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(Taylor Hebert- Pelagus Character Occupatus)
We webbed back home before the local Protectorate heroes in Vancouver BC managed to get to the scene. We sat down around the kitchen table and prepared for a discussion about our next move since well THAT had happened when Dad and a strange old man came down the stairs.
"Ah good everyone, um Taylor is this a friend of yours?" My father started as he noticed Lisa.
The old man had a distracted unfocused look I associated with bodyguards that usually meant they were anything but. Considering the dude looked like 80 and by the looks had all the signs of a hard life made that observation all the stranger.
My Mom and Lisa exchanged a quick look before Mom said. "Yeah, this is one of Taylor's new friends, Lisa. We just spent a day out shopping and eating way to much sugar. What's wrong love?"
"We had some problems at work, it's the gangs, they are, well they might be trying to take over the city and I'm on their hit-list. This is Ruin, he is an out of town security consultant, here to see that we are safe. We might need to curb most of our travel over the next couple of days while things get sorted out."
"Which gangs exactly? The Merchants just escaped and Coil at least is a non –issue." My Mom pointed out, checking off possibilities.
"Well, it's the rest of them, the ABB, AND the Empire 88. The full-on gang war may be headed right for us." Dad explained as if it pained him to say it out loud.
"How much does.." "Does he know" my parents both started talking at once. They stopped for a moment and Lisa started laughing. It was an almost pained semi-hysterical laugh that devolved into rolls of belly laughter. Uncharacteristic of her, but she had been through a lot.
Everyone stopped a moment as she got control of herself, which took a while as she kept breaking out into giggles. She punched me at one point and squeaked out "Totally hilarious, your family doesn't talk a lot do they…" before breaking into a snort of what to her was obvious hilarity.
Nicce who had swapped back to her usual body just looked at her like she was crazy before inspecting Ruin. She glared at him a moment and I got the feeling he straightened up and I swear the lighting got weird for a moment throwing a weird shadow behind Nicce, but not the rest of us and then The old man and the little girl seemed to glare at each other.
The amount of unspoken subtext in the room was getting a bit hard to sort out.
"OK what is so funny and why are they glaring and what the hell is going on?" I finally burst out.
"OK, well first, Mr. Hebert. You might want to sit down." Lisa began as she went full bore Sherlock reveal and started pacing.
"First off I'm a member of the Undersiders, a teen villain group who works unofficially for Coil, the 'guy' who ran things downtown. I'm currently palling around with your wife and daughter because it's paid work…" She paused for emphasis and I could see the smile close to bursting back into laughter."Because your wife is basically now Coil." She gestured grandly at myself and Nicce. "Your Daughter as you know is a cape and her friend well… but they are known as the Spider Queen, a group of Independent Hero/Vigilantes around town." She paused.
"My girls being the Spider queen I knew about. But how could you be Coil, we just brought you back from the dead." My father addressed my mom directly in a pleading tone.
My Mom gave him a level glare and said. "Coil died, our daughter took over his operations and they needed someone responsible to look after them. It's our daughter and I will support the hell out of her!"
Tattletale pointed to Ruin. "Great phrasing! Am I right?" Ruin gamely made a so-so gesture.
"Why did you? I said I would deal with it." My father said anger just hinting into his voice.
"Like you dealt with everything while I was dead… yeah talking to a few of your buddies down at the docks is not going to cover this, she needs resources, guidance, and someone to help her keep her head on straight. You are a sweet man and a hard worker but you are still recovering yourself I…"
My father interrupted forcefully "I've made some deals that will take care of EVERYthing, you don't know what I'd do for you, for Taylor. I never had a chance to before I'll be damned…"
Lisa elbowed Ruin suggestively "Funny eh eh?" and Ruin rolled his eyes.
"… If I don't show up for her with everything I have, do everything I can do for her."
"So then we have you Mr. Hebert who has indeed been making some deals… with some Devils, No you are not an actual devil, Damn! I thought that was your thing, no, but I'm close, close enough it's funny?" Tattletale approached Ruin and he smiled knowingly at her, seemingly amused by her cold reading abilities.
"Hey Dad, I thought we weren't religious, like Devil worship… really I don't need help that bad." I whispered to my father.
"He's not a devil, exactly. It is a business deal, I help him, he helps you and Nicce stay safe." He whispered back.
"Did you sell your soul, after we just confirmed they were a thing, remember me OoOoO ghost. Souls are real?!" My mom forcefully interjected.
"I didn't sell my soul, it's more of a job, a contract really." My father defended himself.
Lisa looked back over at Nicce then at my parents and I then spun. "Fallen fire shadow spirit divine being! Aha. Yes? Yes!" As Ruin slowly nodded, seeming to be slightly impressed.
"So we have your dad, making deals for power with a fire spirit guy, no his boss, who thinks… no knows he is hot stuff hah! your Mom taking over for Coil running the Downtown underground Bond villain base and a horror from beyond, all in a house, one big happy family. So EVERYTHING IS OUT NOW? We see what's going on, everyone is clear? Now we just need to figure out who the damned enemy is and point you in their general direction while I try to stay out of the way. You guys good? I need to go lay down. If you need someone to go after I was going to suggest those children of Heartbreaker in town, but just a suggestion."
"Aside from the, wait the kids of Heartbreaker are in town? Ok so we have them, The ABB, The Empire 88…" My dad listed off our problems.
"Sophia Hess possessed by a dark spider goddess with a personal grudge against both me and Nicce. We just got rid of Saint 'I think' but I screwed up the spell so I'm not sure what happened." I added.
"I thought it was supposed to do dat" Nicce chimed in.
"No pretty sure exchanging a jerk human for a jerk Djinni was not the plan. It was supposed to just set him in his own subdimension where he couldn't hurt anyone." I informed the room.
"What spell?" Ruin asked simply.
"What, oh it was something called 'Estate Transference'.
"I know the spell, what did you do wrong?" The oddly wizard-y looking gentleman asked simply.
"Well I didn't have enough silver dust or chalk so I made do, but all the geometry and chanting was right, my stand-ins should all have been adequate and I did pull it off a bit faster than you are supposed to, but I got it all in."
Ruin squinted at me. "And YOU cast this spell?"
"Not exactly, I was controlling Nicce's Avatar form at the time and the avatar had the juice while my insect swarm cast the spell.
"All while you willed the spell to work through these others you controlled."
"Yes, it should have worked." I groused.
No, it sounds like you got it wrong, but got it to work, your underlying knowledge of dimensional physics was off, you were using those whose wills were controlled to cast it while not having the will or power to do so yourself. It is fairly amazing your mind is intact. That you pulled this off with substandard preparations and materials shows you have promise, that you attempted it at all in this state shows you are dangerously inexperienced to handle such power. Daniel, I wish to tutor your child in magic, for her and our own safety while not engaged in directly protecting your family, do you object?"
"No Ruin, that sounds like it may be for the best." My father agreed and I saw my Mom nod.
I would have objected on principle given my parents just deciding this for me but my inner power-munchkin was actually sort of salivating for more instruction. So I merely nodded.
The conversation wound down from there as we all considered who or what we should do, argued back and forth about priorities. Lisa headed back to the Undersider's base waving and saying she would be in touch deftly avoiding the developing family squabble. Both my parents argued I should not be going out and risking myself. I pointed out I had fought Scion and Endbringers multiple times and my Swarm made me our best intelligence asset, I enhanced Nicce's abilities and had more tactical combat experience than the rest of the room minus Ruin.
This was a bitter pill to swallow for both of them, but they admitted they would feel better if I went in with proper support and people I could count on. Basically, I had to stack the deck as hard as I could before getting into anything.
As for our killer goddess/Heartbreaker's kids/Axis power gang issues we eventually agreed to take Ruin's suggestion of staying put and letting them come to us. This would provide us with amusement in the case of them taking each other out or at least let us see them coming. We'd be spending time at home or in Coil's secret base as both were quite defensible and protected by Nicce's webbing. Ruin said he would do some additional warding to make life difficult for anyone trying anything magical and we'd be basically safe minus answering the door. Ruin volunteered to play doorman and when I asked what he wanted us to do if he came under attack he had said: "I suggest getting some marshmallows."
I loved the confidence but it seemed like he was asking for something to be able to trump him, or Master him, or… well, come up with some weird power that would make all his experience meaningless. So without asking I kept a firm eye on the area and kept a swarm handy, I would have included some of Nicce's spiders in the mix, but their duration was too short to make keeping some available efficient.
So I watched and I waited, and I learned magic, well more magic from Ruin. The next day my Mother and Father spent time at the Base with Nicce and Riley, as if I would learn better if left alone, either that or Coil's base had a better connection speed and more room. Also, .nicer TV's and it was fun to explore, because… BOND Villain Base. Or perhaps looking at me and Ruin staring at incomprehensible books for hours was as boring as it sounded like.
My Mom ever the bookworm had taken a look herself but said the stuff didn't make much sense to her. Ruin confirmed she had no real talent for arcane magic.
He was a harsh, gruff taskmaster, but I found myself enjoying his no-nonsense lessons as they moved me right along. I became proficient with First level spells, having no problem familiarizing myself with all I had available. He had me write a bunch out in a spellbook, adding a few I didn't have and seemed impressed with my progress.
He said I was nearing the ability to cast second level/sphere/tier spells when we got our first visitors.
It was the Undersiders.
Lisa could not have gotten much sleep, by the look of her.
The lot of them looked haggard and unwell, I saw Bitch literally snap at Regent as they approached the front door. To say they were in a bad mood was to do injustice to the concept. They reminded me of what they had been like right before attacking me.
I readied my swarm and warned Ruin of incoming friendlies, possibly under the influence of emotional distress or attack.
Ruin waved for me to join him at the door and told me "Then it seems it is time for a practical lesson."
I had a sudden image of the Undersiders getting melted alive, and gave him a stern look.
His answering smile was vicious as he said. "You have the tools to protect them, memorize protection from evil and meet me in the yard.
My swarm watched as I dutifully memorized, or at least pretended to look in the book as I basically mentally reviewed my Shard based memory of the spell, imprinting it on my human mind, grasping its nuances in a hard to describe way, like remembering a complex vivid feeling or holding a complicated flavor in your mind.
The Undersiders had all gotten into the yard and stopped between one step and the next. Frozen in place with a word and a gesture by Ruin.
Showoff, I could do that, admittedly I needed to be a bit closer.
I also could not do it with magic, rather relying on my parahuman ability, still when you had a big hammer that you could swing around as much as you wanted problems started to look nail-like.
"When you are finished, get that bucket of iron nails and meet me outside." Ruin said as he walked out, hopping over the squeaky bad step in a deliberate manner as he strode out into the yard.
That didn't sound ominous at all. If worse came to worse I'd have to take him out, my pitiful magic could do squat, but I was hoping perhaps my Alexandria trick might surprise him if needs must.
I finished and walked outside, grabbing the bucket from the basement, where my father still hadn't gotten around to cleaning up as much as we should.
I saw Ruin, at thirty feet tall easily, enshrouded in a thick aura of black flames, his burning ember-like skin shimmering into view only occasionally.
OK, that was a thing. Dad had said he really looked like that. Knowing and Seeing were indeed different.
I girded myself for what was to come. Needed a bigger swarm and gobs of webbing. Assuming the volcanic furnace with wings and fangs even needed to breathe. I realized it was probably pointless but if it meant saving my former friends, now minion acquaintances but I felt I still needed to try, I owed them for being my friend before, when I needed it.
This time around they had been mostly asses, but I'd still never forgive myself if I let anything happen to them.
The Undersiders were still frozen in place. They would be looking more nervous if they could I'm sure.
"Place the iron nails in the ground, make as perfect a circle as you can around them. Push the nails about halfway in. quiet your mind and ready your spell." The booming otherworldly voice echoed through the neighborhood.
How was the Protectorate not storming the place yet, he had mentioned concealing magic, but come on, the bastard son of Leviathan and Behemoth with a wingspan near the triple digits was looking over my two story house, how had the police not been called?
I did as I was bidden, wondering as I did if even thinking the word bidden was because I was hanging out being wizard-y all day. Probably?
Mind clear-ish, I (mostly with the help of my swarm ) placed the nails in a perfect circle around the Undersiders. At least this part seemed obvious.
Without any permission, I started casting the spell as soon as I was done. It was a little rebellion, but when the creature just nodded approval I felt a bit proud that he didn't have to babysit me through every step. He had been trying to imprint the whole use your head with your spells, this obvious setup made the conclusion obvious enough neither of us felt it necessary to talk.
Besides his voice was scary as… if not hell than whatever his equivalent was.
As much as I was enjoying his teaching, I wondered how long he would stay here with us, too long I'm thinking after seeing his terrifying true form.
I completed the simple spell and touched my finger to the circle of rusty nails.
I felt a difference immediately. Ruin was less terrifying, the paranoia and ill feelings towards Ruin fell away, well mostly. I now trusted him MORE anyway. Realizing none of this had been done by him to hurt my friends.
Fuck I knew this feeling, my Shard mind identified the effect now that I knew what I was looking for.
Frigging Masters, it was Cherish, and maybe someone else. Confusing, turning us against each other. It was subtle but long-term, and very long range.
Cherish was not near as brutal as I remembered, but she hadn't been trained/tormented by Jack Slash in this timeline. I had spared her that, only to still get attacked by her.
Still, the effect seemed gone now and I stood amidst the Undersiders, ready to whammy them with Khepri.
Experience in this had taught me it was simpler to just put them to sleep like I had the Merchants while lowering them to the ground. Well, I was ready to, but I figured talking might be good first. I didn't want to overdo the Khepri thing, it frankly made me feel, well less me.
The Undersiders sagged around me as they started to move. They all turned towards me and Bitch took a swing.
I didn't even bother using my power, I caught her fist in my hand and turned the leverage against her as I stepped in. Reflexes from Weaver felt odd, but it was better than a broken nose.
"You did it to us AGAIN!" Bitch Growled.
"No, I didn't. Regent's little sister is doing this shit to you guys and it should be off. Do you feel better?" I asked as I kept Bitch off balance and used her as a bit of a shield against the other Undersiders. I could put them all down in an instant, but I wanted to talk this out though I was more cautious after our last similar encounter.
Regent swore, his vocabulary was less impressive than I remembered, but he made up for it with feeling and duration.
Grue looked confused as he stared at his own fists and Tattletale, now in her familiar lavender outfit said. "Brain-boozled! Again! Whoever is doing this is getting better and they need to DIE."
I duly noted Whirlygig had knelt down and started to cry.
"What happened to You and Regent being immune and able to pick up on the signs of influence or whatever?" I asked.
"Um well, it's basically a lobster pot issue. They are very subtle and the more they get into us the easier it gets for them. I guess the new eye isn't foolproof and well Regent sucks." Lisa explained smiling bitterly.
"Fuck you." Regent said with little venom, almost by reflex.
"All right, Mi casa es su prison. Everybody inside let's go plot the deaths of Regent's Family." I ushered them in the front door."
"How are you doing that neat thing with the smoke? You are stealing my schtick." Grue asked as he looked right at the volcanic and very visible (to me)Ruin.
"Um, new friend. Come on Ruin lets go inside before someone takes a shot at your Smokey butt.
Ruin laughed at my comment.
It was a pants-shittingly scary laugh that made me deeply regret making light of him, while also paradoxically showing he had a sense of humor.
The fact that the Undersiders… and myself to be fair, made it inside in a fraction of the time it should have taken seemed to make him laugh harder.
XXX
(Hookwolf)
We had crept into position, myself, StormTiger and Cricket. This Hebert Jackass was as good as ours, the idiot had even put his address on the packets he had laid out for Kaiser at the meeting. We were to bring him in alive to find out what he knew but Kaiser had been open-ended on what state of alive he could be in, Othala was on call giving us some wiggle room.
First Cricket had tried sneaking in. The windows would not budge. Eventually, she simply went to break the window.
To all our surprise her Kama glanced off the glass, when she struck at it harder she bent the point.
What the actual fuck.
These guys were supposed to have weird powers, but unbreakable windows seemed a bit odd.
The walls, roof, and other windows were similarly invulnerable. We all tried. My blades bent and the howling winds of Stormtiger were unable to get a single shingle off the roof, much less damage the walls. Walls we could have individually shredded on any normal house.
What the hell were we supposed to do, knock?
…
After exhausting all our other options, we were eventually forced to knock.
Cricket was in front, ready to knock the sonic hell out of whoever opened the door.
A damned old man opened the door. I almost felt bad for him.
Cricket and Stormtiger both blasted him, Cricket then tried to shoulder her way past him while slashing at him with one kama.
She bounced off and gave a shriek of pain as her Kama melted and her face cage was smoking from where it incidentally contacted the geezer.
I stabbed him in the eyes, hard enough to remove his damned brainpan.
My bladed claws stopped a fraction of an inch short and started to glow.
I pushed harder and the old bastard just stood there, not even budging.
He finally reacted and took a single step forward. Pushing against me with one hand he casually threw me back and the blades making up my armor on that side started to run like crayons left in the sun too long.
"Who the fuck are you?" I said in disbelief.
"Little late for introductions, your lives are mine by right. Danny, however, did say to give you a chance at backing down. So you have this ONE CHANCE. I am Ruin, the Flame of Udûn. I will come for you all in another 34 hours. You may enjoy your time as you see fit unless you cede to the wishes of Mr. Hebert. I truly hope that you do not. I look forward to burning your souls free from your charred mortal husks."
The old man started to glow with a hellish light as he seemed bigger and more menacing. Flames as black as night wreathed him and his eyes burned with a deeper, somehow darker black flame that bespoke of ancient places of terror where mortal man had never tread, of eternal torment and pure uncompromising spiritual evil. His old weathered hands became claws of flame and blackened scale.
Stormtiger gave out a scream and focused a blast of wind more powerful than any I had seen him capable of at the obscene tableau of this being, and the black flames did not waver or even flicker. The thing looked at Stormtiger and began to raise his claw in his direction and a wave of stinging insects like something out of the apocalypse washed over him from behind. He screamed for several more seconds then lay twitching on the ground. He must have focused everything he had, lowering his normal defenses for an instant, which was enough for this thing to strike him down.
I had replaced my melted metal at considerable cost in both pain and time and only now was able to turn to face the 'being'. I was no man of faith, not one to quote the bible or claim that my faith protected me. But I was a warrior and would be one till I died. If I died to this thing, heck maybe fighting it would earn me some brownie points to make up for all I had done with my life. But I would not die easily and I would not lose composure.
Looking at the badly burned Cricket as she crawled backward trying to get a bit more distance between her and the flames, her warrior's pride shattered by what looked like quite a bit of pain and heated steel branding her flesh I realized we had already lost. The twitches from Stormtiger which I was tangentially aware of only drove the point further in.
I stared a moment and looked the beast of flame and shadow right in the eyes, seeing its desire for blood and a willingness to kill shackled only by his word or some sense of honor. I nodded understanding. This was no new cape, no foreigner or mercenary or human. This thing was hate itself given form.
"We go, but we will not forget this attack on us." I said somewhat shaken as I pulled Cricket back and retrieved the unconscious Stormtiger. They needed medical attention NOW if they were going to live.
"That was not an attack on you. That was you, attacking me at my weakest. Report to your master Hound, tell him your strength will avail him not. Please tell him to send your strongest against me. I will enjoy testing their… metal." The old man seemed to slowly reform out of the receding roiling mass of black flames. As he did I stared at the fallen bits of metal I had discarded to rid myself of the terrible heat, they seemed to float over to him and coalesce into an orb of steel. He smiled at me as the black flames he formed in his hand ate away at the metal for several seconds, consuming the metal before my eyes like dry kindling.
We left, Othala and Victor were only blocks away, I dreaded reporting this only slightly less than I dreaded going back there.
XXX
(Ruin the Flame of Udûn, Contract lawyer for the DWU, Balrog of Melkor)
I closed the door behind me. "Taylor! You did not need to interfere. You should be focusing on your studies." I yelled at my precocious young charge in the next room. She may have saved the life of that parahuman, my own spell would have been lethal and instant, I thought the fate he suffered was far crueler and painful and I smiled a wicked inner smile, She would outdo even me for causing pain and suffering among her enemies, amazing talent for one so young really.
"I'm good at multi-tasking, also I think I'm ready for my next lesson, these formulae you gave me, I think I figured out the trick, er the method." She yelled back from the couch in the living room.
I returned to my new hobby, mastering the alchemy that produced what the locals called coffee. There were so many flavors, so many nuances to learn. "I'll be right there to check your work and assign your next lesson."
She was progressing with a terrible speed through all the lessons I gave her. I had spent countless years learning several methods to controlling both my own power and channeling that of the universe and other planes to achieve power. Taylor Hebert it seemed sought to match my accomplishments in a few short years. She would be a formidable sorceress in time, a suitable champion for my Master on this plane. I would set her on the path to learning the great mysteries of magic and the world would tremble. Teaching really was quite rewarding.
XXX
(Taylor Hebert: Apprentice Wizard and Parahuman(ish))
Mom, Dad, and Nicce were back a few hours later. I explained our new refugees and welcomed them home. Mom started to make dinner, Dad had some work phone calls and or cult of Melkor business to work on and Nicce went back to watching cartoons. Ruin was in the kitchen playing with the new Coffee maker like it was the most fascinating thing in the world while he waited to 'get the door'. I had finished my lessons for the day according to Ruin anything further would just tire me out so I had to rest before my next lesson, so I was at a loss as to what to do. The Undersiders were sacked out in my room (girls)or the living room (boys), recovering from their repeat of being mastered.
I could go hang out with them, maybe help talk them down, get some socialization in, or hang out with Nicce and watch some mind-numbing cartoons.
It was at this point my phone rang.
This was odd for two reasons, first was that I did not, in fact, HAVE a cell phone. A second was that I didn't recognize the quirky ringtone and it was coming from the concealed back pocket in my spider silk armor that I now wore nearly everywhere.
The back pocket of my armor, right near my butt, where I intended to keep a large knife if I ever remembered to pick one up, which had been under the Girl Scout uniform that I had on while talking to Clockblocker.
"Son of a Bitch!"
How he managed to get a phone, with full GPS tracking onto my person, into a buttoned secure back pocket… right by my butt without me noticing? It was mind-boggling.
"How the hell?" I uttered as the phone kept ringing. He had even said he'd get in touch that cheeky little bastard.
I reached into the pocket and felt the familiar small weight of a standard-issue Wards cell phone. Answering the phone I was not surprised to hear Clockblocker's voice.
"Hey, looks like I forgot my phone with you, don't suppose I could swing by and pick it up? We have a lot to talk about anyway." He said in a conciliatory voice.
"So you planted your phone on me to find out where I live and now you and the whole Protectorate are probably outside waiting to try to catch me and throw me into the Wards. Fuck that!" I said into the phone as I marched into the kitchen. "Hey Ruin we have incoming, try to only burn them too badly, maybe only kill most of them, they might be the 'good guys'."
"Why would the targets being the good guys make a difference?" Ruin rumbled in reply. He didn't look up from the coffee machine as it poured a cup that smelled like raspberries and sugar more than coffee.
"Whoa whoa whoa, it's not like that at all. I just misplaced my phone, was going to stop by and maybe talk a bit, share info. No one is reporting you or outed your identity. As far as the PRT is concerned you are just a random girl I may have left my phone with after a date. I got written up for it and everything. You wanna meet somewhere else hey that's ok too. But we kinda wanted to talk to Nicce while we were there." He attempted to calm me.
"OK point one, you know where I live. Point two you work for the Protectorate and the PRT. Point three unwritten rules, ever hear of them? Point Four you touched my BUTT! Point five… ugh, I forgot what I was going to say, but you said 'we', so I'm betting you are not alone in your visit and that brings us right back to point one, so EVERYONE is going to know where I live!"
"Hey, we're the good guys! We're not trying to screw you over! We are on your side, calm down and think about this, hell look at the pictures on my phone, I'm a big fan of yours, but things with this unknown being taking over Shadow Stalker and turning her into some sort of monster has everyone spooked, we were just hoping to get a ride back to Renedge, drop off some stuff and maybe ask a few questions to people on the other side for some help and or advice." Clockblocker said, desperation clear in his voice.
I heard a girl's voice in the background, "Hey loverboy we have two big guys heading for your GF's place might wanna warn her to get out of there. I think these are the Oni twins from the New ABB."
I sensed the two guys they were talking about. Almost ten feet of hardened demonic scales and muscle, with what looked like demon masks, that I found were indeed their heads/faces on account of being physically melded to them. They were just coming into my range.
I ignored Clockblocker talking to me for a few seconds. I hate dealing with new parahumans. You never know what you are up against. I walked over to the door and could only almost make out their looming shapes approaching the front yard from down the street. Well, the bad guys knew where we live so it was only a matter of time for the good guys too.
"Ruin, you are up, Oni with the ABB, they look like brutes, unknown powers and resistances.
"mmm, Bothersome." Ruin said as he reluctantly turned away from the coffee machine and strode to the door. Opening the door he stepped gingerly outside and walked quickly in the direction of the ABB thugs.
They ignored my swarm, their thick scales would probably be invulnerable to anything short of a canon. Eyes, ears, nose, anus, mouths all openings were not present or as hard as their armor in the case of the eyes. I was starting to think they might be projections or serious case 53's though the armor's scales reminded me of Lung more than anything.
From the door, I saw smoke kick up blocking all vision as Ruin strode over to them. They approached with all the inevitability of an oncoming train.
In the smoke, there was a brief flash of red that reminded me of nature programs about volcanoes and then I saw Ruin walking back. Of the two Oni parahumans, there was no sign. Out the window, the smoke cleared rapidly.
"Okay, you were saying?" I spoke into the phone.
"Ask her what the fuck was that?" I heard Vista panicking in the background as Clockblocker took a moment, cleared his throat nervously and said. "Did I mention we're friends, big Fans of your work, you wanna go get something to eat maybe? You like Italian?" He weaseled.
"So who do you have with you exactly?" I said sweetly.
"Oh, just us Wards, plus Gallant, Glory Girl and Panacea because tagalongs wanted to meet you, you know welcome you to the Parahuman neighborhood." Clockblocker mumbled.
"No Armsmaster, Miss Militia? No Dauntless and Dragon suits circling to give air support?" I chided him.
"Uh, no it was supposed to be a friendly meet and greet. Not an armed incursion, or a trap or whatever you thought this was." Clockblocker said, a touch of hurt and shock in his voice.
I wondered about that, about my own desire to engage them in full lethal force. These were the Wards, the poor kids that got mostly killed and maimed in my original timeline. They were not my enemies, though they did work indirectly for them, at least officially.
I ran a quick review of my own actions through my shard, yup, it was barely there but there was a Master influence. Like Tattletale said, subtle as hell plus a subtle touch of emotional manipulation. It looked like Cherish and at least one other child of Heartbreaker were in town and trying to get me and everyone else to fight and kill each other. They were using a soft touch though, maybe I was just used to the S9 version.
Still, they'd come close here to killing the Wards and putting the blame right on my door, which would be inconvenient. I wanted to do something about that sooo…
"Hey Mom it OK if we have the Wards over?" I asked my mom over my shoulder.
"Honey, is this another of your brilliant plans? Have all the underage superheroes and villains in the city under the same much too small roof." My mom asked as she poked at her meal in progress. She got a slightly disgusted look on her face and put the cover over it. "Well, I guess I'll order some Pizzas. Ruin, no hurting the children."
"What no shooting this crazy idea down?" I questioned my Mom.
"Nope, I think everyone sitting down and just talking is a BRILLIANT IDEA, frankly. Besides I want to see how you pull this off. I'll go inform your father so he can put on a good shirt." My mom giggled as she went off to speak to/warn my father.
I considered warning the Undersiders and did after considering the possible ramifications of not doing so. "Hey, guys we have the Wards, Glory Girl and Panacea coming in, everybody on your best behavior." I yelled into the living room. The distant groan from my room of Tattletale was distinctive and Brian actually got up to figure out what the hell was going on.
"OK Clockblocker, you win, you and the whole lot of your friends can come in if you agree to Endbringer truce conditions and no fighting, we already have other guests you see." I informed Clockblocker, though I was sure he had heard every word.
"Nicce, you wanna come in here?" I asked into the living room.
"No my show is stiw on, You guys handle all the boring tawkin, Just call me when you need sumfin." She drawled lazily from the couch. I saw her socks sticking up off the back of the couch, was she watching TV upside down?
"All right, we will all be on our best behavior, we're all friends here right?" Clockblocker clarified.
"Well except the Undersiders are technically wanted criminals currently sheltering from the kids of Heartbreaker, and my Dad seems to have pissed off both the E88 and ABB who visited earlier, but yeah we're all friends here, we have pizzas on the way."
"All right, um why do you have villain's in your house?" He asked nonchalantly.
"Because I'm trying to save the world and they are helping, wither they like it or not. So like I said Endbringer truce applies." I explained.
"Sure we'll be right over." He replied with false cheer.
XXX
(Dennis / Clockblocker)
"OK guys there is some next level shi-IT going down at the local wizard's house. Everybody be polite and don't piss off the resident 'god I hope she's not evil' Spidermancer and her family and the group of villains that beat us here."
"The Undersiders are small time, Masters of Escape is what they bill themselves as, so petty crooks and kids in it for the excitement. After all the actual evil shit we've seen I think we can afford to ignore the petty crimes to get their help with whatever the problem is currently. Though I'm betting they are as upset about Shadow Stalker as we are, didn't she have a thing with Grue, their leader. It makes sense they'd go to someone for help." Aegis pointed out.
"I don't think so, if she's consorting with criminals she probably is one herself, we should go in there and bust them, let the PRT sort them out." Glory Girl aka Victoria Dallon said angrily.
"Um Sis… did you miss the part about them being the Spider Queen, remember really big spiders, lots of them, plus magic and god knows what did that shadow flare style thing that the Oni twins disappeared in. You fought one of them earlier this week, you were barely winning against one of them. If they want to fight we stick together, but let's find out what the whole deal is first." Amy Dallon countered her sister's argument.
"Besides doing some looking into the Undersiders, they pull off minor stuff like robberies on drug dens and attacking Dog fighting rings. They attack the other gangs and businesses that are usually connected to the gangs. Biggest thing they hit was the Ruby Dreams Casino the night Lung died. So there may be something of a 'honorable thief/robin hood thing to them." Kid win pointed out as he checked through the internet on the heads up display on his new goggles.
"In any case we need to go through Nicce to get back to Renedge. We need to get to Renedge to get help against the Dark God that possessed ShadowStalker. We can't go around, we have to go through." Vista reasoned coldly and put an arm around Clockblocker.
"So turn on the charm, I do not want to be hip deep in spiders, evil magic and gods know what else." Vista encouraged in an intimidating tone.
"Eeash I got it. I got it. Just everybody behave, for the love of all that's holy I can't exactly put the moves on her with every single one of you… well what my name sounds like. So be nice, our hosts are invoking an Endbringer style ceasefire. We are going to be the better guests and abide by it. Nothing used against them later, no secret, cute moves for leverage that might get us all killed. Skitter is a very smart girl who is powerful and I'm thinking just a wee bit paranoid. She also sees more than she should and has access to an army of giant spiders at a moments notice, by the sound of it her 'teacher' is there too, knowing what we do of the people who taught us, I really don't want to stir this potentially quite literal sleeping dragon. This is my turn, let me work. If this goes well we turn a bunch of wayward souls just a touch brighter and maybe earn us some friends in low places, even Alvidar, you know the place the locals not so jokingly call 'happy paladin land' has a large group of spies and thieves on the payroll, so if and when the bad guys move in, even the local criminal element are set against them and turn them in, if they don't deal with them themselves." Clockblocker tried to explain.
"If they put up with thieves and creeps they aren't really good are they." Victoria stated.
"No you don't get it. They are the real deal. So much so that in Alvidar even their equivalent of creeps and thieves are good folks when push comes to shove that I for one would trust my life to. They don't persecute and harass people for the minor offenses and those who are desperate or who don't fit the mold. They go out of their way to help them find a place, help them solve the source of their trouble so when they are confronted with something really evil, they all can work together to beat it." Dennis fervently explained.
"I don't know if this place can be real." Amy didn't quite whisper.
"Well you'll be seeing it shortly, if all goes well we'll be back later tonight after having spent a few days on the other side." Carlos offered.
The group of them walked up, having parked Dean's oversized car several blocks away. They shouldered packs that contained their costumes and supplies.
They passed the spot on the road where the Oni had stood, of the two brute's there was no sign, but reassuring was the fact that there was no sign of violence either.
Then they approached the small home with a bit of trepidation. Most put on their small concealable masks and I and Vista didn't bother with ours, show of confidence or good faith on her part I'm not sure, but I wanted to come across as being as open as possible.
Carlos brought up the rear, carrying a lot of what armor and weapons we couldn't wear under normal clothes in a few sports bags.
We got farther than the Oni twins, all the way to the door. The place looked like it had seen better days. One of the stairs leading up to the door was loose and the place looked like it could use a fresh coat of paint even in the dark. The ground in the yard looked torn up.
I knocked on the door and a nice woman answered the door. "Welcome, come on in. Not a lot of room in the kitchen so everybody into the living room. There we are, Nice to meet you! Leave the bags in the Kitchen if you would, rooms a bit at a premium. Alright we should have a chair or seat for everyone. Danny grab another seat from your office!"
We were ushered into a rather drab but clean house that looked surprisingly normal. Lower middle class, frayed carpeting and used furniture that still managed to look comfortable and inviting.
Jewel found herself sharing a loveseat with Nicce and a large guy with cornrows that I thought must be Grue, out of costume. Grue and Jewel were each perched on one of the large arms while the tiny girl took the central seat uncontested.
This was hardly a surprise given the Undersiders had their identities revealed just a bit ago.
There was one girl half hidden behind the loveseat with multicolored hair, but her hair and frame were wrong to be Skitter. There were two girls sitting on the stairs, a cute blonde and a trashy looking girl wearing clashing colors, neither looked a bit like the girl scout with Lavender Hair, but one was the blonde Girl Scout we had seen at the bank. So she had some connection to the Undersiders and it was… the Girl Scouts of America? Of Skitter, there was no sign.
There was a TV playing kids cartoons and a small open area in the middle of the room just big enough for a person to swing their arms around. Every other space was taken up by seats, The couches and loveseat were full and I and most of the Wards were on fold out chairs and a pair of stools.
A thin older man brought the last stool for Aegis to take as a seat. I noticed a grey-haired elderly gentleman looming in from the kitchen as if taking a headcount and the two obvious parents continued to hover and offer drinks of lemonade and iced tea.
They showed every sign of trying to be good hosts with what little they had. I could not help seeing the similarities with my own family home in the pictures and knickknacks around the house.
Victoria and Amy were on the couch with Dean and the Girl known as Hellhound. Dean seemed to be playing peacekeeper as Hellhound and Vicky glared at each other.
Before things could settle or get worse Skitter made her appearance. Coming down the stairs in full bug costume but with her head uncovered she was showing off her very bright lavender curly locks. In her hands she had a big pad of paper and a few Sharpies.
I noted it had several bullet points drawn on in sharpie and thought oh 'god she's giving a presentation'.
I was handed some very sweet ice tea, so this was an improvement on the wards usual briefings so I would not complain, especially as there was a tray of crackers and peanut butter making their way around.
Skitter navigated around the girls on the stairs and through the press of chairs to get to the center of the room. "OK, Hi everybody, welcome to the first ever emergency meeting of the teen parahumans of Brockton Bay. Welcome, Wards, Undersiders, New Wave. If we had Rune from the E88 that would be the whole set. The E88 attacked the place earlier tonight, so we didn't invite her. We didn't invite the Wards either but I see that didn't stop you." She opened with a not quite joke at our expense, not entirely bad, she at least had A sense of humor.
"Basically everyone knows where we live now, so it's no longer a secret, I'd appreciate your keeping what little you can to yourselves regarding us personally and what we talk about here, but a lot of it needs to be told to the authorities anyway so use your judgement. We've got the place set up like a fortress in any event so anyone trying to attack us here is screwed, that goes for the villains, the authorities or anyone making trouble for us." She covered her bases before continuing. "Things are dangerous in town right now, So I would ask that we work together, or at least not get in each other's way while we try to get things somewhat stabilized around here. So the current problems we have are…
1) Lolth the Demonqueen of Spiders who is currently possessing Shadowstalker. She is also in possession of the Merchants so might have the whole gang under her control.
2) The Children of Heartbreaker are causing trouble in town, trying to kill Regent and cause problems all around.
3) The E88 and ABB are in a gang war AND after my father and family in particular."
She stopped to look around the room. "Any questions so far? Yes." She pointed to Kid Win.
"How do you know one or more children of Heartbreaker are in town." He asked plainly.
"They've tried to kill the Undersiders, because of Regent's recent outing, tried to kill me WITH the Undersiders and generally been poking around making trouble. With me and Nicce we picked up a bit about them because of how our powers interact. Basically there is a long range emotion controller, and at least one more who seems to be able to make people suspicious and hostile, twist things around in their heads in a subtle way to make people attack each other." Skitter expanded upon her bullet point.
"Great, it could be Cherish and Gaslight. Cherish has a huge range and Gaslight has a weak power, but he can target people based on their emotional state from half a city away without seeing them. If both of them are in town they can target pretty much anybody and slowly twist them around. Also if both are here there's probably at least one or two extra to cover for them at closer range." Regent offered surprisingly helpful.
"Do we know how the evil demon took over Shadowstalker?" Vista said, on point and on task.
"Well, Nicce? You are the expert on that one." Skitter gestured towards the youngest person in the room.
"Uhm… She's good at magic and mental stuff. She coulda just taken over hew mind, but then she would not have all the neat powers. Unless she invested one of hew avatars all the way into hew. She would need to have the pewson agwee to dat though. She does dat wif her pwiests. Dat is what she twied wif me. She twied takin me over an makin me agwee. I cut her off dough." Nicce was visably thinking about it hard, knuckling her tiny fist under her chin.
"Could you do that to Stalker, cut her off." Vista pressed.
"Dunno? Maybe, depends what da webs look like, I fooled hew once. Dunno if the same twick will work again, she's a dummy but I dunno if she is dat big a dummy." Nicce hedged.
"Hey if you need help with stitching and cat's cradle stuff with webs you could maybe talk to Parian, you guys said she was good with that sorta thing right?" Jewel aka Yule pointed out as if trying to encourage the young girl.
"They are not those kind of webs…" Skitter tried interjecting when she was interrupted by Nicce who seemed interested.
"Weawy you got somebody that does stuff like dat! Coow!"
"I'll take her down to talk to her this weekend, she does those puppet shows, Nicce should love them." The woman of the house interjected to Nicce's enthusiastic approval. Nicce got out of the chair with such speed that the reacting Grue and Yule slid into the chair as it rebounded. Yule ended up in Grue's lap to an embarrassing extent that had Skitter turning a strange shade of jealous as the two attempted to detangle from each other. Interesting...
Nicce went and got picked up by the woman and they withdrew somewhat into the kitchen. I heard someone at the door, by the sound of it the Pizza had arrived.
"BACK on Track now! So what are we doing about these threats to the bay?" Skitter attempted to regain control of the room and succeeded if only because her audience was interested in exactly that question.
"The Wards were planning on asking Nicce for a trip back to Renedge, to speak to some of our mentors and people in Alvidar about how to deal with Lolth." Aegis offered diplomatically.
Grue nodded and said. "The Undersiders will deal with our own mess, though some help from you and as the Spider Queen would be appreciated in tracking them down.
"The ABB and E88 will hopefully cancel each other out in a few days, long enough for you kids to deal with other things, I'm sure that situation will resolve itself." The father said in support of our decisions.
"As far as what we're going to report, I think we'll just let the Protectorate know I picked up my phone without trouble, but we saw the Oni Twins in the area, and that maybe we heard a reliable rumor from the Spider Queen that the kids of Heartbreaker are in town so we should be on extra alert for Masters." I said as I looked to Kid Win and Aegis for confirmation. They both nodded after some consideration.
"I'll make the call." I offered, knowing I was the best liar by omission in the group. "Wow, even my Tinkertech wards phone is getting crappy reception in here." I muttered to myself.
"Yeah the reception in here is pretty flakey, I blame a certain little spider's webs." The Blonde girl scout offered as she passed me on the way to the kitchen. Pizza was apparently being distributed in large quantities.
The meeting seemed to fall apart with the questions being answered and food being provided. Odd groups of us were talking in little sub conversations.
I went to go outside and for some reason, the old man who just looked like an archetypical wizard followed me out the door. I introduced myself. "Clockblocker, and you sir?"
"Ruin" He answered simply with a polite nod.
"Badass cape name." I offered as I tried to get some connectivity in more ways than one.
"It's actually an elven moniker, simply means red fire, suitable enough." He offered in conversation.
"So earlier, that was you with the Oni Twins? What did you do to them?" I inquired curiously.
"Nothing, or rather I just made them go away." Ruin said simply. He took a sip of coffee as he looked out over the torn up yard.
"Impressive, you are one hell of a wizard." I offered praise in hopes of more information on Skitter's teacher.
"Among other things." He said in a cryptic manner.
He's an F-ing Dragon confirmed. I thought to myself.
"You going to be around for a while, this city could use a good wizard to sort it out." I sought to both appease his ego and maybe get a line on his prices for services rendered. Dragon's loved cash, or equivalent in precious metals at least.
"I am only going to be in town a few short days, I have business elsewhere, but I shall do what I can while I'm in town." He smiled at me and tasted his coffee.
I turned and started my call to Armsmaster, feeling pretty safe with Ruin watching my six.
XXX