Blueprint 3.7
"Lee, you knew this was going to happen!" Were the first words I heard when I answered Taylor's call.
"And a good afternoon to you Taylor, I assume that Lisa has informed you of her boss' plans? Did she call you out for knowing about it ahead of time?"
"Everyone was pretty freaked out, I don't think she noticed," she dismissed, focusing on what she obviously thought was important. "Lee. Did you know?"
"That the Undersiders were going to hit Bay Central at 3 in the afternoon? With how Herb and I have been making waves, I downgraded it to highly probable. As for Lisa, the chance that she missed something bottoms out at 50 percent, but the fact she didn't say anything bodes well." I replied smoothly.
"It's at 1, not 3," was her only retort.
"Noted. Did they give you a rundown on the Wards?" I asked
"Yes, He made sure to tell me what I should expect!"
I rolled my eyes. "And he's not running a delicate operation with his people in contact with ingenue Sherlock Holmes. Besides, his plan is a hot mess that would have failed if you weren't there." I rebuked.
"He obviously was planning on having me there to help!" she shot back.
"Which one of us has seen the future?" I asked. "Also, look up the Halo Effect, it'll explain why you think the hunky beefcake is a paragon of strategic planning because of his muscles."
"Like you have room to talk!" She exclaimed.
I took a deep breath. Scion's Shards push conflict, let it go. "I'll have you know that despite how muscular Herb is, I know he sucks at planning. Definitely more a seat of his pants kind of guy, even if he sometimes gets his ass kicked for it. Now, was there anything you wanted to know that I might be able to tell you?"
I could practically hear the bugs buzzing on the other end of the line. "Is there anything else I should know?"
I honestly couldn't help myself. "Don't drop a spider on anyone with freckles."
"What the hell does that mean!" she exploded.
I suppressed my laughter. "I'll tell you when you're not getting read like an open book every day Taylor, and I do appreciate you doing this for us. I'll be there to help, in my way, as will Herb. All of you will get away, and we'll stop the heroes from doing anything stupid. The original raid was a dumpster-fire of fail, a complete pyrrhic victory in the long run. This one'll go a lot better, and not screw over everyone involved. Okay?"
"Okay," she grumbled. "Thanks."
"Anytime teammate, I need to start the ball rolling, see you tomorrow? I'll be suppressing my bug control, so you don't give it away by accident if Lisa glances your way at the wrong moment and messes it up. And don't worry, you got this."
I thought she might have hung up, before I heard her mumbled "See you," and the click of the call ending. Checking my contacts, I called up Panacea, getting her voice mail. "Hi, Panacea? This is Vejovis. You're probably in school but when you get out, I was wondering if you could help me with something. I wanted to open a bank account at Bay Central, but I have no idea how to do so for my cape identity, and was wondering if you could help me with that this afternoon. Thanks!"
Hopefully with that I could get an account, and come in tomorrow come back with questions in time to be there for the raid. I had a couple plans on how to handle it, depending on how everything played out. I gave a snort of disdain as I thought of Grue's plan. You never had just one plan after all, and his escape method was just 'run like hell'.
Walking over to Herb's room I roused him as he blearily answered the door. "What is it?" he sleepily asked. "It's. . . noon?" he commented, looking back at his clock. "Okay," he conceded. "I'll get ready."
A few minutes later he emerged, suited up and raring to go "Okay, what are we doing? Messin' up the Merchants? Asskickin' the Azn Bad Boys? Explodin' the Empire?"
I looked up from my bagel and lox. "Um, no? We're just gonna talk about what we're doing tomorrow."
He looked quite disappointed about the fact that we weren't going to be enacting violence today, demanding "Then why are you all dressed?"
Looking down I realized I was still in my Vejovis costume, having not changed out of it. "Because it's comfortable?" I remarked, mentally shifting it to civilian clothing. "We can do something today if you want to, my schedule's pretty clear."
"Whatever," he grumbled, raiding the fridge. "So, what's up?"
"Coil's paying the Undersiders to hit Bay Central Bank tomorrow, and we're gonna go make sure that the everything goes off better than canon. What?" I asked at his disbelieving stare.
"How the fuck do you think you're a Hero if you're robbin' a fuckin' bank!" he exclaimed.
"Well, obviously I'm going to try to stop it, but sadly due to the irresponsible interference of the Wards and Glory Girl I'll be too busy trying to save the hostages to stop them." I replied guilelessly.
"Fuckin' Supervillain," he muttered. "So, you got a plan, right?"
I nodded, thinking about them. "I've got a couple. Current idea is to go the bank today with Panacea and set up an account as Vejovis, only to come back the next day at 12:40 with some questions, happening to just be on site when everything goes down, hopefully keeping Amy out of it so It's just the Wards. When Kid Win unveils his laser cannon you and Enter jump him for not caring about friendly fire. The Wards fight back, as they're not going to be thinking and just assume you're with the Undersiders, despite your obvious age, and after that you defend yourself while I secure the hostages and the villains get away. I come out and take them to task, and in their confusion, we leave. You have any suggestions?"
Herb held up his hands. "I'm gonna defer to you on this. I do things subtle, and nothing about this is gonna be subtle. I'm not Boojack."
"Fuckin' Right!" came Boojack's voice through the doorway. Apparently, he was listening in.
"Hey Boojack?" I called back. "Wanna punch some Nazis in the face?"
A loud thump was heard as he ran down the hall, skidding in front of the doorway. "You're gonna let me fight? Fuck yeah, what'ya want? I'm bored as shit!"
"Herb and I are gonna go fuck up the fuck up of a bank Robbery, and this is the perfect time to establish you as your own cape, and divert some heroes. At 1 tomorrow I want you to start some shit in E88 territory. Don't kill anyone who hasn't tried to kill you first-"
"Or Purity! Or Cricket!" Herb added.
"Or Rune or Othala," I amended, "But feel fry to take down the dudes." I paused. "Damn that's sexist, but we have reasons. Anyways, just try to avoid killing any Neo-Nazis unless you have to, beating them until they need their super-powered healer to avoid a several month-long hospital stay is totally ok and ties up their resources. Either way, keep going until you need to run, or it's been half an hour. If the heroes show, fight, but don't maim or kill, and retreat. Sound good?"
He snorted. "Ah fuck, restrictions. Eh, it'll let me show those bitch-ass motherfuckers how much stronger I am!"
"Hell Yeah!" Herb agreed, high fiving his replicant.
I turned back to Herb. "Okay, so, I need to get a pair of blackout shades to cover my eyes enough that I can wear my mask underneath it, and some clothes to wear over my costume." Herb gave me the 'you're an idiot' look. "What?"
"Your costume can take any shape, right?" he asked.
"Yeah." We'd been over this. It's what let me make my costume turn into clothes."
"And it can turn into regular clothes?" he asked again, trying to use the Socratic method and failing horribly.
"Yeah, it's how I made this," I told him, tugging on red and gold t-shirt I was currently wearing. What was his point?
He looked at me as if I was a colossal moron who'd just told him that huffing paint was a great hobby, you couldn't get a girl pregnant if she was on top, or that professional wrestling was all real.
"Use your costume to make both!" he almost yelled.
But that wouldn't work because. . . I facepalmed as I changed my outfit to what I needed, Boojack laughing as he left to go back to getting high.
Happy with my progress replicating with Stormtiger's deflection from the ground up, I focused on Glory Girl's shields. Working with it was. . . slippery. It was present, and I could feel the strength of the shield, but the lack of any visual feedback made everything more difficult. Coating an item with my power let me use it as a weapon, but trying it with a knife just made it a baton, since the field appeared to be curved slightly. Interestingly, the more I worked on it the more I could control how much a blow took out of the shield, the more I put into the blow, the harder it hit.
Is this why Glory Girl was having control problems with her strength, I pondered. Is she pulling a Midoirya and putting her all in every punch? Working with it, the feeling was hard to quantify, similar to pointing Speed Zones in any direction but parallel to the ground. As I worked, depleting and refilling my shield, I realized that my reserves were, ever so slowly, increasing. Testing a theory, I set up my rock throwing machine up and pelted myself with them. A solid hit still drained it entirely, but as I worked through the day, the threshold that trigged a drain slowly rose, rendering glancing blows inert without drain. It was hours later when a call of "Dude! What're ya doin'?" broke my focus. Looking over I saw that it was later than I thought, probably early evening, the sun low in the sky, highlighting the trainyard, turning the rusting steel to brilliant bronze. "Dude!" came the call again, and I turned to see Herb standing there in his plainclothes, waving at me.
"What?" I responded, dropping the sound bubble and using aerokinesis to stop the machine from slinging more rocks from the reservoir.
"Dude, it's been all day, what've you been doing?" he asked, ambling over. I gave him a look that said 'Isn't it obvious?' as I gestured to the machine.
"I'm getting stoned!" I responded, smiling as he groaned. "I'm training my powers. Get this, throw rocks at me!" I told him, gesturing to the gravel which covered the ground.
"You sure?" he asked, grabbing a golf ball sized rock. I nodded, pulling on my air control to deflect projectiles. He shrugged before pitching it at my chest, on for it to veer off and fly under my arm. He narrowed his eyes, grabbing a couple more and throwing them at me as hard as he could. Each one missed without fail. "Okay, you can't get stoned, knew that already ya square, but they aren't throwing rocks, they're shooting bullets!"
I smirked. "Really? I asked, pulling the pistol from the back of my costume.
His eyes went wide. "Dude, I'm not gonna shoot you!" he said, backing up.
I rolled my eyes. "Just do it one at a time. If you do hit me, my shield can tank it, and we'll have to wait for it to reload, which takes like 10 seconds."
He still looked unsure, so I took the gun, silenced it, and shot my hand with it. The kickback was more than I thought, and it took longer for my shield to recharge than it normally took for a pistol shot. Frowning, ignoring Herb's call of "Holy Shit Man!", I tossed him the flattened bullet I'd caught and checked the gun, unloading it and opening the slide, only to find one of my Speed Zones sitting innocuously in the barrel. Right I thought. I'd added it to my gun to give it a bit extra kick and promptly forgotten about it. That could have gone badly. Tapping into Skidmark's power, I now felt the presence of the zone, but it was a faint thing, the inch-long strip's profile was barely at the edge of perception. Dismissing it, I reloaded the gun and tossed it at him, safety on of course.
He swore as he caught it, trying not to drop it as he looked at me in concern. "Dude, I fuckin' believed you, you didn't need to shoot yourself!"
I shrugged. "I'd never tell you to do something I wouldn't be willing to do myself," I blithely commented. "So, one at a time, but go for it."
He looked trepidations, but lifted the gun anyways, his stance all wrong. At least it isn't sideways. Is that racist? Either way, he closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, the bullet needing no nudging to pass several feet to my left and hitting the rusted train car behind me. "Dude, open your eyes and look down the iron sights. One shot isn't going to hurt me," I admonished.
He winced, opening his eyes and moved the barrel to actually point at me. Wincing as he jerked the trigger, he was still on target enough to hit me. Barely. A little nudge and it missed, pinging again off the train behind me.
He shook his head, lowering the gun. "I'm sorry man, I can't do this," he admitted, sounding ashamed.
"No!" I contested. "That one was going to hit me before I deflected it. I can show you how to shoot properly later, but you've got the basics. We're at point blank range, even someone who doesn't have any training has a chance of hitting!"
Looking back at me in confusion, he shook his head, muttering "Fuckin' white people, what's wrong with you?"
"I'm someone who wants to train with their powers?" I contended. "I mean, haven't you been training with yours?"
"Doin' what?" Herb shot back, verbally. "My body's somethin' I already know, I can't exactly control my cloning, I already know how to summon Enter, and I can't exactly practice copying when no one around me has powers I can practice copying can I?" he practically yelled.
I cocked my head in confusion. "Yes, you can!" I challenged. "You really didn't notice?"
"Notice what?" he exclaimed. "BJ has all my powers already, and I can't copy your copied powers, just that I can copy others, which I lose the second you get out of range!" I rolled my eyes, ignoring his "What!?"
Apparently, he'd been getting more frustrated about this than I thought. I walked over to my projectile machine, unhooking the pistol from the assembly and loading a bullet into it. Turning around I commanded "Summon Enter." He looked at me, summoning his Stand, who smiled at me. I got the distinct feeling that Enter knew what I was doing, even if Herb didn't. That was. . . odd. I nodded to it, and it promptly turned into the thing that crushed Armsdick's cycle, an Ankylosaurus, having researched it when we'd gotten home. Herb jumped, looking at his summon in confusion before looking back to me, a question in his face.
"I'm going to shoot you," I informed him. "And unless you turn into that, it'll hit you as a human, and it's gonna hurt like a bitch until I heal it, which I won't until you can transform." I smiled evilly, selling it. Mind you, I'd nudge the bullet to just graze him, but he didn't know that.
"Woah, woah dude, let's not be too hasty about this, I'll just, um, it's kinda hard to concentrate when you're doing that so could you just, like, put the gun down, please?" he asked, the last bit a squeak as I raised the pistol and pointed it right between his eyes.
"You have until the count of three," I informed him. Bringing over three brightly colored beetles to hang in the air right in front of him. "One," the first dropped to the ground.
"Dude, I get you're trying to help, but can't we just talk about this normally."
"You're the one who says I'm too long winded, I'm just following your advice. Two," the second one followed suit as his eyes grew wide.
"I didn't mean it like that man, you know that!" he practically whimpered. Closing his eyes and muttering under his breathe. "I don't wanna get shot! Change. Change. Change. Change!"
"Three," I said, dropping the third one, pulling the trigger as it hit the ground, but Herb's form was already a swarm of color as he changed into another Ankylosaur, I nudged the bullet up and to the left to impact at an oblique angle off one of his head plates. The shocked dinosaur, and that was something I never thought I'd see, stood there looking at me in disbelief before turning back to his base, Enter staying in his form, smugness radiating from every scale.
"You fuckin' shot me!" he yelled. "I can't believe you fuckin' shot me! We're friends, then you goin' all evil and fuckin' shoot me you goddamn supervillain fuck!" Herb reiterated, not believing it.
I tossed the empty pistol back towards my machine, striding over. "Don't be such a baby."
"I'll be one if you shoot me. You don't shoot babies, wouldn't you?" he asked, suddenly unsure.
I shrugged, "Depends on the baby, but generally no, now turn back dumbass."
Nodding, he threw out: "Might be safer, bein' armored if you're goin' around shooting people, mindin' their own business," before turning back.
Walking up to him, I put a finger on where I'd shot him. "Now turn back" I instructed. He shifted back to human. It was interesting that the shift pivoted on where his head was, the majority of his body shrinking backwards around that point.
Herb, human again, looked at where I'd kept my finger in place, a couple inches to the left of his head, over his shoulder. He looked back at me, equal parts impressed and pissed. "Motherfucker." He shook his head. "You weren't actually gonna shoot me, where you?"
I looked back at him as if he were crazy. "Not without damn good reason," I told him. "Besides, you needed to get out of your comfort zone to think outside the box. That did it." I waved to his Stand. "You've got someone with their own powers you can copy at any time. Hell, dude can go nearly microscopic if need be. Just have him turn into a water bear and have him hitch a ride. He'll be hanging on to you and always be in range, so you could have all his powers to copy at any time."
"Water bear?" Herb asked, only for Enter to launch himself in a way I'm pretty sure that breed of dinosaur never could, jumping above us, and disappearing as Herb gave a terrified shriek and the sun was blotted out by Enter's shadow. Herb looked around, before turning his attention back to me. "I can feel his powers, but where the hell is he?"
Using Power Sight, I followed the tendril of Herb's power that connected him to his Stand, following it to his collar. Looking down I couldn't see it, merely where the power went to. Pointing at the point I said "There, somewhere, you'll probably need a microscope to see it. If I remember right the second trigger animal form let's you do everything but micro-organisms, which water bears are just above in classification, but still almost impossible to see."
"That's so goddamn broken," Herb murmured, mind filling with possibilities.
"That's the point," I reminded him. "I can leave a sound bubble up here if you want to practice, but if you're doin' anything destructive, go to the Boat Graveyard, it's practically tradition."
He nodded, practically vibrating with happiness, before hugging me, turning into a velociraptor, and darting off into the sunset. Shaking my head, I headed inside to get something to eat before my patrol.
Night had fallen as I tracked a group of Merchants in my Boardwalk persona, getting practice using Speed Zones to travel roof to roof, and dismissing the Zones slowly, causing them to glow instead of flash as they dissipated. I'd been spotted half a dozen times by civilians looking up at the flash when I started, but had gotten the hang of it. If I tried to fly I needed to have at least one part of myself glowing at full blast, which kinda negated the entire "stealth" thing I was going for, so I held my Lightform in reserve.
This group I'd been tracking for the better part of two hours and my patience was running low. Following them back to their base of operations would make a raid do far more damage, and net me more in return, but letting them lead me around the same four blocks like this was just so boring! The threesome chatted, guys whose only commonality was their poor hygiene and obvious drug use. They talked about the price of smack, one of their colleagues overdosing which wasn't that surprising, a video the E88 had made when they busted up an ABB whorehouse, and how their boss was pissed that no-one had found the pair of "Gay Ass Buttsniffers" who'd crashed his party. I assumed the last one was us, but I couldn't find myself to care. I'd already taken Skidmark's power, I couldn't take Squealer's, and you couldn't pay me to take Mush's, so they had nothing left for me other than to take them down. Maybe when Herb decided to be an actual villain and started taking territory I'd help there, but that didn't look like it was going to happen anytime soon. As I watched them sell some weed to yet more high-schoolers I pondered taking them down and just beating the information out of them, but they'd probably just lie about it. I lazily made and dismissed another Speed Zone, the glow not reaching past the ledge I leaned against.
I reflexively went full shadow as a frankly terrifying roar echoed across the city, coming from the boat graveyard. The Merchants below looked at each other, one saying "Uh, Derek, I think we've sold enough for tonight, yeah?"
The leader, probably Spanish, nodded, responding. "Yeah, let's go chill somewhere else. Big Pat's?"
The first one shook his head "Nah Man, Big P got hit by some new guy, called himself Boardwalk." Yes! Brand recognition! "Looked like Shadow Stalkers big brother, nearly killed Ed with some broken glass. Let's head to Khan's, no one'd mess with him!"
Khan? I thought. Either Genghis, or this druggie's a trekkie. I smirked as I followed them roof to roof, that would be amusing. A flicker of motion caught my eye as I followed, a streak passing by a couple of streets over, my eyes catching it before my brain could. Planar Shift: Time Dilation, flickered across my consciousness, a flicker of bright red flame burning far too quickly that dissipated in an instant. The sound of his running no louder than a person jogging, just run together in a way that, while distinct, was not that noticeable. I searched my memory for who that could have been. Velocity I decided, disappointed that I hadn't had time to grab his power before he left. That would have been a nice power to have. Shrugging I turned my attention back to the idiots I was tailing, who hadn't noticed a thing. Where they high? Probably I decided as I followed them down to what looked to be a pizza place. They took the back entrance, the bugs I'd tagged them with showing a staircase to the apartments above, an actual armed guard on the third floor, who looked them over before they entered, nodding and opening the door. This place, I saw, looking through the eyes of the bugs, was cleaner and better put together. Just as the first time, all but one of them sat down in the lounge with a bunch of others while the leader went on ahead. Unlike last time, the place was packed. I counted at least twenty in the lounge, with a couple asleep, and a few in the safe room. The door to that space had been barred, and the windows as well.
Like that's gonna stop me I thought, considering the problem. Taking time and coming out into the real world, I sat, meditating on the rooftop across the building. Tapping into the network of life that represented the invertebrate population in the area, I narrowed my focus on the building in front of me, tapping into their senses, a few at a time, to build a picture of the structure. Feel was the easiest to understand, the sense of touch and relative distance building a framework that I used their eyes to fill in. Translating from compound to single lens input was difficult, but I took my time, putting together a picture. The basement was accessible through the restaurant, and had freezers, as well as quite a few bugs. To their credit, there were no cockroaches, so go them I guess. The pizza place was the first level, the kitchen extending backwards, exiting into the lower stairwell that led to the alley. The second floor was an apartment, currently uninhabited, probably where the owners of the pizza place lived. The third and final floor had the guard outside, watching him carefully, he was nervous, shifting places every so often, a submachine gun sitting uncomfortable in his pocket, poking him in the gut. Inside was the lounge, bathroom, and a heavy door leading to what was probably two bedrooms. One still was, but the other had been reinforced into the more secure room. Inside the barred door was a decently furnished room, what looked to be like mail cabinets set up with individual bags of drugs in each cubbyhole. The windows were barred, both vertically and horizontally, the bars drilled into the frame securely. In this room was another guard, and what I assumed was Khan, sitting at a desk playing some kind of first person shooter, wearing headphones and talking. It took a full twenty minutes to hook into all of them individually, getting their perspectives and building a mental map of my target.
Standing up I double checked my costume. I was covered head to toe in black studded leather, fake coat-tails obscuring my belt pouches, a hood covering my head, a mask over my face, not a single inch of skin visible, my eyes safely hidden away. Taking a step on a Speed Zone I launched myself across the way, the reduces gravity of my Shadowform allowing me to touch down silently. I considered my problem. I could take all of them directly, and as long as I kept most of my body in shadow, bullets would pass right through me, my shield allowing me to take an occasional round on whatever part was tangible. However, this persona was all about fear and darkness, and casually walking in and taking them on was just too, too Vejovis. He was the flying brick, I was more a knife in the dark, a glowing knife mind you, but that just made you feel worse when you got stabbed by it.
What I really would have liked was Grue's power, which I could have said was part of my Shadowform, but sadly getting close to him would mean getting close to Tattletale and fuck that. As I stood there I facepalmed. I had bugs everywhere, which included the power breakers. Gathering the ones in the basement together, I opened it up, seeing all the switches. Getting ready I partially shifted into Light, my hands and feet glowing a brilliant white as I sharply rose, off balance for a second as Purity's flying mechanic was very different from Glory Girl's when used for more than levitating, but that was something to practice later. Someone in the lounge had noticed the light.
Rather than take them out one at a time, I slammed the basement bugs into all the switches, turning them all off as I reached out into the light, grabbing something like I'd seen Purity do, body moving on autopilot as I sent it spiraling downwards into the roof right above the unoccupied bathroom. The bug inside saw no breach, so I slammed it again and again until the bug died as the roof caved in, letting go of the light on my feet and dropping down, I slammed a blast point blank into the door, blasting it off its hinges and catching one thug in the process, taking him down with a solid thump not a worrying crunch. I jumped in, keeping the light on my knuckles, but letting it play across the rest of my body, the harsh white radiance shifting into a riot of colors as I launched myself across the room, slamming a punch into the temple of one thug, letting another's punch pass harmlessly through my gut before stepping through him, feeling a slight shock from something, probably his phone, before slamming him in the back of the head with a hammerfist.
My Sight let me see clearly as everyone else scrambled for cover, shots going wild as most of them weren't even aiming at me. The big-screen television died for the crime of reflecting my light, distracting one idiot with a shotgun. He was next, a flying knee catching him in the jaw, the speed zone that propelled me dismissed in a flash, drawing fire. The "front" door burst open and the guard looked in, pulling his Uzi out and firing it in an arc across the room, apparently not giving a shit if he hit his friends. For that, he was going to visit the hospital I decided, using the air to nudge the bullets up to hit the walls and ceiling instead of the cowering Merchants. Taking a step back and bouncing off a speed zone on the wall, I launched myself at him like a psychedelic missile, breaking my momentum on his chest, breaking his ribs as I grabbed his gun arm, shifting my weight around and down throwing him into the lounge, but keeping a hold of his wrist, shattering it with a sickening Crack. The Merchants, realizing that I was out from among them, opened fire, and I was harshly forced to come to terms with the fact that blocking bullets from one source was far easier than a proverbial hail of them. Shifting fast, most of the bullets passing through me, but one that would have hit me in the head caught on my shield, another catching me in the arm right after. That's gonna bruise I thought as the pain flared and I dropped on a Zone, flying back into the room where the possibility of friendly fire would temper their shots. The rest of the fight was a messy mayhem of melee and gunfire, my shield and costume taking blows that might have seriously injured me.
The last one, Derek, went down as he made a run for it. I didn't save him for last, it's just he wasn't actively shooting at me, so I used a chokehold to put him down gently. Through the entire fight the guard and Khan had stood ready in their secure room, the leader behind his desk with a bulky pistol while the guard stood in a corner, what felt like an automatic Shotgun at the ready, a flashlight pointed towards the door the only light in the room. I'd say it's overkill, but it's not gonna help I thought, considering the problem. I could just blast down the door, but it lacked that screw you style and subtly sideways thinking Boardwalk was meant to display. Well, as subtle as a guy could get with explosions. I could go to the outside windows and blast my way in, but in their defensive positioning both targets were right next to a window, and I hadn't played around with the one-setting light blasts I had enough to know just how deadly they could be, especially if used as breaching charges against metal bars. I sighed, grabbing and tossing unconscious and moaning thugs out of the way. There was obviously only one way to do it.
With a clear area, I lined up on the most likely unarmored wall as both my hands glowed, fingers instinctually grasping on the slippery not-vapor energy that existed in the light dimension Purity slipped into. Tagging the barrels of both my foe's guns with bugs to keep track of them, I reached out with my hands simultaneously, letting loose with both barrels, blasts instantly crossing the space in double-helixed spirals to blow apart the wall, the pressure from the destruction knocking my targets over. Flying in I was on the guard, knocking him out with a strong cross, letting just a little of my strength into the blow, sending him down senseless. Khan slid out from behind his plaster-covered desk, gun at the ready and opened fire. The pistol, apparently automatic, spat a torrent of bullets as I ducked in front of the guard, only having to deflect a couple shots as his aim went wide before running out with a pronounced click. I smoothly stood as he struggled with an extra magazine, taking a swinging step to kick the gun, breaking his fingers, before coming back and kicking him in the side of the head, dropping him. After checking that he was still breathing, I turned to the room, spotting the safe in the corner. Looking at it, electronic in construction, I considered it before realizing that it probably wasn't all electric. Turning my arm to shadow and reaching straight through the top, pulling out the money inside as I did so. I filled up the duffel bags I'd brought for that exact purpose, though they had a few new bullet holes.
After taking all the money from the safe, all the ammo, and a bag full of weed to bribe Boojack with eventually, I groped around the safe and found a few thumb drives. Grabbing a baggie and dumping out the pills, I bagged the drives to take with me as well. Before leaving I had a thought, and carefully tried to reach and grab just a little bit of the power needed to fire those light explosives, trying to tease it out in a tiny trickle instead of a handful sized blast. It wasn't anything close to an even flow, but aiming it I created a low-level concussive beam. Moving to the mostly undamaged far wall, I tried my hand at sprucing up the place, writing BOARDWALK with it before nodding to myself at the effect. It was crude, and uneven, but the irregular bursts of explosive light gave it an odd style all its own. Walking out, I spotted someone playing possum, but when I visibly turned my back on him, and he relaxed instead of attacking, I mentally shrugged. If he doesn't want to fight me, I'll return the favor I thought, heading for the bathroom, back up, and out.
As I lifted up, hands and feet alight I spotted a figure in full plate on a rooftop across from me, watching me, glove aglow with blue light. Lighting up my own with a readied beam, I waved at them, watching their confused reaction as the armored person waved back. Dismissing the readied attack, but keeping my hands aglow. I slowly flew over, landing a few meters away, spotting a cloaked figure which stood out oddly to my eyes, the black of their cloak not desaturated like everything else I saw. They crouched on an adjacent rooftop, holding what looked like a hand crossbow cocked and pointed at me, though the person's face, covered with a hockey mask, was pointed away.
Sophia I thought, keeping my reaction from seeing her out of my voice as I addressed the figure. "Sup?" I asked, internally wincing at the slang. "You Gallant?" I asked, keeping my voice deep and relaxed, forcing myself to relax in turn.
He nodded as he inquired "I am, you are?"
I gave that odd chin-thrust that I'd seen black kids do when they wanted to look tough. "Names Boardwalk. New. We gonna have a problem if I hit a Merchant drug den?" I asked, pointing a thumb back at the place I came from, the lights flickering on as someone from the restaurant reset the breakers, the shattered windows in the lounge showing the place littered with bodies, one guy getting up. He looked out, and seeing me seeing him, he dropped back to the ground, feigning unconsciousness, causing me to laugh. Seriously dude? I thought. I left, just fucking run. I'm not gonna chase you.
"Are any of them dead?" Gallant asked cautiously, peering into the room.
I shrugged. "If they are, ain't from me. One asshat tried to spray'n'pray with an Uzi, didn't hit me, but he might've 'accidentally' broken his wrist and ribs. Heard recoil's nasty on those." I mused, pissed that he'd ignored the lives of the damn people he'd been tasked to protect. I hadn't killed him, but I'd been tempted to.
Gallant nodded understandingly. "And the bags?" he asked pointing to the several duffle bags I'd slung across my back.
"Loot, got it more legally than they did," I asserted, not sure where he was going with this. I'd checked the laws, and goods claimed in the process of busting up criminals was a legal grey zone where the heroes got all they could carry, but it wasn't exactly officially endorsed.
"Most heroes don't bring bags," he calmly pointed out, hands careful held at his hands.
Another shrug. "Most heroes are dumbasses," was my poignant reply. "Oh!" I added, reaching into a belt pouch and digging out the thumb drives, mildly surprised he didn't try something when I reached into my belt. "Found these in the safe, you might like'em, not sure what I'd do with them." I remarked, tossing it to him underhand. There, good deed for the day done. Gallant seems pretty cool, I hope he doesn't die this time, but I'm gonna have my hands full keeping my own team alive. I turned to leave, and saw Sophia Hess, Shadow Stalker lying prone, weapon pointed in my general direction, and face turned away. I wonder why she's doing that? I thought, before getting an idea. An awful idea. A wonderful awful idea.
I got ready to fly, preparing for a full burst pushing me off to the west towards Winslow, and waved to her, calling out "Hi Soph, see you later!" before blasting off like a rocket, her loosed bolt missing me by a mile, her terrified cry of "What The FUCK!" sweet nectar to my ears.