I think it's cause on top of showing up with a friend who triggered at the same time she had 2 pretty different powers when usually when that happens there's some theme such as Brandish being able to make hard light weapons and turn into a small ball of light. However, that on it's own isn't actually a sure sign of being a cluster cape since some can just have multiple powers like that such as pretty much every flier that has something else. That goes doubly so since they know when she triggered so it shouldn't be unusual for her to have picked something up from the undersiders and Bakuda being around in the same way Vicky got the emotional aura from Gallant being around.
A Flung Light (Worm/minor toaru cross)
I think it's cause on top of showing up with a friend who triggered at the same time she had 2 pretty different powers when usually when that happens there's some theme such as Brandish being able to make hard light weapons and turn into a small ball of light. However, that on it's own isn't actually a sure sign of being a cluster cape since some can just have multiple powers like that such as pretty much every flier that has something else. That goes doubly so since they know when she triggered so it shouldn't be unusual for her to have picked something up from the undersiders and Bakuda being around in the same way Vicky got the emotional aura from Gallant being around.
Pressure
- Location
- Earth
Pressure
Saturday, 23rd April 2011 – Brockton Bay, Docks - WorkshopI pushed the remains of the grenade from my worktable into the raw materials recycling bin.
A week.
It took a week until I finally found the time to analyze some of Bakuda's bombs.
An entire week Mother was stuck in time.
I did not start with the time-stop bomb despite itching to understand it. It was the most rare of the bombs I had.
I wouldn't have a second chance with it.
I began the work with the merely mundane ones. Better to start with her least exotic and thus hopefully least complicated ones. They simply made a bigger boom with carefully calibrated proportions of household chemicals and appliances.
I had found so many alarm clock parts it wasn't funny anymore.
I dutifully logged the results of my analysis in my computer with just a little effort of my mind. It was easy to grow some brain-cells to serve as an adapter between my ability and the computer. Which allowed me to easily log all data and access the computers sensor readings with my mind.
A true mind to computer interface, I smiled.
A crackle made me turn my head towards Keiko.
She sat inside a crude Faraday cage. The printed circuit board was smoking. She had taken my capability to acquire information as a challenge and was now making good progress on reading and manipulating computer systems.
I had little doubt that in time she could rival myself in information acquisition. Even better it was in a completely different niche. There was so much information inside computers I could only access indirectly. She'd be able to get into those systems directly soon enough.
She put the soldering iron to use to fix up the board for her next attempt and I returned my attention to the next bomb.
I wasn't interested in this ones payload. It was merely another mundane, if efficient, explosive.
I was interested in its camouflage. It generated a holographic image of a person to hide itself.
A miniaturized laser hit a specifically manipulated crystal in just the right way to create the illusion.
The image was created through specific impurities induced in the crystal itself.
That gave me ideas. A decoy of my own. As I was reminded recently there were some enemies I couldn't simply take control of.
With some more work I should be able to make a liquid crystal to use as a holographic display. Some information was simply easier to explain in 3D, for those too squeamish or paranoid to trust me with their minds.
A mostly reasonable concern given the track record of other Masters I had to admit.
Anyway. I carefully selected another bomb.
Another one of its kind had flash-frozen fallen debris into a tower of ice taller than two stories.
Carefully, part for part, I removed the fuse first.
Next I removed the payload. It was a cylindrical structure with three chambers. An outer, middle and inner. The outer contained a slight explosive load which forcefully compressed the middle and inner chambers as well as rapidly spread it through the blast radius. Those chambers contained two different chemicals. Some variant of ammonium nitrate with a dozen other chemicals in one and pure H2O in the other.
On the rapid mixing it caused a strong endothermic reaction, resulting in a massive drop in temperature and quick crystallization of any fluid in the air inside the blast radius.
I found the structure of the chambers more interesting than the chemicals themselves. There were micro-fractures in them which ensured the chemicals mixed in a specific pattern. One that forced the crystallization process into a specific pattern, distributed those crystals throughout the room via explosive force and used those spread out crystals as the seed for more ice.
I carefully set off a minor amount of the chemical with water to get an accurate reading of the effect. Both from my power and the sensors.
Rime formed on the entire desk in the blink of an eye.
I thought back to the time I put Keiko through the power curriculum.
Then I went to get a bucket of water and a plastic bathtub.
Soon enough the tub was half-filled after I ran for water a couple more times.
The first attempt was with a basic ice creation formula that simply cooled the water.
I made a small sheet of ice in ten seconds. Perhaps an ice cube's worth.
It wouldn't be worthwhile in combat, but already it was much more effective than my attempt at manipulating water directly. As Keiko's interference with my ability showed I did have some affinity with ice for reasons unknown to me.
In the next attempt I refined the formula with the insights from Bakuda's bomb.
It took me a bit to go through the vastly more complicated formula.
Once finished the entire top of the tub was solid ice. Only below the surface water still remained. Rime set on the outside of the tub itself.
I took to the ice with hammer and chisel. It took some work to get through it.
I wouldn't throw icicles at people any time soon.
But that was a useful addition to my abilities nevertheless. Even without being able to make ice from nothing – there was only so much water in air – I saw plenty of use for it. Just a small sheet of ice on the streets could make people slip.
Worst come to worst, I could make people's insides cold directly. That'd be fatal in most cases. Only an AIM field from another esper would protect against that; perhaps a specialized parahuman power as well. But not parahumans in general, let alone people without powers.
There was only one esper besides myself in existence.
Saturday, 23rd April 2022 – Brockton Bay, Downtown
Miss Militia entered the drug lab a little ahead of her troopers and stopped dead at the sight.
She was the Protectorate's second in command. Formerly a member of the very first Ward's team.
I idly sat in the open trailer door of the aggressively nondescript truck BiriBiri and I had tailed. The pallets with all precursors necessary for LSD, ecstasy and meth were in plain sight. Several tons of them. As was the Medhall logo.
Idiots.
The Nazis didn't even station a single cape here. Obscurity was their most effective line of defense. That, uh, didn't last against a mind reader with access to their leadership.
Two dozen people turned towards the cape wearing an American flag as a scarf in eerie synchronicity. Everyone's eyes were star bursts.
No matter where you looked there was no way to not see the beakers, ovens and other assorted tools in the process of making drugs.
Her green eyes scanned the entire scene while her green and black pistol blurred first into a semiautomatic rifle, then into baton and finally back into a pistol.
"No. No, they went past us," another starry-eyed man talked into his cell-phone, "West. They went west, Kaiser."
"That won't fool him forever," I told her as she still grappled with her surprise, "You might want to get some more people here considering what we found."
"That.. that's the biggest drug bust in this city," she stumbled over her words looking at the pallets in the truck.
Yeah. That happens when you surgically strike the distribution center of the biggest gang.
She breathed out once deeply to regain her composure. "A little forewarning would have all this go much smoother," she complained, but told one of the troopers to bring in more people right after.
None of them were Nazi spies.
"I gave Armsmaster half a dozen reasons why this wasn't gonna happen," I smiled without mirth, "has he already taken care of them?"
"That takes more than a single day," she insisted, "your word alone isn't proof. Proof needs to be found."
Typical. Law was always too bound to help those in need yet loose enough to easily harm those most in need of protection.
"Then you'll have to wait, just as I will," I told her. "Until proof is found."
She didn't like that. To her the PRT was the authority. Their orders and goals sacrosanct.
Our standoff got interrupted before it got worse. I was increasingly losing my patience.
"Hah!" BiriBiri shouted in joy from the drivers cab. "I found the GPS data. They came right from a Medhall subsidiary."
Krieg wasn't quite stupid enough to have them do it from the main branch, but it'd still be enough to force a thorough investigation.
"Medhall?" Miss Militia was aghast. "They are a pillar of the medical industry here."
"And much of that money goes to support the Nazis," I idly mused. I'd never be able to get rid of them without making that connection obvious.
She took in my eyes. My utter lack of surprise. "You knew. Just how many questions did you ask Krieg?" She took another look around. As if reality would change because she looked at it again. "You.. you set us up for a war," she accused me.
I looked her directly in the eyes. "Yes." I admitted it easily.
"Why? Just why?" she questioned me. She truly did not understand. She was ordered to keep the status quo and so she did.
"Because you weren't getting to it on your own," I kept my voice mild.
Oh. That made her angry.
"Do you have any idea how much damage that'll do? How many people this will kill?" she admonished me. As if I didn't know that.
"Less than if I'd done this yesterday," I answered unabashed.
Krieg. Victor. Othala. All arrested. Purity hurt enough she's bound to be out of commission for weeks, unless they somehow get another healer on short notice.
"That's too much pressure. They'll break all restraint," her gun kept switching forms. It was a more certain sign of her agitation than anything but her mind.
If law didn't keep the people I loved safe, law was useless.
"Restraint. Those murderers don't know the meaning of it," I kept my tone idle as if I was merely talking about the weather, "not a single week ends without them killing someone."
She looked at me in shock. Followed quickly by sympathy, but still she held to following her rules blindly.
There wasn't anything I could do to make her change her mind with only words, I saw. She was too set in her ways.
I left, ignoring however else she tried to justify their inaction.
I wasn't interested.
Instead I sent a little tip to the news about this bust.
That ought to keep the pressure on Kaiser up.
A/N: If anyone thinks Nozomi is a bit of a bitch in this chapter, it's because she is.
But Miss "I follow orders/I trust the system" Militia presses all her buttons.
She sound more frustated and resentfull about the PRT/Protectorat/statut quo than a bitch. Like canon-Taylor just more pronunced, direct and without any hesitation in voicing it (with Taylor it's more in her internal dialogue and body language and from time to time when she does a speech/charisma check).
And with what sha has done in this chapter and the last she has pretty much provoke the gang war than Coil wanted but without any control whatsoever, he will be too preoccuped to manage both it and the disparation of the Undersiders to really act against Nozomi. Same for the PRT and the rest of the gang. Sasuga Mental Out you can continue to act at your own pace for now.
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Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
I wouldn't call her a bitch. She's resentful and antagonistic because it's partially the PRT's fault for letting this situation boil to the point it's at. She's actively showing an incredible amount of restraint for being a traumatized teenager even without an alien parasite as a scapegoat.
If she weren't so public with her powers or against killing, only thinkers would be able to cotton on to her just making the Empire capes commit suicide in their civilian identities at her max range.
The PRT has to understand that this is her working with them. She may be forcing them to deal with the gangs by kicking over the anthill, but it's still better for them than if she just decided to take care of things completely divorced from the law. This way, they can at least get some good PR out of it.
Though I do expect that when their relationship does start to break down, Dragon and some Case 53s are probably going to be called up as reserves.
Also, with her developing her ability to freeze fluids, does this mean she can literally kill people via Brain Freeze?
If she weren't so public with her powers or against killing, only thinkers would be able to cotton on to her just making the Empire capes commit suicide in their civilian identities at her max range.
The PRT has to understand that this is her working with them. She may be forcing them to deal with the gangs by kicking over the anthill, but it's still better for them than if she just decided to take care of things completely divorced from the law. This way, they can at least get some good PR out of it.
Though I do expect that when their relationship does start to break down, Dragon and some Case 53s are probably going to be called up as reserves.
Also, with her developing her ability to freeze fluids, does this mean she can literally kill people via Brain Freeze?
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She can literally kill people by ordering their heart to stop already.
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
A Code Yellow isn't as funny as death by Freezer Burned Brain. Also, with this, she can freeze the internal organs of any life form that has water in their bodies, even if they have atypical brains beyond her ability to just control directly.
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Most of those have bodies altered by parahuman powers which repeatedly reassert that altered state, so I don't believe it'd work on those either.
Shadow Archon
Protoss Preserver
- Location
- Louisiana
That's applicable to Breakers and those like Alabaster and Grey Boy, but Case 53's? She's not changing their bodies biology back to baseline, she's messing with what's there. If their bodies reset no matter what, every Case 53 would have a regeneration power.
Presumably, if they're close enough to humans with fluid in their brains, she could hypothetically write new calculations to eventually affect them too. The same applies to Dragon's suits that use Fetus computers.
That's really smart of the MC she has limited resources and is using them really smartly.
Being able to go down the technopath skill tree is really useful.
Mental Out can do some real scary stuff.
MM is a pretty important hero all things considered.
At least they're not that dumb.
She's a zealot maybe not a fanatical one but still a zealot.
All according to her plan.
MM conveniently overlooking that they're actual Nazis who murder and oppress people due to their beliefs. Also wouldn't be surprised if they don't have an influence on the police.
The MC has actual valid reasons to hate the status quo, she's in a town with literal Nazis who target her for her race and a rage Dragon who'd pressgang her.
This is so true she could go down the Murder Out path and I wouldn't blame her, they're literal Nazis and the government isn't doing anything against them. The MC is being very restrained about things all thing considered.
It's a mix of the Empire having so many capes of their own plus the Herren clan and the main german branch if they get in trouble. The bit where Coil unmasks them also has a bit where the text implies they have 15-20 capes in the Bay and it's surrounding areas which is a few more than known from listing them. From 2006 onwards there is also the Boston games to consider where they wiped out all the capes from gangs in the city and then there was chaos as a bunch of small timers came in seizing the chance to claim territory.
Additionally the prt has a rather horrible attitude for what's supposed to be a group of heroes and a law enforcement agency where they are willing to overlook things from factions that play nice with them.
The biggest example is probably when the Elite decides to move into a town; they start by getting a hold on independent hero teams by becoming big sponsors and donors while making soft pitches to rogues and independents. Then they move on to sending in one of their atk teams some of which are only slightly below the nine. The team basically clashes with the local gangs and delivers harsher pitches than before then swap out with another one after a week or two. This repeats until they've worn down the local gangs who along with the independents are either driven out, killed or recruited.
The prt is fine with all this because once the Elite settle in crime numbers drop and shift to white collar crime plus they make a point of not harming any prt personnel so at most they'd protect a cape if that cape agreed to join them in return.
I wouldn't credit the prt for being aware of it but there is also the fact that when the nine were last there and they did the auction for their services only to stab the Teeth the the back later to make the point they couldn't be bought (which makes Ravager extra stupid). This led to both of them having to flee the city and both consider it their sole loss and big black mark on their history and both are keeping an eye out for a chance to return.
That said it really does not excuse the prt's inaction especially when you have things like how Hookwolf usually is in fics and the things that Ward added about Victor how they would kidnap people and have him drain their skills until they are gone.
To pre-emptively clarify what I mean about Hookwolf is people often make him worse in fics with things like how Vista nearly died because on an official wards patrol they fought Hookwolf who fled past her causing her to get nicked by a blade which she didn't notice then hid and sloppily stitched up herself because she wanted to avoid being babied being turned into him intentionally trying to kill her.
I'm not saying he's a good guy or anything but at the same time he's not the kind of bloodthirsty monster who would willingly join the nine as a lot of people claim. What actually happened there was while under the Agnosia plague just as Taylor got tricked into helping Jack and Bonesaw escape and gave them vital info, he got tricked into going with the Siberian and then turned into one of Bonesaw's puppets becoming and atk dog and Jack's mount.
If I remember right Glenn outright states that PRT and Protectorate are not designed to actually deal with problems, they are just made to keep the society chugging as long as possible. With actual reason for it being that Cauldron manipulates the situation to keep the cape population as high as possible.
- Location
- Earth
Yeah. I have pretty firmly established that Nozomi hates the passive nature of the PRT.
But, in the PRT's opinion, they do have good reasons for that.
Even with three capes arrested and another likely in the hospital the Empire still outnumbers them.
And they have to take care of all the other gangs too.
(The mayor especially is exerting pressure on them to find his niece.)
Many C53 have some amount of Brute.
Few, though not none, of them have enough of Brute to be able to deal with their entire blood freezing in their veins.
Brain control demands you understand their mutations. Simply freezing everything is a bit like blindly grabbing into a computer and ripping out components at random. You are bound to fuck something up despite not understanding anything.
Yeah, I think there isn't a single electromaster in toaru that hasn't developed some hacking skills with their ability.
That's more a consequence of there being no other espers. Still, it might cause comparisons with Narwhal (who can create forcefields inside people).
Yeah, Armsy did his best to isolate them from information while he searches for proof.
She does come from a country where the government fully collapsed.
Despite things being as bad as they are Miss Militia is very aware that things can get much much worse.
That things are already beyond Nozomi's tolerance is not something she understands.
They still have a working government after all. Mostly. Just let them do their job. Please?
Eh, not doing anything is going too far. Not doing enough. Now that has much more truth to it.
The PRT in general desperately does not want another Boston games.
Though some Directors disagree.
Nozomi would actually have good odds of getting along well with Tagg.
He also prefers aggressive strategy.
That is the case for some directors, but even worse is how the Elite came to be.
Before the Elite there was Uppermost, an organization for rogues, which's agenda was to make money. As businesses do.
Before the NEPEA-5 bill curtails them and makes them illegal.
A bill the PRT decided to not even attempt to fight despite claiming to be the organization for integrating parahumans into society.
They wanted to force the capes into the Protectorate as
Instead the Elite came into being as a criminal syndicate.
Oops.
Hookwolf may be no S9 material, but that is a low bar to clear.
He still is a murderous thug who likes the excuse the Empire gives him to be violent.
The PRT also did invest genuine effort into catching him.
He canonically broke out of Birdcage transports twice, which means they did manage to arrest him at least two times.
They just failed to stick the landing.
Aminadab_Brulle
Decimus Computator
Don't recall Mugino or Hokaze ever doing that.
...No? There's nothing that suggests that Earth Bet Turkey is a failed state. Problem that Hana had experienced was a civil war and a follow-up ethnic cleansing. For somebody with this experience, America is basically a paradise:
Interlude 7.x said:
- Location
- Earth
Hm. True. But those two are both overspecialized into doing a single thing very well.
There indeed is no information that Earth Bet Turkey is a failed state.
There also is no information that it isn't.
We have no information how Earth Bet Turkey fared besides the very little information in Miss Militia's Interlude.
Given the requirements to induce a parahuman trigger I do not see the Turkish doing well with their oppression of the Kurdish.
As was shown in her very own Interlude, their tactics are bound to cause more than a few.
Miss Militia leaving for the US instead of going for revenge was not something bound to happen often.
Most won't even get the chance to leave.
Others won't want to.
Patrol
- Location
- Earth
Patrol
Sunday, 24rd April 2022 – Brockton Bay, DocksThe sun mercilessly baked us as we walked the streets.
This were not the loud and boisterous streets of the Boardwalk or even the well-traveled ones of Downtown.
These were empty. What few people there were kept clearing the street well ahead of us.
"Why does no one approach us?" Aegis frowned in his rust-red costume. He wasn't a conventional Brute. He got hurt the same as any person. It just didn't keep him down. He was redundant.
Did PRT PR chose this color so no one saw him bleed?
If so, they must've had words about him switching his costume for Clockblocker's during the Undersider's bank robbery.
Several pictures of him getting savaged by Hellhound's monsters made it onto the internet.
There was no hiding his blood on the white fabric.
"Someone should've tried to get an autograph by now," Kid Win agreed.
Battery kept silent in her circuitry styled costume. It wasn't something she had thought about before, simply something she accepted for what it was without thought.
"Because any who do get a visit a couple days later," BiriBiri told them.
Only Battery made the connection right away while the other two were confused.
I decided to help clear that up.
"The first is downright friendly, just a couple words about community spirit. Simply feign agreement or fear well enough and that's where it'll end," I informed them about how the ABB did things, "unless you are stupid enough to do it again."
Unlike the easily distracted Wards Battery kept swiveling her head in search for threats.
Not that she would find anything. The ABB cleared the area two or three blocks ahead of us like clockwork.
Criminals generally avoided police whenever they could. There was no profit in merely clashing for clash's sake.
While Lung would love to talk with me it seems he hasn't given orders on what to do if I was with Protectorate. So for that part they retreated for now.
"They should ask us for help. We would," Kid Win naively suggested, "or the police."
"The police long stopped coming here," BiriBiri scoffed, "they say the ABB is Protectorate business."
"The PRT does send someone. Eventually, after a week or two," I continued their lesson, "they do not stay and a day or two after they are gone whoever called them gets another much less friendly visit."
"A broken store front, a stone through a window. Perhaps they merely talk a little to their daughter on her way home from school," BiriBiri provided some examples, "it's enough for most to stop."
"If it ever gets so far a cape gets brought in.. burn scars are the least that happens then. The most stubborn end as corpses to serve as an example for others," I sighed, "it rarely gets that far since the first few times."
"What?" Kid Win's words failed him. It wasn't fun watching his innocence die.
He wasn't so naive that bad things never happened, but he lived in the better parts of town. To him what I told him was a rare occurrence, not daily life.
"You'd need to patrol here with the same intensity you patrol the Boardwalk to put a stop to that," BiriBiri told them, "and you don't."
"We'd love to. But we do not have enough people for that," Aegis admitted.
"We could do more with your help," Battery couldn't help herself but pitch the Wards again, "you did good work the last few days. Together we could do more."
What a nice way to say they'd loved to have a heads up.
"A better offer than most Wards-teams. In other cities they are kept away from the action near completely," I lead towards the rejection.
"But a few more blocks safe for the rich folks don't matter to us," BiriBiri finished it.
"We do patrol the Docks," Kid Win protested, gesturing at all of us.
"Less than any other single part of the city," Aegis admitted, "there's just too much area."
"It doesn't mean we can't coordinate some," I admitted, "I got a few locations that'd be worth a visit."
"I'll gladly pass the information along to make plans," Battery passed the ball to their faceless organization.
"A drug lab, a warehouse with different sorts of contraband, a brothel," I laid out the options along with the addresses.
Battery noted them down. It was time for the swerve.
"The brothel needs to be hit today," I stated.
We'd hit it on our own, if need be. I was still worried if my power worked on Lung, but I refused to do nothing given what I found out while sifting through the minds where I lived today.
"A raid needs time to get planned. A squad arranged, personal extracted from patrols. We are already stretched thin with the additional guards for the captured Empire capes and the Medhall investigation," Battery shook her head, "it's not happening today unless someone's dying otherwise.
"A cop's attitude, not a hero's," BiriBiri sent a barb her way.
I cut in before that'd escalate. Even if she wasn't wrong. "A refugee ship arrived last night." – without going through customs – "Among them a girl younger than me." – if only a month – "That brothel needs to be hit before her shift tonight."
There were many people and organizations who smuggled people across borders. The ABB was not a good choice for women. Most men at least only got put to work like any other member of the gang after their passports were taken.
"Fu-dge," Aegis almost cussed.
"Yes, before that exactly," BiriBiri told him.
"I'll see what I can do. We'd have wanted to know that sooner," Battery criticized.
"Alas, I learned it less than an hour ago myself," I admitted.
I couldn't read information from people they didn't have.
In this case I caught onto their advertisement of new stock, as they called this barbarity.
It was hard work to be a worse gang than literal Nazis, but some days the ABB managed it.
Good thing I could force myself to sleep even if it did nothing for nightmares.
We kept walking while Battery bothered the console. More aggressively than I thought she would.
"I'll give you contact details for New Wave in case this doesn't work out," Aegis told me. He was thinking about going along with the raid without permission if need be and hoped it wouldn't come to that.
I expressed my thanks towards that. It might make an acceptable alternative. Though New Wave hardly was active since Fleur was killed.
"Armsmaster is on his way," Battery informed us as soon as she was done talking to the console.
She turned her heads towards Aegis and Kid Win. "If we see Lung or Oni Lee you two will run, and run fast," she ordered them, "they will kill you if given the chance."
Aegis put a hand on Kid Win's should to stop him from refusing. "Of course, we will," he lied.
He was the type of guy to jump on a grenade for someone else.
"The Oni still has some of Bakuda's grenades," I warned them, "dodge, don't block."
On that gruesome thought we waited until Armsmaster arrived.
It didn't take long until he did, his bike utterly silent for once.
I guided them through the backstreets to slip notice of the ABB lookouts.
We arrived at the brothel in under half an hour.
"That looks like any other house," Kid Win said.
"Of course it does, can't have it attract the wrong sort of attention," BiriBiri mused. "Whoops. It did."
"We'll have to be careful," Battery warned, "we have less intel than usual. Capes might be present."
I carefully looked over the building from one side to the other for show. "None are present. Eight goons in total. Two are on the lookout at the east side of the building, five are next to the room with the girls on the north side first floor" – they were playing cards to pass the time – ", the last is on the second floor, alone." He was taking care of paperwork; not even criminal enterprises were spared bureaucracy. I had of course known that from blocks away which is why I had made sure to approach from the south.
That got me some looks.
"Useful," Armsmaster stated. "Where exactly on the east side are they? The landline connection is there."
I described it to him and together we hatched a quick plan. I went with him to go cut the landline while the others were to subdue the goons to prevent them from taking hostages after we did.
Us two moved around the corner and with a single click on my remote the goons were under control.
Armsmaster moved towards the distributor box on the wall with practiced motion. Open, a quick cut, close. Done in less than two seconds.
There would be no reinforcements for them from the landline. He had also activated a tinker-tech jammer to prevent mobile phones without affecting emergency lines or the Protectorate lines.
"Communication down," he sent to Battery, "breach now."
Without pause he went to the side-door and cut down the steel door with a single swing from his halberd.
"Protectorate," he shouted, "Surrender now."
I, uh, awkwardly trailed in his wake.
He seemed to have it handled.
We arrived to Aegis manhandling the last of the card playing goons into compliance.
The table they had played on was shattered into pieces, the cards scattered every which way.
BiriBiri and Battery kept watch while Kid Win confiscated the guns from the surrendered goons.
"Good work," Armsmaster praised.
"Upstairs noticed us. He's not coming down though," I told them. He was futilely trying to call for reinforcements.
"Battery," Armsmaster ordered her upstairs to take care of that while he cuffed the last of the goons right here, including the two I had follow us inside.
Which left us with the more difficult job.
Armsmaster opened the door to the victims.
Dozens of scared faces watched us through the open door.
"You are safe now. Medical personal is on their way. Please calmly stay in place," he played a prerecorded message from a hidden speaker in his armor in Mandarin. Then the message was repeated in Japanese, Hindi and other Eastern languages.
Unsurprisingly that caused them to break out in nervous chatter.
BiriBiri went to keep the Japanese calm while I switched between everyone else as Armsmaster did his best with what few phrases he knew by heart.
Aegis and Kid Win kept watch over the goons.
I held back from reading more than what I needed to speak their languages. It may be cowardice, but some things I didn't want to know.
What I saw was bad enough.
Bruises, needle marks and the bitter knowledge that some of them would be forced back into what they fled from by immigration's.
People did not risk a trafficker if they weren't desperate to get away.
Still better than what would've happened to them here.
I hoped.
I slipped them a number of an attorney who'd take their case pro bono to give them a better chance.
A/N:
Anyone remember Emma's Interlude where one of the ABB goons suggests selling Emma off and the reason given why not is because she's white? I do.
Brockton Bay is not a nice city to be in…
The heroes may be overworked, but they still do try.
Also did you know Velocity is the only Hero in Brockton confirmed to try to learn Mandarin?
For those not from the US: ICE is the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
Switched mention of ICE to immigration's.
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Crash_0537
Waifu Appreciator
I know
But the others do not ( I meant other heroes not readers)
Which is odd considering Brockton Bay is a Basically a refugee camp of asians
And it was said in a fic I read in the past
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Battery has the background and experience to understand.
Kid Win even if he's a Ward in Brockton Bay has been sheltered from the really horrible stuff which isn't a bad thing but he just doesn't get it.
Not surprised she made the pitch but at least she was civil about it.
IRL is pretty horrible like that and Bet is even worse.
Mental Out's information gathering abilities are bullshit and they're starting to understand that.
That's a useful trick a good way to communicate.
The MC is aware just because they're not in a brothel doesn't mean things are all good for them.
- Location
- Earth
Yeah, if one wants to one can read a lot of neglect by the PRT/Protectorate into the absence of certain information about the Asians.
It's a start
Originally Nozomi started with the canon Mental Out power (and the scientific knowledge of Academy City), but with the knowledge of the Power Curriculum she also gained she has retooled away from her need of a remote (due to it almost getting her killed or worse in the very first chapter).
Due to Earth Bet's hatred of Masters she also has retooled some towards Thinker and started to retool towards Shaker (with the Ice).
Much of the how has indeed been
Go read it, if you haven't. Eotyrannus does write a much better story than I do.
- Location
- Sweden
- Pronouns
- She/Her
It's a law enforcement agency in the US, in a city that is a white supremacist stronghold, w a whole ass "Asian" gang you can point at to justify yourself w. It's not hard to imagine how that neglect came to be and was reinforced over the years.
Interesting story so far, I like how you threw things completely off canon's path right at the start. You capture a jaded sort of cynicism in the MC and her friend, one that's understandable with the state of Brockton Bay. It provides a nice flavor to the story, and is good to contrast with when you see the heroes in this latest chapter.
Nitpick but: ICE formed in 2003 after 9/11. It's not likely the same organization would've formed in Worm with it's radically different history to that point, I'd suggest using something like INS (which preceded ICE) or use something generic like immigration.
Nitpick but: ICE formed in 2003 after 9/11. It's not likely the same organization would've formed in Worm with it's radically different history to that point, I'd suggest using something like INS (which preceded ICE) or use something generic like immigration.
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- Location
- Earth
That was my intention from the very first chapter.
There are many many other fanfics if someone wants to read more of Taylor's story (or sometimes a TINO), but this one isn't hers.
She may not be fully gone from the story forever, but at least for a while.
She has not amassed enough crimes to not get a probationary membership offer (I mean, even Madcap/Assault got one and that guy broke the worst of the worst out of birdcage transports), but the PRT likes their plausible deniability so it won't be in Brockton Bay.
Nozomi is indeed quite jaded. She had expected to need to argue her case harder, instead Battery did most of the arguing instead. Also Aegis is glad he didn't have to choose between the right thing and a reprimand.
There is no canonical information if there is ICE in worm (or if INS still exists) that I am aware of, but we do know they have their own problems which definitely have increased immigration at least three to four times a year (called Endbringer attack).
The years 1999 (Levi sinks Kyushu), 2002 (first Simurgh appearance, utterly brainwashes Lausanne), 2005 (Levi sinks Newfoundland) alone have massive repercussions beyond the "normal" Endbringer devastation which all ought to have caused a lot of migration, both legal and otherwise.
So yes, they might still have INS.
They also might have an entirely organization instead, or they might've still called it ICE despite it having a different focus.
Hm, think I'll change it to immigration if I don't think of something better in the next couple days.
Some oofing of Danny's ego since he would either have to abandon her to the system or ditch his career and social circle to actually try to be her father properly.
With a job that would be there because of who she is rather than who he is.