Heatwave 9.2
Silently Watches
Professional Stalker
- Location
- Right behind you
[] (Social) Talking with Epoch and the Adepts
Heatwave 9.2
Wednesday, June 1
You look at the holographic screen and sigh. "There's no way to get out of this, is there?"
"You don't have to call him if you don't want to," Samantha reminds you. "You aren't obligated to help them."
"No, I kind of am. I told him that I would meet with him to discuss things. Might as well get it over and done with. Storm, call Epoch."
A phone rings only twice before being picked up. "Good morning, Calamity Witch," the gang leader says in the same pleasant voice he has used the other times you talked to him. "How does this fine day treat you so far?"
You roll your eyes. "Just great. Look, we agreed to meet and talk a little more about whether I'm going to teach you guys magic."
"…I have to admit, I actually expected you to take longer to get back to me about this. Not that I'm complaining! Just the opposite, in fact."
"I told you I'd call you back when all the mess going down in Philly was over, and things are basically back to normal. If I say I will do something, that means I'll do it. Now, do you have time to meet with me today or not?"
He laughs off your curt tone. "Oh, I'm sure I can find time for you sometime this morning…" He trails off, and when he continues, it is in a slightly different voice. More hesitant, almost. "Actually, would three this afternoon work? We already have a general meeting scheduled. You and I can talk beforehand, and if you're agreeable, I can introduce you to the whole group."
You have GPS coordinates as well as a street address written down when he hangs up, and you look over at Samantha. "As weird as it feels to suggest trusting a villain who broke into our house, I somehow doubt this is all a setup," she tells you. "He was too…"
"Genuine. Yeah, I know. That's what makes this all so difficult. He sounds like he really, truly just wants to learn magic, but at the same time?" You let out a small laugh at the tangled mess your life is on the way to becoming. "Working with a bunch of villains to fight the Beasts, and actually liking Cailleach and Circus as long as I forget I'm going to have to arrest them in the future. Having Cailleach unmask to me because it's the 'honorable' thing to do. And here is an entire group of villains who essentially are begging for table scraps. Sam, be honest with me. Where did I screw up with this whole hero thing?"
"No clue." She shrugs. "Maybe you didn't screw up, though. Have you thought about that? With all this possible influence over villains, there's a chance – a chance, mind you – that you could try pushing them back onto the straight and narrow."
"Yeah, let's keep that idea on the down low right now. With how pissy the guys were about the Truce the last couple of weeks, telling them that we're even considering the possibility of reforming villains is just going to add fuel to the fire." Fuel that you really don't want to throw around right now. You're still trying to psych yourself up to wade into the fight over who's going to lead the Privateers, and cluttering that issue with this entirely unrelated problem would just make that goal even more difficult.
One problem at a time, please and thank you.
Three o'clock rolls around with the orange glow of Spatial Translocation. Taking a quick glance around at the fake wood paneling, you turn your attention to the cowled man standing up behind the desk. "You haven't met, but this is Samantha, my teammate. Samantha, Epoch, leader of the Adepts."
"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Samantha," Epoch says with an easy smile, pulling one hand out of his robe's pocket to offer a handshake that Samantha returns. He waves his hand at the chairs in front of his desk in offering. "Thank you both for coming. Calamity Witch, a couple of weeks ago you mentioned some qualms about parting with your teachings. How can I ease your concerns?"
Samantha leans forward. "I know the big question that's going through my head, and we've agreed that this is pretty much the heart of the problem considering we're both heroes. Why should we trust villains with magic?"
"A valid question from your perspective, but in truth one that has a rather anticlimactic answer. If I may pose a question to the both of you, do you know why our organization is classified as a gang and villains in the first place?"
You shake your head. Following your first meeting with their leader, you did some research into the Adepts, both on your and own and with Perfect Storm's assistance. For the life of you, though, you could not manage to track down solid information. A few scattered crimes here and there, but they were all crimes associated with cape fights in general, and the same ones that Perfect Storm had found were generally waived for heroes in the same situation. Some people would would consider that enough, but condemning them solely for that is too close to Purity's situation following her split with the Empire for your peace of mind.
"There are two main reasons. The first you already know: we have several members who were already villains prior to their joining our ranks. I personally don't care about their background, only their capabilities. If they they have magic and want to expand their abilities and advance our pitiful knowledge of magic, they are welcome just as are the rogues and heroes we count among our number."
"You have many heroes, then?" Samantha asks with interest.
"Three. Thirteenth Hour, formerly a member of the Protectorate under the name of Standstill, you already know about. Argus, an independent hero from the Midwest. And finally Maclibuin, my second-in-command and the cofounder of our group. He was first part of a hero team under the name Hammerstroke and then had a short solo career prior to our first meeting.
"That is one reason. The other is our activities. Our primary focus is magic, but we need money for supplies and general lifestyle. Due to our varied origins as well as the simple fact that we are a small group sitting under the eye of Legend himself, we eschew 'normal' gang activities. We hold no territory, we avoid becoming embroiled in enterprises such as money laundering or drug distribution, we do not steal. What we do, however, is contract out our talents. Mercenary work, to be succinct." He gives you a shrug. "Not the most glamorous or respected work, I will admit, but we have earned a good reputation. Some of the former rogues also continue the sale of their products or services as they did before joining, from which they contribute a portion of the profit to our general budget.
"Those are the reasons we are classified as villains. Personally, I could not care less what label the Protectorate chooses to apply to me, but as you sound like you are concerned with how your teachings might be abused, I hope this eases your conscience. We have no interest in seizing control of a portion of the city and ruining the lives of those within that territory. Our motivation is wholly academic."
"So what do you plan to do with this knowledge, assuming I teach you? Write it down in ledgers that are soon to accumulate dust? Lord them over other capes you fight over the course of your jobs?"
"I suppose that depends on what you teach us, doesn't it? If I may be blunt, Calamity Witch?" You give him a slow nod. "I will not refuse anything you are willing to teach us, but what I am most interested in is the method that makes all your spellcasting so effortless. Not only would it make our experimentation and research go faster, but if we can harness magic with the same ease you do, my ultimate goal is to expand. Send out our members to create their own chapters, find others with magic, and spread this knowledge far and wide. I would love a world in which magic was no longer dismissed as a fairy tale but instead acknowledged and respected."
Samantha cocks her head. "And what then? What happens when magic is known far and wide? What happens when it is so simple to split the world into those with magic and those without?"
"I… Well…" Epoch stammers a bit longer before figuring out what to say. "I actually have never thought about what happens after. I never envisioned it happening even in my lifetime and certainly not in the near enough future that definitive plans could be made."
«What was that about, Sam?»
«Curious about what he had planned for the future, if anything. Look at places like South America or Africa, where what used to be countries are now small territories ruled by parahuman warlords. Throw magic into the mix, and you can't say for sure you won't get societal collapse for similar reasons. Sure, there are a LOT more potential mages than there are parahumans, so that makes the consolidation of physical power more difficult, but a two-tiered society where mages have authority over nonmages purely because of their magic? Far from impossible. If that was his goal, I'd be against giving him any help.»
«Affirmative. Similar societal structure of Al-Hazard.»
"Understandable. That would be far in the future," you tell him even as you reply to Samantha, «And with his actual answer?»
«His story is consistent. All his focus is on the first step of finding and teaching potential mages. Nothing malicious about that. Maybe a little shortsighted, but not malicious.»
Not a ringing endorsement, but it's also not a condemnation. Is Samantha merely reserving judgement or has Epoch passed her minimum standards? And even if he has, that is not the same as approving the Adepts as a whole. "I want to see the others before I make a decision," you tell him with a nod. "You aren't asking me to teach only you. If you want me to teach your entire group, I have the right to evaluate them all."
Apprehension momentarily flickers across his face. "I understand. All I ask is that you don't judge us all too quickly. There are a few of our members who, for all their good traits, are not exactly the most pleasant of people when you first meet them."
Epoch leads you down a hallway and through a door, revealing a balcony overlooking a wide bare floor where a group of capes are already gathered. The rest of the Adepts, you expect, all fourteen of them. Or perhaps thirteen, as a giant is already waiting for you on the balcony. "Is this the little lady you were talking about?" he asks, uncrossing his bulky arms.
"That she is. Calamity Witch, Samantha, this is Maclibuin. Mac, Calamity Witch and her partner Samantha."
You take in his great size and the scars crisscrossing his arms that are revealed by the muscle shirt he's wearing. This is one of the former heroes Epoch had mentioned? Maclibuin gives you a wide smile and reaches out with both hands to wrap around your own. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you," he says, clenching his own hands together in what you realize must be a practiced maneuver to shake people's hands without crushing them. He reaches for Samantha, and his grin broadens when she refuses the double-shake in exchange for squeezing his hand with her own Brute strength.
"Same to you. What's going on here?"
"Greetings, everyone!" Epoch calls out, gaining the rest of the Adepts' attention. "We have been called together to bear witness to a challenge fight, with our newest member, Thirteenth Hour, challenging Matchstick for his place in the fourth tier. But before we watch these two match wits and powers, I would like to introduce a guest." He gestures for you to step forward. "My friends, this is Calamity Witch. Like us, she is a magician, coming to meet more of our kind."
"This is that girl you told us 'bout, huh?" calls out one man in a thick furred coat. "The 'expert' you claim you found? Doesn't look like much to me."
"Gevaudan," you hear Maclibuin mutter to Samantha. "My fellow second-tier member. Unlike myself, he was solidly a villain before joining our ranks. Not the nicest individual."
"Then why put up with him?"
"Despite his attitude, he is still a magician. We are rare enough that we must sometimes overlook each other's many, many flaws. Otherwise I would have pounded him into paste by now."
While Maclibuin is spilling all the Adepts' juicy secrets, Epoch is doing his best to calm the sudden uproar. Taking a bit of pity on him, you kick your legs over the railing to sit upon it. "Yes, I am a mage. Yes, Epoch has approached me with the idea of teaching you my methods of spellcasting. I have yet to fully make up my mind on that matter, partly because I am a hero while you are officially a villain organization and partly because what I could teach you could be limited by how strong your Linker Cores are. I came here today mostly to meet a few of you firsthand to help me make that decision."
"And this 'Linker Core' is…?" Epoch asks, his eyebrows wrinkled in confusion.
This is a little sooner than you planned to get into the anatomy of magic, but you suppose you might as well explain it now than delay it and still have to go over it. It isn't like anyone can do anything with this information by itself. You think back to the way Perfect Storm described it to you and say, "A Linker Core is a magical organ of sorts. It serves to collect and concentrate mana from the environment, and then you use that mana to cast spells. There's a wide variation of strengths of Linker Cores, and how big your Core is plays an important role in how long you can cast magic before needing to rest and recharge."
"How interesting," Maclibuin says. Speaking louder, he asks, "And can you scan for this easily, or does it require something big and fragile like an MRI machine?"
Samantha raises her eyebrows, question obvious even without telepathy. Are you willing to go all the way and scan the Adepts?
You've come this far. Might as well.
"I can scan you right here and now if you want. I take it you're interested?"
Muttering from below indicates that even if Maclibuin and Epoch aren't, the rest certainly are. The two cofounders share a glance before Epoch gives you a pleased smile. "I know I am interested in seeing just where I stack up."
"Me too," agrees Maclibuin.
Gevaudan climbs the stairs while you move Epoch and Perfect Storm into position. «Storm, scan away.»
Lines of blue light sweep over Epoch's torso, and the hologram that appears is quickly stripped of its various layers of skin and muscle and organs until all that is left is a spot that glitters like a jewel. "Scan complete," your Device announces aloud, catching everyone off guard. "Linker Core detected. Estimated rank: A. Nonstandard mana structure detected. Consistent with known Rare Skill: Regenerator."
"Regenerator?"/"Rare Skill?" you and Epoch ask at the same time.
"Rare Skill: engineered gene-line granting atypical magical qualities. Regenerator gene-line developed by primordial Al-Hazardan civilization. Enhanced healing factor, wide variability in potency. Effect may not be noticeable without active enhancement."
The cape blinks slowly at that revelation, and you yourself are a little worried about what is going to follow. Of all the ways to introduce the concept of alien worlds, this was not the best. "That," he finally says, "has some disturbing implications, but now's not the time to talk about ancient civilizations nobody but your staff knows about." His words make it clear that he would really like to talk about it later, though. "Mac, you're up."
The same process happens again. "Scan complete. Linker Core detected. Estimated rank: C."
"I bet C is less than A?" he asks with a short laugh, not worried in the least that his Linker Core is weaker than his boss's.
After both of their leaders have been scanned with no immediate ill effects, any doubts the Adepts might have held have evaporated. Gevaudan steps up with a swagger. "Maybe you're not so bad, girl," he tells you when stops in front of you. "Gives us a better way to rank ourselves, wouldn't you say, Epoch?"
Probably hoping to be ranked higher than Maclibuin, his nominal equal, or his superior. With that sort of attitude, you wish he wouldn't actually have a Linker Core, just to slap him down.
"Scan complete. No Linker Core detected."
The three capes slowly turn to stare at you. You in turn point at the screen which, unlike the previous times, shows no sparkling dot, though inwardly you wonder if you shouldn't start wishing for random things more often. "I don't about you, but I can't see one."
"That's not possible," Epoch says with a sharp shake of his head. "We all have magic. I've felt it myself."
"I don't know what you were sensing. All I can tell you is what my scan shows, and I can't detect anything in him. No Linker Core means no way to gather mana, and that means you can't cast spells. Not by any of the rules of magic I know about."
"Maybe it's a, what are those called?" Maclibuin cuts in. "A false negative. Scan the rest. When she finds magic in everyone else, she can just rescan you."
The mood in the room rapidly plummets after that, and you can't blame then when you have finished the scan for the last member of the Adepts. Negative. Negative. Negative, negative, negative! At the end, a grand total of four people have Linker Cores; in addition to Epoch and Maclibuin, it is a man calling himself Lilliput and the ex-hero Legend told you about, Thirteenth Hour. All the rest? Not a drop of magic in a single one of them.
"How accurate is that scan of yours?" demands Felix Swoop with a sneer.
Samantha leaps down from the balcony, silvery sheen around her hands a direct challenge to the birds rustling above you. It is only by telling yourself that it will be seen as weakness and that your Barrier Jacket will protect you that you avoid looking up. "Very."
"You said that we need these cores to cast magic according to the rules of magic you know, right?" asks Maclibuin. "It stands to reason that if there are rules you don't know, you might be missing something. Watch us perform a ritual. We will show you that we are all magicians."
You give him a look, and then you nod. Despite the proof that they have magic themselves, he and Epoch both look worried, and you can't blame them. The Adepts are a volatile combination of personalities and personal philosophies, heroes and villains and rogues held together solely by their shared belief in magic. You have just shredded that unity.
"Paddock, you told me yesterday you need your charm recharged. Bring it here."
One cape hands a rope belt to the Brute, and the group splits apart. Five others join Maclibuin and Paddock, and they spread out in a circle with the belt in the middle. Hands clasped within each other's, Maclibuin hums a steady, haunting note, and it is soon picked up by the rest of the group. A faint green circle begins to glow beneath their feet. An aura of that exact color coalesces around Maclibuin, and sparks flake off that aura to drift into the rope. A couple of minutes pass before the aura is depleted, and he staggers a bit before regaining his balance. "There," he says to you. "Satisfied?"
«Storm, do you have an explanation? Something about that looked… strange. Why was all the magic the same color?»
"Impressive," your Intelligent Device announces. "Ritual for enhancement derived from first principles. Primitive method of spellcasting. Mage supplies mana, mental processing requirements divided among mages and nonmages both. Historically succeeded by computational spellcasting due to greater ease of use and self-sufficiency."
"Maclibuin, do you have to be involved in every ritual? And is it always that same color?" asks Samantha. When he nods, she continues, "Mages all have a natural color to their magics. Mine and Calamity Witch's is orange. If your ritual is always green, and you're always involved, it makes sense. The rituals work because you're a mage, and you're providing all the power while the others are just helping to focus it. You could do that working alongside anyone."
"Are you fucking kidding me?!"
Epoch moves in front of Gevaudan, his hands up in a pacifying gesture, but the villain is having none of it. "All this time, you've told us we had special powers, that staying here was gonna give us something useful and never seen before. Three years, Epoch. Three years I stuck around following your dumbass rules and restrictions, and for what?!"
"We had no way to know that was the case—"
"Well, now we do. You've got nothing to offer me, and I'm done wasting my time." He glares at both Epoch and Maclibuin. "I'm gone. If I see either of you again? You're fucking dead." He turns then to you. "Same to you, bitch. Stay outta my way."
Gevaudan storms out of the room, and the rest of the Adepts shuffle around awkwardly. A couple more drift out one by one until Epoch finally sighs. "Everyone head back to your bases. This meeting is adjourned."
They all file out, though you can't help but notice the dark expression Lilliput wears when his gaze passes over Thirteenth Hour, who stays behind along with Maclibuin. "Any idea what that's about?" you ask the gothed-up girl.
"He's gotta be pissed," she says with a faint smile. "The Adepts are arranged in tiers. You start at the bottom, in the fifth tier, and to get to a higher tier you have to challenge and defeat someone from that tier. If you win, you get their spot and they get yours. I'm fifth-tier and he's third, but your scan said that he had the weakest level of magical power where I, a newbie in the group and his supposed inferior, is a rank higher. Serves him right. He's a douche."
Epoch sighs. "Thirteenth Hour, don't call… Oh, never mind. What's even the point?"
"Are you okay?" you ask, even though you know it's a dumb question. Of course he isn't okay. Entirely by accident you just gutted his group and the very reason for their existence. No one said it, but you have your doubts that anyone will stay for much longer. "What are you going to do now?"
"…I don't know."
"Um…" You turn to look at Thirteenth Hour, who is now scratching one arm and looking at the ground. "I need to talk to Argus first, but… I'm probably going to try to rejoin the Protectorate. Nothing against you, but with all this…"
Maclibuin nods. "We understand. Just be careful. I don't know if they will take you back after joining us, and I don't want you walking into your own arrest."
"Last I talked to Legend, they hadn't labeled you a villain." Thirteenth Hour and Maclibuin turn to you. "Apparently there was a question of whether or not you had been Mastered or left of your own free will, not to mention you hadn't actually broken any laws."
"That's good to know. Thank you." She looks away from you before her voice rings in your head, «CALAMITY WITCH, CAN YOU HEAR ME?»
You barely withhold a wince, and Samantha whines at the volume. Girl's got a set of pipes on her telepathically, that's for sure. «Ow! Yeah, I can hear you just fine. Stop yelling.»
«SORRY! Sorry. I was, uh, I was wondering if maybe you could get in touch with me later, by PHO or something? I still have my old Protectorate account, name's Standstill. The reason I joined the Adepts in the first place was because I thought they could teach me how to use my power more freely, and then because it felt like I was making progress with other magic. Since you actually know what you're doing…»
You give her a noncommittal answer while Maclibuin gives Epoch a flick on the chest for something the latter said. That flick rocks the villain back on his heels and almost sends him to the ground. "None of that, E. You're stuck with me. All this means is that we need to change our methods and keep moving forwards."
Deciding you've done enough damage for the day, you clear your throat. "I think Samantha and I are just going to go. Nice to meet you, Maclibuin, Standstill. Epoch, if you need us… I guess you have our number?"
Not a minute later, you have teleported back home. Samantha shares with you a sheepish smile. "That wasn't awkward at all, was it?"
Yes, that happened. All four of these Linker Cores were guaranteed, as were the rest of the Adepts' lack thereof. Epoch's Rare Skill, on the other hand (which is pretty much the only time you'll see me roll a 12-sided die in this quest), was a surprise.
Anyway, and entirely inappropriate probably, it's time to vote for Tim's build schedule this week. Yay? Because the last vote was used to upgrade his production capabilities, he has four time slots this week. Vote will open in 24 hours.
Heatwave 9.2
Wednesday, June 1
You look at the holographic screen and sigh. "There's no way to get out of this, is there?"
"You don't have to call him if you don't want to," Samantha reminds you. "You aren't obligated to help them."
"No, I kind of am. I told him that I would meet with him to discuss things. Might as well get it over and done with. Storm, call Epoch."
A phone rings only twice before being picked up. "Good morning, Calamity Witch," the gang leader says in the same pleasant voice he has used the other times you talked to him. "How does this fine day treat you so far?"
You roll your eyes. "Just great. Look, we agreed to meet and talk a little more about whether I'm going to teach you guys magic."
"…I have to admit, I actually expected you to take longer to get back to me about this. Not that I'm complaining! Just the opposite, in fact."
"I told you I'd call you back when all the mess going down in Philly was over, and things are basically back to normal. If I say I will do something, that means I'll do it. Now, do you have time to meet with me today or not?"
He laughs off your curt tone. "Oh, I'm sure I can find time for you sometime this morning…" He trails off, and when he continues, it is in a slightly different voice. More hesitant, almost. "Actually, would three this afternoon work? We already have a general meeting scheduled. You and I can talk beforehand, and if you're agreeable, I can introduce you to the whole group."
You have GPS coordinates as well as a street address written down when he hangs up, and you look over at Samantha. "As weird as it feels to suggest trusting a villain who broke into our house, I somehow doubt this is all a setup," she tells you. "He was too…"
"Genuine. Yeah, I know. That's what makes this all so difficult. He sounds like he really, truly just wants to learn magic, but at the same time?" You let out a small laugh at the tangled mess your life is on the way to becoming. "Working with a bunch of villains to fight the Beasts, and actually liking Cailleach and Circus as long as I forget I'm going to have to arrest them in the future. Having Cailleach unmask to me because it's the 'honorable' thing to do. And here is an entire group of villains who essentially are begging for table scraps. Sam, be honest with me. Where did I screw up with this whole hero thing?"
"No clue." She shrugs. "Maybe you didn't screw up, though. Have you thought about that? With all this possible influence over villains, there's a chance – a chance, mind you – that you could try pushing them back onto the straight and narrow."
"Yeah, let's keep that idea on the down low right now. With how pissy the guys were about the Truce the last couple of weeks, telling them that we're even considering the possibility of reforming villains is just going to add fuel to the fire." Fuel that you really don't want to throw around right now. You're still trying to psych yourself up to wade into the fight over who's going to lead the Privateers, and cluttering that issue with this entirely unrelated problem would just make that goal even more difficult.
One problem at a time, please and thank you.
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Three o'clock rolls around with the orange glow of Spatial Translocation. Taking a quick glance around at the fake wood paneling, you turn your attention to the cowled man standing up behind the desk. "You haven't met, but this is Samantha, my teammate. Samantha, Epoch, leader of the Adepts."
"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Samantha," Epoch says with an easy smile, pulling one hand out of his robe's pocket to offer a handshake that Samantha returns. He waves his hand at the chairs in front of his desk in offering. "Thank you both for coming. Calamity Witch, a couple of weeks ago you mentioned some qualms about parting with your teachings. How can I ease your concerns?"
Samantha leans forward. "I know the big question that's going through my head, and we've agreed that this is pretty much the heart of the problem considering we're both heroes. Why should we trust villains with magic?"
"A valid question from your perspective, but in truth one that has a rather anticlimactic answer. If I may pose a question to the both of you, do you know why our organization is classified as a gang and villains in the first place?"
You shake your head. Following your first meeting with their leader, you did some research into the Adepts, both on your and own and with Perfect Storm's assistance. For the life of you, though, you could not manage to track down solid information. A few scattered crimes here and there, but they were all crimes associated with cape fights in general, and the same ones that Perfect Storm had found were generally waived for heroes in the same situation. Some people would would consider that enough, but condemning them solely for that is too close to Purity's situation following her split with the Empire for your peace of mind.
"There are two main reasons. The first you already know: we have several members who were already villains prior to their joining our ranks. I personally don't care about their background, only their capabilities. If they they have magic and want to expand their abilities and advance our pitiful knowledge of magic, they are welcome just as are the rogues and heroes we count among our number."
"You have many heroes, then?" Samantha asks with interest.
"Three. Thirteenth Hour, formerly a member of the Protectorate under the name of Standstill, you already know about. Argus, an independent hero from the Midwest. And finally Maclibuin, my second-in-command and the cofounder of our group. He was first part of a hero team under the name Hammerstroke and then had a short solo career prior to our first meeting.
"That is one reason. The other is our activities. Our primary focus is magic, but we need money for supplies and general lifestyle. Due to our varied origins as well as the simple fact that we are a small group sitting under the eye of Legend himself, we eschew 'normal' gang activities. We hold no territory, we avoid becoming embroiled in enterprises such as money laundering or drug distribution, we do not steal. What we do, however, is contract out our talents. Mercenary work, to be succinct." He gives you a shrug. "Not the most glamorous or respected work, I will admit, but we have earned a good reputation. Some of the former rogues also continue the sale of their products or services as they did before joining, from which they contribute a portion of the profit to our general budget.
"Those are the reasons we are classified as villains. Personally, I could not care less what label the Protectorate chooses to apply to me, but as you sound like you are concerned with how your teachings might be abused, I hope this eases your conscience. We have no interest in seizing control of a portion of the city and ruining the lives of those within that territory. Our motivation is wholly academic."
"So what do you plan to do with this knowledge, assuming I teach you? Write it down in ledgers that are soon to accumulate dust? Lord them over other capes you fight over the course of your jobs?"
"I suppose that depends on what you teach us, doesn't it? If I may be blunt, Calamity Witch?" You give him a slow nod. "I will not refuse anything you are willing to teach us, but what I am most interested in is the method that makes all your spellcasting so effortless. Not only would it make our experimentation and research go faster, but if we can harness magic with the same ease you do, my ultimate goal is to expand. Send out our members to create their own chapters, find others with magic, and spread this knowledge far and wide. I would love a world in which magic was no longer dismissed as a fairy tale but instead acknowledged and respected."
Samantha cocks her head. "And what then? What happens when magic is known far and wide? What happens when it is so simple to split the world into those with magic and those without?"
"I… Well…" Epoch stammers a bit longer before figuring out what to say. "I actually have never thought about what happens after. I never envisioned it happening even in my lifetime and certainly not in the near enough future that definitive plans could be made."
«What was that about, Sam?»
«Curious about what he had planned for the future, if anything. Look at places like South America or Africa, where what used to be countries are now small territories ruled by parahuman warlords. Throw magic into the mix, and you can't say for sure you won't get societal collapse for similar reasons. Sure, there are a LOT more potential mages than there are parahumans, so that makes the consolidation of physical power more difficult, but a two-tiered society where mages have authority over nonmages purely because of their magic? Far from impossible. If that was his goal, I'd be against giving him any help.»
«Affirmative. Similar societal structure of Al-Hazard.»
"Understandable. That would be far in the future," you tell him even as you reply to Samantha, «And with his actual answer?»
«His story is consistent. All his focus is on the first step of finding and teaching potential mages. Nothing malicious about that. Maybe a little shortsighted, but not malicious.»
Not a ringing endorsement, but it's also not a condemnation. Is Samantha merely reserving judgement or has Epoch passed her minimum standards? And even if he has, that is not the same as approving the Adepts as a whole. "I want to see the others before I make a decision," you tell him with a nod. "You aren't asking me to teach only you. If you want me to teach your entire group, I have the right to evaluate them all."
Apprehension momentarily flickers across his face. "I understand. All I ask is that you don't judge us all too quickly. There are a few of our members who, for all their good traits, are not exactly the most pleasant of people when you first meet them."
Epoch leads you down a hallway and through a door, revealing a balcony overlooking a wide bare floor where a group of capes are already gathered. The rest of the Adepts, you expect, all fourteen of them. Or perhaps thirteen, as a giant is already waiting for you on the balcony. "Is this the little lady you were talking about?" he asks, uncrossing his bulky arms.
"That she is. Calamity Witch, Samantha, this is Maclibuin. Mac, Calamity Witch and her partner Samantha."
You take in his great size and the scars crisscrossing his arms that are revealed by the muscle shirt he's wearing. This is one of the former heroes Epoch had mentioned? Maclibuin gives you a wide smile and reaches out with both hands to wrap around your own. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you," he says, clenching his own hands together in what you realize must be a practiced maneuver to shake people's hands without crushing them. He reaches for Samantha, and his grin broadens when she refuses the double-shake in exchange for squeezing his hand with her own Brute strength.
"Same to you. What's going on here?"
"Greetings, everyone!" Epoch calls out, gaining the rest of the Adepts' attention. "We have been called together to bear witness to a challenge fight, with our newest member, Thirteenth Hour, challenging Matchstick for his place in the fourth tier. But before we watch these two match wits and powers, I would like to introduce a guest." He gestures for you to step forward. "My friends, this is Calamity Witch. Like us, she is a magician, coming to meet more of our kind."
"This is that girl you told us 'bout, huh?" calls out one man in a thick furred coat. "The 'expert' you claim you found? Doesn't look like much to me."
"Gevaudan," you hear Maclibuin mutter to Samantha. "My fellow second-tier member. Unlike myself, he was solidly a villain before joining our ranks. Not the nicest individual."
"Then why put up with him?"
"Despite his attitude, he is still a magician. We are rare enough that we must sometimes overlook each other's many, many flaws. Otherwise I would have pounded him into paste by now."
While Maclibuin is spilling all the Adepts' juicy secrets, Epoch is doing his best to calm the sudden uproar. Taking a bit of pity on him, you kick your legs over the railing to sit upon it. "Yes, I am a mage. Yes, Epoch has approached me with the idea of teaching you my methods of spellcasting. I have yet to fully make up my mind on that matter, partly because I am a hero while you are officially a villain organization and partly because what I could teach you could be limited by how strong your Linker Cores are. I came here today mostly to meet a few of you firsthand to help me make that decision."
"And this 'Linker Core' is…?" Epoch asks, his eyebrows wrinkled in confusion.
This is a little sooner than you planned to get into the anatomy of magic, but you suppose you might as well explain it now than delay it and still have to go over it. It isn't like anyone can do anything with this information by itself. You think back to the way Perfect Storm described it to you and say, "A Linker Core is a magical organ of sorts. It serves to collect and concentrate mana from the environment, and then you use that mana to cast spells. There's a wide variation of strengths of Linker Cores, and how big your Core is plays an important role in how long you can cast magic before needing to rest and recharge."
"How interesting," Maclibuin says. Speaking louder, he asks, "And can you scan for this easily, or does it require something big and fragile like an MRI machine?"
Samantha raises her eyebrows, question obvious even without telepathy. Are you willing to go all the way and scan the Adepts?
You've come this far. Might as well.
"I can scan you right here and now if you want. I take it you're interested?"
Muttering from below indicates that even if Maclibuin and Epoch aren't, the rest certainly are. The two cofounders share a glance before Epoch gives you a pleased smile. "I know I am interested in seeing just where I stack up."
"Me too," agrees Maclibuin.
Gevaudan climbs the stairs while you move Epoch and Perfect Storm into position. «Storm, scan away.»
Lines of blue light sweep over Epoch's torso, and the hologram that appears is quickly stripped of its various layers of skin and muscle and organs until all that is left is a spot that glitters like a jewel. "Scan complete," your Device announces aloud, catching everyone off guard. "Linker Core detected. Estimated rank: A. Nonstandard mana structure detected. Consistent with known Rare Skill: Regenerator."
"Regenerator?"/"Rare Skill?" you and Epoch ask at the same time.
"Rare Skill: engineered gene-line granting atypical magical qualities. Regenerator gene-line developed by primordial Al-Hazardan civilization. Enhanced healing factor, wide variability in potency. Effect may not be noticeable without active enhancement."
The cape blinks slowly at that revelation, and you yourself are a little worried about what is going to follow. Of all the ways to introduce the concept of alien worlds, this was not the best. "That," he finally says, "has some disturbing implications, but now's not the time to talk about ancient civilizations nobody but your staff knows about." His words make it clear that he would really like to talk about it later, though. "Mac, you're up."
The same process happens again. "Scan complete. Linker Core detected. Estimated rank: C."
"I bet C is less than A?" he asks with a short laugh, not worried in the least that his Linker Core is weaker than his boss's.
After both of their leaders have been scanned with no immediate ill effects, any doubts the Adepts might have held have evaporated. Gevaudan steps up with a swagger. "Maybe you're not so bad, girl," he tells you when stops in front of you. "Gives us a better way to rank ourselves, wouldn't you say, Epoch?"
Probably hoping to be ranked higher than Maclibuin, his nominal equal, or his superior. With that sort of attitude, you wish he wouldn't actually have a Linker Core, just to slap him down.
"Scan complete. No Linker Core detected."
The three capes slowly turn to stare at you. You in turn point at the screen which, unlike the previous times, shows no sparkling dot, though inwardly you wonder if you shouldn't start wishing for random things more often. "I don't about you, but I can't see one."
"That's not possible," Epoch says with a sharp shake of his head. "We all have magic. I've felt it myself."
"I don't know what you were sensing. All I can tell you is what my scan shows, and I can't detect anything in him. No Linker Core means no way to gather mana, and that means you can't cast spells. Not by any of the rules of magic I know about."
"Maybe it's a, what are those called?" Maclibuin cuts in. "A false negative. Scan the rest. When she finds magic in everyone else, she can just rescan you."
The mood in the room rapidly plummets after that, and you can't blame then when you have finished the scan for the last member of the Adepts. Negative. Negative. Negative, negative, negative! At the end, a grand total of four people have Linker Cores; in addition to Epoch and Maclibuin, it is a man calling himself Lilliput and the ex-hero Legend told you about, Thirteenth Hour. All the rest? Not a drop of magic in a single one of them.
"How accurate is that scan of yours?" demands Felix Swoop with a sneer.
Samantha leaps down from the balcony, silvery sheen around her hands a direct challenge to the birds rustling above you. It is only by telling yourself that it will be seen as weakness and that your Barrier Jacket will protect you that you avoid looking up. "Very."
"You said that we need these cores to cast magic according to the rules of magic you know, right?" asks Maclibuin. "It stands to reason that if there are rules you don't know, you might be missing something. Watch us perform a ritual. We will show you that we are all magicians."
You give him a look, and then you nod. Despite the proof that they have magic themselves, he and Epoch both look worried, and you can't blame them. The Adepts are a volatile combination of personalities and personal philosophies, heroes and villains and rogues held together solely by their shared belief in magic. You have just shredded that unity.
"Paddock, you told me yesterday you need your charm recharged. Bring it here."
One cape hands a rope belt to the Brute, and the group splits apart. Five others join Maclibuin and Paddock, and they spread out in a circle with the belt in the middle. Hands clasped within each other's, Maclibuin hums a steady, haunting note, and it is soon picked up by the rest of the group. A faint green circle begins to glow beneath their feet. An aura of that exact color coalesces around Maclibuin, and sparks flake off that aura to drift into the rope. A couple of minutes pass before the aura is depleted, and he staggers a bit before regaining his balance. "There," he says to you. "Satisfied?"
«Storm, do you have an explanation? Something about that looked… strange. Why was all the magic the same color?»
"Impressive," your Intelligent Device announces. "Ritual for enhancement derived from first principles. Primitive method of spellcasting. Mage supplies mana, mental processing requirements divided among mages and nonmages both. Historically succeeded by computational spellcasting due to greater ease of use and self-sufficiency."
"Maclibuin, do you have to be involved in every ritual? And is it always that same color?" asks Samantha. When he nods, she continues, "Mages all have a natural color to their magics. Mine and Calamity Witch's is orange. If your ritual is always green, and you're always involved, it makes sense. The rituals work because you're a mage, and you're providing all the power while the others are just helping to focus it. You could do that working alongside anyone."
"Are you fucking kidding me?!"
Epoch moves in front of Gevaudan, his hands up in a pacifying gesture, but the villain is having none of it. "All this time, you've told us we had special powers, that staying here was gonna give us something useful and never seen before. Three years, Epoch. Three years I stuck around following your dumbass rules and restrictions, and for what?!"
"We had no way to know that was the case—"
"Well, now we do. You've got nothing to offer me, and I'm done wasting my time." He glares at both Epoch and Maclibuin. "I'm gone. If I see either of you again? You're fucking dead." He turns then to you. "Same to you, bitch. Stay outta my way."
Gevaudan storms out of the room, and the rest of the Adepts shuffle around awkwardly. A couple more drift out one by one until Epoch finally sighs. "Everyone head back to your bases. This meeting is adjourned."
They all file out, though you can't help but notice the dark expression Lilliput wears when his gaze passes over Thirteenth Hour, who stays behind along with Maclibuin. "Any idea what that's about?" you ask the gothed-up girl.
"He's gotta be pissed," she says with a faint smile. "The Adepts are arranged in tiers. You start at the bottom, in the fifth tier, and to get to a higher tier you have to challenge and defeat someone from that tier. If you win, you get their spot and they get yours. I'm fifth-tier and he's third, but your scan said that he had the weakest level of magical power where I, a newbie in the group and his supposed inferior, is a rank higher. Serves him right. He's a douche."
Epoch sighs. "Thirteenth Hour, don't call… Oh, never mind. What's even the point?"
"Are you okay?" you ask, even though you know it's a dumb question. Of course he isn't okay. Entirely by accident you just gutted his group and the very reason for their existence. No one said it, but you have your doubts that anyone will stay for much longer. "What are you going to do now?"
"…I don't know."
"Um…" You turn to look at Thirteenth Hour, who is now scratching one arm and looking at the ground. "I need to talk to Argus first, but… I'm probably going to try to rejoin the Protectorate. Nothing against you, but with all this…"
Maclibuin nods. "We understand. Just be careful. I don't know if they will take you back after joining us, and I don't want you walking into your own arrest."
"Last I talked to Legend, they hadn't labeled you a villain." Thirteenth Hour and Maclibuin turn to you. "Apparently there was a question of whether or not you had been Mastered or left of your own free will, not to mention you hadn't actually broken any laws."
"That's good to know. Thank you." She looks away from you before her voice rings in your head, «CALAMITY WITCH, CAN YOU HEAR ME?»
You barely withhold a wince, and Samantha whines at the volume. Girl's got a set of pipes on her telepathically, that's for sure. «Ow! Yeah, I can hear you just fine. Stop yelling.»
«SORRY! Sorry. I was, uh, I was wondering if maybe you could get in touch with me later, by PHO or something? I still have my old Protectorate account, name's Standstill. The reason I joined the Adepts in the first place was because I thought they could teach me how to use my power more freely, and then because it felt like I was making progress with other magic. Since you actually know what you're doing…»
You give her a noncommittal answer while Maclibuin gives Epoch a flick on the chest for something the latter said. That flick rocks the villain back on his heels and almost sends him to the ground. "None of that, E. You're stuck with me. All this means is that we need to change our methods and keep moving forwards."
Deciding you've done enough damage for the day, you clear your throat. "I think Samantha and I are just going to go. Nice to meet you, Maclibuin, Standstill. Epoch, if you need us… I guess you have our number?"
Not a minute later, you have teleported back home. Samantha shares with you a sheepish smile. "That wasn't awkward at all, was it?"
Yes, that happened. All four of these Linker Cores were guaranteed, as were the rest of the Adepts' lack thereof. Epoch's Rare Skill, on the other hand (which is pretty much the only time you'll see me roll a 12-sided die in this quest), was a surprise.
Anyway, and entirely inappropriate probably, it's time to vote for Tim's build schedule this week. Yay? Because the last vote was used to upgrade his production capabilities, he has four time slots this week. Vote will open in 24 hours.
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So…