Then we have an update on things. Basically due to some computer issues I haven't been able to do much writing. Hopefully, that will now be fixed... or I'll soon be getting a new computer, we will hopefully see shortly.
Now then on to the battle introducing Annette Hebert into the world of parahumans. Yes her powers and their development are a Bleach reference, though there is a history of Death having a chosen few mortal champions to help it with 'issues'. The Death over in Renedge has in fact allowed several PC's to take a strangely similar to the anime 'prestige' class that by putting a few levels in it gets you some neat 'spirit/soul reaper' abilities like summoning a spirit sword and getting it to do some weird abilities... and yes the level 10 capstone is called Bankai for some reason.
As the personification of Death is new it decided to get a hand from the only person it's met to help sort out things. Also, Bakuda is back in the story... sorta heh.
On to the chapter
XXX
It was one hell of a costume. It was… menacing, dark and beautiful. Mostly black and padded to almost resemble fabric armor with two interwoven bone white colored serpents that wove around the core of the body and ended in padded shoulders that loosely resembled the heads of serpents. It had a large flowing mantlet that put my old shawl to shame.
I still had to undergo a final fitting. Nicce's recollection of my measurements was almost perfect, however, Parian was teaching her that some areas needed a bit more give and extra room, or extra support as I wasn't getting any younger. I was already regretting the snacks I had brought back (mostly) for the other girls that had still somehow managed to distort my figure in the last half hour.
It was more likely the lack of walks around campus that was the cause, I'd have to ask Taylor when she returned if she had any good superhero/villain work out strategies to share.
Still, as I spun in front of the mirror I found that I looked considerably better than I had imagined. "Coil Two: Revenge of the something something." I muttered into the mirror. Nicce giggled as she found this hilarious.
So "Parian, what do I owe you for this work of art?" I said as I turned this way and that checking the fit.
"Well, you provided the materials, more materials than I needed actually…" She said sounding off put behind her mask.
"Make yourself something nice dear, consider it a tip." I said trying out a haughty tone. Maybe it was the villainous attire but it worked oddly well. My former students would definitely not recognize me using that tone of voice.
"I can't do that Maam, it's company policy we usually use what we source ourselves or what the client provides, I could talk to the owner about maybe counting it towards your bill." Parian offered awkwardly.
"Oh that's right you don't actually own this shop… yes please call your manager so we can make arrangements." I said smiling as an evil thought occurred.
Parian went in back and made a short phone call, she returned to the floor and handed me the phone. I watched Nicce dart about the shop apparently saying random sewing terms at different articles of clothes as she looked at the mannequins.
I spoke to her manager, identifying myself as the 'New' Coil, I explained everything. I noticed Parian start to look concerned as the phone call dragged on. The owner and I finally came to an agreement and I handed Parian the phone back. "I just have to arrange payment, just a moment." And I called Riley on my phone.
I agreed to get her some more equipment while I was spending money anyways and she made the necessary fund transfers from the base.
I looked to Parian and she again grew still. I heard her telling the owner 'What?' repeatedly, then I heard the owner hang up.
Or should I say the former owner? Miss Marcellino apparently had been scrimping and saving for a nice house in the Bahamas and a cruise. The amount I paid to buy the business would more than cover that and their retirement and her husband's medical treatments, though if she took my advice I'd be hearing from her tomorrow about arranging a meeting with Riley.
"So upon reviewing your work I'd say you deserve a raise." I told Parian. "Also perhaps a celebratory lunch, we can talk about possibly having you join us as the flagship member for a team of Rogues, all legal mind you. Despite me now being your Boss you are under no compunction to join, I'm just offering to bankroll you and a few other girls with powers trying to make it in this world as something other than villains or heroes. Oh, and we will probably be associated with the Girlscouts of America, just to warn you about what kind of sketchy people you will be associating with."
Parian didn't say much after that just quietly followed us. We went to have a celebratory lunch, Parian was conscientious enough that she picked up all the silk cloth Nicce had provided and stored it in her two bodyguard stuffed animals that accompanied us out onto the boardwalk.
Parian didn't make her show at ten, I told her the boss would understand, and we could talk about her having as many or as few shows as she would like.
We never did quite make it to the French restaurant Parian suggested for lunch. Dammit, it was always something around Brockton Bay.
There was screaming. Not the sort of screaming someone does in surprise, or in a cheesy horror movie but the kind created by stark terror, the kind of screaming that puts you into fight or flight and tells your body that it is in danger before it even registers on your conscious mind.
I put myself between the sound and the girls before I even thought about it. Realistically the parahuman seamstress and Nicce were probably some of the scariest people on the block and little middle-aged woman me with no powers aside from the nice new costume was going to protect them?
Then again I was the adult and it was my reaction, and I didn't regret it. The armor was meant to be able to handle bullets and worse, well that and Parian sounded young, my maternal instincts had been on overdrive since I had been dead.
Still I was happy when Parian's oversized stuffed Tiger and Bear took the lead. It gave me a chance to do something other than clench up in reaction. Four blocks down the street panicked people were streaming our way. We saw why a moment later as a four-foot long spider leaped from across the street, injuring a pedestrian.
"Nicce I take it that is not one of yours." I said unnecessarily.
"Nope." Nicce said with a slight emphasis on the p.
"All right, we need to do something about this." I started.
"I thought you said we were Rogues, wouldn't this would be more a hero thing?" Parian interupted with obvious misgivings.
"Normally I'd agree with you, but there are children on the street, and these are not a part of some petty ante group, the Merchant's new Boss is evil and has it out for everyone not under her thumb. Let's just say we already know she is a monster on par with the Slaughter House Nine, so in a case like this, we do what we can but no heroics. Nicce summon up some counter spiders would you?"
"I wood but if wowf is hewe she could just contwol them." Nicce informed me.
"Isn't that just the shoe on the other foot. OK, what do we have?" I said as I looked at the fastest parahuman seamstress in the world and the fastest producer of metaphysical silk probably further afield. "Parian you in? These people, WE need your help. How about a bit of an upgrade for your friends? Nicce get her materials, Parian I suggest you go BIG."
Parian's body language seemed uncertain till she heard more screams, getting closer, from terrorized people on the street being attacked. My own blood seemed to pound in my ears and with finality, she nodded.
XXX
(Avatar of Lolth- Demon Queen of Spiders,)
The attack was small scale, just something to get a read on the opposition and see what and who would actively oppose me. I needed information on how the locals did things and the only way was to push some buttons and create some chaos that would get a reaction. My host told me to expect a heavy response if we moved into the boardwalk. Knowing what their heavy response would consist of was exactly the information I was after.
Then I could see where the weaknesses were and start pulling at the whole house of cards that was this civilization down till it was a more manageable climb to the top.
I started small, a few of my less useful disposable minions armed with pistols, some summoned spiders and a few illusions to draw attacks, one wearing my own form, a few looking like driders to judge reactions.
The people here feared me, writhing in terror I found no one to resist me at first. The sheer enjoyment my host took at this expression of my power was a bit off-putting, but it made her easier to control. She might slowly grow into the sort of follower I could use without direct possession. Her knowledge was already proving useful, soon I might not need her to have a form in this place.
A police officer took out three of my spiders. My disposable minions kept him pinned in cover as the tide of spiders continued down the boardwalk unabated.
I wasn't killing anyone, not yet. Just being friendly, showing the humans how weak they were, how defenseless. A few got webbed, more were knocked down and wounded, roughed up by the minions who were taking valuables, justly collecting taxes for their new queen.
Then I saw her, the thief of my power, Nicce. Further down the boardwalk cowering behind a woman with a snake theme and a pair of oversized stuffed cloth dolls somehow animated in the fashion of golems.
My anger was held somewhat in check by my wit. I had been fooled by the young Voidbeast once. It would be avenged and I would get back what was mine. But it would not happen today, I would need to test her, capture her and break her. But I would not again underestimate her as I had. Behind that tremulous young facade dwelt a creature of terrible power and cunning.
I could make this work with my original plan for this foray, I would test her, start the process of teaching her the proper order of things. I would not win this day, but that was not my goal. I would terrorize and put my enemies on notice. I would not, however, reveal too much of my power or my plans.
My illusion urged my troops forward to the attack. This would be interesting and even if I lost all that I had brought it would not slow my progress. I drifted invisibly in the air, out of the way but with a good view of what was to come, all the better to judge my opponents.
XXX
(Annette Hebert, Coil, Agent of Death)
The spiders and thugs advanced on us, sensing a fight they ignored most of the crowd and circled towards us. Behind them; remaining several blocks away three distant figures that looked like ebony black skinned spider centaurs crested the top of one of the locally taller buildings and seemed to leer at us.
The Teddy and the Tiger held them off from a full two-thirds of the possible directions. I pushed the girls behind me as the spiders darted behind the front line. The girls were busy working on something. I imagine Parian had her hands full controlling her guards as well, still, that left me.
I found myself facing off with a pair of spiders that were easily as large as me. They were armed with fangs the size of knives and sharp looking legs four feet long.
I had a really cool new outfit, no parahuman power and no weapon whatsoever.
As the first spider lunged I threw myself in the way. I had taken a few judo classes and even a Taekwondo class.
A single Taekwondo class that had convinced me that I was not cut out for it. The Judo was mostly a way to connect with other girls on campus interested in self-defense looking for recruits for Lustrum. I had never had a talent for it.
This all rushed through my mind as I found my meager skills being tested in mortal combat against a massive spider and his friends the also massive spiders.
I grabbed for its legs as I tried to fend it off. I managed to grab absolutely nothing but air as it darted in. I at least kept it in the way of its fellow.
It smacked at me with its legs and bit my leg, but aside from a sensation of pressure, it accomplished little more than perhaps a light bruising as my expertly designed armor held.
I had a what the hell am I doing moment as I advanced an angry step towards the arachnids. My anger overwhelming my common sense. 'I'm going to die here' I thought distantly. 'Again'.
I remembered my dream from the morning, the endless expanse of white and dark. The voiceless cowl that had placed a warm something into my hand.
The hand that now burned and itched and flared in memory. I remembered being a ghost and being so angry that someone would attack my child. Now two girls, Nicce a near adoptee who would die if I did nothing and Parian a young woman I had barely met who I had inadvertently dragged into danger.
I remembered that feeling, that feeling of rage, of Bakuda's heartbeat, fluttering under my hand as I claimed her life, comforting her with my ghostly hand over her chest and the bomb she had made, the very same sensation as I had felt this very morning. The burning pain in my hand and the memory of the life I had taken did little to focus me on my attackers.
The two spiders were flailing at me and getting ever closer to a strike to my unarmored head, my own flailing doing little but putting off the inevitable strike to my face as I at least struggled energetically. My armor was definitely worth every penny of buying Parian's entire shop.
The fluttering, burning sensation in my palm, the spiders attacking me, death stared me in the face and I thought I can't fail, not like this. In panic, rage, and confusion I strangely remembered my time as a ghost protecting my daughter and my husband and the people of the city from the young girl bomber. Following some urge, some memory I called out the name of the girl as a warcry.
"BAKUDA!"
Suddenly there was a thin blade in my hand. A small graceful curved Japanese sword, a wakizashi I think it was called. It felt right and seemed alive in my hand, not that I was overly concerned with that as opposed to thinking holy crap where did this sword come from.
I was no swordswoman, but I was one hundred percent better armed than a moment ago. I made good use of it and the light blade seemed to slice through the spiders like they were so much mist.
OK, some of that was me missing badly. But when my sword connected the spiders basically went poof. I held the wave of spiders off for what felt like hours, but what I knew was probably only a fraction of a minute. I at least started to get used to the feel of the blade and if not using it expertly; I was looking less foolish I hoped, actually hitting with the sharp part of the sword on occasion and being a tad more efficient than swinging wildly as I had started out only moments before.
I was relieved when the new creation of Parian and Nicce strode out on its huge comically stubby legs to do battle, replacing me on the front line.
"Go get im Siw Wupert!" Nicce cheered as the oversized stuffed knight went forward to do battle in my place, sweeping a massive stuffed sword in a wide arc that crushed three of the spiders in a single swing.
I had not been doing too poorly I thought, but I saw the puffy stuffed knight start decimating all those spiders before him at a rate I could not hope to match with both an absurd reach and a creepy, bulk defying speed.
The Tiger and Teddy loomed protectively over us as the large puffy knight danced and twirled forward like a graceful kung-fu marionette of death. It started clearing the street and advancing on the Ebon-spider centaurs.
This was, of course, a trap and no sooner had the stuffed knight approached the halfway point down the street then more spiders swarmed in from the alleys and over the buildings around us. As several leaped at us I was shocked to see Nicce make a gesture and suddenly a roof like web caught the spiders and held them in place. Parian seemed to focus on the Teddy and Tiger who defended us, but I found myself forced to again engage with my little sword to keep the occasional spider from getting past our defender's line.
At least I had gotten my breath back. I thought as I slashed at the spiders as they crept into range. Then I saw another spider leap at us from an alley. It was halfway to Parian when I heard a whisper, a feeling that I could do something about this as well. The mental image of an explosion and the image of the girl I had slain in defense of my child, who was little more than a child herself I thought bitterly.
"Explode Bakuda!" I uttered as flames leaped to envelop the spider midair, indeed exploding in a flash of light and sound that shook the street.
I turned to see Parian and Nicce staring at me. The spiders seemed uncertain for a moment and the battle seemed to pause. Flames continued to enshroud the blade, directing them seemed to be an act of will. I tried not to overthink this lest it stop working.
Then the battle picked up with greater ferocity, spiders, and bullets headed our way as the Merchants that had been hanging back chose now to take potshots. I placed myself in front of the girls with my armor.
One of the shots hit me in the stomach and I slumped, stunned for a moment as spiders descended on us from all directions.
They met webs as Nicce, with a determined look danced spinning about hurling and pulling webs into place around us. Dozens of spiders were caught midair or flew into the partially invisible glittering lines of silk that suddenly flooded the area. Omnidirectional webs seemed to spin out to catch everything close to us and yank them away, then jerk them to the side or up or down in a complex pattern of near-random jerky movement that kept them from getting loose.
It was near random in that they always seemed to pull away from myself and Parian. We who stood inside the storm of moving webs untouched. Parian and I shared a look for a moment before it was broken by Nicce yelling. "Get im alweady, I can't hold em fowevew!"
The Tiger and Teddy bear tore into the spiders, easily bashing the stuck spiders. I looked for a good clear spot and let loose another blast of flame at a large group of spiders all the while Nicce seemed to intercept any spiders that came our way with her webs. We were holding our own, mostly due to Nicce holding off the swarm. "Good Job Nicce!" I yelled supportively. I only now questioned whether we should take advantage of Nicce's preprepared lifelines to go back to the base. This would leave Parian and the people on the street, however. I glanced over to see women, men, and children watching us from behind cars and the entrances of buildings. Only in Brockton Bay would this be considered entertainment.
In the distance, I saw Sir Rupert standing comically askew as spiders circled him. Parian and Nicce both had their attention taken up with closer concerns and the abandoned knight twitched and stood. I'm not sure which of the girls was making time to move him, but he was moving oddly. Slowly moving one hand to the front of his head he seemed to slowly consider it with his all-black eyes.
I decided to try to keep things organized as the least effective at actually keeping us alive so I said. "Whoever is controlling Rupert you might want to get him back here. We could use the extra help and cover."
"I'm not contwowin…" "Not me." Nicce and Parian said simultaneously.
"Oh dear" I turned my head slightly to the side and considered. My previously non-existant super explosion throwing sword forgotten in my hand as I said. "Well, that's weird."
As I did the spiders attacked the distracted Rupert and he crushed one in his fluffy oversized hand before looking at his sword and silently emoting a shout and laying about himself with the stuffed pillow like sword.
The impacts of said sword were cracking the pavement and crushing the man-sized spiders en-masse without difficulty. The spiders were completely ineffective against his silk and faux plate armored cloth body.
As the flow of spiders ebbed I saw a massive spider come around the building and screamed.
I felt a mix of euphoria, embarrassment, and chagrin as I saw Alexandria descend from the sky and pulverize the massive thirty-foot spider in one colossal shockwave inducing shot.
In the silence that followed, I heard the sirens and the odd motorcycle noise that presaged the arrival of the Protectorate.
Alexandria stood and dusted herself off. I started to give her a nod but changed it to a "Look Out! Oooh!" as a barrage of webs and a strange burst of energy hit her from the spider centaur people.
She looked, well undamaged but a tad messy and covered in webs as she glared down the road. An instant later she was plowing through minor spiders and passed near Sir Rupert. To everyone's surprise, the rogue stuffed knight spiked her into the road with a physics-defying smack of his not even vaguely sharp blade.
"Sorry, Bad Sir Rupert! She's on our side! I said as I lobbed a fire blast at the Spider people." One of them seemed scorched but the other two seemed undamaged.
Several counter blasts of thin greenish energy came our way, but the Tiger and Sir Rupert covered me and the prone Alexandria respectively. An explosion engulfed Alexandria and Sir Rupert for an instant but neither seemed bothered by the palpable explosion of liquid flame that shattered and melted the pavement within fifty feet or so with its incandescent fury.
I then saw Sir Rupert help the confused Alexandria to her feet and Alexandria took back off towards the source of the blast. Another blast of cold, then acid, then black crawling foul looking black tentacles hit Alexandria as she crushed the ebony skinned spider people one by one. They seemed to fade just like the summoned spiders.
Pulling the stubborn grasping tentacles out of the ground from where they had sprung Alexandria looked around suspiciously. Her gaze seemed to sweep the sky for a moment before she relaxed.
Meanwhile, Sir Rupert and Parian had finished off the last of the smaller spiders and the next wave failed to appear. I turned to see the smiling (not in a good way) face of Miss Militia, at the front of a pack of our useless local superheroes.
After a brief whispered conference with Parian and Nicce, I raised my voice. "Sir Rupert! Why don't we Just Stand Over Here Now That The fighting is Done?!" To my mild surprise the large doll like knight wandered over his floppy sword dragging on the half melted asphalt. As he stopped next to us I nodded to Nicce and she nodded back.
Our safety moderately insured from whatever Sir Rupert actually was (still no reason to be rude to the theoretically sentient mistake we had created.) I turned to the heroes who were getting marching orders from Alexandria. I noted a few of them had been tasked with keeping an eye on us.
"Are you seriously going to tell us you were not involved? You just happen to come down to the Boardwalk as all this happens." Miss Militia suddenly grilled me from far closer than I thought she had gotten.
I stepped up to her (Armor please be good against whatever gun she thinks of!) and replied "No I don't think this was a coincidence, nor are we not involved. We are being targeted and struck at by the same villain that took over your Ward Shadowstalker. This villain, Lloth or some-such she calls herself is a villain of the worst sort, willing to endanger and attack children, endangering civilians to come at us in public. We demand you bring her in and deal with her. Hell, she even attacked Alexandria, we all saw it."
"Yes, she did, as did your odd looking knight creation." Alexandria inserted herself literally into the conversation by floating down between us, making us both back down literally and metaphorically as we were forced to take a step back.
"Oh yeah… we're all very sorry about that, that is he, he's going by Sir Rupert, he's ah pretty new and doesn't have the greatest control over himself yet, we are working on that though." I improvised half honestly.
"He isn't a creation of Parian or Nicce?" Alexandria questioned me.
"Well he did need some work done, so I arranged for the two girls to fix him up just earlier today." I could almost imagine the giant drop of sweat on my brow as I skirted the terror of not knowing who, what or how our 'Sir Rupert' was still moving on the one side and our intrusive asshole government on the other that would probably start torturing him and try dissecting him given half a chance. Not on my watch!
"Just because he's a bit different doesn't mean he's bad or doesn't have rights. He did help you after the accident, though if there are damages to cover our organization is happy to 'volunteer' to help cover some of the cost of repairs.
"And just what organization do you represent?" Miss Militia asked seriously.
"Well, I'm a new Parahuman myself." Very NEW since I think I literally just had powers dropped on me during that fight AFTER getting a cool costume made up to help me fake being a parahuman. And my power… channeling a dead mad bomber I had killed while a ghost into a sword that could shoot explosions of course, why not, even my suspension of disbelief was broken and it was happening to me.
"Heheh!" I giggled self-consciously at a thought 'I guess it's true what they say, dress for the part/job you want.'
Where the hell had my sword gone anyway… dammit, my first real fight, my first magical flaming sword power thing and of course I drop it somewhere and it wanders off.
I craned my neck around looking for any sign of it, nope not laying around anywhere, maybe it was a delusion… that killed things… that would be… not really any weirder honestly.
I realized Miss Militia and Alexandria were still waiting for me to respond and I was totally flaking out.
Yeah, it had been that sort of day.
"Oh, the organization I represent, well I'm the new Coil and instead of being a villain I'm working on funding an independent Rogue's defense league, in association with the Spider Queen, Parian, The Girl Scouts of America and the Good Sir Rupert here. I had already discussed heading down to the PRT to register earlier today with Miss Militia."
"Yes, I think you coming down to the PRT to answer some questions would be a good idea." Alexandria said dryly.
XXX
(Taylor Hebert, Entomancer of the Cosmos)
My lessons had gone well. Eria was a smart cookie and a good teacher. Instead of making assumptions on what I did or didn't know she just gave me the rundown and asked me for what I needed to understand it better. She was friendly if a tad desperate for conversation. Loneliness was something that seemed a constant in the multiverse even as silly things like the speed of light in vacuum and gravity failed me.
I had some blood and flesh samples the friendly armored medic to the Exodus had helped me procure and store from my willing Insectare teacher, and would take them back for Riley to take a look at as a price for my tutelage. Unfortunately, Eria was not able to get out of her agreed upon duties to come back with me. So she was hedging her bets and would continue her own research while sending me back with what she could. (So some samples and a far too detailed description of the usual lifecycle for her race.)
When it was time to go I met back with Talthas and the white-haired girl in sci-fi armor who would be my ride home.
The Undersiders were then picked up. They looked healthy but in bad spirits. They brought with them an assortment of weaponry very not medieval in look and technology, pistols, rifles and advanced looking armor except for Tattletale who was wearing light Kevlar armor that gave her a SWAT kind of look. There was something else, she looked different somehow.
She was no doubt trying to get me off track by wearing the ridiculous looking fake fuzzy ears and foxtail. But her body language, while arch-typical of her was still not what I recognized as her, had she gotten slightly shorter maybe? No that was the armor making her look slightly wider.
"You look different." I stated as a sort of question.
"It's been a long couple of days." She fox grinned at me as if daring me to comment on the ears. The tail swished perfectly as if alive and I had to admit I was curious what the hell had happened to her.
"Magic?" I nodded the question at her.
"Magic." She nodded back. "Apparently it liked me… I just figured out how to do the whole hands thing again yesterday." She said bitterly as if I was somehow responsible.
"Um?" I replied, "…the Black Legion said they'd take care of you if you needed a healer?"
Talthas walked up and interjected. "She had a bit of a run in with Fox, We are not responsible for acts of gods, or in this case anthropomorphic divine animal spirits. That being said we helped her figure it out so she just got a bit of extra spirit animal self-awareness as part of her training." He offered as if it was a feature, not a bug.
"So a magic Fox did this?" I started.
"Nope, Fox, like the concept of Fox-ness made real and annoying and smiling a lot as he made trouble for everyone but himself!" Tattletale grouched as I had never seen her grouch before. Had this Fox, outfoxed Lisa? Into a fox even?
I must have looked shocked because Talthas then explained. "Hey you wanted them to learn about magic, she got some up close experience and got a touch of shape changing and a talent for illusion out of it so it's a net plus. Besides she can look human again if she focuses properly."
"What would you know about it?" Lisa obviously frustrated turned on the unflappable leader of the mercenaries.
In response, he grew over two feet in height, put on a lot of lean demonic muscle and grew sizable green demon wings in under a second. His eyes put off a slight green glow and he said in the same friendly tone of voice as he leaned on the suddenly not oversized pole arm he carried "We have a few varieties of shape fluid people working for us, some control it easier than others, you have a very mild case that's not painful or dangerous to those around you. You came out ahead, if Fox hadn't liked you he could have made you a snail-person. Besides with your help, we even turned a profit, thus some of the extra gear you are going back with." He explained in a patient sounding voice even as he did a fair Lung impression reinterpreted to green sexy demon prince.
"You had them do a job for you?" I asked officially.
"No a mission broke into the training area and we used all available resources to help everyone survive and profit, except the werewolves responsible of course." He said as he leaned against the pole-arm nonchalantly.
"Like I said, it's been a long couple of days." Lisa the fox girl said in a tired tone as she backed off.
"Right, well as long as we were compensated properly." I looked a question at Talthas who shrank back to his standard slightly under six foot frame and nodded.
"Two Hundred Thousand in gear and some magical trinkets that should keep them safe from mind control sounds fair." His tone didn't ask.
"Seems Fair." I agreed primly. The Undersiders had risked a lot for less after all.
"Good we already gave it to them and it's all you are getting anyway. Now let us get you guys to your home plane and see about making us a contract." Talthas pronounced with eagerness or perhaps greed.
XXX
(Taylor)
We arrived in Coil's base after much portal-ing, walking, teleporting and spelunking through Castle Falling Star. A brief stopover by my house and we (Myself, the Undersiders, Talthas and his bodyguard and the still not introduced white haired girl who gave me nothing but an angry glare every time I thought of talking to her.) were on our way via another portal.
It was a lot fuller than I remembered.
I remembered Mom, Nicce, and Riley. Plus there was the comatose members of the Nine but they didn't take up much room or wander the corridors.
Now we had a giant stuffed knight, A freaky lizard Centaur thing, the Travelers (oh that may explain the freaky centaur thing) out of whom I recognized Ballistic and Sundancer watching TV in what had been a guard area that now looked like a den. My biggest shock was to see Dinah right near the very same room she had been imprisoned in before in my timeline. She was discussing how she didn't like watching children's programming, as she was watching children's programming with Nicce on one of the large screen TV's that now hung on a wall where once the original Coil had only decorated with austere Bond villain concrete metal and torture equipment.
I heard power tools from the room Riley had made her lab/ nurse's office and assumed I didn't want to know what my Mom may have bought her that involved that sort of installation. I dropped the vials of Insectaire samples inside the door with a note and barely a look at the mass of metal claw like devices Riley was installing. I yelled at her in the mass of equipment. "Hey Riley! Just dropping off samples for a magical insectoid army of clones by the door!"
From the pile of equipment, I heard Bonesaw's chipper voice answer. "Alright, I'll get to it in my copious free time."
The leader of the Black Legion and his bodyguard looked unphased by the randomness. Turning back towards the television ex-torture room I asked Nicce "Which way to Mom?" and got a glomp of a hug for my trouble.
"Taylor how hangethth it mylady?" Nicce said in a strange diction as she clung to my middle.
"Huh?" I said intelligently as I swung Nicce around to my other side, she noted the bemused looking mercenaries at my back and released my waist as she looked up at me.
"Pwacticing for Parian's theatew. She said I can help with voices next week." Nicce explained.
I nodded and parsed this bit of information as behind me I heard Talthas's bodyguard mutter to him. "Truly a den of hardened resistance fighters involved in a desperate fight against impossible odds. Didn't think this babysitting job would be quite so literal."
"This will affect who we send, this is why I check personally first, imagine if we sent Keyl?" Talthas joked.
"Who is Keyl?" I asked over my shoulder.
"Death." The tiny bodyguard said instantly with a straight face and with no thought to the automatic answer.
"Not literally, ok kinda close… family friend of death, like nephew of death? He's probably not good around kids is the point. ANY-Way on to business." Talthas redirected the conversation.
Nicce excused herself with a visible shiver and went back to her cartoon, which despite Dinah's obvious professed maturity she was still watching raptly.
Nicce did remember to point out Mom, who was doing online shopping back in the computer research room.
Entering I saw she was in the process of shopping online for more furniture for the expanding base.
My Mom was barely recognizable In her new outfit and I did a double take. I think villain fashion sense might run in the family, the almost all black with two white snakes was awesome looking, but in an impressive scary way Warlord Skitter would appreciate.
"Hey mom I brought you some inter-dimensional mercenaries to hire on to keep us all safe." I stated up front.
Ever having to outdo her own daughter she responded with. "That's nice dear, oh by the way I have powers now, something to do with souls of the people I killed as a ghost turning into swords and shooting explosions. So how was your trip?" She said innocently as she turned away from her online shopping to innocently blink once at me.
"As surreal as coming home apparently, I learned insect magic, almost died to undead and got to see an alien planet from space while in an alternate dimension, all from the deck of a sailing ship. Oh and the Undersiders almost got ate by Werewolves." I countered.
"Ate? No its 'The Undersiders almost got eaten by werewolves'. Or ' The werewolves almost ate the Undersiders.' Properly using the simple past means there isn't a have, had, or got in there." My mom rattled off casually.
I hadn't had my mother correct my grammar in years. "I missed you Mom!" I suddenly gave my mother a hug, not having realized how stressed I had been. By the way she hugged me back and the uncomfortable shuffling I heard from the mercenaries as we took too long. I think we had both needed that.
"On to business then?" Talthas offered as he handed a stack of paperwork to Mom.
"I may need to have my husband read through this if it's too detailed. Mind giving me the essentials?" My mom said clearly playing dumb as a negotiation trick.
"Not a problem. As I told your daughter we are fairly open to negotiation. We can both profit if we do this right. Trading in a few dimensions makes buy low sell high potentially VERY lucrative. Take your time and I'll explain some of the different options The Black Legion can provide." The leader of the mercenaries went into sales mode and I saw my Mom settle into negotiations.
Waiting for my moment I slid out of the room and noted the Bodyguard and the white-haired girl left with me.
"You getting a bit bored too?" I offered as uncomfortable conversation.
"Yeah who would have thought being a mercenary included so much waiting around. I just want to kill something! Not figure out trade rights and profit margins and schedules. Ugh." Talthas's bodyguard offered.
The nod the white-haired girl gave her evinced agreement. She then spoke to me for the first time. Her voice was surprisingly melodic considering the levels of sarcastic acid she put into her tone. "Yeah… There anything interesting to do around here?"
"I do have a bit of business to conclude that involves killing someone." I offered a plan forming at this opportunity.
"Off the books? We could get in so much trouble." The bodyguard offered in an odd hopeful tone.
"Sweet count me in." The white-haired girl grinned evilly. The fact that the bodyguard nodded and offered a fierce troublemaking grin I recognized from Aisha, well her from before, told me all I needed to know about these two. "What was your name again now that you aren't boring?"
"Call me Taylor." I said offering a hand.
"Etrusca." She introduced herself while avoiding my handshake with a practiced slide to the side.
"Who are we killing?" The bodyguard offered to cover for her friend's socially awkward moment.
"A Saint, if we can find him. We just need to get someone. Nicce! We got something to do, you want to come with?"
Nicce was literally there before I could finish the statement. She looked at me with big eyes and nodded.
So what do we have to work with? You are fast and vicious, She summons spiders and makes unbreakable webs, I control bugs and can do magic. You…?" I addressed Etrusca.
"I am a gate-master who can take us anywhere and can control darkness and make people's brains bleed with my psychic powers." Etrusca bragged.
"Right, I can work with this." I grinned.
From the other room, I heard Dinah's voice mutter. "No power necessary, 100% chance this goes wrong somehow."
XXX
(Taylor- Inter-dimensional Insect mage assassin)
Nicce provided us with some info from things she had heard in her webs and after explaining what happened to Etrusca we had a lead.
Webbing to Castle Falling Star and then having Etrusca open a portal to the plane of Air and we ran into our first hurdle.
Apparently going to a defunct slaver's palace as a few underage and just plain small girls was a terrible idea for avoiding trouble.
The group of supernatural looking thugs that had quickly surrounded us looked like sharks that had just smelled blood in the water.
To say negotiations broke down quickly is to assume there were any in the first place. These dark stony skinned brawny fellows attacked us before we could say a thing.
Well they deserved what they got as the Catgirl Monk tore into them in the time it took them to start swinging and before any of the bludgeons could land.
She tripped the first with a spinning roundhouse sweep that ended in a rough thud as his head impacted the ground. She was already on to the seconds face with a series of spinning kicks before they could react. She turned and still midair threw a blast of purplish energy into a third that impacted him hard enough to knock him back two steps.
Did I mention these guys were like eight feet tall? They were just starting to react when Nicce, instead of summoning spiders seemed to draw a cocoon out of webs that looked half visible around her and Etrusca.
That was new.
I debated going Khepri, but all the odd resistances I had encountered and my failures weighed heavily on my mind as I considered my options in that moment. Instead, I found myself moving forward under my own experience and control and swept my trusty knife out to… roughly graze the skin on the chest of the first who looked to be ready to swing at the catgirl.
Seriously! Good sharp steel and it barely scratched him doing no real damage even with all my weight behind it.
If I had time I would have sighed and sworn in frustration. Instead, I moved back a step and let my swarm out from under my capelets and poisonous insects streamed forth heading straight for eyes, ears, mouths, and noses.
Feeling the textures of these giant stony people inside and out I realized we might be in trouble. They were literally granite dense and I was doing no real damage.
However they did react like most things when attacked like that and they winced, choked, swung about wildly and some threw themselves to the ground. Some of my swarm died at this but I could keep this up for a bit if I had to.
Some of the other local hoodlums decided to fire into our melee with bows and arrows of all things.
Nicce's webs stopped them from touching her or Etrusca. My swarm sense gave me just enough warning to turn away from the hits and take them at angles that made my armor deflect them. I probably need not have bothered with how little I felt it through the armor. The catgirl batted the arrows out of the air with contempt.
That is when the whole place exploded in greenish flames. There was little force to it but I felt the burn through all the holes in my armor. My lenses were melted wrecks that blinded me and I could feel the burns on my face and at ankles and midriff where Nicce's tailoring skills left tiny gaps I had foolishly thought a minor issue.
Most of my swarm died in the inferno and I was in rough shape.
I heard Etrusca give a laugh and then gasp as she saw the damage to my lenses. I then felt a rush of warmth through me and the pain faded considerably. I heard Kit-Kat yell "CASTER! ON IT"
I could still see and hear through my swarm, just not as well since it had been quite depleted around me. As more distant insects from around the whole criminal bazaare were pulled in to replace them my awareness of the situation become more complete. There was endless air out to the edge of my senses with insect life clutching to the rock this slave auction criminal swap meet was on. Maybe fifty or so beings I would qualify as giant elemental humanoids, another fifty-two captives and assorted beastly animals that I assumed were here to haul the cages and goods being traded about. Trade had come to a standstill as we definitely had the attention of the whole place. Curiously only a handful were attacking while others watched with varying levels of interest or fear apparent on their faces. Well, I could limit my targets to the relevant ones and save my much-dwindled swarm till Nicce got some spiders on the field.
I saw Nicce and Etrusca were fine inside the anti-magic web or whatever it was. Kit Kat was already off tearing into a blue-skinned giant who had cast the green inferno at us.
The giant granite people, (one of the locals, a not-yet involved in attacking us ten-foot tall fire person called them 'trouble making Dao thugs') were apparently fine from the blast and it was looking like I was next on the menu.
We had eight of the Dao thugs to deal with in addition to a single thin blue-skinned giant (Who our catgirl monk was already beating on) and what looked like another half dozen relatively normal (If seven foot guys with turbans and human-like fleshy skin could be called normal, given the other inhabitants I'd say so.) guys charging into our fight.
Well crap.
I readied my useless and now why was it glowing golden knife? I resolved to understand later and fight now. I cut the same Dao I had scratched earlier and now my blade parted his stony flesh, at least wounding him with a stab to the lower chest. With my swarm I attacked and as I monitored them I realized two things. First for all their magic toughness and size these guys still had soft eyes, and second that the presence of insects in their windpipe still bothered them. I was having a hard time with my limited resources actually choking them unconscious, but I was making for a hell of a distraction. We should not have any more arrows to worry about and the reinforcements were stalled via choking clouds of insects.
When Fezzy, Wuzzy, and Paul finally made their appearance I felt confident that we had things under control. When some of the Dao started disappearing I feared further attack, but they were gone, not just invisible, I kept my swarm's senses peeled for any reappearance, but it seemed they were simply escaping. The gentlemen in turbans were quickly trussed up along with the three Dao I had the trio of colossal spiders grab and knock out before they could leave via teleport like their erstwhile companions.
The big blue guy was dead, beaten to death in mere moments. There was definitely a reason the tiny cat girl was their leader's bodyguard, damn.
The rest of the local clientele was looking at us expectantly. Some left, teleporting out or whatever their equivalent was. Others seemed concerned with leaving their wares.
I debated negotiating. Pissing off a multidimensional criminal underworld sounded like a terrible idea.
Then I really saw how the human and human-ish slaves were being held in tiny filth strewn cages barely big enough to hold them. Some had been beaten, some had died due to the poor treatment.
Seeing these things do that to my fellow human beings may have set me off.
"Nicce more spiders if you would." I asked.
"OK, have all the spidews!" Nicce pronounced gleefully. Hundreds of man-sized spiders rapidly appeared throughout the area over the next handful of seconds.
The remaining population of the extra-dimensional slave market fled or died in the next minute.
This left us looking for information. Checking the slaves, Saint was not among them. Without conferring Kit Kat started gathering anything that looked valuable with Nicce helping. Etrusca made for the captives and said she'd get what info she could after I filled her in on what we were looking for. I also let the slaves go. Fezzy and Paul began herding the refugees and moving those who would not leave, cage and all to the marketplace where we could hopefully evacuate all of them.
I had spiders root about for paperwork or other info. I could not read any of it. That's what magic was for though.
I threw up the pinch of salt and soot the spell called for out of my convenient component pouch I had made of silk and cast 'Comprehend Languages' and using countless spider and insect eyes I surveyed the accounts ledgers and notes and every book or scrap with writing that I could lay spider legs on.
The information flowed and I discovered a lot about the criminal accounting practices of the multiverse. I discovered that the genie guy we had killed had been succeeded by two other crime bosses in the few days he had been gone, this explained the lack of solidarity among the criminals.
There were two further betrayals planned by the coded notes I read, planned for the same day. This was amusing but didn't help me.
"Anything on your end, remember we are looking for the guys called the Dragon Slayers and their leader Saint. They were taken about a week ago and they had a big Russian guy and the Girl… I think her name was Mags?"
"Yeah, I have info but not the answers you want. This guard remembers the guy, he freaked out and mouthed off to an Efreet. He didn't survive. The other two were sold pretty quick. The big money was in a briefcase and tech they had in the house. They sold it at an auction, apparently, something identified only as Ascalon was the big ticket item, it sold for a hundred thousand gold even though they had no idea how to use it." Etrusca conspired with me sadly. So much for my easy raid and done.
Mentally checking through all I had read I instantly put together the timeline and followed the money. Ascalon had been bought by a Red Wizard from someplace called Toril.
Great another random dimension. I'd ask how many dimensions this place did business with, but I had a reasonably good answer at over thirty I had the names of, including Hell, which was a real thing apparently? They even paid promptly and had a good credit rating.
Won-Der-Ful!
I got Nicce and Etrusca on finding this guy with some help from the contact info the man had left. Kit Kat in the meanwhile had collected the loot.
Chests of gold and silver, jewels and art were carried by spiders and insects into the marketplace. I took charge and started sorting it all out with the swarm available. Kit Kat provided the results of her search, an odd assortment of clothes, weapons, and jewelry.
She looked at me expectantly.
"Um yes?" I told the expectant death dealing cat-person.
"Gonna identify all the loot?" She said as she did that thing where you nod to get the other person to agree with you.
"Best I have is a detect magic." I explained.
"Well let's see what we got. Oh and maybe check around the place, do a sweep with your bugs or whatever." Kit Kat advised me. "We shouldn't stick around too long." She added unnecessarily.
"Already searched, and noted. Give me a couple of minutes." I said as I was already reviewing the formulae for detect magic mentally.
In the meanwhile, Etrusca and Nicce returned from their powwow and informed me that they had a location for the man that bought Ascalon, but I wouldn't like it.
"How bad is it?" I asked with trepidation.
"He's basically a powerful evil archmage in the middle of a life-sucking desert." Etrusca told me with a very false smile.
"How bad is an 'archmage' as opposed to a wizard?" I sighed.
"Varies quite a bit but think ninth level spells as opposed to 3rd level spells like what you got hit with here." Etrusca informed me politely. "By the way how are you seeing through that melted mess?" She pointed to my mask with its melted lenses."
"Rill is an Archmage, so is Eldrin." Nicce quietly informed me.
Ouch. I had seen some of the staggering amount of spells and power they had available.
"Yeah, and we need to be getting back. It was fun and all, but we need to divvy the treasure and get going." Etrusca informed me.
"All right I can at least tell what's magical." I said as I began the chant.
"I'm a fair hand at interpreting item history and magical auras, I will give you a hand." Etrusca offered to help things along.
We quickly determined that we had a treasure trove of magic items. With Etrusca's help interpreting the auras we quickly had names to go with the colored auras I was seeing. From what Etrusca said most items tended to follow along common patterns, so I was locking this information away for later use.
Many magic items were divided by us into only a few each, and a lot of glowing oversized swords and polearms we could not use.
I magnanimously gave these weapons to the Black Legion as a bonus. (They had the only group of oversized people I knew working for them, I figured we may as well call it a bonus and get some goodwill out of it.)
I ended up with a silver amulet carved to resemble a theatre mask, a brown robe and a black tablecloth they kept telling me was the most valuable thing out of the pile.
I had my doubts till Kit Kat demonstrated its use. It was a cloth portal to a dark roughly hewn cave about ten feet on a side that I could access by unfolding it. It literally worked as something akin to the Acme Loony Toons 'portable hole'. When I was told that is exactly what it was normally called I had yet another brief moment of realization. "Huh, cartoons?" I said as I looked at it. Still, it would let me bring a hell of a swarm with me wherever I went. It was temperature neutral, perhaps I could construct a mobile beehive of some sort. I tested it and discovered I lost contact with the interior if the portal wasn't unfolded all the way. That would limit me to insects that were not going to eat each other, but there were still massive possibilities.
Strangely enough, the Black Legion girls just kept telling me I was lucky to have the expanded carrying capacity… I think they were just trying to keep me distracted from the items they were getting. As I had little idea what all their stuff did this largely worked.
According to Etrusca the amulet would afford me protection from magical detection and boost my ability to avoid attacks.
The robe when I tried it on turned into a deep black silk robe that made me feel more like the wizard I was hopefully growing to be. I wasn't too surprised as it seemed to change to fit me perfectly as I put it on. It would protect me from magic to a small degree and make some of my spells harder to resist while offering me yet more physical protection. Conveniently it also fit over the silk armor effectively.
It also looked really cool and flowy. I noticed the girls from the Black Legion exchanged a quick look, but then shrugged to each other. Were they just jealous or was this some sort of fashion mistake?
Nicce was treated as a full-fledged party member and afforded as much pick of the treasure as I was. She got a little black half cloak that would fit her, along with a little black buckler and a pair of fancy silver bracelets that looked faintly Asian. They all provided protection, resistance, and armor. I approved of anything that could keep my sidekick/friend safe, Nicce seemed to just be concerned with if they looked cool and were light enough for her to easily carry.
The girls from the Black Legion each got boots and jewelry, and then rings and a drinking horn respectively.
After dividing up the treasure, I shoved my chests of gold coins into my new portable hole, and before I could protest, Kit Kat and Etrusca said they would see me around, and they left.
They left me and Nicce with the swarm of freed slaves and directions to where Ascalon had been taken. Why they had taken the prisoners I wasn't sure, one less thing for me to worry about I guess.
I was tempted to take the easy road and just depart in like fashion. It would however be the wrong thing to do. Instead I hatched a plan that would leverage our abilities to get us out of here with all the freed slaves in a fairly safe fashion.
Sure the slaves protested as I had Nicce web them up. I took great care to make sure they were stacked comfortably in the portable hole, Nicce provided hammock-like support threads and we stacked them up inside in a geometric pattern that would fit them all while providing the most room.
Hopefully, it wouldn't be long anyway.
We then followed the 'webs' to where this evil archmage was. I wasn't about to leave Ascalon out there as a threat; after all, we did to see Saint dealt with, some evil wizard coming back with the program to mess things up at just the wrong moment seemed far too likely for my piece of mind. The goal had always been to see it out of play, to ensure Dragon could start helping without it hanging over her like a programmed sword of Damocles. Saint was confirmed dead, but I would see his legacy ended before it could do more damage.
We arrived in a desert oasis with literal palm trees. It was ringed with a wall of whitish stone a little over twenty feet high. It had a little natural pond of water surrounded by grass and shrubs and a fountain a little ways off that looked clear and potable. Around the fountain were six buildings and a series of smaller huts I took for residences.
There wasn't much of a local insect population, though it was adequate to give me a map and let me see the locals.
We had a total of sixty-eight people. Twenty four were guards in tabard covered chain with some sort of polearms and short bows. They were well positioned to watch from the walls. Thankfully they seemed focused on watching outwards. Appearing in the shadow of the wall on the inside afforded us good cover from their notice.
Their apparent leader was a massive swarthy heavily tattooed man in black spiky armor with a massive two-handed sword. He paced near the entrance to the village as if awaiting trouble.
There were several underfed looking shopkeepers and crafts-persons, some farmers that were desperately trying to grow food within the walls to limited success, and women and children who were busy doing domestic tasks.
There was also a large tower in the midst of the city. Towering over the small buildings around it, rising to over seventy feet in height, it had several pieces of astronomy gear and two telescopes on the flat roof. Most of the interior of the tower was devoted to books, a veritable library of tomes with a few sparse rooms dedicated to sleeping and storage of food.
One lone middle-aged man was in residence. He was weathered, bald and had a single jagged facial tattoo that gave him a serious look. He wore a reddish robe with belts and slippers. The belts and pouches of spell components I recognized from both Rill and Eldrin. He had an assortment of jewelry, wands and ornamented clothing I was quickly associating with magical items.
I now had three magic items, this man had at my guess over twenty on his person not counting possible bags of holding or other dimensional shenanigans.
He also looked to be deep in his studies. I didn't see any other sign of Ascalon. Simply having Nicce yoink it and running was my plan A.
Plan B I was still working on.
XXX
(Taylor Hebert, Interdimensional Raider)
I looked at Nicce from the shade of the palm tree we were not quite hiding under. "Any ideas?"
"Hmmm, I want somefin to eat." She said after careful consideration.
Yeah in a hostile village run by an evil archmage we were just going to go buy a meal. That wouldn't alert him and ruin any chance at surprise at all… although?
"Hey, Nicce? You have experience with archmages, they're powerful but anyway to deal with them?" I asked looking for any further insight or ideas.
"Um, they'we pwety wazy and tend to be scawed of me for some weason. We could twap im, but dey can teleport and stuff, we could attack im but they have pwetty cwazy weiwd abilities." Nicce reasoned out loud.
"OK lets go into this prepared, if you set up…" I started only to be interrupted by shouts from the wall.
I didn't sense anything in range, and they were still not looking our way. I noted the large man with the spiky armor reacted immediately and started to organize his troops. The people in the town started running for the center of town and toward the tower.
"Looks like there might be a distraction underway." I thought out loud.
The wizard marked his place with a large red ribbon, closed the massive tome and gave a loud sigh and started climbing down to the entrance of the tower.
I would have peeked out to get a look with my own eyes, but my lenses were still all messed up so I stuck to observing through the local insect life.
The Archmage got to the door, opened it and… started letting in all the people.
The relieved looks on their panicked faces I associated with a group who had gotten to safety, something like people making it into an Endbringer shelter maybe?
The Archmage whispered words of encouragement as the people of the small town, men, women and children started to pack their way into his home. As the last made their way in he locked the door and confirmed that the headcount was complete.
I cocked my head a bit at this, odd behavior for an evil overlord who was dealing with slavers.
He then made his way back up the tower, till he looked out from the top, using one of the telescopes.
I still didn't sense any attackers, but the massed guards were doing their best to make a kill zone at the entrance to the village with bows and polearms. They were clearly expecting an attack.
I detected a flair of light as the Archmage at the top of the tower cast something. I distinctly recognized some of the sounds of a fire spell and then saw what looked like honest to god meteors like out of a bad disaster movie descend to hit somewhere outside the walls and still out of my range.
I upped my estimation of what wizards were capable of. That was biblical. Then again I could be Biblical in my own ways, still that explosion was a lot bigger than when Purity started going all out and wrecking buildings.
The Archmage followed this up with several more spells, none as grand and many out of my ability to sense. Still the giant bolts of lightning were obvious enough to get the point across that he was killing a lot of something approaching his little village.
The men tensed and I finally detected what it was that was attacking.
Mansized scorpions, dozens of them, strangely they had very humanlike senses because they had human-like heads and torsos.
Also interesting was that I COULD control them. They were about as smart as larger arachnids I had accessed and nothing special resisted my control as I reached out and stopped them.
This was great. Lacking spells and summons, I had stumbled upon a situation that supplied me my very own army.
Nicce was looking at me strangely and I realized it was because I had started laughing out loud.
After I stopped I told Nice "Can you get us up on the tower?"
She looked up at me with big eyes that had a bit of hero worship in them. "No Pwobwem!"
XXX
The men at the entrance to the village seemed frightened by the laughing from within the village and the uncharacteristic behavior of the manscorpions.
Moments later the Archmage felt the same as what appeared to be a pair of young girls, the younger wrapped in a black cloak and the older wearing what was identifiably a Robe of the Evil Archmage appeared right next to him atop his wizard's tower despite the teleport wards and alarms that should stop anything of the sort within thirty yards of the village.
The older girl had nightmarish, melted yellow eyes in what looked like a blackened ruined insects face complete with mandibles. She moved in an alien way that bespoke of being decidedly not human and said in a voice backed up with the clicking and buzzing of insects. "Hi, let's talk."
XXX
(Taylor Hebert, Interdimensional Traveler)
The Archmage had been surprisingly helpful once we entered into negotiations. He had explained that he had bought Ascalon partly to look for an advantage in defending his territory from dragons. That it had been useless as such had resulted in him doing some research and taking it to an artificer to have it modified into something that might be useful.
He had admitted to buying slaves from the Falling Bazaar to bolster the population of his village. Freeing them and offering them jobs working to build up his territory. I offered him the slaves we had 'freed' in exchange for the information on where Ascalon was and a written contract transferring the ownership of Ascalon to me. We had sweetened the deal by offering to aid him in fortifying his village from future attacks in exchange for some rather nice scrolls he had offered.
Nicce had fun trapping the walls with her webs while I jammed a few of the larger manscorpions into my portable hole for future use while those I couldn't use went to weapons practice for the town guard. I just wish the manscorpions had fingers and hands instead of claws, then I could arm them.
The directions we got to get to this artificer led back to Renedge of all places. It was on a different continent, but definitely the same world. Apparently, this archmage had made allies there and since had been making regular trips for supplies from this other dimension to keep his village hidden from the hostile locals.
We left with everything we needed and our problems dealt with.
A bit of web travel and we were there, finally.
We appeared in the middle of a vast rocky plain. There was a small five-foot deep crater directly in front of us. At the center was a small wooden sign with a warning. "Beware: Falling Angels"
We stood around stupidly looking around when I noticed a very odd bit of sensory information. There was a group of non-flying insects up in the air moving at a fast walking pace. They were inside a large domicile. I could have seen where they were with my eyes… or rather I could see right through where they were. The building was invisible from the outside. On a mountain that was similarly invisible, and moving at a fast walking pace.
I grabbed Nicce's hand and we moved to keep pace. 'seeing' the invisible mountain with my swarm we matched pace and climbed aboard the floating mountain.
My sense of disbelief thoroughly broken I didn't give this much of a second thought.
Once on the mountain, it was perfectly visible. We picked our way up a small footpath towards the smithy most of the way up the craggy mountainside.
Nicce was breathing hard from the bit of exercise and I will admit I was more out of breath than I should be.
I really needed to get back into shape. I had the body of me just starting out and had not really had time to take up my regular habits to get me in shape. Nicce was in even less good shape than she had started, at least now she had a bit of meat on her, but eating and laying around the house watching cartoons all day had not done her any favors as far as fitness went.
"When we get back, before Leviathan shows up we really need to start an exercise regimen." I wheezed.
"Just … not… when .. my Pony shows.. are on." Nicce wheezed and I helped support her.
We got to the door, a small unassuming wooden reinforced door. I knocked and I noted the hammering that had been distantly audible stopped.
A full minute later the door was opened and a dark-haired man with a black feathered cloak over what looked like a similarly black duster opened it. He had a pair of sunglasses on and what looked like a tactical com headset. He looked more like someone's bodyguard than like a smith.
He was wearing several swords on his belt, including a handle without a weapon.
I'll be honest I was expecting a more smith like broad muscular man, instead of a tall dark secret service agent.
Looking down from his six feet and change he saw us and after looking for a moment while we continued to wheeze he let us in without a word.
He gestured to a small utilitarian table that had its share of scrapes and scratches and closed the door behind us. We were in a small and simple kitchenette, definitely used.
He busied himself getting a drink and preparing something while Nicce and I tried to catch our breath.
He returned with a pair of ceramic cups and a pitcher of clear liquid.
Setting a cup of tea in front of me he placed the second cup out for Nicce and the pitcher between himself and Nicce.
"White grape juice." He said in a coarse voice.
"How did you know I like tea?" I asked, my own voice more gravelly than usual from the climb.
"You remind me of someone, she always liked tea." He responded simply.
Nicce started greedily drinking and as I sipped the tea I realized it was surprisingly tasty.
After our bit of binge drinking, through which the man silently sipped his own grape juice he simply seemed to consider us through his darkened glasses.
"So I know they say adventurers start to look younger as you age, but you two seem a bit underage even so."
I slipped him the paperwork for the transfer of ownership for Ascalon. "Yeah, we are tougher than we look, also not entirely human.
"So the Red Wizard was having the blade made for you? He did seem a softy." He asked.
"Yeah, though he may not have known it at the time. I just need to see it can't be used for its original purpose." I explained.
"Well, what was its original purpose?" He asked as he eyed me with steel grey eyes as he dipped his head down to look at me directly over his sunglasses.
"It was a countermeasure to Kill an Artificial Intelligence called Dragon." I said knowing it was probably gibberish to the man.
"Ah that explains the extra ability to kill golems and constructs." He nodded thoughtfully.
"What?" I said confused.
"Oh I finished it awhile ago, wasn't sure if it was what the client wanted. Kinda small for his bodyguard and I noticed he was more of a wand guy." He explained as he reached into his obviously extra-dimensional pocket in his duster.
He pulled out a shiny silver and chrome dagger. It was beautiful in a steampunk kind of way and you could see the underlying circuit boards folded into the metal of the blade.
As he handed it to me I noted it seemed to weigh nothing in my hand and left a faint trail of silver light in the air as I moved it.
"So you took a computer containing a program and made it into a knife?" I said in disbelief as I looked at the large, preternaturally sharp blade.
"Yup, and it's all yours, per this agreement." He said as he pocketed the contract.
I nodded and a few minutes later found myself picking my way back down the mountain.
"We can't web out of here?" I asked.
"Nope, this is a holy place, no webs, need to .. get down first." Nicce wheezed.
"Definitely need to start jogging again." I not quite wheezed.
"Least… you got.. the nice knife ting?" Nicce smiled at me reassuringly.
"Yeah, I was going to make sure it was destroyed, now, I dunno it might be useful. Don't think it will be downloaded into a computer system anyway so Dragon should be safe."
"So we did all this to pwotect a dwagon?!" Nicce turned on me.
"No a… Dragon is her name, she isn't a dragon." I clarified. This seemed to calm Nicce though she still seemed suspicious.
"If you say so Taywer."
We walked down the mountain and webbed back home once we hit the ground. Now finally we could put Saint and the threat of Ascalon behind us and move on to the next problem.
XXX