Saturday 29th January 2011
I was still disembodied when I had to make the end of turn decisions. I chose to duplicate my Coveted Jewel, because it was handy to have more mana. That drew me three more cards, Slime Molding (potentially massive slime monster), Dying Wail (I could enchant a creature -- when it died then a target player would discard two cards), and Might of the Masses (another temporary buff for a creature). So three duds, then.
I slipped back into reality at the edge of the forest, where I had been standing before I triggered the Robe of Stars, but end-of-turn healing meant that my headache was a thing of the past.
My Scheme was a dud as well: Which of You Burns Brightest?. It would allow me to spend mana to deal damage to effectively an entire faction. I chose not to activate it.
In contrast the day's Power-selected card would have been very useful a few hours ago: Thassa's Ire. It was an enchantment that cost one blue mana to cast, but would then allow me to pump mana into it whenever I wanted. For three generic and one blue, I could tap or untap a target creature, and I could do that for as long as I had mana.
There was one other nice thing. Queen Administrator clearly approved of the ambush fight, her happiness was now seven! That meant that I could have multiples of any one card. Which, well, okay, I hadn't realised that had been a limitation before. I was very glad that limitation was gone now.
The convoy set off again a few hours later. Most of the Empire Eighty-Eight ambushers were going to various prisons and containment centres, but Krieg and Victor had Birdcage sentences for various hate crimes and it was agreed that since we were heading that way, we might as well do them the courtesy of giving them a lift.
I was back in the New Start, staring into the distance and wishing that I had brought a book. Sere, Assault, and Battery were dozing, and Miss Militia was writing reports.
I was so glad when, hours later, the convoy finally pulled up to the border, where several members of the Guild were waiting for us, lead by Narwhal herself. The handover took a while, but eventually it was done and we were finally free to leave.
I had already secured permission from Miss Militia to make my own way home, and I wanted a quick word with Dragon via one of her Dragonsuits, before I left.
"Hello, Walker," said Dragon from the suit speaker, "We need to be leaving soon, but I can spare a minute."
"Thanks, Dragon," I said, "Just a quick thing before I hop home. I now have better visibility on who does and does not count as my 'opponents' on a battlefield. I still have the Wrath of Oko card, and I have a plan that will allow me to cast it without me becoming elkified. It's not urgent, but if you think that people want to proceed with the Ellisburg thing, you know, turning the monsters there into elk, we can do that."
"Thank you, Walker," said Dragon, "There are a lot of people who will need to be involved in that discussion, but this may bring a lot of people closure."
"Cool," I said, "Let me know. I'm PWalker2011 on PHO."
"And I'm tin_mother. I'll be in touch."
I hit a slight problem warping back home -- I didn't have any mana.
All my mana generating lands and artefacts were back in Brockton Bay, out of range, dammit! I was really getting tired of miscalculating my decisions.
I could see a couple of options, and I picked both. Firstly I started running back, using my flying ability to boost my speed, and secondly I spent the time I was running exercising my ability to extend my range to access my greyed-out Brockton Bay battlefield.
I mean, sure, I could have called the New Start, explained my miscalculation and gone back with them, but when presented with the options of either admitting my mistake to Armsmaster and Miss Militia or running two hundred and fifty miles, the choice was clear: hand me my Swiftfoot Boots.
My Brockton Bay battlefield didn't open up until I hit Concord, New Hampshire, and when it did the cards were a little blurry. It took focus and determination to reach out to my Mox and tap it for a single black mana. With that, I could finally teleport home.
It was still early when I came back; Dad hadn't gone to bed but was asleep in an armchair with the radio on. He woke when I started cooking breakfast.
"Welcome back, Taylor. How did it go?"
"Good morning, Dad," I said as I started loading up his plate, "Not bad, thanks. We picked up a few Empire capes on the way but made it to the Canadian border just fine; Kaiser is probably pretty unhappy right now."
"Who did Kaiser send after you?"
"Um," I started counting on my fingers, "Krieg, Alabaster, Victor, Othala, Rune, Crusader, Purity, Night, Fog... Oh, Stormtiger and Cricket too. Plus a bunch of goons, of course."
Dad was staring at me in horror. "How... many people died?"
"None!" I said, offended, "We ambushed the ambushers. I mean, it was touch-and-go for one guy, but I got to him in time and he's fine now."
Dad relaxed a little, "And how many Empire got captured?"
"All of them," I said with a shrug, and started eating. I was really hungry after all that running.
Dad was staring at me open mouthed. "Wow. Kaiser is going to be furious."
"Yeah," I said once I'd swallowed, "But what's he going to do? It's just him, Fenja, and Menja now. I wouldn't bet on them against the Merchants, let alone the PRT."
Dad frowned at me, "Don't underestimate what a desperate person can do, Taylor. Especially someone as powerful as Kaiser. He might end up doing something drastic to try and regain status once this becomes news."
I shrugged awkwardly, "To be honest, I'm more worried about Oni Lee. The ABB are going to be expected to make a lot of noise, and that means Oni Lee making a mess of things."
"Do you have an answer for that?"
"I'm working on it."
As I said to my Dad, I was more worried about Oni Lee than Kaiser. Word hadn't gone out about the captures yet, but a text to Miss Militia explained that it would be on the news cycle in a few hours, when a press conference was scheduled. I was asked to attend said conference, and I declined. I didn't like antagonising Miss Militia, but I'd stood in front of a few cameras before and I felt no need to do it again. What was the point of not being a member of the PRT if it meant that you couldn't avoid the publicity machine? It wasn't as if I had Walker merchandise to sell. Let Armsmaster take some glory -- he'd be less likely to stab me in the back that way. I, uh, didn't say that last part to Miss Militia, of course.
So, I had a few hours, maybe half a day, to find and capture the notorious teleporter, to keep the scales balanced. Easy, right?
The first thing I did was review Oni Lee's cards and Synergy. He was a teleporter who left behind a temporary token of himself that would be carrying everything he had on him when he jumped, including grenades and knives. The token was very short-lived and like my summons -- perfectly happy to die for the cause. He didn't have many limitations on his teleportation -- line of sight was all he needed, although presumably it was a little inaccurate for long jumps. His costume included a mask that looked like a Japanese demon, interesting because it probably obstructed his vision quite a lot. Hmm.
I hadn't looked through my unsummonable cards for a while, and it had been for a very good reason -- there were too many of them. Ever since I started having Spotter Thopters over the city, I'd been getting hundreds of cards a day; sorting through them for cards I wanted to find was a chore. Looking through them for a specific card, though? That wasn't too bad, thanks to my lovely Power.
I mean, sure, looking up intimate details of other capes was a little intrusive, but so long as I ignored their base card, and so their identities, and looked instead for their Synergies, I wasn't linking private and cape identities, and respecting the unwritten rules. Right? I wouldn't do it to Legend, say, but I had a need to know about some people.
Anyway, there was a small villain group operating out of the docks area that was called 'The Undersiders'. They were mostly thieves, it seemed, and were pretty low profile. There were only four of them: Grue, Tattletale, Regent, and Hellhound, and they were all capes. I had cards for all of them, although Hellhound's card took me a while to find -- apparently she preferred the name 'Bitch'. I was interested in them because two of them had reported Powers that could probably counter Oni Lee.
Step one for bringing down Oni Lee before lunchtime: find the Undersiders before brunch.
That wasn't quite as hard for me as it would be for anyone with a sane Power. I had a Spotter Thopter of my own; I could point it at the Docks and see which cards lit up on my unsummonables interface. When I was looking at the entire docks area, people were not much larger than specs of dust, but the relevant cards still glowed in my interface, which meant that I could tell that Bitch was up and about. It was then a matter of scanning away from the area until Bitch faded from my interface, and then I knew where to focus.
At that point I could zoom in and see a young auburn-haired woman taking some dogs for an early morning walk.
I prepped for a meeting with the Undersiders until Bitch returned to a building and went inside with her dogs. I was pretty zoomed in at that point, and there was still one card lit up on my interface, 'The Undersider's Lair'. Darn it, I'd already had the location I needed amongst my unsummonable cards, and just hadn't realised it. The Lair itself wasn't anything remarkable, even if I could summon it -- it was a land card that landed tapped, and could be tapped for red or black.
I grabbed the stuff I'd put together in preparation for this meeting, and teleported to the Bards' House. It wasn't a long walk from there to the Undersider's Lair.
Lisa Wilbourn was a supervillain. She was also a teenager. It was the weekend. She was triply expected to not be awake at whatever insane time it was right now, but whoever was loudly knocking on the door clearly didn't respect that. And if she wasn't careful--
Person knocking is very strong. Possible parahuman or person in power armour.
--then her Power would get curious and any chance of Lisa sleeping through whatever train wreck was about to happen downstairs dropped to zero.
The knocking continued.
Only person liable to be awake is Rachel Lindt. Knocking will disturb dogs. Rachel Lindt will open door.
Lisa opened her eyes in wide alarm and threw off the covers. She scrambled to get a semblance of dressed. She could hear grumbling from Rachel as she stomped through the house.
Rachel Lindt is not socially adept. Meeting between Rachel Lindt and unknown very strong person may not go well.
"Yes, yes, way to point out the obvious!" muttered Lisa as she rushed from her bedroom to the landing.
Rachel was at the door by the time Lisa reached the top of the stairs, and had a perfect view of Walker, who had been knocking on their door. Walker was in her starry robe and was wearing her possibly-Tinkertech gauntlets, but was wearing a cheap plastic throw-away half-face mask rather than her usual bright light full mask.
Person knocking on door is Walker. Walker's power level exceeds that of the combined Undersiders. The Undersiders will not be able to defeat Walker in a fight.
'No shit, Sherlock,' thought Lisa as she rushed down the stairs. Rachel was unmasked, Lisa was unmasked, and it was too late to do anything about that.
"What do you want?" demanded Rachel.
"Good morning," said Walker cheerily, "Sorry to wake you. Can we talk? I've brought snacks!" She held up a cardboard carrier holding five steaming coffee cups. She had a paper bag in the same hand.
Five cups is four Undersiders plus Walker. Walker is aware that residents of house are the Undersiders. Walker offering food to put Lisa Wilbourn at ease. Walker does not want to fight. Power did not need to sound so disappointed by that.
"Why?" demanded Rachel.
"Um, because I want to hire you?"
Rachel stared at Walker for a split second before turning to bellow into the house, "Grue!" and then turning her back to Walker and heading back to her dogs, having just destroyed any chance that Lisa had in persuading Walker that she had the wrong house.
Lisa groaned and buried her head in her hands.
"Are you okay?" asked Walker solicitously.
Without removing her hands to look up at Walker, Lisa said, "Just peachy, thanks. Let me go get my mask and we can talk."
The coffee was a little cold by the time Brian, in his Grue costume, and Lisa, in her Tattletale costume, sat down with Walker to drink coffee. Walker let Lisa and Brian pick their cups first, and have first pick of the pastries she'd brought with her. Lisa's Power helpfully pointed out that Walker's Brute rating meant that she might well be immune to poison, and could so have poisoned all the food safely (for her). Lisa mentally pointed out to her Power that Walker's Brute rating meant that she didn't need poison.
"So, sorry for surprising you like this," said Walker like a cheery morning person, "But this is kinda time-critical."
"Okay, so we will get back to how you knew where to find us," said Grue, "But what's the job?"
"You, and Regent, are a effectively hard-counters to Oni Lee, so I want to hire you to help me take him out. Non-lethally!"
Walker knows non-public details about Oni Lee's Power. Walker may know non-public details of Regent's and Grue's Powers. Walker's Power may have secondary Trump components.
"How are we counters to Oni Lee? And why is this time critical?" asked Grue, hiding nerves with grumpiness.
"It's time critical because in about forty-five minutes the PRT is going to announce the capture of most of the Empire's capes, and we need to take out Oni Lee before the ABB make a territory grab--"
Empire capes have been quiet recently. Empire capes likely held in reserve to ambush Hookwolf prisoner transport. Ambush went poorly. Likely cause of ambush failure: Walker.
"--and Oni Lee's teleport is line-of-sight. If he can't see anything, he can't teleport. If he can't teleport, he can't make suicide doubles. He's just a blind psychopath with knives. Regent can keep Lee's eyes closed, you can keep him in darkness."
"How many capes did the Empire lose in the Hookwolf Birdhouse transport ambush?" asked Lisa.
"Um, all of them. Except Kaiser, Menja, and Fenja."
"Fuck!" said Grue.
"And you're not worried about what Lung will do when his Lieutenant is captured and there is insufficient Empire presence to counter him?" asked Lisa.
Walker hesitated--
Walker is not worried about Lung. Lung already dealt with. Lung is already captured or dead. Capture of Lung not announced. "Lung is dead?!" said Lisa.
"Um, I can neither confirm nor deny--"
Lung is dead. Walker killed Lung or arranged for his death. Walker is not restricted to non-lethal solutions to her problems.
"Fuuuuck!" said Grue.
"Which is why we need Oni Lee taken down, to keep the scales balanced. When it's just Kaiser and the twins-- Um, I have a plan."
Walker does not like her plan. Plan makes Walker feel guilty. Plan may involve murder, blackmail, or breaking unwritten rules.
"Okay!" said Lisa cheerily, "Let's say that we help you out. How much does this job pay? What's the plan?"
Walker lifted a bag from the floor and put it on the table, next to the snacks, and waved for Lisa to open it. Inside were a lot of neat bundles of twenty dollar bills. Contents of bag forty-nine thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars.
"That's the pay," said Walker, "I, uh, took one of the notes to the bank, they said it was legal."
Walker can summon money. Walker can summon a lot of money.
Grue peered into the bag and nodded. "And the plan?"
"We find Oni Lee before he goes on a rampage. You surround him in darkness so that he cannot see. I get close and either pepper spray him if his mask doesn't have goggles, or paint spray him if it does. We trip him up, remove his knives and grenades and stuff, tie him up, I take him to the PRT, you guys go spend your ill-- your well-gotten gains and I-- I deal with Kaiser." Walker had a tatty backpack, and pulled some nylon rope from it.
"Do you know where Oni Lee will be?" asked Lisa.
"No, but I have a notebook that a-- a friend drew up. She was, er, shadowing the ABB for a while." She held up a neat leather-bound notebook.
Lisa reached for it and Walker hesitated before handing it over. She opened it to see that it was written in Japanese. "I can't read this."
"Oh, okay. I have a way to find Oni Lee when he's out in the open, but I was hoping you-- I can read bits out if that would help?"
Walker reads Japanese. Walker observed speaking fluent Ancient Greek. Walker either impressively multilingual, or Power includes ability to understand languages. Walker Power likely either omnilingual, or allows Walker to understand those that she summons. Notebook likely prepared by person summoned by Walker. Person summoned by Walker is not available to assist in finding Oni Lee. Person summoned by Walker may have died in process of killing Lung. Walker able to summon loyal and capable assassins.
Lisa really didn't want to spend any more time with Walker than necessary. That said, she was open to the idea of spending some time with Walker's money.
We were in a car, driving towards the ABB territory. Grue was driving, it was his car, Tattletale was sitting shotgun, and I was in the back. They'd agreed that bringing Regent along was unnecessary. When I'd suggested having him around as backup, they'd agreed that waking up Regent and bringing him along was unnecessary. I took the hint.
I was reading out various details from Yuriko's notebook to Tattletale. Occasionally I handed it forward so that Tattletale could look at the little maps that Yuriko had drawn, or some of the sketches.
Tattletale was somehow taking the combined information from the notebook and her own knowledge of the city to home in on a location.
"He'll be eating breakfast," she said, "Somewhere semi-public. He will have been told that he needs to be seen, and he follows orders. Doesn't want to lead, so he will follow. Turn right."
It was getting towards eleven o'clock. The press announcement had gone out, and the Asian quarter was already getting noisy, celebrating the Empire's defeat.
I kept reading Yuriko's notes. The information was random and more of it seemed to do with Lung than Oni Lee, but Tattletale assured me that it was all grist for the mill. Maybe she was keen to learn more about the ABB in general, but I didn't mind supplementing the cash payment with something extra that didn't cost me anything.
"Now left," said Tattletale, and then said, "Pull over. Up ahead."
We were facing a noodle bar, and seated under the eaves was a scarred man eating his noodles. He had an over-sized football jersey that was doing a bad job of hiding a bandolier, and there was an Oni mask hanging from his hip. I checked my unsummonable cards, and yes, that was Oni Lee.
"That's him. So..." I said, "Does that count as masked or not? Because I don't want to be accused of attacking a cape out of costume."
"Ambiguous," said Tattletale, "Look, people are going to notice a car full of capes soon. Grue, drive on," he pulled back into traffic and drove past the bar. "Let's keep it simple," said Tattletale, "We drive on. Grue and I get into position. Walker, you fly in, making a big scene. Oni Lee will teleport to you to do his suicide bomber routine. Grue covers you and him in shadow, and then comes in to help subdue him. Once he's subdued, Grue retreats, the darkness goes and everyone sees you standing over your fallen foe and assume that you pulled another Power out of your ass. Deal?"
It was better than my plan. "Deal."
I flew down from the clouds, Mask of Law and Grace bright on my face. I descended smoothly, arms crossed, in the middle of the T-Junction that the noodle bar had one corner of. I was facing Oni Lee's general direction.
Traffic stopped, sane people made themselves absent, insane people pulled out their phones to record me.
Oni Lee saw me, and took another mouthful of noodles. He made a show of savouring them before putting down his chopsticks. He shed his big jersey, donned the mask, and teleported away.
I was immediately surrounded in impenetrable darkness and the world went quiet, the sound leached away by Grue's shadows. Oni Lee was quick with his knives, or at least I think that was what was poking me in my back. Oni Lee had both red and black affinity, so I was protected from his knives by my mask. I turned, said, "Ow!" to keep his attention, although I don't know if Oni Lee heard me. I didn't fight back, out of fear that I'd accidentally rip his arm off or something. Oni Lee kept stabbing me. This was annoying. I wanted to be able to fight, but my power stopped that from being an option.
Then there was a heavy grunt and the stabbing stopped.
A window opened in the fog, so I could see Grue working to restrain Oni Lee. Most of Lee himself was still restrained in shadow. I reached down and grabbed Oni Lee's arms carefully, holding them firm to allow Grue to tie his knots.
A bag went over the wannabe demon's head, the bandoliers came off, and Grue gave me a thumbs up.
"Pleasure doing business with you," I said and picked up Oni Lee and his bandoliers.
Grue retreated, the darkness disappeared and the idiots with their phones had a clear shot of me holding Oni Lee in a fireman's carry as I flew up into the sky.
"Thank you," said Dauntless, as they took Oni Lee and his bandolier off my hands. I explained how his powers worked, which he duly noted down.
The PRT were mostly happy to receive another cape with a bounty on his head. Apparently Oni Lee had a birdcage sentence, and the next Guild prisoner convoy wasn't for another couple of weeks, since he'd just missed the last one.
"I just hope we can hold onto him when Lung inevitably attacks to get him back," he said.
"Oh," I replied.
Dauntless must have caught my tone of voice, as he turned to fully face me. "'Oh'?"
"I maaaybe should have mentioned this earlier," I said, fiddling with my hands a little, "In my defence, it never came up in conversation, buuuut, Lung is dead."
"What?!"
"Yeah, he died a couple of weeks ago, I think? My Power-- you know my Power lets me summon stuff, right?" Dauntless nodded. "When I become a full planeswalker, I should be able to summon stuff from this plane. Stuff like, um, parahumans. So I have greyed out cards for all the parahumans I've met--"
"You can summon me?!"
"It's voluntary! And not yet. But yeah, one day, probably. Anyway. My cards for most parahumans are greyed out, but Lung's card is a darker grey and it just feels, you know, dead. My Power is telling me that I'm right, anyway."
"Are you sure it just means that you won't be able to summon Lung for some other reason?" asked Dauntless carefully.
"Oh yes, my Power lets me summon people who are dead. There's something, uh, messy about time and summoning. Don't know how it works, but I've seen a dinosaur card once."
"You can summon a dinosaur?!" asked Dauntless.
"Well, not right now," I said, "I saw the card, but didn't pick it. It's complicated. It's just, if I try to summon Lung, and he agrees to be summoned, then I'll get Lung as he was when I saw him, I think."
"I'm getting distracted. You knew that Lung was dead, but didn't tell us?"
"I knew that Lung was dead, and I knew that the PRT was leaking secrets like a sieve," I said. I liked Dauntless, but I wasn't going to let him push me around. "If I told you before the Empire lost most of their capes, someone would have told the Empire and they'd have made moves on ABB territory. I didn't want those deaths on my conscience."
"Right. Right. Well, with Oni Lee captured and no response from Lung, the secret is going to come out soon." He sighed, "Thank you for telling us, Walker. We really need to get you Power tested. Soon."
I had mixed feelings about Power testing, but it would be kinda cool to gush about all I could do to some nerds who were paid to be interested in the topic.
"Fine. Monday afternoon?"
Dauntless nodded, "We'll make it happen. Please be here by one? It's going to be a long day, I think."
I nodded, did a fist bump, and left Dauntless to his paperwork. Apparently I'd be getting an even more generous payout for Oni Lee than I had for Hookwolf, but it'd take a few days to process.
I was back at home, sitting on the sofa with Dad beside me, watching the television when the PRT announced that Oni Lee had been captured. It was already all over PHO, thanks to the many videos taken of the 'fight'. The Mayor and Director Piggot announced that the police and the PRT would enforce a curfew from 10 PM to 5 AM for anyone not travelling to or from work or undergoing a medical emergency.
"It's probably for the best," Dad said, "There will be a lot of unhappy and confused people after the Empire and the ABB have both lost key people. The city is going to be a powder keg for a while before things settle down."
"Yeah," I said, "I hope the authorities can keep a lid on things."
"I'm sure that they can," he said, pulling me close, "Taylor, we need to talk."
"Uh-oh, what I have I done?"
"A lot, Little Owl, a lot. You've humiliated the Empire and the ABB, and made many people aware that you are an exceptionally powerful young woman," he had his arm around my shoulders and hugged me as he spoke.
"You make that sound like a bad thing," I said cautiously.
"It isn't, but actions have consequences, Taylor. If you ignore the unwritten rules, how many people-- how many gangs would know who you are, and where we live?"
My mind flashed back to the ruptured football. "All of them," I admitted, "Maybe not Leet and Über, or Faultline, unless they're sending their kids to Winslow."
"They're not the ones I'm worried about. The Empire have broken the unwritten rules before, and New Wave did it before them, if the rumours are to be believed."
"You think they'll attack me at school, or here?" I asked. I wasn't too worried -- 'Indestructible' meant that my body wouldn't be destroyed, and my healing meant that I could recover from non-lethal damage.
"You, or me."
Oh.
Dad refused to be outfitted in Darksteel Plate armour. He did accept one more +1/+1 counter, bringing him up to 3/3, but no more than that because he was worried that people would notice. The only other option he would accept was the Vanishing enchantment that had been sitting in my hand for ages. It would allow me to spend two blue to make him not exist for the rest of the day until midnight. It wasn't a great emergency option, but it might save him in a pinch.
He did, however, suggest that we start taking some simple safety precautions -- checking the door before opening, leaving the curtains drawn, staying in regular contact (Dad had, very reluctantly, purchased a mobile phone), and he agreed to carry the Mox Amber with him; it was the smallest summonable item I had that I could teleport to. I also promised to discuss my concerns with the PRT, when I went for power testing on Monday. He told me not to raise them sooner than that though -- he didn't think that the threat was that likely.
There was one other very powerful protection that my Dad suggested, but it might take some negotiation to make happen, and it would be a long time before it had any impact -- the reputation of being a charitable healer.
"I'll talk to Panacea when I next see her," I promised.
After that very worrying conversation, I retired upstairs to Tinker. I didn't have the materials to hand to make most things, but there was one thing that I could use and did have the materials to make: Moxes. Or Moxen. I'm not sure where that thought came from. Moxes.
I always needed more mana, and I needed to Tinker something that I had the material to make, and Moxes met both requirements. I went downstairs and liberated some silver, and the largest pearl I could find from the treasure bags I'd put aside for crafting materials, and took it upstairs to my bedroom and got to work.
At their heart, moxen were simple. A jewel that was enchanted to gather mana from the environment over the course of the day, and release it on command. They were valuable and rare because the enchanting of one involved inhumanly-precise mana-work and unusually large gems. Thankfully, 'inhumanly-precise' is right up a Tinker's wheelhouse, and my Treasures gave me an ample supply of unusually large gems.
It took the best part of eight hours, including six hours in a Tinker's fugue, but at the end of it, I had a 'Mox Pearl'. It was a beautifully enchanted pearl on a silver chain that would, when tapped, give me one white mana.
Another Mox Amber would have been more useful, but I didn't have any lumps of amber and anyway the Mox Amber is Legendary, meaning that I could only have one of them.
The day was pretty much at an end. I'd had the radio on in the background, but a Tinker fugue means that you're unaware of your surroundings. I couldn't tell if there had been any groundbreaking news, but none of my summons seemed to be particularly alarmed. Prakash was tinkering on a new Spotter Thopter, the bards were doing their own things, and Towel was perfectly happy at the Triome, dozing on a tree branch.
I had plenty of time before midnight, and I had a fair bit of mana to hand -- I'd spent two today, between my teleport and Dad's Vanishing, which left me with fourteen mana from my mana rocks (I tapped the Garrison for a Treasure token). I cast Thassa's Ire for one blue mana, and levelled up my Fighter skill, twice, for eight mana.
Yeah, I really should have given the first level up time to settle before doing the second, but I hated to waste mana and a mentally debilitating headache isn't really that bad. Honest.
Fighter Class level 2 was the knowledge of a veteran. Someone who had taken the training they'd been given and put it to use. They'd learned how to use their environment, how to fight dirty, when to run. They'd fought the giant crabs and learned just how hard those shells really are and fought on battlefields and learned just how stupid people could be. They'd joined an adventuring party and delved dungeons with all that entailed. They'd gotten drunk in bars afterwards, and learned from fighting there, too. It was the knowledge of a dangerous person.
To be honest, I didn't get much out of it, because I wasn't worried about giant crabs, battlefields or dungeon delving, I wanted unarmed, non-lethal combat and while I got some of that, most of the information rushing into my mind was not suited to my purposes. The actual ability that I got from it was pretty useless, too. Equip abilities cost 2 generic mana less to activate? It would have been handy a couple of weeks ago, but now it was just irrelevant.
That disappointment probably counted for a lot on why I was willing to boost the Fighter Class to level 3. That was a lot. Not as much as level 3 Artificer, but a lot. This wasn't the skills of a veteran, it was the knowledge of a master. It was what happened when someone took the lessons learned from decades of fighting in all kinds of environments and thought about it. Distilled some of it through the alchemy of teaching, but some of it just was. Mastery of weapons, mastery of close quarters combat, mastery of unarmed combat. Again, non-lethal wasn't the focus, but there was some there, amidst the flood.
The on-paper benefit of level 3 was simple -- if I attacked someone, they had to block me. They wouldn't be able to just run. I didn't think it would be useful, but at least it was something.
I was mentally exhausted and magically depleted after levelling up Fighter Class to the limit, so I collapsed in my bed and waited for midnight.
Zihao Ren took a long pull from his drink. He was normally a sober man, but today's events would try the patience of a statue. First, the news that the sword hanging over the ABB's head had been pushed aside: the capture of the majority of the Empire's capes. The sudden reprieve was a great relief, and he had happily told Toybox that the ABB were no longer interested in the Tinkertech that they had been trying to buy. Toybox had been charging extortionate rates due to the ABB's predicament, and telling them that he was no longer interested in their business had been cathartic.
Then the despicable Walker had captured Oni Lee.
'Absolute disaster' did not adequately describe the situation. Oni Lee was captured, and now the ABB had no capes. Oni Lee was captured, and now everyone knew his line-of-sight weakness. Oni Lee was captured, and Lung would not be seen to save him, and so all would know that Lung was gone.
One strike, three lethal blows.
Ren gulped down the rest of his drink. The council meeting had been stormy and ineffective. The gang was looking to the council for guidance, and they were lost.
He would solve this problem. He had never found a problem he could not solve, so he would solve this problem. But not today.
Zihao Ren refilled his glass.
Sunday 30th January 2011
So the city didn't burn down overnight, which was good.
I duplicated a Coveted Jewel for my Artificer level 3 perk. Seriously, three more mana of any colour each turn, and three cards? That's a good deal. It did mean that if anyone attacked me without being blocked they would be getting one heck of a reward for it, but to be honest, the Coveted Jewels were just too handy. It brought my mana up to twenty-eight a turn, which was nice.
My three cards were mostly duds, of course. Battered Golem -- at 3/2 and with problems with untapping, it was not my best, or even second best, golem, Time Ebb which would put a target creature on top of its owner's library -- finally a way of dismissing my summons without killing them, but not a neat one, and Leery Fogbeast a 4/2 beast that if blocked would prevent all combat damage from happening that turn.
Okay, that last one had the potential of stopping a riot or something, so I shouldn't be so quick to discount it.
My Scheme was Plots That Span Centuries. Which sounded really impressive considering that my plots usually fell apart over the course of an afternoon. Or less. We're not going to talk about running halfway across the nation because I couldn't count to zero.
The Scheme did nothing by itself, but tomorrow it would allow me to set three schemes in motion simultaneously. That might be fun.
My Power-selected card was Thassa's Oracle. A merfolk wizard who would let me arrange the top few cards in my library, but would presumably also be able to give me advice. Prophecies. Maybe even useful, directed, understandable prophecies. It was worth a try, anyway.
My Power-cards were currently focussed on bringing down the Empire, but that was already almost complete. The last remaining action was on me. I just needed to straighten my back, look to my goals, abandon any pretence that could possibly remain that I could be a hero (seriously, I had assassinated Lung, that ship had sail, crashed, burned down, and sunk into the harbour long ago), and enslave Kaiser.
Invoke the Winds It would make a Kaiser permanently my slave. He would be unable to resist, and would dutifully destroy the Empire from within. It would be a heinous crime, but once it was done, Brockton Bay could start to heal. The Police, PRT, and the Protectorate could easily handle the non-Powered members of the Empire and the ABB, and without the support of any parahumans, both gangs would struggle to recruit. Okay, in principle the Empire would still have Fenja and Menja, but they were bimbo arm candy, not leaders.
Heck, they were Kaiser's bimbo arm candy. With him my slave, he could command them to go into therapy and maybe they could become useful members of society one day.
Saving many souls at the cost of my own, already stained, one? It was a bargain, and I didn't know why I was hesitating.
Yet hesitate I did.
My first thought was relief that I didn't know where to find Kaiser, but then I looked at my unsummonable cards, and it gave me his name. Unfortunately, I recognised it -- Max Anders, the CEO and President of Medhall, Brockton Bay's biggest single employer. Yeuch. Max was also a famous philanthropist, although I suspected that if I looked to his charities there would be a noticeable racial bias to all of them.
Great. So I could definitely find him. He'd doubtless be at work on Monday; I resolved to find him then, and just get it done.
That gave him a day's reprieve, and me a day of brooding and self-reproach.
I got right on it, only taking a break to prepare breakfast for me and Dad.
We'd planned on a quiet day, but that didn't mean I couldn't fit in a few chores after breakfast.
I teleported to Towel, who was dozing on a branch. He-- It-- Look, I had no idea what gender of Tempest Owl Towel was, and I respected his/her/its privacy too much to even think of finding out. Towel had some pretty yellow marking around her mask, so I decided that I'd give her feminine pronouns until evidence for a contrary conclusion presented itself.
My presence woke Towel, but I wasn't a cruel mistress. I'd brought some bacon snacks for her, gave her some head scritches, and petted her a little to make sure that she knew that she was beautiful and/or handsome and was loved. I then let her get back to sleep. Much like Yuriko, Towel was allergic to too much affection.
Anyway, the Triome was a nice quiet and natural spot where the river, the sea, and the forest met, and it was my easiest way to get to the sea without being noticed. I strolled down to the beach shore, and started gathering mana.
For two blue mana, I summoned Thassa's Oracle. She was a 1 / 3 merfolk wizard, who would let me look through a number of cards equal to my 'devotion to blue,' an arcane concept that came out to be six in my case. I could choose one of those cards to put on the top of my library and the rest would be relegated to the bottom.
My six cards were Without Weakness which made a target indestructible for a turn, Seismic Monstrosaur a 6/5 allosaurus, but the card could be discarded to allow me to search for a mountain, Afflict which would give a creature -1/-1 until the end of the turn and draw me a card, Wingcrafter which, uh, allowed me to pair souls to give both of them flying? Yeah, I wasn't going to touch souls with a ten foot pole. Finishing them off were Mirror Wall, a 3/4 wall with defender that could attack for one turn if I gave it mana, and Chain to Memory, another temporary enemy debuff.
I was only interested in the first two cards there, and I ended up picking the 'Seismic Monstrosaur', because I really wanted to know what mountain land cards were out there. It stayed at the top of the library, the rest went to the bottom.
[Hello,] I said to the Oracle.
I had been expecting a mermaid, but no, the Oracle was bipedal. She was thin, had blue-green scales, pale teal eyes, and was decorated with conch shells. She had gills, but seemed perfectly comfortable standing on the beach breathing air.
[Planeswalker Hebert,] said the Oracle, holding up a webbed hand in greeting. She then froze, her nictitating membranes flickered over her now-glowing eyes, and said far more urgently, [Your father must Vanish! Now!]
I stared dumbfounded at her for a couple of precious seconds before I realised what she was saying and activated the Vanish enchantment that I'd put on Dad.
[Why?] I asked, but the Oracle was completely distracted by her environment. [Oracle?] She looked around, oblivious to my presence. She lazily dived into the water swam off out to the sea.
I could have called her back, but she seemed confused. Maybe she needed some time to acclimatise to Earth Bet, and maybe she just gave me a prophecy.
I needed to get home, fast. I teleported home via the scarecrow, and came out of the basement to find the house empty, as expected. I wasn't sure why I'd just Vanished my dad, and if it was some oracular joke then someone was going to realise the limits of my sense of humour.
I headed up to my bedroom to find it had been ransacked. My notes were gone, my spellbook, my crafting materials, the empty Potion of Healing bottle, the Pearl Mox, my mother's flute...
I had no idea what had happened. A home invader of some--
That was when everything exploded.
Six points of damage, including a ringing in my ears, a scalp wound that matted my hair to my hoodie with blood, and a gash on my leg. I tapped into my Life Points and healed my injuries.
I may have given the impression in the past that I had some anger-management issues. To the contrary, in comparison to how I was feeling right then, every time before that I had appeared irked, I had in fact been the very physical embodiment of chill.
I was not 'chill' any more.
You could tell because while I was digging myself out of the rubble that had once been my home the bricks were shattering in my hands, and against the other rubble they were hitting. There was a roof beam above my head. I tore it to shreds just like everything else and I was free.
The most annoying thing? Whatever destroyed the house counted as an attack on me, and I hadn't fought back -- blocked it. I'd just lost the five Coveted Jewels.
The basement was intact, my piles of treasure were fine (most of the damage was to the roof and top floor of the house), but the Jewels were gone, and with them fifteen points of mana of any colour every day. I had no idea if whoever attacked me drew fifteen cards, or if they could cast them, and if whatever they summoned would obey them. I knew I was in trouble, I just didn't know how bad.
"FUCK!"
I was not happy.
There was a Spotter Thopter overhead. Prakash's good one, I thought, but it hardly mattered. I could see through its scopes. Even as I was pulling myself out of the rubble, I was using it to scan the area.
What had exploded? The only wrecked car in our driveway was Dad's, and it had been crushed by rubble, not exploded, so not a car bomb. A letter bomb seemed unlikely -- we didn't get much mail on Sundays, or Saturdays, and anyway, we hadn't had any deliveries. Mortar?
There was a truck driving away from us, a couple of vans...
I really wanted to hurt someone right then, but I needed a target. If I could find my attacker (or the 'player' of the attacker), I could get my Jewels back.
"Walker!"
I whipped my head round to find myself facing Velocity, Brockton Bay's fastest cape. Well, if you didn't count my teleports.
"What?" I snapped. I was standing in the rubble of what had once been my home. It should have been blatantly obvious that I was busy.
"Walker, are you okay?" he asked carefully.
He was being polite, and, yeah, he had a legitimate cause for concern. Ripping his head off would be entirely inappropriate. I took some deep breaths. We had lost the house, but we might not have lost all the priceless memories of mum, of our lives. I took some more breaths. I hadn't lost Dad. Breathe. The loss of the Jewels was frustrating, but I could Tinker up another Jewel, and rebuild my manabase. Breathe deep. Hold it. Let it go. This was a marathon, not a sprint. I had had a big setback, partly fuelled by my own greed and caused by my lack of resolve. I needed to accept the blame, move on, and talk to the nice hero who was worried about me. "Fine. Thank you."
"Walker, please look at me," said Velocity.
I snarled with anger as I turned to face him and he backed away fast, hands help up warding, and I really needed to cool down because Velocity was apparently not a bad guy. I refocussed on my breathing, holding my breaths for several seconds, and then letting them go. Whoever had done this had gotten away with it for now. "Sorry, I'm a bit on edge right now."
"Totally understand, Walker," said Velocity, and he started coaxing me away from the house.
It was thirty minutes later and I was at the PRT Headquarters. I had refused drinks, food, and a blanket (really? I was indestructible and had toughness twelve, why would I need a blanket?), but did accept some replacement clothes. I mostly paced in a meeting room until Director Piggot walked in, flanked by Miss Militia and Armsmaster, all of them looking grim.
"Walker, thank you for waiting," said Piggot.
"Sure," I said, which was about as polite as I could manage.
"About your father--" started Director Piggot.
"He's fine," I said, "Or, will be fine," and I saw relief in the PRT representatives' eyes. "I got a warning. Only a minute or so, but it was enough." I even managed to smile, "One of my random Powers that I'd been sitting on finally had a use -- I can make someone, uh, cease to exist until midnight. Or I could. I used it to save my Dad. He'll reappear where he was standing when the time is up."
"They gave you a warning?" asked Armsmaster, "How? What did they say?"
"'They'? You mean whoever did it? No," I probably shouldn't be admitting to summoning more people, but fuck it. "This morning I summoned a, well, a Thinker. A pre-cog. I wanted some advice. They told me to Vanish my Dad."
Piggot's eyes got wide, "You can summon pre-cogs? You have one that can reliably give specific instructions to save lives?"
I shrugged, "I have no idea what they can do at the moment. I didn't get as far as asking questions before they told me what to do, and then they got all dizzy and forgetful. I think it might be a one-question-a-day kind of deal. But it was a very specific instruction, and it saved my father's life, so I'm certainly not going to press them for answers just yet."
"Understandable," said Miss Militia, "We had a warning that your life was under threat, and I was the only one in the PRT who knows your identity. I couldn't call you, because we don't have your number. I called your father and warned him. He was preparing a go-bag for you both while we sent a car over, and then the Spotter Thopter saw the explosion."
"A warning? You know who did it?" I asked. "Uh, and, um, thank you. I think you gave Dad enough time to save some stuff, even if we've lost almost all of it."
Miss Militia nodded at my words. Armsmaster commandeered a screen.
"Walker," said Director Piggot, lowering herself into a seat with a sigh, "We need to show you a video, but I need you to promise to remain calm. This will be dealt this, with the full severity of the law. By the PRT. Do you agree?"
I hesitated at that. "It will need to be dealt with, Director. Fast. The PRT has-- I don't trust the PRT just yet, but I'm willing to trust the people in this room. For now."
"Thank you, Walker. We will have this resolved quickly. Possibly even more quickly with your pre-cog's help." She turned to Armsmaster, "Play it."
The video showed Kaiser standing at a podium, Fenja and Menja standing guard behind him and surrounded by Nazi imagery. He was wearing a fake SS uniform and a blank half-mask, and speaking passionately about the injustices inflicted on the righteous, the hard path to victory, and the perfidy of race-traitors. He then started talking about me.
"...traitors like 'Walker', who have put their self-serving egos ahead of the needs of the many! Yes, 'Walker' is white, but she is an enemy of every hard-working man and woman in Brockton Bay, undermining our industries and spitting on the NEPEA-5 laws. But this is only the beginning. She is gathering power until none can stand before her. Mark my words, unless good people act, there will be a wave of terror to sweep down on Brockton Bay, and 'Walker' shall be at the head of it, and it will bring ruin upon us all!
"Walker is a cunning enemy. She dances around the protection of the so-called unwritten rules, cowering under them when it is convenient, flaunting them when the whim takes her. Even the ABB never sunk so low, but yesterday, Walker ambushed Oni Lee while he was out of costume, carrying him to the PRT like a sack of potatoes. So, it is with great regret that I must reveal the truth: Walker is Taylor Herbert, daughter of Daniel Herbert of the Dockworker's Association. Now you can see the deception that allowed her to summon the colossus that towers threateningly over us, the union corruption that has given her unprecedented influence."
The image gave way to a video of me catching that blasted football, then that hideous Sixth Grade photo of me, damn him. And a photo of me sitting next to Yuriko at school, smiling and leaning towards her. When had someone taken that photo? Who had taken that video? Why were they recording the moment that a player fumbled-- It had been a setup. Fuck.
"Friends! Enemies! We must take action! We must stand strong! United! Walker has broken the unwritten rules, and this must not be tolerated! We must act together, or lose the shield that protects our city's staunchest defenders. You may rest assured that the Empire will not be idle. We will do our part to protect Brockton Bay come hell or high water. Will you do yours?"
The video ended.
My word was important to me, so I didn't put my fist through the screen, or the wall, or Armsmaster when he took a half-step forward.
They all waited patiently while I brought my temper back under control. It took longer than I would have preferred. Part of that was because this wouldn't have happened if I'd had the guts to enslave Kaiser at the beginning of the week. Eventually, I calmed.
"Okay," I said, "Thank you for showing me that. And your response?"
Piggot looked at her watch, "You have the complete support of the PRT. There is a press conference in forty minutes where we will reveal Kaiser's identity. We have already started a punitive campaign to freeze his assets and issued a warrant for his arrest. I have been personally assured by PRT Chief Director Costa-Brown that if Kaiser is not captured inside three days then she will sign his Kill Order. If he's captured, he will be sent to the Birdcage immediately."
Okay. That-- that wasn't a nothing platitude. And it meant that if Anders managed to escape Brockton Bay I could hunt him down myself. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do that or not. Either way, "Thank you, Director." I bowed, slightly. She nodded and rose to her feet. Before she left the room, I asked, "How long have you known his identity?"
Miss Militia answered that question, "I worked it out after seeing Purity unmasked at the ambush. We presented the evidence to Watchdog, the PRT division that focusses on economic and political malfeasance. With the information I provided, they were able to confirm his identity within twenty-four hours."
I sighed, "Freezing Medhall is going to really hurt the Bay," I said, "But that was always going to happen, however the Empire fell."
Director Piggot had paused walking out the door when I asked my question, and turned back into the room after I spoke. "You know who he is? How?"
I shrugged weakly, "My Power is bullshit? I know the name, face, and Power of just about every cape in the Bay."
Director Piggot almost missed the chair she fell into.
I didn't explain in detail, and they accepted my promise that I would reveal the details during my Power testing on Monday. It would be much easier to do the show and tell with my Spellbook to hand, and hopefully Dad had it in his temporal exile.
They did point out that if they'd been able to contact me, things might have gone differently. I accepted the point. I gave them my phone number and took my phone out of the Faraday cage bag Yuriko had given me.
Either way, I was standing in the wings, wearing PRT-themed gear and a disposable mask, when Piggot got up to speak. There was a lot of press present, both national and international news organisations were represented, and there was a forest of microphones at the podium.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am Director Emily Piggot of PRT-ENE, responsible for the Parahuman Response Team for the American east-north-east region. I am speaking to you in relation to a video that went out earlier today from Kaiser, leader of the Empire 88 gang. In that video, Kaiser publicly and deliberately exposed the private identity of the cape 'Walker'," I could see the expressions of the members of the press present, and there were very few surprised faces. Kaiser's video must have gone viral. "Approximately an hour ago, Walker's home was destroyed by mortar fire, while she was still inside," That surprised people, there were outraged and sympathetic expressions. "Walker, who has a high Brute rating, was unharmed by the explosion. Her father is currently unaccounted for." Huh, I'd already told them-- I was suddenly sure that they were planning something.
"In Kaiser's video," Director Piggot continued, "He cited Walker's recent capture of the terrorist Oni Lee as a violation of the so-called 'Unwritten Rules'. The PRT will show videos, taken at the time, that show that the rules were respected and followed for the duration of the engagement."
The screen set up beside the podium began showing three of the phone camera videos taken of my encounter with Oni Lee, each taken from a different direction. Oni Lee's face was blurred out. "Please note," said the Director, "That Walker does not single out Oni Lee, who was eating a meal in public, with his mask hanging from his waist in plain sight. She did not advance towards him, speak to him, or make any threatening gestures. Oni Lee can be seen wilfully masking up before attacking Walker. At no point was he forced by Walker to expose his identity any more than he already had."
"Kaiser has broken the rules that set up to protect the lives of citizens; capes, heroes, villains, and independents alike. This is the second time the Empire has chosen to break these rules, and there will not be a third time. 'Kaiser' has forfeited the right to separate his cape and private identity. As such, the PRT will now disclose Kaiser's identity." The screen changed to show Max Ander's face. "'Kaiser' is Medhall CEO and President, Max Anders. A warrant has been issued for his arrest. His assets are being frozen." That put the cat amongst the pigeons, only a few journalists weren't shocked by the revelation. The unsurprised journalists were all white, I noted, and disproportionately female. "Mr Anders, if you are watching this, please present yourself to the nearest police station or PRT facility, where you will be taken into custody and transferred to the Baumann Containment Facility. If you fail to comply with this order and evade arrest for the next 72 hours, the PRT will be issuing a Kill Order on you.
"Are there any questions?"
"Kaiser has probably fled the city," said Piggot to me later in the day, when I was called into her office. I wasn't surprised. "Will your precog be able to locate him?"
"I'll ask," I replied, "But she's still discombobulated--" I'd been trying to find an excuse to use that word for fourteen months, sue me, "--and I don't want to hurt someone who saved my father. I'll ask her tomorrow."
Piggot nodded her understanding. "We've alerted the port and airport authorities; they'll be keeping a close eye out for his movements. With his assets frozen he'll struggle to get help leaving the country."
"Good. Now, why did you practically announce my father's death?"
"Because the capture of Kaiser will not mean that the threat is over," said Director Piggot, "The PRT believes--" she shook her head and met my eyes through my cheap plastic mask, "Walker. Your father may need to be enrolled in the Witness Protection programme. We can give him a new life--"
"Dad-- Dad loves the Bay. You can't ask him to leave!"
Piggot raised a calming hand, "We will discuss options with him when he is back with us. By implying that he died, we leave the option open for him to assume a new identity with relative ease, as no-one will be looking for him. Of course, his situation is a lot easier to handle than yours."
"Yeah, it's going to be harder for me to hide. Dad and I did talk about it a few times after the football."
"Did you make any decisions?"
"Not really. The thing is, I'm really hard to hurt. I mean, I don't want my home blown up, but they can't kill me. The only person I'm close to that they can hurt is my dad."
"Do you have more distant family? Or any close friends? Kaiser-- Anders showed a recent photo of you with another girl."
I shook my head, "No real family, and I was a social pariah at school after Emma, Sophia, and Madison's bullying campaign. The girl in the photo is Yuriko, and she's-- Not in danger. Not on this plane, at the moment."
"One of your summons. I understand," said Piggot, her voice even, "And your other summons?"
"They have their own lives, Director," I said, "There are only a few who aren't mindless golems, they're not bothered by the concept of their death, and I don't spend enough time with them as it is. If I had a reliable method for sending them home without, you know, hurting them, I'd certainly offer to do it."
"Hmm," said Director Piggot, "Well, you can teleport. If you don't mind not being seen in public with your father, you could allow yourself to be a public cape, living unmasked, and rejoin your father in private without drawing attention to him. It could be a stop-gap measure -- considering how random your reported abilities are, you may find yourself with an alternate solution to your problem." I opened my mouth to respond, but she held up her hand, "Don't make a decision right now. Just think about it. Somewhere outside of my office, please. I'd like to see a little sunlight this weekend."
"Of course, Director," I said, rising to my feet, "Thank you for your time."
There was another press conference in the afternoon, which didn't say anything new (to me), and that was followed by the Chief Director of the PRT, Rebecca Costa-Brown, doing her own press conference from LA where she said that Director Piggot had her full and complete support, that Kaiser's actions were unacceptable, and that the PRT would be taking a heavier hand henceforth with those that broke the unwritten rules as he had done.
It was nice how seriously the PRT was taking my life being ruined.
Lacking a home, the PRT gave me a room I could use, which came with a far better computer than the one I'd just lost, but I wasn't particularly interested in browsing the PHO right then. Instead I wandered around the headquarters until I found Prakash's workshop. He seemed delighted to have me as a collaborator while he tinkered up another Spotter Thopter (this one was destined for LA, I understood, and I certainly didn't mind doing Director Costa-Brown a favour after she'd stood up for me so strongly).
The PRT was keen to get as many Spotter Thopters that they could get their hands on, so we were working with top-notch materials, and when Armsmaster and Dragon realised what we were doing (the fact that I was now a Tinker was taken with resigned grace by Armsmaster), they joined in as well. Four Tinkers working together with top quality materials? We got the whole thing done by the end of the day. There seemed to be a synergistic effect going on, or having Dragon and Armsmaster, two of the top Tinkers in the world, working on your project helped more than I expected.
Either way, the Thopter was the containment foam variant, but it still happily let me scry my deck equal to its power, and that meant that I could review five cards. The Seismic Monstrosaur wasn't one of them, dammit. That meant that Anders had drawn cards; I just really hoped that he couldn't cast them. Would he be able to work out how to tap a Coveted Jewel for mana? Would it work for him? Could he see the cards to understand what mana he needed?
My five cards to review were: Ancient Den -- a land that could be tapped for white mana, a definite keep, Swamp Mosquito -- no thank you, Rotting Fensnake -- zombie snake? I'll pass. Disturbed Slumber which would turn a land into a dinosaur, which sounded really cool, but also, no. And Electrozoa which was a flying electrical jellyfish. There was a lot of attention on me right now; summoning a flying electrical jellyfish probably wouldn't be appreciated.
So I kept the Den and sent the rest of the cards to the bottom of the deck.
As soon as the Spotter Thopter finished testing it was put in a cargo container to be whisked off to LA, and I had one less distraction to play with.
That was okay, I needed to talk to Armsmaster about the Coveted Jewels anyway.
"Armsmaster?" I said after the container was sealed, "There's something I need to tell you."
Armsmaster was not good at emoting and I wasn't sure how he felt about that when he said, "Go ahead."
"Right, you know I summon stuff, right?" He nodded, "And some of that stuff is pretty random. One of the things, well, five of the things I've summoned are called 'Coveted Jewels'. They help with the summoning. But they have a rule -- if someone attacks their owner, and that attack isn't blocked, their, um, faction? They get the Jewels. I've just managed to confirm that whoever attacked me has definitely got the Jewels."
"What do the Jewels do, precisely?"
"Well, when someone gets a Jewel, they draw three cards. Three spells or effects or objects. So whoever attacked me will have fifteen of them. Also, if you know what you are doing, you can activate the Jewels to give you mana to cast those effects."
"The person who attacked you--"
"The gang leader, if the person who attacked me was in a gang," I clarified.
"Will be able to summon fifteen random... things?"
"Maybe. Well, no, not fifteen of them unless they're very lucky. The mana from the Jewels won't be the right amount and mix to cast all of them, but they will be able to cast some of them, if they can get the Jewels to work for them. I know that one of the cards will be a 'Seismic Monstrosaur' -- an extremely large allosaurus -- and I'm pretty sure that someone would have mentioned it if one of those showed up."
I had checked on my alternate system overview, and none of the players had summoned anything odd to their team. I really hoped that meant that summonings weren't happening. It was a shame that the battlefield view was so hazy about things I hadn't directly observed, or I'd know exactly who had them.
"There have been no reliable reported sightings of dinosaurs today," confirmed Armsmaster, "What else can we expect?"
"I don't know if they can cast the spells at all, or work out how to use the Jewels. If they do manage to cast spells, they'll probably be mostly monsters. Some people, who may also be monsters but of a different kind. But about the only thing I can guarantee is that they will be random."
"That... that is going to be difficult to counter," said Armsmaster, clearly struggling with his own temper.
"Yeah, sorry," I said, hanging my head, "Those Jewels were just too useful. Um, most of the cards are about fighting and killing. But I've got lots of protections against that sort of them -- they almost certainly won't be able to hurt me."
"So if we see monsters, we should call you?"
"Yes. Oh! And I almost forgot. Be careful looking at the Jewels -- they seem to have a weak Mastering effect. It tails off sharply if you don't look at them."
"Better and better," said Armsmaster sarcastically. "Come with me. People need to know this."
The meeting was loud and emotional at times. No-one wanted random things to happen when hunting down a terrorist.
I was feeling very guilty, and that didn't help with my emotional situation much. I suppose getting teary was better than getting angry again, but not by much.
Director Piggot in particular was very upset by the prospect of Brockton Bay being flooded with monsters, and was scathing in her words. That actually helped push back the tears and got my anger going, but Miss Militia verbally separated us and broke up the meeting before I said something too regrettable.
When everyone else had left the room and I was able to calm down, Miss Militia approached me.
"Please don't take it personally," she said, "The Director served in Ellisburg. She knows what it is like when monsters overrun a town, and she doesn't want to see that again."
"I can understand that," I said, admittedly a little snippily, "I would just prefer that she didn't take it out on me."
"You did make a mistake, Walker," said Miss Militia, "One that could cost a lot of people their lives. Only two people made it out of Ellisburg, you know? The director and Thomas Calvert, one of our consultants. Having the same thing happen in Brockton Bay would be disastrous."
"Calvert, huh?" I took a deep breath, "Okay. I was wrong to keep summoning the Coveted Jewels. I was too confident that I could not be attacked without reprisal. I'm not sure what more you want from me, Miss Militia."
"That will do, Walker. Thank you."
After supper (PRT canteen food was better than I expected, although it was a little pricey), I went for a flight.
I wanted solitude and somewhere to brood, and I found the Brockton Bay water tower. I mean, I could have sat on the Medhall building, but I'd have felt dirty. The water tower was fine.
Night had fallen and it was snowing and the wind was strong. None of that bothered me, but it was hard to see the beauty of the bay. I could see the streams of traffic, the lights coming from the office buildings, and the lights of a few boats in the harbour -- dredgers clearing up the silt deposits left by the tanker.
Everything had gone to hell, it was my fault, and no-one wanted me to try to set things right. Mostly because they were worried that I would murder Kaiser. I admit to being tempted.
"Hi, Walker," said Glory Girl as she flew towards me, "Would you mind some company, or should I leave you to it?"
Glory Girl, aka Victoria Dallon, was an indestructible flying Brute who heroed with her family, New Wave. She was also a beautiful, blonde, and athletic, everything I wasn't. I tried not to hold it against her, and I had to admit that I didn't mind having someone to talk to.
"Hey, Glory Girl," I said, "Take a seat. What's up?"
Glory Girl flitted over to the tower and sat next to me. Her costume, themed after a cheerleader's, did not seem appropriate for the weather, but she wasn't any more bothered by the cold than I was, and didn't hesitate to sit on the dirty tower top. "Thanks. How are you holding up? Any news on your dad?"
"He's okay, thanks," I said, and Glory Girl smiled with relief, "And I'm-- Okay, I'm very angry with Kaiser, but I'll be okay. Just contemplating the future, you know."
"Well, if your Dad needs healing, don't hesitate to let Panacea know," said Glory Girl, "He'll get the 'it'll piss off the Nazis' express service."
I laughed, "He's fine, thanks. I had just enough warning to, uh, protect him? Kinda like a time bubble. It'll pop at midnight tonight."
"That's good. And time bubble? I didn't know that was one of your powers. Impressive stuff!"
I rubbed the back of my neck, "My Power gives me a new random one-shot ability every day. Or mostly one-shot. I'd been sitting on that one for a while."
"That is so strange," said Glory Girl, "Most Powers are far more predictable. And you have flying, and Brute abilities too?"
"Well, the flying, Brute, Tinker, noctis, healing, and so on Powers were granted by abilities. So I had the ability to grant someone noctis abilities, and I cast it on myself, for example."
"Holy shit!" said Glory Girl, forgetting herself and flying off the tower to float in front of me, "Your power gives you the ability to give other people Powers?!"
"Or summon people with Powers, yeah."
"Wow! What Powers can you grant right now?" She was completely enthralled by the idea.
"Nothing much," I said, hating to disappoint her enthusiasm, "I can make someone a stronger and tougher until midnight -- enough to give them a low level Brute rating. Or I can make someone permanently a bit stronger."
"'Not much', she says," said Glory Girl, "Who are you planning on giving that permanent buff to?"
"Eh," I said with a shrug, "I don't want it at the moment -- I'm still getting used to my strength, increasing it again isn't going to help." A quick mental assay told me that I had ten mana left. The untapped lands could give me treasure tokens, but I had plenty of those already. I looked at Glory Girl, "Do you want a buff? My system says that your power, your strength, is currently a 'eight'? I could knock that up to a 'ten' if you want."
"Really?! That would be fantastic! Just wait--" She suddenly deflated, "You're hurting people by accident, aren't you?"
"Trying really hard to avoid it, but getting super-strong has its drawbacks. Got any tips?"
"Have a sister who can heal any non-brain injury," she replied with a slightly smug grin.
"I'll get right on that," I said with a solemn nod.
"Seriously, though, I can get carried away sometimes. And, uh, if I was too much stronger, the Nazis might not make it to my sister in time..."
"I haven't killed anyone yet, thankfully, but that's because I can't let myself fight directly. I broke Hookwolf's back by accident when I caught him. Since then, I've had to be really hands-off."
"Ouch," said Glory Girl with a wince, "Yeah, I don't want that. Um... maybe just a small one boost?"
I grinned and reached out to touch her hand and gave her a +1/+1 counter.
"Huh, I feel... that's good."
"Glad you like it," I said, "Please don't tell your friends, I've got plenty of stuff I need to do with my mana, and it's unusual for me to have mana left over at this time of day."
"Understood. Thank you, Walker," said Glory Girl, retaking her seat, "I'll keep quiet."
"Thanks."
"And you successfully distracted me from what I was going to say. Look, you were unmasked without your permission, and that sucks. I know what it is like to live unmasked, and if you want to talk about it at any time, let me know."
"I might," I said, "Thank you. But I need to let the knowledge settle more before I know what questions I want to ask."
"Open offer, any time," said Glory Girl with a shrug, "Also, another open offer: my mum, Brandish, has asked me to extend you an offer of supper, sometime. Full disclosure, I heard the adults talking about possibly inviting you to join New Wave."
"What? Really?"
Glory Girl shrugged, "It makes sense. We're the unmasked hero group, you're an unmasked hero, we've got a lot of fliers so you'd fit right in, and hey, we'd love to have a heavy-hitter of your calibre on the team. We can help with the teamwork, we've got a lot of experience with making the financial stuff work."
"I, uh, that's a lot to think about. I'm really trying to help the Bay without too much actual heroics, because I'm going to end up killing someone if I keep fighting."
Glory Girl looked a little sceptical, "How bad is it, really? Is it just a matter of training?"
"Not really," I said, "Your new strength is a nine according to my system. Mine is twelve, and it will get higher. The system doesn't feel linear -- higher numbers seem to have more of an impact."
Glory Girl was more interested than concerned, "I'd love to know where those numbers come from, but okay."
We chatted a little more about being unmasked and the expectations of public heroism. I confessed that standing in front of photographers for a photo shoot was at least the third circle of hell for me, but Vicky said that they weren't that bad. It was getting late when we parted.
The PRT had put a tent over the ruins of the Hebert Residence, to protect it from the weather, allow for the criminal investigation into its destruction, and prevent the many and various news agencies that were covering the the whole debacle from poisoning the jury pool. That it happened to hide my father's reappearance was purely a happy coincidence.
Armsmaster told me that with a straight face, which almost made me believe him. Either way, I was grateful. He'd also calmed down a lot since the meeting. I think that the lack of monsters overtaking the Bay helped.
Once the investigators had taken their photographs and collected the pieces of the mortar shell and generally done their thing, Armsmaster laid down a layer of containment foam under where we thought my dad was most likely to appear. I was told not to try and catch him, as I could do him an injury.
Half an hour before midnight, I converted my untapped lands into treasure, stored in the smugglers tunnels. The Hebert Residence was no longer a land, the card was in my graveyard. I was particularly happy with this round of tapping for treasure, because one of the bags was of weird glowing rocks, which I was sure were eventually going to be very handy for tinkering.
For my free artefact I went with a Mox Pearl. Far less mana and no cards in comparison to a Coveted Jewel, but not liable to cause a diplomatic disaster. I spawned the mox in my hand, and hung it around my neck. I deserved to have jewellery just as much as anyone.