2.4

2.4

During the night Shard had shown me mom's mind. A mind is a difficult thing to describe, there aren't -really- physical representations, everything is a feeling or fleeting thought, it processes incredibly fast and what you see in your consciousness is just a general idea of everything that has processed in regards to that particular thought. Mom's mind... it was barren. There was no emotion, there was no extra thought. Put into pictures, a normal mind would be a comfortable house with a decorated orchard, memories and ideas welling up within the house building new lasting memories and cultivating the orchard. Mom's mind had been a wasteland with six steel featureless buildings. A single building, unnoticed at first, was built of mud and barely held together, inside it was the bubbling personality my family knows. She tries hard to keep that personality up. I always thought that was who she was. I was wrong.

Mom is actually the barren landscape with solid featureless buildings. No sense of self existed there, only information being filtered through, responses and actions. When the door to the mud house closed even the bright light faded from this place, leaving only the six featureless buildings and landscape in undefined grayscale. There was a sudden flurry of efficient activity. During the whirlwind of efficient action, processing data and refining it to a goal the maelstrom of information rattled the mud house which looked close to collapsing.

After the process, opening the door to the mud house without the entire structure falling apart and losing all within was almost impossible and only with a very gentle touch she had managed. The reorganization of her mind had matched connections of the feelings she had analyzed as belonging to an 'attack' and linked them with a natural response to what she had gradually built up as a 'defense'. She had altered the structure of her mind to accept that response as natural. Now she would have to actively fight against that 'natural reaction' any time she wanted to meld with Shard, but for my sake she risked the loss of her 'self' and the loss of a connection with Shard. The fragile 'self' of my mother, that I knew, was not who she was naturally, it was a personality she desperately held on to or she would lose it all and live in that wasteland of death.

That place is why she learns so well, her mind has been changed, built to be as efficient as possible and -actively- rejects her 'self' and emotions. She tries to live inside that hut where she has salvaged her emotions. When she turns serious she's just opening the door of the hut for access to that landscape, but what she did yesterday, she had to immerse herself into it. I don't think I've felt more guilty in my entire life.

There was nothing I could do about it now, but I -will- be asking her about it and why grandfather taught her something like this. I asked her to do this so I want to understand it to its fullest.

The image had faded and Shard and I were in her dream-Brockton Bay. She was looking at me curiously. She hadn't understood what she had seen in mom's mind, only the horror of a lack of... -everything- so I sat down with her and we discussed what it had been and what it had done. Shard being who she was still didn't fully understand -why- someone would do that, but there are hundreds of reason, and since Shard kept asking, I answered her as best I was able.

*****************************************************

That morning I didn't wake up complaining about life interfering with the comfort of bed. Instead I had the resolve to ask mom what that had been about. I walked to my door prepared to grab her and ask, only to realize she was standing right outside. I prepared myself and opened the door, and grabbed her in a hug.

Through a choked voice I said "Tell me. I need to know what that was."

Mom walked us to my bed and sat me down, pulling out my desk chair she sat across from me. She smiles, and I can see her building up her carefree attitude now that I know it's not normally there. "My side of the family used to be huge, and powerful if your grandfather was to be believed. He said the very existence of parahumans ended up destroying the place where we held power. The way he always said that was odd, I had asked him where it was and he only laughed. One day when I was especially persistent he cursed, 'Abyss girl!' and it's the only answer I had ever gotten. He and your grandmother taught me martial arts, and they had a whole -library- of scrolls from what they called 'dead clans'. The thing that really tossed me for a loop was the fact that our library had more -scrolls- than books." She starts laughing a little, "But most of what they taught I brushed off, you know the new age mumbo jumbo of being one with the universe and focusing your spirit, all of that. They used different words, but it sounded the same so I thought it was just that same thing in a different flavor. I feel a little silly about it now since you can actually -use- that 'mumbo jumbo'."

Her eyes return from the past so she's looking at me, "What you saw is the technique my father taught me. It's one developed by our family, and he called it the 'Steel Mind'. The goal of it is to make efficient use of your mind, to learn incredibly fast, to perfect techniques just by practicing and your mind automatically corrects minor problems it feels and it dulls emotional responses to keep you from making mistakes because of them. It lets you program your mind. It's basically an incredibly intense self-hypnosis, though there -is- a cost. It makes your sense of 'self' more fragile, and the more you use it to its full effect the more it can damage that. Once a month for me isn't too bad, and I can recover from that, so don't feel guilty at what I did." she smirks pointing out "you have a terrible poker face, I know you're upset about that."

I frown, "But WHY would he teach you that? It's not like you -needed- a way to learn fast did you?"

She sighs and lowers her eyes "Because it's not supposed to be that bad all it -should- do is stop you from making emotional decisions. You're still supposed to -feel- the emotions. I screwed up the technique because I thought it was all just a bunch of hocus pocus and didn't take it seriously. So my sense of self suffered while my mind was restructured. My father apologized to my mother for a week straight and spent the next six months trying to fix it." She smiles a little "It's what gave me what you see every day. He finally managed to help me recover some of myself. It's fragile, but I hold onto it with everything I have."

She leans forward and gives me a big hug with a silly grin, "Now make sure to give me at -least- a month before you decide there's something I have to learn to do -right now-" she considers that for a moment "Unless it's punching trees hard enough to explode them. But -that- I'll take the time to learn the normal way." She lets me go and ruffles my hair "Now that the serious talk is over, get ready for school. You still planning to take the bus?"

I nod, her attitude returning to normal helps me feel better. She's not broken, she's just like she always has been since before I was born, I just saw a part of her I had never seen before. I take a deep breath and let it out feeling the worry and dark mood fade. "Yeah, I'm taking the bus, I plan on dealing with whatever Sophia is going to do there instead of at lunch for what I pulled at the conference."

Mom gets up and walks out of the room waving back at me and calling out, "Shard, tell your brother to get cleaned up. He smells like unwashed teenager." And Shard of course complies by sending me the mental image of gym socks. Thanks Shard. I needed that.... She's happy to help. Top of the list for today 'Teach Shard what Sarcasm is'.

After shower and clothes I start feeling like a human and decide I should ask when I can start feeling like a no longer grounded human.

My parents are downstairs along with my breakfast. Dad has been tasked with practicing defending against that 'Astral Crap' and mom has reminded me to keep pulsing the little attacks so she can continue to get used to them. Although she can block the -emotions- easily, her 'Shield' will need to be stronger to stop a real master effect. So now I'm pulsing emotions out all the time while I'm home. They did agree that I was ungrounded though so I -immediately- decided I would float upside down over my chair to eat breakfast. I was pulsing out a mix of emotions and it was really starting to screw with my dad's head so he spent the morning glaring at me while Shard hugged him to make him feel better.

Shard wanted to go with dad today to make sure he practiced and she had enjoyed her time with his friends, so we transferred her over, which caused me to very nearly be late for the bus.

I sprinted, cheating by using a little flight to push me faster and just -barely- made the bus. I flop down next to Taylor, who says "What happened? We almost left you."

I shrug, "Shard wanted to go with dad today. That transfer still takes a while." I raise an eyebrow to her "So what's new? You were out all Sunday, got to have found something."

She sighs a little "Well, I guess the most pertinent news first. The pictures of your mother on PHO were taken down by mods, but that didn't stop them from getting -out- and some cape fans are die-hards so they tracked her down to an address and name so your secret is all over the internet. I'd suggest taking it easy today to see how people react, just because it's everywhere doesn't -necessarily- mean everyone knows."

I sigh, "Fine, no sitting on the ceiling at lunch unless I get swarmed. Next?"

She shrugs "Well, nothing much on E88, Purity has dropped from the roster but that's old news. They want to move against the ABB and Agent Hutchison said we need to hit a couple of their gun shipments to help stop that from growing into a war. There was also news that ABB has a girl named Bakuda that the PRT has confirmed but she hasn't been seen out on the street for a while which -could- be very bad news. Or maybe she just ditched town, who knows? Anyway, we'll be trying to hit an E88 place tonight. If we can take out a couple of their heavy hitters it'd be best - so be prepared for that."

I nod "Alright, so be prepared to go all out."

She lights up like she just remembered something wonderful and she points at me with a grin "Oh yeah! one more thing. You get to explain why you didn't bring Sophia Saturday."... The bus stopped. Oh look, Sophia is angry. Well, more angry than usual.

I whisper to Taylor, "I hate you right now, but can we please call her 'Shadow Maid?'"

Taylor shakes her head "We want to -avoid- her killing people."

At that point Sophia had finished storming to the back with us, "YOU! Why didn't you bring me!?"

I look at her skeptically, "I was already kidnapping one Ward, I'd have been in real trouble if I had kidnapped two."

Sophia is growling, "Then you should have grabbed -me- instead of that useless bitch."

I point out, "Technically, she was helpful enough to get us there just in time, that let us do well enough it ensured your place on the team" Her fist is clenched. She's debating hitting me. Debate's over that'safist! - I try to block and do a decent job of deflecting the fist away from my nose, but it still clips my jaw fairly solidly.

She seems satisfied that it hit and takes her seat...

I whisper just barely audible to Taylor "Is she pouting?"

Taylor is holding back a smirk but answers just as quietly "I think she is... I think you should tell her we're hunting tonight."

I cough, because that's what you do to let everyone know it's your turn to talk. "So, we're hunting nazis, wanna come along?" I decide to go ahead and make a stupid joke out of it "They will nazi you coming?" and wiggle my eyebrows just to make it all the more corny. I'm not sure if this will get me out of 'stabbed with a knife' or if she hates stupid humor as much as she hates the rest of the world and will put me in the pit of 'stabbed with a rusty spoon, at least twice'.

Sophia glares at me out of the corner of her eye. "You're trying to bribe me." but I can tell she had to hold back a smirk. Or maybe that was a wince. Could have been a tick of anger. Eh, I give up.

I shrug, "Only if it's working, if not then it was Taylor's idea." I get a smack from our team leader. "I got disciplined, apparently it's my idea." I blink for a moment then bring up "We're hoping to catch a couple of capes?"

She growls as she consider it... "Fine, but I get a flight device."

I blink for a moment. "What?"

She's looking straight at me this time, "That thing you use to make people fly. I want one."

I look at Taylor for help, but she only shrugs so I turn back to Sophia, "Um. That's a spell."

She rolls her eyes, "Fine, I get your 'spell'" she actually does the finger quotes.

I turn to Taylor, "I don't like this plan, that means she has to stay close to me and -that- ends with me being stabbed and leaking things that should stay inside."

Taylor blinks for a moment then says "So when she pulls the knife just do like you do with Impact. Aim her at someone and fire."

Things go in that vein of discussion until we get to school and I have to head to my first class. Overall the classes didn't change much, though I -did- get quite a number of looks. I wonder if no one believes the information that was dug up? That thought was dispelled -fast- when class was over. As I left I was crowded by my classmates and several people in the hallway asking to see what I could do, asking about the orbs that follow me around, what's it like being a cape, why 'Oblivium', I think someone asked 'boxers or briefs' but I'm not sure among all the questions.

'Ignore it and it'll go away' is only a tolerable defensive mechanism when I'm free to move around and -ignore- it. I can't move. Alright let's plan through this. "Of course I'm not Oblivium, that's just silly."... doesn't seem to be working. Several looks of sarcastic 'yeah, uh huh.' and some voiced statements of exactly that. Ok Mr. internal flow chart, step one and two didn't work, what are my options?... 'Ignore it' and 'Diplomacy' didn't work, next on the list I have an option between 'Physical Diplomacy' or 'Actively Ignore it'. Well, I seem to be outnumbered among a group that I would get in trouble for hurting, so 'Physical Diplomacy' is... mostly off the table. Actively ignoring it seems to be the option.

I sigh to myself 'fuck it. Anyone who matters enough knows already.' So I cast a quick Flight spell and throw a surprised look on my face as I 'fall' to the ceiling. "Huh, would you look at that? Gravity's being all sorts of wonky today." and proceed to walk to my next class. There I discover doors do -not- go all the way to the ceiling so I make an act of having to climb over the portion of the wall above the door and drop to the ceiling of the class on the other side. The students in my classes either try to talk to me or laugh - well, the ones that like to talk, there's always those that prefer to be left to their own devices, those just look at me curiously for a bit and go about their business.

The teachers all seem genuinely surprised though only one tells me to get down. The other's roll with it after a good five minutes spent deciding if it's worth bringing up. I'm assuming they had spoken with my second period teacher about how I insisted that gravity is just being strange today.

After considering it for a bit I go ahead and charge up a shield talisman from my backpack (I try to carry two around with me all the time) and put it in my pocket. It's incredibly limited but I'm still deciding if I want to leave battery orbs floating around me all the time. With the way my shields work now they're safe but it's the point of the matter. Eh, I probably will tomorrow.

Lunch comes pretty quickly, I convince a hysterically laughing lunch lady to hold the tray I purchased, above her head high enough it falls within the now nine foot range of my aura so I can infuse it and make it flip and 'fall' to me. The thing I did -not- expect was having things fly at me. People started tossing things at me to see if they would 'fall' up. That's when people started getting in trouble and getting assigned detention, I was also told -again- to 'get down from there'. I had to explain that gravity was being strange and I can't control gravity.

There was one threat to call the PRT but I just shrugged saying, "But I'm not a parahuman, gravity just decided it didn't like me anymore. Think I could get a rope? Getting home could be awkward." That pretty much ended that, never got that rope though. I'm not sure if the PRT was called but if they were I assume 'disruptive gravitational disturbance' wasn't something they were inclined to come in for.

Victoria kept glancing my way, I think she was waiting until I was no longer the center of attention to give the 'thanks' Dean had warned me of. I was mostly done with my lunch when I got a call from mom. I picked up the phone but I kept my voice a little low so it's not heard over the din of the cafeteria, "Hey, mom, what's up?"

She sounds irritated, "Will, were you designing a new toaster, or maybe left one plugged in?"

I start thinking quickly, this could mean me being grounded again... "I don't think so. The last time I -actively- tried to design a better toaster was the radio/toaster/jam application device. Scrapped it because for some reason it turned on when dad used his work radio."

She thinks for a moment, "Have you pissed off anyone with ice powers?"

I blink and start going through the villains I know, "I don't... -think- so. I mean we've pissed off pretty much all the gangs to some extent, E88 may only be a little insulted but we're after them next. but I don't know of any that have a cape with an ice power."

"Do you know anyone who drives a jeep?"

I consider for a moment, "Um, not that I know of?"

She grumbles for a bit and I hear something about 'now the milk'll go bad.' then she sighs "Alright, I need to call your dad, and I guess the PRT to ask about insurance plans. I know you have plans after school, you'll have to come get your stuff from me, I managed to rescue it from the house. We'll be at that hotel we were at before under the name 'Ryan'." She hung up after that. Well, -someone's- made her mad. I -almost- feel sorry for whoever it is, particularly since she's bringing my dad in on this.

I shrug and put away my phone to finish lunch. Victoria never got a good chance to come up to say anything because as soon as I was done I walked out of the cafeteria and waited in my next class.

Things went normally until I got a call to the office in my second class after lunch. Agent Hutchison was there and brought me into a meeting room, then told me that my house had a pillar of ice in the middle of it which had burst out the doors, windows and through the ceiling making a spike in the air over the roof. As this was a targeted attack against a cape associated with the PRT they were going to handle it with 'utmost urgency' but I had to keep my hands off since I was the target.

I nodded agreement, mom and dad were going to take care of it anyway.

Agent Hutchison just nodded and let me go. I'm not sure if he knew about the E88 plan tonight or if that was all Taylor.

After school I met up with both Taylor and Sophia in an empty classroom, the latter of which had a sports bag.

I greeted them with a wave to both saying "Hey, guys"

Taylor watches me for a moment then says, "You know; a place that looks -very- similar to your house has an ice sculpture of an explosion inside it."

I wince a little, "PHO?"

She nods.

I sigh and shrug a little, "Mom's pissed and dad's gonna help her, which likely means a couple of his friends too. I've gotta stop by the hotel to get changed, apparently mom managed to rescue my gear from the ice in my room."

It's Taylor's turn to wince, "The guy isn't going to stand a chance is he?" oh, Sophia looks a little pained too. She -knows- what my mother is like.

I shake my head.

Taylor continues pestering me, "So, are we still on for the E88 hunt? You sure you don't need to join them for this?"

I nod, "Yeah, I'm sure. As much as mom can be scary smart and is a wiz in martial arts, dad's kind of a badass. As long as they aren't dealing with anyone that just trumps 'humans in general' they'll be fine."

Sophia interjects, "Let's just go already." She seems a little excited by the prospect of hunting down some E88 capes.

We all agree to meet on top of the hotel.

*****************************************

When I get to the appropriate room, dad opens the door with a tight smile - he's in business mode. "Hey kiddo, get in here and let me introduce you, then you can run off with your pals.

Mom was going over a plan in front of four of dad's friends, SWAT style gear was laying around, radios, grenades of several different kinds, rifles, some antennae devices, a couple of high tech laptops, a listening device, several different styles of goggles and scopes, cameras, drones... it was ridiculous and completely overboard. Which is pretty much my dad in a nutshell.

He set up the security in the house with cameras, motion sensors for alarms, a door you have to blow the wall out to get the thing open without a key, 'the works'. In fact on one laptop is apparently playing a video they recovered from one of the house's cameras.

The video showed an Asian man walk up to the house, knock, then turn to face a jeep and shake his head after a few minutes, then he literally turned to dust along with everything within about two feet of him. Huh, that's how they opened the door. Then someone got out of the jeep, the metal gasmask was the main telling feature... well that and the bandolier of ammunition for the grenade launcher at her side. She pointed it at the house then after a kick from the launcher(There was no sound) ice covered the screen.

Eric sat at the other laptop apparently looking through different cameras throughout the city, they seemed like they might be traffic cams, but some were lower to the ground, maybe security cameras?

Dad motioned around, "You already know the guys but it's been a while, there's Bill here," He motions to a blond guy that looks fairly built, very military, square jaw and short hairstyle. " the others are Allen, Sam and the guy at the computer is our geek, Eric." Allen was a shorter man, more of a runner's build and sported a goatee, but had a shaved head. Sam was tall, taller than Bill, brown short hair. Then there was Eric, he didn't look geeky at all, he was a redhead with stubble and piercing intelligent eyes. He's the only one that -really- gives mom a challenge in chess so he visits around once a month to be put in his place. "He and your mother have been putting together a portfolio of-" He shakes his head, "Nah, nevermind, you have your own thing to do tonight. Go ahead and grab Shard, if anything happens I don't want her involved in this."

I nod to him and though the guys noticed my arrival they're listening intently to mom. She's describing who they're dealing with, possible plans at different times for different locations, they'll be using a jammer to try to circumvent the detonation of bombs, but they'll activate it at range for the chance that the bombs are set up to detonate when they -stop- receiving a signal, etc.

I wait for Shard to summon herself then draw her to me. She hugs me then sits on my shoulder. I go over to where I see my pack and staff and fish around until I grab the talismans and start charging them with a deflection shield. It won't work on the more unique effects I assume this lady has but guns aren't exactly rare. I hand them to dad since he already knows what they are.

Mom is looking over the guys as she finishes up with "When we have to come out, we do -not- play fair. We play to win."

Mom grins up at me and motions me over to give me a hug in front of the four battle hardened men, who are all grinning along. Apparently it's a -thing- to tease and embarrass their friend's children.

Dad speaks up, "You all know Will, though a couple of you haven't seen him for a while. " Allen says something about how much I've grown. "For you guys that -don't- follow the cape scene, he's learned a couple of tricks. Eric, bring up that video I showed you of Impact taking out Lung" Eric obliges while dad continues, "Will, here, threw his teammate so hard the PRT had to fish'em both out of the bay." everyone starts their rambunctious laughter at both the comment and the video and I get some good natured ribbing.

After that, dad started in on his speech about the teams, their jobs and what equipment would be best suited to what positions.

Mom came over to me and hugged both me and Shard, "Be safe out there, and stay out of ABB territory for tonight, okay?"

I nod to her, "You guys stay safe too, mom." and return the hug.

She scoffs, "You don't have to worry about me, we have the best team I've ever known here. Between these weapons, my planning, tech and skills the ABB won't have a chance." She blinks for a moment, "Oh, right, Just so you know: you never saw them or the equipment here. If anyone asks, you were mentally scarred and didn't want to come into this room because of the creaking bed, pounding on the walls and-"

I interrupt for my sanity, "RIGHT! I was NEVER here. Got it."

I grab my stuff before waving to the guys, "Good luck guys, and stay safe."

Eric grins wide, "Won't need it, we've got skill!" he turns to Allen, "You know what this'll do to our underground value? Taking out the remaining power structure of the ABB on their own ground? Hah!"

I head over to my room and get changed, then fly with Shard out the window to float up and wait for my team. I craft my shields and weave flight together as an enchantment. Then I take out a few marbles from my pack and create some deflection shields for each person before the team shows up. They won't be as powerful as the talismans, but we won't be dealing with a tinker in her own workshop.

The others show up one at a time after that, though why Taylor said to meet on the roof is anyone's guess since I'm the only one that can fly.

When I hand the marble to Sophia she frowns at it. "What the hell is this?"

Impact helpfully explains through his unintelligible muffled speech.

Sophia just stares at him for a moment then tilts her head, "The fuck?"

So, since apparently Impact's explanation wasn't good enough I expand on it, "Enchanted marble, deflection shield." I quickly create a very weak mana bolt but moving with enough force to activate the shield and launch it at her slightly above her head and to the side. The plate appears with an angle to deflect it into the air. "Lasts a few hours or until the charge dies due to taking too many shots."

She nods for a moment then says, "Well, give me the flying marble." and she holds out her hand expectantly...

I tilt my head, "Um, I don't have a spell for that yet. I have to control it personally for now." I mumble to myself 'actually that could go on the list too. Maybe I can figure a way to detect brain waves in some manner and use that to control the spell...' Oh. Sophia's glaring at me. "What? It just means you have to stick near the wonderful me."

She's growling now and mutters something confusing about 'useless tinkers' but apparently isn't going to comment on it in favor of starting the hunt.

Taylor coughs. Because that's what you do to let everyone know it's your turn to talk. "Hookwolf and Stormtiger -should- be watching over a weapons and ammunition delivery tonight. Stormtiger will be able to find out we're there pretty quickly so the element of surprise won't work for us unless we charge in hard and fast. To that end, Stalker you'll be dropped off early and take the long way to head around the back. See if you can get a good shot on Hookwolf before he changes, try to avoid any lookouts. Oblivium, you toss Impact along an arc I'll mark, Impact, lock your arms in a 'U' shape, try to position so you can pin Stormtiger. The rest is fodder."

I can tell Sophia is grinning, "Mmm, I get to hunt me a big bad wolf."... For some reason I have a feeling if she wasn't wearing a mask she'd lick the bladed tip of one of her bolts. I double check to make sure that was me and not Shard. Nope, Shard is in Taylor's face.

Taylor cringes a little, "Sorry Shard, you and Oblivium will be coming in from the front and focus on Stormtiger if Impact can't pin him. If all goes well, all you have to do is keep anyone inside from running while Stalker and I clean up."

Shard, now satisfied, goes and hugs Sophia... I guess to welcome her to the team. Sophia looks... tolerant.

After the plan was hashed out, I gathered us up in flight and we started heading toward the appropriate building. This time it was a business, apparently it was a front for the E88, some sports equipment place with a loading dock. I flew us in low in the alleys so my glow wouldn't give us away and I let Sophia down when Taylor said we were close enough.

Taylor kept watch with her bugs as Sophia snuck around. She apparently stabbed a lookout with one of her knockout bolts before inching up close to the wall of the building. I started aiming Impact then, and fired when Taylor gave the go ahead. Taylor then started sneaking forward, but Shard and I were to hang back until Taylor gave a signal. I heard some crashing but still no signal... Hey, a blinking firefly, I'll bet that's a signal.

Shard and I burst out of the alleyway and headed toward the open loading dock only to see Rune in the air blocking Taylor's path, and that Impact had missed and now had a dumpster on him so he couldn't release his breaker state without getting crushed. Stormtiger was there as well, though he was on the ground and apparently about to do something bad to Taylor.

I decide a distraction is in order so I yell out the first thing that comes to mind. "Prepare to be OBLIVINATED!"... yes, I regret it already. I tilt my head toward Impact to convey to Shard she needs to help him, then I point my staff at Rune, who lifts a chunk of asphalt in front of her, but it temporarily distracts the two of them - which was the goal. Around that time, I hear Hookwolf roaring inside with his metallic grinding voice. Apparently Sophia is irritating the wolf.

I smile while still aiming at Rune, "You know the best thing about this weapon?" I create the lasers from the probes angled toward Stormtiger and fire off the arc of lightning. "I don't really have to point it where I'm firing." Stormtiger falls on his face, his muscles have fully lost control, at the same time Shard had fired a Foxfire orb at the dumpster and blew it off Impact. I was analyzing how Rune's ability worked and I was rather surprised, I actually saw a 'mark' of mana. It seemed to be acting as a sort of 'radio signal'. She had several marks floating around her that corresponded to the marks of what she was moving. I really wish I could take the time to -really- have a look at that sometime...

Now that impact was free and Stormtiger was temporarily down, Rune flew higher and back then grabbed up a lamppost and launched it where Taylor had been 'trapped', but Rune couldn't see because of the slab of asphalt she kept between her and me so I wouldn't catch her with the lightning bolt.

Taylor swarmed Rune to fully blind her after dodging the badly aimed lamppost. Impact casually pinned Stormtiger... talk about laying down on the job. I flew over to the entryway and built up a flat Force Shield with very high sensitivity. Anything with more force than a wisp of a breeze would activate the shield. A couple of guys had escaped, but this should force any others to have to go through the front door, which now that I looked was chained shut. So windows.

Rune, having been blinded, didn't see that I had changed position until it was too late. Once she had moved over the roof of the building Taylor cleared all but her face of bugs so I had a clear shot, and zapped her. She fell from the sky and landed on the roof. "Ouch, that'll leave a mark." I kiss the resin orb of the device (after turning it off), "I -love- this thing!"

Taylor's on the phone with the PRT and... now there are people banging against my shield. One of them is crying. Ah, I can see why, Hookwolf has gone berserk. Whatever Sophia did, it pissed him off -so- badly he's pretty much ignoring everything else. Sadly I'm fairly certain my staff won't work on him.

Taylor walks up to the shield. "This is one-way right?"

I nod.

I can tell she's smiling, she says to the guys "Put your back to the wall and hands together behind you. When all of you are tied I'll let you out so the big bad Hookwolf doesn't get you." As if to emphasize the threat Hookwolf roars again. There's blood in the back, looks like he already got -someone-.

They comply -fast-. The shield plate couldn't form while Taylor's hand was in the way so it worked to keep her from getting stuck as she tied them. As promised we let them out and ended up tying them to a bike rack. Stormtiger had woken up and was trying to blast Impact off of him, but he was just ignoring it.

I flew up to grab Rune and zip tie her. Not sure how her power works when it comes to things like that, but I'm -fairly- certain based on what I saw that she can move a whole object, not parts of it, so she shouldn't be able to break out of the zip tie. I carry her down and set her on the ground.

Sophia is still trying to do -something- to Hookwolf. Ah, she's changed ammo to the knockout bolts. I see. She's going breaker-state to try to bypass the metal... but I'm not sure there's anything -to- hit other than metal. Powers are weird.

Eh, I prepare a Foxfire orb to blast Hookwolf with if he tries to run. Eventually the PRT will show up to foam the guy.

Taylor speaks up, "See? That was pretty easy, though Rune -did- kinda screw up 'the plan'. It means we got three instead of two so it worked out."

I nod "Yep." Shard is hugging the bad guys as I tilt my head toward Sophia, "Think she's having fun?"

She laughs, "She's playing with a wolf made of razorblades. Of course she's having fun."

I hear a high pitched "WHAT THE FUCK!?" behind me. Oh look, Shard is hugging Rune's face, who is now awake enough to appreciate it, and too tied up to escape.

I call out over to her, "Don't worry about it, it's kinda her -thing-."

Rune is yelling, "Get it off!, what are you- no, -ack!"

I give some advice, "Stop struggling, it just eggs her on."

A few moments later Shard has decided Rune has received the appropriate amount of fairy face hug and comes back to watch Hookwolf chase a shadow.

A minute later the PRT shows up with Miss Militia, who is rather surprised. "Um... you guys did a good job here - and I don't mean to criticize... but why aren't you helping Shadow Stalker?"

I shrug, "She seems to be having fun. Hit him with the foam when you're ready. I think she's out of crossbow bolts."

MM blinks slowly for a moment then shrugs and motions a couple of agents forward who Hookwolf -just now- notices and roars - right as he's sprayed down with containment foam.

MM assists the agents in loading everyone up, I have to zap Stormtiger again before Impact will let him up so they can load him up too. MM congratulates us and reminds us we need to give a full report before she jumps in the vehicle to head back to PRT headquarters.

Sophia seems happy. I use my aura to increase the happy a little, because happy Sophia I'm pretty sure won't be stabby Sophia.

A little while later I've brought us back to the hotel roof. I smile at the group, "So, that was fun, stopped some illegal gun trafficking, grabbed three capes, completed the current objective. I'm feeling good, how-" And then the docks exploded.