Bored.
I sat around my little warehouse-home, and was having a crisis.
Bored.
You see, I wasn't the most active of people; if there wasn't something going on, I was typically content to just aimlessly surf the internet.
But I was running out of amusing cape stories to read, and no other video games had caught my eye.
Bored.
And thus, I found myself simply… Waiting. Waiting for something to happen, really. I knew it was inevitable; this was Worm, after all. But I was passing the mark where Bakuda would have started her rampage
Bored.
Ah, fuck it. I'll go poke her to see what's taking so long.
***
Unfortunately there was no public record of the identity of the Cornell Bomber as the PRT seemed to be keeping the information private, probably due to parahuman involvement. So, I had done some portal-scrying on Lung, eventually catching him sending someone to relay a message to Bakuda. From that my gap followed him like a camera, until he came to a heavy steel door a couple blocks away from where Lung was.
I peered through my window in space and saw Bakuda, sans gasmask, in the middle of a cluttered basement. Parts of random metal and circuit boards covered the tables in the room, the only clean area was where Bakuda herself was working. I did spot a few suspicious objects scattered throughout as well, probably finished bombs.
The woman herself had waved away the messenger after speaking briefly in a language I didn't know, Japanese maybe, before he left to presumably return to Lung. She then bent over the workbench and continued soldering something together.
As funny as it would be to appear and startle her like I did Lisa, scaring a tinker in their own lab was probably a bad idea. Even moreso when said tinker had bombs that could likely inconvenience an Endbringer, let alone one border youkai. In theory my manipulation of myself should be able to take all but the most esoteric effects, but I had no desire to put my enhancements to the test.
Which meant I wouldn't actually be going there, but that didn't mean I couldn't do anything to her. Besides, she was almost as big a threat as Coil. I couldn't let her live for long. I couldn't give her any chance to retaliate, as she may be spiteful enough to try for mutual destruction if I cornered her.
Which came to the next issue, that it would involve quietly offing her. But that opened another can of worms. Knowing Bakuda and what she would do, it wasn't even a question of morals. No, the issue was precedent. I believed myself justified with Coil, and even doing this. But the next time? Would I just wave it away, and kill any human that threatened me if I had an excuse?
Wait a tic. I know I had called Lisa 'human' earlier, part of the way I've started speaking. But when had I started internally differentiating myself from humanity?
I shook my head. It looked like helping Taylor out was a good decision for me, if I could befriend her. She may not be the most accurate moral compass, but she's one that aligned pretty well with my old self, and could help keep me grounded.
Mostly. Probably. As long as no one made her angry.
I sighed. Internal crisis aside, I did intend to put a stop to Bakuda tonight, and nip the issues she would cause in the bud. And as much as I would love to have some fun with it, I didn't want to risk getting stuck in a time-stop bomb or something.
So I didn't play fair.
A wide portal tore open directly behind Bakuda as she was finishing up yet another bomb, displaying Jupiter in all its glory framed by black void and pinpricks of stars. Then, with a snap of my fingers, the thin border keeping the air from leaving vanished.
The effects were immediate and devastating. Bakuda, her bombs, the tables, and pretty much everything in the room were quickly sucked through the hole to the void in a deafening rush of air. Through the portal, several of the explosives detonated with various effects, a display of fireworks to signal Bakuda's departure.
Nodding in satisfaction from the comfort of my chair, I closed both the gap at the former lab as well as my little window into it. Time to reward myself with a well-deserved nap, I thought to myself.
Of course, that's when a series of loud explosions happened to interrupt my plans.
Ah, damn it.
A/N: This one was being stubborn. I'm also disappointed with how short it is.
Next should be an interlude, hopefully a bit longer than this one.
