a surprised one and her crossed arms loosened.
"You can float down, there is a platform a few inches beneath you." I said.
She did so slowly, apprehensive of hitting the platform too hard I guessed. Once down she tapped her foot once then looked around.
"This is pretty trippy with the way the skyline slants. It feels like I am on the ground, but everything is just… off."
"One second, I can show you why I wanted you to be upside down." With that I began angling the column. "Try jumping, there is a few feet above you that the change holds."
Glory Girl gave me an exasperated look, threw her hands in the air and near shouted, "Oh my God again with the requests! I don't even think you mean it like that. How? Float upside down, jump, what's ne-." She stopped suddenly as I finished angling her and she was fully upside down relative to everything else except her own frame of reference. "This is really trippy." She whispered low enough I needed to strain to hear it. She looked away from the skyline and towards me and I floated closer to her, staying upside down from her perspective. "You're right, this is a neat trick and I can see where you were coming from for asking me to be upside down. The jumping was a bit much though." She added in a flat tone.
"There is no way jumping is worse than flying upside down, you're just being stubborn that I was right on all counts." It was the first time I was pushing back against what Glory Girl had said and yet I couldn't help but have a tease in my tone. It was too funny to see her sulk and enjoy being upside down like that at the same time.
Glory Girl turned to me, gave a pouty glare, and performed the most begrudging jump that has ever existed. Her arms were locked rigid by her side and her legs stayed straight and just as rigid as her arms.
I kept my eyes locked with hers but even so I noticed how… bouncy everything became as she landed.
"Fuck." Both of us said it at the same time.
The silence hung in the air. It got awkward after a few seconds and I stepped up. "I'll go first." I said. "You were right, that was more suggestive than I had thought it would be. I'm sorry."
Glory Girl's posture relaxed and she said, "You were right too, the jumping was even more disorienting than just being upside down."
"I have to admit it is disorienting on my end watching you just standing like that. Even more so than being the one doing it."
"The city being the sky overshadows you being upside down, so I can't judge." Her head was on a swivel looking at as much as she could. "It's getting a bit late and I need to make sure I check in so Mom doesn't get worried. Can you flip me back over?"
"Of course." I said. Glory Girl was still looking around as I angled the column back to normal. When it got back to vertical I said, "Ready for me to drop it?"
"Hm? Oh yea." She floated up at the same time I dropped the field. She bobbed a bit and then stabilized. "Thanks for the warning."
"Of course." I repeated.
Glory Girl floated over to me and said, "It was really nice to meet a new hero. Would you be up for a patrol at some point? I could be your mentor. Teaching you the ropes."
"Sensei Girl could be your new name." I said it before my brain caught up with my mouth.
"Hah! Maybe just Sensei. I could be the great hero wanderer, teaching the ways of superheroing. Anyway it was good to meet you. Here, take my card." She handed me a business she pulled from a skirt pocket. Skirts were very much not my style, but finding one with pockets must have been a chore. Gold framed and embossed lettering with her name and number.
"I don't have one to give you, or a phone to call you on."
Glory Girl lost her smile and gained a serious look. "Are you okay?"
"Fine? We have a cell phone taboo at home due to… well, personal reasons. But yes, I'm pretty sure the way you're asking isn't an issue with me." I thought she was asking about parental abuse.
"I won't dig, but I am here if something comes up and you need some help." With that she turned and flew off down to town. I dropped the wind baffle before she hit. I don't think it would have been dangerous, but entering an area where the gravity was randomized from half to one and a half times normal gravity in random directions was unlikely to feel great.
I watched her get smaller and lost her in the lights of Brockton Bay beneath me. I let the noise of the wind wash over me and started thinking about everything that just happened. Everything just went so well. Too well. At every turn instead of feeling apprehensive of Glory Girl I gave her the benefit of the doubt.
I was just so used to people being mean. Mostly to myself, but to others too. At every turn Glory Girl just… wasn't. I tried to look at her like I would a new girl at school. If that traitorous bitch Emma didn't get to her, if this hypothetical girl sat next to me in school, would I be suspicious?
No.
The crux came down to if Emma got to her and Emma couldn't get to Glory Girl. No one knew me. As Event Horizon I was free.
Free.
I started laughing. I was free! I couldn't believe it and just laughed harder. I laughed until my ribs hurt, until I couldn't pull in air; laughing in relief and release.
After I calmed down a bit I had a smile that just wouldn't go away. I felt so much better in a way I didn't know I needed; a weight I didn't know was there was lifted. No matter what else happened I would have Event Horizon to escape to.
With that thought I started looking for which way home was. It was late and I needed to head home. I hadn't solved some big crime or saved a hapless citizen but I felt I was in a much better position to go about doing so.
I spiraled downwards for a minute until I was close enough to try and make out landmarks. Orienting myself against Captain's Hill I sped towards the bay; my house was in the middle point between them. I stayed a hundred feet above the houses and closed in on my house. I only had to backtrack once after over shooting. Turned out that all houses look alike from the top at night.
Eventually I found the right house came into my range; nearly two blocks in my neighborhood. I wasn't aware of what that actually was in feet, but it had to be around 400. Once my house was in my field it was trivial to reorient and head over. I floated above just to make sure Dad was still asleep. With that assured I floated over to my window, still open a crack from when I left earlier in the night, and opened it the rest of the way. I dropped my armor and floated into my room, then gently landed on the floor and released all the effects going.
A mental weight dropped away as my physical weight returned. I was home. I took a deep breath and sat on my bed, then flopped backward with a dopey smile and even giggled a bit. This night was everything I could have hoped for short of capturing all the villains in the city.
After lying down for a bit I sighed and started getting ready for actual bed; taking my shoes off and putting them under the bed, shrugging out of my sweatshirt and pants. I decided against brushing my teeth to avoid waking Dad and just resigned myself to morning breath. Finished with everything I crawled into bed and pulled up the covers. Sleep was a while in coming because I was so wired, but eventually I drifted off.
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Jan 18, 2023
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timelost
Jan 23, 2023
#13
It was Sunday night before I was able to go out again on patrol. Dad had stayed up late Saturday watching some old war movie; I had stayed in my room and planned what I was going to do on my first real patrol.
The first thing I planned was to call Glory Girl and let her know I was going to patrol. Calling from my home phone was the worst idea I could come up with. Between caller ID and Dad possibly overhearing there was no good outcome calling from home.
I flew out of my house and headed East towards the bay. Once in the air it was easy to find a payphone and call. A few quarters into the slot, a few digits pressed, and I heard a serious sounding tone:
"This is Glory Girl's direct line, if you have an emergency please hang up and call the police or the PRT. Otherwise, please leave a message with your name and a number I can return your call at. Beep."
Then the phone beeped at me.
"Hey, uhh, Glory Girl. It's me, err I mean it's Event Horizon. Just calling to try and schedule a patrol with you. Like you asked."
I was very much repeating issues I had with her the other night.
"Anyway, I'll just do a simple patrol and keep it light. I'll call you again since I am at a payphone and can't leave a callback. Uhh… Bye." Then hung up the phone.
Something settled in my stomach. A worry that I didn't even realize I had that Glory Girl had lied to me. Had done what Emma would have set up and made a fool of me. It didn't matter that she wasn't there to pick up the phone, Glory Girl had given me her real number and as my stomach finished settling something else rose up; that same giddiness from the other night, reinforced even stronger.
I gathered the few coins of change that fell out of the payphone and then floated up and out, over the city and ready to save a kitten out of a tree.
Most of Brockton Bay is lower than three stories. There were several apartments that reached in the five to ten story range and an area that could be called downtown with a few scattered office buildings that reach to the thirties or so. The tallest building was the Medhall Headquarters standing half again as tall as the second tallest building.
All of the downtown area is far south from where I am. North of where I am leads to the Boardwalk, high end department stores and luxury goods. More north and you reach the market, a low end strip mall area on the coast. Passed that is the train yard and the docks. Both of which were mostly closed down since shipping has died by more than ninety percent in the last decade. I can't help but know that since Dad is the hiring manager at the local dock worker's union and listening to him rant about the failure of the city to preserve such an important function is a bi-monthly event. It alternates with the rant about the ferry. I have never had the heart to tell him I thought the ferry was a gimmick for tourists rather than the economic artery he always described it as.
East from where I am is the bay and from just a hundred feet up I was able to see the moonlight reflected off the water. I started falling towards the bay with a southish tilt. South might have been the business district, but south-east along the shore was the rundown homes, the fallen businesses, and the highest hate crime rates.
The Empire Eighty-Eight was our very own, actual, gas the Jews, blacks, gays, and the list never ends, üntermensch thinking they were übermensch, Nazis. And they ran the whole south. From the nicer homes that I was flying over to the low income ones I was headed towards, I kept a cursory awareness of what I was flying over; just enough to make sure there wasn't an active murder. I tried really hard not to see the activities that people got up to in their own homes. Like an old couple that I blanked out of my mind forever.
Once the houses I reached started looking more rundown, the roads had more potholes than not, and it became a moment of surprise when a street light was lit, I slowed down and started paying more attention. I still tried to skip over anyone in their house, but groups and lone stragglers were where I thought the action would take place.
The man with a knife in his back pocket and a twitchy hand that was in an alley between houses was the first person I stopped over. He was hunched over a 55 gallon drum barrel warming his hands over the fire in it. It had never occurred to me that the cliché hobo was a real thing, but I suppose there were few ways to keep warm outside in the freezing February night.
It seemed unlikely he was going to be up for trouble, but I waited a few minutes and planned where to go next. While I was waiting another man wandered up with an armload of scrap wood. The newcomer said a word of greeting that was returned with a head nod. The scrap was mostly dropped with a couple pieces thrown into the barrel. With that he grabbed a threadbare blanket and wrapped it around his shoulders and huddled closer to the fire.
I left the men to their night and started floating in a mostly random direction; deeper into the slums.
It was a few minutes later I came across a group around twenty strong walking down the street. They were laughing and pushing each other as they went. A few were flashing knives and one was showing off a pistol. Waving it around in front of the group and pretending to shoot it off in the distance. The ones closest to him doubled over laughing. I couldn't make out what was being said, but I didn't think it uncharitable of me to think it was violently racist.
These were the people I needed to keep an eye out on. They were moving slowly towards the coast, which was maybe a half mile away at this point. I stayed at the edge of my range at an angle behind them; maybe thirty degrees off vertical.
Every so often a smaller group would join up with them and still they were headed in a relatively straight line. I figured they had a destination in mind. One group of three joined up carrying a staggering amount of beer. Literally; all three had three huge cubes of beer. It was quickly swarmed upon like ants on sugar, split open and passed around.
With those good decisions were sure to follow.
They continued along, having more than doubled in size since I found them. After twenty minutes of meandering they seemed to have found their destination. A few in the front of the pack threw up their arms and let out a bro-yell loud enough I was able to hear it. The bro-yell was picked up by the whole group and it echoed over the city for a moment.
I heard a reply bro-yell that came from outside my sphere of influence, but there were a pair of faded lights attached to a building front that revealed the source. The group crossed the street and passed over a few cans with a few back slaps and laughing.
I was becoming more and more curious as to what this place was. Nearly forty Nazis started filing into the building and I finally got a look at what was going on.
The front of the building had a few more guards, obvious from their guns they were holding. It widened up quickly from the first entryway to a stadium like arena. A central pit with raised seating circling around.
I couldn't place what was happening. I was getting a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach though. I had heard that The Empire would have prospective members kill a minority. If ever there looked to be a way to have that happen it was this arena.
I floated ahead of the group, their purpose done with, in order to get a complete view of what was going to happen here. Nothing really stood out until I passed the arena and could see backstage.
Cages.
I was grateful it wasn't people in the cages. I am not sure what I would have done, but I doubt it would have been pleasant. Or lawful.
What was in the cages were dogs. There were forty-six dogs in cages and five on leashes being led around. The dogs were all of larger breeds. Big teeth and they were all barking. All except one near the front of the backstage. He was smaller than all the rest and was curled up in the back of the carrier holding him.
As I moved to encompass the whole of the building a new figure came into view that captured my attention. He had a mask on. Cape.
Hookwolf.
My heart skipped a beat. This was bad news. Hookwolf was infamous in Brockton. Well known as the most violent lieutenant, or any member really, in the Empire. I don't know what I was planning when I followed the gangers here, but now I knew I needed to do something.
I just wasn't sure exactly what. When I thought of Heroes, I thought of Alexandria coming in and punching everything into submission. But even floating here I knew that was a naive way to look at crime fighting, formed from Saturday morning cartoons.
I stayed floating and let ideas pass through while I continued scoping out the arena. I had fully encompassed the building with my field and a second cape had come into view. I wasn't sure who it was, but she had a cage over her whole head, short curved blades on each thing, and what looked like a flat topped microphone in a specialized pocket on her left thigh, a little behind the blade.
The Empire had close to or more than a dozen capes and I hadn't done any specific research into them. That was a mistake I planned on correcting the next time I had time in front of a computer.
Hookwolf started pointing and yelling at people; even cuffed a guy walking too slowly for his liking rather hard. It looked like things were about to start. A couple of cages were roughly dragged near the arena entrance and Cage moved to stand next to Hookwolf.
I was running out of time and I only had the vaguest of plans. Something along the lines of lifting the glass skylight up and floating down and then… stopping them. Perfect. A plan with no flaws.
I was running out of time, Hookwolf grabbed each cage, hoisted them up and started towards the main arena. Cage followed close behind and grabbed the smaller dog cage on the way.
Hookwolf moved to the center of the arena and held the cages high and the cheer that arose from the audience was audible from where I was even through the roof. He started yelling to the crowd once the cheering settled down.
Two helpers came and grabbed the cages and brought them to opposite sides of the arena. Suddenly it all came together what was going on here. This was a dog fighting ring. A quick check and I found several bookies taking bets. I knew what was going to happen, but I was still lacking on a good plan; I kept trying to run scenarios but kept cycling back to getting in their face and punching them into submission. It was a dumb plan.
The dogs in cages were leashed then pulled out, barking and pulling at the leads. Cage went to the center of the arena, pulled the small dog out and then leashed it to a stake in the ground just like the goat in Jurassic Park. Hookwolf let loose a few more yells, Cage backed away from the small dog, bookies shut down betting after taking a last fistful of cash, and the two handlers let go of the leashes.
I panicked as the two large dogs closed in on the small one. I panicked as Hookwolf and Cage and the audience cheered on the carnage. I panicked as the right dog pulled ahead faster.
As the lead dog jumped to tear into the sacrifice I pulled it up, and followed up by grabbing the second dog, and everything clicked into place. I was an idiot.
I wasn't Alexandria to fly down and stop criminals. I was Event Horizon and I owned the very force that kept people on the ground.
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timelost
Jan 23, 2023
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timelost
timelost
Feb 2, 2023
#29
Everyone had a second to realize that the jump the dogs had performed wasn't ending and then I grabbed everyone and pulled them up ten feet and then put a small field in the middle of everyone, keeping them floating.
Three hundred and twenty seven people, including Hookwolf and Cage. That was how many I had grabbed, using no more effort than just having myself fly. I marveled at the largest usage of my power I had done, and at how little mental awareness it required. I could concentrate on each of them separately.
In fact, almost half had taken out phones and were starting to dial. I couldn't have them calling for reinforcements, so I grabbed all the phones in a separate field and pulled them out. Most just slipped right out but a few I had to increase the strength of the field and for one youth with an iron grip I formed tiny fields for each finger and increased the pull until his hand was forced open and the phone flew out.
Phones from everyone else quickly followed, pulled straight from pockets, purses, and any that were laying on the ground. I kept them near their respective owners for lack of a better option at the moment.
So now I had some three hundred vehemently screaming skinheads and not entirely sure what to do with them, though I figured calling the police would be a good start. Or rather, the PRT, since Hookwolf and the other cape were leading this shindig, and I knew that Hookwolf at the very least had multiple arrest warrants out on him. It was a fair guess that Cage would be in a similar boat.
I needed a way to contact the PRT, but there was no reason to head in; I instead chose the phone of one of the guards outside and floated towards it while bringing it closer to me. Grabbing the flip phone I opened it and dialed up the PRT.
Two rings and a masculine voice answered, "PRT, what is your emergency?"
Similar to coming here and stopping everyone, I hadn't planned how I was going to explain this. Well, nothing for it but forward.
"Ah, my name is Event Horizon and I want to report the capture of a dog fighting ring hosted by The Empire 88." I was proud it came out clear and without a nervous stutter.
"Event Horizon, thank you for calling. Can you explain what you mean by the capture of a dog fighting ring?"
"Of course, there was a dog fighting ring being hosted by Hookwolf and another cape I don't know, being attended by three hundred and twenty five people, and I have captured them."
"Okay, I have Dauntless ready to head where you are, can you give me a location?" The man sounded like he was trying to stay calm and was mostly succeeding.
"Uhh, a warehouse in the south, near to the bay but not on the shoreline? Sorry, I don't have a closer location. Can you give me a second and I can check the road signs?"
"Yes please, that will be very helpful."
I floated down to street level and was able to get to a corner without needing to move anyone out of my range. Checking the road sign I read off the street names.
Hookwolf had turned into a giant quadrupedal form that was his namesake and was trying to reach the floor with it. I lifted him up a little more, just out of reach. I let him bob up and down getting just within reach of the floor. I tried not to let the feeling of taunting the Nazi to warm my heart too much, but made no such effort for the smile I had.
"Thank you, Dauntless will be there within ten minutes," he said. "You also mentioned more than three hundred people you have captured. I need you to explain that."
"They were all watching as two large dogs were about to rip apart a small dog so I grabbed them all in a personal gravity field and I am holding them until the authorities can sort this out. I guess that means I need a lot of police here too. I am not sure what is needed at this point."
"That's okay, we're here to help. The first thing is to make sure everyone you have captured is safe. Is anyone in distress, or in danger?"
"Distress, maybe. They are floating, but they are not in any danger. Some of them might be panicking, but they aren't hurt. Hookwolf is really flailing, but since he is a giant metal grinder at the moment, he is fine."
"Okay, thank you. Because this is an Empire operation there is a possibility of reinforcements, are you in a position to quickly retreat?"
"I took all their phones away before anyone was able to call out. And because the fight was starting, no one was on the phone."
"Are you able to keep an eye from a safe location just in case?"
"Yes, I am safe and can see if anyone is getting close."
"One moment please." There was a distinctive beep putting me on hold. That seemed weird, weren't emergency services never supposed to leave the caller?
It beeped again less than fifteen seconds later and the same handler spoke, "Event Horizon? I have roped in the police emergency line and we're going to go over what is needed."
"Okay." I wasn't sure where to go from here and just let them lead.
"Hello Event Horizon, this is Steven and I am going to go over what services to send to your location. Let me know when you're ready."
"Hi Steven, I guess I am ready now." I mean, I was already talking.
"Excellent. Now, I know that my counterpart at the PRT has already gone over this, but I need to make sure everyone you have captured is okay?"
"Yep, still just hanging around."
"Excellent. Okay, watching a dog fight is a Class D crime, commonly known as a misdemeanor. At the very least everyone present is going to need to be processed. So, we're looking at a lot of police. Very technical there. There is already an initial pair of officers on the way and a lot more with vans to come. Participating in the setup is a felony. So everyone who is helping organize this should be a higher priority. We'll help process actions on site with you and Dauntless. I am going to hand control back to Steven from the PRT."
"Wait, aren't you Steven?"
"Yes ma'am, I am Steven from the police."
"And I am Steven from the PRT, there wasn't a good opening to give out my name."
"Ah, no problem." I was trying to keep everything Steven from the police had gone over and started sorting the Nazis by the activities they were doing; audience to the left, bookies and guards in the middle, and dog handlers to the right. I moved Hookwolf and Cage to the front and the dogs I gathered to the rear.
"Dauntless is just a few minutes away, are you in a place where he will be able to find you?" Steven from the PRT asked.
I continued sorting Nazis and said, "Yes, I am near the front. If he doesn't see me I can form a sort of gravity funnel that he will be able to feel and follow." I suddenly realized I was going to be meeting a real professional Hero. Glory Girl was awesome, but there was just something different about meeting a full member of the Protectorate.
Dauntless was what is considered a Trump cape. Powers that either affect other powers, or can grant others powers. His in particular allowed him to grant a small charge to an item a day, making it a little stronger, or him a little faster, or some other more esoteric effect. His boots let him fly, his shield looked like an old sci-fi low budget movie force shield, but was incredibly tough. Rounding out his charged items was his Arclance, a spear that looked like it was made from a bolt of lightning and by all accounts hit like a taser. He completed the ensemble with a Greek hoplite helmet and a similarly themed chest plate. Neither of those were known to be charged, but I would guess he did at least something with them.
I might have a bit of a favorable outlook on Dauntless. Armsmaster might be the leader of the local Protectorate, and Miss Militia had more gun options than an anti-governmental compound in the woods, but both of them were from out of town; Dauntless was homegrown and I was looking forward to meeting him.
Dauntless flew into my awareness just then. "I see him," I said to the operator.
"Excellent, he says he is looking around."
I angle myself between him and the lights on the front of the warehouse. "Tell him to look a little to his left and down to the front, I am obscuring the light for him."
I see his head shift in the direction I mentioned and his mouth move a little.
"He sees you, I will be hanging up in a moment, thank you for your cooperation." Steven from the PRT said as Dauntless started flying toward me.
"Thank you for your help." Something struck me suddenly. "And for believing me!"
"Glory Girl spoke highly of you. Have a good night, Event Horizon." There was a click and the line went dead. Again that warm feeling from knowing that Glory Girl was watching out for me. I basked in it for the moment it took Dauntless to reach me.
He floated down next to me, both of us fifteen feet or so in the air. "Greeting Event Horizon. I hear you have a few Nazis to release into my care."
Oh wow, that was pretty smooth, his voice was even and the look I could see through his helmet was intense.
"A couple." I was far more proud of a calm quip than I should be. "How should I start bringing them out?" No time for small talk, and I was grateful for that.
"First a rundown on what I am expecting in the next fifteen minutes or so."
I gave a small nod to that. Then realized he might not be able to see a featureless black void bob a bit and said, "Okay, give me the rundown."
"First an ambulance and a police car should arrive in the next ten minutes, A PRT transport that can handle Hookwolf and a spare for… who was the other villain you mentioned?"
"I'm not sure which one, a short woman with a cage over her head and knives."
"That's Cricket, a sound based fighter. She is known to work with Hookwolf and Stormtiger in the fighting pits a lot. Glad you have her, she is a real… pest to fight against. She does this chirp thing that really throws off your balance.
"Right, the vans. After they arrive we will start having police cars and a few vans ready for transporting people to the various holding cells around the city."
"Sounds reasonable. Are we just going to toss people in and sort them out later?" I was curious how this many people were going to be handled.
"The police are going to handle the details for all the regulars. I'll be here with you for that. First though, I want to see Hookwolf and Cricket. Can you take me to them?"
"I can, but I think it's easier to bring them to us." I tried to keep my voice even. Being smug didn't sit right with me at this point.
"That works too; I thought you had them bound up. Figured that meant locked down, can you explain what you mean then?"
It was a bit of a transparent way to ask about my power, but it wasn't like I was trying to hide what I could do. "Like I said on the phone, I put everyone in a custom gravity field and held them a few feet off the ground."
As I was explaining I started moving Hookwolf and Cricket towards us.
"From there I can just move the field and they will move right along with it." I opened the door to the warehouse with a little gravity manipulation and started moving the two out. As Hookwolf was moving passed he grabbed the doorframe and pulled, his huge metal form pulling free from my gravity well. He hit the concrete landing and the scraping noise made Dauntless turn and see what was happening.
Dauntless let out a cry to get back and his shield lit up and the Arclance flared to life. Hookwolf made it one step before I grabbed his upper half in a stronger gravity field, around 5G, and it pulled him up suddenly. He orbited around the center point of gravity for a second then stabilized in the center. I pulled him up a little as Dauntless started forward.
"We're good, I have him again." I tried to suppress the total mortification I felt. I just let Hookwolf get free as I said I had him.
Dauntless stopped and took a moment to listen to the extensive swearing that Hookwolf was spewing before I made the same air baffle around him that had worked so well with Glory Girl the other night.
"Thank you for grabbing him again so fast." It sounded like he wasn't too angry with my mistake and I decided it would be best to accept what he said at face value.
"I made sure to have a bit of extra gravity this time; it won't happen again." I tried to convey the confidence I didn't feel, but knew that Hookwolf really couldn't get away. "I think just about anyone will be able to do the same as they pass through doors. I'll make sure they can't."
"Alright, let's get Cricket out too. Make sure you add that sound shield too. Getting hit with her chirp can really throw us for a loop. Lost balance, total vertigo, and an almost seasickness like effect. Really nasty." With that I thought I saw a slight shiver go through him. It was the first time he didn't seem larger than life to me.
I brought Cricket out the same way as Hookwolf but this time I hardened the edges of her gravity field to prevent her from grabbing anything and pulling out. It was a good thing I did too, she made the same effort. It looked pretty funny with her scrabbling along a smooth surface like she was trapped in a fishbowl.
"Excellent," Dauntless said once she was floating next to us. I had let the hard edge down, but kept the baffle up. She was making what looked like yells at us which must have been the sound effect Dauntless mentioned.
"The ambulance is a minute out and the police car thirty seconds or so behind that. Can you pull them this way?" He pointed over towards the street near where we were.
Dauntless dropped the last few feet to the ground and started walking where he had indicated. I dropped to just an inch off the ground and had the two supervillains follow me as I floated just behind Dauntless. By the time we reached the street I could see the flashing lights of the ambulance turn the corner and by the time it reached us, more lights from a cop car were visible.
By this time I had moved all the people into the three groups and suddenly came to a realization.
"The dogs!" I said.
"Excuse me?" Dauntless sounded a little taken off guard. He was conversing with the EMTs and they all looked over to me.
"I forgot to mention the dogs, there are 40 or so of them in the building they were planning to fight with." I quickly started moving the small dog they were going to use as a spectacle to us.
"Ok we can handle that too. Thanks for mentioning it now at least, we have enough to handle before the animals start becoming a priority." He paused for a moment, looking at the villains behind me. "Actually, I think I misprioritized anyway. We can't handle them until the PRT arrives. Can you pull out whoever looked like they had the most authority after Hookwolf?"
"Uhh, the bookkeeper that was tracking all the smaller bookies or the guy in the back that was directing the dog handlers?" I felt that it could be either of them.
"Normally I would say the money guy, but with Hookwolf I think the handler would be better."
It almost felt like an assembly line; as the dog made it to me I started bringing the handler out. I suspected it was going to have a similar feel throughout the night.
"How long do you think this will take?" I asked as I brought the dog to my arms. I removed the field from my hand and started petting him. He grinned up at me and started furiously licking my hand. I couldn't help but giggle a little bit.
"At least three hours. Are you going to be able to be here for that time? You're the crux of the whole thing at this point." He tried to hide the trepidation in his voice.
"I'll be here until the last person is locked away for trying to turn this little guy into a snack."
"Oh God, they were using him as a feeder dog." The disgust in Dauntless' voice was echoed by my own thoughts. He reached out and scratched him behind the ears. "Cute corgi though."
"It's horrifying there is a name for that practice." As I said that, the police were just getting out of their car and joining the EMTs and the lead handler was just reaching us.
"This guy is the one who was directing all the other dog handlers." I said. The police and Dauntless gathered around and the EMTs were just outside them.
"You bitch! The Empire is going to -" I put up the sound baffle, figuring it wasn't worth listening to.
"Well, as good a place to start as any of them I suppose." The officer on the left said in a rather resigned voice. "How can we safely let him go and not have him rabbit on us?"
"I can let you grab his arms then let him go, would that work?"
"I think that would work great." The other cop said. "I'm Officer Delaine and my forgetful partner here is Stevens. Steve Stevens."
"You never get tired of that," Officer Stevens said quietly enough it was hard to hear.
Ignoring the byplay I brought the handler over and gave a small field to rotate him so his back was to the officers. "You can reach in. it will feel a little weird but it won't hurt."
Officer Delaine reached through the baffle and grasped an arm. "Oh wow, you weren't kidding. It feels like putting my arm in turbulent water, except it goes through my whole arm, not just on the skin."
Officer Stevens needed to walk in front of the handler and grab the other arm. Together they wrestled his arms back and cuffed him. With that I let the gravity lower him to the ground and then normalize, including letting the sound baffle drop.
The vitriol that fell out his mouth was unending and varied. Including assuming I was black because of the way my armor made me look. While he was busy screaming at everyone and everything the officers patted him down and grabbed his wallet. That reminded me that I had divested him of a few articles as well.
"Here are his phone and the knife he had on him." I said as I moved said items towards Officer Stevens. He held his hand out as Officer Delaine dragged the handler over to the patrol car. The knife went ignored as he dug through the ID.
"Roger Almy. July nineteenth, 69." He said it loud enough that Delaine would be able to hear even over the shouting of Roger. After Roger was secured in the back, Delaine wandered up and started typing on the dash computer.
Stevens radio came to life and what sounded more like static than words burst out. He seemed to understand that because after a moment he pressed the radio and said, "10-4 central."
He turned to me and Dauntless and said, "A dozen more cars and two vans are just a few minutes out. We can handle one more in ours and by then a sergeant will be on site and coordinating everything more closely."
"PRT van should be here by now. In fact I think I see the lights," Dauntless said.
Sure enough I was able to see more flashing lights, but how he could tell the difference between the PRT and the police was beyond me. It didn't matter I suppose, but with that I really started to feel like things were going to spiral out of my comfort zone. So far dealing with Dauntless, while overwhelming, was still just one person, and the two police officers everything felt small scale. Ignoring the more than three hundred people behind me, it was quiet and easy.
"Bring out one more for the police right now then we'll get Cricket then figure out about Hookwolf. After that it will mostly just be a slog of processing, how many? Three hundred and fifty?"
"Around that." I said. Somehow him saying it brought it to be more real than the fact I was holding them. I decided to grab the head bookie and bring him out faster than the handler.
I got him up front as the large van with "Parahuman Response Team" printed across the side rolled up. Several people in full body armor and face masks got out of the back. The one in front pointed and must have said something because three broke off and started moving to Hookwolf, two went to Cricket and the lead joined Dauntless.
"Dauntless," he said with a slight nod. "How are we doing this?"
"Event Horizon has everyone contained and safe. And quiet. We're going to get this one here," he pointed to the bookie, "and then Cricket. Hookwolf after that. Hopefully we aren't waiting on the foam van for too long. After that I think it is just the police. I'll hang around with Horizon here and make sure everything stays smooth."
The PRT officer nodded again and turned to me. "Hello Event Horizon, I am Commander Asa. Glad to help you clean up this mess."
"Happy to help Commander." It was really starting to pick up with all the officers moving around.
Officers Delaine and Stevens came back and I flipped the bookie around and separated his wallet and the many large wads of money he had been collecting.
Commander Asa watched as the bookie was cuffed and taken over to the cruiser, who didn't say a word the whole time. After that the Commander turned to us and said, "I think we can do something similar for Cricket, as long as you can keep that sound muffler up the whole time."
"That won't be a problem," I said. "I can also make it smaller so it just covers her head."
"Excellent." He looked over and when I followed his gaze the whole street was covered in flashing police lights. I hadn't noticed due to focusing on Commander Asa and the bookie, but it looks like the rest of the police were here and ready.
"Let's get started with the villains before Event Horizon gets swamped," Dauntless cut in. "I'll cover in case anything goes wrong."
I tried not to feel a bit insulted for thinking I would drop anyone… again. And he had probably heard about my drop from Glory Girl. Actually, it was a good idea to have someone covering me.
"Let's get closer to the car, less distance for things to go wrong," Commander Asa said.
I started floating over and brought Cricket over with us; the two officers assigned followed. When she was just in front of the van I brought the sound baffle in to just cover her head.
"Hah! Little Chirpy having a hard time?" One of the PRT Agents said.
"Davis! That shit does not fly. Not in the field, and not in the locker!" Commander Asa cracked down on the outburst. "Do not assume that a cape contained is safe or secure."
"Sorry Sir! Won't happen again!"
Asa nodded once and then reached to his belt and pulled off what looked like a hightech muzzle. "Armsmaster was kind enough to make this a few months back, glad we get to use it now."
Armsmaster was the local leader of the Protectorate and one of the most well known capes in the U.S. A Tinker who could fit more stuff in a small space than would otherwise be possible. He was locally famous for the motorcycle he rode, the blue power armor he wore, and the halberd he wielded.
"Alright Event Horizon, keep Cricket still and I'll strap this on her." He put action to words and reached up. Cricket struggled and chirped, but with the PRT holding her still and me keeping the baffle up she was quickly muzzled.
It kind of looked like that Hannibal mask, but without the holes. A few lights started blinking through red, yellow, then stayed green. I assumed that meant it was on and working and I turned to Commander Asa, "Ready for me to drop everything?"
"Hold," he said and motioned from Cricket to the back of the van. An officer each grabbed an arm and dragged her over to the van when she didn't start walking. They stepped up and took her with them.
I watched through my power as they took a set of manacles that were anchored to a loop on the floor and secured her ankles to them. A second set around her wrists forced her to either stand in a half squat or just sit on the bench. She chose the latter.
"How do you want to handle her weapons?" I asked as I brought them up. They were short handled with blades at a right angle. Like mini-scythes.
"Definitely not in the van with her. Is it just those two items?"
"Yes, she didn't have money or a wallet on her."
"I imagine not," Dauntless said, "It would be an act of idiocy for a cape to have identification on them. And no Empire, or villain really, would pay for stuff that pocket cash can handle."
"Oh, I guess that makes sense. I was just comparing it to all the other people here."
"Let me have the blades, I'll turn them over tonight after this is done."
I nodded and floated the blades over to him. I released the field around them as he grasped the handles and then looked over the van. The two officers each grabbed a door and pulled it closed. I saw more than heard one of them bang on the wall and the van drove off and another one pulled up to take its place.
"For Hookwolf, just float him into the van; we're going to foam everything and then deal with him at HQ."
Easy enough. I put thought to action and soon enough he was floating in the back of the van. Two officers with packs that looked like a pair of oxygen tanks on their backs with fire hoses coming out of them lined up and aimed with what looked like flamethrowers. Though instead of fire it fired a thick off-white substance that stuck to everything and started expanding rapidly.
Containment Foam was famous for its capacity to hold anyone but the strongest of Brutes or some of the more esoteric power effects. Made by Dragon, the most famous Tinker in the world, and provided almost exclusively to the PRT, it was the main staple in their arsenal. Even more than guns.
They did a few controlled bursts to fill the back and corners, closed one door and back filled as best they could then closed the second door with a hard shove.
"Commander! Should we foam the crack? Make sure it won't open."
Commander Asa thought for a second, then nodded, "Do it."
A few more bursts covered the door seam, almost like a spot welder. I dropped the field and the giant spiky form started struggling right away. The van bucked a bit, but the foam was still expanding and he just buried himself deeper without really getting better leverage to scrape against anything important.
A minute later everyone relaxed when the van stopped moving. Foam was interspersed all through his spikes and he couldn't move at all.
"Pack it up! We're out in three minutes!" Asa said. "Thank you Event Horizon, I don't think that could have gone any better."
I felt a glow of pride from his words, smiled and said, "Happy to help, really." I wasn't sure what else to say so I just left it there.
Dauntless jumped in after a moment to cover the silence, "Commander, if you're all set, I need to start integrating with the police and Event Horizon. Going to be a long night."
"Good luck to you, both of you." With that the Commander turned and climbed into a cruiser labeled for the PRT and it drove off.
"Event Horizon." I turned to Dauntless. "It's going to be a long night, I know I asked but are you ready?"
"Yep, what's next on the docket?"
"Let's head over to the pack over there." He waved vaguely in the direction of almost a dozen cops that had gathered. Most were looking towards one guy who was talking and animatedly waving his arms with a big smile. Suddenly all the cops burst into laughter, some even bending over they were laughing so hard.
As we wandered over, the lead guy said something and everyone turned to face us. At least they didn't all lose their smiles as one; mostly they just calmed a bit, but were still grinning and chuckling.
The lead guy took a few steps forward and the rest made room. "Dauntless and Other Cape!" He said loud enough to be heard over the thirty or so feet away we were. "How's it going tonight? I hear we have a whole nettle of Nazis to corral!"
He was so cheery I couldn't even feel bad about him being the first person to reference me without knowing my cape name. Dauntless walked a little faster and I kept pace with him.
"It's going pretty well, and I have high hopes for the rest of the night. Excited to be handling this bust?"
"Well, I might enjoy it while it's happening, but the cleanup afterwards always makes me wonder if it was worth it. Captain Sals at your service." He had a smile and gave a mocking fraction of a bow.
"I'm sure you will have all the paperwork ever to do by the time the night is through, but until then, this is Event Horizon and she has all our future spring inmates ready to be processed." Dauntless had an easy flow with the cheerful captain that I couldn't help but envy.
"Event Horizon? Very poetic I must admit, but far too long for a night like this. Will Eve do?"
"I, ah, err…" I trailed off, trying to reconcile all sorts of things at once and just failing at everything.
"Excellent. So, I have a dozen cars and a few vans ready to start processing. I can handle maybe ten or so at once. How quick can you start bringing people out, Eve?"
"Already headed over, be a minute." That at least I could just work with. No wit or quick response needed, just work to be done. While I was pulling the closest to the front to us, I started organizing everyone else in order to make sure an uninterrupted line of soon to be prisoners was presented to the police. "I also have personal effects near each person, how did you want the hand off to happen to make sure nothing is misplaced?"
"Each officer pair handling a suspect can grab it and make sure it stays associated with the individual. Good thinking, Eve."
I nodded and was glad the blush I had from the praise was hidden. I tried to think back to the last time someone had given positive affirmation like that and it fell all the way back to when Mom was last alive. Years ago.
"The first set is coming up and I have more lined up and ready." I turned and the Captain and Dauntless followed suit. We saw the first eight coming out of the building mixed with the two guards that had been hanging around the whole time, with a second set of ten close behind.
"HAH!" The Captain let out a loud bark. "A regular fuckin' holiday float they are. Oh sweet baby Jesus this is Christmas and my birthday and my anniversary rolled into one and it gets to last all night? Eve you are my favorite cape ever. Of all time!"
He laughed a little more as all the Nazis closed in. He turned a little towards the other police and yelled, "okay listen up! Every pair gets a pop and everyone keeps it clean. No hitting, no bumping their heads to help in the car. I want every fuck here properly arraigned and processed and I don't want to hear a fuckin' thing from a fuckin' lawyer that some fuckn' rights were fuckin' abused. Do you fuckin' understand me!"
A chorus of affirmation was let loose and I set a line of Nazis up to be collected as the police split into pairs. I brought the second set up just behind the first and after that I had everyone floating near the entrance, ready like they were on an assembly line of justice.
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Feb 9, 2023
#45
The phone on the bedside table rang out once, twice, and on the third ring a rustling in the bed occurred. An arm stretched over a woman's body and felt around for the ringing phone. Finding and grasping its prey, the phone was reeled back in and a bleary eye opened to find the accept button.
"Yes." Max Anders spoke, knowing that this was the emergency phone.
"Hookwolf managed to get arrested at one of his dog fights. Cricket too," James said.
A moment passed as Max processed this. "If we gather everyone right now, is there enough time to hit the transport before they make it to lockup?"
"No, first word got to me he was just being loaded up. We won't make it in time. But there is more. Everyone at the rally was arrested. Every bookie, dog handler, and guard. But also everyone in attendance. Call from a few of our guys in the force said a call came in with a new cape on the scene and was saying they had hundreds of people in some form of field that kept them contained."
"I told him to keep those smaller. Fine. We can't be seen letting our people be handled like this. Options?" He was still waking up and James had had time to come up with something. At the very least having possibilities put before him would get his own mind running.
"With the number of people they are processing, we can get a few key people to either slip through the cracks, or be given the wrong charge. The more we do that, the more likely to get caught. Also, if no one has a charge for handling, or for gambling, it will be obvious we were involved."
"Good start. With that many arrested they will need to over pack all the holding cells in the city. Get a few young and hopefuls to volunteer for stronger charges. Make it clear they will be rewarded." There was always someone willing to spend time in jail for a spot in the Empire. As they should. "Lawyers. For everyone. Empire lawyers for the known members. Have reputable lawyers we can pay through the shells for anyone we want to keep clean. The Empire must show we do not leave our own behind. Find a few people in that crowd that aren't liked and make sure they don't get any representatives. No special charges against them, just let it be obvious they didn't toe our line, so we are not helping them."
"Of course. We can organize it on our end. What are we doing tomorrow?"
That was the big question. The Empire could not be seen as weak or vulnerable. Letting hundreds be arrested and doing nothing was unacceptable. Making sure most of the people were let off, or given lesser sentences would show this as nothing more than a setback. It could even be used as a rallying point.
Those were the non-parahuman issues. Hookwolf was headed to the Birdcage, again, and they would need to stage a rescue, again. Cricket was going to just go to a regular Parahuman prison. If the opportunity to break her out in transit arose, they would take it. Otherwise getting her out of a supermax wouldn't be too hard.
It was the new cape to the scene that he needed to worry about. "Start finding out about this new cape. Powers, affiliation, and if we can, find out if this was a planned operation or a target of opportunity. Both have problems, but someone who can control and hold hundreds of people on a whim is very different than a Tinker with a device custom made. We are going to make an example to show that The Empire will not tolerate anyone interrupting our business ventures."
"Already on it. Preliminary reports are a Shaker. I sent Stormtiger out with orders to observe and not engage. Losing another tonight because we don't know what we're up against is foolish."
"Agreed. Start preparations for a rally. Not tomorrow, maybe in a few days. We'll go over it more detail when I come in. Think about what parts of a speech we need to hit. Either using this for a 'we are strong' or 'we will prevail' depending on the mood in the coming days."
Max was trying to think of what else needed to be set in motion before he could go back to sleep.
"We'll cover bail as well." Bail for this many people would run in the tens of thousands, maybe hundreds. It would be worth it to bolster the morale after this debacle. "Do we have any judges in our pocket we can maneuver to hear cases? Either faster to get people out, or just ruling in our favor. Preferably both."
"I know we can get the cases heard faster. Biased ruling shouldn't be too hard for the minor offenses. We can likely aim towards reduced sentences. I am also working on trying to discredit or corrupt evidence for a few people I know were there tonight. Tyler's kid was there for sure and we need him to come out clean. I am aiming to have him lost before he hits lock up, but it depends on a lot of factors out of our direct control."
"Fuck. Good thinking." Tyler was a ranking un-powered lieutenant. He handled a lot of gun running coming in from Europe and had contacts across the Eastern seaboard that Max could not afford to lose. "No expenses spared. I will talk with Tyler tomorrow and make sure he know his son will be well taken care of."
"I will make sure he understands. Do I need to worry about the ABB or the Merchants tonight, or can that wait until tomorrow?"
Max gave it a moment to think about whether the other major gangs in the city would move on this so quick. The Azn Bad Boys, and Max couldn't help the twist of disgust his mouth made at the name, was the local Asian supremacist gang in the city. A lesser rival to his proper supremacist gang. They were little more than human trafficking drug runners. Not to say The Empire didn't do both of those, but Max knew they were more refined in the means and methods. The ABB had only two parahumans to their name, the leader Lung and his hitman Oni Lee. While Hookwolf was a strong deterrent to the encroaching of his territory, he was not the only one. Nothing they couldn't push back in the following days before retrieving their wayward dog.
The Merchants were even worse. Lowly drug runners high on their own stash as much as selling it, they had three to five capes at any given moment. Led by Skidmark, and that name caused an involuntary twitch of his eye, and his Tinker girl, Squealer. It was unlikely they would do anything other than posture.
"Nothing pressing. I will be in by six AM." With that Max hung up and stared at the phone for a moment, letting the breathing of the women to either side of him wash over him. With a sigh he set the alarm for five, slid the phone under his pillow in case it was needed again, and laid back down, trying to empty his mind knowing sleep was going to be needed for tomorrow.
"Anything we need to be worried about?" Nessa asked from behind him.
"Not tonight, but tomorrow is going to be chaotic."
"What happened?" Jessica asked from in front of him.
"A new cape decided to commit suicide by Empire." With that Max closed his eyes and relaxed into a mostly restful sleep.
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Feb 15, 2023
#93
A few people were commenting about meeting Vista. I had this written before I started posting, so let me know how it goes. I had fun writing it.
Captain Sals watched in silence as the first set was processed and the second were brought up to wait their turn. "Excellent. Going to be a long night, but a good one." He turned towards me and Dauntless and said, "I need to make sure nothing fucked up starts happening to the shits soon to be in our care and keep an ear for perimeter updates and organize a dozen other things. You two good for now? I need to get a team or three to start sweeping the building too. I'll check in with you every so often. Actually, if Eve here is okay on her own, Dauntless, can you keep on perimeter sweeps. Can't discount Empire friends trying something dumb. But I repeat myself."
He waited for assent from both Dauntless and I and then headed away, shouting orders.
Dauntless turned to me and said, "He is right, I need to keep an eye out, by now even if you stopped everyone here from calling out, someone has realized something is wrong because there haven't been any calls, or even if late arrivals saw what was going on and left. You can obviously see everything in your range, has anyone come and gone since you shut down this event?"
"Yea, but I couldn't hold them, since none of them were part of the event. They wandered close, saw the floating guards and ran away. But by then you had arrived and people stopped showing up."
"They definitely know something has gone wrong. I imagine the only reason more capes haven't shown up is that Stormtiger and Alabaster are the only ones ready at the moment, and if they think Hookwolf and Cricket are down, they can't resolve the issue alone.
"I am going to do a circle or two, then come by and then repeat. Sorry to leave you all on your own, but listen to Captain Sals. You're doing good, keep it up."
With that, he turned and started walking up air, the bottom of his boots glowing a lighting gold as each step took him higher. After the fourth step he was able to glide more than walk and he zoomed over into a large lazy circle.
I was left to float around.
Petting this cute corgi.
I guess it wasn't too bad.
The first set of Nazis was roughly finishing up, some were slower or faster to get people and effects into cars or vans. I didn't have a way to tell the time, but I judged that five, maybe ten, minutes had passed.
I looked around to try and find Dauntless and found the glow of his boots off in the distance floating around a bit.
It was around this time that I felt it. The whole north side, everything above building height, bent. Not just the air, but space itself was pulled. It stretched at the edges of the effects. I could just make out Dauntless' boots warping, but it was hard to tell with his normal movement. Other than that there wasn't any other way to see it happening.
I watched as a tiny person stepped from nowhere onto the roof of the building. Then space reverted to normal in a near snapping motion. It felt so weird. Not painful, or even wrong. Just… odd. I remember when I was younger I would jump as the elevator would go up and down. The way the jump was changed from the elevator moving is what this felt like.
The same stretching motion happened again from the roof of the building to where I was floating and the person stepped from the roof to the pavement.
"Hello!" Vista said.
Vista was one of the Wards, the under eighteen part of the Protectorate. She was both the youngest, and the longest serving member. I remember from when I was in middle school, two years ago, she was in the news on a semi-regular basis. Doing walk-abouts on the boardwalk. Helping cats out of trees. Standard young hero stuff.
She was short, not even making it to my shoulders. Her costume was heavily themed green with highlights of white that help lean into the idea of the horizon. A green visor covered her eyes and she wore her blonde hair in a short bob cut.
I wasn't sure how to react to her just arriving next to me like that, but being rude was not the right reaction. I was becoming inured though, I didn't feel the giddiness like I did meeting Glory Girl or Dauntless.
"Vista, good to meet you." I had a moment of brilliance about body language too; since nodding my head wasn't coming across very well, I bobbed my whole body a little bit.
"Event Horizon right?" When I did that same bob she continued, "it's good to meet you too! I heard on the radio about this great bust and was just in the neighborhood to stop in and see if I could assist." She sounded so earnest I didn't want to just brush her off and say everything was handled.
I thought about what I could have her help with. All the cops were handling the criminals and Dauntless had the perimeter handled. There wasn't much left to do.
I scratched the corgi behind his ears.
Wait.
"The police have left the dogs for later, think you can help me corral all of them?" I brought the corgi closer to her and had it face her. It flailed its legs and licked at her general direction.
"Oh god! It's so cute!" Vista started scratching him under the chin vigorously. "What's its name?"
"Don't know, he was going to be eaten by the other dogs they had."
Her scratching slowed then stopped as she processed what I said. "What?" It came out really quiet. "How could someone do that?" It was a little louder. "Those fucking Nazis!" That came out just shy of a yell, but no one appeared to hear it.
"Well, they won't be able to now, but they left behind like forty dogs and they aren't scheduled for pickup till the end. We can bring all the cages out and get them ready. Make sure they're watered at least."
"Yea, we can handle that. Let's go get them."
"Let's grab Captain Sals and see if there is any way in particular we should do this. Don't want to get in the way." With that I headed over towards the Captain. Vista followed behind for a moment then caught up.
"Ask who? We just head in and do what we need to. Might have to sign an autograph for someone who has a kid that's a fan." She sounded so dismissive I was caught off guard.
"There are over a dozen officers in there, taking pictures and writing things down. If we head in now, it might cause some serious issues. Asking the captain that is keeping everything running at least vaguely smoothly seems like the way to do it." By that point we had made it to Captain Sals and he overheard the last of that.
"Too fuckin' right you are Eve. Thank you for having the good goddamn sense to talk to me about something. What is that something?" He basically ignored Vista with barely more than a glance.
"We want to handle the dogs, make sure they're watered and safe and whatnot."
Vista broke in, "We'll just set up off to the side, keep the dogs in the cages they're in and keep them watered and out of your way. Easy." She crossed her arms and angled her head to look right at Captain Sals.
The captain looked right back at her and stared for a good ten seconds. "Stay out of everyone's way, and don't warp the inside too much at once, might fuck up evidence."
Vista didn't even respond, just took a step back and was suddenly at the front of the warehouse. She started tapping her foot, obviously waiting for me. The space was still warped for me to just float a few feet and travel fifty.
"Eve, don't be a dick cape when you grow up." Captain Sals said and then turned to continue barking out orders.
I floated the few feet to catch up with Vista; she turned and headed inside.
"Why are you so hostile to him?" I couldn't help but ask.
"Not just him. The cops are generally useless, working with them a waste of time."
I couldn't help but see everything going on here. More than fifty officers doing a hundred things over such a large area. "Seems like they're doing a lot right now."
"Clean up duty they're real good at. You did all the work and they just need to ship them to a cell and let the system release half of them back to the streets. But this is easy for them. Have you ever tried to report a robbery for a young woman only to have the operator hang up because you were making a prank call? From an official PRT phone! Or wait an hour for a cop to show up, take a note of a vague description and then nothing happens? They might be here, but they never help when I am on the streets trying to help others."
I didn't have anything to say to that. "This is my first interaction with the police beyond a school trip," was all I could come up with.
"Well, you'll find out over time."
I didn't want to bring up how this whole dog fighting ring was organized and run by people under the Protectorate's responsibility to arrest.
We came up to the dog cages and it was worse in person than just seeing it through my power.
"Oh." I said, weakly.
The large carriers were the most common. Large dogs barked incessantly and a few smaller dogs huddled up, likely more feeders. A few larger ones were leashed to o-hooks or just tied around pillars. I still had the first two fight dogs floating right where they had jumped at the corgi I was still petting.
I gave a small shake to snap out of the daze I was in. There was help to hand out and being stunned wasn't helping any of the dogs.
"There's some water we can grab over here. Bowls there too." I pointed and started floating that way.
The ground warped and twisted, bringing the water jugs and bowls into reach. I grabbed them in my power, which maybe I could have just done but I was here with Vista so we could work together.
"Thanks. We can set up outside. Can you release the leashed dogs safely?"
"Yep." The pillar came close leaving the dog far away and gave Vista plenty of space to untie the dog. "Ready?"
"Go for it." I grabbed the soon to be released dog in its own little gravity well.
We repeated for the remaining non-caged dogs and I picked up all the caged ones. Taking everything we started heading out, a conga line of canines following.
On the way, Vista spoke up. "Your power feels really weird. I can feel each of the little wells you made to float everything."
"I can say the same about yours. That twisting and warping really tugs at the back of my mind."
"You seem to have everyone in here and out there, and the dogs, and the food and water and bowls, and yourself affected. All acting in different ways. Is that something you had to train?"
"No, it seems like whenever I need to use my power I can just do it. Doesn't matter how complex or how many instances I need to make, it just… creates another thing I can focus on. All of them at the same time or one, it doesn't feel like anything different. Watch."
I started making a Gordian Knot, as twisted and warped as I could. I started with essentially a rod of gravity an inch or so in diameter and a foot long. I made different gradients along both the length and width, keeping everything within two gravities or so to make sure it stayed safe. Then I twisted the whole thing so the gradients were curving into opposite directions. I started to interweave the ends into a true knot. I wasn't knowledgeable of any knot in particular so I just kept putting the ends back through loops and continued twisting the whole thing for multiple whole rotations. It all ended by putting the ends together to form a mobius strip.
By that time we had arrived at our planned area, but Vista had stopped walking a good dozen feet back. Her mouth was hanging open.
"You okay back there?" I couldn't keep a bit of pride out of my voice. Showing off in such a casual manner just felt so good.
That's when I felt the area around the knot start to warp, a clear indication that Vista was using her power.
"Just fine." It was a little strained, but there was a clear challenge in the voice.
I left the knot alone as I started to organize the dogs. I didn't want to release them all, even if I could corral them, having them all running free seemed like a bad idea for fight dogs. My idea was to cycle a bowl and water in front of a few of them.
I felt a piece of space slip between a pair of threads of the knot and suddenly there was a wide gap. It felt like my brain had a brush go along the side of it. Not painful, but just short of unsettling.
About half the Nazis had been processed, but it looked like there was going to be a lot more work inside the building. Captain Sals was doing a round, occasionally giving out an order.
I was just closing the doors on the first few dogs that had lapped up a bowl when even more threads were spread apart. Vista was standing stock still except her hands were balled into fists and shaking ever so slightly.
Soon the entire knot was separated from itself, the space between each thread was inches away from any other part. An impressive display that only got more so when she started taking the space she formed and started making it into its own knot to complement mine.
The second round of dogs was complete and Vista was still going strong, making the space knot even more complex by doing a similar length symmetrical twist. I felt I needed to up the game just a bit so I sent a double helix spiral of negative gravity through the center.
"Unbelievable." I heard Vista say.
Around two thirds of the Nazis had been carted away and the third set of dogs taken care of when Dauntless started heading back to us. I held off on watering the next few dogs and wandered close to Vista, figuring he would have an update.
"Vista! What are you doing here?" He yelled from a good thirty feet out.
Vista's head snapped towards Dauntless and suddenly her space knot snapped back into place. The space reverting so fast did horrific things to my gravity fields and I was suddenly vomiting everything I'd eaten in the last three days and falling; throwing my arms forward was an automatic response more than anything resembling forethought.
I heard yelling and swearing and knew I needed to get all my fields back up right away. One more heave and I was able to get a view of everything that had happened. Maybe ten seconds had passed since dropping my fields and already I saw the Nazis reacting. Some ran away, a few were already reaching the cops that were arresting them. The cops were reacting as well, reaching for weapons, or just swinging fists where they were too close to grab a weapon.
I decided to forgo forming my armor to just grab all the Nazis right away, pulling them up and away from the cops. Once the Nazis were back under control I heaved again, the weird feedback still echoing in my head, making a specific effort to just make sure the fields didn't drop again.
A deep breath and I was able to get a clearer picture of what was happening. Vista was on her hands and knees vomiting, so I knew it was an equivalent feedback with similar repercussions. Dauntless was standing with his back to her in a guard position, likely reacting to the Nazis getting free.
Captain Sals was doing a run through of all the groups of officers, and it looked like a of the few others were doing something similar. All the other officers were checking each other or keeping weapons trained on the once again restrained criminals.
I had a moment to take stock of myself. My palms and knees were increasingly stinging, indicative of scrapes at the least, but no deeper pain was a good sign. I still had the feedback echoing slightly, but it was mostly gone. My heart was going crazy and I was out of breath and breathing heavily just trying to calm down.
"Vista, are you okay?" Dauntless said.
She spit out and said, "Fine. Just peachy."
"Event Horizon, how about you?"
"I'll be fine, just give me a moment more." I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I stood up and really looked around, the chaos I saw in my power giving way to my real sight. "I really fucked up. Sorry."
"Me too. Though it would have been fine if Dauntless hadn't surprised me like that." Vista glared at Dauntless.
"You aren't supposed to be here in the first place. Get up and get back to headquarters."
Before Vista could say anything to that, and she was about to, Captain Sals got within yelling distance of us. "What in the blood soaked Protestant fuck is going on! Eve! You said you had it under control. What the fuck happened? And why do I smell vomit?"
He had made it to talking distance at this point, though with all the dogs barking so close we had to raise our voices a bit to be heard. "A bad power interaction. Completely took me and Vista down."
He glanced at Vista for a moment, then spoke to Dauntless. "And what is the junior cape doing here?"
"A good question, that better have a good answer, back at base." Dauntless didn't sound any more pleased than the captain.
"She was helping me with the dogs." I jumped in, mostly to keep Vista from yelling, as she so obviously wanted to. "And I want her to stay." I formed up just a half-face mask and put up a semi-hemisphere sound baffle that cut the noise of dogs to a whisper.
"And have you go down again? I think not." The captain said.
"We know what caused it and we can prevent it from happening again. Guaranteed. I need her help." I wasn't budging from this position.
"Any longer recovering and we would have had casualties. I won't take that chance."
"It isn't a chance, and what's the alternative? You up and leave and let nearly a hundred Nazis back on the streets? Vista stays." I pulled on the rest of my armor and started floating again.
"I'll take responsibility for Vista, she can stay under my supervision." Dauntless did not sound happy.
Captain Sals looked at him, then back at me. "Do not fuck up again. I can't believe I actually thought to trust one of you." With that he turned and walked away. I felt terrible, breaking his trust like that, but while it wasn't outside of my control for that to happen, it wasn't something I thought could happen.
Dauntless watched him walk away for a moment then turned to me. "What happened?" He sounded stern, like that time I tried to help Mom cook when I was eleven and started a small fire on the stove top.
"Like I said before, bad power interaction. It won't happen again." I wasn't eleven, and he was not going to intimidate me like that.
"Vista?"
"Won't happen again. Or the first time if you-"
"Enough. I saw Stormtiger flying around the edges for a bit and was coming to tell Event Horizon to keep an eye out. I need to know I can be out there."
"Dauntless, either our explanation and word that it won't happen again is enough, or you need to come up with another line of questioning, because at the moment, you're taking us around in circles." It felt so wrong to be talking back to a member of the Protectorate like that, but he really was not helping the situation at this point.
He stared for a moment then let out a large sigh. "I apologize for hammering this point, but it is important that you understand how close to total disaster that was. Captain Sals is right, even if his delivery leaves a lot to be desired, that many people staring down jail time given a chance will become dangerous."
"Next time an unexpected and unknown power effect overwhelms me, I will try to take into account the situation I find myself in. For the sake of others if nothing else." The Sahara would have been jealous of my dry tone.
Dauntless tightened his grip on his spear, turned, and hopped into the air.
Vista and I watched him leave before she turned to me. "Oh my god, that was so cool."
"The way I released a hundred criminals to attack the police, or the part where I threw up all over myself before falling into a quivering pile?"
"What? No, the part where you talked back to both that cop asshole and Dauntless!"
"Not sure if I would call that cool so much as losing my cool. They were both mostly right, but just assholes about how they handled it. Wasn't our fault our powers interacted like that, just that we were experimenting at the wrong time."
"Still, I never would have gotten away with talking back like that. Still probably won't, I am going to be in so much trouble." Vista gave a little shake. "Ugh, so much yelling is in my future."
"Anything I can do to help?" I wasn't sure what punishments a large organization really had. My only knowledge was from Dad venting about careless workers and the amount of paperwork they generated.
Vista gave a large sigh. "Not really. You are right that we shouldn't have been playing, excuse me, experimenting with our powers in the field like that. There won't be anything for it but just accept it."
"How bad are we talking? You are saying it will be horrible, but your tone is so blasé it isn't really helping clarify."
"A dressing down. A series of them really. First Dauntless on the way back to HQ, then tomorrow the director or deputy director. Then another one from Aegis. Then paperwork for days. I will probably be taken off direct patrols and field duty. Relegated to nothing but signing events. At least for three weeks, maybe as long as two months, with docked pay. Something along those lines."
"Holy fuck." That was nuts.
"Language, there are small impressionable kids around." She said it with such a playful tone I couldn't help but let a small chuckle out.
"I'll make sure to moderate myself."
"Actually, there is something. It might be a bit much to ask like this, but coming into the PRT headquarters at some point. Meeting the Wards, get an initial power test in."
I almost turned her down instinctively.
"I was trying to get a feel for myself first." I went with the first plausible sounding thing. I just really didn't want to have to deal with more high school drama.
"I get that, I didn't have that chance. I got signed up the night I… got powers." Vista gave a little shake of her head. "But this isn't you joining the Wards, this is you getting a feel for the local landscape. And able to really push your powers."
"Just power testing maybe?" I was really trying to avoid a forced meeting like what I imagined meeting the Wards would be like.
"I can sign you up for that, but at least one Protectorate member and Ward is going to be there. If only to meet the new cape, and one that brought in Hookwolf."
I did want to meet more Protectorate members; Dauntless was nice, up until the whole releasing Nazis thing.
"Can you be the Ward at testing?"
"I am likely to be in a lot of trouble tomorrow."
"What if I make it a condition of coming in? Would that force their hand?"
"I can't promise, but I can pass it along."
"Easier if I tell Dauntless and get concessions out of him."
"Right." She sounded so dejected I couldn't help but try and give her a win.
"You're still the one that gave me the idea, so thank you."
"Right." She sounded much happier at that. "Don't we have dogs to water?"
I had totally forgotten. "Yes. In fact…" I grabbed the corgi, who had been sniffing around Vista's puddle of vomit, in my power and brought him over. "This guy is in desperate need of pets."
She walked over and together we gave him scratches while I continued feeding and watering the dogs.
It was taking less time to process the Nazis, the police moving faster and without and side chatter. They finished up in a little under half an hour and most of them packed up and left. I guessed all the forensics finished up at about the same time since they went with them.
Animal control still hadn't come by. I was getting worried about what to do about forty odd dogs. It was around this time that Sals came by.
"Well, glad to see you can avoid fucking up twice, Eve." I wouldn't say his voice was anything less than abrasive, but it didn't have that accusatory undertone it did when he had left last time. "We're done here."
I waited a moment for him to continue but he just glared at me and Vista. "What about the dogs?"
"Not my wheelhouse. I can't take them; nowhere to store them."
"Is there an update on animal control?"
"Nothing from my end. You're welcome to hang around, but I have to go. Hundreds of people to do paperwork for. Going to be a long goddamn night." With that he turned and walked away.
I was flabbergasted. He did not give a single fuck about the dogs.
"God, what a dick." Vista spoke up, looking around at the caged animals. "I have no idea how to handle these guys."
"Someone did contact animal control right? I think I remember the operator saying something about that."
"One second, I can check." With that she turned a bit and lifted her hand to her ear.
Dauntless flew in and dropped the last few feet to ground between Vista and I. "That's everything handled. I wanted to apologize for snapping earlier. There was a lot going on suddenly and I lashed out."
It didn't sound like he had been forced to say that, but it had been a long time since anyone had apologized in my presence, let alone to me. I decided to take it at face value.
"Thank you." I tried not to sound petulant, but I think I failed. "Vista brought up going to the rig and introducing myself and letting the PRT get a baseline for what I can do."
Dauntless paused for a moment, twisted a bit to look towards Vista for a moment, then turned back to me. "That would be appreciated, I would be happy to coordinate. We are always happy to meet new heroes and look forward to helping them grow and learn."
That last part sounded very rehearsed. "Good, great even. Not to rush, but tomorrow or…" I trailed off as I realized tomorrow I had school. There was a few hours from when I got out to Dad would be home, but I wasn't sure how long testing would take. "How long do you expect testing to take?"
"We want to be as thorough as we can, but if you're under a time constraint, we can block out two hours and plan again if needed."
I nodded. "Okay, I can be there at four. Vista mentioned that at least one Ward and one Protectorate like to be there. Can you and Vista be those?"
He let out a small sigh. "She asked you to do this?" It was more a statement than a question.
"No, I already met her. Same reason I am asking for you."
He tapped a foot while thinking about it. "I'll put in the word, but I can't promise anything."
I thought for a moment. I really was planning on going in no matter who showed up. I wasn't thrilled that I might need to meet new people, but I tried to keep an open mind. It would be heroes I was meeting if Dauntless wasn't the one who showed up. He had been reasonable and helpful except when I dropped the Nazis. I suppose that no matter who, at worst I would be meeting a hero, which as of two hours ago was a dream I had had since childhood. The only thing kids wanted more than meeting a hero was being one. Now I had both.
"Okay." I looked past him and asked, "Vista, any word on animal control?"
"They're closed for the night, no one is coming." She sounded disgusted.
I looked around and then back to Dauntless. "How are we going to handle forty dogs?"
He also looked around at the various dogs in cages and then sighed. "Vista, call the PRT and let them know we're going to store them at the station until the pound can collect them. Tell them to set aside some room and get a few people to take care of them. The director won't be happy, but that will just encourage her to get them handled faster."
Something lightened in me, a tension that had been building for the last thirty minutes while coming to the realization that I had no way to help the dogs without outside assistance and that assistance was becoming less likely as the night went on. With the way Captain Sals had just up and left without a second glance I was worried that Dauntless, and by proxy Vista, would do the same. Him stepping up and forcing the solution, even if it would bring down problems on his own head made me respect him more than just having the title of Hero.
"I can bring all of them along with us. I can be really fast when I want to be. I just don't know where we're headed, so you'll have to point the way." I tried to keep any excitement out of my voice and grabbed all the cages to bring them closer.
"Wait, you can affect other people?" Dauntless sounded somewhere between intrigued and confused.
"Sure?" I wasn't sure what his reaction was. "It's how I get around, how I have been handling all the dogs, and all the people. The hundreds of Nazis tonight?" Even as I spoke I got more confused.
Dauntless gave a small shake of his head. "Of course. Right." There was a bit of disbelief in his voice. "I just didn't put it together." He focused back on me. "It is rare for powers to affect both things and people. It's called the Manton Limit and it holds mostly true. People that violate it are rare, and often are… not more dangerous, necessarily, but stronger. Versatile perhaps is a better descriptor."
I wasn't sure what to say to that, so I just rolled with what he was saying. "Well, I am ready to grab and go, are you both?"
"I am," said Vista.
Dauntless nodded his assent. "Yes. I'll guide you as you go."
With that I grabbed them both and lifted off, keeping a rather sedate pace. Dauntless gives directions every minute or so to make sure we stay on track. Ten minutes later he says, "Slow down here, we're close and I don't want to overshoot."
Following his instructions we make land on the roof. There are a dozen or so people in full military gear. Face masks, thick chest plates that have actual ring mail in them, heavy arm and leg coverings. Some have backpacks that must be the containment foam PRT officers are famous for and the rest are unarmed.
I set Vista, Dauntless, and the dogs down with the cages closer to the agents and spread apart a bit for easy access. The unarmed agents started picking up cages and hauling them inside.
"Vista, think you can look after this little guy?" I asked, holding out the corgi to her. The dog waggled his stump tail and most of his backside and had his tongue lolling out to the side.
"Sure, Mr. Wiggles here is going to bed down with me tonight. Won't he, yes you will." Vista said as the newly named Mr. Wiggles licked and yipped at her face.
As Vista laughed and hugged Mr. Wiggles I turned to Dauntless. "Thank you for doing this. I have no idea what I would have done."
"It was the right thing to do." He paused for a moment then said, "you did a good thing tonight. Hookwolf and Cricket are both off the streets because of you. The dog fighting too. I imagine a lot of the people there will get out on bail before tomorrow ends, or just released, but stopping the ring itself is enough. Without Hookwolf, I don't think it will start up again any time soon. Whatever else you decide, Wards or not, know that we would be happy to continue working with you."
He held out his hand and I released my armor around my hand and shook his. "I'll be here tomorrow, we can see where we go from there."
I wasn't sure how to take his thanking me so I just ignored it and moved on. With that, I lifted off a bit and turned to Vista, "See you tomorrow as well." With a wave I flew up, fast.
After hitting a few hundred feet I leveled off and just… floated. Just for a bit I wanted to think about how this night had gone, what I had done, and what I could do better in the future.
Obviously playing with powers like I had with Vista during an excursion was a huge fuckup. No need to focus on that, just don't play during patrols. I replayed the night through my head and besides that one thing I felt most of it went well. I captured Hookwolf. A shiver of excitement went down my spine. I felt a pride in myself that I thought had died out almost two years ago, one that built up as I processed that not just Hookwolf, and Cricket, but shutting down that brutal and bloody dog fighting ring. I felt a smile on my face to go with the pride. My first smile in years.
With that deep burning joy in me I headed home, taking a looping path away from both home and the PRT headquarters in case anyone was watching. I hit over the bay and sealed my breathing slits then dropped into the water at high speed. I was too excited to be able to hold my breath long.
Next time I can add more air in a pocket or something, I thought to myself.
I swapped gravity and fell up slowly, making a slight splash as I slid out of the bay and then accelerated up faster, leveling off at what I thought might be a thousand feet or so. Higher than even the Medhall offices.
I made a leisurely swerve around to the north and as I cleared the bay I hooked over and flew home. Angling onto the neighbors house on the backyard I stayed low and went to my house's roof, angled around, and went into my room.
I dropped all my armor and lowered to the floor. Still giddy, I took off my shoes, closed the window, and then crawled into bed with a huge smile. I grabbed my pillow and smothered the laugh that came out of me until I drifted off to sleep.
And so ends my pre-written stuff. I have 1.5 in progress and my general hope is to keep a pace of 1.5 - 3 thousands words a week.
I have read a similar statement on so many fan fictions, we'll see if I join the pile of the lost and dead.
Last edited: Feb 19, 2023
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Feb 23, 2023
#136
As ZhaneSilverman pointed out, I messed up my characters. Asa is the PRT commanding officer and Sals is the police captain. I have updated it in the earlier chapters.
I was floating above downtown at a little before four, staring at the Protectorate HQ. It was an old repurposed oil rig that had been overhauled with a lot of Tinker tech. Enough that it floated instead of standing on pillars and had a shield that made everything inside fuzzy. The bright spotlights so visible at night were still on, but faint. It was reported that a missile defense system was also installed, but it had never been used.
I headed toward the entrance where a bridge formed by a forcefield went from the PHQ to the boardwalk at a built out guard station that also doubled as a tourist hub with attached gift shop. No tickets for tours though; only the PRT headquarters had tours.
I saw Dauntless, Vista, and who I think was Glory Girl waiting near the opening in the forcefield. When the third possibly unknown person lifted off and sped towards me it confirmed it was Glory Girl. She corkscrewed with her head as the pivot point just as she pulled along side me. Going fast towards me to match my falling speed without showing any discomfort or hesitation.
I thought it looked impressive. "Nice move."
"Thanks, I practiced it a lot, but this is the first time I used it for real. Glad it worked out so well." She was smiling as we moved closer to the others. "I hear you had some fun without me. Though you did invite me, so I can't be mad. Sad I missed it though. That invite open for another patrol?"
I took just a moment to bask in the friendly banter; it had been so long since I heard a tone like that. "Of course." Great banter reply.
"Also, I heard you were doing this through the capevine, but Dauntless says I need your permission to join. So how about it? Can I join today?"
I had thought Dauntless had invited her, but that would be weird since she isn't part of the Wards. "Glad to have you here." I felt the twist of space through my power and slowed down. "Hold for a second, we're about to be walking."
Glory Girl pulled back with me as we watched a section of the bridge bend and arrive right at our feet. I slipped into the area affected by Vista's power with a little ripple of my own power as an acknowledgement. I floated around an inch off the bridge for a moment, then landed.
"She must be getting impatient with how slow we were moving," Glory Girl said with a hint of sarcasm as she landed on the bridge with me.
We started walking towards Vista and Dauntless and I gave a wave to them. The bridge started contracting while we were walking. Glory Girl didn't seem to have any problems, but it felt weird through my power to be walking through space as it was changing.
"Event Horizon, nice to see you again. I want to thank you again for last night, you did this city a great service." Dauntless took a step forward and reached out for a handshake.
I reciprocated. "I just stumbled across them and couldn't not rescue those dogs. How are they by the way?" I was careful while shaking his hand to make sure I didn't crush it.
"The Wards have a new mascot." Vista tried to sound serious but the unbridled smile she sported ruined the effect. "I wasn't allowed to bring him here, but he is being pampered by Clock as we speak." She meant Clockblocker, a Ward with the ability to freeze anything he touched in time for a few minutes. I still remember watching as he jumped in front of the announcer at his debut and introduced himself as that.
"Glad he is doing well, how about all the rest?" I let go of Dauntless and turned to Vista.
Dauntless answered. "We have been in contact with animal control and the pound. We're working through them slowly. A lot are very aggressive and can't be let out of their cages."
"Good to hear they are going to taken care of, at least in some manner." I hoped the pound would be able to the handle the influx. I have heard stories of animals being put down just for being in an overcrowded facility. No idea how true that was. "What are the plans for today? I need to leave around six."
Dauntless motioned for us to head in and started walking. When he saw I was keeping pace with him he answered. "Before that, Glory Girl told you about her being here, and cleared it with you?" I bobbed in the air. "Good. There are two major goals for today. The first, more obvious is to get a read on what you can do. We have various machines and a couple of people that specialize in testing. A few ideas have been suggested just based on what you showed last night. The second is to give a rundown of what kind of things you can legally do, what kind of situations have come up in the past and what can be done. With your limited time, we will just go over the major ones and see about getting more time setup in the future."
We crossed the forcefield and entered onto the floating fortress proper. It was a gorgeous piece of architecture; swooping arches and towering spires spread out and were lit up by spotlights, even in the day. Dauntless motioned us towards a spire with large double doors and a pair of PRT guards on either side.
"That sounds good, which one first?"
"Power testing!" Glory Girl said and flew ahead of us with a small turn to stay facing us. "Let's do the fun stuff first. We can even fit the scenarios in while doing it."
Dauntless nodded. "I'm okay with that if you are."
I made a small motion with my arm to indicate him taking the lead. "Sounds good. Lead on."
"Macduff!" Vista exclaimed. We all paused and looked at her. "What? We're going over Shakespeare and that is something my teacher brought up."
"As the child of an English Lit teacher, I must protest your misquoting of The Bard. It is 'lay on Macduff,' and it is the line that Macbeth says to Macduff when he refuses to yield during their fight." It was a few steps before I realized everyone else had stopped and was staring at me. "What?"
Glory Girl floated over to me. "Not sure if that is the nerdiest thing I have ever heard or not. But either way, high-five." I lightly slapped the proffered hand. "However, giving hints to your identity is probably fine here, but I would advise against it in the field."
Before I could say anything to that she raised an arm as though gripping a sword to make it look like the sword was in front of her face and pointing straight up. "Now, lay on Macduff!"
I formed a rapier with very rounded edges but made the core out of a singularity and mirrored her pose. "No quarter asked, nor given."
"I suddenly feel under armed. Can you lend me one of those?"
I stared at the sword for a moment before looking back at her. "Actually, I don't know. Never been in a position to hand an object like this to someone. I suspect not, just from way I control it."
Dauntless interjected, "that is a perfect thing to try once we get inside. Let's head in, we'll do the penny tour, and jump in to the fun parts." He stepped ahead and Vista caught up to me and Glory Girl.
As we passed through the door a thought suddenly struck me. "So I was keeping an eye on the news," I refrained from mentioning how giddy I had been all day; It had been a struggle not to show any excitement during school in order to avoid drawing any attention," and was wondering how the arrests went."
"Mostly pretty good." Dauntless said.
"There is something rotten in the state of Denmark." Vista said, making more use of her Hamlet knowledge.
"Corrupt how?" It came out a little wary.
Dauntless answered, "we think a few too many people got lost in the shuffle. Some out of that many getting the wrong charge is almost expected. Whether too harsh or not varies depending on a lot of factors, but in this case it is obvious that The Empire was able to do something to have a few of their important members get off either entirely or with a reduced charge."
"And that is mostly good?" Glory Girl had a deeply skeptical tone that mirrored my own thoughts.
"We don't have room or interest in holding and processing that many non-parahumans, so once we let the police arrest them, we lost jurisdiction. We knew The Empire was going to do something so we are trying to track who they help and what efforts they are expending. It will help track down their power structure and some of the finances. We already identified one who appeared more important than his peers, especially given his youth. So yes, pretty successful. Besides, getting Hookwolf alone would be more than pretty successful on a good night. Getting Cricket too is just frosting."
"I guess I didn't really think about the aftermath of that many arrests, just assumed people would be in jail until…" I trailed off and made a vague waving motion.
"A lot of people are in the same boat. It is out of our hands at this point. Here," we came to the front desk with a regular looking guy sitting there, "these are your day passes." He handed me and Glory Girl a pass each. She clipped hers on the cape clip on her left shoulder. I grabbed mine in a field and sort of integrated it into my armor over my left breast.
"Is that going to get annoying, or at risk of being dropped?" Glory Girl pointed to the badge.
"Not unless I get started into dropping all my armor. Again."
"Let's skip the tour," Vista said, "I want to see this power pushed to the limits." She moved ahead of us with a slight twist of space to take extra long steps.
I looked to Dauntless, "I am fine with that if you are."
"Sure, let's go. Vista, we're headed to test room two."
With that she started warping the hallways so we could go from turn to turn, door to door, and flight of stairs to flight of stairs. The Vista express was faster than the elevator.
So much for the tour, I thought wryly.
Before long we were at the test room. Vista opened it up and gave a smirk at us.
The room was a large open space, maybe the size of Winslow's gym, and two stories tall. It was filled with all sorts of fancy looking equipment and two people in white lab coats, straight out of Hollywood. The one on the left even had those heavily tinted round goggles, a la Doc Brown.
The man in the middle took a step forward and said, "Event Horizon, glad you could make. I'm Howard Pen, lead tester for today. I have a doctorate in physics and it sounds like you're going to give that a run for its money today. I'm rather looking forward to it."
Dr. Pen was a tall, rail thin, black man with closely cropped gray hair. He had laugh lines and had an excited edge to his smile as he reached out to shake my hand. I let the armor around my hand fall away and shook it with a small bob to my floating. "Good to meet you, Dr? Pen." I gave his title a small questioning tone to see what to call him.
"Dr. is good thank you. I do take a small bit of pride in it. My colleague here is Tim Brown."
"No PhD for me, just a masters in engineering. Feel free to call me… Tim." He paused before the name and gave a full armed wave above his head."
Tim was a much younger, maybe not even in his thirties, pale white guy with red hair. "Nice to meet you." I gave another small bob to him as well.
"Before we get to the actual testing," Dr. Pen said, "why don't you give us a rundown of your power, see how close we got from the descriptions you to Dauntless and Vista last night."
"And Glory Girl too, I assume?" I twisted a little to look at her.
"I ain't no narc." She stated firmly and crossed her arms.
"We didn't get much from her it's true. She just said gravity and scary powerful."
"Well, I'm not much of a narc." She stated less firmly and uncrossed her arms.
"It's fine," I waved her off. "I didn't expect you to keep it a secret to your grave, and the PRT seems like the best people to tell, after your family I suppose." I turned back to Dr. Pen and Tim. "I can feel and manipulate the field of gravity around me in a couple hundred feet. I can make the fields deep enough to be a singularity, or tall enough to be an anti-singularity. The concept I found in a physics book was a white hole, but I imagine you would have a better understanding of that than me, Dr. Pen."
They were both went a little slack jawed for a moment.
"Like I said, scary powerful."
"And she has super fine control over it too," Vista jumped in. "The, uh, field testing we did she made an extremely intricate formation."
"Well," Dr. Pen said, giving a small shake of the head, "let's start where every Brute adjacent wants to, how strong are you. Though I think we all know the answer." He waved us over to one side and we followed him. "This the strongest strength test we have here, it can measure as few as one ton and as many as a thousand. Boston has the same setup; you'll have to go to New York for the stronger version."
He was talking about what looked like a steel button about foot in diameter attached to the wall with a lot of machinery behind it. There were also a pair of steel starting blocks like a sprinter would use. "What are those for?" I asked, pointing them out.
"Ah, in case the Brute in question doesn't have a way to self stabilize." Tim said. "Always an entertaining sight for someone to punch the wall and fly backwards from the force. Let's get you setup for this. Normally we are expecting some form of direct pressure, either a punch, press, or other direct contact. Any ideas how to get you to do this?"
"Is it ready now?" It wasn't worth going over several options.
"Uhh, one sec." He pulled a tablet out of his lab coat and fiddled with it for a moment. "All set. Go slow and be ready to stop when I say, just so you don't break it."
I set a field inside the top inch of the button and started increasing the strength slowly.
"We're getting readings." Tim showed the room the tablet screen. It had several fancy looking graphs. "This is the instant force, how much you are pushing at the moment." It was a graph with an increasing curve over time. "Annnnd, stop."
I did so.
"Whelp, nine hundred and eighty tons. Just for completeness' sake, was that difficult at all?"
"Nope."
Glory Girl floated over and lifted her hand for a high-five. "Nice, I pushed out about fourteen tons when I did it."
"I almost lifted the bar for bench pressing when I did my testing." Vista said with a dry tone.
Glory Girl floated over to her with a high-five ready for her too. "Give it here, those bars aren't light. Bet I couldn't do it when I was that age and by that logic, you'll be doing fourteen tons too in a few years."
Vista gave the most begrudging high-five in recorded history. "Thanks, I guess."
Dr. Pen spoke up. "Right, let's get some real data going. You had hundreds of people under your control. I want to see if we can push that. I prepared this for us today." He walked over to a table that held a jar filled with marbles and pulled a notebook out his lab coat. "How many are in here?"
"Five hundred and fifty three."
He made a note. "Did you have to count it in some way?"
"No, I just knew once you asked. Like, there is a feedback to a question about amount. Each marble has its own field and I get it from that." I picked up each marble in its own field and floated them out of the jar. I made them dance in an intricate looking pattern.
"Impressive control. You're having them go in a consistent pattern for each one. Are you able to have them do different complex tasks?"
For an answer I started having half of them spell the word 'YES' in block letters while I made the rest do different things that were mostly not patterned. I had a few bounce up free of a field for a moment and had them fall into a gradient field that threw them back up. I had some spin and collide and making it look like they ricocheted away, but were still in a field. Various other things.
"That is extremely impressive. Do you have an upper limit?"
"Do you care about the marbles?"
"No, feel free to use them as you see fit."
I nodded and then started splitting them with field, keeping them moving the whole time. I just kept splitting them in rough halves, over and over. Soon it looked like it was little more than sand, each grain in an individual field.
"I have millions under my control here."
Dr. Pen dropped his notebook with a slack look. The rest of the room was just as silent and I was looking at a room of slack faces. Except Glory Girl; she had a smug expression and gave me a thumbs up.
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Mar 2, 2023
#199
Glory Girl gave a single loud clap; the sound echoed through the silent room and was enough to snap everyone out of their stupor. "Well, after that incredible display of multi object control, what's next?" She said it loudly and with a wide smile.
Dr. Pen picked up his notebook and stared at it for moment. Then he looked to me, then back to his notebook. "Is that multitasking just for power control or can you do it for everything?"
"I don't know, never noticed or thought about how many things I am controlling at once. It just, happens."
"I have an idea!" Tim said. "Everyone hold any number of fingers up behind your back." When everyone had done so he turned to me. "Alright Event Horizon, how many total fingers are up?"
"Thirty seven."
"Great. Now how many from each person?"
I pointed to Vista first, "eight." Then to Glory Girl, "four."
"Great!" Tim interrupted me. "When you did that, were you able to think about each at once, or did stating the person prevent you from holding in your head how much a different person had up?"
"Focusing on one made a specific persons numbers go out of focus, but I still knew the total number. It's a really weird feeling. I don't think I have noticed it before."
"Hah! There it is, a split between the power controlling it and what you can see. Preliminarily I would guess that human stuff, language and math and what not, you only get a single thought thread just like the rest of us. But with power stuff, you seem to get infinite. Or at least so many as to make no difference."
Dr. Pen nodded to Tim, "Good find." He turned back to me. "I wanted to clarify a few things. You fly by manipulating a field such that you are falling where you want to go right?"
"Yes." I bobbed in agreement.
"And your fields follow you without you needing to bring them along, locked to how you want them?"
I bobbed again.
"I want to make sure your aware of what that means for your top speed. You sort of don't have one, at least in a meaningful sense. But that comes fraught with dangers that won't show up until suddenly they do. For starters let's go over how everyone that isn't a parahuman, and most that are, feel acceleration. A force acts on a part of the body, always on the outside, then that force propagates through the body and puts it into motion. Everything from the car seat pushing you forward to a friend giving you a shove."
He started pacing. "Even walking is your foot pushing off the ground and having that propagate up your leg and putting the rest of your body in motion. Most people don't really experience more than an extra g of force in their life. Fighter pilots can do ten to fifteen for a few seconds and if I remember right there was a test pilot in the sixties that pushed into the twenty g range. Gravity is the only known force that doesn't act like that to put you in motion. As skydivers say, it isn't the fall that kills, but the sudden stop at the end. Gravity works on every part of the body at the same time with the same force. There is a caveat to that, but we'll get to it later."
His arms became animated as his speech sped up. "So for you and your fields you do not have that. You are in free fall at all times. This means you will accelerate with your gravity. As long as you keep it fairly tame, less than say ten times normal gravity, I don't think it will be too much of a problem. You will hit pretty high speeds quickly, and if you keep pushing you will look like a shooting star, but unless you hit something at that speed I don't think it will do much. Actually," He pointed at me, "I take that back, the sonic boom you will be creating would blow out windows for miles around, so pay attention to how fast you are going. But if you really push your acceleration, say ten thousand gravities, you will hit orbital velocities in under a second. And it only gets worse from there. I know your armor isn't sealed, but I don't doubt you can hold your breath for a minute and in that time you could accidentally destroy pretty much anything. And ten thousand gravities is on the low end of what you can produce. There are endless ways of accidentally killing not just someone, but the eastern seaboard. Please just keep your fields under ten gravities."
Dr. Pen had become a little frantic near the end and we were all silent as we looked at him.
"I apologize. That got away from me."
"It's okay." I said. I noticed that his hand was shaking a little bit. "I will make sure to keep everything under ten gravities. I only needed two or so for everyone but Hookwolf, and even he didn't need more than eight."
Dr. Pen took a deep breath. "Thank you. I do think we need to go over a few things to avoid specifically."
"Of course. What did you have in mind?"
"I mentioned that caveat of gravity affecting everything the same, and you mentioned you had read physics books for figuring out more about your power. Did you run across the word spaghettification?"
"Not that I remember."
"So gravity falls off at the square of the distance. Go twice as far from the source and the strength will be one fourth. In human cases, where Earth is the only field we are in, that doesn't matter. Your feet are under a stronger field than your head, but the difference is basically zero. Near major bodies, some larger stars, but mostly neutron stars, and especially black holes, the effect is greatly exaggerated. So much so that an object can be stretched. The part closer will be pulled with so much more force that it will stretch and stretch until it is just a stream of atoms falling into the black hole. Spaghettification. Having a variable field can quickly become dangerous. I don't know, or really want to know, how much it takes to rip apart a human, but it isn't much relative to what you can do."
"So careful with that." I tried not to be so blasé about it, but I think I failed.
"Yes please. Sorry for hammering it in but the forces you can control get outside of human intuitive knowledge very fast." He took a large breath and let it out slowly. "How about something less macabre. Tim, can you grab the clock?"
"Of course, Dr." Tim went over to the table and picked up a very fancy looking clock with both hands.
"This is a Tinker atomic clock. The other part of what gravity does is slow time down. We want to see if your fields do that. This baby," he shook the clock a bit, "will be able to tell if you get that part too."
Tim looked around a bit for a moment and then put the clock on the ground near us. "Right, didn't think this through much but good enough. One sec." He ran over to the table and grabbed another small device, came back, and set it down next to the clock. "Wireless accelerometer. Hit those with ten g's and lets see what happens."
I created field around both and told them so.
"Now we wait a few minutes and see if there is a discrepancy."
Vista wandered a little closer. "They wanted to see if my warping affect did the same. They were disappointed when it didn't."
"Not really disappointed, just a little surprised." Dr. Pen interjected. "Time and space are inexorably linked. The math is more than a single college course, never mind a two sentence explanation, but as gravity goes up, the curvature of space warps, and time is tied to that curvature."
"Neat." Glory Girl said lightly, looking down at the clock. "Anything interesting."
"I think it is drifting, but I want to wait a bit before concluding anything." Tim said while looking at his tablet.
Dauntless drew close to me. "While we're waiting, would you mind if we went over conduct in the field and expectations of what is allowable?"
"Did I do something wrong last night?" I didn't really think so, and no one had said anything, but I was suddenly worried that Dauntless was waiting for a more captive audience.
"No, the opposite. I was impressed by how you kept anyone from getting injured even with that many people. It makes more sense now, but I want to emphasize how important it is to avoid injuring the people you are apprehending as much as possible. Even ignoring the morality of harming people who aren't a danger to you at the moment, it makes it harder to get charges to stick if they are hurt. They can play it up in court, and they can sue you for injuries, so not hurting them only helps you."
"So pretty much doing what I did at the dog fight, just wrap everyone in a field and call you to take them away." It seemed easy enough.
"Yes, pretty much. Don't hurt people you don't have to and we will be happy to keep working with you."
The implication was clear enough if I started hurting people unnecessarily.
"On a lighter note, the PRT and Protectorate want to formally invite you to join the Wards. We think you would make an excellent addition to the team."
My stomach dropped out from under me and I was happy my control didn't wobble at all. It wasn't totally unexpected that they would want to have me join, but I had been pushing off thinking about it. I really did not want to deal with interacting with a lot of my peers in a social situation. Vista was nice, but we had really only existed as a momentary team up feeding dogs. I wasn't sure what she would be like behind the mask. I wasn't sure I wanted to have to navigate other people I just couldn't trust like that.
"As blunt as that was, it would be great to have you on our team. You get unlimited Mr. Wiggles time." Vista said.
It was nice to have Vista sound so in favor of me joining. Still though, that alone wasn't enough to get passed the idea of jumping head first into a group of teens like that. I couldn't help but flash back to how another girl at school had done just that; befriend me, get a few of my walls to drop, and then abandon me the moment things got worse. I tried to temper my reaction to just flatly refuse.
"I appreciate the offer, really. Can I think about it?"
"Of course. But I need to let you know that The Empire will not take lightly to what you have done. I don't want to scare you into joining, but to make you aware that they will look for reprisal. Right now, that is likely to be on the field and without lethal intent, but they will push if you keep hitting them."
"So what? I should just let them continue with what they're doing?" I honestly wasn't even sure what they did besides be racist. And dogfights.
"No, of course not. But if you are with us in a formal manner, then instead of just needing to fight a single, if powerful, cape, they have to content with the entire PRT and Protectorate infrastructure."
I tilted my head a little bit. "What would your organization have done if you had known about the dog fighting? Would have mobilized your whole force and come out to stop it?"
His silence was telling. "I will take your warning to heart."
He sighed. "We are still here as a resource for you to use. We have affiliate programs for people in your position. Official patrol team ups, a dedicated hotline, and there are training programs to join."
Basically a method for slowly integrating me into the system until I may as well just join. At the same time I did want to keep doing things like this. I was having fun, enjoying the company, and while I wasn't exactly pushing my power to its limits, I was using it in new ways and getting ideas from others was clearly helpful.
"I wouldn't mind something like that for now. We can see where that leads." Who knows, maybe after getting to know each Ward over time I wouldn't feel so on edge.
"We would be happy to get you enrolled. There isn't much paperwork, mostly just signing some forms as your cape persona detailing responsibilities and expectations and then we hand you the phone you can contact us on."
A phone. As I had told Glory Girl the night we met, phones were taboo in my house ever since Mom had died driving while using one. It was hard to admit, but the phone would really be useful since no one could reach me at the moment.
"A phone would be helpful." A thought occurred to me about that though. "Can you track me? Record the calls I make?" Could I trust their answers?
"To some extent. The tracking data is locked down and only accessible with a court order, which means probable cause. Calls are in the same category. It really is a way for us to reach you and vice-versa. If you want to provide a number we can reach you at, that would work as well."
That would have a set of issues itself, even without a phone taboo. My own number would imply paying for a plan, which is a direct tie to my civilian identity.
"I'll take the phone." I could hide it a little ways away. It does prevent them from contacting me, but I wouldn't need to worry about them knowing where I live.
"Great, I'll go get the paperwork and bring it here. Be back in a few."
Tim spoke up. "I think we're good. It looks like your gravity perfectly lines up with what we expect. So while the power is crazy, the effect doesn't break physics. Except for the black hole part, but black holes do that anyway."
"I think once Dauntless comes back you will be tied up in paperwork for a bit, let's get one last fun test in." Dr. Pen said. "Ever heard of a railgun?"
I shook my head. "No."
"Excellent. Remember all that stuff I said about don't use variable fields. Let's ignore that and go to the blaster wall."
We walked over to a wall that had a hole about a foot in diameter and a long tunnel lined in what I assumed was a foot of steel.
"This firing range will prevent back blast and is strong enough for most conventional forces. Even if something does penetrate it is against the wall of the rig and faces out to the sea, so no worries of over blast."
He directed me to setup a ten foot long tunnel of central focusing gravity starting at one gravity on our end and ending at about a hundred.
"Here you go." He handed me marble and I dropped it into our end. The moment it cleared the entry hole a steel plate slammed in place to close it. We watched the ball on a screen as it traveled down the tunnel in a rather lack-luster manner.
"Not bad for a first go. Even at a hundred g's there isn't much time to accelerate. Try upping the far end to a thousand."
That time the marble shot out like a bullet and we needed a high speed camera to track it.
"Neat. But not something that can really be used in the field. Too dangerous, or not dangerous enough." Glory Girl commented. "Maybe a distraction if you need it."
"I agree." Dr. Pen joined. "But I love making potato guns with my sons and this is like a souped up version."
"It is cool." I said. "But it feels, mundane, I guess. Like I should be doing more with it."
"Yes, well. Maybe some day we can launch a cannon ball under fifty thousand gravities at something and watch everything disintegrate." Tim sounded like that would make his whole year. I had to admit it did sound like a lot of fun.
"Sign me up for watching that." Vista said.
"Same." Glory Girl joined in.
It was at this point that Dauntless came back with a small stack of papers. He pulled me over to the table and spent a good fifteen minutes going over what was expected and what the PRT would provide. It basically boiled down to don't hurt people except in defense of myself or others and report crime to the PRT. In return I got what he mentioned earlier. There wasn't any fine print and there weren't any legally binding repercussions besides what the law already had. The most was they would drop me as an affiliate. With that I signed as Event Horizon and he handed over the phone.
"There are a few preset numbers in there. Feel free to add more."
"Oh! Mine first." Glory Girl flew over and grabbed the phone right out of a field and entered her number. "There, now I just need to…" She typed a bit and suddenly her phone dinged. "Perfect." She placed the phone right back in the field and fiddled with her own phone. It felt like a whirlwind had just come through.
"Can I add my Wards phone number in there too?" Vista asked.
"Of course." I bobbed and floated the phone over to her. She entered a few things, posed for a picture, fiddled a bit more, then the distance between us went from ten feet to one and back again and the phone was back in the field.
"Picture is a good call." Glory Girl grabbed my phone again, took a picture, and presumably set it, then put the phone back.
"Anyone else need my new phone for anything?" I was somewhere between amused and annoyed.
"Nope, all good. Wait! One more thing." Glory Girl grabbed the phone again flew a dozen feet away and turned back to me. "Okay, strike a pose!"
I did no such thing, just turned to face her more fully.
"Perfect. Vista get in there, Dauntless take our picture." She flew over and gave the phone to Dauntless then flew over to us. With Glory Girl on one side and Vista on the other we had our picture taken.
As he handed the phone over to me Dauntless said, "I don't have anything else for you today. Is testing complete for the day?"
"I think so. Anything left Dr. Pen?"
"Oh there is plenty left, but I need to go through what we did and come back with a better game plan. You maxed out our non-ad hoc tests and with the described capabilities we need to brainstorm. It might be a little while to get the resources and ideas together. Until then, thank you for coming in and stay safe out there." He came over with Tim and both of them shook my hand.
"Yes, it was quite the experience. Can't wait to see what you get up to out there." Tim said.
With that Dauntless turned, "Let's get you checked out and on your way."
With Vista contracting the hallways we made it to the front desk in moments. We dropped off the visitor badges and headed out. At the front entrance Vista spoke up, "I wanted to let you know you have an open invitation to meet the Wards whenever you want to. Come by and see Mr. Wiggles. It will be fun. And not testing fun, but like, video games fun."
"I am more of a reader, but I will keep that in mind. Maybe after a few patrols, when I get more comfortable with everyone. It still feels overwhelming being here and meeting, well, all of you." I tried to keep my voice level but I suspect I had a bit of that fan girl voice in there.
"Bah! We're just people. I should know, I need to go clean my room or Mom will ground me." Glory Girl said. "But seriously, the Wards are great and if you join I think you would love it."
"Thanks for everything today. See you guys later." With a wave I lifted off and started heading out to the city.
Glory Girl picked up right behind me and caught up. "Hey, can we talk real quick? I want to make plans."
I made a sound baffle and said, "Sure."
"Not here in the air, follow me." With that she took off towards downtown.
It took a couple minutes before she found a tallish building with a few semi-secluded areas on the roof. We landed behind a giant A/C unit that hid us from the taller buildings, giving us pretty good privacy. I left the baffle up, but no one in my range was paying attention to us.
"So what's so secretive?" I was more than a little curious since I was mostly expecting a time and place to meet for a patrol.
"I guess first I wanted to see if you would be up for a joint patrol this Saturday night? Mom is generally against me going out on school nights, though between you, me, and the A/C unit I go out on occasion."
"I think that would be great. When and where?"
"I'll text later and we can work out the details. More importantly though, I was wondering if on Saturday before the patrol you wanted to hang out. Outside of costume."
I hadn't been expecting that. Being Event Horizon was an escape from my day life. A place where I wasn't degraded with every interaction. I almost said no out of reflex. But thinking about it more, it was Glory Girl who gave me my name. She had been nothing but kind and supportive from the start. There was no reason to think she would start calling me ugly, or a whore, or a drug addict. She wouldn't push or hit me. She wouldn't steal anything of mine.
I wanted to, I realized. I missed people; being able to just be with people and talk. I used to talk so much and now I think I had spoken more today, in the last hour, than in the last three weeks.
"Event Horizon?" She sounded hesitant, like she was afraid of scaring me off. I didn't like hearing her like that.
I floated to the ground and dropped all of my armor and for the first time intentionally showing someone my face. "I'm Taylor, it's good to meet you."
Her smile was radiant and she snapped in for a quick hug before stepping back a bit. "So nice to meet you Taylor, I'm Victoria."
Fun story fact: This is the first time we get our protagonist's name. Same for Vicky.
Last edited: Mar 8, 2023
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Mar 9, 2023
#237
Emily Piggot was a woman that took comfort in control. Control in herself and in her surroundings brought her a semblance of peace, though that peace was often as ephemeral as last night's dream.
As the director of the PRT East-North-East, she had control over an area encompassing Maine and the northern half of New Hampshire and Vermont. The lower halves controlled by the Boston headquarters and all of New York state by the NYC PRT.
Even with all that land, her major headaches came from Brockton Bay. With the largest single city population in all three states and the densest cape population East of the Mississippi outside of New York City, it was the problem that never went away.
It was the report sitting in front of her today that woke her from her dream of peace. It wasn't that a new parahuman coming onto the scene was enough to cause issue. They came and went on a fairly regular basis. They were recruited, either by the PRT or a gang. Or they were killed.
It wasn't even the underlying abilities. She could name two gravity based capes off the top of her head and knew of at least three others, but to compare them in even the same breath was tantamount to a lie.
Event Horizon was a fitting name.
When the report had crossed her desk she wasn't totally an unknown. Glory Girl had met up with her last Friday night and by Saturday morning a small report had been written by Gallant. Flight through gravity and friendly. Wasn't going to blow up the moon.
Emily had been thoroughly unimpressed with the format of the report itself, but put the cape out of her mind until the monthly meeting regarding parahuman updates.
Then Monday morning rolled around and she found out that Hookwolf, Cricket, and three hundred unpowered people had been arrested because of Event Horizon and Emily had spent the morning going over the after action reports of Dauntless, Vista (who should not have been in the field), and Commander Asa. She had even called in a favor with the police chief to get the report of one Captain Sals.
All of that had been compiled and added to the thin but growing folder that made up her case file. Dangerous and inexperienced. But I repeat myself.
All of that would have made her jump to the top of Emily's priority list. Keep her out the hands of the gangs and try and recruit her to the Wards. Standard procedure, just with an emphasis that isn't always there. Initial plans for engagement were drawn up, as they are for all new parahumans.
Then her power testing report came in Tuesday morning hand delivered as a hard copy by Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and Dauntless instead of as an email attachment.
Armsmaster was well known to not want to deal with anything that took him away from either Tinkering or using his Tinkertech to apprehend criminals. For him to come himself gave Emily a sinking feeling in her gut; she had learned over the years to listen to her gut.
Miss Militia, often a personable cape, was ominously quiet. Just a quick nod of her head and a request to have a closed door meeting did nothing to make her question her gut.
Dauntless gave a similar nod, but seemed more relaxed overall.
Once settled into Emily's office, Armsmaster slid the report folder across her desk with a thumb drive on top, noting that he had wiped the system he had used to type up the report and that that drive was the only electronic copy.
Miss Militia pulled down her American Flag patterned scarf and Hannah let out a small sigh.
Dauntless just settled into his chair.
Staying silent as Emily slowly read through the report compiled overnight, they watched as the blood progressively drained from her face. After taking a moment to center herself, she contacted her secretary to clear her morning, with a note that the afternoon might need to be cleared as well.
With that she plugged in the USB report, wrote up an email to Chief Directer Costa-Brown and sent it with a top priority flag. A meeting notice had popped up inside thirty seconds for nine AM. Less than five minutes.
Emily looked at Dauntless and said, "Any thoughts or comments not in the report you want to add before we start discussing how we are going to recruit her?"
"Just remember that Vista and Glory Girl are on more friendly terms than I am. We will want to get their input on this too."
"We're not going to bring Glory Girl in on this meeting at all. Depending on the strategy of recruitment, we might want to keep Vista in the dark so any recruitment is natural."
"Of course." Dauntless looked at Hannah for a moment before pulling his own helmet off and setting it under his chair.
With that, they all waited in contemplative silence for the meeting to start.
The call connected and the voice of Chief Director Costa-Brown came out of the conference phone. "Director Piggot, good morning."
"Such as it is, Chief Director. I have Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and Dauntless with me to discuss Event Horizon and recruitment or containment."
A moment of silence as Costa-Brown processed who was in the room. Armsmaster since he was the leader of the Protectorate for the ENE branch. Miss Militia as his second and the one who takes point on recruitment because no one sane would leave that to the awkward at best and actively detrimental at worst Armsmaster. Dauntless since he was the only Protectorate member with first hand knowledge of the subject at hand.
"Good. We will get to recruitment in a moment. First though, I want to go over what we would be willing to change from a standard contract to acquire her, contingent upon secondary verification of the upper ends of what she is capable of."
"The preliminary speculation from our lead tester, Dr. Pen, is that Event Horizon can wrap anything in a field and, in his words, 'erase it from existence'. He did not elect to verify this at initial testing for fear of radiation or other harmful effects. He also did not ask if she had done this on her own in case she hadn't, and decided to do so against his recommendation."
"Armsmaster, do you have the facilities to test this case in a safe manner?"
"Not off hand, but since Event Horizon has shown to have a smallest control size of approximately a millimeter in diameter, it looks like in a worst case of all the mass in that volume of air converted to energy it would be a little over twenty six tons of TNT equivalent. Though I suppose that would be in the form of hard radiation, which makes the containment harder. We could do it in a partial vacuum for proportionally less energy."
Armsmaster hadn't moved his hands that Emily could see and speculated that he must have been using eye control to query that.
"See if she will work with you to set something up." Director Costa-Brown said. "The only thing we are talking about here is if her power will effect the Endbringers, and the only test for that is a field test. If she can effect, and kill them, we would be willing to expend near anything to recruit her. Before that though, I can only authorize what we offer other candidates we have hopes of injuring or killing Endbringers."
"We will keep that in mind," Emily said.
"That being said, she sounds like she has the best chance yet, so let's talk about methods of recruitment and keeping her alive. She does not seem to be the type to lie around considering Sunday night. Dauntless, in your opinion why did she go for the affiliate program over joining the Wards?"
Dauntless leaned forward a bit in his chair. "Before I go over the Wards offer, I want to bring up Sunday night when she offered to go in for power testing. I suspect Vista put the idea in her head to be the Ward to accompany her as a way to offset her indiscretion at going out that night, but both of them deny it. Specifically though, Event Horizon wanted both myself and Vista there as the people she had met before."
"She is shy?" the director asked.
"I think so." He gained a contemplative look. "She is quiet and very to the point, except Vista mentioned that she was relatively chatty with her after a while with the dogs."
"Good to know. How does that match up with your Wards offer?"
"She was slow to reply. I don't know if she wasn't expecting it, but when she turned it down she didn't sound like she was against joining due to our organization or the Wards specifically, but rather just hesitant to do so. I don't want to speculate too much, but it is possible that we are right about her being shy and the idea of being a part of a team even that small troubles her."
"Do you think pushing harder would have helped?" Emily asked.
"Hurt, almost certainly. I also want to add to your point, chief director, when I mentioned that The Empire was likely to try and get her out of the picture, especially if she continued focusing on them and she sounded nearly offended at the idea of not preventing their actions. I think she wants to do what every cape feels they can do after their first victory and push harder, until the gang pushes back." He sighed and leaned back in his chair, as though tired of knowing the outcome of that course of action. "Though she might be strong enough that they will break instead of her."
"Great, we're going to have to deal with a one girl crusade." Emily couldn't keep the disgust out of her voice.
"I don't care about how hard she pushes. I want to make sure she is around for the next Endbringer." Costa-Brown said.
"We don't even know if she is willing to attend." Hannah said.
"That is our primary goal, even more than recruitment we need her to want to go. Miss Militia, I would like you to spearhead that. Work with Dauntless and any of the Wards. Work with Glory Girl if you think it will help. Work with her and find out if she is willing. If so, great. We can work with her as an affiliate and try for Wards from there. But if she is against it, find out why and find out what we can offer or provide or help with to get her to attend."
"Anything is on the table?" Miss Militia asked. Emily saw how conflicted she looked. She was being asked to talk a child into wanting to face down some of the greatest opponents of all mankind. Thousands of parahumans and millions of humans had died from those monsters. And yet, Hannah knew it had to be done and Emily saw the resolve on her face.
"For now, still within standard prospective package for things you can guarantee. Though if it is something not too far out, I can have it authorized. Feel free to bring any request to Emily and we'll see if we can make it work."
"That's attendance, I suppose keeping her alive is my job." Emily said.
"You always are up for the toughest jobs." It was one of the few moments of levity Emily had heard of the director. "Armsmaster will have that test, just as a baseline. If she can't do that, all of this is off the table and she is back to normal status."
"That is the course of action going forward. Anything else about what we want to accomplish with Event Horizon?" Emily figured they weren't going to do more than go in circles from here and wanted to wrap it up.
"I think that is it on my end." The chief director said.
"I'm good from here. Dauntless, want to grab a conference room here and we can talk about contacting her and how to coordinate with the Wards for this?"
"Yea, I don't have anything to add." Dauntless said, grabbing his helmet.
With that, both of them said their goodbyes and headed out.
"Armsmaster?" Emily prompted.
"Nothing off hand. I can get the test setup inside a week or so. I would like to make sure we work out battle plans on how to approach her fighting each Endbringer. Leviathan is the most likely to be next. That will be the easiest with her power since she should be able to seal herself and stop all the water. Behemoth depends entirely if his kill effect can go through her armor, and like you said, the only test is a field test. Though hopefully she can stay well outside that range. With the Simurgh. Well. We'll need to work on that." With that he stood up, nodded to the director and to the phone and left.
"He nodded at the phone didn't he." Rebecca had a little disbelief in her voice.
"Yes."
"Hmm." She let that sit for a moment. "I noticed that the report is not in the system yet. Was there some reason for that?"
"Everyone got paranoid. Armsmaster wiped the computer he made digital copy with and brought a thumb drive. I wouldn't be surprised he EMP'd the printer he made the hard copy with."
"Event Horizon is outside the norm." A third piece of levity. She must really be hopeful that Event Horizon can harm or kill an Endbringer. "Regardless, I agree with all the numbers and the initial response tactics."
Ah yes, evacuate the area and call in the Triumvirate. Emily couldn't keep the sarcasm out of her voice, even in her own head.
"I will get in the system before lunch. Anything else?"
"Yes. I know I said to keep the recruitment package in line with the norm, but that was a lie. I will give almost anything to have her at the next Endbringer fight. Money, power, safety of family and friends. Whatever it takes to make her want to be there. So no blackmail, no master powers." It chilled Emily that those even needed to be taken off the table.
"Why do you think she will succeed where everyone else has failed?" It was out of character for the chief to get this worked up about anything.
"A black hole is not like other forms of attacks. It does not use energy, whether kinetic, thermal, electromagnetic, or even more esoteric to cause damage. Rather the fabric of space itself is distorted to turn a volume of matter into a point of matter. It shouldn't matter how tough they are, how strong they are, how whatever they are. As Dr. Pen mentioned, everything will cease to exist. That is what I am pinning my hopes on. What few I have left."
Emily had seen the estimates. Humanity was on a runaway train and the tracks ahead were broken. "I will keep her alive."
"Do what you can, but we both know she will be in the city trying her level best to break the gangs in your city apart. They will fight back."
"Can you send anyone to help." Emily had been requesting help every few months since she had taken the job. Brockton Bay was a city in dire need of more people. The Protectorate and Wards together did not make up the cape power of the criminals in the city. It was a balancing act to keep the city from either falling to the gang's control or imploding from all out war. A war she did not think she would win and the citizens would very much lose.
"If something breaks, Event Horizon might want to meet Alexandria."
She had been expecting to be stonewalled again. To even imply that showed how much she wanted Event Horizon. "I suppose that will do."
"Hah!" The chief let out a sharp laugh. "I look forward to seeing what Event Horizon does to your city, Emily."
"Noted. Goodbye, Rebecca." With that Emily reached over and hung up the call. She sat, staring at the phone for a minute, thinking about what was to come.
"Fuck."
And with that comes to a close of the first arc, disjointed as it was. 1.1 is much more of a prologue. (1.2-1.4) leads reasonably well into (1.5,1.6). I feel this chapter is a decent cap to the whole thing.
Post-Mortem -
Pacing is the largest shortcoming I think I have. What is happening seems to take a lot longer than I want to. But every time I read through my drafts it feels like cutting stuff would leave out context or thoughts or something I want to keep.
I know the saying isn't add until you're happy, but carve out until only the bare minimum remains. That is something I really need to work on.
Action is the other part. I know everything doesn't have to be all action all the time. But I feel like this arc was light on what I am here for in this story. My goal for the next arc is a little more 'what can Event Horizon do' and less hanging around talking to people. We'll see how I do.
Last edited: Apr 7, 2024
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Mar 15, 2023
#275
March 3rd, 2011. Thursday:
8:30 AM. I step off the bus and head to the front entrance of the school. Emma, Madison, and several others are in a group to the side. As I walk past, Madison is on the far side of the group from me and looks at me and says in a tone of disgust if the garbage bin just fell over. Everyone bursts out laughing, a few looking at me. I ignore it and walk by.
9:20 AM - I am forced to abandon another email account and register a new one as my latest one is once again filled with messages about killing myself. I still haven't figured out how they are finding out what I am using.
10:13 AM - Madison is waiting at the door with friends to World Issues to prevent me from going in. She smiles at me with a small wave. I arrive late due to this.
She spends the class much as she always does: flicking paper my way when Gladly isn't looking and talking with friends sitting near her.
11:25 AM - On the way back from sharpening her pencil Madison drops the shavings on my desk and gives a small laugh. Her friends join in. Gladly did not see the shavings but lets them laugh for a moment, thinking he said something funny.
11:45 - Lunch. I head to the back of the school. So far the Trio have not found me. I suspect that will change either tomorrow or Monday. Going to go somewhere else tomorrow.
1:45 PM - Sophia shoulder checked me as I was painting. Ruined the days work. Teacher took a whole grade point off and told me that ruined art work doesn't count as 'showing my expression'.
2:00 PM - Math. Mr. Quinlan was less drunk today than normal. Still didn't learn anything.
I closed my journal and leaned back with a sigh. Today wasn't too bad, but they were starting to escalate again. I had had a calm period since the locker on the first day of the semester and it seemed to be coming to an end.
I picked up the journal and headed over to my closet, pulled out the box with the other ten, all filled with similar events going back to nearly the start of high school a year and a half ago, and put it away. I pushed the box back in the closet and sat back at my desk.
I had homework I needed to copy over to make sure if the first one was stolen or otherwise destroyed I could still turn it in. The motivation to do so escaped me.
I knew what I wanted to do. Fly out there and do good. What exactly that good would take the form of escaped me. Stopping a robbery or mugging seemed like the most obvious.
I had plans on Saturday to do so with Glory Girl and I was looking forward to doing that. The afternoon before I was less excited for, but still looking forward to it. I still needed to talk with Dad about going out and I wasn't sure if it would make more sense to tell him we would be watching a movie late or if I was just going to spend the night. Telling the truth was not something even worth considering.
With those plans looming over the weekend the draw to go out felt all the stronger and I was rested from not going out since Sunday. Monday didn't count since I was back home before Dad and hadn't gone back out.
I could feel the decision solidifying in my mind and I didn't even try to justify it with anything other than blind desire to be out there and not doing homework or thinking about school, or Emma.
With the plan to head out tonight solidified I was able to pull together the motivation to do my homework and started to copy it over to a second sheet.
Half an hour into it I heard a light knock on my open door. "Hey Taylor, working hard I see."
I looked over to see Dad standing my doorway. He was a tall, skinny man. Balding with glasses that made his green eyes look big. Similar to the way my own glasses did to my brown eyes.
"Yeah. Just making sure everything is lined up and ready to go." The lie was easy and practiced at this point. Until the locker he didn't realize anything was amiss and since then he has been assured by the school, and me, that the bullying has stopped.
"I'm going to call it a night. Don't stay up too much later."
"I won't." Another easy lie. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight. Love you."
"Love you too." That one was not a lie. I didn't tell him about anything going on with school because there just wasn't anything he would be able to do about it, but when it came to being on my side he was second to none.
He turned and went down the hall to his room. I heard the door close and went back to homework, finishing the last bit in a few minutes.
I brushed my teeth and otherwise prepared for bed, turned off my light and settled into bed. It was a little after ten when I decided it had been long enough. I pushed off my sheets, got out of bed and put on pants and a sweatshirt.
I opened the window, crawled out, and jumped down to the backyard, my power preventing any chance of injury. A quick jog around the front and I headed down the road a bit.
I had stored the PRT phone off site out of paranoia, and had been going to the phone once a night to check messages and do a little coordinating with Vicky. Both she and the PRT knew I didn't have my phone with me and wouldn't be able to reach out in an emergency through it.
I grabbed it from under a massive boulder it was stored under and checked my texts. Nothing new from last night. With that I wrapped myself in armor and took to the skies. The night was clear and crisp, spring just starting to struggle in.
Whereas Sunday I had headed South East to Empire Territory I decided tonight to go North East to the docks. This was the territory of the Azn Bad Boys. The ABB had only two capes to the gang, but both were enough to keep the gang in business.
That business mostly consisted of protection rackets and forced prostitution, according to the BBPD website. I had to look up racketeering and found it would be hard to stop since it mostly consisted of a gang member wandering into a store and being handed money. It also was unlikely to be happening during the night.
So I was looking to find a brothel hidden in plain sight. My best guess was they would take over an apartment building and use the rooms for customers.
The docks wasn't just the dock infrastructure against the bay that used to handle the shipping that Brockton Bay was known for, according to Dad. It was also the apartments people lived in and businesses that supported them. North of that area was the train yard. It was mostly abandoned and I hadn't heard of a train using it in years.
I was slowly floating along so the edge of my range was skimming the sewer line. It gave a reasonable area I could watch. Apartment to business to single family home I wandered for at least half an hour, maybe more, slowly going blind with boredom and trying to ignore the amount of sex happening while attempting to figure out if I was over a brothel.
It was a disconcerting dichotomy really. I wanted to be doing something helpful, but that meant that someone was in a position that needed my help.
Just as I was getting ready to call it quits and go do something else for the night, a woman with an ankle chain bolted to the wall came into my view. She was sitting in the corner as far from the door as she could be while hugging her knees. My blood went cold as I processed what I saw.
I knew I found the right place and I took a closer look to the other rooms as I went down to her window. There were at least two dozen rooms across three floors that had women hanging around in the room. Three others were also chained down.
About half the rooms were in use, but none of the chained ones were. I was thankful for that at least. As much for their sake as I wasn't sure I would have been able to stop myself from doing something more… permanent than the PRT would have liked.
Even as I was thinking that, a man got off the elevator onto the same floor the first chained woman was in.
Enough of this.
I pulled him up in a field and muffled the sound he was making, leaving him in the hallway. I grabbed the chains of all the women and snapped them open carefully and then grabbed every patron and wrapped them in a field, forcibly separating occupants if necessary. I continued down to the window and looked in to the room and got even angrier as I got a good look.
She was a black woman in a threadbare dress and had tear tracks down her face.
I wrapped the window just up to the frame in a field and snapped a black hole for just a moment. There was a pop sound as the air rushed to fill the hole I made. She jumped at the sound and looked right at me.
"Hey, I am here to rescue you." I tried to say it in a calming voice, and it seemed to help as she let a hopeful sounding sob.
"I am going to get you out of here." I think that got through to her because leapt at me, hugging and crying.
"Thank you thank you thank you." She kept saying to over and over. I reached around and hugged her close.
After a minute I pulled her up to her feet. "I know you want out of here right now, but there are more who are in the same spot. Walk with me as we gather everyone up. What's your name?"
She looked at me with a bit of wonder and awe. "Kendra."
"Well, Kendra let's go rescue some people. I need to make a call while we head to the front." I pulled out the PRT phone and hit the speed dial for their emergency line.
It didn't even ring once before it connected. "Event Horizon, how can I assist you tonight?"
It was the first time calling this line, but it made sense they would have caller ID on a phone they handed to me. "I found an ABB brothel with women chained up in it. I have released them, but I need assistance arresting everyone involved."
"Are there any parahumans on scene?"
"No."
"Okay, I am connecting you to Miss Militia and I am going to loop in the BBPD after. We have your location. One moment."
The line clicked. "Hello Event Horizon, this is Miss Militia. I am five minutes away. How is the situation there."
She was all business. I respected that and any excitement I had meeting another hero was quashed by the circumstances.
"I have everyone contained in the same way as the dog fighting ring and I am shuffling them to the front door of the apartment complex. I should be there about the same time as you arrive."
"Good to hear. I will stay on the line, but I need to concentrate on driving."
I floated towards the elevator, Kendra walking next to me, the man from the hallway floating behind us. I turned to Kendra and said, "Police are on their way. We'll get you to a hospital and from there I am sure home."
She just nodded her head, keeping a hateful eye on the man behind us.
I pulled the rest of the patrons out of their rooms, making sure to throw clothes at them, and had them head down the stairs in a long line. The prostitutes followed behind. Some had needed a small tug with my field, but otherwise had grabbed clothes of their own and followed.
The operator mentioned he was coordinating police and ambulances on his end. I let him know how many people were here and where I was going to gather everyone.
We made it to the front lobby soon enough and as I left a giant field of floaters on one side I said to Kendra, "Can you let everyone know what is happening. I need to make sure Miss Militia see which building we're in."
As she headed over to explain things I headed out the front door. "I am just outside, how close are you?" I spoke into the phone.
"A few blocks out, maybe thirty seconds." Miss Militia answered.
It was then a person appeared on a roof in the middle of my field. I had just enough time to realize what was happening when a man in a red mask appeared in front of me and pulled the pins to the grenades on his bandolier.
Last edited: Mar 25, 2023
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Mar 15, 2023
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timelost
timelost
Mar 23, 2023
#328
Something changed in me when I saw those pins pulled.
Up until now I had just been floating around and pulling people up, but they hadn't been able to effect me at all. I was removed from the action in a way I hadn't realized. Even when Hookwolf had lunged out of my field it was a momentary setback, but not something that even for a moment I was concerned about.
Maybe when Vista and I had knocked each other out of commission if it had taken longer for me to get control of myself again it would have caused me to change my outlook on what I was doing.
Now I was playing for different stakes altogether and panic would get me killed. I felt a resolve in me crystallize. This was why I was out here tonight.
I had done research on capes I might run into over the last couple days. Oni Lee was the second cape of the ABB. He was known as a teleporting killer with a penchant for knives and grenades. The twist with his teleports was that he would leave a clone behind that lasted a few seconds before reverting to a dust.
It was in those few seconds that he could do such a thing as pull all the pins on grenades that were still strapped to him.
I closed the air holes in my armor and at the same time wrapped the Oni Lee in front of me and the one that had appeared behind me in a shield of double sided negative gravity in an effort to control the blast that was about to occur.
The phone I was in contact with Miss Militia was inside my armor already so I could easily talk and I said, "Oni Lee is on site."
All I heard was a disconnect sound. Oh right, no signal if I close everything off.
The clone in front of me exploded in a silent instant that filled the volume he was in with smoke and ash. I was thankful it happened so fast I couldn't make out his body being destroyed before turning to dust.
There was another Oni Lee back on a roof in front of me that I started to wrap up in a field as the one behind me exploded. I saw him appear near me again. He pulled the pins just a moment after he appeared inside the building lobby where everyone was gathered.
Again I had to readjust my mindset of what was going on. If he couldn't stop me he was going to kill everyone he could.
Even as I finished a field around the Oni Lee near me a fourth appeared behind the crowd. The people in front were just realizing what was happening as I wrapped the third in a field and started on the fourth as the first was turning to dust.
Everything was happening so fast. I was also starting to hyperventilate and suddenly realized I was running out of air. I opened my air holes back and the second, now first, Oni Lee exploded and a new third appeared next to me again.
I left my air open and wrapped him in a field as he was pulling pins.
He was keeping me occupied and I was unable to keep him still. He could teleport without needing to be on the ground so at the moment the most I could do was stop all death he was trying to cause.
Miss Militia still wasn't here. She said thirty seconds and that was minutes ago at least. Wasn't it?
Apparently only a few seconds had passed.
I needed a moment to think and he was not going to oblige me. That was fine, I kept up with a few more teleports of his while I processed what was going on.
He had teleported in front of me, then behind, then in front to the roof. He waited a moment to see if his attack was fruitful and noticed it was completely stopped with no apparent effort on my end. From there he went after the people around me, but it was again in front of me, behind me to the front of the crown, then behind them, in front of me and that pattern was holding.
He didn't have the same area proprioception that I had and needed to see where he was going to teleport to. That was why it was always in an alternating direction. From the way he would show up facing a different direction than when he started he could turn from the teleport and prep the next one without needing to move his head much at all.
I needed to cut off his line of sight. It would still take a moment too long to form a black hole around him before he could teleport and there was no chance he wasn't teleporting as fast as he could. Maybe I had a chance at that moment he spent on the roof, but now he was creating clones too quick.
I felt my heart rate calm just a hair now that I had a plan and I knew I could counter what he was doing.
Then he changed his pattern and kept teleporting out in a single direction. Two teleports and he was out of my range. I hoped that he was just giving up, but didn't think so. I didn't know what his plan was though, or how to think like him to try and guess.
What is his goal? That was the big question and it would tell me what he was going to do. It could be to kill me or to just stop me from rescuing all the women, but in either case I didn't know what he might have in store to try those.
It was then that Miss Militia came into my range and was headed right for me on her motorcycle. I realized she likely didn't know what was happening since there were no explosion sounds and I had cut the phone call on accident.
I didn't want Oni Lee to get an attempt at her too so I picked her and the motorcycle up and brought her over while wrapping her in a wide black hole shell to keep Oni Lee out.
I saw a bright flash off in the distance and a couple seconds later a loud bang sound.
Fuck! I suddenly realized what his new plan was; do enough collateral damage to force me over to him and he could loop back and kill everyone out of my range with impunity.
I had been too passive while fighting against him. I could see it now, I didn't have to move to keep up with what he was doing as long as he was in my range. Between the dog fighting and this I realized I was quickly forming a habit of being stationary. It was time to change that.
I wrapped everyone in the lobby in individual fields and then a larger shell of a black hole to encompass them all with a spout on either side to force air through to make sure they didn't suffocate and Oni Lee would still not be able to see in.
I brought them and Miss Militia close to me then sped off to meet Oni Lee. As I sped over I wrapped myself and Miss Milita in our own shell with spouts and dropped her individual shell so I could talk with her.
"Oni Lee attacked and I dropped the call keeping myself safe." It was pitch black in the shell but she turned her head towards the sound of my voice.
"Are you hurt at all?" She said it quick, almost like she was keeping down a panic.
"I'm fine, he couldn't hurt me. He tried to hurt everyone else when he found that out, but I stopped that too."
"Good." She let out a relieved sigh. "What are you doing now?" She let go of the motorcycle and I let them drift apart and brought her next to me. I formed a floor and made a normal gravity field so she could stand.
"He ran off and attacked others so I grabbed everyone and now we're chasing him down. In fact, I see him now."
He had set off at least three more suicides in the ten seconds or so it had taken to reach him. There were remains of a couple of people and one person was one his back screaming, holding his shredded left hand.
I grabbed him in a field and brought him towards my shell as I saw a new clone in the hallway of an apartment. I put a shell around him and started prepping my trap.
I started a running commentary towards Miss Militia. "He murdered some people and I am bringing a wounded man here. I am going to try and contain him by forming a field around the edges of my range, following the roads and building edges. I have the floor of it thirty feet up off the ground to avoid people and cars. He just jumped into the third story of the neighboring apartment."
"Sealing us in with him?" She turned on a flashlight, though the only thing in the shell that reflected light was her. It had quite the effect, looking into something that was darker than anything else in the universe.
"Yes. Everything is sealed, now we just need to shrink it and stop him from killing anyone else. He jumped to the end of the hallway and is looking around. I bet everything is near pitch black."
I tried to seal him in while he was standing at the end of the hallway but he jumped onto a street light that was inside the field. It didn't matter, it was just a matter of time now that he was trapped.
"He still has a lot of room to jump around to. All the buildings are giving him light to go inside. Let's fix that. Injured guy coming in."
I started with the buildings around the one he had just teleported into, forming walls to drastically shrink the area he had to jump to. Mostly just the current building he was in.
I realized I was falling into being stationary again. But now I had him contained and there was no reason to move around. He wasn't able to reach me and being closer or farther didn't matter at this point as long as he was still in my range. It felt off though, to have just made the decision to move around more and now finding good reason to not move. Or at least no good reason to move.
I will have to think on it more later.
I opened the shell we were in and heard the screaming of the injured man.
"Bring him closer, I can at least staunch the bleeding." Miss Militia ordered.
I did so and let her work as I kept my focus on preventing Oni Lee from doing any more damage. I started sectioning off the hallways and floors but it looked like he decided to change tactics again.
Most everyone in the building had heard the explosions from a block away and were all reacting in several different ways. Some hid far away from windows and doors. I thought they were the smart ones. Some were looking out of their windows and a lot had gone into the hallways to talk with their neighbors for some reason.
Maybe they want to find out if everyone else heard that noise too?
Whatever the reason, the hallway that Oni Lee had found himself in was filled with half a dozen adults talking while some kids were playing tag up and down the halls.
He appeared right next to a man in the center of the hallway talking with two others and instead of pulling all of the grenades he only used one hand to do that. With the other he stabbed the man in the back and wrapped the arm he had used to pull the pins around his neck and pulled tight.
"Fuck!"
He had already moved onto the second person in that group of three. I had the warning of Dr. Pen in the back of mind about using too much gravity to move something so instead of trying to guess how much of a field to form to sever Oni Lee's arm I wrapped the grenades each in their own field and just let the clone turn to dust on his own. I did force the knife hand open to prevent him from twisting the knife anymore than he already had.
I pulled the new Oni Lee up in a twenty g field before he could repeat the stabbing to the woman he was behind and another Oni Lee appeared on the floor just before the now clone slammed into the ceiling.
The one on the floor started to reach for all the pins, but I put him in a ten g field and his arms slammed down.
At the same time I wrapped each person in the hallway in their own armored shell while closing off the ends of the hallway and wrapping each light in its own armored shell as well.
Oni Lee teleported just as the lights went out and finally he stopped being able to do anything. He looked around as though trying to find a light source to teleport to. He reached into his pocket for a light but before he could turn it on I floated him up and wrapped him in a shell of armor.
"It's over." I said, but realized Miss Militia wouldn't hear me over the man screaming. "I have him trapped, but we have another injured. Oni Lee stabbed someone before I could stop him." Even at a near yell, my voice was shaking a bit, and so was the rest of me.
"Where were they stabbed?" Miss Militia shouted back. It looked like she was tying a tourniquet around his arm.
"In the back and he managed to twist it a bit too."
"We need to get them to a hospital ASAP. This man too, but a knife wound there can bleed out in minutes or less depending where exactly it is."
"Right." With that I dropped all the fields around us that were there to prevent Oni Lee from jumping around.
At that moment my phone started to ring and Miss Militia's head twitched to the side like someone was yelling in her ear.
"Calm down, we're fine." She said, clearly at the person on the other end of her ear. "We're getting ready to go to the hospital for injured civilians and we need pickup for Oni Lee."
While she was relaying that, I ignored my phone and instead put the knifed man in a field and pulled him and Oni Lee to the end of the hallway towards the outside of the building. There was a window that I put in a field strong enough to break it out of the frame and pulled both of the men out of the window to join us.
I also realized I could help stop the bleeding in the man. I put tiny fields around all the places blood was flowing out of him and ramped up the strength until the blood vessels clamped closed. I think he started screaming louder.
With that, I had all the women from the brothel, the patrons, the staff, Oni Lee, the knifed man, Miss Militia, and the injured man she was helping. I pulled us all close together and headed towards downtown.
"I need to you to guide me to the nearest hospital."
The trip to the hospital wasn't that long, but with Miss Militia stuck trying to calm the screaming man while giving me directions there wasn't anything for me to do but stew in my own thoughts.
Two people that I know of had died and two more were grievously injured. I don't think I felt guilt over the bombing victim, though it was hard to differentiate my wish that he hadn't been injured compared to any guilt that might be lingering.
With the knife victim though, I felt like it was at least partially my fault since I had moved fast enough to save the second person that Oni Lee had gone after but not the first.
I shook off any thoughts for the moment since we were coming up on the hospital.
"Look for people with flashlights waving in the air and land there." Miss Militia spoke up over the screams of the man with the mangled arm.
"Got it!"
Sure enough, there were two people waving lights to guide me in like an air plane. I certainly have enough passengers.
I landed in front of them and there were two gurneys each with a team of people around them.
"Arm guy here!" Yelled one member of the team on my left. I brought the screaming man over and laid him down as gently as I could.
"Ready?" The same man asked me.
"Yes, he is free from me." I said.
The team carted him off into the hospital and I brought the other man over to the remaining gurney and team. He was screaming even louder now that I had taken him out of the armor shell.
"Lay him down on his stomach, we'll take it from there."
"I have pinched a bunch of blood vessels to stop the bleeding. How do you want to handle that?"
They conferred for a few seconds and then turned back to me. "Do you need to come into the surgery room with us or can we give you a radio and have you control it from outside?"
"Most of the hospital is in my range. I can stay in range of him if you start to move out."
"Okay, take this and we'll feed you instructions in a few minutes." He handed me a radio that I put in a field and kept close to me. Then he turned and the team followed the first into the hospital.
A moment of relative silence as all the screaming faded away. Just the noises from cars driving past an otherwise quiet block. I realized I was spacing out and yet there was so much to still do.
Miss Militia had jumped off the platform around the time the arm guy was being loaded up and came to stand near me. I dropped her motorcycle off next to here.
"What next? I have everyone from the brothel with me and Oni Lee is still wrapped up."
"Oni Lee can wait for now. You said there were sex slaves that you rescued? Let's get all of them down and we can have the hospital look them over. The police will be here soon."
A few security guards were milling around near the entrance and keeping an eye on us. Miss Militia waved a couple of them over. "We have some women that were enslaved by the ABB and we need them looked over. Can you flag a few nurses to help?"
They agreed and one of them ran off. I brought Kendra and the other three women over and brought them to the ground as I took the armored shell off. Kendra looked around and focused on me.
"Thank you!" She tried to take a step but was still unbalanced after transitioning from my field to her feet and stumbled. I caught her and set up back on her feet.
"Careful, give it a second to get used to the ground again." I said. She let out a weak laugh and took a few careful steps.
Of the three other women, they all reacted differently. One fell to her knees as though her legs went limp and started loudly bawling her eyes out while staring at the hospital. Another just gazed blankly forward, her arms hugging herself and shaking slightly. The last one slowly stepped forwards and hugged Miss Militia while repeating something in a language I didn't know.
It was then that the crash team handling the knife victim started working the radio and I grabbed mine in my hand.
"Hello, I didn't get your name, but we're about ready to start surgery. Mr. Lor will be going under in the next few minutes. The plan is to look at everything and starting at the deepest location, we'll have you release blood vessels one at a time while we close them up."
"Event Horizon, but Eve is fine over the radio, and that sounds good to me. I can see your movements just fine, so point to which one and we can time it over the radio."
By now several nurses had come out and were talking to the women and leading them back into the hospital. Kendra looked back and gave a small wave towards me as she went passed the automatic doors. I watched them go feeling a deep satisfaction that of all the things that had gone to shit tonight, this was one I would be proud of for the rest of my life.
Miss Militia also followed them going in before she turned to me and said, "Good work tonight." It sounded like she was smiling.
I felt a warmth build in me at that. Miss Militia was one of the first Wards and was famous nation wide and her praise meant a lot to me.
She was garbed in an American flag themed bandanna she had wrapped around her nose and face, highlighting her eyes; they were the same color as Dad's. She had a similarly themed sash and wore army fatigues. It was part of her mythology that the Protectorate releases for each cape about how much she loves the country that rescued her.
I watched as the gun she had turned into a green light with streaks of black throughout it and reformed into a knife that she put away in a sheath. Her power would let her make any hand held weapon, up to and including rocket launchers.
She turned a bit and raised her hand to ear. After listening for a moment she scowled and said, "I don't care if they are, they can do their jobs."
Another moment and she dropped her hand with an annoyed sigh. "The police are complaining about needing to follow you around and want us to go to the station to deliver everyone."
"I can't leave until Mr. Lor is safe and I have no idea how long that will be. It will be better for them to pick up the ABB from here. There's only five of them anyway. And ten customers. Nothing compared to the Empire arrests."
"They are going to arrest the women who weren't chained as well. Prostitution is illegal." I tried to jump in, but she raised her hand. "A lot of those women were likely trafficked by the ABB from out of country as well. They might get arrested, but the State Department will look to try and get them reconnected and returned. It will be better for them in the system than out of it."
Was that really the best for them? I had first hand experience in a system where you had no power. So far, I was outside the system of the PRT and Protectorate and they had been nothing but helpful. But I knew in the back of my mind that was just because I was powerful now.
They would have no way to fix problems if the cops decided to ignore them, drop the paperwork in the garbage, or otherwise fuck them over.
The problem I had was that I had no way of helping them. No money to give them, or shelter to provide. Nothing. Even if I knew letting them get arrested was a bad option, it was still likely better than anything I could provide for them. At least they would be housed and fed and not being prostituted.
"What guarantees can you give me that they won't get lost in the system?" Even so, there was no reason I couldn't try and push something for them.
"I still have contacts with them from when I was naturalized. I promise I will make some calls and ensure they are looked after. I can even keep you in the loop." She answered without any hesitation and with such conviction that I couldn't help but believe her.
Winslow, my school, might be a miserable shit hole with the worst fucking administration known to man, but so far everyone in the Protectorate was doing the right thing even when they didn't need to.
"Alright." I let that sit for a moment. "Thank you."
"Of course. We can head over as soon as the surgeons are done with you."
"It looks like it won't be much longer until they start. They're grabbing the radio now."
I watched as a nurse picked it up. "Hello, Event Horizon?"
"I am here. Let me know what we're doing." I was looking at Miss Militia while talking and her knife flitted from the sheathe as that green and black light and turned into a pistol of some kind. She held it casually, keeping the barrel away from anyone.
"Great. We have Mr. Lor all prepped and the idea we have is to point out a vessel and they will close it up and then have you release the vessel to see if it holds. After we get all of them we'll continue the surgery, but you will be free to go."
"Let me know when, I'll be here."
It went much like how it was described. The surgeons picked the farthest back vessel and close it up, I would release it, and if it bled they would finish the patch. All in all it took a half hour or so to do everything. I wasn't able to really talk to Miss Militia while doing it since every minute or so they were contacting me.
"That was the last one." I said once I released it and everything had settled.
"Thank you so much. That was great work." The nurse said.
"Is he going to be okay?" I was still guilty over his injury.
"I can't comment. As much for confidentiality as it is not my area and it would be irresponsible of me to do so."
"Of course. Can I come back later and find out if he is doing okay?"
"Yes. I don't know how long this will be, but ask the front desk for updates on Mr. Lor. They will at least be able to tell you if he is stable."
"Thank you." I said. I might not know now, but knowing I can find out did a lot to settle my nerves.
"No, thank you. If he pulls through, it will be because of you." I heard the click as the radio went silent. He wouldn't have been hurt but for me either.
I stared for a moment before shaking off the melancholy. I still had things to do tonight before I could dwell. I floated the radio over to a security guard and turned to Miss Militia.
"Ready to go? Everyone seems to be holding fine, but no reason to keep them longer than needed. Is the PRT going to meet us there for handling Oni Lee?"
"If you are up for it, it would be safer to deliver him directly to holding at HQ."
"That's fine." I could pick up a side job as a transporter.
I picked her and the motorcycle up and took to the air. "I'll need directions."
She pointed out which way and it was a short flight over to the station; it would have been faster for them to just pick everyone up at the hospital. Once I got there a few cops were doing the flashlight signaling to bring me in.
With a generally smooth cycle of dropping off one person at a time as I gave a full rundown of the night to both the police and Miss Militia, it took a bare twenty minutes to finish everything up.
When I took off again I went slow. I wanted to talk with Miss Militia about how the night went. "After hearing everything, do you think I was..." I trailed off for a moment to try and find the right words. She was kind enough to let me think it through. "Less than I needed to be? Two people died, and two more almost did. One because I just wasn't fast enough."
She was quiet for a few seconds before answering. "That is a feeling that never goes away. 'Could I be faster, or stronger, or smarter?' Those are questions I still ask myself. There is a guilt that comes from trying and failing to help people.
"But that always must be countered against what was accomplished. No action can be taken without repercussions and the most you can do is live with the consequences. Do you think tonight you will be able to?"
I thought about it for a minute.
"I am trying to balance the idea that I rescued those women with the idea that my actions led to Oni Lee killing those people. If I was in their position I don't think I would be able to say I would be willing to die so those women can be free. So from there, is what I did worth it? I am sure to Kendra and the others it is, but is it really?"
"Don't put the actions of others onto your shoulders. That way will lead to nothing but guilt that can't be resolved. Your actions might be able to be traced to causing his, but think about what they actually were. You were rescuing people from slavery and he was trying to prevent you. He was trying to enslave people and from there he decided killing people would make it easier to enslave people."
She was silent a moment before continuing.
"As for is it worth it? I think so. Not only did you rescue people tonight, but you will have prevented more from being in the same position in the future."
I felt lighter after that. I still wasn't wholly convinced, but it made sense. Doing nothing felt like it would be the worse outcome. I just needed to find ways to prevent death like that in the future.
"Thank you." I sped up and angled towards the bay.
I didn't need someone with flashlight this time since the rig had several spotlights that reached to the sky, a beacon to let people know the heroes were there and looking out for us.
A pair of PRT officers were waiting just inside the shield by the bridge and I made my way over to them. I dropped Miss Militia and her motorcycle down, brought Oni Lee in close, and made my way into the shielded area.
Miss Militia wheeled the motorcycle just inside the shield and let it rest on the kickstand. "I'll come back for it later. Let's get Oni Lee settled."
With that she motioned to follow her and headed inside. It was much the same, but we bypassed the front desk and I wasn't given a visitor pass.
"Oh, I never removed all his grenades and knives. Want that now, or when we get to the cells?"
"Once we get down, there is an area before the cells that we can get him ready for holding."
We went into an elevator and headed down. I tried not to pry too much at everyone here, but I could see Armsmaster in his lab working on some box like thing that was about half his height. It didn't look like Dauntless was on site. There was one man in a costume leaning back with his feet on a table and drinking something from a can. That would either be Assault or Velocity. Battery was the last person and she appeared to be off site or out of costume.
The elevator opened and a few turns later we were let into what seemed like an atrium before the holding cells behind a double set of solid steel doors. I pulled out the weapons that Oni Lee had stashed, in the case of his knife, pulling it right out of his hand, and handing them over to a guard.
We brought him over and one of the cell doors, another block of steel, opened and I floated him in. When they closed the door I released him. He looked around and teleported a few times before settling down and sitting on the floor.
"I guess that's that." I looked to the cell across from Oni Lee, Hookwolf was in that cell. He was lying on the bed on his back with his eyes closed. Cricket was in the next cell over and doing push-ups.
"What's going to happen to them?" I motioned to the cells.
"Cricket has an arraignment coming up. Hookwolf is already slated for the Birdcage. We're prepping transport but I can't give time frames."
The Birdcage was the nickname for a prison, who's name I couldn't remember, that held only the worst of the worst capes. It was a one way prison and no one knew where it was even located.
Miss Militia turned and headed out. "Let's go, there two last things I want to talk to you about."
"What about?"
"The first is just to let you know that Armsmaster is working on another test they want to have you run. It won't be ready this weekend, but maybe by the next. We want to get a schedule with you for it. Something about safely testing your black hole on actual matter."
"I already have. That window from tonight I slice out to reach Kendra's room." I wasn't sure what the big deal about that was but Miss Militia stopped walking for a moment.
"They were very nervous about testing that. I think it would be best if you didn't do that unless it is an emergency. They are paranoid about radiation." She started walking again.
"Oh, okay. Shouldn't be too big of a deal." Not like was doing that a whole lot, though I figured I wouldn't mention the demonstration I gave to Glory Girl.
We made it to the elevator and started heading up. "The second thing is a lot more serious. After tonight you have gotten the attention of two of the major gangs in the city. Lung is going to be willing to do just about anything to get his revenge on you. Both for stopping that brothel, but much more importantly you took out his only cape lieutenant and he is not going to be able to let that go.
"Similar to the Empire, though it wasn't quite as bad for them, it was still a hit to their pride. We have intel that there is a bounty on information relating to your identity. Kaiser is willing to pay fifty thousand."
That sent a shock through me. It made it more real that someone was willing to pay to get to me. "If I hadn't come out tonight were you going to tell me?"
"Of course, the text to your phone went out as soon as we got the notice."
I checked my phone for texts for the first time since I had pulled it up from the rock and sure enough there it was, time stamped around the time I was finding the brothel.
PRT: Bounty on you from the Empire. Call us.
"Well, what do I do from here?" I was calming already from the initial shock.
"The most important thing is to not reveal your identity, even to us. All we know is high school girl and it is best to keep it that way. Unless you want to join the Wards, then you come under our aegis more directly and the Empire will be forced to back off."
It was amazing how well she slipped that in. Like it was only an option and not the only option. "Is it best to join? I still don't think I want to."
"Best is relative. If they don't know who you are, then you are only as vulnerable as your armor let's you be. But if they find out, and you aren't a Ward, they would be willing to kidnap family and friends to coerce you. Either to join or otherwise stop you from interfering with them."
We were nearing the front desk by this point and I wasn't sure what to do with this information. It felt surreal to have people that wanted to kill me, but I guess it made sense since I was arresting them. Except something didn't feel right.
"Are you and the rest of the Protectorate in the same spot? What about the police?"
She stopped walking and leaned against the desk. "It has to do with the organizations behind us. If they push too hard, we are able to respond in kind and break them. As long as they aren't backed into a corner they won't lash out at us beyond the encounters where we are actively arresting them. With you, though, there is no organization. If they capture or kill you, no one will be there to respond."
"If you can break them, why not do so now? Why are there gangs right now?" I was getting worked up. That explanation was so wrong to me. Like they were just letting the gangs do what they wanted as long as they were safe.
"Remember asking me if tonight was worth it? Two people died, and as cold as the calculus is I think their deaths were worth the freedom of those women and capture of Oni Lee. But what if it was twenty, or two hundred? Then the math skews against stopping them. That is why we don't push as hard as we can. The fallout would be too much."
That felt so wrong to me. Letting wounds of the city fester because it would be too painful to cleanse the wound. But that analogy hid the reality didn't it? Cleansing the wound was a euphemism for people dying. Could I make that decision for them, like I had tonight for those two? Scaled up, I didn't think so.
"As for joining up, don't make a decision now. Think on it for a few days. As long as no one knows who you are, there is little they can do. But remember that there are a lot of people in the Empire and there is a lot of money on discovering your identity."
"Right." I started towards the exit and Miss Militia followed me. "What about the ABB? Do you think there will be a bounty from there too?"
"No, Lung wouldn't pay for something like that. He is going to order his gang to find you and he will try to kill you. I suspect he will end up in a ball of black hole, just like everyone other brute that tries to attack you. Just don't get caught off guard."
She sounded so nonchalant about that I was thrown. "You're not worried?"
"As long as he doesn't get the drop on you outside of your armor I doubt there is much to worry about. It does feel strange though, I have fought him, and know how dangerous he is, but you just are in a different league altogether. Did you know he started in LA and was thrown out of every city he tried to stop in. I hear that in Houston Eidolon literally threw him out. And then he stopped here…"
And fought off the entire Protectorate team at the time was left unsaid.
"Thank you for the warning, and the advice." I was ready to leave. It had been a long night and I had a lot to think about.
"Feel free to call at any time. Dauntless and I are going to be your main points of contact. Don't forget that testing." She straightened out the motorcycle and lifted the kickstand.
"Right, text me when you know and we can set up a time." I waved to her as I lifted up and out of the shield. She waved back and started walking the motorcycle around the side.
I was halfway home when I realized maybe going out with Victoria on Saturday afternoon wouldn't be the greatest idea. If she shows up with me as a new friend it isn't a Thinker leap of deduction to know who I might be. That would be enough for people to at least start digging deeper.
I pulled out my phone and started writing a text. We needed to make different plans.
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Apr 6, 2023
#403
Victoria didn't respond by the time I needed to drop off the phone, so I headed back after class on Friday. She had responded in the morning with a notice to call her so I found a bench to sit and did so.
She picked up after a few rings. "Hey Tay. I hear you had a busy night last night."
She said it with an overly upbeat tone that I didn't trust. I was just thankful it didn't have the sickly sweet tones that Emma had so perfected.
"I did get into a bit of unexpected trouble. Sorry I didn't reach out, but you said you couldn't do weeknights." I knew I hadn't done anything wrong, but I knew she would be annoyed at being left out of the activities again.
She let a sigh and sounded more calm as she said, "You do seem to be starting a pattern. I just want to be part of that pattern for the next time."
"Well, if we're still on for tomorrow night, then we can see what happens."
"Speaking about Saturday, what is this about needing to cancel so the Empire doesn't maybe find out who you are?"
I gave a short rundown about what Miss Militia and I had talked about with the Empire and the bounty. I also gave my thoughts that it wouldn't be too much of a leap of logic to tie the new friend with the new hero she was spending so much time with.
"Except I haven't yet. Though I can understand how that won't take too long to realize once we really do. Okay, no out of costume at the boardwalk. I would say sleepover, but even I think that would be fast since we haven't spent any time together."
I would be so very uncomfortable going over to her house. It had been years since I had been to Emma's and she was the only person I had done that with.
"I agree. I tried to come up with something to do, but all of plans were dumb. Go somewhere separately and just hang out then leave was my strongest, but even then I didn't know what or where."
She let out a sharp laugh, "I just imagine me in a trench coat, hat, and sunglasses going into a theater. 'Hello stranger, mind if I sit next to you?'"
I smiled a bit at that. "'Not at all, fellow stranger.'" I changed my voice a bit to go with it.
Victoria laughed a bit more at that. "I have an idea, but it is in costume. I need to send some texts, but what would you say to a patrol with the Wards? I bet they would be happy to show you the ropes. I'll tag along and we can make an afternoon of it."
"I wouldn't mind that, but do you know who would be there?"
I wasn't sure I really wanted to meet too many Wards at once. Being the only one who was new would just single me out in a way that felt too close to school even if I knew it would basically be the opposite. I tried to clamp down on the emotional response. So far everything I had experienced from Glory Girl and the heroes was positive.
"I bet Vista would be happy to go and they'll send one of the older ones. My bet is Triumph since he's the leader at the moment and can answer any questions or concerns. They're trying to slow roll you into the Wards if you hadn't noticed."
"Dauntless implied that was what the affiliate program was for." At least, that is how I took it to be. "Miss Militia also suggested that joining would help with the bounty on me. In either case, I think the day patrol would be fine. Did you still want to head out tomorrow night too?"
"I'm not opposed, but a double patrol like that might be draining. Though they will be vastly different, so it might be so bad. Let me make the calls and I'll text you time and place we'll meet up. If it somehow falls through we'll just meet tomorrow night."
"Sounds good."
We said our goodbyes and hung up. I was feeling more relieved with how that had worked out than I was expecting. With a spring in my step I headed back to the rock to place the phone before I realized there was somewhere I needed to be. Also, I needed the phone with me since I was expecting Victoria to text me. I am really not used to having a phone.
I reached the rock anyway since it was a good place out of sight, formed my armor, and took to the skies. A quick jaunt over to the hospital to find out if Mr. Lor had pulled through.
As I neared the hospital I found myself getting nervous. The nurse had sounded hopeful, even if she couldn't say anything outright, but even so I knew complications can happen. I landed in front of the entrance and got a lot of stares as I floated in.
There was a few people in a line that sorted to a couple of attendants checking people in. I went to the back of the line, the old woman in front of me not noticing, even with the whispers around the lobby.
"Uh, hello, can I help you?" One of attendants asked.
"No rush, just need to ask about a patient." I said.
"If you're sure..." She went back to checking in the person she was already working with, who couldn't keep his eyes off me, with a slightly open mouth. It took her a moment to get his attention to finish up.
The woman in front of me craned her neck to look at me, gave me a once over, and turned back.
It took a few minutes to work my way to the front but soon enough it was my turn next.
"How can I help you." She sounded like she was nervous and excited all at once.
"I was hoping to find out the status of Mr. Lor. He was a stabbing victim I brought in last night."
"Of course, let me just look him up." She tapped away at her computer for a minute. "Here we are. Says he is in stable but serious condition. I can't give out more information without consent from the patient."
There was a massive weight that lifted off my shoulders. "Thank you. I am glad to hear that."
"Always a pleasure to give out good news." She focused back on me and her demeanor became a little more nervous, or perhaps shy. "I was wondering, if it wouldn't be too much of an imposition, if I could have your autograph?"
I was caught off guard from that. It never occurred to me that anyone would want an autograph from me. "You know who I am?"
"Besides being the talk of the hospital for bringing in those women and victims from last night? You have been the talk of the local news for bringing in all those villains. It is exciting to meet you, Event Horizon." She said my name with a slightly weird emphasis, as though she was testing out the words.
"Sure, I guess you get my first ever autograph. Umm, do you have something I can write on, and with?"
She scrambled for a pen from a jar and grabbed a blank sheet from the printer tray near her. "Here, can you make it out to Evelyn?"
"A police captain called me Eve on my first night out. Did you want me to sign it to Eve from Eve?"
Her smile got even wider, "Oh yes! That sounds perfect."
I scrawled out "To my first fan Eve, from Eve". Then I signed it Event Horizon in something that looked cursive-y. I would need to work on that if this kept up. There were some capes out there that had truly impressive signatures.
"Here you go." I lifted the paper in a field and floated it over to her and she plucked it out of the air with an excited laugh.
"Thank you so much, this is getting framed and put on my dresser."
I gave a wave as I floated out smiling the whole way. I was thankful though that no one else wanted a signature. I could imagine either being stuck there for a while or needing to disappoint people.
As I headed back towards the rock I checked my phone and saw a couple texts from Victoria. It was tomorrow at 11AM and we would meet on the roof of a department store and patrol from there for a few hours, breaking for lunch around 12:30. They would be buying lunch and it was Triumph who would be in charge.
I responded that I would be there and hid the phone away and headed home.
I still hadn't told Dad that I would be out for the afternoon, but with the way the times worked out it should be fine to just tell him I would be at the library for homework.
When we sat down for a dinner of reheated leftovers I brought it up.
"Did you want me to drive you out there? I wasn't planning on going to work, but if I am out there I might put in a few hours and I can pick you up on the way home." He sounded almost hopeful and it was really sad that I wasn't sure if it was to help me out and spend a little time with me or that he had a reason to go in to work.
"I was planning on taking the bus…" I trailed off a little and watched as his expression fell a little bit. "But if you're offering, I'll take you up on it." He looked happier at that.
It would put me in a weird spot where I would need to go back most of the way home to get the phone just to head back to the Boardwalk, but it wasn't too much of a problem.
We spent the rest of the meal in a mutual silence and after we cleaned up he plopped onto the couch to watch the news for a bit.
I headed up to my room and tried to read but kept finding myself distracted thinking about tomorrow. After an hour I gave it up and decided to call it an early night.
I followed my morning routine as normal. A run to try and get into some semblance of shape. Before I had gained powers I had a bit of a paunch to go with my stick thin frame and decided that a hero does not have a flabby form, even if my power would let me be sedentary. After the run I did a few push-ups and sit-ups to round out some form of muscle gain and then took a shower.
I gathered up a few school papers into my backpack to make it look like I was going to do work. This left me with almost two hours to wait before heading to the library around ten thirty. I tried reading a bit, but similar to the night before I was too distracted from excitement, or nerves, to really concentrate.
I didn't really find a good way to pass the time, just stayed calm enough to not draw Dad's attention since being nervous or excited for going to the library for school would stand out; I should be bored or annoyed.
Eventually the time rolled around and we got in Dad's pickup truck and headed out. My head was leaned against the window as we went into the heart of the city and I started really seeing the dilapidation.
Houses with boards over their windows, paint stripped in uneven patterns, lawns overgrown and littered with decaying detritus. One house I saw had the roof partially collapsed.
I pulled my head off the glass and looked towards Dad, "Hey Dad?"
"What's up?" He gave a fast glance at me then kept his eyes on the road.
"What would it take to help the city?" I wasn't sure that was even the right question, or where I was going with this.
"What do mean help?" He clearly thought so too.
"I'm not sure, but just… Let people fix up their houses. Get off on drugs. Get out of the gangs? Everything?"
"Wow, that is a heavy direction. What brought this on?"
"I don't know, really. Just want a broader perspective maybe?"
"It is a good thing to think about, most kids start thinking about that at some point. Not even sure if you're early, late, or on time. Anyway, there is more factors than I can think of I am sure, but in my view a steady job, or at least a source of income, is the most important. People need food and shelter and safety and we get those with money. A job is the simplest way to earn the money."
"So what, everyone who is in a gang is jobless, drug addicts just need to be given an income and they will stop?"
A sad look came over his face and he spoke with a reminiscent tone. "I had a similar talk with your mom, many years ago. It isn't that drug addicts will stop using with a job, especially since most people have differing reasons for finding drugs in the first place. However, one story that always stuck with me was about Vietnam vets. Heroin usage was rampant in the military there, but upon returning stateside the addiction rate plummeted, even amongst those that tried using it again. The prevailing idea is that without the conditions of that war, there was almost no need to escape reality in the haze of a heroin high."
"So it isn't having money or not, but the conditions people are in that lead to drug usage?" I guess I could see that.
"Don't take that as the be all end all of drug usage. Teenagers trying something soft and moving to harder drugs later is a thing. So is the marketing executive or movie star binging cocaine. Some people just like drugs, I imagine. But for the conditions, most people who live somewhere and find drugs to be a respite from their living conditions aren't really in a position to escape to better conditions like Vietnam vets coming home."
"And jobs can help with that?"
"Of course, money might not buy happiness, but it can certainly clear to the way of a lot of obstacles. You know we aren't the best off, but I make sure we aren't worried when our next meal is going to be, or that the power or water will be shutoff next month. Imagine a single mother trying to balance feeing their kid with paying for medicine or electricity, or even just paying rent for the month. That is a lot of stress for anyone and getting lost in a high can just… make it go away."
"So is that just the answer? Get everyone a job and a lot of problems will solve themselves?"
"It was something Annette pointed out to me. A lot of the problems you mentioned: gangs, housing, some drugs. Higher income areas just don't have those kinds of issues. They have a lot of different issues, but otherwise there is a direct relation between income and how little of those issues exist."
"So what happened here?" I was pretty sure I knew the general reason, but I had never really known beyond the occasional semi-drunk rant Dad would have.
"For Brockton Bay it was shipping. That was the main driver of a huge number of jobs. Everyone that had to load and unload the ships. That was us dockworkers by the way. But then everything dealing with the trains and semi-trucks that handled the cargo. There was also all the hotels and restaurants and other services to handle all the boat crews. That's thousands of jobs for everything. That was enough to build this city."
He sounded nostalgic recounting how things were; and sad that is was all gone.
"So it all died with the boat graveyard?" That was a bunch of ships that had been sunk or otherwise abandoned North of the bay, blocking the way for most ships to make it to the dockyard.
"Other way around. The ships there were left to rot, or in one case, sunk as a response to not having the shipping come through the city anymore. It was before Leviathan. Before parahumans really. The decline started in the early 80's when docks started moving to more centralized mega docks. For better efficiency they said, without caring about the effects it had on the people that lived by the smaller yards."
Now bitterness and anger were the only emotions he had.
"So even clearing the graveyard wouldn't help?" I hadn't thought about it before, but I could clear it without any trouble. I felt a stab of irony that the first time I thought about it I learn it wouldn't even matter.
"Well, it wouldn't hurt, but Boston and New York still would have all the ships go through there."
"So we're just stuck? No industry that can help the city. We just wallow in our filth until what? We all die?" I couldn't believe it was as bleak as that and my tone was bitter to match the disgust I felt with that answer.
"No, of course not. I fight to find jobs for the union, Medhall is providing a fair number of jobs alone. There are ways, but neither ABB nor the Empire want a happy, healthy populous. Gangs form and recruit from the discontent. Or they do normally. I hear that Lung forcibly recruits everyone of age and Asian descent into some part of the gang. Speaking of, did you hear about that new hero? Eve... something, she captured Oni Lee and Hookwolf in the last week? Just saw something about it last night."
A spike of worry went through my spine at that question. I didn't want to give away that I was a cape at all. I had paused a little too long and Dad asked, "Taylor?"
"Ah, no. I don't keep up with cape stuff beyond what school wants us to do a report on. I was thinking about the jobs and stuff. Good to hear that they're off the streets though."
"Yes it is. A good start I say. Anyway, we're about there, do you have everything?"
"Yep. I'll call you from the library phone when I am ready to be picked up. And if you want to head home before I call, don't worry I can take the bus home. Probably around three or four."
He pulled up to the curb a little ways from the front entrance and let me get out. I waved him off and headed to the steps, lost in thought.
I might not be in a position to help with adding jobs to the city, but I was in a prime position to work towards breaking the gangs. I was even meeting up with people who pretty much had that as their job description.
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Apr 13, 2023
#429
I headed into the library as Dad drove away. In a sudden burst of paranoia that someone would notice me turning around and leaving in a suspicious manner I went to the fantasy section and grabbed the first thing that caught my eye.
Checking out and putting the book in my backpack I headed out and around the back. With the knowledge no one could see me I formed my armor and stayed below the building height as I moved away from the library.
A block or so out and I went up and flew on a curving path back to where the phone was hidden. Knowing people could easily see a black shape in the clear blue sky I stayed just above building height and went pretty quick.
I was lifting the boulder even as I landed, swapping out my backpack for the phone and taking off. It took less than ten seconds to swap and I figured no one would be able to see exactly where anything was.
I headed back to the boardwalk on a different curved path, taking a quick look at the phone to see the time; I was going to be a bit early.
Even so, Glory Girl was already waiting for me and gave a wave when she saw me. I settled down on the roof near her, floating just a few inches off the ground; same as she was.
"Hey, capture any supervillains on your way over?" She had a smile and easy tone to ease the bite. I took it in the good humor it was meant as and found I was proud of myself for not associating that with the way Emma would dig at me.
"I was planning on it, but you sounded so adamant about joining the next I figured I wouldn't spoil it for you."
She let out a quick laugh. "Looking forward to it. I haven't really put anyone big away. Just muggers and the like."
I felt a bit of excitement. For once I was actually aiming to hit someone with powers instead of just stumbling around until I found something to do.
Actually, I still don't have a plan to do anything other than that.
"Do you have a place we can start to find these 'big players'? Because I don't."
"Nope." The smile never left her face. "We'll figure something out. Maybe shake down a few Nazis and find where they keep things. Who knows?"
"You make it sound like they'll fall into our lap."
"Eh. You have two blocks of vision, we can find a drug or weapon stash and hang around until someone comes to defend it. There, plan complete."
It was more of a general direction, but more than I had a moment ago. "We can flesh it out later. Any idea when the Wards are supposed to arrive?"
"Soon, but you know teenagers. Never on time." She gave me a smirk.
A glance at the phone told me it was a few minutes passed eleven. I looked out from our rooftop towards the PRT HQ, where the Wards were stationed. I noticed people below us were pointing and taking pictures. I knew it would happen, but it still felt so weird to be the center of attention.
"Do you ever get used to it?" I pointed down at the people.
"I guess I never really expected anything different. Mom was a known hero, you know, and everyone was just waiting for me to get powers. Joining the family business of public capes always has me in the limelight to some extent." She smiled and waved at them and I copied her with a wave of my own.
I needed to differentiate my persona as Event Horizon from Taylor. I could be confident at a few pictures and signatures. I had grabbed a sharpie from my bag just in case it came up.
It was then I felt the edges of my range start to warp. "They're here." I pointed towards where Vista was coming from.
She was coming in in style. A slow, sauntering walk that gave her time to bring the roof of each building together like the arch of a bridge. One step and she covered a whole street and was across to the next building. The same trick to go from one end of the roof to the next.
She had Mr. Wiggles in her arms and he looked very happy, tail wagging and tongue lolling about as he looked around the quickly changing landscape.
Triumph was keeping up, but wasn't nearly as confident walking from one building to the other. He was careful with his footing and had slight hops to his walk to make sure he made it.
The edge of the roof we were on stretched out to meet the roof that Vista was on. They stepped up, were suddenly in front of us, and everything was back to normal.
Vista leaned back a bit and gave a little up nod. "Sup?"
I settled down to a walk since it felt weird floating when they were walking. "Hey, good to see you again. You too Mr. Wiggles."
I reached out, brought the armor around my hand back to the wrist and gave him a few scratches behind the ears before pulling back and reforming the armor. He had on a set of goggles that were clear glassed but had the same color green as Vista's visor for the bands and frames.
Glory Girl landed next to me and said, "Nice entrance. Strong confidence. I give it top marks."
Vista looked at her and gave an overly serious nod. "Thanks." It didn't sound like she was enthused with the compliment. It was weird, but I think Vista did not like Glory Girl for some reason. It didn't seem like Glory Girl was anything less than sincere when talking with Vista and sometimes Vista didn't have that same begrudging response. I would have to ask about it later, make sure that Glory Girl wasn't bullying her or something in private. I didn't get that feeling, but something still seemed off.
If Glory Girl noticed, she didn't let it bother her and turned to Triumph and gave a wave, "How's it going?"
"Good. I'm looking forward to finally meeting the newbie bringing in a new supervillain every other night." He turned to me and held out his hand for a shake. "Triumph, good to finally meet you, Event Horizon."
Triumph's power was some sort of sound manipulation that manifested as a loud yell. I had thought it was a pretty weak power when I heard about it a year or so ago. Then I saw a news clip of him yelling at a few muggers running from a victim and bringing them all to their knees, without affecting the mugged man who was between him and the muggers. He had just walked over and zip-tied them up.
I reached out without releasing the armor and gave his hand a shake. "Nice to meet another Ward."
He stood a full head taller than me and wore quite the distinctive outfit. The lion themed helmet made to look like burnished gold was the most eye-catching; a styled mane went down to the neck on the sides and back with his face in the roaring mouth of the lion. It came with a matching breastplate and shoulder pauldrons that also had lions emblazoned on them. Under that was a form fitting body suit that very nicely showed off his muscles.
I tried not to let that distract me. I was here to join them in a patrol, not ogle the leader of the Wards.
"Well, only a Ward for another month or so. Then I'll graduate to a full Protectorate member."
"Yep, going from top dog to bottom b-oy." Glory Girl stuttered slightly at that last word and gave a quick glance at Vista.
"Hah, bottom boy." Vista laughed at him.
Triumph joined her for a moment. "Aegis is welcome to the position, and all the paperwork that Clock and Shadow generate."
"A lot I take it?" I couldn't help but ask. Partially out of genuine curiosity, but also because I liked the sound of his voice. He was literally the most attractive person to talk to me.
"Clock likes to push every boundary he can, if only to see where people push back. He's lucky he's friendly or I would be way more angry." He sounded amused more than annoyed. "Shadow though, I have a template document for excessive force." A look of concern came over him. "Uhh, don't mention that to anyone please. Not a good look."
"Excessive force against a Nazi is the proper amount anyway." Glory Girl spoke up.
"Please don't make me defend Nazis, but excessive force is, definitionally, bad." Triumph said.
"Fine." She threw her hands up. "But I wouldn't have shed a tear if Eve had broken a bone or two at the dog fighting ring. I mean, look at this guy, he needs to be defended with excessive force." She went over and scratched Mr. Wiggles, who responded with yips and licks and tail wagging.
Triumph sighed. "Now you're making me take a stance against Mr. Wiggles. Let's drop it and move on." He looked back to me. "Ready to get started?"
"Yes. What's the plan?"
"We hit the streets and stop anything we see," Vista said. "Though mostly it is going to be us talking to civilians and taking photos with them." She sounded a bit bitter at that.
"Not expecting anything?"
Triumph responded, "At the Boardwalk? No. Maybe a pickpocket, but I doubt we would see a good one. And the enforcers will catch any bad ones."
"I might see a hand going into the wrong pocket. Can I just pick them up or is there a special procedure?"
Glory Girl spoke up, "Make sure you let them finish picking the pocket and getting the item before picking them up. Otherwise it is your word against theirs and it can look real bad making an accusation without evidence. With the item the owner can make a claim and everything will be easy."
"I guess that makes sense but it feels weird letting a crime happen."
"Yeah, but that's the advice Mom gave me when I started patrolling. Always be able to prove a crime before making an accusation."
Her mother was Brandish, the second in charge of New Wave. More important to this conversation she was Carol Dallon, the famous cape lawyer.
"Boring." Vista stated. I saw the ground rise up in my field sense to match the height of the roof. "Race you to the bottom." She took a step back and the ground reverted to normal. I heard a slightly muffled "I win!" come up.
Triumph rolled his eyes and turned to Glory Girl, "Can I get a ride down?"
"No, Dean might get jealous. Let Eve handle the rides." She let out a cackle and flew off to join Vista.
I knew I must have been bright red and was infinitely happy my armor hid it. I tried to stifle any stray thoughts and keep everything calm. Triumph had his face in the palm of his hand when I asked, "Platform or full flight?"
"Either is fine. Whichever is easier." I was just relieved he was as ready as I was to not mention Glory Girl's innuendo.
I picked him up in a field and took off. A short moment later we were joining the others. Glory Girl was smiling as Vista set Mr. Wiggles down and clipped on a leash.
"Took you slow pokes long enough. At least GG didn't get lost."
"Maybe they wanted to?" Glory Girl pushed with a smile.
If I were not in costume I never would have spoken up. "Enough, please. Once was fine, but it feels like you're digging."
"Oh, sorry. I won't anymore." She sounded contrite and I felt myself relax from the tension that had been building up. It had started to feel like Emma.
"It's fine. Thanks. So, where are we headed from here?" I asked, just trying to move on from any awkwardness left.
"That a way!" Vista pointed and started walking without using her powers. Mr. Wiggles was walking to and fro in front of her as we all followed.
We were passing local and chain stores along the Boardwalk. It was the main, and only, tourist trap in the city. Well kept with private security, it ran along the coast for almost two miles. It was also, to my knowledge, not really claimed by any gang. The city worked really hard to make sure it stayed safe and safe looking; it was easily the cleanest part of the city.
It wasn't long before people started coming up and asking for pictures and autographs. Mostly pictures though. I lost track of the number after ten or so and just went with the flow for the next half an hour.
"You really are a natural at this." I said as another group of teenagers wandered away laughing amongst themselves and showing off the pictures they had. I was holding Mr. Wiggles' leash and he was pulling at it trying to reach them as they left.
"Eh, it's easy. They want pictures, I want my picture taken and praise heaped upon me. It's a symbiotic relationship."
"Easy for you maybe," Vista groused. "Did you see that one girl try and pat my head!"
"I saw you flail at her," Triumph said. "You should be more polite and just ask them not to."
"Let's see how you react when someone pats your head." She crossed her arms and glared at him.
"I am a bit taller than most." He sounded a little smug at that and Glory Girl laughed a bit. Then she floated up and over and made to pat him on the head. He very much looked like he wanted to flail at her but was restraining himself.
"There see, a glare to show you are not amused and no flailing needed."
Vista rolled her eyes and gave the most preteen "Whatever" I had heard before.
"I did want to ask about something a lot different." It had been bothering me for the last ten or so minutes, but it was really getting bothersome.
"What's up?" Glory Girl settled down next me and Mr. Wiggles ambled over for fresh scratches, happily provided.
"There have been a few people keeping their distance, but filming and calling. I wouldn't think much of it, but they are definitely trying to be circumspect about it. Also a lot of them have closely shaved heads."
"Nazis." She said with no small amount of vitriol.
"That's what I was thinking too. I think that fifty thousand bounty might be rearing its head. It is just for finding out who I am and I have been known to be startled out of my armor."
"You thinking they're going to try something here?" Triumph asked.
"I wouldn't rule it out. You guys have any ideas what they might try?"
"Train horn as they walk past you?" Vista said.
I thought about it. "If it really catches me off guard it might work. Not sure how to train avoided being startled."
"Practice practice practice." Glory Girl said. "Mom says you can train almost any instinct away."
"Well, now is the wrong time to practice that, but maybe at some point we can find a way to work off my startling problem."
"In that case, it is a little early but do we want to get lunch now?" Triumph asked. "Maybe they will get bored."
"I could go for lunch, but for fifty k I doubt any of them are getting bored." Glory Girl said.
We agreed to a little Italian place that was a ten minute walk and by the time we arrived it was a little before noon. Perfect lunch time really.
We settled into a corner booth. Triumph had me sit with my back to the wall, looking into the rest of the restaurant. He said it would help me see any trouble coming and avoid being shocked out of my armor.
Glory Girl took the seat next to mine and I glanced out the window as Triumph and Vista sat across from us. In a fit of paranoia I added a field like the outer edge of my black hole armor in front of the window. A powerful negative gravity field that acted much like an invincible pane of glass. Vista glanced at it for a moment but didn't say anything.
The restaurant was happy enough to let Mr. Wiggles lay down under the table.
"You going to be able to eat okay?" Vista asked after we had ordered.
"Should be fine, I can just adjust the armor a bit. You two have your lower face revealed, so I'm sure it's fine, but what about the others like Clockblocker, or Kid Win, or uh everyone else actually?" Glory Girl of course didn't wear a mask, being an open cape.
"Kid Win has his lower face open too actually. He says it's more personable but I think he's just imitating Armsmaster." Vista said. "But yeah, everyone else can't really eat like this during a patrol. They have to grab a snack bar in a bathroom or something."
"Sound miserable. Not like this delicious place. All the more so that the tab is on the PRT's dime." Glory Girl said.
"Thanks for that by the way. Nice of you guys to let me join you." I said.
Triumph answered, "I think they're more than happy to cover the bill if you'll join us for a patrol again. Not to push too hard, but they really want you to join and we're putting our best foot forward."
Interesting swap from they to we, but I let it go without much thought.
"So I've been told. You guys have been great. I guess I am just hesitant to join, no offense, a clique of people I don't know."
"Had some bad experiences?" Glory Girl sounded sympathetic to my explanation.
"Yes." I left it at that.
"Well, we're all pretty cool and nice. Mostly." Vista added that last bit under her breath and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to hear it or not. I chose to ignore it for now, but I would keep it in mind before I made any final decisions.
"The Nazis are in position with a camera to see us through the window." I gave a nod out the window, but I wasn't sure they would be able to see anything. The Nazis had a camera inside the shop across the street and were aiming it out a window.
"Not much we can do. They aren't breaking any laws. Though if they out one of you two, there would be hell to pay." Glory Girl waved generally to Triumph and Vista.
Vista laughed a bit, "They wouldn't dare."
"But they would with me, unless I join?"
Triumph nodded, "It isn't fair, but there isn't a law about outing capes in general, just against members of the Protectorate and Wards."
I gave a small hum. "Cops get special rights?"
"Yep." Glory Girl jumped in. "Mom complains about it a lot too." She looked over at the two across from us.
Triumph bristled a bit at that and I jumped in to change the topic before it could get too heated. "What does it take to bring down a gang?"
That snapped everyone at the table out of whatever they were thinking of.
"What?" Triumph looked caught off guard.
"If I wanted to dismantle The Empire, what would need to happen? Is it just take down their capes, or do I need to do more?"
Even as I said that, a motorcycle with two skinheads riding it came into my view. The one in the back had a brick in his hand. I thought about doing something malicious like grabbing the wheel for a moment to skid the bike, or twist the handle bars, or something. I decided against it, less for how the riders might be hurt and more that if they tried to blame it on me I would rather I actually didn't have anything to do with it.
It was brick anyway, they weren't going to get through my paranoia with it.
"The capes are only half the solution. There were gangs before them, and even if they're rarer, there are still gangs without them." Triumph sounded confident in his answer. "It's the money that keeps the gang together, and what you need to take from them to finish it off."
"So what, steal from them?" I asked.
"No, that is illegal too. You can report illicit goods to the PRT or the police and each haul is a little less they have. The Empire is famous for gun running, but they sell drugs and women just like any other large scale gang. Protection rackets too I bet."
"Brick." I said and pointed to the window just as the Nazis threw it at the window.
"What?" He looked where I pointed anyway and we all saw as the brick hit my field and bounced back a bit and fell. It didn't even break more than a few crumbs on the edge that hit the ground.
We all stared at the brick for a moment. No sound had made it across my barrier so it was a little surreal to see it happen like a muted video.
"Very anticlimactic. Zero out of ten for startling." Glory Girl said.
I turned back to Triumph, "You're pretty knowledgeable about that."
"I was curious too, and asked the same questions you are now. This is mostly what I came up with. I just don't have a way to do anything at large scale. That's why I think the PRT is the best to handle the cape side. We just aren't the people that investigate the non-cape side of things. That is the purview of the police, or even the FBI. It gets messy jurisdiction wise because of that. We need more cooperation between the organizations. But that is a different discussion."
"Right, so find their money, guns, drugs, and have the police collect it. Do they keep it in a giant pile somewhere?"
"There might be a few caches of guns in the city before they get shipped out and around. Drugs too. They are suspected to be laundering large sums of money, so I wouldn't expect those giant cubes of cash lying around."
"I guess the PRT doesn't know where any are, you would pick them up."
"Yes."
Food arrived then and we all dug in.
The Nazis hung around for the meal but didn't try anything more. As I finished up I asked a question to the table. "Did you guys want to follow the Nazis after this and see if we can track down anything interesting?"
Triumph looked over to Vista who had a very excited look on her face. "We can't. It is considered too dangerous to go following gang members like that."
"Lame." Vista said in a huff and crossed her arms.
"Well, good thing I'm not a Ward then, because I would love to join you." Glory Girl had a huge smile when she said that.
Last edited: Apr 13, 2023
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timelost
timelost
Apr 20, 2023
#473
"So do you have any advice besides follow them and see what we find?" I asked Triumph.
"I think officially I have to recommend that you don't, but realistically you're a black scar on a blue sky in the afternoon. It will be hard to be circumspect."
"That does put a wrench in my grand plan." Glory Girl said. "Maybe we can be sneaky. Stay low and keep out of sight? Or wait until tonight, but then the ones following you now will be out of reach."
"Split the party." Vista said. "Have Eve draw their attention and you can follow from the ground." She forked a half meatball and fed it to Mr. Wiggles.
"Maybe, but we're trying to find out where they go and if we do that they're going to be following her. And me following them following her doesn't get us very far."
"No, but it can." Triumph sounded like he had an epiphany. "Event Horizon makes it look like she is going home for the day and the Nazis following her won't be able to follow fast enough. When you're out of sight and they can't find you again they'll have to give up."
"At which point I can follow as they leave. I just need to not lose them." Glory Girl leaned in and looked just as excited as Triumph.
"Once we're sure they are going home and you're following them, I can loop around and stay low." I liked this plan more than just hoping for the best tonight.
"Maybe, but you're still really visible. We also don't know if they'll go somewhere useful or just call in that they lost you and go home. If they go somewhere useful that I follow them, then tonight we meet back up there and bust it up."
I guess we are still hoping for the best.
"What do we do if they don't go somewhere interesting?"
"We fall back to plan A of looking around."
"If you do find something, call it in ahead of time and you can coordinate with the Protectorate." Triumph leaned back a bit and took a sip of his drink while looking lost in thought. "Maybe we can get you a better chance." He trailed off a bit and we let him think for a minute.
He leaned forward and looked more intent than before. "Okay, we still have a couple hours of this patrol scheduled to wander the Boardwalk. We keep doing that for now, but GG leaves early, like half an hour, enough time for them to stop thinking about it. Then she can get a good chance of following the followers."
"I call it like normal and head away and it follows as discussed. But that doesn't help ensure them going to a what? A weapons cache?" It might give a better chance of Glory Girl not being seen, but it doesn't help with where they go.
"No, I am not sure there is a way to force them to a stash. If the upper echelon of the Empire is smart they would give orders to not gather at a stash. Probably a bar and then they'll just go home."
"If they were smart they wouldn't be gang members." Vista said with contempt on her voice and took a long pull of milkshake.
"Careful of underestimating the people you are facing. People are people no matter their profession and some gangsters are very smart." Glory Girl said.
"Your mom tell you that?" Vista replied, her voice tinged with a bit of mocking tone.
"Yes, in fact. I trust her to know some things after more than twenty years doing this."
"We're losing the plot here." I said to try and avoid them start sniping at each other. Vista looked like she was about to snap back. "We need to find a way to find an important location to the Empire. Any ideas?"
"You could pick one of them up and shake them until a cape comes running." Glory Girl suggested with a laugh.
"No!" Triumph almost snapped at her. He turned back to me. "Don't use your power to initiate anything. If they aren't breaking the law then it is assault with a parahuman power and we will be forced to intervene. Please don't do anything to put yourself against us."
"Agreed." I said. I leaned back and sighed. It really did seem like there wasn't a good way to force them to reveal something of importance. Just follow and hope for the best was a real shit plan though.
I let my thoughts run while everyone went back the to the last bits of food. I drank down the last of my water and swirled the ice a bit, trying to come up with anything. The goal was theoretically simple, remove the capacity for the gangs to produce money. In practice they had been around since before I was born. It was even a legacy.
Kaiser was the current leader of the Empire, but his father, Allfather was the one who formed the gang. Any organization that lasted that long had to know tricks to avoid law enforcement. I was basically acting as a cop in this case. Trying to track down their wares in the city and turning it over.
"How do cops do this?" If we were acting like cops, following their methods might make more sense.
"Go under cover and sometimes die." Glory Girl said in a dry tone.
Maybe not.
"That isn't everything they do." Vista affected a similar tone. "They also stake out known drug dealers and sometimes die."
"Now you're just being morbid." I said with a roll of my eyes.
"No, no." Triumph was struggling not to smile and keep his tone even. "They also follow the money." He paused for just a moment.
"And sometimes die," We all said.
"But more seriously, following suspected members and hoping they lead to someone higher in the chain is one of the major ways. They just expect it to takes weeks and months, not an afternoon and hoping to stumble into the whole of the org."
"And undercover really isn't an option." I said. "Okay, I can't think of anything better. I'm ready to get back to it."
Back on patrol was much like before lunch; photos and autographs. At some point, Glory Girl reach over and touched my shoulder, "Tag", and flew off a few feet. Just out of reach.
I tapped Vista and took off next to Glory Girl. I was expecting her to tag Triumph but instead the world warped and she tapped Glory Girl on her back shoulder with a "Tag".
I backed up from her and she got a predatory look in her eyes with a smile to match. She rushed after me and I had to amp the g's to twist away. She juked hard and without even turning her body she reached out and tapped me. "Hah! Gotcha!"
That set off a short back and forth that pushed my mobility for the first time. Twisting and turning to keep up with Glory Girl made me think of gravity in a different way for fast maneuvering. The big issue was that unless I over ramped the force of the field there was a lag time from forming the field and really starting to move in the new heading. I had to balance power with the amount of sudden speed changes I needed to avoid her.
We stayed low to the ground, just above heads to avoid people, and kept nearby Triumph and Vista as they kept their patrol up.
"Mommy! I want to fly!" A precocious girl yelled out and started tugging on her mother's dress with one hand and pointing over to me and Glory Girl with the other. She looked maybe ten, had blonde pigtails, and wore a dress similar in style to her mom's.
Glory Girl flew down to her and spoke to her mom for a moment. The girl got even more excited when the mom nodded with a smile. Glory Girl picked the girl up and set her on her shoulders. She lifted off carefully and flew back to me.
The little girl was laughing and clapping wildly and people below were, predictably, taking video and pictures.
"Hey, Jasmine, this here is my newest cape friend, Event Horizon."
"She seems a little preoccupied." I waved anyway, but wasn't expecting much. Jasmine was looking around and I doubt she heard a thing.
"Higher!" She pointed up to the sky.
"Sorry kiddo, your mom said not too high and I figure this is about the right height."
"Awwww."
Glory Girl did a slow spin and tilted forward just a little and Jasmine forgot she was sad and went back to laughing.
A few minutes of that and Glory Girl said, "Well, that was fun. Let's head back."
I followed her down and watched as she posed with Jasmine for a photo or three and then handed her back. She waved to the pair and I asked, "How often do you do that?"
"Not very, have to be careful. Do it once, and every kid in a mile radius thinks they can fly with you. It gets tiresome turning down everyone so I try to avoid it. In fact here is the first one."
Indeed a dad with a very put upon expression was being dragged over by his son. "Can I fly too?" He looked even younger than Jasmine had.
"Sorry kid, one child per day is my limit. But Event Horizon here would be happy to."
His expression went from despair to such joy that even my mild annoyance that she was foisting this kid off on me I couldn't be too upset.
I looked over to the dad, "If you're okay with it I can float him around a bit."
A closer look and the guy was a little off putting. He was taller than Triumph, but thin, almost wasting away. His hair was greasy and shoulder length and his eyes were twitching around a bit and instead of put upon as his expression, I think it was more distracted. He was keeping half an eye on his phone but agreed fast. "Yes, please let him."
It sounded off somehow that I couldn't place and it put me on edge, but with his permission I turned to the kid, bending down to talk to him. "What's your name?"
"David." He said, looking so excited to fly it made me think of the first time I took flight and the sense of utter freedom it imparted.
I was smiling as I reached my hand out in a bit of showmanship. "Alright, get ready."
I formed a field around David and let it go to zero gravity and as he tried to get traction as he lost the feeling of being pulled down it pushed him off the ground a bit. I let him keep that slight momentum and had the field follow him as he slowly rose.
He let out some laughs and other excited sounds as he flailed his arms and legs to try and move around. I gave a slight tilt that had him 'falling' horizontal very slowly.
"Faster! Higher!" He yelled.
I obliged him and gave the field a slight upwards tilt and a little stronger horizontal one. The father started taking a video with his phone. I didn't want to judge, but the phone looked really high end, for what little I knew of phones, but his clothing was pretty threadbare. A hoodie with a few holes in it and ancient jeans with shredded cuffs. David wasn't wearing much better.
A few pictures later and he said. "Okay David, time to go. We have places to be."
Dave looked like he might cry so I decided to try and pull a Glory Girl with a distraction. I turned the field so he did a back flip and then reoriented his feet towards the ground. It was a enough to stem the tide of tears. As I lowered him to the ground the father asked, "Can I get a photo with you both in it?"
"Of course." I kneeled down and the dad took a close up picture. Then he shifted slightly and took another. It wasn't too weird, taking multiple pictures like that, but he seemed more focused on me than his kid and my paranoia was flaring again. I just didn't have anything specific to bring up.
Watching them head out I turned to Glory Girl as Triumph and Vista finally joined us. "How nice was that phone?"
"Top of the line. Very expensive." She also sounded a little wary and was looking after the guy as he walked away.
"Why, are you looking to upgrade your Protectorate one?" Vista sounded like she was teasing.
"No, just getting paranoid. He was taking more pictures of me than his kid. I am tracking him, can we discreetly follow him?"
"It is a little strange for us to follow without a reason." Triumph said. "But you're going to anyway, so we'll run interference if needed. Right Vista?"
"Absolutely we will."
I guided us on an oblique angle to try and make it look like we weren't following the man. It was a good idea as he kept looking back at us as he walked away. A few minutes and he took a last look and went into an alley that put him out of sight.
I turned us a bit to keep him in my range as he moved farther away around a second turn that put him in the next street over. He walked up to a car and knocked once while looking around. The window rolled down and the man inside was ready with a bill that he handed over while David's father handed the phone over.
"Fuck, it was a plant." I said. "He just handed the phone over to a guy in a car. It's starting to drive off."
I thought about destroying the phone, but that would give away that we knew we were on to the them and this was a prime moment to track them unawares. I balanced that with the idea that all they had at worst were my eyes and maybe a few words on a recording.
"Well, we can't lose it." Glory Girl said. "Tag!" she yelled loudly, tapped me, and flew off in the direction that she last saw the man turn down the alley.
I followed after her and tagged her without much trouble then angled towards the car and went higher making sure it didn't leave my range. I pointed it out the next time she tagged me and we flew a little lower.
"I have it, but you are too visible to follow." She said. "We go with Plan B from the diner. I'll call you later with what I have."
I really wanted to follow myself since I would be able to track it better, but she was right. "Agreed." I waved at her and turned back towards the Wards. I watched as she flew away a bit and went under the building line. It gave me anxiety to think she would lose it but I had to trust her.
Landing by Vista I said, "Glory Girl is going to follow like we discussed. Let's give the Nazis watching the rest of the patrol."
We wandered the board walk and I tried to keep my nerves calm. It was hard; I kept tensing up and looking off in the direction Glory Girl had gone.
"Stop that." Triumph said with an understanding tone. "I know you want to jump off and go, but working yourself up now will make everything harder later. You have to accept that she will succeed or not, and it's out of your hands for now."
I realized I was floating from anxiety and settled back down.
"I know, but it just feels so wrong, to be not in control like this. Every other time there was something to do, I was the one doing it."
"Trust is hard, but one of the most important things a team can have. And that is what you two are forming to be, at least for tonight."
He was right. I needed to put my trust in Glory Girl but it was so hard to do that. Trust after the last two years had done everything to drag me down and grind away that capacity.
I was floating again without meaning to, as though drawn to where I thought she was. I bobbed once and said, "Thanks, you're right. I can wait. How much longer on the patrol? At least I can try and use it to keep my mind occupied." I settled back down.
"We can call it at any point by now really." Triumph looked around and I followed his gaze. The crowds didn't seem any smaller. It was still early afternoon and plenty of shopper would just be starting their day.
"I don't think I ever asked what our job is besides photos and looking good."
"No, that's pretty much it," Vista said. "We remind people that there are capes that are here to help them and not just those who are trying to ruin the city."
"Is that really it?" I turned to face her. It struck me as fundamentally wrong that this outing didn't have a deeper meaning. It didn't occur to me to see it like that before, though I hadn't really thought about it. Was that it? Look good and give a facsimile of safety?
"For a day patrol like this? Yeah. Can't have the Wards in visible danger. But we do show up to calls with the Protectorate or do non-PR patrols."
"We wanted to make sure the first outing together didn't have any reason to go sideways on us." Triumph said. "The Nazis didn't help, but otherwise I think this went swimmingly. You're more than a name on a news report now. People can see that you're a hero and here to help and that the Protectorate considers you an ally."
It made some amount of sense to be in the public eye I suppose. It might make people who see me know they can count on me rather than being a total unknown.
"I am good to continue for now."
We kept walking for maybe thirty minutes. We made it to the end of the Boardwalk proper and turned back to head to where we started.
It was around then that my phone rang. There weren't many people it could be and Vista was next to me giving Mr. Wiggles some water in a bowl she had formed using her power and the sidewalk.
"Hey Glory Girl-"
"They spotted me and Rune is following me!" It was loud enough that Triumph was able to hear even from a few feet away.
He looked over and said, "Go! We'll call it in on our end and get someone to join you. There is no way Rune will be alone for long."
Rune was one of the teenage capes the Empire had. Like an evil Ward. Her power was to control objects after having gained control of them. Somehow. The research I had done was vague on that part. She generally used them to fly and to throw things at people. Things being huge hunks of infrastructure. There was one account of her using a streetlight as a baseball bat.
I took to the air, "Where am I headed?" I went above the skyline to give me the straightest shot to her I could think of.
"South East, maybe a mile inland." I heard a woosh sound come through the receiver. "Hey bitch! Can't you see I am on the phone!" At least if she was bantering she wasn't hurt.
Those directions opened up a huge swath of the city to try and find her. "Are you high enough for me to see?" I was already across the bay and hitting land. The area was roughly where the dog fighting took place and looked even more dilapidated in the day.
"I am in the air, but I don't know where to give better directions."
"Look to the bay." I formed a checkerboard field of black holes deeper inland, circles off one corner and triangles off the other. "What shape do you see?"
"Oh shit! Uhh, mostly circles, but some squares."
I rotated until… "There, all squares." And headed off at high speed and accelerating.
It took maybe ten seconds before I saw them and slowed down. I pulled up next to Glory Girl and said, "Hey, what's the plan?"
Rune was far enough away that she was out of my range. She was standing on a giant street dumpster and had a massive hunk of what looked like the side of a brick building circling around her. There were two manhole covers held in front of her.
"I have just been dodging those fucking manhole covers and calling you. She is quick enough with that wall side to block me from getting close."
Rune flipped us off and sent the manhole covers screaming at us. I grabbed them as they came into range and ramped the field high enough to lock them in place. I assumed she tried to pull them back, but they didn't budge.
She turned and flew off at surprising speed. I followed after her at higher speed and Glory Girl followed with me.
Just as Rune came into range a ghost with a lance came into my vision and tried to spear me through the eye. I juked to the side, thankful of the impromptu training with Glory Girl earlier, and saw as two more ghosts were coming up from behind me.
Crusader had come on scene and it appeared that his ghosts were completely invisible to my gravity field.
Last edited: Apr 23, 2023
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#513
A lot of thoughts snapped through my mind at that moment. The primary one was:
FUCK!
They had tried to kill me and were still trying.
I suppressed all of the thoughts that were about how close to death I had been and went into analytics mode.
Crusader was able to generate six to ten ghosts that could fly. They were known to be able to ignore all inorganic material, which let them fly through walls and clothes and such, but were solid to organic material, which let them attack and restrain people.
They were also apparently unaffected by gravity, which is likely why they could fly.
There were two ghosts flying up at me and the one that I had just dodged and there might have been more since I didn't have the omniscience I was used to when it pertained the them. They were wearing a knightly looking armor and had the aforementioned lance in one hand with a kite shield in the other. I could only assume that Crusader himself was in the same getup, but I didn't see anyone in my range that was wearing armor.
I did a quick spin while gaining altitude and noticed that Glory Girl had one in a strangle hold. She squeezed tight and the whole ghost popped like a balloon. At least I knew one of us could handle the ghosts.
I also saw Rune flying away still, going lower to stay around building height. I thought about going after her, but I needed to make sure the ghosts weren't going to jump out and stab me as I flew over the buildings.
I focused on the two ghosts that were flying up to me, the other one was in a wide curve turning towards me; it would be a moment before reaching me. I formed a sheet of the high negative gravity in front of one, the same type I used to prevent the black hole of my armor from touching anything. In front of the other I made a latticework of my armor.
The ghost flew through the sheet of high negative gravity without issue and continued towards me but the ghost with my latticework of armor was minced into chunks that each popped like the one that Glory Girl had squeezed.
That was both excellent and interesting. They really did ignore gravity, except the black hole still affected them. I wonder if it wasn't the gravity, but the shear in physical space that did it.
In either case it meant that my armor was safe, but my air, eye, and sound holes weren't protected. That lance that was aimed for my eye would still have been lethal. Curious that he aimed for it first.
Probably figured it was the best chance to work and he would only get one chance at surprise.
I flew back and up a bit and formed a field of high negative gravity in a latticework for the second ghost. This time though I didn't stop at the hundreds of thousands of gravities I normally used to keep everything away. I pushed further and further until something snapped into place.
A white hole.
It shone like the finest mirror in existence. All the light that hit it spewed back out and in the bright afternoon it seemed to always catch the sun.
When the ghost hit it, it bounced backward like it had run into a wall.
Glory Girl flew in like an avenging valkyrie from behind punched it with so much force that it looked like it folded over itself and rammed into the lattice white hole so hard it was forced in and popped.
I normalized the field for the white hole and Glory Girl joined me as we turned to face the last ghost.
It popped of its own accord.
"I think they're backing off." Glory Girl said.
"No, fuck that. They tried to kill me, we're getting someone today. I'm driving."
I wrapped her in my field and we started falling at ten gravities towards Rune. She was maybe half a mile away but with that kind of acceleration the ground blurred before the first second. By the third second we were almost caught up.
I made the field a zero gravity one so we coasted and after a second started ramping up the gravity away from our 'falling' to slow us down to make sure we didn't fly past Rune.
As she came into my field I grabbed her and her projectiles in their own fields and separated them all.
"Got her." I said.
"Holy shit fuck that was fast! I felt the wind on my shield."
That took me off guard; I wasn't aware she had a shield.
"I thought you were invincible?"
"Ah, through a shield." She made a small kicking motion. "Anyway, we got our Nazi, are we taking her to the Protectorate?"
"We got one yes, what about a second Nazi?" She couldn't see my smile, but it was a mirror to what she looked like when we were playing tag.
"Get ready. Same as before." It took less than ten seconds and we were back to where we started.
"Did you happen to see where the ghosts came from?" I asked as we came to a stop.
"Right under you. I was able to grab one as it came up. What was that about killing you?" Her voice rose at the end like she was processing the question as she asked it.
I lowered until the whole of the building was in range. Nothing really stood out. Some people, but none of them in armor. Same with the neighboring buildings.
"One came from the sky and I didn't see it until the last moment. He almost skewered me through the eye." I could feel the adrenaline calming a bit now that the immediate danger was passed but I tried to push any remaining thoughts about what happened to the back of mind. I had my attempted murderer to find.
"Fuck them."
"Agreed. I'm going to go in a grid pattern and see if I can find Crusader." Putting actions to words I started by going to my range limit in the direction Rune had run off to and turned ninety degrees from there. I kept my pace at most of a gravity and the first few turns took a minute or so.
Glory Girl kept looking around as I did the rounds but neither of us said anything.
When I reached the first spot on the grid in the second cycle out I saw something.
"I found his armor. It's in a pile in the basement of that building. No one is in the house." I pointed over to what looked like a normal two story house. Same as any other in the block. It had a patchy roof from what I could see, but that was the norm. "How far can someone go in the couple minutes it took to find, assuming no flight?"
"Five minutes at most? More than half a mile at a run. Way less if he is walking to not stick out. But he might have just gone to a house a few doors down and you would never be able to pick him out from any other schlub."
"Think he would look out a window in fear and hope that I just pass by?"
"He might. Head that way first, it is deeper into Empire territory." She pointed towards the city rather than the outskirts. "Go for half a mile, if nothing stands out we try half a mile the other way. Follow the main road, we can't search all the branches."
I followed her suggestion and we started moving. I stayed as low as I could. More to see as many houses as possible rather than to hide at all. I kept the speed so I would be directly over a new house row every second or two but that gave me about ten seconds that any given row was in my range.
Nothing stood out, just people hanging out on a fairly warm spring afternoon.
It was about when I slowed to start in the other direction that my phone rang.
"Hello." I said as Glory Girl floated in closer so she could hear.
I set the phone to speaker and put up a sound baffle and sped up to get back where we started to go in the other direction.
It was Miss Militia on the other end. "Event Horizon, are you okay?" She sounded like she was suppressing worry.
"Fine, Glory Girl and I captured Rune and we're searching for Crusader, though I don't have high hopes."
"Hey MM, how's things?" Glory Girl sounded overly nonchalant and had a bit of a smile on her.
"Better knowing you're both safe." The relief came through in her tone. "Did you want to come to PRT HQ and drop off Rune?"
"Soon. We have a quick run to check one last street and then I think we're out of ideas." I said.
"Yep. See you soon." Glory Girl said.
"Good. Call when you're close. Goodbye."
"Bye" I said and hung up.
We started going by new houses and it all looked about the same. I was struggling to keep hope alive while feeling like this was just going through the motions. I was about to give it up, but figured it wasn't much extra trouble to just finish the route.
It was near the end of the road where we were going to turn around that I saw it. A van with a man just getting in, and there was another man inside with a mask on.
"Holy shit, I think we just hit gold!" I exclaimed. I was shocked that we actually found him, sure it had been a lost cause.
"Really? Where?" Glory Girl was looking left and right.
I pointed over to the van, and made a tunnel of slight gravity to give her a feel of where as well. "In that van that is just moving off. Another cape is in there, who has a tiger mask and no shirt?" I said it with a sarcastic lilt. The mask was such a dead giveaway.
"It couldn't be Stormtiger could it?" She affected a clueless tone and guileless expression. "Come on, let's go grab them."
We were floating over the van by now maybe two hundred feet up just to make sure they had no chance of escape. "Do we want to try and follow it and see where it goes?" I was curious if we could find either more capes or maybe a stash.
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. Better to grab them now and we can deal with anything else later."
"Fine, let's grab them." I picked the whole van up and everyone inside started panicking. "Want to surprise Miss Militia with them or should we call her on the way back?"
"Surprise her. Everyone loves more Nazis in prison." She had a little laugh at that.
Stormtiger swiped both his arms and two vertical cuts of the van side sliced open. Two move horizontal and the side fell off and he flew out. His power was aerokinesis and apparently he could make it sharp and strong enough to rend thin metal and plastic.
"Huh, man looks pissed." I said as I wrapped him up in his own personal armor bubble. I made sure to leave him the twisty air holes. I did the same to the whole van while I was at it.
Glory Girl started a full belly laugh. "Oh! The-" She had to take another breath and laughed some more. I left her to it and started us back to the PRT HQ at a leisurely pace to give her time to recover.
"The look on his face, and -hah!- and you just wrapped him-" She kept laughing as she cut herself off.
Stormtiger was pulling in a lot of air with his power and condensing it into a ball. I was mildly curious what he was going to do with that. Analogies tended to breakdown when facing what he was, but whatever he threw at the bubble would be no different if it was a spitball or a cruise missile. Nothing was getting through.
"And you just wrapped him up like a present! For MM! Oh this is amazing!" She got her full sentence out and I was a little impressed as she broke into another round of laughter. I couldn't help but feel the same mirth flow through me and let a little laugh out.
Today was turning out to be a pretty good day.
Then Stormtiger sent the air ball at the wall and it went off like a bomb against the wall of my bubble. I was right in that it did nothing. But I was so very wrong as he just let off a bomb in an enclosed area. An area he was in.
"What the fuck!" I yelled and Glory Girl snapped out of the laughter.
"What!" She was looking around, I would guess for trouble coming up to us.
"Stormtiger might have just killed himself!" He was in catastrophic condition. I could see ruptured organs and his lungs were more blood than air. It looked like his brain wasn't liquid, but I didn't know if that meant anything.
"What?" She practically screamed and snapped to look back at me.
"You need to call Panacea right the fuck now. If he isn't dead he will be in minutes."
She stared at me for a second and I snapped. "Quick, I don't want to be responsible for his death! Where can we meet her?"
Glory Girl pulled out her phone and almost fumbled it. She clicked a couple buttons and brought the phone to her ear while looking towards the city. "That way, she's home right now." I took off where she pointed at high speed.
Panacea was Glory Girl's sister and in New Wave with her. She was the premier healer on the East Coast at the very least, possibly the whole world. To my knowledge nothing was off the table, except she couldn't bring people back to life. But the ruptured organs that Stormtiger had shouldn't be a problem if we reached her in time.
"Amy! Get to the driveway, emergency heal!" She paused for a second. "No, I'm fine. Stormtiger hurt himself."
Again Panacea said something.
"We were out Nazi catching and apparently being a Nazi and forethought are mutually exclusive."
Glad she is able to make jokes. I thought sarcastically. I was on the verge of panic. It didn't matter that he was a Nazi, I didn't want him dying under my watch.
"That way. Slow a bit." She pointed again and again I readjusted. I think maybe a minute had passed, but I had no real concept of time. At the very least Stormtiger was still twitching and his heart was intact and beating.
"Down there, that street." She pointed and I followed. The houses here were very nice. All had large, well manicured lawns in both the front and back and there were no signs of the dilapidation that had been evident just a mile back where we had come from.
"That one, there she is!" Sure enough I saw two people standing in the driveway.
I came in like a rocket and pulled up hard. I missed a perfect landing, but was close enough. I brought Stormtiger down in front of Panacea and released the armor. "Here he is. Can you save him?"
He looked worse in person than in my field. He was streaked and splattered with blood and his skin, what little I could see through the blood looked like a ruptured balloon.
"Oh, gross." Glory Girl said behind me and turned away a bit. Mrs. Dallon crossed her arms and glared down at Stormtiger. It occurred to me then that I had just brought a Nazi to New Wave.
New Wave was famous for having revealed their identity more than ten years ago in an effort to lead the way as an example of capes that can be held accountable. It was a laudable goal that soured when an unpowered hopeful of the Empire Eighty-Eight went to one of their homes and killed Fleur. That cemented in everyone's mind that capes needed a private identity.
Panacea reached down and touched his hand. "Well, he isn't dead at least. Let's see if we can keep it that way." She sounded ambivalent if she succeeded or not. It caught me off guard at how little she seemed to care.
"Near total organ failure, severe concussion, drowning in his own blood. Looks like he hugged a bomb." I watched as his organs sealed up and his lungs emptied of blood. It appeared to just flowed back into his veins, which closed up after. His skin followed suit and in under a minute he looked fine, if still splattered in his own blood.
"Well, that's everything. I relieved the pressure on his brain, but I can't fix it. No idea if he'll ever regain consciousness. Good luck to him, I guess. Nazi piece of-"
"Enough." Mrs. Dallon snapped out. "Nazi or not, disparaging a patient is bad form."
That was an… interesting way to look at things, but I wasn't going to say anything about it.
"Thank you." I said to Panacea, "Though it does feel weird, you're right." I just wasn't sure how to feel about saving him like that. If he had died on when I wasn't around, it would have been at least a minor bright spot in my day, but watching him do that and having the chance to try to save him and not doing so just left a bad taste in my mouth.
"It happens from time to time, needing to save the-" her eyes snapped to her mom, "less desirables, as they would say."
"Yes, yes, Nazis are bad." Mrs. Dallon said with a roll of her eyes. "Vicky, what happened?"
"We have a drop off with Miss Militia actually, did you want to join us and I can explain on the way?" Glory Girl pointed up at the other armor bubbles I had floating above us.
Mrs. Dallon looked up at the bubbles, then back to me. "Event Horizon, I presume?"
"Yes." I was glad I didn't stammer; she had a look that could pierce my armor. "Good to meet you, uhh Mrs. Dallon?" I wasn't quite sure how to refer to her.
She bore a striking resemblance to Glory Girl, or rather Victoria was a younger copy of her mother. Same blonde hair, but cut much shorter and dressed in business casual, which I thought was a little overdressed for being home on a Saturday.
"That's fine, we're out of costume. Well, let me grab a few things first. I assume you are our ride?"
Glory Girl let out a small snort, but looked apologetic when I glanced over to her. With everything else that had been going on I decided it wasn't worth calling out more than that.
Mrs. Dallon went inside to get ready and Panacea, Amy I suppose since she was out of costume, stepped over Stormtiger to get next to Glory Girl. "So what the fuck happened out there?"
"Oh you know, we chased down some Nazi trash and one tried to commit suicide through what I can only imagine was terminal idiocy." Glory Girl answered.
"Hugging a bomb isn't too far off from what happened. He gathered air and let it out an enclosed area. It went poorly." I said.
Amy looked over to me, "Well, nice to finally meet you. Vicky won't stop talking about you."
She looked nothing like the rest of her family with her frizzy brown hair cut short such that it just barely covered her ears. With a face full of freckles and brown eyes to match her hair she really was an almost polar opposite to her sister.
Glory Girl turned red and said, "That is a disingenuous way to describe the way I told you about her."
"Over and over again."
"Like twice at most."
"At least."
My head bobbled back and forth as Glory Girl defended herself from Amy's attacks.
"I'm flattered. I think." It was nice to know the she was excited enough to meet me that she told her family about it, but it felt so far outside of my context I didn't know how to process it.
Glory Girl turned even more red and floated towards the front door a bit, as though she wanted to run and hide inside.
I decided to take a bit of pity on her and turned back to Amy, "Thanks again for saving him, even if he probably doesn't deserve it."
Her expression went almost blank. "I know he doesn't, I helped a nice couple a few weeks ago. He had shredded their arms and legs to the bone, but purposefully missed the arteries in hopes they would bleed out slower and it was just luck that Velocity came across them."
"Then it is good he is going to spend a long time in jail." I said.
Her expression softened a bit. "Yes, I will have to let the men know he was caught. Thank you for that, at least. But fuck you for bringing him to me to heal him." She said that last part without any vitriol or humor and I took it as the olive branch it was.
She looked up at the bubbles and asked, "Who else did you get?"
"Rune and Crusader. And a van driver. I'm not sure if driving away like that is a crime."
"Accessory to whatever the others were involved in," Mrs. Dallon said as she came back up to the driveway. She had put on a blazer and had a purse with her. She handed a light jacket to Amy and turned back to me. "We're ready to go."
Last edited: Apr 30, 2023
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May 3, 2023
#548
I formed a disk of armor a dozen feet in diameter close the ground and set down on it while motioning for the others to get on. "I think it will be easiest this way."
Mrs. Dallon took the first step on without hesitation and Amy followed after. I grabbed Stormtiger and laid him down by my feet.
Glory Girl floated over and stood near Amy and I. She kicked the disk lightly and said, "Well, it looks like we're traveling in style this time. Better than the express train from earlier."
"Let's see how this works. Kind of a new form." I said.
With that I lifted us off and tried to match the acceleration of us moving up with a reduction in the gravity field to keep the feeling of exactly one gravity constant. We made it above the houses in a second and I was ready to try moving forward.
"Oh, that is a little trippy, seeing the world move with so little sensation." Amy said and it looked like she wobbled a bit, but from expecting movement that wasn't there more than anything.
"If I do this right, it will be similar." With that said I angled the disk to ninety degrees and shifted the gravity field so that down was still perpendicular to the disk, rather than the center of the Earth.
"Woah!" Amy scrambled a bit and latched onto Glory Girl. "Warn a girl before you do that!" She exclaimed with a glare at me.
"Sorry," I said and she stepped back a bit from Glory Girl and looked around.
I started us toward the PRT by accelerating the disk and lessening the field by a commensurate amount.
"Oh, yep. Even more freaky with the world being off kilter." Amy didn't sound nauseous, so I took that as a win.
"This is just as cool as the first time." Glory Girl said, looking around in delight.
"It is an impressive amount of control and a very unique view of the world." Mrs. Dallon said while also looking around, though with less delight than her daughter.
I took the speed slow and after we hit maybe fifty miles per hour I cut the acceleration and let us coast.
While everyone else was looking around I pulled out my phone and called Miss Militia. She picked up by the second ring.
"Hello Event Horizon." She said.
"Hello. I managed to grab Crusader and Stormtiger, but there was a mishap and Stormtiger injured himself bad enough that we had to go to Panacea. He is still unconscious and I am bringing Panacea and Mrs. Dallon with me."
"Thank you for letting me know. We have the helipad cleared, same as the night you dropped off Vista and Dauntless."
"Okay, we'll be there shortly." With that I hung up and reoriented the disk a bit.
I looked over the Glory Girl, who was in the middle of going over the day with the Wards and was just reaching the man who took photos of me for the Nazis.
"Is there any chance they can identify me with those?" I interrupted Glory Girl just as she mentioned she had lost the van when Rune threw a manhole cover at her.
Mrs. Dallon stepped closer to me and looked closely into my eyes with something almost like a glare, but was probably just concentration. After a moment she shook her head a bit and stepped back.
"Unlikely, you don't have anything that stands out as unique and brown eyes are too common for that to narrow it down."
I felt relief flood through me as my suspicions were confirmed.
"Sorry about losing them, by the way." Glory Girl looked a little ashamed.
It felt a little like my trust was betrayed, but looking at it from a step removed there was no way for me to successfully follow the van but there was a chance for her to. That she failed doing so doesn't change that I couldn't have succeeded. It just stung that, while not a betrayal, it was the first time I let someone take over a task and it fell through.
"It's fine, and I would say we got a fair trade out of the deal."
"Indeed. It is nice to see them off the streets. How did you do it?" Mrs. Dallon asked, obviously leading us back to the explanation. Glory Girl was happy to continue the story.
I looked around and made another slight adjustment. "I am going to have to the other side and flip the whole platform over for our landing." I said.
"It's fine if you just want to pick us up and take us in. I bet it's easier that way." Glory Girl said.
"It is, if everyone else is okay with that."
With the assent of everyone I put them in a custom field so they didn't notice anything and let the platform and horizontal field drop. Then I reoriented all of us to be standing relative to the Earth.
"Oh, why is my stomach in my heart?" Amy asked while holding chest.
"We're in free fall which we experience as zero gravity, same as astronauts." I said.
Interesting that she was the first one to mention the feeling. I guess everyone else just accepted it as a part of my power.
"Do you always feel like this?" Amy asked.
"If I am moving, yes. Once I stabilize I usually set back to a normal field and stand in my armor; feels a lot better that way."
She looked over to Glory Girl. "Do you not feel this?" She sounded almost accusatory.
"Nope, my flight works great inside her fields and I feel completely normal." Glory Girl had the most shit eating grin I have ever seen as she gloated to her sister.
Amy glared at her and mouthed 'Bitch' but Glory Girl just laughed and stuck her tongue out at her.
"Enough, both of you." Mrs. Dallon sound more exasperated than anything as she got her daughters to calm down.
The PRT building came into view and I angled us down to land on the giant 'H'.
I wonder where the helicopter is.
Miss Militia, Triumph, and Vista were all on the roof with a dozen or so fully suited PRT officers with their signature foam launchers and a several without. There was also a couple of people standing around a stretcher.
No Mr. Wiggles.
I landed us all down and let them get settled a bit before dropping the fields. Then I brought all the captured capes and other detritus in close.
Vista gave a wave, but didn't say anything and stayed back with Triumph.
"Package for the Protectorate, will you sign for delivery?" Glory Girl asked with an easy smile.
Miss Militia stepped forward and glanced at Glory Girl. "We're always happy to accept deliveries of criminals." She turned to me. "Event Horizon, let's get everyone unloaded. Can you do Stormtiger first as he is wounded?"
"Yes." I brought him down and set him in the stretcher and the paramedics strapped him down and started checking vitals. Amy walked over to them and started explaining what happened to him.
"We have a small hospital attached that we'll keep him in." Miss Militia said. "Who's next?"
"Rune or van with random driver and Crusader?"
"Let's get Rune first."
I brought her and her infrastructure down, letting the armor bubbles drop but leaving her a foot or so above the roof. "She was using these and I figured I would return them to the city."
"We'll see what we can do about returning them."
"Oh thank fuck I am out of that darkness!" Rune yelled. "Is that cruel and unusual punishment? Captivity? Keep me the fuck out of that again!"
At least she wasn't yelling racial slurs at us.
"Rune, you have quite the list of property damage and assault charges on the backlog."
"Fuck you sand-" I put up the sound baffle.
Miss Militia glanced over at me and gave me a small nod. She then pulled out a set of zip cuffs and pulled them tight around Rune's wrists and I lowered her to the ground and let the field drop.
Something occurred to me then and I looked up and the infrastructure I had brought. "What is her range on those?"
"More than this building. I was going to say something about that. If you could take them to the Protectorate HQ when you're done here, that should suffice."
"Sounds good."
Rune was handed off to four officers and walked into the building while I brought down the van.
"I am only mostly sure this is Crusader. He jumped into the van with Stormtiger while running away from Crusader's armor. It is possible there was a swap out of my range. I can't see the ghosts he makes either, so that van could be full of them."
"Understood. Any weapons inside?" Miss Militia asked
"I isolated a gun, a knife, and three cell phones."
"Thank you. Vista, please isolate the van."
Suddenly the van was an island on a sea of helipad. It was really weird how the far side of the building was now outside of my range.
"I'll open just small section so one person can get out."
"Good idea, we're ready when you are." Miss Militia said as several foam bearing officers stood in an arc towards the van.
"Opening." I said and opened a door sized hole in the bubble and we could see the undamaged side of the van.
Nothing happened.
"There's still the two in there, and they should have light enough to know it's open." I said.
Miss Militia nodded and an officer next to her pulled out a bullhorn and yelled into it, "This is the Parahuman Response Team! Step out of the van, do not use any powers, raise your hands high!"
A few seconds later and the driver opened the door and stepped out. Probably Crusader opened the sliding door and followed. Both stepped out slowly and had their hands high.
"On your knees!" The bullhorn holding officer instructed.
They complied and four officers stepped forward and secured them both with similar cuffs. Then they were pulled to their feet and led off into the building as well. Vista let the roof return to normal and I set the van down and let my field drop then laid the weapons and phones in front of the van.
"I want to add that Crusader almost killed me." I said, trying to keep my voice level.
"What? How?" Miss Militia turned to look at me and sounded almost panicked at that, her eyes wide.
"I mentioned I can't see his ghosts, but they can also ignore all my fields except the black hole and white hole ones. He surprised me and almost got his lance through my eye hole. A last moment dodge was all that saved me."
She looked at me for a moment in concern then took a breath and said, "I'm glad you're okay. We'll add that to the long list he has."
Glory Girl flew over to us and asked, "So, we good to go? Need a statement?"
"A statement would be nice, but you're not required to. However, Event Horizon, the Director would like to speak with you."
"Of the PRT?" I wasn't sure of the command structure of the PRT or even know who was in charge.
"The north eastern director, yes." She said with a small nod.
"Is that normal for her to talk with capes like that?"
"Not often, but it isn't often a new cape makes such a splash in her first week. It is optional." She tacked that last part on, but even I knew when someone that high up in a command structure said it was optional, it really wasn't.
At that, Mrs. Dallon stepped forward. "I think it would be inappropriate for Event Horizon to be there alone. I might not be her guardian, but I can at least act as one." She looked over to me. "With your permission of course."
I suddenly felt overwhelmed. I was being pulled into a meeting I wasn't prepared for with adults I didn't know advocating for me. I was about to back out when I spotted Glory Girl looking over at me.
I was able to calm myself a bit and said, "If Glory Girl can join too. No offense Mrs. Dallon, but I know your daughter better and would feel more comfortable with her as well."
Glory Girl flew over to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder, "I'm here if you need me."
Mrs. Dallon's lips curled into the smallest smile I think I have ever seen on a person before and said, "I am fine with that. Is the PRT?"
"We are." Miss Militia said. "If you need, we can foam Rune's items down for now."
"It's fine, I can see the whole building and the sewer below. I'll just leave them floating up here until we're done."
"Okay. I think everything here is handled. Let's go."
Triumph and Vista followed us as we went in and I floated back a bit to match with them.
"Hey, what happened after you rocketed off?" Vista asked.
I gave them a quick rundown of everything and we were reaching the elevator as I was finishing. I was starting to wonder how many more times I would need to go over it and how pared down it would become after the tenth retelling.
"What about you two?"
"We called in what we knew and headed back here for more orders. We weren't sure if you would need back up or something," Triumph said.
"Thanks for being ready, but I'm glad you weren't needed." I wasn't sure that if we had needed them they would have been able to reach us in time for anything. Though maybe more boots on the ground to go in alternate directions when chasing down Crusader might have helped.
When the elevator opened and we all headed in, except Vista and Triumph hung back. "We're headed down to the Wards room. We'll see you later." Triumph said with a wave.
"See ya later Eve." Vista chorused and I watched them as the door closed.
It was odd that they didn't join us anyway as we were on the top floor. If they were headed down and not joining us, I figured we were going to get off at a different floor, but the elevator wasn't too crowded. I took a closer look to guess where we were headed.
The Wards appeared to be on the third floor and we were on the tenth and there were a lot of offices between us. I guessed the director would be near the top and looking around the ninth floor gave a few likely suspects as they had an office that was behind a secretary desk, much like the principal.
It looked like it was a tossup between an overweight woman, a short thin man, and a taller buffer man. I realized they all had embossed nameplates outside the offices and was able to see the overweight woman was 'Dir. Piggot', the skinny man was 'Dep. Dir. Renick', and the buff guy was 'Cmdr. Len'.
"So what is the meeting for? Just a rundown of the day?" I asked.
"For starters I am sure, but I think she wants to start coordinating with you more closely. Your ability to shutdown just about anyone in the city and your willingness to do so is getting attention."
I looked over to Mrs. Dallon and she said, "It is very common for the PRT and Protectorate to work with independents like that. We get called in on occasion if something larger is going down and they want to bolster their roster."
The elevator dinged and the doors opened to the floor. Miss Militia led the way and we followed closely.
"It would be nice to learn from you guys. I am mostly just flailing around and hoping for the best."
"Don't be too hard on yourself," Glory Girl said. "You're a week in and already asking questions about how to better fight the good fight. That's more than I did. Though part of that as that Mom didn't let me fight for months after getting my powers."
"The night we met was nearing two months since I had gotten my powers. I was feeling them out before I did anything."
"A good practice. Same reason I made Victoria train. She really needed to get a handle on her strength."
Glory Girl leaned in close and whispered, "I only broke a few things."
We stopped in front the the secretary of the director and Miss Militia said. "Stacey, is she ready to see us?"
She had seen us coming down the hall and had press the phone to talk with the director and said, "Yep. Just head on in."
She watched us as we all entered the office then went back to whatever she was working on.
The director was looking up at us as we came in, but didn't stand. She had pale, almost sallow, skin with grey eyes that were framed by a bottle blonde bob hair cut. The look she had was sharp, but not accusatory. It was quite the contrast to my principal at school who tried for the same glare but I now realized fell very short of accomplishing what the director seemed to pull off so effortlessly; a look that said, 'I am in charge'.
There were three chairs in front of her desk and one on either side of her own. Miss Militia motioned for us to take the front three and I took the middle, figuring this was my meeting and she went to sit on the director's right.
After we had settled in the director focused on me and said, "Hello Event Horizon, I am Director Piggot."
Last edited: May 6, 2023
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#568
Director Piggot's tone had the same air as Principal Blackwell. That one that brooked no argument and expected her word to be law and I felt myself go on the defensive instinctively, prepared to be berated on how everything was my fault.
I took that feeling and tried to push it down. She might have the same persona as Blackwell, but there was no reason for this meeting to go the same way. I wasn't trying to report harassment and bullying and she wasn't trying to dismiss me to get on with her day.
Her forearms rested on her desk with her fingers lightly crossed over the keyboard. She leaned forward slightly and continued, "I wanted to start this meeting by thanking you."
My whole mind froze.
She must have taken my non-response as a reason to continue because she went on to clarify what she was thanking me for.
"It is rare for someone to be able to capture so many capes in such a short amount of time, but more than that you did so without injuring anyone or doing any property damage. It makes my life much easier when I do not need to justify vigilante capes because they are leaving nothing reasonable for people to use against them."
I finally processed what she said and realized that this wasn't anything like Blackwell. Or perhaps it was what happens to people on the other side of what I was normally on. The Emma side.
I quashed that thought as it was unfair to the director.
"'You're welcome' feels wrong here. I just wanted to stop what I ran into and didn't have any desire to hurt people, even if they were doing horrible things."
That statement triggered my thoughts around finding the slaves in the ABB brothel which spiraled into what happened shortly after.
"It wasn't like there was no collateral damage either, Oni Lee killed people based on what I started," I said.
"Bullshit." She said it with a harsh, if not accusatory tone. "Do not let the actions of others stop you from saving people like that."
"Director," Mrs. Dallon interjected, "Perhaps we're getting off topic here?"
"Of course." She glanced over to Mrs. Dallon, "Carol, Glory Girl, good to see both of you here." It sounded like she very much would have rather they weren't.
Interesting. It would be good to keep in mind that I was invited alone to this.
"Emily, nice of you to allow us to be here." Mrs. Dallon said it like there was no love lost between them. Glory Girl had her head on a swivel looking between her mom and the director and decided silence was the better part of valor.
The director let out a pained smile at that and turned back to me.
"In any case, I would like to hear about what happened today after you had to leave the Wards to help Glory Girl. It would be good to have a more complete picture."
"Okay, I took off after Glory Girl called saying she was attacked by Rune." I filled her in with everything I saw and what I experienced and Glory Girl helped with her thoughts and actions as well. It was a much more in depth report than the one Glory Girl had given to her family on the way over and Director Piggot asked a lot of clarifying questions and made sure to get our reasoning about different decisions. She didn't seem judgmental on anything we did so much as wanting to see why we thought in a particular way.
It took what felt like a hour, but I had been tracking someone's analog watch and it was only half that.
"Thank you for going over everything with us," the director said. "Captured or otherwise, I will make sure Crusader is held accountable for what he tried. Though that leads into one of the major things I wanted to talk about today."
"The Empire's response," Mrs. Dallon said.
"Are they going to up the bounty on my identity?" I asked, though I suddenly felt like I was being naive. I already had a bounty and had just captured an additional three capes. I wasn't sure of their total roster, but five total capes had to be a large chunk of the forces they could bring to bear. I also suspected my power made me a bad judge of how strong any given cape was.
Hookwolf was a known murderer and there were warnings every so often in the news to run if confronted. Oni Lee had proven how dangerous he was and I was still able to isolate and capture him.
Crusader was really the only cape that was dangerous to me if I was on the look out and even then there was little he could do.
I was just starting to internalize how strong I really was. I needed to make sure that didn't go to my head.
"They will do that without a doubt, but I am also sure that they are going to start contacting outside support. No one in the city at the moment is able to counter your power. Have you heard of Gesellschaft?"
"No, some German villian group?"
"Yes, but more specifically they are a large Nazi organization. More than any one city in Germany they are a whole movement trying to bring the… ideals," she said the word with such disgust it was impressive, "to prominence once more. For our purposes here, they are known to support the Empire. As powerful as you are, have you given thought to how to counter yourself?"
"I guess something to bypass my armor, Crusader style."
"No," Glory Girl interjected, "Masters, Trumps, Strangers, and Tinkers. Always Tinkers."
We all looked over at her and she continued. "The major Masters I can think of off hand are Valefor, and maybe Canary. Heartbreaker of course. Powers that don't need touch. Valefor and Canary need to be able to be heard. But Heartbreaker just needs to get you inside his radius."
I hadn't heard of the first two, but everyone knew of Heartbreaker. He was a Canadian villain that would capture women by making them love him and going to live with him in his villa. He was a monster and just thinking about that sent a sick shiver down my spine.
Her voice reminded me of the first night I had met her when she was running me through name and how important they were.
"Trumps have a wide range, obviously, but the big ones to look out for are ranged power nullifiers. Animos with the Teeth can yell and turn off your power, though I don't know if the sound needs to reach you or it will blast through your power to reach you. And of course Hatchetface. His range is mapped out to be more than thirty feet, but less than fifty."
Just the mention of someone from the Slaughterhouse Nine was enough to bring me up short and I felt my pulse racing.
"Strangers are self explanatory really. Though maybe not as bad since even if you don't notice them, you probably aren't close enough for them to do anything."
That did not make me feel any better.
"And Tinkers. Always Tinkers. They always come up with something given enough time."
Her eyes drifted off to the side as she continued thinking about different ways to get me killed.
"Thank you for that rather detailed rundown." Director Piggot said.
I think Glory Girl missed the sarcasm because the way she said, "You're welcome," was really cheery.
"While perhaps the exact examples are not likely, the direction she is thinking is correct. It is likely that the Empire will reach out and try to have some outside help shipped to my city."
I knew that pitch. I was never really against joining the Wards out of principal, but the subtle and not so subtle ways they kept pushing was starting to grate.
At least give me a few days between pitches.
"Is this where I join the Wards to stay safe under your banner?" I tried not to sound too accusatory as I didn't think it would be helpful, but I know some slipped through.
"Not as such. I think the damage you have done and the threat you pose they would be willing to at least try and pass off your demise as an unfortunate accident and hope they could weather the fallout. They wouldn't, of course, but that would be of little concern to you at that time.
"No, if you joined to stay safe we would need to ship you out of the city or keep you on total lock down to keep you safe and I suspect both of those are non-starters. I am proposing something a little more… proactive."
Mrs. Dallon leaned forward and had a rather disgusted look on her face as she said, "You are not suggesting to send a minor to fight the whole of the gang just so she can protect herself."
"Nothing of the sort. I am suggesting we work closely with her and provide direct support to quickly dismantle the capes of the gang and as much of the resources it has in order to keep Gesellschaft from coordinating a direct response."
They were now talking around me and I wanted to be a part of the conversation that would decide how safe I would be in the near future.
"What does this coordination look like, exactly?" I said. Mrs. Dallon looked over to me, then settled back in her chair, letting me take the lead.
"We have intelligence we can offer for a start. Where are common hangouts for people you can follow, tracking money, personnel for long term stakeouts. Then when we act on that we will be with you to handle arrests without needing to wait."
"Sounds like a Ward in all but name. And why now? If you have this information why wouldn't you act on it?"
"Our mandate doesn't cover the non-parahuman section of gangs. We are primarily to counter the capes, and the rest are left to the police, the FBI, the DEA, etc. They are supposed to call us in to handle the capes that are expected on site when they finally decide to do a raid, but in practice they don't call until after they run into parahumans in the act of kicking down doors, leading us to be a more responsive force than is otherwise preferred. With the idea that you are going to be out there in either case, we can be a bit more proactive."
That explanation sounded insane to me. They didn't do investigations for gangs? Or at least didn't act on information gathered until called in.
It struck me suddenly the implication of that last sentence. "Why does my presence make a difference?"
Mrs. Dallon and Glory Girl both looked over to me and Director Piggot leaned forward in her chair. Miss Militia had an intent look on her face as she adjusted her hands and the green and black light formed a saber that she laid across her lap.
"How do you see yourself, Event Horizon?" The question asked with a near solemn seriousness.
I wasn't sure what she meant. I wasn't anyone that special. At least that's how I had perceived myself. But that had been changing over the last couple weeks, and really crystallized today. I had seen what I could do compared to everyone else, and they had come up wanting.
It was a heady feeling, especially after my school and home life these past few years. I realized I needed to not become a tyrant. Glory Girl had done a good job of at least providing ways I could be countered. It helped.
I also didn't want to come off as conceited though.
"I am coming to realize I am a… force, for lack of a better word."
There was a moment of silence before Glory Girl tried to stifle a laugh that turned into a guffaw. "That is an understatement worthy of an award."
"Perhaps I am not realizing how much of one, since none of you are disagreeing with her."
I looked over to Miss Militia and she looked almost sad as she tightened her grip on the saber. She gave me a slight nod that I wasn't sure how to interpret.
Glory Girl was still laughing a bit, and it was Director Piggot that said, "You have a lot of eyes on you at the moment from the leadership in both the Protectorate and the PRT. With that said, I have a request that I must ask." She looked over to Mrs. Dallon for a moment and I was pretty sure I knew what was the request was. "We, the PRT, would like to request you join the next Endbringer fight."
A calm fell over me, I was right.
"What the fuck." Glory Girl had snapped up and looked right at the director.
Mrs. Dallon had a look of anger and said, "I must agree with my daughter, what the fuck are you thinking asking a minor, that you have no authority over, to do that? We're done here."
She moved to stand up but I interjected, "Of course I will," and she froze.
Then she shook her head and said, "Don't say that, you are being coerced even if you can't see it. They have you in an office, that they tried to get you alone in, and are clearly pressuring you after walking you to how powerful you are. It is disgusting and I will be filing a complaint."
"No, I do see it, but it doesn't matter. I was always going to go." Mrs. Dallon crossed her arms but didn't make to leave her chair.
Glory Girl asked, "What do you mean?"
"I went out the night after the Simurgh hit Canberra. I had my power then, I had been practicing and knew how I could make black holes. Nothing survives that. Nothing. I just wasn't ready to do anything. I was scared. So I went out to do something, anything. I wanted to make sure I could be there for the next one.
"I knew I was strong, I just didn't know how to handle that. I have been practicing and all of you have been helping me." I looked over to Glory Girl, "You especially, thank you." I turned back to Director Piggot and said, "So yes, I will be there."
Miss Militia was resolute this time when she looked at me.
Glory Girl flew and over and gave me a big hug. "I will be right there with you."
"Not a chance," Mrs. Dallon said. "I know we discussed this; you are guarding Panacea when we go."
I reached a little awkwardly to return the hug. It wasn't the same as I remember since I was surrounded by my armor, but it was so nice to have someone like her as a friend.
"Thanks," I said, "but let's not anger your mom."
She let go and floated back to her chair, studiously avoiding looking at said mom.
"Hmm," Director Piggot said, "I was given rather wide leeway to convince-" "Coerce." "you to come. There was one contingency on our end that I want to go over first. I believe you were told Armsmaster is putting together another test for your power?" I nodded and she continued, "It was twofold: test if you can make the black hole as you claimed, and verify that it didn't irradiate everyone around you."
"Triumph said it would be sometime next weekend at the earliest?"
"That was before you mentioned to Miss Militia you had used a black hole to slice open a window. He called in some outside help and thinks they will have something by Wednesday. We can contact you and setup a time if you are willing."
"If I say no, do you rescind my invitation to the next Endbringer?" It seemed unlikely they would turn down any help, but I was curious.
"Not as such, but knowing what you can do what you claim, we are going to want to plan and coordinate ahead of time rather than just throwing you in the fray. No plan survives contact, but not panning is a plan for failure."
"I am free after school, just let me know."
It was interesting to see the director's reaction to all of this. She seems weary as she nodded a bit and leaned back, as though weight had been added to her shoulders even after getting the answer she no doubt wanted.
"You mentioned you had levers to pull in order to… entice Event Horizon to come? It might be good to see what they are." Mrs. Dallon spoke up. She didn't sound pleased, but it suddenly occurred to me that she was famous not just for being Brandish, but was an acclaimed lawyer as well. I think she might have just smelled blood in the office, so to speak.
Director Piggot certainly realized that and gained a bit of a hunted look that she covered by glaring at Mrs. Dallon. "The main point was a monetary stipend, negotiable. We are also willing to offer protective services to family in order to ensure her safety. If Event Horizon has any requests, we are willing to accommodate reasonable ones."
I had a sudden realization at the mention of protecting family. It sent a chill through me, but I didn't see any other conscionable answer.
I had to tell Dad what I was and where I would be going.
Mrs. Dallon gained a thoughtful look, "You have high hopes she will kill them, don't you?"
"The chief director intimated as much to me, yes."
"If the gangs find my identity, then I would take any protective services you can provide." I wanted Dad safe, no matter what. We might have been distant since Mom died, but I didn't love him any less for it.
"If they find it out, you might find out when they are using family as leverage against you."
I paused to think for a moment. "I'll talk it over and get back to you then."
"Of course, the offer is a standing one."
Glory Girl jumped up and said, "A million dollars!"
I shook my head. "Money isn't needed, I will go anyway." That sum was astronomical anyway. More than I had ever really conceived of having.
Miss Militia spoke up for the first time, "It might not be needed, but it wouldn't hurt to have right?"
"It is off putting to put a price on helping the world like that."
"That's a nice sentiment, but sentiment won't fill your belly. Maybe a million is too much for you to accept, but you should ask for some amount." It was interesting she was arguing in my favor and against what seemed like her own interests. Though there was a difference between her and the organization she worked for. It was nice to know she was thinking about me more than just a tool to throw at Endbringers.
"Besides," She continued, "I get hazard pay every time I go to an Endbringer fight. I would go without it as well, but I certainly don't turn it down."
"Okay, that sounds good then. Can I get what she does for going?"
"Easy." Director Piggot said. "We can set up an account for you to draw from, or transfer it to an account of your choosing."
"This will be in writing as well." Mrs. Dallon said. "I would advise you to get a lawyer to go over the contract. I am clearly biased, but I can recommend my firm." She reached into her purse and pulled a business card that she handed over.
Dad always did say that a verbal contract was worth the paper it was written on. "I will also get back to you on that."
Director Piggot nodded and said, "Anything else?"
"Money, protection, and you're helping me break the Empire. I can't think of anything else. Oh!" I looked back to Miss Militia, "All the girls from the brothel, how is that panning out?"
I had been thinking of them on and off, but hadn't had a chance to really ask.
"Of the twenty seven women rescued we have repatriated eleven of them to their respective countries. Two have requested asylum and their case is being processed. Of course, the four in chains were returned home, two were out of town but in country. Four more were in a similar situation, but not chained. They were returned home as well. The remaining six we are still trying to track down their origins. Unfortunately that means they are working through the court system, but since we don't have identities on them it would be a first offense and I find it likely based on the situation of everyone else, they will be released."
"Released to where, with no paperwork for anything else they are just going to end up in the same situation." Mrs. Dallon said. "It is the oldest profession for a reason, after all."
"Can I donate that hazard pay to their wellbeing?" I said it almost as I conceived the idea. "I really don't need the money, and they are clearly going to." I also didn't know how much I agreed to get. "I don't know if split six ways it would be much, but better than nothing right?"
"We can make the arrangements. You will still have to sign the paperwork for it all, but it is fine." Director Piggot said.
"Triple it." Mrs. Dallon interjected. "You might not need the money and single hazard pay is fine, but now you're donating it to a cause. Triple the amount."
Director Piggot looked like she bit a lemon, but nodded. "That isn't a problem."
"Okay. I will get my lawyers," and wasn't that a phrase I had never had to say before, "soon and we can finalize everything. Is there anything else?" I was starting to get overloaded with everything that was going on. Having the Endbringer fight that I had been studiously avoiding thinking about brought the forefront really clarified what I was involved in. And thinking about telling Dad did nothing to calm my nerves.
"That is everything. We'll be in contact for coordinating everything. Thank you." Director Piggot reached over the table and I met her hand half way and shook it.
We all said our goodbyes and stood up to leave, Miss Militia coming with us to guide us out. When we had made it back to the elevator and settled for the whole floor we needed to travel I turned to her.
"Thank you for looking out for them."
"Of course. It was a lovely thing of you to help them out like that."
"I just, don't know. I just want them to not have to be forced into that. I just happen to have the means suddenly."
"It will mean the world to them I am sure."
The door dinged open and we stepped out. Amy was leaning against the side of the door looking at her phone with a pair of PRT officers standing off to the side.
When we stepped out she put away her phone and silently walked next to Glory Girl who gave her a slight shoulder bump and a smile. The officers nodded to Miss Militia and fell in behind her.
The van was still up there and I pointed at it.
"Want me to take that down?"
"Yes please."
I turned back to Miss Militia and said, "Thank you again for everything. Let me know when Armsmaster is ready for the test and I'll get everything sorted on my end."
She reached out to shake my hand and said, "Thank you for being willing to step up, I know how hard it can be."
I shook her hand and said, "I just hope it really goes the way we are all hoping. See you later." I turned to the Dallons. "Everyone ready? Just need a short stop to the Protectorate HQ to give them Rune's infrastructure."
When they all said they were ready I grabbed them, dropped the van off down below and took off to the oil rig. I left the pieces just outside the forcefield on the light bridge.
With directions back to their house I dropped the Dallons off at their driveway. Amy waved at me and headed in, but I grabbed the attention of Glory Girl and her mom.
"Thank you Mrs. Dallon, for coming in with me. You too Glory Girl. I don't think that would have gone as well without you."
"You would have been fine without us." Glory Girl said.
"Not nearly as. I doubt those women would have that money if not for you two."
Mrs. Dallon looked conflicted when she said, "It is admirable that you are so willing to head into the next Endbringer fight like that. But what they did is inexcusable."
"To be fair, there isn't a good way to ask someone to head into a fight like that."
"Yeah, and they couldn't not ask you to go with what you can do." Glory Girl said.
"Don't get overconfident. No one is safe at an Endbringer fight. Even Amy and Vicky when they are at the medical tent." She gave a pointed look at her daughter.
"I won't. I do have one last thing before I go. I need to tell my dad about who I am. Would you be willing to talk with him after? I don't know what to tell him to expect, or give advice on what we should do about the protection offered. That kind of thing. Maybe help soothe his worries about me being out there."
Her look softened at that then she nodded. "Of course, we can have you over for dinner sometime."
"Thanks."
I gave a final goodbye to Glory Girl and headed off to home with my mind racing. I had so much to think about, mainly about how I was going to explain the last few weeks to Dad in a way to not have him ground me until I'm fifty.
Maybe I could cook a nice dinner.
Last edited: May 17, 2023
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#619
Coil sat at his desk and thought. Coil stepped into his car and thought.
There was a lot to think about and little time to do so. Even for him.
The chair he sat in was a marvel of engineering and comfort. Lumbar support for his aging back. Cushions that made him feel like he was floating on a cloud. It was leaned back just right for the perfect thinking session.
His desk was a wide mahogany slab with ornate carvings down the corners and it was given a finish that made it appear hundreds of years old instead of the six months it really was. It also had a two inch steel plate lining on the inside.
His attention was on the business card in his hands.
It was made of a gorgeous card stock. An off white so close to white it teased the senses and drew the holder in. A weight that gave such a small item a bit of heft as it was held. He suspected there was a metal embedded inside, but holding the card up to the light revealed it to be fully opaque. The edges were cut perfectly, leaving no trace fibers giving it a look of that suspect metal.
On the back of the card was the only indication of who it came from and it was the first thing he had seen upon entering his office. Laying on the desk, between the edge and the keyboard so equidistant to both that he suspected a set of calipers would be needed to find the discrepancy.
The printing of the symbol was of even higher quality than the rest of the card. An embossed lettering so subtle that when he removed his glove and drew a finger across he could feel only the faintest of raising. It sent a shiver down his spin.
The ink was a work of art as well. Edges that made the card itself appear jagged and a black so deep he suspected Tinker tech. It would be something she would do.
It was a card of such beauty that he would, without exaggeration or hyperbole, kill for.
The logo itself was distinct to those in the know, but confounding to everyone else. The uppercase omega letter from the Greek alphabet was the wrong interpretation. Though even Coil could not fault people for not guessing the correct intention.
Cauldron.
An organization that existed in the shadows even more than he did. One that could provide a service no one else ever could. One he had indebted himself heavily for.
Powers. A witch's brew fit to give anyone a chance to walk amongst the gods of this new world. Only a small chance of side effects. Terms and conditions apply.
His condition was hundreds of thousands paid up front with millions to follow. He was just about to finish the last couple payments and yet that would not absolve him of everything.
Once he drank the concoction and his power tested they had added one week of service, to be called at their convenience in any number of sub lengths.
One hundred and sixty eight hours total and he had paid a paltry fifteen minutes. It dug into his skull like a nail and sat there, scraping.
Yet, it was worth it still for what he could do.
He sat in his chair and turned the card around to read the words there. He leaned back in the back seat of the car as it was driven to a dingy bar.
Four simple words that he would take to mean that all those hours would be used, and more. Such an open ended request and he knew he would have to follow it. It should have grated even worse, and yet the implication provided tasted so sweet.
A reprieve from a dying world.
Someone once said it was better to rule in Hell than serve in Heaven. He would generally agree with that statement, except when Hell was the ashes of all of civilization and he was a man of wealth and taste, it would behoove him to wait a while so he could rise to power in comfort.
The car was reaching its destination and he leaned forward in his office chair. He flipped the card back around and set it face down on the desk to the side of his phone.
The car pulled to a stop in front of a bar that was famous to half the cape population in the city, and known to the other half. He stepped out and walked forwards to the entrance, opening the door and stepping in.
He reached out to his phone and opened the line. "Comms check."
There would be no verbal communication back to ensure no one suspected it was not Coil himself in the costume. A single click proved the line was open. He would be able to hear everything his minion did. A single ultra tiny Tinker camera ensured he saw everything as well.
Coil looked around the room as he entered the bar. It was rundown and stained everywhere he looked. The lights were dim, feeding into the dingy look that permeated Somer's Rock. The look he gave obviated the need for his minion to do the same.
His power was what let him be on site and safe at base at the same time. Not a Master control power, but a Thinker cognition one. Neither pre-cog nor post-cog, but real-time cognition.
He could, at any moment he desired, split his world into two equal timelines and act independently in both. It was a simply described power that gave him everything he had clawed out in this world.
He could take any chance just to find out the outcome and then let that action fade into the ether. So here he used it to both go and not go to the meeting that Kaiser had called.
To deal with the newest cape on the scene that had been causing such a scene to all the players in the city, excepting himself. So far.
He had desires that did not easily become foiled by raw power, unless it was aimed directly at him. And his methods of acquiring what he needed and wanted were low key enough that he was unlikely to be overly affected by what Event Horizon had shown herself to be interested in fighting.
He dealt mostly with corporate espionage and blackmail while working through cutaways and cat's-paws. A lucrative business if done right. And he was able to make sure he always did it right.
The main room of the bar had a single round table in an open area surrounded by booths. A few capes were at the bar, sitting on the sidelines to see what would come of this. The booths were where the subordinates of gang leaders would sit and listen to their betters.
It was a place of neutral ground that the illicit members of the city could congregate without, much, worry that they would be assaulted. Everyone else would make sure it was kept that way.
He saw the Undersiders had already arrived. Good. He made sure not to focus on them as he passed. They were one of his groups, but no one knew. Including those in the group, excepting Tattletale.
They would be invaluable going forward. Tattletale most of all. Information Thinkers always were. Doubly so when they were general and didn't respond in broken codes that needed interpretation.
Coil strode to the table and took a seat at ninety degrees from Kaiser without so much as an acknowledgement of the man there. The lack of acknowledgement was returned in kind.
Kaiser sat in a chair made from his own metal and he had made it excessively elaborate. Raised high enough to look like a throne, the back flaired out in a fan of blades. The leader of the Empire really fed into his own image.
Several of the remaining members of his were in the booths behind him. Fenja and Menja in their full valkyrie regalia, Victor and Othala sat next to each other holding hands, still in the honeymoon phase, and Krieg in his gas mask and Hugo Boss SS officer outfit.
Coil was a little early and expected to wait a few minutes. Lung liked to show up last and late as a simple power play for a simple man.
From his office he had ordered his stand in to follow the same path.
Faultline and her crew were the next ones to come in. She was the leader of a premier mercenary group that Coil had made use of in the past, and he was already planning on how to incorporate them into the request. The one thing they were looking for was information on Cauldron. Info he would never give them, as there were more painless ways of committing suicide than betraying their confidence.
She wore a cross between riot gear and military wear with a welders helmet. Her power was to poke an object and break it apart. She made good use of it to enter and exit buildings.
Newter had bright orange skin and burnished red hair and a prehensile tail almost as long as he was tall. Gregor was grossly overweight and his skin was slightly translucent with barnacle like protrusions pockmarking him.
Both had a tattoo that matched the symbol on the card.
Labyrinth was the last member of the group, wearing a cloak and robe getup with a mask that covered her from chin to forehead.
Faultline took a seat at the table opposite Coil with a nod to both other occupants as her crew took a booth.
A minute later the door slammed open. A sure sign that it wasn't Lung who had entered. Instead it was someone that had been starting a gang in the dockyards and selling anything they could get their hands on to even the dregs that the ABB and Empire didn't bother selling to. And children.
Skidmark was the moniker he was going by and he was proof of the lie that Hollywood, and the PRT by extension, presented that all capes were attractive. He was sickly thin except for a paunch that belied malnourishment. There were visible track marks even on his dark skin and his teeth were almost fully decayed, little more than rounded nubs. He wore a half mask and a short cape. It reminded Coil of a child playing dress up with a bed sheet.
He strode with an unearned confidence towards the table, his two minions angled towards a booth. Coil was sure this was going to go poorly.
As he pulled the seat across from Kaiser, the one that Lung would use, Kaiser spoke up.
"What right to you have to sit at this table." It was an even tone that still held the menace and disgust towards Skidmark. For all his faults, Coil had to give Kaiser credit for his oratory skills.
"The right of a gang at my back, prick whistler." It was a weak defense and said in a furious whine.
"You have scum at your back and dirt at your feet. You have no right at this table."
"Fuck you and your racist bullshit! I'll sit where the fuck I want. You-"
"You are at my spot." Coil had watched as Lung entered in a silence that belied his size. Just over six feet tall and wearing an ornately designed metal mask in depicting a dragon, he did an impressive job of looming over Skidmark.
"Then I'll take the spot next to you." Coil suspected meek was not something Skidmark often affected, but few would talk back to Lung to his face.
"No one has spoken up for you, and now two speak against. You have no seat." If Kaiser could do understated menace, then Lung could do overstated just as well.
Skidmark looked like he wanted to fight back, but instead growled and stomped off to the same booth his minions had taken.
Lung pulled out his chair and sat, waiting with a serene expression.
With that, everyone at the table looked to Kaiser. He had called the meeting and it was painfully obvious why. The remaining question was what he was going to propose and how much of a hit the reputation of the Empire would take.
He waited a moment then spoke, "I am here to lay out the path that the Empire will take to handle Event Horizon. None of you are expected to help, but to stay out of our way and not impede us. Our success will be your success as well. Event Horizon has shown no restraint when attacking our business and shows no sign of stopping."
Coil raised an eyebrow at that. Not asking for help? They might come out of this in decent shape, should they succeed.
"How are we to know you won't bring down more trouble?" Coil asked. "Event Horizon is the new poster child that the PRT is courting. They won't take kindly to anything untoward happening to her."
He had the stand in say something along the same lines. There was no reason to differentiate the timelines at this point.
"We are bringing in outside help and she will simply vanish one day. There will be nothing but rumors."
"Acceptable," Lung said. "I would like to discuss breaking our people out of the Protectorate HQ."
Kaiser nodded. "We were planning on hitting the transport, but with so many transferred to one location it might behoove us to break them out. Between us we have enough to succeed."
"It would cost a lot, doing jobs in town like that… we will need to leave town for at least six months. Maybe more." Faultline said.
"If we could use your talents around the edges, rather than as part of the main assault, would that bring the price down?" Coil and the Coil stand in asked.
"We?" Kaiser probed for clarification.
"Indeed, I would be willing to rent a few teams out. I have no issue helping you both in this endeavor." Coil would be able to get into a decent position to pay off a few informants. He needed a lot more information than even he was gathering to both ensure the Cauldron request did not fail and he did not topple from his position.
"If the PRT could not do more than glare in our direction, we would be willing to price accordingly," Faultline broke in.
"I will be able to accommodate your requirement," Coil said. "We can discuss details at a later point."
It would put him in a perfect position to reorient how they would assist. With him paying the bills, they can help with the request. There was a delicious irony that Coil couldn't help but appreciate; the team searching for Cauldron would be working for them. He might even be able to bill Cauldron for services rendered.
"Excellent," Kaiser took control of the conversation, "so it is agreed there will be no hostilities until Event Horizon is no longer a thorn in our side, and our forces are broken free."
The meeting wound down quickly after that. A few lingering items, but there wasn't much talk of details here. It was a meeting to initialize intent and it had gone Kaiser's way. No matter how damaged the Empire's reputation might have been recently, they could come out of this shining and strong if they succeeded.
Coil let the timeline he had gone to the meeting in person drop. He reached out and grabbed the business card off the desk and twirled it in his hand a bit as he thought.
There was an opportunity here that could see him on top. It wasn't even that hard to envision for him.
There was a lot of risk inherit to breaking their members out of the Protectorate HQ, but not so much that it was unthinkable. With the gangs all aligned on it and enough money thrown around to allow a few loose villains a chance to show their strength… it could be done.
He just needed to make it look like he was helping while ensuring they were unsuccessful.
He split the timeline, leaning back in his chair for a deeper thinking session in one and getting up and leaving the office in the other.
His current base was something he saw as temporary. There was an Endbringer shelter that a construction company he owned was able to build off the books but on Federal dime, just took a few bribes and a bit blackmail to get everything lost. He would be ready to move in shortly; a month, two on the outside.
For now, he made his way home. Thomas Calvert, intelligence officer of the PRT, had work tomorrow and it was important to be well rested.
In his sublime office chair, Coil twirled the card again to look at the words written on the back that would cause him to rebuild all of his plans. What at first looked like an anchor tied around his neck was starting to look like an opportunity of a lifetime.
The best part of it all was that Event Horizon clearly would outgrow this little city. She was the next generation of the Triumvirate and while he had no doubt that Brockton Bay would always hold a special place in her heart she would be busy in a larger city in a few years.
He just had to weather the coming storm by hunkering down and he would be near unimpeded afterwards. He carefully clamped down on the optimism he felt. That would be a dangerous weakness to allow to take root.
He took one last long look at the card before setting it down. He had work to do.
EVENT HORIZON MUST SURVIVE
And with that ends the second arc. I had a blast writing it and am glad you are all with me on this journey.
I like the pacing of this one a lot more. It will be something to try and keep going forwards. Obviously the next arc seems like it won't be hard to keep contained since most of it is set up in the last two chapters.
Overall, how are descriptions vs exposition vs dialogue? I feel like I don't have a grasp at all of it and I am just fitting stuff as it feels right.
Writing by vibes, as it were.
One of my short term goals is to get better at liking that balance more. But that will mean a comparative analysis of my writing vs good writing, so we'll see how that goes if I do it.
My big worry for the next arc is that based on the way I set this up, it seems like Taylor is going to miss a lot of behind the scenes things that will setup the actions of others. I might need a few 3.X chapters in some places. Who knows though. That is the danger of not planning ahead.
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May 18, 2023
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May 25, 2023
#657
I placed the plates of food down on the table, ready for dinner. Pan fried salmon with lemon juice as the main course. A side of couscous and steamed asparagus tied everything together.
"This looks delicious, Taylor." Dad said.
"Thanks," I tried not to sound nervous. Tonight I was going to tell Dad I was Event Horizon. I hadn't felt like last night was the right time, after getting back from the library.
He didn't seem to notice and we ate in the silence that had become normal. It was going to be difficult to bring this up properly.
I focused on the food for the moment, putting it out of my mind to try and stay calm. The fish was a little over-cooked, but it was perfectly edible. Couscous was hard to cook wrong and turned out good. The lemon juice mixed well with the asparagus.
I did a decent job with dinner and I used that as a calming point.
As we were finishing dinner I decided I couldn't put it off any longer.
"Dad, I have something important I need to tell you." I kept my eyes on my plate, unable to even look at him I was so nervous. I didn't know how he would react being told; would he be angry? Scared? Sad?
I heard him set his utensils down and I was sure I had his undivided attention. After almost a minute of silence, with me unable to say anymore, he spoke up.
"Well?" I tried to place his tone. I think it was flat like he was suppressing anger. I looked up at him and he was glaring, but while it was at me, it didn't feel directed at me. If that makes sense.
"I'm a cape." I said it fast, just to get it out in the open.
I watched his expression change drastically. It went from suppressed anger to open shock in a slow progression as he processed what I said. It would have been comical if this weren't so serious. After a minute or so it shifted to relief and I wasn't sure why.
"You're not angry? At me not telling you earlier."
"I am just happy it wasn't what I first jumped to."
"What was that?" Now I was curious. With the largest hurdle to get this in the open, I could let the rest come out naturally.
"Nothing that didn't involve me getting the shotgun," he said with a slight smile. An expression I hadn't seen on him in literal years.
It then occurred to me what he meant by that and I blushed furiously. "Oh God! No, that- that isn't… just no."
"Good to hear," he said, the smile staying there for a moment, then faded. "So, a cape."
I nodded, trying not to be meek. He still wasn't giving any indication on what he thought.
He sat thinking for a moment before asking, "How long?"
"Since January… the locker." I looked away in shame.
"Christ." He said it so softly I barely heard. Then louder he said, "You've been going out for so long and I didn't even notice."
"Ah, I've only been going out for a little over a week."
"A week? Well, at least I haven't been oblivious as long but still…" He trailed off as a light went off in his head and then he refocused. "There was that new cape that came on the scene a week ago, captured a bunch of people. It's been on the news."
He became more sure as he said it. For confirmation I lifted all the dishes off the table and moved them to the sink. He watched with a bit of awe as it happened, then looked back to me after the dishes settled.
"Why tell me now? What changed?" We might not have talked much since Mom died, but he still knew me. If I hadn't told him right away, then something must have happened to force the issue.
"Event Horizon captured a few too many Nazis and the Empire is suspected to be bringing help from Europe to kill her."
"Fuck." He realized what he said and shook his head a bit. With a controlled amount of worry he said, "Taylor, we need to go the PRT, get help. Get you in the Wards."
I knew he would bring that up. Every parent must.
"I already have a standing offer for protection. But I needed to talk about it with you first."
I went on to tell him everything that happened over the last week, though I kept it relatively high level. Meeting Glory Girl, capturing Hookwolf and the dog fighting. The power testing and even lying to him about the library yesterday. The only thing I left out was how close Crusader came to killing me.
He was mostly silent as I went over it, asking just a few questions for clarification. He had a looked of suppressed concern, like he thought smothering me with worry would push me away. He might have even been right.
It was as I was going over the meeting with the director and the Endbringer discussion that really brought everything up short.
"No, absolutely not."
I was silent for a moment when he interrupted me. Physically there was nothing he could do to stop me, and I doubt he would be able to guilt me into not going. But I didn't want to just bulldoze over his desire to protect me like that. I wanted him to be okay with me going. Or at least accepting.
"I can make a difference. I might be able to kill them."
"Every cape thinks that, I'm sure. Every teenager thinks they're invincible. I did."
"The PRT thinks I might be able to. They are offering a lot just to try it out."
"No, it is just too dangerous. I can't lose you. I can't." He got up and hugged me. I think it was the first hug I had gotten since… since Emma, after Mom had died.
He pulled back but kept his hands on my shoulders and said, "Please, reconsider. You don't need to go off to save the world. They have been fighting for decades and we are still here."
Something had changed, he wasn't ordering but begging. Did he realize orders wouldn't matter?
I shook my head a bit. "I'm sorry. I have to go. Please, don't make me fight you on this." You would lose, I left unsaid.
A look of despair and pride came over him; it put a pit in my stomach knowing I had won at such a cost.
"Just like Annette." He said, then pulled my in for another tight hug. I returned it this time and we just stayed like that for a few minutes.
He let go and moved back to his seat. "Fine, for now. I won't stop trying to convince you, but we can move on." He sounded like he knew it was a lost cause, but had to try anyway. I couldn't take that as anything less than a declaration of love and I loved him for it.
"You said the PRT was offering 'a lot'. What does that entail?"
I told him how I turned down most of the money, and then redirected it to the women I had rescued. He brought his elbow to the table and rested his face in his palm.
"Of course you did. Why would I think any different?"
I didn't say anything, just letting him come to terms with that. "Fine," he said, "It would not have made up for the danger they're putting you in-"
"That I am putting myself in."
He went on with barely a pause, "-but what kind of on site protection are they willing to offer you, if they are so inclined you be there."
"I am the protection." I responded instantly.
He pulled his head out of his hand and looked at me. "I haven't followed very close, just listened to the reports about you capturing all those people. What even is your power? You moved those plates; telekinesis?"
I shook my head and stood up. "No, something much more fundamental." I floated off the ground a bit, stared intently at him, and started to form my armor around me.
"The forces of gravity are mine to control as I see fit." I let the armor snap in place and he took a step back with a surprised look on his face.
"My name, Event Horizon, is not an aspiration to reach, but the reality of what I can do. Nothing can reach me. I can seal this armor and I am disconnected from everything else. Distance is infinite and no amount of force can touch me. When I say I am the protection, that is nothing less than the absolute truth."
He took a moment to look me over and said, "That looks impressive, but it doesn't really give me an idea what you can do."
Now it was my turn to drop my face into my palm. I let the armor drop and sat back down.
I gave a much more in depth explanation of my power, detailing what the power testing showed and everything else I could think of. When I was done he leaned back and looked thoughtful.
"I guess I can understand it more, but it all feels so disconnected. Like this isn't even real. Really, the closest I have come to a cape that I know of is when your mother ran with Lustrum back in college."
"Well, now I am a bit closer."
"Yeah, I suppose so." He trailed off and looked into space for a bit, lost in thought.
"Oh, by the way," I said, pulling him out of his reverie. "I asked the Dallons if we could have a talk about powers and family and they gave an open invitation to dinner. Was that something that might help with all of this?"
"That's New Wave, right?" he asked.
"Yes. Though only half. The Pelhams are the other half."
"Right. Well I suppose being thrown deep end might help. It is how Dad taught me to swim."
"Thanks for not teaching me like that, by the way."
"Your mother was very much against it." He said it with a bit of a smile. Twice in one night. I felt like we were really bonding again after all this time. It brought a small smile to my face too.
"Oh," he said, "that's why you suddenly got interested in how to stop the gangs, and what was going on in the city."
"Yes, but I am still not any closer… actually, I might be now. I mentioned the PRT is willing to help me out. I can learn a lot while I'm out there with them."
Another stricken look came over his face. "Right, it isn't just the Endbringers. You said you brought this up because they're offering protection from the Empire. Do we need it?"
I shook my head and said, "I'm not sure. It's unlikely they know who I am at this point, but like Director Piggot said, we won't know until you are being used against me."
He paled at that. "Have you been leaving and going to the house?"
"Sometimes, and not as much lately. I have a phone stashed outside, so even the PRT shouldn't know where we live."
That caught his attention. "Ah, right. You would need on of those now, wouldn't you."
I nodded, "Yeah, it was hard to take, but it really was necessary. It has been instrumental each time I have gone out since."
He let out a sigh and said, "It had to happen at some point, this just accelerated it. It's fine." He seemed forlorn when he said, "I suppose we should get an actual phone plan too. I might need to contact you or the other way around."
It felt so dirty to agree with him like that, but it was true. We needed to be prepared for some of the worse outcomes. "We can table that for now, but I think you're right."
"So protection, what does that entail?"
"Oh, I don't know. I never clarified. Just said that I would talk with you over whether to accept. Does this mean we want it? We would have to give away our identities."
"I don't want to turn it down out of hand, but you're right about the identity. And just having the protection detail might be enough to tip the Empire off who we are. But at the same time, you said there is suspicion they will pull outside help and I am not prepared to even guess at what that might mean. But Thinkers seems likely if they can. There isn't much I could do to help there."
He sounded a little broken realizing there was nothing that he could do to help protect me anymore. I wasn't sure how exactly I felt about that, but it did hurt seeing him like that. I got up and hugged him back.
"We'll get through this. We can talk the possibilities over with the director and maybe Miss Militia."
"My daughter, casually talking about high level meetings with the movers and shakers of the city." He returned the hug. "Maybe you can help me talk with the mayor about that ferry project I keep working on."
"What would it take? Maybe I can work that into some negotiations."
He gave a final squeeze and we broke apart, "Maybe you can. Let's try and get with whoever you think we need in a room together somewhere. Maybe the PRT building, maybe not. I will need a mask or something."
"I can cover you with armor too." I smiled when I said, "You can be my sidekick."
"I will need a name, I can't just be 'Event Horizon's Dad'."
"You can be Accretion Disk. It is the part that is just on the periphery of the event horizon."
Internally, I cheered that I had a great use for that name. It all tied together so nicely.
"That does not sound like a good name. We can add that to the list of what we need to prepare for this meeting."
Internally, I cried that even my dad thought my naming sense was bad.
"Well, how about we go for a fly? We can stop by the phone, let the Dallons know we're up for dinner sometime."
He agreed and we got up, leaving the dishes for later. We grabbed jackets for the crisp night and headed out for a short walk. After a few blocks I guided us off to a side street and wrapped us in armor.
I couldn't help but show off just a bit and took to the sky like a rocket. We hit hundreds of feet in second and he let out a whoop that brought a big smile to my face.
"Nice view, but I was expecting more force with the flight, like a plane taking off or something." He sounded a little wistful and I decided I could oblige.
"How about this?" I left him in the armor, but inside made it an extra fifty percent stronger than normal.
"Oh! That is what I am talking about." He sounded a little strained, but not much. I ramped it up just a bit more. I was mindful of what Dr. Pen said about it not being too bad until it was very bad. I knew humans had reached sustained forces of five to seven g's and spikes as high as forty-five.
Incidentally, test pilots are a crazy breed.
For Dad I leveled off at two and I could hear him struggling to breathe so I backed off back to normal.
"That was the rush I was thinking of. What can you do if you really push it?" he asked.
"Think pancakes, but thinner."
He was silent for a moment before answering, "Gross."
With that I headed up more and over to the park with the rock. We landed and I pointed out what I had done as I lifted it up and grabbed the phone.
A short text to Glory Girl and I checked the other messages.
"It looks like Armsmaster is looking to schedule the power testing on Thursday. Same time as I went last time. You good with that?"
"I seem to be getting forgetful in my old age, when did you go last time?" he asked, with no small amount of sarcasm. Banter. We hadn't had banter in so long. I was starting to feel like being forced to tell him was a blessing.
"After school, while you were still at work."
"Ah. Want me to take that afternoon off and join you?"
No. "If you feel like you want to join."
He must have recognizing something in voice because he answered, "It's fine. It's nice seeing you branching out and becoming your own woman."
"Thanks." I let how grateful I was into my voice.
At that moment, my phone pinged and I took a look. I was from Glory Girl.
"Looks like they are up for next Sunday if you're good with that."
He agreed and I responded with a follow up asking if she wanted to join me Thursday for power testing.
"You're pretty proficient with that. A natural teenager."
I realized he was right. I was using it without even thinking. The hangups from before had burned away after so many times it had come in handy.
"Yeah…"
I saw him try to move closer to me but the armor didn't move for him. I made a bubble around us with enough open top to let the city light in and dropped the armor for both of us.
"Thanks," he said and moved closer. "I am not sure that I will be comfortable with them, but that is no reason to hold back or feel guilt because you don't have that same hang up."
I leaned into him and he wrapped his arms around for the fourth hug of the night. I didn't say anything, just took comfort being there. Having him with me again after so long meant more than I ever realized.
We parted after a bit and he said, "We can deal with the PRT and protection thoughts later. The Empire will take time to organize everything and maybe the Dallons will have thoughts."
I nodded and reformed our armor.
"I don't want to wait until next Sunday to start, but I am good for tonight. Also, I am hoping coordinating with them against the Empire starts soon." I took one last look at the phone to see Glory Girl had responded positively then put it back under the rock.
I took us to the skies and headed back to the far side of the house so we could walk back home. It left me with a bit to think on the night.
It went better than I had ever imagined and it took a great weight off my chest. I didn't need to lie to Dad, and he seemed receptive to what I needed to do. The real test would come next time I wanted to head out.
Maybe tomorrow I could see if Glory Girl wanted to go out Tuesday. Maybe see if the PRT had a place for us to investigate.
Thoughts for later.
I am traveling over the Memorial Day weekend and won't have time to write. Next chapter in two weeks.
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May 25, 2023
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Jun 8, 2023
#679
Glory Girl took a step forward and straight kicked the door on the handle hard enough to blow out the latch and swing the door open with a loud slam. She lifted off and floated into the newly opened entryway and yelled loud enough that deaf people would know she was there through feel.
"I hear this is the greatest gay bar in the city!"
In the silence that followed I heard Laserdream say, "Well, I guess you aren't losing that bet."
I floated in a little behind Glory Girl and looked around. What I saw gave me a hollow feeling in my stomach and made me grimace in disgust.
The lighting was a little dim and in a higher class place I would have described it as intended atmosphere to set a calming ambiance. Here it looked grungy as though no one had bothered to change the bulbs and they were starting to struggle to put out enough light, casting everything in a dull tone.
The bar stretched along the right wall, maybe thirty feet long. It looked worn down and the only reason there didn't look to be bare wood was because there were stains, visible even from where I was at entrance, splashed across the counter top.
Behind the bar was a wide array of bottles filled to various levels of various colored alcohols; the glass looked smudged even in the dim light. There were three sets of taps spread evenly along the inside length and not one didn't have at least one handle broken off.
All of that was old bar look. I suspect my dad might even call it character. A place for the working man to go to after work and shoot the shit. It was the other decorations that changed the character from tipsy dad waving goodbye to drunk father coming home.
On the far wall, given a place of prominence to be seen as anyone entered was a massive Nazi flag, the swastika starkly staring back at on lookers. To the left, as tall as the flag, was an ornately framed picture of a saluting Hitler. To the right was a parade ground of a crowd saluting back.
The wall of alcohol was similarly adorned with what appeared to be military awards and medals in frames. On the bar top, near the center of the length, was an iron eagle statue nearly two feet in height with its wings spread and looking out over the crowd.
This was the just the first place we panned on visiting tonight in order to 'shake the tree and see what rot falls off'.
It had happened suddenly since Sunday. I had contacted Glory Girl on Monday to see if she would want to head out sometime in the week. She had agreed, but wanted to see if the PRT had anything to add since Director Piggot had mentioned giving more direct assistance.
They, in turn, had decided to wait until Wednesday so they could put together people and a plan that would incorporate us. With permission from Dad given, that was how I had found myself as the sun had gone down waiting near a PRT van with Glory Girl, Battery, and Assault.
After Laserdream and Shielder, from the Pelham half of New Wave, joined us we spent half an hour going over the idea. It really boiled down to the non-government affiliated capes making a nuisance at Nazis and seeing what shook out.
I had some moral qualms about being the instigators just trying to incite violence, but as Glory Girl said, and Assault laughed at, "Fuck Nazis".
With the plan gone over we had gathered a block away from a known Nazi bar. The PRT officers broke into three groups: one in the front, one in the back, and one smaller one for command and control. Assault joined the back group, leaving Battery with the front.
They had been a duo of opposites. Battery felt similar to a lot of the other Protectorate heroes I had met. Generally friendly but rather subdued, serious even. An easy person, I felt, to get along with.
Her power let her charge up as long as she wasn't moving and then release it all at once in a burst of speed and strength. Her costume fed into that power by being the electric blue so common amongst heroes, but themed with circuitry that lit up as she charged.
Assault was the opposite of all of the heroes from the Protectorate I had met. Much more like Glory Girl in that he had an easy smile and a quick wit. He was overly friendly in a way that should have had my hackles up, looking for the moment he would change from an easy comment to a biting remark. And yet, I just wasn't. He was open in a way that came off as genuine.
When it was time to split up he leaned close to and whispered, "Watch this," and winked at me. Then he sauntered over to Battery and leaned in towards her suggestively. I tried not to stare, but he had a skintight red costume that showed off his muscular form rather well.
It appears I had a type.
"Suggestive comment." He said, just loud enough I could hear him.
"What?" Battery looked confused, but not off put.
"Insinuation of late night activities."
"Oh God," Battery said with a roll of hers. I noticed she was smiling a bit too.
I wasn't sure what to make of this. It was like he was flirting, but not?
"Waggle of eye brows and dashing smirk."
"No, off with you to the rear entrance." With that she moved so fast it was a blur and punched him in the arm so hard he flew off towards with a trailing word that carried as he left: "Promise?"
He left my range without touching the ground but I saw as he hit a building in the distance and stopped instantly, landing on his feet. He gave a wave and walked off, the PRT group assigned with him left to gather in their van and drive off.
His power let him control hits to himself by redirecting the energy in ways that let him pull of stunts like that.
"He is incorrigible," Battery said. She shook her head and continued, "Come on, let's get to the front and let you guys go."
I still wasn't sure what to make of it, but Battery didn't seem like it was a problem, so I decided I would let it drop.
We all gathered around the block from the front of the bar. From the outside it looked a little run down, but didn't have the iconography from inside. There were a few bouncer looking types hanging out front and a row of Harley motorcycles.
"Let's go and have some fun," Glory Girl said with a laugh and started a slow walk over to the bar.
Battery stayed back, giving us a send off wave but the rest of us followed and Shielder said, "Well, it beats homework but I'm thinking our ideas of fun are a lot different."
Shielder was more on the gawky teenager side, bordering on scrawny, than either his sister or Glory Girl. I think he was closer to my age. He hadn't said much beyond a simple greeting to me and he came off as shy as I was, but he had dyed his hair bright blue to match with both his costume and the color of the shield he could make; I wondered if it was his way of compensating.
"Oh come on," Laserdream said and gave her brother a light push, "we're going to be mocking Nazis until they attack us or run home to daddy Kaiser. I think it will be a great night out."
Laserdream was the oldest of us here; I think she was just starting college. She looked like an aged up Glory Girl: same blonde hair, but done with a red headband that kept a part of hair falling over her face a bit. Same curves that must have had every guy in school drooling over her. Same outgoing friendly demeanor that had her talking with me during the briefing.
I was finding myself talking with strangers easier, as long as they could carry the conversation. With both Laserdream and Assault, I had set a personal record of making small talk with new people in a single night. The previous record of course was one, tied from the nights I met Glory Girl and Vista.
"They always seem ready to fight, so I doubt it'll be hard." I said.
"True," Glory Girl said, "but I bet I'll be the best."
That was how it started.
"Oh, you're on," Laserdream joined, "but what're the stakes?"
"Winner gets fifty bucks from the losers?" Shielder jumped in.
"Nah, no fun for just cash. I want something less tangible. Like, if I lose I'll let Event Horizon choose my name for when I change from Glory Girl."
And that set the initial stakes.
"Hey, my naming sense isn't so bad that you can use it as a loss condition," I said, rather affronted at that.
"Of course not, but it isn't so good I can't not use it as one either," she said with that friendly tone that I was coming to know so well. It let a lot of the sting bleed out and I found myself calming a bit.
"Fine," I said, "but that doesn't help with stakes for the rest of us. None of us have names that need changing."
"Yeah, and we get nothing if you lose," Shielder said, motioning between himself and his sister. "Money keeps everything simple."
"We're close to the bar too, no time to deliberate on four way stakes," Laserdream said. "Let's do the money for the rest, but you can keep your loss stake and you and Event Horizon can figure out the rest later."
"Costume," I said suddenly.
"What?" They all said and looked at me.
"If I win, Glory Girl helps me design a costume."
"Girl," Glory Girl said, "Your costume is a scar on reality. Very few capes get something even a fraction as cool. I can't even think of anyone off hand."
"Even so, I think it's an even trade."
"Okay, sounds good." She motioned towards the bar, "Let's roll."
I was curious if she noticed she agreed to a heads I win tails you lose scenario, but on the wrong side. We'd likely just figure out opposite stakes if the need arose anyway.
"There is a small arms cache in the basement with a pair of guards," I said. "Few rifles, a couple boxes of pistols, and a whole dozen grenades? What, who even buys those?"
"Nazi sympathizers, I imagine," Shielder said.
"So, Nazis then," Laserdream quipped.
"Also," I continued, "Basically everyone has a knife and about half have a pistol." I gave an exaggerated sigh. "One has a grenade."
We took to the air and flew the last hundred feet or so to the bar entrance. Above it was a white neon sign that declared the name as "Pride".
Subtle they were not.
As we neared, the bouncers and stragglers noticed what was going on and seemed frozen in indecision, except one. The guy was massive. Seven feet tall if he was an inch and wide as a semi-truck, long wise. It all looked like muscle too, with arms bigger around than my whole torso. He stepped in front of the door way and planted himself with arms crossed.
To anyone without powers it would be an intimidating sight. Glory Girl laughed in his face, reached out in a way to lock his arms in their crossed form, picked him up and gently set him to the side. He was yelling slurs the whole time and tried kicking her, but to no avail.
When she let go he took a half step back and punched her so far he broke his own fist against her face. He didn't seem to notice as he wound up for a punch with the other arm but Glory Girl floated back a bit and a deep blue shield, courtesy of Shielder popped into place between them. It also covered behind us so the stragglers couldn't harass us either. A few took out phones, but that wasn't anything unexpected.
"That puts me in the lead. Come on! I have a… uh, something to win. Did I miss that?"
Someone had just realized.
She shook it off and proceeded to kick open the door. There wasn't anyone on the far side, so I didn't have to worry about stopping her.
That left us in the aforementioned bar filled with angry, armed Nazis. The plan was proceeding properly so far.
They reacted like an anthill kicked over and jumped out of their seats and reached for their weapons. It was fascinating seeing the ones near the front freeze as they saw who had just desecrated their place of worship.
We were four shielded capes forcing our way in. Nothing in this bar could stop us and they knew it. There was a push from the back that forced the ones in front closer before the yelling to stop pushing could be heard over the general yelling and slurs hurled our way.
We all followed Glory Girl's lead as she floated over to the bar with the widest shit-eating-est smile this world has ever known. Shielder brought his shield in and wrapped our backs and the front of us covered from the ground to about waist height, giving us a few feet of enforced space.
Word had trickled through the crowd who was here. "Several leaving the back," I said, trusting the throat mic the PRT had given me to hear it. The others didn't have it as it would stand out on their costumes.
"Copy, we see them." A PRT officer responded. As I understood it, the plan was for a few officers to follow them and hope they led somewhere useful.
"Barkeep!" Glory Girl said, still loud enough that most of the bar would hear her. "A round of your finest sparkling water for me and my friends."
The bartender looked like a man in his fifties, chiseled from stone. His face had scars that had actual pieces of missing flesh, rather than just scar tissue. He also had no less than three separate Nazi iconography based tattoos on his face alone.
He had a glare that I would put money on could strip rust as he reached under the bar. I kept real close attention that his hand didn't wander to the shotgun and instead grabbed a glass. He brought it up past the bar and to his face. He spit a huge wad of phlegm into it, and placed it in front of Glory Girl, "You can share, kike."
The crowd roared their approval. The invectives calmed over a minute or so, the crowd must have wanted to see our reaction.
Laserdream scoffed, "Share? Is this bar so poor that that is all you can offer us. Pathetic."
"Give them a break sis, they're in such rough shape they can't even remove the photo of the loser of World War Two. Maybe we can give them a hand and burn it."
That got a larger reaction than Laserdream's attempt. I think Shielder was in the lead now. Though maybe Glory Girl still had it. This bet was going to be hard to decide. The crowd once more quieted, though with more murder than before.
"Hey! Hitler wasn't all bad," I said.
That got a reaction from everyone. It was entertaining seeing similar shock coming from all sides.
Into the near dead silence of the bar I said, "After all, he did kill Hitler!"
Glory Girl snorted after a second. "Hah! You had me going for a second. You're right though, killing Hitler does put a positive mark in your ledger."
"Yeah, but he loses points for killing his dog first. I would take a dog over a Hitler any day."
"You fuckin' whore!" It was the first thing I had been able to make out of the crowd as its own distinct insult. The speaker was a gaunt looking teenager that ran toward the shield and tried to hurdle it. Shielder raised it a bit just as the guy got his first leg over and he tripped, stumbling head over heels and ended up in a pile at our feet.
"Real master of your race there," Laserdream said. She put a small shield of her own over the guy as he struggled to get up.
A few people made to try and join the failed track star, but Shielder pushed his shield out and grew it by a few inches and they decided glowering was the better part of valor.
Several throughout the crowd had pulled out phones. Some were calling and some were recording.
"We're getting reports of a cape assault at some bar," Battery said through my ear piece. "We're prioritizing it and will be there as soon as we can." That last part held no small amount of amusement.
"It does seems like some capes were assaulted here," I said.
A few that were on the phone turned and whispered to a few others, and a message started to move throughout the people there. It was worrying in a practical sense that they looked to be organizing rather quickly and I didn't have any idea what. In another sense, it was really interesting to see the wave of people calm flow out from a few locations, collide their messages, and spread out to the sides from there.
If only I could read lips, I might even have an idea of what their plan was.
Finally the crowd quieted in a more controlled manner, with really just the guy on the ground at our feet still struggling a bit with some muttered curses.
One of the people in the middle pushed his way to the front. He was a little taller than average and looked late twenties or so with fairly well built physique. If it weren't for the swastika tattoo on his bicep, I might even say he was handsome. Between that and the look of hatred really detracted from his attractiveness.
When he got to the front of the crowd he looked down to the guy on the ground and said, "Mouse, stop struggling." Then he looked back to us, "It is obvious what you are trying to do here and as of now we have orders to not start anything. You will get nothing from us here. Kindly fuck off."
It was a little disconcerting that the whole bar stayed silent and just crossed their arms.
"Look at the good little goose steppers following orders," Glory Girl said, the disgust dripping from her voice. She lifted her glass, "We just came for a drink, and you fucks serve this. Give us something top shelf and we'll leave."
He gave a light snort, "And contribute to the corruption of the youth. What do you take us for?" That was pretty rich since I was betting Mouse wasn't of age. He turned to the bartender and said, "Give them water in a clean glass. They can have that and then fuck off."
I felt like we had lost control of the situation. With them not screaming at us, and filming us, it might be time to duck out. Looking at the others, they appeared to be coming to the same conclusion. Without the Nazis initiating something, we would be stuck staring at each other until we got bored and left.
An idea struck me. I wasn't sure how good it was, but I did not want to slink out of here with my tail between my legs. I took out my phone and on speaker, dialed Battery. She picked up in short order and everyone turned to me with a confused look.
"Event Horizon, how can I help you." She did an admirable job of not making it seem like she was right down the street.
"I found a basement filled with grenades, guns, and some sort of box with wires in weird places," that last part was probably a broken microwave, but hey, what did a teenager know about scary cape stuff? "Can you have some people come by and help me check it out? Be warned, it appears to be infested with Nazis."
The man's face got progressively worried, then he turned incandescent. "You bitch!"
It looked like he was about to go against orders and lunge at me but was able to suppress the urge, though he did have a vein on his forehead popping out.
I thought that was just a cartoon thing.
"Of course, let me know where and I will redirect there," Battery said, "We can have Armsmaster on standby as well. Please stay on the line."
"Thank you." I gave the name of the bar and moved the phone to the side. She would likely take at least ten minutes to arrive just to keep up appearances.
As I was finishing with that, Glory Girl laughed and patted me on the back and both Laserdream and Shielder leaned back a bit with a more confident look than just a minute ago.
The man also seemed to come to a decision. He turned around and yelled, "Fucking scatter!"
"Let them go," Battery said over my radio rather than through the phone.
I passed the message to the others but asked over the mic, "Why, don't you want to arrest as many as you can?"
"Anyone not in the presence of the guns will just say they had no idea, and we can't arrest them for being in a different room than the weapons of a semi-public place like that."
That scatter command did not go as well as he hoped since we were blocking the front entrance. It forced them all to try and force their way out the back. It sort of worked, but it did take them several minutes of pushing and yelling. Interestingly, the bartender just stayed put and started cleaning the glass he spit in.
The two guards seemed to hear everyone leaving and hunkered down to make a phone call. Whatever they were ordered had them setting down their guns and trying to leave. I suspect it was decided them either dying in a gun fight with the police or getting extra charges tacked on if they weren't killed wasn't worth delaying the inevitable loss of the guns.
I passed that on to Battery as I lifted them up and set them down next to the guns. I let the field drop to see if they tried to leave again. They kicked the guns away and sat down instead.
Once the bar cleared, Battery walked in with her PRT officers in tow. They cleared the bar, the bartender in particular after I told them of the shotgun, and cuffed Mouse. Then I showed them where the entrance to the basement was and Battery sent four officers to go down while the rest of us stayed up.
"Not bad for a first attempt," Battery said. "We got a place that a few of the first people to leave went to. Did you want to try the next location? I bet they're on edge for you to find anything else like this."
"I'm down for another," Glory Girl said. "This can only get more fun."
Laserdream and Shielder both agreed as well. I wasn't far behind, still looking to see if we could find more weapon caches. As insignificant as what we found here was, it felt more tangible than the capes I had captured. That was definitely wrong to think that the entire dog fighting ring was worth less than the few guns here, but these felt more tangible.
Battery gave us the address and rough directions. Assault was already headed there and we could call him for relative locations if we got lost through GPS.
We headed out and took to the skies and let Shielder set the pace, as the slowest flier; we weren't really in a rush. We spent the first part of the flight deciding who was in the lead of the bet. It was mostly a three way indecision between Glory Girl, Shielder, and myself. Shielder had pissed the most off without surprise, but Glory Girl had got the bouncer to attack her (but she initiated, I argued) and had kicked the door open with a widely agreed glorious taunt. I was the only one to get one to attack me with just words.
When we were about half way there something came into my range that brought me up short and made me stop so I could focus on what I was seeing.
"What's up?" Glory Girl asked as they all pulled up to me.
Instead of answering I pulled out my phone and called Battery again. I tried to stay calm even as my heart started pounding in my chest. I hadn't ever dealt with something like this and I was in no way prepared.
"Hey, get lost?" she asked; it sounded like she was smiling and I suppressed feeling angry at her since she couldn't know.
"You need to get the bomb squad out here, and an ambulance." I looked over to Glory Girl, "Call Panacea."
Everyone started asking questions at once.
I raised my voice to make sure everyone heard, "There is a man with one leg sunk to his thigh in the middle of the road and there are explosives strapped all over his body."
It took less than ten minutes for a lot of police and PRT to show up. We were told to not approach and to wait until we did anything at all.
"I can wrap him in a shield from here and prevent the explosion from harming him," I said to the people in charge.
It was a mess. Armsmaster was on site with two, presumably high level, PRT officers, but there was also various police. A bomb squad officer, a captain that wasn't Sals, and a negotiator. I think I heard someone say there was FBI on the way, but we weren't waiting for them.
New Wave had been forced to stay back to make sure it wasn't so crowded.
They were mostly arguing over what to do, and how we couldn't approach as there was almost certainly someone watching with a trigger.
Armsmaster looked over to me and stared for a just a moment before saying, "Agreed, but wait just a moment." He looked back to the crowd in charge and continued, "We can't wait too long or anyone watching might decide to trigger the explosive just to prove they can."
He made a motion on his arm and a monitor we could all see lit up and it showed a close up of the man we were here to save. He was a full block away from the command post that had been setup around the corner of the farthest building that kept me in range, with police cordons at every intersection around him at similar distances to make sure no one came close.
It was sickening. He was a black man wearing a suit and tie and there was a briefcase laying open next to him. He wasn't gagged but even though he knew we were there he wasn't calling out for help. He looked petrified and had tear streaks down his face. My heart clenched in fear and anger at what had been done to him.
He had a collar locked around his neck that was a matching pair with a crown that were made to look aesthetically evil with lots of iron spikes. Mixed with matching ankle and wrist bracelets that were shaped like Chinese dragons there was no doubt who had done this.
All of this was coupled with his right leg being sunk into the road. As though someone had dug a hole to his mid thigh, stuck him in, and then refilled the hole exactly the way the ground was before. A couple inches of asphalt and gravel below that had him locked in tight. His left leg was jutting out at an awkward angle behind him and he was trying to brace himself with his arms, but the way his leg was anchored didn't really allow it.
It was worrying that I had pissed off both the ABB and the Empire so much they had teamed up for this.
Armsmaster started pointing out the parts that were explosive, and possible trigger mechanisms. The one he was most worried about was something that could detect minute changes in the gravity field and set it off before I had setup the safety field.
The other part was even if I did everything perfectly to not set anything off, the theoretical watcher might notice what I was doing and set it off too. So speed and correctness would both be needed.
After he had gone over everything he turned back to me, "Do you understand what needs to be done?"
I bobbed in the air, "Yes." I wouldn't mess this up and I would make sure this man made it back home.
"Then under my authority as the ranking member of the Protectorate, I authorize you to do what you deem necessary to save that man."
He turned back to the monitor, pulled a device from his halberd and placed it carefully on the table with the monitor. Orders were also sent out to take cover.
I put that out of my mind and focused on the man. Staying aware that I did not want to affect the devices at all, I put a field on the last few fractions of an inch inside his skin and made a field that would pull it all in. I had tested something similar on myself to make sure it wouldn't be lethal. It wasn't comfortable, but it wasn't really painful.
It would cut off his air, but this should all be over in a moment so that wasn't really a concern.
At the same time I made another field that was touching the first one but pushing outward. If I did it right, then it wouldn't seem like anything had changed. I didn't wait to find out if anyone noticed the changed and on the outside of the second field I made an open black hole.
Everything happened very fast after that. The man went from a black man lit under a streetlight to looking like a second me. Everything he was wearing starting falling into the singularity now covering him. It was interesting that it wasn't pulled in, but rather sheared off into non-existence as the normal gravity of Earth pulled it down.
An instant later the murmuring of everyone around me was drowned out by an explosion and most of the glass a hundred feet around the man blew out.
It wasn't unexpected and everyone got a worried look as they turned from the monitor to me.
"He's fine, I'm bringing him in now." I told them. "Bring a blanket too, I sheared everything he was wearing off."
They all collectively breathed a sigh of relief and started talking amongst themselves. I was busy bringing him to one of the ambulances that was near us.
I floated over to Panacea and the rest of New Wave and said, "I am bringing him to the medics, want to make sure he is safe?"
She agreed and told the rest of New Wave to stay put in order to make sure he had the fewest people around him as possible. I set him down in front of an ambulance and dropped the field, letting him take his first breath in maybe thirty seconds.
When I did would have dropped to the ground if the medics hadn't grabbed him and sat him down on the back of the ambulance. They wrapped him in a heavy blanket they had at the ready.
I need to keep that in mind for the future. Dropping people like that is not what I was aiming for.
He panicked and struggled a bit, but he was held firm and they gave him reassurances that he was fine. After a moment he calmed down and looked at who was around him. I saw the tears start and a second after that he was thanking us and God and everything over and over again.
We all waiting for a few minutes in silence as he calmed down and became more responsive. At that point Panacea stepped forward and reach a hand out.
"Do I have your permission to heal you?" She asked, sounding almost bored. It was so dissonant to the situation I couldn't help but look at her in shock. I was grateful no one else would be able to notice.
He agreed readily and she closed the last few inches to touch him. "Lacerations on the neck and head. Bruising on the arms and legs. Heavy bruising on your right thigh. Overall you're in pretty good health. Bit of a lower back issue. I can fix that up if you want, while I'm here."
"Thank you, yes." He did seem to calm a bit with her tone though. Maybe she did know what she was doing.
When Panacea stepped away the paramedics started talking to him, letting him know he was still headed to the hospital, checking vitals, things of that nature. Armsmaster stepped up around then, his power armor making a slight whine of gears and motors.
"Sir, if you are up for it, a quick description of what happened to you would help." It was impressive how indifferent he sounded. Panacea had sounded downright empathetic in comparison.
The man looked at him for a moment before saying, "I was walking home and the fucking Empire jumped me. I wasn't even in their territory. I know where is, roughly, safe in this city and I wasn't anywhere near them."
He expression went bleak as he continued, "They didn't really hurt me, just a quick jab to the stomach as they pulled me into a van and drove off. A warning that yelling would get me killed and they blindfolded me. You saw how I ended up."
"When they removed the blindfold, did you see anyone in particular?"
He nodded, "Just the cape. Some fucker with a black full face mask that had an upside down white cross on it with a hood covering. He didn't say anything. Just hauled me out of the van and touched the ground and my leg sank into it."
"Thank you, that will help us. We suspect it is a new out of town cape. Can I get your name for the record, then we'll let you go."
"Reggie." He paused a moment. "Reginald Johnson."
Armsmaster turned and motioned for me to join him. As I turned to do so I heard Reggie asking for a phone to call his wife. It was that comment that brought this all together for me.
As bad as it had been, his rescue went off without a hitch and he would be going home. I felt a smile cross my face, but I tried to quash it. He was only here because I had pushed the gangs so far.
I resolved to keep pushing until they couldn't do this anymore.
"Is there any residue at the explosion site?" Armsmaster asked after we had walked most of the way back to the command center.
"No, I think it's all rubble at this point."
"Can you take us there? I want to check a few things, get a couple samples before the bomb squad gets to it."
I picked him up and took us over.
"Any idea who the Empire brought in? Sounds like a distinctive costume."
"No. We are trying to reach out to Interpol for anyone based on the power description. The timezone means we might not get an answer for a bit."
It was then I pulled up short and swore. "Another person is ankle deep inside a building. Fewer bombs, but strapped to a chair."
I tried to remember if the building this woman was in was one I had been over before, but I didn't think so. It was on the far side of Reggie from where we flew in and I had kept him at near max distance. This woman was about half my range from where Reggie had been, but in the basement.
Armsmaster spoke into the radio and let everyone know that we had another.
"It is likely there are more then." He added that to me after he finished notifying everyone.
He was right. Doing it once might send a message, or something, but doing it twice so close together, there was almost certainly more.
"She is alone in the basement, but it is an apartment building and there are people all over."
We were floating in the air so I brought us to the ground a bit closer the building.
"Can you shield it with a dome if you do the same that as before?" He asked.
That was something I probably should have done before too but I didn't think of it.
"Shouldn't be a problem."
"Excellent." He then stopped suddenly and looked to where the hole from the explosion had happened. "Go to the hole and tell me what you see. Don't stop until you get there."
I had no idea what he was thinking of, but he sounded even more serious than before and it left a bad feeling in the back of my mind. Especially with the order to not stop. The only reason I had stopped was because I had found someone new.
Oh.
I sped over to the hole and didn't stop even when another person entered my range.
I spoke into the mic, "Another, maybe four hundred feet from the site on the opposite side of the road from the woman. He is lying down so his whole body is in the floor with just a bit of his face exposed. No explosives, but he appears to be panicking and struggling to breath."
"Get him out. Both of them."
I did just that. The man didn't need the same considerations so I just wrapped him in my armor, which forced the floor he was embedded in to break and lifted him up.
With the woman I did the same thing as with Reggie, but added a dome with a floor a little under her feet in such a way that it carved a circle out of the floor. With both safe I flew them over to me and brought them over to another ambulance that was parked near the command center.
I didn't stay around for anything after that. Armsmaster had me pick him up and we went to the woman's bomb site first. I found one more person that was in a similar situation and was near five hundred feet distant.
I realized what they were doing. It was with a dread feeling deep in my stomach I said, "They're testing my range."
They didn't know exactly what I could do, but this forced me to reveal a lot. It was like a twisted form of power testing; putting me in a situation that I couldn't do anything but save everyone I could find in order to fill out their knowledge.
I started circling a bit and going in larger circles. "I am trying to hide how far my range is." It was all I could think of at the moment, but it was something.
"Good idea." Armsmaster said. "Careful though. When they decide they have everything they think they will get from this, it is likely they will trigger everyone they have."
A cold chill drenched me as I considered his words. He was right about everything so far there was no reason to doubt him now. Not with how much sense that made. Once they got everything they thought they could, a final fuck you to me would be to just kill everyone.
I wouldn't let them. Somehow I would find a way to save everyone.
"Change of plans." If saving people one or two at at a time then searching for more would tip them off for the perfect time to detonate and walk away, I had an idea that might let me fool them, a bit. "We find everyone we can before rescuing anymore, and we do it fast."
"No." He said it firmly. "Save who you find when you do. If they trigger everyone and you're still looking for people it will be worse than if saved them when you found them."
I wanted to go with my plan, it felt like it had a chance of saving everyone. Even with the risk of saving fewer, at least mine had the hope. But it was Armsmaster. He wasn't just he leader of the local Protectorate, he was one of the biggest and most well known heroes in the country. He had the experience of years of doing this, so even if I wasn't under his command I decided not listening to him was the worse option. No matter how much it felt like the wrong choice.
"Fine, but we're not dropping anyone off until we have them all."
"Good, that was my next suggestion."
On the next cycle around I tilted a lot closer to the man I had found. He was stuck with a knee embedded, but the shin and thigh out. His opposite hand was buried just passed the wrist as well and there was a barrel under him. It was leaking some fluid with a couple small holes punctured around the ends.
I pulled a Reggie Maneuver and grabbed the man quickly.
"Got him." I pulled the man to us and as I did so I sped past where he had been to see if they had left any more people. I didn't see any, but if the increase in distance they had been doing it was likely someone was outside of my range.
It hurt a bit as I turned and went back to the spot where the man without explosives had been.
"Two from here, both with explosives."
I grabbed them both and pulled them close. I picked the farther person and went to where they had been to take a look around.
"No one in range." I said. Armsmaster gave a quick word of acknowledgement and went back to the radio.
It was as I was almost to the last spot that I heard it. My heart broke as two explosions tore into the night. I stopped moving and hung in the air.
I wanted to scream. At the Empire that would do this, at that cape that had crossed an ocean just to kill people in horrific ways, at the world for being so uncaring.
At myself for not stopping it.
I just hung there, numb.
"Event Horizon, I know this is hard but we cannot stop here." I heard Armsmaster say. It was still a cold voice; little emotion even after what had just happened. I don't even know why I was reacting differently this time than when Oni Lee had killed people. Maybe it was because I had someone to focus on last time whereas this time I was trying to rescue people and failed.
"Right." I needed to pull myself together, at least until the night was over. I hardened my heart and said, "Let's get these dropped off at the ambulances and Panacea."
"If you can, a quick stop at the sites…" He trailed off and I suspected he was getting something through his radio. "Never mind, head to the command center ambulances as you said."
It seemed like it was an eternity to reach Panacea and yet it was over in an instant. I don't know if Armsmaster said anything on the flight; I was so lost in my thoughts. They weren't even productive thoughts, just spiraling what ifs.
I dropped everyone off in a daze and just hung off to the side while other people handled things. There wasn't anything more I could do at this point.
After a few minutes Glory Girl came over. She didn't say anything, just floated close to me and leaned over to touch shoulders. I dropped my armor on that shoulder to let her in closer. It was nice, having that little human comfort after what had happened.
We stayed like that until Armsmaster came over.
"Event Horizon, would you be able to drop officers at each location, we want to canvas to see if anyone saw anything."
"Yes." Doing anything that could help was the tiniest drop of salve on the wounds I felt.
It was a quick job, dropping a couple people off at each site. It was nice of Glory Girl to join me. After we landed back at the command center Armsmaster finished what he was saying to the group and walked over.
"Event Horizon, thank you. I don't believe we have anything else for you or New Wave tonight." That was the coldest dismissal I think I had ever gotten.
"Was what happened my fault?" I blurted it out before I could even think. It was the same as with Miss Militia and Oni Lee. Were my actions to blame for what tonight?
"No," he said. "Every action you took before tonight was to save people, or dogs. And tonight was clearly setup before you even went out. Don't put their actions on you. They killed people tonight, you saved people. That's all there is to it."
It was brusque, the way he said it, but it helped.
"Thank you."
"Also," he continued, "I don't think we will need to do that supplementary power testing. I got the results I needed tonight when you saved Reginald."
I wasn't even thinking about that, but bobbed a bit and said, "Right. Keep me in the loop, please. I want to help anyway I can."
He agreed and headed back to the command group. I watched him go for a minute, lost in thought.
Glory Girl finally broke the silence. "Well, tonight was pretty fucked up."
"They killed people tonight. Random people from the street." I still couldn't believe that a whole organization would just grab people, strap bombs to them and then murder them. That was shit the Slaughterhouse Nine did, not our local gangs.
"Random minorities, specifically," she said, disgust clear in her voice. "Not sure you saw since it was through your power and all, but all the others you brought in weren't white or Asian."
I turned to her fully. "I don't know how, but I won't let them get away with this."
"You aren't alone, I'll be with you and no doubt all of the Protectorate will be too. We'll get these fuckers." She gave me a hug. "You going to be okay making it home?"
I hugged back and said, "I'll be fine. You guys stay safe too."
We separated and I took a circuitous route home, dropping off the phone on the way. When I opened the back door and stepped inside I heard Dad call out, "Taylor, is that you?"
"Yes."
He must have heard something in my voice because he called out, "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine." It sounded like a lie even to me.
Dad turned the corner and I dropped my armor and ran into his arms. I didn't cry but it was a close thing as he hugged me tight, telling me it was going to be okay.
We pulled apart and I started telling him what had happened over the night, but I started in the middle. I needed to get the bombing out of the way before I got to the bar part.
He listened to the whole thing and by the end we were on the couch and he had an arm over my shoulder in a hug that I leaned into, trying to make it feel like everything really was okay.
"They really are monsters," Dad said once I finished. "They talk about the sanctity of the race and all that crap, but when it comes down to it, they are just thugs willing to murder for money and power. You just pushed them, rightly by the way, and now they are showing their true colors." He made a face. "Pun not intended."
"I know, Armsmaster said the same thing. Thanks though."
"My daughter, the Nazi breaker. My grandfather would be proud of you, following the family tradition."
"Is it a tradition if it skips two generations?"
"It could be." He smiled and his gaze lost focus for a moment, "And besides, your mom was firmly anti-Nazi and unions are anti-Nazi too. Or they should be."
"Then I will carry the torch." I didn't smile, but I was starting to feel a little better.
"Good. I really am proud of you too." He gave me another firm hug and kissed the top of my head. I think it was the first time since I was in elementary school, but it felt right. "Now, it's late and you need sleep after tonight."
With that I went up stairs and got ready for bed, even taking a quick shower. When I got out, Dad's door was closed so I knocked on it.
"Yes?" he called.
"Good night, I love you."
"Night Taylor, love you too."
With that I crawled into bed and was left with my thoughts on the night. It felt like two different nights to be honest. The bar was a fun romp that I felt a little guilty about, knowing we had instigated there. But finding the weapons cache and turning it in was a good thing.
After that with the bombings… I just couldn't get over how they tormented and murdered just to get information on me. And this new cape had come in much faster than anyone had predicted seemed like a monster.
It felt like things were spiraling out of control and I had no idea what to do about it. All of my questions over the last weeks about how to break the gangs cycled through my head, but no new conclusions came to me.
I hope the PRT has an idea of what to do.
What else did they have in store for me, and who was going to be killed so they could follow through with it?
Last edited: Jun 15, 2023
517
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Jun 15, 2023
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timelost
Jun 22, 2023
#742
School was closed for the rest of the week and I was grateful for that; I wasn't sure how well I would be able to keep composed after last night.
Everyone was on edge about what had happened and there was news reports from all the local channels and a notice that the mayor would be speaking tonight, but what surprised me the most was that what had happened hadn't made it to national news beyond a short blurb of 'Two dead at hands of gang in Brockton Bay'. Looking a bit deeper I found there were five dead from a single cape in LA last night, two in Houston a few days earlier, bomb threat in Cornell last week, etc. We were just another statistic.
I was sitting on the couch early Thursday morning, trying not to despair that it appeared to be a rare day that someone wasn't killed when Dad came out of the kitchen with another round of coffee for himself and an herbal tea for me.
He would be going to work after lunch, but for now he was a rock I could lean on. I needed it too, just a bit.
I was restless, wanting to go out, to do something to help prevent last night from recurring. Dad had talked me down, saying that there would be a police response and I should go talk with the PRT to help. It meant a lot he was willing to let me go, now knowing what lengths the Empire was willing to go to try and kill me.
I didn't want to miss anything so shortly after tea I went out to the rock to check if there were any messages.
Just one from the PRT that a briefing about last night was scheduled for 1 PM if I could make it. I responded back that I would and sent a notice to Glory Girl that it I would be there. It seemed unlikely that they wouldn't have told New Wave.
I went home and let Dad know that he was right and I spent the rest of the morning doing little else but pacing and thinking.
It was after a light lunch that I headed out. A quick stop to the rock and a text letting them know I was on the way, I went to the PRT HQ half an hour before it started, ready to have something to do to stop this madness.
Miss Militia and Dauntless were both waiting when I landed on the roof. They had been talking and both looked about as grim as I felt. I never really agreed that misery loves company. No matter how bad I felt when Mom died, I never wanted Emma to feel that way with me, I just wanted her to comfort me. And she did; letting me cry for days, telling me stories of her 'Aunt Annette' to bring even a moment of brightness, anything else she thought would help, and all of it did, just because it was her.
Here though, I think it would have been heartless to have any sort of attempt at cheering someone up. It did, however, bring a semblance of satisfaction knowing that I wasn't the only one so perturbed. Perhaps I was learning why misery loved company.
"Hello," I said as I landed.
"Event Horizon, good to see you here," Miss Militia said.
Dauntless nodded at me and asked, "How are you holding up?"
I was quiet for a moment, not sure how to answer. I wanted to tell him that it was so fucked up I didn't know how to react. That even my school life at its worst was a summer breeze to what happened to Reggie and the others last night and I could barely comprehend it. That all I wanted was to find Kaiser and put him into the deepest hole the Birdcage had.
"Better, now that I have something to do."
"We should all have more to do by the end of the briefing."
I felt a pulse of vindication at that. I needed to stop what was happening; it may not have been my fault directly, but I was the proximate initiation of this and I would not stop until their entire Empire was ashes at my feet.
We headed in and ended up in a large conference room setup to allow for a central speaker with a pair of tables setup lengthwise so the audience could comfortably see them.
The room was already starting to fill even though there was at least fifteen minutes until the start of the meeting. Several PRT officers were in attendance, grouped amongst themselves near the middle of the tables.
It brought a shiver of apprehension as I noticed the distinct cliques that were apparent even in this meeting. Miss Militia and Dauntless said a parting word as they directed me to the Wards in attendance and headed over to join Armsmaster near the front of the tables.
I saw Triumph and who I assumed was Aegis sitting in the back of the far table. His rust red costume and muscled form stuck out in my mind from the few times I saw him on the news. His power was a flying Alexandria type, but instead of invulnerability he would adapt to any damage done to him in order to continue fighting.
I floated over to say hello, not sure I would be welcome anywhere else. Was this how cliques formed? People just gravitating where they felt most comfortable?
"Event Horizon, glad you made it," Triumph said. "This is Aegis, my erstwhile replacement."
I felt it would be rude to correct him that erstwhile meant that Aegis was his predecessor rather than successor. Instead I held out my hand.
"Good to meet you. I think that brings me to two missing Wards? No, three."
"Glad to be met." I found his uniform did a great job of implying a well built form without actually being skintight, and his voice really made brought the whole 'future leader of the Wards' together. I did think it a shame his mask covered everything but his eyes. His very rich brown eyes. "I take it you view us as Pokemon? Specimens to be collected?"
Ah, banter. I realized I might have been a bit more glib than I meant to be and I tried to tone it back. "Just trying to track who I've met and not. Triumph said I was being scouted and I think I remember Dauntless trying to get interactions with the Wards as a recruiting technique." Or I was misremembering how I interpreted his comments.
Aegis seemed to take it in stride and was kind enough to not joke around, "Yes, well after demonstrating all you're able to do I think scouting would be an understatement. I am curious though, how are we doing in the recruitment attempts?"
Triumph looked interested in the answer as well, but tried to hide it. It wasn't really anything special anyway.
"I haven't been scared off yet, so you're doing well so far." Triumph relaxed a bit at that and Aegis leaned back his chair and let out a breathe. "But," and that had them both tighten up again, "I think I am finding that the Wards are more restrictive than what I would be comfortable working with."
"Ah," Triumph said after a moment, "I suppose that is true, but they are just trying to keep us safe."
"They? The PRT?"
"Them, but also the Youth Guard is a second check on making sure we aren't put in danger."
I had heard of them tangentially. It was an organization separate from the PRT or Protectorate tasked with, well, guarding the Wards.
"I wonder what they would do about me if I joined now that the Empire and the ABB are directly attempting to kill me."
They looked at each other and appeared to come to some unspoken agreement as Aegis turned back to me and said with a defeated tone, "Likely argue that you should be moved out of town for your own safety."
I bobbed a bit, "And that is a strong argument for me not joining until at least we deal with this crisis." They both looked as though I had kicked them so I decided to try and give them some form of win. "Thank you for being honest though, it means a lot. It definitely speaks in favor of joining when I won't be forced out of the city,"
That did seem to give them a small pick-me-up. I looked over to the rest of the room and fell quiet as they talked about who else would arrive.
I saw Glory Girl fly into my range holding a small orb that she dropped as she landed on the roof. The orb turned into Brandish before it hit the ground and it looked really weird through my power. It was over in a moment faster than I could really process, just a ball one moment and a person the next, but with a vague idea that a transformation had happened.
I followed as a PRT officer guided them in and came into the room. Brandish split off and headed to the Protectorate members as Glory Girl smiled and flew over to us.
She gave a nod to the others and asked me, "Hey, how're you doing?"
Were it just us two, I think I would have been more open, but with everyone in the room I just said, "Okay. Better with you here." That last part just slipped out, but it was true. I felt more relaxed, more confident, now that she had arrived.
Her smile brightened a lot at that and said, "Well, feelings mutual." Then she went for a hug that I think she didn't hold back on, but my armor didn't notice either way. Funny to think that multiple tons of crushing force just didn't register.
Armsmaster moved from the group he was in and stepped up to the podium, giving it a firm rap. In his power armor the hit echoed quite well through the room; everyone quieted down and looked to him. Glory Girl took a seat just in front of me and I decided floating wasn't the way to be and sat as well.
Armsmaster jumped into it without any preamble, "This meeting is to discuss what we know of the events of last night and what we are currently doing. It will also cover a short time for further ideas, but the main planning will be held at a later date with more complete information."
He looked around, seeming to make sure that he had everyone's attention. Satisfied, he continued, "The first order is the cape that is suspected to be sent from Gesellschaft. His name translates to Purifier, and he is a known serial killer, focusing on Jews, but known to branch out to other minorities. He has been active for the last three months and has a known fifteen murders to his name."
In the silence that followed Glory Girl spoke up, "How has he not been captured or killed? His power is great for terrorizing people, but there is nothing special about it."
If Armsmaster was annoyed at the question, he didn't show it. "While Gesellschaft denies he is a part of their organization and denounces the methods he uses, that is certainly a fiction and they're helping him. The same has happened here, as the Empire has both denied involvement and denounced the acts he has taken."
"But we all know they were both involved and helping, right?" I said, disgust in my voice. That there would even be a fiction that they weren't involved was offensive.
"We are treating it internally as though they are directly connected," Armsmaster agreed, "but at a legal level we cannot connect them without evidence, which we are currently attempting to gather."
"Before that," Glory Girl spoke up again, "we aren't expected to refer to him as Purifier are we?"
"Locally we have labeled him as Excommunicated and are planning to go with that."
"Oh God no," she shook her head in vehemence, "you might as well call him Apostate and really give him a good name. That whole cross motif he was described with means he's striking against the church already."
"What does it matter?" Someone from the officers asked.
"You must be a fed if you don't understand how this matters," she said. "We cannot give a cool sounding name to a sick fuck that blows people up. Call him something stupid, like Putty, it fits with what he does. Or better yet, Mudman. That has connotations to what Nazis refer to undesirables right?"
"I agree with Glory Girl," I said, "I vote for Mudman."
She flashed me a smile and I couldn't help but smile in return, even if she couldn't see it.
Triumph and Aegis agreed as well and when Dauntless made a motion of agreement with his hand Armsmaster gave a slight sigh. Brandish rolled hers eyes and sighed a bit as well, but didn't speak up.
"I will amend the name and redo the paperwork."
"Thank you." Glory Girl said in a mix of self satisfaction and appreciation.
"With that out of the way, I would like to introduce intelligence officer Calvert to go over how we are proceeding with the evidence gathering."
Armsmaster stepped aside from the podium and a thin, bald, black man made his way forward and placed a manila folder on the podium. Thin wasn't quite enough to describe him, though. Gaunt to the point of sickness might have been a better descriptor.
No matter how ill he looked, however, he sounded firm as he spoke, "Hello, I want to go over what we are doing to capture Mudman and prove he is associated with the Empire, and possibly the ABB if the dragon cuffs were not just misdirection."
I paid even closer attention than when Armsmaster went over the cape as this might be getting to the heart of what I have wanted to know for weeks now.
"First, I want to acknowledge that no members of the BBPD were invited to this meeting. I would ask that all information given here is kept in confidence from them, and all parties not in attendance."
He seemed to glance over to me specifically, but it was gone fast enough that it could have just been a general look over the room.
"It is well known the police are deeply infiltrated by the Empire, to the point that it would be a certainty any information given to them would in turn be given directly to the Empire. As such, we will be working around them, using Mudman as the jurisdictional loophole to start our investigation."
He let that settle for a moment before continuing, "With that said, we canvassed all the known sites of victims of last night. There were no eye witness accounts of anyone being setup, beyond the victims themselves. All only saw Mudman, but mentioned that they were manhandled separately from him. So we at least know he wasn't working alone."
He turned the page gave it a quick glance before he said, "We are suspecting a stranger was helping carry the victims from the van to the final site as there were nearly a dozen people placed, some in very public places. For no one to have seen anything speaks to more than threats to ensure silence."
"That's a specific power then," Glory Girl interjected, "to keep people at range from seeing anything but not the person being handled."
"Possible," Calvert acknowledged with a nod, "also possible they wanted Mudman to be seen and remembered under the assumption some of them would be rescued. It would also explain how no one was seen besides him."
Glory Girl settled back down.
"We will continue our canvassing, as it is early yet and we're looking for video of surrounding areas as well, but nothing has come up so far."
His voice staying calm the whole time, but where Armsmaster was near toneless in his mannerisms, Calvert had a firm resolve.
"On the Empire side more generally, the… antics before the bombings last night did give us a few leads to follow up." He definitely gave me and Glory Girl a look and I suppressed some embarrassment that tried to bubble up. "I don't have any specifics for this meeting, but by the start of next week we should have some trees to shake. That is all I have for now."
He packed up his folder and walked back to the officer section of the tables and Armsmaster took his place.
"Our main goal is the capture of Mudman and in pursuit of that the FBI is here to coordinate and lend their expertise. We have a separate meeting scheduled for later today where they will go over strategies for this investigation, if you think you, or a subordinate, should attend and do not have an invite, let your superior know and we will get it sorted.
"We are also re-prioritizing the Empire from containment and response to active elimination. Between the lost roster thanks to Event Horizon and the latest terrorist activities they are involving themselves with we believe now is the time to strike."
That caused a bit of a stir amongst the officers as they turned and whispered to each other.
"About fucking time." I heard Glory Girl whisper too.
Armsmaster gave it a few seconds before rapping on the podium to bring order. "As Calvert mentioned, we will have some new leads in short order. I will be coordinating with the director to plan strikes on Empire locations as we become aware of them. Questions?"
"Yes," Brandish spoke up, "what are you expecting from New Wave in all of this?"
"I would like to discuss working with some or all of New Wave after this, if you are amenable."
"We are."
It didn't appear there were any other question and after a moment Armsmaster closed the meeting. The non-capes got packed up and left pretty quick, though Calvert stayed back to join Armsmaster and Brandish at the front.
"Short meeting." I said, thinking back to the multi-hour meetings Dad complained about on occasion.
"Thank God for that, too," Aegis said. "When they drag on I feel like my power kicks in to keep me alive through them."
Triumph gave a light chuckle at that, "That adaptation will get a real workout then, once you take over."
Aegis gave a despondent groan and slumped into his chair.
Glory Girl twisted around her chair with her flight power and said, "Sounds like we'll be working together, any idea what we're going to be doing. Besides busting Nazi skulls?"
"None," Triumph shook his head, "I didn't even know you guys were being called in. Glad you're here though." He threw a nod my way.
"Glad to be here," I said. I guess I would have been surprised if they kept me out of it at this point. And wasn't that a thought, to be expecting to be going to a meeting with the Protectorate.
Brandish broke off from Armsmaster and Calvert and headed over to us. She gave a glance that acknowledged me then turned to Glory Girl, "Come on Vicky, we have some planning to do with the team."
"Cool," she said and floated up to stand on the ground. "See ya guys around."
Aegis guided them and as they headed out I mentioned I wanted to talk with Armsmaster and headed up to meet him. He and Calvert broke up their conversation as I reached.
"Event Horizon, I wanted to let you know I signed off on what was needed for your agreement with the director and going to the next Endbringer fight."
I hadn't even been thinking about that. "Thanks, but I wanted to ask about how I can be of help."
"That was one of the things we were talking about, actually," Calvert said. "We find you fit well into several areas. Obviously capturing capes is the most prominent, but you have shown you can see inside buildings and find anything they might be trying to hide."
The intensity of his voice was matched by his eyes, locked onto to me and rooting me to the ground.
"We want to send you in first to any suspected Empire stash house to get any information we can before raiding it." Armsmaster picked up, "Along side that, we would like to have you accompanied by a Protectorate member and do a wide area search of known Empire territory. We can use anything you find to focus our efforts and find reasons to raid them."
"Both of those sound good to me. Let me know when and where." It was something, but it felt insufficient. It wasn't just ending the Empire I wanted, but to stop it from sprouting anew as well.
"What can be done to stop the gangs from re-forming?"
Calvert gave an amused sounding hum before and said, "If you find out, let us know too."
"That's it? We just have to accept there will always be gangs like this?"
"No," Armsmaster said adamantly, "there are ways that gang formation can be mitigated, but Brockton Bay is generally not in a situation to do so. And those methods take a generation or more to set in."
That was more than I think I had heard before. "What are they, even if I can't do them?"
"Economic reform." He continued, "The number one indicator of violent crime, as we're discussing, is low income and no prospects. Drug dealing is a profitable business everywhere, it just is most prominent one when there is little else."
"There are a few things that could be done, if there was money to spend," Calvert said. "Pay for breakfast and lunch for all students. An educated populous is one of the most important ways to fix an area and starving children make for poor pupils. Public works can help in the short term to give an influx of cash to the population. The Hoover Dam was one of many during the Great Depression."
He gained a thoughtful look, "One issue for you in particular, and capes in general, is running up against laws meant to prevent you from doing so much work that it disrupts whole sectors of the economy. There are exceptions and loopholes though."
"Do you know of anything I could do for the city. Maybe do it as volunteer work or something?"
"Not as such, but you might try and talk to the mayor, he would always be happy to be seen doing something. We can have Emily introduce you two."
He gave a fractional smile as though he had said something funny rather than helpful.
"Thank you."
"Happy to help our rising star," he said. "Was there anything else?"
I took that as the hint to head out that it was and said, "No. I'll be in touch."
I headed back to Triumph and he walked me out. I was feeling calmer than this morning now that I had some form of action to take. It would just be a matter of time until the Empire was a repugnant memory on our city.
I would make sure of it.
RIP Lance Reddick. I think he would have made a menacingly magnificent Coil.
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Jun 22, 2023
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timelost
Jun 29, 2023
#769
I love to read.
Perhaps not the most shocking statement from someone who's mother was a teacher in English Literature, but I think it was important enough to be known. Some of my earliest memories was of Mom holding me in her lap and reading to me.
The classics of course: Lord of the Rings, The Great Gatsby, Dracula, etc. I found her copy of Catcher in the Rye a lot earlier than I think she might have wanted, but I enjoyed it anyway.
Short story long, when I was twelve I had to do a comparative analysis of a 1920's noir novel to a modern airport murder mystery. It came about when she was fed up with a particular class that semester and wanted to get some petty revenge.
I was likely too young for the noir, and very much too young for the modern, but in either case I spent two weeks doing the assignment and turned it into Mom. She, in turn, had her class do an analysis on it and grade it. The general consensus came out that it was a B or so.
To hear her tell it, she had the largest smile when it was revealed her middle school daughter had written it and would expect better from them going forward. I suspect it did not work out as well as she hoped as she would still complain every few weeks until winter break rolled around.
In either case, I picked up a passing interest in the crime genre. Enough to have a book or two on my reading list each year.
All of this to say, I was vaguely aware that police work was not Dirty Harry'ing my way through hordes bank robbers, but rather connecting the dots and coming to conclusion, à la Sherlock Holmes. Or pick a person and railroad them into a conviction.
The other thing that stood out was how boring everyone commented stake outs are. That last part was what I was coming to terms with.
"I think we have another buyer," I said to Miss Militia.
The two of us were currently on the roof of a pawn shop that was on the list of possible Empire fronts and we were using my power to see as people were brought to the back to purchase a gun or two. It had been a long Friday afternoon, moving into evening. Dinner had been an hour ago where we slipped out and slipped back in.
The PRT had invited me to join them and make use of the sensory part of my power in a new way. I had wanted to invite Glory Girl, but it felt rude to bring another person when it wasn't my idea in the first place and they hadn't included her. Instead I just let her know what was happening and she told me to stay safe.
It was nice she didn't hold being left out against me. I really felt like she was becoming a close friend, the likes of which I had long since felt was out of my reach. We would need to find a way to get together out of costume. I hoped the dinner on Sunday night with New Wave would go well enough that it might be something semi-regular.
In either case, Miss Militia and I were at least comfortable, lying on our backs and floating on a bed of fractional gravity, bouncing between positive and negative a few inches above the roof, well out of sight.
"Rifle or pistol?" she asked.
"He's looking through pistols. The big ones."
She formed a large hand gun, behind her to obscure the lights from her power, and I compared it to what the buyer was looking at. It had become the one thing to break up the monotony.
"No, a revolver," I corrected and she tried again.
"Longer barrel, but same form."
"There we go, what is it?"
She brought it out from behind her and rotated it around a bit, keeping the barrel away from either of us. "A fifty caliber Smith and Wesson. An impressive piece really. Balanced well, and heavy enough not to break your wrist from kick; a real man-stopper."
"He looks like he likes it, taking a one handed stance, like a fencer."
"Terrible form. Never fire one handed, but definitely not with a gun that big. Expensive ammo too."
She was a font of gun wisdom as well. Not surprising given her power, but it was interesting to learn about and helped pass some of the time. We had otherwise been waiting in companionable silence.
"It looks like he decided to buy it," I said. I saw one the various PRT unmarked cars drive into my range. "He's headed out… now."
I watched as someone took pictures from the back seat as they drove past. That was the same as the last two buyers and we fell back to our respective thoughts.
The sun was fully down and I was struggling not to fall asleep, trying to guess the next weapon type that Miss Militia would occasionally change out as a way to stay awake, when the shop owner decided to call it for the night. He locked the guns away in the back, grabbed a suitcase of the sales for the day, and then closed the front up. As he stepped out a car pulled up and he got in.
We both were in the same setup from the other night
"He's being driven away, should we follow?" I said into the radio.
"You're cleared to follow," the operator replied.
I picked us up and took to the skies, staying at near max range. In the daytime I might be a scar on the sky, but come the night I was nearly invisible. Especially with the overcast weather that had blown in as evening had set. I also kept an extra plate beneath us to mask the light Miss Militia gave off when swapping weapons.
We followed for twenty minutes as they turned randomly in what could only be an effort to throw off possible tails. It was all in vain as they neared their destination. They had been heading generally south and staying near the coast as they went; we passed out of what I would consider Brockton Bay proper and into the outskirts.
"Oh wow, that is a lot of weaponry." I came to a stop as the warehouse came into view. The little light that was cast on it made it look pretty rundown. It was surrounded by a chain link fence and had a couple of groups of people sitting outside, smoking. Most had pistols, but they were all holstered and most were leaning or standing around casually rather than looking like guards.
"Then we're probably at their local storage and distribution center. Any capes inside?" Miss Militia asked. She changed her weapon to a rifle with a shockingly large scope that she used to look around the area with.
"No, nobody in costume at least."
"Then let's stake it out for a bit, see if anyone interesting comes by."
I kept up a running commentary as our local gun seller was dropped off and waved in. He ambled around, greeting a few people here and there. It wasn't just all guns everywhere, but rather a lot of general goods like furniture or appliances with boxes of weapons spread throughout. It had a very Sears feel to it. I didn't know how they differentiated weapon crates with furniture ones, but if it was a color or stamp or something, I wouldn't be able to tell.
Eventually he stopped hobnobbing and headed to an office off in the back corner. In there was a heavyset guy leaning back in a plush office chair, smoking a large cigar, and talking on the phone; he was guarded by two armed men. The seller was waved in, patted down, and finally allowed to step forward but forced to wait as the boss stayed on the phone for a few minutes.
While that was happening, two vehicles were being loaded with a fair amount of weaponry. The first was an SUV being loaded with a dozen rifles and double that in pistols. It also had several walkie-talkies and a giant tube revolver gun that Miss Militia identified as a grenade launcher added just as it was heading out. It took a turn and headed back into the city.
We decided not to follow it due to the other vehicle they had prepped.
The second was a semi-truck being loaded with almost a third of the guns in the warehouse. Boxes of rifles and pistols and ammo were the main stay but a few crates of grenades went in as well. All of it was capped off by a pair of rocket launchers. It was hidden near the cab by a false wall and then filled with various items and let sit idling as any final checks were made.
At this point the office boss got off the phone and motioned for the seller to sit. He did, setting the briefcase on the desk and opening it, taking out all the cash and a sheet of paper. The boss glanced at the money, but took a close look at the sheet, reading for a minute or so before shaking his head a bit and tossing the sheet down.
They spoke, the seller becoming agitated, but in a way that the guards didn't take as hostile. Finally they came to some sort of agreement that had the seller up and out of the office with a small roll of cash, separate from all the money he brought in the briefcase.
He headed out, towards the semi-truck and spoke to a few of the men by it. He ended up getting into the passenger seat which seemed to be the signal as four got into the trailer and the door closed behind them. Another got into the driver seat and the whole rig pulled out.
That one we did follow as it got onto the 95 heading south. Miss Militia changed out the rifle for a knife that she sheathed on her thigh.
"Hopefully they're just going to Boston," she said after ten or so minutes. "Otherwise it's almost four hours to New York after that."
"Huh," I said in sudden realization.
She must have picked up that I was thinking of more than the distance from Boston to New York and asked, "What's up?"
"It's just… I've never left Brockton Bay before. Not really. I went to a summer camp once, but that was just an hour drive to the woods, so Boston will be my first foray into the wider world."
"Well, unfortunately we won't be able to do any sight seeing since we don't want anyone to know we were there. Too easy to guess we followed the truck if we're spotted the same night it was out."
"Ah, you're right." I tried to keep the disappointment out of voice.
"But," she continued, "you can pretty much come out any time you want to."
It took a moment for that to really sink in. I turned it over in my head and thought about the possibilities.
"Huh," this time it was much more subdued, almost contemplative.
Miss Militia let a bit of a laugh at that and said, "I had much the same realization when I got my drivers license."
"Did you do anything?" I was so curious what her life was like growing up. She had always been the stalwart defender as long as I could remember and it was so cool to learn more about her on a personal level.
"Oh yea, Chevalier and I took a two week road trip. It was wonderful." She sounded so wistful at that it almost hurt. It also occurred to me what two teenagers on a road trip alone must have gotten up to and I blushed.
"Sounds like fun." I tried to keep cool, but her chuckle gave proof to how much that worked.
She let that sit for a minute before she said, "So don't let this trip set the tone for future ones. Take a day and zip out to Boston for yourself, or even New York."
"I might have to." I would too. A good family day with Dad somewhere. Really, I was fast enough that I could make it to the West Coast and still have it be a worthwhile day out. Maybe that would solve the issue of spending time out of costume with Victoria since no one would recognize us. New Wave was to my knowledge a regionally famous team at most.
We kept going, the truck not leaving the 95. After some time the lights for Boston really came into focus. They had been reflecting off the clouds for a while, but it felt like we were crawling along with how long it had taken for the city outskirts to be seen.
It was around this time that a call came over the radio. "Control to Miss Militia."
"Miss Militia here." She didn't sound like this was unexpected, which was odd considering where we were and what we were doing.
"We got confirmation for tomorrow, you're cleared to request."
That piqued my interest. It must have had to deal with me if they were interrupting us now and including me on the call, but I really didn't know what was happening tomorrow that needed clearance. Another stake out mission was all I could think of, but figured I was wrong on.
"Roger, Militia out."
"So what's happening tomorrow?" I asked.
"Hookwolf is being shipped off to the Birdcage."
It was about time. I wasn't sure on the logistics, but it had been a couple of weeks since I had captured him. "Good to hear."
"It is. I was the one assigned to guard him as he went. He's escaped twice before on the way to the 'cage and we're expecting another attempt. We were wondering if you wanted to come along and help be on the lookout. Maybe also get closure on your first capture."
"Oh," that wasn't what I was expecting at all. "I'm not opposed, but I need to clear it with my d-parents first. Since I'll be gone for… uh, how long?"
If she noticed my slip to only having a single parent, she didn't bring attention to it.
"The plan is to leave around ten in the morning. We need to drive north to Canada so we can expect a two or three hour drive. No need for a passport, by the way. We're going to the border where a Canadian PRT team will take over. We can have lunch over there and then we'll head back."
"So we're not going the whole way?"
"I suppose if you want to see the Rockies, you can tag along for the four day trip," she said with clear amusement.
"Ah, maybe just the border trip is fine. I didn't realize and for some reason thought it was on the East Coast." Really, I had never thought about where it was and just attached it to somewhere north as she had described the trip.
"It is a beautiful trip if you get the chance though. Maybe not the destination, but BC is a lovely province."
With the world feeling a lot more open that it had just an hour ago it might be worth a go.
"Okay, do you need an answer before tomorrow morning?"
"No," she said, "as long as you show up at the bridge around nine thirty you can join us. Any later and we'll plan around you not being there."
With that, we settled in to watch where the truck was heading. Thankfully it did get off the highway to enter the heart of Boston. After a bit they pulled into a back alley, blocking through traffic, and the seller got out, went to a side door and knocked pretty hard.
I watched as someone was just leaning against the other side and opened the door almost immediately. They said a few words and with a head nod the driver shut off the engine and the back door slid open as several more people came out of the building and got to work unloading the truck.
Miss Militia changed her weapon back to the scoped rifle as we settled in for their work to proceed.
A few minutes into the process a police car came to the alley entrance, no lights or anything, just parked and headed over. None of the men there seemed worried though, which sent a spike of disgust through me.
"Can you get a license plate?" Miss Militia asked, sounding as disgusted as I felt and the gun in her hand turned into that Smith and Wesson from earlier in the night.
The plate was embossed, making it easy to read back the plate number. The corrupt cop exchanged some greetings and was given that roll of cash that the seller had been given back in Brockton Bay. He stuck around as the rest unloaded, keeping a sort of watch.
Once most of the weaponry was unloaded Miss Militia said, "We can go. They're not going to do anything else tonight that we care about and now that we have the address Boston can handle continuing this side of the supply chain."
With that I went up to just inside the cloud cover, turned north, and took off. It took a bare five minutes to make it back to the Bay and drop Miss Militia off at the Protectorate HQ.
"It was a good day," she said as I set her down. "I think this will help a lot if we can capture their whole gun supply route."
Something that had been bothering me since the warehouse finally solidified in my mind and I asked, "Is it weird that there were no capes tonight?"
She leaned back a bit and a shotgun formed in a way to be slung over her shoulder. "Under most circumstances I think you'd be right, but with how many you have put away, and with the knowledge that you're out most nights, they're probably staying out of costume and out of sight."
It brought a deep sense of satisfaction that I was impeding their organization this much on top of the capes I had captured. That brought up the other Empire shaped problem that reared its head recently to my mind though.
"Any leads on Mudman since this morning?"
She shook her head, "Nothing that I've heard, but we've been out for the day. I can update you with what I know tomorrow, though on the way back. Hookwolf might be headed to a one way hole but that is no reason to talk about our investigation in front of him."
"Thanks."
I said my goodbyes and took off with a wave.
Dad was still up and waiting for me when I got back home and already I realized a large benefit of telling him that I was Event Horizon besides just being able to be more honest with him. I never would have been able to find a reason to be gone from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon on a Sunday if I needed to lie my way into that.
As I laid down in bed for the night I realized the weekend was going to be pretty busy. Between a cross state trip and then dinner with New Wave, there wasn't going to be much unfilled time and I was really looking forward to it.
I was starting to feel normal.
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#779
I dropped down next to the armored PRT truck a little before their nine-thirty deadline, the shadow of the Protectorate HQ covering it in the early morning sun. Hookwolf was already inside, locked down, though his mouth was uncovered and he was talking at the two guards already sitting inside, their expressions behind the helmet a look of clear annoyance.
As I landed next to Miss Militia she gave a nod to me, "Glad you're here, we're just finishing up the preparations and we'll be waiting a bit for final checks."
"Oh shit!" I heard Hookwolf yell with disbelieving excitement, "Is she really here?"
I floated over a bit so I see into the back of the truck and get a full look at the first cape I had captured. The first thing that jumped out were the restraints. There were heavy manacles at his ankles, knees, waist, elbows, and wrists all of which kept him in a forced sitting position that looked extremely uncomfortable. Between those were a smattering of what looked like metal weave straps tightened down and kept the limbs from moving much. All of that was attached to a specialized chair that was separately bolted to several hard points on the inside of the truck. Like a booster seat for criminals.
He had shoulder length black hair that had a greasy sheen to it framing an angular face. His eyes matched the tone of his voice in the excitement they showed and he had a wide smile with distractingly crooked teeth. It was very off putting compared to the scowling visage I had been expecting.
"It is!" he exclaimed as I came into view. "Hopefully you aren't a bore on our trip to my new forever home."
I stared at him a moment before I turned back to Miss Militia and asked, "I guess it isn't normal to restrict speaking for things like this?"
"It can be, depending on the cape," she said, with a look of disgust at Hookwolf, "We were going to, for a variety of reasons, but he promised to be on his best behavior as we transported him, so we decided to grant it as a sort of last request."
"Yep," He said, "as long as I keep it relatively clean they won't muzzle this old hound."
I continued to stare at him for a second as a sense of foreboding came over me.
"You're going to be making dog puns for the whole trip aren't you?" I knew I had a bit of trepidation leak into the question, but I couldn't help it.
"As long as I can keep them fresh, nothing's worse than a tired pun."
Miss Militia looked around again and sighed.
"Walk with me," she said and started heading away from the truck and closer to the main building.
"Let me see if I can authorize leaving a little early," she said once we had made it a little ways away. "We have a few hours with him, no reason to wait here if we don't have to. More than that though, are you okay with him being able to talk? We can still do something about it now if you want."
She sounded like she was hoping I would say yes and I could sympathize with that. Not least of which was my general inability to hold a conversation. At the same time, this was a perfect time to practice. He was supposed to be on passable behavior and he was a captive audience and if it went real bad it was implied we could silence him later. I just had to trust a violent Nazi to not be so disgusting that I wanted to stop him from talking.
"I think if he can be polite, so can we."
Miss Militia looked at me for a moment before nodding. "Okay. I still want to leave ASAP."
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a radio setup similar to what I had used before with them and handed it over.
As I put it on she spoke into her radio and asked about leaving sooner. It looked like she got a positive answer since she looked a little relieved and then looked back to me to make sure the radio was all setup. A quick test check and we were all set.
"Five minutes and we're cleared, let's get settled."
"Actually, why aren't we having me just fly us over to the Birdcage now? I can do it in an hour without much trouble."
"Partly politics. The PRT, rather than the Protectorate, is in charge of prisoner transport and so they have to take the lead. That's also why we rarely use capes of any affiliation for transport. The other part is that we don't want to depend on outside capes. Officially, you're here as a courtesy."
"And unofficially?"
"Hookwolf has been freed from Birdcage transport twice and we aren't allocated more than one cape for transport security. But with you here for closure of your first capture and our desire to try and get you to work for us, the Protectorate was able to justify a second cape."
"But I still can't fly us?"
"But you still can't fly us." She nodded.
I gave a little sigh and we went back. As we got close Hookwolf looked to us and said,
"Good to see you're both back, I was sick with worry." It was said with a similar false tone that Emma often used but it had such a different context with his self deprecation I couldn't even be annoyed.
I did however look up at the roof of the truck. "Did you want me on overwatch?"
"It will be a long flight up there with just a bit of radio chatter to keep you company," Miss Militia said. "Your power sight will be better from the center as well rather than at the edge of the truck in the sky."
"Yeah, join us in here and we can have a barking good time," he let out a chuckle with that.
"And if he becomes too much we'll put the shock collar on him," Miss Militia added in a dry tone. I could not believe she was feeding into his antics like that. It felt so wrong to be joking around with a Nazi like this.
"Joke's on you, Triple M, I'm into that shit."
"Gross," I said and we climbed in to the back of the truck, opposite Hookwolf.
I realized the name he called Miss Militia and asked about it.
"I think I would get muzzled if I answered that, so I'll let your imagination run wild."
Before I could respond, the truck started up and heard over the radio, "We're moving to initial position by the bridge while we wait for final clearance."
One of the two guards in the back with us gave a quick look around and slapped the wall next to the cab. With that the truck started moving, and subsequently everyone else inside.
Everyone except me.
I stayed put relative to the ground and it only took a moment for everyone to be yelling in the radio to stop. Hookwolf started laughing so hard I thought he might pass out.
"What was that?" Miss Militia asked, trying to suppress her anger at what no doubt looked like me fucking about.
"I don't know," I responded, making sure to not sound defensive about it. "I've never not been in control of movement while in my armor and I think it stops outside forced from acting on me. Like the seat of the truck."
She stared at me for a long moment as Hookwolf continued laughing. He even took huge breaths so he could keep it up.
"Is this fixable?" Her glare was strong enough that I shied away just a bit.
"I think so. I just need to be moved by the truck like everyone else. One moment."
Since I was sitting already still I removed the armor from my waist to my feet on the back side only so I was actually resting on the seat rather than floating in the armor. It felt so wrong to be like this; uncovered, even partly, while in costume.
"Alright, I think this will work."
She said into the radio, "We're good to try again, go slow at first."
The truck started back up and I felt the rumble through the seat this time and knew it would work. Sure enough I was carried along the same as every else.
Hookwolf was finally calming down enough to talk a bit, "Oh fuck! If the rest of the ride is even a little as entertaining I will consider it a trip well traveled."
Something had been bothering me about his demeanor this whole time and I finally found a good moment to ask, "How are you so upbeat? You're about to spend the rest of your life in the Birdcage."
His smile became a little melancholic at that, but didn't really lose the mirth. "Everyone knows the Empire is going to try and break me out, so I at least have that to look forward to. Though with you here, it might not go the way the other times did. In either case, I don't have any regrets and always knew this or death were my only two options."
I had no response to that. He was insane to be able to look at the end of his life like this with a smile. I felt like he should be raging and tearing at the restraints trying to get out, anything other than cracking jokes and having a grand time.
As the silence stretched the truck picked up again and the radio crackled, "We're cleared and heading out."
We weren't alone. There were two other trucks with us, one in front and one behind, each with a half dozen PRT officers in full gear. Our convoy picked up and headed out over the bridge.
With the ground dropping away I became paranoid about my whole open bottom half and thought about how I could calm down a bit. I decided to cover the whole bottom of the truck and found myself sitting easier knowing I wasn't protected by anything as flimsy as steel.
The trip through the city was the most likely place we would be hit, according to Miss Militia so we had Armsmaster and Velocity following as part of their patrol, that just so happened to correspond to our path out of the city.
More politics at play.
It was a tense ride out of the city and Hookwolf even stayed quiet, though he looked expectant. As more time passed and we weren't attacked he started to look a little disappointed and I felt a bit of satisfaction at that.
"Well, they're planning for something outside of the city I'm sure. Can't let little ol' me go without a valiant attempt." It sounded like he was convincing himself as much as us.
The last of the city limits fell away as we sped north and gave way to close forest on either side of the road. An occasional house or neighborhood dotted through the woods broke up the otherwise unchanging landscape.
Hookwolf eventually stopped waiting for an attack and leaned back. "So," he said, staring off to the roof, "how's the newbie been doing, Triple M? I hear she got a few of my friends."
The question caught me off guard, but I found myself suddenly interested in Miss Militia's opinion of me and my accomplishments. A little narcissistic perhaps, but I was only human and I was looking forward to praise. I tried not to look to interested in her opinion though, that would just be gauche.
"In a word? Competent." I preened a little at that, basking in what might some of the first direct praise since Mom was still alive.
"That's it?" Hookwolf scoffed, "Not going to puff up your new Triumvirate candidate?"
Miss Militia looked over to me and said, "Too much praise might be bad for her, but I find her dedication to helping people to be inspirational."
I blushed and mumbled something like a thank you. "I learned it from you, and the other Protectorate members." I managed to get out.
It looked like she smiled behind the bandanna she wore, "I always love hearing that I have been an inspiration myself. Thank you."
Before I could say anything back Hookwolf groaned loudly. "Uuuurrgh, not the direction I was hoping this would go, not enough embarrassment. Okay newbie, pick a topic, and make it not boring."
I wasn't sure what topic he would find not boring, but this was a unique opportunity for me. I had been capturing Nazis for weeks, but I had never been able to talk with one and I had so many burning questions. He would probably find himself to not be a boring topic too, so this might just work out. There was one question that I felt would tie a lot of what had been boiling in the back of mind for a while now.
"Why did you become a Nazi?"
His head snapped to me and he looked a little shocked. It morphed to a boisterous smile after a moment, "Ooh, going right for the jugular aren't you? Alright, I'll tell you."
I leaned forward, a burning desire bubbling up to hear this. All sorts of reasons flittered through my mind. Maybe he had a series of bad experiences and found blaming the Jews to be easy. Or he wanted the camaraderie of a group of people. Or money, or safety, or-
"I like violence, and they let me fight anyone I want."
All of my thoughts slammed to a halt. "What?"
"Yep," he drawled out the word, letting it trail out in clear amusement. "I love fighting. Back room brawls, front stage cage matches, capes, normals, fuck I would fight an Endbringer if I got a chance. I just love it so goddamn much."
I couldn't even form a response, but he was happy to keep talking.
"Before I even got powers I would go to illegal fights and brawl with anyone willing to step up. Made a lot of money, and a lot of enemies. A few people even died under my tender mercies. So much the better, really brings out the adrenaline when your life is on the line.
"Well anyway, those deaths got me more heat than I could really handle and I got an offer that was too good to refuse. Join the Empire and they would keep me out of the hands of dear old Uncle Sam in return for me to do violence at whoever they pointed me to."
"You don't believe the rhetoric?" Miss Militia asked, sounding as interested as I was.
"That Jews are gold grabbing, world controlling, blood drinking pedophiles that are keeping the good white man down? No. Some of the dumbest motherfuckers I have ever met have been white and one of the most articulate, learned man I met was some Arab or something from that part of the world."
"Then why? You must be able to do what you want without being with them." I had no idea what to do with this information. Were there a lot more Nazis in the Empire like Hookwolf? Just looking for protection from the law to do arbitrary violence?
"Maybe," he sounded dismissive and tried to wave an arm, "but this is the easiest way, and I don't care if they want me to focus on one group over another, as long as I can hurt and kill I will be their loyal little attack wolf."
He let out a harsh laugh and said, "Though if you want someone who does believe the rhetoric you can go to Krieg. Bug fuckin' nuts that guy is. Jews this and Blacks that. Thirteen-fifty all day long. Just shut the fuck up man and let me drink."
"Why do you like it so much?" I wasn't sure where I was going with the question, but I needed to know and I couldn't place it in my own world view. The idea of hurting someone like that was anathema to me.
"Now we're back to the boring parts," his smile dropped and he let his eyes wander away. "I just do. Nothing more."
"Not a need to prove yourself? Show you can be more than others?" Miss Militia asked.
"What? Like survival of the fittest or some shit. Nah. That's almost as dumb as Krieg's world view anyway. I get a rush from the fight and I like the rush. I do admit stronger opponents get a better rush, but anyone that can last longer than a punch gets me something."
His eyes focused on Miss Militia and his smile returned. "Remember that time you hit me with the fifty cal? Oh man, that was good. Shame you can't stay in close, but the chase was something for a bit anyway."
"I remember that night a bit differently," she said with a bitter sound. "You killed two people in cold blood and I couldn't stop you."
"If it's any consolation I had a couple more on my list for that night, but you kept me too busy to check it twice."
She looked disgusted and her weapon changed to that Smith and Wesson pistol from the other night. She placed it firmly in her lap and glared at him.
"Hmph, guess not much then. Oh well." He closed his eyes and leaned back. What little his restraints allowed him.
We fell into a silence after that. It felt too awkward for me to continue questions and I let myself fall into thought. I don't think anything he offered would help with anything. Just blind violence that sounded like he was a small step short of the Slaughterhouse Nine.
"Lead to convoy," the radio cracked after some time. "Car on the side of the road, looks like a flat, ten seconds out."
The lead truck drifted a bit to split the lanes and Miss Militia sat up, alert. I paid attention too, waiting for the car to come in view.
It didn't look like anything special, just a woman kneeling down trying to remove her shredded tire. It was a second after that I noticed something foreign in her. Placed next to her shoulder blade, under the skin, was a long, thin, tube.
"Something's wrong!" I said it and at the same time started building armor between her and the road. There just wasn't enough time from when I realized it to when the trucks neared her. We were moving fast enough that from when something entered my range to when it reached us was maybe five seconds. It took about two to form the full armor and it was about three before I realized the tube and started reacting.
As we neared her something pink flashed in front of my eyes and through my view for an instant and suddenly a lot of things were falling apart.
It had been a star burst pattern and it had sliced the truck in several places. The front cab on the passenger side corner all the way to far side of the wall behind the guard next to Hookwolf was the largest section, but four others happened as well.
The first was through the engine block and out the front side. The second was right where I was sitting. My armor blocked the effect but I felt my heart skip a beat in fear as I realized it had crossed my lap as I had been turned forward a bit. The angle was such that it missed Hookwolf entirely.
The fourth clipped the corner at the end of the truck.
The third flashed right in front of Miss Militia's torso, severing both legs and one of her arms.
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#826
A lot was going very wrong and I had fractions of seconds to not have it go worse. The first order of business was to make sure the truck didn't start skidding down the road at highway speeds.
I made an upward gravity field around all the trucks in the convoy that let us coast forward as we went up. This let me focus on the people without worrying about hitting the tree line in the next bend and get us farther away from the ambush point.
The next order of business was staunching blood flow; even in the bare moments that had passed Miss Militia's limbs were already separating. There was one huge spurt of blood from each appendage before I was able to clamp down on them. A high gravity field around each end that pulled in would be enough for the moment.
The scream she let out was something I didn't know humans could make and it felt like it cut my very soul knowing I was doing that to her, even to save her life.
I still didn't have time to take any stock of what was happening, but I couldn't help but notice the woman who had been at the car on the side of the road was little more than a collapsing pile of meat.
The guards in the truck that had been hit might have been in fewer pieces, but were no less dead for it. The man riding shotgun had been watching as we passed and it had severed him from his right knee up through his left eye. That same beam had hit the guard next to Hookwolf and he had been angled such that it went through his left leg up through the center of his chest and head.
The driver and guard next to me had been spared and were currently screaming into the radio about ambushes and evacuation. I doubt they were even aware the others were dead.
The truck behind us had been spared any hits but the one in front us caught a beam across the back. It had managed to only injure two of the guards as it sliced the truck in twain. I capped each of their single missing limbs in a similar manner to Miss Militia.
As we drifted higher I suddenly realized my left leg below the knee wasn't keeping perfect pace with the rest of me. The back of my legs and butt had been uncovered from needing to ride on the seat rather than float separate from the truck and my paranoia to protect everything below me didn't extend to the sides.
I had been sitting with my left leg curled a bit under the seat and my right forward and the beam had slice in from the back and been stopped by the armor in the front. It hadn't only sliced my leg off, but my ankle had been sliced as well, leaving me with a foot, a heel, and a shin as separate pieces.
A shiver of horror went through me even as I realized it didn't feel painful at all. A geyser of blood pumped out and I clamped my leg down the same way as I did with the others.
Then I felt the pain.
It flared to heights I didn't know was possible and I screamed comparable to Miss Militia; any lingering guilt fled me as I shared in her suffering. I had to focus on nothing but preventing the loss of my power for a few seconds as my scream came to an end and my pain stabilized at merely crippling rather than intolerable.
With the pain not impeding me and all of the other immediate issues taken care of I started moving us higher and faster when I felt, as much as heard, "STOP!"
That sounded like the worst thing to do at this moment and ignored it as I started ramping up the field to leave.
"Ignore that," Miss Militia said through a rictus of pain. I was glad we were on the same page; my only thought was getting back to Brockton Bay and Panacea.
"Radio is jammed," the guard next to me said. It was good to know, but any jammer should be out of range fast enough.
"OR DOZENS WILL DIE!" The voice, loud as it was, sounded flat, almost toneless. It was a horrific way to threaten to kill so many. Beyond the basic idea.
I slowed, still staying higher. Everything was out of my range and I didn't see anything through the spaces of the truck that had been slowly opening as wind resistance acted differently on them in the null gravity we were feeling.
"Also ignore that, we can't take the chance they're prepared for you." Miss Militia was gripping a strap on the wall to stay upright and focused on me.
"Did anyone outside of the convoy know I was going to be here?" I demanded. I would not risk them having that many people ready to be killed.
"No, all the more reason that threat is a bluff. Now let's get out of here."
"Then they didn't plan a way to kill me, right?" Even if I was doing a bad justification to myself, I couldn't take the chance so many would die and just run away. I turned to Hookwolf and asked, "Would that beam have killed you if it hit?"
He looked over the pieces of guard next to him and shrugged, but didn't say anything.
I looked back to Miss Militia and glared at her. She glared back before grimacing and said, "Only if it hit him directly in the head, otherwise it would have hurt, but released him."
Hookwolf scoffed and said, "And those fuckers were willing to risk it."
"GLAD TO SEE YOU AREN'T RUNNING. RELEASE THE WOLF."
"It's just a ploy, let's get out of here," Miss Militia insisted.
"I like this ploy, you should follow it," Hookwolf said with a smile. I slammed his mouth shut; I couldn't handle that at the moment.
It was then a man stumbled into my range, looking scared out of his mind with a device strapped subdermally around his neck. He had a pistol in one hand and looked back in fear for a moment before raising it my direction and pulling the trigger. His aim was so far off I didn't even bother to redirect the bullets, but I realized it was the first time someone had fired a gun inside my range. It was interesting how the bullet passed through faster than I could think but I could track where it had gone as an afterimage.
I started taking a closer look at the device. It looked like there were tiny wires spread throughout his skin and I wasn't sure I could sever them without doing lethal damage to him. Whoever had attached the probable bomb to him was really learning to get around what I could do. I explained to Miss Militia what was happening and reoriented so I could see him through the gap in the truck parts.
Just as he came into view, any decision about what to do about the man was taken out of my hands as he started screaming louder and louder before electricity started arcing out him, scorching the ground in a fractal pattern.
For seconds that felt like hours the lighting didn't stop, torturing the man. If I had the resolve I think it would have been kinder to end his suffering, but I just couldn't bring myself to do so. Eventually the screaming stopped and a scorched husk fell to the ground.
"I HAVE MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM."
I looked over to Miss Militia and said with a pleading voice, "I can't let that happen. It doesn't matter, I just can't."
A look of understanding came over her and she gave a slight sigh and nodded. "Fine, I can't talk you out of it, but releasing Hookwolf doesn't guarantee anything. Try and capture them. And hurry, stopping the bleeding only goes so far. Amputations have a lot of complications."
With that decided I started to reorient everything. The truck parted around me and I pulled Hookwolf's chair off the side wall. I then moved everything else to be higher and out of the way and added an armor bubble around them to make sure no stray shots caused any problems.
"GOOD DECISION."
Even if the voice was outside my range, it was so loud that it pushed the air, particles in the air, and even leaves of trees strongly enough that I could just barely make out ripples. And just like with the after image of the bullet, I could see where a center point was.
I followed it farther into the woods.
"I KNEW IT!"
A dozen people came into my range, scattered in a rough arc. All of them had devices and guns, but very few were wired up in the same way as the first man.
"Save any of them and I will kill others. Not everyone is inside your range." The voice wasn't nearly as loud, and now that it sounded like someone was yelling at me I could tell where it was coming from, same as anyone else would.
I believed their threat and moved closer to where they were. Soon enough someone who wasn't crying or cowering in fear came into my range.
She stood resolutely alone with her arms crossed and was in a facsimile of riot gear, with heavy combat boots and a belt filled with various devices. She also carried that same grenade launcher from last night and had a bandolier of grenades to go with it across her chest. Her face covering was an intricate mask and filtering system with giant red goggles. I also noticed a tiny device inside her, attached to her heart and had no idea what it was for.
"That's close enough."
It was indeed. I reached out to form a bubble to close her up and it failed.
That threw me for just a moment as I had never had something like this happen to me. I could see in and around her, but in a bubble twenty or so feet in diameter I couldn't affect anything inside. There was some device next to her on the ground that must have been the cause.
Fucking Tinkers.
"Yeah, that's right. I have you by the balls now. If you move the ground, they die. If you suck out my air, they die. If you try and do anything other than what I say, they die. If I die, they die. And if I point," she pointed over to one of the people with an external bomb, "they die."
The woman that was pointed at screamed in fear for a moment before a pulse came out of her. It warped the world in a way that wasn't gravity, but I could feel. It was almost like Vista's power and it twisted the woman with it.
The scream was cut off with a gory, wet crunch and her legs fell to sides while the rest of her hung in the air like an Escher sculpture.
"Enough! Stop fucking killing people!" I had a plan forming, I just needed a moment to enact it. When she had pointed, she also crossed her toes to force two rings to touch. There was no way that wasn't related.
She laughed and it came out even worse with the voice modulation her mask was doing.
"All you have to is give me the dog and I'll let you hang out with everyone here for a few hours."
"What's to stop you from killing everyone? How do I know when it's safe to rescue them?" Anything to stall just a moment more as I formed a gravity tube that stretched from the murderous cape to just behind me.
"Only the losers need assurances. So let me assure you that if you do anything else besides following my orders, people will die. More people." I saw her smile behind her mask even as it was said in that same flat tone.
"Fine. Where do you want him." I lined up my heel section that had been sheared off with the back of the gravity tube and everything was prepped.
"Just toss him in you dumb bitch. Let's get this shit done."
I don't think I could have asked for a better opening than that one and let my heel fall into the gravity rail.
It was promptly accelerated to thousands of miles per hour and the snap of it breaking the sound barrier, and flesh being ripped off bone, was swallowed by the sound of a knee being violently removed from existence.
The hostages around us screamed a bit and stumbled back, fearful of what was threatened. I also waited in a moment of fear that I had just killed these people. As the moment passed and no one died I let myself breathe a sigh a of relief.
The hostages also had a similar reaction, with most sitting down or otherwise dealing with no longer being under immediate threat of execution.
As for the cape, the force of her knee exploding caused her to over balance backwards as she had already been keeping her weight on the now only leg left. It seemed like the pain didn't catch up right away to her either, as she wasn't screaming.
I wonder if all sudden amputations take time for the body to realize something has gone wrong.
Her leg was already spurting blood and I knew I needed to be fast to save her. It was time to remove the tinker field.
"You'll survive being a cannonball, right?" I asked Hookwolf.
His eyes widened and he started struggling against his restraints as I dropped him in a similar gravity rail. This one only brought him to a fraction of the speed of my heel, but I doubt it was slower than two hundred miles an hour as his scream dopplered away from me. He slammed into the tinker cylinder, very similar to a cannonball in fact, smashing it apart.
The field snapped away and I wrapped the mystery Empire member's leg up and that got her screaming. That pressure really is a bitch, and I might have clamped down harder than strictly necessary. After all, her life was worth dozens at least and I wanted to make sure there was no leakage.
Hookwolf had dug a furrow into the ground and bounced a couple times before hitting a tree a hundred feet out. I grabbed him up and brought him back; his restraints had mostly held up, but that was no reason to let him be. He was scraped and dazed, but otherwise alive.
"Now," I said, floating over to the cape on the ground, "You're going to disarm everyone here."
I don't think she heard me over the sound of her screaming.
It occurred to me she might not be the only cape around, but no one else was in my range and the only devices were on or inside people so I deemed it safe enough for the moment to let her scream for a bit.
I brought out Miss Militia and the guard and gave them a rundown of what had transpired. I was able to set the guard down, but Miss Militia I had to keep in my field and I tried very hard not to stare at how she looked with a single arm and three stumps, just floating there.
"Our radio is still being jammed and I don't have cell signal," the guard said.
"We need to gather everyone up and head back to Brockton Bay," Miss Militia added. "Panacea needs to look at us soon or we're in danger of more than just blood loss."
I agreed, but I had one more worry I needed to check. "I don't trust that she doesn't have a secondary way to trigger all these people."
I floated over to the woman as by now the screaming had subsided enough that I could say my order again.
"Fuck you!"
She started scrabbling for the bandolier of grenades around her. I put an end to that by weighting her arms, slamming them to the ground. Leaning over her I reached out and pulled off the mask.
The face that glared back with a look of pure hatred was very much not the Aryan ideal.
"Why is an Asian working for the Empire?" I had no idea what was going on.
"Because fuck you."
I was clearly not going to get an answer from her.
"There is no winning move here, just release these people."
"You're right about that, there is no winning move for you. Go ahead and try to lift someone up, see what happens."
I looked over to the nearest hostage and thought about it. There wasn't a way for me to know if she was bluffing and I wasn't willing to risk it.
"Then we take you alone and deal with them later."
She smiled up at me and said, "You take me away from them and it's the same as killing me, they all die. You need to go now, I know you do, and you have to leave me free. I might have lost, but you sure as shit didn't win."
That device against her heart made a lot more sense now and I was too paranoid to destroy it, as that might set everything off too. I glared at her and her smile grew even wider and more unhinged.
"If I leave, you'll bleed out. Let them go and you live."
She just started laughing in my face, which turned into a sort of pained scream laugh. I suddenly realized she refused to let me capture her and was willing to die to stop me. With the hostages tied to her life I was in a bind.
"Fine," I said with all the vitriol I could muster, "but you're going to be stuck here."
I took a section of truck and tore it into strips. One I cinched around her stump, tightly to make sure she didn't bleed out. I finally got around to removing the bandolier with the grenades and then with the rest of the strips I wrapped her up and drove the ends deep into the ground. She resembled a steel mummy when I was finished.
"You'll keep until someone can cut you out of that," I said and turned back to Miss Militia. "Let's hope those complications you mentioned don't set in."
"In the open like this? Infection is a near guarantee. We need to be back here soon." Miss Militia had a look like she suddenly had an idea, "Actually, leave one of the squads here and they can keep an eye on everything."
I dropped off the truck that hadn't been damaged and also brought out the squad from the other truck and the driver from mine. They had all been locked away while this whole thing had gone down and while it hadn't taken more than ten or fifteen minutes, that was a long time to be locked away with no idea, especially as two of them were mortally wounded.
The guard from my truck started explaining everything that had been going on to them as Miss Militia and I talked to a few of the closest hostages.
I finally had a chance to really look at the nearby people that had been kidnapped and I realized all of them were Asian, and none of them were what I would consider to be stereotypical gangsters; older and an even mix of men and women.
I had no idea what was going on and we didn't have time to get an in depth explanation from them. It only took a couple minutes to explain the situation and organize heading back to Brockton Bay.
I took us to the skies and stayed just above the tree line, bringing us up to a few hundred miles an hour so I could follow the road somewhat reliably. I didn't actually know where I was, just that the highway would take me most of the way back.
The sound baffle I kept up protected us from the wind as Miss Militia pulled out her phone. I was a little impressed at how well she handled it with just one hand like that. "I've got signal. Calling HQ."
She held it up and waited. And waited. I saw her frown behind her mask and the ringing could be heard still. After nearly a minute of ringing she hung up.
"That should never happen. Someone is always on available to pick that line up."
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timelost
Jul 13, 2023
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timelost
timelost
Jul 20, 2023
#885
"Men of this Eternal Empire," Kaiser spoke just loud enough to be heard. Starting his speeches in a manner similar to Hitler was a common tactic he used. To those who were aware of what he was doing always felt special for knowing and those who were unaware, well, Hitler was known as a good propagandist and public speaker, no reason not to learn from his success.
Kaiser looked out over the crowd, knowing to stay quiet in the start of his speeches, lest he not be heard. Nearly a thousand were in attendance at the same warehouse that Hookwolf had been captured at. It made for good propaganda of his own to take the start of the troubles that the Empire had been experiencing and use it as the starting point of their recovery.
The people in attendance were not all blooded members of the gang. At most he had a hundred full members and the rest were hopefuls and hangers on; or more importantly, supporters.
People who had respectful jobs and espoused the morals of white supremacy. Cops were the best to have, and of them there was no shortage. At least ten percent of the BBPD and county sheriffs were in outright support of their organization and ideals. At least another twenty percent were passively in favor of them.
It made the debacle of everyone arrested from this very location able to be turned into a silent victory through controlled released and rearranging the arrest records.
"I stand before you with a grievance," his tone stayed even and his voice still quiet. "We have been bloodied by a single individual."
He needed to strike a balance. He must acknowledge that the Empire had been successfully attacked, but he could not make it seem like Event Horizon was an insurmountable cape. Make her seem like just more wheat to be fed into the thresher of the Empire. To do so, he needed to rile them up and make them angry, and then direct that anger into today's plan.
"She thought that she could dominate us, chain us, break us."
Kaiser paused, and saw the crowd held their with the way his presence captured them. He had found his oratory skills in his teens and his father, the founder of the Empire, had made sure he cultivated it, practiced it, perfected it.
"Impossible!" He shouted, and the crowd roared their defiance.
He stood firm and let them calm over the next few minutes. Eventually it was enough for him to continue.
"We stand," he said in a much more subdued, but unshakable tone. "We will always stand. For a thousand years and more, when the world is in our image."
Give them something to aspire to, always. A hopeless person is an indolent one, but a man with a purpose can be directed and used. And he would use them all.
"And we do not stand alone." It stuck in his craw that he needed assistance from Gesellschaft. That the help was psychotic only made it worse.
When he'd had Krieg reach out for assistance, he knew there would be costs, but it was necessary. Event Horizon was not someone he could counter with his current roster. He had US based capes he could reach out for, but no one that really fit the bill.
When the first cape arrived Kaiser almost killed him in a fit of rage. What fucking use was a man that could move dirt? None, that's what. At least it was Krieg that took a personal hand and found a use for him.
Murdering random civilians. Perfect use, really. Krieg at least came up with a way to learn more about Event Horizon in the process of keeping Mudman busy. And it was Mudman now; he did not get to use a name as close to his ex-wife's name of Purity and he was angry enough to use the PRT granted name.
At least he could be used as a deniable asset, same as Gesellschaft obviously did, and that made him not as worthless. How he hadn't been seen that first night after setting up nearly a dozen people he wasn't sure. No matter, though, he was going to be caught inside a month, even if Kaiser had to assist the law to do so. Mudman could not be allowed to disrupt all he had worked for through his serial killing.
"Our brothers in the Fatherland have proved their loyalty to our cause," Kaiser was careful when picking the wording here; he couldn't make it look like the Empire needed Gesellschaft.
At least with their second cape they sent someone who could help, even if he was somehow even crazier than Mudman. It was the big issue Kaiser had always run into while the leader of the Empire, and one Allfather had experienced as well: competence.
Letting hatred of the kind that Nazism fed on often led to making ill informed, therefor detrimental, decisions and it took a lot of work to properly coordinate and funnel inferior capes to satellite organizations while maintaining a strong local roster.
"With his power to bolster our own we will take back what was so unjustly stolen from us!" It was time to start ramping up the rhetoric a bit, now that they were calming just a bit from before.
"Our brothers and sisters to the cause are even now locked away from us. We have planned. Prepared. And now we will strike!"
That brought a crescendo to the crowd and instead of letting them calm down he riled them even further.
"We will free them with on this glorious day!" he shouted and let the wall of sound crash against him, reveling in the clay he had molded.
"You are the strongest this world has to offer and now you will prove it!"
Kaiser looked over to his right and nodded to Victor, who stepped forward to the microphone.
The crowd was still frothing and primed to charge blindly to cause violence, but rampant chaos was not what was needed right now. Targeted violence was the call of the day and several parties had spent days preparing for this.
Kaiser had known for almost a week when the plan to send Hookwolf to the birdcage was and with the city's criminals, gangs or otherwise, in a loose federation to prevent Event Horizon from running roughshod over all of them he was able to get a passable chance at a targeted breakout.
The final call to put everything in motion was seeing Event Horizon getting into the transport for Hookwolf. Coil had given a heads up that she would be invited and almost certainly go. Mixed with confirmation with moles that the PRT had to know they had but seemed to have little or no idea who they might be, several plans were adapted and modified last night.
The crowd saw the change in speakers and knew to they were about to be given orders. Eagerly they listened.
"Not all of you today will be sent to front lines, but everyone will have a vital role to play to ensure our success," Victor said with a firm, calm tone. Kaiser knew he had stolen countless public speaking skills over the years, even if he still considered himself a better one.
"Those who will step with us into the fray already know who you are. Stay after this to be organized into platoons. The rest of you will break into groups of twenty and wander the streets causing a commotion in disparate parts of town. We need to keep eyes off our targets and you will be the smoke screen we use. If you meet, join together and help each other out."
With that Victor stepped away and Kaiser took to the stage once more. It was important that he be seen delegating, but he always wanted the final word to make sure everyone knew who was in control.
He cast his arm out and said, "You have your orders, go forth and prove your worth to your Empire! To your Kaiser!"
The warehouse shook with their cheers and most the crowd poured out and began the first distraction.
Kaiser couldn't help but smile as he stepped off to the side. No matter how dire their straits he always got a rush at these rallies.
Krieg and Victor started organizing the remaining soldiers while he looked over the parahuman forces he still controlled.
The twins, Fenja and Menja, were his power houses and would be the backbone of the assault alongside himself and Lung.
Othala would stick by her husband, Victor, as a rearguard. Her versatility was too important to lose at this juncture and Victor truly did love the girl, no matter how arranged their marriage had been.
Alabaster would be part of the smoke screen in an attempt to draw at least one hero out.
With Krieg assisting in the direct assault that accounted for all of his remaining capes as his ex had refused to rejoin, no matter how much he had threatened to take their daughter. Without her, that pair of Gesellschaft zombies refused to assist as well.
More than half his full force wiped out in weeks. He was still in shock, thinking back to the first night he had heard what happened to Hookwolf and how he would make short work of the perpetrator.
It was almost impressive how little the viability of the Empire was directly affected while being put into such an existential crisis. All of the monetary income was still working at near normal capacity, barring the dog fights which barely moved the needle. Gun running, drugs, protection rackets, all of them were still happening as normal. Maybe with less muscle, but it hadn't been long enough to matter.
And yet if things were let to rest as they were the Empire would shatter as people decided he could no longer be trusted to lead. It wouldn't be all at once, but fewer prospective members would decide to join and he wouldn't be able to turn away or cast aside ones that didn't muster up. It would be a slow decline of years, but he could see it looming and refused to allow it to happen.
Lost in his thought he was interrupted by the most stereotypical 'German Nazi Scientist' affectation that Kaiser had ever heard a person speak. More so than even Krieg three sheets to the wind.
"Ve vill crush the Jewish Magic and right the wrong they have committed."
Kaiser had to suppress an eye roll as he listened to the Gesellschaft Tinker continue his unending tirade against 'Jewish Magic'.
The man leaned over an over sized control board with giant toggles and switches and dials that Kaiser suspected were for show rather than use. It was a running theme that he was willing to put up with only because of just how useful his specialty was.
It was all in his name: Suppressor.
In his own words, "I can muffle the Jewish Magics that they use against us to protect our kinsmen."
Ignore that parahuman powers were not magic, most parahumans were not even Jewish. He had always loved how easy it was to shepherd the angry masses around with nothing but a promise of better times and an outlet for violence, but it was very trying when he needed to nod along to their deeper conspiracies.
"You will be able to follow through then?" Kaiser needed to make sure Suppressor was up to the task, as his power was the keystone to the whole day.
"Nien problem." Kaiser had to suppress a gag at that turn of phrase.
"Good." He looked over to see that Krieg and Victor had finished organizing everyone. Nearly a hundred soldiers awaited his orders. Silent and fervent they stared at him and he smiled once more at their adoration.
"We are waiting for the final confirmation before we execute and exfiltrate our people," Kaiser said, no longer needing to yell to be heard. "Gather in the trucks, go to your designated locations, and be ready on the radio to go once we get word that everything is ready."
A loud, "Yes, sir!" echoed and they all fell out of formation and into waiting trucks and vans.
"We need to be ready as well," he said to Krieg. "Get us loaded up and in place."
The timing for all the distractions was the biggest unknown. They needed to be happening long enough to get the attention of the Protectorate, but not so long they could be resolved before the convoy taking Hookwolf was hit.
As they neared the Protectorate headquarters and he looked out over the bay to the shimmering shield and bridge, Kaiser leaned back and took a breathe to calm down.
"How long to go time?" he asked, not letting the impatience and worry leak out. Control was necessary, especially when he didn't have it.
"Bakuda reports five minutes," Victor said. He was the best at coordinating the disparate groups. "We have reports from the field. Uber and Leet have pulled Dauntless out with Armsmaster patrolling near, but not engaging. I suspect they suspect we're up to something."
Kaiser felt one worry leave him. Those were the two biggest hitters the Protectorate fielded and they wouldn't be able to participate. Well, Armsmaster was likely to be able to join inside ten minutes, but that should be enough time to free everyone and they could force
him to retreat from there.
"Let them, they don't have a choice where we send them," he said.
"Coil reports the Undersiders and Circus have drawn several Wards," Victor continued, "and our crowds have drawn significant police presence."
"Oh? Not unexpected."
Victor let a small laugh out and said, "Our people in the department are making sure they're treated like rally goers rather than rioters or protesters and making sure there isn't counter violence."
Kaiser nodded at that. Not surprising. "Is anyone being pulled to keep an eye on Alabaster."
"Not that we've seen, but no one has eyes on Velocity except to say he is out of the rig."
That left Battery and Assault to deal with and they wouldn't put up a huge amount of resistance with the forces being brought forth.
Faultline had refused to participate, even as a distraction, claiming that it would bring more heat than they were willing to accept. Kaiser would remember their faithless claims from earlier, but there was little he could do about it now.
Mudman had left the day before, muttering about prepping for the inevitable return of his great enemy and how he would have a present for her return. Anything to get him out of Kaiser's way was acceptable.
"And our more direct… allies?"
A common enemy does make for strange bedfellows, Kaiser thought. With Event Horizon forcing his hand he had been willing to work with his only major competitors and even outsource extra work. Fortunately there was little monetary cost, as each party wanted to prove they could assist against her.
Coil had even managed to convince the Merchants that they could raise their own cachet with the others if they participated. Kaiser was just glad they were on the other side of the city for the assault on the PRT HQ, anything to be free of Skidmark's presence. He suspected things were going to go very much worse for them than they were expecting.
"Lung is in place. Merchants are as well. Coil's mercs report the same. Everything is ready."
"Then on Bakuda's word, we go."
There was nothing else to be said. Everything that could be done had been. The silence stretched long even as the short seconds ticked by. Suppressor was making the most noise while he caressed and muttered to his control board that had been jammed into the back of the SUV.
Victor perked up suddenly, caught Kaiser's attention and gave a sharp nod.
"All teams are go," he said and pressed a button on his watch. Kaiser did the same as the goal was to be in and out within twenty minutes. That was the expected worst case scenario for Event Horizon to return. Suppressor flicked a few switches and Kaiser saw nothing for a moment, but knew under the floating oil rig, deep beneath the water, was a device that Victor had painstakingly placed, turned on and the shield and bridge flickered once, twice, then stayed off. They waited a moment to make sure the anti-gravity field didn't also fail.
"More!" Suppressor nearly shouted and flicked another switch. More nothing happened this time, but that was because a similar device had been turned on near the PRT.
"More!" This time he turned a dial all the way around and Kaiser saw all the lights on the rig and docking connector dim to nothing.
He raised his arms to the sky and proclaimed, "And with that, all communication is out, and their despair is our hope, let us teach these mongrels their magic is no match for our SCIENCE!"
There was a pause as everyone looked at Suppressor. It just wasn't worth correcting at the moment so Kaiser instead said, "Go." He put action to words and stepped out, the rest following close behind.
The dozen or so guards at the dockside station reacted like a kicked hornets nest and fell back to the reinforced outpost next to where the bridge would connect. It mattered little as the twins started to grow and Krieg stepped in front of Kaiser.
There was no stopping the front assault group with their meager force and the guns they had did nothing to slow them. There was a distinctly pleasant tinkling sound of the bullets falling to the ground around Krieg as they slowed from his power, and a light patter sound of bullets flattening against Fenja and Menja, both already two stories tall and not slowing their growth.
A few grenade cannisters flew up and towards them, only to be batted aside from the shields the valkyrie twins wielded. They went off into the distance faster then they arrived and Kaiser saw in the distance as they puffed into off-white balls of containment foam.
Once close enough, Kaiser wrapped the whole building in a wall of spikes and blades, ensuring they would stuck for the rest of the encounter. Killing was, while not prohibited, discouraged at this juncture. The goal was to recover his forces, not start a war. If few officers died, then there would be less political will to retaliate heavily. He knew there would be repercussions, but was confident that they could be weathered, and they would be less than doing nothing. Besides, at least a few of them would be sympathizers and there was no reason to kill his own.
With the initial resistance neutralized, the non-parahumans came into view and took positions to guard their back. Victor, Othala, and Suppressor stayed with them.
It was then Lung finally made his debut with a bevy of ABB at his back. Maybe fifty men to Kaiser's own hundred; that brought a smile to his face. They took post opposite his own men and both sides kept their distance. Allies they might be, but trust was not to be extended or expected.
With the twins at full height Kaiser walked onto Menja's shield, held like a plate, with Krieg hefting a large duffel as he joined him. Lung, not wasting any words on a greeting, walked over and grabbed the side of Fenja's shield, lodging his foot in the lower edge for stability.
The twins stepped into the bay and walked them all over to the Protectorate HQ. There was little resistance for them to wade through as they crossed, only minutes having passed since the assault had started. The water was up to their necks as they came close enough for Kaiser to form blades from the edge of the rig to form a steel bridge that let all three walk to the HQ.
Their passage to return was expected from the capes inside so the twins turned and headed back to join the defense on the shore.
It was the first time either Kaiser or Max Anders had been on the Protectorate HQ and he had to admit it did have a nice design, seeing it without the shield to blur the insides.
They headed towards the nearest door, following floor plans that Coil had provided. How he had acquired no doubt highly classified blueprints, Kaiser wouldn't hazard a guess besides, "More than money", but in either case they had a good idea of where the prisoners were held and how to get there. They just needed a few keys.
Krieg lifted the first key out of the duffel bag and placed a pair of plastique strips on the door where the hinges would be. He fiddled for just a moment before backing up a fair distance. Kaiser formed a dual layered wall of blades and Krieg joined him. Lung decided to stay in the open.
"Blowing!" Krieg said loudly, then pressed a button. The explosion was a sharp crack and debris rained against the bulwark Kaiser had set up. Lung, standing with his arms crossed, was similarly pelted but just endured. The air around him was distorting as he heated up and he was a few inches taller already.
Lung took the lead and slammed the door open, only to step back with a few new holes in him. It appeared the PRT inside hadn't wasted their time.
Krieg stepped forward and acted as a moving wall that bullets could not pass and let Kaiser walk behind him, with Lung shaking off what would be very lethal wounds for anyone else.
A couple grenades of foam also flew out, stopping just in front of Krieg like everything else. Kaiser wrapped them tightly in layers of blades with an opening facing away and heard them pop, even over the gun fire. It was good to see the foam fill out and away from them.
With just a moment of subdued fire Kaiser saw into the lobby, lights out except for a few chemical ones at the doorway. It cast them in a revealing light while leaving the PRT in shadows. It didn't matter, he formed a few walls of spikes, cutting them off in tightly corralled groups and stopping all resistance.
They didn't give any warning or call to surrender. I suppose they know there wouldn't be any use.
Kaiser ignored their yells of alarm as Krieg pulled a set of lights out of the bag and turned them on, lighting the room rather well.
A quick look to the ceiling showed the foam sprayers were as dead as the rest of the building. Good. While Krieg had little trouble with the containment foam so prevalent with the PRT, Kaiser was less fortunate if caught unawares and unable to put a wall up in time.
In fact. Kaiser thought, and then formed small enclosures around any opening he thought he saw.
Lung growled and stormed forward to the far side of the lobby, almost too big to fit through the door way. Krieg looked over and shrugged before walking far enough behind to not worry about the heat, but close enough to cast light forward.
The hall was almost eerily silent as they stalked through it. With no hum of lights, or rush of HVAC circulating air, it was just their footsteps to listen.
There was no more resistance as they moved through the base, likely they had everyone at the lobby to concentrate their forces. The only wrinkle would be if Battery and Assault would be on site, or if they happened to be off the clock.
The question was answered as a flash of blue light came from in front and Lung was launched backward towards Krieg. Even Kaiser would have been hard pressed to survive being struck by Lung going as fast as he was from that hit, but against Krieg Lung just slowed and landed lightly on his back; even the heat was mostly suppressed by Krieg's field. Though Kaiser did notice the man took a few large steps back.
"Shame, always wanted to see how thin a Nazi can get," the over confident voice of Assault echoed down the hallway.
"You will only see your own death if you do not get out of our way," Krieg responded and threw a light down the hallway.
Kaiser felt it was a little over dramatic, but didn't gainsay his subordinate. A unified front was needed at this point. In any case, there was little worry these two would stop them, but they might hold them back long enough for reinforcements to arrive.
The light revealed a corner that they must have been hiding around. Lung stood up and had to crouch to be in the hallway. Much longer and he might get stuck, or force his way up and into the foam pipelines that must run through the ceiling. Kaiser wasn't sure Lung would be able to burn his way out of that.
In either case, Lung gave a roar of anger and barreled forward, scorching the hallway as he went.
"That should keep them busy, we can get to our target," Kaiser said and they both jogged forward. A few turns and they found the door to the stairs down, locked of course.
And violating fire safety. Kaiser couldn't help but thinking of Medhall and all the regulations needed in an office building.
Krieg set up similar explosives and as he set them up, Kaiser took a glance at his watch. Twelve minutes since they had started the whole thing and with no communication outside he had no idea how things were going. He was confident it was still going well, there hadn't been time for other PRT HQs to realize something was wrong and everyone should be tied up. It really came down to leaving and getting to ground before Event Horizon came back.
Or if she was miraculously dealt with by Bakuda, but Kaiser had no intention of relying on that. There would be time to lure her into a trap once all his people were free and Suppressor could setup traps for her.
With a bang, the door was blown of its hinges and a few spikes forced it open. Revealing a staircase filled with foam.
"Can we get through that?" Kaiser asked.
"Never tried to blow it away, but I bet it'll work. It's strong, but still weaker than steel."
It took a few cycles of bombing and more minutes than he wanted to spend, but eventually it was mostly cleared. A carpeting of blades to ensure they didn't get stuck walking and they could carefully descend to the lower levels.
Every so often the whole building would rumble a bit and they would hear a roar.
"I would think he is getting too big for them to attempt to hold," Krieg said, "We should expect they will try to loop back to us. No chance they don't know where we're headed."
"Agreed, but we're at the cells, soon we will be able to overwhelm them without Lung."
A few turns and no resistance brought them to the entrance of the cell hallway and another round of explosives opened the way. They saw one of Crusader's ghosts waiting in the hallway. It couldn't speak, but when it saw them it waved and pointed. Another quickly joined and pointed at a second cell.
"Good job, Crusader," Kaiser said. With the power out Crusader wasn't under whatever threat they used to prevent him from using his ghosts. They couldn't interact in a way to free him, but at least passing information through charades wasn't beyond him.
Now they just needed to open the cells without killing the occupants. It had cost him a fair bit, though Coil had claimed it was at cost rather than marked up, but Kaiser had procured a way to do just that. In fact, he had bought two since it was warned they were prone to fail.
Krieg grabbed the first one. It looked like a long rope and he placed it around all four sides of the first door. Kaiser grabbed the second and did the same on the next cell over. They didn't have time for Kaiser to play the role of delegating leader.
With a tap on one end he stepped back and saw Krieg doing the same. The rope turned a bright crimson and the metal around the door followed. In under a minute and it started to run like water to the floor. Kaiser took another step back, and then to side as the door was pushed from the inside and fell out with a loud bang.
Justin stood there with a smile and let out a cheer. "Thank fuck! What's the plan to get out of this shit hole?"
"You and Rune."
His face dropped to a look of worried confusion. "Uhh, Rune isn't here."
That brought Kaiser up short. "What? Where is she."
"I don't know, I just know they didn't ship her over here with me." He hopped lightly onto the center of the door and then to the hallway.
That was a blow to the plan. Kaiser had wanted to rescue everyone in a single go. He had been given intelligence from multiple sources that everyone was here.
"Fine, where is Stormtiger and Cricket, we can still salvage this."
The door Krieg was working on fell as well and Melody hopped out with a glare. It appeared that the PRT had denied her the use of her artificial larynx and she just nodded and stood to the side looking towards the exit, ready.
Justin looked at her and back to Kaiser with a look of dawning horror and said, "You don't know?"
A cold anger fueled by fear washed over Kaiser. "We do not have time for dancing around, what do I not know?"
"Stormtiger is in a coma, I overheard the guards laughing he nearly killed himself."
Two capes. That was the only thought ringing in his head. He did all this for two. Four was cutting it close to what he was willing to do, but he needed the win of rescuing his people. But two. That wasn't acceptable.
"That's all of us then." Krieg said his calm. Kaiser knew he knew how fucked this was, but he used that calm for himself.
Another huge rumbled shook the rig. "What was that?" Justin asked.
"Lung," Kaiser used it as an anchor to collect himself. "We need to get Oni Lee as well. Which cell is he in?"
Justin pointed and Krieg gingerly picked up the rope he used and placed it against the indicated door. It lit up for a moment before flaring up and burning itself out, leaving the door intact.
"One use," Kaiser said in a tone the revealed his anger. He didn't even care that much about the cord, the money it cost, or its failure. It was just the culmination of everything that had gone so wrong so fast. His calm held by a thread.
Krieg setup the last cord and this time it worked and they pushed the door in. Oni Lee stood motionless, staring at them with a blank stare.
"Fuck is his problem?" Justin asked.
Kaiser formed a short blade and tossed it to Oni Lee. "Your master is above, go and join him."
Oni Lee appeared next to Kaiser and for just a moment he thought the demon was going to attack. Instead, he did nothing and stood there until he turned to dust.
"Guess walking is beneath him." Justin obviously did not realize the situation Kaiser was in, but then he had never been that capable. Just enough not to pass off to a satellite organization.
Instead, Kaiser formed a pair of helmets, a pair of swords, and a spear, and handed them to Cricket and Crusader.
"Let's get out of here," he said with a feeling like this was the most hollow victory of his life.
Mea Culpa.
I started this chapter Sunday like I try to do, wrote on Monday and Tuesday for a bit like normal. All while planning Kaiser was going to rescue so many of his capes. Roughly half was the thought lodged in my head.
I wrote for three hours today and I made it to the end of this chapter still thinking Kaiser was going to rescue so many capes. Then I made it to the cell and started opening doors. I made it to two and realized I had very much fucked up.
So instead of scrapping the chapter I decided to make my fuck up Kaiser's fuck up.
Hope you're entertained by his realization of what happened and maybe the PRT isn't so ignorant of who his moles are.
Coil is obviously laughing about this.
It is 12:06 AM. I have missed my Wednesday release cycle and I am sad.
12:26 rough edit complete.
On a side note, check your backups. I had to reinstall windows because it started acting up and I found out that my google drive that I set up to backup this story hadn't been updating since January, when I started. It was only Windows allowing me to keep my docs on the reinstall that prevented me losing the source doc.
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Jul 27, 2023
#931
Miss Militia closed the line and said to me, "Call Glory Girl and see if she knows what's happening and if we can get Panacea lined up. I'm calling Armsmaster."
I pulled my phone out as she pressed a couple buttons and put the phone on speaker. It rung once before clicking and saying in a robotic voice, "Armsmaster is in combat. The automated response is: " and then Armsmaster's voice spoke, "Full assault on HQ, comms down, request for back up sent out, coordinate with Mayor if able."
The line went dead after that and we looked in horror at each other. What did a full assault mean? Comms down would explain the her always active line not going through, but who was attacking?
There were too many unknowns to speculate and I was calling Glory Girl even as Miss Militia had hung up and started digging through her contacts list.
While the call connected I made sure to speed up a bit. I was using a slight acceleration to our speed and angled up just a bit to try and go faster while staying near enough to the highway to see it. I wasn't totally sure how phones worked, but at this speed I was surprised they kept the connection and could only assume that the Protectorate did something fancy with the phones.
"Hey," Glory Girl answered in a lazy sounding voice, "aren't you on guard duty? Get so bored I'm your salvation?"
I tightened up in a way that flared the pain in my leg and that bled through as I told her, "We were attacked," there was no time for niceties and before she could react to that I continued, "we need Panacea right now and you need to find out what is going on. We can't reach anyone from the PRT."
"What? Attacked? No never mind. I'm getting ready. Where do we meet you?"
That was a good question. I didn't really remember where she lived and didn't want to spend the time to get directions. "Either the PRT HQ or Arcadia. Text where then call when you find out what is happening."
I hung up and looked over to Miss Militia. She had found the contact and was just connecting.
"Mayor's office," a voice that sounded like a secretary in a controlled panic answered, "there is an emergency right now, unless you are part of the solution I will need to let you go."
"This is Miss Militia and I need to know what is happening." She was breathing heavily and sweating profusely, but her eyes still looked steady and focused. I could only hope she would be able to continue to hold up that way until we could get to Panacea.
"Oh!" the relief was apparent, "I am tying you into the conference call with the mayor and others."
There was a click and suddenly yelling.
"-being spit roasted by the krauts and the japs! You need to declare martial law right fucking now and deploy the national guard!"
"Roy, you need to calm-"
"I need to be less fucking calm! Either get here or I will call the president and have him bomb the fuckers to kingdom come!" He took a deep breath and interrupted whoever was on the line, "And where is the Protectorate? I need the Triumvirate here right now!"
"We are mobilizing as we speak, Mayor," said a firm woman's voice. Miss Militia looked at me and mouthed "The Chief Director."
"How long?"
"We expect Strider to be dropping the first wave off inside ten minutes. We will not allow this to stand. Your city will be under control before nightfall."
"And I am prepping to deploy the guard as well. I am being told air support will be there soon." I think that had to be the governor then. I don't think I had ever heard him before.
"Fine, good," he sounded a lot calmer than just a moment ago. "They need to suppress some fucking Nazi rallies that are happening and the police are fucking helping, from what I am being told. Like a fucking Reichstag parade or whatever. I'll have the chief in front of a court for this but for now, get here in force."
In the moment of lull that came after that revelation Miss Militia spoke up, "Mayor, it's Miss Militia. I'm headed back to the city at best speed. After some healing, I'll be ready for deployment wherever you need me."
"Oh thank Christ is it good to hear a friendly voice. I don't know where you'll be needed. Please just get here."
My phone started to ring and the caller ID said "Chief Dir". I stared at it for a whole ring before answering with a bit of trepidation. I could not imagine that reason she would call me, while being on a call, but I wasn't not going to answer. I showed Miss Militia and turned a bit so I could still listen in on the coordination call.
"Hello?"
"Event Horizon. I need to ask two favors, both feed into each other." She sounded much the same as from the mayor call, firm and direct.
"If I can help," I said.
At the same time I responded I heard her voice from the mayor call, "Miss Militia, when you're ready, meet with Chevalier outside the Protectorate HQ. That is where we are being told the majority of the insurrectionists are."
After that she responded to my call, "First, I need to you stay safe. The possibility of what you can do to the Endbringers makes you more important than the whole city."
At the same time Miss Militia said, "Good to hear. Not sure how far out we are."
I was almost offended that she would say that. My response was laden with disgust, "I won't stay away just because of what I might be able to do in the future."
I caught what the chief director said back to Miss Militia, but it was hard to concentrate on both at the same time. "You're heading down the 201 at… two hundred and fifty miles an hour. In fact you're about five minutes from Waterville, and they have the MP national guard. I imagine you can make a stop and grab a company."
I had to listen to her finish before responding back to me, "I am not asking that, just to not rush in with a feeling of invincibility. A moment of unknown power interactions and you might die. We can't have that. But the second favor might make this more palatable."
Miss Militia looked back to me in a question and I tried to differentiate the two conversations. In the conference call I was being asked to move a bunch of national guardsmen as they were apparently on the way back to Brockton Bay, which I was in favor of. In the other call with the director I was being asked to hold off on helping the city.
I pushed aside the disgust and spoke up to the conference call, "I will need a fast guide in to reduce delay time. Maybe flares?"
"Already updating orders," the governor said.
"And the second favor?" I asked back to the director.
"I need you to allow the Protectorate to shine. I know you can fix this fast, but the public has to know that we can handle problems like this and not just rely on outside capes to save us. You solving this problem will send a message to other cities that we can't do our job."
"I won't stand back and do nothing."
"Of course not, but stay on the sidelines. Pick off targets of opportunity. Save some lives. Just please allow the Protectorate and PRT to take the lead."
"I'll see, but no promises." I hung up. I could not believe her. Asking me to hobble myself just for showboating. Only the idea of another one of those power devices popping up while I was inside the range was stopping me from ignoring her altogether.
There was a minute or so of relative silence as we sped along when the governor said, "I am getting word back that Major Thompson will be leading the company you're picking up. I am trying to get him on this call, but as you can imagine he's busy."
There was a click and someone spoke up, "Lieutenant Zan speaking for Major Thompson, what's the sitrep?"
The chief director, whose name I still didn't know, said, "You're about to be picked up by a cape and ferried to Brockton Bay to enforce martial law against Nazis. We need you to launch a flare to guide them in."
"Copy that. ETA?"
"I can see the outskirts of the city, so now would be good," I said, slowing a bit so we didn't overshoot.
I heard a person running and then Zan was shouting orders. A few seconds later I saw the flare light up and angled towards it.
The base was about what I imagined any given military installation to be. Structures around a parade ground. A parade ground that was currently a kicked ant nest of activity. Dozens of people were bringing gear to the center and even more were waiting in ordered groups.
I landed fast near where a small group of people were looking up under the assumption they were in charge. I brought Miss Militia with me but left everyone else high up.
"Holy fuck!" I didn't know ranks, but I was guessing it was Lieutenant Zan that said it since he was holding the phone and I heard it come back out of Miss Militia's phone.
The others on the line asked what was happening and as Zan tried to answer but was cutoff by who I assumed was Major Thompson, "Hang up, lieutenant." The man had never turned away from us, or rather Miss Militia.
He had a sharp look with the most military buzz cut and built like a heavy linebacker. He was in fatigues similar in style to Miss Militia, though I suppose it was more that she wore fatigues that were patterned after theirs.
"Major Thompson, ma'am," he said in a clipped, no nonsense tone. "We have a hospital here," he said it like it was an offer. I took a second look at her and realized I had left her stumps visible. Muscle and blood pressed against my fields and it gave an extra macabre feel to her floating next to me missing most of her limbs. I quickly blacked out the covers, which earned an eye flick over to me.
"No need," she responded, "We have a healer lined and up and no time besides." It was impressive she seemed to be in control even in her state, even as she was clearly suppressing her pain.
"I am ready to go when you are," I said, feeling the time slipping away and anxious to be back in the air.
"Company!" His voice carried across the whole grounds and I saw several people take notice even as most didn't. "We leave in thirty seconds!"
Others carried his orders and inside half the allotted time everyone had gotten inside my range. I picked up about two hundred and fifty troops, five large trucks filled with supplies, and an armored vehicle of some form and took off. A lot of the soldiers flailed a bit and tried to grasp the air. I guess they weren't as used to travel by cape as the people I normally carried. They did seem to get used to it fairly quick though.
"Which direction?" I asked.
"That way," Miss Militia pointed and I took off, ramping speed even faster this time.
"I'm going to push it to as close to the speed of sound as I feel comfortable."
As I put action to words and the ground blurred more even as we drifted a little higher so I could see farther on the horizon and hopefully not disrupt people on the ground too much. I also texted Glory Girl asking where to go.
"What are we going into?" Major Thompson asked into the phone Miss Militia had held up to him.
"Major? This is Governer James and it looks like we have a Nazi uprising on our hands. We're still trying to get a clear report, but what we do know is about twenty five minutes ago all communication was cutoff with both the PRT and Protectorate HQs as an attack on both commenced in Brockton Bay."
The major's eyes widened more as the specifics were relayed to him. I was surprised as well that it had degraded to such an extent. I was still stuck on being ambushed on the road and that crazy tinker blowing people up. It was just becoming more real that we were heading into a war zone with actual soldiers.
"They have said they will handle their own, but there are also multiple large gatherings of Nazis parading around the city. You need to shut them down, arrest them if you need to. And the mayor reports that the police are being derelict in their duty to keep the peace. I hesitate to authorize lethal force, but don't hesitate to defend yourselves. I have no doubt you know better than I what will be needed on the ground."
Miss Militia looked over to her phone in a GPS app and corrected my direction a bit.
"Understood, we'll do all that's needed to keep law and order, but one company doesn't sound like enough."
"I believe you will and you are only the first response. More are already mobilized and on the way. I have to get on a call with the president. Roy, if you could send my office updates as you get them?"
"Of course, thank you for activating the guard."
The line clicked and the director spoke up, "I will be needed on that call no doubt. Godspeed." The line clicked once more.
"Mayor," Miss Militia said, "we will need to drop here as we're almost in town. I will call to update as soon as I can."
"Of course, I'll be here and trying to help. Good luck." He hung up and Miss Militia tucked her phone away.
Glory Girl responded and I said, "It looks like we're to meet at PRT HQ. Where should I drop everyone else off at?"
"Not my city," Major Thompson answered, "but I need a bit of space to organize against whatever the Nazis are doing."
"Maybe Arcadia," Miss Militia said, "It's about centrally located and has the parking lot."
"Fine," the major looked over to one of the two others besides Zan that was nearby when I picked everyone up, "Captain Paske, when we land select two squads and a lieutenant to stay with our Patron Saint of Guns here." Miss Militia glared a bit at that. "Captain Belem, find out who is from Brockton and get the companies ready to move out. Paske's reduced company will stay with us."
With that settled we were coming into view. It didn't look as I had been expecting. No plumes of smoke or other signs of battle. The only thing that stood out was the shield that the Protectorate HQ always had on was out, leaving the oil rig floating in clear view.
On the shore I could just make out two people in armor, which meant they had to be huge to make out so clearly from this far and high. It must have been Fenja and Menja, the main body guards of Kaiser. If he had taken the field, then maybe we could end the entire Empire in one fowl swoop.
It was about then that a small explosion blew out the side and the plume of smoke I was just thinking was missing started rising.
"Guess things aren't going great," Zan said.
"That's why we're here," Thompson responded.
I slowed down and we zoomed over to Arcadia. It was near the middle of the city and was the premiere high school of the state. It was also an open secret that the Wards predominantly went there.
I landed us all in the parking lot and the moment everyone was released they started moving.
Captain Paske yelled, "Lieutenant Haverson, grab your nearest two squads and get over here now."
A black woman with a tightly bound bun came running over with maybe twenty people behind her. It was less than a minute for them to reach us but for the whole time I was itching to leave. We needed to get to Panacea and I needed to get in the field and put a stop to this.
Once they were here Paske said, "You're assisting Miss Militia wherever she goes, and if you need to, attach yourself to whatever PRT structure you run into. You'll have to follow their orders no doubt, but it can't be helped."
"Yes sir," she said, and I thought it odd she didn't salute.
"We're leaving now," I said and picked them all up and went off to the PRT HQ.
It came into view fast enough and I got my first look at what a war zone we were going into. Dozens of PRT officers lined the roof and windows, firing into plaza below. I could see a hundred or more people down there firing back up. Several were lying in pools of blood or crawling. I was thankful I couldn't hear any screams, but I doubted that would last.
The main gates were bashed open by what looked like a welded together tank and several people were behind it taking cover from the bullets raining down on them. The tank didn't look damaged, but it wasn't moving, so I assumed something had gone wrong.
I landed us on the roof in the middle, dropping off the lieutenant and all the PRT except the two injured, including the truck and parts that had come with us. They all started finding ways to help.
The first thing I noticed was how loud all the gunshots were. An ear shattering staccato that left a ringing even as it continued. I tried adjusting my ear holes a bit to fix it, but nothing really helped. I hoped my hearing wouldn't be too damaged after this.
I saw the youth of New Wave: Shielder was stuck in the center with his shield out, covering Panacea and anyone injured. Laserdream was by the roof edge firing potshots and keeping her shield up to those near her.
Glory Girl flew over to us with a look of near panic on her face. "Oh god, what the fuck happened?"
"Too much to explain," I said and picked up Panacea from where she had just finished patching up someone and pulled her over with Shielder.
I brought Miss Militia and her limbs next to Panacea and without a word she grabbed the arm and got to work. Director Piggot came over and started talking with her. Her expression was wrath incarnate and even as Miss Militia was going over what had happened, she was yelling orders.
"It will take a minute or two to set everything right," she said. "Bring anyone else over too."
Lieutenant Haverson gave orders and the guards started setting up on the roof in a few open spots and joined in shooting down below. I realized that my range was too short to see the plaza, but it shouldn't be. I could feel higher up, but the closer to the ground my power struggled and fizzled out. I couldn't even see inside the area once it got far enough down. It was different from what the bomber had, but similar enough that I suspected the same tinker was responsible.
I setup a field in front of everyone, it was transparent except around the edges so everyone knew where it was and left a window to shoot through.
"Mom and the others are down below." Glory Girl said. "There are like, five villains down there and we have to stay up here in case any of them try to get up."
"We're heading to the Protectorate as soon as we're healed," I said. "There is also some tinker field that is affecting my power near the ground. Is anyone else having that issue?"
"We think the tank shutdown from the same EMP effect keeping the power off here, but nothing anyone has said mentioned their powers. Though no one else here is an area shaker, so maybe that's it."
"Okay, I'll take a quick look for the power source and then we need to be gone. The Protectorate is sending in outside help and it should be here by now."
"I've been on comm duty. Fly out far enough and I can get messages, then come back and report. The first wave got here and they are trying to engage just a minute ago."
As she said that several ice shards flew down across the road and plaza knocking a lot of people down or out of cover.
I saw at least three die in the moments they were in the open from gunfire. I didn't need to suppress any feelings this time and looked up to see someone raining more ice down. It tweaked the back of my mind who it was, but I couldn't remember.
"Ready for the next," Panacea said. I moved the two PRT officers next to as Miss Militia walked towards us. I saw her fiddling with her arm a bit and a grenade launcher formed.
I filled her in on what Glory Girl told me and that I was going to look for the device before we headed out. The plan was no more than five minutes from now we should be over by the rig.
Glory Girl had to check comms again and I walked over to Panacea so as little time would be wasted as possible.
"I lost my leg," I said to her.
"That's fine, I can attach it like these guys in no time."
"No. I mean I lost part of the leg, there's nothing to attach."
That took her by surprise and she looked up at me, "How the fuck did you- never mind, I can seal the stump and kill the pain you must be in."
Honestly with the amount of things going on the pain had started to fade into the background until she mentioned it. My stump flared even as she reached out.
"I need your permission, and some skin, to heal you."
"Granted," I wasn't going to argue about why she needed permission and just opened my hand. The moment after she touched me the pain vanished, leaving just an echo that was already fading.
"You're all set, these guys too." The two officers sat back for just a moment before talking each other back up and getting back into the fight.
"Thanks."
I flew up and around the side. There was an assault going from all sides, but even in the minute since the ice wielder had arrived whole sections of the attack had been forced back.
I noticed the adults of New Wave were fighting the aforementioned villains and left them to it while I circled the area of effect to try and map where the center was. A few people took potshots at me and I grabbed anyone in my range that wasn't protected by the field. It appeared that it was closer to the front and extended farther out than up.
I suddenly wondered if it also extended down. I went to the edge and lowered myself down through a manhole into the sewer. Once I hit the bottom I felt my power suddenly extended all along the bottom of the field, maybe twenty feet down from the surface. Something about my field trying to go around must have prevented me from seeing it but now I had a decent idea it was in the sewer system. I still didn't know where exactly and blasting randomly wasn't going to work.
I returned to the roof to tell Miss Militia and Piggot what I had found. At the same time I dropped off the people I had picked up a few at a time and they were cuffed and stuffed off to the side.
"Time to go," Miss Militia yelled over to Lieutenant Haverson and I grabbed everyone and we flew off to meet up with the other heroes. I did notice the attack had mostly broken in the last minute. Lots were running away or throwing down their weapons. The cryokinetic had joined New Wave and I suspected it would be over soon.
"Find us a roof to setup on if you can. High ground always helps," Lieutenant Haverson said.
"Right, I think I see a spot." I found something at the edge of the chaos, maybe at twice my normal range, and dropped everyone off. I stayed and took a look before going in. There was just so much happening I didn't even know where to start.
It looked like every villain cape left in the city had congregated out here. With the twin giants the most obvious and holding the line I saw at least five others playing support along sides or in between. And it seemed like there were more gangsters out in force than even had attacked the PRT HQ.
The whole field was also filled with walls of steel that Kaiser must have formed, giving cover to his side and showing spikes to the heroes.
There had to be half a dozen heroes out as well. Armsmaster was front and center, his blue armor form standing out with his signature halberd never not in motion as he fought at least two capes and a few non-capes at once.
He was the only person I recognized, but I saw someone in knights armor with a large sword holding back the spear giant. It was quite the sight to see someone that reached almost to her knee blocking strikes that could take down buildings and responding with blows that staggered her.
One was popping in and out of bubbles in the midst of the gangsters and it only took a few seconds for him to step out and move on to the next, faster than anyone could track him.
On the other side of the Nazi gangsters were what must have been the ABB ones and there were projectiles that formed in the sky and fell into their group. Though it looked like the half or so closer to the Nazis didn't have any forming above them.
A massive red ball flew into the ABB, maybe twenty feet long and ten wide. I expected a giant explosion but instead the landscape and anyone it directly hit were rearranged, non-lethally. The ground was flattened and turned glossy and the gangsters were suddenly all on the ground where they struggled to get back up, slipping on the now smooth surface.
I noticed that the bubble jumper had stumbled suddenly and started backing out, covered by Armsmaster. It was when Armsmaster suddenly locked up and was knocked back by knight guy that I knew something like the field was affecting others. Though as those were affected, the projectiles started forming over a larger area.
Whatever was causing that field was fluctuating and could only cover certain things at a time. I noticed in the center of the Nazi formation, covered by Kaiser, sword giant, and one other was a man at a console wildly twisting knobs and pushing buttons.
I was about to point that out to Miss Militia when I heard a screaming sound like a jet flying overhead and coming closer fast. I couldn't tell where it was from right away, but then I saw a large beast flying in.
I think Dragon just arrived.
The world famous tinker, responsible for a huge number of advancements, known as a great hero, came in like a meteor and collided with the spear twin, knocking her to ground and standing over her. Like many of the craft Dragon had, this one resembled the creature of legend she named herself after and it opened its mouth and roared out a stream, not of fire, but containment foam. It started right in the face of the giant then moved up and across a swath of the gangsters.
A dozen grenades also popped out of her back from either side and blew out in the sky to rain more foam across people. It was even aimed to miss the knight that was near her.
"Holy fuck! That is metal," one of the guardsmen said.
"Head in the game," Lieutenant Haverson said, "Get lined up and start shooting."
The dragon craft jolted suddenly and the roar died down as the lights went out. The man at the console laughed and cackled with such revelry I almost felt I could hear him over the gunfire and other sounds of combat going on.
My heart sank as I saw Dragon taken out of the fight, but when I heard another jet scream it buoyed even higher. Two more similar, if smaller, craft landed on either side of Armsmaster. He stood up, either knocked far enough out for his system to reboot, or the field had changed.
The bubble guy and knight both grouped up with them and got ready to square off.
It was time I joined them.
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Aug 3, 2023
#985
There was a lull in the battle as both sides took a moment to catch their breath. It looked like Kaiser was trying to rip enough containment foam away from the spear giant to free her, but it didn't appear to be going well. Her entire head was engulfed in foam that was still expanding. It was famous for being breathable so she wouldn't suffocate, but I doubt it was a comfort to her. Couldn't happen to a nicer Nazi.
I took another look at the tinker in the back I suspected to be the one making the fields that affected people's powers.
I turned to Miss Militia and said, "I think that guy in the back with the weird console is the one that can stop powers. Can you hit it while I go and join the others?"
"Be careful," she said as her grenade launcher formed into a huge rifle with that scope from the other night, "I know the director's request doesn't put her, or us, in the best light, but I trust her and I want you to make it through the other side."
She didn't look at me, focused on aiming at the tinker, but her voice was filled with concern that I chose to be for me rather than that I would choose wrong. She had been too nice to me, paid to or not, for me to think ill of her just because she wanted me to live.
I wasn't planning on taking it easy on the Nazis in any case just so the Protectorate could have a better chance at doing more. I would just be careful to not fall into that field, and be ready to retreat if it moved.
I still didn't say anything as I took off.
I wanted to introduce myself to the heroes, mostly to make sure the out of towners didn't target me as a possible enemy. I pulled up from the side to make sure they could see as I did.
"Armsmaster," I said in greeting, staring at a wall of gangsters that looked like they were about to start firing again. I didn't put up a wall in case we needed to move fast since the others didn't know what I could do and might run straight into it. "Miss Militia is here too."
"Event Horizon," he said. That was enough for the others to turn fully back to the front. I still didn't recognize anyone but Dragon and I was grateful I was too angry to be starstruck. Maybe when this was over I could get an autograph. Instead I prepped to pull her craft out of the field that shut it down, figuring she could reboot it and have it help again.
"They're going to have to force us to back off if they want to retreat," the knight said with an authoritative voice. "We can't let them. Same plan as before, but we need to handle that tinker."
It was almost prophetic as a loud boom echoed from Miss Militia's shot. The console didn't, however, break apart.
It did mark the return of combat as the roof with the national guard opened fire into the gangsters and they responded to them and us in kind.
"I'll get the tinker," I said as I pulled Dragon's craft up and behind us as Armsmaster and the others sprinted forward to rejoin combat. With it hopefully in a position to reboot I ripped a street lamp up and took to the skies way above the field, positioning myself directly above them.
I had seen a few ghosts of Crusader's flying around so I made a grid of white hole mesh around me with holes small enough to keep him out but large enough to not impede my vision.
As I took aim with the lamppost I wasn't too worried about collateral damage, mostly because I couldn't find it in myself to care. They had strapped bombs to people and killed them without a care so I wasn't going to worry about shrapnel hitting them.
I lowered until the edge of my range was at the point where the field was too strong to even see inside. I guessed it was twenty feet above, with maybe another sixty feet I couldn't manipulate gravity.
I aimed as best I could and accelerated the lamppost. I don't think I broke the sound barrier. As much as I wasn't worried about hurting them incidentally, I still didn't want to murder them in cold blood if I had another choice.
Though that choice was one step closer as the lamppost decelerated in the part of the field I couldn't affect and slowly floated down as it got closer. Once it was near the console several steel spikes shot out of it and anchored it to the ground, forming a rough tent.
I glared at them as I thought what to do next. I could grab a boat from the graveyard and threaten them with it, but unless I was willing to back up the threat, then it wasn't a gamble I was willing to let them call my bluff on.
Another explosion echoed out of the Protectorate HQ and I looked over to see another plume of smoke join the first. Seeing the wide expanse of the bay gave me an idea.
I floated back and over the water, but found that a large section between the rig and the Nazis prevented my power, even if I could see in. I flew off to the side, towards the ABB, and dove under the waves and when I came back up I had most of the volume behind me and in my range filled with water.
The hole in the bay I left behind made a sound loud enough to drown out the entire battle field and when I rose up and over the battle my shadow blotted out the sun. Another pause happened as they all looked up.
I might not be willing to drop a ship on them, but water didn't need to be all or nothing and while it could still be deadly, I had finer control over how it was used.
With how far I was and the water behind me still thrashing louder than a waterfall I didn't bother to ask for surrender. I just took a play out of the fascist handbook and made a dozen streams of water that matched a firehose at full blast.
They raked across every gangster and cape I could see. The streams near the console lost their power and just rained down. All the others, however, looked like those videos from the sixties of police hosing down protesters as everyone caught in my streams were knocked down.
I ramped up the power of the streams inside the field dampener until I saw it hitting with force and then increased it more until I saw the metal that Kaiser had placed get cut. I aimed around the bottom part even as more sheets came up and out to try and block what I was doing but I just cut through them as well.
I could do this all day.
I circled around the bay, staying at range even as I notice the dampener on my power was reduced and the water slowed even more. With a sudden flash of inspiration I added a dozen more streams and ramped up their strength a bit.
I was careful not to become overconfident and get too close even as the range on my power was able to get closer to the console. Instead I let them be inundated in a deluge of water as even on flat ground it couldn't drain away faster than I was adding to it.
I angled higher and essentially punctured my reserves, letting a waterfall form and rain down on them. That was the final straw for them. I saw a pair of capes flow out of the area that Kaiser had set up in a half swim, half waddle. It carried them towards the bay and I paid close attention for the tinker, but didn't see him.
I didn't see Kaiser either and more sheets of metal formed in a way to try and stop the water flow. I moved around to shoot straight into any opening I saw and that forced him to seal more and more. After a minute he was sealed in with just a few holes letting water drain out. To my knowledge he could create metal from nothing, but once formed he couldn't control it.
I think he was stuck in there with any capes that were left. I cut off the waterfall, but left the streams active to try and stop them from changing the field settings.
Looking around, a huge chunk of the ABB had been washed down and looked to having trouble getting back up. North Atlantic seawater was not a nice swim in the spring for most and I think they were feeling it being drenched while in the shade. I think they were basically done as a threat.
The falling objects and red artillery had moved over to the remaining Empire forces and it looked like they were in even worse shape than the ABB. Dragon had liberally covered the area in foam while the sword giant was losing to the knight. Armsmaster was fighting Cricket and at least three Crusader ghosts and appeared to be winning, his halberd able to block the ghosts.
All of them were fighting closer to the console than before, but I guess with everything I was doing it forced the field to neglect anything that could help out here. And now they couldn't see to know the best settings to use.
I saw the capes that had washed out a moment ago trying to fly away. I looped around and plucked them out of the sky. They almost looked like a couple, hugging each other as I made sure to overpower their flight.
I looked back to the shell of metal that Kaiser had made. I wanted to check out the rig and find out what was causing the explosions, but I also didn't want to leave the tinker alone. I decided to see if I could overload the device.
Angling so they were between me and the bay I made hundreds of thin, powerful water jets and aimed them just outside the shell. Then I started to slowly move them in. As they got closer they noticeably slowed so I added more and ramped the power up.
The field stopping my power shrank as it struggled to keep up with my water jets. Finally I felt it warble and bend in a way that it hadn't before and suddenly it gave out. My water jets, no longer slowed by the tinker and his device, sliced through the shell without resistance.
I moved the streams a bit to open the whole thing like a tin can and then stopped with the water jets. I moved to put them inside my range and with a twist of power I removed all the internals of the console, leaving a hollow shell of a device.
At the same time I lift all three of the people inside. The tinker, Kaiser, and who I was pretty sure was Krieg with that SS uniform.
All of them were yelling, whether at me or each other I wasn't sure since I couldn't hear them, but in either case it was nice to see them so distraught. It was then that the tinker slammed a hand to his chest and something under his costume depressed.
Suddenly a sphere I couldn't see formed around him. It held for a couple seconds and enveloped pieces of the other two. It couldn't see or affect inside it so I was forced to just wait and see what was happening. After that moment passed it collapsed, taking him and a several limbs that didn't belong to him away.
Fucking tinkers. I couldn't help but think as he escaped. Though my frustration was tempered with the knowledge that Kaiser and Krieg were down a total amount of limbs that Miss Militia and I had been.
Each had had an arm and leg inside the escape sphere. Their lack of screaming lent some credence to my idea that such a clean cut prevented immediate pain. That was fine, they would feel it when I saved their lives.
There was a single spurt of blood pump out before I was able to clamp down and seal their wounds. I didn't even feel guilt as no small amount of glee bubbled up when they started screaming.
My stump throbbed in sympathetic pain, but I ignored it knowing that I was saving them and, more importantly, they were pieces of shit that deserved more than this paltry pain provided.
Knowing that Kaiser could create his metal from line of sight, I also wrapped him in a bubble of blackout armor to keep everyone else safe from him.
I took another look over the field of battle and just in the last minute it had been mostly wrapped up. Cricket was down and the sword giant was foamed in such a way that both knees and a hand were stuck to the ground. She was feebly trying to hold the knight at bay but failing miserably.
I didn't see any more ghosts from Crusader, nor the man himself, and suspected he got while the getting was good. While it rankled he was free, in the grand scheme I doubted it would matter relative to capturing the leader of the Empire.
All of the non-capes were either surrendering or running at this point. I swooped around to lift off any who I could grab and brought them back to Armsmaster.
A calm passed through me, releasing a tension I hadn't been aware of. It was over, for now; there was still the rig to see what was happening over there. I set down next to Armsmaster, but didn't say anything and instead just watched as he put a mask on Cricket.
I looked over to the roof that the National Guard had been on to see it with just two people, neither was Miss Militia. She and the rest were just coming out of the building and heading over to us.
"We need more people to be able to handle this many people," I said.
He looked over to me and I realized he had a full face mask, likely to stop any lucky shots to the face. There was a slight hiss of air and the mask section slid away to reveal the perfectly trimmed beard that so well known I remember it was featured on commercials for his action figures.
"Already on the way," he said. Even after all the fighting he had been doing he didn't sound out of breath or tired at all. I was breathing hard and hadn't had to do any physical exercise at all.
I need to up my running.
"I don't have anything in my radio, do you?"
One of the smaller Dragon craft walked over in a predatory manner on all fours.
"Separate type of comms," she said, "It was spotty while that field was up, but once you broke the controller, it cleaned up. Less than ten minutes for the first wave. They're cleaning up at the PRT."
"Good to hear," the knight said as he walked up. He looked over to me, then the water behind me that still put the whole area in a deep blue shade. It took him a moment to recover from the view before sticking out his hand. "Chevalier. Thanks for the assistance. It's alway wonderful to see new heroes coming out to help their city."
I reached out and shook his hand. "While I would like to say I'm not totally new, it really only has been a few weeks. Just been a crazy few."
"Don't let her undersell herself, Chev," Miss Militia said with a warm tone, "She captured several villains in those few weeks." She looked to me and it looked like she had a large smile on her face under her bandanna. "Glad to see you're fine."
I know I blushed under my armor from the complement, but I did my best to keep my voice even as I said, "Just following in my great-grandfather's footsteps of stopping the Nazis."
Chevalier let out a laugh.
"I want to check out the Protectorate HQ soon," I said, "Can I drop everyone off here?"
"Sure," Chevalier said. He called and waved over Lieutenant Haverson. "Do you have enough restraints to go around?"
"A few, but I have my people getting who they can already with a few of your buddies to keep them company." She pulled out a dozen or so zipties and handed them over. "I doubt they'll be good for the heavy hitters."
"I can handle them," Dragon said.
I started lowering the non-capes to the ground a few at a time and Lieutenant Haverson and two of her subordinates helped tie them up. For the rest after the zipties were used up they were just ordered to sit on the ground and be quiet or they would be foamed.
I brought the couple down and while the man was placid looking, the woman had an impressively hateful glare aimed at me. A few weeks ago I might have been intimated but as it was I barely paid it any attention.
"Dragon, would you be so kind as to restrain these two?" Chevalier asked.
"It would be my pleasure," she said with a slight bow and a playful lilt to her voice. It was quite the sight for a dragon to be bowing to a knight. All my bedtime stories had it wrong.
Dragon looked to the two villains and opened her mouth. A controlled spray of containment foam shot out and covered the two from neck to feet and I set them on the ground to let the foam connect and harden against it .
I explained how the Tinker got away and in doing so wounded Kaiser and Krieg and I was the only thing keeping them alive. No one wanted to risk their death if the containment foam didn't properly stop the bleeding and I was better than a tourniquet so I kept them until Panacea could seal their stumps like she did mine.
With that we decided to head over to the rig. Apparently Battery and Assault were both in there and almost certainly facing Lung at the least. Oni Lee as well, if he had been released at the same time as the others.
I took Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and Chevalier with me and we headed over. Once I was over the bay I rotated such that the water was below everyone and then let it go. I had a phantom feeling of releasing a weight so I could go faster, but it really was all in my head. I didn't feel any difference in moving with or without however many millions of gallons I had been carrying.
The whole ride over I had that same range issue, but it was relegated to below the waves.
"Regular electronics aren't turning on," Armsmaster said after I relayed what I noticed, "and even my tinker tech is having trouble staying at full power."
"Something below the waves?" Chevalier asked.
"Almost certainly. We'll need to find a way to shut it down before HQ will be able to be brought back online."
From the previous times I had been here, I knew I could get the entire thing in my range if I was inside. I didn't see Lung in the front two thirds as I dropped everyone off at an entrance that had been blown open. I didn't free the PRT trapped in Kaiser metal, but did let Miss Militia know about it.
A quick flight to the top and I had the whole rig in my range. It looked like Battery and Assault had been playing a cat and mouse chase with Lung. Based on the series of ruined hallways my guess was they had pissed him off until he was too large to easily fit and while he bashed his way forward they would back off and let him get smaller. Rinse and repeat with that and it seemed they kept him busy.
Neither Lung nor Oni Lee were in the building. I assume he used one of the two massive holes in the side to jump and swim to shore.
Battery and Assault were heading down to a safe room with several people in it. They both looked mostly fine, but Battery was favoring one leg a bit as she walked.
I went back to Miss Militia and let everyone know what was happening.
Miss Militia let out a relieved sigh. "Glad to hear they're fine. We're going to be here for a while." She looked over to Armsmaster using a setting on his halberd to cut through the metal keeping the PRT officers imprisoned. "Can you head back to Director Piggot and let her know what's happened. You'll likely need to shuttle us all off when we're ready. Can you check back in an hour or so?"
"Not a problem," I said. "See you in a bit."
I headed out and took an arcing curve back to the PRT HQ. It had been a long day so far and I doubted the clean up needed was going to be any less long.
I needed to remember to ask Glory Girl if we could postpone that family dinner.
Last edited: Aug 3, 2023
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Aug 10, 2023
#1,021
As I flew over to the PRT HQ I felt an exhaustion come over me like I didn't know was possible, but in a good way. On the worst days that I was bullied by Emma, Sophia, and Madison I felt worn down and broken. Hollow and unsure if I could continue going to school. Here though, I felt fulfilled even as I felt myself flagging.
It was a such qualitative difference for such a similar, if more intense, feeling. I felt fulfilled for the first time I could remember. Even more than the other times I had been out and captured villains or helped people I had been pushed further than ever and even with a grievous injury I had persevered and come out on top.
I felt myself smile and relax just a bit. Even my missing leg didn't worry me much as I was fairly certain Panacea could regrow it. Unless something changed or went very wrong, the day should be over except for the cleanup. Though there was a lot of cleanup to be done.
That tinker back in the woods. The Protectorate HQ and whatever they needed me for there. And of course I needed to handle Kaiser and Krieg. That last one should just be having Panacea seal their stumps like she did mine and handing them over the PRT. I was sure there was more I didn't even know of.
With all of that on my mind I lowered myself back onto the roof of the PRT building. It looked like power was back and my range was no longer being stopped by anything. The whole building was a hive of activity and arrests; rows of people were cuffed and watched in the front plaza.
The tank thing was also a smoldering wreck with black smoke billowing up. I could see a firetruck parked in the street and several firemen were hosing it down.
I saw all of New Wave in a couple of conference rooms inside and it looked like they were being interviewed. Likely some form of report on what had happened.
Director Piggot was on the phone in her office speaking in a way that seemed like she was holding herself back from screaming.
"Event Horizon, what's the situation at the Rig?" a PRT officer asked. His partner was on the radio, likely to someone inside, but too many people were on the radio at all times to know which it might be.
"Armsmaster and Dragon and everyone else have control," I said, not sure if there was particular wording they wanted.
I saw them both relax a bit. After a just a moment and a breath he said, "Excellent. I see you brought some more gifts."
"Yep. They actually need Panacea to seal up some missing limbs. Would you be able to call her?"
"Got it. Who's in the black ball?"
"Kaiser," I said with no small amount of satisfaction.
I couldn't see it with my eyes, but behind his visor his eyes popped a bit and the radio guy cut himself off mid sentence and twisted his head over so fast I was worried he might need a stop to Panacea as well.
"Right," he said when he recovered after a second. "Let's get you and them inside."
The radio guy relayed everything and I suddenly knew who was on the other end as she jumped up and ran over to her superior. The message bubbled up the chain of command so fast that by the time the doors to the elevator closed Director Piggot was notified.
I half expected her to jump up and jog over but instead she calmly acknowledged her secretary, finished typing something up and made call before she stood and walked out with a precise gait.
It was a little crowded in the elevator with the four of us plus two floating supervillains. I had to contract the Kaiser bubble a bit and turned it into more of a rounded coffin to make it comfortable. For us. I was surprised that I didn't need a sound baffle for Krieg but he hadn't said a word, just glared behind his gas mask.
A cape I didn't recognize joined the director on the way, but I guessed it was the ice one from earlier.
We got off on the same floor as Panacea was on and headed over as I watched Piggot do a decent job of timing us to meet up as we reached the conference room. The Dallon half of New Wave was in the room looking bored as they talked with someone. Glory Girl was slowly spinning in an office chair, almost certainly using her flight since she neither moved nor pushed off the ground. Brandish scolded her to stop and she slumped even farther down into the chair, defeated.
Piggot turned the far corner at about the time we knocked. Glory Girl was tasked with opening the door and slowly floated over in hunched manner with her arms hanging loose.
I looked over at Piggot to give a small wave and she gravely nodded in response then locked her eyes onto the armor coffin. I remember watching a video a few years ago that put Legend against a machine that used a laser to strip off rust. It was some Protectorate promotional thing for charity where the Protectorate would donate a thousand dollars to troubled youth programs for every square yard of rust that Legend removed before the machine could remove a single square yard. He actually ran out of rust to clean before the machine made it halfway and they ended up donating a million dollars. Thinking back, I suspect it was all for show, but it was the way that the machine stripped rust off, an angry laser bar that left behind nothing but shiny metal and black smoke that came to mind with her expression.
Director Piggot had a look so severe I think she would have stripped the rust off faster than the machine and I was very happy it wasn't pointed at me but the guards appeared to stand a bit straighter all the same.
The cape looked much more stern than angry. She wore a blue body suit and a fur lined cape. Her upper face was covered by a translucent blue visor.
"When we get settled inside, I need a rundown on what happened," she said, still staring at Kaiser.
"Of course. There are still several things to do and Miss Militia is expecting me back at the Rig in about an hour. I'm their ride off."
She made a noise of acknowledgment as the door opened. Glory Girl's expression changed from despair to ecstatic joy as she saw me.
"Save me from this dreadful boredom!" She said as she grabbed my arm and tried to pull me in. I let her lead me and took a look at the same time. Panacea was leaning back in her chair while thumbing through her phone, total disinterest to the going ons of the room.
Flashbang, Glory Girl's dad, was sitting straight up but appeared to be zoned out of the conversation as Brandish finished answering. The PRT man nearly jumped and made to stand up when he saw that Director Piggot entered behind me. She waved him back down and pulled up a chair for herself.
I floated the villains in and the cape came up behind them. She closed the door behind her and leaned against it with her arms crossed.
New Wave took notice of who I brought in, even Panacea looked up at all the commotion.
"Is that Krieg? He isn't looking so good," Glory Girl was kind enough to break the ice. "Who's in the other one?"
"Kaiser," I answered. Her eyes popped a bit and her jaw went slack. "They're both pretty wounded and need a similar treatment to what she did for me." I nodded at Panacea and angled Krieg a bit to show off his missing limbs.
Glory Girl blanched and Panacea said, "You always bring me only the most Nazi of patients."
"I suppose, but they keep injuring themselves in near fatal ways."
She made light hum sound and said, "They should maybe stop that. What if I don't want to heal them?"
"You will," Brandish said in a very 'or else' voice.
"We have a medical facility we can treat them at," Director Piggot said. "They'll probably live, but it would be appreciated if we didn't need to worry about them for now."
Panacea ignored her mom and stared daggers at Krieg for a good ten seconds, then grumbled and walked over.
"Do I have your permission to heal you?" It sounded like it physically hurt her to ask.
He said yes, but I was still curious why she needed permission to heal a life saving injury and decided to ask.
"Because they can theoretically claim assault with a parahuman power if I don't. It would almost certainly fail in court, but I just don't want to deal with that."
"Also…" Brandish said.
Panacea sighed and said, "Also, it is morally correct to not do medical procedures on people without consent. Though like with Stormtiger if they can't respond, I can heal them anyway."
"I guess that makes sense? Anyway, I'm going to allow Kaiser to talk."
I opened a hole near an ear and his mouth. "Can you hear me?" I asked.
"I can," he said. It sounded like he was responding to a question about being able to tie his shoes, with all the condescension that implied.
"Great, you're in PRT custody and Panacea is here to keep you alive without my assistance."
"Wonderful."
"Isn't it just?" Panacea said. "Want me to heal you?"
"Yes."
I pulled back the armor around everything but his head and pulled off a glove letting Panacea fix him up. With that I let the fields compressing their stumps go.
A sudden desire came over me and I brought Kaiser closer to me.
"Anyone opposed to finding out who this is?" I asked. Glory Girl looked like Christmas was just announced to be everyday, forever.
"You can't do that!" This time he sounded outraged rather than panicked. I kept a block just over his eyes as I released the rest of the armor.
"We're going to know who you are soon enough," Piggot said. He struggled and flailed a bit, but I amped up the field in a targeted way to keep him still.
"The PRT will, but you never release those. This will ruin me." I angled him parallel to the ground and lowered him to arm height.
"You're going to be made an example of if I have to call in every favor I am owed to do it, so I wouldn't worry about that." Director Piggot looked over to me and nodded.
"Yeah, get fucked, asshole," Glory Girl said. Brandish gave her a look of disapproval, but didn't say anything.
I reached out and my hand sank into his helmet and when I closed my hand my armor was an unstoppable force that crunched into the metal. With a firm grip I used my other hand to keep him in place and pulled. The whole face plate came off with a very satisfying sound of tearing metal.
It was far more visceral an action than I was used to and found I enjoyed it a lot.
Kaiser looked conventionally attractive with a strong jaw and defined cheekbones. His eyes were covered but the rest of his expression was furious. I also had no idea who it was.
"Holy shit!" Brandish exclaimed.
I guess I was nearly the only one since most everyone else seemed to be shocked. The out of town cape hadn't changed her expression at all.
"Who is it?" I asked into the silence.
Director Piggot was the first to recover and said, "Max Anders," the name vaguely rang a bell, but I couldn't place it. I shook my head a bit and she clarified. "CEO of Medhall."
"Oh," I said. "Shit."
Medhall was the largest single employer in the city. They had the largest hospital in the city, several clinics, and did medical research here as well. Even I knew, through my Dad, they were one of the important cornerstones of the local economy. And all of it was Nazis.
"Take them to holding," Director Piggot said.
I wasn't sure if that said was to me, but the ice cape opened the door and said, "I'll walk them down if you want to have them follow me. Reports about you said it should be easy."
"Sure, lead the way." I realized my power testing had been turned into a report for the whole organization. Obvious in retrospect. Or even before, really, but I hadn't thought about it like that.
As the door closed behind the villains Glory Girl looked after the door and with a knowing smirk said, "Rime is so cool."
"Really?" Panacea asked in disgust. "We found out the biggest bombshell ever and you go to puns?" She walked back to her chair and slumped into it.
"Worth it. So," she turned back to me. "What happened out there?"
"Now does seem to be the time," Director Piggot said.
I floated over to the table and gave a brief rundown of the day. When I made it to how I dealt with the crazy tinker Glory Girl nearly lost it.
"You used your own fucking leg bone as a rail cannon to remove the leg of another cape?"
"That's how you 'lost' it?" Panacea added in a near shriek.
Everyone else, including Piggot, was looking at me like I was crazy. I realized this was the first time I really explained what I had done. Even when it happened I didn't give an explaination that I had used my own body as ammo. I guess Hookwolf hadn't talked about it either.
"Technically it was my heel, but yes. I needed something fast that wouldn't alert her that I was doing something in case she set off another bomb."
That did not appear to assuage anyone.
"I am torn," Glory Girl said. "On one hand, that is the most metal thing I have ever heard of. On the other, what the fuck?"
"Enough swearing," Brandish said, "Once was too much, any more and I'll ground you."
Glory Girl just flailed her arms at me with an expression of disbelief at her mother.
"I do have to ask," Piggot said, "why did you not use a rock to break the tinker device?"
"What, did she use the rest of her leg for that?" Panacea asked.
Director Piggot crossed her arms and leaned back in her chair. "She used Hookwolf."
The noise that came out of Glory Girl was a long, continuous, high pitched whine and her waving arms froze and slowly fell to her sides.
"I was caught up in the moment and didn't think of it." I blushed at how dumb it was to not have just used a tree or boulder.
"Well, no harm, no foul. Hookwolf has been alternating between boasting that he survived being a cannonball and threatening a lawsuit since you left him with us."
"Do I have anything to worry about?"
She focused her steely eyes on me and said, "If you were to, right now, throw Hookwolf into the sun, I would sign an affidavit attesting to self defense."
"I don't think I'll take you up on that, but thank you."
She nodded and I continued the debrief. All in all it took ten minutes.
"Good work today, we'll contract you for a bit of ferry work, if you're up for it."
"Contract? I would be happy-"
"We'll come to terms later," Brandish broke in, "but she accepts." She looked over to me and continued, "You are the hardest person to pay I have ever met. Just take the money you're being offered."
I bobbed a bit and said, "I guess I accept."
"Excellent. I was able to slip away for this, but there is a still a lot going on. Last I heard the National Guard was starting to suppress the riots. No casualties, but it seemed pretty tense. You're welcome to stay here as New Wave seems to have finished their own statement. We will talk later I'm sure."
With that she stood up and walked out, with the PRT guy that was interviewing New Wave following.
"So…" Glory Girl said and trailed off the word. She just let it hang there but I didn't have anything to pick it up with.
Instead I asked Panacea, "Would you be able to grow my leg back?"
"I need material to do it, since you decided to throw away a perfectly good foot section. Where are the other parts?"
I had kept them near my leg and brought them out, floating over to her and offered a hand.
"Permission granted."
"Let's see what we're working with," she said and reached out to grab both parts as she touched me. "Not much is missing, I think I can use other parts of you without issue, but you're already exhausted and this will make you more so. Having a small lunch will help right about now, but I would recommend waiting until tonight or tomorrow for the healing."
"Using other parts?"
"Sure, stomach fat, bit of muscle and bone from various parts, simple." It didn't seem simple to me, but I wasn't the parahuman healer. "I can make it from scratch if I need to, but easier to source it from the host if I can. Hard to do a whole leg like that though and I'd need a butcher run."
It was a weird image that went through my mind of Panacea wandering into a butchers' shop and ordering a side of cow to turn into people pieces.
"Okay, I'll be busy after this and I don't know what's going to happen with the tinker in the woods, so we can plan for tomorrow."
"Cool, put it in the fridge so it doesn't start rotting."
I looked to my limb parts, then back to Panacea. "Maybe tonight."
She shrugged. "Either way, let me know."
"Oh right, can we plan dinner for a different time? I don't think I'll be up for it tomorrow."
"I forgot about that," Brandish said, "I agree it would be best to postpone for at least a week."
With that I made my goodbyes and headed over to the Protectorate base. Glory Girl had begged to come along and so the two of us alighted on the deck to the view of dozens of people waiting for transport off.
"Perfect timing," Miss Militia said, "We're waiting on a final walk through and we'll be ready. After, if you're still up for it we can bring Armsmaster to the ambush site."
"I guess you had me for the day anyway, right?" I tried for a lighter tone but it felt stilted.
It seemed Glory Girl agreed because she laughed a bit and said, "You and lighthearted aren't on close terms are you?"
"Ah, not so much."
"You just need a bit of practice," Miss Militia said, "It was a good attempt though."
I was grateful they were so nice about such a failed attempt at easy going.
"We're ready to go," Armsmaster said as he walked up. "I have some equipment working on the field, but it's hard to keep it running."
One of the smaller Dragon craft was next to him and she said, "We'll get something working soon enough."
"I can move the rig out of the field if you want."
Everyone slowly turned their heads and stared at me.
"What?" I wasn't sure what I said was worth the overly dramatic looks they were giving me and I felt a little self conscious over them.
"I sometimes think I know how strong you are," Glory Girl said faintly, "and then you go and say something like that, and I believe you."
"We would lose the bridge, but if everything else is working it might be worth it," Armsmaster said, mostly to Dragon.
"It would be a sight to see, and she could reposition it back when the device is removed as well," Dragon said.
Armsmaster thought it over for a good thirty seconds before nodding. "Acceptable. Can you move it south, just until we're out of the field."
"And slowly too please," Dragon said, "Even if the way your power moves things doesn't have inertial issues for those inside, I hesitate to find out if the air resistance would cause a problem."
It suddenly came over me that I was in the presence of Dragon and she was talking to me, about a thing I was about to do, in a positive manner. I became nervous and chastised myself over it. I had been around high profile capes for weeks now, this shouldn't be any different.
But it was different. It was Dragon. Only standing in front of a Triumvirate member would be comparable.
"Can I have your autograph?" It just popped out and I wanted to go to the moon to escape the embarrassment that washed over me.
Glory Girl smiled openly, but thankfully didn't laugh at me. I could even see that Miss Militia was smiling behind her bandanna.
"Only if you would autograph this craft for me."
My mind went blank as I processed that Dragon wanted my autograph. I recovered only by telling myself that she was just being kind by saving me the embarrassment of what I did.
"She says yes," Glory Girl said as she tried to poke me in the head. "Do your bob thing for assent, I know you want to."
I bobbed.
"See? Yes."
Dragon shook a bit in what I refused to believe was laughter and a steel card popped most of the way out of a tiny compartment. She had business cards ready and I wasn't sure if that was cool, or amazingly cool. I pulled the card out with my power.
"Hold it up for me will you?" Dragon asked.
I angled it as she directed and suddenly a tiny laser beam carved a stylized D in the card that even looked a little like the craft she was using. Above that she put EH in a similar style.
I stared at it for a bit, taking in the glory that was the autograph. After I was done admiring it, I slipped it into my field and pocketed it inside the sweatshirt I was wearing. Then I used my power to force the pocket closed to make sure it couldn't fall out.
"Now it's your turn. Armsmaster, I know you have a pocket laser she can use on your halberd."
"Do we have time?" he said, but was already fiddling with his weapon.
"I can move it while I sign."
With that I angled gravity for as much of the rig as I could, which encompassed the primary supports underneath, and the whole thing started to move. I glanced at shore and used it to keep aligned, making slight adjustments as we went.
Armsmaster popped off a little section near the middle that looked something like a laser pointer and handed it over. "Careful."
With a little instruction I was able to start making my mark at the base of the neck. Ever since the nurse had asked for it, I had been testing a few different designs. None had really jumped out as the one to use forever, but for now I decided to have the Event sit on top of Horizon with the H and N over sized enough to match the height of Event.
It was a little unwieldy to use, but by the time the rig was repositioned I had a reasonable signature on the side of Dragon's craft.
"Not bad looking at all," Glory Girl said with a pat on my back.
"Wonderful," Dragon said with honest mirth coming through clearly. "And it looks like the power is starting to boot up."
"Yes," Armsmaster said, "but I think we'll still take everyone off with us and come back later. It won't be hard now that helicopters can land."
With a notice to let everyone know, we took off and headed back to the PRT. A quick drop off of everyone but Glory Girl, Armsmaster, and Dragon, we grabbed Panacea, with Brandish requesting to come too if it was going to be so far, and headed back over to the ambush site with two squads to relieve those already there.
Flashbang was left behind with the Pelhams, more by Brandish's choice than his own.
It was a fairly tense flight over as Brandish and Armsmaster discussed if Panacea was allowed to get close enough to the victims to help them and how they would know it was safe.
After they had me clarify the effects I had seen, Brandish refused to let her within fifty feet of anyone with a bomb.
It was a little fucked that the perpetrator would get the healing while the victims weren't able to, but I did see the logic. It also wasn't known if her poking at them would set the bombs off since it was claimed that my gravity would.
I just finished off the most aggressively bland, textureless, food bars I had ever had the displeasure of eating, courtesy of Armsmaster, as we landed in the field. It had taken the whole flight to slowly work my way through, each bite needing time to settle before I could work up the courage for the next. The wrapping was just as impressively bland; a slate gray plastic with 'FOOD BAR' on one side in black blocky letters.
Armsmaster sounded proud of personally designing and manufacturing them as had handed it over and happily opened one of his own, finishing it before I was on my third bite. It was a testament of my admiration of him that this only slightly tarnished him in my eyes.
It was very filling though.
I looked around the and saw the PRT had cordoned off the road and there were a couple of emergency vehicles by the road where it had all gone wrong. Leaving one squad there we went over to the tinker and I saw that the bomb hostages were spread out from each other in a rough circle around her.
There was enough room for us to set down, besides the Dragon craft. She wanted me to give it a big punt into the air and took flight at the top of her arc.
"She seems pretty cool," Glory Girl said as we watched her circle a bit and land over back at the ambush, then continued in a teasing tone, "Maybe I should ask for her autograph."
I bumped her shoulder lightly. "Maybe you should."
Panacea walked over to the tinker and I heard her ask the standard question, "Do I have permission to heal you."
For once the answer was no. A strong no, punctuated by excessive cursing and claims of acts she will do to her and her parents and her family goose.
"Cool, easier for me. See ya," and she walked back to us as she gave a small wave of her middle finger over her shoulder.
I was a little surprised Brandish didn't have anything to say about that seeing how adamant she had been about healing everyone no matter how horrendous they were. Then again, they all had said yes, so maybe it was just the act of offering that mattered to her.
Armsmaster was making some reading on the nearest hostage and muttering to himself. The target of his mutterings didn't look to reassured and leaned a bit back from him. After a couple minutes of waiting around he walked back to us with a frown.
"We're going to be here for awhile, no need for you to stay. We'll get our own ride back as well. Thank you for your help today."
With that he turned and went to another hostage.
"Rather brusque," I said.
"More than I was expecting really," Brandish said, "I'm just glad he remembered we were here and to let us go home. Let's be off."
I took us to the air and angled back towards the city.
"By the way," I said after a few minutes of silence, "I was wondering if you wanted to go the West Coast for an afternoon at some point? I figured if I can't hang out with you locally since everyone knows you're Glory Girl, we can go somewhere you aren't a celebrity."
"Oh very much yes!" She said, "We can make a day of it, and you're even getting paid so we hit up all sorts of malls, see what the fashion is like, get an outfit or six."
I wasn't sure how I felt about all that, but it wasn't the time to make specific plans so I let it go.
"Forgetting something?" Brandish asked dryly.
"I mean, can I. Or we? Want to come, Ames?"
"It's rude to invite others like that," Panacea said.
"You're welcome to come too, if you want," I said. I hadn't been around her nearly as much, but besides the acerbic personality she seemed fine.
"I'd be down."
"Fine," Brandish said with a roll of her eyes. "But I want a rough itinerary of at least the city you'll be in and for how long. And your phone stays on at all times."
"Cool. When're we going?" she sounded like now was the correct answer.
"Maybe next weekend? Or if school is closed from today, we can go in the week. After I get paid. Which I need your help with Brandish, please."
"I did force you to take it, I suppose it is only fair I help you put together a contract. Pro bono."
"Thank you." I said and felt like the day was finally over. I don't even think it was passed three in the afternoon but I was ready to fall into bed and wake up Monday.
"Panacea, do you have time to regrow my leg on the way back? I think being more exhausted for the day will only help at this point. Bed calls."
Last edited: Aug 10, 2023
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Vicky found herself floating above her bed without even realizing it and had to force herself to calm down and lower back to the bed. She was so excited to be going with Taylor today that she couldn't even sit still.
It must be close to time now, she thought.
A quick glance at her phone clock and she scowled at it; there was still an hour until Taylor was going to pick her and Amy up. She gave a sigh and fully collapsed into her bed, trying release to all the excitement that was building in her.
She found her mind wandering over the last week. So much had happened since Saturday that she was still trying to figure out if her world had changed or not.
On one hand, the entire Empire Eighty Eight was in shambles as an organization. Almost their entire roster of capes was now in custody as well as what must have been a majority of their unpowered members. Almost a hundred at the last count she had seen.
Max Anders had been publicly unveiled as Kaiser which had whole separate knock-on effects. The first and largest being that Medhall was in free fall. The feds had frozen all of its assets pending the most in depth audit ever and there had already been arrests. The news was reporting that was both an unprecedented speed for financial crimes and that more were certainly going to follow.
The future of Medhall was in jeopardy, which put a large section of Brockton Bay's employed in a bind, since it seemed unlikely that a company that large could be staffed only by members. Although being an Empire stronghold for at least twenty years, anything might be possible.
But very little of that directly affected Vicky. While school had been closed for most of the week, Thursday felt like almost another school day for her, but a lot of kids had parents that worked there and their future was in peril.
She had, however, needed to step in at least twice to stop someone from accusing a kid of being a Nazi due to their parents working at Medhall. Pretty shitty thing to accuse someone of without evidence, and just working at Medhall should not, currently, be enough.
The largest feeling Vicky had was relief. The whole extended family had celebrated the news. She still remembered playing with her cousins and Aunt Jess mediating their play fights. Having her murdered because some Nazi wannabe fuck tried to get in the good graces of the Empire was devastating. The downfall of the New Wave movement didn't even matter compared to the loss of Aunt Jess.
The worst was that it worked for him since he was given a reduced sentence for being a minor and was welcomed with open arms to the Empire once he got out. The full list of dead and arrested hadn't been released, but she was just waiting to find out if he was on either list.
Another quick peek at PHO to see if there were any updates.
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Topic: PRT Attacked
In: Boards Places America Brockton Bay
Reave (Original Poster) (Verified PRT Agent)
Posted On Mar 12th 2011:
This is the official communication, released at the same time Director Piggot is giving a statement, for the events that took place today starting at approximately 11:30 AM.
The Empire Eighty-Eight, the ABB, and the Merchants made a coordinated attack on three objectives at the same time.
1. The transport of Hookwolf on the way to the Birdcage.
2. The PRT HQ, likely to stall the response to
3. The Protectorate HQ and the holding cells for Crusader, Cricket, and Oni Lee.
Thanks to the brave members of the PRT and Protectorate, with help from Brockton Bay's own New Wave and the assistance of a new hero, Event Horizon, all three of their objectives failed.
While no Heroes were lost in the attack, nine heroes of the PRT gave their lives to defend the city. We feel their loss and they will be remembered.
Details on each incident is beyond the scope of this medium and a report will be made available publicly and linked to.
High level details on gangs are as follows.
Non-powered (all gangs):
The casualties for the gangs are still being counted, but preliminary reports are over a dozen dead, and more than a hundred wounded. At last count we have arrested 259 people and that is expected to go up over the days and weeks as we are able to track down those who escaped.
Merchants:
Skidmark, Mush, and Slump were all captured. Thank you New Wave for your assistance.
Squealer was able to use an escape hatch on her tank and was seen running off. Still at large.
ABB:
Oni Lee was broken out of custody and is now at large.
Empire Eighty-Eight:
Crusader was broken out of custody and is now at large.
Cricket was broken out of custody and was recaptured.
Othala, Victor, Fenja, Menja, Krieg were on site and captured.
An unknown tinker, believed to be associated with Gesellschaft was able to use an emergency teleport device and escape.
Kaiser was captured.
While the PRT very rarely releases the identities of captured villains in order to reduce the chance of reprisal to uninvolved individuals, it is believed that Kaiser's identity must be released in order for the greater public safety.
Max Anders, CEO of Medhall, is the villain Kaiser.
With this, the fall of the Empire is celebrated.
This post will be updated as needed.
UPDATE 7:30 PM -
Director Piggot's Statement
Mayor Christner's Statement
Detailed Report
UPDATE 3/13/2011 - The riots and state of emergency is not in PRT jurisdiction and is addressed in the Mayor's statement.
[Mod Edit: This thread is for relating information about the incident. Please take discussion of individual cape powers and events to their respective threads. Common for this thread is Event Horizon
(Showing page 253 of 255)
Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Mar 14th 2011:
OMG! the mayor just fird police cheif!! and like half the force!
Stolf
Replied On Mar 14th 2011:
Good! they helped the N*zis. get them the f out!!!
Ekul
Replied On Mar 14th 2011:
I guess the Nat Guard is going to be sticking around for awhile then? While having Nazis in uniform is worse, having a limited police force is also not great.
Though with a huge chunk of gangsters arrested, maybe it will quiet for a bit?
EDIT: Looks like the gov is doing a hiring spree to ask for experienced officers nation wide that want to move here.
WhedonRipperFan
Replied On Mar 14th 2011:
Gah! don't say such things!! We're already in bad enough shape here without you jinxing it..
ReichTernal (Banned)
Replied On Mar 14th 2011:
[Mod: Absolutely not]
WhedonRipperFan
Replied On Mar 14th 2011:
Jesus, thats fucked up man.
Klinging
Replied On Mar 14th 2011:
Thank god those corrupt pigs are out! I got so many DWBs I had to have a line item in my budget.
XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Mar 14th 2011:
DWB? Never heard of that before.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 251, 252, 253, 254, 255
Nothing much. The biggest issue was Mudman wasn't part of any of the activities. There wasn't much time to spare in the last week since the attack, but it had been on everyone's mind that maybe he would strike again.
So far nothing, but it might be possible a missing person's report has been lost with so many police fired. The big hope was without support from the Empire he couldn't do as much.
Vicky found herself floating a little above her bed, swore, and floated back down. She was still reading slowly, waiting for Amy to finish getting ready. Which mostly meant falling out of bed for a quick shower. A glance at the clock showed there was still an hour before they were off to LA.
It was the first time she would be hanging out with Taylor instead of Event Horizon and it was exciting to see how she was out of costume. In, she tried to be so serious but the few minutes when Taylor had introduced herself she seemed a little shy and withdrawn. If so, that wouldn't be a problem, Vicky was great at bringing people out of their shell. Just look at Amy.
Vicky poked a second link to head back to the Event Horizon thread and see where it had gone. Last she saw, someone posted a video on the fight last Saturday.
Topic: Event Horizon
In: Boards Places America Brockton Bay New Capes
Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted On Feb 28th 2011:
We got a new hero guys, and she made her debut with a bang.
Literally hundreds of people at Hookwolf's dogfighting ring were arrested last night but also she captured Hookwolf and Cricket on her own.
Her Power is being reported as gravity control and as Wards age, so no raunchy stuff guys.
Here's hoping she continues her strong start of capturing one of the most prolific murderers free in our city.
March 3rd: She captured Oni Lee and saved a brothel full of ABB sex slaves!
March 5th: She captured Crusader and Stormtiger.
March 12th: KAISER IS CAPTURED!! and credit has been officially given to EH.
- Today was crazy and you should check all the other threads about it, this is just for EH.
Speaking of just for EH - a video of her moving a lot of water and hosing down gangsters.
- a video of her moving the Protectorate HQ nearly a quarter mile!
- a different angle while she autographs a Dragon Craft! something I have never heard of happening.
(Showing page 50 of 50)
Lolitup
Replied On Mar 20th 2011:
I did some back of the envelope calcs on that water and assuming about 500-600 feet in radius, we're talking like 1500-2000 olympic swimming pools! that is fuckin crazy.
And watching her hose them fuckers down was the highlight of a very shitty day.
Stolf
Replied On Mar 20th 2011:
So uhhhh... this is like the greatest thing ever right? Like, it turns out the Nazis made a deep calculated decision and found out they're real fuckin bad at math and now they're all in jail? amazing.
Is Eve getting the key to the city? The PRT gave her credit for Kaiser, that has to be worth all the keys to all the doors, right?
Answer Key
Replied On Mar 20th 2011:
I say nay! but she does deserve something.
Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On Mar 20th 2011:
We were fighting the Undersiders when this was going down, but I've seen internal footage and it is crazier than it looks from that phone camera. Shame we're not releasing the footage.
She is cool in person too. Hey Event Horizon, I don't think you're on here yet, we'll have to have GG get on that with you, but I guess you don't need those questions answered anymore, eh?
End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 48, 49, 50
That was right, Event Horizon didn't have an online presence. Well, today might the perfect day to get that settled. No way a verification picture with the three of them on top of the Hollywood sign wouldn't get insta-approved.
The sign was on their tentative plan for the day too. It looked like Taylor had just searched out top tourist things in LA and picked a few. It was fine in general since at least one large shopping center had been chosen. With a little note that it was just from her comments about wanting to go shopping.
The best part, she had made a few calls and was able to have the PRT put together funds to cover for a fitting with a famous costume designer. The plan was actually for two costumes, one to be worn on top of the black hole armor and one that could be worn under. Both for different occasions. She was excited to see Taylor's reaction when she surprised her with it.
There was a light knock on her open door to get her attention. Her mother stood there with a conflicted expression. Vicky could tell she really wanted to shut her in and tell her no to going. It seemed to come from a place of love, so she didn't feel too annoyed, but still, she was basically an adult and going to another city with a friend was a time honored tradition. All the movies said so.
"Vicky, you have everything ready? Money? Phone? Who to call locally in case of an emergency?"
"All set, Mom," she said. "We'll be fine. No one will know us and we'll be in the big touristy areas."
She frowned and said, "I know you will be, but anything could happen. I worry."
"And I love you for it, but honestly at Eve's side should be the safest place of anywhere."
Vicky couldn't for the life of her remember if Taylor had revealed herself to her mother, and played it safe. She thought it was probably supposed to be at dinner last week but that had been pushed to next Sunday.
She was interested in meeting Taylor's folks. Though it did sound like it just might be her father in the picture. She would have to find a way to broach the subject a bit today.
Her mom gave her an unimpressed stare. "That's no reason not to be prepared."
Vicky rolled her eyes. "But all the reason not to be overly prepared. I want a little spontaneity in my tourism."
"Fine," she said with a little sigh, "Go wake your sister. She always takes a long time to get ready." With that her mom left and Vicky floated up and- "No flying in the house!"
"I wasn't!" She said back as she landed and walked to the door across from hers. She didn't bother knocking as she opened it and looked into Amy's room.
The curtains were mostly drawn leaving just a sliver of morning light cascading across her bed to reveal a mound of blankets. While asleep, Amy almost always ended up scrunching all her sheets and covers into a giant pile and curling up under it.
Vicky saw one foot sticking out at an odd angle and shivered as she remembered the time she had tickled her sister to try and wake her. It had taken an hour for the hives to go down.
"Amy, time to get up." Silence was her only response. Not unexpected.
Vicky reached out and pulled the pillow off of her sister's head and stared down into her face. It was nice to see her calm and serene as when awake she was rather surly. The light from the window managed to be perfectly lined up to go across her eyes and she flinched to a semblance of waking.
With a groan, she tried to find the pillow and settled for pulling the sheets over her and rolling over.
"Time to wake up." Vicky poked her sister lightly on the forehead and smiled. "You don't want to miss our first big trip out of the city do you?"
It was something Vicky was certainly looking forward to. They had made a few trips out of the city trying to start up New Wave as something more than a local phenomenon, but they never went to city attractions while there, just a few conferences to espouse their ideals. It stopped when Aunt Jess was murdered.
"What time is it?" Amy asked, still trying to stay asleep.
"Eight thirty."
"Sleep to nine," she said and finished trying to roll over.
"No can do, it always takes you most of an hour to get ready. Up now, or I'll have to drag you to a cold shower in your pajamas."
Amy looked over at her most evil of sisters and with every bit of antipathy she could muster said, "Hives."
Vicky didn't let Amy call her bluff so easily. "Worth it to be ready on time. Unless you want to disappoint Taylor and not join us?"
Amy groaned and pushed herself out from under the pile. Stumbling out of bed she made her way over to the bathroom. Satisfied she would be awake and ready in time, Vicky left and closed the door behind her. Time to see what was for breakfast and check PHO.
Topic: Bomb Hostages Rescued
In: Boards Places News Events America
Reave (Original Poster) (Verified PRT Agent)
Posted On Mar 16th 2011:
In the days leading up to the attack on Sunday 12th the Cornell bomber, named Bakuda, had been recruited by the Brockton Bay gang known as the ABB.
Her first public appearance involved attacking a PRT convoy transporting a birdcage bound convict and killing two PRT members and grievously wounding several more as well as Miss Militia.
She also kidnapped and implanted remote bombs into more than fifty people, forcing them to assist her in committing this heinous crime.
New hero Event Horizon was key in stopping Bakuda's initial attack, but was unable to assist the hostages.
She assisted in bringing both Armsmaster and Dragon to the scene and they spent the next three days disarming and safely removing the bombs from all the hostages. They have been returned home unharmed.
(Showing page 1 of 10)
AverageAlexandros (Cape Husband)
Replied On Mar 16th 2011:
I am so happy to hear they are safe. She needs to be put in the very cage she was rescuing someone from.
Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Mar 16th 2011:
OMG! bombs in people? Even in BB that is beyond the pale.
BadSamurai
Replied On Mar 16th 2011:
I dunno, sounds about right around here. At least it should be over right? Just Lung and Oni Lee... I can't believe I typed 'just' when talking about them.
Whiskey time!
WhedonRipperFan
Replied On Mar 16th 2011:
I think I know someone who was kidnapped. He runs a store I like to go to and was just missing since a few days ago. I need to go check on him.
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As nine thirty rolled around Vicky and Amy were joined by their mother in the driveway. Vicky had been too excited to wait inside and dragged them outside, confident that Taylor wouldn't keep them waiting.
Sure enough a black speck came into view just a few minutes later. Vicky wasn't sure if Event Horizon actually knew what a figure she cut as she came down fast and stopped almost instantly with a whisper of wind. A scar on reality was a pale descriptor for the hard lined edge of her armor and the silhouette that had a hint of a feminine form.
She was tall enough that it gave off an intimidating air of power and danger and all of it went out the window when she waved shyly and said, "Hey Victoria, Amy, Mrs. Dallon."
Vicky couldn't help but smile. "Hey yourself, Achilles. And it's just Vicky to friends."
She settled on the the driveway and groaned. "You heard that?"
"Capevine is strong in the Wards."
Amy looked confused, "I'm out of the loop, what's with the nickname?"
"She used her heel as an attack right? What else were a bunch of PRT guys going to call her when that got out?"
Amy rolled her eyes, "That was a weakness, not a weapon."
"Yes! Thank you!" Event Horizon said, throwing her arms up in frustration. "It makes no sense."
"Nah, it makes enough sense."
Event Horizon crossed her arms, or at least Vicky thought so, as all texture and shading just vanished, as did any sense of depth. "I'm sure they'll get tired of it at some point."
"Never underestimate soldiers to carry a joke too far," her mom said. "Now, go have fun."
"Thanks Mom," Vicky said and gave her a quick hug.
Vicky felt the pull gravity had on her drop away and the ground move away without her being the one flying. It was so different from her own flight that it had taken awhile to get used to it. Her own was just pushing off nothing and moving, but she still felt it as she moved. With Event Horizon she just fell into whatever direction and had no real control over it.
With her and Amy pulled close they went up a bit and out over towards the bay. The ground, houses, and roads not quite blurring together as they flew.
"I think you're going in the wrong direction," Amy said.
"I want to get out over the water so I can really let loose. Also, if you're both up for it we can look at the sea life under the water. I was thinking we could hit up the aquarium and it might be neat to compare the two."
As the city fell away, Vicky looked over the vast ocean and stared into the abyss. "I'd be down for it. How about you, Ames?"
"Sure, let's taunt Leviathan and find out," she said with all the sarcasm she could muster.
"That's the spirit." Vicky smiled and motioned towards the ocean.
Event Horizon took the invitation and they all fell to just above the surface. Suddenly a hemisphere of water was pushed out about twenty feet and they slowly lowered into the watery depths.
It was fascinating to watch the edge of the sphere protecting them take visible shape as they went lower, the edge rising up and finally closing over them. The light that made it in was filtered through the thin but growing layer of water above them, filling Vicky with a sense of awe at how everything looked.
Event Horizon dropped her armor and Taylor looked around with them, her face filled with a similar awe to what Vicky felt.
Amy reached over and grasped Vicky's hand. Vicky looked at her sister and smiled. "Low chances he'll actually show up, sis."
"I am checking your CO2 levels now that we're in a closed environment. I want to make sure we don't pass out under water."
Vicky took another look and felt a distinctly more cold pressure bearing down on her. "Ah, good call. How much air do we have in here?"
"At least twenty minutes," Taylor said, "but likely more. We'll take a quick look around and head out."
"Is the surface still in range?" Vicky asked.
"Easily, we're only a third into my range."
That caught her off guard. It seemed like they were much deeper. It must be the light throwing of any sense of depth. She went back to looking around.
The silence was broken only by their breathing and the only way to tell they were going lower was the slowly darkening sky, each of them basking in the wondrous view.
"How deep until it goes black?" Vicky was a little nervous and hid it behind asking simple questions to take her mind off it.
"Not sure," Taylor said, "I didn't look it up but I would guess not that far, we're losing light pretty fast."
"So many fish," Amy said quietly. "I don't think I've seen so many at once."
They could still see little ways out and even in that limited area fish were swimming around, darting to and fro.
"I know," Taylor replied, "Amazing to see the schools grouped like they are. Want to see a big one?"
"Yea, grab that fish and bring it over," Vicky said, floating over and leaning on Taylor.
After a moment Taylor pointed and a patch of shadow formed at the edge of the darkened waters that quickly resolved into a giant patch of teeth and murder. It was stopped just short of the edge and Vicky got an up close view of a wildly thrashing great white shark.
She floated close, taking Amy with her, right up against the edge to get as good a view in the dim light as possible. The soulless eyes and giant mouth were an impressive view.
Amy had her hand pressed right up against the sphere, trying to touch it. "Gorgeous," she whispered. Vicky had to agree.
Taylor let it go and they all watched it swim off. "Well, I feel like that might be hard to top."
"Yeah," Vicky said in a hushed tone, "They have their work cut out for them."
Another minute or three and Amy said, "I'm ready to go."
"All right," Taylor said and put her armor back on, "Let's go."
The light started brightening again and Vicky felt the pressure come off. It was like a physical weight had lifted as they broke the surface just as slowly as they entered.
Once clear, they lifted off and started rapidly rising straight up. And didn't stop. They broke through the scattered cloud cover after a few seconds and still they rose.
"Uhh…" Amy trailed off as she looked around. Somehow even Vicky was feeling a little nervous at the distance. This was far higher than she had ever gone and they were still rising.
The world fell away faster and faster as the flat horizon became an arc and the blue sky dimmed and darkened. Soon Vicky could see the whole of the Eastern seaboard and beyond.
It was in the barest whisper that Vicky said, "Holy shit." This was so far beyond anything she had reference to that she could only gaze in awe, all thoughts of the shallow depths from just minutes ago lost to what was before her.
"Pictures really don't do it justice," Event Horizon said. "Incredible."
Amy was still lost to the world, eyes wide and jaw open.
There were suspended there, with nothing but a bit of gravity to keep their air as they gazed at a view few had seen in person.
The minutes went by and finally they started to move. They were so high that it couldn't be said they were chasing the dawn even as they caught up to the line that showed where sunrise was. The Rockies were little more than a speed bump as they passed over head and arced down towards southern California, dodging a whole second mountain range that Vicky didn't know the name of. Or that it was there.
Public schooling fails me again.
A huge metropolitan cityscape of gray spread out before them as they slowed. It was a little shy of seven in the morning where they were about to land and the sun was about to start rising.
They stopped high above the city, hopefully out of the flight path of planes.
"So, where do you want to start?" Event Horizon asked.
Didn't expect it to take this long just to make it to LA. At least one more Vicky chapter.
