《The Devil of Brockton Bay》


 Chapter 1

    I ignored the building headache as I looked in the mirror once again. Cerulean blue eyes that were certainly not mine framed by ruby red hair peered back at me.


    Red hair, blue eyes, and the body of a sex goddess (thankfully covered by a modest sweatshirt)? I looked like a dead ringer for Rias Gremory. Not something I thought I would be dealing with today.


    To complicate suddenly having an entirely different body I also had a note from whoever had put me here.


    ''Greetings Participant no. [insert number here, I don''t actually keep track],


    You have been selected to participate in a Game of the Gods!


    Various<s>[playthings]</s>participants have been selected with the ultimate goal of making our lives [the God''s, that is, we don''t really care that much about you] more interesting by inserting you all into a Grand Tournament!


    How do you win this tournament you ask? Simple!


    You must become the most famous figure among the participants by the end of the game''s timer, a short 100 years, as determined by a final vote by the Gods. So go do stuff! Be a hero, conquer the world, become the founder of a new branch of science, or do something else! Just make it interesting for the rest of us.


    Additionally, each of you has a patron that has sponsored your appearance and abilities along with one random item compatible with your new body. Some of you may notice you are familiar with these but don''t worry, you do not need to act similarly to any templates. For instance there is nothing stopping someone recognised as having an ''evil'' appearance from opening a bakery. [Someone did that once, looked like that Darth Maul guy and spent the whole time baking cupcakes. Man, was his patron pissed.]


    Of course it would hardly be fitting to host this event in a peaceful world. To upset the residents by dropping in the chosen of the Gods. So, we have found a cluster of reality perfect for this wonderful game! [It''s a Wormverse. And we picked it because it''s easier to insert people than other realms.]


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    Good luck Participant!


    P.S. Your patron may or may not include details about themselves, their goals, your abilities, or any other such things below.


    [Yo, I''m your Patron. Normally this would be where I try to influence you into doing what I think would be the most entertaining in exchange for more powers and stuff. Unfortunately for you I''m only participating in this game because a friend asked, but I''m too busy to really pay attention this time so you''re on your own.


    Now for the stuff you should actually care about. Your stuff.


    If you haven''t found a mirror yet, I made you into a Devil. Sorry not, sorry. The actual devil picked was done at random though so if you came out ugly blame your own bad luck. You should probably know that you don''t get any special abilities belonging to only that demon. So if you pulled Beelzebub, sorry, but you aren''t making Skitter look like a cheap knockoff.


    Though in the probable case you now look like a creative biology experiment with a goat I did decide to give you an artifact from the template''s home dimension again at random. This time it should be pretty decent though. I had it pick from the 50 most powerful items as a consolation prize.


    Everything else is set to the default.


    Have fun doing whatever, I guess.]


    My eyebrow twitched in irritation as I read the letter for the third time.


    Yep, I got drafted into some tournament, shoved into the body of an anime character, and then my ''patron'' decided to fuck off right away because he didn''t even want to play in the first place¡­


    Deep breath in. Hold. Slow release.


    Okay.


    That was fine.


    So let''s focus on the facts.


    I''m in the Wormverse if my patron''s edits to the welcome letter could be trusted. Not great, but not unsurvivable. DXD devils could grow insanely strong and there was no reason I couldn''t do the same. Compared to the cannon setting I was actually in the top percentages powerwise just based on my physical attributes. It was a shame the letter specifically mentioned I didn''t get inherent special abilities because the Power of Destruction anime-Rias had would have put me in the top 10. That was slightly offset by the knowledge that it was onlyspecialabilities that were restricted. Devils from that setting were inherently magical and could learn more with time and practice.


    Next, the items I was promised. Unfortunately, I didn''t see anything matching the items described but I didn''t worry immediately. It was possible those items wouldn''t be immediately given to me since I knew ''items'' occasionally were stored elsewhere or were things like home bases. Point is they weren''t here right now, but no reason to freak out just yet.


    I did find a wallet in my investigation though. A simple leather thing with some cash, a debit card, and an ID that actually had my name and picture as Rias Gremory, age 18.


    That was it though. No supplies, no items, and no hint of what to do next.


    Welp, no point sticking around then!


    I idly brushed some imaginary dirt off my pant legs and headed for the door. If I was going to be stuck on a grimderp deathworld I should at least know when and where I was¡­

 Chapter 2

    It didn''t take me long to figure out what my patron meant when he said everything was set to ''default'' once I was out on the streets.


    A quick stop inside a convenience store let me get a look at a newspaper headline that told me today was January Tenth, 2011 and I was indeed in Brockton Bay.


    The city was both just as bad as I imagined of a place that had been repeatedly mentioned as being in an economic decline, caused by both the death of its shipping industry and the criminal elements, and actually not too bad. Provided you stayed in the areas meant to cater to tourists and visitors.


    Most of the nicer areas were focused near the shoreline where people could look out over the water at the PRT base made from a converted oil rig. A bit further inland, the wear and tear on the city from lack of maintenance became much more noticeable and if you went north to the docks, things were little better than abandoned husks.


    I didn''t see much else that was noteworthy on my meandering tour of the city so it was probably safe to say the ''Gods'' didn''t allow for massive changes to the surroundings. Although I would clearly have to get used to being the center of attention for somebody based on the looks I got from passing pedestrians. Many were simply the appreciative or lustful gazes of those who saw someone pretty and imagined what a night with them would be like. Others had a calculating look on their face like they were debating the risks of making that night a reality, consent or no.


    Several men even tried taking some ''covert'' pictures of me to send to what I assumed was members of a gang of some sort. I wasn''t sure at first, but when I saw several women cross the street to make sure the group of asian men stalking me didn''t include them in the camera frame I felt pretty sure these people had less than pure intentions.


    Still, it was the middle of the day and there were plenty of people around so I wasn''t too worried about being snatched off the street immediately. And as I wandered back towards the boardwalk area my stalkers eventually gave up.


    I wasn''t too worried about them. While it felt kinda racist to even consider I, as a devil, was just too much for some random gang members to beat without specialized equipment to level the playing field. If they tried anything I would leave them beat up on the ground without too much effort.


    Of course that led me to my next thought.


    What was I going to do here? If this followed a game template my guess would be the default was set to Starting Location: Brockton Bay, Starting Time: Pre Cannon (Post Taylor Trigger), and Background: Drop In. There were probably some other details but those were the immediately relevant three. I could try avoiding the cape game and do my own thing, but I suddenly had access to magic! I wasn''t going to stay at home and work a nine-to-five when I could be playing, ahem, practicing with my abilities. So I was probably going to get sucked into the game just because I thought it would be fun.


    I would have to stay independent as a Cape though. The local heroes were either laughably corrupt or compromised and the villains were not much better, the public major players either being white supremists, slavers, or a bunch of addicts. Whether I became a hero or villain was up in the air though.


    There was also the issue of my rather¡­distinct¡­appearance. There were a series of ''unwritten rules'' that were supposed to keep people from going after civilian identities but only an idiot would look at me and be unable to recognise my hair unless I went to great lengths to hide or disguise it¡­


    ¡­Which I had no desire to do.


    So at best I would be giving the rules a nod with something like a simple domino mask unless I had a reason to do otherwise. And rather than spend time worrying about things I had no control of, I wanted to get started on my current biggest problem.


    Where was I going to sleep tonight?


    -o-


    As it turned out I had some really shit luck. While the holiday season was mostly over, many of the hotels and motels were filled to capacity at the moment for one reason or another and I wasn''t able to find a room for anything close to what I''d be willing to pay.


    $500 for a single night? No way in hell.


    So instead I ended up wandering the streets some more even as I continued playing with magic.


    Devils really were cheaters in that regard. I had had magic for less than one day, but because most of it relied on my imagination and intent to function I had already learned a few basic spells.


    Since I wasn''t planning on jumping straight into fights that would require me throwing spells around I focused on some utility magic first.


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    A simple quick change spell that swapped my clothes for a magically created outfit (though currently it was little more than a black bodysuit with some red and white highlights and a domino mask), the beginnings of a teleport spell, and a dimensional pocket I remembered being a thing from the DXD show.


    To my surprise, when I first created the pocket it wasn''t empty. Inside was half a set of chess pieces in an ornate wooden box. Part of me was overjoyed at the prospect of having a set of Evil Pieces capable of reincarnating people as more devils, but mostly, I was annoyed that if I had never tried to use that particular spell I would have never found them at all.


    My current project, since I had clothing, movement (kinda), and storage handled, was to make a shield. Something defensive enough to protect me and a bit of my surroundings if needed. Unfortunately so far all I have been able to do so far is make a screen that anchored me to the ground. I definitely wanted a bit more mobility than that.


    I was so distracted by my spell tinkering that I almost failed to notice two men in red and green step out in front of me and block my path. Once I noticed them though I realized two more similarly dressed men had started following me from behind.


    "Well looky here, some redheaded bitch that didn''t get the memo. Didn''t you know, girl? These streets belong to the Azn Bad Boys, and since you''re on them that means you belong to us now."


    That¡­was painfully straight forward. Did people really talk like that?


    The sigh from one of the others made me think it was just this guy in particular.


    "Shut up, dumbass. We''re on a schedule. Lung wants five more girls tonight." he turned to me. "And you, don''t give us any trouble and we don''t carve you up before you come with us anyway." The gangster flashed a knife.


    I looked behind me and sure enough the other two were pulling out knives and duct tape. "I don''t suppose we could be reasonable about this?"


    The gangsters laughed darkly giving me my answer. Then, out of fucking nowhere, a white figure fell from the roofs and landed in a stereotypical three-point crouch.


    "Hold it right there, ne''er-do wells!"


    The figure was a man in white. White pants, white jacket, white mask. Thankfully some gold thrown in for contrast but still¡­it was a lot of white. Thank everything he didn''t have white hair on top of it all.


    The only heroes I knew in Brockton that had white and gold as part of a color scheme were New Wave, but the mask didn''t fit that and he was too young to be Manpower or Flashbang and too old to be Shielder. White and gold was Glory Girl''s thing too.


    And did he really say ne''er-do wells?


    "Fuck cape!" one of the gangsters cursed.


    "So what." the apparent leader from earlier snapped. "Listen white boy, fuck off and we forget we saw you. Hang around and you get on the Dragon''s shitlist."


    "I refuse! What kind of hero would I be if I did not help out a young woman in her time of need?" the white cape stood and puffed his chest out. "A poor one, that''s what! And I, Paladin, only aim to be the best hero I can!"


    "Great, a fucking Mouse Protector wannabe. You three stall him. I''m calling in backup."


    I was half expecting the gangsters to rush the hero, but they only circled him while their boss pulled out a cell phone.


    "Normally I would welcome the opportunity to defeat more of you criminals, but I cannot let my desire for battle place an innocent in danger. So I will have to defeat you quickly. Let''s go, Divine Dividing!" Long white limbs burst from his back and lit up in holographic blue panels resembling wings. All I could do was stare dumbly at the sight. Was this some kind of joke? The first Cape I meet not only seems to be a ham of the highest order but also has a power based on DXD?


    Unaware of my thoughts, Paladin explodes forward in a burst of speed and expertly takes down one of the gangsters with a single punch. The second slashed at him with a knife but it skittered harmlessly across one of the hero''s ''wings'' before he was disarmed and knocked out. The third just tried to rush him, but Paladin suddenly moved a bit faster even as the Gangster slowed down and was also taken out.


    The leader saw all of this and abandoned going for his phone and pulled out a gun instead. "Fuck, don''t move!"


    "Do you believe that a little handgun can protect you from Justice?" Paladin questioned confidently. Either he was a very good actor or he was confident he could deal with a nine millimeter bullet with no issue. "Your comrades are defeated and you are next. Surrender quietly and I will turn you over to the police with no injury.


    "Fuck that and fuck you. No, here''s the deal. You turn off those fucking wings and let me go. The others too."


    "You don''t think I can''t stop a simple bullet?"


    The gangster grinned savagely. "Maybe you can. But I bet she can''t." He turned the gun on me.


    Paladin tensed. "Coward!"


    "So what''s it going to be hero? Make the bust or save the girl?"


    Yeah this had gone on long enough.


    "How about he makes the bust and the girl saves herself?" I commented, sticking my hand straight out at the gunman. A ball of raw magical energy formed on my palm and shot at the man and hit him square in the chest. Without a spell to shape the effect the ball wasn''t much more effective than throwing a softball at someone. But the difference here was it was a softball the man wasn''t expecting and was unprepared for.


    The gangster stumbled and tripped, falling over and slamming his head on the pavement on the way down. I counted myself lucky that that attack knocked the man out because I suddenly had another issue on my hands¡­


    "Oh my kami-sama I can''t believe I didn''t recognise you! You''re Rias-tan~!" Paladin gushed from FAR too close to me. "I can''t believe my first night out I not only managed to stop a kidnapping but I also protected one of the best waifu''s ever! And you''re not just some background character for flavor, you actually have powers too! This is great! We can team up and protect the city together and¡­"


    I think I had a headache again.


    ''How long will you continue to ignore me, Red? Are you going to continue pretending to sleep even now?'' A resonant voice asked from inside my head somehow. Telepathy. That must have been Albion, the dragon inside the Divine Dividing sacred gear, but who was he talking¡­


    ¡­no¡­


    ''I wasn''t pretending to sleep, White. There was simply no reason to speak up. My host this time is perfectly capable on her own.'' A red gauntlet formed on my hand as Ddriag, Albion''s rival and dragon of the Boosted Gear answered.


    "Nooo~, Rias-tan is my eternal rival? Is that why she was meeting up with the ABB? Her japanophillia is going to make her a villain?" Paladin whined and I felt a shiver run down my back. The hero(?) suddenly snached my hand and stared uncomfortably hard. "Do not worry Rias-tan, although your actions are misguided. It is only out of great love for the people. I will do my best to free you from the shackles Lung has placed on your heart and show you a dragon you can share your love equally with. Though it pains me we may be enemies for now, look forward to the day we may fight side-by-side."


    By everything unholy - please no.


    ''...it seems you have a very¡­unique¡­host this time, White. I don''t know if I should laugh or pity you.'' Ddraig rumbled.


    If there is anyone you should pity, it''s me! I don''t want this guy following me around!


    ''...yes, he''s an odd one for sure. But he was still able to summon my gear on his own. I''m sure he will be ready when the time for our battle comes.''


    "Yes, until our fated battle of the heart¡­" Paladin struck a pose. "Until then, farewell my dear!" And with a flap of his wings the <s>fanboy</s> hero rose into the air and vanished leaving me alone in the street with four unconscious bodies.


    I sighed at the¡­everything¡­ that just happened before walking over to the leader and swiping his phone. It wasn''t anything fancy but it wasn''t super cheap. No password either. Then I raided the gangster''s wallets for a bit more cash before I called 911 to report an attempted kidnapping. The operator wanted me to wait around for a responder but I wasn''t doing that. I made sure they knew the address, ended the call, and started walking.


    I glanced at my now bare arm where the Boosted Gear had been only moments before.


    I guess I found out what my second item was.


    And now I had a certain giant dragon I needed to have a conversation with¡­

 Chapter 3

    "Seriously? You have no idea what I''m talking about?"


    ''I do not. I have never heard of anyone named Issei Hyoudou. A shame, considering it sounds like he was an interesting person.''


    I briefly considered one of the few shonen protagonists that decided not only was he going to shoot for the harem ending¡­he kinda actually went through with it too. On top of that he determinatored his way into the top levels of power even if the reputation he got along the way was¡­rather unique¡­


    ''Wait, wait, wait! Go back! What was that about an oppai dragon?!'' Ddraig roared in my mind.


    "Oh, you saw that?"


    ''I am literally part of your soul, YES I saw that! Explain!''


    "Ah well, you see¡­" I went on to explain how in one world Ddraig ended up paired with Issei Hyoudou, a human eventually reincarnated as a devil with a sense of perversion so strong it actually became his most well known attribute. It even had a show made in the Netherworld targeted at children (and I had thoughts about that, but A. that universe clearly had different ideas about sex and B. what did I know about raising literal devil children.) that actually became rather popular across multiple factions. One the positive side, it made Issei instantly recognizable and well liked. On the negative, it rather¡­well, took the dignity of Ddraig, dragged it through a woodchipper, and then systematically pounded it until nothing remained¡­


    It actually got so bad that Albion got pulled in by association.


    ''You must be joking¡­''


    I chuckled awkwardly and scratched at my cheek, but there was really nothing I could say since Ddraig was probably seeing the memories directly.


    "Sorry?" I offered half-heartedly. "If it makes you feel better I''m not really like that at all. And going by what that guy from earlier said, Albion is going to be the one dealing with the pervert."


    ''It really doesn''t. Not only will the white one learn of my shame, I have a feeling the same thing that happened in that world will occur here even if the positions are reversed.'' It was weird hearing a dragon mentally sigh. ''If anything it just makes me sympathize with my rival.''


    Yeah, that seemed likely. Good thing I didn''t particularly care what people thought about me¡­although the thought of being associated with Paladin¡­


    I shivered and shoved that thought into a distant corner of my mind and locked it away.


    "Well¡­anyway, topic change." I decided. "We need to plan our next move. Any suggestions?"


    ''That''s mostly up to you, partner.'' Ddraig rumbled, sounding depressed. I guess he wasn''t quite over the shock of my reveal. ''If you can''t come up with anything, I''d say focus on finding a place to sleep. I doubt the weather would bother you much even without me, but it''s useful to have a place to store your things.''


    "So the dragon''s first instinct is to find and build a lair? How stereotypical." I teased.


    ''Grrr¡­''


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    "But you aren''t wrong. To be honest, I''ve been thinking about places I could use as a base of operations for a while. And I think I''ve got just the place in mind."


    -o-


    Brockton Bay was rather infamous for a mid-sized city.


    It was the capital of a white-supremist movement. It had one of the most powerful superhuman, sorry, Parahuman, sex slavers around. It had successfully driven off both the Teeth, a band of Mad Max bandit assholes led by a mind-jacker and the Slaughterhouse 9, a roving group of murderhobos. And somehow it was still standing.


    As interesting as those details were, though. I had a particular incident in mind.


    Years ago, much of the city was ruled by a singular villain. He committed terrible crimes yet held to a strict code. That was until he was attacked in his home by a team of superheroes and finally defeated. There was more to that event, but the part I was interested in wasn''t how the Marquis was defeated. It was what happened to his house afterward.


    Considering the man was now serving a life sentence in an inescapable prison, the smart thing to do would be to assume it was reclaimed by the government or something and sold off. Either that or abandoned. It took me a full day of investigating (browsing arrest records until I happened across one for a Charles Lavere followed by a quick stop to a Real Estate agent along with a simple hypnosis spell) to find out the entire property was being held in trust until his daughter came of age.


    Of course since his daughter was currently completely unaware of who her father was and thus ignorant of the house, I was sure she wouldn''t mind if I¡­moved in for the time being.


    ''So your plan was just to squat in some girl''s house she doesn''t know about?'' Ddraig asked smugly. ''Yes, I can see how this is a brilliant plan. Much better than building a lair of your own.''


    "Okay one," I said to the arrogant lizard. "This is a perfect place to build a ''lair''. It''s remote, isolated, and it should be easy enough to ward it without worrying about making exceptions for unexpected visitors. And two, it''s going to be mine in a few days anyway. Kinda."


    I had actually hypnotized the Real Estate agent to tell me what needed to happen to have the property signed over to my name. It wouldn''t hold up to scrutiny, but the signatures were there¡­


    ''I didn''t say I disapproved. Taking what you want is very dragon-like.''


    "Hn.."


    Truthfully I was a little conflicted on taking Panacea''s house. Well not really the taking part, even at this point in time the girl was rather bitchy. Understandably so in most cases. But understandably bitchy was still bitchy in the end. But because of how I took it.


    Hypnosis was¡­a touchy subject.


    I didn''t really like how easily I puppeted those people around even if it was too useful to completely ignore. Most likely I would restrict that power to urgent needs only from now on.


    I sighed and pushed my thoughts aside for the moment. "Well, we might as well go take a look at our new home."


    ''Over a decade with no one living in it. It''s probably going to be dusty.''


    It was.


    -o-


    Thank goodness for magic.


    That was probably the only thing that kept me from burning my new house down with how long it took me to clean the whole thing top to bottom. But while the house wasn''t exactly spotless, it was at least comfortable and I was no longer sneezing every time I moved something.


    That said, I really wanted to do anything other than cleaning at the moment. I didn''t even want to be in the house right now.


    ''Why don''t you find one of those Parahumans to play with then? They should be a good distraction.'' Ddraig suggested.


    "And how am I supposed to do that?" I snorted. "Most of them don''t exactly have a public address I can go knock on."


    ''Then go visit one of the ones that do.'' I could feel the eyeroll.


    "Fine, let me just finish the teleportation circle then."


    That was something I needed to do sooner than later if I wanted to teleport in any meaningful way.


    So far, I had found Devil magic was fully capable of anything I imagined, but the tradeoff was efficiency.


    If I needed to make a comparison, it was like trying to fill a container with water. A sensible spell caster would use a cup with just enough water to fill the container, possibly spilling a bit over the edges if they had poor control. Devils threw entire buckets at the container and only stopped when they either successfully cast the spell or ran out of power. That was why Runes and spell circles were so important in spellcasting. They acted as funnels to make sure the inputted ''water'' actually made it into the spell.


    And that was precisely why I needed a permanent circle if I wanted to teleport in and out of my house with any accuracy.


    It was one thing to eyeball a space, think ''I want to be there'' and teleport. It was another one entirely if you wanted to teleport across a city when a single mistake could be the difference between appearing in the next room over¡­or winding up in a completely different city. So hard coding the runes in advance not only made the spells ''cheaper'' it made them functional as well.


    "Alright, I think that should do it." I leaned back in satisfaction once the final line was carved. "One fully functional teleportation circle."


    ''Seems a bit basic from the ones I''ve seen in the past.'' Ddraig commented.


    "Well unless the ''Gods'' responsible for the Game changed a lot of things this world doesn''t have any magic users besides the ones they''ve sponsored. A basic password should be fine for now, until I actually figure out how to set up security wards anyway."


    ''Hmm''


    "Enough of that though, let''s go have some fun in the city!" I cast the clothing swap spell and changed into a bodysuit and domino mask. Then I unfurled my wings and stepped into the middle of the circle.


    If I was going to go try playing with a Cape, I should at least have some fun with it! A bright flash of light later and I reappeared on the other side of the city.


    Now then, which way from here?

 Chapter 4

    So it turned out the store I was looking for didn''t exist. I had come to the boardwalk searching for the ''Dollhouse'', a store run by a Rogue Cape going by the name Parian, since it was one of the few places I could think of that would have a parahuman just hanging around.


    Unfortunately for me that was a fannon thing that clawed its way into what I considered ''general knowledge'' of the setting I was dropped into despite being completely made up. That was disappointing. Lucky for me, it wasn''t a complete waste though. Parian actually partnered with several stores to animate mascots and the like and was in the area.


    A bit weird in my opinion since I thought mascots didn''t work well outside advertisements, but whatever, I found the girl I was looking for talking to a nervous looking man outside a store.


    I wondered why they bothered with the mascots honestly. The idea of a parahuman that looked like a Victorian doll come to life showing off her power to passing tourists seemed like a much bigger draw than anything the owners could come up with using a mascot, but I guess they were satisfied with it.


    Anyway, normally I would wait until they were finished talking but I had actually drawn a small crowd on my way here. Better to let them know now since someone was sure to be recording this.


    "Ah, excuse me? Do you have a sec¨C"


    "I already said no." the doll cape snapped at me. "Hounding me afterwards is not making me any more agreeable."


    ¡­


    "I''m sorry?"


    "Apology accepted, now please leave."


    ''This is going well. Looks like you made a friend.''


    ''Shut up, I have no idea why she is being so hostile.''


    "Um, right¡­before that could you tell me what you''re saying no to?" I asked reasonably. "I''ve never talked to you before now."


    I watched as the man Parian had been talking to ran off into the crowd while the cape tilted her head in confusion. It was nice of her to do so, the full mask made it hard to read her body reactions.


    "You''re dressed like that and you''re asking why I''m saying no? Is this some sort of joke?"


    I looked down at my bodysuit. Nope, seemed fine to me.


    "Is there something wrong with it? I thought I did a pretty good job."


    "It''s pretty well designed." Parian admitted. "For a member of the E88."


    A member of the¡­what?


    I stood there slack jawed long enough that Parian actually began to fidget awkwardly.


    "Um, you are a¨C"


    "Let me get this straight." I spoke over her. "You thought I was a member of a white supremist gang trying to talk to you?"


    "I-I mean you are wearing their colors?"


    "They don''t own the colors red and black. Just because I wear the same colors doesn''t mean I''m part of a gang. You might want to learn how to not make snap judgements based on someone''s appearance." I scolded her.


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    ''Wait, wasn''t she the one who-''


    ''Was going to unmask as middle-eastern despite marketing herself as a European to draw attention to racial biases or something? Yes, now shut up. I''m twisting the irony knife.''


    ''Heh, you certainly live up to being a devil despite only being one for a short time.''


    "I mean it''s one thing to be a bit cautious if someone you don''t know suddenly walks up to you," I said aloud. "But to just assume I was a criminal because of what I''m wearing¡­I''m honestly shocked!"


    I could see my words hitting the other girl hard enough to make her flinch at each point. Petty, but I never claimed to not be.


    "I-I apologize, I simply¨C"


    "Thought exactly that, right?"


    "..."


    I waved a hand through both my hair and the air around me. "Fine, let''s start over shall we? Hello Parian, do you have some time to talk?"


    I could hear some chuckles in the crowd behind me. Apparently this was entertaining to them somehow. I thought it was just painfully awkward.


    "I should, uh, would you like to move somewhere a bit more private?" she asked, much more polite after taking some time to recompose herself.


    "If you have a place in mind, sure."


    As it turned out, the ''place'' was simply the store''s breakroom so it wasn''t exactly somewhere to have a long personal chat with someone since we were probably being recorded still, but it was better than the crowd of rubberneckers that were probably still outside.


    Parian took a seat at one of the cheap looking tables and invited me to sit down while setting out two water bottles only to immediately run into the issue of having a full mask. She wasn''t able to drink anything without removing it.


    "So you said you wanted to talk?"


    Okay, apparently she was just going to ignore the issue.


    "Right, so I''m new to the area and wanted to get an idea of what''s going on from a local. I did a quick search online and you seemed like the best person to talk to for a mostly neutral view on things."


    The Doll cape tilted her head in confusion. "Wouldn''t talking to the PRT or Protectorate be better for that, unless¡­are you a villain?!"


    I gave her a distinctly unamused look. "This is literally my first time out in costume. I''m not anything at the moment. I just wanted to hear about the local scene from someone involved and not a sock puppet for a PR department."


    "That''s¡­fair." And now I made her self conscious. I sighed at the sight of her fidgeting more and rubbing at the base of her neck. "Is there anything in particular you wanted to know about?"


    "Whatever you think I should know that isn''t general knowledge I guess. I mean I already know E88 are neo-Nazis, ABB are sex-slavers, and Merchants are street dealers. I know about the whole ''unwritten rules'' thing of not targeting families or killing. But I don''t know much about the smaller players or who is safe to approach without getting branded part of their group by everyone else."


    "I said I was sorry." Parian said grumpily. "But if you know all that there isn''t much else to say. I try to keep out of the whole Hero-Villain thing. There are a couple independants for both sides like Sere or Circus, but you likely won''t run into them that often. The only one really making a name for themselves right now is Paladin who''s been targeting the ABB pretty heavily lately. Rumor has it he is looking for a new cape of thiers."


    Oh fuck, that''s my fault isn''t it? He was targeting them because he thought I was obsessed with Japan and joined up when really I had spent a lot of time fixing up my new house.


    Actually, no. I wasn''t going to take the blame for the fanboy''s actions. He can deal with the consequences himself.


    "Interesting¡­" I hummed. "What about things to do in the city? Honestly, a good bit of my motivation for this meeting was that I was bored and new here, looking for something to do."


    "Well, I don''t have many ideas for cape activities unless you want to get into advertising." the blonde wigged woman snarked. "But if you are looking for normal things to do then I recommend¡­"


    -o-


    We ended up talking for quite a while. Turns out that Parian actually got a bunch of tourists asking similar questions while she was working so she did have some good ideas about what to do around the city if you were looking for tourist traps.


    Most of them seemed to be around the richer areas of the city away from gang areas, which made sense, and I made a mental note to check a few of them out the next time I was bored.


    "So you know my name but I don''t think you ever introduced yourself?" Parian mentioned while we were heading back outside.


    "I didn''t, did I?" The crowd was mostly gone by now, with only the most dedicated of them hanging around. "I''m not sure I''ll keep the name but for now just call me Lucifer."


    Parian stopped and gave me a flat look. "Lucifer? As in the devil?" She said dryly. "Are you sure you aren''t aiming to become a villain?"


    "I''ve got a better claim to it than you would think." I smirked at her. "Besides I didn''t say I was keeping it."


    "You really shouldn''t. A lot of people get really upset with Capes taking mythological names. Especially ones associated with bad things."


    "I''ll keep it in¨C"


    "Halt, evildoer!" Oh fuck, no.


    Paladin came crashing down from the sky right in front of us, sacred gear deployed and immediately causing a scene.


    "Evildoer? Lucifer, I thought you said this was your first time in costume?"


    "Lucifer?! So I see you have chosen your moniker as tribute to your Brother! Very well, I can do no less¡­"


    I tuned out the idiot in front of me and looked at Parian. "I wasn''t lying. Paladin thinks he knows me from somewhere else and looks like he has a bit of an obsession. I really don''t want to talk about it¡­"


    "...my burning love will save you from the shadows you have fallen into¡­"


    "Yeah¡­I understand that feeling." She admitted helplessly. "So, uhm, are you going to fight him? Creepy obsession or not, he is still a recognized independent hero."


    He is? Seriously? I''d say low standards, but¡­ yikes.


    "No, I have better things to do today. Not sure what they are yet, but I''m sure I have them. I''m just gonna leave." I said as I unfurled my wings, long, jagged, and jet black just like you would expect on a devil. "If you''re up for it I might swing by another day for another chat, just to get to know you some more."


    "You have wings¡­" Parian said somewhat dumbly. "Actual, honest to God, devil wings."


    I winced at the sudden stab of pain someone uttering His name gave me -and that was a thing that carried over, just great- but pushed it aside as I started hovering off the ground a bit.


    "I did say I had a better claim to the name than you''d think."


    "...now then, Satan Lucifer! Are you ready for an epic battle between Good and Evil?!" Paladin finished his dramatic speech, which was being recorded by several people. Welp, I was probably going to get stuck with that name now.


    "Not really, no." I deadpanned as a bright red spell circle bloomed underneath me. "Seeya Parian, other people." I gave the crowd a short wave and with a snap of my fingers, teleported back home.

 Chapter 5

    ¡ö


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    ? Topic: New Cape Spotted on Boardwalk


    In: Boards ? Capes ? Brockton Bay ? General


    SamsonSmiles  (Original Poster)


    Posted On Jan 16th 2011:


    Was hanging out at the boardwalk when <u>THIS</u> chick showed up out of nowhere.


    Ended up following her around for a bit while she toured the place and wound up talking to Parian. Then Paladin showed up and called her out, so maybe we have a new villain?


    (Showing page 1 of 13)


    ?Aloha


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Damn. Looks like we have a new entry on the Hottest Capes list.


    ?Miraclemic


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    That costume tho. E88?


    ?Chrome


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    WTF? What about that screams Nazi?


    ?Brocktonite03  (Veteran Member)


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    Red and black are Empire colors


    ?Feychick


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    Doesn''t mean shes a nazi tho. she could just like the colors.


    ?Brocktonite03  (Veteran Member)


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    if it looks like a nazi and walks like a nazi...


    ?Chrome


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    Did she do something? Also we have a name for this chick yet?


    ?TheGnat


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    She was chatting up Parian and the empire has been trying to get her to join for a bit.


    ?WhitePower


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    So Dollgirl is joining up? Why would the empire even want her, she just does kiddie shows and sells out for advertisment shit


    End of Page.   1, <u>2</u>, <u>3</u> ¡­ <u>12</u>, <u>13</u>


    (Showing page 2 of 3)


    ?Answer Key


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    Capes are valuable to any organization. Even if they don''t have the best power, most groups think it''s better for them to be on your side than someone else''s


    ?Feychick


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    We just assuming red chick is a nazi then? @Parian any chance you can confirm?


    ?Chrome


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    @Parian or give us a name?


    ?XxVoid_CowboyxX


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    Paladin knows her right? Just ask him.


    ?Saskatchew


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    Because he got muted yesterday for calling out the ABB. I mean I get it, hero, but mods didn''t want him pissing off Lung


    ?WhitePower


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    Says something when heroes can''t even go after trash like that without getting blocked by the government. Man, this country is going downhill.


    ?Acree


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    PHO isnt the government. get off youre soapbox


    ?WhitePower


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    *your


    And I''m just stating facts.


    ?Parian  (Verified Cape)


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    @Feychick [USER=287953]Chrome[/USER] According to to her it was her first time out in costume and that she wasn''t with anyone. She also only gave me a temporary name so not sure if I should share.


    ?Deadman


    Replied On Jan 16th 2011:


    Because she named herself after the Devil? srsly who calls themself Lucifer as a temp name? Apparently this isn''t a new thing either bcause Plaadin knew hre rigth away and said her brother called himself the same thing. Real question is are we going to let a literal devil run around terrorizign ppl. People need to kikc her out of the city NOW. dnt need some Fallen shit here


    (User has received an infraction for this post)


    End of Page.   <u>1</u>, 2, <u>3</u>, ¡­ <u>12</u>, <u>13</u>


    ¡ö

 Chapter 6

    Well it seemed the internet was as friendly a place as ever. Only a few hours after my first public appearance it was now common knowledge that I was both a member of the empire, completely unrelated from them, some kind of devil worshiper, and most probably a villain. I did get a laugh out of the devil worshiper comments though, I wonder what the comments would have been like if they knew they were closer than they expected.


    I could have done without the thirst comments though.


    Nothing I could do about it though. Trying to get the internet to be less perverted was an impossible mission and not worth the effort.


    Of course I could only spend so much time laying around my newly clean house watching people be idiots on the internet before I started feeling lonely. Ddraig was no use either. He had gone to sleep once it was clear I wasn''t doing anything more interesting than making my home livable or playing with magic.


    So after a few days I decided to venture back out into the city. Maybe this time I would do some combat practice? That could be fun¡­but first I had some shopping to do. I was getting tired of takeout.


    -o-


    It seemed like I was going to be picking up a few followers no matter what I did going by the group of men failing to discreetly follow me around the grocery store.


    It was actually a little hilarious that they thought three muscular men with shaved heads didn''t look completely out of place in the shampoo aisle.


    But if they were content to stay out of my way, then I would do the same and ignore them.


    "Thank you for shopping at ACME, did you find..everything..okay¡­" The cashier trailed off as I unloaded everything onto the conveyor belt. I didn''t pay it much attention at first because people did seem to space out around me when they first saw me, but when I finished placing the last item down and realized the cashier hadn''t even scanned the first one and Ddraig was snickering.


    ''Well then. Wasn''t expecting to see you doing something like this. Having fun, White?''


    ''hmph''


    Well that pretty much confirmed things didn''t it?


    The dark haired young man in front of me was the secret identity of my stalker, otherwise known as the independent hero Paladin.


    Not that I cared at the moment.


    "Is something wrong, or should I go to a different lane?" I asked just to get him to stop staring blankly at me.


    Paladin jerked and quickly started scanning my items. "No, no. Sorry about that. I just¡­uh¡­"


    "Right."


    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    I very pointedly ignored his attempted starts at conversation, paid for my things, and left the store. An entire city and I just happened to pick the one my ''rival'' got a job at? I either had terrible luck or someone was messing with me.


    And speaking of messing with me.


    "Hey Red, hold up a sec. We want to talk with ya." One of the skinheads that had been following her called out. Only the one though, his buddies seemed to be missing.


    "We?" I asked shortly, but not impolitely.


    "Uh, right. The others just had to take care of something real quick.'''' The skinhead shot a dark look at an alleyway a bit behind him. "Don''t worry about it." I had a feeling I was going to need to worry about it.


    "Anyways," He continued. "We just wanted to let you know you had some¡­undesirable people following you around. We scared them off but you should be careful. It''s not safe around here for proper people."


    Proper, huh? I wonder what he would think if he knew I wasn''t human at all.


    "Thank you, but I can take care of myself." I tried to excuse myself and walk by him but he smoothly slid back in front of me.


    "I''m sure you can, but you sound like you''re new to the Bay. The rats can get pretty nasty."


    "I''ll be sure to be careful."


    "Right, well have a good one¡­ah! Wait, not that way!"


    This time I succeeded in brushing past the skinhead and making my way down to the alley he didn''t want me looking into. To my complete lack of surprise, his buddies were in the middle of beating on someone not white. Though I was expecting the victim to be asian not black since those were the type following me around earlier.


    "Scared them off huh?" I said to no one in particular.


    "Shit, I was hoping to keep you out of things but now that you saw this I need to take you to the boss. You need to understand why this is needed." Asshole number 1 said from behind me.


    "Yeah, no. But how about this," I looked each person in the eye and flared my magic, catching all of them in a hypnosis spell. "Paladin is the one who did this." Then I punched Asshole 1 in the jaw and triggered my clothing change spell. Could I have done this without hypnosis? Absolutely. But I was going to cling to my secret identity for a bit longer, just so I could get to know some people without them instantly being in danger or approaching me as a plant for someone. Although a small voice in the back of my mind -not Ddraig- was saying it was because hypnosis is really easy to abuse on acceptable targets, supremacists of any kind made it very easy to justify.


    I''ll need to be stricter in the future.


    Anyway, it didn''t take long before the three skinheads were on the ground unconscious, normal humans simply weren''t much of a threat to a Devil, and their victim was looking at me in confusion. Or glaring at me in pain. It was a little hard to tell given the state of his face. Actually wasn''t this a chance to try out a healing spell? This guy probably didn''t have any magic power of his own so it shouldn''t be too hard for me to try¡­


    I reached down slowly not to startle him out of the trance my spell put him in when there was a flash of white and a loud crash.


    "Hold it right there, ne''er-do wells!" Paladin shouted. "I am here to, uh¡­oh, I guess everything is handled already¡­" He trailed off awkwardly.


    "Handled my ass! Finish the job and take her down, you fake-ass hero!" The victim squirmed underneath me. Shit, his mind had decided I was with his attackers because ''Paladin'' was the one to take down the skinheads. Dammit, I should have thought the hypnosis thing through more.


    "I''ll deal with that later." I decided and waved my hand in front of the victim''s face, another spell forcing him unconscious. I was actually a little shocked he was able to fight it for a few seconds even when he was all beaten up but he did eventually relax. Guess I wouldn''t be using that as a combat spell unless my opponent was already beaten.


    "Rias¡­just what did you do?" Paladin asked, showing zero regard for the ''rules''. Good thing I wasn''t actually going to rely on those in the future.


    "Nothing much." I replied. "These guys were following me around the store and stopped me on the street. When I slipped past one of them I found them beating on this guy and beat them up."


    "Why did he think you were with them then?"


    I shrugged. "Misapplication of hypnosis. I was planning on leaving before he noticed, but his mind had to come up with some justification for why I was here when you showed up."


    Paladin''s shoulders dropped and he facepalmed. "Rias, this isn''t your world you can''t just mind control people here. People will really freak out about it."


    I snorted. This guy was still assuming I was the character he was familiar with just based on our looks. And for some reason he was acting like I had some obligation to listen to him anyway. AND he was still ignoring the rules!


    "I''ll keep it in mind, Mr Cashier." I said deadpan.


    "Ah, don''t spread that around! I need to keep my secret identity safe!" I raised an incredulous eyebrow at him. I wasn''t the one screaming out his first name like an idiot.


    Thankfully, he did seem to finally get a clue once he got a look at my expression and thought it through for a second.


    "Oh¡­right. Sorry."


    "Hmm."


    "A-anyway, I should call this in. Wait over there till I''m done?"


    Again, that attitude that I should listen to him. "No, I think I''ll just go home. Feel free to take credit. They all think you did it anyway." I told him and started walking off, much to Paladin''s apparent distress.


    "Leaving so soon? I just got here." A new voice called out from somewhere above me.


    I looked up to see a blonde girl in a white costume floating in midair with a confident smirk on her face.


    This¡­this was about to get annoying wasn''t it?

 Chapter 7

    I glared at the blonde teen through half-lidded eyes. She really had to pick now to show up? Three minutes earlier and I wouldn''t have needed to get involved at all, a minute later and I would''ve teleported home already!


    But, noooo!


    I just had to run into the cliche highschool heroine instead.


    I sighed and readied myself for what was likely about to happen. It wasn''t actually Glory Girl''s fault and if I was anyone else she might have been the reason the empire''s victim lived to see another day. I could still be peeved by it though.


    "Do you mind if we don''t do this?" I called out. "I was only out here for groceries and would like to actually get them home."


    Glory Girl, aka Victoria Dallon, famous throughout the city as a member of the New Wave superhero family of unmasked capes, sneered. "What, had enough attacking minorities tonight? I should just let you go? Yeah right."


    I frowned. "I''m not a member of the E88."


    "Then you''re standing over a guy beaten six ways to hell, why¡­?" She made a show of cracking her knuckles.


    "You want to chime in here?" I asked Paladin, hoping he would diffuse things before they went any further.


    "Words can be misleading, let''s let our fists determine what is the truth!"


    That didn''t¡­no, fine. Relying on that idiot was too hopeful of me.


    My wings flared out and I rose into the air a tiny bit. At least I could take this where I had an advantage.


    Before I forgot though, I grabbed the stuff I bought and focused. A ring of hazy black¡­stuff formed in front of me and I shoved everything inside. Thank G¡­that guy¡­that I decided to figure out the dimensional storage spell before I went shopping.


    While I was doing that Paladin had deployed his Sacred Gear and joined Glory Girl in the air.


    It looked like they were going to wait for me to come to them. At any other time I might have taken the opportunity to try teleporting away and not deal with the headache but, I glanced at the bodies all over the ground, if I teleported now it was likely I was going to end up bringing one or more of them with me accidentally. And the two heroes could probably interfere if they felt like it too.


    "Alright I guess we are doing this." I said with a sigh. "Unless you want to be reasonable?"


    "Hah, words won''t get you out of this, Satan Lucifer! Our righteous light will free you from your dark shackles and deliver you to the side of Justice!"


    "Yeah¡­what he said, I guess." Glory Girl suddenly looked a lot less certain about her ''partner'' for this little encounter. That didn''t stop her from launching herself forward ready to punch me though.


    She was pretty fast, but it was obvious she wasn''t actually used to fighting someone else that could fly. I easily dodged around her.


    "Don''t give her space and keep up the pressure!" Paladin called out as he began his own attack. "She''s a mid-range fighter. And don''t get hit! Her blasts can be really nasty."


    "Got it!"


    I made extra sure to avoid touching Paladin, if his Gear still worked the same then he needed to physically touch me to activate its effect. He was faster than Glory Girl but just as unused to flying opponents. He had no idea what to do when I dropped lower to avoid his charge.


    To be fair, I probably wouldn''t have done much better if I tried to punch someone. But as Paladin said, I wasn''t limited to punching.


    A crimson spell circle bloomed in front of my hand as I pointed it at Paladin. This was his fault so of course I was going to focus on him.


    My own lack of experience came back to bite me as I took too long aiming the spell. By the time I cast a bolt of lightning at the jackass, he had already moved, making the bolt fly harmlessly through the air.


    "She shoots lightning?! Yeah, I could see that being nasty!" Glory Girl exclaimed but I could see Paladin falter when I wasn''t shooting pure Destruction at people. Too bad for him then, stationary targets were easy targets.


    Another sigil formed and lightning shot out almost immediately. Paladin screamed as it hit and fell from the sky. I secretly hoped that was enough to knock him out of the rest of the fight, but I doubted I would get that lucky. He seemed to be that type after all.


    The too stupid to stay down type, I mean.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    Unfortunately, I had focused too much on one person and the first hint that Glory Girl was back was when she punched me in the back of the shoulder. I doubted she hit me as hard as she could, not without knowing if I could take it, but it was still a solid hit.


    I tumbled through the air until I managed to flare my wings and steady myself.


    Then I had to dodge immediately because Glory Girl was taking the ''don''t give her space'' part of Paladin''s warning very seriously. She wasn''t letting me dodge around her as easily and she was getting closer to hitting me as the fight went on.


    ''Maybe it''s time to stop playing around?'' Ddraig spoke up.


    I grimaced.


    This was supposed to be a shopping trip, not a grand battle! Still, might as well get serious before this became a bigger mess.


    Glory Girl''s next punch was stopped dead by the red gauntlet that formed over my left hand. Her eyes bugged out over that before my right hand slammed into her face. I felt like I had punched a steel wall for all the damage it did, but Glory Girl was sent rocketing off as a result and looked a little hesitant to rush right back in. I''d take it.


    Another sigil materialized. Glory Girl''s forcefield might protect her from a punch, but a sustained blast should overwhelm it.


    Too bad that right before the lightning hit a bright blue shield popped up right in front of her.


    I instinctively flew backwards just in time for a crimson beam of energy to lance through the space I had just occupied. I followed the path of the beam and bit back a curse. Two figures in white bodysuits with colored designs matching the colors of their powers were flying closer. Shielder and Laserdream, more members of New Wave and Glory Girl''s cousins.


    More heroes. Yey.


    "Hi Cuz, having trouble?" Shielder called out. "Don''t worry, we''ll give you a hand."


    "I had it covered." Glory Girl pouted. "It''s not like she did anything to me."


    "We saw her punch you half a block away." Laserdream said deadpan.


    "And it did nothing!" Glory Girl insisted. "I''m invincible!"


    I would have scoffed at the blatant boasting since I knew for a fact she wasn''t, but before I could even think about taunting the younger hero, Paladin rejoined us in the sky and formed up with the other three. Four on one. Not the best odds.


    The heroes must have thought the same thing going by their confident posture.


    "So, wanna just give up now?" Shielder asked. "No way you can keep up with all four of us."


    Surprisingly it was Paladin that responded. "Don''t let your guard down. She''s barely scratched the surface of her power. She''s been playing with us this whole time." He said seriously.


    "You''re kidding right? How do you know?"


    "That gauntlet. It''s way more powerful than you''d think. And she hasn''t even started using its abilities."


    Laserdream stared at the Boosted Gear on my left arm. "I''m guessing it''s not just a fancy piece of armor then? And you know what it does? I guess you really do know her."


    "He really doesn''t." I called.


    "I know a good amount." Paladin said at the same time.


    The New Wavers looked between themselves awkwardly.


    "Look, the longer this goes on the worse off we will be. That gauntlet has an ability that is basically the opposite of my power. Instead of weakening her opponent, it doubles her strength." Paladin explained. "And she can keep doing that every ten seconds."


    "Great, it''s like Lung but somehow worse." Shielder commented. "You got a plan then, buddy?"


    "Get me close enough to touch her and I can counter her boosts with my dividing."


    "Alright, just follow me then!" Glory Girl said, then charged right at me once again.


    [BOOST!]


    And just like that I could tell this battle was going to be a lot easier than I was expecting. Even with my base strength and speed I was giving two heroes a tough time. Doubling that? Glory Girl looked like she was moving in slow motion to me.


    I was in her face almost before she could react and buried my fist in her stomach as an opener. I could feel her forcefield tank the blow but once again she was blasted off by the force of the punch.


    My next target was Laserdream. From what I remembered, she had the most powerful ranged attack here and was faster than the rest of her family. Another spell sigil focused on her, but once again a blue shield popped into existence before the lightning could hit. Apparently Shielder could deploy those at range.


    I kept the spell going, at the very least I was going to occupy Shielder''s attention and if Laserdream decided to hide out behind her brother''s forcefield that was two opponents busy while I focused on Paladin.


    Unfortunately it turned out Shielder was better than I gave him credit for. He was able to shape his shield so it was holding off my spell and still gave Laserdream a decent window to shoot at me from. So I had to focus on directing my spell, dodging Laserdream''s attacks, and keeping an eye on Paladin. I was going to need¡­


    [BOOST!]


    ¡­more power. Perfect.


    More lightning poured from my sigil and I could see Shielder starting to strain to keep up. Paladin was still futilely chasing me but I had lost Glory Girl. I couldn''t spare the time to look for her either because Laserdream was apparently capable of wide fanning attacks from her fingertips and it was a bitch trying to dodge around those.


    Those attacks suddenly just stopped and I had half a second to wonder why before I figured out where Glory Girl wound up. She had been waiting while her cousin herded me with her attacks and moved in at the perfect time to hit me from behind¡­right towards Paladin.


    I cursed and threw up a hand to block the punch I was coming and stopped it cold, but that wasn''t much comfort when Paladin smiled.


    "Alright, here we go Albion! Divine Dividing!"


    [Divide!]


    [Boost!]


    It felt really weird to lose all that power only to get it back right away. But now it was a stamina game. Could Paladin keep using his Gear long enough for him and the others to beat me or would he be forced to stop and I could boost once more.


    "Great, you got her!" Glory Girl cheered as she moved into a better position.


    "Keep focused, I can''t keep draining her for long." Paladin warned.


    "What! Why?"


    "I''ve never tried dividing so much power at once. I''m already at my limit." Now that he mentioned it I could already see the extra power he couldn''t harness leaking out of the blue panels of his ''wings''. Was the gap between our bases so big that he couldn''t even handle that much? Then again, besides his Sacred Gear, Paladin was a normal human. He wouldn''t have had the time to do any sort of training to push his limits yet.


    [Divide!]


    [Boost!]


    In that case, playing keep away was a waste of time. I should just try and knock him out of the fight!


    I flew forward but before I could make contact another blue shield popped up in between us.


    Shielder!


    I glanced over to where my sigil should have still been keeping him and Laserdream cornered only to see a crimson shield shatter and reform in front of the blue one protecting them. Ah, Laserdream was using her own weaker shields to take the edge off my attack and letting Shielder focus on other parts of the fight for a few seconds. Smart.


    Damn annoying, but smart.


    I couldn''t up the output on my spell anymore. Doing so would push it into the lethal range I had been avoiding so far and I wasn''t all that eager to start killing kids. That didn''t mean I couldn''t just hit this new barrier harder.


    My fist slammed into the blue shield again and again, and eventually I started to see cracks forming. Confirmation Shielder''s constructs could be broken! And in that case¡­


    I backed off much to everyone''s confusion and even let my lightning spell fade away.


    "What''s wrong, getting worn out? You can give up if you want! We might even go easy on you."


    "Don''t relax! She still has more tricks up her sleeve!"


    "Seriously? Who the hell is this chick?!"


    I scowled as Paladin somewhat overhyped me again. I knew he was projecting what he knew was possible in the show onto me, but that didn''t mean I was capable of doing them! If I had the Power of Destruction I sure as hell hadn''t figured out how to use it. The letter my jackass of a patron left said I wouldn''t get unique powers but I didn''t know if that carried over to inherited abilities too. And I certainly wasn''t going to pull off a Balance Breaker. Not in my first real fight.


    I had one, maybe two, more tricks in me before I had basically shown them everything, yet this asshole was making it seem like I was a multi-stage boss they only forced to change once!


    Still, I wasn''t about to let him know that.


    "If you want to stop here, that''s fine~" I called out a little mockingly. Can''t have them thinking I was beaten after all. "I had fun, we should play again sometime."


    "You''re not getting out of this that easily!" Glory Girl raged, an angry flush on her face.


    I shrugged. "Well if that''s how you want it to be¡­"


    [EXPLOSION!]

 Chapter 8

    It was hard to describe what I was feeling at the moment. I didn''t necessarily get any stronger than I was seconds ago, but it felt like I suddenly could bring every ounce of my stored power to bear all at once.


    It felt amazing though, like I had lightning running through my veins instead of blood.


    But it did come at a cost. I could feel my stamina burning away by the second. This battle had gone from a marathon to a sprint.


    "Dammit! Everyone stay back. If we can st- ack!" Paladin tried warning the other heroes, but I had had enough of his interference for the moment. Before he could finish his warning I surged forward and seized him by the throat.


    "Sorry, but why don''t you take a nap for now?" I punched straight through the hasty shield Shielder threw up in between us and nailed Paladin in the stomach. The force of it was too much for the White Dragon and he went slack in my grip.


    His allies all cried out in surprise at my sudden burst of speed and all tried to respond at the same time. Glory Girl rushed me while Laserdream and Shielder tried peppering me with their energy blasts. I took the opportunity to throw Paladin''s unconscious body at Glory Girl. Even with her ''enthusiasm'' for taking down what she saw as the bad guys, she wasn''t about to let him fall so she was forced to break off and catch the idiot. Which gave me a few moments to focus on the main annoyance left in this fight.


    Shielder.


    He was the one stopping me from simply blasting the other heroes from afar with spells, he was the one allowing Laserdream to just sit there and attack without retaliation, and he was the one that was protecting his allies from getting taken out of the fight, making this entire fiasco take much longer than it needed to.


    So he had to go.


    To his credit, Shielder recognized I was going after him next and was able to put up a much thicker blue construct before I managed to hit him. Too bad for him he must have either underestimated me or was running low on whatever his powers ran off of because my fist shattered the thing like glass before burying itself in his torso. I winced as I felt something crack, meaning I definitely hit him a bit too hard, but he did have a healer on his team. He should be fine eventually.


    ""ERIC!""


    Of course that didn''t mean that his sister and cousin weren''t enraged by their family member being violently knocked out of the fight.


    Too bad for them without the younger teen blocking me, there was nothing to stop me from just bombarding them with spells anymore. Six new sigils lit up in preparation to quickly end what was left of the fight¡­


    ¡­only to fizzle out as I was forced to dodge out of the way as a bolt of lightning and some light purple beams shot through the space I had just been occupying.


    I turned and was immediately displeased to see four more heroes flying towards me. Lady Photon, who I sort of expected since her kids were fighting me, along with Dauntless from the Protectorate and Aegis and Kid Win from the Wards.


    I think I had managed to attract every major flying hero in the city. Maybe some of the small time independents would start showing up at this rate. Not that I could afford to wait that long. The Boosted Gear was burning through my stamina too quickly for that.


    "Well, looks like everyone turned out just for me. I''m flattered, truly." I greeted the new arrivals while I tried forming a teleportation circle under me. Ironically while my combat boost was increasing my magic power enough I could have teleported a hundred times without feeling the strain, my own residual energies from my earlier spells were making it impossible to actually target anything.


    "We don''t just let villains run rampant through the city." Lady Photon said harshly. I don''t think she liked me beating up her son.


    "That''s nice. Though if I''m being considered a villain can you do me a favor and tell me why? This is only my second time out in uniform, you know."


    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    "Disturbing the peace, assault with a parahuman power, destruction of property, and since I doubt you are going to surrender peacefully resisting arrest." Oddly Lady Photon was the one to answer. I would have expected Dauntless to take the lead since he actually was a government employee, but the Greek themed hero seemed content to let her speak for him.


    Something to think about later though.


    "So defending myself when your niece decides to beat me up for no reason is illegal now?"


    "Don''t listen to her, she''s part of the Empire!" Glory Girl interjected, still holding an unconscious Paladin. "I caught her facing down Paladin with a bunch of E88 goons and a black kid they had beaten up."


    "Two issues with that." I glared at the idiot she was holding. This was all his fault. "One, I''m not with the Empire and unless something really messed up happens never will be. Two, I never touched the kid in the alley, the idiot you''re holding should be able to confirm but frankly I think I''ve overestimated his intelligence recently."


    "You''re wearing their colors!"


    "And you''re blonde with blue eyes! You must be a Nazi sympathiser!"


    "Right, sounds like this is a bigger mess than it seems." Dauntless finally spoke up. "If you really haven''t done anything wrong you won''t mind coming with us to the PRT HQ to get things straightened out, will you?"


    "And if I don''t want to?" I asked mostly out of curiosity.


    "I''m afraid I have to insist. This fight was simply too noticeable for us to just sweep things under the rug."


    That was actually a more mild stance than I was expecting from someone with a six-to-one advantage, but I guess he was more interested in deescalating things than bringing me in. Ironic considering the city we were in.


    And unfortunately not a choice I was interested in at the moment.


    My teleportation circle flashed and started glowing as it finally made the connection and the heroes all tensed at the sight.


    "Sorry, but I have more important things to do today than talk with you guys today." I said with faux regret in my voice.


    "If you choose to fight you will be labeled a villain." Dauntless warned even as lightning danced around his lance.


    "Good thing I''m not fighting then." I smirked. Then with a snap of my fingers teleported back home.


    [RESET.]


    Just in time too.


    I practically collapsed onto the floor as all the strength in my body vanished making my limbs feel like cotton candy.


    "That was close." I muttered, waiting for the weak feeling to pass and just feeling the coldness of the floor seep into my limbs.


    ''It wasn''t bad for the first time using my power.'' Ddraig commented idly.


    "Yeah, I''m going to have to work on that. I got tired out way too quickly."


    ''You should adapt fairly quickly. Devils are physically superior to humans after all.''


    "Not only that though. I relied too much on simply overpowering everyone. If the other heroes had just attacked instead of standing around and talking I would have lost."


    ''Hmmm'' Ddraig grumbled. I could tell that he didn''t like the idea of losing just because more people showed up any more than I did. I guess that meant figuring out a training schedule sooner than I thought.


    There was a more immediate problem though.


    I might have been able to finish food shopping, but that wasn''t my only stop for the day. I still needed to actually get some cooking utensils or else I was going to be limited to basic sandwiches eaten off a napkin.


    Which meant going back out for more shopping.


    I sighed and picked myself off the ground. I think I would take the bus this time. I was too tired to teleport.


    -o-


    I barely held back a yawn as I wandered through the mall debating with myself if eighty dollars out of my dwindling money stash was worth it for a knife set or if it was better to just get one or two separately.


    Apparently even though the fight hadn''t really stressed me out too much, it was going to take more than a forty-five minute bus ride to recover. Definitely needed that training schedule. If only to recover quicker than I was.


    Still, my tiredness had its upsides. Looking like I was about to fall asleep had discouraged most people from trying to make smalltalk. That left me free to shop in peace.


    I decided the knife set was overkill considering I was only cooking for me at the moment, I could always get it later if that changed, and headed for the checkout when I noticed a group of college age girls walking the same direction, all of them talking very animatedly. Even from a few feet away I could clearly hear their conversation.


    "So it''s all over PHO now?"


    "Yeah, even if it wasn''t that long, a fight between ten capes is a pretty big deal."


    "If you can call it that. Most of them didn''t even do anything. They just stood around until Lucifer teleported away."


    I guess that answered if anyone had gotten a recording of that fight. Did people just always have a recording device ready, just in case a fight broke out? I made a note to check it out when I got home. Who knows, maybe there was a cool screenshot I could use.


    "Yeah, I don''t think anyone was expecting her to run away like that." One of the girls commented before making an obvious effort to change the subject.


    I mostly tuned the group out after that. They were still pretty loud though. Enough so that when they moved onto hair products I knew they were discussing me as I waited for my items to scan.


    "There is no way it''s natural. She has to use some kind of dye."


    "On that much hair? You''d need to do touch ups constantly. It''s natural."


    "You two could be a little louder, you know." One of the group said grumpily. "I don''t think they heard you in Boston."


    "Oh c''mon Crystal, lighten up." Uh oh, "I know you''re upset about Eric but isn''t that why you came out with us? To relax a bit?" I tried to subtly pay more attention to the group behind me without actually looking at them.


    "Speaking of Eric, maybe we could dye your hair? Even just a temp thing if you want."


    "Sam, I don''t know anything about hair dye. What would I even get?"


    "I know, we''ll ask her!" I could practically feel the group''s attention fall on my back. "With hair like that she should at least know the basics."


    "Sam¡­wai- Alex, hold on! Guys, I don''t want to bother her!" I knew Crystal''s protests were ignored when I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to face a group of girls including a very reluctant looking Crystal Pelham, aka Laserdream. And the second she saw my face I realized she recognized me as well.


    Welp, goodbye secret identity, I guess.


    "Hi there, I love your hair!" One of Crystal''s friends gushed. "We were looking for tips, anything you could share?"


    I smiled back awkwardly. What was I going to do now?

 Chapter 9

    ¡°So you¡¯re new to the bay? What made you come here of all places?¡± One of Laserdream¡¯s friends asked once I finally managed to convince them my hair color was natural and I didn¡¯t use any specialty products.


    Of course it would have been too easy for them to simply leave me alone after that. No, one of them had looked at what I was buying and correctly guessed I was moving into a new place. Then it was decided that they would help me pick things out since they were all mature college girls who had learned some things about moving in. (My own opinion of needing their help was ignored)


    That naturally led them to asking about my background. Nothing major, and I was light on details, but it did come out that I was moving into a new house by myself and my parents weren¡¯t in the picture.


    I shrugged at the question. ¡°Inheritance, mostly. I got a letter saying I had ownership of a property here and decided it was easier than trying to find a place with no background and no job.¡±


    ¡°Well don¡¯t worry, the rumors about the city are way overblown.¡± Sam, another redhead if one with a much duller shade than mine, said.


    ¡°Yeah, just stay out of the worst parts and it¡¯s actually a pretty chill city.¡± Alex, a tan, vaguely asian girl with a bob cut, added in. ¡°And we even have our very own superhero to keep us safe, right Crystal?¡±


    I glanced at the hero and saw she was very pointedly attempting to not look in my direction even with Alex poking her in the side with an elbow.


    An attitude that didn¡¯t last long as the final friend in the group, another blonde named Clover, pulled her into a headlock with an indignant and undignified squawk. ¡°Yeah, Crystal here is a member of New Wave. If anyone is bothering you, you can go to her. And if they don¡¯t back off she¡¯ll blast them!¡±


    ¡°Come on guys, don¡¯t make me sound like some attack dog.¡± The heroine protested.


    It was actually a little funny how quickly the three friends managed to drag both Crystal and myself into their pace.


    What initially was a simple conversation about hair tips quickly changed into an offer to help me with the rest of my shopping, and then into an offer to join them all for dinner. And they didn¡¯t exactly take no for an answer.


    I quickly identified the initial symptoms of being adopted by a group of extroverts and decided to just let it happen for now. I could accept spending time with them and being social as payment for their help getting everything I needed for the house. It also meant I wouldn¡¯t need to go shopping again later.


    It helped that the three other girls made it so Crystal and I didn¡¯t really have time to do awkward silences. The conversation topic was constantly changing so one of us was being asked for opinions every so often without it being forced.


    I decided I liked them. I might have to hang out with them again if this whole thing didn¡¯t crash and burn horribly.


    ¡°So, where are we taking all this stuff?¡± Clover asked out of the blue when we were cleaning up the remains of our meal.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry?¡±


    ¡°Oh, come on, you didn¡¯t think we were just going to leave you to carry all this home yourself, did you?¡± Alex asked, pointing at the various bags we had accumulated.


    ¡°Yeah, we can at least help you to your car.¡± Sam added.


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    ¡°Oh uh. I took the bus this time. It¡¯s fine.¡± I tried to wave them off. I was honestly going to just dump everything in my storage space when no one was looking and then go home.


    ¡°Well, we definitely can¡¯t just let you go now. The buses are pretty safe, but they aren¡¯t THAT safe.¡± Clover chimed in. ¡°Come on girls, we can take my car.¡±


    -o-


    I put up a bit more resistance this time, but Laserdream¡¯s friends didn¡¯t have much issue just grabbing my stuff and walking towards Clover¡¯s car. And while I could stop them, at this point I was mostly just amusedly resigned. Besides, I did just decide I wanted to possibly be friends with them. They might as well know where I lived.


    ¡°Woah, you must be loaded!¡± Sam cried out in surprise when we actually pulled into the driveway of my house.


    I shrugged at the incredulous expressions of everyone in the car.


    ¡°Not really. The house is paid for and everything, but I¡¯m still working on getting access to the bank accounts.¡± And needing to remember to actually open a bank account in the first place. ¡°So while the house is really nice, I¡¯m not that much better off than most people.¡±


    ¡°This just proves we have to be friends now. Could you imagine the kinda bash we could throw here?¡±


    The girls helped bring in and unload various things or at least dump them in the right room or near stairs. With four extra pairs of hands things went really quickly. Which meant that everyone was ready to leave soon afterward.


    ¡°You sure you don¡¯t want a ride, Crystal?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I just want to talk to Rias about something real quick. I¡¯ll just fly home later.¡±


    Well, all of them except the one person I didn¡¯t want to be alone with.


    ¡°Must be nice being able to fly. Okay, see you around! Bye Rias!¡±


    I politely waved as the three girls piled back into their car and drove off. When they were out of sight I turned back to a serious looking Crystal.


    ¡°So¡­want something to drink?¡± I offered in hopes of delaying actual conversation.


    ¡°I know you¡¯re Lucifer.¡± Crystal said bluntly, destroying all chances of deflecting this till later.


    ¡°Aren¡¯t there supposed to be rules about this kinda thing?¡± I sighed and covered my face. Not that I truly cared. If I didn¡¯t want people identifying me I would have taken steps to cover my most noticeable features besides a bodysuit and a domino mask.


    ¡°You already knew I figured it out.¡± Laserdream countered. ¡°No point in dancing around it.¡±


    ¡°So, what? Is this the part where you warn me to stay away from your friends ¡®or else¡¯?¡±


    She huffed. ¡°Like they hadn¡¯t figured it out either. Well, maybe not Clover. She isn¡¯t always the most observant. But Sam and Alex both figured it out too.¡±


    Okay?


    ¡°So why were they so insistent on hanging around me if they knew I had just fought you?¡±


    ¡°Because I told them about the shitshow that went down after you got away.¡± Laserdream almost groaned. ¡°None of the thugs knew about your cape identity until the cops gave them a description and then they clammed up, but it was pretty obvious they were following you around but had no idea you were a cape.


    Then they had to get statements from the rest of us about what actually happened and it came out that neither the E88 members or the victim placed you at the scene until after Paladin started taking them down and you went to inspect the victim.¡±


    Right, hypnosis. I idly wondered if the people there created their own version of events that had me show up later or if they would simply skip over anything related to me until after Paladin actually showed up.


    Regardless, I wasn¡¯t about to advertise that power if no one suspected.


    ¡°I was going to give him a basic first aid check, but he thought I was with the Empire and yelled at Paladin to finish the job.¡± I said with a shrug.


    ¡°Yeah, see that''s the problem. Independents don¡¯t exactly have the right to just decide someone is a villain unless they see them committing a crime. So him and Vicky attacking you afterward is technically assault. Especially since you weren¡¯t declared a villain until afterward.¡±


    I raised an eyebrow at that. ¡°So even knowing I wasn¡¯t doing anything wrong I¡¯m still considered a villain?¡±


    Crystal slumped and rubbed her forehead. ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s¡­kinda our fault. Like, no one would believe that someone innocent was going to fight against so many heroes unless they were a villain or someone fucked up. Problem is the PRT is going to probably classify you as a villain anyway because they went into CYA mode when it came out you hadn¡¯t committed a crime.¡±


    ¡°Because Dauntless also attacked me?¡± I guessed and earned a tired nod back.


    ¡°Yeah, even if it was just once it opens them up to a lot of legal stuff to attack without warning unless it was against a confirmed villain, my aunt could explain the details better but, yeah¡­¡±


    So the local PRT was going to make sure to arrest me, probably tack on a couple trumped up charges so the legal problems went away, and then either offer me a deal or try to strap me with a collar.


    ¡°Well I guess that solves my conundrum of deciding to be a hero or not.¡± I joked not that Crystal appreciated it.


    ¡°Somehow I don¡¯t think that was a big issue for you.¡± She said flatly.


    I shrugged again. That was probably true, especially because I didn¡¯t exactly make much of an effort to stop fighting once we got going.


    ¡°Thought so, but yeah, I didn¡¯t like that we were basically forcing you to be a villain even if that was the direction you were going anyway, so I wanted to avoid you when we saw you in the store. But the girls heard the whole thing from me already and thought you deserved a chance to prove yourself as a person and then we ended up hanging out. After that I figured I at least owed you the full story so you weren¡¯t blindsided the next time you go out.¡± Crystal said and then started moving towards the door.


    I just watched her go as I tried to figure out exactly what this changed for me.


    I never really planned to do the whole ¡®Ally of Justice¡¯ thing so being labeled a villain wasn¡¯t the end of the world. In fact it gave me an excuse to do almost whatever I wanted and the worst that would happen would be a greater call from the public to bring me in. Probably.


    Meh, at least it gave me an excuse to beat up Paladin with no unexpected repercussions.

 Chapter 10

    "Well, they certainly didn''t waste any time, did they?" I mused as I looked over a few news sites covering what happened yesterday.


    ''You don''t sound very surprised.'' Ddraig commented. ''Not worried about everyone labeling you a villain?''


    "Someone was going to do it eventually." I said distractedly as I pulled up another article.


    To be fair, the PRT hadn''t come out and called me a villain just yet. But their press release on the fight and the small charity event I apparently interrupted were very careful about reminding people that rouge capes didn''t necessarily need to commit crimes to be dangerous and people should be careful about approaching me in public.


    I had put my own account of the events leading up to the fight on PHO, but it wasn''t really changing public perception that much.


    People were more interested in the drama rather than the truth of it, and it was my word against several heroes. Not that New Wave didn''t at least try to make up for it. Both Crystal and her mom had defended me multiple times saying that the situation was more complicated than it first seemed with the latter going out of her way to encourage me to talk to the PRT to get my name cleared. Hell, Glory Girl actually gave me an apology for not giving me a chance to explain myself.


    ¡­too bad those comments were buried under all the other bullshit getting shoveled.


    "Besides, I was never really going to pay much attention to the whole ''cops and robbers'' game most capes get into." I continued as I read through some not so subtle comments pointing out various ''coincidences'' in my name, costume, and powers to several villainous groups.


    I wonder if these people got a commission for everyone they successfully labeled a villain?


    ''Not going to fight it then?''


    "Well, I''ll certainly fight the people that come after me because of this crap." I scoffed, "but I''m not going to go out on the boardwalk and scream from the rooftops about my heroic intentions and get locked into a PR battle. I don''t care nearly enough about that."


    That got a chuckle from my partner.


    ''Might be fun to do though.'' He said before going quiet. Probably going to take another nap.


    Lazy lizard.


    That did leave me up in the air on what to do with today. I had no intention of going shopping two days in a row and I had done so much cleaning over the past few days that I might be developing an allergy to cleaning supplies.


    I misclicked on a link by accident and was sent to an announcement page that said the charity event would be extended into today because of the disruption I was involved in.


    Suddenly I knew what I was going to do today¡­


    -o-


    "Are you absolutely insane?!" Crystal hissed once I made it to the front of the autograph line. "What are you doing here!?"


    I gave her a winning smile. "Nothing much, just out here supporting¡­" I gave the program I had picked up a glance. Oh? It was for a children''s hospital? That was a charity I could actually get behind supporting. "...a good cause and taking advantage of that to meet the local heroes."


    I could actually see the vein throb in her temple.


    "I''m taking a break." She announced to the assistant next to her. The next thing I knew, I was being dragged by the arm towards a secluded corner.


    "Is it okay to just abandon your fans like that?" I asked. I was here to mess with her and the other heroes. But I didn''t want to ruin things for everyone else.


    Crystal gave me a weird look. "What are you talking about.


    "The autograph line?" I tilted my head and pointed back the way we came. "Won''t they get upset?"


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    "Rias, that was a line to buy raffle tickets." she huffed.


    "Oh." Well now I felt silly.


    "That''s not the point. What are you doing here?" She repeated. "The PRT just put out a warning about you. You should be keeping your head down, not going out doing," she waved a hand at me vaguely, "whatever this is."


    "I''m just going out and enjoying this lovely day." I protested innocently.


    "I don''t believe you for a second." Crystal refuted immediately, going for her phone. "But if you''re so interested in supporting the charity, I know just the way you can help out¡­"


    -o-


    I had to admit, Crystal came up with a pretty good idea for keeping me out of sight in the two minutes she had to come up with the idea.


    Since, by my own words, I was here to support the charity then I wouldn''t mind volunteering to help out, right?


    So that''s how I ended up as a target for a pie throwing stand.


    The goal of the game was simple. For five dollars you could throw three custard pies at one of the several people working the stand.


    Oh, I absolutely could have refused. In fact I was sure Crystal was hoping I would and using it as a way to get me to go somewhere else. Too bad for her I actually didn''t mind getting a little dirty if it was helping out some kids.


    Of course I had slightly underestimated how popular the chance to throw things at a very pretty redhead would be and, well¡­


    "You okay there, Rias?" Jolene, the person in charge of the stand, asked as she handed me a towel. I was practically covered head to toe in custard at this point. I don''t think an inch of me escaped unscathed.


    "A bit sticky but fine." I replied as I did my best to clean myself off. Unfortunately, while I was able to get a good amount off my face, all I did was smear the custard on my clothes around. I guess I was going to need a very thorough shower later. Thankfully the clothes were provided by the event staff so mine were fine.


    "Yes, well thanks to you we made quite the haul. We weren''t expecting to run out of pies so quickly."


    "Is that a problem?"


    "Oh no, not at all!" She denied quickly. "We''ll just shift the staff around to another stall. But that''s for us to worry about. You''ve done plenty. Why don''t you go enjoy the rest of the event? If you keep the staff shirt, the first round of every game is free."


    "You sure? I don''t mind helping out some more." Especially because the longer I spent as part of the staff, the longer I had a legitimate reason to hang around to be spotted by the heroes wandering around. I wonder what Crystal''s blood pressure was like right now?


    "Go, go." Jolene waved me off. "Go get clean and enjoy yourself. Maybe get a few autographs. You''re young yet. Go enjoy it while you can."


    Well if she said so¡­


    -o-


    "Hi there! Would you mind an autograph?" I asked with a smile. Ignoring Crystal slowly covering her eyes with a hand.


    Thanks to the design of his helmet I couldn''t get much of his expression beyond a glimpse of a smile, but I could tell by the stiff posture and strained voice he also recognised me. "...Not at all¡­I would be happy to."


    I happily accepted the now signed card back from the Protectorate hero and carefully added it to the several others I had collected ¨CI had gotten most of the custard off beforehand but there were still several spots that were only semi-dry and I didn''t want them ruining my trophies¨C before going in for a handshake.


    Today had been fun.


    I got to spend some time helping out a good cause and playing around the rest of the stalls basically for free. Then I got to thumb my nose at nearly everyone I fought yesterday by walking up and asking for an autograph. Paladin wasn''t here obviously, and I hadn''t run into Glory Girl yet, but I did manage to apologize to Shielder for breaking a couple ribs. Actually I hadn''t seen any of the Dallon side of New Wave, were they not here today?


    "She''s really doing this." I heard Crystal mutter off to the side.


    That caught Dauntless''s attention and his grip tightened.


    "You know the ''Rules'' don''t stop us from arresting Capes in their civilian identity if they out themselves." he whispered in my ear. "If you try anything we will stop you."


    "I have no idea what you''re talking about." I said with a razor sharp smile, "I''m just here for the event and to thank you for driving off that dangerous villain yesterday. Afterall, compared to the murders, hate crimes, drug dealing, and assaults done by the other villains in the Bay, Lucifer''s crimes clearly make her the top priority to tackle."


    "If she ever wants to discuss her status, she can always call us." Dauntless replied through clenched teeth.


    He seemed upset. I wonder if he got chewed out for his actions the other day?


    "Well if I ever see her, I''ll let her know." I gave his hand one last squeeze and wandered off towards the last two heroes I hadn''t gotten an autograph from.


    Lady Photon was watching me like a hawk, but she was much calmer now that I wasn''t throwing lightning at her kids or breaking their bones. Her husband, Manpower, on the other hand was smiling calmly at me like I was just another person in the crowd. Also, wow he was big. I was not expecting a seven foot Charles Atlas lookalike.


    Before I could talk to them though, Crystal intercepted me and tried to pull me away without making it obvious she would rather be throttling me by the neck.


    "What the hell are you doing?! It took hours to convince mom not to hunt you down for what you did to Eric. Yeah, she calmed down when the full story came out but she does not like you." She hissed.


    I held my hands up defensively and turned to placate the angry blonde.


    "I''m not going to do anything to set her off." I protested. "Just apologize again for breaking Shielder''s ribs and getting an autograph to not seem out of place. That''s all, devil''s honor."


    Crystal''s eyes narrowed. "Devil''s honor? And that is supposed to make this better?"


    "I''ll have you know Devils are very particular about honoring deals and promises." I sniffed imperiously, but then relaxed again. "I won''t if you don''t think it''s a good idea though. No reason to ruin the event for everyone else. BUT! As payment you have to get your parents'' autographs for me."


    "And you''ll leave right after?"


    I mean I was going to leave after talking to Lady Photon and Manpower anyway, so¡­


    "Sure, we have a deal!" I stuck a hand out with a smile. Crystal took it with an eye roll.


    Oddly, I felt my magic respond to the action. A small bit ¨Cso tiny if I hadn''t been surprised by the reaction in the first place I never would have noticed¨C reaching out and latching onto her and pulling out some kind of energy. Internally panicking, I tried pulling it back but it refused to move. It almost felt¡­ oh shit, did I just form a contract with Crystal?!


    Sure enough, when she returned with the signatures, I felt the energy move a tiny bit but since I hadn''t held up my side of the bargain it stayed in some weird limbo state.


    "There you go, two Autographs." Crystal said tiredly, pushing the cards into my hands. "I wish that was it, but Mom wants to talk to you. In costume. I''ll call in a couple days to figure out the where and when, since somehow I''ve been caught in the middle of this."


    I winced. "Sorry."


    "Make it up to me by stopping being a pain in my ass."


    "Well, I can promise that for today. No telling about tomorrow though." I joked half heartedly, but moving towards the exit all the same.


    The second I was outside the event grounds, that little bit of energy merged with me. It was so small I couldn''t actually tell if it did anything but the knowledge I could actually form pacts was interesting. On an academic level anyway. I wasn''t sure if it would be worth doing for myself but if I picked up a peerage member¡­


    Any thoughts about magical contracts and future friends were cut off by a loud growl from my stomach.


    Come to think of it, I hadn''t actually eaten much today, had I?


    ''If you''re doing takeout, I want BBQ.'' Ddraig put in his two cents.


    I was good with BBQ.

 Chapter 11

    "So you going to go?"


    "Hm?" I looked up from my milkshake at Crystal, who was looming over the table with an annoyed expression.


    "Did you even listen to a word I said?"


    "Of course I did." I half-lied. I only listened to maybe every third word, but that was enough to get the gist of everything. "Your mom wants to meet up tonight for that talk you mentioned at the charity thing."


    "And are you going to go?" She asked again, to which I nodded vaguely. "Really? You don''t have something else planned or a date you''d have to cancel?"


    I blinked at her uncomprehendingly.


    "No? I didn''t try making other plans because you told me your mom wanted to talk and the only four people I''m even kinda friendly with are at this table." I waved a hand over the blonde superhero and the three girls trying very poorly to act like they weren''t eavesdropping on our conversation. Sam, Alex, and Clover were actually pretty fun to be around. I wouldn''t exactly call us friends, but I wasn''t opposed to things moving in that direction.


    "You sure? Cause we can always find another time if you can''t make it¡­"


    I narrowed my eyes at her. "Crystal, it almost sounds like you don''t want me going to this talk. Any particular reason why?"


    The heroine refused to meet my eyes for a few seconds but eventually gave in when it became clear she was going to have to say something.


    "Fine, I don''t want this meeting happening because I know it''s going to be a disaster. Happy?" She collapsed onto the table and buried her face into her arms. "You''re going to say or do something stupid, mom and Aunt Carol are going to get mad, and then we''re either going to fight or argue and then I''m going to be forced to choose between either family or friends and that SUCKS!" She ranted.


    Okay, apparently she was really stressing out over this whole thing. And she was going to fight her family over me?


    "What? No, of course I''m not going to fight them over you." Crystal instantly denied when I asked out loud. Ouch. "I mean sure I like you Rias, even if you''re an annoying troll, but not nearly enough to do that. I just don''t want my family to keep controlling everything I do. I mean, I''m nineteen and I''ve never been able to do anything for myself. Costume design? Needed to fit in with the rest of the family. College? Had to be local so I could support New Wave. Friend throwing a party? I can''t go because that''s close to Empire territory and me being there might rile them up. I don''t want my parents deciding who I can and can''t be friends with on top of that. You giving them a valid reason to not let me just makes it worse."


    The other three stopped pretending they weren''t listening and showered the heroine in supportive words and hugs. I, as the source of the problem, could only give her a supportive smile.


    "Well, I''ll make sure not to do something stupid then. Fair?"


    "I guess we''ll find out¡­"


    -o-


    ''Not going to do it then?'' Ddraig asked as I walked towards the meeting place.


    "Nah. If it was just Crystal, I''d probably still do it. But if her family is going to freak out I''ll just save it for later."


    I had planned on showing up for my meeting with New Wave in the most stereotypically villainous way I could think of ¨C over-the-top laughter and pouring smoke/miasma with lightning flashes in the background ¨C just to mess with them, but if that was going to have actual consequences for Crystal I would have to restrain myself.


    ''I don''t know why you bother.''


    "Because I like hanging out with her." I shrugged. "She and the other girls are basically my first few friends around here and I don''t want to give that up for a cheap joke."


    ''hmph, fine be boring. Let me know when something interesting happens.''


    I smiled at Ddraig''s grumpy attitude. "Well hopefully nothing like that happens tonight. Have a nice nap."


    Ddraig made it a point to project a snore at me.


    Rude.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Anyways, I was actually a bit early to the meeting place, a good habit to get into when dealing with important meetings, and I saw I wasn''t the only one here early.


    Most of New Wave''s adults were standing around looking at various spots in the sky ¨C looking for me? ¨C with the noticeable absence of Flashbang. Glory Girl and Laserdream seemed to be the only ones from the younger group here though. I wonder why? I wasn''t really expecting Panacea because she would really only be in the way if a fight broke out considering she was mostly restricted to touch range for her powers to work and I could fly. Shielder was a bit more unexpected, especially because he gave me so much trouble in our fight.


    Maybe he was making sure no one targeted Panacea when the rest of New Wave was busy?


    Meh, I''d ask Crystal later.


    Speaking of¡­


    "Hi Laserdream, enjoying the night so far?" I asked as I walked into the open, which made everyone jump for some reason.


    "Ria-ahem-Lucifer! Where did you come from?!" She shrieked.


    Confused, I just pointed towards the alley I stepped out from. "Over there? I didn''t think dramatically dropping in from the sky would be a great intro-, that''s exactly what you thought I was going to do wasn''t it?" I narrowed my eyes at Laserdream''s rapidly reddening face.


    "It seemed like something you would do." She said mulishly.


    She must never know how close she was to being right.


    "Well, stunning lack of faith in me aside, it''s nice to meet everyone when they aren''t trying to punch me." I addressed the rest of her family. Brandish ¨C aka Carol Dallon, aka Glory Girl''s mom ¨C was staring at me with thinly disguised hostility, Lady Photon was more neutral but still a bit frosty, and Manpower was¡­checking me out? Eugh, I was his daughter''s age!


    "I''m glad you could make it." Lady Photon replied. "With how complicated things got a few days ago we thought it would be best to clear the air between us."


    I nodded at that. It was a reasonable thing to ask.


    So we started talking. Mostly me going over how the fight started and how things kept escalating, nothing which seemed like new information to any of them, and what led up to me dropping by at the charity and in return I found out what happened behind the scenes with them and the PRT.


    Unsurprisingly, Paladin''s credibility had taken a big hit. New Wave didn''t particularly like getting dragged into his personal delusion that fighting me was inevitable, let alone the PRT, but ultimately he was a single independent hero. The way Cape law was written meant there really wouldn''t be any direct consequences for him, but he no longer was trusted unconditionally by either group.


    Dauntless, on the other hand, had gotten the book thrown at him by Armsmaster. As a member of the Protectorate it was his job to take control of the situation and attempt to de-escalate it unless there was an obvious crime in progress, not just go along with an unaffiliated person''s decision, hero or not. Simply going with the flow made him, and the PRT by extension, look bad. Apparently he would be forced to attend several first response and leadership courses that just so happened to restrict the amount of time he would be out in public during daylight hours. A bit petty of Armsmaster, but apparently others thought the Spartan-themed hero keeping his head down was a good idea for a bit so he was being benched while going through some mandatory education.


    I thought that Armsmaster forcing him to go through a course about how to handle first contact with an unknown parahuman was ironically hilarious.


    New Wave as a whole actually came out of the whole debacle relatively unscathed. True, Glory Girl started the fight, but that was because she got bad information ¨C no information, really ¨C from Paladin and her cousins showing up to help against whoever she was fighting was perfectly reasonable. Lady Photon''s commands shortly after less so, but again not something they could be blamed for. Although because the PRT needed someone to pass a bit of the blame onto, Victoria apparently was very undescreetly recommended some courses about threat management and acceptable levels of force. She was also told the PRT would be keeping an eye on her activities and verifying them independently to make sure more ''misunderstandings'' like with me wouldn''t happen in the future.


    I guess that explained why Brandish didn''t look super happy to see me. The PRT was using her daughter as a scapegoat and she considered it my fault.


    "Now that everyone is caught up on the fallout of that¡­mess, why don''t we get to the heart of the issue. What are you hoping to do as a cape?" Lady Photon asked. "We can''t exactly encourage one of our members being seen with you unless we know for certain."


    I raised an eyebrow. "So much for those rules, huh?"


    "You aren''t doing a great job of separating your identities, sweetheart." Manpower chipped in. "Don''t blame us for putting it together when you made it so easy."


    "Domino masks aren''t great for costumes if you have other easily identifiable features." Brandish added, pointedly glancing at my hair.


    I already knew people would notice that though, so I didn''t bother holding it against them.


    "Well, I''d probably like to be a Rogue over anything, not a huge fan of all the hoops heroes have to jump through, but I''m likely going to be labeled a villain soon enough." I shrugged.


    "And why''s that?" Brandish asked cooly.


    "Because I actually liked fighting everyone all at once and I''ll probably end up doing it again." I shrugged again. "I mean sure, I''ll make sure to schedule things in advance when I can but the PRT is going to see me fighting heroes again and jump on the opportunity to push all the blame on me for tarnishing their rising star."


    "Seriously? You''re going to become a villain just so you can fight us?" Crys-Laserdream asked incredulously. "Why not focus on the villains we already have?"


    "Oh, I will. I''m totally going to jump at the chance to take some of them down." I assured her. "The problem with that is villains are kinda hard to just track down when I want a fight."


    "You''re going to become a criminal just because you''re a battle maniac?" Lady Photon asked.


    "Not a criminal. I don''t really need to steal or anything and I said I''d prefer to be labeled a Rogue. I just don''t think that''s what''s going to happen."


    And honestly the thought of meeting up with Crystal and having a big showy fight over the bay and then going out for food with the girls sounded really cool. I could be her nemesis! We could even do a merchandising thing after a while. I''m sure Alex would be excited to help out.


    "Well, that''s¡­worse than what we were hoping for, but better than it could be." Manpower said.


    "I don''t like it." Brandish scowled. "Powers aren''t something you can use for¡­entertainment," she made the word sound dirty, somehow. "And she already hurt Eric pulling this stunt. What''s going to happen the next time she makes a mistake? I''m not going to let her use Panacea just to cover up excessive force." No one seemed to notice Glory Girl flinch at that.


    I raised my hand. "If it helps I do have a limited healing ability. Nothing great, but I can even do bones after a few hours." I had actually confirmed I had that ability earlier when Sam dropped a bookcase on her foot. It was a power sink and nothing really seemed to speed it up, but I could heal.


    "That wouldn''t be too bad, right?" Glory Girl spoke up. "I mean if it''s staged fights where no one can get hurt, or at least we keep it to a level Lucifer or occasionally Amy can patch us up we can treat it like a training exercise or something."


    The New Wave adults shared looks between themselves and seemed to have a private conversation.


    "I''m not opposed¡­" Manpower started off. "If we can swing it so no one panics it might be good publicity. We''ve run into issues with that recently."


    "We''d be endorsing a villain. Even just one in name only." Brandish argued. "If anything does happen or she crosses a line it will blow back on us."


    "But having someone new to practice against might be what we need for the kids. Eric was saying he learned more fighting Lucifer than he did me or Crystal because he didn''t know what she would do." Lady Photon said, though she sounded a bit reluctant. "And I''d rather someone they know than some unknown in a real fight."


    They went back and forth a bit but eventually they seemed to come to a conclusion.


    "We''ll let the younger members of New Wave train against you for now if they want." Lady Photon said. "But if you cross any lines or try to manipulate them somehow, we''re taking you down."


    "I''m fine with that." I gave them all a smile. "And I''m glad we could clear the air."


    I even gave Crystal a thumbs up. See? No explosions, no fighting or unreasonable demands.


    Everything had worked out just fine¡­

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 12

    "You know you didn''t have to walk with me. I''d have been fine by myself." I said casually as Crystal and her cousin followed after me once the meeting was done.


    Crystal said it was because she wanted to make sure I got to a bus safely, Vicky said it was to make sure Crystal wasn''t alone.


    I was just amused everyone seemed to have forgotten I could teleport and wanted to see how long it took them to remember that little tidbit.


    "Yeah, but this way I can get away from my parents." Crystal said. "Like, I love them and everything but I know the second I get back she is going to be nagging me with a massive list of things to watch out for regarding you. I''m just trying to delay it."


    "Ah, bit of a helicopter mom?"


    "You could say that." She said, clearly wanting to drop the subject.


    Fair enough.


    "And what about you?" I said, looking at Victoria. Apology aside I thought she would hold a bit more of a grudge because of the fight. I was expecting mistrustful stares or obvious aggression, but she didn''t seem bothered by me much. "You don''t seem like you''re expecting me to attack your cousin out of nowhere."


    "I wanted to know what was up with you and Paladin." She shrugged. "He seemed way too sure of himself when it came to you and what you could do and wouldn''t tell anyone why. Yet you kept insisting you didn''t know each other. It''s weird."


    "Well he thinks I''m an anime character he knows after a bunch of incredibly powerful beings calling themselves gods sent us and a bunch of others here for their entertainment." is what I wanted to say.


    What came out instead was, "He''s an obsessive idiot I met barely a week ago. Who knows what he''s thinking?"


    What?


    ''Looks like there''s a compulsion preventing you from giving the game away.'' Ddraig commented.


    Well¡­ shit.


    I probably should have guessed there was something in place to keep my patron and his friends'' involvement hidden. I might not have tried to tell everyone about it the first chance I got, but I''m sure others might have tried if they could. And watching your¡­contestant? character? ¡­whatever, get locked up for crazy talk wouldn''t be very fun in the long run.


    "That can''t be it. I can''t say I know him all that well and he''s certainly¡­weird, every once in a while, but he knew a whole bunch of things about your powers no one else did. Especially if you''re as new as you said." Vicky pressed.


    I shrugged. "Like I said, we met face to face for the first time when I arrived in the city." I paused and then decided to test how far I could push this newly found compulsion. "But I can say that before I got here, I saw images of someone with abilities similar to Paladin. Maybe he saw the same and assumed everything about the person he saw and I would be the same?"


    The two blondes scrunched up their faces in thought. They were obviously skeptical, but there was not really much else I could say about that matter.


    "Enough about that though." I said, changing the subject and pointing a finger at the older of the two. "You, Crystal, owe me one for tonight."


    "Wait, what? Why?"


    "You thought that meeting was going to be a disaster. I held back from doing anything fun and made it a complete success. You owe me."


    "...you know what? Fine. If nothing happens by the time we get you to the bus station, I''ll owe you one." Crystal said in the tone of someone who had stopped caring ten minutes ago.


    I smiled at her and flashed a thumbs up. "Deal!"


    Naturally, that''s when the machine shop three buildings down exploded and threw the three of us to the pavement.


    "...Not my fault!" I felt obligated to point out as we picked ourselves up. The other two just gave me a dirty look before running off to see what just happened with me tailing after them a moment later.


    As we got closer, it quickly became clear the explosion wasn''t some random accident. The person standing there laughing to the heavens made it pretty obvious who caused it too. What surprised me was the fact it was an old man in a labcoat with an impressively large mustache and bat-wing like hairstyle (despite the balding on the top) and not someone in a costume. What was more surprising was the fact I recognized him.


    "Dr. Wily?"


    The man''s laughter immediately ceased at the sound of his name. Or what I assumed to be his name. His eyes snapped to the three of us and I almost twitched at the sheer manic energy in his glare before it faded into something less intense.


    "Hooh, you recognize me girl? Excellent! You are just in time to witness first steps into greatness! To the beginning of a new world order under me! AHAHAHAHA!"


    "Jeez, did he hit his head? He sounds totally crazy." Vicky whispered, earning a light slap from her cousin as she stepped forward.


    "Um, excuse me, are you alright? We saw the explosion and came to make sure no one was hurt." Crystal called out. "Me and my cousin are part of New Wave, so we can call for help if anyone needs assistance."


    "Alright?" The Wily-lookalike cackled. "I''ve just completed the final touches on my first masterpiece! Of course I''m alright! Now all that''s left to do is watch as my creations take over this city, and then! THE WORLD!"


    This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    As he broke off into more maniacal laughter several shapes started walking out of the still burning machine shop, ignoring the flames as if they weren''t there, and it was quickly obvious why they were unbothered. They were robots. Slightly comedic and goofy looking, but also probably hostile robots.


    I recognized over a dozen of the small spherical looking metools with their iconic yellow hardhats, a few humanoid models with a red monoeye carrying a shield with a gun built into their left arm, but the one that really drew attention was the yellow, black, and red giant with a square block of painted metal for a lower jaw that towered over all of them.


    "Okay, gramps is off his rocker." Vicky muttered before hovering a few inches off the ground. "Tell them to stand down, old man! We don''t want you throwing out a hip."


    I was about to congratulate the teen on actually learning something from our encounter and trying to talk things out when I saw movement from one of the robots in the back.


    "Crystal, shield!"


    Thankfully the heroine listened to me without delay. She had one of her reddish energy shields up just in time to block three softball sized orbs of yellow energy before they hit us. But that was justification enough for Vicky to decide the conversation was done with and try flying over the small army of robots.


    What none of us were expecting was the giant one sitting in the back to simply leap twenty feet into the air and casually slap the teen hero out of the air.


    I was worried for her since I wasn''t exactly sure how quickly her shield reformed after a hit, but she was back on her feet (well, hovering in the air but semantics¡­) and charging the Gutsman robot looking no worse for wear in seconds.


    "Hah! Get them, my minions! Show them the power of my genius!" Wily ordered and the rest of the bots started fanning out to surround me and Crystal, shooting those blasts of energy at us the entire time.


    Crystal started making shields and firing her own beams back but unlike the games I recognised the little robots from, these ones were perfectly capable of protecting themselves with their shields or by ducking under their helmet and shooting back without leaving themselves completely open. But that didn''t stop her from occasionally getting a good hit in and coring a couple metools, leaving a sparking hole clean through the small robots before they exploded.


    While that was going on, I stuck to dodging the occasional shot and moving towards the edge of the growing fight when I could.


    While it was practically confirmed I had no secret identity at this point, that didn''t mean I was just going to jump into this without thinking it through. The heroes had clearly made the connection, but as far as I knew most villains should still be in the dark. Let alone another Champion like Paladin.


    Another reason was that I was actually not convinced this was all Dr Wily had to show. None of the minions here really had the means to create the explosion from earlier. Which meant something had gone wrong with the equipment that he was using to make these guys¡­or he had another trump card up his sleeve.


    Something I wasn''t discounting considering how casual he seemed standing there with laser beams and energy orbs flying back and forth while the two brutes smashed into each other in the background.


    Especially when he took the time to look at me and smiled, practically screaming he felt safe despite all his minions being pinned down by the two heroes. "Is the devil not coming out to play tonight?"


    Welp, guess that meant he knew who I was. And whether he had something else backing him up.


    "I think I''m a bit much for one old man, no matter how smart he is."


    "Haha, good! Cautious of my genius even now! I will need people like you in the future once I rule the world." he cackled. "But you are right. I''m a man of SCIENCE! Not a fighter. I prefer to leave that to my creations." There was a flash of light followed by a crack of thunder as another robot appeared in front of Wily. "I think you''ll find this one particularly electrifying."


    Similar to Gutsman, this one had black, red and yellow armor along with a yellow mask with a lightning bolt on it. Even if I hadn''t seen him arrive in a flash of lightning, or the terrible pun, I could have guessed this one was Elecman.


    Something I did notice, though, was the fact that this one was just staring blankly at me.


    There was none of the personality or signs of life I would have expected from a Robot Master. Whether that was because Dr Wily had been unable or unwilling to do so or for some other reason I had no idea. And this wasn''t the time to find out.


    "Well, you started it." I said as calmly as I could despite my growing excitement.


    Elecman was the one to attack first. His hand coming up and several orbs of lightning shooting towards me that I dodged by leaping out of the way. The orbs flew by harmlessly, and thankfully nowhere near the two New Wave heroes, but they did end up striking some unassuming drum barrels in the distance which promptly exploded.


    "Careful you fool!" Wily shouted in the background. "We''re surrounded by volatile chemicals! Attacking precariously like that will only blow us all to smithereens!"


    I briefly wondered why he didn''t seem concerned by Crystal''s attacks if that was the case, but a quick glance at the burning machine shop made the answer obvious enough. Everything there had already been lit on fire.


    There still was none of the emotional reaction I was expecting from the Robot Master, but Elecman did stop shooting at me. Instead, he flash teleported closer to me and tried punching me with short lived versions of the lightning orbs that covered his fists like boxing gloves.


    What bothered me was that he was¡­slow.


    Like below human level slow.


    It almost looked like he was being careful that his own movements didn''t tear himself apart. And that got me thinking. Where did Wily get the materials to build his little army? Any kind of high-end materials would be expensive or hard to get in large quantities so why would he waste them on so many foot soldiers? Then I nearly slapped myself for realizing I was doing the same thing as Paladin and assuming that Wily was just like his videogame counterpart and that was all there was to him.


    I punched Elecman in the face and felt something deform, proving he wasn''t made of some superstrong metal like I expected, and risked looking around at the other fights.


    Vicky had torn off Gutsman''s arm at some point and was using it to beat the rest of him into scrap, while Crystal was facing off against the last two Sniper Joes having finished with everything else. But as I was watching, I saw the blasted remains of one of the metools slowly fade away like it was never there.


    Ah, power generated minions. That made sense.


    And it explained why the two Robot Master knockoffs were underperforming. They were probably the only ones Wily had actually built, but the lack of proper materials hurt their performance. Which made me slightly wary that Wily was still holding out on us because I couldn''t see either of them being the ''masterpiece'' he boasted about.


    Right. Time to get this over with.


    A spell sigil appeared in front of me before blasting Elecman with my own bolts of lightning. Just as I suspected, and avoided using this attack for that reason, he seemed to power-up from the electric attack. But after a few seconds something overloaded and he started spewing black smoke and exploded.


    What an underwhelming fight.


    I masked my disappointment as the other two finished up not long after me and went back to confront Dr Wily. Although, considering he was still here and looking pretty calm about everything¡­


    "Okay, old man. I don''t know what your deal is, but after the speech and robot army I don''t care. You can explain it to the PRT!"


    "Vicky, wait!"


    I watched as Vicky didn''t wait and rushed forward to roughly grab Dr Wily. I got a flash of dark amusement at the look of horror on her face when his head snapped back from the force she used and snapped at a distinctly unhealthy angle.


    She released the body with a scream that quickly turned to rage when the doctor''s head shot off his body and bounced around on a spring making some very mocking faces and sounds.


    ¡­yeah, he used the replacement robo-body trick. Which meant Wily was probably long gone from here and had used everything here as a distraction for something.


    "Crystal, Rias! Help!"


    Before anyone could do anything else, a frantic looking Alex sprinted up to us and practically collapsed. I wanted to ask what the hell she was doing here, even more so when I realized she had spots of blood all over her, but she started waving back the way she came from and forcing herself to speak as fast as she could.


    "You have to help¡­Sam¡­she¡­!" My black haired friend tripped over her words.


    Recognizing this wasn''t the time to stand around trying to figure out what she was talking about, Crystal and I shared one look and ran back the way Alex indicated.


    -o-


    I was expecting something bad from the way Alex was acting. I had several scenarios flash through my mind at what could have happened to Sam to make her freak out like she was.


    I wasn''t expecting to see Sam down on the ground looking like she had been caught next to a grenade going off with several shrapnel wounds quickly dying her clothes red even as Clover was desperately trying to stem the bleeding with a sweatshirt.


    Crystal immediately went for her phone, frantically calling someone while screaming back at Vicky to go get her sister. I was next to Sam in a second, gently pushing Clover away as I tried healing what I could.


    "What happened?" I didn''t even know who asked the question for a second before belatedly realizing it had been me.


    "We heard the first explosion." Clover stammered. "We were just going to check it out and call for help, but something hit a few barrels nearby and they went up like a bomb. Sam was, she was just a bit in front of us and she¡­she¡­" The blonde trailed off although it was easy to guess what happened.


    Sam got caught up in the blast and now she was bleeding out.


    "Vicky''s going to get Amy. She''ll be back in fifteen minutes." Crystal was saying to a somewhat glassy-eyed Sam. "Hear me? Just hold on until then and we''ll get you patched up right away."


    ''She isn''t going to last that long.'' Ddraig''s incredibly unwelcome voice spoke up in my mind.


    ''She''ll make it. She''s tougher than she looks.''


    ''I''ve seen a lot of people near death over my lifetime. She has five minutes at most.'' Ddraig said. ''Sorry partner, even with your help she won''t make it.''


    Part of me wanted to deny his words. Believe that she would pull through anyway.


    But the sheer certainty in Ddraig''s analysis made it hard to ignore.


    Coming to a decision, I pulled my hands away and did my best to get Sam''s attention through the shock and pain. "Samantha¡­" I started, using her full name to show how serious I was being. "...I''m not going to be able to keep you alive until Panacea gets here." "Rias, what are¨C"


    I ignored Crystal''s snapping and held up a certain red chess piece to the dying girl in front of me.


    "But I can save you another way¡­"


    "Would you like to make a deal?"

 Chapter 13

    Samantha Simpson woke up in a place she had seen a few times before, but she was a little confused as to how she got there. The last thing she remembered was that she, Alex, and Clover had been poking around a new club by the docks and were nowhere near Rias''s mansion.


    Not that waking up here was a bad thing.


    Rias went to some crazy lengths to restore the building to the point that it was starting to feel like a high class hotel rather than the slightly run down building they helped her furnish a few days ago. And the other redhead had offered to let them stay the night if they ever felt the need. Not that anyone had taken her up on that yet.


    Then the memories hit.


    A detour to investigate an explosion, another closer explosion, then burning pain in her chest followed by a slow creeping chill.


    Sam shot upright with one hand going to what she was sure to be serious wounds, only to pause in confusion when there was nothing there. Had they gotten Crystal''s cousin to heal her? If so she owed Amy something nice.


    Before she could do much more than take a deep breath and look around the room she was in, there was a soft knock at the door with Alex and Clover walking through seconds later.


    "Sam, you''re awake!" The fact that they didn''t instantly tackle her into a hug despite being clearly relieved to see her told Sam that something had absolutely happened. And it had probably been bad.


    "Hey girls¡­what''s going on? Why are we back at Rias''s place?" And why are you two freaking out?


    "What''s the last thing you remember?"


    Yikes, whatever happened must have been bad. Her friends almost never danced around an issue like this. Any topic related to boys, fashion, or parties sure, they could talk in circles for a couple hours. Waking up in an unexpected location? No one in Brockton Bay joked around about that kinda stuff. Way too many horror stories in the news for anything other than direct statements.


    "We went looking into an explosion and I got caught up in a second one. Speaking of, did Amy heal me? I need to thank her if she did."


    The two looked between each other nervously and seemed to have a silent conversation before Alex turned back to her and sighed.


    "No, we couldn''t get Amy in time. Rias did something to heal you, but¡­"


    Ah, cape stuff then. Rias pulled some unknown thing out to help her and it must have been pretty weird ¨C not that Rias seemed normal for a cape anyway ¨C and it had everyone scared.


    "Okay, so what did she do? Am I part plant now or something?" It wasn''t the best joke, but ever since that villain Poison Ivy popped up in Florida, she was constantly hearing about redheads turning part plant.


    "We don''t know? She asked you if you wanted to make a deal then stuck this weird figurine in you and you started getting better. She wouldn''t explain anything else, saying you deserved to hear it first. So Crys is kinda freaking out."


    Sam huffed. That sounded pointlessly considerate. But then again, Rias did like to make things all dramatic when she could. The other redhead was probably just enjoying riling up the heroine.


    "Well I''m up. Let''s go find out what''s going on."


    -o-


    Despite the size of the mansion it didn''t take long to move to the room Rias and the others were waiting in ¨C because Rias only actually used a small portion of the house ¨C and Sam was thankful for that. Whatever the other redhead had done to her had left her feeling incredibly weak and sensitive to light. She was almost blinded by afternoon sun peeking through the windows and couldn''t wait to go back to sleep once her curiosity was sated.


    They walked into the sight of Rias lounging on the sofa while Crys was pacing back and forth nervously. It would have been kinda funny if her cousin wasn''t floating off to the side glaring daggers at Rias, obviously upset with the devil cape.


    Deciding to try easing the tension in the room ¨C and not risk falling on her face ¨C Sam made her way over to one of the chairs in the room and sat down heavily. "Hey girls. Why the serious faces?"


    Rias smiled back. "Hi Sam. How you feeling?"


    "Honestly? Like crap. I feel weak and everything is too bright."


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    "See?! She needs to go to a hospital," Crystal hissed at Rias, waving an arm at Sam. "not just hang out here hoping to get better."


    "I told you a hospital won''t be able to help her."


    "And why not? You keep refusing to say!"


    "Because Sam needs to hear it first."


    Yeah, this wasn''t going anywhere. Sam could tell that this wasn''t the first time they had had this argument based on how fast the responses came and tempers were starting to flare. She should do something about that.


    "Well I''m here now, so why don''t we sit down and talk?"


    It didn''t take long for everyone to take a seat, but notably Alex and Clover set themselves up on either side of her and looked ready to drag her off while Crystal and Vicky moved between her and Rias.


    That¡­hurt actually.


    It sounded like Rias had done something to save her life and now all her friends (and Crystal''s cousin) were treating it like she was in danger from the person who helped her.


    Way not cool.


    "So what''s the big thing I needed to hear first so Crys will stop glaring at everything?"


    "I am not glar¨C" "What''s the last thing you remember last night?" Rias interrupted.


    "Most of it? I remember the second explosion¡­but not much after that." Sam trailed off softly. She almost died, didn''t she?


    "Yeah, it was pretty close." It was then that Sam realized she had spoken that last bit out loud.


    "But I''m okay now? Back to normal and all healed up?"


    Rias''s sudden silence wasn''t reassuring.


    "Rias?"


    "You said you''d tell us when Sam got here." Vicky scowled from the side. "She''s here, so start talking."


    The devil cape rolled her eyes at the demand but did lean forward and start to explain.


    "Right, since you don''t remember, I''ll start from after the second explosion. It¡­was bad. Really bad. You were bleeding out and we weren''t going to get help in time. In short¡­you were dying." Rias said seriously, and pulled out a small red figurine. "So I offered you a deal. Accept this and you would live¡­even if it came with some complications." She played with what Sam recognized as a chess piece in her hands for a bit before tucking it away again.


    "Complications?"


    "Yeah, what do you want first? Biggest ones first or last?"


    "Let''s do biggest first." Sam decided. Best to get the major stuff out of the way.


    Rias shrugged, but from the look she shot at the two New Wavers this was going to be a big one. "You aren''t human anymore."


    Sam blinked as everyone else exploded into shouts¡­


    "What do you mean not human¨C"


    "What did you do to¨C"


    "Is she really part plant¨C"


    "Rias, the hell?"


    ¡­but she wasn''t focused on that. Not human anymore? What did that mean?


    "What I mean by that," Rias continued over the noise of everyone else, and possibly reading Sam''s mind, "is that the chess piece I used on you is designed to break your body down and rebuild it into the same species I am. A Devil." She flared her wings and Sam felt a small *thump* behind her. Everyone, including Sam, turned to see the same spiky black wings Rias had coming out of her back.


    "You turned me into a Parahuman?" Sam asked, not quite believing her eyes. At least until Alex ran a hand over one of them and got a full body shiver in response. It turned out her wings were sensitive.


    "Not a parahuman." Rias denied. "You''re a Devil now. Which means you get the same basic powers I have. Flight, toughness, strength, and so on."


    "Does she get a cool glove then too?" Clover asked.


    "That''s a separate power from being a devil. She does get to use magic though, once her energy grows a bit anyway. She''s too new to do anything right now."


    "Oh please, magic doesn''t exist." Vicky said dismissively. "What I wanna know is why we shouldn''t go straight to the PRT and tell them you gave someone powers."


    Rias rolled her eyes. "Call it the ability to use a personal energy field to rewrite reality through imagination and willpower if it makes you feel better. As for the second point¡­it will get a lot of people killed and eventually Sam herself if she is separated from me."


    "What?! Why?"


    "Did you think rewriting someone''s existence in a few seconds is easy? Sam doesn''t have the power to support herself independently yet. She needs to be near me to stabilize her new existence or she will eventually mutate into a monster driven by her desires and try to get the energy she needs by eating people." Rias was looking a little irritated by now.


    Crystal on the other hand looked infuriated. "So what you''re saying is you mastered her and now she''s a hostage we can''t even remove from you."


    "No, I''m saying I saved her life and this is a consequence of that choice."


    "How close and how long do I need to stay near you?" Sam broke in before the two started fighting.


    Rias gave Crystal another glare before taking a deep breath and looking back at her. "I don''t know the specifics, you are the first person I''ve reincarnated," Sam idly noted the term she used in the back of her mind, "like this, but you should be fine as long as we are in the same city and just see each other for a few hours a week. As for how long, that actually depends on you. The stronger you grow the less you need me as a stabilizing force. Eventually you won''t need me at all."


    "Wait, if Sam''s the first person you did this to ¨C how do you know all that?" Clover asked.


    "I''m not allowed to say." Rias stated instantly.


    "Woah, rude much? Don''t know if this is the time to start holding out on us girl."


    The two heroes tensed but Alex spoke up, "Hold on a sec. Rias, did someone else turn you into a devil?"


    Rias grimaced. "I''ve been a devil the entire time I''ve been on Earth Bet."


    That was¡­oddly specific phrasing. And everyone noticed.


    "Wait. Were you not born on this Earth?"


    "I''m not allowed to say."


    "Do other people have the ability to make people devils?"


    "I''m not allowed to say."


    "Did someone else send you here?"


    At that last question Rias locked up. As in still as a statue, didn''t move a millimeter still for several seconds. Holy shit, someone turned Rias into a ''devil'', sent her to another Earth, and then Mastered her into not being able to talk about it.


    That was horrible.


    No one said anything for what felt like forever until Rias gave herself a full body shake, plastered on a clearly fake smile, and clapped her hands.


    "Right! Well this has been¡­awful, so let''s get the rest out of the way before we get derailed again. General things first, as a new devil you are going to feel pretty weak during the day and even worse in direct sunlight. On the flipside you are going to be faster and stronger than most olympians at night and that will only get better if you train for it. Don''t worry though, after a week or so the daylight thing won''t affect you as much and eventually you won''t notice at all.


    Something else you should know is about the piece I used on you. You are now one of my pawns.


    Don''t let the name make you think I consider you disposable or anything, the pieces themselves are part of a larger system that functions as a tournament game." She paused and looked annoyed. "What, so I can tell them that but not¨C" and her mouth snapped shut. Rias fumed for a second before going back into her explanation, "Anyways, certain pieces give certain boosts. For instance, a Rook piece grants enhanced strength and endurance beyond a normal devil. A Knight, greater speed. A Bishop," and for this she looked directly at Vicky, "larger magic reserves. And the Queen gets all three. Just like in chess though, Pawns can promote to any other piece if they reach territory the King considers hostile."


    Sam and the rest sat in silence at both the new information and the knowledge that despite everything else Rias was also a Master victim. It did help to know that despite that fact Rias was still pushing her boundaries as much as possible to give them as much info as she could.


    She still didn''t know if she believed everything Rias had said, but one thing she knew for sure was that life was going to get interesting.


    "Okay! Way too much heavy talk!" Clover broke up the persistent silence. "I''m starving since we missed lunch waiting on Sam to wake up. Who wants pancakes?"


    The tension in the room slowly bled out as everyone looked between themselves and admitted pancakes sounded like a good idea. As they started filing out of the room, a thought popped into Sam''s head.


    "Wait, Rias, how do I put my wings away? Rias? Rias! Get back here and tell me how to get rid of these!" With that Sam started chasing after her annoying friend as the other devil simply started cackling and ran away.

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 14

    "Right, so most of this should be instinctual. You''ll just need to focus on where you''re going rather than every little movement." I explained as I helped Sam up onto the platform I had placed on the third floor balcony.


    I had to admit, I was a little excited to be teaching my first peerage member despite the unfortunate circumstances surrounding her joining me. And while I wasn''t going to have her join me in my less than legal activities unless she asked first, I was still going to make sure she was as prepared for what she could do now as possible.


    Next thing on the list?


    Flight lessons.


    "Rias, shouldn''t we be on the ground for this?" Sam asked nervously as she peered at the ground below. "I mean, it''s only been a few days. I don''t think I''m ready to start jumping off buildings."


    "A few days is plenty," I waved off her concern. Honestly, she could jump from twice this height and be mostly fine, but like she said it had only been a few days. She still wasn''t used to her new abilities. "Besides, I even borrowed a crash pad for this. You''ll be fine."


    "You got this Sam!" Alex and Clover cheered from the side.


    The two girls had been coming by almost as much as Sam had. They seemed fascinated about all the things their friend could now do and kept poking both her and me about new ways to use magic they had thought of. Alex seemed to focus on the more whimsical things, like talking to animals or various visual effects, while Clover would ask about creating jewelry or clothes from nothing. I could practically see stars in her eyes when I told everyone that temporary clothes and accessories were pretty easy to make, even if they didn''t last long, but I was half expecting her to ask me to make her a devil on the spot when I explained to Sam how she could use magic or minor shapeshifting to mimic any look she wanted instead of using makeup and didn''t have to worry about acne.


    "And Rias and I will be right there to catch you if needed." Crystal added while I took Sam''s hand and unfurled my wings, her own instinctually opening as well.


    Not everything was sunshine and rainbows though.


    Unsurprisingly, Crystal and Victoria had gone to their family ¨C well, Crystal''s mom ¨C about me reincarnating Sam. I couldn''t blame them for that either. From their point of view even if I had only done it to save someone''s life I was still a potential combination of Teacher, Heartbreaker, and Nilbog after my explanations of Stray Devils and Evil Pieces. I wasn''t sure what exactly came out of that conversation but Crystal did her best to make sure Sam and I were never alone for long stretches of time and PHO noticed New Wave patrolling out this way more than usual.


    Still, I didn''t have the PRT breaking down my door or anything like that so I wasn''t going to complain as long as they didn''t start anything.


    I''d take what I could get.


    Especially because she was really helping Sam settle into her new abilities.


    "The easiest way to get used to flying is not thinking about flying." She was telling my new Pawn. "The more you think about it the harder it is to actually do it. I managed to fly immediately after getting powers no sweat, but when I actually tried to do it later I kept jumping up and down like an idiot because I was overthinking it."


    "Yeah, that''s great and all but you don''t have wings." Sam complained nervously. "You don''t have to worry about flapping the wrong way and crashing into a tree or something."


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    "You don''t have to worry about that either." I interrupted. "Devil flight is more ''I can fly because I have wings'' rather than ''I use my wings to fly'', if that makes sense. You saw me fly before, I don''t flap my wings all that often either."


    "It doesn''t."


    I snorted at her attitude but started pushing her towards the edge. "Welp, no time like the present. Let''s get flying."


    "W-we don''t have to. I mean, who really wants to fly anyway? Walking works just fine! And don''t think I can''t see you two traitors laughing in the corner! I''m going to get you back for this!


    Despite her protests, Sam did eventually follow along with the lessons and barely an hour later Crystal and I were playing midair tag with her in order to help her get used to everything.


    Flight lessons successful.


    -o-


    As fun as midair tag was, people did eventually need to leave.


    Sam begged off first since she was the one most tired out between us with Crystal offering to escort her home. I had expected the other two to take off soon after but they asked to talk with me back in the house.


    "So what''s up?" I asked once everyone had taken a seat.


    Well, Alex and Clover took a seat. I had apparently picked up the habit of lounging on anything I could and had sprawled over the sofa.


    The two of them shared a brief glance before Clover took the lead.


    "So, you can change people into Devils without them needing to nearly die first right?"


    "Yeeesss?" I drew out, not entirely sure where this was going.


    "And you still have another seven Pawn pieces?" Alex chipped in.


    "Yeah, but guys, I already promised I''m not going to go around changing people against their will."


    And while I had of course fantasized about pulling together some sort of super peerage based on recruiting the most powerful people I could, it was ¨C in the end ¨C just a fantasy because I had no idea what any of them would be like as a person and I had no desire to play babysitter to a bunch of jackasses just because they were powerful.


    It was one thing to imagine having all that power and skill nearby. But if that meant dealing with people like Paladin, who I knew had the potential to be one of the strongest people on the planet, I would do a hard pass.


    "Oh, we know. And after you explained how it works we aren''t worried about you brainwashing the President or something." Clover reassured me.


    "We did want to know if you would change us though." Alex chipped in. "We know you said you wouldn''t do that to anyone without explaining the risks¡­but we know all that and wanted to ask."


    I wasn''t exactly sure how to respond immediately. While I knew both of them were at least curious about Sam having powers, I was convinced that the Master concerns and literal removal of their humanity would have killed all actual interest.


    Then the two had the gall to laugh when I brought that up.


    "Rias, if you were trying to brainwash us all into unthinking minions you''ve been going about it in the most convoluted and stupid way possible." Alex chuckled. "Explaining how it all works, letting an entire hero team know about it, and letting them know where you live? We''re not worried about it."


    "Besides, you seem human enough and Sam hasn''t changed much so it''s not like we''re going to be totally different people." Clover added. "And only needing to keep being your friend in exchange for superpowers seems like a pretty sweet deal, if you agree that is."


    "I feel like the literal damning of your eternal soul should be more of a concern for you." I pointed out, still off balance from the request. "And what about Crystal? Wouldn''t she freak out about you two suddenly deciding to become Devils?"


    Both of them shook their heads.


    "It''s not that sudden. We actually talked to her about doing this before we asked. As cool as it is to know a superhero as a friend, the unwritten rules don''t actually make us that much safer than anyone else. Yeah, we might not get kidnapped on purpose but it''s not like every gang member is just going to walk right past us."


    "And this way we can help you and Crystal out. Even if it just means we won''t get picked off by some ''random'' gangbanger looking to hurt one of the heroes¨C"


    "Or get caught in an explosion. The city isn''t exactly safe y''know?"


    Yeah, couldn''t fault them for wanting to be safer. And if I knew someone that could hand out superpowers while living in a place like Brockton Bay I would probably ask too.


    "You know there''s no backing out of this right?" I asked one final time even as I took out two Pawn pieces. "Once you take this, that''s it."


    "Yep, we still want to do it though."


    Well, if they were sure¡­


    "In that case, welcome to the Peerage." I handed over the two pieces with a smile.


    -o-


    Despite Alex and Clover''s assurances, I was half expecting some sort of blow up the next time I saw Crystal. To my relief, the only thing that changed for the rest of the week was the amount of people taking flying lessons.


    No shouting, no drama, no midnight strike by the heroes. It was enough to make me a bit paranoid that things were going too well.


    So when Crystal came storming into my house looking seconds away from murder while the trio was still in classes, I actually felt a bit relieved. The universe was still in balance.


    "Hi Crystal, what''s up? Shouldn''t you still be at college?"


    "You mentioned staging fights right? How long would it take to get ready for one right now?" Crystal asked instead, completely ignoring my greeting.


    "Uhm, couple minutes at most. Why?"


    "We were doing presentations in class today. I had to sit there for fifteen minutes and listen to some Empire-sympathizing fuck try telling me that they''re a force for good in the city." The heroine fumed. "Like they weren''t responsible for murdering Aunt Jess and passing the blame on to some random asshole. The bastard even said New Wave should ''stop holding on to a stupid grudge and work with the Empire to clean up the city''. I need to hit something before I explode."


    I perked up at the prospect of a fight, even if the reason for it was kinda shitty.


    "Sure, give me a bit to get ready and we''ll head out. I know a good place we could cut loose."

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 15

    "So what did you have in mind?" I asked Crystal as I got changed. "Simple spar, theme fight, target practice, or something else?"


    I knew she was probably going to go for a straight spar since she was in a bad mood, but who knew? She might surprise me and more options are usually a good thing.


    "Theme fights?" Crystal asked.


    "Yeah, things where you roleplay based on a situation." I explained. "Like if we wanted to pretend that a powerful, cunning, and gorgeous villain was guarding a device to take over the city, the hero would need to either beat the villain or get her to destroy the device."


    "So basically pretending to be something out of an old comic or cartoon?" Crystal raised an eyebrow at me. "Also, you should add humble to that description."


    "If you wanna put a label on it then sure." I said, ignoring the last comment.


    "Isn''t that a little, I dunno¡­childish?"


    I laughed. "Crys, growing old is mandatory. Growing up is completely optional. Besides, we could do more serious scenarios if you want."


    Crystal shook her head. "No, that actually does sound fun. I''m just not in the mood. Maybe next time? I think I''d just like a simple spar for today."


    I shrugged as the two of us moved towards the teleportation circle near the front door. Nothing wrong with keeping it simple on the first go.


    "So where are we going?"


    Instead of answering her, I poured my magic into the pre carved circle. It glowed red and a holographic copy began to swirl gently as I focused on our destination.


    With a final snap of my fingers, we vanished in a flash of light.


    -o-


    "The Boat Graveyard?" Crystal, no if we were going to be out in public it should be Laserdream, asked when we reappeared. "Ria-, Luci-, actually did you ever come up with another name?"


    I waggled my hand noncommittally. "Not really. Don''t know if it even matters anymore since so many people already started calling me Lucifer. You can just stick with that for now."


    "Fine, Lucifer. Anyways, we can''t be here. Yeah it''s technically abandoned but the owners of the ships can still sue us for damages. Most don''t bother because it''s hard to find the cape responsible, but New Wave has a public address."


    "And if they try, let me know and I''ll be happy to counter sue them into oblivion." I replied. "I looked into it. The laws stopping people from suing them for not cleaning up this mess only apply as long as they are not directly benefiting a villain or criminal cause or have completely abandoned the property with no intention of recovering it or restoring it. Dr Wily''s minions have been seen salvaging metal and other things from the wrecks so they don''t have a leg to stand on and the second they claim they were going to repair this crap eventually they will get blitzed with the fines for leaving it untouched for so long."


    "...still."


    I sighed. Even pissed off, Crystal was completely mindful of her status as a public hero. It would be admirable if it wasn''t getting in the way of me having fun.


    "Another instance where damages aren''t covered by the law is when a recognized hero is preventing a crime. And I think that one of these boats would make a wonderful addition to my lair. So are you going to stop me from stealing one of these clearly valuable and cherished pieces of property, hero, or am I going to get away cleanly?"


    "You know, I can kinda see why Paladin gets so focused on you when you talk like that. No one else really follows along with his morning cartoon show banter."


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    I felt a shiver run through my entire body.


    "Well now I''m going to have to beat you up. I have to defend my dignity at least." I raised a hand and a spell circle bloomed in front of me, but I held off until Laserdream smirked and flew a bit away, her own maroonish colored energy gathering around her hands.


    After a silent three count I started blasting her with orbs of unaspected magic. Basically, just tennis ball sized red orbs that moved at a decent speed but also hit about as hard as a paintball. There might be a bit of bruising and at worst some broken skin, but that was it. I called them training orbs.


    Of course Laserdream was expecting a lightning bolt so the sudden switch let me get three hits in before she recovered enough to make a shield and block the others.


    "Ow! Since when can you do that!" Laserdream complained, rubbing one of the sore spots.


    "Were you expecting a devil to be predictable?" I taunted, taking random potshots at her. "Sorry to say you''ll have to do better than that if you want to even land a hit on me."


    Laserdream actually growled and launched herself forward.


    The two of us began trading shots back and forth with Laserdream usually choosing to block my orbs with a quick shield while I was forced to dodge constantly. Stupid shield spell not working the way I wanted it to¡­


    Still, even with that handicap, I was still getting hits in while rarely getting hit in return because I was simply faster than her. And that was without using the Boosted Gear and some of my other tricks. But simply beating up on Laserdream wasn''t the point of this. It was to let her work out some frustration and have some fun while doing it.


    So naturally I started trash talking.


    "Is that the best you got?! I could slow down some more if you need it!"


    "Well see how you dodge this then!" I smiled as Laserdream also got caught up in our fight.


    Only for that to get wiped off almost immediately when Laserdream placed both hands next to her, fanned her fingers, and fired off a continuous beam from every one of them so a near curtain of energy was descending down on top of me.


    "AOE is cheating!"


    "Should I slow down for you then?!"


    Tch, using my own taunts against me was also cheating.


    I dove down among the wrecks to avoid the attacks and pulled up before I hit the water, but that turned out to be exactly what Laserdream was after. The fan of energy suddenly cut out and I looked up to see her flying above me, hands placed together so that her fingers formed a ring.


    Guessing what her next move was going to be, I cursed and threw a hand up. Another spell sigil briefly lit up before changing into a hazy red dome.


    Just as I suspected, Laserdream repeated the finger laser trick only this time to create a narrow cone that pressed in from all sides as she narrowed the radius. Too bad for her the main issue with my shield spell was mobility, not strength. And if I couldn''t move anyway there was nothing stopping me from waiting her out. Of course she realized that too and after a few seconds when it became clear the smaller finger lasers were not going to get through, she switched to a single beam from her palm to pin me in place.


    I laughed a bit as I made some mental calculations for my next move. I had planned on only using the training orb spell to attack but Laserdream had forced me into a position where that would lead to either my eventual loss or at best a stalemate if she couldn''t get through my shield.


    And that was just no way to end things the first time out.


    Another sigil formed off to my left, angled to face where I guessed Laserdream was based on what I saw before my shield blocked my vision. A bolt of electricity shot towards that point but I frowned when there was no reaction from the heroine or the beam still hitting my shield.


    "That was close but too bad for you I already moved!" My eyes widened at the sound of Laserdream''s voice. Much closer than I was expecting. Practically right above me actually, I discovered as the attack she had been keeping up cut out and she swung around my shield right into my unguarded side.


    I desperately tried to ward her off with a hasty training orb but she pushed past my arm and coiled around my torso until she had me in a headlock and a glowing hand hovering threateningly a few inches from my face.


    I could just brute force out of this, but¡­


    "Okay, you got me." I tapped her arm a few times, signaling my surender. "That was neat, how did you¨C" I paused when I turned to see Crystal was hunched over, far sweatier and paler than I was expecting and swallowing repeatedly. "Are you okay!?"


    "Y-yeah, just motion sick." She stammered, still swallowing heavily. "I don''t do g-great with high speed turns like that."


    Huh, I guess that''s why she let me teach the others about maneuvering during our flight training without getting involved much. I thought it was just because she thought the methods of flight were different between us.


    I pulled off a glove and pressed my hand to her forehead. While my healing technique was honestly kinda terrible, it was still better and faster than just waiting for her to recover. Even with the limited contact making it even more inefficient.


    Laserdream sighed in relief though, so I guess I was doing something right.


    "Thanks. I hate that feeling."


    "No problem. I guess that''s one point to you. Ready to go again?"


    Before she could answer, an unfortunately familiar white shape crash landed onto one of the ships above us.


    "Do not fear Allies of Justice! Reinforcements have arrived to face the Forces of Darkness!"


    Yep, standing there arms crossed, legs spread, and wings flared out behind him with a stupid smirk on his face was Paladin.


    I guess things really had been going too well for me lately and this was retribution.


    "What do you want, Paladin? We were in the middle of something." I sighed, looking at my ''rival''.


    "What any champion of light wants, for you to cast aside your misguided ways and join the side of righteousness!"


    "Do you practice these lines in front of a mirror or something?"


    Paladin actually flinched at that. No way, did he seriously practice?!


    "A-anyway, thanks to Laserdream''s efforts we are here to put an end to your schemes. Surrender now if you know what''s best!"


    Just going to ignore that last part, huh? Wait¡­did he say ''we''?


    Quickly looking around, I saw that not only was Paladin here, so was Dauntless and two wards; Vista and Gallant. Seeing the youngest Ward, I guessed that explained how they showed up in such a distant location so fast. Vista''s power to stretch and compress space would make it easy to move around barring something like my teleportation.


    Looking between the serious visages of the Protectorate, the recovering form of Paladin, and the nervous one of Laserdream I realized I was once again surrounded by heroes potentially looking for a fight. So naturally I said the first thing that came to mind.


    "I don''t mind if you want to play but do you mind if we reschedule? It''s Laserdream''s first time one-on-one and I want to make sure it''s special enough to work out all the tension she built up."


    There was a sharp slapping sound and I turned to see Laserdream slowly pulling her hand down her face.


    "Rias, what the fuck?"

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 16

    Barely a second after her outburst, Crystal slapped her hand over her mouth and looked at me in horror.


    "I-I''m so sorry! I didn''t mean to use your name, it just slipped out!"


    I just rolled my eyes at her overreaction. Yeah, if I was trying to separate my identities I''d probably be pretty mad. But like what had been mentioned several times already, my costume really didn''t hide who I was. And it wasn''t like the PRT couldn''t figure out who I was by asking Paladin¡­or if they didn''t want to do that, just asking around the charity for my name.


    "Relax, it''s not a big deal." I reassured her. "Calm down Crystal. You know I wasn''t super careful with my secret identity anyway."


    "Yeah, but I still should be more careful. You might not care, but if the girls were with us I could have just blown their identities just as easily."


    Point to her, I guess. It probably would be worse for Sam, Alex, and Clover getting revealed to the PRT considering how new they still were.


    "Fair, just don''t beat yourself up over it." I said, considering the topic over with and turning to the other heroes watching us uneasily. "So anyway, like I was saying, nothing going on here besides me and Laserdream working up a sweat and getting her nice and loose. If you want to join in we can schedule something later because while I don''t mind sharing partners, she''s a little more shy about these things."


    Crystal glared at me. "You''re doing that on purpose." She accused.


    Damn straight I was.


    Too bad I could just tell Dauntless was going to be a pain about this by the way he flew forward, all stiff and confrontational. Not a good look for the local hero.


    "Lucifer, you are under arrest. Surrender peacefully or you will be forcibly detained."


    I raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. "Under arrest for what? We are simply sparring, far away from public property and not damaging anything important. Nothing worth arresting someone for."


    "You''re disturbing the peace and damaging private property." Dauntless said, waving a hand at the boats Laserdream hit during our spar. "Vandalism is still a crime."


    "Right, because people really care about this rustheap." I said sarcastically. As if to punctuate my point, one of the wrecks we hadn''t damaged groaned as something gave way and collapsed further into the water. "You''re stretching a bit, supertrooper. Sure you''re not just mad I got you in trouble with your boss?"


    "Are you resisting arrest?"


    That''s a yes then. "So what about the rest of you? You want in on this too?" I looked at the three younger heroes.


    "If it means opening the way for you to earn redemption, then of course I will join the fight!" Paladin exclaimed, earning him an eye roll from me.


    "Pretty sure I have to actually do something villainous to need a redemption arc but whatever." I commented. "What about you kids, I don''t care¨C"


    I stopped talking as a bolt of lightning barely missed me.


    "Enough. TALKING!" Dauntless growled. "I won''t ask again, either surrender now or I''ll bring you in for resisting arrest."


    "Well someone''s cranky." I looked towards Laserdream. "You should probably back off. Probably a bad look if New Wave gets in a fight with someone in the Protectorate."


    "You just want me to leave you alone to fight them?!" Laserdream hissed, but I could tell she was conflicted.


    "Oh please," I scoffed as five sigils bloomed around me. "You make it sound like they have a chance of beating me." And then I gave her a pretty forceful shove just so she couldn''t reply before unleashing a pair of my own lightning bolts at both Dauntless and Paladin and sending one that would land in between the two Wards.


    Or at least it would have if Gallant and Vista weren''t suddenly a hundred meters further back than they used to be. I''d have to be careful of that, but most of my focus was on the two flying heroes since they could actually fight me.


    Right now that meant Dauntless, since Paladin had caught the second lightning bolt I threw at him in the face and had fallen onto one of the wrecks while the Protectorate hero had blocked one with his glowing shield and dodged the second.


    "C''mon, is that the best you got?!" I taunted the heroes. Seriously, they had to have some kind of plan if they were going to literally present themselves to me and demand I surrender.


    "Not even close!" Dauntless roared back, and stabbed at me with his spear.


    The thing was weird. It looked more like solid lightning than a spear, and now that I got a better look it was obvious that the thing was physically extending and retracting rather than shooting blasts of energy. Which honestly made things easier for me because I didn''t have to worry about him ''dragging'' the attack to hit me.


    The only problem with that was the thing was also stupid fast.


    If I stayed too far away I was going to get hit eventually, no doubt. That''s how fast it extended.


    And after the Greek themed hero blocked or dodged the return lightning spells I threw at him, I decided it was better to get a little more personal if I was going to win quickly.


    My Boosted Gear appeared on my left arm but I held off on actually activating it for now in favor of slamming my now armored hand into the glowing field that made up Dauntless''s shield.


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    To my surprise, it actually held.


    As in, it stopped my punch cold and the hero didn''t so much as move, kinda held.


    I had to admit I was impressed. While I didn''t have exact numbers for how hard I could punch, I had easily cracked stone by accident before.


    Dauntless took advantage of my brief inaction to line his spear up with my shoulder and extend it. His spear ¨C that I finally remembered from one of my internet trawls was called the arclance ¨C hit me in the shoulder and I found myself holding in a surprised scream at the force of the hit and sudden numbness in my arm.


    "Ow, dammit!"


    I backed off but kept the pressure on by surrounding Dauntless from above and on his sides with more lightning sigils and fired. I had expected him to either retreat or advance out of the way. I wasn''t expecting him to pull the same move I had with Laserdream and extend his shield into a dome that caught all of the blasts at once.


    "You forget about something?!" Paladin yelled as he flew up from below me and tried uppercutting me.


    Though, the thing is about surprise uppercuts? They aren''t a surprise if you draw attention to them by yelling.


    The sudden noise and movement from below made me twitch my knee forward, incidentally hitting Paladin square in the face. His head snapped back and his fist passed harmlessly in front of my face while I blinked in surprise.


    "...um¡­oops?"


    Paladin clutched his face and retreated a bit.


    "T-that was an impressive c-counter." he eventually managed. "You must have trained against attacks from below quite a bit."


    "Dude, you yelled and I twitched." I deadpanned. "Don''t make it sound more impressive than it was."


    That was all I was able to say before Dauntless stabbed at me with his arclance again. I went low, both to avoid the spear and to put Paladin between the two of us, when I caught even more movement out the corner of my eye.


    "You''re kidding me."


    "Gallant, she spotted us! Hit her now!" Vista yelled from where the two were standing less than ten feet away despite the coast being nowhere near me seconds earlier. Seriously, that level of space compression was bullshit!


    The power-armored teen already had his hand raised and pointed at me, and dodging an energy blast with only a few feet between us it was going to be har-


    [DIVIDE!]


    -impossible when I suddenly felt a rush of energy leave me. Five prismatic beams hit me almost immediately after and I felt ¨C happy/enraged/depressed/apathetic/irritated ¨C confused as I went on a half-second emotional rollercoaster.


    [BOOST!]


    Then I felt it all rush back as I finally started using my own Sacred Gear.


    I was prepared to admit I wasn''t exactly in my normal mindset after Gallant''s attack, so I might have been a little more aggressive than usual. A training orb the size of a beachball formed and fired, hitting Vista in the face and knocking the unfortunate Ward straight on her ass. That had the unintended effect of breaking her space manipulation so the second similarly sized orb aimed at the second Ward crashed harmlessly into the Bay waters as the coastline appeared to snap back into place.


    "That was low, Lady Lucifer. Attacking a child? It seems your villany knows no limits." Paladin''s scantimonious voice was particularly grating at the moment. "I''ll stop you from hurting anyone else!"


    [DIVIDE!]


    He flew forward while I was forced to deal with Dauntless''s spear herding me away from the waterline, probably to make sure I couldn''t vanish behind or into one of the wrecks even as I sent blasts of my own lightning at the Protectorate hero.


    "If they stayed out of it, I wouldn''t have touched them!" I yelled back. "Don''t take a swing if you can''t take getting hit back!"


    [BOOST!]


    And just like the last fight we had, even with Paladin stopping me from actually boosting with my Gear, the difference between our base states meant it was easy enough for me to deflect his attack. Unlike our last fight, I wasn''t content to just hit him once and let him off to recover.


    This time, I seized him by the wrist and pulled him into a knee strike, then, when he was gasping for air, I landed a solid punch to his cheek that would have sent him flying through the air if not for my grip on his arm. Paladin struggled to counter but he was already at his limit and I¨C


    [BOOST!]


    ¨Cdefinitely wasn''t. A twirling kick to the chest cracked something and I finally let the white annoyance fly into the distance, confident he wouldn''t be an issue for the rest of what was probably going to be a short fight.


    [BOOST!]


    And with my reactions boosted by 4x after dealing with Paladin, I was able to dodge the arclance''s attacks much easier now.


    Dauntless did his best to retreat towards the shoreline while harrying me with his arclance but I was much faster than him at this point. I juked around his shield and pulled my hand back to hit him in the chest¡­only to miss when Dauntless was suddenly several feet further away.


    My anger at Vista''s continued interference flared again. I had let her off easy! She should have stayed out of this!


    I spun around and quickly spotted the Ward along with her partner and both Laserdream and Paladin, who was staggering around clutching his side, not far off. They must have collected Paladin after I got rid of him because I was pretty sure he wasn''t anywhere close to them earlier.


    That didn''t really matter to me though, because all that meant was I would have to waste another half-second going through him again before I got rid of the tiny pest that kept interfering.


    My face must have given away something because suddenly Dauntless was between me and the group, but he wasn''t attacking.


    "Don''t go there, Lucifer. Your emotions aren''t your own right now, but this is between you and me." He warned.


    [BOOST!]


    I wasn''t having it. "You and me? Don''t make me laugh. I wasn''t the one who dragged a couple of kids and a moron into an unnecessary fight because of his hurt feelings." Dauntless flinched at that. "And if they''re too stubborn to stay out of it when I play nice? Well, I''ll just need to be a bit less nice then, won''t I?" A small orb of red energy formed in my left palm. Unlike the Training Orbs earlier, this one wouldn''t be nearly so harmless.


    "Dragon Shot"


    That little orb erupted into a huge beam of searing red energy that slammed into Dauntless''s shield. Impressively, the thing managed to hold for a few heartbeats before popping like a soap bubble and overwhelming the hero.


    Even with how angry I was, I didn''t want him dead so I made sure to hold back just enough that he should live, even if he was going to be feeling that hit for a week at least. I watched as he hit the water hard enough to bounce and then had to blink a few times as my brain tried to process the fact Gallant was able to fish him out of the Bay while standing a few hundred feet away.


    That was fine though, I needed to¡­speak¡­to the Wards anyway.


    Seeing no reason to rush, I slowly flew over to where the heroes gathered. After a while my enhanced senses were able to pick up bits of their conversation.


    "...n''t know why she''s acting like this! It''s like her anger is feeding into itself!" Gallant was saying. "My power doesn''t work like that, it should be a quick change before she shakes it off!"


    "Unless it left her feeling angry and every new thing started setting her off! You''ve been around Vicky, how have you not realized some people get irrational when upset?!" Laserdream snapped back.


    The tension in her voice was enough to make me take a mental step back. We had come here to help her unwind and I certainly wasn''t helping her do that right now. And she was right, I was irrationally upset at the heroes right now.


    ''Hey Ddraig?''


    ''Yeah Partner?''


    ''Any idea what''s up with my emotions right now? I had much more reason to be pissed in our last fight, but for some reason this one is the one getting to me.''


    ''Ah. It might have to do with the fact your emotions were forcefully changed. Devils and Dragons are both creatures of impulse and emotion. You subconsciously associated the fight to the feeling of being angry, so you won''t calm down until something knocked you out of it or the fight ended.''


    ''And you couldn''t have mentioned that earlier?''


    ''You forget we haven''t fought together much. I just assumed that was normal for you. I''ll make sure to mention it if you start feeling strong emotions unexpectedly.''


    ''Ugh, that makes sense. Thanks then, I''ll be counting on you.''


    Thankfully just like Ddraig said, now that the action lulled and hearing Laserdream getting even more stressed distracted me from the fight I was starting to calm down. Not that that the others could tell. I was still rather pissed off, I just wasn''t blindly looking to continue the fight or take it out on them anymore.


    I landed a ways away from the heroes and started walking up to the now arguing group. Laserdream was demanding Gallant to fix his fuck up, Gallant was trying to convince her it wasn''t his fault, Vista was trying to get them to focus on fighting me, and the still staggering Paladin was trying to say he would hold me off while they escaped.


    Yeah, it was time to end this clusterfuck.


    "Alright boys and girls, I''m calling it here. Get your boss, call his boss, and get lost." I stared down my three conscious opponents and ignored the way Laserdream let out a relived sigh that I wasn''t going to keep attacking.


    Of course Paladin had to stick his foot in it.


    "We aren''t beaten yet! The Power of Justice won''t be defeated so easily, Lucifer!" He declared grandly, even managing to stand up straight despite his injuries. "Prepare yourself!"


    [BOOST!]


    [BOOST!]


    [BOOST!]


    "You sure you want to keep going?" I asked mildly.


    "Y-yes!" Paladin managed to squeak, despite everyone else telling him to shut up. "We can stil win!"


    [D-DIVIDE!]


    I couldn''t help but sigh at Paladin''s actions. What was he hoping to accomplish? His wings were practically glowing white with how much excess power they were trying to burn off and I was still Boosted beyond what he could deal with. The only thing that would make a difference would be¡­no¡­he couldn''t be that stupid, could he?


    "Stop it, dumbass!" I shouted. "You''re going to kill yourself at this rate!"


    "Kill himself, what?" Vista and the other heroes'' heads snapped between the two of us.


    "Why, what is he doing?!" Gallant asked.


    "I''m not done! If I''ve reached my limits, that just means I need to go past them!" Paladin declared even as more light bled from his wings and his power swelled. "B-Balance Br-Break!"


    [VANISHING DRAGON! BALANCE¨C]

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 17

    "Don''t go there, Lucifer. Your emotions aren''t your own right now, but this is between you and me." Dauntless said as he stared down the red and black devil cape. He had hoped to force a quick win, but had seriously underestimated her. The negative power interaction between her and Gallant was just a shit surprise to top everything off.


    [BOOST!]


    "You and me? Don''t make me laugh. I wasn''t the one who dragged a couple of kids and a moron into an unnecessary fight because of his hurt feelings." Dauntless flinched at both the words and the increase in pressure radiating from Lucifer. The words weren''t exactly true¡­but they weren''t far off the mark. "And if they''re too stubborn to stay out of it when I play nice? Well, I''ll just need to be a bit less nice then, won''t I?"


    Dauntless had been expecting Lucifer to maybe swap back to the lightning she used in the last fight, or possibly close in for a hand-to-hand fight now that she had another power increase. He was not expecting another power as the wave of red light raced towards him. How many did she have?!


    He dumped the last ''charge'' of his power he kept in case of emergencies into his shield, hoping the increase would let him hold out. But even that was hardly enough. The shield only held for a moment before it popped and the beam slammed into his body. It felt like he had been simultaneously set on fire and rammed with a train, so it was a relief when he fell unconscious after skipping off the Bay water once or twice.


    Too bad he woke up shortly after.


    How did he know it was shortly? For one, even if he was now on the shore, he was still in the Boat Graveyard. Secondly, Lucifer was there, walking slowly towards them radiating even more power than before.


    The pure relief Dauntless felt when she announced she was done fighting was almost enough to soothe the agony the rest of his body felt, which immediately turned to horror when Paladin stepped forward to continue fighting.


    The Protectorate hero tried to tell him to stop, but he couldn''t make a sound thanks to the ruined state of the rest of his body.


    [VANISHING DRAGON! BALANCE¨C]


    An almost illusionary suit of white armor flickered into being around the independent. The vaguely draconic theme reminded Dauntless of some of the Dragonsuits fielded by the aptly named Canadian hero, Dragon, but this suit wasn''t the product of a Tinker.


    It faded in and out like it was just a small push from becoming real, but it was clearly a projection of some kind.


    "Absolutely the fuck NOT."


    [¨CBREAKER!]


    [Explosion!]


    Dauntless watched as the armor finally solidified only to shatter like glass when Lucifer punched him with her gauntleted left hand.


    Paladin gaped soundlessly from the force of the punch before falling over unconscious and the only ones left to possibly face the red-haired cape were two Wards and Laserdream, who had been sparring with Lucifer moments before they confronted her.


    As much as he wanted to, Dauntless simply wasn''t able to do anything. It hurt too much.


    "Well that fucked him up pretty good." Lucifer said uncaringly, looking down at the beaten hero. "Anyone else feeling stupid? No? Then like I said, I''m calling it. We. are. DONE. here." One of the devil''s ''spell circles'' lit up under her feet. "So I''m hungry. How about we¡­"


    Dauntless missed the end of her sentence as consciousness slipped through his fingers again.


    -o-


    "I hope you have a good explanation for the mess you''ve dumped us all in."


    Shifting uncomfortably between his lingering injuries and the stares of his two bosses, Dauntless did his best to at least look professional. From the unimpressed glares of both Director Piggot and Armsmaster he was probably failing.


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    Taking a deep breath, he began speaking. "Our group was patrolling with Paladin like we were ordered to, trying for a softsell. Although I''d like to add that it came out that he is eighteen, not the sixteen we pegged him as¡­"


    "Noted." Armsmaster said dryly.


    "...right, um, well we were moving along our route when we got word of a disturbance in the Boat Graveyard. We investigated and found Laserdream fighting with Lucifer. Paladin and I went to confront Lucifer and then¨C"


    "And then you and Paladin managed to get trounced by a girl with a god complex." Piggot interrupted. "We had her marked as ''do not approach'' after your last little public disaster with her. What went through your head to confront her directly?!"


    A part of him wanted to point out in the last meeting they had, he had practically been ordered to find a way to instigate a fight with Lucifer if only to prove the PRT wouldn''t simply follow the lead of someone else instead of determining fault.


    That part was quickly silenced.


    There was a time to disagree with your boss. When they were in the middle of tearing a strip off you was not that time. Neither one really cared about his reasons anyway and he didn''t think that telling them he wanted to pick a fight with Lucifer because she poked at some old trauma buttons would be taken any better than anything else he could think of.


    Dauntle¨C no, Shawn was self aware enough to admit he was always more of a ''wait and see'' kinda person. If a decision could be put off till later he wouldn''t bother making up his mind immediately. He knew it wasn''t the best way to go about life, but he was smart and skilled enough that he could always figure something out in the end¡­


    That mindset was what led to him doing back alley surgery in a mobile home because he kept putting things off. The rain had come hard and fast, but because the campground had always been safe he ignored the warnings. Then the mudslide hit and he wasn''t smart, or skilled, or lucky enough to do anything about it.


    His inaction was going to be the reason Kelly and their unborn child died.


    Things got a bit better after his Trigger and when he joined the Protectorate. Shawn could admit he wasn''t really hero material, but there were plenty of other good people he could take cues from, more experienced heroes like Armsmaster willing to push him to be better. But like always, Shawn fell back into old habits and went with the flow when he should have been thinking.


    The first fight with Lucifer had picked open those old sores.


    While he had tried to not let it get to his head, being called a rising star and potential Triumvirate tier cape made him go back to coasting. The appearance of a cape that was strong enough to handle multiple other capes and could apparently escalate faster than Lung ever could was a bit of a wakeup call. The fact that the PRT had to label her a villain or admit that he fucked up and attacked an unknown because everyone else was doing it was a slap in the face.


    A teenage girl was labeled a villain because he didn''t do his job and figure out what was going on. Shawn could tell Armsmaster was upset with him and resolved to put more of himself into his public image. To be the hero everyone wanted him to be.


    Then the girl had shown up the next day and rubbed his mistakes in his face.


    He didn''t feel so bad after that. Or about the plan to deal with her afterwards.


    He wasn''t quite sure who proposed the plan, but it was decided that the PRT would make no moves against Lucifer unless she was doing something obviously criminal. In a perfect scenario, Dauntless would be the one to beat her and they could possibly get her rebranded into the Protectorate somewhere else.


    He¡­might have been a little enthusiastic about taking the first opportunity to attack. Gallant and Vista were a good team and could handle themselves against any normal gangbanger and Paladin was Lucifer''s direct opposite, but none of them were used to working together against such a strong opponent and it showed. He and Paladin got in each other''s way and the Wards could only assist from a distance.


    "...taking the Wards into that fight was a mistake." Shawn winced as Armsmaster practically read his mind. "You should have either called for Protectorate reinforcements if conflict was inevitable or left them behind to make peaceful contact. Now Lucifer has the advantage again if she wants to drag this to the public."


    "No, I might have to maintain balance in the city between Nazis and a rage dragon because it would turn into a warzone otherwise but we will not be rolling over for a single powerful teen." Director Piggot denied. "If the Gremory girl decides to take another poke at us, then we will show her actions have consequences."


    "But the rules¡­" Shawn protested weakly.


    "Do not cover destabilizing a government organization for pleasure. Especially when she exposes her identity for anyone willing to put the effort of holding two pictures next to each other." Director Piggot countered. "Armsmaster, I want something on her. Tax evasion, shoplifting, hell I''ll take a parking ticket. If she makes noise we''ll send someone after her."


    "The gangs won''t stay quiet if we do that." Armsmaster noted calmly. Shawn envied the older man''s composure. "They will¨C"


    "¨CDo nothing they aren''t already doing." The Director cut him off. "Handle it. Now, what about our other headache?"


    "Paladin is still in a coma after whatever he tried doing. We''ve put in a low priority request for Panacea to look at him when she has time."


    "What the hell was he doing?"


    "Helmet-cam footage suggests he was trying to force a power expression and suffered significant backlash when Lucifer destroyed it."


    "Why would he do that when the fight was clearly over?"


    "Um, I think I can answer that." Shawn raised a hand awkwardly.


    His bosses turned back to him.


    "Well?"


    "I, uh, think the two of them might be a cluster trigger. Paladin got really excited when he realized we''d be facing Lucifer." Shawn explained. "And I know Gallant mentioned his emotions were off when he tried the armor thing. He was terrified but did it anyway."


    "A kiss/kill dynamic. Fantastic." Director Piggot leaned on the table and rubbed at her eyes. "What about the recruitment attempt? Any progress on that?"


    Shawn sat a bit taller. "Yes, actually. He mentioned he wouldn''t mind a position in the Protectorate. So long as he won''t be transferred out."


    If Shawn was expecting the Director to be happy at the news he was in for some disappointment. If anything she scowled harder at the news.


    "It would have been more convenient to trade him for someone that didn''t cause so many issues here, but I''ll take that as a statement of intent. Upgrade the request for Panacea to medium and work up the paperwork for a probationary Protectorate membership. At least we''ll be able to get a leash on one of them."


    Director Piggot called the meeting to a close and left shortly after, leaving Shawn alone with a rather annoyed Armsmaster.


    "I''d hoped you would keep quiet for a bit but it seems like that won''t be happening. I can''t add more supplementary training courses until you''ve finished the last ones you were scheduled for, so we''ll move on to your patrol schedule. Since nothing happened I will not waste too much time on this, but you will not patrol with the Wards until you have proven to be capable of analyzing the situation in front of you. I''ll have the schedule adjusted so you can work with Battery or Velocity on that."


    Shawn nodded at his leader''s words and once again promised to make the most of the chance Armsmaster was giving him.

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 18

    "What the actual fuck?" I couldn''t help but curse out loud as I watched the news, not an activity I normally did but was practically forced to by the three panicking members of my peerage.


    I was expecting a story about something happening nearby or a major event from the way they were acting. Even potentially something about my last run in with the Protectorate.


    I was not expecting to see footage of Wonder Woman getting in a free-for-all fight between her, Kratos of all people, and the Three Blasphemies in Barcelona. And that was only the current story being covered. From what my three pawns ended up telling me, similar events were happening all over the world, such as a blonde haired man that could stretch his entire body like rubber or a woman in South Africa that could control the weather. Powerful beings were popping up everywhere and all at once.


    I guess the other contestants were starting to go out and get noticed. Especially because the news had labeled the increased amount of activity and new faces as a Parahuman wave.


    "Yeah, that''s what we said." Clover huffed as she threw herself onto one of my couches. "Tons of crazy powerful capes coming out of nowhere."


    "You don''t think they''re, you know, like us do you?" Alex asked and it took me a second to realize what she meant.


    She was asking if there were more capes like me, people capable of handing out powers. And she was technically right, if you considered the role the ''gods'' hosting the game played. Not that I could tell her that.


    "I don''t think they are like you three, or that there''s someone like me handing out powers." I said instead. "The capes showing up are too powerful and too different for that. No, you probably just have something that caused a bunch of new people to get powers all at once. Maybe something in the water." I was skirting real close to what the geas was allowing me to say.


    "They already checked. Nothing that even some of the PRT''s best tinkers or thinkers could spot." Sam mentioned from her own seat.


    I had to admit, it was a little weird realizing that there were four devils sitting in my living room casually discussing professional news channels and people with superpowers at the same time. It was even weirder that I had to remind myself this was my new normal.


    It wasn''t bad though.


    "Well, while this is fun and all, we''ve got better things to do than watch this stuff." Clover said after a highlight of yet another cape ended. I think that one was a biotic with Mass Effect tech?


    "We do?" I asked because as far as I knew, this might as well have been the rest of my day.


    "Yeah we do. You for one need more clothes. I think I''ve only ever seen you wear, like, the same five outfits unless you try making something with your power." the blonde said, and pointed a finger at me before I could say anything back. "And no, you can''t just keep making things with your power. They are hella basic. You need something with style, girl!"


    "She really does, doesn''t she¡­" Alex said in realization.


    "Alright so, mall trip then?" Sam added her two cents.


    "As long as you don''t try getting me to buy the entire store. I''m not exactly raking in money." I agreed while setting some limits. I had finally gotten around to checking the ATM card I found in my wallet when I was first dumped here and was pleasantly surprised to find a couple thousand dollars in the account. Not enough to live off of for long, but it would have covered a few months of rent and utilities if I needed to actually get an apartment and job or something.


    """We''ll be good.""" three voices echoed back at me.


    I didn''t believe any one of them for a second.


    -o-


    "I said I didn''t want to buy the entire store!" I complained as one of the girls shoved another outfit for me to try on into my arms where it joined the small mountain of things to try on.


    "But this is perfect for you!" Clover, at least I think it was Clover, said while a few more shirts were added to the pile. Taking advantage of a small break between clothes being added I snagged the first shirt I could and snorted at their choice. A black T-shirt that had a cartoonish angel with devil horns on the front.


    "You don''t think that''s a little too on the nose?"


    "Oh come on, it''s cute! We''re all getting one." And sure enough, each of the girls held up a shirt or jacket with some combination of cartoon devil iconography.


    You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    "If you say so." And I thought I was playing fast and loose with letting people know about my secret identity. These three hadn''t even made an appearance and they were letting their allegiances show. Though I couldn''t say the implied show of support wasn''t touching. "If you guys want to wave the flag, I''m not gonna stop you."


    "Speaking of showing flags, check out over there." Alex said, pointing out of the shop''s windows.


    Outside, surrounded by a fairly large group of fans, were Miss Militia and Triumph of the Protectorate along with Clockblocker, Aegis, and Shadow Stalker from the Wards. I guess the PRT was doing public appearances to offset the ''Parahuman Wave'' the news was talking about.


    I had to give their PR department credit. Whoever chose the lineup certainly did a good job. The five heroes did a good job of looking colorful and professional without looking stiff, though Shadow Stalker gave off a vibe that she resented being here at all.


    "They''re not the only ones, or at least they weren''t until now." Sam added, pointing at another group. Victoria Dallon was handling her own small swarm of fans while a pair of boys and another girl fidgeted awkwardly off to the side. Though from the look of it the group was starting to shift to the second girl who was definitely not enjoying the attention. Was that Panacea? Small mousy brunette with freckles?


    "Looks like a double date that got interrupted. The trials of being famous." I commented.


    "Should we go help them out? They look like they''re getting pushy."


    I thought about it for a bit. After the last time with Dauntless I was practically waiting for the PRT to retaliate in some way, even just a ''we''re watching you'' kinda way. But when nothing happened I figured they were waiting to make whatever statement they were going to pull more impactful. I didn''t think that they were going to have five heroes get on my case in the middle of the mall for helping redirect attention away from the incredibly stressed, increasingly unstable, secret biokinetic.


    "Sure, we can help out."


    We paid for our things, I discreetly ditched the tube top Clover had tried convincing me to buy, and the four of us made our way through the crowd until we pressed ourselves between the increasingly aggressive fans and the four teenagers.


    "Hi, Vicky! Sorry we''re late, the lines took way longer than we were expecting." As the most naturally extroverted of us, our own resident blonde had no issue throwing an arm over Vicky''s shoulder and turning her so she was between Vicky and the crowd. The rest of us filtered in so we formed an almost natural wall. It was surprisingly effective since most of the crowd seemed suddenly reluctant to push past people that at least seemed to know the hero personally.


    "Clover, hi! No worries, we were just about to grab something to eat. Did you guys want to join us? Also hi Rias, I don''t think you''ve met my boyfriend Dean yet and this is my sister Amy and Josh, he''s a friend." Vicky motormouthed in a manner that told me this wasn''t the first time my girls had run interference like this, though the mild glare told me she''d rather I wasn''t here.


    "Hi Vicky." I replied much more calmly. "Nice to meet you three. You mind if we join?" I asked the rest of the group.


    "...no, not at all." Dean, aka Gallant, said eventually. Obviously not comfortable with the idea of spending time with the ''villain'' he fought against a little bit ago but had no way of refusing without subjecting them all back to the mercies of Glory Girl and Panacea''s fans.


    Amy grunted non-committedly, but Josh took the opportunity to separate himself from the group.


    "Y-yeah, uh, sorry guys. I think I''m just gonna head out." The poor kid was sweating. "Thanks for the date, Amy, uh¡­I''ll see you in school?"


    Amy sighed. "Sure. See you¡­and he''s gone."


    "Sorry for interrupting." Alex apologized quietly as Josh vanished into the crowds. "If we knew we''d ruin your date we''d have just let you slip away."


    "It''s fine."


    While that was playing out Sam and Clover had started shepherding us away from the public and soon we were all following Vicky into a restaurant where we were quickly whisked away into a booth.


    "Well that was fun." Vicky sighed as she laid her head down on the table. "If I knew the PRT was doing an event I''d have suggested the movies instead. Hey, where''s Josh?"


    "Skipped out once we weren''t getting mobbed." Amy replied bluntly, getting a wince from her sister.


    "Ah, sorry Ames. I thought someone more quiet would be more your speed, but I guess the crowds scared him off."


    I was tempted to say any guy wasn''t Amy''s speed for that kind of thing but held my tongue. No need to open that can of worms right now.


    "So, Alex already said it, but sorry for inviting ourselves along." I changed the topic instead. "We can head out once the last of the stalkers clears out if you want."


    "No, no. It''s cool. Besides Amy and I wanted to check up on Sam anyway. See how she was doing after¡­well, you know."


    "What happened to Sam?" Dean asked, looking between my first pawn and his girlfriend. I was surprised. Had she really not told him about our run in with Dr. Wily? Or maybe she had but had left out the end or just kept the names hidden.


    "Sam got caught in the crossfire between some villains," She glanced briefly in my direction, not that anyone else caught it. "I kept meaning to ask Ames to check in on her even if she seemed okay. Gotta look out for Crissy''s friends too, ya''know? But something always came up and I''d forget about it." The teen heroine turned to her sister. "So what do you think, Ames? Mind giving her a checkup?"


    "Fine. But you''re paying for lunch then." Amy held out an expectant hand. Sam hesitated and shot a look at Dean but only for a second and placed her own hand on Amy''s waiting one.


    "Huh, that''s¡­" I tensed a bit as Amy''s eyes unfocused, but barely a second later she was pulling her hand back. "Nothing wrong that I can tell. In fact you almost seem like a perfectly normal human. Weird¡­" So she couldn''t tell Sam was a devil with her powers? I''m sure Vicky would have told her sister. In fact I was sure all of New Wave knew about Sam''s reincarnation even if I wasn''t so sure about Alex and Clover''s.


    "But I''m all good?"


    "Yeah, you''re fine. Can''t do anything about the soulless ginger part though."


    That got a chuckle out of the four devils at the table, a scowl from Vicky, and a disapproving look from Dean.


    "Are you ready to order?" A waiter interrupted before anything else could be said. We put in what we wanted and thankfully the conversation moved towards more innocent topics. At least until Dean started trying to subtly interrogate me.


    "So, I know those three through Vicky." He indicated my three pawns. "But I never heard much about you until recently. How did you all meet up?"


    I raised an eyebrow at him as I finished another bite of my disappointingly mediocre cheeseburger. "Well, officially they wanted to know if my hair color was natural and we got to talking after that. They didn''t want me to take the bus home with all the shopping I had done so they kidnapped me and invaded my house. Then it turns out they liked my food and I haven''t been able to get rid of them since."


    I got various styles of ''liar!'' out of my pawns and while Dean chuckled it sounded forced. "And the unofficial version?"


    "I inducted them into my satanic cult and am preparing them to help me take over the city." I said in a perfect deadpan causing the heroes to choke, and took another bite out of my burger.


    "Oh please, you didn''t induct us into anything. You would hardly leave your house for anything except food if we didn''t drag you along." Sam interjected. "If anything you joined us."


    Before I could reply to that egregious lie there was an explosion outside and the mall''s intercom screeched with feedback. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we apologize for interrupting your afternoon, but it has been decided there are many components located here crucial for the further development of the Wily Empire. Cooperation is not demanded but is preferred. Those who do not wish to stand in the way of our glorious task should quickly move to the south entrance of the mall where you will be free to leave at any time." A clearly robotic voice twanged over the system. "And for the misguided idiots that prefer to stand against us¡­well, try not to disappoint me."


    The intercom shut off with another hiss of feedback.


    Everyone at the table shared a look, unsure of what exactly to do, until someone else in the restaurant knocked a cup over. The shattering glass triggered a mass panic as everyone tried rushing for the doors. And the rest of us were suddenly left wondering what to do.

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 19

    "Rias, what''s the plan?"


    I don''t know if it was a result of growing up in Brockton Bay, joining my peerage, or just because of their personalities, but once the initial shock wore off, all three of my girls turned to me with expressions saying they weren''t going to run and hide.


    Actually, considering a decent number of the now fleeing crowd must have grown up here as well, it probably wasn''t that first one.


    Victoria was halfway out of her seat. "You guys should leave. I''ll deal with these creeps. Get out, call for help, and stay out of the way."


    "Wow, rude much. Sorry Vicky but we aren''t going anywhere. We can help." Clover said, slamming her hands on the table and rising out of her seat to stare at the other blonde.


    "Yeah, you know we can!" "We''ll definitely help out." My other two pawns added.


    "We don''t need normal civilians running around getting in the way." Glory Girl emphasized while giving me a pointed look, but I was more distracted with the growing chaos outside to immediately respond.


    Unfortunately for the both of us while all three of my pawns could be incredibly observant, on occasion they missed super obvious things right in front of them. As proven by Clover manifesting a spell circle that swapped out her clothing for a red bodysuit and domino mask similar to my own with Sam and Alex following suit a second later with a yellow and green suit respectively.


    "There. Now we aren''t random civilians." Clover said smugly.


    Vicky just facepalmed. "You idiots, I was trying to tell you to go get changed where people couldn''t see you!"


    "Huh? What for? You and Amy already knew we had powers." Vicky just used her free hand to point at a wide eyed and slack jawed Dean. "...oh, right. Um, oops?"


    "Don''t worry about it." I commented distractedly, watching out the window as a trio of Metools followed by a Sniper Joe rounded a corner and began heading towards an electronics shop. How many were there if four could slip away from the other heroes we saw earlier? Who was leading them? "It''s not like it would take a genius to figure out the three of you were the same three girls hanging out with the other Cape that is pretty free with her identity."


    And since no one was watching anyway, I swapped to my own body suit. No need to risk ruining my actual clothes.


    I paused at that thought and then opened my dimensional pocket and dumped the rest of our shopping in there as well. There, no risk of getting dragged off for another shopping trip for a bit because a lucky shot ruined something.


    "Right. Girls, you pick out names yet?" I pulled my attention away from the window for now. At the three''s sheepish head shakes, I just sighed. "Okay, then I''m declaring the mall hostile territory. Clover, you''re going to be Rook for now. Alex, Knight. Sam, Bishop. Go ahead and promote to those pieces." As useful as three Queens would be, none of my girls had the stamina to support that much power for more than a few minutes just yet. I couldn''t risk them burning out too quickly when we had no idea what we were dealing with.


    "Promote? Wait no, you have powers? All of you? Since when?!" Dean sputtered, breaking out of his stunned daze.


    I had no intention of filling him in. Vicky''s boyfriend or no, Dean was still a member of the Wards. Anything we told him was going to eventually get leaked to the PRT and I could just see Dean mentioning I was a ''power-granting Trump'' causing me trouble in the future.


    "Sorry, no time to explain." I deflected. "Vicky, can you take your sister and your boyfriend to a safe place? You''re right about him getting in the way and I don''t want someone getting jumpy about an unknown Cape taking Panacea somewhere. Me and the Girls will handle the robots."


    "And why would you do that? Aren''t you Villains?" Amy almost sneered.


    "Well, Rias kinda is but only because she refuses to do anything about that, and we haven''t even gone out yet so I guess we aren''t anything just yet." Alex rambled, scratching her cheek with a finger.


    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    "Guys, seriously not the time." I said as something else exploded. "We can have this argument later if you really want."


    Thankfully, my girls nodded and got serious while the heroes moved out of the way.


    "What''s the plan?"


    I had been thinking of one the entire time and I hadn''t chosen who promoted to what at random. While all three of my girls were pretty athletic already, Alex was the most flexible and had the best reflexes. Having her use a Knight''s speed to run reconnaissance and help guide any civilians still trapped in a store or something made sense. Clover was the only one with some actual practical fighting experience at the moment since she surprisingly had a black belt in karate but that required her getting close to Wily''s robots, the strength and defense bonus of a Rook just made sense. And Bishop just made sense for Sam as the only one to reliably use offensive magic even if it was just a ''mana ball''. She would be able to support the other two from a distance if needed.


    The plan was also pretty simple. Alex would scout ahead and focus on getting anyone still trapped in the mall away, Clover would either destroy the robots she came across or get them out of the stores, and Sam would cover them both or assist Clover when needed. I would help out until we found the leader and then focus on taking him out.


    It wasn''t perfect but this was my girl''s first fight. Making a complicated plan was just going to stress them out more than they already were and likely fall apart immediately anyway. It was best to follow the K.I.S.S. rule.


    ''Ready for this, Ddraig?'' I asked as my gauntlet appeared on my left arm.


    ''Hmph, unless these things got significantly more impressive since last time, this will barely be a warmup.''


    I smiled at the encouraging words and ordered everyone to get moving. My Peerage raced into the electronic store and almost immediately destroyed the four robots in there. Sam blasted the head off the Sniper Joe while Alex and Clover dealt with the Metools. While it was good they could handle Wily''s cannon fodder pretty easily, I frowned at how quickly the bots went down. While yeah, Sam could shatter cinder blocks with her spells it shouldn''t have annihilated metal like that. Then the remains poofed away in a puff of smoke just like they had the first time I saw them.


    Okay, so Wily was still using the power-created minions and they were still fragile enough a normal person could break one with the right attack. That was good to know. It meant we didn''t need to worry too much about taking down all the minions while looking for the leader since they could be handled by the cops or PRT agents with some effort.


    And while the minions were still as fragile, they seemed a bit smarter. Another two squads of Wily bots turned the corner and opened fire on me rather than the Dallon sisters and Dean as they ran the other way for now. Or at least I assumed they did. I barely caught a glimpse of them leaving before a yellow ball of energy narrowly missed my head and forced me to pay attention to our new arrivals.


    One squad was already being taken care of by my peerage so I focused on the second. And while it might have been fun to roleplay as Megaman for a few seconds, I wanted more of a challenge.


    Four spell circles appeared in front of my raised hand and a bolt of lightning from each struck a bot in the second squad, breaking them all instantly.


    "All right, ready to find the jackass that ruined our day out and introduce ourselves?" I asked, seeing the others were done on their side as well.


    I got three eager and enthusiastic smiles back.


    -o-


    Even with the robot minions being incredibly weak to my electric attacks and having to deal with three minions of my own, it was taking us a lot longer to get through the mall than I was expecting.


    There were just so many of the stupid things running around!


    The further we went the less civilians we ran into, though. So that was a good thing.


    We also started to hear sounds of another fight closeby. Gunfire, explosions, and something that sounded like someone screaming into a megaphone.


    "Sounds like the Protectorate is still dealing with things." Sam - no, Bishop commented. "Should we help them out or keep looking elsewhere?"


    "There''s still a lot of them going into stores." Knight added, slightly distracted with wiping something off her yellow suit.


    "I wanna give the boss of these guys a piece of my mind." Was Rook''s contribution. "The heroes wouldn''t be sitting still for nothing. He''s probably keeping them busy while the tin cans raid the place."


    "Let''s head towards the heroes." I decided after a brief thought. "It doesn''t look like the bots are attacking people running for the south exit like they told them to, so the only people left would be the ones too scared to move or the ones fighting for some reason. Faster we take down the boss, faster this ends. Either cause they run away or cause we have more people helping out."


    "Cool, but what if, like, they try to arrest us first?" Knight asked, getting looks from the other two. "What? It could happen!"


    "We''ll worry about that later." I said. "If they try anything we''ll just fly away and teleport out."


    "Oh yeah, we have wings¡­"


    I huffed at their forgetfulness but didn''t make a big deal out of it. If they felt more comfortable on the ground, who was I to tell them differently? Well, their King obviously. But this was their first time fighting with powers. I could discuss strategies with them later.


    The first sign we had found the heroes was when we turned a corner into the center of the mall and found ourselves facing a wall of Sniper Joes¡­facing the wrong way. A shotgun barked and one of the Joes unlucky enough to be caught with its shield down had its arm ripped off before it exploded into smoke. I caught a glimpse of Miss Militia ducking back down into cover before the rest of the Joes opened fire at the overturned tables the heroine was hiding behind, only for the orbs of yellow energy to plink harmlessly off of them in return. While the Joes were busy providing covering fire, a wave of Metools rushed forward on their stubby little legs to try and overwhelm the position.


    A part of me was curious how the trapped heroes would defend against the wave tactic, but it didn''t matter in the end because my peerage had reached the back line.


    Rook and Knight smashed into the Joes and either sent them flying, crushed them on the spot, or knocked them off balance so they couldn''t aim while Bishop started quickly picking the Metools off one by one. I was ready to join in but there was a loud crash that made me hesitate.


    Triumph came skidding across the floor until he finally landed in a lump, struggling to pick himself off the ground. Sparks occasionally flickering around him.


    I looked where the hero came from and saw the familiar form of Elecman walking towards us.


    Unlike the last time, he was walking with a decidedly smug swagger in his step and a smirk on his face. It looks like Wily made some improvements from the last one.


    "So more of you showed up?" The Robot Master smirked even more. "I hope you''re more of a challenge than the lion guy. So disappointing, but then again. He was facing me!"


    I chuckled and turned to face him. "That''s my line. Your predecessor was so pathetic I don''t even want to call it a fight. Try to do a bit better than him, okay?"

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 20

    ¡°Your predecessor was so pathetic I don¡¯t even want to call it a fight. Try to do a bit better than him, okay?¡±


    My taunt wiped the smirk off the Robot Master¡¯s face. I apparently had his full attention since he had gone from looking down his nose at all of us to staring at me alone, a pretty intense glare on his face.


    ¡°You claim you fought someone with my glorious visage?¡± He snarled. ¡°Impossible. I have no memory of someone like you.¡±


    I shrugged. ¡°Hey, if I went down in a single hit, I¡¯d try to forget it too.¡±


    Elecman bristled but looked to calm himself down. ¡°I see, you merely fought a failed shadow of my glorious self and are fooling yourself that I am the same as that failed copy. Even so, I¡¯m going to punish you for the heresy of attacking my divine form.¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re just a bit of a narcissist, aren¡¯t you?¡±


    The whole time we were talking my Pawns were busy cleaning up the robotic minions still attacking the pinned down Protectorate heroes. Miss Militia and Shadow Stalker took their interference as a chance to pop up and take potshots of their own, bullets and crossbow bolts tearing through the disposable Metools and Sniper Joes. I did get a glimpse of Clockblocker and Aegis too. The former was going around tagging the tables they were using as cover, and probably the reason the yellow shots hadn¡¯t torn them to pieces, while Aegis was clutching a nasty looking burn on his shoulder.


    Considering the attack had started several minutes ago they were probably pretty tired from fighting what seemed like endless waves of robots with even more trickling in.


    Sam, Alex, and Clover were heading their way though, so they should get a break soon. Maybe go and find what happened to Triumph.


    But I pushed those thoughts out of my mind for a bit. I had the leader to deal with.


    ¡°Let¡¯s see if you can back it up this time.¡±


    I pointed my left hand at the Robot Master and fired off the same lightning spell that fried the first Elecman.


    He didn¡¯t even try to dodge.


    ¡°You expected this to take me down?¡± Elecman scoffed. ¡°I¡¯d be offended if it wasn¡¯t just pathetic.¡± Unlike last time he didn¡¯t seem to have any issue with absorbing the lightning even when I upped the power halfway through.


    I probably should have taken that as a sign to switch things up, but the next thing I knew Elecman pointed a hand at me, there was a flash, and then I was half-buried in stuffed animals and broken shelving.


    Ow.


    Shoving the remains off of myself, I quickly got back to my feet and glared at Elecman.


    The short interaction just now made me realize three things. One, Wily had obviously fixed the issue that caused Elecman to explode when absorbing too much electricity. Two, the Robot Master could dish out a lot more in one blast than I could. And finally, three, I had to make sure he didn¡¯t target the girls with that kind of firepower because none of them could tank that last attack.


    [BOOST!]


    I flew across the destroyed store and shot towards the robot with the intention of either smashing him like a soda can or at least pushing him away from the others and then smashing him to pieces. But right before my fist connected with his face, Elecman unraveled into a stream of electricity and teleported out of the way.


    Another flash of light at the corner of my vision had me twist midair and instinctually swat at whatever was heading my way with my left arm. An orb of electricity bounced off my gauntlet and blew out one of the overhead lights and made my fingers feel tingly.


    ¡°Hoh? Faster than I thought.¡± Elecman commented and vanished in another flash.


    ¡°Not fast enough though.¡± My head snapped towards the voice, my arm not far behind, only for Elecman to teleport once again.


    A third flash.


    I couldn¡¯t react.


    Something hit me in the back and I was sent flying once more. I caught a glimpse of red and crashed into it but this time instead of going through whatever it was, someone grunted and a pair of arms wrapped around me. I realized that someone had caught me midair.


    ¡°You okay?¡± Aegis grunted, not taking his eyes off of Elecman. Which was probably pretty useless since the Robot Master just revealed he could chain teleport.


    ¡°Should you be helping out a ¡®Villain¡¯?¡± I shot back.


    ¡°Hey, you aren¡¯t the ones wreaking the mall.¡± There was a large crash and we both looked to see Clover, or Rook as I needed to remember to call her, had just thrown a Sniper Joe through a mall kiosk and utterly destroyed it.


    ¡°Well, you didn¡¯t start it at least.¡± Aegis amended.


    The teen hero flew the both of us behind the wall of tables I had seen him taking cover behind earlier and I was suddenly surrounded by even more heroes. That might have been concerning in any other situation, but right now it seemed we had truce going on.


    Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    With that in mind I quickly went over what I knew about each of them and how they fought. The only adult of the group, Miss Militia, she had the ability to create mundane weapons out of some weird black green smoke, never needed to sleep, and had an eidetic memory. She generally fought from a distance thanks to her ability to create non-lethal bullets but was decent in close quarters as well. Aegis - who still hadn¡¯t let go of me - could fly, had minor superstrength, and could adapt his biology. For instance if someone tried drowning him, he would start breathing through his skin or something. And from what I knew, only a hand to hand fighter. Clockblocker, another purely hand to hand combatant, had the ability to selectively ¡®freeze¡¯ objects he touched for a random amount of time. Anything he did turned immovable and impenetrable. And finally was Shadow Stalker. She could turn into a shadow state and phase between matter. Except for anything with electricity which caused her a lot of damage when in that state. It¡¯s a good thing she fought with a handheld crossbow or she would¡¯ve basically been a normal person considering who the enemy was.


    It did make me wonder if she was using her normal tranquilizer bolts or if she had other options for situations like this. I did see her take out one of the minions earlier with one, but that was probably because they were super fragile. She probably only had a few left as well¡­


    ¡°Good job, Aegis.¡± Miss Militia¡¯s voice pulled me out of my thoughts. ¡°How¡¯s your arm?¡±


    ¡°You know me, I¡¯m good to go Ma¡¯am.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯ll say, you¡¯ve been feeling me up since you caught me.¡± I ¡®innocently¡¯ added.


    He really wasn¡¯t. It was just the unfortunate angle he caught me at and the size of my¡­assets¡­ that meant that he was cupping the left side of my chest rather than my ribs or under my arm.


    And naturally the second I pointed it out, Aegis decided to squeeze down.


    ¡°Nngh!¡±


    There were a lot of benefits about having the body of a devil. The incredible strength and power, magic, and functional immortality. Then there were moments like this where I wasn¡¯t confident I wouldn¡¯t sacrifice some of that just so certain areas weren¡¯t so freaking sensitive!


    Aegis probably couldn¡¯t have dropped me faster if I had lit myself on fire.


    ¡°Ow!¡±


    Right on the tailbone!


    ¡°Good one, dumbass.¡± Shadow Stalker¡¯s acidic voice wasn¡¯t pleasant to hear. ¡°And you, did you seriously get off from him groping those stupid utters?¡±


    I rolled my eyes at the younger teen. ¡°Jealousy isn¡¯t a good look on you.¡±


    ¡°What was that, bitch?!¡±


    ¡°Enough, Stalker.¡± Miss Militia put her foot down. ¡°Lucifer, we appreciate the help of you and your¡­associates, I assume you will agree to a temporary truce?¡±


    I guess the PRT wouldn¡¯t be happy about three more capes joining up with the girl that embarrassed one of their biggest local heroes twice over. Militia certainly didn¡¯t sound thrilled by it.


    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s fine. Just a heads up, Panacea and Glory Girl went to go help out with the civvies so if anyone¡¯s injured they should go to the south exit.¡± I said, dusting myself off. ¡°Let Rook, Knight, and Bishop know I told them to help you out and I¡¯ll deal with Elecman over there.¡± I waved a finger at the Robot Master.


    ¡°Wait, is he seriously called Elecman?¡± Clockblocker commented.


    ¡°Are you one to talk?¡± Aegis asked from the side.


    ¡°Shush, no commentary from Mr Wandering-Hands.¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t want my help with the leader?¡± Miss Militia ignored the two boys. ¡°And I can¡¯t exactly just trust you to handle the situation by yourself. Even putting your legal status aside, it wouldn¡¯t be a good look for us to leave a teenager to do everything while we run off to the sidelines. No matter how powerful she is.¡±


    I noticed how she was only protesting her own exclusion for dealing with Elecman. She obviously didn¡¯t want the Wards dealing with him either.


    Still¡­


    ¡°Unless you¡¯re going to start using a lot more firepower than what I¡¯ve seen so far, you aren¡¯t going to be much help.¡± I told her honestly. ¡°And with him teleporting around I don¡¯t think you want to risk missing a shot, especially because Triumph seems to be missing. So it¡¯s better just to leave him to me. Besides, I still have some tricks up my sleeve.¡±


    [Boost!]


    ¡°...¡±


    She clearly didn¡¯t like it, but she didn¡¯t offer a better solution.


    A quick countdown later, I vaulted over the little barricade they had set up and headed towards Elecman while the four heroes ran to assist my Pawns.


    ¡°All finished with your talk?¡± The Robot Master asked confidently, apparently having not moved since he sent me flying.


    ¡°Sorry, I would¡¯ve been faster if I knew you were waiting for me.¡± I replied. ¡°Though I didn¡¯t expect you to be a polite one.¡±


    ¡°Hah, as if I needed to make a move. One of you or all of you, I¡¯ll crush you all the same.¡± He stated arrogantly.


    ¡°Well, hope you don¡¯t end up regretting it.¡±


    [Boost!]


    I didn¡¯t try anything fancy. I blurred forward as fast as I could - so fast I destroyed my foothold - and reappeared right next to the black red and yellow robot ready to punch him into scrap. Nevertheless, he managed to teleport before I hit him again. I turned towards the second flash and fired off a mana bolt. I wasn¡¯t expecting to hit him, but since that spell was the serious version of my training orbs and based on kinetic force, not electricity, Elecman would have to teleport again. There was a third flash as he teleported again and I repeated my tactic. I was already turning, searching for the point he reappear-


    *ZAP!*


    From behind?! But how-


    ¡°Just because I can teleport three times in a row doesn¡¯t mean I have to¡­¡±


    My wings flared and caught me midair. ¡°Yeah?! Well I wasn¡¯t thinking you would just tank a- oh, that had to have hurt.¡±


    ¡°Of course it did! You¡¯re gonna pay for ruining my perfect visage!¡±


    I hadn¡¯t exactly aimed my spell but just like any feint, it had to actually look threatening to not be ignored. Unfortunately, I ignored the fact that Elecman was a robot and might not react to something the same way a human would. An organic would always react to something at their face or eyes, and usually try to avoid it, but the Robot Master had decided losing half of his face to my attack was worth getting his own shot in. Shiny silver metal stood in stark relief to the synthskin and materials of his helmet. An empty eye socket sparked with severed wires. And creepiest of all, the undamaged perfectly white human teeth gave the left side of his face a ghoulish grin.


    And none of it slowed him down besides maybe the reduction in vision.


    Elecman fired off another attack and immediately teleported and soon the both of us were locked in a vicious game of tag where he tried to zap me and flash away from my attacks while I tried to predict where he would end up and blast him before he could escape.


    We were actually decently matched because even with my boosts, I wasn¡¯t at the speed of lightning and that meant I ended up getting maybe one hit in for every ten he did, but I did have one major advantage that meant a battle of attrition would end in victory.


    Elecman couldn¡¯t damage me enough.


    Yes, at the beginning his blasts could knock me around but even then they didn¡¯t do much more than hurt a lot. The more I boosted, the less they could even do that much. But for every glancing blow on Elecman strips of steel or whatever metal he was made of were torn off his body along with his costume until there wasn¡¯t much left behind but the metal underneath.


    And now I was up to six boosts. It was just a question of how long it took before the robot slipped up that one time and ended the fight.


    Unless I decided to push things a little.


    [EXPLOSION!]


    The world seemed to crawl to a halt and I could practically see the process the next time Elecman reformed from his lightning teleport, yellow bolts expanding out into his silhouette and eventually reforming.


    And then I cut him in half with the flat of my hand.


    [Reset!]


    I hunched over as the strain hit me all at once, but that wasn¡¯t enough to keep the excited smile off my face. That was it. Elecman was done.


    ¡°Gue-whew-guess that¡¯s- that¡¯s my win, huh?¡± I gasped. ¡°Again.¡±


    ¡°Fool.¡± The shattered remains of the robot hardly resembled his previous appearance. His voice even had mechanical undertones slipping through. ¡°Did you really believe I couldn¡¯t have escaped whenever I wanted? Dr Wily wanted you interferers delayed as long as possible. He has already escaped and you have no chance of catching him! All thanks to my glorious efforts!¡±


    I rolled my eyes. ¡°That sounds like A, not my problem and B, you shifting goalposts. Mad you lost, tincan?¡±


    There wasn¡¯t enough left of Elecman¡¯s face working for him to scowl, but his remaining eye narrowed into a glare. ¡°Just you wait. This body was barely suitable for containing a fraction of my splendor. The next time we meet I will show you how far beneath me you really are.¡±


    There was a spark, a twitch, and then both halves of his body self-destructed.


    I waved away the resulting smoke with a cough and turned towards where my girls and the heroes had run off. They should be done with the minions by now right?

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 21

    Finding the others turned out to be pretty simple due to the fact there was nobody else around. Between the robots, the fighting, and just the general chaos of everything the mall was now a wrecked ghost town. All I had to do was follow the noise until I found both groups.


    My Pawns were cheerfully celebrating their victory, animatedly waving their arms and jumping around as they reenacted some part of the fight they had just been in, while the Heroes were a little more spread out and just kinda standing around for now.


    I didn¡¯t announce my arrival as I walked over, even if Miss Militia noticed me almost immediately, which allowed me to hear the end of Rook''s story.


    ¡°-and then out of nowhere all the little guys just burst into smoke! I guess they realized how awesome we were and gave up!¡±


    ¡°Weren¡¯t they robots? Can robots give up?¡± Knight asked thoughtfully.


    ¡°I¡¯d give up too if I was facing off against the Wards, Protectorate, and the Super Satan Action Squad.¡± Clockblocker added in from a few feet away.


    I shivered as the name brought up memories of Devils much stronger than me cosplaying as knockoff Power Rangers. It was funny when I was just watching characters on a screen, but the thought of being associated with that personally sent chills down my spine.


    ¡­And I was suddenly very self conscious that the four of us each wore mostly one-color form-fitting bodysuits.


    None of us would be getting full head covering helmets. Not if I had anything to say about it.


    ¡°We are not calling ourselves that.¡± I said firmly as I announced my arrival to the few in the group that hadn¡¯t noticed me approaching.


    ¡°Rias, you¡¯re back!¡±


    ¡°Did you beat the boss?¡±


    ¡°Do you know what happened to the little bots?¡±


    My lip twitched as Roo- Clover continued the tradition of my real name being the least kept secret in the Bay, but ignored it for later. ¡°Yeah, I beat Elecman. What¡¯s left of him is over there if you want to try analyzing the scraps but I don¡¯t think there''s much left after he exploded. If the little bots aren¡¯t around anymore I guess they were somehow tied to him.¡±


    The heroes bristled and Clockblocker actually took a few steps back.


    ¡°Uh, you know that murder isn¡¯t something we can just let slide¡­¡±


    ¡°Relax Stopwatch, Rias wouldn¡¯t do that. Right?¡± I mentally added Alex to the punishment list. The whole point of coming up with codenames was to use them. I might not care if they didn¡¯t use mine much but it wasn¡¯t a good habit to ignore with other people.


    ¡°Well since he was a robot, legally speaking it wasn¡¯t murder.¡± I clarified before the heroes could get too jumpy. ¡°I¡¯m not actually sure I even killed him. He said he¡¯d be back for a rematch at some point, so he either has a backup somewhere or his brain might not have been in that body to begin with.¡±


    ¡°Yeah? You know that before you off¡¯d him or what?¡± Shadow Stalker tried baiting me before getting told off by Miss Militia, but I had no problems answering her.


    ¡°Definitely before. This is the second time I beat him after all. Didn¡¯t Laserdream or Glory Girl tell you?¡±


    I had a feeling Shadow Stalker was the type to ignore things unless they were forced on her or she was personally involved. Something that seemed to be backed up by the reaction - or rather the lack of one - when I mentioned the two New Wavers from the other heroes, which meant they at least knew something about the last time we ran into Wily¡¯s robots. I didn¡¯t pay much attention to her after that. I already knew she was a massive bitch and didn¡¯t want to get involved if I could help it.


    Thankfully for everyone, Miss Militia decided to use the brief lull in conversation to debrief my group about what happened before anyone else showed up starting with my Pawns. She made it clear that Sam, Alex, and Clover wouldn¡¯t be in trouble no matter what but since my status was complicated behind the scenes, and I was still publicly a villain, she didn¡¯t want to risk someone starting something later.


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    It didn¡¯t escape my notice that she sent Shadow Stalker off to check on Triumph instead of one of the boys. Though it might have been better if she had, considering the conversation they were having between themselves.


    ¡°So ¡®gis, I didn¡¯t know you had a thing for redheads. Or were such a ladies man! What¡¯s your secret? Think you could set me up with one of her friends?¡±


    ¡°Drop it Clock.¡± Aegis hissed back. ¡°It was an accident. I didn¡¯t mean to grab her¡­there.¡±


    ¡°Hey you don¡¯t have to lie to me.¡± Clockblocker held his hands up. ¡°She¡¯s smoking hot. I wouldn¡¯t pass up a ¡®reward¡¯ like that either!¡± He leaned back and put a hand to his chin. ¡°Of course I¡¯m more the shy, retiring type so I wouldn¡¯t have gone straight for second base, but you do you.¡±


    Well I couldn¡¯t just ignore that now, could I?


    ¡°Oh? And what kind of reward would you be interested in?¡± I practically purred, ignoring Aegis¡¯ remark of ¡®Oh shit, she heard us.¡¯


    ¡°Uhhh¡­.¡± Clockblocker said intelligently.


    ¡°You helped my girls deal with the minions while I was fighting the leader, right?¡± I said as I sashayed closer. ¡°I¡¯d say that deserves some kind of thanks, wouldn¡¯t you?¡±


    Clockblocker tried moving back, but ended up bumping into a booth that survived the fighting. ¡°Uh¡­um¡­I need an adult?¡± He squeaked.


    I smirked. He was making this too easy.


    ¡°Oh my, both me and Miss Militia?! How bold.¡± I fake fanned my face. ¡°And here I thought you were ¡®shy and retiring¡¯.¡±


    Clockblocker bluescreened while Aegis did his best to hide his laughter behind a coughing fit. For some reason he thought he was safe, but I wasn¡¯t going to leave him out of it!


    I turned to the red-colored Ward and opened my mouth, only for two people to slip their arms around mine and start dragging me off.


    ¡°Aaand that¡¯s enough of that.¡± Sam muttered. ¡°C¡¯mon, Miss Militia wants to talk to you now.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, no bullying the junior heroes!¡± Alex added from the other side.


    Traitors! The both of them!


    The two of them ignored my protests and kept herding me towards the Protectorate heroine, who was looking pretty amused at the whole thing.


    ¡°Please don¡¯t tease the Wards too much. You aren¡¯t the ones that need to deal with them later.¡± She joked mildly before shifting to a more serious demeanor. ¡°Before we say anything else I wanted to thank you personally for helping us. We were able to keep damage to a minimum thanks to your help.¡±


    The thanks was nice but it was a little weird that she was so serious about it.


    ¡®It¡¯s probably the only public thanks we¡¯ll get.¡¯ Ddraig put in his two cents. ¡®The local leaders won¡¯t want to admit they needed three unknowns and a villain to clean up this incident.¡¯


    Ah. That made sense.


    If it does play out that way I¡¯ll need to remember to bring that up the next time I talked to the PRT. Should at least give me a little bargaining power.


    ¡°Sure, no problem. How¡¯s Triumph? I didn¡¯t see him around and Elecman said he beat him. He doing alright?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Shadow Stalker found him and Panacea is on her way. He should be fine in a bit.¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s good.¡± I didn¡¯t really have much to say to that.


    From there it was pretty much just Miss Militia asking me to walk her through the whole incident from my point of view and occasionally asking for clarification on a few things. Considering the only thing no one else was really around for was my fight with Elecman, there wasn¡¯t much I needed to add that one of my girls hadn¡¯t already said.


    Once that was over, we were basically free to leave. Something we did in a hurry because the place was starting to get swarmed with PRT agents and regular police. A quick detour into an area with no cameras and a teleportation circle later we were all back in normal clothes and lounging around my living room snacking on some stuff I had lying around.


    ¡°That was SO awesome!¡± Alex announced for the fifth or sixth time. I had stopped counting after a while. ¡°We were all like, WHOOSH BAM POW! And Sam was all like PEW PEW PEW! And then Rias was like ZAP!¡±


    ¡°Heck yeah! We kicked butt and looked great doing it!¡± Clover cheered alongside her, both of them enthusiastically digging into the new bowl of salsa I brought out.


    ¡°It was really cool.¡± Sam agreed, reaching out with her own chip. I subtly stopped her before she could which earned me a raised eyebrow but thankfully she didn¡¯t comment on it. ¡°Think we are ready to do more stuff now that we¡¯ve been out?¡± She asked instead.


    ¡°Depends on what you want to do but I don¡¯t see any reason why you can¡¯t.¡± I replied before changing the subject entirely. ¡°So Alex, Clover. How you enjoying the salsa?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s good!¡± Alex said, scooping another bite for herself. ¡°Little spicier than I normally get but I like it!¡±


    Clover nodded along. ¡°Yeah, where¡¯d you get it?¡±


    ¡°Oh, around. Nice little specialty store that focuses on all kinds of different hot sauces. You know, chillies, jalape?os, habanero¡­¡± I gave them a mildly malicious smile. ¡°...Ghost pepper...¡± My Pawns¡¯ eyes widened and glanced desperately around the table, only to find anything capable of cutting the growing heat in their mouths conveniently missing. ¡°But don¡¯t worry about that! Why don¡¯t we have a little chat about using people¡¯s real names when we¡¯re out in costume, hmm?¡±


    -o-


    ¡°Hehe, you really did that?¡± Parian chuckled as I recounted the story of what went down at the mall. ¡°How devilish of you.¡±


    ¡°You aren¡¯t as funny as you think, Par.¡± I deadpanned and continued chatting with her.


    Today was one of the days where all my Pawns were busy for some reason or another and Crystal had some family stuff going on. Normally that would be fine but I didn¡¯t like the feeling of eating by myself anymore so I went out and decided to see if I could bug Parian for a bit. I had only managed to talk to her a handful of times since our awkward first meeting, but we had settled into something more than acquaintances but less than friends. Conversation partners, maybe?


    Well whatever our relationship was, the Doll cape was happy to have someone to talk normally with while she worked. I felt a bit bad that I was the only one eating, but the only way to change that would be for her to either get a new mask that let her do so or just remove the thing entirely. Not something she was keen on doing. But she also said she didn¡¯t mind, so I didn¡¯t get hung up over it.


    Though to be honest, there was another reason for seeking out Parian every once in a while.


    I was actually taking a page out of the PRT¡¯s handbook.


    I was letting myself be seen out in the open acting normal, just like one of the infamous PR patrols that the Protectorate did. Not only were people getting used to seeing me out and about without some battle going on, it also challenged the PRT¡¯s stance of me being a villain. Because if I was a criminal, why was I able to wander around and talk to a local Rogue without someone coming to arrest me?


    The main downside was that I basically was stuck with Lucifer as a codename since occasionally someone stopped to ask for an autograph. Like the one girl that just pulled me aside for a photo.


    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I lied. I don¡¯t actually want a photo.¡± The girl confessed while keeping a practical deathgrip on my arm to keep me in place. ¡°I need help. My brother is going to be murdered by the Empire!¡±


    What¡­what?

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 22

    My first instinct was that this whole situation was obviously a trap, because seriously, why would someone be coming to me instead of one of the local heroes?


    But as I examined the girl, that theory broke down a tiny bit.


    I wasn¡¯t the best at determining ethnicity at a glance, and the girl wasn¡¯t obviously african or asian, but her skin was also a little too tan for a stereotypical nazi sympathizer.


    So potentially not a Nazi, still not a reason for her to come to me about the Empire.


    ¡°Um, not that I¡¯m not flattered, but isn¡¯t that something you should speak to the police about? Or the PRT?¡± I asked.


    ¡°I can¡¯t.¡± The girl shook her head hard enough her hair whipped around wildly. ¡°The Empire has eyes and ears in both the PRT and police, they told me they would know if I went to them.¡±


    Oh cool, so this was a trap. The girl just might not be a part of it.


    Speaking of¡­


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s back up a bit. What¡¯s your name? Why¡¯s the Empire after your brother? And why me?¡±


    ¡°My name, right, sorry¡­¡± She took a breath to calm herself. ¡°My name is Gloria, me and my family live on the edge of Empire territory and they usually leave us alone. But a few weeks ago my brother got powers. I don¡¯t know how the Empire found out ¨C Carl was terrified of people knowing about them ¨C but they did and they sent people to kidnap him. They told me and mom not to say anything to the police or they would hurt us, but we would be left alone if my brother cooperated.¡± Gloria looked at her feet. ¡°I can¡¯t just let him be used like that. I was in the mall when those robots attacked. I saw you helping out so I thought¡­¡±


    I sighed. ¡®What do you think, Ddraig? This a trap or just really bad luck?¡¯


    ¡®I don¡¯t think it¡¯s a trap. If the Empire was looking to try and recruit you they wouldn¡¯t be this aggressive as a first attempt. The girl still hasn¡¯t told you why she thinks they will kill her brother though.¡¯ My partner pointed out.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t come up alot because our father died, but me and Carl are half hispanic.¡± Gloria explained when I asked. ¡°They might¡¯ve ignored that if he was useful enough, but Carl didn¡¯t used to be a boy. He was born Carla and even worse, he still likes guys. There¡¯s no way the Empire is going to ignore that when they find out!¡±


    I felt my eye twitch at the revelation.


    Gay, trans, and part minority. Not to mention the powers. It was like someone had made a bingo card of things that would get a person killed by a Nazi gang and this guy was just checking off boxes.


    Definitely enough to get him killed if the rank and file found out.


    What a horrible time for everyone I could ask to deal with this instead to be busy.


    If Crystal was around, I could leave the whole thing to her and her family. That or have her reach out to the Protectorate directly¡­


    I discreetly pulled out my phone and tried calling her.


    No luck, straight to voicemail.


    And my Pawns were all out of the city for the day¡­


    So, options.


    I could ignore this entire thing and do nothing. Which meant Gloria¡¯s brother would probably die, followed by her and her mom to keep the whole thing secret.


    I could try reporting it to the authorities and just hope that they would be able to step in without tipping off the Empire, dragging their feet due to red tape or some other nonsense, or wait too long because they also suspected this could be a trap. Might be able to protect Gloria and her mom, but Carl would probably die before anything happened.


    I sighed.


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    Last option was to do it myself and hope this wasn¡¯t some giant trap specifically for me. Probably the only one that gave Carl a chance at living through the whole thing.


    ¡°What are his powers anyway?¡± I asked to give myself a little more time to think.


    Gloria swallowed nervously. ¡°He¡¯s a tinker. He can make little personal gadgets like the kind James Bond uses.¡±


    A tinker, huh? Guess that meant the chance of her brother escaping on his own was pretty small.


    Well, I did tell New Wave I was going to be fighting the gangs when I had a chance. Might as well do it for a good reason. The fact the Empire were Nazis helped. Because fuck Nazis.


    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll help.¡± I told Gloria and watched as the girl brightened up. ¡°But I need to make sure you aren¡¯t leading me straight into a trap.¡±


    ¡°How are you going to do that?¡±


    ¡°We,¡± I emphasized and held out my hand. ¡°Are going to make a contract. If this is a lie or a trick, this is your last chance to back out. Cause if you break one, I have no idea what will happen to you other than it will be bad.¡±


    Gloria grabbed my hand with no hesitation. ¡°Anything, as long as you do everything in your power to save my brother.¡±


    I felt my magic react and the beginnings of a bond connect us and couldn¡¯t help but smile at the feeling.


    ¡°Alright, then let¡¯s talk details¡­¡±


    -o-


    The fact that Gloria actually knew where her brother was being held was another sign that pointed to this whole situation being a trap. Yet the contract remained unbroken, so if it was Gloria definitely didn¡¯t know about it.


    It didn¡¯t stop it from being one, mind you. But I started trusting that Gloria was telling the truth from her point of view.


    The fact that the Empire was keeping him in a private art gallery instead of a warehouse somewhere was a bit of a surprise though.


    It made sense in hindsight. Galleries were secure, private, and easy to move things to and from in the form of box trucks. Considering that the upper leadership of the Empire Eighty Eight was one Max Anders, CEO of Medhall Pharmaceuticals, also known as the parahuman Kaiser, it wouldn¡¯t be hard for him to arrange for a gallery to be set aside for his lackeys¡¯ use. Especially if the gallery happened to be owned by one of his Nazi buddies.


    Much better than a warehouse where anyone could just wander in.


    It also left me a little clueless on how to move forward.


    I couldn¡¯t exactly go smashing through walls looking for Carl without putting him in danger and stealth wasn¡¯t really an option either. I¡¯d definitely get spotted by a guard or camera before I could find where they were keeping him.


    I needed a third option.


    That meant I spent another twenty minutes circling the gallery from a distance looking for something I could use.


    Luckily for me, the Empire had no idea that my eyesight was much better than a normal human¡¯s so I could observe the building from a safe distance without drawing attention. Unluckily, nothing obvious jumped out to give me the solution I needed.


    No choice then, time to spring the trap.


    Of course that didn¡¯t mean I needed to be stupid about it.


    I silently pulled my wings in as I dropped directly on top of one of the guards. He crumpled with only the smallest noise as I dragged him around a corner and out of the view of an exterior camera.


    ¡°Hi there,¡± I said, dragging him up to meet my eyes. Eyes that quickly flashed as I cast a small hypnosis spell on him. ¡°I have some questions for you¡­¡±


    -o-


    After my impromptu interrogation, I moved quickly but carefully through the building.


    According to my temporary nazi friend, Carl was being held backstage in one of the auditoriums by a bit more than two dozen E88 gang members and at least three capes, Othala, Victor, and Krieg.


    Which was pretty confusing because none of them were really good opponents against me.


    Victor was a skill vampire that siphoned off the training and experience from his victims, but he was still just a normal human otherwise. Othala was a power granter who usually worked closely with him, but as far as I knew, she couldn¡¯t grant anything that countered me. Krieg was probably the closest one there to a proper counter, his power being something that messed with kinetic energy.


    All of them seemed more suited for someone that needed to fight up close and personal, and while I had done that a bit, I had also thrown around enough lightning that you would think they would have brought someone that could fight at range.


    It wasn¡¯t like they were hoping being inside the building would keep me grounded either. Not with the gallery¡¯s high ceilings and holding their captive in an auditorium.


    The fact that no one else was around despite being told otherwise was also making me anxious. I felt like I was in a horror film and just waiting for a jumpscare that never came.


    So when I opened the auditorium doors and found a bunch of gang members staring back I was actually relieved.


    ¡°Hi there, I guess I was expected?¡± I announced loudly as I walked through the doors, discreetly checking no one was in a position to ambush me.


    So far, so good.


    I turned my attention to the people on stage.


    A rather bloody and beaten man I assumed was Carl was tied to a chair center stage along with the three E88 capes. He looked like he was unconscious, but he was breathing. So that was good news.


    Surrounding them were roughly half the gang members I was told about, but they weren¡¯t arranged like they were expecting a fight. They were posed like this was a display.


    One of the villains ¨C Krieg, based on the trenchcoat and gasmask ¨C took a step forward and clasped his hands behind his back.


    ¡°As a matter of fact, your arrival is completely unexpected, Lucifer.¡± He said. ¡°I don¡¯t know why you decided to stick your nose into Empire business but if you leave now we will decide to forget about this incident.¡±


    My eyebrows furrowed. ¡°Huh? Didn¡¯t you let that girl go looking for me to lure me here?¡±


    ¡°Lure you? What are you talking about?¡± Krieg also sounded confused. ¡°We never sent anyone to look for you.¡±


    ¡°I think I might know what¡¯s going on.¡± Victor spoke up, moving to stand next to his boss. ¡°We told the tinker girl not to go to any of the authorities or her relative would pay for it. She must have told Lucifer a fake story in hopes a fight might break out and she could take advantage.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    I was getting even more confused, Gloria didn¡¯t have powers. I had asked just to make sure.


    ¡°It¡¯s not that hard to understand.¡± Victor continued. ¡°One of our newer members tried to take advantage of the support we gave them. She wanted to use our resources and then give nothing back when we asked her to repay our generosity. Naturally we needed to reprimand her, but I don¡¯t think anyone expected her to drag you into her mess.¡±


    Which was complete bullshit.


    Wait¡­


    They didn¡¯t seriously think Gloria was the one with powers, right?


    Holy shit, they did! This entire thing was just one giant misunderstanding. I¡¯d laugh if it didn¡¯t mean that someone was kidnapped and beaten because of a mistake.


    ¡°That does make sense.¡± Krieg nodded along. ¡°As I said, if you leave now we will forget about this incident. But if you like, the Empire would be willing to pay for your assistance in locating our wayward member.¡±


    I frowned at them. ¡°You don¡¯t think I¡¯m really going to buy that story do you? If the E88 had a tinker they would have at least announced their name, but you haven¡¯t called her anything other than ¡®tinker girl¡¯ this whole time. Wanna know what I think? I think this is just an elaborate way of going after a new parahuman¡¯s civilian identity, and I think there are a few rules about that a bunch of people might object to being broken.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d be careful if I were you, Miss Gremory.¡± Krieg sneered. ¡°We are giving you the opportunity to walk away peacefully, but that doesn¡¯t mean we will hesitate to deal with you if you make unsubstantiated threats.¡±


    ¡°Yeah?¡± the Boosted Gear materialized on my arm. ¡°I¡¯d like to see you try¡­¡±

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 23

    The Empire minions didn¡¯t waste time waiting for orders and opened fire with the few handguns they had. I was a little surprised they jumped straight to shooting after just a few dramatics but I guess from their perspective they were the ones suddenly facing off against the cape that went toe-to-toe with half the heroes in the city and walked away.


    I had no intention of testing how bulletproof I was at the moment though, so I kicked off the floor and flared my wings, moving fast enough that all the bullets passed harmlessly underneath me.


    Magic sigils flared, lightning struck, and the minions¡¯ guns dropped from their hands with the unluckier ones dropping to the floor unconscious.


    I smirked at the panicking Nazis and was fully prepared to start taunting them when a fireball caught my smug ass square in the face, promptly knocking me out of the air as I tried and mostly failed to not hack up a lung due to the suddenly superheated air invading my airways.


    ¡°Get her!¡±


    Despite Victor¡¯s order, most of the remaining minions were pretty hesitant to rush me aside from from one or two of the more loyal ones.


    Or the more stupid ones. Either or, really.


    They barely got close enough to even try hitting me before I recovered from my short fall, dodged a few clumsy punches, and punched them back hard enough I felt ribs giving way.


    That was too much for the last couple minions.


    While they ran away, I turned back to the three Empire capes.


    ¡°Good help is hard to find nowadays, amiright?¡± I taunted, reaching up and inspecting a lock of hair for singes.


    ¡°We can deal with you without them.¡± Krieg snarled and jumped into the fight.


    Despite my earlier thoughts about the three of them being a bad matchup for me, they were still veteran capes that had been in a lot of fights and it showed.


    They really knew how to work together.


    Victor covered Krieg by throwing fireballs that seemed to curve around the other man, either by skill or power interaction I couldn¡¯t tell, and stayed close enough to Othala that he could have her swap powersets and tank any attacks I sent at them instead. And Krieg moved in a way that blocked my line of sight as much as possible while still getting close enough to try grappling me.


    The fight-happy part of me that wanted to see everything the Empire capes could pull off was impressed, but considering I was here on a rescue mission and not to enjoy myself I wasn¡¯t going to play fair.


    [BOOST!]


    I used my suddenly increased speed to circle around Krieg when he wasn¡¯t expecting it and get a clear line of fire at Othala.


    Victor clearly wasn¡¯t expecting it either because he failed to react in time before a lightning bolt streaked past him and knocked the other female cape off her feet.


    ¡°Coward!¡±


    I actually stared at him for that. ¡°What the fuck are you talking about?! It¡¯s three on one, and that¡¯s after I took out the normals!¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s a noncombatant!¡±


    ¡°She¡¯s handing you powers to fight me, sounds pretty combative to me!¡±


    I don¡¯t know why I bothered arguing with a white supremist. They were notoriously hypocritical and resistant to facts or opinions that differed from their own, rather like politicians in that way, but something about being called a coward really rubbed me the wrong way.


    While Victor and I had our brief screaming match, Krieg used that time to try getting close again. I had kept an eye on him just for that reason but he did something with his powers that made it feel like the air turned to syrup. I could still power through the effect but the momentary delay in my reaction allowed him to get a shot in on my ribs.


    I had been hit harder, but Krieg still packed enough of a punch that I could feel my ribs creak a bit. It didn¡¯t help that my own backhand decided to gently push him back instead of slapping him away either, allowing him to get a couple more hits in.


    My head snapped back as an uppercut I should have been able to block slipped past my guard.


    I tasted blood from a split lip and decided enough was enough. If I couldn¡¯t punch Krieg into next week, I was going to fry him.


    Of course that was when Victor joined the fight. He jumped in, hands whirling and targeting weak points, but despite the significant skill gap between me and him, I was a Devil boosted by the power of one of the strongest dragons around and he was just a very fit baseline human. Regardless of the weird resistance Krieg¡¯s power was causing that slowed down my movements, I was still fast enough to lash out with a kick that caught the skill-thief unexpectedly in the chest¡­only to do nothing, because Othala must have been able to grant him invincibility right before I took her out.


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    Fantastic.


    Still, unlike Krieg, Victor didn¡¯t have anything stopping my attacks from launching him across the room. So I was free to turn my full attention to his friend.


    An extra large magic circle bloomed right over the Nazi¡¯s head and just as he turned his head to look at it, a bolt the width of my forearm turned him into a lightning rod and knocked him out immediately.


    Two down, one to go.


    ¡°Hey, Victor! You just wanna give up?¡± I called to the remaining villain pulling himself out of the ruins of a wall. ¡°Unless you were pulling your punches, you can¡¯t hurt me and as much fun it would be smacking you around until Othala¡¯s power buff runs out or testing if my lightning could still hurt you, I have things to do today.¡±


    Victor grunted and gave me what should have been a charming smile, but since it was coming from a nazi all it did was make my skin crawl. ¡°Or you could just turn around and walk out. You beat us, no doubt about it, but there is no reason to make an enemy of the Empire over this incident. Walk away and we¡¯ll leave the whole thing behind us.¡±


    ¡°Or¡­I could call the PRT and have three Nazi¡¯s that danced all over the Unwritten Rules to recruit a tinker arrested and shipped out of my city.¡± I countered. ¡° I kinda like that option more.¡±


    ¡°I think you¡¯ll be a little busy for that soon.¡± Victor said affably. The fact he was so calm was actually making me more nervous than when I was fighting.


    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡±


    In one smooth motion Victor pulled out a gun, took aim at the still tied up form of Gloria¡¯s brother Carl, and pulled the trigger.


    I cursed as he twitched and a dark wet spot started spreading from his leg.


    ¡°Unless I missed my mark, you were here to rescue that piece of trash. He won¡¯t bleed out immediately, but you should probably get him to a doctor.¡± The absolute asshole said smugly. He shrugged, ¡°Or you could wait here to make sure we¡¯re taken in. Your choice, Lucifer.¡±


    Bastard.


    I could actually feel the contract between me and Gloria flare up, my promise to do my best to rescue her brother urging me to do something as long as it got him to safety. There was no actual compulsion but that wound meant that I was now definitely on a timer, and I wasn¡¯t willing to play around with gunshot wounds. I guess that meant I¡¯d have to let the Nazi go¡­


    ¡°Fine, you get to run away for another day.¡± I scowled. ¡°Grab the rest of your idiots and get lost¡­oh, but one thing before I leave¡­¡± I slowly walked over to Krieg and put my foot on his arm.


    ¡°...What are you¨C¡±


    There was a wet snapping sound as the unconscious villain¡¯s arm broke under my heel. No power effect active to stop it from happening.


    I glared at the now nervous looking Victor.


    ¡°You get one warning. I don¡¯t really try hiding who I am behind the ¡®rules¡¯, but if your gang of morons messes with me or my friends to try and pressure us, the gloves come off. Make sure James here knows that, kay?¡±


    It was a bit of a risk using one of the few real names I remembered of the Empire capes. At the very least I was going to be on their radar for knowing Krieg¡¯s and they were definitely going to want to know just how many others I knew. But with how cavalier he had been about using my name, I needed something to stop them from targeting the people around me.


    Hopefully, they would be too distracted wasting time trying to figure out how I knew the one to bother my girls for a while.


    Threat delivered I turned and focused on getting Carl out of the chair he was strapped to and getting him to a doctor because¡­he really didn¡¯t look too good.


    ¡°Just hold on, buddy.¡± I murmured, ¡°We¡¯ll get you to someone who can help in just a sec.¡±


    -o-


    Some time later I was sitting in the lobby of Brockton General Hospital in casual clothes while Gloria anxiously paced back and forth in front of me.


    I had called her immediately after dropping Carl off at the ER and let her know what happened. It didn¡¯t take long before she had shown up at the hospital and now the two of us were just waiting for news.


    The deal between us was complete and I could technically walk away, but leaving a girl alone in a hospital while she waited to see if her brother lived or not seemed like an incredibly dickish move.


    So I waited with her.


    Eventually a doctor came out to meet us followed by an incredibly tired looking Amy Dallon in her Panacea costume. She was noticeably more irritated than the last time I met her but she was also a bundle of angst and family issues that I didn¡¯t want to poke with a thirty foot pole, so I would stay out of it while we were in public.


    I could just tell Crystal how thinly stretched her cousin looked and let her deal with it.


    ¡°Is Carl alright? Can I see him?¡± Gloria practically teleported to the two of them, only for the doctor to sigh and raise a hand to try and calm her down.


    Uh, oh.


    ¡°We managed to stabilize him long enough that Panacea here was able to fix most of the damage when she arrived.¡± The doctor said soothingly. ¡°Unfortunately, the beating your brother went through caused some slight hemorrhaging in the brain. He¡¯s alive, but there¡¯s nothing more we can do for him. I¡¯m afraid there¡¯s a good chance your brother might not wake up again.¡±


    ¡°There has to be something¡­?¡±


    ¡°Sorry, I don¡¯t do brains.¡± Panacea said bluntly. Which was a lie, Panacea was fully capable of affecting brains, she just limited herself because of a self imposed rule. ¡°She¡¯s as healthy as she can be otherwise. Just in a coma.¡±


    ¡°He.¡±


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Carl is trans. He made the switch a few years ago.¡± Gloria explained.


    Panacea grunted in a way that made it clear she didn¡¯t care much. ¡°Fine, he is as fine as he can be. I¡¯ve gotta go, other people to heal and all that.¡±


    And with that lovely display of bedside manner, she walked off.


    ¡°Haaah, sorry about that.¡± the doctor sighed wearily. ¡°She¡¯s normally not quite as¡­abrasive¡­as that, she¡¯s been under a lot of pressure lately. But she is right, your brother is as comfortable as he can be. I¡¯ll have someone give you his room number once we get him settled. Now if you¡¯ll excuse me¡­¡± He trailed off and headed back through the door he came in from.


    ¡°...oh god, what are we going to do?¡± Gloria whispered before nearly collapsing in on herself. Only a quick reaction from me stopped her from dropping to the floor.


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s not all bad,¡± I tried comforting her, ¡°he¡¯s alive and safe. You just might need to be patient before he wakes up again.¡±


    Gloria shook her head rapidly. ¡°But what do we do about the Empire?¡± She hissed. ¡°They won¡¯t stay away forever. Kaiser wants a tinker way too much to just leave us alone. And since they think I¡¯m the one with powers, they¡¯re going to come after me next¡­¡±


    I awkwardly patted her back because¡­she was pretty much right.


    ¡°Maybe go to the PRT now that he¡¯s safe?¡± I offered. ¡°They should at least be able to keep the gangs off of your family. Maybe call in another healer¡­¡±


    ¡°They¡¯d expect him to sign up.¡± She pointed out. ¡°And Carl had reasons not to join them to begin with. I don¡¯t know if I can betray him like that if there¡¯s another way¡­any other way.¡± She trailed off as her eyes widened. ¡°...is there some way you can help him? If I made another deal?¡±


    I grimaced as I felt my Evil Pieces burning a metaphorical hole in my pocket. The chance to snag a tinker for my peerage was actually pretty tempting.


    ¡°You have one!¡± Gloria noticed my hesitation.


    ¡°I do, but it''s a permanent change. He can¡¯t back out of the deal later, at all. No matter what anyone wants¡± I warned her. ¡°We also don¡¯t have to do this now. You could take some time to talk it over with your mom¨C¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ll do your way.¡± Gloria said decisively, making me blink at the intensity of her voice. ¡°And we don¡¯t tell my mother anything.¡±


    ¡°...why?¡±


    ¡°I-I poked around some things at home while I was waiting.¡± Gloria¡¯s voice cracked and her eyes started watering but she kept talking. ¡°I wanted to know how the E88 f-figured there was a tinker in our house.¡± Tears started falling and I had a really bad feeling in my stomach.


    ¡°She sold us both out.¡± Gloria cried. ¡°She found one of the gadgets Carl made me and gave it to the Empire as proof I was the tinker and let them know where to find Carl to use as leverage. I-I can¡¯t¡­can¡¯t go back there, neither of us can!¡± She cried.


    I made up my mind.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll help your brother. On one condition¡­¡±

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 24

    The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 24


    It took a couple days, but eventually I managed to gather my Peerage and Crystal in one room and explain the little adventure I had while they were busy.


    Unsurprisingly, none of them were happy.


    At the situation, at the Empire, and in Crystal¡¯s case at me specifically.


    ¡°What do you mean you burned her house down!?¡±


    I crossed my arms defiantly and sank back into the couch.


    I wasn¡¯t sorry about what I did.


    And I told Crystal that much.


    The teenaged heroine grabbed at her hair and barely managed to not scream in my face before stomping off to the corner of the room, leaving me at the mercy of my Pawns.


    As the most cool-headed of them, Sam was the one to kick things off. ¡°While she cools down, why don¡¯t you explain why you decided arson was a good idea.¡± She suggested.


    ¡°Yeah, cause that? Way not cool, Rias.¡± Clover piped up, Alex nodding alongside her.


    I sighed and relaxed my posture a bit, because fair. If one of them came back with a story about rescuing a hostage and casually mentioned they burned down someone¡¯s house at the end of it, I would want an explanation too.


    So I launched into the story I had gotten from Gloria about her family.


    It started out rough but normal enough. A young couple makes a mistake and the girl gets pregnant. She drops out of college to take care of the baby and the father spends most of his time working to support the three of them.


    Money is tight and the arrival of a second baby doesn¡¯t help things, but for the most part they are a happy family if not a wealthy one.


    Then the father dies, and things start going bad.


    Between the funeral costs and normal living expenses what little money the family had dried up quickly. The mother is forced to work two jobs just to keep up with the bills and at this point any hope of finishing her college degree is dead. Around that time, Carl ¨C still Carla at the time ¨C started to make his transition, but since the E88 was still around he decided to do it secretly, stealing small amounts of money to pay for things like testosterone pills and clothes which only stressed things more.


    Of course since money was tight and their mother was watching nearly every dollar, it didn¡¯t take long for her to find out. And that¡¯s when I figure she started to genuinely hate her children.


    Not all at once of course.


    But from the way Gloria described things after her mother found out about Carl stealing money, she started being more selfish about where the money they did have started going.


    What used to be special family dinners out at a restaurant became lunches for her alone. Instead of new clothes and shoes for her children, she would spend it on a night out or a new dress. Weekends together with family became nights out with ¡®friends¡¯ and coworkers, many of whom had certain views. And while she never outright neglected either Carl or Gloria, she didn¡¯t do much beyond the bare minimum either.


    So when she found a device Carl had made in Gloria¡¯s room it was just the final straw that broke the last thread of their relationship. She reached out to the Empire through her new ¡®friends¡¯ and sold out her family. The fact she happened to be wrong about Gloria gaining powers when it was actually Carl didn¡¯t make a difference because both of them were dragged into the recruitment attempt and when I took Gloria home to grab her and Carl¡¯s belongings, the mother had already packed and cleared out.


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    ¡°Wow, waaay not cool.¡± Clover repeated herself, though this time she sounded more disbelieving than upset with me. ¡°No wonder you were pissed.¡±


    Alex nodded. ¡°Yeah, but why burn the house down if she already left? Isn¡¯t that kinda pointless?¡±


    ¡°Oh, not at all.¡± I smiled darkly at them. ¡°See, someone from the insurance company is going to have to investigate to see what happened and if they need to pay out and will have to look into some bank records. I¡¯m sure the fact Gloria¡¯s mother has been living beyond her means for a while now and recently had a large amount of money ¡®gifted¡¯ to her and that most of the possessions were removed from the house won¡¯t raise any flags.¡±


    The girls were silent for a bit before Alex whistled. ¡°Wow Rias, that¡¯s evil.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you could even call it devilish.¡± Clover added, getting several groans at the bad pun.


    Everyone started to loosen up though, even Crystal wasn¡¯t glaring at me anymore. So I¡¯d take it as a win. This probably wasn¡¯t the last I was going to hear about the house thing though.


    ¡°So what do you plan to do with the two of them?¡± The heroine eventually asked. ¡°They can¡¯t go home and the Empire is still probably after them. You just going to let them crash here?¡±


    I shrugged.


    Honestly, I didn¡¯t have a perfect solution. Gloria was currently content to hide out at my house and had taken over as housekeeper for the most part but that was only a short term solution because I couldn¡¯t actually pay her to keep doing so and it didn¡¯t do much for either of the siblings¡¯ living situation.


    It also didn¡¯t help that Carl was in a coma. I had healed all his injuries over the days I spent waiting for everyone to meet up, but he showed no signs of waking. I had debated asking Crystal to bring Amy along as a favor, but I knew of her rule against brains and a coma sounded like a brain thing so I didn¡¯t bother.


    I probably could have gone to the PRT about the situation if I really wanted to, but Gloria had been adamant about trying anything and everything else first.


    ¡°I was actually thinking about offering the both of them a spot in my Peerage.¡± I admitted. ¡°Unless Gloria changes her mind about the PRT or Carl wakes up, they¡¯re both stuck in a pretty bad situation.¡± It was why I made it a condition for Gloria to stay with me until she and her brother were in a place to make their own decision about what they wanted to do next. Neither of us expected the coma though and that made things a bit more complicated.


    ¡°You sure about that? You only have so many pieces.¡± Sam pointed out.


    ¡°It¡¯s the only way I can think of that guarantees that Carl will wake up any time soon.¡± I replied. ¡°And once he is we can ask if he wants to hang around or just stay close enough to me for him to adapt like what I offered when I needed to resurrect you. Gloria is going to be on the Empire¡¯s radar because of the mixup and the powers that come from being a devil should keep her mostly safe. And if they don¡¯t want to be long term members of the group, I¡¯ll just take the pieces back eventually.¡±


    ¡°Wait, you can do that?¡± Crystal asked.


    ¡°I know it¡¯s possible, but not how to do it exactly.¡± I explained, getting a tingly feeling at the back of my throat as whatever geas I was under felt I was getting close to sharing information I wasn¡¯t supposed to. ¡°I¡¯ve heard about oth¨C¡± aaand that was apparently too much.


    The girls tensed up as they recognised the signs of me being forced to stop talking but thankfully didn¡¯t mention it.


    We had been exploring the restrictions I was under ever since we found out about the geas and I was starting to get a good idea about what I could and couldn¡¯t say.


    Anything about the little tournament I was drafted into was off limits, as was specifics about alternate worlds. But anything that was public knowledge or easily deduced through that knowledge was fine, which is why I could speculate about reclaiming my Evil Pieces at some point. But when I tried to reference examples from things I had watched or read about before I was dumped here, that triggered the geas.


    ¡°...anyway, if it doesn¡¯t work out, I just wait a while and I can get the pieces back eventually.¡± I finished, acting like the loss of control didn¡¯t bother me.


    ¡°How are you going to bring that up?¡± Crystal thankfully diverted the conversation. ¡°Just casually say, ¡®hey, do you want to turn into an evil creature of the night?¡¯. Cause that sounds either like a scam or a cult to me.¡±


    I smirked and turned to face the door. ¡°I don¡¯t need to find a way to bring it up to her because she¡¯s been listening in for a while now. Gloria? Why don¡¯t you join the conversation?¡±


    The girl in question sheepishly opened the door and walked inside. ¡°How did you know I was there?¡±


    ¡°Devil hearing.¡± I tapped my ear. ¡°It¡¯s a bit more sensitive than a normal human¡¯s. So how much did you hear? Anything you want to ask about?¡±


    ¡°This peerage thing, it can help my brother?¡± She asked. ¡°And what did Laserdream mean by turning into an evil creature?¡±


    Crystal blushed lightly under the glare of my Peerage. While we joked about the evil Devil thing, they apparently didn¡¯t like hearing it from people not in on the joke.


    ¡°Becoming part of my peerage means becoming a devil like me and these three.¡± I explained, pointing at Sam, Clover, and Alex and leaving Crystal to the nonexistent mercy of the rest of our friends. ¡°Both of you would get the same basic powers as us. The process would fix anything wrong with Carl and wake him up.¡± ¡®Probably.¡¯


    ¡°Okay, so powers and joining your group. What''s the catch? Cause this sounds kinda like a scam or a cult.¡± It was kinda sad that she immediately assumed there was a catch but that was just smart in Brockton Bay.


    ¡°For one you won¡¯t be human anymore. This isn¡¯t like becoming a parahuman, the process literally changes you into a Devil. Second, while I won¡¯t demand that you become my servant or friend or anything like that, you have to stay nearby enough for us to see each other until you are stable enough to not need my influence anymore.¡± I wouldn¡¯t say I¡¯d hunt her and Carl down and kill them if they didn¡¯t, not with Crystal in the room, but I wanted to make sure Gloria knew I was serious about this. I didn¡¯t want to be responsible for a Stray. ¡°And finally,¡± I let myself soften, ¡°If you or your brother do decide to join up and you have an issue, I want to hear about it. No getting blindsided by the gangs or PRT or some other issue because you felt you couldn¡¯t talk to us. Okay?¡±


    Gloria clearly hesitated at the new info. I was fully aware that nothing I said really dismissed her concerns about being a cult, but I didn¡¯t want to give her a false impression that what I was offering was anything but deadly serious.


    Eventually she took a deep breath and looked me square in the eye. ¡°If this can really help Carl, then I¡¯m in. But if this is some freaky sex thing? I¡¯m going to break your nose, super powerful cape or not.¡±


    That startled a laugh out of me.


    ¡®Well she has spirit at least.¡¯ Ddraig commented.


    Which was good, because that¡¯s what I liked to see.

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 25

    ¡°Well that went about as well as we could have expected.¡± I muttered as I ducked out of the room.


    Gloria had accepted the Pawn piece with very little fanfare, becoming my fourth peerage member and after taking a few hours to get used to her new state, dragged me off to do the same to her brother.


    The good news was that the resurrection did, in fact, solve whatever issue was keeping Carl in a coma and he woke up not long after.


    The bad news was that Carl did not take getting rescued from being held hostage so the Empire could forcibly recruit his sister because she had been mistaken as a tinker to being recruited by me instead very well. The fact that not only was he forced to at least remain close by in order to not go Stray, but also his sister left him feeling like he was responsible for both of them being trapped in my Peerage.


    In short, he was pissed about his membership and absolutely did not believe I didn¡¯t have another way of bringing him out of a coma I withheld to get my hands on the both of them.


    I tried not to hold it against him too much because that did sound like something a few groups on Earth Bet would do, but after four fairly easy additions, having a member of my Peerage actively resent joining hurt more than I wanted to admit.


    The situation didn¡¯t improve when Gloria decided to argue in my favor, which Carl took as evidence I was Mastering her, and the whole thing went downhill from there. I wasn¡¯t sure how long the argument went on, but when the two siblings started breaking out the deeply personal insults I decided to put my foot down and have us separate for tempers to cool off. Though I doubted they would actually listen to me.


    ¡®Not everyone is going to like you or see being under you a good thing.¡¯ Ddraig commented. ¡®You¡¯ve been rather lucky with your group so far.¡¯


    ¡°That¡¯s not what the internet is saying.¡± I said wryly. It was actually pretty scary how quickly I had picked up a group of ¡®fans¡¯ that had leaned hard into the devil theme. There were entire threads devoted to them trading ideas of how I would ¡®punish them for their sins¡¯. The fact that those punishments always seemed to take place in a bedroom didn¡¯t seem to be a coincidence. I avoided that part of the internet pretty religiously now.


    ¡°What¡¯s the internet saying?¡± Clover asked as I entered the living room. Oops.


    ¡°Nothing, just talking to the voice in my head.¡± I waved her off. ¡°So what¡¯s going on in here? Where¡¯s Crystal?¡±


    ¡°Watching the latest Uber and Leet fiasco.¡± Alec chimed in, waving at a laptop. From the look of it¡­Final Fantasy?...huh, not what I expected. ¡°Crystal had a phone call. Sounded kinda important. How¡¯d the talk go?¡±


    ¡°Well, they¡¯re staying for now¡­of course that¡¯s partly because they don¡¯t have anywhere else to go at the moment. Carl definitely isn¡¯t my biggest fan right now.¡±


    ¡°He¡¯ll come around once he gets to know you. It¡¯s kinda hard to believe the whole ¡®superpowered benefits package¡¯ thing you have going on.¡± Sam joined in. ¡°I mean sometimes I still can¡¯t believe it.¡±


    Anything further conversation was put on hold as a very flustered Crystal wearing her superhero costume rushed back into the room.


    ¡°You okay Crystal?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯ve got an issue. Can you teleport me to the boardwalk?¡±


    I blinked at the request. Crystal had never asked me to teleport her before. It was never a big deal because she could fly, but it was an indicator of how big an issue she had that she decided to ask anyway.


    ¡°Sure, did you want us to tag along?¡±


    She froze. ¡°Um, maybe? I didn¡¯t ask, but more people wouldn¡¯t hurt¡­but a bunch of technically villains showing up unannounced¡­¡±


    ¡°Hey, it¡¯s cool. Sam and I can stay behind.¡± Alex came to her rescue. ¡°We wanted to help defuse the mess with Carl and Gloria anyway. Clover can go and watch Rias¡¯s back and if you need us, Rias can just give us a call.¡±


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    ¡°That work with you?¡±


    I quickly glanced around but it didn¡¯t seem like anyone objected to that plan. After that Crystal, Clover, and I walked over to the teleportation mark I carved into the main lobby and I started the spell.


    ¡°By the way, what¡¯s the sitch we¡¯re rushing into?¡± Clover asked just as the circle lit up.


    ¡°Well, you see¨C¡±


    -o-


    ¡°Hi Dauntless! How¡¯s life been?¡± I cheerfully greeted the spartan themed hero standing in the group we were approaching while giving Miss Militia and the PRT troopers with them a wave. His helmet hid any reaction he might have made but I had the pleasure of watching something in his neck tense and twitch at my greeting.


    ¡°...Lucifer, what are you doing here¨C¡±


    ¡°Laserdream let me and my group know about the situation. Something big swimming up the bay and it isn¡¯t Leviathan, right? We learn anything else about that yet?¡± I interrupted him, knowing it would drive his blood pressure up a few more notches. Was it petty to hold a grudge for Dauntless¡¯s fuck ups during our encounters? Probably.


    Was I going to do it anyway? Yep.


    ¡°Not yet.¡± Miss Militia answered, stepping in between me and Dauntless. ¡°We are still scouting the situation but we¡¯re treating this as a developing Class-A threat. We won¡¯t be playing games if you¡¯re just here to cause trouble.¡± She gave me and Clover a pointed look.


    ¡°We¡¯ll be good.¡± I raised my hands in fake surrender.


    MM nodded at me and turned to Crystal. ¡°The rest of New Wave should be back from their recon run any minute now, but your father, aunt and uncle are all down the road if you want to meet up with them.¡±


    ¡°Thanks,¡± she turned to me. ¡°I¡¯m going to go check up on them, think you can wait here for a sec?¡±


    I rolled my eyes, everyone was acting like I was just looking for a reason to pick a fight. ¡°I just told Militia we would behave.¡±


    ¡°Uh actually, it might be better if you and your friend went with Laserdream.¡± Dauntless suggested, making some kind of hand signal at Miss Militia I didn¡¯t understand. And he either did it wrong or Miss Militia disagreed with whatever it meant because beyond a raised eyebrow at him, she didn¡¯t react.


    ¡°I mean, shouldn¡¯t we let them know about our new arrivals?¡± He said awkwardly. ¡°We wouldn¡¯t want them to start fighting because of a misunderstanding or anything, would we?¡±


    I almost wanted to laugh at him.


    Was he really one to talk considering what happened both times I fought him? Well, fought was a little generous for the first time we met, but the second was definitely him choosing to pick a fight. Between him and Paladin¡­oh¡­oh, fuck me.


    There was a crash off to the side as a white figure descended from the sky in a hurry.


    I already knew who it was, but one small part of me held out hope it was just Glory Girl being a little too enthusiastic. Hope that was crushed when two holographic blue paneled wings appeared and blew away the last of the dust.


    ¡°Hey Miss M, I¡¯m back with the repor¨C oh, hey Rias!¡± I sighed as another fifteen people officially joined the exclusive ¡®definitely knew my identity¡¯ club. ¡°Are you teaming up with us for this? Ah, I mean, I knew there was a flame of righteousness buried in your heart that just needed the right opportunity to shine. I¡¯m overjoyed that¨C¡±


    ¡°Paladin, the report?¡± Miss Militia thankfully stepped in before I was forced to punch him in order to stop the cringe.


    ¡°Uh, right¡­¡± Paladin stammered. ¡°We ¨C that is me, Lady Photon, and Shielder ¨C flew out to where SONAR was picking up the thing coming at us. Didn¡¯t see much for a while cause, you know, all the water, but eventually we saw the shadow of the thing. And Miss M? Whatever is coming this way¡­it¡¯s big, like really big. Something alive too, cause we saw it flip around and chase a boat for a bit and Lady Photon says nothing mechanical can pull off that kinda maneuver. Unless it¡¯s tinkertech or something.¡±


    ¡°I doubt it. Not even Dragon can make anything half the size of what¡¯s coming our way move organically without issues.¡± Dauntless commented, turning towards his fellow hero. ¡°Militia, we need to ask for help. Call for reinforcements or something¡­¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t.¡± Miss Militia immediately disagreed. ¡°Director Piggot ordered us to handle this. She¡¯ll sound the call if we need assistance from the surrounding branches.¡±


    ¡®Interesting, most heroes I¡¯ve run into tend to ignore their superiors and do what they want. It¡¯s almost weird to see one just following orders like this.¡¯ Ddraig said.


    ¡®From what I know, Miss Militia isn¡¯t much of a free thinker.¡¯ I replied. ¡®She¡¯ll basically just follow orders in most circumstances. Makes her pretty disciplined compared to the other heroes, but then you get things like this where she won¡¯t even consider something because her boss didn¡¯t tell her it was okay.¡¯


    ¡°Uh, hi. Quick question.¡± Clover asked from behind me. ¡°Isn¡¯t stuff like this the whole point of having an alarm system? Like, so you can call for backup when freaky stuff is going on?¡±


    ¡°You¡¯re part of Lucifer¡¯s group, right? Rook?¡±


    ¡°Pshaw, that was a temp name cause we weren¡¯t expecting to be out in public yet. You can call me Red Devil.¡±


    I turned to her. ¡°Red Devil? Seriously?¡±


    ¡°Yeah! It¡¯s super easy to remember, cause I¡¯m the red one. We all talked about it earlier and thought it was a good idea. You like it?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. Kinda plain, but it works.¡± I said, but in my head I was dreading where this was going. If Sam and Alex really agreed with the name choice, then we were one step closer to winding up as a Power Rangers knock off.


    I really hoped there was still time to stop that. Maybe if I talked to Gloria¡­


    I shook my head and returned my attention to the group and instantly regretted not paying attention as Paladin was in the middle of spilling another one of my secrets, this time one I would rather have kept secret. ¡°So if you''re calling yourself a Devil, you¡¯re part of her Peerage, right?! What piece did you get? Miss M said you were a Rook?¡±


    ¡°Uh, no. I¡¯m a pawn.¡± Clover answered uncomfortably. Understandable given the enthusiasm Paladin was putting out. ¡°And how did you¨C¡±


    ¡°A pawn, huh? Cool! How many others has Rias reincarnated? Oh! And do you think¨C¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re not having this conversation right now.¡± I cut in. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t we be doing something about the thing coming for us? If not calling in backup, then getting in position or something? Me and, ugh¡­Red Devil are willing to help out but we kinda need to know what to do instead of just standing here talking!¡±


    Paladin at least had the decency to look sheepish for sidetracking us. ¡°Right, sorry. So what¡¯s the plan, boss?¡±


    I looked at the white-clad cape in mild horror. ¡°You¡¯re part of the Protectorate now?!¡±


    ¡°Oh yea, after the fight in the¨C¡±


    ¡°Save it for later Paladin. Lucifer is right. We can¡¯t keep getting distracted.¡± Miss Militia ordered. ¡°The unknown is less than a mile offshore, we¡¯re going to split up into groups along the coast and wait to see what it does. If it tries coming ashore, we¡¯ll do our best to drive it off. But if it just stays in the water, we¡¯ll use our fliers to track it as long as possible.¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t think we¡¯re going to need that last part, ma¡¯am!¡± One of the troopers yelled. Everyone turned to follow his gaze out into the bay where a giant dark shape was starting to rise out of the water.


    ¡°SKREEEEE-EEEEEONGK!!¡±


    ¡°...seriously, just fuck today¡­¡±

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 26

    I watched the massive lizard rise out of the water with the sort of detached calm of someone who had completely lost control of the situation. At no point today did I expect to come face to face with a kaiju. Let alone arguably the most recognizable of the bunch. I was so out of it I barely flinched when the massive beast roared again.


    Besides¡­Paladin was freaking out enough for the both of us.


    "Oh my God, is that freaking Godzilla?! Like the real one?! Holy crap that is so COOL! I mean we''re probably fucked because he''s the goddamn king of the monsters and all. I wonder which one he is? Oh god, I hope he isn''t Shin. We''d be even more¨C"


    "Paladin." Miss Militia tried interrupting the word vomit coming out of his mouth with little success.


    "¨Clike we could use a giant robot. Does Dragon have a giant robot?¨C"


    "Paladin!"


    "¨C could use Juggernaut Drive, but I barely pulled off Balance Breaker¡­¨C"


    I decided to ignore her trying to wrangle the local idiot and turned to Dauntless. "So any chance we can call for reinforcements now?" I asked. "Cause if that is really what I think it is, a handful of fliers isn''t going to be enough to send it packing."


    "What you think it is? You mean it isn''t an Endbringer?" he asked.


    I blinked. Right, giant monster movies probably weren''t super popular when there actually were three of them running around destroying cities every few months. If they weren''t an old movie buff, most people on Earth Bet probably had no idea what Godzilla was.


    Which is why it was surprising that Clover was the one to answer him.


    "Godzilla. Big radioactive lizard monster from some old movies that came out in Japan in the ''Fifties. Basically Behemoth if he just had a hate-on for one city in particular." She said before noticing me staring. "What? I like old movies, okay!?"


    I mean, I didn''t have much room to judge.


    "Okay, so maybe not an Endbringer." Dauntless collected himself. "Definitely not something we can handle alone though. I''ll have Militia make the call to the Director for reinforcements, I hate to ask but are you willing to help us stall until then?"


    "Sure, not sure how many other times I''ll get to fight a giant lizard monster."


    ''Thanks for not saying dragon, Partner.'' Ddraig said. ''I''m not sure what that thing is, but it isn''t a dragon.''


    I rolled my eyes. ''Of course it isn''t a dragon. They shoot fire from their mouths. This one shoots radioactive lasers. He''s much cooler than a random dragon.''


    ''WHAT?!''


    ''Oh, relax. You''re still my favorite either way.'' I teased.


    ''Hmph¡­''


    "Great. If that thing really is radioactive we can''t let it get into the city." Dauntless nodded, unaware of the conversation between me and the voice in my head. "We''ll use comms channel, uh, you don''t have a headset do you?" He finished sheepishly.


    Guess he wasn''t used to working with people on the fly.


    "No." I replied bluntly. "But I''ve got something that should work anyway." I raised a hand and pointed at each of the Capes here. A small magic circle appeared next to their heads.


    "What''s this?" Miss Militia demanded, apparently done from wrangling the white annoyance for now.


    "Communication spell." I replied. "Basically a magic walkie-talkie. It''s intent based so you can send messages to one person or everyone connected through the spell. I managed to get it so you know when someone is about to say something so people don''t talk over themselves. It''s still kinda rough but¨C"


    "Just think really hard about who you want to hear you and talk normally. Using hand motions helps if you need it." Clover interrupted me. "What? You ramble when talking magic. It''s kinda cute when you do it, but yanno, giant lizard right there?!"


    I fought down a blush and turned back to Miss Militia. "Yeah, what Red Devil said."


    "Range limits? Duration?" She asked. "And can you add the rest of the responders to it?"


    "Uhm, I haven''t really had time to test range limits but it should be fine anywhere in the city. It lasts until either the person it''s cast on dismisses it or I stop the spell on my side. And yeah, but they have to be close for me to target them. Twenty feet or so."


    Militia repeated back what I said through her normal comms and waited for a second. Probably listening to the Director.


    Eventually she sighed and lowered her hand from her ear.


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    "Director Piggot has declared this an A-Class threat. All Capes capable of flying are to confront the creature in the bay and keep it away from the city. Everyone else will either be fire support or help evacuating citizens." She turned to me. "Lucifer, your communication power will be needed to coordinate between the three teams until a better system can be brought in. The Director also wants you to know that if you leverage this to somehow control or spy on two hero teams you may be sent directly to the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center."


    "What!? She can''t do that!" Clover shouted, outraged at the threat. "Can she?" She asked the surrounding heroes.


    "...I think so." Dauntless admitted. "A-Class threats are really serious."


    "That''s really fucked." Paladin murmured.


    "Then it''s a good thing it does exactly what I said it does." I shrugged. Honestly I was one of maybe a handful of people that the Birdcage, as it was nicknamed, had no real chance of holding.


    It was built for Parahumans and even then there was a way out built into it.


    I wasn''t a Parahuman and could teleport. I liked my chances.


    "I''m guessing we''ll meet up with New Wave a bit before where Godzilla is, I''ll cast the spell on them, and then we try holding it off until help comes?"


    "Close, two of the Wards will be meeting you on the way also."


    Did the Wards even have a way to contribute? No, there was no more time to ask. Godzilla was making his way closer already.


    "Fine," I said, spreading my wings. "Red Devil, call the others."


    "You want us fighting a Kaiju?"


    "No, I don''t think you guys are ready for that kinda thing. But even our newest two - if they want to help - should be able to help evac people." They could also help patch people into the comms spell too.


    "Kay, boss, I''ll get right on that!" She said, pulling out her phone and making a call.


    "You have two new members?" Paladin pried as we all flew away from the boardwalk. "Are they Pawns too?"


    "I''m not talking about that." I glared at him. "Besides, we should focus on the fifty foot lizard. I don''t want to get vaporized because we were distracted."


    "Uh, yeah, sure." He stuttered. "But, like, afterwards, do you think you could give me a hand with magic? Cause I''ve been trying, but I''m not getting it. Albion isn''t much help either."


    "There''s New Wave." I said to Dauntless, ignoring the other hero entirely. "Looks like they met up with the Wards alre¨C what the hell is Aegis doing here?!"


    I couldn''t believe my eyes at the sight of the red-suited Ward flying towards us alongside Crystal, her brother, her mom, her cousin, and Kid Win. When I heard two Wards, I assumed they were tagging along because they could fight at range. Aegis was only harder to put down than a normal person because his biology was weird and slightly stronger. He had absolutely no reason to be here.


    "He''s one of four fliers we have and he volunteered." Dauntless defended the stupidity I suddenly found myself dealing with.


    "And he''s useless here." I snapped, casting the comms spell on the group as they came in range. "I''m not saying it isn''t heroic and all that, but unless he can punch out a dinosaur he doesn''t belong here. No offense." I nodded to the Ward when he was in earshot.


    "I''m the leader of the Wards," He said back. "Even if I''m just a distraction, I can help."


    I really didn''t see how he could.


    At least not in a way that outweighed how useful he would be somewhere else. But I didn''t have the time to argue.


    "Hey guys, might wanna cut the chatter!" Glory Girl called out. "I think that thing just noticed us!"


    Sure enough, I turned to see the giant reptilian head looking right at us and a blue glow building up in its throat.


    "Scatter!"


    I followed Lady Photon''s order and from then on I didn''t really have time to worry about the others.


    We got lucky that the first breath attack was angled up and away from the city, but if we did nothing then that was going to change quickly.


    I circled around to the right with Laserdream and Shielder while the others went other directions. My gauntlet appeared on my arm and started boosting while the other two started pelting the Kaiju with their beams. If they were doing anything besides annoying the giant lizard, it wasn''t showing it.


    And then Dauntless hit it with his Arclance.


    "SKREE-EEONGK!!"


    Godzilla went ballistic as the weird electro-spear jabbed into its side and a distant part of me remembered Godzilla didn''t like electricity. That was good because it stopped the lizard''s slow advance towards the city. And it was very bad because Dauntless now had the creature''s undivided attention.


    "Dauntless, move!" Paladin yelled as he slammed into Godzilla''s body. It didn''t do any damage, but the Kaiju seemed to stumble a bit as his Sacred Gear stripped away its strength but the blue light in its mouth continued to build.


    "Dammit." Shielder cursed as he broke off, flying closer to the giant''s head.


    "Eric!"


    While Crystal called after her cousin who was getting ready to throw up a shield right in front of Godzilla''s face and Dauntless raised his own shield while trying to shake off the lizard''s aim, I finished my third boost, the absolute minimum I felt would be worth a damn, and fired the most powerful blast of lightning I could at the beast''s head.


    I shifted it just enough that the beam missed vaporizing the Protectorate hero by feet after it broke through both shields anyway.


    "Holy fuck¡­" I cursed. Two shields, my most powerful electric attack Boosted three times, and Paladin''s Divine Dividing. And we still couldn''t stop the attack.


    "So, uh, we have an ETA on reinforcements?" I asked. "Cause I think we''re going to need them."


    "No word yet." Militia replied seriously. "Just do what you can."


    "Fantastic." I muttered as the Kaiju turned to look at me, clearly not happy about my attack.


    Thankfully it looked like it couldn''t fire off another breath attack back-to-back or just decided not to for some reason and instead just tried swatting me out of the sky like an annoying fly.


    It sounded like it should be funny, right? A fifty foot lizard ineffectively trying to swat the Devil blasting it with lightning? Wrong. It was fucking terrifying.


    For one, Godzilla was way faster than I expected something that big to move and even though I wasn''t having trouble keeping ahead of it, even the near misses caused massive gusts of wind that knocked me around anyway.


    [Boost!]


    [Divide!]


    On anything else, the combined focus of the Boosted Gear and Divine Dividing would have put our opponent at a severe disadvantage. On the King of the Monsters? We were still trying to level the playing field.


    And to make things worse, Paladin and I weren''t on the same level.


    "Rias! I''m at my limit, I can''t Divide it for a while!" Paladin called out, his wings bleeding energy. Damn human limitations.


    "Already, are you kidding me!?"


    "Hey, it''s freaking Godzilla! I''m surprised I managed to do it twice!"


    I dodged another claw and took a moment to glance around to see how the others were doing.


    Crystal''s family was doing their best to distract and annoy with their beams, but they simply weren''t big or strong enough to do any real damage so Godzilla was seemingly ignoring them for now. Dauntless was at least getting flinches when he attacked but since my lighting was more powerful, I still had the lizard''s attention. Or at least the majority of it. Glory Girl tried going for its eyes and was backhanded halfway across the bay with a well timed claw. And I don''t think poor Aegis''s punches were even noticed.


    "Can''t you use Balance Breaker?" I barked at the White Dragon while flying back to avoid another claw and lure the creature further back into the water.


    "I''m waiting till the other heroes get here! I can only hold it for five minutes!"


    ''Careful, here comes another breath attack.'' Ddraig warned.


    I didn''t see a blue glow or any other signs but if anyone here was an expert it was him, so I dodged without a second thought. Sure enough, a massive beam of radiation erupted from its maw and unlike the other times Godzilla decided to sweep the beam to follow me.


    [Boost!]


    The extra burst of speed let me keep ahead of the beam but there were only so many places I could go. Too far in one direction meant the city could get hit, too far the other and it would be the PRT''s stupid oil rig base.


    "Shut it, Lizard Breath!" Glory Girl cried as she inserted herself back into the fight by dropping on the top of Godzilla''s snout like a ballistic missile. The Kaiju''s head snapped down and the beam cut through the bay waters before cutting off entirely.


    I had to admit, that was some damn good timing.


    "Lucifer, you need to force it back out towards the ocean. That last attack almost hit the city!" Militia''s voice rang in my ear. I turned back to look and, yeah, part of the north side of the city had gotten clipped. Luckily that part was mostly abandoned trainyard and the Ship Graveyard. Still, not good.


    "I''m trying okay?! But we need more heavy hitters to drive it back, when are the reinforcements getting here?!"


    "..."


    "Not liking the silent treatment, MM." Glory Girl added in.


    "Miss Militia, me and my family are fighting a pseudo-Endbringer with barely any help. What is going on?!" Lady Photon demanded, and boy did she sound pissed.


    Not that I blamed her. We were supposed to be delaying while help was organizing behind us, but a single mistake would mean someone could die. And even if the whole battle was only going on for a few minutes, someone should have shown up to help by now. Legend at the very least considering he was in New York and could fly at near light-speed.


    "...reinforcements have been delayed." Militia finally admitted. "They might not be coming at all."


    "What, why?!"


    "Because four more creatures have been spotted attacking at the same time¡­"

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 27

    As much as I would have liked to take a second to fully digest the implications of four more Kaijus attacking all at once, I didn''t really get a choice because the giant monster already here had taken advantage of everyone''s distraction to start moving back towards the shore.


    "What about locals?" Lady Photon demanded while all of us hurried to re-engage Godzilla. "Heroes, Independents? Hell I''m willing to work with more Villains right now! Where is Purity or Lung?"


    I was only half listening to the conversation as I did my best to get the Kaiju''s attention back on me instead of the city. Unfortunately, that seemed to be a losing battle because Godzilla seemed determined to use the city as cover from our attacks.


    I wouldn''t call the creature intelligent, but it definitely had some sort of animal cunning.


    It still tried to smack us out of the air when it could, but it also realized that staying out in the open was a bad idea.


    "Purity is preparing with the rest of the Empire," Militia said, some frustration leaking into her tone. "She''s not willing to engage without support we can''t provide. And according to Oni Lee, Lung isn''t even in the city right now."


    Several of us cursed at that. The one time the Asian gang lord would be useful, he wasn''t around and the Nazi with energy blasts reportedly around the same level as Legend was playing it safe.


    "And the others?"


    "They''re preparing to help out, but none of them are fliers. The Director made the call to have them group up with the Protectorate along the shoreline if you can''t drive the creature back."


    So we were basically on our own until Godzilla was pretty much inside the city. Fantastic.


    I was really tempted to have Clover call the other girls and have them come help me out. A few Queen promotions would really help out with the issue of only a couple of us hitting Godzilla hard enough for it to care. Unfortunately, promoting to Queen would wipe them out in a few minutes and they were probably doing more good helping evacuate the civilians. Couldn''t have them leave Gloria and Carl alone either if they decided to help out.


    [Boost!]


    To make matters worse, I was close to hitting the limit of how high I could boost myself.


    ¡­well, kinda.


    I could definitely keep going, but at some point the trade off between more power and the stamina drain I had to actually hold and use it wouldn''t be worth it.


    I sighed. "Might want to tell them to get ready, MM. Cause I don''t think we can stop it." Not before it hit the city anyway.


    "Hey, don''t give up Rias!" Paladin exclaimed. "We can still do it, I have a plan!"


    Oh this should be good.


    "Paladin, if this is any flavor of ''believe in yourself and hit him really hard''...I''m going to kill you."


    "T-there''s more to it than that!"


    "We don''t have time to argue kids!" Lady Photon broke up our budding argument. "Paladin, what''s your plan?"


    "Right! So we don''t really have to beat him, okay? We just need to hurt him bad enough to leave."


    "Hate to break it to you buddy, but we were trying that. It''s taken everything we could throw at it and kept going." Glory Girl added her thoughts.


    "Get to the point Paladin. We don''t have time." Dauntless ordered.


    "I use my Balance Breaker and weaken him as much as I can. Rias, you''ve got a bunch of Boosts, right? You transfer them to the person that can hit Godzilla the hardest in a place that will get him to back off. If we time it so both attacks hit at once it should be even more disorienting. I''m thinking back leg or hip would be good places. If he can''t walk then he''ll just swim away, yeah?"


    "..."


    I was stunned speechless.


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    Paladin? Had a legitimately good idea?


    Oh man, today really was all kinds of fucked wasn''t it?


    "Transfer? You''re saying Lucifer can empower others? Is that true?"


    I mean¡­yeah, it was, but it wasn''t like I''d shown off that ability outside of training.


    Downside of Paladin being familiar with what the Boosted Gear could do, I guess. If anything I was surprised he hadn''t blabbed about it before now.


    "I can, but only one target and it''s all or nothing. You''re probably only going to get one shot."


    That only left who would actually take the shot. In a perfect world, Purity would be the one considering she had the strongest blasts. But since she wasn''t risking her ass until the last minute we couldn''t rely on her.


    Kid Win''s guns were limited by what the Protectorate considered appropriate for a Ward so he was out.


    Dauntless might have been a good choice, unlike my lightning his arclance had some physical force behind it and it was much more focused than if I used a Dragon Shot. But again it was just too weak at its base to be worth it.


    I was out for the same reasons Dauntless would be a better pick if he was stronger. My lightning wouldn''t cause enough physical injury to turn Godzilla away and my Dragon Shot wasn''t focused enough.


    That left New Wave.


    And by that I meant it left Crystal.


    She had the strongest beams in her family. Not using her for this would just be stupid.


    And she was smart enough to figure that out herself.


    "Lucifer, I''m on my way to you." Laserdream said.


    "Hurry. Not much time before our lizard friend makes landfall."


    While my friend made her way over to me, the rest of us were still trying to distract Godzilla any way we could. Not that it was doing much at this point. I felt like we were wasps trying to stop a bear from going after a hive. Too small to stop something really determined to break even if we hurt it.


    And then things took a turn for the worse.


    I don''t know who did it. In fact I was pretty sure the PRT had told all of the capes gathering at the shoreline not to attack out of hope that the first group would be able to draw Godzilla away. But someone had apparently decided they didn''t want to wait anymore.


    A crimson energy beam shot from the city and nailed Godzilla in the eye.


    Any other time, I would have been impressed by the accuracy of whoever did that. Right now? I wanted to tear their head off.


    Godzilla instantly stopped paying attention to us as it roared in pain, the spines along its back glowing blue as it charged its breath attack.


    Shielder and Lady Photon tried to put barriers up to mitigate the attack, for what little their shields would matter, while everyone else tried to distract the creature however they could.


    Godzilla did not care.


    "Paladin, forget the plan!" I shouted at the white clad hero. "You need to stop it before it hits the city!"


    "On it!"


    [VANISHING DRAGON! BALANCE BREAKER!]


    The hero was engulfed in a bright white light as an angular suit of armor formed over him. And despite the seriousness of the situation, I was jealous.


    Gone was the awkward, bumbling hero and in his place was a towering figure of white and gold armor with deep blue gems in various places that looked straight out of a mecha anime.


    I wanted it.


    I wanted it enough that I actually felt tempted to try forcing my own Balance Breaker. Even if this was a bad time to take unnecessary risks.


    ''Don''t worry, Partner. You aren''t far from unlocking Balance Breaker yourself.'' Ddraig thankfully calmed me down. I sent him an impression of gratitude and focused on Laserdream, who had just arrived near me, instead while Paladin flew off to protect the city.


    "How do we do this?!" She shouted as soon as she was close enough.


    "Aim at its hip¨C" I started before Godzilla unleashed the breath attack it was charging. The beam almost effortlessly broke through the panes of colored light Laserdream''s mom and brother threw up and looked like it was going to cut through half the city just as easily¨C


    [Half Dimension!]


    [Divide]


    [Divide]


    [Divide]


    ¨Conly to shrink in size and intensity as Paladin''s sacred gear halved its power over and over. Unfortunately, he wasn''t able to completely negate the attack. And while the beam of radioactive plasma wasn''t strong enough to cut through buildings with ease anymore, it was still strong enough to greatly damage the ones it did hit.


    Some of them even started to collapse from the damage and I could hear Miss Militia shouting orders for Search and Rescue teams to make sure no one was caught in the attack.


    I had to force myself to not listen in. I had my own role to play.


    "Aim at the hip and hit it as hard as you can!" I continued, placing my hand on Laserdream''s back. It wasn''t strictly necessary but we had one shot. I didn''t want to leave anything to chance.


    "Okay, here we go!"


    Laserdream fired a beam from her hand that by itself scorched the leathery skin of the Kaiju but it was so thick Godzilla basically ignored it.


    At least until I took all the energy I had built up and dumped it into her.


    [Transfer!]


    Laserdream''s palm sized energy beam quadrupled in size. The now massive attack that was barely a nuisance began to melt the King of the Monster''s flesh like a blowtorch against butter. The resulting scream almost deafened me, but it was a good feeling.


    Finally got you, you bastard!


    But just as I started to celebrate, the beam dried up and shrank to its normal size as the Transfer was spent.


    Godzilla was injured, but now I was back to my base state and the both of us had its full attention.


    "Time to get out of here, Lucifer!" Laserdream shared my thoughts.


    So both of us ran away as fast as we could.


    Every few seconds I looked over my shoulder to make sure we weren''t going to catch a laser beam in the back, and it was so far, so good on that front.


    While Laserdream and I definitely still had most of Godzilla''s attention, the introduction of a clear weak point meant that the rest of the defenders were causing the titanic lizard no small amount of pain.


    The fact the Kaiju was now limping badly instead of its previous unstoppable stride meant it was hopefully on the edge of just cutting its losses and retreating back out into the ocean. If I boosted enough and hit it hard enough¡­


    Before I could finish that thought a white flare rose out of the city and raced towards us. I had to hold back a snort because of course now Purity decided to get involved when it looked like Godzilla was going to retreat and was focused entirely on someone else.


    I had no doubt the Empire was going to play up her role as the final cause that drove the Kaiju off, instead of the racist lightbulb just making a token effort after the hard work was done.


    But nevertheless, the new addition striking at its wounds was enough for Godzilla to finally decide to leave. It waded out until the water reached its hips and with one final lunge forward¡­disappeared under the waves.


    We followed after it for a bit just to make sure it wasn''t going to turn around and come back, but eventually Dauntless made the call that Godzilla had retreated and the fight was over.


    Laserdream practically cheered at the announcement, "We did it! We actually managed to drive it off!"


    I smiled tiredly. "Yeah, it could have been a lot worse. Especially thanks to that beam attack from the city."


    "You have any idea who could''ve done that? I keep trying to come up with a name but I can''t think of anyone with powers like that besides Legend, and if it was him he would have been flying out here with us."


    I shrugged. "New cape, out of towner just visiting, tinker with a new weapon? Too many possibilities to count. I''m sure the PRT is looking into it. Miss Militia sounded pissed."


    "Yeah, I wouldn''t want to be them. Do you think¨C" Laserdream agreed before the same hero we just mentioned interrupted.


    "To all Capes, we just received word that the final attack from designation: ''Godzilla'' buried the medical area. Anyone able to help with search and rescue needs to head to¨C"


    I stopped listening and turned to my friend who had just gone pale white.


    "Amy." Was all she said before racing back towards the shore, all of New Wave following suit and me trailing after them.

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 28

    The shoreline¡­did not look great when we arrived.


    Despite Godzilla never directly targeting the shoreline beyond its final attack, a giant lizard stomping around the Bay had kicked up some pretty big waves. Most of the buildings I flew over while following Crystal seemed fine but there were a lot of broken windows and flooded stores. I had seen plenty of pictures on the news after a tropical storm or hurricane rolled through an area. The damage seemed to be on par with a pretty severe one of those. Not to mention the line of buildings that had been hit by Godzilla''s breath attack. They looked like someone had hit the front half with a bomb and were either fully collapsed or on the brink of it.


    All of this was idle thought though, as I rushed to join the people already scattered around the piles of debris trying to dig out any survivors from the rubble.


    Gallant, Vista, and Clockblocker were already there and were definitely the MVPs of the efforts. The three Wards were all working together to locate, dig out, and stabilize anyone they could find with their powers and as depressing as it was that a bunch of teens younger than I was were the best S&R team here was, I didn''t have time to sit around thinking about it.


    I wasn''t exactly some expert on disaster situations, but even I knew that when people were buried ¨C possibly alive, probably injured ¨C every second counted and it definitly couldn''t be handled in my normal method of ''rush in and hope for the best''. So I was following the directions of a PRT captain, a construction worker, and a firefighter to carefully remove as much of the rubble as possible without bringing the rest on top of whoever we were trying to rescue from where Gallant had been able to point out a few people based on their emotions, so we weren''t digging blindly.


    It was a pretty good feeling when I moved the last bit of concrete that allowed rescue services to get the young man we dug out to an ambulance and then off to a hospital but a part of me was dissapointed we hadn''t found Crystal''s cousin.


    All of New Wave was desperately searching at this point and even with every hero in the Protectorate and my Peerage helping out we still hadn''t found her. And from the increasingly grim faces of the professionals and the almost desperate energy from the older, more exprerienced capes I knew we were running out of time.


    Hours later I was spent, physically and mentally.


    The good news was that we had managed to dig down to the first level of the building Panacea was supposed to be stationed at. The bad news was that we hadn''t actually found ¨C


    "RIAS ¨C GET OVER HERE NOW!"


    Fuck, that didn''t sound good.


    I was in the air in an instant and heading to the other side of the wreckage where Crystal''s group had been digging. I didn''t have a good feeling about this, though. If they had found Panacea in good condition Crystal wouldn''t have sounded so desperate. So it really wasn''t a surprise to find the white robed girl lying half buried surrounded by her family and covered in dust and blood with some of the Protecorate heroes standing nearby.


    My heart sank at the sight.


    Between Manpower and Glory Girl it should have been easy to clear away the debris unless there was a reason not to¡­like stopping the person being crushed by it from bleeding out.


    And given that Glory Girl was crouching over her sister, hands hovering uncertainly over her like she wasn''t sure what to do with them or was afraid to touch her instead of trying to get her out, gave me a good idea that was the case.


    "I''m here, what do you need?" I asked immediately, hoping I was wrong about the situation.


    "Amy needs healing." Crystal said rapidly. "Everything you can give until another healer can be brought in. The rubble, it ¨C her arm is pinned and her legs are just¡­"


    "Got it, I''ll do my best." I cut in to spare her from actually saying it. "What about my peerage? Are they on the way?" After the first couple hours I had dropped the communication spell. It was just not worth it when half the people we were working weren''t included and my flying out to the PRT headquarters to include the PRT''s leadership instead of everyone just using a phone or radio was deemed a waste of time.


    "We''re here. We heard the shouting." Alex said as the five of them touched down, Sam and Clover giving my two newest Pawns a hand with the landing. "What can we do?"


    "Give me some space to work. I need to concentrate for this." I said, gently pushing Glory Girl away until my Pawns were between her and Amy.


    Honestly I just wanted them here as a buffer. It was true that on the very small chance I was wrong I would need to focus on healing the more serious injuries the younger teen obviously had, especially considering how slow my usual method was.


    I really didn''t want an upset superpowered family member jumping in my face if¡­


    ¡­Ah.


    I sighed and pulled my hands away. Too late huh?


    "...Rias?"


    I looked at Crystal and shook my head. There were a lot of curses and gasps from the people around us but to my shock it was Brandish that actually shoved Gloria out of the way to get into my face.


    "What are you doing!? You barely even tried!"


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    Despite the angry woman in my face I stayed calm. "I''m sorry. But there''s not much I can do for the dead."


    "...dead?" Brandish whispered and then flinched like she had been slapped. My guess was that Amy had been at least a bit conscious when they found her initially. That she had quietly died before anyone could even try to help must have been a shock.


    "But you can still help her right?" I closed my eyes and sighed again as Paladin inserted himself into the conversation again. I couldn''t be too mad at him though, not when I was about to bring it up myself.


    "I could. I could make her join my peerage, but most people here know the consequences of that."


    "She becomes a devil and one of your Pawns." Glory Girl stated. "So what? At least she''ll be alive!"


    "And she''ll be MINE." I said seriously, pivoting from my normal stance of new peerage members being mostly free to continue on like before beyond just meeting up now and then to make sure they weren''t going to come apart at the metaphysical seams. The thing is though, in both cases where I couldn''t carefully coach the person about exactly what they were getting into, they still had people looking out for them specifically.


    Sam had a fairly healthy life beforehand and most of her friend group had joined my peerage anyway. I wasn''t too worried about her suddenly running off and going crazy. And while Carl''s life was much less happy or stable, I couldn''t see him abandoning his sister unless I did something specific to drive him away. And even then I gave it even odds he''d stay anyway to make sure Gloria was being taken care of if he couldn''t convince her to take off with him.


    I was much less sure about leaving Amy to her own devices because for the most part I was fairly certain she had no real support structure.


    I was trying to avoid falling into the trap of using my out of context knowledge of the girl to paint her as an unfortunate victim that only needed a hug because I had met the girl and she was a bitter sarcastic mess and didn''t seem inclined to change that. But she was also dealing with so much shit that when she was hunted down by a group of serial killers and lost control for one second that ended up driving her sister (and only real pillar of support) away, she decided that going into the worst prison on earth was the best solution even after she had saved the city from a mind destroying plague¡­and no one really tried to convince her otherwise.


    Hell, the only reason I was considering adding her in the first place beyond how useful healers were and the fact she was Crystal''s cousin, was the fact I''m not really sure she ever had the chance to be her own person. Between the overly controlling mother, mentally absent father, and a sister constantly hitting her with an emotion shifting aura, she''d be a mess even without the hour spent in hospitals dealing with everything that went on in there.


    If Amy joined my Peerage I would NOT allow others to keep breaking her down for their own benefit. And I made sure everyone here knew both that and my reasons for it ¨C minus the possible future events because of the geas.


    To say that went over well would be¡­


    "I WILL NOT TRADE MY DAUGHTER AS A TOOL FOR SOME VILLIAN! I''D RATHER HER STAY DEAD THAN BE SOME PAWN OF YOURS!"


    "Carol, you can''t mean that¨C"


    "SHUT UP NEIL! DON''T THINK SHE''S ONLY AFTER AMY, I''VE SEEN HER LOOKING AT CRYSTAL TOO! SHE EVEN ADMITTED IT!"


    "Mom!"


    "Aunt Carol ¨C you can''t mean¡­"


    ¡­a total fucking lie.


    So while I ignored New Wave publicly imploding, I turned to deal with the other interested party. My Peerage.


    "So what do you think?" I asked heavily.


    "About what? Raising the dead? Since when is that something you can do." Clover asked bluntly.


    "It''s technically what I did with Sam. She was going to die otherwise." I replied, making sure no one was close enough to hear us talking. Don''t know if it was really needed¡­New Wave was being really loud. "But no. It''s more about if I should do this." I held up a hand to stop my first three Pawns from talking. "And before you say it, I know this is Crystal''s cousin we''re talking about. But this will get a lot of attention on us. We''re not talking about small time gangs. If it gets out we can bring people back from the dead, a lot of powerful people are going to throw their weight around. Make demands even if we can''t actually do what they want."


    "You only have so many pieces left." Sam realized.


    I nodded. "That''s part of it. But not all, people are going to think they have the right to who I bring back. And even if I felt like it that doesn''t mean I can."


    "I''m guessing you at least need a body." Gloria said.


    "Yeah, but the soul is the more important thing. I can''t bring someone back if there is nothing to bring back, you know?"


    "You already pissed off the Empire just to get me and Gloria, why make a big deal about this?" Carl asked surprisingly reasonably considering our last conversation.


    "No offence, but pissing off a gang by poaching a random Tinker that hasn''t really done anything and his sister joining up doesn''t really compare to bringing back someone from the dead. And that''s if they ever figure out you were the Tinker and not Gloria." I raised an eyebrow at him. "Besides I thought you weren''t my biggest fan?"


    He shrugged. "I''m not. But I had some time to talk to the others between running around and watching you get in a fist fight with something the size of an Endbringer." He took a deep breath. "And I owe you an apology. I thought you just wanted disposable minions to do whatever you wanted or useful tools like the Empire. But if you did you would have forced us to fight with you instead of having us hang back. And you definitely wouldn''t be asking us if we should bring back Panacea because it''s dangerous. You''d just do it."


    "So yeah, I still don''t trust you. But you''re not as bad as I thought. I''ll give you a chance to fuck up before I grab Gloria and head for the hills."


    "Gee, thanks. The faith is overwhelming." I deadpanned. I shook my head again and looked around. "But seriously, Countries are going to come calling once this gets out."


    "They''re going to do that anyway. You fought off a Kaiju basically by yourself and like three or four other people. Might as well have some of them back off because they don''t want to get on the bad side of the most famous healer in the world." he pointed out.


    "Besides, who cares about countries? If they try pushing us around we''ll just kick them to the curb!" Alex declared, trying to inject a little positivity into the situation.


    I made eye-contact with everyone. "Okay then, no objections? Cause from the sound of it if I do this, we''re making an enemy out of New Wave. Possibly the PRT when they demand something and I tell them no."


    "I say go for it."


    "Same here."


    "No issues from me."


    "You gave me a chance, why not Panacea?"


    "Just get on with it."


    No one disagreed. Okay, that was good. Now to figure out what to do about the still arguing heroes. Especially now that they had broken out into three main groups. Brandish''s, who refused to even consider the possibility if it put Amy under my control. Lady Photon''s, who along with a few of the Protectorate and PRT were arguing that I should but I would need to submit myself to a bunch of regulations and testing ¨C basically being put under the government''s thumb in the process. And the one''s saying I should just revive Amy and let that be the end of it, pretty much made up by the younger members of New Wave and surprisingly Paladin.


    Although one person in particular was missing¡­


    A hand firmly wrapping around my forearm startled me out of my thoughts as an absolutely miserable looking Victoria Dallon pulled me around so I was partially hiding her from the others still arguing.


    "I heard what you guys said at the end. So you''ll do it? You''ll bring Amy back and make her one of your Pawns or whatever?"


    I was probably going to make Amy a Bishop. I hadn''t exactly had time to sit down with Carl and go over exactly what reincarnating as a Devil had done to his powers, but on the extremely unlikely chance he kept the connection to his Shard he would be relying on his own demonic power to do the weirder stuff for his abilities. Amy would be the same and could only benefit from the expanded pool of magic.


    But I doubt Vicky really cared about the specifics.


    "Yeah. Just trying to figure out how to do it without getting blasted or stabbed with a lightsaber in the process."


    "You can teleport home right? Can you take¨C" Vicky swallowed, "¨Ctake Amy''s body there and do it or does it have to be here?"


    "Yeah, but I don''t think your family is just going to let me¨C"


    "Fuck them." She interupted. "Ames is¨C she''s dead and there''s a way to bring her back but they want to argue about it. We''ll distract them, you get her home, and please ¨C please ¨C just bring her back." her voice cracked at the end and I sighed for what felt like the millionth time today.


    Seriously. Fuck today and the whore it rode in on. Fuck its horse too.


    Between adding two new members to my peerage ¨C now three ¨C fighting off Godzilla of all fucking things, and saving the city from becoming a flaming crater in the ground, I should have been riding high.


    Instead I was just tired.


    Vicky flew off to start the distraction by getting up in her mother''s face which triggered Crystal to do the same. At that point everyone else was too busy trying to keep a full on free-for-all fight breaking out to do more than occasionally glance at my group, even as we shifted closer until Amy''s body was in range of where I could include her in the teleportation circle.


    There were cries of surprise as the red ring burst into existence, but no one managed to stop me from finishing the spell and a heartbeat later we were all back in the main hall of my home.


    Then I removed one red Bishop piece from my storage space and pressed it to the body, watching as it was slowly absorbed.


    "Welcome to the group, Amelia Dallon." I muttered formally. "You''re one of us now. I hope your time here is better than how you joined."

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 29

    -Amelia Dallon(?) POV-


    Amy¡¯s eyes snapped open as the feeling of being crushed under a few tons of concrete intensified. Her heart raced as her hands flew down to her legs in a desperate and futile attempt to free herself, only to find she was only pinned by a single bare leg and a light sheet. And that her own legs were perfectly fine.


    What?


    Her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she saw she was in some kind of fancy bedroom, though the furniture looked pretty normal and a little out of place. Not her room or the hospital like she expected, so that meant this was probably a dream conjured up by her dying brain as she either bled out or was crushed to death.


    It was a little sad that her brain defaulted to ¡®fancy bedroom¡¯ but couldn¡¯t actually come up with decent looking furniture.


    Something shifted next to her and Amy saw that she was sharing a pretty large bed with two other people, with another two people sleeping nearby on a blowup mattress. And she recognised all four of them! They were Crystal¡¯s friends and the girl running around calling herself Satan.


    Kinda weird that her brain had these four here instead of her family or something. Also weird that they were all just sleeping. Amy thought if she was going to have one last hallucination before she died, she would have picked something more interesting than cuddling with a bunch of her cousin¡¯s friends¡­even if it did feel really warm and comfortable.


    She tried to get up when a soft but firm hand grabbed her shoulder and pushed her gently back down into the bed. Amy looked over to see Satan girl ¨C Rias, a less snarky part of her brain filled in ¨C looking at her through the darkness of the room. Her blue eyes actually looked like they were glowing.


    ¡°You woke up earlier than expected.¡± The curvy redhead whispered. ¡°Sorry, but everyone else is still wiped from today. Go back to sleep, we¡¯ll talk when you wake up again.¡±


    ¡°Wha¨C¡± Amy tried to reply, but despite the rush of adrenaline earlier she felt her eyes drooping and her heartbeat slowing down.


    ¡®What a boring last dream¡­¡¯ was the final thought through the healer¡¯s mind as her eyes closed. Presumably for the last time.


    -o-


    Amy had fully expected that to be when she died.


    So when she opened her eyes again, she was a bit surprised and her thoughts were a little messed up.


    On the one hand she wasn¡¯t dead. That was¡­nice? She wouldn¡¯t make Vicky and the rest of her family sad about her death. Strangely the thought of her sister didn¡¯t send her down the familiar spiral of desire/guilt/disgust/regret that it normally did when she focused on the one person in her life that seemed to actually care about her.


    Of course on the other hand she wasn¡¯t dead and from the look of it, the Protectorate had sprung for the help of at least a few other healers to get her patched up and fully healed. No sitting around waiting to heal like the others, no she needed to be healed right away so she could get back to doing her job¡­ healing everyone else.


    A soft tap on the door snapped her out of her thoughts and she was only a little surprised when Crystal walked in. Amy had seen her friends last night in the dream that wasn¡¯t a dream so it was kinda expected her cousin to be around. A part of her was still disappointed that it wasn¡¯t Vicky instead.


    That wasn¡¯t to say Amy and Crystal had a bad relationship. It was just¡­different. Distant.


    They had obviously grown up together and saw each other a lot - practically forced together at times because both families were open capes belonging to the same team - but that was kinda it.


    They would meet up, Amy would put up with Crystal¡¯s more extroverted nature thanks to how used she was to dealing with Vicky, and then they would update each other on what they were doing before splitting up and repeating the whole thing again next week.


    ¡°Hi Amy, how you feeling?¡± Her cousin asked, more quiet than normal but Amy just put that down to Crystal attempting better bedside manners than Amy normally used. She wouldn¡¯t know, she usually wasn¡¯t on this side of the bed.


    But now that she mentioned it, Amy realized something. ¡°Fine. Good even. Obviously whoever fixed me up did my legs, but they got a bunch of other things too. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve felt this good¡­¡± ¡®ever¡¯ she didn¡¯t finish. Was this how the people she healed felt? No wonder everyone whined for her to fix them every time they bumped their toe even when they really didn¡¯t need it. All the little aches and pains Amy usually had but ignored, poor posture sucked but she normally was too tired to care, was gone and she felt almost energized. ¡°I¡¯d almost say it was worth it, but getting my legs crushed hurt like a bitch. Felt like I was dying the whole time. And I¡¯m sure the PRT is going to want some favors for making sure I¡¯m not a cripple.¡±


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    Crystal flinched, practically confirming Amy¡¯s thoughts.


    ¡°Figures. Okay, hit me, what do they want? West coast healing tour? On-call stuff for more branches? Patching up a bunch of their agents?¡± She would do it, obviously. As much as she hated that she would have to give up more of her normal life to pay back the heroes for saving her, she hated that she was even considering not using her powers to help more people even more. It was <s>evil</s> <s>monstrous</s> wrong to do otherwise.


    ¡°None of that. The PRT didn¡¯t do anything so you don¡¯t owe them any. But a lot happened while you were out. Vicky wanted to be the one to tell you but she was up all night and finally crashed, so I volunteered instead.¡± Crystal said. ¡°Rias offered but¡­you¡¯ll have a lot to talk about with her later. You should hear about the family stuff from family.¡±


    ¡°Family stuff?¡± Amy¡¯s first thought was that someone died. That was usually the thing people wanted to keep inside the family, right? But Crystal didn¡¯t seem sad or teary, if anything she seemed annoyed.


    ¡°Yeah, New Wave is having a bit of a civil war right now.¡± Her cousin huffed, like that explained fucking anything!


    ¡°What?! Why?!¡±


    Crystal did a very bad job of not looking right at Amy.


    ¡°Me? What the hell did I do?¡± Did they learn something about her? Her thoughts about Vicky? Did Carol finally stop tolerating her presence?


    ¡°...you died.¡±


    Amy¡¯s growing panic stopped dead at Crystal¡¯s whisper. Died? What the hell was she talking about? Amy thought back to the fight against the giant monster. The building rumbling, the ceiling collapsing on top of her, Vicky holding her hand as she felt colder and colder¡­


    And then waking up next to the girl calling herself a Devil and who had saved one of Crystal¡¯s friends from a lethal injury.


    Amy wasn¡¯t stupid. The two were definitely connected.


    ¡°What?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, you died before we could get another healer to you.¡± Crystal continued. ¡°Rias was the closest we had and by the time she got to you¡­¡±


    That¡­didn¡¯t seem right. Amy narrowed her eyebrows as she thought. That creature was an A-Class emergency at least. The PRT should have been sending response teams by teleporter if not the Triumvirate. But they apparently didn¡¯t show.


    Crystal gave her a bit of a breakdown when she asked, since Amy was with the medical team she hadn¡¯t heard the news from Miss Militia about four other creatures attacking around the world. New York had been hit by some kind of giant gorilla that had climbed the Empire State building and backhanded Legend hard enough to knock him out of the city before the local Capes rallied and drove it off, where it somehow vanished. There was a lot of damage to certain buildings but the biggest news there was that the gorilla had killed the Butcher. No one was really sure how that was going to end up.


    San Francisco had been attacked by a flying, fire breathing turtle that had not only managed to knock out Alexandria, it had also managed to out-maneuver Eidolon for almost an hour before they were actually able to kill the thing. Thanks to the two members of the Triumvirate responding together and some new Capes popping up to help, they had managed to keep damage to the city down more than New York, but there had still been a lot of deaths and Eidolon had even lost an arm.


    Those two attacks had prevented the Protectorate from coming to Brockton Bay since two major cities under attack from Endbringer size monsters were much more crucial than a dying port town and international aid was frozen thanks to another two monsters attacking other continents.


    A three headed dragon had rampaged through Beijing, and unlike the other three it was not driven off. For some reason the CUI had been really slow to respond and the entire city had been burned to the ground and the dragon had vanished. And that was tame to what was happening in Africa as a giant moth with enough lasers to give Legend a run for his money along with a stupidly diverse set of other powers was flying around targeting warlords and their armies of mercenaries. It had apparently killed so many that the region was actually considerably more peaceful while the various fiefdoms tried to figure out who was actually in charge. Oh, and the giant fucking death moth had also vanished without a trace.


    ¡°Okay, but none of that explains New Wave. Or how I¡¯m suddenly not dead.¡± Amy was going to have to look up the details of everything Crystal skimmed over, because five more city destroying monsters showing up out of nowhere seemed really important even if two had been driven off and one was even killed.


    ¡°Right, yeah, sorry the past day and a half has just been¡­a lot.¡± Crystal apologized. ¡°Anyway, you remember the incident with Sam?¡± Amy obviously did. A powergranting object wasn¡¯t something you just forgot about, especially since all of New Wave had concerns about the not so subtle Master component to it.


    ¡°She used one of those things on me didn¡¯t she?¡± It was the only thing that made sense.


    Crystal nodded. ¡°Yeah, turns out they can bring back the dead in some situations.¡±


    Amy stared. ¡°Holy shit¡­that¡¯s¡­¡±


    ¡°Huge? Amazing? A total fracking game changer?¡± Crystal smiled bitterly. ¡°It would be if Rias had more than a handful of them. And she¡¯s not sharing.¡± Not that that would stop some people, Amy knew. If anything it would make them more aggressive in acquiring Rias¡¯s ability for themselves before all the chances were used up. ¡°It¡¯s what caused the whole mess outside. Rias offered to bring you back but the adults wanted promises and testing she wasn¡¯t going to agree to, so did the PRT. Didn¡¯t matter that you would be alive again, they needed more on top of that. Especially after Rias made a pretty big claim on you.


    ¡°So yeah, me, Eric, and Vicky flipped them off while Rias teleported you back here and brought you back. They¡¯ve been trying to break down the door ever since, but Rias put up some kind of defenses somehow so they can¡¯t get in. Doesn¡¯t stop them from blowing up my phone with demands anyway.¡± She ended, making a face at the thought.


    Amy was more concerned about something else though.


    ¡°Made a claim on me?¡± She practically shrieked. ¡°So what, am I just supposed to be her personal healer slave from now on? And you¡¯re okay with that?!¡±


    ¡°Okay, that¡¯s my bad. Let me explain!¡± Crystal rushed out. ¡°Rias explained when we got back to the house, she takes her Peerage really seriously. It hasn¡¯t come up much because most of them are fine overall but she isn¡¯t going to let them be abused by anyone. And she gave me some numbers on what you were doing in the Hospitals, Amy you were doing sixty hours a week! For nothing! If anything Rias is going to make you heal less just to make sure you do something else with your life.¡±


    What! She couldn¡¯t do that! Amy needed to use her powers to be a hero or ¨C wait a second. Those chess things supposedly turned people into Devils¡­ Amy was a Devil now¡­ it didn¡¯t matter how many people she healed, she was still going to hell.


    She needed to not think about that right now. ¡°Okay, so our parents and the PRT didn¡¯t want me being alive without some kind of control over the literal Devil. You, your friends, Eric, and Vicky stole my corpse and then condemned me to eternal damnation for a shot at not being dead again. Sound about right?¡±


    Crystal hesitated, and Amy was just about done with today and she had only just woken up.


    ¡°Just tell me.¡±


    ¡°...not all of it was because the adults wanted promises from Rias. Mom and Dad were on the fence but Aunt Carol¡­didn¡¯t want you brought back at all¡­¡±


    ¡°Oh¡­¡± Ironically Amy felt lighter at that statement. She had spent so long trying to live up to her adoptive mother¡¯s expectations so she would finally accept her that hearing Carol would rather Amy was dead was¡­freeing. ¡°...right, you said Rias needs to talk to me about a lot of stuff? We should go do that now.¡± She really wanted a distraction right now.


    ¡°...yeah, okay.¡± Crystal said and gave Amy a quick hug before walking out the door.


    Amy followed after, trying to keep the fact she just had a mini heart attack off her face.


    For as long as she had her power, any time Amy had touched someone she had gotten a full scan of their biology. But when she had touched Crystal¡­nothing. For years Amy had struggled with the knowledge that the full extent of her powers would end the world. That when she finally snapped and became the villain Carol always suspected she could be no one would be able to stop her.


    And now it seemed to be gone, and she had only had to die for it to happen.

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 30

    -Amelia Dallon(?) POV-


    As Amy followed behind her cousin, she did her best to ignore the possible repercussions of her power being different. Why not? She¡¯d been ignoring her problems for years and it seemed like they mostly resolved themselves on their own anyway.


    Perfectionist mother who never seemed satisfied with Amy¡¯s best efforts of being a hero?


    Well the woman preferred Amy to be dead so earning her affection seemed like a lost cause.


    Secret forbidden feelings about her sister, her being adopted into the family or not?


    Maybe it was because she was now damned to Hell or something else, but Amy didn¡¯t feel the same feelings of attraction followed by guilt and disgust at the thought of Vicky anymore.


    Spend every second of every day trying to control and downplay her real powers because if anyone actually knew what they were, Amy would be lynched in the streets?


    Apparently not a problem anymore because Amy couldn¡¯t feel her old powers at all.


    And she had tried. Just to make sure it hadn¡¯t been wishful thinking on her end she had brushed up against Crystal a few times and tried to read her.


    ¡­but there was nothing. No burst of information telling her every detail of her cousin¡¯s body down to her DNA. No rush of intrusive thoughts about how various organs could be optimized or reconstructed. No ability to just reshape flesh and bone with barely a thought.


    Ever since she Triggered Amy had been ordered by Carol to keep her powers under control and secret from anyone that wasn¡¯t family. For good reason too.


    Nilbog, a cape that could warp biomass into twisted minions under his command, had taken over and consumed the entire town of Ellisburg. The monster had killed every person there and was strong enough that the only way to deal with him was to lock him and his new fiefdom behind some heavily fortified walls.


    And Amy¡¯s power had made him look like an amateur.


    Self replicating monsters, plagues that mutated as they spread, melting biomass into a primordial ooze at a touch, rewriting someone¡¯s brain, resculpting bodies like clay¡­Amy would have been able to do that whenever she wanted. And if she ever went over the edge and turned villain she could have killed the world before anyone could stop her.


    That was gone now though, for the low, low price of damning her soul and potentially being Mastered by the literal devil.


    Speaking of¡­Amy wasn¡¯t going to be able to put off that meeting anymore. They were already there. Though apparently the others were busy talking rather than waiting for Amy and Crystal to get there.


    ¡°...¡¯re sure they changed? I¡¯m not doubting you but I¡¯ve never dealt with something like this before.¡± Amy recognized Crystal¡¯s friend Rias almost immediately after walking through the door.


    It was hard not to between the girl¡¯s looks, her powers - currently being shown off as a giant holographic circle with a bunch of symbols in it she was currently sitting in the middle of - and the fact that other than New Wave, she had possibly the worst kept civilian identity in the city.


    Even Amy, who only surfed PHO occasionally because her sister insisted, had seen dozens of posts linking Lucifer with Rias Gremory despite the mods¡¯ best efforts to take them down.


    She didn¡¯t recognise the man she was talking with though. Probably another devil, given the wings.


    ¡°I¡¯m sure. I can still design and make tinkertech, but it takes longer, I have to do more steps or use magic to get things how I want them, and I don¡¯t have the same bursts of inspiration anymore. I used to picture a finished gadget and work towards that specifically but now I need to focus on each component. Does make swapping parts around much easier though¡­¡±


    ¡°So you¡¯re slower but you understand your tech better?¡±


    ¡°Sounds about right. That does mean you aren¡¯t getting a ton of stuff any time soon. I need to build up a stock of base components and tools before I can make anything else.¡±


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    Rias waved him off. ¡°That¡¯s fine. But if you¡¯re willing to work with us now the girls put together a list of things they want at some point. Your sister got them really excited.¡±


    The man sighed and his shoulders dropped. ¡°Of course she did. Should have expected she¡¯d be an even bigger pest now that she¡¯s a devil.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s just her way of showing she cares.¡± Rias said with a small smile.


    ¡°Oh I know, I just wish she¡¯d ask first. Anyway, I¡¯ve got stuff to build and you¡¯ve got someone else to talk to.¡± the man said as he spotted Amy and Crystal walking in. He turned to leave but as he passed Amy he reached out and patted her on the shoulder. ¡°Just wanted to say thanks for fixing me up, by the way. You do good work.¡±


    Amy was put in the awkward spot of realizing she had no idea who this man was even though she had apparently healed him at some point. Rather than admit that she just fell back on her normal mumble of ¡®You¡¯re welcome¡¯ and hoped he¡¯d move on, which thankfully he did.


    Unfortunately, someone else did notice her discomfort.


    ¡°You have no idea who he is, do you?¡± The redhead who brought Amy back from the dead smirked.


    No, no she did not. But if Rias thought just because she was powerful, rich, and drop-dead gorgeous Amy was going to admit that, she was flat out wrong.


    Vicky was those things and Amy refused to admit anything to her either.


    ¡°Wait, Amy knows Carl?¡± Crystal asked, giving Amy an excuse to not say anything. See? Avoiding her problems continued to pay off.


    ¡°Kinda, she healed him up after I rescued him from the Empire. She¡¯s already met Gloria too. She was with me at the hospital.¡±


    ¡°Oh.¡± Amy kind of remembered that.


    ¡°Anyway, I wanted to catch you up on what happened yesterday and the consequences we¡¯re going to be dealing with. But before I get started is there anything you wanted to ask?¡±


    Well there were a few things.


    ¡°So did you really bring me back from the dead? Does that mean I¡¯m going to hell now? And what are you planning to do with me?¡± Those were the more but those were the important ones.


    ¡°No, not right now, and not much besides getting you adjusted to being a devil.¡± Rias responded easily before reaching into a pocket and pulling something out. ¡°Since I knew I¡¯d need to do this for every new peerage member, I made a booklet! Give it a read and let me know if I need to clarify anything.¡±


    Amy took the booklet and read the cover.


    ¡°¡®A Dummy¡¯s Guide to Devildom¡¯? Was that really the best you could come up with?¡±


    ¡°Nope, but I used the cool names on the intro stuff, I''d have to think harder about what to name the more advanced things. And wasting titles like Detailed Diatribes for Developing Descent Devils on what is essentially a FAQ book would be a tragedy. ¡±


    Crystal sighed and facepalmed. ¡°Your naming sense is the real tragedy. Why are you like this?!¡±


    ¡°Cause it¡¯s fun?¡±


    Amy pointedly ignored the byplay and started reading through the booklet. If Rias was anything like Vicky, she only fed on any attention given to her. And as the internet always told her, don¡¯t feed the trolls.


    -o-


    -Rias POV-


    As much as I tried to hide it behind a mask of cheer and humor, I was fucking exhausted.


    I really hadn¡¯t slept well the night before despite being tired from the fight against a Kaiju. Too jumpy waiting for someone to decide to drop by unannounced for one thing or another.


    It was still too early for most people to hear about the bringing people back from the dead thing but there were plenty of groups that could have heard about it anyway. The government, the PRT, the local gangs and heroes to name a few¡­and yes I was considering the government, the PRT, and the heroes as separate entities at the moment.


    But even though no strike force hit in the middle of the night I was still too wired to actually sleep. So I ended up buffing up my house¡¯s defenses instead, which was pretty easy since I was just upscaling some things I already knew how to do.


    The first line of defense - and probably the reason we didn¡¯t have people beating down the door now that everyone had time to regroup after the latest crisis - was a SEP field over the property that did its best to keep people moving around the edges. It wasn¡¯t perfect and someone focused or maybe resistant enough could ignore it for a time, but that was what the second defense was for. A giant forcefield based off of what I had seen Shielder and Laserdream do.


    The only downside was that both needed to be actively powered by either myself or the majority of my peerage and an actual dedicated attack would probably get through. But for now it was giving us the illusion of safety. Something I appreciated because it gave me some of the time I needed to get the newest members of my peerage up to speed on their new existence. Nowhere near enough to walk them through everything, but enough to hit the highlights and reveal a couple issues I¡¯d need to investigate eventually.


    Carl and Amy¡¯s powers behaving differently was definitely high on that list.


    Both former parahumans seemed to have lost most of the more passive or automatic aspects of their powers but retained others.


    Amy in particular had lost almost all the unconscious power expressions she was used to but a brief experiment revealed she was able to replicate at least of her old powers through spells after some difficulty. So far she was unable to use them to heal or change anything but was able to replicate the same scanning function she used to have any time she touched someone.


    Of course as a completely new devil, she wasn¡¯t able to keep it going very long and had to turn it off after a few seconds, something she actually seemed happy with.


    I guess finally having an ¡®off button¡¯ for her powers was something she appreciated.


    But as much as I wished otherwise, I couldn¡¯t just spend the day with my new members. The rest of the world was going to come knocking eventually and half my Peerage had no idea how to use most of their powers now. I needed time, time I wasn¡¯t going to get with every interested party knocking on my front door.


    ¡®So just leave then.¡¯


    ¡®Huh?¡¯


    ¡®If we¡¯re just going to be swarmed by pests constantly, just leave.¡¯ Ddraig repeated. ¡®Take your little group, train them up, and come back when you don¡¯t need to babysit them all the time.¡¯


    ¡®I can¡¯t do that!¡¯ I instinctively protested, before I really thought about it. ¡®...can I?¡¯


    ¡®Don¡¯t see why not. You can teleport and as far as we know they have no way of stopping you.¡¯


    That was true¡­


    The only real issue was leaving the house empty for who-knows-how-long and letting someone break in while we were gone. But I had that half solved with the current defensive wards I was powering. If Carl could come up with some sort of magic battery, even if I needed to teleport back myself every day to keep it topped off¡­that could work.


    ¡®That¡¯s a great idea, Ddraig. Thanks. I got too hung up on the idea of dealing with everything on someone else¡¯s schedule. I¡¯ll still probably get dragged into a meeting somewhere but that¡¯s fine if it¡¯s on my say so.¡¯


    ¡®That¡¯s what I¡¯m here for, partner.¡¯ My dragon chortled. ¡®I bring the power and good ideas, you bring¡­something important I¡¯m sure.¡¯


    ¡®Legs, for one, you glorified paperweight.¡¯ I sniped back, already feeling better about things.


    A quick training trip to get Carl, Gloria, and Amy up to speed with the added benefit of giving me time to deal with Amy¡¯s reincarnation. Potentially giving the New Wave kids space to deal with their parents¡­yeah, I was sure I could convince everyone a trip was necessary. There was just one question remaining as I moved to gather up everyone.


    Where did we want to go?

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 31

    I sighed in contentment as I sank into the frankly massive hot tub which was basically the size of a small pool. Yeah, getting out of Brockton for a few days was definitely the right move.


    I got several days to teach Carl, Gloria, and Amy the basics of their powers without interruption. Sam, Alex, and Clover got to bully the new members with the same flight lessons they went through. And the New Wave kids got some time away from the disaster that was their current family situation. All while enjoying the sights and amenities you would expect to find in some millionaire''s mountain vacation house. It was actually kind of crazy the kind of things people would put in places they didn''t live for eight months out of the year.


    The Elvis room was creepy as fuck though. I wasn''t going near that room without good reason.


    "This place is totally amazing. I''m shocked you don''t stay here more often, Rias." Clover said as she and the other girls sank into the water with me, sounds of contentment coming from all of them.


    ''You going to tell them that you don''t actually own this place?'' Ddraig asked in my mind and almost made me laugh out loud.


    ''And ruin the relaxing atmosphere with arguments about trespassing in the get-aways of the super rich? I don''t think so. I''ll deal with it if it comes up, but I''m just going to keep quiet unless I have to say something.'' Besides, I was pretty sure everyone except the Dallons and Pelhams knew I didn''t own this place. Carl definitely did because I asked him to help hack the utilities so no one would notice activity in the house until we left.


    ''Heh, bet that''s going to go over well when your hero friends finally put two and two together. Although considering how much they''ve got on their plate you might get away with it.''


    "I prefer living closer to people." I deflected truthfully and immediately changed the subject. "So we''ve only got a few more days before we should head back home. Anyone got something planned besides what we''ve been doing?"


    "We''re going to check out the town nearby." My original Pawn trio said. "The mountain house is sweet, but we want to pick up some souvenirs."


    "Oh, that sounds neat. Let me know if they have a good chocolate store when you''re there." Crystal perked up. "As for me, I''m gonna paint some of the scenery I saw out during flying practice. You don''t mind if I raid your art room, do you Rias?"


    "Oh, no, of course not." I laughed nervously and fought the urge to rub the back of my head. This place had an art room? "But you paint?"


    "She watches Bob Ross tutorials." Vicky snorted. "I think she''s used her own paints like twice."


    "Still counts!"


    "But, yeah. I was going to bring it up earlier but Eric and Carl are setting up a fishing trip and invited anyone who wants to come."


    "Oh, I haven''t gone fishing in a while!" Gloria added. "And if you''re going I''ll grab the volleyball net. We can find a field and play after we''re done fishing."


    "Sounds cool, I''m down for that."


    I smiled seeing everyone getting along. We really needed the time to destress. And it sounded like everyone had their own thing to keep them entertained.


    "I''m going to do nothing." Amy groaned and sank further into the water. "You are all slave drivers. I have super strength now and my body still feels like jelly thanks to what you had me doing."


    Well, as uncharitable as it was - Amy did have the furthest to come physically compared to the rest of us.


    It wasn''t a surprise she was still feeling it even if she was getting better. It had only been a few days.


    "What about you Rias? You can join us if you want." Sam invited me, but I had other ideas.


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    "Thanks, but I want to do a bit more spell practice while I''ve got the space to mess around without worrying about blowing up someone''s house. You go ahead without me." I replied.


    With plans made, we devolved into small talk and just took the opportunity to relax. Yes, we were all ignoring the issues waiting for us back in Brockton Bay. And it probably wasn''t the healthiest way to deal with everything, but I would take that over forcing a resolution with New Wave with emotions still running hot.


    And I''d definitely take throwing magic around over dealing with Amy''s mom!


    -o-


    [Sam POV]


    "Anyone notice the people in this town are kinda weird?" Alex asked out of nowhere as the trio left another shop.


    "Phew, glad it wasn''t just me. This whole place is just one big creepfest." Clover exclaimed as she slouched forward.


    "Guys, don''t insult people like that." Sam scolded, but yeah, something was off in this town.


    She knew the outsiders sometimes stuck out in small towns, especially close knit ones where everyone seemed to know one another, but there was being standoffish with strangers and then there was staring almost unblinkingly at the three of them the entire time they were in the store.


    Clover was right, it was super creepy. But Sam didn''t want things to escalate if someone overheard them and got offended.


    "It''s not an insult. A guy back there asked if I was ''a new member come to join the spectrum'' - whatever that means - and then got really weird when I didn''t know what he was talking about."


    "I got asked that too." Alex commented. "The lady said I''d be welcomed as an ''honored indigo''. You ever hear anything like that before?"


    Sam wasn''t hesitant to admit she had been briefly fascinated with cults and how they worked. She had read dozens of books and watched just as many documentaries about the subject from the more ''normal'' ones like Scientology and the Peoples Temple at Jonestown to the far more psychotic ones like the Manson Family or the Fallen.


    But she had never heard any of those use that term before. Though that wasn''t exactly a surprise considering most of the material she looked over was about the highlights of how each cult operated and didn''t always go into details about every aspect. And she didn''t exactly consider herself an expert on every cult in America.


    Still, the blatant hostility shown by the locals was weird. It didn''t make sense for them to be so eager to drive off tourists or visitors when most of the businesses the three girls saw as they wandered around seemed to cater to outsiders. Sam, at least, didn''t see the need for a small town looking to isolate themselves from people passing through to need three specialty chocolate stores and four soap stores. That seemed excessive.


    "No, I haven''t." She eventually replied. "But it''s also not a whole lot to go off of."


    "We should check it out." Clover decided immediately. "Make sure they aren''t sacrificing girls to the devil or something freaky like that."


    "We''re devils now." Sam pointed out.


    "Yeah, and I don''t want random people being sacrificed to me." She paused and looked thoughtful. "Though if Derek from the coffee shop wants to sacrifice himself, I won''t say no¡­"


    Sam rolled her eyes at the mention of Clover''s most recent crush of the month. "How would we even check them out? They aren''t exactly rolling out the red carpet for us here."


    "We could sneak into one of their secret meetings?"


    "Okay, again, not being super friendly with us. How would we know where and when the meeting was, if they have them to begin with?"


    "Maybe this flier they gave me has something?" Alex exclaimed and pulled out a piece of paper to Sam and Clover''s surprise.


    "Where did you get that?!"


    "Hm? Oh, the lady who called me an Indigo gave it to me. Said I should drop by if I was interested in realizing my potential. Or something like that."


    Sam took the paper and gave it a lookover, ignoring Clover who draped herself over her shoulder. The flier was pretty basic. Just an image and a small blurb about becoming more in tune with the world along with a handwritten note with the date, time, and some basic directions to a meeting place.


    She bit her thumbnail for a bit while before coming up with a decision.


    "Okay, let''s give Rias a call so she knows what''s up and check it out¡­"


    -o-


    "Who was that?" Gloria asked once I hung up the phone.


    "Sam, Clover, and Alex are apparently going to investigate a cult they found." I replied, a little shocked they found something like that but completely unsurprised they wanted to check it out. This was the group that ran towards a fight when they were normal humans that led to Sam joining as my first Pawn. I didn''t believe for a second turning into devils and getting superpowers would lead to them being less curious.


    Still, it was nice of them to keep me in the loop.


    "Um, isn''t this kinda a big deal?" Shield- Eric, I mentally corrected myself, asked while raising his hand. "If they really did find a cult in town shouldn''t we go help them or something? Call the FBI or PRT?"


    "It''s fine," I waved him down. "The girls are strong enough that they can deal with it or slip away long enough to call us for help. And most likely they''ll find out it''s just some weird group out in the mountains and there''s not much we can actually do. Unless they are actually doing something illegal all we''d end up doing is cutting our little mental health break short and getting the PRT called on our heads and letting your parents know exactly where you are." Eric''s scrunched up face let me know exactly how eager he was to deal with that right now. "So yeah, they''ll investigate, either get bored when it''s nothing big or find something we can leave to the cops later, and then we''ll head back to Brockton Bay. Not every cult is as obviously criminal as the Fallen."


    "What''s this about cults?" Vicky asked as she, her sister, and her cousin walked into the room carrying pizza boxes.


    I sighed and explained the situation for the second time, already getting a bad feeling when the blonde started looking really excited.


    "So can we-"


    "No, we cannot go help beat up a cult full of what I assume are normal people without cause." I interrupted the teen heroine and sighed again.


    I was supposed to be the battle maniac! Why was I being forced to be the voice of reason and team mom?


    Oh right, because I was the King and responsible for the wellbeing of my Peerage and didn''t have someone I could delegate to right now and the other half of our group was dealing with some severe parental issues.


    Note to self: find a SIC soon. Either that or beat up New Wave until they resemble functional adults instead of a humanoid bundle of issues.


    ''Good luck trying to find someone who wants to wrangle the herd of cats you''re gathering.''


    Ignoring Ddraig, I swiped a slice of pizza and wandered over to my chair.


    "If the girls find something, then yes, we can help out. But until then we''re just going to relax and not kick up any more trouble. Plenty of that waiting for us when we get back home after all."


    Besides, how much trouble could a small cult in the middle of nowhere really be?

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 32

    The next day I was getting a bad feeling. None of us had heard from Sam, Alex, or Clover all night and while I wasn¡¯t expecting them to keep me updated about what they were doing every second of every day¡­telling us they were investigating a cult and then not hearing anything was giving me horror movie vibes. But at the same time I didn¡¯t want to overreact and invade a small town with¡­I did some quick mental addition¡­seven capes if I brought everyone.


    Damn, that was more than most Protectorate teams.


    Oddly enough, reminding myself that I had enough firepower on hand to conquer a small town did a lot to calm me down and I was able to get through the morning without pacing in circles.


    That didn¡¯t mean that the rest of my group was as calm though.


    ¡°Still nothing from them?¡± I asked Crystal who was sitting in the corner, staring at her phone and nibbling on a thumbnail.


    ¡°No messages, and all their phones are turned off.¡± She replied. ¡°I don¡¯t like it.¡±


    I simply nodded. I didn¡¯t like it either.


    One or two of the girls I could maybe excuse as forgetfulness or bad luck. All three when they knew we would want to check up on them later? That meant something happened or they were in an area where they couldn¡¯t use their phones.


    ¡°I¡¯m going to give them till noon to check in. If we don¡¯t hear from them by then we can head into town and look around.¡±


    ¡°Why not now?¡±


    I started rubbing at my neck. ¡°I¡¯m trying to trust them and avoid being a micromanager. They¡¯re not helpless and I don¡¯t want them thinking I¡¯m never going to let them do their own thing without breathing down their necks.¡±


    Crystal nodded but still looked worried.


    ¡°And if we find out something did happen and we¡¯re too late?¡±


    Something dark burned in my chest but I did my best to not let it show.


    ¡°Then we deal with it the best we can. And depending on what happens, burn everything they own to the ground and salt the earth behind us.¡±


    -o-


    Needless to say, we didn¡¯t hear from the girls by noon.


    At this point all of us were at least slightly concerned, so we packed up the house and headed down into the town.


    It was a nice place. Lots of bright brick buildings with colorfully painted trim that reminded me of something out of a hallmark film, I wouldn¡¯t have guessed there was some kind of hidden cult if I hadn¡¯t been told about it. But what was worrying was that there were absolutely no other people on the streets despite the time and nice weather. Even if most people decided to stay in for some reason or another, there should have been at least a few that were getting something to eat or running to a store.


    ¡­or people that would be running those stores, but I glanced through the window to what looked like a deli and saw no one at the counter


    It was like we had walked into a ghost town.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like this¡­¡±


    I wasn¡¯t sure who whispered that, but I completely agreed with them.


    Without a single person besides our group on the streets, the town quickly went from hallmark to horror.


    And then a church bell went off in the distance which really didn¡¯t help.


    ¡°Anyone want to bet that¡¯s where everyone is?¡±


    I managed a chuckle at Gloria¡¯s comment. ¡°No, but we should definitely check it out.¡±


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    ¡°Uhm, is that going to be okay for you guys?¡± Vicky asked from behind us. ¡°Cause, you know, devils and churches don¡¯t really mix?¡±


    I paused and everyone looked at me. To be honest¡­I had no clue. On the one hand, I was clearly affected by something resembling the Heaven System because invoking Big G¡¯s name gave me migraines. But on the other hand, I doubted a normal church would have anything like that backing it up without someone with the ability to do so specifically putting protections down.


    ¡°...we should be fine.¡± I said eventually. ¡°And if we do run into issues we can just have Vicky knock down the doors and drag everyone out.¡±


    ¡°Hey!¡±


    I smiled at her protest and simply walked away. My small jab had done what I wanted and broke up the tension we were all feeling. I could hear some of the others chuckling at the Blonde¡¯s outburst and making some harmless jabs of their own.


    It was nice but unfortunately it didn¡¯t last once we got to the church.


    Unlike the rest of the town, the church was surprisingly dark. It didn¡¯t look neglected or anything like that, but the dark brown almost black wood looked weird against the bright brick surrounding it.


    The other weird thing was that the doors were standing wide open despite the fact there were still no people anywhere to be seen.


    ¡®What do you think? Trap?¡¯ Ddraig asked while we headed over.


    ¡®I don¡¯t think so.¡¯ I replied back, pleased that there was nothing stopping me from entering the building. I guess just ¡®being a church¡¯ wasn¡¯t enough to give it any powers over devils like me. ¡®If it was, they should have left someone outside just so we weren¡¯t as suspicious. Now we know something is wrong and everyone has their guard up.¡¯


    ¡®Double bluff? You know something is wrong so they are counting on nothing being wrong?¡¯


    ¡®That doesn¡¯t make any sense.¡¯


    Ddraig gave me the mental equivalent of a shrug. ¡®You would know better than I would. Most dragons aren¡¯t great at subtlety or complex plans.¡¯


    I didn¡¯t say anything to that. I had a feeling there had been plenty of dragons where Ddraig came from that were perfectly good at those things and he just never noticed because he was strong enough to bulldoze his way through nearly anything he wanted.


    No one said anything as we went deeper into the building. I looked into a couple side rooms on a hunch, but just like everywhere else there was no one there. That didn¡¯t matter much though, since we were soon right outside the main room. If there was anyone here¡­well, they would be in there.


    I took a deep breath and threw open the doors to reveal¡­


    ¡­nothing. No one was here either.


    Now what?


    ¡°Hey, look over there¡­¡± Gloria trailed off, seemingly deciding to check out whatever she noticed by herself with Vicky and Eric trailing after her to what looked like a storage cubby. Curious, I decided to follow after them.


    I didn¡¯t even get to look inside before Vicky turned around, shoved Eric out of the way, and called for her sister.


    Everyone else wisely got out of the way until the mousy brunette went by and immediately followed after to see what the alarm was about.


    Since I wasn¡¯t too far away I got a decent look at the three women that had been stuffed into the cubby before everyone started crowding around. All three were tied up and unconscious but looked otherwise fine, something Amy confirmed after taking some time to investigate the three.


    ¡°Well, I guess we know where Alex, Sam, and Clover went.¡± Crystal sighed.


    I looked at her. ¡°You think they knocked these three out, stole their cult outfits, and went to investigate by themselves?¡±


    ¡°I could see them doing it.¡±


    ¡°Well someone with magic knocked them out.¡± Amy cut in. ¡°All three of them have traces of it on them.¡±


    ¡°You can tell that?¡± Vicky asked my Bishop, making me a bit proud of her. She was picking up the basics pretty quickly. More importantly she was remembering to use them. I had expected to need to check myself because everyone was so new to the idea of having magic but Amy had beat me to it.


    Or maybe it was because she was so new to it that she remembered. Either way I was proud of her for remembering.


    ¡°Yeah, Rias taught us how to sense it. I can¡¯t tell what it¡¯s doing but these three have it on them¡­should I try removing it?¡±


    ¡°Leave it for now.¡± I ordered. ¡°If the girls did put a spell on them they are definitely part of the cult and we don¡¯t need them alerting the rest somehow. If someone else did, we don¡¯t know how their magic works and could end up hurting these three.¡±


    Amy shrugged. ¡°You¡¯re the expert. So now what?¡±


    I opened my mouth to respond, only to come up short.


    What did we do now? We ended up here because of the bell, but we still didn¡¯t know where to go. The only leads we still had were currently busy drooling on each other and we had literally just talked about how waking them up was dangerous.


    Would we have to just risk waking them up?


    ¡°Hey you guys done over there? I found something!¡±


    I was surprised by the call out. I hadn¡¯t even noticed Carl broke off from the group to explore the rest of the room while we all went to check out what Gloria found.


    But hey! Possibly a new lead on where everyone went!


    Our group wandered over to my Pawn to see¡­


    ¡°Okay, is it just me or is every door we¡¯ve come across been open for some reason?¡± Eric pointed out.


    ¡­a hidden door leading down to an underground passage.


    ¡°It¡¯s not just you.¡± Crystal agreed. ¡°Every door we¡¯ve seen so far has been open, even cabinets and closets. What do you think, parahuman power or magic?¡±


    I shrugged because honestly? It could have been either of them, both, or something completely different. I also didn¡¯t feel like guessing because we were more likely to guess wrong and I didn¡¯t want to make plans on assumption.


    ¡°Don¡¯t know, but I guess we''ll find out when we find everyone else.¡± I muttered and started down the stairs.


    -o-


    ¡°How the hell did someone build this without someone finding out?¡± I exclaimed several minutes later.


    We were still heading further down with no sign of anyone around. And considering I was sure we had walked for at least a couple miles already¡­this was either something someone had devoted years of effort into building, or they had one hell of a support power to dig for miles without anyone noticing.


    ¡°Anything in that book about someone with a tunneling power, Gloria?¡±


    ¡°Nothing yet, but I doubt it. I¡¯m almost finished and it looks like it¡¯s just the typical end of the world, the true believers will inherit the Earth type stuff.¡±


    Gloria had found a book made by the cult in the cubby and had been updating us whenever she found something interesting.


    The whole thing was a little goofy in my opinion. Another Christian offshoot where a person¡¯s importance in the galaxy was determined by the colors of the rainbow, with red being the lowest and violet as the highest. The most interesting thing to me was that the book had actually called out Adam and Eve as only being on the fifth level because of their supposedly blue eyes instead of the most important. They also considered black or tan skin to be the equivalent of indigo for some reason.


    Of course I didn¡¯t waste much brainpower trying to figure that one out because apparently violets were space aliens that were going to come and uplift humanity so whoever created the cult clearly wasn¡¯t working with a full deck of cards. It was interesting to see blonde hair, blue eyed caucasian wasn¡¯t the definition of perfection though. A little refreshing compared to the normal.


    The rest of the group was having fun trying to argue whether Eric dying his hair blue made him a blue or if that was cheating and if I was at the bottom of the ranking because of my hair or the top because of my eyes.


    It was harmless fun and a good distraction from the oppressive feeling of walking down a near featureless tunnel for so long but at the same time I really wanted to get to the end and find my three wayward pawns. Who knows what those three had gotten wrapped up in by now?

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 33

    ¡°Anyone else hear voices?¡±


    We had been walking so long that I had kinda zoned out. So it took me a second to parse what had been said and then even think about listening for myself.


    When I did, I realized they were right. I could hear someone shouting up ahead, but the words were being distorted as the sound bounced around the tunnel. That meant we were finally getting close to people and hopefully finding my three wayward Pawns. A quick look around confirmed that everyone else was now focused and ready for whatever we were about to walk into.


    So once that was done I rolled my shoulders and walked out into what turned out to be a massive auditorium of some sort.


    And it looked like we had finally found the missing townspeople - whether that was a good thing or not was still up in the air - sitting on stone bleachers, facing a massive podium where one man was giving a very impassioned speech to everyone there.


    ¡°...believe in me! Only through faith will you be rewarded, only through the Lord will you be given power, and only through me will that power be brought forth!¡± He made a grand sweeping gesture with his hands. ¡°Behold! See how the faith of our flock has grown our power!¡±


    Three glowing shapes appeared behind him and my heart nearly stopped when I saw the wings.


    How else was I supposed to react when someone summoned three angels all of the sudden?!


    But once the glowing died down and I got a good look at the summons I saw that besides the white wings¡­there wasn¡¯t much angelic about them. Each figure looked like a vaguely humanoid fusion of rock and metal with two big white feathered wings sticking out the back. They also remained completely still, almost like they were robots.


    Actually I couldn¡¯t say that.


    The Dr. Wily lookalike¡¯s Robot Masters were pretty lifelike. Hell, even the little grunt bots shuffled and moved around. Whatever these things were were more like statues than anything else.


    I also didn¡¯t feel anything especially ¡®holy¡¯ about them and while that wasn¡¯t proof that the summons weren¡¯t angels of some sort, I mentally marked them down as some sort of projection ability instead of a summon. Probably powered by the cult¡¯s belief in their leader somehow considering his earlier speech.


    Or he could just be narcissistic.


    Cult leaders did have a habit of making themselves out to be crucial holy figures after all.


    And speaking of cult leaders, he was still talking.


    ¡°...time to grow our flock.


    This town has nurtured us greatly, but now we need to look further afield if we are going to continue to grow and gain strength. To enlighten others in the light of our Lord that all of you enjoy today. I am happy to announce that later today I will be making my first televised sermon to the country. To begin sharing our gifts with the rest of this nation.


    But you will still have a role to play in making our faith known to all.


    To do this we need to spread our roots. Invite friends and family to our town so they can be illuminated, call on strangers to visit and see the light, and encourage the new members of our flock to bring new members themselves, but most importantly - you must continue to believe. Believe in our mission. Believe in me and our power. And believe that I will deliver all of you to the Kingdom to Come.¡±


    ¡°Oh, so it¡¯s a brainwashing cult.¡±


    ¡°Who dares!?¡±


    I blinked, surprised he had heard me.


    Either the acoustics here were fantastic, or there was some sort of power shenanigans going on. Maybe both.


    ¡°Who was it, you ungrateful heathens?! Answer me! Or I¡¯ll just send you all back for more conditioning!¡±


    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    Well then, the image of a charismatic cult leader sure fell apart quickly, I thought as I took a step further.


    ¡°Hi there!¡± I shouted as irreverently as I could. ¡°We came looking for three friends of ours that came by the other day. You wouldn¡¯t happen to know where they are, would you?¡±


    ¡°How did you get down here?¡± The cult leader demanded instead.


    I sighed even as the auditorium broke out into a low buzz of whispers. Critical thinking didn¡¯t seem to be this one¡¯s strong suit.


    ¡°You left behind a ghost town with every door wide open, a church bell that rang despite that, and a secret tunnel that wasn¡¯t too hard to find because - oh right, all the doors were left wide open.¡±


    Oh, he didn¡¯t like that at all.


    The cult leader went completely red in the face before throwing a few glances at the crowd and holding himself back from whatever he was about to start shouting.


    Interesting. I guess whatever brainwashing he used on everyone here wasn¡¯t complete control.


    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter.¡± He said instead as several more ¡®angels¡¯ appeared behind him. ¡°You will be illuminated just like everyone here. Then you can join your friends that way.¡±


    Well, I tried asking nicely.


    I raised a hand and prepared to blast the leader with a bolt of lightning, only for Crystal to push my hand down and step in front of me.


    ¡°Hn?¡± I made an inquisitive noise. Because there was no real good reason for her to stop me.


    ¡°Let New Wave handle the Master.¡± Crystal said lowly. ¡°You focus on finding the girls and either getting the civilians out or breaking his control.¡±


    ¡°We could just blast him. Quick and easy win.¡± I countered but she shook her head.


    ¡°Mom drilled us on situations like this. We don¡¯t know if taking out the Master will release his victims or cause them to defend him. Until we figure out which it is, we need to stall. And our powers are better at that than yours.¡±


    I disagreed but we didn¡¯t exactly have a whole lot of time to argue with the fake angel things getting closer. ¡°Fine, you handle those things, we¡¯ll search for the girls and keep the others safe. Everyone hear that? And this whole place is now considered enemy territory. Pawns feel free to Promote if you think you need it.¡±


    I got a few muttered acknowledgements and then our group splintered as Laserdream, Shielder, and Glory Girl went to fight the projections and the cult leader while Carl, Gloria, and Amy split up to look for my three missing Pawns in the crowd or the surroundings.


    As for me, I hung back a bit and did my best to watch over both groups for any surprises.


    Unless the cult leader had other powers, someone had dug that tunnel and built this room, and presumably someone else was responsible for brainwashing the townspeople. Two more potential enemies that weren¡¯t conveniently sitting out in the open for us.


    So I was watching out for them, even as I watched Laserdream and her family exchange laser beams above the crowd. Because of course the fake angel things could use lasers. They seemed pretty unconcerned about hitting the cult members below too, which forced Shielder and Laserdream to focus their shields on protecting them instead of using them for their own defenses. Thankfully Glory Girl was doing a good job of getting in close and breaking the projections from above, even if they were quickly replaced by the cult leader.


    I was getting really tempted to ignore Crystal and try to take him out. How long did she want to stall for?


    But she was the one that had more experience so I was going to trust her.


    At least until something forced my hand. Then I was going to blast the cult leader into next week.


    As the fight went on though, I was increasingly tempted to attack him anyway. Because while the New Wave kids were doing a good job of trying to keep the bystanders out of the fight, the cult leader didn¡¯t seem as worried.


    Several times he even aimed close to his own followers in an attempt to bait one of them into taking the hit instead or breaking off their own attack to throw up a shield instead. Not that they were the only ones shielding the crowd.


    Amy had put a lot of effort into learning shield spells after her brush with death. And now she was doing her best to cover for any spots her family members missed to make it easier on them.


    I was also helping out as much as I could, still mostly focused on keeping an eye out for when the cult leader''s powered friends would pop up, but I could still throw a decently sized shield over the area for now.


    And I didn¡¯t have to wait long.


    After Glory Girl nearly knocked the cult leader off his pedestal, forcing him to use one of his summons to catch himself and as an improvised flight pack. Then he started flying away!


    The others were more focused on the man himself so I didn¡¯t blame them for not noticing. But since this would be the perfect time for a sneak attack from someone else I had been watching the surroundings. So I saw the precise moment a perfectly square chunk of the ceiling suddenly decided to separate from the rest of the stone and fell directly on top of Glory Girl.


    I managed to call out so the blonde wasn¡¯t taken by surprise, but as strong as she was¡­she couldn¡¯t hold a multi-ton cube of rock above the now panicking cult members by herself. Laserdream, Shielder, and Amy quickly moved to support her with their own shields.


    I was about to join them when laserdream waved me off.


    ¡°Go after the Leader!¡± She shouted. ¡°We can handle this, but we can¡¯t let him get away!¡±


    ¡°You sure?¡±


    ¡°Yes, get going!¡±


    I wasted a few seconds checking they would be okay, but while the rock was slowly pressing the four of them down - it was a slow controlled descent. They could easily move anyone before they got trapped underneath. So I followed her advice, spread my wings, and took off after the Cult Leader before he could get away.


    -o-


    Crystal threw one last nervous glance at the hole Rias disappeared through before dragging her attention back to supporting Vicky and making sure the stone block didn¡¯t tip over unexpectedly.


    She couldn¡¯t help but be worried about sending her redheaded friend after an unknown Master but the PRT based training her parents had put her through had been very clear to not let them out of your sight if they didn¡¯t have control over humans.


    They couldn¡¯t be sure the Cult Leader didn¡¯t have something like that, but he at least hadn¡¯t shown it so far and letting him slip away after he had already taken over a small town once was a bad idea.


    She would just have to trust Rias could handle him.


    ¡°Okay, your boss ran away already, so why don¡¯t you come out now!¡± She called over the sound of the few panicking cult members that hadn¡¯t cleared out yet.


    The sound of slow clapping echoed out from the tunnel behind the podium the Cult Leader had been speaking at. A single man walked out wearing some sort of black robe thing Crystal recognized as vaguely chinese with yellow trim along the edges and surrounding the green circle with a square hole he had on his chest.


    ¡°Impressive.¡± He called back, walking forward a bit and folding his hands behind his back. ¡°How did you guess I was here? I thought that you would have assumed Sanctus was the one behind the escape route.¡±


    ¡°Oh please, that guy was too busy panicking about getting knocked off his perch.¡± Amy of all people snorted - apparently getting turned into a devil made her snarkier side come out in public now too. ¡°He wasn¡¯t in a position to control anything.¡±


    ¡°Hmm, I guess that¡¯s fair. You¡¯re sharp. That¡¯s good, we¡¯ll need some smart minions now that we¡¯re expanding again.¡±


    ¡°Like hell we¡¯ll join you, creep!¡± Vicky shouted. ¡°Better yet, give up now before we break your legs and drag you to the PRT!¡±


    The man sighed. ¡°So quick to violence. This is what makes you parahumans so frustrating to deal with. But fine, I can¡­educate you on following orders after defeating you.¡±


    He pulled his arms up to his hips and stomped heavily on the ground, and all the rock around him rippled and surged forward¡­

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 34

    I had to admit, if the Cult Leader wasn¡¯t literally just flying back towards the town I probably would have lost him at some point. Hell, all it would have taken for him to completely slip away was to dip into the forest below, change direction a few times, and I would have no idea where to find him.


    Maybe it was a limitation of his powers?


    So far I hadn¡¯t seen him move in anything other than a straight line. So maybe the reason he hadn¡¯t tried to ditch me was because he literally couldn¡¯t.


    Or it could be because he felt he could deal with me one on one or had something planned back in town.


    In the end it didn¡¯t really matter. No matter what his plan was, mine was going to be to beat him up, force him to release the brainwashed townspeople, then go find the girls.


    And considering just the New Wave kids were able to send him running without going all out because of his hostages¡­well, I didn¡¯t expect this to take long.


    ¡®You just jinxed us.¡¯ Ddraig grumbled, but I just rolled my eyes at the grumpy dragon.


    ¡®It¡¯s one man that summons fake angel things.¡¯ I thought back. ¡®Even if he can make stronger ones than what we saw earlier I should still be able to deal with him just fine.¡¯


    ¡®Okay, but that means I get the next dinner pick when I say I told you so.¡¯


    I didn¡¯t argue and focused on making sure the Cult Leader didn¡¯t pull out some last minute trick. I was confident, not stupid after all. But even as I slowly caught up to him, he did nothing but fly in a straight line over the trees. It didn¡¯t look like he was preparing anything and nothing was summoned as far as I could tell.


    So unless he was doing something I simply couldn¡¯t see or sense from this far away, I was going to catch up to him right after he reached the town and hopefully before he vanished into the buildings.


    I¡¯d just have to roll with it if he was.


    The Cult Leader didn¡¯t change anything up even as he reached the edges of the town. And by this point I was certain there was a reason he was only going in a straight line without trying to summon more of his minions.


    So I was on the lookout for anything when I landed a little further back in from him where he was¡­talking to a camera?


    Why was a camera setup here, presumably broadcasting, and why did the Leader think getting in front of it was more important than either facing me or hiding?


    Deciding I could just ask later I raised a hand and shot off a lightning bolt at his back, only for his angel minion to dive in front of it as a sacrificial shield. The Cult Leader glanced back at me for a second but almost immediately turned back to the camera.


    What was he doing?


    I mentally shrugged and raised my hand again. If he wanted to ignore me when I was about to blast him unconscious, then it was no skin off my nose.


    Another glowing red spell circle formed and shot out a bolt of lightning that hit the Cult Leader in the middle of the back and did¡­nothing. He didn¡¯t even stumble as the magical electricity crackled over his form.


    ¡­what?


    I blasted him again with similar results.


    Okay if lightning wasn¡¯t working, how about a Dragon Shot?


    The blast of green energy was massively scaled back to avoid killing the man if he was simply immune to the last attack that destroyed his minion or something like that. But, no, he just turned around and blocked the attack with a hand. Even if I didn¡¯t put too much effort behind that attack he shouldn¡¯t have been able to just dismiss it like that.


    ¡°Alright, you did something.¡± I called out, because I needed a second to figure out what made him suddenly stick around and fight when he ran from Crystal and her family just a few minutes ago. ¡°Care to share?¡±


    To my surprise the Cult Leader actually replied. Pretty cordially too. Which was weird because it was a big change from the religious/enraged ranting from earlier.


    ¡°Not at all, demon. I simply asked the audience to believe in me so the forces of justice could overcome evil. The belief the children across the country have in me will make it so.¡±


    I paused.


    Belief.


    The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    He¡¯d been spouting off about that back in the tunnels too. At first I had thought it was just how he spoke, but the word choice was too deliberate even though the tone was completely flipped.


    ¡°So your powers work off belief then? And you just convinced a bunch of kids to back you up.¡± Probably by hijacking a kid¡¯s network show. Kids wouldn''t exactly know to not do something that simple if they thought it was part of a show.


    ¡°I suppose I was less subtle than I normally like to be, but your group made me greatly accelerate my plans.¡± He scowled a little. ¡°This was supposed to be a long term masterstroke, not a rushed job like this. I¡¯m going to make sure you and all your little friends pay for that later. Months of planning¡­ruined.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d say sorry but we both know I wouldn¡¯t mean it.¡± I retorted. ¡°So, shall we get started?¡±


    ¡°Be my guest.¡±


    If energy attacks weren¡¯t working¡­let¡¯s see how he dealt with a fist to the jaw.


    -o-


    There were times when Emily Piggot felt the world was conspiring against her specifically just to make her job as difficult as possible.


    Her perpetually understaffed department struggled daily to maintain balance in the region against a group of neo-nazis that outnumbered their parahuman forces just by themselves, the asian gangs ruled by a cape that deadlocked an Endbringer by himself, and a dozen other smaller groups or villains that lurked in the shadows hoping to steal any scraps they could.


    And while she couldn¡¯t claim to be keeping all those villains in check, she at least could pride herself with the fact the PRT ENE wasn¡¯t losing ground despite technically being surrounded, cut off, and outnumbered.


    Not that her fellow Directors would agree with her statement.


    But the sudden addition of several new and unusually powerful Parahumans had thrown that carefully managed balance out the window and governmental busybodies were clawing at her door wondering why she hadn¡¯t either arrested the new players or convinced the public that they could be handled like any of the other villains running loose.


    It wasn¡¯t like the rest of the country was doing much better than her division was! But because Brockton Bay had been one of the cities that was attacked by what some joker had classified as Kaiju and fared better than any others with only a few collapsed buildings instead of the disasters New York and Los Angeles turned out to be, all eyes were on her. And they weren¡¯t impressed.


    They didn¡¯t care that she managed to get a leash on Paladin before the ex-vigilante managed to cause a gang war or that the Protectorate had managed to stop a robot army from overrunning the local mall or that Lung had been finally captured by Armsmaster after an apparently uncharacteristically brutal fight with the Protectorate Leader that left the asian cape suffering from necrotic injuries.


    No they cared that she hadn¡¯t caught the robot maker despite him never making a public appearance, hadn¡¯t brought the Empire to heel, hadn¡¯t dragged in the cape that played a major role in not only driving off the Kaiju but apparently reversing death before retreating to her home with a resurrected Panacea.


    There was an incredible amount of political pressure to somehow raid the mansion Rias Gremory had set up on the basis that the ability to resurrect certain people should be a National Asset and not determined by a teenage girl. Pressure that only increased when Paladin confirmed there were limited uses and she had apparently blown through almost half already.


    Of course that pressure didn¡¯t come with additional personnel or a way to actually breach the demonic themed cape¡¯s protections. Hell, they weren¡¯t even sure she was in the city considering her ability to teleport. That didn¡¯t stop the other Directors from demanding she siege the property anyway.


    Just in case they said.


    Nevermind it was straining her already thin resources past the breaking point.


    So when she was summoned to an emergency meeting with little warning, it was an understatement to say she was frustrated and more than a little stressed. Not that she could directly show it.


    She did take a disproportionate amount of enjoyment at seeing the normally unflappable Chief Director looking significantly more disheveled then Emily had ever seen her, tempered by the realization that the bigger picture must look pretty grim if Costa-Brown was looking less than perfectly groomed.


    ¡°Emily, good you¡¯re here.¡± The Chief Director greeted once Piggot joined the conference call. ¡°The Gremory girl, Lucifer, tell us everything you can about her. Powers, weaknesses, points of interest. Anything that would be useful for a strike team to know before engaging.¡±


    Piggot blinked at the complete disregard for the unwritten rules. Yes, the PRT wasn¡¯t above disregarding them when they could get away with it, but they were very rarely this blatant about flaunting them. If only to keep their Protectorate members satisfied they wouldn¡¯t be causally murdered in their beds for the wider organization because of a leak.


    ¡°I can¡­but why the sudden interest? When I asked for assistance dealing with Lucifer¡¯s Shaker/Trump defenses, I was told there were more pressing concerns to deal with. Especially when we weathered the Kaiju Incident so well on our own.¡±


    ¡°Christ, she doesn¡¯t know.¡± Director Alexander Bell exclaimed and glared through his own screen. Something that surprised Emily since the man was almost unfailingly polite. She began to quietly ponder what could have caused him to act like that while simultaneously checking emails to make sure she hadn¡¯t missed something. But no, no urgent emails other than the one summoning her to this meeting. ¡°Rebecca¡­this is unacceptable. How can she not¨C¡±


    ¡°Calm down, Director Bell.¡± The Chief Director demanded, raising a hand to cut the man off. ¡°We deliberately restricted certain information to reduce panic. And while Director Piggot already informed us about Lucifer¡¯s teleportation abilities, her division has no way of detecting when the girl uses them.¡±


    Emily felt a sinking feeling in her stomach ¨C god dammit, were her men being held off by a literal empty building?


    ¡°Fine,¡± Director Bell scowled. ¡°To get you up to speed, Emily, twenty minutes ago a villain hijacked several broadcasting signals targeting kid¡¯s shows. Less than a minute after that, your devil girl shows up behind him and they start fighting. Now, we have two A-class Parahumans demolishing a small Pennsylvania town on live television and the only reason we aren¡¯t declaring the whole thing an S-class emergency is that every normal citizen seems to have vanished.¡±


    A video popped up showing the unfortunately familiar red-head fighting a man in ornate robes surrounded by three almost angelic projections. Entire streets were destroyed as the two capes fought each other.


    One of the projections was cut in half, tanking a blow that sent the man in robes crashing through a building. Lucifer¡¯s hand shot up and there was a wave of green energy that consumed both him and the camera¡­only for the fight to continue from another angle with the robed man seemingly none the worse for wear.


    ¡°We¡¯re preparing teams to deal with both of them, but we need to be as smart as we can. Alexandria and Eidolon are still recovering from whatever fire effect the turtle kaiju hit them with and Legend has his hands full.¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re ready to call him in if we have to, but if other Protectorate members can handle these two I¡¯d rather not risk the only active Triumvirate member we have.¡± Costa-Brown admitted, shifting like the decision physically pained her. Though considering how used the Chief Director was to ordering the Triumvirate around, the loss of such a convenient option might actually pain her. God knew Emily would have loved to drop one of the country¡¯s strongest capes on her own problems once in a while. ¡°Emily, if you could?¡±


    ¡°Fine. Good luck bringing Lucifer down though. She¡¯s not showing off half her tricks there and ¨C oh hell.¡±


    All eyes snapped to the broadcast video as the Gremory girl had finally managed to put the robed cape on the ground for a few solid seconds. But instead of staying down, the newer cape began to glow silver and started to grow. And grow. And grow.


    Once the light faded, Emily could only stare in disbelief at the massive statuesque figure the man had transformed into.


    A thirty foot masculine figure with feathery embellishments on its head, neck, shoulders, wrists, calves and midriff that unfortunately reminded her of the Simurgh and a large broken halo that hovered behind its back.


    ¡°...dammit, I did not need this today.¡± Director Costa-Brown muttered before barking orders. ¡°Cancel the strike teams for now. I want all of you watching in case we just saw the birth of a new Endbringer or something but unless it looks like Lucifer can¡¯t handle things we are going to hang back and collect as much information as possible. They¡¯re broadcasting their capabilities. We¡¯ll take full advantage of that.


    ¡°Directors, put your teams on standby. I¡¯m not going to sound the Endbringer alerts immediately, but we definitely might need a rapid response team if this turns out to be a new one.


    ¡°And someone get WEDGDG on this video right now!¡±


    Emily Piggot very carefully did not smirk at the Chief Director¡¯s frustration, it was understandable considering the situation, but she did allow herself a healthy dose of schadenfreude.


    Maybe the world did conspire against her. But at least for today some of the others that sat on the sidelines and gave nothing but unwanted, unhelpful advice were dealing with the same headaches she was.


    And if she was lucky, the Gremory situation might even resolve itself¡­

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 35

    ¡°Well that was unexpected.¡± I muttered as I looked up at the now towering form of the Cult Leader. I wasn¡¯t exactly sure how belief powers made him go from summoning minions to powering up to the point he could fist fight me to turning into a giant animated statue, but it certainly put me in a bit of a bind if I didn¡¯t want to start throwing around attacks that would level the town.


    But on the other hand, would anything less even do anything?


    The Boosted Gear appeared on my arm and I started powering up. And not a second too soon because the Statue pointed one giant hand at me where a ball of light was gathering and every instinct I had screamed at me to move.


    There was a flash of light and heat and suddenly I didn¡¯t have to worry about wrecking the town. Not with a giant trench burned through half of it.


    ¡®I recommend you don¡¯t get hit by that.¡¯


    ¡®Thanks Ddraig, I never would have guessed that.¡¯ I snarked mentally. ¡®Any ideas on how to beat him?¡¯


    ¡®Do the same thing you did against that dinosaur thing¡¯ Ddraig suggested. ¡®Hit him hard until he gives up.¡¯


    ¡®So don¡¯t get hit and hit him hard. You¡¯re a certified master strategist.¡¯ I sighed as I charged up a Dragon Shot. ¡®Then again I did ask the dragon, so I guess that¡¯s on me.¡¯


    ¡®I never needed anything else!¡¯ Ddraig said somewhat defensively.


    ¡®Fair enough.¡¯ I replied. ¡®This would be a lot easier if I could use Balance Breaker.¡¯


    ¡®Your close. You just need a trigger.¡¯ My partner reassured me, not that it made my situation any better. I just hoped the rest of my Peerage was having a better time than I was.


    -o-


    Laserdream bit back a curse as she flew back behind one of her brother¡¯s shields as another barrage of rocks launched through the air at her. She quickly responded by shooting an energy blast at the geokinetic but it was stopped when he stomped on the ground and a section of the floor turned into a wall.


    ¡°Stay still already!¡±


    Glory Girl dropped on the robed man from above but unfortunately just like the last time she tried getting the drop on him it seemed like he had eyes in the back of his head, the ground sort of shifted around so that the villain was moved out of the way.


    Laserdream¡¯s cousin crashed into the floor, missing him entirely, and was quickly pinned as two more slabs of stone rose up out of the ground and smashed together. The villain shouted and made a punching motion which sent the entire block of stone shooting off into the distance and she could only hope Vicky was still okay.


    She shot another blast at their opponent, this time followed by Shielder and even Amy adding their own attacks. A tiny voice in the back of Laserdream¡¯s head was gibbering about how weird it was to have Amy joining in on a fight and wondering what her new Cape name was going to be. The rest of her mind was screaming to focus on the fight as the robed cape blocked all three attacks by forming a dome of earth over himself and then punch-ejecting sections off as projectiles.


    ¡°This struggle is only a waste of time and energy. You cannot defeat Sanctus, so all this amounts to is a refusal to submit to the inevitable. You will be defeated and you will become agents of my Dai Li where I, Long Fang, will direct you to bring order to this chaotic world!¡±


    ¡°Ya¡¯know it doesn¡¯t surprise me he¡¯s in a cult.¡± Shielder muttered while Amy made her disagreement a little louder.


    ¡°Not going to happen, Slimeball! Rias is going to kick your boss¡¯s ass and tear this whole place to the ground!¡±


    There was a rumbling sound as ¨C much to Laserdream¡¯s relief ¨C an uninjured Glory Girl flew out of the rubble to rejoin them in the air. Though judging from the angry scowl on her face, her cousin didn¡¯t exactly enjoy the experience.


    ¡°Is that why you resist? Your belief that the redheaded girl will be victorious? Well then, let me show you just how mistaken you are.¡±


    Long Fang pulled a small remote from a hidden pocket and pressed a button where two things happened.


    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.


    The first was a hidden projector turning on and a video beginning to play on a mostly undamaged wall, but the second thing was Long Fang wincing as though someone had just shouted in his ear.


    Laserdream glanced at her family members to see if anyone else caught that.


    Amy and Shielder didn¡¯t seem to, distracted by the sudden projection but Glory Girl caught her eye and nodded. It looked like they figured out how the villain seemed to know where they were attacking from without looking sometimes. Long Fang had backup somewhere talking to him either through a power or an earpiece. Backup that wasn¡¯t very happy with him and after Laserdream looked at the video she could see why.


    A massive Simurgh-esque figure was fighting Rias in what little remained of the town they had come from. Massive beams of light that made Laserdream¡¯s own blasts look like a matchstick next to a bonfire erased entire buildings as it fought her redheaded friend. The issue? At least from a deranged cult¡¯s perspective?


    It was losing.


    There was no sound on the video, but she had no trouble imagining the ear-splitting boom as Rias smashed into the giant statue thing¡¯s head causing a spider web of cracks to form all over and even over a third of one of the horns to break free. The statue staggered and another bright green energy blast caught it in the knee, ripping the giant¡¯s leg out from under it and causing it to land on a building.


    ¡°Rias isn¡¯t holding back, huh?¡± Vicky noted.


    ¡°Impossible! The Saviour form is Sanctus¡¯ trump card, a single parahuman can¡¯t possibly stand up to it!¡±


    Honestly? Laserdream agreed with him. She didn¡¯t think any Cape besides Triumvirate-tier ones could handle Rias once she started to escalate. Back home only Lung really had a chance of taking her one-on-one and he had fought Leviathan to a standstill. But then again, Rias and her group weren¡¯t parahumans, were they?


    ¡°The broadcast should have given him enough power to swat an Endbringer like a fly. How could ¨C interrupted? What do you mean the broadcast was interrupted?! You said it would reach Europe before anyone even had a clue what was happening!¡±


    That was as good as confirmation Long Fang was working with someone else running things elsewhere.


    There was a crackle of static from the few speakers in the room that hadn¡¯t been broken in the fight and Laserdream was instantly on guard. Was this part of an attack? Some sort of sound based power?


    ¡°...Ah, hello? Testing¡­1¡­2¡­3? Is this thing on?¡± A familiar voice that made Laserdream straighten up said. That was Alex!


    ¡°Hi there, just wanted to let you know that we found that fancy broadcasting machine Mr. Emmerich showed us earlier. And, uh, we might have broken it a bit trying to swap out the video feed. Don¡¯t worry we figured it out in the end! We even managed to upload a new one before we broke the whole thing!¡±


    ¡°And don¡¯t worry we¡¯re bringing everything back so you can fix it if you want!¡±


    Laserdream very clearly heard Clover in the distance yelling ¡®knock knock¡¯ and the faint sound of an explosion. Going by the sudden wince from Long Fang as he clutched at his ear from the sudden loud noise, Rias¡¯s three missing pawns had just invaded wherever his tech support was and hopefully captured them.


    Which meant all they needed to do was beat this guy and head back and help take down their leader.


    ¡°Looks like you¡¯re on your own, Big Tooth!¡± Glory Girl called out as she charged again, on the same page as Laserdream. ¡°Let¡¯s see how well you do without someone watching your back!¡±


    The villain sneered at them and then the area was once again filled with flying rocks and energy beams.


    -o-


    I frowned as the giant crashed through another building, kicking up a good amount of dust in the process.


    ¡°This isn¡¯t working.¡±


    I¡¯d lost track of how many times I¡¯d hit the damned thing, but no matter what I did it still got up no worse for wear.


    Unlike the town which was now pretty much a wasteland after all the fighting.


    ¡®You are doing damage but it''s simply healing too fast.¡¯ Ddraig noted as we watched the latest impact crater fix itself. Even the horn I had snapped off was almost back to normal by now. ¡®But I haven¡¯t seen a twitch of pain yet.¡¯


    ¡°Hope you have a point behind that, partner, cause I¡¯m almost tapped out at this point.¡±


    I flapped my wings as another beam of light shot through the space I had just been occupying. Only to run headfirst into a smaller weaker beam that had been shot half a second later. I barely managed to throw up a shield to tank most of the damage, but that was another hit to my magic and stamina. At this rate the statue was going to win just because of attrition.


    ¡®I¡¯ve fought all kinds of things. The only ones that didn¡¯t react to pain were either automatons or constructs. We know this isn¡¯t an automaton so there is probably a core creating the rest of the body somewhere.¡¯


    ¡°Ddraig, I¡¯ve hit the damn thing everywhere. If there was a core, don¡¯t you think I would have gotten it by now?¡±


    ¡®You just didn¡¯t hit deep enough.¡¯


    It took me a second to figure out what he meant.


    Penetrate ¨C one of Ddraig¡¯s abilities developed over the many years he and Albion spent trying to defeat each other that let him bypass any defense other than the target¡¯s inherent durability. Which meant if I could find and hit the core, it didn¡¯t matter how much stuff was in the way.


    The problem was Penetrate wasn¡¯t something I could use multiple times in a row. Not yet anyway.


    ¡°I¡¯m only going to have one shot.¡±


    ¡®Mn, it¡¯s likely either the gem on the head or the chest. Make it count.¡¯


    I had thought the same thing. It was a risk assuming the Cult Leader¡¯s powers worked anything like mine, but the gems that would appear on my Balance Breaker both stored and helped emit my power. One of them being the core would make sense.


    While I flew around the giant to avoid getting blasted again I mentally went over the fight before deciding to target the gem on the chest. It made more sense for the core to be somewhere central, where the entire construct wouldn¡¯t be rendered helpless if its neck somehow broke off.


    Of course I could be completely wrong¡­let¡¯s not think about that.


    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s give it everything we got!¡±


    [Explosion!]


    New strength surged through my body as my stored up boosts were released. As tired as I was, I would only have a few moments to land a hit. Good thing it was a big target.


    The air screamed as I flew forward, dodging a few more beams and ducking under a giant marble arm that tried to swat me out of the air.


    But something that big wasn¡¯t fast enough now that I was going all out. Before the statue could make a second attempt I was in front of the giant blue crystal, fist drawn back and a sphere of green aura in front of me.


    [Dragon Shot ¨C Penetrate!]


    I punched the sphere and smiled when the resulting beam not only engulfed the gem but tore the whole thing from the rest of the body. The giant gave one final jerk as the power allowing it to move gave out and it collapsed to its knees.


    Just in time too, as Ddraig announced a reset and my entire body suddenly felt like it had the strength and integrity of incredibly overcooked pasta.


    But I couldn¡¯t stop just yet.


    Had to make sure I took the Cult Leader out so he didn¡¯t slip away and start this whole mess up again somewhere else.

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 36

    I set down on one of the less destroyed patches of pavement, wings vanishing into my back now that I no longer needed them, and wobbled uncertainly as my knees threatened to give out. As much as I liked the perks the Boosted Gear gave me, the drawbacks could sometimes be a pain in the ass. I don¡¯t think I was ever going to get used to the feeling after using Explosion.


    But I was getting better at pushing through it.


    After a slightly uncertain start, I calmly walked over to the hunched over form of the cult leader. The gem that he had been hiding in had vanished and left him struggling to rise from his hands and knees. As I got closer I could hear him muttering something to himself over and over but I wasn¡¯t really interested in listening. I had friends I needed to check in on and make sure they were safe.


    ¡°So, I think I won that round. You want to call it here or go best two out of three?¡± I asked casually.


    ¡°¨C can¡¯t I feel it, why can¡¯t I feel it, why can¡¯t I feel it, why can¡¯t I feel it, why can¡¯t I feel it, why can¡¯t I ¨C¡± He kept muttering in an unbroken loop, barely pausing to breathe.


    ¡°Uhh, hello?¡±


    Against my better judgment I reached out and touched him on the shoulder. I actually flinched back when his head snapped to me so fast I was surprised it didn¡¯t crack.


    ¡°You! You did something to me!¡± He raged and threw a hand up at me. ¡°Cut me off from my believers somehow. Give it back! Give me my power back!¡±


    I flinched back, expecting an attack, but nothing came. Instead the cult leader just slumped further forward as if just a little shouting winded him.


    That was weird.


    ¡°Sorry to say, but all I did was blast you out of the giant statue. If you¡¯re having power impotency it''s not because of something I did.¡±


    ¡°Liar! I was about to become a god, fed by the belief of people all over the country! And then that belief was cut off. You had to have done something!¡±


    I shrugged but didn¡¯t fight him on that. If he wanted to believe that I sealed off his powers somehow I wasn¡¯t going to try and change his mind. And hey, since his powers worked off belief, maybe him believing I took them was why he couldn¡¯t use them. I doubted it, but still wasn¡¯t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.


    ¡°Well, either way it looks like your whole brainwashing scheme is a bust. And if you¡¯re out of juice then I¡¯m just going to tie you up and¨C¡± I paused as there was a sharp crack nearby and five people in brightly colored costumes appeared out of nowhere. It made sense that the Protectorate would respond to a fight that practically leveled an entire town, I was just surprised it took so long and that they only sent ¨C there was another crack as one of the capes vanished ¨C four people to investigate. ¡°Let them deal with you, I guess.¡± I finished, turning and giving the newcomers a wave.


    ¡°Hi there, little late to the party don¡¯t you think?¡±


    The four capes had been checking out the destroyed scenery and flinched at my voice. One of them started floating and another raised a now glowing hand at me. I tensed waiting for an attack but the sharp crack of their teleporter reappearing with another group of four had him flinch and turn towards them before he settled down.


    ¡°Anyway, fight¡¯s over. This guy was responsible. Feel free to take him in, I¡¯ve got stuff to check in on.¡± I continued even as more capes started to filter in one way or another.


    ¡°Hold it!¡± One of the capes shouted as I turned to walk away. ¡°You¡¯re Lucifer, right? We heard about you in the briefing. Do you really think you can just leave after destroying a town? After killing God knows how many people?!¡±


    My eye twitched at the G-word.


    It thankfully didn¡¯t come up often, usually only when I slipped up and said it myself, but every so often someone mentioning the Big Guy Upstairs would give me a twinge of something ranging from an uncomfortable itch to a headache. And only me for some reason. The rest of my peerage seemed fine no matter what, which was completely unfair.


    After a bit of time I guessed it was based on their personal faith since some people didn¡¯t give me a feeling at all and this guy? This guy was a True Believer. Capital letters intended.


    No idea if that made him an asshole or not though.


    Being devoted to a particular religion didn¡¯t mean you were a good person after all.


    I looked closer at him and took notice of the stylized cross emblem on his shoulder.


    Stolen novel; please report.


    Haven.


    Basically a Christian superhero team that operated further down south. I didn¡¯t really know much more about them then that though. They weren¡¯t really a presence where I lived.


    ¡°Yeah that''s me, and don¡¯t worry no one died here.¡± I replied and pointed at the still kneeling Cult Leader. ¡°This guy and his cult brainwashed them all and had them go to a facility a few miles from here. My group is dealing with those right now and I kinda need to get back to them.¡±


    ¡°A cult? Brainwashed? Hold on, you can¡¯t just leave yet! You have to answer for what happened here!¡± His shouting got the attention of the other capes and we were being slowly surrounded, though most of them looked uncertain about what exactly they were supposed to be doing.


    ¡°Look, I¡¯d love to stand here and play twenty questions with all of you,¡± I said, flaring my wings again. ¡°But my friends are still fighting and unless you can keep up I¡¯ve got to get going.¡±


    And then I was off, flying back the way I originally came. I heard some shouts behind me and kept glancing back every so often to make sure I wasn¡¯t about to get hit from behind but it seemed that the disaster response group that showed up wasn¡¯t all that eager to chase after me. I saw a few fliers rise up, only to get shouted down by their friends a few seconds later.


    I mentally shrugged, if they wanted to play it safe that just made it easier for me to grab everyone and leave once the fighting was over. They would have to follow eventually and we could leave the brainwashed cult members to them.


    -o-


    As I got closer to the cult facility I wasn¡¯t surprised that I couldn¡¯t hear the sounds of fighting anymore. Fights rarely lasted longer than a few minutes and just flying between the town and the facility easily took around five minutes one way. Combined with however long my fight with the Leader took Crystal and the others were probably done fighting long before I was.


    I just hoped that I was coming back to them all being okay.


    I trusted all of them and most of them were strong or experienced enough to handle any surprises. But it only took one bad hit.


    So when I flew back through the hole in the ceiling I was definitely happy to see Laserdream and Shielder guarding the unconscious body of what I assumed was one of the cult members in on the actual plan because he was wearing ¨C was that a Dai Li uniform?


    Huh, I hadn¡¯t expected to run into two reincarnators here. I¡¯d assumed that most of them would stay independent from each other if they were seriously trying to win that contest. But I guess some were like me and either didn¡¯t care about it or were willing to team up at least for a little while.


    ¡°Rias!¡±


    ¡°Hey guys.¡± I raised a hand in greeting and let it fall back to my side after a half-assed wave. ¡°Everything settled here?¡±


    ¡°If you count trying to keep a whole town¡¯s worth of civilians from panicking after they learned their whole religion thing was a lie, then yeah, totally settled.¡± Shielder grumbled. ¡°We¡¯ve had to keep this guy separated from them just so they wouldn¡¯t attack him.¡±


    ¡°Huh?¡±


    ¡°Sam, Alex, and Clover got a video of Sanctus, Long Fang, and their computer guy talking about how they were going to hack the TV networks and power up Sanctus and attract people to the cult, then use Long Fang¡¯s brainwashing technique on certain people to either grow the cult further or give them more resources.¡± Crystal explained. ¡°They uploaded it to the same broadcast the cult used so everyone saw it. I guess with enough evidence the whole thing was faked just to give them more power broke through the brainwashing. They¡¯re kinda pissed.¡±


    I guess Sanctus was the name of the cult leader? It was good to finally know what to call him.


    ¡°But the girls are okay?¡± I asked, focusing on the important part.


    ¡°Yeah, they¡¯re helping Vicky and Ames herd the cult members. Not really sure how long they can keep them all calm¡­or what to do with them later. We saw that you pretty much trashed their home and that was before the cameras were all destroyed.¡±


    ¡°It was pretty badass, though.¡± Shielder added. ¡°You totally wrecked him!¡±


    I winced at that. Being known as the person that leveled a town was almost never a good thing.


    ¡°Well, the good news is that the Protectorate started sending in some responders.¡± I said, determined to ignore that particular issue for now. ¡°I told them how to find this place so they¡¯ll show up eventually.¡±


    ¡°Great, we can hand off things to them.¡±


    ¡°Rias! You¡¯re back! Did ya win?¡± A cheerful voice practically shouted and I found myself suddenly wearing two of my missing Pawns as a necklace as I was tackled from behind and only stopped from falling over when the third joined in the surprise group hug.


    ¡°Clover!¡± I half-heartedly protested. ¡°Alex, Sam. I¡¯m glad you¡¯re okay. You had us worried. And yeah, I won. Was there ever any doubt?¡±


    ¡°We saw you fighting a guy that turned into an Endbringer.¡± My sarcastic Bishop said as she followed after the three girls currently hanging off of me, trailed by the rest of our group. ¡°Even with all the bullshit you do, we¡¯d be stupid to not worry about that.¡±


    Seeing everyone safe and sound made the last bit of tension I was feeling relax and my little group hug went from trying to crush me to holding me up as my legs gave out.


    ¡°I¡¯m fine, I¡¯m fine.¡± I assured everyone as they freaked out about my little collapse. ¡°Just pushed myself a little too long. Not used to it. I¡¯ll be alright after a little rest.¡±


    ¡°You sure?¡± Gloria asked. ¡°Cause we can go get help. Some Protectorate Movers just showed up from the tunnel going back to the tow¨C what used to be the town. We came back to tell Laserdream and Shielder we could hand over Big Tooth to them and go looking for you.¡±


    ¡°Big Tooth?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s what Vicky said his name was!¡±


    I looked at the younger girl and raised an eyebrow.


    ¡°No, seriously. That¡¯s his name. Well ¡®Long Fang¡¯ technically, but that¡¯s what he said.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s probably Chinese. It roughly translates to square or four-sided dragon.¡± I corrected absently. ¡°Right, well if the Protectorate is here already then are we ready to head home? Because I really want to sleep in my own bed after this.¡±


    ¡°Ah wait, what about our stuff?! We didn¡¯t get to pack up because we snuck into the cult.¡±


    ¡°We grabbed it for you. We¡¯re good to go.¡±


    ¡°Then yeah, I¡¯m ready to head back home. I can¡¯t wait to tell you all the full story about how we snuck in. It was like we were super spies!¡±


    I smiled at the enthusiasm even as the bright red emblem for the teleportation spell spread out beneath us all. ¡°I can¡¯t wait to hear it.¡±


    One flash later and we were all back in the main lobby of the mansion.


    -o-


    ¡°...then we grabbed some disguises and followed after them.¡± Clover said as she enthusiastically went over the ¡®spy trio¡¯s¡¯ adventure, all of us heading towards the kitchen for a quick meal before we fully relaxed. ¡°And then¨C¡±


    ¡°Hold on.¡± I cut her off with a raised hand. The kitchen lights were on. And Sam made us go through a checklist before we left to make sure nothing was left on while we were away. But the wards were still up, I could feel them. So how did someone get in?


    Actually it would be pretty easy. All it would take is knowing where to go and not having a desire to attack the people supposed to be here.


    I wasn¡¯t all that great with wards yet.


    I gave everyone a quick glance to confirm they knew something was wrong and then turned back to the lit doorway. There was no way whoever was inside hadn¡¯t heard us so there was no point trying to sneak around now. I summoned the Boosted Gear and prepared to react to anything that might come my way before stepping through¡­


    ¡­to reveal a tired looking little girl sitting at the island with the remains of a PB&J sandwich in front of her looking back at me.


    ¡°Huh, the numbers said you wouldn¡¯t be back until tomorrow¡­¡±


    Well¡­fuck.

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 37

    I took a bite of my sandwich, frowned and forced myself to swallow. Grape jelly was really the worst of all options. I¡¯d have preferred strawberry, but someone had eaten all my other jars while my group had been in the mountains.


    ¡°If you don¡¯t like it you could always make something different.¡± Alex pointed out while happily eating her own abomination. Peanut butter and pickles were not a valid combination, no matter what she said.


    ¡°I would¡¯ve, but we ran out of sliced ham after Carl¡¯s sandwich and Amy¡¯s been hogging the marshmallow fluff.¡± Said grumpy Bishop actually grabbed the jar of spreadable sugar and hugged it defensively. Amy had a massive sweet tooth, who would have guessed? ¡°And anything else requires actual cooking, which I don¡¯t want to do right now.


    ¡°...does this mean¨C¡± I made a shushing gesture at the child intruder without looking at her.


    I still wasn¡¯t dealing with her just yet.


    ¡®How mature of you¡¯


    Shut it.


    ¡°Besides, grape isn¡¯t bad, it''s just objectively worse than all the others.¡±


    Clover slammed her hands on the counter and jumped to her feet. ¡°You take that back! Grape is at least top three!¡±


    ¡°Raspberry, Strawberry, Apple.¡± I countered immediately.


    ¡°Top five then!¡±


    ¡°Blackberry and Cherry.¡±


    ¡°Blackberry and raspberry are practically the same thing!¡±


    I smirked in victory when Gloria and Vicky looked at my Pawn in outrage. It turned out both of them loved raspberries and the thought of them being considered the same as blackberries was enough to kickstart a five-way argument as Clover tried to defend herself while Eric and Crystal teamed up to join in with their own opinions.


    Leaving that to simmer in the background, I turned back to Alex. ¡°So yeah, the sandwich is fine. But it¡¯s literally ¡®fine¡¯. I¡¯ll eat it, but I won¡¯t be happy with it.¡±


    ¡°Couldn¡¯t you just teleport to a grocery store?¡± Carl deadpanned.


    ¡°Yeah, but I don¡¯t want to?¡±


    Everyone not distracted by the blackberry argument laughed at that while Carl just grumbled something as he stuffed the rest of his sandwich in his mouth and said he was heading to his workshop.


    Which really meant he was heading to the unused garage he was slowly filling with the stuff he needed for his tinkering.


    That kicked off several members of our group heading out to do their own thing after asking if I needed them to hang around. I didn¡¯t, at least not yet, so all my Pawns took off to unpack and settle in after our trip. All the New Wave kids decided to stick around though.


    I had my fun, and I couldn¡¯t keep putting off dealing with the intruder forever. So with a sigh I turned and faced the twelve-year old that broke into my house.


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ve put this off long enough. What¡¯s your deal?¡±


    ¡°Oh, um, does this mean you¡¯ll hear me out?¡± The preteen asked.


    I raised an eyebrow at her. ¡°Did you think I would kick you out when you went through the effort of breaking into the house of a known villain, one the PRT had presumably been trying and failing to do the same for over a week, without finding out why?¡±


    ¡°I guess not¡­¡± She murmured weakly.


    Well now I just felt bad.


    ¡°Okay, let¡¯s start over. My name is Rias Gremory. Why did you break into my house?¡±


    ¡°My¡­my name is Dinah, uh, Dinah Alcott. And the numbers said I would be safe if I stayed here.¡± She answered which had all the heroes perk up.


    ¡°Numbers?¡±¡°Safe from what?¡± Vicky and Crystal asked at the same time.


    ¡°When I ask certain questions I can see the future. I also get a number in a percent about how likely something is to happen.¡± Dinah explained. ¡°We were going over how sometimes Parahumans get forced into gangs or kidnapped in school and I asked how likely that was going to happen to me.¡± She started tearing up. ¡°It was around thirty percent then, and every time I asked it just kept getting higher!¡±


    This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    ¡°Did you tell anyone about that? Your parents or the PRT?¡± Vicky asked, softly placing a hand in front of the girl. Close enough to reassure her, but not actually touching and making her feel trapped.


    Dinah didn¡¯t grab it, but she did calm down a bit.


    ¡°I-I tried telling my parents, but they wouldn¡¯t listen. Even when the headaches got really bad. I wanted to call the PRT or my uncle but the numbers got really bad when I asked so I didn¡¯t do that. I don¡¯t know why though.¡±


    Vicky frowned. ¡°Why would it matter if you called your uncle?¡±


    ¡°He¡¯s the mayor.¡±


    ¡°Wha¨C, really?!¡±


    ¡°I do, don¡¯t worry about it for now. Just keep going.¡± I said regarding Dinah¡¯s previous statement, which got a few reactions. Vicky in particular looked like she wanted to grill me immediately but Crystal gave her a look that said leave it for later. Then she gave me one that promised pain if I didn¡¯t explain later.


    ¡°R-right. I kept trying to s-stop it, but no matter what the numbers for someone trying to kidnap me went up every day. B-but then I overheard someone at school saying the heroes were still trying to get into your house after you did something to Panacea, a-and I asked if I would be safe here.¡± She ducked her head. ¡°It was 83.592% likely I¡¯d be safe.¡±


    ¡°Only eighty percent even with Rias¡¯s bullshit magic defenses? Then again a kid broke in so I guess they aren¡¯t that great.¡± Amy chimed in.


    Dinah ducked her head. ¡°Sorry.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I know they¡¯re kinda bad right now.¡± I assured her. Still, eighty percent was pretty low for literal magic wards when only one other person outside our group knew magic existed.


    ¡­of course that person was Paladin which meant he no doubt spread it throughout the Protectorate and PRT, which meant any moles the gangs had in the local office would know too.


    So in short everyone knew. Fuck.


    In that case eighty percent was actually really damn good in the short term but would only get worse as people started to start trying things just to see if they worked.


    Oh well, I already knew I needed to make better defenses anyway.


    ¡°So were you just hiding out in Rias¡¯s house alone for a few days?¡± Eric asked. ¡°That must¡¯ve been boring.¡±


    ¡°Kinda, but I just watched tv and browsed PHO.¡±


    ¡°You brought a computer?¡±


    ¡°Uh, no¡­someone left the password on a sticky note next to the monitor? I didn¡¯t touch anything else but¡­¡±


    I narrowed my eyes and glared towards the door Gloria had left through. She was the only one that would leave stuff like that lying around.


    ¡°That¡¯s okay.¡± Vicky assured her. ¡°And not to change the subject, but does anyone know you¡¯re here? Your family? Or maybe a friend?¡±


    Dinah shook her head no.


    ¡°Do you want to?¡±


    ¡°76.823 percent chance something bad happens to my parents if I call them now.¡± Dinah said, tearing up again.


    ¡°Okay, then we¡¯ll hold off on that for a bit.¡± I said. ¡°I assume you picked out a room while you were here?¡±


    ¡°Ah, no, I was just staying on the couch¡­¡±


    ¡°Then let¡¯s get you set up and we¡¯ll think of what to do later. If you need anything we don¡¯t have here I can teleport somewhere and grab it.¡±


    ¡°...okay.¡±


    Everyone made to leave, but Crystal held me back by my arm.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think you wormed out of explaining why going to the PRT was a bad idea.¡± She whispered. ¡°We¡¯re going to have a talk about that later.¡±


    Ah dammit. I¡¯d hoped she¡¯d forget.


    -o-


    ¡°And you¡¯re sure of this?¡± Director Piggot demanded into the phone.


    The rest of the room couldn¡¯t hear the answer but going by the expression on the corpulent woman¡¯s face whatever was being said wasn¡¯t making her happy.


    ¡°Looks like the bean counters aren¡¯t going to sign off on the pizza party.¡± Assault joked quietly, trying to lighten the mood and at least getting a small smirk from Battery. The rest of the gathered Protectorate had smaller reactions. Velocity just rolling his eyes while Armsmaster and his second in command, Miss Militia remained professionally stoic.


    None of them were having a particularly good week.


    Not after they were getting eviscerated online for failing to really contribute during the Godzilla incident and the resulting disappearance of Panacea, though thankfully the exact reason she had been taken away hadn¡¯t leaked.


    The last thing they needed were people flooding the city trying to get a shot at a way to come back from the dead.


    But the netizens were less than impressed with the fact the Protectorate had so far failed to retrieve Panacea after the fact. Something that would only get worse if they found out Lucifer and the group she had accumulated weren¡¯t even in the building for who knows how long.


    Many of them were even calling for Piggot to step down for it.


    ¡°You think they¡¯ll finally send us some backup?¡± Assault asked a bit more seriously.


    ¡°Doubt it.¡± Velocity muttered. ¡°Never got anything when we only had one giant lizard running around. And the higher ups have Paladin¡¯s report. Panacea is probably perfectly fine, they just care about getting to Gremory before anyone else does. As long as we¡¯re keeping her locked in her house they don¡¯t care if we can¡¯t get inside as long as no one else can.¡±


    ¡°You shouldn¡¯t be using her real name.¡± Miss Militia scolded, but the speedster just shrugged.


    ¡°Don¡¯t think it really matters at this point.¡± The internet had blown Lucifer¡¯s identity wide open after the Godzilla incident. And once the genie was out, there was no going back in the bottle.


    Hopefully the redhead didn¡¯t mind too much. She didn¡¯t seem to care about her identity that much from previous interactions, but you could never really know how a person would take being unmasked¡­


    ¡°The real issue is we aren¡¯t keeping her locked in her house though.¡± Battery added. ¡°The troopers were saying she was spotted in another town a few hours ago and we know she can teleport. Anyone know anything about that?¡±


    There were a few head shakes. All of them were busy enough with local issues that they couldn¡¯t investigate a random rumor that had nothing to do with the city. Though the fact Armsmaster remained silent was a surprise to all of them. Normally he was the first to look into new issues that popped up.


    The tensing on his jaw said that he did know something too, just that he wasn¡¯t interested in volunteering information at the moment.


    ¡°Hey, bossman. You hear any¨C¡± Assault¡¯s question was interrupted by Director Piggot slamming the phone down on the cradle.


    ¡°Bastards!¡± She spat, glaring down at the device before shifting that glare to the gathered heroes.


    ¡°Something wrong, Director?¡± Miss Militia asked diplomatically.


    The Director took a breath but it did little to calm her down. ¡°Lucifer and the ¡®Peerage¡¯ have just been given a pending S-Class rating by the main office after the girl demolished a small town on national television. The only reason it''s not active is because the fight was due to a parahuman cult that had taken over the town and was in the process of looking to expand.¡±


    Everyone save Armsmaster was visibly stunned by the news. The fact the leader of the local Protectorate simply crossed his arms and clenched his hands so hard they could hear the  servos in his power armor told them he already knew about some of this.


    ¡°How the f¨C¡± Assault cut off as Battery nudged him in the ribs. ¡°S-Class?¡±


    S-Class ratings were reserved for threats that were considered natural disasters rather than individuals. Even Lung, leader of the ABB and someone who had fought and defeated the entire Protectorate roster at the time by himself only had an A-Rank.


    ¡°Pending. Which means as long as she¡¯s content to keep playing house with her friends we will not be receiving reinforcements to deal with her.¡± Piggot snarled. ¡°Apparently there isn¡¯t¨C¡± she was interrupted as Triumph, the youngest member to join the Protectorate before Paladin burst through the door.


    ¡°There better be a good reason for interrupting this meeting.¡± The Director warned the lion-themed cape.


    ¡°Sorry, ma¡¯am, but we just got an alert about Dinah.¡± Triumph rushed out.


    ¡°And while I understand you¡¯re worried about your cousin and hope to goodness she turns up safe,¡± Director Piggot said in a deliberate voice. ¡°I fail to see why that is my problem. Especially when I¡¯m trying to keep the city standing while half my forces are tied up trying to break into a fortified mansion or spreading themselves thin on patrols with very little rest and no backup.¡±


    ¡°So please, explain to me why this alert of yours is important enough to interrupt my meeting.¡±


    Triumph visibly swallowed after being on the receiving end of his superior¡¯s anger, but steeled himself anyway. ¡°Some of the neighbors around the Gremory mansion allowed our agents access to their security cameras. One of them caught Dinah heading towards the building a few days ago and she never left.¡±


    There was a stunned silence in the room as everyone contemplated the fact the Mayor¡¯s niece had gone missing on the property of an S-Class threat they¡¯d been unable to access for several days. Which meant she was either a Parahuman that had an ability that let her get through the defenses. Was smart or lucky enough to find a gap even their best couldn¡¯t. Or had been deliberately invited inside.


    ¡°Well¡­fuck.¡± Assault summed the situation up. Battery didn¡¯t even attempt to admonish him.

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 38

    ¡°Alright, spill.¡± Crystal demanded once Dinah was situated in one of the unused rooms. I¡¯d need to get more sheets since that used the last of the spares, but it was better than keeping her on the couch.


    Stupid thing was too firm to sleep on comfortably. Dinah probably agreed with me, because she was out like a light barely a minute after lying down on a proper mattress.


    I sighed because I already knew this was going to be a pain. Still, let''s see what I could get away with.


    ¡°Okay, you know how you and the girls think someone sent me to Earth Bet? And how Paladin thinks he knows me? It¡¯s because¨C¡± my mouth snapped shut as a triggered the geas preventing me from talking about how I got here or the ¡®game¡¯ in general activated. ¡°Paladin thinks it¡¯s because he saw someone that looked like me somewhere and assumed I was the same person while I saw someone with similar abilities.¡± I rephrased my statement. The geas couldn¡¯t stop me from saying other people¡¯s opinions afterall, especially if I didn¡¯t include information it was specifically trying to censor.


    Crystal knew about that, and while she looked annoyed that I was going to have to be vague about things she would understand because I wasn¡¯t doing it just to mess with her.


    She huffed and started putting the puzzle pieces I gave her together. ¡°Okay, so Paladin thinks he knows you but you know other people can have the same or at least similar powers¡­ and that somehow matters with you being sent to another Earth and how you know about Dinah¡­¡±


    I smiled at her to show she was going in the right direction.


    ¡°...so, wherever you saw those images you saw someone similar to Dinah and why she can¡¯t ask for help, I guess? Is it some downside to her power that things turn out bad if she goes to someone to handle her problems for her?¡±


    So close, only to miss at the last second. Still, me knowing about a power was more reasonable than assuming I knew Dinah specifically by watching her from another dimension. Even if Professor Haywire had definitively proven to Earth Bet that alternate realities existed by blowing open a hole to another Earth, most people still didn¡¯t jump to the conclusion that a story they read was real somewhere. Even fewer would theorize they were the ones that existed only in a story somewhere. People were self-centered that way.


    ¡°Not quite, it¡¯s¨C¡± my throat locked up again. Okay, can¡¯t give specifics about Dinah¡¯s situation. Is it because the ¡®plot¡¯ of Worm was getting in the way, that the only reason I knew about this was metaknowledge, or a restriction by the game? I¡¯d have to experiment later¡­


    ¡°As the niece of the mayor, a lot of people probably want to use her to influence her uncle somehow.¡± I changed tracks by saying a very generic, but true, line. ¡°Some of those people are likely criminals.¡±


    Crystal furrowed her eyebrows, thinking hard. ¡°Okay, so it¡¯s not that you know her power but you know someone looking to use her? But how ¨C no, that¡¯s not important right now. There¡¯s a person or group of people after Dinah and they do bad things if she goes to her family or the PRT. Wait, she also said she came here because someone was going to kidnap her for her power. Are you saying someone willing to sell Dinah out to the gangs for her power works for the mayor and the PRT?!¡±


    Dammit, just a little off once again. I just¨C ¡°I couldn¡¯t say.¡± I said automatically. Shit, tripped the geas.


    ¡°About the gangs or the informant?¡±


    ¡°I couldn¡¯t say.¡±


    Thankfully Crystal stopped before I got locked down again but it pretty much put a hold on giving her new information. She got the gist of it though. Someone knew Dinah had powers and wanted to take advantage of her and would step in if she went to people for help, and that I knew something about it.


    I wasn¡¯t sure what she intended to do with that information, but I was satisfied that she would handle it her own way, especially now that she knew I couldn¡¯t say much more about the subject if I wanted to. She was the hero here after all.


    ¡°Alright, topic change then, what are you going to do now?¡± Crystal asked. ¡°The PRT are still outside and I assume trying to get in somehow.¡±


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    ¡°Just going to keep ignoring them really.¡± I shrugged. ¡°I doubt they can really keep this up once the gangs make a big move somewhere. Until then everyone can just fly or teleport out. And speaking of going out, I¡¯m probably going to need to run to the store since a certain uninvited guest ate through a bunch of my staples.¡±


    ¡°Seriously? With everything going on, you are just going to go shopping?¡±


    I shrugged again. ¡°Yeah, kinda? It¡¯s not like the PRT can really stop me from going where I want and while I have the most transparent secret identity on the East Coast, I can still take advantage of it since I haven¡¯t done anything criminal as a civilian.¡± That anyone could prove. ¡°Oh, that reminds me ¨C are the rest of New Wave hanging around for a while? I need to plan how much stuff to get.¡±


    Crystal looked at me with an expression that said she wanted to shake me for being so cavalier about this but took a deep breath and sighed instead. ¡°Give me a minute, I¡¯ll ask what everyone wants to do.¡±


    -o-


    What most of the group wanted to do, it turned out, was to just stay at home and relax or do their own thing for the day. For the most part.


    Carl was content to keep tinkering in the garage. Sam, Alex, and Clover decided to stay in the house. And most of the New Wave kids were currently caught up screaming at their parents over the phone. Apparently a week apart wasn¡¯t enough for both sides to calmly talk things out and things quickly got heated.


    I wasn¡¯t staying around to find out how that was going to go and it seemed Amy agreed with me since she decided she was coming with me. Theoretically a dangerous move, but between flight and teleportation it was much less risky than most would assume. Plus I wasn¡¯t about to lock Amy up. If she wanted to head out for something as normal as grocery shopping I wasn¡¯t going to say no. Not when I was taking Gloria with me too.


    Dinah would be staying in the house for obvious reasons. She might have walked through the wards, but they had still done their job keeping everyone else out. And the house didn¡¯t suddenly get less safe with actual people inside it again.


    So with that settled, Amy and Gloria joined me on the teleportation circle in the main lobby and with a flex of magic we were whisked off into the city¡­


    -o-


    ¡°Don¡¯t you think that¡¯s too many tomatoes?¡± Gloria asked as I loaded another container into our cart.


    I gave her a half shrug while mentally going through the recipe I had in mind to see what we still needed. ¡°Not really. They cook down a lot and there¡¯s a bunch of us. If anything, we might need to make another run to get more.¡±


    ¡°Shouldn¡¯t you just get bigger ones then?¡±


    ¡°Nope. you have to use either cherry or grape tomatoes or it won¡¯t work right. And since I have the option I¡¯m going with cherry.¡±


    Gloria raised an eyebrow at me. ¡°Do you actually have something against the word ¡®grape¡¯ or something? You do know for tomatoes it''s just the name?¡±


    I smirked at her. Grape tomatoes were honestly fine, but it was kinda funny that the breakfast conversation from earlier popped up again.


    ¡°What are you even trying to make?¡± Amy asked, returning with the garlic cloves I asked for.


    ¡°Gnocchi in a burst tomato sauce.¡±


    ¡°Sounds complicated.¡±


    ¡°Practically the opposite!¡± I laughed. One of the reasons I loved the recipe was because it was like six ingredients at its core and was absolutely delicious. It stored and reheated pretty well too.


    ¡°If you say so. Anyway, what else do we need?¡±


    I looked in the cart and counted off everything we had picked up.


    Some staples like bread, milk, eggs, and soda. Replacement jelly for the jars Dinah had emptied. A bunch of ground meats for whatever we decided to make later. Some dried pasta for days where we didn¡¯t feel like putting effort into cooking. And enough snacks that it looked like we were going to throw a party for a hundred people. What were we missing?


    ¡®Still need the cheese.¡¯ Ddraig pointed out.


    I thanked him for the reminder and wandered over to the deli section, snagging a few packets of prosciutto on the way. It would make this trip a bit pricier than I planned for, but one of my favorite ¡®lazy meals¡¯ were just throwing meat, cheese, and crackers on a plate and calling it a charcuterie board. It let me pretend to be fancy while really just having a more adult version of a lunchable.


    My good mood did take a bit of a dip as I moved through the aisles without finding the type I needed, but mozzarella worked as a substitute. It was weird, but it never seemed like I could find a store with Burrata actually in stock.


    Oh well, couldn¡¯t be helped.


    Or at least, not without more effort than I was willing to spend.


    But with my desire for handfuls of meat and creamy things satisfied I made my way back to the other two and made some last minute checks for anything we might have forgotten. Though at this point it was starting to be less about what we might have forgotten for meals and more about what snacks we saw on the shelves we might want to indulge in later.


    After Amy spent a good few minutes trying to balance a party size pack of cookies on the mountain of food practically spilling out of the cart before just giving up and holding on to it, I decided that we had gotten enough for one trip and headed towards the checkout lanes.


    ¡°So Rias, you never really explained what you wanted to make.¡± Gloria said, mostly to fill the silence while we were waiting for our turn. ¡°How ¡®not complicated¡¯ is this?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s super simple.¡± I replied and started counting off the steps. ¡°You basically take a bit of oil and fry some grated garlic for a bit. Then you add the tomatoes until they cook down into a kind of jammy sauce. Add in some red pepper and heavy cream and you have a really good base you can adjust in a few ways. Throw in some pre-cooked gnocchi and cheese that you let simmer for a bit and - bam! - one really easy Italian dish that isn¡¯t just spaghetti and meatballs.¡±


    ¡°Huh, that does sound pretty good. Are you big on cooking?¡±


    ¡°Kinda?¡± I wiggled a hand back and forth. ¡°I have a few things I know how to make pretty well, but at the same time I could live off of frozen chicken nuggets for a week straight if I wanted. My interest in it comes and goes.¡±


    ¡°Maybe we should set up a cooking schedule. It would be kinda neat to see if anyone else knows stuff like that.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d rather stick with takeout.¡± Amy huffed. ¡°Maybe you two haven¡¯t had to deal with it yet, but Vicky can burn water sometimes and Crystal¡¯s friends have¡­weird¡­tastes.¡±


    ¡°It can¡¯t be that bad.¡± Gloria protested, to which Amy just shrugged.


    ¡°Your funeral.¡±


    While they were talking I was slowly getting the sense something was up. We might not have been shopping at a super busy time but there had still been people around, but I was seeing less and less of them. In fact I saw one of the store workers grab a co-worker and not so subtly tell them to go through a door after looking right at us¡­


    I didn¡¯t like that.


    We paid for everything and began heading for the door. When we made it out of the store with nothing actually happening I almost wrote it off as just a bad feeling only for an unfortunately familiar voice to call out to us.


    ¡°Excuse me, Ladies! Do you have a moment to help a Hero out on his mission for Justice?!¡±


    Paladin had apparently decided to swing by.

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 39

    I glared up at the cheerfully blue sky.


    Gods or beings close enough that the difference was negligible might exist, but this was proof that they were malicious bastards. Would it really have been too much for no one to interrupt our shopping trip?


    "I can assure you it won''t take long." My self-proclaimed ''rival'' continued, heedless of the annoyance he was causing me.


    "Sorry, we''ve got a lot of stuff here and my mom needs the car back in a few minutes. Maybe some other time?" I could have called Gloria an angel. Too bad for heaven though, I got her first.


    Too bad for me, Paladin couldn''t take the hint we didn''t want to talk. "Oh, no worries. We can walk and talk at the same time. If you want I could help carry something?"


    "No thanks." I denied immediately. "Now if you don''t mind, we have to get home."


    "Ah, that''s kinda what I wanted to talk about¡­"


    I sighed and partially turned to face the white-clad hero. "Look, if you need help getting home I''m sure the Protectorate can give you directions. If they can''t help you for some reason I''m sure the police will help if you ask them nicely."


    My peerage members chuckled at the joke but to my mild annoyance, so did Paladin.


    "Heh, funny Rias. No, I meant about the people staying in your home." he pressed on. "The other heroes are really worried about Panacea and how you''re not letting anyone talk to her. I also overheard some agents talking about how they''re worried you might have kidnapped the Mayor''s niece. Oh, but don''t worry I don''t believe that one."


    "You''re not really good about outing people''s secret identities, are you?" Amy scoffed with a raised eyebrow.


    "Huh? What do you mean?"


    She waved a hand at me, "You said that Panacea was at her house, but that would only make sense if Rias was Lucifer. So you just outed her."


    "It''s not like she really hides it, though." Gloria muttered low enough that only we could hear.


    "A-ah, sorry about that! It''s just that I''ve always called her Rias, well I usually called her Rias-tan cause it''s cuter that way, but some of the guys from PR said not to use things like that cause it might imply I support the ABB somehow? I don''t really get it, but I''ve been trying. Anyways, sorry again. I guess it''s a good thing no one else was around to hear that?" Paladin suddenly spewed word vomit at my Bishop. "And you''re new, but if you knew Rias was Lucifer you''re probably part of her Peerage, right? Maybe another Pawn? What''s your name? But all we want is a wellness check on Panacea. She was really hurt the last time I saw her and my bosses just want to make sure she''s okay. Maybe convince her to come in for some tests to prove there isn''t any lasting damage from her injuries. I mean, I told them there wouldn''t be, but they just want to be sure, you know?"


    D-did he not recognize Amy?


    ''You''re wielder sure is something, White.'' Ddraig chuckled at his rival. ''Does he really not realize?''


    ''I don''t want to talk about it.'' Albion actually whined.


    Part of me wondered what Paladin was getting up to that made the White Dragon sound so pitiful, but the rest of me simply wanted nothing to do with him.


    Amy seemed to be surprised that Paladin didn''t recognise her, too. I mean, sure she usually hid in the robe and scarf combo that made up her Panacea costume so most people wouldn''t recognise her at a glance, but for him to not notice who she was after directly talking to her¡­


    "Uh, Amy. Bishop." She stammered a bit, a little lost at the sudden rush of words.


    "Well Miss Bishop, it''s nice to meet you!" Paladin gave her a bright smile and turned back to me. "So, yeah, if you could have Panacea give us a call sometime?"


    ''He can''t be serious.'' I mentally directed to Ddraig, who just started cackling. It looked like my partner wasn''t going to be much help in retaining my sanity.


    He seemed to be enjoying himself though.


    "You know what, fine, I''ll ask her later." I sighed and put a hand on my forehead to try physically holding back the headache that was forming. "And it''s not like I was stopping her from talking to anyone. But if she doesn''t want to talk to the PRT I''m not going to make her."


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    I pointedly did not look at Amy when I said this, because I didn''t want the two brain cells bouncing around in Paladin''s head to suddenly make the connection, but the small smile I saw out of the corner of my eye almost made up for the headache.


    "Excellent! Another step complete in the eternal mission for Justice!" The hero cheered. "Oh by the way, do you think¨C" And then he was interrupted by a ringing sound.


    "Uh, one sec."


    While Paladin was busy with his call I subtly nudged Amy and Gloria off to the side and started preparing to teleport away. While Paladin didn''t seem to be trying to do more than annoy us, the fact that everyone else had not so subtly cleared out still had me on edge.


    "Sorry, citizens, but I have to go. It seems some dastardly villains are attempting to rob a bank. But don''t worry, I''ll be there to thwart them!" Paladin declared as his holographic wings popped out of his back. "We''ll have to finish this conversation later, my rival!"


    I''d rather we didn''t.


    But if that meant he left, I wasn''t going to complain too much.


    "Good luck with that." I said, mostly to be polite.


    Paladin grinned and made a pose. "Appreciated, but I''m a hero, we make our own luck!"


    And with that he took off and headed off into the city, quickly vanishing over a rooftop.


    "You know that last line wasn''t half bad." Gloria commented. "Too bad he tries too hard the rest of the time."


    "Please, he sounds like an extra from a Mouse Protector cartoon." Amy scoffed.


    "Yeah, it''s kinda funny."


    "It''s painful is what you mean."


    "Oh come on Amy," Gloria said, giving the grumpy Bishop a nudge. "Don''t be upset just because he didn''t recognise you. It was kinda cute. In a derpy golden retriever kinda way."


    Someone please help, my Pawn is defective and I don''t know if I can fix her.


    "Alright, come on." I said, pulling our shopping bags from the cart and dumping them in my storage space. "Let''s get back home before¨C"


    Naturally, that was when a man in a black bodysuit with a red, demonic looking mask with two stripes of green running down it suddenly appeared in front of me, holding a grenade out to me almost like he was presenting me with a gift.


    My eyes barely had time to widen before the world exploded with light and a wall of force slammed into me.


    A few seconds later I groaned and picked myself up off the street.


    That definitely hadn''t been a normal grenade. Besides the fragments any one of my peerage would have been able to mostly ignore an explosion that small.


    A quick check confirmed that both Amy and Gloria were¡­fine. They didn''t look hurt ¨C more scuffed than anything ¨C but they obviously felt that blast more than I did and were struggling to breathe thanks to getting the wind knocked out of them.


    But why the hell¨C


    The man in black appeared again and now that I had more then half a second to actually look at him I recognized him as Oni Lee, the second of the ABB''s public capes and serial teleporting suicide bomber.


    I instinctively moved to cover my Pawn and Bishop even though that didn''t mean much when my opponent could teleport instantly and glared at Lee.


    Something Oni Lee just ignored as he stared blankly at me.


    "Well? What do you want?!" I snarled. "Or is the ABB just looking to pick a fight?"


    "This is a reminder," Lee said placidly. "That while you might have strength, it is the ABB that will control the Bay. Play house with the Capes you gather as you wish, but should we give the order you will obey."


    "Or what?" I growled, the Boosted Gear appearing on my arm, gem glowing thanks to my heightened emotions.


    Oni Lee gave a signal and about twenty people in gang colors carrying guns rushed out of the surroundings to surround us, some of them pointing their weapons at Amy and Gloria.


    "Then some of the people surrounding you may suffer ''accidents''. They don''t seem to share your durability after all. Do we have an understanding?"


    I thought I was mad before. Now my blood was practically boiling from anger.


    "Oh, I understand."


    I understood I was going to have to crush the ABB for this.


    -o-


    [Crystal Pelham POV]


    It took a lot of self control for Crystal to not stomp through the mansion slamming doors after the mildly disastrous call with her family.


    It had started off¡­okay.


    A little tense because no one wanted to address the elephant in the room regarding Amy''s situation, made a bit easier by her cousin deciding to just not be there. Which was another problem in Crystal''s opinion, but not one she was ready to push just yet.


    There was some smalltalk, some meaningless chatter about how people had been over the last day or two, which inevitably revealed to the adults that the younger members of New Wave hadn''t actually been in Brockton Bay for a week and tempers started flaring.


    Aunt Carol had called them all irresponsible for allowing a villain to kidnap them without even attempting to let someone else know where they were in case things went bad, which had Vicky snapping back about whether that included Amy or not since no one had even asked how she was doing.


    That had gone over about as well as you would expect and everyone started speaking over the others for a while. More than once Crystal had thought about just ending the call and trying again some other day, but she also didn''t want to keep freeloading in Rias''s house. So she stuck things out.


    Tempers settled back down to a low simmer while Eric told their parents about the week they spent in Rias''s mountain house, doing a good job of jumping from topic to topic so no one could start arguing again. Especially since it was obvious all the adults had done was either go to work or spend the day working with the PRT to break into Rias''s house. As much as he hated it, as the baby of the family everyone did treat him a little differently, so he could actually tell the story without people talking over him. Most of the time¡­


    Those tempers flared again when at the end of Eric''s recap the first thing her mom demanded was for them to meet up so they could all get checked out after getting into the fight with the Cult''s parahumans and to check for any Master influences.


    She had probably been concerned about them getting into a fight on their own, but at the time all Crystal could think was that they were accusing Rias of Mastering them all and lashed out. Vicky had also demanded to know who they would even go to since the only healers in the Bay besides Othala were in Rias''s group.


    And outside of a truce, none of New Wave were going to trust a Nazi that was part of the same gang that had killed Aunt Jess. Maybe not even then.


    More shouting happened and the call ended when Vicky grabbed the phone to shout more directly into it, only to crush it in her hands accidentally.


    The last Crystal had seen of her, she was off begging Carl to take a look into fixing it.


    That still left her pissed off and fuming from the call, though. And she decided she needed to find her friends and hopefully decompress for a bit. Spend some time around people not dealing with any kind of drama and hope some of that calm rubbed off on her.


    So the heroine was a little surprised to see that not only was Rias back from her shopping trip, she, Amy, and Gloria all looked like they had gotten into a fight while they were out there. Something she might have expected from Rias, but definitely not from Amy.


    "What happened?"


    "The ABB jumped us outside the store." Gloria answered quietly. "Oni Lee told Rias personally that she needed to stay out of their way or they would target us."


    Crystal''s eyes widened at that.


    She knew the bigger gangs would break the unwritten rules if they thought they could get away with it. More than one independent cape, both hero and villain, had quietly disappeared after annoying the ABB or E88. But usually they were more discreet about it than announcing they would kill a Cape''s friends if they didn''t toe the line in public like that.


    "Are you serious? No, sorry, obviously you are." Crystal apologized, Rias looking angrier than she had ever seen the other girl was proof enough for that. "What are you going to do about it?"


    As she looked to the red-head Crystal couldn''t help but shiver at the look in her friend''s eyes. For all that Rias came off as a trollish airhead sometimes, it was hard to forget that first fight where she casually tore through half the heroes in the city like it was nothing.


    "First I''m going to make a few plans." The devilish villain declared, gritting her teeth and glaring out a window towards the city. "Then I''m going to burn the ABB to the ground¡­"

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 40

    When I had told Crystal of my intention to crush one of the major criminal gangs in the city I had half expected her to try and convince me to not do it. I was not expecting her to call her brother and start pitching ideas on how to help.


    Apparently everyone was in a violent mood today. I guess their call didn¡¯t go very well.


    Unfortunately, heightened emotions and a lack of any actual information about where the ABB gathered meant we weren¡¯t exactly productive. It was one thing to know certain businesses paid ¡®protection¡¯ fees to certain gangs. It was another to do anything about it without hurting regular people.


    None of us had a convenient list of strongholds or meeting places we could crash and the people that might have such things ¨C the rest of New Wave and the PRT ¨C probably wouldn¡¯t give them to us if we asked nicely.


    As time dragged on, the lack of any realistic plans to take down one of the biggest criminal groups in the city that had been firmly entrenched for years gave Crystal and Eric enough time to calm down enough to start asking why the ABB had suddenly decided to declare war on my group when they were at the weakest they had been since Lung took over, considering the same man was currently held prisoner by the PRT.


    ¡°It¡¯s probably a combination of things.¡± I grumbled as I glared over a city map, trying to convince it to give me the answers I wanted by sheer willpower. ¡°They¡¯re a bit desperate thanks to their leader being captured, especially because without him they don¡¯t have a good way to hold off the Empire if they make a big push for territory. Oni Lee is a good threat and can cover a large area, but he¡¯s one person and the Empire has enough capes that they can afford to wear him out by making him fight continuously until he makes a mistake they can capitalize on.¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s also the fact that my group is a little bit of a gray zone considering despite being ¡®villains¡¯ we keep hanging out with you guys in New Wave. The ABB is definitely gearing up to make a jailbreak on Lung and want us out of the picture. Threatening us and making us bunker down for a few days would be a good way to do that.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯d be willing to bet at least part of it is just ingrained arrogance, though.¡± I sighed. ¡°When you can threaten people constantly and get away with it, it probably becomes second nature to do so.¡±


    Crystal grimaced at that but eventually nodded. ¡°I guess that makes sense.¡±


    ¡°What I want to know,¡± Amy muttered, ¡°Is how they knew where we would be. I get Oni Lee showing up quick, he¡¯s a teleporter, but the rest of them? There were too many of them with too many weapons for that.¡±


    ¡°You think someone tipped them off where we would be?¡± Gloria asked.


    ¡°I mean Paladin showed up really quick and wasted a bunch of our time. He doesn¡¯t hesitate to break the unwritten rules around Rias either.¡± My Bishop pointed out.


    Eric raised an eyebrow at his cousin. ¡°So you think he led the ABB to you guys? Isn¡¯t that a bit of a stretch? He is a Protectorate hero, you know.¡±


    ¡°You mean the same people that have been trying to break into Rias¡¯s house and capture her for committing the horrible crime of saving my life?¡±


    ¡°...I mean that¡¯s not exactly what they are doing but it doesn¡¯t make them sound good, huh?¡±


    I decided to step in before things got sidetracked. ¡°As much as I don¡¯t want to defend Paladin, I don¡¯t think he was working with the ABB. If anything, I think we saved him from getting ambushed.¡±


    ¡°Huh, what do you mean?¡±


    ¡°Amy was right about there being too many gang members for it to be a quick response, but what if they weren¡¯t there for us? What if they followed Paladin so they could take him out and we just got in the way?¡±


    Crystal frowned at me. ¡°Why would the ABB target Paladin, and even if they did, why would they hold back just because they saw you there?¡±


    ¡°Because they are probably going to try and spring Lung soon,¡± I pointed out. ¡°And Paladin¡¯s power is a pretty good short term counter. Taking him out would give them a much better chance of breaking their boss out of his cell, but Paladin got called away before they could attack. Oni Lee could catch up to him easily but if he got hurt in a fight then I doubt the ABB could actually get close enough to Lung¡¯s cell. So instead he decided to threaten us to save face with his minions.¡±


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    The faces of everyone else darkened as they considered my theory. No one liked the idea of Lung escaping when he was finally taken off the streets, and even worse, none of us were really in a position to do much about it.


    Part of that came from my villainous status, but even more came from the perception around our ages. No matter what, the PRT would take the involvement of a bunch of teenagers as a slap in the face. Even if we were on better terms I had a feeling Piggot and Armsmaster would tell us that they had everything handled and then shove us at the Wards or younger Protectorate members to handle while the ¡®Adults¡¯ dealt with the important things.


    ¡°So what, we just do nothing then?¡± Gloria grumbled. ¡°We can¡¯t find a place to hit them, so they just get to walk off until they try to break out Lung?¡±


    I shook my head. ¡°Not quite. We can¡¯t find a place to hit the gang directly, but we do know of a front they use that¡¯s important enough that Lung had to respond when it got hit.¡±


    ¡°We do?¡±


    ¡°Yep, the Ruby Dreams casino. Lung was chasing after the thieves that robbed it on the night he was arrested.¡± It was easy enough to check online and find a few posts about the robbery. PHO even had a few gang members on obvious throwaway accounts boasting about how they were going to make the robbers pay before the thread got locked down.


    ¡°Okay, so the casino is a front for the ABB.¡± Crystal acknowledged. ¡°But what do we do about it?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s simple, we burn it to the ground!¡±


    ¡°¡°Rias, NO!¡±¡±


    I winced as several people in the room shouted at once.


    ¡°Why not?!¡± I didn¡¯t whine, but I admittedly came closer than I¡¯d like.


    ¡°Because that¡¯s arson?!¡± Crystal exclaimed.


    ¡°And will put dozens of normal people out of a job?!¡± Amy added on.


    ¡°Or because that will get the Protectorate to drop everything and attack us?!¡± Gloria finished.


    At that point only Eric hadn¡¯t chimed in and when everyone looked at him, he just shrugged. ¡°What? I think it would be awesome. Let¡¯s do it!¡±


    ¡°Idiot.¡± Crystal rolled her eyes at her brother. ¡°But seriously, Rias, what are you thinking?¡±


    ¡°I was thinking if we can¡¯t figure out where to find them, we make a big obvious attack on a location the ABB has responded to already and make them come to us. Either we give them a solid black eye and buy some time to find another location or they try to stop us and we take a bunch of them down and maybe even cause issues for their planes to jailbreak Lung if we can take down Lee or even just injure him a bit.¡±


    ¡°Okay, that¡¯s a bit more reasonable. But you still can¡¯t burn down a casino!¡±


    ¡°Aww, not even a little?¡±


    ¡°I mean¡­¡± Everyone exchanged glances and it said a lot about how pissed our group was that they were actually considering it.


    So I decided to give them a little push.


    ¡°How about this? We don¡¯t burn down the building, but instead we¡¯ll¡­¡± I said and started laying out my new plan. This one got much fewer protests and eventually got a green light from the heroic members of our group.


    -o-


    The Ruby Dreams casino wasn¡¯t actually in Brockton Bay, but was pretty close by. Something I was grateful for because that meant no one besides my Peerage knew that I flubbed the teleport and appeared several miles away from where we wanted to go.


    It was easy enough for a quick flight where we needed to go, but the lack of people meant that the police or PRT shouldn''t know where we were just yet. Assuming they didn¡¯t have some sort of Thinker tracking me after the whole cult thing¡­which wouldn¡¯t actually surprise me if they did.


    There wasn¡¯t much I could do about that though, so I decided to focus on the present.


    I landed close to the front entrance and started walking up to the doors while Sam, Alex, Clover, and Gloria fanned out behind me.


    Amy didn¡¯t want to be seen doing something obviously villainous and Carl was more interested in getting his workshop up and running. It was a bit of a bummer I wouldn¡¯t have my full peerage for my first intentional outing doing cape stuff, but honestly even just my four Pawns were already overkill.


    I took one glance back over my shoulder just to make sure none of them were getting second thoughts about this, but between the eager grins on Alex and Clover¡¯s face, the angry frown on Gloria¡¯s, and the serious mein on Sam¡¯s, it was clear they were going to follow my lead.


    Okay then, game time.


    After one more deep breath, I lifted up a leg and kicked the large casino doors open. Necessary? Not really, but it did a good job of grabbing nearly everyone¡¯s attention really quickly.


    ¡°Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen!¡± I shouted over the sounds of the bells and whistles of the gambling machines. ¡°I apologize for the interruption but we have some business to discuss with the manager. If you all could follow¡­¡± I paused and gave Alex a pleading look, hoping she changed her mind, only to have that hope crushed when her smile just widened. ¡°...Yellow Devil, to the side where you will be safe until our business is concluded.¡± I sighed. ¡°Green Devil will be going around to make sure no one is missing, while Red and Blue will be accompanying me.¡±


    And with that I did my best to avoid cringing at the terrible names my Peerage had decided to stick with and made my way towards the Staff area where I eventually found an overweight, balding man in the office sweating at the fact he was alone with three ¡®parahumans¡¯ presumably robbing his building. Curiously he wasn¡¯t Asian. I wasn¡¯t sure if that was intentional by the ABB to make their front a little more deniable, or if Lung didn¡¯t actually care about nationality as long as he got paid.


    ¡°Hello, Mr Johanson.¡± I greeted the man as I let the office door swing closed with a loud thunk. ¡°I know you probably aren¡¯t very happy to have us here but I just need you to do one thing and then we will get out of your¡­¡± I paused as I looked at the thin wisps of hair on the man¡¯s head. ¡°...hands.¡±


    ¡°L-look, I don¡¯t want any trouble, I can give you the money we have in the vault, but after the Undersiders robbed us the other month we don¡¯t keep that much on site anymore.¡± Johanson mumbled as he raised his trembling hands.


    ¡°Oh, don¡¯t worry. We¡¯re not here to rob you.¡± I assured the man. ¡°We just want you to call out your ABB friends and then we¡¯ll be on our way.¡±


    ¡°B-but we don¡¯t have any ties to the A-ABB!¡±


    ¡°You don¡¯t have to pretend. We aren¡¯t the cops or anything like that. Just give them a call and say that Lucifer is calling them out for their threat the other day and we¡¯ll leave.¡± I said again, adding just a touch of hypnosis to move things along.


    ¡°If I could, I would in a heartbeat. But I really have no way of contacting them. We aren¡¯t associated with the Asian Bad Boyz in any fashion!¡±


    Wait. What?!


    I was just about to press him for details when a concerned looking Sam opened the door with a cellphone in her hand.


    ¡°Hey, Lucifer? We have a problem¡­¡±

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 41

    ¡°Well¡­this is a bit of a fluster-duck.¡± Clover commented as I paced the floor of the office we had commandeered.


    Gloria chuckled mirthlessly. ¡°That''s an understatement if I¡¯ve ever heard one.¡±


    Privately, I agreed with her.


    Not only did it turn out that Ruby Dreams didn¡¯t have any connection to the ABB in general or Lung in particular, making my whole plan to use them to call out the gang in question utterly useless, but during the time we were away from the city bombs had been going off all over the place seemingly at random.


    The ABB had already moved to free Lung. I¡¯d misjudged how much time we had and ended up wasting it thanks to relying on bad metaknowledge.


    I sighed and did my best to pull myself together.


    Okay, I¡¯d screwed up. So what? I could either waste time complaining about it or focus on the actual situation and do something about it. So let''s think¡­what did I know for certain, and what did I think I knew but might be wrong?


    The ABB was bombing the city. Very likely they were going to try and free their leader.


    Whether that succeeded or not wasn¡¯t guaranteed with the new players in the Bay but I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if Lung escaped anyway. Bakuda ¨C the ABB tinker responsible for their entire bombing campaign ¨C was technically known to the public thanks to her trigger event as the Cornell Bomber, holding an entire college campus hostage with tinkertech bombs was still newsworthy even in a world that had Endbringers and town-enslaving cults, but she hadn¡¯t done much since escaping and presumably getting recruited by Lung.


    And it was one thing to know a bomb tinker was coming. It was an entirely different thing to do anything about it.


    Bakuda could ¨C and probably had ¨C make her bombs look like normal everyday things or disguised them after the fact and scattered them around the city. She had effectively taken all of Brockton Bay hostage this time and I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the PRT let Lung escape out of hope he would reign her in if it looked like there was too much collateral damage to the public even if they did manage to stop the initial breakout attempt.


    So that was two things I could confidently say I knew.


    Bakuda and the ABB were behind the bombings and Lung was most likely going to escape.


    Now what could have changed?


    ¡­Bakuda losing to the Undersiders.


    From what I remembered of that encounter, the entire fight had been one giant close call that only turned out in the Undersider¡¯s favor because of Bakuda¡¯s arrogance. If she took them seriously from the beginning or even just had slightly more willing help¡­


    There was no plot armor protecting the ¡®true¡¯ storyline in this world. Amy wouldn¡¯t have died if there was.


    So there was a very good chance of the Bakuda winning that fight and as much as I would like to make sure that didn¡¯t happen¡­I didn¡¯t have a clue where to find them, if the fight hadn¡¯t ended already. I didn¡¯t remember off the top of my head where that encounter was supposed to go down either and flying around looking for explosions when the city was full of them¡­


    Can¡¯t stop the breakout attempt.


    Can¡¯t stop the fight with the Undersiders.


    Okay, what can we do then?


    ¡°Earth to Rias, you still with us?¡± Clover prodded me.


    ¡°Yeah, just thinking.¡±


    ¡°Neat, you have a plan then?¡±


    ¡°You all want to be involved then?¡±


    There were nods and determined looks all around. Unsurprising, but I would have liked it if at least some of them wanted to sit out. Most of them were okay fighters at this point, and they would wipe the floor with the average gang member, but explosions didn¡¯t really care about things like that.


    ¡°I have the concepts of a plan.¡± I lied, but it was important to at least look confident to my Peerage. ¡°Sam, did Crystal say what they were going to be doing?¡±


    ¡°She and Eric were going to meet up with the rest of New Wave. Vicky and Amy were headed towards the hospital to help out.¡±


    I guess their family feud had taken a backseat to the current emergency. Okay, I could work with that a bit.


    Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    ¡°Any word on what Carl is doing?¡±


    ¡°Trying to track down the detonation signal or something according to Crys.¡±


    ¡°Okay, so here¡¯s the plan. Gloria, I want you to head back to the hospital to help protect Amy. if it looks like someone is going to try and attack or detain her, get both her and Vicky out of there. I don¡¯t care who they say they are, I don¡¯t want her going off alone.¡±


    ¡°Sam, Alex, and Clover, I want you three working with Carl to get in contact with Emergency Services. There¡¯s going to be a lot of blocked roads and fires because of this. See what you can do to help out. And if Carl finds a way to track the bomber¡¯s signal make sure to let me know immediately.¡±


    ¡°Got it!¡± Alex snapped a salute followed by Sam and Clover a half second later in a way that I knew was to mess with me a bit, but I didn¡¯t mind because I¡¯d take all the amusement in the moment I could. I probably wasn¡¯t going to get much more of it tonight.


    Gloria smiled and shook her head at the three before turning back to me. ¡°What are you going to be doing?¡±


    I took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. ¡°I¡¯m going to be flying around waiting to stomp the first idiot to try taking advantage of this mess into the dirt.¡± The ABB, E88, Wily, or any others out there¡­it didn¡¯t matter. Anyone trying to do anything but help was going to have to explain themselves very quickly or get worn as a boot.


    ¡®Charming.¡¯ Ddraig commented. ¡®I¡¯d make sure to wash your feet afterwards, though.¡¯


    ¡®It was hyperbole, you overgrown coin purse!¡¯


    ¡®And that was sarcasm, you airheaded bat. Now focus on your minions.¡¯


    I rolled my eyes at the dragon but turned my attention back to the group. They didn¡¯t look thrilled that I was going off on my own when I was deliberately grouping everyone else up, but they didn¡¯t argue with me. The unfortunate truth was that I was simply faster on my own. If I had picked up a Knight things would be different, but I hadn¡¯t ¨C and having the girls Promote to one would just tire them out quicker and leave them vulnerable. Best save that as a trump card.


    ¡°I know things haven''t exactly gone to plan today, but the main goals haven¡¯t changed much - kick in the ABB¡¯s teeth if we can, and make sure everyone comes home safe. Things have just¡­escalated¡­a little bit.¡±


    ¡°Understatement, much.¡±


    ¡°Be careful and don¡¯t hesitate to call for help if you need it.¡± I ignored the interruption and connected the five of us with my communication spell before teleporting all of us back into the city before quickly teleporting myself back to the manor.


    I stayed long enough to link Carl into the communication spell (the newest version could cover the whole city!) and then randomly ¡®ported back into the city.


    Almost immediately I saw the burned out remains of several cars with a small crowd of bystanders standing nervously nearby. No one seemed to be doing anything but watching the fires, and I understood that. There didn¡¯t seem to be anything they could do about the flames and if anyone had been in those cars and hadn¡¯t gotten out before they went up¡­well they weren¡¯t worrying about it now. But the thing that sparked a dark feeling in my chest I didn¡¯t quite know what to call was the sight of the blackened and burning child seat in the back of one of the wrecks.


    ¡°...Okay, let¡¯s see who¡¯s going to be the first Darwin Award winner for the night.¡±


    -o-


    [Amy POV]


    By the time Vicky and Amy made it to Brockton General Hospital, the place was already preparing for the waves of patients the sudden explosions were no doubt going to cause.


    It said a lot of things about the city - and not many of them good, honestly - that this wasn¡¯t even the tenth time Amy had seen the hospital getting ready for a rush of injured people. But for the first time in a while Amy isn¡¯t filled with bitter resentment and annoyance at the thought of dozens of injured people begging for her help.


    She feels nervous.


    Because she isn¡¯t the Panacea anymore.


    She can¡¯t diagnose every problem at a touch and heal almost everything within minutes anymore. It takes more time, more information, more of everything really, and worst of all ¨C it takes effort to heal now.


    Amy never needed to worry about things like that before. Before that building fell on her she could keep healing as long as she could stay awake and focused. After¡­Amy knew that thanks to the Bishop piece Rias used on her, Amy had the second largest magic reserves in their group. And even if healing was easier for her than other types of magic, she had a limit of what she could do now.


    Just in time for some bomb psycho that could turn people to stone, or remove their bones, or some other messed up shit to pop up.


    She shook those thoughts out of her head as she landed on the hospital¡¯s roof and made it all of three steps before freezing at the door.


    ¡°Hey,¡± Vicky said softly behind her, placing a hand on her shoulder with a gentle squeeze, ¡°I¡¯ve got your back.¡±


    Amy appreciated that.


    The two of them entered the building and made a beeline for the nurses¡¯ station. Thankfully, the person manning the desk was not only one of the nurses Amy knew the name of, but also one of the less chatty ones as well. That meant that Amy should be able to ¨C


    ¡°Amy, is that you?!¡±


    All thoughts were driven out of her head as Nurse Mary, one of the most stoic and brusque people Amy knew, practically ran over to pull her into a tight hug.


    ¡°Bwah?¡±


    ¡°We heard about how you were caught in that attack. When no one saw you for so long¡­ I¡¯m glad the rumors were wrong. We¡¯re going to need you tonight.¡±


    ¡°They weren¡¯t completely wrong.¡± Vicky commented while Amy was still bluescreening from the sudden hug. ¡°Amy got hurt¡­bad. A friend managed to help her but things happened that might cause issues.¡±


    Amy extracted herself from the hug. ¡°My powers changed. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll be able to do everything needed, but I can heal at range and do multiple people at once now.¡± She went on to explain some of the differences.


    Mary was frowning by the end of it. ¡°That¡¯s not great news. We¡¯ve heard of some pretty wild things that conventional medicine might just not be able to do anything for but I guess we¡¯ll just have to deal with it. But if you¡¯re still willing to help we¡¯ll get you set up in your normal spot. We¡¯ll just have to hope for the best¡­¡±


    ¡°My powers changing won¡¯t cause the hospital issues?¡± Amy asked.


    ¡°Your Parahuman Healing License is still good and you¡¯re still providing care with your powers,¡± Mary replied. ¡°Legally you¡¯re in the clear and I know you wouldn¡¯t put others at risk. Frankly, we can''t afford to be picky. We¡¯re desperate enough to let that robot help¡­¡±


    ¡°Robot?¡±


    ¡°Nurse! Where are the supplies I requested?! The first ambulances are going to be returning soon!¡± Amy turned to see what must have been one of Dr Wily¡¯s robots walking towards them with a scowl on his face. It might have been more intimidating if it was taller than four feet and not wearing a ridiculous red and teal coat that doubled as armor.


    ¡°Sandra is still getting everything together, Medicman.¡± Mary snapped back. ¡°You can either yell at me until she comes back, or you can go make yourself useful somewhere else.¡± She turned to Amy and said in a softer voice. ¡°He is right though, we¡¯re about to be swamped. I¡¯ll call ahead and let the staff know you¡¯re coming and about your powers.¡±


    Amy simply nodded and rushed to the Ambulance Bay with her sister trailing behind her. Her job would be making sure everyone arriving was stable enough to make it to an ER room.


    ¡°Weird that they let a villain¡¯s robot minion work in a hospital.¡± Vicky muttered as the first ambulance¡¯s lights could be seen racing towards them.


    ¡°Hospitals have their own Truce rules.¡± Amy muttered back. ¡°Everyone helps out unless your group is the one causing the crisis. Doesn¡¯t happen here much because Othala was the only other cape in the Bay that could heal and she can¡¯t be seen helping ¡®undesirables¡¯ outside of an Endbringer fight.¡±


    Then there was no more time to talk as the first ambulance threw open its doors and Amy got her first patient of the night.


    ¡°Do I have your permission to heal you?¡±


    It was spoken more out of habit than anything else. Thousands of repetitions made it so Amy barely even noticed she asked.


    But now she felt a bit of her demonic power stretching out, waiting for an answer. Rias had mentioned this when she had given everyone the rundown on their new species. The ability to make deals with people in exchange for helping grow their own power a tiny bit along with whatever else was offered.


    Before she could take it back the person accepted and Amy felt a small compulsion to heal them. Thankfully, it was just two broken bones and not too draining. And the second she finished she felt almost all the energy she spent healing return to her, about eighty percent or so and the instinctual knowledge that her own power had grown just a sliver.


    ¡­Amy needed to use this.


    If making deals could extend how long she could heal for it would be criminal to let it go unused. But she was going to have to have a loooong discussion with Rias after this was over about what could be considered a deal in the future! She was getting tired of new things getting sprung on her in the middle of a crisis!

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 42

    As much as I would like to say that I descended on the ABB like an avenging angel ¨C though in my case it was more like the satanic consequences of their actions ¨C most of my time was spent running from explosion site to explosion site with little to show for it.


    Either the ABB had set the bombs in advance or just cleared out once they set them off, the result was the same. I was simply too late to actually catch any of the ones who mattered and grill them on where their leaders were.


    That wasn¡¯t to say I didn¡¯t catch a few of them.


    A few times I was close enough to an explosion that I managed to get there while the gang members were still hanging around looking at the explosion''s effects. One was some kind of hot pink fire that was managing to burn concrete and another that had made the entire area look like it had been covered in vantablack. The second actually made my brain itch every time I tried focusing on one object I¡¯d manage to pick out.


    But none of them were anything but the lowest tier of grunts. Guys that had basically met someone at a street corner, were given a bomb, and were told where to set it off. They could point me back to where they were armed, but obviously the other gang members were long gone by that point. I just left the gang members beat up, unconscious, and tied up on the roadside for someone to pick them up later when the city wasn¡¯t exploding.


    After flying around for a couple hours even finding that much became rarer too. Thankfully, the bombings also eventually tapered off allowing first responders to actually manage the crisis, but that left me in kind of a bind. The ABB had accomplished their goals before going into hiding instead of having Lung rampage through a few streets to let everyone know he was free again.


    Good for the city, bad for me having any hope of tracking them down today. Especially if the PRT decided they needed to make a statement about a villain like me flying around during all this. I¡¯d have liked to give them the benefit of doubt that they wouldn¡¯t, but that was before they practically besieged my house because I had the audacity to save someone¡¯s life.


    Well, more because I showed off the ability to bring someone back from the dead and people got greedy, but still¡­


    I shook those thoughts off for now and teleported to a random spot in the docks hoping to find another group of gangsters before calling it quits and heading back to the girls. But instead I found an already bombed out building being swarmed by¡­was Wiley seriously fucking robbing stores in the middle of this shit?!


    ¡®Hold on a sec, partner, look again.¡¯ Ddraig cautioned before I saw red and jumped down to dismantle the bots below me.


    Part of me really didn¡¯t want to but I trusted Ddraig and took a moment to reel myself in a bit before looking back down at the scene.


    The building¡¯s front looked like it had melted before resolidifying in a bizarre new shape like something out of a Dali painting and I could see about half a dozen of Wiley¡¯s Mettools milling around it, hitting the melted wall with their little pickaxes while a pair of Sniper Joes were keeping the handful of bystanders from getting too close. At first glance they looked like a repeat of Wiley''s earlier mall heist, but now that I was looking closer I could see some people trapped inside the building where the Mettools were carefully excavating. A flash a little further down the street drew my eye to another group of Wiley¡¯s minions surrounding a smashed up car. The vehicle had obviously been in a crash, the mangled front end signifying something had run into it before taking off, and the driver was still trapped inside.


    Wiley¡¯s robots were huddled around the driver side door, carefully shooting their little energy balls at the door frame to free the man trapped inside and making no moves to hurt or threaten the man.


    Wiley was doing the same thing I was. Spreading out and helping the people affected by the bombings just like I had my Pawns doing.


    ¡®Any thoughts on why the Robot Maker is helping out like this? It seems out of character from what we¡¯ve seen.¡¯ Ddraig asked out of the blue.


    I frowned at that. ¡®You don¡¯t normally care about these kinds of things.¡¯


    ¡®I don¡¯t but I¡¯m also trying to figure out if your anger is natural or something like what happened during the fight with White and that knight. I needed you to slow down a bit to make sure.¡¯


    I actually blinked in surprise at the dragon¡¯s answer before I realized he was following through on his promise to keep an eye on my emotions back when we got hit by Gallant¡¯s emotion altering blast a while ago.


    ¡®Ah, thanks for that but that¡¯s all natural. I REALLY don¡¯t like it when innocent people are dragged into other¡¯s fights.¡¯ I mentally replied. ¡®And as for your first question, it¡¯s basically a no-lose situation for him to help out. It would be more surprising if he didn¡¯t actually.¡¯


    ¡®Hrmm?¡¯


    ¡®Yeah, I¡¯m making some assumptions but if Wiley is actually interested in winning the tournament we got thrown into he would want to be in the news as much as possible, his robots saving people is going to make that happen. Especially since the mettools and joes are projections of some kind. He can send them out to do things like rescue or bomb disposal without caring how many get destroyed in the process.¡¯The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.


    It didn¡¯t matter what persona he used now or going forward either. I was proof that just because someone looked like a certain character, that didn¡¯t mean the personality would match. Wiley could be someone just playing up the mad scientist role, the actual personality, or someone darker and people would still be praising him over the gang that just launched a terror attack on the city. As long as he didn¡¯t do something worse than Bakuda he could flood the city with his minions and there wouldn¡¯t be an escalation in how the authorities tried to handle him until the ABB were dealt with. During which I had no doubt he would be making better and stronger Robot Masters.


    My thoughts drifted to the idea of another Elecman, stronger than the one we encountered at the mall. Despite the current situation and my own admittedly bad mood, I couldn¡¯t help but feel a little excited about potentially having a full on tournament between Wiley¡¯s robots and my Peerage.


    I shook my head. That would have to wait for later.


    For now I needed to head back home and start planning what to do next now that the ABB had gone to ground.


    -o-


    When I did get back to the mansion, I was greeted only by Dinah and the members of my Peerage. It seemed that New Wave had decided to temporarily bury the hatchet and work together, minus Amy, and had gone back home for the night.


    They weren¡¯t the only ones missing either.


    It seemed like it should be obvious, but the PRT troopers that had been camping out in front of the house had also cleared out now that there was something much more important for them to do. But they had also been there for over a week instead of going after the more active, actually criminal gangs in the city so I figured I was allowed to be pleasantly surprised common sense won out for a change.


    But after a few quick questions revealed that no one had any urgent information to pass on and everyone was uninjured we all agreed to take a few hours to clean up before we did anything else.


    I had to admit, the feeling of hot water pouring over me did a lot to help calm me down after everything I had seen today. I was still pissed at the ABB for doing what they did, but it wasn¡¯t at the front of my thoughts anymore.


    Freshly cleaned and dressed in a set of fluffy sweatpants and a t-shirt I joined Alex and Gloria on the couch while we waited for everyone else to filter in. Half an hour later Sam stomped out only to return a few minutes later dragging a noticeably wet Clover behind her.


    ¡°Rude, much.¡± The blonde grumbled as she took a seat.


    ¡°You went in ten minutes before I did, and Rias went after me.¡± Sam replied, unrepentant. ¡°You can soak yourself as long as you want once we¡¯re done.¡±


    ¡°Well, we¡¯re all here now.¡± I jumped in before an argument, good natured or otherwise, could begin. ¡°I know it¡¯s been a really crappy day so I¡¯ll keep this short. Let¡¯s go around and summarize what happened after we left the casino. We can leave the in-depth stuff and what we are going to do next for the morning.¡±


    I went on to fill everyone in on what I saw throughout the city. The bomb sites, the few ABB members I was able to capture, Wiley¡¯s robots, and a few other things that caught my eye without going into too much detail.


    Sam, Alex, and Clover had pretty much the same story as me, except since they couldn¡¯t teleport on their own most of their time was spent in a smaller area than what I covered. They did end up working alongside a few fire crews though and apparently had helped out a good bit.


    Gloria didn¡¯t have much to share since she had mostly been focused on making sure Amy was okay while she was at the hospital and that no one decided to take advantage of the chaos to drag her off while we were busy.


    When it was Amy¡¯s turn was when the first screwball headed our way.


    ¡°Hold on,¡± I said, raising my hand at her. ¡°Are you saying that you were able to establish a contract just by offering to heal people?¡±


    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m guessing you didn¡¯t know that was possible?¡± The brunette scowled back.


    ¡°I mean, I knew we could offer services and stuff, but I figured it would need to be more clearly stated to count. But I¡¯m not super clear on what counts as a contract.¡± I admitted. ¡°I only really made the one by accident with your cousin.¡±


    ¡°Any guesses then? You¡¯re the best expert we have for this kind of thing.¡± Sam asked.


    ¡°Oh! Maybe it¡¯s because of Amy¡¯s mindset? Like, she considered it her responsibility to heal someone when she asks and that makes it a contract?¡± Clover jumped in, getting everyone to look at her.


    ¡°...what? I think it could happen¡­¡±


    I shook my head at her. ¡°Honestly, it''s not a bad idea. Hell, it could actually be what¡¯s happening. We¡¯ll just need to experiment in the future and be careful about what we promise or offer people until we figure out what¡¯s going on. I don¡¯t want one of us getting trapped in a bad deal because we misworded something.¡±


    Amy raised a hand. ¡°I don¡¯t think we need to worry about that too much. I only felt a slight compulsion to heal at the hospital and I felt like I could ignore it or even break the deal at any point. And that was with me explicitly offering my services. I¡¯m more worried about what that means about me healing in the future. Am I only going to be able to do that when it directly benefits me?¡±


    I was about to say something flippant when I caught the look on Amy¡¯s face. She was actually upset by this.


    ¡°Did you not get paid by the hospital for your help before?¡± Gloria asked, which I was grateful for since it bought me some time to think.


    ¡°Yeah, but it was put aside in a trust fund. I was there as a volunteer and for hero work, not to get paid or anything. And Carol said¡­¡±


    I narrowed my eyes when my Bishop suddenly clammed up about her adoptive mother and exchanged a few looks with the others. We all knew that Amy¡¯s family life hadn¡¯t been the healthiest. It looked like this was another aspect of that we were going to need to work on.


    ¡°Well, look at it this way.¡± I suggested. ¡°Growing your powers by helping people isn¡¯t them paying you for your work. It¡¯s an investment so you can do more when you need to.¡±


    Her face eased a bit. ¡°Right, I can¡¯t just keep using my powers anymore¡­yeah, that helps. Thanks Rias.¡±


    Don¡¯t thank me for that. I¡¯m going to make sure you don¡¯t fall into the habit of thinking your only worth is how many people you can heal again. Even if I have to run you into the ground so you don¡¯t even have the energy to think about healing.


    ¡°Carl, anything on your end?¡±


    ¡°Not much. I think I¡¯m getting closer on building a jamming device that will stop any detonation signal Bakuda sends, but it¡¯s pretty short range. No luck on finding her or the ABB either, sorry.¡±


    I shook my head. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, you¡¯re doing the best you can and we all got blindsided by this. Hopefully they make a mistake soon and we can get the jump on them but that can wait till tomorrow.¡±


    From there my Peerage split off to do their own thing. Most of them wandered off towards the bedrooms or the kitchen and I saw Carl heading back towards the garage. I decided to hang back so I could check on the wards I had in place. The last thing I wanted was Bakuda or Oni Lee thinking they could slip a bomb in here whenever they wanted and they had already proven they wouldn¡¯t hesitate to go lethal at this point.


    ¡°Ah, R-rias?¡±


    It seemed like I wasn¡¯t the only one hanging back either.


    ¡°Yeah, Dinah?¡±


    ¡°Why didn¡¯t you ask me to use my powers to help you find the ABB?¡±


    Well for one, I didn¡¯t exactly trust precogs. They either failed at the most inconvenient times or very quickly became a crutch. And two, I didn¡¯t want to start using a twelve-year-old as a magic eight ball.


    I didn¡¯t say either of those out loud though.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t want you pushing yourself.¡± I said instead. ¡°You were helping Carl here right? I bet you burned most of your questions for the day, right?¡±


    Dinah nodded reluctantly before putting on a determined face. ¡°Yeah, but I can answer one more today. It won¡¯t even hurt that much.¡±


    I felt my eye twitch. The correct amount of pain for using your own God ¨C ow ¨C damned powers was zero. Stupid fucking Worm¡­


    But I could tell she was going to push this.


    ¡°Okay, one question then and we can try again in the morning. What are the chances that the ABB keeps their bombing spree going tomorrow?¡±


    Dinah winced as her power kicked in. ¡°86.375 percent.¡±


    Well, damnit. I had hoped Lung would reign in Bakuda for a day or two before realizing she had painted a target on the entire gang¡¯s back the rest of the city couldn¡¯t ignore any longer and doubled down, but I guess we were going to be dealing with more of this shit tomorrow too.


    I thanked Dinah and sent her off to bed before heading off to make sure the house¡¯s defenses were solid and then heading to bed myself.


    I had the feeling I was going to need to be well rested for whatever happened tomorrow.

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 43

    "...in other news, the bombing spree orchestrated by the criminal Parahuman gang the ''Azn Bad Boyz'' continues into its sixth day as the city reels from the disruption of public services. Despite the best efforts of local law enforcement, the Parahuman responsible remains at large.


    "We here at BBTV recommend that everyone continues to stay in their homes and reduce unnecessary trips as much as possible until the bomber can be brought to justice.


    "Hospitals and rescue teams are available to¨C"


    I turned the TV off and pinched the bridge of my nose. "I know. I know. We''re trying to do something about it, dammit, but she keeps hiding!"


    Dinah had been technically correct about the bombing spree continuing, but the gang had shifted from drive-bys and direct attacks to pre-planted explosives scattered all over the city which made our previous method of hunting the gang members in hopes of finding Bakuda pretty hopeless.


    What made it worse was that she was really good at avoiding us too.


    Sam had come up with a really clever way to use Dinah''s limited number of questions and a map to section off the city and ask what the chances Bakuda was in a certain sector, but by the time we would narrow down the most likely area Dinah would be spent and even when we''d head out to investigate it was pretty easy for the ABB to simply move Bakuda once someone spotted us before we could get there.


    None of us knew what she looked like after all, so she could simply stay out of sight or ditch her costume entirely and we''d have to chase down every vaguely asian girl in the area to see if she was the crazy cape blowing everything up.


    Then she would move to a different safehouse and we''d need to start again the next day.


    It was incredibly frustrating because I never wanted to get sucked into this kind of thing. The whole hero/villian dynamic with actual consequences.


    I wanted to be more of a professional nuisance or entertainer, to set up playfights over the bay, play with magic, and eventually fill out my Peerage. Not spend my days hunting down a psychopath that thought melting people with implanted bombs was a reasonable thing to do because the local heroes needed all the help they could get.


    Not that they were all that interested in our help.


    We''d initially tried feeding them the same information from Dinah by leaking it through Crystal, but it was either ignored or never reached the PRT leadership to begin with for some reason because they never got back to us or acted on it. I initially suspected that Coil was messing things up in the background, because that sounded like something he would do, but Crystal had handed over some of it to Battery directly and I doubted he could or would overtly control a Protectorate hero with everything going on. That would bring down way too much attention on him and went against his normal methods. Though considering how off I''d been in places ¨C I was referring to a lot of my memories of Worm, especially small details, with a whole pile of salt.


    So the only reason the PRT wasn''t working with us had to be¨C


    "Hey Rias! You still sulking in here?" Clover announced herself by barging into my room followed by the rest of my pawns.


    I immediately frowned at her. "I wasn''t sulking."


    ''You kinda were.'' Ddraig added unhelpfully. "Psh, you totally were." and was immediately reinforced by my Pawn.


    "I wasn''t! If anything I was brooding¡­" I tried to defend myself from the two annoyances, only to be betrayed by the others as they giggled at me.


    Gloria was the first to recover. "Sorry Rias, but only cool, calm, and collected people can brood. You? You''re definitely sulking."


    Traitors on all sides¡­


    "Hey, I can be all those things!"


    "If you say so," Clover scoffed as she and Gloria grabbed me by the arms and started pushing me towards the door. "Now come on, we took a vote and decided today is going to be a relaxation day. No plans, no training, no sulking in front of the giant conspiracy board."


    I gave everyone an incredulous look at the crazy talk, but they all seem to agree with that plan. "You know the city is exploding, right? Kinda hard to relax with that going on."


    Alex took my hand and helped pull me down the hallway while the two blondes gave me a push from behind, mostly for show because I wasn''t really putting up a fight despite the manhandling. "Yeah, but we''ve been totally focused on stopping that for like a week straight and we''re just going in circles now. You need a change of pace unless you want to break that brain of yours."If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Recognising that I was outnumbered and none of them were going to change their mind, I simply sighed. "Alright, what''s your big plan for us to all relax then, huh?"


    "Parian is having a puppet show in one of the parks the PRT cleared. We figured you could unwind and then check in with her if you wanted. After that we''ll hit up the mall and stop by that spa parlor. I heard they''re still open for walk-ins."


    Okay, I could agree that sounded like fun. Not the kinda thing I''d do normally, but that was kinda the point right now.


    There was just one problem.


    "How is anyone approving public shows in a park with Bakuda bombing everything?" Because that sounded like the kind of career ending mistake that anyone in authority would be allergic to.


    Naturally, as the only other person who thought of things like that, Sam had an answer for me. "Apparently the PRT has some kind of Tinkertech detector Armsmaster and Kid Win whipped up for security. They''ll be able to stop any attacks before they happen."


    I was slightly doubtful about that. I wasn''t exactly sure how quickly a Tinker could make something like that, but less than a week seemed like a stretch. And if they did have something like that, why was it being used for something like a puppet show instead of sweeping the city for explosives?


    "According to the webpage it''s too big and heavy to really move. Plus it works better when it stays still. Something about better readings." Sam clarified when I asked.


    Okay, now I was almost certain the detector wasn''t actually a real thing. But as long as it gave people some illusion of protection I wasn''t going to make a fuss out of it. If the PRT wanted to gamble what remained of its reputation, who was I to say otherwise?


    Besides, it would be nice to see Parian again.


    -o-


    The show was an interesting mix of professional and completely amateur.


    The plot was super generic but not uninteresting. The voice actors playing the parts put a decent amount of emotion into their lines but they mistimed things here and there and occasionally the sound guy would start a song early or late which caused some awkward parts. The actual visual portion was almost entirely done by Parian beyond some small confetti effects at certain points. It made the show incredibly realistic¡­up until the doll cape lost track of some of the background puppets that would stand completely still for a scene when everything else would dance around until she remembered to move it.


    There was clearly some kind of multitasking aspect to her ability, but there was definitely a limit.


    Still, it was lighthearted and fun and I could definitely say I enjoyed it. So did my peerage going by their own expressions and the amount of applause happening right by my ear.


    It wasn''t something I could see myself watching too much but it had the same street performer charm that allowed me to overlook the flaws and just enjoy the show. And I could tell that a lot of the other people in the crowd were trying to do the same. A lot of them were just a little too focused on the show to be actually relaxing or were more interested in scanning the surroundings to actually be paying attention. There were also a lot of flinches from any sudden bangs, but people were trying to relax.


    So when the show ended and people started to filter out, me and the girls decided to hang back and see if we could meet up with Parian. I wanted to give her props for putting herself out there during this whole mess to help in her own way.


    "Let me guess, this is some kind of recruitment offer. Something I should accept for my own well being."


    Which is why I was a little confused by the mildly hostile reception from the doll cape.


    "Um, no?" I furrowed my brows and looked at the others. "We just wanted to say thanks for the show. Why did you think this was a recruitment offer?"


    Parian bristled a bit and a few of her puppets moved between us. "Oh, please. You realize most of your costumes are a bodysuit and domino mask? I''d have to be completely oblivious to not know who all of you are, Lucifer. Why else would you bring the rest of your gang to my event if not for a show of force?" I got the impression she was glaring at me through her mask. "I can''t believe you are trying to pull this with everything going on right now!"


    ¡­


    Ah, she was jumping to conclusions again. Except this time instead of assuming I was Empire trying to recruit her, I was going to press her to join my Peerage.


    Welp you know what they say about assuming. It was time to twist that irony knife again.


    "Oh, I''ve been going kinda crazy trying to stop the terrorist that thinks implanting bombs into the heads of her followers is a good idea. My friends thought I needed a break and decided we needed to spend the day doing something as far from that as possible and dragged me here because it''s one of the few public shows in the city right now." I smiled angelically at her. "Besides, even if my secret identity is paper thin I do respect those rules if the other side does. I''m just here as plain old Rias Gemory. It''s nice to meet you though. We really did enjoy the show."


    I held out a hand for a handshake that Parian just looked at for a while before slumping a bit.


    "...I jumped to conclusions again, didn''t I?" She groaned.


    I nodded. "Little bit. I''m guessing some others have pressured you to join up?"


    "Yeah. The E88 again and the PRT." She said in a much more subdued fashion.


    "Eh, no worries." I shrugged and let my hand fall back to my side when it was clear she wasn''t going to take it. "If you''re being bothered by those two groups I can understand why you''d be suspicious. Anyway, I don''t think you know the girls, this is¡­"


    As I introduced everyone, Parian began to actually relax and even made some polite noises back. I think she was beginning to realize this really wasn''t some kind of elaborate recruitment attempt and really was my group just going somewhere to unwind.


    I think she might have a bit of a persecution complex but I wasn''t going to say anything. When you had Nazis constantly telling you that you would be perfect in their group while secretly being everything they raved against, it was bound to make you at least a little paranoid.


    And as the rest of my group talked I realized she might have been on to something because there were some people hanging around that going by their clothes seemed like they could be Empire and were unsubtly listening in on us.


    I was just about to suggest that we move somewhere else to either force our watchers to leave or draw the attention of the PRT agents acting as security when I noticed a stern looking older man walk up to one of them who was quickly pointed in our direction. The one doing the pointing seemed deferent to the newcomer too. Someone higher up in the Empire?


    And he was making a beeline for us too. Something that our entire group noticed once they realized I wasn''t paying attention to something and followed where I was looking.


    "Hey, buddy. Whatever you have to say, we aren''t interested." Clover said confrontationally once the man was obviously undeterred by everyone watching him get closer. Alex and Sam moved to stand between the man and Parian while Gloria stepped forward to support Clover and I tensed to move in any direction as the man reached inside his jacket to pull out¡­a letter.


    "A message from Kaiser." The man said, never taking his eyes off of me and holding out the paper. "A meeting has been called to discuss how to respond to the ABB''s actions. Feel free to ignore it, but any action to support the¡­undesirables," I had to hold myself back from punching him because I could have sworn his eyes glanced at Alex for a moment, "would be ill-advised. The details are inside."


    I glanced through the invitation and was unsurprised to see it was the details for Somer''s Rock. I had initially thought we just hadn''t been invited to the villain''s meeting for one reason or another but apparently it just hadn''t happened yet. The bigger issue was that the whole thing was scheduled for tonight.


    "Fine. I''ll be there." I said flatly. The man nodded, turned on his heel and walked off. The other Empire members trailing after him.


    I guess that meant we weren''t headed to the mall today. And that our relaxation time was done too.


    What a bummer.

 The Devil of Brockton Bay - Chapter 44

    ¡°Okay,¡± I stated as I walked to the head of the table to stand by the whiteboard ¨C a recent addition I was only a little excited to use as a prop, considering the situation. ¡°We have a supervillain meeting in a few hours. We need a plan.¡±


    ¡°Can it be ¡®don¡¯t go¡¯?¡± Amy asked sarcastically. ¡°Walking into a room filled with Supervillains sounds like a bad idea.¡±


    I looked back at her. ¡°Depends, has the PRT decided to reach out or work with us at all?¡±


    She mumbled a bit before saying out loud, ¡°No. Or at least nothing Vicky, Crystal, or Erik heard about.¡±


    ¡°Right, and that¡¯s a problem. Because it sounds like even the gangs are fed up with the ABB making a mess everywhere and are coming together to do something about it. We need to cooperate somewhere or we¡¯re just going to stumble into things if we keep going after Bakuda. And stumbling when explosives are involved sounds like a really bad idea. And the villains were the ones to ask.¡± I wasn¡¯t particularly thrilled at the idea of working beside Nazis and drug dealers/addicts either but we weren¡¯t getting much of a choice here.


    ¡°Besides, when are we gonna get the chance to see every villain in the city without a major fight going on?¡± Alex commented, which got Clover to give her a high five and a cheerful ¡®right?!¡¯


    Gloria and Carl looked much less excited about the whole thing.


    ¡°I¡¯ve got two questions.¡± Carl started, pointing at me. ¡°First, why are you wearing glasses?¡±


    I huffed at the question, crossing my arms under my bust and pushing the fake clear rimmed glasses further up my nose with one hand. ¡°They make me feel smart.¡±


    Carl¡¯s mouth twitched like he really wanted to comment on that part, but he was the one member of my Peerage that was least likely to get distracted by any antics I pulled ¨C which made the whole thing funnier to me ¨C and continued on to his second question. ¡°That¨C okay, second, what are we expecting to get out of a meeting?¡±


    That was a question I had been expecting, but honestly? I didn¡¯t have a strong plan going into this.


    There were going to be a lot of ¡®big¡¯ personalities at this meeting. Kaiser, Hookwolf, Skidmark, Coil¡­possibly Wily¡­


    And those were only the people I know were in the city. There could be more like me or even people that migrated in because of the chaos across the world the other contestants had kicked up.


    And all of them would be demanding to get what they want. The ABB dealt with and whatever little deals they could slip in that would benefit them.


    Ideally, we would just agree to put aside everything irrelevant until they were dealt with but like I mentioned. Nazis and drug addicts. And while my Peerage was a match for nearly any one of the groups going to the meeting and I was more or less a league above them, the difference wasn¡¯t great enough that I could just sit down and start demanding things. That would just have them all teaming up against us.


    Of course everyone else should know that too, which meant compromise was going to be the word of the day. And ¨C bleh ¨C compromising with literal nazis.


    I shook my head and refocused. ¡°This meeting is probably going to be about organizing everyone against the ABB so one of the easy things to expect is a formalized non-aggression agreement,¡± I said writing it on the whiteboard under a section labeled ¡®Goals¡¯. ¡°Amy has a point about working with most of them being a bad idea. I wouldn¡¯t put it past Kaiser or Coil trying to engineer things to work against the other groups if they could. The thing is everyone else will know that too. So something like an agreement that would have everyone target the aggressor would be nice but I doubt most groups will agree.¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡± Alex asked and it was actually Sam that answered.


    ¡°It¡¯s too easy to take advantage of.¡± My fellow redhead replied. ¡°Someone could accuse the smaller groups of intentionally attacking them to get everyone else to target them and there wouldn¡¯t be enough time to investigate. We¡¯d need to either trust them and attack on their word or ignore it and accept a blow to our reputation. And for most villain groups their rep is incredibly important.¡±Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    ¡°Exactly,¡± I nodded. ¡°So while actual consequences would be nice, the most we are likely to get is just an agreement to not attack each other without anything really backing it up. Still, better to have it than not.


    ¡°The other thing is likely to be setting up communications between groups. Easy enough with our communication spell, and we might be able to wring some concessions for using it.¡± I added ¡®Communication¡¯ under goals. ¡°And the final thing is hopefully going to be ¡®Targets¡¯.¡± I added a third item. ¡°That¡¯s been our biggest issue so far because we can¡¯t exactly go around breaking into random buildings hoping to run into looking for the ABB capes even with Dinah¡¯s help. They could just lay low until we left, but with this many people hunting for them we should be able to flush them out much easier.¡±


    ¡°Huh, that¡¯s not a lot.¡± Clover mused. ¡°I thought there¡¯d be more to it.¡±


    ¡°They¡¯re villains.¡± Amy said darkly. ¡°Of course they¡¯d barely be able to work together.¡±


    ¡°Um, Amy, technically we¡¯re villains too, you know?¡± Alex hesitantly pointed out.


    ¡°Oh please, you know that¡¯s not the same thing.¡±


    Well, it seemed like Amy¡¯s villain hangups were still a thing. Not exactly a surprise considering who raised her and things like that rarely just went away overnight. Definitely something to keep an eye on though. I¡¯d thought she¡¯d mellowed out more but I guess it was because despite the Peerage being ¡®Villains¡¯ she already knew some of us and we didn¡¯t exactly go around committing crimes. It seemed other villains didn¡¯t get the same consideration just yet.


    Though to be fair the only group going to be at this meeting I didn¡¯t have an inherent dislike for were the Undersiders and maybe Fautline¡¯s Crew.


    We¡¯d have to socialize her with some more acceptable villains later¡­you know, when I could find some.


    Speaking of villains though, ¡°The next thing we should go over are the groups and what we think they are going to want.¡± I said adding the groups to the board. ¡°We might not be able to do anything about what they want at the meeting, but it will help us keep track of issues for the future.¡±


    ¡°The Empire¡¯s going to want territory.¡± This time it was Gloria¡¯s turn to mutter darkly. ¡°They¡¯ve been trying to push the ABB out for years. No way a bunch of Nazis are going to leave a bunch of ¡®undesirables¡¯ alone once the gang is gone.¡±


    ¡°Same with the Merchants.¡± I added, writing the relevant info on the board. ¡°They¡¯re a bunch of bottomfeeders but that just means they won¡¯t hesitate to move in and try getting as many people hooked on their poison as possible before the white hats can organize enough to suppress them.¡±


    ¡°What about Coil?¡± Clover asked. ¡°He¡¯s the one that¡¯s been around the longest after those two right? What would he want?¡±


    Besides Dinah and control of the city? I couldn¡¯t say.


    Literally couldn¡¯t say, it turned out, as my jaw locked up under the geass so there would be no hints from my side about this which the others either missed or took as me not having any ideas.


    ¡°Maybe the ABB¡¯s money? He has a bunch of mercenaries, right? That has to be expensive.¡±


    ¡°They wouldn¡¯t have that just lying around though.¡±


    ¡°Maybe Lung¡¯s gold stash?¡±


    ¡°Oh please, he¡¯s not an actual dragon. Besides, where would he have gotten it?¡±


    ¡°Bakuda transmutation bomb?¡±


    ¡°If she were that smart we wouldn¡¯t be dealing with her bombing the city.¡±


    ¡°Well what about¡­¡±


    Everyone continued throwing ideas about what Coil would want even though things quickly went off the rails. It was actually pretty fun.


    But unfortunately we didn¡¯t have an unlimited amount of time to mess around so we had to move on by just putting ¡®Money(?)¡¯ under Coil¡¯s name and the same for Faultline¡¯s Crew. As a mercenary group that primarily operated outside the city, there simply wasn¡¯t much else the Crew could realistically want without changing how they operated significantly.


    And as for everyone else¡­


    ¡°Aren¡¯t they too small-time to want anything?¡± Carl frowned at the Undersiders¡¯ name. ¡°They¡¯re around Gloria¡¯s age too so it¡¯s not like they¡¯d be after territory or the businesses in the area. It¡¯d just be money again, right?¡±


    ¡°I dunno, I¡¯ve always thought I could run the city better than the people in charge now. The Undersiders could totally demand territory for themselves. Maybe Hellhound will open a dog park!¡±


    A part of me was laughing in metaknowledge while the rest went through the motions of adding things to the board.


    This was turning out to be mostly useless since no one other than me had any deeper insight into the gangs than what most people in the city had and I was apparently banned from sharing. Still, it was turning into a fun exercise as the board slowly filled up with more and more nonsense.


    It was relaxing though. And after our interrupted day out, it was something I felt we all needed. So instead of trying to wrestle the meeting into a more serious track, I just let things happen. Even if that meant we basically wasted time until it was time to leave for the meeting.


    -o-


    ¡°Jeez, this place is kinda a dump, huh?¡± Clover muttered as we walked up to the bar the meeting was supposed to be at.


    ¡°Yeah, it helps keep normal people from wandering into these kinds of meetings.¡± Sam explained. ¡°Plus it makes sense to do this at a place nobody attending the meeting would normally hang out at so it''s neutral ground. Theoretically anyway.¡±


    I gave her a look. ¡°That¡¯s¡­right, actually. How did you know?¡±


    She puffed out her chest. ¡°I¡¯ve read a lot of spy thriller books. Meetings like this are pretty common in those!¡±


    ¡°...¡± Everyone couldn¡¯t help but stare at her a bit.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know what I expected.¡±


    Thanks to that, though, we were about as relaxed as we could be when walking into a room filled with criminals and murderers.


    Opening the door to Somer¡¯s Rock I saw we were actually a little late to the party.


    Kaiser from the Empire 88, Grue from the Undersiders, Coil, Faultline, and some Baron Sabadi looking guy in a black costume, red mask and a tophat were seated in a center table while their teams were sitting in surrounding booths except for Coil who had apparently come alone. I also noticed three Merchant capes in the room including their leader Skidmark, but they had retreated to a booth instead of the table.


    Looks like we missed some drama already.


    Notably, I didn¡¯t see any independents around though. I didn¡¯t know if they simply hadn¡¯t been invited or chose not to attend but the biggest surprise was I didn¡¯t see Wily in the building at all. I thought for sure he would have at least sent a Robot Master or body double but apparently not.


    Was he going to leave dealing with the ABB to the rest of the villains or was he planning on making a move on his own?


    ¡°And the Peerage makes the last group.¡± Coil spoke in an annoyingly smooth tone as if he had been continuing a conversation that had begun before we entered.


    After being called out like that we couldn¡¯t exactly loiter in the doorway anymore so I headed towards the table while Alex, Sam, and Clover went to claim one of the empty booths. We had decided against bringing more people for a variety of reasons which meant I only had my original three Pawns with me. Which would be plenty considering we hadn¡¯t planned on a fight.


    ¡°Apologies for being late,¡± I replied carelessly as I sank into an empty seat, my tone indicating I wasn¡¯t actually sorry. ¡°Shall we begin then?¡±