hospital visits, Armoured Core Fires of
Rubicon Passion, more hospital visits, and me in general being an unfocused dumbass. only excuses ive got.
Special thanks to prime beta Lucky38, Canon Overlord
@Ganurath,
@hellgodsrus for being my loveliest wife and co-author, and
@SolarFlare for being our wonderful supportive girlfriend! And our many friends on the Totally Chatting It discord for their fantastic livereads!
Enjoy and gib feedbacc!
3.9
Be Thou Mine Greatest Ally
-.-.-
We were going to meet in the alleyway again, the one where we first met - which, didn't have the
greatest memories associated with it, on either of our ends, but it was relatively out of the way and had stopped being an investigated crime scene recently, so it worked as a somewhat covert meet up spot. I waited until I got her text of
'im here, where r u' before drawing a circle in the air with my staff to help visualisation - quick check via extending my Paradise-Lost-granted-senses in shuddering inevitabilities to ensure I wasn't cutting Victoria in half - and cast the Reach.
It was
almost like stepping forward, but it also was… I'm pretty sure how it
looked was that I imploded and then exploded at my destination. Like a portal had opened but I'd sorta clipped into existence out of it, rather than stepping through.
Certainly Victoria was squinting a bit from the flash of light as I appeared.
"Hey!" I grinned and waved. I'd decided to wear my more comfortably baggy clothes with my human disguise up. Because while I was pretty sure I wasn't going to get recognised in Boston, I didn't really want to risk it either way, and, well. Comfortable. It was weirdly nervousness inducing, though, being here in front of her all - shapeless. I hadn't exactly been shapeful before but - last time she saw me in this
exact place I was damn near streaking, only wearing the shotgun-shredded rags of my shirt.
Ugh, overthinking it.
"Hey." She waved - she was wearing another variation on her civilian mufti - slightly nicer jeans, and a windcheater instead of a hoodie, but the same sort of higher end quality but lower end look. "So I see you've got that… mover power thing under more control now?"
"Yup. Figured it'd be better than spending hours on the train." Ranni
had told me not to go over five furlongs - which I
still didn't know the equivalent of in miles - and not to go somewhere I hadn't been.
Buuuut, I
did have Paradise Lost willing to scout for me. And I knew I couldn't really
trust my patron because - well, um, everything, but…
I really wanted to go to an aquarium with Victoria?
Even if my Patron wasn't trustworthy, I at least knew, more or less, how to predict its reactions to things like this.
Victoria kept her hands in her pockets as she strolled over. "That's certainly true. So do I just - grab your hand, is there anything I should know about how it works before we get going…? Like, one time I met someone whose mover power
technically exploded them and other people into chunks, but that was more transforming flesh at the destination into the people being moved, so they had to have these flesh pools wherever they wanted to travel to, or else accidentally kill people."
"That is mildly horrifying." I still couldn't quite wipe the grin off my face. "I guess the only advice I can give is, uh, to hold on tight? I'm really not sure what you'll see if you keep your eyes open when it happens. I sort of… implode and then step out at the destination, more or less? In uh - less than higher dimension math, I'm basically tearing open a small wormhole with stabilised reality on either side, so even though I
do implode and more or less get squeezed through a pinprick of space, nothing
actually changes because of the stabilisation, and boom. Arrival."
Victoria stared at me for a moment with a little smile. "Huh."
"The only problem is that before I got
this -" I held up my staff - it wasn't quite a full staff, more the size of a fire poker that I could just
barely fit in my backpack, "- utilising the math involved for that time I stepped off the side of a building more or less uh… crystalised my liver. But that won't happen to you, promise!"
The little smile shifted to a frown, and she started to open her mouth.
"And um. I can fix it if it does, but it won't, so that's. Yeah."
"... you know at this point your powers are complicated enough I'm almost tempted to give up and say that you're right, they're magic."
"Heh. And if it turned out I could teach you how to do it yourself?" I grinned extra wide. Just needed to figure out the sight of the god-touched - without melting her brain - and I could show off Atlas in all his rocky boney glory. "Eidolon does a bunch of esoteric shit too and I bet
he can't explain how." I let out a little smug smirk.
"Yeah, you do know there are a
variety of famous power granting capes. Generally they tend more towards gang lord, but there are some heroic ones - mostly in South America, and a couple of the former Sentais. Anyway - if you're
sure that this travel method is safe… then let's go look at some fish and crustaceans."
I grinned and thought back to that video I'd sent her. "Hand. Hand. Is food?" I giggled as she grabbed onto my shoulder and cut out her flight entirely - I hadn't noticed before but she'd been hovering, just a bit, so she was more in my eyeline. A quick circle, focusing -
Maybe I should have listened to Ranni.
We stepped out the other side, but I felt dizzy and like I'd been squeezed through that tube I'd mentioned. Nothing was physically wrong with us - nothing mentally, no crystalisation in my Patron's sight - just -
"Frighte," Victoria coughed out. "That was…" she stumbled a little, then floated upright before she could even trip. "Kinda
rough."
"Sister said something about five furlongs. Not sure what that is but I'm guessing Brockton to Boston is a
little bit more than that?"
"
Taylor. Five furlongs is a
kilometre. Brockton to Boston is
a lot more than that."
"I mean - I've cleared a couple dozen miles without issue before. But. Okay. Maybe we
should take the trains back?" I grinned sheepishly and swung my bag over my shoulder so I could put away the staff. Ranni was slowly teaching me the trick to vanish things, but so far I'd lost six packs of cards, three granola bars, and a pear to it. Retrieving the things was the harder part, apparently. "Sorry. I - guess I got a bit overexcited."
Victoria pulled me into a hug, hovering upward again. "That's fair - mover powers, especially teleporting or flight, are super cool. Just bear your limitations in mind. Cause otherwise you end up crystallising your liver, apparently. Or mine."
I was getting some neat trinkets out of that, though. Which Ranni had to remind me not to call that a favourable outcome. But I
was getting a hug that I gladly returned. "Or other parts. Buuuut that's beside the point. Time for fishies!"
"Hell yeah. And, while we're at it… you can try and explain some of this other world stuff. If - if you want. I don't want to push." Victoria tucked her arm neatly through mine.
"I -" I cleared my throat, my neck burning. "It's exciting stuff, learning about the things my heritage got up to. But uh - as I keep saying, I was actually
born here, so I've only got their accounts to go off. And maybe some of the books in Mom's collection that I
thought were fantasy but are actually dry history books." We stepped out of the dark of the alleyway and into the mildly overcast sunlight. Boston…
felt different to Brockton in a way that was hard to place. The sea smelt as strongly here as it did down by Dad's workplace, but more ocean-like and with less of the - well, metal and rotting seaweed stench. There were more pedestrians about, just walking around. Smiling. No-one was doing the Bay walk, with hunched forward shoulders and hurried stride to
get out of there as fast as possible. I think we actually got some looks because it was just - instinct to walk like that.
Also because I was probably pushing six foot six. Maybe even more? That probably helped me stand out a bit. I hadn't actually properly measured myself since my 'growth spurt'. But now my glasses made the top of my nose itch just a little - I'd gotten used to
not wearing them, finally, after ages of feeling
off by
not wearing them.
"I get that. But you also clearly have all these - cultural ideas about stuff, like your powers, that are kinda different. Not in a bad way! But I want to know those differences so I don't accidentally stick my foot in my mouth and say something rude. You've already had such a tough time of things with everything you told me about." She looked up at me from the corner of her eye, expression rueful. "I don't want to accidentally make it worse."
"You couldn't." I immediately blurted out. "I - I mean. You're… even if you
did, there's a good chance I wouldn't even realise it, and - you're not malicious. You don't… you don't
want to hurt me, and that makes all the difference already." And she was a public hero - a hero with an open identity. She wouldn't turn into another Emma, not without - she was already a celebrity. People would notice if she suddenly turned into a heinous bitch. Hopefully.
Victoria gave me another look I couldn't quite decipher. "And when you introduce me to the family like you're planning to?"
"... okay, yeah, that's a good point too." I mumbled as she chuckled.
"Did Barnes know this too? Was it part of why she got all - weird?"
"I - I don't
think so. I only found out myself like a month ago or so. Though - if she did know, I'm almost certain she would have - I don't know. Called border patrol to claim my family were illegal immigrants or something just to -" Deep breath. "You're the only one
I've told."
She gave me that smile again. Squeezed my arm a little. "Thank you for trusting me with that, then."
"You're - good people." I nodded a little shakily. I wanted to hold her hand, but that would - that wasn't what our relationship was, no matter how much I desperately wanted it to be. "Um. Do my eyes still have a slight silver glow to them?"
She peered a little closer "They're definitely silver, but they aren't glowing, not like when we're
dressed up. Though - it's weird, a lot of capes have that. Glowing eyes or something that clearly aren't an issue in their civilian life. Though I'm never sure if it's just clever cosmetics or power related."
"Right." I nodded. "I'm under cosmetics to - look human again. Because apparently the other way has been my default this whole time, with the stone skin and stuff - the disguise is in my glasses?" I reached up but then thought better of it.
"So - Clark Kent. That's cool."
Who? Are they another public cape? "Tinkertech is bullshit, I guess. Assuming that's what their glasses were."
She gave a little hiccuping giggle at that. "Not really. I'd ask you to explain how yours works but - " Her lips twitched a little with an echo of the giggle. "I get the feeling the answer would be
more magic."
"Heh… kinda." I rubbed the back of my neck sheepishly. "There's - two main schools. Incantations and Sorceries. Incantations are about willpower and connecting to greater things to channel
their power, like you're a conduit or - or a fantasy priest, or something. Sorceries are apparently based in physics, math, and poking the universe just the right way to get things done by using thought to shape quantum foam." I paused. "The glasses um - act as an anchor for an incantation to shift my form into… this."
She nodded slowly. "Okay… so it's kinda like power classifications, but instead of everyone awkwardly adapting what was meant to be threat callouts and completely ditching the original, more precise academic terms, it's two really broad categories based on whether their physics are somewhat understandable or not."
"Oh, no, both are
fully explainable in how they work, it's the
sources that differ. Like, incantations, there's several different kinds - like Bestial, which is like… calling on the concept of Mother Nature and asking for a boost. The Erdtree - a thing back where the family comes from - is tied to the cycle of - " I paused. "Uh, it
ended up being tied to the cycle of life and death, so it ended up being invoked for healing though really how it heals things is more - setting them to the way they should be ordered? Other things you could call on for power would be stuff like uh - Dragons if you want lightning? Which is awesome. I haven't really gone through all of the different options yet but I was told that under the right conditions, screaming 'for the power of greyskull'
will work, kinda. If you put enough willpower into it." I hummed.
"... what."
"Yeah! If you believe in something enough - " I toned down an exuberant arm gesture that almost decked someone also heading into the aquarium - they gave me a
very dirty look which was pretty fair, " - then you can call on its power, even if it doesn't necessarily have power of its own yet, though that helps."
Victoria's brow furrowed. "So - theoretically, if you joined Haven or one of those ultra christian groups - "
"Yeah, I mean -" I thought about it for a moment. "... I could shout 'jesus take the wheel' and there's a damn good chance it results in a self-driving car. I'd have to ask Dad, but - very real possibility." I frowned. "Not that I'd
want to join, what with them being conservatives who think gays are the cause of natural disasters and whatever."
"Haven's not…
as bad about that. But from what you'd said, you'd still need to be, like, mega-christian for it to work. Which I'm taking it you're not."
"Not in the slightest. Dad
and Mom never really cared for it, and I guess I might have picked that up on the way." I shrugged. "Back on topic thought - there's the incantations, and then there's Sorceries, which are… grounded. They don't rely on willpower - though really it's less willpower and more
faith? - just comprehension of certain concepts. The staff keeps me from hurting myself
when I cast, but I didn't need it
to cast."
The conversation was dropped for a moment as we got into the aquarium, paying for our tickets and passing by the gift shop. There were so many interesting animals to look at! We were barely inside and already - ooh that sign said they had
seals here! And a snake? Sure!
... if it was a totally normal snake, Ranni wouldn't be too mad at me about just
looking at it, right?
"Technically speaking -" I kept my voice low as we leaned on the wall to an enclosure. I wasn't sure what was in this one, but guessing by the igloo in the corner, probably penguins or seals. "I don't actually
have powers of my own. Dad and Sis have been teaching me the things they know."
Victoria paused. "You… didn't - hmm. Okay." Her expression fell into a frown. "That's… so. What I'm about to tell you about is kind of another cape community faux pas. You don't talk about it.
Actually talk about it, I mean, cause I know you're about to bring up all the interviews I gave when I first became Glory Girl."
"I haven't seen those, actually." I knew they existed, more or less. But I'd not watched them recently, and around the time they'd first come out I'd just delayed seeing them until time passed and Emma continued to happen and drain my will to do
anything for myself and at some point they'd slipped my mind completely.
"Yeah, they're not… me at my best. The point is, that it's kind of a cape rule - sorta just being polite, really - that you don't talk about how you or anyone else got their powers. Even among people you trust and have been unmasked to. It's why I didn't talk about this before, because I just assumed…"
I tilted my head curiously. "Why…? Wait, is getting powers…" I vaguely knew the story the news had pushed of Panacea becoming a miracle healer after her sister was shot in front of her but, well, that knowledge was
vague.
She was silent for a while. "There's lots of propaganda about how second generation capes - get their powers more easily. Propaganda I was a part of because I was just so happy I had them, I didn't really think about it until later, until Amy got hers and I talked more to Crystal and Eric… " She worked her lip between her teeth then looked up at me, her blue eyes very clear and sharp. "It's commonly said that the day most capes get their powers is the worst day of their lives. That's not -
always entirely true, but it is universally true that every cape gets their powers at a moment of incredible trauma, mental or physical or both. And in some way that trauma - shapes them for the rest of their lives, as all trauma does. You don't
talk about that, obviously, but - when you meet another cape. No, let's not universalise. When
I meet another cape, and they're clearly - struggling, like you were when we met, I tend to hypothesise. And a lot of my assumptions have turned out to be wrong. Partly because of this. So - I'm sorry for that. For making up traumas for you in my head."
I reached out hesitantly - if what she said was right, then she'd been through horrible things herself. Maybe even worse than I had with Emma -
I pulled her into a tight hug. "I'm sorry too. I'm not sure what for but -" I tried to squeeze as tightly as I could without hurting her.
"Don't. It's not - like, both what you told me about Barnes, and just being in a city with the Empire could arguably count as stressors enough to trigger, in my opinion. And you shouldn't compare trauma anyway. And mine was kinda - stupid. The
point is that - there are a lot of capes who'll react to you saying things like that with revulsion. They'll think because you don't share that defining pain that your trauma
doesn't matter, that it can't be as big as theirs is. It's unlikely to come up because, as I said, talking about how you got your powers is
rude in the same way prying into
anyone's personal life is rude, but it's something you need to know."
"Okay." One last squeeze before letting her go. "Um. What do you mean by trigger? I don't think I've heard that term used like that before. And - don't um. Your trauma wasn't stupid, especially if it was enough to give you powers. You matter too, y'know?"
"Trust me, I'm the one with my trauma. It was pretty stupid." Victoria brushed her hair back. "And trigger - it's a psych term in general, though there it's more about when you see something that puts you back in that state of trauma. Like a flashback, y'know?"
"Oooh. I understand." I nodded slowly. "I… think. Probably."
"Right, so - the term as applied to gaining
powers came from a paper in nineteen ninety… seven, I want to say? That had done studies of a bunch of heroes and a few villain volunteers and argued that all capes were perpetually in a state of being triggered by their trauma, that in a sense they were perpetually
living in that trauma point. Now, Dillman and Hicks' study the following year kinda completely refuted that point, but the rest of the paper was good enough that the term stuck. So - trigger event."
Okay. But - getting silver eyes wasn't traumatic? Or - seeing Dad turn into a Mom wasn't traumatic as it was surprising. My body being different…
Wasn't this the evidence I needed to prove to her that magic was a thing and I wasn't a normal cape? "I… never had one of those." I swallowed nervously. "All the ongoing trauma with Emma sucked, yeah, but… it never got to the point where I woke up one day with powers? I remember when I woke up with the silver eyes and things started getting weird - I was actually kinda happy. Because I wouldn't have to go to school and deal with things there for three weeks."
"Yeah, that's… that's abnormal." Victoria bit at her lip again. "
Really abnormal. Well - actually I was really happy the day of mine
until it happened, but you'd have had a more drawn out - anyway. There's - no records of anyone ever triggering from happiness, despite how the press talks about it, and even our powers seem to draw on our traumas, a little bit. But you yourself said that you kinda… got these from your dad? So
he's a power granter?" Her fingers drummed a little against each other. "I know you said you didn't know about this stuff before - and I don't want to just, wildly accuse someone I know very little about other than you saying he's a bloodsoaked conquering monarch - but is it possible that he kinda… granted you the powers before you were aware as an excuse to mention all this stuff to you?"
I glanced back into the enclosure. There was a seal, flopping about on a sunning rock. "If someone had given me that idea before I met my sister - yeah, I'd consider it. But… no. I had trouble at the start, really struggling to cast on my own - the first time I managed, I nearly burnt my hand off. But I did it. I connected to the Flame of Ruin, and it actively
hates Dad."
"Back up a second -
met your sister?"
I blinked. Oh, right. "Yeah, she uh… like, as far Dad and I knew, all my siblings were dead? But apparently she wasn't, or - part of her wasn't - and she showed up on Christmas. Woke up's maybe the better term. She's been teaching me the sorcery stuff."
"... you're going to have to actually tell me this stuff in order at some point because I am completely lost. And - " She leant forward, elbows on the railing. "Sorry for dragging things down by bringing up grim stuff. We were here to hang out and have fun and look at animals, and I kinda - did my dumb nerdy serious thing - "
"Hey, it's fine. We
were planning to do some serious talking while we were here." I rubbed her back gently. "At least by front-loading it we got it out of the way and can just focus on the cute animals. Even if that one does look one of his parents was a pug." I pointed at one seal with a particularly squished-looking face with a smile.
"Aww. He's sorta slapping himself with his flipper. Or - she, I'm not… entirely clear on whether there's sexual dimorphism in seals and how it would present."
One was swimming up closer to us, big eyes curious - or maybe hungry - as it swished and swirled through the water. It was
adorable. Sorta turning and flipping -
And swimming away as a kid down from us banged on the glass.
Ah. Children. The bane of our existence.
Victoria shot them a filthy look, then sighed and leant against the railing to try and peer deeper into the tank. "I never really got why anyone would do that. Even as a kid. Trying to see them, or just resting your hand on the glass - or drumming it on something else if it's, like, a stimming thing… I dunno, it just always seemed cruel to me. Like, no-one would like it if they were going about their day and someone just sort of - slammed something next to them to startle them."
My immediate reaction of being tempted to do just that - startle someone deliberately - was tempered by the fact I didn't want to be an asshole. "I mean - I guess kids don't always know yet how
not to be assholes? And some never really learn. And - I mean, from a
really young kid's point of view that probably
is happening to them all the time. Parents coming in and picking them up and trying to feed them and stuff sorta out of nowhere."
"I guess," Victoria said. Though from her tone of voice I hadn't completely convinced her.
"At least we can be better." I scrunched up my shoulders a little. I wanted to make this
better somehow but it wasn't my responsibility to
do that and - I forced myself to keep my hand in my pocket, so if I
did manage to summon my Seal it wouldn't be so visible.
"Hopefully, anyway. C'mon, let's try and find the crabs.
Hand. Food." She smiled up at me, almost a smirk - and suddenly advanced on me, hands snapping like little claws.
"Frighten!" I shuffled back -
oof - right back into the railing and then she was leaning against me too and -
Even though I was taller than her, like this her face was
really close. I could see the makeup she'd put on, and the little beauty mark just by her left eye. The way her hair was darker at the roots. The little fracture line of green in the blue of her eyes. The -
"Um, sorry about that. Didn't - anyway. Crabs?"
"Y-yes." My face felt like it was on fire. Was it so wrong to want that to happen again? To be close to someone? To feel -
It was so hard to look her in the eyes after that but also
far too easy. To just - study them. Get lost in them like I lost myself in the stars. Hell, the animals weren't nearly as enrapturing as
she was. Watching her enjoying herself - we stopped by
everything on the way to finding the crabs, even fish that were, by any reasonable metric, pretty dull, but her eyes would light up and she'd read the placards and it was -
Was it weird, that I couldn't really think of
anything I enjoyed that much any more? Even learning magic with Ranni and Dad, it wasn't
joyful in the same way her talking about sunfish, or about fugu, or about theories around spinosaurus fossils was.
Some quiet part of me wanted to suck the joy from her. To find a way to make it
mine. As though I was owed it.
I stomped on that part of me as hard as I possibly could, and focused on looking at the nice animals.
And then we came across the snake.
The enclosure was neat, and watching it coiled around the tree branch was - I peered closely at it. "You're a little out of place here, aren't you?" I murmured to it. It regarded me with the kind of cool disinterest only a reptile could. When its tongue flicked out, I imagined it was the equivalent of blowing a raspberry at me.
"I mean, we're in the Amazon exhibit. And it's a semi aquatic python, apparently. It swims to catch its prey." Victoria straightened from where she'd been reading the placard.
"Yeah but…
snake. I'm ninety percent sure it's the only animal here besides the penguins and the seals that doesn't have gills." Would Ranni give me shit about it, just cause of the Rykard thing? Did she dislike snakes in general? It was hard to see why - the little guy was cute enough, blinking in that weird double-lidded snakey way. "He sort of just… stands out a little."
"I'm pretty sure crabs don't have gills. Don't they have spiracles like land arthropods do? And there are some frogs around here too. Also gill-less. Mostly cause gills kinda suck." Her arm slid round my back and I tried not to stiffen with nerves, or to smell her, or be - creepy or weird. "I get what you mean though. You don't tend to think 'snake' when you think 'aquarium'."
"Yeah…" I held a finger up to the glass by his face and he flicked his tongue at it. "Man, my sister's gonna flip her lid when I tell her I saw a snake today and felt kinship with it." I chuckled. I too, felt out of place.
"She doesn't like snakes?"
Okay, so this was going to be tough to explain… "After our brother sort of… got eaten by one? Or - force-fed himself to one, at any rate. I think she's kinda against them on principle." I shrugged a little. "That was ages before I was born though." I hummed contently, leaning against her just the tiniest bit.
"... your brother force fed himself to a snake?"
"Apparently it was a
very big snake, that lived in a volcano, and…" What had they called it… "It was a god-devouring serpent? I'm - I'm not sure anyone really knew what was going through his mind at the end there, everyone sort of regarded him as a little bit insane. A lot. A lot insane."
Victoria blinked at me for a moment. "Yeah, it kinda sounds like it. Or at the very least, super dramatic. I mean - feeding yourself to a volcano snake almost feels like it's… trying
way too hard to be a supervillain. I - don't know if that's okay to joke about, he
was your brother, even if you never met him - "
"I mean - I'm okay with it. I don't really have any of the trauma or hangups and - like, intellectually, it's probably
not okay but…" I shrugged. "I don't really know what else to do. He fed himself to a snake, my other brother stopped time for… nobody's really sure how long before getting into a fight with the vanguard of the deity of cancer, and that nascent vanguard was my
half-sister… the family tree is really fucked up, both literally
and metaphorically. I feel as out of place among them as I do among capes here. Stuck somewhere in between but not enough on either side to truly say I belong."
"I don't know exactly how that feels but. Things with my family suck sometimes too. Uh, anyway I was just going to say that the whole - snake theming and volcano thing are like, kid's tv show's idea of supervillains. In theory at least."
"Oh, yeah, for sure. He had an entire manor dedicated to burning down Dad's seat of power in rebellion." I could recall Ranni's imitation of him. "
We shall devour the very gods, togethaaaaa!"
Victoria paused. "Wait - he survived force-feeding himself to the snake?"
"He
became the snake." I giggled. "It was fuckin'
wild."
Victoria pinched the bridge of her nose, then - "Okay, take it actually - from the top this time. Explain where your family came from, from the start. Cause I'm still struggling to piece it all together."
"I mean - I don't know the
full story from the top but… I think it went something like…"
And so I told her most of what I knew.
Most of it. Because I wasn't really sure how to cover the whole 'Dad was uh… actually
queen' part. And leaving out most of the names because names were important not to talk about or something in cape culture, and I could cover that later when we weren't in a public aquarium. Though anyone who overheard me would probably have assumed I was talking about a fantasy series because, well - dragons, generals, gods, and so on. Still. Better safe than sorry.
And there were still bits I wasn't completely sure of. Like the timeframe - I knew Dad had taken over the 'Lands Between', and had ruled for A While, but I wasn't sure when during that while she'd married himself, or when she'd had my siblings, or how old they'd all been in relation to each other. I
thought that Ranni had been the oldest of the ones she'd had with Mom? But even so.
I really should convince Ranni to write this stuff into a book series.
We finally ended up sitting on a bench next to the crab tank, watching the little things scurry about and nibble at sand. Or the stuff on the sand, maybe?
"That… sounds like a lot." Victoria said, almost cautiously.
"Yeah. Supposedly took place over a few frozen centuries at the very least, once the general did his thing." I held a finger up to the glass. Not tapping it.
Crab. Crab crab crab. Hand. Hand hand. Is food? Frighten. Crab. "So everyone's - everyone's so much older. Got so,
so much more experience than I do. So sometimes I wonder if it's… if it's really okay that they're letting me take the lead on some things. Like, is this them being a safety net for the mistakes I'm going to make eventually one way or another? Or are they genuinely so - so far out of touch that I'm taking the lead because they genuinely need help? Because the second one's more than a bit concerning, if I'm honest. I barely know what I'm doing myself, most days."
"I think that's true of everyone." She bumped against my side. "And I imagine the answer is a bit of both - it sounds like your Dad and your sister haven't been super in touch with the world - this world - much. But they also want you to be your own person. Which is kinda refreshing, I guess."
"Mm. They seem to be more in touch with the civilian side of things - Mom was a college professor, Dad's part of a union, and my sister is apparently diving headfirst into the internet for whatever reason." I slumped a little. Should I tell her about my Patron?
"I mean, the internet's fun. And I guess if she was asleep for a decade and a bit, there's a lot of it to catch up on."
"Yeah." I smiled weakly at her. I wasn't sure what it was about this that made it feel so tiring. But it felt like that in a good way? Like… cleaning. Like all the shit inside me had been scoured out, and I was left abraded, but
cleansed.
There was definitely a twinge of guilt there too. Feeling like I was dumping everything on Victoria and looking for validation,
again. As though I hadn't done enough damage the first time.
"... I'm still not sold on the idea of it being magic though. It sounds like things were super mythologised there, but it being this… separate thing from powers - I dunno." She shrugged. "Maybe it's just cause I grew up
around powers and have spent so long thinking about them but the idea of this stuff
not being powers is just a bridge too far for my brain."
"I guess it kinda
is powers, just… different source, different system, different label?" I shrugged helplessly. "... though you can't
teach powers from here like that. Flying like you can would be
really cool, but the closest I can get is apparently going to be 'temporarily grow wings with all the hazards and strength that entails'. Which'll be neat, but not really the same." I was pretty sure Ranni's hovering thing was
different, anyway, and might only be because she was doll sized, or was an active Ruler, or one of ten million other things.
"I get that. And certainly, most of the incantations you described sound like some power granting trump powers? With that catch that you're kind of binding yourself to something, very myth-y - but normally that's clearly someone else with power, not a kind of abstract concept like, uh. What did you call it - the Flame of Ruin?" Victoria grinned a little. "I really have to compliment your culture's names for stuff, by the way. They're all kinda rad. Though - I'm guessing they're translations."
"Eh, they're the names I got given." I shrugged again. "There's the Ancient Dragons of Farum Azula, the Godskins, Castle Stormveil… the Royal Academy of Raya Lucaria where Mom was queen and headmistress of, I think?"
"Right, but presumably they didn't speak English in Farum Azula. I imagine your Dad's translating a lot of these concepts. Because it sounds like history must have
really diverged a while ago to result in a world this different, so presumably the linguistic -
whatevers that lead to English being English would have been
way different. Or so I'd guess. Alternate history is something I've only dabbled in SF wise."
"I'll definitely ask them about that." I nodded. "By English being English - do you mean three different languages in a trenchcoat pretending to be a single one?" I grinned a little, nudging her with my elbow as she rolled her eyes. But she grinned so - joke success! "As far as the incantations go - there's the Bestial incants I mentioned before, with nature and like, simplicity? The Flame of Ruin is the feeling of betrayal. The Dragons were… something about timelessness and the storm? But sorceries are just
physics, apparently. Poke the universe with just the right resonance and you can hold the stars in place and stop time, except not really."
"I mean - hm. This is kinda reminding me about some theories about powers and how they might work, in shape at least? As I understand it - oh my god that crab flipped that other one over! No! Very rude."
I narrowed my eyes at the crab. He had one big claw and the other seemed almost like it was missing the bottom pincer, leaving just a very sharp stabby implement. It seemed to… blink, for lack of a better word, before scurrying away sideways, giant claw raised above his face.
"Think he might have
deserved a frighten," Victoria grumbled.
I snorted. "Bit difficult to do that without giving the rest a frighten too." I rolled my fingers in my pocket, made a quick little gesture - the sand under the poor flipped fella jumped for a moment, pushing the crab right-side-up again. Which, sadly, caused a frighten and it scurried away past other crabs with such grace and speed that they all got a frighten and started scurrying too. Oops?
Victoria eyed the still settling sand. "So, given you mentioned them. I'm guessing the Flame stuff and Bestial stuff is what you've learnt so far? The - fire stuff makes sense I guess. Given what you'd told me before. I'd find it pretty easy to feel betrayed after that."
I rolled my fingers again with a wince. "Yeah. It's bad enough that the first time I used it my hand sort of… got burned up pretty bad. If I can't get those emotions under control, it starts to intrude on other casts as well. Hurling fireballs at people is going to be lethal no matter how I try to go about it. Hurling boulders isn't much better, but highly explosive magma boulders?"
"Hurling fireballs doesn't have to be lethal. I'm not
super clear on tactics pyrokinetic heroes use, but I can try and do more research. Find you some options. Ditto for like - rock moving? Though - agreed on the magma boulders." She leant over and bopped her head against my arm. "Then again, given how strong and durable you said you were, you might not need that. Might just be a good extra backup tool to have in your back pocket."
"I guess you're right." I hummed, reaching up just a little to rub her shoulder in what I hoped was a comforting manner instead of a creepy one. "It's just… hard to look at having these options, these amazing fantastical options, and going 'yeah, I'm just gonna punch that guy' when I could be flinging rocks or ice waves. Unarmed would be… useful, but boring, y'know?"
"Yeah, but it's better than facing punitive charges for accidentally crippling someone. Look at it that way."
I grimaced. "Fair point." Even if there was the fact that if I
was crippling someone, it probably wasn't because I was interested in them leaving the fight alive. "I'm hoping sis can find some non-lethal options for me to learn. The kind that aren't non-lethal because I'm specifically holding back, just - couldn't kill someone if I tried kinda non-lethal."
"What, like a knockout spell or something?"
"Yeah! Exactly like that."
"Hopefully. Powers don't tend to work like that… though…" Victoria was peering behind me and frowning. "Huh."
I twisted around to follow her gaze. Nothing
that out of the ordinary, though I guessed the people in evening dress were
kinda weird. And had one of them just gone through a maintenance door? "They don't look like employees, do they." One of them turned around, back to the wall, and - oh. Yeah, definitely not employees, not if they were wearing a mask like
that.
"It's not even their territory, the Ambassadors must be - " Victoria narrowed her eyes, then quickly looked back at the crabs. "Look away, don't draw their attention!"
I lazily turned back to look at the crabs. Two of them were… fighting wasn't exactly the right word for it. Maybe playing patty cake with their claws? Or dancing at each other? It was adorable, but… "What could they be doing
here?"
"I mean - deal of some kind? Or handoff? The docks
are nearby, and they do a lot of drug trading." Her face was cold and focused in the blue light from the tank. "They must be
really confident of Protectorate response times to be open enough to wear costume in a public place, so calling them in isn't going to help." She worried at her lower lip for a second. "... do you have your mask with you?"
It wasn't
much of one, but then again, if Miss Militia could get away with wearing a bandanna, so could I, right? "Yup. Do you need one?" I wasn't sure because - while she
was an open cape… I didn't want her to get in trouble for interacting with Empyrean.
"... maybe?" Her teeth dug more into her lip, eyes scanning across the glass and sand. "Yes, if you have a spare."
"I do." She could use the bandanna, I could use the scarf in my bag. "Bathroom? Put on masks and teleport in." I pushed on Paradise Lost for a moment, scanning the immediate area beyond what it usually granted - it wasn't an amazing way to see through walls, but it let me know where was and wasn't open enough for me to Reach. The kinetic shadows were mostly people hurrying away, to be honest. Except there was one on their knees, in the maintenance room, their movements shifting and uncomfortable, but slow. Like they were drugged? Or asleep.
"Might not have enough time if they're expecting the handoff to be that quick." Victoria tapped her thumb on the railing. "
Fuck! Okay, how about - we act like we're moving away, like we're scared, disabled's for the masks, then your teleport - okay that should
work, but be careful because - we did just talk about being careful with trying to be nonlethal - "
"Right." We started moving away, to the bathrooms - "Got a peek through the walls. Looks like they have a hostage, maybe? But if it's a hand off - are the Ambassadors known for human trafficking?"
She paused, fists clenching. "Not that I'm
aware of, but they'd want to keep that quiet if they were. They're more facilitators for other gangs, I think.
Fuck!" She shot a quick glance around the room, pulled her hoodie down slightly lower. "No one close enough, put on the bandannas, we'll go now."
I knelt down, slid my bag off my shoulder, handed her the bandanna and wrapped my scarf around my face, putting my glasses away and
feeling my body change back to my true form. I grabbed my staff and slipped my bag back on as Victoria finished tying the bandanna. "We're going to be dropping right in the middle of them."
"... that's
really risky when we don't know who's there, but - okay. God, I was really hoping not to have to go through your mover power again but - " She grabbed my forearm, almost bruisingly tight, feet kicking off the floor as she started to hover.
"It'll be easier this time." I spun the staff, the world fell from under me -
My first thought was that this really did look like a maintenance area. Buckets, bits and bobs, cleaning equipment stored haphazardly, bland concrete walls, no ambient music or animal sounds through speakers or from enclosures, just the cry of seagulls coming from the open loading bay.
The Reach had scattered them - but no, they must have been already scattered,
knew we were coming somehow - from the lack of burn marks on their costumes. A woman in a blue dress with a heavy mask that looked like it might be made of seashells or coral. A man with slicked back hair, a tuxedo, and a heavy and expressionless mask split neatly into black and white. Someone in a green dress shirt, sleeves rolled up and blazer removed, with a heavy metal spiralling
shape for a mask that could have been one of the symbols of a cast incantation for how intricate it was.
Well, best to try throw them off another way.
"Sup, fuckers!" I launched myself forward with frozen glintstone blade at the ready, aiming for black-and-white's limbs with a stab. He vanished moments before I made contact and my charge was interrupted by a sudden geyser of water from my left - not strong enough to knock me off balance, but enough that I needed to slow and brace myself. Especially when the direction of the water
reversed, suddenly sucking back past me towards the empty space the water had burst from beside the woman with the seashell mask.
I kept an echo-eye on her. Next time she tried that -
But I had ended up next to the hostage. Or rather, the container I knew to contain the hostage. There was a non-masked man across from me with a gun - I flung a pebble that went right down the barrel, splitting the metal apart. Impact on my shoulder - light, almost a scratch, with no source on my kinetic vision.
Behind me, the echoes of Victoria engaged with green-shirt, maybe hurling him away in the majority of probabilities - as the echoes were also
potential movements, it was a little unclear. She spun away from a bouncing
something, and I risked a glance - the cape we'd seen outside had entered, a woman in a suit and angular horned mask, with a cropped bob hanging close to her chin, lazily drifting black orbs bouncing from her fingers.
Then I got hit with another water geyser.
That was annoying.
I rolled my fingers, pushed my seal into the ground, and pushed the ground under Geyser
up, almost slamming her into the roof before I stopped, letting her tumble off with a shriek right into Victoria's waiting punch. As for Ghosty McGhostface - I stood up ramrod straight, held one arm to my chest, the other straight up -
Our Will is that you Hurt - and swung a golden discus around me in an orbit.
A startled cry, and for a moment I saw a mirror image of black-and-white tuxedo man - before I had to dodge sideways from one of the orbs and a gunshot from another non-masked combatant. The orb sprouted spines as it drifted by, and given the way a number of them were casually impaled in the walls or various vehicles, even my durability might have suffered a bit by being hit with the incredible flying urchin. It was funny, because until Victoria had corrected me only twenty or so minutes ago, I had thought those things were called echidnas.
I sent a series of iceblades flying at horned-mask in answer and she ducked away, barely dodging under them - green shirt was advancing on Victoria, his hands glowing and cuts along his forearms sealing as they did so. I couldn't look for long with anything other than my kinetic vision because I was having to duck
more gunshots -
again, except those had been aimed at my legs,
ow, bouncing off my shins thankfully, but more than enough to make me almost stumble - more papercut feelings and then suddenly tuxedo was there again, trying to put me in some sort of sleeper hold -
I excluded him from the calculations and
Reached to right behind him. He flipped, startled, and I was able to land a solid fist in his gut before he vanished again with a wheeze, reappearing a few feet away clutching his stomach.
That was a useful trick - I'd have to use it more often. Knuckledusters or Glintstone Gauntlets as catalysts, perhaps? Orbweaver was trying something again, and I was just
sick and tired of her, of them not
going down -
My head ached for a long moment, and I screamed in pain and rage, flinging my hand out at Orbweaver - my forearm sprouted spines, puncturing and cracking my flesh as my
own orb went flying at her. She'd stumbled as well, hand to her own head - eyes wide behind her mask, she didn't even notice Victoria swooping in until her neck was in the crook of Victoria's elbow.
Which meant I got blindsided with
another water blast and follow-up suck, hard enough to knock me off my feet for a moment - how had she gotten up again, wait greenshirt was near her, hands glowing, had he
healed her, that was
bullshit - until I hissed and planted my hand on the ground, the blossoming of claws of force enough to keep me upright and cut through the flood.
As the water hit me on the return phase of the next wash, I inverted the claws, gripped the floor, and
heaved, sending chest-high blades rushing at them, hidden in the water.
Not so hidden was the man-sized hunk of concrete I'd ripped out of the floor and also flung at them. But just to be sure, I didn't stop there. Flinging glintstone pebble after pebble after pebble at green shirt's limbs, trying to take him out immediately. He stumbled back, crying out in agony as a blade sliced into his leg, as the pebbles burst against him. The wounds were closing, but slowly - was there a limit? Or did it just take time? Either way he was down for now, Geysergirl retreating soggily accompanied by the last of the gun wielders, reaching down to try and pull tuxedo to his feet -
Before a giant bird made of water and a twining mass of red entered through the docking bay doors - Geyser froze instantly, and I clearly saw her dark lips mouth
fuck before her jet of water turned in mid air with a flap of the bird's wings, wrapping around her arms and legs. The red resolved itself into a Protectorate hero I recognised but didn't know the name of - I thought she was a woman, in a futuristic looking helmet set in a sharply angled red
v, shoulder pads heavy with crystal growths.
Victoria carefully dumped Orbweaver next to the water pile, then immediately flew to my side, floating down to unlatch the case containing the person. "We're independent heroes, we saw - well, my, um, comrade here has a Thinker power, mild area type, allowed her to see that they're trafficking someone - " She made a little
pfeh noise as the bandana clearly got in her mouth. "Which I know isn't the Ambassadors' normal MO, but - "
"Easy," the water bird said in a rough, male voice - surprisingly normal sounding given that he was a
bird made out of water - before coalescing into a man in a sleeveless, tied shirt of some kind and a blue feathered mask. "You both did good. Maybe a little far with Lizardtail, but still. The PRT will be here soon to collect statements, but with traffic in the city as it is…"
"We're the first response team." V-head woman had a soft, lilting accent I couldn't place. "Though this is quite a coup. Four Ambassadors at once."
"Fuck you," grumbled Geyser-lady, a little muffled.
"Don't think you've got a right to complain here, trafficker." I scowled at her. But now that everything was… over, more or less, I could appreciate the fact that I was absolutely drenched. At least whatever her power used was
fresh water. Not sure how I'd explain to Dad and Ranni the salt smell. Or maybe it
was salt water? It was really difficult to tell this close to the ocean as it was, and my head still
hurt from whatever the arm spike thing had been. Though they had
gone, now - gone at some point earlier, I just hadn't noticed.
Beside me, Victoria sighed. "Fuck, I give up." She drew her fist back and knocked the lock off the case in a single swift motion.
The man who tumbled out was unconscious, a broad green mask covering most of his face, red bedraggled hair tumbling past it. He clearly wasn't in great shape, though he might have been at one point from the way the tattooed skin on his arms hung loose. Tall too, though given the rest I might otherwise have thought 'misplaced leprechaun'.
V-lady inhaled a sharp breath on seeing him, hissed between her teeth. "Whale oil beef hooked." I was
pretty sure I'd heard that wrong, but her accent had suddenly
leapt in strength.
I took a deep breath - and promptly accidentally waterboarded myself for a second with how damp my scarf was -
don't say yes please don't say yes please - "I can uh. Probably clear the drugs from his system, if you want." I turned around to squeeze the water out of my scarf though, because I really didn't want to choke like that again. Maybe if I figured out an incantation for it at some point…
"Maybe not right away." Water bird man was frowning a little. "That's - "
"Dagda, yeah?" Victoria had floated back too. "Fuck, didn't he disappear a year or so ago when the last of Morning Glory got pushed out of the city? Definitely don't want to wake him up out of nowhere, he was meant to be a
powerhouse."
"Morning Glory?" I muttered, confused, shooting a look down at the man that was barely more than rags and bones at this point. "I've only ever heard that term used as euphemism for morning boners."
Victoria huffed under her breath, but weirdly I got a glare from v-head woman, finally breaking from where she'd been staring at apparently-Dagda. "They were a gang here. Took territory in Dorchester. Fucking hell, if - I,
we knew they'd pissed Accord off, but this is…"
Waterbird rested a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, Spinel."
The man that was apparently Lizardtail groaned. Oh, wait, I got it now! Because lizards grew back their tails! "Fuck me," he mumbled, "You gotta hit so hard?" His shoulder was making horrid crunching noises as it shifted back into place.
"I could hit
harder." I scowled, gesturing with my staff. "I could have hit a
lot fucking harder."
"We're glad you didn't." Waterbird nodded to me. "I'm Garuda. Pleasure to meet the two of you. You are…?"
"I, uh." Victoria floated backwards, suddenly shifting her voice deeper. "I, uhhhhh hadn't. Decided yettt."
"Empyrean. We're still new and figuring things out, as you can," I gestured down at my clothes. "Probably guess. We can't exactly stick around, sorry - we were just visiting Boston for the day and hadn't even planned on any of…
this."
"Glad you were visiting then." Spinel had gone back to staring at the body of the cape in the box, eyes wide.
Garuda nodded. "Indeed. If you were simply visiting for the day, feel free to be on your way. You might be contacted by your local branch of the PRT to confirm a few things, but…"
Victoria's arm slipped through mine and I took that as a signal to leave. "Looking forward to their call."
I gave them both a little sardonic grin, half-hearted salute, and twirled my staff -
Victoria and I fell out of the stars.
-.-.-
"Did they seem familiar to you?" Garuda asked, cuffing the Ambassadors.
"Probably Brocktonians." Spinel sighed. "They're the only ones crazy enough to be that calm about disrupting Accord's shit."
"Mmm. That… makes sense."
-.-.-
"
