Journeyman 3.4

Blackjack was resting back on top of a bed while wincing slightly as he moved. Despite his healing magic, the fact he'd come pretty close to taking a serious beating at the hands of Legion was on his mind, and the healing magic may have washed away the actual damage, but his mind was still going through what had happened.

Being struck with force sufficient to count as low level brute, being burnt by acid in the guts and lightning in his spine, he was battered and bruised in short order by the sheer amount of damage that Legion could deal out in a hurry. The problem for him was the fact that Legion could become many, while he was more or less alone in that fight. The quantity had a quality of its own in that case, and he wasn't really sure just how easy it would be to overcome that disadvantage.

Summons were an option, but they tended to be short term solution as it was. Still, he had decided to try some of them out, on the divine side of his spell selection at least. Beasts that would answer his call and fight for him. It limited his selection but would hopefully differentiate him somewhat from Legion's attacks. Too much similar power usage and people would begin to look at him warily too.

There was also the fact he was pretty sure Legion had a ton of other tricks up his sleeves he had not used yet. He was getting the distinct impression that Legion was still mostly playing with him like a cat with a mouse. He didn't think staying around for long would be healthy for him, but at the same time if Legion decided to stop playing around and get serious he wasn't quite sure he could deal with it at the current state. Especially with the apparent 'immortality' of sorts that he had displayed in getting killed but coming back for more punishment.

Unfortunately Thomas had no memory of such cape come to mind while considering the options, and he was pretty sure it was not something right out of the other options in the 'game' he had been thrown in. There was always the possibility of it being a wild card, a random power and that the foe of his had merely got stupidly lucky with that. If that was true, then he was going to have no luck what so ever at figuring out the exact details. Though that didn't mean that it was wasted effort to at least try and figure out some things about the situation.

Nevertheless, he had decided to stay indoors and rest for the remaining hours of that night, sighing wearily while moving to turn on the television and take a look, frowning as he found a news anchor on screen talking about the Slaughterhouse 9 attack at a small rural town and butchering the people there. It irritated him that Slaughterhouse and similar bastards were running wild out there and he was unable to go and stop them, but at the same time he was well aware that the chances were that he'd get himself killed even faster than pissing around with Legion if he tried. Even if his powers weren't exactly shard-based, that didn't mean he wasn't running a risk of getting kicked in the teeth by Siberian or eaten by Crawler if he tried.

Sighing out and laying back, he paid some attention to the television broadcast while silently wondering if he was being taunted by the bastard that set the whole twisted game up in the first place seeing these things and being unable to stop them.

Taylor was examining her suit in the warehouse that she had claimed for her purposes. The spiders she had acquired were hard at work creating her the materials she needed, and putting the suit together would take a bit more time, but it was still progressing at a good pace.

A little bit of impatience drove her towards conflict, wanting to get out and test herself. Another more practical part of her was quietly waiting for her suit to be ready, and considering what else she might need. Zip-ties, some mace, and while she was reluctant to get a phone for herself she might have to consider it.

The delay her suit's creation brought along with the increased hostile activity in Brockton Bay had left her checking the forums and the net from the library computer on her free time, reading up on helpful little advice, surprised how much of it was on-line, and under relatively simple threads too that would not be too alarming to find in someone's search history. Heck, some of them were flat out referred to in some cape talk about gear that some groups used.

PRT and Protectorate had better gear of course, but there was a lot of talk about independents as well as smaller groups who had found smaller, easily accessible methods to still be viable. The use of bear-mace against brutes was also noted as being surprisingly effective though also a risky idea given the increased rage that would be a rather natural reaction to being exposed to such tactics.

She wanted to go out and do what she could, but she was trying to be careful and prepared. Especially after Legion had shown up. She was not keen on running into him, with insect control as her power. She could always gather a large swarm and attack them by sheer numbers, but she wasn't sure if Legion would be killed that easily.

She had noted that the man had seemed to be getting tougher to kill, and she doubted she was alone in her observations, though there was only a brief idle comments about it on PHO, making her wonder if somehow the question wasn't really spreading.

Then again there was a chance she was unaware of some information that would contradict what she had found out, but she wasn't going to just trust that her swarm could take down Legion, not without some preparations at the very least.

Examining her outfit's current state, she briefly thought back about her former friend and tormentor, but quickly pushed that thought out of her mind. Emma was beyond saving, that much had been made clear, and in all honesty she was feeling foolish for having hold on to feeble hope that it was possible to fix things still, that she'd find the reason.

Emma was a bitch, and Sophia was only making her worse. Things had started when she was away on the summer camp, and Sophia was with Emma. Sophia was also very hostile by nature and Emma seemed to be trying to act the same way in a sense, but none of that excused the stuff they had put her through. The locker just went to show that those three bitches were willing to take bullying to a level where they might have ended up accessories to murder.

Unfortunately principal Blackwell had been quick to get rid of evidence and despite police being informed, they had little to go on, especially with the people that witnessed things deciding to stay quiet to not risk drawing Sophia's ire on their own person.

At some level Taylor could understand it, but that did not mean she would give them another chance to stab her in the back. Greg Veder had been bothering her more recently, not seeming to understand that even if she was an outcast, she wasn't even remotely interested in him. Even less so after the fact he'd been perfectly willing to step aside and do nothing when Taylor had been put in the locker, nor even calling the police or getting help, hell the irritating boy had not even been willing to testify about what he saw.

With that in mind, the chances she'd ever give Greg Veder even a single pity date were not only dead and buried but laid down under a concrete cover in a stone tomb with a sturdy door locked shut.

Sophia Hess was laying back on her bed at the Wards section of the PRT HQ, recovering from being blown out of the warehouse and the lightning bolt hit she's taken. It had hurt like hell, but she'd survived, even if she felt herself shake slightly after the adrenaline ran out. Miracle had helped heal off the worst of it, but Sophia was somewhat wary of the little prick.

Something about Miracle just rubbed her the wrong way, making her way to punch his face in. She wasn't quite sure what it was, but it was the same sort of irritation she had around Glory Girl, so she had to wonder. The fact Miracle had tanked an attack with a shield had also caught her attention and left her wondering.

She wasn't about to just ask him, not with the level of trust he had acquired in a short time with the other wards, but she wasn't going to really let down her guard around him either.

Sighing wearily, she laid her head down and tried to get some rest while trying to let things lay, wondering idly about whether or not they'd find to put that annoying bastard Legion down sometime soon. The one positive side was that hunting Legion seemed to satisfy most of her bloodthirstiness and need for violence, and nobody complained even if she shot a tazer arrow to the back of the skull of said man. Even if they were officially never meant to be shot at the head out of risk of the damage they could do, and even more so because she had used an anti-brute variant crafted by Armsmaster. Then again, Armsmaster had given it to her specifically to use against Legion, even if he had not probably meant for it to be shot at the head.

Legend was tired after a hard day's work, relaxing with his lover and smiling to the man quietly while thinking. His thoughts tended to focus on work even when he was back home supposed to relax, but it was difficult to let go when things had been going to hell recently.

Eidolon was down, and there was no idea of how long it would last or if it was permanent. The people they had at their disposal had done what they could, but Eidolon was not waking up. Whatever it was that Simurgh had pulled off at Canberra, it seemed obvious that Eidolon had taken the worst of it.

The destruction of a laboratory researching anti-Endbringer weaponry had drawn some interest, and new investments were being made to start building facilities to produce what they could, from partially recovered copies of old prototypes. Most of the recent information had been lost with the building, with hard-copies lost in the destruction as the paranoia of the workers had left them unwilling to have an off-site backup location for their files.

At the same time as they were away Legion had sown terror and destruction across the East Coast. He and his cult had received a harsh and quick response for that, but even if they had put down the madmen that joined with Legion, Legend could not help but feel that there was even worse to come.

The fact remained the captured thugs claimed their power came from the 'Burning Legion', and that they could not share what they'd gained for it was bound to their souls. Which raised further concerns that Legion might be a power-granting Trump, something that even Contessa was quiet about when asked. The silence at the time had said enough to have Legend worry.

As it was, he was considering taking a leave of absence from his current posting, and taking a more direct hand in the current affairs, travelling to Brockton Bay to lend some unofficial support to the local Protectorate and PRT, a vacation of sorts though a working one. After all, he had found that no matter how empowered Legion was, he fell apart under Legend's attack in moments.

Still, Contessa's responses did seem to suggest he was a problem they would need to get rid of soon, because the longer they took the stronger he got. The recent reports had actually had her arguing loudly with Alexandria about sending a lot more resources and support to Brockton Bay, only to be yelled at in turn about ruining their experiment and unpredictable results due to the blind-spots currently present all over the area.

That just meant they should have paid more attention to the problem to correct it in his opinion, but it seemed the others were unwilling to expend the resources to put things in order. He was almost certain they were running some of the meetings without any input from him, and that spoke of the rift between him and the rest of their group. They had to make tough decisions but he was firmly of the opinion that they should have done more, and taking out Legion was certainly one of the more recent, urgent issues they had.

Having made up his mind, he let out a small sigh.

"We need to talk."

"You want to go to Brockton Bay to take down Legion don't you?"

Legend found himself staring at the love of his life in surprise, only to see the man chuckle and smile to him before kissing his lips.

"You have that look on your face and you've been talking about how frustrating he has been to you recently. I agree, ever since his first arrival in Jamestown-"

The two of them fell quiet. One of their good friends had died in the attack, and they were both still mourning the loss of said friend.

"I am not sure how long it will take."

"Take as long as you need. I know how important this is."

Steven laid back onto his bed and let out a sigh at the end of the long day. He had been taking care of a number of things recently, but at the same time he was confident his minions had scouted out and prepared well for some of the future encounters.

He had managed to infiltrate and spread some minions around Coil's lair, having had a few minions tail them back to their hideout, slipping in unnoticed. The information they had sent him later had proven quite interesting read. Coil was a megalomanic, but one with style.

If taking down Coil without ruining his base was a possibility, he was tempted to try and do that, because the Bond-villain styled lair was certainly more impressive than his current set up though that would take a lot of effort, and he wasn't sure if it was worth it given the fact that it was known to a number of mercenaries and a few capes in Coil's employ as well.

Tracking the villain around for a while had allowed Steven to confirm his identity, while his other minions had made sure to locate and track Empire and Merchant capes as well. The ABB were wary but his minions had also located stashes, safehouses, brothels and other businesses they kept, as well as where Oni Lee and Lung laid their head down. Though in case of Oni Lee, it was rarely the same place for long. The man seemed unwilling to stay in one place for too long, a precaution that meant his minions had to keep the man under active surveillance, something that was not easy to pull off with a teleporter.

Blackjack was still eluding him for most part, but he had witnessed enough to tell that he was dealing with the situation with Legion for now, but also leaving him somewhat wary of what lay in the horizon. Still, Legion was making enemies of the entirety of the Protectorate and even if he was now lurking around Brockton Bay that didn't mean the rest of the Protectorate was likely to ignore him for long. They might have been ignoring the Brockton's problems for a long while but having a foe who was under kill orders show up might just convince the higher ups to release additional funding, capes, and PRT agents.

Then again, he was expecting competence and reasonable response from the organization that had proven itself unwilling to lend any help to the Brockton Bay in the past, and politicians wanting to look good for the cameras.

Director Yang was reading through the reports she had recently got her hands on, and frowned slightly while flipping through the pages, one at a time. Sitting in the luxurious office of the CUI officer. She was part of Yangban, and a loyal follower of Shen Yu. She was an intelligent woman and well aware of the fact that while they were strong, they needed to grow further.

What she held in her hands was a number of reports about the Parahuman terrorist in the United States, one known as Legion, and the extent of the destruction he had spread. The fact that he was reported to have even spread some power to others was of particular interest to her. The possibilities of an army trained to use some lesser version of Legion's powers was certainly tempting, as was the apparent possibilities of 'immortality' that he might offer.

Unfortunately their agents in the U.S. were limited, but they did have some contacts. Perhaps it would be worthwhile to acquire the services of the Elite, and have them capture and subdue that man. Sending in some additional forces of their own, there was some risks in the idea but the potential outcome was certainly interesting enough to consider.

She knew she would have to first acquire permission to spend such resources from those above her, but she began to quickly write down a proper proposal for a project to acquire and tame subject Legion, for the Greater Good of the Chinese Union Imperial, and the Yangban.

Author's Note: While Legion is not the actual protagonist, his actions are the ones that hit the international news. Then again, given his geas and actions it should hardly come as a surprise that he draws some attention. What does it mean for the world at large and the game that ROB set up? We'll see in time