45

 Chapter Text

By Thursday things haven't completely settled down, but the obvious gang presence has stopped. A message from Templeton to both you and New Wave informs you that a fight had broken out between the ABB and Empire overnight with no cape arrests but a number of ABB members in the hospital and jail. You ask Aelfie to check out Somer's Rock, but any meeting that might have been occurring seems to no longer be happening.

Amy shows up with Weaver as expected and almost marches the taller figure up to where you're studying some books shortly after the high schools let out.

"—so I asked, and he said he's willing to be a team that acts like a team, not just one person making all the decisions. But I think it would be best if the three of us—four if Crys joins us—didn't need to worry about the whole mask thing."

You look up and cock your head at the two girls standing by the table. "Weaver, despite what she says there is no requirement to unmask to fellow capes." Reaching up you slip your mask off to reveal dusky skin with clock patterns moving across it. "Only do it if you feel—"

Amy pokes your nose and grows a gigantic zit on it. "Your real face."

Sighing you tap your face and turn into Amy's twin. "As I was saying…"

Poke, zit.

A tap and you could be Thor's brother. "Mayhaps Amy.."

Poke, all the zits

You put your own face on and raise an eyebrow at the healer. "Happy?"

Weaver whips her mask between you and Amy. "Wait, he's actually…."

"Yes, James Peverell, Crystal's boyfriend."

Taylor pulls her mask off and stares. "But you and Warlock were both at the cafe!"

You nod. "It's a thing I can do—really limited in time, you'll notice I didn't stick around for long. Anyhow, you'll need to get a portkey and some directions on how to use it."

"And the ritual," Amy cuts in.

"Oh no, first you explain the ritual process, then if Taylor agrees we'll schedule a time for it." You summon a simple silver band and start enchanting. "So I can enchant items. Amy's choker is one, as is Crystal's anklet. They have shields of various types as well as what's called a portkey—a way to teleport you and anyone that's touching it to a pre-programmed location. You'll get a portkey to here and to your house, Amy can teach you how to use it."

The longhaired girl dazedly sits down next to you and squints at what you're doing.

You turn to Amy, "I thought you fixed her eyes?"

Amy sighs. "I had to change her back when she put the mask on, the lenses are prescription."

You summon the mask from Taylor's numb fingers and change the lenses to resemble yours. "Fix Taylor's eyes and I'll fix the mask."

A moment of work has everything correct and you hand it back to the girl. She turns her attention to you, no longer squinting and then looks over to Amy. "So you're dating Crystal, but Warlock is dating Amy?"

Amy walks over and kisses you. "Crystal and I are sharing him. It's a little complicated." She takes the anklet and twirls it around a finger. "Same triggers as mine?"

"Yes."

"Okay!" She snags Taylor's hand and tows her away, a cloud of flustered confusion in her wake. "Let us know when you head to the Boardwalk!"

Crystal shows up a bit later and gets filled in, then you round the girls up and explain in general terms what you're going to be doing. Amy changes into her 'Flora' guise, which includes a mask that looks like creeping ivy and her hair gets changed to a shimmering green shade. Crystal is going as herself and will be escorting the other two capes. Taylor is still eyeing you a bit warily, but poking in her head does reassure you that both Amy and Crystal have made it very clear that your relationship triangle thing has no bearing on the cape stuff.

When you're ready you drop the ladies off in an alleyway near where you plan on doing the show. The three capes walk down to the spot you've picked, an alcove that used to be a building that had burned down years ago and was just paved over to create a miniature park. Weaver snags some insect life and with Flora's discreet help to change some colorations on bugs a living, moving sign is set up giving a countdown to the magic show.

A pretty decent crowd has gathered by the time the bug clock counts down its final few seconds. There are even a group of children cheering out loud. "Three, two, one, go!"

When nothing happens immediately everyone shuffles restlessly and looks around. At the ten-second mark you throw your arms over Crystal and Flora's shoulders and your magically-enhanced voice asks, "So what's everyone standing here for?"

The ladies, being in on the joke, 'throw' you into the center of the alcove and you burst into smoke as you hit the ground and reform standing upright with your arms held out. "Welcome everyone! It's storytelling time with Warlock! Let me get into my story robes first and we'll get started."

You fling your hat in the direction of the children where it splits into smaller copies that settle on each child's head, then spin and remove your duster, holding it before you. You are quite possibly naked once the coat comes off, but no one can tell as your entire body except for the mask is pixelated.

Someone wolf whistles and you pause and scan the crowd before a shapely female leg extends past the pixelated part. A 'whoo-hoo!' gets a hairy man's leg sticking out in the opposite direction. They pull back in and you give the duster a sharp shake and dark clouds of smoke billow up concealing you. When they clear you're wearing your druid robes.

"Now, I was born about a thousand years ago…." You pause at the gasps. "Yes, yes, horrible decision, wifi hadn't been invented yet. Bad times all around. Anyhow…"

You spin a tale right out of Jack and the Beanstalk—your mother sends you to sell a cow and buy food and you return with magic beans. Flora helps with the beanstalk, making it grow as you pretend to climb it and explore the giant's castle. When you find the goose that lays the golden eggs you continue.

"…so I was gonna take the goose. I mean, it laid golden eggs. Can you imagine how cool the omelettes look? I reached out to grab the goose and.."

What ensues is a slapfight between you and a goose that leaves you lying on the ground in front of Laserdream as all of the giant-sized utensils and things fade away.

"And my mom was standing there with her hands on her hips and said 'How long have you been doing magic, mister? I'm sending you off to magic school so you can learn how to use it responsibly." You hold up the goose that's now turned into a rubber chicken. "So I had to go to school."

The kids sitting in the first row are suddenly in desks facing the audience and you're sitting in the middle of them. They're wearing imitation Hogwarts uniforms with paisley piping. "You'd think magic school would be awesome, but you'd be wrong. A lot of it was just rules, rules, rules, and when we finally got to do stuff it was junk like turning hedgehogs into pincushions."

With a blur you're now the teacher, walking along the row. "Alright children, your wands are in your left pockets and your hedgehogs are on the right." You cross your arms and tut at them as they scramble to get the items out. Soon enough there are a dozen little snuffling beasts with wands held over them. You guide them through the 'spell' and there's a dozen pincushions laying on the table. "See? Super helpful if you forgot your pincushion but remembered your hedgehog, but not what I wanted to learn." With a wave the kids are back where they were, but still in their robes.

"But my mom would be mad if I flunked out of school, so I decided to buckle down and learn. Some of it ended up being useful. For example, anyone's mother ever told them that the backs of your ears were dirty enough to grow potatoes? Hands up if you've heard that."

You wander over to a teenager with his hands up and your hand shoots out to his ear. A huge dirt-covered potato is pulled out and you hold it with two fingers. "Gross, dude." You toss it at him and turn away and it bursts into a localized rainshower that washes and dries the kid in a moment.

"And I did good in a lot of my classes, but sometimes I just had problems with the spells. Like color-changing spells. You'd think it'd be easy, but I'd go to change someone's shirt blue and there'd be issues. I think I finally mastered it, though. Watch!" You point at a woman with a white shirt, "Bippity boppity bl-achoo!"

There's a comical series of noises and when the smoke clears half the crowd's skin is blue, and the other half's clothes are. You survey the damage and rock back and forth with your hands on your hips. "Looks like I blue it again, huh." You clap your hands. "Never fear, I'll clean it up. See, I learned another spell in school—spider to scrub brush." Out of a manhole that didn't exist a moment ago a gigantic, bright yellow spider appears with scrub brushes for legs. There's a bunch of people yelling 'No!' so you stop. "Oh come on people. No one ever wants the spiders, they always want the Fantasia thing. Now I've gotta pay royalties." You snap and the spider comes apart into a bunch of mops and buckets that twirl their way through the crowd trailing magical bubbles that clean as they go.

After everyone has been fixed the mops converge on you and throw all the water on you. You 'melt' into a puddle as the brooms do a song-and-dance number for the crowd. One of the brooms grows a mask like yours and starts tripping, breaking, and otherwise sabotaging all of its fellows until it's the only one left, doing a pirouette that resolves into you. "So now that everyone knows how I learned magic, I should probably finish out the show by putting my degree in applied magicoligy to the test and doing one of the classics." You crook a finger at Crystal. "Miss Laserdream, come on down and be my assistant, would you?"

Crystal flies over and poses in her New Wave outfit and waves at the crowd.

"Excellent. As I said, we'll be doing a classic, always a crowd pleaser—sawing a lady in half!"

"Wait, what? I don't think—"

While Crystal is waving her hands in negation you conjure a two-doored locker and spin her into it. "Alright, I'm going to need everyone's help to do this." You gesture to the box and run your hand along the middle. "Everyone will need to say the magic words, it's wiffledy-waffledy-cut-her-in-haffledy. Got it? Go!"

There's some confused mumbling, but everyone (mostly) gets it right and you throw open the top door to reveal a frowning Crystal. "Still with us? Good!" The bottom is thrown open too to reveal her foot tapping. With a nonchalant whistle you kick the bottom of the locker and it slides a couple of feet to the side leaving Crystal's torso suspended in the top and her legs off to the side, obviously not connected.

Both sides get sent on their own tour of the space, sometimes together and sometimes separate. You stack her feet on top of her head and make her tap-dance, flip her top half upside down, and have her grab her own legs. Finally though you stack everything back the way it's supposed to be and close the doors. "To put her back, we just have to say the same magic words in reverse. So it's gonna be 'ydelffah-ni-reh-tuc-ydelffaw-ydelffiw'." You get a veritable sea of blank faces. "Oh c'mon, it's not that hard to say, right? On three, one, two, three!"

A bunch of mumbled words later you're tapping your own foot beneath your robes at the crowd. "That's the best you can do?" You throw your hands up and sigh dramatically. "Fine!"

You throw both doors open and Laserdream is scowling at you. The problem is her lower half, which is wearing a pair of heart-patterned boxers and has hairy legs. "Oh." You lift your robes to reveal Laserdream's legs in her white leotard, foot still tapping. "Oh no."

Slamming both doors shut you turn to the crowd as they hear Crystal's muffled complaints. "Well, lovely job you lot did. Let's try this again, with feeling this time. 'ydelffah-ni-reh-tuc-ydelffaw-ydelffiw!'

A couple of people actually manage to reproduce sounds that vaguely approximate the correct reversed words and you flip open the bottom door to show Laserdream's legs to everyone's applause. Opening the top….

"Oh, Photon Mom is gonna be so mad at me."

The top chamber is filled with geese. A dainty hand extends from somewhere inside the pile and points at you and a furious honking and an explosion of feathers happens.

About a minute later you stand, untouched and waving, holding your hands out and presenting a feather-covered Crystal, all put back together and angry. "And a round of applause for Laserdream!"

Crystal extends her hands towards you as if to throttle you and you take her by the arms and swing her around to the other side of you, leaving all the feathers in the shape of her body for a moment before they float to the ground.

Applause completed you thank everyone for coming and being a wonderful audience and give a 'Thank you, and goodnight!'. With a wave of your hand the feathers rise up and obscure you and when they dissolve into motes of light that resolve into fireflies you are nowhere to be found.

Weaver takes control of the fireflies and they spin and form patterns as people filter away. Before anyone leaves the area completely a flight of paper airplanes descend in front of every onlooker and presents them with a picture of the finale, except for the kids, who get pictures of them as they sat in 'class'. Each one is signed by you.

The girls head off down the Boardwalk and you join them about a block away. You're met almost immediately thereafter by a couple of the Wards—Clockblocker and Vista. The young capes are on their best behavior as Crystal handles the introductions. Vista takes your gallant hand kiss with good grace, but immediately starts talking to the obviously female capes.

Clockblocker refuses to shake your hand, instead crossing his arms and leaning his head back like he's trying to look down at you despite you being taller. "Warlock… I am your father!"

You bring your hands up to either side of your head. "Noooo! Wait, hold on," you stop and yank at one wrist until your hand pops off and you throw it onto the ground. "Noooooo!"

Both Wards are staring at the hand with undisguised curiosity. "How in the hel—heck?"

Holding your arm out you show you have both hands. "You mean you can't regrow your hands?"

"No, can't say we can," the clock-clad cape says, only jolting slightly as the discarded hand gets up and floats in midair. "It'd be pretty handy, though."

The hand falls back to the ground and curls up like a dead bug. "You killed it with puns. I hope you're happy, I don't think corporal punishment is legal in this state."

Clockblocker takes the laughter of the other capes with good grace, but they're soon diverted back to their patrol schedule. Your group walks a bit farther and you're all about to portkey out when Weaver spots a snatch-and-grab from a nearby store and the would-be thief gets a mouthful of bugs before being tied down by an enlarged spider.

Crystal guides the new cape through her first arrest and dealing with the cops and then you all arrive back to the lair, with Weaver testing out the use of her own portkey.

After everyone changes and relaxes for a bit Taylor heads home and you present the girls with the mokeskin pouches that Aelfie has found.

Friday morning you receive another dispatch from the PRT. The remains of the Merchants and the Empire have banded together to fight Lung, who seems intent on expanding north towards the Boardwalk. No appreciable gain was made, but the two gangs working together is a worrying sign.

A little after noon you get a call from Quinn Calle. You've been in contact with him during the week in reference to the PRT's affiliate program, so you weren't really expecting a call.

"Warlock, I have calls from three completely different groups and I'm really confused."

You let the silence stretch over the line for a moment before you ask who they are.

"The PRT has contacted me in reference to cosmetic alterations on two capes. They are asking if you can do facial reconstruction as well as voice changing."

You sit back in the lair and stretch out. "I can, and they're probably talking about Othala with the first thing. With some work I can likely fix whatever issue she has with her eye—missing or damaged."

"Should I put them on the schedule for next week, then?"

"Yeah, find a time and let me know where it'll be. Also, give them the spiel about eating extra so I have mass to work with and I'd like them to have an idea of what they'd like to look like. So who else is bothering you about me?"

"A very pleasant person using the cape name Citrine called to schedule an in-person meeting. Details would need to be worked out, but your presence is requested in Boston to meet with Accord." Quinn pauses and you hear him click his pen a couple of times. "Had a client who had dealings with Accord. I no longer have that client."

You mutter something about people taking up too much of your goddamn time. "Was the last Tattletale?"

"No, a male voice, called himself Grue. Said something about healing."

{1} Accord Meeting?

-=-=-

You get Citrine's contact information; it's not ideal, but meeting with Accord on his home turf would likely keep him calmer than dirty-ass, chaotic Brockton Bay. You fire off a politely-worded email even as you continue talking with Quinn.

"He had a run-in with—and I'm assuming here—Shadow Stalker. Who was being naughty and trying to kill people. I'll call him, but can I use your office to heal?"

"I'm billing you for the time you use the conference room. I'd be tempted to bill you for cleaning blood off of the leather but I'm sure you'd just repair everything and then charge me for it." You hear Quinn snort. "I'll call and make the arrangements, you want to do today?"

"Yeah, may as well get it done as soon as possible."

'As soon as possible' turns out to be less than an hour later. You're shown into the conference room and find both Grue—as expected—and Tattletale, which was decidedly not. The blonde is frowning and tense, but the man in the chair beside her is rigid with pain.

You hold a hand up as you walk in. "Tattletale, I'd like to apologize for the constant skits I seem to be doing when you're around, I just… I enjoy fucking with people; it brings joy to my heart. None of that today, though." You turn to Grue. "And you look worse off than I expected. I was going to talk beforehand, but let's do the needful first. Do I have your permission to heal you?"

At his assent you cast a diagnostic and suck air in through your teeth. "Did you get seen by a doctor? Even a back-alley sawbones?"

"Yeah, someone pulled the bolt and stitched me up, but I don't think it's healing right."

Hitting the table with some cleaning spells you shake your head. "There's a fragment of metal in the wound that's worked loose and fucking things up and you've got an infection. Take your shirt off and get on the table."

Both Undersiders twitch at the direction and you sigh. "Look, I don't really care who you are and I'm not going to pry." You turn your mask towards the Thinker. "In fact, the reason I decided Coil had to go was specifically because he bugged someone's residence on the assumption that they were me. He crossed the cape/civilian line and pissed me off—and then after I looked into him I found that he did it regularly."

Slowly, both from reluctance and pain, the leather-clad villain strips his jacket and undershirt off and you pad the table as he climbs on and lays down. Tattletale's eyes are watching you as you flick your wand and peel back the bandages, revealing not only blood but a faintly yellow discharge.

"Alright, painkiller time." With a twitch of the wand Grue's shoulders relax and he breathes a bit easier. "Now I'm going to reopen the wound, pull the shard out and heal everything. It'll take a couple of seconds. No wiggling around."

As you said, the actual healing only takes a moment or two. Ensuring you've gotten all of the infection actually takes longer, if only because you have to run the diagnostic a second time to make sure it was taken care of. You gesture the cape back off the table and hit his motorcycle jacket with a repair spell while you're at it.

Taking a chair you lean back and cross your arms. "I'm sure you have questions. If we all promise to be on our best behavior I'm willing to give some answers."

The two villains lean their heads together and you politely pretend not to listen in. Rather than feed Lisa false information with your Occlumency, you simply concentrate on non-existence. You're not sure if that helps, as the lack of anything about you from her shard only seems to make her more twitchy.

Finally though the green-eyed teenager leans on the table and eyes you, trying to will her power into working. "You said that you decided that Coil had to go. Can you elaborate?"

You nod your head a bit, it's a decent place to start. "Yeah, but let me be clear—trying to find out who I am is a bad idea." Flicking your hand as if to dismiss that comment you continue laying out a very vague outline of what Coil did—use stolen information from the PRT and assume your civilian identity, then send someone to plant listening devices.

"The person in question had their own security system in place, a home-brew thing that got a picture of the intruder. I was able to track the person down and found that they were one of Coil's mercenaries who had bugged many capes' residences. And anyone else he wanted dirt on."

Grue's fists are clenching. "I assume there's more?"

"There's plenty more. Did you want to know that Coil had two pet Tinkers, Chariot and Trainwreck? Or maybe you'd like to know that the Undersiders were his favorites for starting the chaos that would have him either elected mayor or appointed as PRT commander." You point to the helmeted cape, "You, Regent, and Bitch were supposed to die. Tattletale would be addicted to drugs and kept as a Think-slave if possible."

"What—" Tattletale has closed her eyes and is concentrating hard. Her voice is hoarse. "—what was Coil's power?"

"Simulation of a timeline where he can make alternate choices. Not precognition, as far as I can tell he didn't get to see the future, but he could go to a crossroads and simulate going east while walking west. He gets the knowledge of what lies east, but nothing he does while in the east actually occurs."

Her power may not work on you, but it does work on taking what you've said and filling in gaps around it. As details slot into place she gets noticeably uncomfortable.

With a look to his colleague Grue takes over. "What did you want to speak with me about in the first place?"

"That continuing to be villains—even if you're 'merely' stealing from other villains—is probably a bad idea in the current climate. Unless you've gotten caught at some other point you've been pretty low-key, so rebranding as independents of some stripe should be doable."

The leather-clad cape rolls a shoulder, "And you'd be in a position to help us?"

You laugh. "Technically yes, but realistically if you actually want to do I could put in a word with Acting Director Templeton and see if she'd be willing to give you access to the affiliate program." Cocking your head you continue, "I'm not putting in a good word, just a word. As it stands I'm in the middle of group stuff myself, so I'm neither looking to create another team nor looking to join one. If there was some specific equipment you needed, I would likely be willing to supply it cheaply assuming you actually go through with being on the up and up.

"There's also the option of joining the Protectorate itself—again, Templeton is Director at the moment and Piggot will not be back. I actually like Templeton quite a bit; she's apparently treated New Wave like actual human beings in the past where a lot of Piggot's people didn't. Like, for example, after I realized Shadow Stalker was shadow stalking on her own I let her know and she's currently sidelined while the gears of bureaucracy grind on for her." You turn back to Tattletale, "Now, I know you hit the account linked to Accord; I left some of the accounts alone because they'd be more trouble than they were worth, and others because of who they were linked to. Have you gotten anyone else on your ass?"

Her shoulders tense. "No." A brush of her mind tells you that's the truth, but now she's having second and third thoughts about every account she drained. She's also started putting information together about how Coil's power worked and how he may have used it on her in the past and doesn't like what she's getting.

You give both capes your phone and email address, and point out that your PHO handle is fairly well known. "I don't keep my cape phone on me all the time, so if you're thinking I'm a decent emergency backup you'll want to reconsider."

Tattletale slides you paper with both of their numbers and gets the faintest smile on her face, "You took all that money and you haven't given up your day job?"

"I was obviously a man of leisure before this; it's the middle of the day and I'm not at work. I just don't feel like dressing like this all the time. I prefer my smoking jacket and Playboy models."

Her smile turns a little sardonic and her eyes flick over you once more without gathering information about you. With an incline of the head she drops it.

You use the in-office phone to talk to Quinn and he brings in a copy of the affiliate information that the PRT had provided him. He answers a few of the capes' questions about the program before the Undersiders take their leave through a back door you never knew existed. You turn to look at your lawyer and he's already raised an eyebrow back and smirks. "Your crazy ass is one of the first I've ever had stroll into my front office."

-=-=-

Taylor shows up at the lair without Amy (Winslow lets out about ten minutes before Arcadia for some reason) and visibly sets her shoulders before walking over to you.

"James, does this ritual stuff Amy talked about really require me to be naked?"

You snort and roll your head over to look at the furiously blushing teenager. "Okay wait, how exactly did she explain this to you?"

One explanation later and you're conjuring a mannequin as a visual aide. "While we decided to do the ritual nude, it was primarily for ease of rune painting. If you notice it could be done with a robe but you'd need to get the front done while covering your breasts, then wear the robe backwards while the back is done." You shrug, "Ritual magic doesn't lend itself to body shyness, I'll be honest."

Taylor is staring at her hands and very pointedly not sneaking looks at you out of the corner of her eye. "I'm not used to that at all."

"Most people aren't, honestly." You hold up a finger as a thought occurs to you, "By the way, the ritual doesn't have to be just you and I, Amy or Crystal or both can be there. They won't get any boosts, but they can participate, which would lessen the power burden on us if that makes you more comfortable."

"Really?" The girl perks up at that a bit, "That makes me feel better—I mean, not that I thought you'd try anything!—but having someone else there would be good."

-=-=-

Amy arrives next and sits down in your lap to claim a kiss before asking what you were talking about. Crystal shows up as you're explaining that having more participants for a ritual lessens the total burden, and the girls could paint the runes on Taylor instead of you when she asks why you couldn't do a cleansing ritual to give the girl a taste of how it works.

…so you find yourself with the ladies in the middle of the ritual circle about ten minutes later. Both Amy and Crystal think you should do the general ritual, and you've snagged an even dozen robes so that you have spares if New Wave ever decides to do a group ritual.

With four participants you have the women form the triangle with you remaining in the center with the bowls in an inverted triangle. Taylor has been warned both about the bloodletting and not having a swarm inside the ritual space, but you hear her squeak as the flesh of your wrist parts nonetheless.

As you intone the first line of the ritual the charged feeling in the air is the same, but it brings with it feelings of silence and stillness that seem oddly out-of-place in an area which is already quiet and serene.

Nothing else appears amiss as you slowly continue the ritual. At the point where you've empowered the reagents and everyone is free to move you gesture both of the experienced ladies to take up stations near Taylor before triggering the cleanse.

Once again being in a cleansing ritual brings someone to tears. In this case, Taylor's crying isn't happy tears but with both cousins talking to her you feel like whatever issue has been uncovered will be worked through.

After a few minutes of talking, Amy breaks away and comes over to you, drawing you down into a closed-mouthed kiss. You take the time to ask after Taylor, and the healer assures you that she'll be fine. You gather Amy into an embrace and the two of you rock back and forth to an unheard melody as the other two ladies converse.

It takes almost ten minutes before they join you but Taylor's face, while blotchy from crying, seems at peace. Hugs go all around before you finish the ritual and the ladies drift off to change. It's about an hour later, while you're all out eating in a privacy-spelled booth when you bring up the odd difference when invoking the start of the ritual.

Taylor makes a noise and chews her slice of pizza quickly before she speaks. "That was when you said that first line? 'Kem-something'?"

"Yes…."

"I lost the ability to feel any bugs who weren't inside the circle when you did that, and it didn't start coming back until you said that last line, and even then it was really faint until I stepped out of the circle." She blinks at the look you give her. "Are you about to order a bunch of tests on me?"

You shrug one shoulder. "I'm certainly thinking about it. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon."

Taylor huffs a bit. "Fine…"

Leaning back you look up and the ceiling and drawl, "Don't worry, I won't tie you to the bed unless you specifically request it." A smile spreads across your face at the squeak from across the table and the elbow that pokes your side.

-=-=-