Like I needed the invitation. Pulling back on Alisa's hips I thrust my hips forward, sliding into her tight, but wet and welcoming sex.
"Aaaaammmmfff." Alisa let out another moan right into Elisa's muff as she clenched around me.
"Yeeeesss, that's it," Elisa said more audibly. "Fill her, right the fuck up."
Taking a moment to enjoy the warm, lightly clenching feel of Alisa's pussy, I pulled back and rocked forward a bare inch once, twice, a few more times, luxuriating in the feeling of that deep physical connection.
Then I started to move. Elisa seemed to really like it rough, and I was wagering that was a trait universal to Lisa, not just her. So once I was sure she was fully ready, I pulled back right up until my glans nearly slipped out of her, then slammed my hips back forward until her pert little ass slapped against my hips, pulling back immediately as she did to repeat. Pistoning into her like a tireless machine.
"MMMFF! MFffuuuuck!" Alisa cried out as she was driven off her place eating her twin out. "Fuck! Yes, do that… fuck!"
"Harder!" Elisa ordered, bringing a hand down to replace her rubbing at her clit in hard pressing circular motions. "Pound her into a sloppy mess. Fuck that smug bitch stupid!"
"Yes! Please!" Alisa agreed enthusiastically. "Don't stop!"
I gripped tighter with my left hand as I reached under her with my right, pressing my palm firm against her pubic mound for leverage as I emulated Elisa's motions on her clit.
"Fuck!" Alisa screamed out.
"Get back down here," Elisa said to her, grabbing her head and shoving it back down onto her crotch. "You're not done until he stuffs you like a thanksgiving turkey!"
"!" Alisa squeaked, before eagerly diving back into her otherself's cunt.
"Fuck yes!" Elisa cried out, eyes closing as she arched her head back. "Don't stop! Just like- don't you dare fucking stop!"
I didn't. If this was round one I might have already blown my load, but somehow I held on, Alisa clenched hard, as Elisa's chest heaved, both girls' bodies undulating as waves of motion passed seamlessly from one to the other, breath building to short desperate pants as tension built to the breaking point.
And, naturally, caught in the middle Alisa was the point that broke first, pulling away from her twin as her body simultaneously tried to lock up and curl inwards, a long, wordless, shuddering breath exiting her as she came hard enough to lose any sense of coherence.
"That's it," Elisa said suddenly softly, breathing hard. "Just cum. Cum hard… let it ride right through you," she coached softly as she stroked her other self with surprising gentleness. "Just let it happen… good girl. Gooood girl."
Alisa let out a whimpering inhale, then a squeak, then shuddered again as I gave her one more pump.
Elisa smirked up at me, soundlessly mouthing the word 'meanie'.
Alisa panted a few more hard breaths, before finally letting out a, "Fuck."
"Yep, that's what's happening," Elisa said smugly.
"We need to do that again," Alisa said in a voice torn between eagerness and exhaustion.
"Again?" Elisa asked. "We're not done yet,," she said in a dangerous tone. "Tarn hasn't cum yet and I'm not finished. Unless you wanna watch him shoot another load into me while you lay there a blissed out mess?"
"Fuck," Alisa groaned, then took a deep breath. "Change position?" she asked.
"Hmmm… what do you think?" Elisa asked me.
"Sure," I said, more than eager to keep going.
Elisa slipped off the bed, and off to the side on shaky legs. While Alisa flopped forward, slipping off my still hard length down onto the bed. Crawling up a bit while wagging her butt exaggeratedly through the air, before flipping over and spreading her legs, one hand moving down to spread her freshly pounded lips, while the other cupped one of her perky little tits in clear invitation.
"Dive in," Elisa said beside me, pressing her soft form into my back as she wrapped her arms around me. "And this time don't stop until you've painted her insides white."
"Well? What are you waiting for?" Alisa asked at the same time.
I got onto the bed and crawled up to her. Elisa followed behind me as I got up between Alisa's legs and lined myself up again.
"There we go, just jamm it-" Elisa started only for me to hilt myself into her twin halfway through 'just'.
Alisa let out a breathless sound and wrapped her arms around me, only for one of them to be pulled off as Elisa got in beside us, and all but wrapped herself around my back again.
"That's it!" Elisa said. "Just keep fucking her. Use her like a sex doll. She likes it," she said as she ground herself against my back and side, like she was trying to fuck her twin by proxy.
Something I was oddly okay with as I thrust into Alisa with a pace entirely set for my own pleasure.
"That's…" Alisa started in protest, but stopped. "Fuck, just do it… I wanna feel it. Give it to me. Blow your thick hot load all over my insides," she said, a teasing look crossing her face.
"Do it," Elisa coached. "Fucking cum as deep as you can in her. I'll lap it up and you can watch."
"If I let you," Alisa teased her. "Fuck… I want it. Please… please?" she asked me, breath heavy again, as she looked at me with desperation.
"You are both kinky as hell," I grunted before I started to move with gusto once again, nearly dislodging Elisa as I sped up until she couldn't hold on, and quickly pulled back, sliding down beside us, leaving my side feeling cold for her absence.
Luckily the rest of me was practically on fire at this point, the momentum that had built up before Alisa's orgasm catching up to me with gusto as I pounded into her.
"He's gonna do it," Elisa said to her clone, grabbing her arm and hugging it between her breasts. "He's gunna take all of you."
"Fuck!" Alisa said eloquently. "Fuck! Do it, please! Please pleasepleasepleas Ee! EAAh!" she moaned and squeeked and heaved. "God!"
I hit my breaking point, and, as requested, shoved myself as deep as I could into her as another orgasm ripped through me, my body aching as every remaining drip of cum was ripped right out of my dick into her waiting womb.
Elisa's lips found mine, then pulled back, and in my haze I saw her making out with her twin again as the pair writhed under me.
Then I flopped forward again to Alisa's other side.
"...fuck," Alisa let out with a shaking breath.
"I know, right?" Elisa asked eagerly.
"That was… good," Alisa agreed.
"I know, right!?" Elisa said with a giggle.
"...The others are probably wondering where we are right now," I groaned out into the mattress, as post-nut clarity once again began to seep into my consciousness.
"Don't worry," Alisa said between breaths. "Kara's running interference. She absolutely knew."
I blinked, "That you were going to fuck me?"
"That we absolutely needed to get fucked," Elisa interjected. "She picked up that much at the restaurant."
"'T'sfiiiine," Alisa exhaled.
"If you were both that backed up, why didn't you just…" I started.
"I did," Alisa reminded me.
"I think he means fuck each other," Elisa argued.
"Same thing," Alisa said. "We're clones. Same person, different bodies. We know what each of us wants, but know what we'll do. Takes the spark right out of it."
"What, really?" Elisa asked. "That's what it was?" she blinked. "Holy shit that's what it was. I thought you just sucked at giving head."
"That'd mean you suck at giving head," Alisa argued. "I did great, it just wasn't as good. No spark of surprise."
"Surprise, really?" Elisa asked, raising an eyebrow.
"You know what I mean," Alisa argued.
"Well, that's fascinating," I muttered, and it actually kind of was. "-but we really shouldn't keep the others waiting."
"Really?" Elisa asked. "Right after this? We need a shower at least," she argued.
"Prestidigitation," I cast cleaning off the sweat and spillage. "If you want me to get the inside part I'll need to reach," I wiggled my fingers.
"Yes please," both Lisa's said, tone serious, and maybe even a bit relieved, despite their dirty talk earlier. "But I also can't exactly feel my legs so… maybe go on without me," Alisa added.
I cast a quick Blessing instead.
A few more cleaning cantrips, restoration of various outfits, mostly by recasting/activating Mage Armor and a trip through the portal later, we were back to the base. Where the rest of the group were waiting. Well, Penny and Kara anyway. A2 had, as expected, slunk off somewhere again, because of course she would.
"Welcome back!" Penny said, "Have you successfully settled the matters with the local authorities?"
"We're in the clear," Elisa said as she strolled in.
"Have fun?" Kara asked knowingly.
"Definitely Alisa replied.
"It might have had its bumps, but I'm not going to object with another date or two," Elisa said with a sly smugness that somehow eclipsed her normal levels by outright magnitudes.
"Sorry about that," I apologized, reminded of how the actual dinner had gone. "The Date thing, that is. I didn't account for the local social norms… " which was embarrassing, given I'd actually had training about spotting that sort of thing back in boot, even if it'd been a crash course.
Penny blinked. "I… feel I am missing important details. Was something about our behavior odd?" she asked.
"Well, I'm not local, but given what that lady blew up about, I'm guessing it had something to do with one guy being with multiple women," Kara explained with a shrug. "Which wasn't exactly normal where I came from either. Well, outside of highschool and super-rich playboys anyway," she said, stating those two examples like they were obvious.
Which to be fair… Yeah, even outside of a comic book setting that last one happened a lot.
"It wasn't?" Penny said, confused.
"Yeah, that's what tripped me up as well," I explained. "A guy walking around with several women outright hanging off his arm was a pretty normal sight back in Hellsalem's lot," it was an old school, zany Shonen series after all, if with eldritch nightmare fuel inking the pages. "-and one man with multiple women was actually the norm back in Kaon. Women outnumbered men five to one, so you got a lot of group pairings." And lesbians. So many lesbians.
"Wait, really?" Elisa asked, surprised.
Alisa rolled her eyes. "Well, on this world, yeah, you see it happen with the super rich playboys-" called it. "-but, yeah. If people see a bunch of pretty girls with a guy? At least a tiny part of their mind is going to wonder if they're mastered. You can thank Heartbreaker and the Fallen for that," she said.
"Though most people will just think it's some asshole showing off, with a bunch of floozies," Elisa added in retaking the dialogue. "But seriously. Five girls to one guy?" she asked me eyebrow cocked.
"You can come see for yourself if you want," I offered. She was bound now.
"Floozies?" Penny asked, scrunching her nose.
"No one thinks you're a Floozie," Kara reassured her.
"Well," both Lisas said at once.
"No one who matters," I interjected.
"Fair," Elisa said, while Alisa just rolled her eyes and nodded.
"Honestly, this isn't even the weirdest relationship I've seen," Kara replied, reminding me that she probably had met the Bat-clan with the interesting web of soap opera grade relationship drama involved. "Then again, Cape life can get pretty unconventional, even before factoring in alien cultures."
Alisa snorted, "You're telling me. You should hear about New Wave-"
"That can wait," I said. "I am sorry, Penny," I said to the redhead. "Both that things didn't work out, and that we didn't rush right back here."
Honestly, it was important in relationships. It'd be easier to hide what just happened, but… yeah no. No sense leaving that landmine primed in a situation this drama packed.
"Seriously?" Both Lisas asked.
Kara on the other hand… Looked kind of impressed?
Penny blinked, clearly confused. "You're… welcome?" Her smile came back, if uncertain. "I'm certain you had a good reason."
"More an important realization," I admitted. "But that's beside the point.-"
"We boinked," Elisa said at once. "Twice, in my case."
"-I realized, I'd been kind of a dick," I said continuing on. "I just…. Wanted some space. Some time to think. To adapt and try and get used to all of… This. I didn't factor in the needs of all of you as much as I should have," I explained.
"Like a two year dry spell," Elisa grumbled. "So yeah. That happened."
"Oh," Penny blinked. "Oh!" She replied, eyes going wide… then she frowned, narrowing her eyes in anger. "Hmmmph!" she huffed out… before immediately exhaling. "Well, if it was an honest mistake."
I blinked. Good gods bindings really were- wait. I hadn't bound Penny yet. Oh right, she was just weird.
Good weird, but weird.
Which admittedly was part of her appeal. That and the sexy killer robot thing. Though admittedly A2 did that part-
Okay, I was getting distracted.
"Also!" Penny said, raising a hand. "It is healthy to consider your own personal mental health needs before attempting to assist others," she said in what was definitely a quote.
"Be that as it may, I owe you, at least one proper date, one on one," I said. "Or maybe two on one somewhere more private," I looked over at Kara.
The Kryptonian shrugged. "I'm game. Honestly this wasn't my worst date to begin with."
"Well then, sure. That. Also the other thing-"
"Being fucked into the ground," One of the Lisas helpfully suggested.
"...and" I said, not denying that. "If you're still up for it… Magic lessons?" I asked the group.
Penny perked right up at that. "I'll go get A2!" she said then rushed off.
"Well, that went well," Alisa said, not sounding particularly surprised.
"You sure you're okay with this?" I asked Kara.
The blonde haired alien shrugged. "Like I said, not my worst date. The food was good at least," she added. "Though I'll admit, I was a bit annoyed we didn't end up in some big fist fight."
"I mean, if you want," I said, trying my best to conceal my interest.
She let out a snort. "Maybe later," she said, giving me a flat look.
"So…" Elisa interjected. "Magic lessons?"
"Magic lessons," I confirmed.
Chapter 6: And then the murders beganPart 1
So, magic lessons.
I was currently sitting in my 'workshop' along with Kara, Penny, A2, and both Lisas. All of us sitting, standing, or in A2's case leaning against a wall.
"Right. So, out of all of us, three have some form of magic that, by either inherent nature, or various talents can eventually be traded around. And one of those magic styles is still up in the air until Ayla finishes hammering out an argument on the inherent magic style for my Magical Brilliance perk," whenever that would happen. "-So, we're going to be starting off with the bare basics, then moving onto relative specifics."
"What kind of bare basics?" Kara asked, a wary, almost resigned tone in her voice as she looked over at the large Haste/Slow enchanted 'local time field control' device, which was currently dialed to maximum, since we were already sitting outside of reality.
"Just a general overview," I said. "The individual instruction will take longer, but less than a day in total."
The blonde exhaled, clearly expecting, but not relishing that. "Fun."
"Isn't it!?" Penny asked eagerly.
"Better than just sitting around at least," A2 commented.
I chose to ignore the implications of that. "Right, so magic can be done in a lot of methods, sourced from what's basically from three, very broad sources," I said, starting my lecture… then paused. "Well, more, two and a half."
A2 raised an eyebrow at that, and I could already see questions bubbling in both the Lisas and Penny.
"To start with, You have borrowed power," I continued. "That is to say, the kind of magic where you draw from leylines, pulling power from other dimensions or realities, invoking patrons such as deities, demons, spirits, that sort of thing. This sort of magic can be very potent, and is often by tendency the sort to scale most easily in terms of necessary understanding to complexity in what they can do. For example, healing magic that goes beyond supercharging natural processes, or just being a magic method for surgery? Mostly comes from this."
"So what. You grab magic from outside, it ends up controlling you?" A2 interjected.
"Sometimes," I confirmed. "That's the big risk of that kind of magic as well. Well along with ending up cut off. But generally it's more like you can delegate a lot of the details off on it," I explained. "If you're tying yourself to some greater system as a power source, sometimes it means you can also borrow from the understanding or even 'logic' of those systems. There are even a lot of cases where you use internal power but still link up to external logic to use it."
"And internal power is the next source?" Penny asked curiously, now that the ice had been broken.
"Partially. 'Inherent' power is the next bit. Magic that comes from stuff you already have. It can be fueled by the power of your soul, willpower, memories, even just sapping the heat from your veins. There are types of magic out there that will pull biochemical energy right out of your mitochondria, or electrical impulses of your nervous system, and lots that pull a mix of the above. There's a surprising number of options with it. Soul stuff is the most common, but generally in a way that either grows back or refills. In fact, there's a fair bit of bleedover between categories, where magical ability is less internally generated and more the result of something like a reactor, or even a processor. You produce the magic energy sure, but only by processing some external source."
"Like yellow sunlight?" Kara asked dryly.
"Are you seriously pretending people haven't called your powers magic?" I asked her, eyebrow raised.
"That's just biology," she said dismissively.
"And so's a Dragon's ability to fly, despite how it bends physics over its knee to do so," I paused. "Well, in most cases. There are a rare few who pull it off conventionally. Point is, at certain levels, physics fuckery, be it by advanced biology or science, and what most people call magic start crossing streams… Doubling back to the External magic thing, how many times has some evil wizard tried to kidnap you or your cousin as a powersource?" I asked her.
Kara actually looked momentarily surprised at that, before tilting her head in acknowledgement, "Okay, you've got a point there. I never actually thought of it that way, but… That has happened a few times."
"Yep, and that's a big lesson as well. Just like how not everything called magic is actually magic, a lot of stuff that is not called magic, is," I said, before adding a quick, "At least at a functional level."
"Would this include Aura or dust usage?" Penny asked eagerly.
"In both cases, yeah," I confirmed. "But we'll get to that."
"So magic and tech- Tch," Both Lisas started before looking at each other, and having another round of mental rock paper scissors…
Alisa seemingly won this time, as she continued. "So Magic and Technology are basically the same thing then?" she asked, while Elisa looked over pointedly at A2.
Which… Well, she was a pretty amazing example of both.
"Eh… Kind of, but no. Results wise? It can be. Particularly at the higher levels… Once you cross a certain degree. Magic, technology and even advanced biology all basically become a melting pot of what it can do, and what it counts as. But at its basic level magic can be pretty distinct from technology. Sometimes you can't even properly apply the scientific method to it at all for one reason or another. Generally observation contaminating the experiment, but at this point we're getting really off topic."
"You don't say," A2 commented. "Are we going somewhere with this, or do you just feel like giving a lecture?" she asked, annoyed, but also clearly willing to continue putting up with it.
"It's relevant," I assured her. "Part of why I'm explaining all of this is because of how important it is to keep in mind how versatile 'magic' can be," I added in explanation. "Just like how technology isn't limited to steel, electronics, weapons or things like that, magic is formed of many sources, and shaped to many purposes, and by understanding that, you can start to work out how to use it in unconventional ways. Turn a sword into a plow, or weaponize a mining charge. Considering the scale of what we're dealing with? We're probably going to have to do some pretty unconventional stuff." I grimace at the reminder. Killing an entity was no small ask. It wasn't just their scale, it was their nature as colony creatures, one gestalt made up of many individuals, each a massive but complete lifeform themselves. It made identifying their vitals a a complete bitch, much less affecting them notably, or even reaching them in their Shardspace-
Gah. Point was, it was a task and a half, and a reason why this job was as often performed by teams of individual mid to high end contractors.
And lucky me, the group seemed to get that.
Kara let out a hiss of a breath, "He's got a point… I can't tell you how many times the Justice League back in my world had to combine our powers to pull off a win."
I nodded, "And Kara's world probably has the best track record out of all of ours for punching outside their weight class. They've taken on and beaten multiple multiverse killers. It's a big part of why I wanted her on the team."
A2 looked between the two of us, looked upwards for a moment, in consideration, then took a breath, "Fine, sure. I'll just shut up and listen," she said in a resigned, but also almost apologetic tone.
"Comment if you can contribute," I suggested instead. "I know you're not a technician, but your world does have a pretty impressive understanding of industrialized magic. And I do have a tendency to get sidetracked," I admitted.
"Speaking of which," Alisa interjected. "Magic source number three?"
"Right," I nodded. "The third source is Acquired power, and it's the one I called 'half' a source, because it sits right in between borrowed and inherent power. Specifically, it's also something you can call a form of 'internal' power, but it's not something you just naturally have. Or at least not without some sort of active condition or process that creates it," I explained.
Penny blinked, "Would Aura also count under this category?" she questioned.
"It very much would," I agreed. "Like I said, there's considerable bleedover. The big thing with 'acquired' power is that it is, by nature, transferable. Sometimes by being able to be 'spread' to others, like Aura, or for example, some of the more beneficial forms of, say, Lycanthropy. Sometimes it's physically transferable, such as a magic granting artifact. Or something in between, a sort of 'virtual' immaterial artifact, such as a mantle. It means that while generally 'self contained', they often are less 'rooted' than fully inherent sources of magic. Though as with the rest of it that's not always the case."
"Getting a lot of that," A2 commented. "Not going to lie, This is sounding pretty wishy washy."
"It's magic," I reminded her. "If you want hard rules, you stick with normal physics. The advantage and frustration of working with magic is that it tends to blur lines. There are rules, but enough exceptions that you can never rely on them. Forgetting that will kill you except with the most limited exposure or use."
And of course, just limiting your encounters with magic, didn't mean you couldn't make a lethal mistake, it just limited the odds that you would.
"So basically, these are tendencies, not rules, and always be careful about random stuff," Alisa listed off. "Not that much different than normal powers."
"Exactly," I confirmed. "This is more explaining a methodology to identify, defeat, or make use of any particular instance of magic you run into," I explained. "And speaking of making use of…"
The girl's interest collectively spiked as I finally got to 'the good stuff'. A2 shifting her posture a bit more directly to me, and Kara stopped side-eyeing the others as much and focused on me, while both Lisas shut up.
Penny, of course, had been paying full attention from the get-go, since she was an adorable cinnamon roll… and also a military combat robot.
"The magic I'll be teaching you is based around what are called 'Cantrips'," I began. "Now normally these are minor, simple, workings, meant to help a mage work their way up to more complex and elaborate workings. They're basically a foundational base for proper spellcasting to be built off of… Normally."
That bit about the Lisas shutting up? Yeah, that lasted right up until I gave them an opening. "But not in this case?" Elisa interjected. "Let me guess, it turns out if you focus entirely on cantrips they become stupidly incredibly powerful, way better than normal spells?" she guessed.
"Nope!" I denied. "Nowhere near! I mean yes, the magic I do focuses exclusively on Cantrips, and there are advantages, but people developed more complex spells for a whole mess of reasons. Potency, complexity, scale, a bunch of other stuff. They can't generally match ease of use, but yeah no. More traditional ways offer more overall power, and take a lot less time to accumulate a lot more tricks."
Chronomancy was a good example. My version of 'Haste' started off pretty comparative to, say, Weave Magic's 'Expeditious retreat', which only increased your overland speed. Effectively trading staying power for a broader, less focused, but more comprehensive effect, but the end game of each was barely comparable. I could dial up or slow things down up to a ratio of thirty to one with an additional if smaller, multiplicative to mental speed, and the option to lock time in place for a week if I was willing to 'burn myself out'.
By comparison, Weave magic could functionally stop time, either by speeding someone up so fast they could spend minutes watching a hummingbird's wing move the barest of millimeters, or by locking someone or thing in stasis indefinitely at far smaller cost.
Not that I was bitter about that performance gap at all... I mean at least I actually had magic. Which was a lot more than most people could boast.
More importantly. "There are some advantages to that though. Because it sticks to the basics, and refines those basics individually, each Cantrip remains 'self contained'. More traditional magic styles do let you learn magic in general faster, but with this more foundation focused method, you can concentrate much more easily on a specific cantrip. For example, I mastered one of my favored healing cantrips, from its barest basics, in about half a year- less than twice that in relative time," I gestured towards the time adjustment device to specify exactly how I was cheating. "Getting healing magic up to that level normally would probably take someone more than a decade."
"So it's more suited to specialization?" Penny asked, curious as always.
"Basically," I agreed. "You still can't hit the same highs as proper spellwork can… But you can reach your 'maximum' in specific areas a lot faster. And the simpler style is a lot more dependable, both in terms of usability and in being generally robust," I couldn't output dakka nearly on par with Nanoha… but I also could fight a lot longer than she could. More importantly, while I couldn't match her breadth of tricks or raw power, I was still tough enough to endure her bombardment, dangerous enough she'd have to defend, and tricky enough to be hard to trap.
She'd still probably kick my ass. She was Nanoha fucking Takamachi, the white devil, and spirit animal of Gundams everywhere, but that was because she was flatly better than me. Not because her magic was better than mine.
"More important-" Both Lisa began, then paused, looked at each other, then rolled their eyes, and continued in synch. "-it's the only type of magic you have to hand out."
"That too!" I confirmed, shamelessly. "With luck that'll change in time. But for now? Cantrips is what I got, so Cantrips is what everyone gets."
"Great," A2 said. "So can we finally get to that already?"
"Sure," I said. There was no sense in dragging things out after all.Last edited: Dec 17, 2024 Like ReplyReport Reactions:Tetron, k-moretti, Frostyman122 and 336 othersMizuki_StoneDec 17, 2024NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 6 Part 2 New View contentMizuki_StoneExperienced.Dec 17, 2024Add bookmark#897Part 2
The actual 'instruction' part was, as fitting for a magic based around Cantrips, simple. I just had to do a little ritual, rip very specific chunks of my soul out, then shove them into the girls, while walking them through a fairly basic meditative exercise so they could recognize that new little bit added to themselves, and not accidentally 'punch themselves in the face' with it. Elementary as you get!
Unfortunately that simplicity was much the same as, say, digging a fox hole by hand. In the rain, in grassy ground, with significant amounts of clay in the dirt. Which was to say, tedious, time consuming, more than slightly painful, and liable to cause a serious emergency unless I paid very careful attention to just what the hell I was doing.
Luckily, I'd actually done this before. Less luckily experience just meant I was less likely to fuck up, it didn't actually help me speed the process along at all.
As a third downside, well…
"This is it?" Elisa asked, sounding more like 'thisisit', in her sped up state.
I'd dialed back the time effect once we'd finished. Mostly because I'd loaded them down with Haste/Slow, and wanted to give them a chance to try it out and adjust.
"That's how it starts," I said, noting the local Lisa had only kept herself accelerated for half my response before dropping back down. "Practice will improve," I said, stifling a yawn.
Imbuing them with even just that one cantrip had taken fifteen hours, and while they'd mostly zened out in it, I'd been painfully aware through the process.
Highlight the 'painful' part. I was just lucky, I was doing things properly. Trying to transfer Cantrips you hadn't properly mastered was… messy... For all involved.
On the bright side, Magical Brilliance seemed to already be helping with that. I'd 'Bestowed' a number of Cantrips on other people before, mostly Steve and Gab, but I'd also handed a few out to Leo, Chain, K.K. and some of the others in Libra. Never Zapp or Zed, they had been concerned it'd fuck with their funky elemental kung fu sorcery, but I'd still done it a number of times.
And this had gone… Smoother, than normal. Easier, less painful, less of a strain on me, and the girls had slipped up a lot less than anyone else ever had while in their 'how do I shoot web' stage. Which was great, and made me really hopeful I could smooth things down even further by the time I handed over Firebolt, or, god be merciful, Spirit Bow.
Maybe not Fist though. Those fuckups could be hilarious, and at low levels it wasn't really that much of a risk.
That'd have to wait though. While only a few minutes relative to the outside had passed, I was well past my bedtime. I could zap myself with Vigor to 'fake' sleep, but I didn't like overusing it. Much like Haste/Slow overuse had some unlisted side effects for your quality of life, even if it wasn't medically dangerous.
And speaking of Haste.
"It took you a year to master one of these right?" Kara asked, presumably playing with the Cantrip in question herself, since I'd given it to all five of them at once. Though it was pretty much impossible for me to actually tell if she was or not given her natural physics breaking superspeed. "Not saying I don't see the use of being able to do it personally, but that's a pretty big difference from what you did with your magic cards."
"That's because the cards are just enchanted items," I explained. "They're dead ends. They'll work as long as the item lasts, but they're not indestructible, and unless you actually know the magic in them, you can't repair, much less replace them." which was part of why I kept my right eye covered with a protective patch. In theory I could regenerate it with residual body image, but it was iffy.
"And you don't want us bugging you for spares all the time?" A2 asked, she interestingly had been practicing slowing herself down at first. Something I hadn't really appreciated doing until my mental state had ended up ramped up to three times its normal speed permanently.
"Well, that's part of it," I shamelessly admitted. "But there are other side benefits," I added quickly. "Finer control for one. Even just being able to use Cantrip magic lets me use a whole mess of new interface options. Knowing the actual Cantrip? I can basically turn one into training wheels. Or maybe powered armor would be a better comparison…" I muttered considering it.
"The other advantage being that it can't be stolen, right?" Alisa asked. "Or broken, since that's clearly a concern."
"Plus a bunch of minor stuff," I confirmed.
"Well, I think it's pretty useful!" Penny declared. "Even if the degree of time shift is smaller, being able to double our speed is an incredible advantage! To start with, it scales exponentially with other speed boosters like afterburners! Or speed enhancing semblances," she said beaming towards Kara.
I blinked, "Oh yeah. Speaking of which…" I flexed, and a dark red cracked with white shimmer appeared over me.
Penny's eyes went wide, "You unlocked your Aura!? That's stupendous!" she praised.
Which… left me scratching the back of my head bashfully. "Actually… I think you did."
The Android from Atlas blinked. "I… do not remember doing that," she said as if unsure.
"It happened while I was transferring the Cantrip to you," I explained to her. "These kinds of Cantrips are a sort of spiritual graft, so there's significant soul to soul contact."
She followed easily, "And you think, that contact resulted in my soul awakening yours?"
"Probably," I replied. "I don't know the specifics of how Aura works, but I am aware one person with it can catalyse the capacity to use it in others."
"That… does seem possible," Penny considered. "I've never heard of anyone accidentally awakening someone's Aura before, and the mechanics of soul transfer are a new, barely understood science. But! The connection formed when awakening Aura was the basis of several theories and experiments in the field, so if we initiated some kind of soul exchange, that would explain how your Aura was awoken!" she beamed.
"So that's how it works? You just swap bits of our soul and we get each other's powers like they're plug-in chips?" A2 asked, she'd actually been a bit surprised to learn she even had a soul earlier, but had taken me at my word as 'expert' on the subject.
"Not for everyone," I said. "And it's not quite the same as just swapping parts… It's more like I gave you a bunch of 'seeds', or plant cuttings off of mine," I corrected. "And that's not actually not even that weird for souls. Even without mysticism involved, Souls rub off on each other regularly in a large number of ways. Most teachers leave a bit of themselves in any student who really absorbs their teachings."
"It's weird to hear people talk about souls like they're something you can use and trade," Kara admitted, clearly not entirely comfortable with the tone of everything.
"Yeah… that's…Yeah" I admitted with a wince.
The weird part was that it tended to be the cultures that technologically worked out how to fuck with the soul that tended to weaponize it the most… or at least do so the most readily and regularly.
"I'm… not sure I see the problem?" Penny admitted. "Certainly someone's soul is precious, but doesn't that just make someone sharing theirs an even more important gesture?"
"I'm still more surprised souls are actually scientifically provable things" Elisa admitted, and surprisingly didn't seem begrudged about doing so
"A lot of cultures hold the soul as sacrosanct," I explained. "And to be fair, for good reason. In many ways, you are a soul, that simply happens to have a living body… But, as a mage and occultist I also know that parts of the soul are basically just energy. Or a record that can be read. The same way that your body is in ways 'just' meat and bones," which, naturally, meant they had a lot of uses to a lot of things out 'in the wilds'. Or among the less scrupulous.
"Which are part of people," Supergirl said definitively.
"So, what?" A2 asked. "You're feeling touchy because someone wants to punch things with their soul instead of their fist?" she asked, not particularly challenging, but definitely more trying to make a statement then sate her own curiosity.
"It's not the same thing," The Kryptonian replied. "It's more… turning parts of yourself into weapons… "she trailed off looking at A2… then over to Penny. "I might be talking to the wrong people about it," she said.
"It's not really direct weaponization of the soul," I argued. "Well, Aura kind of is, but more in the 'learn martial arts', or body conditioning sort. Like Penny said, people in her world just sometimes figure out how to do that, and they're far from unique on that as well. Nen, daoist arts, many forms of shamanism, or 'practica', spiritualist methodologies- to say nothing of actual sorcery, and other forms of magic."
"We get the idea," Alisa interjected. "Basically A2 summed it up. It's just basically making a fist with your soul right?" she asked.
"And the magic bits are more like those plug in things she mentioned," Elisa added.
"They're not quite the same as those, but that's roughly how it works," I agreed.
"Oh! But you can do a lot more with aura than just punch people," Penny said, eager to take the lead on things. "It's a much more comprehensive enhancement in ability! It can protect you from injury, aid in movement, and I've recently learned it can help you assert your own control over yourself if someone tries to overwrite your identity with a mind control program!"
"Huh, did not know that last one," I admitted. Then again I'd only watched the first few seasons of her series, though I'd caught clips of the latter parts. "Can it also do stuff with inertia? I remember seeing a few bits-"
"It can!" The android girl from Atlas eagerly confirmed. "That's a more advanced aspect of their use grounded mostly in reinforcing your own weight though," she explained. "You can even do the opposite, lightening yourself, to aid in three dimensional maneuvering!"
"Neat," both Lisas chimed in.
"You're still off put by all of this though, right?" I asked Kara, mouth forming a hard line.
"No, no… I'm just… not used to it," She said. "I'm Sorry, it's just… This whole thing is pretty different from my Earth, and way different from how Krypton was," she said, in a way that rang an odd bell in the back of my head. "Zatara tried to explain things a few times, but I was never really a 'magic' girl."
"You could be though," Alisa interjected. "Once loverboy ropes you with his little red string, you get his free cheater powers for understanding all this magical bullshit. Though that's not actually your issue is it?" she asked… then shot a look over at Elisa as the other Lisa opened her mouth to follow up.
The local Lisa closed her mouth, narrowing her eyes momentarily at her mentally older clone, before rolling them and actually adopting something almost akin to a sheepish look for a moment. Maybe, if you squinted really hard.
"Well, like he said, you either get used to this kind of crap, or you die," A2 said bluntly.
"I said I'm not used to it, I didn't say I couldn't get used to it," Kara replied right back to her, flicking her hair up then visibly using her own Slow Effect, before reversing it into a Haste as the stands fell. "I was just saying, this stuff's starting to sound a little bit sketchy."
"Desperate times," Elisa chimed in unapologetically.
"Can need desperate measures," Alisa continued a bit more measuredly. "But this isn't actually that bad," she said, looking over at me for confirmation.
"It really isn't," I confirmed. "No human sacrifice. No major corruptive influences. Some of my Cantrips get nasty, but no worse than half the stuff the League used on the regular- and I'm excluding Constantine on that if he was a member."
Supergirl visibly winced at the very idea of that. "He wasn't," she stated firmly.
"Aura should… mostly be okay?" I asked looking over at Penny for confirmation.
"There have been cases of indiscriminate semblances in the past, but they tend only to appear with individuals with severe emotional issues," Penny said helpfully.
Both Lisas winced, and Elisa shot a look over at A2… Then me, Then Kara, then at her other self.
Which… fair.
"Those are rare though," I noted. "And my defenses should help insulate us from them."
"From what I understand of your various augmentations, that seems most likely!" The red-haired robot girl said cheerfully. "I actually had a discussion with one of the adjusters about the effects of a famous Hunter Qrow, who had an issue like that corrected by them!"
"We can tackle it case by case either way," I agreed. "Regardless… We actually probably should pause magic lessons now. Both because I'm not sure how me having Aura will affect things, and beca- aah" I started only to be interrupted by a yawn. "-ause, some of us could probably use a break…. And by some of us I mean me. I'm tired. I want a nap," I admitted with near Lisa levels of shamelessness.
A2 snorted. "Sounds like a good enough reason for me."
"Sorry not sorry!" Both Lisas chimed in, sticking their tongues out at me.
"I could use a little rest myself," Kara admitted surprisingly, despite not showing any real signs of being tired… or no, actually she did, but it suddenly faded in so quickly that I almost suspected she was acting. Or maybe she had already been acting and was just now stopping? Decided to stop leaning on the old solar batteries? I honestly needed more time to work out how she ticked.
Though actually, that brought something to mind. "Sounds like a plan. I need to ping you and the Lisas in the morning about a thing anyway. You've hung out with Batgirl right? Done the detective thing?"
"Also something I'm not an expert at, but a lot more up my alley," she confirmed, seeming to perk right back up. "What's the case?" she asked.
"I need to track down a roaming band of murder hobos," I replied.Last edited: Dec 17, 2024 Like ReplyReport Reactions:Tetron, k-moretti, Frostyman122 and 361 othersMizuki_StoneDec 17, 2024NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Chapter 6 Part 3 New View contentMizuki_StoneExperienced.Jan 2, 2025Add bookmark#932Part 3
Naturally, Kara wanted a lot more details than that, and she was not the only one. Luckily, I had both someone I could delegate that off to, and an internet connection.
"We're gunning for the Slaughterhouse Nine," I said bluntly, making it clear exactly which group of murderhobos we were going after.
The Lisas winced, Alisa more than Elisa. "I was worried you would say that," both said, tone not quite as synchronous as usual..
Elisa looked over at her 'twin', quickly realizing the implication, "Seriously?"
Alisa rubbed at the side of her jaw, "As a straight razor."
Huh, and here I'd thought Jack had slashed her with a butterfly knife? I guess I mixed up some of the details.
"The Slaughterhouse Nine?" Kara asked.
"Oh! I read about those in local 'S-class threats!" Penny chimed in. "They're a nomadic bandit group terrorizing the North American continent."
"Bandit implies they're doing it for profit," Alisa disagreed. "They're just a bunch of psychopaths who like to hurt people."
A2 clucked her tongue. "Know that type," she said indifferently. They'd been rather common in her world.
Penny frowned. "I suppose that would make them murder vagrants then. Also a problem that needs to be dealt with," she said with absolute resolution.
"So what, they're just… some rampaging group of villains?" Kara asked.
"You don't get it," Elisa interjected. "You come from a world where the good guys win right? Real bright and shiny comicbook set up? The Nine have been 'rampaging' since the eighties. No one can stop them. They just show up in some town or city, cause chaos, kill thousands to hundreds of thousands, then move on."
"The locals can't stop them," I added simply, not liking what I was saying. "And it's not 'will not', even if they think that's what it is," I said looking at Alisa.
The Company Clone looked back at me, eyes seeming momentarily confused before rolling. "Of course they do."
Kara's face went serious. "Alright, explain," she said, accepting our word on this and immediately jumping to 'solve this problem' mode, much like Penny had.
"The leadership is the real problem," I pointed out, stifling another yawn. "...I really wanted to take a nap before covering all this."
"Just had to drop the one liner though, right" Elisa said with a smirk full of schadenfreude. Her mentally older twin holding back and offering a more consolatory look… that was nonetheless still clearly mixed with a healthy dose of schadenfreude.
She'd made the same mistake more than enough times I imagined.
"Yeah," I agreed. Right, no helping it. "Okay, like I said, with the Nine, the leadership is the real threat. The locals tend to focus on their heavy hitters. The big one being The Siberian. Who is an indestructible cannibal lady who can cut almost anything, including most other seemingly indestructible people like they're made of air, or make others indestructible… including vehicles."
"They tried nailing them with missiles a few times," Elisa chimed in. "Didn't work."
"The Siberian is also just a projection of another crazy guy in a van," Alisa added pointedly. Elisa shooting her a look I believed meant something like 'You need to catch me up on this'.
Well that or they were having another one of their semi-telepathic catfights.
"She also doesn't matter," I interjected regardless… then paused as both Lisas looked at me. "Okay she matters, and taking out her Master will be the step one of any strategy, but she's not the real threat. Not the reasons the locals can't handle the Nine."
"Jack," Alisa said, mouth drawn to a line.
"Yep, Jack Slash," I replied. "Discount Joker, with superpowers that give him literal plot armor," I summarized for Kara… then blinked as I looked over at Penny and A2 realizing they wouldn't get what most of that meant. "He's a nihilistic, egomaniacal psychopath who tries to be a 'showman' about things, while basically being as horrible as he can be to the world, because he's disappointed at it, finds hurting people amusing, and seemingly lacks even the slightest capacity for empathy. Reads people well, even before factoring in his power-"
"And it cheat," Alisa interjected.
"-Which let him cheat. A lot. Probably even more than you know," I said to Alisa. "Which is why I'm staying up to explain them, instead of letting you do it. Because I'm pretty sure fucking no one on the planet currently knows how his powers fully work, including him."
Kara chose to interject this time. "You said they're not magic… Let me guess, psychic? Or maybe a probability manipulator?"
"Psychic on a scale so big it can fake probability manipulation," I summarized, only slightly correctly. "Or sort of. Psychic by proxy," I said, which was more accurate.
"His power messes with capes," Alisa said, seemingly to assert what she did know about Jack's more subtle powers.
"More specifically, it 'talks' to capes. Or rather their powers," I corrected. "His power is part of the Entities communication suite. It's called 'Broadcast', but it can pick up information as well as project it, and also seemingly process it. It's a 'Key' shard. One of the big important ones in their hierarchy."
Alisa grimace, "Like Taylor's… that figures."
"Yeah, probably below Queen Administrator, but not by a lot," I replied. "More importantly. Broadcast really, really, likes Jack. And it can actively influence the entire network-" I glanced over at A2. "Think of their relationship kind of like the Red Girls with Adam, if they actually cared about him. Broadcast constantly pings the network for threats to Jack. Most shards don't understand humans that well. Not really. I explained it with Brian and Lisa earlier, but to most shards, talking to humans is a lot like talking to dogs-"
I paused as I realized I was talking to a Kryptonian, a YoRHa made Android who had never met a dog and only recently met humans, and Penny, who… as much as it broke my heart to think about it, probably never actually got to pet a puppy, given her relative upbringing.
"-Okay nevermind that," I discarded the analogy. "Point is, Broadcast is both listening in on capes, and actually understands what they hear. It also has either the multitasking or delegation ability to do that on a global scale. If a cape as much as hears about an attack on the Nine? Broadcast knows."
"And tells this 'Jack' guy," A2 summarized, not seeming particularly bothered or upset. She was used to dealing with enemy networks after all.
"Only on a subconscious level," Alisa added in. "Remember, even he doesn't know how his power actually works. He just thinks he has great people skills and instincts," she added contemptuously.
"It does more than influence him though," I noted. "And that's the big thing. It talks to every power on the planet," I repeated. "And It doesn't just listen in. Every cape that hears about an attack like that? Their power is told to nudge the host to try and find out more. Every cape in the fight? Their coordination, and self control are going to be fucked with. Every cape who makes decisions on a tactical and strategic level are going to be nudged to be less inclined to do things that could get Jack killed," I said looking directly at the Lisas.
Whose eyes had widened considerably.
"Well… Fuck./That explains a lot," Elisa and Alisa respectively said.
The pair looked at each other, with Alisa now grimacing and shrinking under Elisa's probing stare. "Ugh…" The 'older' Lisa groaned. "I really should have put that together… Let me guess, Broadcast was still doing it even after Jack died?" she asked.
"It might have been an ongoing order for your shard," I reminded her.
"Did we ever thank you for helping us with that, 'Boss'?" Elisa said pointedly to me.
I blinked. "I mean…" I glanced out to the portal to the base, where we'd just walked in from her Apartment, nearly a day ago.
"Get to sleep," Alisa suggested to me. "I can handle the rest of the briefing, unless you've got any other big bombs to drop on me?"
"That was the big one for this at least," I confirmed. "Base should have an internet connection for the outside for the public stuff also," I yawned.
Elisa snorted, "Yeah that'll help."
Penny looked over at them. "Is the publicly available data unreliable?"
"Maybe not for the basics" one of the Lisas said as I yawned.
"Seriously," A2 interjected. "If you need a rest, go to sleep. This is planning shit anyway," she said with a wave.
"Right," I agreed. "I'll catch five under Haste. I'll be back in fifteen minutes."
"You can use it in your sleep!?" Both Lisas replied.
"I can use it in my sleep. Yo-" I yawned "-oou'll need some practice first," I said as I walked off to crash in one of the available rooms.
Luckily, the base had a lot of those, and for even further good fortune, there was one right near my lab. Probably to try and discourage me from just sleeping in said lab. That was a pretty common habit for 'techy' types in the wider multiverse… Agents were a bit less inclined to 'trope behavior', but then again, a lot of them also ended up delegating this kind of work.
After all, while talents-Brilliances could let you 'fake' super prodigy level aptitude for a subject, it didn't actually give you any new interest or drive for working with it. Most would probably give it a try for a while for the sheer novelty and 'shiny factor', but unless it lit a fire of interest… Well, if a waifu, husbando, familiar, or even non-bound subcontractor was more willing to do the work… well… Most agents had other uses for their time.
Also some Agents just picked up 'trope'-type habits anyway. Partially out of subconscious social mimicry, partially out of being a bunch of chuuni nerds.
Stifling another yawn, I looked over the small lab's adjacent room. Bed, desk, dresser, nightstand, wall mounted monitor, tiny little independent washroom I wasn't even sure fit a shower in the corner… Perfect.
Nothing trying to peek in on me either. Well outside of occasional glances from Kara and the normal background stuff. Wonderful.
Walking over to the bed, I dispelled my armor and flopped directly onto it. Not even bothering to pull the covers. Which was a mistake, fuck that, soft mattress was soooooft.
Well, not that soft. But still better than a few planks of wood over grass.
Hovering myself up for a bit I tugged the blanket around me in a rolling motion to become a Tarn burrito, then flopped back onto the mattress, eyes already shut. From there I barely needed to wait until..
…
...
...…
Running. Always running. Only times we weren't running we were trying to be sneaky, or when someone needed me to make something, or fix someone. Which was completely unfair. I shouldn't need to pull both primary combat specialist and backup healer/toymaker.
Still, I got it. Couldn't be helped. Speed was war.
"[Airspace Control Babylon]," I invoked more than said, layering Haste/Slow upon itself in both its incarnations. Speeding myself up as the space immediately around me slowed to a crawl. A relative time displacement of nine-hundred fold on a physical level, with both aspects cranked even further for our respective mental perspectives.
Which unfortunately, was the best I could do, because despite my initial efforts, I couldn't use the Cantrip to just forcibly 'skip' him ahead in time like I would normally. That had stopped working after the first time I'd caught one of them with it.
He was adapting. This man-shaped mass of curses in front of me. His eyes tracked my every motion without effort. His hands were still visibly moving to try and block me despite the time rate, even if he wasn't fast enough to keep up. Not while my speed was also boosted by the Barrage function of Fist, and my lesser mastered Cantrips. Mage Armor, and Toughness acting as further multipliers to get my body moving a bit closer to the speed of my mind while Firebolt covered my hands in sticky, white hot flames to add some more bite as I hammered into him, sending him flying back out of my zone of domination.
A zone he re-entered near instantly, despite the fact that I knew his Heart had just been pulped, his ribs were shattered, and his lungs turned into a fine, bubbly paste.
Not that they'd stay that way. No matter how many times I sent him flying back.
That was the nature of this creature, Maximillian of the Tycoon Brothers. An Elder Blood Breed, better known as a fuck mothering Vampire.
And a really, really nasty one, of an already horrifically powerful subspecies of the broader genus.
"I can't hold this guy indefinitely," I spoke quickly but clearly into my radio, detonating myself in a Firebolt hot enough to weaken the micro thin wires of blood crashing down at me at speeds that seemed half as fast as a softball, but would still tear my body apart if they connected, due to how Haste/Slow's complex relationship with momentum.
If even one touched me I was dead. And, of course because they were made out of the bastard's blood? If I was even scratched and survived? I was worse than dead.
But I had to hold this guy off. I needed to buy the others time. Toviz, Nicky, and Jan had already died standing up to his brother at the other end of the auction house. With the upgrade the pair had gotten fighting Zapp and Zed, they'd been overwhelmed in moments and had had to-
I swung my arms out firing a Fist through the weakened threads, severing them, but he was already creating more as he stepped further into my domain, confident, but focused on his task. No smirk, no sign of the arrogance most Blood breeds had. Just cold focus on his mission.
"We need seven minutes!" Gabi said over the radio. The reply seemed to lag even if Gabe was currently as sped up as I was.
"Roger," I acknowledged. I had to hold them here then. The dimensional displacement of the hall made it a chokepoint even he couldn't ignore, but if I retreated further back into the hallway where he could skirt around my Slow field.
Thrusting my hands forward I projected Fist as shockwaves into the vampire knocking him back.. Then swung them down slicing through more wires trying to sneak along the edges.
He was getting faster. Could I actually last seven minutes?
I had to. If I couldn't, everyone was dead. Or worse.
Fucking vampires.
He raced back, not even waiting to fully regenerate, and I met him, jumping up in a two part jump kick. The fist part hitting with Fist in its Counter form, eating every drop of his incoming kinetic energy, which I lashed out with with my other leg in a downward mule kick, sending him skidding back and shattering the hardened armor of blood that had formed over him.
If the bastard felt any pain, which I was pretty sure he did, he didn't show a hint of it. Legs shifting with the hit on instinct, diverting force into the ground so he barely skidded out of my feld again. Then running ahead despite his now crushed muscles, severed tendons and broken bones. A steel gaze that didn't break even as his eyes pulped and skull shattered.
Only for me to send him back again. And again. And again, back and forth again and again, like a bloody game of racket ball while he kept sending new tricks. Obscuring my vision with debris, wires through the walls, pulling back, faking a retreat down another path that almost tricked me. Ripping off his own head and trying to throw it past me while his body kept fighting.
The Tycoon brothers were the best mercenaries in this world, and it showed. Professional, inventive, experienced, incredibly powerful, and functionally unstoppable. Seal them away with their true names, purify their curses, annihilate every atom of their body with atomic fire, all had been tried, none had actually done them in.
We'd finally taken out Yngwie once though an absolute hail-marry… and then the bastard had chest burst out of Maximillian seconds later. With the two then immediately breaking off, ripping their hearts out, and passing them to each other and lodging the core of their sibling into themselves in their strange, 'mutual phylactery' ritual. Undoing all of our work less than a minute after we'd sacrificed three of our number to finally take one out.
And they hadn't even taken it personally. That was the real annoyance out of it. All that, and we were still just obstacles to their mission to the pair.
"Monsters," I exhaled, and despite myself, I couldn't keep the smile off my face. This was the hardest fight I'd ever had that hadn't annihilated me in moments. I'd copied so many moves and techniques off of him, while he'd already ripped dozens out of me, both of us adapting them to our different strengths and capabilities.
His lip quirked up… Then the blood string I'd caught him sneaking behind me suddenly branched in an entirely new way shooting out and grazing across my calf.
My eyes shot wide as I exploded with a Firebolt and Charged fist to try and crash through.
At the same time he suddenly lunged five times faster- no, being slowed one fifth as much, as he punched through my bubble.
I kicked up, but the blood wire had caught, it was burning but not snapping and I didn't have the raw torque to break it without some space.
It was cutting through my Mage Armor. That wire that was made of blood. Made of curses. I wasn't a 'Fang Hunter'; I couldn't turn my blood to poison against them. If even a drop of theirs touched mine…
Maximilian's hand wrapped, almost gently across my ankle. A good firm grip. His expression had shifted back to serious, no, if anything he looked… disappointed.
Fucking bastard. Acting like I was done? I had one move left, even if it was really going to suck with him gripping me.
I'd hit Max and his brother with a bunch of tricks at this point, all they'd adapted to, some they'd outright copied, but they generally worked the first time. It was a gamble, but I had one last option that could maybe block him. I could do more with Haste/Slow than speed up, slow down, and skip over bits of time… I could make it STOP
Which…
It should have?
No, it did. I wasn't breathing. I should have skipped ahead a week, Blocking Maxmillian's path by stopping the air in front of him along with myself… Most of myself, while he was just left with me and my left leg for company. I hadn't been willing to risk him adapting by catching him in it directly. Maybe even been afraid he'd figure out how to do it himself.
But… that meant I should just skip ahead? I shouldn't be aware. This wasn't what happe-
I was dreaming. Dreaming about something I'd thought about for almost half a year. About what could have happened.
But that didn't mean I could control the dream as Maximillian's annoyed expression turned frustrated, as the blood wire turned taught and cut through my armor and hardened skin into my body. As the infection near instantly converted my own flesh, feeling like ants made of molten steel, chewing me apart and building a nest in the shape left behind, but it still hurt even after it was gone. Muscles that wouldn't unclench because they weren't there. Skin burning still. And worse, it shot further up, it kept moving up, kept progressing up through my stilled veins. As my body, my soul, the concept of my existence was warped, damned, cursed-
I couldn't scream. I couldn't scream. I couldn't scream. I couldn't scream. I couldn't scream. I couldn't scream. I couldn't scream. I couldn't scream. I couldn't-
—------
—---
—
I snapped up gasping hard, throat raw, Fist charged in my limbs, Haste-
Already up.
I blinked, caught a flash of white and black- blinked again, "A2?" I asked.
"Bad dreams?" she asked, having apparently been poking me with the blunt end of a Type-4O Lance.
"I…didn't know you had your other weapons," I muttered. Or maybe just the standard YoRHa issue ones.
She raised an eyebrow at me.
Her question finally registered, "-Ah… Yeah. Sorry," I rubbed my throat. "That was a bad one."
"Mmf," she grunted, then walked over and surprisingly, plopped herself right on the edge of my bed. "I get some of those too."
"Ah," I replied ever so eloquently. "That's… not surprising."
"Not something you knew already?" she asked.
"Not…" I frowned. "It didn't come up in the story. Like I said, only some brief highlights."
She raised an eyebrow at that. Watching me for a moment before looking off to the side, "So even you don't know everything."
"It's pretty hard to know everything. Even if it's just knowing everything about just one thing.. Or one person in this case," I said, again, showing my impressive people skills by calling the person with identity issues a 'thing'.
"Humph," she grunted. "Ain't that the truth."
A moment of blessed silence passed as I tried to get my mental motor firing on all cylinders. Clearly an impossible task without additional fuel (read coffee), but still something I had to try to do.
"Thank you," I said finally. "For waking me that is… That… was a bad one," I confirmed.
She grunted a third time in acknowledgement.
Then another silence fell.
"Well… There's nothing around here to kill...Wanna fuck?" she suddenly suggested.
"...Ah," I blinked. "Coffee first?" I said.
"Coffee sounds good," she agreed instantly.
…wait. Wait wait wait. Was this more awkward for her than for me somehow!?
Wow… That… That'd never happened to me before.
Interlude: Freesia/No. 2
Well, that was a new one for my top ten most awkward conversations. Nowhere near as bad as the time I ran into Anemone's smut collection, but it definitely beat out the time I ran into No.21 gushing over ancient cat videos with No.1.
Rose would have liked No. 1, and she would have liked Rose. I wonder what flower she would have-
Damn it. I'm getting all nostalgic… and I know exactly why. This new headache I've ended up attached to.
'Tarn' made a quick gesture with his hand, before sweeping it over himself, vanishing the sweat on his body as he looked over at the nearby mirror, further fixing up his appearance to something more professional.
More of his 'Cantrips'. Strange magic. Simpler to use than most Pod programs at least. Though it was annoying that they could only be plugged-in in an incomplete state. Then again, that was how organics did things, didn't they?
Humans. It was still so strange to see them for real. The way they moved, spoke, acted. It was… clumsy, honestly. Their balance was shit, their awareness of their surroundings even worse, they were weak, fragile, and outside of a few specialists, pretty much impossible to repair.
But they were also strangely real in a way I'd never seen in someone else. Not in Androids. Not in Machines. Not in whatever that wandering junkheep was. The way they moved, talked to one another, argued, fucked up. There was a layer of something genuine to it that I'd only experienced in a few rare moments before.
Even the way Tarn had slept was weird. Constant small movements, altered breathing, muttered words, always in motion. I wasn't sure if I had waited so long to wake him up because of how oddly fascinating it was to watch… Or just because I didn't know what the hell I was actually doing.
I couldn't help but wonder if 'my' humanity had been like this. They weren't the same, I knew that, but still…
It was weird, I'd barely given a thought about humanity in the last few years. Finding out the truth. That they were gone, had been… Honestly I still wasn't entirely sure how to feel about it. Hurray, my creators hadn't abandoned me. Just my fellow androids. Except they had, because my creators were other Androids. Still built in the image of a race of beings that had gone extinct over nine thousand years ago. Still built to serve them. A people of ghosts.
A people that were alive here. Except, they weren't. They were humans, but not 'my' humans. If they were? They'd already be dead at this point.
Not that they weren't already headed in that direction.
"-can't believe I slept in my clothes again," Tarn muttered as he finished making himself presentable. Nodding in the mirror, "Right."
Then he paused, his eye scanned over my face, and I wasn't sure if I was more relieved or annoyed that he clearly didn't know how this was supposed to work any better than I did.
Not that I was going to let him pass the buck to me because of that. "Well?" I asked.
"Ah… So, Coffee first, then meet up with the others?" he suggested. "Or rather I can make it, and bring it as a peace offering."
Was that supposed to be a thing humans did? I'd drunk wine with the twins before, and had tea with Anemone and Pascal, but humans seemed to make a bigger deal about it.
No duh, they needed it to live. That'd make it more important for them. Did that mean sharing food was meaningful? That could explain why it was such a big deal on the whole 'date' thing… Gah… I was no good at this cultural analysis bullshit.
"Whatever," I said in response, "Just make the damned pot." There, simple.
I'd followed along with him instead of joining the others. Confusing as he was, he still made more sense than the rest of this crazy bullshit, and unfortunately this didn't seem like the sort of situation where I could just take off.
So we set off to make coffee, despite already being late. At least he was quick about it, getting the pot brewing in less than a minute of reaching it. Though the machine itself apparently would take a bit longer. Leading to yet another awkward silence as we both stood around just pissing into the wind.
…It wasn't horrible. I kept expecting him to break the silence, but he seemed content to let it stand. Or maybe he was just thinking about other stuff. His eye kept wandering over to me, but he didn't say anything. Fucking annoying. Just say it already.
"What?" I finally asked.
"Nothing, just thinking," he replied, unhelpfully. Thinking about what!?
The machine started beeping, and he grabbed the pot off of it, along with a kettle he'd filled with water in the meanwhile, and several mugs. Most of them flying down seemingly on their own in his weird pure magic version of a NFCS.
"How do you do that anyway?" I asked him. Most of his stuff seemed to take a gesture or verbal command prompt, but I hadn't seen any limits for this one.
"Hm? Oh, it's my flight cantrip," he explained. "I can cast it on more things than just me."
"So you can just do that whenever?" I asked. That'd be a hell of a thing to fight.
"There are range and mass limits," he explained. "Also my multitasking isn't infinite. I like to keep it more as an ace in the hole, tactically speaking."
So it was one of those flashy but tricky moves you needed to set up for. "Not a bad idea. But personally? I prefer my aces ready to use when I need them."
"Oh, I've got a few more stashed away for a rainy day," he replied. "They've all got their own issues admittedly, long refire time, lack of relative firepower, or are just something I don't want people to know I can do yet."
I raised an eyebrow. So it was like that, huh? "Just don't hold back too much."
"No point having a card you won't play," he responded, or maybe agreed? He was stifling a yawn as he did. "How do you like your coffee?"
"There are options?" I asked, then realized what I'd just done and braced myself for more word vomit.
Surprisingly, he actually kept it simple this time, "Lots, but it boils down to 'bitter, sweet, or creamy' or some mix. There will always be some bitterness."
Huh, that didn't sound too bad. "Sweet then."
"Might want a dash of cream as well," he said, grabbing something from the cold storage. "They normally go together."
I almost rolled my eyes, "Fine, that then."
"One cream, two sugar," he said, mixing it as we exited the room.
I could immediately hear the argument down from the lab. Kara's voice exclaiming, "She's a twelve year old girl", in clear outrage.
"She's a twelve year old with a four digit body count," replied one of the twins, the new blonde twins, not the more familiar Redheads from my old world.
Tarn grimaced, hearing it too.
I gave him the side-eye, "What's that about?" I asked
"Something I was really not looking forward to," he grumbled as he double timed it to the door rushing in with a loud "I'm back! And I brought coffee," declared as a blatant distraction.
Yeah… Maybe I should just… Sit this one out. Wouldn't be the first time I walked into a mess blind rather than sit through an awkward briefing.
"You're late," the new twins declared. "Hey! Don't you dare run away!" one chimed, and I didn't even need to look to know it was pointed at me.
"Tch," I grumbled.clicking my tongue as I entered the room
"We're not just summarily executing a twelve year old," Kara, the apparent alien said. Her voice made it clear it wasn't going to be easy to convince her otherwise either.
"If you say we're not, we're not," Tarn said, caving immediately, while he took his seat, setting down the coffee and various added bits he brought with. Including the boiled water, and tea making crap.
"What?" The Twins asked. "Why not?" The local one, Elisa asked, while the other one, Alisa started an argument. "Look, I know she eventually helped out in my timeline, but I think you're underestimating exactly how hard to pull off that was, and how much damage she did up till then. Slaughterhouse Ninethousand ring any bells?"
"Slaughterhouse Nine thousand?" Elisa asked, looking at her twin in alarm.
Which… Well, that did sound like a shitshow. I still didn't know the details, but if these Slaughterhouse guys were a big enough problem that the locals couldn't even manage containment? Jumping from nine to nine thousand was probably pretty bad.
Idly I noted Tarn pouring a mug of coffee, adding some cubes of sugar, and what I presumed was the 'cream' he talked about, before handing it to me.
I took a sip of the coffee. It was… not horrible. Not pure water or anything, but far from the worst thing I'd run through my filters.
"Bonesaw busted into Toybox, stole a bunch of tech and made a lot of clones. It was a thing," the more knowledgeable of the pair summarized.
Yep. Fucking called it. "I hate it when that happens." You nearly kill yourself offing some brand new high end unit, only to find out next week that they're mass producing the stupid thing.
Kara also grimaced. "Of course it was clones… Either way, it doesn't matter. That's a future that we won't let happen."
"It'd be a lot easier to prevent if you let us take out the lynchpin," one of the Twins noted.
On some unseen signal, all three of the blondes suddenly turned to the up till now silent Penny.
And so did I. Honestly I still wasn't entirely sure how to feel about the human made Android from another world. Part of me was envious that she was made by human hands directly, even if they were just other 'humans' and not 'my' humans. That she actually got to see her creators, to serve them, to actually fulfill her 'purpose'.
Another part of me just didn't want to look at her, simply because of how much she reminded me of a bunch of other young, eager and enthusiastic Androids from my own world. All of them just as ready to serve, but never able to. Not to anything that wasn't a lie.
I was trying not to hold it against her. It wasn't her fault, and she wasn't shoving it in my face either. Not that she knew to. That didn't change how I felt though. The best I could do for now was just keep my distance.
Not that she needed me to step in for her right now. While she clearly didn't enjoy being put on the spot, she also didn't shrink back under the pressure. "I don't like the idea of executing a child," she said. "I also understand that sometimes sacrifices need to be made for the survival of all… But is this a sacrifice that needs to be made?" she asked, looking at Tarn. Passing the buck our way.
So much for holding steady under pressure.
"Eh, probably not," Tarn said like it wasn't a big deal.
"Tarn-," the twins began.
"I have an anti-brainwashing cantrip," he reminded everyone. "Same one I used to fix you in fact," he noted to one of them. "Stabilize, works on mental injuries as well as physical ones. Smooths over PTSD, prevents or recovers death of personality, recovers lost or tampered memories."
"Wait, what?!" both exclaimed.
"You used that on me?" Elisa asked further, clearly outraged… before immediately becoming confused. "Wait, no that doesn't make sense. People are shaped by their traumas, and we're "she gestured over at her twin. "Still in sync."
"Mostly," Alisa replied.
"Mostly," She confirmed.
"So it can't do that much." she finished.
"I didn't use the mental component on you," he supplied simply. "I don't do that without permission, barring emergencies, or if it'll provide a tactical advantage against an enemy," he added after a brief hesitation. "You're right though, normally it doesn't do that much."
"Normally," I interjected, wondering if he'd used that on himself. I knew he still had nightmares now.
"It can do big changes if someone's been living under mind control for prolonged periods," he replied. "Not always immediately, depending on the control method. Jack's method is subtle. He hasn't locked her in her head, leaving her to scream from the inside or anything. But he also spams it constantly. You just need to look at how quickly she shifted, relatively speaking, once she was out from under his influence."
"It wasn't that fast," Alisa interjected.
"It was by normal stockholm standards," he argued. "Just look at Brandish."
Both twins winced, as Alisa replied, "I'd rather not."
"What sort of mental change would be involved?" Penny interjected.
"Well, outside of the memory thing, which is pretty obvious. Like I said, it smooths over the trauma," Tarn said, making a coffee for himself now. "It doesn't erase things. You remember the events. They still serve as nightmare fuel, but it takes the bite out of it. Lets you reappraise things, take them fresh. Realize that time you almost drowned was a freak occurrence, to help you get back in the water. Or that maybe you shouldn't have listened to that guy who just spent a day torturing you just because you were exhausted. It's not fully detaching from the event to view it impartially, but… It's kinda hard to describe," he admitted while stirring his spoon.
Yep, he had definitely used that thing on himself then.
"You remember the lessons, but they stop being instinct," he said firmly. "They become something you can consider clearly- Clarity. Yeah, that's a way to put it. The cantrip provides clarity of the self. Which is a pretty zen experience overall… But not one I recommend lightly. Great for deprogramming though. Also kicking addictions," he added as an afterthought.
Yeah that… That sounded like a trip alright.
I felt my lips frown contemplatively, wondering how I'd feel walking down a few old roads like that. Maybe even…
That could wait
"So will it work on this 'twelve year old' person or not?" I asked, not personally caring if we killed them or if we didn't. I didn't know them. They didn't mean anything to me.
But, they did apparently matter to Kara, and we were supposed to be a team in this, so I asked.
"It'd help," Tarn said. "Ninety nine percent sure it'll at least make it possible to flip Riley. Though, if it looks like Bonesaw is escaping, we will need to take her out to prevent that. She's got bioweapon contingencies," he said looking at Kara apologetically.
"We'll see," Kara, not agreeing.
"We should try and salvage Riley if we can," Tarn said. "Morality, aside. She's one of the capes most valuable for actually dealing with entities," he said to the twins, before looking back to Kara and Penny. "But Morality is also a factor. And that's reason enough too. In this case, we're probably strong enough to enjoy the luxury of mercy."
That was a phrase I'd never heard outside of Pascal's old books. Back when humans debated the morality of seemingly everything. Back before the end of the world, and it all boiled down to basic survival.
And for some reason that was when it really hit me that this world hadn't ended. Not yet. Things seemed like they were going to hell. People were confusing, strange, fucking outright alien, both my teammates and the 'humans' of this world… But they were still alive. They still had hope. Could still have a future.
We just… Needed to keep the world from ending. That probably wouldn't be that much harder than keeping 9S from killing himself in a self destructive rampage, right? I mean, the locals could be bad at times but…
I glanced over at the Twins again, who were already arguing again, though this time about how or rather if any of this 'capture and deprogram' plan could work.
I let them do that for a solid moment, then turned to Tarn again, wondering if I should thank him for this wonderful opportunity… or pull him back to the ring and kick his ass again for dragging me into this mess.