Journeyman 3.3

The patrol that Blackjack had taken up was feeling relatively quiet. After starting he had moved in the air flying quietly and keeping alert for any signs of trouble, but finding it to be a rather quiet time for a change. Not that he was genuinely complaining about things going relatively well for a change, but it did get a little dull to be moving along without anything of particular interest going on.

Still, he had attacked the merchant safehouses he knew about before, and had trouble the empire from time to time. He had not really run into ABB members but that was likely a matter of time before he ended up having to start a fight with their lot.

Part of him wanted to start out taking out some of the threats like removing Coil at some point, but having been approached by the man for a delivery, from what appeared to be Cauldron, as well as an offer of non-aggression pact between the two, the man had been moved down on that list for now. He knew Coil was a threat, but unlike the Empire, ABB and Merchants, Coil wanted to take over the city and hence was not acting like he was planning to set it on fire unlike some of the trigger happy thugs.

Blackjack had still agreed to it, and meant it, though stipulating that initially he would only agree to one lasting till the beginning of April, noting they'd have to see what the situation was by then. He also briefly noted that any collaboration with Legion to attack him would annul the agreement on the spot. A mention he had made because he was reasonably sure the snake would try and backstab him at some point.

Though he was not feeling too bad about the situation he was in anymore truthfully. He had an apartment rented and paid for, money on a couple of separate accounts, a source of income through working as a healer under the care of the Faultline crew, and an open offer to join the Protectorate and work creating potions for PRT.

He was reluctant to do that though, since it left him vulnerable when he had expended his charge for the day. He preferred to save it till a possible Endbringer battle or helping with something in particular. An idle thought that was soon pushed aside as he noticed something else.

Moving along the rooftops further off he saw Vista and Kid Win, along with a third that he didn't immediately recognize. Though it only took him a moment to connect the dots, having seen the broadcast before though not really all that active in the cape scene yet back then. That was Miracle. One of his foes, out in the open, patrolling.

It was enough to make him curious. A simple invisibility spell concealed his presence as he moved somewhat closer to listen, wary as he was, observing his foe while maintaining some distance.

Miracle was starting to regret asking about Kid Win's latest creation, as the young Tinker had not been able to shut up for one moment after he made the mistake of asking. Talking about it for more than fifteen minutes with barely enough time to draw a breath every now and then was sort of impressive, but also bewildering.

Most of it was going over his head. Miracle could fix it and understand some parts of it, but others were seemingly deliberately vague or blackboxed when it came to Tinker tech, things that couldn't really be created by non-tinkers, making maintenance a nightmare as well. Given his ability to fix things for Armsmaster and Kid Win though, Miracle was in good standing with both of them.

Vista, however, was showing even more signs of irritation listening to Kid Win go on and on while hearing only 'uh uh' and 'okay' from Miracle while she kept looking for any potential signs of trouble.

"Would it kill you to shut up and pay attention to the patrol?" She snapped back finally, glancing at Kid Win who looked like she'd just told him that Christmas was cancelled.

"But I'm just saying-"

"You've been 'just saying' for more than ten minutes now, give it a rest." Vista snapped back when Kid Win tried to defend himself, causing the young tinker to visibly tense up and then wilt slightly.

"You're being a little harsh Vista, but I think I get your point. We do need to watch out for any signs of trouble. Even more so if we could catch any signs of Legion or Blackjack, though I'd be happy just busting up Merchants, ABB or the Empire thugs." He smiled while trying to establish a bit of peace again.

"It's not as if the console would let us engage anyway, not with the way they're crying about the dangers in Brockton Bay after the start of this year." Vista remarked. "Effing Legion and Effing gangwars."

"Hey it could be worse. At least nobody's shooting at us." Kid Win grinned widely.

"I swear if that ends up being foreshadowing I'll smack you." Miracle's quip earned a smirk from Vista and a pout from Kid Win before they proceeded along the route, with Vista shortening the distance between rooftops to help them advance quickly.

"Legion has decided to slip back to Brockton Bay, and the amount of shadows and blind-spots there is making tracking him down difficult. It appears though that he is hunting for someone. From what I could path before the last of him vanished in the bay, I believe he is after both Blackjack and Miracle. Which would make sense as both of them are potentially useful for making the world better, and Legion seems driven to cause strife and misery." Contessa addressed the gathered members of their little group seriously.

"That is going to set back our plans to use the E-class to test him and hopefully annihilate him. Could you not have used something stronger for the first test?" Numbers Man addressed Contessa with a frown.

"The use of other E-class so close to the cult compound could have prolonged the fight long enough to draw innocents to a fight they could not win. The test to see if a power-nullifier would be enough was deemed both sufficient danger and viable method of elimination if not for the anomaly in his power." Doctor Mother responded sharply at the apparent accusation.

"It did reveal that we may have to be more careful. The President himself is accompanied by a Trump Power-nullifier to prevent any insane capes from trying to kill or master him, but they would have had less effect than the previous test subject." Alexandria remarked in turn.

"A power- nullifier that has a cushy job and the president's ear and confidence, all thanks to us." Contessa added, earning a somewhat smug nod from Alexandria.

"What about the other issue? Blind-spots around Brockton?" Numbers Man felt he had to interrupt with this seeing how they had become a serious enough issue to Contessa and their plotting lately.

"It seems the area has more or less stabilized and stopped growing. While Brockton Bay area is covered, they have not spread out any further. They stay pretty close to the city limits, meaning there is no issue with the pathing outside of Brockton Bay." Contessa responded in an even manner.

"At least that's some good news. What about Eidolon's condition?" Numbers Man continued.

"We are doing what we can, but we would need another to make sure. Unfortunately, we are not sure who we could reliably ask to assist Eidolon. I spoke of it with Contessa before and we both agree allowing Miracle close to him for long periods of time might be dangerous, but a short healing session to fix things might help. Alternatively we may have to convince Panacea to help, and confirm whether or not she can affect brains." Doctor Mother added seriously.

"She can, but won't unless under immense pressure. It is something she is rather adamant about, and attempt to make her do so would run a risk of 72 per cent that she would suffer a mental breakdown afterwards for crossing her self-imposed limits." Contessa added somewhat quietly.

"Which in turn would remove a highly capable healer from Endbringer fights, and increase the cape casualties even further." Doctor Mother added with a sigh.

Sophia had been moving around in the dark for a while, looking about, before she arrived to a warehouse t hat she had wanted to check. Reaching there she was surprised to spot a group of five men loading a large number of flammable barrels onto pair of vans, with a sixth sitting nearby fiddling with a pair of bombs from what she saw.

The fact that caught her attention was that they were identical to one another, and matched what she remembered seeing about Legion earlier. She was somewhat stunned at the revelation she had found the madman's current hideout, and confirmed for herself he did indeed appear to have multiple bodies.

Sophia Hess, Shadow Stalker, would raise her status as the hunter to a supreme hunter if she could take down this foe by herself, but even if she could not, she would enjoy shooting them before fleeing. Still, it was too good a chance to spy on them to miss. She snuck in a bit closer, staying in the shadows.

To her frustration though it seemed as if none of them were keen on talking, none of them showed signs of being interested in chatting among themselves. Too bad, she could have learned more from a foe. Sneaking ahead closer, she paused on hearing something behind her, before a sudden bolt of lightning slammed to her back making her shriek as she became fully corporeal again and stumbled ahead.

"Skulking around like a rat, you must be Shadow Stalker." A seventh figure smirked seemingly appearing out of thin air a bit behind her. "You are a fool to think you can catch us off guard. We got the perimeter warded so that you alarmed us before you even snuck inside. Letting you walk right into a trap."

He grinned while drawing a knife, and stepping closer. "Let's see what the Protectorate will think of us hanging your skinned corpse from a flagpole at their doorstep, shall we?" He grinned.

She had heard enough while he was ranting to not want to stick around, and recovered enough to go back into immaterial state while dodging to the side. A new lightning blast slammed down nearby but she was already in motion. Running, she shifted behind crates and became corporeal even as a pair of lightning bolts from the others were joined by a fiery ball flying past her. She barely had time to become incorporeal again before a blast of fire ran over where she'd just stood, grateful for her incorporeal state in shadowy mist being 'merely' blown away, unharmed.

Landing at a good spot she became corporeal just long enough to shoot one of the tranquilizer bolts to a van loaded with barrels, and went incorporeal again even as the tazer-bolt went off at a anti-brute current.

The rusty barrel sparked with the high current striking it at once, and those sparks lit the fumes. The resulting explosion leveled the warehouse, sending Shadow Stalker flying back in incorporeal state but recovering on a rooftop and smirking coldly before raising her phone.

"Console, this is Shadow Stalker, reporting in. Found Legion in a warehouse on corner of Weston and Phillips, Warehouse D. Confirmed them loading up barrels into a pair of vans, and working on a pair of bombs. Multiple copies of the same man, matching Legion's recorded images. Was caught sneaking around but managed to extract, during escape one of the barrels was struck and exploded. Not seeing any survivors on the scene right now, barely made it out thanks to my own power, but not sure if this is the end of Legion. No confirmation at least." She reported things even if she was not supposed to be out on patrol by herself, but this would barely get her a smack on the hands compared to the potential PR win for PRT for stopping Legion from doing another bombing run around the city.

Legion growled in anger while forming in an alleyway nearby, his other clones manifesting around the city. Shadow Stalker had just made it to the top of his hit-list, and he wanted that bitch to suffer. Hurting her became a delightful sounding hobby after that irritating girl interfered with his plans like this, and he had an idea of what to do.

Striking at her in her civilian identity, at her school, would mean she'd have to expose her true nature or die if he played things right, and either way he'd be making her life miserable. Though he had to plan how to pull it off, and part of him felt that it was too lenient, and that he should just blow up the whole damn school and be done with it.

Yet that did not hold the same appeal as seeing the dawning horror in her face would. He would strike and bring her down, and then he would take care of the rest of the troublemakers.

It was a shame she'd interfered, he had been planning to blow up Palanquin and Medhall, which would have done wonders to root out some criminals. And probably killed a ton of innocent bystanders but so what, they were mere bugs to be crushed under his heel.

Yet at the same time his power was pushing him, a repeating mental geas shouting at him to act like the Burning Legion, not just some domestic terrorist. He was meant to inspire horror and belief in the end of days, not just skip around using mundane technology and magic to make people suffer. Hell, they were starting to think he was not some unstoppable monstrosity from the stars, come to extinguish their puny planet's life. That wouldn't do. That wouldn't do at all.

Blackjack had been trailing after the wards for a while already when a large explosion could be heard in the distance. He watched the way the young heroes reported it in, and then hurried over towards the site, flying in pursuit. Getting closer, he was briefly wondering if this was between the gangs or something else, but got his answers soon enough when a pair of oversized hounds appeared on the rooftop by the wards, followed by a fireball flying towards them from the air further off, revealed a shimmer a moment later as spells slipped away to reveal Legion.

Vista already stretched the distance between her and the fireball excessively, causing it to detonate well before it would have reached her and the others. Kid Win's laser gun took down a summoned hound in one shot, while Miracle flew straight in swift motion, the hound jumping at him striking a shimmering shield in the air before he delivered a one punch to the skull off the infernal mutt, causing it to yelp and collapse, twitching a couple of times before getting unsummoned.

Blackjack smirked while moving to a better spot it he could help take the foe down, when a crossbow bolt slammed in the back of the flying figure in the air, causing that figure to let out a loud yell and staggering. It didn't seem a lone bolt to the head was enough to kill right away, but the following burst of electricity seemed to do the trick, as that Legion body seemed to turn to ash in mid-air.

The other two summoned new beasts only to be pushed back as Kid Win blasted at one and Miracle pulled out a device from his belt thrown right into the second Legion clone's arms, a blast of containment foam forming before that clone ashed, probably killing itself rather than risking capture. They were fighting back even if it killed them, it seemed.

The last one took a shot in the chest only to throw back a lightning bolt hitting Kid Win hard and making him shriek before dropping, a pair of attack dogs jumping towards him and Vista. Vista took advantage of that to shrink the distance and moving so that the two mutts ended up leaping ahead only to smack into one another rather than into her or Kid Win, before the same power seemed to slam into them from behind, clenching them together with enough force that he saw them yelp and ash, wincing.

Vista could be scary if her power's versatility was fully utilized then.

"Damned brats!" Legion seemed to vanish into thin air a moment later, and while Thomas looked around he couldn't quite detect the man. A cantrip to detect magic saw some dispersing energy, but he wasn't sure where the man was. It didn't seem like invisibility, but he was not entirely certain what it was.

Miracle moved to help Kid Win with her powers, and seemed to fix his health along with his suit easily enough, even as a Shadow Stalker emerged from nearby and dropped on the rooftop.

Figuring he had seen enough for now, he moved away from the scene while frowning. Legion was going to be serious trouble, even more so if he was willing to attack wards with apparent intent to kill. Though that was just three, and he wasn't quite sure about the rest.

He had barely had that thought when he found a pair of spells fizzle and dropped on a rooftop with a smack, the stoneskin he had carried vanishing in an instant as well. Flight, and stoneskin were gone, and he found himself facing a group of three more Legion clones, dropping their own invisibility spells and smirking. Two of them holding pipes, one of them holding an wrench, and all of them looking maniacal.

"Guess what, we got a lot of aggression to take out, and you just volunteered!" The first one stated before rushing in, the shimmer in the air showing him the man had mage armor and shield already on, and based on the bit of bulging muscle on him and his companions, both of them were either magically boosted up to stronger state too, or they might be holding onto Brute rating.

Either way, it was not looking good. Hastily getting up on his feet he received the first blow in the shoulder dodging a swing aimed to smack him in the head, while he heard slam on the roof behind him.

More of them were coming, and he was getting surrounded. Damn it all.

"Dimension door." He created the portal even as an acid arrow struck his gut, a lightning bolt hit his back, and he saw a fireball being conjured and thrown his way already as well.

He managed to pass through the doorway, and witnessed it close behind just before the blast erupted. He was in a nasty shape, but a pair of hands laid against his chest along with a short couple of word chant had him feeling a lot better, repeated again for good measure.

Divine Magic made him right as rain but it was apparent that in a direct fight, Legion could live up to their name for being many, and seriously injure him, or even kill him. Hell, the three of them had seemed interested in just beating up for sport, and he doubted they'd do give him a chance to make use of his dimensional door like that the next time. It was only because of the bombardment of spells that the one closer to him had moved back, probably intending to lash out with a spell of their own too.

He winced as the acid arrow in his guts burst out more of the green corrosive substance again, another healing spell, a lot weaker one, was still sufficient to fix it.

"Seems we've left the little leagues behind then." He muttered to himself while recasting a stoneskin, followed by flight and new invisibility spell.

Yet it troubled him that they'd spotted him in the air. They were learning, employing better tactics, and countering his favored spells. There was some spell to see through invisibility, but that would mean they were preparing specifically to counter him and wasting a spell slot from other use just to maintain something like that.

Meaning that despite their apparent 'madness' and 'insane bloodlust', there was a calculating intellect behind that made the foe all the more dangerous for him.

Author's Note: Got a couple of more chapters in mind but planning on doing a time-skip soon after that, and we'll reach the canon start date once we do. Though I'd say the derailment should already have been sufficient enough to not expect to see this follow the stations of canon that well into the future anyhow.[/hr