Wednesday 2nd February 2011
I duplicated my Darksteel Plate at the end of the day. Teetoo would need some gear if she was going to be my stand-in, and indestructibility was probably the most important keyword to give her.
After a string of hits, my new Scheme was a dud -- Only Blood Ends Your Nightmares. The flavour text read: 'But nothing will end your regret.' -- you had to admire the menace the Schemes could put out, but this one wasn't for me. It forced my opponents to sacrifice (read: kill) one of their creatures -- pass.
My Power-selected card showed the disadvantage of using my selection to solve a single problem. I got another 'resurrection' card. This one was, Sevinne's Reclamation. From the image and the text, it would allow the damage done to something to be undone; a temporal effect of some kind. It could even be cast a couple of times, because it would allow itself to be cast from the graveyard.
I was sure that it would come in handy some day, so I wasn't going to complain. Having a full week of resurrection spells was probably going to be a bit much though.
My Escalation!!!! had made some big changes.
Most relevantly, I, and all my summons, gained 'Menace'. Which meant that if I attacked someone, most people couldn't willingly get in my way unless they brought a friend. That was, I think, okay, so long as it didn't menace people all the time. I did find, by standing in front of the bathroom mirror for a while, that I could make my eyes glow red, in addition to the purple I got from Sentinel's Eyes. My mouth also emitted red smoke at the same time. It looked weird, but I'm guessing that most people wouldn't want to get between me and my target now.
Additionally, my summon limit was increased by two (which didn't change much, I wasn't even close to that limit), one black mana was added to my casting cost, bringing me to two black and one of each other colour, and I gained three abilities. I could now, finally, dismiss a creature (or other permanent), mine or someone else's. It cost two black mana plus the casting cost of the creature in question, and would put their card in their caster's hand. In addition, for four black mana and the casting cost, I could exile a permanent instead ('Exile' seemed to be super-dead, rather than just plain dead -- no graveyard for that card). For another four black mana plus the casting cost of the permanent I had exiled, I could bring them back, under my control.
My next level of ESCALATE cost ten generic and two colourless mana -- I easily had enough, but I wasn't that keen to rush things.
My card declared me to be, 'Taylor Hebert, Dread Power', and showed me floating over the slumped form of Kaiser while the Eager First-Year cowered in the foreground. Yes -- schoolchildren cowered before me! Fear my dread wrath!
I played the Ancient Den card and linked it to the new AirBNB to give me easy access to the Stash tunnels. The AirBNB didn't have a basement, and it took me a long time to find the secret entrance to the Stash -- it was a trapdoor under a paving stone making up a path in the garden. I made a mental note to remove the land when we were no longer in the AirBNB, because I didn't want strangers to find the Stash, and then find out about my scarecrows the hard way. I could do it easily by duplicating my Khalni Gem, so it wouldn't cost me anything.
"So, what is the plan for today?" I asked Dad over breakfast. I'd made an English breakfast, which might have been a bit heavy for Yuriko, but Dad and Teetoo were clearly enjoying it.
"More work to getting quotes to get the house repaired," said Dad sourly, "It's a terrible time to be away from work, with the docks opening up, so I'll have to head in later. It may be late before I'm back tonight."
"Got it," I replied, "I kinda regret not kicking Kaiser in the nuts when I had the chance. I've got school work to do, but otherwise not much planned."
"Any spellcasting or summonings I should know about?" he asked, looking for a topic of conversation.
I laughed, "Well, no. Most of my cards aren't that useful. Today's card will pull something from my graveya..." I trailed off. I looked at my graveyard. I checked the wording of Sevinne's Reclamation. I sent a mental hug and apology to my Power for underestimating today's card.
Dad and Yuriko were looking at me expectantly.
"Okay, new plan. Dad, forget getting quotes for the repairs. Let's finish up here and then I'll fix the house."
Dad worked out what was what quickly. He had a couple of suggestions, so when we were standing in front of the rubble that was once the Hebert Residence, there was a PRT PR Department camera crew ready and waiting, along with Miss Militia and Armsmaster, mostly because they were curious.
When everyone was ready, and the house was clear of PRT agents and their big tent, I cast Sevienne's Reclamation, recalling the 'Hebert Residence' from my graveyard. Modern cinematics spoiled the effect, really. The house unexploded itself over the course of a few seconds, looking pretty much as though someone had played a video backwards of it collapsing. I mean, the snow blowing out into the air, the lack of dust clouds, and so on meant that it wasn't quite the same, but it was mostly soundless and considering what it represented, surprisingly anticlimactic.
There was a loud cheer from the three remaining non-PRT camera crews and journalists. I still hated that they were there, but it was nice that they were happy that I had my house back. I just had to hope that they didn't spread the word that interesting things were happening here again, or I'd get more of them.
Yes, I realised exactly how stupid that thought was the moment I thought it.
I focussed on what was important: the rubble was gone, the Hebert Residence was back.
Dad and I went back inside, with the PRT camera crew following us, and we confirmed that everything was back where it had been. Planeswalker powers were just crazy.
"Impressive, Walker," said Armsmaster, eyeing the restored building, "Very impressive. This was a one-shot ability?" He knocked on the walls in a few places.
"Yes, mostly," I said, "This one can be cast again, for a lot more mana. It only works on items in my 'graveyard', though, and there's not much there that would be worth the bother."
"Let us know if you get a similar ability that can work on other 'graveyards'," said Armsmaster seriously, and then left.
Miss Militia congratulated Dad and me on our restored home, and on all the work that we'd need to do move all the stuff I'd salvaged from the ruins back in. Dad thanked her for her kind and considerate nature.
"Oh, Walker," said Miss Militia, "Something you need to know: Kaiser and Victor died in the Birdcage. There was some bad blood between Kaiser and some of the cell block leaders. He lived long enough to confess some things to Dragon. Most of it was not important, but one thing he said that Purity has corroborated: the reason your house was mortared, and the reason Purity was at the ambush, was that he was offered a great deal of money and support to kill you. By Coil."
"What?! Why-- Why does Coil want me dead?" I asked. I mean, sure, I planned to bring him down, but he didn't know that, and I hadn't even said a single word to him.
"Apparently Coil was worried that you were getting too powerful, too fast, and wanted you 'off the board'."
"Well, someone's gotten themselves to the top of my list," I said angrily. My eyes may or may not have been glowing slightly, based on Miss Militia's reaction. I wasn't wearing my costume, and I wasn't hiding my face any more anyway.
"Do you even know--" she froze, "You know who Coil is, don't you?"
"Yup," I said, "But unwritten rules, yada yada yada. I'll need to face him while he's in costume."
She eyed me assessingly. "If you need any help with that, let us know."
"Thanks, but I should be able to manage. I mean, I wouldn't say 'No' to a taser rifle and some confoam grenades, but I don't need them. Oh! Please don't mention this to anyone in PRT other than the Directors and Armsmaster. Without going into details, Coil will probably hear anything that goes much further than you four."
"You think he has the PRT compromised, just like the Empire and the ABB?"
I nodded, "I know he has the PRT compromised," I said, tapping the side of my head, "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I can deal with him."
Moving the stuff I'd salvaged back in turned out to be unnecessary, as the reclamation spell had replaced the stuff I'd looted. A very convenient spell -- I'd have to thank Sevinne if I ever met her. Or him, or it, or whatever.
We really didn't want our home to be blown up again. Dad said he could handle the house and disposing of the duplicated items if I could handle the supervillain who might try to do it. It seemed like a fair division of labour, so I got right on it, with Yuriko in tow.
First step was obvious -- the secret door to the Bootleggers' Stash was back, and from there it was a brisk walk to the Underground Sea and Thassa's Oracle. The path was a lot shorter this time. The Stash changed every time I went down there, and there was a definite trend of the paths between places I wanted to go shortening, which was appreciated.
"Planeswalker Hebert," she said in greeting, her voice struggling with the English words, "Avenger Yuriko," she nodded to Yuriko, who nodded back.
"Oracle," I said. She had a name, but I couldn't pronounce it. She assured me that 'Oracle' would do. "Kaiser's attempt to kill me was on behalf of a man called Thomas Calvert, also called 'Coil', who has the ability to predict the short-term outcome of any either / or decision. I want to stop him. Do you have any advice?"
It took a good half-hour for the Oracle to commune with her goddess, and when she was done, she had a short message for me: "His Power cannot predict your actions. If he sees you, that prediction will fail, forcing him into the other prediction."
"Perfect!" I said, a plan already forming. "Oh! Is this useful to you?" I asked, offering her the Sapphire Mox I'd brought with me, "As thanks for saving my dad's life."
The Oracles eyes grew round with pleasure as she hesitantly took it from my hands. [A Mox! Rarest of treasures! Thank you, lady planeswalker!] She admired it closely before hanging the necklace around her neck, against her beads.
Neat, I think she liked it.
As soon as I left the Stash, I had a text from the PRT; my request for a taser rifle and containment foam grenades had been approved. I flew to the PRT Headquarters -- what was the point of being an unmasked cape if I couldn't fly everywhere?
Getting the rifle and grenades wasn't as easy as I'd anticipated. There were a lot of documents to be signed, and they needed me to pose for a few photographs (Taylor Hebert: Unmasked, Taylor Hebert: Space Hippie (the Robe of Stars outfit), and Taylor Hebert: Black Knight). There were forms to sign, and then more forms, and then I was given a lanyard with hologrammed plastic card that declared me to be Walker, PRT Affiliate. Thankfully Miss Militia was very helpful walking me through the whole process.
Once I had signed a few dead trees, I was finally allowed into the armoury to collect a rifle with a couple of taser packs and half a dozen confoam grenades. I'd asked for ten and the quartermaster looked at me funny, so I changed it to six. I needed to sign everything in and out whenever I needed them, and the PRT would be very unhappy if anything was lost or couldn't be accounted for, but otherwise I could have them when I 'patrol'. They even threw in a bandolier that I could keep. It was a lot of kerfuffle to get the rifle, but they were kinda neat and it didn't cost me mana to use.
"Please don't lose that card," said Miss Militia, "And don't abuse it to give orders to PRT troopers unless it's an emergency."
"Huh?" I said, taking a better look at the card.
"You're a PRT Affiliate now, Walker. We're putting a lot of trust in you. Please don't abuse that trust."
"Oh!" Maybe I should have read those forms a bit better, but I had been in a hurry.
"Oh, and just to be clear, the police and the PRT are separate entities. Please don't try and bully police officers with that card unless lives are on the line. Our relationship with them is fraught enough as it is."
"Got it," I said brightly. "Oh," I said, with as much honesty as I could fake, "I just remembered. Can you tell me if Thomas Calvert is in? Dragon may have mentioned, I want to tackle the whole 'Ellisburg' thing someday soon, and I thought it would be best if I was, um, respectful about what happened there. I wasn't going to bother the director about it, but if Mr Calvert was available, maybe we could chat?"
Miss Militia frowned, "I don't think Mr Calvert speaks much about Ellisburg either, Walker. He's not in, anyway. It's usually fifty-fifty odds if he is or isn't -- he works his own hours."
Coil PRT waveform: collapsed. Hopefully his other possibility was in his lair.
I smiled seriously, "Got it. Maybe don't mention it then; I'll see what Dragon can tell me, when I've got the go-ahead."
"That might be best. Have a good patrol. Be safe."
"Thanks, you too!"
Parts one and two of my cunning plan were complete. Now for step three: shoot Coil with a taser rifle for blowing up my home.
Coil blinked as he found himself kicked out of his 'safe' timeline and into the one where he was working in his lair. It didn't happen often, but over the last month there had been a few instances where one timeline or the other had collapsed and he wasn't sure how it happened. He did have a theory, though. After all, the last time it had happened was when he'd tried to observe a certain someone's Power testing. The timing then hadn't been a problem, but it was far more problematic now. This one might have cost him a valuable asset.
"Enough," he said to the technician with the bloody tools, "Put her back together. I have other business to attend to."
Coil returned to his office and called one of colleagues at the PRT Headquarters. They had a nice chat, and eventually he casually slipped Walker's name into the conversation. Peters happily confirmed that Walker had come in to sign up for the Affiliate program. Coil cursed quietly -- Piggot was sure to call it a coup, alongside the recent fall of the Empire and ABB that she had lucked into. Walker looked to be working with the PRT, he'd have to take control of it if he wanted to control Walker. That had been the plan, but the timing wasn't great.
With the recent events in mind, Coil's plans for getting Piggot fired were looking less and less feasible; he'd probably have to assassinate her instead. That was a shame, because the death of a PRT Director would be investigated closely, even if she was on dialysis, and Walker must not suspect anything. He needed to make his pitch to the 'planeswalker' once he had Piggot's position, and frame it as a collaboration in clearing out the Bay with the PRT. He'd confess being Coil, and make sure the most egregious crimes he had committed were sufficiently well buried that she wouldn't find them. He'd little need to wring a little more use out of the wretched Tattletale before letting the girl 'go', alongside the rest of the Undersiders, but there would be time for that. As long as she died outside of Brockton Bay, Walker would be none the wiser.
Coil thanked Peters and hung up. He started flipping through his contacts before scowling. With Victor of the Empire gone, his preferred assassin was not available, nor was Crusader. He hated to do it, but he'd need to bring in some out-of-town talent, and that meant working with people like Accord or The Elite. Mind made up, he reached for the phone and fell to the floor, convulsing in pain. He looked around weakly to see Walker fly over to him, her eyes glowing red and trails of demonic red vapour coming from her mouth. She pulled out her 'lasso' and suddenly there was even more pain, before everything went dark.
I loved my Vectis Gloves.
Yuriko had gone looking for Coil's base, guided by information from the Oracle, while I went to get a rifle and some grenades. By the time I'd fought free of bureaucratic hell, she'd not only found Coil's base, but the secret escape tunnel leading from it. By battlefield view told me that he was home.
It was locked from the inside, of course, but that wouldn't stop the Vectis Gloves. I didn't want Yuriko to get shot, so I had her go get lunch while I assaulted Coil's lair.
The tunnel led straight to Coil's office, and Coil was even kind enough to be alone. I tased him. He fell to the ground, writhing. I lassoed him. He stopped writhing.
Huh. That was easy.
I was going to just call the PRT and let them take it from there, but Coil had a lot of dangerous mercenaries, and there were probably a few on site. Coil wasn't going anywhere, and Yuriko was still in the lunch queue for the sushi bar she had chosen. I had time.
I left Coil's office by the main door, and started to explore his secret lair. It was mostly unoccupied, a converted Endbringer shelter with a fairly basic layout, similar to the one the Empire had used. The floor with Coil's office had other rooms, and I went through them one-by-one. Empty office. Empty office. Soundproof torture chamber with a torturer working over a sobbing young woman.
Said torturer got two taser zaps and a confoam grenade. I then turned my attention to his victim.
It was Tattletale. I could barely recognise her.
I wanted to throw up at the sight of her, despite everything I'd experienced from the Vivisurgeon's Insight. Thankfully, I could heal.
I tapped my mana, laid hands on her, and focussed on undoing the damage that had been done and restoring what had been cut away. The wounds sealed up, the bruises and burns faded away, bones returned to the right places, and her hands-- I really didn't want to look at her hands until I was absolutely sure that they were healed.
I really had gone far too easy on Coil.
Tattletale was physically fine, despite her sobbing, but I kept pumping mana into her. Blue and white mostly, because I could sense the violation that Tattletale had experienced, and bringing mana to bear could soften and ease the massive mental trauma. Only when my Power was telling me I'd done all I could did I let my hand fall away. I then tore away the restraints on the chair and freed Tattletale.
She launched herself from the chair and started kicking at the torturer, who was sadly protected by the mound of confoam that cocooned him. I let her go at it until she suddenly stopped and turned to me, alarmed.
"Coil! Is he dead?"
I shook my head, "No. And I don't want to change that, even after--" I nodded at the chair.
She sighed with relief, "I think he has a deadman's switch. The lair will self-destruct if we're not careful. The controls will be in his office. I'll go deal with it."
"Okay," I said, nodding, "Coil is in his office, unconscious. Do not kill him," I mean, I wouldn't blame her, but I had principles, dammit.
"But--"
"No!" He was helpless. I wasn't-- I didn't want to be a murderer. The correct response to seeing brutality isn't to say, 'Hold my beer'. People like Coil didn't get to win. Ever.
Tattletale seemed to accept my command and left. I went to take my frustrations on the rest of Coil's men.
Armsmaster, Miss Militia, and Dauntless approached the Endbringer shelter Walker had identified, escorting a convoy of five PRT vehicles and no shortage of troopers.
Walker was waiting for them at the entrance, eating sushi with a young Asian woman. Walker quickly finished her mouthful, wiped her hands on her starry robe, and rose to greet them. By the time she was standing, her hands were gloved.
"Hi Guys, thanks for coming. Um, Coil had quite a few more mercenaries than I expected. I should have checked first, I know."
"Thank you for calling us, Walker," said Armsmaster, dismounting from the Armscycle, "Are the mercenaries neutralised?"
"Yup," said Walker, nodding and leading the way to the shelter door, "It was a bit messy, though. I knew I needed more grenades."
Armsmaster turned to the team. "I'll review the scene with Walker. Miss Militia, you're with me. The rest of you, wait here until we give the all clear."
The Endbringer shelter door was of the typical construction consisting of two foot thick steel on guide rails. It had been torn open from the inside: a corner had been ripped off, it was heavily dented in places, and the half of the thick steel door was peeled and rolled back like the lid to a sardine can. The concrete frame around the door had chunks missing, as though parts had been blasted off by artillery.
"Sorry about the door," said Walker as she stepped over the lintel, "I couldn't figure out the controls. I think I needed a key or something."
Armsmaster followed her into the shelter. The main floor of the shelter had been divided up into eight bunk rooms with two bunk beds apiece. Peering into each one he could see men in black ops uniforms, subdued. Some were restrained with handcuffs, some had clearly been tased, but most were encased in containment foam. A few were just lying on the floor, unconscious but breathing slowly, without any sign of injury but for some reason they were soaking wet.
Walker saw what had caught Armsmaster's attention and said, "It's just water, but they'll be out until midnight. I hated to waste mana on them, but it was either that or punching them."
"You made the correct choice," said Armsmaster calmly.
The walls were decorated with bullet holes, laser scorch marks, and embedded grenade fragments, but Walker seemed completely unhurt. At the far end of the shelter there was a set of large security doors at the end of the barracks. "They're locked," said Walker, "I didn't bother exploring the whole place, I thought I should leave that to the professionals. Plus, I kinda have schoolwork I need to get back to. It's been a busy morning. You know how it is."
Armsmaster called for Dauntless to lead the troopers into the barracks to secure Coil's mercenaries.
Walker led Armsmaster and Miss Militia up the stairs to an administration section, and into a corridor. "Uh, don't go into that room if you've eaten recently," said Walker as they passed one door. "There's a bastard in there, but he's foamed up and he can definitely wait."
"Hold up," said Armsmaster, and entered the-- it was a medical room set up to be a torture chamber. There was a confoam cocoon in one corner, doubtless holding the 'bastard' that Walker mentioned. Armsmaster surveyed the--
"ARE THOSE FINGERS?!" shouted Miss Militia, her taser rifle changing to a combat shotgun.
"She's okay! She's okay!" said Walker hurriedly, "I healed her. She has brand new fingers. Just maybe needs a manicure."
Miss Militia glared viciously at the confoam cocoon. The shotgun flickered into a chainsaw. Armsmaster guided Walker and Miss Militia out of the room and closed the door. The forensics team would need to deal with that room, and as Walker said, the man in the cocoon could definitely wait.
Miss Militia forced her weapon back into a baton and radioed a warning to the PRT Troopers outside, while Armsmaster followed Walker.
"Where is the victim?" asked Armsmaster.
"She should be through here, in Coil's office," Walker said, going through the door at the end of the corridor, "And-- she's gone."
Armsmaster followed Walker into the room. There was a man lying on the floor. He was tall, thin, and wore a black full bodysuit including hood and face mask, with a snake motif. "Coil's still alive. I told her not to kill him. Good."
"And the victim?" asked Armsmaster, looking around.
"She must have run off," said Walker with a scowl, and after she caught sight of Coil's desk, "And she took Coil's computer with her. Great."
"Where would she have gone?"
"There's a secret escape tunnel over there," she said casually, pointing a thumb at a bookshelf behind her, "That's how I got in."
"Will you be able to recognise her?"
Walker hesitated before confessing, "Yeah. It was Tattletale."
"And you left a villainous Thinker unattended in Coil's office, with Coil, and his computer, and a secret exit?"
"Hey!" said Walker, offended, "I needed to deal with Coil's mercenaries. And anyway, she said that the whole building was probably rigged to blow and she needed to disable his deadman's switch."
Armsmaster immediately went to comms, "This is Armsmaster. Everyone out of the building, NOW!"
Miss Militia pulled Walker into the PRT mobile office to debrief her; Miss Militia had a better relationship with the girl.
Armsmaster had carried Coil out of the building, and processed him outside while they waited for a team from the Headquarters to bring his full bomb-disposal gear -- he'd only been able fit a modest bomb-disposal kit in his bike. There were two surprises.
The first was when Armsmaster took off the man's mask and found out that Coil was PRT Consultant Thomas Calvert.
The second was when they took off his gloves and found out what Tattletale had done to his hands.
"No, I am not going to heal him!" said Walker, folding her arms and glaring at Armsmaster.
"Walker--"
"No! He blew up my home! He was about fifty seconds away from murdering my dad! He tried to kill me more than once! He tortured Tattletale, and I bet that wasn't the first time that torture chamber got used. He's a snake. Snakes don't get to have fingers."
Miss Militia could see how this conversation was going to end, and ushered Armsmaster out before someone said something that they would later regret.
Walker was still sulking when Miss Militia had closed the door and turned back to her. "I'm not changing my mind," she said.
Miss Militia sighed. She liked Walker, but she was in many ways still a young girl. "Okay," Miss Militia said, "Fine. Maybe Panacea will be more professional about it," although Miss Militia had heard enough stories to have her doubts. She didn't like the idea of Calvert getting acquitted due to a sympathetic jury, but maybe that conversation could be had later. "Is there anything else that you can remember that we should know about Coil?"
Walker looked away, but did actually think before answering, "No, not that I can think of. I've told you about his Power, that's the most important thing."
"Well, thank you for taking him down so quickly. Even if the entire PRT-ENE is going to have to work around the clock to clean up this mess."
"Huh? Throw him in a cell and let the lawyers sort it out."
Miss Militia stifled a laugh, "Walker, Calvert was a consultant for the PRT with high-level security access. We have so many security reviews and assessments to make, change all passwords, locks, and protocols, review everyone he had a hand in hiring, check to see if there are any more hidden parahumans--"
"There aren't," said Walker confidently.
"You haven't met everyone yet, Walker, and we can't exactly just take your word for it. Believe me, it'll be months before things even begin to calm down."
"Ah. So you'd prefer it if I didn't take down the Merchants this afternoon?" said Walker. Miss Militia really hoped that she was joking.
"Walker, let me be explicit. Do not take down the Merchants today. Nor tomorrow. Not this week. The PRT was already overwhelmed before today. If the Merchants go on a rampage and we need the help we'll give you a call, but if you force us to take them in, there are going to be mistakes made. No-one wants that. We'll round them up soon, but we need to finish processing Coil, the Empire, and the ABB captures first."
Walker pouted.
That afternoon I went to the PRT Headquarters and explained that I could now Dismiss the Eager First-Year. She had apparently negotiated some sort of deal with the PRT where they gave her textbooks and she answered questions, or something like that. Either way, she had a lot of books in her cell and she was reading with desperate speed when I arrived. She had warned the PRT that she needed to try and kill me if she saw me, so they cuffed her and carried her out of the cell. She glared at me sullenly, but didn't do anything other than struggle. I dismissed her, and her card appeared in my hand.
The rest of the afternoon was schoolwork. Teachers had sent me work packages, and I slogged my way through them. Most of it was pretty boring, but it needed to be done. Losing half the day to dealing with Coil didn't help.
Supper was takeaway -- I didn't know when Dad would be back in, and Teetoo, Yuriko, and I had a fun time arguing on what Tattletale should have done when left alone with Coil. Teetoo was more forgiving than me, and Yuriko-- Yuriko was not. We headed down to the Stash afterwards, as Teetoo was Tinkering again, creating a design document for something called Illusionist's Bracers that she felt might allow her to wander around town without being mistaken for me.
I was more than a little worried that I'd forced Tee to be my Tinker slave, but she promised me that she was fine, just planning for contingencies. Yuriko said that as a summoned creature, Teetoo was probably perfectly happy to be left Tinkering for me all day, but she'd help anyway by teaching Teetoo how to disguise herself, so that she could go outside without being mistaken for being me if she wanted. Having reviewed the capabilities of the bracers, I was keen to have a pair for myself. They needed gems, weird glowing rocks, and some silver, but I had plenty of all that and gladly sacrificed them for the cause. Teetoo saluted, and said that hers would be done by Sunday, and I could make my own copy then. Nice.
It was getting late. I had spent twenty six mana today, for the Reclamation of my home, healing, tapping some of Coil's mercenaries with Thassa's Ire, and dismissing Takhi Sehing. That left me with thirteen mana.
This wasn't as much as I wanted, because I had a new trick. Disturbed Burial would, for five mana, allow me to pull my Daggermaw Megalodon card from my graveyard without losing the 'Disturbed Burial' card. Another two mana would let use the megalodon's landcycling ability to send it back to the graveyard in return for an Island card of my choice. This was an entirely repeatable trick, letting me convert seven mana into an Island card. It also shuffled my deck, but that didn't seem like a problem to me.
I'm sure that there are better tricks out there, but I happily tapped the rest of my mana, and a Treasure token, for two Island land cards: Gate to Seatower, and Idyllic Beachfront. Gates seemed to be pretty rare, so that had to meant that they were good, right? And an 'Idyllic Beachfront' for the underground sea would at least make things nicer for the Oracle and Tee. I couldn't play the lands today, but I'd get one down tomorrow.
At midnight, I copied the Swiftfoot Boots and gave them to Teetoo to equip. There -- she was now hexproof as well as indestructible. I was feeling a lot better about her survivability.
An empty grid. That was how Zihao Ren saw Brockton Bay now. An empty grid, no stones placed, no handicaps, no komi. The ABB had no capes. The Empire had no capes. Coil was defeated. The Merchants had capes, but none of them were a great threat, and even the excretable Skidmark was intelligent enough to not raise himself as a target while Walker stalked the city.
Lesser members of the ABB spoke of a repeat of the infamous Boston Games, when the city, once cleared of capes, was invaded by many gangs vying for a place in a pool recently emptied of fish. They were fools. Walker defeated Kaiser, Oni Lee, Purity, Hookwolf. There were very few capes in the country who could challenge her by herself, and the PRT would leap to her aid if she asked for it. She would defend the city. There would be no Boston Games.
And that was a beautiful thing. Because no Boston Games meant that there would be no invasion of capes trying to take over the ABB or destroy it. No, it meant that the ABB was suddenly no longer playing by the same rules as almost every other gang in the United States -- without capes, the ABB was a concern for neither the PRT nor Walker. Without a cape, what they did warranted neither of those worthies' attention. No, the ABB was now solely concerned with the police, and the police in Brockton Bay had long since been compromised by all the players. They would be no obstacle.
It would be a challenge, of course. The Empire was larger, and would be playing by those same rules, but Ren was confident; the Empire had put capes in all their leadership positions, and now they were rudderless. Lung's wisdom meant that the ABB had intelligent and insightful people like Ren to keep them on track. The Empire had dedicated great time and effort into making themselves hated targets. Obvious targets. The ABB needed only to better hide a few of their most distasteful practices to appear to be pristine sages in comparison.
The ABB would need to be quieter and more subtle than the Empire, hardly a challenge, and Walker would focus her attention on them. The ABB might even have to support their hated foes from time to time, to ensure that Walker did not destroy them completely. An unpleasant thought, but so long as the Empire existed they would surely draw the majority of Walker's ire and so allow the ABB to grow in peace.
This was a new game, and Ren expected to win it.
Thursday 3rd February 2011
I loved my latest Scheme, Because I Have Willed It. It was an ongoing Scheme, which meant that it would stay active until certain conditions were met; in this case, if an opponent cast four or more spells in a turn, so this Scheme would stay up at least until I got sucker punched again and lost my Coveted Jewels. What did the Scheme do? It reduced the cost of all spells by one generic mana. My Island farming trick now only cost five mana, not seven. Very nice.
I really needed to get rid of those Jewels somehow. I was worried that just blowing them up might scatter magically-active material everywhere, and who knew what it would do to people.
My Power-selected card was, um. Wow. I was suddenly feeling rather inadequate. But the potential--
Kenrith, the Returned King, could draw me cards. He could grant me more Life points. He bestow +1/+1 counters at half the price I could manage. He could raise the dead. And he could keep doing it until I ran out of mana to feed him -- he wasn't tapped out after a single action.
Well, he was a creature card, and I knew that the PRT got very uncomfortable when I summoned sentient creatures, and this one seemed more high-upkeep than most. And... I didn't need him. Yet. I mean, I did need him, desperately, to raise Mum. He was perfect for that. But for all that I really really missed her, I'd talked about it to Dad, and we needed a plan. We needed her to have a life to come back to, and we needed people to not realise that I could raise the dead. So. King Kenrith would be summoned. But not today.
The day wasn't too far off, though. The Empire was dealt with, the ABB was dealt with, Coil was dealt with. I had two big challenges ahead of me: School, and the Endbringers. Let me get them sorted, and then we'd get Mum back.
The next Endbringer attack was weeks away. That meant that I could ask my Power for appropriate cards for dealing with it next Monday. Experience told me that random cards were unlikely to be too useful. I could do my own +1/+1 counters, I didn't need anyone resurrected right now, and I didn't need another creature taking my time and needing housing and money and food and so on. Kenrith was incredibly powerful, but I didn't need him. I was in a race only with myself, and going too fast wouldn't help.
I'd hold off summoning for now.
I played my Idyllic Beachfront into the Stash, where hopefully it would make access to the Underground Sea a little nicer.
I then got back to planning the downfall of the Merchants with Yuriko, and our follow-up steps to that.
Breakfast was fine, Dad was busy, but we managed to share a few laughs about how crazy things had become since January.
The DWA was getting busier every day. The boat graveyard was now almost completely cleared out, the docks were being refurbished by investors from Boston, New York, and LA, and we could expect the first container ships in a month or two, once the dredging was complete and the container cranes were certified. Collie lifts were extremely popular. There was a lot of hiring and training going on in preparation to that, and it was keeping Dad super busy. He was currently looking for an assistant from amongst the ex-dockworkers who had left when the work dried up. He did think he was probably going to end up with an ex-Empire goon, but as long as they kept the politics out of the office and could do the job well, he'd put up with it.
I wasn't happy that Dad was hiring Nazis, but he pointed out that people did what they needed to survive, and there weren't enough skilled applicants who knew how the Association worked that he could be picky.
It was a tricky topic, and I was glad to be back at my desk doing schoolwork.
Around mid-morning, I found myself struggling with my maths. Having a teacher on hand would have been really handy, even if it was the semi-incompetent barely-engaged Mr Walsh from Winslow High. I was cursing my decision to not go to school when the phone rang. Unknown number.
"Hello!" I said, "Are you any good at factorizing quadratic equations?"
"Hello, Walker," said Dragon with a laugh, "Yes, I am very good at that. Are you struggling?"
"Dragon! Sorry, ignore me, math homework is kicking my butt. How can I help?"
"I wanted to check: are you still willing to help with Ellisburg? The permissions have come through."
"Of course!" I said, sitting upright, "Eager to do it, the sooner the better."
"Excellent! And thank you. Are you free tomorrow?"
"I can be," I said, "Dad won't object, I'm sure, and the only other thing on my schedule was fighting the Merchants, and I've been told to leave them alone for now."
"Well, I'm no more a fan of drug dealers than you are, but I'm sure that a reprieve of a day or two would be tolerable. Bringing peace to Ellisburg would do more good, I think."
"In that case, I'm in. Where do I need to be and when?"
"Ellisburg containment zone head office, New York state, tomorrow, ten AM?" suggested Dragon, "Are you planning on flying, or should I send a transport."
"Hold on," I said, and called up a map on my slow-as-molasses computer, "Sorry about this, my computer is not quick."
"No problem," said Dragon patiently.
Eventually I had a map up, and could see the route I'd need to take. "Oh, it's only about three hundred miles. I'll fly over there after breakfast. Ten AM is no problem."
"Great. I'd like to schedule a call with you and the Ellisburg commander this afternoon to go through the details, if that is okay?"
"Sure," I said.
"Thank you, Walker. Now, let's talk about factorisation. What's the problem?"
Triggering was no fun. Living with Emma trying to destroy me for a year and a half was terrible. But there were some compensations in this life, and having Dragon help me with my maths homework definitely counted as one of the highlights. She was a very good teacher.
That afternoon, as planned, there was a call with the Containment Zone leader, Commander Lorenzo Johnston and his team, Dragon, and me and my Dad.
Explaining the concept of my 'battlefield' to a military commander was not the easiest thing that I'd ever done, but he'd read the redacted version of my Power test report, and knew that I'd taken down most of the Brockton Bay gangs inside a month, so he was willing to take a lot on faith.
"We need to completely withdraw from Ellisburg's containment zone, effectively ceding the ground to Nilbog?"
"I think so," I said, "I'll be able to tell if it has worked or not nearly instantly, so if it isn't working you can tell your teams to go back to their posts. So long as Ellisburg is no longer contested, there should be no problems. Plan 'B' is that I reduce my battlefield as much as possible, which is now about a two and half mile radius, and you pull your troops out into a circle. I then fly above Ellisburg high enough that your troops are outside the Battlefield sphere. If Nilbog has anything outside of that range, they'll not be elkified."
"That-- It will need to be fast, but that will be workable," confirmed the Commander. "How long will it take, if the battlefield is clear?"
"Maybe a minute?" I said, feeling for what my Power would tell me. I could cast the spell while I was around, and activate the Robe of Stars in the last instant before it hit, but I wasn't looking for new and exciting ways to screw up. I'd take the more reliable method that didn't require split-second reflexes. "Yes, a minute. I'll need to summon my creature in the centre of Ellisburg, Vanish myself, and then cast the spell before my creature dies."
"Will it be able to survive, even for a minute?" asked Dragon, "Nilbog's defences are powerful."
"It'll be a massive abomination of a sea monster," I replied, "It'll survive. At least until I turn everything into elk; then it'll be an elk being swarmed by other elk, and probably die, but as a summoned creature it will only be annoyed by that."
"I'll have to take your word for that, ma'am," said Johnston, "And everything will be turned into elk?"
"Everything that counts as a creature, yes," I said, "Not trees, grass, rats, and dust mites, for example, but anything animated that represents a living potential hazard? Yes."
"The key is if Nilbog's plaguebearers will be dealt with. If they're untouched, this will not be an option."
I nodded, even though they couldn't see me, "Sure. Whatever he has will show up on my battlefield view. I'll check that they count as creatures before I start."
"If it doesn't work completely, we will be giving Nilbog a large quantity of biomass to work with," said a voice on the same line as the Commander.
"True," I said, "But how fast can he convert it? If you can take advantage of the opportunity, and drive the elk out of town before he can reach them, you should be able to come out ahead, even if the spell doesn't work completely."
"I'm keen to put an end to Nilbog," said Johnston, "And your record speaks for itself. Let's get into details. What do you mean when you say you will Vanish?"
Dad had mixed feelings about me gallivanting off to containment zones, but he gave me my blessing, once I had convinced him that even in the worst-case scenario, I'd be fine.
It was a quiet day, which was nice.
I duplicated a Shield-Wall Sentinel at midnight, found a Golden Guardian card, paid it to fight me, and this time I whacked it with my Skyblinder Staff -- no more bruised knuckles for my Gold-Forge Garrisons. If my Ellisburg plan paid off, I'd need a lot more mana in the coming days, but I wasn't going to mess around with Khalni Gems or Coveted Jewels. I used my remaining untapped mana rocks to summon four lands by (re)cycling my megalodon: Hedge Maze, Rimewood Falls, Meticulous Archive, and Snow-Covered Island.
The Islands didn't seem particularly special -- none of my options stood out to me, so I picked a few that could be interesting.
I think my Power had noticed that my bags of cash were building up faster than they were being used. The ratio of cash to gold, precious metals, gemstones, and weird glowing rocks had definitely shifted away from the cash. I was happy about that -- the other stuff was more useful.
Yuriko strolled through Brockton Bay, in the ABB's territory. Now that Oni Lee was imprisoned, the rooftops were a safe space for ninjas, and would be until other fliers extended their territory towards the ABB, but most of her work would be done at street level, talking to people, laying groundwork. News of Lung's death hadn't been released yet, but it was obvious that he was gone, now that it was clear he wasn't going to rescue his lieutenant from the PRT. There were even shrines to the monster springing up in the ABB's territory.
Yuriko had asked about the Lung shrines, and apparently he'd been a hero during the fall of Kyushu. The Leviathan's attack had sunk the island, but Lung had continued to fight the Endbringer, solo. Yuriko would have struggled to believe it if she hadn't spoken to witnesses. Of course, that had been the last time that Lung had fought an Endbringer, and his actions after that had been less worthy. Yuriko lit a stick of incense, in acknowledgement of who the man she had murdered used to be, but didn't stick around. She had work to do.
Yuriko's skills were not suited to a cape fight, and Taylor needed no help from her in that regard. Yuriko could, however, help with the tidy up. The little details that Taylor shouldn't get involved with, such as taking apart the non-Powered remnants of both the ABB and the Empire. Unlike the police, she could move easily enough through both territories, and map out safe houses, whore houses, gambling dens, drug dens, and weapon stashes. She could photograph the leaders, and film the shakedowns. She could then provide anonymous tips to the police, who could possibly then move in to seize the gang's assets.
More likely, some of the police would be corrupt and pre-warn the gangs. Yuriko hated the delay, but she needed to account for this, so she was planting bugs and cameras, bribing her own contacts, and laying the groundwork for the corrupt officials to betray themselves. Once she was ready, she would give the police the first tranche of easy targets, and then give the Internal Affairs divisions proof of the traitorous scum's treachery when they misstepped. It might take several iterations of this process but the rot would be excised and then the great beasts that were the ABB and E88 could be eased through their death throes.
Yuriko sighed. It would be months before true peace reached the victims of the gangs and healing could start, but it would be longer if she didn't stop lounging around and get back to work.
Friday 4th February 2011
My next Scheme was also an ongoing one, but this would last until I used it. I Am Duskmourn (I had no idea who or what Duskmourn was). It would allow me to cast a single spell, at midnight, without paying the mana cost. Potentially very handy, but I was inclined to keep the Scheme as a long-term backup. If my Commander-self Taylor Hebert somehow died on the wrong battlefield, and I lost access to all my mana generation somehow, this would be a great last option to respawn myself and not 'lose the game'.
Of course, if I found a great spell that cost fifty mana to cast, I might change my mind.
My resurrection spell was Fated Return, that would put a creature from any graveyard onto the battlefield under my control, with an Indestructible counter on it, and it'd let me Scry 2, too. Not the cheapest spell in my spellbook, but it had potential uses.
I played the Gate to Seatower onto the Stash.
The Gate to Seatower would let me 'Seek' a card. Which effectively meant, 'draw the next non-land card from your library'. I didn't fancy my odds there; I'd activate it later.
I was nervous. I couldn't settle, and paced my bedroom. It wasn't the idea of combat that disturbed me, I knew that I was hard to beat there, it was the idea of letting people down. Of accidentally converting hundreds of good people, heroes who were dedicated to holding back Nilbog's hordes, into elk. I didn't have any good answers
Time passed slowly.
I had an early start to breakfast, told everyone who was awake that I loved them (Collie and the other golems didn't care, but it mattered to me).
I tapped all my mana. I didn't bother with any fancy tricks with getting land cards, or converting untapped lands into treasures. I didn't want to get caught short in any circumstances.
I then flew out to Ellisburg.
It's a good job that I left early, because I got lost twice. I got there in the end, with half an hour to spare, and met up with Commander Johnston. He was shorter than me, but powerfully built and with sharp eyes. The man appeared to be tired, too, but he was professional when he welcomed me into the command centre and we went through the plan one more time.
When it was time, I flew high into the sky, and descended until my battlefield view showed both Nilbog and his minions (and boy, there were a lot of them), and Johnston and his minions. I mean, troops.
"This is Walker. I'm in position," I said over the radio they had given me, "The plaguebearers are confirmed creatures and in range."
"This is Q4 Command, I read you, Walker. Hold position." The radio squawked on the all-units frequency, "This is Q4 Command. All units withdraw. I repeat, all units withdraw."
I looked at my battlefield. Nothing happened, and then one squad of soldiers disappeared. Then another. It was working. Slowly.
"This is Q4 Command, Walker please give your status, over?"
"This is Walker. Battlefield cleared except for, uh, 'Scope', and a Lieutenant Wise."
The radio all-units frequency squawked again, "This is Q4 Command. Scope, Wise, if you are not withdrawn inside the next thirty seconds you will be on night-shift at Hardpoint's End for a month! Out."
"This is Walker. Battlefield clear. Commencing."
I could see Nilbog's creations below start to move. They must have somehow realised that something was up; they might have had contingencies planned for many situations, but they couldn't have anticipated the arrival of a Grozoth.
A Grozoth was a form of leviathan. A massive creature that dwarfed even Nilbog's fantasy giants, made of hungry mouths and many long and powerful legs. Where Nilbog's creations came from a deranged fantasy, the Grozoth came from a nightmare.
It was a 9/9 leviathan before it was boosted by my presence, and cost nine mana to summon, but the reason I chose it for this exercise was the additional thing that happened when it was summoned -- when it entered the battlefield, it allowed me to pull all cards with mana cost nine from my library and put them into my hand. I'd been looking forward to this for weeks.
Nilbog's creations swarmed the leviathan from all sides, and it tore into them with a fury.
I quickly activated the Robe of Stars, phasing my Commander-self from reality until midnight, leaving the battlefield to the Grozoth. I then cast the Wrath of Oko, using the Grozoth as the centre.
Holy cow, that was a lot of elk.
The ex-Grozoth elk didn't last long, and that meant that I no longer had a presence at the Ellisburg battlefield. My perception of the area faded away, but I could still focus on Brockton Bay if I wanted. I didn't -- Brockton Bay was quiet. The bards were playing music for Parian's show, Yuriko was teaching Teetoo about disguises, and apparently arguing what colour they could dye her hair (if I'd had a body, I'd have been squirming at the thought -- I valued Teetoo's sacrifice).
It was fine. I didn't worry about it. My incorporeal self had something much more interesting to look at -- all the lovely nine-mana-cost spells I could now cast.
There were a lot of them -- my spellbook tripled in size, maybe more.
Okay, creatures first. That was a lot of the cards. Most of the creatures were big, with the biggest being an 11/11 Titanoth Rex. Most of the big creatures had the 'Trample' keyword that meant that they weren't easily stopped. A lot of the creatures had ways to make casting them a lot cheaper -- I could now summon a very effective army of very powerful creatures for relatively little mana.
Some had some strange, and potentially useful, effects. One was a Blazing Archon, with the text, 'Creatures can't attack you' -- nice. I didn't have anywhere to put a burning woman on a burning lion at the moment, but I'd have to keep her in mind. One of my new cards was Bringer of the Black Dawn, which would allow me to search my entire library for a card and put it to the top, for the cost of two life points, once a day. That was a scary thought -- I didn't know how many cards there were in my library, but 'tens of thousands' didn't seem off. The idea of searching the full list was daunting. And intriguing. A Hulking Metamorph could spawn in as a copy of, for example, Teetoo, except with base power and toughness 7/7. Were three Taylor Heberts too many, or not enough? Hmm. A couple of creatures made it easy to restore creatures from my graveyard to the battlefield.
There were a lot of dragons. There were a lot of creatures that no sane person would want to interact with in any way. One creature, Myojin of Life's Web, seemed to be some sort of nature spirit which could spawn every single creature in my hand onto the battlefield in one go. And I had another card that would summon a dragon for every spell I'd cast that turn. I mean, if I ever flipped and decided that I needed to wipe out all life on Earth Bet, I would give myself decent odds of winning with tricks like that up my sleeve.
That was the creatures. I now had the makings of a huge army, without any need for one. Neat, I guess? It was mostly academic -- I didn't want to summon creatures unless I had no other choice. I didn't want any of my creatures to feel neglected, and the more that I had, the more attention I needed to give them. It was a lot, even with Teetoo helping out.
As for pure artefacts, there were four. One, Portal to Phyrexia could be safely consigned to the depths until I was ready to lay waste to the place. If necessary. Guillaume had told me that Phyrexia had lost the invasion and the whole plane was now exiled. I'd need to look into -- I didn't want to be the one that broke them free. The other three cards were worth casting.
The Great Henge was a (very) very big mana rock -- it was a full stone henge that could be tapped for two green mana and two life, and whenever a non-token creature entered the battlefield, it would get a +1/+1 counter and I could draw a card. I didn't have a non-violent method for gaining life at the moment, and this thing was all upside. It wasn't even that expensive, as its casting cost was reduced by the largest power amongst my creatures. Two extra green mana a turn, for a one-off cost of two green mana? Bargain.
The Darksteel Forge would make all my artefacts indestructible. I mean, I kinda wanted to destroy five specific artefacts, but once they were gone, this thing was in.
More impactful would be The Magic Mirror. It cost three blue mana (after the discount it came with). At the beginning of each turn, it would get a 'knowledge' counter, and then draw a card for each counter. So, one card on day one, and thirty cards on day 30. After a year or so? That would be a LOT of cards. Some of them would be bound to be useful.
Reshape the Earth was a sorcery that would let me search my library for up to ten land cards and put them on the battlefield, tapped. I'd be playing that one for certain.
There were a lot of spells of the 'kill all creatures' kind. There were fewer spells of 'save all my creatures'. Okay, there was one. But it was nice to have the option to phase out all my friends if things went really badly.
Some of the spells were insane. Seriously, who needed a spell called, Worldfire which would 'exile all permanents, exile all cards from all hands and graveyards, each player's life total becomes 1'? What kind of people were normal planeswalkers?
Okay, I mean, sure, I'd cast that one on Phyrexia in a heartbeat, but the other planeswalkers were saner than me, surely?
Overall, it felt like a lot of cards that might as well read, 'Everyone loses'. There were very few that looked like they could be a permanent boon to Brockton Bay, which was a little disappointing.
Still, a nice little 'Great Henge' might be a cool tourist attraction for my whole 'Brockton Bay -- we're not just about the horrific cape fights' tourism campaign.
And the 'Magic Mirror' was probably going to be useful.
First: 'Reshape the Earth'. Search my library for ten land cards and put them onto the battlefield, tapped.
I thought that would be quick. I knew that there were about forty islands. I knew that there were five basic land types. So, maybe two hundred lands, of which I'd already seen a quarter, and most of which would be boring repetitions of a theme?
Ha ha ha ha ha ha... Not even close.
There was easily a thousand land cards to review.
I was very glad that I'd put aside most of a day for this exercise.
Guillaume Gaillard was rather enjoying this new life of his. Their performance today had gone well, Parian had been happy, and without any pressing tasks on behalf of his absent mistress, he was now watching videos online. He was finding himself rather taken by jazz in particular, and was enjoying a few jazz standards along with a very nice IPA when he suddenly found himself saying, "Hi Guillaume, sorry for interrupting. I don't have a body right now, so I have to talk like this."
"Is everything-- how can I help, my lady?" His mistress didn't sound distressed, but--
"I'm fine, thanks. I'll get my body back at midnight. But I've got a few questions and I'm hoping you'll know the answers."
"If I can answer, I shall. What do you want to know?" He put down the beer and stopped the video.
"Who is Urza?"
Guillaume let out a huff of air. "Urza was one of the greatest planeswalkers who ever lived. A genius artificer and creator, his inventions are myths in their own right. He died driving Phyrexia out of the plane of Dominaria. Amongst his many accomplishments was the founding of the Tolarian Academy. The most common calendar used amongst the planes places year zero on the date of his birth."
"Huh. Was he a good person?"
Guillaume laughed, "Accounts vary. He did a great things, and terrible things. He fought a war with his brother that wrought devastation; in the end Urza ended it by destroying both armies, sank the land they were fighting on, and triggered an ice age."
"Rude."
Guillaume laughed. "Probably, my lady. I never had the honour."
"Fair. And who is Mishra?"
"Urza's brother," said Guillaume, "He became corrupted by the Phyrexians and joined their ranks. He wasn't a planeswalker, but legends say he was a match for his brother in many regards."
"Ah," said Taylor through Guillaume's mouth, "I have the option of selecting ten lands out of all the ones I might one day summon, and it seems that seven of the ones I have selected relate to Urza and his brother."
"My lady? You can summon some land of Urza's?"
Guillaume felt his shoulders shrug, "Teetoo seems to be happy to be Tinkering, and I thought it'd be nice to give her, and me, some lands that boost Tinkering capability. Looking through the lands, I found Urza's Tower, Urza's Power Plant, and Urza's Mine, which synergise together, and Mishra's Foundry, Mishra's Factory, and Mishra's Workshop. I felt that between them they should help Tinkering quite nicely."
"Undoubtedly, my lady," said Guillaume, "But I question if there are any buildings in Brockton Bay with sufficient potency that the lands could manifest there."
Guillaume felt himself laugh, "I can make lands spawn in the Bootleggers' Stash tunnels. Then they just spawn naturally, as they're depicted on the cards. It's much easier."
Guillaume took a sip of his beer, "'Bootleggers' Stash tunnel's', my lady?"
"I'm really sorry," apologised Guillaume's mistress for the fifth time, "I really thought I'd told you!"
"It's really no issue, my lady," murmured Guillaume as he, Jehan, and Perrette explored the tunnels behind the secret door that they had found in their basement. The 'Stash' was a labyrinth of tunnels that Taylor seemed able to navigate instinctively, but was leaving Guillaume thoroughly turned around and lost. They were lighting their way with one of the shadowfire lanterns that were scattered about the place.
"And the Stash is perfectly safe," said Taylor through his mouth, "I mean, I have a few golems patrolling here, but otherwise no-one knows it is there."
"I don't get it," said Perrette, "How can all these tunnels exist under Brockton Bay? Shouldn't we be hitting, I don't know, sewers or cables or suchwhat?"
"I think it's a sub-dimension?" said Taylor, "Something like that. Distance is a bit strange, and it can shrink and grow, and there's an underground sea very close to the actual sea, and that shouldn't work."
The tunnels were high enough for Jehan to walk tall, even with his hat, but often narrow and twisting. They turned a corner and found themselves facing an idyllic beach overlooking an underground sea illuminated by strange lights in the ceiling and below the waters. Sitting on the beach were a Therosian merfolk wizard, Yuriko, and Teetoo, and they were all looking in Guillaume's direction.
"Hello, Guillaume," said Teetoo, "Feel free to explore, but please stay out of the Luxury Suite over that way, that's my home."
Guillaume could feel a headache coming on.
I let the Oracle introduce herself to The Heartfelt Troubadours.
While they were talking I finished my selection of lands, and spawned the first on my list. I rather liked the underground sea, and the image for the Tolarian Academy showed it with a bit of bridge showing, so it must have been close to water. Watching the Stash modify itself to fit the academy was enlightening and eliminated any remaining doubt in my mind that the Stash was a pocket dimension of some kind.
The Tolarian Academy, which would generate one blue mana for every artefact I held, looked more like a castle than a university. It was surrounded by a faint shimmering curtain of light, but whatever it was, it didn't slow Guillaume's mad charge into the Academy grounds.
"This-- This is the Academy! The first Tolarian Academy! How--"
I had Teetoo laugh at him for me.
The other land-walkers followed Guillaume at a more sedate pace, admiring the architecture. The academy was unoccupied, as you would expect, but some semi-humanoid wisps of some kind flitted about from place to place. Teetoo approached one, and it hesitatingly blinked at her before rushing off.
"Aww," said Teetoo.
They explored the place for half an hour until they found the fully stocked library, and then they fell into a long discussion on how to drag Guillaume out in time for the next performance for Parian.
I left them to it. I had more lands to plant.
'Urza's Tower', 'Urza's Power Plant', 'Urza's Mine', all plopped down next to each other, close to the academy. 'Mishra's Workshop', 'Mishra's Factory', 'Mishra's Foundry' went right next to them. Their cards said that they generated mana, but after I had the Academy I really wasn't bothered by how much mana they could generate. They were there to make Teetoo's tinkering better, and they all had that funny-looking extra text that made me think that my Power was customising a few cards to suit Earth Bet. This time, they declared that someone who had access to all three of Urza's Mine, Power Plant, and Tower would generate one extra Tinker counter when they Tinkered. There was a similar effect on Mishra's buildings. Three tinker counters for Tinkering with basic-quality materials? That would seriously cut down on the time required to make useful stuff. The Meticulous Archive card I had in my hand had a similar effect, but it only boosted the planning stage of a Tinker project.
Next was The World Tree. It would let me sacrifice it to summon all the gods (or at least all the gods I wanted), but I didn't need lots of gods, and anyway I still had a limit on the number of creatures I could summon. I had picked it for another reason -- it would allow all my other lands tap for one mana of any colour, without having to mess around with Treasures first. It would make mana balancing much easier, but not perfect: the Tolarian Academy, for example, could either tap for one mana of any colour or two hundred and twelve blue mana, and I didn't anticipate that being a tricky choice most of the time. The World Tree was a massive tree with wide bows that glowed with their own inner lights. I think. It appeared somewhere else in the Stash, where I didn't have eyes. It was fine -- my patrolling golems would find it eventually.
The penultimate land had been chosen for what it represented rather than its mana generation or any other effect it had. Castle Ardenvale could tap for white mana or generate 1/1 white human tokens, but the main reason I'd picked it was because it looked like the kind of place that King Kenrith would expect to live in. The castle dropped close to Urza's Tower, the Stash growing to make space without complaint, the ceiling rocketing upwards to fit the high tower. If the Stash had been grounded in the real world, Brockton Bay would have had a new skyscraper now.
The last land was a little more whimsical -- Dungeon Descent. It would allow legendary creatures to 'Venture into the dungeon'. I had no idea what that meant, but I was keen to find out.
I'd have to wait, though, because all my new lands entered fully tapped - I wouldn't be able to use any of them until tomorrow.
I kept my focus on the Stash until everyone finally left the Tolarian Academy, Guillaume being practically hauled by his friends, several books clutched in his hands, and they finally saw the rest of the buildings I'd planted there. The Oracle's staccato chirps of laughter at their amazement made me want to be able to grin so much.
I still had plenty of mana left for casting, and if I wanted more lands then I had Mnemonic Deluge that would let me recast Reshape the Earth three more times. Another thirty lands would be handy but hardly necessary, and the thought of searching the complete list of lands again was daunting. I didn't need more lands. Not yet.
I had other spells I could cast as well, but I was mentally exhausted, so I just cast 'The Magic Mirror' and dumped it in my bedroom. It was probably the wrong place for it, but I was just done. I'd move it later when I was able to think clearly.
Ugh. Fine. I activated Gate to Seatower's 'seek' ability. And got Deadly Grub. So, about as useful as expected. Drawing random cards was for suckers.
I passed time waiting for midnight by watching the bards go crazy exploring the legendary lands at their feet. Apparently scraps of paper in Urza's Tower were far more valuable than the choicest books from the Academy. The word 'Karn' was said a lot, anyway.