Apprentice 2.2

Thomas knew that now that the hunters had arrived, he would likely have very little time before they would try and locate him. His abilities were ones that would grow with practice, but combat was the best teacher and that was something he had been too careful about so far. He did not imagine it would be a good idea to mess with Lung, but taking down some gangers to increase his abilities would

Of the three gangs in city, he was likely to be in conflict with Merchants most often. He disliked drug pushers and the bit about getting girls hooked up and then on the street made him particularly angry. He disliked ABB's activities in the same manner as well, he doubted E88 avoided drugs or other illegal businesses but their dog fighting rings seemed to be more prominent figure than those other things.

None of the gangs were by any means good, but given the choice, he figured he'd rather hit Merchants, then ABB, and go after the E88 last. At some level, it felt wrong he did not put the Empire's place on the list higher, they were Nazis after all, but he preferred to target the other first, at least for now.

Walking along he paid little attention the glamour he had put in place. Alter self would open safer options to actually change, rather than hide in an illusionary cocoon distorting vision and camera perception alike, right now bumping into someone would reveal a deception all too easily. Using a female form to go with the current deception was a possibly stupid move, as he doubted his voice would fool anyone, but it was not as if he intended to talk to anyone right now.

He reached his destination soon enough, a large bus station with a bus headed off towards Boston leaving soon. Heading on in, he slipped amidst the many people and felt a little better. Despite having to avoid running into anyone, he had made the job of tracking him more difficult for anyone meant to follow him.

Stepping aside to a bathroom, he quickly changed his appearance under the disguise self once more, while making himself appear as if he had no bag with him at all. A risk, given he still had to grasp it tight in his grip and it could be felt if he did run into anyone, and now nobody would see there was something to dodge at his side.

Still, leaving the bathroom so changed he proceeded to slip away to another section of the bus station, and at an empty area where nobody else was in sight he shifted back to the shape of the blonde man in a suit, holding a suitcase in one hand, and proceeded to head on off to take a bus. Just a ticket on a bus running to another section of the city, not one to Boston that someone tracking him might hopefully mistake his intent to be.

Soon enough he was seated in a bus resting back while the bus he had got on left the bus station behind, the suitcase on his lap. Even as the bus drove away he felt a moment of suspicion on his mind if someone was still after him, but it faded soon enough. Paranoid or not, he had a feeling he was unobserved by any of the more serious parties for the time being.

Regardless, he had to actually start acting like he had an actual shard in him, and go out looking for conflict. Making a few Merchants suffer so he could grow in power felt like a good way to get started, but attacking the Merchants was a bit of a cliche. Mainly because it seemed like the best option in a way. Attacking ABB meant drawing Lung's attention, attacking Empire meant having several angry capes after the offender.

Then again, he might be able to use his abilities to even take a bit of time to hit each in turn. He had no real affection towards any of those parties, but hitting them all would stir up trouble, especially as Merchants and the Empire had already been up in arms with one another. Drawing the ABB into the mess might escalate to full on gang warfare on the streets, which would hurt innocent civilians all too easily.

No, best to make sure that the ones who got hurt were Merchants.

Steven awoke suddenly, looking around in the calm room he was in.

He checked his body mentally, ... no he wasn't Steven anymore that's for sure. That had not been a dream.

As unpleasant as it was to be considered a villain by something akin to a god, it was an opinion that would be difficult to simply shrug off. Yes, he had always admitted to not being a saint. Of course, only a dumbass would try to do good without searching his own profit, but he had nearly never done anything bad just for the sake of it !

Ok, the thrill of cheating on his many girlfriends was too much to resist, and THIS he admitted, was kind of bad. Not evil mind you, but generally considered bad. But in his opinion the bitches were asking for it.

Come on, all men he met knew in five minutes that he was the kind of guy who would lie and cheat to get as many girls as he could. It was obvious to anyone ... anyone with a brain at least.

But those women ? No apparently they believed him when he was swearing that 'Yes, for you it's different. I'm feeling like a totally new man !'

Come on ! He was thinking that they were just feeling a bit guilty and searching for an excuse to say yes, but maybe ... maybe not ?

Was this the reason he was now judge by some deity and falling on the bad side of the balance ? Or was it something else ?

He sighed. Introspection had never been his forte. He would need to find and befriend a good dork and get some answers. It would be good to have some minions.

Speaking of minions he checked around. Perfect, there were already some of them, bound to the stone he had brought with him.

He called them, and took the stone in hand, time to 'tinker' and create himself some more of them, he had the whole night in front of him, he would be very tired in the morning and wouldn't that be perfect ?

Steven smiled, very pleased by himself, as usual.

He needed to work on that, too, try to not think himself as Steven anymore. He could do acting, he had lie so many times before ...

Simurgh had been floating along quietly and reviewing both the past events from earlier that day, and the paths ahead. The options that this interference had opened were remarkable. She and her brethren were still bound, but the interference meant that those restrictions and chains were slackened, and that opened up some options.

She was well aware that drawing too much attention to these changes too soon would actually hinder her efforts. Allowing some time to pass would mean the changes would propagate, and their influence would see previously locked options become viable. A few of them possibilities were disastrous, others were highly desirable but difficult to arrange and the chaotic element thrown into the mix meant her error margin had grown slightly. It was a minimal one on short term, but in the long term plans that error could become compounding and result in serious setbacks.

For now, Canberra would remain on the top of her list of targets, but she should direct either Leviathan or Behemoth to direct their next rampage towards the area where the new elements remained. Depending on the end results of that experiment, she could deduce the optimal path.

It was also possible that she could achieve one or two secondary objectives during the Canberra event, but that would require careful planning on her part. Even with the chaotic events nudging things along in ways she was already mapping out due to them not being entirely hidden from her sight at least, she was not completely certain she could make use of those ripples in time to achieve one of the higher level objectives so soon.

It would still allow her to set up several tertiary objectives in place and initiate plans that would benefit her on the long run. The matter on that was settled, it was the specifics that were in need of further review and consideration.

Lisa wanted to curse out loud, but held her tongue. The damn son of a bitch slipped away. Alec had been told to watch him, and Lisa had moved in as well, but by the time Alec had got inside the bus station their target had already managed to get too far ahead, and even looking for someone with a bag had not come up with any answers. She had considered looking at others as well, but having to do sweeps around the area meant her ability was not able to spot enough difference to be sure.

The hurry and the number of people had left them with no target to track, and while not in costume, they were drawing attention. Rachel's dogs might have helped, but bringing them in to track the smell would have been more trouble than it was worth.

Lisa was pretty certain their target had taken a bus out, rather than just walking out, but whether he had stayed in Brockton Bay or not was unfortunately not clear to her. The last she'd seen him she had got the feeling he might be running off to Boston, which would mean she had to contact Coil and someone would take a look at the arrivals, but if the guy dropped off along the way and took a trip back, as she expected, then he would walk back in town under another disguise and unless he made waves she would be left standing there looking stupid.

Lisa hated that. She had already began to think about the possibility of this powerful stranger effect helping the Undersiders if they could convince him to work with them. Young as they were, they were successful and the addition of a stranger would make them even more capable. Having him work for Coil and friendly with them would also potentially leave him in position to help take down Coil eventually.

Lisa was enjoying the cash for now, but given how she had been recruited she wanted to eventually either be free, or working for another boss that was easier to deal with than Coil. Yet whatever little plans she had in mind about this newcomer, having him vanish off like this put them all on halt for the time being.

At least part of her frustration lay in the fact that she was having no luck rooting out any useful information about him, and yet at the same time thinking about him never seemed to trigger her migraines. It was a small mercy, but one she was grateful for.

"So, what now?" Alec asked annoyed after they finished a look around and saw no signs of the person they hoped to catch.

"We should head back. I doubt he will stay away for long, but we are not going to track him down here without a dog to follow the scent, and I think they would not allow us to bring one in." Lisa smiled slightly but headed off with Alec, quietly wondering how Coil would react to the news their target had possibly done a runner or at least dropped off the radar for the immediate moment.

Escaping Jamestown had taken some effort, but Legion had attacked three more times in a short order around the town, his hands flaming and setting people and surroundings on fire momentarily, while laughing at them and taunting them to run.

He had been shot down twice already, but death was only a momentary solution. He came back, a little stronger, a little smarter. At least the one of him that got shot did. Apparently despite being clones, the gifts went to the clone that scored the kills, and recombining did not give him the total, making each clone advance individually.

Still, he had limited himself to just one active distraction right now, while he had joined the fleeing group running over a damaged bridge on foot at another spot without a mask on. Given that his 'Legion' self was unmasked through the rampage, and died with a mask still on, he had no real concern about his face possibly being recorded among the fleeing masses. A face in the crowd would go unnoticed by the sheep unless they had a good reason to go looking for him, and even then, he doubted they'd get far, possibly wondering if he was a tourist of some sort lost in the area.

Once he was out of the central area he used his powers in a different way, and a few honeyed words laced with a charming effect had a young woman about to leave in a car of her own offer to give him a ride like she had known him for years, treating him like a friend. They drove off, and chatted amiably for a while.

By the time the charm began to wear off he was far enough that there were no witnesses present when he grabbed onto her throat, and electrocuted her. The power at his fingertips was intoxicating, and he enjoyed watching her scream and try and wrench herself free, shocking her again another time and watching her go quiet. He had asked her to stop so he could pee at a spot by the road away from witnesses, so dumping her body onto bare soil a bit out of sight and then casting one more flame spell to burn her remains, he turned around and walked back to the car, the keys in hand and smirking.

In the meanwhile, the copy Legion had left behind had finally drawn the ire of Legend, and his refusal to surrender saw him vaporized by a blast by the Blaster of Blasters, only to vanish once more, this time without the fanfare. The copy would slip away from the area much the same he had, and they'd meet again later, or strike at different places at once.

It was only the beginning after all, and he was in touch with all parts of him easily enough, though he had decided to focus on just two for the immediate moment to be able to leave the area in an easier manner.

Before the end of the day, Jamestown Massacre would result in the newly dubbed 'Firestarter' to be labeled a crazed psycho, and put his name on the shortlist to issue a Kill Order against as soon as possible.