Meeting

While immersing myself in cultivation and pretending to be asleep I had time enough to think about my newest powers. As far as powers went they were weak and very simple, at least compared to most other powers I had gotten so far. The ability and knowledge to perfectly tailor clothing for people was something that took a lot of time for normal human to learn and it wasn't like master designers were cabbages on the street, but it still felt weak, even if I could imbued those clothes with a general protection from physical and mental sickness. I knew enchantments and even arrays that could easily do the same. This power felt expensive in a way it just didn't warrant, like an Iphone, the most expensive thing is the image, not the quality. Luckily the second power was a steal, being able to overlay a design onto another type of clothing was massive. Maybe it was just because cpae society was the way it was, but with this I could create power armor or heavily enchanted clothing that would look like common clothes that could be bought from any store. I would need to do some tests, but if this worked like I think it would I could send my sister her personal armor in the form of a pink hello kitty t-shirt. Not even the PRT would suspect that, and even if they did, physical enchantments interwoven in the material wouldn't be visible to any of their tech. This power meant that I could outfit my sister to hell and back without anyone, even her, having the slightest inkling that she could tank atomic blasts without trouble. If only I could tinker right now, but no, I had to pretend, at least until the majority of the others affected had woken.

Luckily there were so many of us and in the massive amount of people I was simply one of the unlucky ones that was crammed in the back of a van for transport. Funnily enough it was a bofrost van, normally used to deliver ice cream, the PRT must have scrambled to get access to more vehicles and simply requisitioned ones from nearby companies, which meant there were now 7 people cramped and secured in the thankfully underpowered freezer at the back of the car with me. That ride was the second most uncomfortable ride in my life, only the one with Ms. Norberg at the helm had been worse.

When we arrived I was put on a gurney and pushed into a well climatized building I didn't recognize, but assumed to be the PRT headquarter by the amount of people running around, it wasn't like I could just open my eyes and look around. Thankfully they put me in a separate room, which as the only preteen there was understandable, but also a little suspicious. What exactly was I not allowed to hear? Sebastian provided my promptly with all the information I needed, much more than the lower grunts of the PRT would be allowed to know, apparently the PRTs security inside the building was so lacks, that Sebastian could find and decipher a multitude of communication signals. Most interesting, were the streams from and to the so called 'console' in the Ward rooms. I understood the need for the Wards to learn about procedures and field operations, but on a day like this, with exotic bombs going off everywhere I seriously questioned the decision to give the Wards at the console full access to all feeds. If they had asked my I would have told them that this was a bad idea, made even worse by the fact that Sebastian could show me the feed of the person manning the console, or better the feed of the people, because there was my sister, together with Vista manning the console, watching Ms. Militia searching for survivors at a site where the ABB conscripts had clashed with the E88. It was a massacre on both sides, with blood splattered everywhere and houses that had been crushed like cardboard. Why the hell was my sister watching this?

I knew myself to be hypocritical, I was junger and I was watching it, Vista who was my age was watching it and it was her job, but she was my sister and I didn't want her to be part of this, this war, even tangential. Creating her protective clothing now had first priority. Watching and listening I got a good sense of what had and still was happening in the city. Apparently Bakuda had started to bomb the city as a thread to warn off the E88 as well as forcing the PRT to release Lung, but the E88 hadn't listened, enraged by the death of one of their own and had started brutal gang fights all over the city. People in ABB colours where being sniped from afar if they went into the wrong neighborhood, even the Empire didn't want to risk being suicide bombed with tinkertech bombs. Their willingness to kill on sight and the massive support of almost a dozen parahumans had given them the advantage and they had managed to win and keep large slabs of territory, while the PRT was constantly forced to retreat and abandon positions, they couldn't simply kill the thread from afar after all. There were some disturbing images on the net, of people who had been foamed by containment foam exploding and turning in a kinds of horrifying states, from living statues to pooles of weird goo. In any other situation a person made of jelly with such an expression would have been hilarious, but because I and everyone else knew that this had once been a real human the reactions where a lot more negative.

So far the PRT hadn't identified a pattern in Bakuda's behaviour, I wasn't even certain someone in her mental state could be predicted, even by Thinkers. All bombs had been aimed at critical infrastructure, gang hideouts or was meant to cower the public. No attack on a hospital had been successful so far, but after the near success at the Brockton General Hospital, all hospital had now a few police and PRT guards, as well as personal that did specifically search for recent signs of implants. The protectorate was out there trying to take down as many gang members, unwilling suicide conscripts and empire capes as they could, but they were horribly outnumbered on a good day and this was decidedly not a good day. Normal security measures weren't working at all, the PRT and Police had run out of vehicles and now the only thing they could do was establish zones in the city, blocking entire streets and try to create buffering zones between different neighborhoods. Brockton Bays public venues had all been closed, public transportation had ceased and people were told to stay of the streets.

Police and PRT where sweeping through the streets on foot, but they were way to slow and Bakuda had enough time to set up, which meant attack squads of conscripts were appearing all over the city at seemingly random times and causing havoc behind the safety lines. Threats of force, even threats of death didn't work on people with bombs in their heads, they took their chances and sometimes died for it, but more often the bombs in their heads would go off and take others with them. Again the PRT had not managed to find out when and why the bombs in the heads of people triggered and even Armsmaster try to disarm a bomb with a tinker drone had failed and destroyed the drone in the process. The bombs were rigged to explode if the signal stopped, the host died or something physically touched the bombs, Bakuda had learned from my interference at her last lab and made sure that her bombs would at least explode, even if they didn't reach the target. While the losses of life on the side of the Police and PRT had been very small so far, the frustration about their inability to do anything, their mounting horror of being forced to shoot innocents and the escalating nature of the conflict took their toll.

If only there was a way to separate the bombs from the people without touching or interfering with the bombs themselves. If those bombs exploded on contact even I couldn't do anything but teleport away. The thought of teleporting away gave me an idea, in Harry Potter portkeys transported anything they touched and my teleports worked similar, they teleported anything the aura of the person that activated it touched, clothing, equipment and external things like luggage were all touched by aura if the person thought about them, but the touch was very weak for external things. I could tweak my teleportation enchantments to only teleport the person filled with the aura that activated the teleportation, meaning their baggage, clothing and even the bombs in their heads would be left behind. This wouldn't work if the bombs were organic and had already fused with the person, but for an external object, even a transplanted organ to become one with the body took time, a lot longer than Bakuda had been active in Brockton Bay. If I tweaked the enchantments to only teleport around 20 meters, the teleport focus could be used multiple times, depending on the material even dozens of times.

To test my idea I concentrated on a small arrow, the size of a dart, made of a transparent magical crystal, starsoul diamont and forced the creation to include the enchantment, fueled by light the arrow, the size of a dart formed in front of me. Sebastian had already checked the room for active surveillance, but as far as he could tell there were only the microphones places in the hallway that could potentially give me away. Because the crystal creation process didn't make any noise that wouldn't be a problem. Teleporting out would make noise, but I was safe to summon right now. Not being able to test my newest teleport arrow was a problem, but not an insurmountable on. I would have to rely on my powers and hope I did everything right. Simply teleporting wasn't enough, teleports needed a direction so I changed the enchantment to include a fixed point, the person that had thrown the arrow would be used as an anchor for the teleport. That way the thrower would be able to control the teleport direction as well as the distance. But could the policemen even hit anyone with this? I knew from movies that bars often had dartboards and any good detective would spend time in bars getting drunk and playing dart and billiard, I just didn't know how many policemen in BB were good at dart.

I decided to include an aiming enchantment and a failsafe, that they would break if used against me or my sister. I didn't want to give the PRT any tools against me and my sister was important. I loved being able to watch her talking with Vista on the console, but I hated the fear that rose in me everytime she lifted her hands or narrowed her eyes, even through the lense of a camera I couldn't stop those instinctive reactions. My sister was my achilles heel, my holy grail and my very own gorgon knott, I couldn't solve this, but I couldn't walk away eiter, so I concentrated on my teleport arrow. 'Teleport a single person, without anything not themselves, up to 20 m towards the user, aimbot included' was perfect as a description. Creating 50 of them took barely a few minutes thanks to the ability to summon them in perfect shape and at no cost. An additional benefit of them being created purely from light was that they could never be used to hurt anyone, the perfect tool to rescue unwilling conscripts from the claws of a shark.

Texting Captain a message I asked for a location to send a package of very useful stuff, I used the remaining time to create a small sack to keep the arrows as well as robes from material laying around in Amanda. I didn't have much clothing stored, why would I, I had a tomb, I just couldn't access it right now, which meant 50 pairs of short robes would need to be enough. In the end I used the light to imbued the sack with an enchantment to keep the things inside in perfect condition and added the description of the arrows to the outside. The captain had replied in a timely manner so I teleported out, left behind the sack and returned in less than 10 seconds. The microphone outside would have caught the sound of displaced air and static discharge but I hoped the PRT was to busy to pay any attention. I had done what I could, the Captain would do the rest.

---------POV Raynor -------

Today was hell, there was no other description that could fit a day like this. He had already had to shoot and kill two conscripts before they neared the hospital, at least the following explosions had proven him to be right in both cases, but he knew that he would shoot wrong sooner or later and aiming nonlethal wasn't an option. He was placed to close to the hospital and the emergency corridor. Every interruption here would, not could, cost lifes, lifes that could have been saved, contrary to those poor sods who had already been dead the moment Bakuda got her hands on them. He had almost groaned in relief when he had gotten a message from the kid, at least he was safe, when the convoy hadn't arrived at the bunker everyone had tried to help, but the few police cars still in operation had been to far from his location, so he had stayed and protected what he could. He had survived this long, had always done his best, but today, today would break him, he took it upon himself to take the shots, so none of his team would have to, but there he couldn't protect them from the reality of the situation. The where almost useless, all they could do is kill to protect the many from the few and it just wasn't working. They had been out here for hours by now and the leader of the PRT, Police, Court and the Mayor and his office still didn't have a better idea, no-one had, even the other parahumans were powerless.

Except the kid, package delivery, he wondered what the kid had created now. It wasn't hard to step away for a moment, his men and woman knew him, he sometimes needed a pause to clear his head. Sending the drop off location he wondered what the kid could be sending. He didn't have to wait long, two small pops and crackling static later, there was only a small sack on the ground. Reading the description on the sack almost made him drop it, he didn't know if he should thank of curse the kid, that description wasn't helpful at all, was he supposed to throw the sack? That didn't make any sense, looking inside he found robes of all things, how was he supposed to throw that? Only underneath did he find what looked like very fancy crystal darts, they looked way to pricey and delicate to be thrown, but they made more sense than the rest so he decided to try. Only he needed a target, or even better someone to throw at him, he didn't think the kid would lie, but untested tinkertech was never a good thing and he rather would hurt himself than his comrades.

Returning to his group, which looked as miserable and downtrodden as you would expect on such a day he surprised Markus by handing him a dart, moving a few feet back and ordering him to hit him with it. It didn't take much to persuade Markus, it never did, he was one of those guys who would take any challenge posted in an heartbeat, though it was astounding just how accurate Markus' throw was, hitting him directly in the chest. Next thing he knew he was standing next to Markus, buck naked, he had done many embarrassing things in his career, had seen even more, but this was at least in the top 3. It took all his willpower and experience as a senior officer to keep calm, while the rest of the squad freaked out at his sudden appearance and nakedness. It helped that he realized that he had lost a metal tooth, it had simply vanished. Looking back he realised that it hadn't vanished, it had simply been left behind, left behind where he had stood, something implanted in his body had been removed not by actually removing it, but by displacing the human around it. This wasn't just a gimmick, this was the answer, a way to save the conscripted without hurting them, a way to get them away from every bomb implanted. And the arrow hadn't disappeared, it had fallen to the ground after the teleport but it still looked the same. Reusable teleport devices, the Kid, no the Hero had outdone himself. In his haste to radio this in he had even forgotten to redress himself, until his second in command reminded him that it wouldn't be smart to flash the pickup for the miracle tinkertech devices.

He didn't care, this day had just taken another unexpected turn and this time Bakuda would not be prepared for it.

-------Unknown POV------

She cried, even as she ran, ran in the direction the monster told her to. She knew she would die, was already dead, but even with all the pain she was in, the knowledge what she was about to do, she couldn't stop, her body forced her to continue, her instinct of self preservation hadn't died yet, it didn't understand that there was no way she would life.

She saw the kindergarden, saw the police, saw them raising their guns, but she just cried harder and ran. Suddenly there was a red blurr, Assault the Hero and then she was somewhere else, her clothes gone, the pressure in her head, the bomb, gone. The explosion that turned the street behind her into molten rock didn't matter, her exposing herself to the world and one of her idols didn't matter,

SHE

WAS

FREE.