Friday 21st January 2011
I had new cards for the day. That was always interesting, and if I was at gunpoint I might be forced to admit, it was exciting, too.
Scheme first: Kneel Before My Legions. I really liked Schemes. They sounded like something an over-top cartoon villain might say to the plucky heroes, just before his comeuppance. Okay, I was the villain in this instance, but well, I had just ordered someone's murder yesterday and I despised lying to myself. This Scheme, which had no casting cost like all the other Schemes, would create a 4/4 scarecrow artefact creature token, or buff all my creatures, giving them +3/+3, Vigilance, and Trample until the end of the turn. Since I didn't want to suddenly give Prakash some bonuses that might hint about how close a view I actually had of the man, my options were to summon a 4/4 scarecrow or do nothing.
I had no particular use for a 4/4 scarecrow, but hey, free minion. And it wasn't sentient, so I didn't need to feel guilty if I ever sent it on a suicide mission--
I summoned the scarecrow. Its body tried to lean in heavily on the 'scare' portion of its name, with a skull for a head and hatchets for arms, but I thought it looked dopey more than anything. I told it to hide itself under the bed until I could call it over to the Bard's house. Who knows, one day it might be handy.
I had the sudden thought that I now had a real monster under my bed. Maybe one day I'd laugh at the idea.
My regular card for the day was Coveted Jewel. For six generic mana, I would get a fancy jewel. That presumably lots of people would want. I did want the jewel, because I could tap it for three mana of any one colour, and I was struggling to cast all my cards. I also didn't want it right now, because it would draw me three cards, and my hand was already full. The cards it would draw would be random, but it would still be a shame for them to go to waste. There was an interesting effect on the card -- if I summoned the jewel and someone attacked me without being blocked, the jewel would become theirs. It would draw them cards (I had no idea how that would work for people who weren't planeswalkers), and I would have to attack them back to get the jewel back (and presumably another three cards). Fun.
I needed to cast a spell today, but it wasn't going to be the Coveted Jewel. I looked at my card list: I had Ramosian Rally, which was probably never going to be useful, Wrath of Oko (ditto), Coveted Jewel, Colossus of Akros (which I wasn't going to cast before the legal stuff was sorted out), Jade Bearer (I didn't need another +1/+1 token, and she didn't do anything else), Vanishing (no-one needed it, although I did have an idle thought of putting a real villain in 'time-out'; 'sorry Kaiser, you were saying? Oops, he's gone again'), and Bootleggers' Stash (which let my lands tap for treasure).
I sighed, tapped five mana (it would have been six without my Artificer Class), and summoned the Stash. Or at least cast the spell. Previously when I cast artefact spells, I got to choose where the artefact appeared in front of me, but this time I just cast the spell and nothing seemed to happen. Magic was used, my lands gained the ability to tap for treasure, but no object.
I just mentally shrugged and added it to the list of things I didn't understand about my Power.
And on that topic, something there had changed as well -- Queen Administrator's happiness was now five, not four. I held back a number of unkind thoughts about her being happy that I was now a murderer. There was a change in one of the abilities that she gave me -- 'Ability to visualise playmat' had changed to 'Ability to visualise battlefield'. I didn't bother looking.
"Good morning, Dad."
"'Morning, kiddo. How are you holding up?"
"Better than I was, thanks. And Yuriko told me something before she went..."
I explained about what Yuriko said, and that her card was in my graveyard and I might recover it someday to cast it again. Dad was both surprised and supportive about that option. A bit of hope could go a long way.
School was different. Quieter than usual, which for me was a good thing. The reason was obvious -- Emma was still absent, and Sophia hadn't been seen either. Greg told me, during World Affairs, that no-one knew why, and that most people were fairly sure that I hadn't murdered either of them. Thank you, Greg.
After school I offered my new scarecrow to my Bards. Jehan took a brief glance at it and told me that he was 'not going to live in the same house as that thing'. Fair enough.
"There is something else I wanted to bring up," I said, and everyone turned their attention back to me. "We are now on a timer. With Lung dead, Empire 88 will try to take territory from the ABBs, triggering a gang war that will kill a lot of people. We need to bring down the Empire before that happens. Without killing a lot of people or triggering a gang war on either side. This is now our highest priority."
"We understand," said Guillaume, "How can we help?"
"At the moment? No idea," I replied, "But. Step one is to get more information about the Empire. I need to know where to find them, and I need to see their cards. They don't show their faces on the Boardwalk very often," I only had cards for Rune, Victor, and Opthala so far, "So how do you feel about moving your show to the nastier side of town?"
I was worried about dark-skinned Jehan, but he was confident of his chances. I had to admit that the Bards were tougher now than when they first arrived, and that they had some popularity in the city -- I felt that it would be enough to shield him from the worst risks of entering Empire territory. There was no way I could win this war by myself, and was in no position to turn away willing volunteers.
I thanked them as they moved out to find new locations for their busking.
I would be doing my own patrolling of the Empire 88 territories, but a lone teenager walking around those places would catch attention much more quickly than performers.
For now, I set myself the task studying Yuriko's notebook, to learn what I could.
When I was back home, I called out to my dad, and started fast talking. I got most of the way through the explanation before he held up his hand.
"You have a very scary summon which you want to leave in the basement, to protect the house?"
"Yes."
"Fine. Let's see it."
I called the scarecrow to me, and Dad flinched back. Once he was more comfortable being in the presence of a skull-headed scarecrow armed with hatchets for hands, he circled it. "Yeah, that's creepy alright. Okay, put it in the basement, and don't let anyone see it."
I puppeted the scarecrow to the Basement and told it to defend. I presumed that the faint hiss that it made to mean that it understood and would obey.
"Taylor, before you go upstairs?"
"Yes, Dad?"
"The Mayor's Office would like to talk to Walker about the press conference on Monday. You'll be expected to say a few words, and they want to make sure you're ready. Things are moving fast, so do you have time tomorrow?"
I wanted to laugh, "Dad, I need to bring down the Empire by the end of next week!"
"I know, I know, but--"
"I get it," I said, "I'll be there. Well, tell me where 'there' is and I'll be there."
"Thank you, Little Owl."
I might have gotten more from Yuriko's notebook that day, if I hadn't been half-way through reading about a suspicious abandoned Endbringer emergency shelter when I was suddenly struck by a thought. A quick check of Yuriko's card revealed a detail I had previously dismissed: while Yuriko was on the battlefield, if any Ninja I controlled did combat damage to a 'player', I would draw a card. And then each 'opponent' would lose life equal to the mana cost of that card. I'd ignored it because I was the only planeswalker 'playing' this game.
For the purpose of that card, Lung must have counted as a player; that was where the Talon Gates card had come from.
I was about to pat myself on the back for working it out when I realised the implications. I didn't know who my 'opponents' were. 'Each' opponent meant that it wouldn't just be the person the ninja attacked. Opponents probably either meant opposing players, or all opposing creatures. Who were 'players'? Other parahumans in Brockton Bay? Other gang leaders in Brockton Bay? Did the effect stretch further? Or was it all people who were fighting on the Brockton Bay battlefield, from the weakest scrub merchant gangster to Kaiser, Lung, and-- and the local head of the PRT?
Even if it was just the gang leaders, how many hit points did they have, really? Lung died to what was technically a three-damage attack, and Lung was supposed to be tough. The head of the PRT was supposed to be human. The Undersiders were a gang of teenagers, for Scion's sake. If I'd drawn Bootleggers' Stash with Yuriko's attack, how many groups would be looking for new leaders right now? How many people would I have murdered?
There was someone at the door. I ignored it, Dad could sort it out.
I'd drawn a zero point card, and so did no damage to my 'opponents'. What were the odds of that? I looked through my notebook. Apart from land cards, which I almost always drew on Mondays, of all the cards I'd drawn, only three had been without a casting cost. I could have triggered a city-wide free-for-all with all the gangs falling apart at once and with the PRT unable to react as their leader was dead! That was a heck of a bullet I might have just dodged.
If it wasn't luck, then I owed Queen Administrator a lot for picking that card for me.
I now needed a way to see the 'battlefield'. The whole thing, not just my little bit of it. And I had just gained that Power. I called up my Power's interface and started poking and twisting my head and trying to visualise what I was sure I could see if only I knew how, until I was stunned to see myself sitting at a large round table with eleven empty chairs. In front of all but one of the chairs was a little card, propped on a stand, each card showing a person: A man surrounded by metal blades who could only be Kaiser, an overweight woman in a business suit, a man in a black bodysuit with a snake motif, Leet of Leet and Über, Lady Photon of the public hero group New Wave, A woman with a cracked welding mask, a powerfully built man wearing a motorcycle helmet shaped like a skull, a bland man wearing a senior police officer's uniform, a woman who glowed with a blinding light, and a man with a mask over the top of his face but and the lower portion was a mess (I knew what drug abuse looked like, even Winslow High managed to teach me something!) The eleventh chair had no leader.
There were cards in front of each of the faceless players, representing their own creatures and artefacts. The leaderless chair had 'Oni Lee' amongst its creatures. I tried to examine some of the cards more closely--
There was a knock on my bedroom door. "Taylor?" said my dad, "Come you come down please? Alan Barnes would like to speak with us."
I didn't want to speak with Alan Barnes.
"Coming," I shouted.
It had been some time since I last saw Alan Barnes. Before Emma turned on me, certainly. He was a redhead like Emma, a divorce lawyer. He looked exhausted, standing defeated with a shopping bag at his feet while he waited for me to come down the stairs. Dad ushered us in the living room, and Mr Barnes looked me in the eyes and said, "Taylor, I am so so sorry."
Maybe if I didn't know what he did for a living I might have been more accepting of that. If I didn't know how much it had taken to get him to finally open his eyes and see who his daughter was. As it was, I didn't say anything, and just stared.
"I didn't know. I swear I didn't know. We-- There was an attack, during the summer a couple of years back. ABB. They were going to-- to hurt Emma. Would have if a hero hadn't intervened, Shadow Stalker. At the time Emma said she was fine. That she survived. I was just glad she could put it behind her. I think that's--"
I listened with clinical interest. I was sorry for the Emma who had been my friend and who had been attacked, but if she was same the Emma who attacked me unrelentingly for two years because of it, I hadn't known her before and that old Emma had been a lie. At least I now knew where she met Sophia.
"After Danny spoke to me, I took Emma to a psychologist. She needed so much help. They met with her, and insisted that she stay at a hospital for observation. Today she's been involuntarily committed to Pendrake Psychiatric Hospital..." He lost his train of thought and stared into the distance. "It was the phone, I think. They saw everything that was on the phone. Maybe I shouldn't have shown it to them."
"Alan," said Dad firmly, "She needed help. They can't help if they don't know that there is a problem. You protecting her from the consequences of her actions before didn't help her."
Mr Barnes closed his eyes and slumped. "I know you're right. I don't-- It's done, now. We'll support Emma and hope for the best." He straightened and looked back at me, "I'm sorry. She won't be going back to Winslow, whatever happens. And, uh, I had this restored. Emma told me where it was."
He pulled open the shopping bag and pulled out a long, thin case, holding it out to me. I took it and opened the case: my mother's flute. I looked up from it to meet Alan Barnes' eyes.
"Thank you, Mr Barnes," I said, "I don't think I can say anything you want to hear, but thank you for returning the flute to me. It-- It meant a lot to me."
"Sure," said Mr Barnes, and turned to Dad. They looked at each other wordlessly before he left the room and Dad ushered him out of the house.
I thought I might have some sort of closure, to know at least what had happened, but I just felt angry. Did Sophia poison my friend against me? Did Emma just break and no-one noticed? Was this a shitty little cycle of trauma, with whatever caused Sophia to trigger make her inflict her whole weak versus strong ideology on Emma, eventually causing me to trigger as well?
If I punched Shadow Stalker now, would she survive? If I was careful?
I tried to take a page from my dad's book and walked away from the room. I didn't need these thoughts, and there was a racist gang of Nazi thugs that needed to be crushed.
The Battlefield view was a game-changer. Partly it let me map out each of the gangs in Brockton Bay, in broad terms: people, buildings, notable equipment, capes. More significantly, I could finally see the 'Synergies' between the parahumans and their Shards. I almost wished I couldn't.
Panacea: She could manipulate anything organic other than herself. There was nothing at all about her being unable to impact brains. Her Shard's happiness was at one, and one of her abilities was 'Shard unhappiness shared with Host'. More worryingly, the Synergy text said, 'Each turn roll two twenty-sided dice. If they both read '1', flip a coin. If it comes up as 'tails', transform 'Panacea -- Overstressed Healer' into 'Panacea -- Rampant Biotinker.' I looked at the card it showed for the 'Rampant Biotinker' and immediately looked away. Photorealistic images were not always a good thing. Panacea's card was very disturbing, but there wasn't much I could do about it; fleeing the country wasn't really an option.
Unfortunately, fleeing the country might be the only option if Panacea did snap. Biotinkers could do horrendous amounts of damage -- people like Nilbog, who had captured the city of Ellisburg with his monsters and was holding off the entire might of the PRT with his abilities, were the stuff of nightmares. I'd have to cross my fingers and hope that someone managed to get Panacea the help she needed before she went the same way as that madman.
The only person with a lower Shard happiness than Panacea was Leet. His Shard's happiness was zero, and the Synergy included, 'Actively sabotages work' and 'Actively tries to kill host'. Leet's own Power was so unhappy it was trying to kill him. I toyed with the idea that Shards wanted violence for some reason or other -- Queen Administrator's happiness increases were big hints -- and Leet only did about one (livestreamed) crime spree a month. It couldn't be just that, though, because Parian's Shard's happiness was a solid three. Admittedly the pacifistic dressmaker, dollmaker, and showwoman used her Power on a daily basis and in several different ways. Maybe Leet needed to use his Power more? I wasn't going to tell the asshole that though.
In comparison to the Shards who hated their hosts, Glory Girl, Panacea's sister, had a Shard, 'The Wretch', which adored Glory Girl, with a happiness score of seven. She was an outlier -- most Capes had a middling relationship with their Shards. Armsmaster came close, with six, and a few were fives like me. One was Hookwolf, the Empire's most notorious killer, and another was Miss Militia.
Interestingly, happy Shards didn't prevent bad host interactions. Armsmaster's 'Abilities' included 'Glory Hound: If fighting alongside non-PRT allies, roll a die. On a 1, Armsmaster will betray his allies to claim more glory for himself.' I suddenly didn't like Armsmaster quite so much after reading that. It certainly didn't make me want to work with him.
The capes who had purchased their Powers in a vial from the woman with the white labcoat didn't have normal Shards, and they didn't have happiness scores either. There were more purchased Powers in the Bay than I would have guessed -- Gallant and Triumph of the Wards, Battery (a Protectorate cape), Gregor the Snail and Newter (members of 'Faultline's Crew' -- a mercenary gang based in Brockton Bay that I hadn't previously been aware of), Trainwreck (an independent Tinker), and Coil, the villainous mastermind.
While I say, 'Purchased', but I couldn't make out a lot of details for the Parahumans whose cards I hadn't already gotten. I couldn't see their stats, personal names, or their triggers, or stuff like that. Maybe not every one of the vial capes bought their Powers, because if they did, some of them were massively ripped off. Gregor, Newter, and Trainwreck in particular, as their 'Abilities' came with massive physical deformities, if I was reading the Synergies correctly.
I took a moment to savour the sheer horror that the battlefield instilled in me (seriously; I'd thought I was messed up, but after seeing what some of the other capes in the Bay looked like, I felt a lot better about myself).
Then I started making notes about the Empire's capes, because they needed to be taken off the battlefield. Quickly.
I had set my phone to ping me half an hour before midnight, to remind me to sort things out before the new turn.
The Bootleggers' Stash was a very powerful upgrade for me. I hadn't realised at the time, but it had a second benefit, beyond making my lands effectively generate money, or mana of any colour: I could effectively store mana so that it would carry over from one turn to the next. Previously mana dissipated at the end of the turn.
For example, I had spent seven mana this turn. Five to summon the Bootleggers' Stash, one to call the Scarecrow to the bard's house, and one to call it back to mine. That left one untapped land whose potential for the day would normally be wasted, but now I could tap the land, and... *thud* a bag of treasure landed at my feet. Cash, it looked like. I took it down to the basement for the scarecrow to store in the correct pile.
That bag of Treasure reminded me that I had no shortage of the stuff, and I wasn't doing anything with it. Partly that had been because I was busy, but there had to be something I could do with loads of mana. I could give the Bards +1/+1 counters, but I didn't really want them to be fighting anyone. They were far more useful to me as a source of information and as observers. If I were to give them some, how many? One was miserly, two was still not enough for them take on every cape in the Bay, and if you followed that logic chain to its natural conclusion, the answer would be 'about twenty' to get them to the point where they'd be odds-on favourites against Purity, Kaiser, Oni Lee, or whoever. Only, Purity could fly, so she'd be able to hit them from range. And Kaiser could attack with iron spikes from a distance, or throw hundreds of goons with guns at them, and Oni Lee wouldn't fight, he'd just drop grenades on them again and again.
They were already tough enough to win a fight with non-capes. And maybe giving them more counters would just encourage them to fight. I could order them not to, of course, but I really didn't like Mastering them.
Which left me with my original problem. I had far too much mana and nothing to do with it.
First world problems, I guessed.
Saturday 22nd January 2011
My new Scheme was Bow to My Command, and I dutifully intoned it to my empty room, pointing imperiously at my computer. It would permanently prevent my chosen opponent from attacking me unless they tapped eight power's worth of creatures. I didn't activate it, because I didn't want to risk it alerting the other gangs to my presence, and I wasn't particularly worried about being attacked right now. Plus almost every 'gang' in the city could easily muster eight power without breaking sweat -- the average cape was four or five power, and the really tough ones were eight or nine power by themselves, plus the larger 'gangs' had literally hundreds of unpowered members. The only gangs that I could see that would struggle with the requirement were 'The Undersiders', who were a bunch of nobodies I'd barely heard of, and Leet and Über, who were losers.
My regular card was Khalni Gem, which was another irritating conundrum. The gem, if summoned, generated two mana of any one colour when tapped. The problem was that when it was summoned, it would put two land cards from the battlefield to my hand. My hand, which was full. I could play one land per turn, so if I summoned the gem I would have to discard a card at the end of the turn, unless I could cast one of my other spells.
Annoying. I left my hand as eight cards, and decided to wait to see what the day would bring. I did tap all my lands for Treasure, because that would save me from having to do all sorts of mana colour calculations.
My notes from the previous night gave me a rough idea how big the various gangs are; the Empire Eighty-Eight were the biggest gang, with the most parahumans and the most troops, but the PRT had better quality troops and almost as many parahumans, if you included the PRT-ENE Wards. That comparison was a little misleading -- it didn't show that if the Empire actually took to the streets to fight the PRT, one of the Triumvirate would fly in and that would be the end of the Empire.
Bringing down the Empire would be a massive undertaking.
I considered my options up until breakfast, after which I headed over to the Mayor's office and was escorted through to a room where the Mayor's press secretary was waiting.
The woman, Michelle Cooper, was middle aged but had clearly taken good care of herself and her appearance. She smiled to see me and shook my hand and offered me a seat and a drink.
"Walker! Thank you for coming, and for starting this mad rush! You have no idea how much weight you're taking off my shoulders by dealing with that tanker. Thank you, really."
"You are very welcome," I said, "Things have moved so fast after I made the suggestion, and everyone has been working so hard. It's inspiring." I was guessing about most of this, but I wanted to give a good impression, and Dad had said that a lot had been done in a very short period of time.
"Well, you've inspired us!" said Michelle, "I don't usually come in on a Saturday, for example."
"Oh! Was that on my account? I'm sorry."
Michelle's eyes flickered to my hands. My teenaged-girl-hands. "Well, I understand you having more important things to do during the week." I really needed to get some gloves. Or gauntlets or something. Power? Pretty please nicely? "Mr Herbert, the DWA negotiator, insisted that you have only very limited windows of availability. Having met you, I think I can see why."
Yeah, I needed gloves, pronto. "Mr Hebert? I've met him, and he did seem to have a solid understanding of the situation."
"Quite. So, will this be your first press conference, dear?"
Michelle happily talked me through what to expect, and even threw a few questions at me to see how I'd respond. The whole thing took a few hours, but I admit that after it I was feeling a lot better prepared to face the press, and I was honest when I said that I appreciated her efforts.
I headed to the Lord Street Market after lunch, buying the toughest gloves I could find, and then spend the rest of the afternoon at home reading in the living room while Dad did the same. It was nice.
Dad made supper, and Dad told me fun horror stories of press conferences gone wrong that he'd heard of, or experienced. Thankfully, I planned to be sober for my first press conference, and that seemed to be the cause of most of the issues he shared.
After supper, I said, "I'm going out tonight," and killed the conversation dead.
Dad hesitated, then said, "You-- you've decided what you're going to do?"
I smiled weakly. "Hookwolf."
"Hookwolf! Taylor! Hookwolf kills heroes! He's got a birdcage sentence! You can't just fight Hookwolf on your first night out!" He started pacing, waving his arms in the air in his agitation.
"I need to. Dad, the Empire needs to fall, and Hookwolf is one of Kaiser's lieutenants," he couldn't stop me, but I wanted his support for this, "I don't know how to find Kaiser or Krieg, but I can find Hookwolf. Yuriko found his fight pit, and he stages fights on Saturdays."
"He's Hookwolf!"
"I'll be careful, Dad. I promise. Once I lay eyes on him, I'll know how powerful and how tough he is. If he's out of my weight class then I'll back off before anything happens. If he isn't, well." I shrugged.
"And the gangsters around him? Men with guns?"
"I'm not just going to charge his base with all guns blazing, Dad. I'll be waiting outside the pit until the fighting is over. I'll either pick him off when he leaves, or sneak in when everyone else has left."
Dad looked away. "Taylor. Please be careful. I couldn't bear to lose you. Not you, too."
I reached out to touch his shoulder. "I promise. I'll be safe."
He didn't look at me as I headed upstairs to make my preparations.
I needed to be stealthy for this plan, and the Mask of Law and Grace shone with a bright white light. I had a toy hero's domino mask, an ever-popular accessory for any child's play time. It wasn't great, but it'd do the job.
Next were my stats. My power was currently 7, which seemed middling, and my toughness was 11. I had a few options to improve things. Firstly, I could equip material. I spent three mana to equip the Skyblinder Staff, which gave me one extra power, and another three mana to equip the Squire's Lightblade for yet another point of power. I wasn't going to be stabbing anyone, but the extra force was welcome.
I had another option: 'Ramosian Rally'. It cost four mana to buff all my summons, which included me, by +1/+1 for a single turn. That seemed premature at the moment, as I didn't know how tough Hookwolf would be once he Changed.
I had one idea of attacking Hookwolf with Alpha-Six, the Scarecrow, and myself, with all of us boosted by the Rally. I discounted the idea pretty early on in my planning, because I decided that speed would count for more than armour in this engagement and neither Alpha-Six nor the Scarecrow were fast.
My current power and toughness were now 9/11. It would have to do.
With a click of my fingers I donned the Robe of Stars, and then put on my tough gloves and headed back downstairs.
Dad was waiting. "I--" He couldn't finish what he wanted to say.
"I love you," I said, and hugged him. "Don't wait up."
I walked out into the night.
I had a rough map of the city, and Yuriko's notes, and the view of the city from the perspective of Prakash's Spotter Thopter. I was now a fairly fast flier, by my standards, and it only took half an hour to find the right part of town, and the warehouse that Hookwolf was using for his shows.
There was a lot of public knowledge about Hookwolf. His name was Brad Meadows. He had apparently started out as a trained fighter before he triggered and became a parahuman. He kept fighting after his trigger, until he killed someone and he ran to the Empire for protection. That protection had saved him twice from being sent to the Birdcage, when the other members of the Empire rescued him from the Birdcage transports. He was a powerful parahuman. He was a Changer who could shift to at will into a whirling mess of extremely sharp knives in the rough shape of a wolf.
Most hero-on-villain fights ended with one party or the withdrawing to lick their wounds; with healers like Panacea and Othala in the Bay, fatalities were rare. Unless, of course, you were a hero and Hookwolf didn't think that you were strong enough. Hookwolf had killed a number of young heroes.
Unfortunately my plan relied on me beating him.
I could hear the fighting area before I realised which building it was -- the shouts and cheers travelled far into the night. I circled the building, noting the exits. I wasn't too worried about Hookwolf leaving without my noticing -- the warehouse was surrounded by a chainlink fence which only had one way in and out. Hookwolf was not the kind of person who would have a secret escape tunnel or suchlike.
I settled lightly on the warehouse roof and peered through a skylight. There were dozens of people, hundreds, maybe, cheering and shouting and screaming while two muscled men fought bare knuckled in a cage. There was another man in the cage with them, watching them fight with his arms folded. The watcher was more powerfully built than the fighters, bare-chested, tattooed, and with a metal wolf-face mask. Hookwolf.
I quickly scanned my other interface and the unsummonable cards -- I now had one for Hookwolf.
Hookwolf was a 2/2 human with Menace and Trample. He had a three mana casting cost of one white and two red. That part, I could handle. The problem was his Shard, 'Dancer', that gave him the ability to Changed into 'Hookwolf', giving him +5/+5, Regeneration, and Haste. I had to assume that when I fought him, he would be a 7/7 nightmare of blades. I looked at my stats. 9/11. Those numbers were a little closer than I liked.
Maybe I should--
"You can't take it with you," I said, and activated my Empowerment ability to give myself a +1/+1 counter. Or at least, I tried. It didn't work. I tried again. It still didn't work.
"Dammit." 9 power and 11 toughness would have to do. I'd still need to work out why it didn't work later.
Needing something to do, I scanned the rest of the crowd, picking up a few new cards. Most notable were two more parahumans -- Cricket and Stormtiger. Like Hookwolf they were pit fighters with a white / red colour affinity. Cricket had exceptional hearing and could use sound waves to cause confusion, and had boosted reflexes. Stormtiger had aerokinesis that gave him explosive air-blades for claws and a limited form of flying.
I settled in to watch the fight while I planned my attack.
I then sudden realised that I had my phone on me, and if Cricket had a sonar-based skill it would probably alert her to my presence when it beeped at me. I hurriedly fished it out of my bag to turn it off, and crushed it to pieces.
"DAMMIT!" I was even more grateful for the noisy crowd beneath me, because Cricket didn't notice my shout.
Maybe it was a good thing I was only 9 power.
Sunday 23rd January 2011
The fighting took a long time, and the post-fight drinking and chatting took the whole affair into the early morning. I used the time to salvage my SIM card, made a mental note to get another phone when I was next in town, and brood about the problems with being a Brute.
My newest Scheme was Power Without Equal, which removed my maximum hand size until the end of the next turn. Of course I got it mere seconds after I had had to discard Carrier Thrall. It also drew me three random cards and told me it would let me cast three spells without paying the mana cost.
Huh. The cards weren't anything special: Intrusive Packbeast, which was a massive horned beast that was taller than a man at the shoulder, had horns wider than it was tall, and could knock down people when it entered the battlefield; I was disappointed that it was only a 3/3. Chained Throatseeker was tougher as a 5/5, but it was also a Phyrexian. Hard Pass. Shredding Winds was an Instant attack that would do seven damage to a creature with flying. Great for killing people, which was not what I wanted to do. I tried to be positive and decided that it might have some use, some day.
The daily card that I drew from my small deck, though? That was lovely. Vectis Gloves. Queen Administrator had listened to me! And they were practically gauntlets, not gloves, with glowing lights that looked like tinkertech and so cool. They gave their wearer +2/+0 and let me 'Artefact Landwalk', which meant that I could not be blocked if the defender had an artefact land. I mean, I wasn't planning on attacking the PRT, but the thought of being able to sneak on board their oil-rig base without them being able to stop me made me giggle.
Summoning and equipping those gloves only cost me two mana because of my Scheme, and I didn't hesitate to do so. They fit like a glove. Hee! I loved my Power.
It was probably another hour later by the time that the only people in the warehouse were Hookwolf, Cricket, Stormtiger, and a small handful of gangsters who seemed to be focussed on counting the night's take. I could have waited even longer, but to be honest I was fed up and bored. I wasn't a fan of bloodsports, I'd been waiting for hours, and I wanted to go home.
I'd used the time to come up with what I felt was a pretty decent plan. I waited for the a straggler's car to leave the warehouse's parking area, and then flew down to ground level. I made the Mask of Law and Grace active -- I wouldn't want to be caught out of uniform.
This was it. It was time. I was ready.
I took a deep breath. I was a dozen paces from the warehouse doors. I had toyed with the idea of shattering them with the Shredding Wind, but I was confident that I was strong enough to bullrush through them without any help.
Setting my shoulders, I started my run. By using my flying ability to stop myself from becoming airborne as I ran, I was at and through the warehouse doors in seconds. The doors hadn't slowed me down at all, so I had no trouble running straight for Hookwolf, who was drinking beer with Stormtiger and Cricket. He had time to turn his head, but no more than that.
"Fu--" was as much as he managed before I knocked him down. There was a loud *crack* as I hit him, and a crunch when he hit the ground and skidded away from me. I was suddenly even more grateful that I was targetting a notoriously tough parahuman with a regenerative Changer form. I rushed over to his slumped form and had him tucked under an arm in a moment. Even then he was already turning into knives.
Cricket's reflexes were on show; she was the first to notice my attack, and turned to screech at me. I expected to be confused, I'd planned to work around it, but for some reason I could still think clearly. My Mask got a little warm, but that was it. I didn't know why, but I didn't have time to work it out just yet.
I didn't hang around. The next stage of my plan was unchanged -- I leapt into the air, punching through the warehouse ceiling, carrying Hookwolf with me.
Hookwolf transformed into his Changer state at that point, and I was suddenly holding a writhing mass of razor-sharp wires in the form of a wolf. Thankfully the Robe of Stars and my shiny new Gloves were overpowered, because I wasn't even cut. My Mask was warming up again, but only a little.
"Ha!" I shouted to the world and soared into the night sky.
Stormtiger could fly, a little, but he wasn't anywhere near as fast I was, and anyway I could hear him swearing as he was blinded by my staff. Cricket was dangerous, but she couldn't follow me in the sky. With the Robe of Stars it was practically impossible for the gangsters to see, and so shoot, me. The key problem had been getting Hookwolf to PRT before he cut me too much, and so far I seemed to be fine.
Weirdly so. I'd expected to have to throw Hookwolf in the right direction, catching and throwing him to minimise the number of cuts. As it was, he was just an annoyingly squirmy parcel of hate.
I wasn't going to question my good luck, and headed for the PRT-ENE Headquarters as fast as I could fly. Which was a lot faster than I could fly before; more weight for my flight speed correlating with my power hypothesis.
They saw me coming, of course; radar, I guessed. Spotlights caught me in the sky, hurting my eyes, and I slowed my approach.
"Fucking bastard!" said Hookwolf, having transformed back into his human form, "When we find out who you are, you are dead. Your family are dead. Your-- Aaaarghh!" I squeezed him a little. Ribs cracked, and I had a hard time caring, considering how many heroes this man had murdered. He coughed, and said weakly, "Fucking asshole!"
Yeah, I didn't think we were ever going to be friends. I was heartbroken.
I hovered in front of the PRT Headquarters energy shield that protected the oil rig. Eventually a doorway appeared in the shield, at ground height, and I flew in. The forcefield closed behind me. I wasn't worried -- the Vectis Gloves meant that I could leave at any time.
There were half a dozen PRT troopers waiting for me with what at first glance I thought were flame throwers. Thankfully I'd read enough Parahumans Online threads to realise that they were containment foam sprayers -- PRT's preferred less-lethal method for containing villains. Miss Militia, with her own sprayer, was standing off to one side.
"Walker!" called out Miss Militia, "Who-- Hookwolf!"
That made an impression on the troopers, the heads of the sprayers twitched.
"Militia!" said Hookwolf, and coughed, "Arrest this asshole!" He coughed, "Fucker broke my back!"
"Is it broken now, Meadows?" asked Miss Militia.
"No," admitted Hookwolf.
"I'll discuss appropriate force with Walker. After you're in your cell."
"Lemme heal the ribs first," said Hookwolf, switching back to his knife-dog body.
"No!" said Miss Militia, raising her sprayer, but he transformed back almost immediately.
"Fuck, that's better," said Hookwolf, and he angled his head to look at me, "I'll remember you, asshole."
"Walker," said Miss Militia, "Put him down and back away. Don't run, Meadows, we've got more painful options than foam."
"Don't I fucking know it. I'll play along." I put Hookwolf down and darted away. He stood still, glaring at me with his arms crossed as he was hosed down by the sprayers. The yellow-white liquid started to foam when it contacted him, expanding to envelop his body, and soon he was entirely encased in a yellowish bubble. His eyes never left my face until his head was fully enveloped. The troopers kept a close eye on him while Miss Militia turned her focus to me.
"Walker, we need to talk."
I explained that I needed to make a phone call first, and I didn't trust the PRT to not trace the call. Miss Militia didn't like it, but she had them open the hole in the forcefield so that I could go find a payphone.
"Dad, it's me," I said when he picked up before the second ring.
"Tay-- Walker! Are you okay?"
"Dad, I'm fine. Hookwolf is captured. I need to speak to Miss Militia, I don't know how long it will take. We can talk tomorrow."
"Okay, okay, I get the message," said Dad, "I'll go to bed. See you in the morning. If you need something, though, call. Seriously."
"I will. Love you. Sleep well."
"Love you too."
"Thank you for coming back, Walker," said Miss Militia. She'd escorted me to a meeting room, got my permission to record the conversation, and offered me a drink.
"No problem." I'd asked for tea. I took a sip and it tasted awful. I put the cup back down; I wasn't that thirsty.
"I like your gloves," she said, pointing to the Vectis Gloves.
"Thanks!" I said, "They're a new addition and I love them." I held them up so that she could admire them.
"Do they do anything cool?" I think she was smiling? It was hard to be sure.
"Oh yes," I said with a grin that she couldn't see, "But I got them to make handling Hookwolf easier."
"Well, they certainly seem to have done their job! Can you tell me what happened?"
Miss Militia listened to my story, asking a few questions here and there to clarify what I was saying but otherwise just nodding along. When I was done she sighed and took a sip of her coffee.
"Right. So, you found Hookwolf's fighting ring. Waited until it was quiet, and captured him, ignoring Stormtiger and Cricket. And you didn't think to call us."
"Correct." It was true, I hadn't thought to call the PRT. Considering the PRT's history with the Empire, I wouldn't have done anything differently if the thought had crossed my mind. Hookwolf had escaped transport to the Birdcage twice. The PRT were clearly compromised. My current plan even relied on that fact. If I'd called them, Hookwolf would have been told that they were coming and told people to leave. I'd have struggled to capture him in the confusion, or at least not without hurting other people. Well, Nazis.
Miss Militia stared at me for a few seconds, and I stared back.
"Walker, you clearly have issues with the PRT. Can you tell me what caused them?"
I thought about that, but, "No. Doing so would break the 'unwritten rules'." I may have put a bit more bitterness into those words than I intended; PRT's failure to keep a leash on Sophia still rankled.
"So they relate to your civilian identity."
"No comment."
Miss Militia huffed in irritation. "Fine. Did you break Hookwolf's back?"
I looked away, "I... may have hit him harder than I intended. Maybe."
"Walker--"
"I targetted Hookwolf because I knew that he could take it. I knew his Changer form can restore damage."
"And if you'd killed him before he could heal?"
"It was Hookwolf. I want to save Brockton Bay, and that means working with PRT, one way or another, but one thing I've realised is that I can't save the Bay without risking some lives. If the life I'm gambling with is Hookwolf's, I don't like it, but I'll live with it."
"That is a very dangerous path to walk down, Walker," said Miss Militia, "You don't want to be branded as a villain."
"No, I don't. But if that is what it takes..."
"I see," Miss Militia leaned towards me, "Walker, this is why we want you to join the Protectorate. We can help avoid risking those lives, minimise the damage you do. You would be so much more effective with training, with a team. We can help you!"
"I'm not--"
"If not as a full member, as an affiliate. You wouldn't need to unmask. Agree to follow some sensible ground rules and we can arrange training. We can teach you how to control your strength. Sparring opportunities with other parahumans. Sharing information. Better equipment."
I hesitated. I liked the idea of training, and my summoning options seemed to lean heavily towards the casually lethal. I did admire Miss Militia... "Maybe."
"Thank you," said Miss Militia, her eyes crinkling that made me think she was trying to convey a smile, "Would you like to know how strong you are, really? It can be fun, seeing how you compare to the greats."
"Not today," I replied, "Look. I like the PRT's goals, but I've got something I need to do, and I can't get distracted. Not yet."
"Can you at least tell me what that is?"
I looked at the walls of the room, "Not during a conversation that is being recorded, no. No offence."
"Sure," said Miss Militia, "Fine. Please consider this official notice that the PRT frowns on excessive force being used to apprehend criminals, and both criminal and legal charges may be brought against you if it is felt that you have not exercised sufficient care and restraint."
"Noted."
Miss Militia sighed, "There was a bounty on Hookwolf. We are grateful to you for bringing him in. How would you like to be paid?"
There was a question I hadn't seen coming. "Uh, no idea? Can you hold onto it for now, and I'll figure it out with my, uh, advisors?"
"Of course. Do you have any questions of your own?"
I didn't.
Miss Militia nodded, "Then thank you for your time. So you are aware, we are going to have to update your Brute rating in the press conference handouts -- we can't pretend that you're mid-tier any more. Not with how easily you handled Hookwolf."
I didn't like that, but I could hardly argue the point. "If you must."
"I'll show you out."
I waited until we were outside of the PRT dome before turning to speak to Miss Militia again.
"Are we being recorded now?"
"No," she replied, cocking her head in curiosity. "You do know that I'll report anything you say to my bosses, right?"
"Sure," I said, nodding, "Okay, so you are aware that the PRT is compromised, yes? You couldn't have lost all those Birdcage transports by chance."
She folded her arms and furrowed her brow. Glaring, maybe. "Assume that we're not idiots."
"That mission that I mentioned? If you want me to work with PRT, here is something that would be a good start. The reason I captured Hookwolf was so that more Empire capes would expose themselves when they try to rescue him. Let me know when he's heading for the Birdcage, preferably in the evening or at night, and I would be happy to escort the vehicles."
"And you'd play by our rules of engagement?"
"I haven't fought as part of a team before, but I'm willing to try. If you're interested, let me know. I have a PHO handle, PWalker2011."
"I'll discuss it with the Director. She is going to have a lot of questions."
"DM them to me when she does. I have very little trust for the PRT right now, so I'm not looking for an interview."
Miss Militia stared at me, and then marched back to her Headquarters.
I flew a roudabout way back home, and lay on my bed for a while, thinking.
Hookwolf hadn't been able to scratch me, and that struck me as wrong. I was tougher than he was powerful, but that should have been a fight, not a cakewalk. And Cricket's scream hadn't done a thing to me. The only clue I could think of was the heat coming from-- Dammit.
The Mask of Law and Grace bestowed upon its wearer Protection from red and black affinities. Hookwolf's affinity was red and white. So was Cricket's, come to think of it. Hookwolf literally couldn't hurt me.
I'd spent days worrying about a fight that it was impossible for me to lose. Okay, so the Empire thugs at the fight were white affinity and they had guns, so I shouldn't be complacent, but it was still frustrating how many newbie errors I was making.
"What the-- Dammit!" I groaned in irritation. I'd been laying in bed, reading, when I suddenly realised that one other person in that fight had red (and black) affinity -- me. That was why I couldn't give myself a +1/+1 counter. My Mask Protected me from myself!
Okay, so my Mask was a two-sided tool, and maybe I would need to get rid of it someday, but for now? It was worth it.
I don't know how much sleep Dad got, but in the morning he focussed more on making sure that I wasn't hurt and reassurances that I was fine more than the breakfast I'd made. It took a while before he accepted that I was unharmed.
"On a related note," I said, "The PRT say that Hookwolf had a bounty. How do I want the money? Do I want the money?"
"Well, you're already a well-to-do young lady," said Dad with a grin, "Claiming the money would at least allow you to explain why Walker has money, even if it doesn't help explain why Taylor Hebert is filthy rich. As for how, I'd suggest asking for a Number Man credit card. You're a big deal, Taylor, but no-one is going to compromise the global economy on your account."
"Okay, I'll mention that the next time I speak with them. Any ideas how to get some of my existing treasure onto the card?"
Dad shook his head, "Taylor, that's money laundering. I'm a man of many talents, but that isn't one of them. How much treasure do you have now anyway?"
"I'll go get my notebook," I said and then flew / scampered upstairs to fetch my notes. "Right," I said, once I was back, "We currently have one hundred and thirty treasure tokens. Of them, sixty two contain bundles of US dollars. The number of dollars varies a lot from bag to bag, but it averages out at about forty-five thousand dollars each--"
Dad made a low whistle.
"--Twenty six bags contain gold in various forms -- coins, bars, nuggets, that kind of thing. Gold prices jump around a bit, but I'm guessing they average about fifty-one kay for each bag, before taxes. That's a big guess because I don't know the purity of the gold."
"Yeesh!"
"Then there are five bags with other precious metals -- three silver, one electrum, one platinum."
"And the going rate for electrum these days?"
"No idea," I said happily, "I don't even know the gold / silver mix ratio, so I'm not going to guess. There are another five bags full of gemstones, again, I've got no idea how much they are worth, and four bags of weird glowing rocks, and the market for weird glowing rocks is famously volatile."
"Uh-huh, your great grandfather lost a fortune investing in weird glowing rocks back in the 1950s," said my dad with a grin.
"Such a shame," I said, before breaking into giggles. When I was back in control of myself, I said, "My Artificer skills tell me that the rocks are useful magical components -- they can be used to empower people, but they can also be turned into magical batteries, or spell focii, or stuff. The remaining bags contain stuff that doesn't look valuable to me -- bank notes that aren't in English, some weird glass-like objects cut like gemstones, several bags containing bottlecaps that have been stamped flat, a few wallets containing plastic cards that are the wrong size to be credit cards, and a couple of normal-looking credit cards that I don't have the PIN for. So, ignoring the smaller bags that I can't really value, we have about three million eight hundred thousand bucks' worth of unlaundered money."
"Well, things are a little tight with legal money at the moment," said Dad seriously, "but not so tight that I can't put food on the table. So it isn't urgent, and if we can get rid of the tanker then things should start looking up. Maybe don't try and cash in the money, and stay legal."
I nodded seriously. Being super-wealthy would be nice, but being anonymous and out of prison is so much better. I laughed, "We have millions of dollars in the basement, and we still have to buy the budget potatoes."
Dad laughed with me. "No-one is going to notice if we have a little extra spending money. We can take a little from one 'Treasure' if you want to splash out on better-quality potatoes."
"Thanks, Dad."
"Otherwise, don't worry too much about money, kiddo. Things will pick up once the tanker is gone."
"Good. So you know, I'll be keeping the rare metals and gems and rocks for tinkering material, when I unlock tinkering."
"Sensible."
Dad wanted to spend the Sunday with me, and we were going to go wandering about town for the lack of anything else to do. I just wanted to get some things sorted first.
"I'll be free in an hour or so? Today's Scheme gives me two free spells, and I want to cast at least one spell that I've got, and I don't want to rush it."
"That's fine, kiddo. Call me when you're ready to go out."
A Khalni Gem was a big floating green crystal that shone with a bright orange light. No, I have no idea how that works either. Since we didn't want to attract the attention of our neighbours, I pretty much had to cast it in the basement, next to the stacks of treasure.
"Hi, Mr Scarecrow!" I said to the scarecrow who was standing guard when I entered, but it didn't respond. That was for the best, really.
I cast the spell for free, thanks to my Scheme, but the gem had another casting cost -- it would force two of my played lands back into my hand when it was cast. I could play one of them today, but the other would have to wait for my next turn before I could replay it. If I got a land on Monday, which I usually did, it might even be stuck in my hand until Tuesday. It wasn't a massive problem, as the Khalni rock could be tapped for two mana of any colour.
I could pick which lands to return to my hand, and I picked the broadcasting tower and the repair shop to get me a blue island and red mountain respectively. I wasn't anticipating the rush of air when I did that.
"Huh?"
The air had come from the far end of the basement; there shouldn't be any air coming from there at all. I carefully stepped through my piles of treasure and found a secret door. It was a section of wall that had been pushed open by the blast of air; previously it had been well hidden in the shadows.
"Hmm..."
I should probably have been more careful -- told Dad what I was doing, brought the scarecrow along with me for protection, packed a simple adventuring pack, maybe -- but I was pretty strong and tough, and asking for help was a lot more daunting than exploring a secret tunnel.
Either way, it was fine. I realised what I was looking at almost immediately -- the Bootleggers' Stash, which I had cast on Friday, had created a network of tunnels under Brockton Bay. I'd bet forty-thousand dollars that the wind that had revealed the secret door to me was the air displaced when the tunnels connecting to the broadcasting tower and the repair shop disappeared. I suddenly became worried that the other secret doors may have been knocked open. I'd have to find out.
Either way, the mystery of the gust of wind was solved, and the tunnels were large enough for me to move the Khalni Gem there, when I had some spare mana. Nice -- our basement now had some extra storage space.
The third free spell I had was the tricky one. I had ten cards in hand at the moment, and my hand size was only unlimited until Monday. I could cast one land spell today without any problems, which would bring me down to nine, and I could cast another land tomorrow, which would probably leave my hand at nine. I really wanted to cast the Coveted Jewel for my third free spell, which would tap for three mana of any colour and would normally cost six mana, but it would draw three cards. I'd have the mana to cast the spells I drew, but I'd probably end up discarding most of the cards.
On one hand, I shouldn't be in any rush. None of the other 'players' knew that Taylor Hebert was of interest. I had time. On the other hand, I was struggling for mana every day--
Okay, I had a literal heap of mana that I could cast whenever I wanted, but each one was worth so much, and I-- Look, Dad had taught me to live within my means. I knew that I should be spending that Treasure. And I would. In an emergency. But going slow didn't seem like a bad play right now. I was making mistakes; I didn't want to rush into making more. And it was kinda cool having a massive pile of Treasure in my basement, after all the abuse Emma spat at me for being poor.
So, I would live within my means for now, even though I wanted to upgrade Artificer to levels 3 and 4, definitely, I wanted to escalate(!!!), maybe. (I wasn't ready to be a full Planeswalker just yet, and my escalations were definitely the path to that).
I also needed to summon the eight mana colossus soon, and probably would even need to upgrade it, if it couldn't walk straight away, and that would cost ten mana. I'd spend Treasure for that if I had to, but it'd be nice to be able to hoard my hoard a little longer. And excess mana each day wouldn't go wasted -- Treasures or +1/+1 counters were both good options.
I went back to my room and checked my notes. Randomly drawn cards had a high chance of being duds -- I estimated two thirds of them either being worthless, or of limited value. I might have equipped the Skyblinder Staff, for example, but it was not particularly useful.
If I drew three good cards, could I discard enough cards to get my hand back down to seven without any major losses? I'd need to discard four cards to do that. So, Chained Throatseeker, Ramosian Rally, Intrusive Packbeast, Shredding Winds. One card I would never cast and three that I would probably not ever cast.
I wanted the mana. I cast Coveted Jewel for free.
The Coveted Jewel was a blue glowing crystal, about the size of my head. It was beautiful and entrancing, and it was mine. I giggled at the sight. It needed a stand, something worthy of its beauty. It would be wasted in this basement, it should have prize of place in the house, in the front hall, so that anyone could see it--
I looked away from the Jewel, looking for somewhere to put it, and the spell broke. Yeah, this thing was shiny but also magically enthralling and it was going to be a problem. Thankfully I could still see through the scarecrow -- it didn't think that the Jewel was anything special -- so I closed my eyes and used its to find a hiding spot to put the Jewel where no-one would see it.
Phew.
I could then look at the three new cards it had drawn for me.
Ooh.
Okay, one was a dud. Goblin Gathering would summon two 1/1 goblin tokens plus one for each Goblin Gathering in my graveyard. So two goblins, which was two more goblins than I needed right now, so that was destined for the discard pile.
Baffling Defenses was more interesting -- it permanently set a target creature's base power to zero. That had the potential to be useful, but I could only really cast it on animals or people with kill orders. I'd probably want to hang onto it anyway; it was an instant, so I could cast it in the blink of an eye, and it only cost one and a white mana.
The winner, though? The one that made my little gambit pay off in spades? Tidy Conclusion. 'Destroy target creature. You gain one life for each artifact you control.' Each one of my one hundred and twenty-nine treasure tokens were artefacts. I had a few others, too, of course. See? Hoarding my Treasure was definitely the right call.
A potion of healing that gave me three life had me on my back in ecstasy for at least a minute. Yeah, casting this one was going to have to wait; I just hoped that the house spider that had moved into the bathroom counted as a 'creature'.
Still smiling broadly, I climbed out of the basement and hollered to my dad, "Hey, Dad, change of plans. How do you feel about exploring a network of smuggler's tunnels under Brockton Bay instead?"
I didn't play the mountain back on the Broadcasting Tower. I liked the idea, but I had a better one. After we'd mapped out (okay, we just followed them -- they were a little claustrophobic in places, but Dad had a torch and I took the kerosene lamp, and I still had the fire of a young hero in my heart so it was fine), we'd determined that the tunnels came out where I expected -- the various lands I'd placed.
The Arcadia High Taiga stadium door was hidden in one of the storage rooms, behind piles of old American Football gear. It had blown open, but no-one had noticed. We pulled it closed.
The Wild Triome didn't have a door, just a very tight and deeply shadowed cave that lead down to the paths. You would never find it if you didn't know where to look, especially as the Stash seemed to come with with subtle illusion magic to aid in the camouflage.
The overgrown park was a bit messier, a hidden hatch at the bottom of a wooden play fort that was overgrown with bushes.
The last one was the Orderly Hospital, and the door in a storage room in the basement had blown open as well, but was easily closed.
Happy that my tunnels were still moderately secure, I then played the mountain at a new location -- the Bard's House. The Bootleggers' Stash tunnels obligingly extended to include it in the network, and I now no longer needed to spend mana to transfer things between the two locations that shouldn't be seen in public, like murderous Scarecrows and large shields. Hooray!
The day had involved a lot of hiking -- the trip out to the Wild Triome and back had not been short -- so Dad collapsed into his chair with a sigh. Thanks to Vigilance and my ridiculous toughness, I wasn't tired, and prepared supper.
Once all that was done, I returned to my bedroom to brood.
Equipping the Vectis Gloves had cost me two mana, the only mana I had cast all day. I still had five artefact mana in hand, one untapped land, and plenty of treasures. I needed to decide what to do with it. I had three clear options. I could cast Tidy Conclusion, boosting my life level to ridiculous levels. That would cost five mana, the remaining five I could convert into treasure or one treasure and a +1/+1 counter. I liked the idea of having more life points, but I wasn't planning on fighting anyone tomorrow, and it could wait.
I could Escalate!!!. I wanted to do that, really. It would cost nine mana, including two white. I didn't know what Escalating would do, but I anticipated being pleased with the result. It would definitely be a step towards my evolution into a true planeswalker. But I wasn't in a hurry to do that -- all the mistakes I was making were telling me that I still had a lot to learn, and maybe I shouldn't be in a hurry to climb out of the kiddies' pool and jump into the deep end. It would wait.
I picked the third option.
I lay down on my bed, closed my eyes, and upgraded Artificer to level three.
Wow, it was a good job I had been lying down. Level one in Artificer had been like suddenly taking on the knowledge gained from an apprenticeship. Level two had been roughly the same magnitude of information, developing that apprenticeship into a journeyman's confidence. Both those steps had cost two mana. Level three cost six mana, and it blew my mind. Mastery. Where apprenticeship had been 'what' and journeyman had been 'how', mastery was 'why'. Why all those little rules that were taught to those starting down the path were there, and so which ones could be broken, which shortcuts could be taken. Knowing why something worked meant that I could see what else might work, and what else would definitely not.
I now knew why tools and materials cost what they did, and so had a better feel on whether I was being cheated. I knew why care needed to be paid at each step of a process, and so how that care might impact the final product. I knew why projects could fail, and so what pitfalls avoid. It also came with detailed knowledge of how to make hundreds of magical artefacts, were I to come into the possession of the relevant materials.
It was a lot. It was boggling, decades of focussed experience distilled into my mind. I was lost in thought.
Then my interface interrupted my thoughts to demand that I pick an artefact to duplicate.
Oh yes, level 3 Artificer allowed one artefact to be duplicated each turn. Seriously.
Eventually I'd be able to make a little fort out of Coveted Jewels stacked one on top of another. I giggled at the thought, but the pressure to make a decision was building in my mind.
I made my decision.
A new Spotter Thopter launched itself high into Brockton Bay's skies. This one obeyed only me, and I could look at things without alerting the PRT that I could override their Spotter. I set it scanning the city.
The new Thopter let me Scry twice. I could view the next two random cards I would draw, and decide if I wanted to draw them or if they should go into to the back of my library. The first card was Might of Murasa which for one and a green would give a target creature +3/+3 until the end of turn, or for three and two green would give +5/+5 until the end of turn. It was nice, but I had better uses for my mana. It went to the bottom of my library. The second was Shieldmate's Blessing, which would prevent the next three points of damage to be dealt that turn. I was a little more tempted by that one -- it could save someone's life -- so I decided to keep it on top.