Journeyman 3.2

Miracle was resting back in his room at the Wards section of the PRT HQ, quietly nursing a headache he had been suffering from after the events at Canberra. The battle had been a savage if somewhat brief by Endbringer standards, and the attacks against the campgrounds had left several injured people in critical state, though she and Panacea had been credited as the main reason so many near-death individuals had come off of the experience alive and well. Relatively well at least.

Yet coming back to Brockton Bay he felt the adulation he received was hardly sufficient, and his young age prevented him from drawing quite the same level of adoration and fans that some of the older heroic examples did. The fact he was doing it all with a male body while a mind of a girl rested inside made it a little weirder still, even if he had more or less got used to it by now.

He was making some plans though, since there was a patrol scheduled ahead soon that would see him, Vista, and Kid Win out simultaneously to look over the scheduled area. He was sincerely hoping to try and steer the other two to join him in keeping an eye out for Blackjack. The fact Vista had met him but had also seen him vanish had Miracle wonder about how difficult it would be to subdue the man.

His power to fix things was useful in a variety of ways, but for combat it was the Jailbroken copy of Glory Girl's powers that would serve him well. A protective shield, that was currently being excused as 'minor tinkertech gadget', as well as the power to strike hard enough to crater the ground if necessary. Though that was a power he was not showing off publically. He maintained the image of a helpful healer and fixer, rather than a combat-ready individual, though he had been paying attention on the lessons about self defense and how to act.

The fact he was going to be going out with Kid Win and Vista helped, but he was still somewhat sore about the last time. He had been paired with Shadow Stalker, who had abandoned him in short order to run off, and had ended up being on the run from Mush and a number of Merchants who had noticed him snooping way too close to one of their stashes.

The fact remained they had actually attacked with force, and before he'd got away he had heard them calling for Skidmark and Squealer to come join the hunt. The little drawback of having the merchants interest was in full effect after he had showed the ability to remove withdrawal symptoms from some of the 'society sweethearts' who had been 'unwillingly exposed to illegal narcotics by vile Merchants'.

In other word, covering up for the drug-habit of rich kids, and sparing them a lengthy rehab with a quick fix by his hand. The thing was that his ability had done it, and had seen to it that he had been profusely thanked and handed a number of useful gifts to make use of as well, and given him close access to several people in higher positions of power to lay the groundwork for subtle mind alteration.

Yet those opportunities had become scarcer lately and Director Piggot seemed to be watching her like a hawk, and the same could be said about Miss Militia when she was present. Though that woman was only present part of the time, while Battery came by to visit the wards from time to time.

Turning the older capes to adore him and work towards his goal was a slow process, but he had some of them under a minor thrall and it was building up. Living around Vista and Kid Win most of the time did allow him to let the power sink in a lot better, but unlike Glory Girl with Panacea he had not gained the advantage of being close to them several hours each day, since he found himself working a console or in training a fair share of time despite some wishes against it.

The school was one place where he could work on convincing the group to work with him towards the end goal, and even there it seemed he ran into some issues. Like Glory Girl's boyfriend being suspicious of him for no real reason sometimes.

Still, he had hopes that tonight's patrol would bring him one step closer to his goal. Vista was already his pawn, after she had come to stay at the PRT again while her parents fought, while Kid Win was practically living at the PRT most of the time. He had been stuck in the lab for most of the time though, working on some Alternator Cannon. Though it seemed Kid Win had been having some issues putting it all together.

Legion was angry at the recent defeats and setbacks, but ultimately they meant very little. He was growing stronger, but he was also being struck hard on multiple fronts lately. In the end, he had recalled his clones to himself, and did something that he had left to lay in wait for a while.

He dismissed all those clones, all except the one captive and unconscious, and felt the mixture of experiences and lessons mingle in his mind. What he gained from this was not quite the sum of all of his parts, but it did strengthen his 'primary' form somewhat, before he split again to stand among six others.

His attack clones were tough enough to take pistol shots without even a bruise but rifles hurt them still, and so did most form of energy. He was strong enough to rip free of traditional restraints, but not enough to break containment foam, yet. He had also reached a point where throwing fireballs was a possibility.

His cult-leader clones were still vulnerable to pistol rounds, but to a much smaller degree than most. They could pierce the skin but unless they hit him in the head they would barely break the skin. With his head though, they'd bounce off his skull irritating him. Yet a higher caliber shot, like a heavy handgun or a rifle, would pulverize his skull. Yet those clones retained a power to cast fourth level arcane spells so far, making stoneskin an option that would make him able to shrug off a blast from a main battle tank if need be, though the stoneskin would wear down fast under such shots. And it seemed that spells higher than third level took longer to recover from, making them a limited commodity.

Having lost an 'infiltrator' he was forced to make the two new ones for the job from scratch, but the began at the base level his original now held, able to cast second level spells and tough enough that pistol rounds would hurt but not kill, unless someone got lucky and shot him in the head. Those infiltrators would be keeping disguise self and alter self as constant spells to move around as strangers and gather intelligence.

It was time to start moving his operations over to Brockton Bay, and shake it harshly to make sure he'd get the target out in the open. Making a mess around the US had been fun way to build up power, but he had already seen the prey was not strong enough to be left alone for long, and that meant he had to move in before someone else stole his kill, and his glory. The power in his grasp would not be taken from him.

Unfortunately the assassin that had exterminated him during his attack in Brockton Bay with bombs had made sure his armaments had been seized, and even tracked down the rest of the surprises in the city to take them away.

His cult was dead, other than a few captives that would probably die before talking. He was pretty sure of that. If not, he'd hunt them down and prove he was the strongest.

The Burning Legion would consume this world if necessary, Legion had taken that flaw, that drawback, and he lived out the life he had been given here as the terror from beyond the stars.

He was tempted to just split to as many clones as he could manage (which was currently stable for more than a day at 8, for more than six hours 16, or for just about 2 hours up to as many as 32.

That capacity had not really grown, while he wanted to split infinitely many times that was difficult to even try, and he was looking forward to building up enough strength to make his 'base level' strong enough that when he did split into as many as he could, he could honestly make a frightening display on the city streets with it.

He had considered summoning things and letting them loose to spread chaos and horror, but the things summoned only lingered for minutes at best, making them more useful in immediate fights. Unfortunately there did not seem to be an easy way around that. Yet mind magics were an insidious, useful tool as already proven by his previous infiltration attempts.

He would find a way, and soon the city would tremble. He smirked to his 'brothers' in the old warehouse, and they sat down to plot and plan, gathered together in one spot like this was risky, so they would not stay together for long. Then again, on the other hand they had enough combined firepower to level the building and survive it if it came to that.

Steven was resting back on a couch with a notebook in one hand, a pencil in another. He had been writing down a number of details recently after having received the reports by his minions, and had even gone as far as to set up a map of the city to attach pins and needles on it against a board he had found in the basement.

The gang hideouts, the stashes, safehouses, garages, businesses, he was better informed than most people in the city by now, crossing between the lines drawn to mark gang territories with ease. He was aware of the PRT and Ward patrol schedules, of deployments and of a number of other things that would have horrified some people to know being so exposed.

Yet some places remained too difficult to reach, and the Protectorate Rig was one of those. Getting someone in there took some effort, and his minions didn't last too long there. Something about the place was just playing merry havoc on his control despite some modifications. It might just be the fact the place had such shielding and other tinker-tech defenses that the information wasn't really relayed through to him.

He had spent some time working on it, and sent off minions with set instructions to gather information for a certain length of time, and then return to report. Even that was proving a somewhat disappointing venture however, as much of that information was too old by the time he got his hands on it, or partial, with some of the said information lost along the way back.

Still, if and when he decided to enter the stage he would do so far more prepared than his competition, and he had a plan in mind that would work. He was somewhat annoyed at Coil's persistence, having found the man had apparently attempted to locate him and either eliminate or capture him. Yet at the same time the fact that he was not out doing anything stupid in person seemed to be leaving the man tearing his hair out looking for Steven.

He had managed to slip a few of his minions through into Coil's base though, and made sure to observe a few scenes. As luck would have it, he had even witnessed Tattletale show up to report one time, but had been kept from following due to her glancing suspiciously at the direction of his minions at a couple of times, though not remarking anything. Whether or not she was aware of anything remained to be seen, but he figured the chances were she may have simply noted a blind spot in her ability and been curious.

Still, Steven was not content with moving with the information he had so far. There was a lot of details missing, and the plan called for a patient approach. He was playing at a disadvantage to start with, not hurrying towards the goal, but from what he had observed so far he was reasonably sure the other hunters would have a hard time catching their prey.

Legion was acting in a manner that would draw the attention to him wherever he went, and cause panic and mayhem. He would draw the heroes out, but whether or not he drew the one he wanted to find would remain to be seen.

Miracle was working within the boundaries of PRT Wards program, and was both aided and hindered by their efforts, and that of Youthguard. The fact he was adored and loved by the public made Miracle a dangerous figure because if he made accusations they would likely stick, and Blackjack may have fought criminals but was largely considered by the public to be a dangerous vigilante, even after registering as an independent hero.

Hearing the door click further off, he hastily put the notebook away and replaced it with another, more innocent seeming one. "Hey dad." He greeted his guardian briefly.

Blackjack let out a weary groan after finishing his workout, silently grateful for the stat gains he was experiencing as a gamer, even if it was relatively small gain. He was improving, well past the normal physical limits of a human being, the gamer physiology having unlocked limitations and allowed him to raise those stats above the soft caps. He wasn't sure if he would experience running into a 'hard cap' at some point, but so far it didn't seem that way.

He was semi-regular at the gym, paying for individual visits so far, but had been considering a membership under an alias. His body was fit and athletic, and he had to admit he preferred it the way it was now. Still, leaving the gym after a proper shower and change of clothes he thought back at the end results of the Canberra situation.

Would losing Eidolon mean the Endbringers would remain active, or would they go dormant at some point? Would Eidolon's death bring the dormancy if his coma did not do the job?

He wasn't sure about either, but he had reason to suspect that either way, Leviathan would still be coming, and he wasn't too keen to see the city ruined so he would have to join that fight if it came down to it. Which meant that there was a very real, life-threatening scenario ahead in the future in just a few months time, and he was meant to stay here for years.

He had fought Legion so far and felt reasonably sure his dual focus in magic would help him, but Legion's companion seemed to add to the threat that Legion posed, and his seeming refusal to die had him cursing quietly and briefly wondering if Legion had also picked Harry Potter and wand magic as an option and gone ahead to create a horcrux. Then again that seemed doubtful given how fast the man had been returning to life time and time again.

Though the possibility of an ally performing the 'resurrection' in the background had crossed his mind after witnessing Legion attack him at the rooftop earlier. That didn't explain the amount of attacks elsewhere either.

He was tempted to guess Naruto and 'ninja magic' or whatever it was, along with Shadow Clones, but that seemed unlikely as well. He wasn't too familiar with Naruto but figured that if the man had picked that, there would have been far more clones and they'd have been easy to kill.

But he was starting to think his foe was not only hard to kill but able to either move very fast across the nation or had multiple bodies at his disposal. He doubted that the hunter had picked several minions, not with restricted, limited power available to him to begin with, but he was not quite certain what it might be.

Reaching a suitably quiet empty spot, he layered a few spells on him and was soon in flight, invisible, and heading back towards a safe location. He was going to head out to patrol for a change later that night anyway, and felt like getting an early start since he kept having some ideas bothering him and not letting him just rest anyway.

Sophia Hess had managed to draw too much attention to her lately, and though she was annoyed to do so, she had decided to limit her own behavior at school somewhat. Going with Emma and Madison and taunting Taylor was fine, as they could not really get in trouble for words, but beating the girl for mouthing off to Emma was not a good option right now, not until the attention she had drawn had passed once more.

At least she knew the person supposed to be watching her was happy to hold a comfy job and more than willing to hide any real reports of wrongdoing at the school, and Blackwell was more than willing to sacrifice a girl if it meant that she stayed at Winslow, bringing in money and some protection in case one of the gang members going to school decided to start trouble. Sophia knew she was valuable to the bitch, but that didn't mean she wouldn't throw Sophia under the bus if the situation got bad enough.

Which meant that Taylor had got a little extra time, but in the meanwhile she had been pleased at taking down Merchant scum and teaching Empire some lessons now and then. She was annoyed that she had not run into Blackjack again for a while, after Armsmaster's attack.

The fact remained he had shown willingness to hit hard and not whine to her about excessive force, and the fact remained he was more of a hunter than some. Still, she didn't really care too much, it was just curious watching someone else hunt as well. Besides, the hunt could help take off some of the annoyance that had been building up.

She'd have to keep her unannounced patrol quiet, but if she went out the chances were that her activity would still go unnoticed. Unlike at school, there weren't that many witnesses. If there were, she might be able to silence them.

Author's Note: Expecting to be a somewhat busy weekend, so might not have more up until next week. I may post something on Sunday but that's not a promise.[/hr][/hr][/hr][/hr][/hr]