Smite the Bay! (Worm X Smite Crossover Quest)

January 9, 2011

When your alarm went off in the morning, you groggily shut it off as you reluctantly got out of bed. You hadn't realized how exhausted your body felt, but you suppose running around last night, the adrenaline of sneaking around gang territory, the thrill of stalking gangbangers to get information took its toll on you. Still, nothing that a quick shower, breakfast, and coffee can't fix.

After getting ready for the day, you figured you should summon your god for the day. Debating on which kind to summon, you thought about what you'd like to accomplish today. You think you could go out and complete Anubis' quest to put his statuette on a grave while you are out for training. You figured you could go out and train some more, perhaps more parkour or stealth training. You feel like you could probably use stealth training to more easily tail people on days when you don't have a god who could track them. For that reason you narrowed your choices down to Assassin or Hunter.

While your first Assassin wasn't exactly a stealthy type, you figured it could have been a one off. Certainly there were some actual stealthy gods in a class called "Assassin". You couldn't know what you'd get, but you could hazard a guess what gods might be there. Loki maybe? He was a trickster god so he could fall under the category of assassin… Though Thor was a super strong, armored warrior so it was hard to say. Perhaps it might be a good idea to figure out just what criteria gods need to fall under the classes they do.

Putting that aside, you thought about the Hunter class and what it could bring to the table. It was the one class you have yet to actually summon. You've summoned an Assassin before, multiple Warriors, Guardians, and Mages, but not the Hunters. The title called to mind various hunting deities such as Artemis, so you figured that it stands to reason that most of the gods must fall under that sort of categorization. So it stands to reason that they would know how to be stealthy too and be able to traverse the wilderness.

With those factors in mind, you focus and call upon a Hunter as you sipped the coffee from the mug in your hand.


A man appears before you and it is at this point the sheer tallness of your gods doesn't phase you anymore. He had distinctly asian facial features, long dark hair, glowing yellow eyes, a metal half mask that covered the right portion of his face, his muscular upper body mostly bare sans the red scarf looking thing around his neck and armored left arm, a quiver of arrows strapped to his back with fletchings of the arrows glowing softly with a golden light. He wielded a large bow in his left hand, which was also adorned with feathers that glowed with a similar soft golden light as the arrows, and the front of the bow looked to be made from the head of some sort of bird.

"Greetings," He says, giving you a respectful bow. "I am Hou Yi, the Lord Archer."

You took another sip of your coffee as he greeted you. Hou Yi, as you recall, was a figure of Chinese mythology. Sometimes he was portrayed as a god of archery, others he was only partially divine or even just a full on mortal. Regardless of his nature, the story generally remained the same. The tale went that originally there were ten suns, which one day were all out at the same time and were scorching the earth as a result. Hou Yi had been tasked with reining in the suns to protect humanity, but after his attempts at trying to convince them to stop peacefully and trying to intimidate them to stop both failed, he proceeded to shoot them out of the air, one by one. He took out nine of the ten sun, but before he could shoot the last one he was stopped, told that if he killed the last sun it would plunge the world into darkness.

Then there was his tragic romance with his wife, Chang'e. It was said that Hou Yi retrieved an elixir of immortality, but one day while he was out hunting his wife took the elixir and consumed it in order to prevent thieves from acquiring it. This resulted in her ascending to the heavens and becoming a lunar goddess, forever separated from him.

As you recalled this information, you could see Hou Yi's expression turn into a crestfallen one and you decided to end that train of thought.

"It is nice to meet you, Hou Yi." You say, trying to give him a comforting smile. "I hope I prove worthy of your service."

His expression returns to the serious one he had when he first manifested, nodding his head. "I am sure you will be. You seek to protect these lands and its people. It is a noble goal."

"That's the hope." You say. "Which is why I have some things I need to take care of today to help with that goal."

The two of you talk as you move through the house, discussing your plans for the future as you retrieve your laptop. You told Hou Yi that you intended to train with him today, but figured you could complete a quest that another god gave you while you were out.

"A wise use of your time," he says. "While training your body and mind is always useful, the tools we offer will only extend the means in which to achieve your goals."

You nod along as you look up graveyards in the city. There seem to be two graveyards within the city limits, one closer to where you live and one more nestled away in the city itself on church grounds. Since Anubis didn't voice any preference it kind of fell to you to decide which one to go to. You looked up the security of the graveyards and… honestly didn't turn up much. Even the reviews didn't do much to help, with people more focused on talking about the quality of the care than anything else. Well, the church reviews were more talking about the quality of the church service than the graveyard. It was slightly annoying, but it was no big issue.

You opted to go with the one closer to you, both for convenience and because you get the odd feeling that putting a shrine to an Egyptian god on the grounds of a church dedicated to the Abrahamic God is the kind of thing that would get you smited by some angry god.

"Most likely." Hou Yi comments. You aren't sure what you think of the implications.

Despite not knowing quite what the security of the place is, you know graveyards are usually public spaces. You could just throw on your hoodie, keep the hood up and that should do. It should do fine in concealing your identity. You don't think anyone would be checking cameras for a person who left a small tem on a grave, but you never know with this city.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You approached the graveyard, gray clouds hanging over your head and the cold winter air biting at the exposed flesh of your face. In trying to keep a low profile you opted not to drive to the graveyard and walk instead, which while the walk was pleasant it still took you nearly an hour to reach the graveyard and you felt as though your nose was going numb from the cold. You keep your hood up as you walk through the open gate of the cemetery, a feeling of melancholy washing over you as your eyes drift over the graves. The emotion wasn't too surprising given this was a place where the dead were laid to rest, but a combination of the overcast, the smattering of snowfall, and the trees and bushes devoid of leaves made the already somber location all the more dreary.

Looking around, you noticed that the graveyard was completely devoid of people. That was good considering you want to be as subtle about this as possible.

You walk amongst the headstones, eyes scanning the word engraved upon them. You could just set the statuette on any of these graves and call it a day, but that didn't seem right. You felt like you needed to find the right grave, even if you don't know what makes a grave the right one. You spend about five minutes walking the grounds until you stop upon one grave. You looked at the plot for a moment and you knew in your gut that this was the grave you should put the statuette on.

You knelt on the ground and pulled out the Anubis shrine, placing it carefully on the grass. You recalled that Anubis requested that the statue be placed facing west and you made sure the small wooden jackal was facing in what you assumed was the correct direction. Once it was in place you stood back up, eyeing the grave and the statuette. This… felt right. The item Anubis offered you hadn't manifested or anything, but you got the feeling that next time he appeared he would hand it to you.

Anubis Shrine has been removed from your inventory.
Quest completed! Your reward will be given to you next time Anubis is summoned.

With this task completed, you started to move to leave. You took a few tentative steps before you stopped, turning to read what was written on the headstone to know who you left under the protection of Anubis.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You continued to go walk a little while longer until you found yourself in a wooded area close to Captain's Hill, by then the sun started to set on Brockton Bay. That was fine though, you weren't worried about the dark ever since you got your power. Even as the sunset you still desired to train to prepare yourself for what was coming tomorrow. So you summoned up Hou Yi for the first time since this morning.

Stealth was one thing you were hoping to cover. As a hunter in mythology you assumed he would know how to be stealthy given that was what was needed to properly catch prey off guard. Hou Yi for his part was more than happy to help even if he admitted that stealth isn't exactly his specialty.

…After about half an hour the both of you gave up in frustration. Hou Yi did his best, but he just couldn't quite explain how to be stealthy in a way that was easy for you to grasp. A lot of vague explanations that didn't quite make sense or recounting experiences that didn't exactly apply to what you were trying to accomplish. You like to consider yourself a quick study, but you just were not getting it. You even tried to practice by trying to sneak around the woods with Hou Yi acting as a sentry… though you quickly stopped after Hou Yi shot an arrow dangerously close to your face and you let out a scream that echoed through the night air of the woods.

It wasn't a complete loss, however. You did manage to learn one thing from your training with Hou Yi: Do not let your gods shoot arrows at you.

Acrobatics Training: 4
Athletics Training: 15

Your next bit of training involved improving your parkour. You weren't in an urban environment like the last couple times, but you figured it wouldn't be too much of a difference to do it in the woods.

Hou Yi was a lot more helpful in this regard and was able to more easily instruct you in how to properly do leaps and climbing. It was a lot different than doing it inside a warehouse, but the principle was generally the same. At the very least, you learned to climb a tree for the first time ever!

The hard part was maintaining balance. The flora of the forest, the unevenness of the terrain made it much more difficult to keep your coordination. There were a few times when you toppled over into the dirt because your foot snagged on something, but overall it wasn't too bad.

Your Acrobatics skill has increased!
Your Athletics skill has increased!

You trudged your way out of the woods, breathing heavily as Hou Yi followed behind you.

"You did well, summoner." Hou Yi said. He chuckled then added, "Though your scream when I deliberately missed you was certainly not stealthy."

You groaned in annoyance as you turned around to face him, your fatigue completely forgotten as you jab your finger in his direction.

"When I said you'd be acting as a sentry, I was not expecting you to shoot an ARROW at me!"

"I didn't shoot an arrow at you," he countered calmly. "I shot an arrow at the tree next to you. Your head just so happened to be next to where the arrow impacted."

"A distinction without a difference!"

"There is plenty of difference," he chuckled. "Namely if I was aiming for you, we would not be speaking."

"Ugh…" you groaned, rolling your eyes. "What did your wife see in you?"

As soon as the words left your mouth you saw Hou Yi's smile vanish from his face as he turned to look away, a sad expression darkening his features.

"I- Shit. Hou Yi, I-I'm sorry. I-I didn't mean-"

He raises a hand and cuts you off. "No, it is quite alright. I understand."

Awkward silence fell between the two of you. You rubbed your hands together nervously, mentally kicking yourself. Were you really that bad at talking with people that you made this big of a mistake? You needed to salvage this…

"So, uh…" You stammered out. "You think you have any tasks you could give me? Maybe something I could get as a reward?"

Very smooth. First you remind him of his wife he can't see, then ask him for stuff.

After a brief moment of silence he turns back to you and nods his head. "I can think of a few things. Firstly, I can give you the ability to mark your enemies, allowing you to keep track of them."

"Okay, and what would you like me to do?"

"While you are proficient in melee, you seriously lack in ranged capabilities," Hou Yi explained. "As such, I request that you master the art of the bow."

You grimaced, but nodded your head. It made sense for a request. Hou Yi was an incredibly skilled archer so naturally he'd want you to train your ability to use a bow. Not only that, but he was right that you were lacking in any ranged fighting abilities. However, mastering the use of a bow sounded like quite a long term task. You'd have to plan carefully.

"And what else?"

He frowns. "This next request is… admittedly personal."

You raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"I… would like to request that you have both myself and my wife summoned on the same day."

"Wait, what?!" You exclaimed. "How am I supposed to do that?! I can only summon one god at a time and it's not like I have any control over who I can call!"

He nods. "This is true. At the moment your control over your ability to summon us is quite limited, however, in time your abilities will change and expand."

You blinked. "They will?"

"Yes," he replies. "So it stands to reason that, in time, you will be able to complete this request."

"I… see. And what will you give me?"

"I will give you my blessing." Hou Yi says. "You will be granted the ability to understand angles and trajectories, as well as an improved sense of timing. All this in exchange for reuniting me with my wife for even just a day."

As good as that boon sounded, it was still a daunting task. The other tasks you've been given you could see a clear path to achieving, but this one… You could apparently improve your own power but you aren't even sure how to even do that! Maybe you will figure it out at some point, but right now this request seems virtually impossible.

But… You couldn't bring yourself to say no to it.

Hou Yi clearly missed his wife and if he believes you could eventually bring them back together…

"I will see what I can do." You say, giving him a soft smile.

New quests added!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

January 10, 2011

Now this was the day you were waiting for.

The day you would truly go out as Mythos and take on the criminal element of Brockton Bay.

You did scouting and got some intel on a location the other day, so you know where you were going to strike. Part of you still worries about that cape the gang members were talking to, wondering if in the time you were preparing he joined up. What if a cape is at the warehouse in general? What if they were more armed or prepared for an attack than you realized?

You cleared your head of these thoughts. You have done a lot to prepare and you were confident in your skills, your gods, and your equipment. Besides, you have other things to worry about before tonight.

After going through your morning routine you summon up a Guardian, and you will admit to feeling overjoyed when Cerberus appeared again.

"Summoner," the hellhound greeted with his booming voice.

Smiling you move closer to the hound, reaching to give him a scritch behind the ear of his middle head. The three-headed beast of legend grumbled in annoyance, though the fact he seemed to lean into your hand said otherwise.

"I am not a mere dog…" He grumbled.

"If you aren't a dog, then why are you dog shaped?"

He growled and you laughed in response. You let the demonic hound be, allowing him to rest while you fetched your cell phone.

You didn't forget that your tutor was coming over tomorrow for your lessons. Looking around your home there were still some very obviously missing pieces. If anyone noticed you would have a lot of explaining to do. But there was a solution to cover all your bases.

So you dialed and waited to be connected.

"Brockton Bay 911, what's your emergency?" A woman's voice came over the phone. Suddenly you feel a surge of anxiety rush through you and for a moment you contemplated hanging up but fought back that urge.

"Um, h-hello, I-I-I'd l-like to rep-port a robbery." You stammer the statement out, heart pounding in your chest. You didn't even need to fake being nervous, it was all nature. You didn't think you would be this nervous, but you weren't exactly great at speaking with people. Plus you were lying to a police officer about a crime that did not happen. You are pretty sure that is a crime in and of itself.

Still you managed to get yourself composed enough to tell the dispatcher that the robbery took place at your house and gave her your address.

"Okay, ma'am, we'll send someone there right away."

"T-Thank you."

The call ended shortly after.

The wait for someone to come felt agonizingly slow, your anxiety at an all time high as you run the scenario through your mind. You were straight up lying about a crime and what if they figure it out? When will they figure it out? When it becomes obvious that none of the missing items were actually stolen? What if it outs you as a cape? What if-

Cerberus, who had been lying on the floor next to you, raised his heads and turned towards the front door. "They are here."

With a jolt of surprise you dismiss the Underworld's warden and then wait until the police approach the door. You didn't have to wait very long until you heard a knock on the door. You moved towards the door and with shaking hands you opened it, revealing two police officers on the other side.

"Hello, miss," one of them said, a middle aged looking man with black hair that was graying in places. "We received a call about a robbery at this location."

"Y-Yes, I made the call." You say. You took a step to the side to allow them entry and the two officers filed into your home. As the officers entered they started to gaze around the interior of your home. The older officer was hard to read, but his partner — who couldn't have been older than his late twenties — looked slightly awed at the sight. Your family, while not the most rich in the city, was pretty financially well off and it really showed with how your parents chose to decorate the home. Your parents' tastes, especially your father, leaned towards the expensive and they had enough money to throw around they could probably replace the stuff that Vulcan used to make your weapons and armor.

The older officer turned to you, pulling out a pen and notepad. "Alright, why don't you run us through what happened, then we'll go around and take some pictures."

You begin to give your statement, go over a fictional series of events that happened yesterday in which you were out for errands for most of the day, and when you came back you found that someone had stolen items from your home. The officers ask a few questions, namely whether or not you noticed any signs of forced entry or if anyone outside your immediate family had a key to the house. You answered no on both accounts. He also asked you why you hadn't called the police yesterday when you discovered someone had robbed your home and, after a brief moment of panic, you told him you were so overwhelmed that you didn't know what to do at that moment, only calling today because you had processed the situation. The whole time the officer was unreadable and if he suspected you were lying you couldn't be sure.

After your statement was taken you showed the officers around your home, taking them to places the "stolen" items had been. The younger of the two officers took out a camera and photographed those locations, and you escorted them to windows and doors leading outside the house for them to also photograph them.

All and all, the whole thing lasted up to 45 minutes.

As the officers stepped outside your home the older of the two said, "Thank you for your time, miss. If we learn anything we'll contact your parents."

"T-Thank you." You say.

The officer gives a nod and starts heading to their squad car with their partner, and you shut the door. You let out a heavy sigh and press you back to the door, sliding to the floor.

You summon Cerberus again who appears in front of you, and you reach up and wrap your arms around the neck of his middle head in a hug as if he was an oversized emotional support dog.

"Ugh, I'm supposed to fight crime today," You whine. "And somehow that was the most stressful part of the day so far."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was around 10PM when you made your way back to the Merchant's drug manufacturing warehouse. You stood in an alleyway across the street, hiding amongst the shadows as you watched the location. From your vantage point you can see there were two guards still posted at the front entrance of the building, each heavily bundled up for the cold night. It was far colder tonight than it was yesterday, and a steady snowfall had rolled in since last night. The snow accumulated on the surface of the city wasn't anything major, more like a thin coat of the frozen substance and much of what was on the roads had been rendered into slush.

Still you couldn't deny the cold. Vulcan had made you an impressive set of armor, but it left a lot of your skin exposed and the one thing he did not — as you found out — enchant it for was keeping you warm. You were shivering like crazy and frankly you couldn't wait until spring rolled around.

"You can expect that when Persephone leaves the Underworld." Cerberus chimes in to your thoughts, his deep rumbling voice echoing off the walls of the alley.

Getting here with him had been interesting. When you had suited up you had the issue of figuring out how you were going to get here unnoticed. As it stood, you stood out quite a bit with your armor and weapons, and Cerberus… Well, he was a giant three-headed hellhound with glowing eyes and a snake for a tail. The two of you didn't exactly scream subtlety. In fact, it was fair to say that Cerberus' mere appearance would elicit screaming of the terror variety. That thought got a good chuckle out of the hound when you had it.

You couldn't exactly have Cerberus dismissed and then used your car to drive here. Someone would have noticed the woman dressed in Greco-Roman armor driving, or your obviously expensive car would have been stolen off the street in this sort of neighborhood if left unattended for too long. Plus, you didn't want people making a connection between Mythos and Elizabeth Pendragon if you could help it.

So the next best solution was to ride Cerberus here. He had objected to this idea at first, but you managed to talk him into it.

Riding the hound was an intense and interesting experience. You've ridden a horse once a long time ago, back when you were a small child, but it wasn't quite like that. There was something different between riding a horse than there was riding the thundering beast that was Cerberus. He was quick, though, and he sped to this location much quicker than you'd thought a creature his size would be capable of. This, you had worried about the possibility of being seen enough that Cerberus acted on his own accord and actually scaled up the sides of buildings, digging his claws into their surface, and hauled both himself and you up to the roofs and began leapfrogging across the buildings. That was a uniquely terrifying experience and you held onto him with a tight grip so you didn't fall off mid journey.

But you did reach your destination intact, despite some soreness in your limbs and the chill the bare parts of your skin felt.

"Okay, so here's the plan," You say as you turn to your three headed beast of the underworld. "You are going to charge through the front entrance of the building, make it loud and draw attention to yourself. Meanwhile I will sneak to the back and try to take down anyone who runs away that way."

Cerberus growled eagerly, his massive clawed paws shifting where he stood as he awaited the order to rush out.

"And don't kill anybody!" You added quickly. "We're trying to be heroes, so don't hurt them too badly if you can help it."

Cerberus went still, lowering his heads as he gave a disappointed whine, which echoed unnaturally in the alleyway.

"Swear you won't kill anyone." You ordered.

"I swear I won't kill anyone." He grumbles.

You give a slight chuckle before turning to look back towards the warehouse. You eye the two guards at the front who seem to be talking amongst themselves, a nervous excitement rolling through your chest. You were about to do this. Your first action as a hero in the Bay. You raise a hand up into the air. It was now time for action, and waiting around was no longer an option.

"Go," you command, bringing your hand down.

Cerberus rushed past you in a dark blur, the gust of wind left his wake chilling you to the bone. You sprint out of the alleyway to follow your Guardian, if nothing else but to keep him well within your range. Crossing the street you watch as Cerberus rushes to the two Merchant guards, who after taking notice of him begin frantically reaching for their concealed weapons while shouting in alarm as the hellhound bears down on them. Reaching the guards, Cerberus barrels straight into one of them, crushing them against the brick wall of the warehouse. The second guard starts backing away from the beast and manages to pull out a pistol and begins firing wildly at Cerberus, but the snake tail of the monster turns to face the guard and lets out a spray of venom which collides against him with enough force to send him flying to ground. Cerberus backs up and lets the guard he had smashed against the wall crumple to the floor as the second guard lets out the most blood-curdling pained scream you have ever heard, his limbs spasming for a few seconds before going still while he keeps screaming.

You stopped and took in the sight, your gaze shifting between the two downed guards before settling it on Cerberus.

"They'll live." Cerberus says, turning his attention to the entrance of the warehouse.

You frown, but you don't have time to argue with the hound. Assuming the Merchants inside weren't so high they were oblivious to the world, they most likely have heard the commotion. That was good in any case as Cerberus was to draw attention to himself. Briefly you worried about them preparing to fight, but Cerberus got shot and he didn't show any signs of being significantly injured.

"Alright, get in there and make some noise. I'll sneak to the back."

You moved quickly, trying to be as subtle as you could as you walked the exterior of the warehouse to go to the back. You heard Cerberus bust his way through the front entrance and then you could hear the muffled sounds of him wreaking havoc inside, followed immediately by the muffled sounds of terrified shouting and gunfire from the Merchants. You reach the back of the warehouse where the loading dock was, a door leading into the interior was thankfully present with its handle and lock having long since been removed by its drugged up occupants.

As you move to enter, a terrible, unnatural howl cuts through the air like a knife, echoing from the interior of the warehouse and reaching to the exterior. There was a beat, then the collective sound of several people screaming in unison followed the howl shortly after. You are not sure what Cerberus was doing, but you just know from all that screaming the Merchants inside are probably going to high tail it out of there as fast as they can.

You open the door, readying your sword and shield as you enter. The interior contained rows and rows of large inventory shelves, filled with pallets and crates that have long since been abandoned in this derelict building, with a few scattered pallet jacks and long defunct forklifts that looked like they'd been harvested for parts. You hear the sound of something large and heavy tearing its way through the warehouse — Cerberus, no doubt — while you hear the panicked screaming and yelling of the Merchant echoing through the interior. You see one unfortunate soul get flinged so high into the air that he briefly sailed above the shelves, screaming the whole time before he fell out of view and — you assume — landed on some sort of pallet or crate judging by the sound of breaking wood that immediately followed.

The sound of running drew closer as three Merchant thugs appeared before you, wide-eyed and scared and breathing heavily.

"What the fuck is that thing?!" One of them yelled out as he looked behind himself as he ran.

"I don't know man, just keep running!" Another yelled, fumbling with a snub-nose revolver in his hand as he tried to reload it but kept dropping the ammo as he ran..

The third Merchant, a very thin and very gaunt looking young man, stopped looking behind him at the destruction your Guardian was inflicting on their warehouse and turned to look at the exit, his eyes going wide as he spotted you. He came to a sudden and complete stop, which caused his two compatriots to run straight into him. The three thugs fell forward onto the hard concrete floor, the one with the revolver lost his grip on the weapon and it flew to the side and skidded across the ground to be lost in the shadows.

"Mikey, what the fuck?!" The now disarmed Merchants yelled. The Merchant called 'Mikey' lifted a trembling hand and pointed at you, the other two Merchants looking up to stare at you with silent, wide-eyed gazes.

A pit of anxiety grew in your stomach as now was the time to act as your cape personal, so you did your best to steel your nerves and push through your nervousness. You lifted your sword and pointed at them.

"Surrender!" You yelled, thrusting your sword in their direction. "Don't make me use this!"

"Ah shit!" The first Merchant hissed. "A fucking cape!"

"M-Maybe she's a hero?" The second Merchant said, keeping his gaze fixed on you. "Are you a hero?!"

You blinked, a little confused. "Yes I-"

"Okay, great!" He interrupted. "There's a fucking monster here! Please get us the fuck out of here!"

You frown behind your helmet. You had not been expecting the people you came to apprehend to ask you for help. You open your mouth to speak when suddenly one of the inventory shelves toppled over with a deafening crash, Cerberus stalking over it as his growl echoed off the walls. The three Merchants screamed and began to scramble to get back up, Cerberus quickly moving to intercept them. The gangbangers found themselves backing up against the wall, blubbering in terror as Cerberus loomed over them.

"Cerberus, stop!" You bark. The three-headed beast stopped his approach, one of his heads turning to look at you. "Are the rest of the Merchants dealt with?"

"Yes, summoner." Cerberus says.

"Jesus Christ, it can fucking talk?!" Mikey yells in alarm.

"And it works for that bitch?!" One of the other Merchants yelled.

Cerberus refocuses all three heads back on the Merchants and gnashes his teeth at them while barking, which causes all three to resume their cowering.

You sigh as you approach them, your gaze fixed on Merchant thugs.

"Cerberus, go fetch the other Merchants and drop them off here. I'll keep an eye on these guys until you're done."

Cerberus turned to leave, giving a low growl as he did so. As he walked away the snake that was his tail looked over the three Merchants before hissing at them and barring its fangs at them, causing the trio to cower into each other. Even as Cerberus departed to fetch their fellow gang members the three still looked incredibly uneasy and terrified, their eyes rapidly flicking to where Cerberus went, to you, then to the exit.

"Hey, Mack," Mikey whispered to one of his fellow gang members, seemingly unaware that you could hear them. "T-Think we could make a run for it?"

"Maybe?" The disarmed Merchant, now identified as Mack, whispered back. "I mean, it's just this sword bitch, right? No way she could stop us if we rushed her…"

"She has a SWORD." The as yet to be named Merchant hissed. "I don't wanna be stabbed then mauled by some monster dog."

"You know I can hear you, right?" You say with a raised voice, startling the three enough to get them to look at you. "Also, that's a terrible idea. Even if you managed to run away Cerberus can track you, so you wouldn't get very far. So just sit there and be quiet."

"Fuck, man…" Mikey whined. "This was supposed to be an easy gig! Just be a guard and sit back, smoke a bowl while the cooks work!"

"Mikey! Shut the fuck up!" Mack scolded, keeping his eyes locked on you. "It's bad enough we-"

The unnamed Merchant gasped, trying everyone's attention to where he was staring. Cerberus had reappeared, the bodies of three injured Merchants being carried in his jaws. The hellhound dropped the thugs at your feet, who groaned in pain. The Merchants Cerberus brought looked in pretty bad shape, bloodied and bruised from their altercation with your Guardian and probably have more than a few broken bones. You frowned intensely under your helmet, making a mental note to make it clear with your summons just how much force they should use when in a fight.

Cerberus left to go fetch more of the downed Merchants, bringing back two more groups in a set of three, eventually bringing in even the two Merchants guards from outside. All injured, but no one was dead. It was a process that took about 10 minutes you estimated.

You made a quick head count of the gathered Merchants, noting that in total there were eleven of them.

"So that's all of them? No one managed to get away?" You asked your summon.

"No, summoner." He replied.

You nod. "Good."

You turn your attention to the three still conscious goons, who were all looking at Cerberus with panicked expressions.

"Alright, you three," You began, drawing their terrified gazes to you. "I need information. Who is in charge here?"

The unnamed Merchant quickly pointed to one of the unconscious Merchants, a shirtless, rotund black man covered in tattoos. You suppressed a groan. Of course Cerberus would knock out the one person who could be useful to interrogate.

You knelt down to the unconscious man and began patting him down to find some sort of phone. It only took a few seconds before you managed to fish a burner phone from his pocket and, thankfully, it wasn't crushed or damaged in any way from Cerberus knocking him around. You looked through the fatman's texts, seeing a lot of conversations with other members of the Merchants. The information most pertains to drop point locations, as well as places and times for deliveries. Overall not bad information to have, but you were hoping you'd get more information on other drug labs or weed farms. Still, this information would be good to hand over to the police.

As you put away the phone, you address the gangbangers again, "So which of you wants to tell me about the Merchants? Operations, safe houses, fronts."

"Fuck you, bitch!" Mack stammered out. "We don't have to-"

Cerberus growled at his direction, causing him to stop his statement with a terrified yelp.

"Cerberus," You said firmly to the hellhound and he ceased his growling. "I can't hold back my hound for much longer. You guys better give me something before he decides he wants a few chew toys."

"C'mon, lady!" Mikey whined. "We're fucking nobodies, we don't get told shit! Just… call off the dog!"

"Not the answer I'm looking for." You say, warningly. Cerberus took a step forward towards the three.

"I-I-It's true!" The unnamed Merchant stammered out "We just do what they tell us to do!"

"Then maybe you can tell me what I want to know." You say, grip around your sword tightening.

"I-" The Merchant started, his eyes flicking to Cerberus before going back to you. "I-I don't know anythin', really!"

You look to your summon, gesturing to the Merchant. "Cerberus."

"W-W-W-WAIT!" He stammered out. "I-I only know a few things, nothing major!"

You gesture for Cerberus to stay where he was.

"The fuck, man?!" Mack yelled at his companion.

"Hey, man, I'm trying not to get a fuckin' dog monster from rippin' us apart!"

"Both of you shut up," You ordered. You pointed at the Merchant with your sword. "You. Start talking."

He looked uncertain, but nodded. "I-I don't know much. We have some homeless hires and commission sellers, but the Merchants only have, like, forty members."

You raised an eyebrow at that. "Forty? That seems a little low for a gang."

"I mean, I don't really know! I just know we don't have as many guys as the Nazis and those Asian fucks. Anytime we need some more people to do work we get some bums or guys in need of a fix, give 'em a gun and tell 'em they'll get paid for doin' a job! Like Mikey over there."

Mikey lets out a whining noise, shrinking down as if to avoid attention.

It was interesting information if true. If it is, then what you did here just took out a significant chunk of their gang if everyone in this building was a member. You kind of doubt he is being honest or at the very least you thought he might have been false information.

"Anything else?" You ask.

"Yeah, uh, there's this old tourist shop near Archer's Bridge that kinda looks like a lighthouse," He explains, his companions giving him wide-eyed looks of disbelief as he talked. "Skidmark and most of the gang like to hang out there."

"Oh you goddamn fucking snitch ass piece of shit!" Mack yelled, his fear apparently having been replaced with fury. "When we get out of this I hope Skidmark smears your ass across a wall!"

Now that was a reaction that made you trust the source. If the other gangbangers are getting this worked up about him spilling the beans of what might be the Merchant's base of operations, then there might be a grain of truth here.

"Thank you for your cooperation." You say. You turn to Cerberus and say, "Keep an eye on them. I'm going to go check around the warehouse and call the police. If they try to make a run for it, stop them."

Cerberus growled an affirmative as he sat on his haunches, each of his heads looking at a different gang member. As you walked away you heard the gang members begin talking amongst themselves before quickly falling silent as Cerberus growls at them. You smile to yourself, shaking your head at Cerberus' antics.

Walking into the scene where Cerberus had been fighting the Merchants — although fight was probably too generous of a word for it — you discovered that the greater part of the warehouse had been absolutely trashed. In the middle of the room had been a sitting area that consisted of at least three rather dirty sofas circling a barrel fire which had been completely upheaved during Cerberus' rampage, fire from the knocked over barrel spilling out onto the concrete floor of the warehouse dangerously close to one of the now wrecked sofas. There had been at least two drug lab set ups in the room, both of which had more or less been smashed into near unrecognizable states, and nearby crates that had contained the drugs made here had been smashed like everything else with their contents strewn around the room.

You sigh, sheathing your sword. While you liked Cerberus, you kind of wish he didn't completely wreck the place. But what's done is done and you still have some tasks you need to do. You pull out your burner phone and dial 911.

After a few rings there's a click and a voice comes over the phone. "Brockton Bay 911, what is your emergency?"

"I have multiple injured criminals in a meth lab on the corner of Fulton and Vine," You rattled off. You had taken the time to memorize the street names of where the warehouse was so you wouldn't have a verbal gaff if you forgot. "Lots of drugs on site."

"Just to check ma'am, are you a cape?"

That nearly caused you to lose your flow. You almost forgot to introduce yourself as a cape!

"Y-yes, I'm a new hero. First night out." You stammer out as your heart beats rapidly in your chest, your face flushing red from embarrassment. "I'm Mythos. M-Y-T-H-O-S."

There was keyboard clattering. "Thank you, ma'am. We'll have a couple patrol cars sent your way. Are any of them injured?"

You wince. "Y-yes. Most of them got pretty banged up by my su- power."

"Understood, a couple of ambulances will be sent to your location." The dispatcher replied. "We should have a patrol car be at your location in about five minutes. Think you can wait that long?"

"Uh, I think I can?" You say, slightly confused. "To give a statement, right?"

"Yes, ma'am," he replied. "It would help a lot if you did."

"O-Okay." You say. "I'm going to hang up now so I can check on some things."

Before he could say anything else you pressed the end call button. You let out a heavy sigh as if you had been holding your breath. Now that the call was over you tried to shake off your nerves by focusing on searching the warehouse.

You shifted through the destruction, searching for anything that might be useful to illuminating the Merchants' operations. After a bit of looking you couldn't find anything that could tell you anything useful. There were no notes, no written letters, not even a map of the city with points of interest circled. Admittedly though that last one was wishful thinking.

You were able to find some money on site, however. It isn't a lot, a mere $2000, but that's practically a small fortune for anyone who didn't grow up affluent like you. That was money you could take and put to use without it being linked to your identity. As you pocketed the money you silently grateful you read up on the laws about taking money from crime scenes.

Glancing over in the direction of the front entrance you saw the flashing of red and blue lights of police cars arriving onto the scene. Nervousness wash over you as you realize you are going to have to talk with them. You had managed to put up a mask when dealing with the Merchants so you should be able to keep it up for the police.

You head outside and you see two police cars, a large van, and a couple ambulances parked in front of the warehouse. Six officers were present, heading to the door when they spotted you. It was fairly obvious which ones have had dealings with capes by their weary expressions and which ones hadn't by their somewhat awed gazes.

With their eyes on you, you suddenly became too nervous to speak. After a few seconds of silence you forced yourself to speak, "Uh, hello. Good evening. I'm Mythos. New hero and all that. I, uh, got some Merchants in there for you."

One of the cops stepped forward with a nod, "We'll take it from here. Will you be sticking around to give a statement?"

You nod your head. "Yes, officer."

The officer walked past you to enter the warehouse, soon the other followed him. You trailed behind the cops and reentered the warehouse.

"Geez, looks like a bomb went off in here," one of the cops said as the collective group gazed around the wrecked interior.

"My… power kinda got out of hand." You sheepishly replied. "No one died though so that's good, right?"

"Depends on how beat up the suspects are." Another officer replied. "Where are they anyway?"

"Oh, uh, this way." You say as you sped up you pace to get in front of the cops to lead them to where the gangsters were. But as Cerberus and the injured merchants came into view…

"Jesus! What is that?!" One officer exclaimed, his hand reaching for his sidearm as he locked his gaze on the hellhound. The other officers also reached for their weapons, but hesitated to draw them.

You quickly turn to them and raise your hands.

"It's okay! This is Cerberus! He- It is my power!" You explained. "Sort of an autonomous projection."

"Hey, cops!" Mikey yelled over to the police, and you and the cops looked in his direction. "Please hurry up and arrest us so we can get away from this crazy bitch!"

The police looked at each other dumbfounded, but started to move to gather the Merchants.The three uninjured ones were hauled up, read their Miranda rights before being cuffed and dragged away as the EMTs entered with stretchers to begin taking the injured ones.

One of the officers, an older man who was probably a sergeant, approached you with a recorder. "Alright, let's get that statement."

You begin explaining how this all went down, how you sent Cerberus in to take down the Merchants while you snuck to the back, your interrogation of the Merchants, your search for evidence in the warehouse. You even handed over the phone of the guy who was in charge to the officer, telling him how it had some information on drop points and delivery times on it. That last bit seemed to please him a bit.

"And then I called 911, and that's about it." You concluded. The officer stopped the recorder and tucked it away in his pocket.

"That should do it. Thank you again, but," he says, glancing over to one of the injured Merchants that was being hauled out on a stretcher. "You really should have exercised more restraint when it comes to your power."

"I know," You muttered, wincing behind your helmet. "I didn't think when I sent it off it would hurt them so bad. I can't exactly see what it does if it isn't in my direct line of sight."

You shifted awkwardly, fiddling with your hands.

"Am I in trouble?" You say weakly.

"With us? Nah, not really," he says, turning to walk towards the exit of the warehouse. You follow him, silently ordering Cerberus to follow you. "A few scumbags off the streets, evidence to put 'em away, as well as intel we can use will go a long way down at the station. But we are gonna need to pass this incident off to the PRT since heroes are supposed to hold back if they can help it. So this better be the last I hear that you had some gangbangers mauled by that… thing."

You lower your head a little when you hear his disapproving tone. You look over to Cerberus who just seemed to beam with pride that he was freaking everyone out. You were still kind of miffed about how he roughed everyone up, but you'll let me enjoy his moment.

As you stepped into the cold night air you ushered Cerberus to lower himself, allowing you to climb onto his back and straddle him. Without another word you stirred Cerberus into motion and he dashed past the park first responder vehicle, causing a series of startled reactions as a result. In mere seconds the warehouse got further and further away, until it disappeared in the distance. You had Cerberus climb up onto a roof where you had him come to a stop.

You inhaled deeply, then let out a groaning sigh as you sunk into the three-headed canine monster.

"Why is it so hard to talk to people?" You whine, your arms wrapping around your Guardian's central neck in a hug.

Your Charisma skill has increased!

"I thought that went exceedingly well," Cerberus said.

"Oh don't think I forgot about you!" You exclaimed while glaring at him. "What the hell, Cerberus?! I said not to hurt them too badly!"

"I didn't hurt them too badly!" He protested, his left and right heads moving to look at you. "They still had all their limbs attached to their bodies!"

You stammered out a strangled noise that was almost words, before groaning and giving up. There was no use in arguing with him as it would go nowhere. You could write a thesis on why mauling people would still be considered excessive harm and you are pretty sure Cerberus would get hung up on semantics.

Exhausted from your night out you order Cerberus to take you home. Afterall, your tutor was coming over and you didn't want to feel like a complete zombie. Still, it was your first night out as a hero and you managed to take down a drug lab and catch a bunch of gangbangers. As Cerberus rushed through the street of Brockton Bay you felt a sense of pride emanate through your chest and you smiled to yourself.

---

[ ][Week Pt. 2 Plan] Plan Name
-[ ][Tuesday Deity] Write-in Class
--[ ][Tuesday Action] Write-in
-[ ][Wednesday Deity] Write-in Class
--[ ][Wednesday Action] Write-in
-[ ][Thursday Deity] Write-in Class
--[ ][Thursday Action] Write-in


QM Note:
A much frustrating delay I am back! I meant to get this out a long time ago but a combination of factors kept me from getting it done in a timely manner. I apologize for the wait, everyone! I hope you all enjoy the return of everyone's favorite monster dog. I don't really have much to say right now as I am extremely exhausted and my head is empty of thoughts.