The pungent stink of antiseptic was the first thing that I noticed.
An old, deep-set anxiety...
An old, deep-set anxiety...
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Refractions (Worm Colab Dual SI)
- Thread starter Santo
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User Total Heroslayer 10 Santo 12 Threadmarks Reader mode
Prologue 1
Santo
I want to enter your Temple
- Joined
- May 23, 2020
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The pungent stink of antiseptic was the first thing that I noticed.
An old, deep-set anxiety rose quickly and was squashed by equally old, familiar habit.
I woke up to the feeling of a pickax slamming repeatedly against my forehead, from the inside. I had clearly not drunk nearly enough water during whatever bender I did last night. Still, that was rather strange, as I was usually the designated driver, and when I wasn't, I was rather loath to drink beyond getting slightly tipsy.
I groaned and forced myself to sit up, opening my eyes caused unwelcome light to stab deep into my brain, adding variety to the sharp slams inside my brain pan. Fortunately, the headache did not hurt enough for me not to notice that my entire body felt like I had been worked over by a group of angry people with baseball bats.
As I flopped back down to the uncomfortable bed, I took stock of my pains.
In short, everything.
A more nuanced approach; my legs ached, my stomach and chest felt weak and like I'd had much too long a sparring session, my lower back was on fire. My arms felt noodly and sore. And I'd rather not talk about my head and neck right now. By the smell, I could tell I was in a hospital, and the headache did not feel quite like a hangover, but neither was it far.
Did someone slip me something on a drink? My scattered thoughts dredged up half-remembered stories of people who were roofied and woke up missing their liver. My brain informed me that I had a sharp, stabbing pain in the general area of my liver.
Motherfucker, someone stole my liver. How dare they? I use that.
I swallowed the subsequent wave of nausea, sat up, and forced my eyes open. "Anyone got the number of the asshole I'mma kill?"
"Language, young man." said a big blue blur that was probably scrubs.
The pain in my head made my anger spike. I glared in the general direction of the blur and tried to force my eyes to focus through sheer obstinacy. "Fuck you! Who the shit used my head for Futbol practice? Who stabbed me, and where the shit am I?" Some of my words dragged or were a little slurred, but I got my point across.
Looking to my left and blinking a bunch, I saw a kid laid out on another bed, he was out cold and his face was black and blue. Now that I thought of it, my face was a mixture of pain and numbness, so I probably didn't look much better.
I turned back to the blue blur, the former blue blur was a man in his mid thirties. He was reasonably fit, his arms had good definition but he had a bit of a paunch. Brown hair cut short, brown eyes, and for some reason he was not wearing a mask, last I checked those were supposed to be standard issue.
"Alright Kid, do you remember what happened?" The doctor asked someone as he sat next to me and fiddled with the bed, causing it to humm and start to tilt up. Kinda rude, this guy, talking to someone while standing next to me. Unless he's talking to me, in which case who is this guy calling a kid? I'm an old man well into his decline at the tender mercies of entropy! Proven by my gnarly beard.
"Kid? Everything alright?" He said, putting a hand on my shoulder and gently pushing me back into the bed turned backrest. This irritated me much more than it probably should have. My head pulsed particularly badly and I felt my lip curl over my teeth.
I shoved his hand off with a snarl. "Who're you calling a kid? Don't fuckin' touch me, I'll fuck you up!"
"Woah, easy, easy." the doctor said as he took a step back and held his hands up. "It's okay, you're not in any danger."
If asked, I would not be able to explain why, but that made me angrier. "Like fuck! Where the hell am I!? Who brought me here!? And who the fuck are you!?"
"Okay, okay, I'm going to answer you, so let's calm down." the damn doctor said in that stupid patronizing tone, like he was talking to a child. "In order, Brockton General, the Protectorate Rapid Response team brought you, and I'm Michael, I'm your nurse."
I glared death at not-a-doctor Michael. Then my anger vanished as the names he threw about registered, this made the pickax in my head swing harder, I brought a hand up to my temple and spoke in a much more subdued tone. "Did…Did you say 'Brockton General'?"
"Yes." Michael confirmed gently. "The Protectorate brought you in after recovering you. You're okay. You're safe"
"Brockton General…as in…Brockton Bay?" I asked as a fist of solid ice grabbed hold of my guts and twisted.
"Yes." This time the word was said slowly and filled with trepidation. Michael approached me slowly and looked worriedly at the monitor next to my bed. "Kid-Win?"
"Brockton…Bay…In…Earth Bet?" I asked as the fist in my guts gave them a solid yank.
"Okay, okay, I think we need to calm down. Breathe with me." Michael started to exaggeratedly inhale and exhale. "Can you do that?"
I started to breathe faster, my head felt lighter, I couldn't get enough air, without conscious thought I worked my lungs like bellows, filling them and emptying them, quick as I could. Shadows were crawling in the corners of my eyes. I felt sick.
"Shit!" That may have been Michael yelling that, I couldn't really tell with all the blood pounding in my ears. There was more yelling.
I had to leave, I had to go, I can't stay.
I tried to stand, but something pushed on my shoulder, I tried harder, and it pushed harder, so I punched it. It was a bad swing, bad position, couldn't put weight behind it. The shock made the pressure vanish, and I was on my feet and running the next instant.
Have to leave. Have to Go. Can't Stay.
My body felt wrong, too light, used too much force in the kickoff, my hip banged against something, sending things clattering, I used the impact to rebalance, too far, almost fell the other way but managed to bump the doorway with my shoulder. I saw the doors, and ran.
My legs felt wrong, I couldn't generate enough power, I was going too fast.
Someone got in the way, I lowered my shoulder and tackled them in the stomach, pushing up to get them off the ground so I could keep running.
I slammed into them, they were too heavy. Something was wrong. I could lift my bodyweight in a tackle, this person was smaller than me, but larger than I was. We fell in a tangle of limbs.
Hands were on me. I threw my elbow back. I felt it slam into something soft. Two hands on me disappeared. Still two left. I punched down. The impact shivered up my arm. The last two hands disappeared.
I threw myself up, too much force, stumbled. Legs were wrong. Pushed harder.
Must Leave. Must Go. Can't Stay.
I kept running. The doors were close, escape was near. Shadows moved in. I instinctively lowered my center of gravity, slamming into the first one, pushing against them. The impact didn't send them sprawling as I expected, they absorbed it and wrapped their arms around me.
I grabbed between their legs and squeezed hard, the arms vanished, only for someone else to slam into my back and wrap their arms around my front, lifting me off the floor. I threw my head back, I felt something crunch, the arms didn't vanish. More came, I kicked the first one before the second one grabbed hold of my legs.
Hands started wrapping around me. I kept struggling, but they kept dragging me back down. There was screaming, and I was reasonably sure some of it was me, but it might not have been. I wasn't getting enough oxygen.
I felt something stab me and redoubled my struggles. The arms grew stronger.
I was in Earth Bet.
This isn't supposed to happen.
I can't be here. This can't be happening. It isn't happening.
The darkness at the edge of my vision rushed in.
I can't breathe.
An old, deep-set anxiety rose quickly and was squashed by equally old, familiar habit.
I woke up to the feeling of a pickax slamming repeatedly against my forehead, from the inside. I had clearly not drunk nearly enough water during whatever bender I did last night. Still, that was rather strange, as I was usually the designated driver, and when I wasn't, I was rather loath to drink beyond getting slightly tipsy.
I groaned and forced myself to sit up, opening my eyes caused unwelcome light to stab deep into my brain, adding variety to the sharp slams inside my brain pan. Fortunately, the headache did not hurt enough for me not to notice that my entire body felt like I had been worked over by a group of angry people with baseball bats.
As I flopped back down to the uncomfortable bed, I took stock of my pains.
In short, everything.
A more nuanced approach; my legs ached, my stomach and chest felt weak and like I'd had much too long a sparring session, my lower back was on fire. My arms felt noodly and sore. And I'd rather not talk about my head and neck right now. By the smell, I could tell I was in a hospital, and the headache did not feel quite like a hangover, but neither was it far.
Did someone slip me something on a drink? My scattered thoughts dredged up half-remembered stories of people who were roofied and woke up missing their liver. My brain informed me that I had a sharp, stabbing pain in the general area of my liver.
Motherfucker, someone stole my liver. How dare they? I use that.
I swallowed the subsequent wave of nausea, sat up, and forced my eyes open. "Anyone got the number of the asshole I'mma kill?"
"Language, young man." said a big blue blur that was probably scrubs.
The pain in my head made my anger spike. I glared in the general direction of the blur and tried to force my eyes to focus through sheer obstinacy. "Fuck you! Who the shit used my head for Futbol practice? Who stabbed me, and where the shit am I?" Some of my words dragged or were a little slurred, but I got my point across.
Looking to my left and blinking a bunch, I saw a kid laid out on another bed, he was out cold and his face was black and blue. Now that I thought of it, my face was a mixture of pain and numbness, so I probably didn't look much better.
I turned back to the blue blur, the former blue blur was a man in his mid thirties. He was reasonably fit, his arms had good definition but he had a bit of a paunch. Brown hair cut short, brown eyes, and for some reason he was not wearing a mask, last I checked those were supposed to be standard issue.
"Alright Kid, do you remember what happened?" The doctor asked someone as he sat next to me and fiddled with the bed, causing it to humm and start to tilt up. Kinda rude, this guy, talking to someone while standing next to me. Unless he's talking to me, in which case who is this guy calling a kid? I'm an old man well into his decline at the tender mercies of entropy! Proven by my gnarly beard.
"Kid? Everything alright?" He said, putting a hand on my shoulder and gently pushing me back into the bed turned backrest. This irritated me much more than it probably should have. My head pulsed particularly badly and I felt my lip curl over my teeth.
I shoved his hand off with a snarl. "Who're you calling a kid? Don't fuckin' touch me, I'll fuck you up!"
"Woah, easy, easy." the doctor said as he took a step back and held his hands up. "It's okay, you're not in any danger."
If asked, I would not be able to explain why, but that made me angrier. "Like fuck! Where the hell am I!? Who brought me here!? And who the fuck are you!?"
"Okay, okay, I'm going to answer you, so let's calm down." the damn doctor said in that stupid patronizing tone, like he was talking to a child. "In order, Brockton General, the Protectorate Rapid Response team brought you, and I'm Michael, I'm your nurse."
I glared death at not-a-doctor Michael. Then my anger vanished as the names he threw about registered, this made the pickax in my head swing harder, I brought a hand up to my temple and spoke in a much more subdued tone. "Did…Did you say 'Brockton General'?"
"Yes." Michael confirmed gently. "The Protectorate brought you in after recovering you. You're okay. You're safe"
"Brockton General…as in…Brockton Bay?" I asked as a fist of solid ice grabbed hold of my guts and twisted.
"Yes." This time the word was said slowly and filled with trepidation. Michael approached me slowly and looked worriedly at the monitor next to my bed. "Kid-Win?"
"Brockton…Bay…In…Earth Bet?" I asked as the fist in my guts gave them a solid yank.
"Okay, okay, I think we need to calm down. Breathe with me." Michael started to exaggeratedly inhale and exhale. "Can you do that?"
I started to breathe faster, my head felt lighter, I couldn't get enough air, without conscious thought I worked my lungs like bellows, filling them and emptying them, quick as I could. Shadows were crawling in the corners of my eyes. I felt sick.
"Shit!" That may have been Michael yelling that, I couldn't really tell with all the blood pounding in my ears. There was more yelling.
I had to leave, I had to go, I can't stay.
I tried to stand, but something pushed on my shoulder, I tried harder, and it pushed harder, so I punched it. It was a bad swing, bad position, couldn't put weight behind it. The shock made the pressure vanish, and I was on my feet and running the next instant.
Have to leave. Have to Go. Can't Stay.
My body felt wrong, too light, used too much force in the kickoff, my hip banged against something, sending things clattering, I used the impact to rebalance, too far, almost fell the other way but managed to bump the doorway with my shoulder. I saw the doors, and ran.
My legs felt wrong, I couldn't generate enough power, I was going too fast.
Someone got in the way, I lowered my shoulder and tackled them in the stomach, pushing up to get them off the ground so I could keep running.
I slammed into them, they were too heavy. Something was wrong. I could lift my bodyweight in a tackle, this person was smaller than me, but larger than I was. We fell in a tangle of limbs.
Hands were on me. I threw my elbow back. I felt it slam into something soft. Two hands on me disappeared. Still two left. I punched down. The impact shivered up my arm. The last two hands disappeared.
I threw myself up, too much force, stumbled. Legs were wrong. Pushed harder.
Must Leave. Must Go. Can't Stay.
I kept running. The doors were close, escape was near. Shadows moved in. I instinctively lowered my center of gravity, slamming into the first one, pushing against them. The impact didn't send them sprawling as I expected, they absorbed it and wrapped their arms around me.
I grabbed between their legs and squeezed hard, the arms vanished, only for someone else to slam into my back and wrap their arms around my front, lifting me off the floor. I threw my head back, I felt something crunch, the arms didn't vanish. More came, I kicked the first one before the second one grabbed hold of my legs.
Hands started wrapping around me. I kept struggling, but they kept dragging me back down. There was screaming, and I was reasonably sure some of it was me, but it might not have been. I wasn't getting enough oxygen.
I felt something stab me and redoubled my struggles. The arms grew stronger.
I was in Earth Bet.
This isn't supposed to happen.
I can't be here. This can't be happening. It isn't happening.
The darkness at the edge of my vision rushed in.
I can't breathe.
Prologue 2
Heroslayer
Making the rounds.
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- Oct 7, 2019
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Prologue 2
The first thing I noticed was the noise.
I had gotten used to the general noise of my neighborhood when waking up. Garage doors, cars coming and going in the morning as people went about their days, and the general natural noises of an active suburban cul-de-sac. For those few and far times I managed to catch a nap in the afternoon or evening, maybe I'd catch one of my housemates blaring whatever drama they were caught up in downstairs.
What I got instead was the distant noise of people walking around, conversations in the distance, wheels carting supplies around, and the faint clacking of a keyboard.
Okay, not in my room. Or my house. That's disturbing. Where am I even?
Thankfully, my room was rather quiet, so I was able to take in my surroundings. White room, blue curtains to divide the room into sections, and those high up outlets to plug in all the machines a patient should need. It was the typical hospital room. Sterile, though it was a bit beaten down from constant use.
"Okay, that answers one question." I murmured even as I felt my mind whirl. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The air passed through my lips shakily at first, but gradually smoothed out.
Don't panic. Calm down and repress this like a healthy adult.
I felt my brain start to settle as I forced my anxiety to compress into a mere sinking feeling in my gut.
"Okay, let's start with the obvious." I instructed myself slowly. "I'm in hospital. I'm a patient, though it doesn't look that serious."
I took a moment to examine my body. I felt a little pale, but that could be the dim lights and the panic. My arms felt a little sensitive and I could feel a bit of general body ache. Quick glance of the room showed no IV drip or complicated machinery, adding to my hunch that I was okay, hopefully.
Which only brought up more questions.
"Did my friends finally talk me into that bender?"
I didn't feel hungover so that probably wasn't the answer.
Thankfully for my sanity, a nurse walked into the room and let out a little gasp when she saw me sitting up. She was a mousey little hispanic woman. I would have focused a bit more on her other physical features, except I was distracted by something rather distracting.
"Oh! Mr. Gallant, you're up." The nurse spoke softly as she approached me. "Hold on, let me page a doctor and I'll check up on you."
I assumed that she was doing just that, but I was a little distracted by the glowing aurora that was shining around her body like some sort of halo effect. It was like a kaleidoscope of colors was just bursting out of her body. I could see a burst of green, well, multiple shades of green flicking around her excitedly, hovering over a foundation of bright happy yellow.
Okay, so I was seeing visual hallucinations now.
Fun. Just what I need in this situation.
I squinted a little and noticed some things off with the lights. None of the colors were lighting up the room. They were like a poorly rendered CGI light; just there and not naturally part of the environment. The lights were not reflecting off of any other surface, they were just there hovering ominously over the nurse.
Wait, what did she call me?
"Okay, I'm supposed to ask you if you remember how you got here." The nurse, whose name tag read Sunny, said. "Do you remember how you got here, Mr. Gallant?"
There it was again. That was not my last name. Did she think I was someone else?
"I'm going to be perfectly honest, the last thing I remember was working on some stuff for class the next day." I said honestly. I remember grading some papers before giving up and making the executive decision that I'd finish them in my planning periods.
"Okay, that seems to match with what we were expecting." Sunny nodded as a burst of worried orange flickered over her before it was eaten by the underlying happy yellow. "But that's okay, Mr. Gallant. We'll figure it out."
There's that name again. There's clearly something wrong with this situation. I know for a fact that I am not white enough to have a last name like Gallant.
So she thinks I'm someone else. Well, I guess I can play along until I figure out where I am.
"You're in Brockton General, you were in an incident early today involving Uber and Leet." Sunny explained to me. Not that any of that made any sense to me.
"Brockton General?" I asked in confusion. That didn't sound like any of the hospitals near me. Pretty sure all of them had gotten bought out by that one catholic sounding name. Was I that far from home? How long was I asleep?
The colors decided that I shouldn't be thinking about this too hard, there were pretty colors to examine. The outside of the aura exploded into a violent frantic orange that was creeping in and trying to infect the foundational optimistic yellow.
"Yes!" Sunny's voice pitched a little bit. "Is there a problem with that?"
She was panicking. That was the wrong answer. Was Mr. Gallant from Brockton Bay?
"Not really?" I lied as I scratched the back of my head. "I'm just making sure I heard right. My head's pounding."
"Oh!" The orange was still there, but the tendrils that were sinking into the yellow all retracted rapidly. The orange retreated and lingered on the outside of the aura, ready to invade again, but pushed back for now. There was a cautious new shade of orange that was flickering as a buffer between the frantic orange and the sunny yellow. "That's good. Um… the doctor will be in shortly and he'll explain the rest. I'm just going to check on all your vitals."
"Sure." I nodded as I let the nurse do her job. I had no real reason to stop her from doing anything, and it gave me some time to watch the colors in silence. A few minutes later, a caucasian man in a white coat and scrubs walked in. Obviously, by the stethoscope hanging out of his coat pocket, this was my doctor.
"Hello Gallant, how are you doing today?" The Doctor greeted me.
"I'm fine, but you're looking a little green." I blurted out.
"Excuse me?" The doctor paused as he stared at me. The spiteful red core that made up the foundation of the doctor's aurora flared angrily before it was eaten by the sickly green. His shoulders seemed to slump and I could see a tired blue just radiating off of him.
"No, no, I uh… think I'm still seeing colors. Did I hit my head?" I quickly shifted the conversation forward. I really wanted to know why I suddenly was seeing rainbows and sunshine everywhere.
"Yes, actually." The doctor nodded, a bolt of strong blue flickered into existence. "I'm sure Nurse Sunny has briefed you on how you got here?"
"Uber and Leet?" I repeated the terms. Were those supposed to be names? Dear God, did I get jumped by a couple of middle aged man child nerds?
"Correct."
The doctor then began to explain to me how I got there and why I was a patient. I nodded along and made sure to ask questions and repeat a few things so he could clarify, so it looked like I understood what was going on.
I had no idea what was going on.
Apparently, I had been fighting a duo called Uber and Leet, who had some video game theme or something, and they had a machine that exploded. The explosion hit me and some kid.
"And that about sums it up." Doctor Bob finished his explanation. "Do you have any questions?"
I have so many questions.
"No, I think I got the gist of it." I nodded and shot him a polite smile even as I lied my ass off. "Thank you, for you know, everything."
"Of course." Doctor Bob shined a positive yellow and a content blue. "We'll let you get some sleep and we can contact the Protectorate tomorrow morning to discharge you."
"Sounds good." I let the polite smile stay on my face unwavering until both Sunny and Doctor Bob left the room before it died a painful death.
"Okay… that answered a few questions and completely opened up a bunch more." I muttered to myself as I felt a headache beginning to form. I couldn't even be sure if that was from the information overload or if the painkillers they gave were wearing off.
"Okay, this is either the world's worst drug trip along with hallucinations and colors, or I am not in Kansas anymore."
My body started to shake as the anxiety I had healthily repressed decided that, hey, since you're alone and not doing anything important, it's time to deal with me. He also brought friends, they were named confusion, manic energy, and that wonderful feeling of freefall.
There was no denying it. I wasn't stupid. I was definitely not in Chicago anymore, nor did I seem to be in my own body. The pale arms, lack of glasses, and just general youngness of the body were a solid sign that this wasn't my body.
Note to self, don't look in a mirror unless you're ready for an identity crisis.
Right. Priorities. I'm in a new body. It already has an identity. First, I needed to make sure I had my story straight. Even as I trembled in panic and nausea from the sudden violent epiphany, I made sure to go over the conversation with the doctor and nurse over and over again.
Name (Codename?): Gallant.
Assailants: Uber and Leet.
Company: Protectorate.
Location: Brockton Bay.
None of these were immediately familiar, but they brought up a feeling of foreboding. I etched them into my memory, since they were key to keeping my story straight. And any good liar knows they need to make sure their story is consistent. This was my new identity and I had to make it work.
I was going to be okay. I was in a different body than the one I fell asleep in last night. I was going to figure out my identity, get an idea of what I needed to do next, figure out why I'm seeing technicolor around people and somehow not tip off that I had amnesia and had possessed this body.
Easy.
And like any good liar. I could even lie to myself convincingly.
Now if only I could somehow lie myself into sleeping. I let my brain whirl in possibilities until I exhausted myself to sleep. For just a brief moment, it felt like home.
The first thing I noticed was the noise.
I had gotten used to the general noise of my neighborhood when waking up. Garage doors, cars coming and going in the morning as people went about their days, and the general natural noises of an active suburban cul-de-sac. For those few and far times I managed to catch a nap in the afternoon or evening, maybe I'd catch one of my housemates blaring whatever drama they were caught up in downstairs.
What I got instead was the distant noise of people walking around, conversations in the distance, wheels carting supplies around, and the faint clacking of a keyboard.
Okay, not in my room. Or my house. That's disturbing. Where am I even?
Thankfully, my room was rather quiet, so I was able to take in my surroundings. White room, blue curtains to divide the room into sections, and those high up outlets to plug in all the machines a patient should need. It was the typical hospital room. Sterile, though it was a bit beaten down from constant use.
"Okay, that answers one question." I murmured even as I felt my mind whirl. I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. The air passed through my lips shakily at first, but gradually smoothed out.
Don't panic. Calm down and repress this like a healthy adult.
I felt my brain start to settle as I forced my anxiety to compress into a mere sinking feeling in my gut.
"Okay, let's start with the obvious." I instructed myself slowly. "I'm in hospital. I'm a patient, though it doesn't look that serious."
I took a moment to examine my body. I felt a little pale, but that could be the dim lights and the panic. My arms felt a little sensitive and I could feel a bit of general body ache. Quick glance of the room showed no IV drip or complicated machinery, adding to my hunch that I was okay, hopefully.
Which only brought up more questions.
"Did my friends finally talk me into that bender?"
I didn't feel hungover so that probably wasn't the answer.
Thankfully for my sanity, a nurse walked into the room and let out a little gasp when she saw me sitting up. She was a mousey little hispanic woman. I would have focused a bit more on her other physical features, except I was distracted by something rather distracting.
"Oh! Mr. Gallant, you're up." The nurse spoke softly as she approached me. "Hold on, let me page a doctor and I'll check up on you."
I assumed that she was doing just that, but I was a little distracted by the glowing aurora that was shining around her body like some sort of halo effect. It was like a kaleidoscope of colors was just bursting out of her body. I could see a burst of green, well, multiple shades of green flicking around her excitedly, hovering over a foundation of bright happy yellow.
Okay, so I was seeing visual hallucinations now.
Fun. Just what I need in this situation.
I squinted a little and noticed some things off with the lights. None of the colors were lighting up the room. They were like a poorly rendered CGI light; just there and not naturally part of the environment. The lights were not reflecting off of any other surface, they were just there hovering ominously over the nurse.
Wait, what did she call me?
"Okay, I'm supposed to ask you if you remember how you got here." The nurse, whose name tag read Sunny, said. "Do you remember how you got here, Mr. Gallant?"
There it was again. That was not my last name. Did she think I was someone else?
"I'm going to be perfectly honest, the last thing I remember was working on some stuff for class the next day." I said honestly. I remember grading some papers before giving up and making the executive decision that I'd finish them in my planning periods.
"Okay, that seems to match with what we were expecting." Sunny nodded as a burst of worried orange flickered over her before it was eaten by the underlying happy yellow. "But that's okay, Mr. Gallant. We'll figure it out."
There's that name again. There's clearly something wrong with this situation. I know for a fact that I am not white enough to have a last name like Gallant.
So she thinks I'm someone else. Well, I guess I can play along until I figure out where I am.
"You're in Brockton General, you were in an incident early today involving Uber and Leet." Sunny explained to me. Not that any of that made any sense to me.
"Brockton General?" I asked in confusion. That didn't sound like any of the hospitals near me. Pretty sure all of them had gotten bought out by that one catholic sounding name. Was I that far from home? How long was I asleep?
The colors decided that I shouldn't be thinking about this too hard, there were pretty colors to examine. The outside of the aura exploded into a violent frantic orange that was creeping in and trying to infect the foundational optimistic yellow.
"Yes!" Sunny's voice pitched a little bit. "Is there a problem with that?"
She was panicking. That was the wrong answer. Was Mr. Gallant from Brockton Bay?
"Not really?" I lied as I scratched the back of my head. "I'm just making sure I heard right. My head's pounding."
"Oh!" The orange was still there, but the tendrils that were sinking into the yellow all retracted rapidly. The orange retreated and lingered on the outside of the aura, ready to invade again, but pushed back for now. There was a cautious new shade of orange that was flickering as a buffer between the frantic orange and the sunny yellow. "That's good. Um… the doctor will be in shortly and he'll explain the rest. I'm just going to check on all your vitals."
"Sure." I nodded as I let the nurse do her job. I had no real reason to stop her from doing anything, and it gave me some time to watch the colors in silence. A few minutes later, a caucasian man in a white coat and scrubs walked in. Obviously, by the stethoscope hanging out of his coat pocket, this was my doctor.
"Hello Gallant, how are you doing today?" The Doctor greeted me.
"I'm fine, but you're looking a little green." I blurted out.
"Excuse me?" The doctor paused as he stared at me. The spiteful red core that made up the foundation of the doctor's aurora flared angrily before it was eaten by the sickly green. His shoulders seemed to slump and I could see a tired blue just radiating off of him.
"No, no, I uh… think I'm still seeing colors. Did I hit my head?" I quickly shifted the conversation forward. I really wanted to know why I suddenly was seeing rainbows and sunshine everywhere.
"Yes, actually." The doctor nodded, a bolt of strong blue flickered into existence. "I'm sure Nurse Sunny has briefed you on how you got here?"
"Uber and Leet?" I repeated the terms. Were those supposed to be names? Dear God, did I get jumped by a couple of middle aged man child nerds?
"Correct."
The doctor then began to explain to me how I got there and why I was a patient. I nodded along and made sure to ask questions and repeat a few things so he could clarify, so it looked like I understood what was going on.
I had no idea what was going on.
Apparently, I had been fighting a duo called Uber and Leet, who had some video game theme or something, and they had a machine that exploded. The explosion hit me and some kid.
"And that about sums it up." Doctor Bob finished his explanation. "Do you have any questions?"
I have so many questions.
"No, I think I got the gist of it." I nodded and shot him a polite smile even as I lied my ass off. "Thank you, for you know, everything."
"Of course." Doctor Bob shined a positive yellow and a content blue. "We'll let you get some sleep and we can contact the Protectorate tomorrow morning to discharge you."
"Sounds good." I let the polite smile stay on my face unwavering until both Sunny and Doctor Bob left the room before it died a painful death.
"Okay… that answered a few questions and completely opened up a bunch more." I muttered to myself as I felt a headache beginning to form. I couldn't even be sure if that was from the information overload or if the painkillers they gave were wearing off.
"Okay, this is either the world's worst drug trip along with hallucinations and colors, or I am not in Kansas anymore."
My body started to shake as the anxiety I had healthily repressed decided that, hey, since you're alone and not doing anything important, it's time to deal with me. He also brought friends, they were named confusion, manic energy, and that wonderful feeling of freefall.
There was no denying it. I wasn't stupid. I was definitely not in Chicago anymore, nor did I seem to be in my own body. The pale arms, lack of glasses, and just general youngness of the body were a solid sign that this wasn't my body.
Note to self, don't look in a mirror unless you're ready for an identity crisis.
Right. Priorities. I'm in a new body. It already has an identity. First, I needed to make sure I had my story straight. Even as I trembled in panic and nausea from the sudden violent epiphany, I made sure to go over the conversation with the doctor and nurse over and over again.
Name (Codename?): Gallant.
Assailants: Uber and Leet.
Company: Protectorate.
Location: Brockton Bay.
None of these were immediately familiar, but they brought up a feeling of foreboding. I etched them into my memory, since they were key to keeping my story straight. And any good liar knows they need to make sure their story is consistent. This was my new identity and I had to make it work.
I was going to be okay. I was in a different body than the one I fell asleep in last night. I was going to figure out my identity, get an idea of what I needed to do next, figure out why I'm seeing technicolor around people and somehow not tip off that I had amnesia and had possessed this body.
Easy.
And like any good liar. I could even lie to myself convincingly.
Now if only I could somehow lie myself into sleeping. I let my brain whirl in possibilities until I exhausted myself to sleep. For just a brief moment, it felt like home.
Intrusion 1.1
Heroslayer
Making the rounds.
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Intrusion 1.1
I stood in front of the building and just let the scene wash over me. I could hear various greetings as counselors and teachers alike greeted students and students threw their greetings back. A few of them were even sincere.
I was still adjusting to seeing that sincerity in color rather than in body language. It was a rather pleasing shade of yellow. Too bad it was so rare.
But I was getting distracted by the pretty colors again. I needed to make sure I had my new identity straight.
A quick check of my student ID reminded me of my new name. Dean Stansfield, some rich boy that had a bland personality. So me being paranoid and being extra polite to everyone got me a pass, so that was a plus.
Apparently, I was also Gallant, a member of the Wards. Which was some sort of teenaged superhero government program. Which if it was like any other government program that I've worked in, was underfunded, understaffed, and more of a babysitting program than an actual training one.
Sadly, this meant I was a teenager again, which was awkward since last I checked, I was a high school teacher. There was no question that sitting in a classroom was going to be an ordeal. Thankfully, Arcadia looked to be like a school I had zero chance teaching in, where the household income was in the six figures minimum, so maybe I could actually learn something new in class or at least, relearn something interesting.
Distressingly, I was no longer in the Midwest. Brockton Bay was firmly on the East Coast.
On one hand, it meant that I was a little closer to making that trip to New York City that I always wanted to do. On the other hand, it was another unfamiliar thing to add to the list. I missed home already.
Then there was the obvious problem. Other than the fact that I was the wrong age, I didn't need glasses anymore, and I was the wrong ethnicity. Everyone was shining in a kaleidoscope of colors.
A little bit of trial and error and some common sense had gotten me an answer. I had some sort of empathy vision. Which made sense, since I was in a government superhero program.
I messed around in my rather empty large ass home and found that I could also throw beams of light, which since they were colors too, I assumed were connected to emotions, but could just be concussive blasts. Also, if anyone asks, that poster I dug out of my new closet was always on that wall and not covering the new hole in my drywall.
"Okay, I can do this. I just need to go to school, make sure no one realizes I can't remember jack, and lie to an unknown amount of people that I have always been Dean Stansfield."
I could do this. I was ready for anything the world could throw at me.
"Dean!" Someone shouted. I will admit, I was still getting used to the name. So I was completely blindsided by the girl that tackled my right arm and wrapped around it like a clingy limpet.
"Woah." I yelped as I spun my arms to catch my balance. I caught the wall I had been leaning against so I didn't fall on my face. My first reflex was to yell at the person. Because A: that was sudden and rude, and B: I wasn't exactly someone that was comfortable with hugs on first meetings.
Whatever I was going to shout got stuck in my throat when I looked down. Wrapped around my arm was an irritated very pretty teenage girl.
The first thing that I noticed was the gorgeous blue eyes trained on me, tracking me, correctly assuming that I was ready to escape. Next was the long blond hair trailing behind her, it fell around her gracefully and framed her face perfectly, as if well prepared for movement. Then my eyes tracked down to the rest of her and my new teenage brain decided to short circuit for a moment. Yes, she was very pretty all over.
And I could see all of her prettiness in high def, since she was not at all radiating any color. All I could see was her.
"Wow, you look beautiful." Wait, shit, was that flirting? No wait, if she's clinging to me like this, we're probably close. Dating? Probably dating. Hopefully dating? She's really pretty. Wait no, focus!
"Thank you." Blonde-y chirped happily for a moment before she suddenly scowled at me. Oh great, she's angry at me and I don't even know her name. I was not ready for any of this. "Wait, don't try to distract me. I'm still angry with you."
"For what?" I asked. Did I inherit some dumb teenage drama?
"I've called you like a dozen times!" The girl poked me in the chest, hard. It actually hurt a little bit. Geez, she's strong. "I know you were discharged, so there is no excuse for not picking up."
"I'm pretty sure my phone's busted." I immediately lied. I had tried to access Dean's phone a few times before getting locked out. Pretty sure it was dead now. "There was… a thing." I finished lamely.
"Oh! Did it break in the explosion?" or this girl could completely ignore my attempts at subterfuge.
"Woah, Dean exploded?" A hyper yellow girl popped in and asked.
See, this is why I tried to be vague. I quickly came up with a lie.
"Nah. You know how you're not supposed to put aluminum foil in the microwave. Well, I wanted to see why." I smiled ruefully as I quickly threw out a ridiculous story. Just be confident and casual and no one will call you out.
"And it exploded?!" Hyper yellow said incredulously as some mischievous orange started to flare up.
"Something like that." I deflected. "I can tell you later, if you want the full story."
That would give me some time to actually come up with the full story.
"Sure!" Perky pink and gleeful yellow waved as she left. "I'll see you in history, Dean."
Damn. I was hoping that she'd slip me Blonde-y's name. Guess I'm going to have to keep talking around it for a bit.
Speaking of Blonde-y, the girl was still wrapped around my arm and she was shooting me an adorable pout. "Did your phone really explode?"
"No, no. It's just busted." If I can't access it, because I can't remember the code, that's considered broken, right? "I'm probably going to have to get a new one."
"Great, we can go shopping after school!" Blonde-y chirped happily as she started to guide me down the hall.
"Oh, yeah. Sure." I agreed, more politely than enthusiastically. I had no idea who this pretty girl was and or why I couldn't see any of the emotional colors around her, but what I could see was many shopping bags in my near future.
Now if only someone could tell me her name.
"Oh, hey Victoria." Someone said as an arm wrapped none too gently around my neck and shoulders. "Is that a cockroach on your skirt?"
The arms and two deliciously soft sensations wrapped around my arm vanished. "Geditoff! Geditoff! Geditoff!"
The now dubbed Victoria flew into the air and I mean that literally. She hovered up a few inches into the air as she shrieked and batted at her skirt in a wild panic. Wait, weren't we supposed to keep our powers a secret?
I tried to grab Victoria and pull her back down, but I was rather violently tugged away as the arm around my neck and shoulders tightened and dragged me away from my girlfriend (?).
"Okay cool, I see you have that in hand! I'm borrowing Dean for a moment!" Someone rapidly called back to the floating girl as they pulled me through a door, which closed and locked behind us.
He pushed me roughly forward and I stumbled before catching my balance. I whirled around and raised my arms up in a rough fighting stance.
In front of me was a boy. Though it took me a few seconds of focusing to actually parse his features through all the colors.
He was pretty skinny, though he was doing his best to throw what little body size he had in an aggressive pose. I could see a rather delicate nose and angular jaw all scrunched up in a scowl, his face unsuited for such an aggressive expression. I couldn't really make out his eye or hair color. It's been all of two seconds since I saw hair and eye color clearly and I was missing it already.
The angry redhead rudely pointed a finger at me. "Alright asshole, I'm only gonna ask this once. Do the letters 'MCU' mean anything to you?"
Did I just get assaulted so someone could talk movie trivia?
"Marvel?" I said slowly as I raised an eyebrow at the overly aggressive non sequitur.
The boy stalked forward in triumph and unsuccessfully attempted to loom over me. "Yes! Marvel! The company that is literally dead and gone in this world and has been for almost thirty years! That one!"
My mind quickly started to make connections. I was in a new world, there was the possibility that history and culture could be different. I had assumed things were the same. I apparently was wrong about that.
That's troubling. Note to self, actually read history textbook.
"Wait, did the comic industry die here?" I attempted to deflect for more time.
"Not important, asshole!" The kid growled, not giving me any time. He grabbed the collar of my shirt and tried to push me against the wall. "The important bit is you are not from here! Like I am not from here! And I have been trying to tell you this literally for days! But your dumbass don't know how to answer the fuckin' phone!"
Oh.
Oh!
This kid has answers!
He stood there, almost hyperventilating, his face white as a sheet. I could see angry red flicker around him, the other colors tried to suppress it, but the red would flare back aggressively and stronger than before.
"Yeah. Okay, I get you. We'll talk about this." I said calmly as I reached a hand up to try to untangle his grip on my collar. Okay, that wasn't happening. He had a vice grip. "But first thing is first."
Let's calm him down. I debated on soothing words, but I'll be honest, I didn't exactly have the patience for that. Thankfully, I had the perfect shortcut.
I let my hand slide down to the boy's chest and focused for a brief moment. The room flared a calm blue for an instant, in the actual visual spectrum and not just my own vision, as I fired a concentrated burst of calm into the kid's body.
The kid stumbled backwards winded since I forgot that my power also had kinetic force. I also forgot about his grip on my collar, so I followed him forward and just barely kept from falling and taking us both down.
His face regained a healthy color, bands of calm blue firmly suppressing the still flaring red. He blinked a couple of times. "You know, if I wasn't suddenly so serene, I would probably punch you for that. Pretty sure that counts as an attack…though now that I can actually think clearly I cannot fault you for that. I was being unreasonable." He finally let go of my collar and took a deep breath. "Sorry about that…and thanks, it's…it's been a couple days."
He regained his bearings as I got my own thoughts straight.
If I recall correctly, Gallant and Kid Win were both caught in the explosion from Uber and Leet. I guess that would make the boy in front of me Kid Win A.K.A. Chris… something, shit. I can't remember his last name. That would make the explosion the likely catalyst for our new bodies.
"Okay, so you're also not from here. Good to know." I acknowledged. It was rather nice to have a companion in this mind-bendingly weird situation. "Did you want anything else other than, like, confronting me, because this is kind of weird."
I gestured to the dark and empty classroom that we were standing in. I tried to ignore Victoria banging on the door. I would let Future Dean deal with that.
Chris shook his head. "Before that, do you have your phone on you? Or a phone on you?"
"Look, it's busted." I said crossly, having to go over this again. "I'm going to buy a new one. Pretty sure Victoria is going to take me shopping or something."
Chris nodded and began to pace back and forth. "Okay good, it'd be bad if this was recorded. I wanted to touch base about making a plan to, you know, stop the omnicidal space whale from killing all Earths. Yeah, bug-girl might be able to manage it, but the margin of victory was a little thin for my liking."
I blinked at that morbid and outlandish statement. Despite it sounding completely ridiculous and rather concerning, I was in another world, so I couldn't exactly throw anything out the window.
Note to self. Omnicidal Space Whales are a thing.
Response to self. What the hell?
"That… sounds like something we should eventually talk about, yes." I agreed, not wanting to sound like I had no idea what Chris was talking about.
He nodded again, "Yeah, that's why I was trying to call you all weekend." A tendril of frustrated red slipped its bonds, and with a severe struggle, it was once more suppressed. "I wanted to make sure you were…like me. For now, we should get to class, waste time, do stupid teenager shit so we don't lose time by being put in M/S."
Chris stopped pacing and I could see his colors start to even out now that he had a plan in mind. Well, it sounded like Chris knew what he was doing, which was good. Since my only plan of action was to basically play a teenage superhero until I could graduate into an adult superhero. I appreciate someone else here that has an idea of what we should do.
"Right. Now if we're done here," I gestured to the door that was rattling violently and the screaming girl I could see in the small window on the door. "I think Victoria is kind of angry."
Chris scowled at the door. "Oh right, don't tell your girlfriend about this. She's smart but I'm not sure she can keep a secret. She's an open cape, you aren't."
Oh, so she is my girlfriend. That sends my heartrate up and I'm not quite sure if that's panic or appreciation or some horrible mix of both.
He tilted his head. "You should probably break up with her."
"Is that smart?" On one hand, Chris was probably right. Not to mention the weird ethical dilemma. On the other hand, I am sixteen again, and she is very pretty. "Seems like a suspicious move to make right after a brain injury."
"Nah, you break up and get back together all the time." Chris shook his head and made for the door and a mischievous orange whipped around his body with glee. "Later. For now just come up with some stupid cover story. Tell her something about how we were making out."
He said that closing bit just as he opened the door.
Victoria froze in the doorway, mouth open as she stared at Chris in what I assumed to be disbelief.
Man, two days with the colors and my ability to read facial expressions was already kind of spotty. Maybe I could spend time with Victoria to get some practice in.
"Uh…" I had a cover story ready. Just something vague about the explosion. Victoria obviously knew about it and had powers too. It would have been a little rocky, but I was confident that I could have pulled it off.
But honestly, Chris' closing line had caused me to choke on my own spit and those few seconds of mortification cost me dearly.
Victoria's face contorted in anger and at the same moment that Chris' aura was shot through by a fearful neon yellow, the bands of calm around the very angry red shattered and it surged up, consuming the fear as fuel.
He stepped into her personal space and all but spat at her face. "If you don't turn down that fear-me field, I'mma punch you in the fuckin' mouth."
Note to self, Chris has anger issues. May need to calm him down again on next meeting.
Chris then slid past her as she stared at him, her eyes open wide and her face contorted in a mixture of confusion and anger. She stared at his retreating back, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and slowly let it out as she unclenched her fists.
Danger Will Robinson. Danger. Your girlfriend is angry at you. Damage control. Quickly.
"Sssooo," I began. "I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that his weekend was a lot worse than mine."
It was probably true in a way. Dean Stansfield's family was pretty loaded. So I had come home to a nice house, nice food, and rather distant parents that had checked up on me twice over the entire weekend. It was a rather lonely experience, since I expected parents to care a little more that their son exploded, but apparently it wasn't that big of a deal. On the plus side, I didn't need to lie to their faces that I couldn't really remember them, so silver linings.
Victoria turned her glare to me. "Are you cheating on me with Chris!?"
What?
"What?" I almost choked on my own words.
"He said you were making out in there!" Victoria all but shrieked.
"You could see us the entire time through the window." I pointed at the window on the door.
"Yes and the two of you got real close in there!"
"Because he was having a panic attack and I was calming him down!"
"By making out?!"
"No!" My voice cracked from the sheer indignation I felt. God, I could feel the blood rushing to my face.
"You're blushing!" She pointed at my face as she accused me.
"I'm embarrassed!" I defended myself and pointed out the hallway where a crowd of teenagers had gathered to gawk. "What the hell?!"
"Vicky, you're making a scene," said a thoroughly unimpressed voice. The voice belonged to the most depressingly blue person I've ever seen. She was a mousy girl with fizzy hair and freckles.
Dear lord, someone help this girl.
Seeing that much depression and apathy was an unpleasant shock of cold water in my system. I took a moment to calm my breathing and looked at Victoria who was still building up a head of steam.
"Look, Chris wanted to talk about something. He was kind of panicking and I calmed him down." I explained myself, like a reasonable person. "Nothing happened."
Victoria stared at me, face flushed with misplaced anger and frustration. She reached out and snatched my hand. Dear lord, she's strong. She tugged it and held out my hand towards the depressed mouse-y girl. "Amy. Check him."
"Check what?" Amy sighed. There was a resigned blue mixing with a subtle eager to please pink flickering about.
"If he's lying." Victoria demanded.
"Vicky, you can't be serious."
I let out my own sigh before trying to tug my arm free. I failed and stopped after Victoria shot me a rather venomous look. Instead, I offered my other hand to Amy.
"It's fine." I said and smiled ruefully, "If we don't get it out of her system, she'll be fuming all day."
"This is a grievous misuse of Powers." Amy sighed again. "Do I have your permission to touch you?"
That was a rather odd question. Still, she was apparently going to use some sort of lie detecting power on me, so I guess it was rather polite. How refreshing from a teenager. Now if only she didn't look so depressingly blue about it.
"Sure, I trust you." I smiled. I wasn't actually sure that I could trust her, but I doubted she'd do something crazy in front of her sister and a bunch of witnesses.
Amy seemed to react badly to those words. There was a flare of angry and indignant red before it was crushed by the blue that actually seemed to lash back at her.
"Amy?" I asked worried about what I saw.
Rather than answer me, Amy just snatched my hand out of Vicky's grip and glared at both Vicky and me.
"Were you cheating on me with Chris?" Vicky repeated her earlier question.
"No."
"Truth." Amy confirmed.
"Then was Chris just messing with me?" Vicky asked, disgruntled.
"Probably?" I said questioningly before I recalled that streak of mischievous orange that shot through him at that moment. "Probably." I said with more confidence.
"Also true."
Vicky signed in relief before she started muttering about payback. I was going to just ignore that. It was Chris' problem now. That and he deserved it after making me deal with this mess.
"Well, now that awkward mess is over, we can confirm that I was not cheating on you and everything is copacetic." Now if only I knew what the hell copacetic meant. Stupid brain.
"That's a lie." Amy chirped with a raised eyebrow.
"What?!" Vicky whirled and stared at Amy.
"The second part, Vicky." Amy sighed. There was a flare of resigned teal in there.
"Okay, so I have a head injury." I scowled. I was suddenly very uncomfortable with this lie detector situation.
"It's healing fine." Amy stated. I raised an eyebrow at that statement. How did she know that?
"You have a head injury?" Vicky suddenly forgot all her anger and flitted around me like a worried momma bird. Again, literally.
"Yes. Remember, exploding microwave." I reminded her of my cover story.
"And it's fine. There's some minor swelling, but nothing too bad." Amy frowned. "Now are we done, here?"
"Yes." I said, eager to escape the living polygraph machine. I looked down at our joined hands before giving Amy an awkward smile. "Uh, we can stop holding hands now."
It was a little too intimate for my liking. I wasn't that touchy feely with strangers.
Though I was reminded of how nice it was to hold hands with someone. Note to self, try to hold hands with Vicky. See if it's as nice as this.
There was a flare of angry red, and embarrassed pink before Amy threw my hand away and left in a huff.
Vicky dragged me away, apologizing, only pausing to shoot a glare at the crowd to disperse them. I let myself get dragged around, since that seemed like the polite thing to do.
Well, asked and answered. Holding hands with Victoria is pretty nice.
Okay, so life threw me a few curveballs. But I seemed to have caught them fine enough. Everything is fine.
Hopefully, one of these days I'll believe that lie.
I wonder if I had any classes with Chris. Where did he go, anyways?
I stood in front of the building and just let the scene wash over me. I could hear various greetings as counselors and teachers alike greeted students and students threw their greetings back. A few of them were even sincere.
I was still adjusting to seeing that sincerity in color rather than in body language. It was a rather pleasing shade of yellow. Too bad it was so rare.
But I was getting distracted by the pretty colors again. I needed to make sure I had my new identity straight.
A quick check of my student ID reminded me of my new name. Dean Stansfield, some rich boy that had a bland personality. So me being paranoid and being extra polite to everyone got me a pass, so that was a plus.
Apparently, I was also Gallant, a member of the Wards. Which was some sort of teenaged superhero government program. Which if it was like any other government program that I've worked in, was underfunded, understaffed, and more of a babysitting program than an actual training one.
Sadly, this meant I was a teenager again, which was awkward since last I checked, I was a high school teacher. There was no question that sitting in a classroom was going to be an ordeal. Thankfully, Arcadia looked to be like a school I had zero chance teaching in, where the household income was in the six figures minimum, so maybe I could actually learn something new in class or at least, relearn something interesting.
Distressingly, I was no longer in the Midwest. Brockton Bay was firmly on the East Coast.
On one hand, it meant that I was a little closer to making that trip to New York City that I always wanted to do. On the other hand, it was another unfamiliar thing to add to the list. I missed home already.
Then there was the obvious problem. Other than the fact that I was the wrong age, I didn't need glasses anymore, and I was the wrong ethnicity. Everyone was shining in a kaleidoscope of colors.
A little bit of trial and error and some common sense had gotten me an answer. I had some sort of empathy vision. Which made sense, since I was in a government superhero program.
I messed around in my rather empty large ass home and found that I could also throw beams of light, which since they were colors too, I assumed were connected to emotions, but could just be concussive blasts. Also, if anyone asks, that poster I dug out of my new closet was always on that wall and not covering the new hole in my drywall.
"Okay, I can do this. I just need to go to school, make sure no one realizes I can't remember jack, and lie to an unknown amount of people that I have always been Dean Stansfield."
I could do this. I was ready for anything the world could throw at me.
"Dean!" Someone shouted. I will admit, I was still getting used to the name. So I was completely blindsided by the girl that tackled my right arm and wrapped around it like a clingy limpet.
"Woah." I yelped as I spun my arms to catch my balance. I caught the wall I had been leaning against so I didn't fall on my face. My first reflex was to yell at the person. Because A: that was sudden and rude, and B: I wasn't exactly someone that was comfortable with hugs on first meetings.
Whatever I was going to shout got stuck in my throat when I looked down. Wrapped around my arm was an irritated very pretty teenage girl.
The first thing that I noticed was the gorgeous blue eyes trained on me, tracking me, correctly assuming that I was ready to escape. Next was the long blond hair trailing behind her, it fell around her gracefully and framed her face perfectly, as if well prepared for movement. Then my eyes tracked down to the rest of her and my new teenage brain decided to short circuit for a moment. Yes, she was very pretty all over.
And I could see all of her prettiness in high def, since she was not at all radiating any color. All I could see was her.
"Wow, you look beautiful." Wait, shit, was that flirting? No wait, if she's clinging to me like this, we're probably close. Dating? Probably dating. Hopefully dating? She's really pretty. Wait no, focus!
"Thank you." Blonde-y chirped happily for a moment before she suddenly scowled at me. Oh great, she's angry at me and I don't even know her name. I was not ready for any of this. "Wait, don't try to distract me. I'm still angry with you."
"For what?" I asked. Did I inherit some dumb teenage drama?
"I've called you like a dozen times!" The girl poked me in the chest, hard. It actually hurt a little bit. Geez, she's strong. "I know you were discharged, so there is no excuse for not picking up."
"I'm pretty sure my phone's busted." I immediately lied. I had tried to access Dean's phone a few times before getting locked out. Pretty sure it was dead now. "There was… a thing." I finished lamely.
"Oh! Did it break in the explosion?" or this girl could completely ignore my attempts at subterfuge.
"Woah, Dean exploded?" A hyper yellow girl popped in and asked.
See, this is why I tried to be vague. I quickly came up with a lie.
"Nah. You know how you're not supposed to put aluminum foil in the microwave. Well, I wanted to see why." I smiled ruefully as I quickly threw out a ridiculous story. Just be confident and casual and no one will call you out.
"And it exploded?!" Hyper yellow said incredulously as some mischievous orange started to flare up.
"Something like that." I deflected. "I can tell you later, if you want the full story."
That would give me some time to actually come up with the full story.
"Sure!" Perky pink and gleeful yellow waved as she left. "I'll see you in history, Dean."
Damn. I was hoping that she'd slip me Blonde-y's name. Guess I'm going to have to keep talking around it for a bit.
Speaking of Blonde-y, the girl was still wrapped around my arm and she was shooting me an adorable pout. "Did your phone really explode?"
"No, no. It's just busted." If I can't access it, because I can't remember the code, that's considered broken, right? "I'm probably going to have to get a new one."
"Great, we can go shopping after school!" Blonde-y chirped happily as she started to guide me down the hall.
"Oh, yeah. Sure." I agreed, more politely than enthusiastically. I had no idea who this pretty girl was and or why I couldn't see any of the emotional colors around her, but what I could see was many shopping bags in my near future.
Now if only someone could tell me her name.
"Oh, hey Victoria." Someone said as an arm wrapped none too gently around my neck and shoulders. "Is that a cockroach on your skirt?"
The arms and two deliciously soft sensations wrapped around my arm vanished. "Geditoff! Geditoff! Geditoff!"
The now dubbed Victoria flew into the air and I mean that literally. She hovered up a few inches into the air as she shrieked and batted at her skirt in a wild panic. Wait, weren't we supposed to keep our powers a secret?
I tried to grab Victoria and pull her back down, but I was rather violently tugged away as the arm around my neck and shoulders tightened and dragged me away from my girlfriend (?).
"Okay cool, I see you have that in hand! I'm borrowing Dean for a moment!" Someone rapidly called back to the floating girl as they pulled me through a door, which closed and locked behind us.
He pushed me roughly forward and I stumbled before catching my balance. I whirled around and raised my arms up in a rough fighting stance.
In front of me was a boy. Though it took me a few seconds of focusing to actually parse his features through all the colors.
He was pretty skinny, though he was doing his best to throw what little body size he had in an aggressive pose. I could see a rather delicate nose and angular jaw all scrunched up in a scowl, his face unsuited for such an aggressive expression. I couldn't really make out his eye or hair color. It's been all of two seconds since I saw hair and eye color clearly and I was missing it already.
The angry redhead rudely pointed a finger at me. "Alright asshole, I'm only gonna ask this once. Do the letters 'MCU' mean anything to you?"
Did I just get assaulted so someone could talk movie trivia?
"Marvel?" I said slowly as I raised an eyebrow at the overly aggressive non sequitur.
The boy stalked forward in triumph and unsuccessfully attempted to loom over me. "Yes! Marvel! The company that is literally dead and gone in this world and has been for almost thirty years! That one!"
My mind quickly started to make connections. I was in a new world, there was the possibility that history and culture could be different. I had assumed things were the same. I apparently was wrong about that.
That's troubling. Note to self, actually read history textbook.
"Wait, did the comic industry die here?" I attempted to deflect for more time.
"Not important, asshole!" The kid growled, not giving me any time. He grabbed the collar of my shirt and tried to push me against the wall. "The important bit is you are not from here! Like I am not from here! And I have been trying to tell you this literally for days! But your dumbass don't know how to answer the fuckin' phone!"
Oh.
Oh!
This kid has answers!
He stood there, almost hyperventilating, his face white as a sheet. I could see angry red flicker around him, the other colors tried to suppress it, but the red would flare back aggressively and stronger than before.
"Yeah. Okay, I get you. We'll talk about this." I said calmly as I reached a hand up to try to untangle his grip on my collar. Okay, that wasn't happening. He had a vice grip. "But first thing is first."
Let's calm him down. I debated on soothing words, but I'll be honest, I didn't exactly have the patience for that. Thankfully, I had the perfect shortcut.
I let my hand slide down to the boy's chest and focused for a brief moment. The room flared a calm blue for an instant, in the actual visual spectrum and not just my own vision, as I fired a concentrated burst of calm into the kid's body.
The kid stumbled backwards winded since I forgot that my power also had kinetic force. I also forgot about his grip on my collar, so I followed him forward and just barely kept from falling and taking us both down.
His face regained a healthy color, bands of calm blue firmly suppressing the still flaring red. He blinked a couple of times. "You know, if I wasn't suddenly so serene, I would probably punch you for that. Pretty sure that counts as an attack…though now that I can actually think clearly I cannot fault you for that. I was being unreasonable." He finally let go of my collar and took a deep breath. "Sorry about that…and thanks, it's…it's been a couple days."
He regained his bearings as I got my own thoughts straight.
If I recall correctly, Gallant and Kid Win were both caught in the explosion from Uber and Leet. I guess that would make the boy in front of me Kid Win A.K.A. Chris… something, shit. I can't remember his last name. That would make the explosion the likely catalyst for our new bodies.
"Okay, so you're also not from here. Good to know." I acknowledged. It was rather nice to have a companion in this mind-bendingly weird situation. "Did you want anything else other than, like, confronting me, because this is kind of weird."
I gestured to the dark and empty classroom that we were standing in. I tried to ignore Victoria banging on the door. I would let Future Dean deal with that.
Chris shook his head. "Before that, do you have your phone on you? Or a phone on you?"
"Look, it's busted." I said crossly, having to go over this again. "I'm going to buy a new one. Pretty sure Victoria is going to take me shopping or something."
Chris nodded and began to pace back and forth. "Okay good, it'd be bad if this was recorded. I wanted to touch base about making a plan to, you know, stop the omnicidal space whale from killing all Earths. Yeah, bug-girl might be able to manage it, but the margin of victory was a little thin for my liking."
I blinked at that morbid and outlandish statement. Despite it sounding completely ridiculous and rather concerning, I was in another world, so I couldn't exactly throw anything out the window.
Note to self. Omnicidal Space Whales are a thing.
Response to self. What the hell?
"That… sounds like something we should eventually talk about, yes." I agreed, not wanting to sound like I had no idea what Chris was talking about.
He nodded again, "Yeah, that's why I was trying to call you all weekend." A tendril of frustrated red slipped its bonds, and with a severe struggle, it was once more suppressed. "I wanted to make sure you were…like me. For now, we should get to class, waste time, do stupid teenager shit so we don't lose time by being put in M/S."
Chris stopped pacing and I could see his colors start to even out now that he had a plan in mind. Well, it sounded like Chris knew what he was doing, which was good. Since my only plan of action was to basically play a teenage superhero until I could graduate into an adult superhero. I appreciate someone else here that has an idea of what we should do.
"Right. Now if we're done here," I gestured to the door that was rattling violently and the screaming girl I could see in the small window on the door. "I think Victoria is kind of angry."
Chris scowled at the door. "Oh right, don't tell your girlfriend about this. She's smart but I'm not sure she can keep a secret. She's an open cape, you aren't."
Oh, so she is my girlfriend. That sends my heartrate up and I'm not quite sure if that's panic or appreciation or some horrible mix of both.
He tilted his head. "You should probably break up with her."
"Is that smart?" On one hand, Chris was probably right. Not to mention the weird ethical dilemma. On the other hand, I am sixteen again, and she is very pretty. "Seems like a suspicious move to make right after a brain injury."
"Nah, you break up and get back together all the time." Chris shook his head and made for the door and a mischievous orange whipped around his body with glee. "Later. For now just come up with some stupid cover story. Tell her something about how we were making out."
He said that closing bit just as he opened the door.
Victoria froze in the doorway, mouth open as she stared at Chris in what I assumed to be disbelief.
Man, two days with the colors and my ability to read facial expressions was already kind of spotty. Maybe I could spend time with Victoria to get some practice in.
"Uh…" I had a cover story ready. Just something vague about the explosion. Victoria obviously knew about it and had powers too. It would have been a little rocky, but I was confident that I could have pulled it off.
But honestly, Chris' closing line had caused me to choke on my own spit and those few seconds of mortification cost me dearly.
Victoria's face contorted in anger and at the same moment that Chris' aura was shot through by a fearful neon yellow, the bands of calm around the very angry red shattered and it surged up, consuming the fear as fuel.
He stepped into her personal space and all but spat at her face. "If you don't turn down that fear-me field, I'mma punch you in the fuckin' mouth."
Note to self, Chris has anger issues. May need to calm him down again on next meeting.
Chris then slid past her as she stared at him, her eyes open wide and her face contorted in a mixture of confusion and anger. She stared at his retreating back, took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and slowly let it out as she unclenched her fists.
Danger Will Robinson. Danger. Your girlfriend is angry at you. Damage control. Quickly.
"Sssooo," I began. "I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that his weekend was a lot worse than mine."
It was probably true in a way. Dean Stansfield's family was pretty loaded. So I had come home to a nice house, nice food, and rather distant parents that had checked up on me twice over the entire weekend. It was a rather lonely experience, since I expected parents to care a little more that their son exploded, but apparently it wasn't that big of a deal. On the plus side, I didn't need to lie to their faces that I couldn't really remember them, so silver linings.
Victoria turned her glare to me. "Are you cheating on me with Chris!?"
What?
"What?" I almost choked on my own words.
"He said you were making out in there!" Victoria all but shrieked.
"You could see us the entire time through the window." I pointed at the window on the door.
"Yes and the two of you got real close in there!"
"Because he was having a panic attack and I was calming him down!"
"By making out?!"
"No!" My voice cracked from the sheer indignation I felt. God, I could feel the blood rushing to my face.
"You're blushing!" She pointed at my face as she accused me.
"I'm embarrassed!" I defended myself and pointed out the hallway where a crowd of teenagers had gathered to gawk. "What the hell?!"
"Vicky, you're making a scene," said a thoroughly unimpressed voice. The voice belonged to the most depressingly blue person I've ever seen. She was a mousy girl with fizzy hair and freckles.
Dear lord, someone help this girl.
Seeing that much depression and apathy was an unpleasant shock of cold water in my system. I took a moment to calm my breathing and looked at Victoria who was still building up a head of steam.
"Look, Chris wanted to talk about something. He was kind of panicking and I calmed him down." I explained myself, like a reasonable person. "Nothing happened."
Victoria stared at me, face flushed with misplaced anger and frustration. She reached out and snatched my hand. Dear lord, she's strong. She tugged it and held out my hand towards the depressed mouse-y girl. "Amy. Check him."
"Check what?" Amy sighed. There was a resigned blue mixing with a subtle eager to please pink flickering about.
"If he's lying." Victoria demanded.
"Vicky, you can't be serious."
I let out my own sigh before trying to tug my arm free. I failed and stopped after Victoria shot me a rather venomous look. Instead, I offered my other hand to Amy.
"It's fine." I said and smiled ruefully, "If we don't get it out of her system, she'll be fuming all day."
"This is a grievous misuse of Powers." Amy sighed again. "Do I have your permission to touch you?"
That was a rather odd question. Still, she was apparently going to use some sort of lie detecting power on me, so I guess it was rather polite. How refreshing from a teenager. Now if only she didn't look so depressingly blue about it.
"Sure, I trust you." I smiled. I wasn't actually sure that I could trust her, but I doubted she'd do something crazy in front of her sister and a bunch of witnesses.
Amy seemed to react badly to those words. There was a flare of angry and indignant red before it was crushed by the blue that actually seemed to lash back at her.
"Amy?" I asked worried about what I saw.
Rather than answer me, Amy just snatched my hand out of Vicky's grip and glared at both Vicky and me.
"Were you cheating on me with Chris?" Vicky repeated her earlier question.
"No."
"Truth." Amy confirmed.
"Then was Chris just messing with me?" Vicky asked, disgruntled.
"Probably?" I said questioningly before I recalled that streak of mischievous orange that shot through him at that moment. "Probably." I said with more confidence.
"Also true."
Vicky signed in relief before she started muttering about payback. I was going to just ignore that. It was Chris' problem now. That and he deserved it after making me deal with this mess.
"Well, now that awkward mess is over, we can confirm that I was not cheating on you and everything is copacetic." Now if only I knew what the hell copacetic meant. Stupid brain.
"That's a lie." Amy chirped with a raised eyebrow.
"What?!" Vicky whirled and stared at Amy.
"The second part, Vicky." Amy sighed. There was a flare of resigned teal in there.
"Okay, so I have a head injury." I scowled. I was suddenly very uncomfortable with this lie detector situation.
"It's healing fine." Amy stated. I raised an eyebrow at that statement. How did she know that?
"You have a head injury?" Vicky suddenly forgot all her anger and flitted around me like a worried momma bird. Again, literally.
"Yes. Remember, exploding microwave." I reminded her of my cover story.
"And it's fine. There's some minor swelling, but nothing too bad." Amy frowned. "Now are we done, here?"
"Yes." I said, eager to escape the living polygraph machine. I looked down at our joined hands before giving Amy an awkward smile. "Uh, we can stop holding hands now."
It was a little too intimate for my liking. I wasn't that touchy feely with strangers.
Though I was reminded of how nice it was to hold hands with someone. Note to self, try to hold hands with Vicky. See if it's as nice as this.
There was a flare of angry red, and embarrassed pink before Amy threw my hand away and left in a huff.
Vicky dragged me away, apologizing, only pausing to shoot a glare at the crowd to disperse them. I let myself get dragged around, since that seemed like the polite thing to do.
Well, asked and answered. Holding hands with Victoria is pretty nice.
Okay, so life threw me a few curveballs. But I seemed to have caught them fine enough. Everything is fine.
Hopefully, one of these days I'll believe that lie.
I wonder if I had any classes with Chris. Where did he go, anyways?
KingGremory
Getting out there.
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2023
- Messages
- 15
- Likes received
- 57
Intriguing! I've not read a Kid Win SI or Gallant SI before, so having both will be quite the experience! I also like the contrasting personalities, with Kid Win having the mother of all hair trigger tempers, while Gallant is more go with the flow. It's also a cool idea to have one SI not seem to be as familiar with Worm. Between the two of them, I think Gallant is in more danger of being exposed. Kid Win may now make Shadow Stalker look centered, but that can be easily explained by the trauma of the explosion. Gallant has Vicky attached to his side, and as pleasant as that may be, she does know him pretty well. It's gonna be harder to snow her. Oh, and as we see here, she is extremely willing to have Amy play lie detector, which nearly outed him immediately. I see where Kid Win was coming from about breaking it off with Vicky.
Anyway, looks like a fun ride! Looking forward to more, guys!
Anyway, looks like a fun ride! Looking forward to more, guys!
Santo
I want to enter your Temple
- Joined
- May 23, 2020
- Messages
- 731
- Likes received
- 25,791
Glad you're liking it! Man have we got stuff in store for you!
And...I can't possibly make Sophia look sane! That's not true, that's impossible!
KingGremory
Getting out there.
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2023
- Messages
- 15
- Likes received
- 57
Search your feelings, you know it to be true!
...Nah, I'm just messing with ya. Looking forward to more!
Intrusion I.II
Santo
I want to enter your Temple
- Joined
- May 23, 2020
- Messages
- 731
- Likes received
- 25,791
And here is the next chapter! Hope you lot like. Let us know how we doing.
Would normally post this on the weekend. But I won't get a chance tomorrow and I'll be going out of town for the weekend and won't have access to my PC. So I'm posting this today.
Thank you for reading, and again, let us know how we doing! 8D
Intrusion I.II
Back when I'd been an adult and the world was still on the decline part of turning into a corporate nihilistic hellhole, I had promised myself I'd never go back to school. Mainly cause I hated it.
Well, I hated high school, felt like a big waste of my time. Didn't really feel like I learned anything useful until college. Probably objectively incorrect, but that's what it had felt like.
So, having been given the chance to re-experience the 'golden years,' something dreamt by a surprising number of people that I had known of. I did the only logical thing.
I skipped and went to gather evidence of harassment to throw a coworker firmly under the bus.
It's fine though, she's a bitch.
"And that's irrefutable proof of no less than seven separate instances of harassment, in one day." I said, working hard to keep my calm as the tub of rotten lard on the other side of the table glowered at me. "And I very specifically call it harassment, because there were multiple instances of physical assault, and at least two that could have resulted in a serious injury. I took the liberty of going through the school's records."
"What?!"
I raised my voice and talked over her. "And saw a history of complaints two years old, said complaints stopped after six months with no action being taken, or with punishment of the victim. This means that the principal of that school has given Sophia much freer reign than she was supposed to have, purely to keep the money from housing a failure of a Ward."
"Kid-Win," Piggot the Biggot growled as she ground her teeth. "We are not here to discuss Sophia."
"Yes, we are. I specifically said I needed to talk to you about another Ward and her frankly worrisome actions that I investigated." I interrupted, but she used my own cunning plan against me, and spoke over me.
"We are here so you can explain to me why Arcadia had to inform me that you skipped school, apparently, to break into a public institution and spy on a coworker." She growled.
I blinked, took a deep breath to center myself, and attempted to reign in my temper. "Well, if there is any justice to the world, you know, any of that protecting and serving I am supposed to do as an arm of law-enforcement. That little-" I cut myself off with a cough. "Sophia won't be my coworker for much longer, what with clear and irrefutable examples of harassment of a civilian, and signs of abusing her position for a long-running campaign of harassment."
"Kid-Win," Piggot began.
"I am here as Chris, putting forward something which has made me greatly concerned." I pressed.
"Kid-Win." Piggot reiterated. "You are now on punishment detail."
I felt my eye twitch, and tuned the fat bitch out while she babbled on about extra PR work or something about Console Duty or some other stupid shit. I let her peter out before leaning forward. "So is something going to be done about Sophia?"
"Add another three days to that punishment detail." She ground out.
"That's a no then." I said and stood up with a huff.
"Sit. Down."
I stared into her eyes, and rolled my eyes in the most teenage way I could muster as I sat down. Which was surprisingly teenage-ish, must be some muscle-memory from the kid I killed to be here.
"Make that two weeks." She growled, then launched into another diatribe about duty and other bullshit. The only important bit in the whole thing was that she finished with. "And we're rescheduling that console duty to now."
I (barely) resisted the urge to give her lip as I left the Director's office. I hawked and spat a blob of phlegm at the nearest trash can as I walked to the Wards room. It had taken me a while to find it the first time, but the building's layout was fairly intuitive, all things considered.
I changed into Kid-Win's ridiculous outfit (Seriously, what kind of name is Kid-Win? The PR guy who okayed it should be fired), and sat at the console. I then pulled out the manual and read through it.
Thankfully the other Wards were either busy, or out. Point was, they weren't here. Which was the only bit that mattered.
Gallant called in from time to time. He was going on a patrol with Clockblocker and Aegis. I was supposed to be on that patrol, but my impromptu meeting with Piggy the Biggy and subsequent benching had taken that away from me.
Good fucking riddance, everything on the radio was; Blah blah, autographs. Blah blah, PR shit. Blah blah, more autographs. Blah blah, tree-wait.
"Repeat, did you say that Gallant just got a kitten down from a tree?" I demanded into the microphone.
[Yes?] Gallant's voice returned uncertainly.
"Congratulations, you just won the 'Hero Stereotype Bingo'."
Great, at least my other universally misplaced companion was taking his cover story seriously. That was one of us at least. I probably should have tried a bit harder, but trying to get Sophia thrown into kiddie jail was frankly a much better use of my time.
[Don't clog the airwaves with chit-chat.] The liquidus punching bag immediately chastised me before I could tell Gallant what he'd won.
[Oh come on, bossman!] Clockblocker groused. [We never actually enforce that.]
[Hush you.]
"Yeah Cockblocker, stand up for the little guy!"
[Language!] Aegis' outraged voice was barely audible over Clockblocker's cackling laughter.
I smirked; hook, line, and sinker. "What? I said 'Clockblocker', what did you think you heard?"
[Uhh…]
Clockblocker's hyena laugh pulled Aegis from the PR friendly loop his brain had gotten stuck in.
Unfortunately, Aegis got extra party-pooper-ish after that little stunt. So the rest of the night was incredibly boring. Eventually, my extra long console duty ended as the three stooges got back to base.
Now I could do useful things. Like Tinkering. I was gonna need all the gadgets.
I stood up, popped my back, turned and almost ran face first into a livid black girl.
"What the fuck did you do you fucking nerd?!" She shoutspered, I felt the warm pinpricks of her spittle hitting my face.
Gross.
Sophia then launched into a diatribe I didn't bother keeping a track of beyond the word 'snitch' and some surprisingly creative racial slurs. At least until she said something about my useless Tinkering and a reflexive surge of anger had me twist my hips as I drove my fist into her chin, spraying spittle on the console.
No one insults the gadgets.
Sophia took a stumbling step back and fell on the ground, her brain rattled.
"Yeah, fuck you." I said as I threw a kick at her stomach. She turned into smoke and my foot went through her. It didn't feel like anything, but grossed me out all the same.
The smoke drifted away, rising from the ground and coalescing into Sophia, her eyes livid as she wiped spittle from her chin. "So what, that explosion made your balls drop or something?"
I fished a pair of batteries out of my handy belt pouches, and clutched them tightly in my fists, and spat back. "This coming from the coward whose only power is running away."
Her eyes flashed in anger and she threw herself into a side kick aimed at my stomach. I planted my feet and tightened my stomach to take the hit so I could get a free shot at her knee, but the unexpected power behind the strike sent me stumbling back.
No…the kick wasn't all that powerful. It just hit me harder than it should have. I shook my head and pushed forward to meet her charge, trading jabs and punches. Once I had an opening I planted myself and threw a right straight with all of my weight behind it, Sophia blocked it and took a stumbling step back.
I had expected her to go a lot farther, so I was left open for her reprisal, her punch had me stumbling back and left my ears ringing. She drove forward with another kick, so I pushed forward into a tackle, her kick stopped my momentum cold, so I wrapped my hands around her leg and threw myself backwards to the floor. She tried to phase through it, but I'd managed to keep hold of one of the batteries, the shock it sent up her leg canceled her smoke form and sent her flopping to the ground on top of me.
I took advantage of her spasming to transition into a mount, but made the mistake of driving the fist without the battery down. She turned into smoke and my fist hit the floor so hard that if I hadn't been wearing an armored glove, I likely would have broken it. In the time it took me to drive down my other fist, she'd already made enough distance in her smoky form to escape the mount.
She became solid again, breathing hard, she spat a wad of blood to the side, I must have split her lip at some point without noticing.
We both surged forward with a roar, I caught a glimpse of an american flag, then the ceiling became the floor, and the floor the ceiling, then back again, then I smacked into the ground and lost all the breath in my lungs.
"What the hell is going on here?!" demanded a dangerous contralto. I ignored it, surged to my feet and rushed back at Sophia. I was gratified to see that she was doing the exact same. We both ignored more demands for us to stop as she threw a fist at my nose that I countered by meeting it with my forehead as I threw a right hook to her left eye. She phased through my spinning backfist but was forced to abort her kick when I drove the fist with the battery down to meet it.
And then there was the sound of a fire extinguisher going off, except instead of smoke and powder, I got encased up to my waist in viscous foam, which quickly hardened to the point that I couldn't move. A quick glance showed that Sophia had been foamed as well, except she grinned, smoked out of her foam cocoon, and went for a big, showy, spinning roundhouse kick.
That is, until someone shot her in the back with a taser, she seized up and fell face first to the floor, where she spasmed ineffectually.
Being forced to take a moment to calm down and stop listening to my blood singing in my ears, I took a look around. I saw an attractive woman of middle-eastern descent glaring at me with intense brown eyes, she had an american flag scarf pulled down over her neck and her brown hair was disheveled.
I stared into Miss Militia's furious eyes and said the first thing that came to mind.
"I'm not apologizing." Judging by the way that her glare intensified, this was entirely the wrong thing to say. Well…in for a penny. "She deserved that and worse, and we both know it."
Judging by the fact that I ended up in an interrogation room, that was definitely the wrong thing to say.
Would normally post this on the weekend. But I won't get a chance tomorrow and I'll be going out of town for the weekend and won't have access to my PC. So I'm posting this today.
Thank you for reading, and again, let us know how we doing! 8D
Intrusion I.II
Back when I'd been an adult and the world was still on the decline part of turning into a corporate nihilistic hellhole, I had promised myself I'd never go back to school. Mainly cause I hated it.
Well, I hated high school, felt like a big waste of my time. Didn't really feel like I learned anything useful until college. Probably objectively incorrect, but that's what it had felt like.
So, having been given the chance to re-experience the 'golden years,' something dreamt by a surprising number of people that I had known of. I did the only logical thing.
I skipped and went to gather evidence of harassment to throw a coworker firmly under the bus.
It's fine though, she's a bitch.
"And that's irrefutable proof of no less than seven separate instances of harassment, in one day." I said, working hard to keep my calm as the tub of rotten lard on the other side of the table glowered at me. "And I very specifically call it harassment, because there were multiple instances of physical assault, and at least two that could have resulted in a serious injury. I took the liberty of going through the school's records."
"What?!"
I raised my voice and talked over her. "And saw a history of complaints two years old, said complaints stopped after six months with no action being taken, or with punishment of the victim. This means that the principal of that school has given Sophia much freer reign than she was supposed to have, purely to keep the money from housing a failure of a Ward."
"Kid-Win," Piggot the Biggot growled as she ground her teeth. "We are not here to discuss Sophia."
"Yes, we are. I specifically said I needed to talk to you about another Ward and her frankly worrisome actions that I investigated." I interrupted, but she used my own cunning plan against me, and spoke over me.
"We are here so you can explain to me why Arcadia had to inform me that you skipped school, apparently, to break into a public institution and spy on a coworker." She growled.
I blinked, took a deep breath to center myself, and attempted to reign in my temper. "Well, if there is any justice to the world, you know, any of that protecting and serving I am supposed to do as an arm of law-enforcement. That little-" I cut myself off with a cough. "Sophia won't be my coworker for much longer, what with clear and irrefutable examples of harassment of a civilian, and signs of abusing her position for a long-running campaign of harassment."
"Kid-Win," Piggot began.
"I am here as Chris, putting forward something which has made me greatly concerned." I pressed.
"Kid-Win." Piggot reiterated. "You are now on punishment detail."
I felt my eye twitch, and tuned the fat bitch out while she babbled on about extra PR work or something about Console Duty or some other stupid shit. I let her peter out before leaning forward. "So is something going to be done about Sophia?"
"Add another three days to that punishment detail." She ground out.
"That's a no then." I said and stood up with a huff.
"Sit. Down."
I stared into her eyes, and rolled my eyes in the most teenage way I could muster as I sat down. Which was surprisingly teenage-ish, must be some muscle-memory from the kid I killed to be here.
"Make that two weeks." She growled, then launched into another diatribe about duty and other bullshit. The only important bit in the whole thing was that she finished with. "And we're rescheduling that console duty to now."
I (barely) resisted the urge to give her lip as I left the Director's office. I hawked and spat a blob of phlegm at the nearest trash can as I walked to the Wards room. It had taken me a while to find it the first time, but the building's layout was fairly intuitive, all things considered.
I changed into Kid-Win's ridiculous outfit (Seriously, what kind of name is Kid-Win? The PR guy who okayed it should be fired), and sat at the console. I then pulled out the manual and read through it.
Thankfully the other Wards were either busy, or out. Point was, they weren't here. Which was the only bit that mattered.
Gallant called in from time to time. He was going on a patrol with Clockblocker and Aegis. I was supposed to be on that patrol, but my impromptu meeting with Piggy the Biggy and subsequent benching had taken that away from me.
Good fucking riddance, everything on the radio was; Blah blah, autographs. Blah blah, PR shit. Blah blah, more autographs. Blah blah, tree-wait.
"Repeat, did you say that Gallant just got a kitten down from a tree?" I demanded into the microphone.
[Yes?] Gallant's voice returned uncertainly.
"Congratulations, you just won the 'Hero Stereotype Bingo'."
Great, at least my other universally misplaced companion was taking his cover story seriously. That was one of us at least. I probably should have tried a bit harder, but trying to get Sophia thrown into kiddie jail was frankly a much better use of my time.
[Don't clog the airwaves with chit-chat.] The liquidus punching bag immediately chastised me before I could tell Gallant what he'd won.
[Oh come on, bossman!] Clockblocker groused. [We never actually enforce that.]
[Hush you.]
"Yeah Cockblocker, stand up for the little guy!"
[Language!] Aegis' outraged voice was barely audible over Clockblocker's cackling laughter.
I smirked; hook, line, and sinker. "What? I said 'Clockblocker', what did you think you heard?"
[Uhh…]
Clockblocker's hyena laugh pulled Aegis from the PR friendly loop his brain had gotten stuck in.
Unfortunately, Aegis got extra party-pooper-ish after that little stunt. So the rest of the night was incredibly boring. Eventually, my extra long console duty ended as the three stooges got back to base.
Now I could do useful things. Like Tinkering. I was gonna need all the gadgets.
I stood up, popped my back, turned and almost ran face first into a livid black girl.
"What the fuck did you do you fucking nerd?!" She shoutspered, I felt the warm pinpricks of her spittle hitting my face.
Gross.
Sophia then launched into a diatribe I didn't bother keeping a track of beyond the word 'snitch' and some surprisingly creative racial slurs. At least until she said something about my useless Tinkering and a reflexive surge of anger had me twist my hips as I drove my fist into her chin, spraying spittle on the console.
No one insults the gadgets.
Sophia took a stumbling step back and fell on the ground, her brain rattled.
"Yeah, fuck you." I said as I threw a kick at her stomach. She turned into smoke and my foot went through her. It didn't feel like anything, but grossed me out all the same.
The smoke drifted away, rising from the ground and coalescing into Sophia, her eyes livid as she wiped spittle from her chin. "So what, that explosion made your balls drop or something?"
I fished a pair of batteries out of my handy belt pouches, and clutched them tightly in my fists, and spat back. "This coming from the coward whose only power is running away."
Her eyes flashed in anger and she threw herself into a side kick aimed at my stomach. I planted my feet and tightened my stomach to take the hit so I could get a free shot at her knee, but the unexpected power behind the strike sent me stumbling back.
No…the kick wasn't all that powerful. It just hit me harder than it should have. I shook my head and pushed forward to meet her charge, trading jabs and punches. Once I had an opening I planted myself and threw a right straight with all of my weight behind it, Sophia blocked it and took a stumbling step back.
I had expected her to go a lot farther, so I was left open for her reprisal, her punch had me stumbling back and left my ears ringing. She drove forward with another kick, so I pushed forward into a tackle, her kick stopped my momentum cold, so I wrapped my hands around her leg and threw myself backwards to the floor. She tried to phase through it, but I'd managed to keep hold of one of the batteries, the shock it sent up her leg canceled her smoke form and sent her flopping to the ground on top of me.
I took advantage of her spasming to transition into a mount, but made the mistake of driving the fist without the battery down. She turned into smoke and my fist hit the floor so hard that if I hadn't been wearing an armored glove, I likely would have broken it. In the time it took me to drive down my other fist, she'd already made enough distance in her smoky form to escape the mount.
She became solid again, breathing hard, she spat a wad of blood to the side, I must have split her lip at some point without noticing.
We both surged forward with a roar, I caught a glimpse of an american flag, then the ceiling became the floor, and the floor the ceiling, then back again, then I smacked into the ground and lost all the breath in my lungs.
"What the hell is going on here?!" demanded a dangerous contralto. I ignored it, surged to my feet and rushed back at Sophia. I was gratified to see that she was doing the exact same. We both ignored more demands for us to stop as she threw a fist at my nose that I countered by meeting it with my forehead as I threw a right hook to her left eye. She phased through my spinning backfist but was forced to abort her kick when I drove the fist with the battery down to meet it.
And then there was the sound of a fire extinguisher going off, except instead of smoke and powder, I got encased up to my waist in viscous foam, which quickly hardened to the point that I couldn't move. A quick glance showed that Sophia had been foamed as well, except she grinned, smoked out of her foam cocoon, and went for a big, showy, spinning roundhouse kick.
That is, until someone shot her in the back with a taser, she seized up and fell face first to the floor, where she spasmed ineffectually.
Being forced to take a moment to calm down and stop listening to my blood singing in my ears, I took a look around. I saw an attractive woman of middle-eastern descent glaring at me with intense brown eyes, she had an american flag scarf pulled down over her neck and her brown hair was disheveled.
I stared into Miss Militia's furious eyes and said the first thing that came to mind.
"I'm not apologizing." Judging by the way that her glare intensified, this was entirely the wrong thing to say. Well…in for a penny. "She deserved that and worse, and we both know it."
Judging by the fact that I ended up in an interrogation room, that was definitely the wrong thing to say.
KingGremory
Getting out there.
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Very nicely done! Love that the first thing Kid Win did was try to get Sophia implicated! I'm also really enjoying his rebellious, Chaotic Good type attitude here, with his blatant disrespect for authority so long as they refuse to do their jobs. At this rate, I could almost see him leaving the Wards, if that wouldn't be very dangerous to do... Tinkers need a team, after all. I'm glad Piggot actually did do something about Sophia, I was worried she was just going to brush it under the rug again at first. But that was just because she was seething over the SI's basically showing her she was doing a bad job by doing her job for her, and throwing it in her face. Anyway, that fight scene was very well written too. It can be hard to write a good one, but you did a great job keeping it fluid, dynamic, and engaging. All in all, very well done! Have fun on your trip outta town!
TheCenterAct
Omnivorous Consumer of Literature
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BAHAHAHAHA!!! The M-S protocols are gonna so screw him up, and I'm all here for it!
Heroslayer
Making the rounds.
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Very nicely done! Love that the first thing Kid Win did was try to get Sophia implicated! I'm also really enjoying his rebellious, Chaotic Good type attitude here, with his blatant disrespect for authority so long as they refuse to do their jobs. At this rate, I could almost see him leaving the Wards, if that wouldn't be very dangerous to do... Tinkers need a team, after all. I'm glad Piggot actually did do something about Sophia, I was worried she was just going to brush it under the rug again at first. But that was just because she was seething over the SI's basically showing her she was doing a bad job by doing her job for her, and throwing it in her face. Anyway, that fight scene was very well written too. It can be hard to write a good one, but you did a great job keeping it fluid, dynamic, and engaging. All in all, very well done! Have fun on your trip outta town!
Kid Win is going to be be the symbol of chaotic energy for the foreseeable future. Great for initiative. Not so great for... everything else. This will have consequences, some very noticeable, some not so noticeable.
And yes, you will get to see a bit of Kid Win in M/S. Look forward to that.
Arc 1 Intermission - Miss Militia
Santo
I want to enter your Temple
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Back from the trip out of town. Have chapter.
Loved the comments! I will have to think about how to integrate Power Boots into the fic somehow.
Here is the next chapter. Let us know what y'all think.
Intermission - Miss Militia
"Now explain it to me one more time, why one of our Wards, who just came out of the hospital, is screaming profanities in a Master/Stranger Cell." Director Piggot asked as she rubbed her temples with her hands, a vein pulsing visibly and grotesquely on her brow. She glared at the two Capes from the other side of the desk.
Miss Militia furrowed her brow in thought as she considered how to answer the Director's demand. "Kid Win's prior behavior was a warning sign, but his blatant targeting of Shadow Stalker, and the fact that he not only opened hostilities, but continued them after a direct order to stop were the final straw. Adding to that, his…recalcitrance during the questioning, has led us to believe he may have been compromised by Uber and Leet for…a more nuanced attack than we've seen from them so far."
"Or more likely, there were complications from Leet's poorly constructed Tinker Tech that may have altered Kid Win's personality." Armsmaster cut in.
Miss Militia looked to her colleague and leader. It was no secret that Armsmaster had little respect for Leet's capabilities as a Tinker. The villain's rather infamous reputation was well earned after all. Still, she had to make sure that the possibility was considered.
"I'm guessing Kid Win was continuing his recent bout of insubordination." Director Piggot stated coolly. "What about the fight?"
"I have video," Armsmaster said, an instant later, before Miss Militia had a chance to intervene. The television screen on the wall of the meeting room turned on, revealing the image of Kid Win landing a brutal hook to Sophia's chin. "I took the liberty of going over his fight with Shadow Stalker, and noticed a number of discrepancies."
Miss Militia could not help but be impressed by how quickly Armsmaster had prepared for the meeting, the video showed side by side comparisons of Kid Win's prior spars with video capture of the fight. He explained differences in stance, differences in strategy, and even differences in body language and aggression.
The Kid Win on the older footage was not fearful, but he was skittish about taking a hit. He relied heavily on evasion and several times he hesitated when offered an opening to retaliate. It was something that they had been trying to train out of him.
The Kid Win of the recent video was almost the polar opposite, his every movement was aggressive. He did not block so much as attack the incoming limb, more than once he took a hit to create an opening for retaliation, but underestimated Shadow Stalker's strength, forcing him to retreat. His fighting was more awkward than the Kid Win of old, but it seemed to be a more complete style, if untested and too aggressive for someone of his size.
The video moved on to the interrogation room, showing the utterly unrepentant and angry teenager sitting opposite Armsmaster and Miss Militia. Kid Win began the session respectful if curt, but that degenerated quickly over a period of an hour, resulting in…
"But you have not answered the question." Armsmaster said in the video. "Why did you 'feel' it fell to you to 'expose' Shadow Stalker?"
"Well gee willikers Beardmaster," said Kid Win in an exceedingly saccharine tone. His lips twisted into a rictus snarl that was entirely alien to the normally affable and quiet boy, "maybe if Tiny-Titty Gun-Girl here could find two of her brain cells to rub together, I might not have needed to do your job for her!" He stood suddenly and slammed his hands on the table. "Or hell, when's the last time you did your job as the guy that teaches the Wards!? Or even better, remember the last time you mentored me in Tinkering!? ME NEITHER!"
The video stopped there, thankfully, skipping the part where Kid Win attempted to leave the room, then kicked the door down when it remained closed, resulting in him getting covered in containment foam again.
Director Piggot sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "I am forced to agree with Armsmaster's assessment. I doubt that even Leet would have been this inept at an attempt to compromise the Wards. Get a Thinker on it, see if we can get a timetable for when he'll be back to normal."
"And what about Gallant?" Miss Militia brought up the other victim of Leet's incompetence.
"What about Gallant?" Piggot asked, lifting an eyebrow. "Has he shown any signs of altered behavior?"
"No." Armsmaster stated. "Gallant's behavior matches prior behavior to the accident. He shows the appropriate amount of respect for authorities and continues to complete his tasks with relative seriousness. The only note is a slight increase in his occasional bouts of inattention. However, that is more than likely due to the head injury. His armor most likely diffused the Tinker Tech effect."
"We cannot be certain of that." Miss Militia insisted. She did not like it, but it was important that they covered every avenue. The last thing they needed was the Wards being exposed to a potential sleeper agent. "Permission to put Gallant on Master/Stranger observation."
"Granted, but only for tomorrow." The Director said after a moment of deliberation. "Have Triumph run a training session with the Wards and observe Gallant for any odd behavior. If nothing comes up, we'll leave it as is."
"Yes ma'am." Miss Militia knew that was as much as she was going to get.
"I have sent the request for a session with a Protectorate Approved Thinker." Arsmaster said, and Miss Militia could tell that he was starting to get irritated, most likely impatient to get back to his workshop. "Is there anything else?"
"No." Piggot picked up some of the papers off the desk. "Dismissed."
"There are clear signs of altered behavior." Scrivener said with a sigh. "None of his answers seemed to match with the baseline on file. That said, his…" a vein visibly pulsed on Scrivener's forehead, "newfound insubordination seems to be aimed specifically at authority figures, so I have no honest way to know if he genuinely wouldn't have been able to answer the questions correctly, since he was clearly doing his best to make my job as difficult as possible."
Scrivener coughed into his hand and visibly regained his composure.
"However, there is a consistency to his behavior that can't be explained by a Master effect. There most likely would have been clear signs of deterioration if that were the reason for his altered behavior." Scrivener pulled up a copy of Kid Win's CT scans. "The most likely rationale is that his change in behavior is due to a mix of trauma, brain damage, and yes, some unknown effect from Leet's Tinker Tech. Sadly, due to Leet's Tinker Tech's high rate of explosive failure, we can't even examine it to be sure."
"So we can rule out a Master then?" Miss Militia asked.
"I'd like him to be under observation for a little longer, but all signs point to yes." Scrivener agreed.
"Then what do you recommend?" Director Piggot asked.
"Well, I would recommend that Kid Win be signed up for therapy." Scrivener shrugged. "Aside from that, he's going to need time and support to correct his behavior. But that's outside of my wheelhouse. I'm just here to see if he's under a Master effect."
Director Piggot's eyebrow twitched and Miss Militia waved Scrivener to continue.
"Well, I'll submit a formal review by the end of the day." Scrivener signed off from the video call. Protectorate Thinkers were in high demand, so Miss Militia had no doubt he was going straight to his next meeting.
There was silence in the meeting room for a few moments, before Director Piggot sighed. "Keep Kid Win under observation, toss him into a few public relation courses then put him back on the schedule for patrols."
Miss Militia frowned and protested. "Isn't that a little hasty? Scrivener said he needed time to adjust."
Director Piggot shook her head. "The Wards program has dealt with over-aggressive teenagers before. It was made for that specific reason, in fact. He'll be just like Shadow Stalker, give him an out to let off some steam and he'll settle down."
Miss Militia was not so sure about that, but she had her orders. Hopefully, Kid Win would be easier to manage than Shadow Stalker.
Miss Militia made her way to the Wards' lounge, hopefully Director Piggot was right and Kid Win would settle down on his own. Hopefully, the news that he could go back on active duty would calm him down.
She turned the corner to the sight of two PRT troopers in full armor dragging a struggling Kid Win between them.
"I have done nothing wrong! I do not consent!" Kid Win screamed as he latched onto the frame of the doorway. "I need an adult!"
"We are adults." One of the troopers grumbled.
"YOU DON'T COUNT!" Kid Win retorted before another PRT trooper came and broke his grip on the door frame. He clawed at the wall for any sort of support, but was quickly dragged away. "No. No! Noooooooooooo~!"
Miss Militia rushed into the lounge. Had Kid Win harmed anyone? The Wards in-base at the moment were Clockblocker, Vista and Gallant. Gallant should have seen a breakdown coming. The three of them should have been able to suppress Kid Win.
Unless Gallant was also compromised. No, Miss Militia shouldn't jump to conclusions before arriving at the scene.
She stepped into the lounge to the sight of Clockblocker cackling like a hyena, Gallant looking confused, and Vista looking scared.
"Report!" Miss Militia snapped, and ignored Clockblocker laughing harder and falling off the couch.
"Ma'am!" Gallant snapped with a sloppy salute. Miss Militia noted that he had never done such a thing before, but there were more important things to focus on at the moment. "I… uh… Vista?"
"That's a Stranger!" Vista screamed, pointing at the hallway that Kid Win had been dragged down. "That wasn't Kid Win!"
Miss Militia took a deep, calming breath, Gallant looked worried at the accusation, could he have missed the signs of an infiltrating Stranger? "How do you know this?"
Vista held up a piece of paper and presented it to Miss Milita as if it held all the answers. It was a math worksheet, with problems designed for a child of Vista's age. A quick glance showed several different handwritten answers on the sheet. Miss Militia noted three sets of handwriting on the sheet. Vista's graceful script, Gallant's blocky handwriting, and the sloppy handwriting was most likely Kid Win's.
"Your…math homework?" Miss Militia asked for clarification.
"Kid Win can't do math!" Vista stated with conviction. "He's got math-dyslexia,-"
"Dyscalculia." Gallant corrected.
"-but did those problems without trouble!" Vista finished.
Clockblocker took an enormously deep breath before laughing even harder.
Miss Militia took a moment to take in that explanation. On one hand, it did technically count as a warning sign and Vista had done the correct thing in reporting it, on the other hand, Kid Win had just been cleared of any signs of Master/Stranger screening. That meant this was most likely more consequences from Leet's Tinker Tech.
Which meant that she would need to explain things to the Wards, calm Vista down, then go down to M/S screening and get Kid Win out, deal with his new recalcitrant nature as she did this, then explain that the M/S screen had come out clean, but he had to go to public relations training before returning to active duty.
Maybe she could delegate this to Triumph?
Going over her memory of the roster, Triumph was off for the next couple of days. Which meant no, she'd have to deal with it herself.
Miss Militia had been correct in her initial thoughts. Kid Win was going to be much worse than Shadow Stalker, and she had the feeling that things were only going to get worse before they improved.
Loved the comments! I will have to think about how to integrate Power Boots into the fic somehow.
Here is the next chapter. Let us know what y'all think.
Intermission - Miss Militia
"Now explain it to me one more time, why one of our Wards, who just came out of the hospital, is screaming profanities in a Master/Stranger Cell." Director Piggot asked as she rubbed her temples with her hands, a vein pulsing visibly and grotesquely on her brow. She glared at the two Capes from the other side of the desk.
Miss Militia furrowed her brow in thought as she considered how to answer the Director's demand. "Kid Win's prior behavior was a warning sign, but his blatant targeting of Shadow Stalker, and the fact that he not only opened hostilities, but continued them after a direct order to stop were the final straw. Adding to that, his…recalcitrance during the questioning, has led us to believe he may have been compromised by Uber and Leet for…a more nuanced attack than we've seen from them so far."
"Or more likely, there were complications from Leet's poorly constructed Tinker Tech that may have altered Kid Win's personality." Armsmaster cut in.
Miss Militia looked to her colleague and leader. It was no secret that Armsmaster had little respect for Leet's capabilities as a Tinker. The villain's rather infamous reputation was well earned after all. Still, she had to make sure that the possibility was considered.
"I'm guessing Kid Win was continuing his recent bout of insubordination." Director Piggot stated coolly. "What about the fight?"
"I have video," Armsmaster said, an instant later, before Miss Militia had a chance to intervene. The television screen on the wall of the meeting room turned on, revealing the image of Kid Win landing a brutal hook to Sophia's chin. "I took the liberty of going over his fight with Shadow Stalker, and noticed a number of discrepancies."
Miss Militia could not help but be impressed by how quickly Armsmaster had prepared for the meeting, the video showed side by side comparisons of Kid Win's prior spars with video capture of the fight. He explained differences in stance, differences in strategy, and even differences in body language and aggression.
The Kid Win on the older footage was not fearful, but he was skittish about taking a hit. He relied heavily on evasion and several times he hesitated when offered an opening to retaliate. It was something that they had been trying to train out of him.
The Kid Win of the recent video was almost the polar opposite, his every movement was aggressive. He did not block so much as attack the incoming limb, more than once he took a hit to create an opening for retaliation, but underestimated Shadow Stalker's strength, forcing him to retreat. His fighting was more awkward than the Kid Win of old, but it seemed to be a more complete style, if untested and too aggressive for someone of his size.
The video moved on to the interrogation room, showing the utterly unrepentant and angry teenager sitting opposite Armsmaster and Miss Militia. Kid Win began the session respectful if curt, but that degenerated quickly over a period of an hour, resulting in…
"But you have not answered the question." Armsmaster said in the video. "Why did you 'feel' it fell to you to 'expose' Shadow Stalker?"
"Well gee willikers Beardmaster," said Kid Win in an exceedingly saccharine tone. His lips twisted into a rictus snarl that was entirely alien to the normally affable and quiet boy, "maybe if Tiny-Titty Gun-Girl here could find two of her brain cells to rub together, I might not have needed to do your job for her!" He stood suddenly and slammed his hands on the table. "Or hell, when's the last time you did your job as the guy that teaches the Wards!? Or even better, remember the last time you mentored me in Tinkering!? ME NEITHER!"
The video stopped there, thankfully, skipping the part where Kid Win attempted to leave the room, then kicked the door down when it remained closed, resulting in him getting covered in containment foam again.
Director Piggot sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "I am forced to agree with Armsmaster's assessment. I doubt that even Leet would have been this inept at an attempt to compromise the Wards. Get a Thinker on it, see if we can get a timetable for when he'll be back to normal."
"And what about Gallant?" Miss Militia brought up the other victim of Leet's incompetence.
"What about Gallant?" Piggot asked, lifting an eyebrow. "Has he shown any signs of altered behavior?"
"No." Armsmaster stated. "Gallant's behavior matches prior behavior to the accident. He shows the appropriate amount of respect for authorities and continues to complete his tasks with relative seriousness. The only note is a slight increase in his occasional bouts of inattention. However, that is more than likely due to the head injury. His armor most likely diffused the Tinker Tech effect."
"We cannot be certain of that." Miss Militia insisted. She did not like it, but it was important that they covered every avenue. The last thing they needed was the Wards being exposed to a potential sleeper agent. "Permission to put Gallant on Master/Stranger observation."
"Granted, but only for tomorrow." The Director said after a moment of deliberation. "Have Triumph run a training session with the Wards and observe Gallant for any odd behavior. If nothing comes up, we'll leave it as is."
"Yes ma'am." Miss Militia knew that was as much as she was going to get.
"I have sent the request for a session with a Protectorate Approved Thinker." Arsmaster said, and Miss Militia could tell that he was starting to get irritated, most likely impatient to get back to his workshop. "Is there anything else?"
"No." Piggot picked up some of the papers off the desk. "Dismissed."
"There are clear signs of altered behavior." Scrivener said with a sigh. "None of his answers seemed to match with the baseline on file. That said, his…" a vein visibly pulsed on Scrivener's forehead, "newfound insubordination seems to be aimed specifically at authority figures, so I have no honest way to know if he genuinely wouldn't have been able to answer the questions correctly, since he was clearly doing his best to make my job as difficult as possible."
Scrivener coughed into his hand and visibly regained his composure.
"However, there is a consistency to his behavior that can't be explained by a Master effect. There most likely would have been clear signs of deterioration if that were the reason for his altered behavior." Scrivener pulled up a copy of Kid Win's CT scans. "The most likely rationale is that his change in behavior is due to a mix of trauma, brain damage, and yes, some unknown effect from Leet's Tinker Tech. Sadly, due to Leet's Tinker Tech's high rate of explosive failure, we can't even examine it to be sure."
"So we can rule out a Master then?" Miss Militia asked.
"I'd like him to be under observation for a little longer, but all signs point to yes." Scrivener agreed.
"Then what do you recommend?" Director Piggot asked.
"Well, I would recommend that Kid Win be signed up for therapy." Scrivener shrugged. "Aside from that, he's going to need time and support to correct his behavior. But that's outside of my wheelhouse. I'm just here to see if he's under a Master effect."
Director Piggot's eyebrow twitched and Miss Militia waved Scrivener to continue.
"Well, I'll submit a formal review by the end of the day." Scrivener signed off from the video call. Protectorate Thinkers were in high demand, so Miss Militia had no doubt he was going straight to his next meeting.
There was silence in the meeting room for a few moments, before Director Piggot sighed. "Keep Kid Win under observation, toss him into a few public relation courses then put him back on the schedule for patrols."
Miss Militia frowned and protested. "Isn't that a little hasty? Scrivener said he needed time to adjust."
Director Piggot shook her head. "The Wards program has dealt with over-aggressive teenagers before. It was made for that specific reason, in fact. He'll be just like Shadow Stalker, give him an out to let off some steam and he'll settle down."
Miss Militia was not so sure about that, but she had her orders. Hopefully, Kid Win would be easier to manage than Shadow Stalker.
Miss Militia made her way to the Wards' lounge, hopefully Director Piggot was right and Kid Win would settle down on his own. Hopefully, the news that he could go back on active duty would calm him down.
She turned the corner to the sight of two PRT troopers in full armor dragging a struggling Kid Win between them.
"I have done nothing wrong! I do not consent!" Kid Win screamed as he latched onto the frame of the doorway. "I need an adult!"
"We are adults." One of the troopers grumbled.
"YOU DON'T COUNT!" Kid Win retorted before another PRT trooper came and broke his grip on the door frame. He clawed at the wall for any sort of support, but was quickly dragged away. "No. No! Noooooooooooo~!"
Miss Militia rushed into the lounge. Had Kid Win harmed anyone? The Wards in-base at the moment were Clockblocker, Vista and Gallant. Gallant should have seen a breakdown coming. The three of them should have been able to suppress Kid Win.
Unless Gallant was also compromised. No, Miss Militia shouldn't jump to conclusions before arriving at the scene.
She stepped into the lounge to the sight of Clockblocker cackling like a hyena, Gallant looking confused, and Vista looking scared.
"Report!" Miss Militia snapped, and ignored Clockblocker laughing harder and falling off the couch.
"Ma'am!" Gallant snapped with a sloppy salute. Miss Militia noted that he had never done such a thing before, but there were more important things to focus on at the moment. "I… uh… Vista?"
"That's a Stranger!" Vista screamed, pointing at the hallway that Kid Win had been dragged down. "That wasn't Kid Win!"
Miss Militia took a deep, calming breath, Gallant looked worried at the accusation, could he have missed the signs of an infiltrating Stranger? "How do you know this?"
Vista held up a piece of paper and presented it to Miss Milita as if it held all the answers. It was a math worksheet, with problems designed for a child of Vista's age. A quick glance showed several different handwritten answers on the sheet. Miss Militia noted three sets of handwriting on the sheet. Vista's graceful script, Gallant's blocky handwriting, and the sloppy handwriting was most likely Kid Win's.
"Your…math homework?" Miss Militia asked for clarification.
"Kid Win can't do math!" Vista stated with conviction. "He's got math-dyslexia,-"
"Dyscalculia." Gallant corrected.
"-but did those problems without trouble!" Vista finished.
Clockblocker took an enormously deep breath before laughing even harder.
Miss Militia took a moment to take in that explanation. On one hand, it did technically count as a warning sign and Vista had done the correct thing in reporting it, on the other hand, Kid Win had just been cleared of any signs of Master/Stranger screening. That meant this was most likely more consequences from Leet's Tinker Tech.
Which meant that she would need to explain things to the Wards, calm Vista down, then go down to M/S screening and get Kid Win out, deal with his new recalcitrant nature as she did this, then explain that the M/S screen had come out clean, but he had to go to public relations training before returning to active duty.
Maybe she could delegate this to Triumph?
Going over her memory of the roster, Triumph was off for the next couple of days. Which meant no, she'd have to deal with it herself.
Miss Militia had been correct in her initial thoughts. Kid Win was going to be much worse than Shadow Stalker, and she had the feeling that things were only going to get worse before they improved.
tw33k
Making the rounds.
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- Mar 26, 2016
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So it seems like one Insert is clueless about Worm and just trying to live his best life... on a death world, and the other has also never read Worm but has read enough fanfiction to know the setting but only really knows fanon tropes.
So far it's interesting. Not much has happened yet but I'm down for any story that has Sophia getting punched in the face.
So far it's interesting. Not much has happened yet but I'm down for any story that has Sophia getting punched in the face.
Santo
I want to enter your Temple
- Joined
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I'mma break the rules and quote posts meant for the previous chapter than the latest. Because I'm a rebel like that.
Just...blegh.
We are, however, doing a thing to keep it fresh.
That'll become more obvious in Arc 2.
Attempting to throw Sophia under the bus was less due to fanon tropes and more an impulsive 'fuck that bitch...in particular.'
Glad you liking it!Very nicely done! Love that the first thing Kid Win did was try to get Sophia implicated! I'm also really enjoying his rebellious, Chaotic Good type attitude here, with his blatant disrespect for authority so long as they refuse to do their jobs. At this rate, I could almost see him leaving the Wards, if that wouldn't be very dangerous to do... Tinkers need a team, after all. I'm glad Piggot actually did do something about Sophia, I was worried she was just going to brush it under the rug again at first. But that was just because she was seething over the SI's basically showing her she was doing a bad job by doing her job for her, and throwing it in her face. Anyway, that fight scene was very well written too. It can be hard to write a good one, but you did a great job keeping it fluid, dynamic, and engaging. All in all, very well done! Have fun on your trip outta town!
I have much to live up to it seems. XDI expect the newKid-Win, sorry Angry-Kid, to emulate his spiritual ancestors.
*chef's kiss* to that ending.
In a row.
Just...blegh.
I have in fact read Worm to completion!
We are, however, doing a thing to keep it fresh.
That'll become more obvious in Arc 2.
Attempting to throw Sophia under the bus was less due to fanon tropes and more an impulsive 'fuck that bitch...in particular.'
Heroslayer
Making the rounds.
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2019
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- 40
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- 1,056
Yes~ He must suffer... if only because of what he is going to put everyone through in the very near future.
It was something that I wanted to showcase that people are paying attention to the people around them. And suddenly not having a rather large medical problem is very, very, noticeable.
I mean, I'll be honest. I've never been the most goal oriented person. So if I was thrown into a new world without much guidance, I would just... kind of live there. Sure, there's the loaming threat of the space whale, which is totally a thing I should be on the lookout for, but unless it happens right away, I totally have time to settle. It's not like the next month is going to be a cascade off flusterclucks one after another with zero down time... right?
You heathen.
KingGremory
Getting out there.
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2023
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- 15
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- 57
LOL, the Kid Win SI is absolutely hilarious! He is just determined to do the PRT's job for them, and make sure they know what a shitty job they've been doing. My guy is so mad about it he's literally kicking doors down!! I shudder to think about the nightmare the public relations people are going to have trying to reign him in. It's also hilarious that Santo-Win was so concerned about deflecting suspicion from him an Gallant earlier, and promptly threw it out the window and got himself put in M/S twice in one day! On a more serious note, I really like the usage of dyscalculia to out the SI, at least or Vista... I imagine she's gonna be extra suspicious of him from now on, even after Miss Militia's explanations.
SIMPDESTROYER1
Destroyer of Simps
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- 3,083
I have to say, this Kid Win is absolutely hilarious.
Ersatz II.I
Santo
I want to enter your Temple
- Joined
- May 23, 2020
- Messages
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And Arc 2 ch 1!
As usual, please drop us a comment or three. They really do help keep motivation up.
We worked super hard on this one, so hope you enjoy!
Ersatz II.I
I was not a religious person. Or perhaps, it is better to say I hadn't been a religious person. Because now I'm here, and the only way that this could have happened is if there is a malignant God, and he thoroughly enjoys shitting in my dinner in particular.
Fuckin' School.
I scribbled angrily on the blank page upon which I was supposed to be writing an essay on the subject of Romeo and Juliet. The story of the dumbass teenager that said he'd rather die than break up with a girl, then went on a killing spree, and the dumbass girl who saw said idiot suicidal serial murderer and started breathing heavily, before killing herself.
And the sad thing is. I just made the plot to that utterly awful waste of words, sound a lot better than it is.
Okay, fuck it, I can't goddamn do this right now. No, this time would be better spent strategizing. I had to start planning how I was going to save the multiverse's armpit from the autistic space-whale widower.
And to make matters worse, I was on the backfoot since the world decided, in true Worm fashion, to punish me for doing the correct and righteous thing. Snitch on Shadow Stalker.
Instead of the PRT throwing the book at the bitch, I was thrown into the box, AKA, Solitary Confinement, AKA, Master Stranger quarantine. The only thing I was allowed, had been a notebook and a pen.
I could have made some blueprints for Tinker Tech or started making notes on my plans for the future. Instead, I drew caricatures of Armsmaster, with a penis drawn on his armor. This was a horrid waste of my time, but I am a petty, petty man.
When I was released from the Hole, I thought I had a few days to actually prep for the first stone that started the proverbial avalanche of shit that is Worm canon. However, because this is Worm, adults ruined everything. When I finally got done with my public relations lectures and was allowed access to my lab again, Armsmaster brought Lung in, envenomed to the gills.
That had been the most aggravating night of my short though already infuriating stay in Brockton Bay. I tried to get information out of Beardman, but he was too busy taking credit for other's hard work to pay me any mind.
Of course, nobody had deigned to listen to me about how Lung seemed to coincidentally be stung roughly fifty million times by bugs, so he hadn't been given any antivenom for the fifty gallons of caustic bug juice injected in him. End result. His crotch rotted off.
Now no one will ever get to make a wish on the Dragon Balls.
This finally caused the PRT to go on damage control, which they wouldn't have needed to do had they done the smart thing and listened to me.
But what do I know? I'm just the dumb kid who informed them about Lung having roughly five hundred gallons of bug venom in his system. Bright side, I got to be in the room when Piggot gave BeardMeister the dressing down of all dressing downs for not properly testing his tinkertech tranquilizer.
If I had a proclivity to be unkind, which I don't, I am magnanimous; I'd say that Piggy was less worried about the possible death of numerous people, and more that the news might catch Beardy the Wonderman killing a perp and causing problems for her.
Which granted, valid concern. But still.
So I was now at the beginning of Worm with no preparation, which was mildly concerning.
My current and most infuriating obstacle to saving all worlds, the indomitable and awful 'Tinkering budget.' Which last I checked was two goddamn pennies. I could rub them together to feel better about not having money, but I was better off melting them for the little bit of copper in them.
Fun fact, Earth Bet pennies were still made of copper. Barbarians.
Still, it had taken me five whole days, but I had eventually managed to figure out what this body's Tinkering Specialty had been.
Yes, I had to tear apart my armor, skate board, pistols, every gadget in my 'lab', and I'd take care of the thing labeled 'Alternator Canon' later when I had the time. After that, I made just about all of their systems interchangeable with each other for ease of battlefield application, but in the process I figured out that I specialized in modular equipment with a dash of teleportation and anti-gravity.
Good news, I could now genuinely have a shoulder mounted laser pew pew, or grenade launcher, or coil gun, or laser pointer. If anyone asks, the melted corner of the lounge sofa was totally a test target and not because I mixed up the melty laser for the normal laser pointer. As a totally unrelated aside, the casings of the two were now color-coded.
Bad news, apparently I was supposed to ask permission to make shit, and run it past the plebs who did not have an alien supercomputer wired into their brain. Because that makes sense somehow.
But Piggy gonna Piggot, so I had come up with some half baked explanation on how much more effective I would be in the field the next time I totally did not run into any danger, because the Wards was a program where we get to experiment with our powers and certainly not for fighting gangsters or enemy capes. Or holding down criminals while we waited for the Protectorate to show up.
I mean sure, I now had the ability to lay down rapid fire non-lethal ordnance at a rate of fire roughly equal to a Squad Assault Weapon, but that's totally an accident, and never will ever possibly ever come up as a Ward in the Bay.
Miss Piggy did not appreciate my lip, but did at least appreciate that I had filled out my paperwork. Long story short, I got a slap on the wrist and my action figures were getting updated. Because apparently, having seven different shoulder mounted weapons made for an interesting action figure.
Truly, the PR Department is the brains behind the PRT.
I brought my head down from the clouds and looked at the no longer pristine white page in front of me.
Unfortunately, it was filled with a blueprint for a machine that would pump out Bolt rounds of different effects for my totally-not-a-bolt-pistol. Not the essay I was supposed to be writing. Seriously, I'm literally a killing machine factory. I should be stuck in a lab somewhere, given infinity resources, and told to outfit the crap out of every trooper with all kinds of neat shit. Why the flying fuck am I being made to take English?
It's not like the world won't end in two fuckin' years.
Thankfully, the bell rang and saved me from having to agonize over the fact that I, an en-guh-neer, who absolutely had no need to learn how to English gooder, was being made to write an essay on some Shakespeare thing or another, who fuckin' cares, it's not even one of the good Shakespeare plays.
I was the first out of the room, hopefully the 'fuck off' vibes I was trying very hard to exude, would convince the peanut gallery to leave me alone so I could plan in sweet silence.
"Man you really bolted outta there." Dennis said, dashing my hopes and dreams. "Also, you zoned out and started doing the Thing again. You know you're not supposed to do that at school."
"I was not zoning out," I grumbled, "I was meditating, imagining a better place. It wasn't hard, the better place was quite literally anywhere else, with anyone else."
Dennis laughed, he probably thought I was joking.
"Man, ever since the thing, you and Dean have been really space-y." Carlos 'The Beef Wall' Mendez said as he caught up to us with his stupidly long legs. How dare he be five foot ten? Learn to shorten your strides dammit! I used to be three inches taller than you, and I even learned not to outpace a little lady less than five feet tall! Stupid Carlos with his stupid height that should be shorter than me.
Also, fuck these tiny stumpy legs. First chance I get, I'm chopping them off and replacing them with jets, or rocket boots, or jets with rocket boots attached.
Sadly, Beef McWall-man continued to talk, snapping me out of the haze that had descended, making the blueprints for bionic limbs that could be reconfigured into twenty-seven different functions and systems melt between my metaphorical fingers. "You sure you guys got hit by Uber and Leet, and not the Merchants?"
I resisted the urge to spit. "At this point I'd welcome the psychedelic escape from this torrid hell."
Beefy McMan had the audacity to look offended. He was clearly about to say something, but he paused and perked up. I grit my teeth harder and convulsed in voluntary revulsion as the source of his distraction turned the corner.
"And now this is happening," I grumbled as Victoria's 'fucking love me' aura was running full power. I could feel the bone-deep ache to bask in her presence, an incessant demand for my adoration that my brain happily supplied.
My stomach roiled at the violation, I curled my fingers into tight fists, the thought of hurting her brought horror and pain, which is why I wanted to feed her her teeth just as much as I wanted her acknowledgement. Power Puff Pavlov should learn to keep a goddamn lid on her power.
"She must be riled up." Simp the Beefman said. "She's been a lot better about keeping that in check lately."
Denis snorted and pretended to tug on an imaginary rope. "Only when her boytoy is around to tug the leash. Guess Dean's not here at the moment."
I spat into a trashcan as we walked past. "For some inscrutable reason, she seems to have more trouble with keeping her aura in check whenever I'm around. Though I admit, the Pavlov Field is usually set on 'piss yourself' when she sees me."
"Well, you keep being pretty abrasive whenever you meet up with her," Wally McBeefington spoke in that 'older brother knows best' tone that never failed to get on my nerves. "You could try being nicer to her."
"Well," I shot back, "you could try pulling the stick outta your a–" the school intercom sounded and called a load of people to the principal's office, among them, all the Wards, and our 'body doubles' who 'totally made it so nobody knew who we were.'
Because it's not like you could just look at the ones that are no longer in the school and figure out who the Wards are.
"Well shit." I said as the intercom cut off.
"Language!" Beekcake McMom chastised.
I ignored him as the three of us turned around and made our way to the principal's office. We got sidelined by one of our PRT handlers and went to the room that had our equipment already set up for us.
Dennis gave a shit-eating grin. "Well gee willikers Legend, I wonder what this is going to be about."
"There's a bank robbery in progress." The Generic Government Suit said on cue.
That niggled something in my memory, that was important. "Which bank and which villains?"
He looked at his phone. "Brockton General is being held up by the Undersiders."
Wait what? But Lung was brought in like, two days ago! How the fuck? More importantly when the fuck!?
Wait, now that I recall…I did always have an issue with Worm's… super quick…pacing…
"MOTHERFUCKER!"
It wasn't until Carlos' scandalized, "Language!" that I realized that I'd said that last bit very much outloud.
"Where's Dean?" Dennis asked.
Government Stooge shook his head. "He did not answer his phone, and his ID was checked out for lunch. We'll have to deploy without him."
Dennis' eyes widened in horrified realization. "Wait, didn't Dean say he was going to Brockton General to grab some cash?"
And that sounded like an opportunity to get Beef Mom out of my hair. "Why do you think I shouted?"
"Still. Keep your language in check. The last thing you need is another session from the PR team."
I grumbled, but let him have that one.
"Huh, do you think Dean's caught up in this?" Dennis asked as he started to lazily undress.
"Probably." I grumbled. The world was setting me up for failure, so logically it would make sense that he would be in the bank and in trouble. "But I doubt we need to worry. Dean's the responsible one. He'll be fine as long as he doesn't do something stupid, like trying to play hero in the middle of a bank robbery."
There was a long moment of silence as we all looked at each other.
"Get ready, double time!" Carlos ordered.
I started pulling my armor on, then realized that for some reason, Dennis was putting on Carlos' leggings. "Dude, the fuck are you doing?"
"Oh! Carlos and I had this idea, we should swap costumes, that way when Hellhound sends one of her dogs at me thinking it'll tie up Aegis, I can freeze it and keep it out of the fight." Dennis said with a huge smile.
"That is literally the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say." I stated, wiping the idiot's smile off his face.
"What? It's a good idea!" He said, scrunching his face up in anger.
"Yeah, until they hit you with an attack they know Aegis can survive, only, because you're not a Brute, you pop like a balloon!"
"I'll just tag them before they can hit me!"
I slapped the side of his head hard enough to make my palm sting. He looked outraged and Carlos looked furious, but I spoke before either of them could get a word in. "Didn't tag me, and I'm not ten tons of angry ass lizard monster."
"Uhh, I think they're dogs." Browbeat said as he finished pulling on his blue checker pattern body-glove that was kind of ratty. When had he gotten there?
"I know what I said." I spat back. "Your idea is good on paper, until you account for the little fact that you can make a mistake and get yourself splatted, probably on national television."
"Then we won't make a mistake." Carlos growled.
I slapped the side of Dennis' head again. This time he saw it coming, but I still managed to tag him in the temple.
"Stop it!"
"Not really seeing it. And I'm not a giant ass lizard, built like a truck. Or you know, a bullet."
The mention of gunfire seemed to bring them up short.
"The Undersiders are not known to carry firearms." Carlos said stubbornly.
I raised an eyebrow as I finished putting on my gauntlets. "So you're saying that the hundred and ten pound girl whose superpower is thinking hard at you, isn't going to go around armed in Brockton Fuckin' Bay. Yeah, that sounds super smart don't it?"
[Guys, I'm already at the truck, where are you?] Vista's voice said over the radio.
"And like that, we're out of time!" I said with a big grin. "Go with your plan if you want, but when Clockblocker gets his legs torn off by a superpowered monster thing, I will absolutely say 'I told you so' as I hold his head while he fuckin' dies." I put on my new helmet and reveled in the hiss as it pressurized.
"Wait, why are you putting on Gallant's helmet?" Carlos asked as he narrowed his eyes at me.
"Didn't you just say we shouldn't switch costumes?" Dennis sneered.
I tapped the helmet. "The difference between you two plebs and I, is that I'm not pretending to be Gallant. I'm just stealing his helmet. Also." I blink-clicked the icon on the HUD I'd added when I hacked the firmware three days ago, causing the paint to switch colors to match my new armor. "It totally fits my look now, so your point is invalid."
"Vista's gonna kill you." Dennis said.
"She's a professional. She'll kill me when we get back to base, and by then I'll have gotten Dean to use as a meat shield." I crossed my arms and held myself smugly at my superior logic.
Before either of them could respond, the door opened and the Government Suit's head popped in. He looked rather miffed at the fact that only half of us were in costume. "You do realize there is a bank robbery going on, right? Get your costumes on, and I do mean 'your costumes' and get going."
Thankfully, the command of an actual adult seemed to penetrate Carlos' and Dennis' skulls and they grumbled as they put on their own costumes.
The ride to the bank was bumpy. I do not know why I was surprised by this. Last I checked, we lived in the part of town that had the better roads, and if they were this bad here, how bad were they in the rest of this trash heap of a city?
"Vista," Aegis began giving orders, his back straight and looking far more regal than his pouty teenage ass had any right to be, "when we get there, make sure to twist space so the Undersiders cannot escape. Given the choice between fighting us and surrendering, a group that focuses on escape like them should capitulate."
Vista and Clockblocker nodded, I couldn't tell what Browbeat thought thanks to his mask covering his face. Also, he had gained twice his body mass in muscle since the last time I looked at him, it was kinda disgusting.
I raised a hand as if trying to get the teacher's attention. "Uhh, excuse me, that is literally the stupidest thing we could do. Nobody fights harder than when they're pushed into a corner."
Vista stiffened and snapped back at me before Aegis could say anything. "Our job is to stop the bad guys!"
The truck bounced a little violently, otherwise I would have gotten in the little girl's face. "Our job is to safeguard the hostages!" I could see that I hadn't convinced her, so I decided to twist the knife a little bit. "Like you know, our knight out of his shiny armor, who is stuck as a hostage." Vista recoiled and I turned to Carlos, hopefully he'd be smart enough to see reason. "We need to hand this over to the professionals, last I checked we are literally not trained for this shit!"
"All other Protectorate Assets are tied up." Aegis replied stiffly.
"Well, alright then, we'll hand it over to the cops."
Aegis shook his head. "Villains are Protectorate jurisdiction."
"And hostage situations are the cops."
Aegis shook his head again. "The moment Parahumas became involved, it landed on us. When we get there, fan out and we'll cut their escape options off, if they fight we'll take them on, take them down."
I sighed. "I'll get right on that, boss."
Aegis and Vista both looked mollified by my submission and they continued to talk strategy for the rest of the ride.
The moment the truck stopped, I threw the doors open, jumped down, and ran straight up to whichever cop looked to be relatively in charge. I proceeded to speak in the most obnoxiously loud voice I could get away with, without making it too awkward. "Wards present and accounted for, sir! We are ready to assist. Where do you want us?"
The cop blinked at me. "Aren't you kids here to bust up the Undersiders?"
I shook my head. "No sir! We're here in case the Undersiders attack or get violent on the hostages. Until then, this is your show."
The cop looked quite flabbergasted for a few moments, before grinning and giving me a friendly slap on the shoulder. "Good thinking Kid Win! Get your team set up around the cordon, please help us hold the crowd back, and keep everyone calm."
"Yes sir!" I said. Turning around, I saw the other four Wards, I could only assume Clockblocker and Browbeat were looking at me in shock, same as Vista. Judging by Aegis' glare, if he had heat vision, I'd be dead.
"What the hell was that!?" Aegis hissed angrily. "You agreed with the plan!"
I would roll my eyes but he wouldn't see it. Thankfully, my unparalleled genius has preemptively solved this immense issue. I used my new helmet and activated the hologram emitters I'd installed, causing a 'rolling eyes' emoticon to appear on top of my head. "It's called 'lying.' Do you really wanna start throwing blood, teeth, and fucking lasers around, with these many civilians gawking in the danger zone?"
Aegis pushed forward into my personal space, wholly ignoring my stroke of genius, rude. I could see the PR training kick in as he stopped and looked around. He took in the scene, with all the gawkers, holding their phones up and recording our every move. I heard one of his teeth crack as he grit them too hard. "This conversation is not over."
"It's over for now!" I tossed back at him and danced off to play babysitter to the crowd along with everyone else.
I had given my generic 'everything is under control' speech for roughly the five hundredth time when I spotted a man speaking on a phone by one of the cop vans. A little fiddling with my HUD revealed he was the hostage negotiator, and he'd managed to get in contact with the Undersiders. I heard him offer food and drink to the Undersiders in exchange for a few hostages, and I heard a young woman playfully refuse.
This gave me a wonderful idea.
As usual, please drop us a comment or three. They really do help keep motivation up.
We worked super hard on this one, so hope you enjoy!
Ersatz II.I
I was not a religious person. Or perhaps, it is better to say I hadn't been a religious person. Because now I'm here, and the only way that this could have happened is if there is a malignant God, and he thoroughly enjoys shitting in my dinner in particular.
Fuckin' School.
I scribbled angrily on the blank page upon which I was supposed to be writing an essay on the subject of Romeo and Juliet. The story of the dumbass teenager that said he'd rather die than break up with a girl, then went on a killing spree, and the dumbass girl who saw said idiot suicidal serial murderer and started breathing heavily, before killing herself.
And the sad thing is. I just made the plot to that utterly awful waste of words, sound a lot better than it is.
Okay, fuck it, I can't goddamn do this right now. No, this time would be better spent strategizing. I had to start planning how I was going to save the multiverse's armpit from the autistic space-whale widower.
And to make matters worse, I was on the backfoot since the world decided, in true Worm fashion, to punish me for doing the correct and righteous thing. Snitch on Shadow Stalker.
Instead of the PRT throwing the book at the bitch, I was thrown into the box, AKA, Solitary Confinement, AKA, Master Stranger quarantine. The only thing I was allowed, had been a notebook and a pen.
I could have made some blueprints for Tinker Tech or started making notes on my plans for the future. Instead, I drew caricatures of Armsmaster, with a penis drawn on his armor. This was a horrid waste of my time, but I am a petty, petty man.
When I was released from the Hole, I thought I had a few days to actually prep for the first stone that started the proverbial avalanche of shit that is Worm canon. However, because this is Worm, adults ruined everything. When I finally got done with my public relations lectures and was allowed access to my lab again, Armsmaster brought Lung in, envenomed to the gills.
That had been the most aggravating night of my short though already infuriating stay in Brockton Bay. I tried to get information out of Beardman, but he was too busy taking credit for other's hard work to pay me any mind.
Of course, nobody had deigned to listen to me about how Lung seemed to coincidentally be stung roughly fifty million times by bugs, so he hadn't been given any antivenom for the fifty gallons of caustic bug juice injected in him. End result. His crotch rotted off.
Now no one will ever get to make a wish on the Dragon Balls.
This finally caused the PRT to go on damage control, which they wouldn't have needed to do had they done the smart thing and listened to me.
But what do I know? I'm just the dumb kid who informed them about Lung having roughly five hundred gallons of bug venom in his system. Bright side, I got to be in the room when Piggot gave BeardMeister the dressing down of all dressing downs for not properly testing his tinkertech tranquilizer.
If I had a proclivity to be unkind, which I don't, I am magnanimous; I'd say that Piggy was less worried about the possible death of numerous people, and more that the news might catch Beardy the Wonderman killing a perp and causing problems for her.
Which granted, valid concern. But still.
So I was now at the beginning of Worm with no preparation, which was mildly concerning.
My current and most infuriating obstacle to saving all worlds, the indomitable and awful 'Tinkering budget.' Which last I checked was two goddamn pennies. I could rub them together to feel better about not having money, but I was better off melting them for the little bit of copper in them.
Fun fact, Earth Bet pennies were still made of copper. Barbarians.
Still, it had taken me five whole days, but I had eventually managed to figure out what this body's Tinkering Specialty had been.
Yes, I had to tear apart my armor, skate board, pistols, every gadget in my 'lab', and I'd take care of the thing labeled 'Alternator Canon' later when I had the time. After that, I made just about all of their systems interchangeable with each other for ease of battlefield application, but in the process I figured out that I specialized in modular equipment with a dash of teleportation and anti-gravity.
Good news, I could now genuinely have a shoulder mounted laser pew pew, or grenade launcher, or coil gun, or laser pointer. If anyone asks, the melted corner of the lounge sofa was totally a test target and not because I mixed up the melty laser for the normal laser pointer. As a totally unrelated aside, the casings of the two were now color-coded.
Bad news, apparently I was supposed to ask permission to make shit, and run it past the plebs who did not have an alien supercomputer wired into their brain. Because that makes sense somehow.
But Piggy gonna Piggot, so I had come up with some half baked explanation on how much more effective I would be in the field the next time I totally did not run into any danger, because the Wards was a program where we get to experiment with our powers and certainly not for fighting gangsters or enemy capes. Or holding down criminals while we waited for the Protectorate to show up.
I mean sure, I now had the ability to lay down rapid fire non-lethal ordnance at a rate of fire roughly equal to a Squad Assault Weapon, but that's totally an accident, and never will ever possibly ever come up as a Ward in the Bay.
Miss Piggy did not appreciate my lip, but did at least appreciate that I had filled out my paperwork. Long story short, I got a slap on the wrist and my action figures were getting updated. Because apparently, having seven different shoulder mounted weapons made for an interesting action figure.
Truly, the PR Department is the brains behind the PRT.
I brought my head down from the clouds and looked at the no longer pristine white page in front of me.
Unfortunately, it was filled with a blueprint for a machine that would pump out Bolt rounds of different effects for my totally-not-a-bolt-pistol. Not the essay I was supposed to be writing. Seriously, I'm literally a killing machine factory. I should be stuck in a lab somewhere, given infinity resources, and told to outfit the crap out of every trooper with all kinds of neat shit. Why the flying fuck am I being made to take English?
It's not like the world won't end in two fuckin' years.
Thankfully, the bell rang and saved me from having to agonize over the fact that I, an en-guh-neer, who absolutely had no need to learn how to English gooder, was being made to write an essay on some Shakespeare thing or another, who fuckin' cares, it's not even one of the good Shakespeare plays.
I was the first out of the room, hopefully the 'fuck off' vibes I was trying very hard to exude, would convince the peanut gallery to leave me alone so I could plan in sweet silence.
"Man you really bolted outta there." Dennis said, dashing my hopes and dreams. "Also, you zoned out and started doing the Thing again. You know you're not supposed to do that at school."
"I was not zoning out," I grumbled, "I was meditating, imagining a better place. It wasn't hard, the better place was quite literally anywhere else, with anyone else."
Dennis laughed, he probably thought I was joking.
"Man, ever since the thing, you and Dean have been really space-y." Carlos 'The Beef Wall' Mendez said as he caught up to us with his stupidly long legs. How dare he be five foot ten? Learn to shorten your strides dammit! I used to be three inches taller than you, and I even learned not to outpace a little lady less than five feet tall! Stupid Carlos with his stupid height that should be shorter than me.
Also, fuck these tiny stumpy legs. First chance I get, I'm chopping them off and replacing them with jets, or rocket boots, or jets with rocket boots attached.
Sadly, Beef McWall-man continued to talk, snapping me out of the haze that had descended, making the blueprints for bionic limbs that could be reconfigured into twenty-seven different functions and systems melt between my metaphorical fingers. "You sure you guys got hit by Uber and Leet, and not the Merchants?"
I resisted the urge to spit. "At this point I'd welcome the psychedelic escape from this torrid hell."
Beefy McMan had the audacity to look offended. He was clearly about to say something, but he paused and perked up. I grit my teeth harder and convulsed in voluntary revulsion as the source of his distraction turned the corner.
"And now this is happening," I grumbled as Victoria's 'fucking love me' aura was running full power. I could feel the bone-deep ache to bask in her presence, an incessant demand for my adoration that my brain happily supplied.
My stomach roiled at the violation, I curled my fingers into tight fists, the thought of hurting her brought horror and pain, which is why I wanted to feed her her teeth just as much as I wanted her acknowledgement. Power Puff Pavlov should learn to keep a goddamn lid on her power.
"She must be riled up." Simp the Beefman said. "She's been a lot better about keeping that in check lately."
Denis snorted and pretended to tug on an imaginary rope. "Only when her boytoy is around to tug the leash. Guess Dean's not here at the moment."
I spat into a trashcan as we walked past. "For some inscrutable reason, she seems to have more trouble with keeping her aura in check whenever I'm around. Though I admit, the Pavlov Field is usually set on 'piss yourself' when she sees me."
"Well, you keep being pretty abrasive whenever you meet up with her," Wally McBeefington spoke in that 'older brother knows best' tone that never failed to get on my nerves. "You could try being nicer to her."
"Well," I shot back, "you could try pulling the stick outta your a–" the school intercom sounded and called a load of people to the principal's office, among them, all the Wards, and our 'body doubles' who 'totally made it so nobody knew who we were.'
Because it's not like you could just look at the ones that are no longer in the school and figure out who the Wards are.
"Well shit." I said as the intercom cut off.
"Language!" Beekcake McMom chastised.
I ignored him as the three of us turned around and made our way to the principal's office. We got sidelined by one of our PRT handlers and went to the room that had our equipment already set up for us.
Dennis gave a shit-eating grin. "Well gee willikers Legend, I wonder what this is going to be about."
"There's a bank robbery in progress." The Generic Government Suit said on cue.
That niggled something in my memory, that was important. "Which bank and which villains?"
He looked at his phone. "Brockton General is being held up by the Undersiders."
Wait what? But Lung was brought in like, two days ago! How the fuck? More importantly when the fuck!?
Wait, now that I recall…I did always have an issue with Worm's… super quick…pacing…
"MOTHERFUCKER!"
It wasn't until Carlos' scandalized, "Language!" that I realized that I'd said that last bit very much outloud.
"Where's Dean?" Dennis asked.
Government Stooge shook his head. "He did not answer his phone, and his ID was checked out for lunch. We'll have to deploy without him."
Dennis' eyes widened in horrified realization. "Wait, didn't Dean say he was going to Brockton General to grab some cash?"
And that sounded like an opportunity to get Beef Mom out of my hair. "Why do you think I shouted?"
"Still. Keep your language in check. The last thing you need is another session from the PR team."
I grumbled, but let him have that one.
"Huh, do you think Dean's caught up in this?" Dennis asked as he started to lazily undress.
"Probably." I grumbled. The world was setting me up for failure, so logically it would make sense that he would be in the bank and in trouble. "But I doubt we need to worry. Dean's the responsible one. He'll be fine as long as he doesn't do something stupid, like trying to play hero in the middle of a bank robbery."
There was a long moment of silence as we all looked at each other.
"Get ready, double time!" Carlos ordered.
I started pulling my armor on, then realized that for some reason, Dennis was putting on Carlos' leggings. "Dude, the fuck are you doing?"
"Oh! Carlos and I had this idea, we should swap costumes, that way when Hellhound sends one of her dogs at me thinking it'll tie up Aegis, I can freeze it and keep it out of the fight." Dennis said with a huge smile.
"That is literally the stupidest thing I've ever heard you say." I stated, wiping the idiot's smile off his face.
"What? It's a good idea!" He said, scrunching his face up in anger.
"Yeah, until they hit you with an attack they know Aegis can survive, only, because you're not a Brute, you pop like a balloon!"
"I'll just tag them before they can hit me!"
I slapped the side of his head hard enough to make my palm sting. He looked outraged and Carlos looked furious, but I spoke before either of them could get a word in. "Didn't tag me, and I'm not ten tons of angry ass lizard monster."
"Uhh, I think they're dogs." Browbeat said as he finished pulling on his blue checker pattern body-glove that was kind of ratty. When had he gotten there?
"I know what I said." I spat back. "Your idea is good on paper, until you account for the little fact that you can make a mistake and get yourself splatted, probably on national television."
"Then we won't make a mistake." Carlos growled.
I slapped the side of Dennis' head again. This time he saw it coming, but I still managed to tag him in the temple.
"Stop it!"
"Not really seeing it. And I'm not a giant ass lizard, built like a truck. Or you know, a bullet."
The mention of gunfire seemed to bring them up short.
"The Undersiders are not known to carry firearms." Carlos said stubbornly.
I raised an eyebrow as I finished putting on my gauntlets. "So you're saying that the hundred and ten pound girl whose superpower is thinking hard at you, isn't going to go around armed in Brockton Fuckin' Bay. Yeah, that sounds super smart don't it?"
[Guys, I'm already at the truck, where are you?] Vista's voice said over the radio.
"And like that, we're out of time!" I said with a big grin. "Go with your plan if you want, but when Clockblocker gets his legs torn off by a superpowered monster thing, I will absolutely say 'I told you so' as I hold his head while he fuckin' dies." I put on my new helmet and reveled in the hiss as it pressurized.
"Wait, why are you putting on Gallant's helmet?" Carlos asked as he narrowed his eyes at me.
"Didn't you just say we shouldn't switch costumes?" Dennis sneered.
I tapped the helmet. "The difference between you two plebs and I, is that I'm not pretending to be Gallant. I'm just stealing his helmet. Also." I blink-clicked the icon on the HUD I'd added when I hacked the firmware three days ago, causing the paint to switch colors to match my new armor. "It totally fits my look now, so your point is invalid."
"Vista's gonna kill you." Dennis said.
"She's a professional. She'll kill me when we get back to base, and by then I'll have gotten Dean to use as a meat shield." I crossed my arms and held myself smugly at my superior logic.
Before either of them could respond, the door opened and the Government Suit's head popped in. He looked rather miffed at the fact that only half of us were in costume. "You do realize there is a bank robbery going on, right? Get your costumes on, and I do mean 'your costumes' and get going."
Thankfully, the command of an actual adult seemed to penetrate Carlos' and Dennis' skulls and they grumbled as they put on their own costumes.
The ride to the bank was bumpy. I do not know why I was surprised by this. Last I checked, we lived in the part of town that had the better roads, and if they were this bad here, how bad were they in the rest of this trash heap of a city?
"Vista," Aegis began giving orders, his back straight and looking far more regal than his pouty teenage ass had any right to be, "when we get there, make sure to twist space so the Undersiders cannot escape. Given the choice between fighting us and surrendering, a group that focuses on escape like them should capitulate."
Vista and Clockblocker nodded, I couldn't tell what Browbeat thought thanks to his mask covering his face. Also, he had gained twice his body mass in muscle since the last time I looked at him, it was kinda disgusting.
I raised a hand as if trying to get the teacher's attention. "Uhh, excuse me, that is literally the stupidest thing we could do. Nobody fights harder than when they're pushed into a corner."
Vista stiffened and snapped back at me before Aegis could say anything. "Our job is to stop the bad guys!"
The truck bounced a little violently, otherwise I would have gotten in the little girl's face. "Our job is to safeguard the hostages!" I could see that I hadn't convinced her, so I decided to twist the knife a little bit. "Like you know, our knight out of his shiny armor, who is stuck as a hostage." Vista recoiled and I turned to Carlos, hopefully he'd be smart enough to see reason. "We need to hand this over to the professionals, last I checked we are literally not trained for this shit!"
"All other Protectorate Assets are tied up." Aegis replied stiffly.
"Well, alright then, we'll hand it over to the cops."
Aegis shook his head. "Villains are Protectorate jurisdiction."
"And hostage situations are the cops."
Aegis shook his head again. "The moment Parahumas became involved, it landed on us. When we get there, fan out and we'll cut their escape options off, if they fight we'll take them on, take them down."
I sighed. "I'll get right on that, boss."
Aegis and Vista both looked mollified by my submission and they continued to talk strategy for the rest of the ride.
The moment the truck stopped, I threw the doors open, jumped down, and ran straight up to whichever cop looked to be relatively in charge. I proceeded to speak in the most obnoxiously loud voice I could get away with, without making it too awkward. "Wards present and accounted for, sir! We are ready to assist. Where do you want us?"
The cop blinked at me. "Aren't you kids here to bust up the Undersiders?"
I shook my head. "No sir! We're here in case the Undersiders attack or get violent on the hostages. Until then, this is your show."
The cop looked quite flabbergasted for a few moments, before grinning and giving me a friendly slap on the shoulder. "Good thinking Kid Win! Get your team set up around the cordon, please help us hold the crowd back, and keep everyone calm."
"Yes sir!" I said. Turning around, I saw the other four Wards, I could only assume Clockblocker and Browbeat were looking at me in shock, same as Vista. Judging by Aegis' glare, if he had heat vision, I'd be dead.
"What the hell was that!?" Aegis hissed angrily. "You agreed with the plan!"
I would roll my eyes but he wouldn't see it. Thankfully, my unparalleled genius has preemptively solved this immense issue. I used my new helmet and activated the hologram emitters I'd installed, causing a 'rolling eyes' emoticon to appear on top of my head. "It's called 'lying.' Do you really wanna start throwing blood, teeth, and fucking lasers around, with these many civilians gawking in the danger zone?"
Aegis pushed forward into my personal space, wholly ignoring my stroke of genius, rude. I could see the PR training kick in as he stopped and looked around. He took in the scene, with all the gawkers, holding their phones up and recording our every move. I heard one of his teeth crack as he grit them too hard. "This conversation is not over."
"It's over for now!" I tossed back at him and danced off to play babysitter to the crowd along with everyone else.
I had given my generic 'everything is under control' speech for roughly the five hundredth time when I spotted a man speaking on a phone by one of the cop vans. A little fiddling with my HUD revealed he was the hostage negotiator, and he'd managed to get in contact with the Undersiders. I heard him offer food and drink to the Undersiders in exchange for a few hostages, and I heard a young woman playfully refuse.
This gave me a wonderful idea.
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RandomFanficReaderAddict
Not too sore, are you?
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- Dec 27, 2022
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Tattletale usually has her powers wanked to unnecessary degrees so I'm hoping this is somewhere in the middle with how y'all treat her powers.
Glory girl is probably gonna do something stupid when she realizes Amy and Dean are in there.
Glory girl is probably gonna do something stupid when she realizes Amy and Dean are in there.
Yakubi42
Sleepy Guy
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Oh no...
Santo
I want to enter your Temple
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We actually discussed at length as to the exact amount of wank to give Tattletale's power.
I like to think we have it in a pretty good spot.
Unseen Runesmith
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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How do you talk-no-jutsu a win against teen brat Sherlock Holmes?
Information Overload, and a side order of Pure Squick.
Information Overload, and a side order of Pure Squick.
KingGremory
Getting out there.
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- Mar 10, 2023
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Absolutely loving Santo-Win's irate quest to get the PRT to do their damn jobs correctly, not matter how many times they put him in front of the public relations people. Truly the hero Brockton needed!
Ersatz 2.2
Heroslayer
Making the rounds.
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And here is the next chapter. It's not quite as bombastic as Kid Win's, but not everyone can be as in your face as alternate Santo/Kid Win. It's a study of contrasts.
Ersatz 2.2
I thought that adjusting to an entirely new life, with new family, new friends, a new city, and you know, super powers, would be fairly difficult. I expected struggle, complications, suspicion. Surely accidently replacing someone should necessitate some subterfuge, government kidnappings and being on the run as a criminal.
But no, my transition into my new life was actually going pretty smooth. Two weeks in and I haven't been strapped down on a table in a government building so I think I can call this a successful integration.
Chris, on the other hand, seemed to have issues.
Not counting the whole, Master/Stranger deal, he was irritated by every little thing. Vicky being around would set him off. Not Tinkering would set him off. Hero work set him off. Even his own actions seemed to piss him off. Like the fact that we really needed to talk about the pending end of the world, but he could never actually find the time to say more than two words to me.
The last time we spoke, he had mentioned something about a bank robbery before kicking me out of his lab since he was elbows deep in some sort of Tinker Tech and swearing like a sailor.
I wasn't quite sure what he meant, but it did ring as familiar. So I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to check out all the banks in Brockton Bay. It gave me an excuse to squirrel away some pocket money in case of an emergency.
Which is why when Amy said she needed to stop by the bank during Lunch Hour, I figured it would be a good idea to go with and scope out a bank.
Why a high school had an hour lunch, I'll never know. Freaking fancy ass rich schools.
"So what's with the sudden trip to the bank?" I said as we both got into line for a teller. Apparently, even in the nicer parts of Brockton Bay, it was too much of a risk to have ATMs on the outside of the bank.
"Well, apparently I need money for the double date that Vicky sprung up on me." Amy said, a rare bit of purple annoyance bleeding into her aura when talking about her sister. It was quickly smothered, before it flared up again with a drop of spite when she looked up at me. "What about you?"
"Would you believe that it's the same reason?" I said with a beleaguered sigh. "I didn't even know we had a date until she mentioned it this morning."
I watched Amy's aura pulse with a dull red of annoyance and vibrant green envy that I fended off with a friendly tap to the shoulder and a slight pulse of acceptance. "Look on the bright side, free food." I joked, as Amy's shoulders relaxed from her bad feelings being bled away.
I was getting a lot of practice with small applications of my power. Mostly thanks to Amy.
Amy just shrugged, a fond smile on her face, "She's spontaneous like that."
"So, I'm learning." I said with a small smile. Despite her fickleness driving me up a wall, I liked being around Vicky. I always enjoyed being around enthusiastic people. That and it was nice to read expressions on a pretty face and not an aura.
I was about to bring up something about class when I saw her aura snap from a thoughtful blue into a neon bright yellow before swirling in a confusing mess. Surprise, fear, confusion. It all spun together way too quickly for me to parse.
"Amy, what's wr-"
"Ahem." I was cut off as I turned around to find a monster right in my face.
"Oh." I squeaked.
That is a very big, and very angry, dog right in front of me. In fact, I'm not sure I would call it a dog. I'm pretty sure dogs aren't supposed to have external bone plates and muscles bulging outside of their skin. Maybe in video games. Well, Earth-Aleph video games. Apparently the industry wasn't doing so hot here. Poor Japan.
No, focus. There was a monster dog in front of me. Like, it was as if someone took all the steroids in the world and decided they wanted to make the angriest and meanest dog ever. Seriously, Bloodborne had nothing on this doggo.
Even worse, animal emotions were a confusing kaleidoscope that gave me a headache.
"Uh… good dog?" My mouth said before I could process.
I winced as everyone took my comment as permission to start screaming at the sight of the demon dog from hell. I thought about sending out a pulse of calm to stop everyone from panicking, but hesitated. Stupid secret identity bullshit.
As I wrestled with my hesitation, the room was engulfed in pitch black darkness.
I reacted just fast enough to reach out and grab Amy's arm before I lost sight of her. She quickly latched onto it and I anchored myself around that sense of touch. I couldn't see her or her emotional aura through the darkness but I could still feel her.
I squinted my eyes for a moment, but the cloud of darkness completely obscured my vision. No colors, no light, not even any hint of Amy despite the fact I could feel her latched onto my arm.
I swallowed and tried to settle my racing heartbeat. I closed my eyes and instantly felt a little better. After all, it's normal to not see anything with your eyes closed. Now with that settled, I could think.
Pitch black super darkness. Who in Brockton Bay could do that?
Thankfully, part of being a government teenaged superhero was a regular briefing on the city's super villain population. So I could come up with a reasonable guess about the source of my sudden blindness.
"Grue." I said. Or, maybe I said. Concerningly, I couldn't even hear the words coming out of my own mouth. Like, I could feel the vibrations, but couldn't hear the audible sound. Very uncomfortable.
If this was Grue, that made this the Undersiders. Which made the giant monster dog one of Hellhound's dogs. They were a four man band, the last I recalled.
Just as I was starting to put my thoughts together, just as fast as it arrived, the darkness parted. It moved away from the room but clung onto the walls and blocked all the windows and doors. It left the room lit only by the harsh artificial lighting.
The Undersiders walk into the center of the room. My eyes quickly darted around each of them as I tried to go through my mental dossier. I made the extra effort to look past their auras to actually see them.
Grue was the one in the helmet and biker leathers. He was the source of the super darkness and leader of the small time gang. Puffy white shirt and the Renaissance mask should be Regent. The girl on one of the doggos from hell was obviously Hellhound, which left the attractive blonde in the jumpsuit as Tattletale.
Except that left one extra.
"Huh, they got a new member." I murmured as I took in the new girl. My gaze pierced through the waves of bright anxiety, worry, guilt, swirling around an iron core of concentration to look at her costume. She wore a greenish jumpsuit littered with armor plating, but the thing that caught my eye was the menacing mask with piercing yellow lenses for eyes.
"Dean." Amy hissed at me from the floor. Right, at the moment I was a civilian hostage, not a Hero. I quickly joined Amy on the ground.
The mysterious masked girl was apparently the spokesperson for the hostage situation and stepped forward to address the bank.
"Fifteen minutes. We won't be here any longer than that. Stay put, stay quiet, we'll be gone before fifteen minutes are up." I could actually see the conflict and anxiety rise up around the girl. She didn't want to hurt anyone. Good, that meant that we were probably going to get out of here without casualties. She continued, "You'll be free to give your statement to the police and then go about your day as usual. This isn't a TV show, this isn't a movie. If you're thinking about being a hero, don't. You'll only get yourself or someone else hurt."
I might have been overthinking it, but I'm pretty sure she looked right at me when she said that.
She raised a hand and I watched as a spider crawled up her arm onto a single finger. "If you are thinking about running, making a phone call or getting in our way, this is a good reason to reconsider. This little creature and her one hundred sisters that I just brought into this room are under my complete control."
"She's a black widow spider. A single bite has been known to kill a full grown human, or put them into a coma. You move, talk, try to find or kill the spiders I just put on your bodies, in your clothes, in your hair? I'll know in a split second, and I'll tell them to bite you several times."
Well, that was bad. I see the fear in the room smothering every single civilian in the bank. Thankfully, the bright red loathing sitting next to me was a nice palate cleanser. I made sure to give Amy's arm a reassuring squeeze. When she looked up at me, there was more surprise than anger, which was nice.
"Hey, she's not bluffing, but she's not planning on hurting anyone." I murmured gently, keeping my voice low enough so only Amy could hear me. Amy gave me a quizzical look and I raised a hand to tap right next to my eyes. She frowned and I could see a bit of that angry red loathing simmer down into a dull red annoyance.
"Look, the Undersiders are thieves. They're not the type to hurt people. This here, it's a threat to keep everyone settled. We sit still, they leave with the money and no one gets hurt." I tried to soothe Amy's righteous fury.
"Or we could stop them." Amy retorted. Right, I'm going to nip the teenage desire to do something reckless right in the bud.
"And the rest of the hostages?" I raised an eyebrow.
"I could cure a Black Widow bite." Amy scowled as she squeezed my hand tight enough to begin to hurt. "Think you can hit all of them at once?"
"Yeah, let's not gamble with everyone's lives." I cut her off. "I'll take the safe option that keeps everyone safe, which includes you, by the way." Amy looked extra annoyed by my concern for her wellbeing. Seriously, I cannot win with this girl. Fine, let's try another angle. "Let's say that the Undersiders get away. Who really gets hurt. The bank? Trust me, they can afford it. Hell, their insurance will probably pay for everything they lose and then some. Let's go with the option that keeps the most people safe and healthy."
Amy did not seem particularly impressed by my argument judging from her expression. But the jokes on her, I could see her actual emotions. The urge to act had dulled down and now she was just simmering in her own anger. I'd probably need to deal with that later, but for now, let's keep anyone from doing something stupid.
I did my best to keep the rest of the hostages calm. Amy tried to help, but the mousey girl wasn't exactly great at socializing. Which left me to soothe the rest of the hostages.
"Hey, we're going to be okay." I whispered to the woman next to me. She was close to sobbing and I laid a gentle hand on her leg and discreetly pulsed just a bit of hope into her.
"Y-yeah…" She looked up at me and I smiled encouragingly as I watched the spark of hope burn away some of the despair in her aua. .
"Most bank robberies end up with everyone walking away." Well, that was true back home. I had no idea what the cape statistics were on that. Something to look up later. "If we just keep quiet, they have no reason to hurt us. We're not the ones they're robbing."
"Really?" I stroked up the woman's hopes just a tad more as I nodded. The woman's terror and sadness receded just a bit and I shot her another smile before turning my eyes to the rest of the hostages.
Once everyone was settled, we just sat quietly and watched the Undersiders work. The big dogs covered all the entrances and seemed more occupied with snarling at us and standing guard. Every now and then, one of the Undersiders would pop into the room to make sure we were sitting quietly. I took note on each one in case the situation took a turn for the worse.
Grue seemed rather tense about the entire situation, but I couldn't get a good read on him other than that since he never seemed to stay in the room for more than a glance. Regent just seemed amused by the entire situation. The bastard even had the gall to flirt with one of the attendants before Grue yelled at him to get back to work. I didn't get a glimpse of Hellhound or Tattletale, so they were probably busy in the back. Which made sense, Brute force and Thinker for the vault in the back.
But mostly I watched Bug Girl, who was in charge of watching us.
I knew for a fact that she was more worried about something. The swirl of anxiety, fear, and self loathing was actually starting to get nauseating to watch, but she held her ground with an iron will that caged in all her other emotions. Not a sign of aggression or anger. I couldn't be completely sure, but I felt that I had guessed right. If we didn't do anything dumb, she wouldn't hurt any of the hostages.
So far so good. If things went smoothly, we'd all be out of here by the afternoon.
"Change of plans." Grue stepped into the room, pitch black darkness bleeding off the edges of his body. I could see yellow annoyance around him along with a small bit of blue relief.
I swore under my breath as everyone tensed up and Amy's slowly building calm burst into an angry red loathing. If Grue's next words were anything threatening, I would need to shoot her with a burst of calm before she did something reckless.
"Tattletale negotiated a hostage exchange." Grue said gruffly. "Women and children can leave."
Some people cheered and I could see a mother clutch her little girl with tears of relief in her eyes. I let out a small breath and dispersed the bit of blue calm I had started to gather around my fingertips, hidden in my jean pockets of course.
"See. What'd I tell you?" I said as the red loathing bled out of Amy. She shot me an annoyed look even as the green calm and disbelief built up in her. "No need for heroics. You're going to be out of here, safe and sound."
"Lucky guess." Amy groused. I'll take the win when I get them.
"Oh, sorry. One exception." I spun around and saw Tattletale saunter into the room and pointed a finger at me. No, not at me, at Amy. "Panacea and her little boyfriend have to stay put."
"Excu-" I began, but was cut off by the utter rage of the girl next to me.
"My what?!" Amy snarled at Tattletale. Wow, okay, you didn't have to get that angry at that. That's a real distracting mix of anger, annoyance, disgust, and self loathing that I am not going to try to sift through at the moment. Instead, I looked over at Tattletale.
"Why the two of us?" I said as I raised an arm protectively over Amy.
"We need a little bit of leverage to keep the Capes from just busting in here." Tattletale said as she leaned lazily against a wall with a smirk. "They won't risk harming Brockton Bay's premiere healer. As for you, well, you're just extra, Mr. Boytoy."
I bristled at that, but Amy had a much more violent response.
"He's not my boytoy or anything like that."
I could see amusement bubbling around Tattletale as she needled Amy. That particular bit of yellow isn't sunny for happy thoughts, no, that's an almost cruel yellow. Like when you are about to bait a puppy before pulling the treat away.
"Oh? Well, I guess tall, rich and handsome isn't really your type, is he?" Tattletale's aura gained a mischievous edge. "No, your type is blonde, blue eyed an-"
Oh no. Yeah, no. None of that. We're not pushing that button today. I could half recall what Amy's issues with her sister were and I really did not want that to be aired out in public.
I dragged Amy backwards and sent a wave of 'calm the fuck down' down her arm at the same time I took a step towards Tattletale. And stopped because one of the dogs looked intently at me.
Time to do something dumb and attention grabbing.
What would Chris do?
Oh, I know!
"It's kinda pathetic, you know," I cut off Tattletale with an aggressive drawl, "that you need to be the smartest in the room. It really reeks of desperation. Not a pretty look, even on a pretty girl."
A shocked silence fell over the bank room, replacing any sign of relief that the hostages felt as I decided to verbally throw down the gauntlet against a Villian.
I could see everyone's attention shoot over to me. I ignored the shock and horror from the civilians and forced my face into a rueful smirk.
"Sorry, did that come off too strong?" My mouth kept vomiting out words with only the smallest bit of input from my brain. "I thought we were playing the petty insult game. Petty insults for a petty thief, am I right?"
I could see the smug glee in Tattletale's aura bleed into a shock of indignant red before in an effort of will, it transitioned into an angry orange that I guessed was something along the lines of, 'challenge accepted.'
Good, she's paying attention to me and not Amy.
"I mean, really? You have the entire place locked down, you have Panacea in the room unable to help anyone and you feel the need to needle her about her dating life?" I raised an eyebrow and pulled up an expression of disappointment. "It's childish, but then again, I guess that's not that surprising with your name."
"Oh?" Tattletale's aura flickered for a moment, swirling around curiosity, anger, before settling back on that sinister smug feeling. "And here I thought you weren't going to play hero. Though I guess being the Knight in Shining Armor is more of your speed?"
I paused. Well shit. That can't have been a blind guess. She got my Cape identity fast from nothing. How did her powers work again?
I saw her smug satisfaction aura of bright canary yellow brighten at knocking me off balance.
Right, Thinker bullshit. But it was too late to stop now. All I could do was keep the conversation going.
"I dabble." I demurred and tilted my head with a sly smile. "The whole being a good person thing. It's actually pretty easy. Not that you've tried."
"Not my thing." Tattletale hummed as she started to walk towards me, curiosity and arrogance settling comfortably around her. "Though I guess in your case, guilt makes a pretty good motivator. As does that pride of yours. You've got to be better than that other guy, right?"
I suppressed a flinch and took a small breath to center myself as Tattletale pivoted and started to pace around me.
I noted that Tattletale was circling me, forcing me to follow her physically to give the impression she's controlling me, a classic mental power play. She couldn't pull answers out of nothing, I reminded myself. She pulled from everything, but she needed information. If I keep reacting so strongly, I may as well be shouting my answer to her.
I made sure to adjust and pivot, keeping me in between Tattletale and Amy. Tattletale's aura pulsed with annoyance, confusion, and alarm. But I had no idea what caused that.
I took that hesitation and ran with it.
"I mean, if you can help. Then help. If I had powers, I'd like to think I'd keep helping people." I smirked. "Less kicking down and more punching up."
"It sounds pretty, but the world doesn't work like that." I couldn't help the little twinge I felt at that. There's only so much you can do around a broken system. It was a sad truth you learned as an adult. "Less chance of a pointless death protecting the status quo."
"I'd like to think that dying trying to save people has a point. Much more than dying for, what, fifty thousand dollars?" I shot back. That got a response. Nothing physical, I'll give it to Tattletale, she had a hell of a poker face, but that meant nothing to my powers. Just a smidge of indigo that I thought was disgust swam through her aura. Something about this situation disgusted her. I needed to focus on that.
What was it? Something to do with this robbery?
That's right. Something floated up from the back of my mind. Chris mentioned a bank robbery as something important with saving the world. This couldn't be about money. Not when we remembered something about it. I didn't know what this robbery was about, but that's the thing, neither did Tattletale.
She didn't know. That had to be it. I saw a flare of surprise and dark annoyance. She knew that I knew something. I could see the gears accelerate as her aura quickly ran through a gamut of colors before honing down into a sharp focus.
No time to think. Let's see if I fell down the correct rabbit hole.
"I mean, it's kind of sad. You don't know why you're really here." I used every bit of acting talent in me to say those words with as much scorn as possible. Tattletale's emotions spiked and swirled. Bullseye. I pulled an expression from Chris' new handbook. I didn't smile, I showed my teeth. "All this heat, all this danger, all of this, and you don't know why you were sent here. Because I'll tell you something. Everyone knows that robbing a bank is more trouble than it's actually worth."
Judging from her aura and the glare I could see through it. I had her undivided attention. Her undivided and very angry attention. Note to self, attacking a Thinker's intelligence really makes them angry. Do not recommend.
"I mean, it must burn you," I pressed. I would have taken a step forward if it wasn't for the bright aggressive colors burning bright in my peripherals. Right, the rest of the Undersiders are still here. "All that intelligence, boosted by your Thinker powers, and you still can't figure it out. All the clues are there. But I guess that makes sense. I'd call you a Knock off Moriarity, but at least he was the mastermind, so I'll call you Budget Sherlock. After all, all you do is figure things out when it's too late to actually help."
Oh wow. I thought that the red I saw from Amy was loathing. No, real loathing is pitch black. It was just a moment, but man, that is a disturbing color to see in an aura of light. To her credit, despite the swirling emotional turmoil, Tattletale didn't miss a beat. I thought I'd knocked her for a loop there, but no, she processed that shock, hate, and absolute loathing right away and went straight for the throat.
"You're right. It does burn a little." Tattletale walked right up to me. I wondered if I could sneak an emotional blast, but the skitter of the black widow sitting on my neck reminded me that I was a hostage, not a superhero. "But that's fine. It probably doesn't burn as much as all the lying does."
I raised an eyebrow and smiled. "I haven't said a single lie, have I?"
"No. You haven't. Not to me." Tattletale turned to Amy. I moved to pull her away, but the sudden movement on the back of my neck reminded me of the very poisonous spider that could kill me and I froze. I watched with grit teeth as Tattletale leaned down until she was on the other side of Amy's head. "Did he tell you?"
"Tell me what?" Amy spat at Tattletale.
I felt all the blood rush out of my face. There was no way that Tattletale could know about the accident. Sure, there was public record that Gallant and Kid Win were caught in an accident, but there was no way for her to know that both of us had contracted amnesia.
Tattletale looked at me and all I could see was the sadistic glee roiling off of her.
"That he can't remember anything before the explosion." Tattletale whispered, just loud enough for me to hear as well. "If he doesn't have his memories, is he even Dean Stansfield anymore?"
Someone gasped. I wasn't sure if it was Amy or me.
Shit. I tried to think of something to say. Anything, just a lie or something to refute Tattletale's words. But I could only stare at Amy who tightened her grip on my arm. For a moment, I could see the colors swirl in confusion, disbelief, anger, worry, before settling on a mess of self loathing and realization.
Or at least, I think that's what she's thinking. The colors are swirling a little too much for me to keep track. Oh wait, that's not just Amy's emotions, the room's spinning a little too.
"Even he's not sure if he's still Dean or someone else." Tattletale continued to whisper poison into Amy's ear, a vicious smirk on her face as she stared at me from the corner of her eyes. "Me? I'm leaning on a fresh Stranger sitting in a new body. I wonder, does that make it murder?"
It did make it murder.
After all, Dean was dead. He wasn't coming back. I didn't even have any of his memories. Not a single one. Not even a hint. They weren't coming back.
And it wasn't just one murder. Afterall, I was slowly losing my memories of my previous life. Every day, bits and pieces disappeared; fading away like fog in the morning sun. Two corpses bleeding out into a brand new life.
And here I was. Born from the death of two people.
I watched Tattletale take a step back. She was smirking at me as she went back to the Undersiders and left the front room. I didn't know that Regent could affect perception too, because the room was starting to tilt.
No wait, that's me again.
Shit.
Shit.
Shit.
It was like all my worries and fears had just taken the form of an attractive blonde in a jumpsuit and aired themselves all out to the public.
Amy knew. She'd tell Vicky. Vicky would tell everyone.
The Wards will find out.
Shit. If they suspect me, they'll suspect Chris.
That'll add to the problem. They already think he's been Mastered.
They'll throw us in a cell to rot.
The world will end.
We won't be able to change anything.
And it'll be my fault.
Shit.
Shit.
Shit.
I can't breathe.
"Dean!" I felt my heart slow down. Like, physically slow down. My lungs started to even out and my brain slowed down from a thousand miles a second back down to a manageable highway speed.
"Ow." I grunted. That had actually hurt, but I used the pain as an anchor to center myself. "Thanks."
"Dean. You…" Amy looked up at me. There was concern, self loathing, happiness, hatred, exhaustion, and so many other things that I wanted to fix about Amy. I needed to make sure to get that rolling.
Shit. Promises to keep, and still so many miles until I can afford to sleep.
"Sit down." Amy guided me down to a corner. I guess the Undersiders had lost interest after I had a panic attack, since only Spider Girl was standing around. She looked particularly guilty, angry and look, more self loathing. I'm really starting to hate that shade of yellow. I've been seeing it way too often.
"'m fine." I grunted and slumped bonelessly against the wall. Amy said nothing as she kept a keen eye on me. I think she mentioned something about permission, which I nodded at and soon I could feel my heartrate start to settle against its own will.
The two of us just sat there, in the corner of the bank room, Amy gripping my hand and willing my anxiety and panic away and me just staring blankly as the Undersiders led the women and children out of the front of the Bank.
Right, hostages. I almost forgot about them. Good. They were safe. This entire shit show was hopefully going to be over soon. The sooner we were out of here the better. I needed to get to Chris and talk to him about this mess and I doubt he's about to walk in through the front door.
It was at that moment that a dark gray boot with red highlights kicked open the front door and Kid Win, in a brand new set of red power armor and my helmet with a new paint scheme slid into the room, his arms spread wide open like a character from a sitcom.
"Helllllllooooo, fellow hostages~!"
We're all going to die.
Ersatz 2.2
I thought that adjusting to an entirely new life, with new family, new friends, a new city, and you know, super powers, would be fairly difficult. I expected struggle, complications, suspicion. Surely accidently replacing someone should necessitate some subterfuge, government kidnappings and being on the run as a criminal.
But no, my transition into my new life was actually going pretty smooth. Two weeks in and I haven't been strapped down on a table in a government building so I think I can call this a successful integration.
Chris, on the other hand, seemed to have issues.
Not counting the whole, Master/Stranger deal, he was irritated by every little thing. Vicky being around would set him off. Not Tinkering would set him off. Hero work set him off. Even his own actions seemed to piss him off. Like the fact that we really needed to talk about the pending end of the world, but he could never actually find the time to say more than two words to me.
The last time we spoke, he had mentioned something about a bank robbery before kicking me out of his lab since he was elbows deep in some sort of Tinker Tech and swearing like a sailor.
I wasn't quite sure what he meant, but it did ring as familiar. So I decided it wouldn't be a bad idea to check out all the banks in Brockton Bay. It gave me an excuse to squirrel away some pocket money in case of an emergency.
Which is why when Amy said she needed to stop by the bank during Lunch Hour, I figured it would be a good idea to go with and scope out a bank.
Why a high school had an hour lunch, I'll never know. Freaking fancy ass rich schools.
"So what's with the sudden trip to the bank?" I said as we both got into line for a teller. Apparently, even in the nicer parts of Brockton Bay, it was too much of a risk to have ATMs on the outside of the bank.
"Well, apparently I need money for the double date that Vicky sprung up on me." Amy said, a rare bit of purple annoyance bleeding into her aura when talking about her sister. It was quickly smothered, before it flared up again with a drop of spite when she looked up at me. "What about you?"
"Would you believe that it's the same reason?" I said with a beleaguered sigh. "I didn't even know we had a date until she mentioned it this morning."
I watched Amy's aura pulse with a dull red of annoyance and vibrant green envy that I fended off with a friendly tap to the shoulder and a slight pulse of acceptance. "Look on the bright side, free food." I joked, as Amy's shoulders relaxed from her bad feelings being bled away.
I was getting a lot of practice with small applications of my power. Mostly thanks to Amy.
Amy just shrugged, a fond smile on her face, "She's spontaneous like that."
"So, I'm learning." I said with a small smile. Despite her fickleness driving me up a wall, I liked being around Vicky. I always enjoyed being around enthusiastic people. That and it was nice to read expressions on a pretty face and not an aura.
I was about to bring up something about class when I saw her aura snap from a thoughtful blue into a neon bright yellow before swirling in a confusing mess. Surprise, fear, confusion. It all spun together way too quickly for me to parse.
"Amy, what's wr-"
"Ahem." I was cut off as I turned around to find a monster right in my face.
"Oh." I squeaked.
That is a very big, and very angry, dog right in front of me. In fact, I'm not sure I would call it a dog. I'm pretty sure dogs aren't supposed to have external bone plates and muscles bulging outside of their skin. Maybe in video games. Well, Earth-Aleph video games. Apparently the industry wasn't doing so hot here. Poor Japan.
No, focus. There was a monster dog in front of me. Like, it was as if someone took all the steroids in the world and decided they wanted to make the angriest and meanest dog ever. Seriously, Bloodborne had nothing on this doggo.
Even worse, animal emotions were a confusing kaleidoscope that gave me a headache.
"Uh… good dog?" My mouth said before I could process.
I winced as everyone took my comment as permission to start screaming at the sight of the demon dog from hell. I thought about sending out a pulse of calm to stop everyone from panicking, but hesitated. Stupid secret identity bullshit.
As I wrestled with my hesitation, the room was engulfed in pitch black darkness.
I reacted just fast enough to reach out and grab Amy's arm before I lost sight of her. She quickly latched onto it and I anchored myself around that sense of touch. I couldn't see her or her emotional aura through the darkness but I could still feel her.
I squinted my eyes for a moment, but the cloud of darkness completely obscured my vision. No colors, no light, not even any hint of Amy despite the fact I could feel her latched onto my arm.
I swallowed and tried to settle my racing heartbeat. I closed my eyes and instantly felt a little better. After all, it's normal to not see anything with your eyes closed. Now with that settled, I could think.
Pitch black super darkness. Who in Brockton Bay could do that?
Thankfully, part of being a government teenaged superhero was a regular briefing on the city's super villain population. So I could come up with a reasonable guess about the source of my sudden blindness.
"Grue." I said. Or, maybe I said. Concerningly, I couldn't even hear the words coming out of my own mouth. Like, I could feel the vibrations, but couldn't hear the audible sound. Very uncomfortable.
If this was Grue, that made this the Undersiders. Which made the giant monster dog one of Hellhound's dogs. They were a four man band, the last I recalled.
Just as I was starting to put my thoughts together, just as fast as it arrived, the darkness parted. It moved away from the room but clung onto the walls and blocked all the windows and doors. It left the room lit only by the harsh artificial lighting.
The Undersiders walk into the center of the room. My eyes quickly darted around each of them as I tried to go through my mental dossier. I made the extra effort to look past their auras to actually see them.
Grue was the one in the helmet and biker leathers. He was the source of the super darkness and leader of the small time gang. Puffy white shirt and the Renaissance mask should be Regent. The girl on one of the doggos from hell was obviously Hellhound, which left the attractive blonde in the jumpsuit as Tattletale.
Except that left one extra.
"Huh, they got a new member." I murmured as I took in the new girl. My gaze pierced through the waves of bright anxiety, worry, guilt, swirling around an iron core of concentration to look at her costume. She wore a greenish jumpsuit littered with armor plating, but the thing that caught my eye was the menacing mask with piercing yellow lenses for eyes.
"Dean." Amy hissed at me from the floor. Right, at the moment I was a civilian hostage, not a Hero. I quickly joined Amy on the ground.
The mysterious masked girl was apparently the spokesperson for the hostage situation and stepped forward to address the bank.
"Fifteen minutes. We won't be here any longer than that. Stay put, stay quiet, we'll be gone before fifteen minutes are up." I could actually see the conflict and anxiety rise up around the girl. She didn't want to hurt anyone. Good, that meant that we were probably going to get out of here without casualties. She continued, "You'll be free to give your statement to the police and then go about your day as usual. This isn't a TV show, this isn't a movie. If you're thinking about being a hero, don't. You'll only get yourself or someone else hurt."
I might have been overthinking it, but I'm pretty sure she looked right at me when she said that.
She raised a hand and I watched as a spider crawled up her arm onto a single finger. "If you are thinking about running, making a phone call or getting in our way, this is a good reason to reconsider. This little creature and her one hundred sisters that I just brought into this room are under my complete control."
"She's a black widow spider. A single bite has been known to kill a full grown human, or put them into a coma. You move, talk, try to find or kill the spiders I just put on your bodies, in your clothes, in your hair? I'll know in a split second, and I'll tell them to bite you several times."
Well, that was bad. I see the fear in the room smothering every single civilian in the bank. Thankfully, the bright red loathing sitting next to me was a nice palate cleanser. I made sure to give Amy's arm a reassuring squeeze. When she looked up at me, there was more surprise than anger, which was nice.
"Hey, she's not bluffing, but she's not planning on hurting anyone." I murmured gently, keeping my voice low enough so only Amy could hear me. Amy gave me a quizzical look and I raised a hand to tap right next to my eyes. She frowned and I could see a bit of that angry red loathing simmer down into a dull red annoyance.
"Look, the Undersiders are thieves. They're not the type to hurt people. This here, it's a threat to keep everyone settled. We sit still, they leave with the money and no one gets hurt." I tried to soothe Amy's righteous fury.
"Or we could stop them." Amy retorted. Right, I'm going to nip the teenage desire to do something reckless right in the bud.
"And the rest of the hostages?" I raised an eyebrow.
"I could cure a Black Widow bite." Amy scowled as she squeezed my hand tight enough to begin to hurt. "Think you can hit all of them at once?"
"Yeah, let's not gamble with everyone's lives." I cut her off. "I'll take the safe option that keeps everyone safe, which includes you, by the way." Amy looked extra annoyed by my concern for her wellbeing. Seriously, I cannot win with this girl. Fine, let's try another angle. "Let's say that the Undersiders get away. Who really gets hurt. The bank? Trust me, they can afford it. Hell, their insurance will probably pay for everything they lose and then some. Let's go with the option that keeps the most people safe and healthy."
Amy did not seem particularly impressed by my argument judging from her expression. But the jokes on her, I could see her actual emotions. The urge to act had dulled down and now she was just simmering in her own anger. I'd probably need to deal with that later, but for now, let's keep anyone from doing something stupid.
I did my best to keep the rest of the hostages calm. Amy tried to help, but the mousey girl wasn't exactly great at socializing. Which left me to soothe the rest of the hostages.
"Hey, we're going to be okay." I whispered to the woman next to me. She was close to sobbing and I laid a gentle hand on her leg and discreetly pulsed just a bit of hope into her.
"Y-yeah…" She looked up at me and I smiled encouragingly as I watched the spark of hope burn away some of the despair in her aua. .
"Most bank robberies end up with everyone walking away." Well, that was true back home. I had no idea what the cape statistics were on that. Something to look up later. "If we just keep quiet, they have no reason to hurt us. We're not the ones they're robbing."
"Really?" I stroked up the woman's hopes just a tad more as I nodded. The woman's terror and sadness receded just a bit and I shot her another smile before turning my eyes to the rest of the hostages.
Once everyone was settled, we just sat quietly and watched the Undersiders work. The big dogs covered all the entrances and seemed more occupied with snarling at us and standing guard. Every now and then, one of the Undersiders would pop into the room to make sure we were sitting quietly. I took note on each one in case the situation took a turn for the worse.
Grue seemed rather tense about the entire situation, but I couldn't get a good read on him other than that since he never seemed to stay in the room for more than a glance. Regent just seemed amused by the entire situation. The bastard even had the gall to flirt with one of the attendants before Grue yelled at him to get back to work. I didn't get a glimpse of Hellhound or Tattletale, so they were probably busy in the back. Which made sense, Brute force and Thinker for the vault in the back.
But mostly I watched Bug Girl, who was in charge of watching us.
I knew for a fact that she was more worried about something. The swirl of anxiety, fear, and self loathing was actually starting to get nauseating to watch, but she held her ground with an iron will that caged in all her other emotions. Not a sign of aggression or anger. I couldn't be completely sure, but I felt that I had guessed right. If we didn't do anything dumb, she wouldn't hurt any of the hostages.
So far so good. If things went smoothly, we'd all be out of here by the afternoon.
"Change of plans." Grue stepped into the room, pitch black darkness bleeding off the edges of his body. I could see yellow annoyance around him along with a small bit of blue relief.
I swore under my breath as everyone tensed up and Amy's slowly building calm burst into an angry red loathing. If Grue's next words were anything threatening, I would need to shoot her with a burst of calm before she did something reckless.
"Tattletale negotiated a hostage exchange." Grue said gruffly. "Women and children can leave."
Some people cheered and I could see a mother clutch her little girl with tears of relief in her eyes. I let out a small breath and dispersed the bit of blue calm I had started to gather around my fingertips, hidden in my jean pockets of course.
"See. What'd I tell you?" I said as the red loathing bled out of Amy. She shot me an annoyed look even as the green calm and disbelief built up in her. "No need for heroics. You're going to be out of here, safe and sound."
"Lucky guess." Amy groused. I'll take the win when I get them.
"Oh, sorry. One exception." I spun around and saw Tattletale saunter into the room and pointed a finger at me. No, not at me, at Amy. "Panacea and her little boyfriend have to stay put."
"Excu-" I began, but was cut off by the utter rage of the girl next to me.
"My what?!" Amy snarled at Tattletale. Wow, okay, you didn't have to get that angry at that. That's a real distracting mix of anger, annoyance, disgust, and self loathing that I am not going to try to sift through at the moment. Instead, I looked over at Tattletale.
"Why the two of us?" I said as I raised an arm protectively over Amy.
"We need a little bit of leverage to keep the Capes from just busting in here." Tattletale said as she leaned lazily against a wall with a smirk. "They won't risk harming Brockton Bay's premiere healer. As for you, well, you're just extra, Mr. Boytoy."
I bristled at that, but Amy had a much more violent response.
"He's not my boytoy or anything like that."
I could see amusement bubbling around Tattletale as she needled Amy. That particular bit of yellow isn't sunny for happy thoughts, no, that's an almost cruel yellow. Like when you are about to bait a puppy before pulling the treat away.
"Oh? Well, I guess tall, rich and handsome isn't really your type, is he?" Tattletale's aura gained a mischievous edge. "No, your type is blonde, blue eyed an-"
Oh no. Yeah, no. None of that. We're not pushing that button today. I could half recall what Amy's issues with her sister were and I really did not want that to be aired out in public.
I dragged Amy backwards and sent a wave of 'calm the fuck down' down her arm at the same time I took a step towards Tattletale. And stopped because one of the dogs looked intently at me.
Time to do something dumb and attention grabbing.
What would Chris do?
Oh, I know!
"It's kinda pathetic, you know," I cut off Tattletale with an aggressive drawl, "that you need to be the smartest in the room. It really reeks of desperation. Not a pretty look, even on a pretty girl."
A shocked silence fell over the bank room, replacing any sign of relief that the hostages felt as I decided to verbally throw down the gauntlet against a Villian.
I could see everyone's attention shoot over to me. I ignored the shock and horror from the civilians and forced my face into a rueful smirk.
"Sorry, did that come off too strong?" My mouth kept vomiting out words with only the smallest bit of input from my brain. "I thought we were playing the petty insult game. Petty insults for a petty thief, am I right?"
I could see the smug glee in Tattletale's aura bleed into a shock of indignant red before in an effort of will, it transitioned into an angry orange that I guessed was something along the lines of, 'challenge accepted.'
Good, she's paying attention to me and not Amy.
"I mean, really? You have the entire place locked down, you have Panacea in the room unable to help anyone and you feel the need to needle her about her dating life?" I raised an eyebrow and pulled up an expression of disappointment. "It's childish, but then again, I guess that's not that surprising with your name."
"Oh?" Tattletale's aura flickered for a moment, swirling around curiosity, anger, before settling back on that sinister smug feeling. "And here I thought you weren't going to play hero. Though I guess being the Knight in Shining Armor is more of your speed?"
I paused. Well shit. That can't have been a blind guess. She got my Cape identity fast from nothing. How did her powers work again?
I saw her smug satisfaction aura of bright canary yellow brighten at knocking me off balance.
Right, Thinker bullshit. But it was too late to stop now. All I could do was keep the conversation going.
"I dabble." I demurred and tilted my head with a sly smile. "The whole being a good person thing. It's actually pretty easy. Not that you've tried."
"Not my thing." Tattletale hummed as she started to walk towards me, curiosity and arrogance settling comfortably around her. "Though I guess in your case, guilt makes a pretty good motivator. As does that pride of yours. You've got to be better than that other guy, right?"
I suppressed a flinch and took a small breath to center myself as Tattletale pivoted and started to pace around me.
I noted that Tattletale was circling me, forcing me to follow her physically to give the impression she's controlling me, a classic mental power play. She couldn't pull answers out of nothing, I reminded myself. She pulled from everything, but she needed information. If I keep reacting so strongly, I may as well be shouting my answer to her.
I made sure to adjust and pivot, keeping me in between Tattletale and Amy. Tattletale's aura pulsed with annoyance, confusion, and alarm. But I had no idea what caused that.
I took that hesitation and ran with it.
"I mean, if you can help. Then help. If I had powers, I'd like to think I'd keep helping people." I smirked. "Less kicking down and more punching up."
"It sounds pretty, but the world doesn't work like that." I couldn't help the little twinge I felt at that. There's only so much you can do around a broken system. It was a sad truth you learned as an adult. "Less chance of a pointless death protecting the status quo."
"I'd like to think that dying trying to save people has a point. Much more than dying for, what, fifty thousand dollars?" I shot back. That got a response. Nothing physical, I'll give it to Tattletale, she had a hell of a poker face, but that meant nothing to my powers. Just a smidge of indigo that I thought was disgust swam through her aura. Something about this situation disgusted her. I needed to focus on that.
What was it? Something to do with this robbery?
That's right. Something floated up from the back of my mind. Chris mentioned a bank robbery as something important with saving the world. This couldn't be about money. Not when we remembered something about it. I didn't know what this robbery was about, but that's the thing, neither did Tattletale.
She didn't know. That had to be it. I saw a flare of surprise and dark annoyance. She knew that I knew something. I could see the gears accelerate as her aura quickly ran through a gamut of colors before honing down into a sharp focus.
No time to think. Let's see if I fell down the correct rabbit hole.
"I mean, it's kind of sad. You don't know why you're really here." I used every bit of acting talent in me to say those words with as much scorn as possible. Tattletale's emotions spiked and swirled. Bullseye. I pulled an expression from Chris' new handbook. I didn't smile, I showed my teeth. "All this heat, all this danger, all of this, and you don't know why you were sent here. Because I'll tell you something. Everyone knows that robbing a bank is more trouble than it's actually worth."
Judging from her aura and the glare I could see through it. I had her undivided attention. Her undivided and very angry attention. Note to self, attacking a Thinker's intelligence really makes them angry. Do not recommend.
"I mean, it must burn you," I pressed. I would have taken a step forward if it wasn't for the bright aggressive colors burning bright in my peripherals. Right, the rest of the Undersiders are still here. "All that intelligence, boosted by your Thinker powers, and you still can't figure it out. All the clues are there. But I guess that makes sense. I'd call you a Knock off Moriarity, but at least he was the mastermind, so I'll call you Budget Sherlock. After all, all you do is figure things out when it's too late to actually help."
Oh wow. I thought that the red I saw from Amy was loathing. No, real loathing is pitch black. It was just a moment, but man, that is a disturbing color to see in an aura of light. To her credit, despite the swirling emotional turmoil, Tattletale didn't miss a beat. I thought I'd knocked her for a loop there, but no, she processed that shock, hate, and absolute loathing right away and went straight for the throat.
"You're right. It does burn a little." Tattletale walked right up to me. I wondered if I could sneak an emotional blast, but the skitter of the black widow sitting on my neck reminded me that I was a hostage, not a superhero. "But that's fine. It probably doesn't burn as much as all the lying does."
I raised an eyebrow and smiled. "I haven't said a single lie, have I?"
"No. You haven't. Not to me." Tattletale turned to Amy. I moved to pull her away, but the sudden movement on the back of my neck reminded me of the very poisonous spider that could kill me and I froze. I watched with grit teeth as Tattletale leaned down until she was on the other side of Amy's head. "Did he tell you?"
"Tell me what?" Amy spat at Tattletale.
I felt all the blood rush out of my face. There was no way that Tattletale could know about the accident. Sure, there was public record that Gallant and Kid Win were caught in an accident, but there was no way for her to know that both of us had contracted amnesia.
Tattletale looked at me and all I could see was the sadistic glee roiling off of her.
"That he can't remember anything before the explosion." Tattletale whispered, just loud enough for me to hear as well. "If he doesn't have his memories, is he even Dean Stansfield anymore?"
Someone gasped. I wasn't sure if it was Amy or me.
Shit. I tried to think of something to say. Anything, just a lie or something to refute Tattletale's words. But I could only stare at Amy who tightened her grip on my arm. For a moment, I could see the colors swirl in confusion, disbelief, anger, worry, before settling on a mess of self loathing and realization.
Or at least, I think that's what she's thinking. The colors are swirling a little too much for me to keep track. Oh wait, that's not just Amy's emotions, the room's spinning a little too.
"Even he's not sure if he's still Dean or someone else." Tattletale continued to whisper poison into Amy's ear, a vicious smirk on her face as she stared at me from the corner of her eyes. "Me? I'm leaning on a fresh Stranger sitting in a new body. I wonder, does that make it murder?"
It did make it murder.
After all, Dean was dead. He wasn't coming back. I didn't even have any of his memories. Not a single one. Not even a hint. They weren't coming back.
And it wasn't just one murder. Afterall, I was slowly losing my memories of my previous life. Every day, bits and pieces disappeared; fading away like fog in the morning sun. Two corpses bleeding out into a brand new life.
And here I was. Born from the death of two people.
I watched Tattletale take a step back. She was smirking at me as she went back to the Undersiders and left the front room. I didn't know that Regent could affect perception too, because the room was starting to tilt.
No wait, that's me again.
Shit.
Shit.
Shit.
It was like all my worries and fears had just taken the form of an attractive blonde in a jumpsuit and aired themselves all out to the public.
Amy knew. She'd tell Vicky. Vicky would tell everyone.
The Wards will find out.
Shit. If they suspect me, they'll suspect Chris.
That'll add to the problem. They already think he's been Mastered.
They'll throw us in a cell to rot.
The world will end.
We won't be able to change anything.
And it'll be my fault.
Shit.
Shit.
Shit.
I can't breathe.
"Dean!" I felt my heart slow down. Like, physically slow down. My lungs started to even out and my brain slowed down from a thousand miles a second back down to a manageable highway speed.
"Ow." I grunted. That had actually hurt, but I used the pain as an anchor to center myself. "Thanks."
"Dean. You…" Amy looked up at me. There was concern, self loathing, happiness, hatred, exhaustion, and so many other things that I wanted to fix about Amy. I needed to make sure to get that rolling.
Shit. Promises to keep, and still so many miles until I can afford to sleep.
"Sit down." Amy guided me down to a corner. I guess the Undersiders had lost interest after I had a panic attack, since only Spider Girl was standing around. She looked particularly guilty, angry and look, more self loathing. I'm really starting to hate that shade of yellow. I've been seeing it way too often.
"'m fine." I grunted and slumped bonelessly against the wall. Amy said nothing as she kept a keen eye on me. I think she mentioned something about permission, which I nodded at and soon I could feel my heartrate start to settle against its own will.
The two of us just sat there, in the corner of the bank room, Amy gripping my hand and willing my anxiety and panic away and me just staring blankly as the Undersiders led the women and children out of the front of the Bank.
Right, hostages. I almost forgot about them. Good. They were safe. This entire shit show was hopefully going to be over soon. The sooner we were out of here the better. I needed to get to Chris and talk to him about this mess and I doubt he's about to walk in through the front door.
It was at that moment that a dark gray boot with red highlights kicked open the front door and Kid Win, in a brand new set of red power armor and my helmet with a new paint scheme slid into the room, his arms spread wide open like a character from a sitcom.
"Helllllllooooo, fellow hostages~!"
We're all going to die.
Santo
I want to enter your Temple
- Joined
- May 23, 2020
- Messages
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I liked that you specifically had to channel me to be a confrontational asshole. XD
All hail the master plan. Which is absolutely totally thought out. To have nooooo negative repercussions.
Incidentally, anyone know how to set up co-authorship of a thread?
All hail the master plan. Which is absolutely totally thought out. To have nooooo negative repercussions.
Incidentally, anyone know how to set up co-authorship of a thread?
Delorean08
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2023
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- 1,013
Here we go, baby! The shining and raging star of the story!