Chapter 17: 2-8 Antebellum

Antebellum 2.8

2000, June 26: Phoenix, AZ, USA

Phoenix was not Brockton Bay. It did not have a convenient Boat Graveyard where all the local capes went to test their powers or beat their breasts in shows of force before scouting competition and recruits alike. In fact, its overall economy had increased as a result of Leviathan's appearance.

Phoenix was a hub for the aerospace industry, military and civilian alike, manufacturing everything from helicopters to electronic circuits and navigational components. With land and sea very much in jeopardy, people invested heavily into aerial transportation. Companies like Boeing and Northrop adjusted significant portions of their production lines into designing more efficient cargo planes.

It was also a hub for medical devices and pharmaceutical companies, which may have explained that farce of a lawsuit.

I had no intention of letting the PRT know what I made so using their firing range was right out.

There wasn't an easy way for me to test out my new relic pistol. The single downside to the weapon was that it literally glowed in the dark after all. Still, I did my best to find somewhere secluded and easily overlooked.

I snuck out near midnight with a crude mask and sunglasses along with dad's old military dress coat. It was one of the few things mom kept of him and I hated having to use it as a disguise, but I had nothing else. I obscured the Korean flag and any identifying insignias with masking tape. It made me look like an idiot, but that was better than being seen as dangerous or tracked back home because I wore a foreign military medal.

Several blocks away from my house was Encanto Park. It was one of if not the biggest park in the city, with its own mini-island and an "amusement park" in the middle. The amusement park had train rides, carnival games, and other small things to keep the kids busy while parents shot the breeze. The park, being a public space, didn't officially close until eleven and I was worried that the security guard would not have dozed off yet. Instead, I set my sights next door to the Encanto Golf Course. It was a full eighteen-hole course with a driving range and practice green. It also closed at six, meaning the whole area was deserted.

After all, who'd bother stealing from a golfing green?

The lights near the driving range were on to deter entrants, but I wasn't interested in the expensive golfing equipment. I made my way around to the furthest hole and climbed the fence. I mentally cordoned off my target range in a section of the course isolated by a miniature grove. It was as close to alone I'd get in the middle of a city like Phoenix.

I took my place at the edge of the grove, legs spread shoulder-width apart for stability. With my right hand holding the pistol and left hand supporting the wrist, I took aim at a tree about thirty feet away and fired.

There was no easy description. The recoil was somehow both physical and spiritual. My soul lurched. A burst of mana was drawn from the well and fed directly into the gun's grip. From there, it pulsed a brilliant blue before, with the pull of an imagined trigger, it launched into the tree. My hands jerked a little from a recoil I wasn't expecting. Light shouldn't have mass like that, right?

I tossed any expectations of being able to dual-wield out the window. I could tell that aiming properly in the middle of a fight would be a challenge even while bracing with both hands. The gun wasn't exceptionally heavy or anything, but I was a pint-sized little snot at the moment.

"One day," I promised myself.

I walked up to the tree and saw the damage. There was no neat bullet hole, but I did see a small indent along with some scorched bark. I felt that if I put in more mana, I'd get a bigger blast.

I took my position again and shot a few more blasts of mana at different quantities. The biggest burst made a sizable dent into a tree, enough so that I had to move for fear of breaking the trunk altogether with repeated rounds. It also came with a large recoil, enough to make me stumble back and fling my hands above my head. After that, I stuck to minor mana bullets and focused on trying to fire as many of them as I could without dropping my accuracy too much. I was no Lucian, but one per second seemed like a respectable amount. It was like a mental muscle, one I needed focus to use.

To close off the night, I found a different tree and decided to emulate one of the Purifier's signature techniques.

I delved deep into the World Rune and drew out memories of his practices with Senna. It was an interesting experience. The memories I found weren't at all like my own. I could remember my mother's smile, the jjigae I had for breakfast, the designs on the back of my spoon, and more. With Lucian's memories, individual details like Senna's hair ornaments or the way she laughed and mocked him teasingly were vague, like mist in the breeze. The style, each movement and focus as he channeled mana into his pistols, those were as crisp as the winter wind.

This time, I didn't just allow the mana to flow, I pulled. The drain was palpable; I could feel the mana travel through my spine and my arms to pool into the relic pistol. There, instead of releasing, I held it and condensed it, shaping it into a nearly solid mass. I took a deep breath and released on the exhale.

This time, when I fired, the kickback tossed my arms over my head. The result was not a single shining bullet, but a beam of light that ripped a neat hole straight through the tree. I could smell the burning wood from where I was standing.

I stared dumbstruck but moved when I heard the wood creak and begin to fall on itself.

'Nope, not sticking around.'

I spent the rest of the night firing bullets of varying intensities. I used the bare minimum amount of mana to practice my aim and fired stronger shots into the earth. I wanted to see if it was possible to tire myself. The answer was yes: By the time I snuck back home and crawled into bed, there was a soul-deep exhaustion. The World Rune was as bright as ever, but my body didn't take well to channeling mana constantly. It was just one more thing to practice.

X

That night, I was once again brought to the altar that housed the World Rune. The nine orbited the three Keystones, with one I knew to be Time Warp Tonic lit. I felt the same pull as before and knew that I was about to ignite a second star.

It was by now a familiar scene, but rather than contempt, it bred in me a greater sense of gravitas. My connection to the World Rune was widening and my very soul trembled with anticipation.

I stepped onto the altar and a star came to me eagerly, shining with a light that warmed my soul. Azure flames covered my right hand and when they faded, three runic tattoos in the shape of stylized bullets decorated the back. Memories, instructions, and knowledge flooded my brain, settling into the very core of my identity as though they'd always been mine.

"Minion Dematerializer," I whispered.

In game, the player got three items that could instantly vaporize a minion. Good for farming early on when a Champion's damage didn't scale. Good for getting gold. Good for removing the enemy's cover so you could land your skill shots.

"Wouldn't it be funny if I could just zap away an endbringer?" I laughed to myself. But no, if I channeled that kind of mana through my squishy human body, I'd go the way of Tyrus in the blink of an eye.

Just as the chrono-acceleration provided by Time Warp Tonic came with the hard limitation of having to drink a potion first, Minion Dematerializer came with its own limitations. To start, I'd gain a "bullet" every twenty-four hours. I could hold up to three, one per rune.

Once activated, I could channel the mana stored in a tattoo for three seconds before releasing a beam of highly concentrated mana with a pre-coded spell. It would dematerialize anything it hit first regardless of physical makeup, transmuting the target into raw mana and dissipating it harmlessly into the atmosphere.

The final limitation was based on mass. It could transmute anything with a comparable mass to myself, a restraint necessitated by my own body's ability. On the plus side, anyone missing a me-sized sphere of matter is probably going to die regardless of what happens to the rest of them.

I'd built myself a holdout weapon and received the most aggressive of the minor runes in response. Was the World Rune adapting itself to my desires?

With that mildly concerning thought, I allowed myself to leave my mindscape, emerging to a new day.

X

2000, June 28: Phoenix, AZ, USA

I spent nearly all of yesterday in meditation. I woke up, had breakfast with mom, saw her off to work, then meditated for three hours at home until lunch. After lunch, I called in an absence from the Wards, telling them that I meditate more effectively at home. It was partially true even, but mostly to hide how my crystal generation rate had increased yet again.

It wasn't much, barely a minute shaved off my time, but an extra crystal was nonetheless an extra potion. More importantly, normal powers didn't improve like mine did barring a second trigger. Best to keep that little tidbit on the down low.

So I spent all day after lunch meditating too, until mom came back and she forced me to do something childish, that being watching Disney movies with her. For the record, the Korean translation of The Lion King left much to be desired.

Nine hours. Nine, nonstop hours of meditation got me fifty-three Mana Crystals. By my estimate, it should have been a bit higher than sixty, but I found my focus flagging if I didn't take frequent breaks. I stored most of them in the old box under my bed and set twenty of them aside to take to the Wards. I didn't know what I wanted to make for myself next, but the next egg never hurt.

The day after saw me at Wards HQ with only Raquel for company.

I'd received an email from the director telling me she appreciated my concern for my teammates, but that all changes to costume design must go through official channels. She'd then confiscated the majority of my Petricite for further testing and fabrication into handcuffs and the like. Bitch move, but bureaucracy was a bitch so that wasn't unexpected. Even so, my little theft hadn't gone noticed and that was the main purpose.

Almost as important, I got belated permission to give Raquel her amulet since that wouldn't change her costume in any way so that was what I was doing at the moment.

"Hey, Bandit," I called. I was in my civvies while she was in full regalia. "How was your PR tour?"

"Horrible." She pouted. "Ms. Youngston made me hand out raccoon-themed ice cream to kindergarteners."

I couldn't suppress my snickers. "Sucks."

"Shut up. I'm not the baby anymore. Why aren't you doing this?"

"I'm currently being sued, remember?" I asked dryly. "Can't exactly give out potions at hospitals. Besides, my costume doesn't make me look like a stuffed animal."

She flopped down onto the sofa with a frustrated whine. "I just want to do something meaningful. Is that so much to ask? Sting and Ranch are off on grownup patrols. Hat Trick is on ride-alongs wearing a surgical hat. Even you're making super important potions and stuff."

I ran a hand gently through her hair. "You matter, Bandit," I spoke softly. "It might not seem like it, but you do. The cheery act you put on in public, even if it's all a lie, really does mean something to people. There's a reason you're the most popular Ward, you know? And for the record, I wouldn't want to be Trick right now. Paramedics see some shit."

"What good is being popular if I can't help anyone? Isn't that what heroes do? Save lives? Well, I haven't been doing a whole lot of that."

"Didn't you ride-along as a first responder to that arson attack the other day? Saw that on the news. I heard you pulled someone from the fire."

"One."

"Still more than me," I said honestly. "I'm told my potions help, but I've yet to personally see any of that."

"I just… I just wish I could do more," she said, almost at a whisper.

"Me too," I admitted quietly. "Me too." We sat there in companionable silence before I remembered my original reason for talking to her. "I have something for you."

I took out the necklace and presented it to her. It was a simple affair, a chain with a circular coin in the middle, one side white and the other a metallic gray. She eyed the necklace then looked back to me thoughtfully before her expression settled on a mischievous smile.

"Aww that's sweet, Andy," she cooed, "but you're a little young for girls."

"Fine, if you don't want your Petricite amulet, then who am I to force you?" I said with a voice as dry as the Grand Canyon. I made to pull away.

"Nonono, I'll be good," she whined. She tried to blink the amulet from my hands, but it clattered to the floor. All she received was the chain itself.

I looked at the amulet. "And now we know it works. You can't blink away the Petricite alloy, can you?"

"Yeah, now can I please have the magic doodad?"

"Doodad? Lulu would love you," I grumbled, but tossed her the amulet nonetheless.

"Who?"

"A cheerful midget. Now, one side of the coin is made of regular steel so you can rest that against your skin. When you want to shut your power off, all you need to do is flip it so the Petricite is what touches you directly."

"Thanks, easy enough to understand."

"Yeah, made it idiot-proof for my favorite trash panda," I smirked.

"Jerk," she replied with her tongue sticking out.

"Maybe, but I'm the best jerk."

X

After a bit of friendly back and forth, Raquel took her turn on console while I holed myself up in my lab. Not all of the Petricite had been taken; enough remained so that I could work on an elixir to negate innate powers. Brutes, movers, changers, and thinkers generally weren't affected by Petricite coming in contact with their skin, so, I'd suppress their powers in the same way the mageseekers did to Sylas: poison.

My first attempt at a Petricite Elixir was a failure, not because it wasn't strong enough, but because it was too potent. As it turned out, eating powdered rock-tree did terrible things to your digestive tract, even in drinkable form. Thankfully, I didn't have to find out the hard way; the World Rune informed me that what I'd made would "clog the pipes" so to speak and cause intestinal failure.

I remedied this by mixing the new solution with a health potion at a ratio of three to one. This would allow the potion to pass more smoothly through the body, the health potion's beneficial effects fixing minor inconveniences on the way through. The result was a potion that would prevent the activation of all powers. However, it still wouldn't reverse any changes. For example, Crawler would not be able to adapt to any stimulus while the elixir was in his body, but nor would the monster turn back into a man.