Monday 31st January 2011
A lot happened at once. The most important thing was that my dad appeared a few feet above a layer of containment foam, shouted, "Ah!" very loudly and fell. I rushed to help him up and hug him.
"Dad! You're okay!" I mean, I knew that he was okay, I knew how Vanishing worked, but hugging him, however carefully, was far better than knowing.
"What-- what happened?"
It took some explaining. Armsmaster was not the most diplomatic person in the PRT, and I was worried that my father was in danger of breaking his hand again at one point, but I was able to sooth him down to the point where he was able to process.
"It's Monday now," said Dad, "The Empire blew up our house--"
"Probably the Empire," said Armsmaster.
"--and I may need to go into the Witness Protection scheme?"
"Dad--"
"No, Taylor," said Dad, holding up a hand, "I need to be calm before we have this discussion. And I need to think, but I need to know the options first. Armsmaster?"
"Yes, Mr Hebert?"
"Could you please direct me to someone with whom I can discuss our options?"
"Of course, I would be happy to," said Armsmaster, "But most of the people you need to speak to are asleep. I suggest that you relocate to the quarters the PRT have assigned to you, and give yourself time to understand what has happened."
Dad clearly wanted to snap at him, but took a deep breath, and said, "Let's do that."
Dad gave me the backpack he'd been filling with my precious things, the PRT loaned both of us PRT jackets and face masks and a random box of equipment to carry outside like any other PRT agents. Armsmaster came out at the same time, and the news crews focussed entirely on him. That got us past the cameras and over to the PRT van that would take us to the PRT headquarters, escorted by Armsmaster.
Only when we were on our way did I finally review the results of the change of turn.
My Scheme was three Schemes, because of the Plots That Span Centuries Scheme from yesterday. That meant I drew The Iron Guardian Stirs, I Bask in Your Silent Awe, and Every Hope Shall Vanish.
I have never felt so lucky.
Okay, in order of really lucky to luckiest:
'The Iron Guardian Stirs'. This scheme was fun. The flavour text read: "It would be disappointing if you were unable to overcome this simplest of defences. Hilarious, but disappointing," which was a delightful mood. It spawned a 4/6 golem token which I wasn't going to say, 'No' to. I dropped it off to protect the Stash. Normally I'd consider that a big win as far as Schemes go.
Next was 'I Bask in Your Silent Awe', which was an ongoing scheme. That meant that it kept on going until its conditions were met. What it did was stop my opponents from casting more than one spell a turn. That put a solid maximum on what Kaiser could do today. Normally that Scheme would be worthless to me, but now? It was ideal.
The last Scheme was 'Every Hope Shall Vanish'. What that did was make every opponent reveals their hand, and I could pick a card from each hand that would need to be discarded.
I activated it immediately, and I instantly learned that, yes, Kaiser was the one to hit me. He had seven cards in hand, which didn't mean much -- he might have cast the other cards, or he might have had to discard the cards due to the hand size limit. The seven cards he had in hand were the Seismic Monstrosaur, Eager First-Year, a young magic schoolgirl with decent hair but minimal combat potential, Flame-Blessed Bolt which would do two damage to any target, Merfolk Thaumaturgist who can temporarily switch power and toughness, Fieldmist Borderpost which was a weak mana rock, Shinen of Flight's Wings which was a weird flying spirit thing, and Ghastly Death Tyrant which was some rotting floating eyeball skeleton (?!) that could do some real damage.
I urgently dug out my notebook and pen from the back of my stuff that my dad had saved, and wrote down the details of each card.
I had Kaiser discard the Ghastly Death Tyrant. It was by far the most dangerous of the summons.
Phew, that put a real limit on what Kaiser could do today.
And, oh! The Death Tyrant card had appeared in my graveyard, along with three cards I didn't recognise -- when Kaiser discarded cards, they returned to me. That was a relief.
Three cards in the graveyard, presumably discarded because Kaiser couldn't hold more than seven cards between turns. One discarded from my Scheme. Six still in hand. That meant that Kaiser had cast five of the fifteen cards he'd gotten yesterday.
I checked my alternate screen overview, and I was very glad I did. The Empire 88 'player' was still Kaiser, but there were five new cards on their side. I couldn't make out what they were, but at least it meant that he hadn't cast an enchantment or a sorcery or something. Or lucked out with a land, giving him a steady supply of mana. I had no idea what Kaiser had summoned, but I was feeling moderately confident of my ability to handle it. Most of the cards I'd seen were not a threat to a flying 12/12 with First Strike and Trample.
There were other hands visible with 'Every Hope Shall Vanish' -- the hands of the other 'players' in the city. I glanced at them, and found them to be more nebulous than my cards. They were ideas like 'patrol this area', 'recruit these people', 'get this equipment', 'deliver this speech', or 'fight!'. They correlated with my sorcery, creature, artefact, enchantment, and instant cards respectively, but they were weaker. It was like they had an alternate, slower, inferior casting mode that didn't require any mana, but didn't deliver as predictable and usable results. I could make the 'players' discard those cards, but I didn't see the need. I stopped activating the Scheme.
My power-picked card was Underground Sea, which I immediately cast, sending it to the Stash. I'd have to do some exploring later to see if it actually created an underground sea, because it would be cool if it did. Maybe the Gold-Forge Garrison was a one off, but my system didn't give me any problems when I threw the sea at the Stash, which was promising.
Then came the silent question of want that hit me every Monday. What did I want?
Right. I'd thought about this. And Kaiser? Kaiser was nothing. He was on the ropes with some stolen spells and he'd used up the last of his luck. I didn't need my Power to finish him. Heck, the PRT could finish him themselves.
So, what did I want?
"I want her back."
We drew up to the PRT Headquarters access area, landside, and waited while the rainbow forcefield bridge stretched out to welcome us in. It was kinda magical, and a nice reminder that the Bay wasn't without its own randomness.
Once we were on the oil rig, Dad and I got out, and I called out to Armsmaster, "I have news."
I expected Armsmaster to tell me to wait until morning, but he and Miss Militia and one of the squad commanders (not Coil, thankfully) sat at a meeting room table, and I told them of my lucky draw.
"So, he has managed to summon some creatures, and can summon a maximum of one more today," I explained, "The, uh, pre-cog thinker who saved Dad's life has woken up and is far more coherent. I'll ask her to come over and we'll see if she can help us find Kaiser."
"And you have no idea what creatures he summoned?" asked Armsmaster, looking at the list of cards that Kaiser still had in his hand.
"I'll know more if I lay eyes on them, or if I get closer, I think," I replied, "I have some powerful cards in reserve," I said, "So I fully expect to have an answer to anything he might have."
"Hmm," Armsmaster looked again at the list of castable spells, "Can you explain the 'power' and 'toughness' numbers?"
"Sure. Power is how hard they hit, however they fight. So I started out as a schoolgirl with zero power. An ABB gangster with a gun would have one power. A trooper with a rifle, two power. Gallant in his power armour, five. You, in your power armour and with your halberd, seven. Toughness is how much damage you can take, schoolgirl, one, trooper in armour, two, Gallant, five, you eight. You get the idea."
"This 'Seismic Metrosaur' could be a serious threat if summoned, then."
I shrugged, "I can take it."
"Is this a normal mix of cards?" asked Miss Militia, "A schoolgirl, a dinosaur, a spirit, a merman, a signpost, and a firebolt spell?"
I shrugged, "For random cards? Yes. I don't summon anything that I don't think is needed, that I can support, and will get along with the world. I'm slightly annoyed about missing out on the borderpost, but the rest I'd have ignored."
We talked strategy for half an hour before I said, "The Thinker is here. I need to go talk to her. She's waiting at the landside jetty. Do you want to come with me?"
Armsmaster frowned, "I've had no reports of visitors. How did she get so close?"
I grinned, "She swam."
Miss Militia and Armsmaster came with me to see the Oracle. I did explain that she wouldn't be able to speak English yet, which they acknowledged.
Miss Militia gasped at seeing the Merfolk Wizard swim up to the jetty and climbed onto the slope. I flew down and bowed to her. [Hello, Oracle, thank you for saving my Dad.]
She saluted me with a webbed hand, [You are welcome, Lady Planeswalker. My goddess acknowledges you, and bids me serve you faithfully. Do you have a question for me?]
[I do. Are you-- Does answering questions hurt you?]
[No, my goddess required me to speak urgently, yesterday, and that was a lot for me to hold after just being summoned. If I prepare properly, it is not so bad.]
[Good, thank you. I need to know where the man who calls himself Kaiser is. Can you give me anything useful?]
The Oracle laughed, a high-pitched staccato of chirps, [I think so, but we may not need disturb my patron if you can provide some things. Information about the man, some blue mana, and a map, maybe?]
I translated for my gathered friends. Armsmaster nodded and projected a holographic map of the state onto the jetty. The Oracle was delighted and entranced by the map, but once I reminded her she returned to her professional demeanour.
I explained everything about Kaiser, including his parahuman Power and that he had probably fled, and tapped my Mox Amber for one blue mana, which I passed on to her.
She wove the mana into a complex form that only she and I could see, from the comments of my friends, and soon a light fell on the map.
"He's still in the Bay?" I asked, surprised.
"Please describe what you can see, Walker," said Armsmaster.
"A blue dot, showing Kaiser's location, there," I said pointing.
"Hmm," he said, and the map zoomed in on the location I had identified, much to the Oracle's delight. We homed in on the dot, to a position slightly underground, in the Empire's territory. "An incomplete Endbringer shelter," said Armsmaster, "It should be sealed up. He turned to the merfolk Oracle and bowed, "Thank you, Ma'am."
[He says 'Thank you,'] I told her.
She waved at Armsmaster, and turned back to me. [Do you need anything else?]
[No, thank you. Do you need anything from me?]
She made a face of displeasure, [A quieter and cleaner ocean would be nice,] she muttered.
[Oh! I have an underground sea now. Would that be better?]
[No stars, less salt in water, but less noise, less filth? Yes, that would be better,] she said, smiling and showing an array of needle-point teeth.
[I'll teleport you there, later in the day,] I said, [We need to capture Kaiser first.]
She nodded, [I await your command, Planeswalker. Good hunting!] She dived smoothly into the water and swam away.
Armsmaster and Miss Militia quickly conferred, and then asked me to join them.
"How confident are you that Kaiser, his troops, and his summons cannot hurt you?" asked Armsmaster
"Extremely," I said calmly, "He has had a few random spells for a day. I have had more selected spells for a month. I'll be able to tell more once we get close, before we engage."
"And you're willing to wear a body cam, so that we can be sure that you make every attempt to bring in Kaiser non-lethally?"
I frowned but nodded, "If that is what it takes, yes. Armsmaster, I went through sixteen months of Emma, Sophia, and Madison doing everything they could to make me suffer, without ever stooping to their level. I'm not going to give Kaiser the satisfaction of doing something they couldn't do."
"Good. Director Piggot has given me direct instructions that you are to be the one to arrest Kaiser." He frowned. "She doesn't want to be Mastered by a pile of rocks."
Armsmaster on his Armscycle led Miss Militia on her bike and two squads of PRT troopers in trucks to the entrance to the Endbringer shelter. I flew alongside in my full Robe of Stars gear, including the Mask of Law and Grace.
Once there they kitted me out with a taser rifle and confoam grenades, and we headed inside. We didn't need to go far before we encountered a problem: Fenja, Menja, and a couple of dozen Empire goons, although these ones seemed to be more professionally outfitted than most.
They'd clearly seen us coming, but their weapons were all neatly laid out on the floor in front of them. Fenja stomped forward looking extremely unhappy, and called out, "We surrender!" The ceiling was far too low for her to transform into her giant form, which probably contributed to her unhappiness.
"Where is Kaiser?" called out Armsmaster.
"He's gone mad," called one of the Empire goons, "Locked himself in the shelter with some shiny rocks. Won't let anyone see them, won't talk about leaving, claims to have the 'power of the universe' at his command. We've heard some strange noises in there."
I wanted to laugh when my battlefield display showed me what the 'power of the universe' had given Kaiser: Flailing Soldier, Teeterpeak Ambusher, Pharika's Disciple, Mother Bear, and Leyline Phantom.
I'd been worried that he might have pulled something dangerous, but I'd been lucky. Very lucky.
Armsmaster busied himself arresting Fenja, Menja, and the Empire goons. Only when they were secured to his satisfaction did he give me the go-ahead to enter the shelter proper and arrest Kaiser. My orders were not to kill any 'people' that Kaiser had summoned, but the goblin, the centaur, the illusion, and the bear were acceptable targets for lethal damage in the eyes of the PRT.
It was a shame to hear that Director Piggot didn't consider non-humans to potentially be people, but I did get the distinct impression that she barely considered capes to be people, so it tracked. And if she had seen the fall of Ellisburg then I could definitely understand her seeing goblins as monsters.
The only creature that Kaiser had summoned that I considered 'killable' was the Leyline Phantom, but I wouldn't try to save the life of any of the summons if the PRT started executing creatures -- them dying would just send them back to their origin.
Endbringer shelters were large bunkers designed to protect people in the case of an Endbringer attack. Massive and reinforced structures, they were designed to defend civilians from the Endbringers -- three massive, vicious, monsters more powerful than the combined might of the Triumvirate and the Protectorate was barely enough to push any one of them back. They could not be killed, only driven off and only then at great cost of lives, both civilian and parahuman. No-one pretended that a shelter could protect against the focussed attention of an Endbringer, but they could protect against their incidental rage.
The incomplete shelter had a thick steel door that would have looked excessive on a bank vault, and even thicker walls. Thankfully, I had the Vectis gloves that let me walk through constructed walls. I flew, rather than walked, to keep the noise I was making down -- there was no need to alert Kaiser that I was coming.
Inside was a long, wide concrete room with many doors along both sides. Standing guard at the entrance were almost all of Kaiser's summons. The Leyline Phantom, a massive blue humanoid figure that was partly transparent, was front and centre. On its left was a man in bronze-age armour, doubtless the Flailing Soldier, and on the other side, Pharika's Disciple, a female centaur with a spear. The Mother Bear was to my left, close to the wall.
They were arrayed in front of the door, waiting for anyone to come through. They had clearly expected it to open first, of course, and First Strike meant that I had the advantage.
The enemy I had to take down first was the Disciple. I wanted there to be no casualties, and if she missed with her spear than her comrades might be injured and die. The centaur got shot with my taser rifle in one of her equine front legs. Her body gave way and she crashed to the ground with a heavy groan of pain.
My Fighter Class instincts were telling me that staying still was a bad idea, but the rifle took a second or so to discharge and my instincts hadn't quite clicked that I didn't need to stay still and focus on my target for the rifle to do its thing. All that is to say that I was the perfect target for the Teeterpeak Ambusher, a grey-bearded goblin warrior with a massive axe, who had been perched on the shelter door lintel.
It brought the axe down heavily on my head. If the Mask of Law and Grace didn't give me Protection from Red, that might have hurt. It did distract me, though.
Being distracted wasn't convenient -- it let the other summons rush forward to attack.
Against a more normal opponent that might have been a problem, but I was still a flying twelve power and toughness Fighter; they were seriously outclassed. I shot forward and punched my way through the Phantom, making the illusion dissipate. Lifelink meant that I gained twelve Life Points from that attack.
The put all my other enemies behind me. I got myself some distance down the corridor and turned to see them facing me. Well, the bear was. The Flailing Soldier seemed to have hit the Ambusher in his charge, and the Ambusher was now attacking him and not me.
The bear was charging me, and it was a big momma. It was on all fours and still nearly as tall as I was. I knew that it couldn't really hurt me, and I didn't want to kill it, so I threw a containment foam grenade in its path, overhand (sorry, Miss Militia). The bear's momentum took it into the growing mess of foam, but not out the other side.
I flew over the contained bear and shot the Ambusher and then the Soldier with my rifle. I then gave both them and the centaur the containment foam treatment, just to be sure.
So much for Kaiser's summoned army.
There were no other enemies in sight. I started to explore.
I'd promised Armsmaster that I'd keep things non-lethal, and I fully intended to stick to my word. That didn't mean that I wasn't severely pissed at Kaiser. He'd tried to kill me. He nearly killed my Dad. He blew up my home. He captured my Coveted Jewels. There were a lot of reasons why I was unhappy with him, and since punching him wasn't an option, I was willing to entertain other ideas for getting revenge.
I had a particular card in mind. Did I need to use it on Kaiser? No. Was it a waste of a valuable resource? Absolutely. But I could get another one if I asked nicely, and some things can't be said with words. I tapped the mana I'd need in advance.
I could see that the shelter had been converted from a shelter to a barracks, with neatly laid-out beds with lockers at their feet, and one nearby bunkroom had been converted into a war room, with a map of the Bay hung up on one wall. There must have been a generator somewhere, because the entire building was well lit. There was no sign of Kaiser, but there was a window that looked out over the main shelter area. It looked promising.
I found a door labelled, 'Administration', behind which were stairs heading up. The stairs were blocked by a forest of needle-sharp metal spikes, doubtless summoned by Kaiser's Power, but the Vectis Gloves allowed me to bypass those and come out mid-way up the stairs.
At the top, I found a corridor, and at the end of it was Kaiser. He looked at me with a face distorted with rage.
I cast my spell as soon as I had line of sight on him. Baffling Defenses. A lovely spell that reduced his power to zero.
"Kaiser! You are under arrest!"
"Die!" he shouted. He projected an array of metal spikes at me, fast. They hit a tessellated white tetragonal dome barrier a foot from his body, stopped, and fell to the floor with a clang.
"Performance issues?" I asked with a grin, stalking towards him, "Don't worry, that won't be a problem where you're going."
He tried the spikes again, this time from behind me, to no better effect. I kept walking towards him. I dismissed my Mask so that he could see my broad smile.
He screamed in inarticulate rage when the third attempt did no better than the previous two, and then he dived into the nearest room.
I jogged to catch up with him, but I'd already screwed up.
I heard Kaiser shout, "Work, damn you!", and I could feel a slight shudder in reality as he summoned something I could not see.
"Dammit!" I muttered.
"Ah, hello!" said a young girl's voice. It must be the Eager First-Year, "It is such an honour to be summoned!"
"A darkie!" shouted Kaiser angrily, "It doesn't matter! There is an invader! Kill them!"
I reached the doorway to the room and burst in.
"What does 'summoning sickness' mean?!" roared Kaiser, at the cowering schoolgirl. I zapped him with my Thunderous Lasso and he collapsed on the floor. I flicked his shoulder, once, and did two points of damage (which I healed). The five Coveted Jewels that were arranged around him all disappeared, and appeared in my Bootleggers' Stash. I had a lot of cards trying to catch my attention just then, but I ignored them, as I had a more urgent concern -- subduing the Eager First-Year without hurting her.
It was past dawn when Director Emily Piggot called Armsmaster and Roy Renick to her office.
"So," she said in summary, "Walker was able to establish the extent of Kaiser's summons, and his Thinker was able to precisely locate the man. You led a team there. Kaiser had abandoned his people for the sake of the damn Jewels, and they surrendered peacefully. Walker was able to capture Kaiser without serious issue, and has reclaimed the Jewels."
"Yes, ma'am," said Armsmaster.
"Which leaves us with Kaiser's summons. A soldier, a young school girl from a magic school, a bear, a centaur, and a goblin," she said with disgust. "Why are the monsters still alive?"
"Walker declined to kill them, and they were subdued, ma'am," said Armsmaster evenly, "I felt it best to defer to a higher authority on what to do with them. Our researchers are eager to examine them."
"They can examine corpses. Renick."
"I'll see to it, ma'am," said Roy, "The goblin and the centaur?"
"Yes, the damn goblin and the centaur," she said, "What do we know about the others?"
"The bear appears to be an unusually large North American brown bear," said Armsmaster, "also known as a 'grizzly bear'. It has been sedated and we are looking for zoos that can take it in."
"And it is just a bear, not some demonic sentient monster?"
"Just a bear, ma'am, according to Walker and our scans."
"And the schoolgirl?"
"Takhi Sehing. She speaks English. She is a first-year student at a highly respected school of magic."
"Dammit. What are we going to do with her?" said Emily, "Is she loyal to Kaiser to the death, like Walker's summons?"
"Yes, ma'am," said Armsmaster, "She has tried to employ magic--" Armsmaster spoke the word in much the same tone of voice that the director used to say 'goblin', "--to escape, but our cells are successfully holding her. The soldier tried to escape as well, but he has no special abilities. We can't understand what he is saying, but it probably isn't complimentary."
Emily growled in frustration. "We can't execute people without a kill order. Can Walker just send them back?"
"Walker has a spell called 'Time Ebb' that can apparently 'unsummon' one creature. She has consented it cast it at our discretion."
Emily thought for a moment, "The soldier," said Emily, "We may be able to get some useful information from the schoolgirl."
"I'll speak with Walker this afternoon," said Armsmaster, "Unless it's urgent...?"
Emily shook her head, "It can wait. What about the Jewels?"
"Reclaimed by Walker without issue," said Armsmaster, "She has promised, without prompting, to destroy them when she is presented to the option, and will not summon more until then."
Emily sighed, "That is probably as good as we're going to get. We'll do a press announcement for the implosion of the Empire. There's going to be splinter gangs, but without parahumans to protect them they should to be easy pickings."
"Until we become host to the next Boston Games, as other groups decide to pick up the pieces," said Roy sourly.
"Don't lose sight of the fact that we had a big win today. The Empire has fallen, without any casualties. We can worry about the consequences of that tomorrow."
"Yes, ma'am," said Roy.
"Thank you for your time, gentlemen. Armsmaster," said Emily, "Walker's Power testing is in the afternoon. Get some sleep before then. That is an order."
"Yes, ma'am," said Armsmaster, reluctantly.
Reclaiming the Jewels netted me fifteen new random cards. Most of them were duds. I'm not going to list everything. To give you an idea of the haul, the highlights were two lands, Uncharted Haven, which was a land that could tap for one mana whose colour I could pick when I set it in place, and Ancient Den, that could tap for one white mana. There was one other land, Creosote Heath, which could tap for one of either white or green mana, but it'd damage an opponent when it entered, and I didn't have an enemy I wanted to ding. Or, rather, I did, but I wasn't going to.
Otherwise, a lot of creatures I wasn't going to summon, among them was a Garenbrig Carver who might, from the flavour text and image, be a woodworking Tinker, but probably wasn't, because the text didn't say anything.
Still, if we suddenly needed a variety of weird monsters, I could help.
Ichthyomorphosis was the highlight of the instants and sorceries, but seemed like a massive violation of the unwritten rules -- it turned anyone into a harmless fish.
There was one other card that caught my eye: Entourage of Trest. They consisted of three armed elves in identical black uniform who would make me 'the monarch' when they entered. I wasn't sure I wanted to be 'the monarch'. In fact I was sure I didn't want to be 'the monarch', but if I ever needed to bang a lot of heads together and make a show of things, having three elvish bodyguards and some sort of authority might be handy.
Dad had been offered a new identity, to be safe from the Empire. Dad had declined that offer, and had chosen to go into work to settle the concerns of his colleagues and friends. His story was that he was found in the rubble and healed by me.
There was a press conference at mid-day, and I was invited to participate. I agreed, because I had had an email from Winslow High assuring me that having my home blown up by terrorists was a great excuse to not come in, for the entire week even, and they'd mail me some homework, but otherwise sit tight and they'd get me transferred to Arcadia High in no time. I wasn't going to argue.
Director Piggot walked as briskly as she could to the podium. There were even more news reporters than last time; the room was packed. I was standing beside Armsmaster on the stage, in my Robe of Stars and wearing the Mask of Law and Grace.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," said the Director, "I am happy to report that in the early hours of this morning a PRT team led by Armsmaster successfully stormed the hideout that Max Anders, also known as 'Kaiser', was using. During the confrontation there, parahumans Kaiser, Fenja, and Menja were successfully detained, alongside a number of Empire gangsters. There were no casualties. Armsmaster subdued Fenja and Menja," Armsmaster stood taller as the attention switched to him, "and Walker was the one to arrest Kaiser himself. He is unharmed and even now on the way to the Baumann Containment Facility."
Director Piggot had told me that they wanted to sell this as a violent confrontation, to reduce the risk of Empire loonies blaming Fenja and Menja for surrendering without a fight. She seemed to think that the women might be salvageable, and could be rebranded as heroes in a few years. I had my doubts, but loved the idea of being proven wrong. Kaiser had been loaded onto a Dragon transport to take him direct to the Birdcage; no waiting for a convoy for him.
There were a lot of questions, but none of them were particularly interesting. When the questions petered out, it was my turn.
I flew up to the podium. "Ladies and gentleman, I am the cape known as 'Walker'. As you know, Max Anders released my identity online yesterday, and then mortar-bombed my home. He tried to kill me, and he tried to kill my father. He failed, as he failed at so many things. But I am not going to pretend that yesterday didn't happen, so this is my formal announcement." I dismissed the Mask of Law and Grace, and dropped the hood from the Robe of Stars. There were a lot of camera flashes as I scanned the room. "My name is Taylor Hebert, I am Walker, and I am an independent cape who lives in Brockton Bay. I have been denied my private identity, but I request that my privacy be respected nevertheless. Thank you."
I didn't bother with the whole 'questions' thing. They had no right to know more about me than they already did.
Monday 31st January 2011 (Afternoon)
Power Testing Report -- PRT-ENE-PTR 2011/003
Subject: Walker
Date: 31/01/2011
Testers: Dr Malcolm Wainwright, Dr Vanessa Seely, Dr Hugh Vorse
Observers and Participants: Dragon, Armsmaster, Aviator, Kid Win, Panacea, Sere, Clockblocker, Gallant, Unit Alpha-Six, Unit Alpha-Five, Theophylaktos of Mercadia, 'Towel' (A summoned 'Tempest Owl')
Proposed Power Name: Planeswalker
Owner's Description of Power: Walker gains each day a sum of 'mana' that can be used to activate 'cards', or special abilities of summons. She automatically gains a new card each day selected by her Power, based on criteria given on the Monday of that week. Other mechanisms for gaining cards pull them randomly from a vast 'deck' of cards, or represent cards that reflect people, objects, and events seen in Earth Bet which are not yet usable by Walker. All cards can be seen in Walker's Spellbook.
Walker's Spellbook currently contains thirty-three playable cards. Please see Appendix A for the complete list. Note that Walker declined to allow the much larger second half of the spellbook, which shows the Earth Bet cards, to be recorded, as the cards there are not currently usable and represent a privacy violation for the people represented there.
Where the card is described as a 'creature' card, it will allow Walker to call a copy of the creature described by the card from another plane of existence. The copy will obey Walker absolutely and without complaint to the best of their abilities. Furthermore, Walker has the ability to control her summons, and can do so without loss of focus and attention, irrespective of the number of summons being so controlled. This power ceases to function outside of a range of approximately three miles. Summons report that they are entirely happy with this arrangement and are unperturbed by the prospect of their own lack of control or death. Lie detection technology possessed by Armsmaster confirm that they are being truthful, are not under duress, and are not distressed.
The variety of creatures and objects that can summoned is vast, and cannot currently be anticipated by the researchers. Present guidelines: summons appear to be predominantly capable combatants, or, more rarely, able to support combatants. All information given in the 'cards' about summons relate to the immediate impact on the battlefield, with an emphasis on lethal combat. Walker confirms that the majority of cards that she has seen have been unusable, due to their perceived inability to contribute anything other than fighting ability.
In addition to creatures, the cards can also represent objects (most often weapons), 'enchantments', 'sorceries', 'instants', and 'lands'. The general nature of these cards is described in Appendix B, to save space here.
Walker currently receives twenty-nine mana per day. For reference, the most expensive card in her spellbook at present would cost nine mana to cast, and the average cost of spells is a little over three mana. Some cards can make use of excess for increased effect.
Walker can use enchantments and some objects to permanently enhance her abilities, or those of others. Likewise, some of her creatures are able to bestow some benefit on other people at Walker's discretion. This ability can be constrained to be exercised on the day of summoning (while they still have a 'link' to the home plane from which they have been summoned), or under various other conditions, most commonly that is being provided mana by Walker.
Walker has used these various methods to give herself various permanent powers and abilities:
i) Brute strength that is the twelfth highest ever recorded in the US (see test results in Appendix C).
ii) The ability to 'phase out' of reality until the following midnight, rendering her effectively insubstantial. (This ability was not tested).
iii) She is protected from being damaged, blocked, or targetted by anyone with an affinity for black or red mana (See Appendix B). This includes people from Earth Bet.
iv) She is able to render one person per day unconscious safely in close quarters combat through the use of a 'Thunder Lasso'.
v) She is indestructible (see Appendix C). This ability is not 'invulnerability' as Walker can experience injury, but she declares that her body cannot be killed by normal means, and will heal damage taken almost immediately.
vi) She can summon to her location, at the cost of one mana, any creature or object she controls inside her battlefield. She can likewise teleport to any of her creatures or objects.
vii) All of Walker's creatures do not experience 'Summoning Sickness' (a malaise common to most summoned creatures that prevent most activities on the day of their summoning by 'other planeswalkers').
viii) She may permanently boost the strength and toughness of a target person or creature for the expenditure of four mana. (The authors of this report wish to thank Armsmaster for volunteering to test this ability, please see Appendix D for the results of that testing).
ix) All of Walker's creatures gain an extra 'point' of strength and toughness automatically (see Appendix B, Section B.ii for details)
x) Walker can expend mana to heal wounds, with a minimum expenditure of one mana allowing her to heal three people of mild to moderate injuries, or fewer people of more serious wounds. This includes restoring amputated limbs, myopia, diseases, and poisons. The healing has an impact on some mental disorders such as depression and PTSD, but Walker is confident that it will have no impact on other conditions, such as autism, which cannot be properly described as maladies. The authors would like to thank Armsmaster for his contribution to the discussion related to this ability. This ability was only partially tested. The authors are grateful to Panacea for validating Walker's healing.
Please note that this ability is both stronger and weaker than that of Panacea. While Walker can heal injuries pertaining to the brain, which Panacea cannot, she is not able to diagnose injuries or determine any information about the recipient, and she cannot heal continuously like Panacea, as she is limited by the amount of mana she has available. In addition, Walker's healing is not as fast as Panacea's.
xi) Walker can chose which of the equipment she is using actually present on her body, allowing near-instantaneous switching of outfits. (See video 1 in Appendix E for a demonstration where she switches between 'Robe of Stars', 'Black Knight', and a casual outfit).
xii) Walker gains a boost to speed and awareness at the start of combat that permits her to strike her opponent first, unless they too exhibit similar speed.
xiii) Walker has the ability to carry 'damage' from her strikes through from a defeated opponent to another. (Please see video 2 in Appendix E, for a demonstration of this remarkable effect where Walker demolishes a collection of fourteen test dummies arranged in a grid).
xiv) Walker cannot be targeted by parahuman abilities against her will. (See Appendix F for the full list of tests performed on this ability).
xv) Walker reports that her 'life total' can be boosted by damage done by her blows. (This ability was not tested).
xvi) Walker has the knowledge, skills, and abilities of a master 'Artificer'. (This ability was not tested).
xvii) Walker is a Tinker, with the specialisation of 'Artefacts that Walker can potentially summon'. There was insufficient time to list all artefacts covered by this ability, but it includes: weapons, armour, vehicles of many kinds including flying machines, space ships, and a time machine, Potions of Healing, doomsday devices, buildings, sentient robots, golems, and objects that can bestow parahuman abilities on the recipient.
To demonstrate this ability, Walker collaborated with Armsmaster and Dragon to Tinker a 'Wrench' that grants its wielder additional strength and toughness and the permanent wakefulness of a noctis cape. (Again, the authors wish to thank Armsmaster for his willingness to accept the 'Wrench' and confirm the noctis cape ability).
xviii) Walker has the knowledge, skills, and abilities of a master 'Fighter'. (Please see video 3 in Appendix E, where Aviator, under the control of Walker, defeats Armsmaster in a halberd duel in four out of five matches).
xix) Walker can store unused 'land' mana for use on another day. (This ability was not tested).
xx) Walker can see the potential of anything that she may be able to summon when she fully develops her 'planeswalker' abilities. This includes, amongst other things, a considerable body of information about any parahuman she, or her summons, has seen, such as: Cape Name, Real Name, Trigger Event, the details of their Power, and their 'power' and 'toughness'. Furthermore, she is able to see details of the [Censored] (See Note)
(Please note that Walker declined to show the relevant pages of her Spellbook to anyone other than the person depicted on the cards, citing 'unwritten rules'; the PRT thanks her for her discretion. The authors would also like to thank Armsmaster, Aviator, Kid Win, Clockblocker, and Gallant for confirming that the information presented on their cards is accurate).
Addendum: Furthermore, Kid Win has confirmed that the information on his card included his Tinker specialisation, something that he did not previously know. See updated PRT-ENE-PTR 2010/041 for more details. The authors thank Armsmaster for suggesting this test.
xxi) Walker can fly (see test results in Appendix C).
xxii) Walker is a noctis cape. (This ability was not tested).
xxiii) Walker can walk through walls.
xxiv) Walker is immortal. (This ability was not tested).
xxv) Walker is able to grant herself additional abilities through 'Escalation'. The potential extent of these abilities is unknown, although eventual inter-planar travel is considered very likely. (This ability was not tested).
Note: When asked if the above if list of her abilities was exhaustive, Walker replied, 'Probably not'. The authors chose not to press the issue due to time constraints.
Suggested Power Classifications:
Mover: 9 (Combined rating due to run speed, flying manoeuvrability, teleportation ability, and ability to walk through walls)
Shaker: x
Brute: 9 (Coupled indestructibility and regeneration with demonstrated strength and limited invulnerability)
Breaker: x
Master: x (Note that Master ability over her creatures is covered by Trump effect described below)
Tinker: 8 (Able to Tinker a wide variety of potentially powerful objects, although hampered due to difficulty of sourcing required materials and unusually long time requirements)
Blaster: 3 (Hypothesised level from card 'Squash')
Thinker: 7 (Combined rating due to knowledge of individual parahuman abilities, multitasking ability, and ability to identify parahumans on sight)
Striker: x
Changer: x
Trump: 10 (Walker has the ability to summon entities with significant and extensive parahuman abilities. Walker cannot be targetted by other parahuman abilities against her will. Walker can grant parahuman abilities to herself and others)
Stranger: 3 (Walker has the ability to immediately change which equipment she appears to be wearing)
Note: While Walker cannot demonstrate an immediate Shaker, Breaker, Striker, or Changer ability, it is possible that she may be able to develop such an ability in the future, or summon an entity able to exhibit such abilities on her behalf. Please also note that the rapid escalation of ability exhibited by Walker so far means that this rating is unlikely to remain valid for long. If more than a month has passed since the last Power testing, the authors recommend caution and assuming that countermeasures usually associated with PRT Power Classification 12 apply.
Potential Power Interactions:
Due to the extreme randomness of the 'cards' presented to Walker, potential synergies and negative interactions between her Power that of others are hard to map out. The primary concern is that if she is somehow removed sufficiently far from her battlefield, she will not be able to tap mana. As such, teleportation to objects outside of her normal battlefield should be approached carefully.
It is hypothesised that abilities that can manipulate distance, such as those of the PRT-ENE Ward Vista, could be effective in countering Walker's control of her creatures and her perceptions, but due to the distance required it would be difficult to achieve. Walker should be aware of dangers of any method to separate her 'permanents' from her control.
Due to the unusual nature of Walker's abilities, and the implication that they are partially separate from the mechanisms that empower normal Earth Bet parahumans, it remains to be seen if standard Power nullifiers are effective against Walker, or those empowered by her.
Potential Risks:
The permanent nature of her creatures make them problematic to use for short-term solutions - summoning a creature to deal with an immediate problem would leave Walker responsible for that creature on an ongoing basis. The PRT are grateful that Walker is keenly aware of this, and has been restrained and careful with her summons.
The 'Coveted Jewels' incident (See PRT-ENE Incident Report VCI20110130-01) demonstrates the potential problems of Walker's equipment entering hostile hands. Security for all relevant possessions should be reviewed as a matter of urgency.
Areas For Further Development:
The authors wholeheartedly recommend that Walker, like all powerful capes, remain vigilant to the hazards of carelessness, complacency, and overconfidence. She should also be mindful of the tendency for capes to gravitate towards violence to resolve issues, and mitigate the effect wherever possible. It is often forgotten that are times when the best tactic available to a cape is retreat, and Walker and her allies may benefit from her learning how to de-escalate from dangerous situations.
The obvious area of development would be in Walker's perception of the battlefield; an exceptional ability that warrants a strong Thinker rating by itself. The apparent arbitrary size of the battlefield, which happens to match the size of Brockton Bay, may be set subconsciously. If the size of the perceived battlefield could be increased or decreased consciously, opportunities may open up to use more-broad ranging powers that would otherwise have severely negative effects. This ability can be used to determine if an individual is inside Walker's battlefield, reducing the size of the battlefield could be an effective mechanism to more precisely locate an individual.
Walker's ability to augment existing parahumans and non-parahumans with greater strength, toughness, and additional powers is another potentially rewarding area to explore more thoroughly. In particular, the PRT would be keen for their troopers' and parahumans' capabilities to be increased, and may pay well for the service. Walker expressed mild interest in pursuing this opportunity.
Walker has not fully explored the flexibility offered to her with relation to the position of her summons when they are called. It may be possible to position them behind enemies, or above, beneath, or among them, or behind obstacles. While practising this skill will be difficult due to the permanent nature of Walker's summons, some consideration of the potential here is recommended. The advantages of picking the location of a summons may also synergise with her ability to teleport to a summons. Rapid point-to-point teleportation is extremely effective at confounded enemy capes, and practice with this ability may pay dividends.
Lastly, while Walker's astounding ability to assess any cape's capabilities in line of sight is problematic for many reasons that Walker is clearly aware of, enhancing that ability may pay strong dividends. The authors recommend that she purchases a good pair of binoculars.
Training documents offered:
PRT-ROE v3.01.12 -- PRT Rules of Engagement
Protec-Wards-Broc -- Protectorate Wards Programme Brochure
PRT-Aff v1.01.03 -- Parahuman Affiliate Guidelines
Protec-Brute-1 -- Protectorate Guidelines for Parahuman Brutes
Protec-Fly-1 -- Protectorate Guidelines for Parahuman Fliers
Prtoec-Speed-2 -- Protectorate Guidelines for Parahuman Speedsters
PRT-Aff-Tinker v5.03.14 -- 'Rewards and Resources' - PRT Affiliate Tinker Scheme Brochure
PRT-AAD v3.12.02 -- Parahumans, Alcohol, and Drugs: Just Say 'Fuck No'
Note: This document has been censored by the order of PRT Chief Director Costa-Brown. Any queries related to the censored information should be directed to the office of the Chief Director.
Ugh, that was a day. And looking through the draft report, I noticed that I forgot to mention that I had better night sight these days, and that I could use Thassa's Ire to knock people out, or wake them up, or-- You know what, I just won't mention it. I deliberately didn't mention the Bootleggers' Stash tunnels, my artificer ability to duplicate objects, or my (hypothetical) ability to raise the dead.
The fuss about the powers I did share was nothing compared to what happened when I explained how Shards interacted with parahumans to the researchers. As Lung was dead, I didn't mind showing them the page on my Spellbook that showed his Shard, and its Synergies with Lung. They got extremely excited by all that, up until a call came through from the Chief Director's office, explicitly ordering them to drop the topic and remove any mention of it from the final report. I think the whole 'censored' thing they left in there was how they expressed their feelings on the matter. I was sure it would be fine -- the Chief Director told them to hightail it to LA as soon as the report was finished, so that she could discuss it with them personally. She also told everyone who had overheard that portion of the discussion (Armsmaster and me) to keep quiet as well.
I was mildly curious why she thought it was so important, and even more curious about who told her what we were talking about, but it wasn't important.
What was important was that they didn't make a big thing of the Invoke the Winds or Shackles of Treachery cards which effectively gave me a Master 9 rating or something. When I explained that I had the Invocation in hand for a week when I was fighting the Empire, they decided to give me the benefit of the doubt and tally it as one of my 'unusable' cards.
Using Time Ebb on the Flailing Soldier was unpleasant -- he told me, in Ancient Greek, that he had been in the cell next to the Disciple and across from the Ambusher when they were executed, and would carry news of Earth Bet's brutality to the Mercadians. I didn't argue with him, it wasn't any of my business. His card went to the top of the library.
Apart from that, I think that the Power testing went quite well.
Did I share too much information with them? Probably a little. Some of it they already knew, was obvious, or would quickly become so. The other parts were either there to warn off idiots wanting to attack me (I'm strong, indestructible, hexproof, and can teleport -- between them that deals with a lot of potential threats), or to make the PRT aware that I was a valuable contact. Dad had pointed out that I could make a highly lucrative living selling powers to the PRT and the Guild, and this was the first step to that potential future. I held only a few cards to my chest, in the hope that they would think that they could see my whole hand.
Dad was arguing with the insurance people after work. Apparently we weren't covered by acts of terrorism, and would probably need to sue Anders' estate if we wanted compensation for our home. Considering how many people Anders had killed indirectly, there was probably going to be a long queue. Thankfully I had the bounty money for Hookwolf and Oni Lee to pay for the repairs, and put us up in a decent AirBNB until it was ready. Dad didn't want to take the money, but I wanted to live in a house, so we compromised by treating the money as a loan from me to him.
There was a lot to do -- tomorrow I'd salvage what I could from our house while Dad looked for a place for us to live and get quotes for rebuilding our home. And take some money from our petty cash stores to buy me some binoculars.
In contrast to our difficulties, the Oracle was easier to rehome. I schlepped over to the nearest Stash access point, spent an hour navigating my way through it, and eventually found the sea. And it was a full sea -- the shore was accessible from the Stash tunnels, but I couldn't see the far side of it, and there were strange glowing growths on the ceiling and in the water.
I teleported the Oracle to me, and she declared it to be 'acceptable'. She swam out into the darkness, but I could see and hear through her senses, and she seemed happy enough with the quiet calm of the sea, and the taste of the weird things living in it. I left her to it.
After all that, I still had a good few hours to waste before midnight, so I started work on shoring up my mana base and lessening my dependence on Coveted Jewels. I hadn't properly considered the risks of someone blindly casting random spells, which was downright stupid considering that 'Wrath of Oko' was the first spell in my Spellbook.
I reviewed my options for Tinkerable objects. Unfortunately, nothing I could Tinker was as good as Coveted Jewels. One option was just to go heavy on the Moxes -- they were quick to make, and I had no shortage of the required crafting materials. Another option, which would require three Tinker counters, was to make a Sol Ring -- it would give twice as much mana when tapped, but it would be colourless. There was also a Thran Dynamo that would give me three colourless mana when tapped, but that would require nine Tinker counters -- a good body of work. If I was going to do that, then a Chromatic Orrery, for fifteen Tinker tokens would be a better option -- it would gain me five mana to tap, and it would allow my mana to be spent as though it would be mana of any colour. If I had the material, The Eternity Elevator would have been so much better still. Or the Mox Lotus. Oh, and further investigations showed a Powerstone Shard which was unremarkable by itself, but synergised well with my power to duplicate artefacts...
It was all very complicated, and I was too tired to commit to a big project, so I went with the easiest option -- I started Tinkering a Mox Jet.
My thinking did have one benefit -- it revealed that I had made a far less than optimal choice for the artefact to copy yesterday. I needed more mana to counteract the anticipated loss of my Jewels, and I needed it to be flexible mana. Moxen were not great for that. This time I knew better -- I duplicated a Shield-Wall Sentinel.
I knew exactly which defensive creature I wanted it to find for me, and I went straight for it -- a Golden Guardian. Two mana later and in a shocking twist of events, I was attacked by my own creature! I punched it before it could punch me -- First Strike for the win -- and I was now in the proud possession of mildly bruised fist, twelve extra life points to be called whenever I want thanks to Lifelink, and a second Gold-Forge Garrison -- much better than a Mox Pearl.
Thanks to all my jewels, I hadn't needed to tap any lands today, so I was able to do that for treasure, just before midnight.
Thomas Calvert hadn't been able to attend Walker's power testing, but he was able to get hold of an early draft of the report. He scanned the document and shivered. He'd been too slow. He should have sent his mercenaries against Walker as soon as Tattletale submitted her report, and not relied on those incompetent idiots in the Empire to kill her for him. Deniability was all well and good, but it was no substitute for getting the job done.
There was no doubt in his mind that Walker knew that he was Coil; the only real question was if she was going to be a problem. The psychological profile that the PRT had drawn up showed a strong distrust of authority, and maybe Coil could use that. She wanted to think of herself as a hero, she wanted to clear up the Bay. It wasn't as if he had made a big name for himself as 'Coil', and even those who knew of his crimes mostly only knew of the white-collar stuff. If he could persuade her that he was her ally, that they could join forces...
She had a strong aversion to attention and publicity, and he could gladly take that burden from her. He'd offer guidance, support, information, and she could destroy anyone stupid enough to oppose him. It'd be up to her if they did it under the aegis of the PRT, or if she simply joined his organisation. It would be easy enough to clean up his act, and to keep his stress-relief diversions in separate timelines so that they wouldn't distress her.
If he played her cards right, there was no reason to stop at the Bay. He could hold the east coast while The Elite stayed in the west. Coil leaned back in his luxurious leather chair, steepled his fingers, and thought.
Spoiler
Author's Note:
Quick question: does anyone actually look at the end of turn summary? Because you would not believe how much of a pain it is to keep it up to date when I tweak the story. Thoughts welcome.
Tuesday 1st February 2011
Okay, my dad had had a rough time of it recently, but he'd been patient and understanding and very busy and he certainly didn't need any more stress. Even so, the temptation to prank him with my new Scheme was almost overwhelming.
Today's Scheme was I Am Never Alone, and it created a token that was a copy of me, except she wasn't legendary.
Pros of having a duplicate of me:
-> Can go to school and still get something useful done at the same time
-> Always nice to have a spare Taylor around, just in case
Cons of having a duplicate:
-> Dad might think of her as my twin sister, and so not 'expendable'
-> Raises difficult philosophical questions about identity
-> Another mouth to feed and body to clothe
-> Would need to talk to PRT about making a new identity for her, putting me more in the PRT's debt
I'd almost talked myself into being sensible and not activating the Scheme, but then I was struck by the sudden realisation that she could be incredibly useful in too many situations, especially doubling our Tinkering capability.
I activated the Scheme and hugged Taylor Two, provisionally called 'Teetoo'.
Like me, she was a nascent planeswalker and a parahuman, complete with her own 'bud' of Queen Administrator's Shard. The Synergy was different though; Teetoo had the ability 'Patient Tinker' and 'Second In Command'. She couldn't access or control my mana, and if she tapped my Treasure, the mana went to me, not her. She could Tinker, and seemed very keen to do so. 'Patient Tinker' said that Teetoo had Protection from external mental effects, 'Second in Command', though, said that Teetoo could command and control all my summons other than me. Personality-wise, she seemed calmer than me, which was an interesting contrast to observe. I mean, I didn't consider myself to be tense, but Teetoo was practically zen.
As for planeswalker abilities, Teetoo had a hand of random cards, including a land, (Luxury Suite), but no Power-assisted second deck. She had the benefits of my Escalations -- the boosted power and toughness and the teleportation -- but without a source of white mana, she couldn't heal other people. I could puppet her body, but it felt weird and I didn't do that sort of thing very much anyway these days.
She didn't come with the same gear and enchantments as I had equipped, unsurprisingly, so we needed to get started on kitting her out. I gave Teetoo the bag of crafting supplies that Dad had rescued from the house and teleported her to the Stash. She headed to the Gold-Forges, placed the Suite down between them for her to stay in, and then we settled in to do some serious Tinkering. Interestingly, I couldn't do anything with the Suite -- it was her land, not mine. Presumably if she drew more land cards, she'd be able to generate her own mana base.
My Power-selected card was Disturbed Burial, and it did precisely what I needed it to, and nothing more. One generic and one black mana, it would return a creature card from my graveyard to my hand. If I cast it for four generic and a black, I'd even get to keep the spell in my Spellbook to be cast again as needed. I really liked this option, not least because it wasn't technically raising the dead, and so if anyone commented on it, it would be less likely to raise eyebrows. I was merely summoning Yuriko from Kamigawa again, not raising her from her grave.
I wasn't going to cast the spell while on PRT property, but it was a weight off my mind, and the most important thing for me to do today. I did cast the Uncharted Haven land card, assigning it the white mana affinity, and linked it to the Bootleggers' Stash tunnels as an underground land. Doing that was far quicker and easier than trying to anchor it to a suitable location in Brockton Bay. The Stash was pretty uncharted, so it even fit thematically.
I joined Teetoo in the Stash, working on my Mox Jet while Teetoo worked on a Mox Sapphire. When I finished Tinkering my Mox Jet, I moved straight on to a Mox Emerald.
Being a Noctis cape gave me time to think. I missed my Mum.
I really really missed her and her smile and her hugs and the feeling that so long as Mum was around, everything would be okay.
I could bring her back. She wasn't in my graveyard, but when I visited the Fairview Memorial Grounds, I could see her card amongst thousands of others.
But Dad and I had discussed it, and there were problems. There were two big ones: her life, and mine. If I brought her back, we would need to either create another identity for her, cutting her off from all her friends and the things she loved and possibly forcing us to move from the Bay in case anyone recognised her, or else she would have to live with everyone knowing that she'd died and come back. She wouldn't have a moment's peace.
It was the same problem for me -- if word got out that I could raise the dead, I could forget about, well, anything. Too many people would give anything, do anything, to get a loved one back, and I would be constantly under pressure to raise people. It would be political. It would cause global chaos. It would suck for all of us.
The other problem was more trivial. If I brought Mum back, she would be under my control. That meant that I would see what she saw, feel what she felt, and could seize control over her at any moment. She would be naturally subservient to me, putting my simplest desires above her own needs. I couldn't tolerate that. I wanted my Mum, not a slave.
So Dad and I had discussed it. Carefully. And we'd agreed that I'd undoubtedly have cards to solve the second problem, and maybe we could do something about the others. I could summon someone to play-act as a resurrection-monger, have them raise a few people that happened to include Mum, and then die in a tragic accident or something.
The most important thing we agreed was that we would wait. Wait until we were certain that we could avoid the 'control' issue, and wait until I knew absolutely everything about raising people. I'd been a planeswalker for less than two months. A little more time to learn more about my Power wasn't uncalled for or unreasonable.
That didn't stop me from missing Mum, though.
"Ms Sehing?"
Takhi had been sitting on the bed in her strange cell, staring at the wall. There wasn't anything to do but wait. The only orders she'd had from her master were to kill an 'invader'. An invader who had effortlessly subdued her master and ignored Takhi's anaemic attacks. When the invader had dragged Takhi out of the bunker Takhi had been summoned in, the stairway had been blocked by an array of metal spikes. The invader had grunted in irritation and punched and kicked her way through the concrete wall, opening a hole big enough for her to go through carrying Takhi and her master under each arm in a matter of a dozen seconds. She'd then touched the wall and the damage she'd done was quickly repaired. Takhi wouldn't dream of disobeying her master, but killing that creature was beyond her.
The man talking to Takhi was the same one who had butchered the Disciple of Pharika and the Teeterpeak Goblin. She had wondered when her time would come. It didn't really bother her, but it would have been interesting to stay in this strange and terrible world longer, so that her original could report more back to the University of Strixhaven. She still had no idea how these people made light, for example, and would dearly love to know.
The man opened the door, but didn't step through. He had four men standing behind him wearing imposing armour and armed with the same strange weapons that were used to slaughter the Pharika's devotee and the goblin elder.
She stood and glared at her captor.
"Please follow me."
The Mercadian soldier had tried to fight when they'd dragged him from his cell. Takhi was no warrior, and would not give these barbarians the satisfaction of manhandling her. She stepped out the cell with her head high, and followed the man to a plain white room. More strange sights -- a flimsy-looking table, seats with odd fabric coverings, a massively overweight woman with a stern expression, a man in strange blue armour. Her escort took position in the corners of the room.
"Take a seat," said the woman, pointing to one of the chairs.
"I would prefer to stand," said Takhi.
The woman shrugged. "Ms Sehing, I am Director Piggot, and am responsible for enforcing the law in this region for those with exceptional abilities. The person who summoned you was a murderer and terrorist."
Takhi wasn't surprised. She didn't say anything.
"We will return you to 'Strixhaven' as soon as we can, but until then, we would like you to answer some questions for us."
Takhi snorted. 'Return her to Strixhaven'?. Did these people know nothing? But it was possible that this as an uncontacted plane. Takhi's teachers had spoken at length about looking for opportunities to learn. "Maybe we can make a deal," she said, and took the seat.
Takhi Sehing returned to her cell a few hours later. She'd been asked a lot of ignorant questions about planeswalkers and the planes, and it had amused her to answer them honestly. And in return...
Takhi giggled. She had textbooks! A dozen textbooks about the plane and its knowledge! So much to read! She set to it with a passion -- she still had no idea how much time she had left. She had to go slowly, so that her original could write notes.
She opened 'The Principles of Electronics' and started to read.
The first order of the day was Collie. He had now learned enough information about this plane via conceptual osmosis that he could understand basic English commands. I had taken a few weird glowing rocks of about the right size and fitted one into one baseball bat, and two into another, creating the legendary artefacts, 'wooden stick with a weird glowing rock in it' and 'wooden stick with two weird glowing rocks in it'. Only they weren't Legendary, or artefacts, and they were now just worse baseball bats. The key thing, though, was they would look unique to Collie.
"Hi Collie," I said to my biggest golem.
"For The Glory of Akros!" he thundered, saluting me with his spear.
"This is the Bat of the Worker, yes?" I held up the wooden stick with a weird glowing rock in it, "You will follow any non-destructive orders given by anyone holding this bat."
"For The Glory of Akros!" he replied, saluting me with his spear.
I handed the bat of the worker to Kurt, and Kurt gave a few trial orders to Collie. He gamely stomped around under Kurt's instructions, and refused to attack buildings or people as he should.
"Great," I said, "This," I held aloft the bat with two weird glowing rocks in it, "is the Bat of the Ally. You will obey the person holding it."
We'd gotten quite an audience by now, and they were smart enough to see the trend. When Collie bellowed, "For The Glory of Akros!" they all shouted along with him. I'd have to get him to switch to 'For the Glory of Brockton Bay' someday, but it could wait.
I gave the Bat of the Ally to Armsmaster for testing. Of course he was far more interested in the weird glowing rocks than actually testing Collie.
"Walker, what are these? Where did they come from? How long will the light last?"
"They're weird glowing rocks, Armsmaster," I explained, "The light comes from their interaction with residual mana in the atmosphere, so the light should last as long as the planet does. And when I store my mana from one day to the next it can take different forms. These rocks are the rarest of those forms. I picked them for the bats because I was pretty sure no-one else would have them, or be able to fake them."
"'Weird glowing rocks'?" said Armsmaster as though the words offended him, which they probably did, come to think of it. "'Weird glowing rocks'? They're magically sensitive--"
"Nope," I replied with a cheeky grin, "'Weird glowing rocks'. That is their name."
"Can I have some for testing?" asked Armsmaster.
I knew this was coming, but I still hesitated, "No. Not today. I don't have much, and I use it for my Tinkering," that was the wrong thing to say, he became dramatically more interested, "Maybe if I get more of the stuff we can talk." He wasn't going to drop this, I could tell.
The problem with the bats quickly became apparent. Firstly, everyone wanted a go ordering Collie around, and Dad had to lay down the law to the dock workers to stop things from getting out of hand. The second one related to our plans to sell 'Collie Rides'
"Collie must not wade through the water except in emergencies, Walker," said Armsmaster seriously, "The sediment he would stir up will choke the aquatic life in the Bay."
"That's okay, he can walk along the edge of the Bay--"
"No," said Armsmaster, "Not unless the DWA is willing to pay for all the damage the shocks from his footfalls will cause surrounding infrastructure."
"But--"
"He's right, Walker," said Dad, shaking his head in frustration, "Brockton is built on sandy soil. It couldn't take Collie's footfalls for long before there would be subsidence."
"Damn it," I muttered, and then shrunk a little at the accusing gazes of both adults who clearly disapproved of teenage swearing. "Sorry."
Dad and Armsmaster chatted for a few minutes while I spaced out on the problem. The obvious answer was giving Collie the ability to walk on water, but I had no idea if or when I'd get cards for that. The next best option...
"Got it!" I said, interrupting their conversation with a confident grin, "It's easy. I just need to Tinker something up to let Collie fly!" I prepared myself to bask in their awe at my brilliance.
They were not awed by my brilliance.
"Walker," said Armsmaster, "Please do not give the second tallest moving structure in the United States the ability to fly."
"Darn it!"
"Don't worry, Walker," said my Dad, "We'll just go with the original plan and have Collie lift people up to his shoulders so that they can see the city."
I spent the rest of the morning rooting through the ruins of the Hebert Residence, filling a hired van with everything that had survived. The front half of the house was wrecked, but the back, including the kitchen, was in a better shape. The attic was gone, but a lot of Dad's clothes had survived. Camera crews jockeyed for position as they recorded for posterity entertainment, the sight of me stuffing Dad's underwear into a bag. The PRT really should have given me a medal for not kicking the lot of them into the Bay.
Once I'd salvaged what I could, I had lunch at Fugly Bob's to soothe my rage with a little treat. And wow, being the centre of attention got old fast. I'd flown most of the way there, but had approached the Lords Street Market on foot. Someone had still noticed me and I soon had half a dozen phone cameras recording me eat a burger and shop for cheap clothes and tools. You would have thought that the amateur camera-people would be less annoying than the professionals. You would be wrong.
The only people worse than the amateur photographers were the strangers who thought that they could just walk up to me and chat as though we were friends. I tried to be civil in a 'I just lost my house and privacy and now some idiot is asking how my day has been' kind of way. I may have been a little sarcastic at times. I was very grumpy by the time I escaped the Market.
Dad picked me up around two PM, and took me to a rented house where we sat in a kitchen that was nicer than ours and also alien and so much worse.
"Here you go," said Dad, holding out a pricey-looking white box that had a pair of binoculars showing on the side, and a blue Zeiss logo in the corner, "The best binoculars I could find. Look after them, they were expensive."
"Thanks, Dad," I said, happily taking the binoculars out and using them to look out at the trees in the garden with them. They didn't work at first -- I could only see through one eyepiece at a time, but the leaflet in the box helped and I soon had them properly adjusted, "These are great! And I only got you another daughter!"
Dad looked at me, alarmed. "What was that?"
I grinned awkwardly at my dad, who did not look like he appreciated the joke. "Um. I had another Scheme this morning. It let me duplicate myself! It's going to be so useful!"
"Taylor!" shouted Dad.
"Sorry," I said, shrinking into myself a bit, "But she really will be really handy, and we can afford to look after her now, I'll make sure she's fed--"
"TAYLOR! You're talking about a young woman! A sister! Not a pet!"
I held back a sigh, because that would definitely give the wrong message, but really. Teetoo was a token. I mean, I fully intended to love her like a sister and we'd be each other's friend, and I couldn't just leave her in the gloomy Bootleggers' Stash all the time, of course--
I had a nasty feeling that I hadn't been thinking clearly when I accepted that Scheme. I may not have been thinking at all.
There was a highly emotional discussion between my Dad and me, and then I called Teetoo over and there was hugging, which Teetoo was very confused by. She promised Dad that she was perfectly happy being a Tinker in the Stash and not going to school, and anyway she was me and I was going to school, so it was all legal, and...
We had all had a trying few days, and Dad clearly decided that this particular hill wasn't worth fighting on. He wasn't as happy about getting a new daughter, but I was sure that would change soon enough.
For my part, I was not bitter that Teetoo was getting more affection from Dad than I'd had all last year. I wasn't. Shut up.
After that unpleasantness, Dad drove all three of us to the Bards' House in the rental he'd gotten to replace the crushed Hebert Mobile. (I'd tried healing our car, but it didn't take; as Dad said, my healing touch could heal, but it couldn't raise the dead). There we settled in, and I cast 'Disturbed Burial' for four generic and a black to reclaim Yuriko's card from the graveyard, and then I cast Yuriko's card. Throughout this process I had a nagging voice saying that Yuriko died to get away from me and would not accept the summons and was disgusted by me and wouldn't want to be summoned again and wasn't really my friend and--
Yuriko appeared in front of me with a wide grin, and leapt forward to hug me. "Taylor!"
I leaned into the hug, "Hi, Yuriko," I said shyly, "Welcome back."
I'm not sure if she heard me, the Bards were cheering pretty loud.
"Eleven Days, huh?" said Yuriko with a broad smile as she settled into the guest bedroom of the new AirBNB.
"Hey!" I objected, arms crossed, "Destroying the Empire wasn't easy! There were complications."
"I'm sorry about your home, Taylor," she said more seriously.
"Me, too. Thanks. But that wasn't all. It took ages for the PRT to send Hookwolf to the Birdcage, and that slowed the whole thing down."
"But they are destroyed, yes?"
I shrugged, "All Empire Eighty-Eight parahumans have been arrested, the leaders have been sent to the Birdcage. The rank and file are still there, but they have no leadership and are splintering fast. Apparently there were a lot of factions?"
Miss Militia had explained it all to me. There were some Empire agents who were in it for the money (Kaiser's lot), some for the fighting (Hookwolf's side of things), some because they believed passionately in the cause (Krieg), and some for protection (Alabaster, for example). Now that Kaiser was deposed, the cracks between the factions were growing at a delightful rate.
"And the ABB?"
"Lung is very dead, it isn't public yet but there are a lot of rumours. I captured Oni Lee a few days back, and he's going to the Birdcage soon."
"Good. Coil? The Merchants?"
"Haven't touched either of them. The Merchants are next on my list; Coil doesn't seem to be quite as harmful as the other big gangs, so he hasn't been so urgent to deal with."
"Hmm. I shall help. School?"
"Winslow High has said that I really don't need to turn up to school any more, and that they will help me transfer to Arcadia High, which is a much better school." I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly, "I kinda messed up and the whole school realised that I was a cape. Winslow didn't want a cape with a long history of being bullied being around her former tormentors."
"Surprisingly intelligent of them," said Yuriko.
"Yeah, maybe. Principal Blackwell has been arrested, and Acting-Principal Evans is smarter than her, or at least more of a coward. Anyway, Emma has been involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital, and Sophia has been kicked out of the Wards and is back in juvenile detention. Madison was 'enjoying' the life of a school pariah, last I saw her."
"Better than they deserve," said Yuriko with a sniff.
"It's over and done with," I said with a shrug, "Brockton Bay has bigger concerns. Anyway, how are things in Kamigawa?"
Yuriko laughed, "Everything changes from instant to instant. We are still recovering from the Phyrexian invasion, and there is much corruption to be tackled. It is an exciting time, and the calm of Brockton Bay is a relief."
I laughed, "It's nice to know that someone finds Brockton Bay to be relaxing."
We all had takeout for supper, and had a great time. It was wonderful to have Yuriko back.
After everyone went to bed I headed down to the Stash to help get Teetoo's Luxury Suite set up, and then some Tinkering. An hour before midnight, I was the proud owner of a Mox Sapphire and a Mox Emerald. Teetoo had made the Mox Sapphire from start to finish, but when she activated it, I got the mana, not her. Teetoo shrugged, yawned, and shuffled towards her bed in her Luxury Suite, and I went home.
For the first time in a long time, I had a lot of spare mana. I really needed to remember to talk to the PRT, Panacea, and Brockton Bay Hospital about doing a rotation healing residents. Until then, it was as good a time as any to Escalate!!!!.
I was out like a light in seconds.
Yes, Queen Administrator saw the opportunity and decided to push for a backup planeswalker, just in case, and she's keeping the backup manalocked and happy Tinkering to prevent any adventures endangering her.
Thanks for the feedback regarding the summary. I'll be keeping it as it is for now. I get the suggestion of just listing changes, but I think that would be more work than tweaking each day's summary because the life point calculation is wrong.