2.1
My new foster parents were probably nice people. Jeremy and Penelope Horst were very kind about the situation, but I couldn't help but resent them a little. I would never choose my mother being hospitalized over my ability to move about with near absolute freedom, but it was a silver lining to the situation. Now, though? I was having the worst of both worlds. Mom's condition was apparently
worsening, and now I was stuck with a pair of people I didn't really know.
The following month was fairly… bland. I still attended school, though I had a bit of an unpleasant wake up call when my new group of 'friends' began making racist comments about one of my favorite teachers, Mr. Lee. After that day, I avoided eating lunch in the lunchroom, choosing instead to wander the school halls.
Taylor's group of tormentors had apparently chosen me in her place for her absence, as well. It didn't really affect me, though, as I don't think any of them knew where my locker was. They tried to insult me, but honestly? I was used to
that. They were, admittedly, more creative than the people that generally muttered "What a creep," as I passed them. Ramping things up to groups of people insulting me to each other. I wasn't really listening, though, and none of them knew me well enough to hit me where it hurt.
I was meandering down a hallway when suddenly, someone's foot interwove with mine. I tried to stop myself, but I hadn't realized what happened in time. There was a sickening
pop as the ankle of whoever I had run into became dislocated, and my accidental victim tumbled to the floor.
"Shit!" Sophia Hess swore. I had stumbled a little, but now I stood more steady. My eyes widened. I held no love for Sophia, not after watching her actions towards Taylor over the past year, but I still felt bad about not watching where I was going.
"Oh, snap, sorry Sophia! Here, uh, let me help you to the nurse's office-" I reached out a hand to assist her to her feet, but she actually
snarled at me.
She growled out a reply. "I don't need any help from
you, Veder." I stepped back a little, mildly affronted. Well, fine then, you klutz. This hadn't been the first run-in I'd had with Sophia recently, in the past week or so, Sophia had stumbled into me about once a day. Seriously, I don't know how she stayed on the Track team if she was
that oblivious to where she was going. I mean, in
my defense, I had gotten a bit too used to relying on my Radar sense while I was going around. I had actually decided to take that off during school hours to try and get back my mundane situational awareness .
Pausing a moment, I returned her aggression. "Fine then," I said coolly. "Have fun getting there on your own, Hess." I turned away from her and continued my way down the hallway, passing Emma Barnes, who shot me a dirty look as she rushed by me, most likely to help her friend to the nurse. I rolled my eyes. I was just trying to be chivalrous, but some people just can't be helped.
OoOoO
That night, I received an opportunity that I hadn't had since being moved into the Horst's home. Jeremy and "Penny", as she preferred to be called, had some sort of meeting with the other Medhall representatives. Apparently, they had been chosen as my foster parents because they were coworkers of my mom, and with her still hospitalized, they probably had a slightly heavier workload. It was surprising that they had managed to 'be there for me' for the month that they had. I managed to convince them I was staying at my 'friend' Sparky's for the night.
Needless to say, I had no plans on sleeping over anywhere, much less at the house of someone who I barely knew. My real objective was to do something I hadn't had the ability to do under the watchful eyes of my foster parents.
Patrol. Terrarian hadn't been able to slip into the city as long as Greg Veder had adults in his near vicinity. I had, however, gotten quite a lot done in Terraria. I had begun constructing an arena over the Corruption, in preparation for my future rematch with the Eater of Worlds, which required me to spend an inordinate amount of time growing and chopping down trees. It was odd how trees here had a habit of sprouting up from sapling to full grown while your back was turned. I had also spent some time making excursions underground, on which I had found some more crystal hearts, as well as an accessory called a Cloud in a Bottle, which allowed me to… Double jump, basically. Uber and Leet were gonna be jealous of me when they found out. I swapped out the Flower Boots for it.
Stepping out of the house after a quick goodbye to Penny, as Jeremy had left early to get to their meeting, I walked at a leisurely pace to one of my usual spots to equip my costume. I gave my customary once over to the surrounding location, equipping my Radar sense first to double check. I had an… odd feeling, but no matter where I looked, I couldn't identify where the feeling came from. After another minute of trying to pin it down, I gave up and equipped all my gear, then leaped to the roof. After a short jog a few roofs over, I pulled out the burner phone Shadow Stalker had given me.
After a few rings, she answered. "Hello? Terrarian?" Her voice was agitated. There was a strained undertone as well. "Damnit, you want to set up a patrol with me, don't you." She sounded… resignedly angry, now.
I hesitated a moment, which she took as confirmation. She sighed, and continued, muttering. "Of course you would show back up
tonight of all times, ugh." Her voice sharpened. "What happened to
you? You dropped off the radar for a goddamn
month before popping back up!"
I replied in a quiet voice. "I, uh… I had a family emergency." She was silent on the other end of the line for a moment.
"...Sorry to bring it up." She muttered something unintelligible, and then resumed her normal tone. "Anyways, I can't do a patrol with you tonight. I've got an injury that won't let me move much." I decided not to correct her assumption, especially since it was close enough to the truth.
I was confused. "Don't the wards generally receive treatment from Panacea? Why are you stuck at base?"
She snorted in derision. "I got the injury in my civvie identity. Apparently, when you get hurt like this in front of witnesses, you gotta let it heal at the normal pace. Which is
bullshit. Nobody important saw me, and I could make sure they didn't talk, but
no. Apparently it's more important than having another damn hero on the streets."
I nodded in sympathy. "Dang, sorry to hear that. This was my first chance to patrol in a while, too, and I'm not sure when I'll get another." She groaned at that.
"Damnit, I was looking forward to being able to hit a
real target with some backup, instead of just the normal gangers. Bah, we'll have to try and arrange something once my leg is better. Could be a few days. Damnit, this had
better not cost me my spot on the Track team on top of everything else…"
I wasn't sure how to respond to that, because I was pretty sure that parahumans in the Protectorate weren't supposed to participate in sports, so I just stayed quiet for that. Maybe Arcadia didn't want it to be too obvious who
weren't Wards because they were on a Sports team? Otherwise, it would be a pretty big piece of info for anyone hunting.
She deliberated a moment. "Alright, here's an idea. Since we can't do a tag team on somewhere big while I'm like this, you could score us both some brownie points with the higher ups. Let me tell Armsmaster that you contacted me with an offer to do another joint patrol with the Wards, then Piggot will be happy that you're a cooperative indie, and I'll get props for being a go-to gal for communication. Everybody wins."
I considered this. "Huh, yeah, that sounds good. Do you know who's patrolling tonight?" Hopefully, I could hang out with Clockblocker again.
I heard a paper rustle on the line. "Let's see, looks like Aegis and… Ugh, Vista. Sorry, you're gonna have to put up with her, she's such a little
'princess'." I'd heard racial slurs used less offensively. "Okay, I'm off to tell Armsmaster about the plan, I'll probably be on console tonight, with this leg." Our conversation over for now, I set off to patrol on my own until I heard back from her.
OoOoO
I downed a Dangersense potion, and a short while later, now that the moon was out, I met up with Aegis and Vista in front of the PRT building. I hadn't seen as much crime as usual, only a drug dealer that I had to scare off. They were waiting for me when I arrived, and Vista jumped a little when I hit the street a few feet away from my jump off the roof.
"Gah!- Oh, it's you. Is your armor made of plants? I thought you had a suit of metal. Are you an actual Brute, or a Tinker making yourself tougher? Can you really regrow your arm?" Within a few moments of my landing, I was buried under a barrage of questions, and I stood back, astonished.
Before she could continue too much longer, Aegis put a hand on her shoulder. "Vista, give him a moment. I know you were excited to meet him, but at least let him
answer something!" He laughed, and I immediately found myself relaxing around him. Weird.
Vista curled in on herself slightly, apparently embarrassed, though her visor made it hard to tell. "Sorry about that, it's just, from what everyone's said you're pretty cool. Heck, even Shadow Stalker is saying nice things about you." She stated the last line in a tone of bewildered awe, making me wonder yet again how Shadow Stalker treated her teammates.
I jumped slightly, realizing they were both waiting for an answer to… one of the questions she had asked, I guess. "Um, I, I think that I have an actual Brute rating. It's not a tinker thing, at least, I'm not much of a tinker. I'm a lot stronger now than I was before I got my powers, but I'm not any more muscular or anything. I can grow back anything that gets chopped off, but it's harder to hurt me in the first place now. I'm wearing this armor because it's stronger than the metal armor, I made it myself." I stammered a little, but I tried to answer most of the questions I could remember.
Vista seemed intrigued, and was about to continue asking me questions, I think, but Aegis swooped in and saved me from more. For now, at least. He interrupted her. "Let's save any more discussion for the road, alright? Let's get this patrol going. I straightened up a little. I could understand why Aegis was the leader of the Wards, he definitely had a bit of the air of command about him.
Seeing how they got about getting into the position to patrol was interesting. Vista did this… thing, with her power, and the roof of a nearby building was suddenly in position for her to simply step up onto it, before suddenly it was back where it was supposed to be, with her in place. Aegis simply took to the air. It was easy to forget that he was a Flier, because he really didn't look aerodynamic. Shrugging my shoulders, my Ivy Whip shot out of it's hidden crevices in my armor, swinging me up onto the roof next to Vista.
"Omigosh, that is so cool!" She gushed. "You're like Doctor Octopus!"
"Oh, you read the Spiderman comics from Aleph? I love those!" I suddenly had some common ground with the girl. Or so I thought.
From the motions her head had made, I assumed she had just made a face. Dang, face-obscuring masks sure made reading expressions difficult. "Not really, but one of the past directors used to have us go over fictional heroes, and what they did that was right or wrong. That didn't last long, though, like a three-week period four years ago." With that statement, I felt a weird jolt of remembrance. It was easy to forget because of her age, but Vista had been a Ward longer than anyone else on the Brockton Bay team, and was definitely in the top ten for the country.
Still, it was slightly disappointing. "Shame, they're pretty good." I tried to avoid getting too into this part of the discussion, because I tended to do so as Greg Veder, and you never knew if you were spilling your identity because of the manner that you geeked out. Honestly, I should have avoided the subject altogether, but I doubted that I knew either of them out of costume.
The three of us chatted for a bit, while Aegis and I looked about for any crime. Him, with what was presumably Night-Vision goggles in his mask, and me with my Radar and Danger senses. We were about two hours through the patrol, and had begun heading back, when suddenly, both of my senses spiked, and I spun around.
Suddenly, standing a few feet away from us, was Oni Lee. His demon faced mask was very distinctive, and I tensed up, preparing for a fight.
"Boy." The figure stated, and I glanced over to Aegis, but I was pretty sure that Oni Lee was talking about me. He confirmed this with his next sentence. "The Dragon has a message for you." I could only assume that he meant Lung, because I doubted that the man spoke for the Canadian tinker.
He continued. "We have noticed that you base most of your activities around the Docks. Lung considers this his territory." Here, the man stepped forward menacingly, and Vista squeaked. "Either you cease your operations, or you move them elsewhere. So says Lung." The man paused for a moment, and the tension slid up another level.
"...Well?" He demanded, and I suddenly realized he was waiting for an answer.
The thing is, I wasn't really afraid of Oni Lee. If it came down to it, I was pretty sure that his knives couldn't do much to my Ivy armor, and I was quick enough with my Shield dashing that I was confident I could dodge out of the way of any grenades.
I was, however, quite afraid of Lung. Still, I wasn't about to give up on the areas around my
house. "No can do. I'm not going to leave that area to the gangs." I blustered, hoping that this wasn't going to lead to Lung leaping out of nowhere and squishing me.
He went still. "I see." Suddenly, my senses spiked again, and I whirled, materializing my Grass Blade as I went, sending the newly appearing Oni Lee copy sprawling, before it suddenly burst into ash.
Aegis grabbed Vista and took to the air, speaking hurriedly into his comm, probably asking for backup. I continued to spin, taking down the clones as they appeared, when suddenly, the assault ceased, and I had to dash out of the way of an explosion.
Suddenly, something pinged against my armor, and I felt a flash of pain. Glancing at the silhouette of Oni Lee that my Dangersense was showing, I noted the darkened hue of a gun highlighted against the man. What? Oni Lee wasn't known to use firearms, just his knives and explosives!
Cursing, I pulled out my Boomstick, spinning to pepper new clones with bullets. Each generally managed to get off a shot before imploding into smoke and ash, but now that I knew what was coming, I managed to avoid the bulk of the shots. My main problem was that Oni Lee himself wasn't taking any damage in this exchange. He had to be keeping his main body around here, if he wasn't risking it in the fight itself.
Attempting to pay attention to both the fight and a scan of the surroundings was taxing, and the number of hits that I took spiked as I split my thought processes. A great multitasker I was not, as my shoddy aim dropped into pathetic.
Still, I found what I was looking for. Crouched on a rooftop half a block away, I could spot the shape of a man. According to my Radar, he was hostile towards me, and so I prayed it was Oni Lee as I switched my weapon out for the Starfury.
A second later, the distant rooftop exploded into color as I peppered it with meteorites. All of a sudden, the battle around me ceased. I stood warily for a moment, confirming that it wasn't just a new tactic of his, before glancing back over to the impact site.
I couldn't see Oni Lee's silhouette anymore. Maybe being unconscious meant that he wasn't a threat anymore? That didn't quite feel right, and so I jumped and pulled myself over to it with the Ivy Whip.
Oh.
Being unconscious probably wouldn't make someone invisible to my danger senses…
...But being dead definitely did.
