"Read my mind, darling," you reply. You stand and watch as Ellie relinquishes a truly absurd number of weapons. A bandolier of stun grenades, two firearms, an snub-nosed pistol on her ankle, a machete, a dagger, caltrops, ingredients for a Molotov cocktail, metal wire, a taser, a collapsible baton, a lighter, and two cans of pepper spray.
Goddamn! How'd she even get that there!?
Your junior members move to follow your orders as Châtelet approaches you.
"Odds that this goes loud . . . Double L?"
"Please don't call me that."
"Oh, thank god," Châtelet breathes, "It's such a silly nickname. I was worried you actually liked it."
It's a peak nickname, but disagree to agree.
"Heavens, no. And to answer your question: good enough that I wish we Black Swan wasn't patrolling with New Dawn."
I wish we hadn't brought her on meet the rookies now.
It happened exactly when you mentioned "New Dawn". Her whole posture changed. And not because of fear.
She's filled with rage.
* * *
You wait until you're all in the air before you broach what you observed with Ellie. The two of you share a Nevermore, with her seated behind you. You think on it for a moment, and decide to just ask what's on your mind instead of dancing around the subject. You feel like she'll respond better if she doesn't feel she's being manipulated.
"Do you have a grudge against New Dawn, darling?"
Ellie snaps out of her fugue and looks at you with hard eyes.
"No."
"You're a terrible liar, you know."
". . . I know," she says, looking away and deflating, "And why do you even care?"
"Because," you say, "I find myself intrigued by you. A regular girl with no powers leading an army against metahumans and 'magical girls'? And who now I learn has a grudge against New Dawn? I simply
must know more
Here's the lore drop.
"Heavenly Astrologian was my mom."
You're stunned speechless for the dozenth time today. You didn't even know Heavenly Astrologian had a daughter. You didn't know much about the woman to be honest. She was the rare metahuman with a completely anonymous private identity. Most heroes didn't bother separating the mask from the person, but Heavenly Astrologian was careful to never reveal her face or give her real name.
Yeah, I can see why Ellie's so pissed.
A knit forms in Ellie's brow. "But, as 'Heavenly Astrologian' got more famous, mom stopped being around so much. She spent every second she wasn't at work with me, but. . . by the end, mom was working fourteen hours a day, seven days a week."
FOURTEEN!? This woman was on the hustle!
Novalight humiliated my mom. Asked why she brought an 'unruly child' to a workplace. She berated her in front of everyone and then docked her pay," Ellie says with some heat, "And the worst part? My mom just stood there and took it. Everyone did. Only Uncle Gabriel tried to stand up for her, and even he shut up when Novalight started the light show. The cunt."
Ah. That's why we would have had disadvantage.
@Bitterman, would we have not had disadvantage if we had brought Wolong and
only Wolong?
She looks at you. "Whether a person ends up a metahuman is totally random. How strong their powers are is random. Someone can be a good person without being a hero, and some heroes are monsters. But everyone acts like being strong and being righteous are the same thing. It's. Bullshit."
You hold up your hands. "No argument here, darling."
Lady Leizi is probably already adding her to the candidate list as we speak.
"My goodness, the late Novalight was a bitch."
Ellie laughs. You feel some of the tension ease. Well, that was something, wasn't it?
Family is a terrible thing.
TRUE⬆️
The Apiary Jr. is an ugly, squat building next to a skyscraper. It's made of solid stone with a large, partially destroyed sign that reads "True Guaranty Bank & Trust". As you all begin your descent, Lizbeth greets the various magical girls milling about in the air
Ew. Looks nasty.
DC 10.
Stat Check: ESPIONAGE 20. Justice Unlimited has a collective ESPIONAGE 27.
You rolled: 17.
17 + 3 = 20. Critical Success!
STRONG ESPIONAGE strikes again!
DC 5.
Stat Check: OPERATIONS 3. Lady Leizi has an OPERATIONS 5.
You rolled: 15.
15 + 1 = 16. Success!
Almost certainly lowered because of Lady Leizi's triad background.
However, it is the figure in the center of the table, opposite you, who fills your heart with such marvelous bile that you wish to be ill. You don't recognize the young girl—maybe seventeen or eighteen—but you do recognize the shape of her jaw, the flair to her nose, and the shape of those wretched, wretched brown eyes.
They're your father's. Family is a terrible thing.
You all take your seats and no one says a word. You're all studying each other. Your . . . Yellow Qilin wears a traditional hanfu the color of pure bullion, a golden gown interspersed with red, blue, white, and black silks. She holds a fan that depicts the dragon-horse of her namesake. Her face is bone-white with lips painted ruby red, and her hair is done up in elaborate coils that leave a long strand of hair free to run down her face on either side. She smiles at you as if she knows her entire existence here is one great insult.
It probably is.
Man, seventeen? That's super young.
The Brass Shield is a pockmarked boy with curly brown hair, who looks perfectly ridiculous with his small head sticking out of his disproportionately bulky power armor.
"Lady Leizi, you're too late. Crusade has already learned of all the indignities perpetrated against these poor maidens by Justice Unlimited!" he sneers in a Northern British accent, "Crusade will set your wrongs right!"
…oh my god. He's a
second motherfucking Silvio. Dammit, really?!
"Threatening a woman? I'd expect no less from the daughter of a criminal!" The Brass Shield bellows, "Have heart, good woman, for there is a Crusade to—"
Literally trying not to fall asleep every time this fool starts yapping.
"Ah, so you are that man's child then?" you say, examining your nails.
"Indeed. I am his true heir. Can you not see the family resemblance?"
"My condolences."
Oh damn. Crazy burn.
Hmm, based on her age and the way she discusses your father . . .
"You never even met him, did you, darling?"
Yellow Qilin's face twists in a sneer. "And who's fault is that, hmm?"
You point to Ronin. "The woman sitting next to you."
Yellow Qilin freezes.
Very glad that LL knows that info personally.
"Does one blame the blade or the one who wields it?" she sneers, looking at Ronin, "Just who was it that gave that blade the locations of our hideouts? Our safehouses? Where our father was hiding?"
She laughs. "No, one does not blame the blade. I will take it from you and use it to prune the rotten branches from my family's tree, just as I took the name 'Justice Unlimited' from you and used it as my own. I will take everything from you until you lie in the ashes that was once your own pride. Then I will kill you."
Not so glad that she's decided to speak poetry.
ediocre?" she repeats, "You find me mediocre? I who have raised the Ghost Dragon Triad from the ashes in a matter of months? Can you comprehend the amount of wealth we deal in? Millions. Hundreds of millions. All borne for a substance less minds would call worthless—"
"Goldnine," Ellie interrupts, "She means goldnine. That's what their 'mana' is. Leviathan's blood."
You wish you had a camera to preserve the look on Yellow Qilin's face. You'll have to do with committing the look of stunned shock to memory and adding insult to injury
So they're the goldmine suppliers.
Ellie looks at Yellow Qilin and drops the arm that you know holds her knife. "The gems she gives the girls . . . they're connected to The Frozen Throne somehow. They grow and take over the girl. The only thing that stops it is goldnine. The Frozen Throne and goldnine they . . . they cancel each other out."
For the first time, your cool facade cracks at the revelation. Pieces from the Frozen Throne? Let alone how it interacts with goldnine.
Terrifying.
"The heavens saw fit to grant the power to imbue objects with a dose of power shaped by a word I carve. The higher quality the material, the more I can change it and the more power it can hold. Imagine my surprise when I learned how much I could shape a shard of ice taken from the Frozen Throne."
So they take shit from right outside of the FT… and then make them into power givers. And the Frozen Throne let's this happen because of how much it can then expand.
Shit.
You look to Ronin. "And how does Crusade feel about this?"
"As one would expect. Crusade will investigate all allegations, especially those that accuse the already ignominious Justice Unlimited of wrongdoing."
"Charming," you say with a tight smile.
Ronin must have a crazy poker face.
Only she is willing to pay her supplier? Who could—oh, Leviathan's Blood.
"Monarch?" you say exasperated, "You're paying Monarch for goldnine? Please tell me you're joking, darling."
The stunned expression returns as Yellow Qilin looks like she's been punched in the stomach. Yes, Monarch, of course. It's the only explanation that makes sense. You knew that the Ghost Dragon Triad is paying her, but for what? Goldnine. With her teleportation powers, she could easily create a path to the QZ that could avoid the R-Train. The R-Train could detect biological signatures and the energy released when goldnine subsumed other matter—but it could not detect actual goldnine itself. That's how you got away with storing as much as you have.
Crap.
"You understand that Monarch is untrustworthy and one of the most reviled persons in Horizon, yes?" you say, "You know you'll be crushed and your operation here ended as soon as your connection to her is brought to light?"
"No such thing will happen," Yellow Qilin says. You see madness in her eyes, the madness of someone who believes themselves untouchable. "Monarch has no other buyers. She needs the money I can provide, or her empire will crumble beneath her."
She turns to Ellie. "And without goldnine, all those poor, poor girls will die in the most terrible way possible. A shame."
We have to kill her. That's not really a thought anymore.
"Perhaps. But that's not all that will happen. Girl," she says to Ellie, "Tell the foolish stain on my blood what is happening."
Ellie looks down. "The Frozen Throne has already grown two feet this year."
You feel your heart stop.
Ellie continues. "Every time one of my girls goes too long without goldnine, the Throne eventually takes them. They . . . shatter. I think it empowers it somehow. The girls can hear it more and more clearly in their heads. Sometimes . . . sometimes I can hear it too when I'm close to the border."
You let that all sink in.
TWO FEET?!?
"Mediocre."
Yellow Qilin's confidence morphs to confusion so quickly, you almost feel bad. But it must be said—
"Mediocre," you repeat, "I'm actually a little disappointed. Do you have any idea how many would-be-villains I've heard mistake cruelty and arrogance for unprecedented brilliance?"
Let's go!!! LL's taking the situation back!
Every so often, you meet someone who thinks they are 'special' for having the 'original' idea to disregard social mores and take audacious actions that others eschew. That somehow being especially reckless and callous makes you better than other people," you say, "But what that person always forgets—what you don't understand—is that conventional wisdom exists for a reason."
You look at her like what she is: an impetuous child. You could just hold your peace and let what's coming to her come, but you feel a responsibility—to both the people she will hurt and the person she could have been—and so you speak.
"Do you think everyone will let this Sword of Damocles hang over their head forever? Do you think tampering with The Frozen Throne will hold no consequences? And if your bluff is called? If your hostages are exhausted and the Throne is empowered? Do you think everyone will forget who was responsible?"
LL is already spitting facts. When she gets to the Philosophers and Socialite Butterfly, the verbal smack down wil, be
legendary.
Yellow Qilin looks very small, drowning in her skills in a hole in the Earth she created for herself. She looks so young. Like a child wearing her mother's makeup, playacting "work" without really understanding what she's doing. But she does. She's damned not only herself, but dozens of innocent girls. And as your words sink in and the violent, bitter resentment twists at her heart and shows on her face, you see who she's chosen to be.
A monster.
I imagine that this encounter would have gone very differently if we hadn't gotten "you can be more".
"We need more. Please. There are several girls who are close to losing it. What we took today will barely make up for what the girls spent to capture it."
Yellow Qilin lets out a victorious smirk. "I'll even let you leave with your 'gift'. This girl is worthless to me. Of course, I could just as easily make an example out of her."
She thinks she has you cornered. But she's wrong on three counts. One, goldnine is not entirely worthless to you. If you wouldn't be directly funding Monarch, you honestly might be tempted to just use Yellow Qilin as a regular supplier. Two, she's not the only source of goldnine you have available. Nora's declaration that the R-Train can be reasons with echoes in your mind. And three, no one, no one, has ever had you cornered.
So, with that in mind, you . . .
[X] . . . go loud.
We can get the freaking goldnine by kicking their asses into next Sunday! And then Monarch becomes a broke MOFO, like she deserves.
