158 155 Holiday Plans

Freedom, California, November 23rd, 22:56.

Getting a tattoo is difficult when your skin is harder than steel. Luckily for me, I discovered another new thing my power is capable of.

See, my nails are still black, and I can sense my blood well enough at this point to say for certain that they are black due to a high concentration of it. Hell, my nails are actually like my other appendages at this point, as there is something 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 extra in there, kind of like the organs that hold most of my blood in my back, only much, much smaller.

I'm not really sure what's up with that, but I only noticed it after I stopped getting lost in my own head every two minutes, so I'm not going to complain.

The point is, my blood can turn black when concentrated enough, and my blood can also allow me to shapeshift. Combine these two things, and I can give myself tattoos whenever I want, and if I ever change my mind about them, I can just change them.

The joys of shapeshifting truly never cease.

Naturally, the first thing I did with this newfound ability was tattoo a tower symbol over my chest, the thinner middle going between my breasts, with the thicker top and bottom framing my boobs like a painting.

Obviously, the step after getting Alexandria's symbol tattooed on my tits was to take a photo of it, with a polaroid for style points, write out a nice note and attach the two to a bouquet of flowers to be sent to Alexandria's office.

I did promise to send flowers after all, and the note is just me expressing my most sincerest thanks at reconsidering String Theory's punishment, and letting her go free.

I'm hoping that she'll punch whoever she fights next just a 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 too hard and breaks their skull because of this.

Not that it'd do much to her rep, but it'd still be funny.

After all of that, I spent about about a week working on my current tattoos as well as 'saving' the imprint in my mind, so to speak. Really that just means I spent a couple of days after finishing it just meditating, more or less, and focusing on where all of my blood is, so that I can quickly reconstruct my tattoos if they ever get destroyed.

I've tested after all, and my flesh doesn't regenerate with the tattoos still there, which sucks.

As for what they actually are, well I've decided to add a tattoo for every notable fight I get to enjoy.

So my upper back shows a single spider lily near my neck, with half a ring of angels below it that are fighting back against an equal number of demons.

However, despite the demons and angels being in black and white, the spider lily is blood red, the only colour I can reliably do for tattoos, with dozens of thin stamens sprouting from it and piercing the heads of every demon and angel, like a puppet's strings.

That one is for my first ever show, other than that, Butcher obviously will always have a place in my heart, so for him I simply put 'XIII' over my heart.

Then there's Extinction. His tattoo is a wall on my forearm with a big hole melted through it, the edges nothing but slag as if an object of incredible energy flew through it. Through the hole, the cloudy skies can be seen.

Except, the clouds have been split into a perfect circle, in the centre of which floats an unidentifiable figure of a man, glowing slightly with purplish energy, the only other way I can colour my tattoos.

I considered adding something for Alexandria, Eidolon or Behemoth, but none of those fights really ended, and I figure I should only do the tattoos in remembrance for things that have been lost.

Of course, that all hinges on me not forgetting about them all anyway.

I also thought about Jack, but that wasn't really much of a fight, and I think it's funnier to metaphorically piss on his grave by not doing anything to remember him.

Plus, he locked me in a box for a month, that sucked.

Anyway, that's what I've spent most of the last week or so on, but now it's time for some fun.

See, there are only seven Quarantine Sites in the U.S., one of which I caused, and most of them aren't really too interesting. Such as the ones that are noted as 'increased villain presence' as being the reason for quarantine.

That basically means that the people living there pretty much just rebelled, and that they are powerful enough to not be worth the effort of doing anything about it.

Not because the Protectorate would struggle mind you, it's just that there's not much point. Who gives a fuck about Gary, Indiana after all? The literal only thing interesting there is Michael Jackson's family home.

However, some Quarantine Sites 𝘢𝘳𝘦 interesting, and I plan to visit four of them.

First naturally being the cultists, after which I plan on checking out Ellisburg, before the PRT figure out exactly what kind of sightseeing I'm doing right now and move to reinforce it.

Then I'll visit the Eagleton, Tennessee, because at that point the PRT will no doubt be aware of what I'm doing, but I don't think they'd complain about me helping out with the Machine Army.

The last one, Flint, Michigan will take a little subterfuge, so it can be bumped later down on the itinerary.

Which leads me to here and now, crouched on top of a gas station south of San Jose, in a town called Watsonville, something I gathered from the sign in front of me that reads 'Watsonville Muni Airport'.

Except, immediately behind that sign is a giant concrete wall, taller than the building I'm crouched on right now in fact.

Honestly, it's something of an eyesore. I can't imagine the local city planners are particularly happy about it, and I would also imagine that this Site is part of the reason that the town near it seems so run down.

No one wants to live next to a potential Class-S threat after all, since there are only like six confirmed Class-S threats, and half of them are the Endbringers.

There used to be seven, but the Slaughterhouse doesn't exist anymore, and my Clowns haven't been so recklessly destructive to get the rating like Jack did. Though they are probably itching at the thought of slapping an S on our file.

The other three are Nilbog, who I'm going to be paying a visit after this, the Three Blasphemies and Sleeper. The latter two are both abroad, and I do plan on seeing if I can meet the Blasphemies, because that could be fun.

As for the Sleeper?

...Eh, that seems like too much trouble to be honest, so I'll give it a pass.

Shaking those thoughts from my head, I push off from my perch, and launch myself over the wall in a single bound.

I honestly have no idea if I've tripped any kind of alarm or not, I certainly didn't notice anything, but I'm just going to assume that I'm on a time limit and be quick about my investigations.

Though, I probably could have picked a better outfit for stealth, but considering that I'm basically planning on playing tourist for a while, I felt that it was only natural to wear a Hawaiian shirt, which I paired with white short shorts, and because I am currently doing investigating, I also have a proper detectives trench coat over it all.

At the same time, thousands of miles away, a soft ping goes off inside of a Dragon's lair.

Whatever the case may be, it's time to find me some cultists to purge, one of my favourite activities.

A therapist would probably tell you that this is an unhealthy coping mechanism for dealing with my anger at my late father, but therapist is literally spelt the rapist, so why the fuck should anyone ever listen to them?

It's only a couple of minutes of wandering later that I realise the issue with coming at night, because the streets are completely devoid of all life.

Luckily for me however, I planned for this. There is a reason I came here on a Sunday.

I've never actually been to church before, but Jesus is supposed to be super forgiving and all that. I wonder if I'll be forgiven? Will my future crimes also be forgiven? Or will I have to apologise for them separately, after the fact?

So many questions, so few answers.

Lucky me then, that there is a crowded church before me, lit up with candles going by the flickering light, and I can hear the sermon going on inside, though I tune out the words once I confirm it's just religious stuff, because I really don't care about any of that.

If God existed, then either he's retarded and those conspiracy theorists were right about Scion, or he's just a dick, because this world is a shithole.

Without bothering with knocking, I raise a leg to kick the big church door open, only for the double doors to suddenly phase out of existence right before I start my kick.

...Ok then.

Putting my leg back on the ground, I take note of how the sermon hasn't stopped, nor have any of the people watching from the pews looked away from the Pastor fervently preaching.

Looking closer, there are a pair of girls in simple white robes staring at me. Their features surely do exist, but I ignore everything else about them in favour of studying the glowing, cracked lines spreading through their bodies, like they are falling apart at the seams, showing a hidden body of pure energy underneath the skin.

Subconsciously, I find my left hand moving to rub the tattoo on my right forearm, all the while excitement starts to build in my chest.

They look a lot like Extinction did when he was kicking my ass, so I can only hope that means there might be a similar level of power present.

I could probably have fought Extinction pretty evenly as I am right now, so I truly do hope they can match him.

"Hey there girls, were you expecting me perchance?" I ask with a friendly smile, gesturing with my hands at the disappeared doors.

"Brother Clements sensed your approach. If you could wait until Father Gabriel is finished with today's sermon, he will see you then." The girl on the right continues to study me silently as her sister-in-Christ speaks.

Unfortunately for them, I am on a time limit, maybe, and I came here to be an asshole anyway. Besides, they're 𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘴 anyway, who gives a fuck what they think?

"Nah, I'm probably in a hurry, so I think I'll just see him now thanks," I say as I simply walk past them, slightly surprised that they do nothing to stop me.

You ever get that feeling that everyone is staring at you?

Because as I walk through the aisles, every one I pass stops and turns to stare at me, following me with their eyes.

Row after row, they all turn and stare as I get closer, the only sound other than my footsteps being Pastor's still ongoing sermon.

It's only the instant after I pass the final row, when everyone else's eyes are on me, does Pastor abruptly silence himself mid-speech.

My next three steps echo through the now silent building, until I come to a stop before Pastor's podium.

He's a simple looking man, bordering on being fat with basic features and clad in holy vestments.

We stare at each other in silence for a moment before I break the ice with a smile and a two-fingered wave.

"Yo!~ My name's Lusia, like from the Bible, though in that case I probably take after 'my' second husband-slash-twin brother more than anything. Anyway, nice to meet you!~ Would I be right in assuming that you are the one with the gift of God?~"

Pastor gains a light smile at my words, and answers with the kind of tone that could be described 'grandfatherly' even though he's probably only about twice my age.

"Indeed I am young one, but I see that you already have a Gift of your own, so what was it that brought you to our humble church?" He says, confirming my assumption, which is nice of him.

So unless he's lying, which I highly doubt considering everything, then this guy is most definitely Pastor, the supposed power granting parahumans.

But you know the thing about being a power granter? It means that you don't actually have any powers yourself, no matter how many parahumans you surround yourself with.

"Oh nothing much I assure you, it's just that it was my birthday recently-ish, and it reminded me of something that has stuck on my mind since, and I decided to do something about it," I say with a smile, sounding mildly self berating.

"Of course," Pastor says with a genial smile of his own, "the Lord is the greatest listener, speak what is on your mind, and you will be healed."

What a fucking pansy.

Still with that same smile, I open my mouth, only instead of words, what comes out is a thin spike of blood, like I extended my tongue, that reaches Pastor faster than he could blink, driving itself right between hie eyes and through his skull.

A beat of silence passes as everyone stares in shock at the lifeless corpse being held up only by the spike of blood coming from my mouth.

𝘚𝘩𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘬.

Like a taught band of rubber being released, the spike rapidly streaks back into my mouth, which I close into an innocent smile even as Pastor's lifeless corpse thuds to the ground.

"I'm not fond of cultists."

First comes shock.

Second comes understanding.

Third comes rage.

A hundred smouldering glares snap onto my back.

And fourth?

"AHHHHH!!!"

"FATHER!"

"NOOOOO!"

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!!"

"KILL HER!"

"SINNER!"

Fourth comes 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘰𝘴.

=================

A/N: He~llo! Dear readers!

I wonder what comes fifth?

Also, the last few chaps have been pretty chill haven't they? Well, like a steamy session of edging, my desire for violence has been building, so get ready for a whole lot of fighting, because that's all this arc is gonna be.

Also, shit is probably really gonna diving into the deep end of AU from this point, both because I want more op characters and because of a lack of details in canon.

Like, Pastor's wiki page is about 2 paragraphs, there's literally no information on him whatsoever except for that video lusia saw of him granting powers, which means I have full creative liberty here, and if you know anything about me and what that means, then you can probably guess the fate of Freedom lol.

(5+)Advanced chapters with the links below!

pat/reon.com/user?u=41732867 (get rid of the first slash or check the description)

Also, join the discord with this invite code! Pj3Dttwses