Sunday 16th January 2011
My 'Escalate!' ability, which took two red mana and five generic had indeed increased my summon limit again. It had done more than that.
Firstly, I'd gained 'First Strike', which sorta meant that I could always sucker-punch someone, unless they had First Strike too. Sophia would be proud.
Secondly, my control limit was now up to six permanent creatures.
Thirdly, I'd gained a point of power, bringing me up to 5.
Fourth, my casting cost now included a red mana.
And fifthly, all my summons would arrive with the 'Haste' keyword ability. Which just meant that they'd not suffer from summoning sickness and be fit to fight on the first day.
My 'Escalate!' ability had gone, and been replaced with a new ability, called 'Escalate!!', which cost two green mana and six generic.
The escalation, and possibly my deeply unpleasant soul-baring with my dad, had upgraded the Hebert Residence to be able to tap for one red mana, with the image showing the new poster and the text reading, 'Scouring may be necessary to create new foundations to build from' Which I wasn't going to argue with. Dad was now 'Danny Hebert -- Improving Father', and I was 'Taylor Hebert -- Improving Daughter', which was lovely. Our cards each showed us sitting at that bench eating our burgers, facing each other, and if paired together it made a single scene.
I drew the Taiga Stadium card as planned, and was keen to see it played so that I could summon the colossus, or Escalate again. I gave Yuriko the job of heading over to Arcadia High School sometime in the morning so that I could link up the Taiga Stadium card to their sports ground, and told her that the rest of they day was her own.
Taiga Stadium, by the way, was another 'unfinished' card that was missing a lot of details. It just showed a stick-figure stadium with red and green flags, and the text read, 'CARDNAME enters the battlefield tapped unless you control a white, blue, or black permanent. Tap to add red or green mana.' Yuriko and I both counted as the type of permanents the stadium was looking for, so it entered untapped, and was able to give me mana straight away, which was nice.
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Dad and I got up bright and early, and Dad drove us down to the docks. We waited there in the cold morning light for about fifteen minutes before Kurt and Lacey showed up. They were dockworkers like Dad, and apparently knew a bit about salvaging boats.
"Hey, Danny, Taylor," said Lacey as they approached, "Why are we out here on a Sunday, Danny?"
"Lacy, Kurt, thanks for coming," said Danny, clasping hands with his friends, "Taylor here has an idea for clearing the MV True Purpose out of the mouth of the bay, but I want to run it by you first."
Kurt looked doubtful, Lacey looked pleased.
"What's the idea, Taylor?" asked Lacey, "That sucker won't move easy; Hurricane Early last year didn't shift it an inch."
"Just a moment," said my dad, "Kurt, Lacey, can you promise to keep this to yourselves? I mean it -- tell no-one. You'll understand when you hear the idea."
"Seriously?" said Kurt, "Danny, if we can get the TP moved, it would do so much for morale, for jobs. Some people could do with some hope, you know."
"I know," said Danny, "Even so."
"Okay," said Kurt, looking at Lacey who nodded, "We'll keep this to ourselves. What's the idea."
"The idea," I said, floating into the air, "Is that I summon a hundred foot tall iron golem into the bay and have it either carry the tanker out of the way, or cut it into pieces, and put them down somewhere so that ships can pass."
"Fuck!" said Kurt, staring at me.
"Taylor!" said Lacey, "You can fly! You're a cape!"
"I know," I said. Possibly a little smugly, based on Dad's expression.
"You can summon hundred foot golems? Can I see one?"
"Er, I can summon one hundred foot tall golem, and once it's here I can't get rid of it again easily. My Power is pretty random like that. So I want to make sure that everyone is hunky dory with Collie the Colossus before I summon him."
"Sensible," said Kurt.
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We took a small boat out to the big boat and climbed onboard. Dad gave me a run down on how tankers are put together. There were over a dozen compartments inside a double-hull, the idea being to minimize the amount of oil spilled if there way any damage. While we were talking, Kurt and Lacey had sailed around the tanker, knocking on the hull and looking at rivets and rust.
We met up on the True Purpose's deck, which had a heavy slant.
"Short form?" said Kurt, nodding to me, "There's no way she's strong enough to be lifted out in one piece. She'll have to be dismantled and moved in sections."
"Do you see how it lists," said Lacey, "the tanks were drained years ago, but there will be residue, and it'll be gathered up in the corners in that direction," she said, pointing, "So if you cut into the bulkheads on the other side, it should minimise the spillage."
"Any other problems?" asked Dad.
"Just the risk of explosions," said Kurt with a shrug.
"Explosions? There are explosives in this thing?" I asked.
Kurt chuckled, "No, but oils outgas. Fumes build up in the tanks; if the fuel to air mix is wrong, and there's a spark, you can have a nasty explosion. No-one wants that. If you're doing this with a metal sword being held by a metal golem standing in sea water, you will be grounded and not be generating any sparks, but the heat might still be a problem. I'll talk to Scott and we'll work something out. Just don't inspect the tanks with light from a cigarette lighter beforehand and we'll be fine." He grinned.
"Okay, so I can't let Collie the Colossus smoke while he's on duty. Noted." I said.
"As a union official," said Dad with a smile, "I'll pretend I didn't hear that."
"The only other problems are all legal," said Kurt.
"Who owns the tanker?"
"I don't know," said Dad, "I'll need to call Alan, he will know, or can tell me who does."
Alan Barnes. Emma's father. I made a face.
"Let's head back to the office. Thanks, Kurt, Lacey; I'll buy you both a beer later."
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So, apparently the MV True Purpose belonged to the State, because of the Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1988. Which was enacted to protect historic shipwrecks but was now protecting the rust bucket we needed to remove. And once the State got involved there were environmental regulations we had to follow, or the DWA (and I) could get sued into oblivion.
Dad summarised the conversations after a long day of telephoning people, "Everyone wants this thing gone, Taylor. The mayors' office, the State, the DWA, the environmentalists, everyone. The problem is that it needs to be done properly, or the DWA will be held accountable, because we are the ones hiring a parahuman to do the heavy lifting. And if we didn't do that, you'd be the one left holding the can."
"So, no Collie the Colossus?" I asked sadly.
"No Collie the Colossus today. But if you keep Collie in your hand, maybe we'll be able to implement your plan in a few weeks."
I'd been looking forward to getting it done that night; for people to wake up in the morning to find the wreck gone and a new beacon of hope in Brockton Bay. But I didn't want to spill gallons of oil in the bay, or get Dad in trouble, so needed to do things by the book.
It was fine, I could wait.
"It's a good thing, really," said Dad brightly, "We can use the time while the administration stuff gets sorted to train you how to be a proper dockworker!"
I groaned.
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That night, all my lands were still untapped and I had to decide what to do. I didn't have any cards that I wanted to play. Most of my 'random' cards had been pretty useless, with four out of six being duds.
I could, obviously, Escalate!!. I had enough mana for it, just, and it would give me benefits. I was very confident that it wouldn't upgrade my dad's or our home's cards, because I hadn't done enough in the day to actually show an improvement in our relationship.
The thing was, I didn't think that the Dad / home upgrades were intrinsicly linked to my Escalations. If I somehow sorted out all our problems with a click of my fingers and upgraded our house to have an inbuilt jacuzzi and home cinema, the next Escalation shouldn't just show a minor improvement. And that meant that I could upgrade without feeling guilty.
"When in doubt, Escalate," I said, tapped my Mox and all my lands, activated the ability, and fell unconscious.
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Directory Emily Piggot of PRT-ENE, answered the phone on the third ring. She was a large woman, whose injuries in the line of fire prevented her from exercising as much as she needed. She hated that she was out of breath after power walking to answer the phone.
"This is Piggot."
The voice on the other end of the line was female and professional. "Hello, Director Piggot, this is Agent Sam Hendries, FBI. This is a courtesy call, as an investigation into a tip-off has revealed a possible issue that you may need to be aware of."
"Uh-huh," said Emily.
"We had an anonymous tip that the Principal of Winslow High School in Brockton Bay, Violet Blackwell, is embezzling state funds. Our investigation has shown that amongst the money she had stolen is money from the PRT for the protection and education of, uh, 'PRT Assets'."
Damn! Hess went to Winslow High. Good job that the problem had been caught, or the vicious little bitch might have caused Emily even more of a headache than usual and got herself injured.
"I see," said Emily, "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. We shall need to do a thorough audit of Winslow's facilities and emergency readiness."
"That's not all," said Agent Hendries, making Emily's stomach sink.
"Go ahead."
"Some of the money that Blackwell has been embezzling has gone to a 'Ms Alanis Mendin Rios'--"
That was Hess' handler. Dammit, Emily had liked the woman.
"--It is unclear from their correspondence if it was blackmail or if Rios was a co-conspirator, but Rios has assisted in suppressing some reports of incidents that, reading between the lines, should have gone to the PRT."
Emily's blood ran cold.
"Can you give any examples?"
Hendries coughed. "We are very keen to avoid breaking any unwritten rules, Ma'am--"
"I do appreciate that. Is there anything you can tell me, without singling out any one person?"
"I can tell you that there appears to be a bullying problem at Winslow High--"
Unreported bullying could be catastrophically serious. What was Rios thinking?! Hell, what was Blackwell thinking? No-one wanted a Carrie. "Thank you for letting us know."
The agent kept going, "There was a particularly stomach-turning incident at the beginning of the year. If I give you the names of the three alleged perpetrators?"
Emily almost didn't need her to. "Go for it."
"Emma Barnes. Madison Clements. Sophia Hess."
Fuck. What had the little shit done this time?
"I see. Thank you. I believe that we will want a copy of that incident report ourselves."
"There's no report, ma'am, at least at Winslow. Brockton Hospital may have more information. I suggest getting a warrant to review Blackwell and Rios' civilian communications relating to the 'Locker Incident' during week commencing January 3rd."
"Thank you, Agent Hendries. I believe that we will do just that. We also want to review your findings, if we may."
It didn't take long to sort out the details, and after the agent had hung up Emily stabbed the button to call her secretary with righteous fury. "Get me Rennick."
"Yes, Ma'am."
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Monday 17th January 2011
My new card was Vanishing, which would let me enchant someone so that I could spend mana to make them 'phase out', which seemed to mean 'stop existing for the rest of the day'. They'd return, unharmed, at midnight. It was the same trick that my Robe of Stars could do, and I really needed to test how it worked at some point. It was an interesting spell, because I could use it to make a nuisance go away until we were ready to deal with them, or keep one of my people safe. I was at my hand limit now, with seven cards in hand, even if four of them were duds in my opinion. That meant that if I got any more cards, I'd have to throw the excess away at the end of the turn.
I was relieved to feel the same wordless need in my mind as I had last Monday, a deeply uncomfortable need to say what I wanted...
I was ready for it this time, and the answer was obvious. "We need more money."
The text where the small deck of cards next to my massive library changed to 'Wealth Acquisition', and seven cards pulled themselves form the main deck to form a neat little stack above the text. Phew. I had been worried. Although that top card on the small stack looked different. Bigger...
Well, I'd find out what that meant tomorrow.
The second most important thing, after being able to switch from random cards, was the effect of my green-themed Escalate!!. It did not disappoint.
I gained 'Trample', which meant that any excess damage I did to someone or something could be carried over to someone or something else. It sounded kinda brutal, but I was already in danger of killing people by accident, so I'd just need to be more careful. In fact, I'd need to be even more careful than before, because the Escalate!! also gave me two points of both power and toughness, bringing my power/toughness to 7/11. I could now punch hard enough that someone in power armour would definitely feel it. I mean, Armsmaster's toughness would be eight, if I added up all his Tinkertech properly, so a punch from me wouldn't kill him, but it would definitely make him unhappy with me. My casting cost increased to include one green mana, I gained the ability to pay two green and two mana of any colour to put a +1/+1 counter on a target creature (nice, that would give me something useful to do with my mana on the slow days), and I had the ability Escalate!!!, that called for two white and seven generic mana, which I couldn't afford just yet.
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School was fine. Ish. Emma hadn't let up at all, but Madison was still being very careful around me, and Sophia spent a lot of time staring at me. My clothes didn't fit properly any more -- I'd escalated three times now, and I couldn't deny that I was now filling them out very differently than I had done previously. Even my hoodies couldn't hide the broadness of my shoulders. I ignored the mockery of Emma and her minions -- them insulting my clothes was nothing.
The day did have one blessing though: Dad had been as good as his word, and excused me from sports for today and forever more; that was a massive relief for so many reasons. It took a while to sink in that I would never again be in a changing room with Emma and her goons; a tension I hadn't realised I was holding left my shoulders.
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After school, I joined up with the Heartfelt Troubadours and chatted about things. Guillaume told stories form other planes and I lost track of time and dad had already started supper by the time I got in. Dad wasn't happy about that, I could see the anger born of worry. I'd explained that I'd been with friends, and gave him the number for the Bards' House. He accepted that, barely.
After I'd gone to my room and done my homework, I reviewed my new cards. I think I had all of the Protectorate parahumans now, and most of the Wards. It turned out that Triumph and Battery both got their Powers from the same woman in the white lab coat; Triumph's were purchased by his parents to help his baseball career just before mandatory screening for Powers was introduced (oops), Battery's were given to her as part of a deal. Being a person who came by their Power through excessive trauma, I wasn't too happy that others could pay money or favours to skip all that.
There was one other notable card from Prakash: 'Coil -- 'Mastermind' Villain'. One white mana, one black mana for a 2/2 legendary parahuman villain.
I'd found him, or at least I now had his civilian name: Thomas Calvert, PRT Consultant. Interestingly, he was yet another cape who had purchased his powers (again from the lady with the white coat). I was shocked, shocked I tell you, that the people selling Powers sold them to villains as well as heroes. If you can't trust a secret society, who can you trust? Etc.
Fine, there was something fishy going on here but I needed to know more before I cast any judgement, and it wasn't as if it was my job to get involved or anything. I was just curious, and surprised about how many there were going about.
Coil's Shard was interesting -- the text was hard to read, like all vial capes, but it seemed to let him see how any scenario could play out in two different ways, and choose whichever outcome he preferred. This guy was always going to win with a coin toss, if he wanted to. Mechanically it just said that if any random decision was made (tossing a coin or rolling a dice), perform the operation twice and pick which of the results to use. Much like my Power, though, his Power had a lot of potential for abuse outside of the mechanics of my Power's little card game. What was handy in a fight could be devastating outside of it.
I told myself to treat Coil with caution, and not just because I didn't trust anyone whose identity included the word 'mastermind'. Even if it was in quotes.
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I was thinking about the potential of Coil's Power. It would be so valuable for information gathering -- you could interview someone, and take responses from one timeline and use them against the person in another. You could stalk someone you thought was a parahuman, force them to use their Power to fight you to confirm it, and then switch back to the other timeline, with your victim none the wiser. You could do so many things...
And I could, too. I didn't need to stalk anyone. If I laid eyes on anyone, either my own eyes, or that of one of my creatures, then I'd immediately know so much about them. Heck, I was continually seeing through the lenses of the Spotter Thopter that Prakash had made. I didn't need to do anything, but if a parahuman lived in Brockton Bay then I'd soon know everything I needed--
I was breaking the unwritten rules. Or I was a hair's-breadth away from doing so. One slip on my side and I could do so much damage, and if I did that, I'd be exposed in turn. Shit.
The unwritten rules were important. They were protecting me, and they were protecting my father. I would need to be a lot better at observing those rules. And that meant that I couldn't look too closely at the cards of any other parahumans that I met. I was a curious person, but I was far better off not knowing a lot of things.
It was a lot to think about, but I'd have to think about it while I was walking -- Yuriko wanted to talk.
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Yuriko and the bards were sitting at their kitchen table with drinks; there was a chair pulled aside and waiting for me, and a can of soda. Yuriko looked calm and serious, while Jehan looked angry, Perrette looked sad, and Guillaume was staring into the distance, distracted by some conundrum that only he could see. Yuriko had a closed manilla folder in front of her, next to her tea.
"You wanted to talk," I said, taking the seat set aside for me.
"Thank you for coming, Commander," said Yuriko with a low nod of her head. "I have finished my initial survey of the gangs of Brockton Bay, primarily focussing on the Empire Eighty-Eight and the 'Azn Bad Boys', and wish to present my findings. Before that, though, Commander, I would like to confirm your desires. You have stated that you wish to be a hero; could you please tell us what you expect that to entail?"
Nice as it was to be put on the spot as soon as I'd sat down, I tried to answer the question. "Um, helping people? Taking risks and doing things other people can't do, to make them safer and the town a better place?"
Yuriko nodded calmly, "Thank you. So you want to have a noticeable impact on the city? You wish to change the status quo?"
"The current 'status quo' is awful," I said flatly.
"I do not disagree, Commander. Five or six people are killed each week, and the unspoken cost of crime -- the businesses 'taxed' by the gangs, the women forced into prostitution and raped several times a day, and the lives destroyed by the drugs the gangs sell happen continuously. The status quo presents us with a difficulty, because the status quo at present is in balance. Precarious, yes, but in balance." She opened her folder and pulled out some printouts, which she handed to me.
I looked at them -- half a dozen printed out news articles with headlines like, 'Fourteen civilians dead in clash between The Teeth and Accord', 'Devastation in Brockton Bay costs dozens of lives', and so on. It wasn't hard to see the unifying theme of the articles -- high collateral damage from gang warfare. Or just the high cost of that warfare -- one news article discussed the death of twenty Empire and ABB gang members from a clash a few years back. "So, gang warfare costs lives."
"Yes, Commander," said Yuriko, "Is that a problem to you?"
I glared at her, "Yes it is. I want to stop the gangs." Jehan was looking at my sympathetically, but Perrette was tight-mouthed.
"And if I said that you could not stop the gangs without people dying? Often innocent people?"
I wasn't having it. "They kill people now. They destroy lives now. They need to be stopped now. And I-- I hate that civilians may die--"
"Will die, Commander," said Yuriko.
"May die when it happens is terrible. But I won't be killing them. That will be the gangs."
Yuriko nodded, and gave me a tight smile, "Good; that will make things easier. My initial estimates suggest that dozens, or possibly hundreds, of people will die over the next few months if we intervene. If you agree that those losses are tolerable then it simplifies things considerably."
"You know damn well that it is not tolerable, Yuriko. We need to minimise the number of deaths."
Yuriko lost the smile, "Of course, Commander. How many criminals are you willing to kill, and how many collateral deaths are you willing to tolerate?"
"Zero. And zero."
Jehan barked out a laugh.
Yuriko calmly shook her head, "Commander, imagine for a moment that you can click your fingers, name an enemy, and they will be removed from Brockton Bay. Cleanly arrested, fairly convicted, securely imprisoned."
"Sounds wonderful," I said dryly, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
"Go ahead, say a name and click your fingers."
I met her gaze but decided to play along, "Kaiser," and clicked.
"Very good, Commander," said Yuriko, "The leader of the Empire Eighty-Eight is gone. How do you imagine his lieutenants will react?"
"They'll vie for position..."
"Or the gang will split up," said Yuriko, nodding seriously, "Kaiser has no clear successor -- he may be afraid that he will have an 'accident' similar to the one that claimed his predecessor. There will also be dismay at Kaiser's swift downfall. Over the next few days, the leaders will fight for the leadership position. The gang may well splinter, causing each sub-group to fight the others for territory. Let us say that they do so cleanly, with minimal bloodshed. Two, three deaths more than the status quo would normally allow? That would almost be a miracle. Good. Three days later, we have Purity, Krieg, and Hookwolf fighting for control over the Empire, things are heating up, and if we permit this state to continue dozens will die. You have two clicks."
I made a face. I could see where this was going. "Fine. The most dangerous ones go. Purity--" I clicked my fingers, "Hookwolf." And I clicked again.
Yuriko nodded. "By leaving the weakest standing, more need to be brought to heel before Krieg's leadership is acknowledged. Krieg, the hardline racist with the strongest Nazi ideology seizes control of the gang as people look to him for leadership. Hookwolf's friends, Cricket and Stormtiger, do not get along well with Krieg. They secede, taking some of the more lucrative territories with them; Menja and Fenja join them. Night and Fog, Purity's brainwashed followers, will not follow Krieg. They disappear. You do not know what they are doing. Krieg does not want to appear weak, and clashes with the Stormtiger offshoot, with the ABB, and with the Merchants. Minor casualties. Ten deaths. Three more days. You have three clicks."
"Krieg. Victor. Stormtiger." Click click click. If only it was that easy.
"Mhm," said Yuriko, "The Empire core is weakened, as is the offshoot. Cricket cannot lead, due to her vocal impediment preventing clear communication, so... Menja takes over that portion of the gang. She is inexperienced. Needs to make an impression, to earn her place. She makes a show of force, attacking... well. It hardly matters, because the 'great dragon'--," the words were said with contempt, "--Lung is no fool. The Empire are weaker than they have ever been. It is time for the ABB to destroy the Empire -- without Kaiser, Krieg, Purity, Hookwolf? It would be almost too easy for him. Full gang warfare breaks out. If Menja claims territory from the Archer Street Merchants, it will be a five-way war with the two Empires, the ABB, the Merchants and the PRT all vying for territory." She cocked her head to one side in thought, "A rampaging Lung, with no true force to counter him? I will say that your six clicks of your fingers have cost maybe fifty innocents and one hundred and fifty gang members their lives. Are you happy with that outcome?"
No, I was not happy. "Reset the board back to the beginning." Yuriko nodded, "Lung." I clicked my fingers.
"With Lung captured, the Empire move in on the ABB's territory. Oni Lee fights back in a devastating series of hit and run strikes. The Empire's powerful capes will mostly survive the attacks. Their footsoldiers and many civilians will not be so lucky. One click, hundreds die."
"Reset. Oni Lee." I clicked my fingers.
"Lung is not able to cover as much territory as Oni Lee. The Empire launch feinting attacks on multiple fronts, possibly even enlisting the aid of the Merchants to act as a distraction..."
It kept going. I played out a dozen different scenarios, and Yuriko told me plausible stories about what might happen. When I reached the point where I had successfully unified the remnants of the ABB, Empire, Merchants, and Coil into one gang who were committing random acts of terror to locate and destroy the 'clicker', for the low, low, cost of dozens of innocents and only a hundred gangsters, I just gave up.
"Okay, so worst case scenarios suck," I said.
"Did you feel that any of the scenarios I laid out were unfair? And were you suddenly able to click your fingers as described, would you let any of them play out as I described them?" Asked Yuriko.
"... No."
"Things could have gone worse, Commander," said Yuriko, "All out gang warfare, with all the parahumans fighting, would be worse than any of the scenarios I described."
"So, what? I do nothing?" I demanded.
"There are solutions," said Guillaume, "Outside of the context of our ninja's little game."
"Yeah?" I asked, honestly interested.
"One is to wait. You noted that your number of clicks slowly goes up day-by-day. Given enough time, you could wait and then remove all your enemies in one strike."
"Well..." Okay, I didn't gain power that fast, but it was a good point. Of course my hand-size put a limit on how much power I could gather and hold, so there would be a limit there as well.
"People would have to live and die to the current status quo until you were certain that you could destroy all opposition at once, but it is a valid solution," agreed Yuriko.
"Another may be to use the tools you have at your disposal," continued Guillaume, "You are not limited to just clicking your fingers. You could send out your servants," he gestured to himself and the others, "To fight in your stead. The sooner that your enemies are defeated, the less the slaughter."
I pursed my lips. I didn't like that one.
Nor, it seemed, did Yuriko, "Escalate with power and outside forces move in to beat you down. Show too much force and you are spotted sooner, targetted as a threat. If not by the Empire then by their European backers, Gesellschaft, or the west-coast Elite, or the Teeth in Boston, or the CUI. Show enough power and the PRT will want to contain and control you."
"Some of those would be a problem however the gangs are defeated," said Guillaume, "But I concede the point. Enlisting the aid of such groups would reduce the number of deaths..."
"The Elite are well organised criminals," agreed Yuriko, "Once their terrorists like Bastard Son have destroyed any opposition, they can give the territory to more moderate franchisees who will extract money from the city for relatively few deaths. Fewer than there are now, certainly."
"I am not selling Brockton Bay to organised crime cartels!" I said. I growled in frustration, holding my head. "This is terrible! I'm not just going to look away!"
"Before we discuss Yuriko's solution," said Guillaume with strong distaste, "I should point out that the 'wait for power' victory can be sped up by regular acts of heroism, slowly weakening the gangs evenly, keeping the balance between them. Just because you could click your fingers many times doesn't mean that you should. Let things settle and find their balance after each move."
I did not want to let the gangs to 'settle' after each move.
"Yuriko?" I said, "What is your solution? And how many people does it kill?"
"One," said Yuriko, looking me in the eye. "Well, two."
"Okay, Yuriko," I said, "Lay it on me. How do I defeat the gangs of Brockton Bay?"
"Quietly," said the ninja, "The key is simple: the appearance of balance must be maintained. Merely the idea of Lung is enough to keep the Empire in check, so remove Lung, but leave the idea."
"And how do I do that?" I asked, already not liking the answer.
"You don't," said Yuriko, "Because if a cape enters the ABB territory and defeats their leader, all will know, immediately, as they crawl out from under the rubble. If someone is seen to overcome Lung and escapes, the ABB will see it as an Empire plot. They must be seen to react, to take vengeance. They would fight to restore their 'honour' by bringing violence to the Empire. But... if a person of Asian descent were to defeat Lung, and fall in the act?" I swallowed, my throat was tight, "Who are the leaders to strike against? Especially if it is seen as an internal affair? No, they will hide their leader's defeat, remain quiet, and buy you the time necessary for the Empire to be weakened equally."
"By 'defeat', you mean kill," I said, "I don't want to be a killer, even by proxy."
"I mean 'murder', yes," said Yuriko, looking me in the eye, "A justified murder, for all the murders that he has done, for the women raped for his profit, for the poisonous rot that he spreads with his greed, but it would be murder."
"There are unwritten rules that forbid the murder of capes in all but the most extreme circumstances," I said. I'd read up on the topic after my father explained them to me.
Yuriko shook her head, "The rules are for dealing with capes when they are in costume. He will not be wearing his mask when I kill him, this will be a civilian act, in retribution for his crimes as a civilian. If Lung cannot defend himself from a normal woman, then that is on him. And if this rotten city is the result of the 'unwritten rules', then fuck the rules."
I flinched at that -- I didn't think I'd heard Yuriko swear before, and certainly not with so much venom. "Do-- do you have to die?" I asked, my eyes wet.
"Yes," she said sadly, "I must die, so that they have no cause to go looking for the killer. They must never suspect that anyone other than them know of Lung's demise, because if they do there is no secret for them to protect."
"I don't want you to die," I said, a little girl once more.
Yuriko, "Nor do the loved ones of those that suffer and die to the status quo wish for their losses either. Choose."
I hung my head in silence. The worst of it was that Yuriko wanted this. If she'd been reluctant, unhappy, I would have let the city burn for her sake, because I owed her so much. But--
Eventually I whispered, "I wanted to be a hero."
"Then do as your heroes do," said Yuriko, "Patrol the Boardwalk for purse snatchers, sign autographs, and sell merchandise." Yuriko had clearly depleted her reserves of sympathy for this conversation.
Guillaume and Jehan both made angry noises at that, but I raised a hand to silence them.
At the end of the day, I had options. I could look away and gather my strength. I could slowly weaken my enemies, and pray that I did so faster than their strength grew. Or I could stop whining and do something. I wanted to be a hero. I wanted to save Brockton Bay. I clearly couldn't do both.
I took a deep breath. "Okay. When?"
Jehan sighed painfully.
I looked at him. "Do you have any better ideas?" I asked.
He shook his head.
"Yuriko. When?"
"Two days," she replied, "I need to prepare and lay the groundwork. Once Lung falls, you will have a week, maybe two, to weaken the Empire, and guide the collapse of both gangs. There is much a planeswalker can do in two weeks."
"Very well. I'll give you a weapon on the day that will allow you to strike first." I knew from the stats that Yuriko would need all the help I could give her.
"Thank you, Commander," said Yuriko.
I stood and left without saying anything more.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
Spoiler
Author's Note
So. I love writing stories. I quite happily wrote this one over the course of several months, and am still tweaking it, and I reread my favourite parts for enjoyment.
What I'm far less fond of it posting them. I'd forgotten that the last time I posted a story it burned me out from writing for about six or seven months. I'm an extremely introverted person, and maintaining engagement in a forum is difficult for me.
My previous stories haven't gotten as many responses as this one, because they were set in less active IPs than Worm, and were posted to fewer sites and had fewer readers. I'm looking through the story's text document as I write this, and we're about twelve percent through the story, if that. I'm really not sure I can keep this up for that long, and I need to keep my mental health in mind. It's not as if I'm doing this for the money or anything.
A few solutions come to mind.
One is just to drop the story and ghost. I will not do that.
One is to post the entire thing in one go. Just dump the whole thing and walk away. It's more work, and it's not quite in a state where I can do that (I've changed the format of the end of chapter summaries, and I'm only half-way through rewriting them). I don't want to dump the story, because while I don't want to talk about my story, or justify it, I love knowing that people read and enjoyed it, and dumping a few hundred thousand words in one go on sites like these would drastically reduce the number of people who read it.
The last solution may or may not work, and that is to significantly reduce my audience engagement. That is, not respond to comments and let any readers I have talk amongst themselves. I'd read all the comments, but I'd not anticipate responding to most of them, nor correcting any problems that are pointed out. It's rude, but I think it's better than my other options.
As such, I'll be taking a more hands-off approach to the forums. Or at least trying. If that doesn't work, I'll look at the other options available to me. I apologise in advance for any offence that this will cause.
Tuesday 18th January 2011
Midnight came, and with it a new card. This one did not permit me to ignore it. It loomed in my mind, demanding my attention, and while I was in no mood to play with my cards, I couldn't look away.
The card was different -- larger than the normal cards, and did not have a casting cost. It showed a skeleton trying to reach out of a sea of coins. The title was My Wealth Will Bury You, and the text read, 'When you set this Scheme in motion, create a number of Treasure tokens equal to the number of artefacts and enchantments your opponents control. If they control fewer than four artefacts and enchantments, create four Treasure tokens instead.'
I had no idea what a 'Scheme' was, but my system seemed to think that I should put it in my command zone (an empty part of my interface where my own card was supposed to go, maybe, when I died). Hmm. Who were my opponents? The ABB and Empire? I hadn't ever said a strong word to their faces. Sophia, maybe? I'd punched her after all. You might be able to include some of the students of Winslow High in there, too. I couldn't think of anyone else who would count. And I was very sure that none of them had any enchantments. Shadow Stalker had a crossbow, I knew, so maybe that counted as an artefact? I didn't have a card for it, but neither I nor any of my summons had seen it, so that didn't prove anything.
So this 'Scheme' would probably summon four Treasure tokens. That would put an end to the Bard's money issues (they'd soon have one less mouth to feed as well, said a thought in my mind that I crushed). It seemed... fine? Useful, sure, but after my conversation with Yuriko yesterday, I really didn't give a fuck about money. So why was my Power feeling smug? Why was there a humming in the back of my mind of potential ready to be unleashed when I played the card? It was definitely a one-time card, not something ongoing.
"Good morning, Dad," I said as he came downstairs. He grunted in acknowledgement.
I had breakfast waiting for us, and we dug in with vigour.
"Before you go into work, Dad," I said.
"Mmm?" he said.
"I have a new card. It should create some Treasure tokens. Four of them, probably. Do you mind if I point it at our basement?"
"How big are Treasure tokens again?"
"Small, I think," I said, "The one I saw would fit inside a saucepan. But the card feels... odd. I just want to be careful."
"Okay," said Dad with a nod, "Can I watch?" It reminded me that he hadn't seen me ever summon everything. I should be grateful that he took my word for everything I said.
"Sure," I said, rising to my feet, and we headed to the basement.
The basement was pretty dark. There were a few cobwebs, despite the clean-up that I'd done last week. Keeping out spiders was going to be an eternal battle, I could tell. Still, there was plenty of open space here. I stepped into the room, Dad watched from the stairs.
"Right, here goes," I said, and activated the card, mentally pointing it at the basement floor.
*thud-thud-thud*. Three bags fell to the ground in the middle of the floor in rapid succession. Duffel bags, I thought. From the size and sound, full of bills. Hopefully, dollars.
"Uh, that's only three--" I started.
*thud-thud* More money. Nice. The bags were gym bags, but looked to be just as full.
"Huh--"
*thud-clang-thud-crash-clang* I started backing away cautiously. I guessed that the leather pouches had gold? One might have, I don't know, rocks? Gemstones, maybe?
"Ummm."
*clang-crunch-thud-thud-clang-crash-thud-thud*
"Taylor, get out of there!" shouted Dad, and I obeyed.
We stood at the top of the stairs as the sounds continued. Treasure falling on Treasure made a different noise. The rapid tattoo of what sounded like thirty bags falling in rapid succession sounded like a thrash metal drum solo.
It took a while for the noises to slow down.
*thud* *thud* *thud*
The card in my command zone went grey and inactive.
A new section of my UI opened up in my mind, labelled 'Schemes', and a new library of face-down cards appeared next to it -- only a few dozen cards, it looked to me, thankfully, maybe a hundred at most. Queen Administrator felt smug in the back of my head.
'My Wealth Will Bury You'? It seemed like my wealth was more likely to bury me.
"I think that's it," I said, and cautiously stepped down to look into the basement. We had a few things stored in there, and most of them were now buried under a mountain of heavy bags. There was no way the china had survived.
"Taylor," said my dad, "What happened? You said, four bags."
"I don't know," I said, surveying my newfound wealth. I pulled the closest carryall to me and opened it. It was stuffed with neat little bundles of twenty-dollar bills. They looked very real to me.
"Taylor, you need to work it out," said Dad seriously, "This was a big surprise, and surprises with Powers are often not happy things."
"Yes, Dad," I said, "I need to think about it."
"How many bags are there?"
"Um, according to my system," I said, looking at my interface, "One hundred and thirty one."
"Wow. Okay. I need to go to work. You need to go to school. No summoning anything at all until you can convince me you understand why this happened, and why it won't happen again."
"Yes, Dad."
The Treasure fall had been a good thing in more than one way. It broke my funk about Yuriko's upcoming fate and allowed me to go to school with my emotional armour intact. If Emma saw a weakness she wouldn't hesitate to tear into it, and if she somehow managed to work out that I was upset about Yuriko, I might not be able to hold back. I didn't want a murder charge.
Thankfully I could be calm and distant, and that worked. The school hierarchy seemed to be unstable, when viewed from the outside. There were more fights than I remembered, more screaming matches in the playground and shifting loyalties. Was something changing here?
It didn't matter. I survived.
I went to the Bard's house after school, and everyone was waiting for me.
"Hi Guillaume," I said as I walked into the living room, "I can repay you that fifty dollars you lent me."
"Thank you, my lady--" started Guillaume.
I didn't let him finish when I spent four mana and made four bags of Treasure pop in front of my friends. One each. I went with carryalls, as I guessed that they held actual cash.
The Troubadours didn't hesitate to open their bags, and they did indeed contain actual money. They held it up with delighted wonderment. Yuriko was more reserved, which was understandable as she didn't have the time to spend it, but she did smile at me. I couldn't meet her smile.
It was all very awkward with Yuriko there. I explained what had happened that morning, getting a few laughs, and I promised to show them a basement full of Treasure when they next came by. I also confirmed that they didn't need to keep busking. I had the information I needed now, and unless I needed them for a command performance, they were welcome to do as they pleased.
Guillaume exchanged glances between his friends and said, "Thank you, my lady. We will need to discuss our options, but I think we will continue to perform. For Ms Parian's puppet shows if nothing else. This town still needs us."
I made my awkward goodbyes and fled Yuriko's apologetic smile.
Dad was late back home, which gave me plenty of time to think about the Treasure surprise. My interface didn't come with a rule book or glossary, but I could stare at words on my cards and have concepts flow into my mind, and I slowly pieced them together into an explanation of sorts.
I was eager to share my thoughts with him, but it was getting later and later, supper was getting cold, and finally Dad came home with fury in his eyes. He slammed the front door behind him with enough force to make me shudder.
"Dad! Dad, what's wrong?"
He glared at me, too angry to speak, before taking several deep breaths and he finally relaxed. He was still very, very upset. "You did not tell me what happened to your mother's flute."
Oh. I looked away. "It-- it didn't come up. I would have said, when we spoke, but--" I trailed off. I'd taken it in to school one day, back when I had thought that the Trio might have some semblance of humanity somewhere. I had been wrong, and the flute was-- It was desecrated. I don't know what happened to it after that. "How did you know?"
Dad snorted angrily. "I spoke with Alan. Things were going well with the tanker plan, I was frustrated how everything else was going in comparison. I went round to talk to him about what Emma did. He didn't want to hear at first. Things got loud, he accused me of lying. I didn't back down, I insisted that we speak with Emma.
"Emma is not a good liar. She tried, I asked questions, and as soon as she caught herself out, Alan tried to protect her, but Emma just wouldn't help herself. She started ranting about how weak you are. How you deserved it. And it all came out. Everything. Finally opened Alan's eyes. He took Emma's phone, looked at her messages. After I heard about the flute, I had to leave or I would have killed the bitch then and there."
I flinched at Dad's use of the word, 'bitch'. He never swore in my presence. Ever.
"It was a while before I was calm enough to drive home."
I hugged him, he hugged me, supper got cold and we had takeout again.
Food calmed Dad down enough. I steered the conversation well away from anything that related to Emma, Alan, or school.
"Oh, and I think I know why we have a basement full of Treasure now," I said.
"You worked it out, my clever Little Owl?"
"Yup! It was several things. So, the card said it would give me an item of Treasure for every artefact and enchantment my opponents controlled. Firstly, tinkertech counts as artefacts. I've looked at my unsummonable cards, and every tinkertech card I can see is called an 'artefact'. Secondly, I'm sure that it counted capes as enchantments."
"Okay, that makes sense. And the number of them?"
"My system keeps referring to the battlefield. I thought it just meant the 'playmat' where I put my cards, but it doesn't. It means the area where I am. Brockton Bay. Every member of every gang that is trying to carve out a piece of Brockton Bay counts as an 'opponent' to my system, even if I've never laid eyes on them."
"Huh. That's a lot of opponents."
"And a lot of artefacts," I said, "Every tinker has lots of them; Squealer might just have a few cars, but you know that Armsmaster must have a dozen pieces of tinkertech. And Leet. And the gangs have probably all got a few."
"Wait, Armsmaster is an opponent? He's with the Protectorate."
"Who are part of the PRT, who are fighting for control of the Bay," I said, "They count. And they probably have more tinkertech than anyone."
"Well, I think that could explain it. You need to be careful when any card refers to multiple opponents."
"Yes," I agreed wholeheartedly.
"And you need to sort through the basement and get it organised. Thank god no-one other than us is ever going to go down there."
"Apart from a plumber or an electrician if there are problems," I said with a grin.
Dad scowled, "I'm capable of doing both jobs, thank you very much, young lady."
"Sorry, Dad. I'll sort though it all tomorrow. Wednesday is a sports day, so I'll do it after lunch."
"Oh! I'd forgotten. I need you to speak to the PRT after lunch tomorrow."
"Wait, what?"
He shrugged, "Everything is moving so fast with the tanker. The PRT want to talk to Walker before they give the go ahead for Collie to appear in the bay. I asked when they wanted to meet you, and they suggested tomorrow, three PM, at the PRT Building."
I took a deep breath. I needed to speak to them anyway.
"Okay," I said, "I'll do that, and sort out the treasure tonight."
"Thank you, Taylor."
I had four mana left to spend, and I'd deliberately not activated my Mox and the overgrown park. I tapped everything I had to give me two green mana and two mana of other colours, and I gave Yuriko a +1/+1 counter. Every little counts. She was too busy to talk though, clearly moving through ABB territory, asking about her 'sister'.
I sighed, and headed down to the basement. I needed a distraction, and the Treasure needed sorting.
I used the kitchen scales for all the different types of gemstones. I used the bathroom scales for all the gold.
Spoiler
Author's Note:
Firstly: thank you all for your support. It is appreciated.
Secondly: Schemes. So, I was undecided on Schemes -- they are very powerful, but they are also very fun. This Taylor already has plenty of power, so I decided that the difference shouldn't be too bad and that I'd err in favour of fun. The first Scheme was not chosen randomly, obviously, but all the others, except one which I'll mention later, were random. The one that one I'll mention was chosen by QA for a big fight. I did not look ahead and plan things around the Schemes that Taylor would be getting, and I did not at any point adjust the Scheme deck after the first shuffle. I feel obliged to point this out because, yeah, Taylor has some ridiculous luck with Schemes on a few days. Perils of a story with a random element, really.
Wednesday 19th January 2011
I had two new card draws today. I had my usual card, and a new 'scheme'. Looks like unlocking schemes means that they will be coming in every day from now on.
My new scheme was Tooth, Claw, and Tail and promised to destroy up to three target non-land permanents of my choice. From the image, it involved sending out a massive dragon to do my dirty work for me. It was very tempting to point it at the tanker, Kaiser, and Lung, but I didn't think people wanted to live in a world where a massive dragon would suddenly appear and take out tankers. And it would be harder to come up with a more public way to kill Lung.
I mean, if I could hang onto the card until an Endbringer showed up on my battlefield it would be a slam dunk, but I only had two choices -- activate the card when it is drawn, or don't. Still, it hinted that I'd have options even against Endbringers one day...
I was given the choice of setting the Scheme in motion or not. I declined.
My other card was a normal one: Artificer Class. It was different to other cards, as it effectively offered to make me a Tinker. It came in stages, with each stage unlocked by spending mana. Playing the card cost a blue and a generic mana, and it made my first artefact card of the day cost one less mana to cast. It upgraded to Level 2 by paying another blue and generic mana, at which point it would look through my library and pull the first artefact card it finds into my hand. The third Level cost five generic mana and a blue, and it created an artefact token that was a copy of an existing (non-Legendary) artefact at the end of every day. The fourth Level for eight generic mana and two blue, would make me the commander (i.e. me) a Tinker. That fourth Level looked a little odd in comparison to the others, but the effect looked to be potentially very interesting.
I was absolutely going to play this card. In the absolute worst case scenario, the Class would generate me one treasure token a day. It was just a shame that my Mox Amber was a Legendary artefact, otherwise I could make one of them every day.
Having learned my lesson from the megalodon, I didn't cast it straight away, and merely planned to do so that night.
School was fine. Emma wasn't in, and the rumour mill took that fact and ran with it. Based on what Greg Vader was telling me, it took that fact and ran well over the hills of sanity and kept on going. I had, apparently, taken a hit out on Emma, ('Which is fair enough, you know,' Greg assured me), or killed her myself, or she'd been committed, or had moved to Arcadia High (the 'best' of the High Schools in Brockton Bay), or had dropped out to form a gang, or had gone on a killing spree. Greg seemed to think that there was a seed of truth somewhere in there, and it wouldn't grow if it wasn't properly fed, so he happily spread all the gossip he could.
I assured him that I hadn't taken a hit out on Emma, or killed her myself, and he tapped his nose and winked at me as he nodded. Yeah, there was a reason why Greg was only a little higher than me in the school social rankings.
After the last morning lesson, I left, doubtless fueling more of Greg's gossip, and headed home. After lunch, I donned my 'Walker' outfit of the Robe of Stars and the Mask of Law and Grace, and flew over to the PRT Building. My increased power seemed to have increased my flight speed, and I was now traveling at a pretty decent rate, in my estimation. It was hard to be sure, but I felt relatively capable of keeping up with freeway traffic now.
I landed outside the building, and asked the calm secretary to let the PRT know that I had arrived.
I was a bit early, so I had to wait a little before a trooper came to politely escorted me through to the room where Armsmaster and Miss Militia were waiting. Armsmaster was in his usual blue power armour, and Miss Militia was in her more casual costume, complete with a bandana face mask.
"Walker," said Armsmaster, stepping forward to shake my hand, "Thank you for coming so promptly. I'm Armsmaster. Do you consent to this conversation being recorded?"
"No problem," I said, taking his hand. I could tell that Armsmaster was looking at my hand listening to my voice and making some conclusions about my age, but that was pretty unavoidable. Although I needed to get some gloves at some point. The man had a lie detector built into his armour -- he could probably tell all sorts of things about me. Such as that I was nervous and sweating, because I was talking to two of my heroes. I still had my Armsmaster underwear, for pity's sake.
"Strong grip," he observed, when I let him go, and he held up his gauntleted hand so that he could examine the slight dents I'd put in the metal.
Oops. "I'm so sorry!" I said.
Thankfully Miss Militia laughed, "Don't worry, he loves to have an excuse to upgrade his armour. I'm Miss Militia." She, very wisely, offered me a fist-bump. I was very careful when I returned it.
I didn't think that Armsmaster was as happy as Miss Militia suggested, but he didn't argue. "I take it that you haven't been a parahuman for long, Walker?"
He gestured for us to all sit, and I accepted a glass of water. My mouth was a little dry already, and my mask was an enchantment -- I could drink through it.
"No, not long," I agree, "Still getting used to a lot of things."
"I can imagine," said Miss Militia, "Super strength can be hard to adjust to; I've seen a lot of injuries in my time. You're being careful?"
"Oh yes," I said, fidgeting a little, trying to get comfortable, "There have been a couple of close calls, but nothing serious yet, thankfully. I, er, haven't gone patrolling or anything. I don't want to accidentally kill anyone."
"Good," said Armsmaster, "We can help with that, if you'll let us."
"I am not going to join the Wards," I said firmly.
Miss Militia raised her hands, "No-one is going to try to force you," she said, "But what are your thoughts about Power testing? We can measure your strength, give you tips and suggestions for keeping things non-lethal."
"No," I said, a little less firmly. I mean, I was curious, but it wasn't the time, and if I tested now, they'd notice when I got stronger. "Maybe one day." I'd run out of Escalations at some point, surely.
"That's okay," said Miss Militia, "The offer is open, any time."
"Thank you. I'll remember that."
"Good," said Armsmaster, "We appreciate your desire for privacy, but we do need to know some things about your Power before we can give the go-ahead for your plan to dismantle the tanker."
My back stiffened, but they were being carefully polite so far. "What do you need to know?"
"Firstly, how does your Power work? How certain can you be that your golem will do what you want, and nothing more? How many can you summon? What can they do?"
I breathed out and tried to relax. Those were reasonable questions, and, well, I didn't respect the Protectorate after the Shadow Stalker revelations, but Prakash's work with them had slowly convinced me that most of them were just people and anyway, they already knew a lot about planeswalkers from him. I wouldn't tell them everything, but they could know the basics. "Okay. So my Power gives me a, call it a 'card', every day. I can hold up to seven cards in my hand. Each one is random, and it tells me what it can do. So, I might have a card that will let me summon a Robe that looks like a starscape," I waved a hand at the Robe I was wearing, "Or it might let me cast a 'spell', or summon someone."
"'Spell'? What do you mean by that?" asked Armsmaster.
"Can you give a few examples?" asked Miss Militia.
I admit that Armsmaster's interrogation technique was rubbing me the wrong way, and I preferred Miss Militia's approach, who was asking like it was an interview or almost a conversation.
"Well, okay. So I have a card in my hand right now that my system calls a 'sorcery', which makes everyone I've summoned very slightly stronger and tougher for the rest of the day. I have another one that I can use to make someone disappear until the end of the day. They'll reappear at midnight."
"Unharmed?" asked Armsmaster.
"Yes."
"Interesting. Our sources imply that your spells could be quite powerful," said Miss Militia.
I shrugged, "Sure. I have another spell that I haven't discarded yet, because the system doesn't offer me that option unless my hand is full, that would turn everyone in the city, including me, into elk. Permanently. Just because it is powerful doesn't mean I'd ever think about casting it. It's the only spell I've seen so far that has that level of impact."
"Elk?!" said Armsmaster.
I shrugged, "As I said, the cards are random."
"Is it possible you could cast that spell by accident? Any possibility at all?" he demanded.
"No. I have to raise the mana to cast the spell, allocate the mana to the spell, and then give it a mental shove. It would not be cast accidentally. Anyway, I'm going to discard that spell as soon as I am able. I've never seen the same card twice, so I doubt I'll ever see it again, and I'll discard it if I do."
Armsmaster nodded. He was going to say more, but the screen on the wall in the room flickered to life to show Dragon, looking very embarrassed.
"Hello, Walker," said Dragon, waving at me, "I'm sorry. I was eavesdropping on your conversation. I wasn't going to say anything, but is there any possibility of you being able to cast that spell without turning into an elk yourself? Using your 'disappear' spell first, maybe?"
"I am not going to turn Brockton Bay into an elk reserve!" I said, quite angrily. I had liked Dragon, but I didn't like the eavesdropping, or the question.
She winced, "I'm sorry. That wasn't what I was thinking. Only, if you were able to turn an entire city into elk, and no-one else, well. Ellisburg."
That shut me up. Ellisburg was a city in New York state that was overrun with monsters. Nothing else lived there, and it was constantly surrounded by troops to prevent the residents from escaping. And, well, I might be able to avoid being elkified with my Robe, and if I didn't then my card would end up in the command zone and I could resummon myself. It wasn't as if mana would be a problem with all the Treasure in our basement that could be converted into mana of any colour. There was a problem, though.
The heroes watched me think.
"Yes and no," I said, "There might be a way for me to escape the spell, but Ellisburg as a battlefield isn't just the city, it's the surrounding forces. Unless they were moved out, and declared to no longer be opponents of the city, they would be turned into elk as well. I don't have a way to tell if they'd be impacted by the spell until after it has been cast. It's too risky."
Dragon looked disappointed by that, as did the others. "Thank you for considering it, and sorry for disrupting the conversation."
"No problem," I said, "It made me think about the card in a new light, and that was useful."
"We are getting distracted here," said Armsmaster, "Let's get back to the golem. Is it sentient? How obedient would it be? Could it turn on you? How much damage could it do if it did?"
"Hey, I could ask each one of those questions about you, and I'd probably be less happy with the answers than you might think."
"Easy now," said Miss Militia, "You understand why we need ask these questions, yes?"
I sighed, "Yes, I understand. I don't know everything about the creatures I can summon, but I have summoned another, much, much smaller and weaker golem before, so I know a bit about this one. Is it sentient? No. Is it obedient? To the death. Could it turn on me? No more than your hand could turn on you. Which is to say, it's possible that there is someone, somewhere, with the Power to mess with it. Even that is only a possibility -- my golem would be a copy from another plane, so Powers might not know how to interact with it. You know that with Masters around, humans are far more likely to be a problem than my golem. And how much damage could it do? To me? Nothing. To anyone else? A very great deal. It is a massive golem which comes with its own sword and spear. If I don't give it the right orders, it will defend itself if it is attacked. It will be very good at defending itself, lethally."
"You have summoned another golem? Can we examine it?" asked Armsmaster.
"Um, okay." Armsmaster and Miss Militia stood, but I waved them back down. "There's enough room in here. Once I've summoned someone, I can call them to me. But, um, I don't want to parade Alpha-Six around the Bay, so it'll need to stay here until I get back to, uh, base, and call it back."
"Alpha-Six?" asked Miss Militia.
I shrugged, "I don't name them."
"Ready when you are," said Armsmaster.
I spent a mana to call the Shield-Wall Sentinel to us. Alpha-Six scanned the room and turned to me.
"Unit Alpha-Six awaiting orders!" it said.
Armsmaster and Miss Militia flinched back from the golem, and Dragon's eyes grew round.
"Fascinating," said Armsmaster, examining Alpha-Six.
"Stand still," I told Alpha-Six.
"Unit Alpha-Six standing ready!" it said.
Armsmaster was circling it, holding his arm at it. It probably contained a tinkertech scanner of some kind. I guessed that Dragon could see the data that Armsmaster was gathering, because she looked very still and distracted.
"What would happen if I punch it?" asked Miss Militia.
"I'm not sure if it would register as an attack," I admitted, "It is a military golem, though, so I imagine that it would try to hurt you unless I stopped it or ordered it to consider you a friendly."
"Alpha-Six! Turn to face me!" shouted Armsmaster. It ignored him. "Hmm. Good. May I have permission to punch him in the shield?"
I knew from the stats that Alpha-Six was no threat to Armsmaster in his power armour, so, "Not full strength, please. I don't want it to break."
"Of course," said Armsmaster, and struck the shield pretty lightly with his gauntleted fist. It didn't react.
"You can punch harder than that. If you dent the shield, it will repair itself overnight so long as the golem is still functional."
Armsmaster punched the shield harder, causing a resounding *clang* and Alpha-Six's other arm swung up and loosed a bolt of power at Armsmaster. It didn't do more than burn a heat mark on his chestplate.
"Stop!" I shouted, and Alpha-Six froze. "Lower your arm." It did.
"Impressive," said Armsmaster, "You don't consider this golem a threat? That shot could be lethal."
"I keep it indoors," I said dryly, "You break into my house, you deserve what's coming to you. And in comparison to parahumans? Please. Anyone in this room could destroy Alpha-Six without breaking sweat."
"True," said Dragon with a smirk.
"May I continue testing? I would like to know how it will react to allies, and if instructed to not defend itself."
"Okay, sure. Alpha-Six, Armsmaster is an ally."
"Confirmed! Armsmaster is allied to Alpha-Six."
*Clang*. Another dent in the shield, but there was no reprisal shot.
"Alert! Unit Alpha-Six attacked by ally designation, 'Armsmaster'! Alert! Unit Alpha-Six attacked by ally desig--"
"Enough," I said, and Alpha-Six quieted down. "Alpha-Six. Do not defend yourself."
"Unit Alpha-Six standing down." Alpha-Six dropped into a parade rest.
*Clang*
Alpha-Six did not react.
"Thank you," said Armsmaster, "You're sure that the shield will self-repair? Because that is a very interesting property."
"That's what my system tells me," I said with a smile he couldn't see.
"What orders do you anticipate giving to 'Collie'?" asked Miss Militia.
"Probably something like, 'Stand over there, give shoulder rides if asked, and don't hurt anyone unless attacked with human-lethal force'. If that doesn't work, 'Stand out at sea and look menacing, but don't defend yourself' would probably be fine. Collie will be much harder to hurt than Alpha-Six." The Colossus of Akros had the Indestructible keyword, after all. "It might be possible to tell it to follow basic instructions from representatives of the DWA, and advanced orders from law enforcement officials, for example."
"And if you order it to dismantle the tanker, will it be able to do so? How closely will it need to be supervised?" asked Armsmaster.
"I can take control of Alpha-Six, and will do so for Collie, when doing the work." I had Alpha-Six scratch his nose, stand on one leg, and hop. "You get the idea."
"Would 'Collie' be able to help in other ways?" asked Dragon.
"Such as? It's not going to be able to do much without destroying its environment, and non-lethal is hard when you are a multi-hundred tonne iron golem."
"Endbringers," said Dragon, "Could you summon Collie to you and command it to defend against an Endbringer attack?"
Another interesting question. "I haven't tried the 'calling' thing over long distances or with something as big as Collie will be. Even if it works, Collie might not last long, and Behemoth might end up using it as a club, but if the authorities agree I'm willing to give it a try. Preferably after the tanker is dealt with, though. Heck, it might be able to help at Ellisburg, too. Monster teeth aren't going to bother it."
"Thank you," said Dragon with a bright smile that lit up her face.
"I think you've answered my main concerns, thank you, Walker," said Armsmaster, "Dragon? Miss Militia?"
"One thing," said Miss Militia, "The public don't like new capes showing up when they don't know their powers; we'll need to tell them something at the press conference."
I shrugged, "Um, low-tier flying Brute with the ability to summon copies of entities and effects from other worlds. Oh, and I'm a noctis cape."
Armsmaster looked stern, "Walker, we do not condone misleading the public, and you are clearly at the very least a mid-tier Brute."
"I am? Oh. Okay, we can go with that then?"
Armsmaster looked at me suspiciously, but nodded. "Fine. Anything else?" He scanned the room. Everyone was shaking their heads. "In that case, I'll discuss this recording with some PRT members, and we'll send our final verdict to the DWA. Thank you, Walker, for your time, and for helping the Bay."
"Of course," I said, rising to my feet.
"May we examine Alpha-Six further?" asked Armsmaster, "It isn't required for the approval, but I am interested."
"I want to get back to base soon, but I can leave it here and not call it back until, say, tomorrow morning. Please don't break it."
"Thank you, we won't," said Armsmaster, sounding happier than he had for the rest of the conversation.
I bumped fists with Miss Militia and Armsmaster, told Alpha-Six to be good and obey Armsmaster, and was led out of the building. I flew straight up, fast, until I was sure that I was out of range before heading out in a very roundabout route.
I had salvage lessons at the DWA after speaking with the Protectorate. It was mostly Kurt telling me what not to do and some health and safety stuff. He apologised before playing me the video that he had to show to anyone working at the docks. It showed workplace accidents from across the country, and their after-effects. I winced a few times, but after the Vivisurgeon's Insight it all seemed rather pedestrian. I spent more time worrying that I was becoming callous and heartless than I did about following rules and procedures -- I was tougher than Collie was going to be, after all.
The rest of the training was more about showing me around and talking about how tankers are put together, and that was far more interesting. Once done I bumped fists with Kurt (thank you, Miss Militia), and headed back home.
Dad was back in time for supper, but he looked harried.
"Thank you for cooking, kiddo," he said, "With the tanker business, work is threatening to take all my time again. At least it's a bit more productive now."
"How long do you think it'll take before I have the go-ahead?" I asked.
Dad laughed, "There's talk of the mayor's office having a press conference on Monday next week, with the summoning on Wednesday, if that works for you. The afternoon both times, so you don't have to sneak out of school."
"Does the Mayor know that's the reason?" I asked with a smile.
"Well, no," said Dad, "But I'm sure he'd approve if he did."
"Things are moving faster than I expected. Even if it is frustratingly slow."
"I've never seen bureaucrats be so driven. Everyone wants this to happen, Little Owl. And--" he suddenly clammed up.
"And?"
He sighed, "And the last time we tried this, the parahuman who agreed to do the work died in an Endbringer attack. The next attack is coming about due."
"Ah. Well, that's fair." Talk of Endbringers and their victims was a good way to kill any conversation. I reached blindly for a new topic. "Oh, did I mention my new card today?"
"No. Something useful?"
"Something funny," I said, "I asked my Power to give me cards for making money this week--"
"It certainly came through on that!"
"Yes it did!" I said, "But I'm going to keep getting wealth generation cards for the rest of the week, I think, even if I don't need them any more. Today's card is called, 'Artificer Class', and it's a 'character class'. It will let me be an artificer."
"Meaning?" asked Dad.
"Meaning, my Power is telling me, 'go get a job'."
Dad laughed with me, which was nice.
"I approve!"
I had mixed feelings on the joke -- I was feeling pretty busy these days without everything else, so getting a job would be a bit much -- but I had to admit that Queen Administrator was a pretty cool Power.
As soon as I'd done my homework, I cast the Artificer Class spell. Level 1 of it just made artefacts cheaper to cast. Handy for the Colossus and for the Squire's Lightblade, but neither card would have been a big problem anyway. That didn't stop the part of the card that wasn't in the text from knocking me for a loop. My mind was flooded with information about making artifacts and objects, crafting tips, the names of tools and materials and techniques -- it was an instant apprenticeship with a master artificer from some strange, magic-heavy world. I couldn't replicate most of what it told me while I was on Earth Bet, I wasn't a Tinker, but it still blew my mind.
If I was sensible, I'd have left it there. Made some notes, maybe listed out plans for getting some tools so that I could exercise my newfound knowledge and maybe start a fun little hobby.
Hah! Sensible? Me? Never!
I wanted to keep going, and if anything the knowledge from the first level of my Artificer Class made me even more hungry for more knowledge. I had enough mana to do it, easily. I upgraded the class.
The difference in knowledge between an apprentice and a journeyman is not as large, I felt, as I stared glazed-eyed at the ceiling. There was a lot of detail now, filling in the gaps that an apprentice knew only the outlines of. The real depth of knowledge was the 'how' that went with the apprentice's 'what'. How to handle tools without damaging the workpiece. How to store delicate and perishable materials, how to talk to customers and suppliers without sounding like a fool, a robot, or a conman. This was the level where I felt that, were I to walk to the plane where these skills came from, I could make a living from the knowledge.
It was fantastic, and fascinating, and I was getting a headache. Getting the Class to a the second Level had drawn me a new artefact card, 'Cathar's Shield'. It was free to summon, but cost three mana to equip, granting three points of toughness and Vigilance. I didn't need either more toughness or another source of Vigilance, but maybe the Heartfelt Troubadours might like to be free from the tyranny of sleep?
I had eight cards in hand, and I'd have to discard one at midnight if I didn't cast something. The shield was free, so I summoned it and placed it under my bed, next to the Skyblinding Staff.