[] Back in the Saddle – Okay, that's one crisis over with, other than the whole 'Lung is the Butcher now' thing. Before you get around to worrying about that, maybe you should deal with the local monsters? Put on your Batman cap and look around for where they could be hiding.
Maskless 6.7
Thursday, April 21
If there is one good thing about finding out that it was the Adepts who left that statue in your room – and, assuming Epoch was telling the truth, was not a threat to your civilian identity but merely the result of an unfortunate power – it is that you can force that mystery out of your head and focus on another one. That it gives you a distraction from wondering how you should deal with a cult of magic-wielding villains who want you to make them more effective at their crimes is definitely not part of your motives, not at all.
Anyway, to business. The Beasts.
The bystanders out shopping and the store owners closing up at five in the afternoon all watch you float above them, staff held out in front of you. This is the same block of stores where you first encountered the Beasts, and as a result you feel that it is the best place for you to begin your search. You don't think the Beasts lair around here, not with only a single attack, but they had to have some way of getting here in the first place, and they certainly didn't swagger down the street.
«
How do you want to do this?» Samantha asks from her perch on your shoulder. «
Just run around and ask the shopkeeps whether they had anything to do with the fake Case 53s?»
"Somehow I doubt that would do much good," you reply in a dry voice. "Anyone who is in cahoots with their maker isn't going to admit to it, and we'd just put everyone else on edge for no good reason. No, we need to be cleverer about it than that. Not to mention," you add as an afterthought, "we don't have any evidence that anyone here is a collaborator. This Typhon guy is a bio-Tinker, or that's what Miss Militia thinks, anyway. What's to say he can't do some other stuff besides make monsters, or that he can't trade a 'pet' for some other gadget he needs? If he had, I don't know, a few teleporters or something, he could move the Beasts wherever he wanted them."
«
That would mean he deliberately targeted these places, though. Why?»
"I don't know. That's the biggest problem with my theory," you say with a sigh. "But if he isn't sending them somewhere, what is the alternative? That he's letting murderous monsters with superpowers run around wherever they want? Explain to me how that isn't worse."
Samantha has no reply for that, much as you would have liked one, and instead she focuses once more on the visible city. «
You still haven't said what you're going to do to figure out where they're coming from.»
Holding your staff out, you ask, "Storm, can you look for any any complex tech that might be Tinker-made, or secret passages, or some other hidden way for things to sneak around?" The Device chimes in agreement, and a small ball of red energy starts growing at the end. "Okay, then. Wide Area Search."
Twenty seconds later, a hologram screen appears at your side. «
Search complete. No abnormal technology found. No secret passageways found. Correlating with city records… No abnormalities found.»
"Damn. I was sure we would find something like that." Shaking your head, you dismiss the screen. "Where's the next stop on our list?"
Fifteen minutes see you hovering in the sky, your expression thunderous. "How. The
hell. Are the Beasts getting from place to place?"
Your long hair rustles as the raccoon unfolds into a woman, her arms wrapped loosely around your shoulders from behind. "Did you honestly expect to figure it all out in one day? The Protectorate has surely been working on this from the time they first realized the Beasts weren't Case 53s. With all the resources at their disposal, did you think it was going to be that easy?"
"Yes!" you hiss. "They don't have Perfect Storm! They don't have magic! I—"
You throw your hat off your head and run your fingers through your hair. Cut off from the rest of your Barrier Jacket, the witch's hat lasts only a second or two before crumbling away into digitized flakes. Your hands get batted away before Samantha takes over that job. "What's really bothering you?" she asks.
"It's this… Epoch thing. I guess I got used to thinking I was, I don't know, special. Sure, there are other people with Linker Cores out there. Tim, Lacey. There's a whole planet of them somewhere, even," you add with a vague wave of your hand towards the sky. "But here, on Earth? At first, I was the only mage, and then I was the one who gave Tim magic. It all stemmed from
me. But now, with Epoch, the Adepts, having magic of their own? Magic that they discovered all by themselves?"
"They want you to teach them, though. Surely you haven't forgotten that in only a few days."
"I know. I'm not explaining myself well, am I?" You shake your head. "It's… It wasn't fate or destiny or anything that led to me finding Storm. This is real life, not a fantasy novel. I'm no 'Chosen One', and Storm wasn't waiting for me to come along. It was just blind luck that I was there that day. Storm could have been picked up by anyone, and I'd still just be another random face in the crowd. That's what I am without magic. A nobody."
"Taylor…"
«
Mistress not 'nobody',» Perfect Storm disagrees most vehemently. «
Possess natural talent with magic. Quick to learn and master spells. High intelligence. High tactical aptitude. Unlikely that potential other users would adapt as well as Mistress. Worthy of power. Calamity Witch origin would be honored.»
That is certainly a longer speech than you normally get from your Intelligent Device, and you reach out with your left hand and give the red gem a gentle caress. You appreciate it trying to cheer you up.
"I definitely have no complaints about having you as my mistress, either," Samantha says with a light laugh in your ear. "Well, maybe a few, but they all have less to do with you being you and more with you being a silly human teenager with all the hang-ups that come with it. Nothing you can help."
You roll your eyes and tilt your head to bop against Samantha's. "Fine, fine, I get it. No more wallowing." She cheers and lets you go, and you wave your hand through the air to recreate your hat. Still, you wish you could figure this out, to salve your bruised ego if nothing else. You don't have the resources the city and the Protectorate does, but…
Wait a minute. Who says you
don't?
"Storm, did you save the data from our searches? Pull it up again." Eighteen screens drift around you, and you grab one at random. "You correlated these scan with the city's records before. Grab all the information you can about this area and overlay it with the scan."
"What are you doing?" Samantha asks, looking over your shoulder.
"Tapping into the city's resources and combining them with Perfect Storm. What else?"
The screen turns into a mass of lines and squiggles and tiny text, and you take one look at it before glancing away. So maybe
all the information was a bad idea. "Lose the text, please." The screen becomes more bearable, but you still have no clue what you're looking at anymore. "What did you put on here?"
«
Recorded blueprints. Utilities. Tax records. Energy use—»
Too much, without a doubt. "I can't tell one thing from another here. It's all blending—" The screen becomes a morass of colors. "—together. Okay, that's better. This is
everything?"
The Device chimes.
"We can cross some things off the list right now. Get rid of the roads and sidewalks." A grid of purple vanishes. "Trees, fire hydrants, water lines, power and gas, Internet…"
As you talk, the map returns to something more like what it looked like before, though it is still extremely red and pink. The pink is never outside the red boxes, so maybe interior layout? "Remove the buildings that have available public blueprints and that match those blueprints." Most of the blocks vanish, and of those remaining, you don't see any connections or extensions anywhere else. There are still some lines left, and you tap the deep blue one. "What's this?"
«
Waste sewer.»
"The manholes are too small for the Rats to climb out of. The Slimes, maybe, but not the Rats. Get rid of them." Moving to the yellow, you tap again. "This one?"
«
Storm sewer.»
"What about this?" you continue, all your focus on a yellow blotch sitting on the line.
«
Maintenance access point.»
"Storm sewer, huh?" Didn't your mom tell you when you were little not to play in the storm sewers? You don't remember how big they were back in Brockton Bay, but if something gets clogged there, they would need to be large enough for people to get in and out. Might they be large enough for the Beasts? Tossing the screen back into orbit, you snatch another one. "Show me the storm sewers here."
Yellow runs over the map, and sure enough, there's another splotch.
You point to another scan. "There." A splotch. "And there?" A splotch. A quick grab earns you the first scan of the afternoon, and you stretch it larger. "And here?"
Not two blocks from the grocery store where you fought the Beasts is a bright yellow splotch.
"No wonder no one sees them coming or going," Samantha mutters. "They move around underground and only attack what's near an exit."
Which adds another point to the 'the Beasts are randomly attacking' theory, you realize with a shudder. "Give me a map of Philadelphia and show me where the storm sewers are. The suburbs, too," you add after thinking about the party fiasco.
One more screen appears, and your eyes widen at the twisted and
long system of tunnels put on display.
Samantha pops her lips. "Well. This is gonna be fun."
+1 training to Dimensional Transfer (4/4 Master).
+1 training to Flare Blade (2/2 Master).
+1 Inspiration to Mobility.
+3 Inspiration to Mechanical Intuition (PURCHASED).
+2 Inspiration to Digital Blueprints.
+2 Inspiration to Basic Devices.
For my SV readers, check out DonLyn's canon omake, labeled 4.s in the threadmarks and located after 4.9. If you're on SB, you can now find convenient links to BOTH of the canonized omake. Or, you know, any of the other nine that have been written since the last update. I'm worried we might run out of points soon. 
Since it's the end of the week, time to discuss your next two activities.
- Secret Santa, Part 3 – You spent some time thinking about Epoch's offer, and you need more information before you make a final decision. Give him a call and meet the rest of the Adepts.
- Back in the Saddle, Part 2 – The storm sewers, of course. There's no telling where in that twisting labyrinth Typhon has holed up. Explore the tunnel system and see if you can find the villainous bio-Tinker's bases. Write-in for whom to bring with you (Samantha is coming by default).
- Ready to Rumble – Because of course villains have nothing better to do than cause trouble. Tensions between the Winter Hill gang and MS-13 are coming to a boil yet again, and the Protectorate is keeping a watchful eye on the situation. Be ready to jump in if a fight breaks out.
- A Whole New World – You've always lived in a small corner of New England, but now you have powers that really let you get around. Take a little time to see the world around you.
- Spatial Translocation: Write-in
- Dimensional Translocation: Random or Write-in
- Back to Our Scheduled Programing – Go on patrol and look for trouble. You can write in to go along with somebody/somebodies.
- Hanging Out – Take a little time to yourself and spend some time with somebody/somebodies. Preferably doing something that doesn't involve burninating people. Write in the person, place, and thing.
- Nose to the Grindstone – Spend a free period training in the simulator. May be chosen twice. Write-in for which spell to practice.
You know the drill. Vote opens in 24 hours.
