I'd spent most of yesterday shopping for gear, netting myself a large cache of small, broadcast capable cameras and earpieces capable of picking up signals from up to half a kilometer away, perfectly fitting with my summons roaming range as well as a trench coat and fabric supplies.
I'd spent today making myself a costume, infusing the trench coat with metal slime goop and then hardening it. I'd made a few mistakes with the electric current, resulting in a few blackened spots, but those were pretty hard to see on the dark fabric. The outfit was completed by a flat cap and a mask that covered most of my face. I remembered reading about a conversation between Green Lantern and the Flash once where they talked about the various methods of concealing one's identity. Hal Jordan had scoffed at the idea that his tiny domino mask could be less effective than that of Kyle Rainier, the newest of Earth's Green Lanterns, who's mask covered his face from his upper lip to his hairline.
I'd chosen to go with one in Rainier's style. It was funny what one thought about in situations like this, really. At the end of the day though, this was not my costume's final form. Once I got my hands on more summons, I could make a proper costume and I'd always have Ferro waiting in the wings if things went south. I'd also changed Inky's tattoo form so that she now flowed down my right arm, my closed fist now looking like the head of a roaring tiger. It wouldn't do for someone to connect the tattoo to my civilian life. Besides, having a visible tattoo in my as of yet unnamed cape persona that Wyatt Reyes, unemployed civilian, lacked would provide an extra layer of anonymity.
Gazing out across the street my stomach was a roiling knot of fear and anxiety. A couple of skinheads were loitering on the car park in front of an unused looking office building.
Shade had been roaming around for hours and apparently, this was the only place where these guys had been consistently. In addition, civilians had been avoiding this are for a long time as well, indicating that they frequented this area. Add in the fact that people had been come and gone several times, talking to the people in front strongly indicated that the building was inhabited by the Empire. The building was still perfectly serviceable but did not look like an actual company was still using it. There was no sign or even a small plaque next to the mailbox to indicate who owned it, I'd made sure of that using a pair of binoculars.
A small tablet lay on the roof in front of me, three different feeds, one from each of my current summons except Inky. Three short range radios sat in front of me, each tuned in to a different wavelength. Each of my creatures had, Frogger, Shade and the Fairy had an earpiece tuned to one of these wavelengths and the volume turned all the way down taped to them. Maybe someone could pick them up, but I'd made sure to give each of them a set of preset commands with individual words attached to these orders. Even if someone was listening in, they wouldn't get much.
I picked up the one linked to Shade.
"Distraction"
Shade would now drop out of the sky, knock over some trash cans in the alley bellow me and head back up, all while cloaked. Right on cue, a loud clattering sound reached me from bellow. As the gang members jumped in surprise and turned to look my fairy shot across the road and landed on the opposite roof. Sadly, the celestial theme wasn't the best in terms of stealth, but it sufficed given that right now, no one was looking up. Besides, few enough people paid as much attention to things above him as they did to ground level.
As I watched her land, a new summon became available. A friggin Phoenix. Not only that, but it was big enough to be ridden and could carry me through the sky with each.
Sadly, there was no way I could summon it right now, a gigantic flaming bird was the very antithesis of stealth but goddamn, unless I died tonight, I would be heading out first thing in the morning to try that out.
I watched on the monitor as the Fairy inched her way through an air vent from the roof and into the building. It took her several minutes to get a look at what looked like a stash room. Part of me had expected something akin to a dragon's hoard, drugs cash and maybe a few jewels thrown in for good measure piled high in the middle of the room. That was obviously not he case. Several clear boxes of neatly packaged pill bottles dominated one corner of the room, probably manufactured after hours using Medhall facilities. A large safe sat in a different corner, presumably containing most of the valuables. Crap.
Fortunately, plenty cash sat on the table in the third corner. Seemingly, someone had been in the middle of packaging the cash into nice, neat bundles and left halfway through. Seemingly even gangsters had set hours. The fairy began to slowly unscrew the grate upon my order and started transferring the cash to the vent. Getting into the safe would be difficult, but I had an idea. However, I needed to first set up the supplies for my other plans. I didn't just want to deprive them of money and drugs, I also wanted to screw with and humiliate them. That took nearly ten minutes but having Shade available for that helped. His method of camouflage, namely bending light in the visible spektrum around himself, meant he could not have hidden the fairy with his body, but was perfectly capable of transporting black or dark grey electronics across the street without being seen.
The final problem was getting Frogger across. I was tempted to just say "screw it" and have Shade carry him across and hope no one looked up, but then again, he wouldn't be around long so I could risk having him in his normal form. Shade was currently also in his constellation form, but he didn't shine while cloaked. In the end, I decided to go with the plan of summoning him normally. I gave him his orders verbally while he was still physically next to me and then sent him across. A few minutes after that, thing got heated.
Frogger had managed to shove himself between the wheel that was used to open the safe and the safe itself. Apparently the Empire wasn't a fan of newer safes with digital locks. Then I detonated him.
A brief test with Sapphire yesterday showed that my Explosive Finish power produced pure force, a powerful shockwave centered on the place the creature had been as opposed to the fiery blast I'd expected. After a few seconds, I sent the Fairy back towards the room to take a look. The ground was cracked beneath the safe, which was ever so slowly tipping over until it crashed to the ground. I saw that the wheel had been torn of, but the safe was still looked. Good luck trying to get your stuff back jackasses. Sadly, I wouldn't be getting anything either, but I'd already stolen a bunch of stuff lying around and hidden them in the air vents to be retrieved later. Now was the time to pull a different stunt. Amongst the stuff I'd sent over with Shade had been a 250 ml bottle of Deathgripper acid I'd harvested using material extraction, which she now poured all over the interior of the room. There wasn't enough to completely melt everything, but it was enough to thoroughly ruin everything.
In the meantime, I reached down and hit a button on a remote lying next to the radio.
A Song began to play. At first it was just vaguely threatening instrumentals, but then the volume suddenly doubled as the song began in earnest.
"Ich hab Rassisten schon immer verachtet, fremde Kulturen aus einer anderen Sicht betrachtet …" Multikulturell by the German Dark Metall Band Nachtblut. The title meant "multicultural" and the lyrics, well, … if I were a Nazi under who's ass a friggin bomb had just gone off, that song would be the very last thing I wanted to hear.
Everybody I could see was jumping around, swearing and generally acting like chickens with their heads cut off. Precisely one guy had kept his wits around him and was frantically calling someone on his phone. The video cameras I had had my Fairy spread throughout the air vents recorded every bit of the chaos.
I sat up there for a few minutes, watching someone enter the saferoom and throw up their hand in shock as they saw the devastation. He reached for a half molten pill bottle only to yank his hand back with a cry of pain as the acid started to eat into his flesh.
In the meantime, a car pulled up and a man wearing something I recognized as an SS uniform and skull mask got out. That had to be Krieg, right? There was nothing in canon about what he wore, but the SS uniform was common in fanfiction and it fit him, particularly as I knew every single one of the other E88 capes' costume except his and none of them wore that. Plus, he was from Germany originally and a hardcore Neo-Nazi who truly believed in the cause, unlike Kaiser or Hookwolf, who used it as a rallying point or an excuse for violence, respectively.
He headed inside, then froze as he finally noticed the blaring music. Just as it so happened, he was standing right beneath a camera when he realized what the lyrics were and started swearing. When I posted that video on PHO later, I could subtitle a whole five minutes worth of footage with just "very bad words".
Krieg stormed through the building snapping at everyone and everything, until he saw the saferoom and froze in shock, then let loose another set of vile insults.
A new power briefly made itself known as I watched. I was now a fantastic animal trainer. Which was actually pretty useful, the ability to train my creatures instead of having to give exceedingly detailed orders when I wanted them to do something.
Krieg was slowly calming down and ordered the skinheads now clustered around him to find the sound speakers.
In the meantime, my fairy had pushed the loot deeper into the air vents so it wouldn't be seen when they grabbed the cameras and loudspeakers, which were placed right behind he grates, then I dismissed her. I could leave it there and retrieve it later. The electronics had been purchased with cash, wiped down to remove my fingerprints and anything my creatures had left behind would disappear when they did, I wasn't particularly worried about leaving them behind.
As far as E88 was concerned, someone had snuck through their base, placed electronics everywhere without being noticed and bombed their valuables using a corrosive substance.
After disconnecting the electronics, I headed down the fire escape, which was located on the opposite side of the building from the Nazis. Just before I exited the alleyway on the opposite end of the block, I removed my mask and cap and hid them in my backpack. Now I looked like just a random guy in his early twenties wearing a trench coat during a chilly early Spring night. Once I reached my car, another two blocks away, I drove home and immediately downloaded the footage onto my laptop.
Editing the clip together took another five hours and it was morning by the time I finished, but it was worth it. The clip came out to around six minutes, the exact length of the song. I'd removed the song from the audio track of the individual clips and then underlaid the whole video with the song once in its entirety instead of the random snippets involved. Then I added a crudely drawn picture of an eagle with its head shaved a swastika tattooed on its check spinning in a circle, trying to get at a loudspeaker tied to its back.
The video itself was utter chaos and showed the so-called "defenders of the white race"'s , I think I threw up a little in my mouth just thinking that, incompetence in clear and excruciating detail. Kaiser would hit the roof when he found out about that.
I'd give it a couple of days, then see if I could contact Tattletale and get the location of Coil's base and then send that information along with a warning to Kaiser. Maybe the added pressure of needing to deal with whoever had embarrassed his gang would spur him into action or maybe it wouldn't. Either way the Empire would not be able to reuse that safehouse for a while due to how much attention it had gotten and it had to have lost a fair bit of resources in the safe when I'd poured acid over it. Come to think of it, I should have just melted it open and ransacked it, then blown it. Ah well, lessons learned and all that.
Even if I had achieved precisely nothing against the Empire with this stunt, I'd gotten some experience working in the field and tweaking a bigot's nose was always a good deed even if all it achieved was annoying them.
----
New creature this chapter
Phoenix from Ark Survival (Phoenix)318wilderfastJul 17, 2021View discussionThreadmarks Chapter 7 View contentwilderfastJul 19, 2021#37The first thing I did when I woke up was check the PHO thread. It had gone bonkers during the few hours I'd slept, dozens of people earning themselves infractions and several people speaking up for the Empire and its role as "protector of the decent folk" had gotten thread banned for the language they used. Then, someone had provided a partial translation of the song and the whole thread had exploded. The line "I'd translate everything but knowledge of the language alone is not enough to understand Metal lyrics." had been especially funny.
The Empire was, of course, utterly furious, but they did not know who to target. If I were stronger, I'd take this opportunity to strike while the iron was hot and conduct more raids, but that would have to wait. For now, I was just happy having survived and gotten away clean. Tomorrow, I'd look for Redmond Welding and contact Tattletale.
I made myself some lunch, then headed downstairs into my workroom. Opening a secret room by pushing on a secret button disguised as an ornamental rock still sent a shiver of pleasure down my spine. Once I was inside, I began to use Material Extraction on all summons I did not plan to use today or need to have on hand in case of emergency.
First up was the Deathgripper. Its acid had already been used to devastating effect, but now I summoned its toxin, receiving close to a liter of it in a glass bottle that was summoned with it. The acid yesterday had come in its own container to, a bulky vessel made from the dragon's own scales. It made sense, I suppose, considering how it melted pretty much everything it touched.
Another bunch of Pansage leaves joined the ones from the day before yesterday in a homemade drying rack in the corner, I already had a bunch of finished dishes with them as ingredients in the fridge and wouldn't need these for a while.
The Crimson Indrik was seemingly destined to only ever be summoned for parts, for the second day in a row, I grabbed myself its hide, which already appeared fully cured and turned into leather.
As I was about to continue, my power made itself known once more. Firstly, my summoning limit had straight up doubled, allowing me to have all of my now thirteen creatures out at the same time. In addition, I got a new summon in the form of a carnivorous sheep. That beast could tear a man to shreds with ease. I shrugged and summoned its wool on a whim. Material Extraction informed me that it was tougher than ordinary sheep's wool, not quite as strong as say, spider silk, but definitely something I could sell. Maybe I could hire Parian to make me some kind of armored vest to wear under my trench coat.
On a whim, I checked what Sapphire would give me. I ended up with a small pile of deep blue feathers that had no special properties whatsoever. I might use them to add some highlights to my costume when I got around to making a permanent one. My trench coat, flat cap and mask did a decent job of hiding my identity, but I only used them because I didn't have a proper cape identity yet. They'd be replaced posthaste … if I ever got around to it.
The Fairy, in turn, gave wings that could be worked into a small machine that could manipulate time in some manner or for some kind of alchemy, but both would require a ton of additional skills and resources my power refused to elaborate on. Seemingly, if I couldn't actually make any of the things the material in question was used in, it would only provide hints and tantalizing glimpses at the stuff I might be able to make in the future but nothing all that concrete.
I then headed upstairs, packed a backpack with lunch and my costume and then headed out of the city. Inky's summoning duration expired as I was driving, but when my power informed me of the fact that she could be directly summoned back in her tattoo form, I did just that. A summoning that subtle and hidden was almost as invaluable as having a summon that could stay with me.
I headed right back to the clearing I'd tried out the Deathgripper in but parked significantly further away and hiked the rest. It wouldn't do for someone to pull up satellite footage or something of the phoenixes flight and see my car right there. Wait, hadn't the Simurgh thrashed Earth Bet's entire satellite infrastructure? I wasn't sure, but the principle of the thing still stood. Having my civilian car near the place where a phoenix was sighted would be really, really bad.
After walking through the woods along the side of the road for nearly an hour, I finally reached the clearing. Once again, I sent Shade up to scan the area, returning with good news. No one was anywhere near me. I quickly put on my costume as getting spotted with one of my creatures in my civies was not a good idea.
The Phoenix manifested, not like the others normally did, instantly and without fanfare, but in a blaze of fire, the flash leaving me blinking away spots.
I approached slowly, carefully, ready to hurl myself away from the bird at the first feeling of heat. But despite the fact that the bird was quite literally on fire, neither the grass or me seemed to be harmed. Then again, a bird created as a mount should be rideable without getting barbecued, but it was nice to have confirmation. A few more steps and I was standing face to face with the beast itself.
"Can I ride you?"
Nod. Once again, this was something that I technically already knew, but I liked to get confirmation on things like that.
"Do I need a saddle or something?"
Headshake.
"Ok, how can I get on top of you?"
Then, the phoenix knelt and I stepped on its knee and got up on its back from there. There was a small divot in the center of its back that I could settle in. I leaned forward, closer to his head and asked "How easily can I fall of? No, you can't properly answer that. Can I fall of easily? Is there some kind of magic keeping me on you?"
Much to my relief, the phoenix nodded twice. I wasn't scared of heights perse, but I did have a healthy respect for the damage that a fall from a couple of hundred meters up could inflict.
I almost told him to start flying, but then I decided that there was one thing I really needed to know.
"Do I steer you verbally?" I asked and got a shrug like twitch of the wings in response.
"Do I steer you with my legs? I don't know how to do that, can you interpret my intentions?" it nodded.
"Ok, off we goooooooooooooooo …" my shout trailed off as we shot up into the air. A mere two seconds later, we had cleared the tree line. Another five seconds more and we were flying hundreds of meters above the ground and I was leaning forward, fingers grasping at the feathers and clutching them tight. The feathers were attached so tightly I was not afraid of accidentally tearing them out.
I'd ridden roller coasters before and I'd even flown in one of those ultralight sailplanes that got pulled forward along a runway with a massive winch until the shape of their wings used their forward momentum to upwards movement and flung it several kilometers upwards. It would then spend the next twenty or so minutes slowly falling until the pilot brought it back down on the ground.
This flight reminded me of the latter, except jerkier. And windier. The plane had had an enclosed cockpit with only a small slot in the window that the pilot had slid open, likely to check the airspeed or something.
The phoenix was fast, but not so fast that the wind blasting past us was in any danger of unseating me. Far behind us lay the Bay, a dark splotch on the horizon, and the ocean beyond it. It was beautiful. I laughed madly, then tugged on the feathers and nudged with my legs to the right, the bird obeying immediately. I could not afford to lose track of the clearing.
Another creature entered my menagerie as we flew there serenely, surprisingly suitable for the situation. Another flying creature in the form of a pigeon. At first glance, it was an extremely underwhelming creature, but it was the single most unremarkable creature in any city. No one would ever suspect one of the almost ubiquitous birds of being anything other than an ordinary creature unless I sent it somewhere pigeons did not belong, such as the inside of secure buildings. Pigeons might not belong in buildings in general, but the brazen little fuckers snuck in everywhere if they were allowed.
On a related note, I'd heard that pigeon breast was good eating. I'd never cooked with it before, but I'd seen a few recipes for pigeon pies and the such that I'd be trying in the near future. The two of us passed over the clearing briefly and I looked down to confirm that it was, in fact, the right one. The piece of paper with the route I'd taken was within my backpack, so if I got lost, I could get back to the city somehow, I could hire a taxi to bring me back to my car, but I'd like to avoid that if at all possible.
What I did next was not something I would recommend to anyone else. I'd done it in the past in the sail plane, but that been in a sealed cockpit with a master pilot at the stick and I'd been strapped in with a five point harness and wearing a parachute.
Here, I didn't even have a fraction of those precautions. Sadly, I was to hyped up on adrenaline to pay attention to common sense.
We briefly climbed higher, then the phoenix took a forty-five degree nosedive, then pulled up sharply, several gees pressing me down into the bird's back. I swore loudly, both elated and terrified. Next time, I was definitely going to bring a goddamn parachute, no matter how much of a giveaway carrying that thing around with me was.
As I was cursing myself under my breath, I steered him back towards the clearing and landed.
I briefly patted him on the head, unsummoned him and began to head back to car.
----
New creatures this chapter:
Carnivorous Sheep from Percy Jackson (Carnivorous Sheep | Riordan Wiki | Fandom)
Pigeons from IRL as a representative of the Columbaves Family (Columbaves - Wikipedia)
Only a short chapter now and sadly, exam season has started so I am unlikely to write much in the next two weeks, but I definitely plan to continue this story. Also, I'm thinking about writing some interludes, which perspectives would you like to see? I was thinking of maybe writing a brief interlude from Krieg's perspective, maybe with him getting chewed out by Kaiser or maybe Lung's reaction to someone showing him the PHO thread. Or I could just do the standard PHO interlude. I've always wanted to write one of those.294wilderfastJul 19, 2021View discussionThreadmarks Interlude PHO View contentwilderfastJul 20, 2021#43■
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♦ Topic: Nazi Discipline at its finest (not)
In: Boards ► Brockten Bay
Life_is_transient (Original Poster) (Unverified Cape)
Posted On Mar 10th 2011:
So, I recently "came across" this lovely video and thought it was too good not to share.
Here's the video: Dumbass-Nazis-panic-over-music.mp4
If you don't have the time to watch this, make time. It will be worth it, guaranteed.
We all know that the image the Empire 88 of protecting the white people who live in their territory and their image of discipline and efficiency they like to project is BS, but man, watching them run around like chickens with their heads cut of is another thing entirely.
(Showing page 1 of 3)
►Noveltry
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Well, like I always say, the Nazis are fools and the Protectorate should have swept them up years ago. Whoever did that deserves a medal!
►Fenrir's Advocate
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Fahr zur Hölle du Rassenverräter, ich werde dich finden und umbringen, du wirst den nächsten Tag nicht mehr erleben. Du gottverdammter Hurensohn, ich werde dich an einer Schlinge aus deinen eigenen Eingeweiden aufhängen.
-->This user has been banned for this post
►I_AM_THE_LAW (Moderator)
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Just because I need a dictionary to tell you're insulting and threatening someone doesn't mean there won't be consequences. Have a one month ban, next person gets one year, everyone after that gets banned for life. I can already tell this thread will go to hell in a handbasket before noon and I do not want to lock this thread already because that really is a really nice video.
►Point_Me_@_the_Sky
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
ROFL, nice one. Captioning Krieg's rant as "very bad words", well played Sir (or Madam).
I'm glad to see someone go after the Nazis properly for once, they already feel like they have the run of the city.
One moved in right across the street from us, close cropped hair, German car and all.
KICK SOME NAZI ASS!
►I_AM_THE_LAW (Moderator)
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
What did I literally just say? It's too early for this.
Anyway, that is at the very edge of propriety, advocating action against a gang is technically alright but this thread is already enough of a mess three posts in. Please stay civil!
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Noice. I'm guessing the lyrics aren't very polite, can we get a translation?
►BadSamurai
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Hats off to whoever pulled that off, hope they don't get caught. Seriously dude, as awesome as that was, they're going to be gunning for you. Run!
►ArchmageEin
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Ok, so I've translated some of the song. Not everything because a), that would take forever and b), because even knowing the language is no guarantee of being able to understand metal lyrics.
However, there are a few interesting parts. The song starts out with "I have always hated racists, seeing foreign cultures from a different point of view, discovered the executioner's work and only kill politically correct", then follows it up with mentioning several methods of torture like the rack or thumbscrews.
The refrain is pretty nasty as well "Your way of viewing things, I will fundamentally change, with tools of torture from all over the world, my methods are unconventional, I'll torture and kill you multiculturally"
And no, I am not taking the time to make it rhyme, that is a task for people with to much time on their hands.
►Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Ok, you have no idea how badly I needed this. E88 has been a blight on this city for too long.
To whoever made this video however, you now have a target on your back. If you need someone to help you, our doors are always open.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3
(Showing page 2 of 3)
►Gungnir
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Du kleine Schlampe, zuerst den Poster, dann dich.
Why is everyone acting like this guy is a big hero? The Empire has been keeping all you safe from the mongrels that threaten the good people of this city.
--> This user has been banned for this post
►I_AM_THE_LAW (Moderator)
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Ok, using that kind of language when describing a twelve year old has made me decide to forego my previous judgement and move straight to lifetime bans. Chill the F out or get out. Last warning.
Also, it's 5 in the morning, and it's a school night, shouldn't you still be in bed or something?
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
I'm still in school to and I'm here. Don't be ageist.
►Lolitup
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
XxVoid_CowboyxX
Should you really be insulting the mods? They don't get in flamewars with users, they just hand out infractions and bans.
Also, yeah, nice job on the video.
►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
To whomever made the video, kindly stop antagonizing the gang. You're not the one who will have to deal with a furious Hookwolf tomorrow.
There are reasons why people don't do stuff like this, even if they don't end up dead afterwards, the gang's retaliation should be reason enough to avoid pulling stunts like this.
►Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Oh, I See how it is. Stay back, stay calm, and politely say "Guten Tag" and take of your hat to Kaiser as he walks away from watching one of his guys beat up a gay couple as an initiation.
You lot are law enforcement, you're meant to be protecting us, not your own asses. Yeah, the Empire could retaliate. But at least it will be because someone actually did something, not because they felt like it. Shame on you!
►WagTheDog
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Does anyone know a cape who could have pulled this off? Everybody is saying this was some kind of hero, but it could be the ABB or, hell, the Merchants or even Coil, trying to embarrass their rivals?
►Valkyr (Wiki Warrior)
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
No concrete ideas, but whoever did this is most likely a stranger, meaning a Parahumans with stealth and infiltration abilities.
Shadow Stalker has stranger as a secondary category, but I don't think this was Wards operation.
She might have done this solo, but given what we saw from her as a vigilante, this doesn't seem like her style. We'd be seeing a lot more of people pinned to the wall with crossbow bolts and a lot fewer embarrassed individuals.
►Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Ok, can't believe I didn't hear about this. Does anyone know when the incident in question took place?
►Whitecollar (Cape Wife)
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
I think this just happened. There was some chaos in Empire territory last night, I'm guessing that's when the video was taken.
Edit: Turns out, that song playing in the background? That was blasting out of speakers at max volume for hours while they tried to find all of them. The song in the video was edited in so that there was a single continuous showing of the song, but their reactions? Genuine reaction to hearing that after their safe room blew and the music started playing
End of Page. 1, 2
(Showing page 3 of 3)
►Laotsunn (Kyushu Survivor)
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
Does anyone know what that song is? My neighbors aren't empire members, but they tend to be a bit racist and I feel like paying them back in kind.
►Feychick
Replied On Mar 10th 2011:
No clue. If anyone finds it and this thread is closed by then, which is likely going to happen soon, given where this is heading, PM me.
End of Page. 1, 2, 3
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♦ Topic: Anti-Nazi Song
In: Boards ► Brockton Bay
MusicisLife (Original Poster) (Verified Cape)
Posted On Mar 11th 2011:
Ok, so I've seen a lot of speculation on what the song was, and I am happy to say, that one was an original song, by me.
This music video, multikulturell.mp4, is both the music I used and will hopefully serve as verification of my identity. VERIFY ME!!!!
(Showing page 1 of 2)
►Laotsunn (Kyushu Survivor)
Replied On Mar 11th 2011:
Ok, not what I expected. Thanks for the song and wow, I did not expect a little girl's voice to be able to go that deep.
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Mar 11th 2011:
Well, I agree. Whatever I expected the singer to look like, a purple haired, marble skinned young girl was not it.
►Valkyr (Wiki Warrior)
Replied On Mar 11th 2011:
Ok, I think this person might be one of those Changer-Stranger capes who can alter their body both externally and internally, effectively changing their appearance and altering their voice by modifying their vocal cords.
I bet they just shifted into one of the skinheads and waltzed right through the front door.
►XxVoid_CowboyxX
Replied On Mar 11th 2011:
(this post has been removed by a moderator)
►Decent_Sort (Moderator)
Replied On Mar 11th 2011:
Just because she can likely alter her appearance and is almost certainly not as young young as she looks, that was highly inappropriate. I actually had to look up what a loli was, shame on you.
►Reave (Verified PRT Agent)
Replied On Mar 11th 2011:
Young lady, much as I appreciate wanting to do good things, it's not safe out there. I heavily encourage you to join the Protectorate or the Wards, if you really are that young.
►Brocktonite03 (Veteran Member)
Replied On Mar 11th 2011:
So she can do nothing but PR stuff?
►Vista (Verified Cape) (Wards ENE)
Replied On Mar 11th 2011:
Yes, come join us. That would be so cool to have another girl in the wards.
►Point_Me_@_the_Sky
Replied On Mar 11th 2011:
You go girl, nice job. You have any other songs that mock the skinheads?
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►MusicisLife (Original Poster) (Verified Cape)
Replied On Mar 11th 2011:
Not exactly anti Nazi but ... Wat_is'_denn_los_mit_dir.mp4 is pretty mocking.
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Replied On Mar 11th 2011:
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Operation "Blame it all on the Song" had apparently been a full success. I hadn't thought about the fact that, when my benefactor had copied most of my old phone's data, a lot of the songs hadn't been released yet. However, when I'd realized my mistake, I'd summoned the Song for the first time, had her listen to the song on my phone and then recorded her in front of blank wall in an empty room. As an added precaution, I'd uploaded the song using an alternate account and on a dingy internet café without CCTV cameras on the opposite side of town.
This had the dual benefit of getting away with using a song only I had and blaming the entire thing on someone who was very much not me. Well, could be me, given the Changer-Stranger speculation, but no one would connect her to my cape identity once I got one.
At some point in the process, I'd gotten a new summon, a massive stone gargoyle. Which was awesome, but I was to busy reading my way through the Forums to pay attention.
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"Wat is den los mit dir" is another is another song by Nachtblut, the same band as "Multikulturell".
You have Windborne on Sufficient Velocity to thank for this interlude, he showed me this PHO Interlude creator and I only wanted to try it out briefly, but then I got hooked.
I would also like to thank Vaolor, also on Sufficient Velocity, for pointing out that Multikulturell was released in 2017 and could therefore not exist on Earth Bet.
New Creatures this chapter:
Gargoyle from Elder Scrolls (Gargoyle (Online) | Elder Scrolls | Fandom)Last edited: Jul 20, 2021290wilderfastJul 20, 2021View discussionThreadmarks Interlude View contentwilderfastJul 22, 2021#56Lung's mask seemed to vibrate as he laughed. Yoji had been slowly inching back out of the room after delivering the laptop with the video to his leader, but now stopped, straightened, and walked back up to the tall parahuman. When one came to Lung with something like this, one was always taking a chance. Either he was in a good mood and rewarded you, he was grumpy and you maybe got a nod of appreciation, or he showed his famous temper and exploded, even literally on one occasion.
Still, if no one told him of these things and he found out anyway, there would be hell to pay, therefore, someone had to go in and inform him of these developments. Today, Yoji had drawn the short straw.
"It is nice to see those gaijin get humiliated, they always think too highly of themselves. Find me that song and tell the others who live close to their territory to play it whenever one of those curs comes near."
Yoji paused briefly, waiting for more, but Lung sent him scurrying with an absent minded wave of his hand. Once he was alone again, Lung raised his voice and spoke "Oni Lee, come."
The assassin had been lurking somewhere nearby and was suddenly there without warning. Lung didn't jump or show surprise in any way. He was used to the exceedingly loyal and unwaveringly faithful man. He never spoke up against him, never questioned his orders and always, always got the job done.
"Investigate the site where this video was filmed. Find out whatever you can about who did this and how. If they are Asian, recruit them, if they are a new vigilante or hero, scare them off. Nothing permanent unless they are about to defeat you, in that case, eliminate them.
If any of the Empire's parahumans show their faces, the same goes for them. Avoid the Protectorate."
It was always good to give fairly direct orders. Oni Lee might be loyal, but he was not particularly creative. Lung might have gone himself, but showing his face deep in Empire territory would result in a massive fight in short order, a fight he may not win if enough of them showed up early enough. His subordinate had the movement abilities to go unnoticed or, at the very least, escape.
The assassin saluted and held that position for a few seconds before he dissolved into ash. Whoever had pulled that off either had a great deal of foolhardy courage or a power that made the whole thing trivial. The Empire wasn't an Endbringer, but it was powerful. Kenta had learned at Kyushu that sometimes, something was too powerful to defeat, too strong to even attempt to fight, not worth even trying to beat. That was why he was here, in this shithole of a city, because he was not going to fight one of them ever again.
The Empire? He clashed with them on occasion, but that was different kind of fight. Not to the death but to humiliation and extreme injury. He didn't much care for the Protectorate's unwritten rules, but they were occasionally useful, and he hadn't had enough of a reason to blatantly break them yet.
Either way, he was a king in his small domain and while the Endbringers were out there and the world burned, that was enough for him. Maybe this new actor would change things, maybe they wouldn't, maybe he could use them or maybe they would be dead by the end of the week.
He had seen many capes try and shake up the status quo, many people try and clean up this city. It had never worked, never changed things for the better for more than a few weeks, and most of them had been dead by the end of the year.
If they lasted any longer, he'd pay attention to them, if they didn't, oh well, that was fine to.
James Fleischer, known to the world as Krieg, glared at the shaven headed young man as he was greeted by him.
"Why exactly did you not think to check my identity? Or anyone else's for that matter?" he pointed at another man who had walked right into the building without being stopped once.
"He's my brother-in-law, I've known him for years, of course I don't have to check he is who he says he is." the man answered snidely, then his eyes widened in surprise as it suddenly became extremely hard to breathe, the air suddenly becoming like syrup as the Krieg activated his power.
The parahuman glared harder and stepped forward until his masked face was mere centimeters away from his subordinate "We check because we have already been made a fool off once. That little bitch waltzed right into one of our stash houses and blew it up without one of you noticing a thing until we had already lost hundreds of thousands worth of product and cash. We check because what someone looks like is no longer a guarantee of who they are. We check because unlike you, most of us actually have more than two brain cells to rub together!"
Krieg stalked off and relaxed his power, the man collapsing to the ground as the kinetic slowdown field was no longer holding him up. Yet even from the ground, he called "I don't suppose you have a way of proving youridentity?"
The field went back up as Krieg turned to glare once more.
"That is my proof. We are dealing with a shapeshifter, you Volltrottel, not a power copier or some other kind parahuman that exists almost exclusively in stupid TV shows or comic books." he stepped fully into the building and raised his voice "Everybody come here. There are some new protocols to put into place. We will not let what happened last night happen ever again."
Max Anders put down his phone and burst out laughing. He'd been called by one of the Empire's fairly high-ranking non powered members, someone who'd risen as far as it was possible without being a parahuman, to inform him of Krieg's current actions. Apparently, the man had been trying to teach the rank and file an abbreviated version of the Protectorate's Master/Stranger protocols and was failing miserably. It wasn't much of a surprise, given that they weren't dealing with highly trained officers but rabble from the street held together by a shared hatred of minorities and delusion of being important by way of protecting others from said minorities, completely ignoring the fact that they were extorting protection money from the people they were supposedly helping.
The kind of people who truly believed in things like racial superiority tended to not be the brightest bulbs in the box.
Then you had people like Krieg, who were quite intelligent in their own right but still truly believed in all that tripe. They rationalized it somehow, ignoring all of the logical inconsistencies of said rationalization in the meantime.
People like Kaiser himself were aware of the fact that that was all bullshit but that giving people someone to blame, someone to hate, someone who they could fight instead of facing the crushing realization that the thing that fucked them over were systemic problems or their own incompetence or just bad luck was a useful method of control.
A few speeches, giving people a target for their hatred, a little zeal and the Empire had some new members. Krieg however had drunk the Kool-Aid and behaved as though that myth were true. When this new cape had embarrassed him, he had taken things quite personally, especially when her appearance had been revealed and he'd seen she looked even vaguely Asian, he'd been furious. Kaiser had merely rolled his eyes. They might have lost a rather large sum of money, but in the large scheme of things, they'd only lost about a twentieth of their resources. Gang resources, that was, most of their money having been funneled through Medhall or other legal businesses and was therefore in a bank account somewhere, not available for plunder by this new girl. Annoying but not particularly impactful or harmful.
He'd given orders to take this girl down if anyone came across her, but this city had a habit of chewing up and spitting out independents, or reducing them to ineffectual groups like New Wave, who showed the flag but barely made a difference.
Time would tell what was the case here, there was absolutely no point in getting involved now that Krieg was dealing with things. People had made a few nasty memes about him using screenshots of that video and he had made it his personal mission to track down the girl. Anything he could do that would appreciably speed things along would also take a huge amount of effort, effort he didn't deem necessary.
The meeting room was quiet save for the pounding music that emanated from the screen. A video was playing, familiar to most of the people here, but someone had decided that it should be watched just so that everyone was on the same page.
Once it was over, Armsmaster picked up a remote from the table and switched of the wall mounted device.
"I believe we are all aware of what this video represents. Someone new has decided to challenge the gangs and has already dealt a significant blow. We should all be prepared for retaliation or face-saving measures from the Empire and exercise increased vigilance for the next few days.
Should you encounter this parahuman, recruitment is the preferred outcome, into the Protectorate or Wards respectively, depending on their age. In the meantime however, we do not yet know if last night's actions were intended as a heroic attack on gang resources or a theft disguised as action against the gang.
Increased vigilance against Strangers is advised."
"Do we know how long she's been a parahuman?" Dauntless asked "She might have rushed into things and ended up in over her head."
"Whatever the case may be, she knows how to pull off a show." Assault remarked "Jokes aside however, she is not new. Simple shapeshifting, if that is indeed her power, does not automatically allow one to pull of things like that. I've encountered people with those kinds of powers in the past and it is not as easy as one would imagine. One person being in two places at once, movement that is just subtly different from the original, not knowing things the original did, all of those are problems with just impersonating someone, and that is without doing anything actually suspicious, such as blowing stuff up and hiding electronics in the air vents.
Maybe she did it over a long period of time or she's had practice, but there has to be a lot we're not seeing here. Maybe she has a secondary Thinker ability that helps her avoid detection, maybe she has a subtle Master power that helps her appear to be the real deal, I don't know. She could even just be someone taking credit for someone else's work, she never appears in the original footage. "
He shrugged "But what do I know? I'm just a grunt, ask a Thinker if you want actual information."
That was Assault for you. Intelligent and resourceful but unwilling to show it and hiding behind humor and occasionally making a fool of himself. Armsmaster sighed inwardly. They actually had received some Thinker assistance, Strangers being a massive security risk.
A few Thinkers had been asked to take a brief look and give their impressions, but that hadn't yielded anything concrete. An in-depth examination would likely have gotten them far more, but this wasn't nearly high enough priority for that.
"I made a few laps through the city this morning, things are tense right now. The E88 thugs are ready to throw down at a moment's notice and the ABB are not helping things by blasting that stu- … provocative song whenever they see a skinhead. The Merchants have gotten in on the action, driving around town in one of Squealer's contraptions with a rather large loudspeaker, blasting that song and any other rude ones they can find." Velocity reported "This is the point where we need to calm things down, get between them, before this entire powder keg blows."
Emily Piggot was the next to speak "Thank you for that, Velocity. At the end of the day, we need to ensure that the city survives the week, things should have calmed down by then. I've authorized overtime for everyone and I want at least two parahumans capable of rapid response available at all times in case a fight breaks out.
Once again, if you run into the new cape, temporary codename Songbird, attempt recruitment. However, the more important thing is to find out the exact nature of her powers. We have a powerful Stranger in town, we need to be ready for her."
When she had first seen the video, Victoria had laughed so loudly, she'd woken Amy and gotten a dressing down from her mother for being on her computer and making a racket at five in the morning. In her defense, the video had been hilarious. She'd badly needed it. In the last few weeks she had had several bad experiences with the Empire. No matter how many she got off the streets, more seemed to pop up by the next day. What was worse, she'd injured two of them so badly that she had needed Amy to avoid getting in trouble and her sister was becoming increasingly hesitant to help her.
She really needed to get her sister a boyfriend, or something. Maybe a girlfriend? No, if Amy were gay, she would have said something … right? Nah, she would have, maybe she'd get lucky one of these days and find the right person to set Amy up with.
Speaking of Nazis however, their new neighbor across the street almost certainly was one. He'd managed to, somehow, land in the bay on Saturday while she and Dean had been watching one of Parian's shows and gotten pulled out by a skinhead. After that, he'd disappeared of somewhere until she'd flown right over his head the following morning.
He'd cursed in German while in the bay, been helped by a skinhead and even she, who had never bothered to learn about cars, given that she really didn't need one, knew that a Mercedes was a German brand. He had to be a new recruit right, maybe even a new cape? Also, she hadn't ever seen him go to work on a normal schedule or anything like it. She hadn't taken her suspicions to her mother yet, she didn't have proof, but she would be vigilant.
She'd set an alert on PHO and had gotten a hit when that video had been uploaded. As happy as she was over having found it, she really wished she hadn't as her mother had taken her laptop and phone as punishment for waking people in the middle of the night. It was the Nazis' fault, not hers!
As for her neighbor, she'd keep an eye on him.
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I'm not that sure about these brief parts, if you don't like them or dislike a certain part, please tell me so I can change it. I am uploading this anyway, but if it is as horrible as that little voice in the back of my mind tells me it is, please tell me because I am very unsure about this collection of interludes.347wilderfastJul 22, 2021View discussionThreadmarks Chapter 8 View contentwilderfastJul 23, 2021#67Fanfiction had lied to me, I thought as my ears burned. I was on the Boardwalk and had just asked one of the passersby for directions to Parian's shop and been told, amidst peals of laughter, that Parian was only a bottom tier cape that put on puppet shows. In my defense, that one was a staple of fanfiction, but apparently someone had come up with it and everyone else had just run with it, just like Lung's Laz-a-Boy, whatever that was.
At least I'd been told that she would be putting on a show this Sunday. Approaching her there would be risky, a random person showing up and asking her to use her power in a way she had not demonstrated previously … highly suspicious.
Speaking of approaching other capes, I had amassed quite the stockpile of slime gunk that I really should sell to someone. Of course, the only two Tinkers in the city that weren't Squealer or Leet were in the Protectorate and Wards respectively and approaching them while Coil was still in play was a dumb idea. That reminded me, I really needed to work up the courage to talk to Tattletale. I didn't know how much she could find out, both in Worm and fanfiction she often switched between Miss Exposition and someone who straight up missed one of the most famous capes in the city sitting a few meters from her.
The only reason I didn't facepalm the next second was that I knew it would garner me strange looks and unwelcome attention. When I'd first gotten the Song, I'd felt that there were more summons just like her out there, different ones that required a pool of energy that would grow as I acquired more of them rather than a daily summoning limit. I'd initially classified her as useless, good because she increased the amount of energy I had available, but nothing past that. Then I'd discovered my screwup with the song I'd used to mock the Nazis, a song that wouldn't be made for another five years, so I'd used her to cover my ass. Now she was the face of that stunt, most people assuming the producer of said song was also the person who had used it to prank the Nazis, because who else would have had access and why else would it have been produced in the first place?
Now, she was at least somewhat established and I could easily use her as a front for my actions. If I gave her new and updated instructions through an earpiece, Tattletale would pick up on the fact that she was working for someone, but she would not get anything past that. If she could get her hands on information to infer from, she was one of the world's strongest Thinkers, but unlike most other Thinkers, she was only useful if she could get her hands on said information.
As I walked back to my car, the entire plan I'd been formulating in my head came crashing down around my ears as my power and summons lists updated. The power was an extremely interesting power called creature haunting that would allow me to enter a creature's body as a spirit and see the world through their eyes. I wouldn't be able to control them, but they would follow their previous orders. If those were specific enough, it wouldn't be a problem. My other summon was, ironically enough, of the same type as the Song and had the exact powers that the people on PHO though the Song had. The Illusion could appear as anything I wanted or as someone's greatest fear or desire. I could create a custom fake cape to make contact with every single faction I wanted to contact and throw them away whenever I wanted. I was thankfully able to avoid cackling like a madman until I had reached my car and was already driving off.
By the time I got home, I could barely wait to try out my new power, but decided to wait and use test the Illusion first, then, if I was satisfied, contact Tattletale for the location of Coil's base, and then finally head out into the forest to see what riding along in one of my creature's body felt like.
A few moments later, I was in the secret workshop in the cellar. Both the Illusion's card and the staff I had gotten along with it manifesting in my hands. For the first time, I really looked over the tool I used to channel my magic. Magic. Somehow, that was still funny to say, even though I had already accepted my powers as a part of me. The staff was around a meter long and damn heavy. I realized it was made of ironwood, one of the few woods that were, in fact, too heavy to float in water. The focus at the end was made of Onyx, I was certain. I'd been wearing a necklace with an Onyx bead when I'd died, I realized.
Cheap types of Gemstones were set in the staff in a double helix pattern, winding around it from the to focus to just above the end. The stones themselves were even with the wood and I could not tell they were there by touch, I could only see them. Some of the stones I could identify as Sodalite, Citrine and Moldavite, but most of them were beyond my extremely limited geological knowledge. Hell, I'd probably misidentified half of the ones whose name thought I knew. But enough waxing poetic about the damn staff. I was here to summon a being that could look like anything.
When the Illusion manifested, she was tall, almost too tall to walk through ordinary doors without needing to crouch slightly. Her hair was a vibrant magenta, brighter than the Song's but reminiscent of it, silver skin, also resembling the other girl's, but noticeably different. Her clothes were made from heavy and tough looking fabric, reminiscent of a military uniform. Armored bracers gave the whole thing a severe look while a mid-length cloak broke up her body's silhouette. Her mask was an oversized domino mask that seemed to move as one looked upon it, black satin stretched over a metal base. The entire outfit was set in black with the metallic elements a dark silver. It was at this point I realized that I could have simply modeled her appearance after some random character on a random TV show from my world instead of going through all the trouble of designing this look. Newish anime shows in particular should yield some interesting designs, adjusted to make them less obviously anime characters, but they should be hard to recognize. Especially ones from shows that hadn't been made in 2011 as those shouldn't even exist on Aleph, let alone Bet, which had lost its Japan.
Then again, this look had been specifically designed to remind the Undersiders of the Song without actually taking the appearance of the Song. In the future however, I'd stick with prebuilt character models unless I needed something a look for a specific purpose.
My musings were interrupted by yet another new summon and power. The power didn't change much in the moment, but it would pay huge dividends in the future. I could now gain new creatures ever so slightly faster. The creature on the other hand?
When I'd gotten the Deathgripper, I'd been ecstatic at the thought of being able to summon a dragon. This wasn't actually the classic treasure hoarding, four legged, two winged, fire breathing creatures of European myth and legend, but that didn't matter.
Festus had already been named by the Menagerie when I got him and some voice in the back of my mind informed me that the name meant "happy". Festus was also a multi ton, fire breathing war machine forged from something called celestial bronze. A friggin dragon mech. And he breathed fire to.
Between Festus, my long-ignored Plasma Whisp and the Deathgripper, invulnerable Brutes were actually no longer my biggest worry. Lung could still ramp up to the point of becoming dangerous, but if I fought him for that long, I'd already fucked up in a major way.
I also got a snail. A simple Weinbergschnecke, a common, albeit large, type of snail native to Germany. They were also the standard ingredient used to make Escargot, but I didn't think I'd be cooking French cosine anytime soon.
At my current power level, I could summon both cards once a day, with the Illusion requiring a slightly greater amount. However, each had increased my power pool by their own summoning requirements and I'd increased my energy pool slightly with practice. All in all, between my leftover energy and my regeneration, I'd have the energy to summon her again in a couple of hours. I'd use that time to find the Undersiders lair.
Once I was back up in my room, I opened the skylight as far as it would go, far wider than I usually kept it. This was a prearranged signal for Shade to come inside for new orders. I told him to follow my car as usual, but only come down once I was far away, on a rooftop somewhere and no one was around.
Then I packed some electronics like a radio earpiece, transmitter, tablet and local go pro equivalent, my costume, and a backpack filled with all the cash the Empire had so generously donated to my cause. Tattletale might be expensive.
As I was packing my stuff in the car, I spotted a blonde girl staring at me from across the street, but she looked away when I stared at her. Was that Glory Girl? Last time, I'd identified her from her power, I wasn't so sure this time.
When I drove off, I made sure to check whether she was following me. She wasn't, thankfully.
As I got deeper into the Docks, the buildings began to look progressively worse. I lived in Empire territory and had seen the occasional gang tag, but everything was absolutely covered in graffiti here, presumably by the ABB. Almost certainly, given that the most prevalent colors were red and green, the gang's colors.
I parked my cars in a small, out of the way alley and got out. After checking for people, I walked a couple of blocks in a random direction, climbed up a random fire escape and put on my costume. Shade quickly swooped down and I told him to search for a building with the sign "Redmond Welding" on it. He flew off while I waited on the roof and looked out over the city. Sirens wailed in the distance, a gunshot echoed, closer but still far enough away for me not to be worried about it in the slightest.
I don't know how long I stood there, but eventually Shade appeared in front of me and snapped me out of it.
He'd located the building and, through an exceedingly annoying version of twenty questions, he managed to give me directions. Ten minutes of walking while avoiding people later, I had set up across the street from the lair of a friggin gang of supervillains. Still funny to say that out loud, no matter how long I'd been in this world.
I conjured up the Illusion in her previous configuration, hid the camera under her cloak so it wasn't immediately visible but easy to reveal upon command and a radio earpiece hidden beneath her long and voluminous hair.
While she climbed down and walked across the street, I sat down on the roof, put the tablet currently showing the inside of her clothing down in front of me and held the radio up to my mouth in preparation.
The Illusion knocked on the steel door with a not insignificant amount of force, the sound echoing through the empty area. I waited for a minute, then spoke into the radio "Knock again, three times, hard as you can."
We sat there waiting for another minutes, then the door slid open, revealing two massive, Rhino sized beasts of spiked bone and exposed muscle standing besides a girl wearing a dog mask while a young man in a Ren fare costume leaned against the far wall, a scepter lazily held in his hand.
"I'm looking for Tattletale, is she here?"
"No, go away." Bitch was the one who replied "Leave before I set my dogs on you."
"Not even given how much money you stand to make?" the Illusion questioned with a smile and cocked her head to the side.
Regent pushed his way of the wall and came forward with a confident swagger "Money is always good, but we already have a boss. Besides, she isn't here."
The Illusion reached in the bag and pulled out two already packaged stacks of a thousand dollars, then tossed one to each of the teenagers. Back home, casually throwing away that kind of cash would have made me hurt in my very core, but my benefactor had equipped me with a fat bank account and that money had never been mine to begin with, not really.
"As I said, I'm looking for Tattletale. I have neither the need or the inclination to take care of four teenagers, no matter how capable they are.
He straightened "Fine. You can come in and explain what you want, but she really isn't here. Grue should be by in half an hour, you can talk to him."
"I'll gladly take up the offer of entry, but I think I'm fine with talking to you." she began to casually walk forward, right between the mutated dogs as they started growling. We ignored them. Her because she couldn't be permanently hurt by them and me because I wasn't actually down there. When we finally reached the living room, she sat down without asking and placed the backpack on the floor in front of her.
"What I need from Tattletale is the location of the supervillain Coil's base. He's about to become a significant problem for the Bay and I'd like to remove him before this city drowns in blood."
"Remove permanently?" Regent asked as he returned from the fridge with a can of soda. He hadn't offered one to his guest.
"If that how things shake out, maybe. What I need is for him to not wreck the city I just moved to.
If I can screw up his plans enough, maybe land him in custody, that could work."
"Like you screwed with the Nazis? That was you, right, Songbird? Love your work, by the way." Regent laughed.
"Songbird?"
"Just some name they were throwing around on PHO. Reave mentioned it was also the temporary name assigned to you in the PRT paperwork. Seriously though, once this is all said and done, what do you say to some alone time? Not all powers are just for fighting." If he hadn't been wearing the mask, he might have winked at me, but as it was, he just looked at her, waiting for an answer.
My next set of orders were interrupted by the acquisition of a new power. I was now an expert Zoologist. I'd already had a fair bit of knowledge due to studying Biology, but I could now likely teach half the classes I'd taken in university. Hopefully Alec would take the pause as me/The Illusion considering his offer.
"Maybe. Afterwards. So, I'm looking for the base of Coil's operations. I'm willing to give you another thousand for you to pass along this message, if she can get me the information, I want, I'm willing to pay each of you two five thousand each and her ten thousand. I'll be back tomorrow at this time, if she doesn't have it by then, I will not be paying her or you, and I will not be coming back. This is a one time offer, take it now or forever hold your peace."
If I waited to long, Tattletale might tell Coil someone was looking for him. Hopefully, he wouldn't torture her for information in one of his throwaway timelines before then.
Regent tapped the chin portion of his mask "What is there to stop me from just taking your money and not doing anything?"
"Other than the money you stand to make, just for a short conversation? Nothing." I ordered the Illusion to pass another packet of a thousand dollars to each, get up, and walk out. Outside, I also began to pack up and walk away. We'd meet up somewhere out of view of the base. While I was doing that, nearly missed the black teenager go into the base, almost running into my minion. He paused, turned to follow her with his eyes and stared, then turned to Regent and began yelling. I tuned it out.
When I got home, the Blonde wasn't there anymore, thankfully. That had been weird and I would definitely be checking for observers very carefully for the next few weeks.
Once all the stuff was packed away where it belonged, I returned to my workshop. When I was a teenager, I'd moved to the cellar of the house, further from my parents bedroom and away from where they usually were during their day. This had given me some additional space and privacy, though my mother had jokingly referred to me as a cave creature a few times as a result. While I would have loved to head out to the boonies, test out Festus, see what the Gargoyle looked like, finally check out the Plasma Whisp and take the Creature Haunting power for a spin, it would take a while to get out there, and by the time I got there, the cooldown for anything I summoned would extend into the time when I'd be meeting supervillains. I wanted to be as ready as I could be for that.
However, there was no point in wasting time by just leaving my summons just hanging there, ready for use but unutilized.
First up for Material Extraction was Festus. He got me several large ingots of celestial bronze, something that my power told me was exceedingly durable and could be forged into weapons capable of harming supernaturals. There was, in fact, a forge in one corner of the spacious workshop, fully ventilated and ready for use. I'd make myself a couple of daggers or something later, but most of this would likely get sold off to some Tinker.
Next up were the usual suspects, Pansage leaves, Crimson Indrik leather, Deathgripper Acid in a Deathgripper carapace armor, metal slime goop. A pair of pigeon breasts ended up vacuum sealed and in the freezer, a pile of smoldering feathers were hastily blasted with a fire extinguisher and placed in a bucket of water, some more extra-tough wool got bundled into a drawer and some snails ended up the freezer, just in case I did want to make Escargot one of these days.
Once that was out of the way, I decided to test out the forge. My first project was supposed to be chef's knife for use in the kitchen, but it ended up more butterknife than anything else. I got past that initial stage of utter incompetence quite quickly though, the information that came with the material being quite helpful.
A few hours later, I was the proud owner of a wickedly sharp knife that had cut not only the chicken breast I'd tested it on, but also the board it had been placed on. The mystical material's unique properties meant that things like heat treating and tempering were unnecessary, while it seemed to get sharper at an unnatural speed, almost as though the metal knew what I wanted it to become. Tinkers would definitely be willing to pay top dollar for something like this. Once Coil was done with, I might create a proper cape persona with a matching outfit for the Illusion and have her sell the stuff, but that needed to wait.
That night, I couldn't sleep, I was far to wound up to relax. I was tossing and turning all night, eventually though, somehow, morning came.
Most of the day was similarly spent, I ended up trying to make a pigeon pie. It actually worked out, kind of. It was edible, but just not my cup of tea. In the end, I spent the day much like I did any time before an important event when I didn't actually have anything to do. Doing literally anything other driving myself crazy with the overthinking. I hadn't been this nervous yesterday, but yesterday had just been a factfinding mission. Today, I would learn whether or not I could take the fight to Coil or whether he had learned of my presence without me gaining anything.
The procedure was just like it had been yesterday, though I'd had Shade scout out everything in a wide radius. Thankfully, the Undersiders had chosen an area devoid of people for their base, so I didn't need to judge if someone was a danger, there weren't any people here, period. When I got a new summon, I was quite happy it had happened before my summon encountered Tattletale, any hesitation might have been picked up on and given her information I did not want her to have.
I only heard, not watched, as the Illusion approached the building and knock. She was let in almost immediately and I could hear her talk "I see all of you are here. I suppose I cannot begrudge you the costumes, after all, I already know far to much about you already."
I'd ordered her to do that, that way I had some information I should have needed visuals to get.
"I heard you were looking for me. Well, I say you, but really, I mean your master." a girl's voice said.
Damn, how had she figured that out already.
"You say you want to take out Coil. Are you sure you can take him?"
"It's simple, Sarah. I know Coil is a danger to you, just as he is to my boss." hopefully, Tattletale would think I was a Thinker employing the Stranger/Changer Songbird, not someone controlling an illusion.
"I want him out of the way, unable to put any of his plans into action. Chances are, that will result in his death."
I heard several sharp intakes of breath, loud enough for even the microphone to pick them up. Apparently, using a civilian name had provoked a strong reaction.
"Evidently, you have some good sources, Songbird. How about we come to an arrangement, share some information, we could find out some interesting things." her voice was low, almost seductive. I wasn't sure what she was trying to pull, but I did not want anything even remotely connected to me in her presence any longer than strictly necessary.
"I am offering you freedom, Sarah. In one minute, I am going out of that door, either with my money or the information I'm looking for. Your choice."
"Wow, you two are pretty confident, aren't you? Fine, here is an envelope with the address and a basic layout. I hope you get him, if you fail, we will both suffer for it."
The Illusion tossed her the backpack and slowly headed of, then broke into a run when she was out of sight. Tonight, Coil would die.
It was a strange thing, planning the death of another human being. I had been planning to murder Jack Slash since my first night here, but that had always been something abstract. Coil was real, and within my reach. I wondered what I would feel like, afterwards. It was weird, even imagining it. Like guilt, but one I felt guilty for feeling in the first place, all over something that hadn't even happened yet. Only time would tell where this would end up.
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I know I've been getting a lot of creatures quite rapidly this chapter, but there are several reasons for that. Interludes give points as well, but I only roll for those once I return to Wyatt's POV and also because I am a dumbass who missed both the free 0 point creature at twenty thousand words and the 24k mark for rolling, so I ended up rolling twice in quick succession.
I do have a question though. Should Wyatt realize that the creature's he's getting are from fiction? Festus is a very distinctive beast from a book he's actually read, and he isn't just a dragon made from bronze, he is a dragon made from bronze with a distinctive name. Or Monster Hunter for that matter. I've played those games and they are very obvious. That being said, being aware of the fact that a creature is from a video game gives me ideas for screwing with Über and Leet.
What do you think?
New creatures this chapter:
The Illusion from Cardcaptor Sakura (The Illusion)
Festus from Percy Jackson (Festus)
Dwarven Spider from Elder Scrolls (Dwarven Spider (Pet))
Weinbergschnecke (big snail from Germany) from IRL as a representative of the Terrestrial Mollusk family (Terrestrial mollusc - Wikipedia)