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The Terrarian OLD VERSION (There's a Rewrite)

What method should I take from here?

  • Rewrite the story completely. New thread and everything, clean slate, but wiser and with experience.

    Votes: 10 62.5%

  • Try to fix this version. Take your time to change some of the older chapters a little, fix it up.

    Votes: 6 37.5%
  • Total voters
    16
  • Poll closed .
Reader mode
Ivar said:
Well, I can give you a couple of examples of fan interpretations of armor in the game.

Necro Armor

Shadow Armor

Meteor Armor

Molten Armor
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...Now I'm going to be wasting some time looking through Terraria Fanart. Thanks. I hope I can get out today's chapter now, XD

Just remember, Greg adds Masks into all his armors. But other than that? They will TOTALLY look like this. It's my headcanon now.

...Wait, I'm the author. IT'S CANON!
 
Dawnk41 said:
...Now I'm going to be wasting some time looking through Terraria Fanart. Thanks. I hope I can get out today's chapter now, XD

Just remember, Greg adds Masks into all his armors. But other than that? They will TOTALLY look like this. It's my headcanon now.

...Wait, I'm the author. IT'S CANON!
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Greg will feel so fucked when he sees the Eater of Worlds! (And just wait till he sees The Destroyer, Eater of Worlds' robot brother.)

 
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Interlude 1.A
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    • 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.
     
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    • Dawnk41 said:
    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.
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    This is getting so amazingly interesting, can't wait for more. Go there, please.

    Though I do hope he can change physically as well, looking like a scrawny 15 year old is a dead giveaway, and not pleasant in the least.
     
    Oh god... not Daddy Max. I wonder how they'll react when they find out he's Terrarian and actively fighting their members?
     
    Dawnk41 said:
    Interlude 1.A
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    Dawnk41 said:
    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.
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    Oh God no!

    Well I'm watching this.
     
    i can't wait for the innevitable reveal that his mother is a cape for the empire and the dissapointement in his eyes that the person he love the most and cared for hated people from other ethnic groups because they are different
     
    vendoban said:
    Wait what?
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    Dawnk41 said:
    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."
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    Brad is Hookwolf. Max is Kaiser.

    Lung is Lung. :V

    Greg is listening. We can assume at least she works for E88 is what he knows. Not that they are their cape identities though.
     
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    vendoban said:
    Wait what?
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    Dawnk41 said:
    "Look, Brad, I'll be able to help more with the attack on Lung's shipments this weekend,
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    Just from this quote greg can tell that she's E88. She's not ABB, obviously, she's not Merchants, because they would never go up against Lung, so by process of elimination she's E88. She could be PRT or Protecterate, but they aren't exactly known for just straight up attacking shipments either. Greg's not dumb, and he's probably overheard stuff like this all his life.

    Edit: imp'd
     
    So I personally think she is either a Thinker, or a bad-ass normal if she can get the respect of capes.
     
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    1.4
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    • 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.)
     
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