pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
🍿 🍿 🍿
If you hear maniacal laughter, do not be alarmed.
That's just me cackling at seeing people try to figure out what we're doing.
Alma Mater (Heretical Edge Fanfic)
- Thread starter Tamahori
- Start date
If you hear maniacal laughter, do not be alarmed.
That's just me cackling at seeing people try to figure out what we're doing.
- Location
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's a joke I made with Cerulean that in the early parts of the story one thing you can set a clock by are the regular attempts to murder Avalon.
And technically this entire story started with a Seosten shuffle.
Infiltration 2.06
- Location
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Infiltration 2.06
[Monday, September 4, 2017]
A flurry of whispered discussion that had started up with the last announcement was cut off by the Headmistress chuckling slightly. "As I said, such questions should come when we are done. Be careful, the question you whisper to a neighbor may be one that is answered while you are so distracted." That shut things down pretty quickly, though the whispering after Professor Pericles had been louder, I guess he was really popular.
I could see it, I'd only known him for a bit and I quite liked him.
"But I believe that means we have come to the end of what is relevant to our returning students. Class schedules will be delivered during breakfast in the morning, which will be provided, as always, between six am and eight am. Other than that, second years and above, if there are no questions, you are excused. Except, of course, for our team mentors."
Deveron, who had started to stand with three quarters of the students, sighed and dropped back into his seat. The look he shot toward me made it clear that he somehow blamed us for not being able to leave.
I resisted the urge to say anything, but thanks to help from Theia and Tabbris I did have a very good 'really?' raised eyebrow. He just gave me a fairly infuriating smirk and shrug, though I did notice that the twins were giving him a really probing look. Avalon just seemed vaguely bored with the entire thing while Vanessa and Shiori were keeping quiet. I could see their room was going to be a constant source of noise complaints, oh yes.
If he's a spy from the Empire, he's the least subtle one I've seen since me ... and I'm mainly trained as an assassin, not a spy.
I love you dearly sis, but you're not great at subtle.
It is true.
By that point, the second, third, and fourth years had all filed out. Left with the smaller audience, Headmistress Sinclaire continued. "Ahh, yes. Our first year students. Another welcome to each of you, whether you have grown up within the Knowledge, or are Bystander-kin. I'm sure many of you have a lot of questions, but let's see how fast we can get through this first and save those inquiries for afterward, shall we?" She waited for any objections, then continued.
I bet I know more about bits of this then she does.
Shush you.
If Theia was feeling like snarking with me though I must have been feeling better to her. She'd never directly read my mind or memories without permission, but her knowing my emotional state at all times was pretty unavoidable. So if she thought it was safe to snark, that was a more reliable sign than how I was feeling.
"Good. Now, many of you have already chosen your track for the semester either by attending early orientation last week or by sending your request forms in over the summer. For those who haven't and do not know what we are talking about, allow me to explain. There are five types of what we call specialization tracks in this school. Those are: Development, Investigation, Security, Hunters, and Explorers. These are indicated by the color provided on your school uniform: blue, purple, white, green, and red, respectively. Those same colors may be found outside of specialization rooms, to indicate that you are in the correct location when you attend those classes."
I knew the twins had been aiming for the investigation track, as shown by the purple on their uniforms, and I had every plan to join them there. It's the closest thing to being a reporter they have, and that's in my blood ... right next to the alien genetics and super-powers. Avalon's uniform had the light blue of the development track, so she'd be our Q-division, while Deveron's uniform had the red trim of the explorer track, the people that get to go off-world ... more than normal at least. Well, could be worse, somebody with his attitude in the hunter track would have been a disaster.
Headmistress Sinclaire went on. "I'll let our track advisers explain a bit about each specialization while they introduce themselves. Afterward, a sheet will appear in front of you if you have not yet chosen a specialty. Circle the track you are most interested in beginning. This choice may be changed for one week at the beginning of each semester while you attend this school. Indeed, some careers require a certain number of semesters spent under more than one specialty track. All of this information will be available to you at any point as you continue your education here. Professor Nevada, would you mind starting us off?"
Nevada bounced to her feet with a big smile, "So hi everyone. So you already know who I am, and starting this year I'm going to be teaching on the more mundane side mechanical engineering and science, and on the magical side I'll be doing your introduction to Strangers, what they can do, and their weaknesses. I'll also be in charge of the Development track, so teaching people how to make advanced machinery, enchanted items, and the fun things that combine the two."
I could make a snarky comment about her showing you what we've allowed the Heretics to learn, but honestly the Imperium picks up more than a few ideas from here.
Well, it was good to know we could occasionally outdo the Imperium in some areas. Avalon was watching Nevada intensely, but I guess she'd been expecting Pericles as her track leader and now she had somebody entirely new.
After her was Professor Dare, who did her introduction though it looked like everyone knew her already and then explained how she ran the Investigation track, which among other things meant she was going to be my track leader. Made sense she was the one to have been monitoring me, I was certainly an investigation job with my running around being a crazy hero. They were the part of Crossroads that dealt with Bystanders the most, finding out where the monsters were, investigating attacks, and keeping Bystanders away from danger and from finding things out.
If I had grown up to be the kind of reporter I had planned before I found the truth, I would have been exactly the kind of person that they would be having to side-track. I wondered how often dad had run into Investigators without knowing it. Among other things it sounded like I was going to have to get better at lying to people, but I needed to get better at that anyway, sadly. I'd always seen myself as somebody that found and exposed the truth, and now I was getting a life-time career that was all about hiding it.
It's funny how things turn out.
Professor Carfried was next up, the young looking though not as young looking as Nevada teacher that had taken over from Professor Tangle while she recovered from ill defined things. He was nervous and stuttering a bit but gave it his best try as he explained about the Explorer track. The people that got to go off-planet and head out into the larger world and poke things to see what poked back. They got there both via the Pathmaker, and the much more iffy method of going back through the same breaches Alters used to get here, never knowing if it would stay open.
Should I be bothered that Explorer Track wear red?
In all fairness they predate Star Trek by a lot ... and yes, yes you should.
Professor Katarin, who was much nicer when he wasn't making me push myself until I wanted to die, gave a brief introduction. Along with being in charge of the Hunter track, the assault troops of Crossroads, he also did gym and general self defense. I had decided that he was personally sent from some dark underworld to make me suffer, Theia was of course a huge fan and wanted to learn everything he knew about advanced murder. Unsurprisingly she'd decided on our behalf that we were going to spend at least some time in the Hunter track ... joy.
Finally, an Asian woman who appeared to be either in her late twenties or very early thirties stood up and introduced herself as Professor Kohaku. She spoke in carefully measured tones, her voice never rising above what felt like a whisper even though we could hear her just fine. Her area was art and was in charge of security for the school, which Theia helpfully pointed out made her one of our biggest problems in the long run, as we were very much a security issue waiting to happen. She was also in charge of the Security track, white uniforms and a focus on defending from Alters, keeping places safe from infiltration and so forth.
Against the threats I was most worried about they were functionally useless by design.
For the record her and Virginia are probably the best candidates for being possessed. Virginia is close to Gaia and knows about far too many secrets and Kohaku is in charge of security.
Wonderful. I wonder if Gaia knows how to check for them.
Even running checks is dangerous, she's a running thorn in their side, but push them too far and they will find a way to force her out ... or kill her.
And that was it. Development, Investigation, Explorers, Hunters, and Security. Once the advisers were done introducing themselves, a bit of plastic not-unlike the menu that had appeared previously popped up out of thin air in front of me. Vanessa and Shiori received their own and looked at each other and me while the twins watched them curiously and the other two ignored us totally. For my part I didn't even pause, drawing a circle around the Investigation entry. "I'm a reporter, I report things. These days what I report is apparently monsters, but that's a subset of things, right."
I looked up at everyone else, "Don't get me wrong, Exploration sounds fascinating and Development is where all the cool stuff is, but in my heart I'm an Investigator."
Deveron spoke up in a sarcastic tone, "What about the voice in your head?"
Please, if he was going to try and annoy me that way I'd had better attacks from much better people. "Oh Theia wants to take the hunter track. She likes Professor Katarin, he's as intense about training as she and Avalon are." Avalon trained like it was all that stood between her and death … which to be fair it probably was. Theia thought that Avalon was the sane one and everyone else was slacking off. I got the impression Avalon would agree with that.
The girl herself spoke up, "You should probably listen to her when it comes to how hard you should train then."
Have I mentioned I like her?
You think she's possibly an enemy spy.
That doesn't mean we can't be friends. We just might need to stab her.
Vanessa drew a circle around Exploration, "I've wanted to go out and see other worlds since before I knew it was possible … I don't want to miss the chance now."
I couldn't argue with that, though I had to say she seemed born for the Development track.
Shiori was looking at her sheet for a bit before she finally made her choice, "I want to know how to fight. To stop people being hurt, so Hunter track."
I could respect that.
Sands looked around, "We're fairly investigation heavy, a developer, one and a half explorers … " she looked at Deveron, apparently she'd been more annoyed by his comment that I had been, "Make that one and a quarter explorers, and a hunter. No security but we should be okay as a team, and besides it's normal to shift tracks a lot."
Avalon looked at me, "I thought you might focus on Hunter given … "
I gave her question some consideration, before getting out the other sketch Theia had been working on most of the day and put it on the table. "For other people here it's about protecting people or stopping monsters and I can respect that and any other time that would be why I was there … but right now this is why I'm here."
Everyone leaned over to look at the picture. Like most of Theia's better work it hurt me to look at it. She was good at emotion, good at getting across feeling … and often tried to work her pain out by drawing some of the more intense times in her life.
For this image it was my pain she was drawing.
It was from the vision of course, Fossor, still looking like somebody you'd pass in the street without noticing, holding mom up against the car, gloating at her as she made her terrible offer to him. The gloating expression on his face made me want to break something but mom's was worse, that broken look as she agreed to serve him … wait.
I leaned in closer to look, this was the first time I'd really studied it since Theia drew it.
Is that accurate? Mom's face?
It was a measure of how important this was to me that Theia didn't get offended by me questioning her accuracy. If she was proud of anything in the world it was her art … well, her art and Tabbris.
It is. You were … distraught but … I'm not good at socialisation, I'm not good at knowing what to say or how to say it. But I know how to read people, I had to. That is what I saw.
Mom wasn't broken. Defeated yes, offering up total surrender, but not broken. There was a look in her eye, how she was standing … something in the way Theia had drawn the lines.
Even without her powers, even up against Fossor, she hadn't entirely given up. She was still fighting in the only way she had left. I was sure Fossor knew it too, and found it funny, but I didn't care about him, I cared about her.
As long as she kept fighting, as long as she didn't let him break her, I could still rescue her. Because there were things far worse than death that could happen to somebody, and Fossor was certainly one of those things.
Keep fighting mom, because I'm coming for you. We all are.
The others had been looking at it and wincing while I processed things. Even Deveron was being a bit too disinterested looking, of course I already knew he was a spy, so that was no shock.
I finally spoke up, "I'm going to rescue my mother, but that means going up against the most evil man in the world. I can't fight him, not and hope to win. But maybe I can find a weakness, find enough of a hole to get mom out, find something that will let somebody else hurt him. I'm not good at exploring, I'm not good at hunting, or developing, or security … but I'm a very good investigator, and if I'm up against that, then I need to play to my strengths."
After that everyone was very quiet and it wasn't long till the Headmistress dismissed us and we all filed out. Thankfully I could follow everyone else to find where my room was.
"So, what is the Crossroads Committee?"
This was one of those ones I actually knew, and for a change had an official reason to know about it too. The twin's handout had a page and even one-liners about each of the current committee members. Theia had real issues with Gabriel Ruthers, but couldn't tell me why due to memory spells messing with my head. I knew he'd been the main one going after mom during the rebellion though.
Sands of course had the answer, "The leaders of our government. A variable number of the most powerful Heretics alive, currently twelve, that get a big extra power upgrade by being members of it. I don't know the full details for how you become a member, but it's not just a matter of being voted on, though that's part of it. There are trials involved and people have died to them in the past." She looked back at the dining hall for a moment, "I knew Grandpa Zedekiah has been planning this for a while but this is … sudden."
I had a feeling it was because of me, though a moment later another distraction showed up in the form of Professor Nevada.
"Hi, I need to borrow Felicity … or was it Flick?"
"Either works, my friends call me Flick … " I looked over at Deveron who was still just inside hearing distance as he headed to the boy's dorm and called out, "Our mentor can call me Miss Chambers." Then back to her, "Ah, what do you need Professor, I assume this is about the vision?"
He can call me a goddess.
As far as I know you've never been worshiped, your namesake certainly, but not you.
Give it time.
She smiled, "Ah, just Nevada, that goes for all of you. Professor Nevada still sounds weird. Yes, it's about the vision. Don't worry this won't take long."
"I hope you know where I'm staying, I still haven't seen my room yet."
Avalon spoke up and held out a large key, "I got your key for you Chambers, end of the ground floor corridor, on the left."
"Thanks." I got the key from her, "Oh, and if I get lost in bureaucracy, avenge me."
That got the slightest smirk but she just nodded and headed off with the others, Sands calling out a 'See you later' that Sarah apparently co-signed.
Nevada watched them walk off then started leading me towards the main building, "I think she likes you. For Avalon that's downright friendly."
"I think I'm growing on her, possibly because I let her hit me on a regular basis."
I think that's the foundation of a solid relationship. Look how you met Miranda.
That was the two of us hitting somebody else.
That's an even better foundation to a relationship.
That got a slight snort but no other comment and we made our way into and through the building in a comfortable silence. I'd done a lot of talking today and it was nice not to have to for a bit.
The obvious office didn't have a label on the door but I had a feeling one had been recently removed and inside was Professor Pericles, I guess ex-Professor now, packing items into boxes with his normal energy, though I could see him slow down when he was putting some items away with extra care, gifts from students was my guess.
He looked up when we arrived giving Nevada a smile, "Don't worry, I'll be out of your way soon." then getting more somber as he looked at me, "Ah, Miss Chambers. We should talk."
Nevada gave him yet another smile, "I'm in no rush prof, you know where to find me." Then she stepped out, closing the door behind her.
He walked over, "First I want to say how sorry I am about what you just went though … we failed you and we failed her. There is a limit to what I can say because … "
I nodded, "Spells."
He nodded back, "I'll be as clear as I can, and the one thing I haven't started taking out of this room yet are my personal privacy wardings."
Which means we can probably trust them up to a point. If he's a Committee candidate he'll know what he's doing.
I pondered that, "Are you doing this because of mom?" I waved my hand at the half put away state of his office.
He paused for a moment, "You have brought a situation to my attention involving an old threat that I felt I needed to deal with, in whatever way I can."
"I've done a lot of looking up mom, dad and I both have … did you know you share a name with the man that delivered her? On her official paperwork at least."
"It's funny some coincidences you see." He got a lot more serious suddenly, and I could see under the jovial exterior the old, cunning, and powerful person that could become a Committee candidate. "I will find her, and I will bring her back to you Felicity, I promise you that."
I gave him a slightly sad smile, "I've been told a bit about him, don't make promises you can't keep … but thank you." A sudden impulse made me open up the satchel I'd been wearing around and get Theia's latest sketch out, mom being held against the car by Fossor and held it out to him, "She hasn't given up."
He didn't try to hide the wince as he looked at the picture, but I could see his eyes narrow as he looked at how mom was drawn, spotting the same thing that I had.
With careful hands he took the sketch off me like it was a precious and fragile painting, "She won't. She doesn't know how. If it's possible I'll bring her back to you, regardless of what, or who, gets in my way."
They had failed her, they had failed her so much. I was still angry, but here was somebody willing to put everything on the line to try and fix it, and I could feel some of the anger finally starting to let go, so I just said, "Thank you."
He gave me a considering look, "I'm pretty sure you know a lot more than people think … we can keep that between us though. Gaia is somebody you can trust though … so is Nevada."
I wished I could, I so very much wished I could. But this was enemy territory and almost anyone could be the enemy.
I had friends, I now had powerful people willing to help me, and most of them were certainly their own people. It was just a matter of working out who, and I really hoped he was one of them.
If there is anyone that it would be hard for one of us to get into ...
"I'll remember that Proff .. ah Mr?"
That got a small smile, "Call me Zedekiah, it's what family calls me."
"I'll remember that too. Good luck … I expect you'll need it."
"A wise person makes their own luck," his expression grew solemn, "and I regret to say that I think you'll need the luck more than I do."
He wasn't wrong. As I was turning to leave I gave into an impulse, "Be careful who you trust, they may not be who you think they are, they might not be who they think they are. Don't trust the standard tests."
He gave me what was probably the most intense look I'd ever been on the receiving end of then slowly nodded but didn't say anything as I left.
I was walking back to my room when it finally occurred to me to ask.
Are you okay with me giving him your sketch?
I made it for you, you can do with it what you want. And besides.
He's family.
[Monday, September 4, 2017]
A flurry of whispered discussion that had started up with the last announcement was cut off by the Headmistress chuckling slightly. "As I said, such questions should come when we are done. Be careful, the question you whisper to a neighbor may be one that is answered while you are so distracted." That shut things down pretty quickly, though the whispering after Professor Pericles had been louder, I guess he was really popular.
I could see it, I'd only known him for a bit and I quite liked him.
"But I believe that means we have come to the end of what is relevant to our returning students. Class schedules will be delivered during breakfast in the morning, which will be provided, as always, between six am and eight am. Other than that, second years and above, if there are no questions, you are excused. Except, of course, for our team mentors."
Deveron, who had started to stand with three quarters of the students, sighed and dropped back into his seat. The look he shot toward me made it clear that he somehow blamed us for not being able to leave.
I resisted the urge to say anything, but thanks to help from Theia and Tabbris I did have a very good 'really?' raised eyebrow. He just gave me a fairly infuriating smirk and shrug, though I did notice that the twins were giving him a really probing look. Avalon just seemed vaguely bored with the entire thing while Vanessa and Shiori were keeping quiet. I could see their room was going to be a constant source of noise complaints, oh yes.
If he's a spy from the Empire, he's the least subtle one I've seen since me ... and I'm mainly trained as an assassin, not a spy.
I love you dearly sis, but you're not great at subtle.
It is true.
By that point, the second, third, and fourth years had all filed out. Left with the smaller audience, Headmistress Sinclaire continued. "Ahh, yes. Our first year students. Another welcome to each of you, whether you have grown up within the Knowledge, or are Bystander-kin. I'm sure many of you have a lot of questions, but let's see how fast we can get through this first and save those inquiries for afterward, shall we?" She waited for any objections, then continued.
I bet I know more about bits of this then she does.
Shush you.
If Theia was feeling like snarking with me though I must have been feeling better to her. She'd never directly read my mind or memories without permission, but her knowing my emotional state at all times was pretty unavoidable. So if she thought it was safe to snark, that was a more reliable sign than how I was feeling.
"Good. Now, many of you have already chosen your track for the semester either by attending early orientation last week or by sending your request forms in over the summer. For those who haven't and do not know what we are talking about, allow me to explain. There are five types of what we call specialization tracks in this school. Those are: Development, Investigation, Security, Hunters, and Explorers. These are indicated by the color provided on your school uniform: blue, purple, white, green, and red, respectively. Those same colors may be found outside of specialization rooms, to indicate that you are in the correct location when you attend those classes."
I knew the twins had been aiming for the investigation track, as shown by the purple on their uniforms, and I had every plan to join them there. It's the closest thing to being a reporter they have, and that's in my blood ... right next to the alien genetics and super-powers. Avalon's uniform had the light blue of the development track, so she'd be our Q-division, while Deveron's uniform had the red trim of the explorer track, the people that get to go off-world ... more than normal at least. Well, could be worse, somebody with his attitude in the hunter track would have been a disaster.
Headmistress Sinclaire went on. "I'll let our track advisers explain a bit about each specialization while they introduce themselves. Afterward, a sheet will appear in front of you if you have not yet chosen a specialty. Circle the track you are most interested in beginning. This choice may be changed for one week at the beginning of each semester while you attend this school. Indeed, some careers require a certain number of semesters spent under more than one specialty track. All of this information will be available to you at any point as you continue your education here. Professor Nevada, would you mind starting us off?"
Nevada bounced to her feet with a big smile, "So hi everyone. So you already know who I am, and starting this year I'm going to be teaching on the more mundane side mechanical engineering and science, and on the magical side I'll be doing your introduction to Strangers, what they can do, and their weaknesses. I'll also be in charge of the Development track, so teaching people how to make advanced machinery, enchanted items, and the fun things that combine the two."
I could make a snarky comment about her showing you what we've allowed the Heretics to learn, but honestly the Imperium picks up more than a few ideas from here.
Well, it was good to know we could occasionally outdo the Imperium in some areas. Avalon was watching Nevada intensely, but I guess she'd been expecting Pericles as her track leader and now she had somebody entirely new.
After her was Professor Dare, who did her introduction though it looked like everyone knew her already and then explained how she ran the Investigation track, which among other things meant she was going to be my track leader. Made sense she was the one to have been monitoring me, I was certainly an investigation job with my running around being a crazy hero. They were the part of Crossroads that dealt with Bystanders the most, finding out where the monsters were, investigating attacks, and keeping Bystanders away from danger and from finding things out.
If I had grown up to be the kind of reporter I had planned before I found the truth, I would have been exactly the kind of person that they would be having to side-track. I wondered how often dad had run into Investigators without knowing it. Among other things it sounded like I was going to have to get better at lying to people, but I needed to get better at that anyway, sadly. I'd always seen myself as somebody that found and exposed the truth, and now I was getting a life-time career that was all about hiding it.
It's funny how things turn out.
Professor Carfried was next up, the young looking though not as young looking as Nevada teacher that had taken over from Professor Tangle while she recovered from ill defined things. He was nervous and stuttering a bit but gave it his best try as he explained about the Explorer track. The people that got to go off-planet and head out into the larger world and poke things to see what poked back. They got there both via the Pathmaker, and the much more iffy method of going back through the same breaches Alters used to get here, never knowing if it would stay open.
Should I be bothered that Explorer Track wear red?
In all fairness they predate Star Trek by a lot ... and yes, yes you should.
Professor Katarin, who was much nicer when he wasn't making me push myself until I wanted to die, gave a brief introduction. Along with being in charge of the Hunter track, the assault troops of Crossroads, he also did gym and general self defense. I had decided that he was personally sent from some dark underworld to make me suffer, Theia was of course a huge fan and wanted to learn everything he knew about advanced murder. Unsurprisingly she'd decided on our behalf that we were going to spend at least some time in the Hunter track ... joy.
Finally, an Asian woman who appeared to be either in her late twenties or very early thirties stood up and introduced herself as Professor Kohaku. She spoke in carefully measured tones, her voice never rising above what felt like a whisper even though we could hear her just fine. Her area was art and was in charge of security for the school, which Theia helpfully pointed out made her one of our biggest problems in the long run, as we were very much a security issue waiting to happen. She was also in charge of the Security track, white uniforms and a focus on defending from Alters, keeping places safe from infiltration and so forth.
Against the threats I was most worried about they were functionally useless by design.
For the record her and Virginia are probably the best candidates for being possessed. Virginia is close to Gaia and knows about far too many secrets and Kohaku is in charge of security.
Wonderful. I wonder if Gaia knows how to check for them.
Even running checks is dangerous, she's a running thorn in their side, but push them too far and they will find a way to force her out ... or kill her.
And that was it. Development, Investigation, Explorers, Hunters, and Security. Once the advisers were done introducing themselves, a bit of plastic not-unlike the menu that had appeared previously popped up out of thin air in front of me. Vanessa and Shiori received their own and looked at each other and me while the twins watched them curiously and the other two ignored us totally. For my part I didn't even pause, drawing a circle around the Investigation entry. "I'm a reporter, I report things. These days what I report is apparently monsters, but that's a subset of things, right."
I looked up at everyone else, "Don't get me wrong, Exploration sounds fascinating and Development is where all the cool stuff is, but in my heart I'm an Investigator."
Deveron spoke up in a sarcastic tone, "What about the voice in your head?"
Please, if he was going to try and annoy me that way I'd had better attacks from much better people. "Oh Theia wants to take the hunter track. She likes Professor Katarin, he's as intense about training as she and Avalon are." Avalon trained like it was all that stood between her and death … which to be fair it probably was. Theia thought that Avalon was the sane one and everyone else was slacking off. I got the impression Avalon would agree with that.
The girl herself spoke up, "You should probably listen to her when it comes to how hard you should train then."
Have I mentioned I like her?
You think she's possibly an enemy spy.
That doesn't mean we can't be friends. We just might need to stab her.
Vanessa drew a circle around Exploration, "I've wanted to go out and see other worlds since before I knew it was possible … I don't want to miss the chance now."
I couldn't argue with that, though I had to say she seemed born for the Development track.
Shiori was looking at her sheet for a bit before she finally made her choice, "I want to know how to fight. To stop people being hurt, so Hunter track."
I could respect that.
Sands looked around, "We're fairly investigation heavy, a developer, one and a half explorers … " she looked at Deveron, apparently she'd been more annoyed by his comment that I had been, "Make that one and a quarter explorers, and a hunter. No security but we should be okay as a team, and besides it's normal to shift tracks a lot."
Avalon looked at me, "I thought you might focus on Hunter given … "
I gave her question some consideration, before getting out the other sketch Theia had been working on most of the day and put it on the table. "For other people here it's about protecting people or stopping monsters and I can respect that and any other time that would be why I was there … but right now this is why I'm here."
Everyone leaned over to look at the picture. Like most of Theia's better work it hurt me to look at it. She was good at emotion, good at getting across feeling … and often tried to work her pain out by drawing some of the more intense times in her life.
For this image it was my pain she was drawing.
It was from the vision of course, Fossor, still looking like somebody you'd pass in the street without noticing, holding mom up against the car, gloating at her as she made her terrible offer to him. The gloating expression on his face made me want to break something but mom's was worse, that broken look as she agreed to serve him … wait.
I leaned in closer to look, this was the first time I'd really studied it since Theia drew it.
Is that accurate? Mom's face?
It was a measure of how important this was to me that Theia didn't get offended by me questioning her accuracy. If she was proud of anything in the world it was her art … well, her art and Tabbris.
It is. You were … distraught but … I'm not good at socialisation, I'm not good at knowing what to say or how to say it. But I know how to read people, I had to. That is what I saw.
Mom wasn't broken. Defeated yes, offering up total surrender, but not broken. There was a look in her eye, how she was standing … something in the way Theia had drawn the lines.
Even without her powers, even up against Fossor, she hadn't entirely given up. She was still fighting in the only way she had left. I was sure Fossor knew it too, and found it funny, but I didn't care about him, I cared about her.
As long as she kept fighting, as long as she didn't let him break her, I could still rescue her. Because there were things far worse than death that could happen to somebody, and Fossor was certainly one of those things.
Keep fighting mom, because I'm coming for you. We all are.
The others had been looking at it and wincing while I processed things. Even Deveron was being a bit too disinterested looking, of course I already knew he was a spy, so that was no shock.
I finally spoke up, "I'm going to rescue my mother, but that means going up against the most evil man in the world. I can't fight him, not and hope to win. But maybe I can find a weakness, find enough of a hole to get mom out, find something that will let somebody else hurt him. I'm not good at exploring, I'm not good at hunting, or developing, or security … but I'm a very good investigator, and if I'm up against that, then I need to play to my strengths."
After that everyone was very quiet and it wasn't long till the Headmistress dismissed us and we all filed out. Thankfully I could follow everyone else to find where my room was.
"So, what is the Crossroads Committee?"
This was one of those ones I actually knew, and for a change had an official reason to know about it too. The twin's handout had a page and even one-liners about each of the current committee members. Theia had real issues with Gabriel Ruthers, but couldn't tell me why due to memory spells messing with my head. I knew he'd been the main one going after mom during the rebellion though.
Sands of course had the answer, "The leaders of our government. A variable number of the most powerful Heretics alive, currently twelve, that get a big extra power upgrade by being members of it. I don't know the full details for how you become a member, but it's not just a matter of being voted on, though that's part of it. There are trials involved and people have died to them in the past." She looked back at the dining hall for a moment, "I knew Grandpa Zedekiah has been planning this for a while but this is … sudden."
I had a feeling it was because of me, though a moment later another distraction showed up in the form of Professor Nevada.
"Hi, I need to borrow Felicity … or was it Flick?"
"Either works, my friends call me Flick … " I looked over at Deveron who was still just inside hearing distance as he headed to the boy's dorm and called out, "Our mentor can call me Miss Chambers." Then back to her, "Ah, what do you need Professor, I assume this is about the vision?"
He can call me a goddess.
As far as I know you've never been worshiped, your namesake certainly, but not you.
Give it time.
She smiled, "Ah, just Nevada, that goes for all of you. Professor Nevada still sounds weird. Yes, it's about the vision. Don't worry this won't take long."
"I hope you know where I'm staying, I still haven't seen my room yet."
Avalon spoke up and held out a large key, "I got your key for you Chambers, end of the ground floor corridor, on the left."
"Thanks." I got the key from her, "Oh, and if I get lost in bureaucracy, avenge me."
That got the slightest smirk but she just nodded and headed off with the others, Sands calling out a 'See you later' that Sarah apparently co-signed.
Nevada watched them walk off then started leading me towards the main building, "I think she likes you. For Avalon that's downright friendly."
"I think I'm growing on her, possibly because I let her hit me on a regular basis."
I think that's the foundation of a solid relationship. Look how you met Miranda.
That was the two of us hitting somebody else.
That's an even better foundation to a relationship.
That got a slight snort but no other comment and we made our way into and through the building in a comfortable silence. I'd done a lot of talking today and it was nice not to have to for a bit.
The obvious office didn't have a label on the door but I had a feeling one had been recently removed and inside was Professor Pericles, I guess ex-Professor now, packing items into boxes with his normal energy, though I could see him slow down when he was putting some items away with extra care, gifts from students was my guess.
He looked up when we arrived giving Nevada a smile, "Don't worry, I'll be out of your way soon." then getting more somber as he looked at me, "Ah, Miss Chambers. We should talk."
Nevada gave him yet another smile, "I'm in no rush prof, you know where to find me." Then she stepped out, closing the door behind her.
He walked over, "First I want to say how sorry I am about what you just went though … we failed you and we failed her. There is a limit to what I can say because … "
I nodded, "Spells."
He nodded back, "I'll be as clear as I can, and the one thing I haven't started taking out of this room yet are my personal privacy wardings."
Which means we can probably trust them up to a point. If he's a Committee candidate he'll know what he's doing.
I pondered that, "Are you doing this because of mom?" I waved my hand at the half put away state of his office.
He paused for a moment, "You have brought a situation to my attention involving an old threat that I felt I needed to deal with, in whatever way I can."
"I've done a lot of looking up mom, dad and I both have … did you know you share a name with the man that delivered her? On her official paperwork at least."
"It's funny some coincidences you see." He got a lot more serious suddenly, and I could see under the jovial exterior the old, cunning, and powerful person that could become a Committee candidate. "I will find her, and I will bring her back to you Felicity, I promise you that."
I gave him a slightly sad smile, "I've been told a bit about him, don't make promises you can't keep … but thank you." A sudden impulse made me open up the satchel I'd been wearing around and get Theia's latest sketch out, mom being held against the car by Fossor and held it out to him, "She hasn't given up."
He didn't try to hide the wince as he looked at the picture, but I could see his eyes narrow as he looked at how mom was drawn, spotting the same thing that I had.
With careful hands he took the sketch off me like it was a precious and fragile painting, "She won't. She doesn't know how. If it's possible I'll bring her back to you, regardless of what, or who, gets in my way."
They had failed her, they had failed her so much. I was still angry, but here was somebody willing to put everything on the line to try and fix it, and I could feel some of the anger finally starting to let go, so I just said, "Thank you."
He gave me a considering look, "I'm pretty sure you know a lot more than people think … we can keep that between us though. Gaia is somebody you can trust though … so is Nevada."
I wished I could, I so very much wished I could. But this was enemy territory and almost anyone could be the enemy.
I had friends, I now had powerful people willing to help me, and most of them were certainly their own people. It was just a matter of working out who, and I really hoped he was one of them.
If there is anyone that it would be hard for one of us to get into ...
"I'll remember that Proff .. ah Mr?"
That got a small smile, "Call me Zedekiah, it's what family calls me."
"I'll remember that too. Good luck … I expect you'll need it."
"A wise person makes their own luck," his expression grew solemn, "and I regret to say that I think you'll need the luck more than I do."
He wasn't wrong. As I was turning to leave I gave into an impulse, "Be careful who you trust, they may not be who you think they are, they might not be who they think they are. Don't trust the standard tests."
He gave me what was probably the most intense look I'd ever been on the receiving end of then slowly nodded but didn't say anything as I left.
I was walking back to my room when it finally occurred to me to ask.
Are you okay with me giving him your sketch?
I made it for you, you can do with it what you want. And besides.
He's family.
Last edited:
- Location
- My room.
Well, it looks like Flick is already onto someone possessing Kohaku, but keeping in mind all the shuffling, I don't think it's gonna be Manakel, and since Colombus is on another team and Theia is with Flick, I've got no guesses as to what Charmiene and (blank) are gonna be up to. And then Flick's warning to Pericles. He seems pretty determined, and I hope he doesn't get shanked by Hades this time around, (and that's ignoring the issue of Isaac). And Felicity is taking one hell of a risk, assuming that Pericles is not already possessed.
- Location
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Some people are very obvious targets to be possessed if you view 'Gaia' as the main target, which at this point she's assuming is the major thing they want to keep watch on at the school. The more she finds out about Dare being close to Gaia the more she's going to assume Dare is possessed, after all that was exactly the plan for Larissa.
She's taking a risk with Pericles, but she's got to take some risks to get anywhere. I mean 'turn her team to the Not All Strangers Are Bad' on her to-do list so she doesn't end up having to fight them at some point, right now her life is nothing but risks.
And she still doesn't know half the shit she's just stepped into.
Legacies
- Location
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Legacies
[6 years ago]
"When will we see the whales mama?"
The nine year girl was obviously excited about seeing them, going on at length about various other facts about them. For the moment it was just the two of them, Sarah and her mother, on a boat heading out into the sea around Crossroads Island.
Once they were well clear Larissa set the controls and turned to face her daughter. "We need to talk about something serious. It's about Alyson and Tabitha, and we'll need to keep it secret like before."
The girl's eyes went wide, "Is it safe for us to meet them?" Apparently this was more important than even whales.
Her mother held a hand up, "Not yet, but soon with any luck. But this is going to be a really important secret so you need to keep it really quiet."
Sarah forced herself to look more serious, "Can I tell Sands?"
That got a smile, "Nobody else though. And don't tell her yet, I'll tell her myself after we get back. We're here to meet a friend of mommy's."
Sarah thought about it for a few moments, "Is it a friend of Aly and Tabs? So we need to hide her from da too?"
Larissa's smile got more sad, "You're such a clever girl. That's part of it but ... mommy's friend isn't human."
It took a moment for Sarah to comprehend what she was saying. Eventually, however, the girl's eyes went wide. "Y-your friend is a monster?"
"Not a monster, baby," Larissa corrected quickly. "But she is what everyone would call a Stranger. She's Tabitha's mother."
The boat was quite for a while as the girl processed that. "Does that mean that Tabitha is a ... " she seemed to look for a term, "that she isn't human?"
Larissa couched down in front of her daughter, "Yes. And Tabitha isn't a monster is she?"
Sarah shook her head with almost frantic urgency, "She can't be a monster, she's Tabs." Another thought occurred. "Is ... is Alyson human?"
"No. She isn't."
"Oh."
There was a long enough pause that Larissa was about to say something when Sarah spoke up again, "But I thought their mama was dead?" That people's parents could just up and die was something the girl just took as a painful fact of life.
Larissa visibly relaxed at how well her daughter was taking it. "She's alive, but she's trapped in a bad place. She can come and visit sometimes but only for a little bit. She's been trapped there for a long time, I'm trying to help her. She helped me when I was your age, along with Haiden Holt, so I'm helping protect her daughter."
That seemed to make sense to the girl, "Is Haiden Tabitha's Da?"
Larrisa shook her head, "No, I just used the name ... it's complex. She managed to get Tabitha and Alyson out the place she's in but she's still trapped here. Do you want to meet her?"
Sarah nodded, "Tabitha's Mama? Yeah."
And unseen behind them was another figure, Sarah grown to her late teens, tears running down her face as she looked at the scene from her own past. "I love you mama." She put a hand out, not quite touching her mother's face, then took a deep breath. She was here for a reason, to see.
In the corner of the deck, near the ladder, a soft golden light had already appeared. Scout watched closely, as did her younger self, she needed to remember this. Before long, the light resolved itself into a blonde woman, who straightened up and looked around until her gaze fell on the two of them. "Larissa," she murmured before stepping that way.
Looking at her now Scout could see some resemblance to the toddler she still remembered. Sarah looked at the new arrival with wide eyes, "You're Tabitha's mama?"
The two women embraced then the new arrival turned her attention to the younger girl, her voice quiet and gentle. "Yes. And you must be Sarah. Larissa told me you helped take good care of my daughters."
Sarah nodded firmly, "Sands did too, and Alyson."
The blonde smiled, "I'm glad she's doing well, she's a good ... " She stopped talking abruptly, head tilted as though listening to something. A second later, the woman spun back, eyes wide. "Take Sarah and get off the boat," she ordered. "Go, go, right n–"
Scout winced, she knew what was coming next. She forced herself to watch though, able to remember it clearly this time even if it was still so fast. The tentacle coming over the side and picking up Tabitha's mother and hurling her aside, then the creature covered in sea-life that followed after the tentacle, claiming to have smelt Tabitha's mother on Larissa, that it had been waiting for the chance.
Seeing her mother throw her towards the cabin and telling her to hide but being overwhelmed by the creature moments later. Tabitha's mother trying to draw it away, offering herself up to distract it and calling it by its name.
Fomorian. She needed to remember the name of the thing that took her mother.
Watching her mother try to fight, telling Tabitha's mother to save Sarah, and the other woman doing that. Scout could recall that from the past, the short argument Sarah had had with her before the young girl was talked into agreeing to hide, getting wrapped her in a spell to make sure she wouldn't be found.
It was hard, seeing the monster paralyzing her mother, carrying her around as it copied her mother's voice and called out for her. Calling for Scout by the name she could barely stand to hear anymore.
Then Tabitha's mother was there again, offering herself up to keep Sarah hidden. Apologizing to Sarah's mother, saying she couldn't find another way to stop him. Throwing herself onto the creature and her mother and then they were gone, a sudden flash and the boat was empty.
It had been her that had saved Scout, twice over.
Scout crouched where they had vanished from, hand outstretched. "Thank you. I'll find her, I'll find Tabitha and Alyson, and I'll protect them."
She was still weeping silently when the Edge Vision ended, but she remembered the name that her mother had screamed out to Tabitha's mother.
She remembered Sariel.
[7 years ago]
"No Tabitha, don't eat the dirt!"
Sands looked over but her sister seemed to have it under control. Technically both of them were looking after Tabitha but they traded off who was dealing with her at that exact moment.
The forest was nice, and peaceful this close to Crossroads. Mommy and Da had made sure to check the area ahead of time and were close by, just a little out of sight and probably doing some silly adults thing. Audrey and Alyson were off to one side of the clearing everyone was in, Audrey walking Aly though a throw she'd recently been taught, while Lisa was packing the remains of lunch up.
Sands was bored. Being in the scary monster-filled forest only stayed interesting so long when your parents were careful to make sure no actual monster could get in sight or sound of you.
Invisible to her was her older self who patted the younger version on the head, "Don't worry, it's about to get exciting mini-me." Still, why here? Yes, there was about to be a stranger attack but she already remembered that. What was she supposed to see?
Even expecting it Sands still winced at the awful wail when is sprung up, a gastly screaming from dozens of throats.
Knowing what she did now she recognised them when they burst into sight, ugly green-furred monkey things, not much bigger than Tabitha. Daesimalo. Normally a low grade threat, the kind of thing you would send people after on a first hunt, they were much more of a problem when there were this many of them.
At the time she remembered everything seemed to take ages, a confused mess of screaming and noise but looking at it now she could see how fast it all happened.
Alyson had never even paused, grabbing Audrey and half-flinging her towards the others with a scream to guard them and already bringing her hands up when the first demon-monkeys came into sight.
Sands was pretty sure the vision was slowing things down for her because she knew how fast Alyson could move when she needed to and this time things were going slowly enough for her to watch. There was no cartoon flashiness, no wasted movements. The first few creatures died before they even got clear of the trees, Alyson alternating between her hands to launch lightning bolts, each killing at least one target, sometimes several if they were close enough for the electricity to arc off.
By this point Audrey was just getting her sword out, facing away from the attackers and trusting Alyson to deal with those while she looked for anything coming from the other direction.
Sands, the elder, could watch this calmly, she knew nobody on her side had gotten scratched, which didn't mean she was still on edge. She also couldn't help but wince on behalf of the younger Sands, screaming as she backed towards the others. "Yeah, lesson for us. Boring can be good sometimes."
Where did Alyson learn to fight like that? That was like Heretics fought, experienced veteran Heretics, and not in a style she'd ever seen Alyson use before. The teenager was constantly moving, a spinning dance as she glided along her impromptu battle-line launching a stream of bolts into the incoming attackers, an aura of energy around her that arced off to any daesimalo unlucky enough to get close to her.
It couldn't have been more than a few moments before her parents arrived, her father announcing his return by the curved blade that made up part of his weapon flying out of the forest to cut through several attackers. Her mother went directly for the group gathered behind Audrey, her sword out and ready while her father focused on offense, a ripple of earth rolling out from his feet that formed up into pillars and walls to break the swarm up.
Da bounded up onto one of the pillars and brought the other parts of his weapon up, the shortsword in one hand ready to kill anything near him while the pistol in his other hand tracked the still maneuvering blade which swooped behind the attacker. As it did he opened fire, bolts of lightning linking the pistol to the blade and tearing through daesimalo in the way, a counterpoint to the similar bolts Alyson was flinging around.
On seeing that Alyson fell back to the rest of the group and Sands caught a quick nod between her and Larissa before her mother headed out to backup her father.
A fight where her children were in the middle of it and three other kids. And her mother just trusted that Alyson could and would protect them. No pause, no doubt. Sure, Audrey was there too, but it was Alyson that Larissa had confirmed things with.
Alyson took a moment to check on her sister, giving younger Sands and Sco … Sarah one of her rare smiles before taking a few steps back towards the fight. Sands the elder vaguely remembered this bit next as just being loud.
From her current angle it was more impressive, Alyson holding her hands out and a massive arc appearing between them, building and building until it was blinding. Then she snapped her hands apart and the line flashed out towards the fight. As it went it expanded, turning into a wall of lightning and fury that swept across the ground, scorching it as it went.
Alyson pointed towards Sand's parents, and as the wall reached each of them it split to go around then before rejoining and racing onwards, smashing deep into the trees around the clearing before finally fading out. In its path was ash and the scorched remains of the monkeys. Larissa absently killed a couple of survivors with a power while Liam turned around to look back at Alyson mouthing "Where did that come from?".
For her part Alyson was visibly wobbling on her feet and managed to give Liam a thumbs up before abruptly sitting down. The first one to her was Lisa who was willing to accept Alyson's comment she was just very tired.
With the fighting over Sands could do the thing she'd wanted to do from the start. Her mother had left Liam to check the perimeter and was holding her two crying daughters. The third one she couldn't see or hold but that didn't stop the tears. "Hi Mom. I know you can't hear this but … I miss you. Sarah does too. Da is doing his best to look after us but it's not the same. We're doing our best to make your proud Mommy. We haven't stopped looking for Aly or Tabs either … "
Sands stopped dead, and looked back at the image of Alyson cuddling Tabitha, Lisa getting her to drink some water.
Alyson moved like nobody else she'd seen, not the speed and powers but the style. She'd never seen anyone else move quite like that … not until a girl called Felicity Chambers came to Crossroads. A girl with a younger sister called Tabitha.
As the vision started to fade out Sands took one last longing look at her mother, but there was a spark of something else. Hope. "We haven't stopped looking … and I think we might have found them."
[Tuesday, 29 August, 2017]
Sands wasn't sure what to say, which was a novel situation. What do you say to your sister when she was just forced to relive the worst moment of her life?
Scout had pulled her out here, but it could have just been for company rather than conversation. Da was great but sometimes Scout needed space more than she needed da doing his best to be supportive.
It took her as a surprise when Scout spoke up. "You saw Alyson fight?"
Sands pulled her thoughts together, "Yeah. She … she was trained, experienced. Knew exactly what she was doing and how to use her powers, and even then was still keeping to the 'public' ones." She paused for a bit, "Mom trusted her to guard us, trusted her to have mom's back. More than she trusted Audrey."
Scout slowly nodded, "Not Stardrinker."
A nod, "Yeah, no way she was a Stardrinker Natural. They don't do what she could do, definitely not the ice-cream." She missed that ice-cream. She missed her friend.
There was a longer pause. "Not Natural. Not Heretic."
It took Sands a bit to parse that. Alyson had powers and wasn't a Heretic, that would mean … no. No. That wasn't possible. Alyson couldn't be one of them.
Her thoughts were interrupted as Scout spoke again, and there was a weird undertone to her sister's voice, one she wasn't used to. "Mom didn't save me on the boat. There were two Strangers, one attacked us, the other who saved me. Mom took us out there to meet her, the one that saved me. The attacker, the Fomorian, attacked mom first, mom told her friend to save me … and she did. Hid me under a bed, put a spell over me so the thing couldn't find me, then went back to try and save mom."
That wasn't possible. That was not possible. Mom wouldn't do that, strangers were the enemy, they were monsters. Mom would never trust a stranger, never work with a stranger, she couldn't. She could never … trust Alyson to protect her daughters? They were monsters, all monsters? Weren't they?
Scout wasn't finished. "The woman we were meeting … she was Tabitha's mother."
There was a period where Sands just stopped thinking clearly. Nothing made sense anymore. Tabitha couldn't be a Stranger. Little Tabs with the giggles and hugs and trying to chew on things she shouldn't and … and the weird ability to just almost vanish sometimes. But mom could always find her, like mom knew what was happening when they lost track of her.
It was too much, she opened her mouth but no words came out, she just gave her sister a helpless look in a world that had stopped making any sense. Scout wouldn't lie to her, her sister wouldn't like about this. But that would mean that mom had brought two Strangers into school … trusted them in her house, around her daughters … trusted them to protect her daughters because it was Alyson, and you would hurt a child around her over her dead body, or more likely yours. But Strangers were bad, Strangers were evil, that's all they were.
They were the bad things. Right?
For Prosser's sake, both Alyson and Tabitha had been through medical! Surely medical would notice a couple of Strangers. They had to be undocs, Strangers that didn't ping Heretic sense, but even then you couldn't get them past medical surely.
Scout wouldn't lie about this though. Not this. Not about Alyson and Tabitha.
She couldn't … okay, pretend it's just a puzzle. She was planning on going Investigation Track, so just treat it like an exercise and solve it. What do we know, what can we work out from that.
Sands held a hand up, giving herself a long moment, trying to gather her thoughts. "If that really was Tabitha's mother, if she's alive. Why did we have Tabitha here? That doesn't make sense."
Scout nodded, and there was still that old … fear? Oh.
Sands and Scout were close, really close. They had just about lived in each other's heads from when they were born and when … when that had happened, she'd become Scout's interface with the larger world. They always had each other's back, and always would.
Scout was scared of her, scared of how she would react. And told her anyway, because she deserved to know, because she needed to know.
And people thought Sands was the brave one.
Before Scout could answer Sands walked over and wrapped her sister up in a hug, "I … I don't know how I feel about this yet but … we're sisters. Nothing changes that. Okay."
She could feel Scout relax, replying with a small nod and and an even smaller "Okay."
After a bit Sands let go, sitting down again, "Right, lay it on me."
That got a tiny smile, "Mom said that Tabitha's mother was trapped, that she could only get out for a little bit at a time. Don't know if she teleported to us under her own power or not, didn't see mom do anything other than maybe signal her."
It's an exercise. Just an exercise. What if some of your best friends turned out to be Strangers. "Tabitha could sneak off … I'm pretty sure she got out of a room with no other exit once. Could she have been teleporting to Mom? Mom always knew where she was."
Scout nodded, "Teleporting Undoc, looks human. Look it up. Very quietly." She paused, seeming even more unsure for a moment, then came to a choice. "They never found mom's body. The other stranger, after she hid me. She ran back out, apologized to mom, for what she was about to do. Grabbed both of them and all three vanished."
That … that wasn't as bad as finding out about Tabitha. Still a shock though, "So she might have teleported all of them away. Mom might be … "
Scout shivered, "Don't want to hope … being wrong would hurt too much."
Sands understood that. The thought that mom might be alive out there somewhere, it hurt. They had both grieved, laid their mother to rest in spirit. This was like tearing the wound open again, that poisonous feeling of hope. And the fear, because it had been six years. If mom could have come back she would have by now, that was just a basic fact of the universe. So if she was alive, then something was keeping her away.
Couldn't think about that now. Move on, study the problem, investigate.
"Do you know how they met?"
Scout unexpectedly nodded, "When mom was shot. Garden Heretic saved her, Haiden Holt … he was working with Tabitha's mother to save mom. That's how they met."
That made sense, kinda. Garden worked with Strangers sometimes, though from what she'd heard it was more they had Strangers they kept under control. Slaves. Was it the Garden that was holding Tabitha's mother?
Scout added, "Tabitha and Alyson aren't related to Haiden, she just needed a last name."
Sands nodded, that also made sense. There were rumours of weird human/stranger hybrid experiments at the Garden, but common belief was that there wasn't such a thing as cross-fertility. Whatever Tabitha and Alyson were, they weren't half human or anything like that. The idea was even more crazy than the rest of this. The next idea Sands said out loud, "They aren't the same species … Alyson and Tabitha. Alyson has lightning and everything else … Tabitha just, maybe, had teleportation. Alyson was something different."
It was Scout's turn to slowly nod. "Two species of undoc, that can pass medical tests."
One was unbelievable enough, but two? When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Speaking of unlikely but fitting the evidence. "In my vision, I saw Alyson fighting full out. Her and Flick move the same way, not the same style, not the same moves, but even just walking around, they move the same. And there is the Lightning Bending." She'd taught that trick to Alyson herself.
The two girls looked at each other, having the same thought. It was Sands that voiced it, "Alyson is where Flick's powers come from, she's an Alyson Natural. Whatever that is."
Scout nodded, "Might not know Alyson and Tabitha are strangers. Undocs."
Sands pondered that. Alyson is on the run, finds a family to hide her sister with. Flick always had good things to say about her father. It would be easier for Alyson to hide without Tabitha, but it's Alyson, she wouldn't go far. She might visit sometimes, check on her sister. Might power up the girl in the same house as her sister so they could look after Tabitha better. And then show her some moves.
"It could be, or she could be lying. Protecting her family from … us." She tried for a moment to think what it would mean if Scout was a stranger … an undoc, but with the risk that Crossroads would find out and come for her. What would she do to protect her sister?
What wouldn't she do? What wouldn't mom do?
Scout sighed, "Baby pictures."
It took Sands a few seconds to process that, then she nodded. Flick had shown them pictures of her family, Lincoln and Tabitha and … her younger sister looked a bit like their Tabitha, though with the age difference that didn't mean much. Yeah, they needed to see if Flick had pictures of Tabitha when she was younger.
The sisters looked at each other. Sands nodded, yeah, they were doing this. Treat it like an exercise maybe, but take it seriously. Find out what was behind Flick's powers, was that their Tabitha, and where the hell was Alyson? And keep it quiet, keep Da out of the loop, keep everyone out of the loop.
Scout managed a less fragile smile, "Investigation Track."
Sands nodded, it was time to investigate.
It was time to find out what Felicity Chambers was hiding.
[6 years ago]
"When will we see the whales mama?"
The nine year girl was obviously excited about seeing them, going on at length about various other facts about them. For the moment it was just the two of them, Sarah and her mother, on a boat heading out into the sea around Crossroads Island.
Once they were well clear Larissa set the controls and turned to face her daughter. "We need to talk about something serious. It's about Alyson and Tabitha, and we'll need to keep it secret like before."
The girl's eyes went wide, "Is it safe for us to meet them?" Apparently this was more important than even whales.
Her mother held a hand up, "Not yet, but soon with any luck. But this is going to be a really important secret so you need to keep it really quiet."
Sarah forced herself to look more serious, "Can I tell Sands?"
That got a smile, "Nobody else though. And don't tell her yet, I'll tell her myself after we get back. We're here to meet a friend of mommy's."
Sarah thought about it for a few moments, "Is it a friend of Aly and Tabs? So we need to hide her from da too?"
Larissa's smile got more sad, "You're such a clever girl. That's part of it but ... mommy's friend isn't human."
It took a moment for Sarah to comprehend what she was saying. Eventually, however, the girl's eyes went wide. "Y-your friend is a monster?"
"Not a monster, baby," Larissa corrected quickly. "But she is what everyone would call a Stranger. She's Tabitha's mother."
The boat was quite for a while as the girl processed that. "Does that mean that Tabitha is a ... " she seemed to look for a term, "that she isn't human?"
Larissa couched down in front of her daughter, "Yes. And Tabitha isn't a monster is she?"
Sarah shook her head with almost frantic urgency, "She can't be a monster, she's Tabs." Another thought occurred. "Is ... is Alyson human?"
"No. She isn't."
"Oh."
There was a long enough pause that Larissa was about to say something when Sarah spoke up again, "But I thought their mama was dead?" That people's parents could just up and die was something the girl just took as a painful fact of life.
Larissa visibly relaxed at how well her daughter was taking it. "She's alive, but she's trapped in a bad place. She can come and visit sometimes but only for a little bit. She's been trapped there for a long time, I'm trying to help her. She helped me when I was your age, along with Haiden Holt, so I'm helping protect her daughter."
That seemed to make sense to the girl, "Is Haiden Tabitha's Da?"
Larrisa shook her head, "No, I just used the name ... it's complex. She managed to get Tabitha and Alyson out the place she's in but she's still trapped here. Do you want to meet her?"
Sarah nodded, "Tabitha's Mama? Yeah."
And unseen behind them was another figure, Sarah grown to her late teens, tears running down her face as she looked at the scene from her own past. "I love you mama." She put a hand out, not quite touching her mother's face, then took a deep breath. She was here for a reason, to see.
In the corner of the deck, near the ladder, a soft golden light had already appeared. Scout watched closely, as did her younger self, she needed to remember this. Before long, the light resolved itself into a blonde woman, who straightened up and looked around until her gaze fell on the two of them. "Larissa," she murmured before stepping that way.
Looking at her now Scout could see some resemblance to the toddler she still remembered. Sarah looked at the new arrival with wide eyes, "You're Tabitha's mama?"
The two women embraced then the new arrival turned her attention to the younger girl, her voice quiet and gentle. "Yes. And you must be Sarah. Larissa told me you helped take good care of my daughters."
Sarah nodded firmly, "Sands did too, and Alyson."
The blonde smiled, "I'm glad she's doing well, she's a good ... " She stopped talking abruptly, head tilted as though listening to something. A second later, the woman spun back, eyes wide. "Take Sarah and get off the boat," she ordered. "Go, go, right n–"
Scout winced, she knew what was coming next. She forced herself to watch though, able to remember it clearly this time even if it was still so fast. The tentacle coming over the side and picking up Tabitha's mother and hurling her aside, then the creature covered in sea-life that followed after the tentacle, claiming to have smelt Tabitha's mother on Larissa, that it had been waiting for the chance.
Seeing her mother throw her towards the cabin and telling her to hide but being overwhelmed by the creature moments later. Tabitha's mother trying to draw it away, offering herself up to distract it and calling it by its name.
Fomorian. She needed to remember the name of the thing that took her mother.
Watching her mother try to fight, telling Tabitha's mother to save Sarah, and the other woman doing that. Scout could recall that from the past, the short argument Sarah had had with her before the young girl was talked into agreeing to hide, getting wrapped her in a spell to make sure she wouldn't be found.
It was hard, seeing the monster paralyzing her mother, carrying her around as it copied her mother's voice and called out for her. Calling for Scout by the name she could barely stand to hear anymore.
Then Tabitha's mother was there again, offering herself up to keep Sarah hidden. Apologizing to Sarah's mother, saying she couldn't find another way to stop him. Throwing herself onto the creature and her mother and then they were gone, a sudden flash and the boat was empty.
It had been her that had saved Scout, twice over.
Scout crouched where they had vanished from, hand outstretched. "Thank you. I'll find her, I'll find Tabitha and Alyson, and I'll protect them."
She was still weeping silently when the Edge Vision ended, but she remembered the name that her mother had screamed out to Tabitha's mother.
She remembered Sariel.
[7 years ago]
"No Tabitha, don't eat the dirt!"
Sands looked over but her sister seemed to have it under control. Technically both of them were looking after Tabitha but they traded off who was dealing with her at that exact moment.
The forest was nice, and peaceful this close to Crossroads. Mommy and Da had made sure to check the area ahead of time and were close by, just a little out of sight and probably doing some silly adults thing. Audrey and Alyson were off to one side of the clearing everyone was in, Audrey walking Aly though a throw she'd recently been taught, while Lisa was packing the remains of lunch up.
Sands was bored. Being in the scary monster-filled forest only stayed interesting so long when your parents were careful to make sure no actual monster could get in sight or sound of you.
Invisible to her was her older self who patted the younger version on the head, "Don't worry, it's about to get exciting mini-me." Still, why here? Yes, there was about to be a stranger attack but she already remembered that. What was she supposed to see?
Even expecting it Sands still winced at the awful wail when is sprung up, a gastly screaming from dozens of throats.
Knowing what she did now she recognised them when they burst into sight, ugly green-furred monkey things, not much bigger than Tabitha. Daesimalo. Normally a low grade threat, the kind of thing you would send people after on a first hunt, they were much more of a problem when there were this many of them.
At the time she remembered everything seemed to take ages, a confused mess of screaming and noise but looking at it now she could see how fast it all happened.
Alyson had never even paused, grabbing Audrey and half-flinging her towards the others with a scream to guard them and already bringing her hands up when the first demon-monkeys came into sight.
Sands was pretty sure the vision was slowing things down for her because she knew how fast Alyson could move when she needed to and this time things were going slowly enough for her to watch. There was no cartoon flashiness, no wasted movements. The first few creatures died before they even got clear of the trees, Alyson alternating between her hands to launch lightning bolts, each killing at least one target, sometimes several if they were close enough for the electricity to arc off.
By this point Audrey was just getting her sword out, facing away from the attackers and trusting Alyson to deal with those while she looked for anything coming from the other direction.
Sands, the elder, could watch this calmly, she knew nobody on her side had gotten scratched, which didn't mean she was still on edge. She also couldn't help but wince on behalf of the younger Sands, screaming as she backed towards the others. "Yeah, lesson for us. Boring can be good sometimes."
Where did Alyson learn to fight like that? That was like Heretics fought, experienced veteran Heretics, and not in a style she'd ever seen Alyson use before. The teenager was constantly moving, a spinning dance as she glided along her impromptu battle-line launching a stream of bolts into the incoming attackers, an aura of energy around her that arced off to any daesimalo unlucky enough to get close to her.
It couldn't have been more than a few moments before her parents arrived, her father announcing his return by the curved blade that made up part of his weapon flying out of the forest to cut through several attackers. Her mother went directly for the group gathered behind Audrey, her sword out and ready while her father focused on offense, a ripple of earth rolling out from his feet that formed up into pillars and walls to break the swarm up.
Da bounded up onto one of the pillars and brought the other parts of his weapon up, the shortsword in one hand ready to kill anything near him while the pistol in his other hand tracked the still maneuvering blade which swooped behind the attacker. As it did he opened fire, bolts of lightning linking the pistol to the blade and tearing through daesimalo in the way, a counterpoint to the similar bolts Alyson was flinging around.
On seeing that Alyson fell back to the rest of the group and Sands caught a quick nod between her and Larissa before her mother headed out to backup her father.
A fight where her children were in the middle of it and three other kids. And her mother just trusted that Alyson could and would protect them. No pause, no doubt. Sure, Audrey was there too, but it was Alyson that Larissa had confirmed things with.
Alyson took a moment to check on her sister, giving younger Sands and Sco … Sarah one of her rare smiles before taking a few steps back towards the fight. Sands the elder vaguely remembered this bit next as just being loud.
From her current angle it was more impressive, Alyson holding her hands out and a massive arc appearing between them, building and building until it was blinding. Then she snapped her hands apart and the line flashed out towards the fight. As it went it expanded, turning into a wall of lightning and fury that swept across the ground, scorching it as it went.
Alyson pointed towards Sand's parents, and as the wall reached each of them it split to go around then before rejoining and racing onwards, smashing deep into the trees around the clearing before finally fading out. In its path was ash and the scorched remains of the monkeys. Larissa absently killed a couple of survivors with a power while Liam turned around to look back at Alyson mouthing "Where did that come from?".
For her part Alyson was visibly wobbling on her feet and managed to give Liam a thumbs up before abruptly sitting down. The first one to her was Lisa who was willing to accept Alyson's comment she was just very tired.
With the fighting over Sands could do the thing she'd wanted to do from the start. Her mother had left Liam to check the perimeter and was holding her two crying daughters. The third one she couldn't see or hold but that didn't stop the tears. "Hi Mom. I know you can't hear this but … I miss you. Sarah does too. Da is doing his best to look after us but it's not the same. We're doing our best to make your proud Mommy. We haven't stopped looking for Aly or Tabs either … "
Sands stopped dead, and looked back at the image of Alyson cuddling Tabitha, Lisa getting her to drink some water.
Alyson moved like nobody else she'd seen, not the speed and powers but the style. She'd never seen anyone else move quite like that … not until a girl called Felicity Chambers came to Crossroads. A girl with a younger sister called Tabitha.
As the vision started to fade out Sands took one last longing look at her mother, but there was a spark of something else. Hope. "We haven't stopped looking … and I think we might have found them."
[Tuesday, 29 August, 2017]
Sands wasn't sure what to say, which was a novel situation. What do you say to your sister when she was just forced to relive the worst moment of her life?
Scout had pulled her out here, but it could have just been for company rather than conversation. Da was great but sometimes Scout needed space more than she needed da doing his best to be supportive.
It took her as a surprise when Scout spoke up. "You saw Alyson fight?"
Sands pulled her thoughts together, "Yeah. She … she was trained, experienced. Knew exactly what she was doing and how to use her powers, and even then was still keeping to the 'public' ones." She paused for a bit, "Mom trusted her to guard us, trusted her to have mom's back. More than she trusted Audrey."
Scout slowly nodded, "Not Stardrinker."
A nod, "Yeah, no way she was a Stardrinker Natural. They don't do what she could do, definitely not the ice-cream." She missed that ice-cream. She missed her friend.
There was a longer pause. "Not Natural. Not Heretic."
It took Sands a bit to parse that. Alyson had powers and wasn't a Heretic, that would mean … no. No. That wasn't possible. Alyson couldn't be one of them.
Her thoughts were interrupted as Scout spoke again, and there was a weird undertone to her sister's voice, one she wasn't used to. "Mom didn't save me on the boat. There were two Strangers, one attacked us, the other who saved me. Mom took us out there to meet her, the one that saved me. The attacker, the Fomorian, attacked mom first, mom told her friend to save me … and she did. Hid me under a bed, put a spell over me so the thing couldn't find me, then went back to try and save mom."
That wasn't possible. That was not possible. Mom wouldn't do that, strangers were the enemy, they were monsters. Mom would never trust a stranger, never work with a stranger, she couldn't. She could never … trust Alyson to protect her daughters? They were monsters, all monsters? Weren't they?
Scout wasn't finished. "The woman we were meeting … she was Tabitha's mother."
There was a period where Sands just stopped thinking clearly. Nothing made sense anymore. Tabitha couldn't be a Stranger. Little Tabs with the giggles and hugs and trying to chew on things she shouldn't and … and the weird ability to just almost vanish sometimes. But mom could always find her, like mom knew what was happening when they lost track of her.
It was too much, she opened her mouth but no words came out, she just gave her sister a helpless look in a world that had stopped making any sense. Scout wouldn't lie to her, her sister wouldn't like about this. But that would mean that mom had brought two Strangers into school … trusted them in her house, around her daughters … trusted them to protect her daughters because it was Alyson, and you would hurt a child around her over her dead body, or more likely yours. But Strangers were bad, Strangers were evil, that's all they were.
They were the bad things. Right?
For Prosser's sake, both Alyson and Tabitha had been through medical! Surely medical would notice a couple of Strangers. They had to be undocs, Strangers that didn't ping Heretic sense, but even then you couldn't get them past medical surely.
Scout wouldn't lie about this though. Not this. Not about Alyson and Tabitha.
She couldn't … okay, pretend it's just a puzzle. She was planning on going Investigation Track, so just treat it like an exercise and solve it. What do we know, what can we work out from that.
Sands held a hand up, giving herself a long moment, trying to gather her thoughts. "If that really was Tabitha's mother, if she's alive. Why did we have Tabitha here? That doesn't make sense."
Scout nodded, and there was still that old … fear? Oh.
Sands and Scout were close, really close. They had just about lived in each other's heads from when they were born and when … when that had happened, she'd become Scout's interface with the larger world. They always had each other's back, and always would.
Scout was scared of her, scared of how she would react. And told her anyway, because she deserved to know, because she needed to know.
And people thought Sands was the brave one.
Before Scout could answer Sands walked over and wrapped her sister up in a hug, "I … I don't know how I feel about this yet but … we're sisters. Nothing changes that. Okay."
She could feel Scout relax, replying with a small nod and and an even smaller "Okay."
After a bit Sands let go, sitting down again, "Right, lay it on me."
That got a tiny smile, "Mom said that Tabitha's mother was trapped, that she could only get out for a little bit at a time. Don't know if she teleported to us under her own power or not, didn't see mom do anything other than maybe signal her."
It's an exercise. Just an exercise. What if some of your best friends turned out to be Strangers. "Tabitha could sneak off … I'm pretty sure she got out of a room with no other exit once. Could she have been teleporting to Mom? Mom always knew where she was."
Scout nodded, "Teleporting Undoc, looks human. Look it up. Very quietly." She paused, seeming even more unsure for a moment, then came to a choice. "They never found mom's body. The other stranger, after she hid me. She ran back out, apologized to mom, for what she was about to do. Grabbed both of them and all three vanished."
That … that wasn't as bad as finding out about Tabitha. Still a shock though, "So she might have teleported all of them away. Mom might be … "
Scout shivered, "Don't want to hope … being wrong would hurt too much."
Sands understood that. The thought that mom might be alive out there somewhere, it hurt. They had both grieved, laid their mother to rest in spirit. This was like tearing the wound open again, that poisonous feeling of hope. And the fear, because it had been six years. If mom could have come back she would have by now, that was just a basic fact of the universe. So if she was alive, then something was keeping her away.
Couldn't think about that now. Move on, study the problem, investigate.
"Do you know how they met?"
Scout unexpectedly nodded, "When mom was shot. Garden Heretic saved her, Haiden Holt … he was working with Tabitha's mother to save mom. That's how they met."
That made sense, kinda. Garden worked with Strangers sometimes, though from what she'd heard it was more they had Strangers they kept under control. Slaves. Was it the Garden that was holding Tabitha's mother?
Scout added, "Tabitha and Alyson aren't related to Haiden, she just needed a last name."
Sands nodded, that also made sense. There were rumours of weird human/stranger hybrid experiments at the Garden, but common belief was that there wasn't such a thing as cross-fertility. Whatever Tabitha and Alyson were, they weren't half human or anything like that. The idea was even more crazy than the rest of this. The next idea Sands said out loud, "They aren't the same species … Alyson and Tabitha. Alyson has lightning and everything else … Tabitha just, maybe, had teleportation. Alyson was something different."
It was Scout's turn to slowly nod. "Two species of undoc, that can pass medical tests."
One was unbelievable enough, but two? When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. Speaking of unlikely but fitting the evidence. "In my vision, I saw Alyson fighting full out. Her and Flick move the same way, not the same style, not the same moves, but even just walking around, they move the same. And there is the Lightning Bending." She'd taught that trick to Alyson herself.
The two girls looked at each other, having the same thought. It was Sands that voiced it, "Alyson is where Flick's powers come from, she's an Alyson Natural. Whatever that is."
Scout nodded, "Might not know Alyson and Tabitha are strangers. Undocs."
Sands pondered that. Alyson is on the run, finds a family to hide her sister with. Flick always had good things to say about her father. It would be easier for Alyson to hide without Tabitha, but it's Alyson, she wouldn't go far. She might visit sometimes, check on her sister. Might power up the girl in the same house as her sister so they could look after Tabitha better. And then show her some moves.
"It could be, or she could be lying. Protecting her family from … us." She tried for a moment to think what it would mean if Scout was a stranger … an undoc, but with the risk that Crossroads would find out and come for her. What would she do to protect her sister?
What wouldn't she do? What wouldn't mom do?
Scout sighed, "Baby pictures."
It took Sands a few seconds to process that, then she nodded. Flick had shown them pictures of her family, Lincoln and Tabitha and … her younger sister looked a bit like their Tabitha, though with the age difference that didn't mean much. Yeah, they needed to see if Flick had pictures of Tabitha when she was younger.
The sisters looked at each other. Sands nodded, yeah, they were doing this. Treat it like an exercise maybe, but take it seriously. Find out what was behind Flick's powers, was that their Tabitha, and where the hell was Alyson? And keep it quiet, keep Da out of the loop, keep everyone out of the loop.
Scout managed a less fragile smile, "Investigation Track."
Sands nodded, it was time to investigate.
It was time to find out what Felicity Chambers was hiding.
Last edited:
- Location
- My room.
Huh, I was expecting Scout to have a more emotional reaction to seeing that. But I guess that mournful/traumatized silence and introspective silence both sound the same.
Oh boy, I don't think they're going to like what they find at the end of that particular rabbit hole.
Do all Seosten children try this at some point?
Seosten infiltrator #2: "Not quietly enough!" *possesses aggressively
Bad jokes aside, it's nice to see that the Mason girls are well on their way to joining the Not-all-Strangers-are-Evil team.
Oh boy, I don't think they're going to like what they find at the end of that particular rabbit hole.
Do all Seosten children try this at some point?
Seosten infiltrator #2: "Not quietly enough!" *possesses aggressively
Bad jokes aside, it's nice to see that the Mason girls are well on their way to joining the Not-all-Strangers-are-Evil team.
- Location
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Scout doing a bit better overall in this so could focus on things like 'mom wasn't tortured, that bit was just fake', which helped. Also she had other things to focus on, like 'who is Sariel' and 'what's up with Tabitha and Alyson'.
And yes, mournful/traumatized silence and introspective silence both sound the same, and Scout has a lot of kinds of silence she uses to communicate.
Oh yeah, there is a lot going on they don't know about.
To be fair, there is a bunch going on Flick doesn't know about either, she's just got a better idea of 'there is crazy going on and I don't know all of it'.
I'm pretty sure all children try this at some point, regardless of species.
The twins are an issue for infiltrators, you need to take both over or the other one will notice, and they have a shortage of people for takeovers.
The funny thing is that a subtle takeover, Sariel or Mercury style, would be fine to just jump into one ... but the list of Seosten that will do that is pretty much Sariel or Mercury.
Theia is going to be weirdly disappointed in the quality of the typical Seosten infiltrator.
Scout kind of bashed Sands over the head with the idea. And if Sands has to choose between her sister and Crossroads, well it's no choice for her, it's Scout, always.
Reconnaissance 3.01
- Location
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Reconnaissance 3.01
[Tuesday, September 5, 2017]
Wake up.
Gah. What time is it?
I'm not sure, but Avalon is getting up so we might want to as well. Very early though. I'm assuming she's planning on being early to the morning exercise.
I hadn't talked to Avalon when I got back. Neither of us had really been in the mood to talk, we'd just kind of vaguely nodded to each other and I'd crashed out hard. Even with the nap I'd had earlier while they had been failing to find Theia I was still shattered.
When I managed to get my eyes open the clock informed me it was about twenty to five in the morning, a time entirely too early to be existing … which didn't make me any less painfully familiar with it. Stupid drill-sergeant head-angel. I sat up and looked over to see that Avalon was in the middle of getting changed into exercise clothing …
… I might have lost track of things for a little there. Oh yeah, five AM to seven AM, general exercise. You only had to do half an hour during that time slot, but it didn't surprise me Avalon was going to be an overachiever about it. With a mutter I saw about dragging myself out of bed, Theia, now that I had decided I really was getting up, helpfully gave me a mental 'wake up', some trick for poking bits of my brain that was like having several shots of espresso.
I was standing up and trying to recall where I'd put my exercise gear in my bag when Avalon noticed me, or at least elected to pay attention, "What are you doing up this early Chambers?"
I scrubbed my hands over my face, "Same thing you are, let me guess, you plan on using the entire two hour slot?"
That got me a nod then she pointed towards the door, "Your uniform should be left for you out there, including the PE uniform."
I gave her a smile and headed over to retrieve it. As promised I found three different uniform sets with the purple trim, as well as two sets of the same workout clothes that Avalon was wearing, it didn't take me long to get changed and she did deign to hang around long enough so I could follow her to the gym, "There a standard routine or do we make it up as we go?"
"There is a suggested approach, you can vary it if you look like you know what you're doing but they'll stop you if you're doing anything stupid." There was a long pause, "I didn't expect you to be up this early."
I went to use my standard excuse then remembered I'd told people last night so just for the novelty of it all used the truth, "Theia is a strong believer that the more you sweat the less you bleed. GIven she's living in my brain she feels she has a vested interest in me not getting eaten by monsters. I'm not a fan of it either so … two hours, I can do two hours. It won't be as bad as Professor Katarin's test was."
I am not wanting to have to explain things to Dad if you get yourself killed because I didn't train you well enough, so suck it up.
There was a longer pause before Avalon asked, "Are you sure you're up for this?" She didn't mention last night, she didn't have to.
"I … look, Fossor is going to come after me regardless, so I can crawl into a hole and hide or try and get as dangerous as possible. There really isn't any in between."
That got a firm nod, "Good, that's the right attitude. I guess I'll have to see how dangerous I can make you then."
Somehow I had a worse feeling of doom than I got from Professor Katarin.
We were back in our room when I poked at another possible sore point. "So, I saw the tattoo in the shower."
She stiffened up but didn't stop getting ready. A moment later she sighed, "It's in the guidebook isn't it."
The tattoo in question was on her bicep, small red apple with a dagger cleaving it in two. As best as I knew it wasn't magical, the important thing about it was that it was something all students of a specific school got tattooed on them.
Eden's Garden.
And yes, the guidebook did helpfully describe it, with a picture. The twins were nothing if not thorough about things like that.
"Yep. You know the others are going to find out at some point, I can already predict the reaction of the twins."
Avalon gave me a look that was a mixture of defensive and curious.
I gave her my best surprised look, "It's obvious. You just volunteered to help them rewrite the Garden section of the book. I mean easy access to an ex-Garden student? There is no way they are going to let that go."
She opened her mouth, then closed it again, actually stopping for a moment to close her eyes. Finally she muttered, "You're right, they will." She gave me a considering look, "And how do you feel about it?"
"Well the voice in my head that tells me to train and spends most of her time making sarcastic comments about … pretty much everything really, is very upset that you have been 'holding out on us' and wishes you to 'bring your A game next time we spar'. I'm not so taken with the idea because you're dangerous enough even not using most of your powers but enemies aren't going to fight fairly either, so … "
It's not my fault if I get excited at the idea of a real fight. Besides, if we don't hold back on the boost and lightning I think we're not as outmatched as you think.
I note that it's my body that's going to get beaten up here.
That got another blank look from Avalon before she shook her head, "Chambers, you are a very strange person."
I gave her a bright smile, "I try my best. For my part, " I bit my lip, "… do you still have contacts there because … "
There was a pause as she thought about that, "You want to know if your friend is alive?"
"I've heard that training can be … intense there."
If they managed to kill Miranda before I got to properly meet her … I liked her. She was a good kid, I hope she's becoming an amazing woman..
Besides, I miss watching the crazy stunts you two got up to.
Her face went expressionless, "Half of the recruits don't survive to graduation, or our equivalent of it … I … I know a person I can talk to, do you have her full name?"
"Miranda Wallbern, give me your email and I can send you a bunch of pictures from when I last saw her too. She's … she's tough." I took a breath, "Look, I've lost more people than I wanted over the years … "
"I'll talk to somebody I know, he'll be able to find out. Are you okay with her knowing you're at Crossroads?"
I nodded, "Yeah, tell her that I miss her and I'm not letting minor things like Heretic organisation rivalries get between me and my best friend." I finished adjusting blazer in the mirror, "Does the garden have a uniform? This is the first time I've ever worn a school uniform in my life."
It looks good on you. I still think you should have gone for the skirt version.
No skirts!
"No, things are … different there. Come on Chambers."
As we headed out I felt I had to ask, "I won't tell anyone else without permission … but the rest of the team will probably find out at some point. I'm pretty sure they'll be okay with it … and by okay with it I mean have a bunch of questions about Eden's Garden."
I got the impression Avalon was about to say something then she stopped to think. "They really will won't they … people really hate the Garden and they hate me for being from there, I'm not used to people not reacting badly."
I shrugged, "My best friend is there apparently, and the twins apparently owe their existence to the garden. You know Vanessa and Shiori don't have anything built up about it. All I'm saying is think about it. And if other people already know …"
"Better to tell them myself." She let out an annoyed sound.
"So anyway, I saw your last name beside the door … are you related to the Headmistress?"
"That … is a long story."
"This is not a game. I want every last one of you to repeat that back to me. Say it loud."
Professor Katarin was being his normal relaxed and laid back self ... well, laid back by stereotypical drill sergeant standards. This was our first real class of the day, self defense. If she wasn't a bodiless spirit of knowledge and snark I was pretty sure Theia would be bouncing up and down right now.
This was a different gym from where we did the morning exercise, much larger with four sparring areas. I was reasonable familiar with it from my earlier visits and sparring with Avalon, and I could say for a fact the floor was padded to the point where bouncing off it with your face only hurt a lot rather than doing real damage. No guesses as to how I found that out. Mirrors lined every wall, magically reinforced at least enough to not melt when one of my bolts hit them, and a handful of training dummies that for similar reasons I knew could self-repair.
The six massive trunks lined up behind him that he'd wheeled in in pairs were new, but I was pretty sure I knew what was inside them already.
We're gonna get a weapon! I've never had a proper magical weapon before that we could keep, this is going to be awesome.
There were about three full teams in this particular class, or eighteen students. I recognized some from orientation the day before, but most were new faces. All of us were clearly still adjusting to this place.
Katarin waited there while everyone dutifully repeated the words back to him. Then he shook his head. "Louder. I want you to say it and mean it! This is not a game! Say it again! This is not a game!"
Finally, after it was all but screamed back at him, the man nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Now that you've all said that, there won't be any excuses when I expel the first one of you that acts like this is a game. And I will, believe me. If I see any of you messing around with the stuff in here, or goofing off while we're trying to learn, or doing anything that could end with you or one of your classmates getting hurt, you're out of here. I don't mean out of this class, I mean out of this school. You will never be a part of this again. Do you understand me? Harkess, do you think I'm kidding?"
One of the other bystander-kin students, Malcolm, shook his head while speaking loudly. "No, sir."
"What about you, Porter?" Professor Katarin was focused on my teammate Shiori, not her brother Columbus.
The girl flushed at the attention before shaking her head quickly. "No, sir, you're not kidding."
"Damn straight I'm not." The big man let his gaze move over all of us. "You do not get three strikes in this class. You fuck around, you're out. I will not teach students who can't take this seriously. You'll be a danger to yourselves, to your fellow students, and to everyone we're trying to protect. Is that clear?"
After a chorus of agreement, Katarin nodded in satisfaction. "In that case, let's get started. When I call your name, come up here. The rest of you can talk among yourselves until we get all this sorted out."
Shiori swallowed, "So, what are we here for?"
"Weapon selection," Sands replied, staring with wide eyes toward the front of the room. Her voice was hushed with awe. "You have no idea how long we've been waiting for our chance at this. Every year, over and over, we just watch everyone else get their weapons. Now it's our turn."
I spoke quietly, "When Professor Katarin described it to me before I called it 'wand selection with teeth' ... you'll be getting a bonded weapon, it will be with you for life."
Avalon coolly intoned "A heretic's weapons is their life. We learn to do everything with it, and the weapon helps define who you are. Point is, this is a big deal. Whatever Katarin up there matches you with, that's it. Gun, blade, bow, whatever it ends up being, as Chambers said, it's your weapon for life. It's bonded to you and only you. It gets stronger as you do. You'll learn to fight with it, and to channel the powers you gain through it. The weapon is your outlet, your implement to use a lot of the skills that you'll learn here. That's why he's stressing the safety so much. Because they can't just take it away at the end of classes. The whole point is that you carry it around with you everywhere. It never leaves your side, ever. It's a part of you for life. Understand?"
Shiori, Vanessa and me all nodded, in my case I was trying to ignore the deranged giggling in my head. Vanessa asked, "You'll be learning to make weapons like this won't you."
Avalon nodded, "Not for a long time though, these are hand-made, one at a time by Developers who put their heart and soul into what they're making. Then they're put into those crates and brought out to be matched against a new student. Once you're matched to a weapon, that's it. Unless something happens, and believe me, it's really hard to break a Heretic weapon, it's yours until you die. Then they bury you with it."
At that point, Katarin called for Sands. The other girl gave me a quick, eager smile before schooling her expression to look as calm as possible as she walked to the front. She could not, apparently, stop herself from skipping just a little bit.
I couldn't help myself commenting, "Well at least looking more relaxed about it than your sister won't be hard."
That got a smile from Sarah.
The Sarah I remember would have been dancing up there.
Then you have a chance to get to know her all over again. Stop seeing who she was, see who she is.
I miss my friend.
We're going to get them back but you can't expect things to stay where they were. Sure, Scout is lot more shy than Sarah was but she's still your friend, just changed.
Of course I still kept forgetting to call her Scout in my head, so I wasn't perfect either.
On that note Sarah ... dammit, Scout was called up next and Sands came back holding a sword. It had a black handle with red markings and a silver blade. She was holding it close with an unreadable expression on her face, though I was pretty sure anyone that even hinted at taking it off her would get it blade first. She blinked up at us, "Multi-weapon ... mum had one very similar when she started out."
Vanessa blinked, "What does it do?"
Sands grinned and tapped some of the markings and the blade came apart and seemed to fold up into the hilt. At the same time other weapon parts unfolded, some bits seeming to pass through each other as they assembled into some kind of massive spear with various blades on the end.
Switchblade halberd, not bad.
She transformed it again, going though axe, spiked morningstar, and then turning into a weird scythe with a curved blade at one end and a straight one at the other. That got an extra look of contentment from her, "I can even make it look like Da's weapon."
If we ever need to fight him look out for that thing, I know the basic capabilities and we can deal with them, but I'm sure it's got more tricks I haven't seen. And he's also a veteran heretic and I have no idea on his full range of powers.
Getting into fights with the teachers was not one of the plans, though Theia had a real attachment to the idea of punching Liam Mason at least once. I could understand it, I was grumpy at him and I'd barely met him.
Avalon nodded a little, "It's not reshaping, it's different stored weapons ... over time she can get them fitted with different abilities, so she can pick the right one for any situation."
That got a grin from Sands, "It's lucky I know somebody taking Development Track."
Her response was a faint snort, though Avalon was giving the weapon a thoughtful look.
Sarah came back with her choice a ... steampunk musket crossed with huge sniper rifle. It was quite a bit taller than Sar ... than Scout was, with all sorts of tubes and coils and other things along the length and a massive scope on top with multiple lenses along the length. It looked like it could shoot through a building, or maybe a tank. Scout was being a lot less demonstrative than Sands had been but was still looking very pleased with it.
I nodded at the two of them, "So Scout makes sure they can't stay at a distance, and Sands makes sure they really don't want to stay in close combat ... nice combo."
Sands nodded, "We'll get them coming and going."
Katarin called me up next and I could feel everyone watching me as I walked up to the chests. "Sir. Fair warning, I don't know weapons much, I'm good at hitting things and zapping things, and that one time I stabbed that lizard."
He nodded, "I'll skip the normal warning speech, you've had some lessons in overconfidence. Now… let's see, do you think you'd be more comfortable with something that let you get close, or something that's more of a distance weapon? Don't overthink it, just go with your first instinct and we'll see what matches you."
What do you think?
This is your weapon Felicity, not mine.
We'll both be using it.
Pick what suits you, I already have my weapon.
I think technically I am your weapon.
I have the best weapon.
"Ah ... my brain says standing back and killing things at range is best ... but my heart is telling me I want something close, so let's try that."
Nodding, Katarin turned to open the first three storage trunks. "Take a look. Take out a few, hold them in your hand, see what feels the most natural. Don't worry, if the weapon that's meant for you is something else, you'll know. You'll feel the connection when it's there, trust me. And trust yourself."
Theia was being very quiet in my head as I looked across the options. Swords, axes, daggers, staves, and more all lined the interior. Slowly, I ran my hand along them. My fingers found a nice looking scimitar, but when I lifted it from the trunk, I knew it was wrong. It didn't feel right. I couldn't really explain it, but the weapon didn't fit me. It felt awkward in my grip and I put it down almost immediately.
I tried a few other weapons in the crate, but nothing really called out to me. Gradually, I moved on to the second one. More weapons, some of which I didn't even recognize. There was something that looked sort of like a nunchaku, except that there were three handles instead of two, all with cord between them. Beside that were a couple of weapons that were even stranger. Basically they looked like hand-held sickles with the curved blade, along with a straight blade extending in the opposite direction from the base of the curved one, and a smaller knife-like blade down near the handle.
"Hunga Munga," Katarin informed me. "African throwing weapon. How does it feel?"
I paused, letting my fingers close around the handle. There was something… almost there, and I let my eyes close to focus on it for a few seconds before shaking my head. "It's close, I think. I feel… something. But I don't think they fit me." I bit my lip and looked up then. "Am I just overthinking it?"
"Possibly," he allowed. "But let's see if something else suits you better."
Theia finally 'spoke' up, Your mother used a pair of Hunga Munga, you're probably getting a bit of affinity there.
Me using those would probably put people even more on edge wouldn't it.
Yes and that would be funny, but you should still find the weapon that suits you.
Finally, I moved on to the third chest. My gaze passed over several weapons before landing on a long staff set near the back. As my eyes landed on the weapon, I paused. Something, a feeling of familiarity that I couldn't explain, came to me. I lifted a hand to carefully pluck it out of the chest to examine more closely.
It was a five foot long staff. The body of it was red, with black ends that tapered into points. As I turned the thing over, I felt something… much more immediate than I had thought. There was no question about it. This wasn't something vague or uncertain. "It's this one," I said quietly, but firmly. "This is mine."
Katarin didn't ask if I was sure. Instead, he nodded and put his hand out. Somewhat reluctantly, I passed the weapon over and released it.
Taking the staff, the big man gave it a cursory once over. "Right, I don't want you actually using this thing until I teach you how to do it safely, but this is a kinetic-burst staff."
I could feel my hands itching to be holding it again, "Okay ... so what does it do? Because that sounds exciting."
Theia, is that mind-controlling me?
Not exactly, it's established a link with you, or activated one that was already there, it's ... complex. It's part of you now.
So like you.
He smiled a little, "It is." He showed me one of the ends of the staff, then directed my attention to a small depression in the handle where his fingers were resting. "Press this here to charge." As he pressed it, the black ends of the staff began to glow blue.
"Release the button to stop charging." Katarin continued. He moved his finger off the button, but the blue glow remained at both ends. "Then you've got three choices. First, you smack someone with it and it'll add the concussive force that you've charged into it to your blow. Like this," he turned to the nearest training dummy and gave a whack of the staff against it. The concussive force that the staff unleashed blew the dummy across the room to crash into the mirror on the far side with a terrible noise that made a few other students yelp.
Huh ... I need to 'watch' that thing in action more ...
Katarin seemed a little surprised for a moment at my lack of reaction then nodded, "I suppose it is quieter than a lightning bolt. Right, second choice, just touch the thing you want to transfer the charge to. Has to be an inanimate object like a wall or floor or something. Like this." Again, he charged the staff before touching one of the ends to the floor between us. "Keep holding the button while you do it so it doesn't go off."
As he held the point of the staff to the ground, I saw a faint blue bubble of energy appear there, about the size of a football. It turned almost entirely translucent and difficult to notice even when I knew what I was looking for after he pulled the staff away.
"Concussive mine," he informed me. "You can set it off by pressing this other button here on the staff, or just wait for someone to touch it. Use it for traps or just to give yourself an edge in the middle of a fight by controlling where your opponent can safely step."
I nodded slowly, "Nice ... I could have used that in some fights."
Control the terrain, you can control the battle.
"And finally propulsion. Once you get good enough with this thing, you can use the concussive force to propel yourself through the air. Make yourself jump higher or longer, move faster, escape when the enemy thinks they have you cornered, and anything else you can think of. Girl your size, an average charge ought to throw you a good fifteen, twenty feet when you do it right." He gave me another thoughtful look, "Your balance and reaction speed should help a lot with that."
"I'm thinking that's one I'm going to want to have supervision and lots of padding on the floor, and walls, before I practice it. Ah, can I train with it if I don't power it up? If I have to rebuild my entire combat style around it ..."
He nodded, "Don't activate any of the features and I'll clear you for that. Avalon can show you the basics."
"Is this conductive? Can it be made conductive?"
He snorted, "Probably, we'll hold off on changes for the moment. Besides, from watching you I'm pretty sure your power won't care."
Of course he noticed, stupid observant combat trainers. He's right though, just use it to focus your visualization, act like it's conductive and it will be.
A final nod, "Right," he replied before gesturing for me to go while he raised his voice. "All right, next we've got Avalon. Come on up, let's see what works for you."
So I have a weapon now.
You have an extension of yourself, treat it with respect and it will save you. Of course now we get to teach you how to use it. Training time!
Stupid drill-sergeant head-angel.
[Tuesday, September 5, 2017]
Wake up.
Gah. What time is it?
I'm not sure, but Avalon is getting up so we might want to as well. Very early though. I'm assuming she's planning on being early to the morning exercise.
I hadn't talked to Avalon when I got back. Neither of us had really been in the mood to talk, we'd just kind of vaguely nodded to each other and I'd crashed out hard. Even with the nap I'd had earlier while they had been failing to find Theia I was still shattered.
When I managed to get my eyes open the clock informed me it was about twenty to five in the morning, a time entirely too early to be existing … which didn't make me any less painfully familiar with it. Stupid drill-sergeant head-angel. I sat up and looked over to see that Avalon was in the middle of getting changed into exercise clothing …
… I might have lost track of things for a little there. Oh yeah, five AM to seven AM, general exercise. You only had to do half an hour during that time slot, but it didn't surprise me Avalon was going to be an overachiever about it. With a mutter I saw about dragging myself out of bed, Theia, now that I had decided I really was getting up, helpfully gave me a mental 'wake up', some trick for poking bits of my brain that was like having several shots of espresso.
I was standing up and trying to recall where I'd put my exercise gear in my bag when Avalon noticed me, or at least elected to pay attention, "What are you doing up this early Chambers?"
I scrubbed my hands over my face, "Same thing you are, let me guess, you plan on using the entire two hour slot?"
That got me a nod then she pointed towards the door, "Your uniform should be left for you out there, including the PE uniform."
I gave her a smile and headed over to retrieve it. As promised I found three different uniform sets with the purple trim, as well as two sets of the same workout clothes that Avalon was wearing, it didn't take me long to get changed and she did deign to hang around long enough so I could follow her to the gym, "There a standard routine or do we make it up as we go?"
"There is a suggested approach, you can vary it if you look like you know what you're doing but they'll stop you if you're doing anything stupid." There was a long pause, "I didn't expect you to be up this early."
I went to use my standard excuse then remembered I'd told people last night so just for the novelty of it all used the truth, "Theia is a strong believer that the more you sweat the less you bleed. GIven she's living in my brain she feels she has a vested interest in me not getting eaten by monsters. I'm not a fan of it either so … two hours, I can do two hours. It won't be as bad as Professor Katarin's test was."
I am not wanting to have to explain things to Dad if you get yourself killed because I didn't train you well enough, so suck it up.
There was a longer pause before Avalon asked, "Are you sure you're up for this?" She didn't mention last night, she didn't have to.
"I … look, Fossor is going to come after me regardless, so I can crawl into a hole and hide or try and get as dangerous as possible. There really isn't any in between."
That got a firm nod, "Good, that's the right attitude. I guess I'll have to see how dangerous I can make you then."
Somehow I had a worse feeling of doom than I got from Professor Katarin.
We were back in our room when I poked at another possible sore point. "So, I saw the tattoo in the shower."
She stiffened up but didn't stop getting ready. A moment later she sighed, "It's in the guidebook isn't it."
The tattoo in question was on her bicep, small red apple with a dagger cleaving it in two. As best as I knew it wasn't magical, the important thing about it was that it was something all students of a specific school got tattooed on them.
Eden's Garden.
And yes, the guidebook did helpfully describe it, with a picture. The twins were nothing if not thorough about things like that.
"Yep. You know the others are going to find out at some point, I can already predict the reaction of the twins."
Avalon gave me a look that was a mixture of defensive and curious.
I gave her my best surprised look, "It's obvious. You just volunteered to help them rewrite the Garden section of the book. I mean easy access to an ex-Garden student? There is no way they are going to let that go."
She opened her mouth, then closed it again, actually stopping for a moment to close her eyes. Finally she muttered, "You're right, they will." She gave me a considering look, "And how do you feel about it?"
"Well the voice in my head that tells me to train and spends most of her time making sarcastic comments about … pretty much everything really, is very upset that you have been 'holding out on us' and wishes you to 'bring your A game next time we spar'. I'm not so taken with the idea because you're dangerous enough even not using most of your powers but enemies aren't going to fight fairly either, so … "
It's not my fault if I get excited at the idea of a real fight. Besides, if we don't hold back on the boost and lightning I think we're not as outmatched as you think.
I note that it's my body that's going to get beaten up here.
That got another blank look from Avalon before she shook her head, "Chambers, you are a very strange person."
I gave her a bright smile, "I try my best. For my part, " I bit my lip, "… do you still have contacts there because … "
There was a pause as she thought about that, "You want to know if your friend is alive?"
"I've heard that training can be … intense there."
If they managed to kill Miranda before I got to properly meet her … I liked her. She was a good kid, I hope she's becoming an amazing woman..
Besides, I miss watching the crazy stunts you two got up to.
Her face went expressionless, "Half of the recruits don't survive to graduation, or our equivalent of it … I … I know a person I can talk to, do you have her full name?"
"Miranda Wallbern, give me your email and I can send you a bunch of pictures from when I last saw her too. She's … she's tough." I took a breath, "Look, I've lost more people than I wanted over the years … "
"I'll talk to somebody I know, he'll be able to find out. Are you okay with her knowing you're at Crossroads?"
I nodded, "Yeah, tell her that I miss her and I'm not letting minor things like Heretic organisation rivalries get between me and my best friend." I finished adjusting blazer in the mirror, "Does the garden have a uniform? This is the first time I've ever worn a school uniform in my life."
It looks good on you. I still think you should have gone for the skirt version.
No skirts!
"No, things are … different there. Come on Chambers."
As we headed out I felt I had to ask, "I won't tell anyone else without permission … but the rest of the team will probably find out at some point. I'm pretty sure they'll be okay with it … and by okay with it I mean have a bunch of questions about Eden's Garden."
I got the impression Avalon was about to say something then she stopped to think. "They really will won't they … people really hate the Garden and they hate me for being from there, I'm not used to people not reacting badly."
I shrugged, "My best friend is there apparently, and the twins apparently owe their existence to the garden. You know Vanessa and Shiori don't have anything built up about it. All I'm saying is think about it. And if other people already know …"
"Better to tell them myself." She let out an annoyed sound.
"So anyway, I saw your last name beside the door … are you related to the Headmistress?"
"That … is a long story."
"This is not a game. I want every last one of you to repeat that back to me. Say it loud."
Professor Katarin was being his normal relaxed and laid back self ... well, laid back by stereotypical drill sergeant standards. This was our first real class of the day, self defense. If she wasn't a bodiless spirit of knowledge and snark I was pretty sure Theia would be bouncing up and down right now.
This was a different gym from where we did the morning exercise, much larger with four sparring areas. I was reasonable familiar with it from my earlier visits and sparring with Avalon, and I could say for a fact the floor was padded to the point where bouncing off it with your face only hurt a lot rather than doing real damage. No guesses as to how I found that out. Mirrors lined every wall, magically reinforced at least enough to not melt when one of my bolts hit them, and a handful of training dummies that for similar reasons I knew could self-repair.
The six massive trunks lined up behind him that he'd wheeled in in pairs were new, but I was pretty sure I knew what was inside them already.
We're gonna get a weapon! I've never had a proper magical weapon before that we could keep, this is going to be awesome.
There were about three full teams in this particular class, or eighteen students. I recognized some from orientation the day before, but most were new faces. All of us were clearly still adjusting to this place.
Katarin waited there while everyone dutifully repeated the words back to him. Then he shook his head. "Louder. I want you to say it and mean it! This is not a game! Say it again! This is not a game!"
Finally, after it was all but screamed back at him, the man nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Now that you've all said that, there won't be any excuses when I expel the first one of you that acts like this is a game. And I will, believe me. If I see any of you messing around with the stuff in here, or goofing off while we're trying to learn, or doing anything that could end with you or one of your classmates getting hurt, you're out of here. I don't mean out of this class, I mean out of this school. You will never be a part of this again. Do you understand me? Harkess, do you think I'm kidding?"
One of the other bystander-kin students, Malcolm, shook his head while speaking loudly. "No, sir."
"What about you, Porter?" Professor Katarin was focused on my teammate Shiori, not her brother Columbus.
The girl flushed at the attention before shaking her head quickly. "No, sir, you're not kidding."
"Damn straight I'm not." The big man let his gaze move over all of us. "You do not get three strikes in this class. You fuck around, you're out. I will not teach students who can't take this seriously. You'll be a danger to yourselves, to your fellow students, and to everyone we're trying to protect. Is that clear?"
After a chorus of agreement, Katarin nodded in satisfaction. "In that case, let's get started. When I call your name, come up here. The rest of you can talk among yourselves until we get all this sorted out."
Shiori swallowed, "So, what are we here for?"
"Weapon selection," Sands replied, staring with wide eyes toward the front of the room. Her voice was hushed with awe. "You have no idea how long we've been waiting for our chance at this. Every year, over and over, we just watch everyone else get their weapons. Now it's our turn."
I spoke quietly, "When Professor Katarin described it to me before I called it 'wand selection with teeth' ... you'll be getting a bonded weapon, it will be with you for life."
Avalon coolly intoned "A heretic's weapons is their life. We learn to do everything with it, and the weapon helps define who you are. Point is, this is a big deal. Whatever Katarin up there matches you with, that's it. Gun, blade, bow, whatever it ends up being, as Chambers said, it's your weapon for life. It's bonded to you and only you. It gets stronger as you do. You'll learn to fight with it, and to channel the powers you gain through it. The weapon is your outlet, your implement to use a lot of the skills that you'll learn here. That's why he's stressing the safety so much. Because they can't just take it away at the end of classes. The whole point is that you carry it around with you everywhere. It never leaves your side, ever. It's a part of you for life. Understand?"
Shiori, Vanessa and me all nodded, in my case I was trying to ignore the deranged giggling in my head. Vanessa asked, "You'll be learning to make weapons like this won't you."
Avalon nodded, "Not for a long time though, these are hand-made, one at a time by Developers who put their heart and soul into what they're making. Then they're put into those crates and brought out to be matched against a new student. Once you're matched to a weapon, that's it. Unless something happens, and believe me, it's really hard to break a Heretic weapon, it's yours until you die. Then they bury you with it."
At that point, Katarin called for Sands. The other girl gave me a quick, eager smile before schooling her expression to look as calm as possible as she walked to the front. She could not, apparently, stop herself from skipping just a little bit.
I couldn't help myself commenting, "Well at least looking more relaxed about it than your sister won't be hard."
That got a smile from Sarah.
The Sarah I remember would have been dancing up there.
Then you have a chance to get to know her all over again. Stop seeing who she was, see who she is.
I miss my friend.
We're going to get them back but you can't expect things to stay where they were. Sure, Scout is lot more shy than Sarah was but she's still your friend, just changed.
Of course I still kept forgetting to call her Scout in my head, so I wasn't perfect either.
On that note Sarah ... dammit, Scout was called up next and Sands came back holding a sword. It had a black handle with red markings and a silver blade. She was holding it close with an unreadable expression on her face, though I was pretty sure anyone that even hinted at taking it off her would get it blade first. She blinked up at us, "Multi-weapon ... mum had one very similar when she started out."
Vanessa blinked, "What does it do?"
Sands grinned and tapped some of the markings and the blade came apart and seemed to fold up into the hilt. At the same time other weapon parts unfolded, some bits seeming to pass through each other as they assembled into some kind of massive spear with various blades on the end.
Switchblade halberd, not bad.
She transformed it again, going though axe, spiked morningstar, and then turning into a weird scythe with a curved blade at one end and a straight one at the other. That got an extra look of contentment from her, "I can even make it look like Da's weapon."
If we ever need to fight him look out for that thing, I know the basic capabilities and we can deal with them, but I'm sure it's got more tricks I haven't seen. And he's also a veteran heretic and I have no idea on his full range of powers.
Getting into fights with the teachers was not one of the plans, though Theia had a real attachment to the idea of punching Liam Mason at least once. I could understand it, I was grumpy at him and I'd barely met him.
Avalon nodded a little, "It's not reshaping, it's different stored weapons ... over time she can get them fitted with different abilities, so she can pick the right one for any situation."
That got a grin from Sands, "It's lucky I know somebody taking Development Track."
Her response was a faint snort, though Avalon was giving the weapon a thoughtful look.
Sarah came back with her choice a ... steampunk musket crossed with huge sniper rifle. It was quite a bit taller than Sar ... than Scout was, with all sorts of tubes and coils and other things along the length and a massive scope on top with multiple lenses along the length. It looked like it could shoot through a building, or maybe a tank. Scout was being a lot less demonstrative than Sands had been but was still looking very pleased with it.
I nodded at the two of them, "So Scout makes sure they can't stay at a distance, and Sands makes sure they really don't want to stay in close combat ... nice combo."
Sands nodded, "We'll get them coming and going."
Katarin called me up next and I could feel everyone watching me as I walked up to the chests. "Sir. Fair warning, I don't know weapons much, I'm good at hitting things and zapping things, and that one time I stabbed that lizard."
He nodded, "I'll skip the normal warning speech, you've had some lessons in overconfidence. Now… let's see, do you think you'd be more comfortable with something that let you get close, or something that's more of a distance weapon? Don't overthink it, just go with your first instinct and we'll see what matches you."
What do you think?
This is your weapon Felicity, not mine.
We'll both be using it.
Pick what suits you, I already have my weapon.
I think technically I am your weapon.
I have the best weapon.
"Ah ... my brain says standing back and killing things at range is best ... but my heart is telling me I want something close, so let's try that."
Nodding, Katarin turned to open the first three storage trunks. "Take a look. Take out a few, hold them in your hand, see what feels the most natural. Don't worry, if the weapon that's meant for you is something else, you'll know. You'll feel the connection when it's there, trust me. And trust yourself."
Theia was being very quiet in my head as I looked across the options. Swords, axes, daggers, staves, and more all lined the interior. Slowly, I ran my hand along them. My fingers found a nice looking scimitar, but when I lifted it from the trunk, I knew it was wrong. It didn't feel right. I couldn't really explain it, but the weapon didn't fit me. It felt awkward in my grip and I put it down almost immediately.
I tried a few other weapons in the crate, but nothing really called out to me. Gradually, I moved on to the second one. More weapons, some of which I didn't even recognize. There was something that looked sort of like a nunchaku, except that there were three handles instead of two, all with cord between them. Beside that were a couple of weapons that were even stranger. Basically they looked like hand-held sickles with the curved blade, along with a straight blade extending in the opposite direction from the base of the curved one, and a smaller knife-like blade down near the handle.
"Hunga Munga," Katarin informed me. "African throwing weapon. How does it feel?"
I paused, letting my fingers close around the handle. There was something… almost there, and I let my eyes close to focus on it for a few seconds before shaking my head. "It's close, I think. I feel… something. But I don't think they fit me." I bit my lip and looked up then. "Am I just overthinking it?"
"Possibly," he allowed. "But let's see if something else suits you better."
Theia finally 'spoke' up, Your mother used a pair of Hunga Munga, you're probably getting a bit of affinity there.
Me using those would probably put people even more on edge wouldn't it.
Yes and that would be funny, but you should still find the weapon that suits you.
Finally, I moved on to the third chest. My gaze passed over several weapons before landing on a long staff set near the back. As my eyes landed on the weapon, I paused. Something, a feeling of familiarity that I couldn't explain, came to me. I lifted a hand to carefully pluck it out of the chest to examine more closely.
It was a five foot long staff. The body of it was red, with black ends that tapered into points. As I turned the thing over, I felt something… much more immediate than I had thought. There was no question about it. This wasn't something vague or uncertain. "It's this one," I said quietly, but firmly. "This is mine."
Katarin didn't ask if I was sure. Instead, he nodded and put his hand out. Somewhat reluctantly, I passed the weapon over and released it.
Taking the staff, the big man gave it a cursory once over. "Right, I don't want you actually using this thing until I teach you how to do it safely, but this is a kinetic-burst staff."
I could feel my hands itching to be holding it again, "Okay ... so what does it do? Because that sounds exciting."
Theia, is that mind-controlling me?
Not exactly, it's established a link with you, or activated one that was already there, it's ... complex. It's part of you now.
So like you.
He smiled a little, "It is." He showed me one of the ends of the staff, then directed my attention to a small depression in the handle where his fingers were resting. "Press this here to charge." As he pressed it, the black ends of the staff began to glow blue.
"Release the button to stop charging." Katarin continued. He moved his finger off the button, but the blue glow remained at both ends. "Then you've got three choices. First, you smack someone with it and it'll add the concussive force that you've charged into it to your blow. Like this," he turned to the nearest training dummy and gave a whack of the staff against it. The concussive force that the staff unleashed blew the dummy across the room to crash into the mirror on the far side with a terrible noise that made a few other students yelp.
Huh ... I need to 'watch' that thing in action more ...
Katarin seemed a little surprised for a moment at my lack of reaction then nodded, "I suppose it is quieter than a lightning bolt. Right, second choice, just touch the thing you want to transfer the charge to. Has to be an inanimate object like a wall or floor or something. Like this." Again, he charged the staff before touching one of the ends to the floor between us. "Keep holding the button while you do it so it doesn't go off."
As he held the point of the staff to the ground, I saw a faint blue bubble of energy appear there, about the size of a football. It turned almost entirely translucent and difficult to notice even when I knew what I was looking for after he pulled the staff away.
"Concussive mine," he informed me. "You can set it off by pressing this other button here on the staff, or just wait for someone to touch it. Use it for traps or just to give yourself an edge in the middle of a fight by controlling where your opponent can safely step."
I nodded slowly, "Nice ... I could have used that in some fights."
Control the terrain, you can control the battle.
"And finally propulsion. Once you get good enough with this thing, you can use the concussive force to propel yourself through the air. Make yourself jump higher or longer, move faster, escape when the enemy thinks they have you cornered, and anything else you can think of. Girl your size, an average charge ought to throw you a good fifteen, twenty feet when you do it right." He gave me another thoughtful look, "Your balance and reaction speed should help a lot with that."
"I'm thinking that's one I'm going to want to have supervision and lots of padding on the floor, and walls, before I practice it. Ah, can I train with it if I don't power it up? If I have to rebuild my entire combat style around it ..."
He nodded, "Don't activate any of the features and I'll clear you for that. Avalon can show you the basics."
"Is this conductive? Can it be made conductive?"
He snorted, "Probably, we'll hold off on changes for the moment. Besides, from watching you I'm pretty sure your power won't care."
Of course he noticed, stupid observant combat trainers. He's right though, just use it to focus your visualization, act like it's conductive and it will be.
A final nod, "Right," he replied before gesturing for me to go while he raised his voice. "All right, next we've got Avalon. Come on up, let's see what works for you."
So I have a weapon now.
You have an extension of yourself, treat it with respect and it will save you. Of course now we get to teach you how to use it. Training time!
Stupid drill-sergeant head-angel.
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pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This slays me.
Flick and Theia's sharing-a-body dynamic is the thing that keeps me interested in AM as beta/coauthor when every other project I've ever tried to write or beta/co-author has lost my interest.
Post Reconnaissance 3.01 Update and Notes
- Location
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
So I've done a few minor updates.
The dates now include days of the week, making it easier to spot things like how I had a 'Saturday Arc' and then a 'Monday Arc'. It will be more useful for this arc which takes place over more than one day of the week.
Since I now know more about how December's super-boost works, the bit with a reference to Tabbris using magical batteries to boost herself has been replaced by her using prepared Haste spells. She does carry around a bunch of magical batteries (not as elegant as what December uses, her and Theia don't have access to Imperium armories, several of Tabbris's are just Crossroad Enners that Theia 'acquired') but she uses those for spell-casting like Heretics do.
Reconnaissance 3.01 now includes a description of Avalon's tattoo for people who have forgotten or are reading this without reading canon first (seriously, go read canon, it's very good).
Finally, because people were curious, below is a list of some of the First Year Crossroad's teams, bolded entries are changed from canon. All other teams are as in canon.
The dates now include days of the week, making it easier to spot things like how I had a 'Saturday Arc' and then a 'Monday Arc'. It will be more useful for this arc which takes place over more than one day of the week.
Since I now know more about how December's super-boost works, the bit with a reference to Tabbris using magical batteries to boost herself has been replaced by her using prepared Haste spells. She does carry around a bunch of magical batteries (not as elegant as what December uses, her and Theia don't have access to Imperium armories, several of Tabbris's are just Crossroad Enners that Theia 'acquired') but she uses those for spell-casting like Heretics do.
Reconnaissance 3.01 now includes a description of Avalon's tattoo for people who have forgotten or are reading this without reading canon first (seriously, go read canon, it's very good).
Finally, because people were curious, below is a list of some of the First Year Crossroad's teams, bolded entries are changed from canon. All other teams are as in canon.
- Deveron Adam's Team
- Felicity "Flick" Chambers
- Avalon Sinclaire
- Sandoval "Sands" Mason
- Sarah "Scout" Mason
- Shiori Porter
- Vanessa Moon
- Andrew Bruhn's Team
- Koren Fellows
- Stephen Kinder
- Gavin Rish
- Aylen Tamaya
- Columbus Porter
- Sean Gerardo
- Cameron Reid's Team
- Zeke Leven
- Rebecca Jameson
- Erin Redcliffe
- Rudolph Parsons
- Travis Colby
- Malcolm Harkess
- Diego's Team (created by Icoret and used with permission)
- Daniel Jones
- Jordan Smith
- Cassandra Smith
- Allison Mars
- Rebecca "Becky" Thompson
- Mariam "Mary" Khan
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Reconnaissance 3.02
- Location
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Reconnaissance 3.02
[Tuesday, September 5, 2017]
"Hi. So I'm Nevada, that's just Nevada, not Professor Nevada. Welcome to Stranger Truths 101."
Her enthusiasm was contagious, between that and how downright chirpy Theia was being in my head about whatever she was hoping to learn off seeing my staff in action I was in a pretty good mood.
To be honest I'd needed that after yesterday.
Apparently there was a limit to how contagious the enthusiasm was though.
"You're kidding, right? Are you old enough to be our teacher?" One of the other girls asked from the other side of the room. "Because you don't look like you're old enough to vote, let alone teach. You look like you're our age."
"Yeah," one of the boys added. "We're trying to learn here. Isn't this supposed to be an important class? Why would they throw some bimbo at us?"
"Right, right." Nevada's head bobbed easily. "See, here's the thing, making assumptions like that is sort of like, how a lot of people in your position kind of… die. Things aren't always what they look like. And that's part of what this class is supposed to teach you. You have to stop making assumptions just based on what you see? For example." She pointed over at me, "Do you think she looks dangerous?"
I did my best to look innocent and maybe just a little bit dopy.
She's not going to let us beat on them is she.
I doubt it, this is the wrong class for that.
The girl gave me a careful look, "Aren't you the Silverstone that had a freak-out after seeing the Edge?" She seemed deeply unimpressed by me.
But I'd be lying if I said it wouldn't be fun.
That's the spirit. Stab early, stab often.
Not every problem can be solved by stabbing somebody.
Yeah, but you have to admit the ones that you can solve by applied stabbing tend to be the easy ones.
True.
I nodded, "Yeah, having Fossor show up in your vision is a bit intense."
That made her blanch a little, then she looked back at Nevada, "You think she can take me?"
Nevada shrugged a bit, "You're the one that thinks anyone that looks harmless isn't dangerous." She gave me a small smile and a nod. I could see some smirks on some of the other Bystander-Kin along with the Masons.
Oh yeah. Boop time?
Boop time.
The girl was still turning to look back at me when I boosted, bouncing across the desks and jumping clear across the room in a somersault, though Theia had to step in for a moment to make sure I didn't flub the landing. Perfect balance only went so far when your foot slipped a bit on take-off.
Foolish host! Take more care with our body!
From the viewpoint of most of the class I was a blur again, though I expect Avalon and Nevada could track me. Okay, so this wasn't the first time I'd used this gag, but it was a good way to get somebody's attention without hurting them. Also I couldn't let the other kin down.
And It never stopped being funny. Never.
"Boop!"
She was just looking at me with a slightly glazed expression before her reflexes caught up with her and she managed to fall off her chair. I had landed crouching on her desk so I leaned over, "So, did you know I was a Natural Heretic before I went though the edge?"
I did a backflip off into the middle of the room and walked back to my desk, exchanging high-fives with both the Mason twins, and interestingly Koren Fellows who leaned out for one. After sitting down I held up a hand to Avalon … who just looked at me before reaching out and lightly tapping it with her own hand.
I'm sure she's laughing on the inside.
Deep on the inside.
Nevada spoke up again, "I've seen the results of Flick's training, she could … probably kill almost everyone in this room. Notably most of you will be at that stage by at least halfway through the year if not earlier, but the two things you should take away from this are firstly, you really can't assume something is safe because it looks harmless, and secondly the most dangerous thing you could encounter would be a hostile Heretic."
She clapped her hands together, "But we're here to talk about Strangers. How to identify them, what their powers are, and how best to fight them. You do need to pay attention in this class because this is literally going to be life or death for you at some point. On the upside if you ever had any questions about mythological creatures, this is the class for it." She got more serious for a moment, "If some of you think you're a bit hard done by not having Professor Pericles, I kind of agree. He's probably the finest teacher I've ever met and a good friend, but what made him great at what he did was he was good at teaching and I'm glad I get the chance to pass on his legacy to you in turn.
"My hours are posted on my office door, I'll keep it updated with my schedule. If you ever find yourself falling behind come and talk to me, if you're concerned about something come and talk to me, if there is something else you think you need to know about, come and talk to me. You get the idea."
I had a feeling I had not just made a friend … of course after years of being the black girl's friend at school, my tolerance for terms like 'Silverstone' wasn't great. Sure, I'd heard worse, far worse, but … eh, life is too short to put up with this. Both the girl and the boy that had spoken up first, and some of their friends were giving me an unhappy look.
Meh, we can take them.
Nevada blithely ignored the atmosphere, though I was pretty sure she didn't miss any of it, "So today we're going to start with an old classic." Her grin somehow got even bigger, "Zombies!"
I think she's really trying to kill me this time.
No, this is just good training. You might want to duck. And she's still holding back. Such a tease.
The staff in Avalon's hands whistled as if flashed over my head as I ducked under it, my perfect balance inherited from Tabbris letting me keep my stance as I flicked out with my staff towards her knees. This was the kind of blow I'd never normally risk in sparring, but Avalon had told me if I hurt her enough to stick though her regen she'd deserve it.
I'd made the mistake, after class, of commenting that I didn't know how to use my staff properly, and asked if Avalon knew anything about it. She had decided there was no time like the present which was why my after dinner activity was 'Avalon teaches me to use a staff by wailing on me with one'. To be fair she was giving some real instructions too, how my stance needed to change from unarmed, how to hold it, and what it did to my effective reach.
We'd even gone over how to speed up drawing it out of the cell-phone case sized canister the staff somehow fit in. It was less impressive than Scout's ridiculous folding desk her father had made for her, but this was mine, so it was pretty cool. Five feet of staff easily fitting into a case a few inches long was never going to get old.
Avalon got mostly out of the way of my wild swipe, showing a gracefulness I was used to only seeing in my sisters, though I managed to just clip her with the tip leaving a scratch. She looked down and nodded and we both stepped back. "Okay, that's a point to you Chambers."
Some experimentation had shown I didn't have issues visualising the staff as an extension of my hand and wrapping it in lightning, or triggering a zap when I tagged something with it. I could even do it when I wasn't looking at the staff which was useful. Trying the same trick with the mundane staff Avalon had borrowed from school supplies hadn't gone nearly as smoothly, I could do the same trick but only when I was looking at it, and it took focus. Turns out the weapon bond was already having benefits.
That was the third time I'd managed to tag her … don't ask how many points she had, I have some small amount of pride I'm trying to hang on to. It was made worse by the staff apparently being the weapon Avalon was worst at, of the ones she knew at all. I looked at the rapidly healing scratch on her knee, "I'll admit I'm looking forward to getting regeneration myself."
She nodded, "It's pretty useful. You can be sure that will be one of the first things they make sure to give you … it was at the Garden."
"You decided when to tell them?"
She wrinkled her nose, I was not going to dare say how adorable that was, "Soon. Right, let's work on your parrying more, you're trying to use it one-handed too much." she paused, "Okay, you're going to do that a lot anyway, the ability to use it to zap things at range is too useful, but you also need to know how to use it defensively. It's not a lightsaber."
I lit it up for a moment, "Who says it can't be." Interestingly using powers with the staff was the one thing I could do better with Theia's powers than Theia could. Apparently the bond was very much to me and not us.
She just gave me a look, "Get into stance."
I told you she'd be a great roommate.
[Wednesday, September 6, 2017]
"Well you seem happy."
I grinned at Sands, "I get to learn magic today, isn't that amazing! Actual magic."
Now you may be thinking, 'Flick, don't you have somebody that is by human standards an archmage living in your head? Don't you have a younger sister actively teaching your father spells back at home?' And you wouldn't be wrong.
Thing is I didn't have a good reason to know magic, so as a family we decided that I wouldn't. Faking not knowing magic can be tricky so, to my begrudging agreement, I was not included in any of the magic classes at home. I did know a chunk of theory, there was no way to avoid that short of mind-wipes, but I'd never cast a spell using my own energy. If something happened that suddenly needed a lot of magic thrown around, well see the bit about having an archmage that lives in my head and can control my body.
So none of my enthusiasm was faked, because I was about to learn actual magic. This was going to be so cool.
The rest of the team was fairly excited too, I think I even caught Avalon smiling a little. For all her Eden's Garden background they couldn't teach magic any earlier than Crossroads could, so this would be a learning experience for her as well. Probably the two that knew the most ahead of time were the twins, Theia said they had managed to teach her at least one trick for bypassing security spells she hadn't known back when she'd been here.
Shiori was fidgeting with her weapons, a pair of discs, like frisbees that she wore at her hips, just under the hem of her school jacket. They could let her blast things with electricity on contact and create lines of electricity between them and the gloves she wore as part of the weapon system. Theia had some ideas about seeing if Shiori and I could use each other as end-points for arcs of lightning.
Vanessa had of all things a whip at one hip, and I was already dreading the comments from Issac when he found out. Its trick was to copy material it hit and put that on other things it hit, like metal on a tree. Honestly I wasn't too sure how that was going to be useful but Vanessa seemed very happy with it, so who was I to look down on her magic whip.
Avalon had the strangest weapon in the group. With Shiroi gloves were part of her weapon, for Avalon her gloves, or rather gauntlets, were the entire weapon. They had slots on the back that could form various energy constructs sticking out from them, like blades, shields, and so forth. Just as usefully they could also create tools, which was great for somebody in the Development Track. Oh, and of course she could punch people with them as well, ask me how I know about that. Also ouch, that girl does not pull her punches.
Still though, magic! I was so looking forward to this. With luck I could even get through an entire class without picking a fight with anyone!
I'd managed to calm down a little bit by the time we were sitting in the classroom and Professor Carfried, the head of the explorer track, came wandering in with the same kind of enthusiasm that Nevada brought to her class. He didn't look much older either, but as we'd seen appearances could be deceptive, and nobody seemed to be challenging his role as a teacher in this class at least.
"Good afternoon, class! Let's learn about magic shall we?" He'd been carrying a thick walking stick when he came in along with a heavy duffel bag he'd dropped beside his desk. The stick he'd kept in hand though until now, when he threw it behind him to leave it hovering in the middle of the room. Slowly, the stick began to turn in a circle, rotating around like the blade of a fan. It gradually spun faster, until the stick was nothing more than a whirling blur of motion that was impossible to track. Then it wasn't just a blur anymore. An image appeared, like a television screen. It showed an apple orchard, the fruit ripe and ready for plucking on the trees.
Theia's tone was thoughtful, Portal, but I'm not familiar with the specific mechanism. Interesting.. I could almost feel her looking at the apparent portal as Carfried proved her right a moment later by reaching into it the picture and pulling out an apple out that he took a bite out of before snatching the stick out of the air.
Theia's father could control any kind of energy near him, and treated magic as just another kind of energy. Apparently he didn't so much cast spells as just kind of wished the effect into existence, which explained a lot about why he'd been the person in charge of Earth for a long time. Theia couldn't do anything like that, yet at least, but she could see magic in a way that most people would require enchanted items or spells for.
Sadly this didn't mean she could just learn a spell by watching it go off, but she could get a fairly good idea of how you'd go about building it, if her magical theory was good enough. That was still an ongoing thing, though she did have a massive archive of notes and guides from one of the Imperium's finest field mages to work off, but it wasn't the same as an actual teacher. All of this was a rather long way of saying that both of us had things to learn, but Theia could cheat.
"This is what I will teach you," Carfried announced. "This is the magic of the Heretics. Our magic. It is not simple magic. It is not all fireballs and magic missiles. Heretical magic is not fast. Remember that. Learn it. Know it. Live it. Heretical magic is not fast. You could live for a thousand years and you will never learn magic that will let you point your hand, say a couple words, and throw a lightning bolt at your enemies." He paused for a moment then looked over at me grinning back at him. He gave me an amused look, "As I'm sure Miss Chambers wants to point out, you might inherit that ability from a Stranger that you kill, but magic itself will not do it. Because magic is not what, Miss Tamaya?" He looked toward a Native American girl that I vaguely remembered from Orientation before everything went wrong.
"Fast?" She offered after realizing he genuinely wanted an answer. I really needed to talk to the twins and find out who all the people in our year, especially the Bystander-Kin were.
"Yes," the man smiled and straightened. "It is not fast. Our magic is based around Enchantment. You will never wiggle your fingers, say a couple words, and throw lightning. You can learn to spend hours of time and energy enchanting a stick with a command word that will then produce lightning when that command word is spoken. But even then, it's not an unlimited thing. You put the energy into the object, you train it to perform the action that you want, and trigger it. After the effect takes place, the item can't do it again until you invest your energy and time back into it. The more often a single object is enchanted the exact same way, the easier it becomes for that object to 'learn' the effect that you're teaching it. But even then it still requires time. Minutes rather than hours, perhaps, but in the heat of battle, minutes do not exist."
You can just think a magical effect into existence, but that normally takes much much longer and is really unreliable and dangerous. Though it's also where new spells come from, and how various societies discover magic exists in the first place.
Like your father?
What father does is a supercharged version of that process, but yes. It only works because he has impossible control and vast amounts of power to put behind it. You my dear sister are going to have to do this the standard way. She sighed slightly. As do I.
"A-are you sure that everyone can do it?" Miss Tamaya asked, her voice a bit tentative.
Carfried nodded. "You've used the Heretical Edge. You have the connection to the same energy that the Strangers use to come to this world, and you can use that energy for this enchantment magic."
I heard a snort in my head. He'd just told an outright lie, though I did honestly wonder if he even knew he was wrong. Technically yes the Edge did unlock magical capability, but so did anything that removed the Bystander Effect. Bystanders couldn't cast because all their potential ability to use magic was pulled off by the Bystander Effect to power it. That was how you end up with an effect that's not only this wide-spread and enduring, but was also getting more and more powerful over time as the global population powering it increased. Theia and I weren't even sure how you'd start taking something like that down, we were hoping her mom would have some ideas when we rescued her.
"Now," the teacher pressed on. "Who's ready to learn how this magic works?" Gazing around the room, he smiled as pretty much every hand was raised. "Fantastic.
"Let's get started."
[Thursday, September 7, 2017]
Professor Katarin stood in front of us and asked "What are the three greatest strengths that we have as Heretics?"
One of the Heretic-Born raised his hand before answering, "Our collective knowledge gained by those who have come before us, our ability to see through the Strangers' disguises, and our ability to steal the strengths and powers from the ones that we kill."
We were in the self-defense classroom and today was the day we were going to get our first powers. Well, first powers from murdering some non-so-Innocent Alter at least.
"Yes," Katarin gave a nod of his head before folding his massive arms over his chest. "It's that last one that we're going to be working with today. If you're going to survive the kind of training that we have to get through this semester, you're all going to have to take a bit of punishment. But we can't have you getting beat up and bruised, then just send you onto the next class. You need a bit of an edge first. That's where this little guy comes in."
Reaching down behind himself, Katarin straightened up with something grasped in his hand. There were several yelps through the room, as well as one muttered, "Fuck, that's disgusting."
Meh, I've seen worse.
Well of course you have.
The thing that Katarin was holding looked a bit like a poodle crossed with a cockroach. It had six legs and was covered with a dark brown shell with blotches of fur showing here and there. It was probably only about as long as my forearm, but I knew that size really wasn't everything when it came to critters. Back in my private hunting period it was something I wouldn't blink much at going after if Theia wasn't warning me off.
"This," Katarin explained in his booming voice, "is a Peridle. Ugly little shit, huh? Don't worry, they're only dangerous in packs. Keep them separated and the things are too stupid to do anything but sit there. They don't attack, they barely move without a swarm leader, and they are almost entirely useless save for one thing. Anyone wanna try to tell me what that is?"
"They regenerate?" Someone else put in.
"Yup." Katarin gave the thing a shake, and it made this ugly little squelching noise that almost brought bile to my mouth. "As long as they're not dead, the damn things heal right up after you hurt them. So one of the first things we do with you new students is have you kill one of these things. That way you get to feel what it's like to absorb a Strangers' power, and we get to beat you up a little harder since you'll get better a lot faster than you would have otherwise. It's a win-win situation."
Also makes the first kill something it's really hard to feel bad about destroying.
Should I feel bad about this?
A Peridle? Oh Lords no, in large enough groups they are a genuine menace. If there had been any near where we lived I would have told you to target them first, they can get very predatory when they get a proper swarm going. Also I'm very happy to get some regeneration, the advantage Heretics have over my race is not being glass cannons in a fight. Compared to Heretics we're very dangerous but fragile, and this is a good step towards getting you tough like a proper Heretic.
Also because you don't know how to do your father's defence shield trick yet.
And yes, because I don't know how to do Father's defence shield trick. That was an ongoing project for Theia, her father had a way of creating a shield around himself that got tougher the more damage it stopped. In the past it had stopped shots from tanks, and I mean the kind of tanks Theia's people built, not human ones.
"All right then," Katarin boomed. "Separate into your roommate pairs, and then line up. One pair at a time go through that way." He pointed to a door at the back of the room before reiterating. "One pair through at a time. You'll find two of these buggers waiting for you. Kill them, watch your partner kill theirs, then come back out here. Shouldn't take any of you longer than a minute."
I stretched a little, "Critter hunting, I can do this."
Avalon shrugged. I assumed this wasn't even her first Peridle kill, the things were too useful for Eden's Garden not to use.
We waited for other people to go first, along with horrible squelching sounds, cries of disgust, and the smell. "Avalon, is one of their defenses that they are so horrible that nobody wants to go close enough to kill then?"
That got a tiny smirk, while Katarin glanced over from where he was standing next to the door, "I won't say you're wrong, but we have confirmed it's not something that you can pick up off them as a power."
Everyone around shuddered at the mental image of what that would be like.
Finally it was our turn and we walked in together. I'd already gotten my staff out and I started the charge sequence on reflex while taking a look around. The room smelled worse on the inside than it had on the outside. I gagged a little before taking in the sight. Sure enough, there were two of the damn things sitting a bit apart from each other on a hard wooden floor. The walls were blank white, and there were bits of blood and bug-poodle body parts lying around that Katarin hadn't quite gotten to.
I need to teach you the air-bubble spell for keeping toxic gas and horrible smells away at some point soon.
Wait, there was a third Peridle sitting a bit away from the other two, that wasn't right. I gave another look around bringing my staff up and a moment later I heard myself say in a voice not my own, "It's a trap! Get out!"
Even as I said that I heard the door slam shut, followed by a pounding on it and the professor bellowed, "Protect yourselves, we're coming!"
Ahead of is was what had really set Theia off, a spray painted message that had suddenly appeared on the far wall 'Eden's Garden Whore Doesn't Belong Here. If Headmistress Mommy Won't Get Rid Of You, We Will.'.
Avalon was giving me a weird look for a moment before her reflexes took over and she scanned the room and saw the message. Her expression tightened while I did my own scan and ... shit.
"Swarm on the ceiling."
She followed my gaze up at the ceiling literally covered in Peridles. "That's a lot of bugs."
And yes, that is a dangerous level of swarm. I could feel her getting ready to step in.
I need to learn, only help if I need it.
There was pride in her tone, Good girl. Let's do this.
With a collective screech, the ceiling itself seemed to collapse as they launched themselves straight for us.
[Tuesday, September 5, 2017]
"Hi. So I'm Nevada, that's just Nevada, not Professor Nevada. Welcome to Stranger Truths 101."
Her enthusiasm was contagious, between that and how downright chirpy Theia was being in my head about whatever she was hoping to learn off seeing my staff in action I was in a pretty good mood.
To be honest I'd needed that after yesterday.
Apparently there was a limit to how contagious the enthusiasm was though.
"You're kidding, right? Are you old enough to be our teacher?" One of the other girls asked from the other side of the room. "Because you don't look like you're old enough to vote, let alone teach. You look like you're our age."
"Yeah," one of the boys added. "We're trying to learn here. Isn't this supposed to be an important class? Why would they throw some bimbo at us?"
"Right, right." Nevada's head bobbed easily. "See, here's the thing, making assumptions like that is sort of like, how a lot of people in your position kind of… die. Things aren't always what they look like. And that's part of what this class is supposed to teach you. You have to stop making assumptions just based on what you see? For example." She pointed over at me, "Do you think she looks dangerous?"
I did my best to look innocent and maybe just a little bit dopy.
She's not going to let us beat on them is she.
I doubt it, this is the wrong class for that.
The girl gave me a careful look, "Aren't you the Silverstone that had a freak-out after seeing the Edge?" She seemed deeply unimpressed by me.
But I'd be lying if I said it wouldn't be fun.
That's the spirit. Stab early, stab often.
Not every problem can be solved by stabbing somebody.
Yeah, but you have to admit the ones that you can solve by applied stabbing tend to be the easy ones.
True.
I nodded, "Yeah, having Fossor show up in your vision is a bit intense."
That made her blanch a little, then she looked back at Nevada, "You think she can take me?"
Nevada shrugged a bit, "You're the one that thinks anyone that looks harmless isn't dangerous." She gave me a small smile and a nod. I could see some smirks on some of the other Bystander-Kin along with the Masons.
Oh yeah. Boop time?
Boop time.
The girl was still turning to look back at me when I boosted, bouncing across the desks and jumping clear across the room in a somersault, though Theia had to step in for a moment to make sure I didn't flub the landing. Perfect balance only went so far when your foot slipped a bit on take-off.
Foolish host! Take more care with our body!
From the viewpoint of most of the class I was a blur again, though I expect Avalon and Nevada could track me. Okay, so this wasn't the first time I'd used this gag, but it was a good way to get somebody's attention without hurting them. Also I couldn't let the other kin down.
And It never stopped being funny. Never.
"Boop!"
She was just looking at me with a slightly glazed expression before her reflexes caught up with her and she managed to fall off her chair. I had landed crouching on her desk so I leaned over, "So, did you know I was a Natural Heretic before I went though the edge?"
I did a backflip off into the middle of the room and walked back to my desk, exchanging high-fives with both the Mason twins, and interestingly Koren Fellows who leaned out for one. After sitting down I held up a hand to Avalon … who just looked at me before reaching out and lightly tapping it with her own hand.
I'm sure she's laughing on the inside.
Deep on the inside.
Nevada spoke up again, "I've seen the results of Flick's training, she could … probably kill almost everyone in this room. Notably most of you will be at that stage by at least halfway through the year if not earlier, but the two things you should take away from this are firstly, you really can't assume something is safe because it looks harmless, and secondly the most dangerous thing you could encounter would be a hostile Heretic."
She clapped her hands together, "But we're here to talk about Strangers. How to identify them, what their powers are, and how best to fight them. You do need to pay attention in this class because this is literally going to be life or death for you at some point. On the upside if you ever had any questions about mythological creatures, this is the class for it." She got more serious for a moment, "If some of you think you're a bit hard done by not having Professor Pericles, I kind of agree. He's probably the finest teacher I've ever met and a good friend, but what made him great at what he did was he was good at teaching and I'm glad I get the chance to pass on his legacy to you in turn.
"My hours are posted on my office door, I'll keep it updated with my schedule. If you ever find yourself falling behind come and talk to me, if you're concerned about something come and talk to me, if there is something else you think you need to know about, come and talk to me. You get the idea."
I had a feeling I had not just made a friend … of course after years of being the black girl's friend at school, my tolerance for terms like 'Silverstone' wasn't great. Sure, I'd heard worse, far worse, but … eh, life is too short to put up with this. Both the girl and the boy that had spoken up first, and some of their friends were giving me an unhappy look.
Meh, we can take them.
Nevada blithely ignored the atmosphere, though I was pretty sure she didn't miss any of it, "So today we're going to start with an old classic." Her grin somehow got even bigger, "Zombies!"
I think she's really trying to kill me this time.
No, this is just good training. You might want to duck. And she's still holding back. Such a tease.
The staff in Avalon's hands whistled as if flashed over my head as I ducked under it, my perfect balance inherited from Tabbris letting me keep my stance as I flicked out with my staff towards her knees. This was the kind of blow I'd never normally risk in sparring, but Avalon had told me if I hurt her enough to stick though her regen she'd deserve it.
I'd made the mistake, after class, of commenting that I didn't know how to use my staff properly, and asked if Avalon knew anything about it. She had decided there was no time like the present which was why my after dinner activity was 'Avalon teaches me to use a staff by wailing on me with one'. To be fair she was giving some real instructions too, how my stance needed to change from unarmed, how to hold it, and what it did to my effective reach.
We'd even gone over how to speed up drawing it out of the cell-phone case sized canister the staff somehow fit in. It was less impressive than Scout's ridiculous folding desk her father had made for her, but this was mine, so it was pretty cool. Five feet of staff easily fitting into a case a few inches long was never going to get old.
Avalon got mostly out of the way of my wild swipe, showing a gracefulness I was used to only seeing in my sisters, though I managed to just clip her with the tip leaving a scratch. She looked down and nodded and we both stepped back. "Okay, that's a point to you Chambers."
Some experimentation had shown I didn't have issues visualising the staff as an extension of my hand and wrapping it in lightning, or triggering a zap when I tagged something with it. I could even do it when I wasn't looking at the staff which was useful. Trying the same trick with the mundane staff Avalon had borrowed from school supplies hadn't gone nearly as smoothly, I could do the same trick but only when I was looking at it, and it took focus. Turns out the weapon bond was already having benefits.
That was the third time I'd managed to tag her … don't ask how many points she had, I have some small amount of pride I'm trying to hang on to. It was made worse by the staff apparently being the weapon Avalon was worst at, of the ones she knew at all. I looked at the rapidly healing scratch on her knee, "I'll admit I'm looking forward to getting regeneration myself."
She nodded, "It's pretty useful. You can be sure that will be one of the first things they make sure to give you … it was at the Garden."
"You decided when to tell them?"
She wrinkled her nose, I was not going to dare say how adorable that was, "Soon. Right, let's work on your parrying more, you're trying to use it one-handed too much." she paused, "Okay, you're going to do that a lot anyway, the ability to use it to zap things at range is too useful, but you also need to know how to use it defensively. It's not a lightsaber."
I lit it up for a moment, "Who says it can't be." Interestingly using powers with the staff was the one thing I could do better with Theia's powers than Theia could. Apparently the bond was very much to me and not us.
She just gave me a look, "Get into stance."
I told you she'd be a great roommate.
[Wednesday, September 6, 2017]
"Well you seem happy."
I grinned at Sands, "I get to learn magic today, isn't that amazing! Actual magic."
Now you may be thinking, 'Flick, don't you have somebody that is by human standards an archmage living in your head? Don't you have a younger sister actively teaching your father spells back at home?' And you wouldn't be wrong.
Thing is I didn't have a good reason to know magic, so as a family we decided that I wouldn't. Faking not knowing magic can be tricky so, to my begrudging agreement, I was not included in any of the magic classes at home. I did know a chunk of theory, there was no way to avoid that short of mind-wipes, but I'd never cast a spell using my own energy. If something happened that suddenly needed a lot of magic thrown around, well see the bit about having an archmage that lives in my head and can control my body.
So none of my enthusiasm was faked, because I was about to learn actual magic. This was going to be so cool.
The rest of the team was fairly excited too, I think I even caught Avalon smiling a little. For all her Eden's Garden background they couldn't teach magic any earlier than Crossroads could, so this would be a learning experience for her as well. Probably the two that knew the most ahead of time were the twins, Theia said they had managed to teach her at least one trick for bypassing security spells she hadn't known back when she'd been here.
Shiori was fidgeting with her weapons, a pair of discs, like frisbees that she wore at her hips, just under the hem of her school jacket. They could let her blast things with electricity on contact and create lines of electricity between them and the gloves she wore as part of the weapon system. Theia had some ideas about seeing if Shiori and I could use each other as end-points for arcs of lightning.
Vanessa had of all things a whip at one hip, and I was already dreading the comments from Issac when he found out. Its trick was to copy material it hit and put that on other things it hit, like metal on a tree. Honestly I wasn't too sure how that was going to be useful but Vanessa seemed very happy with it, so who was I to look down on her magic whip.
Avalon had the strangest weapon in the group. With Shiroi gloves were part of her weapon, for Avalon her gloves, or rather gauntlets, were the entire weapon. They had slots on the back that could form various energy constructs sticking out from them, like blades, shields, and so forth. Just as usefully they could also create tools, which was great for somebody in the Development Track. Oh, and of course she could punch people with them as well, ask me how I know about that. Also ouch, that girl does not pull her punches.
Still though, magic! I was so looking forward to this. With luck I could even get through an entire class without picking a fight with anyone!
I'd managed to calm down a little bit by the time we were sitting in the classroom and Professor Carfried, the head of the explorer track, came wandering in with the same kind of enthusiasm that Nevada brought to her class. He didn't look much older either, but as we'd seen appearances could be deceptive, and nobody seemed to be challenging his role as a teacher in this class at least.
"Good afternoon, class! Let's learn about magic shall we?" He'd been carrying a thick walking stick when he came in along with a heavy duffel bag he'd dropped beside his desk. The stick he'd kept in hand though until now, when he threw it behind him to leave it hovering in the middle of the room. Slowly, the stick began to turn in a circle, rotating around like the blade of a fan. It gradually spun faster, until the stick was nothing more than a whirling blur of motion that was impossible to track. Then it wasn't just a blur anymore. An image appeared, like a television screen. It showed an apple orchard, the fruit ripe and ready for plucking on the trees.
Theia's tone was thoughtful, Portal, but I'm not familiar with the specific mechanism. Interesting.. I could almost feel her looking at the apparent portal as Carfried proved her right a moment later by reaching into it the picture and pulling out an apple out that he took a bite out of before snatching the stick out of the air.
Theia's father could control any kind of energy near him, and treated magic as just another kind of energy. Apparently he didn't so much cast spells as just kind of wished the effect into existence, which explained a lot about why he'd been the person in charge of Earth for a long time. Theia couldn't do anything like that, yet at least, but she could see magic in a way that most people would require enchanted items or spells for.
Sadly this didn't mean she could just learn a spell by watching it go off, but she could get a fairly good idea of how you'd go about building it, if her magical theory was good enough. That was still an ongoing thing, though she did have a massive archive of notes and guides from one of the Imperium's finest field mages to work off, but it wasn't the same as an actual teacher. All of this was a rather long way of saying that both of us had things to learn, but Theia could cheat.
"This is what I will teach you," Carfried announced. "This is the magic of the Heretics. Our magic. It is not simple magic. It is not all fireballs and magic missiles. Heretical magic is not fast. Remember that. Learn it. Know it. Live it. Heretical magic is not fast. You could live for a thousand years and you will never learn magic that will let you point your hand, say a couple words, and throw a lightning bolt at your enemies." He paused for a moment then looked over at me grinning back at him. He gave me an amused look, "As I'm sure Miss Chambers wants to point out, you might inherit that ability from a Stranger that you kill, but magic itself will not do it. Because magic is not what, Miss Tamaya?" He looked toward a Native American girl that I vaguely remembered from Orientation before everything went wrong.
"Fast?" She offered after realizing he genuinely wanted an answer. I really needed to talk to the twins and find out who all the people in our year, especially the Bystander-Kin were.
"Yes," the man smiled and straightened. "It is not fast. Our magic is based around Enchantment. You will never wiggle your fingers, say a couple words, and throw lightning. You can learn to spend hours of time and energy enchanting a stick with a command word that will then produce lightning when that command word is spoken. But even then, it's not an unlimited thing. You put the energy into the object, you train it to perform the action that you want, and trigger it. After the effect takes place, the item can't do it again until you invest your energy and time back into it. The more often a single object is enchanted the exact same way, the easier it becomes for that object to 'learn' the effect that you're teaching it. But even then it still requires time. Minutes rather than hours, perhaps, but in the heat of battle, minutes do not exist."
You can just think a magical effect into existence, but that normally takes much much longer and is really unreliable and dangerous. Though it's also where new spells come from, and how various societies discover magic exists in the first place.
Like your father?
What father does is a supercharged version of that process, but yes. It only works because he has impossible control and vast amounts of power to put behind it. You my dear sister are going to have to do this the standard way. She sighed slightly. As do I.
"A-are you sure that everyone can do it?" Miss Tamaya asked, her voice a bit tentative.
Carfried nodded. "You've used the Heretical Edge. You have the connection to the same energy that the Strangers use to come to this world, and you can use that energy for this enchantment magic."
I heard a snort in my head. He'd just told an outright lie, though I did honestly wonder if he even knew he was wrong. Technically yes the Edge did unlock magical capability, but so did anything that removed the Bystander Effect. Bystanders couldn't cast because all their potential ability to use magic was pulled off by the Bystander Effect to power it. That was how you end up with an effect that's not only this wide-spread and enduring, but was also getting more and more powerful over time as the global population powering it increased. Theia and I weren't even sure how you'd start taking something like that down, we were hoping her mom would have some ideas when we rescued her.
"Now," the teacher pressed on. "Who's ready to learn how this magic works?" Gazing around the room, he smiled as pretty much every hand was raised. "Fantastic.
"Let's get started."
[Thursday, September 7, 2017]
Professor Katarin stood in front of us and asked "What are the three greatest strengths that we have as Heretics?"
One of the Heretic-Born raised his hand before answering, "Our collective knowledge gained by those who have come before us, our ability to see through the Strangers' disguises, and our ability to steal the strengths and powers from the ones that we kill."
We were in the self-defense classroom and today was the day we were going to get our first powers. Well, first powers from murdering some non-so-Innocent Alter at least.
"Yes," Katarin gave a nod of his head before folding his massive arms over his chest. "It's that last one that we're going to be working with today. If you're going to survive the kind of training that we have to get through this semester, you're all going to have to take a bit of punishment. But we can't have you getting beat up and bruised, then just send you onto the next class. You need a bit of an edge first. That's where this little guy comes in."
Reaching down behind himself, Katarin straightened up with something grasped in his hand. There were several yelps through the room, as well as one muttered, "Fuck, that's disgusting."
Meh, I've seen worse.
Well of course you have.
The thing that Katarin was holding looked a bit like a poodle crossed with a cockroach. It had six legs and was covered with a dark brown shell with blotches of fur showing here and there. It was probably only about as long as my forearm, but I knew that size really wasn't everything when it came to critters. Back in my private hunting period it was something I wouldn't blink much at going after if Theia wasn't warning me off.
"This," Katarin explained in his booming voice, "is a Peridle. Ugly little shit, huh? Don't worry, they're only dangerous in packs. Keep them separated and the things are too stupid to do anything but sit there. They don't attack, they barely move without a swarm leader, and they are almost entirely useless save for one thing. Anyone wanna try to tell me what that is?"
"They regenerate?" Someone else put in.
"Yup." Katarin gave the thing a shake, and it made this ugly little squelching noise that almost brought bile to my mouth. "As long as they're not dead, the damn things heal right up after you hurt them. So one of the first things we do with you new students is have you kill one of these things. That way you get to feel what it's like to absorb a Strangers' power, and we get to beat you up a little harder since you'll get better a lot faster than you would have otherwise. It's a win-win situation."
Also makes the first kill something it's really hard to feel bad about destroying.
Should I feel bad about this?
A Peridle? Oh Lords no, in large enough groups they are a genuine menace. If there had been any near where we lived I would have told you to target them first, they can get very predatory when they get a proper swarm going. Also I'm very happy to get some regeneration, the advantage Heretics have over my race is not being glass cannons in a fight. Compared to Heretics we're very dangerous but fragile, and this is a good step towards getting you tough like a proper Heretic.
Also because you don't know how to do your father's defence shield trick yet.
And yes, because I don't know how to do Father's defence shield trick. That was an ongoing project for Theia, her father had a way of creating a shield around himself that got tougher the more damage it stopped. In the past it had stopped shots from tanks, and I mean the kind of tanks Theia's people built, not human ones.
"All right then," Katarin boomed. "Separate into your roommate pairs, and then line up. One pair at a time go through that way." He pointed to a door at the back of the room before reiterating. "One pair through at a time. You'll find two of these buggers waiting for you. Kill them, watch your partner kill theirs, then come back out here. Shouldn't take any of you longer than a minute."
I stretched a little, "Critter hunting, I can do this."
Avalon shrugged. I assumed this wasn't even her first Peridle kill, the things were too useful for Eden's Garden not to use.
We waited for other people to go first, along with horrible squelching sounds, cries of disgust, and the smell. "Avalon, is one of their defenses that they are so horrible that nobody wants to go close enough to kill then?"
That got a tiny smirk, while Katarin glanced over from where he was standing next to the door, "I won't say you're wrong, but we have confirmed it's not something that you can pick up off them as a power."
Everyone around shuddered at the mental image of what that would be like.
Finally it was our turn and we walked in together. I'd already gotten my staff out and I started the charge sequence on reflex while taking a look around. The room smelled worse on the inside than it had on the outside. I gagged a little before taking in the sight. Sure enough, there were two of the damn things sitting a bit apart from each other on a hard wooden floor. The walls were blank white, and there were bits of blood and bug-poodle body parts lying around that Katarin hadn't quite gotten to.
I need to teach you the air-bubble spell for keeping toxic gas and horrible smells away at some point soon.
Wait, there was a third Peridle sitting a bit away from the other two, that wasn't right. I gave another look around bringing my staff up and a moment later I heard myself say in a voice not my own, "It's a trap! Get out!"
Even as I said that I heard the door slam shut, followed by a pounding on it and the professor bellowed, "Protect yourselves, we're coming!"
Ahead of is was what had really set Theia off, a spray painted message that had suddenly appeared on the far wall 'Eden's Garden Whore Doesn't Belong Here. If Headmistress Mommy Won't Get Rid Of You, We Will.'.
Avalon was giving me a weird look for a moment before her reflexes took over and she scanned the room and saw the message. Her expression tightened while I did my own scan and ... shit.
"Swarm on the ceiling."
She followed my gaze up at the ceiling literally covered in Peridles. "That's a lot of bugs."
And yes, that is a dangerous level of swarm. I could feel her getting ready to step in.
I need to learn, only help if I need it.
There was pride in her tone, Good girl. Let's do this.
With a collective screech, the ceiling itself seemed to collapse as they launched themselves straight for us.
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- Location
- London
Is it weird that I'm just not worried by this? Knowing how it turned out in canon, and how much stronger Flick is at this point in time, I'm just not feeling the threat. I guess there might be a bigger swarm here or something to make it actually dangerous but if so that just didn't come across to me.
- Location
- United States
I'm pretty curious as to what the knowledge that Jocelyn was kidnapped by Fossor and is still powerless, rather than the OTL where they all thought that she abandoned er daughter and was off plotting against them, will do to how Flick is perceived and treated by the council. I'm also curious how asshole dad Mason will perceive it.
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
No, no its not.
We do not operate on that idiotic "If you give Frodo a lightsaber you better give Sauron a Death Star" idea.
The enemy will make changes to plans based on new information but they will escalate based on what information they have.
And the information they have is new self-trained Stardrinker Natural not Second Generation Olympian Natural Heretic trained by Sariel's protege with Sariel's protege wielding Puriel's power inside.
- Location
- London
Sure, but that's still stronger than "completely untrained heretic that has acquired exactly 0 powers so far". And the Watsonian argument of "they don't know any better" is a solid position and it's good to have consistent world-building and 'realistic' antagonists but it still doesn't cover the Doylist problem of "this isn't a threatening situation and I'm not feeling much tension".
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Like I said, the enemy acts based on known intelligence.
Which means they have, in fact, planned for Flick's known combat experience, lightning, and speed.
Now remember what happened in canon. If you were using a similar trap but knew that Flick and Avalon could last a lot longer against it what might you do?
- Location
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This is entirely fair and I really didn't view this myself as intended to be a 'will they survive' cliffhanger. Even the ending with Flick making the choice to try to fight herself was another way to make it clear that this isn't a fight that Flick herself is afraid of.
This fight serves a different purpose from what it did in canon, though I hope people still enjoy it.
Reconnaissance 3.03
- Location
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Reconnaissance 3.03
[Thursday, September 7, 2017]
I was glad I had experience with things like this or I'd have died in the first few seconds.
Theia had ingrained in me that to freeze was to die, that an okay plan right now is better than a perfect plan later. So I reacted.
Everything started to slow down around me as pulled on my boost, not anything close to full speed but just enough to give me a few moments to think. Even as the peridles were still dropping on us I swung my staff upwards and triggered a blast. It didn't kill any of them of course, but the shockwave blasted the ones coming directly at us away so the swarm came down around us rather than on top of us. Injured a few of them too, but that wouldn't stick.
Avalon was already moving of course, the first peridle that jumped at us from the ground was neatly bisected by a blade coming from her gauntlets and she let out a faint pleased murmur as a green glow built up around her.
Reaper absorption. Never seen it personally but I've taken memories of it.
Avalon gave the nearest peridles a savage grin, "Yeah, this prey has teeth, fuckers". The taunt didn't stop her from moving, killing several more peridles in the next few seconds.
Well, I couldn't let her do everything. Sadly none of our training, personal or otherwise, had included small unit tactics yet so I couldn't casually coordinate with Avalon but enough of her training had turned into reflex that the pair of peridles that jumped at me were met with my staff rather than me punching them. Among other things that would have been really disgusting.
This was just another critter hunt, I just needed to tell myself that. Not nearly as bad as the Chimera or the Fire Lizards or those Wolf Things. And nothing like Vampires, I could do this. Theia had trained me for this. Hell, Tabbris had helped train me for this.
I moved out of the block to bring my staff around, the tip whistling as I brought it down on the first peridle smashing it and then flicked it around to stab into the other one, killing both of them. And then I lost track of things as a beautiful golden glow built up around me and a wave of pleasure like nothing I've ever felt almost knocked me off my feet. I couldn't hold back the gasp of pleasure.
I've taken memories of that too. Now MOVE.
It was that yell in my head that got me paying attention again. My fast strikes had helped recharge the staff and I slammed it into the leader of the next wave of peridles and triggered it, exploding the lead peridle and sending a spray of gunk over the rest that disrupted their attempts to hit me as a group. The next blast of pleasure was muted and didn't managed to distract me from how I'd gotten some of that crap on me. Oh god, so disgusting.
I'm damping down the effects. I needed you to react honestly to the first but I'll help you with the next ones. Now start taking this fight seriously and kill them.
As long as things had felt for me only a few more moments had passed, "Avalon, can you keep them off us for a moment?"
She gave me a glance, "So you can fight for real, good." Another peridle died to a quick stab. "I can, you got a plan?" Even as she was asking, Avalon generated a pair of giant hammers she used to smash away a chunk of the swarm, then brought up a shield between us and the bulk of them.
I let my staff drop and raised my hands up, fingers spread wide. Aim was a problem for me, control, precision. My unique relationship with Theia let me tap into her powers, but I didn't get the feedback like she did. I couldn't see magic like she could, and only somewhat see electricity. Right now though, I didn't need to aim. I just needed to not hit myself or Avalon. Depressingly that was more difficult than it sounded, but in this case I knew Theia would catch me if I messed it up.
Theia didn't need to catch me.
What I fired wasn't a bolt of lightning, it was a fan that spread out to rip through the closest peridles, tearing into the merely closer ranks and not just electrocuting them but frying them, to give us a proper clear area to work in. Thankfully the wooden floor meant I wasn't about to electrocute us by mistake. Technically my power didn't care if it was conductive or not, but it was easier for me to 'see' wood as not something that it would conduct back to us though, and the power did what I thought it should.
A moment later my aura flared up intensely and I stopped thinking about anything useful for a bit. I was pretty sure Theia was buffering it a bit, but this was when I really needed Avalon to cover me because at that point a peridle could have jumped on me and I wouldn't have noticed.
When I came back to myself Avalon had obviously been busy and I could see her green aura dying down as she stepped back from another bunch of destroyed critters. The remainder had pulled back and I had a feeling they were planning for something a bit more organised than just another mass rush. The professor was right that these things got smart when they had numbers. Smart and vicious.
On the roof.
I glanced up to see a magical circle, dimly glowing. Even as I watched another few peridles fell out of it. "Summoning circle on the ceiling, we need to get rid of it. I don't know about you but I'm going to get tired eventually."
There was a massive slam against the door and I saw more magical markings around the door light up, apparently holding it in place. Worse yet, the summoning circle got a bit brighter too, dropping more peridles.
Using the attacks on the barrier to bury us in enemies. When we find who did this I'll have to complement them before we kill them.
Avalon thought for a moment, "Most magic gets disrupted by electricity."
That wasn't news to me, but now I had an excuse. I raised my hand and hit the circle with a focused blast, even I couldn't miss at this range.
I apparently also couldn't disrupt it, bits of the circle glowed more brightly as my lightning skittered across the surface. "So, whoever is after us plans ahead well. I hate smart enemies."
Theia was muttering in the back of my head, I know several specific and general counters to that that you don't have any excuse to know. That won't work, that won't work … oh, attack the substrate!
Attack the … oh, it was drawn on the roof. No roof, no spell. Sadly even with the attacks both of us had been throwing around we weren't putting even shallow scratches on the walls, too much magical renforcement.
Scratches, that was it. "Avalon, our weapons are tougher than the walls, right?"
She destroyed a couple more bugs, "Yeah, what's your plan?"
"Give me something to stand on, right under it. I want to do some etching of my own."
Avalon didn't bother asking questions. I guess she figured whatever my plan was it was better than anything she'd thought of and created another shield, bracing it over her head.
I leapt up and landed on the force platform, which put me close enough to the circle to reach it with my staff tip. A quick attempt to scratch it didn't do anything. Maybe with enough boost I could do it, but I wasn't sure how strong Avalon was. She was holding me up just fine for the moment but she was also having to protect herself while supporting me so I didn't want to take the risk. So I went for the crazy option.
Line it up .. yes, that angle should be right. Good luck.
Thanks.
I jabbed one end of the staff next to the seal, started to push it across, lining it up with Theia's suggested angle. Then for the first time ever I triggered the propulsion mode on my staff, turning it into a rocket, forcing the end into the ceiling and across.
The sound was unbelievable as my staff tore a gouge through the reinforced ceiling, but for a few moments it worked. Then, despite everything I could do with boost, I lost control of my staff. It didn't help that I found out the hard way the bottom foot of it got weirdly slippery when it fired, right where I was trying to hold it. As good as my balance was there were limits.
My staff went one way, and I went another, tumbling down into a mass of peridles.
Boost is good for a lot of things; it can make you faster, it can make you stronger, and it can make you tougher. I hit the mass of peridles like a wrecking ball, crushing a few outright. I didn't have a weapon but I'd known how to fight unarmed a lot longer than armed and I came up swinging. I will say, crushing peridles with a tool is bad, smashing them with your hands and feet is indescribably horrible, and I was pretty sure I'd just gotten some goop in my mouth. I needed to keep moving though, the moment I stopped that damn aura would trigger.
Avalon had started to move in my direction but must have decided I had things in hand and headed the other way.
For my part, once I had smashed enough space I triggered an omnidirectional blast. It was a risk, but worst case it would only destroy my uniform while frying everything around me. Despite my fears it went off almost flawlessly, an expanding shell of lightning ripping outwards for a few feet to leave me in a cleared patch of horrific ickiness. Then the wave of pleasure hit.
Once I could focus again I flicked back to my feet and heard Avalon call out, "Chambers, catch." Oh right, she'd been going for my staff. I caught it on one hand and spun it to recharge it, looking up to see if my stunt had worked.
The answer was kinda. It flickered and I saw a peridle fall out of it, and then half of another one. No aura though, apparently that didn't count as me killing it. It brightened again for a moment as another impact hit the door, then there was a massive crunch as the runes at the entrance outright failed, the circle on the roof going dead at the same time.
That door was built like a vault door and magicly reinforced on top of that. You could probably hit it with a tank gun and not get though.
Professor Katarian bent it in half as he tore it off its hinges and rode it into the room, Professor Dare bounding over him in a flip that landed her halfway into the room, sword already in hand. She gave a quick glance around the room then swept her free hand around, bits of the floor or wall under each of the scattered surviving peridles started to shimmer somewhat, like the surface of a lake.
Portals?
That done, Professor Dare flipped her sword around and dropped to one knee while driving the blade into another of the portals directly in front of her. As she did so, the blade disappeared into that spot before simultaneously emerging from each and every other portal that she had created, wiping out every remaining peridle in one strike.
Ah, duplication portal. Very nice … I don't know if that's a power or her weapon, either way I want that trick.
No killing other heretics to get their stuff, that would be wrong. Well, not unless they are trying to kill us first, or we need to stop them killing an innocent.
That really doesn't limit us much.
Sigh. No, it doesn't. Oh and thanks for making that general blast work.
I looked over at Avalon who was panting a bit as the stress came off and I can only blame adrenaline for my next comment. "Thank you for the save Professors … though I would like to state for the record we totally had this under control."
That got a bemused look from Dare while Katarian gave a look around the room then a thoughtful one up at the remains of the circle on the ceiling. "Sinclaire, do you agree with your partners assessment?"
"Chambers isn't wrong. The summoning circle was damaged, so a repeat of the attack should have shut it down fully. Destroying the remaining targets … " she looked around at the mass of dead peridles, "would have been doable. At that point we could have breached the door at our leisure assuming you hadn't already broken though from your side."
That was a hell of a lot more polished than anything I had in mind to describe it. I owed her for that … and saving my life I think at least twice in that fight, probably more.
Katarian nodded a little at that, "Once you've cleaned up the Bow Street Runners are going to want to talk to you … " he frowned at the message still on the wall, "I expect we may be seeing quite a lot of them."
Dare had given us a quick once-over with what Theia recognized as a medical spell, "I'll inform the Headmistress." I could only guess that was going to go well if Avalon really was Gaia's daughter.
Katarian spoke, "Right … after you've gotten though with the Runners, I expect a proper essay from each of you. What happened, everything you did to fight them, what you did wrong, and what you could have done better, " he gave me a look, "Be detailed."
As punishments for smarting off at my teacher that was honestly pretty mild, so I was going to take my win there.
I mean I was going to want to do something like that anyway.
Does this mean you'll help me write it?
Ha, no. You deserved that. Though I'll tell you if you get it wrong.
You're all heart.
We started to walk out of the room.
Though if it makes you feel better. You know that blast you did at the end?
I didn't help, that was all you.
" … and then they let us clean up, did another medical exam, and sent us to talk to you."
Tribald nodded, making another note. "Your reports do tend to be comprehensive, though I think I'll also be asking Professor Katarian for a copy of that essay." He studied me, "I still find it interesting that Theia was the one to notice the trap."
I shrugged, "She's always been more observant than me, especially back when I was Adjacent. I mean we use the same eyes but she's got more time to pay attention to things I guess, or she's the bit of me that pays attention. I'm not saying she's my paranoid side but … Theia always likes to stay aware of potential threats."
Because we don't lack for those.
That got a hmmm, "Do you have any other thoughts on what happened that you want to share? Either of you?"
I couldn't help a small smile at that, it was nice to have people treat her as 'real enough'. I mean that was going to cause other problems when the wrong people found out but, well, we'd deal with that when it came.
"Whoever did this had planned around my displayed powers, the magic was shielded against lightning and they did their best to make sure their trap would have extra time to work. But they still badly underestimated both of our ability to fight, and that's a weird mistake to make given their nominal target. It feels like students? I mean I wouldn't want to think the staff had been involved with this anyway, but if they were I would have expected it to be more … successful. Despite the preparation that would have been required, this felt like something set up in a hurry." I shrugged, "That's all I've got, if I find out more I'll tell somebody."
He didn't comment on the accuracy, or lack of it, in my comments he just asked, "Are you planning on going after these people yourself?"
"Of course I am. Not only did they try to kill me but they got goop in my mouth, do you know what those things taste like? It's vile. I'm going to find out who did this and then subject them to punishments worse than even I can think of."
Tribald took a breath then paused, and held a finger up, "Don't you mean punishments worse than they can think of?"
I shook my head, smirking, "I'm Investigation Track, I'm going to find these people, I will confirm it was them, and then I will tell Avalon's Mother. I fully believe that Headmistress Gaia can come up with something fitting, horrible, and a lot more legal than anything I could manage."
That got a small smile, "I'm not sure exactly what will be done with them when we find them, though Banishment is not out of the question. Ah, you do know what that is?"
I nodded, "Yeah, Sands and Scout have this little guidebook they wrote for Bystanders. It's pretty useful."
"I see. Well, if you could also be good enough to tell me if you find these people as well, this goes past normal school disciplinary levels. And with or without your help, we will find these people."
"Tribald, I did have a question that I didn't think to ask last time. This is about my vision." I couldn't help a twitch at remembering back to then.
It's okay Felicity, I'm here.
"Of course, what did you want to know?"
"Fossor knew my mother, and when he gave her her memory back she knew him too. But that was only after she got her memory back, and … he acted like she used to be somebody important. A banishment could explain that but I've looked through the lists of alumni and there was never a Joselyn Atherby on the school rolls. Is there any chance she was from Eden's Garden? I mean it might explain why their recruiting people were in the area to spot my friend."
Tribald just stopped and gave me this wide eyed look. I could see him trying to think about how to answer. In the back of my head Theia was cackling, it was a little bit distracting.
After a long pause, "That … would make sense." He looked troubled, "I'm limited in what I can say, there are things I'm not allowed to talk about."
I didn't push him on it, he was probably being literally correct that he physically couldn't tell me.
"The one thing I can say is that you might find one of the answers that you're looking for in the Athletic Accolades hall on the second floor of this facility. But I wasn't the one who directed you there."
I nodded, "We never talked about this, and I just happened to be wandering around there because I'm a nosy reporter girl who does things like that."
He gave me a small smile, "Quiet. I will say your theory is a … very logical conclusion given what you officially know, I'm curious what some other people would make of it." His expression was the weirdest mixture of troubled and bemused.
"I'll be sure to keep it in mind then Runner Kine."
As I stood up to leave Theia obviously had decided I needed another distraction, Ahem, 'Ping'. And yes, she did say the word ping.
You have acquired a new ability.
Really? You're doing this?
Cockroach Resiliency, like the noble cockroach minor things like injury will not keep you down. You now regenerate.
I had to fight to keep a straight face, I mean this was one of the advantages of having an angel working with you was that they could tell what abilities you had and if you picked up anything new, unlike the trial and error other Heretics had to use, but really? Also …
Noble cockroach?
Compared to a Peridle they are downright elegant.
I … I cannot argue with that. On one hand I need to take this monster fighting thing seriously … on the other hand I was basically a video game character that powered up from killing things, and I couldn't deny that parts of that were pretty cool. Though still, Cockroach Resiliency? I may have to ban Theia from naming things.
Avalon was waiting when I got out with an even larger aura of Dark Magic Girl than normal, even by her standards she was looking downright gloomy.
She looked at me when I walked up, obviously thinking though a few things, "So, do you want to change roommates?"
That stopped me dead, "Ah … I didn't think I did that badly in the fight. You're wanting somebody who can hold their own better?" I mean seriously, I kicked ass.
I could see the gears slipping as she tried to recover the conversation, "I meant I thought you'd want to move away from me to be safe."
Theia?
You wouldn't have been in that ambush if she wasn't your roommate. I mean assuming they were even really after her in the first place.
I replied to both of them, "That's stupid. I mean even if we assume you were the real target and this wasn't some kind of false flag, you're the most dangerous person in first year. Why wouldn't I want to be your roommate, sure we probably should practice group tactics more." I sighed, "Look, you know my history, I had Fossor go after me when I was a child. Are you seriously going to tell me that anyone going after you is more dangerous than that? You're the one that should be wanting to get clear."
Avalon took a bit to think about that, "Well … I'm not moving out. You realise I'm going to want to train you extra hard if you're hanging around."
I snorted, "Oh, it's worse than that. Our entire group is going to be a target … I'm about to do something truly horrible and force the rest of our team to start training to what you and Theia think is an acceptable standard."
Felicity, I'm getting this weird sensation that I've never felt before. I think it's called joy.
She sighed, "Because that's going to make me more popular with them."
"Eh, they'll live. Which is the entire point of the exercise. Does mean you should probably tell them about the background, assuming it isn't already all over the school."
That just got a harumph. "Oh, and you were holding back in that fight, I could tell."
"And you weren't? I know you have to have more exotic powers than I saw you use. You know after this Professor Katarian is going to work us extra hard. Oh, do you know where the Athletic Accolades hall is?"
She blinked, then nodded, "Second floor … this way."
As we walked along she asked in a more careful tone, "That warning right at the start … that didn't sound like you. Was that Theia?"
"Yeah, my super-powered paranoid side. She realised before I did and it was quicker for her to say it."
There was a pause. "I … didn't realise she could talk." Another pause, "That Theia could talk … ah, hello?"
Theia borrowed my mouth, "Good morning Miss Sinclair. At some point I'm curious what a sparring session when you and Felicity aren't both holding back would look like."
Unsurprisingly that silenced Avalon for a bit. Theia had that effect on people.
"Yes, that would be interesting … ah, we're here."
Heh.
Be nice, it can be a bit to get used to. Dad still isn't used to it.
We'd gotten to a long, curved corridor full of trophy cases. They had the normal kinds of trophies, medals, and ribbons that I was accustomed to, and there were also other kinds, mostly involving weapons. I saw a dagger with a bone handle resting on a plaque that read, 'Sanjay Rahaln: Serpopard Slayer' and a golden mace with the name Connor Paulson attached to it, along with what looked like the dates he attended the school. It was forty years earlier.
There.
Avalon gave me a weird look as I walked past her, I wasn't quite sure what my expression was. Almost on reflex I pulled my phone out and took a picture of what Theia had seen, an ancient black and white photograph, "Avalon, you might find this interesting. The graduating class of 1922."
She didn't stop her weird look but leaned over to look at the picture, "What's special about it?"
I tapped one person in the picture, right in the front row, "Joselyn Atherby. My mother."
[Thursday, September 7, 2017]
I was glad I had experience with things like this or I'd have died in the first few seconds.
Theia had ingrained in me that to freeze was to die, that an okay plan right now is better than a perfect plan later. So I reacted.
Everything started to slow down around me as pulled on my boost, not anything close to full speed but just enough to give me a few moments to think. Even as the peridles were still dropping on us I swung my staff upwards and triggered a blast. It didn't kill any of them of course, but the shockwave blasted the ones coming directly at us away so the swarm came down around us rather than on top of us. Injured a few of them too, but that wouldn't stick.
Avalon was already moving of course, the first peridle that jumped at us from the ground was neatly bisected by a blade coming from her gauntlets and she let out a faint pleased murmur as a green glow built up around her.
Reaper absorption. Never seen it personally but I've taken memories of it.
Avalon gave the nearest peridles a savage grin, "Yeah, this prey has teeth, fuckers". The taunt didn't stop her from moving, killing several more peridles in the next few seconds.
Well, I couldn't let her do everything. Sadly none of our training, personal or otherwise, had included small unit tactics yet so I couldn't casually coordinate with Avalon but enough of her training had turned into reflex that the pair of peridles that jumped at me were met with my staff rather than me punching them. Among other things that would have been really disgusting.
This was just another critter hunt, I just needed to tell myself that. Not nearly as bad as the Chimera or the Fire Lizards or those Wolf Things. And nothing like Vampires, I could do this. Theia had trained me for this. Hell, Tabbris had helped train me for this.
I moved out of the block to bring my staff around, the tip whistling as I brought it down on the first peridle smashing it and then flicked it around to stab into the other one, killing both of them. And then I lost track of things as a beautiful golden glow built up around me and a wave of pleasure like nothing I've ever felt almost knocked me off my feet. I couldn't hold back the gasp of pleasure.
I've taken memories of that too. Now MOVE.
It was that yell in my head that got me paying attention again. My fast strikes had helped recharge the staff and I slammed it into the leader of the next wave of peridles and triggered it, exploding the lead peridle and sending a spray of gunk over the rest that disrupted their attempts to hit me as a group. The next blast of pleasure was muted and didn't managed to distract me from how I'd gotten some of that crap on me. Oh god, so disgusting.
I'm damping down the effects. I needed you to react honestly to the first but I'll help you with the next ones. Now start taking this fight seriously and kill them.
As long as things had felt for me only a few more moments had passed, "Avalon, can you keep them off us for a moment?"
She gave me a glance, "So you can fight for real, good." Another peridle died to a quick stab. "I can, you got a plan?" Even as she was asking, Avalon generated a pair of giant hammers she used to smash away a chunk of the swarm, then brought up a shield between us and the bulk of them.
I let my staff drop and raised my hands up, fingers spread wide. Aim was a problem for me, control, precision. My unique relationship with Theia let me tap into her powers, but I didn't get the feedback like she did. I couldn't see magic like she could, and only somewhat see electricity. Right now though, I didn't need to aim. I just needed to not hit myself or Avalon. Depressingly that was more difficult than it sounded, but in this case I knew Theia would catch me if I messed it up.
Theia didn't need to catch me.
What I fired wasn't a bolt of lightning, it was a fan that spread out to rip through the closest peridles, tearing into the merely closer ranks and not just electrocuting them but frying them, to give us a proper clear area to work in. Thankfully the wooden floor meant I wasn't about to electrocute us by mistake. Technically my power didn't care if it was conductive or not, but it was easier for me to 'see' wood as not something that it would conduct back to us though, and the power did what I thought it should.
A moment later my aura flared up intensely and I stopped thinking about anything useful for a bit. I was pretty sure Theia was buffering it a bit, but this was when I really needed Avalon to cover me because at that point a peridle could have jumped on me and I wouldn't have noticed.
When I came back to myself Avalon had obviously been busy and I could see her green aura dying down as she stepped back from another bunch of destroyed critters. The remainder had pulled back and I had a feeling they were planning for something a bit more organised than just another mass rush. The professor was right that these things got smart when they had numbers. Smart and vicious.
On the roof.
I glanced up to see a magical circle, dimly glowing. Even as I watched another few peridles fell out of it. "Summoning circle on the ceiling, we need to get rid of it. I don't know about you but I'm going to get tired eventually."
There was a massive slam against the door and I saw more magical markings around the door light up, apparently holding it in place. Worse yet, the summoning circle got a bit brighter too, dropping more peridles.
Using the attacks on the barrier to bury us in enemies. When we find who did this I'll have to complement them before we kill them.
Avalon thought for a moment, "Most magic gets disrupted by electricity."
That wasn't news to me, but now I had an excuse. I raised my hand and hit the circle with a focused blast, even I couldn't miss at this range.
I apparently also couldn't disrupt it, bits of the circle glowed more brightly as my lightning skittered across the surface. "So, whoever is after us plans ahead well. I hate smart enemies."
Theia was muttering in the back of my head, I know several specific and general counters to that that you don't have any excuse to know. That won't work, that won't work … oh, attack the substrate!
Attack the … oh, it was drawn on the roof. No roof, no spell. Sadly even with the attacks both of us had been throwing around we weren't putting even shallow scratches on the walls, too much magical renforcement.
Scratches, that was it. "Avalon, our weapons are tougher than the walls, right?"
She destroyed a couple more bugs, "Yeah, what's your plan?"
"Give me something to stand on, right under it. I want to do some etching of my own."
Avalon didn't bother asking questions. I guess she figured whatever my plan was it was better than anything she'd thought of and created another shield, bracing it over her head.
I leapt up and landed on the force platform, which put me close enough to the circle to reach it with my staff tip. A quick attempt to scratch it didn't do anything. Maybe with enough boost I could do it, but I wasn't sure how strong Avalon was. She was holding me up just fine for the moment but she was also having to protect herself while supporting me so I didn't want to take the risk. So I went for the crazy option.
Line it up .. yes, that angle should be right. Good luck.
Thanks.
I jabbed one end of the staff next to the seal, started to push it across, lining it up with Theia's suggested angle. Then for the first time ever I triggered the propulsion mode on my staff, turning it into a rocket, forcing the end into the ceiling and across.
The sound was unbelievable as my staff tore a gouge through the reinforced ceiling, but for a few moments it worked. Then, despite everything I could do with boost, I lost control of my staff. It didn't help that I found out the hard way the bottom foot of it got weirdly slippery when it fired, right where I was trying to hold it. As good as my balance was there were limits.
My staff went one way, and I went another, tumbling down into a mass of peridles.
Boost is good for a lot of things; it can make you faster, it can make you stronger, and it can make you tougher. I hit the mass of peridles like a wrecking ball, crushing a few outright. I didn't have a weapon but I'd known how to fight unarmed a lot longer than armed and I came up swinging. I will say, crushing peridles with a tool is bad, smashing them with your hands and feet is indescribably horrible, and I was pretty sure I'd just gotten some goop in my mouth. I needed to keep moving though, the moment I stopped that damn aura would trigger.
Avalon had started to move in my direction but must have decided I had things in hand and headed the other way.
For my part, once I had smashed enough space I triggered an omnidirectional blast. It was a risk, but worst case it would only destroy my uniform while frying everything around me. Despite my fears it went off almost flawlessly, an expanding shell of lightning ripping outwards for a few feet to leave me in a cleared patch of horrific ickiness. Then the wave of pleasure hit.
Once I could focus again I flicked back to my feet and heard Avalon call out, "Chambers, catch." Oh right, she'd been going for my staff. I caught it on one hand and spun it to recharge it, looking up to see if my stunt had worked.
The answer was kinda. It flickered and I saw a peridle fall out of it, and then half of another one. No aura though, apparently that didn't count as me killing it. It brightened again for a moment as another impact hit the door, then there was a massive crunch as the runes at the entrance outright failed, the circle on the roof going dead at the same time.
That door was built like a vault door and magicly reinforced on top of that. You could probably hit it with a tank gun and not get though.
Professor Katarian bent it in half as he tore it off its hinges and rode it into the room, Professor Dare bounding over him in a flip that landed her halfway into the room, sword already in hand. She gave a quick glance around the room then swept her free hand around, bits of the floor or wall under each of the scattered surviving peridles started to shimmer somewhat, like the surface of a lake.
Portals?
That done, Professor Dare flipped her sword around and dropped to one knee while driving the blade into another of the portals directly in front of her. As she did so, the blade disappeared into that spot before simultaneously emerging from each and every other portal that she had created, wiping out every remaining peridle in one strike.
Ah, duplication portal. Very nice … I don't know if that's a power or her weapon, either way I want that trick.
No killing other heretics to get their stuff, that would be wrong. Well, not unless they are trying to kill us first, or we need to stop them killing an innocent.
That really doesn't limit us much.
Sigh. No, it doesn't. Oh and thanks for making that general blast work.
I looked over at Avalon who was panting a bit as the stress came off and I can only blame adrenaline for my next comment. "Thank you for the save Professors … though I would like to state for the record we totally had this under control."
That got a bemused look from Dare while Katarian gave a look around the room then a thoughtful one up at the remains of the circle on the ceiling. "Sinclaire, do you agree with your partners assessment?"
"Chambers isn't wrong. The summoning circle was damaged, so a repeat of the attack should have shut it down fully. Destroying the remaining targets … " she looked around at the mass of dead peridles, "would have been doable. At that point we could have breached the door at our leisure assuming you hadn't already broken though from your side."
That was a hell of a lot more polished than anything I had in mind to describe it. I owed her for that … and saving my life I think at least twice in that fight, probably more.
Katarian nodded a little at that, "Once you've cleaned up the Bow Street Runners are going to want to talk to you … " he frowned at the message still on the wall, "I expect we may be seeing quite a lot of them."
Dare had given us a quick once-over with what Theia recognized as a medical spell, "I'll inform the Headmistress." I could only guess that was going to go well if Avalon really was Gaia's daughter.
Katarian spoke, "Right … after you've gotten though with the Runners, I expect a proper essay from each of you. What happened, everything you did to fight them, what you did wrong, and what you could have done better, " he gave me a look, "Be detailed."
As punishments for smarting off at my teacher that was honestly pretty mild, so I was going to take my win there.
I mean I was going to want to do something like that anyway.
Does this mean you'll help me write it?
Ha, no. You deserved that. Though I'll tell you if you get it wrong.
You're all heart.
We started to walk out of the room.
Though if it makes you feel better. You know that blast you did at the end?
I didn't help, that was all you.
" … and then they let us clean up, did another medical exam, and sent us to talk to you."
Tribald nodded, making another note. "Your reports do tend to be comprehensive, though I think I'll also be asking Professor Katarian for a copy of that essay." He studied me, "I still find it interesting that Theia was the one to notice the trap."
I shrugged, "She's always been more observant than me, especially back when I was Adjacent. I mean we use the same eyes but she's got more time to pay attention to things I guess, or she's the bit of me that pays attention. I'm not saying she's my paranoid side but … Theia always likes to stay aware of potential threats."
Because we don't lack for those.
That got a hmmm, "Do you have any other thoughts on what happened that you want to share? Either of you?"
I couldn't help a small smile at that, it was nice to have people treat her as 'real enough'. I mean that was going to cause other problems when the wrong people found out but, well, we'd deal with that when it came.
"Whoever did this had planned around my displayed powers, the magic was shielded against lightning and they did their best to make sure their trap would have extra time to work. But they still badly underestimated both of our ability to fight, and that's a weird mistake to make given their nominal target. It feels like students? I mean I wouldn't want to think the staff had been involved with this anyway, but if they were I would have expected it to be more … successful. Despite the preparation that would have been required, this felt like something set up in a hurry." I shrugged, "That's all I've got, if I find out more I'll tell somebody."
He didn't comment on the accuracy, or lack of it, in my comments he just asked, "Are you planning on going after these people yourself?"
"Of course I am. Not only did they try to kill me but they got goop in my mouth, do you know what those things taste like? It's vile. I'm going to find out who did this and then subject them to punishments worse than even I can think of."
Tribald took a breath then paused, and held a finger up, "Don't you mean punishments worse than they can think of?"
I shook my head, smirking, "I'm Investigation Track, I'm going to find these people, I will confirm it was them, and then I will tell Avalon's Mother. I fully believe that Headmistress Gaia can come up with something fitting, horrible, and a lot more legal than anything I could manage."
That got a small smile, "I'm not sure exactly what will be done with them when we find them, though Banishment is not out of the question. Ah, you do know what that is?"
I nodded, "Yeah, Sands and Scout have this little guidebook they wrote for Bystanders. It's pretty useful."
"I see. Well, if you could also be good enough to tell me if you find these people as well, this goes past normal school disciplinary levels. And with or without your help, we will find these people."
"Tribald, I did have a question that I didn't think to ask last time. This is about my vision." I couldn't help a twitch at remembering back to then.
It's okay Felicity, I'm here.
"Of course, what did you want to know?"
"Fossor knew my mother, and when he gave her her memory back she knew him too. But that was only after she got her memory back, and … he acted like she used to be somebody important. A banishment could explain that but I've looked through the lists of alumni and there was never a Joselyn Atherby on the school rolls. Is there any chance she was from Eden's Garden? I mean it might explain why their recruiting people were in the area to spot my friend."
Tribald just stopped and gave me this wide eyed look. I could see him trying to think about how to answer. In the back of my head Theia was cackling, it was a little bit distracting.
After a long pause, "That … would make sense." He looked troubled, "I'm limited in what I can say, there are things I'm not allowed to talk about."
I didn't push him on it, he was probably being literally correct that he physically couldn't tell me.
"The one thing I can say is that you might find one of the answers that you're looking for in the Athletic Accolades hall on the second floor of this facility. But I wasn't the one who directed you there."
I nodded, "We never talked about this, and I just happened to be wandering around there because I'm a nosy reporter girl who does things like that."
He gave me a small smile, "Quiet. I will say your theory is a … very logical conclusion given what you officially know, I'm curious what some other people would make of it." His expression was the weirdest mixture of troubled and bemused.
"I'll be sure to keep it in mind then Runner Kine."
As I stood up to leave Theia obviously had decided I needed another distraction, Ahem, 'Ping'. And yes, she did say the word ping.
You have acquired a new ability.
Really? You're doing this?
Cockroach Resiliency, like the noble cockroach minor things like injury will not keep you down. You now regenerate.
I had to fight to keep a straight face, I mean this was one of the advantages of having an angel working with you was that they could tell what abilities you had and if you picked up anything new, unlike the trial and error other Heretics had to use, but really? Also …
Noble cockroach?
Compared to a Peridle they are downright elegant.
I … I cannot argue with that. On one hand I need to take this monster fighting thing seriously … on the other hand I was basically a video game character that powered up from killing things, and I couldn't deny that parts of that were pretty cool. Though still, Cockroach Resiliency? I may have to ban Theia from naming things.
Avalon was waiting when I got out with an even larger aura of Dark Magic Girl than normal, even by her standards she was looking downright gloomy.
She looked at me when I walked up, obviously thinking though a few things, "So, do you want to change roommates?"
That stopped me dead, "Ah … I didn't think I did that badly in the fight. You're wanting somebody who can hold their own better?" I mean seriously, I kicked ass.
I could see the gears slipping as she tried to recover the conversation, "I meant I thought you'd want to move away from me to be safe."
Theia?
You wouldn't have been in that ambush if she wasn't your roommate. I mean assuming they were even really after her in the first place.
I replied to both of them, "That's stupid. I mean even if we assume you were the real target and this wasn't some kind of false flag, you're the most dangerous person in first year. Why wouldn't I want to be your roommate, sure we probably should practice group tactics more." I sighed, "Look, you know my history, I had Fossor go after me when I was a child. Are you seriously going to tell me that anyone going after you is more dangerous than that? You're the one that should be wanting to get clear."
Avalon took a bit to think about that, "Well … I'm not moving out. You realise I'm going to want to train you extra hard if you're hanging around."
I snorted, "Oh, it's worse than that. Our entire group is going to be a target … I'm about to do something truly horrible and force the rest of our team to start training to what you and Theia think is an acceptable standard."
Felicity, I'm getting this weird sensation that I've never felt before. I think it's called joy.
She sighed, "Because that's going to make me more popular with them."
"Eh, they'll live. Which is the entire point of the exercise. Does mean you should probably tell them about the background, assuming it isn't already all over the school."
That just got a harumph. "Oh, and you were holding back in that fight, I could tell."
"And you weren't? I know you have to have more exotic powers than I saw you use. You know after this Professor Katarian is going to work us extra hard. Oh, do you know where the Athletic Accolades hall is?"
She blinked, then nodded, "Second floor … this way."
As we walked along she asked in a more careful tone, "That warning right at the start … that didn't sound like you. Was that Theia?"
"Yeah, my super-powered paranoid side. She realised before I did and it was quicker for her to say it."
There was a pause. "I … didn't realise she could talk." Another pause, "That Theia could talk … ah, hello?"
Theia borrowed my mouth, "Good morning Miss Sinclair. At some point I'm curious what a sparring session when you and Felicity aren't both holding back would look like."
Unsurprisingly that silenced Avalon for a bit. Theia had that effect on people.
"Yes, that would be interesting … ah, we're here."
Heh.
Be nice, it can be a bit to get used to. Dad still isn't used to it.
We'd gotten to a long, curved corridor full of trophy cases. They had the normal kinds of trophies, medals, and ribbons that I was accustomed to, and there were also other kinds, mostly involving weapons. I saw a dagger with a bone handle resting on a plaque that read, 'Sanjay Rahaln: Serpopard Slayer' and a golden mace with the name Connor Paulson attached to it, along with what looked like the dates he attended the school. It was forty years earlier.
There.
Avalon gave me a weird look as I walked past her, I wasn't quite sure what my expression was. Almost on reflex I pulled my phone out and took a picture of what Theia had seen, an ancient black and white photograph, "Avalon, you might find this interesting. The graduating class of 1922."
She didn't stop her weird look but leaned over to look at the picture, "What's special about it?"
I tapped one person in the picture, right in the front row, "Joselyn Atherby. My mother."
Last edited:
Reconnaissance 3.04
- Location
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Reconnaissance 3.04
[Thursday, September 7, 2017]
Avalon just looked at the picture for a bit, "Your mother was at Crossroads almost a century ago?"
"Yep." I gave Avalon a sharp smile, "We should get back, the others will be worried. I expect this picture won't be here when we get back, " I looked up and spoke to the ceiling, "That may be for the best."
She didn't say anything else till we were outside. We'd missed two classes during the interviews and it was about halfway through lunchtime so we were heading for the cafeteria.
"You already knew."
"You will find that this place is built on secrets, you have yours and I have mine. There are spells at work, some of the people that know what's going on can't talk about it because we wouldn't remember them telling us." I gave her a glance, "Your mother is one of them. She's been dancing around this, leaking as much as she can to me without triggering the memory spells."
"Mother knows?"
I sighed, "There is a lot going on, I don't know how much is safe to tell you and I'm not sure if I can tell you some things without running into spells or security. I'm not kidding when I say that I can't rule out I was the target today and you were just the excuse."
Avalon thought on that for a bit, "Shit." She took a deep breath, "Lots of training then."
I nodded firmly, "Yes, lots of training."
We got a lot of looks when we entered the cafeteria, there had been plenty of time for word to get around after all. Sands was waving to us from the table the rest of the team had taken over, and nobody else caused us any trouble when we went over. Lots of attention though, and some of it was feeling pretty unfriendly.
Felt like being with Randi all over again back at school. So ya know, to hell with them.
The others had saved a couple of menu sheets for us, Sands saying "Aunt Ginny said you'd be out before the end of lunch, here, order quickly."
Vanessa quietly asked, "Are you two okay?"
I had to think on that, "Physically yes … I don't think they ever got a solid hit on me." I looked down at where an old scar of mine had vanished, "Technically I'm healthier than I was at the start of the fight. The fight was … honestly not the worst I've had. Lots of them and we were trapped but no moral dilemmas, no real confusion, and Avalon is badass enough I didn't have to worry too much about keeping my blasts controlled."
I stopped talking and considered. "Is it terrible that I enjoyed that fight? Just a nice clear 'smash critters, don't die'. It turns out I'm good at smash critters and don't die. I'm mostly bothered by not being bothered about if it that makes sense. I might need to talk with Klassin about that."
It's the first time we've really had a chance to just use our abilities. To really cut loose and not feel guilty or bad about the after effects. She paused in thought, I don't like hurting or killing things, but I like to feel powerful, that I'm in control and that nothing can stop me. Given her history that made sense.
Scout reached out and gave my hand a squeeze. It helped.
Things went quiet after that as we ate, the others having long finished their meals. Finally Avalon looked around the table, "I'm assuming you heard the rest?"
Shiori blinked, "They are saying that you used to be at Eden's Garden, that's why somebody tried to kill you and Flick."
Avalon took a breath, "Yeah. Is that going to be a problem?"
Vanessa shrugged, "I'm okay with it."
Shiori nodded, "I'm … this place isn't easy to deal with, the fact you used to be working for another group before you game here is really low on my list of problems right now."
Avalon smirked a little, "Fair enough." Then she looked at the two people who had grown up in a 'Crossroads Good, Garden Bad' mindset. Not that I had any concerns myself.
The twins looked at each other before Sands asked, "Look, I just have one question and it's a really important one." She paused for effect before asking, "Is the Tree really as amazing as people say?"
That got a surprised laugh out of Avalon. "Yes, yes it really is. It's … it's amazing and I miss it, a tree the size of a city, a big city. Like nothing else you've ever seen. I might be able to find you pictures."
Another shared glance, Scout smirking at something. Sands shook her head at her twin then looked back at us, "We'd love to see them. Though I don't think we can get away with Scout's idea to put a picture in that part of the handout, that might be pushing people a bit too far."
Scout spoke up, "Funny though." Which got a nod from her sister.
"Yeah, would be funny."
I stepped in while Avalon was dealing with not having her team upset with her, "To get a bit more serious. Somebody tried to murder Avalon and me. Next time they try they might hit other members of the team, or even go for all of us at once. The smart thing to do would be to transfer to another team that's less likely to be a target."
Because the kind of people that become Heretics are totally rational.
"But I'm assuming you won't do the smart thing, so we go onto plan B. You know how hard Avalon and I have been training?"
That got a wince from the other four.
Shiori muttered, "I guess I did choose Hunter Track."
"I mean it will make da happy we're taking this seriously." Was the contribution from the twins.
Vanessa sighed, "Exploring other worlds is dangerous so more training is good … I guess." She had the tone of somebody trying to convince herself.
I rubbed my hands together, "Well, the voice inside my head that tells me to train harder will be happy. This means we expect to see you bright and early at the start of training."
Heh. Heh. Heh.
[Friday, September 8, 2017]
Sands panted, "Ya know, the idea of somebody killing all of us so seeming much less scary now."
Avalon didn't even dignify that with a reply. I commented, "You didn't have to go all out like Avalon does."
"You did."
I gave her a raised eyebrow, "I'm crazy, I mean I have a piece of paper that says it and everything. I may not be the best role model here."
The voices inside your head have taken a vote and we've agreed you're sane.
You need to stop getting jokes from dad.
Avalon spoke up, "Also Chambers and I have better regeneration than you do, we can get away with pushing harder."
Scout's comment was, "More sweat, less blood." And that seemed to answer it for everyone.
The views here were never not amazing. I had eaten lunch quickly and then wandered off to find somewhere quiet to just enjoy watching the sea, something I still hadn't gotten used to.
So, what's wrong? I found somewhere quiet.
We had a visitor last night.
Shit. How bad?
Technically good. Latest attempt to work out why you can't be possessed, and this time they actually checked to see if there was another angel inside you. Took them long enough.
Many years ago while I slept, one of the Imperium's top scientists, and the woman in charge of controlling Eden's Garden for the Imperium, had snuck into my room and spent several hours trying to possess me and work out why she couldn't. At no point had it apparently occurred to her to do the most basic check to see if there was somebody in their already. For the second largest force in known space the angels had some weird blind spots and were amazingly bad at trying to deal with rogue members of their own species.
It honestly was good for her she didn't try anything that might have worked. Theia was watching her the entire time and ready to incinerate her the moment it looked like she might have really found something out. That would have itself caused problems, but less than our secret getting out would.
Given that we're not running for our lives right now I'm guessing the plan worked then? They used the expulsion rune?
In the Imperium's defense I did have to admit that it's very hard to find an angel inside someone. Even they didn't have casual methods for it, Crossroads not being able to find Theia in me wasn't just because their detection methods were sabotaged. There were two quick ways to do it in the field but neither was perfect. The most simple was to try and possess the target. If you bounced, there might be somebody else in there. You didn't even need to actually jump in, you could just 'ping' them to see if there was room.
However that had the downsides that an angel needed to do it with their own body, no doing it though a host unless the host also had possession abilities. If there was another angel in there they would know you had just pinged them, and there were things that would cause a false positive. This was very good in our case because we'd somehow managed to convince them that this was one of the other cases. Even Theia was confused by how well it had worked.
The other quick and dirty method was a simple little spell that forced an angel out of their current host. You drew a fairly complex glyph on the host, put energy in, and instant ejection. Theia was in the process of teaching me it. Downsides to it was that the act of drawing it was quite painful to the host and it was very distinctive, so any angel knew it was coming and could send out a warning to their friends, or try to murder you.
Yep. Smarted a bit, but the prepared spell worked perfectly. She thinks you're clean.
It also fails to work on anyone with Theia's condition in a weird way. Technically it doesn't kick an angel out, what it does is make it incredibly painful to stay in the host and makes it very easy for them to eject. Somebody with enough pain resistance could in theory just tough it out, somebody like my sister.
Have I mentioned I really really hate her mother? Because it bares repeating, Theia didn't get her pain resistance from nowhere. What she was calling 'smarted a bit' would be paralyzing agony for most.
In somebody with no possessor, it flares up then vanishes. In somebody with a possessor it flares up until the angel ejects and then vanishes. Theia can't eject, so it just stays there trying to force her out and hurting her.
You know I'm going to want to beat up whoever did that right? They hurt you.
I've had worse … and that's not going to convince you is it. Look, the spell worked, they think there can't possibly be anyone inside you. It's all good. I've already recast the fake out.
The countermeasure her mom came up with was simple. A prepared spell that waited for the expulsion rune to fire off then triggered an illusion of it flaring up and vanishing and hid the real rune while quietly erasing it over the next few seconds.
Simple, elegant, apparently effective, and just had the downside that it put my sister though agony when it went off. Somebody was going to get a beating at the very least over this when I got the chance.
I don't suppose you recognise them. Please don't be somebody she knows.
So, funny thing.
Shit. Anyone Theia could recognize was probably very very bad news.
Never met her face to face, but I know what all of mom and mother's old crew look like. It was Nemesis.
Oh hell. Both of Theia's mothers were part of an Imperium elite unit, all of them with unique powers and thousands of years of experience. They're all some of the most dangerous people around. And on top of that Nemesis was one of the assassins from that group. She used to work with Theia's mom before she went rogue.
And now she was at Crossroads. This just got a lot harder.
"So how has the 'available for questions' thing been working out anyway?"
I was asking Sands and Scout this as we were walking towards that Pathfinder in the evening. It was going to be our first Track Course so it was only the three of us in the team that were on that track. They happened Monday and Friday evenings, though of course the Monday one had been skipped due to Orientation. Also I really would have been in no state for it.
Sands smiled, "Not too badly, we've been getting a bunch of questions from the Kin and even a few from other Born. Turns out not everyone's parents told them everything they should have, we've been getting requests for more of the pamphlets too. Da said that Professor Neal has been grumbling about it in staff meetings but it sounds like he's given up on trying to stop us. I bet this has sped up them trying to get the official one done though. Which of course won't be as cool as ours."
He is still a poor replacement for Larissa. She would have helped them write something like this and made it the official one.
"You should totally put an actual picture of the Eden's Garden Tree in the next version."
"There is such a thing as pushing it too far." Though the thumbs up from Scout gave me when I made the suggestion showed the sisters weren't in total agreement there.
"What is the weirdest question so far?"
Sands gave me a look, "We are a confidential service, though I will say some of the more involved ones have been a few people trying to track down people from their visions."
Scout added, "We may do lectures."
"So stuff you're getting enough questions about that it's easier to do a class on it?"
Sands nodded, "Yeah, like money for example. Might see if we can convince Professor Carfried to do a side course on that one, it's not complex but it's technically teaching magic, so … "
I understood, "This is the magic batteries used as currency thing?"
"Yeah, Enners. I mean it makes sense, you can use magic or powers to create pretty much anything else so there really isn't anything rare enough to be valuable, but common enough to use as money, so may as well just trade magical energy directly. I mean, there isn't much to spend it on at this point in the year, which is why they don't bother teaching it for a while but it's another part of understanding the society."
We could do with some of those, I'm not short on magical power, and that's all you need for making money around here. I could feel her studying them through me, Listen to them, thinking about what will help people understand things better, and even why society does things differently from Bystanders. Larissa would be so damn impressed by them, I know I am.
If she's alive, we will find her. And she was with your mom, she's going to still be alive.
I miss her Felicity, I miss her so much. Both of them.
Just as we got to the Pathfinder we heard a voice from behind us say, "I'm pleased to hear that you will be involving staff for any practical lessons. Otherwise I might have to have words."
Sands jumped, Scout and I just looked over to see Professor Dare looking amused as she glided past us.
Our teacher got the attention of the group before continuing. "Good evening. You all know me, so I shall skip the introduction. It is now seven o'clock, the time that you will be expected to be in the location that I give you for this meeting every Monday and Friday from now on. I will not say that excuses for being late will not be accepted. However, I will say that if you give no excuse, the punishment for your tardiness will be less severe than if you attempt to give one and I find it lacking. For those who find that confusing, allow me to simplify. If your excuse for tardiness is a valid and reasonable one, I will accept it. If it is not and you attempt to use it anyway, your punishment will be worse than if you had said nothing. Is all of that understood?"
I like her, I wish she wasn't probably on the other side.
Still your best guess?
I mean she's who I'd pick with the security head as my second choice. After that, I'm not sure, but I'd focus on members of Gaia's inner circle. It only makes sense.
"As you all know, this is the Investigation track. Here, you will learn to investigate possible Stranger incursions and other situations, identify both new and established threats, and deal directly with the Bystander law enforcement. We have multiple ways of doing this, but one of our most important tools is lying. You will lie a lot. You should not feel ashamed of this. Lying keeps these people safe, and prevents them from making our jobs far more difficult."
Well this was going to be hard for me, I could see that now. Me being such a paragon of honesty as I was.
"Tonight, you will be given an opportunity to witness one of several ways that the Pathfinder building is used to aid us in these investigations. You will stay with me, you will touch nothing that you are not told to touch, and you will not disturb the people who are working. Is that understood as well?"
Annoyingly there are things that building does that I don't know about either. If it gets past 'open a portal somewhere' we'll need to find someone that actually knows how it works.
Still good to know we have another escape route.
Once Dare was sure we'd gotten the point she disarmed the humming warding circle with a quick series of words that should have been impossible to follow, and after the air had shimmered a bit she guided us into the building. People were treating the line with respect, so I guess Sands and Scout had given them 'the talk' about what happens if you mess with it. Theia had already memorized the sequence from my day trips here of course.
I was very familiar with the lobby by now, a small and circular room with a desk in the corner. The woman behind it smiled as we entered, "Good evening, Virginia. This is the new class?"
Before Professor Dare could respond, a group of men came right through the same doors we had just entered from, bustling straight past us in a rush. They barely slowed long enough to nod an acknowledgment to the secretary before moving on to one of a handful of doors that lined the circular wall.
"Hey, where the hell did those guys come from?" Koren spoke up. "Seriously, we were just out there."
The woman behind the desk glanced down at something before responding, "They came from Indiana, actually."
Professor Dare explained. "The Pathfinder building exists within multiple locations at the same time. Its existence on the island is only one of a dozen or so locations across the world that it simultaneously occupies."
I leaned over to the twins, "We really need to put a page or two in the handout about this."
Sands rolled her eyes, "You would not believe how tetchy some people get about including anything about here. Risks of somebody outside the school getting their hands on it has been brought up."
It was the receptionist who spoke up, her tone bemused, "Sweetie, we need to keep some things inside the knowledge. It's bad enough if the Garden read it, let alone Strangers."
Yeah, it would be terrible if a Stranger was to sneak through here. That would be bad.
Professor Dare ignored Sands's exaggerated eye-roll at that and started walking to one of the doors. "Come, I will show you one of the reasons that the Pathfinder building is so important to our work."
Together, we trailed after the professor, following her through a series of hallways and up two flights of stairs. We passed about another dozen people that were hard at work doing… whatever they were doing before we finally reached a short, out of the way hall with a single door.
"This," Professor Dare announced, "Is one of several projection rooms in this facility."
One of the others, I hadn't caught their name, asked the obvious question, "What's a projection room?"
I was only listening with half an ear, if the twins weren't allowed to talk about this Theia had been quite happy to give me the rundown. Long story short Crossroads had a thing called a Panoptic Analysis Window System, or PAWS, which was a flying golf-ball sized sensor. Set it loose in an area and it will fly around, while invisible, and grab a three dimensional scan of the area, including looking through walls and closed containers. Once they had it you could play the area back as an interactive solid 'hologram' in a projection room.
It let people like they were training us to be sneak in ahead of proper authorities, grab a copy of the area without anyone knowing, even while people were in there, and look at it at our leisure. It even grabbed magical signatures from the area. One of the many things that would be super useful to Bystanders if we could tell them about it, so another reason to be annoyed at the Imperium for the Bystander Effect existing. It wasn't like we could just hand a PAWS over to a cop, they would want to know how it worked and we couldn't explain it without getting into magic or other kinds of impossible hypertech.
Pay attention.
Dare continued, "Now, as a group, we are going to investigate one of these recorded crime scenes." Professor Dare gazed at us briefly before continuing. "Together, we will see what we can determine as a group before reviewing what conclusions the assigned investigators have come to."
I held a hand up, "I'm sure I'm going to regret asking this, but what kind of crime scene is it, Professor?".
She paused, glancing to me before responding. "An incident that occurred at a gas station. A man, who was believed to have attempted to rob the store was found shot in the back multiple times, presumably by the clerk. The clerk herself then exited the store, duct taped the gasoline nozzle into her own mouth, and proceeded to kill herself by choking on the gas."
Collectively, we stared. I felt sick inside, and somewhere nearby, one of the boys muttered a curse under his breath. Beside me, Scout gave a soft whimper.
Well that's creatively ghastly. Even mother didn't come up with something like that.
That is really not helping.
"These are the situations we will be dealing with. I will not coddle you from them because to do so would be a disservice to your education and training. If you do not wish to continue, you may at any point speak up and be excused to re-evaluate your track." Professor Dare spoke seriously, then put her hand on the doorknob. "Now, come. Let us see how much information you can find as a group."
She opened the door, allowing us to enter the horrific scene. I took a breath, steeled myself, and then stepped through.
[Thursday, September 7, 2017]
Avalon just looked at the picture for a bit, "Your mother was at Crossroads almost a century ago?"
"Yep." I gave Avalon a sharp smile, "We should get back, the others will be worried. I expect this picture won't be here when we get back, " I looked up and spoke to the ceiling, "That may be for the best."
She didn't say anything else till we were outside. We'd missed two classes during the interviews and it was about halfway through lunchtime so we were heading for the cafeteria.
"You already knew."
"You will find that this place is built on secrets, you have yours and I have mine. There are spells at work, some of the people that know what's going on can't talk about it because we wouldn't remember them telling us." I gave her a glance, "Your mother is one of them. She's been dancing around this, leaking as much as she can to me without triggering the memory spells."
"Mother knows?"
I sighed, "There is a lot going on, I don't know how much is safe to tell you and I'm not sure if I can tell you some things without running into spells or security. I'm not kidding when I say that I can't rule out I was the target today and you were just the excuse."
Avalon thought on that for a bit, "Shit." She took a deep breath, "Lots of training then."
I nodded firmly, "Yes, lots of training."
We got a lot of looks when we entered the cafeteria, there had been plenty of time for word to get around after all. Sands was waving to us from the table the rest of the team had taken over, and nobody else caused us any trouble when we went over. Lots of attention though, and some of it was feeling pretty unfriendly.
Felt like being with Randi all over again back at school. So ya know, to hell with them.
The others had saved a couple of menu sheets for us, Sands saying "Aunt Ginny said you'd be out before the end of lunch, here, order quickly."
Vanessa quietly asked, "Are you two okay?"
I had to think on that, "Physically yes … I don't think they ever got a solid hit on me." I looked down at where an old scar of mine had vanished, "Technically I'm healthier than I was at the start of the fight. The fight was … honestly not the worst I've had. Lots of them and we were trapped but no moral dilemmas, no real confusion, and Avalon is badass enough I didn't have to worry too much about keeping my blasts controlled."
I stopped talking and considered. "Is it terrible that I enjoyed that fight? Just a nice clear 'smash critters, don't die'. It turns out I'm good at smash critters and don't die. I'm mostly bothered by not being bothered about if it that makes sense. I might need to talk with Klassin about that."
It's the first time we've really had a chance to just use our abilities. To really cut loose and not feel guilty or bad about the after effects. She paused in thought, I don't like hurting or killing things, but I like to feel powerful, that I'm in control and that nothing can stop me. Given her history that made sense.
Scout reached out and gave my hand a squeeze. It helped.
Things went quiet after that as we ate, the others having long finished their meals. Finally Avalon looked around the table, "I'm assuming you heard the rest?"
Shiori blinked, "They are saying that you used to be at Eden's Garden, that's why somebody tried to kill you and Flick."
Avalon took a breath, "Yeah. Is that going to be a problem?"
Vanessa shrugged, "I'm okay with it."
Shiori nodded, "I'm … this place isn't easy to deal with, the fact you used to be working for another group before you game here is really low on my list of problems right now."
Avalon smirked a little, "Fair enough." Then she looked at the two people who had grown up in a 'Crossroads Good, Garden Bad' mindset. Not that I had any concerns myself.
The twins looked at each other before Sands asked, "Look, I just have one question and it's a really important one." She paused for effect before asking, "Is the Tree really as amazing as people say?"
That got a surprised laugh out of Avalon. "Yes, yes it really is. It's … it's amazing and I miss it, a tree the size of a city, a big city. Like nothing else you've ever seen. I might be able to find you pictures."
Another shared glance, Scout smirking at something. Sands shook her head at her twin then looked back at us, "We'd love to see them. Though I don't think we can get away with Scout's idea to put a picture in that part of the handout, that might be pushing people a bit too far."
Scout spoke up, "Funny though." Which got a nod from her sister.
"Yeah, would be funny."
I stepped in while Avalon was dealing with not having her team upset with her, "To get a bit more serious. Somebody tried to murder Avalon and me. Next time they try they might hit other members of the team, or even go for all of us at once. The smart thing to do would be to transfer to another team that's less likely to be a target."
Because the kind of people that become Heretics are totally rational.
"But I'm assuming you won't do the smart thing, so we go onto plan B. You know how hard Avalon and I have been training?"
That got a wince from the other four.
Shiori muttered, "I guess I did choose Hunter Track."
"I mean it will make da happy we're taking this seriously." Was the contribution from the twins.
Vanessa sighed, "Exploring other worlds is dangerous so more training is good … I guess." She had the tone of somebody trying to convince herself.
I rubbed my hands together, "Well, the voice inside my head that tells me to train harder will be happy. This means we expect to see you bright and early at the start of training."
Heh. Heh. Heh.
[Friday, September 8, 2017]
Sands panted, "Ya know, the idea of somebody killing all of us so seeming much less scary now."
Avalon didn't even dignify that with a reply. I commented, "You didn't have to go all out like Avalon does."
"You did."
I gave her a raised eyebrow, "I'm crazy, I mean I have a piece of paper that says it and everything. I may not be the best role model here."
The voices inside your head have taken a vote and we've agreed you're sane.
You need to stop getting jokes from dad.
Avalon spoke up, "Also Chambers and I have better regeneration than you do, we can get away with pushing harder."
Scout's comment was, "More sweat, less blood." And that seemed to answer it for everyone.
The views here were never not amazing. I had eaten lunch quickly and then wandered off to find somewhere quiet to just enjoy watching the sea, something I still hadn't gotten used to.
So, what's wrong? I found somewhere quiet.
We had a visitor last night.
Shit. How bad?
Technically good. Latest attempt to work out why you can't be possessed, and this time they actually checked to see if there was another angel inside you. Took them long enough.
Many years ago while I slept, one of the Imperium's top scientists, and the woman in charge of controlling Eden's Garden for the Imperium, had snuck into my room and spent several hours trying to possess me and work out why she couldn't. At no point had it apparently occurred to her to do the most basic check to see if there was somebody in their already. For the second largest force in known space the angels had some weird blind spots and were amazingly bad at trying to deal with rogue members of their own species.
It honestly was good for her she didn't try anything that might have worked. Theia was watching her the entire time and ready to incinerate her the moment it looked like she might have really found something out. That would have itself caused problems, but less than our secret getting out would.
Given that we're not running for our lives right now I'm guessing the plan worked then? They used the expulsion rune?
In the Imperium's defense I did have to admit that it's very hard to find an angel inside someone. Even they didn't have casual methods for it, Crossroads not being able to find Theia in me wasn't just because their detection methods were sabotaged. There were two quick ways to do it in the field but neither was perfect. The most simple was to try and possess the target. If you bounced, there might be somebody else in there. You didn't even need to actually jump in, you could just 'ping' them to see if there was room.
However that had the downsides that an angel needed to do it with their own body, no doing it though a host unless the host also had possession abilities. If there was another angel in there they would know you had just pinged them, and there were things that would cause a false positive. This was very good in our case because we'd somehow managed to convince them that this was one of the other cases. Even Theia was confused by how well it had worked.
The other quick and dirty method was a simple little spell that forced an angel out of their current host. You drew a fairly complex glyph on the host, put energy in, and instant ejection. Theia was in the process of teaching me it. Downsides to it was that the act of drawing it was quite painful to the host and it was very distinctive, so any angel knew it was coming and could send out a warning to their friends, or try to murder you.
Yep. Smarted a bit, but the prepared spell worked perfectly. She thinks you're clean.
It also fails to work on anyone with Theia's condition in a weird way. Technically it doesn't kick an angel out, what it does is make it incredibly painful to stay in the host and makes it very easy for them to eject. Somebody with enough pain resistance could in theory just tough it out, somebody like my sister.
Have I mentioned I really really hate her mother? Because it bares repeating, Theia didn't get her pain resistance from nowhere. What she was calling 'smarted a bit' would be paralyzing agony for most.
In somebody with no possessor, it flares up then vanishes. In somebody with a possessor it flares up until the angel ejects and then vanishes. Theia can't eject, so it just stays there trying to force her out and hurting her.
You know I'm going to want to beat up whoever did that right? They hurt you.
I've had worse … and that's not going to convince you is it. Look, the spell worked, they think there can't possibly be anyone inside you. It's all good. I've already recast the fake out.
The countermeasure her mom came up with was simple. A prepared spell that waited for the expulsion rune to fire off then triggered an illusion of it flaring up and vanishing and hid the real rune while quietly erasing it over the next few seconds.
Simple, elegant, apparently effective, and just had the downside that it put my sister though agony when it went off. Somebody was going to get a beating at the very least over this when I got the chance.
I don't suppose you recognise them. Please don't be somebody she knows.
So, funny thing.
Shit. Anyone Theia could recognize was probably very very bad news.
Never met her face to face, but I know what all of mom and mother's old crew look like. It was Nemesis.
Oh hell. Both of Theia's mothers were part of an Imperium elite unit, all of them with unique powers and thousands of years of experience. They're all some of the most dangerous people around. And on top of that Nemesis was one of the assassins from that group. She used to work with Theia's mom before she went rogue.
And now she was at Crossroads. This just got a lot harder.
"So how has the 'available for questions' thing been working out anyway?"
I was asking Sands and Scout this as we were walking towards that Pathfinder in the evening. It was going to be our first Track Course so it was only the three of us in the team that were on that track. They happened Monday and Friday evenings, though of course the Monday one had been skipped due to Orientation. Also I really would have been in no state for it.
Sands smiled, "Not too badly, we've been getting a bunch of questions from the Kin and even a few from other Born. Turns out not everyone's parents told them everything they should have, we've been getting requests for more of the pamphlets too. Da said that Professor Neal has been grumbling about it in staff meetings but it sounds like he's given up on trying to stop us. I bet this has sped up them trying to get the official one done though. Which of course won't be as cool as ours."
He is still a poor replacement for Larissa. She would have helped them write something like this and made it the official one.
"You should totally put an actual picture of the Eden's Garden Tree in the next version."
"There is such a thing as pushing it too far." Though the thumbs up from Scout gave me when I made the suggestion showed the sisters weren't in total agreement there.
"What is the weirdest question so far?"
Sands gave me a look, "We are a confidential service, though I will say some of the more involved ones have been a few people trying to track down people from their visions."
Scout added, "We may do lectures."
"So stuff you're getting enough questions about that it's easier to do a class on it?"
Sands nodded, "Yeah, like money for example. Might see if we can convince Professor Carfried to do a side course on that one, it's not complex but it's technically teaching magic, so … "
I understood, "This is the magic batteries used as currency thing?"
"Yeah, Enners. I mean it makes sense, you can use magic or powers to create pretty much anything else so there really isn't anything rare enough to be valuable, but common enough to use as money, so may as well just trade magical energy directly. I mean, there isn't much to spend it on at this point in the year, which is why they don't bother teaching it for a while but it's another part of understanding the society."
We could do with some of those, I'm not short on magical power, and that's all you need for making money around here. I could feel her studying them through me, Listen to them, thinking about what will help people understand things better, and even why society does things differently from Bystanders. Larissa would be so damn impressed by them, I know I am.
If she's alive, we will find her. And she was with your mom, she's going to still be alive.
I miss her Felicity, I miss her so much. Both of them.
Just as we got to the Pathfinder we heard a voice from behind us say, "I'm pleased to hear that you will be involving staff for any practical lessons. Otherwise I might have to have words."
Sands jumped, Scout and I just looked over to see Professor Dare looking amused as she glided past us.
Our teacher got the attention of the group before continuing. "Good evening. You all know me, so I shall skip the introduction. It is now seven o'clock, the time that you will be expected to be in the location that I give you for this meeting every Monday and Friday from now on. I will not say that excuses for being late will not be accepted. However, I will say that if you give no excuse, the punishment for your tardiness will be less severe than if you attempt to give one and I find it lacking. For those who find that confusing, allow me to simplify. If your excuse for tardiness is a valid and reasonable one, I will accept it. If it is not and you attempt to use it anyway, your punishment will be worse than if you had said nothing. Is all of that understood?"
I like her, I wish she wasn't probably on the other side.
Still your best guess?
I mean she's who I'd pick with the security head as my second choice. After that, I'm not sure, but I'd focus on members of Gaia's inner circle. It only makes sense.
"As you all know, this is the Investigation track. Here, you will learn to investigate possible Stranger incursions and other situations, identify both new and established threats, and deal directly with the Bystander law enforcement. We have multiple ways of doing this, but one of our most important tools is lying. You will lie a lot. You should not feel ashamed of this. Lying keeps these people safe, and prevents them from making our jobs far more difficult."
Well this was going to be hard for me, I could see that now. Me being such a paragon of honesty as I was.
"Tonight, you will be given an opportunity to witness one of several ways that the Pathfinder building is used to aid us in these investigations. You will stay with me, you will touch nothing that you are not told to touch, and you will not disturb the people who are working. Is that understood as well?"
Annoyingly there are things that building does that I don't know about either. If it gets past 'open a portal somewhere' we'll need to find someone that actually knows how it works.
Still good to know we have another escape route.
Once Dare was sure we'd gotten the point she disarmed the humming warding circle with a quick series of words that should have been impossible to follow, and after the air had shimmered a bit she guided us into the building. People were treating the line with respect, so I guess Sands and Scout had given them 'the talk' about what happens if you mess with it. Theia had already memorized the sequence from my day trips here of course.
I was very familiar with the lobby by now, a small and circular room with a desk in the corner. The woman behind it smiled as we entered, "Good evening, Virginia. This is the new class?"
Before Professor Dare could respond, a group of men came right through the same doors we had just entered from, bustling straight past us in a rush. They barely slowed long enough to nod an acknowledgment to the secretary before moving on to one of a handful of doors that lined the circular wall.
"Hey, where the hell did those guys come from?" Koren spoke up. "Seriously, we were just out there."
The woman behind the desk glanced down at something before responding, "They came from Indiana, actually."
Professor Dare explained. "The Pathfinder building exists within multiple locations at the same time. Its existence on the island is only one of a dozen or so locations across the world that it simultaneously occupies."
I leaned over to the twins, "We really need to put a page or two in the handout about this."
Sands rolled her eyes, "You would not believe how tetchy some people get about including anything about here. Risks of somebody outside the school getting their hands on it has been brought up."
It was the receptionist who spoke up, her tone bemused, "Sweetie, we need to keep some things inside the knowledge. It's bad enough if the Garden read it, let alone Strangers."
Yeah, it would be terrible if a Stranger was to sneak through here. That would be bad.
Professor Dare ignored Sands's exaggerated eye-roll at that and started walking to one of the doors. "Come, I will show you one of the reasons that the Pathfinder building is so important to our work."
Together, we trailed after the professor, following her through a series of hallways and up two flights of stairs. We passed about another dozen people that were hard at work doing… whatever they were doing before we finally reached a short, out of the way hall with a single door.
"This," Professor Dare announced, "Is one of several projection rooms in this facility."
One of the others, I hadn't caught their name, asked the obvious question, "What's a projection room?"
I was only listening with half an ear, if the twins weren't allowed to talk about this Theia had been quite happy to give me the rundown. Long story short Crossroads had a thing called a Panoptic Analysis Window System, or PAWS, which was a flying golf-ball sized sensor. Set it loose in an area and it will fly around, while invisible, and grab a three dimensional scan of the area, including looking through walls and closed containers. Once they had it you could play the area back as an interactive solid 'hologram' in a projection room.
It let people like they were training us to be sneak in ahead of proper authorities, grab a copy of the area without anyone knowing, even while people were in there, and look at it at our leisure. It even grabbed magical signatures from the area. One of the many things that would be super useful to Bystanders if we could tell them about it, so another reason to be annoyed at the Imperium for the Bystander Effect existing. It wasn't like we could just hand a PAWS over to a cop, they would want to know how it worked and we couldn't explain it without getting into magic or other kinds of impossible hypertech.
Pay attention.
Dare continued, "Now, as a group, we are going to investigate one of these recorded crime scenes." Professor Dare gazed at us briefly before continuing. "Together, we will see what we can determine as a group before reviewing what conclusions the assigned investigators have come to."
I held a hand up, "I'm sure I'm going to regret asking this, but what kind of crime scene is it, Professor?".
She paused, glancing to me before responding. "An incident that occurred at a gas station. A man, who was believed to have attempted to rob the store was found shot in the back multiple times, presumably by the clerk. The clerk herself then exited the store, duct taped the gasoline nozzle into her own mouth, and proceeded to kill herself by choking on the gas."
Collectively, we stared. I felt sick inside, and somewhere nearby, one of the boys muttered a curse under his breath. Beside me, Scout gave a soft whimper.
Well that's creatively ghastly. Even mother didn't come up with something like that.
That is really not helping.
"These are the situations we will be dealing with. I will not coddle you from them because to do so would be a disservice to your education and training. If you do not wish to continue, you may at any point speak up and be excused to re-evaluate your track." Professor Dare spoke seriously, then put her hand on the doorknob. "Now, come. Let us see how much information you can find as a group."
She opened the door, allowing us to enter the horrific scene. I took a breath, steeled myself, and then stepped through.
Did Avalon actually call Gaia "Mother" in the original? And if she did, did she do it this early? I'm not certain, but the surprise I felt at this bit makes me suspect she didn't.
"It's rumored Felicity 'Flick' Chambers sometimes lived during her training time".
- Location
- Wellington, New Zealand
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This is a really good point I went back to check with Cerulean. Avalon did call her 'mother' before that but meant it more in a sense of "Legally speaking, she is my mother."
It was later on that she would call Gaia mom and mean it.
- Location
- My room.
I'd forgotten the exact details of Ammon's debut, remembering them didn't make me feel better. I hope he gets his just desserts before Family day.
Another thing that I've realized has disappeared in the Abyss that is my long term memory is what was Nemesis' power. Also, did she check for possession because of the 'imaginary friend'?
pheonix89
Wants to be Seven Of Nine
- Location
- North American Plaguelands
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Nemesis's power is Shonen Mode more or less.
The more emotionally invested she is in the fight - whether hating the enemy or wanting to protect people on her side - the stronger/faster/tougher she gets.
This is, needless to say, hilariously unspeakably broken if Flick gets it.
Because the Protect side never drops below 100% output thanks to Theia Inside.