Bravely Parahuman: Facts of Courage (Crossover)

[tEN]

There will always be too many things to do at once.

My first night with powers, I went out in a hoodie and sunglasses. The world's worst starter costume, perhaps, but I thought I had a great power and wanted to go out and do something. I came across three thugs harassing a woman. I'd used my newfound power to act multiple times in the seconds that I had, using my pepper spray on each of them in sequence, and then found myself just... standing there, in debt to time itself, until the amount of time it would have otherwise taken to approach and spray the other two had passed. Luckily, they'd been blinded and were unable to hit me, and the woman got away with my distraction, so I was able to beat a tactical retreat until I could get a better handle on my powers.

A week later, I felt like I had one of the worst powers out there. I could do four things at once, sure, but I had to either save up the time standing there doing nothing beforehand, or go into debt and stand around doing nothing afterwards. I did find that I had two pools of saved up time. Every eight hours, I would get a few seconds that I could use BETWEEN the seconds, a time outside of time, and then I had my normal manipulation of saved time and time debt. Yay, I was low-power Mover who could be slightly better three times a day. Still, it was a power, and not one that I could really leverage into anything better if I took more time, well, beyond the twenty-four hours it took to fill up my pool of spare seconds. At that point it was either give up or go out again. I chose to keep moving forwards.

I went out again, looking for trouble over the next three nights, before I found another group of thugs. This time there were five of them, all in Empire regalia, laughing and joking about what they were going to do to the next minority they found. I could do four things at once, but not five. I took a deep breath. Would I take a risk with this? Could I take a risk like this? I released the breath. No, I could pick my battles. I'd wait until there were fewer of them together. I was a low level Mover and I knew it. As I turned to go, however, a dark-skinned woman in nurse scrubs came the other way down the street, paying more attention to her phone than where she was walking. My eyes went back and forth between her and the thugs, and my heart caught. They saw her. They weren't doing anything yet, but they saw her, and they were moving to stand in her way. I couldn't leave now. I couldn't let a cell phone take someone else's mother from them.

I began saving up time, getting ready, and had enough time for all four actions by the time they sneeringly informed the woman that if "her kind" wanted to go down this street" she'd have to pay "the toll." They were all facing the other way, so I would be able to strike before they knew I was here. I took hold of my saved time, and let it go. I effortlessly moved through their ranks, pointing my pepper spray at their faces as I moved past them, nailing four of them right in the face before taking up position beside the other woman, and taking a stance that I hoped looked intimidating. "So. Five of you to take on one person. Are you brave enough to take on two? I suggest you go home." I immediately began saving up time again, hoping that they would be confused long enough for me to get another three actions saved up, but the man I hadn't sprayed instead immediately moved to punch me. Miraculously, it didn't hurt as much as it should have. It still hurt, but I could somehow tell that it wasn't anywhere near as damaging as it might have been. I sprayed him as well and used my one saved action to also kick him in the balls.

"Cape!" With that, the five of them scattered as best they could.

I turned to face the woman I had saved. "You all right there, miss..." I trailed off. I knew this face. My silence was taken for another kind of question, though.

"Tricia Hess," she said, shaking my hand. "Thank you so much!"

 

[tEN]

"Sophia's mom, right?"

She started at that and peered suspiciously at me. "Is this a threat?"

"What? No! We go to school together! I'm just, this was my first fight as a hero, and I… Do you want me to walk you home? Sophia would be upset if she lost you and I, I don't want that." I felt awkward explaining myself like this, and I knew I was expressing something wrong, but it was hard to get the words out. I don't know why. Normally, it was easy to talk to an adult. Just tell them what they wanted to hear and let them tell themselves the rest.

She stared at me with narrow eyes for what must have been a full moment, before her expression softened and she nodded. "We will walk, and I will talk, and you will listen."

I nod, and fall into step behind her as she resumes walking.

"My daughter is a troubled girl. She sees everything in terms of people hurting each other, when I wish she would think of helping. Tonight, when you saved me, I could tell from your words and your actions that your goal was to save me from violence. This was the action of a hero. Another person might have instead had the goal of hurting those gangsters. With such a goal, I, as the innocent bystander, would have been at greater risk of being hurt myself.

"I have tried to get her to see this distinction, but she ignores me. She thinks she knows better than anything an old person can say. You, as her peer, I hope that you can reach her in a way that I could not. She needs a positive influence in her life that she listens to. If you can be that influence, you have my blessing. If you become yet another thug dragging society down you will lose that blessing. Do we understand one another?"

She wheels around sharply, looking directly at me, and for a second I look around to make sure she's looking for an answer from me and not spotting a threat. A dark shape flutters briefly above the alley behind me, perhaps a sheet on a line, but other than that there is nothing. "Um, I think so, Ma'am."

"Good." She resumes walking. "Now let's talk about you. You said you're new at this, and it shows. You need a real costume. What name are you using?"

"Um, I'm going with Shift right now, but I'm not entirely sure about it."

We walk in silence for a short time. I look at her, and her face is thoughtful. "Simple, straightforward, references the Doppler Shift for those red and blue flashes when you switch between your brute and mover abilities. Powerful without being threatening, and memorable without being overly assuming. It's a good name. Be careful though, it could give people too much information about how your power works."

I think about this. "Wait, brute? I save up time and use it later."

"You flashed blue right before that one thug hit you, and you seemed barely hurt. If you are saving up time to use later, perhaps you're also absorbing part of the impact of anything that hits you. Did the PRT do any testing yet when you went to join the Wards?"

"I, uh, I haven't actually-"

"You should. Soon. Approach them with the same sort of heroism you did today. You want to save people. Let them know, and soon, and they can get you a costume, and training, and help you find any little bits of your power you haven't figured out yet. I have their number in my phone," she said, pulling it back out of her purse.

"Please don't!" I flushed, speaking without meaning to. "I mean, please don't look at your phone while moving. I, my mom was crossing the street when she was hit by some guy who thought a video on his smartphone was more important than a red light. Phones are used when you're staying in one place. Phones in motion are dangerous. YOU almost got attacked tonight because you were looking at your phone instead of watching out for thugs. Sorry, I…"

"Fair enough. When we get to my home I'll take a look, with your permission, at where you were hit just to make sure there's no unexpected damage, and then I'll give you that number."

We walked in silence the next two blocks, turning onto Stonemast Avenue. I followed her up a driveway with a tricycle in the middle of it, and into the garage. There was a stain like a car had been parked here for some time several months ago, and the concrete had been cleaned multiple times since then. A lawnmower sat off to the side. We went through a door into the house, through a laundry room, and into what looked like an office, with a serious computer system, and a big first aid kit on the floor.

She caught my gaze. "I had two great passions in school, and couldn't decide which one to major in, so I majored in both. Medicine, and programming. If I had focused on the medicine, I might be a doctor right now, but in the end, I just couldn't give up on the computer. Now, I work two jobs. One from the hospital, and one from home. I might have gotten further if I had focused my efforts more, but such is life. Now, let's see how hurt you are."

------------------------------------------

In the end, it turned out that I just had a minor bruise, no internal injuries, and I should be fine in the morning. I also got the number to call the PRT. After exchanging our thanks, I headed home, only to find a dark shadow in a mask blocking my way and holding a crossbow before I was even halfway there.

"What were you doing with that woman?" I can almost place the voice, but there's just something off about it.

"I was helping her get home, and then she looked at one of my injuries. She's really nice. What's this about? Aren't you that new Ward?"

"Bullshit. She doesn't approve of capes. Doesn't understand us. No way she'd ever help you. What were you really doing to her?"

"That's the truth! We talked, she helped me; told me to join the Wards, I didn't do anything but save her!"

"Liar!" Shadow Stalker shot a bolt at me. Keeping in mind what Mrs Hess had told me, I saved up time, hoping to lessen the impact of the bolt. It didn't hurt, but for some reason after I was hit the number five dominated my mind.

"Listen, I'm telling the truth! Why won't you believe me?" I glanced down at the bolt to make sure it wasn't sticking anywhere vital, and found that it was some weird tinker thing. Probably a tracker, which would explain why it hadn't hurt.

"The world doesn't work like that! Nobody just helps someone else! It's always hurt hurt hurt. The trick is to hurt the people who want to hurt you, before they can do the same to someone you care about, and that's why you're going down!" This time the bolt she loaded looked real. I called on my power to protect me again, but thankfully she missed.

The number in my head changed ominously to a four. "The world doesn't have to work that way! People try to make the world be that place, but it isn't! As long as you try, you can always find a way to help people!"

"That's bullshit! The world is very simple, from animals to people! You have predators, and you have prey, and the only person you can help is yourself!" She nocked another bolt in her crossbow and aimed it at me.

"The world isn't that simple! Not even for animals! There are parasites and symbiotes and remoras and hippos! The most successful animals, though, are the ones that work together. That's especially true of humans!" I protected myself again, but she held off on firing.

As the number changed to a three, she slowly lowered her crossbow, and I took a few steps towards her in response. "It's just like at school. You don't get ahead going it alone, you work together like a team. If you want to be some kind of predator, be a wolf, Soph-". She raised her crossbow at me, fury and terror in her eyes, and fired.

This time, instead of storing more time, I acted between the seconds. I moved around the bolt, hanging in midair, and used the last of my pepper spray on her, quickly following up with kicks and punches, using all the stored time from both pools.

She dropped to the ground, unconscious.

"Shit." She was one of my best friends. Now what was I going to do?

I took a deep breath, and called the number Tricia gave me.

Two.

"Hi, I'm an independent hero. I'm here with Shadow Stalker and I'd like to join the Wards."

"Hold please."

One. That was REALLY ominous, the more I thought abou-

 

[tEN]

When I awoke I felt refreshed, like I'd just come back from the spa. I also strangely felt like I had a deeper insight intricacies of combat, the kind of dodging and striking style Sophia used with her power making perfect sense to me. I felt that, if pushed, I could strike first in any given exchange of blows.

Not, I considered, observing my surroundings, that this would do me much good in my current circumstances. I was on one of four cots in a plain white room, marred only by a door that blended near-seamlessly with the wall, and the mirror which dominated the entirety of the next one. I had seen enough crime dramas to know that I, and Sophia, for she was on the next cot over, to know that I was in one of the rooms that the PRT used for master/stranger screenings.

I reviewed my last memories, and grimaced. I could well understand why they had elected to put us here, given the abrupt end to my call, and the state they would have found us in. A quick review of my internal time reserves told me that I was not yet out of the minor debt incurred through four uses of my ability to act between the seconds, so it had not been eight hours yet, but how long it had been exactly was beyond me. Experimentally, I tried refilling one of my more active stores of time to see if I could move the seconds to my passively charging pool, and a sound chimed from the walls.

"Please refrain from use of your parahuman abilities until we have had a chance to clear you of influence." I considered arguing with the pre-recorded message, in the hopes someone behind the mirror was listening, but I knew from those same dramas that all this would accomplish would be to get me foamed for my trouble. They'd talk to me soon enough, and if I triggered the next message I'd be confined to my cot. I walked over to Sophia to see if I could wake her up, but partway there the message started playing.

"Please return to your-"

"I know, I know, return to my cot until a specialist can-" a port opened in the ceiling above me and covered me in containment foam.

-----BP-----

It is an hour later and I am still covered in foam. I briefly consider talking to myself to alleviate boredom. This would be crazy. I talk to Sophia instead. "Just you and me, Sophia, just you and me. Of course, you're asleep, but the two of us? We're a team. Three with Emma. She's not here though, and you are, even if you're asleep. You'd tell me if you were awake out there, right Sophia?"

I wait, and do not hear a response. Maybe singing will pass the time. Who do I know well enough to sing off the top of my head? Lots of songs, none of which are coming to mind right now. My little sister has discovered The Turtles, and is playing them non-stop. All I can remember is one particular refrain.

"Me and you and you and me, no matter how they tossed the dice, it had to be, the only one for me is you, and you for me, so happy together!" I sang with all my heart, but my mind could not remember any other words. "Me and you, and you and me-"

"Madison, you still can't carry a tune in a bucket. Shut the fuck up."

"Sophia, you're awake!"

"Yeah, yeah, keep your pants on. We're already missing school for this, I don't wanna miss dinner too."

"We're missing school?" I'd just figured they were keeping us until morning when they could wake somebody up to look us over.

"Sure, they already had time to wake up Panacea and have her take care of those bruises you gave me."

"I don't know how long it's been exactly, but it hasn't been eight hours."

"No way. I feel great, and I gotta tell you, I did not feel great after that beating you gave me."

A strange inkling stole over me. "Like you went to a spa?"

"What?"

"Do you feel like you went to a spa? Is that how great you feel?"

"How the fuck do I know? I never went to a spa." I could practically hear her roll her eyes.

"Oh my god. Emma and I are dragging you, like, this weekend. Absolutely necessary."

"Okay, whatever, I'll argue that later. Are you telling me you know what's up?"

"I think I may have an idea."

"Well come on, explain already. How'd we get better so fast?"

A new voice cut in. Still encased in foam, I couldn't see who it was. "Yes, Shift, how did you and Shadow Stalker get better so fast?"