Tag Archives: Bluebell

B006 Big Game Hunt (Part 4)

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By the time Brennus entered the room, Tyche had already had her right arm broken and four long gashes on her left hip dripped blood as she collapsed on the ground from a punch to the gut.

He can cut through my ceramic, thought Brennus, partly with fear but mostly with a mix of annoyance and humiliation. Hopefully, his own armor would prove more sturdy.

He would also need to clean up the blood before they left, so there would be no DNA evidence left behind – not to mention all the messed up stuff metahumans could do to people through their blood.

Better survive this first, though.

Panthera Rex reacted to his entrance with blinding speed, somersaulting towards Brennus, aiming a flying double kick at his chest. Brennus reacted by dropping to his knees, allowing for his momentum to carry him forward over the floor.

As the supervillain flew over him, Brennus shot him with the stun gun, hitting him squarely in the chest.

He seized up, his whole body shaking as the electricity coursed through him, and slammed into the wall to the left of the door.

Keep the pressure up, keep the pressure up, keep the pressure up…

Bending backwards, his gun muzzle tracking the villain even as he slid towards the prone Tyche, he fired another shot once the shot buffer had reloaded, dropping the villain even as he tried to get back up.

Now, to keep up the attack, or grab Tyche and make a run for it? But he still needed to clean up the blood, as well.

Just then, Hecate charged into the room, her staff in one hand, the thrown stun baton in the other.

“Hecate, left!” shouted Tyche.

Wrong, right from her point of view!

But before Brennus could correct her, Hecate turned to her left, leaving her back wide open to attack.

Panthera Rex obviously did not believe in honorable combat, because he took the opening, stabbing his right hand claw into her back.

For a moment, Brennus could see a flicker around his claws, as if the air was moving irregularly around them, then the plunged through her cloak and her enchanted suit, biting deep into her flesh.

She didn’t even scream as she went down, instead emitting a soft sigh.

“No!” screamed Tyche before throwing up on the spot and passing out. He had hit her bad.

At least her power does not depend on her being conscious, thought Brennus as he shot the villain the moment his claws slid out of Hecate’s back, but to no avail. Panthera Rex had seen it coming and evaded by simply jumping up to the ceiling, then kicking off to slam his shoulder right into Brennus.

The armor took the brunt of the attack, but he was still rattled as the impact audibly cracked the floor. The upside being that, while rattled, he was not stunned and could immediately react by putting the muzzle of his gun to the enemy’s chest and shoot him with a contact shot.

Panthera Rex made a growling groan as his body seized up again, allowing Brennus to pull his legs up and kick him off of himself and up into the air.

Which was not all that smart, all things considered, seeing how he seemed to have thing for bouncing off of walls and ceilings to attack from different angles.

Or it would have been if Hecate did not take the chance to shoot at him while he was unable to evade, her green blast throwing him in the opposite direction, moments before she collapsed for good.

Green blast means it is a lethal shot, thought Brennus. We agreed to stick to non-lethal means!

Then again, the guy had just impaled her on his claws. He was clearly going for the lethal solution.

Brennus rose to his feet, switching his gun over to his left hand to draw his humming blade with the right one.

Panthera Rex had fallen down behind the desk, his fur withered where it had been hit, but already recovering.

Protection four, Regeneration.

Anything short of massive trauma to the head or chest would probably prove not fatal.

And he can regenerate lost limbs, too. Just takes a lot of time.

He should have attacked with the humming blade from the start.

And the ravenbots, too, now that he thought about it. How had he forgotten those?

Even as the enemy was rising to his feet, Brennus charged forward, calling all his nearby ravens – the three in the room, twelve more around the building – to attack.

Unfortunately, again, Panthera Rex not only had enhanced senses, but also more than a decade of experience in fighting all kinds of enemies. The only reason they had survived this long against him was because he had merely been playing with them.

Judging by the bestial snarl on his half-human face, playtime was over.

He stopped Brennus’ charge by kicking the desk so it slid over and hit him in the gut, the cheap wood shattering against his armor, then punched the wall, which led to a demonstration of what even mid-level super-strength could do by propelling him backwards and through the converging cloud of ravens to kick Brennus in the face, throwing him back.

Good thing I built the neckpiece to automatically stiffen when I am hit like this, or I would have to deal with a broken neck.

Again, the impact absorbtion of his suit prevented him from being stunned too badly, and he attempted to capitalize on it by bringing his blade down on his enemy’s left arm – his claws were the only parts of him that could truly threaten him, the only weapon in his enemy’s disposal that could penetrate his armor.

But again, Panthera Rex foiled him. He gripped Brennus’ armored waist by crossing his arms, then flipped himself over by a spin and dug the claws of his feet into the floor for traction, followed by bending backwards, lifting the armored youth up and slamming him head-first into the floor behind him, cracking it even further.

Ow. I actually felt that.

This time, he truly was stunned as his body fell down with a loud slam.

Stop fighting normally, there is no way I will beat him like that, he knows all those moves.

So he fired his two grappling hooks from his waist-mounted launchers, to pull himself up to the ceiling… only for Panthera Rex to sweep his claws around and cut through the lines before they even connected with the ceiling.

The swipe was followed by a stomp that drove Brennus’ head into the floor, ringing his bells as a crack appeared across his visor, followed by the villain somersaulting backwards to evade the counterattack with the humming blade that would have taken his leg off.

Though that attack missed, it did buy Brennus the time he needed to flip over and push himself back up.

He tried to level his gun at his quarry, but Panthera Rex put his enhanced jumping ability to good use, moving too close to be shot as he struck the gun with one claw, cutting it in pieces.

Oh, come on. Can that thing not make it through one engagement?

Brennus struck him with his humming blade, angling his hand so he could stab him despite being so close.

Again, it proved futile, as Panthera Rex exploded into movement, his claws lashing out so fast Brennus could not follow.

Before he knew it, his sword, right-hand gauntlet, left-hand bracer and chest piece were either completely destroyed or raked so badly they might as well be, though thankfully the armor proved sturdy enough – and the hits shallow enough – to prevent any actual damage to his body.

Throwing himself backwards, he had his ravens descend on the veteran villain, only for him to tear them apart with another burst of speed, his claws tearing through their already fragile bodies with the same ease with which a scalding hot knife cut through warm butter, leaving only two ravens behind that Brennus had not ordered to attack in favour of positioning them on the bodies of his fallen comrades.

Taking heavy breaths, Brennus just stood there, his arms hanging limply as he was slightly bent forward, so as not to expose the damaged chest plate as an easy target.

Panthera Rex seemed to be at least slightly winded, though not nearly enough to make Brennus feel better about the ease with which his assets had been destroyed. The only weapons he had left were one stun baton and a simple knife he had added to his arsenal.

Why did I leave my stun grenades behind? They would be just the weapon to use against someone with enhanced senses.

Do you not remember? We took them apart to work on an upgrade for the ravenbots, since we are short on materials right now.

Blazing Sun? Where have you been, I had thought I had imagined you after all.

I am always with you. But you rarely listen.

No matter, when exactly did I- Ah, as if I did not already know there was something wrong with my memories. Any idea how to survive this?

Not my sphere of competence.

Thanks a lot for the help.

You are welcome.

“I wonder what you’re thinking, boy,” drawled Panthera Rex with a voice that was as distorted as one would expect a voice coming from a mouth that was halfway between a snout and a human mouth to be. “You don’t believe you can actually win this fight, do you? I’m just getting started.”

“It is not over until it is over,” replied Brennus, drawing his baton with his left hand – the right one was useless with the destroyed gauntlet.

The panther-man broke out into laughter, though he did not take his eyes off his opponent. “Oh, that’s a classic one. Have ya been studying up on some Rocky movies?” He made a motion with his hand, as if he was waving the thought away. “No matter. You’re done, and your two friends here need some medical attention, especially the witch. Surrender, and I’ll get them some medical attention.”

“That is oddly generous, considering that you wanted to kill us just moments ago.” His mind was racing, trying to find a way out.

“Not really. That one over there-” He pointed at Tyche. “- only has an Adonis power – or Physique, if you insist on that new rating – so she’ll sell at top dollar on the slave market. You won’t believe the prices metahuman sex slaves bring, if you know the right market.”

He did, actually, having studied up on it.

“And the other one will bring even more money if we sell her to the Califate. They always pay top-dollar for Contrivers. And let’s not even get started as to what a Gadgeteer like you is worth. We wouldn’t even need to look at the international market, or even out of the city.”

If he was not wearing a closed mask, Brennus would probably have spat at him. “Quite ironic, that the member of a group that started as an African-American pro-civil rights group – even a violent one – would engage in slavery.”

“Ha! Why does everyone freak out over that? It’s better than just killing you, right?”

“What makes you think I would make a good servant? Tyche could just be restrained if enslaved, the Califate would brainwash Hecate, but there is no way to ensure that I will not just blow my new ‘owner’ up.”

“We’d just sell you to the Five or somethin’. You wouldn’t be the first guy Mindstar got under her thumb.”

Now he had to bite back a laugh. It would almost be worth surrendering, just to see you try and sell me to her.

But he had to think of the girls. They really needed help, especially the badly bleeding Hecate.

“Let us end this,” he said, readying himself for an attack.

His enemy snorted and got into position himself, his claws stretched in anticipation.

A yellow-booted foot slammed into his jaw from the side, sending him spinning and right into the kick of a blue-clad girl, who kicked him back to the owner of the yellow-booted foot, a yellow-clad girl that proceeded to punch him in the throat and then, with an incredibly fluid movement, grabbed his arm, turned around and threw him over her shoulder and out of the window he had originally entered through.

What?

* * *

The two girls were equally tall, almost as tall as he was, and their skintight suits, identical except for their monochrome colouring, showed off body shapes that rivaled Hecate’s. Something told him that they were twins, maybe their absolutely equal measurements his computer provided, or the way they stood.

He was just about to ask them who they were and what they wanted when Panthera Rex leaped back into the room, snarling in anger.

Brennus grabbed Tyche by the back of her neck (sending the raven over to sit on the windowsill) and ran towards Hecate. The yellow-clad girl stepped forward as if she was taking a stroll, one hand reaching out to draw his knife from his belt and engage the enemy even as he knelt down next to Hecate.

“Do you need anything?” asked the blue-clad girl with a faint German accent. “A first-aid kit, a helping hand…”

“The kit sounds good,” he replied, only for her to vanish. No flickering, no fading, no flash of light, one moment she was there and the next she was not.

A mere three seconds later, she reappeared, first-aid kit in hand. She opened it while crouching down, unconcerned about the battle behind them, and held it out for him.

For a moment, he was worried about her attitude, and he said so.

“Glik has got that one covered. No problem there,” said the blue-clad girl.

The ten-year veteran villain, who had survived in New Lennston despite a comparatively tame power-set engaged the slim girl with the knife. He lost.

Glik walked back after cleaning the knife on his fur and knelt down next to him, putting the knife back into its sheath, and took care of Tyche. She was not even out of breath.

Together they took care of the girls, even as the panther king behind expelled his last breath, dying quietly and alone.

Oddly detached from the sight, Brennus noted with surprise that he was not a Chimaera type, as everyone had believed. The panther-man turned into a dark-skinned, well-built man, naked and hairless.

Morphing two to three, at least.

“Are you up to getting away from here?” asked the blue-clad girl. “Oh, I’m Bluebell, by the way.”

He rose, carefully putting one of his teammates over each shoulder as he assigned one raven to watch Glik – if she tried to attack him, well, he would need every advantage he could get. “I am not as bad off as I may look. My name is Brennus, by the way. And thank you, for your help.”

“We know who you are. But we can talk once we’re safe. There should be reinforcements on the way here.”

Meanwhile, Glik took some capsules from a pouch that was attached to the back of her waist and threw them at the bloodstains left behind by Hecate and Tyche, short flashes of fire burning into the floor to destroy them. Then, she picked up the stun baton Hecate had dropped and put it into his belt.

Some kind of precognition, or enhanced awareness? She is too competent, too fluid.

He turned to Bluebell. “Can you teleport us out of here?”

She shook her head. “We need to get out the normal way. Let’s go.”

* * *

They stopped when they reached a dark alley that was hidden from view.

He turned to thank them, but Bluebell spoke up: “No gratitude required. Just answer us one question honestly.”

“Of course…” he said, wary. Hopefully, they would not ask for his true identity. Considering what he owed them, he could not really deny them an honest answer.

Both of them looked at him, conveying an intense attention, despite their featureless masks.

“Are you the man in the moon?”

“What?”

Glik touched her sister and they both vanished instantly.

What?

B004 Introduction to Metahuman Studies (Part 4a)

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Melody had met up with Irene and Aimi after school and Irene had teleported them back to the HQ. There they’d split up. She had walked straight back to her workshop, only pausing to change into her workclothes, while Irene walked off with Aimi to eat.

Now Melody was sitting at her worktable (again) and tried to work out the emergency equipment Brennus had constructed for Prisca Fion (again) and was flabbergasted at his work (again).

Apart from the incredible speed at which he’d constructed them, he’d scavenged his stun gun for parts. With Irene’s help, she’d been able to isolate all the pieces that used to be part of the gun, as opposed to the other parts used. Unfortunately, by the time they’d been done, her time at the workshop was over and she had to go to sleep (stupid workshop rules for teenage gadgeteers and contrivers…).

Now, finally, she’d get to work through it.

Strange that this is what I spend most of my time in the workshop doing since I debuted. Then again, I wouldn’t have been able to upgrade my armor like I have if it wasn’t for his ravens and his anti-emp system…

* * *

“So I get to do whatever I want with the money?”, asked Aimi.

Irene shook her head in frustration. “This is the seventh time you’ve asked this question since you joined. You get to do anything that is not illegal”, she explained over a platter of Rainbow Bomb Salad.

“Sorry, I just don’t get it. They’re just giving us five hundred dollars a month, just to be members?”, Aimi asked back.

“Well, there’s more to it. You have to be available during your designated hours, you have to stay in shape, you have to attend the training programs and you have to keep up a minimal grade point average in school. That’s what the five hundred dollars are for.”

“And we get more if we go out and fight crime?”

“Yes, you get more for fighting mundane criminals, even more for super-villains depending on their class and a huge bonus anytime you go up against an S-class threat. So you’ve already made a nice amount of money for the whole fight down at the Acre. Though this money goes into a trust fund, to finance your education after graduating from high school. Anything that remains is paid out to you”, Irene replied.

“Man, that’s a lot of money!”

“Remember, you get it for risking your life. Supervillain fights are not a laughing matter.”

Aimi thought that over. “That explains the bonus money, but still, five hundred dollars just for being on call and doing some training? Plus, they’re picking up all the fees for me going to Diantha High!”

Irene rolled her eyes. “Well, that last part ain’t so big – remember, my mom owns Diantha High. As for the rest – I’m sure you know the statistics, right? So you should understand why they want to make sure you’re happy here and get an education.”

But she didn’t – Irene didn’t even need her power to tell her that the girl wasn’t following her train of thought. Good God, is she really this dense?

After a minute of Aimi eating quietly and trying to figure out what Irene meant, she relented. “We’ve got a serious imbalance between heroes and villains. The necessity for a traumatic experience to achieve powers, as well as the staggering chance for mental illnesses mean that for every heroic or neutral metahuman out there, there are four supervillains. The good guys are very interested in making sure that you remain on the side of the angels.”

Aimi nodded, finally understanding, and went back to her three plates of food.

Irene herself swallowed two of her pills, then finished her salad. She wasn’t all that hungry, but she’d learned the hard way that neglecting her body’s physical needs would make her power compensate, making it harder to stay in control.

And she needed to stay in control, especially around the junior heroes. Melody may have accepted her despite her lapse in control, but it was unlikely that the others would be as accepting – especially Jared.

So she finished the (gorgeous) salad and ordered another round, just to make sure.

* * *

The hospital had been repaired quickly after the Hemogoblins attacked – Basil could not make out any sign of recent repairs.

Well, if mankind had not figured out how to repair buildings quickly by now, no city in the world would still be standing…

<Father, my scans show a visitor in Ms Fion’s room>, said Eudocia, speaking to him through an earbud he had linked to her box.

<Oh? Who?>, he asked, using a subvocal microphone to answer without even moving his lips. There were only one or two people who could be visiting Prisca. One would be bad, the other would be really bad.

<Facial recognition identifies the visitor as Primrose Tamara Fion>

Yeah, really bad. Prisca’s mother… did not like him.

Still, he had come here to meet Prisca and he would be damned if he did not go through with it just because the scariest woman in the world was there as well.

So he walked to Prisca’s new room – she had been put in a more secure room, pretty much in the center of the hospital and underground. While he was pretty sure that Prisca at least did not like this new arrangement, he was glad for the extra protection.

In front of the room, he found a tall, tall man in a black suit and tie. Sebastian, the Butler of the Fion family and Primrose’s bodyguard. He had done some research – Sebastian was actually a very old metahuman, born back in 1934. He had manifested at age seventeen, when he had taken his father’s place as the Fion family’s butler and the then-head of the family had been assaulted by the Dark. He’d managed to save his master and escape and he had been the families most loyal servant since then.

As he approached, he was struck by how tall the man was. Two and a half meters of lean, iron-hard muscle, with shoulder-length golden-white hair, he was rated as a Physique 10, with Protection 7 for his regeneration, Perception 5 for his enhanced and expanded senses and Damage 4 for his enhanced striking power. He could be a top-class cape, even if you did not factor in his sixty-two years of experience, but he had chosen to remain loyal to the Fions.

The butler took one look at him from behind his black sunglasses, which he wore even at night or in a building – they did not impede his vision in any way, but gave his already intimidating presence a barely needed boost and protected him from being staggered by sudden brightness – and nodded, stepping aside to let him enter. He did not pat him down or anything, as his x-ray vision allowed him to check him for any hidden weapons or similiar things. Of which he carried none. Basil had even made sure to leave Eudocia back in his lair, because her box stood out under x-rays.

I would really like to know what goes through the mind of a man like this. To dedicate himself so fully and completely to a family. I hear he has never taken a vacation in over sixty years of service.

He passed by the man and entered the room.

Inside, he found Prisca on her bed, hooked up to her machines. Next to her, on a stool, sat her mother, Primrose.

Ever since he had first met the woman, Basil had felt… uneasy around her. She made no secret of her disdain for him, though he could not guess why she did not like him.

Primrose looked the way Prisca should look, if it was not for her disabilities. She was as tall as Basil, and since she always wore high heels, she stood even taller than him. Her hair reached down to her waist in carefully styled ringlets, with any grey she might have gained by now well hidden. She was no adonis… well, she was no metahuman and so had no Physique effect, but she could still have modeled. Even at forty-five years, she was still stunning, having aged in as dignified a way as one could hope to. The only trait she did not share with her daughter were her pale blue eyes. Prisca had inherited her father’s eyes. In addition to that, she was dressed in a dark green, knee-length dress, a stylish black jacket and the aforementioned high heels. But above all else, the woman had presence. She could intimidate him better than anyone he had ever met.

When she saw him, a frown appeared on her face, but she did not say anything. She stood up, kissed her daughter on the forehead and left without looking at him again.

He did not relax until he heard the door close behind him and the sound of her pumps walking down the hallway. Then he let out the breath he had been holding.

“Has she ever told you why she does not like me?”, he asked.

Prisca shook her head. “No, she just says that you’re giving her a bad feeling. Also, some stuff about you simply not being good enough for me, but I think she’d say that about any boy I might like.”

He nodded and took Primrose’s seat. Then he took a good look at Prisca.

Her kidnapping and the ensuing operation had taken their toll on her. She was paler than usual, her hair stringy and brittle, her limbs even more drawn-out. And her eyes looked so tired.

“How are you feeling?”, he asked, taking one hand between his two, giving it a light squeeze.

“Awful, really. But I guess that is to be expected”, she replied, squeezing back.

“What is the doctor’s diagnosis?”

She averted her eyes. “More damage to my lungs, though less than it might have been and they should recover – a bit. Same for my stomach. But they’re afraid they’ll have to remove a kidney, though they’re going to wait and see if it might recover.”

He caressed her hand with his fingers. I wish I could have made those assholes suffer. Instead all but the Goblin got away scot-free.

“Well, I have got some good news at least. Something positive about this whole business”, he said.

She turned back at him. “How could any of this be positive?”

“Well, you remember how I said it would be difficult for me to help you with some gadgets? How it would be suspicious if Brennus just turned up and left you some advanced tech?”

She nodded, not understanding what he wanted to say.

“Now that Brennus saved you, it would not be that strange for him to take pity and make an effort to help you – I might even be able to work out some arrangement for me to directly examine you!” He was getting more and more agitated. If he could get a chance to use his own equipment to examine her, he might be able to actually find a cure, small as the chance might be.

Her face brightened up immediately, making his heart flutter. I love it when she looks like that.

“Are you sure? You could help!?”

“I can not promise you a cure – but I should be able to make things easier for you, maybe even create some compact machines so you could go outside in a wheelchair!”

She drew him closer, throwing her arms around his neck.

“Oh, thank you, thank you!”, she sobbed, burying her face in his neck.

“Now, now, why do we not wait until I actually manage to help you?”, he said, softly patting her back.

She let go and he helped her lean back again, her short burst of strength already spent.

“You saved me from those villains, remember? You already helped.”

He shook his head. “First, it was mostly Gloom Glimmer who helped you. Second, they would not have kidnapped you in the first place if it was not for the sake of drawing me out.”

“Not your fault. Besides, did you find out what they wanted from you?”

“Well…”

* * *

“So the Savage Six thought you were some other gadgeteer they’ve been looking for? And they organized a city-wide crime spree, just to test whether or not you might be that person?! What the fuck?!”

“Yeah, it sounds strange. I mean, what kind of person must this Macian have been, to make them do something like this just on the off-chance that it might be him?”

“Probably some kind of uber-gadgeteer. A 13/13, maybe? That would make anyone who knows about him go to any length to get their hands on him.”

He turned that thought around in his head. “You know, I think if there was a gadgeteer out there with that kind of rating, he would not remain an unknown for long. I mean, he would have the most sought after power ever, short of the Protege of course.”

“Yeah, something like that. Still, he’s got to be quite the character.”

“Hmhm. So, you have already read about the new Werdenfeld-Manning-System for power classifications?”

“Not read. I watched Gloom Glimmer’s lecture.”

“Huh?”

“Didn’t I tell you? I’m going to be following the lecture by video. I’m already enrolled at Diantha High, though I mostly get private tutoring, but since I can’t get Gloom Glimmer over here, I’ll be following the whole course online.”

He smiled, amused. “So there is something your mother can not buy for you?”

“Are you kidding? We’re talking about the daughter of Lady Light and the Dark. Either of them is probably richer than the entire Fion family!”

“Oh, I know. Just teasing a bit”, he replied, giggling. “So, what did you think of the lecture?”

“It was fun, though I must say, she can make her exposition almost as long-winded as you do”, she said.

“Hrmpf. Just because I like to be thorough with my explanations…”, he snorted.

“Hihi, you’re just too easy to tease, you know. I swear, you could be a hundred years old, and you’d still get riled up whenever someone made fun of that.”

He blew her a raspberry.

“Oooh, how mature. That sure put me in my place.”

He snorted again.

“Well, either way, I have something else I wanted to ask you”, he said.

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh? What could that be? Will it be just as much of a surprise as earlier?”

Shaking his head, he answered: “No, I do not think so. But you will like it nonetheless. You see, I want you to do some testing for me. Something to occupy you.”

“That sounds really interesting. Tell me more!”

He pulled a hand-crafted tablet computer out of his backpack. It was a bit larger than the usual tablets, with a rimless screen the size of the usual printer paper. However, it was so thin and light, even Prisca would not have any problem holding it.

“Here, take this. I have already put in your fingerprints as the key to the lock.”

She took the tablet, curiously, smiling when she noticed the light weight, and pressed her finger on the screen.

It lit up, revealing several pre-installed programs and a white background with two black ravens biting each other’s tail, forming a circle.

“What is that symbol?”

“It is Brennus’ emblem. Do you like it?”

She nodded. “It’s nice, and so very you. But isn’t it dangerous, giving me something with your cape’s emblem on it?”

“First, only you can access this tablet. Second, who is going to check? Your mother is not going to rifle through your computer, right? And even if someone sees this, you can just say that you took the emblem as your background simply because he saved you and you like it.”

She nodded and he started explaining what it could do.

“It has got the usual features – internet access, high-definition graphics, compatibility with pretty much everything I could think off, a four-month battery life assuming two hours of use every day and so on. But the really interesting stuff is this little icon here.”

He pointed to a black icon with a red eye on it, formed like lips holding a circle between them. Eudocia’s emblem.

“What does it do? And what’s that symbol?”

“That is a secret – it would not do to spoil the testing by telling you what is behind it, you know.”

She pouted, which looked cute despite her cracked, thin lips, but he did not relent.

“It can only be activated with your fingerprint and you have to also type in the words ‘the world is vast’ as a password.”

“The world is vast?”

“Something that just came to mind. Feels incomplete, but I can not think of the rest of the phrase. Either way, try it out.”

She did so, tapping the icon and then putting in the password.

A black window appeared in the upper right corner. It was empty.

“If you tap this window, you can write into it, you can speak and you can drop in text, audio or video data. It will give back responses to anything you put in. I want you to challenge the program – give it any question, give it riddles and so on. You can even drop in games and watch it play them – or let it play in the background. You can also play against it, if the game allows for it. The purpose of the whole exercise is to see if you can find any flaws – anything it can not deal with, which causes it to fail.”

This way, you get to have some fun and I can outsource Eudocia’s testing.

“What kind of program is that?”

“As I said, telling you would spoil the testing. Do you think you can do this for me?”

She giggled. “Sure I can. And I can just throw anything at it?”

“Of course. If anything makes it hang up, I will know immediately and it will help me work some stuff out.”

“This sounds like fun!”

“I hope so. Now, I will leave you to it – I have work to do today. Specifically, working on that new equipment for you”, he said.

“Sure, sure, you go do that”, she said absentmindedly, already typing something into Eudocia’s chat window.

He smiled, giving her a light kiss on the cheek. Then he picked up his backpack and left, off to his lair.

Time for some work. Besides, Timothy would be there, together with the girls. He wanted to see whether or not they would like him.

* * *

The man (really more of a boy) that they called Hopscotch for the scars on his back that formed one such, had joined the Hemogoblins because… well, because of the girls. Or rather, one girl. The Goblin Queen. He’d first seen her when she’d robbed a bank he’d been in with his mother – she’d just smiled at him and he’d known that he wanted to work for her.

And at first, it had been awesome. Robbing people, assault, some rape, some other fun and, of course, sex with an awesomely hot woman whenever he did good work.

Then, last weekend had happened. Now, the Red Goblin was dead and Switchbitch and Redder were missing, with no trace to be found of either of them.

The queen had been less than pleased, to say the least. She’d been raging and screaming for two days, then started planning to retaliate againt the United Heroes. And Hopscotch would have been more than happy to help her – he might even get some more time with her, now that she wouldn’t be getting more goblins anymore and had to rely more on her real servants. Even though she’d just gotten a new metahuman, a young Japanese guy, as her right hand man, she’d still be thankful for his loyalty, he just knew it.

One minute ago, all of her and Hopscotch’s plans had been torn apart. Two girls had just appeared in the middle of their gathering, right out of nowhere. They wore identical skintight bodysuits and face masks that lacked even eye-holes, coloured Blue and Yellow, respectively. The suits were quite a bit thicker than usual, designed for efficient protection and movement instead of good looks, but they still did not hide that there were two real beauties beneath.

Before anyone present knew what had happened, the two had dismantled the fifteen baselines and two metahumans in the room, killing the twenty-three goblins they still had left.

Now, the Goblin Queen, herself dressed in what amounted to a barely present, black bra and loincloth, was lying on the ground, her hands nailed to the ground with her own knives. The new guy was unconscious, as was pretty much everyone else.

The girl in the yellow costume was standing over the Goblin Queen (she’d been the one to nail her to the ground – somehow), while the girl in blue was at the edge of the room, keeping a lookout.

Hopscotch had fallen where he’d stood, a single blow to his gut taking him out of the fight – though he was still conscious and able to watch.

Through the pain in his gut he watched and listened as the girl in yellow questioned the Goblin Queen about something, though the pain was just too much to really follow. Something about something called ‘Macian’, that asshole Brennus and the Savage Six. Why would they ask his mistress about the Six? Why would someone as magnificient as his mistress ever associate with the Six?

His mistress, of course, refused to answer – but that only made the girl in yellow take another knife that was lying around and impale his mistress’ foot, nailing it to the ground. He cringed in sympathy as she screamed in pain.

An outrage unlike anything he’d ever felt gripped him at the sight of his mistress being tortured, but his gut wouldn’t let him move.

The bitch in yellow questioned his mistress again, and this time, she answered. Though the bitch didn’t seem pleased by the answers, going by how she twisted the knife in his mistress’ left hand. Another round of questioning, and she seemed satisfied.

The blue bitch approached and held her hand out, which the yellow bitch took – and they vanished, just like that.

A minute later, he could finally move again, just in time for him to hear police sirens and watch as they stormed in.

* * *

The moment they arrived in their apartment, the two of them stripped out of their costumes. Both of them hated being part of the spandex crowd, but it was necessary to keep their identities secret as well as be more inconspicious.

Bluebell had laughed hysterically for ten minutes straight when she realized that wearing bright and flashy colours was less conscpicious than wearing normal stuff.

Glik immediately went to her computer, entering what little they had learned.

“Well, that was a bust”, Bluebell commented to her twin, walking up behind her to gather her long blonde hair in a ponytail.

Glik nodded, then stood up to return the favour.

“Do you think we should approach Brennus directly? If he’s Macian, he should recognize us immediately, right?”

Her sister nodded, but then raised a finger.

“But we have to be careful, I know. If he isn’t Macian, if the Six have him under surveillance, if, if, if.” She threw her head back, groaning. “Dammit, this almost makes me hope for another crime spree. It would be easy to contact him discretely if he were out fighting someone.”

Glik nodded again.

“Maybe we should actually contact the United Heroes?”

She shook her head.

“No, you’re right.” If only we knew how loyal Gloom Glimmer is to the Dark. Can’t have her rat us out to him.

Glik sat back down, typing something into her computer, pulling up a webpage.

Bluebell bent down to look over her shoulder. “Ooh, that might work…”

* * *

“Honey, I’m home! I’m hungry!”, Basil shouted as the elevator reached his actual lair.

He was greeted by confused stares.

“Hmph. No one appreciates the classics anymore”, he snorted.

Looking around, he could see his entire ‘team’ – if you could already describe it as such. Dalia was wearing an atrocious combination of orange hot pants and a purple top he hesitated to call anything other than ‘boobstrap’ while taking up an entire couch. Timothy was sitting at the console together with Vasiliki, who was showing him how everything worked (at least everything she could get to work) and Stephie was sitting on another couch, reading a comic book.

Tim spoke first: “It’s more like no one but you even bothers to watch most of the stuff you get your lines from.”

The girls giggled and Basil rolled his eyes.

“So, I guess you guys hit off with each other?”, he asked into the room while putting his backpack away.

“Well, we didn’t kill each other, at least”, said an irritated Dalia.

Stephie explained: “She’s just pissed that everyone’s been making fun of her outfit.”

“Oh, shut up, Mouse Girl”, replied Dalia, making a rude gesture. Stephie just giggled and turned back to her comic book.

Foreseeing more than enough occasions to ridicule Dalia’s wardrobe, Basil decided to let it rest for now.

“So, did anyone pick anything up?” He was referring to his surveillance systems.

Vasiliki answered: “There’s something going on with the Black Panthers. I think they are preparing to purchase something big, but no details yet.”

“Alright, we should keep an eye on that. Dalia, would you man the console? Maybe your power will help?”

The girl snorted, but stood up and walked over to the other two. Though she sat down as far away from them as possible.

“Anything else?”, he asked.

“No”, replied Stephie.

Dalia said nothing.

“I’ll just give Timothy a complete introduction, unless you want to do that?”, said Vasiliki.

“No, I would rather go down to my workshop. I have got quite a bit of work to do.” She nodded and turned back to the computer console.

He went down to his workshop.

* * *

An hour later, Brennus had made quite a bit of an advancement to his work on Prisca’s equipment. It felt strange, but somehow, his power was working more… cleanly right now. There was no other word to describe it. He was far more focused than usually, with less than five or six distractions every minute. Usually, his mind was working on at least twelve different projects simultaneously, though most were dead ends or forgotten before they could solidify.

If it went on like this, he’d be able to deliver the first package by the end of the week!

He was disrupted by Eudocia speaking up.

<Father, you may want to take care of this personally.>

He turned to the screen to his right, where she pulled up a video feed from one of his ravenbots.

This particular one stood on the edge of a rooftop in the Downtown. It showed a young man, twenty-something from the looks of him, standing on the edge.

<An analysis of his behaviour returns a probability of eighty-nine percent of him committing suicide>, explained Eudocia.

Ah, crap.

B004 Introduction to Metahuman Studies (Part 3)

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“First, I’m sure that you all know the old Cruse-System for classifying metahuman abilities, named so for Franklin Cruse, who organized and directed the convention that created the system back in nineteen-forty-seven, and which has been in use to this day. Whoever knows it also knows how incredibly confusing it can get, using mythological terms for some powers and a jumble of English terminology for some others. Does anyone here want to guess why it got so confusing?”

No one raised their hand. It didn’t surprise her – few knew this particular little factoid.

I’ve wondered about that, myself, but I could never make any sense of the whole thing, said Melody.

“Fun fact: It’s my father’s fault. The Dark’s. He thought it would be funny to make it as confusing as possible,” she said. People looked at her with disbelieving eyes.

Seriously? He thought it would be ‘funny’? And how did he pull it off?!

I asked him. He seriously answered that ‘It amused me’. And he did it mostly by sneaking into the convention led by Cruse and influencing the gathered specialists. He does stuff like that whenever he’s bored.

Good God, and you grew up with that? Explains so much.

Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?!

Melody didn’t respond.

She focused her thoughts back onto the lecture. “So, after sixty-five years, the Werdenfeld-Manning research team has developed a new classification system. The first and most important change is that it no longer bothers to differenciate between source powers and derived powers. What does that mean? Well, let’s take Lady Light as an example.”

Lady Light’s power classification appeared on the whiteboard.

Adonis 10

Generator 7 → Wild Card 10 (Hard-Light Armament)

“This is my mother’s classification under the Cruse-system. Observe how there is a distinction between her source power – Generator, her ability to create her hard light constructs – and the resulting Wild Card classification, a derived power. Her new classification is as follows.”

New words appeared next to the old ones.

Physique 12

Damage/Protection 7

Meta 12

“Notice first how it now lists the effects of her powers, instead of trying to denote a source power. Notice also how the Adonis-trait has been renamed – we will get to that shortly.”

“Now, you may ask yourselves what the big difference is. Simply put, this new system puts more emphasis on summing up what a metahuman can do, not why. It also necessiates more attention to the individual descriptions of the metahuman’s abilities. The main reason for this change is that it is basically impossible to properly determine source powers, or sum up the powers into a few words. So now, we won’t even try any more,” she continued. “Furthermore, all non-English terms have been replaced so as to make the classifications more easily understandable. This is now the comprehensive list of power effects.”

Contriving

Control

Damage

Gadgeteer

Manipulation

Morphing

Movement

Perception

Physique

Protection

Spawning

Meta

At least it’s all in English this time, she said to Melody.

Yeah, I never understood how they came up with some of the names they did.

Dad brought a Thesaurus into the convention and randomly dropped suggestions into the minds of the attendees.

The more I learn about your father, the less I respect him…

Tell me about it.

“Alright, we are going to work through this list from top to bottom, working through the effects. I stress, this will just be a short introduction – we are going to revisit it later on. Please make notes, you will need to remember this for every following session.”

The whiteboard was wiped clean again, then the word Contriving appeared.

“Contriving is, perhaps, the strangest power out there – at its most basic level, it allows the metahuman to create placebos through which various effects can be expressed. At higher levels, Contriving allows a metahuman to create pretty much any tool for any task, making it arguably the most dangerous classification aside from transcendent variable powers. At levels one through three, Contriving allows a metahuman to create fantastic equipment and effects within a narrow field. An example would be Spellgun, who can only create various guns and ammunition, and nothing else – all his gear apart from his arms and ammunition is actually mundane technology, only styled to fit his theme. From four to six, we see the capabilities of contrivances branch out – Doc Feral, for example, can bestow a variety of temporary powers with his Power Juice, both to himself and to others. Levels seven through nine, Apex Tier contrivers, are what everyone thinks of when they speak of Mad Scientists – while they may have a focus, they can apply their ability to nearly any field, giving them, perhaps, the greatest versatility of all metahumans appart from God Tier contrivers. An example of this would be Doctor Despair, while the Archmage is an example of a God Tier contriver at level ten. Speaking of God Tier, there is only one known contriver to ever be assigned a rating of twelve – that would be, of course, Memento. While he still specializes in creating numerous robots, he can give them pretty much any power he can think of, as well as create an incredibly variety of support equipment that goes far beyond robotics. Unfortunately, contrivers are the most endangered metahumans when it comes to mental maladies – you can take any of the chances I’ve named earlier and double them for contrivers, up to 99%, which, of course, means that any contriver from level eight and above is pretty much guaranteed to be deranged in some way. And no, we will not get into Heretic in this course. Yes, he is the most powerful contriver ever. No, he will be discussed in a course specifically dealing with contrivers.”

“Now, the Control classification specifies any metahuman effect that allows for controlling other entities, be they humans, animals or constructs, but does not entail the ability to create them. Exemplars can, at best, control insects, simple animals or influence human emotions. A well-known example would be Buggy, a much-loved superhero operating in China, who can control large quantities of bugs, but only within a limited range; or Racer, who can control any car with his insignia on it remotely. Paragons are capable of controlling human emotions to a greater degree, implant suggestions, control a single human under certain conditions or control large quantities of animals. Bestiality is one such controller, a woman capable of controlling entire herds of animals at a time. Finally, in the Apex Tier, we get the much feared true mind controllers, people who can either completely control one person or take control over more than one to a limited degree. An example would be the late supervillainess Darling, who could use pheromones to control anyone who could smell her for significant amounts of time or Mindstar, who can only completely take over the mind of one person at a time, but can manipulate entire crowds to a lesser degree. Finally, we get to the God Tier of controllers – of which there are only two confirmed cases. The -fortunately – late Mindfuck of the Savage Six, the single most powerful telepath on record, and Polis Megalos, the premier superhero of Greece, who is capable of controlling an entire city.”

She paused for while, giving the students time to write everything down.

“Something simpler, now. The Damage classication describes any inherent ability to cause physical damage. The most common example are energy blasts of one kind or another. The damage classification is rarely applied to powers that have an indirect way of causing damage as part of their abilities – for example, if someone can spawn a superstrong minion, they are only given a Spawning rating, not a damage rating – otherwise nearly every metahuman out there would have a damage rating, so it’s only used for specialized damaging effects. With Exemplars, the damaging ability is restricted to damage that can be duplicated by mundane weaponry, like the ability to accelerate small, bullet-like objects to terminal speeds. Paragons go up to the output of vehicle sized weaponry, like gatling guns or tank guns. Apex Tiers describe powers that reach and eventually surpass the potential of artillery or bombardement. In the God Tier, we get the truly terrifying powers, capable of tearing down a good chunk of a large city with a single use. Desolation-in-Light almost always uses at least this level of destructive capability during her attacks. Theoretically, a transcendent damage effect would equal the destructive effect of a nuclear bomb, but thankfully, there has yet to be a metahuman with such power. Except for Desolation-in-Light, though she only used such abilities a few times until now.”

“We are going to skip the Gadgeteer effect for now. Let’s tackle that at the end of the session.”

Oh, you’re so mean.

Don’t complain.

“Manipulation effects entail all effects that, somehow, affect the physical world and do not fall into another category, making it the most expansive power classification. It can range from simple telekinesis to the stranger powers of time manipulation or probability manipulation (which was formerly a Wild Card power) and it can be either ranged, touch ranged or personal. In the Exemplar Tier, we get almost exclusively low-level elemental manipulation, like pyrokinesis that allows the creation and/or control of limited amounts of fire, geokinesis of less than five hundred kilogram, simple photokinesis and so on. The Paragon Tier includes the first universal telekinetics, limited manipulation of time and gravity, and so on. Most electrokinetics also fall into the Paragon Tier, mainly due to their versatility. In the Apex Tier, we get the specialized kinetics who can move more than ten tons of material, universal telekinetics with up to ten tons of strength and this is also the minimal rating for true probability manipulators. Finally, in the God Tier, we find the manipulators who can move entire buildings, using skyscrapers as thrown weapons for an example. An old, thankfully dead example would be Earthmaster, a geokinetic villain who was capable of causing earthquakes that reached up to an eight on the Richter Scale.”

She let that sink in for a while – no one in this room was old enough to remember that asshole – he’d been one of her mother’s first recurring enemies, nearly ninety years ago.

How did Earthmaster go down, actually? I don’t think your mother killed him?

Nope, the Justicar killed him. With a sniper rifle, while he was sitting on the toilet.

“Morphing describes all effects that change the user’s physical form. At the Exemplar Tier, you can find effects like turning limbs into weapons, the skin into diamond or a single, natural form, like being able to turn into a single animal or into a single other person. The Paragon Tier includes the abilities to change into various forms within a single class – different animals, different humans and so on – shapeshifting your limbs into various forms of the same material – turning your hands into various metallic forms, for example – and the like. Apex Tier morphers are capable of freely adjusting their form, though they are generally held back by a single limit – for example, the new UJH member Bakeneko can freely shift her own form, her only limits being that she cannot adjust her mass and is restricted to organic forms. At the God Tier, we find nearly unlimited shapeshifters who are usually only limited by having to remain within a certain mass range. The best known example would be the leader of the Savage Six, Hemming, who can take on any organic or inorganic form and is only limited by his own imagination and his own mass – he has to remain within one tenth or about fifty times his own mass.”

“Movement denotes all effects that enhance a persons capabilities to, well, move around. Super-Speed, flight and teleportation are the most well-known examples. At levels one through three, you find people with exceptional, though not necessarily inhuman speed, the ability to stick to walls, walk on water or fly while still limited by natural laws. From level four through six, you get real Super-Speed, usually up to seventy miles per hour, short-range personal teleportation, the ability to move slowly through solid matter and true independent flight, often ignoring at least wind resistance. Levels seven through nine include flight that ignores most aeronautical laws and long-range teleportation and/or the ability to take other people along on your jumps. At the God Tier, we get people like the late Switchstep, who could teleport himself and up to six tons of mass from the surface of the Earth to the Moon and flight that completely ignores natural laws, including the laws of inertia.”

“Perception effects are all those power effects that enhance a persons ability to perceive the world, as well as all abilities that manipulate other person’s senses. This is perhaps the second-most variable classification, as it includes all enhanced senses, all supernatural senses, psychometry, precognition, as well as illusions, invisibility and other sensory concealment effects. I’m not going to go through the individual power levels here, as this category is far too complex to be quickly broken down into labels. We’ll get into that during the session where we will get into the specifics of the Perception classification.”

“Physique combines the former Adonis and Chimaera classifications. Some of you might know that there has been an ongoing debate over whether or not the Adonis- and Chimaera-traits should even be classified as powers and not as results of a one-time adjustment of the body, as they cannot be influenced by any effect that influences other powers, like nullification effects – even Dr. Null was never able to nullify the enhanced physique of Lady Light or other metahumans, nor reverse the mutations of the Chimaera trait. Well, now this question is no longer important, as the question doesn’t even figure into classifications anymore – we only classify effects from now on. Either way, Physique effects are all effects that improve and/or permanently change the body, including improvements to the brain, allowing for increased intelligence. They range from simply improving – or twisting – the appearance and performance within the normal human range at the Exemplar Tier to the completely inhuman capabilities of God Tier physique effects like Lady Lights ability to shrug off anything short of armor-piercing rounds and punch through concrete. Physique powers are also the only ones that can be assigned a rating of zero, which means that it merely affects the outward appearance and maybe the overall health of a person.”

“Protection effects are all those effects that protect their wearer in some fashion, from extremely tough skin in excess of the Physique rating to force-fields, the ability to turn insubstantial (which nearly always entails a Movement rating as well) and so on. Exemplar Protection grants the ability to simply resist mundane damage better, up to being nearly bulletproof at level three. From level four through six, we get truly bulletproof metahumans, low levels of insubstantiality and so on. Apex Tier brings us the first ‘invulnerable’ metahumans, like Amazon, who can take anti-tank rounds and keep swinging. In the God Tier, we get those rare few individuals who are almost completely untouchable by anything short of equally rated metahuman damage effects, such as the late Protector, who once survived a nuclear explosion and was only killed – in fact, only ever harmed when he ran up against DiL. Protection effects also include the common Regeneration capability of many metahumans.”

“Now, Spawning is one of the rarest and most versatile effects – the ability to create agents, ranging from simple remote-controlled automatons to fully independent, perhaps even sentient entities. It often also entails an unrated Control and/or Perception effect, allowing the metahuman to completely control their creations or share their senses, respectively. In the Exemplar Tier, we get effects that allow for the creation of small, non-sentient and non-powered entities out of thin air or up to medium-sized automatons out of existing material. An example would be the ability to create ‘insect’ swarms out of nothing or animate a single physical object. Levels four through six entail the ability to either animate several medium-sized constructs, a single larger construct, create medium-sized entities out of thin air or spawn semi-sentient entities of up to animal intelligence. At levels seven through nine we get the effects which allow the creation of several larger constructs out of existing material, large entities out of nothing, single, powered entities, and entities with near-human levels of intelligence. Among God Spawners, we get people like The Dark, who can create several independent, fully sentient and meta-powered entities, in his case ‘Darkwraiths’ or a single, extremely powerful entity. There is also a known level thirteen spawner, Weisswald, who could create self-sustaining, self-replicating entities, nowadays known as ‘Spiteborn’.”

“Finally, the Meta descriptor describes all powers that deal with powers. That means, all means of enhancing, suppressing, bestowing, mimicking, stealing or shifting powers fall under this classification. The breakdown of the individual tiers would take too long at this point. Let’s just say that this is the one rating which every tactician out there absolutely loathes to have on the opposing side.”

She stopped, taking a deep breath and letting her pupils jot down their notes. Leaning back against her podium, she got ready for the final part of this topic.

“Now, I earlier said that I’d explain the Gadgeteer rating at the end. There’s a reason for that, because Gadgeteer’s get a special rating scheme. Because Gadgeteering has the distinction of being the only supernatural effect to operate after natural principles – in fact, it ONLY works within the range of natural laws – it is one of the most interesting effects out there. Many people hope that the appearance of a sufficiently high-rated Gadgeteer might lead humanity into a new Golden Age, perhaps even push us towards a technological singularity. Regardless of that, the Gadgeteer effect gets a double rating, going from one-slash-one to thirteen-slash-thirteen. This is because it is important to both describe how fast a Gadgeteer can work and how far ahead of current scientific theory they are. Let’s take, for example, Polymnia. She was formerly rated as a Gadgeteer three for being able to produce extremely advanced acoustic equipment, though she usually only created advancements of existing technologies instead of new ones – her sonic cage invention being an exception. Now, her new rating would be five-slash-three, because while she seems to be limited to current scientific theory, she works a lot faster than any mundane scientist. At higher levels, we get the vigilante Brennus, who’s estimated to be a seven-slash-five, Atrocity from the Savage Six, a six-slash-five and, of course, Sovereign, a seven-slash-seven, with a current debate among several circles within the Department of Metahuman Affairs to re-rate him as a seven-slash-eight, perhaps even an eight-slash-eight. The highest rated Gadgeteer we know of would be the late Su Ling, who is estimated to have been a Gadgeteer twelve-slash-twelve.”

I wish I could get Brennus into my workshop. The inventions we could come up with…

Please don’t drool. Bad enough the boy next to you is drooling already from looking at me.

“Alright, that’s it for the power classifications. And it also looks like I managed to already talk us through most of today’s session. Now, we are also going to have sessions on the more outlandish forms of manifestations, including the much talked about, yet never quite proven process of inheriting powers, as well as metahuman families. Get ready to take a lot of notes, because I’m going to give you an overview of required and suggested reading, as well as some names among metahuman researchers to keep an eye out for…”

* * *

“Man, this was an interesting lecture. Except for that last part, of course…,” commented Aimi.

“Oh, I don’t know. I didn’t even know about some of those books she recommended. Now I finally have something new to read again!” replied Basil.

Timothy and Aimi rolled their eyes, but didn’t say anything. They left for their next class.

* * *

Later, when they had gotten through their last class for the day, the three friends left to walk home. They were on their way past the statue of Diantha Whitaker when Brennus suddenly had an idea.

He had been thinking quite a while on how to imitate Sovereign’s force-field technology, and while he still was not sure he could create real force-fields, it should be-

“Ack!” Basil shouted, holding his head with one hand as a sharp pain lanced through his head.

“Basil? Did something happen?” asked Tim.

He shook his head. “No, I just remembered – today is my first chance to see Prisca since the incident. I had almost forgotten! Now I need to get home, drop off my school things and get over to the hospital!”

“Well, then you’d better hurry, shouldn’t you?” asked Tim with a grin.

All thoughts of new inventions forgotten for the moment, Basil hurried on, running out of the gates of the school.

* * *

Somewhere, at the same time…

She affixed the last photograph to her pinwall. It showed this new Gadgeteer, Brennus, as he was in the middle of evading an energy attack by a spiteborn while simultaneously jury-rigging the bomb that would end the fight in the acre.

It joined an extensive collection of photographs, newspaper clippings and notes, all concerning various Gadgeteers and suspected Gadgeteers around his age that appearead over the last four years. Pins and threads were forming an intricate net, all centered around a central drawing of a preteen boy with long, shaggy black hair and a mechanical left eye.

“Have I finally found you, Macian?” she asked, softly touching the picture of Brennus with two fingers. “I hope it’s you. I don’t think I can take another disappointment.”

She shook her head. This wasn’t the time for self-pity. Pulling on her heavy mask, she turned around and vanished out of the room with a soft popping sound.