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Got the Grimoire, Chapter 22
🕑 Added 2024-12-09 04:43:12 +0000 UTCChapter 22
I wrapped Arachne and myself in an illusory veil and then began to hop through the darkness between visible points. It took us barely a minute to get into a good position overlooking the warehouse. Purity was right, between all of the loitering ABB members and vehicles coming and going, the place was easy to identify. It definitely felt like a trap for someone. It was just too obvious, too much of a slap in the face to the Protectorate and PRT. Maybe that was the point, to flaunt Lung’s power and authority over this part of the city. The man hadn’t kept his territory and reputation without good reason.
I waited a few minutes, just watching the movements of the guards. Arachne gave me a curious look, so I explained why I was waiting. “Purity doesn’t know I’m a Mover. I’m trying to make her think I put us under an illusion and are still getting into position. Besides, it never hurts to keep careful track. Like,” I pointed up at a nearby building, “see that window? There are at least two or three spotters keeping careful tabs on the warehouse. Probably set to call reinforcements if they get attacked. Think you could take them down? I can put up a sound barrier.”
“What if they still manage to get a call off with their phones?” She asked.
What could I do about that? I wondered… Lunatic Eyes controlled waves of all sorts, right? I focused my mind and intent on their position and slowly, I began to see and ‘feel’ the signals of their cellphones, even when not in use. Each guy in the apartment had at least one, with the one I could only assume was the highest-ranking present having three for some reason. One for Lung, one for his direct boss, and one personal maybe? I wasn’t sure, I didn’t know how gangs operated. I took a breath, then another, then focused on creating both a sound barrier and a new type of barrier to block the signals of their phones.
“Go,” I ordered.
She gave the slightest nod and I closed my eyes and focused on wanting to see inside the room with my new clairvoyance. I was able to see flashes of a trio of men screaming as swarms of spiders, roaches, gnats, and other vermin swarmed over them, clogging gun barrels and preventing them from running to the doors. It was hazy and indistinct, like looking through fogged glass.
My sound barrier made sure their cries for help carried no further than the walls of their apartment though and after only a minute or so, Arachne nudged my arm. “I’ve got them taken care of. Wrapping them up with silk now.”
“Good,” I pulled out my phone and sent a thumbs up emoji to Purity’s number. “And now, we wait.”
Turned out that we didn’t have to wait long. A blazing star descended from the sky. A beam of light in the distinct double-helix pattern carved through the roof of the main warehouse and Purity followed. Gunfire and cries of alarm began to sound. I threw up a signal blocking field around the entire warehouse.
Arachne didn’t remain idle either. As soon as Purity appeared, several separate swarms rose up from around us, hordes of insects from the filthy tenements and alleyways providing a veritable army for my ally to call upon. Within moments the gangers began to be hunted down by the swarms, biting, stinging, or just drowning them in their filthy bodies. A huge part of it was the psychological effect: Most people were just skeeved out by bugs and having so many start crawling or landing on them was enough for several of the ABB to either curl into little balls and start crying or begin running for the hills.
I gave Arachne an impressed look. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
She snorted, but didn’t reply as we began to walk toward the warehouse, hidden beneath an illusion so that those few gangbangers trying to fight back could only shoot wildly at nothing. I did have to put up a quick shield as one sprayed fire in our direction, but it was a simple enough thing to block bullets at that point and once we were within range, Arachne easily took him out with a solid swing of her new baton.
“So lesson 101 in this scenario, Arachne. Why aren’t we actively preventing them from running?” I asked.
Arachne tilted her head to the side in a thinking gesture before replying. “Cornered animals. They’re more dangerous if they don’t have a way out.”
“Correct. The same sometimes applies to villains, the harmless ones anyway and why the three-strikes rule exists. If we were to come down on them as hard as we could or they thought they were going to the Birdcage each time we fought, then we’d see a lot more death and destruction on the streets.” I then waved a hand to indicate all of the various gang members. “Also, as cruel as this sounds, at the end of the day, the grunts here don’t matter. Oh sure, it’ll be an inconvenience for Lung in the short-term, but he can always recruit more or hire outside help if he doesn’t have the manpower. It’s the parahumans that give the gangs their staying power, even if they usually can’t hold territory alone.” At Arachne’s confused look, I elaborated. “If parahumans tried to conquer alone, then they only have so many options to hold their territory. They could go the fear route, intimidate through destruction or torture, but there are still only so many parahumans and they could easily be avoided if the people worked together. They could just start killing with impunity, but eventually you’ll reach a point that people just can’t accept any longer and then they’re facing numbers even a parahuman can’t deal with. Parahumans, even the stronger ones, need minions and followers to hold their territories. Lung has just one parahuman follower, but he’s extremely powerful by himself. He needs his gang to actually facilitate the ruling of his territory, but that same gang can’t exist without his overwhelming power as a foundation.”
Arachne thought about it for a moment. “So like Moord Nag in Africa? She’s a warlord and can probably kill armies alone, but she still has normal human armies that she orders around”
“Exactly,” I said.
“Where’d you learn this kind of stuff?”
“PRT classes,” I only half-lied. The PRT and Protectorate had some courses on that kind of stuff, but mostly I was drawing from a book I’d read. One that probably didn’t exist in this world unfortunately…
Continuing on through the clouds of insects, we reached the front door of the warehouse. I almost just punched the thing open, but reminded myself that I was purposefully limiting my powers in order to build the distinction between Kage and Magus. Still, I filled my arms with mana and heaved at the heavy rolling door, opening up a small gap that we could slip through. Inside was packed with half-loaded trucks, tables stacked high with guns, drugs, and cash, and a number of ABB members scrambling about trying to grab weapons. Purity was doing her best impression of a disco ball, streaking around the room and firing off blasts of light that melted weapons and sent men tumbling away. She must have been modulating their power because none of the men were cut or blasted to pieces like I knew her beams were capable of. Which was good. If she had been just indiscriminately murdering them, we’d have had… problems.
Still, I could tell the confined area wasn’t exactly her best terrain. She thrived in open areas with clear targets, but even still she put up a good show. Arachne’s swarm began to filter in behind us, adding another element to the chaos and I began to drift among the ABB members alongside Arachne and delivered blows to the jaw and head to unsuspecting thugs. I had to diffuse an incoming blast from Purity once or twice, but seeing as I had purposefully made us invisible, I couldn’t exactly fault her. Lunatic Eyes was still proving its worth as probably my single most valuable power aside from my Vestments.
Purity fired one last beam of light that threw it’s target back into a wall and then there was an absence of gunfire. Us three parahumans remained on guard for a moment, but no other targets presented themselves.
“I think we’re clear,” I said.
Purity’s eyes drifted around the room before she nodded. “I’ll begin destroying everything. Can you two check for any trafficking victims?”
I gave a lazy salute and began to walk through the rooms deeper in the warehouse, the places sectioned off from the main floor. My nose crinkled at the smell and I held out a hand to stop Arachne.
“Stay here,” I said. “I can deal with this.”
“I’m not a little kid,” Arachne protested.
“You’re about to see some of the worst that humanity has to offer. You still want to help with this?” I asked quietly, not sure if I was asking her or really myself.
She nodded stiffly and with a sigh, I nodded and continued to lead her further in. What we found still haunts my nightmares. I won’t go into too much detail, but… Well, it made me that much more determined to break Lung’s hold on Brockton Bay. A lot of girls, horrible conditions… I’m sure that I don’t need to paint a picture for you to get the idea. Arachne looked vaguely ill and swayed on her feet, but she must have pushed as much of her reaction into her bugs as she could, because after only a minute she steadied and took a deep breath.
“We have to get them out of here,” she said.
“Agreed.”
I walked up to the nearest door and broke the lock with ease. I began to conjure sheets and blankets, a completely mundane use of my abilities, but one well worth it. Each victim got a quick scan and some healing, what little I could do at that moment, but I got a detailed description of how each one of them was suffering seared into my brain. Only a few of them spoke English, but it was enough for them to get the idea that we were heroes and we were going to get them the hell out of that cesspit.
We ushered the group of freed victims out of the back and onto the main floor where Purity was in the middle of melting a huge pile of guns into slag.
She eyed the group and scoffed slightly, muttering under her breath. “The things these animals will do to their own kind.”
“You think the Empire is any better?” I hissed angrily, gliding across the floor until I was nearly in her face. Her eyes widened and she backed up a bit, hands beginning to glow with power, but I didn’t really care. “The PRT has been dealing with their shit for a long time and there are operations just like this going on in their territory.”
“That’s- No, that’s wrong. I was their second-in-command, we were criminals, sure, but we were civilized about it!” She argued.
Indoctrinated, indoctrinated, she was indoctrinated when she was younger than you are now, don’t lose your shit, calm down…
I took a deep breath through my mouth and then out through the nose. “I sincerely hope that you were lied to about that,” I gritted out. “Because there is nothing civilized about the kinds of shit I’ve seen the Empire pull.” Well, read reports and seen pictures of, but still that was more than enough to understand that they were a bunch of racist dirtbags.
Purity looked like she wanted to argue more, but something about my posture must have indicated how close I was to shoving her through a wall, so she kept her mouth shut and flew up and out the roof through the impromptu skylight she had created.
“Bitch,” Arachne said from next to me.
“She was barely a kid when the Nazis got their hooks into her.” I began to usher some of the trafficked girls into the back of one of the trucks that hadn’t yet been loaded and made sure to shove rolls of money into their hands as I did so. “I have to believe on some level that she’s trying to be better, but…” I sighed as the last of the girls got onboard. “I’m honestly close to blasting her through a wall.”
“Oh good, it wasn’t just me,” Arachne said wryly. “I almost snuck a few spiders onto her. Only the mildly venomous ones of course.”
I let out a loud laugh and went to ruffle her hair, before remembering she was protective about her hair, changing to an awkward shoulder pat. “We should work together again, Arachne. Next time, I won’t invite the Nazi.”
“That sounds… nice.”
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The one and only good thing about the ABB trafficking those girls? It meant they could be dropped into the lap of the PRT since it was technically a parahuman crime.
Tax dollars finally spent in a worthwhile manner in my opinion.
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Saturday, February 26, 2011
“Thank you all for being on time today,” Director Piggot said from the head of the conference table. We were meeting at the PRT HQ this time, so she was actually there in person, along with the entirety of the Protectorate and the Wards as well. “We have a lot of ground to cover, so I’ll begin with commendations. Wards, you did well during the Endbringer attack, fourteen violent crimes perpetrated by non-gang criminals stopped and things generally kept quiet. Well done. Protectorate, by all accounts, you all performed admirably against the Simurgh. Before I continue, does anyone have any objections if I share the rest…?”
I raised a hand, confused. “Ma’am? About what?”
“It’s generally considered polite to keep power displays shown at Endbringer events well… secret, unless the cape in question wishes to reveal their full range of abilities,” Armsmaster explained. “Some do not want the added publicity or perhaps it’s a type of ability that isn’t… PR friendly.”
“Hold up, is this about the teleporting city?” Clockblocker asked excitedly. “Was that-” his eyes darted to me, but he was silenced as Vista shoved an elbow into his ribs. “Ow! I was just-”
“No objections, Director.” I said.
Piggot held my gaze for a moment before giving a small nod and the ghost of a smile. “Our very own Magus appears to have had a breakthrough during the Simurgh attack. Flight, mass teleportation, energy blasts, shielding others from her Scream… You’ve been holding out on us.”
“Not as much as you might think, ma’am,” I said with a small shrug. “As I believe I’ve explained to everyone here, I gain charges that I then ‘spend’ on new powers when they appear in my mind. The stronger the power, the more charges I need. However, I am allowed to ‘bank’ one power if it appears and I don’t have enough charges. I’ve been saving for the better part of the month for what I pulled out against the Simurgh the other day, literally right in the middle of that fight and I have a feeling my rate of growth has already begun slowing since then.”
“Still no indicators that your powers are temporary though?” Armsmaster asked.
“No, as far as I can tell both through trial and error and just simple instinct of my own power, once I have them, they are permanent. I believe these last few weeks have been something of a ‘growth spurt’ though, my power comes quicker the more danger I expose myself to, but with these latest developments…” I shrugged. “I can’t be certain, but I doubt you’ll see something like what I pulled for a long, long time.”
“Dude, you already can match the Triumvirate now. I don’t think anyone really cares if you can pull out another power boost like that,” Clockblocker said enviously.
“Indeed,” Piggot said. “I’ve already received multiple offers to trade him to another city, including what was nearly an order from the Chief Director.” She grinned, a rather scary expression. “Luckily, Magus himself included a clause in his contract that he is to remain in Brockton Bay for his tenure in the Protectorate.”
I sighed in relief and Assault patted me on the back with an approving nod.
“What will this mean for the current stance on the gangs?” Aegis asked. “I mean, we have a Triumvirate level hero of our own now, he could totally bring the pain, right?”
“New York isn’t crime free just because Legend is there,” Armsmaster said. “In fact, the criminals that have survived are amongst the most dangerous. Same in Los Angeles and Dallas.”
“Strength invites challenge,” I half quoted.
“Exactly,” Piggot said with a nod in my direction. “If we use Magus to clear out the gangs, then it will simply create a power vacuum that other, more dangerous criminals will fight to fill.”
“Another round of the Boston Games,” Battery said grimly.
“But we can’t just sit by like we have now that we have a cape like him,” Vista put in.
Piggot gave the young hero a mildly disapproving look, but still nodded, albeit reluctantly. “And we won’t. We’ve been on the defensive for too long, Lung and the Empire too strong to fight directly. While I still will not provoke open war in the streets, Magus’ new powers do open… options. We’ll also be holding a press conference on Monday revealing Magus’ role during the Simurgh fight. Hopefully that will encourage some of the weaker villains to keep their heads down or get out of our city.”
That drew a round of approving nods.
“Now on to other important matters: Last night a group of independent heroes raided a large ABB warehouse. Intelligence thinks that it might have been a trap laid by Lung and Oni-Lee as both were later spotted in the area, but the attack was either so quick that they couldn’t respond or the new heroes have other tricks up their sleeves.”
“A little close to the Endbringer Truce…” Miss Militia said. “Could that be a problem?”
“Lung can’t complain about it with how blatant a trap and operation it was without basically declaring he was breaking the Truce himself,” Piggot said. “He’ll simply have to take the loss on the chin.”
Heh. Good.
“One other important matter that is… disconcerting, to say the least.” Piggot took a deep breath like she was bracing for something. “Rumors have been spreading, so I’ll just come out and say it: I made a tactical blunder. While that Protectorate was engaged in Canberra and the Wards here in the city, I made the decision to send Coil- Calvert- to the Baumann Parahuman Containment Center as we had more than enough proof of his activities, not to mention a power far too well suited to manipulating the events of any kind of trial. The Chief Director agreed with my decision, however it seems we are still not mole free: The transport was hijacked enroute to the Birdcage. We are still not sure if it was Coil himself who orchestrated it or an ally, however both pilots and the squad we sent as security are all alive and well, no permanent injuries.”
That confirmed my suspicions. Only Contessa could have pulled something like that off and the lack of deaths must have been to placate me. Or maybe there was a conscience buried deep in there, somewhere.
“If you receive any hints or tips on which organization perpetrated this, inform me immediately. Such an action was against the Truce and will be treated as such.”
Gallant raised a tentative hand and spoke once Piggot gave him the nod. “Weren’t we technically breaking the Truce first by sending him there during an Endbringer fight?”
Piggot smiled thinly. “If it was another criminal, perhaps, but all the data we have on Calvert suggests that he flaunted the unwritten rules extensively. No, whoever helped him escape is scum, just like him.
I felt slightly guilty knowing what I did, but well… some things just had to be done, for the greater good.
