XXX
(Taylor Hebert, purple haired Mage apprentice)
That had sucked on so many levels. We had been Panacea and Glory girl I thought with a laugh. A laugh that even in my head sounded a tad unbalanced.
Also, demons were real. Also point of interest, they had no nervous system. They were just there, no real biology for me to control, just evil literally incarnated into things that came after you and didn't stop or care if you bit them and ate their eyeballs and covered them in biting insects. They were like hollow flesh puppets piloted by bad intentions and vileness.
I wondered if that's how people had seen me as Skitter? Had I simply been freaky and scary with no sense of self-preservation or care about my own injury, only the mission? This bit of introspection, while the Paramedic got me looked over did not put me in a good mood.
My limited swarm left me feeling blind. It was all that was left after the spider summoner had killed every insect in a 2 block area.
The thing had tried to kill us with a swarm of giant spiders suspiciously like those summoned by Nicce. The summoner had been hiding outside, by the back door, invisible. It had an answer to everything I tried. It blocked my vision by taking out my swarm. When I had taken control of the spiders it summoned, it had simply physically torn through them. So it was DEFINITELY not Nicce. I had used some of them to help against the demons while a few of the larger were there to figure out or at least distract the summoner that was clearly not Nicce. When the Wards had arrived it had just disappeared. Vista didn't seem to have seen it, when she destroyed the few spiders left out there.
A confusing and harrowing battle, while we were just trying to rob the bank, or at least plant something in the Vault that would make it easy to rob later. The freaking Merchants had had a demon summoner, what next.
If not for the fact that I did perfect on the physical side of my checkup, minus the minor face cut, I would have had to sit in the ER for a bit.
As I finished, the dregs of my swarm informed me that Tattletale was long gone and I had a brightly colored Ward waiting to speak to me standing behind me at a polite distance.
"Hello Clockblocker." I said not terribly enthusiastically as I turned towards him.
"Greetings Mademoiselle, you are quite the hero of the hour, perhaps I should inquire for YOUR autograph." He said with a level of smoothness I had frankly not been expecting as he suddenly leaned towards me and somehow got my hand to his lips.
"OK WOW that is… yeah." I fumbled as I disentangled myself from his hand, kissing, thing. I'm reasonably sure my face was now on fire.
"Shall we have a discussion perhaps I can get you something to eat, you do look a bit pale, though on you it is quite fetching." He said then in a serious undertone as he locked eyes with me he added "We need to talk."
Catching on that there was more going on than flirting, was he using the flirting as a cover for something else, did he suspect someone was listening in or watching. My Swarm went to high alert as I sought anyone in range that might be eavesdropping. The subtext of the things he left unsaid also pointed to him knowing about me. Rill and Eldrin had kidnapped him and trained him at, flirting apparently, though subterfuge and spy-work might be more accurate.
I hesitated for only a moment, this was a dance, a game of information and subtext. Flirting was something I was unprepared for, sharing information with the Wards, a little cloak and dagger spy information sharing, especially if he bought me lunch was a much more pleasant prospect.
I took his proffered arm and we smoothly swung into motion. "I could go for a bite, you buying?"
"Indeed!" He offered as he bent close he then whispered. "We are on the same side, I'm here to help."
We strolled away from the scene around the Bank, arm in arm.
XXX
"HOLY SHIT DID YOU SEE THAT!" Vista said in a whispered shout.
"WOW when he said the guy that taught him could seduce Ziz in a week I thought he was just bragging. Now I'm not so sure, I mean, the man taught Clockblocker to pick up a girl in what like two sentences. That is both impressive and terrifying." Aegis muttered back.
XXX
(Taylor)
We stopped at a little hole in the wall named 'Pablos' that was only a few hundred feet past the plaza with the bank and he ordered a bean burrito and cola and I got a green tea and those little cinnamon sticks. He looked at me as if expecting me to start. I thought about it.
I'm not even vaguely human anymore. My Dad is a Villain I'm not turning in. My Mom had returned from the dead and I live on top of a dimensional breach of some kind. I have a secret base, a creature from beyond space and time is my sidekick/friend. I don't think I'm a villain, but does any rational non psychotic villain think they are really a villain? I had just done a set up to steal something from a bank, to get me information I needed for a hit. So I just might be a villain. If so I was a nice villain. An anti-Villain if that is indeed a thing? So I guess lying about it to keep things friendly is OK right?
"You can call me Skitter and I am Not a Villain." I started.
"Well that's reassuring?" Clockblocker rejoindered as he gestured towards his obvious costume. "Otherwise our liaison would be one of those tragic Romeo and Juliet stories, some would call it romantic, I'd say more along the lines of just being difficult and awkward, though it could be worth it." He waggled his eyebrows at me comically. I repressed a chuckle and held to the conversation.
"Right, so I'd rather not do the whole hero thing..." Been there tried it, got two bullets in the head from the evil organization manipulating me to save the world for it. Yeah Cauldron was on my shit list too, right after Scion, who was right after… man I still had a ways to go. Crap just kept coming up. "…BUT I am willing to help you guys out. I'm not in it for money or fame. I just want to look after myself and my family." I clarified my position.
"So you are a member of the Spider Queen group who does magic. How's that work?" He leaned in conspiratorially.
"OK, all you need to know is it's just me and my Friend…" I started.
"Nicce right, we've met. Cute kid. I worry about how someone that young got powers though." Clockblocker interrupted me.
"Ah you ah met her guardian Rill, right… this complicates things. OK thing is; Nicce is the one from 'the other side.' I don't think she triggered, she isn't a Parahuman. I am." I lied, or at least undersold my own weirdness.
"Ok now we are getting somewhere. So what happened at the Bank?" Clockblocker prodded.
"The Merchants busted in. It was just me and a friend, a 'non-involved' friend. So I kind of tried to protect everyone. It would have worked if not for those demons. They had two summoners. At first I only sensed one, the demon guy rushed in, we ran. When they had us cornered and we were just buying time a second one showed up. That one was invisible to my swarm till I physically ran them into it. It then trashed my swarm and summoned spiders a lot like Nicce can. Disturbingly like Nicce can. Nicce is spending the day safely with my mom so she was nowhere near any of this. I control bugs, including spiders so I used them against the one that summoned them. They shredded the Spiders, not before I sent some to help us and you guys but, Vista kinda chased them down and killed them so I guess you didn't need the help. No foul, they weren't even my summoned spiders. Still I would have been able to do a lot more if whatever it was hadn't killed all of the normal bugs in the region. So the boss, the really dangerous one is still out there, invisible and probably pissed we killed her minions." I filled him in on what I felt was a common threat. "It had invisibility, spider summoning and control, could rip a 'medium' spider down in like 9 seconds and bat the little man sized ones around like nothing. It also had some sort of area of effect death spell that worked on bugs, even out of line of sight."
I noted Clockblocker looked suddenly shocked by the subtle way he rocked back and moved his head. "This big spider was about what 25 feet long, 20 feet wide, big as a building? Or was it one of the man-sized spiders? This thing took it down in Nine seconds?"
"The bigger 20-25 footer, and yes about 9-10 seconds of being sliced a lot." I informed him as I remembered the feel of the spider dying.
"…and this was right outside the back/side door of the bank where those spiders came through?" He clarified.
"YES." I told him with utter certainty.
"CRAP!" He responded with utter certainty. He immediately turned away from me and touched his earbud. "Guys we got BIG problems, I'm sitting here with Skitter the local ½ of the Spider Queen duo. They are saying that it was Shadow Stalker that summoned the spiders. She is A rank badass and not her usual self. Something magical has her or is possessing her or something."
"Um guys she said something about… Um I think she might be possessed or something. Spiders? Stalker was saying, 'Bitch I am' … The Spider Queen! it fits. I think she might be possessed by the evil spider demon god of the dark elves." Vista said with growing trepidation from the Wards earbud.
Well crap, I was happy I had bugged Clockblocker's lapel so I caught the whole conversation. Or rather not happy. An evil spider god in Brockton Bay won-der-ful. That it was one of my bullies only made it worse. We needed to head this off, the PRT could start in on things, thankfully the Wards seemed to know about this evil god stuff better than I did.
"Well It's been 'fun'." I supplied as Clockblocker almost dashed out the door.
"Yeah if we need a wizard we may look you up, you may not be a Ward but us adventurer Parahuman's should stick together! Oh and our group could totally use a Wizard. Tell Nicce we said hi and we might need to arrange another trip sometime." He fired off conversational shots as he exited stage thataway after giving me an odd quick pat on the shoulder.
Aw shit Shadowstalker might need to be moved up that list of problems to deal with. I thought as I headed back towards Base. I needed to get to Nicce and Mom and tell them my side of events at the bank before they hear anything bad.
XXXLast edited: 2/3/2018 Award ReplyReport119DMfromTheAbyss2/3/2018NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Rising tides of darkness New View contentDMfromTheAbyssConfirmed Dungeon Master8/3/2018Add bookmark#169XXX
(Sophia Hess/Lolth's Avatar)
I was riding along with the PRT team escorting the surviving Merchants back to the Rig to be imprisoned. My power was musing to itself about what we had seen, Vista moving in a strange way. Slick as shit with her spear fricking 'singing' through the air while she bent space with as much focus as I'd seen with her. She seemed sharper, alert, dangerous.
No way she learned all that and got taller and more fit in a day and a half. The facts they had offered to get out of M/S lockdown were obvious BS.
I heard a weird order come over the radio. It was something about an Order 66 situation on Nike. Something was wrong, the driver was suddenly nervous. He tried to keep driving us towards the Rig, towards help, towards a trap for me.
My power lets me sense even what he was thinking. I taunted him "it's not going to work you know." The sudden tension in the driver warned me he was up to something and before I knew it he was hitting me with a Taser.
Or rather he had tried. Time seemed to slow down and I had enough time to shift out of the way of the shot.
Damn but my reaction time was hot as shit since my power had been.. had been DAMN what was I gonna… Nah didn't matter, I was way stronger, faster and more lethal. I had everything I could want.
I shot the driver who had tried to Taser me in the back. My power let me fire right through the back of the van's armored partition and my increased reflexes and dexterity meant it was a dead-on hit, right to the spine.
I smiled as I snuffed out the life of the gutsy normal that thought he could hold me back. Then a shred of common sense returned and I realized the Van would go out of control without a driver. I lunged through the back into the driver's compartment and phased back in next to the now dead driver.
I grabbed the wheel and struggled to put my foot on the brake while pushing the dead weight out of the way.
The Van came to a shaky and screeching halt. Apparently even with my improved reflexes and coordination driving was not a skill I excelled at.
I thought about what I had just done and froze up a moment. I heard the other Vans in the convoy come to a screeching halt around me. I drifted back into the prisoner compartment. The 4 guards were alert and spooked. The men tried to shoot at me with their pistols and Tasers.
I dodged the clumsy shots and took out the four adult troopers in a matter of seconds, they could hardly have reacted; so fast did my knife work. Jack Slash could not have done a quicker job.
At the thought of the famous murderer my power laughed. I was filled with the certainty that I was FAR more dangerous than him, than any puny mortal. I was the real deal, the Alpha Predator.
Still, the Protectorate would be out for blood now. Coordination by radio and all the chaos I had caused in the last few seconds would bring them down on me like an army. I could fight, but why should I have to. I needed a power base. The Wards were a bunch of do-gooders, they had somehow sold me out, BETRAYED ME.
As luck would have it I had a new powerbase helpfully provided to me. They were scum, but I could use scum, put them in their place and make them better, make them MINE. Only my own skill and power could make the Merchants worth a damn. With me even they could be a good start on building a power base in this world.
I freed Mush and Skidmark. Dragging the two still comatose capes I found myself muttering something I didn't recognize and suddenly they started to wake.
I didn't bother trying to explain what was going on, simply muttering a charm over them I took control of them directly, reinforcing their loyalty to me before the weak-willed fools were even conscious enough to try to fight me.
I muttered another quick rhyme off my lips and the doors to the transport were knocked open.
Everything obeyed my will now, even the world knew to not bother fighting me it seemed.
I gestured wordlessly to my new thralls to follow me and strode out, fully embracing my new power and it felt so GOOD.
Unleashing my wrath I shot lighting at the Troopers still trying to contain me.
The ten-foot swath of lightning that ripped down the road hit a swath of troopers, bounced off the front of a brick building and hit another PRT Van on the side. The van's gas tank exploded with a dull thump.
I sashayed to the van containing Squeeler. What an appropriate name. Really all the Merchants had appropriate names. They were scum but at least they knew their place.
When a few more brave PRT Officers rallied and tried to get close I launched a ball of fire at them.
They dodged as it sailed above them, past them into their midst without contacting anyone. Thirty feet in the air it stopped and burst forth in titanic hellish fury consuming all within almost two hundred feet of the center, their bodies burnt down to the bone and blasting those bones to splintered shards.
I laughed as My thralls opened the prison of my new Tinker and I gathered her still comatose form. I gestured them towards me.
Further down the road, I saw more troopers, perhaps scattered survivors of my attentions here. They were attempting to secure the area, keep me in, trap me.
I gave a hearty feminine taunting laugh as I gathered the Merchants, No! those who had been the Merchants, now my new powered thralls. I directed a local gesture at the local forces of the Law, I believe it was called 'the Bird'.
I teleported us to deep within the merchant's territory… No now my territory. My ready-made fiefdom required some work. But it was a new beginning.
XXX a few days back XXX
(Danny Hebert)
I had made all the calls, arranged for everything, done everything asked of me. This though, this was a bit much, I hesitated, thinking through what had brought me here.
I imagined my family, at risk. My daughter, my wife returned even from the halls of the dead.
To lose someone you truly loved could destroy a man, to lose them again… well, I was well and truly willing to do anything in my power to see it didn't and Could Not happen again. This would hopefully ensure their safety in the trying times to come.
This was the sort of thing you saw teenagers do in a horror movie. But here I was, an adult who after careful consideration was doing it anyway.
Before I could allow myself to reconsider further I made my choice. The blade cut into my hand, I completed the carefully memorized rite, reciting.
"I summon you Warden of Utumno, Master of the Dark Flames of Udûn! Kaladig Toakarkauth!"
A single drop of blood fell from my hand. The candles in my basement flared and then extinguished. It was now very dark and smelled of burnt wax. The cut on my hand burned more than it should have.
Had it worked? I rather hoped it had not. Perhaps the barriers between dimensions were harder to pierce than we had thought. I turned on the light, revealing spent candles and a ruined complex chalk design on the floor
Just as I was thinking of all the trouble rescheduling might be, all the calls I'd need to make, I saw a big rat. Easily twice the size of a normal member of its species for the region, and I saw enough of them by the docks to know this rat had seen better days. Old gray and gnarled, the aged monster rat seemed to hold my gaze for a moment.
That's when I saw that its eyes burned like coals and there was an awful intelligence in its gaze.
The rat hopped forward and grew almost faster than my eyes could follow, shifting and changing.
Suddenly where there had been a huge rat, was a wizened old gray-haired man dressed in an old weathered ashen robe, His skin was weather-beaten and scarred, his prodigious hawk-like nose showed signs of being bent and broken countless times. Despite his age-worn frame, there was still gristle and muscle to the old man like his body had gotten used to a hard physical life.
His dark grey coal like unflinching eyes bore into mine and I somehow suddenly knew this was a being of ancient power and might. This is who I had called for, my fellow servant to Melkor. I matched his gaze for a moment, unwilling to show this being weakness.
"Coffee?" I offered as a good host.
"Don't mind if I do." The dour old man's face cracked into a smile.
XXX closer to Present XXX
Over coffee and Cheese Danish we made our plans. Ruin, as he preferred to be called was here to help with negotiations if things went… poorly. My own powers were developing, but not enough to see to my families safety if things got dangerous, so Melkor had offered to send me one of his more powerful allies.
That being the case he had no problem helping me prepare and aim to succeed. He knew little of these sort of negotiations but seemed a quick learner and astute at pointing out pitfalls to my arguments.
I told him about the capes he could potentially run afoul of if things went badly. He seemed overconfident, but when I told him of Kaiser's ability to summon steel he seemed concerned till I managed to get a sample of what the internet said was the same grade of steel that Kaiser's power created.
When I saw Ruin take the fist-sized piece of steel and melt it with a thought in his hand, playing with the molten steel like it was glowing play-doh till he got bored and vaporized the metal, well I became a bit more confident as well.
I told Annette and Taylor that he was a co-worker who was helping me with work. I introduced him around work as well, saying he was a new contract lawyer I had hired to help us out.
Where he stayed at night I don't know, I had offered to keep him up In the spare bedroom but he said he could arrange his own place and not to worry about it.
Honestly, I was worried more about the rest of the city, he likely could stay wherever he wanted, though I was to pick him up from the Library on the day of the big meeting. Guy liked to do his reading apparently.
After dropping off my child and wife near the shopping center on 121st I stopped by the Library. We made it to the rented meeting room in plenty of time. I noted the caterer waiting in the parking lot. I used the key to let us in and Ruin even helped the young man carry the food inside.
I set up at the head of the table, placed all the reading materials at each seat and waited.
The ABB was the first to arrive. I was shocked to see the reptilian and insectoid thugs being called Oni by the media enter first. Over eight feet tall, wearing what looked like demonic masks they ducked as they entered the building, searched it and assumed guard positions inside at the entrance to the oversized room. Next, the current boss of the ABB arrived. At a touch over six feet tall and well-muscled, the woman was striking and surprisingly elegant. Her blue faux classic Chinese clothes did not fully conceal the scale like armor and assorted weapons she carried. She gave me an elegant bow that was one part elegant politeness and one part personal threat. I noted she had a long thin burn scar down the front of her neck, a subtle imperfection she wore as a badge, daring one to look at or comment on it.
These were criminals I was dealing with, still compared to some of the company I had been keeping the aura of danger around the woman didn't faze me. Once you made your deal with the devil, your fellow mortals became a touch less impressive as far as threats to life and limb.
I did my best to be both polite and aloof. Showing any weakness or humanity at this point could be deadly.
Kaiser was there barely on time. He was escorted by his twin Valkyries in full armor and gear. He himself had his metal bladed armor on and a sizable chip on his shoulder by his expression of disdain and disgust.
I coldly motioned him to his position at the table.
I rose and after a nod to each of my guests started my carefully worded speech.
"Kaiser, Blue Dragon, you have between the two of you a near monopoly on the crime of this city. You control almost 75% of the total territory and If not for the mutual animosity between your organizations you would be fabulously wealthy and powerful. As it stands the constant gang warfare is threatening both your organization's personnel and your bottom lines."
"The DWU, which after a few recent reorganizations is the organization I currently run in this city, has close ties and alliances to nearly every union, business, and politician in this city. As the appointed representative of these legitimate business enterprises, I ask that you stop destroying our city, your source of profit."
"Officially, this ends my plea to your sanity and humanity." I said as I started to infuse my voice with the dark tones of my master.
"Now then to our actual business. The times are changing, your organizations can be a part of this change, profit by it and grow with these new opportunities. If you do not you risk both coming into conflict with my new organization and becoming increasingly irrelevant due to your organizations lacking access to an entirely new brand of powers. Powers more common and more controllable; powers that will transform the entire nature of the world and man's place within it. Our organization has inside access to these powers and a powerful patron willing to aid us." I stopped to let this sink in a moment before setting the hook.
"Join me, and I offer wealth, power and opportunity. Your groups will remain under your control but be answerable to a higher power, we will control our conflicts, maximize profit and be able to contend with and crush all opposition in the new world to come." I said and I could literally not help but sound megalomaniacal.
When I noticed neither of the Gang leaders before me was moving or saying anything I grinned, it was working.
"You have before you business plans and something of an explanation of magical powers you might soon be encountering. Rules you would be expected to follow and acceptable options and changes that would be more mandatory. Fairly forward-thinking stuff that could take us far into the future. Or you can stay here, mired in your past glories and hatreds and slowly become irrelevant." I finished the short and necessarily blunt speech, carefully timed out to allow for the 'enthralling' aspect of the speech to have the maximum effect to buy me time to leave. I had a backup in the sanctuary rite, but I didn't want to chance a lucky shot, considering my opposition it may only take one.
As I walked out I left them with a wave and said. "Consider this your first taste of magic, I'm not a parahuman and have been at this only a few days. Consider the possibilities. Ruin?" I said as I turned and walked out.
"Yes Danny." The mouse turned into his true form, a towering inferno of swirling ashes and unnatural black flames as tall as Leviathan. He dwarfed the single story meeting building we had just left and had to be visible approximately from orbit. I was sure the gang leaders inside saw maybe a single foot of his through the closing door.
"If they don't return those contracts in say 48 hours, track down every parahuman member they have and kill them. Does that sound too harsh?" I asked, still audible to my audience thanks to the meeting room's excellent sound quality as I watched the door slowly finish closing.
"No Danny, I think that is very generous of you." Ruin let out in a hellish rumble as we walked away down the street, past the shocked looking guards and lookouts for the two gangs which were eying each other nervously.
They showed good discipline, waiting for an order from one of their leaders before moving. The called for meeting under a truce had worked like a charm, I had full contact information given to them along with all the thorough workups for running Brockton Bays criminal Empires moving forward. Now I just needed to wait for their attempts to murder me or my family. With Ruin and Nicce's help getting around the potential blockade of assassins and hoodlums that might try to attack us I liked my odds of lasting long enough to get them to join my new group, labeled in bold as the Dark Overlord Initiative on the paperwork I had left them.
This had been met with laughter from both Ruin and Melkor when I told them what I initially labeled it and it had stuck. Melkor had even said something about it being appropriate branding.
I would be prepared for the inevitable backlash, it just remained to be seen how many of the villains would see reason and join, and how many Ruin could look forward to meeting more personally.
Ruin assumed his old man form and drove back with me to my office, where I basically sent everyone home for the next 48 hours. There would be no easy targets and I had prepared everyone in advance for this.
Then I drove home and settled in for some television watching, and boredom. Ruin would be staying here until the deadline, protecting me and my family. I would explain some of this to my wife and daughter, just enough to keep them safe for the next few days. Trouble at work with the gangs was literally the truth of the matter so I would not even be lying.
XXX
(Tattletale)
I rushed to Coil's old base. Mrs. Hebert and Nicce had to be told about Taylor. Taylor was with the heroes and being looked over by a paramedic when I left but she was in some form of shock. She might need her Mom and Nicce depending to get her some form of mental or emotional help, or to rescue her from the heroes. I had learned to hedge my bets. The last thing the world needed was to someone with her horrifying power to go completely off the deep end.
I stood at the entrance, now covered in odd black webs. Actually seeing with my power the distortions in time and space they created made my stomach upset. I closed my eyes and yelled. "Nice Nicce nets neat ice in Nice!"
Standing there for a moment trying to relax I still jumped when I heard the voice from right behind me. Did she always have to appear right behind me?
"Good One Taddletawe! What happened, Whewe is Taywer?" The cute little totally a normal seeming abomination against the very fabric of reality cuted at me.
"I need to talk to Mrs. Hebert. Taywer :cough: Taylor is with the authorities, she was hurt a little and pretty shook up. We saw some things, things I'd rather not talk about twice if that's ok?" I calmly explained to the gaping hole in reality in the form of a small girl. The amazing detail was always almost enough to fool my senses, but my power kept pulling back the edges and revealing the uncanny valley of nothing there.
"Oh!" She said as she formed her face into a cute little concerned approximation of a human face undergoing worry, concern, apprehension, panic. All in measurable amounts of discrete movement of approximations of facial muscles, all planned out, purposeful.
We were suddenly in the base next to Mrs. Hebert and Riley aka Bonesaw.
I had been very, ah upset when I first saw the Wet tinker down here. That she shared my apprehension and noticed the odd things about Nicce and was really not as bad as she had been, made us, if not friends then at least allies. That she had basically gotten rid of my Thinker headaches and repaired my eye had cemented my professional respect for her.
Mrs. Hebert seemed to be mid-talk while brushing Riley's hair. She stopped but it was clearly an attempt by Mrs. Hebert to influence and stabilize Bonesaw emotionally or was it Bonesaw seeking positive attention, probably both my power informed me.
"Taywer is in twouble!" Nicce squeaked. She then saw Mrs. Hebert put down the brush. Picking it up and apparently waiting for me to explain to Mrs. Hebert what had happened she then picked up the brush and began stalking after Riley.
Riley reacted like any sane person would and ran, Nicce pursued and the two young girls commenced a circuit of the office. It would be adorable if not for the cosmic wrongness my power told me was really happening.
I shook my head away from the girl's playful chase and Told Mrs. Hebert. "OK we got the mission accomplished, the silk cloth is in the vault. But then the Bank was robbed." I started.
"I know, we got the item out and off to Accord almost 15 minutes ago. We have all the contact info and a healthy bonus for smuggling it to him in an impossible to trace fashion. Now, where is Taylor?" She said sternly.
"As I was saying, The Bank got robbed AGAIN as we were on the way out. There were Merchants and Demons, Taylor said they had a summoner. Then a bunch of Nicce like summoned spiders showed up almost in time to save us, but the Wards beat them to the punch. Also, whomever summoned the Spiders seemed to be fighting Taylor for control and killed all her bugs, which in turn almost got us eaten by demons. We managed to bar some doors and make them claw their way through to buy time, but yeah Taylor can't affect demons apparently." I finished as I attempted not to relive the several minutes of nightmare fuel that being chased by a bunch of demons had been.
"OK so where is Taylor now, is she OK, Did the Wards out or capture her. Do they know she is a parahuman, do they know she knows magic?" Mrs. Hebert said as she calmly stood and looked down at me, readying her jacket she motioned both girls to cease playing and come to her. To my amazement, both the otherworldly horror and the most terrifying biotinker on the planet rushed to obey her merest gesture. Was it some sort of master power… Nope, just two little girls who imprinted on an available mother figure to show them attention. She was a master rank: MOM.
"It looked like she was being looked at by the paramedics, so probably not, but I had to get out of there before I got caught myself, I have priors that could have screwed up her chances of walking. She did look a bit out of it so maybe her mom should give her a visit." I explained.
"Right Nicce see if you can find Taylor, Riley get a medical go bag prepped and Lisa, be a dear and Hack the PRT Database, I'll check with Coils contacts in the PRT to see if I can get anything from them." Mrs. Hebert organized.
"Yes Mam!" "Got it" "On it." I found myself chorusing back to her.
As I used Coil's landline backdoor to go spelunking the PRT database for the info I thought to myself. The new Coil is scarier than the old Coil without having any powers. She is also a much nicer boss.
XXX
AN: Note I have a new version of Grammerly running as my 'betta' here so keep an eye out for anything weird. Hopefully this may help with some of the cut and paste issues.
Not super happy with this one but it got the job done of upping the challenge a bit and showing that despite the 'rompy' nature of this fic I am planning on making it interesting. Award ReplyReport112DMfromTheAbyss8/3/2018NewAdd bookmarkView discussionThreadmarks Avatars and Elementals New View contentDMfromTheAbyssConfirmed Dungeon Master11/3/2018Add bookmark#178XXX
(Taylor Hebert-Rogue mutant entity)
I got up to the black webbed 'front door' to the secret base and chirped "Nicce Knits Neat Knick-knacks!"
"That's was not a real good one." Nicce said as she then glomped me. The feel of extradimensional arms closing around me was getting to be almost normal.
"But it is true." I responded, "So what have you guys been up to?"
"Lookin fer you. Oh and getting info, an turnin in bounties and stealin stuff from a bank. An smuggling across state lines, an stealin people. Oh an yur mom says I'm now worf mowe an a million dowwers per awm, thas good right." She beamed up at me.
"That's amazing actually! Lets go see Mom." I said as I pondered the turning in of bounties and how we had gotten anywhere in the vicinity of a hundred million dollars. Unless Accord had given us one hell of a bonus… wait stealing people?
Nicce webbed us right in front of mom's desk, what had once been Coil's.
Mom was nowhere to be seen but I heard typing and swearing. Looking in the private computer nook that had once been a place for Coil to sleep I saw Tattletale and mom furiously reading as they scrolled through different pages.
"Hey guys, I'm back." I interrupted.
"Not even a little bit maimed, damn, oh well I'm ready for next time." Riley surprised me from behind… again. She then turned away her arms full of duct tape and sharp metal tools.
I didn't want to know, wasn't going to ask.
"Taylor, thank god you were not caught in the attack!" My mom hugged me fiercely.
After a second or two when she let me breath I finally responded. "Actually I kinda was, there were demons and the Merchants and everything. I'm ok though." I said as I quickly turned to see the hopeful Riley peaking her head into the room. As I watched she slowly withdrew around the corner again making I'm watching you finger signs.
I squinted suspiciously at the retreating Bonesaw then returned my attention to my Mom.
She pointed to a headline on Lisa's screen. '48 confirmed dead as Ward goes Insane.'
"Shit, Shadow Stalker did that." I said with no question in my voice.
"Yeah an she freed the Merchants, escaped custody. She was throwing around Fire Balls and Lightining bolts in a massive way. Popped an Armored PRT Van like a Zit. Then teleported the lot of them out. Shadow Stalker was showing about a half dozen new powers there, how…?" Lisa was interrupted by Nicce clearing her throat and looking at us with wide eyes.
In a voice filled with dread she said "Wowwff."
It sounded so cute when she said it so serious Mom actually snickered.
"Wowf? Woof?" I attempted to clarify with a straight face.
"No… wo, w, www fff, wif too many Ewwes." Nicce tried to explain.
"elves?" I guessed.
"NO!!! Hew Name is.. huh… She is… OK, I'm kinda upset so da I'm havin a hawder time tawkin. Hew…" Nicce visible took a breath and carefully enunciated. "Hewrw name is Lowlwththth, she is a bad demon spidew god. She don't like me and I kinda made hew angwy at me."
"Lolth!" Lisa jumped in, finally.
"Uh huh thas what I said! Wowth, Lowth, Wow-wth" Nicce looked on the verge of crying. I scooped her up and gave her a hug. When she had calmed down I then asked. "Why is she mad at you?"
"I stowe hew Avataw. She looks like…" and suddenly I had an armful of nothing and there was a five foot eight busty supermodel with ebony black skin and pure white hair in the middle of the room. The haughty look and dangerous grace the figure moved with was stunning… right until she started to take a step and fell flat on her face in a show of astounding clumsiness.
"Why would anyone give their Avatar HEELS? Lolth is a dummyhead." The figure whimpered in a strange sibilant accent.
"Nicce… is that you?" I said honestly confused. I could see Nicce making a more grown up version of herself, but this was a totally different take on things. It looked nothing like her, in so, so many ways.
Mom was snerking under her breath saying "They grow up so fast…"
I looked at Lisa who was just staring with a slack jaw at the prone goddess of darkness.
"Yeah its me… Ow, stupid big head!" The dark skinned goddess tried to turn over and stretch and in the process bonked her head on the nearby table holding my mom's computer. "Ow Ow Ow."
"Her body is perfect." Lisa said with an odd sense of awe.
"Don't be creepy she's a little girl." I admonished my alternate timeline once friend.
"No not like that, well yes like that too but I mean all her, um little problems with her body are just gone, this is a real body, totally, biologically real." Lisa explained.
"So this Lolth is a something of a, hmm proper term, god-tart? Super-powered floozie?" My mom chuckled as she observed the body and the shall we say tawdry clothing it currently wore.
"Here let me help you up I said reaching down even as I flashed my Khepri power to check Lisa's observation.
I took control of the Avatar and I sensed… power, huge amounts of untapped mental, physical and magical power. I snapped back out of it in something of a shock.
"Hi Taylor, give me a hand I suck at driving this thing." Nicce said as she flailed about, like she could not get her arms and legs lined up right.
Much as if she was an infant or had never spent much time in a real body before, very creepy thought.
"OK, um Nicce your normal body is a bit easier to drive, doesn't have all the, yknow bones and cells and nerves right?" Tattletale asked.
"Uh huh!" Nicce agreed as she grasped for leverage to try to rise… unsuccessfully.
"Ohh Kay, and how old are you really?" Lisa continued.
"Um I'm a spider-ish girl so it don't come out right, I don't age like people do." Nicce explained. She seemed to look at me for help a moment before answering further guiltily. "I'm three years old, I think, ish?"
"Three!? Wait ish so less than three?" Jeez beasties she could reason, talk, manipulate the universe in weird ways, fabricate complex three dimensional forms and travel the multiverse, not to mention speak and do reasonably well on a test meant for a fourth grader. Confronting the sheer inhumanity of her intelligence even while confronted by her obvious limitations, like she had just said 'driving a body'. I was taking a moment to wrap my head around this. This time my logical shard brain rescued my human expectations and I figured that for a life form (or possibly just a non-alive intelligence) like Nicce, aging at a different rate could be quite normal and expected. She might be more like Dragon than me or Tattletale. Instead of Drones and ships she had artificial human-like web?bodies. Apparently her normal choice of body was a bit easier to drive than a real human, or dark elven body in this case.
Nicce had ceased flopping around and I helped her stand with a hand up and a touch of Khepri nerve control. "Two and three quarters? Heh?" Nicce looked at me expectantly as if thinking I would turn my back on her because of her differences.
"OK Nicce, there you go, you got it?" I assisted her and after giving her a brief reassuring hug stood ready to catch her if she fell. My mom was watching and Tattletale continued to gape like a fish out of water as she digested the information.
"So you have this lying around as a spare or something? How many other bodies do you have?" I asked curious. "Can you make them look like anything you want?" I thought of the possibilities.
"Um, just this one and my usual, I uh kinda stole this one, so I got it as is. Kinda why Lolth is angry at me. It was only fair though she was trying to take over my body so she could get all my powers. I'm just better at making webs than her, so when she got all her shadowy webs of power around me, I got all my best webs around her power. Twisted off her ability to control me and kept the body, cause it had all the neat powers. I just haven't figured out how to work most of them and generally just used the spider summoning. It seems safer since I don't really understand all the magic, a lot of that stuff can be really dangerous even for me."
I hugged the currently taller than me Nicce. "I understand. You aren't like humans, but you are still people. It's OK. So how much other magic does this Avatar body have? Oh and can we maybe get you a sweater or something."
"Yeah, you are not going out in an outfit like that young lady!" My Mom snickered halfheartedly, joined by Riley who was giggling fro the next room.
"I can make me a better outfit, first though..." The person of Nicce/Lolth's avatar simply popped out of existence to be replaced by Nicce in her regular form several feet over. "…Much bettew."
"OK so we have Shadow Stalker Lolth on the loose in town, with the Merchants. Other weird magical threats popping up at inopportune times and I still have my list of Villains that need to be dealt with before the world ends." I huffed in frustration.
My Mom took my hand in hers and looked into my eyes, almost calming me down. "One thing at a time Taylor. We can't do everything at once, and we do finally have the contact info for the Dragon Slayers."
"OK maybe we can use this, do you suppose Coil might be panicked about recent events enough to make a very nice offer to the Dragon Slayers for some heavy backup? Wait, I think I have a plan, Nicce can you show me your Lolth's avatar again, I want to check something. Tats, don't go anywhere we need your hacking skills for another job."
XXX
We wouldn't go after the Dragon Slayers physically. This was partially because if they panicked they might set off Ascalon. The other part of the problem was that they had Dragon tech suits that would make any prolonged fight messy. Though not unwinnable; it wasn't to our advantage to make this confrontational, at least till we held all the cards.
They had turned down coming anywhere near Brockton Bay, apparently even a fortune could not convince them to come into our parlor. The strange events and presence of Armsmaster and Dragon's direct regular involvement made it a bad idea for them is what they had offered as an excuse.
Having determined their location via tracking back their communication (Thanks Lisa), we still had only a general area. So after tracking the communique via Coil's software with Lisa's intuition letting us narrow it down, Nicce, myself, Mom and Tattletale had gone walking around Vancouver BC to find their hideout directly. Nicce was wearing her avatar body (which I had cantriped to be normal colored, in addition to making my hair straight black, it was a weird look for me but I could get used to it.) and we were both trying to get used to moving in the Avatar, Nicce was managing a drunk stumble at least. It was an uphill battle and continually encouraging her is the only way we kept her at it. It also involved me and Lisa regularly helping her along much as if she was actually staggering drunk, given her lack of coordination it certainly looked like she needed the help.
Once my swarm found the two story home converted to garage a trio of Dragon tech converted suits it was pretty easy, though it had taken a few hundred dollars and a strange ride in a cab. The cabbie was convinced Nicce was a drunk friend we were trying to find the home of and we did not disabuse him of the notion.
We exited the cab a few blocks over and I remotely reconnoitered the area while we got something to eat at a convenience store.
Attempting to sober up Nicce had led to questions on how much her avatar could eat before gaining weight, if it even could? We made comments about the unfairness of her apparent metabolism, while stuffing Nicce (and ourselves)with cheap sweets. Tattletale confirmed she would have to eat like a pack of teenagers to impact her weight and we had a good chuckle at Nicce's growing proficiency with her body.
She accidentally slapped Lisa, and then me with food in short order as she tried to master handing people objects. Some chuckles and a napkin later and I was certain we could pull this off.
We got hotdogs and more candy and settled in at the convenience store. The cashier was giving us weird looks even after we paid till Lisa told him "We are waiting for a friend to pick us up. Hope we're not too much of a bother. "
Using what local supplies I could, while reading the requirements out of the Avatar form's memory, I began to put together everything I needed to pull off the spell. Nicce refused to be the one to cast it, but was ok If I did. I figured this would be a good safe dry non-combat test of my ability to use her Avatar's spells.
That this spell, called simply "Estate Transference" had not been in either Rill or Eldrin's spellbook told me I was on my own with this. If my reading of the runes and understanding from the avatar's memory of it, it should do what I wanted (Remove his entire base to someplace cut off and easier to contain) but a little part of me remained unsure.
I leaned on the Avatar's and my Shard to do some of the heavy mental lifting. This was way outside my own personal abilities, though I was paying close attention and learning a lot in the process. Seeing how it felt, how the power reacted and flowed was fascinating.
Having to depend on local substances for the materials was what was slowing me down the most. The ritual was a long affair, I cut it down significantly with my ability to multitask. Instead of one voice chanting I had twenty thousand insects providing the words just outside the target area.
Using smaller but carefully positioned amounts of the substances called for was also necessary. The knowledge from the avatar supported that this was possible with enough precision.
Seriously what kind of spell required that much silver. Nicce offered me some of her webs to help out with the spell. I integrated them into the evolving spell design. It was still workable, I could do this.
I made due with what I had, using some of Saint's own supplies. I sabotaged what I could in the meanwhile, in case this went badly or unpredictably. Webbing cases shut and preparing to cut off all wires and phone lines to cut off his access to power and communications. I had Nicce manipulate some of her webs so I could use them for materials for the spell and my swarm set things up efficiently.
I was starting to get a bad feeling even as my shard's calculations and the avatar's passive knowledge of magic told me this should work.
There was too much power gathering too much for me to personally concentrate on. It was like conceiving a novel worth of ideas in one go, having to focus and imagine and feel all at once, it was terrifying and glorious.
The avatar went through the final motions but I had the horrible sensation that it wasn't the avatar casting it, it was me. That much power could suck me into the void between worlds, could render my brain a husk. If I backed out now it might be even worse though. Why oh why had I thought this was a good idea?
The spell was completed, everything seemed to not be on fire. I doubted my senses a moment as I realized most of my swarm was just gone, the rest in the area were being drawn into the area by massive winds. I hung on to what I could but most of the gathered workers and ritual casting insects had been gone instantly or picked up by the rotating gale force winds.
That whole area was GONE. In its place was a hole in the ground and a tornado, with a face.
There was a burst of air and suddenly everything tilted 15 degrees to the side. The lights cut out and there was screaming.
Why did this feel so familiar?
XXX
(Terzhoul: Lord of the plane of Air, Evil Djinn and Slavemaster of the falling Bizarre)
It had been a good day, my countless servitors toiled to increase my fortune, my rivals could not compare to me and my enemies were powerless to confront me.
Then some sort of ethereal turbulence had risen around my palace. Silver and black webs spun in the air and suddenly I was elsewhere.
I looked around to see a residential area of strange humans, looking as surprised as I was.
I cried out in surprise and rage, building my powers to pull myself back to my homeplane.
The mana died at my fingertips, there was so little here, how had the bastard humans managed this.
I reached out to shred the nearest domicile in search of those responsible only for the paltry materials to stand up to my winds.
This was unheard of, this was unacceptable.
I condensed into my physical form and drove my blue skinned hand through the building lifting the roof off and sending it hurling into the sky.
How dare these humans, paltry slaves rise up to attack me. I would show them. I gathered up what little power there was and started to hoard it as I readied a call to my servitors.
Before I could accomplish this a massive spider was atop me. I spun and was nearly covered as a literal rain of human sized spiders air dropped upon me, covering the very sky with their unbelievable numbers.
Poisoned and with feeling leeching from my limbs I went to assume my pure elemental form once more. I sought to escape the press of spiders webbing me in place.
Something stopped me, something bound me to this form.
"That wasn't very nice!" a poorly illusioned Dark elf lady said. Her manner was strange but he recognized the form of the Demon Queen of Spiders.
"Betrayer, I should have known better than to trust you, those slaves you sold me, all for this!"
"What is he saying?" Another young woman asked as she picked her way through the wreckage my aborted rampage had created.
"That he is a bad guy!" The avatar of the Spider Queen said in her odd diction.
I struggled weakly till the girl got closer. Suddenly my struggles stopped against my will.
"Wow you were not kidding, this guy is a real charmer." The girl's voice said.
"Well he looks like a genie, do we stick him in lamp or what." An as yet unseen older female voice said from outside my limited vision.
"No he will betray us and kill us and toture us given the least bit of chance. If he dies here he's done, best finish him off." Another unseen girl said.
I thought furiously, if she was in my mind I would offer her riches, wealth, power.
She seemed dismissive and turned away as the avatar said. "Fezzy Get im!"