The Terrarian OLD VERSION (There's a Rewrite)

[Dawnk41]

1.1​

I walked along the rooftops, hopping across the alleyway gaps when necessary, at a leisurely pace. Honestly, I wasn't too sure why I was doing this. I certainly wasn't that well prepared, not as much as I could be next week, or even tomorrow. Waiting a single day would render me two or three times as likely to get through a patrol in one piece.

Except… I knew that I had already wasted enough time waiting. In the beginning, while I was still stumbling around with my powers, I had wasted time on disbelief, panic, and even anger at the sheer ridiculousness of it all. But then I had calmed down, gotten my focus, and listened.

That had been two days ago. More precisely, that had been two nights ago, as my power seemed to activate in my sleep. In the time since then, I had fortified myself with armor I had carved from wood with my own two hands, arming myself with a similarly crafted sword. Were they the best I could do? Far from it. But if I waited another few days to eke out a small improvement in my equipment, I might never actually get out there to be a hero. The temptation to make my stuff 'just that little bit better!' might have never gone away.

So here I was, encased in wood, hoping that the reason that I was able to beat up gangsters wasn't because they were laughing too hard to fight back.

I stopped suddenly, tilting my head. I could hear… whimpers, muffled cursing, and muted thumps and thuds. That wasn't a good combination. I pinpointed the sound, and bounded over towards the supposedly abandoned warehouse I could hear the sounds coming from. I leapt onto the wall and clambered up, jumping around windows until I reached the massive hole near the roof. Wow, this building was in terrible shape. No wonder the shipping companies abandoned it.

Now on the upper banisters of the warehouse, I crept along until I could see what the people inside were up to.

I nearly threw up. Some Empire thugs, and it was obvious that that was what they were, were beating up a middle-aged black man. But even worse than that, they had a small child that looked like it might be the victim's child tied up and gagged. The child wasn't facing the group, thank god, but I could see him twitching and struggling with every strike they landed on the man.

I was disgusted. I pulled out a Featherfall Potion and chugged it. Then, I held out my hand, and a large wooden boomerang, nearly two feet across, materialized in it. Standing up, I let it fly at the group of thugs. The thug struck by the boomerang stumbled before crumpling, and I felt a brief flash of worry that I might have overdone it, but I quashed that feeling as I leapt down to the floor of the warehouse.

"Damnit, it's a cape!" One of the three thugs still standing hissed.

"What the hell are you monsters doing?" I snarled at them, before catching my boomerang as it returned to me. I didn't receive an answer, unless you count having three guns pulled on you as an answer, that is. I let my boomerang fly again, before leaping back into the air to dodge out of the way of their line of fire. This time, the thug in question ducked with a shout, and then kept shooting. I fell slowly, now grimacing at the thought that perhaps the Featherfall potion wasn't the best idea for high speed combat. I moved towards the thugs as I fell, positioning myself just so, in order to cause my boomerang to bowl over another of them on its return.

The two remaining skinheads apparently decided to cut their losses and book it. Fortunately for me, now that I was standing with my feet firmly on the floor once more, I was faster than they were. But…

I glanced over at the boy and his father, and then sighed. As much satisfaction as it would bring me to make sure that those jerks got what was coming to them, it was probably more important to make sure that the victims were okay. I ran to the child, who was closer to me, and untied his bonds and took off his gag. Immediately, he rolled to his feet and dashed over to his father.

"Daddy! Daddy, are you okay?" The little boy was trying to stop crying. I felt awful. If I had gotten here sooner, if I hadn't been taking my time on my patrol, I might have been able to put a stop to this earlier.

But my self-recriminations could wait. I walked briskly over to one of the downed thugs, and rifled through his pockets. Cellphone acquired, I walked back over to the injured man, who was sitting up now, groaning. I dialed 911, and waited a moment as it rang. After a few seconds, a voice answered.

"911, what is the nature of your emergency?" A crisp sounding woman stated over the line.

I floundered for a moment before getting a grip on myself. "Uh, hi. I'm a new independent hero, and I just stopped some Empire goons from killing a man and his son. Do you know what I should do from here?" I asked.

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line. "Well, sir, this is generally handled better by the police department, so for future instances, please use this number," She rattled off a number for me to use, "But we'll be sure to direct the PRT to your location so that a member of the Protectorate can meet you and debrief you about future such situations."

Oh! I was going to get to meet a member of the Protectorate? I hope it's Armsmaster, I'm a huge fan of his… I finished talking with the lady on the phone, including telling her the address of the warehouse, and tossed the cell back onto the thug I got it from. I walked over to the injured guy and his son. Crap, should I have called for an ambulance?

"Are… Are you alright, sir? Do you want me to get you an ambulance?" I would have wrung my hands, if I hadn't been wearing wooden paneled gauntlets. He had ugly bruises appearing all over his face, and he was holding one of his ribs tenderly. I hoped it wasn't broken...

He waved off my concern. "I'll be alright, thanks though." He paused, before speaking up again. "Also, thank you for saving us. If you hadn't come, who knows what would have happened to Anthony…" He hugged his son close to him.

"It's part of the job, sir. This sort of thing is why I became a hero." I said airily. Lies. I became a hero for the kick of it, something that I now felt was kicking me. I didn't want to set a bad example for this kid, though, or lower their opinion of real heroes in general.

We waited for a few more minutes, until I heard a vehicle pull up outside the warehouse.

"That must be the police." I said, relieved. I stood up and walked over to a window.

It wasn't the police. As a cape geek, I had put in a lot of time memorizing all the capes on every side of the conflict here in Brockton Bay, mostly for the purpose of accuracy on the PHO 'Cape vs. Cape' threads.

As such, even when it was from what I could see from across a street under a streetlight, I knew what Cricket and Stormtiger's masks looked like.

My mind flew into action. Let's see, Cricket has the ability to create sonic waves that can disrupt people, and she's also known to have superhuman reflexes and agility. Stormtiger's power was over air, he often shot pressurized blasts of air as a weapon.

Basically, as long as Stormtiger was here, my boomerang was useless, and Cricket would be much better at hand-to-hand combat than me, though she was better known for wielding two weird little scythe-things.

Which made me happy that I had more than just my boomerang. I dissolved my trusty projectile and formed my spear in my hands instead.

"If you can move, sir, you need to get yourself hidden somewhere in the back. Looks like the empire sent a few of their capes to rough me up."

The man appeared to want to argue for a moment, but after glancing down to his son, his shoulders slumped, and he nodded. from the corner of my eye, I watched his son help him hobble further into the warehouse. Once they were far enough away, I strode out the door and took a stance with my spear.

"Hello there. What can I do for you two this evening?" I asked them pleasantly. Under my wooden helmet, I was sweating profusely. Hopefully, I would be able to talk my way out of this.

They paused for a moment, before Stormtiger replied. "We heard that someone had assaulted a few of our members. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?" His tone belied the intent behind his polite words. This would turn into a fight, as soon as he tired of the verbal exchange.

I swallowed, before replying in kind. "I found four men beating up a fifth, in front of a child. Anyone would step in, don't you agree?" I was stalling at this point, and all three of us knew it.

He shrugged. "All the same, regardless of circumstances, the Empire cannot tolerate any attacks on our members. Especially," He cricked his neck, and popped his knuckles. "Within our territory. Which is why I'm going to have to make an example of you, Treeman."

I grimaced. Treeman? That was terrible. I seriously hope that that doesn't become my cape name. I'd just die of shame. Note to self, try to come up with a cool cape name that doesn't spoil everything about me.

I was distracted from my thoughts on names by Cricket lunging towards me. I immediately brought my spear to bear and aimed it at her when all of a sudden, a terribly painful noise screamed through my ears, disorienting me and causing my legs to wobble.

Judging by Cricket's expression, the fact that this didn't stop me from holding my ground and stabbing forward with my spear was unexpected. I took a stupidly large amount of pleasure out of the fact that I could just no-sell Cricket's disorienting soundwaves. I stopped grinning quite as wide when she simply bent far enough to get out of the way of my spear.

She backflipped away from me, and shouted something. I couldn't hear, of course, she had just deafened me. Didn't she realize that? How long was I going to be deaf, anyways? I checked my status.

Deafened - 26 seconds remaining.

Bah, a whole half-minute with no hearing? That'll suck, fights are fast-paced. Since I couldn't rely on being able to hear attacks coming for the moment I took a few steps back to widen my field of view, keeping both Stormtiger and Cricket in sight.

Cricket appeared to be angry at the fact that I wasn't answering her, so I spoke up. "Sorry, you kinda broke my eardrums. I'll be fine in a minute, if you want to repeat yourself then."

She was probably scowling under her mask, but she reined herself in and dove at me again. I prepared to counter her attack with my spear, while desperately trying to figure out what Stormtiger was going to do to me in the meantime, when suddenly a cloud of dirt burst into the air near Stormtiger's feet.

Stormtiger stumbled backwards while waving his arms in front of him, probably to ward off the cloud of soil from entering his eyes. Cricket lunged to the side and came to a rolling crouch, eyes examining the nearby rooftops for the mystery sniper. Apparently, she found him, as her gaze froze, and she said something.

Man, being deaf stinks. How much longer do I have to wait?

Deafened - 17 seconds remaining.

This was taking forever. Ugh. I risked a glance towards where Cricket had been staring. I saw a woman in military dress holding what appeared to be a glowing green sniper rifle. Miss Militia, I thought, my inner fanboy squealing in glee. Ah, who am I kidding? I am my inner fanboy. Outer fanboy? Whatever.

I paid for my distraction in the form of Cricket's weapon slicing my spear-arm clean off just behind the elbow. I glared at Cricket for a brief moment, before dissolving my spear, now lying on the ground and forming my sword instead, this time in my left hand. Good thing I was technically ambidextrous now.

Apparently content with her impromptu dismemberment of my arm, Cricket beat a hasty retreat towards Stormtiger, who was now trading shots with Miss Militia. Miss Militia was apparently using rubber bullets to great effect, as Stormtiger was sporting several ugly bruises, in addition to a potentially broken leg. Hadn't he been using his aerokinesis to shield himself?

Oh, he had, but Miss Militia was pretty close. Nearly point-blank, actually. Wow, painful. Looked like Miss Militia was trying pretty hard not to inflict permanent damage.

Unlike Cricket, what a psycho. I watched as Cricket scooped up Stormtiger in her wake as they booked it back to their vehicle, an unmarked grey van. Miss Militia looked like she wanted to give chase, but as the tires squealed and the duo booked it, she reluctantly halted her assault. I saw her weapon shift into a small knife, which she sheathed, before she began walking over to me.

I saw an expression of horror behind her scarf - an American Flag - before she spoke. "Oh my god, did Cricket cut off your arm? We need to get you medical attention!" She began to pull a radio out of her pocket, but I waved her off. After doing so, I realized I should do it with the arm that wasn't a stump, but eh, whatever.

"I'm fine, it'll grow back." I stated, unconcerned. "Lemme just speed up the process a bit. Would you mind looking away for a moment?" I unequipped my sword and helmet, materializing one of my Regeneration potions in their wake, which I downed. Smacking my lips, I re-equipped my helmet. "Alright, you can look again." She turned back around, the face I could see above the scarf still being unnaturally pale. Surely she had seen someone's arm get cut off before in her career?

I held up my arm and watched the stump crawling forward. Grinning, I watched the veins and arteries creeping ahead of the flesh, before being swallowed up in the encroaching limb. This always looked so cool! I shook my head to clear my mind of thoughts like that. It was the little things that made me remember that I wasn't quite right in the head anymore.

But how else am I supposed to be? I've died more times than I can count in the past few weeks, so I don't think I have much of a shot at normality anymore. I only have two modes, now. Greg, and Cape, neither of which make a strong impression of normality.

Miss Militia had found her voice again. "I see. Are you… used to having to regrow limbs?" I could hear the concern radiating from her voice. Was she hunting around for if I had an abusive home life? Well, that wouldn't get her anywhere.

I thought it might be amusing to be honest here. "Yeah, but it's no big deal. My training is pretty intense. This was actually my first night on the street." I smiled under my helmet. "How do you think I did?" My tone was bright and chipper, which she probably found disconcerting, given my lack of concern for the loss of limb.

Still, she was professional enough not to let it enter voice now that she had regained control of herself. "Very well, actually. Not many can hold off Cricket, even for a short time. I assume that your regeneration also fixed your eardrums?" I nodded. It was pretty much true, anyways. "Changing subjects slightly, here, I was curious… can you make your," She paused here, gesturing towards my hand. "Weapon, turn into anything?"

I hesitated, wondering how much I should reveal about this aspect of my powers, before settling on an explanation. "Not really, I have a pocket dimension full of stuff that I can swap things out for." Basically true.

Miss Militia was silent for a moment, probably considering what her next move should be. "...Do you have a cape name? I can't just keep calling you, "You."

My mind screeched to a halt. My name! Argh, I hadn't had any time to think. I really didn't want a wood-based name, so I said the next thing that popped into my head. "Oh, uh, Terrari-uh, Terrarian. Call me Terrarian." I stammered out.

It worked for me, I think. It was both more descriptive than anyone else could figure out, and didn't actually tell anyone anything about my powers. Perfect!

Her eyes crinkled into what was probably a smile under the scarf. "Well then, Terrarian, would you like to come back to the Rig with me? I could give you a tour, show you a few things about the way the Protectorate goes about it." The offer was tempting, but I couldn't accept, for multiple reasons. Not the least of which is that we had forgotten about the man with injuries in the back of the warehouse.

"Sorry, but I'll have to pass on that for now. The man that the thugs earlier were attacking is inside this warehouse, I had him hide when those two showed up. He has his son with him." I stated grimly, reminding her why we were even out here in the first place. She nodded in acceptance. After we had helped the man and his child get to the hospital, I begged off on the visit again, before scampering.

She gave me some parting words. "Just remember, Terrarian, if you ever need assistance, the Protectorate is here. Good work."

I made it home and quickly unequipped all my armor and weapons. I lay in my bed for about an hour before hearing the front door open and shut, pretty quietly. But not quietly enough that I couldn't pick up on the sound. The stairs creaked as a figure climbed them, and I could hear a voice muttering.

I glanced at my alarm clock. 2:30 AM.

She was home earlier than usual.

"Look, Brad, I'll be able to help more with the attack on Lung's shipments this weekend, but I need tomorrow to myself. I'm going to be spending the day with my son." There was a pause, before the voice continued. "Yes, yes, I understand. I'll take it under advisement, and factor it into my plans. New capes always change the scenery in small ways. Alright, good bye Brad, and thanks for telling Max for me." The voice went silent then, and I heard the footsteps continue down the hallway, hesitating in front of the other bedroom, before it crept up to mine.

The voice was quiet outside my door. "Good night Greg, sweet dreams. I love you."

Only after the footsteps retreated into the other bedroom once more, and the quiet snick of the door closing was heard, did I risk whispering into my pillow. "Night mom, love you too."

OoOoO​

Author Note: Eventually, Worm will have crossovers with everything. I'm just doing my bit in making sure that day comes. Also, AAAAAAAAAH. Why do I keep starting new stories? I won't let any of them die for now, I swear, I'm just cycling around for now.

 

[Dawnk41]

1.2
​

I enjoyed the next day. Mom and I had done small things, simple things. Shopping, feeding some seagulls, a movie. Stuff we hadn't done in a long time. Not since Dad left us. I still ached inside from how much I missed the way he would ruffle my hair and ask me why my expression was so serious. I still hurt from having to see the way he had slowly descended from being a bright and cheerful man that everyone around him couldn't help but admire, into a spiteful and bitter curmudgeon that couldn't see anyone around him being happy without wanting to tear it down.

I missed him terribly, but I sure was glad he was gone.

After our fun was done, Mom and I parted ways at the house, me with an excuse that I needed to double-check some homework I had been given over the winter break, and she claiming that a neighbor needed some company throughout an illness.

Were either of us really believing that the other was fooled?

I did look over my English assignment, giving my paper on figurative language a cursory glance combined with a grunt of approval, before slipping it back into my backpack and getting down to what I really wanted to do. Sleep.

Well, technically. In reality, I hadn't slept a wink since I got my powers. Sure, I would lay down my head on my pillow, wrap myself up in the blankets, and close my eyes…

...Before opening my eyes in the small shack that Trent called home. There, I would equip my armor, ready my weapons, and go out and fight. In the daytime, the world outside the shack was fairly peaceful. The occasional slime would move through the trees, awaiting its death at my hands in good patience, but other than that, I was free to work as I liked, travelling the land in search of the treasures it held. I had carved myself a set of wooden armor, but when Trent saw my work, he merely rolled his eyes before telling me that I needed to get myself some real protection.

I hadn't quite seen the point at the time. If I were in any actual danger, I may have changed my mind, but I had long since learned that in my dreamworld, death didn't apply to me.

Now, though? After having been in a fight with Cricket, whose weapon had sliced through my armor (and arm), like butter? Heck yeah I needed better armor. Hopefully, it would also go a long way in distancing me from possible bad cape names like Treeman.

Ugh.

I had spent the time after my excursion last night scouting the surroundings of Trent's hut for copper deposits, something that Trent told me should be fairly plentiful, and let me create the items I needed fairly quickly. He also mentioned that I would need some iron, to create the anvil. I would have preferred to make my armor from iron as well, but he told me that it was unlikely I'd be able to find enough of it any time soon, here on the surface.

So iron armaments became a longer term project.

I was kneeling on the floor of the hut, constructing the forge that I had been informed would be necessary for all my metalworking needs, when Trent had broken the silence.

"You know, you really should go exploring the underground at some point.You'll find a lot more minerals down there, not to mention any number of more powerful magic items." He put forward the idea in a persuasive tone, but it had been something he had told me many times since I first arrived here. He had posited the idea to me at the very beginning, claiming that I could skip the wooden, copper, and iron tiers of armor altogether, and leap straight to silver.

Silver, stronger than iron? What? But that would hardly be the strangest thing about this world, so I could ignore it. I wasn't entirely sure that the armor itself actually did anything, really. The strange thing that I had noticed about armor here, is that wearing ANY increased your toughness. As in, wear the wooden leggings? (Man, those had been hard to construct. Inter-locking wooden panels. Good thing I'm an instinctive master carpenter now.) Your whole body is now better defended. Granted, that hadn't stopped Cricket from lopping off my arm, but that was probably because wooden armor is the worst armor I could have possibly made. I just didn't want to wear the cactus armor, alright?

I realized that Trent was still waiting for me to answer, and shook my head. "Sorry Trent, you know how that went when I had first gotten here. I am not going back down there until I've got at least a full set of copper armor and some decent weapons."

Trent rolled his eyes and turned away, muttering. "...Decent weapons, he says. Copper weapons aren't decent…" I smiled at his antics, and got back to my work. Mostly, I just let my body work on the blueprints that had been inscribed on my mind when I worked. It isn't so much that I know how to make anything, but rather that if I have all the ingredients to make something, and the tools on hand, I have this little button in my head that says, "Make This." Then I just go on autopilot while I assemble whatever it is.

Once the forge was completed, I went out to gather the copper and the smidgeon of iron I had mapped out last night. The trip was pretty uneventful, I only got jumped by slimes four times. When I returned to the hut, I learned that it wasn't enough iron for the anvil. I was preparing my inventory for when I awoke, when Trent opened one of the junk chests.

"...Greg, why are there several hundred throwing knives and shurikens in this chest?" His voice was incredulous, and his expression one of awed disbelief. I raised an eyebrow.

"...Because I don't really use them? I only have so many, so when I run out of them, I would have to switch them out for my boomerang anyways, and it's always a pain to run around and collect the ones that don't break. I'll stick with ranged weapons that return themselves, like my boomerang," I stated, giving him Greg's Theory on Combat Economics, 'Why use weapons that run out over weapons that don't?'

Apparently, he wasn't impressed. "Greg, when you throw your boomerang, you have to wait for it to come back before you throw it again. In the meantime, you can't use any of your other weapons without your boomerang disappearing. Against faster opponents, or hell, even if you miss, what will you do when they attack you while your boomerang is thirty feet away?" He was really getting into his tirade at this point, gesturing widely. "On the other hand, throwing weapons like the knives? You can throw a dozen in the same time you can throw your boomerang once. You really should bring them with you. It's not like you need to save space for something better, you need everything you can bring."

I blinked. Opened my mouth to argue the point, and paused. "What if they run out?" I managed to ask him.

He shrugged. "Then they still did you more good than they would have done you lying in that chest." I considered this for a moment, then I nodded.

"Fine, I'll bring them with me." I took a few stacks of each and withdrew them into my inventory. "See you later, Trent." Then I closed my eyes-

-and opened them again, this time lying in my bed. I checked the clock, which read roughly 5:00 AM. Alright, I had about three and a half hours before school started. Shame, winter break had been really enjoyable now that I had powers.

I sighed. If I went back to my dream world, I wouldn't really have enough time to get anything done before I had to wake up again. I may as well get ready for the day.

Stretching my tired limbs, I dropped to the floor and began to do push ups, well aware that they weren't actually doing anything for me. They were too easy now, and I couldn't balance enough weight on my back to make it a strain without the stack toppling. Besides, I wasn't even sure my body could build muscle anymore. I might get stronger in my dream world, and by extension, here, but my body never changed. I had stopped getting taller when I triggered. Before, I had been growing, slowly, half an inch or so every few weeks. In the time since, I hadn't gained a centimeter. It made me wonder… Did I age anymore?

If not, I'm not too sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, eternal youth. On the other… Well, I'm definitely not the most handsome or well built young man. Besides, it would probably be hard to hide the fact that I'm not getting any older after a while.

I stopped doing push ups, none the worse for wear, in mild disappointment. Couldn't my powers at least let me bulk up? I had made my armor with stylized muscles in the design, and it always made me feel inadequate when I took it off.

I went down the stairs to eat breakfast, and found a note on the table.

Greg,

I had to go into work early today, so I'll miss seeing you off to school.
Love you! Eat a healthy breakfast, have a great day at school, and do your homework!
I'll be home later this evening.

Love, Mom

I smiled, folding up the note and putting it back on the counter. I rolled my eyes, feigning exasperation. 'Alright mom, I'll eat a healthy breakfast.' Cereal's healthy, right? Not too much work, either. Not that I really needed to worry about how much work it took, seeing as I didn't get tired, and I was a master chef now, for some reason. If I had ingredients in front of me, and a kitchen to work in, I could see a little list of all the things I could make with those ingredients, flip a mental switch, and allow the actions to blur past me, resulting in a food item of extremely high quality.

I was lucky that I hadn't let my mom find out about that, or I would be cooking all the meals ever. EVER.

Still, just because I could, didn't mean that I wanted to. Cereal it was. I sat there, in mostly silence, for a good twenty minutes. Yeah, there was the crunching sound of chewing, but that really doesn't count. In my head, I was examining my inventory. Had my set of wooden armor, my spear, sword, and boomerang, the throwing knives and shurikens…

I had a lot of stuff in there. Mostly potions, though, for the various situations I might need some trick to get out of. I had once tried building myself a base for my hero operations out in the woods near Brockton Bay, but after spending a few hours constructing it, only for it to vanish back into my inventory when I got a mile away from it, I wasn't too eager to do that again. Such a wasted effort…

I closed my inventory, putting my cereal bowl in the dishwasher. Still had a lot of time before school… So what now? I considered this for a moment. I glanced over at the clock. 5:45.

I sighed. Guess I should actually look over the English assignment a bit more carefully, seeing as I had the time.

I spent the next two hours going over all the homework that I hadn't really done over the break, and pretty much finished it all. Gathering it all up, I stowed the papers in my backpack. Time to catch the bus, I guess. I sighed, feeling so much frustration at the fact that after a weekend of some pretty fun superpower shenanigans, I find myself once more dreading a return to school.

The bus ride was fairly peaceful, nobody really pays me any mind, which is usual. I have to keep reminding myself that being in a mob of people is normal, and that the part of my brain that has gotten used to any movement being an enemy currently hell-bent on attacking me is not needed here.

I manage to weave through the hallways to my first class without incident, though there is a pretty terrible smell in one of the hallways. I wonder what was causing that? It's like something died. After turning in my English paper, I got a really scrutinizing look from Mrs. Farr. I tried my best to emit an innocent air, and probably failed miserably. Still, Mrs. Farr might not have a high opinion of my intellect, but she was too lazy to make a big deal out of cheating and such. If someone had claimed my work as their own, though, then she would probably automatically assume they would be in the right.

Not that anyone would want to claim my work as theirs. They had no idea that I had improved my focus so much, and thus probably assumed I was still just as aimlessly air-headed as I had been before being brutally murdered by… I mentally slapped myself while returning to my seat. Gotta stop thinking about that, or I might flinch at the wrong moment and accidentally stab someone.

I drift through the day until third period, when an office aid shows up at the door to give Mr. Gladly a note. I didn't pay it any mind until Mr. Gladly spoke up. "Veder, you're wanted in the office." Mr. Gladly is a weird teacher. He's always trying to get in the students' good books, and thus tries to give off a 'friendly and cool' vibe. Unfortunately, that means that in order to stay on the majority's good side, he has to be slightly less friendly to the unpopular kids, like me and Taylor, who gave me a glance as I stood up, before she looked back down at her notebook.

Ignoring his inflection-free tone, I stand up. "Alright, Mr. Gladly. I'll go see what they want. Can I have the hall pass?" He nods as I pass, and I grab the card-on-a-string from it's hook as I leave the room. Humming quietly to myself, I wrinkle my nose as I pass the smelly hallway again. Ugh, I really hope that the janitor gets on that by tomorrow, that's really gonna put so many kids off their lunch.

Actually, maybe not. I think I might have a heightened sense of smell now, maybe nobody else can smell it? Ugh, that thought makes me feel sick, thinking that it might not get taken care of and that I'll have to smell that every day.

I push through the door into the school administration office, and sit down in one of the chairs in the waiting room. My rear barely touches the seat when Principal Blackwell's door opens, and she steps out.

"Mr. Veder," she begins, "I apologize that I have some distressing news for you."

I tensed up. What sort of bad news did they call you to the office to dish out? She didn't speak for a minute, so I pitched in on the conversation. "What news would that be, Ma'am?" I asked cautiously.

She looked uncomfortable, but proceeded. "There was an scuffle by the Fourth Avenue Pharmacy this morning, between the Empire and the parahuman group known as the Undersiders. Your mother was in the middle of a delivery for the clinic, and was injured in the attack. I was not informed as to the severity of the injuries she incurred. She is being treated at Brockton Bay General." She stated grimly.

I froze up, before stammering. "C-can I have permission to leave school, Ma'am? I would really like to go check on my mom." I managed to say that without crying, good for me. My mom's all I've got left, I can't lose her now, I-I've got to go do something about this, anything, and that starts with seeing her.

She hesitated, before nodding and writing me up a permission slip to leave the school grounds. Once I had it in my possession, I dashed down the hallway, out the door and down the sidewalk. Anyone that knew about my circumstances would assume that I was running to the bus stop, but I had a different destination in mind.

I passed the bus stop and entered a slightly more deserted part of the Docks, and slipped into an alley. I whipped my head around and, when I failed to spot any observers, equipped all my gear. Thusly prepared, I leaped ten feet into the air onto a nearby fire escape, and used it as a springboard to reach the roof of the abandoned apartment complex.

Quickly reaching the highest speed I could manage, I ran full-tilt across the city towards Brockton Bay General Hospital. Once I got close, I ducked down on a roof neighboring the hospital and knelt, my hands on the ground, trying to stop myself from hyperventilating. Scanning my surroundings once more for watchers, I dropped silently into another alley, and unequipped my armor as I started walking out of the narrow gap between apartments.

I practically jumped up the steps to the main office, and passed through the automatic doors. I made a beeline straight for the receptionist, and spoke. "Miss, can you please tell me where Theresa Veder's room is?" I asked, desperation bleeding into my tone.

She looked startled, but replied. "Er, yes, I mean, are you a relative?" She stammered out, before glancing down at a report. "Oh, you're her son Greg, aren't you? She's in room 208." After getting directions, I walked swiftly away.

Finding room 208, I reached for the doorknob, before freezing up again. I gritted my teeth, and then forced my hand to grip the knob and twist. I entered the room to a depressing sight. Mom was hooked up to a plethora of life support machines. Standing in the room were two men, who appeared to be in a discussion that had paused for my entry. One of the men was huge, with greasy-blonde hair and scars littering his face. The other was also blonde, with a well-kempt hairstyle and clean shaven face. Both wore suits.

The shorter of the two spoke up. "Hello, you must be Greg, Theresa's son. I'm Max Anders, Medhall's CEO. Your mother is one of my most-valued employees, so Medhall will be footing the bill for her hospital stay." His explanation was reassuring, and his tone easy. I smiled. That was welcome news. Funds were already tight enough at our house that I had been a bit worried how we were going to afford this.

I stepped forward and held out a hand. "Thank you sir, that's good to hear. I'm Greg Veder." His grip was firm, and his gaze calculating as we looked each other in the eye. I broke contact first when one of the machines mom was hooked up to made a strange beeping sound. Neither of the two so much as flinched at the sound, though, so I looked back and moved my hand back to my side. All was silent for a moment, and then I spoke quietly. "Do you know how she's doing?"


Mr. Anders sighed. "She could be doing better, but it could have been worse. She should be fully recovered in a week or two. Three on the outside. It would be better if we could get Panacea to come in, but unfortunately, she is currently on a trip to Europe, and won't be returning for another month." I sighed unhappily. Of course she was.

I narrowed my eyes, though, as I remembered the words of the principal before my impromptu trip across the city. "Sir, do you know anything about the Undersiders? I heard that they were responsible for this." Mr. Anders looked at me in surprise, and then approval.

"The Undersiders. A relatively new group to Brockton Bay. Young people, it would appear, mostly around your age, I believe. Members include Rachel Lindt, aka 'Hellhound'. She controls three monstrous beasts, and is the party primarily responsible for your mother's injuries." My face tightened further at the mention. Hellhound. I would remember that. "Regent is another member, his power is to cause muscle spasms in his opponents, otherwise, he's a bit player of their group. Tattletale is an unknown of the group, though her name suggests a Thinker of some kind. Grue, the leader," Here Max sneered. "Is a Shaker. He creates pools of darkness that mute most of the senses. He used them to disorient the people at the scene of the fight this morning. It was because of him that the bystanders couldn't get out of the fight in time." Another name to remember.

Hellhound and Grue, the two major architects of my mother's injuries. I nodded to Mr. Anders. "Thank you sir, you've given me a lot to think about."

He smiled at me and clapped a hand on my shoulder. "No trouble at all, Greg. Hope your day improves." Here he gave me a sympathetic grin. My expression turns wooden. I've never dealt well with pity.

He seems to take the hint, and turning to his partner, speaks up. "Brad, let's leave young Mr. Veder here with his mother, we can continue our conversation elsewhere." The bigger man follows Mr. Anders out the door, and once it closes, bathes the room in silence.

I drag a chair over from the corner to be beside the bed and take seat. I grip my mother's hand that didn't have an IV in the arm. I sat there, holding her hand, and taking reassurance from the fact that I can feel her pulse, strong and steady. This quiet scene lasts for about twenty minutes, until I whisper something to her.

"Don't worry mom, I'll make sure that they'll never hurt anyone like this again." I moved the chair back to its corner, and walked calmly out of the hospital.

I had some preparation to do.

OoOoO​

Author Note: I'm dropping hints of all kinds in this chapter. Whee!

 

[Dawnk41]

Author Note: Sorry about posting this later than I meant to, it just kept getting longer.

1.3​

I arrived back home feeling exhausted, mentally. The day I had had so far was enough to make me wish that I could fall asleep, if only to forget everything for a few hours. Instead, I did the next best thing. Passing the counter that still had mom's note on it, I trudged up the stairs to my room and collapsed on my bed. I- I just needed to get away from everything for a bit. I closed my eyes-

-and opened them in Terraria. Trent was sitting down at a table in his hut, reading a book, but he glanced up when I arrived, a smile entering his face. "Ah, Greg, good to see you!" Something about my inner turmoil must have been visible on my face, because almost immediately, he frowned. "What's wrong, Greg?"

I stared at him for a moment, before I grimaced. "My," I choked, and glanced away from him. "My mom got hurt pretty badly today. She got caught up in a fight between some powerful groups. I want to finish my copper armor, and then I'm going underground." I managed to bring my gaze back up to him, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that his face wasn't full of the pity I had begun to get used to from others. Trent didn't really understand much about our world, and that included things like injuries, family relationships, and politics, and I was never more glad about that than right now.

Trent's eyebrows raised, and I could tell he was struggling with whether he should look sad for my situation, or happy that I was going underground. Trent always seemed to be happier when I was making visible progress on… everything, really. Trent didn't look like he had much by the way of hobbies. He just sat around in this cabin all day. In the end, Trent simply nodded, and let me get on with my work.

Even after smelting all the copper I had found, I only had enough to make the chain-mail and greaves. I equipped them anyways, a little disappointed at how little of a difference it had made to how tough I was. I sighed, and I stood up, having resigned myself to the fact that I would have to go and gather more copper outside, when Trent broke into my musings. "Just go underground now, man. You want to make gains faster? Take the risk. It's not like you can die, anyways!" I nodded, hesitantly. I was afraid to tell him that I was fairly sure that every death rendered me a little less sane. After all, I had died a lot in the beginning, and I felt like I had PTSD whenever it came to interacting with people these days.

Was that just a psychological effect of being torn apart by zombies? Dissolved in the stomach of a slime? Falling off a cliff? Drowning? Or was it something more, another strange rule of this world, that dying put a little less of you back together each time? I was in no hurry to find out, but… I needed to get stronger, strong enough to get back at the Undersiders for hurting my mom.

Trent grinned widely. "Perfect! Alright, here's what you should do this time: Build a small hut a little ways away from the shack, and begin tunneling downwards, a vertical mine shaft. Mark how high you can jump, and place platforms at that height repeatedly, to allow you to jump out of the shaft and get back down safely. Alright?" I nodded again, still not feeling up to much enthusiasm. Before, it was kinda fun to explore and gather stuff here, especially once I could get back at the zombies for killing me so much. But now? I felt a burning drive. I needed to avenge my mother's injuries.

I took a stack of wood out of my construction materials chest, and made a few dozen platforms. Then, I headed out. The work was monotonous, repetitive, but I found that that actually helped me. I fell into a pattern. Dig deeper, set up a platform. I did so for a time, trying to lose myself in the task. Occasionally, I would run into a vein of ore, some copper, some iron. Not too much of either, sadly.

Suddenly, my pickax broke through the ceiling of a cavern. I nearly stumbled, but avoided plummeting into the unknown pit. I peered into the darkness, but I couldn't make out anything. Pulling out a glow stick from my inventory, I shook it, popped it, and dropped it into the pit. Dang, that was kinda far to fall. Not an option. Good thing I've got rope.

As I was setting up the rope to be long enough to allow me to reach the floor in one piece, I was assaulted by the one of the most annoying creatures known to man. Bats.

Quickly dispatching the creature, I peered warily through the hole and tried to catch sight of motion. Failing to spot any more monsters, I grabbed the rope and slid down.

After setting up some more torches, I began to explore the cavern. I excavated a few more ore deposits, and killed a few skeletons. I couldn't help but wonder, again, where did all the zombies, skeletons, and other undead even come from? I hadn't spotted any other signs of a defunct civilization. No abandoned towns or cities on the surface, no cemeteries for the zombies to crawl out of, nothing. I had some strange clues that pointed to absolutely no real conclusion. Whenever I died, I re-spawned, and the location of my death had mysteriously spawned a Tombstone, detailing how I had died. Mysterious? Yes. Creepy? Most certainly. Could I do anything about it? Avoid dying. Right-o.

Down one of the dark caves branching off from the cavern, I saw something. Getting closer, I shone the light from my torch in that direction. It turned out to be… A house? What? This far underground, a spontaneous house just sat there, in this cave. It wasn't in perfect condition, a few walls had caved in, there were large holes in the floor, and cobwebs had overtaken a majority of the interior, from what I could see of it. Still, it was in better condition than an uninhabited house two-hundred feet underground had a right to be.

I walked up to the door cautiously, though in truth I wasn't all that worried. If there had been a creature lying in wait in the house, by the time I got this close, it would have burst out of the structure, or at least be beating itself against the walls, in an attempt to kill me. They always did. Unless there were smarter monsters underground…

I frowned at the thought, and increased the amount of caution I paid the situation. I shuffled towards the door, having placed a torch on the wall, with my spear ready for action in my hands. Still no action from within the house. I carefully reached out and opened the door, placing another torch inside, and looked around. There were a few signs of society on the inside. A table, a painting (Which actually looked like it was undamaged, as well as a high quality work), and a piano? But the real prize here was a yellow chest, sitting in the middle of the floor, looking quite similar to the wooden chests I had discovered on the surface, but higher quality.

I pumped my fist in the air. "Jackpot!" I crowed. Eagerly moving forward, I opened the chest, peering into the curiously large container. Inside, I found some potions, including a purple one I'd never seen before, some iron ingots, a beautiful statue of an angel, and a green pair of shoes with wings.

Hmm, shoes with wings? There wasn't a 'Feet' slot in my inventory's equippable zone, so it must be an 'Accessory', which was good news to me, as I could put on accessories and make them vanish, while still gaining their effects. This allowed me to wear my climbing claws and the strange, broken, shackles I had obtained from a zombie without people in the streets giving me odd looks. Those and the Aglet were my current accessories, and with the addition of these shoes, I would have one more slot remaining.

I wonder what the shoes do? They had little wings on them, so I crossed my fingers for flight. Flight was one of those powers just about everyone wanted, which made the fact that it was also a very common power, or at least side effect of powers, quite welcome indeed.

Equipping them, I hopped into the air. There wasn't a noticeable difference from my earlier jumps, so that was out. I thought really hard about flying. Cracking open my eyes, I was disappointed, though not exactly surprised, to note that my feet were still very firmly connected to the ground. Sighing, I began to walk back out of the cavern with the derelict house towards my rope. I took a slightly different path through the cave, hoping to find at least one more iron deposit before I began my ascent. Instead of an iron deposit, my foot discovered something else.

A button, made of a material similar enough to the surrounding stone to blend in, pressed into the floor, and I froze up as a loud groaning sound echoed through the cavern. Then something enormous slammed into the ground behind me, and I started to run. When the sound of something behind me snapping stalagmites reached my ears, I risked a glance behind me. I nearly tripped at the sight of a boulder, three times my height rolling along just meters away from my back, and it was gaining. What the heck? Am I reenacting Indiana Jones? I redoubled my efforts, nearly instantly achieving a pace faster than any I had set before.

But I went even faster than that, and I just kept building speed. In an incredibly short period of time, I was blurring across the ground, deftly stepping out of the way of stalagmites and outcropping rock formations. Before I knew it, I was coming up to the cavern walls. I slid to a stop, and jumped up onto a ledge in the wall. Scrambling to get upright, I looked behind me, watching the rolling stone continue in its destructive path. It was… pretty far away, and it took a disconcertingly long time for it to reach the wall below me, where it shattered into pieces. I thought, absently, that that was strange. It had hit the floor when it fell from the ceiling with far greater force than its impact with the wall, so why did it only shatter now?

I shook the thought from my head, chalking it up to another example of Terraria's bizarre physics. More importantly, I was now a speedster! Those green shoes were actually pretty awesome. Super speed was an incredibly rare power, as Human beings usually just couldn't handle high speeds without injury, unless their power specifically protects them. Well, my powers were definitely pretty good at keeping me safe, even if the methods I used to gain those powers did anything but. Was it odd, I wondered, that the city of Brockton Bay, one of the most crime-infested cities in the United States, was less dangerous to me than my dreams?

As I ascended the rope, and then the platforms, I felt the carefree euphoria of battle and adventure fall away from me, and I returned to the darker mindset that had hung over me since leaving the hospital. Trent quietly hung about in the background as I smelted the iron ore I had retrieved and added the newly forged ingots to the stack I had obtained from the chest. Good. I had enough for a full set of armor and a sword. While I set about the grim business of constructing my armaments of war, I wore a savage grin as I considered the use that I had in store for this sword.

The Undersiders would be brought to justice. This, I swear.

OoOoO​

That night found me jumping, once again, from roof to roof, in search of the Undersiders. I just had one little problem.

Where were they? I mean, I knew, logically, that even if I had been capable of scouring the city from above in a single night, fast enough that someone couldn't avoid me by doubling back on my path, they might not be pulling a heist right now.

Heck, they could be out of costume, for all I knew, or in bed.

Like sane people would be, at this hour.

Heedless of such common sense, I ran onward, allowing myself to go a fraction faster than my normal pace. I couldn't go too quickly, as I didn't want to miss any signs of my quarry, but I was still moving at a pretty good clip, far faster than the average human can sprint.

I may not have found the criminals I had been looking for, but I had still disrupted several other crimes. A gang fight between some ABB toughs and some Empire thugs had been ended pretty fast when I dropped down in the middle of them and whacked a couple guys with the butt of my spear. A quick call to the police later and I had been back on my way. Another incident had been dealt with, through inaction, on my part. A merchant selling some drugs to a scruffy looking dude had broken up just by me poking my head into the alley to ensure that nothing untoward was occurring. Heck, I wouldn't have done anything to them anyways. If some guy wanted to pay another guy some cash to ruin his life, who was I to deny him? Just don't forcibly addict someone, and I won't step into it.

Another fruitless half hour passed, and I was just about ready to head home, when I was interrupted by a voice.

"Eh, uh, Tin Man? Mind stopping for a sec?" I stumbled at the perfectly wrong moment in my leaping, and ended up face planting into the concrete after falling off the roof.

"Ow." I said dumbly. When footsteps approached me rapidly from the general direction of the distracting voice, I contorted my neck into a position more commonly found on human beings than the current position, and pushed myself to my feet.

The voice was frantically apologetic now. "Jesus, are you alright? Sorry about startling you!" I shook the pain off and nodded my still broken neck. I watched my health bar slowly filling up absently, noting that the damage to my overall health was pretty minor. Falls didn't do much damage, after all. "Do you need an ambulance? How on earth are you still alive, your neck was bent at a right angle!" The voice was still panicking.

I held up a hand to forestall the worried tirade. "Nah, nah, I'm fine. Just a bit lost in thought when you called out to me. What's up?" Then I noticed exactly who I was talking to. Red bodysuit, Orange visor… Yep, this was Assault, member of the Brockton Bay Protectorate, one of my role models. All of a sudden, I was glad that my helmet hid the burning blush on my face. I had just face planted in front of Assault. God, I was so pathetic.

He eyed me with concern, but responded in a light tone, as though from a distance. "...If you say so, wow, you must be some kind of Brute to tank a broken neck like that. Regeneration?" He questioned. I cringed inwardly. I had wanted to keep my powers a secret but… well, I kinda had just fallen off a building into what would normally be a fatal injury right in front of him. Of course he'd want to know how I'd lived through that.

"Yeah, if it's not instantly fatal, I get over it. Just a bit of a perk." I attempted to rub the back of my neck sheepishly, but was hampered in that action by my armor. Assault seemed to understand the gesture, at least.

"Well, sorry all the same, I'll try to avoid startling you in the future. Who are you? Got a cape name?" He tensed up a little here, making me wonder what could be making him nervous. Me? Surely not, this was Assault, one of the strongest members of the Protectorate here in Brockton Bay. Of course, if he didn't know who I was, I suppose it was possible that my powers could be anything, to him.

Anyways, I had better answer him. "The name's Terrarian, did, uh, did Miss Militia mention our fight with Stormtiger and Cricket the other night?" Suddenly, I was uncertain. Maybe Miss Militia hadn't told the Protectorate about it? For all I knew, that wasn't anything special, just another Wednesday night for them. Nothing to write home about.

Assault's cry of recognition shook me from that train of thought. "OH! That guy that got his arm chopped off by Cricket?" He sounded entirely too cheerful about that. "Miss Militia did come back and mention that some kid had some powers like hers, with some sort of Regen to boot. Didn't you have to drink some sort of healing agent last time, though?" He sounded a bit uncertain on that last point, as though he didn't think he had remembered it properly.

"Eh, that was just something to bolster my natural regeneration. It wouldn't do anything for anybody else." I said, quickly trying to dispel any thoughts that I could be some sort of Panacea-esque healer. I had already tried to test if my potions did anything for anybody else. The cat I had gotten to drink a Gills potion had completely failed to gain water-breathing organs, and the dying frog had just kept dying even after a dose of healing potion.

He made a noncommittal humming sound. "Huh, okay. Wait, weren't you wearing wooden armor last time? The picture she showed us had it look like you were wearing tree branches." His wide grin belied the teasing for what it was, though I still bristled at the statement. That armor didn't look like random wooden bits, it was very intricately carved! A work of art that was also a functional set of armor! It had been one of the first things I had managed to make with my own hands, and I was proud of it, even if it wasn't particularly effective. Wait, when had Miss Militia taken my picture?

Before I could manage to voice my annoyance at my hard work being belittled, he made a little placating gesture to silence me before speaking again. "Hey, Miss Militia mentioned that you had asked for a rain check on that tour of the Rig and PRT building. The Rig's on lockdown at the moment, Armsmaster is doing his regular bug-sweep. But hey, tomorrow's a Saturday, would you like a tour of the PRT building now, or do you have another appointment to keep?" His tone was light now, and he was pretty relaxed. I guess it must have just been the fact he hadn't known who I was earlier that created the concern.

My first instinct was to decline, but after remembering that there wasn't anyone waiting for me back home, I sighed. "You know what? Sure. I need something to take my mind off of things." Maybe a chat with some other heroes was what I needed. Surely they had had to track down some villains before, I could probably get some tips. "Lead the way?" I gestured in the general direction of the flashy structure. At least, I think it was in that direction. I had gotten a little turned around up on the roofs.

Assault grinned. "Sure thing," He paused for a moment, before drawing out the next word. "...Woody."

He began dashing away before my irritated squawk left my lips.

OoOoO​

After a quick jog to the PRT building, I followed Assault through a small unmarked door in the lobby. It was a good thing that it was around midnight, as if it were still in visiting hours, there would probably be people taking pictures. As we walked down a hallway, Assault piped up again. "So, Aegis and Vista are out on a patrol at the moment, but Shadow Stalker, Gallant, Clockblocker, and Kid Win are all on site. Well, Kid Win technically is, but it's more likely that he's dead to the world right now, tinkering.

I nodded in understanding. I might not exactly be a tinker, but I could understand the feeling of getting lost in a project. That was pretty much what happened when I crafted things on autopilot. The world would blur together for a bit, and when I resurfaced, I'd have a finished product! At least, that's how I did it, I didn't really know how most tinkers worked.

He pressed a button outside a door, and I looked expectantly at it. Ten seconds later, I gave Assault a questioning look. He merely grinned, and spoke. "That's basically a doorbell. Let's 'em know that someone's coming in that they might not want seeing their faces, gives 'em a little time to throw on their masks and such." Question answered, I simply hummed in recognition of the idea. Another thirty seconds later, and a little light on the button turned green. "Alright, let's go!" He began whistling a merry tune as he pushed the door open.

In the next room, I saw an interesting sight. It looked like a fairly normal living room. Well, for a millionaire or something. There was a little kitchenette, mini fridge and microwave included, off to one side, and a big flat screen television. A flat screen television that Gallant and Clockblocker were playing a very familiar game on…

"Wait, is that Super Cape Duelists 4?" I blurted out. After all the heads in the room turned to me, I had to fight myself not to visibly wilt under the sudden scrutiny. "Ah, because, um, that's a great game. I've played it a lot. I hadn't thought that the Wards would be into that kind of thing." I mentally flailed. Why couldn't the Wards like video games, like normal people? Darnit, I always put my foot in my mouth!

The silence continued for a moment, before Clockblocker shattered it. "Oh, hey, you must be that Terrarian guy. Got rid of your wooden armor? Shame, I had a couple of puns set up." He said, cheerfully ignoring the fact that his character on the game was getting slaughtered.

Gallant groaned. "Ugh, wow, you dodged a bullet there man. At least until Clockblocker comes up with some new puns." Clockblocker hummed at that, and tried to fail at looking innocent. He succeeded.

Assault sat heavily on the couch besides the two Wards. "Eh, Terra-guy, join us. You two, start a new match. Let's psychoanalyze the independent through his SCD playstyle." His strange smile made me doubt that the claim was entirely false, actually.

But was I really going to turn down a chance to fight real capes in video games? Hell no! I sat down.

The next hour was pretty fun.

OoOoO​

Our ferocious game-playing was cut short by Shadow Stalker… well, stalking out of a nearby door. "Oi, Clockblocker! You were supposed to take over for your shift ten minutes ago, you asshole!" Her voice sounded kinda familiar, but I was too focused on taking down Assault's character, Eidolon, with Mouse Protector.

Five seconds later, Assault started shouting. "Bullshit! I call bullshit! Eidolon's the strongest cape in the world, no way would Mouse Protector beat him in a fight!" I grinned back at him, not that he could see it under my helmet.

"What's that? Is that… whining? Face it, man, you got schooled." I boasted. I was very proud of my skill at this game, seeing as it was the last thing dad… I mean, it was a pretty important gift from someone.

Clockblocker looked impressed. "Wow, I've never seen anyone that good at this game before. Do you play a lot?" He sounded interested, which made me happy. I haven't exactly had a friend that cared about my hobbies in a long time, unless you count Trent. Which I kinda do, actually. Maybe Clockblocker and I could hang out some other time, again.

Shadow Stalker snorted. "Hey, listen up. Who cares how good this schmuck is at video games? It's not like it's real fighting. More importantly, Clock, get your backside to the console. I have stuff to do, moron!" You could just hear the sneer in her voice.

Assault pitched in here. "Well, little shadow," She bristled at this, but very wisely refrained from talking back to one of her direct superiors. "It just so happens that this 'Schmuck' as you call him, is not only a devil to beat at video games," Here he shot me a brief dirty look, before turning his head back to Stalker. "But he also happens to be pretty good in a real fight too. Didn't you hear? He fought off Cricket two nights ago, even if she did lop off his arm." He grinned hugely at the wide eyed stare that Clockblocker shot me. Shadow Stalker glanced at me with what was probably a disbelieving stare under her mask. Gallant just shifted uncomfortably.

I tried to chuckle to ease the tension. "I regenerate, I was fine after a minute." I checked the time, before sighing. It had been fun to hang out here for a little while, but I should probably get back home and get some work done. I still had a long way to go, according to Trent. I stood up. "Hey, uh, do I need an escort to get out of here?" I questioned Assault.

He shrugged. "It'd probably be a good idea. Next time, though, I swear I'll defeat you!" He said with mock gravity in his tone. I just laughed and followed him out the door. Waving goodbye to a solemn Clockblocker that Shadow Stalker was dragging into what was probably the Console room she had mentioned, I left the room smiling.

That had been nice.

 

[Dawnk41]

Interlude 1.A
Assault​

Ethan yawned as he entered the debriefing room. Hannah and Colin were already present, as well as Director Piggot. As he expected, the other two heroes in the room were in costume, and Piggot, of course, was wearing her uniform. Him? He was wearing sweatpants and a baggy t-shirt, only a domino mask making a token effort at concealing his identity.

He sauntered over to one of the remaining empty chairs, and slouched into it. "What's up, M&M, Armsy?" He paused for the briefest moment before continuing, in a more respectful tone of voice. "Director". He nodded to Piggot, who nodded in return.

The Director cleared her throat. "Alright, now that we're all present, we can begin this meeting." She gave a pointed look to Ethan, who shrugged sheepishly. Well, he had pulled a pretty late night, hadn't he? They could cut him a little slack when they wake him up for a meeting he wasn't quite prepared for. Besides, 8:00 AM was too early for a meeting. 8:00 AM was too early for anything.

Piggot continued. "This meeting is being held to share any information we have found on the new parahuman, "Terrarian", as well as to develop strategies for neutralization in the event of his turning villain, and get a feel for whether or not he might be interested in a Wards membership." She turned to Hannah. "Miss Militia, I believe that you had first contact with him?"

Hannah nodded. "I had been on patrol, when I received a call on my radio from administration. Terrarian had called in a Vigilante Arrest for two members of the Empire 88, who had been caught assaulting a certain Warren Thresh, and his son Anthony. After confirming that Terrarian would be remaining at the scene, I was asked to debrief Terrarian and meet with him." She took a breath, and proceeded with her recounting. "Upon my arrival, however, I discovered he had been engaged in combat by Stormtiger and Cricket."

Her expression grew a bit sad, as though she regretted getting to the fight as late as she had. "He withstood Cricket's sonic attack, although it did break his eardrums, and fought her to a standstill while I engaged Stormtiger. Before they withdrew, Cricket severed Terrarian's arm from just behind the elbow before fleeing. Terrarian expressed little to no concern for the missing limb, and withdrew a serum from the same place that he keeps his weapons. After drinking the serum, his arm grew back in roughly thirty seconds. We brought the victims of the assault to the hospital, and he went on his way. End report."

Piggot nodded, and asked another question. "What powers and abilities did he demonstrate in this encounter, as detailed as you can recall?"

"High durability, to be able to withstand broken eardrums without a large decrease in his fighting capacity, prowess with a spear, and mild regeneration, even without the serum, as he recovered from the broken eardrums before drinking it. After the fight, he demonstrated his ability to shift his weapon into various other objects, claiming that all of the objects were things he had placed into a pocket dimension, that he can exchange for each other at will." Hannah paused here, before admitting, "I can't explain how the pocket dimension works, as he didn't tell me. I'm not sure that all it does is store things, though, as after he regrew his arm, his wooden armor grew back to cover it."

The Director waited, in case Hannah wanted to add something else, before nodding once more. "Alright, he didn't go out the night before last, at least, that we know, but Assault ran into him last night. Please give us your report of last night, Assault."

Ethan coughed, before beginning. "Alright, so, I was on my patrol route last night, moving along Seventh West, when I noticed someone in full iron plate mail dashing across the roofs at a really fast pace. Like, not Velocity fast, but easily thirty-something miles per hour. It wouldn't have been superhuman, but he could keep that pace up for a while, all while jumping across roofs without slowing down."

Ethan shifted, slightly reluctant to bring up what happened next. "I called out to him, asking if he would mind stopping and talking for a sec. I was kinda… apprehensive, because he looked like he had taken a page out of Allfather's book, ya know? Full iron platemail, not even Kaiser does that very often, and he can only lift that with his power. Anyways, when I called out to him, he kinda tripped, and face-planted into the concrete from the roof of a building. His neck was bent at a right angle for a second, and then the rest of his body hit the ground too. I ran over, freaking out a bit, because people can't look like that without being dead, but he disagreed, I guess." Ethan rubbed his neck sheepishly.

"He sorta just stood up, and shrugged it off, before we struck up a conversation. He mentioned that he was Terrarian, and then he told me that his serum thing wouldn't work for anybody else, because it only supercharged his regeneration, not actually cause it. His neck looked like it was healed pretty fast, and he never pulled out anything like that. I brought up the possibility of that tour that M&M told him about last time, and he agreed. Sounded like he needed to get away from some bad stuff at home, I think. We went back to the PRT building, here, and he struck it off nicely with Clockblocker and Gallant. Beat me pretty badly at some video game they were playing up there. After a while, Stalker broke up our party and he decided to head out. Pretty much it, really." He rubbed his chin while in thought. "Oh! Gallant mentioned that his emotions were pretty stable. Definitely enjoyed spending some time with us."

Piggot gave a small smile, though one devoid of actual happiness. "Excellent, see if you can continue to build a rapport with him, and even if we can't get him onto the Wards, a Protectorate Affiliation would be a nice consolation prize." She placed her pen back on the report she was writing. "Additional powers you noticed that didn't surface in Miss Militia's encounter?"

Ethan shrugged. "Other than the speed? He could jump pretty high, ground to roof level, definitely. The really interesting thing is that he was wearing different armor this time than he did two days ago."

Here, Colin leaned forward. "He could be some sort of Tinker. I don't know why he would have made armor out of wood, but the fact that it regrew along with his arm is intriguing. He may have just managed to upgrade to the metal armor over the day that he didn't go out." Colin stroked his beard in consideration.

Piggot's expression grew focused. "Alright, let's put him down as a Mover 3-4, Brute 3, Tinker 2, for now. Ratings could rise, depending on what abilities that he exhibits in the future. Thank you for your attendance, dismissed." She turned her attention back to the paperwork surrounding her, and Ethan was all too glad to get out. He hoped that Terrarian stayed safe as an independent. The kid seemed like an okay dude.

Kaiser​

Kaiser sat in a meeting with Hookwolf, Fenja, Menja, Stormtiger, Cricket, Othala, and Victor. The topic of discussion? Theresa Veder.

Hookwolf snarled. "We can't let the Undersiders get away with this. Theresa's one of our best tacticians, if we let some new group of rejects walk over our operations, we'll turn into a laughingstock." Stormtiger grunted in assent, and Cricket remained silent. Victor sat, uncaring, as he trimmed his fingernails, Othala sitting beside him, paying enough attention to the conversation for the both of them. The twins, Kaiser knew, would follow his lead.

Kaiser held up a hand. "Hookwolf, calm yourself. I have a plan in motion for the Undersiders." He smiled, before saying something seemingly unrelated. "Did you know that Theresa had a son? Greg Veder, age fifteen." Hookwolf seemed taken aback.

"That scrawny little runt that we saw in the hospital yesterday? That pipsqueak is her son?" He shook his head in disgust. "I thought more of her, than that she would raise a child like that."

Kaiser laughed. "Hookwolf, I should think that by now you would realize that how strong someone's arm is doesn't always reveal their true potential. After all, look at Rune." His grin widened, as he waited for the larger man to grab the bait.

Hookwolf looked confused. "What are you talking about? Rune's a cape, that child…" Realization dawned. "You think the kid's a cape? Theresa wouldn't keep something like that from us."

At that, Kaiser's smile turned into a thoughtful expression. "True, Theresa wouldn't do something like that, she's far too loyal. She would never hold such a resource away from us…" Kaiser's grin returned full force, more predatory than before. "...Assuming that she knew."

Othala spoke up here. "I don't see how the boy could have hidden it from her, I've worked with Theresa, and she's very observant. I've even heard her mention her son a few times, and she made him out to be a bit of an… obtuse chatterbox, to be blunt." Othala was still a bit upset that she couldn't heal Theresa, as the woman's injuries were publicly known. A sudden recovery would reveal Mrs. Veder's connections to the Empire, so Othala would have to content herself with ensuring that Theresa was in top condition after her release.

Kaiser waved this tidbit away. "True, Theresa was very skilled, and certainly observant. But she's shown in the past that her family has always been a bit of a blind spot." The reminder caused everyone in the room to wince, even Victor, who had put away the trimmers.

"...Granted," Hookwolf grumbled. "You saw something in him, yesterday, didn't you. You came to this conclusion from a single chance meeting?"

Kaiser's expression grew serious. "Indeed. After being informed of her injuries, the boy rallied himself, and asked me who was to blame. I could see a desire for vengeance in his eyes, but more than that, I saw confidence, determination. The boy believes he can defeat the Undersiders, and he's making plans to."

"So let's let the boy do so. He'll prove himself to us, by doing exactly what we want. We don't even have to ask. Make a note to some of the sub-lieutenants, Victor, that they should try to subtly veer young Mr. Veder towards his peers in the Empire."

After the meeting's conclusion, Kaiser steepled his hands, and considered the boy. Aryan ideal, good solid determination. Not the most chiseled physique, true, but that could come in time. When he mentally compared the fiery eyes of Theresa's son to the watery pair belonging to his own son, he found them to be a great deal better suited for the heir of the Empire.

Theresa, he decided, definitely wasn't bad looking. Perhaps, in the event that young Greg was confirmed to be a cape, he should try to bring the small family into the Empire more firmly.

OoOoO​

Author Note: Sorry about the tiny chapter today, I'm not a huge fan of interludes, but I need them.

 

[Dawnk41]

1.4​

The next week went by in a blur of strangeness. I made very little progress on more excursions into the underground, only having found one more chest with an accessory, a small red bracelet that gave me a permanent regeneration boost, but none of my weapons or armor got an upgrade. I headed out into the city several times, as well, but the Undersiders had apparently decided to lay low after the incident at the pharmacy, and I didn't find hide nor hair of them.

All of that was fairly ordinary, though, not entirely unexpected. The thing that made that week strange was school. For one thing, Taylor was nowhere to be found, and any of the other students I dared ask about her just mumbled that they didn't know. After a while, I just had to throw my hands up in defeat, and wait until I next saw her to ask.

Another strange thing about school, is that people I'd never really talked to before were coming up to me and giving me their condolences about my mom. Making me offers of hanging out, and inviting me to sit with them at lunch. I was kinda touched, actually. I refused the offers to hang out, but accepted sitting with them at lunch. I didn't pay too much attention to their conversations, but it was nice to be in a group of people that were laughing, talking, all that.

Mom hadn't woken up, yet, which was making me worry. Didn't Mr. Anders say that she should be fully recovered soon? Didn't that include waking up? Where was Panacea? Still in Europe. Hell, I'd settle for Othala at this point, and thank her besides. If I didn't think my name was mud with the Empire, I'd heavily consider going to them and asking for some sort of deal for her assistance. I wish my health potions worked on other people.

I took the bus home from the hospital, feeling dejected. Things would be better if mom would just wake up. Thinking about her lying there made the feelings of rage stir back up within me. I was going to ask Trent if he had any other ideas, because it was getting harder and harder to get any deeper underground, and I was getting fewer benefits from doing so in any case.

OoOoO​

Trent looked thoughtful when I asked him. "Well, going deeper underground would be helpful, but you aren't really prepared for the Dungeon or the cavern layers yet." Layers? Was this world an onion? "Maybe… no, you'd need explosives to get through the Corruption or Crimson… Ah! The Jungle. You'll have to be very careful, of course, but if you construct safe houses to fall back to, the jungle should be doable." Trent beamed, happy to find a way to help me.

He pointed in a direction. "The jungle should be in that direction, roughly, just keep going until you find it." I thanked him for his help, and gathered the materials I would need to build some safe houses in my inventory. One thing I had managed to gather in large quantities from my subterranean expeditions were cobwebs, which, and I'm not even sure how I managed this, I had spun into silk at our loom. I now had several beds. Beds made out of webbing- okay, not continuing that line of thought.

I set out on my way. The trip was going to send me further from the shack than I had ever dared to go before, so I was on edge. If the area around the shack, a place where I'd managed to get slaughtered dozens and dozens of times, was considered a 'Safe Zone', then what on earth would I find in this jungle? Cresting another hill, I glanced off into the distance. I saw a mountain of purple stone, with strange shapes flying around it. None of them had wings.

I shuddered, glad that it wasn't in my path. On my journey, I found another wooden chest inside a rock outcropping, and opened it to discover what appeared to be a small screen. I checked it for an on switch, but found nothing. Withdrawing it into my inventory, I considered it. Looked like an accessory of some sort. Well, I had one more empty slot, let's try it out!

Equipping it, I immediately noticed a change in my perspective. I now knew for a fact that there were four creatures in my immediate vicinity, and that none of them were hostile. I swung my head around, confirming the locations of the creatures, and shook my head in amazement. My power could give me more powers, seemingly on a whim. Doesn't that make me a sort of Trump? I got my thoughts back on track, continuing on towards the jungle. I reached a river that ran with ordinary water until it reached a group of red trees, at which point the water turned teal. I raised an eyebrow. Huh, apparently I can use nearby water sources as an indicator of where I am, by checking what color they are.

I checked my surroundings for danger, not wanting to rely solely on my new danger sense, and started chopping down the trees. I quickly fashioned logs to construct my safe house, and made the furniture I hadn't brought with me. I set the newly constructed cabin as my… "Spawning Location" thing, and closed my eyes.

OoOoO​

Earlier that week, I had set up a joint patrol with some of the Wards, which was why I was now heading to the PRT building. The Wards I was meeting for this venture were Clockblocker and Shadow Stalker. I was fairly pleased about the opportunity to work with someone I would tentatively call a friend, if a little bit dubious about working with someone that PHO had dubbed "One of the most violent former vigilantes."

I dropped onto the pavement about a block away from the PRT building, squinting a little through the evening dimness. It was gonna be a moonless night, so it was darker than normal. I debated for a moment while I walked, and decided to quickly down a Night Owl potion, to let me see in the dark. I blinked a few times as the potion took effect, but I noticed immediately when it did.

The world that had, moments before, been mostly shadows with a few points of light, was now a perfectly lit landscape that faded into black free a few blocks. I raised my eyebrows in appreciation. This was pretty handy, seeing as it didn't come with the normal drawbacks that night vision goggles or thermal goggles did. I noted that street lamps seemed dimmer than before as well. Perhaps the effects of the potion brought light levels to a happy medium from both ends of the spectrum, protecting me from both blinding light and obscuring darkness.

I came to a stop in front of the PRT building and hesitated. Did they want me to come in, or were they going to meet me out here? I was rescued from my indecision by the arrival of Shadow Stalker, who strode out of the building towards me.

"Clockblocker got a bit held up, so he'll be a few more minutes." She sounded like this was a personal offense to her, and I had to stop myself from backing away. We stood in silence for a few minutes, before she spoke. "Did Cricket actually chop off your arm?" I nodded. "...And you're fine now? No visit to Panacea?"

"She's doing a medical tour of Europe at the moment." I knew that all too well.

"Huh." She said, apparently impressed. "Regeneration at that level is pretty rare, especially if it doesn't take the mass out of you. Yours doesn't, right?"

"Nah." I had a sudden urge to mess with her. "Here, watch." I materialized my sword, and chopped off my hand.

She jumped, shouting. "Holy shit! Are you nuts?" She looked torn between getting away from the madman, and attacking me.

"Watch." I repeated, in the same calm tone. I held up my stump, and flesh started creeping up into the place, knitting itself into the shape of a hand, until my hand was once again whole and unmarred. Just behind the skin's growth, my gauntlet rematerialized. "Neat, isn't it?" I spoke in an exaggeratedly cheerful voice. She was speechless, which was apparently notable, as this was the point that Clockblocker showed up.

"What's up, Stalker? You look spooked." Clockblocker walked up to us with an easy stride. "Is Terrarian here too intimidating? You gonna go swap Vista for console duty?"

This snapped her out of her fugue, and she bristled. "This idiot just chopped off his hand to show me his regeneration. Who does that?!" She was practically shrieking.

I coughed. "Someone that knows that anything they do will heal? It's not a big deal, really. Way worse stuff happened to me while I was training." I preferred to consider the first few nights of my power as training, involuntary as it had been. I was beginning to think I had done something wrong, though, in this encounter. Of course, my social skills weren't the greatest even before my repeated psychological trauma, so I wasn't quite sure what. Maybe my joke had been in bad taste.

I sank a little in embarrassment. "Sorry, I've been told my sense of humor leaves a lot to be desired."

Clockblocker and Shadow Stalker shared a glance, before he Clockblocker coughed. "Oh-kay, well, let's get this patrol underway. Here, Terrarian, have this radio that the PRT has instructed me to issue you. Standard disclaimer: We won't be tracking you through it, and we won't call you, we'll wait for you to call us." I accepted the proffered radio with gratitude. This would be useful, for this and future patrols. Clockblocker continued. "Now, I assume that Shadow Stalker will want to do her patrol from the roof, like normal. Do you want to handle the roofs on the other side of the street, or hang out here on the ground with me?"

I considered the options for a moment, before deciding. "I'll take the opposite roofs. It'll be easier for me to spot anything from up there."

Clockblocker snorted. "In this darkness? Good luck."

I shifted, not wanting to reveal more of my powers, but realizing that it might be unavoidable if I want this patrol to be at all productive. "The darkness won't be a problem, I have night-vision." He looked interested at that tidbit, but didn't pry, for which I was grateful. I turned and leaped up onto the roof, before settling into a pace to match the easy walk that Clockblocker set on the street. Shadow Stalker's movements on the opposite roof seemed rather rigid, which I frowned at. What was her problem? I shrugged, before letting my mind work on other things.

...

After about twenty minutes of meandering through the streets, I empathized with her a lot more. We wouldn't get anything done at this rate! My thoughts of frustration were pierced by a sudden question from Clockblocker.

"Hey, so where'd you get that armor?" He asked me. "That looks pretty high quality, must have cost you a pretty penny." The question jarred me, but I also felt flattered. Other people thought it was high quality? Yes!

Still, didn't want to sound like I was bragging here. "Uh, actually, I made it." I tried to keep my pride out of my tone, but I probably failed miserably. I was proud of this, damnit!

He whistled. "No, really? That's crazy man! Did you, like, beat it into shape or something? Some sort of tinker-tech reshaping thing or whatever?"

That surprised me even more. "Er, what? No, I made it the old fashioned way. Smelting the metal, hammer on the anvil, all that jazz." Quiet, I told myself, you're talking about your powers too much! Don't tell anyone you don't trust implicitly, and while Clockblocker seems like a nice guy, he's almost certainly going to be telling his higher ups about this conversation.

He seemed sufficiently awed, however, which made me feel happy in spite of myself. "Wow, that sounds pretty awesome. I'm guessing you made the wooden suit of armor they were talking about too?" I mumbled an affirmative. This had turned into more fishing for information than I was comfortable with. Luckily, he seemed to catch onto my discomfort, and gone silent again.

Just in time for my new sixth sense to inform me that there were enemies nearby. "Hold up, I'm getting a read on some hostiles nearby." I turned to face the direction that was mentally pulling on my mind, and scanned for movement. There! Some merchants were spraying their tag on a storefront. Wow, not even on a brick wall, but the actual glass of a store? Blatant, not to mention cruel to the poor store owner who would have to clean it off.

"Alright, I see some merchants defacing private property, a block south of your position Clockblocker. What's the procedure for this sort of thing?" I asked into my radio.

Instead of Clockblocker, Shadow Stalker answered me. "Stop them, call it in." She made a running jump towards me from her roof, and flew over the street in her shadow state. She turned solid just as she hit the surface next to me, and came to a rolling crouch. I materialized my boomerang, and ran towards the edge of the roof, towards the merchants. Dropping onto the street without losing my momentum, I threw my boomerang at one, and tackled the other. Neither of them had even managed to turn around before I had them both sprawled on the street, groaning.

Picking myself up, I noted Shadow Stalker hitting the street lightly next to me, before she rematerialized. She gave me an approving nod, and then pulled out two pairs of handcuffs. Seeing as I didn't know how to use the modern ones that she had, I stepped back, to let her place them on the two. I really should ask to be shown how to use those, sometime.

Clockblocker ran up to us from the alleyway he had chosen to cross the line of buildings that Stalker and I had simply leaped over. He was breathing hard, and gasping. "...Darn… Movers… Phew, alright, so you guys handled it? Nice. Want me to call it in?"

Shadow Stalker shook her head. "Actually, it was all him," she stated, pointing at me. "He had them both out before I even hit the ground." Clockblocker gave me a thumbs up, and refrained from answering her, opting instead to continue trying to get back his breath.

Suddenly, my danger sense flared, and there wasn't any time to warn the others. Instead, I leaped and pulled them both to the floor. Overhead, something whizzed by and broke through the window of the store we had just halted the vandalizing of.

A raspy, unpleasant voice shouted at us. "Oi! You bastards, what're you doing to my guys?" Shadow Stalker and I were the first ones to our feet. She immediately pulled out her crossbow, and began to shoot bolts at the figure. The air in front of the mysterious challenger flared blue, and the bolts were suddenly reflected, spinning through the air to hit the pavement around us.

Shadow Stalker swore, before speaking in a low tone. "Skidmark, damn. Alright, so we're supposed to retreat and call for backup whenever we're engaged by an enemy cape, but I'll be damned if I let him take back his little stooges without a fight. Ya with me?" I nodded. Clockblocker groaned at our discussion, but stayed silent. Apparently, the idea of these two getting away with it grated on him as well. With our assent, she nodded. "Alright, so my shadow state messes with Skidmark's fields a bit, I need to figure out how thick he made them, and that'll cost me a few bolts. See if you can distract him. His fields aren't that big, so try to circle around him."

I nodded, and Clockblocker decided to pull a thin cloak out of his pack, which he threw into the air around him, before freezing it. Perfect, now he and the two merchants were shielded from collateral damage of our fight. Skidmark was still yelling profanity at us, but I tuned him out.

Shadow Stalker leaped onto the roof of a nearby car and catapulted herself over a tree, onto another rooftop, where she began to take measured shots at Skidmark. His field foiled several shots, but then one pierced through, unfortunately missing the man behind it.

I dashed around him, dodging a hail of broken bottles, bricks, and… garbage wrappers? Really? The Merchants were definitely the least powerful or influential gang in the city, but it was times like this that it really showed. Heck, he could be doing more damage with a box of nails. Was he stupid?

It turned out, that while I thought I was distracting him, he was actually distracting me. My danger sense flared again, but this time, I wasn't able to do anything before I was struck by what felt like a cannonball, launching me into - and through, - a nearby tree. Groaning, I picked myself up, ignoring the impacts of broken glass against my armor. Focusing on the direction that the shot had come from, I noticed… what appeared to be a makeshift tank. Darn, Squealer was here too? I suppose she must have been Skidmark's ride. She had been outside of the range of my danger sense when she shot me, and the round had moved at a fast enough speed that I wasn't able to get out of the way in time.

I scowled, before running in her direction, trusting that Shadow Stalker could handle Skidmark in the meantime. Squealer tried to take more shots at me while I approached, but now that I knew her game, I didn't play it. I leaped higher than her barrel could aim, and landed directly on the roof of her vehicle, before swapping out my boomerang for my spear.

I stabbed the spear through the glass of the cockpit, causing Squealer to live up to her name in the process, before smashing it through the control panel she had been operating. She scrambled backwards while I did this, causing me to note that she had not been wearing a seatbelt.

Really? Safety first, lady.

Then I reached in and forced the cursing and spitting woman to the floor. I held her in place with one hand, and opened the vehicle door with the other, before dragging her behind me back towards the others. The sight that met me wasn't exactly what I was hoping, as apparently Skidmark had gotten smarter about things, launching ball bearings, wherever he had gotten those from, and other objects at Shadow Stalker's cover.

Stalker, on the other hand, was compensating by ducking across the roof whenever she had an opening, and taking a potshot at the man. I ran towards her, tucking Squealer under an arm, before leaping up next to her.

She looked up at me. "Oh, you got Squealer? Good job. I just ran out of bolts, so I'm a bit less useful against Skidmark now." I nodded, before holding my captive towards her. Stalker got the unspoken message, and quickly secured Squealer with cuffs, ignoring her angry protests.

I spoke my mind on the fight. "Skidmark's fields pretty much negate all my weapons, and hand to hand won't work for the same reason. If you had more bolts, do you think you could nail him while I distract him? Hopefully without an interruption this time." I gestured at Squealer on that last note.

Shadow Stalker nodded. "Yeah, but I'm out of bolts." In answer, I leapt off the roof. Skidmark had stopped pelting us with debris when he saw our captive, and he appeared to be talking into a phone. Not good, we had to end this before Mush showed up. I dashed over to the tree that had broken my fall earlier, though it had broken in the process. I snapped off a few of the smaller branches, and scanned my mind for recipes.

There! Crossbow bolts. I toggled the little switch in my head, and watched my body from the outside as it blurred into motion. Fletchery is an interesting thing to watch, but even though I was doing it, I'm not at all sure how I would explain the process. Basically, I saw that my hands were moving in a blur around the sticks they were holding, and as I watched, they were magically turned into crossbow bolts. Once I had about 15, I made a running jump back up to Shadow Stalker, handing her my creations.

She was taken aback. "How did you- never mind, I'll ask later. For now, let's get that asshole." I nodded, glad she was able to postpone her questioning for later. I stepped off the roof, running directly for Skidmark, who sneered and put up some more barriers. Just before colliding with them, I veered off to the side. I began circling around him, pulling out my spear once more. Anywhere he didn't have covered with a field, I would move to jab my spear into the gap, stopping just before I hit the field he would throw up in a frantic haste.

I was pleased to see that he could apparently only handle a limited number of fields at a time, as some fields would flicker and vanish as others appeared. He was spinning in place, panicking while trying to keep up with my pace. I would stop and switch directions at random, hoping to get him to slip up.

Before this could go on too much longer, though, he suddenly cried out and dropped to his knee. Most of the fields vanished at that point, and I capitalized on the distraction by moving in and clocking him in the head.

He swore as he fell, before he began rolling on the ground in pain. I held him down, while he tried to form more fields to get me away. The manton limit, however, stopped him from making any fields directly on me. After a moment, he stopped struggling as hard and settled for glaring at me.

Shadow Stalker landed next to me again. "Damn, man, you're pretty awesome. Squealer and Skidmark? Not the biggest catch, yeah, but pretty damn impressive all the same. Clock just told me that Armsmaster should be here any moment now, and the PRT van won't be far behind."

I paused a moment, trying to remember something important. "Oh, Skidmark was calling someone when he saw we had Squealer. I bet that Mush is on his way. We need to get these two in custody before he can try to break them out. She had cuffed and restrained Skidmark at this point, so I reached down and, with a grunt, hoisted him over one of my shoulders in a fireman's carry. "Do you think you can carry Squealer? I'm pretty strong, but this guy's heavy." She gave me a look.

"We're not all Brutes, man. I doubt I can hold a woman that weighs at least 130 pounds and move." I hissed in frustration. I didn't want these two to make it away, damnit!

The sound of a motorcycle pulling up eased my worries a little, though. Sweet, it's Armsmaster! I'm going to get to meet Armsmaster!

OoOoO​

Author Note: Sorry I'm posting this later than I meant to, I got a bit caught up in things.

Also, if anyone wants to help me by coming up with a PHO interlude, which I'm not incredible at, send me private message, and I'll fill you in on all the vital stuff that needs to be in it. I mainly need people to fill it with fluff posts, because it isn't a PHO interlude without them. (Don't worry, a PHO interlude won't take the place of a real chapter if I don't have to write it all myself.)

 

[Dawnk41]

1.5​

When Armsmaster parked his motorcycle on the street nearby, I sagged a little in relief. With him here, the odds of Mush being able to take his bosses back from us had gone down a lot. As Armsmaster walked up to us, Clockblocker scrambled out from under his cover.

As the power-armored man reached us, he stated a command to Shadow Stalker. "Report."

She didn't appear to like being ordered around, but she obeyed. "While we were on patrol, Terrarian noticed some merchants defacing private property. We apprehended them, and were attacked by Squealer and Skidmark. Terrarian took down Squealer, and then assisted me in taking down Skidmark. End report." She uttered the last two words as though they tasted bad. If I had to guess, she didn't like being a part of a command structure. I wonder why she joined the wards?

After Armsmaster administered some sedatives to our captives, he turned to me. "Terrarian, correct? I'm Armsmaster, Leader of the Brockton Bay Protectorate. By the fact that you have been doing hero work for a little over a week now, I assume that you considered and rejected the idea of joining the Wards?" I nodded, uncomfortable. "Would you be willing to tell me why?"

I spent a moment gathering my thoughts, before replying. "Well, I actually really like the idea of joining the Wards, but I have some family circumstances I have to deal with. I don't know long that will take me, though." That was one way of saying I needed to hunt down the Undersiders. Plus, there was the whole, 'Haven't told my mom I'm a cape,' deal. Not sure if I wanted to tell her, she'd probably make me join the Empire, which would be awkward.

He seemed to freeze for a few moments, but then he nodded. "Very well. When you change your mind, contact us." He handed me a Protectorate business card. His power suit flickered as he moved. Man, Armsmaster was so cool! I'm glad he seemed to be okay with my holding off on the Wards. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to join, as doing so would require me to reveal my status as a parahuman to my Mom. I mean, she knows something's up, but I had been pretty careful to time my outing when I knew she wouldn't be home until early the next morning, and since then… yeah, she hasn't had much of an opportunity to catch me.

I stopped thinking about that. Armsmaster readied Squealer and Skidmark for transport, so I set my focus on keeping an eye out for a possible ambush by Mush. My night vision hadn't run out yet, and according to my status, wouldn't do so for another 2 hours and 17 minutes.

We were lucky, or Mush wasn't stupid, and nothing happened. I ran over the roofs on one side of the street, watching over the PRT van, while Shadow Stalker did the same thing from the roofs on the other side. Clockblocker rode in the van with the PRT Officers, and Armsmaster led the way on his motorcycle. He wasn't going quite as fast as he could, obviously, as then he would leave us all far behind.

When we reached the PRT building, some more officers came out and escorted the two Merchant capes to holding cells within. I gave my statement to an officer, and had just exited through one of the side-entrances when Shadow Stalker caught up to me.

"Hey, it was nice patrolling with someone else who's actually combat effective for once. Here." She tossed me a bag. Peering inside, I saw what appeared to be a burner phone. "Sometimes, I go on solo patrols. Next time I do, I'll send you a message on that, and you're free to join me." Then she walked back into the building.

Huh. I guess I must have made a good impression on her. I still wasn't sure what I thought of her. She had kinda been a jerk to Clockblocker, but it was… also fairly understandable. I hadn't born the brunt of much, but he seemed like the person that tested the limits of the sanity of everyone around him.

Also, she was pretty hot.

Thus decided, I admitted that I'd probably agree to go on the occasional patrol with her in the future. Then, I headed home.

OoOoO​

Back in the little shack that I had constructed in the jungle of Terraria, I reappeared. I glanced around the structure, before heading out into the jungle.

My first impression on this place, was that it was kinda… horrific. There were orange bats that attacked from above, giant piranhas in the waters, and slimes emerging through the brush. Don't even get me started on the snapping plants! Those things are freaky, long necks/stems that lead into a giant claw-like face, with jaws like pincers.

I immediately set about digging a mine shaft, building over the top of the shaft with a set of doors. Fortunately, none of the denizens were capable of opening doors, thank god. As I tunneled downwards, I ran into the occasional deposit of copper, which made me a little sad that I didn't actually need it anymore. I would need to ask Trent if there were any other things I could make out of copper.

After what seemed like an eternity of tunneling, my shaft opened up into… what I imagine Hell would look like, if it were filled with bees instead of fire.

GIANT bees. I quickly covered back up the opening. Alright, first things first, I would need to light up the area out there a lot more, before creating small openings I could shoot the bees through, with my boomerang.

I set to work. I tunneled sideways now, recovering any points that I accidentally breached, before continuing on my way. I actually found a small chamber that was uninhabited, made of a strange brown brick. A pedestal in the center of the chamber held a chest made of ornately carved wood, surrounded by green torches. Interesting, how long have these torches been lit?

An interesting thing about this world I had noticed, is that most sources of fire? Never went out. Didn't exactly burn through the wood they were placed on, either. Just… spontaneous flames. It had weirded me out a lot at first, but I had gotten over it. It was pretty handy, after all.

I opened the chest with barely contained excitement. Inside, I found the standard fare for golden chests, some money, which I could apparently spend at the various merchants that would show up. I hadn't seen any yet, but Trent told me some would pop along when I was prepared. I thought I was pretty dang ready for some shopping, but apparently not. There was also a few potions, including a strange purple one I hadn't seen before.

The real prize of this chest, however, was the gun. I knew pretty much nothing about guns themselves, but as per usual, by picking up this one, I knew exactly how to hold it and fire it properly. Handy of my powers, that. There were some bullets in there too, which I placed in the Ammo section of my inventory.

Change of plans, instead of my boomerang, I was going to use this gun. Yeah!

OoOoO​

What felt like a few hours later, but was probably closer to one hour, I sat down heavily onto some moss in the cavern. That had been pretty fun! I had run out of ammo for my shotgun, but I had managed to slaughter dozens of bees, and a few horrifying bigger versions of the plant creatures on the surface. They popped out of small, unassuming holes in the wall, and probably would have given me a heart attack if I wasn't immune to stuff like that.

I had retrieved stingers from the majority of the bees I had killed, and some long vine things from the plant creatures. There were strange glowing green plants lying all over the place, that Trent had advised me to collect. Not entirely sure why, I did so. I was just about ready to move back up to my safe house to prepare for the trek back to the shack, when I noticed a shiny box.

Wow, today was my lucky day! I had gotten a gun, torn my way through the jungle, and now I was going to get some loot from a gold chest! I returned to my feet quickly, before bounding over to the chest. I opened it quickly, and reached in. Some potions, blah blah blah… a mirror?

I took it out, and turned it over in my hands. Was it magic or something? I looked into the mirror, seeing my reflection. Well, the reflection of my armor, at least. Then I noticed something weird.

In the mirror, I was standing, not in the jungle cavern that I most certainly was currently standing in, but instead in the shack I had set up outside the mine shaft. Perplexed, I reached my other hand to the surface of the mirror, rubbing at it to try and figure out why the locations were different, when suddenly-

-Blue light filled my vision-

-and I was standing in the safe house. What the what? I glanced around, almost startled enough to drop the mirror, but I managed to catch it before it hit the floor. It would have been fine, but it was still a habit of mine to try and catch things I dropped on accident. Probably a good habit to keep, things in the real world weren't quite as durable as the things here were.

I reached over and withdrew my bed, the anchor for the cabin, into my inventory. Then, I turned to the door of the shack and reached for the knob- before pausing. I pulled out the magic mirror again, and grinned widely. Just as I thought! My reflection in the mirror showed me standing in Trent's hut. I laughed aloud, before rubbing the mirror.

OoOoO​

Startling Trent had been fun, but then I got to business. Walking over to my anvil, I opened my mind to all the recipes that flew around in there, I mentally moved my gaze to the group of jungle recipes. Let's see, I've got armor, a huge sword, a… chakram? Looked like a plant-like discus. Probably like my boomerang, then. The thing that I drew up short at, though, was a strange harness of vines.

"Hey, Trent, do you know what this… harness thing is? It's showing up as something I can make from these vines." I tossed him a vine, as Trent could apparently examine an object and come up with a list of things that require it as an ingredient, before telling me about those objects' purposes.

He looked it over for a second before smiling. "Ah, the Ivy Whip would be an excellent choice, you don't have a grappling hook yet, do you?"

I blinked. "Wait, that harness thing is a grappling hook? What?" I was a little confused at how that worked, though my power had done stranger things, so if Trent said it was a grappling hook, it probably was.

He turned the smile from the vine back to me, and tossed it back over. "You should make it, it's one of the highest quality hooks you could possibly make in the near future. Multi-grip cords are the best grappling hooks." Not knowing how to respond to that, I decided that Trent hadn't steered me wrong yet, and I might answer some of my own questions by just making the darn thing.

I allowed my hands to shape the vines and spores together for a moment, not entirely sure at which point the object ceased looking like a salad, and turned into a tough-looking harness with rose flowers and thorns. Seriously, how did that work?

Checking my inventory, I glanced through the Equipment section for a Hook slot. Yep, there it was. Placing the 'Ivy Whip' into that slot, I looked down at myself. Where was the harness? How on earth did this thing work?

Trent spotted my consternation, and pointed to the door. "Run outside for a bit, focus on one of the trees out there, and see if you can get the Ivy Whip to work. Practice for a bit, you won't regret it. Grappling hooks are a basic necessity for living." I bit my tongue to avoid asking him why he didn't have one, as I knew that I would always get the same answer. 'I'm not the Terrarian, Greg, you are.'

I stood around outside for a bit, like an idiot, feeling like Spiderman probably did when he was trying to figure out how to shoot web. I surreptitiously attempted the iconic hand gesture that he had used for web-slinging, and was mildly relieved when it didn't work. I definitely didn't want people to think I was trying to copy Spiderman.

I was so caught up in my activity that I didn't notice when darkness began to fall, or when a reddish hue overtook the landscape…

OoOoO​

A few hours later, I hobbled back into the shack while my injuries healed and my armor rippled back into one piece. The only real positive outcome of the night had been that I had instinctively activated the Ivy Whip when a crowd of zombies appearing nearly simultaneously interrupted my thoughts via my danger sense. After practicing above the crowd of zombies through the trees with my awesome new grappling hook, I descended to the forest floor to demolish them.

What I hadn't been expecting? The zombies covered in a mass of bloody flesh, and the creepy floating bags of eyes and, yep, blood. I was glad that zombie-remains disappeared with their bodies when they died, or I would never feel clean again.

Trent glanced up at me, relieved. "Whew, you managed to avoid dying on your first Blood Moon, kid, great job!" He gave me a thumbs-up.

I replied in monotone. "Gee, I wonder why they call it that." Let's see, red moon, zombies and flying horrors made out of blood, yep, obviously it's a Blood Moon.

Now that I was free from combat, I was going to finish making the items that would have been oh so useful for that fight that I had just been in. I knew I should have made myself the armor and sword first. Grumbling to myself, I set about creating the gear.

After making those items, I reached for the mental schematic for the Chakram, only to realize I was short a few stingers. Damnit, I didn't have the time to go back to the jungle for more, I was going to be starting another of my "Undersider Hunts" soon, and though I didn't really expect to find them, I knew that I certainly wouldn't if I didn't try. They couldn't lay low forever, and if they did, then that was a victory in and of itself.

Since I couldn't make the Chakram, I guess that I'd have to stick with my boomerang for ranged combat, seeing as I had run out of bullets. Speaking of which…

I spoke up. "Hey, Trent, didn't you say that some shopkeepers would show up when I was ready? Where are they?"

Trent merely looked puzzled. "Ready? You're not ready for them. Where are they going to stay?" He responded in a puzzled tone.

I nearly tripped in realization, which would have been both impressive and pitiful, because I was kneeling. "Wait, I have to build them houses?!"

OoOoO​

I had returned to the real world soon after that conversation, having decided that I didn't have time to build more huts before my hunt either. I was still annoyed that I had misunderstood Trent, and I didn't want to take it out on him, as it wasn't really his fault, it was mine.

I walked casually to an alleyway, checking the vicinity in every way I could, sight, hearing, and my danger sense, before determining it safe for me to quickly suit up and take to the roofs.

I'll find you at some point Undersiders, and the longer you put this off, the stronger and more prepared I'll be.

 

[Dawnk41]

Interlude 1.B
Coil​

Coil leaned back in his chair and sighed. Every night for the past week, he had tried to have the Undersiders pull off some sort of heist. Increasing their notoriety was a large point in his plans, as they would become an effective tool to incite fear in a target.

But he had a problem. Each night, he would split timelines. In one timeline, he would have the Undersiders go out to perform whatever robbery he had designated, and in the other, they would remain at their base, safe and sound.

He had given them a few days of rest after they robbed the Pharmacy, and then he had tried to send them out. They hadn't been more than a few minutes on the scene before someone wearing iron armor had shown up and began attacking them furiously. They had managed to defeat him, but he had managed to kill two of Bitch's dogs first, so Bitch had killed him in retaliation.

While he wanted the Undersiders to gain some notoriety, he didn't want to add any more murder charges to them. In addition, Bitch's dogs had made up a large part of their firepower, so losing them meant a weakened group, in addition to Bitch going mad with grief. So, he would collapse the timeline into the the one where they had never gone out at all.

This had, in a similar fashion, occured night after night, and he was getting pretty annoyed. He couldn't find very much information on this "Terrarian," other than the sparse few details in the PRT report. Apparently, he could create armor and weapons on the fly from base materials around him, he had a decent mover rating for his fast pace and ability to jump over a dozen feet into the air, enhanced strength combined with regeneration, and a plethora of weapons that he pulled out of a pocket dimension. He had tried, in various attempts, to get the Undersiders to take him down without killing him, but apparently the armored parahuman's Brute rating was a little exaggerated, as he would continue fighting right up to the point of death. Mostly fine after one hit, but then the next simply killed him.

So, this time, he would try something new. He had noted that early on in his cape career, Terrarian had had a scuffle with some Empire capes, and he imagined that they might want a rematch. Except… He still didn't know what ethnicity that Terrarian was. They might attempt to conscript or recruit him, and he didn't want the Empire to get another cape, especially one with such a diverse skill set.

He should try to ensure that a fight would occur. Considering his options, he paged through reports from his spies in the various groups of Brockton Bay. Noting that the Empire had apparently rescheduled a raid on some of Lung's shipments from a week and a half prior for some reason, he pondered a moment, before deciding.

He would have one of his members in the ABB "discover" that the Empire was going to attack, and inform Lung. Then he would have the Undersiders lure Terrarian to the location, entangling him in the battle, before retreating. At the very least, he would be able to observe more of Terrarian's abilities. If he was incredibly fortunate, then the young cape just might get himself killed by one of the two gangs. Nodding to himself, Coil enacted his plan.

OoOoO
Tattletale​

Tattletale wasn't too sure about this plan. Coil had assured her that he had fail-safes in play in the event of the worst coming to pass, but she was still leery of it. Apparently, they had to attract the attention of some new hero calling himself "Terrarian". Tattletale hadn't been able to get too much information about him, other than a basic rundown of his powers, and a few blurry pictures. It was enough for her power to inform her that he made all his own gear, though the exact means eluded her. For now, though, she had to go inform the rest of the crew.

She walked into the main room of their base. They had taken to lounging around in there for the majority of the past week, as Coil would call to have them gather up, but then not give them a job to do. It was something he had done occasionally in the past, but he had done it every day this week, which was odd. Tattletale's power wasn't too forthcoming on the reason, either. It told her that he was going to have them do a job, and that they stayed in the room as a safety precaution somehow.

She spoke up. "Alright, guys, Coil's got a job for us." She waited for the inevitable outburst.

Regent, currently playing some game on a console, looked up and spoke loudly. "Frickin' finally! We've been sitting around for a week!" She agreed, in her head, but still mentally frowned at the conflicting information that her power had been giving her regarding Coil's plans. Perhaps he had been testing some sort of anti-thinker device? If so, it had been working somewhat. She had no idea what he wanted.

Grue merely smiled. "That's good, what's the job?" As the nominal team leader, Grue took his job seriously, and wanted to help the others stay safe. A good sentiment, even if Tattletale's cynicism prevented her from truly believing that he would be able to make it through the next five years without getting broken down repeatedly until not even he believed in the possibility of safety.

"There's a new cape around Brockton Bay, calls himself Terrarian. He's often seen dashing around rooftops at speeds that would make Olympic Sprinters jealous, while wearing full iron plate mail. Notable feats include fighting off Cricket after she chopped off his arm, and taking down Squealer and Skidmark, who have yet to be broken out of jail by Mush. Who knows, they might actually get sent to a prison that can hold them this time." She doubted it.

Regent held a hand up. "Wait, this guy's got a whole medieval knight theme going on? What kind of Brute is he?" That was a surprisingly competent question to get out of Alec, which mildly disoriented her.

"Ratings have him at Brute 3, mostly because of his regeneration. He regrew the arm that Cricket chopped off pretty fast, and he tends to ignore bullets, though whether that's because his armor is that strong, or he regenerates fast enough not to care, we don't know. He's really fast, too, which is the real problem in a fight. His main combat method, though, revolves around the fact that he can materialize various weapons he stores somewhere, kinda like Miss Militia." She expounded.

Grue frowned. "Guy sounds dangerous to fight."

Tattletale gave a cheshire grin at that. "Which is why that isn't our job. We just have to lure him to a scuffle between the Empire and ABB, who will be causing enough property damage that our aspiring hero will have little choice but to give up a chase on non-destructive small-timers like us, and get the Protectorate to help him interfere with the gangs." She had to admit, that part of the plan was… fairly solid. Assuming, of course, that Bitch's dogs were fast enough to keep ahead of Terrarian. With Regent helping with tripping him up occasionally, and Grue interfering with his power, though, they should be able to manage.

She just wished she knew what was so special about this guy that Coil wanted him in the gang fight anyways.

OoOoO​

Author Note: Sorry about this chapter being so tiny. I'm seriously ashamed of this, but interludes just always kick my butt. I wanted to add a third one here, from Taylor's POV, but I spent hours and hours agonizing over it and it just wouldn't work, so in the end, I just posted what I had so I could go back to Greg.

I'm sorry for the combination of tardiness and brevity. But sometimes, interludes just need to happen.

 

[Dawnk41]

1.6​

I walked out of my house like nothing was wrong, meandering down the street towards the more densely populated parts of the city. Once I was in an area that was both well developed and less populated, I made my usual scan of the surroundings, ducked into an alleyway, and came out the other side as Terrarian.

I briefly wondered what they were saying about me on PHO? Perhaps xX_VoidCowboy_Xx should make a reappearance. They probably missed my analyses I used to post. I probably had a thread! I faintly recognized that it was odd how that gave me a bigger rush than meeting Miss Militia or Armsmaster, but to heck with it! There were probably threads on PHO dedicated to me! Muahahaha, I have the power!

Now, for my further preparations. I had gotten a few vials of a new potion I hadn't seen before in one of the chests I found in the jungle. 'Hunter Potion' is what Trent called it, and apparently it helped the user find prey and enemies. I wondered how that worked? Shrugging to myself, I brought the vial up to my vine-covered face, noting with interest that my new Jungle Armor responded to my will in small ways, such as the opening over my mouth that appeared just before I drank the potion.

The vial vanished after I finished drinking, which was as strange as always, but I had grown used to it. Various… colors flowed into my vision, and I had to blink a couple times to try and sort it out. After a moment, I noticed that it wasn't coloring my sight, per se, but some sort of strange new sense that had shown up, similar to the Radar I had found. I could now sense all the people around me, through walls and other objects, as highlighted silhouettes. The Hunter sense and my Radar sense mingled agreeably, with my Radar sense altering the 'color' of the silhouettes according to their threat level. This was super handy!

I took to the roofs, taking off at my usual speed. I quickly came across several crimes on the streets, and intervened. My street efficiency had skyrocketed with the addition of the Hunter potion, and I was now fully capable of fighting off people behind me without even turning my head. I probably looked pretty unnerving, swinging around my iron sword to hit people with the flat of the blade without looking at them.

My iron blade. I sighed, wishing that I could use my new "Blade of Grass". The problem was, there wasn't really a non-lethal setting to it. My iron sword was simple, blunt on some sides, sharp on others, and I could just hit people with the flat parts. Sure, it broke bones, but it didn't sever limbs. My Grass Blade, however… it was covered in extremely sharp plant matter, no single spot of the sword had a flat or blunt edge for attacking. Also, it frequently poisoned things I hit with it. So… yeah. It's not like I needed anything better than my iron sword for these gangers.

Quick calls to the police (Thank you for that burner phone, Shadow Stalker!) and I was on my way. Let's see if the Undersiders weren't out and about tonight, though I was beginning to lose hope that I would ever to get to bring them to justice.

...I guess that saying "This can't possibly get any worse," isn't the only way to tempt fate, because I just saw some big black dogs carrying people that all show up as 'Enemies' crossing the city in the direction of the docks.

Moments later, I'm dashing across the rooftops towards them. The blonde girl in a purple bodysuit, Tattletale probably, her head whips around and she quickly says something to one of the others, a guy in a motorcycle helmet, whose name I can't quite remember. Black smoke billowed out from him, encompassing me…

I was momentarily disoriented, as the world faded away, sound dampened, and smells vanished. I quickly checked my status, to see if I could get some more information on this.

Blinded - Area Effect

Deafened - Area Effect

However, after I overcame the discomfort, I was in… pretty much no way impeded whatsoever.

Because I could still see their silhouettes through the effects of the Hunter Potion combined with my Radar. I leaped forward, surprising the man in the motorcycle helmet by knocking him off the dog with the flat of my sword. Upon impact, the black clouds dissipated. I heard the girl other than Tattletale shout something. Hellhound, I think. Immediately, the beasts ceased running away, and snarled at me. Tattletale and the other guy, someone in a poofy renaissance shirt with a sceptre, rolled off their dogs. Now unencumbered, the animals jumped at me, mouths agape.

So I broke one of the creature's jaws with the hilt of my sword, and went flying in a tangled heap from the combined force of the other two. Luckily, my jungle armor was even tougher than iron, somehow, and I barely even felt the attacks.

You know what? Screw these things. I'm using my Grass Blade. I returned my iron sword to my inventory, pulling out my new sword. Upon seeing it, I noticed that Tattletale froze up, before shouting to her dog-wielding teammate. Whatever she was saying, though, it was falling on deaf ears, as Hellhound was simply screaming at me in rage, pausing only to command her dogs.

I pushed one of them off of me, and slashed at the other. The one whose jaw I had broken was lying on its side in pain. My slash dug deep into Hellhound's mount, heavily injuring its leg. For a moment, Hellhound's shouts were buried under her dog's howling, before the animal's cries shrank down into whimpering. Hellhound herself jumped off her dog and rushed me.

Really? Your monster dogs can't really hurt me, and you're gonna try to engage me in hand to hand? Are you stupid? I laid her out with a solid punch to the cheek, unequipping the Blade of Grass. Now that there's only one dog up and about, I should probably try to decrease my lethality.

Speaking of which… I turn and grab the last dog by its head. It began to thrash violently, attempting to bite my hands. Under my armor, I grin. I've always wanted to try this! I smash my forehead into the dog's face. It gives off a startled bark, but is otherwise fairly unaffected.

I frown. Damn the movies! Instead, I release the right side of its head from my grip, and leverage several punches into it's face until it stops making noises. I turn to the other Undersiders, who went quiet during the combat exchange. I drop the last dog.

I give a wicked grin. "So. You guys are the Undersiders."

OoOoO
Mini-Interlude: Tattletale (Minterlude?)​

When Terrarian crested a nearby roof with a jump, I immediately turned my power on him, trying to see what information I could pull before we led him to the gang fight in the docks.

New armor, made of plants. Stronger than previous armor. Made armor personally. Very enhanced physical prowess. Capable of jumping 12-15 feet vertically from a standing position. Capable of moving at speeds up to 38 miles per hour without rest. Doesn't need rest. Doesn't sleep? Still sleeps. Doesn't sleep.

She shook her head. What? Her power never gave her conflicting information, not unless she was missing a huge piece to a puzzle. What was she missing here?

She turned to Grue. "Alright, we should start moving all out, there he is. Mask us for a moment? We need to get a head start." He nodded, shouting the order to Rachel. Then, he coated the roof that Terrarian was leaping onto with shadows.

We began to get moving when Grue seized up. "What? How is he-" Suddenly, Terrarian comes rocketing out of the darkness, hitting Grue off the dog with a loud, meaty smack. The darkness vanishes as Grue comes to a rolling stop, groaning.

Largely unaffected by Grue's shadows. Enhanced senses. Not using standard senses. Using a sense optimized for seeing through obstacles and terrain.

I paled. What on earth? How many powers did this guy have? I signal Regent to begin messing with Terrarian however he can. He nods, raising his staff, and making a gesture at Terrarian. Nothing happened. Regent tried again, and again, seeming to grow panicked. Meanwhile, Terrarian was engaging Rachel's dogs.

Immune to body control. Body is in a breaker state. Breaker state separates body slightly from this dimension. Body is a projection.

Wait, what? Which was it? My worry increased as Terrarian, having just broken one of the dog's jaws, wrestled with the other two, Rachel directing the assault. Then Terrarian brought out a giant sword that looked like it was made of plants. My power went haywire.

Stores weapons in another dimension. Other dimension doesn't adhere fully to the physics of this dimension. Sword is made of poisonous plants. Plants still alive. High likelihood of death from poison.

Terrarian slashed the sword through one of Rachel's dog's legs. The dog went down with a terrible howling, and Tattletale winced. Rachel would not take that well- Oh, he took her down too. Not with his sword, though, so she would live. The last dog was attacking Terrarian now, and… did he just headbutt it?

Disappointed that headbutting isn't as effective in real life as it is in the media.

That wasn't incredibly useful, power… He just punched the dog out. Okay. Quick, quick, what can her power give her to help in the upcoming conversation!

Terrarian walked towards her and Regent. "So. You guys are the Undersiders." His voice put her in mind of a smaller guy her age. She scanned the armor he was wearing more intently. Yep, the armor made him look a bit bigger than he actually was. Useful information? Maybe.

Tattletale grimaced before replying. "Yeah, that's us. Terrarian, right?" If he wasn't, then this city had way too many grab-bag capes wearing armor. Terrarian nodded, but remained quiet. "...Do you have some sort of grudge against us?" His takedowns were pretty brutal. Either he was just that violent a person, or he had something against us, personally.

He shrugged. "You could say that. A fight of yours recently put someone close to me in the hospital, and with Panacea out of town, their odds of leaving soon aren't good. I thought it was only fair if I put you guys in there for at least the same amount of time." He cracked his knuckles.

Tattletale's mind was awhirl with the newly obtained information.

Person he is talking about was injured in our last scuffle with E88.

Person is a member of the Empire. Terrarian is not a member of the Empire. Terrarian does not agree with Empire.

Person is a relative. Sibling? No, Mother.

Person is unresponsive. Coma.

She grinned. "You can't exactly blame us for fighting members of the Empire that interrupt us while we're doing our operations. Surely you've got some sort of power hidden away that can help your mom." He went still, and she realized that she may have just made a mistake. Damn the difficulty in getting a read on him! Tattletale spoke quickly. "Look, we're just small time-" She was cut off when a large shuriken materialized in his hand. Tattletale threw herself to the ground before the weapon flew over her head and shattered upon impact with the wall.

He no longer spoke, allowing his anger to drive the remainder of the fight. In short order, Regent, Grue, and She were all on the ground next to Rachel, getting tied up with some rope he pulled out of nowhere.

Well, this night had just gone swimmingly.

OoOoO
Greg​

I called the PRT. I had done it! I had defeated all the Undersiders, and now, the PRT were going to come cart them away. All in a night's work, I thought to myself in satisfaction. While the phone rang, I admired my armor. Wow, this stuff may not look as sturdy as my metal armor generally did, but it was so much stronger than it looked.

Finally, the phone was answered. "PRT hotline, how may I help you?" A tired sounding voice came through the line.

"Hello, this is Terrarian." I stated cheerfully. "I have just captured the Undersiders, can I get a pickup van coming my way?" I told them the address.

The voice on the other end of the phone sighed again. "We'll see what we can do, but pretty much the whole Protectorate team and most of the vans we can spare are at the Docks right now. Lung and Kaiser are duking it out." My eyebrows raised, and I looked in that direction. Wow, that's a lot of fire. I guess that I got a bit too caught up in my fight with the Undersiders.

I hesitated. On the one hand, if I waited here, I could make sure the Undersiders stayed contained until a van was free to retrieve them, on the other…

I could help the Protectorate stop the fight between the gangs, an arguably much more important goal than the capture of a group of 'small timers'. Groaning, I made my choice. I began leaping away, towards the Docks.

OoOoO​

I arrived in time to see Lung, already more than ten feet tall, covered in scales, and emitting blasts of fire every few seconds at the gigantic duo battling him with spears that were even taller than him. Though they were striking with precision, Lung was both fast and skilled enough to maneuver himself so that even if he took damage from their weapons, his regeneration would quickly outpace it and he would end up even stronger.

I leaped over to where I saw Miss Militia covering Dauntless, who was attempting to fend off Hookwolf, with sniper fire. She glanced over to me as I landed, moving her gun to face me, and I realized that she might not recognize me.

"Easy, it's me, Terrarian!" I blurted out. She hesitated momentarily, before swinging her gun back over to the duel. "Um, where should I pitch in?" I was a little bit lost. This was a larger fight than any I had gotten into up till now, as apparently, even the Undersiders were little better than unpowered gangsters when it came to fighting me.

My question was answered when a large piece of debris crashed into the scene, flying over some nearby buildings and narrowly missing Dauntless. Miss Militia cursed, before relaying her information to me. "It's Rune, and we don't have any fliers on hand to match her. Quickly, can you call her presence in? We need some members of New Wave if they're available."

I was about to nod my head, but then I stopped. I scanned the air until I saw her. A girl, probably close to my age, in a red and black robe, standing on a large section of concrete that was floating in the sky. Surrounding her were similarly sized objects, including a few more sections of what were presumably buildings and a pair of dumpsters. "No need, Miss Militia, I'll take her."

As soon as I had my bearings, I activated my grappling hook, flying up into the air towards Rune, having attached myself to one of her dumpsters. Apparently, in the night sky, she didn't even notice my approach. I guess that I just didn't weigh enough to make a meaningful increase on a dumpster? Branching off the Ivy Whip, I connected myself to two more of the flying objects, weaving in between her artillery. Rune herself was scanning the ground below, probably for places she could send her payload without hurting one of her teammates. She rose one of her hands, presumably to use her power and send another of her debris down to the battlefield, when I got up close.

She noticed me moments before I got close, apparently, as she turned her head and I heard a startled squawk. It was cut short, however, when I swung the flat of my sword at her. She made a pained sound and stumbled back on her mount. Whoah, was she barely phased by that? She hadn't spontaneously grown a Brute rating while I had been off PHO, had she?

The obvious answer came to me moments later. Of course, she was using her telekinesis on her robes, to keep them more durable than they should be. Oh well.

In any case, I now had to worry about all the objects around me, as she attempted to orchestrate them into bludgeoning me. Luckily, my danger sense apparently counted the things as extensions of Rune while her power was in them, and it was easy enough for me to send off branches of the Ivy whip to objects that weren't rushing towards me as I tried to line myself up for another shot at Rune.

But then her own section began to float away. Quickly, I had one of the branching arms grab onto her platform, and paid for my momentary inattention with a dumpster colliding with my torso. Groaning as a full quarter of my health drained away from that single attack, I knew that I couldn't take many more of those. I immediately drew myself over to her platform, holding myself against it with my grappling hook. Rune, alarmed, apparently tried to take flight with her Robes, but I put a stop to that by striking her in the head this time.

I realized this had probably been a bad idea when the various items she had taken began to fall out of the sky around me, as well as Rune herself dropping like a puppet with cut strings.

Eyes widening, I made the snap decision that I should probably avoid killing people, even if they were Nazi supervillains. The fact that said villain was a teenage girl would probably hurt me in the future.

Whipping my Ivy Whip past Rune's falling form, I accelerated to her, wrapping my arms around her mid-flight. I rolled in the air until I was beneath her, cushioning her fall with myself. Damnit, this was going to hurt so, so badly, though I had fallen from similar heights before. I consumed one of my health potions directly from my inventory as the fall seemed to stretch on, watching the cold, unforgiving earth approach. This had been a terrible, bad idea.

Then I felt the earth beneath me. I blinked, checking my status in disbelief. No damage? How? That didn't make sense! I was startled out of my confusion when a piece of concrete the size of a car hit the ground nearby, and I rolled myself on top of Rune to shield her from the shower of concrete chunks as the segment shattered. All around us, similar pieces of debris collided with the street, and a dumpster smashed a parked car. I winced, hoping that since Rune had been the one to actually use the damn things, the blame for this would fall on her.

She groaned underneath me, and I blanched, jumping off of her. Whew, that had been a compromising position, glad nobody was watching.

Which of course, was when Miss Militia ran up to me. "You- you idiot! That was insanely dangerous! Are you alright? You fell from at least seventy feet up!" I checked myself, noting my still full health bar. Apparently, I hadn't needed to use that health potion.

"Um, I'm fine. Rune, uh, probably isn't." I was glad that my armor hid my blush.

Dauntless walked up to us, holding one of his arms in a manner that made it quite obvious that it was broken, and Armsmaster picked through the trashed remains of one of the nearby warehouses. Dauntless sighed, before speaking up. "Hookwolf got away, and Crusader used his ghosts to help Fenja and Menja bolt. Lung hurt Menja pretty badly, but Fenja managed to toss him into the Bay before they fled. That warehouse that he tore up belonged to the Dockworkers Association." He sighed again. "Yet again, the gang fights managed to hurt Brockton Bay's workforce, as though the economy wasn't bad enough."

Miss Militia groaned tiredly. "Alright. Terrarian, thank you for bringing down Rune. We'll take her from here. Would you mind coming in sometime tomorrow to give a statement on this fight?" I nodded, and Miss Militia picked up Rune before the two heroes moved towards their teammate, who was still scanning the wrecked warehouse.

I returned to the rooftop I had left the Undersiders and was disappointed, but not surprised, to discover that they weren't there. Sighing, I resolved that I would just have to take them out again sometime. In spite of the fact that I couldn't get tired, I decided to relax a bit by going back to Terraria. I took advantage of my new magic mirror to teleport directly into my bedroom, bypassing the slight risk that ever existed with people following me after a fight to discover where I lived.

I spent the next few hours carefully constructing four more generic huts like the one that Trent lived in. Finally, sometime soon, I would start getting merchants to show up, and I would be able to spend some of the heaps of cash I had made off of monsters on useful stuff.

After returning to the waking world, I went downstairs and turned on the news, hoping to find out what was being said about the big fight that had happened the previous night.

However, the line of text scrolling at the bottom of the report caused my heart to constrict in sadness for one of the few people that I considered to be, if not a friend, then friendly.

"Head of the Dockworkers Union, Danny Hebert, found dead at the scene of Lung's rampage last night by the hero Armsmaster…"

OoOoO​

Author Note: Even when she's not the main character, being Taylor Hebert is suffering.

 

[Dawnk41]

1.7​

I returned to Terraria after eating my breakfast. Let's see, I had some time until the PRT wanted me to come in for a statement, they wanted me to come in at 4:00 this afternoon, which meant I had a good nine hours to myself. Whatever was I to do? Prepare myself.

Laying myself down in my bed, I placed an alarm clock next to me, setting it to ring at 3:00. When I was in Terraria, I still heard faint echoes of the things my body heard here, as well as felt phantom pressures of anything touching my real body. I was glad of this, as it meant that I wasn't just dead to the world or comatose while I was here. That would have been a big problem.

I left Trent's shack, glancing around at the makeshift village that I had spent my time last night after coming home from the gang fight building. It was pretty shabby, all the little wooden cottages were hardly the best I could do at this point, but if all the houses were slightly different, it would bother me.

Was slight OCD just another of the mental changes I had undergone since getting my powers, or had I always been like that? Well, it could be worse. I'd heard of a cape up in Boston whose powers gave him a mental disorder so compelling that he would murder people who made any errors in his presence.

Night was falling here. Time didn't always match up perfectly with the real world, here. It definitely didn't match up so that I would always return here at the moment I had left, as plants would have grown up and it would be a different time of day. Of course, plants here seemed to sprout out of nowhere constantly. Suddenly, I heard a muffled bang in one of the houses. Had a merchant already set up shop here?

I walked cautiously over to the house, knocking on the door. "Um, hello? It's me, Greg, the, uh, the Terrarian."

A voice inside muttered something, before speaking up. "Come in!" I walked in to see a man in a trenchcoat, red shirt, and jeans. He seemed to be working on something before I walked in. As I approached, he held out a hand, which I shook. "Hello there. I'm Dante, the Arms Dealer. I'm the source of all your firearms related needs. So, what can I do for you?"

Well, this was a pleasant surprise! I had been wondering where I could get more ammo for my gun. Trent called it the Boomstick, and the name was fitting enough that I went along. "Do you sell ammo for the Boomstick? I already used up all the bullets that it came with."

Dante nodded. "Sure do, how many musket balls you need?" Musket balls? I didn't exactly know a lot about guns, but weren't musket balls exclusive to, well, muskets? I hesitated to bring this up, though, because things here were a lot more compatible. Heck, hadn't I made Shadow Stalker arrows for her crossbow? Crossbow bolts and arrows were usually different things, weren't they?

I examined my inventory, specifically, the ammo section. It held some arrows, though I didn't use a bow. Four slots for ammo, which apparently capped at 999. Mentally shrugging, I answered him. "How about 3996?" It would have seemed like an odd or random number to anyone on Earth, but here? 999 was a pretty basic number.

He nodded, visibly more happy than before. "Right-o, that'll be 2 gold, 79 silver, and 72 copper." I handed over the sum, glad to finally have something to spend the damn cash on. I had already racked up 9 gold, and I had begun to wonder what it was even for, other than dropping when I died. Before the merchant system had been explained to me by Trent, I had thought it was all part of a point or scoring system. Once he explained it all to me, I had started keeping it in a chest at home. I had simply forgotten to put the cash I had on hand from my visit to the jungle into the chest, which saved me a short trip back to Trent's shack now.

I glanced over at the table in the room, where a partially assembled gun lay on the table. It looked… menacing, even in its unfinished state. "What are you working on there?" I asked curiously.

Dante grinned. "That? That, my friend, is the Minishark. When it's done, it'll be capable of pumping out at least ten rounds of fire per second. It should be ready in a few days, but it'll cost ya a pretty penny if you want it." His smile was cheeky, but mine was predatory. A machine gun? Do want.

Still grinning, I replied. "Just tell me when it's finished, I'll be saving up." We shook hands again, and I exited the hut to the sounds of Dante humming along as he resumed work on the gun. Shaking my head of the notion that my Boomstick just didn't seem quite as awesome in the face of the idea of a machine, I walked towards the jungle. Time to finish up the Chakram, and in order to do that, I needed some more spores and stingers.

Whistling all the while, I crossed the landscape in the direction of the jungle hut, where I needed to replace the missing bed.

OoOoO​

Down in the jungle, having collected half a dozen stingers from the relentless forces of the insectoid jungle denizens, I tunneled further down, hoping to find more jungle spores. I had discovered a strange crystal that was shaped like a heart. Not a real heart, either, one of those valentine's ones. Seemed odd, to me, as the shape of a real heart was a more plausible geological formation, but whatever. This world was weird. I had picked up the rock, and felt strangely… good, while the thing seemed to pulse in my hands, until it suddenly vanished. Since then, I had felt really healthy. Like, better than normal. There wasn't much to compare it to, seeing as pain didn't last anymore, and even missing limbs were more annoying than painful, but that was the only real way I could explain it. I felt better, now. Sure hope I can find more of those things!

Another half hour later, and I was almost finished finding the jungle spores I would need for the Chakram. The Ivy Whip had proven itself my most useful item having pulled me across chasms and up the walls towards a few of the more… out of the way spores.

Then, I found another of those weird little shrine things, with the glowing green torches. Yes! The last one of those I opened had an awesome gun inside, what would I find in these ones? I pulled myself over to the shrine eagerly, opening the chest to view its glorious treasure. Let's see, some cash, a few more gold ingots, some more of that purple potion, and…

Another pair of shoes! Not the Hermes Boots, this time, but a weird pair of purple ones with leaves growing out of the mouths of the shoes. What on earth would this do? My confusion at the fact that I could wear multiple shoes at once notwithstanding, I swapped out my Shackle that I had gotten off the Zombies for this new accessory. Seeing as the Shackle's armor bonus was, at this point, negligible, hopefully, whatever these things did was better!

Getting up from my knees, I took the now empty chest and placed it in my inventory, before taking an experimental sprint circling the chamber. I didn't feel faster, but would I if I were? I think I would, seeing as I definitely noticed sprinting a great deal faster after getting the Hermes' Boots. Alright then, if not speed, then what did these shoes do? I walked out of the shrine, and instantly felt… something at my feet, pushing to escape the dirt. I jumped to the side, wondering if I had just felt some creature trying to attack me from below, only to see that flowers had burst out of the ground where I had stepped.

...What?

OoOoO​

I teleported back up and into my jungle safe house, stretching a little, when it hit me. Some sort of… feeling, that I was being watched. It wasn't quite like my Radar sense, not in the way that I could tell that someone was looking at me with ill intent, but just in a general… 'Eyes are watching me' sense. The hair on my neck began standing up, so I quickly brought my bed into my inventory before teleporting back to Trent's shack.

That sense of being watched didn't leave me while I packed away all the things I had found in the jungle that I hadn't equipped in chests, nor did it leave me while I set to work making myself the Chakram. Once I had my thorny discus, I ran out of Trent's shack in a frenzy, dashing away from the village to the top of a nearby hill. Once I made it to the top, I looked around. Here in the open, would I see whatever it was that was watching me? I looked all over the horizon, when suddenly, a demon eye appeared on my Radar sense.

Not in the way they normally did, either, entering from the edges of the sense from wherever they came from, but simply… materializing into being within the sense. I swung my Grass Blade absently through it, eyes not leaving the distance as I slowly spun my head around, trying to pinpoint where the gaze was coming from. When another demon eye appeared, I furrowed my eyebrows. Where were they coming from? I glanced up at the new demon eye as I killed it, and paled.

...There was a demon eye the size of a house floating in the air above me. It stared at me, and I instantly knew that this was the creature that had been watching me for the past little while. As I watched, a third demon eye seemed to swim up from the depths of the monster's pupil, the surface of the eye rippling like water as the creature burst through, immediately diving towards me. Instead of holding to my Sword in the face of this fight, I pulled out the Boomstick.

Whatever this thing was, it wasn't showing up on my Radar sense, and that scared me. I had grown used to depending on that to save my life, and the idea that the most dangerous kinds of creatures didn't even register on it terrified me.

It had to die.

OoOoO​

A short while later, I began to regret not fleeing back into the real world the instant I laid my eyes on the, well, eye.

I had been shooting it with the Boomstick for a good while now, dodging out of the way as it alternated between spitting demon eyes at me and ramming itself into the earth in attempts to flatten me.

When all of a sudden, the eye twisted, contorting itself in horrifying ways before it suddenly shed the iris and pupil altogether, revealing rows upon rows of sharp teeth, leading into a gaping maw.

I'll admit to screaming a great deal at this point.

The rest of the fight was three times as nerve-wracking as the first, as I used my Ivy Whip to desperately pull myself out of the way of the rampaging Eye-mouth, shooting at it all throughout, while screaming my head off.

Even so, it managed to take a good few bites out of me. I almost thought I was dead as it seemed to just gain in speed more and more, until all of a sudden, I killed it. Upon so doing, I collapsed. I may not have been able to get tired physically any more, but the sheer amount of terror I had just experienced meant that I needed some time to recollect myself.

Which, of course, the zombies in the night didn't want to give me. I glared at the approaching corpses, before shooting at them until they dropped. Okay, I guess I wasn't going to be getting any respite as long as I stood out here. I stood back up, dusting myself off, before walking over to the place where the giant eye thing's body had fallen.

There, I found a pile of strange, glowing purple ore, three odd purple seeds, a stack of evil looking arrows, some health potions, and a bag. I collected the items, and opened the bag to find something that caused my breath to hitch.

A shield, looking almost exactly like the creature I had just killed, with a gaping mouth full of sharp teeth. It seemed to be an accessory of some kind. Hesitant to put on something that looked so horrific, I debated internally. Finally, reasoning that since the creature that had dropped it had been so powerful, the item itself must be pretty amazing, I swapped out my Climbing Claws for it, seeing as my Ivy Whip made those obsolete anyways.

Thus equipped, I held the shield on my arm. It didn't have a strap or anything, it just… held onto my arm. Kinda creepy. I could already tell that it must have a defense bonus, though it wasn't that large. Surely this thing did something more, it was barely better than the shackle for heaven's sake! I began to walk back and forth, looking around for a zombie. Hopefully, I could test it out in combat, like when I learned how to use the Ivy Whip.

Finding my target, I moved to jump towards it, holding the shield up defensively, hoping that maybe the shield would reflect attacks or something.

Instead, I found myself approaching the zombie at an incredible speed, and suddenly, the undead creature flew apart in a rain of flesh as I bounced off of it at an incredibly high speed. Blinking, I glanced around. I had moved about a dozen feet in a split second, colliding with the zombie and killing it instantly. I looked back down at the shield on my arm and smiled, before causing it to vanish from sight. I tested it a bit more, practically teleporting around the forest, the shield appearing just long enough for me to smash into something, before vanishing once more.

Once more, I was grateful for the fact that all of my accessories could provide their benefits from wherever it was I kept them when I turned them invisible.

I teleported back to Trent's hut, stowing the cash, arrows, purple ore, and strange seeds before returning to the real world. I checked the alarm clock, to find that it was about noon. In four hours, I had to meet with the PRT, but until then, I was going to just lie here, no fighting, no working, just… rest, since I couldn't actually sleep. Maybe listen to some music.

OoOoO​

Three hours later, I could be found running over the rooftops once again, except now I was using the shield's super speed thing to pretty much teleport over the occasional gap. I learned that I couldn't keep it up constantly, there was a short cool down, a little over a second long. But other than that? I could do it quite frequently.

Before long, I dropped down onto the street a block away from the PRT building, walking the rest of the way. People in the streets paused what they were doing to stare, and I saw a couple people with their phones out, taking pictures. I kept my back straight, chest puffed out. That's right people, I'm a hero. I felt pretty good right now. I would be feeling even better if I had managed to keep ahold of the Undersiders and put them in jail, but I could wait. I'd find them again later.

I walked through the automatic doors, striding up to the front desk, studiously ignoring the whispering tourists around me. Once I was there, the attendant spoke to me. "Terrarian, right? If you'll follow Officer Reid here, he'll bring you to the meeting room where you can give your statement, a member of the Protectorate will be with you in a few minutes." I nodded, and walked after the indicated officer. A minute later, I was sitting in a chair across from an empty desk. I glanced around the room, which was pretty much featureless. This was obviously not someone's office, or at least not the office of anyone who spent much time here at all.

After a short time passed, Miss Militia walked into the room. Unseen under my armor, I adopted a confused expression. Was Miss Militia my designated contact from the Protectorate or something? Whatever, maybe she was just the public face in general. I knew that the media loved talking about how patriotic she was at any given opportunity, at least.

She smiled at me, or at least, she probably did, from what I could tell of her face from under her flag bandana, and spoke cheerfully. "Alright Terrarian, would you mind going over your fight with Rune last night?"

I recounted the duel, leaving out the awkwardness immediately following it. Somehow, I didn't feel like they needed, or wanted, to hear that. All the same, Miss Militia's (probably) grinning face made me think that she had seen a little more of that exchange than I was comfortable with.

After my explanation, during which she took various notes on the paper in front of her, she gathered up the papers and placed them into a briefcase. Then, she turned back to me. "Thanks for coming in and speaking with us. I realize that you were probably tired from the ordeal last night, but it's necessary to document things after a battle."

I nodded amicably. "It's fine, I don't actually need to sleep anymore." She seemed surprised at that.

"Truly? That's yet another thing that we have in common, then. If you keep drawing parallels like that, people are going to think you're my son." She laughed at that, and I tried to respond in kind, but that statement tugged on the hurt in my heart for my mom, who was still hospitalized. Miss Militia seemed to note the slight change in atmosphere, and changed the subject.

"So, uh, your outfit changed once again. Are those… plants? Why switch over from the armor?" She asked. They didn't seem like particularly pointed questions, just curiosity.

"Well, this suit of vines is actually stronger than the iron armor was. Plus, I have a few more little things that I made out of plants to complete the ensemble. Like those vine things you saw me using to fight Rune last night." I replied.

Miss Militia seemed interested. "You made armor from plants that's stronger than iron? Interesting! I don't mean to pry, however, I was just wondering why you changed costumes again."

I waved her concerns away. "It's fine. Part of my power lets me make increasingly effective armor from different materials on an… irregular basis. I'll be using this set for a little bit, anywhere from a few more nights to a few weeks, and then I'll have something better. So… yeah. If you guys run into a random guy wearing a weird set of armor, it's probably going to be me. Alright?" She nodded, and we talked for a few more minutes before I excused myself, leaving the PRT building to a similar state of interest from passersby as when I entered.

Soon after, I moved to a nearby roof, dashed off to a deserted location, and teleported home. I sighed, unequipping all my armor. Time to visit my mom in the hospital again. I sure hope she gets better soon...

OoOoO​

Author Note: I hope the boss fight was okay, and that you all enjoyed the bits of progression and the meeting with Miss Militia! I'm a bit upset, though, as tomorrow might be another interlude. Gah... hopefully, it'll be more enjoyable to write than the last few.

 

[Dawnk41]

1.8​

After several hours of waiting by his mother's hospital bed, Greg walked out of the hospital once more. When he watched her sleeping away the days, he felt cold inside. Did she have brain damage? Panacea couldn't heal brain damage, that was something most people in Brockton Bay knew, and that was why it was the most feared form of injury. All he could do is hope that her injuries were just physical trauma.

He walked down the evening streets of Brockton Bay to the bus stop. He could just teleport home, of course, but for the moment, he wanted to just sit on the bus and try to not think of anything at all, not training, not his mom's situation, nothing.

He had beaten the Undersiders. True, they hadn't been arrested. Somehow, they had gotten out of their bindings and made away. He suspected they had received help from some unknown third party, unless they had recruited a fifth member he hadn't known about.

Still, while utterly curb stomping them had felt good at the time, now he just felt… hollow. I had trash-talked to them about putting them in the hospital, but honestly, the worst I had done is break Grue's jaw. Maybe given Hellhound a concussion. I might have killed one of her dogs, as well. I kinda regretted that now, but I simply attacked monstrous creatures like those on instinct now, generally with lethal force.

Getting off the bus stop near my house, I wandered in the general direction of my house. It was getting pretty dark out now. I passed by a small group of Empire gangers, but that wasn't unusual in this part of town. It was a little more strange that some of them nodded to me as they passed, but I could dismiss that on the basis that I was a blonde kid with blue eyes.

I entered my house and moved to my room, where I collapsed onto my bed and closed my eyes.

OoOoO​

Trent had an announcement for me when I arrived.

"Greg, wonderful news! The Dryad has moved into the village!" Trent seemed a little bit more excited than normal. Was the Dryad an extremely useful merchant?

"What does she sell?" I asked, curious.

He waved his hand animatedly. "Mostly seeds, a few other odds and ends, but the important thing she sells is Purification Powder, which you can use to purge corruption from locations." He paused to take a breath. "Which means that you can loot shadow orbs from the corruption, which are a huge milestone for your development!"

Have I mentioned that nothing makes Trent happier than seeing me getting stronger? It's nice to have a friend so invested in my progression, but it's a little weird at the same time.

I backed away from him a little, raising my hands in a placating gesture. "Alright, I'll get going right away, Trent. See you." I quickly made my exit from the hut, and glanced around, hoping to see some indicator of which building the Dryad had made her home in.

...Like a hurricane of leaves circling her house. At least, I assumed it was hers, otherwise, the weather is being extremely odd today. I approached the hut cautiously, but the leaves fail to take notice as I pass through them. I moved up to the front door and knocked. After a moment, the leaf hurricane died down, and the door opened, allowing me to see… her.

A vision of ultimate beauty stood in the entryway. Green hair that seemed to shimmer, emerald eyes, and a well-proportioned body scantily clad in plants. She looked close to me in age, too. The glamorous woman looked at me a moment, before asking me a question in a quiet voice.

"Yes? How can I help you?" I opened and closed my mouth a few times, thankfully hidden under my vine mask, before managing to say two words.

"Purification Powder?"

...Smooth, Greg Veder. Smooth.

Her eyes lit up and she took a step forward and grabbed my hands. "You want to purify the Corruption? Wonderful! Each bag of Purification Powder costs 75 copper each." I managed to stumble through the rest of our conversation and walked away from her hut with a few dozen bags of Purification Powder. I returned to Trent's hut, where I decided to see what I could make with the ore I had gotten from the giant eye.

Hmm, a battle-axe that doubles as a woodcutting axe, and a giant hammer. Neat. I'm pretty sure that my Blade of Grass is better, though.

I began the trek towards the purple mountain I had spotted on my trip to the jungle before.

OoOoO​

...What a horrific place. I swung my sword over my head to dice up the abomination that fell from the sky towards me. Occasionally, one of these things would drop a piece of flesh that would fly into my inventory. Whenever that happened, I would cringe mentally at the thought that at some point, I would have to reach in there and take them out.

I hiked over the last rise of the mountain, keeping a careful eye on the sky for more of the horrors. The worst thing about them is their silence. Without wings, they didn't make the sounds of flapping as they fell towards me, and though their gaping maws were eternally open, as though screaming endlessly, they remained silent in their descent.

I spotted a pit in the murky purple stone in the ground, and approached the edge cautiously. Glancing down, my heart sank as I realized the hole went… much deeper than I thought, to the point that the bottom couldn't even be seen through the darkness within.

Suddenly, my Radar sense spiked, and I dodged to the side, whipping out my sword as I moved. The blade collided with the largest monster I had seen yet, cutting the creature clean in two. Checking my surroundings once more, I cursed, before bringing out a glowstick and tossing it into the pit, which I then descended into myself.

The bottom of the crevice was even more nightmarish than the surface of this place, and I ended up killing dozens more of the monsters while I explored the caves. I also discovered another heart crystal, which I absorbed.

After wandering around the cavern for a bit, I decided to look for the objects that Trent had described to me, the "Shadow Orbs". I could find them by casting Purification Powder onto the purple stone floor of the caverns, and tunneling through the newly created ordinary rock. After a few false tunnels, I finally found a strange sphere, suspended in mid air in a chamber I had found under the cavern. A chill ran down my spine as I smashed it open, but inside I found… another sphere, but this time it flew into my inventory. Examining it, I activated the item.

Whoah, light! This thing summons another of the spheres, but this one glows a bit brighter than the others. Damn, it's really bright, I begin to walk away from it, trying to get my vision back. Just as I start moving, the sphere floats away from me, bringing the light level back to a manageable brightness. Wait, is this thing being controlled by me?

I focused on the sphere, and thought about it moving to the right. It hovered in that direction.

Neat, I can control this thing with my mind! I won't need to carry around torches anymore! I wonder what other things I can get out of those orbs? Grinning to myself, I set to work.

OoOoO​

I lay on the floor of Trent's shack, angry at myself. It had been quite some time since I had last died, and being reminded that there were still tons of things in Terraria that could kill me with ease wasn't a nice experience. After a little bit more time moping, I got up. Dying wasn't any fun, but…

I'd live.

Trent looked over to me as I spoke. "Hey, Trent, do you know what killed me? I was opening those shadow orb things you told me about, when an earthquake or something happened. Then something crushed me."

Trent made an "Ah!" sound of realization. "You must have summoned the Eater of Worlds. I meant to tell you that every third Shadow Orb you break summons him. Sorry." He really did look contrite, and in the end, there wasn't any real harm done.

But first, let's back up a moment here. "Wait, what? Eater of WORLDS? Is that name like, did he eat a world? What? Is he still out there? Did I accidentally doom the planet? What?" I was panicking a bit, here, but I felt that I was justified in so doing.

Trent waved away my concerns. "No, no, after you died he retreated back to… wherever the hell they wait. There are tons of them. Thousands, probably. They're the source of Corruption, I think. They tend to live near the center of the planet, but they come up whenever someone breaks too many Shadow Orbs. You can summon them in another way, as well, if you want to farm them for treasure."

That made me feel a little better, though I was also slightly horrified at the thought of summoning more of those things, and the knowledge that they were basically Behemoths didn't help. "Okay, on that horrific note, I think I'm going to look in other places for a boost. Do you have any other ideas on ways that I can make some progress?"

He nodded. "Yeah, I noticed that you had some Gravitation Potions. You should go looking for Sky Islands, they have little houses on them with treasure inside. You just have to watch out for Harpies, that's all."

I blinked. "Sky Islands? Like, flying islands? That-That's a thing?" I knew that this place ignored a lot of the more conventional rules of physics, but… flying islands? That took the cake. Wow, this whole conversation had been one surprising revelation after another.

Trent simply smiled. "Indeed it is. Generally, Sky Islands tend to form over other special biomes, like the Jungle or Corruptions, sometimes over the Dungeon. You should check the skies over places like that." Having said his piece, he handed me the Gravitation potions and shooed me out the door.

I stood there for a minute, eying the potion warily. What exactly would this do? After a short bout of indecision, I finally shrugged and chugged one. A few seconds passed, as I wondered what was supposed to happen. Was I supposed to fly away? I thought really hard about flying, and jumped. I landed back on the ground.

Furrowing my eyebrows in irritation, I tried a few other ideas. Suddenly, I began to rise at an incredible pace. Turning over and spinning in the air while screaming, suddenly, I was falling back towards the ground.

OoOoO​

It took a lot of close calls and panic, but in the end, I learned how to control the potion and ended up discovering a Sky Island over the Corruption, but not the Jungle. Fighting harpies in the clouds was pretty interesting, but after an hour, it lost it's novelty and became annoying. Once I found the island, I quickly made my way into the ornate house made of blue and gold bricks, to find a treasure chest.

Inside, I found the normal fare for a gold chest, plus a strange, glowing pink sword. It looked girly as all hell, but if it was powerful, I could overlook that. Now, how strong was this sword? Peeking outside the hut, he saw about a half dozen haries beating themselves against the walls of the abode. Holding the pink blade, I dashed out of the house towards one of the nearby harpies, and killed it with a swing of the blade, already focusing on the next harpy in line-

Which died in a multicolor explosion from the heavens.

I stood in shock for a moment, only drawing myself out of my stupor when another harpy darted in, shooting feathers at me. I quickly swiped once more. Another… projectile of some sort impacted the ground in front of me, and I leaped backwards to avoid the sparks it emitted. I stared at the pink sword in my hand.

...Was this thing causing meteorites to fall from the sky?

"Awesome." I breathed.

OoOoO​

The next morning, having returned to the real world, I was sitting at the table in my dining room, eating a bowl of cereal. I had noticed that I didn't really need to eat anymore, but I tended to anyways, if only to keep the barest semblance of normality.

I was nearly finished with the bowl when someone knocked on the front door. Surprised, I swallowed my current mouthful and got to my feet. I looked down at myself, and the pajamas I still wore, but I deemed them acceptable for the task of passing a message on to whoever it was that was probably trying to get ahold of my mom.

I made my way over to the front door, and opened it to find a woman in a business suit and skirt. She smiled at me before asking a question. "Hello, would you be Gregory Veder?"

I blinked, surprised that I was the target of her visit. "Uh, yeah, that's me. Who are you?"

She held out a hand for me to shake, and I did so, slightly bewildered. "My name is Nancy Crimmons, of Child Services. I… realize that this might not be welcome news, but a recent diagnosis of your mother puts her recovery at an indeterminate time in the future. Until we know more about a potential date for her discharge, you will need to stay with a foster family."

My breathing hitched. A foster family?

OoOoO​

Author Note: I am SO SORRY AT THE LONG DELAY, and I plan on keeping more on top of things for the foreseeable future.