Dragon sighed over her current situation.
Armsmaster was sitting, silently sulking.
"You said he encountered the Merchants?"
"Yes"
"Let me guess, all insane and rambling about worms?"
"Well, at least he only encountered them. The merchants are practically nobodies who ruin peoples lives, and have little control over the city. Still, we should try to avoid contact with the more dangerous gangs and him. He could cause chaos"
Hazard was a strange character. Simply content to wander around, the slightest threat to him always ended badly for the aggressors. He would often say something, and that ended with whoever heard of it insane. The only known way to reverse it was to wipe the mind of the victim of the event. They ended up dragging a ward all the way to Brockton Bay just to deal with those cases. Sometimes, one could hold a conversation with Hazard, who was apparently quite amiable though it was likely that that mood could change easily.
Of course, someone had the bright idea to think, Hey, what if we wore something to block all sound, that would make him easy to defeat! to which Hazard lifted out a book which just so happened to have the same effect as him speaking about whatever knowledge he imparted except with the added benefit of merely viewing it causing the effect.
She was the only one who could theoretically survive an encounter with him, but barely. Him talking had her hear it as a mass of censored beeping, and as for the book itself, well, she calculated that if she perceived it for more than 17.2 seconds she would shut down and be forced to move on to the next suit. She couldn't even see the book itself, only viewing a mass of blurry pixels that caused harm.
The book was also apparently bulletproof, as evidenced by the numerous shots that would stop dead when hitting it.
Of course, with her resistance, she had the pleasure of being the only one to censor any and all recordings of Hazard. Her excuse was a particularly powerful, one of a kind censor machine. Clockblocker had joked that she was becoming Leet, only to be slapped by his teammates for saying that in front of the Dragon.
Little was known about Hazard, and the PRT's theory (which happened to be hers too) was that when he triggered, all knowledge regarding him disappeared or became a cognitohazard. Thank god those who were insane didn't communicate what ever they learned, so it wasn't a memetic hazard. That would be a quick way for Hazard to become an S-class threat in seconds.
It did, however, bring her here. The PRT had asked her to come to Brockton bay for at least a little while, and she had decided that she could use a break from her current area. The Dragonslayers had followed her like a particularly stubborn barnacle to a rock, of course, but she was quite sure that she could handle them.
She breathed a deep breath in and prepared to exit the PRT-ENE headquarters.
Dragon landed in beside Hazard, who was staring out into the sea, standing in the middle of a rocky "beach". Hazard looked to his side and the sounds of heavy breath that were emitted by his suit were interrupted by a laugh.
"Hazard" she said, "The PRT would like to have a talk"
"By which you mean that you will be the spokesperson, therefore I will only be talking to you... Well, what do want to know? Don't worry I won't try to make you go insane. I know you are immune to that. Wait. Is it possible to make you insane? What with your... origins, I wouldn't know."
Words that were stated casually, but had a profound effect nonetheless.
Dragon stood stock still at his statements.
"I don't know what you're talking about, though the PRT thanks you for your cooperation" She uttered those words while making sure to keep them level. Did he know? Well, he was certainly getting a thinker rating.
He nodded "Right, sorry about that I have trouble keeping secrets that I know, and secrets aren't often meant to be known." he paused "What do you want to know?"
Dragon conveyed her happiness at how well this was going through the use of her voice. "Excellent! Now I am going to assume that you don't want to reveal your identity so-"
He threw something at her, and she caught it, looking down at it it was a passport, specifically, a Canadian passport, one that appeared to be legitimate. She decided to risk opening at and was met with the sight of something blurred.
"I would have gotten my other passport from my home country, but, well, it isn't with me and I don't know where it is. Sad, seeing as to the fact that I am proud of my homeland. Can you read it?"
"No"
He let out a heavy sigh "..Shame. Perhaps it's for the better that I don't have my other one. I suppose singing it's national anthem will suffice."
"Your Canadian passport passes all checks, though I can't extract any other information out of it. Do you have a family or friends you could contact?"
"I already tried. No answer. Not even sure how I got to this city, honestly. I suspect that all of my contacts are... no longer available." There was a somber tone to his statement.
"I'm sorry," she said sympathetically "well, do you desire to join the protectorate?"
Hazard let out a sound that closely resembled a snort "Are you sure that I won't end up in a containment cell for the rest of my life?"
"I'm sure it won't come to that. We can negotiate something."
"No chance of having to deal with Shadow Stalker? I don't want to wake up in a locker full of... expired human excretions."
The reply made Dragon pause. "What do you mean by that?"
"Look into the matter of a girl named Taylor Hebert. Perhaps you should also look into who is in the same school as her. Look at a certain incident involving a locker, and you will find what I call criminal negligence. I could probably take her however, though I would make a trip to the hardware store and get a battery and some wires first."
Hazard was certainly getting a decent thinker rating.
"I will look into these matters. Is there anything else dissuading you from joining the protectorate?"
"Yes. How am I going to be used? Am I going to sit all day as the terror of the city while sleeping on a couch? I want to do something, else I get restless. I also want to not stick to areas with minimal crime, while I could be helping in those with more"
"We can make an agreement on that, yes, though you must understand, making people go insane with words isn't a... very liked power."
She suspected he smiled at that statement, though she couldn't see his face. "Hey, well, if I somehow gain enough recommendations, at least I know the Canadian national anthem if I desire to join the guild."
She let out a snort to signify that she had heard him.
"Well, Hazard, this I'm glad this is going well so far."
"Huh. That's my title? Well, its much better than I thought. Anyway, I'll think about visiting the building and maybe joining."
Dragon felt a surge of relief. "It's good that we came to an agreement. Try not to set anyone insane. Please."
"Only if they don't attack me. Oh and by the way, Leviathan should attack Brockton at..." He removed his backpack and rummaged through it, and after a second pulled out a piece of paper "this date."
Dragon stood disbelieving.
2011, 05, 15
The PRT was in chaos. Hazard's words were mostly ignored and he became a bit of a meme, much to said man's chagrin. (Although some like Dragon did partially prepare. Of course, when the day came and the sirens started blaring, everyone was forced to believe him.)
Not that he wasn't not right before.
Kid Win was practically set to praise him on his mere mention since discovering his specialty and he had formally enraged a now quietly detained Shadow Stalker. Dragon was highly disgusted at the girls actions.
Despite that, no one was very convinced that some random thinker finally was able to predict Endbringer attacks. Everyone thought he was either delusional, insane or a liar. Armsmaster's predictor proved everyone wrong.
He clearly wasn't, and Dragon suspected that every country would attempt to get their hands on him after this.
After wasn't right now, though, as everyone was trying to survive an Endbringer attack.
Dragon disliked Leviathan the most, though she knew the Simurgh was the worst. How could she not, when Leviathan had wrecked her home?
But she digressed. The guild would likely request that she stay until they managed to get a measure on Hazard and decided what to do with him. They might even recruit him, if only to gain the ability to predict Endbringer attacks.
Him being partially Canadian would also help.
Taylor was unsure of what to make of Hazard.
He had a reputation and Tattletale had made sure to inform everyone that Grue was the best choice if they had to deal with him. Which would, no should have been the end of it, except he had casually sauntered inside their hideout, gave her what he told her was something that he had asked Dragon and Armsmaster to concoct and told her it would wake people up with a boost of energy. He then got out of the hideout leaving her confused, Lisa panicking, Brian unsure if he was imagining things, Rachel angry and Alec had blinked very rapidly a few times.
Now though, it was clear he was a thinker of sorts. She had managed to save a man's life. Asking him about whether he knew Hazard yielded no results. He had no idea who she was talking about. She had decided to tell Lisa about that, see if she could figure it out.
But what was impossible was what had happened. Hazard had shouted something near Leviathan. Leviathan had stopped attacking and literally had jumped over to Hazard. Hazard had kept talking about... something to which Dragon had told everyone to not approach anywhere near enough to hear what he was saying. Looking around, one could notice a good amount of capes holding their heads in their hands and screaming about worms and an accursed "bow" of sorts. Leviathan just stared at Hazard.
Leviathan turned around and ran.
Everyone not insane stared at Hazard.
Hazard walked away.
And that's how Hazard became famous.
Right. This is the very disappointing end.
I apologize. Really, I do. Perhaps I will continue it one day, though I would be surprised if I will. The goal of this wasn't to create a fun, balanced and long, endearing story. I just decided to write a small story, likely no larger the 3000 words, then rest a bit.
The ending isn't satisfying, I will be the first to admit that. But really, I just wanted to write a small short before aiming anywhere high.
Also. I didn't proofread this.
Yeah.
Is it alright to repost something you made on a different site to this on this one, I wonder?
I digress.
