I trudge through the sand, stopping before the intruder. Looking at him, he looks downright cozy, all curled up and basking in the sunlight coming from the reopened hole in the roof. Bastard.
"Hey!" I nudge him in the ribs with my foot. He stirs, groggily shaking his head and sitting up. He takes a second to gather himself before staring up at me in surprise, confusion, then anger.
"Th' fuck is wrong with you? Get out!" He shouts at me and points towards the 'door'. Telling me to get out of my own house?
"Get out? This is my fucking ship! I was gone for like four hours!" I shout back. He mutters something to himself before standing up, glaring at me the whole time. His arm drops to his waist, where he pulls out a... gun? A small pistol that looks like it hasn't seen maintenance in years. He points it at me and starts speaking, spit flying everywhere. Gross.
"Yours? Well it's mine now, shithead. Scram 'fore I put a hole in you." What are these cheesy lines? I crack a smile at the thought of this random bum being an extra in some b-list action movie, and he seems to take personal offense to my happiness. He waves the gun in my face and keeps talking. "The hell you smilin' at? You think I'm lying?"
"You're really going to shoot me? You want to catch a murder charge? Y'know Glory Girl was just here like, two days ago, right?" His anger turns to rage at my doubt. He readies himself, points the gun at my stomach, and before I can react a deafening bang rings out. One sole bullet exits the barrel before the gun jams. It hits me before I can move out of the way, piercing my [Resistance] like it was paper and causing searing pain to blitz across my torso. I barely register the pain, distracted by my befuddlement at the situation. I was shot, in my own home, by some squatter that magically appeared in the few hours I was gone? Why does this shit always happen to me?!
"Did you actually just shoot me? You fucking prick. You better have money on you for new clothes." He stops looking at the gun when my words reach him, raising his head to look at me in confusion even as he continues to smack the pistol with his other hand to try and unjam it. His eyes widen further as I stick my fingers into the hole I'm now fashionably wearing on my stomach, flinging blood out with disgusting squelches as I dig around trying to find the bullet that I know didn't pierce through me. My fingers feel something hard amongst the soft, wet viscera, and I grab it between my two fingers before pulling it out. I hold it up to the light, letting the sun illuminate the mostly intact bullet I'm holding. I'm definitely keeping this as a memento. The first bullet I was ever shot with in Worm. I store it, and the mans already comically wide eyes go even bigger as the situation catches up with him.
"Ca... cape?! Oh, shi-" He doesn't get to finish his sentence before I slap him with the entire force my new strength has bestowed upon me. Rotten teeth delicately arc through the air, landing amongst the sand, even as the rest of the man falls to the floor with all the grace of an underpaid wrestler. He twitches once, twice, then lays still. Did I kill him? I bend over and check his pulse, and no, he's still alive. Honestly, should I kill him? If I didn't have powers, and I was actually just some homeless kid, he would have definitely killed me. But is it ethical of me to judge him for a scenario that didn't happen? Well, even if he didn't kill me, who knows how many other people he's shot with that thing. But can I execute him for crimes that he only may have committed?
...Whatever, all that moral thinking and what not is for the judges to do, not me. This random bum isn't Hookwolf or some mass murderer that I need to worry about, so I might as well let the police handle it. I bend down and root through his greasy pockets looking for money, storing the pistol while I do, and unsurprisingly I don't find any. Nor do I find a phone. Am I going to have to drag this guy down to the police station? I don't know where that is, and even if I did, I don't want to touch this guy more than I have to. No way am I going to carry him all the way into the city. I really need to get a phone at some point. I still have thirty dollars, is that enough for a shitty burner phone? Might as well check.
I grab some fishing line, and hogtie the bum before tying him to a hook in the ship. That should keep him here until I come back.
As I walk through the Market, trying to find my way to the 8/25, I keep getting weird looks. Do I smell? I made sure to wash the blood off my hands before I came here, so it's not that. Is it just because I'm a kid? No, I wasn't getting these looks when I was here an hour ago. I put it out of my mind when the neon sign of 8/25 appears in all its tacky glory. Two enforcers are standing guard like usual, and one of them is pretty short. Could it be Sphinx? I walk up, smile on my face, only to be stopped at baton point.
"Woah, kid. The hell happened to you?" Huh? I look down at myself, and... oh, shit. I didn't change my shirt. It's still absolutely covered in blood, even though the wound has healed by now. I can't believe I forgot to change. No wonder everybody's been looking at me.
"It's, uh... what are you talking about?" I swiftly pose myself, storing my shirt and replacing it with one of the shirts Daniel gave me. As the dark green baggy shirt falls over me, the guards look shocked. Or at least I think they are, I can't really see their faces. A second of awkward silence passes, then two, then three, before the big one clears his throat.
"What'd you just do?" His voice is deep and steeped in wariness. Sounds different from the big guy that was here last time.
"What do you mean?" I act clueless.
"Your shirt." He responds in a monotone voice.
"What about it? You like it? I think the green accents me well." I puff out the shirt a bit, really putting on a scene to get my point across.
"Kid... fuck it, I'm not paid enough for this." He mutters, lowering his baton. Looks like my gaslighting was successful.
"Jack, right? I thought you were bullshitting about being a cape." Oh my god it really is Sphinx! The big guy whips his head around, probably not expecting Sphinx to know me.
"Cape? There's a cape? Where!" I dramatically look around.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever kid. Just get inside. Remember, no stealing." He waves me in. I walk up to the door, pointedly not walking into it this time, and open it. A blast of stale air hits me as I walk in. Refreshing. I walk up to the counter where a similar yet different teenage boy is working today.
"Got any burner phones?" I ask him. His dead eyes pan up to me. This boy - no, this man - has obviously witnessed horrors beyond my comprehension working in retail. He nods, grabbing something below the counter and placing it before me. It's small, it's old, and it can probably only make calls, but twenty bucks is twenty bucks. I pay, leaving the store clutching my brand new phone. I can't wait to make so many calls to the police on this thing. I nod at Sphinx on my way out, and he nods back. I can feel it - a camaraderie is forming between us. I put some extra energy into my step as I jog back to my ship.
I arrive at my home just in time to see Bum McGee wiggling his way out of the entrance. He's still hogtied, but it seems like he managed to get off the hook somehow. He hears my footsteps in the sand, and looks up at me in pure horror. Like he wasn't the one to try to kill me over squatting in a shipwreck.
"Hey, buddy. Time for you to go to jail. You excited?" I ask him as I pick him up by the connecting point of all the fishing line. He shakes his head vigorously before wincing in pain. The fishing line is probably cutting into him, but oh well. I walk him out to the same tent area that I encountered Kevin and Devin at before whipping out my fancy new phone. I open the call screen, just to come up blank when I try and dial in a number. I still don't know the polices number. Damn it. The only number I do know... is that of a certain heroine. I summon the note with Glory Girl's number on it, and dial. It only rings once before I hear the call connect.
"Glory Girl, who's this?" She answers, her voice muddled by poor connection and a low bitrate.
"It's Jack. Do-" I get interrupted before I can ask her for the police line.
"Oh, hey Jack! How're you doing?" She bulldozes right through my sentence with her signature gleeful attitude.
"I'm doing fine. I-"
"Cool! Wha- it's Jack. I said it's Jack, Ames. Wai-" She gets a taste of her own medicine as she has to cut her own sentence off to answer somebody I can barely hear on the other end. Before I can say anything, I hear chaos happening for a second before it stills.
"Hey Jack." Amy's voice comes through the phone. Did she really rip the phone out of her sisters hand?
"Uh. Hello?" I respond, still reeling over the sudden change.
"How'd you get my sisters number?" Wait... is this... jealousy? Nah, probably not. It's too hard to make out emotion when the connection is this poor.
"She gave it to me the first time we met. Why?" I cautiously say.
"No reason. What do you need?" She sounds relieved. I think. It's hard to tell.
"This is the only number I know. I was going to ask what to dial to call the police." I finally manage to ask, albeit indirectly.
"The police? What happened?" I'm pretty sure I can hear worry in her tone.
"Oh, after I ran back to my ship there was this bum that took my absence as an invitation and started sleeping in it. I woke him up to get him out, but he shot me so I knocked him out." I give her the footnotes of what happened.
"Okay. You don't have your own line yet, so you'll want to call the non emergency line. The number is..." I vaguely note the fact that she doesn't sound worried anymore as I hurriedly start sketching the number in the sand so I don't forget it. I really need to get a pen or something.
"Thanks. I'll go call that now." I move to hang up, but I stop when I hear her talking again.
"Wait! Want to go to the hospital with me again tomorrow?" She pleads. So that's why she grabbed the phone. I hesitate before I answer. I really need to train more if a single bullet from a terrible pistol can still put a hole in me. It's too risky to stagnate now when there's only a few more days before I crash the Nazis party. Then again, it's only four hours out of the day, and maybe the benefits of having a high [Heal] level will help me more than I realize. Or maybe this is self justification and I actually just want to help Amy out. Who knows.
"Sure. Same time?" I answer before I can talk myself out of it.
"Yes!" She emphatically responds.
"Cool. Should I meet you there, or?" I let my sentence trail off. I really don't want to have to take that bus again. I'd rather run, honestly. It would be faster and less disgusting.
"I'll arrange something." Uh oh. That's ominous.
"Okay... anythin-" Once again, I get cut off by the sounds of a scuffle.
"Give- phone- here- Amy! You-" Seems the sisters are bickering. I bring my phone down and hang up. Doesn't seem like I'm getting a word in any time soon. I look down to see the phone number in the sand, and instead I see the bum looking at me smugly. The bastard scrubbed the last two numbers out, and is trying to wiggle his way to a third. I just chuckle, causing him to look up at me and lose his smug grin. Does he think my memory is that bad? Am I being underestimated by a bum right now? I dial the number in, and the call connects immediately.
"Brockton Bay Police Department, how can we help you?" A polite lady answers. I can't tell if this is the same person as last time, but they sure sound similar.
"I've got a homeless guy here that shot me. I took his gun and hogtied him, so he's pretty docile right now." I leave out the fact that he's violently wriggling, trying to get away.
"Do you need medical assistance, sir? What's your current location?" Sir? Does this phone make me sound old or something? Nice.
"Nah. I'm somewhere between the Market and the Boat- actually, there was a call for two homeless men four days ago. Same place as then, if you can find the records for it." I'm not going to try and describe this bland, featureless place again.
"Oh. Sir, are you the one that called last time?" Her tone has a sharp tinge to it now.
"Yeah." I respond.
"I'm going to need you to stay there. Officers are on the way." She says flatly. I hang up, give the guy one last glance, and book it back to my ship. No way they track the call to my phone and find me that way, right?
"Are you the kid that called in the shooting?" I look up from brushing sand around in my ship. The bum didn't care much for the feng shui of the place and pushed sand everywhere, so now I have to fix it. The man who interrupted my redecoration is clad in a standard dark blue police uniform, cap and all. God damn it. They tracked my phone, didn't they. I can't help but notice that the guy's got a gnarly beard. That thing's at least five inches.
"Yeah." I respond. Honestly, I don't care that much. I figured they'd find me anyways, that bum wasn't going to keep me a secret since I kept him alive. Best I get this out of the way now.
"Sure you're not, ki- what?" It takes a second for him to stop giving his obviously practiced speech. Guess he wasn't expecting me to tell the truth. He quickly recovers and keeps going, "Okay. We're going to need you to come with us."
"I'm a cape. Doesn't the PRT deal with that?" His face morphs into distaste immediately upon hearing I'm a cape. He registers that he's standing in front of an unknown parahuman a second after, dropping his hand to his waist and backing up a step.
"Damn it. What's your affiliation?" He follows up, distaste replaced with a tinge of fear.
"Fugly Bob's." I stun him with my honesty.
"What?" His confusion slips out before he can rein it back in.
"What? I work there." I shrug at him.
"Damn kid. You shouldn't joke around about being a parahuman." His shoulders relax and he drops his hand from his gun, but he adopts a stern look on his face instead. An arguably worse weapon.
"Oh, I'm not." I summon the metal boulder to my side for proof. That gets him riled back up immediately.
"Stop playing games and identify yourself." He half-shouts.
"You're no fun. I'm a hero, chill. You think I would be bantering with you if I was with a gang?" He doesn't relax at all. He looks at me sternly for a second, before sighing.
"Okay. I'm going to go call this in. Please stay here, I'll be watching." He takes a few steps out of the entrance, but stays in my line of sight as he pulls his radio up and starts talking. I go ahead and store my trusty workout aid while I wait, then go back to fixing the sand up. I wonder if they're going to send a hero? If so, which one? Logic dictates an adult hero, but they might send a Ward if he calls in that I'm a kid. So that leaves basically the entire Protectorate minus Armsmaster. I just can't see them calling him in to confront a peaceful cape. Actually, the entire Protectorate minus Armsmaster and Shadow Stalker. No way are they sending her.
I finish fixing the sand, and look back up at the officer. He's still staring at me, but he's not talking on the radio anymore. I stare at him back, and he starts mean-mugging me. Did I get under his skin that bad? I can't work out, my phone doesn't have any apps on it, and I'm bored as hell. Time to spice things up. I walk out of the ship towards the officer, causing him to stand up straighter.
"Want a kebab?" I ask him. My endless selflessness must've confused him, though. I summon a kebab and offer it to him. He sniffs the air for a second, being drawn in by the smell, but he stops himself from taking one, instead opting to stare at me with slightly less intensity.
"More for me, then." I mutter, sitting down in the sand outside and digging in. Nothing to do but wait. I stare at the sky, pondering on my circumstances. How has my fate come to be? What hath dropped me in this unfamiliar plane? Hark, was my arrival but a freak mistake, or an omen of greater tidings?
Alas, my pondering is cut short by a red blur flickering in front of me, forming into a human being. Blinding red suit? Check. Crossed stripes on the chest? Check. No cup? I'm not looking down there. Regardless, there's no doubt in my mind that it's Velocity standing in front of me. Guess they sent him because he'd get here the fastest? He opens his mouth to speak, but I'm quicker on the draw.
"Sup." A simple phrase, but one quite effective at disorienting an opponent. He blinks at me then continues speaking like nothing happened.
"I'm assuming you're the 'unknown parahuman'?" I can basically feel the air quotes. He dons a comforting smile, no doubt trained to do so.
"Yep. Want a kebab?" I summon another kebab and offer it to him. He takes it, but doesn't eat it. He better not waste such a delicious kebab.
"Is that your power? Making... kebabs?" He asks me. Doesn't he know asking a man about his power is rude?
"No, these are from Asads. A nice stall down at the Market, you should go there sometime. He makes the best kebabs." I may be a sellout, but Asad deserves the customers.
"I'll keep that in mind. So, you said you're a hero, right?" He gets straight down to business.
"No, I'm a terrible villain. So terrible that I'm offering kebabs to people. Yes, I'm a hero." My sarcasm makes his practiced smile twitch.
"You'd be surprised at what some villains get up to." His smile becomes a bit more genuine at that. I'm sensing a story there.
"Probably. So what happens now?" I want to get back to training, I'm wasting time here that I need.
"We talk for a bit." He waves the officer away, and the man with the magnificent beard grunts unhappily before walking off. Velocity continues, "Have you decided on a name yet?"
"My name is Jack. Before you give me the whole spiel about rules and identities and whatnot, I'm unmasked for a reason." He startles when I say my name.
"Are you the healer that accompanied Panacea earlier?" I blink. Wow, that was quick. I knew I blew my cover by going with her to the hospital, but I thought it would be at least a day before any actual info was gathered on me. Fuck, that means I have to worry about Coil now. That rat bastard would kill to have a good healer in his retinue.
"Yeah. You heard about it that fast?" I raise an eyebrow at him.
"It's kind of big news when Panacea personally vouches for somebody. Hell, PHO is blowing up with theories about you." He chuckles.
"That should make this go quicker then, right?" He nods in response.
"Much. Are you officially with New Wave?" He blurs for a second, pulling a clipboard with papers on it from... somewhere. I don't want to think about it too much. And the kebab is gone?!
"Nope." That surprises him. His shock falls quickly, replaced by thinly veiled interest.
"Oh? Would you be open to coming to the PHQ and seeing what we have to offer? We could always use more heroes." He asks, trying to use a neutral tone, but I can tell that he's basically pleading with me.
Is it even safe to go there with Coil hanging around? Depends on how I mess with precogs, I guess. But I can't risk my safety off of a mere chance that I'm a blindspot. If I'm not, and the only reason Coil hasn't tried to nab me yet is because I've repelled any attempts so far, then I'd be screwed. Or would I? What could Coil feasibly be able to do to me in the PHQ? Actually, is he even in the PHQ? Or does he work in the PRT building downtown?
I have too many questions and not enough information.
"I'll pass. I work better alone."
"It's dangerous to work alone, especially in Brockton Bay. When the gangs hear about what you can do, they'll target you. Healers are a hot commodity."
"I'll be fine." He scowls at my confidence. Out of worry or anger at my refusal, I'm not sure.
"Healers are a force multiplier. If any of the gangs get you, they'll become more aggressive, leading to significant casualties. Are you so confident you'll be safe that you're willing to risk that?" He bites out. Honestly, I can't be mad at him. From his point of view I probably look like an arrogant little jackass. Maybe if I show off my power a bit, it'll discourage the gangs from getting at me and reassure the heroes. Is this a good idea? Probably not.
"If I show you a bit of my power, would that get the Protectorate off my back?" I ask him as seriously as possible. His hostility fades, turning serious as he considers it.
"Yes. But if I don't think you're strong enough, I'll have to ask that you at least let a hero watch over you until you come to a safe arrangement." A better deal than I thought he would give. Alright, time to put all that training to good use. My reserves are full, so what's the most impressive thing I can do right now? Let's see, I don't want to wreck my ship, or the surroundings. I could run somewhere else, but this is about as isolated as we can get... wait. We're right next to the bay. How fast would I have to go to run on the water? Could I? Only one way to find out.
"Want to go on a run with me?" His eyebrows shoot up at that, a smirk crossing his face.
I walk over to the coastline and ready myself, feeling the sand scatter under my feet. Velocity lines up beside me, shooting me an odd look as we're facing the water. I wink at him, and sprint as fast as possible. My feet splash into the water, kicking up sand until I leave the coast. I watch in fascination as my feet pound against the water, spraying water in large arcs behind me with each step. Even as I run deeper and deeper into the bay, and the depth of the water keeps rising, my legs pump out just enough force to keep me above the surface. I look to my right, and Velocity is keeping pace easily. Or at least I assume he is, all I can see is a vaguely human shaped red blob following me.
I feel free as I run on the endless expanse of water, with no obstacles to get in my way and nothing to worry about except keeping the rhythm of my footsteps. The lack of any fatigue from running makes this a purely euphoric experience, I'm not getting aches or pains and my legs don't feel like lead. I'm just running. On water. I stare at the brackish water below me, seeing the debris and rubble cloud the bay. I need to clear this place up. If only so that I can run freely and see the water beneath me holding all kinds of life within it, pure and untainted. As I run I lose myself in the sights, too busy appreciating the beauty and wonder of running on water to care about anything else.
I barely feel a tap on my shoulder through the harsh wind blowing past me from the speed I'm running. I turn to Velocity, and he does something that I can't make out before starting to run back to shore. Must be tired. A pang of disappointment goes through me at needing to go back, but I follow him anyways. I'll definitely be doing a run on the water every morning though. It's a wonderful refresher.
I arrive back at where we started running to the sight of Velocity standing next to the hull of my ship. He doesn't look tired or winded at all, that's surprising. Why turn back then? Did I take too long? Or did he just use his power to hasten his recovery?
"Damn, how long can you run like that for?" He asks while faking a need to breathe hard. He does realize I saw him breathing casually like five seconds ago, right?
"As long as I want." I reply. He quirks one single eyebrow at me. Is that doubt or did I impress him?
"So you can heal and run like the wind? Yeah, I don't see any of the gangs catching you once you get going. Just be careful to not get caught unaware, alright? No use in running fast if you get a tranq to the neck while you sleep." Sound logic. I nod at him, and he blurs off. No goodbye? First Glory Girl, now Velocity... do shards influence their hosts to make them leave abruptly? And was that really all he needed to see to make sure I was safe? What a weird guy.
The tension stays in my shoulders for a second. I honestly expect another person to crawl out of the woodworks to talk to me, or try and pitch me to join them. A minute passes, but nothing. Thank god. I've been talking damn near the whole day, I need to let my poor jaw rest.
I walk inside my ship and sit down. What should I do now? The PRT know about me, my relationship with New Wave is rocky except for Amy, the gangs will know about me soon, and Coil definitely already knows. I'm sure he'll try something soon, and I'm confident in repelling whatever squad he sends after me, but Velocity makes a good point. I need a way to stay safe while I'm asleep. I can't just board up the ship, a cape could break through that easily. I could move, but I don't really want to, and that wouldn't stop anyone determined enough from finding me. There's nobody that will protect me while I sleep, so that leaves one option. Magic. Time to make new skills.
What comes to mind first is wards. Some form of effect that can sustain itself even while I'm asleep, and stop people from getting to me. Having a constant effect would need way more mana than I have though, so I need something that will only activate when certain conditions are fulfilled. Could I make an alarm system? A ward that alerts me and wakes me up when somebody gets close to it? That shouldn't be too hard. But is that enough? I'd like to make an illusion ward as well, to disguise my ship or make people ignore it, but I don't have the slightest clue how to even start making something like that. What else can I make to protect myself? I don't want to risk anything destructive, on my first time making wards it's way too easy to make some poor sap walking by get vaporized. A ward that buffs me? Would that fall under active drain or conditional drain? I don't know, so I'll shelve that for now.
Even after minutes of hard thinking, the best solution is still to make a ward that alarms me when someone comes near. It'll be cheap, conditional, and simple. But how do I make a skill that feeds off of its own mana? Could I make a skill, then give a surplus of mana to it without letting it use it? That might actually work. First things first though, I need to make the skill.
I grab a strand of mana and let it waver in the air in front of me. It's already a tight rope, much denser than when I made [Gravity], so that part is done. I need three components to this skill; first I need an area of effect, then a method of detection, and finally some way of warning me. The area of effect I vaguely know how to make thanks to [Gravity], how should I make it detect people though? Heat can be fooled too easily, vibrations would ignore people flying at me, I could maybe make it detect the shape of somebody and cross reference it with a human... oh. I'm making this too complicated. I just need a big ass cube that lets me know when something alive touches it. Living things interact with mana differently than dead things, so I could just use that. Should I use it to make a sound though? That would alert the intruders as well, which is suboptimal. I can't link it to my menu since that's visual. Could I link it to my nervous system? A big enough shock would definitely wake me up, and it would be completely silent. Perfect.
I guide the rope of mana towards itself, trying to make a lasso shape. It feels too slippery to stay and keeps falling away from itself though. I can attach mana to things, right? Why not itself? Forcing it into a square shape and connecting the two ends by attaching it to itself works like a charm. I'm left with a blue square with surprisingly even sides, but that's not enough. I need a cube, so I extrude a few more feet of mana and repeat the process five more times. The final product is a perfect wire mesh of a cube, softly glowing blue. By adding mana I can loosen and tighten the different sides, not only making it longer or shorter but also morphing it into different shapes. Now that... that'll be useful.
Now I just need to make it detect anything that enters it, and connect it to my nervous system. The cube floats in front of me, so I rest my finger on one of the sides and try to feel the interaction through the mana. It feels... ephemeral. Like there's something just on the edge of my consciousness that is slipping through any attempt to grasp at it. Definitely not a strong enough sensation to wake me up. I raise my finger off of it and it vanishes. Touching the cube causes that feeling to come back, so I summon a sheet of metal and try touching it with that. There's a feeling there, but it's not slipping. It just sits there, slightly beyond my reach. So that's the difference? I understand it now.
I raise the cube in front of me, sending the feeling that I now know corresponds to a living thing through my connection with it. The energetic blue fades a bit, growing duller as a film starts to fill in the air between the lines. The result is a cube with actual sides rather than just edges and vertices. Touching the cube again doesn't result in a feeling anymore, instead it causes the cube to pulse once with the same bright blue that I'm used to seeing. Guess that's the activation done.
I disconnect the rope from my heart, watching the cube float freely, slowly eating from my reserves now that it isn't directly connected. Before it dissipates, I control the remnant of the line it had to my heart and settle it in my neck. I don't know what this is going to feel like, but I can only hope it doesn't hurt too much. I attach it right to my spine where my brain stem should be located. I wait for the inevitable pain, but nothing happens. I can sense the cube more sharply than before, but I don't feel anything from it. Weird. I raise my finger and brush it against the cube.
Woah. I shiver from the unexpected sensation. That's not what I expected. Instead of pain or a shock, it feels more like I was shoved without actually moving. That should be enough to wake me up, right? I can only hope so. Now if I did this right, I should be able to make this cube large enough to fit around the ship. I feed it more and more until the cube grows to the size of me, then a car, until it eventually ends up going through the walls of the ship. I keep feeding it until I feel it's reached about a dozen feet past the ship in every direction, then I cut the flow. Thankfully it stays the same size despite the lack of mana being distributed through it.
I peek my head outside of my ship to see a large blue wall in front of me. Looking around the corner, I can see the other sides as well. It worked! Now I just need to figure out how to give it some sort of battery to pull from. Eleven tendrils of mana extend from my body, ten of which immediately condense into a ball. The eleventh attaches to the gently flowing orb of mana, and I move it to the center of the cube before bringing the other end of the line out to the top of the box. It attached, but will it pull from the orb or from me?
Walking outside of my ship, I pass through the boundary. The drain comes from my heart. So how do I get it to take from the battery, and not me? The connection between my spine and the cube is where the drain came from, so if I can stop that from being a link it would work, right?
Fiddling with the link for a few minutes gives me an idea. I need to make the connection one way. The instant that thought crosses my mind, the link changes, tapering off towards my spine. It was that easy? Really? My palm hits my face with a resounding smack. I need to stop forgetting that this is magic. I'm instinctively applying science to it, but that doesn't work most of the time. Damn it.
Whatever. Touching the boundary again causes the orb to get slightly smaller, so it works now. The solution was really that simple? Ugh. My reserves are pretty full, so I might as well feed the orb as much as I can right now before I start training. I take ten, twenty, fifty, two hundred thin wispy lines of mana out of my heart and throw them into the orb. It quickly swells to a foot across, but stops growing, instead getting brighter and brighter. By the end it basically looks like a mini sun. I can't fucking sleep with that thing up there. Tone it down!
To my surprise - and irritation - it dims. Magic really is that simple. A deep sigh escapes my mouth.
Whatever. At least I can train now.I exhale lightly as I sink deeper, watching the blood slough off of me. The already brackish water gains a dark red tinge to it, turning it from green to a disgusting shade of brown. Gross. As much as I like living here, I do miss showering. Using a cheap soap I picked up from the 8/25 just isn't the same without warm, running water to back it up. Could I make a skill for that? Hydrokinesis would be pretty nice to have. Free showers, baths, drinking water, hell I could even use it to clear up the bay a bit. Alright, that's going on my to-do list.
I look up at the starry night sky. It's weird that despite all the changes I've been through, despite how different this world is, the stars are the same. The same constellations greet me from light years away, illuminating an otherwise black sky. I've always found space beautiful, there's just something about it that captures my attention like little else does. I don't know if it's the enormity of the scale, the visual magnificence of the scattered stars, or maybe even the desire to be free. All I know is that I want to explore it. And to do that, I'm going to have to do something about the entities first. Yet another reason to stop the world from ending, I guess.
A sigh escapes me as I walk out of the makeshift pool in my ship. It's a lot later than when I wanted to go to sleep, guess I got too caught up in training again. A glance around reveals a whole lot of sand that I've displaced, sand that I'll need to shuffle away from the spot I intend to lay down on. The work never ends. Maybe I should spend an hour or so clearing all the sand out of my ship one of these days, when my time is less important and I can actually focus on something other than getting stronger.
No use thinking about it now. I start kicking sand and debris away from my 'bed', the only part of this ship illuminated by the moon courtesy of the hole I still haven't fixed. Once it's clear enough I lay down on my blankets, crack my neck to prepare resting my head on the backpack, and doze off. What a life I'm living.
I'm catapulted off the floor by an intense shock traveling through me, barely managing to catch myself on the slippery sand. Before I can react the feeling hits me again. My Alarm is being tripped. Not just once, but over and over again. Four, five, six times. Now that I'm awake, I can hear the subtle sound of sand being displaced as feet shuffle along the graveyard. They're trying to be quiet. I shake off the residual drowsiness from my sleep being so rudely interrupted, now's not the time to be bleary eyed. I felt seven shocks, so seven people with unknown motivations are approaching. That's not ideal. Given the light steps and lack of conversation, I'd say they're here to ambush me. Four blue lines extend from my feet, burrowing under the ground towards the entrance. If they plan to kidnap me for my healing they won't risk hurting me too much, so I'll be relatively safe to confront them. If necessary, I'll use [Gravity] through the strands under them and incapacitate them. I can only hope it won't kill them, that would be a pain in the ass to deal with.
The footsteps grow closer. I position myself to be about ten feet away from the entrance and brace. Some of the footsteps stop, while others continue towards the entrance. A tense second passes, then another, until finally a man rounds the corner. Pure white skin, hair, eyes, and mouth. I don't recognize the outfit he has on, but that's definitely Alabaster. My shoulders relax.
It's just the Nazis. Thank god. Not even a dangerous one, no, they sent fucking Alabaster. Why? Literally anyone else would've been at least a little threatening. Even Rune, and she's a teenager. He must've seen something on my face, as his cocky grin grows smugger. Does he think I gave up or something? He opens his mouth to say something, but I cut him off.
"So how'd you find me?" I put on the most casual tone I can.
"Were you trying to hide?" A shockingly polite voice emanates from him. I wasn't expecting him to sound... pleasant. No, I was expecting a mangled German accent at the very least.
"Yes?" Was I that obvious?
"We didn't even have to torture anyone to find you, just had to follow your tracks from the hospital. Honestly, put more effort in next time. Well, not that you'll have another chance." Am I really getting lectured by a Nazi?
"Is this the part where you explain how great being racist is?" I don't really want to sit through a whole monologue about how the Empire is the best.
"No. We don't need you to join us willingly, though that would be better for you. I'm here to take you by force." What a sleazy guy, his tone keeps getting creepier.
"And they sent... you? Why?" His smile falters as I hurt his pride.
"Do you think I can't hurt you? Fool. You see, Kaiser himself told me to break you. He likes his pets... obedient." A shudder passes through me. Gross. He languidly reaches for a pistol on his waistband while I prepare myself. Well, the time for talking is over. I activate [Gravity] with all four strands.
He doesn't even have time to react before he's plummeting towards the ground. The first to go are his legs, snapping in every direction as his feet rise above his knees. Next is his waist, smashing into the ground with a sickening crunch as his bones give way to what's next. It's only when his torso reaches the pile of spiky debris that used to be his lower half that his expression plummets. Not from pain, but confusion. Just before his spine starts to collapse, he regenerates. Unfortunately for him, that doesn't exactly help. All that changes is that the chunks of his flesh stop cushioning the metal beneath him, disappearing without any sign of them being there in the first place as they reappear back on him. His legs unnaturally bend backwards, forced outwards from trying to regenerate into the hard floor beneath him. The lack of balance causes his head to shoot forwards, banging into the metal with a loud crack, and he goes still. I wait a second, then another, to see if I killed him. Thankfully, on the fourth second, he regenerates again, just to still be stuck to the ground. Splendid. For the finishing touch I summon the metal boulder on top of him, letting it sink through his legs before releasing [Gravity].
Freed from the weight pulling him down, he throws his head up to look at me with a hateful glare in his eyes. Rude. He tries to say something through his broken mouth, but I can't understand it. I watch in fascination as his regeneration happens again, his teeth magically reappearing and his jaw slamming back into the right place. He barely gets through the word 'you' before I activate [Gravity] again. Just for good measure. Totally not because I don't want to hear this asshole saying any more creepy one liners.
I hear the other Nazis outside finally starting to stir, feet shuffling in the sand once more, but they can't even look inside with the boulder in the way. The only thing I can imagine they see right now is an ever expanding pool of blood emanating from the entrance, leaking under the heap of scrap metal blocking their way in. Now how should I deal with them? They probably all have guns so I can't just waltz outside and beat them up. Should I just use weak [Gravity] spheres to throw them to the ground, and then [Heal] them? I run the risk of killing them on accident, but honestly, I don't really care. Shouldn't've been Nazis.
Two more lines of neon blue extrude from my hands, quickly flying through the air through the gap between the boulder and the hull of the ship. I send them down into the sand outside, feeling the familiar sensation of my mana touching inorganic material before activating [Gravity]. I can hear panicked yelling coming from outside, reverberating within the ship as the scant sound waves that make it inside bounce around. A few thuds later and the yelling turns to groaning, and then to silence. Time to go check. I release the [Gravity] holding Alabaster down, and try to shimmy through the gap between the boulder and the wall. For once I'm thankful for my smaller body, as I can just barely fit. I step through the blood puddle to see five men with rifles pinned to the ground, with one poor sap even face-planting into the pool of blood coming from Alabaster. Yuck.
Five guys... where's the sixth? I look up just in time to get caught by a bullet in the left shoulder, piercing clean through before the deafening sound of a gunshot even reaches my ears. Fuck! I jump as high as I can before he can shoot again but another bullet hits me in the right ankle on the way up, nearly tearing my foot off. I ignore the agony I'm in as the rest of the bullets he fired pass underneath me, and I land in front of him as he fumbles for another magazine. A white hot lance of pain shoots through my leg as my foot twists ninety degrees to the right, the only thing keeping it from separating entirely are two tendons violently twisting around as I move. I leap forward with my good foot, crossing the distance between us in a second. His eyes barely have time to flick up to meet my own before I punch him as hard as I can in the stomach with my good arm. Maybe a bit too hard, even, as my hand pierces through him entirely, eviscerating any meat and bone in the way. Gross. As I shake my hand free of the gore, I pointedly don't look in his eyes.
I end the [Gravity] spheres I have holding the five men down and start using [Heal] to mend my own wounds. Ankle first, I grimace as my flesh and bone morph back to their regular shapes before settling. My shoulder requires much less mana, thankfully. Even as I come down from the pain, I can't relax. I still need to heal these fucking idiots. I confiscate the rifle of the man closest to me before sending some mana to the hole piercing through him. Ignoring his screams, I patch him up just enough so that he won't bleed out but leave the damage to his spine. I don't want this asshole walking again. A quick lunge to the other men lets me store their guns as well before I check their conditions. Overall, they're much easier to [Heal] than the man I punched, but they're all unconscious for some reason. Lack of blood maybe? Did the quick fall knock them out? Doesn't really matter.
I stand back and admire my handiwork. Six men, all incapacitated and unarmed. I take a deep breath and focus myself. The fighting is over. Another deep breath and I'm calm. Looking around, there's so much fucking blood. God damn Nazis. This is going to take forever to clean up. I might want to move up my plans to clear out the sand from my ship, that honestly might be easier than trying to wash all the blood off of everything.
I continue to ponder how I should redecorate my living quarters as I go around tying the men up with fishing line. Alabaster screaming obscenities and slurs at me the whole time makes for great ambience. By the time I'm done with the last man I'm almost out of fishing line. I'll need to get more at some point, this stuff is way more useful than I thought. After tossing all the men into a pile I walk over to Alabaster, squeezing my way back inside the ship. A swift kick to the jaw shuts him up, mostly because his jaw is no longer attached. I reach over and tap the boulder, storing it and then immediately jumping forwards. Alabaster tries to move, but his legs are still crushed so he can't get out of the way before I descend right onto his spine, breaking it. That'll keep him still for a few seconds. I take the opportunity to reach down and store his two engraved pistols. More mementos for me!
I step off of him and let him regenerate. He staggers to his feet when he does, lunging at me with a knife that he got from... somewhere. It's not like he can hurt me at this point, but there's no reason to let him know that. A sidestep and a lazy punch later and he's back on the ground, twitching. I take his knife as well. I summon some rope to bind him with and have to stomp on his spine once again when he regenerates before I can finish tying him up. With his hands bound I tie his legs with my other rope. He's left wriggling on the ground, trying to whip his head around to bite me. Is this guy feral? Does he have rabies? Whatever the case, he stops wriggling when I throw him out of the ship.
"-fucker! Kaiser's going to-" I tune out the rest of his insults and vague threatening promises. After the tenth time of him repeating how Kaisers going to come down here and beat me up, it gets boring. Following him outside, I go to pull out my phone when my Alarm goes off. Once, twice, three times? More hostiles? I prepare myself and whip towards the intruders, getting ready to lunge. I'm greeted with the sight of three girls floating in from the sky. Well, two girls floating and one being held. Amy is being carried by Glory Girl, and another girl is following behind them. Blonde with a white costume, red and purple accents running down her suit, and a red hairband. Laserdream? She looks too young to be Photon Mom, so it has to be. I relax at the realization they're not more Nazis. Is it already eight? Time flies when you're enjoying Americas favorite pastime.
"The hell happened? Are you alright?" Glory Girl sounds mortified. Looking at them again, they all look disgusted. I can't blame them, I'm not exactly looking my best right now.
"Got shot, shit happens. Alabaster and a couple of goons tried to kidnap me, this is the result." I wave my hand towards the gore coating... pretty much everything around me. Blood on the hull from getting shot, blood all over the ground, blood on all the other surfaces courtesy of me throwing Alabaster around like a football... damn I made a mess. Laserdream and Glory Girl start to look sick as they actually take in the scenery, while Amy just quirks her eyebrow at me.
"'Shit happens'? That's an understatement." Came Amy's dry reply.
"Eh." I shrug at her. "Wanna introduce me?"
"Oh, this is Crystal. She... well, she was gonna be your ride today. But..." She trails off. Laserdream perks up at her name being mentioned, has a realization, and turns around to dry heave. Am I that gross? I look down, and yeah. My outfits torn up and I'm covered in blood. I wouldn't want to carry me either.
"Ah. Give me a minute to clean up. Can you call the cops or something to deal with these guys?" She nods and I walk inside to the pool. Shedding my clothes I drop inside the already bloody water, and quickly wash off. I walk out a new man, still slightly dyed red but much better than being covered in blood. Donning another pair of Daniels construction clothes, I step outside once more to Amy hanging up her phone. Glory Girl and Laserdream are floating higher then they were before, looking anywhere except the ground. This is awkward.
"So... you're Laserdream? I've heard a lot about you. Sorry for the poor first impression." I might as well initiate a conversation. She tries to look down at me, sees the blood, and her head rockets right back upwards. I tense my legs and jump upwards, landing on top of my ship. At least this place is clear of blood, and she should be able to look at me now. Glory Girl brings Amy up as well, and we all sit down on the roof. Laserdream finally looks at me, and her expression conveys a lot of emotions at the same time. I don't have time to decipher it before she replies.
"Yeah... Can't say this is what I expected when my cousins asked me to come meet 'the new unmasked hero'." She raises her hands to use air quotes.
"I wasn't expecting this to happen either, trust me. I would've been perfectly happy to not have been ambushed by the Empire while I slept." She grimaces.
"Sorry, I'm not blaming you. Just..." She trails off.
"It's a lot? At least you came when you did, a few minutes earlier and you would've had to see all this before I healed everyone." I try to joke, but it flops. She just grimaces harder.
"Uh. Yeah. So... Amy told me you can get stronger?" She's left grasping at straws to change the subject.
"Yeah." I don't have anything else to add.
"Cool." Our conversation lulls as neither of us can find something else to say. The seconds pass quickly as I try to think of anything.
"So, Amy brought up potentially working with you. Well, the Pelhams in general. Is that offer still open?" I ask.
"Maybe. Is this amount of violence normal for you?" She cautiously responds. I can see how my way of fighting would be bad optics for them.
"No. Most of the blood down there is from Alabaster and I, though I did have to hurt one of the regular guys pretty bad. In my defense, he had a rifle and had already nearly blown my foot off. Didn't want to risk a lucky bullet to the head." Despite saying that, thinking back, I could've definitely dealt with him more gently. He was already out of bullets, I didn't really need to spear through him like I did.
"Your healing is that good?"
"Yeah. I can only heal so much at once, and I can't replace limbs or anything, but it's fast. Really fast."
"Just that much is enough to get you considered. My mom will have the final decision, but honestly... between the healing, and whatever you did to those guys to beat them, I think there's a good chance." She responds, before mock whispering, "Don't tell anyone I told you this, but we've kinda been stuck in a rut recently."
"My lips are sealed. So I'll have to meet with Photon Mom? Sounds fun." I get a chuckle with that.
"Yep. Don't call her that to her face, though. She'll frown at you." She says dramatically. While thinking of a quip to say back to her, I'm interrupted by a mechanical whirring growing closer. Looking into the distance I spot what's causing it. A blue and silver motorcycle, complete with a blue and silver man riding on top of it. Now who could this possibly be? Armsmaster, sent here just for me? Heartwarming.
He pulls up and - honest to god - drifts his motorcycle to a stop. A 10/10 Akira slide. Damn, I wish I was that cool. He dismounts with practiced precision, the motorcycle balancing itself on the sand instead of having a kickstand. The only part of him that I can see through his armor is his mouth and beard, and what a beard it is. I wonder how much time he spends grooming it every day? Actually, I wonder if he made some tinker tech doohickey to take care of it for him? I know that's what I'd do.
I leap off the ship and land in front of him. To my surprise, he doesn't react at all.
"So you're Jack?" His voice is as gruff and short as I expected it to be.
"Yep."
"You hostile?" He asks while approaching. I'm pretty sure it's a formality given how casually he says it.
"Nope." I get a single nod in response.
"Where's Alabaster?"
"Over there, with his six goons." I point at the man-pile I made. He nods at me and walks past, barely sparing a glance at all the blood. A real professional. A compartment opens up on his thigh as he pulls out a stack of thin blue circles. Casually slapping them on the wrists of one of the men results in them binding together with a short whirring sound. Magnetic handcuffs? Damn. I wish I was a tinker, that's cool as hell. He tosses my ropes back to me once he cuffs Alabaster and cuts my fishing line off the other men.
"Where are their weapons?" He stands and quickly surveys the scene, looking for where they went. Guess Amy reported me getting shot?
"Took 'em." He turns to look at me.
"What are your plans with them?" He asks cautiously.
"I was gonna sell them. Six assault rifles, twelve magazines." I shrug at him. He stares at me for a second before responding.
"Two hundred for them." He offers. A low ball, but it saves me the effort of finding someone to buy them. Why is he offering to buy them though? Isn't there protocol for this? What a weird man.
"Deal." I summon the guns and mags in front of him, and he barely spares a second glance at the magic as he bundles them all together using some sort of magnetic rope. He throws it to his motorcycle, which catches it? Somehow? Another compartment opens up on his thigh and it dispenses two one hundred dollar bills that he offers to me. What doesn't he have in there?
"Use a Scaffold Knot next time. It binds better." I blink at him reflexively. A knot critique? Right now?
"How do I do that?" I ask. The corner of his mouth quirks up when I hand him one of my ropes. He demonstrates it quickly and I can just barely follow it, but I manage. I now have two knotted ropes, I guess? Looking at them, it does look like a more secure knot.
"Are you aware of the consequences that will follow when the Empire gets wind of this?" Oh my god he's doing the thing. I can't stop the smile that forms on my face.
"They're already hunting me down for being a healer. Knowing I can fight back will at least discourage them." He begrudgingly nods at that.
"True. You'll be safer if you join the Wards." Safer, but not safe. He really is blunt.
"I'm too old for that." I have a hunch he's raising an eyebrow at me, but I can't really tell.
"Powers?" He asks.
"Powers." I get another nod for my troubles. He may be the first person to believe that I'm not a teenager.
"The Protectorate then?" He follows up.
"I'm not exactly PR friendly. Look around." He grunts. At least it wasn't yet another nod.
"The offers open if you ever need it. We could use a healer." He mimics Velocity's words unwittingly. Do they get trained on what to say? Probably.
"I'll think about it." I won't. He knows I won't as well, but polite fictions are polite for a reason. He nods and starts grabbing the men, starting with Alabaster, and dragging them to a van that pulled up at some point during our conversation. Once they're all loaded in he sets off without so much as a goodbye. Can't say I didn't expect that.
I look up at Amy and the others as the van drives off into the distance. They're all looking at me like I grew a second head.
"What?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.
"What was that? I've never seen him be so... polite." Laserdream chimes in. That was polite? I shrug at her. Honestly, not a bad first meeting with him.
"He seemed like an okay dude." My response seems to flabbergast them more. Glory Girl tries to respond to me but gets cut off by Amy.
"We're going to be late. Can we get moving?" In typical Amy fashion, she sounds impatient. I shrug, which they seem to take as a yes. Glory Girl grabs Amy and flies off, and I'm left looking up at Laserdream as she awkwardly floats there. I shrug again and she sighs, flying down to pick me up.
"You're tough, right?" She asks. I give her a thumbs up, and she smirks in response. Uh oh. She grabs me by the arms, and we're off.
I wobble as we land. Holy shit. I knew she was faster than Glory Girl, but we were definitely hitting above 100 mph for most of that flight. Probably even higher. I take a second to steady my legs and stand up straight, trying to adapt to the sudden loss of speed. While breathing deeply, I notice that the feeling at the back of my mind is gone. My Alarm isn't connected anymore. So it has a distance limit? I'll have to test that out some time...
I come back to the real world to see Amy grinning at me. The glare I send her in response only makes her grin wider. The middle finger I give her afterwards definitely doesn't help, as she chuckles for a second before catching herself. I turn around to say goodbye to Laserdream, and she's already gone. What is it with capes and just leaving? Are they all that busy? ...Actually, they probably are. Never mind.
Amy walks towards the glass doors leading inside, and I follow. Once again, as soon as she passes the threshold, her facial expression turns cold and unfeeling. She really needs a break from this place. Has she given my words any thought? If it's her, I'm sure she'd be able to make some viral cure to a bunch of illnesses, and then she wouldn't have to stress about personally healing people so much. Or is her shard blocking her from doing so? It would be a net benefit for humanity, so maybe she's discouraged from even thinking about it. Hm. How do I get around that? I wonder if I can eventually use magic to manipulate shards? Even if I can, it's gonna be a long, long time before I have enough mana to do so.
I get knocked out of my thoughts as Amy passes the room we went into first yesterday, where I changed into scrubs. Do I not need to be decontaminated anymore? I guess not, now that she knows I can heal from a distance. Works for me, those scrubs are uncomfortable as hell.
We reach a patients room and I take a deep breath, preparing myself.
Time to go stir-crazy in a cold, white, unfeeling hell! Yay!
I sit on the edge of the parapet, staring with cold, dead eyes at the ground below. Why did I agree to this. Again. I could be free right now, to train, to run, to do whatever I desire. But no, I just had to be empathetic for once and now I'm stuck here. Never again. Never again!
Amy shoots me a questioning look from beside me, her white robes billowing in the wind. I let out a deep, suffering sigh. Woe is me, truly. There's only one thing that can ease my pain.
A kebab drops into my waiting hand. I bite into it, savoring the flavors as I take my mind off the grueling work I've been doing.
"Are those all you eat?" Amy interjects.
"They're all I need. You'd know, if you'd try one."
"Fine." Truly? Will she finally experience true gourmet food? I summon another kebab and hand it to her, carefully making sure we don't touch while she takes it. After a tentative sniff she bites into it... and has no reaction. I'm heartbroken.
"Huh, these are pretty good." Never mind! Another falls to the lure of the kebab!
"Right? There's a stall at the Market called Asads Kebabs. They're cheap, delicious, and easy to carry. Plus, Asad is a great guy." I am once again shilling. I won't stop until every single hero in the city visits him at least once.
"I'll tell him you sent me, if I ever go." I blanch. No. He can't know.
"No, don't. He'll try to give you free kebabs." She looks at me like I'm weird, but she doesn't get it. Nobody will ever understand the war between Asad and I.
"Uh, okay? Weirdo." She mutters.
"Am I that weird?" I ask her. She sends me the most deadpan look I've ever seen in response.
"Yes? You don't react to like, anything. You were covered in blood after getting shot earlier and you were joking about it." Well, when she puts it that way...
"Trauma is for those tethered to their mortal coil. I'm an ascended being." I deadpan back at her.
"Sure, buddy. If only I could fix your brain, you might become normal." Woah, a brain joke? My genuine shock must've showed on my face because she scowls at me. Oops.
"Meh, you couldn't understand my brain anyways. It's too far past you." I hurriedly quip.
"Is that a challenge?" She reaches out at me, and I leap off the parapet. Onto the roof, not off the building.
"No, I like my sanctity, thank you." I cover myself dramatically with my hands. She rolls her eyes.
"Whatever. It's been thirty, come on." I groan as she stands up. That only felt like five minutes. Come on, man.
This is worse than Fugly Bob's. At least there I had Daniel in my corner, cheering me on.
I follow Amy down the stairs and descend back into the depths of mania.