All You Need is (Not) Kill (Worm SI)

And here's day 2, with another chapter in for today's daily refreshment.

In which our SI made his first major mistake that will haunt him forever...and beat up angry birds!

*DRAMATIC OMINOUS NOISE IN 360 SPEAKERS*

Huehuehuehuehue...just read the damn thing. :3

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Chapter 2.2

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A ringing sound bounced across the room as I was awakened from my slumber. With my eyes closed, I lazily raised up my hand and smacked it around in an attempt to find the offending item. My fingers brushed over the suspect, vibrating with the sound it made and pressed the raised button down.

“Just...five more minutes…” I snored.

Still resting on my bed, I moved my limbs around to get sleepiness off them. Slowly, I lifted myself up and turned on the light. My eyes was reluctant, but otherwise accepting the brightness filling the room. Grabbing the toothpaste, toothbrush and towel, I opened the door and headed for the washroom.

As I opened my jaws and brushed my teeth, my mind wandered to my dream last night.

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

I’m pretty sure that most people would have trauma from killing people but...my mind wasn’t even registering those event as important anymore. Well, except for the last part where the black veil opened and I saw Riley hugging me adorably, so that at least proved me that I haven’t lost all my mind yet.

[Quadruple Personalities detected]​

“Horaaa~~.....what’s with the long face?” from the mirror, I saw Yuuka standing behind me, toothbrush in hand. Oh right, I almost forgot. Since I’m the only straight guy in the base, they put me in the female dormitory instead to protect my ‘chastity’ from the boys, I also have the huge 2 persons room all by myself! Why that doesn’t apply to Cerri for being the only straight girl I had no idea…..

“Nothing!” I denied, voice pitched high like a mouse.

And it really came as a surprise when she cuddled me from behind, “Look, I know what you have been through for the past few days, don’t lock everything inside and talk to someone, m’kay?”

“Okay, sure.”, my voice squeaked out, I think I did a great job in ignoring the warmness pressing on my back, probably.

“Great! Great shirt by the way!” she complimented.

Since I have nothing but shirt on my back when I appeared in this world (And even that was gone thanks to the black suit…), I had to get some old clothing from the Wards. Most of the guy’s clothing were way too big for me, while the girl’s were well...girly. And some were clearly loosened out from extra asset that I do not and will not have. I had absolutely no idea why I received a couple skirts too, who was it that's protecting my ‘chastity’ again...?

Oh, and the shirt I’m wearing now? It’s a white shirt with the word ‘MEGAMILK’ on it, in full cap. Why did this shirt exist in small size? I had no idea and it kinda defeated the point of the shirt too...

“It’s okay, I think.”

“Eh, fit you like a glove anyway, what time is it?” she asked.

I took out my smartphone, given to me by my PRT handler just yesterday and it showed, “7.57 A.M.”

“Heheheheh, it’s time...to wake everyone up!!!” and then I was pushed out of the washroom.

------

[Many Users detected]​

“Is she always like this?” I asked Kay, who was fortunate enough to be a morning person, her brown hair was unusually neat somehow.

“Yup.” and we were treating to the rumbling sounds of doors getting banged as 4 Yuukas running around and waking people up.

Doors creaked open and the girls, who clearly needed some more beauty sleep, shuffled out out their room. Among the crowd, I saw Lily, wearing just a simple white shirt, with hair that a bird would make nest on, shambled out and yawned.

“Hey...Drake and...” she yawned again, “...Kay, I’m going to wash myself, kay? Okay…”, and I didn’t think she have woke up at all…

“Oh come on! I need some damn sleep, get lost!” I turned towards a familiar voice and the door the voice originated from was banged shut.

“That’s...Cerri, right?”, I asked.

“Yup! Don’t worry, she can be a bit grumpy in the morni-.” Kay answered and was interrupted by a rather loud screaming.

“OH MY GOD, AAAHHHHHH!!!”, and it’s Cerri again...and her door was open.

“It’s Sunday morning! And you have to wake up doing something awesome today!” Yuuka’s voice bellowed from her room.

“Maybe you should wake me up WHEN I’M WEARING SOMETHING!?” and my imagination immediately started going south.

“Oh~nice~!” I could almost hear her eyebrows waggling, “Okay, fineeeee, I will leave now.” and Yuuka walked out of her door, I can imagine the death glare Cerri was giving her, just had to focus past the dark chocolate to see it.

“Stupid bisexual…” Cerri cursed and in just moments she left her room, pulling down a knee-length shirt. Only then did she noticed me and her brown cheek deepened in colour. Considering the brown hue of her white shirt, it's safe to assume that she's wearing nothing beneath...

But nevermind about that. "Morning, Cerri." I greeted while struggling to keep my hormone in check.

"Ah, hi, Drake. Erm...any free time this afternoon?" she asked, brushing her long dreadlock to her back.

"Sorry, but Yuuka and her friends promised to take me out to the street."

It was then she looked like a puppy that got kicked in its gut, staring straight at the floor. Calm down myself, you can't please everyone after all.

"Oh, okay, if you want to go with those dyke or whatever..." That...was a rather threatening tone at those last two words as she left for the washroom.

Ah...Cerri, you poor girl...the only straight where everyone else bent backward to their own team. Then again, this was the same girl that named her capeself with her own hairstyle. Dreadlock, really? But...maybe someone else know about this?

“.....Is it okay for me to ask that is she having homophobia?”

“Oh, you are quick to catch on! Unlike some girls...and some still push forward anyway despite that.” Kay explained and I can certainly see why she’s being homophobic.

“Unfortunately, she’s kinda stuck in the gayest Ward team ever. And ever since she got here 2 years ago, things turned a bit violent a couple time. Yuuka is pretty much the only one molest-flirting with her now, though she pretty much have a thing with everyone anyway.” she shrugged.

“Wait, everyone?” I asked.

“Yeah, and you will definitely be her next target, so be prepared.” for a moment I shivered, and Kay laughed at my blushing face.

A pair of arms suddenly grabbed my waist, “Hooraa~Drakieee~!” she breathed hot air onto my ears and I shuddered from that, quickly trying to squirm my way out, “Miss me?”

“Kinda.” I squeaked.

“Good boy! Cause we gonna eat breakfast and have exercises together and go onto the awesome streets of New York later!” her arm hooked my neck and she began dragging me to the dining hall.

------

“You have a car!?” my finger traced on the red metal skin of this huge muscle beast. It has seen some ages and whoever owned it has maintained it well. It's so shiny, mirroring my face and smooth without a single dent on its hull, I then began a long process of examining this vehicle for its beauty.

Finishing molesting this beautiful machine, I looked back to Yuuka, who have changed into a black tube top under a long sleeved jacket, with pleated skirt and black thighhighs. I changed into a short and a shirt, enough to warm myself from the breezy weather. And I was given special contact lens to hide my abnormal irises, something about polarizing the light to make it black or so.

[Atomic Worshiper detected]​

“Not mine, hers.” Yuuka pointed to an almost 6 feets tall butch girl with long red hair, braided into a tail and a short pair on her hair bangs like window curtains. She wore a pair of trousers and a hoodie, more fitting for a boy than a girl. And I felt threatened by someone’s humongous height again.

She extended out her hand, “Hi, my name is Michelle.”, and I shook it back. “I’m also Little Boy.”, and I just glared at her…

“Really? The next thing you are going to tell is that you have a petite little sister that calls herself Fat Boy.” that’s some rather dramatic difference between her cape name and her real self.

“I’m a energy generation tinker, I couldn’t help it since my grandfather was on the Enola Gay!!!” I don’t know how but this huge girl just bounced up and down in front of me adorably.

[Orbital Light detected]​

Another girl walked in between them both, “I guess I should introduce myself now, I’m Keira, or otherwise known as Laser Hoop. Thank you for saving my life that day.”, thankfully, Keira brought my panicking mood down as she’s..well, normal. A average blondie with short hair, wearing just a skirt and a fancy shirt, knee socks and sneakers covering her feet.

“I’m..erm...no one really thank me for saving their lifes before so I don’t kno-” and she kissed me, on the cheek. Blood quickly rushed forth to my face, same goes for my hormone which is flooding my system now.

“I have to reward you with something, right? My knight in black suit.” she grinned and I blushed ever more deeply. “What dirty mind are you having? I’m talking about getting some actual clothing for you.” oh. Oh, of course I’m thinking about that! Ahahahaha...

“Let’s get the trip going! The sun aint gonna wait for us to set!!” Yuuka stated and I took a back seat in the muscle car. It was a surprise when Keira took the back seat as well, and when both Yuuka and her gave a thumbs-ups to each other, I knew something was up already.

But, the loud roaring of the engine brought me a sense of calmness and we moved out onto the street.

So, New York City. The previous time I have seen this place was on big movie where aliens and superheroes and some other things kept attacking Manhattan island for some reason. But that was behind the big screen in the theater. This? This is wonderful.

While I only recognized a couple famous landmark like the Time Square and Empire State Building, the girls were helpful in filling me on the various smaller and less famous locations in this city. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t have realized this place had been attacked by Endbringer before.

But enough sight viewing, it’s noon now, the perfect time for lunch. All four of us stepped right into a restaurant, smells of meat and fries just went up my nose and I felt my tongue salivating for it.

Michelle recommended me to try out the steak burger, I haven’t ate much steak before, so I picked it, hopefully it will be as delicious as I thought. With our orders done, Keira excused herself and left for the bathroom. Seeing it will be some times before our meals arrived, I figured I should start a conversation.

“So...what’s the story of your car?” my eyes just won’t leave that vehicle alone, cars from that era have a feel of uniqueness in them.

“That Mustang? I pretty sure dad went around with that thing to pick up girls before, but my mom knew him from a diner that wasn’t even remotely close to New York, the state I mean. After I was born, my dad finally decided to get a real job, one that required him to get a ‘real, modern’ car. So, when I got my driving license, he passed it down to me. And I made quite a few extra modification to it.” Michelle answered.

I inched across the table, whispering, “Like?”

“Cold fusion reactor, laser cannons, anti gravity hovering, energy shield and advanced GPS system, which is annoyingly big.” she whispered back.

“Nice!”

“Along with a couple minor but still significant component. I would say that she’s my first masterpiece.” she smiled, being proud of her achievement.

“Hmm, well then. You think you are the only true Asian here, aren’t you? Unfortunately, you are wrong! Cuz I’m 100% pure blooded Japanese!” Yuuka boasted.

“Oh cool, what’s Japan like in th-oh...oh right, I almost forgot. I’m terribly sor-”

“Meh, I was too young to remember that place, my whole family have long moved into New York even before that. I remembered more about USA than Japan itself!”, she added.

“Oh?” I gulped down cola from my cup.

“Yeah, a pure blood Japanese that knows nothing about Japan, I guess my ancestors want me to commit sudoku right now!” she grinned and I almost choked on my drink.

“Anyway, when the news on Kyushu came in, my whole family was in shock. I was still a little girl back then, so I didn’t know much. And then my grandmother died, but that okay, she had lived like, what? 98 years? That’s a good run!” she took a sip from her cup.

“My personal philosophy? Always be happy with what you have, you never know when this world of asshole will take it away from you.” that’s...a rather good point from her, and that actually explain a lot about her personality.

…

Now for the final question.

“Does Keira like me?” I asked, and I felt my heartbeat increased.

“Ohohoho, that is a questio-”

And then the bank right across the street exploded.

“That will be answered later! Michelle, get Keira and change! Drake, follow me!” Yuuka ordered and I soon ran with her as she.darted back to the car.

------

“Okay, so what should we do now!?” I asked.

“Right now, we should change in our uniform and do what a Ward does. Save the day and pose for the reporter!!!” with that done, Yuuka climbed into the car and pressed a button, turning the window into pitch black. Sound of ruffling can be heard from within the car.

“Shit, I don’t have any costume! Is there any domino mask?”

The window was lowered slightly, “Nope, they are not in the usual places. There has to be an extra mask somewhere” Yuuka answered.

“Fuck..” this is bad, I need to take my contact lens off, can’t risk to shatter them, but that would mean that I will be exposing my identity to the public. I quickly scanned across the street, looking for any hint of an answer that could get me out of this...

And the answer came in the form of a sport accessories shop. Yes, that's it! I can wear a baseball cap and-ah people can still recognize my face anyway, I need something more than that to...

…..

Fuck it.

“I got an idea, it might just work..." I took a deep breath as I gathered my courage to say my next line "Can I borrow your skirt for the moment?” this is so fucking stupid!!!

“Sure!” and without any hesitation, Yuuka opened the door and I caught a glimpse of her body when she gave me her skirt before she shut the door.

Bluestripebluestripebluestripebluestripebluestripebluestripebluestri-ARGH!!!

Stupid teenage hormone…

But, I got a solution now, time to make it work.

------

So here I am, walking alone towards the supervillains because my teammates had their hands stuck in their costumes.

It was just like a movie, the PRT troopers surrounded the bank with their cars and vans, painted in that pristine white colour that was quickly ruined by the chaos of battle. Three supervillains moved out from the bank, blasting their powers at the troopers.

Some times around the morning, I decided to go online, searching for important information on the various supervillains and vigilantes of NYC. The group in front of me was easily recognized as part of the Adepts, a bunch of self-professed magic users.

All three of the members dressed up like what I would call as modern wizard style ‘costumes’, if those can be called as costumes to begin with.

[Mineral Void detected]​

First, the sidekicks. Greedy Gobbler, a slightly chubby man wearing a black shirt with the symbol of a plasma ball on it, he also wore a purple sleeveless hoodie over it, a black mask on his face and a jean, the kind that’s slightly torn up. His power? Summon a 3-feet wide energy orb that looked like a plasma ball and control its flight. The energy orb was capable of disintegrating anything that’s not alive, and it’s white core was actually hard, cracking it open will cause energy orb to disappear.

Unfortunately that would mean sacrificing your dignity unless you are Narwhal. Yes, I googled Narwhal, and yes, Dragon teased me about it, guess I'm not off the hook yeah…

[Abnormal Attribute detected]​

The second sidekick. Reversal Polarity, a rather scientific name for a ‘magic user’, unfortunately her power will make scientists rip their hair off. Her first power was blasting blue flame out of her hand, which chilled things up. Her second power was to form and shoot chunks of red ice that burn people on contact. Her third power was obviously enhanced resistance to coldness and hotness. The Indian girl wore just a brown trousers with chains between the belt, black tube top and a mask with wooden texture.

[Incinerating Avian detected]​

And the head of this group, Felix Swoop. wearing a garb that reminded me of a cowboy and mariachi, hidden inside his poncho was birds, birds that he used to set on fire and shot people with them. The fact that he wore a cowboy hat also made him quite charismatic and reminded me of someone.

[Combat Mode][Emotional Suppression Level 1]​

Now that I knew what am I fighting against, I walked right between the PRT troopers and the Adepts.

I didn’t really change my clothing much, but I did wore Yuuka’s skirt over my short, with a baseball cap on my head, visor peaked forward. In my hand was a aluminium baseball bat, that I kept slamming onto the palm of my hand, the weak sound somehow resonating through the explosions in front of me.

“Who the hell ar-” I raised up my bat, interrupting him before he finished his words.

“Question! Are you using European swallow or African swallow?” with my utmost attempt in a feminine voice, I gave him my question. That guy used fucking angry birds to attack people, why won’t I ask that?

“I use pigeons! You morons!” And quickly three flaming birds flew from his garb and right toward me.

Besides finding informations on supervillains, I also went through a lot of thinking on how to use my power non-lethally. Well, I can cancel out any power, but that’s defensive usage. All my power could do was kill, than I figured it out.

What can I kill? Mystic Eye of Death Perception didn’t just kill people, but it can also be used to kill concepts and forces as long as you find the right spot and understand it.

In the end, it’s very simple. There’s three burning birds flying towards me and I have a baseball bat in my hands.

Then it’s obviously I needed to bat them back!

Instead of running, I charged towards the bird. The Second Passenger slightly twisted my body to aid me in hitting what I aimed for. Three swings, and three birds flying straight for their owner. I made damn sure to flip all the birds upside down first before smacking right in his face.

It’s just rocket science, literally I would say! Relative speed is basically just the measure of movement in relative to something, like Earth. All I needed to do was to ‘kill’ twice the speed towards me and the birds will fly straight back for the origin.

Of course, I think the Second Passenger helped with my math to make sure my aim was true. I still had to smack it right in the dot as well, but the Second Passenger also took care of that. I also made damn sure to flip those birds upside down to prove my point.

“Holy shit!” Greedy Gobbler yelled as Felix Swoop fell onto the ground, and he took a yoyo out. He began doing sick spinning tricks with it, a purple orb forming above him. Only then did I realized he was focusing his power with his yoyo. At the same time, Reversal Polarity clapped her hands together, bracelets ringing and forming red ice in her palms. Simultaneously, they both blasted their attack at me.

I calculated the odd and took priority at the purple orb, since it might expose my identity. With the bat in my left, I raised up my right to grab it. As soon as I caught the orb, I spun and batted the red ice twice as fast towards Greedy Gobbler, knocking the wind out of him as it smacked his chest. With the orb in my hand, I pressed into its dot to ‘kill’ its capability to destroy everything on me.

Reversal Polarity immediately started running as she realized that she’s the last one left, but it didn’t matter. I threw the orb into the air, hoping it didn’t flicker out of reality just yet, and smacked it with my baseball bat. The orb flew and impacted her back, hard, as well as destroying most of her clothing just before it popped out of existence.

Then I realized what I had done.

“Ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit!” I panicked and ran around in circle, much to the confusion of the bystanders who were probably recording this right now.

Wait...WAIT I CAN STILL SOLVE THIS, NO PROBLEM!!!

I quickly dashed towards Felix Swoop, took his poncho off and used that to cover Reversal Polarity’s naked body.

With that done, I clapped my hand and bowed to her, “My deepest apologize to you, and thank you for the view.” the poor girl whimpered on the floor.

“What!? The fight was done already!?” I turned back to the voice and saw Kudzu, Laser Hoop and Little Boy, finally in their costume. The memory of that night was slightly blurry, but I can still recognize who is who.

Kudzu was wearing a green leotard with a diamond shaped chest window, a brown corset wrapped around her waist and a pleated skirt mixed in green and brown on her hip. Detached sleeves on her elbows, a domino mask with flowery pattern and a pair of green walking boots reached till her knees complemented her appearance. On her waist was a loose belt, dragged down by the weight of a tinker tech whip that looked a lot like tree vine.

Laser Hoop wore a white body suit instead, a symbol of three pink rings connected together decorated her chest, along with three pink bands on her arms, legs and waist. She’s also wearing a tinker tech pink hoop shaped visor with a retro-future look, shielding her eyes, with her golden hair tied up into a single ponytail.

Little Boy, instead of wearing her super heavy powered armor from that day, wore a black body suit covered in yellow armored plating, but those servo on her joints didn’t seemed to be just for show, along with that energy shield and energy rifle with a honest to God energy axe attachment that she was wielding.

“Finally getting the twist out of your panties?” I smiled..

I managed to see them all rolled their eyes through their mask somehow, “Whatever, you should start writing the paperwork down now or else it will last as long as your yesterday.” Yuuka stated, just great, everyone knew about that already?

But all I could do was sigh, “I will get it done as soon as possible.”

It’s just like any other police investigation, the PRT recorded down my identity and my side of this bank robbery, but with some help from the girls, it’s done in less than 10 minutes.

As soon as it was completed, I was tackled by the girls, cuddling and sticking their face to mine with all their strength, “Well then, hero of the day, ready to continue?”, Yuuka said.

“Sure, sure why the hell not?” I replied back.

------

“Oh, you guys are finally ba-Drake why a-are you wearing a skirt!?” I think Lily’s eyes almost popped out of her skull.

“Got into a fight with the Adepts, so we have to change our costume out but Drake got them all already. Unfortunately we are stuck in our costume since all the cape groupies kept following us for shits and giggles.” Yuuka helpfully explained for all of us.

“Wait..won’t Michelle’s Mustang get compromised since we have been driving it around in our costume?”, I noted.

“Don’t worry, I installed optical camo too, and bought multiple driver plate numbers.” Michelle answered.

“Well that solved it.”

Sounds of footsteps rumbled across the room and Kay soon rushed out with laptop in hands, “Oh my God, Drake, you are that baseball batter girl?” she asked.

“It’s on the internet already!?”

“Yeah, and it’s pretty memetic.” and she turned her laptop around, showing the chaos spreading on the internet.

Christ, there’s already several threads about me since the fight a couple hours ago, and with a rather disturbing amount of image of me and the trio posted onto it. And already there’s multiple videos of the fight, edited with memes all over. Thankfully, most videos did protect the dignity of that villain girl by censoring her out.

As I was reading the thread, I felt a poke on my back. Turning around, I saw Khaki standing behind me, “You are the batter girl?” I have a feeling I will be getting that question a lot today…

“Yeah.” I replied.

“You dun goof, Drake.” he said.

“What?”

“Let me tell you about the PR, they want the public to like us, so we have to dress up like clown and earn popularity even from those toxic asshole community because they are rich motherfucker. Hell, they want fancy cape. So most of us have to wear skin tight bodysuit with light body armour padded in it. You? You walked straight into a minefield with that fucking baseball bat, Now they will make you into a baseball themed Ward even if that meant walking on water.” he ranted, for at least a minute or so. I guess he really hated the PR.

Personally speaking, that probably won't be effecting me much, “Eh, I can handle myself with the bat just fine, and I pretty sure you can come up with something.” I smiled.

Instead, he sighed, “Considering how well you did with that bat? Not really a problem. It’s the other thing you needed to worry about.”

“And what is that exactly?”

“You wore a fucking skirt, now you have to wear it forever.”

Wh-what!?

"Yes, what, you might ask. There's over 500000 views on the first Batter Girl video in just 5 hours. It's popular as fuck and memetic as 4chan. Do the math." Khaki explained, somehow reading my mind.

I’m very certain that everyone was laughing behind me now, with Yuuka being the loudest because she’s practically the catalyst for this disaster. There’s only one thing for me to say.

“Fuck!”

------

Author Note: Knife, or bladed edgy stuffs. Those things are BORING. Seriously, there's tons of character that wield stupidly sharp katana that's folded over 1000 times or whatever number and they use that sword to cut the shit out of anything. Which to be honest, was getting boring, and making another SI that cut everything will just be boring too.

So...I gave him a baseball bat, which might or might not have something to do with my playthrough in team fortress 2 with Scout for quite a while...

Heck, even Flechette was wearing a costume that doesn't fit her power in anyway.

As for the crossdressing? Well....I guess I just like to screw with my SI. Besides, a lot of shenanigan happened in Silencio because of crossdressing anyway, so, FUN!!!

 

Wow, thank you for your criticism.

I still trying to figure out how much fanservice was too much because...let's be honest here, I don't like ecchi anime much, except for a couple time-wasting moment since I'm still kinda a pervert here (Then again, anyone is a self-declared pervert if they joined QQ forum)

But don't worry about, for the next four chapter I figured I have done mocking anime and go for something closer to home instead.

As for you...

Interlude 1, where we finally get a outsider view of the SI, while his case isn't so severe compared to other Case 53, his eyes which looked like made out of Bismuth or just look at this image.



Except in this case, it's permanent.

So anyway, another post for today's chapter!

In which the SI get his debut and obviously, stuff happens.

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Chapter 2.3

------

It was late at night again, so as per usual, I decided to talk with Riley. It became more than just a habit now.

But...the topic this time is a bit awkward...

“Ahahahahahahaha!!!” a childish laughter rumbled from the speakers.

I could only facepalm at my embarrassment, Riley have been laughing almost non-stop for the past 10 minutes already, did she installed a second lung in her or what?

“Just, just give a me second to-pffttt ahahahaha!!” and now she’s clutching her stomach, tears swelling in her eyes.

Slowly, she took deep breath and tried not to jiggle her funny bone again.

“Just...wow, hahaha. Drake, I didn’t think you would do something big in just days after that night.” she said, wiping her tears off.

“Erm, it’s...not really a big deal?” I smiled worriedly.

“Anyway, I have made something for you, remember that roll of black stuff I gave you to wear that night?”

“Yeah, of course I remember that, it ate my clothes!” I complained.

She smiled, “Well, I have made something real out of it, I call it, the Bionic Suit! But I still need to tweak its appearance to fit in your...new costume, with skirt and all that.”

My jaw must have hit the floor now because I can’t speak a word, they really are going to make me wear bloody skirt as part of my cape costume?

“You can worry about that later. I shall now explain to you the benefit of wearing my wonderful bionic suit. First, it will enhance your strength and speed by almost thrice of your original attributes. Second, it can protect you from numerous threat such as chemical, radiation and more importantly, bullets. It can withstand up against a 50 cal and all you will get is a mild bruising. Third. the suit can regenerate from the carbon dioxide in the air and bodily waste, so you will never need to worry about wear and tear anymore. It’s bio-friendly on top of all that advantages! And maybe it’s not that important to you, but I was working with Dragon to get it mass produced. Soon, everyone will have the suit! Protectorate, Ward and even the PRT!” she explained.

“Riley, that’s amazing!” in such a short time, she managed to make this and get it out of prototype stage? Now that’s my little mad scientist!

“It’s nothing, I still need to figure out where to store the helmet.” she sighed, “I’m just doing all that I can to...to just not be Bonesaw again.”

“Riley, you are not her anymore." I touched the screen, camera tracking my hand and Riley touched my hand on her side of the screen.

"Remember, I will always be with you.” I smiled, this time to comfort her, and she laughed at my childish act.

“Yeah, yeah, thanks big bro. I need to get it done as soon as possible. So...good night!” and the screen turned black.

And with nothing less to do, I pulled up the blanket and slept, wondering about my costume.

And then there’s nightmare, cause, Fuck! I need to crossdress for the rest of my life now!

------

“Please write down your name and sign here.” the officer pointed.

So here it is, the box that contained my future. Its weight, its size, its...girth?

Each steps I took back towards the elevator, was heavy and loud, like my frantic beating heart that were trying to punch out of my ribcage. My shaking, sweat-dripping hand called for the elevator, and its ‘ding’ as the doors opened sounded thunderous, like Thor himself was pitying my fate.

Two steps in, no way out.

I felt my gut floated slightly as the elevator took me down below ground level. The long half minutes ride almost felt like eternity and when it ‘ding’ once more, it jolted me out of my stance. The doors opened and another two steps forward. The elevator doors closed back, and I can hear it moving straight back up. Another metal door in front of me, and slowly I took out my keycard and sliced it across the electronic lock.

The door slid open and I was greeted by everyone.

“That’s the costume isn’t it?” Yuuka grinned, barely holding her own excited within her bouncing body.

“Yeaaaaaahhhhhh…..” I dragged on, my hope of getting this done fast was being pummeled by each passing seconds.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, squeezing discomfort out of me. I turned back and saw Joseph, “Drake, do not despair over this minor inconvenience, you aren’t really the first crossdressing Ward here.”

“Being a Highlander is not a crossdressing hobby!” a guy behind him yelled.

“That’s...reassuring, I suppose.” and I moved on. My feet felt heavier with each following steps.

“Hey guy, don’t tease him, cheer him up!.” it was Kay that’s standing on a table, hands clapping, the sound resonated throughout the room and the rest soon followed.

With their encouragement, my heart felt at ease and I quickly picked up the pace. Just before I closed the door, I saw everyone was cheering for me, smiling for me, and most important of all, praying for me because dear God, I did somehow monumentally stupid.

The sound of the clapping muffled as I closed the door, and I found myself slumped against the door, chest heaving with each breath while cold sweat dripped from my face.

Okay, time to open it.

------

...This...this is just embarrassing.

Suddenly the idea seemed pretty terrible, and yet just why on Earth did I think that disguising myself as a girl was a great idea yesterday!?

Just behind this door, I can hear the Wards chanting my name as if I was the star and they were the fans. It only made my heart beating even crazier and I felt cold sweat flowing down my bare neck.

“Just, calm down, Drake...okay...okay just...let’s go in 3...2...1!” and I pulled on the door knob, opening my personal space to them all.

When I fully exposed myself to them however, they were all...silent?

“Erm...guys?” words squeaked out of my mouth and I couldn’t help but wonder what went wrong. Fidgeting on the spot was all I could do.

The costume was simple, just a white shirt, white cap, and a white skirt, all fitted to be used for baseball tournament. There’s more than that obviously, the shirt and skirt were padded with kevlar and chain mesh. The cap I’m wearing has tinker tech that projected a shadow over my eye, obscuring upper part of my face but my rainbow eyes will glow through that. Underneath that is a black bodysuit that Riley gave me.

Unfortunately, it needed to fit the look of my baseball themed costume, so it needed to be cut down in size. Now the bodysuit looked like a combat turtleneck sweater dress (And yes, it came with bulletproof panty so I didn’t need to wear another underwear), and with it, I also wore black fingerless body glove and thigh high socks that doubled as boots. All linked up with a thin black tape between the my exposed skin to boost my strength to the max.

And an utility belt around my waist completed the hero look. Every hero needs an utility belt, have you ever seen a bad guy with utility belt?

In the end, the costume just looked...anime as fuck. I meant, there has to be one anime character that wore this sort of costume before.

But, it was necessary. I talked with who Khaki called as the rainbow abomination, A.K.A Glenn Chambers, head of the PRT PR team. Despite the public was celebrating for my part in the dissolution of the Nine, they were still very afraid of me. After all, who else can kill Siberian, the only one true being that can hurt Alexandria?

As much as Khaki complained about him, I listened to him and disguised myself as a girl really worked well. The batter girl video have spread all over the internet and gained millions of views after barely a week. If I took the image of Batter Girl with me, then my career as a cape will be undoubtedly successful.

Sigh...the amount of stuff I needed to do for this…

“Drake...” that almost startled me when Yuuka suddenly spoke behind me. Did she walk around me when I was pondering about things?

“Oh my God, you look so cute!” I was too stunned by her comment as she wrapped her arms around me and pulled me in. I felt my cap fell off and my hair being ruffled, it almost felt like they were treating me like a puppy...

Wait, they? Right, a few girls also joined in the hug feast, even Lily couldn’t help but to pat me on my head. As if my dignity couldn’t fall any lower, I can’t help but to enjoy these rather touchy acts, it’s just...gosh I missed hugging for too damn long.

“Well then, our big star, think it’s time to take the stage?” Kay grinned. There’s also another reason as to why I receive the costume today. While the Nine didn’t do any damage to the city at all, it’s frightening to the public that New York was attacked by the most fearsome group of murderers in America.

So, in one week, I was kicked upstair and hailed as the saviour of New York for slaying the Nine. Hell, that literally the name the internet gave me before I became Batter Girl, the Nine Slayer, they called me.

Thankfully, I was ordered to simply to stand on the stage and say a really short line. Probably no problem...probably…

------

[Emotional Suppre-SUPPRESSION ERROR]​

I slammed the door open and quickly took a sit, didn’t matter which one, just a chair for me rest on. My legs felt like bloody jelly, quivering from fear as I grabbed a water bottle and twisted it open, drinking and dousing myself in water.

I did not know whether my face was wet from the water or my tears, but my lips tasted salty. Footsteps rumbled from the doorway and Flechette was the first to rush in, followed by Laser Hoop, Frogger and Kudzu.

“Drake, are you okay!?” she asked, hand patting my back.

“I’m...I’m just…” but my mouth betrayed me and stuttered in fright. I felt two stream of wetness flowing down my face again.

“Look, it’s fine. Just stay cool, bro!” another hand touched my back, it’s Frogger.

But all that did was making me cry louder, “There’s just so many fucking people! I know I’m big but this is too much!” the faces below the stage, the unending waves of crowd and the rows of camera from reporters all across America were all down the stage, looking and admiring me. So many, way too many and when the Mayor told me to say my part of the speech, all I did was stuttering like a broken speaker while the speaker broadcast my panicked breathing to everyone in America.

Forget about butterfly in my stomach, there’s a whole swarm of those flesh-eating bugs humming in my gut and I found myself embarrassingly leaking right in the stage. It’s just...too much for me.

It’s too goddamn much...fuck, I can’t even speak properly for a presentation in my classroom, why did I think I can do this to begin with...

A third hand rubbed my painful chest, “There’s first time for everything, Drake. Just let all your feeling out and in the end, it will always be fine!” Yuuka said.

I was just...really afraid of how they see me, how the public see me. For my entire life, I will have eyes on my every actions at every single moment, always spotting for mistakes and errors.

“I...I pissed myself on the stage, the suit absorbed and processed it but…”

I don’t care any more, I just hugged them three as tightly as possible, burying my face in them and cried, wailing like a baby.

I don’t know how long have passed while I was crying my heart out, but when Legend himself opened the door, it’s probably very long.

“It’s he-”

“I’m fine now.”, I sniffed back a tear, “I can continue the speech.”

“Are you sur-”

“I’m damn sure I’m ready, sir. Let’s get this done with.” as I walked out of the back stage, a hand cupped mine and grabbed hold of it. I turned around and saw Laser Hoop smiling at me.

Now that I’m not alone in this, I’m ready.

------

I was once more facing the crowd of New Yorkers on the stage, feet pitter-pattered on the stage as I moved toward the podium. The Mayor saw me, a Ward barely holding together with my eyes reddened from crying, and his face quickly changed for the worse.

“Son…” he warned.

“I’m fine.” I reassured him.

He moved aside and I stepped forward, hand still holding onto Laser Hoop’s. I snapped my fingers, testing the microphone. The speaker all across the stage resonated my snapping clearly.

I took a deep breath, face hunched over the podium. Slowly, my face inched towards the mic, so much that I could hear breathing through the speakers around me. Maybe not that close…

[Emotional Suppression Level 1]​

“1..2..3…” I tested out the mic “First thing first, sorry about my...performance just now.” I spoke into the mic and cleared my mind from thinking how many people were watching this right now, gotta concentrated all on to this speech.

“I’m...the Batter Girl, no real actual cape name yet. I’m not even sure how I should name myself since the funny thing is, I had absolutely no idea how to play baseball.” I continued, trying to giggle but my shaking voice caused the opposite onto the audience instead.

“I’m...afraid, While I’m the so called Nine Slayer on the web, I’m utterly terrified of not just the Nine, but everything of this world. I’m horrified so to speak, just suddenly out of nowhere I was dumped in the middle of nowhere. So much unknowns, lurking behind every corner of the street which I still feel unfamiliar with.”

I heard the crowd below me talked and discussed, wondering why the hell am I saying this, what good would there be for a Ward this powerful to tell his fear out?

The hand on mine squeezed with reassurance, and I smiled back at Laser Hoop.

“But!” I yelled, making the point solidly towards the audience and slowly I lifted my head up.

“This is exactly why I’m here in the Ward, isn’t it? To conquer my fear, to train and steel myself over the fear of my image, my past trauma, and most importantly, my power.” now, I can lift my head in proud of myself. Looking straight at the rows of camera, I gave my best damn determined look to them all.

“Not all power are flashy, some are just horrors that came straight out of your nightmare. Mine? The very definition of my power is lethal. Anyone can kill, it just take the will of a soldier or the blood-thirstiness of a edgy murderer to do it. My power? I kill things, I kill everything.” I believed I have heard someone dramatically gasped down there.

“But, I stayed with the Wards, and learnt. How do I be more than that? More than just some knife waving maniacs? There’s always a side of the power that you can only see by focusing on it, thinking about it. I kill things, more than things, things like the wetness of shirt, the sugar in a candy and the effect of power.”

I picked up my bat and waved it around, showing it to the crowd, “That’s how I did it about a week ago.”

With one hand, I grabbed a baseball attached to my utility belt like a grenade and threw it high in the air. My hands moved onto the handle of my bat, and I swung, hitting right at the dot of the baseball and sent it disappearing into the cloud with shockwave booming in its wake.

“If Earth is a stadium, then I might have scored a homerun with that.” I pointed skyward with my bat and smiled at the audience.

“Anything is possible, not because you are determined about it, but because of you thinking on how to reach it with what you have. And that, is why I joined the Ward.”

I bowed and relished in the cheering and applauding of the crowd. The sound of clapping and whistling, they sounded so...nice. As I was enjoying the moment, I felt a pull on my hand and I walked with Laser Hoop down the stage, waving to the crowd in doing so.

“You did it. Holy crap, the crowd are fucking crazy over you now!” there’s no way I would not recognize Frogger’s voice, being cheerful and joyful.

“Yeah...I...yeah I did it.” I said, and tears leaked from the edges of my eyes, but these were not tears of despair, these were tears of happiness. A hand came up and wiped them off.

“Hey, girly boy, close your eyes.” that voice, Laser Hoop.

I followed her request, “I’m not-”, but my complain was quickly silenced by the a taste of lips that weren’t mine.

There’s no tongue involved, just a chaste kiss done by adolescents. And that, was the first kiss I ever received in my soon-to-be-adventurous life.

When she released me, I was breathing just slightly more than normal, but my face felt really warm from it and they all laughed at me as my face turned red like an apple.

I tried to come up with something but all I have was “Err…”

“Come on, the civilians are waiting for their rescue and hand signature!”, she pulled my wrist and I soon found myself struggling to keep up.

------

“Annnnd say ‘cheese’!” the lady raised up her retro camera to her face.

“Cheese!”, a snap of camera followed, and the little girl besides me jumped with joyfulness, checking out the photo printed from the camera.

“Thank you, Batter Girl!” I patted the girl’s head.

“It’s nothing, and remember, if you have a dream, just do it!”, then I walked off, towards Laser Hoop who have her own share of fanbase.

“Hey, you busy there?” I asked.

“Just a moment.” and the pen in her hand danced as she wrote down her signature, ‘Laser Hoop’ in pink letters that looped from a single line.

She waved off the parents and their kids and stroll towards me.

“How do you feel now?” she asked.

“Better!” I grinned and she pouted at my pun.

“Well, kinda. I’m still pretty nervous about all these Ward stuff, ya know.” I glanced around nervously, looking at the various civilians taking out their phones and camera to snap pictures of us.

“Ha, I can imagine that, but you are bigger than most Ward that I have known of.” she giggled.

I could only chuckled nervously at her statement.

“Hmm, you need a time out, don’t you?”, she grinned.

“Wait, we can do that?” I asked.

“Sure! Hey Frogger, Flechette, take over this sector for us, couldn’t ya?”

“No problem!” Frogger gave us a thumb-up and continued to please her crowd of fan.

Then Laser Hoop hugged my waist tightly and both of us flew off as three pink rings formed around us.

Flying, that what this was. We were flying and I can feel the wind rushed past my hair and skin, flapping my skirt as we flew straight up.

It’s weird as to how my gut didn’t feel like it was being pushed onto the ground, inertia dampening breaker effect maybe?

By the time we stopped, the only thing that reached taller than us were birds and the sky. I can see the skyscraper barely reached our height, with people and cars moving on the street and road like ants.

“Enjoy the view?” I looked back at Laser Hoop, smiling at me. Then I realised we were in another one of her hoop, making us hovering in the air like we were swimming in a pool of water.

“Yeah, this is...you can’t really see this view with your own eyes unless you are a flyer, isn’t it?” the wide span of bright blue with clouds floating around was one beautiful sight to behold.

“Yup, and no one can see us up here either.” she smiled.

I felt my face heated up and faced somewhere else to avert her gaze, “This place, all these things, they really came way too sudden, the power, the fame and...you.”

She lightly smacked my shoulder, my back bumped against the warm laser ring, “Hey, don’t be so serious about it. We were just having fun, maybe just, ya know, a couple weeks of dating?”

“Yeah, I may have been a bit serious about this. Besides that, I’m not even sure whether I should call myself Batter Girl or not, it’s pretty much a place holder name an-” I realized something that I damn near missed.

…..

“Goddang, I have a girlfriend. Goddang, my girlfriend has superpower.” the realisation just hit me all of sudden. But any of my following words were sealed shut with a kiss.

When we were done, my head felt blank like a piece of paper, all I focused on was her lips. When she licked it with a seductive motion, my mind just screamed for more. But something down there caught my eyes, almost like a danger sense yelling at me to pay attentions.

“Batter Girl, what’s wrong?” she asked, concern clear in her voice.

[Area Alchemist detected]​

Quickly, I pulled out a binocular I bought from a tourism shop and looked at the source of the threat. There’s a woman, wearing a gasmask, dressed in a black uniform with bandolier full of canister and a travel bag in her hand. She zipped the bag open and I saw some sort of blocky device, dozens of them in it.

I passed my binocular to Laser Hoop, “Look over there.” I pointed.

She looked and her face twisted with panic.

“Oh my God, she planting bombs!” she said.

“Let’s go and get her for interrupting our make-out session then.” I suggested, but both of us knew what a Ward will do in this situation.

Her arms wrapped around my waist and we quickly flew off towards the bomber girl.

------
Author Note: And the canon train is off the rail again.

...And now let's talk about Laser Hoop. She pretty much spontaneously occurred when I was making a couple B-lister for chapter 1.5, and I HAVE actually made even more B-lister such as Jump, Glacier, and such, why I didn't use them I have no idea.

But maybe it's because the specialty of her power that punched the plot right in its face. 3 laser hoops that accelerate things that go in them, in the right direction. Ideas pretty much exploded and all of sudden you might be seeing her in the later arc more often than you think...

 

...Ouch

Oh well, another chapter for today's refreshment.

In which there's a proper fight scene and incoming drama!

------
Chapter 2.4

------
The feeling of flying faster than gravity can pull you down was an rather...excruciating experience for my poor innards.Laser Hoop however noticed my distress and kissed me on my forehead, lightening my pain as we flew towards Cornell University.

It was rather scary to see a school bombing happened right before it started., seeing the students just studied day and night, expecting any other normal days and all of sudden, big booms everywhere.

But that’s why we were here right? We were going to stop this before it even began.

Just before we landed, Laser Hoop spun both of us downside up and with one more ring floating on the ground, slowing our descent to a safe landing.

The Bomber....Girl, judging by the noticeable mounds even behind the jacket and sweater, took a step back from our presence. From her heavy breathing through her gasmask, I have a hunch that it’s her first time to go out in a costume.

[Combat Mo-ERROR]​

But first, “Identity yourse-BLARGH!”

It’s was fortunate that I didn’t wear any mask or face-covering accessories or I might be having a bigger mess than vomiting half-digested liquid on the green grass. All that flying just now really took the wind out of me.

With my weakened strength, my legs grew weak and fell on the ground but Laser Hoop quickly held onto my side. With what’s left of my strength, I cranked my head up and saw the Bomber Girl did a doubletake, looking at her escape route, looking back at me, only then did she ran off, leaving the bag full of bombs.

“Stop worrying about me and get her!” I ordered and Laser Hoop quickly left my side. I then tapped into my communication watch and called for reinforcement.

Looking at the bag, I shuffled my way to it and analysed its content. The bombs looked like a classic bomb with a timer strapped to its payload, but there’s something about that tell me that this was a tinker tech.

Feeling my strength coming back to me, I grabbed hold of the bag and ran towards where I thought they went. Obviously, it has been a while, so I called Laser Hoop for her location.

“About time you called, Christ, this girl all sort of tricks up her sleeves! I need help now!” she ordered.

“Roger, Batter out.” I replied.

Goddammit, she’s several kilometers away from me already. Oh well, time to test out the suit.

[Combat Mode][Emotion Suppression Level 1]​

I crouched down, fingers touching the ground like a runner preparing before the starting bang. Then I ran, fast.

The suit really did enhance my strength, and I can felt the heavy bag in my right was nothing more than a featherweight now. Dirt flew and concrete cracked as my feet kicked harder and faster. I was closing in on Laser Hoop’s location but it wasn’t fast enough.

There’s only so much traction on the ground that could get me faster, so I jumped off it and ran on the wall instead, taking my sweet time to jump onto the other side before gravity began to drag me down.

Second passenger helped guiding me, making sure that I didn’t land on cracked wall or fragile window. Eventually I spotted signs of pink glowing residue in the air, and Laser Hoop herself, her right arm part of her bodysuit was missing for some reason.

In time, I reached Laser Hoop and the expression of her face was hilarious, she must have thought I figured out how to fly with my power.

“What, ho-just be careful of that girl, she have all sort of bomb and I missed one, it ate everything inorganic, my suit included!” she supplied.

“Guess you should be thankful that it didn’t pop a couple feet to the left.” she lightly smacked me when I jumped up again, face flushed red.

“See that rental car? She’s driving it, at least she knows how much damage she will be making if any of the bomb hit those on the street.”

This was a bit strange, if she’s bombing the school, then why won’t she act reckless on others? There might be a real reason behind this bombing that’s more than just ‘I’m fucking mad and insane.’

“How is she going to-” I was about to say ‘stop us’, but I guessed that Murphy’s law has this itch for its dramatic asspull boner. From the opening on the small civilian car, a small bomb launched out with a pop and exploded right in front of our face.

My second passenger quickly forced my arm up, blocking the blast. I realised it was a flashbang as Laser Hoop lost control of her hoops, eyes shut closed from the flash. On my next jump, I grabbed her out of the air and placed her down safely.

“Stay here, I will get her.” I then called for help to extract Laser Hoop and get her some medical attention, you never knew what tinker tech actually did to people.

As soon as that was done, I left the bag besides her and jumped off. It wasn’t long until I found the rental car, now emptied of its passengers.

Now I felt like a predator stalking for its prey, waiting and looking for just hint of its track. There might be just enough time for the girl to change her clothing now, so I needed to prepare for the possibility of that as well.

...Huh, maybe that’s her?

I walked towards my target, thinking that she blended into the crowd well. As my hand touched her shoulder, she shivered in fear.

“Miss, I would like you to come with me for a second.” ‘round’, but I didn’t say that.

“Huh? Why should I come with you?” the woman, probably a former university student, said.

“First, I have seen better poker face than that, for starter, you need to stop twitching your lips. Second…” I pointed to the side of my face, she raised up her hand and touched, fear filled her heart when she found a dented line on her face.

“Tight fitted mask tends to cause that. Especially gasmask that needs a tight air sealing fit.” I explained.

She looked...dejected, “What now?”

“I will take you into custody, from there on, it depends on my higher up.” I answered.

With a few taps to my communication watch, a PRT van will be arrived to our location in just under 5 minutes.

“Sooo...mind telling me why you did this?” I asked.

“What?”

“The Bombing.” she went silent after that.

“There has to be a reason why you did that, and from what I saw from the fight? You do care about people’s safety. So, tell me, why?”

She hesitated, wondering if there’s anyway for her to escape out of this, as she realized that all her options have ran out, she spoke.

“...I...All I did in my entire life was study, study and study. My mother already told me that if you aren’t the top, then don’t bother.”

“What the fuck kind of philosophy is that?” I argued.

She continued, “Pfft, yeah, what the fuck indeed. But the old me believed that, deeply. I already aced to the top, not just in my class, but in my school. But here? In Cornell University? Shit is fucking hard when you work alone.”

“I have been through that before…” this...was getting way too close to home.

“Really? You are not saying to...Nevermind about that. But maybe it’s my attitude or something, people just labeled me as a bitch that no one wants. Nobody will work this huge bitchy nerd obviously. As the final comes in, I realised just how many option I have. None, exactly none…” her head fell onto her palm, sobbing quietly.

“And that’s when you triggered. The lowest point of your life, I read about it. Surprised that not much people know about it.”

“...Yeah, that’s what happened. So apparently, my best idea of that time is ‘Fuck this damn school, I’m gonna burn it to an ugly black’. Well, if that was my best idea then I’m really stupid…”

I sighed, and hugged her, comforting her. For a moment, she didn’t react, but she soon replied back with a hug and sobbed onto my shoulder, crying out all her frustration onto my shirt.

“It’s not the end of the road yet.” I released my hug and she looked at me with a questionable look.

“You could still join in as a Protectorate member.”

“I...can I?” hope glowed in her eyes.

“Well, it might take a bit of persuasion but I can take you in. After all, I kind of ruined your dastardly plan and left you with no bad rep.” she giggled at that.

“Ah, the van is here now.” and it parked right in front of us, with troopers moving out of the back and surrounded us.

“Just take it easy, they won’t eat you.” I cuffed her wrists with a plastic handcuff and led her to the van.

Wait...eat…

Eat

Eight

Seven Eight Nine

Ooooooohhhhhh!!!

“Erm, are you alright? You are not going to throw up again, are you?” my mind moved back to my body once more as I saw her concerning look directly at me.

“Just figured something out, my very own proper capename, I think I will call myself Batter Seven now.”

“Huh? Why?” she asked.

“Because seven eight nine!” she rolled her eyes and the troopers groaned at my humour, “What?”

...

“If you are naming yourself after number, then I’m calling myself Bomber Two.”

“Why?” I asked, she figured out her name this fast? Better up your own game, Drake.

“B-2 Stealth Bomber, duh!” the PRT troopers looked wary at her, “What? I’m a military nerd okay!”

The rest of the ride wasn’t really much eventful.

------

“And congratulation to our hero of the week! Who have not only managed to stop the bombing of Cornell University, but also snatching up another member for the Protectorate! What’s next? You anticipated in an Endbringer fight and the Endbringer join our side!? Who care! Let’s party!” Yuuka loudly announced into the microphone, drinking her bottle of cider in one go.

Ah yes, it’s Sunday again, and I did something big enough to warrant another party, with a whole crate of cider no less!

Alcohol for underage might be slightly terrible, especially for probably irresponsible super powered teenagers, but hey! Who the hell would get drunk from this weak shit?

“So, how does it feel like to be the hero of the week again, Drake?” Yuuka said, clasping my arm.

“It’s starting to feel like a regular things now.” I gulped down another dose of this delicious golden liquid.

“Heh, I’m going to bother someone else now, so get on with your girlfriend.” she left and walked toward Cerri, I think I should get out of here right now.

Glancing over the party, I found Keira and Michelle dancing to the rhythm of a latest pop music, blasting through the speaker mounted on the corners of the ceiling.

Michelle saw me walking toward them and smiled to me when she walked elsewhere.

“Hey, Keira.” I greeted.

And she greeted me back with a kiss, though it felt sloppy as alcohol began to take hold of her system.

We then both danced to the wild music, just untamed movement of waving hand and stepping around, following the crazy rhythm of the music. However, I probably required a couple lessons on dancing, getting laughed at my expense by Keira also made me deciding to do that with haste.

“Sup, Keira, Drake! Think I could borrow him for a moment?” out of nowhere, Kay appeared right between us.

“Erm..." I was too stunned by her sudden appearance and even Keira hesitated before replying "S-sure, no problem.” Keira waved us off as Kay pulled me towards somewhere.

Finding a quiet spot in the Ward base, she sat on a stool and patted the one next to her.

“Okay, what happened?” I sat down.

“No, nothing happened...yet.”

“Continue.” I asked.

She sighed, “So, throughout these two weeks, have you ever notice Lily being anywhere besides close to me?”

Huh, that did give me a few questions, “No, you’re pretty much her only friend here, isn’t it?”

“Correct! Yes, I’m the her only friend. And Yuuka, kinda. And Khaki, actually that would mean I wasn’t her only friend...Anyway...I would like you to be her friend too, Drake.” she said.

I raised my eyebrow, there's no way it's this simple., “Okay, details, now.”

She sighed, “You see, Lily’s an orphan. You should know that by now, right?” I nodded.

“Well, that’s just mean it’s far easier to send her whenever any region needed reinforcement. Do you know why Lily used an arbalest now instead of a rapier?”

“Because it’s dangerous?” I replied.

She chuckled at that, “Yeah, true. There’s...this one fight she got in with this brute. That girl threw a fucking car at Lily and in a life or death situation, she threw her rapier and sliced the girl half. She had to kill her, there's no choice, I understand but ever since that happened, I can physically feel she lost something that day. What she felt was definitely a lot more worse than the pain she had when I have to regrow her leg by licking the bloody wound!"

She...remained silent for a few moments before speaking again, “Might be a bit strange to ask someone who just appears out of nowhere, but, I want you to accompany Lily if she’s ever send to another assignment again, please.”

“I…”

“I know, you have Keira, and she can’t really move anywhere, but please help me out on this one.”

“If you are so worried about her then why don’t you go with her instead?” I crossed my arm.

“I...tried..." both of her hands cupped her face, trying to hide her crying face away from my sight.

“Kay...”

“7 fucking years in the Ward, I’m experienced, but I’m not sure if I can actually fight well against real opponents that want to fucking kill children!”

“Didn’t you fight Burnscar and win?”

“She didn’t even lasted a second against me! That's not a real opponent!” her voice shivered as she wiped tears with the back of her hand, but it just kept flowing.

“Kay, you are strong. Strong enough to fight for your own childish and cartoonish ideal of Frogger, trust me on this.” as Kay sulked on her stool, I continued.

“I once thought of that too but...”

With my hand on her shoulder, I reaffirmed her, “Kay, your power is stupidly powerful. I mean, striker, breaker power copy on an extremely long appendage? You can easily fight back against those that’s threatening your friend without breaking a sweat, without resorting to real violence.” I stood up, towering over her.

“But…”

“Hell, maybe even learn a fews tricks in professional trash-talking to get the villains to the good side. Just do it like I did the impossible with Riley and...oh crap I didn’t even ask for her name.” and with that, Kay lost it and laughed like there’s no tomorrow.

Slowly, she eased down on the laughing and wiped tears off her face, “Thank you, Drake. Let’s get back to the party before anyone notice.”

“Right.” and back to the party we went.

------

“Oh hey, Khaki!” I waved at him.

With one step, Kay strode across the distance between them both and cuddled his short body, “Finally you got out of that workshop of yours, just go out and get some fresh air for once, kay?” she nudged his side.

Instead, he sniffed the air, “All I smell here are booze and more booze.” he turned to face me, neck moved more like a turret, “And...sorry about that night, I was a bit...lost.”

I shrugged, “It’s alright, Khaki. I forgive you. Now what do you meant by you are lost?”

As if it was just mere fact, he explained, “Killing the Nine was basically my life goal since my whole family was killed by them. 4 years of planning, and all of sudden you completely wiped the floor with them and Jack is dead before I even realise it.”

“Oh...sor-”

“Nevermind, shit happens.” he walked away, just like that.

…

“He needs a therapist.” I suggested.

“The director tried, now the therapist needs a therapist.” what.

Fuck this, “I...I will just try to get drunk for now.”

“Great idea, let’s find your girlfriend an-”

Whatever she was saying, it was interrupted by the ‘ding’ of the entrance doors as they slid open. From the now opened doorway, Lily walked in, reading a file on her hand. I looked back to Kay, and saw her face took a dip into depression.

“Oh hi Ka-”

“Tell me that’s the reassignment notice.” that glare from Kay’s eyes almost seemed like it could easily kill any weaker being.

“Erm, ye-”

“Unholy willy fucking of a shark eating a heart attack inducing cheeseburger, of course this happened right after I told you to help her.” she yelled accusingly, but more at the mysterious force up above “Where’s the location this time?”

“Oh erm, it’s here...and it’s Brockton Bay?”

All of a sudden, the music stopped abruptly and everyone looked at Lily as if she dropped a soap in a prison shower. The silence was still enough that I could hear a pin dropped onto the carpet floor. As a matter of fact, someone literally dropped a pin to test it out, no point for guessing who.

“No.” there was a expressions of utter horror on Kay's face, “NO!” she pointed toward Lily, poking her chest, “You are not going to a city that make Florida looks like Wonderland!”

“But the ord-”

“Fuck the order! You always get send off to somewhere after a couple weeks or so. Please, for once just stay here for at least a fucking month!” at her desperation, Kay was reduced to a sobbing mess. Just...just what the hell had she seen?

I couldn’t just watch this, on the spur of a moment, I pushed it between and said what I should have done so, “Fine, I will go with her.”

It wasn’t instantaneous, but she did perk right back up and looked at me with her reddened eyes, “Really?”

“I don’t know the story behind this Brockton Bay, but I will go with her. Besides, I handled the Nine personally. If any tries to pull the same thing, I will make sure they won’t do it twice.” I said.

Her arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me in, silently sobbing onto my shoulder, “Thank you.”

I heard an audible sigh behind me and saw Keira walking around. Quickly, I pushed Kay off and chased after her.

Walking down the dormitory, I saw her door opened with light shining from within. Slowly, I walked towards her room and saw her, eyes closed, sitting on her bed and listening to music from her earphone, attached to an ipod.

“Hey.” someone has to start this conversation.

“Hey.” I moved in and sat besides her. Slowly, she removed her earphone and put it aside.

“Well that was rather sudden I have to say.” she continued.

“Sorry about that.”

She sighed again, “Not really, hero like you flies all over the places anyway.”

She looked at me, eyes filled with fondness, “Just remember that you are the first guy I dated with. So even when you have a new girlfriend over there, don’t forget about me.”

I smiled and caressed her face, closing in with a kiss on her lips.

It took...quite a while...

“I believe it’s time to be back at the party.”

“Right, oh, and since you will be leaving soon, I say we have a date before that, what do you say?” she suggested.

I can feel my face blushed from that prospect, “Erm, sure, great! No problem!”

So this is it, my first date. so quickly after getting my first kiss from the same girl, Americans really do anything fast...

And soon enough, both of us walked back to the party.

Yet I couldn’t help but wonder something will go wrong with the date, as if some ominous sign appeared in my head.

------
Author Note: No one escape Brockton Bay, NO ONE.

Honestly, this is why I timeskip between chapters in Arc 2 so much. I really doubt I can write out a whole storyline without moving back to the main focus of canon storyline.

Don't worry, I will find a way to let these fresh OCs I made to be put in later arc without destroy the consistency of the plot with their mere presence.

 

Another chapter for the day.

In which shit gets real.
------
Chapter 2.5

------
“And we drink, to the departure of Batter Seven and Flechette, in her case, again!”

The glasses in our hand clanked together and we guzzled down the soft beverage.

Seeing how I’m leaving New York so bloody soon, the team suggested one last get-together at a steak restaurant named The Robinson Steakhouse that have been here in New York long before the appearance of the parahumans.

It was one of the go-to ground for celebration after the first of the New York Ward decided to have this establishment as their party ground. There’s even a massive picture of them gathered around a table hanged onto the wall with a plain wooden frame. The picture have perfectly captured the feeling of their youth, even when they have moved on to the Protectorate or...done their part in fighting for the world.

Which is also why we were all wearing our costumes even in this restaurant. Sitting besides me there’s Jouster and Laser Hoop. Flechette, Frogger and Sherlock were busy devouring their steak in front of me. Little Boy and Red Glare were both discussing about tinker stuff while wearing their light combat suit for obvious reason. Leaving Dreadlock getting groped by Kudzu while she’s trying to finish the french fries.

Looking around, I saw the wall was filled to the brim with pictures of other New York Wards, either long have since becoming members of the Protectorate, or just the younger version of themselves with the living persons sitting right in front of me. Even after all these years, the pictures survived the test of time well with minimum weathering.

“This place is really old.” I said, just commenting on the state of this restaurant.

“Um-hm, but the steak is sooooo good no matter how many time you have ate it!” Frogger replied, forking up a slice of fat-dripping steak into her mouth, glittering with saliva.

With knife and fork, I sliced a piece of meat off the T-bone and moved the piece around, absorbing the taste of the steak sauce before plunging it into mouth. I bit down onto the fork, and the meat slid off it. The taste, the fat, all melting on my tastebuds even before I have chewed onto the meat itself. I moved my teeth, up down, left right, grinding the steak into meaty strips of well cooked flesh. Finally, I’m done savoring the texture of the meat and swallowing it down my gutter.

Absolutely, wonderful.

“I finally get to have a taste of steak and it’s so damn good.” I might be crying right now.

“Don’t cha worry, boy, you might not be back in New York for months but this restaurant isn’t going anywhere” the waitress standing besides me, carrying a plate full of refreshment, said.

“Thank you, Miss…”

“Pauline, everyone call me Pauline around here.” I will remember her name the next time we met...wait...how did she figured out I’m a guy!?”

“Boy, I have been here longer than you and I can spot a pickpocket from the way their move, let alone a feminine guy in a skirt!” oh...this is a bit embarrassing now.

“In my establishment, anyone can wear whatever they want!...If they look good in it.” and with that, she walked away to serve the other customers.

“Is she telepathic?” I asked, eyes wandering to see if she’s looking right back.

“Not really sure, but I always come here whenever I have a problem. Heck, almost all of us do. There’s only so much a psychiatrist could do compared to a really good steak.” and with one last bite, Frogger finished up her steak, leaving a clean T-bone on her plate.

I almost panicked when I suddenly heard footsteps getting louder and stopped just besides me, “And one more thing!” the camera in Miss Pauline’s hand showed her intention and I smiled for the picture. A bright light flashed and she tucked her camera back.

“This will be going up the wall, thank you, boy.” and now she truly left for the other customers, probably.

“Speaking of telepathic…” Sherlock touched my shoulder, “Oh...Ohhhhh!!! It seemed our Casy here have a certain interest in another blondie!”...huh? What did he meant by-Oh shit, his power!

I can feel cold sweat flowing down from my forehead as my eyes slowly turned towards Laser Hoop, who puffed her face in anger and refused to face me.

“I’m just doing research on the Brockton Bay’s capes!” I explained.

“By checking out their Facebook pages, I see.” dammit Sherlock!

“I have to admit though, the New Wave was really interesting that they outed themselves in the worst East Coast city, that took some balls and...it got one of them killed and another left. Oddly, they are all blondie, except for Panacea, who have brown curly hair instead. Probably adopted.”

“As for the BB Protectorate, there’s Armsmaster, Miss Militia who is also the first member of the Ward, Dauntless, Velocity, Assault and Batte-” I snickered. Goddammit, who named them that way!? “Battery I meant, and Triumph who was just still a Ward just previous month. For the Ward, there’s Clockblocker, Gallant, Aegis, Kid Win and Vista.” I continued.

Saying that without stopping for a breath reallydid took the wind out of me, “5 Wards and 7 Protectorate members, good number for a middle sized city like Brockton Bay, except for the fact that there’s so many fucking supervillains in that place.”

“Damn, now I pity you both. There’s only one girl in that Ward team and it’s a little girl? No wonder you both look forward to meeting New Wave.” Sherlock laughed.

Wait, both? Oh, Sherlock have another hand on Flechette, who’s blushing like a lightbulb now.

“Now, Drake. You have an excellent explanation. But Flechette, please stop searching for r34 art the next time you are doing a ‘research’.“ and her face sunk even lower under the table.

“Really? Flechette, I know you are lonely but come on…” and Frogger bit down on her friend’s hope, ruining her chance to ever see the daylight as she crawled under the table.

“Blop!”, and Sherlock poked Dreadlock’s head, “Really? Still not embracing the gayness?”

“Shut the fuck up, I am not a dyke!” geez Dreadlock, calm down and sit down!

“Annnnd” Kudzu moved Dreadlock aside and sat besides him, “Nope. Nopy noping nope.”

We all laughed as two Kudzus tried to touch his bare skin to get him to read her past perspective, while Sherlock used Dreadlock as a living shield to block her attack. All these fun moments, they all ended so quickly and I will be leaving New York soon with Flechette.

Sigh…

A hand patted my back, and I saw Laser Hoop smiled back, “Well, I think it’s time for us to take our leave for some time alone together.” she said.

“Ohhhh right.” and I stood up with her and was about to leave the restaurant when I felt a tug on my shoulder. I looked back and saw Sherlock handled me a tiny box of...is that condom!?

My face flushed, red and deep. That smile and his eyebrows that kept waggling suggestively were just...argh. Oh goddammit, why is everyone waggling their eyebrows at me!? Flechette, get the fuck back under your table of shame! Is there some kind of Psychic Eyebrows Waggling Hivemind going on here!?

“What’s wro-”

“Nothing!” I pushed her out of the door and kept moving until I can’t see the restaurant anymore.

------

“It has been two wild weeks, isn’t?” she said, perching down from the edge of the roof.

“Yeah.” sitting besides her, I replied back.

The date was...well, fun, I supposed. I really didn’t know what to do, but Laser Hoop, who definitely have way more experiences in dating led me on around the City of New York. It’s really convenient when your girlfriend can fly, seeing the city blistering with streetlight and fancy neon signs under night sky was even more beautiful than seeing it under the daylight.

For a few short moments, we walked around on the ground like any normal citizens, eating ice-creams (Why is ice-creams so bloody cheap here!?), writing down signature for our beloved fans and of course, occasional punches applied to the face to random thugs that’s harassing the citizens of New York. All in a day's work, or night’s, however that idiom worked.

And now we were just, sitting up here to enjoy the moonlight. Light pollution was a thing and it’s really hard to see the star peppering the sky nowadays with all light from the street. Once again, it’s convenient when your girlfriend can fly.

“I’m so going to miss this place so much when I left.” I said, melancholy flowing in my voice.

“Hey, it’s only a 3 months assignment, time passes quickly anyway!” a hand was placed on my shoulder, comforting my nervousness.

I leaned myself onto her shoulder, “That only works if you don’t want the time to move forward.”

She smiled back, and lightly pecked me on my mouth, “Yeah, if only time will stop right now.”

I looked straight at her blue eyes, and kissed back, only for her to push right back at me and it slowly evolved into a minor competition on who’s the better kisser.

Suddenly, I felt my face stained with tears flowing down from my eyes and stopped the competition, trying to wipe it off with my shirt.

“Drake!”

“I just...it’s just...this is all hap-pening so fast, a-and I ca-an’t keep up with it.” why, why am I coughing so much, stop the tear, please, “I just...shit...I know I’m do-iing the right thing but...I really do-n’t want to just le-ave you eith-er!”

I continued, trying to slow down my breathing, “Flechette needs help, Frog-ger needs help, but the reality is that I real-ly just want to stay with you. I’m so-so so-rry, Keira, for lea-ving you he-”

There’s no word coming for her, just her lips sealed mine shut. These were more….adult-like.

I can feel my rapid breathing eased down as she massaged my chest, under my shirt and above my bodysuit.

We both stopped when we heard a tiny thing rattled as it fell onto the grou-oh shit.

“...Is this…?” I quickly grabbed it out of her hand and tucked it back into my utility belt.

“Absolutely nothing important, just part of you imagination, like...like...a unicorn! Yeah, a unicorn!” words just spewed out of my mouth like a hose of nonsense.

With one finger up, she was about to say something but...her face blushed deep red, twirling her hair with her finger and averting my eyes as she continued, “If...if you want to, I can do it….We can…make a memory that no one else will know.”

I can honestly say that my face was now comparable to a tomato now, and I can clearly see the same happening to her face under the moonlight.

I swallowed my fear, and said the word, “I-”

Suddenly, explosions, on the part of the city that’s rather abandoned with dim streetlight and buildings cloaked in shadow.

Is this city designed by fucking Michael Bay!?!?

“Great, that sure did ruined my mood.” Laser Hoop, you didn’t need to complain so much, even my burning feeling was completely gone now.

“Let’s find whoever that made the explosion and beat him or her up.” I spun my bat around.

“Yeah.” she agreed, and we flew off to the site.

------

“Okay, we are here and...just what the hell happened here?” whatever this place was, it’s nothing more than just a pile of rubble now.

This...was not a nice neighborhood, what’s with the shady streetlight, broken windows, cracked road and paint sprayed gang signs all over the wall, but I doubt any thugs will come over to investigate unless this was their own territory because that was one big boom.

[Bullet Hand detected]​

Under the rubble, I heard weak coughing, dust blowing through holes in the pile as whoever buried underneath there was trying to breath.

“Someone is still alive down there!” I yelled, and quickly working to get that person out while Laser Hoop was calling for backup.

Now...how do I use my power for this? I can break the rubble down, but that will only make more dust and choke anyone down there. Wait no, I’m thinking in the normal line of thought when I could do something even more simpler!

I grabbed each of the rubble by the dot and pressed my fingers into it, ‘killing’ their weight as I lifted up the rubble as if they were made out of styrofoam. As soon as my hand left the dot, the rubble regained their weight as the universe cannot make sense of a weightless object on a gravity bounded world.

Soon enough, I cleared enough rubble to get the guy out of the rubble, but I believed there’s more down there.

The guy was wearing a bulky outfit with a square mask, definitely a cape. Did a cape fight happe-well of course a cape fight happened here, the real question is what really happened?

[Dreamer of Cape detected]​

“Laser Hoop, look after the guy for me for the moment.” “Okay.”, as she began to check on that person’s life sign, I was about to continue digging until something burst out of the rubble.

[Forever Changeling detected]​

It was a creature of some sort, a six-legged tortoise with rock like exoskeleton and tendrils that were capable of picking up huge chunks of rock. The creature crawled itself out of the mess and walked toward us.

I was preparing my combat stand when the shell on its back opened and the creature just...disappeared? Leaving just a girl, sleeping on the hard ground with her auburn hair spread around and a man(?) who was just goddamn handsom-why am I focusing on that!?!?

The man lifted up the girl and propped her against another rubble. The girl woke up just as the creature disappeared, maybe it was her power that made the creature?

The girl blinked to get her sleepiness off before suddenly jolted up, staring at us and the man Laser Hoop was attending to, “Ballistic!”

This Ballistic grunted and coughed out dusts out of his lungs, “Shit!” damn, I didn’t notice his arm was bleeding due to his black costume.

“How bad is it” I asked.

“Really fucking bad, but this is not the worst thing of the night.” he said, clutching his broken arm.

“Can anyone of you explain to me what just happened and do we still have to deal with it?”

Reluctance was painted on their faces as they stared at each other, figuring out who to explain.

“Fuck it, we need an outsider help on this now!” Ballistic grimaced.

“But what about Trick-” another person, could it be their leader?

“He’s not fucking here and so is Perdition.”

“Why, what are they so busy at?” I asked.

“We were betting to choose who to get the fucking pizza, guess it won’t be here now...” really? How inconvenient for this to happen…

“Okay, detail, now.” I demanded, slamming my fist onto my palm with each word because this honestly sounded pretty damn serious.

“We have this friend here whose power was frankly out of control. If you ever find her, you will know it’s her. Because half her body is now a huge lump of flesh. And, I will not repeat, remember this, do not touch her! Whatever you do, do not do that. She will make clone of you that hate everything you ever like. The clones tend to look really strange and grotesque, so kill them if you see them.”

“Ki-kill them?” now Laser Hoop joined in the conversation.

“Have you contacted the base?” “Yeah.” “How long?” “10 to 20 minutes.” I grimaced to hear such a long response time, if the girl really have that power, then it might be a repeat of Niblog.

“That will not be enough, she got Sundancer! We need to get her to calm down, or kill her, now!” she already have one cape already!?

“But-” “No, we got no time for this, Genesis, we need to-” he groaned in pain as he pressed down on his arm. I slowly pull up his sleeve and oh shit, his arm bone was ripped out of the socket!

“This is really bad, you need to get medical attention.” I suggested and pushed him down onto the floor.

“This is our fight to-” I can see determination bursting in his eyes, but...

“And you can’t fight in this state, unless you have regenerative power which I don’t think you have, stay here. We will handle this.” while I was saying this, we really need some competent backup for this, especially someone that knew how to deal with the girl.

Genesis sighed in defeat, “Fuck, I will come with you, give me a moment to make a new body.”

And as she closed her eyes, a bundle of nerve branched out from a point in the air, moving and stretching, trying to choose a shape before forming the rest of the body, then bone structure began to materialise, muscles followed and ended with skin, rock sprouted from the skin, forming a protective exoskeleton before finally the process stopped and the creature moved towards us on three appendages.

It’s...an ape? An ape covered in rock, with one arm unusually enlarged, like a shield.

“This form will do.” not exactly a surprise that the rock ape can speak.

“Alright then, move out.”

------

“Batter.” Laser Hoop asked.

“What’s up?”

“Do you think they are saying the truth?”

“To be honest, it sounds like a coincidence to have two class-A threat attacking New York in just two weeks, but…” I looked towards Genesis, who despite in her monster form, still showed an extremely nervous body movement of a young girl while searching for any sign of...her friend?

“They might be saying the truth, however, I don’t think that’s the entire story.” and then I walked closer to Genesis, who was too focused on finding her friend to notice my approach.

“Genesis.” while this whole thing has been quite serious, seeing a inhuman-looking monster suddenly jumped away from me was hilarious.

“Could you tell me about this...friend of yours. I would also like to know how on Earth someone so massive could be so damn...stealthy.” I asked, annoyance pitching my voice.

For a so called ‘out-of-control’ girl, she did nearly minimum amount of damage to wherever she escaped. Occasionally, there’s streetlights and cars knocked off the ground and deep footprint on the road, but with the poor light condition of the streets, it’s rather hard to locate her.

The scariest thing here? There’s not a single soul on the street, we can only assume the worst. But we definitely are getting closer, I can feel it.

“She...used to be just any other normal girl until she got her power.” great, she have opened up!

Something about that statement piqued my interest, “All of you are friends before you get powers?”

“Yeah...Sundancer, Trickster, Ballistic, Perdition, Genesis and...Yeah, we are all friends...or were, I guess.” Genesis said, frustration leaked into her voice despite her current rocky appearance.

“Mind telling me about Sundancer? Your friend said she got her, what power does she have?” but, I can satisfy my curiosity later, tactics and safety first.

“She can make and control a miniature sun, and immune to heat. She can be quite reluctant in using that power because of her pacifism nature, but I doubt her clones will do so. Eliminate any clone with blonde hair first, and, um, while the clone might have different appearances, kill the hot ones first as well.”, dammit, now it’s not a good time to rustle my funny bone here.

But...there still something about this that worried me. Maybe…

“You said before she get power, this friend of yous was completely normal?”

“Yeah.” she answered, uncertain of why I’m asking that.

“And afterward, her lower half turned into some monstrosity?...You friend is not a Case 53, right?”, this is getting rather suspicious.

“I...she...probably…” probably!?

“Case 53 more often than not appeared in strange places without any of their memory. And yet you said you are friend with her before the power trigger happened. And every single person in your group are also your friend even before you all get your power. This...is not a mass trigger, isn’t it?”

I believed it was thank to my new experience in this unfamiliar places that allowed me to ask such outrageous question. In this world, power normally came from trauma that trigger some sort of survival instinct for the power to manifest. However, there’s case 53, or monster cape that mysteriously appeared and lost most of their memory, mostly their trigger event. So to think there’s a third option to power...one would have to be foolish or insane.

I’m neither, merely being naive and new to this world, asking every single question possible like a newly born baby.

“How did you figure it out!?” bingo!

“Maybe it’s my power, maybe it’s myself, but I really need some real answers for this before I deal with your friend.” I poked her rock ape form, demanding answers.

She stood still for a moment, unwillingness to answer my question filled her mind as she moved back and forth before finally gave up and said, “Fine, we got our power from vials.”

“What!?” Laser Hoop joined in, unable to hold back her curiosity anymore.

“Continue.”

“5 of us, Trickster, Perdition, Sundancer, Ballistic and myself drank the full vial. Our friend and the guy you saw before? They drank half the vial. Turns out, we should have read the user manual more than once and we fucked up. And now Sundancer was stuck inside her and just...Keep moving already, we don’t have much time!”

And her ape form moved, hopped forward on three limbs faster than we could run.

“Noelle! Just tell us where you are! Please!” she howled into the air, pleading her friend to reply back.

[Apollo’s Might detected]​

Well, she did. But it wasn’t a kind one. A couple hot ones rather.

[Apollo’s Might detected]​

As soon as she said that, her ape form was impacted by several plasma bolts, burning so bright that my visor shading system kicked in to reduce the brightness from the light, which was bad because I can’t see where did the fireballs came from.

[Apollo’s Might detected]​

Another blast, this time a beam of light pulsing onto Genesis, burning deep marks onto her shield arm. Those were rather accurate hi-

[Combat Mode][Emotion Suppression Level 1]​

My body dashed to the right and parried a shot of hot beam away from Laser Hoop and right back to the shooter. Something burst rather disgustingly and blood splatter can be seen from the wall where the light shined upon.

“Into that building, now!” I pointed and Laser Hoop hugged my waist and flew straight for the abandoned building. Genesis lagged behind, taking hit from Sundancer clones while she closed down the big metal door. Not that it did much to prevent burning plasma to burn right through the door, but we were safe for now. That’s what importa-

Sounds of inhuman shrieking and screeching echoed in this building and I can see movements in the shadow. Quickly, I took out a flashlight from my utility belt and shined it across the room. It was not bright enough to light the whole room, but I saw more than a dozen pair of eyes reflecting the light back at me like a group of feline predators.

“Oh fuck!”

I pushed Laser Hoop behind and stepped forward, taking my stance and raised up my bat. She readied her Hoop, forming in the mid air. Genesis stood guard behind us, protecting our flank. Then the horde charged.

With me being a melee fighter, I took my stance defensively while Laser Hoop readied her laser. One small Hoop moved into a larger Hoop, causing a discharge of high intensity laser beam at clones, knocking them back with deep burn mark. Repeatedly, the small Hoop dissipated and reformed behind the large Hoop, firing 10 pulse lasers every second. However, with two hoops used for offense, she can’t move quick with her hoops.

Genesis caught those that got behind us and threw them right back to the group, before unleashing her internal payload of flaming breath onto the clones, smell of charred flesh filled the air to the point of flooding our sense of smell.

As for me? The clone, I can see in their eyes that they thought they were someone, something important, greater than the original. But they were nothing more than meat puppets, clogged full of evil intention, and this, I can fight without holding back. So I did the same exact trick I have done with the projectile I have launched back. Even a human body can be extremely deadly at sufficient velocity after, and there’s plenty of projectiles around.

“Ha!” I shouted, and smacked the dot of a clone, launching her towards a clone of Sundancer that were about to charge up her attack, being bisected abruptly stopped that from ever happening.

But for every one we eliminated, two more appeared like some freaks of Hydra. However, we just needed to hold on for reinforcement so-

“Batter-ah!” with only a split second to spare, I looked back and saw a tentacle wrapped around her leg. I tried to cut it off but she was dragged off to the darkness already, leaving just crawl mark on the floor.

The darkness swallowed her whole and sound of wet squishing flesh followed.

...No...Nonono..NO!

I shouted for her name, but nothing replied back from the dark side of the room…

A clone tried to tackle me, but I merely swung my bat and smashed his face apart. Not an efficient to kill, but I’m way too fucking mad and pissed and sad and depressed to do it properly.

Keira...I’m so sorry...

[Orbital Light detected]​

“Batter?” that voice!?

From the shadow, a figure slowly strolled into my view as the dim light shined on its body. That petite body, thin fingers, blue eyes and a hair of golden, all without a single patch of clothing on her nubile body. All of that told me that it’s Keira in from of me, but I knew damn well that wasn’t her.

“Could you do me a favor?” she asked, that soft calming voice, not Keira, NOT KEIRA, THIS THING IS WEARING HER SKIN, HER VOICE AND HER POWER.

“What?” I said, venom coating my tongue.

“Die.” and four hoops appeared in the air and flew straight at me. I swung my bat, smacking back three but the clone dodged with gracefulness that kept reminding me of her. I missed the dot of the last hoop and it sliced the tip of my bat off, edge glowing hot in bright red.

Seeing how being on defense didn’t work, I charged ahead toward the clone, holding my aluminium bat like a spear. The 4 laser hoops reformed on her shoulder, but before she could do anything with them, I pressed the dot of my bat and launched it out of my hand like a rocket.

With the tip of the bat cut off, the bat easily jammed itself through her chest. The clone staggered, trying to breath with her ruptured lung. But I didn’t give any time for her to recover as I pushed the bat hard and tore it through her back. I can felt my bat quaking, as the heart ripped out of her chest was still beating inside the bat.

“How about you do that instead?”, with one foot on her chest, I pulled the bat out and saw the girl Genesis was talking about.

[The Mother detected]​

A huge mass of red flesh, looking like a disgusting fresh wound infested with disease and covered in growth of jaws, mouths, tentacles and something else that I would prefer not to think right now. On top of the bloating mass, was a upper torso of a human girl, wearing nothing more than a sweatshirt and...unconscious?

[Apollo’s Might detected][Orbital Light detected]​

This whole fucking mess has gone so out of control, not even the culprit can control it? No, not control. Dominance, the power have dominance over herself and have already taken over most of her body. The clones, all insane and evil. No, human brain is not so easily manipulated or rewrote to be evil so suddenly, something purposely caused that to happen.

Something…

Some....Her passenger!

It’s just like mine, subconsciously controlled our action and mind, except hers was flat out fucking nut and evil for pointless reason. Or maybe it’s not for pointless reason and...

Fuck making theory for now. But now that I knew this, then that meant only one thing.

[Emotion Suppression Level 2]​

I’m going to throw this passenger off the driver seat.

------
Author Note: It seems to be the perfect time for a cup of fixfic. Mmmmm, fresh!

 

Well...I have to say, it scares me when this happen.

Zero replies, absolutely nothing to tell you what went wrong with your fic.

At least, I'm getting something from the other forum, but this honestly scares me.
------
Chapter 2.6

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This old building, I can see lines crossed all over it, as if it will crumble at any moment. Even without its age, its initial poorly designed structure and construction has contributed much to its upcoming end. But for now, its current condition aided me in ‘seeing’ in the dark as the lines and dots curved around its structure like a pseudo-sonar.

Now? I can see the clones-ARE NOT PEOPLE-moved around me in the dark by their dots, surrounding me and protecting the girl, but they did not protect out of their kindness, they protected her because they needed her, as they were commanded to. Nothing but puppets with strings on their limbs.

In their hand, they were just wielding whatever blunt and sharp weapons they could find off the floor and wall. Lead pipe, chain, crowbar, knife, hammer, wooden board or even just rock. Maybe I will be afraid of their crazed looks from their fanatic will of guarding the girl with their very life if it’s not for their nakedness. Naked people are just plain hilarious and my power locking my fear down has made me reacting weirdly to this strange situation.

I looked towards the girl, within her bloated lower half was several dozens dots of other living things inside her, paralyzed and trapped within. Two dots were brighter, a feeling of being more powerful than the others. One I can recognize, Keira, Laser Hoop, if that’s so, then the other dot is Sundancer.

So then, a group of mooks was in my way of saving my girlfriend, who was trapped inside a damsel in distress. How cliche, somewhat.

[Objective: Save Laser Hoop and [The Mother]]​

But it doesn’t matter, because I can and will fight harder than this mindless drones.

[Apollo's Might detected][Orbital Light detected]​

First, locate the prioritised targets, namely the clones with powers. The Laser Hoop-NOT KEIRA-clones has her hoop and laser, so I will be focusing on dodging lightspeed beam. As for the Sundancers, her power seemed to be plasma-based, just like a sun, maybe immunity to heat as well? But either way, good to know.

So as soon as some of them charged up their power, I smashed a clone and sent them flying towards them at the speed of sound. Their power were bright and not subtle, like a torch in the darkness. Gore and gut splattered as the clones impacted each other like giant water balloon filled with re dyed liquid, It’s really weird as to how my power make me psych about all these gore fest happening around me but now...I got used to it.

However, for every paraclone I destroyed, another was vomited out of the girl’s monstrous lower half like a disgusting parody of childbirth. I can feel my stamina running half way down already, so if I need to finish this fast, I might as well just went for the source.

And so I charged towards the girl, obviously the clones didn’t want that. Those that were fast stopped in front of me, weapon raised to strike at me. But I simply jumped and used them as stepping stones, intentionally kicking their heads off with superhuman strength from my suit. Those that weren’t instead resorted to throwing all sort of stuff at me and only missing only by a whisker, thanks to movement coordination from my second passenger.

[Orbital Light detected]​

Just as I reached right before the bloated monstrosity, one of the mouth, this one shaped like a bloodhound, puked out a body, a clone judging from her nakedness. It was another clone of Laser Hoop, as soon as she launched out of her womb, she rolled on the floor, amniotic liquid flowed away from her body and coated the ground with blood and piss.

A hoop formed at the front of her palm and she swung her arm, the disgusting fluid flowed down her arm and shot out at frightening speed as it reached the hoop. I dodged just in time to see a clone behind me have its chest caved in from the impact. Not fancy to have the same happening to me, I swung down my bat onto her arm, breaking her arm.

She screamed from the pain, but the clone quickly formed hoops around her other healthy arm, intended to punch my head off. All I did was simply raised up my bat, pressed in the dot and watched her arm splintered into strips of muscle and bone when I met her fist with my bat instantly accelerated by my power like a gunshot.

“Why!?” the clone spoke, sobbing from the pain of her wrecked arms.

I rushed to the back of the clone, arm wrapped around her waist to use her as a human shield. With my other hand, I raised the bat behind me.

“You make it personal.”, I then smashed my bat right into her dot.

As soon as I did so, her entire body exploded into a cloud of red mist. Bone fragments were launched outward and into the wave of clones, penetrating and ripping through their guts like bullets. Quickly, I spun and swung my bat into one of the numerous dot on the girl’s freshy lower half.

Almost half of the bloated mass exploded, a pungent stomach-churning smell immediately flooded the room as two costumed figures fell out of the mess along with several civilians and gang members. The fresh of the monstrosity quickly weaved back together and I was barely quick enough to pull out Laser Hoop and a beautiful blonde woman with a costume decorated with red sun.

They were both unconscious, covered in amniotic fluid of some sort and clearly needed a long and nice hot shower. And now I needed to figure out how to get them out while the clones were less than pleased on the reduction of their combined firepower.

...Or I can just did what I have done just now.

My baseball bat was already a buckled and twisted mess after all that smashing, might as well just use it until it break apart. So, I raised my bat over my head and swung it down onto the dot of the ground, hard. Pieces of concrete cracked and launched upward into the air, just as I wanted.

Granting my second passenger full control of my body, I saw the bat swinging like I was hitting back a baseball. Dots formed in each of the concrete fragments as they flew into my sight. And as my battered bat touched the dot, the fragment was shot out like a speeding bullet towards the heads of the unaware clones.

It was fast, too fast for anyone who wasn’t high on adrenaline. One swing was all it take to demolish more than half of the clones army in the room as their head were blow off into a messy work by shrapnels fired like a burst from a machine gun.

I decided that it was time to take the opportunity and jumped towards the girl. Powered suit granted me the strength to leap to her back into a single bound, care taken to not touch her with my bare skin. The girl was clearly sick, wearing a white pale skin and breathing in air with an unhealthy groaning.

How do I...use my power for this?

My goal is to give the control of her power back to the rightful owner. So what do I need to do?

Her passenger was clearly controlling her now. So the first thing I should do is to kill its capability to control the host Then I will need to kill whatever blockade that was in the way of the host to control her power, so that she could heal herself and get her legs back, as well as not making clones that were only intentionally evil.

All in all, this will make her extremely powerful parahuman, I could just straight up kill her power, but that might kill her from her poor condition. With my decision made, I raised up my bat and aimed down onto the dot in her head, the source of her power.

She screamed in pain as my bat lightly touched the dot in her head. And slowly, the fleshy mass that was her bottom began to crumble, no, absorb, that’s not it either, shrink was a better word as she was lowered to the ground.

The remaining clones were slowly shambling towards her, tentacles extended out of the mass and dragged them in, both the dead and living clones were absorbed in the flesh as it continued to shrink. I sighed in relief when the originals in which the clones were cloned from were instead pushed out of the mass, unconscious, covered in fluid, but safe.

[The Mother detected]​

“Noelle!” Genesis lumbered towards the girl on three as the girl was now completely shrunk to normal human size. The girl, Noelle, was clearly shocked and happy as she twiddled with her legs and toes, looking down on them with a smile her face was struggling to pull after so much disappointment and despair. Her pale skin started gaining in healthy colour and her muscles quickly grew to a normal state.

“Oh my God, oh my God.” the face she’s making right now, was one born from a utterly hopeless situation, and yet, someone like me finally gave her the miracle she couldn’t believe in a couple minutes ago.

She clearly need someone to calm her down, the excitement might be too much for her right now, and she have a rather powerful power, best not to have her gone out of control again “Noelle, you are fine now.” I lifted up her arm to her sight and pinched it, letting her to feel the pain one won’t feel in a dream. “This is happening, right now.”

Tears flowed down her face as she embraced me with all the strength in her arms. “Everything is fine now.” I patted her back, soothing her mood as she weeped onto my shoulder. Man, there had been a lot of girls crying on my shoulder these few weeks…”Let’s get your friend up.” I released her from the hug.

Sundancer And Laser Hoop were stirring up from Genesis’s heavy footsteps as she lumbered towards us. But Sundancer was the first one to react as she saw Noelle standing on two legs.

“Noelle!” she pushed herself off the floor like a spring and tackled her friend, giving her a warm hug she needed since a very long time ago. It, must have been a long and harsh journey for them, seeing them crying tears of happiness as they hugged each other.

....

And then I realised she wasn’t wearing any pants. And Sundancer found out the hard way when she groped her butt…

Emotional moment, totally ruined.

All I could was facepalming at th-wait, I can do something else. “Just give me a second to take the skirt off.” and then I unclipped my skirt, lifting my legs out of it. I have the bionic suit underneath it anyway, so it’s okay. “Here.” I handed my skirt over to Noelle, who quickly stepped into it and wore it around her waist.

“So erm, I need to check my teammates, later.”, I dashed off towards Laser Hoop as Noelle bounced happily to get a feel of her own legs. When I get back, I will need to talk to Glenn Chamber because that skirt was rather dangerously short and barely covered anything in vigorous activities...yeah, let’s put it that way.

Laser Hoop has woke up, but confusion and pain still clouded her mind. Her costume, once white, was now soaked in a pinkish fluid that stuck onto her skin uncomfortably. I lifted her up with my arm and propped her against a wall.

“How many finger do you see?”, I raised two.

“Enough to know I’m fine. What took you...argh...what took you so long?”, another girl was sobbing into my shoulder again, geez, what’s up with today?

But, I cuddled her and mumbled soft words into her ear, calming her down. It wasn’t instantaneous, but she did slowed down her sobbing and kissed hard onto my lips.

[Equivalent Exchange detected][Chrono Moonwalker detected]​

The smell filling the room was still disgusting, the blood and piss from the clones, and the amniotic fluid all over her body, but it didn’t matter to us. We separated apart, to breath for a moment, but Laser Hoop saw something behind me and I was knocked into darkness.​

------

By the time we woke up, we were always in the hospital, with doctor and nurses checking over our condition. Nothing much aside from fatigue and dehydration, I can’t believe I was able to fight off a horde of clones without sustaining even a scratch on my exposed skin. A few PRT officers came and asked us a bunch of question, but with the way they left, it wasn’t good enough.

After the doctor checked that we are ready to leave the hospital, Legend himself lifted us back to the Brooklyn Ward base, as Laser Hoop was too tired to focus on her power. As soon as we got back, we took one nice and long hot shower to get the sickening smell off our body. It was part of the open nature of the New York Ward that the community shower was mixed, and many awkward moments had happened for the past two weeks.

Now? We were just...tired and want to get in our bed as soon as possible. And hopefully no one will notice our condition because the director told us to keep it as a secret, especially the power vials, I can't only imagine the chaos that will happen if people knew about it. But it seemed the night haven’t unleashed all its payload of surprises yet.

“Drake…” Keira called and I smiled back, “Could you come to my room for tonight?”

I blushed, hard, “Erm, sure, no problem!”

Her hand gripped around mine, tight like a cap on a water bottle, and led me to her room with a slow walking pace.

The pink door with white outline was pushed in as my heart beating rapidly and heavily like a drumbeat. If I were to choose one word to describe her room, it would be girly. There was a rather absurd amount of pink and white furniture and decoration in one side of the room, the other side was dominated by huge wooden desk with a pile of paper all over it, alongside tinker tech gadgets scattered all over the place.

Michelle was already asleep on her bed, snoring loudly with her mouth open. So, we tiptoed our way to Keira’s bed with a rows of cute plushies on top of the pillow, trying to be as quiet as possible. I nearly blew our cover when Keira climbed onto her bed. As she tucked herself nicely into her blanket, she lifted it up and patted her side.

I followed and climbed onto the bed, lying besides her, unsure of what to do and where to move. She turned her head around and stared at me with a hazy expression of wanting something from me. A hand of her reached down and touched my chest, the part where my heart was and was beating crazily like it was trying to jump out of my ribcage.

“Calm down, I’m not gonna bite you.” and then she kissed me. This, was not a kiss filled with passion and love, this was more a desperate kiss, like ‘Something horrible happened and I want to forget it’ kiss. So, I let her release her emotion into my mouth, she didn’t stop, not even when I tasted saltiness with my tongue. When she pulled her mouth away from mine, I saw her eyes reddened with two trails of tear flowed down her face.

I...caressed her face and smiled, I needed to soothe her mood, not make it worse. “It’s okay, just let it all over.” I said, and she replied by embracing me and cried her sadness onto my shoulder, my shoulder is going to taste so salty after this…

“It’s just...it’s suppose to be good night, and then that happened and I don’t even know what just happened and...I’m so sorry, Drake.” she pulled on my shirt and punched the bed besides me angrily.

“It’s fine.” I reassured her.

“It’s not. I...when I was inside that...thing, I...I saw my trigger, it's several times worse and I felt even more hopeless than before and it’s so painful....” she wept..

“Keira...I...I don’t think she’s in full control of her power.”

“Yeah...she is..was..nevermind.”

Sometimes, I really hated my power for making me capable of reading any split-second change in emotion with the intense curiosity of asking any question to ask the why. ”There’s something else on your mind was it?”

She quickly turned away from me and pulled the blanket up. “Drake...when you were fighting just now? You honestly scares me.” shit.

“You just...straight up killed the clones, I know what they are but...you didn’t hesitate for a moment.”

I sighed, "Sorry..."

“I know it’s your power that’s doing that emotional dampening thing but...I really should have kept my mouth shut. Just go to sleep now, okay?”

It’s weird. We were both in the same bed, and yet, the distance between us felt further than worlds apart as she slept on her side of the bed, away from me.

I closed my eyes and let the darkness take me.

------

“It’s today, huh?” Khaki said, leaning against the doorway as I continued to pack my clothing, essentials and memorable trinkets into my luggages.

It’s been quite a wild two weeks with the New Yorkers, now, all that’s left of it was my own memory, and the images they printed out just for me. I can still talk to them through smartphone and skype but...long distance communication just didn’t feel the same.

“Yup.” I replied.

“You are going pack in the skirt they gave you?”

“Well, the girls gave me this, so...why the hell not?” I shrugged with a grin.

“True.” he nodded. “After you finished packing, come to my workshop.” and then he left just as he came, like a wind.

It was sometimes before I finished packing my stuffs into my luggage, except for my costume, which I changed into right now as I took an elevator and down to the tinker workshops. Now that I wonder, why the heck did I not visit this place before? Tinker techs were awesome, and the Guild base must be the holy grail of tinker tech.

And it seemed that Lily was called down here, dressed in her purple and white armored bodysuit to grab her upgraded armament.

“Over here.” Khaki waved from his own workshop, the one among many there were used by the others as their machineries roared loudly in their own individual workshop.

I knew that tinkers were all a bit...crazy, and often left their ‘natural habitat’ in a messy state, but this was insane. Tinker tech guns of various sizes were hanged all over the wall, the part of the wall that wasn’t was instead covered in images of supervillains and their crime scene, along with a map that showed their favourite hotspot in New York City.

This, was a rather unhealthy obsession he was having there. No wondered Kay was telling him to get some fresh air outside.

I jumped when Khaki slammed two huge cases onto the table right in the middle of the room.

“This is yours, and this is yours. Password is 000000. Set new one afterward.” he pushed the case towards me and Flechette. The lock clicked open and I lifted the cover. It, was a baseball bat, no, a baseball bat shaped device alongside with two rows of five baseballs and a plastic container with a strap for the balls.

“This, is Batter Seven Combat Bat Model-10. That’s not the longest name I have ever made up. It worked just as any normal bat, except the internal kinetic regulator will ensure that no matter how you use it to assault people, it will not do more than a bruise unless you set it to do so. I was thinking about a kinetic energy battery to store the power for extra impact force, but your power makes redundant, so I focused on utility instead.” he explained.

He gestured for the bat and I gave it to him, “On the end of the bat is a kinetic grabber, capable of grabbing anything up to 500 meter and 1 kilograms. Use it in conjunction with the taserballs to maximise your ranged attack. And if you twist the handle, you get this.” and as he did so, the baseball flattened itself and lengthened into a long blade, shaped like a katana.

That was impressive but…”There is no way they will let me use this.”

He nodded, “Only in emergency my friend. Then you get to cut all you want. Also, it's not a katana that has been folded 1000 times and passed down through generation despite I have made it in a week ago, So use it however you see fit, as it will not snap like a tree branch as those brittle slapstick will." I chuckled.

“Flechette, this is Flechette Arbalest Model-10. Same as the other model, you can engrave whatever you want on the stock. In this model, the string is just for emergency, the real propelling power comes from the railgun system, capable of a maximum fire rate of 5 shots per second at Mach 3, with selective speed dial on its right. The box magazine on top of the arbalest is capable of storing 20 rounds for quick semiauto fire.” he explained to Flechette.

“Ho-holy crap, Khaki! But...how do I maintain this?” oh right, I almost forgot about maintenance, how do I maintain this anyway?

“You don’t, just replace the part with spare part if it’s sufficiently damage, any time you get damaged part, tell the PRT and I will send spare parts. If the spare parts didn’t come the next day, shoot everyone in the PRT because the PRT agents must be mastered.”

I laughed nervously, “Ahahahaha, that’s very funny Kha-”

“I’m not joking, Brockton Bay is a very bad place with numerous supervillains, one of them is bound to be a James Bond type villain that spies on underage girl shower or something.”

It’s rather worrying that all I could is to continue my fake laughter.

------

The elevator doors slid open before us as we walked towards the helipad. But, it wasn't just Flechette and I up here.

“Flechette!” Frogger ran forward her and hugged her tightly. Her face was that of filled with concern for her friend.

“Stay safe for everyone here.” she said.

Flechette instead, just beamed her smile to her, “I will be just fine over there, Frogger.”

I looked around the Ward, but saw Laser Hoop was nowhere to be found…

Sighed, I walked towards my fellow Wards and gave them handshake and high five, one last moment for us all to share before our departure. Kudzu instead pulled me beside her with her arm and took a selfie, I could only stare at her when I felt a hand on my butt...

[Tagging Chaser detected]​

“Sup, kiddos of the future generation heroes!” a woman announced loudly into the air. I turned my head towards the voice and saw Frogger letting go of Flechette and charging towards her already.​

The woman was wearing a grey body suit, padded with body armor. The grey helmet she was wearing resembled a rat, with whisker and two decorative ears on the side. A round shield with the symbol of a rat’s head emblazoned on it was strapped to her right arm with a sword sheath on her back.

“Mouse Protectoooooooooorrrrrrrr!!!!!” the woman spun around as Frogger tackled here, nuzzling to her chest as she laughed like a child. Ever since Lily said that she will be reassigned to Brockton Bay for the next three month, Kay just have this long face that never really go away. Now, she’s fully relaxed and actually smiled with the cheerfulness she had before.

“Don’t worry for the safety of your loyal friend, my favourite amphibian student! Because I’m coming to the notorious and infamous Brockton Bay too.”

“What, really!?” Kay asked, her smile grew even wider.

“That’s right, I’m going to BBP with Penetration girl-”

“OH MY GOD!” Flechette quickly hid her face in shame.

“And Batter Girl-”

“Ah whatever.” I shrugged.

“Alongside with my new sidekick, EXPLODER GIRL!!!”

“I’m not Explo-derp girl! I’m Bomber Two!” Wait what.

[Area Alchemist detected]​

“Bomber? You are coming too?” I looked back as a hint of black on the edge of my sight caught my attention.

Bomber Two was wearing a black body armor with orange painted onto it like a giant checkerboard, white ‘number 2’ with black edge were emblazoned on her left shoulder and chest. She also have more bandoliers of grenade and utility belts than I can count strapped to her body. Her mask was still a gasmask, this one with a full face screen instead of goggles that was painted half in orange to its left. I figured that someone must have gave up on a not-edgy look on her and just gave her this instead.

“Well, I don’t like New York anyway, that university is just an eyesore now. Brockton Bay can’t be that worse off anyway.” she shrugged.

[Draconian Queen of Ever-Advancing Tech detected]​

“Oh look, our flying metal steed is here!” Mouse Protector pointed towards the sky and we saw a dot slowly grew into a four legged aircraft with the roaring of jet engine getting louder by each passing seconds.

The aircraft hovered above the helipad and slowly descended onto it, careful as to not leaving footprint on the floor. The jet engine stopped and I can hear someone speaking besides me again.

“Hello, Batter Seven, Flechette, Bomber Two and...Mouse Protector.” Dragon said, irritation hanging at her last two word.

“Oh...you...you hear that? Oh come on that’s just joke, eh?” Mouse Protector replied.

All Dragon could do in the face of such joyfulness was to sigh and open her transport bay.

“And in we go to the dragon cave!” Pretty much everyone grunted when she said that.

One last wave to our friend and we sat in the transport bay, pulled down the safety belt, and watched our friends waved back as Dragon flew towards the sky, jet rumbling on each sides of the transport bay.

And then we freaked out when we heard knocking outside the transport bay. I stood up and hooked the strap on my belt to a handle.

With my hand gripping the handle too, I told Dragon to open the door. Air rushed out as the door opened and I felt the air getting thinner and harder to breath. I peeked my head out of the transport bay, tiptoeing to reach out as far as possible to check out the sides of the aircraft.

[Orbital Light detected]​

I looked to the right, nothing. I looked to the left, and felt a kiss on my lips. Quickly, I pulled away and saw Laser Hoop hanging outside the aircraft. I was surprised, very surprised, but no way will I forgive her for this, so I pulled her inside the aircraft and trapped her between the wall and me.

I decided that a surprise like this should be replied in kind with punishment as I kissed back twice as passionate. She laughed between each breath, trying to squirm out of my hold but can’t, either because she couldn’t or she wanted it badly.

“Okay, crossdressing boy, you have now proven me wrong in that you are not a homo, but...maybe get your girlfriend a nicer place to make out? Because we are kinda running out of air here.” Mouse Protector complained, but I can tell from her grin that she’s enjoying this more than she should be.

So, I stood up with Laser Hoop, and with last kiss, she jumped off and flew back with her power. It was...magical as she left a trail of pink in the air, leading all the way to the Brooklyn Ward base.

With the door finally sealed and the air inside the aircraft stabilized back to normal level. I quickly shuffled back to my seat and pulled down the seat belt. There’s might have been a goofy smile fixated on my face as I turned my head towards Flechette, who just blushed like a lightbulb, while Mouse Protector whistled at me. I could only imagine her face underneath her helmet.

But for now, this is just fine.

Today is 23th September 2010, and it’s a good day.

------
Author Note: And that's the end of arc 2

And now we finally get to focus on Brockton Bay! The worst city on the east coast!

Well, this has been an fun exercise so far, and hopefully I will get something done for next month and a couple proper interludes.

See you next time!

 

Welcome to my first PHO interlude, this shit is fucking hard to write even with Myriddin program to aid in the writing.

But I have Fedorable to help this out. So give a thanks to her too!

------
Interlude 2 (PHO)

------

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♦ Topic: Slaughterhouse Down!
In: Boards ► News ► Events ► America
Bagrat (Original Poster) (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted On Sep 10th 2010:
This was just in today's news. The Nine has been officially taken down, not dwindled down to last member, not mysteriously vanished. Slaughterhouse Nine is now Slaughterhouse Zero!

According to my sources of information coming from various posters and actual capes, the Slaughterhouse Nine was about to attack New York City when a Case 53 appeared out of nowhere, cooperated with the Ward, and the rest is history.

Update:

Breed: KIA

Winter: KIA

Burnscar: Captured

Shatterbird: Captured

Bonesaw: Captured

Siberian: KIA

Mannequin: Unknown (Okay, I guess it's Mannequinhouse One now)

Crawler: KIA

And most importantly.

Jack Slash: KIA, really fucking dead, for real this time, currently in hell for all eternity, confirmed by the Case 53 himself/herself that s/he appeared inside him and in process, reducing him into modern art.

(Showing page 998 of 1025)

►LaLiLuLeLo
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Jesus Christ, guys. If you hate the Nine that much to start having revenge fantasy about them, please at least take it to the roleplay section.

►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
I don't think that how Crawler's power worked, but Bonesaw could probably help in that aspect anyway.

User received an infraction for this post: You are not helping!

►Are_You_Serious?
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
A news on the most dangerous group of murder capes getting wiped out by a complete miracle and the thread was off the fucking rail by 256 pages of VERY illegal content. Never change, internet.

►I_AM_BURD (Veteran Member)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Holy fucking shit.
They're gone. They're FINALLY GONE.

►Mad_Maxine (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude. Dude.
DUDE.
Someone hook me up with this new 53! Those fuckers went through my town and I wanna give 'em a little 'Thank You' present for murderising those fuckers.

►Uncle_Sergi (Veteran Member)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
@BadSamurai
Uncle Sergi give you steel folded at least once by cousin Aleksis. Cut through face of Mannequin like trade embargo.

►Little_Miss_Aimbot (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
… Y’know, as much as I wanted to snipe Jackie, I’m not really going to complain about the killstealer.

►dragonkid11 (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
So....erm....

Hi?

Honestly, I have not much else to say but holy crap, you guys hate the Nine a lot...

►Mad_Maxine (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
YA THINK?
They’ve killed so many people, so many of our family… for shits and giggles. How do you not hate that without already being a groupie?
Also, seriously, next time I visit NYC I’mma make ya something.

►Kardboard_Box
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
Assuming it's not lost in the pile of posts in this thread, can anyone tell me how the fuck did Mannequin escape? I know he's 'Runaway Specialist' but come on!

►Red_Glare (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
I have just gotten the permission to say this, so listen carefully.

Apparently he used a remote control device to control several Mannequin drones to attack the Ward Base.

I can only assumed that Bonesaw aided in designing the device because frankly speaking, this is fucking bullshit.

►Kamehameha
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
@Red_Glare
Aren't you a tinker too?

►Red_Glare (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
Just because i'm one, doesn't mean I can’t call bullshit on other tinkers too.

►SillyWaffleChan
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
Does that meant Mannequinhouse One isn't just Mannequinhouse One?

Or maybe.....Mannequinhouse NINE THOUSAND!?!?

►Clockblocker (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
@SillyWaffleChan
That sounds so stupid, who would think that's a good idea?

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 996, 997, 998, 999, 1000 ... 1024, 1025, 1026

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♦ Private message from GstringGirl:

dragonkid11: Hi!
dragonkid11: Hello, are you really there?
GstringGirl: ah, i just not sure what topic you are interesting in, just saying hi.
dragonkid11: There’s like...1039 private messages, all sent towards me right now. And I really need to check all of them, so try to think of something to talk about next time, k?
GstringGirl: okay.
GstringGirl: i’m a case 53
dragonkid11: I did not expect that when I found reply from you.
GstringGirl: i’m just here to say that i’m your fan and just you fighting out there alone was enough to bring some comfort to my heart, that case 53 can be out there free of prejudice.
dragonkid11: Thank you *hug*
GstringGirl: hug, i really need to figure out how to type upper case one day.

■​

♦ Topic: Batter is Here!
In: Boards ► Introduction ► Cape ► Case 53
dragonkid11 (Original Poster) (Verified Cape)
Posted On Sep 18th 2010:
Hi, everyone, Batter Seven here.

An introduction? Well...

Just like any other Case 53, I can't remember much. But I was one of the better Case when it's come to remember the past. But I wasn't really sure if this is a blessing or not...

I can't remember my own name or any of my relative, but I remember where I came from and the history of the place.

The name dragonkid11 is...the only name I remember. I used the name often in internet forum back home, you could say I have some sentimental feelings for it.

And, yes, my power? Anyone who watched my debut should know it already but yes, I have the power to...kill? cancel? Not really sure about the proper word. But yeah, I can kill anything.

Using it non-lethally was one pain in the ass but then I remember I can literally kill anything. Not gonna tell all the tricks up my sleeves and please don't figure them out either, villains have internet too.

(Showing page 108 of 108)

►Weld (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
See, dragon. This is why SpecificProtagonist is on every single Case 53 poster's ignore list.

►SpecificProtagonist (Verified Pervert)
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
Aww come on. Just a simple question, can you [REDACTED]?

User received an infraction for this post: No, just no. I will delete this information out of my head right now. I pity you all freshbags for not being able to unsee this.

►Saint (Unverified Jerk)
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
See! This is the proof right here! That thing is out to get us all!

►dragonkid11 (Original Poster) (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
What.

►Narwhal (Verified Cape) (Verified Pervert)
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
Really, Saint? Are you high on conspiracy again? And you should at least pay some respect for a kid that wiped out a Class-A threat on his first day. Do you really want to piss him off?

►LaLiLuLeLo
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
And here is an evolution of every single Case 53 introduction thread that can seen live over the course of two days. The first stage is where the Case 53 said and described his or her power and problems as well as earning sympathy from the posters around the world.

The second stage is where the depraved posters of PHO began to ravage several ounces of dignity the Case-53 have with terrible suggestion of lewdness and many more nightmarish contents hidden in the dark void of the internet.

The start of the third stage can be seen here, as the assholes arrived and stripped the thread of its remaining consistency and arguing about nonsensical things like the best tinker in the world is an artificial intelligent, the head of PRT is secretly parahuman, and thinkers are all idiots in disguise.

►AllSeeingEye
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
Screw you. Your favourite franchise sucks, Raiden is the best character, and only a moron will hide in a cardboard box.

Also, your cat is shittting outside its litter box right now.

►LaLiLuLeLo
Replied On Sep 20th 2010:
See, they really are idiots. Now we know you used thinker power to argue in that Harry Potter versus Jedi thread now. And you lost anyway.

►dragonkid11 (Original Poster) (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 21st 2010:
*Facepalm*

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 106, 107, 108

■​

♦ Private message from Weld:

Weld: Just wanted to ask, when you said you can ‘kill’ anything, can you really kill anything?
dragonkid11: If you want to ask if I can eliminate Case 53 condition off, then...that might be a yes.
Weld: Really!?
dragonkid11: I am supposed to keep it a secret from my director, but...damn, Weld, are you really fine?
Weld: Music helped along the way, but can you really cure it?
dragonkid11: Considering I’m still standing here? Yes. But there’s a catch.
Weld: What is it?
dragonkid11: I have to stab the Case 53 in her head, and messed around with a lot of things in her head. I might need to test this out on some villainous Case 53 or villains first before curing others.
Weld: Please tell me the result as soon as possible.
dragonkid11: Okay. *hug*
Weld: I would totally hug you when I can feel again. *hug*

■​

♦ Topic: Batter Seven
In: Boards ► Discussion ► Parahuman ► Ward

Posted On Sep 11th 2010:
Seeing no one else has made this thread. Then I shall be the one to start it.

Confirmed power from this so called Nine Slayer.

-A striker based power that can break down anything, even power. However, s/he seems to need to strike as specified point to use his/her power.
-Hyper agility and enhanced body movement. Basically, s/he is flexible like a cat.
-A thinker based power that enhanced his/her combat potential. Some kind of skill memorizer or body movement reader?

I would probably rate him/her as Mover 3, Thinker 7 and Striker 7-12.

Now, begin the discussion!

EDIT: Added thinker power from the wiki.

EDIT 2: Changed the name of the topic.

(Showing page 543 of 568)

►dragonkid11 (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
What the actual hell, I came here to look for some advices on using my power. Now there's over 300 pages of discussion on whether I'm a guy or a girl. Seriously, @SillyWaffleChan, did you just wrote a goddamn thesis on what my gender is!?

►SillyWaffleChan
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Well of course, shipping is serious fucking business on the internet.

►Glourious_Communist_Robot
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
It's probably better if we don't know his or her gender, now we ship him/her however we want!

►Guai Lao Khan
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Batter Seven, thank you for your existence, we can now ship any sort of relationship in peace without getting it wrong.

►dragonkid11 (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
I hate you all…

►Kudzu (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Come on, Batter. Just enjoy the shipping! Heck, it's fun for people up in the web to decide your weekly date too!

►Frogger (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
@Kudzu
Not everyone dated everyone like you, Kudzu.

►Grace (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Awww, Kudzu, please come back to Chicago ASAP. Stop paying attention to your fans, I need you here, now.

►Dez Nuke
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Oh dear God, Grace and Kudzu are in the same thread. *Wipe sweat off forehead*

►dragonkid11 (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Is there something I should know about this?

►Grace (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Not really, but I totally ship you and Flechette. Both of you have the power to penetrate absolutely everything. There's no armor nor panty that can deny your entry!

►Flechette (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Whyyyyyyyyyy

►dragonkid11 (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Oh what the hell did I expect from this, it's the internet after all…

►LaLiLuLeLo
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
I was about write something on how Batter Seven might be able to kill the intention of evil off someone's mind. But that, of course, violates a whole bunch of human rights and then starts off a debate of whether or not killing evil is the same as making good.

But I guess that's too much for this forum.

►Are_You_Serious?
Replied On Sep 19th 2010:
Welcome to the internet, pretty boy/girl/whatever.

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 541, 542, 543, 544, 545 ... 566, 567, 568

■​

♦ Private message from SpecificProtagonist:

SpecificProtagonist: Heyyyyyyy
dragonkid11: NOPE

■​

♦ Add SpecificProtagonist to ignore list: Yes/No

Yes

■
​

♦ Topic: What happened last night!?
In: Boards ► News ► Events ► America
LaLiLuLeLo (Original Poster)
Posted On Sep 23rd 2010:
Okay, something big must have happened in NYC last night because I heard a big freaking explosion. According to the news, it's about a cape gang war in Brooklyn with this newly arrived group called Traveller that simply vanished afterward.

tinfoilhat.jpg

But I suspect much more than just that!

Discuss!

(Showing page 13 of 13)

►AllSeeingEye
Replied On Sep 23rd 2010:
If there’s really nothing to talk about in this incident, then why are you leaving New York today?

►dragonkid11 (Verified Cape)
Replied On Sep 23rd 2010:
If you can figure a confidential information with your power then why don't you figure this whole incident yourself?

To those who isn't a stupid thinker, the reason is that there's a friend I need to help, so I will accompany her to her new location.

►AllSeeingEye
Replied On Sep 23rd 2010:
Just a little information won't hurt your overly penetrative friend~

►LaLiLuLeLo (Original Poster)
Replied On Sep 23rd 2010:
Seriously, AllSeeingEye, you have been a complete bitch to everyone in the forum for the past few weeks.

Are you that butthurt on losing that Harry Potter versus Jedi debate?

►AllSeeingEye
Replied On Sep 23rd 2010:
YES I AM

►SillyWaffleChan
Replied On Sep 23rd 2010:
Great, now I can't unsee AllSeeingEye as an Indian shaman with a flaming bird phantom.

End of Page. 1, 2, 3 ... 11, 12, 13

■​

♦ Private Messages from AllSeeingEye
AllSeeingEye *New Message*: Come on, girly boy, just one more word and I will definitely figure it out.
AllSeeingEye *New Message*: Pleaseeeeeeee
AllSeeingEye *New Message*: I could tell you how to hit on Glory Girl, she looks like your ex-girlfriend anyway, minus the cow tits.
AllSeeingEye *New Message*: Oh maybe I should tell you about that one time you would have pissed all over the floor if not for that organic suit you wore underneath?
AllSeeingEye *New Message*: Don’t you dare ignore me!

■​

♦ Add AllSeeingEye to ignore list: Yes/No

Yes

■​

I sighed.

People in this world were really...what’s the word, aggressive? The phrase ‘no means no’ clearly wasn’t knocked into their mind well enough.

But in a ways, this was an enriching experience. A forum in a world with parahumans. It’s really interesting to see a world where the fantasy of flying cape is real.

But the new section on Endbringer attacks were just...depressing. I may not be that one person that will save everything, but I will sure as hell delay the world’s end.

Though the amount of shipping about me and other were annoying as hell. The disturbing amount of shipping art and fic about me and the S9 was...well...disturbing.

Still, I’m glad to see that even facing an apocalyptic event, people of this world still managed to find ways to stay together and form peacefulness within themselves.

Maybe there’s hope in this world after all. No, There’s definitely hope in this world.

A knock came from the door and I pushed off the floor, my wheeled chair rolled across the floor and I opened the door.

“Sup, Khaki.” I greeted

“It’s time.” I nodded

“Let me pack up my clothing first.” And then I opened the dresser and drawer, loading everything into my luggage.

------
Author Note: I really had no idea whether this is good enough or not, but it's something between posting an entire arc I suppose.

 

I cannot believe how fucking long it was for me to finish this damn interlude.

All the researches done for this interlude alone was quite ridiculous, then there's also that I can't really figure out whether I can write the scene properly or not.

But well, it's done. A 5.6k word interlude about my favourite amphibian-themed OC. With beta-reading from a friend of mine, ziplopz. So a thank to him too.

------
Interlude 3 (Frogger)

------
“Now Kay, remember, don’t get too excited.” Miss Hertz nagged her daughter one last time as she followed her to their seat, right in front row of the stage.

“I know mom, but we are going to be late for the show!” the tiny little girl pulled her forward, taking their seat as the tickets had stated. It was comical to see a woman getting dragged around like a puppy by her daughter that barely reached 4 feet in height.

As they took their respective seats right in front of stage, the woman noticed her daughter was fidgeting on her chair.

“You need to pee, Kay?” and surely, her daughter jolted from her action and stared at her mother.

“Bu-but the show is about to start!” she stuttered and begged.

“It’s okay, Kay.” she then swept her daughter into her arms and carried her towards the nearest toilet. ‘Oh God, she’s getting heavier, I really need to exercise…’ the woman internally complained.

However, by the time Kay finished, the music had already started. They managed to get back to their seats just in time for the announcer to introduce himself.

A man stood on the stage with a wireless microphone in his hand, dressed with a black suit and a purple-yellow striped necktie. “As your announcer for today’s charity fundraising event organised by the PRT, or as you all know it, the Parahuman Response Team, I, Richard Welson, am proud to present you, the Animal Squad of the Philadelphia Ward!”

As soon as the man finished his words, he pointed upward and the audience followed, glancing at the empty sky, “Welcome, the Ward captain of the Animal Squad, Sala-commandeer!”

And the sky was set ablaze with green fire as a female superhero wearing a skintight bodysuit flew through the air and landed on the stage. The bodysuit was black and dotted with yellow spots. A hoody, shaped like a mouth came from behind the suit, obscuring her upper half of her face. Then she doubled herself and spread out her arm, unleashing the same green fire into the air above her.

“And her teammates, Feline Flanker!” Just as the crowd applauded her act, a wind brushed right behind them all as another Ward showed up. It was quick, nearly everyone in the crowd felt a breeze behind them in an instant, just before a short figure wearing a bright orange suit with white stripe, and a pair of cat ears appeared behind the Ward captain and stood beside her, finishing with a bow to the crowd.

“Ghost Raptor!” and a ghastly figure wearing a dinosaur hat phased through the backstage, walking with a slow paces and heavy footsteps. The shadowy cloud dissipated and revealed her black bodysuit, shining from the sunlight. A pair of swords on her waist bounced as she walked forward to stand besides her captain.

“Hefty Hog!” jet engines screamed up above as a figure left a trail of smoke, leading towards the stage. The Ward was wearing a bronze plated heavy powered armor with a boar like helmet fused to the torso, thick enough to hide the gender of its user. Instead of crashing right onto the stage, the user reversed and fired the jet towards the stage, slowing his or her descence as the suit landed with a heavy thud.

“Tenacious Tigris!” two figures jumped down from above the stage. A girl in blue-striped white suit and a boy with white-striped blue suit, both of them wearing a tiger mask with corresponding colour. Bluish white and whitish blue energy whips formed from their hands respectively and wrapped around a metal girder fixated above the stage.

Just before they landed onto the floor, they swung towards each other like a pendulum, energy whips dissipated as they grabbed each other by their arms. They spun in the air like a top, trails of blue and white hue flowed behind them as they fell straight to the ground. Just before landing, they flipped around and braced for the landing, feet first to the ground. The crowd applauded as they separated apart to stand on the sides of their fellow Wards.

“And of course, it’s not a Animal Squad show without the very first of them all, Mouse Protector!”

Kay stared straight towards the stage, somehow widening her eyes even more upon hearing the name of her idol announced from the speakers. She looked around, up and down, left and right, pondering on where her idol will appear while her heart was pounding like the crazy rock music her mother enjoyed. After all, they spent a whole day traveling from New York City to Philadelphia and lived in a motel for one night just to watch the show upclose and personal instead of behind the screen.

Then she saw it, a egg shaped toy with a rat face was thrown right at the center of the stage, emitting a smoke trail as it landed. In the next instant, a petite woman appeared on top of the toy, her feet stepping right on it. The woman wore a grey armored bodysuit with a long tail dangling behind her. Her helmet, while not as ridiculous as past design, still that signature large mouse ears and 3 pairs of whiskers stuck on its sides. A sword and a shield with a symbol of a mouse complemented her look, as she raised the blade and pointed it skyward.

And the crowd went wild, applauding at their idol. Even young Kay has stood up from her seat and cheered for her, bouncing up and down with her short legs. With the Protectorate cape on the stage, the announcer threw his mike to her. To her, catching it was as easy as everyday exercise and she gave off her signature grin to the audience, the crowd applauding once more.

“Thank you, citizens of Philadelphia, thank you for participating in this charity fundraising event. Every single cent we get from this event will be donated towards helping the sick children suffering from cancer, leukemia and other currently incurable diseases across America. And I would remind you all those sitting in front of the stage, and to those watching from the television as well, that you can be a hero, even without a power.”

She continued, “Being a hero doesn’t mean stopping an Endbringer attack on your own. Even saving one life can make a difference in the future. Sometimes, the smaller things matter more than the big one. More often than you think as a matter of fact.” An expression of melancholy moved to her face as she stopped, preparing her next line.

“But enough sentimental and moody stuff! We aren’t having an expired bread day here! Time for the show to begin!” and the crowd went wild as the hero smiled.

“First, I need a very special someone to get up this stage!” hundreds of hand raised up above the human wave, but of course the hero can’t just point her finger and choose, she had to do it with style!

“Whoever get this rat plushie will be the very first candidate, and you get to keep it as a token too!” and with the doll in her hand, she threw it high in the air, smoke trailing as the doll fell straight to the crowd.

Kay raised up her hands, just like many other in the crowd, for a chance to catch the doll and get upclose to her idol. She knew that the chances was low, probably low enough to have that decimal point thing her mom kept talking about. But since there’s even a chance to begin with, she might as well just go for it anyway.

She closed her eyes, and hoped for the best.

…

…..

“And we have a winner, come up here, little girl! Wait, no, I will come to you instead!”

A...little girl?

Just a squint to her hand, it’s probably not her, right?

Kay opened her eyes, and a grey rat doll was grasped tightly in her hand. In the very next moment, a woman wearing a grey suit appeared in front of her and grabbed her hand. And in a blink of an eye, the chair she was sitting on was gone and she would have fallen on her butt if not for Mouse Protector pulling her up.

She was on the stage, above the crowd and standing with the Wards and her idol. Being on cloud nine would still be an understatement to the intense excitement she was experiencing right now.

She really cannot believe this was happening and pinched herself to prove it. It hurt, this was not a dream. “So, what’s your name little girl?”

A mike was pushed towards her and all she could do was panting like a dog, “I’m…”

She tried to breathe, but the air just won’t get inside her, “I’m…..”

“Are you alright?” and slowly, her vision began to fade out, ”Oh crap, get the medic, now!!!”

At that time, she couldn’t understand why she can’t hear her beating, maybe it had something to do with the syndrome her mother and the doctor always warned her. She saw the Wards standing around her, but their faces were filled with fear, even Mouse Protector herself was frightened as she tried to shake the girl awake from sleeping forever.

There were people in white suits coming up to stage, with first aid kits in their hands to attend her condition. She looked upward and saw her dearest mother saying something to her, something that she can’t hear for reasons unknown to her.

Around her, everyone was sad...but she couldn’t understand why.

And yet, despite being so close to them, she couldn’t understand a single word from them either, maybe...she can just make whatever that bothered them to go awa-

[DESTINATION]

[AGREEMENT]

[TRAJECTORY]

[AGREEMENT]

------

“Seriously? That’s your trigger event?” Shandy laughed after gulping the last bit of drink in her glass.

“Yup, I’m pretty sure Mouse Protector’s heroic heart skipped a beat that day when I had a heart attack. Having my mysteriously missing father being a cape makes it easier for me to trigger, but even without getting my power, I probably would’ve survived that day anyway.” I explained with a shrug.

Shandy then plunged her hand into a portal, and her hand came out close to the drink dispenser, filling up her glass with more orange juice. It really proved that she was adamant about hating her left hand when she didn’t bother to use it even if the drink dispenser was on her left side.

“I wonder who your father is...What if...He’s a supervillain!” she declared.

“That would have been so cliche.” I stood up from the chair and pointed my emptied glass forward. Shandy already knew what I wanted to do as she picked up a pencil and pointed it towards me.

And so we had an imaginary duel as our imaginary swords clashed against each other. But Shandy was one step closer as she said “Shrreeewww!” as she dragged the pencil across my right hand. I softly put the glass down and pulled the sleeve down, clutching my hand as if it was cut off.

“Argh! I...What was that line before that famous line?” I asked.

“You killed my father? No wait, that’s not...Ah!” Shandy cleared her throat with a cough, “Join me, Frogger! Together, we can rule the galaxy!”

“Never! I would rather die than work for the one who killed my father!” not quite the right one but it worked for the moment.

“No...Frogger. I’m your father!”

“Dun dun duuuuunnnnnnnnn!” we were both confused about that poor sound effect and looked towards the source. It’s Keira, currently eating potato chips and enjoying our acting with her legs crossed and propped on the table.

“What? I’m just making dramatic noises” she said, and we both shrugged.

As we all chuckled from our act, an alarm suddenly beeped out throughout the Ward base. It was not the alarm for ‘You can totally panic now’, it was the alarm to alert the Ward that there’s visitors or tourists coming down the elevator. And since there’s no tourism tours today…

“Oh yeah, new Ward!” I cheered loudly and rushed towards the elevator, waiting patiently for the elevator to arrive as the electronic indicator above showed the number dropped to below ground levels. I almost forgot to put on my domino mask when the elevator arrived with a final ‘ding’.

As the doors slid open, I spread my arms and greeted the girl besides Prism, the triple cloner.

“Frogger, this is-” she had already been interrupted long before the elevator had arrived.

“Welcome to the New York Ward, new girl! Other than being the biggest Ward team in the entire America, we also have plenty of assorted snacks and sweets and drinks and videogames and books to fill up whatever needs you want! So...are you ready to have fun!?” I have been preparing this short and simple speech to introduce new people into the Ward, hopefully it will work!

“I...I’m…” the Asian girl just fidgeted on the spot, maybe I got too excited for the speech? Eh, who can be too joyful for anything?

“Sorry about that, I just get so damn excited when there’s new people! I’m Frogger!” I introduced myself.

“I’m...Lily.” and she did so too

“So, what’s your power?” I asked as I led her to a table by her rather soft and smooth hand.

“I can...erm, can you give me something like...paper?” oh? Can she control paper and beat up Saturday night villains with it?

“Shandy!” I called out to her as I took as seat besides the new girl.

“No problem!” and quickly she put her right hand into a portal and a stack of paper came out. We both looked towards the new girl with anticipation as Shandy push the stack of paper towards her.

“Okay...this...might be boring.” she then picked up two papers, and slowly put them together. Instead of flopping away as the papers were pushed together, the papers maintained their shape and moved into each other like a ghost phasing through a wall. She then let go of her hand, the two papers fused into an impossible papercraft.

“This really wasn’t an interesting pow-” she stopped when she saw our expressions filled with admiration as we picked up the papercraft to inspect it.

“This! Is! Awesome!” I stood up from my chair and cuddled Lily tightly. Guess she didn’t really get much hugs when she blushed deep red from my hugging.

“You can make things go through things like a ghost! That awesome! Can you do it to yourself too?”

“Ah, no, I can’t do that.”

“Awwww, just imagine the amount of shenanigan you can do with that!”

“Isn’t being in the Ward is supposed to teach me how to use my power responsibly?”

“Yeah! But we can learn to have fun with our power too! Legally of course!” I’m pretty sure most supervillains ended up being supervillains because they had way too much fun with their power in the bad way.

“Can I get a drink?”

“Sure, what do you want?” and I opened my mouth to let my 30 feet long tongue out, reaching towards the drink dispenser for a paper cup.

“Wow...erm, coke?” I reached for the correct dispenser, filling up the cup and placed the cup in front of her before retracting my tongue back into my mouth.

“You...you really are Frogger.” she said as she inspected the paper cup, careful not to tilt the cup too much. “Huh? There’s no saliva?”

“Well, that tongue of mine really isn’t a tongue and more like a projection of a sort, I can’t taste things with it either unless I have a power that can taste things.”

“...Wait, your tongue is not your only power?” she asked and once more I grinned.

“I can copy all sort of power, within reasonable limit. Like for example, I need to see a power in process for a while to copy it, and more often than not, I don’t have the secondary power to use it properly.”

“How did you know abou-”

“I burned my eyebrow when I set my tongue on fire one time.” I rolled my eyes as she laughed, smacking the table as she found herself unable to stop the laughter.

It took quite a while before her funny bone stopped getting rustled, “So erm...besides my power to charge up items to fuse or cut things, I think I have super accuracy and some sort of timing power.”

“Super accuracy? Timing power?” I asked, those sounded really complicated.

“Yeah, I can look at my target and I immediately know how to aim to hit it and how much time I need to charge an object for my power to take effect, one second of charging for one second of power.” she explained.

“Actually, why don’t I just show it to you now? Could you pick up that paper and just hold it there as a target for me?” she pointed to the stack of paper.

As she asked, I picked up the paper and lifted it away from me like I’m a Matador, awaiting for the bull to charge. Lily picked up a pencil, flipping it into the air and caught it without moving her hand or looking at it. With a flick, she threw it to the paper. I felt a drag on my hand as the paper was struck by the pencil. And I was absolutely amazed when I saw the pencil was stuck horizontally onto the paper. Ripping the paper away will only show that the pencil was fused into the paper, as if it was built like this in the first place.

“So cool! And ridiculously dangerous too...” there might really be nothing that could stop her power if she wanted it to be…

“Lily, one question.” I asked with seriousness in my tone.

“Yes?”

“Do you like girls?” this might had been a bit too blunt.

“What!? I...I’m not interested in boys but my mom kept pushing me for it and…”

Dammit, I hit a landmine there. Quick, think of something cheerful! “Oh haha wow, your name is Lily and you are a lesbian? Do you know what Lily meant in Japan?”

“I...don’t. Despite being half-blooded Japanese, my father never teached me to speak Japanese.”

“Lily is called Yuri in Japan, it also means girl love.” I grinned as Lily blushed even redder than before, she totally didn’t see that one coming.

“Annnd...you have the power to penetrate everythi-” I lost control of my laughter even before I could finish the joke.I meant, just what the heck kind of coincidence is this?

The gloomy veil eventually moved away from Lily’s face as her mouth curved into a smile, and then a giggle that evolved into a full blown laughter.

“I...think my job is done here. Have fun, girls!” And Prism stepped back into the elevator, waving goodbye at us as the doors closed.

“We are going to have so much fun! Here, let me show around this place!” I grabbed her hand and dragged her around Ward base.

Both of us had some really great fun that day.

------

My boots tapped against the white ceramic tiled floor of the hospital as I ran through the hallway. The doctor and nurse, walking their ways to their patients, stepped out of my way as I barreled through without stopping, heading for that one room I need to reach yesterday ago.

As soon as I spotted the correct room number, I rammed the door and rushed to her bedside, pushing past the other Ward members that were here to see her condition.

It’s bad. Really bad.

“She’s fine...for now.” Legend said, wariness set in his voice.

“Flechette…” I...said? Asked? Concerned? I don’t know...

Her purple armored bodysuit had been removed for the Doctor to inspect her wounds, leaving only her arrow shaped visor. Skin bruised bluish from punches and falls, a couple cuts from scraping and chaffing, nothing serious and can easily be healed in time.

“Hey...Frogger…” and she wasn’t much better at it either.

She’s wearing a patient scrub now, a thin dress that didn’t protect her from the coldness in the air as the air-conditioner hummed in the ceiling. But that wasn’t the thing that bothered her the most now, it’s...her leg. Her missing leg.

I moved forward, being the few members of the New York Ward that can heal people, and touched what’s left of her left thigh. She flinched against the rough underside of my glove when I trailed my hand towards her bandaged stumps, ending where her knee started.

“What the fuck happened?” I asked angrily towards Legend. After all, there’s Protectorate members in the fight, why didn’t they protect her?

“An immigrant supervillain team from Japan that called themselves the Shogunate Revivalists attacked a group of local vigilantes in San Francisco in revenge. The local Protectorates and Wards along with Flechette were sent to stabilise the situation. One of the supervillain, Shotgun, who named herself after a bastardized word of Shogun, fought her. Flechette...took drastic measure to end her when she started to threaten the life of her teammates.” Legend explained.

It didn’t take much to recreate the fight from the clues on her injuries and the news as I reimagined the scene.

Flechette rushed forward with her rapier as she saw her fellow Ward crawling on the ground, screaming for help as Shotgun ominously walked towards her. Flechette could have ended the fight right there as she dragged her hand across her belt, grabbing flechettes and threw them towards the brute’s boots, stopping her from moving, but Shotgun simply ripped the boots off her feet as she charged towards Flechette.

With her superior strength, she grappled with Flechette and pinned her to the ground. A evil grin twisted onto her face as she moved her hand down, blasted her leg at point-blank range. Flechette...screamed as her brain registered the pain spiking from her stump, blood bleeding like a river from it. As Shotgun let her go and walked towards her teammates, Flechette fought through the pain and grabbed her rapier. A bit of power charged into it and she threw it to the brute, severing her body in half.

She...needed to talk to someone about this, ending someone’s life like that can’t be good for her. But first, her physical wound.

“May I heal you?” I needed to take care of this first before healing the rest.

“Yes.” she replied.

I then began to disrobe the bloody bandage, still wet from her blood. I tried to be careful not to hurt her anymore but her painful expression she had as I uncoiled the bandage away from her stumps ached my heart. With the bandage removed, I peeled off the cotton hat covered her wound and blood trickled out of the stump.

With a swallow of my fear, I crouched down and formed my tongue, extending it towards her wound. This wasn’t originally my power, a healing power copied from a villain with biokinetic power, enough to manipulate his and others body through touch. But I can use it just as effectively to heal people after I poached it from him.

Even then, this wasn’t enough as I needed to have the secondary power of knowing how to manipulate biology of the target. So, instead of making myself to read over a dozen medical books at the age of 15, I made a brain similar to those in reptile in my tongue to handle that task instead, leaving it on autopilot until I needed to intervene.

She winced as new cells were being made rapidly on her stump, healing her wound and at the same time, making new nerve cells that caused intense itching. Pain was much more easier for anyone to handle. But itch? Itch was a hundred times worse. Her finger practically turned white as she gripped the rail of her bed tightly, fighting against the urge to scratch her stump.

It took me 10 minutes of licking to fully regrow her leg, one with skin as smooth as a newborn, and a lot less hair too. Nails were easier to regrow than individuals hairs though.

“Thank...you…” those were the two words that managed to come out of her panting mouth.

“Soooo...anywhere else you want to lick?” I said with my signature mischievous grin, but my heart was still aching at the former severity of her condition. Real fighting was always...way more intense than I wanted. After all...that’s how Ghost Raptor bit the dust after she was…

Dammit bad memory, don’t screw this up for me.

Just as I expected, her face quickly increased in redness, forgetting her rather painful experience. She...mumbled something but I can’t hear it.

I raised my eyebrow as I inched closer to her “What did you just say, Flechette?” and again, I can’t hear her mumbling.

“Okay, stop playing, I can’t hea-” I felt her hand gripped my shoulder tightly and I fell forward as she pulled me down. It was part of the mandatory training a Ward received that trained me to keep my eyes open at all time to easily locate incoming threat, so I can see every single moments clearly as she smashed her face with mine.

I have always romanticized my first kiss as something really special and filled with this special feeling I can’t really explain. This...wasn’t. I just can’t feel this so called specialness of the first kiss, even if it with my very best friend.

I quickly pulled back just as quick as kiss started and stared at Flechette. I felt a bit angry to be honest. “Erm...Flechette?” but I can’t really get angry at her now.

“I’m sorry...I just...It happened so fast and it hurted so fucking much and I seriously thought I’m gonna die without having my first kiss and just...sorry!” she began to sob out her frustration as her feeling flooded out like a river.

“I...loved you since you dragged me around the Ward base, Frogger. It just came out of nowhere!” she wheezed just as she finished, though a chuckle quickly put an end to that. “It’s...really hard to say this serious when I said ‘Frogger’, it’s just so silly.” it grew to a giggle as she said it.

I...continued to smile for my friend.

“Good to see that timid Flechette I know of is coming back up. How about we have a proper date after you get out this place, hm?” I said with a suggestive smile, before lifting up the patient scrub to uncover her bruised right leg for my tongue to reach her wounds.

If this was what it needed to give her a home she wanted, then so be it. I cared about her after all.

If I...can pretend to be a cartoon hero ever since I joined the Ward, why can’t I pretend to be her girlfriend?

-----

“Kay, what the hell!?” Lily angrily yelled.

But even then, there’s only so much I could do to help her. Everytime she was sent out there, I helped her with research and information on the local vigilantes, rogues and supervillain through web and sometimes even asking Khaki for the more obscured data. All to aid her in keeping herself safe from the truly dangerous in her new post.

However...that only pushed her further, she’s just that kind of person who kept on pushing herself to the limit after all. The danger she will be facing, the threat she will experience, all these caused many sleepless nights whenever she was sent out for reinforcement.

And every time she came back, I always walked with her through every moment and the limited time she have before another transfer. Having fun with her, teasing her, eating with her and...kissing and stuff… I was hoping that my mind would gradually turn itself after spending so much time with her but...it didn’t happen.

Even in the shower, I teased with her and laughed as she lit up like a lightbulb. But in reality, I was checking for her scars and fixing them with my healing tongue. Cuts, bruises, stabs, scratches, chaffs and even one gun shot wound. I was utterly terrified when I saw that on her thigh, only through my vigorious questioning did she spill out the how. I was...worried about her, and really wanted to love her like the one lover she always dreamed but...

I just...didn’t like girl that way. And even against the guy, I can’t feel much either… I’m not interested in hard abs, I’m not interested in those mammal sacs, then what am I? That’s when I realised that at that time, I’m the only one in the New York Ward that truly have a category of orientation of my own.

Asexual...that was the...‘thing’ that I am being a part of. Why can I just pretend that never happened? Why can I be just like other, to actually be capable of loving someone normally? Why...

“I’m sorry, Lily! I’m just-” I tried to explain but she didn’t give me a chance to speak another word.

“You don’t ‘just’ that, Kay! I...I have been forcing you into this, am I?” tears started to flow out of her eyes as she remembered how it all began. True, she started it, but I didn’t mind about it at all...

“Lily, it’s not that! It’s-”

“I thought I was seeing things every time we looked into each other eyes, having those...moments together.” she wiped tears off her face, “But now I knew why...that is just not right!”

“Look at me, Lily. I’m totally fine wi-”

“NO, YOU ARE NOT!!! Have you ever looked yourself at the mirror, Kay!? I saw disgust in your eyes! Your body can’t lie, Kay!” the sobbing got louder than ever before…

“Lily!” I called out for her.

“I…..I felt like I just...I just molested you for my own damn pleasure! Just...fuck! This has to end now!”

“Lily, please!” I begged for her to just...what did I really want? Was it just an obsession of me to protect her all along? Or was it something else?

“...Sorry...for making you take care of me.”

She left, just like that.

…..

She didn’t really left the Ward, obviously. To everyone else in the base, it looked like we only had a massive breakup. She’s still getting sent out for other cities and towns, and I’m stuck here, punching the same bad guys in New York. To them, it’s just mere long range communication issue, but we made it clear that our relationship doesn’t work out anymore.

Well, eventually we mended our relationship and it went back to the stage of being just friends. I guessed that real life was not like those stupid drama show that took a ridiculous long chain of events just to get someone together. While our relationship was strained, I was okay with it, and she’s too. But….ever since that happened, no matter what I do, there will always be a barrier between both of us, either to separate us from our…’love’...or to protect us from our own destruction.

Things were fine anyway, so maybe it’s okay for it to stay like this?

Maybe I can just pretend that everything was fine now?

------

“Morning, Kay. Dreamed something happy?” Yuuka beamed her smile at me.

It’s been one day since Lily was sent out with Drake now. I...not sure why, but I felt so relieved when he accepted my request and sent himself with her. This...was the first time ever I can sleep soundly without Lily being in the same place I was, I had never felt so damn relaxed before...like something heavy was just lifted off my chest.

“Nah, something real made me happy this time.” I smiled back.

“Glad that something worked out between you two in the end, even if you are not part of it.”

“Nah, I’m fine with it.” I still kinda felt bad for handling the task of protecting Lily to Drake though, despite how relieved I was.

I continued sauntering happily through the base for the dining hall and found that Keira was there, sitting alone at a table, absentmindedly playing the strawberry with a fork while looking at the television. I...felt sorry for her to be honest, but~

“Heyyyyyyyyyy, Keira.” I hugged her tightly.

“Oh, Kay, morning.” she smiled, but the smile was clearly strained.

...Ya know what? Might as well just hit two birds with one stone to cheer her up.

“So...did you two do it?” I asked, curiosity sparkling in my eyes.

She immediately spat her juice out, “What!?”

“You know, I heard the local In-N-Out had an explosion.” I grinned mischievously.

“Erm...we didn’t go that far that fast...disappointedly…” she sighed.

“Eh? What happened? Did he suddenly find himself liking guys?” as I said so, I could see Khaki almost tripping himself at the edge of my eyes.

“No, it’s not that…..That’s story for another time.” she waved me off.

Ah well, no point in pestering her.

“Guys…”

Hmm?

“GUYS, LOOK AT THE NEWS!!!” someone yelled.

I quickly looked at the only tv-screen here in the corner and…..

……

No...no...

That’s...not happening!!!

No...

The feeling of dread that I had lied to myself to deny it….it all came crashing down in an instant.

Looks like I was pretending that trouble didn’t exist at all…

Lily, Drake...please be safe.

------
Author Note: DUH DUH DUHHHHHHH!!!

Also, poor girl needs a hug.

And goddamn my writing speed is slow as hell and my procrastinating moment is not helping at all.

But hey, good new. Arc three is almost complete, with chapter 3.5 done today and chapter 3.6 in the making.

So to the few readers hoping for the next arc, it won't be long.

.....

Now let's be honest here, how many of you would want a fic that focused on the Animal Squad?

 

To all my probably faithful readers out there, the wait is no more!

Arc 3 is finally complete!

Well, it took like 5 months, but story has finally arrived in Brockton Bay!

To the readers who liked the New Yorkers! Well, you will be seeing them sooner than you think.

Anyway, let's get it started!

------

Arc 3: Reintroduction to what should have been known (23-09-2010 to ??-09-2010)

Chapter 3.1, in which the SI is introduced to the Brockton Bay Ward.

------

The metal hull of the dragon themed aircraft vibrated as the jet engine continued to roar, leaving us closer to our destination with each passing moments. It’s clearly not designed for comfort as the benches dropped from the wall were not padded, leaving my butt feeling rather numbed from the hard metal seat.

Though it’s still only just an hour long trip, so it’s far more easier to handle than hours long bus trip. Dear God, I still remembered that 8 hours trip to Thailand that made my ass sore like a bee sting once. Since the wi-fi didn’t work here, everyone else in the aircraft just claimed their own individual space for the moment to waste their time for the trip in their own ways.

Flechette was carving words onto the stock of her newly acquired arbalest. That was done in around ten minutes and then she boredly disassembled her arbalest and reassemble the parts for the rest of the trip. Mouse Protector instead told some clearly glorified tales of her fight against the evil of Philadelphia to Bomber Two, who was basically bored out of her mind and just kept nodding.

Me? Well…

“Batter, it’s been an hour, please knock that goofy smile off your face…” Flechette annoyingly sighed, reassembling her arbalest without even batting an eye to me.

“But don’t you think that was very magical? She just dropped backward and then swoosh! She flew away with a pink streak behind her. Totally the best ending to a love story.” I smiled at the memory, it was pretty nice of her to drop a surprise like that. But I missed her badly already after just an hour.

“Ah...sorry I’m just-”

“It’s fine. It will end one day anyway, ending it like this is the best way possible between us.” I smiled again, this time at Flechette. “What did you carved onto your arbalest anyway?” I asked, looking at her arbalest just as she tucked it away.

[Steps in Two Ships detected]​

“It’s...nothing.” ah yes, the famous last word of those who have something to hide!

[Pre-cog power detected][Began Pre-cog Threat Prevention Program]​

“Flechette, everyone knows you are the worst liar in the world. Now show me dem secrets!” I grinned and tried to reach for her arbalest.

[Anti Pre-cog Combat Mode On]​

However, with Flechette taller height, she easily pushed me back with her long arm, taking the arbalest far from the reach of my hands. I still tried to wave my arms towards her arbalest anyway, and my antic managed to attract the attention of Mouse Protector and Bomber Two...too.

[Artificial Power Enhancement detected][Power Residue from: Ingenious Mastermind]​

“Oh? What are you hiding, Penetrating Girl!!!” ah, please stop giving people weird nickname, Mouse Protector.

“I’m not-” with a deep breath, she sighed in defeat, “Ah fine, just look at it.” she then pushed her arbalest into my hands and I quickly turned the stock to me. The word she carved onto it with her...flechette, was ‘YURI’.

…..

“How did I not notice this!?!?” I screamed, yanking my hair in frustration.

“Erm….Is this a new generation thing?” and Mouse Protector did not know about this, brilliant. Well this was probably a good thing or else even more shenanigan will happen.

“I should just hand in my anime fan card now if I can’t even see this coming…” I sighed, leaning back to the wall while Flechette hid her blushes with her hands.

“Huh?” Mouse Protector looked at my exasperated look, “Huh!?” and on my left, Flechette just shook her face out of frustration, “Huh!?!?”

“In case you people were too busy screaming to look at the window, we are now in Brockton Bay airspace.” Dragon announced through speaker mounted in the aircraft.

[Combat Ended][Pre-Cog Threat Prevention Program Deactivated]​

Quickly, I climbed onto my seat to peek out of the window. There’s quite a clear difference between Brockton Bay and New York. While New York was basically the number one city in America, Brockton Bay was…..not. Hell, a rain started just as we approached the city as if the whole purpose of its existence was dramatic atmosphere change.

There’s in fact a rather distinct difference in the height and glamor of the building as we moved from uptown to downtown and finally at the dock. The state of the street simply changed from good to bad to worse, and the gang signs can be seen marked all over the street. And then there’s the boat graveyard, huge rows of rusted boat, just waiting for their end to come.

It was such an obvious sign that the city was having problems of it owns, problems which we will hopefully solve. But then I noticed we flew over Brockton Bay and headed towards the sea.

“And this, is the Protectorate and Ward ENE base.” Dragon explained and my jaw immediately dropped at the sight of it.

To be honest, I didn’t actually see much of the New York base from the outside since I’m too busy being inside, so I can’t exactly compare it to this…

But, holy shit, they converted a goddamn oil rig to a fortress!? The energy shield shimmered as rain fell onto it, forming a spherical shaped invisible wall around the base, and its base had been reinforced with layers of possibly tinker-tech construction material, and there’s a road made of solid light connecting the beach with the oil rig, allowing PRT vans to drive up to the oil rig.

Absolutely awesome!!!

...Ya know, I really should be in awe by just about everything in this world, but seeing someone shooting goddamn laser or making energy shield or having moving powered armor was somehow mundane to me right now…

The shaking of the aircraft intensified as Dragon lowered her aircraft down onto one of the helipad. And I already saw a couple figures right besides the platform.

[Miniaturizing Compensator detected]​

One was a man wearing a slim blue powered armor, efficiently designed to accommodate his own body size only and his daily exercise routine must be extremely difficult for him to keep his tip-top body shape. Behind him was a retracted halberd, probably packed full of tinker-made instruments, and his face was protected by a helmet with visor that only covered his eyes, exposing his mouth and well-trimmed beard.

...Somewhere in there, there’s a pun waiting to be unleash.

[Unlimited Armament Work detected]​

But the woman standing besides him was a whole order of magnitude more awesome than he was. The woman was wearing a green camo military uniform, with a American flag patterned scarf masked her mouth, and a green ranger hat on top of her wavy black hair.

The thing that made her stood out more than the armored tinker was when the rifle in her hands transformed into a green swirling worm of energy and reformed into a pair of uzi. Then a kukri that she twirled in her hand, and finally a pistol which she holstered to her hip as Dragon landed with the door opened.

God blessed America by giving her the most American capes ever.

“Welcome to Protectorate ENE, I’m Miss Militi-” and then she was tackled by Mouse Protector, but she wasted no time in prying her off her waist.

“Holy shit, it’s been so long, Militia! I really missed you and Chevalier and-” But a quick roll from Miss Militia shoved her aside and patted dusts off her uniform as she stood back up.

“Please at least act professional in front of the kids, Mouse Protector…” and she could only sigh as Mouse Protector cuddled her from behind.

“I’m Armsmaster, leader of Protectorate ENE.” the blue armored tinker was seemingly unfazed by their action and continued to introduce himself without a pause. “Dragon, thank you for bringing them here personally.”

“It’s merely my duty to bring them in safely, Armsmaster.” then why did I feel some flirtatious undertone from that, Dragon...

Without missing a pace, the tinker looked at us, “Report to the director now. I will take you to her office.” yup, very straight forward personality.

He then led us into the rig and headed to a room sized teleporter in the base. A very long password typing sequence, iris and fingerprint scan and we were finally in it. A crackling like a lightning resonated in the room and we are teleported into the Brockton Bay PRT base.

It was a long walking trip of seeing so many PRT troopers standing guard in the base, having so many security passwords that I’m completely confused, and ending with a annoying elevator ride with that damn music. Only after all that did we finally reached the director’s office.

I know security must be tight around here but just what’s wrong with this place?

As we entered the director office, I saw a heavily built woman with short blonde hair styled into a bob-cut sitting behind her wooden desk. I didn’t know why at the time, but I thought she was in pain from something.

“I suppose I should welcome you all to this city or so. I’m Director Piggot and...ah forget it, let’s skip to the point.” the woman then scanned through our files, placed right besides the pile of paper document on her desk. “Mouse Protector, please don’t repeat what happened last time.” eh? She’s here before? And what sort of shenanigans did she do?

“Bomber Two, you personally request to be transferred out of New York City, so you better not complain about being posted here.” she nodded at the director’s comment, arms crossed in response.

“Flechette, you already have rich experiences in being sent out as reinforcement, so I won’t doubt your capability. Batter Seven however…” I gulped as she turned her sight at me, like a cat looking down on its living meal, “...do your best. Your patrol schedule will be given to you on tomorrow 9.00 PM at office room A010. Armsmaster, show Mouse Protector and Bomber Two around the base. Miss Militia, take those two to the Ward base. Dismiss” And then we were quickly ushered out of her office.

What’s with that tone from the lady? While we were technically worker under her command, couldn’t she...speak softer? There’s something about that attitude of hers that I just don’t like. But anyway, we had to go through all the security measures again as we made our way to the teleporter just to get back to the oil rig.

As soon as we got back, Armsmaster led the two away while Miss Militia led us to the Ward section of the base. But even as we stepped away from each other, I can hear drama boiling.

“Oh hey, Halbeard, it’s been so long!”

“Mouse Protector, cease with your annoyingly plain humour.”

“What!? My humour is plain!? Did I gone rusty or-” thankfully, our distance eventually drowned out the voices, but Bomber Two was probably going to be suffering for a while.

------

“No!” Armsmaster denied.

“Come on, it’s just a simple reunion party!” said Mouse Protector.

“And fill my body system with alcohol? My exercise routine cannot allow that!” but he rejected the idea anyway.

“Awww, Armsy, you need to stop hold up all those pent-up feelings and-”

But Jessica was not even remotely focusing on the conversation between those two as she was too focused on something else…

Something like wondering just how muscular Armsmaster was underneath all those slim armor, and whether or not she will see when she works on tinker project with him. But she decided to quench her curiosity by staring at his shiny metal ass for now...

------

Poor girl, but it’s her problem now. Ah well, time to meet the local Ward! But first…

“Miss Militia, are you an immigrant?” I asked while we were walking towards the Wards base through the lengthy hallway in this oil rig.

“Hm? What made you think so?” I can see her smiled even beneath her scarf, clearly interested in my thought.

“Well, you have brown skinned, but the distinctness of the colour reminded me of Middle-Eastern, and there’s something different about your accent, like my English.” speaking with fellow English speakers certainly helped a lot in my English speaking skills, but there’s always something missing.

“Huh, the world you came from is really similar to ours. And yes, I’m an immigrant, from Kurdistan. I was just a few years younger than both of you when I got here along with my power, but that’s story for another time.” it was convenient that she finished just as we reached the entrance to the Ward base.

I guessed I should reevaluate my theory on how the most American thing always came outside of America now.

A swipe of her identity card and the sliding door opened, but another doors stood in our way before Miss Militia swiped her card on the second scanner. A two closed doors system? Quite an effective security measure, I noted.

Okay, time to face the Brockton Bay Wards.

As soon as the door slid open, we were greeted by party poppers and the eventual rains of colourful paper strips.

“Welcome to Brockton Bay!” and the BB wards greeted us together with cheering and clapping.

Man, I’m having deja vu.

“I see that you have prepared such a nice surprise for them, Wards.” Miss Militia smirked under her scarf.

“They came all the way from New York to help, it would make bad impression if we did nothing to welcome them to this city.” a boy that was approaching adulthood in a rust red suit said.

“Nice going that you can think for yourselves, Aegis.” she patted his back like a teacher of sort but she quickly straightened her back and faced towards the Ward like a Sergeant staring down the recruits, “Wards, this is Flechette and Batter Seven, I will hand them over to your team now, Aegis.”

“Yes, madam!” the Ward all saluted to her salutation but they all quickly burst into laughter, even Miss Militia chuckled a bit. She then walked towards the entrance and left the base, leaving us with a wave of her hand as well as 5 Wards, 4 boys and one little girl.

[Redundant Fodder detected]​

The boy with rust red suit raised up his hand towards me, “Hey there, I’m Aegis, or Carlos in civilian, the current Captain of the Brockton Bay Ward after Triumph left about a month ago.”

“Ah yeah, I heard of him, I only read about BB Ward information on the net, so supply me with some more if I got it wrong.” he nodded as I replied back.

[Knight of Feels detected]​

“I’m Gallant, Dean, it’s nice to have a Case 53 as our member, even if it’s just a temporary post.” a masculine voice came from a walking suit of armor like those used by medieval era knight, completed with a sword in its sheath on his hip, but servos and glowy lines proved that it’s more than just a suit of armor.

[Multi-Applicational Engineer detected]​

“Kid Win or Chris here. Now if you excuse me, I need to work something now, justgotanideahavetodoitfastorIwillforgetitttttttt!!!” a boy wearing a red and gold armored bodysuit with a facemask quickly rushed out of our sight before he even finished. Clearly a tinker.

[Action Time detected]​

“And this is.” before he finished, I already did so, “Clockblocker.”

“Hell yeah, finally we have girls in the tea-Ow!” the boy in white armored suit with moving images of clock emblazoned on his suit was seemingly smacked by nothing as he flinched.

[Escher Reality Marble detected]​

“Hey, I’m one too! He’s Dennis and I’m Vista or Missy here by the way.” and a little girl wearing a green armored suit with skirt patterned in swirly teal colour and a visor put her hands on her waist as she pouted.

“Ah...sorry, but I bat for the other team.” Flechette nervously said.

“And I’m a guy.” I chuckled.

It was then he kneeled onto the ground with a thud and yelled, “Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!”

Hmm…

Hmmm…..

Oh right!

“But I do know quite a few girls that bat for both teams from New York, maybe we can work out some team exercise with the New Yorkers and-” I smiled, “You know, know each other better?”

I almost had a heart attack when he suddenly dashed on the floor like a speeding bullet and grasped my leg as if his life was depended on it. “Thank youuuuuuuuu!!!”

As I struggled to get Clockblocker off my leg, Vista scanned my body with a peculiar look on her face, “Are you really a guy?”

“Erm, yeah?” I answered.

“What the actual fuck, you look more like a goddamn girl than Flechette!!!” I did not expect that kind of language from a 12 years old...

“Ahahahaha…” I tried to laugh it off, “anyway we are kinda starving after being sent over her by Dragon herse-”

“You know Dragon!?!?” Kid Win popped his head out of his workshop, looking straight at me.

“Yup. Oh right, you tinkers pretty much worship her, I can introduce you to her if you wan-”

I was utterly terrified when Kid Wing turned into a red blur, dashing across the distance in an instant and he too clung onto my other leg and yelled, “Thank youuuuuuuuuu!!!”

“Oh look, you got all the guys swooning for you, Batter.” Flechette grinned.

“It’s not!” All three of us screamed.

[One Hit Wonder Brick detected]​

The sudden opening of the sliding doors practically dragged our attention towards it as the most beautiful blonde girl I have ever seen in my entire life walked into the base. She wore a white skin-tight dress with golden trim, and a capes over her right shoulder with a pair of white boots tapping the floor. She also wore no mask to protect her identity, just like what the New Wave was trying to promote.

[Mind Manipulation power detected][Activate Anti-Master Effect Program]​

Huh? What the heck was that? My head felt better than before.

“Hey guys, how’s it goin-OH MY GOD!!!” the blonde girl looked like she saw her dead aunt as she stared at me, I wondered wh-why did I have my finger poked deep into my head?

[Anti-Master Effect program deactivated]​

“Oh crap, Glory Girl, your aura!” Gallant warned, and even if I can’t barely feel her aura power now, the effect on others was lessened as she toned down her power. Did my power just automatically cancel her power? Well that’s rather convenient to know, I will have to write this down for the power analysis team later.

Still, Flechette was blushing deep red even after the power had worn off, I can see why though. Glory Girl was the pinnacle of unfairness when it’s come to appearance. Even without her power, she was the prettiest looking teenager I had ever seen after coming to this place. And she can fly and had high brute rating, if there’s a cosmic lottery, she had won it a long time ago.

[Warning: Canon Amnesia fading][Reinforcing Amnesia]​

If so...why did I feel so disgusted? Not at her, but just being around her made me feel disgusted for some damn reasons. It seemed that I managed to hide my disgust well enough as she came over to greet us.

“I’m...erm...Glory Girl. Victoria if you met me out of my costume.” she nervously introduced herself, “What the heck did you do just now?” she asked with a piqued look on her face.

“Probably my thinker power, it sometimes triggered on its own to protect me. It probably detected your power and automatically countered it.” I explained and she sighed in relief.

“Oh thank God, thought I have to explain to my mom on why I made a girl stab her own head with finger. At least your power didn’t counter with a punch.”

“Now hold on a second there, I’m not-” but she interrupted me before I could finish.

“Just to let you know, Dean over there is my boyfriend, so don’t try to hit on him, m’kay?” she smiled, but I’m very much knew just what kind of demonic threat she was implying with that sweet smile.

“GG, you should be more worried in the other way since both Flechette and Batter Seven here are interested in girls.” dammit Clockblocker! Well, he’s not wrong but…

“Oh...erm....” she blushed as she realised what he meant, “Maybe some other times?” And then she did a honest to God winking at both of us, implying something that I’m not sure if I want as I felt my heart beating slightly faster.

“Anyway, Gallant and I will be patrolling, so see you two later!” she then swooped Gallant, him along with his 100 pound armor into her arms and flew towards the entrance, disappearing behind the sliding door.

....

“Flechette.”

“Yeah, Batter?”

“Did you stare at her boobs the entire time?” I asked.

“Ho-how did you know!?!” she exclaimed

“Because I was doing it too…” I shamelessly admitted

“Ah…” she nodded in agreement.

-----

It was fun talking to the Brockton Bay Wards, sharing their very own story as each of them was the protagonist of their story. But sadly, the time came short as they were sent to patrol according to their patrolling schedule, which we still didn’t have it yet as we had just arrived today.

However, even after they came back from patrol, they had to leave as unlike both of us, they had their parents and siblings to come back to. Leaving just Lily and I in this humongous Ward base capable of accommodating 20 Wards.

It was...quite boring compared to the atmosphere back in New York, the lively mood came from people talking and having fun around me were just...gone. I didn’t think I had taken grant of social life this much before...

As Lily had left for something a while ago, I decided to take in some fresh air outside instead of playing video game alone in this hugeass base. Except that I forgot we were on a oil rig and the air was full of the smell of ocean, not fresh at all.

I sat right on the edge of a platform, safety net below prevented me from falling to my death as I boredly kicked my feet. Just looking at the endless wave of the deep blue ocean and feeling the wind breezed past my skin and ruffling my short black hair.

“Hey.” I looked to my side, and saw Lily sitting right next to me.

In her hand was two cups of coffee, and I took one of them as she gave one to me, “Hey.”

“Wanna see something nice? Look up.” she pointed, and I did.

There, we sat together in silent to admire the view of the night sky. The light from the city couldn’t reach here, allowing us to see the night sky in all its gloriousness. The stars peppered the sky with nebula acting as the background, like an eons old artwork that will always change by the days or by the years, and the moon was merely just being part of it instead of its focus.

It was something that’s rather difficult to see back in New York, what’s with the all the lights in the city were never being turned off and there’s plenty of them everywhere. I guessed this place has beauty of its own.

“You know what I like being out here?” she said.

And I asked, “Why?”

“I want to know more people, know about this world I lived in, see new places and such. Sometimes the adventure bites back, but that will happen sooner or later anyway.” she chuckled.

“And I’m here to make sure that never happened.” I replied.

“...Do you actually wanted to be here?” she asked, to be honest...

“Not just here to help you, I’m also quite curious about this world. So many different things, so many bad things too. But this is my world now, and I want to save it. I might not be able to save all of it, but I’m sure as hell will try.” And thus, I declared to the stars in the sky, may be now they will look upon us, judging our every action.

“I just want to let you know that, if you need any help, just ask me, okay?”

“Okay.” she nodded.

I stood up and patted dirt off my butt, “Let’s get some rest now, we are so going to have a busy day tomorrow.”

“Sure, let’s go.”

------

Author Note: Hope I didn't do too bad in (re)introducing the Brockton Bay Ward to ya all.

Oh, and as a same special stuff, I decided to post two chapters for today! Because I might get really busy tomorrow...

So anyway, enjoy!

 

And now for chapter 3.2!

------
Chapter 3.2, in which the SI is introduce to the Brockton Bay Protectorate

------
“It’s the Dragonsla-” an explosion cut her short, as well as the hull in half. I saw the city of Brockton Bay spinning outside of the massive burning hole and I felt forces churning my stomach inside out. It’s only through the second passenger that I couldn’t felt dizzy at all, but it seemed that only Flechette and Mouse Protector were able to prepare themselves beforehand. Bomber Two instead resorted to panick like a squirrel that lost its nuts.

But the problem remained, the aircraft was still spinning out of control as we lost connection to Dragon. However, a simple administration from my power would easily slow the aircraft down to safe landing.

“Flechette, Mouse, Bomber, I need distraction to control this wreck.” they all nodded as I stabbed into the dot of this hulk of metal, redirecting the momentum. Mathematical solution, not done by me but instead by the second passenger streaked through my mind as I tried to control the wreckage.

The hull began to bend from the scorching laser and missiles barely zipped past while I struggled with the control, but the rest of the team quickly braced themselves for counter attack as I slowed our descent onto the street of Brockton Bay.

As the aircraft stabilized, Flechette fired her arrow at any powered suit daring to flew behind us and unless those were drones, they will be in the hospital for a while. Bomber Two then raised up her grenade launcher, firing grenades with a ‘thump’ at those suits.

Since they were trying to shoot down an aircraft full of people with no flying capability, I figured those lethal rounds she was packing would be really handy now, but she fired some sort of EMP round, disabling the mech suits and another explosion of containment foam quickly took them out of the fight. I’m not even sure if I could hold myself back so good job for her.

A violent shaking from the hull quickly told us that we had landed safely on the ground. Now it’s only the matter of defeating these bunch of Dragon knockoffs and waiting for reinforcements to arrive.

“Flechette, Bomber, stay back and support Mouse and I when we go in.” I ordered.

“Okay.” they responded and quickly went to work.

And so we charged straight into the landed mech suits, suppressive fires from Flechette and Bomber stopped them from firing back at us as we did so. They never saw it coming when my baseball tore their leader suit apart while Mouse Protector teleported away with their suits, leaving the pilots with their butt freezing from the cold bitumen roa-

------

The alarm clock disturbed me out of my deep slumber with a constant annoying electronic beeping. I had to wave my arms around a couple times in an attempt to shut the damn thing off before I realised that I’m sleeping in the top bunk of a double decker bed, completely out of reach of that damn thing.

“Lilyyyyy, alarrrrrmmmm.” I mumbled, hoping she could hear that.

Gruntings can be heard below me at the same time as the ruffling of her blanket, this was then followed by a couple weak slapping noises at the desk, only to have the alarm clock fell onto the floor with a clank and kept beeping anyway.

With growing annoyance, I rolled off my bed and stomped the clock hard with my foot. Surprised that the damn thing didn’t break apart under my foot but it did fucking stop beeping.

...Actually it’s probably worse if I managed to break it, hopefully that Panacea can stand another stupid case of self-mutilation if that actually happened…

“Morning.” I greeted to Lily.

“Mor-nang.” she yawned, stretching her back and arms.

But anyway, I picked up the electronic clock and placed it back onto the desk. I then of course, yawned, because it’s 6 AM in the morning. Despite not being a morning person, Lily always got up early when she got send to other teams. Something about trying to keep her body in tip-top shape and spend more time knowing people.

Well, I really can’t see any people besides us here, just some dark hallways and unlit rooms that needed to have the light turned on manually. Just how did Lily lived like this?

Anyway, we were basically going through the usual morning routine here. Brushing teeth, washing mouths, and cleaning faces. Though I decided to do something special for today.

“Sit there, I will make the breakfast today.” I pointed to the wooden table, surrounded by similarly styled wooden chairs.

“Sure, go ahead.” she began the process of tying up her hair into a ponytail and slowly shuffled towards the table.

Being with the New Yorkers for the past two weeks had improved my western cooking skill by a lot. I asked for a chances to work with the kitchen team after I decided to go with Lily, just so I could learn how to cook a sunnyside egg without cooking the yoke. And there’s frying bacon strips, sliced hams, sausages (No, I refused to call them hot dog), fish chips, french fries, hash browns and making waffle in one occasion. I’m pretty good in cooking a good western breakfast now.

“Hmmm…” the appreciation she showed when the smell of fried bacon strips filled the air gave a warm fuzzy feeling inside me. Though I might have enjoyed the moment a tad bit too much and ended up burning one of the strips…

With the bacon readied, I put them to the two dishes that I prepared alongside sunnyside eggs and a buttered toast and checked the stove to make sure it’s not turned on before placing up the dishes to the table Lily was sitting at.

“There ya go, enjoy it.” I smiled and pulled the waffle themed apron to the side.

And just as I prepared the meal, Lily had filled two glasses with orange juice and placed the jug back into the fridge. I drank it down as Lily smiled, picking up a piece of sliced bacon strip into her mouth.

“Hmmm...pretty good.” she put the bacon onto the toast and ate it.

“I guess a three days effort is still something to watch out for.” I forked up the bacon and appreciate the fruit of my labor.

...Does the pun still count if I’m drinking orange juice?

“Yup.” she agreed. I giggled at the coincidence.

I drank down the last bit of my glass before preparing myself for the next line.

“How could you stand being alone like this? I mean, if I’m not here…”

“I got use to it after the first couple times, it’s a bit scarier when some idiots in your team talked about ghost and shit.” she casually explained, as if the experience didn’t unsettle her at all.

“Well, this place certainly scares me. I means, just what happened here?” I rubbed heat onto my cold shoulders.

“If I remember right, almost an entire Protectorate team was killed by the S9 almost a decade ago. And they were killed rather brutally. So maybe their ghost are cheering your victory right now?” that grin on her face was just plain disturbing, mostly because she hadn’t done that before…

“Not funny, not when there’s literally parahumans that control ghost here…” I interjected.

“Okay okay, I kid.” she raised up her palm to calm me down. “So, what’s with the smile?” she asked.

“Hmm? Oh, I think I had a very nice dream, maybe something good will happen today!” but...one thing that got me is that I can remember it with clarity, it’s just odd.

She smiled back at me, “So, you want to play some video games or exercise?”

“Fuck that, it’s the morning, what else can we do besides playing with x-bone?” I stood from my chair and followed her.

------
Velocity (Robin)

“What’s the news about the new transfer, Maes?” he asked to his partner, whose black hair sported trimmed sides with a single strand of hair stuck out of his spectacles wearing face. He was never really sure whether he’s Asian or Caucasian, but what mattered to him the most was his former past as a policemen, or to be more precise, a SWAT.

The gym facility in the Protectorate base was definitely well-equipped with various training equipments for the Protectorate heroes and on-base PRT officers to train their physical attribute in speed, strength, endurance and stamina. But, being one of the backwater bases in America meant that new equipment didn’t come quick enough to replace the old machine. However, a well maintenance usually solved the problem, usually.

As of now, he’s using the running machine as part of his daily exercise, worrying creakings can be heard occasionally as he pushed the limit of the machine. But he never run that fast anymore indoor, not since that accident that he doubted even Panacea couldn’t forget about, he got too bloody light with his power.

“Well, I hear that there’s two Wards and two Protectorate members.” Maes replied.

“Two!? How did I not know abou-oh.” he remembered last night, in which his patrol schedule meant he had to patrol even past midnight and immediately crashed the bed after he got back from running around the street.

“Your chance is here, Robin! Finally you can actually hook yourself onto something!” Maes jokingly said, patting his partner’s back. Coming from a military background, his hair was neatly trimmed, leaving just the top of his head in the wilderness of his blonde hair like a wild bush.

“Who are those two?” Robin asked with shining interest in his eyes.

“The first one should be easy to remember even for you, Mouse Protecto-”

“No.” he denied.

“Eh? she’s older than you but.”

“She’s ten years older than me and will definitely treat me like a child! I don’t want to go on a bed with a woman that reminded me of my mom!” and that’s also the same reason why he won’t go out with Hannah after that one time. Seriously, all the old womans reminded him of his mother! It didn’t remotely help that in the very next morning, Hannah was cooking that wonderful breakfast and was telling him to wake up early for his job like his goddamn mother.

They broke up very quickly afterward, leaving a disappointed Velocity despite the amazing bed skill Hannah had performed and a confused Miss Militia who thought if she’s being too harsh or so.

“Besides, she’s married!” he added.

“Was.” Maes corrected.

“Still a no.” he crossed his arms.

“...If you say so.” Maes sighed but continued anyway, “And there's this new girl that called herself Bomber Two, she’s probably a military geek, maybe it’s time for those years in being a soldier to pay off!”

“Technically, I was an officer, so I didn’t really charge into battle. And yes! How does she looks like!”

“She’s Asian, have this black short hair close to her jawline, and of course…” he then raised up his hands, like he was trying to grab something big and round in front of him.

“Boing.” Maes closed his finger slightly.

“Boing?” Robin raised up his hands too, to measure the size of it.

“Boing~” Maes repeated the same motion, with a grin growing on his face.

“BOING!!!” and now Robin was doing it too...

“Allah no, those two are heroes?” a nearby female officer, exercising with the dumbbells, facepalmed.

“Well, I heard a rumor that their power come at the cost of having eccentric personality...” their conversation quickly led them to leave the two heroes alone on grasping imaginary boobs.

“Yessss.” if this girl really have such a great asset, then he truly have struck gold! “oh, and how old is she?”

“Heard that she is fresh out of college, after trying to destroy it no less.” hmmm...a very crazy personality, but it was definitely worth it for her age and boobs.

“Oh look, she’s here!” with gracious anticipation, Robin looked to his side annnd his smile immediately dropped.

It’s not because of the girl, she’s perfect! The dreamgirl of his..erm..dream! Completed with a set of funbags that were barely contained in her sport bra. The problem was...Colin.

“Remind me what’s her power again?” he disappointedly asked, fearing for the worst that his fear would be realised.

“Oh, shouldn’t you get it from her name already? She’s a tinker with bomb expertise, and she tried to bomb her college.” and with that answer, his head simply dropped further downward.

“And I got no chance again.”

“What do you meant? She’s right there, ask her!”

“Look at her eyes, Maes.”

Maes did so, and saw that her eyes was not looking forward as she nearly tripped herself. Instead, she was looking at Colin’s fine ass, whose owner clearly had no idea about all the gazes he was having. Seriously, Robin had done his best in training his muscles but that guy just topped him with his stupidly efficient training regime.

“Besides, she’s most likely too busy ‘tinkering’ with him, Maes.” though ‘tinkering’ in this case was really tinkering, since Armsmaster had the sexdrive of a floppy disk. Sorry, girl, but you will have a hard time inserting that disk in a modern computer.

…..

“I’m sorry, man.” he patted Robin’s slumped shoulder, “Oh hey, Rory!”

Walking down the hallway for another daily run with the training equipment, Rory greeted them with a wave, “Hey, Robin, Maes.”

But Maes stopped him with his hand “Hey, wanna see something?” with the most serious expression possible, he reached into his pocket...

And in a moment, his face switched into the goofiest expression ever, “Check out my beautiful daughter! Elicia have grown so much since three years ago!” in the photos was a little girl with short blonde hair tied into two puffy tails, who was smiling at the camera.

“Maes, you have showed me this picture 8 times in this month already.”

“Oh, I got some new picture. It’s around here..ah! Here is-” before Maes could finish his word, Rory had already walked off elsewhere.

Robin sighed in exasperation anyway.

“So, what about the new Wards?”

“One is Flechette, you know, the one that actually break through Siberian’s defense and defeated her?”

“Yeah, kids these days have such amazing power. much better than us old timer.”

“Five years isn’t exactly that old, Velocity.”

“I’m a runner, Maes. I can actually feel my body getting slower and slower, and I mentally age faster with my thinker power. Unlike you who keep getting stronger, Dauntless”

“I have a wife, Robin. And I can’t escape my age either.”

“Anyway, what about the second Ward?”

“Ah, it was amazing that they sent the kid in the first place at all, he or she volunteered themselves to be sent here!”

“Seriously!? Who was being sent here?”

“The new Case 53, Batter Seven.” holy shit, they sent the bloody Nine Slayer here!? Robin, as Velocity have achieved quite a record in saving the citizens of Brockton Bay, but there’s no way he can top a Case that handled the Nine on a silver platter on the first day!

“And speak of the devil!” again, Robin turned around to face the Ward, the first one was a rather tall Asian girl with ponytail who have a tomboyish build for her body, definitely exercises like a champ everyday. The second one was definitely the Case 53, but it’s only his or her eyes that looked out of the norm, what’s with that bright ring of rainbow spreading like an aura in his iris. When the Case looked at him, he felt like he was being seen through like glass, as if every single thing he did in his whole life was arranged right in front of him.

He already knew that Case 53s were often weird or even insane when the condition that came with their power that didn’t work well with a normal human body, the mind simply didn’t work with a inhuman body, slowly drove them into madness. But what scared him the most was how...normal the kid was. It’s most likely because of his or her normal human form despite his Case 53 status, but there’s definitely something else in the kid…

...Nah, he’s most likely thinking too much here.

“Robin.”

“Huh?”

“If you keep staring at the Case like that, I’m going to call the cop.”

What, wait a second...

“What!? Aw hell no, Maes!”

“And I won’t give you those delicious pies my wife made again.”

“They aren’t that good, Ma-OH SHIT!!!”

------

While this sounded like a rather senseless complain, I guessed that New York City bases really had a whole new levels of luxury standard as the gym facility here was for all workers in the oil rig base. Protectorate, Ward, PRT, it doesn’t matter who you are, as long as you have the card, you can go in.

But I can see why, there’s just a lot less parahumans in the entire city here compared to the several dozens in New York City or Los Angeles. No point in dedicated a whole new space for them except for the testing facility.

Still, it’s nice to have some companies even if I didn’t know them at all, but the air did smell a bit too sweaty for me. I guessed exercising with the girls made the sweat smells a bit more pleasant and not having this strong odour?

[Equivalent Force Speedball detector][Incremental Alchemist detected]​

And there’s a fight happening for some reason, two guys, probably Protectorate capes, were just trying to stretch out the other’s faces now. Eh whatever, still better than last Friday accident. But our walk to the sparing room was interrupted by another two person, one man and one woman.

[Momentum Charmer detected][Charging Plot Armor detected]​

While their heights were average (For American…), their muscles were rather packed together, enough of it that no one will doubt that they were brute rated capes. The guy had a brown hairstyle that split with a middle line and bent down till the hair tips reached his ear, giving him a youthful look. And the young woman tied her brown hair back into a ponytail just like Lily did. Behind them, a rather young man with a hair of gold walked the other way, away from us.

[Roar of the King detected]​

“So you are the two new Ward transfer, hm?” the man cheerfully asked, almost like he had received new toys to play pranks on.

“Ah yes, this is Flechette, Lily and I’m Batter Seven, Drake.” I introduced both of us.

“Drake? Isn’t that a rather masculine name for a girl?” I felt a vein popping from that, “But don’t give it up! Maybe your grow spurt will arrive one day, giving two bumps to that flat boa-Ow!”

But he was quickly punished with hard nudge to his side by the woman with this extremely annoyed look on her face.

“Sorry about that, I’m Ashley, or Battery, this pervert over here is Ethan, Assault.”

“Come on, puppy. I’m just kidding.” but the sighs from Ashley told me that this happens way too damn often.

It was probably just me-actually it’s probably just me since I’m the only one that can see the dots and lines of death, but I saw Ashley’s point of power seemed to be...less bright than Ethan’s one. It’s odd and I felt like I’m forgetting something I really should remember, but I will take note of this for now. But, besides that, I did have one real question for them...

“So there’s the A.” I pointed towards Ethan, “And there’s the B.” I pointed to Ashley.

“When should I expect a C?” and Ethan immediately burst into laughter while Ashley just facepalmed.

“This is the best idea, puppy! We should total-” and then he got slapped, leaving him stunned while probably his wife angrily walk out of the gym.

He quickly chased after her, “Wait!!!”

“I always wanted to say that after I saw their wiki pages.” I smirked at the work of my prank.

[Area Alchemist detected][Miniaturizing Compensator detected]​

We continued on to the sparring room, but found one of the rooms for capes was occupied by another two persons, stretching themselves in preparation of exercises or sparring. Sitting on the floor was Bomber Two, whose name I still didn’t got it yet, struggling to reach her toe with her legs straightened out. Behind her was probably another Protectorate cape, who’s using his hands to slowly push her down to the limit, but the moaning came from her told me it’s doing something else instead...

“Erm, hey?” I nervously greeted.

I probably interrupted something when Bomber Two groaned as the man moved his hands away to stand up-holy shit, he’s fucking tall. Well, everyone here’s taller than me, but being so damn muscular made a huge difference.

“You are the two new Wards.” he stated, as a matter of fact.

“Erm, yeah. I’m Drake and this is Lily.”

“I’m Armsmaster or you can call me Colin, and I’m sure the two of you are familiar with Jessica here.” oh, so that’s her name, how convenient!

Down on the floor, Jessica has laid her back to the padded floor, panting like a hyena as just the stretching alone was taking the wind out of her, “Hey...Drake…..and erm...thanks for that time...now let me just take a break and oh God my back.”

Ah, the pain of being a person who skipped all the gym classes…

“Jessica, even if you are just a gadget tinker that only work in your workshop, I would advise you to start training on self-defense class for your own protection. Therefore, we need to quicken the pace on your training. The sooner it finished, the better.” Colin suggested sternly.

“Bu-but my back is so damn painful right now!” Jessica then rolled to her chest and stretching her back, arching it annnd I can tell that all those shenanigans done by the girl Ward back in New York had certainly helped me in focusing away from lewd stuffs as I managed to pry my eyes away from her pressed globes.

Though Lily was unable to do so despite being with the New York Wards for two years already, I giggled as she stared at it like a laser dot to a cat.

“Hmm...I see what I can do.” then Colin crouched down besides her and pressed his finger onto her spines. She immediately felt that, “Ohhhh yessssss, keep going...yessssss…..” she moaned as her back was being massaged.

....This was so awkward

“Okay, Lily, I think we just saw someone’s wet dream being fulfilled, so let’s go somewhe-” I stopped as yet another person was in our way, but I have a very clear idea who was it.

[Unlimited Armament Work detected]​

“Miss Militia?”

“Correct, Drake, you can also call me Hannah.” she extended out her hand, waiting for me to shake. I did, and felt a firm grip on my hand, like someone was gripping a gun tightly instead of a hand. I felt a bit of embarrassed as I quickly scanned her body, she had trained her body really well, and I assumed that the American really did put something in their food to make their people grew so much height and...other asset. Like...holy shit, those abs...they were fucking chocolate bar!

...Lily, please stop staring at other people’s bewbies for longer than 3 seconds, and 4, and 5, and 6, and…

“Ahem.” Lily, you dun goofed.

“Colin, could you stop that for a second?” wait, it’s not directed at Lily?

“Hannah, Jessica here require some assistance in training self-defense techniques. However, she can’t even do proper stretch, so I started with massaging therapy first.” sorry, Colin, but it’s pretty clear that Jessica didn’t really need any help since she’s in cloud nine now, what’s with her mewing like a cat…

“Uhuh…” and she’s clearly not convinced.

[Tagging Chaser detected]​

But before anyone could say another word, Armsmaster’s butt was suddenly smoking like it was on goddamn fire and a petite brunette with short curly hair wearing the standard training uniform just appeared out of it like a rabbit in a hat.

“Sup, Hannah, Colin, Jessica, and...I’m kinda forgetting your name here.” a voice that was definitely the unmistakable voices of the famous Mouse Protector came within her mouth.

“It’s Drake and Lily, Mouse Protector.” I’m just flabbergasted at how out of moment this was.

“Just call me Nora, young Wards who are ready to deliver justice on time! It’s never too late for justice to arrive.” she boasted proudly with her chest protruded.

“Nora, you are late for work!”

“Sorry okay! I got too drunk in your house last night!” she excused herself.

…..Wait a second.

“Nora, your power works by touch, so when the heck did you touch Armsmaster’s-”

“Okay I suddenlyneedtopeeseeyalaterguyssssssssssss…..” ah, she left.

“Now that she’s gone, I would prefer if you have some free time now to talk.” Hannah said with a tone that made it clear that she’s not accepting a ‘no’.

“Very well.” Colin said and picked up Jessica who was sleeping on the floor the whole time like a cat to the side of the sparring room before walking away with Hannah.

…..This scenario had been oddly reminding me of something, something I had watched before but stopped for reaso-oh my God.

Oh my fucking God.

Armsmaster is a dense harem protagonist.

“Drake, what’s so funny?” oh God, I’m so sorry Lily, but this was just fucking hilarious.

“I’m not very sorry about that at all but…” I smirked, “But now that we are here, let’s get some stretching done and some stress off.”

We quickly got to work.

------

Aegis

Right after the classes in Arcadia High ended, he along with the rest of the team took a ride in a PRT van hidden close to the school, though they needed to take a detour to take Missy before they could drive up into the oil rig on the projected energy road.

This was basically their daily routine throughout the weekdays. Well, that’s rather obvious, who would let kids to work on weekends? But they all knew there will be something special about this friday. The two new Wards, and Mouse Protector.

“I’m going to get her autograph this time!” Missy declared.

“Aren’t you trying to distance yourself away from those ‘childish’ stuffs, Missy?” Dennis air-quoted and get a invisible smack to the head for that.

“At least it’s not as bad as your desperate attempt in flirting with them.” Missy argued.

“Sick burn, yo!” Chris laughed and yelled right besides his ear.

Lots of “Ohhhhhhh!!!” were had afterward.

“Doesn’t matter, one of them was lesbian so it’s all gooooood.” he nodded.

“Okay, I think we can skip that conversation for now. Dean, what do you think of the new Wards?” Carlos interjected.

“Lily is happy, but I sensed some anger at something other than us inside, it’s dissipating but it’s there. As for Drake…” he massaged his forehead, “I could only say that Case 53 are weirder under the surface.”

“What do you mean?” Chris asked.

“On the surface, he’s happy, slightly depressed, a bit confused, normal feeling for anyone who recently became a Parahuman, but...there’s like, something beneath it, like a very dense feeling of...calmness and readiness. It’s like there’s another voices inside him?” Dean explained.

“Maybe you were reading his combat thinker power?”

“Yeah...but I think it’s more than just that when i felt intense disgust as Victoria entered the base.”

That...was unnerving.

“Him or his power?” Carlos asked.

“The power, it’s...maybe it’s a reaction from her sudden intrusion from her aura?”

“Most probably, yeah…” but it’s still worth a bit of questioning.

“Well then, whose turn is it to open the door?” Dennis asked.

Chris raised his hand, swiped his card at the card scanner and the metal door went open sesame. Though having five persons being stuck between the security doors was cramped like a sardine can, Chris quickly opened the next door and they all heard the noise of guns and explosions.

“Another down!” Lily said as the screen was filled with explosion. Immediately, she zoomed out for the next target, only to find one looking right at her.

“Dodge!” Drake swung out his arm, their vertical tank sidestepped just as the incoming shell whizzed past by.

“Lily, take the shot!” and the enemy VT was shot through the cockpit in the very next second with the very last shell of the magazine, finishing the mission with perfect score.

“Yeah!” with the thrill of a victory, they high-fived each other and was about to start another round before they noticed the rest of the team is here.

“Oh, erm, sorry, got a bit carried over there. Man, Steel Battalion sequel of this world is fucking amazing, and the Kinect actually works too!” Drake smiled, taking a chip from the bag and crushed it with his grinning teeth.

“Shit! You beat my co-op highscore with Missy!?” Chris yelled.

“Umhm, we have a girl with super accuracy and a case with one the best combat thinker power in the entire Ward, wanna try to utterly fail in beating our highscore?” He grinned.

“Oh, it’s on!”

“Could you two take the...fight next time? Because we have something of much more importance here.” if it wasn’t for Carlos well-timed interruption, they would have been at it for hours.

“Eh? What’s more important than video game?” Drake curiously asked.

“Simple, before your very first patrol in Brockton Bay, I, as the Team leader of BB Ward, will pay for your lunch at a very special place.” He announced.

“And that is?”

“Fugly Bob.” he stated.

------
Author Note: And done for now. Hopefully I can post some chapters tomorrow.

 

And now for another update because I will never miss my bimonthly updates for the whole arc!

Anyway, welcome to the shit get real chapter.

------

Chapter 3.3

In which the SI is introduced...to Brockton Bay itself.

------

Fast food restaurant, it’s basically a type of restaurant that served food that have been pre-cooked, packaged, and readied to be serve or even taken away by the customers in bulk. They also provided near minimum of table service, with sauce dispenser, and salt and pepper packets to be used by the customers on their own to enhance the taste of their meal.

While the term ‘fast-food’ has been officially used since 1951, according to the wikipedia of this Earth, the first fast food restaurant actually came way before that, with two notable examples such as A&W in 1919, and White Castle in 1921. Sufficient to say, fast food restaurant has come a long way and changed a lot along the way just like the cape culture.

While fast food restaurant had introduced up-sized meal alongside with their standard meal, a certain documentary has put an end to that and make people to realise that they need to stay healthy. While the documentary was later found out to a fraud, it’s impact has already spread throughout America and even the world, resulting in majority of fast food restaurant cancelling their up-sized meal or even introducing a healthy meal set after the documentary.

Fugly Bob? Fugly Bob doesn’t give a fuck.

There’s fast food restaurant that refused to change their tradition and Fugly Bob was one of them. Decades since its founding, Fugly Bob has added more to their menu, their added more to their meal, but they never ever down-sized it, not even in economy recession due to the Endbringer or whatever and kept selling their greasy delicious products at the same exact price.

It’s amazing how this restaurant managed to survive all that and still have a stable financial situation, it might something to do with the Local Wards eating in the restaurant though. Fame that came from the hero visiting and declaring the location as their favourite spot happened from time to time.

“So, is it good?” Dennis, now in his Clockblocker uniform, asked.

I looked down on my plate, it’s half of a bacon cheeseburger, the other half was given to Flechette. Flechette and I ordered only a set of it together since we are going to patrol the street later, vigorous activities just don’t work well with a full stomach. The set was ordered along with another pack of french fries because one was never enough and another straw for the drink for obvious reason.

I cut it in half with my power, but it looked like it was cut by a razor sharp squiggly line, the line my power formed was never really in straight line anyway. Even before I had taken a bite out of it, my mouth was already dripping with saliva in anticipating of its heavenly taste and tender texture. This burger...is the real deal!

The bun had been roasted till it’s crispy but not burned, while it’s inside was buttered, a minor but crucial addition to the taste. There’s five pieces of bacon, each glittering with grease from being deep fried to perfection, they might or might not have added five pieces for the Asian populace in BB due to the stigma of number 4 in Asia.

Sliced cabbages, with its freshness kept in the fridge, were added with sliced pickle together to enhance the taste. The cabbage added a fresh taste to the burger, giving it time to recuperate, while the pickle did the opposite, adding sourness to the bacon, further enhancing its meaty taste. Cheese were then added to transform the ordinary burger into a cheeseburger, melting with deliciousness and even when it’s on my table now, it’s still sticky, pulling out golden string as I took a bite out of it.

It was...good. It was just that good. No more, no less.

“Yes, yes it is, Clock.” I agreed, and even Flechette nodded.

“Glad to know you two like it, shame that you are just here for 3 months, otherwise your artery might unplug itself quick enough for another round here.” he joked. Fugly Bob really was the definition of unhealthiness in the city, with the Merchant trying to compete for the seat.

“So erm, I have a question.”

“Shoot.” Chris said, before sucking on his straw.

“Does anyone of you know what happened? I meant...transfers for reinforcement on the local Protectorate force are common, but sending enough capes for a third of the local force? That’s...alarming.” I might had dampened the joyfulness here, but I wanted some answer.

Aegis sighed, “Two weeks ago, the E88 was trying to gain new territory from the ABB. As gang war goes, it’s more...violent than normal. Hookwolf, one of the E88 cape managed to severely injured Dauntless in one of the fight.”

“But Miss Militia paid those injuries back twice as hard.” Clockblocker chuckled but a stare from Aegis meant it’s no laughing matter.

“Anyway, you are basically sent here to handle the safety of the civilians when the gang war was still ongoing.”

“It’s still on!?” I asked, concerning for the safety of my friends.

He sighed again, “Yeah…”

“Well, guess we just have to do our job.” I took a sip of the drink.

[Mind-String Puppeteer detected]​

It was just for a short moment, but it’s there, my finger twitched, not from me but from some outside force. My drink would have slipped from my hand and splattered over my white skirt if it wasn’t for the second passenger compensating the action. Immediately, my eye scanned the room with my power seeing everyone’s dots, three dots with high intensity can be seen sitting in the same table.

[Inferential Engine detected][The Thing in The Dark detected]​

They quickly left even before they saw me glaring at them, as if one of them just knew I was looking at them. Just what the hell was that for? A test? Information gathering? Or just a prank? I continued to glare at them, even after they had run past a whole block of street and-did I just see their dots through the walls?

“Was there something wrong?” Aegis asked.

…..

“Nah, it’s nothing.” I replied.

------

Tattletale

[Batter Seven detected your presence][Automatic response from power][Has short attention time span][Suggest running]

And run they did as Alec decided that it was the best fucking thing ever to pull a prank on one of the few heroes that managed to take on a S-class on their own. Taking only a bag of fast food for Rachel, they continued to run on half-empty stomach across the street. She stopped to pant for breathes and-

[He’s still detecting you, just ignoring you for now.] What!? [See through any sort of wall or barrier][Not sensing through his eyes, eyes are only limiting viewport for him to use his power][He just figured that out] Fuuuuuuuuuuuuu-

“Why are you ru-” Alec asked.

“Keep running you pieces of shit! You almost completely fucked us over!” she yelled and they ran for several blocks before finally stopping for a mome-

[Still detecting you.] Oh, come on! [Detection range: Vast] Be more specifi-[1700000000 AU] What!?!?

“Alec, you have completely fucked us over with that prank!” she angrily pointed at his chest.

“Lisa, what’s going on!?” Brian asked.

“Batter Seven power wasn’t just his ability to destroy anything. He also have some kind of thinker power that can sense danger and the attacker from distance. He immediately saw us as soon as Alec pulled that prank! And now, it doesn’t matter how much we disguised ourselves, we will be found out as soon as we step anywhere near him, which meant not living in the same galaxy as he did!” she angrily explained.

“Oh. Shit.” Alec cursed.

[Stopped targeting you][Information stored for later capture][Have no idea who you are]

“However, he’s ignoring us for now, seeing we didn’t do much. But as soon as we did something big…”

“He will come and get us, and we have nowhere to run.” Brian said, “Shit, our whole team was made to escape and we can’t even do that, now what!?”

“Relax, I’m sure he will be even distracted by something even bigger, maybe our boss will work something out.”

[You lied]

“Ya...this is Brockton Bay after all, something is bound to happen.” Brian reassured himself.

------

Patrolling was...boring, I had to say.

It was just the same as in New York City, running across the roof like a colourful streak, making the people down on the street knowing that there’s always someone protecting them, feeling that they were safe at where they were.

Except...the patrolling route was rather small, most of the area in the city were under the control of the gang. I knew the routes were made to make sure the Wards were safe during patrolling, leaving the heavy work to the Protectorate. After all, we were not child soldier, but...the area we can safely go to was very limited, and that’s really telling me something…

Occasionally, we went down to the street and signing hand signature for the public. In New York City, the citizens there was more adoring attention from us, the Ward. In here...it’s more like they hoped for us to move on and do something for real. Dammit, we were trying, we just can’t do everything.

And well, the patrol sucked balls, because I’m not patrolling with Flechette, whose speed I could only barely keep up with my bionic suit thanks to her grappling chain, but with Gallant, who...was not that good at parkour. Then again, he’s wearing that mechanical powered armor that while mostly designed to enhance his speed, still weighed like 100 pound or so.

“So…” apparently sensing how bored I was, he struck up a conversation, “Who made this suit for you?”

“Oh this black suit underneath my costume? I just know...a certain tinker in the Guild, yeah.” I hesitantly explained.

“And you said this thin suit can handle up to 50 cal? Wow, I will wear that anyday over this suit.”

“Well, yours can soak up punches and bullets like nothing, and it have a bulletproof helmet. It also has all those jazz like holographic screen and target detector, right?” I countered.

“But It’s hot like a steambath in here, and on a really hot day, the internal air conditioner barely works.” he complained

“Ah, then you really should have this suit. It can regulate temperature on its own and it can maintain itself by absorbing carbon from the air. The creator of the suit was also trying to get it mass-produced so everyone in the Ward, Protectorate and PRT can wear it.” I added.

“Wow, that’s really amazing. I hope I get mine soon.” Gallant said with a smile hidden behind his helmet.

“Yup, so-” a crashing noise of a trash can quickly alerted us to the alley just in front of us.

It took only seconds for me to draw out my tinker bat and Gallant to unsheath his stun sword, sneaking up the alley to check what’s going on in there. In the alley, I saw a black woman getting surrounded by 5 gang member, 2 of them shaved their hair off and all of them had that 88 mark on their leather jacket, definitely the Empire.

“Ready?” I raised up my bat.

“Ready.” He prepared his blade.

[Combat Mode On][Emotional Suppression Level 1]​

And then we ran out of the cover and charged.

It was a bit insane really, to just charge against opponents with guns and such with a melee weapons. There’s reason why muskets replaced swords on the battlefield, why rifle replaced them, why machine gun replaced them and who know what else will be used in the future of battlefield.

Of course, that’s what a thug would think of. That pieces of metal in their hand gave them confidence to do just whatever they want to the innocent citizens of this city. The range was unparalleled to that of a fist, a knife, and it’s simply to use too. Just aim and fire, simple, was it?

It wasn’t simple at all. Safety unlocked, slide pulled, bullet loaded, iron sights lined, and then it fired. And you will be surprised by how many people that failed the last two part. Accuracy simply failed when the people wielding it started to panic. And who else would panic more upon witnessing a local Ward and the goddamn Nine Slayer of New York.

I ran anyway, even if what I thought above was completely false, ducking low to let Gallant had a clear line of fire on those thugs. Bowling ball sized beam streaked over my head and towards the thugs, impacting them with force of a mean punch with a side dish of crazy emotional inducement. If despair haven’t filled up in their mind yet, it is now.

I can felt the concrete pavement cracked beneath my feet as I dashed, crossing the distance between the thug and where I was in an instant. Adrenaline rushed in my blood as I saw the man in front of me pulled out his pistol from his jacket, but it was too slow as my bat smacked it out of his hand.

The suit quickened my speed, the momentum of my attack carried over as I spun like a tornado of pain, smacking another thug right in his guts. The kinetic regulator ensuring it will never hurt more than it needed too, but I’m not very sure about that since the thug just puked out her lunch.

With two thugs down and another currently shitting in her pants, the remaining two was clearing thinking whether or not to fight or run. The smart one ran off in the other direction, I was about to give chase, leaving Gallant to handle this stupid one when he suddenly pulled out a gun and was about to point to the woman’s head. Well, was.

My second passenger quickly guided me and I aim my bat to a pistol on the ground, the kinetic grabber pulled it towards me and the pistol flew into my hand as the grabber was turned off at the right time. Right before he takes the woman as his hostage, I aimed the pistol and fired.

The bullets whizzed past his face and he quickly covered the bleeding cut with his hand, face contorted in pain. Another strike from Gallant’s stun sword and he quickly dropped onto the ground.

“Batter, what the hell was that?” Gallant asked and jabbed my chest.

“It’s my power, it’s...where’s the last one?” I looked around, the thug was already gone.

“She’s gone, probably wasn’t-” A gunshot rang out.

I ran towards the gunshot, not caring about the property damage, spiderweb cracks formed as I stepped the pavement hard. Just as I ran out of the alley, a scooter had already took off with that recognizable E88 jacket on the driver but that scooter’s colour...was too bright for gangster to use.

A white woman, possibly the real owner of the scooter, was bleeding out of a hole in her stomach, lying close to a long tyre mark.

White supremacist, my ass.

After cutting her shirt open, I immediately tore a piece of the suit off my right arm and patched it over stomach, stopping her bleeding. My body glove quickly stretched itself as it regrew its lost mass, but it will take at least day for it to fully reform.

[Emotional Suppression Level 2]​

I activated my watch and clicked the paramedic button, alerting the local hospital for an ambulance on the scene. With the wounded secured, I left for the shooter before the bystanders could even figure what had happened.

I bounced from wall to wall, from one side of the street to another as I searched for the thug. While it’s noon, traffic here in the downtown was never really busy compared to the constant traffic jam in New York City, and with the shooter driving a scooter, she could easily hit the gas and simply be too fast for me to catch up.

That will not happen.

Then I had an idea, what if...I launched myself to her like a cannonball? My power didn’t really have a manton limit, so maybe I can do it to myself? I looked down, and saw dot on my body, not my point of existence, that would destroy my soul. The point of existence of my body, that’s what I’m looking for.

Okay, I will stab myself, and launch my body quick enough to get the shooter, that’s the plan. In 3...2...1!

I plunged the knob of the bat into my dot and I immediately felt every single molecule of my body accelerated in the same exact speed, flying forward at 200 miles per hour. It felt fast, to just suddenly feel the rush of air past my face and hair, I could barely hold on to my cap as I...flew through the air.

I...I can fly! Holy shit, I can-TRUCK!!!

I was barely able to roll onto the top of the truck and launched myself yet again towards where I thought the shooter was. That was too close for comfort and she’s still nowhere to be fo-there! The same jacket, the same scooter, with the same license plate, there’s no way that’s not her.

As the thug saw me and tried to turn around a corner, I checked besides her, and saw no one was on the walkway, so I stabbed and launched myself at her, tackling her right out of the scooter and we rolled into an alley, with the scooter followed and almost hit us, deciding to crash into a pile of trash instead.

“You are under arrest, Everything you said you will be used as evidence in the court.” I panted.

A familiar sting in my head and the sight of the thug cowering in fear were enough proof for me to figure out that I’m not alone. I looked up, and saw Glory Gi-oh she wore a safety short underneath, smart.

“Gallant sent me to check on you since you were just gone all of the sudden, but I think that’s not really needed anymore.” she shrugged, still floating in the air.

I stood up and patted the dust off my clothing, “Yeah.” with a plastic handcuff, I tied up the groaning thug’s hands.

“Well, job done, now we just need to wait for the police to do their job.” while I suspect it’s not the same as in comic book where the policemen were completely useless for some reason, the police...were just not good enough for this city.

I sighed. Ah well, it’s just a job after all.

But I was alerted by a shuffling sound of something came from the alley, something huge, something...metal.

[Personification of Cutting Edge detected]​

I picked up my tinker bat and Glory Girl unleashed her aura, the stings in my head got a little more painful. The shrieking noise of a thousand metal blade, clashed and grinded against each other was getting louder and...more violent. Like we had just awakened a beast from its slumber. I took a step back as suddenly the trash in the alley exploded.

Then it appeared. A massive lump of metal, more liquid than solid, rolled into our view, fast. Its surface was covered into various metal appliances, blade, hooks and spike of many shapes and sizes were all over its body, digging and chipping away the wall and pavement as it rolled towards like a giant boulder.

I ran, I just fucking ran as soon as I saw that thing heading towards me. When I realised that I accidentally left the thug behind, it was too late. The rolling mass of blade crashed onto her as she tried to crawl away. One second, one second was all it took for the the bladed monster to be covered in blood as chunks of gore splattered all over the alley.

[Emotional Suppress-SUPPRESSION FAILURE]​

I was terrified, stuck onto the floor like my feet was glued onto. Only did fresh, warm drops of blood rained on me did realised that I’m still alive and I needed to keep it that way.

So, I ran, even faster than before, toward Glory Girl who’s already flying above the monster reached.

“Jump!” she ordered.

And I did. I jumped high to catch her hand, there’s a feeling of something thin blocked my hand from touching her actual hand, but she did grab my hand.

It was the sudden eruption of pain that made me think it’s not over yet. I looked down and saw what tore through my left thigh, it’s a spear. a goddamn spear just pierced right through the band of skin between the my black suit and the protective sock.

I can felt my femur shattered in half as the spear tore right through the center. Fresh tearing itself as the monster tried to rip my leg off. Then I felt pain dwelling on my shoulder, my right shoulder. The one that wore the glove which I tore a piece off as bandage for the woman, it’s weakened and it can’t handle the stress anymore.

Glory Girl quickly realised this, but letting go would mean that I would suffer a gruesome death. I would have to solve this myself.

But...I can’t. My power just wasn’t working prope-something was being ripped.

A trickle of blood flowed from my arm, then something loudly snapped and I fell straight down. My eye was immediately obscured by a spray of blood, and the pain simply doubled as I screamed in agony.

With my back slammed onto the ground, I can’t just start bawling out on the incredible pain I felt and instead take up my bat with my left arm to block whatever attack it prepared.

A rush of wind went past my body and I blocked it, my left arm was almost ripped out of it socket as I felt something else was being painfully torn off my body. The force was so strong that I was launched out of alley and felt the sunlight burning on my skin as I flew through the air.

Then a crash, my back slammed hard onto a metal container of a sort, deforming it with a massive dent. If it wasn’t for the suit, my back would have crushed into dust, but my head felt like I was kicked by a donkey, a helmet would have been nice right now. With my eyes blinded for the moment, I reached out with my left hand and felt the shape of a car door handle.

With the object I crashed into identified, I wiped the blood off my face and saw that thing just threw Glory Girl onto the floor like a ragdoll. Without skipping a pace, it continued its ominous walk towards me like it was determined to end my very life.

It was just the same walking monstrosities of blades, hooks and spikes, but with blood dripping down from its body and trickled onto the road, flowing down the lines as it dragged its clawed feet on the pavement. The very sight of it sent fear into my mind.

I was scared, and I would have scream if not for me being too weak to even pant. Too much of my blood was leaking out, and I felt my vision blacking out. Lines and dots flicked as my power was trying to turn itself on, but even if it did, it was of no use, I’m simply too weak to swing the bat now. Too much blood loss…

“Get away from him, you son of a bitch!” huh?

A man with semi-bald hair and a checkered shirt grabbed my bat and raised it against the metal beast. It was his car that I crashed into, isn’t it?

I can see that he was fearing for his own life too, but...he was willing to buy even just a couple more seconds for the real heroes to arrive and save the day. So, just for a chance of dragging on several seconds, he was willing to throw his life away for a Ward.

...But the thing simply slashed at him and he fell immediately, arm clutching his massive cut. It kept on walking towards me, the blade on its claw grew longer as it did so.

Then, a hail of bullet struck it side and tore chunks of metal and gore out of its body, I couldn’t hear the shooter, but it’s most likely the Protectorate…

An order was being yelled but I can’t hear that either, all I could see was Glory Girl lifting me onto her shoulder and the man to her side before flying away...

------

Author Note: I said most if not all character with any amount of significance in some ways will survive, I didn't say they are going to earn their happy ending in one piece.

On the other note, I think I write too much detail for just that one burger...

 

And now for an interlude out of nowhere!

------

Interlude 4 (Multiple)

In which I introduce the reader to an action interlude.

------

Gallant (Dean)

“Thanks for the ride, Miss Militia.” he said, sitting sideway on Miss Militia’s bike with an arm around her waist for support. His fist was closed, as it would be bad for his superior to think that he was groping her.

“It’s not a problem, Gallant. Now just where did he go…” Miss Militia replied. As part of her American army themed look, the bike she was riding on was none other than the famous Harley Davidson bike, painted with green camo, stars and armored with kevlar and titanium for further protection. But despite all that extra weight, it still maintained a smooth ride even when chasing the local Supervillains.

The com beeped.

“This is Glory Girl, I found Batter Seven and he’s doing fine~” his on-off girlfriend said with a cheerful tone. “But he’s suddenly flying for no apparent reason...erm...over?” huh!? He just had flight power out of nowhere, just like that!?

“Copy that, Glory Girl. We will be on the scene in ETA 1 minute. Miss Militia out.” she quickly switched the channel to PRT HQ, “HQ, this is Miss Militia, record new power usage for Batter Seven, he discovered flight power using his own power. Over.”

He have a feeling the person on the other side was panicking over the paperwork right now...Mostly because of the flowing smoke of distress that only he could see was coming out of her com device.

“Erm, This is HQ, Batter Seven have new flight power, confirmed? Over.”

“Confirmed, Batter Seven have flight power now. Over.” Miss Militia replied.

“New power usage confirmed, over and out.” and the com beeped out.

Even after all those standard Ward training, the only thing he can’t really get it was the radio talk. It was the fact that he could easily read emotion even from the other side that made it confusing for the people on the other side to communicate with him, since he could mostly read their intention correctly before they can even spit it out.

Sighed, he couldn’t help but be a little worried about the new Ward. There’s not much people that he couldn’t read correctly, there’s Glory Girl...who on the surface didn’t really need power to read her, but deep inside, he could always feel there’s something different. Then there’s people with very different ways of thinking, psychopaths that he needed to think in their way just to understand them, though blasting them in their face with his power worked just as well.

He couldn’t help but be worried that Batter Seven was both side of the coin. The influence from his power, which oddly didn’t intrude much unless danger occurred, and his personal condition of being a Case 53 with amnesia, but even then he’s much better than the...other cases he had seen.

Or maybe he’s just being that one person that’s paranoid about everything again, he always tried to forget that part of his life that made him a cape to begin with.

The com beeped.

“SHIT!”

!?

“Glory Girl, what happened!?” he asked, trying to keep his voice calm.

“It’s fucking Hookwolf and he just tore his limbs off and oh God, there’s blood everywhe-SHIT!” something rushed past the radio and she grunted as she launched powerful attacks of her own.

This is bad, they need to be there, now!

“Miss Militia, can this thing get-”

“We are here already.” she said, and a familiar shape of a M2 Browning heavy machine gun formed into a mount on the front of her bike. With the quadruple metal form of Hookwolf, dripping blood and gores from his body walked onto the road right in front of us, it’s pretty clear what Miss Militia will be doing in the very next second.

Ah yes, why was it familiar, you asked? Because who can ever forget the ear-deafening, heart-pounding thumping noises of that instrument of terror?

With one hand on the handlebar, Miss Militia aimed at blades writhing form of Hookwolf and opened fire. It didn’t matter if he’s made out of metal or not, at this close range, the .50 cal will go through him like a hot knife through butter. It’s ironically that he’s so tough and being a regenerator as well that allowed the Miss Militia to use actual real bullets against him.

Pieces of metal fragments were shattered from his own body as the bullet pierced and exploded into shrapnel inside him. Blood were puked out of his canine shaped head form as he took the full blow of the 50 cal burst.

A shift of her green energy and a M4A1 assault rifle materialised in her hand. With a quick swipe through her belt, she manually loaded a grenade into the underslung launcher and fired it to Hookworm.

Despite having part of him tore off, the metal wolf simply rolled away from arcing round, which erupted into a pile of foam onto the row of cars behind him, and charged at them. He saw his emotion, angry and distress emitting from his body, almost like he had turned into an complete feral state. Something was very wrong about this!

Even when Miss Militia firing non-stop at his huge frame, Hookwolf continued to charge at them with not a single care to his wound, depending on his regenerator power to last longer in the fight. Alongside with her, he blasted him with his emotion blasts. The force of a couple mean punches weren’t gonna stop him, he merely trying to calm him down but that didn’t work either.

“Cover your eyes!”

Seeing how her bullet were either bouncing or doing nothing even after tearing inside him, Miss Militia materialised a flashbang and threw it at the incoming brute. She covered her eyes with her uniform while he simply shut the external camera out. After a loud bang, he turned back on his camera and was nearly smashed by Hookwolf’s lumbering movement as Miss Militia gunned the engine just in time.

He kept swiping the empty air, hoping to strike something important, and spinning around to catch anyone that tried to sneak up behind him. But he will never be able to dodge when Glory Girl just threw a car at him, hopefully an already wrecked one. Of course, Hookwolf just braced against the impact but that was merely a distraction as Glory Girl rammed him harder than the car did.

“You will not hurt anyone again!” she declared.

The road was almost destroyed when they both crashed onto it, with Hookwolf having the worst of it. Long rough lines formed from Hookwolf face getting scraped across it will definitely be there for a very long time. Fear began to settle inside his mind as Glory Girl focused her aura onto him at full blast. Before he could get back up, Glory Girl plunged both her hand into his waist and leg before pulling them, sounds of twisted metal painfully resonated on the street.

“Glory Girl, stop!” he called out.

But it’s too late, instead of a spurt of blood, his leg was simply snapped off like a thunder rang out, sending metal shrapnel everywhere with some impacting Gallant’s armor while Miss Militia formed a riot shield. Despite everything so far, Hookwolf just kicked off Glory Girl with his remaining leg and took off on three.

Before Glory Girl could give chase, Miss Militia ordered. “Glory Girl, get those two to your sister first! We will get him.”

While Glory Girl can be one hot-headed brute, she did listen to the adult before rushing on her own. Looking over the bleeding civilian and...Batter Seven, she took them in her arms and lifted off.

“Come on, we need to get that bastard.”

With Miss Militia’s order, I hopped onto her bike and we drove down the ruined street.

------

Glory Girl (Victoria)

Ah yes, Glory Girl. The famous flying brick of the New Wave, the one without a secret identity even before she started as a cape. People across the media and internet had been expecting her to trigger into a cape one day. After all, a second generation always had it easier in triggering.

Not.

If it’s any consolation, she’s facing far more than any other cape. Born in a powered family with no identity, she’s expected to have power, she’s expected to be smart, she’s expected to be beautiful and she’s expected to be perfect, better than any normal people, and she will be.

Not.

On top of her well-endowed body with the perfect slim shape and a mind that rivalled those with years above her age, she was triggered with the two-thirds of an Alexandria package, flight and strength. Truly, she’s the luckiest person alive with no room to complain about it.

Not.

…..

The two unconscious and severely injured bodies of the people that should be totally fine before, told her exactly just how much she really saved in this fight. They were still breathing, so it’s good, but she can’t just zip to the hospital with them in her arms and shoulders. While Panacea was on the destination, she’s not willing to hurt them anymore just for a couple free seconds…

Honestly, it’s good thing that Miss Militia told her, no, ordered her to save these two, or else she would just go on a rampage with Hookwolf through God know how many blocks. She can defeat him, she can defeat anyone in the city. Hell, she can defeat goddamn Lung if she did it fast enough but…

What good will that bring?

Those disgusting pervs on the net always thought of her as a stereotypical dumb blonde with no brain and all curves, but she’s far from it. Away from a fight, she was smart enough that her cousin who’s about to enter Brockton Bay College was very challenged by her intellectual mind. But in a fight…..it’s like something was preventing her from thinking clearly.

All she could think of was smash smash smash and punch punch punch, and blasting her aura full force at anything that threatened her friend. She tried to prepare for it, spar with the Ward (Though they didn’t want to spar with her anymore since she’s basically invincible to them.), or just try to not use everything she had. But it always ended in disaster when she lost control for just a single moment and called Amy to save the day instead.

So in the end, whenever she’s not going solo (Maybe she really should stop doing this…), she always listened to order from others. Not like the decision they made could be worse than hers anyway.

…..Or maybe she should have listened to herself and charged Hookwolf instead of flying away and…..

…..

What was now the past was gone and irreversible, no point in remembering it as a regret. Aunt Fleur will never be happy for her if she kept crying for her in the nightmare.

The body on her shoulder stirred, and she felt Batter lightly kicking her chest.

“Argh…..” he grunted, “Glory...Girl?”

“Please don’t recognize people by their boob size, Batter.” she said with a chuckle, hiding her tears, “Don’t worry, you will meet Panacea soon, she will fix you up.” she reassured him but her voice was shaking.

“Okay…..” he went back to silent groaning.

But eventually, the familiar layout of Brockton Bay General Hospital came into her view and she lowered herself to the building. With her hands occupied by another person, she can’t exactly take out her phone and call Panacea out. Well then, she just had to do this the old-fashion way.

By flying through the entrance and yelling at the nurse for beds, all while getting blood all over the entrance and generally being really terrifying to the civilians in the hospital. It wasn’t long before Panacea, her adopted sister, heard the commotion caused by her and arrived at the scene.

“Amy, I need your help!” she cried.

But Panacea just rolled her eyes, “Just put down the bodies.”

She quickly did so on the beds provided.

“Oh hey at least it’s not skinhead this time. What is this? A brutal car accident?” she asked monotonously, completely unimpressed by the injuries she’s seeing now.

“Hookwolf attacked people again, and...this guy is a Ward.”

“Oh, Hookwolf. Fuck him for wasting my time on some stupid gang members that will be rotting in the jail anyway. Anyway, this guy should be fine, a bystander, right?”

With a poke, her power channeled into the body of the civilian and he bleeding gut was quickly fixed and sealed back together with no obvious scar or seam.

“As for thi-this is motherfucking Batter Seven.” she stuttered, “What the hell, I thought he fucked the Nine to kingdom come. Did you get ambushed?”

“We got ambu-”

“Of course you got ambushed. Fucking dipshit supervillains have no respect for a person that wiped a S-class threat on his own.” she stopped, regulating her heart beat back to normal.

“Even if I fixed his limbs, he will definitely need a psychiatrist visit, or else he might ended up ending the local Nazi population to zero like a walking Auschwitz because he’s fucking pissed off, which is a very bad thing...for them” she continued.

“I’m sure the PRT will get him some psychiatrist visit.” Glory Girl reassured her.

“Anyway, Vicky, your hands please.”

“Huh?” she cocked her head to the side in confusion.

“What, you did notice your bleeding fingers and forearms, right?” Panacea asked with annoyance in her voice.

Glory Girl blinked in confusion before looking down at her arms. Pain suddenly rushed to her mind when she saw long gashes on her arms and numerous tiny cut on her delicate fingers. And not only that, her whole white costume was splattered in blood, washing the costume is going to be one pain in the ass. Even her golden hair was coated in crimson, no wonder people in the hospital looked at her as if she murdered someone or something.

It was rather ironic that the one closest to an Alexandria package in the city, despite knowing that the city was a world of cardboard to her immensive strength, was actually made out of cardboard herself. She knew this a long time ago, when she got hurt fighting Merchant really badly and Amy...triggered from her injury. It was also the day when Panacea first act was to render those Merchant erectile dysfunction, which was still kinda funny in a way. Seriously, who would slash a girl on her tits!? That’s like castrating someone!

“Permission to heal you?” Panacea asked.

“Yeah, ouch, this hurts a lot less than I thought.”

“The adrenaline in the your blood probably numbed your sense of pain but anyway.” she explained and put her healing touch to the work. It healed even faster than the civilian’s bleeding guts, as all she needed to do was to seal the cut shut and mend the scar. Wouldn’t want the scars on her hands to make her looked like she had been through a war zone after all.

“So as for the last patient, where’s his arm and leg?” Panacea asked.

“Huh?”

“His severed arm and leg, you know, the one that aren’t here and dangling and still attached to him?”

“Erm…..”

“Get them here now.” Panacea ordered.

She quickly flew outside, more orders were always good.

------

Miss Militia (Hannah)

“Keep blasting, Gallant!” she ordered.

It was really unfair how this quadruple metallic asshole can be really tough, regenerate, and run like an oversized van at the same time. While she had to weave through the traffic and was unable to shoot Hookwolf with all these civilians in the way, he just rammed through everything in his path, people that didn’t dodge in time were sliced up badly, and the cars were just knocked away like they weighted nothing. He even grew his fourth leg back...

Gallant had been blasting emotional rounds at him non-stop, but even he said that there’s something really wrong with his mind, more so than normal. The only way to stop him was to do it the hard way, and with the traffic clearing, the chance was now!

With one hand to steer her bike away from vehicles and pedestrians, a China Lake grenade launcher materialised in her empty hand and with her shoulder clamping down on the stock, she loaded foam grenade into the launcher one at a time. With three shots loaded, she pumped the launcher one-handed and opened fire.

The first shot splattered over the road and she might received some angry complaints from the drivers on the road, but when Hookwolf began to slow down as the foam on his feet grew larger and larger, it was worth it.

Another pump and she fired. The next shot arced over the traffic and was aimed at Hookwolf directly. WIth foam stuck to his feet, Hookwolf cannot roll in time to dodge the incoming round. Foam erupted from the grenade and scattered all over him.

The last round was more for reassurance, sealing him completely under a layer of foam as she stopped her bike besides the street and continued walking as she transformed her grenade launcher back into a M2 Browning. The only reason she could carry that was the powered armor skeleton that she wore underneath her suit, providing her adequate strength for some of the heavier stuff she could wield.

“Hookwolf, you are under arrest for murders, assault, attempted murder, battery, obstruction of justice, vandalism on federal property and maiming one of my Ward. You have your right to remain silent, do you understand?” she said, anger dwelling in her tone.

“No response, he had gone completely feral.” Gallant said, a hand on his head as he focused his emotional sense.

And here came the waiting part of the arrest, it will be at least 5 minutes before PRT and the police arrive to secure the scene. And of course, stuff always happened before they arrived. They always happen…

The expression on Miss Militia’s face as a bullet zipped past her head could be said as a bored face of an veteran who was frankly tired of this shit. Immediately, a M4A1 with the M203 grenade launcher formed in her hand and she just launched a smoke grenade right at the flash, cloud of smoke began to billow out of the window.

Two figures walked out of the alleys as the civilians ran away from the fight. Stormtiger with his tiger mask that honestly looked a bit cheap, and Cricket with that stupid looking cage helmet with a pair of kamas in her hands. Seriously, you two were Nazi capes, at least get your theme right…

A riot shield formed on her arm as the E88 capes charged head on. Stormtiger sent off his wind slash at her just as she dashed into cover, the concrete barrier immediately had a makeover of two large claw marks as shockwave scattered billowing dust everywhere. Even the metal riot shield bent slightly from the impacts.

So now they were up against the Empire Wind Blaster and Miss Edgy, and of course both of them didn’t give a damn about bullet, as Stormtiger just blew them away with his wind shield, and Cricket can dodge automatic fire at point-blank range thanks to her echolocation, which was frankly bullshit.

As Miss Militia had learnt a long time ago, if your enemy can’t be defeated by bullets, use something else.

“Flash.” And Gallant quickly ducked behind cover as Miss Militia threw a flashbang over it. While Stormtiger was proficient with his wind slash to the point of slicing a grenade right as it arced through the air, but that was just a decoy smoke bomb which exploded on impact. The real flashbang along with a rubber balls grenade were rolling on the floor, and they didn’t even realised it as explosions filled the air.

It was only after the explosions settled did Miss Militia popped from the cover, and with a twitch from her power, the smoke emitted from the bomb she materialised dissipated into green energy, showing the scene before her. There’s two injured bodies on the floor, groaning over the numerous bruises that lit up pain spots all across their unprotected bodies, with Cricket covering her ears as her power had let her suffered much from the flashbang.

Ah boohoo, how sad. It’s always felt sooo good to Miss Militia when her superior tactical skill trumped over these supervillains that relied too much on their power.

“Well that was easy…” Miss Militia said as she unholstered a Ruger MK.2 pistol from her hip holster belt, specifically made to fire tinker-made tranquilizer rounds, she aimed at the supervillains and knocked them out for the next 6 hours.

But of course, she just had to say that and jinx the whole situation as the ground split apart, large shards of metal grew from the ground like petals of a demonic flower from hell, ripping the road apart and pushing the cars aside, civilians that stayed to watch the fight were now running away for their life.

Two valkyrie themed capes, dressed up in skimpy armor and winged helmet that were more for look than protection, flanking the figure that was in the middle of this complete showoff. The figure, sitting on a throne and donning an armor made from his own power, was of course none other than the head of E88, Kaiser.

“Showoff.” Miss Militia rolled her eyes.

“Ah yessss, even a subhuman like you would be able to appreciate my masterful artwork.” Kaiser said, his voice amplified by metal shards around him that vibrated his voice as he moved down from his throne, his armor shifted and warped around his limbs, making creaking noise and heavy clanking as his feet stepped the ground.

“The whole Protectorate team is coming here soon with PRT and police force behind them. Why are you here?” she asked. Nah, demanded an answer from him.

“I shall go straight to point, since you were so eager to be so...direct. While Hookwolf was a subordinate of mine, that doesn’t mean I will just let him go free after he did something even I will not accept.” he explained.

“It’s one thing to take down a Protectorate cape, it’s another to beat down a inexperience Ward, a kid! That is simply disgraceful when he attacked the Nine Slayer with more than usual brutality.”

“So you do have standard…” Miss Militia said, sarcasm dripping from her mouth.

“Trying to make the best out of a rotten city is very different than murdering every man, woman and child in the city in the most excruciating ways possible or impossible. Which is why I’m going to do this since your PRT was surprisingly bad at sending birdcaged villains to birdcage.”

He raised up his left hand and both Fenja and Menja grew to the height of three stories tall.

“Menja, do me a favour. Make him into a shishkebab.” he ordered and Menja raised her spear.

There’s absolutely nothing Miss Militia could do as the spear went through the foam, Hookwolf and the road as a miniature earthquake almost made her fall. Well, at least they didn’t need to expend gas and vehicle to escort Hookwolf to birdcage anymore. So that’s some good ne-

The hardened foam stretched and ruptured as a metal blob of hooks and blades snaked up Menja’s spear. She couldn’t drop it in time as Hookwolf reached her hand and shredded it apart like a hurricane of blade, and would have ripped her whole arm if not for Fenja intervention with her sword.

With a smack from the flat of her blade, Hookwolf fell onto the round with a crash, his limbs quickly twisted and transformed back to his quadruple form as he roared at them furiously like a chainsaw engine. They all took a step back as Hookwolf gazed at them like a razor sharp abomination. It took off to the alley in just a couple dashes, disappearing from their sights.

“That thing is not Hookwolf! Gallant, what’s your reading on him!?” Kaiser declared.

“You can’t just-” Miss Militia tried to stop him.

“He’s used to be angry, but now he’s VERY angry.” Gallant answered.

“Damn, we need to figure this out, can’t let this vermin walks around like he owns the place. Fenja, pick up those two. We need to leave, now!”

Fenja then shrunk down her size to just a stories tall, and grabbed Stormtiger and Cricket in her arms. Menja shrunk down completely, and Kaiser took her in his arm as they both ran off into the alley. A van then drove out of the alley and down the street.

“We are not going to give chase?” Gallant asked.

Miss Militia simply pointed to her bike, which now had a hole in its engine. Gallant could only sigh as the event today just wasn’t good.

------

…

…..

…….

I woke up.

------
Author Note: Turn out not having to put in invisible text saved a lot of time in editing...

Should I continue to use invisible text for something that barely anyone pay attention to?

 

This...has been one busy week so far.

I can't even properly write out the right sided text part properly for this, only editing some errors and such for this chapter.

Anyway, remember when I said you guys will meet the New Yorker sooner than you think?

:3

------

Chapter 3.4

In which Brockton Bay Ward get introduced to...the Jesus Christ amount of OC I made.

------

An unfamiliar white-tiled ceiling was the first thing I saw as I opened my eyes.

“What...where am I?” I asked and tried to move my body, but nothing responded below my neck, as if my whole body was paralysed. It was an odd feeling, to feel my whole body numb like the time when I slept on my arm, depriving it of my blood and numbing it, it felt like a thousands needle pierced my skin as the sense of touch coming back to my arm. But that didn’t happen here...

…..

“Anyone there?” I asked. a bit louder this time.

There’s no response.

Seeing how I can’t do anything except moving my head around, I turned my neck, tried to grasp a view of the room I was in. The wall was painted in the same white as the ceiling, and so was the curtain that leaked sunlight into the room, but with the orange tone of the light, it’s most likely evening now.

So, it’s quite clear that I’m in a hospital, but...where’s the nurse or other patient? It’s silent, there’s no sound of breathing other than mine, and the other noise that accompanied in the room was that of the air-conditioner, blowing cold air into the room, yet I can only feel it on my face as my whole body just won’t register the coldness at all.

Maybe, it’s a private patient room? Which was reserved for superhero or VIP?

…..

“I need to pe-” but the door slammed open before I could finish my request.

“Batter!” and the Brockton Bay Wards rushed out of the doorway, quickly surrounding me as words of concern filled the air around me.

[Multi-Applicational Engineer detected]​

“Are you okay!?” Kid Win asked.

[Action Time detected]​

“Oh thanks God you are safe!” Clockblocker exclaimed.

[Redundant Fodder detected]​

“You really had us worried there.” Aegis said.

[Knight of Feels detected]​

“It’s fine now, don’t worried about it.” Gallant assured me.

[Escher Reality Marble detected]​

“Batter…” Missy looked at me with face full of concern.

[God Killer detected]​

And Flechette...she couldn’t say a word at all.

“Hey...guys.” those words struggled to come out of my mouth. But the numbness of my whole body...was really alarming to my current state of health. “But...I’m kind of can’t move my body here.” ah well, better said it now than later.

The Brockton Bay Wards gasping in horror, that’s expected, but seeing Flechette covering her face with her hand…..This might had hurt her emotionally more than it did to me...Because if I didn’t come with her, she might be the one on the bed instead.

[Biological Royal Craftsman detected][One Hit Wonder Brick detected]​

“Everyone calm down, I just making sure he won’t hurt himself again when he woke up.” everyone looked back at the doorway and saw Panacea, the living miracle of the world, wearing a white robe with red outline and a facial mask with a red cross on it, casually walked to the side of my bed like an angel of hope with Glory Girl followed behind her.

Sighs of relief surrounded me as she touched my hand, my left hand, and I suddenly felt the most peculiar feeling I had ever had in my life. It was that same feeling when Frogger used her healing touch on me, but much more stronger as it stung deep into my bone. My muscles twitched as the feeling of touch came back once more to my body, and I fidgeted my body to test our my limb, electric signals lit up my nerve as I did so.

Okay...At least that’s one problem solved now. But...It felt like something was missing. Like parts of my body were just...not there…

“Now...I want you to see it for yourself, okay?” Panacea warned, and with those excruciating pains that metal blade creature inflicted onto me from before, I can only assume the worst. I lifted my arm out of the blanket, but I only saw my left arm come out of the cover. With my left hand, I pulled the blanket to face the truth.

[Emotional Suppression Level 1]​

My right arm, all the way up to the shoulder was gone, and my left leg was gone, cut off from below my thigh. The stumps had already been healed by Panacea, with new skin grew over the wound, but the sensitivity from the new skin merely impacted the realisation to me harder than ever before. I only had one thing to say.

“Ah.” that...was my response, not a big surprise, not crying like a baby, just...a confirmation of what happened to me. If was only with my power that I didn’t lost complete control of my emotion, so...I thanked the Second Passenger for this. Or should I? Should I act more naturally by panicking instead? I’m going to start losing my humanity if this continued…

Oh who am I kidding? I’m a Case 53, I’m not even a human now.

Surprisingly, it was Glory Girl that started crying, completely ruining that beautiful look of hers as her face distorted in depression. I was somewhat more surprised at that she managed to keep her aura under control despite all that.

“I’m so sorry…..I’m just panicked about the whole thing and I forgot where you got attacked and your limbs are not working by the time I-” I raised up my hand, silencing her, “It’s fine, Glory Girl.” I tried to reassure her but she just continued weeping on Gallant’s chest armor, her boyfriend wrapped his arms around her to comfort her.

...No, it’s not fine at all.

The team was completely silenced from this revelation, each of them looked aimlessly as they tried to figure out something to assure me that everything was alright. And they were right, Panacea, the one who could fix anything, was here. It’s just a problem of them trying to word it out correctly. And the fact that I’m completely silent and chose to just lie down on the bed wordlessly might had unnerved them by a lot.

[Miniaturizing Compensator detected][Unlimited Armament Work detected]​

It wasn’t before long that the Protectorate was here, with Miss Militia and Armsmaster present in the room. Came to think of it, this room was really big to have so many people in it.

“Batter, are you alright?” Armsmaster asked.

“I’m fine, sir.” and I replied.

…

Slowly he walked to my side, with Panacea backing up to give the man some space. He just stood there, staring at me for a moment before patting me like a puppy out of nowhere.

“What.”

“Miss Militia, handle this. I’m going back to research.” and he left without answering me what the hell just happened.

However, before I could say something to him, Miss Militia had moved to my side already, “Batter Seven, I’m really sorry for this to happen to you.” she said, with a tone that sounded similar to that of a very worried mother.

“I’m…” I’m fine? Can I even say that with a straight face now?

But...it probably didn’t matter what my response was, as Miss Militia just bent down and hugged me tightly. I…..felt exactly like two weeks ago, weak and fragile, and cried a river everyday as I suddenly lost control of my tear.

So...I guessed it’s somewhat okay for me to just whimper and stain her uniform with my tears then. And as I continued to shred my sadness out of my eyes, hands around me patted and rubbed my back while I nearly choked on my own wailing. My knuckles was white from clenching her shirt, and my whole body just shivered as the only sounds in the room was my own crying.

Feeling exhausted, I released my grip from her and just lied down onto the bed, covering myself with the blanket as my exposed skin uncovered by the black suit was getting goosebumps from the coldness. The rest of the Ward and Glory Girl eventually found their own seats in the room, resting or just sulking silently as Flechette moved in to sit on the bed opposite of Miss Militia, holding my hand as I just stared back at the ceiling.

…..

“Sorry that I’m didn’t run away in time.” I really didn’t know what else was I supposed to say.

“It’s...not your fault, Batter...” Flechette said, her hand tightened around mine.

“I got overconfident, or maybe I just didn’t have enough situational awareness and rely too much on my power to ‘see’...”

“What’s important is that you are still alive, Batter. And you can learn to be better than today.” Miss Militia said, it felt like a mother teaching her child a lesson.

“So...what now?”

“Now? You need to eat, a lot. Seriously, you have barely any fat in your body. I can’t really fix your limbs if there’s nothing to regenerate, which is kinda annoying because there’s a few asshole out there that can asspull biomass out of their ass, but they won’t cooperate because they are assholes that need to be rea-” Panacea explained, but it kind of turned into a ranting of a sort...

...Which was stopped as Glory Girl as covered her dirty mouth, “Okay, sis! I think that’s more than enough detail for Batter here!”

I chuckled a bit at the scene, lightening up the mood as the other Wards eventually opened up to my giggle.

But suddenly, a thunder struck right besides the hospital, but where’s flas-ah, it’s night time already?

…..

[Mass People Driver detected]​

“That...was one weird lightning.” Clockblocker commented as he stood up.

[Many Users detected]​

“I’m pretty sure that’s not normal lightning…” Kid Win pulled out his stun laser gun from the magnetic-lock on his hip armors, the polymer plates retracted outward as the weapon expanded in size.

“Do you think the E88 is-” Gallant tried to say but was interrupted by Aegis.

“I don’t think they are that stupid to attack a neutral zone, it’s probably something...”

There’s noise of multiple footsteps coming from beyond the door and down the hallway, and it’s slowly getting louder and louder…

“Erm….what’s going on?” Missy worriedly said.

“Something is coming. Lots of them.” oh God oh God oh God, Miss Militia just materialised a machine gun, this situation just got escalated!

Even Flechette readied her arbalest as she passed my bat to my remaining hand, while Glory Girl pushed her sister behind as she flew menacingly in the air. I can feel my heart beats faster as the footsteps got even louder with every passing seconds. And I’m not very confident about swinging my bat with only one hand left.

“Batteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”

…

“I think I recognize that voi-” Flechette said, but it’s too late.

[Amphibian Champion detected]​

The door was slammed so hard it broke off its hinges and the first that ran in was a girl in a frog themed costume, the skintight suit was a blended of green and yellow, styled to be the underbelly of a frog, while her hoodie looked like a goofy cartoonish frog face with googly eyes stuck to it. The whole theme of her costume was just completely silly.

​

And of course, it’s none other than the great Frogger!

[Touchy Detective detected][Kinetic Engineer detected][Phantom Limbs detected]​

And she just leaped off the floor and jumped straight onto my bed, crashing right on top of me with such force even the bed was creaking from the stress. Even with her assets cushioning impact, my chest still felt crushed like it was a submarine that had gone too deep…

[Quadruple Personalities detected][Atomic Worshiper detected][Elemental Dasher detected]​

“Batter! Are you alright!?!?” she said as the others rushed into the room. I can only imagine the thought of the Brockton Bay Ward as a detective with a porcelain mask, a giant powered armor wearing space marine, a girl that looked like a bloody Predator, a plant-themed girl that rivaled Glory Girl in sheer sexiness, another giant space marine with the nuclear symbol emblazoned on her, a medieval knight with a spear on his back and many more just walked into the room, and somehow the room was still big enough for everyone to have comfortable personal space. There’s tinkertech involved, right?

“Yes, I’m freaking fine for now if you could just stop crushing my chest!” she quickly got off with a roll, “Is everyone in the New York Ward here!?!?” I asked, raising up my voice to talk through the crowd.

“Not really, this is just half of us, the other half want us to send condolences to you.” Jouster said.

“This is half!? There’s more people here than our Ward team and the Protectorate combined!” Clockblocker exclaimed loudly.

But still...they all came straight from New York, crossing distance of several hundreds kilometers just to pay me a visit, that’s...I thought I might cry if second passenger wasn’t holding back the flood of emotion, “Guys...you don’t have to come and visit me. I’m okay now.” I said to my former teammates, trying to be as unimpressive as possible but deep inside I was really really happy.

“No, you are not. You are missing an arm and leg. But don’t cha worry. Frogger can lick the problem away!” she said, puffing up her chest as both her hands were placed on her waist.

“Oh, Hey, Frogger. Well, it’s should be real convenient to heal him now that you are here.” Panacea greeted.

“You two know each other?” her sister asked.

“Endbringer fight always need more healer. I kind of proud of her since I was in the healing business long before her and showed the rope around when she panicked.” Frogger smiled.

“Aw, Amy. Why didn’t you say you have friends in New York? I could fly you there everyday in no time at all!”

“I’m not sure what’s your top speed is since you never test it out, but you will need to carry me for at least an hour to there, not worth of the effort.”

“Who care? I’m the big sister here and I’m responsible for making sure you have enough fun everyday! Seriously, go out somewhere besides the hospital some day, please.”

I coughed, “So...how did you guys get here?”

“Well, it just so happened that Strider, one of the most powerful mass teleporter in PRT was part of the New York Protectorate. So we kindly asked him and after some begging for permission from Legends later, which didn’t take much because that man has a soft spot the size of Jupiter’s red spot, we are here in just seconds!” Frogger said.

“Okay…” I glanced around the crowd, but…”Where’s Laser Hoop?”

[Orbital Light detected]​

“Yeah, where’s she? She was saying to give you a sur-” she stopped and stared at the window. I looked back and saw Laser Hoop trying to pry the window open, with a few more flyers behind her. She then noticed me staring right at her and she weakly smiled back as Gallant helpfully unlocked the window to let the flyers in.

“That probably looked stupid but I was trying to stealthily give your a hug but the window was locked from the inside and...erm…” she ran out of word for her excuse.

…..

Again, silence filled the room, though to be honest it was definitely more on awkwardness’s fault. As all my attention was on Laser Hoop, she just looked at her feet and fidgeted on the spot, trying to pick the word to greet me back after just one day of not seeing her.

“So...erm…” she tried to say something.

“I’m...sorry for making all of you to come over here on your own, but really, there’s nothing to worry about, I’m fi-” but after deciding that she can’t really say anything good, she just went for the most direct answer by smashing her lips onto mine. Little did I know that I really missed her as well despite only a day had passed since I last saw her.

“Well this has gone full awkward.” shut the fuck up, Kid Win.

With a push, our lips separated from each other and she stepped off the bed. While I really wanted her warmness in my mouth for a moment longer, I let her to do things on her pace instead.

“Just, don’t end up like this next time, okay?” she asked.

“Okay.” I promised.

“Please don’t even have a next time.”

“Okay.” I promised again.

It was at this moment when Kudzu cut right in between us, “Come on, both of you, cheer up! Starship’s making another long range portal system back at New York base now so we can walk straight to Brockton Bay Base in an instant.”

“Starship? Oh, that dinosaur girl.” ah, that case 53, I can’t really forget her timid demeanor and the bright yellow scales that covered all over her body.

“Yup, and since everyone is here to visit you...I say we should do something before going back to New York tomorrow!” she suggested with a wink.

“You meant a part-”

“Yes! A party, tonight!” she announced.

“There’s not much time left before the clock turns twelve, so if you guys want to party which I don’t really want to involve in-”

“Eh? Amy, just have some fun today, please?” Glory Girl asked.

“Okay, fine. Frogger, can you please lick up some limbs for him?”

[Resident Biohazard detected]​

“Sur-” but before she could finish those words, a shadow was projected from the doorway as a petite teenager with her golden hair tied into a ponytail, wearing a T-shirt and a short pleated skirt walked into the room. I know this room is big, but stop adding people into it already!

But what I really didn’t expect was the greeting from the teenage girl.

“Nobody touch my big bro until I diagnosed him!”

...

.....

Oh my fucking God. How did she get here!?

And it’s not just me. The rest of the New York wards have seen right through her technically-not-paper-thin-but-still-kinda-is disguise immediately and were now very nervous with her presence in the room. Even Laser Hoop was terrified and cuddled me a bit tighter than before, though I totally didn’t mind because I really needed that softness on my shoulder.

“Who are you?” Panacea asked, annoyance deepening her tone.

“I’m Winny! And after hearing that big bro was in trouble and was in need of new limbs, I came here to see how much of his body need new augmentation.”

Aegis raised his eyebrow, “A wetwork tinker? Batter, how did you know this girl?” ohshitohshitohshitohshitohshit!!!!!

“He rescued me sometimes ago, I rather...not mention that again.” Riley, now called Winny, answered.

“It’s okay, I’m not the kind of doctor that pried into my patient’s personal life anyway, especially when some of my client are asshole supervillain that took many things as granted.” Panacea said with a complete deadpan tone.

Ah well, SAFE!

“Okay, let’s see the damage.” The Wards of both cities moved aside for her to look at my injuries, “Hmm...the femur broke off here, easier to build a cyborg leg attachment here, but leg wasn’t a problem anyway. It’s the arm that’s the problem...and it’s tore right off the shoulder, good.” that’s good!? ”I can attach the cyborg arm to the scapula which might need to be reinforced for the arm to fully use its enhanced strength.”

“So are you gonna turn him into a cyborg?” Red Glare asked.

“Yup! But since he have a civilian life, I need to make the attachment point that can accept various kind of cyborg limbs, one for social life, one for combat scenario.”

“Mind if I cut in for a moment?” Panacea stepped forward. “Just who the hell are you?”

Shittttttttttttttttt, “I’m Win-” “I meant your cape name.” she demanded

“Ah! I’m Alchemical!” Winny answered.

“Never heard of it. Why should I let a newbie with no past experience to just take my patient away in MY HOSPITAL.”

“Erm, Amy, maybe you should calm do-”

“If you have healing power, then it’s easy to test out in which way it works the best, cancer is a fucking bitch that tell most healing power to fuck off, but you don’t. You can make augmentation, okay. But are they good enough replacement for fresh and blood without sacrificing everything for more combat abilities and firepower? You need to take those things in consideration!”

“Erm...actually I’m kind of the walking proof of my skill already.” Winny twiddled her finger.

“What do you mea-” she raised her eyebrows.

“My real self is still in the Guild base, this is just one of my puppet.” yup...compared to the Riley I knew, this ‘puppet’ in front of me looks 2 years older, and Riley didn’t have hair long enough for a ponytail anyway, long hair would be annoying when tinkering sensitive technology after all.

And Winny decided to have a demonstration as her skin and even her clothings were melted into some sort of red liquid and flowed to her back, revealing jet-black synthetic muscle that bore a similarity to my bionic suit. The muscles were then attached to a skeleton that was made out of a reddish metal alloy, the same alloy used to armor the vital parts of the puppet like the chest, shoulders and thighs. And goddamn, she looked like something straight out of a time-travelling saviour’s nightmare without her skin.

“I know it looks scary now, which is why I made the liquid armor capable of turning into human skin and clothing!” and just as quickly, the red liquid covered her inner frame and formed a layer of skin and clothing around her.

“And for funsies, I can do this too!” with both her hand on her waist, the chest of the puppet suddenly increased in size, earning some rather weird stares from the Wards, both girls and boys. I wonder how Clockblocker and Kid Win would react when they realised the operator of the puppet is younger than Missy…

“Very mature…” Panacea snarked but I saw something inside her awoken from staring at the boobs...

“Great! Now that we have both options, Big Bro, which option do you want? Healing, or totally awesome transhumanism that totally isn’t a biased option coming from me!” Winny asked.

“Pick the robot limbs, dude! They are awesome!” Frogger suggested.

“You just don’t want to lick my stumps for half an hour, isn’t it?”

“Maybe~?” she smirked.

“Ah well, cyborg limbs are cool anyway. So...Winny.” that name rolled weirdly on my tongue.

“Yes?” she asked, excitement was clear in both her eyes.

“Make me the most badass augmentation ever!” I said, declaring a challenge to her.

“No problem!” and she accepted it, giving me two thumb-ups and big smile.

[Draconian Queen of Ever-Advancing Tech detected]​

“Who took you here anyway?” and as if asking my question, a figure wearing a...powered armor walked into the room. Whoever they were, they were quite tall with the tip of its helmet being 7 feet above the ground, nearly 2 feet taller than me. The armor was clearly made with dragon in theme, with the long snout helmet, armored jetpack that shaped like wings and the scale armor that covered every inch of the frame.

But while I can call it a powered armor, it looks...organic, like a living suit of armor. There’s no visible servo, no seam between the armor plating, and no exposed inner mechanism that acted as weakness to the suit. But of course, it can’t be all organic, maybe it’s a bio-mechanical suit, the perfect blend of organic and mechanical technology in one suit?

Then, a familiar voice came out of the suit.

“Hello, Batter.”

“Ah, Drag-” I sai-

“Holy shit, it’s Dragon! I meant, nice to meet you, Dragon! I’m your fan!” goddammit Kid Win.

“Ah, Kid Win. thank you, I will sign a signature for you later. But yes, I’m the one that took Alchemical here, she was quite worried about you.” later after this, I found out that by ‘worried’, she meant ‘trying to make a plague that can turn every single Nazi on Earth into black or Asian depended on their gender’.

“Ah, thanks for taking her here. But where were you just now?”

“I have some private talk with Armsmaster just now, why did you ask?” urge of laugh was rising badly.

Dragon placed one hand on Winny, “Anyway, Winny, it’s time to go.”

“Okay, see ya, Big Bro!” and then they left the doorway and into the hallway.

“Well, since you want those ‘cool’ cyborg limbs, we can’t really give you the limbs but it will still take her sometimes to make those limbs.” ah crap, she’s right. I completely forgot about that.

“So, what now?”

From her pocket, she pulled out the bodyglove and thigh-high boot that were parts of my bionic suit, before both parts were ripped off along with my limbs, “I’m surprised that these two things are alive enough for me to use my power on.” she then put them onto my stumps and placed her hand onto them, “I’m also surprised when I can manipulate organic tinker tech.”

It took only a moment as the glove and boot reconnected, completely sealing the connection to the main suit and covering my exposed skin that caused the whole goddamn incident in the first place, and I have another strange sensation that almost topped the spot of the weirdest one again.

I guess this was how having a prosthetic limbs felt like. I can move them around, stretching and moving my fingers individually. But it’s just a living clothing, no fresh in them. I moved to the side of the bed and placed both my feet onto the floor, surprisingly they didn’t took my boot and I ended up dirting the bed with dirt, or maybe they can’t because it’s still connected to the main suit. With no input from the user, this suit was not going to be pried off with bare hands.

On my left, Laser Hoop lifted me up as I tried to stand, with Frogger taking my right arm. It became clear that I didn’t need any help when my new prosthetics boot can perfectly support my weight, even on its own alone. Though I nearly tripped myself when I took the baby steps further than I should.

But…..yeah, this should be sufficient for now.

“Well, I suppose the problem is now solved for now. Surprise that I didn’t really miss my old limbs much.” I scratched my head.

“So…party?” Kudzu asked.

“Party.” I answered.

“Party!” Frogger declared

“PARTY!!!” everyone yelled.

“This is a hospital, shut the fuck up!!!” Panacea warned, and everyone’s now sulking awkwardly.

…..

“Hmm…” I hmm-ed, very helpful verbing there.

“Anything on your mind?” Laser Hoop asked.

“Well, there’s this guy that got gutted when he tried to delay that...thing, is he okay, Panacea?”

“Ah, he’s much better shape than you actually, I can take you to his room if you want to thank him.” she answered.

“Great, guys, let’s give that guy a surprise!” I said and everyone followed my request.

The look on the man’s tall daughter’s face when over 20 superheroes decided to thank him was absolutely over the top hilarious.

------

Author Note: I will....go on an epic editting trip tomorrow morning as soon as I got out of the bed to fix all the right sided invisible text.

For now, enjoy version 1.0 first.

EDIT: FINALLY FINISHED IT.

 

And the next chapter

------

Chapter 3.5

In which the readers are introduced to craziness of this fic once again.

------

“You know, I could walk by myself now.” I said to Laser Hoop.

“No, you are not going to walk with that balloon leg of yours.” but she kept on walking with carrying me like a princess, which was really weird and kinda exposing my underwear to whoever on her left there.

All I could do was to pull my baseball cap down to cover my very embarrassed expression and placing both my hands on my chest to hope for the best, but all it did was earning a few chuckles from the nurses, doctors, and various visitors in the hospital.

Though most of them were too busy taking pictures of several teams worth of Ward that’s walking behind us. It’s almost like those annual parades the New York Protectorate had that Frogger showed me before, except this was more packed because of the hallway and less colourful for obvious reason.

“Batter Seven.” a voice called out, and Armsmaster was standing in front of us, apparently we interrupted some rather private conversation between him and Dragon, with Ri-Winny standing besides Dragon, waving her hand at me.

“Why are you out of your room and where did all these Ward come from?” he asked sternly.

“Erm...well…”

“We are his friends from New York and we want to party to get him to get over what happened today!” Kudzu answered joyfully.

There was a beat before he responded.

“Miss Militia, your assessment?”

“Well, I said it’s a good idea for the kids to play around before going home. Some fun never hurt anyway. The worst thing they could is trashing up the Ward base for maybe a week anyway.”

As if waiting for this exact moment for shenanigan, Armsmaster’s posterior was smoking again, with Mouse Protector quickly materialised from the smoke. While Dragon was inside her powered armor, I could somehow see the lines on her helmet twisted into a frown with the sheer ‘what’ of the situation.

“You meant that one party when you and Chevalier were-” she quickly popped out of existence when Miss Militia threw a hopefully blunt training knife at her direction.

Despite all that, Armsmaster’s face remained the same stoic expression throughout the whole thing and he looked at me with a stare as if stripping me down for information like a criminal, and I couldn’t help but be slightly nervous under his gaze that rivalled the glare of a killer robot that came from the future.

He then gave a thumb-up.

We all cheered loudly until Panacea yelled at us to shut the fuck up again.

------

“See you new time, Big Bro!” she waved.

“See you, Winny.” and I waved back.

Dragon’s powered armor morphed as the outer layers wrapped around her puppet, sealing the armored layer shut to protect her during the journey. The wings of the suit stretched to their full size as Dragon prepared her flight. She hovered above us, above the hospital and the city, only then did she unleashed the full power of her jet pack and disappeared into the night sky like a twinkle.

“That was impressive, 0 to Mach 5 in less than a second with a prototype suit? She really is the best tinker in the world.” Red Glare commented, and yeah, that really sounded amazing.

“And she signed my notepad! Heck yeah!” really...Kid Win?

“Whatever, let’s go to your base and party!” Kudzu and hopped onto Aegis’s arms, who’s already carrying Missy.

With me in her arms, Laser Hoop smiled at me, “Next destination, Brockton Bay Protectorate base!”

Pink rings of acceleration around us and I felt weightless as we flew through the sky. For the powered flyers, it was a silent gracefulness that was only hindered slightly by the additional weight of their passenger. Though the loudness of the tinkers’s jetpack really destroyed the subtlety and probably awakened several neighbourhood.

When we went above the buildings with only skyscrapers reaching our height, Glory Girl flew in front of us with beacon from the Protectorate base shooting light up to the cloud behind her, “Now then, to all flyers, follow my lead and we will arrive at the base in no ti-”

Even before she finished her words, space around us stretched and bent like someone melted an image with flame. When the space that surrounded us unwrapped from the power of the famous little girl of the Brockton Bay Ward, we had already arrived at the helipad of the Protectorate base already.

“-me. Dammit, Vista.” Glory Girl glared at Vista, who smirked back as if winning some imaginary match, seemed like there’s a little rivalry between them as Glory Girl simpered back at her.
“Now that we are here, let me show you people around the base.” Aegis suggested, “Now please, get off me.” but Kudzu was already snuggling onto his chest, arms wrapped like a lover's embrace around his neck, though she changed her ‘lover’ every week anyway.

After a fews time of failing to get her off him, he sighed in defeat, “Clock, you handle the tour.”

He saluted back, “No problem!”

------

Red Glare (Khaki)

“-And the two hallways here lead to the dormitories, left for girl and right for guy. But since we were only a team of 4 boys and 1 little-ow!” and this Clockblocker was smacked by some invisible hand again for the nth time of the night, “A real mature girl I meant! Anyway, we basically have too much space for the small Ward team, so we just don’t really care about the specific stuff and just use them however we want.”

Red Glare himself had been transferred to a couple backwater Ward bases before for reinforcement, one that truly tested the Ward stationed there. But even those can’t be compared to the current condition of the Brockton Bay Ward bay. Seriously, he could probably say with a straight face that several bases in Florida were in better shape than this, but their directors were complete maniac that even the supervillains worked with the superheroes to take them down, so there’s that.

“So where’s your room, Drake?” Laser Hoop asked, and since they were all in the Ward base, no need for secrecy anymore.

“Room number 2 in the girl dormitory, Missy took the first one ever since she came here so Lily and I-why are you carrying me there?” Drake said, struggling to get off in her arms but the control for his new limbs wasn’t flexible enough.

“Because I need to have some privacy time with you, silly. Well then, have fun guys!” and with an audible slam, the door was locked shut.

As if worried about something, Lily ran towards the door and yelled at it, “Hey, whatever you are doing, don’t do it all night! I sleep in that room!” well, it’s her problem to be solved by herself alone.

“Anywhere we can park our suits?” Red Glare asked, walking around on floor not designed for powered armor was one way to ruin a Janitor’s day.

“Erm…..maybe there?” Kid Win pointed to a empty wall and I walked there with minimum number of floor-destroying steps, followed by others who walked behind with their more slicker and less armored suit, with exception of Little Boy suit which was even more heavier than mine.

With his back to the wall, the powered armor opened like a flower around him, armor pieces retracted and overlapped each other for him to step out of the suit. From there, he can see Kid Win’s eyes bulged widely when he saw the little man in the giant armor, wearing only a dark blue neural connection suit and a similarly coloured bandana around his forehead, with short brown hair bending over it.

“You are short.” said the captain obvious.

“Thank, apparently I have no clue of it what so ever for the past 14 years of my life.” he said.

“Well, my job is done here, have fun, Wards!” standing close to the entrance was Miss Militia, who watched over all of us, seeing over the social interaction between the New York and Brockton Bay Wards just to make sure nothing went terribly wrong immediately. Khaki still remembered those old stories before his trigger about the various journeys the New York Ward went to other Ward bases, those were some nonsensical stories of complete craziness.

“If there’s anything, I will be in my office until 2 A.M.” just before she left, he quickly walked towards her through the crowd of Ward, waiting for the portal from New York to open for more refreshments as a fridge with food for 5 can’t be enough for more than 20 teenagers to enjoy.

“Hm?” she stopped when she heard his rapid footsteps, these short legs required more steps to move anywhere. “Hey, Khaki.” and now he felt like his feet was rooted to the floor, unable to move a step forward nor back under her gaze, one full of care for young people unlike the glare she used against criminals.

“Miss…” he tried to find the word.

“I told you that you can call me Hannah already, didn’t I?” she stated softly.

“Miss Hannah, it’s...been a while.” instead of telling her what he really wanted, he said the best thing he could think of at the moment.

“You are trying to tell me something, aren’t you?” and it was no surprise to him that Miss Hannah was quickly grasp the situation, although this might have spoiled him on communicating with people properly and ended up giving him terrible social skill.

“It’s...been awhile since I last saw you and...I missed you.” he said, showing what remain of his emotion left after that day, “Though it probably for the best since I never really missed my aim when I really want to shoot people, and those don’t really get up afterward.”

Miss Hannah chuckled at his weak attempt of a joke and patted his shoulder, “Sorry about that, I have been busy for a while.” her arms then wrapped below his shoulder and pulled him in for a hug, he replied back with his hands on her back, nuzzling in the warm embrace.

They stood there silently for a short moment, which slowly got a bit strange when Khaki realised it’s too damn quiet for the start of a party. He quickly got his hands off Miss Hannah and turned around.

“Ah dammit, I was about take the picture too…” he could only roll his eyes at Yuuka’s antic, and at everyone else too.

“Yuu-” but before he could call her out, a oval portal with orange edge was projected onto an empty wall from a half-disk shaped device located at the bottom of the wall. And soon the rest of the New Yorkers rushed forth from the portal, bringing in refreshment in the form of carbonated beverage and junk foods.

He sighed, and waved good bye to Miss Militia who’s still too busy for the night.

This night better be good.

------

Clockblocker (Dennis)

When he heard that there were new transfers coming in from New York City, he was hoping that at least one of the new Wards could be a cute girl so that he may have a chance in flirting with. And for a whole week, he waited with great anticipation.

When they arrived, he was quite disappointed. Well, they were cute alright. Just that one was not into guy and the other was a guy.

He just simply let the disappointment to go past as he doused himself in cans of coke. And then the shit today happened and his emotion almost hit the rock bottom until Batter Seven’s old teammates from New York City personally came to visit him.

And now the Brockton Bay Ward base was filled with dozens of cute girls, all at his age and certain kept their shape through exercise pretty well. But…

On one hand, he could totally try to ask one of them out and even if one said no, he doubted that all 20 of them will deny his approach. On the other hand, his friend, even if he met him for one day only, just got mutilated and this was most likely the New Yorker’s way of uplifting his mood, by filling his moment with fun instead of depressing stuffs. Though he’s probably having plenty of fun with his girlfriend in his room anyway, lucky bastard.

And even if that’s out of the equation, he had zero experience in dating and what if those New York girls had some really high expectation and he can’t keep up with them? Seriously, New York Wards were like the most famous of all the Ward teams, and he’s pretty sure that many girls and guys will be swooned by their mere presence.

But...no venture, no gain.

He looked around the colourful crowd, trying to spot the perfect target. A bit to the left, he saw two girls talking to each other, one was dressed more like a chinese martial artist despite her blonde hair, her red costume fitted perfectly with the colour of her eyes, the other was wearing a techno swimsuit of a sort, with the same colour as the deep blue ocean and dyed her short hair blue as well. He wondered, maybe he could ask one of them ou-nevermind they were making out with each other now.

Even if he managed to ask them out, he doubted that he can keep them both entertained long enough for the whole date anyway. Moving on, he scanned through the crowd once more, and saw his teammates getting swarmed by the New Yorkers.

And of course Kid Win was surrounded by the tinkers, he then led them to his workshop which honestly looked more like a junk pile. But there’s a saying that ‘one man’s junk is another man’s gold’, he didn’t understand tinker tech anyway. Gallant of course, was crowded by the girls and even some guys from New York, but Glory Girl was too busy to notice that as she had a group of girls of her own to atten-why was Panacea looking so pissed?

The rest of the New Wave’s kids, Laserdream and Shielder, joined in the party awhile ago, and was quickly swarmed by their fans from New York. Laserdream ended up getting pulled towards Glory Girl’s side, leaving Shielder and Vista to receive heavy petting from the New Yorkers due to how cute they looked together, their angry expression didn’t help at all as all it did was to make them looked like angry penguin.

Lastly, Aegis was hilariously surrounded by the rest of the guys, who probably had some rather nefarious intention to him. While Clockblocker chuckled at the scene, one of the guy, a musclebound black guy with skintight suit that was one size smaller than it suppose to be, spotted him and gave him a wink. He quickly stared at something else afterward and saw a black girl in an outfit that looked suspicious similar to a certain alien hunter walking towards him.

“Erm, hi?” he greeted to the girl and tried not to focus on her featu-those dreadlocks she had were really long.

“Hey, I saw you eyeing my teammates there, looking forward to ask them out?” she asked, and he couldn’t help but notice that the way she intentionally posed her hip seemed to tell him that she want him to take the initiative.

“Why yes, I was planning to ask one of your friends out, but since you so kindly enough to step forward, you are looking for someone for the night then?” he asked, and hoped that he didn’t screw anything up.

“Hmm, one question. Are you into guy?”

‘Shitttttt, was this a trick question!?’ he thought, but better to be honest than lying. “No.”

“Oh no.” shit, did he screw up? “You are meeting all my standards, think we can both go on Saturday?” what

“Erm, sure!” but he still can’t believe what just happened, a girl just asked him out and in seconds, he immediately got a date? Score! “Oh right, I’m Clockblocker, or you can call me Dennis.”

“Dreadlock, Cerri.”.....that’s one silly name.

“Sooo, looks like the seats to the gaming consoles are empty, wanna play some Street Fighters before 12?” he suggested.

“Sure.” and she agreed. To Clockblocker, this was the chance of his lifetime to finally get a real actual date. To Cerri, it’s probably another disappointing friday.

-----

Panacea (Amy)

Panacea, the living miracle of the world, the life force bender, the reverser of the laws of nature. Half of the states in the USA sung about the miracles she created during the course of over one and a half year of voluntary work in over 100 hospitals, each with patients that had long lost hope of any chance of recovering from their sickness and condition.

Paralysis, loss of limb, muscle dystrophy, blindness, deafness, cancer, fractured limbs, tumors, skin ache, genetic disorders, STD, flu, and even motherfucking cold can be fixed by her. Seriously, there’s a couple capes that can cure cancer, but the only one that can heal fucking cold was her and her only. That Scapegoat guy in Boston didn’t count, he could only transfer the sickness elsewhere.

And yet, despite all that, she still didn’t get any recognition from Carol...she’s not even sure if she should call her mom. Well, Victory didn’t get much recognition either despite how fucking hard she studied and acted in front of the camera, but at least she got some, even if Panacea can tell that she’s very stressed out from it, more so than herself.

Still, she had a bigger problem than that, one that she decided to keep as a secret for her whole life, even in death. But now, she had another problem.

She completely sucked at partying, not that she cared that much about it.

All she did since the party start was just keep drinking those amazingly delicious beverage from the punchbowl made by this New Yorker called Mixmaster, who kept complaining that someone in Boston stole his name. Oh, and the toilet trips after drinking so many cups and eating so many deliciously well-grilled meats from indoor grilling by Little Boy, obviously with tinker tech or else the fire alarm would have been triggered a long time ago.

Well, she’s kinda having fun. Just that she’s not as outgoing as Vicky, and listening to music while watching other people having fun alone was enough for the night to her. Still, she was slightly pissed when she saw Victoria and Crystal getting swarmed by the New York girls, she didn’t even need to touch them to smell the fucking teenager hormones that’s flooding the air around them.

“Hey there.” oh great, someone’s bothering her now.

Well, it’s probably just some fans, the kind that asked them to do more than just healing and more towards...cosmetic change. She sighed and faced the person, “So what can I he-ah, Frogger.”

“I know we only know each other for a short time during every single Endbringer battle we went to, but don’t you think you are being too lonely here, just standing against a wall and looking at others?” Frogger asked with a smile.

“I...prefer to be alone, not like I actually have any close contact with real friends anyway.”

“But I do see you eyeing your sister throughout the whole party, worried about her?” she took a sip from her cup, “You are the older one, right?”

“You could say it that way, and yes, I’m the ‘older one’ and should be the more responsible one.”

“Now that there’s a portal gateway between here and New York, maybe you could share your problem to someone in New York at the very least.”

Panacea contemplated deeply for a moment, before deciding that she really should do this, “I do have a problem actually.”

“It’s not me being annoying, isn’t it?” she grinned

“No, but do you have enough strange romance experience to at least tell me where should I go with my problem?”

“Ha, don’t worry, Panacea! Because I, Frogger! Have a very big relationship problem befo-”

“I love my sister.”

“-fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu-” for some reasons, she enjoyed the look on Frogger’s face and her attempt to stop the mega-swearing when she dropped the bomb, maybe she should do this often just to see how they would respond. ‘Panacea reveal her lust for incest to unsuspecting superheros’, that would be one fun internet series.

Huh, this was very surprising. That book on relieving stress that was given to her by Vicky awhile ago was really useful. As soon as she let those secret out, she felt really relieved, like she just took a very big dump after a trip to Fugly Bob or getting a full body massage from totally-not-Victoria-expies in her dream. It felt like she could do everything now without anything in her way!

On the other hand, Frogger’s hyperventilating and sweating like a cube of ice in an oven. She clearly didn’t expect something that heavy to be dropped onto her small frame and now she looked like she’s about to have a heart attack or a stroke.

“Hey Amy!” oh, it’s Victoria.

“Sup, Vicky?” she greeted.

“You want to play a game? It got pretty exciting there.”

Behind Glory Girl, a group of girls from New York was playing a game that she only knew from some...erm...educational anime she watched! Basically, two contestants were randomly picked and had to finish a Pocky stick from both ends of it at the same time. There’s no win or lose, either snap the stick on half-way eating it, or let the magic happen, just like what New Yorker was doing now to her cousin.

Panacea could only raise an eyebrow on that one, then an idea started to come into her mind.

“Well, you are the one that dragged me into this, don’t blame me if we both got chosen.”

“What’s the worst could happ-ohhhh!!!” she had an realisation and Panacea felt her heart skipped a bit,”Oh, that. It would be a funny story to tell if that happened anyway!” but her sister merely grinned at her and dragged her to the game.

The great Panacea could only thought of one thing.

‘THIS IS THE BEST NIGHT EVER!!!’

Meanwhile, Frogger was panicking and facepalming in the background as the problem was getting worse before her eyes.

------

Kid Win (Chris)

“So...this is my workshop. it probably looks like a junkyard, but it’s kinda my junkyard, so...enjog the view?” he said.

While it was a normal thing for a tinker to scrap every single electronic appliances in the house and turn them into some kind of franken-machine for a higher purpose of some sort, Kid Win had been in the Ward for over two years and he still cannot get past the initial stage of tinkering.

Over the course of two years, he kept making things on the spur of a moment, and then left them incomplete after he lost the inspiration. It kept happens, one hour of hyper motivated tinkering, and in the next, gone like broken dreams. Eventually, the garbage just piled up so much that the director ordered construction of a dedicated storage space just for his junk alone.

Armsmaster was very angry about it, mostly at the sheer inefficiency of him wasting PRT budget like water in a drain, even though the man had like several dozen halberds. One for capture bad guys, one for beating up bad guys, and another for shoving it up an Endbringer’s ass, how much halberd did he need for his job!?

But anyway, here he was, getting his piles of useless garbage visited by a couple New York tinkers that had long figured out their specialisation even when some of them had less year as a Ward than him.

“Ohhh, shiny.” a redhead girl dressed up like a high fantasy elf wearing skimpy leather armor stared at his junk.

Chimera, formerly a siamese twin, now have a pair of beautiful legs thanks to her tinker specialization of Biological Enhancement. She can make ‘potions’, either stored in the form of capsule or a syringe and used them to give or change limbs like giving someone powerful angelic wings to fly or bench press a dozen of themselves with powerful spider legs.

Their effect either lasted a short moment, like her demonic skinless berserker form that can topple buildings like styrofoam, or the permanent kind that changed the drinker forever, like the one she drank for her current elf ears and her legs.

“Well, they do look sophisticated, I’m sure they will be useful one day.” the yellow scaled case 53, wearing a lab coat over a black turtleneck dress commented.

It was lucky when they found her scavenging a garbage dump almost as soon as she appeared, though there’s stories about her that she apologized in some alien language nearly the whole time when a janitor found her. And then she apologized for apologizing so much when some supervillains found them and resulted in one hell of a news on the front page of the newspaper.

Her tinker power was specialised in Space Distortion tech. Portal tech capable of crossing distance between continents, hammerspace for making the box bigger on the inside, and trapping device by shifting the very space around the target. Basically, she’s a techy Vista. She also named herself Starship as all her tech looked very slick, shiny, smooth and white.

And that’s just two out of several New York tinkers currently in his workshop, all of them had already figured out the aspect in which their power worked best in, unlike him who was still running around like a headless chicken.

Now, the extremely infamous Red Glare was inspecting his guns! He was kind of a legend up in the PHO, one that might have glorified his extreme competency. Despite being part of the New York Ward, he got sent out to other regions in more time than he served in New York, and more often than not, half of the supervillains and vigilantes will ended up disappearing and mysteriously the local Protectorate or Ward will gain a couple new members that had oddly familiar powers.

Some said that he was so terrifying. the supervillains wouldn’t dare to escalate any situation when he’s in the city. Other said that he had a record so clean despite being in more fights than any other Ward he knew of in the span of 4 years, the supervillains actually respected his non-lethal fighting skill and fought him without resorting to lethal means.

Of course, there’s also the fact that gangs that killed people or mastered people tended to get wiped off the map when he came. Mysterious screams that seemingly disappeared into the sky happened every time after he went through an operation.

And now he’s inspecting his own non-lethal flamethrower and-ah it fired, and the chair quickly melted into slag from the intense burst of purple flame. It took a while, but the smokeless fire eventually faded, leaving a molten pile of plastic and metal at the center of the room.

…..

“Well that was awkwa-” he nearly squeaked when Red Glare shoved his unprotected hand into the slag and came out unharmed.

“Huh, this could be useful.” he commented as he squashed the burnt plastic, smoke still emitting from the pile, but otherwise completely harmless. “Could set up a system so that anyone exposed to the flame would have their tinker-grade equipments to harmlessly fall apart, also come with the benefit of disintegrating their clothings to further reduce their combat effectiveness. Of course, it won’t be remotely effective against Narwhal-type capes but their only natural habitat is in Canada anyway.” he stated.

Putting the flamethrower back to the pile, he stood up and looked at Kid Win deep into his eyes, “I would like to have some samples for research. While you call them garbages, you still made them out of your tinker power, there must be a purpose as to why you kept making all these space lego blocks.”

“They...don’t look like space lego blocks.” Kid Win scratched the back of his head.

“It’s a metaphor. It’s also my attempt in trying to flirt with you.”

He nearly choked himself with the plates of hot dog he was eating like a pack of crazed wolves a seconds before. Sure, he knew the world was much more open to other sexual orientation now but to sudden received this sort of answer was shocking to him.

What if...during the whole bloody time in school, he had been sending the wrong messages to both the girls and boys! Well shit, if that’s the case, then he might needed to clarify something with his friends in school, and maybe even his fellow Wards!

“Ahahahaha, that’s very funny an-”

“I’m also trying to tease you because you are one easy target.” damn, this person was an expert, his poker face had fooled everyone! Get that smile off your stupid face, dammit!

“Red Glare, I respect your opinion an-” something clanked, “Huh?”

Everyone in the room looked down at the pile of useless cuboid shaped devices and saw two of the pieces had plugged each other together on the long ends, plates retracted and combined to strengthen the bond between the pieces.

“Kid Win, does your power see anything?” he asked while inspecting the fused piece in his hand, a serious tone that dwarfed the goofiness from before came from his throat.

Even before he asked, his very mind was receiving tons of information all of sudden, the mathematical equation, the combination, and even more advanced schematics to improve the design, all came into his mind in brief moment, “I...holy crap, I’m really seeing things. Maybe…”

He stepped forward, taking the fused pieces from Red Glare and began to put the puzzle together, literally. His power kept sending him information as he put the pieces together, as each pieces was added, the device transformed to a different shape as its size increased. It came like a rush, like a sudden obsession to put all the pieces back into a perfect image.

“Ohhhh…”

And it got bigger.

“Ohhhhhhhh!”

And it got bigger and longer.

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!”

And it got bigger and longer and thicker and you know where I’m going with this, aren’t you?

Anyway, by the time he finished, he had made one massive 2 meter long...thing, and his room felt amazingly clean that day. It’s...like a pillar of some sort, with an complete asymmetrical structure of bulbous and blocky parts, weaved together like an mechanical organ.

It was even more amazing that he managed to lift up a 200 kg worth of tinker tech in his hand like nothing, maybe there’s some kind of internal anti-gravity tech in them? His stuff always felt lighter than expected when he used them.

But that’s not all, he had this amazing relief that he had never experienced before after he put all the pieces together, like he had finally done something his power was made for in the very first place.

...But just what heck was this thing? There must be some usefulness to it, or maybe…

It’s a gun!

He unholstered his laser gun, and made sure the safety was on before plugging it into the device. The entropy collector in the gun charged the whole thing up, lighting it like a Christmas tree as the machinery in it revved back to life.

To others in the room, it was like seeing every single pieces of technology put into this device was being turned into a dazzling display of art as lines of circuit light trailed across the surface, with the harmonic music that came from the within as the electronic and mechanical mechanism worked in union to keep the machine running.

“I think you just figured out your specialty, Kid Win.” Red Glare said.

“Oh wow, just wow…” He still couldn’t quite believe what had just happened, it’s like seeing a magic show for the first time again. It’s awesome, but you can’t figure out what happened until you googled it on the internet.

“So...there’s a firing range right? I think you should test it out and see what will happen.”

“Aren’t we having a party right now?” he asked.

“We tinkers are always busy with tinkering anyway.” and Red Glare smiled back, “This isn’t just the only pile of ‘garbage’ you had, right?”

“Erm...yeah?”

“Let put them all together just to see what will happen. At worst, the Protectorate only need to build a whole new base at the ground zero, what could possibly go wrong?” his smile widened.

------

Since we last heard from Flechette, the noise of partying outside my room was getting louder and wilder, like a slowly escalating music that’s about to reach its climax. While a part of me was slightly disappointed at that they kinda left me alone here, another part of me was just too damn tired to actually enjoy the party. And knowing the New York Wards, meeting new people such as the Brockton Bay Ward would have pushed the party to a whole new level.

A soft squeeze on my hand reminded me that I wasn’t alone in my room, and a soft nuzzling from behind reaffirmed that. Snuggling my head onto her shoulder, I clicked the internet browser and searched for today’s news.

The news of my arrival in Brockton Bay was quickly overtaken by the news of my...failure. Forget about the official news website, it was all over PHO, with the threads spanning over hundreds of pages in just hours after I was sent to the Brockton Bay General Hospital.

There’s even a couple superhero groups and even a supervillain group saying that they will come here to Brockton Bay just to exterminate the Nazi because slaying the Nine was really a big fucking deal across America, but I quickly posted that I wished things to not escalate any further, though how much of them were convinced to leave this alone I had absolutely no idea.

Even the private messages I received were filled with words of comfort and worriness, some from the Wards who gave me some encouragement, while some came from the Cases 53 that were really terrified that their only hope for a ‘cure’ was almost killed but most were from people that I never really knew about, people from all walks of life, giving a minute of their life just to write a simple messages.

I guessed I was a bit touched by that, though I was clearly more touched when Keira cuddled me from behind as I felt her chin on my head.

Pun, heh.

“So what are you looking?” she asked, thumbs rubbing around my tummy, even with the bodysuit, I can felt it like it was on my skin.

“Nothing much besides some food for thought.” I replied, eyes blinking to keep my eyes from closing.

“You sounded pretty tired.” she said, and I nodded. With a pair of strong arms, she lifted me close to her chest and put me onto the upper bed of the bunk bed. I kicked the blanket with my feet to make space as she climbed up to the bed, lying besides me.

“Why don’t you just join the others? I’m sure that’s much more fun than companying a really sleepy person like me.” why was I sleepy anyway, did Panacea healing took some energy from me?

She was about to say something when we both felt the floor shaking for a moment.

“What was that?” I asked.

“It’s...probably nothing?” she replied, but I’m not sure if she trusted her own answer much.

“Anyway…” she coughed, “You know our friends isn’t partying to celebrate, aren’t you?” she asked and I weakly nodded.

She sighed as she concentrated, a feeling of melancholy washed over her face, “Being a hero...it carried a risk, and sometimes, being a Ward makes no exception to that risk. Healing power, tinker tech, and powers are all there to let us fight against crimes, but sometimes, it’s not enough, even a normal patrol can end up in a disaster.”

She continued, “And that’s not counting in Endbringer crisis, some of the...adventurous Wards leave New York to fight those...things. Sometimes, they get back safely, sometimes, they don’t... And with the New York Ward being the largest Ward group in America, second to Los Angeles? We have deaths every year like it was goddamn statistic.”

“Which is why we always treat each other well in our own ways, because we are one of the few Ward group in America that know that being a teenager doesn’t mean you are invincible. Knowing that one day we might die sooner than expected, we decided to spend everyday to it's fullest, and have fun in every moment no matter what.”

“Which is why as your technically ex-girlfriend, I will be here for you. And everyone will be there for you too.” she said.

I...could only stare in silent of what she just said, I guessed that I wasn’t ready for such big words.

“...Thank you,” it’s the only words I could come up with.

“Anyway, how does your new limbs feel now?”

“Still a bit...numb.” I commented as I stretched my fingers, the ones on my new hand. Having a prosthetics was very different compared to a real actual hand. I can feel things with it but...it felt like there’s a layers of latex in between, blocking me from feeling the fine texture.

“But it’s better than nothing, I guess.”

“Are you...okay with your decision? I meant, we have Panacea, Frogger, Vejonis, Chimera and many to give your hand and leg back, so...why prosthetics?” she asked, worried for my well being.

....I was afraid of answering back, not because of some deeper meaning of some bullshit reasons, but it’s because of...just how much I didn’t care about myself.

“It felt weird. I was struggling to hide my feelings at the hospital so that you guys won’t worry that much about me, but now...I can’t feel those sadness anymore, like I just didn’t care about my loss. Like those limbs...are nothing more than tools that I can replace with ease.” I said, stating the fact out like it was just mere information.

I wasn’t prepared when she gave me a quick peck on my lips and smiled at me, which I quickly replied with kisses of my own. The incident might had gave me a real fright of death as my action was more...wild this time with her. Both of us were left panting at the end of our kissing match, she clearly wanted more as I can see the need from her eyes, but I was frankly too tired to continue.

“I’m...sorry. But I really need this sleep.” but she just smiled at me.

“It’s fine. I will go get some water, kay?” she gave me a kiss to the forehead before she left.

As I closed my eye to get me closer to my slumber, I heard the door creaked and Keira climbed to my side, cuddling me as I inched closer to the darkness.

…..

“Hello? It’s 2 AM now. Can I get inside now?”

…..

“.....Hello?”

…..

“.....Okay, I guess I will just sleep on the couch.”

------
Author Note: PARTY HARD, ALL NIGHT LONG!!!

 

And now, the third arc come to its closing end.

Well, it's been quite an effort and somewhat fun to write this out.

And I, thank you to all the reader for pay attention of my fic.

And as the closing chapter, I have a little surprise for you.

------
Chapter 3.6

------

I woke up.

As I was stirred from my sleep, a quick peek to my PRT-issued smartphone indicated that it’s around the time that damn alarm clock rang with that annoying pitch. Of course, it was not here, and probably somewhere in a trash dump now, haunting the workers there with its terrifying shriek.

[Orbital Light detected]​

Instead, I awoken from something else, like the other warm soft body that snuggled closer to me, getting a face full of short blonde hair. While it’s soft and fluffy and smelled very nice, it’s still being on my face and getting my eyes pricked by hair strands was no fun at all.

I was about to get up when I felt my right arm was trapped beneath Laser Hoop, who was still in that skin-tight armored suit that I appreciated very much. It’s strange really, despite my new prosthetics being hollowed shell, they didn’t really get compressed when something heavy was pressed onto it. It just flexed out, the muscle hardened to withstand the pressure.

I knew Riley made this, but the fact that Panacea was able to change its properties within moments was one amazing feat. Maybe she can even make bio-tinkertech of her own if she got the time and effort to do it.

“Hmm…” ah, I woke her up.

“Morning, Keira.” but at the very least, I should make it rewarding and gave her a peck to the lips.

“Morning, Drake, had a good night?” she smiled.

“Yeah, I guess. Now could you please roll a bit because my arm was kinda trapped underneath you and your suit was making it difficult.”

She did, and after a quick trip to the washroom for our morning cleaning routine, we went to the main hall and saw the aftermath of the party.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t such a crazy party that everyone was half-naked and parts of the base was on fire for some reasons, I still remembered last time where those two things and then some more happened, it was still pretty mild on the usual New Yorker craziness level.

Still, it left quite a bit of mess in the form of discarded junk foods bags, emptied soda bottle, dirtied plastic plates and a trail of sleeping bodies in various awkward and compromising positions.

Honestly, why were they sleeping on the floor? Didn’t they know that there’s plenty of extra beds in the dormitories? Though seeing even the famous Panacea sleeping right on top her sister’s well-endowed chest was a pretty amusing sight, they really needed to have more situational awareness.

[Scrap Wrangler detected][Uplifting Wizard detected]​

And it wasn’t long before Haymaker and Zero Gravitas used their power in conjunction to get rid off all the rubbishes, including the ‘human trashes’ to get them some proper sleeping places. We gave them a wave as we made it to the kitchen to see what can we cook from the leftover of the par-why the fuck was the fridge filled with boxes full of spaghetti!? Who can even eat this much!?

Well, there’s still plenty of hams, sausages and meatballs, so that’s something decent for the breakfast, though the old toaster will definitely get overwhelmed from the amount of toast it will make today.

[Quadruple Personalities detected][Living Matchstick detected]​

Laser Hoop and I quickly got it to work on the meal. Sure, it’s not our job today, but cooking stuff with someone you knew was fun. And eventually, some of the sleeping Wards were stirred away from the delicious smell of our cooking and helped themselves with some morning grubs. Kudzu and Torchlight were certainly helpful as the cloners and the living flame quickened our production.

[Touchy Detective detected]​

“Oh...oh shit, quick someone touch me, I can’t see shit!” hm? Oh it’s Sherlock, running around like a headless chicken.

“What’s wrong, pal? Can see shit with that mask on?” I smirked.

“Not funny! All my helpers are still goddamn asleep and I need to get to the toilet now!”

“What? You are blind?” I amusingly asked.

“Yes, I’m fucking blind! Now get me over there!”

…..

“YOU ARE FUCKING BLIND!?!?” I yelled loudly and probably woke up the rest from their slumber.

“Yes I am! Whoever said second generation don’t need traumatic trigger event can go fuck themselves! Now where’s the toilet!?” by the time he finished ranting, Dreadlock had already grabbed hold of his arm and dragged him to the toilet.

“...Am I the only one that didn’t know he’s blind?” I asked and Laser Hoop shook her head side to side.

[God Killer detected][Hyper Light Laser Knight detected]​

Ignoring what just happened, I continued to reheat the cooked meat until I saw Flechette with a girl I couldn’t recognize walking out of the girl dormitories together. With a teeth-baring grin, I called out Flechette and she waved off the girl before walking towards us.

“Morning, Lily!” I greeted, “Who was that?”

“Oh...it’s...erm...Laserdream, you know, the other child of the New Wave.” she stuttered.

“And you are into her?” my grin got wider.

“Well...I did saw her kiss a girl but she probably more into Kudzu because she’s fun, wild and she was a much better kisser than I was an-”

“Lily.” I called out her name and snapped my fingers, getting her to focus, “You like her? Go for it.”

“I meant, that’s kinda how Keira and I got together, even though I have zero experience in dating weeks before I came to this world.” I smiled at Laser Hoop and she gave a good smile back. “So go for it, Lily.”

“O-okay, I will try my best!” she pumped her fist, “Wish me luck!”

It’s only when she walked away that I realised that this happened because we felt asleep last night. Dem butterflies, man!

[Action Time detected][Multi-Applicational Engineer]​

But now that most of the leftover from last night party was now readied to be served, Laser Hoop and I took our own plate full of well cooked goodness and found a couch to sit on. As we enjoyed our meal, I felt the couch bounced beneath and saw Clockblocker and Kid Win on my left with goofy smiles on their face.

“Something good happened?”

“Heck yeah!” Clock yelled, but the joy quickly faded, “I...maybe I shouldn’t be this happy after you got…you know...” he tried to make some words but it’s not coming up.

“It’s fine, I got over it. Rather quickly actually...but whatever.”

He coughed before he continued, “Anyway...I finally got a date!” He then looked at Dreadlock, but was it just my imagination that his eyes seemed to lower to somewhere?

“Congratulation, and Kid Win?”

“I figured out my tinker specialty!” he said.

“What, just like that? What is it?” I excitedly asked.

“I can make some sort of combination tech and I can enhance my device by plugging them together!”

“Wait, you meant all those blocky things you said that’re half-finish are all...tools?” Clock said.

“Yes! And I made something amazing last night with the other tinkers and...well...it will need sometimes before I can use it due to all the testing and such, maybe a least a month before I can use them?”

“Well, I will be waiting then.” I smiled.

We then talked about other non-important things such as other fun exciting things that happened last night and that the Brockton Bay Ward learnt a few new friends along other things. It was fun, and I felt it ended too short as we finished our meal. I was about to start washing the dishes when Glory Girl and Panacea walked to the kitchen.

“Hey, Panacea, GG.”

“Not much people call me by that nick before but I will take it.” Glory Girl grinned, “Anyway, just sit back and relax, I can handle the dishes.” Even as she smiled, I can see that she’s still worried about what happened to me, trying to pay back her error even if it’s not her fault at all.

“Alright then.” if it will make her feel better to do so, then I’m glad to give her the post, though I was still slightly worried that she might started breaking the dishes with her immense strength.

But what interested me now was that goofy smile on Panacea face, “Something good happened?”

“Oh~Something very good happened last night.” she grinned, “But I can’t tell you what it is.”

“Okay.” I said as I left the dishes washing duty to Glory Girl and the other Wards, joining back with Laser Hoop as we sat down to watch the TV.

“Is everyone going to make out on this weekend or what?” I asked.

“Seem like it.” she answered.

------

While it took a while, but eventually things did get cleaned up. The furniture was pushed back in place, the trashes were all cleaned up, no more half-drunk people sleeping on the floor and nothing was in paranormal state after the part. Everything was fine except the firing range which was now quarantined due to some reason.

[Escher Art Craftsman detected]​

“Okay, the portal is two sided and each device on one end can project a portal plane onto the wall, when two portal planes have the same frequency, they will fuse and form a portal. However, if only one is turned on, it won’t work, it’s a safety feature in case for base attack. Also, this portal only led to the one in New York, I made it so that there’s no other setting. So...sorry if you want to go elsewhere like Boston.” Starship explained, her voice was coarse, like that of a heavy smoker.

[Redundant Fodder detected]​

“Nah it’s fine, Starship.” Aegis said, “We never really have a chance to train with other Ward branches, so thank you for giving us the opportunity.” he shook her hand, and she seemed to blush despite all the scale on her face, guessed she wasn’t good with people.

[Elemental Dasher detected]​

“Thank you for your accommodation for last night.” Jouster said to Aegis, but something sounded flirtatious about the tone he was using, “New York Ward, let’s go.”

One by one, they waved goodbye at us as they went through the portal to go back to New York. A couple of them I knew much about, Frogger, Kudzu, Dreadlock, Sherlock, they all gave me some words and advices before leaving the portal.

And Laser Hoop...well...we kinda stopped the line for a while before she went through the portal with a smile and I was left with a goofy look on my face. Getting laughed by the rest of the BB Wards was totally worthed it.

“Call us when you want to portal to go up!”

I felt a pang of melancholy when the portal shutted down, leaving just an empty wall. While it will be fun to just spend the rest of the weekends with the BB Wards on videogames and training, but...I just didn’t felt like doing it.

I guessed I do missed them after all…

[Unlimited Armament Work detected]​

I almost didn’t notice Miss Militia walking into the base when I absentmindedly beat up Kid Win in Super Smash Bros. Fuck your Kirby, I’m Solid Snake.

“Flechette, Batter Seven.” we both quickly stood up in a row for her, in her hands was a file for some documents, “The office have picked the new handler for you two.”

Ah yeah, PRT handler, which according to Flechette was less taking care of you and more handling troubles you got yourselves into. Coming from Flechette, she didn’t exactly have some fun time with her handler back in New York, meeting them only several hours per week at best.

“So, who’s going to be?” it’s probably some PRT agent that we knew nothing about.

“It’s...me actually.”

…

Flechette and I both stared at each other in confusion, “What.”

“Yeah, apparently Armsmaster suggested this idea to Director Piggot because he doesn’t think that normal people know how to handle parahuman.” in a way, his logic was pretty solid. Actually, why wasn’t any orphaned and parent-abandoned Wards being handled by Protectorate members!? That should be the standard!

But still...after this revelation, both of us had absolutely no idea as to what should we ask next, but Flechette braved herself and asked, fidgeting on the spot, “So...are we troubling you or...?”

Miss Militia simply chuckled, “No,no,no. Not at all. In fact, I’m happy that Armsmaster finally figured out how social interaction worked and ‘abused’ his authority for something good. I’m quite free today, so packed up your clothing because we will be leaving this afternoon.”

Miss Militia, you are totally the best!

We both followed her order and eagerly awaited her even as we ate our lunch. Of course, since we were moving to her house, we needed to change into some civilian clothing, but…

“Erm, it’s not that obvious, right?” I asked and gave a spin. After taking off my baseball uniform that deeply needed a trip to the washing machine, I wore a knee-length short and a T-shirt over my bodysuit that’s still supporting my two missing limbs, as well as a jacket because I can’t handle the coldness. I felt like I making new fashion trend here as a guy who wore thigh-high socks and shoulder-length gloves.

“It’s okay, if you are going for a cute look, you got it right.” I blushed lightly from her words.

It was kind of a saving throw when Miss Militia, wearing civilian clothing such as a jeans and a white shirt, fitting for the chilly weather of Brockton Bay’s September came into the Ward base.

“Ready to leave?” she asked, I quickly nodded till my face was a blur while Lily grinned at me.

Instead of riding her famous Harley Davidson bike because that would be broadcasting to everyone in the neighbour that Miss Militia lived there, we took a trip to the teleporter to the PRT base to reach her green coloured car that was parked in the basement.

It was an old car, with wear and tear on its hull and the inside. But it still worked pretty well as the engine didn’t sound like a smoker coughing into the mike. As we sat in the backseat, It was clear that she lived in the uptown as the Protectorate base got smaller in the back window.

Before long, we had arrived at an apartment and she led us into the elevator after finding her personal parking space. Inside the elevator, I watched the number went from G to 3 as it moved, a ding rang when we reached our floor and we strolled forward with our luggages behind us.

[Pathwalker of Promised Victory detected][Gateway of the Planewalker detected][True Sight over All Worlds detected]​

“Hm?” I felt a warm breathe on my neck for a flash of a moment.

“Come on, Drake! We are here already!” Lily said.

I looked towards my back and saw noone, “Yeah...I’m coming!”

But anyway, we had finally arrived at her apartment. 304, that’s her room number.

“Now I would like you two to step besides the door.” that request was rather peculiar but we followed anyway.

Even Miss Militia was more cautious than normal as she twisted her key on the doorknob, what could possibly be inside of her house to warrant her cautiousne-

[Tagging Chaser detected]​

“Hey Hannah!” Miss Militia quickly dodged to the side as a petite brunette dashed out of the door and rolled like a out of control tire before slamming her back onto the door on the other side.

I felt like I recognized that voice somewhe-

“Miss...Nora?” I asked.

“Why yes, children, I’m the one and only Nora!” she righted herself in a moment and nuzzled between both Lily’s and my faces, “With power.” she whispered.

“Now then! Let us get into the house and do some fun stuffs!” she said and both of us were quickly dragged in with our luggages.

All Miss Hannah could do was sighing at the sight of the current messy state of her house, “Welcome to your new home.” she shrugged.

------
Last night

Armsmaster

It didn’t matter how many time he checked the intel he gathered for the past two months, it simply didn’t add up, or it just didn’t make any sense to begin with.

Gang war always happened when the tension from two gangs rose to such a level of conflict as they needed to expand into new areas to further whatever goal the gang boss had. More often than not, they ended in just a couple weeks as there’s no gain in continuing the violence.

When gang war exceeded more than a month, that would mean that one of gang had an advantage that they will press on to get on top of the rival gang, either in the form of tinkertech, more men, and of course, new parahumans.

Neither of these advantages were gained by both gangs that had engaged in gang war for more than a month, and while the Merchant did have tinkertech, they tended to either get destroyed or broke down after one fight and frankly nobody was that afraid of them at all because they can’t aim with all the high shaking their limbs.

And then there’s this strange new behaviour from Hookwolf, he was a violent supervillain, what’s with him capable of transforming into the best living metaphor of self-harmfulness. But while he’s violent, he’s not completely insane.

There’s a difference between trying to take on someone and utterly murderise them, as he demonstrated onto Dauntless. While he didn’t like the man for his power, he still had a family to take care of and it would still be a blow to his reputation for losing a member under his command.

And the attack on Batter Seven clearly proved that something had gone horribly wrong for the man, slicing the new Ward up without holding back and acted on his primal instinct like it’s the only thing that drove him now instead of using his human mind.

Either he had gone insane, or a more possible option happened to him, and that’s him being mastered by a hidden parahuman, or get drugged to insanity. Maybe this incident had something to do with this new gang called the Undersider?

No...if that’s the case, then what’s their goal? There’s only four of them and unless one of them was secretly a A-class threat like Lung, they won’t be able to hold any parts of Brockton Bay long like Marquis’s gang did last time after helping Slaughterhouse 9 massacring the last Protectorate team before his own transfer to the city.

Or not, the record from that time wasn’t being clear at all. Something just didn’t felt right about the report but the man was in birdcage now and his daughter was part of the New Wave, not a serious case unless something was up.

However, this would mean only one thing, someone was backing them up, someone big and influential and somehow was able to stay as just a rumour.

…..

Skidmark? He was surprisingly smart and having a clear mind despite being high as an airplane with more drugs in his blood than sugar levels in a diabetes patient. But he...lacked the mind for more strategic planning.

Faultline? She’s smart, but she prefered something that actually paid her instead of gambling on chances.

Lung? Unless the Undersiders were all secretly Asian, it’s not going to work.

Kaiser? He’s basically shooting his own foot now, and was practically the victim of this gang war in a way.

So...that left only one possibility.

Coil.

Other than his name and the information on his mercenaries using tinker-tech to enhance their combat capability, the man was practically an unknown. Not even the intel team knew that whether he’s a parahuman or even if he even existed in this world at all, and the fact that he was being really cautious in expanding his territory slowly but surely meant one thing.

He’s the one behind all this mes-

A gunshot rang outside of his workshop and a short scream echoed through the wall, which was followed by an unhealthy thud to the floor. Armsmaster quickly dashed back to his powered armor rack and armor plates closed down onto his body, suiting him up in his light powered armor in just seconds.

With trained movement, he grabbed one of his numerous halberd and jabbed it through the steel door before activating the flasher, stunning anyone on the other side before breaking the door down with a ram.

Whoever that person was, he or she left quite a mess here, a body to be precise.

The body on the floor was of a man in his 30s, and was a PRT officer. However, the silenced pistol still on his severed hand suggested something else, like an assassin. As a matter of fact, both his hands were severed in a single clean cut, causing intense pain that led to his scream and a knife was plunged to the hilt on his forehead, ending him in a single stroke.

He took out his multitool and shone blacklight onto the handle, no fingerprint. Someone was being even more of an expert than this assassin here and killed him. And the assassin left a note of his forehead too. Armsmaster pulled out the knife, and noticed the blood dripped down the knife like water, leaving the knife clean with no evidence of murder, not even blacklight can detect any residue of blood on it. This was clearly not a normal knife, maybe tinker-tech to cut those limbs in a single slash too?

There’s not much words on the note, not like there’s enough space for a 500 words love letter from a blood soaked paper note anyway. And it said, ‘From a friend, Hint: T.C’.

T.C…

What, was the man behind all this a Turkish or…

...

Thomas Calvert!?

This...would make sense. He’s the head of a construction company that built Endbringer shelter, he occasionally worked with Director Piggot on several important tasks. He’s powerful, influential, and had information from within the PRT.

Armsmaster contemplated deeply and placed the note into his pocket, awaiting the security staffs to arrive at the crime scene. Should he tell the truth to Director Piggot? Or...she was part of the conspiracy and this assassin was sent by her?

If so, why…

But it didn’t matter, what mattered is that he must get Coil now before it’s too late. However, he will need to get some outside help from this…

He tapped his com device in his helmet.

“Dragon.”

A few seconds came by before she responded, “Yes, Colin?”

“Can you access the camera right outside my lab for the past 1 minute?”

Another few seconds passed by, “No problem. I ca-wait, the murder scene was cut out.”

“Precisely just that?” he asked.

“Yeah, here, I show you what I found.” and in his HUD, the record from the camera show the man, still living and had both his hand, walked into the camera. Then, static. When the scene went back up, he’s dead on the floor.

“Dragon, could you cut out the part where I pull out the note?”

“Armsmaster, that’s a rather difficult task that you had gave me.” Dragon said.

“From the note, I suspect that Thomas Calvert, Director Piggot’s partner, is secretly Coil and he might had orchestrated the incident behind this whole gang war and the attack on Batter Seven.” he explained.

“You meant...if he’s working with the director...”

“I suspect Director Piggot was part of the crime organisation too.” he stated bluntly

“Okay...so I assume you really don’t want to report this to her then.”

“The attempted assassination? Yes. The note? No.” he corrected her.

“...This...is really big. Just call me if there’s anything else, Colin.”

“Roger, and thank you, Dragon.” and the line went off.

Reminding himself of the note, he wondered If someone was willing to get him a hint like this…

Then this whole thing might be bigger than he thought.
------
A day ago...

Saint (Geoff)

“Geoff!” a female voice called out.

He stirred in his bed.

“Geoff!!!” a female voice yelled.

“5 minutes, Ma-”

“Geoff, get off the damn bed, you are bleeding!!!” Mag then violently rolled him off the bed and the fall that followed as he crashed face first to the floor quickly awoken him.

He clutched his head in pain, “Oh, Jesus, Mag, what the hell!? It’s just a nap!”

“Look at the mirror, Geoff!” she pointed at a facial mirror, and Geoff was shocked at what he saw.

Other than looking at his cross shaped tattoo with integrated glowing bits, the other thing that caught his attention was the long bleeding gash on his right cheek in the reflection.

“What the hell!?” he touched the wound and flinched as the pain spiked.

Mag quickly patched his face up with cotton and bandage while he stared at his bloody bed, just how much did he bleed?

“That’s not all, you need to look at your suit too.” Mag stated and Geoff quickly followed her to the basement, where he alone maintained the suit more and more often as the Dragon suits were starting to reach their expiration date.

“I had no idea what happened but that happened for no damn reason!” again, Mag pointed and Geoff could only stare at his damaged suit and only his.

The suit was practically fine, the joints were intact, the servos were working fine, the operating system showed that everything was fine except...his helmet. The right side of the helmet was completely cracked, like it was made out of glass and shattered in a single strike.

What’s weird, was that it matched his injury but...he didn’t wear the suit today at all, since he was busy repairing it after the last big fight! A rewardful nap for himself after a full day of tinkering just ended in a painful disaster.

However...there was this weird phone call from a man named Coil in Brockton Bay that requested him with an impressive sum of cash to attack Dragon yesterday, the man even tried to supply her destination too to increase the success rate of the ambush!

But...the only thing that stopped him was when he asked about what’s in the transport and found out that the Batter Seven was in it. Dragon or not, he’s not going to attack some that ended S-class threat on their own, it’s just plain suicidal.

These two events happening together were clearly not a coincidence, but he can’t say that! His teammates would think that he’s insane!

Of course, he didn’t care about what's happening in Brockton Bay anyway, not like that monster of a kid will climb up north to Canada just to punch him in his face.

------

Author Note: Well, that's one major foreshadow for the next arc.

Coil might or might be getting butthurt in the next arc.

So anyway, see you next time!

Stay tuned for the next arc!

 

Readers, it has been a long time.

Examination, proscratination, raging at stupidity and the upcoming Chinese New Year mean lots of time spending on other things than writing this fic.

Which well...nobody read much about it...

ANYWAY LET TALK SOMETHING ELSE BEFORE MY SELF-ESTEEM ISSUE COMES UP AGAIN.

Arc 4 is still not complete, so I guess I will post my chapters like any other normal fanfic writer do.

Maybe it's 3 days per chapter, or 1 week per chapter.

Well, let's get it start first, or else I will think about problems all night.

------

Arc 4: The Dreaded Number, Someone Will Definitely Die (26-9-2010 to 28-9-2010)

Chapter 4.1

------

Doctor Yamada

It wasn’t the first time that she was called in right after the local branch of Ward, Protectorate or even just the local hero organisation had suffered a catastrophic event. Sometimes it’s small like a simply patrol gone horribly wrong, and other time…

It’s right after an Endbringer fight.

Instead of scheduling regular sessions with therapists, the PRT always seemed to cut corner when it’s come to actually making their parahuman force effective. They only served to maintain a proper public relationship instead of trying to actually work on making some good.

The very definition of their trigger meant that a parahuman should have a proper therapist session for them to get over their problems, and yet…

It’s a problem that she has been complaining about ever since she was hired as one of the therapist specialised in parahuman. But the PRT just doesn’t like other people telling ‘their’ parahuman what to do, thinking that other people will try to ‘control’ them.

Still, she got a job to do.

------

Wise beyond her age seemed to be the perfect phrase for her personality. But time and time again, the little girl in front of her felt that she never got the respect she earned. Always being treated the same as the other girls of her own age, having a divorced parent at such young age tends to cause that.

“It just happens out of nowhere.”

Yamada nodded, scribbling note on her notepad.

“One day, we were just talking about how much fun we gonna have and then that happened…” she leaned back onto the chaise lounge, its wooden frame creaked a bit, “I have this feeling that the party was set up because we had no idea what else we can do”

“But you still did your best. I’m sure he’s glad that his friends aren’t being unhappy because of the incident.”

“I tried but...call it a hunch, but I think he can see people more clearly than anyone of us can.”

“Why do you say so, Missy?” she asked.

“He...he just know how to talk with people. He even said that it’s part of his power since he was never this good at talking with people…”

She continued “And...he sees through us, all of us. He probably saw through our act on first sight and just acted like nothing has changed at all.”

She jotted that down too.

------

An exterior of happy-go-lucky surrounding a center of doubt and occasional deep-understanding. The boy always made sure that nobody can see through the wall he erected around his real self, so that no one around him will be more depressed than he was.

“In a way, having a healer on the hero side made the villains a helluva lot more brutal.”

Her eyebrow pitched, “Care to enlighten me on that?”

The boy leaned forward, “You see, while supervillains do commit crime, they don’t actually want to kill anyone because that will bring the heat on them in no time. And even without killing people, crippling wounds can still happen.”

“And guess what? We have not one, but two healers in Brockton Bay that can fix damn near any injury. Othala can give people regenerative power that works on just about everything short of dismemberment, and Panacea can heal people on anything short of brain damage.”

“Not only can they hit harder to incapacitate people, they can take care of their own wounded like it’s nothing. I have been in the Ward for 2 years, and I think just about everyone in the Protectorate had lost a limb or two.”

“Now they think that they could make him ‘rest’ for a while by ripping his limbs off. Well, I hope they are right in a way because that little guy has a frightening amount of rage behind his eyes.”

Sighing, he said, “And well...I hope that Triumph is not going to get a major fight anytime soon.”

------

A facade of strength, courage and pride, layers upon layers, all just to hide the true self within that wished people to understand who she really was. And yet, the layers only get thicker and thicker and something will definitely happen if the layers have ever cracked.

“I…” the supposedly invincible teenager of the New Wave sobbed into the tissue, “I was suppose to be there, standing in front of him and…”

Another sniff, “It happens so fast.”

“Victoria, it’s not your fault in the first place. You volunteered to look after him.”

“I can’t even count how many time I screwed up right after I ‘volunteered’ for a patrol, and Amy just…” she shook her head around, “She works like a machine, day and night and I have to drag her away from the hospital every time.”

Yamada picked up the box of tissue and offered it to her when tears started running down her cheeks again. She accepted it.

“I need to stay strong, everyone always look at me like I’m the icon of the New Wave thank to that stupid aura shit. De-Gallant is pretty much the only one I can trust on answering me trustfully every time. Even Amy acts a bit weird sometimes, like she just goes out of focus and stares at me when she thought I wasn’t noticing.”

“Victori-”

“And hell, I has to stop my power sometimes during family meeting because my fucking cousin is lusting after me and she’s 100% confirmed bi!”

“Victoria!” a fingersnap quickly snapped her out of it.

“Oh...I’m...sorry about that, it’s just…”

“Victoria, may I recommend you on asking your mother for a couple of private therapist sessions?”

“I...yeah…I really should…”

-----

…

…..

…….

‘EVERYONE IN THIS CITY NEEDS THERAPIST SESSIONS ASAP.’ Doctor Yamada angrily scribbled on her notepad.

“Erm...Doctor?”

She looked up from her notepad and smiled at the Japanese-American, showing absolutely no sign of worriedness, “You can call me Yamada, Lily.”

“Erm...okay?” it’s the tenth ‘erm’ for this session already, it’s quite clear that she was still hesitant about the whole therapist session.

“So, anything you want to talk about, just say. Or sometimes my client will lay down on the chaise and rest on it until they are prepared to talk. There’s no need to rush, just take your time. We can arrange another session in next week.”

“Well, there’s…” she sighed and lied back to the lounge, closing her eyes for the moment.

The silence between the therapist and the patient took over the room, with only the humming of the air conditioner and the tick-tock of the clock can be heard.

“He is a really good friend.” she said, breaking the silence, “I felt kinda bad for him to just break up with his girlfriend and go here with me.”

“How would you describe him?”

“He’s...a nice guy that will break as soon as anything happens. He always said there’s something about his power that just control him every time there’s fight. I guess that’s how he’s able to dodge and parry bullets but...it’s finicky and not always reliable.”

“I don’t know whether he’s nice because he actually is or if he’s just not comfortable with our world yet. But...if it’s not for him…” she looked at her hands and feet.

“I will be the one on the bed that day.”

------

“Come in.” she said.

And the last client of the day twisted the doorknob and entered the room.

“You can sit however you want.”

He chose to lay onto the chaise lounge like it’s a bed, a more popular option from the countless patients she attended to.

“Your name?”

He adjusted his sitting for a comfortable position before answering back, “Drake, just Drake.”

“Hello Drake, I’m Doctor Yamada, but you can call me Yamada.”

“Okay...so...how does this work?”

“We can either talk about things, so that I can build up a note of your personality and your problem to suggest and compile a way to help your problem, or you can just rest on the chaise until you are ready to talk. There’s no need to rush. We can arrange another session if the time runs out.”

He opened his mouth, but decided to take a sip of water before speaking, “I think the problem I have now is that...I don’t have one?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“I...how to say...my power make me forget trauma very quickly.”

She quickly wrote down her note.

“I was scared at first. I basically just killed a bunch of people even if they are a bunch of mass-murdering jerkfaces but...I felt barely anything after I slept...and I completely forgot about them in the next night.”

He continued, “Same goes for last night, the loss of my limbs…” he looked down on his black artificial arm and leg, “Is now just a past memory.”

“That can’t be good, right?” he turned his head towards the doctor, “Nobody should treat their limbs like they are mere tools but...I did.”

The eyes he used to look at her...they were full of colour but she felt it pierced right into her soul, “How fucked up am I, doctor?”

“Truth to be told? On a scale of 1 to 10, I say you are around 6.” the monster boy was a bit taken back by her peculiar answer, ”A little secret, you are doing better than most of my other Case 53 patients.”

“Is...Gstringgirl one of your-oh wait, patient confidential information or something like that, right?”

While she wondered how he guessed that corrected, she pondered his question for a moment and thought, ‘Maybe he can help Sveta out.’

“Yes, but I can get you to visit her if you want.”

“I’m...not sure how would that help her.”

“The rumor about your power capable of...destroying everything might be slightly overblown, but a little visit can help those in need greatly.”

“...I...I will consider your suggestion, Yamada.” he lied back onto the chaise, “Actually, can you suggest some more ways for me to help people? I still don’t know the full extent of my power but I want to help people whenever I can.”

That...sounds like a good idea. This could be the key on helping him get out of his emotional issues.

“Sure.” she agreed.

“Thanks!” he replied.

------

A twist to the key, and the door to her newly assigned PRT provided accommodation had opened. In her hands was a personal laptop, which she will use to check on her document as soon as she wheeled this luggage and two boxes of 6 generic branded cheap beer stacked on it through the door and into the house.

Anyone without nerve of steel would absolutely need alcohol too had they ever saw what Doctor Yamada faced every week.

After placing everything down at appropriate places, she popped one of the beer and drank it down, thinking back to the Case 53.

Kind, a bit too nice and shy to attention. But deep down…

A very broken soul, barely weaved together by his own power that made up nearly half of his personality. A...dual personalities hidden inside a single body? She can’t even tell where the identity of Batter Seven starts from, whether it’s his own secret identity, or it’s formed out of his own power.

...Still, that’s problem that she should consider until next week. Now let’s get drunk as fuck and shit the bed tonight!

The doorbell rang.

Ah, the pizza is here.

....

…..

‘Pizza guy is pretty cute, maybe call him again next time.’ she wrote it down on her notepad.

------

“So, how is today, Drake?” Hannah asked, setting more plates of tonight’s dinner down on the wooden table.

“Hm? Oh, today? Today is great, Miss Hannah.” I replied as the smell of those dishes rushed forth to my nose. Oh God, I can’t wait to dig in.

“Just call me Hannah, Drake. How was your talk with Dr. Yamada?”

“Well, I guess it’s okay? I may have also met a new friend too.”

“Who is he, or she?” she smiled expectantly.

“It won’t be a fun if I tell you now, won’t it?”

She grinned, “Clever boy. Lily, dinner is ready.”

“Eh?” she looked back away for a second from the TV show she was watching, something about a Canadian talk-show with Narwhal, “Oh wow, how did I not smell that? That smells great!”

“Maybe you are too focused on those two round dishes instead of the 4 we have here?” I smirked as she blushed.

“H-hey, Narwhal isn’t exactly that erm...exposed?”

“Sure, but her forcefield is still hugging her rather tightly, ya know?”

Honestly? There’s a surprising number of heroes and villains that dressed more revealing than Narwhal, who was a freaking nudist. Yeah, let that thought spin around for a moment there. But Narwhal kinda has forcefield capable of tanking building-bisecting laser on every inches of her body. So...yeah...it depends, really.

“Just sit down and enjoy the meal already.” I took my seat on the opposite of Hannah and Lily took the seat besides me.

“Wait, Miss Nora isn’t here yet.”

“We will wait for a while then.” Hannah said,

And by ‘a while’ she meant 5 seconds, “Okay, that’s been long enough, let’s ea-”

[Tagging Chaser detected]​

And of course this was when the door started smoking and one Miss Nora quickly burst out of the black smoke.

“WHO HAS SUMMONED ME!?” Miss Nora shouted.

“Works every time.” Hannah just sighed, apparently holding a bit of disappointment at her lifelong comrades.

Nora then hastily placed her jacket on the coat hanger and threw her smoking document onto the table, teleporting right besides Hannah.

“Those are your office documents! You can’t just throw them around like some animal shurikens!”

“Huh, animal shurikens, sounds pretty neat.” then she threw the document right onto the couch, anyway.

Hannah could only sigh some more when Nora opened the fridge and took a can of beer out.

“I absolutely need this after today’s work.” the can hissed and bubbled as Nova brought it to her lips.

“You have been doing nothing but writing paperwork!”

“Ahhh~” oh wow she drank half the can already, “Exactly! Oh why that director Piggot decides to delay my patrolling schedule this week, I have no idea!”

Ignore the rage boiling behind Hannah’s straining smile, Nora inspected what’s above the table, “Anyway, what delicious dishes are we having tonight?”

On the table was macaroni and cheese, which was a lot more well prepared than those restaurant kind with some herb added to it for that extra bit of taste. Well-cooked barley with mushroom, carrot, garlic which I most likely won’t eat cause they are terrible, and even more herb. Tomato soup which looked a bit too red but still smelled pretty good, and with some herb floating on it. Finally, some fried chicken wings bought from the local restaurant with...you guessed it! More herb!

Quite a healthy dinner for a bunch of superheroes that exercises like a running coal-trains everyday.

“Good enough for tonight, but you are not eating it.” Hannah said.

“What!? Then what do I eat for tonight, the leftovers!?”

“I’m not that cruel, Nora.” but that devilish smile on her face seemed to be saying something else…

Hannah then picked up something inside the cupboard and dropped it in front of Nora.

It’s a bag of M.R.E.

On it, the label said Buffalo Chicken. I highly doubt that it contains a mutant crossbreed of a giant horned bovine and a wingless deliciously-proven avian, how does one even cook that anyway? Kill it with fire?

“Oh, spicy~ I...erm...like it?” the plastic package was quickly ripped apart by her hand.

“And don’t forget.” another thing dropped right in front of Nora.

It’s a rock.

Nora flipped it, and on the bottom it said ‘Something’, which was written in small white letters.

It’s no doubt that both Lily and I were giggling like mad at the scene before us.

Even Nora herself chuckled a bit as she tried to figure out how to cook the damn thing.

“Well, dig in.” and I quickly busied myself with loads of barley. Even in an unfamiliar land, I’m still an Asian, and my need for rice or something close to it must be satisfied every day or else I will go nut from it.

Mmmm, I could totally eat this barley everyday. Not really a fan of the macaroni and cheese, but I can eat it for some occasions. The tomato soup was pretty nice, but again, good for sometimes and not all the time like the barley. Nothing much need to be said for the chicken wings, it’s good~

“So, are you two ready for school?” Hannah aske-wait what.

School!? Oh wait, summer holiday pretty much ended as soon as I came into this world. So...that meant this semester had started already...

“Erm, Drake?”

“Yeah school, okay. Don’t worry Lily, I’m fine.” I tried to reassure them but it’s not very convincing.

“Drake, you can choose not to go for now.”

“And get the Youth Guard to charge out like a hornet nest and fuck shit up? No thank you.” seriously, fuck the Youth Guard. Donation based organisations like them can barely do anything properly and work more like a scam most of the time. “What I’m more concerned about is whether or not to expose my identity as a case 53 or not.”

“Well, you look similar to a normal person enough to be one easily. Just wear the contact lens!” Lily suggested.

“Those contact lens are irritating my eyes, and hiding my identity when other case 53 can’t do the same make me feel kinda...bad.”

“I won’t judge you if you chose any options, just tell me ahead if you want to expose your identity.” Hannah said. The caring tone of her voice really calmed me down.

“Oh hey, it’s cooking!” we all looked back at Nora, as the green plastic bag she propped onto the ‘rock or something’ started to steam as the content was getting cooked.

“Now, who want some patriotic cookies?” you can really tell that it’s an American M.R.E by how absurd that sounded…

------

“By basing the structure of your prosthetic limbs with my robot puppet, I can finish this in maybe a week. But I still need to test out to get the kinks out of the system, so it will be a while because I can deliver it to you, big bro!” Riley explained with her usual cheerful tone.

“That’s great, Riley! So...erm?”

“Hm?”

“I got a question...”

“Ask away, brother!”

“So erm...are you going to school anytime soon?”

She was slightly taken back by my question, “Well, it has only been two weeks since I was...that. But Dragon did say that I might be able to go to a kindergarten soon.”

“Oh.” well that satisfied my question and curiosity.

“Why did you ask this?”

“Erm...well...I might be going to highschool tomorrow.”

This was the moment where she lost complete control of her funny bone and just laughed for the next whole minute, “-hahahahaha!” so much that she wheezed when she finished. Great now I felt a bit awkward.

“Well, I got no tips for that. I’m sure you can manage it somehow.”

“Maybe.” I shrugged.

“Good luck, big bro.”

“Heh, you too.”

“Oh, and by the way. Don’t forget about visiting me as soon as you can!”

“Oh right, Dragon said I can visit you after a month, right? Should be around the start of October.” And precisely a month after I came to this world and destroyed the Nine too.

The smile on her face bought warmness to my heart, “I can’t wait for that day to come faster, but I’m not a time tinker so I can do nothing about it.”

“But Riley, we are all time traveller! We just travel 1 second per 1 second of our life.” I smiled back at her.

She giggled childishly, “Anyway, it’s late now. See you tomorrow, big bro.”

“Yeah. Later, Riley.”

And the screen went black.

…..

Great, now how the fuck do I prepare for high school again?

------

Author Note: I'm going to admit that the reason why I have this peculiar update schedule is that I'm...

Quite afraid of how other think of my work to be honest, and as much as I tell myself 'It's fine', writing is...hard.

Well, writing isn't hard.

Making it presentable to others is hard.

But I did received help on beta-reading from my friend, Ziplopz. So thanks to him for making this readable.

Anyway, expect chapter 4.2 soon, but probably not tomorrow.

 

Finally, Chinese New Year is over.

And after a while, chapter 4.2 is fully completed with some minor editing.

And as before, Ziplopz as betareader has helped me in spotting the errors, so thanks him too for this chapter.

With no further delay, let's get on with it.

------

Chapter 4.2

------

Right, high school.

Can’t exactly say that I’m fond of going through it again. But hey, maybe American high schools are different compared to Asian high schools?

Hopefully with less racism?

...Oh who am I kidding? It’s probably going to suck…

“Drake?”

“Hmm?” I replied back at Hannah, who’s now wearing an attire that resembled a office lady’s clothing. She was taking care of me now, so she might as well be acting like a PRT agent to complete the look.

“Take a deep breath, it will be alright.” she lightly patted my back.

I looked back towards the school, taking in the air and out every 4 second. Arcadia High, I don’t know what the name meant but I’m sure it meant something fancy. The school was...quite clean and neat compared to the other school I had seen and been through before, like it was made to be fitting of the Wards of Brockton Bay to attend.

Even the name of the school was molded in giant golden letters on the arch above the steel gates, a solid-looking red-brick wall surrounding the luxurious compound. And all the students can step off their buses, parent’s vehicles of choice or just walk straight from their houses and into the school compound proudly not because of the Ward, but also because it was the most prestigious high school in Brockton Bay with decades of history..

But even then I can see the faded paint of a gang sign, signs of cleaning and painting to cover it had been done but it’s not enough for my sharp eyes.

And yes, I had also decided to not wear the contact lens today for school.

“I’m...fine. Hannah” I tried to reassure her.

But the way she crossed her arm indicated that she’s not convinced at all, “Drake, I have been in this career long enough that people saying ‘I’m fine’ is usually not.”

“It’s just...well...I’m not worry because I will be going in without a secret identity but…”

“It might not be like your old life on your Earth, but try think of it as the same, okay? Drake?”

Another quick, deep breath to slow down my rapid heart-beat, “Hannah, things will never be the same for me.”

…

“But I will try to keep it the way.” and thus I walked towards for Arcadia High, with her leading me to the office for final checking of the document.

------

“So...how many Ward will be in the same class as I do?” I asked as I walked towards my classroom, still trying to digest all the information about the class schedule, the locations of the classes and the name of the teachers.

“It won’t be fun if I tell you the answer now, won’t it?”

I chuckled at that. Ah, karma delivered~

“Anyway, a PRT van will come and pick you up to the Protectorate base at 15:00 PM. If you forget about it, ask Gallant or Aegis, you will be meeting them out of the mask soon. But you will be excused from patrol duty today.”

I nodded, I guessed the administration really wanted me to take a break, “Okay, I got it.”

“You could always learn a time or two from monitoring duty. Just relax, Drake.”

“I’m to-tally fine, Hannah.” as if that hiccup will totally reassure her, dumbass.

“Drake, it’s only been two weeks since summer vacation ended. Everyone will be facing an unfamiliar place here and they will be again when the winter break comes. Go around and make some friends. Besides the Wards and New Wave, I meant.” she smiled.

I totally didn’t see it coming when she bent down and kissed my forehead, “Be a good boy, Drake.” she patted me lightly before walking away.

I was a bit stunned there, staring at her back as she walked towards the parking lot.

It’s only with the ringing of the school bell did I remember to start walking towards my classroom, fast.

Well, at least now I knew why Khaki had a crush on her.

------

Khaki (Red Glare)

“Achoo!” he sneezed, thankfully right before he applied the blowtorch onto his latest invention, a miniaturized kinetic grabber made for Batter Seven’s prosthetic hand. That’s 2 hours of hard work right there.

“Have a cold?” Michelle asked as she carefully placed a cold fusion core into another matter fabricator.

“No, feels more like someone is talking shit behind me.” he replied.

“What kind of dirt would people have on you? Your crush on old womans?”

Khaki continued working on the device, but the blush on his face just wouldn’t fade away like his patience with Yuuka’s shenanigans.

------

Even a walk down the hallway had already given me quite a number of stares from both the students and the teacher. Some were excited as they never saw a case 53 with their own eyes before, but most were...just being distant?

But I shall ignore that for now, since I have a bigger problem.

Right in front of me is the door to my class, and I can hear teenagers making chit-chat inside, so the teacher is definitely not here yet.

...Okay, Drake. You can totally do this! All you need to do is twist the doorknob and enter the class. Everything is going to be absolutely fine!

So bloody turn your damn hand already, you are going to crush that doorknob if you don’t turn it no-I felt a hand on my shoulder. The unexpectedness alone was enough to send chill up my spine.

Quickly, I looked back and saw a woman with black wavy hair that reached till her shoulder, dressed with what a teacher would wear.

[Pathwalker of Promise Victory detected]​

“You are the new transfer student of this class, correct? Follow me.” she said with a soft feminine voice.

And of course I followed her word without any thought to it.

As soon as she entered the classroom, the students quickly silenced themselves and shifted their gaze to the teacher before I felt all the gazes upon me.

The teacher, or I assumed she’s the teacher, began to write her name on the blackboard with a stick of chalk. Oh wow, people still uses blackboard and chalks these days instead of whiteboard and marker pen?

Seeing as the chatter still hadn’t quite died down yet, she clapped her hands for silence, “Students, attention! Summer holiday was two weeks ago, so quiet down now.” now the class is truly silenced.

“Transfer student! My name is Fortuna Fenix, but you will address me as Miss Fortuna.” the current tone she’s using now was completely different than the one she talked to me with before, serious and strict instead of soft and calm. It’s almost like that she had another voice in her head.

“I will be teaching the English and history classes for this class during this semester. If you have any questions about the subjects, come to my office at Block A3.” she continued before turning towards the rest of the class.

“Now as you can see, we have a quite a special student he-”

“Holy shit, it’s Batter Se-” a boy on the back row shouted, but something fast nearly lopped off his ear and shattered into white dust on the wall behind him.

The whole class looked back at the white star formed from impact of the chalk onto the wall before slowly tracing their eyes back towards their teacher, who’s currently juggling a chalk with one hand.

“Don’t interrupt me in my class, Brandon. And mind your language too.” the smile on her face looked subtly demonic.

“Y-yes, M-Miss Fortuna.” the poor ginger looked like he’s on the verge of breaking into a sobbing mess.

Now with that little incident over, all eyes were on me again.

With one last swallow, I opened my mouth. “So...yeah. Hi guys, my name is Drake. I’m a Case 53 and my not-so-secret hero identity now is Batter Seven.”

The class would have burst into loud yelling and such if not Miss Fortuna glaring at the class with extreme ferociousness, almost as if she’s tempting the class to do something so she could throw more chalks at them.

“So, Drake. Anything you want to say before you take your seat? I’m sure a hero like you always prepare a speech for all occasions.” Miss Fortuna asked.

“Well...I do happen to have one. Just give me a second.” and both my hands moved to my waist, as if they were there to support my torso in case I ever fainted from standing in front of the crowd.

A deep breath in, and another came out, “Okay...here goes nothing.”

First, I started it with a clap of hand, “Erm...Good morning to our teacher, Miss Fortuna and to my first new classmates ever since I came to this world.” I waved towards the class.

A couple of the student on the rows of chair waved back me as if to amuse me, “While this Earth is one with superpower, tinkertech and one dollar coins, I have some doubt that my high school life will be that different compared to what I had before. For the most part at least.” A few chuckles came from the students.

“Even discounting superpower and such, I have been living in Asia for my entire life in my original world. You guys know where Malaysia is, right?” half the class shook their head in denial.

“Nevermind about that place then. It sucks by the way, besides the food, which can be said the same for all other countries. Anyway, ever since I know there’s a world out there, I have always wanted to get out of this damn country and see the rest of the world with my own eyes. And now I’m here in America.”

“Well, after being here for 2 weeks, I can tell you that America is a completely different place compared to my home town. And I have met with so many new friends that have expanded my tiny worldview and new things that spark interest from me.”

“But...well...I think I said more than enough ‘well’ already. But…” I looked down at my artificial right hand, the black organic clothing stretched as I moved the fingers, “Something changed way too much for me.”

The faceless images of my mother, father and sister flashed in my mind, “Way too much.”

But I tried to smile for them, “Anyway, I hope I will have a great time with you guys here for this semester. Thank you for listening.” I bowed down, face towards the floor. Hearing a few claps from the students had really warmed my heart.

Finishing bowing, I stood back up and faced the teacher, “So...where do I sit, Miss Fortuna?”

“America is a free country, go ahead and pick a seat.” But even if Miss Fortuna said that, there’s only one seat left besides...oh...I think I recognize them.

Wasting no time for the class to start, I stepped towards the only seat left and the students around me quickly greeted me. Hopefully I won’t forget their name when lunch period comes.

[Inferential Engine detected]​

“Hi, I’m Susan.” a blondie with braided ponytail in front of me took my hand forcefully and shook it.

[Burning Incense detected]​

“Lee.” a rather tall and gloomy long haired Asian boy sat cross-legged besides me.

[Multi-Applicational Engineer detected]​

“Erm...hi, Chris here.” and there’s no doubt that there’s the Brockton Bay’s one and only Ward Tinker here, sulking on his seat on my other side.

[Action Time detected]​

“My name is Dennis Danger Dynamite, but you can just call me Mister Dangerous.” no point for guessing who this redhead behind me was.

I quickly gave my own greeting and waited for the class to start, but the teacher was only sitting there, reading her book with her legs crossed on her desk.

We all stared at her awkwardly for a while before she noticed it, “Hm? Oh.”

“Right, teaching English class. Well…” she closed her book shut, “I’m sure you guys all are more interested in our S-class slayer than learning new grammar. So...for today, this shall be a self-study class. Just keep the noise down.”

And then she continued reading her book like nothing.

Well, fuck me.

This was when the class fucking exploded and everyone rushed towards me with a volley of questions.

“Are you a boy or a girl!?”

“What is this Malaysia? Does it exist here?”

“Is there anything different about your world besides a lack of superpower?”

“Are you and Laser Hoop really an item or is she your gay closet!?”

“ARE YOU A BOY OR GIRL!?!?! I NEED TO KNOW THIS FOR MY SLASHF-I MEANT FOR SCIENCE!!!”

“Erm...I...” I was at a complete lost as to how to answer all these question, except that one.

You know, the one that my fans always want me to answer?

Apparently I looks androgynous enough that everyone gets confused with my gender. Not even wearing a skirt for my Ward uniform makes the internet thinks that I am a girl.

And I think that subconsciously I was trolling people with my looks too…

Just look at what I’m wearing right now! Since I’m two limbs short from being a perfectly normal human being, I had to wear the bionic suit just to stand. Which thanks to me wearing a shorts and a T-shirt, looked like I was wearing fetish gears with black thigh-high socks and body gloves.

It looked super girly...

“Figure that one out, Doctor Oak.” and that’s my answer. Real smooth, Drake.

Eventually I did get myself together and answered most of the questions given to me, but the time ran out like it was just a short burning candle. I quietly followed Dennis and Chris as our class schedule just so happened to fit together and quickly walked to our lockers before next class.

------

[A World of Calculus detected]​

For our next class period, Mr...Jack Enderson who nearly gave me a heart attack thanks to...his name handled our mathematic and science class. Fortunately, I’m best in both of those classes. But I had this feeling that the teacher was still slightly disappointed at us no matter what we did.

Chris had quite a bit of problem during the math class though, seeing as his dyslexia was definitely affecting him and I had to tell him the answer when he got asked by the teacher. Dennis also had problem with mathematics but I’m pretty sure that’s because he’s just being a lazy bugger.

Soon enough, the class ball rang and it’s now the lunch period.

Honestly, I can’t say there’s much difference in the canteen, it’s pretty much full of people of noisiness, same as any other public places I went for lunch.

Waiting in the line, having a tray handed to you and the staff grabbing the food you asked to your tray.

[Knight of Feels detected][Redundant Fodder detected]​

It might be due to the fact that Arcadia High is a prestigious school, but the food wasn’t really as gross as the internet said it would be. With my tray in hands, I spotted Dennis, Chris and two others at a table. The tall blonde jock and the Costa-rican boy waved as I walked towards them.

“Hey guys.”

“Hey Drake.” They all greeted me as I sat down on an empty seat.

“No meat?” Dennis asked.

“Well, I don’t feel like eating meat for every meal.” on my tray, there’s salad with way oo much mayonnaise, two pieces of hash browns because there’s no rice on the menu, a pile of green peas because I liked peas, a cheese pretzel for dessert and...chocolate milk.

I’m going to ask if Panacea (or Amy now in her civilian identity) can give me some lactose-digesting bacteria in my stomach later to fix this damn lactose-intolerant problem I have.

“Besides, it’s school. You never know what mysterious ingredients are in those meat…” I grinned.

They all looked down on their meal, eyeing the meat as if I spotted something poisonous in there. And then they just ate it like nothing happened.

Well, no point in wasting time then. The tray was emptied quickly as I ate my meal and drank down the milk.

“So, how’s your first day at school, Drake?” Carlos asked, as expected of being a leader that cares about his teammates.

“Okay so far, it still felt so surreal to end up in another world and become a transfer student in a high school full of superheroes. Kinda feels like I’m in...I’m in…”

…

Felt like I’m inside a goddamn anime.

Superheroes, supervillains, flying capes, freaking laser beam, honest to god powered armor, damned Endbringer, and now I became a goddamn transfer student with superpower like a bloody self-insert of some sort.

Christ, who the hell wrote this world!?

“Erm...Drake?” Dennis looked at my funny.

“Ahahahaha, nothing is wrong at all! Ahahaha…” I suckled the chocolate milk through the straw to divert the attention. Actually, a question would do a better job at that.

”Where’s Lily and Missy by the way?” I asked, changing the topic to a better direction.

“Missy is in her middle school along with Eric, or Shielder as we know him as a New Wave. As for Lily, I got her schedule. Seems that they can’t fit her class with us, so the PRT paired her class schedule with the New Wave kids instead.”

Huh, seemed a bit like gender segregation here.

“Oh, they should be here soon right?”

“Not like the lunch period is different for all the grades anyway. Besides there’s 30 minutes to burn here, so you will need to wait for a whi-nevermind they are here.” Dennis pointed behind me, but I can already see them coming when all the students in the canteen looked in one direction.

It was quite easy to guess as to why that happened, as there’s only one person in the school that can make her the attention of the school and give me that familiar sting in my head with her power.

[One Hit Wonder Brick detected][Hyper Light Laser Knight detected][Biological Royal Craftsman detected][God Killer detected]​

Victoria, or Glory Girl in her hero identity walked towards us. Even if she didn’t wear mask, people would figure out her identity from her emotion aura and her massive chest anyway. The blondie walking besides her must be none other than her cousin, Crystal, or Laserdream. Compared to her cousin, Crystal was...how do I say...easier on the eye? Mind you, she was still quite heavy on the front. Just not as much as her shorter cousin who was still taller than me.

On the other side of Victoria was a short brunette with curly hair, freckles and a very tired look, who was definitely Amy, or as the internet put it, the ‘Great Panacea’. She even more of a topic around the world than New Wave itself. And the Asian girl with pony tail following behind them must be Lily, my partner and friend from New York.

“Hey Drake!” Victoria waved at me.

“Hey Victoria.” I smiled back.

But a frown formed on her face as she looked down and stared at my artificial arm and leg, “Are your...limbs okay?”

While my bionic suit was good enough to fake out my missin limbs after modification from Panacea, one good look on my limbs and people will spot that two of my limbs were hollow with nothing inside.

But…

“I’m fine, Victoria. My new prostheses will be finished soon anyway. Thanks for asking.” I said, hoping that would comfort her.

But before she could say anything, Amy quickly rushed between us and grabbed my hand.

“Wha-”

“I MIGHT HAVE ACCIDENTALLY SWITCHED YOUR OVARY WITH YOUR TESTICLES. SO IF YOU DON’T WANT TO IMPREGNATE YOURSELF, PLEASE COME WITH ME TO THE TOILET FOR A QUICK CHECK.” she loudly announced right in my face and in front of all the students in Arcadia High, I can actually feel her spits on my face..

Geez thanks, Amy. Now the rumour of my mysterious gender is going to get worse.

I didn’t really have time to react when she dragged me away from the crowd with strength that seemed greater than her size would suggest.

“Hey Lily.” I waved at her as I was pulled towards her.

“Hey Drake.”

“Bye Lily.” I continued waving as I was pulled away from her.

“Bye Drake.”

She continued to wave as I got dragged away.

------

“Okay, Amy. What’s going on?” I asked with my arm crossed, sitting down on the toilet seat in the girl’s washroom.

In truth, I was really nervous. Just what did she know about? Does she know that Alchemical is Riley and is she trying to confront me about that?

“Well, I asked the PRT for the permission to talk about this. And since you are one of my patients, I need to tell you about your condition.”

Oh thank fucking God that she’s not talking about Riley. But...that still sounded really serious. Very serious as a matter of fact.

“O-okay, what did I have? Is it something you can’t fix?”

Amy remained silent, her tired eyes closed and she was deep in thought as to what to say for her next word.

“Yes.” she answered

“Okay…” I can feel fear wrenching my heart. “Go on.”

“Drake, do you know what a corona pollentia is?” she asked.

“It’s...a part of the brain that control and manipulate parahuman’s pow-you are going to tell me I don’t have one.”

“Correct, Drake. You are not a Case 53. You are not even a parahuman.”

------

Author note: Okay who actually see this coming please raise their hand up.

 

I had an event yesterday that went on till so damn late I nearly forgot to post this update from sleepiness.

As with all arc 4 chapters, thanks to Ziplopz for his betareading.

------

Chapter 4.3

------

…

…..

…….

“I...am not a parahuman?” I asked.

“You are 100% not parahuman. I’m not quite sure if you are human either.” she replied.

This...really brought out some revelations and even more questions about the existence of my extremely unusual power, both the Mystic Eye of Death Perception and the Second Passenger. Did someone really pick me to become the ultimate human weapon? Or was I really the most special case of Case 53 ever? Or maybe that I was just the next evolution of Case 53 project done by whoever that made us?

Still…

I sighed in relief, “I honestly thought that something worse has happened to me, like brain cancer or something.”

“The corona pollentia grows at a random spot of the brain like a tumor. So being parahuman is kinda like having a brain cancer. The corona grows mostly on the frontal lobe, by the way.” she explained.

“Well...now that you told me this, I think we should go back soon bef-”

“Oh, and by the way, I know about Riley.”

There is not a single soul on the planet that could hear how loud I’m screaming inside right now.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell anyone else about it. You and Dragon most likely have reason to do so.” she sighed with a trembling tone. “But the only reason why I’m not mad is because no one I know has actually been...experimented by her. If anyone related to her victims know this, they will hunt her down and lynch her.”

“I...I got her out of there, of them.” my heart ached. “Someone needs to lead her to a proper direction.”

Leaning against the wall, she said, “I know you are probably doing this from some noble reasons like Gallant did when he joined the Ward, but not everyone sees it the same way as you do.”

“How did you know this anyway?” I asked.

“It came from an amphibian friend of yours after she got drunk when I told her that I loved my sis-”

“GODDAMMIT FROGGER!!!”

------

Kay (Frogger)

“Ach-argh!!!” she sneezed just as she was taking a giant bite out of a beefy meatball. Unfortunately, the result of sneezing as she was swallowing the huge chunk of meat was...breathtaking.

“Oh God! She’s choking on something, someone get it out!” Yuuka yelled and people in the cafeteria quickly rushed forward to help.

A bear hug from a 6 feet tall girl easily pushed the chunk out of her throat..

“Why is everyone sneezing today!?” Michelle asked, but no one answered her back as Kay panted on the floor.

------

“Why, Kay!? Whyyyyyyyy-oh wait, what were you saying before I cut you off?”

She rolled her eyes and sighed, ”Nothing important...yet.”

“Okay, so erm. I think we should go, like right now. Before anyone thinks that we have been in the toilet alone for too long.” I nervously twiddled my fingers.

“Sure, let’s go.”

------

Lisa (Tattletale)

Infiltrating the school as a recent transfer had been rather easy, but the fact that Coil had men even in Wards-attending Arcadia High had unnerved her quite a lot. There’s only one order from the man himself: find out Batter Seven’s identity and any background information he had.

Well, step one had kinda completed on its own without her doing anything as the boy was naive and stupid enough to expose his identity from the beginning.

[Not stupid, competent in math, science, English and has good empathy unlike you][Wants to respect other Case 53 by not taking advantages of his human appearance]

Don’t correct me, power. Look at what happened to New Wave after they did that!

[His detection power can sense people even when sleeping][Batter Seven has high chances of defeating all of the Brockton Bay gangs, yours included]

She mentally pouted.

[They are about to exit the female washroom]

Quick! Act nature, Lisa Wilbourne. Act nature and walk away. Don’t look behind, they are leaving the washroom. Everything is fine.

[They are walking behind you][Slight walk-limping from lack of weight in prosthetic limb][Destination: Cafeteria]

Don’t worry, just act like you are about to go to your locker and done. They are gone without noticing your existence at all! Yay!

[His power has already detected you.][His eyes has also ‘detected’ your hip and hair]

INTERNAL SCREAMING INTENSIFIES!!!

[Does not seek further action][Allows the host to continue his own action][Going towards the Ward and New Wave in Arcadia High]

She nearly tripped herself as she pushed the door to the washroom. With shaky hands, she twisted the valve opened and splashed water against her face. She breathed in air as rapid as her heartbeat, but the cold water calmed her down a bit.

[Detection from Batter’s power is gone.][Deems you a non-threat, for now][Your appearance reminds him of his girlfriend.]

Drying her face off with her handkerchief, she walked into one of the stall and sat down on the seat. With the door closed, she thought back to the conversation between Batter Seven, or Drake as he had exposed his hero identity, and Amy who was also Panacea.

[Know he’s not a parahuman][His power has a completely different capability compared to other ‘normal’ power][Knows powers that are gained from other sources][Suspects he’s a next generation Case 53][Knows similarity of his power with a piece of fiction he knows]

Wait what, powers gained from sources other than triggers!? A fictional power became real!?

[Power came from vials][Only heard about this from the users][Possibly related to the incident before his transfer]

She might not knew what happened in that incident, but she’s very determined to find out.

[Power similar to power from a game][Fantasy Visual novel][Asian 2D porn]

What, what kind of porn game has the power to kill the fucking Siberian!?

[Made by Japanese]

Ah, that explained everything.

Now, onto the next thing...

[Adopted Riley][Riley is Bonesaw][Former Slaughterhouse 9 member]

Oh shit. OH SHIT!

[Made power suit for Batter Seven][PHO name: dragonkid11][Has PM with Tin_Mother][Tin_Mother is Dragon][Close relationship with Dragon][Dragon is Guild member][Riley might be locked up in Guild base in Canada][Riley is Guild member now?]

Well, that’s very reassuring.

As much as she wanted to tell someone about it, doing so will bring so much heat on her that nuclear hot didn’t even came close to describe the shitstorm that will happen if she ever did that.

With much hesitation, she took out her phone and dial a nameless number.

“Boss.”

“Tattletale, any news on our friend there?” dear God even his voice was so fucking punchable.

She sighed, as much as she didn’t want to do this, she had no choice, “Yeah.”

------

Did Amy really need to find a washroom this far away from the cafeteria when the school itself was already humongous?

Well, time for some small talks with her, this is getting boring.

“So, Amy.’

“Hm?”

“How does it feels like to volunteer for working at the hospital?” I asked.

“If you want the happy, heroic answer that I gave to the media, I’m very grateful that I can help thousands of people to continue their life happily without being hindered by some biological errors that I can heal with my biokinesis power.” she smiled sweetly at me.

But her face quickly turned into a frown, “If you want the real answer, it sucks hairy balls. You know what’s worse than fixing people with cancer and tumors? People that fucking spew disgusting fluid and shit everywhere from the wounds and orifices or whatever other holes a human body has!”

“And do you know how many naked people my de-virginized eyes have seen!? Way too many, I tell you! I can barely enjoy tits and asses now unless they are of the highest quality!!!” she loudly declared in the hallway. Thankfully, no one was around us because that would have been awkward.

That’s one way for a lesbian to come out of the closet…“Oh erm...you are into girls?”

She squinted her eyes, “I used to be straight like you until I saw way too many middle-age men’s wangs. Also counting that one case where I need to reattach a penis because that guy’s girlfriend was a former Lustrum’s gang member. And I need to do that with my bare hand because my power can’t work through fucking rubber gloves!!!”

I patted her back as she hyperventilated from the sheer rage she had experienced.

“Doesn’t your power works through touch? Why does your patient need to take off their clothes anyway?” I asked.

“Oh, they don’t. It just that some fucking terrible doctors always asked me for help when they made a mistake during surgery that will jeopardise their career and push the problem onto me instead!.”

She continued her rant, “And the worst thing about volunteering, is that there’s some superstitious motherfuckers that thinks that my power is demonic and say that they would rather die than be healed by me. Why even come to the hospital at all, you shit faggot evangelists!?”

I rubbed her back as her whole body shook from the intense rage.

…

[Priority: Gold]​

I then had a probably not-brilliant-but-maybe-workable idea.

[Social Link?]​

“Hey Amy.”

[Confirmed]​

“What now?” she clearly sounded annoyed…

“I was wondering if I can volunteer at the hospital and see if I could heal people by ‘killing’ their disease.”

Even since I got this power, it constantly brought out the question whether it can actually ‘kill’ everything. Cancelling out power and destroying all materials worked perfectly. And manipulation of kinetic energy was just part of my experimentation.

When I cancelled out Glory Girl’s emotion aura power which should technically be counted as a master and shaker power, I was wondering if I could kill more non-power things too. Disease and sickness were among the list of things I wanted to try it out.

“You want to stab my patient with your power?” she asked.

That’s kinda putting it bluntly… “Erm…”

She shrugged, “Sure whatever. Just don’t kill them.”

“Great! I was wondering if I could do more than fixing common sickness and maybe even mental sickness too.”

“...Mental sickness? You would be the second coming of Panacea if you can cure PTSD and depression!”

…

“Okay that sounded a bit weird considering who I am...” Amy sulked a bit.

I laughed at her declaration, but yeah, healing mental illnesses with 100% success rate would be something no one else had managed to do so despite how many emotion-manipulators are out there.

“How do your power actually works anyway? Do you just stab things or…?”

“No, I see dots and lines which I can stab and cut. But if I wanted something special like ‘killing’ the heat of a cup of coffee. A new dot will appear if my power is capable for doing that.”

“Hmm...maybe you can try to see if you can ‘kill’ someone’s mental problem like say...suicidal tendencies?” she suggested.

Hmm...I have a feeling I might regret this, but here goes nothing!

For a moment, I closed my eyes and thought about what I wanted to see. The suicidal tendencies of a person had always been there, hidden deep inside all of us. But it could be seen as a self-destructive behaviour as well, in which we just didn’t care about what happened to us, not even death.

In the next second, I opened my eyes and saw a massive black dot on Amy’s chest, with dark lines as thick as tree branches coming out of it. If it wasn’t for the Second Passenger, I would have flinched away from her out of fear.

“Drake, what happened?’ she asked while touching my face, checking me for sickness. My face full of fear might had gave it away.

“I…” should I tell her that she’s pretty damn close to killing herself? Is this caused by her work in the hospital? If that’s the case, I need to help her out.

“It works. I can see...a huge dot on your chest.”

She sighed, “Yeah...kinda expected that.”

“Amy, if you need to talk about anything, but say so.”

“I’m fine.” she shrugged.

“People usually aren’t fine when they say ‘I’m fine’, Amy.”

She sighed again.

“Look, Amy. Let me help you at the hospital, okay?”

“Sure, whatever. I’m pretty sure the lunch period is about to end. Walk faster, Drake.”

“Right.”

------

By the time we reached the cafeteria, the Lily and the rest of the Wards were still sitting at their table, having conversation with the New Wave on some cape stuffs as they finished their meal. It seemed that the New Wave prepared their own lunch instead of eating the meal provided by the school, probably a better idea than eating the mysterious meat.

Victoria, apparently having her own big sister instinct, spotted us as soon as we stepped into the cafeteria. She quickly flew up from her seat and landed in front of us, it seemed she used safety short all the time, “Finally, you two are back. What took you guys so long?”

“We-”

“It took a while but her equipment is now fully-functional.” Amy, why!?

Let’s just say that everyone in school will be looking weirdly at me ever since this day...

Victoria raised her eyebrow, “Okay...what really happened just now?”

“Amy and I were talking about using my power to help her in the hospital to heal people faster.”

That’s when her expression went from disbelief to doubt, to being on cloud nine in a very short period of time. That widening grin as she processed what I said kinda set me on the edge.

“Amy, I knew it! I knew you have it in you!” huh?

She grinned widely, “You like girly boys, aren’t you?”

Wait what.

“Wait wait wait, that’s not what I meant-” I quickly tried to explain.

She raised up her palm towards me, “I don’t need to hear the rest. Go on, you have my permission to make her happy!”

...Oh dear God, did she thought that Amy and I were…

“I-I was only just planning to help her in the hospital, seeing as my power can also be used to-”

While she’s only a few inches taller than me, she still towered over me and with her hand, she patted my head. “You two might not be an item for now. But when you two do get together after all that hard work in hospital...” the winking she gave me was suggestive enough.

“However…” but her mood changed quickly as I felt a familiar sting in my head. Even with my power countering her emotion aura, I could feel a hidden threat behind her smiling face, “If you ever hurt her, I will…”

Which stopped as soon as she thought about her words some more, “Actually, I think Amy will hurt you more on her own. Seriously, stop being so snarky, Amy.”

“Not my fault if you paired me with douchebags.” Amy rolled her eyes and shrugged.

“Anyway, Amy.” from her bag, she took out a plastic container. Inside were a pair of delicious looking sandwiches, “You need to eat soon. The bell is about to start!”

Amy quickly snatched the container from her and gobbled the sandwiches down like a hungry wolf. I can see that Victoria cared about her sister deeply as the sandwiches were well prepared. Fresh lettuce, tomato, sliced cheese, and ham in between two pieces of nutritious wheat bread. A simple balanced meal that can be prepared in no time, though I’m sure Amy would pick something quick and edible to eat like instant noodles or simply grab the school meal instead.

I was about to talk with Lily but the bell ringed just as Amy finished her lunch. As I was walking to my class with Chris and Dennis, a hand stopped me.

I turned back and saw Amy looking right at me.

“Can you check Vicky’s dot?”

I didn’t need her to ask twice to figure out what she meant, so I looked right at Victoria as she’s walking away with her cousin and Lily and activated my power.

“Come on Amy, we have to go now!” Vicky called out for her.

“How big?” she asked as she walked away.

“Bigger than yours.” I answered grimly. Something had to be done about these two sisters.

------

Several hours later, my first school day was finally over and I followed Carlos and the rest of the Ward to a PRT van that’s hidden a couple blocks away. The PRT van eventually took us up the forcefield road and into the Protectorate base. We then walked towards the Ward base on foot and quickly turned everything on as well as switching into our Ward uniform.

I kinda got a new one after the last fight with Hookwolf ripped the last one to shreds…

The new costume was basically the same with my old costume, except it has the word ‘Batter’ and the number ‘7’ printed in big black letter on it like it’s an actual baseball uniform. I can see my fans fanatically buying the shirt for their own collection already.

However, I can’t go on a patrol today anyway, so none of my fans will be seeing this uniform until tomorrow. Instead, I will be stuck here doing monitor duty all day long under Vista’s guidance.

This is going to be so boring.

[Escher Reality Marble detected]​

“So, did you remember any of that?” Vista asked after she gave me a rather thoroughly explanation on how monitor duty worked. I’m actually surprised that a 12 years old little girl had managed to say all that without stuttering or forgetting any parts like...well...other 12 years olds?

Not bad for a 2 years Ward.

“I...think I can remember half of that.” noooo, Asian genius master race had been defeated by a little blonde loli!

“Good, because you probably don’t actually need to do all of that. Things tend to heat up sometimes, but most of the time monitor duty is exactly just that, monitoring people. Remember to call them once in awhile to check on them.” She further explained.

“Okay, I think I got the hang of it.”

“Tell me if anything has gone wrong. I will be doing homework with Eric there.”

[Force Enduring Blue Guardian detected]​

Eric, also the youngest kid in the New Wave, Shielder. Also the only other guy I knew of that’s actually shorter than me! But he’s only a 13 years old now and he definitely had more than enough years to catch up and maybe even go beyond my current short height.

Still, the way he looked at me was a bit weird...and very familiar since I got that same look back at New York…

The other thing I noticed? He had fucking blue hair as if he came straight out of an anime.

Weird.

Anyway, seeing both Shielder and Vista working on their homework together in their costume seemed really adorable, but duty called.

Time to be on monitor duty today, it can’t be that boring right?

------

“How’s it going with Dreadlock by the way, Clock?”

…

“I heard it the first time already. Stop talking about her magnificent ass. Girls don’t like that.”

....

“Trust me on this.”

------

“Hey, Kid Win. You have that dyslexia thing right? Can I talk about it with you after you finished your patrol with Flechette?”

…

“Yes, it might involve me poking into your head.”

…

“No, I’m not going to stab you, Kid Win. It’s-Kid, are you still there? Hello?”

------

“No, you guys need to continue your patrol.”

…

“No, you don’t have 5 minutes.”

…

“Dammit, Glory Girl. Stop making out with Gallant! Also, Vista is right behind me and she’s pis-”

------

“And that’s what happened today.” I said as I forked a piece of juicy steak into my mouth.

And of course Nora intruded my personal space to ruffle my hair as soon as I finished the steak on my plate, “That’s great, boy. You sure had lots of fun for your first day at school.”

I smiled at the happy things happened today, but the thing about me not being a parahuman still irked me…

As we finished the steak, I put the leftover potato wedges in a plastic container and into the fridge before washing the plates as it’s my turn today. I swear, Nora had definitely rigged the dice or something.

It wasn’t long before I finished cleaning the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as I left them on the rack to dry off. I was about to go to my room for some internet browsing until I saw Hannah in my room, placing down a pile of neatly folded clothing on my bed.

I waited at the door until she walked out and noticed me standing, “Oh, Drake. Your clothing is all cleaned and dried. I have placed them on your bed in case you want to put them in the closet by yourself.”

“I..erm...thanks, Hannah. But I need to talk about something else.” I crossed my arm as I felt the air oddly chilling tonight.

“Panacea has told me.” despite the lack of context, she seemed to immediately know what I’m talking about.

“Drake, it doesn’t matter where your power come from. Just because you are different underneath and above your skin, doesn’t meant you are not human. You are a creature made in God’s name and you have your own right to live on this world.” she said.

I...I got no word to say.

“Hannah, I...didn’t know you are a religious person.”

“Oh...oh dammit, I got too zealous again.” she facepalmed.

“Don’t worry, kid! She has always been like this! Preaching Jesus and stuff!”

“Nora, I swear I will dump all the beer away if you continue!”

“Please no, not my life blood!”

Hannah sighed in disappointment as Nora begged all the way from the couch as she was watching TV.

“But still...I’m not parahuman or normal Case 53. And yet I got the mark on my back. Does that meant that I’m…”

She placed her hands on my shoulders, “Drake, the PRT, Protectorate and many other agencies have been investigating that organisation for a very long time. We adults will handle it.”

“...Okay.” I gulped down my fear and flinched when she placed her arms behind me and hugged me tightly.

“We have been trying to find the truth and we are getting close to the answer. We will get them one day, Drake.” she released and patted me before going into her room, probably working on office stuff or so.

Well, that calmed my heartbeat down at least.

I then walked into my room and picked up my clothings, placing them into the drawers one by on-There’s something hard in this jacket.

…

It’s also the same one I wore when I was moving from the base to Hannah’s house, the day I felt that eerie atmosphere. With fear wrenching at my heart and a bit of curiosity, I reached into the pocket and felt something inside.

It’s a white plastic card and on it, it said, ‘Look at the card tomorrow, 16:34 PM’

That...was one oddly specific time, I must remember that.

I then flipped the card and felt my heart skipped a beat.

A symbol shaped like a ‘C’ was on the card, one that looked exactly like the tattoo on my back.

------

Author note: And the plot THICKENS.

And a small hint, 'It's not what you think at all.'

 

And another update to the fic.

As always, thank to Ziplopz for betareading.

Oh, with two 4 in this chapter...things will get interesting.

------

Chapter 4.4

------

I felt a spike of pain as I brushed my teeth a tad too harshly. After I spat out the toothpaste, I saw a hint of red in the liquid as it flowed into the drain. Looking at the mirror, I pulled down my lip and found a bit of red right between my teeth. A quick wash with water dulled the pain quickly.

But it still wasn’t enough to shake off the fear from what I found yesterday.

Just...how!? How did that card get in my jacket!?

Should I tell someone? Can I even trust anyone about this?

It felt like ever since I came to this world, dangers were present almost every day or week.

…

I sighed and cleaned my face with a splash of water.

“Drake, Lily, the breakfast is ready!” Hannah called out for us, probably from the kitchen.

“Coming!” Lily replied from her room.

“Yes, mom.” I replied as I wiped my face with a dry tower.

With a push towards the door, I walked out of the washroom and saw Hannah looking at me with a funn-

…

…..

…….

It was the moment when I realised that I had made a terrible mistake.

Hannah quickly hid her face and had her back faced towards me. Her whole body practically shook from the amount of laughter she had right now.

Yup...I no longer had dignity anymore.

I was so busy lamenting my own fate that I couldn’t notice the sock-muffled footsteps behind me. So I was certainly taken by a surprise when Lily suddenly patted my head.

“Come on, little bro! The breakfast is going to get cold soon!.” goddammit, Lily.

As we sat on our seats and prepared to unleash these instruments of culinary technology onto our breakfast, Hannah sat down on her own seat and quickly drank down a glass of milk.

Apparently, it was so funny she nearly choked from the laughter, “I really needed that laugh, Drake.” she then grinned at me, “You have no idea just how many Ward I have mentored before have accidentally called me ‘mom’.”

“They do? I wonder why…” I shrugged and grinned, “Well, I’m starving already. So let’s eat!”

I quickly dug in onto the plate full of delicious breakfast, with the usual sunnyside eggs, pancakes, bacon stripes and french fr-

....Wait a second.

“Erm, Hannah.”

“Yes, Drake?”

“You are...a Christian, right?” I asked.

“Oh, you are asking why a Middle-Easterner switched her religion to Christianity, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

“After I arrived in America at the age of 7, I was placed under the foster care system and I was adopted by Christians.” she explained, “So for convenience sake, I switched to Christianity too.”

“Oh.” I replied in acknowledgement.

“And I might had been tempted by the delicious smell of bacon.” and just as she said that, she sliced a bacon stripe in half and put it in her mouth.

“Ah, truly this is the dark side of Christianity. They are stealing believers of other religions with the power of bacon!” and of course this was when Nora came in between us.

We all laughed anyway.

“So, we got mommy here.” she pointed to Hannah, “And two kids.” she patted both Lily and I, “So...who am I?”

“The freeloader aunty who is currently unemployed.” we all answered simultaneously.

“Ah! I’m trapped in a den of snakes here!” Nora looked like she’s about to have a heart attack.

We all chuckled and finished our breakfast.

------

And what happened for the next several hours was basically another day at school. Hannah said it will take me at least a week to get used to the schedule but I felt at home with Arcadia High and its environment, teachers and students already. While I’m still getting some weird stares from a few students and teachers because of my eyes, things were good so far.

It wasn’t long before the school bell ringed with Chris, Dennis and I get to eat our lunch. Once again, I praise RNGesus that today’s food was above average and I finally get to taste Arcadia High’s very own pizza slice.

The tomato sauce spread on the bread, the melted mozzarella cheese layered over it and the pepperoni slices placed neatly on top of everything, even the crust had that perfect texture balanced right between softness and hardness.

It might not be as good as commercial pizza but it’s okay.

“Hey guys.” a familiar feminine voice came behind me as I was halfway through my pizza slice.

“Hey.” it was the New Wave’s kids of course, with Lily following behind them.

Silently, I activated my sight and used it to see suicidal or self-destructive tendencies within people. Once again I felt my heart skipped a beat as I saw Victoria and Amy having far bigger dots than any of us. This...was very alarming.

The other worrying thing I saw was that parahumans tend to have bigger dots than normal human too. It might be because of the very nature of trigger, the trauma that inflicted onto them in the process and what they had seen to get a taste of supernatural power, but I’m fearing that there’s more…

Looking back at the group of people that I now knew from the internet as the Travelers, the person named Noelle was very unstable and completely out of control with her monstrous body and her cloner power that can only make evil clone rapidly.

It might had been possible that it’s because of how they gained power from vials instead of triggers, but considering how most power can only be used for destructive purposes rather than constructive purposes even when the user can do something good with their power.

It became clear to me that something out there was giving us powers with malicious purpose, and now that I can see parahumans have higher self-destructiveness than normal humans, I can conclude that without a doubt.

And I had no idea who should I tell this to.

…

“Drake?” Victoria called.

“Hm?”

“My eyes are up here.” she pointed and I quickly realised why. Unlike comicbook, time continued as I was monologuing internally, and I ended up staring at Victoria’s...assets during the whole time. Clearly, this was yet another proof that this world was an anime.

“Oh erm, sorry. I was looking at something else-I meant I was checking...I’ll just shut up for now…” I shut my mouth.

She patted my shoulder, “Don’t look at me! It’s Amy that you’re hitting on!”

Oh dear God, she remembered that.

Both Amy and I could only facepalm when Miss Invincible here was pretty much smiling in her own world.

“Come to think of it, you guys were talking about working together in hospital yesterday, right? Do you help Amy work faster so she can have more free time or…?” Victoria asked.

“My power might be able to heal diseases by ‘killing’ them in a sense of word, we were also wondering whether I can heal mental illnesses as well. Well, my power said I can, but I still need someone with one so I can actually know it works.” I explained.

“Chris has dyslexia, remember?” Dennis whispered to my ear.

“Okay then.” Amy and I turned towards our test subje-I meant volunteer, we also might or might not be sporting a wide demonic grin on our faces right now, “Chris, it will not hurt at-ah, he left.”

We had absolutely no idea how he managed to run out of the cafeteria with nobody noticing, but he did. But considering how the chair he was sitting on wasn’t moved by not even an inch, he might had used his tinker tech to teleport out of here.

“Oh well, there’s always next time.” Amy patted my back. I felt slightly disappointed at the hasty escape of my volunteer but there’s always mor-Wait a second, this sounded rather familiar…

------

Riley (Alchemical)

“Riley.” a robotic voice called for her.

“No.” she denied.

“Riley, please.” Dragon pleaded.

“No.” she denied again.

“Riley…” with a remotely controlled feminine robot body, the latest in hybridization tinker technology made by Riley and her, Dragon pointed to her plate, “Please eat your carrot.”

Instead of listening to the world's most prestigious tinker, the little tinker poked at the carrot piece with her fork. The carrot piece was cut in a way that it looked like a cute little orange nub, made specifically to attract children to eat them as children don’t like to eat vegetable after all.

But she wasn’t just any normal child, she’s a self-respectful lady who had a higher standard than eating this kiddie meal for kids that were younger than her by a few years. Well...besides the fact that she really didn’t have any proper childhood thanks to being in a makeshift family of mass-murderers for years.

“If you don’t eat your carrot, you won’t grow up as a fine lady.”

“Dragon, I am a biotinker. Half of my body is made out of biomechanical tinker tech and I can grow into whatever body I want.”

“I mean in terms of mentality. Besides, Drake won’t want you to be like that. He want you to have a normal childhood like any other children. Please eat it for his and your own good.”

She sighed, “Okay Dragon, you win this time.” she glared dagger at the offending piece of carrot, “And darn you, you orange piece of cellulose and fibre!”

With a fork, she stabbed it violently and put it into her mouth.

“Don’t forget to chew it.” Dragon asked politely.

Quickly, she chewed and heard it being crunched by her teeth. The taste was only barely acceptable to her after it was drenched in black pepper sauce. But in the end, she swallowed it down.

“Good girl!” she was quite surprised when she felt a hand on her head, ruffling her hair as Dragon took the dirty dish with her hands.

“I will clean up the plate, you go and do your work.” Dragon said.

Riley then cleaned her face with a splash of water at the washbin and moved to her workstation.

But not before she sneezed because that itch was getting really unbearable.

------

…

Eh, whatever.

“Drake, can I talk to you privately for a few minutes? There’s something I need to ask about.” of all the person that could be asking me now, Dean walked forward and spoke to me..

I honestly didn’t expect that, only when I saw a nod from Amy that I agreed to his request. He said goodbye to Victoria just before leading me towards the roof.

The wordless walk to the top slightly unnerved me as our feet tapped loudly on the floor tiles. As he pushed the door open, I felt wind rushing past me. The wind up here was really breezy and it will only get colder from the upcoming winter. While I shielded myself from the wind, Dean chose to face it instead, with his back towards me.

“So, what do you want to ask about?” if it wasn’t for the bionic suit, I would be shivering from the cold already.

“When you came back with Amy yesterday, I sensed that you were experiencing a brief moment of being distraught at something and so was Amy. And the next time when we all left for our class, you had an even worse emotion while looking at Victoria.” he turned around, “And that happened again when you saw Victoria and her sister.”

He continued, “Drake, what did you see?”

“I…” I swallowed my fear. Yeah, I can trust Dean on this, “Remember what Amy and I said just now about me capable of sensing and healing possibly all disease including mental illnesses?”

“Go on.”

“Well...the problem is that it works, a bit too well in fact.” I grimaced.

“I basically used my power to see how much people want to kill themselves or don’t care about what will happen to them. I tested it a few times today, and saw parahumans in general have greater suicidal or self-destructive tendencies than normal human. I’m still kinda afraid to look at myself in the mirror with my power on after I found out about that.”

I continued, “The thing that I’m worried about the most is that both Amy and Victoria has even bigger dot than the rest of us do.”

“This...this is bad, and I thought it was just…” he stopped and seemed to be deep in thought for a moment, “Maybe…”

His face suddenly changed for the better as if a light bulb was switched on in his head.

“I think I figured it out, but I need you for help.”

“Okay, go on.”

“Work with Amy in the hospital, and look after her. I will handle Victoria on my side. We will get to the bottom of these.” he suggested.

“Alright, I see what I can do.” I agreed and we both left the roof and back to the cafeteria.

…

Man, I really have the tendency to help people all over the place, I might really have chronic hero syndrome…

------

“Come on, Chris. Don’t be such a baby and let me fix your dyslexia.” I urged him to sit besides me so I could poke into his head..

“Nope.” he shuffled away from me, even if it only brought him an extra inch of distance between my fingers and his head. Then again, we were in the PRT van now, not exactly made for comfort and personal space with 7 Wards in the van.

And yes, he literally teleported away from school just to escape my poking and hopefully when he teleported back for the class, he did so in a spot that no other students could notice..

“Just a little poking, it’s not a big deal!” I said as I raised up one finger from my prosthetic right hand.

“Nope!” he said as he lifted Missy up onto his lap, using her as a cute pouting human shield which she didn’t take liking to.

“Come on, Chris. You ran off during the lunch period when both Amy and I needed a test subje-I meant a volunteer for a simple power experiment. If it works, I can fix every single mental illness the entire human race has suffered!”

“If it doesn’t work, my brain is going to turn into mush!” he hugged Missy tightly from behind, who was clearly not amused.

“It’s not that bad! At minimum, you just can’t math for the rest of your life!” I jokingly said.

“Nope.” he quickly denied.

“Can you two please settle this elsewhere, now if you excuse me, I have a better lap to sit on.” Missy then removed Chris’s arms off her waist and sat on Dean’s lap instead. She looked really tiny as Dean was still a whole head taller than her even with her sitting adorably on his lap.

“Okay, guess that’s busted. Lily, what do you to sa-” I was a bit shocked when I turned towards her and saw her face that got even paler than before.

“Lily, are you alright!?” I placed my left hand on her forehead and felt heat coming from it. A fever?

“...I’m not.” Lily weakly answered.

“Didn’t you ask Amy to check?” I asked.

Her eyes darted around as she came up with an answer, “...I was too nerv-” And then she vomited all over the place.

“Oh my God!” Carlos yelled.

“It’s everywhere. I can’t contain it!” Missy said as she tried to use her power.

“Friendly fire. Friendly fire!” Dennis yelled and the whole van swerved around as the driver was panicking as well.

------

Lily (Flechette)

This was clearly not how she imagined today would start out as.

She dry-heaved into the dustbin, even long after there’s nothing left in her aching stomach to puke. Her skin felt cold as if she was in a winterland and her body felt hot as if she was in a sauna at the same time. Sweat came out of her skin as her body lost control of her temperature, drenching her clothing wet and sticky as Drake lifted her onto the couch..

Not a very pleasant feeling but the warmness of his small chest felt so soothing to her..

“Lily, close your eye and rest. I will be away for a moment.” he said, and her eyelids felt heavy enough to drop on their own.

…

She dreamed.

Dreamed of the first night of she met him.

His alien eyes was full of fear, constantly looking for threat. But the stare he gave seemed to pierce right through her soul, and she felt true fear every time he looked at her. It was as if she was looking at death itself every time she looked at him, and she felt fragile and weak when he merely looked at her.

It’s not just her that felt like this, everyone else did. They all feared him, for good reasons too.

But even then he feared everything in this world more than us, too different from his own world. The power, the supervillain, and the horror dwelling within. To be honest, she had no doubt that he can defeat every single one of those thing.

Whether his own innocence will survive was an entirely different question.

The New Yorkers all tried to help him in their own way, though Laser Hoop did kinda surprised everyone when she asked him as her first boyfriend ever. Whether it’s because she sympathized with him, or she really loved him from the bottom of her heart was a question that only she could answer.

But it was kinda fitting that Miss I-triggered-so-hard-I-ended-a-A-class-threat-on-my-first-day became his first girlfriend. Fate really did came together in the end.

…

Which was why she felt really bad to drag him all the way and for...that to happen. She already ruined her own relationship with Kay, it pained her that she might had ruined yet another.

And she can’t do anything about it.

…

“Where’s the best spot to measure body temperature?” it was Drake’s soft voice that’s coming from her right.

“Ears but we only have the standard thermometer. Just put it in her mouth.” Carlos replied.

“Put it in her butt maybe?” she twitched and clenched her butt as Dennis gave his answer.

Drake could only sigh at his answer, “Mouth it is then. Lily, open your mouth please.”

She did and felt a tasteless hard glass poking her tongue as she sealed her lips.

“39 degree celsius, she definitely needs a trip to the hospital.” he suggested,

“I could give a call to Victoria and ask her sister.” Dean said.

“You don’t have Amy’s phone number?”

“Well...she won’t answer my phone call.”

“Oh…”

She heard his phone beep as he called his girlfriend.

“Hey, Victoria!...I need some help from your sister...It’s Flechette, she’s sick...Yes I know Amy is busy now, I’m asking if we could get her heal her as soon as possible...Okay, thanks! Bye!...Yeah later, Vicky.” he closed his phone.

Another beep quickly came in.

“Hello?...Amy?...Lily?”

She opened her eyes and looked at Dean.

“Yes…?” she answered weakly.

“Amy wants to talk to you personally.”

“Okay?”

When Dean gave her his phone, she was slightly nervous as to what Panacea want to talk about with her.

“Hel-”

“What the hell is wrong with you!? If you are fucking sick, just fucking ask and not wait for it to get worse!” okay that was really really loud, she can feel her ear ringing from that.

“Geez! People like you that don’t want to make troubles to others and yet make these troubles anyway is fucking annoying.” she continued ranting.

“I’m...sorry about this. But you looked really tire-”

“I’m fucking tired from working the hospital 24/7! What did you expect!?”

“No I meant, you looked tired of something. I’m not sure what, but I thought that I could tough it out and not bother you about this…”

...

“Well, that’s nice of you, but it got worse in the end.” she sighed, “Come to the hospital, I will heal you there.”

The line closed.

“So...what did she said?” Dean asked.

“Erm...she said okay?” she hastily answered.

“Sure…You are totally not flinching from her megaphone-like voice, isn’t it?”

“Erm...yup!” she fakely smiled.

“Anyway,” Carlos said, “Since Flechette is sick, we will need to change the schedule.”

And then the entrance door slid open as Glory Girl walked right in, “Or you could get me to replace her!”

The flying brute placed a hand on her shoulder, “Take your rest, I will handle patrolling with Batter Seven.”

She raised her eyebrow, “...Are you sure? Because the last time you go with him…”

“Let’s not bring that up again, okay?” Drake cut them both off. “Victoria, can you carry Lily to Mouse Protector’s car? I will lead the way.”

“No problem!” despite that cheerful tone, one could easily see that she was still distressed about the whole incident.

And as much as Lily wanted to complain about being manhandled by Glory Girl, having her face propped against her bountiful chest pretty much ended any argument.

Maybe today wasn’t so bad after all.

-----

“So, food poisoning, aye?” Nora asked as she drove the car to Brockton Bay General Hospital, the one Panacea worked every day for almost a year. For a person as crazy as Nora, she was certainly a far better driver than expected..

“Umhm…” she replied.

“It’s really weird that Director Piggot is always trying to find excuses to not let me do my patrol. I meant, I don’t mind carrying you to the hospital. But she really don’t want me to do my heroic duty! I wonder why…”

There’s most likely a noodle incident involved somewhere in the past that made even Director Piggot astonished. She’s not quite sure if she wanted to know what is it.

“Just rub your tummy, we will be there so-ah ha!”

After a few minutes of finding an empty spot in the parking lot, Nora parked her car in a nice, sunny spot.

“I will talk with the counter first for permission to visit Panacea. They got some real firepower in there to protect miss fix-everything. Sit tight and I will be right back.” she then left the car and walked towards the hospital.

Well, might as well take a nap for now.

…

…..

…….

The car door opened and she felt something heavy was placed besides her. The suddenness of it startled her awake and she turned to her left.

It was Nora, safe but completely unconscious and currently drooling onto the seat.

“Huh!?” another car door opened and someone sat in the driver seat, but her vision was quickly obscured by a cloth as she smelled something unhealthy and felt really sleepy…

…

“Boss.”

…

“I got both the target and an extra, how do you want me to take care of the extra?”

…

“No problem, boss.”

The car silently drove out of the parking lot and onto the street.

------

Author Note: You may start guessing who will die in this arc.

The first two alphabets do not count.

...

Wait, i was suppose to say the first two answers do not count, right?

Ah whatever, you will see.