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A Mage's Guide to the Multiverse (Celestial Grimoire SI, Worm Start) by Throwaway1971

Books » Private Rated: M, English, Romance, Words: 202k+, Favs: 160, Follows: 196, Published: Jan 17, 2024 Updated: Mar 20, 2024

24Chapter 04 - Of Rubber and Gas

Admittedly, heading to a popular burger joint right after committing four person homicide wasn't the greatest of ideas.

The adrenaline rush that accompanied mortal combat had faded away completely by the time we busted out the Southside and was heading up the middle lane on Lord Street, so I shifted mental gears and opted to follow my crippled passenger's souped up GPS directly to her hideaway near the Docks. The traffic got significantly busier as we drove through the middle of Downtown, but my paranoia about speeding was pretty low considering Cassie's phone had a scanner that apparently pinged off nearby police communication devices. How the fuck she managed that through a mobile app, I had no idea, but I wasn't one to look security ungratefully upside the head.

We were just hitting 75 after yet another lane change when the passenger princess broke our companionable silence by reaching forward and click-clacking at her cracked phone screen, taking us off of her weird GPS-Scanner app. I glanced down, one hand on the wheel, and arched an eyebrow at her fiddling.

"Unless you're tryna be my IRL Siri, I kinda need to see where the blue line's takin' me." I said in a questioning tone, pumping the gas a bit to cut off some asshole trying to overtake me from the right lane.

"Don't worry Mr. Sunday Driver, it's mostly a straight shot from here. We'll probably wanna ditch the ride soon though." Cassie responded with an idle wave of her free hand, the other one scrolling down what looked like a pink and black version of Spotify - if it was made in Bizarro World. I returned my eyes to the road pretty fast, though. Safe habits; they kept me out of car crashes back on my Earth, and they would do the same here damn it.

"Easy enough. Excuse my old lady speed, though - I'm not really tryna get stopped by the cops in a dead man's Dodge Charger. Your little police scanner can't possibly pick up every mention of the word 'car' in Brockton Bay." My finger began to tap a quiet little beat on the steering wheel, even as I glanced boredly out the rearview mirror. Nothing but plain ol' cars, all heading forward and back in an endless cycle.

Cassie snorted.

"Definitely not in the entirety of Brockton, but I'm currently keyed in on mundane comms throughout this part of the Bay. Once we get deeper into the shittier part of the Docks and away from Downtown, we'll have less to worry about. But forget about that for now - what kinda music do you listen to?"

The sudden question threw me for a loop. "Depends on the kinda music you got. My taste varies."

In my peripheral vision, I could see the girl practically preen in arrogance. She looked like a colorful little bird in her bright, oversized jacket. Maybe one a bit worse for wear.

"Let's see here…I've got some Mandrake - dude's a classic in Rock n' Roll, a bit of Larry Herd…I don't really like country though. A lot of EDM, from back when I was in my techno-girl phase…don't ask about it. I've even got some unreleased tracks I managed to, uh, pick out from some popular artists-"

"You got any Lil' Wayne?" I cut her off, already tired of hearing a bunch of names that I definitely didn't know. Didn't Earth Bet follow normal history up until a certain point? I knew that GTA, at the very least, existed in this world - mainly because I'd read something about 'Uber and Leet' fucking up hookers during one of their many video game rehearsal shenanigans. Or maybe that was fanon, and I was completely incorrect. "Shit, or even some Drake. His sad fuckboy shit would be a nice balm on the morning we've had so far."

Silence enveloped the car. I didn't have to look over to know that Cassie was looking at me oddly, if not a bit offendedly due to me cutting her off. "Who the hell is 'Lil Wayne'? Sounds like a rapper or something, right? And there's a couple Drakes, but…"

Damn, they probably didn't exist here. Or maybe not yet? Fuck, I really didn't get how this shit worked. Quantum Physics wasn't my strong suit. "They're pretty underground," I sighed, exaggeratedly pointing my nose up and away from Cassie. "You wouldn't know them I guess."

"Ha!" she laughed out loud, playfully punching my shoulder. It was a testament to her significant lack of physical strength and weight that the hit didn't even budge my grip on the wheel. "Dick. I mostly listen to rock and EDM, so I guess I wouldn't."

"You can just play whatever you usually listen to. I'm mainly trying to keep an ear out for trouble. If the scanner's audio even works with music playing."

Cassie rolled her eyes, but a genuine smile still graced her face. "If it catches one of my keywords it'll stop any third party audio, dad. But thanks, I think I know just what I wanna listen to. Music…helps a lot with stress, y'know? Today's been pretty wild." Her voice got a bit quieter as she began scrolling again. An easy silence grew between us once more, before…

"And, uh, if you wanna help me try to find your 'secret underground artists' later, we can listen to them together…if you'd like."

I blinked, turning my eyes from the road ahead and looking back over at Cassie. She was markedly not meeting my gaze, but her smile - smaller but no less genuine - seemed to accentuate the slight blush on her cheeks. Or maybe the redness was from the heat of the car, because it was getting a bit toasty. Regardless, it all made for a surprisingly cute sight from the spunky hacker.

I couldn't help but grin. "Yeah, sure. It's a date."

She scoffed, her smile growing a tinge as she met my dry and lidded stare. "In your freaking dreams, jackass. Pay attention to the road."

"Mm."

She finally seemed to find whatever song she was looking for, as she clicked on a little thumbnail that showed a beach with a blue thunderbolt flashing through the sky. Immediately, the sounds of electronica began bumping through the speakers of the car - surprising, considering I didn't remember her plugging up an AUX or connecting to some sort of bluetooth.

It wasn't my type of music, to be sure, but when I noticed Cassie relaxing back in the passenger seat with her little smile, nodding her head along to the violent and eclectic beats, I figured I'd just endure the ensuing headache and pretend I liked the 'song'.

That was a very minor sacrifice for keeping that smile on her face for a little bit longer. I kinda liked how it looked.

Cassie had fallen into a deep sleep by the time we arrived into the Docks proper, and I felt pretty bad at the thought of waking her. Don't get me wrong, I would in a heartbeat if I felt like it was necessary, but with her asleep and the loud EDM music turned off I was easily able to navigate back to the GPS app. It actually wasn't that dissimilar from my old Google Maps, except it gave me a whole view of the entirety of Brockton Bay alongside a smaller subscreen with different names and buttons.

Most of them were encoded and completely lost to me, like G-1059629 or Z-5968274, but 'Brockton Bay PD' was pretty easily identified.

I turned the audio of that particular scanner up to a medium volume as I pulled off into one of the quiet side-streets that the GPS guided me towards. The area seemed pretty barren - like I remembered from the wiki, the Docks seemed to be a smorgasbord of warehouses, abandoned factories, and poorly constructed homes and apartments - though I noticed that we'd left the residential neighborhoods behind a while back.

It was starting to become midday - Cassie's phone read 4 PM, and the sun was beaming a warmth down that completely contradicted the previous frostiness of the morning. Brockton Bay seemed pretty fucking random in the weather department.

A static-like buzz brought my attention down to the phone. Moments later, a tinny, gruff voice came through the speakers, though it sounded crackly and fragmented.

"...no trace of…witnesses reported…golden…in a dark hoodie…be on the lookout for a dark red-"

The audio fizzled out again. Instincts almost had me smacking the phone until I realized that the bar beneath 'Brockton Bay PD' was probably the signal strength - and it was quickly lowering down into the red zone. We were probably far enough away from whoever was issuing the BOLO for the signal to almost completely go dead. Still, as broken as the information was, common sense told me that they probably didn't get a good look at my face and Cassie wasn't even mentioned - which was fair, considering she spent the entire fight literally lying in a broken heap on the side of the sidewalk.

The car was an issue, though, and we needed to get rid of it now.

Fortunately, we were already in what could be constituted as an abandoned side alley, and other than maybe a bit of sweat and other miscellaneous bodily fluids the car was pretty clean. I wasn't even sure if it mattered if I bled or sweated everywhere…it's not like I was a native to Worm. I had an ID card, sure, but those were easily fabricated. I sincerely doubted that they had my DNA logged anywhere in the system. I was practically a ghost, and as long as I kept my face outta view of any cameras or nosy snitches I would hopefully stay that way.

At least until I felt secure enough to reveal myself fully.

"Yo, Cassie," I reached over and prodded her cheek.

No response.

"Cass." I said a bit louder.

Nada.

I smirked, a devious thought coming to mind. I raised my voice higher, feigning shock and disgust. "HOLY SHIT, what is this browser history-?!"

"NOOO!"

It wasn't often that I genuinely laughed, but something about this entire day - and the girl I've spent it with - had me in a…different mood. Lighter, more floaty.

I released a full body guffaw as Cassie lunged forward, a broad grin curling into my cheeks as I restrained her back down with one large hand. As lean as I was, I had broad shoulders and long arms - and plus, it was purely for her benefit. I wasn't 100% certain that her fucked up ankle was broken, mainly because there seemed to be no blood or white parts sticking out, but I doubted her mad lunge for her phone would've felt good.

"Heh…calm the fuck down. I didn't go through your phone. Clearly you got a lot to hide if you're freakin' out like that, though." I chuckled, taking my hand off of her almost nonexistent chest.

She, fortunately, made no comment on the touch - too busy yanking her phone out of the console mount and cradling it against her body. Her eyes were still sleepy and blurry, but they had no issues glaring daggers. Blunt daggers, maybe, but daggers all the same.

"You can't play with a woman's privacy like that, Jason," she huffed.

I shrugged easily. "When that same woman is an accessory to murder on my behalf, I think we skip a few steps."

"Shhh, dumbass, don't say that out loud so easily! Where even are we?" Cassie stifled a yawn as she sat up straighter in the seat, a wince covering her face as the movement jostled her injured ankle.

"Check the GPS. We're in the Docks, that much I know. Some random ass alley off the side of…" I peeked over at the screen, "Burgundy Street?"

Her face lit up as she slipped the phone into her pocket. "No need to check - I know where we are. It'll take us fifteen minutes to get to my spot if we go by foot…probably longer with my bum ankle, but I don't want to get the car any closer."

"Yeah, that would be a pretty stupid idea. That's why I parked here…figured we could, I don't know…set it on fire or something?" I still had the Zippo in my pocket after all. Additionally, the fishing line in my soul was starting to loop around something…I could feel a pretty hefty charge resting in my sternum, and the Grimoire probably wanted to wane off the excess. What were the odds that my next magic would be something arson-related?

"Ew, you're starting to smirk evilly again Jason - stop it. And what the fuck do you mean set it on fire? You wanna just blow a car up in some random alleyway?!"

I wiped the drool from my lips and fixed the deadpanned Cassie with an unamused glare. "Cars don't just explode when you set 'em on fire…they smolder, burn, and smell horrible. Although the tires might burst. It'll probably gain some attention but we'll be long gone before it gets to that point. Hopefully…"

I trailed off, because the Grimoire managed to snag that elusive mote of light that almost slipped away. It was getting easier, dividing my attention between the inner workings of my soul and the outside world, so I was able to catch Cassie's next words even as I briefly surveyed the magic being offered.

"'Hopefully' is a pretty huge adverb in this situation, Jay. Wouldn't we be better off by sending it into the bay or something?" She seemed unsure, a far-cry from her usual rough bravado, but who wouldn't when talking about dumping a dead nazi's whip? I pretended to think over my response while inwardly analyzing the Grimoire.

[Sorcery - Conveyance, One Dot (WoD: Sorcery - 100 CP)]Teleportation, flight, and other means of magically swift transportation are covered by this path.

[1] The sorcerer may transport themselves across roughly 10 feet.

Teleportation! And something else from the World of Darkness? Hell fucking yes - if there was one spell that I felt would be useful in all aspects of life, it was teleportation. Who couldn't find a use for something so utilitarian and multidimensional? Not to mention Spellcaster would probably increase the range a little bit…if I understood the ability correctly. I reeled it in quickly and efficiently, not bothered at all by the feeling of my consolidated charge growing smaller with the catch.

Shaking my head and pushing the nerdy wizard thoughts to the side, I refocused on Cassie. "Something tells me 'dumping shit in the bay' is the choice most sloppy criminals default to when tryna hide evidence, and I don't know if we wanna show ourselves, along with the car they're looking for, anywhere near a place like that right now."

She bit her lip. Thin, soft, and red, the poor girl's mouth was already looking a bit bruised from the abuse her teeth had inflicted from the stress of the day's activities. "Damn, you might be right. Okay, just…let me check something real quick. Try not to set anything on fire just yet." Still fiddling with her bottom lip, Cassie leaned back in the seat and brought her one uninjured leg up to her chest, looking distinctly uncomfortable with the half-and-half position.

It was probably an instinctive comfort thing though, because she was almost immediately sucked into her own world, click-clacking on her phone once again. I didn't want to interrupt whatever the fuck she was doing, so I decided to just pull the car further up into the alley near a couple of overfilled dumpsters. The alley wasn't a deadend, but the street on the other side seemed just as quiet and desolate as the one behind so I tried not to let it make me paranoid. If anyone was snooping around and watching, I felt like I would've been able to spot 'em by now. Unless they were pulling a Batman and lurking on the rooftops…

Ugh.

Turning the car off, I chanced a glance out the window and up to the lip of the roof beside us. Nothing.

"Whew…paranoia's gonna be the death of me…"

"What was that?" Cassie murmured, darting her eyes towards me without stopping her handheld typing. How the Hell did she even move her thumbs that fast?

"Nothing," I sighed.

"Cool. So look, I used a personal app I made called 'Spy Be Gone' to hook into the CCTV cameras around our location - Burgundy Street, right? They're still using Detcore as a security network for their IP addresses, old shit, and I've already installed a subroutine for those years ago. As long as those babies stay connected to wherever they're keeping the servers for this side of the Docks, I'll have eyes on every spot with an unprotected CCTV for this entire block."

She showed me her phone screen, a wide, prideful smile on her face. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I had no fucking idea what she was going on about, but the dozen or so little black and white squares of live camera footage told me all I needed to know. Curiously, I stuck my hand out the window of the Charger and saw the same arm wave out of a nondescript car in one of the lower CCTV recordings.

My eyes widened. One click of her finger, and that same camera went lights out.

"You…are something else," I breathed, genuinely impressed despite myself.

Cassie blushed, her nose wrinkling in that same cute way it did the last time she was both embarrassed, proud, and fake annoyed at the same time. "Yeah, well…" For some reason, I got the impression that she wasn't used to flexing her talents to people who actually gave a shit. Or receiving compliments. Or, as evident from her reaction to skinship, receiving physical affection. Life was hard on the lonely hacker.

So I reached down and rested my hand on her head, messing up her short, straight locks of greasy black hair. "I'm being serious, good work Cass. This would be a fucking shitshow without you."

Idly, in the back of my mind, I knew that I was taking advantage of the pitfalls of her life in order to get a certain reaction and feeling out of her. I didn't actually feel the urge to thank or compliment her, but I did it because I knew it would make her feel good and feel affection towards me. That was the thing about being Jason Black…empathy was a decision and a choice, rather than a natural human instinct. Regardless, I couldn't really bring myself to feel bad about wanting to emulate being a good person.

Cassie's blush, previously just a scant little dust of red on her cheeks, volcano'd instantly. Her bruised lips warbled up into a shy, tentative smile, and it seemed like she didn't know whether to melt into the slow, deep massage of my hands and fingers in her hair, or pull away in fear. "T-thanks Jason, that um…it means a lot. I'm…I'm proud of the stuff I've made. I know they're just little ratty apps and scripts instead of badass Tinker shit like Armsmaster's halberd or one of Dragon's suits, but-"

"Meh." I yawned.

Her brow furrowed, and her smile froze. A self-suffering snort broke through her previously rosy exterior. "Boring, right? Compared to all that heroic stuff, I guess it would be."

"No, I mean the beard dude and the mech suits and all that shit. Just…meh. Never been a fan of Gundam or Robocop."

Cassie's pity party screeched to a resounding halt, and she blinked owlishly up at me, my hand still resting on her head. "What?"

"I like your apps. Hacking's cool…I did a bit of coding in co- er, highschool, and even though I flunked out I still find it badass. Kinda like magic, y'know? A few random numbers and words and bam, you're controlling the Statue of Liberty and shit." I withdrew my hand, inwardly smirking at the way she instinctively moved her head to follow after it without realizing.

Her eyes, however, were completely focused on me. What seemed like surprise, amazement, and something else my current Force of Spirit-lacking self couldn't identify brightened her gaze. "You know…you're something else too." She threw my words right back at me, shaking her head in amusement.

I winked, and she deadpanned.

"Don't do that if you're not even gonna bother putting more emotion on your face. It's creepy, no matter how handsome you are."

"I'll take the compliment. Now, use those cameras to find me a place with gasoline. Or oil. There has to be something around here, and we don't have time to search the whole block." I grinned, sitting back in the cushy leather driver's seat and crossing my arms over my chest.

Cassie sighed, but her mood definitely seemed happier as she hunched over her trusty phone once again. "Fine. I can't really tell, but it seems like there's drums of something over here at Camera 11B, which would prooobably be somewhere over…"

As she reverted into 'girl in the chair' mode, filling my ear with absolutely essential information that I'd probably have her summarize right after she was done, I had to admit something to myself. The thought even surprised me.

I still wasn't happy about being sent here…but this could've been a lot worse. Cassie truly made everything much more bearable, and I was lucky to meet her at that bus stop.

I wasn't completely confident about the near future, but maybe…

'Maybe things'll go smooth for once…'

Sorcery - Conveyance, One Dot (WoD: Sorcery - 100 CP)

Teleportation, flight, and other means of magically swift transportation are covered by this path.

[1] The sorcerer may transport themselves across roughly 10 feet.

900 CP Remaining.

I might slow down CP gain to 100 every 2000 words, as he is collecting them pretty fast at 100/1000. We'll see how things go moving deeper in, so try not to worry about CP or Perk distribution right now. I can easily edit things post-writing if need be.

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A Mage's Guide to the Multiverse (Celestial Grimoire SI, Worm Start) by Throwaway1971

Books » Private Rated: M, English, Romance, Words: 202k+, Favs: 160, Follows: 196, Published: Jan 17, 2024 Updated: Mar 20, 2024

24Chapter 05 - Home Sweet Home

Things actually did go pretty smoothly for a while. I'd regretted mentally challenging Lady Karma mere seconds after thinking it, but maybe she was giving me a break today.

"I wish she would've done something about this fuckin' scent too, damn…"

I covered my lower face with the sleeve of my hoodie, trying not to inhale the fumes permeating the old, decrepit warehouse Cassie had pointed me in the direction of. It had been child's play to slip in through a broken window, but the darkness in the messy corridor proved annoying. Why the CCTV camera in the old facility worked was anyone's guess.

Apparently we were closer to the more rundown side of the Docks than I'd originally thought - things got better and more lived in the closer you either went to the Southwest, towards the South Docks, or East, towards the Market and the Boardwalk. Cassie, in all of her - admittedly smart - wisdom decided to hunker down in some shitty abandoned complex closer to the Trainyard, so the place where we were dumping the car was pretty much knee-deep in urban decay.

It was honestly pretty bleak, just how shitty some of the buildings I'd seen so far looked. It wasn't even like we were in a completely abandoned area, either. There weren't many cars out on the curb or streets, but that was because the owners were probably too fucking poor to afford 'em. Or, they were too afraid of getting robbed. I'd already skirted past what felt like half a dozen starving people huddled around alleyways, and I was sticking only to Burgundy Street!

The less said about the random bouts of gunshots, crying, and yelling that echoed in the near distance the better. It made me nervous to leave my cripple hacker behind for any period of time.

'All the more reason to hurry up,' I grumbled internally, kicking open the corroded remains of what seemed like a former emergency access door. The rusted and decrepit hinges broke on impact, swinging the burgundy and brown scrap metal flaps wide open. The sound was loud and screeching, almost startling me even though I was the one who kicked the damn thing open. For a brief second, paranoia forced me to entertain the idea that there were people already here for some reason. We hadn't seen anything on the CCTV cameras, but-

No, there was no way. Not even the homeliest of hobos would willingly sleep inside of what I was quickly beginning to think was an old gasoline and oil storage facility.

When I stepped through the sorry excuse for a doorway and my crocs immediately became sticky with a gross black residue, I knew that my theory was correct. Additionally, the overwhelming amount of scrap metal shelves lining the huge room was pretty solid proof too. Quite a few of the shelves - probably the majority, actually - were overturned or busted and corroded in some way, but there wasn't too much that I could see with the lights busted and no sunlight coming from the roof. Hell, there weren't any windows inside this main area either, so I was practically going in blind!

Thankfully, human eyes adapted decently well to darkness, so there were things I could still see - the shelves not included. Large drums littered the floor in all directions, some spilled over and leaking what I assumed to be gas and oil everywhere. I was sure that most of it was no good, obviously, but with such a heavy fucking smog in the air there had to be something worth taking back.

I moved further inside, cringing at the loud suction cup sounds of my crocs sticking and unsticking to the oil-slicked concrete. "Definitely gonna have to ditch you two after this," I sighed dramatically, my voice muffled through the cloth of my hoodie sleeve. There was a second floor to the warehouse, although I couldn't see much more through the heavy shadows, but time was of the essence and I had no intentions of sightseeing.

'Alright, let's see…'

Approaching a random drum, I leaned down to examine it further. It seemed about average - large, burnt-red, and half empty judging by the slosh it made when I experimentally leaned it to the side. It was also fuck-off heavy, because even getting it to tip over a little bit almost had me releasing it fully and allowing it to crash onto the ground.

"Damn!" I swore, letting it wobble back into equilibrium. I wasn't sure how much we needed to set the whole car on fire, but I didn't care much for making a return trip with a BOLA still out on my head. I'd risk a half-empty drum, but anything less than that was probably no good.

Hm…maybe teleporting with it would work? I hadn't tried the spell yet, not wanting to attract too much attention if it turned out to be loud and ostentatious, but considering there didn't seem to be no one inside with me…

A grin pulled at my lips and grasped the edge of the gas barrel with my left hand, enduring the scent of stale gasoline and oil. From what instinctive understanding I could grasp purely off of gaining the ability, there was no foci needed like with my Weapon Magic. World of Darkness' Sorcery was more…streamlined than it was versatile, and its magic was less about casting spells and more about activating magical abilities that lied upon a certain Path. Conveyance was the Path of Traversal, and reaching deep within my mana core, I grabbed a hold of that same innate feeling of familiarity that came with all of my magic, and channeled my ability to move.

There was no loud 'boom' or 'crack' that signified my teleportation. It was very simple, actually - one second, I was standing beside the red drum, and the next I was stumbling across the oil-slicked concrete roughly ten feet away from where I started channeling my mana.

"Oh, shit-"

For a few seconds I was the wackiest and most unique dancer in all of Earth Bet…until finally, I ate complete shit. Again. Third time today, actually.

"Oof!"

My hands landed in a sticky black mess, splattering oil over my hoodie and sweatpants, but holy shit…I had teleported! It was virtually silent, other than the slight 'woosh' of air being displaced. It didn't feel any further than ten feet, but it wasn't like I had a masterful inner sense of measurements. Whether or not Spellcaster affected my Sorcery was unimportant, though! Teleporting was trippy, but so fucking cool. I felt like a kid again- er, I was a kid again, but I felt a childlike giddiness fill my chest.

It took a fair amount of mana, but with the doubled size it wasn't too big of a loss. I felt like I could teleport quite a few times without getting too low. If I didn't go crazy and chain cast it, the slow regeneration of my mana should be able to recoup the loss over the course of a minute or so. "But…it didn't bring the gas drum," I muttered, pushing myself back to my feet and glaring at the red barrel.

One churn and pulse of my mana later and I was gripping the lid of the gas drum to steady myself. Using Convoyence Sorcery to teleport was sorta like riding an intense rollercoaster for all of one second - hella vertigo and dizziness, but I would get used to it over time. Crouching down, I wrapped my arms around the entirety of the gas drum and willed my magic to transport me backwards.

WOOSH.

I slipped backwards on the balls of my feet, still crouching with my arms extending outwards. Reflexes I barely even knew I had kicked in just in time to keep me from toppling backwards and falling flat on my ass. "Whew. 'Ight, I get it…no teleporting nukes into enemy bases at my level. Fair play, Celestial Grimoire."

With a sigh, I stood to my feet once again and looked around the dark warehouse. If I couldn't teleport with the goods or carry 'em on my back, how the Hell was I going to bring the gas back to Cassie and the car? What a stupid fucking dilemma!

There had to be something here…

"And that's when I found this dollie! Almost forgot these things existed." I said to Cassie as I poured the noxious gasoline inside the back of the car. It reeked, but it sank into the leather and floor mats much easier than oil would have. Plus, oil wasn't even that flammable in the first place - gas for the win.

"Mhm. So it took you that long to find a dollie? I know you said it was dark, but c'mon." Cassie smirked from her seated position on top of the dumpster. She'd taken off her right shoe and stowed it…somewhere, so her massively swollen and purple foot was on clear display. It was pretty grotesque, but I was just happy that it wasn't broken. Toughing it out was cool with a sprained ankle, but without a hospital a broken ankle was just asking for permanent damage.

Tensing my arms and lifting with my legs, I manhandled the last remnants of the gasoline barrel and grunted as I drizzled it over the already soaked roof. "I don't have my glasses," I breathed, successfully managing to sound dry even as I strained to carefully place the drum down. "And I was practicing a lil' bit."

That was also something I'd thought about. Explaining my magic.

Cassie's eyes widened in interest and she leaned forward over her knee. "Ooh, your powers, right? Nice form, by the way - the energy projection stuff you showed before gives you a Brute rating or something?"

I rose an eyebrow in bemusement. "What? No, I'm just built different. My power is actually a lil' bit weird. Definitely not " I rolled the gas drum over to the side of the dumpster, hidden amongst the ridiculous amount of stinking refuse and boxes. Cassie's eyes followed me the entire way.

"Weird how? And don't even think of trying to wiggle outta this one. My interest is fully piqued now, Jay, and I've read about some really weird shit on PHO."

Taking a second to catch my breath, I sighed and squatted down beside the dumpster, taking the Zippo lighter out of my pocket. It was pretty funny, actually - how I hadn't gotten a simple firebolt spell out of the Grimoire, despite fire magic being one of the most basic bitch staples of fictional fantasy.

"Good, then maybe my situation isn't too weird. I don't know 'bout any kind of brute rating, but uh…I can teleport now. Only short distances, though."

Cassie's eyebrows practically disappeared. "Like with that golden energy? So it's a…Mover-Striker combo? Make weapons and teleport to them…?" Her previous bravado slowly disappearing, Cassie crossed her arms beneath her small chest and eyed me confusedly. At least she was being patient.

"Nah, just straight up teleportation. I also learn skills faster the more danger I'm i-"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Cassie gaped, raising her hands and making a 'time-out' gesture. "Let me make sense of this, Jason. So you're, what, a Trump? But those powers don't sound like they have much connection or synergy to them, unless you're some sort of power copier or-"

I could feel the Grimoire, as if it was destined, began to send out its feelers once again. Raising a hand to silence the rambling Cass, I gave her an amused smirk and stood back up. Resting time was over, and even though she shut off any camera that could possibly catch sight of us, I wasn't very enthused at the idea of sitting beside a gasoline-covered car in broad daylight for any longer than was necessary.

"We can finish this conversation later, in a much safer locale. For now, just believe me when I say this: I don't know too much about my powers, all I know is that every once and a while I get a new ability, though they're usually pretty minor. The teleportation was the most recent."

Telling her this much wasn't a horrible idea. I planned to stick around Cassie for the foreseeable future, she planned to show me her hidden base, and I genuinely felt like I could trust the girl. Trying to keep everything secret sounded like the biggest pain in the fucking ass, and I wasn't one to play the whole 'secrecy' thing anyway.

Eventually, I wouldn't need to hide anything about myself.

Cassie, in her defense, didn't freak out or panic - her eyes were just wide as she stared at me like I just farted out a gold brick or something. From what I remembered, having multiple powers or gaining them wasn't…unheard of, right? That Eidolon dude, part of the grimdark Justice League, had something similar. I could just say I was like him if anyone really tried to dig into my secrets deeply, right?

"We're definitely revisiting this, bucko. I know I seem calm right now, but there's nothing normal about being a-" Cassie's voice dropped down to a hiss, "Trump that can just spawn powers 'every once and a while'!" Her shitty rendition of my voice caused me to cringe.

"Fuck off, I don't sound like that. Now get ready to run." I scowled, flicking the Zippo lighter on.

"Huh?!"

I paused. "Shit. Right. Here-" Turning around, I teleported the scant few feet over to Cassie - ignoring her started and surprisingly high-pitched yelp - and tossed the lighter behind me. I wasn't too worried about missing since the gas covered quite a bit of distance around the car, but I was worried about it exploding in spite of my previous half-ignorant declaration. Putting one arm beneath her knees and the other right above her ass, I hefted Cassie into my arms with a grunt and immediately began sprinting down the opposite lip of the alley.

I wasn't looking - because cool guys obviously didn't look at explosions - but I could both hear and feel the immediate eruption of flames that consumed the gas like a whirlpool. Cassie gasped, stretching her head up to stare over my shoulders at the fiery mess but I was too busy focusing on placing one foot after the other to pay proper attention. She couldn't have weighed more than 90 pounds and I was in pretty good shape, but moving around that drum and fighting for my life had a way of tiring a man.

[Eyes See All or None(Wonderland No More - 200 CP)]You get two related abilities with this perk. First, by saying, "I can see what you're doing there, young man," you gain literal (illusory) eyes on the back of your head (or an equivalent position) that not only have your normal eyes' level of vision but will also detect and see all supernatural things within your normal range of vision, even if they are invisible. On the flipside, if you cover your eyes and say, "I can't see you, so you can't see this," you stop all magical/supernatural attempts to see you for as long as you keep your eyes covered.

"Jay," Cassie suddenly gasped as I jay-sprinted across a crack-laden street.

"What?"

"It ignited the dumpster."

"Oh." I blinked, breathing evenly through my nose as I ran. "I can see what you're doing there, young man."

"...The fu-"

"You're right! Poor…raccoons?"

"Pfft, you fucking dick. Take a right through that alley."

Arms sore and legs pumping, I followed her directions, inwardly quite satisfied with my latest ability. It was sorta…discombobulating, but useful. Plus, I was getting used to this whole multitasking thin-

A rock almost made me eat shit, and I stumbled, jostling my passenger.

"Ow, Jason, be careful!"

"Sorry."

I wish I could say that I fearlessly and tirelessly sprinted through streets and alleyways for two whole miles, but that would be a bold faced lie. After ducking through a couple of apartments and warehouses - just in case we needed to lose a trail, Cassie insisted - we finally managed to make it to the infamous 'Chateau de Hacker'. I had to deactivate my newest ability halfway there, despite the confidence and peace of mind it gave me to be aware of any threats coming from behind.

Although they were near-sighted just like my plain 'ol human eyes, if the description proved to be right - and it always was - then I'd be able to pierce through both Stranger powers that hid or cloaked their owners away from normal sight. That wasn't even getting into the second ability, which I hadn't had time to test out just yet. The unfortunate side-effect was the severe fucking headache looking from two different sets of eyes smacked me with.

At this point, I had a dinosaur treating the inside of my skull like Jurassic World and I honestly wasn't the biggest fan - of the headache or the movie.

"You can put me down now, Jason. We're safe here." Cassie brought me out of my thoughts, lightly tapping a chewed-on fingernail against my chin. True to her words, the area around us seemed safe; her warehouse was fringing on the outskirts of the Docks, more in the Trainyard than anything else, and other than a few abandoned boxcars and a half-destroyed building I had to skirt around in order to even find the damn hideout, there wasn't much in the way of easy places to wait in ambush. She chose well.

"I can," I said casually, making the motion to lower her to the ground. I tried my hardest to not smirk at the subtle, almost too fast to notice tightening of her arms around my neck. Try as she might to deny it, I knew the touch-starved girl enjoyed lying defenseless in my arms for so long. Talk about a pillow princess. "You sure you want that?"

"Ugh," Cassie groaned, but made no comment to deny the hinted allegation, "Just do it so I can put the code in. The door won't open otherwise."

"Fine," I chuckled, gingerly lowering the much smaller girl onto the ground. Huffing, she hobbled over to the large, metal gray door bringing her phone out and scrolling to another app. There was some sort of small plastic screen embedded at around face-level on the door, and as she typed on her phone the screen suddenly turned black. Moments later, green code started piling up.

'Ooookay, stereotypical hackerman shit.' I rose an eyebrow, turning my attention away from the crazy girl and her fancy door and observing the outside of the warehouse. Warehouse was…an incorrect term, however. It looked more like a concrete dungeon - small, compact, and the only noteworthy features seemed to be the metal door placed directly in the front.

"It's a bunker," Cassie suddenly spoke up, pocketing her phone and pushing open the door. "Probably for some poor family who wanted an escape for the Endbringer attacks. Don't know, don't really care - it was a bitch to hack into and it was empty when I found it, so finder's keepers."

I shrugged my shoulders, moving to walk inside. "You won't find me complaining. What's yours is mine and what's everyone else's is mine too, ya dig?"

She snickered. "Don't ever say 'ya dig' again, grandpa." Turning around, she shut the door and fiddled with another screen.

I waved her off. "Yeah, yeah. Hey, this place doesn't look half bad. A bit small, but…" 'Small' was a bit of an understatement - it was probably around the size of a poor girl's bedroom, but it was…clean, at least. And it had electricity - I wonder how she got that set up. A single fluorescent light bulb hung from the concrete ceiling, a dark green hatch was installed on the floor beneath said bulb, and…there was nothing else.

Huh, the hatch probably led down into-

"Do you even know what a bunker is?" Cassie sighed, limping towards the hatch. I followed after, because Lord knew she wasn't lifting it by herself with no core leverage.

"I do…I just never saw the inside of one before. Or, if I did, it was a long time ago. Who the fuck regularly observes the inside of bunkers?"

"Uh, normal-"

"Nah, crazy people - that's who."

"And people who enjoy surviving the crazy monsters that threaten our cities once every second Sunday." Cassie snarked, stepping back and letting me muscle up the hatch. I was honestly a bit surprised that she hadn't found a way to put some ridiculously complicated hydraulic locking mechanism accessible only by her Nokia on the hatch as well.

"Point." I conceded, watching as the metal ladder folded down out of the hatch and fell the 13 or so feet down into the inky darkness. There was a small beat of silence, before: "So, I guess I'm gonna go down first and then catch you-"

"I can climb down slowly on one foot, genius." Cassie's voice was amused.

"Yeah, but then you miss out on another ride on the muscle wagon," I replied with a rakish grin and a wiggle of my eyebrows.

"Haha! You're actually insufferable." Cassie snorted, shaking her head and fixing me with a glare that lacked heat. "Go down first, just in case I fall or something."

"Yup."

Still grinning, I tossed my lower body over the side of the hole and gripped the metal rungs of the ladder. Even though the inside of the bunker proper was pretty much pitch black, the events of the day did a lot to help me with my blind confidence. Or maybe that was just Heroic Aptitude doing it's job. Fake it 'till you make it, right?

Without hesitating, I slid straight down into the darkness. It was only a few seconds before my completely fucked up crocs hit solid concrete, and as soon as I did an array of lights flickered on directly overhead, momentarily blinding me.

"Shit!" I swore, closing my eyes and covering them with my forearm. That damned dinosaur started doing flips again, this time with aplomb.

"It's better than the dark at least. Don't worry, they're voice activated," Cassie said as she slowly clambered down the ladder after me. "Lights, dim." There was the sound of something flickering and buzzing, before all went silent once again.

Opening my eyes, I watched as the previously bright fluorescent bulbs dimmed to a much more relaxing level. I blinked the spots out of my eyes. "I'd be more impressed if your lighting system didn't just flashbang the Hell outta me." I grumbled.

Cassie grunted as she made it past the final rung, slightly out of breath and looking paler than usual. "You'll be alright, Mister Trump. I'm sure there's a power somewhere in that noggin that can heal you right up."

I shivered in disgust, shooting her a glare. "First off, don't ever call me that again. Secondly…" I trailed off, slowly turning around in a 360 as I took in her base of operations. "...Holy shit."

Cass limped forward to stand by my side, a nervous look overtaking her face. "I know it's pretty shitty, but I did what I could to make it home."

I shook my head, absently plopping my hand on top of her head.

"Hey!"

Laughter, free of stress and worry - at least for now, bubbled out of my chest. I turned to give my newest roomie a big, genuine grin. Tentatively, but with growing elation at the realization that we were safe and free, Cassie met my smile with her own. Somehow, in the shitty lighting of the underground bunker, it looked more beautiful than any other woman's I've ever met. "Homeless my ass. If this ain't paradise, I don't know what is."

Sure, it wasn't my apartment in East Harlem, but…

For now, right in this moment, it was perfect.

[Perks Received]

[Roll One]Eyes See All or None(Wonderland No More - 200 CP): You get two related abilities with this perk. First, by saying, "I can see what you're doing there, young man," you gain literal (illusory) eyes on the back of your head (or an equivalent position) that not only have your normal eyes' level of vision but will also detect and see all supernatural things within your normal range of vision, even if they are invisible. On the flipside, if you cover your eyes and say, "I can't see you, so you can't see this," you stop all magical/supernatural attempts to see you for as long as you keep your eyes covered.

900 CP Remaining.

[A/N]Trying out the new CP gain this chapter! Also, I wrote enough to roll twice - but I will be rolling in the beginning of next chapter because I liked the ending here and didn't wanna mess it up by shoehorning a roll at the end, hehe.

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A Mage's Guide to the Multiverse (Celestial Grimoire SI, Worm Start) by Throwaway1971

Books » Private Rated: M, English, Romance, Words: 202k+, Favs: 160, Follows: 196, Published: Jan 17, 2024 Updated: Mar 20, 2024

24Chapter 6: Interlude 1 - PRT

PRT Director Emily Piggot stapled her pudgy fingers together beneath her flagging chin, eyes as sharp as any sword practically piercing the short distance between her and the small stack of reports that were recently faxed over to her from the Brockton Bay PD. Homicide cases in the Bay wasn't at all irregular, what with gangs like the Azn Bad Boys and the Empire-88 braying over blood and territory like starving hounds, but most of the cases didn't find themselves making their way to her desk in particular unless one very specific element was involved.

What element was that? Well, one of the few things that the regular justice system treated like an ugly, unwanted ginger stepson and threw away at the first sign of trouble.

Parahuman activity.

Oh, it wasn't as if she was the one who handled all the Parahuman cases in Brockton Bay. The chain of leadership didn't work like that, and she delegated a lot of the workflow through to those trained to handle and monitor Cape activities, but somehow life had a funny way of wrapping it all back 'round to her desk. Not that she could, or would, ever openly complain about her duties as Director. Better her than some other weak schmuck not able to handle the stress and responsibility that came from keeping the peace relatively stable amongst one of the highest Cape-populated cities in America. It was easy to underestimate the job when your eyes were still blinded to the danger and turmoil those with powers threatened humanity with.

She had shed those rose-tinted glasses long ago. Too long ago.

Now, if only she could get a more concrete report from the coroner's office, just so she knew more about what sort of rogue cape they were dealing with.

"Director? Not trying to rush your thoughts, but I assume you called us here for a reason?" Armsmaster's voice, carefully stoic and respectful, brought the blonde woman out of her darkening thoughts.

Emily had called for him and a couple other select Protectorate members that weren't currently on duty. In front of her desk, sitting in fairly uncomfortable metal folding chairs, Armsmaster, Miss Militia, Assault, and Battery waited patiently - or, in Assault's case, patiently while smacking his lips on a pack of Cool Ranch chips. When she gave him a reproachful glare, the laidback Cape raised his hands peacefully and smiled. "What? You kinda called us outta nowhere, boss lady. I gotta keep my calories up."

Battery let out an almost silent sigh, leaning back in the uncomfortable chair and crossing her arms over her chest. She seemed content to completely ignore her obnoxious partner.

"Put the chips away and pay attention, Assault. I don't like bugs in my office any more than I like watching you chew with your mouth open." Emily's voice was like steel - commanding and tough, in spite of her lessening health. She punctuated the seriousness of the demand by holding out her hand expectantly.

Assault blanched. "Awww, come on Director! I'm not a naughty kid sneaking cookies out the-"

"I'm not going to say it again."

"But-"

"Just give her the chips so we can move on with the briefing," Battery sighed, giving her husband a tired glare.

Seeing that he was getting no support there, Assault, still chewing, glanced helplessly over to Armsmaster.

The bearded man stared sullenly ahead.

He looked to Miss Militia for any sort of backup, probably trusting in the mature woman's genteel nature.

The gun-toting hero studiously checked her fingernails, looking away from the obvious SOS. The shape of her eyebrows betrayed her amusement, however.

"Man…" Pouting - like a real life man child - Assault sighed and placed the half-empty bag of chips in Emily's meaty palm. She immediately dropped the junk food in the wastebin beside her desk, easily ignoring the Cape's stuttered gasp of horror at the wasteful display.

"Great. Now, if we're done playing reindeer games, I want each of you to look over the reports placed in front of you on the desk. It has all consolidated information we have on our most recent rampant Cape, unofficially named 'Shiv'."

That seemed to grab all of their attention. For a few seconds the room was overtaken by the sound of shifting fabric, kevlar, and metal as all four heroes leaned forward to grab and study their own copies of the report. It took Miss Militia only a brief, cursory glance over the page before her voice spoke up in subdued interest and caution.

"'Showcases the ability to generate and shoot golden energy constructs in the shape of small blades'? Sounds rather familiar, doesn't it? Pretty limited, though." A wry tone skirted along the edge of her low, feminine voice.

"Limited or not, I'd watch my back if I were you Missy! Kid showed up outta nowhere jacking your style while stabbing a bunch of racists. Talk about ballsy." Assault chuckled in amusement, his own eyes roaming over the report in his hands. "Name's pretty accurate too. His power sounds a lot closer to Brandish's, though."

Miss Militia's only reply was a noncommittal hum, her eyes still focused on the Shiv report.

Armsmaster rubbed his gloved hand over his beard, a frown pulling at his lips. "This isn't a laughing matter. Underage or not, killing four unpowered people while using the full force of your abilities isn't acceptable. Do we have footage of the fight?"

"And do we even know if he's underage or not? These photos don't show much." Battery added.

Emily leaned back in her office chair, ignoring the familiar sound of plastic and leather creaking with the movement. She nodded her head towards the large monitor on the wall to the right of her desk, placed in the perfect area for on the spot briefings. A click of a button later and familiar camera footage - footage that she'd played over at least three times so far in the past hour - flashed onto the screen.

Clearing her throat, the Director addressed the heroes once again. "According to the reports, there had been four cooling bodies on the scene when the policemen first arrived, and only one of them had actual physical stab wounds that matched the size and shape of a small blade - more than likely a switchblade or pocket knife. The other corpses lacked any matching wounds."

"Then how-"

A raised hand interrupted Armsmaster's expected question. Without any further words, Emily unpaused the footage.

Though grainy and relatively poor quality, the footage managed to capture a good portion of the fight - if it could even be considered that. Two figures, one relatively average in height and the other quite short, were seen walking down the sidewalk in what appeared to be a fairly normal neighborhood. The shorter figure was a girl, seemingly Asian and fair-skinned, while much couldn't be seen about the taller one. Brown skin and what seemed like locks of black hair poked out of a tightly cinched hood, but nothing else could be seen from the camera's positions.

"Hold on." Miss Militia said quickly, and Emily inwardly sighed as she pressed the pause button on the remote.

She had already come to terms with the amount of prodding and hold-ups the briefing would have - just like any other meeting about rogue or dangerous capes - so she couldn't find it in her to be annoyed with the interruption. Additionally, information gathering and distribution is why she called for the meeting in the first place.

"Go ahead," she replied.

"Thank you, Director," Miss Militia inclined her head. "But who is the girl beside 'Shiv'? You gave us files on him, but nothing on his companion. Is she not being investigated as well?"

Emily's thin lips pulled down into an ugly frown. "Finding out more about the girl should be easy, since she had nothing to hide her identity. No mask, hood, nothing. However, first attempts with the city's facial recognition system brought nothing up. No identification, public records, birth certificate, Hell - not even a damn shoe size." Her voice, always so cold and controlled, lowered in frustration. "Further diving into her identity, not being a major point of interest yet, was reluctantly put on hold."

Why the elderly man who reported the crime deigned to call the police department instead of the PRT Emergency Hotline transcended her knowledge, but he successfully wasted time for both departments that could have been used in pursuing Shiv and the mystery girl. She hadn't actively committed any crime, but she was an accessory, and thusly involved.

Armsmaster's brow furrowed at the new information. "A possible data wipe? I'm not familiar with the PD's digital security, but we should be able to recover something. Dragon and I-"

"Lack the authority to go deep-diving into private city records without probable cause. For now. Shiv is the primary target here, Armsmaster. Stay on task." The clear lack of 'try' was loud. Armsmaster frowned, but nodded compliantly.

"If there's no more interruptions," Emily offered, and when no one responded, she unpaused the video.

The cameras should've been able to pick up audio, but it was tinny and the sound of wind and ambience drowned out the obvious whispering the duo was trying to be subtle about. The street was practically empty, save for the two making their way down the sidewalk, but that changed very quickly.

White men, all of them bald and clearly up to no good, seemed to practically melt out of the alleyways. One, a man in a red bomber jacket and sunglasses, was the only one to not come from some hole in the wall. He instead stepped out of an expensive looking, wine red Dodge Charger, and proceeded to lean against it arrogantly. It was clear what was happening, and judging by their sudden halt, the two kids seemed to realize it as well.

After that, things seemed to escalate quickly - as they tended to do when parahumans were involved. Two goons, one being the presently comatose and detained Mac, confronted the duo. The confrontation happened on the sidewalk close to a streetlight, and though the audio wasn't perfect, the room was able to hear the majority of the conversation due to the raised voices.

Cringes were found across the board, sans Armsmaster and Emily, at the very clear hate crime in process happening on the screen. If the violent shoulder-check by the swastika-tatted goon didn't make it clear who the aggressors were, the spat-out 'chink' and overuse of the word 'boy' was like nails in the coffin. Emily had seen many things in her long career in the PRT, and racism was just one of the many disgusting pitfalls of humanity that she'd learned to keep calm in the face of. Nazis ran rampant through the streets of Brockton, so it wasn't as if the heroes gathered were shocked by the scene, but…

It didn't mean that they were unaffected. As soon as Assault opened his mouth, Emily paused the footage once again. Frozen on the screen was the view of 'Mac' decking Shiv clear across the face with a fist that was almost the same size as the kid's head.

"Bull fucking shit, Piggot" the ginger man chuckled, though no humor or levity could be heard in his voice, "A black kid, 'cause I'm pretty sure the guy's like sixteen or seventeen, gets his ass beat by a bunch of grown nazis and we're, what…supposed to send his ass to the Birdcage for killing them? Bullshit."

Armsmaster, for once, said nothing in response to the coarse and unprofessional statement.

"I never mentioned the Birdcage." Emily replied evenly, meeting Assault's smoldering glare with her own frosty one. "And you'd do well to rein in your temper, Assault. It's Director Piggot." The strength in her voice brokered no arguments, practically daring him to challenge it.

Battery laid her hand on her husband's arm before the man could dig himself into a hole. Her gaze, however, was no less intense than his when she looked at the Director. "No one should kill as the first, second, or even third option…but this is starting to look like a clear case of teenage fear and anger aimed at, to be blunt, horrible people."

Miss Militia spoke up then, her voice somehow calm, angry, and curious all at once. "Then let's see what happens after. I think it's clear where this is going to end up."

Assault perked up, brows raising in interest at the obvious meaning.

"Focus now. Shiv uses his powers here." Emily cut her eyes back to the monitor and unpaused the video.

The meaty 'thunk' of fist against cheek resumed midway through, and all eyes watched as the girl screamed in fear and anger. She lashed out with words, body shaking, but her legs seemed unable to move - whether to run or defend her fallen friend. Her venomous hiss of 'not doing anything wrong' only solidified the heroes' understanding of the situation.

"Stupid cunt, it's one thing to be on our turf. We can hardly stop alla' yous. But it's another to be interbreedin' your nastiness here too."

"No fuckin' way he said that…" Assault sounded nauseated. "Maybe Shiv's onto someth-"

"Shut. Up." Battery hissed, elbowing him in the side. He didn't even seem like he noticed it, too busy staring forlornly at the monitor.

Emily pretended not to hear them. The main event was coming up, and though she'd watched the footage multiple times already, she was still hoping that there was some subtle effect she missed that would explain the three healthy dead bodies and the comatose one.

The asian girl pulling out a switchblade was met with winces from the peanut gallery - not because she was deciding to defend herself, but because, by doing so with a weapon, she was escalating the stakes considerably. Before, it was two thugs assaulting them with fists and mean words while their friends watched from the sidelines. Nothing good could ever come from such a situation, but at least no real blood had been drawn.

Things could only get worse from there.

Apparently Shiv - or 'Jay', according to the scared girl - thought the same, as he yelled for the girl to toss him the knife. His voice in that moment was louder than it had ever been before, being picked up clearly on the camera. Deep, angry - it surprised everyone in the fight, and it surprised the heroes watching.

"Kid has pipes," Assault whistled lowly, leaning forward with wide-eyes as the girl tossed Shiv the switchblade. The kid clumsily caught it by the blade, wincing as he gripped it tightly in his fist.

"Commanding, too." Miss Militia acquiesced, eyeing Emily from the corner of her eye. Her eyebrow was raised in silent question, but the Director steadfastly ignored the blatant fishing.

SNAP.

"But- oof." Assault winced as Mac tossed all of his considerable bulk and muscle into the skinny little girl, twisting her ankle violently to the side. She screamed as she went down, toppled over by nazi flesh.

Shiv wasn't just lying there like a wet noodle, however.

From the top-down view of the streetlight camera his face wasn't able to be seen, but his iron-like grip on the switchblade was evident as he grunted and lurched weakly on the concrete. Golden energy, almost like a radiant miasma, floated up from his body like tendrils of viscous smoke, settling in the air above his body and immediately solidifying as a half dozen copies of the very same switchblade he was holding in his hand.

Miss Militia's eyes narrowed, and she leaned forward in her chair.

"Go." The boy's harsh whisper was picked up by the camera as he rotated the switchblade in his hand and viciously jabbed it towards Mac.

In a blur of motion, the golden switchblade copies hovering over his prone body launched forward at breakneck speeds, clearing the short distance between them and the fat nazi nigh on instantly. The blades left behind a trail of energy, almost like a mono-colored rainbow, and they seemed to glimmer in the air right before they pierced handle-deep in Mac's side.

There was no sound of sharp metal - or energy - piercing flesh, only the woosh of energy, the 'thump' of impact, and the nazi's pained swears as the momentum sent him flopping over and across the sidewalk like a floundering fish.

Silence reigned in the meeting room as the heroes watched the ensuing chaos. Shiv lived up to his namesake, desperately lunging to his feet and charging the skinny nazi and plugging three holes in his chest with the switchblade in his hand.

The sight of the violence and blood was unsurprising, considering what was already written on his file, and when the boy yelled for his friend to 'get down' and tackled her to the sidewalk in order to save her from a sudden burst of gunfire…

Emily could see the gears churning in the heroes' heads.

Moments later, she paused the footage in the midst of the energy knife and gun fight between Shiv and the leader. The screen proudly displayed the frantic moment where the kid twisted into cover behind a large truck, and his hastily launched constructs sent the last gangster flying back into the street, dead.

The kid's hand was stretched out of cover, as if checking to see if any bullets would be sent down range again.

Armsmaster, who'd been silent for practically the entirety of the footage review, was the first one to break the silence that had fallen between the heroes and Director.

"I assume," he spoke tersely, looking straight at Emily, "That we are offering him probationary Wards membership?"

Emily turned away from the monitor and faced them all, a thin smile forming on her face. It wasn't a pleasant one. "Shiv's capture is high priority. Use the carrot, the stick, and the very real threat of juvenile detention. His ability is cautiously rated as Blaster 6. It is nothing too overwhelming on first look, but the effects of his 'energy weapons' are still unknown and considered extremely dangerous and lethal. They seem to ignore skin, muscle, and bone completely, as you could see from the autopsy photos, but kill as easily as any blade. 'Mac', one of the men who attacked him, still hasn't woken up. No matter what, we need to get him in - for his sake as well as others."

Miss Militia nodded intently. It was clear to everyone involved that she was personally interested in the case. "Understood. Do we have any idea where he and his friend ran off to?" Her brow furrowed. "I doubt they'd want to stick around the Downtown area after…all of that."

Emily glanced back down to the reports on her desk. Her brow twitched, but the smile on her face didn't change. "A vehicle was found charred and burning beside a bunch of burning trash and a gas drum in the Upper Docks. The same vehicle that Shiv later took from the now dead Empire goon."

Assault snorted loudly, and Battery side-eyed him with a frown.

"What? Kid has spunk, like I said before!"

"Yes, well, you've all been briefed on the situation. Stay vigilant, do not start a fight with Shiv unless absolutely forced into it, and get him here. Dismissed."

Amongst the screeches of metal folding chairs and the scuffing of boots, Emily turned away and began rifling through yet another stack of reports.

She resisted the urge to sigh.

'Truly no rest for the wicked.' The Director mused wryly.

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