When he stepped onto mostly unmelted street near his women's shelter, Adam was a bit surprised by the dozens of women staring at him in awe and hero worship.
He glanced behind. Nope, it was him.
Awkward.
With a strained smile, he clapped. "Well! I don't know about everyone else, but I feel bone tired!"
There, that helped. "Tibia honest, I am grateful that I marrowly escaped getting hurt."
CD's avatar rolled her eyes, but now the girls looked confused or whatever rather than worshiping his body and selling their souls, so an overall victory.
Adam walked towards the probable leader, the woman who called to him. "Right, I need all you girls to work with the nice nurses to make sure you are healthy, and that your new powers are having no side effects." Thanks for THAT, Simmy. Twilight was furious about the new power option.
He held out a skeletal hand, which the plant woman accepted as she stood. "In the meantime, I have some lawyers from The Guild who will ensure that all of you are legally protected. I received a high level summary of the situation thanks to the prayers you girls sent, but need details since I have recently received a summons from the local Protectorate branch."
The woman swayed, but held firm. "Are... are you Variance?"
His skeletal grin gave off light blue smoke. "Indeed. And you are?"
She gave a weak smile. "Just call me Ivy, for now. If cape names are even a thing anymore, considering I don't have a mask and we just made a hell of a lot of noise."
Adam passed her a quick mask with a combination of 'Manipulation' and 'Growth', the bright green vines able to cover the woman's eyes leaving her mouth free. "Ivy it is then. Get your girls organized, make sure they feel safe and secure, and then we are going to head off and explain to the nice people at the PRT why they can legally bugger off."
He winced as CD smacked his head. "I mean discuss the situation."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Emily Piggot forced herself to calmly handle the tension in the room. Or at least to keep her anger mostly internal.
Armsmaster and Miss Militia were sitting at the table to her left and right, but honestly no one here could do much if this went south. Some damn powers were just on a different level, and Variance had been raising the bar for 'Grab Bag Cape' to Eidolon levels.
She looked at the three visitors. Dragon had not attended, but somehow Narwhal of all people had the time to leave her office despite the mountains of paperwork Emily KNEW was being tossed at her. More annoying, that work was actually being handled correctly as far as anyone could tell, and yet the visiting head of Guild seemed far too relaxed for that.
God knows Emily hated the paperwork piles. But inside she still felt envious that a woman could have nearly double the workload and still look fantastic.
The other two were the topic of today. "Miss Ivy." She watched the red haired beauty nod. Because of course she was a supermodel, everyone around Variance seemed to be. "A few hours ago my city was at low levels of insane panic. It was the best I could do after near nonstop work and effort to ensure that the explosion my city pretends not to be stayed as peaceful as possible. Having many of those panicked people gain powers did not simplify the situation."
She accepted Armsmaster's files, looking at the top. "Twenty two dead gang members. Forty three castrated, twenty seven of which died before medical attention could be administrated."
Ivy didn't exactly look heart broken. Then again, neither did anyone else. If it wasn't for politics Piggot herself would have secretly given a toast to the poor woman for getting rid of some of the slaving and raping scum of the city.
Variance coughed. "I believe this is all covered by Section 2B1... uh." A blue flame poofed a white card with a blue angel's wing. "Thank you Simmy. Section 2B1332, subsection 4a." Well, so much for security. Then again, this room wasn't rated for blocking fire teleportation, or however that ability worked.
Armsmaster had already moved part of his halberd to the side, twisting his weapon's components... and a tiny printer began to push a thin paper tape for him to tear off.
Everyone stared at the thing. Emily mentally sighed and accepted the printout. "Ah. So you are claiming it was a trigger event? Even though most of the girls do not have the brain structures to even gain a power to begin with." Not that they had known that before Variance had handed over the medical information for the girls, needed as they were rape victims.
Adam rotated the paper in his hand all the way upside down, and kept reading. "Subsection 2B1332, subsection 4d through 4f, cover that. Powers granted through tinker effects, trump abilities, or via sudden control of a Parahuman who accidentally master themselves fall under this coverage."
That had happened before? Emily waved Armsmaster off before he could use that stupid tiny printer of his again. Shouldn't something SO unsuitable for combat be in his armor or something? "The issue may still be under debate."
Adam sighed as tiny blue flames consumed the card. "Look Director, I need to wrap this up at some point and I am not good at ALL working with sensitive topics or people. It is why I found capable people to run my businesses and to handle my sales situations. And more recently, to fill in my paperwork."
He leaned forward, his skeletal body shifting as he gazed into her eyes with his sockets. And hadn't THAT change required some getting used to? He frowned. "What exactly is the problem with Ivy's girls that is keeping this from being an open and shut case?"
Emily gave a very uncharacteristic sigh. "Well... I also want today to be over. Miss Militia, if you would?" The room sealed as the cape hit some hidden switches. Everyone assumed that the Tinker would be in control of security, an assumption Emily loved to abuse, but the damn man tended to disassemble everything he got too close to.
She gestured. "Two of the people castrated were very wealthy and connected... and have since passed away. While both were under investigation for a number of issues, and it was assumed that some background blackmail and such were holding up the discovery teams, one man had a long list of contingency attacks in the case of his death."
She waved off the looks. "We have managed to stay on top of it, and if anything it technically should have made everything even easier to handle in the paperwork, but the other man had connections with several legal departments."
Adam hummed. "Well. fuc..." He winced at an elbow jab and glanced at a frowning Narwhal. "Uh. Forget those jerks then." A white folder with a blue wing burned into existence. "As I am sure you know, I also have connections. Some more recent than others."
He placed the folder onto the desk. "Here is a listing of every gang member and 'client' that the girls knew visited that club. It includes Lung and the minions he brought to my safe house, although those men were killed by their boss when he escaped confinement." He glanced at Ivy. "Oh, and we are calling the confinement an attempt at 'Citizen`s Arrest', for what that's worth."
Emily let Armsmaster review the thick stack of dense paper first. "I'm sure it will be interesting, but do you have highlights?"
Adam nodded. "That folder only includes information legally attainable, but is enough to convict a standard felon without supernatural, parahuman, or criminal support in an unbiased court of law. It ranges from abuse and neglect up to murder, depends on the individual. I am sure more exists if we were willing to hack or break into buildings or whatever, and feel free to get some warrants and go to town, but this should be enough."
Armsmaster whistled... which was very uncharacteristic for him. "This was VERY efficient work, Variance. I am impressed."
Adam patted Ivy's knee, as she seemed far more relaxed now that she knew those people wouldn't get away with claiming to be the victim. "While much was gathered by Dragon's sister, I have a new personal assistant who is honestly overqualified for the job."
Several people blinked. Armsmaster especially seemed put off. "Dragon... has a sister?"
He blinked. Oops. Glaring at Emily, he groaned. "See, THIS is why I don't talk to people. I'm terrible at operations security. Just let me punch stuff and make things and everyone will be happier."
Emily smirked. THIS was a weak point that could valuable for a long time. "Well, let's move on then to the next small issue."
Her smirk vanished as some of her internal fury escaped. "Why were you having a Godzilla fight in MY CITY!?"
Variance winced. "I got Dragon to evacuate the area and... well. The initial plan was for me to collect Lung after the Girls took him down, only stepping in if any were in danger of mutilation or death. Everyone with me felt that the girls were organized, sufficiently powered, and motivated to take Lung down even if only a non-lethal fashion."
She glared. "Almost a solid mile of melted city. Dozens of collapsed warehouses, abandoned as they may be. Lung grew larger and more mutated than anything we have on record, and you somehow summoned a massive furry elephant who then popped the giant. How the HELL do you get that from 'Non-Lethal Takendown'!?"
Ivy was wincing herself, but before she could feel the blame a hand gripped her shoulder with support. Adam himself stayed calm. "The problem was they were TOO good. Instead of falling unconscious from blood loss or the sleeping toxins and such, his power decided that there was a lethal threat, more than one, and basically threw out all the limitations and went for full attack mode."
He gestured, images from the fight flickering in the air. "Before Ivy captured him, he was reaching the levels of power he used to attempt to fight Leviathan. The attacks were too strong, too fast, and too well organized. In Japan, Lung ran away when he found a threat this big. Here he couldn't."
Now images of the fight near the edge of the sea. From a perspective FAR higher than before. "I was attempting to use the ocean as a heat buffer, while trying to find the source of his powers and disable them. Like I did with Gray Boy's victims. I think somehow his power detected that... and. well."
A video played, explosions and sound showing the chaos as an ash egg formed.
He frowned. "It got too dangerous to handle the man without lethal intent. If I hadn't sealed the area, that structure... it was deadly. As far as I can tell, his power inverted. Instead of creating more flesh and energy, it decided to consume everything in the area... possibly to create a new form with enough power to slaughter me."
He missed Ivy's shocked gaze as she realized how much Variance had gone through for her and her girls. "In the end, I had to use one of my most dangerous skills to permanently seal away whatever the hell the guy was becoming. Even that process involved me getting fairly damaged."
A skeletal corpse struggled against fire, reaching towards the ashen egg.
Adam sighed, letting that video go. "Thankfully I am fairly sturdy."
Armsmaster raised a hand in the stunned silent room. "Did you become a big furry elephant?"
He blinked. "Uh... technically no? I tried to become as big as possible as quickly as I could, and sort of turned into the Baku by accident in the process." He nudged Narwhal with his elbow. "By the way, writing runes with your nose is surprisingly harder than you would think."
Miss Militia frowned. "What is a Baku?"
Adam held a hand over the desk. Dozens of white peanuts fell onto it... then caught on fire. Blue flames twisted until the mess formed a tiny furry elephant.
He pointed. "That. It is a spiritual creature that eats bad dreams, mental illnesses, sickness, and such. The tend to purify their habitat and environment. Also, they squeak. Not sure why."
Emily felt her body lock up. He could spawn monsters!? Flashbacks of the horror of Nilbog and his mutated former humans twisted into fleshy monsters, the gruesome fight as her people were torn, the... the...
A black ball was now being slowly nommed on by the Baku. Adam nodded. "See? They love that negative stuff."
Emily vaguely heard Master/Stranger protocols called as Narwhal started slapping the shoulder of a confused Variance, Ivy now petting the small creature eating years of pain and self mental harm.
Miss Militia recovered first, even as everyone was being led to confinement chambers. "Variance, could you please get rid of your Baku projection? This process will be bad enough without exposing more people to it."
The last thing she heard as her own room was sealed was... not encouraging.
"Uh... it only exists if you believe it does."
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Does being held in a Master/Stranger confinement room make him double grounded? Because while Simmy found this hilarious, Narwhal was ranting up a storm.
Damn it, this is why he didn't do social stuff. He had people for that.
