I like the idea of a Hogwarts Library Exploration Club. Wonder what books they would find?
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Declassified Mission Files (Snippets Thread)
- Thread starter Lt. Ouroumov
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negima reference?
Kaernetron
Feuergeist
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Five points to the Lt. for introducing assistant professors!
That's a thing I've noted down and planned for my stuff as well (one day I'll get back to writing) because, thinking back to my own school days, I can't see a single person teaching a core subject like Charms to the entire school on their own without wearing out a time turner.
That's a thing I've noted down and planned for my stuff as well (one day I'll get back to writing) because, thinking back to my own school days, I can't see a single person teaching a core subject like Charms to the entire school on their own without wearing out a time turner.
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I mean if you take it as 12 different classes, 2 for years one to 5 and one each for NEWT classes, and 2 classes or a double for each group that's only 24 class periods, based on my own experience there's probably 6 different class times, 5 days a week that is 30 periods for lessons, easily enough to teach the whole school, especially as the Hogwarts student population is rather small, that said it's still a lot of grading to do.
She is literally Evangeline McDowell...
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I stole the idea from The odds were never in my favor since, as @TheWanderer pointed out, the class schedule is impossible otherwise. I also added the school clubs to create more depth, Eva isn't going to play Quidditch so I created other avenues for plot developments.
There are several Negima references sprinkled throughout, the Library Exploration Club being one.
Kaernetron
Feuergeist
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Well, the numbers I'm working with are somewhat higher.
In the year Harry's Hogwarts Adventure begins, I have:
2 classes each for first to fourth year
3 each for fifth and sixth
4 classes for seventh year
for a total of 18 classes
Core subjects are taught with on average 3.5 periods per week, for a total of 63.
Double that number to account for lesson prep and grading.
Don't even think about night patrols or supervising detentions and it should be obvious why I think that time turner looks kinda crumbly.
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MaimakteriAnn
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Oh dear. Lesbian poly librarians are go?
A Magus in Hufflepuff - Chapter 6
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A Magus in Hufflepuff
Chapter 6
The Hogwarts library was massive. The central hall was spacious, at least fifty meters in length if not more, with a high ceiling that gave an impressive view of the library's three levels. There were clusters of tables for students illuminated by dozens of chandeliers that hovered above. Near the entrance was the librarian's desk where Madam Pince watched for any troublemakers. On both sides were rows upon rows of shelves filled with books.
Our group of Hufflepuff made their way through the labyrinth of books. According to the magic-raised in the group, the best study spots were tucked between the shelves rather than close to the entrance. I made notes of the various sections we traversed, they seemed to be organized with some sort of system but it was not obvious what it was at first glance.
After a few minutes, and some back-tracking, Susan finally found what she had been looking for, an out of the way circular table inside of an alcove. It was well lit by two large windows and had seats that looked much more comfortable, with their brown and gold cushions, than the one near the entrance had been.
"Shame we can't get tea delivered here," Hannah sighed, "it's the perfect spot."
"Madam Pince would hang you from the rafters by the toes if you did," Susan said, "my aunt told me she is really, really strict."
"Let's not," I said as I shuffled into a seat, "I don't want to get hung by my toes …"
"Do they really have punishments like this here?" Eloise asked, uncertain.
"Dumbledore changed the school charter and made them against the rules," Megan said, "my father said Filch, the caretaker, complained about it constantly during detentions." He sounded like a charming man. "The worst he had to do was scrub dirty cauldrons by hand, without magic."
"Doesn't sound all that bad," I shrugged, maybe it was for someone who was used to using magic. "Now … let's do this transfiguration homework."
"I don't know how you managed so well," Eloise said, looking a little discouraged, "mine barely changed."
"Are you sure you've never done magic before?" Hannah asked with a pout.
"I tried a few charms from the book during the summer," I said with a shrug, "but no transfiguration."
"How? We're not supposed to use magic outside of school," Megan asked.
"Nobody told me that," I feigned innocence.
"Not like I could anyway," Megan grumbled, "my mom took my wand after we bought it."
"Transfiguration!" Susan tried to steer the conversation back on track.
I wrote my essay fairly quickly, the pen-like holder I had bought made it much easier to use a quill, and helped my fellow Hufflepuff with theirs once I was satisfied. Eloise struggled with some of the magical theory concepts, the course book was perhaps a bit too in-depth on that front, but I managed to simplify things for her thanks to the Practical Guide books. Susan and Hannah had the core of things correct but their essay structure needed some polish. Megan struggled with the math-heavy bits of theory, she had not gone to non-magical school unlike the rest of us, but she was better at the abstract parts.
After lunch, which had a much more reasonable selection of dishes than the feast of the day prior, was the Herbology lesson with Pomona Sprout, our head of house, and the Gryffindors. The professor first gave us a tour of where classes would take place. One of the greenhouses housed a classroom and her office while the others housed the many plants we would be studying during our time at Hogwarts. Several were off-limits to students below a certain year, or at all in one case, due to the dangerous plants inside.
Herbology was one of the two classes, the other being potions, that was always taught with two periods back to back due to the uninterruptible nature of certain practical exercises. For our first class, we were introduced to some benign magical plants, a blobby mushroom that giggled when tapped, and taught the basics of plant care.
Neville had a bright smile the whole time, he was in his element in this class, while some of the students seemed recalcitrant to get their hands dirty. Hermione, for her part, looked equal parts perplexed and fascinated by the harmless giggling mushrooms.
The first period came to a close and professor Sprout left us in the capable hands of the junior professor Cheyenne Garlick. She was younger and even more enthusiastic about the subject. The aim for the second part of the course was to start on our semester project. She brought us to greenhouse two and we had to pair up with a student from the other house, I chose Hermione, and grow Wormwood seeds up to maturation while we kept a journal with a record of our progress.
The first step was obviously to prepare the planter, a round clay pot about a foot in diameter charmed to be unbreakable, with the appropriate mixture of soil. Hermione had read the course book from cover to cover, probably twice for good measure, but she was suddenly less certain when confronted with bags of potting soil and dragon dung.
After class, Hermione rather forcefully extracted a promise from me to meet at the library the next day after class to work on our herbology journal. Most of my notes were already in order, and twice the minimum length of four inches, so I agreed with a smile. I had the impression she took my laid-back attitude for a lack of interest in the subject. She was very wrong but it would be a good lesson to not judge a book by its cover, or maybe a plant by its flowers. With several hours to kill until the evening meal, I returned to the common room to drop off my books and left to explore the castle.
The grand staircase was as majestic as it was confusing. The prefects provided maps bound into little pamphlets with a rough layout of the castle in the common room, updated each semester. It wasn't the Marauder's Map but, as long as the castle didn't completely change overnight, it gave a good idea of where to go, even if the layout was worthy of a Castlevania game.
The Hufflepuff common room was somewhere below the great hall, accessible through a spiraling staircase that didn't move and joined up with the rest of the hallways somewhere around ground level.
My first though had been to visit the Room of Requirements, because who wouldn't, but I quickly realized that, while I knew of its location in the abstract, I didn't actually know where it was. There were at least two towers with seventh floors or more. Thankfully, the forbidden third floor corridor which promised a painful death to anyone who visited was marked on the map. Without a real goal in mind, I jumped on the first set of moving stairs and started to climb.
The stairs themselves were fascinating, they reshaped themselves to fit the connection they wanted to make, a simple straight staircase could wind itself around a pillar to provide a way straight up like a stone spring, or change its inclination and summon more steps to reach different levels.
Most of the stairs were functional if strange but I made sure to move like a knight on the chessboard stairs to avoid the trapped squares, as the notes on the map said, and avoided the seventeenth step on the gothic staircase with the ugly gargoyles as it sometimes crumbled underfoot. None of them turned into a slide, thankfully, but a few decided to move while I was on my way up which made my journey upward more complicated.
Finally, after three quarters of an hour, I reached the top floor where the trophy room lay. I took a moment to observe the very large quantity of cups and other congratulatory memorabilia. Quidditch cups aplenty, going back two decades at least, various academic awards, and even the Awards for Services to the School given to one Tom Marvolo Riddle for framing Hagrid.
On the outer ring, another staircase continued even higher and, after a full rotation, landed me in a long hallway decorated with various gargoyles kneeling. At the end, inside a circular alcove, was a majestic golden statue of a gryphon with its wings spread out.
"Huh, so this is the headmaster's office," I said as I examined the statue. "Revelio," I twirled my wand in the air. The magic washed all around me and exposed the incredibly intricate web of magic present all around the hallways. Even the stones of the castle were soaked with magic. I reigned in the spell and focused on the statue itself, which glowed with dozens of layers of spells forming a complex and interwoven enchantment.
"Fascinating …" I breathed out.
"Indeed," a voice said from behind me took me by surprise. I nearly jumped all the way to the ceiling from the scare and turned around, my wand already pointed towards the voice, a spell already at the tip of my tongue.
"Stu-" I stopped. "Headmaster," I said when I recognized the wizened old man. I lowered my wand and let my poor heart return to a normal rate.
"Indeed Miss … McDowell was it?" I nodded. "Were you in need of my assistance?"
"No … uh … I was … exploring?" I said, embarrassed, mostly at my reaction.
"Ah, of course," his eyes twinkled behind his half-moon glasses, "to be young again. I remember my first week at Hogwarts like it was yesterday." He had a wistful look on his face. "Your revealing charm was impressive, it looks like you have a knack for magic Miss McDowell."
"I've read ahead a bit, that's all," despite my attempt at modesty, I preened at the compliment. "But the results are still gibberish," I grimaced.
"Perhaps you need to read ahead further," Dumbledore said with a chuckle. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have parchmentwork to complete or I believe our dear Deputy Headmistress will want to give me detention, again."
"Do you have any advice on where to explore next?" I asked.
"I believe the astronomy tower has many nooks and crannies to visit," the headmaster advised, "personally, I've always found the clock tower most fascinating, the mechanisms there still elude me to this day."
"Thanks and have a good day, sir," I wave to Dumbledore and disappear down the stairs.
I retraced my steps down and stopped at the fifth floor, or at least I was pretty certain it was the fifth floor, and took the bridge to the base of the Ravenclaw tower. I spotted the eagle-shaped riddle-asking door knocker but I continued my way past it towards the astronomy tower. Even if I wanted to try my hand at it, I wasn't great at riddles.
Some more stairs and another bridge later, I found myself in the second half of the castle. If I continued downwards, I'd find myself back in the transfiguration wing, but I took another path and wandered into the astronomy tower instead.
On the seventh floor of the astronomy tower, as I turned into a random hallway, I found the tapestry with the wizard and the dancing trolls. From the plaque below, it was titled Barnabas the Barmy and the three Dancing Trolls. It was, of course, animated and depicted Barnabas as the wizard met a most gruesome fate at hands of the three trolls, a different way each loop.
It was unlikely there were many paintings of dancing trolls at Hogwarts, or maybe I was mistaken and there were a lot. Either way, I paced back and forth in the deserted hallways and tried to summon the Room of Requirements.
I want a place to work without being disturbed.
As I passed by the middle of the wall for a third time, it morphed into a pair of elegant hardwood doors with frosted glass windows and intricately detailed brass handles. Through the glass, I could see the blurry outline of a large room. After a moment of hesitation, I opened the doors and stepped inside.
Conceal the door, please. I thought as I followed the short hallways. A quick look behind me showed that the doors behind me had turned into a plain wall.
What counted as plain for this room at least, the floor, wall, and ceiling had a distinct Victorian Steampunk aesthetic with wood and brass everywhere, and the various light fixtures that hung from the ceiling and walls were frosted glass globes mounted on brass supports.
At the end of the hallway, I arrived on the first level of a large hexagonal room. The mezzanine had several tables dotted around and nooks filled with bookshelves and cabinets along the walls. Directly right of the entrance, in the first nook, was a wrought iron staircase that led down to the lower level, while the space on the right looked like a fully furnished office. I looked over the balustrade and discovered that the floor below was a honest-to-god mad scientist's laboratory.
In the middle was an array of three workstations with various kinds of equipment, a cauldron and alembic flanked to what I assumed was a preparation station with a cutting board overlooked by several cabinets, a workbench with an impressive array of tools to work all kinds of materials, including a tabletop lathe and drill of all things, and an area with several glass cloches surrounded by glass and brass hydroponics equipment.
Along the exterior, the walls were covered in shelves and cabinets piled with materials and other components. I wasn't certain where the room had found all of it, maybe it was conjured or maybe it was taken from the lost and found room where Voldemort had stashed the diadem, either way it was impressive.
What was less impressive was the clock on the wall which, if it was accurate, indicated I only had thirty minutes to get back to the great hall before the evening meal started. I gave a last look to the room and returned to the entrance. I requested a door out, which the room helpfully provided, but another idea materialized.
Keep a journal of who accesses this room and when. Next to the door, a book appeared on a pedestal with a single name on its pages. This version of the room can only be accessed with the following passphrase: Correct Horse Battery Staple. A heavy lock, with no keyhole, appeared on the door. Thank you, please lock the entrance once I am gone. I smiled and left, the door turned into a wall as soon as it closed.
"Ah, here you are," Angus said as I entered the great hall.
"Indeed, here I am," I said, confused, "where else would I be?"
"Your friends were worried when you disappeared after class," he said.
"Ah, sorry," I hadn't really thought about that. "I was out exploring the castle, I needed some quiet time for myself."
"I understand," Angus smiled, "it can be pretty overwhelming. Just tell someone or leave a note in your dorm next time."
"I will," I nodded. "Thanks Angus."
"Go reassure your friends," he ushered me in their direction. I quickly found the other first year girls and sat down next to Eloise.
"Sorry I made you worry," I said.
"Where did you disappear to?" Susan asked. "We looked in the library but …"
"I was taking a stroll in the castle," I said with a smile. "I needed some quiet time. I wandered all the way up the grand staircase, there's a huge trophy room up there, and I even found the headmaster's office. And the headmaster too."
"You've met Dumbledore?" Hannah said.
"Did you visit his office?" Megan asked.
"He didn't have the time to give me a tour so I only saw the golden gryphon statue at the entrance," I chuckled, "too much parchmentwork."
"My aunt complains about that all the time too," Susan said.
The discussion moved on from there as the diner was served. It was more elaborate than breakfast and lunch but not quite a proper feast. Those were probably reserved for big occasions, like the Sorting, Halloween, Christmas, and the likes.
After the feast we all returned to the common room where I spent some time in the company of everyone. Kevin Entwhistle and Wayne Hopkins introduced everyone to the wonders of Chocolate Frog Card Battles. I was surprised to find out that, in addition to being collectible, the cards could be used to play something like Magic the Gathering but for wizards. I watched a few games between my year-mates, some of the boys had brought their decks, and it looked fun. Since a single card, the Albus Dumbledore I had gotten during the train ride, didn't make a deck, I couldn't play yet.
After that, Megan tried to pull me into a game of Gobstones with Susan and Hannah but I shuffled into the direction of Justin Finch-Fletchley. He was in front of a chessboard and without an opponent.
"Up for a game?" I asked as I took a seat.
"Sure," he smiled, happy he finally had an opponent, "do you play often?"
"Not really," I shrugged, "I'll take black." I quickly made sure that all the prices were in the right place.
"I get to go first then," he went to pick up the e4 pawn but the piece scolded him. "King's pawn forward two squares," he said and the pawn dutifully moved.
"Pawn to e5," I said but my pawns just looked at each other in confusion. "Come-on, algebraic notation was invented two hundred years ago, get with the program." The pieces didn't seem convinced and I sighed, the chess set might have been older than that. "King's pawn two squares forward."
"Queen side Knight, left."
"King's bishop forward four squares to the right."
"King's bishop forward four squares to the left."
"Queen forward left diagonal three squares." My queen grumbled but complied.
"Uh … Queen pawn forward one square?" Ernie followed up, it seemed more like a question.
"Second pawn from the left, two squares forward."
"It's a freebie," Ernie said with a grin. "Knight, take that pawn."
My poor pawn was summarily defeated by the valiant knight.
"Queen forward to the second rank, diagonal to the king." With eyes wide open, the piece moved forward and slapped the pawn away. "Checkmate!"
"What the hell?" Ernie looked stunned. Maybe it was a bit mean to attempt a Scholar's mate but, on the other hand, the look on his face was also pretty funny.
"Another game?" I said with a grin. "I'll play proper this time."
"Oh, you're so on!"
We played a few more games, Ernie was good at the game but the mental boost I got from cultivation gave me an advantage. So I mostly played moves that I thought were fun and didn't try very hard to win. Unless he left an opening the size of a dragon on the board, like the back rank rook checkmate I gave him in the third game.
Thanks to my heavily reduced need for sleep and perfect dark vision, I had plenty of time to peruse my collection of tomes during the night. With the arrival of September, I noticed that a second gate of the snail had been released but it didn't seem to change much. Out of an abundance of caution, I infused one of my trinkets with the Shield spell and another with Color Spray.
I woke up at seven in the morning and did Tai Chi for fifteen minutes before I got dressed, I had been so excited the previous day that I had skipped that part of my morning routine entirely. Then I went out into the common room and waited for my fellow first years with a book.
Magical Drafts and Potions was, possibly, the worst textbook ever written. It was an art to distill academic knowledge into something that could be understood by eleven years old, something the book failed miserably at, it was more appropriate for students in the higher years with good foundations. It fit Snape's personality perfectly.
Since we had a free period first thing in the morning, my classmates took their sweet time to arrive. It wasn't until a quarter to eight that Hannah and Susan emerged from the dorm. Eloise and Megan had arrived a bit earlier, the former had been apprehensive at the idea of Defense Against the Dark Arts. I had to admit the class name sounded ominous.
A/N: Last completed chapter I have for Magus.
I didn't post last week because I was at Disneyland Paris with my godson and his family, my legs still hurt from all the queues.
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I like the idea of exploring Hogwarts(figuratively and literally). Not too many fics take time to show off how big, mysterious, and complicated Hogwarts ought to be.
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too many to count when you factor in the castle moving hallways and no one makes a fuss, other than the student who complain about getting detention for being late to class.
MaimakteriAnn
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Noooo! Dont do it! Mere vampirism will not save you. It didnt save Alucard, or Soma.
If she's got wizard levels, and not been able to practice hp magic at home, shouldn't she have tried Detect Magic or Identify? Unless she knew Dumbledore was there?
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Sally-Anne Perks got lost in the castle, that's why she doesn't show up in the latter books. 😛
Eva doesn't have many spell slots and she did use some HP magic at home to examine the mysterious watch. Revelio is also a lot more flexible to examine HP magic.
MaimakteriAnn
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Huh, what edition wiz is she? Does she have ritual caster?
Melody of Sorrow, Refrain of Resilience - Chapter 2 (Part 2)
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Melody of Sorrow, Refrain of Resilience
Chapter 2 (Part 2)
I briefly debated if I should take the bot's weapons or grenades but I decided against it, I wasn't trained with either of those and Hannah would likely be very cross with me if I did, she took weapon safety very seriously.
No, I would have to get through this with my own wits and powers. During the four months and change I had spent in captivity, I had used my powers as an escape. I hadn't been able to use most of them, the collar either blocked them or gave me a shock when I tried to use them, but I was able to use my Thinker power and access the knowledge from my other powers to theory-craft ideas. I had only shown the crystal power to Markus and he had been satisfied but I had so much more at my disposal.
It was time to put the theory into practice.
My powers were focused around one main theme: magic. Powers to cast spells, enchant objects, transmute matter or brew potions with alchemy. The crystals I could create weren't only blunt weapons but catalysts and ingredients. The main outlier was my Thinker power, which I had nicknamed Polymath, but magic could be argued to be about knowledge and research, things this power was good at.
I focused on the Archive sub-power of Polymath, one I had kept locked for almost four months, and pulled out the schematics for the crystal focus I had devised one night. Everything worked in theory but I hadn't used my powers more than a few times since I had been rescued, there had been too many other things on my mind.
This was a situation where I could safely put that theory into practice.
I pulled on the crystal power and started to form the different parts in the proper shapes. I started with the internals, a complex network of hair thin crystals and gems made of various exotic materials, their surfaces engraved with symbols. Spell arrays that large used a ridiculous amount of charges to enchant but I had so many of them in reserve that it was a drop in the bucket, the mana cost was nothing to sneeze at either but my recharge rate looked to be more than enough to keep up.
Then, I started to layer a casing on top to protect the fragile internal mechanisms. It was made of a mix of black and white onyx as well as an iridescent blue crystal that gave off a soft glow. The end result looked like a mix of sci-fi technology and magic with the shape of a rifle blended with a needle. I had been inspired by the Noulith Hagneia, a magic weapon from a video game I used to play before … everything. Of course, one wasn't enough and I created five more. A quick look at the clock on my visor showed it had taken around five minutes.
I mentally moved the needles behind me, arrayed in a way that suggested two wings, and stepped towards the entrance of the building.
It was showtime!
"Did she just build tinker devices out of thin air?" Chambers asked.
"It looks like she used her crystal manipulation power," Stevenson remarked.
Alex watched as Nephelia stepped out from behind the van and walked confidently towards the building's entrance. So far, the girl had been reserved and skittish, always wearing the same neutral expression and Alex was glad Riviera had forwarded her a guide on how to behave with her and read the "ear moods" as she had called them. She hadn't spent a lot of time with Nephelia but it was obvious there was more going on under the carefully controlled surface.
The way she had approached the situation had been telling, Nephelia's first reaction had been to hide behind a car and carefully observe the situation. Alex had seen a lot of newbie capes rush in head first during the same simulation, eager to show off their heroics, and end up covered in paint. Though, maybe, there was a happy middle ground.
Nephelia had not wasted time. She had blown the building's condemned front doors open with an actinic blue bolts from her newly built weapon platforms and showered the two robots hiding behind the reception counter with shards of glass and wood. The robots had returned fire through the smoke but Nephelia had raised the same transparent shield as before to protect herself. She sent two red beams towards the robots and struck them in the head with pinpoint precision. They dropped to the ground like they were programmed to when struck with a sufficiently powerful attack.
Through the cameras in the lobby, Alex watched as Nephelia crossed the area. She covered both hallways with two of her flying needles and a shield each while she checked behind the reception counter. She found the first two civilian bots, dressed like a pair of squatters, cowering behind. The bots worked with a set of pre-programmed behaviors and could follow basic instructions that matched them. In that case, Nephelia told the bots to wait outside for the authorities to arrive.
I watched as the two civilian bots left through the door and hid behind one of the black vans. They had followed my order to go outside and wait for help but I wasn't sure how intelligent they really were. The interaction had felt like I was going down a dialogue tree in a video game, except I didn't have a dialogue wheel so I had no idea of what to say.
With the lobby secured, at least for the moment, I had two options to proceed. From the signs on the walls, on the double doors on the left led to the workshops and warehouse areas while the hallway on the right led to the offices. I had no idea what the merc's objective was, the bots had provided only canned responses when I asked, but logic followed that they were interested in whatever was deeper in the building or they would have left already.
But this was a simulation, everything here was constructed, so I couldn't say for certain. In the background, I could hear the distant sounds of gunfire. The mercenaries had obviously encountered some resistance. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell precisely where they came from, the walls muffled everything into an indistinct echo.
My ears twitched and I heard muted sounds coming from behind the double doors, low voices and boots stomping. I didn't have much time to make a decision. My objective was to get to the top floor, not to fight, so I dashed towards the right and disappeared behind the bend of the hallway seconds before the mercenaries opened the door.
There had been a security airlock with two heavy wooden doors, I spotted the broken remains of a card reader on the wall, but whoever had taken over that building had broken it and changed the locks for more conventional models. The mercenaries had gone right through without stopping, as evidenced by the broken remains of the lock that lay on the floor, and I followed in their steps with two of my Nouliths above my shoulders, ready to cast. The other four floated along my back, ready to deploy once there was more space available.
At the end of the hall, I found myself in a small foyer with hallways that led in every direction and there were no signs to direct me where I needed to go. I could hear the mercenaries in the lobby behind me, and they didn't sound like they were about to leave, time was of the essence.
I picked the path to the right, it would break line of sight and bring me away from where I knew there were mercenaries. The hallways had doors on either side that led to offices. I quickly peeked into the first but there was nobody inside, only trashed furniture and an empty mattress in one corner. This meant that there had definitely been some residents in the building at some point. I didn't have the time to check every office so I ran and hoped nothing jumped at me.
Of course, something jumped at me.
I heard a shout from my left and barely had the time to bring up a crystal shield before the robot fired its shotgun and splattered it with red paint. The hallway was awkward to bring my Noulith into position to fire, something I should have thought about before I made them so big, so I burned three charges from my White Mage power to hit the robot in the face. The purple bursts of energy dropped the bot but I looked behind me and the mercenaries were right fucking there.
I raised a second shield to block their projectiles and fired a hail of concussion bolts with my Nouliths. I missed with half of them but the pulverized drywall gave me enough cover to sprint to the end of the hallway and turn left. I slapped my hand on the wall and filled the hall behind me with spikes of crystal to block my pursuers.
The long corridor I was in still had doors evenly spaced on the right, more offices, but the left had several larger double doors. I crept towards them, trying to be as stealthy as I could while still being fast, the mercs were still on my tail, and looked through the windows. Cubicles. A large room filled with cubicles and the occasional support pillar. I wasn't sure why a welding company needed that much office space but I reminded myself this was a simulation, it didn't have to make sense.
I slid inside the office space, crouching low to the ground to stay below the partitions, and slipped into one of the cubicles to catch my breath. The room seemed to be large enough to run the entire length of the hallway I had just gone through, this meant it was likely connected to the hallways that continued forward from the entrance. I had a way to loop back around and sneak behind the mercenaries. They probably knew that too, because that plan was incredibly obvious.
I needed more intel and more situational awareness.
Thankfully, I had exactly what I needed in my archive.
It was interesting to see how Nephelia had approached the situation. After her dynamic entrance and efficient takedown of the first two targets, she had expected the elf to stand her ground and confront the second group. Doctor Chambers had speculated that she'd be able to hear the robots walk around and it looked like she had been right, Nephelia's ears had subtly twitched a few moments before she had dashed into the hallway.
This reaction had surprised them.
There were two broad paths through the scenario, the first was through the workshops and warehouse areas and the second was through the offices. Usually, capes with combat oriented powers fought the second group of mercenaries, or were caught by them while fighting the two guards, and went down the first path. The office complex was the preferred route for stealth, usually capes with less combat oriented powers favored this one.
Combat Thinkers also liked the offices.
"Chambers, you owe me," Bright said, "I told you she'd go for the offices."
"Not yet," Chambers retorted, "we don't know why. Maybe the mercs just spooked her."
"Then she's smarter than average," Bright scoffed, "but I'm sure that Thinker power of hers had something to do with it. She does say, and I quote, 'grants skill sets and minor mental powers.' Strategy is a skill and I bet she was smart enough to have it on hand."
Alex thought it was a compelling argument. Nephelia had moved and behaved like someone trained. If she was smart she would have picked the skills of a PRT agent or SWAT team member. She also suspected enhanced reflexes with the way she had reacted to the shotgun ambush.
The screen zoomed on Nephelia, huddling under a desk in the middle of the cubicle maze and her six weapon platforms awkwardly stuffed there with her. She didn't seem bothered and Alex watched as a small sphere of crystal formed between her cupped palms.
"She's building something again," Stevenson said.
"Should we delay the bots a little?" Chambers asked.
"No," Stevenson waved her off, "this looks quicker."
It followed the same process as last time, a fiendishly complex contraption of multicolored crystals encased inside of a black and white casing. The result was a sphere the size of a golf ball with blue circles of various sizes along the surface.
They all watched as the sphere zipped up into the air and hovered above the cubicles.
"Another drone," Bright tapped his chin, "probably for reconnaissance. Even if she isn't using the skills of a tactician, she is thinking like one."
"You know," Stevenson said, "when I saw the file of a Case 53 that looks like an elf with magic themed powers, I expected something like Dungeons and Dragons not … cyberpunk."
"Shadowrun has elves and magic," Chambers interjected.
The scout drone gave me an aerial, three-hundred and sixty view of the room. It would have been disorienting but I had a multitasking power slotted in Polymath, alongside one that increased my speed of through by about five times, which helped handle the strange view, and a math power that was a weaker version of the Number Man, that helped a lot when aiming my Nouliths.
I had heard the mercenaries enter the room. The scout drone showed five of them, four were spread around the cubicles, searching for me, and the last one was guarding the door. I had about thirty seconds before they found me.
Plenty of time.
I ran some calculations and moved my Nouliths in position. The merc searching my row would see them in five seconds but it wouldn't have the time. Five of them flew up like missiles and oriented themselves to aim at their five targets, I cast the stun spell and all the robots dropped to the ground in unison. I rolled from underneath the desk and sprinted towards the door, my Nouliths floated back into formation behind me and the scout drone moved ahead.
It did not see anyone in the hallway but I spotted the staircase and elevator. They were in the middle of the hallway, right in front of the second door out of the cubicle area. I berated myself for missing them but there was nothing I could do about it. I adjusted my firing angles to cover both ends of the hallway and jogged towards the stairs. On the way there, I dedicated a part of my attention to the construction of a second scout drone. It took only ten seconds this time and I sent it up the stairs ahead of me.
There was nothing waiting for me but I found out that the stairs to the third floor had partially collapsed.
Of fucking course they had. Stupid simulation.
I cautiously climbed the stairs, taking care to be as silent as I could, and created a third drone at the same time. When it came online, I started to feel the strain on my mind. Four drones was probably my limit, at least for the moment. I made a mental note to update the design to fix that flaw.
Scout One stayed with me to watch my back, in case someone went up the stairs, and I sent Two and Three down the corridor. This floor was laid out differently than the previous one. I couldn't see what was in the middle square except for some closed doors and hallways but the perimeter had rooms with glass walls that had been covered with cardboard. The sound of gunfire was louder too, loud enough that I was almost certain there were mercenaries nearby.
There had been two dozen of them at most but I had no idea how many enemies I was up against in total, the shotgun wielding bot had not been a merc or a civilian, which told me for certain there were at least two different factions involved in that clusterfuck.
I needed to stay focused on the objective.
A/N: Gardner "Nephy is cool under pressure" Meanwhile, Nephy "Oh shit! Oh shit! Oh shit!"
Melody of Sorrow, Refrain of Resilience - Chapter 2 (Part 3)
New
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Melody of Sorrow, Refrain of Resilience
Chapter 2 (Part 3)
My drones found one group of mercenaries locked in an exchange of gunfire with another group of bots. They were pinned down in the small room that made up the intersection at the right end of the hallway. I had a bad feeling that whoever was shooting at them would try to flank them through the hallway I wanted to take. I caught a few glimpses of them as they peeked from behind tables and around corners. They wore the same brown jacket as the shotgun wielding bot. Some kind of gang maybe?
There was no point in waiting for one side to win. It was a bad idea, actually, since I was pretty sure the other side of the gunfight would be hostile too. At least, if they had each other as targets, they were less likely to devote their full attention to me.
I had several options. First was to go right, past the mercenaries, and into the hallway that led towards the workshops and warehouse area. That involved walking into a firefight which wasn't the brightest idea, even if they were only using paint rounds. Second was to take the opposite direction, avoid the flanking party, and … improvise. I needed to find another staircase to get to the third floor and my hope was that there was one at the opposite end of the building, mirroring the one I had just climbed through.
Scout Three had gone right and taken the first hallway on the left, in the hopes of intercepting the flanking party taking the shortest path, but it had found a T-junction and no way forward instead. Why was this place such a maze? It spotted one of the gang bots at the end of the hallway going right. I continued to explore away from the gang member and came across a second three-way junction, with no way forward again.
I moved scout three right and found the other side of the building. The hallway had more office doors and another staircase, exactly where I had hoped it would be. There were more gang bots in the distance, exchanging fire with the merc bots, but nothing on the other side. I recalled Scout One to my position and stepped into the corridor, right as a group of gang bots rounded the corner.
"Motherfucker!" I swore.
They, of course, started to shoot and loudly advertise my presence.
Then, of course, the mercs noticed and one of them moved to cover the hallway and, of course, shot at me.
I had crystal shields on both sides that were rapidly being covered in paint. I fired back with my Nouliths towards both sides but the bots took cover and the stun bolts splashed against the walls harmlessly. I didn't want to get pinned down any longer than necessary so I took a spur of the moment decision and blasted the door to my right open with a focused burst of telekinesis from my hand. It led into one of the rooms and I dashed inside. Scout Three had seen a door on the other side of the space that room occupied. I was banking on the fact that it wasn't two rooms with a load bearing wall in between.
The room was full of hydroponic equipment. Long tables lined each side with large lamps suspended above. I didn't stop to look but I was pretty sure this was a weed farm. Several bots dressed in more casual clothes, still with the brown jacket, turned around and seemed surprised at my sudden arrival. Thankfully, they weren't armed. I dashed through the room and blew the door on the other side open with another blast of telekinesis. The bot at the end of the narrow corridor turned my way but I sent a hail of concussive bolts that threw it right into the merc's line of fire. I banked left and took the same path Scout Three had, I sent Scout Two ahead and moved Scout One behind me. Three gang bots were waiting for me when I reached the T-junction. I opened fire with a mix of concussion and stun bolts to cover my retreat.
When I reached the end of the corridor, I moved my Nouliths to cover the path ahead and behind me and dashed to the staircase. I stopped more paint rounds with crystal shields and left a big fat crystal behind me to block the way. Scout Three was already ahead and I knew this wasn't a dead end.
The door to the third floor was closed, though I could hear heavy gunfire behind. I crouched down and very carefully opened it just enough to let two scouts through. I moved them close to the ceiling and took stock of the situation. This floor was open, with columns at regular intervals but no walls around the central section. It looked like there had been cubicles at some point but the robot gang that had taken over the building had replaced them by … a drug lab. At least, I was pretty sure it was one.
Closest to the entrance, groups of merc bots were huddled behind various bits of cover like stack of crates or tables flipped on their side and, on the other side of the room, gang bots were in the same position. There had to be close to a dozen mercenaries and even more gang members.
It was, in short, a huge mess.
I wasn't quite sure on how to proceed. The staircase leading to the fourth floor was barricaded with filing cabinets and other furniture. I thought about using telekinesis to move the obstacles but the pile looked unstable, one wrong move and I could end up buried. The creators of the simulation obviously wanted me to go into the third floor.
Maybe I should have taken the elevator …
Stealth was the next best course of action.
The first problem was that the invisibility spells I knew couldn't hide everything I needed to hide, the Nouliths and the shield I would need to protect myself from any stray bullets, while moving about. Most of the good invisibility required me to be stationary, I needed something different. The other problem was that I wasn't sure if the way up was through the staircase on the opposite end of the room. I had Scout Three at the door that led to the last level but it was closed. I made a quick mental note to improve my scout drones with more vision modes, including one that could see through walls. There were other hallways but they led down, likely to the warehouse.
I flicked through my mental library of spells, both those provided by my power and those I had dreamed up. I could cast Mist of Darkness and Cloud of Shadows then slip through the confusion. However, both spells would also affect me which complicated the matter slightly. It felt like a terrible idea to run through the room without the ability to see further than two feet in front of me.
But ... I didn't need to flood the whole room.
From the control room, Alex watched as Nephelia turned partially invisible just before she opened the door. Through the thermal imaging, she still shone like a beacon, but on the regular cameras, it looked like she had turned into a clear blob of water. Whenever she moved, it sent ripples on the surface and distorted what was behind her.
So she moved quickly, kept close to the wall, and took advantage of the general mayhem to move away from the door and towards the fake meth lab on the eastern side of the room. Part of the way there, she slowed down and the ripples intensified for half a second before she turned fully visible.
Her six needles were in an unusual formation, three on each side in a triangular formation. Glowing symbols appeared on the surface of the weapon platforms and black orbs formed in the pseudo-barrel between them. An instant later, they shot out towards the two groups of bots.
Clouds of black smoke filled the room.
"Smart," Chambers smiled, "her invisibility wasn't up to the task so she turned the tables."
"That black stuff interferes with sensors too," Bright remarked as he tapped on a keyboard. Numbers and graphs that Alex didn't understand appeared on a monitor. "Looks like general EM absorption, extremely heavy around infrared and visible light."
"Does it affect the bots?" Chambers asked.
"Their connection to the server is fine," Bright said, "we're still getting telemetry data. In terms of programming, it looks like they are treating it as a smoke grenade."
Nephelia hadn't wasted time. The second the bots had stopped firing due to the smoke, she had started to run towards the stairway. Her needles were tracking the cloud of smoke but she didn't fire until one of the bots stumbled out of the cloud.
"She can't see inside either," Stevenson rubbed his chin.
"Neither can her drones," Chambers added.
Once Nephelia reached the stairway door, she tried to open it but the door was locked in that variant of the scenario. She summoned the blue field again and blasted the door open only to discover that there were no stairs, the landing had crumbled away. Her ears twitched in annoyance and she looked at the elevator doors to her right.
"I can't tell if she's …" Stevenson began.
Nephelia slammed her fist on the button to call the elevator.
"… yeah, she's pissed," Bright finished.
She crouched down and a circular barrier of blue crystal rose from the ground in front of the lift doors. The needles took position above the rim and shot down three bots while she waited for the elevator to arrive. When the doors started to open, three of the needles flipped around and aimed at the inside of the cabin. The two bots inside went down before they could react.
Nephelia backed into the elevator, pressed on the floor four button, and mashed the button to close the doors.
The elevator gave a low chime and shuddered to a stop. It was still functional but I was certain that it was also in dire need of maintenance. I was surprised that the simulation even had the elevator working but, at the same time, I had no idea how the system worked.
I was invisible again, hidden on one side of the door, as far away from any lines of fire as possible inside a metal box. My Nouliths and drones were in position to fire on whoever was waiting for me, if there was anyone.
The doors rolled open and revealed five robots with brown jackets and guns aimed at whoever would have been in the elevator. Of course, they couldn't see much aside from the two robots flopped on the ground. They had a moment of hesitation. Their guns, a mixture of pistols and short rifles, lowered slightly. I assumed their programming made them react that way, lower their guards similar to how a human would.
One of the gang bots stepped forward.
I used the area of effect attack from the White Mage set, my power called it Gravity. An intricate spell circle four meters in diameter appeared under their feet, which gave them just enough time to realize what was happening, before the purple sphere that had formed at chest height detonated and jostled them around. It wasn't a very strong spell but it provided the right distraction for my Nouliths to fire concussive bolts into the crowd.
The first volley of blue streaks hit three of the bots and threw them backwards a few meters. The last one in the small lobby in front of the elevator raised its gun. It didn't have a clear target so it fired blindly into the lift cabin. One of its shots hit the bot that had stepped forward to examine the two "dead" bodies. It dropped to the ground and I used the single target attack of White Mage, Malefic, in quick succession to hit the shooter before it managed to blindly hit me.
I sent my scout drones forward into the hallways right as I stepped into the lobby. It felt like a bad idea to stay in the lift for too long, the space was too constrained to easily defend. I didn't have a great idea of the layout of this floor, it has a passing resemblance to the second with maze-like hallways in the center and offices on the outer perimeter. I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go either, my only objective was to reach the last floor and I had.
"What am I supposed to do ..." I wondered aloud. "Maybe I need to get on the roof instead?"
My drones found very little. Most of the doors were closed, and the ones that weren't didn't really give me a lot to work with. The two offices closest to the stairs had been turned into improvised bedrooms, likely for the guards. There was one storage room that had metal shelves that were stocked with big plastic bottles, the kind used to store chemicals. It wasn't hard to put two and two together, this was likely the supply closet for the drug lab. From the symbols on the containers, I didn't want anything to do with that room.
If the pattern held, I would need to cross the floor once more to find the service access that led to the roof. This simulation had been very … video-game-like. I suspected it was on purpose. The aim wasn't to create a realistic scenario but something of a playground for capes to express their powers.
I followed the hallway on the left that circled, or maybe it was squared in that case, the perimeter of the floor. Scout Two and Three had already done a full circuit around and it was the path with the fewest open doors. On one hand, it was the path with the most unknowns, on the other hand, it was also the path with the least chance to stumble on something if I stayed quiet.
So I walked and made sure to avoid any unnecessary noises.
It was a bit eerie.
I arrived on the other side without any incident which surprised me. I had almost expected an ambush or some group of bots randomly walking out but … nothing. Scout One hadn't reported any movement of the elevator either. I felt a bit anticlimactic.
The service access was, as I expected, part of the building stairway. I sent Scout Three up and it found the roof access door at the end of the steps. It was closed but there was a push bar, I assumed it functioned as an emergency exit of sorts.
I headed up and gave the door a shove.
Maybe I had spoken too soon earlier.
There was a figure standing in the middle of the roof. A very large person-shaped thing wearing a trench coat. They were at least seven feet tall and build like a fucking tank. I spread out my drones to give me a good view of the entire roof.
"So the snake sent one of its lackeys!" They grumbled and turned to face me.
"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" I muttered, and probably looked even paler than usual.
The boss bot, because of course there was a damn boss at the end of the level, pulled off its coat and revealed … that I was fucked. Also that the scientists might have ripped off Metal Gear. It had six articulated arms with rectangular shields attached and two swords that looked taller than me, if I wore high heels. It looked at me with its singular glowing red eye.
"Gardner," I asked through the radio, "is this a joke?"
"It's to simulate a parahuman encounter," she replied. "Reinforcements will be at your position in two minutes," she added, "you only have to hold him off until then."
"Yeah, fuck that," I spat, not through the radio. "I'm not kiting you around for two minutes."
"Protectorate!" I shouted, "you are under arrest! Put your hands …"
"I'll send you back to him in pieces," Boss Bot, trademark pending, twirled its swords as it advanced on me, menacingly.
At least I tried.
I pulled my Nouliths in a tight formation and opened fire with concussive bolts. The boss brought up its shields, as I had hoped, to block my shots. The blue energy bolts did not even make it move by a single millimeter. That didn't matter, I kept two Nouliths in position and continued to pepper the bot with shots. It continued to advance but it was more careful. I pulled three Nouliths in together in a triangular formation and started to cast something with a bit more punch.
A long stack of magic circles appeared alongside the "barrel" formed by the three Nouliths and blue lightning started to crackle near the base of the "canon." Boss Bot wasn't stupid, nor about to face tank the obvious big attack, and charged me. I hadn't figured out flight spells, yet, but I could improvise. I grabbed the last Noulith like a pool noodle and shoved it upward with my crystal control. It was awkward but moved me out of range of the attack. I strafed around, still firing concussive bolts, and slid to a stop on the other end of the roof. The lightning spell was ready and I released it.
The sound of thunder was deafening as a bolt of plasma two feet thick arced along the roof, shedding smaller arcs everywhere, and struck the Boss Bot. It had raised its shields at the last second, likely anticipated that I was about to launch a big attack.
There was a moment of quiet as the dust settled down, nothing was on fire but I spotted a lot of scorch marks everywhere. For a second, I was worried that it had been massive overkill but the Boss Bot was still standing. Two of its shields were melted slag on the ground, another hung limp at its side, and there were numerous scorch marks everywhere on its shell, but it was still standing.
"That all you got, snake?"
I raised an eyebrow.
No, it wasn't.
With a wave of my hand, I formed a dozen spears of crystal in the air around me. I grasped them with the pale blue energy of my telekinesis and shoved them forward with a gesture. Cracking sounds split the air as the projectiles blew through the sound barrier. Five missed their mark entirely as Boss Bot tried to dodge, four more hit the remaining shields and were either shattered or deflected, but three actually hit their target. Of course, two broke against the bot's thick armor but the last one skewered through a knee joint.
Boss Bot stumbled and fell to the ground on one knee.
I cast my next spell, this one without the help of my Nouliths. A light blue circle of light appeared around the bot and the air immediately started to fog. Despite its injury, the robot jumped towards me. I finished casing Icy Prison just in time and froze half of its body in a massive block of ice. Without wasting a second, the bot interposed its shields to catch my next attack and started to hack at the ice with its sword. Of course, I wasn't going to give it the opportunity. I cast Icy Prison a second time and the two seconds it needed to cast were not enough for the bot to free itself.
Completely encased in ice, the bot deactivated, its red eye becoming dull.
"Console," I spoke over the radio, "hostile parahuman has been contained." I probably sounded a little smug.
"Understood," Gardner replied, "evac will be here in ninety seconds."
A/N: ENEMY FELLED
Melody of Sorrow, Refrain of Resilience Continues on AO3/SV
New
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I'm continuing the story into its own thread and on AO3 (which has the first part of chapter 3 already).
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Melody of Sorrow, Refrain of Resilience
An elf-like Case 53 tries to move forward after being rescued from an underground auction by Armsmaster.
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
Melody of Sorrow, Refrain of Resilience - Chapter 1 - ltouroumov - Parahumans Series - Wildbow [Archive of Our Own]
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
archiveofourown.org
Shard Heroine (Reboot) - Chapter 1
New
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Shard Heroine (Reboot)
A/N: This was originally a companion story to Taylor's Bizarre Adventures, the very first series of snippets I published in this thread. I randomly got the inspiration for this again at the start of the month and I spent an entire week expanding the story and rewriting some of the early parts.Chapter 1
The book store was quiet that day. Taylor was one of the only two patrons present, she browsed the new arrivals from overseas while an Asian teenager in another aisle looked at the Japanese light novels. Jeff had a wide selection in his store and she had even discovered many genres that she hadn't even known existed. Through her bugs, she saw something strange happen. One of the books appeared to change shape, the cover morphed from glossy paper to a leathery exterior with a golden filigree. She put her current book down and moved towards it. Something fishy was going on. Before she could snatch it off the shelf, the Asian teen took it.
"The four cardinal weapons," he read the title out loud.
"Looks interesting," Taylor said as she moved to stand next to him. The man jumped slightly in shock, maybe she had been too stealthy. She turned all of her Passenger's considerable scanner suite towards the mysterious volume. "What's it about?"
"No idea," he answered, "just saw it on the shelf and it looked interesting." He flipped the book over, on the back cover was an embossed design of four people each wielding something. A shield, bow, sword, and spear.
"No summary," she said, "I guess they went old school."
"Let's see inside then," he cracked the book open. The prologue was a lore dump, talking about the four cardinal heroes and their legendary weapons.
"Does a shield really count as a weapon?" Taylor asked.
"Yeah, it's more like armor," her companion said.
As they turned to the next page, they only found blank paper.
"What? Is this a print mistake?" She said.
[WARNING! Unknown energy spike detected!] Her Passenger informed her. The book glowed a golden light, she tackled the man away from it but they were both swallowed by the burst of gold.
Forced teleportation was always unpleasant. The world around them had distorted and her exotic senses could feel the space itself twisting under the influence of the strange energy. The bookshelves extended upwards and downwards to infinity, the floor disappearing entirely, and they fell. Even the most exotic teleporter she had used hadn't been this disorienting.
[Warning: Interference Detected; Adjusting Parameters]
[Warning: External Connection Attempt]
[Adjusting Firewall]
[Deploying Countermeasures]
The instant seemed to stretch forever even if she knew it was barely a fraction of a second.
[Quarantine Successful]
[Analysis in Progress]
She felt reality suddenly remake around her. The transfer had preserved their position and momentum and she finished tackling the teen to the ground. They hit the ground with a thud and they landed in an ungainly heap, thankfully not in a compromising position. They both groaned. Her improved body could handle worse falls but she wasn't sure about her companion.
"Fantastic!" She heard someone exclaim. "The summoning was a success!"
"What the," mumbled the boy as he clutched his head.
"Brave heroes, won't you please save our world from Pure Evil." She could hear the capitalization of the last words. The disorientation was slowly clearing and she felt her power connect to the bugs within her range again. Her companion in misfortune managed to stand up and she followed suit.
They were in a room with a vaulted ceiling with towering stone columns and arches, the intricately carved moldings reminded her of a cathedral. Below them was a glowing circle of light which looked suspiciously like what she would use with her own powers; she recorded every detail in her Thinker power for future analysis. With them in the circle were three other individuals, they looked to be boys around her age. Outside of the circle were a group of figures in robes.
The whole setup raised alarm bells in Taylor's head. It looked like the men in robes had abducted them with the help of some power, one that her Passenger hadn't been able to identify which was worrying. She kept on her guard, ready to strike at the first sign of hostilities.
Passenger? She asked. What happened.
[Forceful Dimensional Displacement]
[Major Damage Sustained]
[Capabilities Limited]
It wasn't her day it seemed.
She stayed behind and to the side of her companion while the robed men explained why they had been transported here. Taylor was not entirely convinced by the explanation of an ancient ritual, powers came in all shapes and sizes after all, but the part about the four cardinal heroes put her on high alert. It was the exact same as in the book they had just been reading. The weapons, and shield, in the hands of the others only reinforced the idea. Something was rotten in the state of wherever they were.
One of the robed figures finally noticed her and approached. Meanwhile, the men in robes continued to ask for the 'heroes' in defeating 'Evil.'
"Miss, what are you doing here?"
"You tell me," she did her best impression of a disoriented person, "one moment I'm reading a book with my friend here, the next I'm here and everybody's talking about heroes and ancient evil."
"There must have been a mistake with the ritual," he seemed confused, "I am sorry about all of this miss. I will make sure you are accommodated for and compensated for this, unfortunately it is impossible to send you back." He at least seemed apologetic enough.
"Thank you," she said.
While they had been talking, the discussion between the four summoned heroes and their summoner had gotten a little heated. The three other boys had started to demand rewards for saving the world and weren't backing down. The guy at the lead told them they had an audience with the King of Melromarc to negotiate everything.
Taylor followed the rest of the group through the castle; they had been in the lower levels and were ascending towards, presumably, an audience room. They passed a window along the way, she already had had a fair idea of what the outside looked like but this look outside confirmed it. They were in some sort of medieval world. The air felt different as well, the lack of a salty tinge told her they weren't near any sea or ocean which was replaced by the faint and nearly omnipresent smell of excrement.
It was then that she noticed something cold around her wrist. She looked down and found a thin silver bracelet with three small polished gemstones set into an ornate Celtic design. She never wore jewelry, it was a great way to get mugged in the docks, so it had to be related to the strange ritual she had just gone through. Her instincts whispered that it was related in some way. An anomaly, probably from an interaction with her passenger.
The bare and utilitarian limestone brick hallways made way to beautifully decorated walls adorned with wood paneling, polished stone floors, and expensive furniture reminiscent of renaissance castles. The throne room itself was massive, an impressive display of wealth, with balconies on both sides and floor to ceiling windows on each story. The castle was not that clean by modern standards however, bugs were everywhere and they gave her a good view of everything going on. The four heroes stood front and center with a row of guards on each side at attention. Taylor, for herself, stood next to one of the pillars near their robed summoners.
The King introduced himself as Aultcray of Melromarc. Taylor noticed the empty chair beside him, was the King a widower or was the Queen indisposed for some reason? She hadn't heard anything that pointed to either spying through her bugs. The heroes of the day then identified themselves, the sword wielder was Ren and the same age as her, the spear wielder was Motoyasu and twenty one, and the bow wielder was Itsuki and one year older than her. When it came the time for her companion to introduce himself, the King seemingly ignored him. Why would he do that? After an act of lèse-majesté, Naofumi finally introduced himself.
"And you, young woman," the King addressed her, "please introduce yourself as well. I was told you were summoned alongside the Shield hero."
"As you wish, your majesty," she erred on the side of politeness and gave a polite bow, "I am Taylor Hebert, fifteen years of age, and second year student at the Arcadia Parahuman Academy."
"Wait," Naofumi blurted, "you're a cape?"
"What does a cape have to do with anything?" Asked Motoyasu. His gaze seemed to spend a little too long on her body every time he looked at her.
"Where we are from," she clarified, "it's a colloquial term for a Parahuman, an individual with powers."
"Like superpowers from comic books?" Said Itsuki.
A demonstration was in order and she lifted off the ground a few feet and flew over the assembled heroes.
"An impressive ability Miss Taylor," the King said and it seemed he meant it but the flash of a grimace he had shown at first probably meant she had thrown a truck full of wrenches into many plans.
"Thank you, your majesty," she bowed in the middle of the air. She landed next to Naofumi who seemed to be bursting with questions.
As the introductions were done, the King launched into a detailed explanation of the situation.
A/N: I'm going to drop one chapter per day until I run out. No idea if this will get any continuation. (
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MaimakteriAnn
(Verified Sleepy)
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Oh nice, make me figure out who i hate more.
globalwarmth
ruining the weather.
- Location
- Polar ice caps
Hey, why worry about ranking when each hate is special and unique!
Shard Heroine (Reboot) - Chapter 2
New
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Shard Heroine (Reboot)
Chapter 2
The King gave an overview of the situation. The short version was, there was an apocalyptic prophecy which predicted the arrival of a series of waves where otherworldly creatures would invade the world. They were bound to destroy the world if they were not stopped in time. The Kingdom of Melromarc had barely managed to fight off the first wave and it still wrought untold destruction. Then, they then summoned the four legendary heroes, and their plus one, as they are the one fated to save the world from this calamity.
Taylor thought the story was eerily familiar, it looked like Naofumi had realized as well. The mysterious book that had brought them here had told nearly the same story. The other three heroes seemingly accepted it without flinching and demanded compensation, a shady looking advisor assured them they would all be handsomely rewarded. The entire exchange felt perfunctory, like a rehearsed play.
The King then told the four heroes to check their statuses, something that was apparently exclusive to the wielders of the legendary weapons. It was a special magic that kept track of their progress. Taylor could not see anything but Naofumi did give her a quick overview. It sounded like something out of a video game.
All the heroes were level one, what she assumed was the weakest level. Naofumi and the others would need to increase their level before they fought the waves, moreover they would all need to do it on their own. The legendary weapons apparently received less experience when close to one another.
Her thinker power came to the conclusion to her that the heroes were meant to be summoned separately and it made sense, this drawback would encourage spreading the heroes between regions to maximize their growth. Why, then, had Melromarc summoned all four at once? Something was fishy.
"I guess when you're heroes of legend," Naofumi said, "you get special treatment."
They had all been shown to guest suites and served dinner. There was gossip among the castle staff about the arrival of the four heroes and their plus one. In particular, she noted one remark that it was unusual for four to be summoned in one place as well as some talk about the Shield Hero in particular. The decision to summon him seemed to be controversial.
Taylor took another sip from her cup, the staff had been able to procure her some tea but it was not a flavor she was familiar with. In the background, her Passenger had been processing things. The local dimensional topology was unusual, like a black hole of sorts. They were inside the virtual event horizon and the local environment was highly unstable. It was possible for her to escape by opening a portal with the help of Sting but from the calculations of her partner, it would destabilize the local reality and lead to some catastrophic results. Not really something she wanted to attempt at the moment. The bracelet was also part of it, something that had attempted to latch onto her during the teleport. Her passenger had quarantined everything and was analyzing it. For the moment, it was just a fancy and harmless piece of jewelry.
"Doesn't this kind of seem like a video game?" Remarked Naofumi.
"That's cuz it is a video game," said Motoyasu, "it's exactly like Emerald Online."
To which Ren and Itsuki disagreed. The both affirmed that it was like another video game they knew instead. The answer to this conundrum was simple, at least to Naofumi and her.
"I think," she said, "that you are all correct."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"It's obvious really," she continued in her best Tattletale impression, "you are all from different parallel earths. Naofumi and I come from Earth Bet, named like this because it is in contact with another earth, Earth Aleph. It is fairly common knowledge that there are probably hundreds of others, each with their own point of divergence."
"That sounds a bit out there," Ren said skeptically.
"It should be very easy to prove," Motoyasu raised his spear in challenge, "who is on the one thousand Yen bill? On three. One ... Two ... Three!"
All heroes answered differently.
"Ishiyama Sawao" "Yomaura Tomomi" "Nishioka Anzai" "I don't know"
"My family moved to the US in two thousand one," added Naofumi with a shrug.
A few more trivia questions later and they were all convinced. The discussion then shifted to Naofumi, and why he was the only one not familiar with the world.
"Well," said Itsuki, "we all assumed it was because you were the Shield Hero."
"Why? Is there something wrong with shields?"
"Yeah," said Motoyasu, "in Emerald Online, the Shielder class sucks. No one plays it."
Ren and Itsuki nodded. "Same." "Shields suck."
Naofumi's shoulders slumped but Taylor, she laughed, and all heads turned towards her.
"Are you serious? Shakers capable of making barriers are some of the most sought after capes. Shielder from our hometown can stop missiles with her forcefields, I have seen her do it multiple times. Narwhal from the Guild? She can slice people into ribbons with her razor sharp scales and Bastion from Boston has stopped tanks with his walls."
"Barrier capes are incredible, the amount of tactical advantages they bring to a team is massive. Besides protecting their allies from harm they can shape the battlefield by putting obstacles in place and deny their enemies the use of vehicles or cut off escape routes. You better hope you have a Shield user in your teams, Strikers and Blasters without proper support are very vulnerable on the battlefield."
"Yeah but he only has a shield, not fancy comic book forcefields." Retorted Itsuki. "What's he gonna do with it?"
"What's to say he doesn't get force fields when he levels up?"
"Because that's not how it works in the games!"
Taylor rolled her eyes. The conversation would go nowhere, the trio was persuaded they were in a game-like world that operated under game-like rules.
"Let's get some fresh air," she tapped Naofumi on the shoulder.
"Thanks," he said.
"I know what it's like to be picked on," she propped her elbows on the balustrade, "don't take these three too seriously, this world might look like their games but it's not. The danger is real, very real."
"Yeah," he sighed, "I hope we get good party members tomorrow."
"We?" She raised an eyebrow.
"You're not sticking with me?" He said, uncertain.
"I am," she lightly punched him on the shoulder with a smile, "the Brockton gang has to stick together. And I want to see the faces of those three when they realize we are keeping up with them."
Naofumi beamed at her.
"I think I'll go to bed," he said, "tomorrow will probably be pretty packed."
"Good idea."
A/N: I'm still not satisfied with Taylor's barrier cape rant but whatever, it's not particularly important to the overall story.
- Location
- Launceston, Tasmania
Why is is in all these sorts of fics that I have come across, the protagonist goes along with the plot with no qualms...
If someone did that to me, they would die very quickly upon any refusal to return me to wherever I was, followed by whoever ordered it.
If someone did that to me, they would die very quickly upon any refusal to return me to wherever I was, followed by whoever ordered it.