Permutation 2.6
- Location
- Chula Vista
AN: Here's the final main chapter of Arc 2, there will be two Interludes before I start Arc 3 and Arc 4 should be done by then or within a few days of that period. Please enjoy.
March 9th, 2011. 2:30 PM
Basilia Rubio
The paperwork and contracts had cut through the red tape at a much faster pace than I expected. Which was why I was now overseeing a few test runs of the basic exoskeletal platform I was selling to the Association. Fortunately the assistive robotics industry was underdeveloped enough and my machines simple enough that I didn't get into any trouble with making money off of it. But that didn't mean that everything ran smoothly.
Not at all in fact. Turns out training people is like herding cats.
THUMP!
I growled and slapped the thigh of a Dockworker, a big strong meathead who had been gifted with one of the larger and tougher suits. The guy was already about Taylor's height but had at least a good twenty five kilogram on her. And she certainly isn't the stick figure she thinks she is, which makes the guy big. With the suit, he stood about two meters in height, the exoskeleton wrapping around him in a protective bubble of metal, plastic, and ceramic rated for chemical and biological hazards.Due to its cheapness it lacked many of the amenities that a Eezo powered suit would have, for example it followed the movements of its users to reduce the strain on the simpler and less effective optronic computer. Which while it was at least a decade and a half more advanced than what the average joe would have, it was not outside the reach of certain research groups who were slowly picking apart the principles of Tinkertech.
Very slowly.
The second thunk got my full attention and I slapped the man's thigh for a second time. He looked at me with a sheepish expression behind his visor.
"Joe…I would very much like you to not try to play party tricks with the high powered industrial machinery I've let you borrow. Especially one capable of deadlifting three tons and requiring kilowatts of power." I watched in disbelief as Joe gently and slowly placed down the 500 kilogram mass of twisted metal. It still resounded with a metallic ring as it was dropped.
The Warden was a nasty piece of work, weighing about 150 kilograms and using a mix of hydraulics and silicone myomer muscles. However it's been specifically constructed to be slow and meticulous in its movements for general work safety. It could have either highly articulate mechanical fingers or various tools in a highly modular setup.
It came in different models, with just the exoskeleton itself being the cheapest model. For more hazardous environments it had plates and aramid fabric highly resistant to acid, biological destruction, heat, fire, plasma, water and pressure.
The armor was about three times as strong as modern super steel alloys, so around…6…7 gigapascals of tensile strength?
The armored behemoth chuckled nervously and I glared at him from behind my visor. While the armor was more than capable of lifting enormous weight, that was more due to my own overzealousness than an actual need. With the exoskeleton, the dock workers could operate for much longer as well as keeping themselves much healthier without the constant strain of repetitive high mass lifting movements.
The cost of the thing was low even if I used 'modern' tech at about ten thousand, but for my own manufacturing it went down to about six thousand. Which sounds expensive until you realize forklifts cost up to 30k and exoskeletons back home cost ten times that amount and are leased.
"Sorry boss, it's just this thing is amazing," he hopped from foot to foot, a quarter ton of mass lifted into the air with little issue. Then I registered his words…
"Don't call me boss, I'm your supplier and nothing more." I cocked a hip, hoping my voice would convey my dislike for the term. It felt…strange to be anyone's boss.
Joe lifted his visor, his chiseled face brimming with amusement. "You know out of context that sounds kind of bad." I stiffened and I slapped him for the third time. The armor sounded loudly with the amount of force I applied, and Joe winced.
"Joe?" I smiled and enjoyed the trepidation the employee exuded.
"W-What?"
I poked him in the chest, standing on the tip of my toes to reach him. "Shut up would you? I still have a bit more testing before our little contract is finalized. I'll have a few dozen suits ready within a week."
"Okay." He stepped away, the machine whirring with the pump of high pressure oil, and the flexing of reinforced electroactive siloxane. I tried to brush my hair with my fingers until I remembered I had a helmet on.
Maybe I should make a more open design? Then again this suit was built for protection and defense not PR.
The past few days had passed rather comfortably, with most of the work involving getting Athena up and running and the occasional patrol around certain parts of the Docks. Crime had suffered a drop in activity though it was quite small, since my mass drone use was operating quite well. Though I had to take care to not break any laws by accident. I also tended to take control of the drones myself to make sure that everything was done to code.
I did patrol heavily though because while I had made my little toys as cute as possible, the public still needed a face to the hero and all of that PR garbage. Taylor or Monarch(such a cool name) had started her own patrols when she wasn't either training, studying or doing her own things. Anything that didn't involve that was hanging out with me, or with…Amy.
Though I'll honestly put it at the same level as where Taylor and I had been about two months ago. Sort of sitting next to each other and periodically conversing for a few minutes before becoming quiet. It felt oddly stereotypical but it wasn't like they were sudden best friends either, and at the rate they were going, I doubt they would be best friends within a year. But it didn't make me feel any less uneasy however.
I had no issue with Taylor making friends but I also didn't know how healthy a friendship could be had between them. I'm not even sure a friendship between her and I would be healthy with how much I knew about her. Taylor was slightly more stable since she lacked a conflict drive but still had at least a few independent neuroses. Hopefully they would not end up defining her life, that she would be able to overcome them. But I wasn't going to baby her anyhow…it's not my job and she can make her own decisions.
Besides best case scenario we get a new friend who'll be more stable because she talks with people who aren't family, patients or other Parahumans she doesn't like.
Can't forget her incestious and slightly obsessive feelings for her sister.
Yeah…that's a huge can of worms I very much do not want to bring up for a number of reasons.
RING! RING!
An alert knocked me out of my introspection, and I quickly answered the emergency call from Taylor.
"Hola que pasa?" I flinched at the use of Spanish, and I couldn't remember the last time I had actively spoken in it outside of the few dreams I remembered.
"We have a problem." I felt relief when Taylor ignored my slip up, but her concern made me lose it.
"What's going on? Did something happen?" I fingered the ion rifle, fire flaring in my left hand at the same time.
"I…sighted Rune and Krieg fighting Glory Girl, Panacea is close by…next to my dad." I shuddered at the lack of emotion that Taylor was emitting then, and a quick look illustrated her anger. Thousands of flying insects swarmed together, very subtly glowing with multidimensional energy.
"Fuck…where are you?" I asked, and sped up into a rapid wind enhanced sprint. I accelerated quickly, and my HUD instantly displayed her coordinates. I bounced, hitting more than 60 miles an hour with nothing but the force of the wind alone.
"On the roof, I'm already attacking with my swarm…but they aren't doing much. I don't think Glory Girl knows I'm here since she's dealing with Rune an—SHIT!" There was a rush of air as Taylor, the speakers pick up high frequency sounds.
"Cricket?" I swiftly activated a multitude of defenses that I had installed in the new warehouse I had for initial testing of my products for the DWU.
"Cricket…" Taylor huffed, and I launched myself more than fifty feet in the air with a blast of wind. I reached all the way to the top of a warehouse and finally sighted the fight itself.
Glory Girl and Rune circled around each other, Rune staying in the air with a makeshift piece of rubble. The little nazi girl snarled and insulted the taller and older blonde, all the while throwing rubble and projectiles at high speed, slamming into Vicky's shields at full force.
Krieg was having a hard time himself, and swatted stinging insects aside, negating the effectiveness but still taking a good amount of venom into his system. The bugs were slowing…until they coalesced into a solid mass of chitin. Once again snapping together into a roughly two meter cloud of arthropods.
The pseudo-projection shrieked and threw itself at Krieg with fervor.
Don't just watch get moving!
I hopped the distance between buildings, lifting my ion rifle and making use of the BattleNet system recently installed and calibrated for use. This was at the same time I launched myself with another airbending boost.
Aim…ready…fire.
BWOOM!
The beam crossed twenty meters in only a few milliseconds, and Rune collapsed like a puppet on strings. Normally this would have resulted in an untimely end…if I wasn't there to catch her.
Glory Girl looked at me in shock, her aura flaring up, bypassing my kinetic barrier but oddly enough having trouble with the sporadic biotic Barrier.
Still haven't figured anything out besides pull and push…
"Hello there Glory Girl!" I raced past her with Rune in tow, landing on the subsequent warehouse. I rather uncouthly dropped the teenage girl, the Nazi twitching after the blast of short lived electrons.
She blinked. "Uh hi?" I waved at her shyly, turning my attention to my partner in heroic and business endeavors.
Well…Taylor has certainly picked up the elegance and softness of airbending into her combat style.
Both Cricket and Taylor fought in a dance of death, weaving between each other's attacks with ease. The blonde Nazi's kamas sliced through the air at incredible speed, yet Taylor avoided them with spiraling movements, her feet lifting off the ground for moments at a time. Any time that Cricket got a hit in, Taylor parried with a short laser steel blade. The scythes chipped and sparked any time they made contact with the knife, and Cricket would immediately get blasted away by gusts of compressed air.
We hadn't had enough time to get Taylor up to the task of using a gun. Though she was surprisingly skilled with bladed weaponry.
It gave my mind a few ideas…scary ideas.
EEEEEEE!
A high pitched shriek vibrated my armor and was muffled by it once it took hold. Nausea almost hit me, and it definitely hit Glory Girl for a second.
Taylor stumbled, and Cricket launched forward with her scythes in hand…only to take hundreds of insects to the face, riding a stream of air in a tornado of legs, eyes and antennae.
"Holy shit…" Glory Girl cursed when Cricket let out a cry of pain as hundreds of spiders covered her body, biting her but without using their venom if the lack of death convulsions wasn't obvious. "Did she just…?"
I snorted and the blonde looked affronted. "Cricket is fine, you know most spider bites don't have venom in them right?" Glory Girl shut her mouth, though she still looked a little queasy at the sight of Cricket as she collapsed. Another shriek tore the swarm away but the damage was done. Then the nazi Parahuman fighter smirked…
"PARAHUMAN PROXIMITY ALERT!" A man covered in blades emerged from the shadows and Monarch weaved past a spear like arm aiming for her skull.
WHY THE FUCK ARE FOUR EMPIRE CAPES SHOWING UP!
"Hookwolf!" Glory Girl glanced at me and I nodded, air displacing as she flew, her skirt fluttering in the wind. I looked down to the fight below, my lips quirking as Queen held Krieg down, dispestrings of silk until the kinetic manipulator was cocooned in high strength extruded biomaterial.
Queen gave a thumbs up, and with a slight tilt of my gun another arc caught Krieg in the face. He twitched for a few seconds before passing out. Once that was done, I joined the fray leaving three drones including Squishy to protect Danny and Amy.
Hookwolf had bulked up, resembling less a man and more a canine blender as he came at GG and Taylor relentlessly. His blades rebounded from Vicky's shield, but never succeeded in hitting Taylor in the first place. His claws were slow enough to go through her kinetic barrier, but wouldn't leave a scratch on the chitin. I felt vindicated in adding shock absorbers to keep her from being pulped by the amount of force that Hookwolf was throwing out.
Though to be fair his claws would only cut her skin at best due to her superhuman toughness. I mean Ty Lee could jump 70 feet in the air as a non bender soo—quit getting distracted!
My reflexes kicked in and I ducked under a scythe only to take a rapid kick to the head…which did nothing. Cricket hissed but still tried for another cut, which I promptly denied. I grabbed a kama and with little mercy started squeezing. The metal bent at the handle, and firebending promptly warped the metal with heat.
"You!" Her voice turned into a hacking cough as I slammed the ion rifle into her chest, the athletic woman being pushed back several feet.
BWOOM!
Cricket slumped on the floor, and I smirked. Though that turned into a frown when I found that Rune had gone missing. I had used a lower setting on her because of her size but I must have miscalculated. So she had likely escaped, though fortunately she wasn't anywhere near Danny and Panacea. Though I had my doubts she would try anything for her own safety. Attacking the best healer in the city sounded like a horrible idea.
Oh…and Krieg is gone too…though now that I'm thinking about it, Rune probably took him. Though how the 12 year old picked him was a little difficult to imagine until I remembered she was telekinetic. So she probably just used her powers to…
There was a rotten smell in the air. Had I seen something move? A shadow…?
…
I shivered, and tried to look around for whatever had given me that feeling of dread. When I found nothing, I shook my head and returned to a far more pertinent situation. This was the literal worst time to her distracted…
Back to Hookwolf then…and let's send two more drones to keep an eye on Cricket. The fight hadn't slowed for even a moment, with Hookwolf acting like a whirlwind of knives and spears. Glory Girl and Monarch had different strategies, the flying brick taking hits head on while the airbender circled and twisted her body with every attack. Unfortunately his sheer mass made blowing him off the building rather difficult. Only the Dallon sister with actual brute powers could inflict any real damage to the steel covered wolf man.
Each of her punches dented and bent metal, enormous amounts of force being thrown wildly. Not that Glory Girl lacked skill, no she was lashing out with very effective attacks even if Taylor was better at dodging.
Yeah…I'm going to get Taylor a more potent weapon than a sharp knife.
I lowered into a stance, and flames were conjured up from my breath and inner energy. I swirled my arms, fire gathering and then intensified as I charged the attack. The fire grew in size and power, and with a straight punch it was shot out like a bullet.
Taylor and Vicky both moved out of the way, already warned by Taylor's wide range of senses. Which was what I was counting on.
Hookwolf howled as his steel skin was warped by intense heat, and then thrown back by the kinetic impact of the fire attack. He threw out metallic tendrils, lashing out with slashes from his blade shaped fingers.
I closed in, and with false bravado bent streams of fire and exploding balls of heat into the Changer's face. He hissed in pain, and became more distorted as he grabbed more mass from his core. He stepped up his game, and I quickly realized why he was so dangerous.
He morphed into a visceral mass of metallic death, and we were forced back as the blades whistled and cut through the air and the roof. He shoulder checked Glory Girl, and slammed her face into the floor with near sadistic glee.
"He's too…experienced. I'm not sure we can beat him." I growled at Taylor's doubt, hands twitching for a more substantial weapon. I didn't because I was unsure how much escalation was warranted here. Because apparently guns are a sign that I'm not playing the game. But…perhaps a pistol is an exception, Tattletale went for it with Glory Girl in canon.
"Fuck it…" I closed in with an explosion of fire and manipulated air currents. I twisted in the air, and the air cracked as a round tore a crater in Hookwolf's arm. The man stumbled but wasn't overly hurt since I had toned down the mass of the round. I wasn't going to kill him after all…
There was a gleam in his eyes. "Interesting…" his voice was warped, clinking like sparking steel. Spears of metal were sent in my direction and an omni-shield took the hit. Hookwolf hunched onto all fours, his face slowly replaced by a muzzle. "You fight with fire and willingness to harm…I like that."
…
I'm going to break his face as many times as needed to never hear that tone of voice again. Three more bullets caught on both his arms and a single leg and he bounded with far greater speed than I expected.
I snapped my arm up just in time for the several hundred kilograms of monstrous blade wolf to hit the newly formed energy barrier. He used the shield as a board, hopping over it and slammed down onto my chest.
HOLY SH—
An unholy buzzing roar followed, and Hookwolf was beset by Queen once more, her eyes blazing blue. I curled into a ball, and with my long tucked in legs…I kicked the Changer in the stomach, fire flowing across his iron skin. He was sent flying over three meters, and Glory Girl attacked in midair. His head snapped back from an open palm strike, and he crashed back into the building. An ominous groan followed but the roof held.
"Fall…" Queen whispered in Hookwolf's ears, Victoria not noticing the oddity. The man flinched and the shard promptly unleashed half a dozen tendrils made of insects. They met the shifting form of the former illegal fighter head on, shattering and reforming to smash their organic mass into the opponent.
Is…is she channeling Taylor's airbending into her attacks?
I sighed when I heard Cricket throw herself back on her feet, though the poor woman even with her echolocation was too slow to avoid the near invisible web of carbon-tube enhanced spider silk. The drones twisted around her until she was wrapped in an inescapable bundle, and the fighter let out an inaudible groan. A spark knocked her out again…barely.
"It won't be that easy!" Hookwolf spun like a top, smashing both Taylor and Vicky back with a single rotation of his body. I shot at him but he replaced the lost metal quickly as he grew further until he was an eight foot monstrosity of blades.
He backhanded Glory Girl with a wide horrifying smile of sharpened iron and steel. With his longer legs he bounded and then crashed onto Taylor, and I instantly upped the power of the Sahara.
"GAH!" Taylor struggled under his weight, and with a snarl Hookwolf became pockmarked with craters.
"It's too bad…a girl like you would have made a fine addition to the Empire." I reached for my shotgun, deciding that this had gone on long enough.
The ground rumbled.
The battle changed when Hookwolf received a metric ton of concrete to the face. The projectile hit him like a battering ram, and the air shook as Hookwolf flew across the city in the direction of the Bay.
Wait…was that…?
I threw myself off the building, slowing my fall with airbending and blinking at the sudden lack of an undamaged alleyway. The ground had been scraped off, with chunks of mass taken out from the buildings themselves. Right in the middle of the destruction was Danny with his arms outstretched with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. Panacea was looking at him with a puzzled expression, resembling a confused fish.
"Oh shit." I already felt the presence of a third soul in the area, shining a forest green in all the glory of the ethereal. Danny looked down at his hands in surprise, opening and shutting them in repetition.
"Mr. Hebert?" Monarch glided down, hiding the hitch in her voice as she smoothly landed onto the ground.
Danny shook his head. "I-I'm fine, just a little out of it Monarch." His daughter's shoulders dropped, the worry leaving her for a second. It didn't last when she saw Panacea's expression.
"Hey you forgot someone!" GG came in like a bull in a china shop, holding Cricket by the scruff of her neck. Her smile slowly downturned at the moody atmosphere. "Hey what's wrong, we won't didn't we? Even if we didn't manage to catch anyone else." her whisper was too sharp for my helmet to not pick up the sound.
Taylor coughed. "Sorry you're not wrong, but that still could have ended up a lot better." The flying cape shrugged, and I decided that information was needed.
"Mr. Hebert could you clarify on what happened here? Monarch only told me that you were caught up in a cape fight." I already made a mental note to make more drones, I needed a more accurate perimeter with often capes got past my sensors. It was an unfortunate fact that while I could detect capes with my shardtech, Zion and Eden shards were different enough to confuse Veda's more distinct biology.
"Well…I had to stop on the road because my truck broke down," I could see the old beater sputtering away on the road. "From what I could see…I think Krieg and Rune were scouting the area. Then that was when Glory Girl showed up…"
"I thought they were going to attack you with how close they were getting," She sounded sheepish. "It helped that I was already dealing with some other gang members." Panacea's scowl told me there was more to the story.
"From what I could tell it was just a coincidence that Cricket was here, she might have been in her civilian garb before entering the fight." The might of been was definitely a yes if Taylor was saying it. Her perception was growing rapidly to the point of it being very nearly being combative precognition.
"And Hookwolf?" Panacea entered the conversation with the question.
"Cricket probably called him once things went south." I speculated as sirens began to ring, from what I was quite sure were PRT vehicles. Glory Girl went still, coming to some profound realization.
"Mom is going to kill me." The childish complaint broke the ice, and I laughed.
"Pfft…that's…definitely the most concerning part about this." Vicky's cheeks turned pink, and I laughed again. Glory Girl had some very strange priorities.
I pulled Cricket closer to me, evaluating her few injuries using my omni-tool's built in sensors. A bruise would form on her chest from where I hit her with the ion rifle, so I recommended a minor health check for later.
The sirens grew louder.
Well. It's time to face the music, let's see how I manage to deal with the PRT this time.
Basilia Rubio
I casually sauntered out into the open with Cricket in tow, her arms firmly shackled with reinforced zip ties. While they could easily hold her, I wasn't sure for how long. Quite a few PRT vehicles lingered about, and I could see the dusky toned woman wearing her uniform, with a red, white and blue bandanna covering her lower face. I recognized her as Miss Militia, and I could see her cool and wispy summoned weapon in her hand. She was talking to a few local Dockworkers, the men and woman speaking enthusiastically to the hero.
Well hopefully they vouch for me. Because this sudden escalation does not bode well for the future.
Miss Militia was the first to notice us, and her eyes marginally widening as they took me in. Taylor caught up, gently gliding with just a tiny hint of enthusiasm.
She stepped forward with a slight swaying of her hips, brimming with the natural confidence of a veteran. Hmm…her eyes were a rather pretty color…it made her more approachable than you would expect.
I also didn't know she wore a cool cowboy hat, somehow her accentuating military uniform mixed well with it.
"Hello! You're Miss Militia?" The woman smiled at the sound of my voice, and a tiny whisper told me I was talking to a real life superhero.
"I am, and you would be Erudition and Monarch?" The twinkle of amusement in her eyes alluded to the obviousness of the question.
"Yes." Taylor sounded just a tad excited though she was definitely tempering her hero worship.
"I would have liked to have met you in better circumstances, but life isn't always fair." I genuinely meant that, as I couldn't help but find myself a little charmed by the older woman.
"You seemed to have adapted just fine if that's really Cricket," god her voice was nice, a husky quality that left the back of my neck red. "As well as dealing with four members of the Empire." The compliment was an ego boost but I wouldn't let it get to my head. Especially with how few of them we had actually managed to capture…
"It wasn't easy at all though…even with Glory Girl with us, it was a hard fight." Taylor nodded slowly, her bugs finding purchase on her suit, or floating along streams of air.
Oh god what have I done…she can literally shoot spiders at people like a machine gun.
"We're also registered with the PRT if that helps." I fished out an ID kept safe in an armored pocket. Taylor did the same, and the corner of Miss Militia's eyes crinkled likely as a result of a smile. What a weird way to put it…crinkled like the hero sheet of paper.
She took a quick picture of our ID's, nodding her head in response.
"So how exactly did the two of you end up being caught up in a fight like this?" Her tone was deeply questioning, her need for information clear. Clarity was perfectly reasonable for the situation. So we would answer.
"I was patrolling when my bugs picked up that there was a fight going on, when I got a closer look I saw the fight was close to the DWU. I wasn't going to let Mr. Hebert get hurt under my watch." Her protective undertone was audible even to a social idiot like myself.
"I followed up, after shoring up my defenses just in case it was a distraction." The Forklift had been changed into a war machine with enormous kinetic shielding that would usually be seen only in IFV's and tanks. The motor was overhauled into a monster capable of propelling the Killdozer over 180 miles per hour. The kinetic barriers could take dozens of hits from an Abrams without shattering. Once it did lose its shielding, you would have to penetrate through its composite armor which was a quarter of a meter thick.
Yeah…the only Cape who could hurt it physically would be Lung, maybe Miss Militia and Armsmaster and…Weld actually.
"It escalated faster than you expected?" There was a hint of well earned experience in Miss Militia's voice.
"We think they were scouting the area, probably because of us." Ta—Monarch had a fair bit of contempt at the thought of the heat from the Empire or other gangs getting interested. I was going to up all the defenses…sensors, kinetic barriers, stunning weaponry if need be.
A few troopers approached and the conversation broke off, Cricket getting handed off to the PRT. The next minute passed in a comfortable silence, and from the corner of my vision I could see Glory Girl getting scolded by her mother, though she was apparently giving a hard time on Panacea for whatever reason.
I'm pretty sure Miss Militia was smiling again. "You both did very well since this is likely your first large scale cape fight." I nodded having to agree, I had pretty much been messed with by Mush and Squealer of all people. This time I had made off a little better, and took an Empire cape down for at least a while. We also hadn't instantly been shredded by Hookwolf which spoke well of our speed and durability.
"We got lucky. I almost got blindsided by Cricket when she ambushed me. But I'm a lot faster, and most people can only take so much venom. Or electricity." I pointed to my ion rifle, Miss Militia's eyes lighting up at the sight of the weapon. Her weapon flickered a bit, and I wondered if the unusual weapon had caught her interest.
The Protectorate cape cleared her throat, authority seeping into her stance and body language. "Would either of you be willing to provide more information at the PRT building?" Hannah talked carefully, as if she was unsure how to handle us.
"I can go," Taylor told her. "I've got some spare time, and I wouldn't want Erudition to geek out." I let out a squeak, embarrassment rising at the teasing lilt.
"Monarch!" She cheekily tilted her head, and I angrily folded her arms unable to come up with a comeback.
Everything moved quickly after that, Miss Militia giving a firm handshake before leaving with Taylor in a PRT van.
"Ahem?" I whirled around, and bumped into the chest of Danny, his face stern and serious.
Right.
That elephant in the room.
Basilia Rubio
I absently stirred the spoon as I made myself some chocolate milk with Bet brand syrup and milk. Danny was on the other end of the table in a break room that was clean and orderly in comparison to my primary workshop. He fiddled with crumpled stone, freely experimenting with his limited control over the element of substance.
"When were you going to mention that there was something happening to me?" Danny didn't sound as angry as before, but the bitter disappointment did hurt in a number of ways. One that while his parenting hadn't been the best it was obvious he was finally getting himself out of whatever rut had been left in after all this time.
"I wasn't sure what it was…and I got distracted with everything. I was really busy… and I should have realized that there would be consequences of some kind for my inattentiveness. I'm sorry." I stirred harder, venting some of my frustration with myself. I had never been a very good multitasker and it shaped how I worked in this world.
Danny sighed, letting the stone hit the ground once he released his metaphysical grip. "Have you thought about delegating more? It's obvious you're doing a little much for just one person."
I nodded. "I have…I thought Taylor might be a good fit, though some additional help besides her would be helpful." Two people were better, but I would still need more, if I didn't go the automated VI route.
"Taylor?" He didn't seem skeptical so much as curious. Honesty is the best policy here.
"I'll be truthful…I'm not really the type to boss people around but Taylor is," I thought back to a few incidents with the Dockworkers that she helped smooth over. "She is good at running and managing things in a way that I will never match. Taylor is a little shy but that's not natural for her. When she gets confident enough…she's quite good with people."
The only thing she needed was a minder so she wouldn't self delude herself into a coma.
"Guess she takes a lot after her old man huh?" He sounded happy to hear that, his smile nostalgic and…sad.
"Yeah she does." I sipped quietly, and Danny got the courage to speak once more.
"Am I the only person getting affected like this?" He bent the element of earth, his worry creasing his forehead.
I purse my lips, pulling back my bangs rather than letting them sit. "I doubt that very much, I'm not even sure I'm completely the cause of it myself. I think it's just a consequence of whatever brought me here. I just seem to speed it up, the only guess is that I'm here to keep things under control."
"Under control?"
I rubbed my aching head. "Danny there are maybe a few hundred thousand Parahumans on this planet, and that was more than enough to destabilize human civilization." I was brutally grave in my assessment. "My memory states that 20% of humanity will gain superpowers, which is actually 100% since even non benders have inhuman abilities due to the presence of the soul." That was a general statistic, another remnant of the ancient species documented within Veda.
"That would…" he gasped as the implications sunk in. Armies of superhumans would be able to rise up, and the rapid change could easily weaken humanity just as much as it could strengthen us.
There was quiet between us, and a spark lit up in Danny's eyes.
"What?" I asked.
"Could you teach me…teach me how to use this?"
Pebbles lifted with his arm.
"No." His expression dropped.
"It's time, isn't it? There's only so many hours in the day." His hands tightened into balls.
"But I could give you some information, as well as an idea of where to start from," he perked up visibly. "You'll have to learn this on your own for now."
"Could you start now?"
I gave a thumbs up, smiling behind my hand. "Alright then…Danny…earth is the element of substance, it's users are…"
___
Permutation 2.6
March 9th, 2011. 2:30 PM
Basilia Rubio
The paperwork and contracts had cut through the red tape at a much faster pace than I expected. Which was why I was now overseeing a few test runs of the basic exoskeletal platform I was selling to the Association. Fortunately the assistive robotics industry was underdeveloped enough and my machines simple enough that I didn't get into any trouble with making money off of it. But that didn't mean that everything ran smoothly.
Not at all in fact. Turns out training people is like herding cats.
THUMP!
I growled and slapped the thigh of a Dockworker, a big strong meathead who had been gifted with one of the larger and tougher suits. The guy was already about Taylor's height but had at least a good twenty five kilogram on her. And she certainly isn't the stick figure she thinks she is, which makes the guy big. With the suit, he stood about two meters in height, the exoskeleton wrapping around him in a protective bubble of metal, plastic, and ceramic rated for chemical and biological hazards.Due to its cheapness it lacked many of the amenities that a Eezo powered suit would have, for example it followed the movements of its users to reduce the strain on the simpler and less effective optronic computer. Which while it was at least a decade and a half more advanced than what the average joe would have, it was not outside the reach of certain research groups who were slowly picking apart the principles of Tinkertech.
Very slowly.
The second thunk got my full attention and I slapped the man's thigh for a second time. He looked at me with a sheepish expression behind his visor.
"Joe…I would very much like you to not try to play party tricks with the high powered industrial machinery I've let you borrow. Especially one capable of deadlifting three tons and requiring kilowatts of power." I watched in disbelief as Joe gently and slowly placed down the 500 kilogram mass of twisted metal. It still resounded with a metallic ring as it was dropped.
The Warden was a nasty piece of work, weighing about 150 kilograms and using a mix of hydraulics and silicone myomer muscles. However it's been specifically constructed to be slow and meticulous in its movements for general work safety. It could have either highly articulate mechanical fingers or various tools in a highly modular setup.
It came in different models, with just the exoskeleton itself being the cheapest model. For more hazardous environments it had plates and aramid fabric highly resistant to acid, biological destruction, heat, fire, plasma, water and pressure.
The armor was about three times as strong as modern super steel alloys, so around…6…7 gigapascals of tensile strength?
The armored behemoth chuckled nervously and I glared at him from behind my visor. While the armor was more than capable of lifting enormous weight, that was more due to my own overzealousness than an actual need. With the exoskeleton, the dock workers could operate for much longer as well as keeping themselves much healthier without the constant strain of repetitive high mass lifting movements.
The cost of the thing was low even if I used 'modern' tech at about ten thousand, but for my own manufacturing it went down to about six thousand. Which sounds expensive until you realize forklifts cost up to 30k and exoskeletons back home cost ten times that amount and are leased.
"Sorry boss, it's just this thing is amazing," he hopped from foot to foot, a quarter ton of mass lifted into the air with little issue. Then I registered his words…
"Don't call me boss, I'm your supplier and nothing more." I cocked a hip, hoping my voice would convey my dislike for the term. It felt…strange to be anyone's boss.
Joe lifted his visor, his chiseled face brimming with amusement. "You know out of context that sounds kind of bad." I stiffened and I slapped him for the third time. The armor sounded loudly with the amount of force I applied, and Joe winced.
"Joe?" I smiled and enjoyed the trepidation the employee exuded.
"W-What?"
I poked him in the chest, standing on the tip of my toes to reach him. "Shut up would you? I still have a bit more testing before our little contract is finalized. I'll have a few dozen suits ready within a week."
"Okay." He stepped away, the machine whirring with the pump of high pressure oil, and the flexing of reinforced electroactive siloxane. I tried to brush my hair with my fingers until I remembered I had a helmet on.
Maybe I should make a more open design? Then again this suit was built for protection and defense not PR.
The past few days had passed rather comfortably, with most of the work involving getting Athena up and running and the occasional patrol around certain parts of the Docks. Crime had suffered a drop in activity though it was quite small, since my mass drone use was operating quite well. Though I had to take care to not break any laws by accident. I also tended to take control of the drones myself to make sure that everything was done to code.
I did patrol heavily though because while I had made my little toys as cute as possible, the public still needed a face to the hero and all of that PR garbage. Taylor or Monarch(such a cool name) had started her own patrols when she wasn't either training, studying or doing her own things. Anything that didn't involve that was hanging out with me, or with…Amy.
Though I'll honestly put it at the same level as where Taylor and I had been about two months ago. Sort of sitting next to each other and periodically conversing for a few minutes before becoming quiet. It felt oddly stereotypical but it wasn't like they were sudden best friends either, and at the rate they were going, I doubt they would be best friends within a year. But it didn't make me feel any less uneasy however.
I had no issue with Taylor making friends but I also didn't know how healthy a friendship could be had between them. I'm not even sure a friendship between her and I would be healthy with how much I knew about her. Taylor was slightly more stable since she lacked a conflict drive but still had at least a few independent neuroses. Hopefully they would not end up defining her life, that she would be able to overcome them. But I wasn't going to baby her anyhow…it's not my job and she can make her own decisions.
Besides best case scenario we get a new friend who'll be more stable because she talks with people who aren't family, patients or other Parahumans she doesn't like.
Can't forget her incestious and slightly obsessive feelings for her sister.
Yeah…that's a huge can of worms I very much do not want to bring up for a number of reasons.
RING! RING!
An alert knocked me out of my introspection, and I quickly answered the emergency call from Taylor.
"Hola que pasa?" I flinched at the use of Spanish, and I couldn't remember the last time I had actively spoken in it outside of the few dreams I remembered.
"We have a problem." I felt relief when Taylor ignored my slip up, but her concern made me lose it.
"What's going on? Did something happen?" I fingered the ion rifle, fire flaring in my left hand at the same time.
"I…sighted Rune and Krieg fighting Glory Girl, Panacea is close by…next to my dad." I shuddered at the lack of emotion that Taylor was emitting then, and a quick look illustrated her anger. Thousands of flying insects swarmed together, very subtly glowing with multidimensional energy.
"Fuck…where are you?" I asked, and sped up into a rapid wind enhanced sprint. I accelerated quickly, and my HUD instantly displayed her coordinates. I bounced, hitting more than 60 miles an hour with nothing but the force of the wind alone.
"On the roof, I'm already attacking with my swarm…but they aren't doing much. I don't think Glory Girl knows I'm here since she's dealing with Rune an—SHIT!" There was a rush of air as Taylor, the speakers pick up high frequency sounds.
"Cricket?" I swiftly activated a multitude of defenses that I had installed in the new warehouse I had for initial testing of my products for the DWU.
"Cricket…" Taylor huffed, and I launched myself more than fifty feet in the air with a blast of wind. I reached all the way to the top of a warehouse and finally sighted the fight itself.
Glory Girl and Rune circled around each other, Rune staying in the air with a makeshift piece of rubble. The little nazi girl snarled and insulted the taller and older blonde, all the while throwing rubble and projectiles at high speed, slamming into Vicky's shields at full force.
Krieg was having a hard time himself, and swatted stinging insects aside, negating the effectiveness but still taking a good amount of venom into his system. The bugs were slowing…until they coalesced into a solid mass of chitin. Once again snapping together into a roughly two meter cloud of arthropods.
The pseudo-projection shrieked and threw itself at Krieg with fervor.
Don't just watch get moving!
I hopped the distance between buildings, lifting my ion rifle and making use of the BattleNet system recently installed and calibrated for use. This was at the same time I launched myself with another airbending boost.
Aim…ready…fire.
BWOOM!
The beam crossed twenty meters in only a few milliseconds, and Rune collapsed like a puppet on strings. Normally this would have resulted in an untimely end…if I wasn't there to catch her.
Glory Girl looked at me in shock, her aura flaring up, bypassing my kinetic barrier but oddly enough having trouble with the sporadic biotic Barrier.
Still haven't figured anything out besides pull and push…
"Hello there Glory Girl!" I raced past her with Rune in tow, landing on the subsequent warehouse. I rather uncouthly dropped the teenage girl, the Nazi twitching after the blast of short lived electrons.
She blinked. "Uh hi?" I waved at her shyly, turning my attention to my partner in heroic and business endeavors.
Well…Taylor has certainly picked up the elegance and softness of airbending into her combat style.
Both Cricket and Taylor fought in a dance of death, weaving between each other's attacks with ease. The blonde Nazi's kamas sliced through the air at incredible speed, yet Taylor avoided them with spiraling movements, her feet lifting off the ground for moments at a time. Any time that Cricket got a hit in, Taylor parried with a short laser steel blade. The scythes chipped and sparked any time they made contact with the knife, and Cricket would immediately get blasted away by gusts of compressed air.
We hadn't had enough time to get Taylor up to the task of using a gun. Though she was surprisingly skilled with bladed weaponry.
It gave my mind a few ideas…scary ideas.
EEEEEEE!
A high pitched shriek vibrated my armor and was muffled by it once it took hold. Nausea almost hit me, and it definitely hit Glory Girl for a second.
Taylor stumbled, and Cricket launched forward with her scythes in hand…only to take hundreds of insects to the face, riding a stream of air in a tornado of legs, eyes and antennae.
"Holy shit…" Glory Girl cursed when Cricket let out a cry of pain as hundreds of spiders covered her body, biting her but without using their venom if the lack of death convulsions wasn't obvious. "Did she just…?"
I snorted and the blonde looked affronted. "Cricket is fine, you know most spider bites don't have venom in them right?" Glory Girl shut her mouth, though she still looked a little queasy at the sight of Cricket as she collapsed. Another shriek tore the swarm away but the damage was done. Then the nazi Parahuman fighter smirked…
"PARAHUMAN PROXIMITY ALERT!" A man covered in blades emerged from the shadows and Monarch weaved past a spear like arm aiming for her skull.
WHY THE FUCK ARE FOUR EMPIRE CAPES SHOWING UP!
"Hookwolf!" Glory Girl glanced at me and I nodded, air displacing as she flew, her skirt fluttering in the wind. I looked down to the fight below, my lips quirking as Queen held Krieg down, dispestrings of silk until the kinetic manipulator was cocooned in high strength extruded biomaterial.
Queen gave a thumbs up, and with a slight tilt of my gun another arc caught Krieg in the face. He twitched for a few seconds before passing out. Once that was done, I joined the fray leaving three drones including Squishy to protect Danny and Amy.
Hookwolf had bulked up, resembling less a man and more a canine blender as he came at GG and Taylor relentlessly. His blades rebounded from Vicky's shield, but never succeeded in hitting Taylor in the first place. His claws were slow enough to go through her kinetic barrier, but wouldn't leave a scratch on the chitin. I felt vindicated in adding shock absorbers to keep her from being pulped by the amount of force that Hookwolf was throwing out.
Though to be fair his claws would only cut her skin at best due to her superhuman toughness. I mean Ty Lee could jump 70 feet in the air as a non bender soo—quit getting distracted!
My reflexes kicked in and I ducked under a scythe only to take a rapid kick to the head…which did nothing. Cricket hissed but still tried for another cut, which I promptly denied. I grabbed a kama and with little mercy started squeezing. The metal bent at the handle, and firebending promptly warped the metal with heat.
"You!" Her voice turned into a hacking cough as I slammed the ion rifle into her chest, the athletic woman being pushed back several feet.
BWOOM!
Cricket slumped on the floor, and I smirked. Though that turned into a frown when I found that Rune had gone missing. I had used a lower setting on her because of her size but I must have miscalculated. So she had likely escaped, though fortunately she wasn't anywhere near Danny and Panacea. Though I had my doubts she would try anything for her own safety. Attacking the best healer in the city sounded like a horrible idea.
Oh…and Krieg is gone too…though now that I'm thinking about it, Rune probably took him. Though how the 12 year old picked him was a little difficult to imagine until I remembered she was telekinetic. So she probably just used her powers to…
There was a rotten smell in the air. Had I seen something move? A shadow…?
…
I shivered, and tried to look around for whatever had given me that feeling of dread. When I found nothing, I shook my head and returned to a far more pertinent situation. This was the literal worst time to her distracted…
Back to Hookwolf then…and let's send two more drones to keep an eye on Cricket. The fight hadn't slowed for even a moment, with Hookwolf acting like a whirlwind of knives and spears. Glory Girl and Monarch had different strategies, the flying brick taking hits head on while the airbender circled and twisted her body with every attack. Unfortunately his sheer mass made blowing him off the building rather difficult. Only the Dallon sister with actual brute powers could inflict any real damage to the steel covered wolf man.
Each of her punches dented and bent metal, enormous amounts of force being thrown wildly. Not that Glory Girl lacked skill, no she was lashing out with very effective attacks even if Taylor was better at dodging.
Yeah…I'm going to get Taylor a more potent weapon than a sharp knife.
I lowered into a stance, and flames were conjured up from my breath and inner energy. I swirled my arms, fire gathering and then intensified as I charged the attack. The fire grew in size and power, and with a straight punch it was shot out like a bullet.
Taylor and Vicky both moved out of the way, already warned by Taylor's wide range of senses. Which was what I was counting on.
Hookwolf howled as his steel skin was warped by intense heat, and then thrown back by the kinetic impact of the fire attack. He threw out metallic tendrils, lashing out with slashes from his blade shaped fingers.
I closed in, and with false bravado bent streams of fire and exploding balls of heat into the Changer's face. He hissed in pain, and became more distorted as he grabbed more mass from his core. He stepped up his game, and I quickly realized why he was so dangerous.
He morphed into a visceral mass of metallic death, and we were forced back as the blades whistled and cut through the air and the roof. He shoulder checked Glory Girl, and slammed her face into the floor with near sadistic glee.
"He's too…experienced. I'm not sure we can beat him." I growled at Taylor's doubt, hands twitching for a more substantial weapon. I didn't because I was unsure how much escalation was warranted here. Because apparently guns are a sign that I'm not playing the game. But…perhaps a pistol is an exception, Tattletale went for it with Glory Girl in canon.
"Fuck it…" I closed in with an explosion of fire and manipulated air currents. I twisted in the air, and the air cracked as a round tore a crater in Hookwolf's arm. The man stumbled but wasn't overly hurt since I had toned down the mass of the round. I wasn't going to kill him after all…
There was a gleam in his eyes. "Interesting…" his voice was warped, clinking like sparking steel. Spears of metal were sent in my direction and an omni-shield took the hit. Hookwolf hunched onto all fours, his face slowly replaced by a muzzle. "You fight with fire and willingness to harm…I like that."
…
I'm going to break his face as many times as needed to never hear that tone of voice again. Three more bullets caught on both his arms and a single leg and he bounded with far greater speed than I expected.
I snapped my arm up just in time for the several hundred kilograms of monstrous blade wolf to hit the newly formed energy barrier. He used the shield as a board, hopping over it and slammed down onto my chest.
HOLY SH—
An unholy buzzing roar followed, and Hookwolf was beset by Queen once more, her eyes blazing blue. I curled into a ball, and with my long tucked in legs…I kicked the Changer in the stomach, fire flowing across his iron skin. He was sent flying over three meters, and Glory Girl attacked in midair. His head snapped back from an open palm strike, and he crashed back into the building. An ominous groan followed but the roof held.
"Fall…" Queen whispered in Hookwolf's ears, Victoria not noticing the oddity. The man flinched and the shard promptly unleashed half a dozen tendrils made of insects. They met the shifting form of the former illegal fighter head on, shattering and reforming to smash their organic mass into the opponent.
Is…is she channeling Taylor's airbending into her attacks?
I sighed when I heard Cricket throw herself back on her feet, though the poor woman even with her echolocation was too slow to avoid the near invisible web of carbon-tube enhanced spider silk. The drones twisted around her until she was wrapped in an inescapable bundle, and the fighter let out an inaudible groan. A spark knocked her out again…barely.
"It won't be that easy!" Hookwolf spun like a top, smashing both Taylor and Vicky back with a single rotation of his body. I shot at him but he replaced the lost metal quickly as he grew further until he was an eight foot monstrosity of blades.
He backhanded Glory Girl with a wide horrifying smile of sharpened iron and steel. With his longer legs he bounded and then crashed onto Taylor, and I instantly upped the power of the Sahara.
"GAH!" Taylor struggled under his weight, and with a snarl Hookwolf became pockmarked with craters.
"It's too bad…a girl like you would have made a fine addition to the Empire." I reached for my shotgun, deciding that this had gone on long enough.
The ground rumbled.
The battle changed when Hookwolf received a metric ton of concrete to the face. The projectile hit him like a battering ram, and the air shook as Hookwolf flew across the city in the direction of the Bay.
Wait…was that…?
I threw myself off the building, slowing my fall with airbending and blinking at the sudden lack of an undamaged alleyway. The ground had been scraped off, with chunks of mass taken out from the buildings themselves. Right in the middle of the destruction was Danny with his arms outstretched with wide eyes and a dropped jaw. Panacea was looking at him with a puzzled expression, resembling a confused fish.
"Oh shit." I already felt the presence of a third soul in the area, shining a forest green in all the glory of the ethereal. Danny looked down at his hands in surprise, opening and shutting them in repetition.
"Mr. Hebert?" Monarch glided down, hiding the hitch in her voice as she smoothly landed onto the ground.
Danny shook his head. "I-I'm fine, just a little out of it Monarch." His daughter's shoulders dropped, the worry leaving her for a second. It didn't last when she saw Panacea's expression.
"Hey you forgot someone!" GG came in like a bull in a china shop, holding Cricket by the scruff of her neck. Her smile slowly downturned at the moody atmosphere. "Hey what's wrong, we won't didn't we? Even if we didn't manage to catch anyone else." her whisper was too sharp for my helmet to not pick up the sound.
Taylor coughed. "Sorry you're not wrong, but that still could have ended up a lot better." The flying cape shrugged, and I decided that information was needed.
"Mr. Hebert could you clarify on what happened here? Monarch only told me that you were caught up in a cape fight." I already made a mental note to make more drones, I needed a more accurate perimeter with often capes got past my sensors. It was an unfortunate fact that while I could detect capes with my shardtech, Zion and Eden shards were different enough to confuse Veda's more distinct biology.
"Well…I had to stop on the road because my truck broke down," I could see the old beater sputtering away on the road. "From what I could see…I think Krieg and Rune were scouting the area. Then that was when Glory Girl showed up…"
"I thought they were going to attack you with how close they were getting," She sounded sheepish. "It helped that I was already dealing with some other gang members." Panacea's scowl told me there was more to the story.
"From what I could tell it was just a coincidence that Cricket was here, she might have been in her civilian garb before entering the fight." The might of been was definitely a yes if Taylor was saying it. Her perception was growing rapidly to the point of it being very nearly being combative precognition.
"And Hookwolf?" Panacea entered the conversation with the question.
"Cricket probably called him once things went south." I speculated as sirens began to ring, from what I was quite sure were PRT vehicles. Glory Girl went still, coming to some profound realization.
"Mom is going to kill me." The childish complaint broke the ice, and I laughed.
"Pfft…that's…definitely the most concerning part about this." Vicky's cheeks turned pink, and I laughed again. Glory Girl had some very strange priorities.
I pulled Cricket closer to me, evaluating her few injuries using my omni-tool's built in sensors. A bruise would form on her chest from where I hit her with the ion rifle, so I recommended a minor health check for later.
The sirens grew louder.
Well. It's time to face the music, let's see how I manage to deal with the PRT this time.
___
March 9th, 2011. 2:45 PM
Basilia Rubio
I casually sauntered out into the open with Cricket in tow, her arms firmly shackled with reinforced zip ties. While they could easily hold her, I wasn't sure for how long. Quite a few PRT vehicles lingered about, and I could see the dusky toned woman wearing her uniform, with a red, white and blue bandanna covering her lower face. I recognized her as Miss Militia, and I could see her cool and wispy summoned weapon in her hand. She was talking to a few local Dockworkers, the men and woman speaking enthusiastically to the hero.
Well hopefully they vouch for me. Because this sudden escalation does not bode well for the future.
Miss Militia was the first to notice us, and her eyes marginally widening as they took me in. Taylor caught up, gently gliding with just a tiny hint of enthusiasm.
She stepped forward with a slight swaying of her hips, brimming with the natural confidence of a veteran. Hmm…her eyes were a rather pretty color…it made her more approachable than you would expect.
I also didn't know she wore a cool cowboy hat, somehow her accentuating military uniform mixed well with it.
"Hello! You're Miss Militia?" The woman smiled at the sound of my voice, and a tiny whisper told me I was talking to a real life superhero.
"I am, and you would be Erudition and Monarch?" The twinkle of amusement in her eyes alluded to the obviousness of the question.
"Yes." Taylor sounded just a tad excited though she was definitely tempering her hero worship.
"I would have liked to have met you in better circumstances, but life isn't always fair." I genuinely meant that, as I couldn't help but find myself a little charmed by the older woman.
"You seemed to have adapted just fine if that's really Cricket," god her voice was nice, a husky quality that left the back of my neck red. "As well as dealing with four members of the Empire." The compliment was an ego boost but I wouldn't let it get to my head. Especially with how few of them we had actually managed to capture…
"It wasn't easy at all though…even with Glory Girl with us, it was a hard fight." Taylor nodded slowly, her bugs finding purchase on her suit, or floating along streams of air.
Oh god what have I done…she can literally shoot spiders at people like a machine gun.
"We're also registered with the PRT if that helps." I fished out an ID kept safe in an armored pocket. Taylor did the same, and the corner of Miss Militia's eyes crinkled likely as a result of a smile. What a weird way to put it…crinkled like the hero sheet of paper.
She took a quick picture of our ID's, nodding her head in response.
"So how exactly did the two of you end up being caught up in a fight like this?" Her tone was deeply questioning, her need for information clear. Clarity was perfectly reasonable for the situation. So we would answer.
"I was patrolling when my bugs picked up that there was a fight going on, when I got a closer look I saw the fight was close to the DWU. I wasn't going to let Mr. Hebert get hurt under my watch." Her protective undertone was audible even to a social idiot like myself.
"I followed up, after shoring up my defenses just in case it was a distraction." The Forklift had been changed into a war machine with enormous kinetic shielding that would usually be seen only in IFV's and tanks. The motor was overhauled into a monster capable of propelling the Killdozer over 180 miles per hour. The kinetic barriers could take dozens of hits from an Abrams without shattering. Once it did lose its shielding, you would have to penetrate through its composite armor which was a quarter of a meter thick.
Yeah…the only Cape who could hurt it physically would be Lung, maybe Miss Militia and Armsmaster and…Weld actually.
"It escalated faster than you expected?" There was a hint of well earned experience in Miss Militia's voice.
"We think they were scouting the area, probably because of us." Ta—Monarch had a fair bit of contempt at the thought of the heat from the Empire or other gangs getting interested. I was going to up all the defenses…sensors, kinetic barriers, stunning weaponry if need be.
A few troopers approached and the conversation broke off, Cricket getting handed off to the PRT. The next minute passed in a comfortable silence, and from the corner of my vision I could see Glory Girl getting scolded by her mother, though she was apparently giving a hard time on Panacea for whatever reason.
I'm pretty sure Miss Militia was smiling again. "You both did very well since this is likely your first large scale cape fight." I nodded having to agree, I had pretty much been messed with by Mush and Squealer of all people. This time I had made off a little better, and took an Empire cape down for at least a while. We also hadn't instantly been shredded by Hookwolf which spoke well of our speed and durability.
"We got lucky. I almost got blindsided by Cricket when she ambushed me. But I'm a lot faster, and most people can only take so much venom. Or electricity." I pointed to my ion rifle, Miss Militia's eyes lighting up at the sight of the weapon. Her weapon flickered a bit, and I wondered if the unusual weapon had caught her interest.
The Protectorate cape cleared her throat, authority seeping into her stance and body language. "Would either of you be willing to provide more information at the PRT building?" Hannah talked carefully, as if she was unsure how to handle us.
"I can go," Taylor told her. "I've got some spare time, and I wouldn't want Erudition to geek out." I let out a squeak, embarrassment rising at the teasing lilt.
"Monarch!" She cheekily tilted her head, and I angrily folded her arms unable to come up with a comeback.
Everything moved quickly after that, Miss Militia giving a firm handshake before leaving with Taylor in a PRT van.
"Ahem?" I whirled around, and bumped into the chest of Danny, his face stern and serious.
Right.
That elephant in the room.
___
March 9th, 2011. 3:20 PM
Basilia Rubio
I absently stirred the spoon as I made myself some chocolate milk with Bet brand syrup and milk. Danny was on the other end of the table in a break room that was clean and orderly in comparison to my primary workshop. He fiddled with crumpled stone, freely experimenting with his limited control over the element of substance.
"When were you going to mention that there was something happening to me?" Danny didn't sound as angry as before, but the bitter disappointment did hurt in a number of ways. One that while his parenting hadn't been the best it was obvious he was finally getting himself out of whatever rut had been left in after all this time.
"I wasn't sure what it was…and I got distracted with everything. I was really busy… and I should have realized that there would be consequences of some kind for my inattentiveness. I'm sorry." I stirred harder, venting some of my frustration with myself. I had never been a very good multitasker and it shaped how I worked in this world.
Danny sighed, letting the stone hit the ground once he released his metaphysical grip. "Have you thought about delegating more? It's obvious you're doing a little much for just one person."
I nodded. "I have…I thought Taylor might be a good fit, though some additional help besides her would be helpful." Two people were better, but I would still need more, if I didn't go the automated VI route.
"Taylor?" He didn't seem skeptical so much as curious. Honesty is the best policy here.
"I'll be truthful…I'm not really the type to boss people around but Taylor is," I thought back to a few incidents with the Dockworkers that she helped smooth over. "She is good at running and managing things in a way that I will never match. Taylor is a little shy but that's not natural for her. When she gets confident enough…she's quite good with people."
The only thing she needed was a minder so she wouldn't self delude herself into a coma.
"Guess she takes a lot after her old man huh?" He sounded happy to hear that, his smile nostalgic and…sad.
"Yeah she does." I sipped quietly, and Danny got the courage to speak once more.
"Am I the only person getting affected like this?" He bent the element of earth, his worry creasing his forehead.
I purse my lips, pulling back my bangs rather than letting them sit. "I doubt that very much, I'm not even sure I'm completely the cause of it myself. I think it's just a consequence of whatever brought me here. I just seem to speed it up, the only guess is that I'm here to keep things under control."
"Under control?"
I rubbed my aching head. "Danny there are maybe a few hundred thousand Parahumans on this planet, and that was more than enough to destabilize human civilization." I was brutally grave in my assessment. "My memory states that 20% of humanity will gain superpowers, which is actually 100% since even non benders have inhuman abilities due to the presence of the soul." That was a general statistic, another remnant of the ancient species documented within Veda.
"That would…" he gasped as the implications sunk in. Armies of superhumans would be able to rise up, and the rapid change could easily weaken humanity just as much as it could strengthen us.
There was quiet between us, and a spark lit up in Danny's eyes.
"What?" I asked.
"Could you teach me…teach me how to use this?"
Pebbles lifted with his arm.
"No." His expression dropped.
"It's time, isn't it? There's only so many hours in the day." His hands tightened into balls.
"But I could give you some information, as well as an idea of where to start from," he perked up visibly. "You'll have to learn this on your own for now."
"Could you start now?"
I gave a thumbs up, smiling behind my hand. "Alright then…Danny…earth is the element of substance, it's users are…"
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