Roots 2.6

"Piggot here. What's your plan?"

Straight to the point. I guessed she was a busy woman. I responded, mostly making up a plan as I went along, "Challenger calls the Wards back in at the tail end of their patrol, tells them we've got a scenario set up in one of these buildings. Maybe a fake drug bust or something. I hide inside, after checking it and making sure it's safe, Challenger sends them in, shuts the door, I jump them, and it turns into a friendly spar with a goal they have to retrieve as soon as they realize what's happening."

"Understood. Why are you doing it outside of the Rig's gym?"

I wasn't expecting that question, and it took me a second to find a response. "Because it changes things up. If they keep fighting in the same place over and over again, they'll never learn to fight elsewhere."

To be honest, I was making that up. It made sense, but it wasn't something I'd thought over ahead of time. Her pause before replying could have meant she was buying it, but it was hard to say without a video feed.

She finally responded, "I understand you sparred with Vista yesterday, correct?"

I was a little surprised she knew about that. "Yeah, I did. She wanted-"

"It doesn't matter," Director Piggot interrupted. "You're aware that entering one of those buildings is technically illegal?"

"Technically, sure, but you've got to have some buildings out here that nobody cares about." That had never been true in Vale before, but with the Grimm dying out and people moving away it was happening more and more. I imagined it would be true here, too.

"Fine. I'll allow your training session this time, with two caveats; you and Challenger take care to avoid civilian witnesses, and you come to me with any future 'training ideas' ahead of time from now on. I also want to talk with you about your training with Vista, come to my office once you're done out there."

"I was already planning on it. I'll be there in… an hour?" I responded. Pretty much what Challenger had warned me about, I could handle it. I was surprised that she was going with this with so little argument, though.

"Agreed. Have console find a building that you can safely use." The phone clicked, and I realized the call had ended from her end.

Perfect! I looked up to Challenger, who had been listening in to the speakerphone with nobody else nearby to overhear. "I'll go get the Wards if you talk to console." He nodded, raising his hand to his comm unit, and I ran off. Last I'd seen, they were running this way...

The building was dark, dusty, grimy, and completely perfect for our purposes. It had two floors and a gap in the center of the second, with a crane system in the ceiling, built almost like an arcade claw machine on a massive scale. The power was out, and the short windows on the upper floor, a few feet below the ceiling, weren't bright enough to do more than highlight the shadows that danced over every surface. Stairs connected the two floors at each corner, and wood and metal debris littered the ground.

I had chosen the crane for my hiding place. Instead of a claw, it had a magnet as big around as a car's tire mounted on the end of the cable, heavy enough that my added weight barely shifted it. I sat over the gap, forty feet above the ground, watching and waiting for the doors to open and my prey to enter.

I didn't feel much like a superhero, but then I guess that was kind of the point. I'd tucked my cloak inside the inner portion of my costume, which was super uncomfortable but gave off the villainous impression I was looking for even better. As much as I hated to admit it, without the bright red of my cloak, the black, gray, and much darker red of my leggings, skirt, and top wound up looking fairly edgy. It had almost served as camouflage among the Huntsmen, but I had to stand out here, and I felt like this gave off the wrong impression.

While I waited, I thought strategy. For a lack of other idea's I'd based the game off of Beacon's initiation - they didn't necessarily need to beat me, they just needed to find the relic and get it to Challenger, outside of the building. Vista was more or less a known quantity - she was clever enough to improvise, but a couple hours of sparring was enough to get a solid grasp of her metaphorical toolkit. Kid Win was an inventor - and it still amazed me that those kinds of Semblances were so common here - and I was pretty sure he only had his hoverboard, armor, and pistols with him. He was probably the least threatening person here, but I'd be keeping an eye on him anyway. If fighting Merlot and Watts had taught me anything, it was that the inventors tended to have tricks hidden away for special occasions.

The biggest issue was Clockblocker. As I understood it, his power meant that if he touched me, the fight was probably over. Taking him down without touching him would be a little tricky, but far from difficult. I had several possible strategies in mind for dealing with him already.

This was still a spar, of course. None of the Wards had Aura, so I was unarmed and I'd be holding back quite a bit. I wouldn't be letting them off easy, though.

The door opened, light streaming into the room, and I heard Challenger's voice coming through as the kids entered. "...don't know exactly who or what is in here, so you'll be going in blind aside from your goal."

"Sure, we have no clue who's in here. None at all," Clockblocker cut him off.

That seemed like a good moment to drop in. I stood, stretched, and stepped off the magnet. I scattered as I hit the ground to silence my landing, and stood slowly. The four were still in the doorway, with the Wards looking back towards Challenger, who was still standing near the doorway. He didn't react to my appearance, but there was no way he hadn't see me.

He responded, "You never know what you might run into during an assignment. You know what you're looking for, make sure to keep your eyes open."

I took that as my cue to unleash the best Weiss-inspired, Cinder-approved evil cackle I could manage. The Wards spun around to face me as I announced, "Keep your eyes open indeed! You Wards should be keeping a closer eye on your surroundings! I could have done anything while your-"

I was cut off by a snicker, which set off a chuckle, which cascaded into all three Wards laughing and only Vista trying to reign it in.

This wasn't meant to be funny! I huffed, losing the admittedly over-the-top voice. "Alright, if that's how it's gonna be." I scattered, throwing forward my hand in the process and signaling Challenger to shut the door. He figured out what I was going for, and the effect worked. The door boomed shut, the light went out, and I rushed the trio.

Vista, trying to stifle her laughter, saw me coming and dived to the side, throwing her hand toward the wall to my left. Clockblocker saw her dodge, looked towards me, and swore while stumbling back to the right. Kid Win, doubled over as he was, saw none of this.

My boot met his stomach and he flew five feet backward to slam against the metal door, gasping for breath. He was wearing armor, I figured he'd be fine.

Clockblocker regained his footing beside me, lunging as soon as he was stable. I scattered around him, reappearing on the other side, and he caught himself again. I had seen him coming, but that got me some useful information - my Aura wouldn't warn me of his touch, so it would be very possible for him to catch me off-guard. He lunged again, and I stepped back towards the center of the room, his fingers passing inches from my stomach before he caught himself and swung yet again.

I could see his plan, and it was a pretty good one. He figured I couldn't risk touching him, so he was trying to keep my attention. Against most other opponents, it would have been a good strategy, but not here. I scattered back towards the center of the room, putting a good forty feet between us in a second, and buying myself time.

I saw space warping between us, collapsing the distance between me and him while stretching the distance between me and everything else. Vista, having not quite reached the second floor yet, was nonetheless watching the fight and manipulating things to Clockblocker's advantage. Kid Win was picking himself up at the door, still gasping for breath but starting to move for his dropped hoverboard. I could see the synergy these three could have, with Vista controlling the battlefield, Kid skirmishing across it with his lasers, and Clock catching people once the others had boxed them in.

They weren't really making use of it, though. Kid grabbed his hoverboard and pistols but chose to just open fire without any attempt at strategizing with his teammates. I dodged, scattering around the occasional beam that would have otherwise hit but primarily focusing on moving upward. I jumped to the upper floor, vaulted the railing, planted my feet, and launched myself toward Vista, who was just now finishing her power-abbreviated climb up the stairs.

Vista barely had time to gasp, but she was already reacting, tumbling backward and executing a painful-looking back roll down the stairs as she put up a barrier behind her to seal them off. I stretched my aura through the stretched-out floor, disappearing from one side and reforming from stray petals on the other. Moving through solid objects was tricky, but it was easier when they weren't quite airtight. Vista had made good use of the seconds it had bought her, and was well on her way to crossing the room by the time I made it through.

Kid Win was giving her a bit of covering fire, flying low in her direction as if to pick her up, but she wasn't even looking in his direction. From the footsteps, Clockblocker was behind me, trying to catch me off-guard again while the other two held my attention, but I was outrunning him.

I rushed through Vista, making her stumble in surprise, and caught Kid Win just as he was shifting his weight to make a turn. I moved past him as well, catching him with a backhand to the stomach that knocked the wind out of him again while simultaneously snatching his pistol. I hit the wall, flipped as I rebounded upward, aimed at Clockblocker upside-down in midair, and was sorely disappointed when the pistol just started screeching at me instead of firing.

I landed, sliding the pistol across the ground toward the back of the warehouse, and rushed Vista again, not giving them a moment to breathe. I didn't get the slowed perceptions that some speedsters did - the handful of seconds this fight had lasted already were just as rushed for me as it was for them - but I was used to fighting at this speed, and they, clearly, were not. Vista tried to duck under my attack, but she was still moving way too slow to actually manage it and I still caught her around the waist with an elbow, shoving her to the ground as I dashed by.

It wasn't often that I sparred with someone like this - typically, they'd go down when their Aura dropped and that would be my win. On the rare occasion that I was fighting someone without Aura, I typically wasn't holding back this much. It meant that even though I was expecting it, it still surprised me a little when they kept getting back up. Kid Win had recovered his wind, had reboarded his hoverboard, and was flying after his pistol again.

I decided to let him go, for the moment. They still needed some chance to find their target. I'd go after him once I dealt with Clockblocker. Time to see how he dealt with somebody using his power against him. He saw me running for him and put his hands to either side as he approached me.

I scattered slightly as I ran, not quite to the point of intangibility but still able to disappear and reappear parts of me. The area around the inner lining of the back of my costume dematerialized, reappearing in my hands at the moment before we made contact. I juked to the right, directly into his waiting hand, and wrapped my cloak tight around it as I phased through.

I carried on, and a glance behind me showed the cloak frozen in mid-air. Clockblocker nearly pulled his shoulder out of socket trying to escape the hold it had around his arm, and I heard some quiet swearing from his direction when he realized what had happened. He'd be occupied for a while.

Next up, Vista. I figured Kid had the best chance of finding their target where it was hidden, and Vista was the bigger threat anyway. I ran towards her, not using my Semblance to see how she'd react, and she had me boxed in within moments. It barely took me a second to get out, but by the time I had, she'd brought the second floor down to where she could get to it and was watching the ground floor as if looking for something. Good, she was still trying to find the target.

I refrained from scattering, choosing to simply jump directly to the second level. Vista was backing away, arms raised in a defensive stance, but her jaw was clenched and she had a joyless smile on her face. She knew she was going to lose, but she was planning on fighting anyway.

I admired the determination, but her attitude could use some work.

Kid Win flew through the roof behind me and I intentionally didn't react. His first shot missed entirely, and his second would only have grazed me if I hadn't leaned the quarter-inch to the left it took to dodge. His third was more on target, and I decided to tank it in order to save him the embarrassment of hitting his own teammate. His bolts were designed to barely hurt normal humans, they did practically nothing to my Aura.

I decided that some advice would be a good idea right about now. I wouldn't make it too obvious, though. I let loose another evil cackle and called out, "Foolish Wards! One teammate incapacitated, the second almost shooting the third!" Oh yeah, that was perfect. Kid stopped shooting in surprise as I continued, "One might think they'd forgotten about their original task here!"

Kid inhaled hard behind me, and I saw Vista exchange a glance with him over my shoulder. He totally had forgotten about their goal here. He flew away a few seconds later - still firing at me, but now aiming high enough that the shots went over Vista's head when I let them pass through me.

Vista didn't attack, instead deciding to speak. "I guess you're not going to tell me where you've hidden this thing, right?"

"Heh, you guess right. It really shouldn't be that bad, this place is pretty empty."

"Oh well." I saw her glance below us and heard Kid's hoverboard moving around on the lower floor. She was trying to stall me and give Kid more time. I decided to let it happen for a bit, to give them some kind of a chance. He could fly, he'd find it soon enough, but it still might take him a bit in the dark. "I guess we're fighting now, huh."

"Guess so."

She didn't wait for me to make the first move. Space warped away from us, the walls stretching away in every direction as she stepped backward to put space between us. I shot forward and aimed a kick at her side, which she dodged by rolling to her right. She came up ten feet away and created a ramp to clamber up, jumping down the other side before expanding the ramp to either side.

As she did, I jumped after her, running normally to give her a chance to react and see what she'd do. The ramp was steep enough to be tricky to a civilian, but I ran up it with ease only to see it extending ahead of me. It was moving pretty fast, and by the time I got around the expanding rim, the inside of her newly-created structure had expanded to be big enough to move around in. Vista was busy making an exit at the back, but I caught up to her before she could get out and tapped her on the shoulder. "Call that a knockout. Good work on the evasion, though."

Before she could get out a reply, I started running back towards the central area. I was hearing Kid's pistols going off, which probably wasn't a good sign for me. Sure enough, once I got to the inner railing, I saw him attempting to blast through the doors, his target in hand. I hopped the railing once again and launched myself off the lip, catching myself on the magnet before hitting the ground hard enough that Kid heard it over his gunfire. He looked back, spotted me coming, and flew back up, apparently trying to find another way out.

I wasn't going to give him that chance. I Scattered toward him, deciding against slowing myself down, only to hear footsteps charging me from the side. I jerked away, taking more care than was probably needed to avoid getting frozen as Clockblocker placed himself directly between me and Kid. I hadn't expected his power to wear off that quickly, he must have gotten lucky. My cloak was behind him, and not really close enough to grab even if I thought he'd fall for the same trick twice.

He was underestimating my speed, I figured I could get away with just rushing by him, but I decided against it in order to give them a chance. Instead, I faked a rush to his left before running by him to his right, side-rolling out of his reach just before he managed to grab me, and rushing toward where Kid's hoverboard was moving toward one of the windows. Clockblocker shouted a warning, and Kid looked back to see me.

I don't know what went through his head, but the moment he saw me coming, he gasped and dove headfirst off his board, falling ten feet to the second floor. His board kept going, slammed into the wall, and fall to the ground itself a moment later.

I was kneeling next to him in a second, checking to make sure he was okay, but it looked like his armor had taken the worst of the fall. "Are you alright?"

He coughed hard and inhaled harder; it looked like the wind had been knocked out of him. Once he got his breathing back to normal, he gave a thumbs-up.

I chuckled lightly, holding up the glowing Dust round that he'd found on top of the magnet and dropped on the floor next to him. "I'm pretty sure that means you lose, though."

He gave another thumbs-up, and I saw him smiling in breathless laughter.

"Director Piggot?" I knocked on the doorframe, the door itself sitting slightly ajar.

"Come in, Scatter. Shut the door behind you."

I stepped through the door, easing it closed, turned around, and- woah. She didn't look great. It was subtle, but her skin was half a shade paler than the last time I saw her and I could see the barest hint of tension in her face and hands. Whatever it was, it was either minor enough to be ignored or, more likely, she was hiding the full extent of the problems.

I didn't want to speak up first, but it took a minute for the Director to actually start talking. The way she was watching me was hard enough to read that I couldn't figure out what she was after. When she did finally speak, it was sudden enough to catch me off-guard. "Scatter, why are you going so far out of your way to train these Wards?"

It took me a second to realize what she'd asked, but I had an answer immediately. "Because they need it. I needed it when I was their age, and if I hadn't gotten it then I would have been dead a long time ago."

"This isn't your world, Scatter. Our children don't need to fight to survive."

"Most of them don't. Hunt- Parahuman children do. I've seen it in powered kids from my world, and I'm seeing it here. If you keep them isolated and away from the fighting, then they get antsy and things start going wrong."

"We're aware of that phenomenon, and we've taken steps to avoid it. It doesn't need to be solved by throwing the Wards into the middle of combat-"

"You're right, it doesn't," I interrupted. Piggot looked annoyed but allowed me to continue. "That's not what I'll be teaching them to do. They'll know how to fight if they do end up in close-combat, but I'm not going to throw them up against armed criminals without a reliable means of defending themselves. I might be used to dealing with people that have Auras, but I haven't forgotten that the Wards lack them. If I'm not convinced that they fully grasp the danger of close-combat, then I won't be teaching them any."

She responded, "Then what will you be teaching them?"

"Firstly, evasion and retreat. Making sure that they won't get hit if they do get into a fight." I'd try to teach them how to aim-dodge, but that didn't seem like the smartest thing to bring up right now. "Next up will be defensive fighting, disarming tactics, covering tactics, collaborative-"

"Enough." The Director paused, apparently thinking it over. She was her typical unreadable self, but I noticed the small nod that came with her final decision. "Fine. I'll allow the training, so long as it's conducted under supervision and it doesn't interfere with their other responsibilities. Schedule time in the training center this week, I'll find someone to keep an eye on you."

I nodded. "Yes, Ma'am." That was easier than expected. A little too easy, in fact. I suspected that she had more at play here than I knew about, and that was a little worrying. "Director, I did have one more question. It doesn't have anything to do with this, but-"

"Spit it out, Scatter."

I continued hesitantly, a little worried to be calling her out, like this. "I heard that my acceptance into the Protectorate moved a lot faster than that kind of thing normally does. My power testing got moved up too, and it felt like they were trying to get me through it as quickly as possible. I'm also hearing about Velocity suddenly being transferred out when it was going to be Challenger until I got here. I don't really understand how stuff here works yet, but from what I do understand, it sounds like you were involved in both of those decisions." I watched her face carefully, but she kept her face perfectly neutral. "If it's okay to ask, what's going on with that?"

She stayed quiet for a few moments, again thinking things through before responding. "You're quick, I'll give you that. Yes, I had other motives involved there, but suffice to say that I felt you would be a boon to this city and that, thanks to your origins, I had to do some politicking to keep you here."

I wasn't sure what politicking was, but I got the idea. There was absolutely more to it than that, but she was telling the truth and I was happy that she'd at least given me something. "Thank you. I'll keep you updated in the Wards."

"Please do. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get Velocity's transfer finalized."

I stood. "Yes, Ma'am."

This one wound up a bit longer than expected, mostly because I actually didn't have this fight planned out ahead of time for once. I didn't know how it was going to end until I wrote the last paragraph, which was interesting, to say the least. Probably not something I'm going to try again if I can help it.

This is the last primary chapter of the arc - you'll get two interludes like for the last arc, with a slightly different format for the first one. I'm going to try for December 8th, but no promises.

Regarding NaNoWriMo - I got the first chapter of the prequel out on schedule, but none of the others happened. I wasn't accounting for the time it takes to edit these before posting them, I suppose. School took precedence over my personal writing, and I wound up skipping an entire week in the middle. Combine those with the chapters on The Salem War turning out longer than I'd expected, and I've only made it to chapter five. What's probably gonna happen is me publishing chapters whenever I get around to finishing/editing them - I might try for a biweekly schedule with Scatterer one Saturday and The Salem War on the next, but we'll have to see how it goes. I'm making progress on both stories, and I have them both fully plotted out chapter-by-chapter, it just depends on which Google doc my muse drags me into.

Anyway, thanks for reading and reviewing, and I'll see you next time!