2.7

2.7

"Well, I've at least missed first period." I shake my head and laugh at myself. I take a shower and throw on some -real- clothes - which reminds me my shoulder is -really- sore. Not broken but probably pulled pretty badly. I go through my morning hygiene rituals and make myself feel human. I think for a moment then decide 'why not?' and summon up Shard. She's not used to being confined for a day and a half.

I grab up my backpack, then open my window and fly off to school. It's really convenient not having to hide this anymore. My mood suddenly drops a bit, "Damn, I need a new phone and I need to make a new staff, pack and grab new stock. Maybe I can convince the PRT to give me some brute-proof wire or containment foam pellets like I was thinking before." Shard hugs my face to cheer me up so I cup her back in my hand to return it. "Thanks Shard, I needed that." She nods with a huge smile. As always, she has the best plans.

I land at the doors to Arcadia much to the surprise of the security guard. I guess since I'm not glowing it doesn't really give me away. I give a nod in greeting, "Sorry, running late." He just shakes his head and waves me on. He then jerks his head back and nearly falls over because Shard is attempting to introduce herself in the only way she knows how.

I'm a little worried of what's going to happen to the world when I figure out how to create a core or mana conversion system for her. We'll have to have her make her body around a GPS tracker so I can go find her for dinner - I don't think she'd pay attention to a watch in her search for friends.

I hover along with Shard sitting on my shoulder and head to my second period class. I just open the door and float in, interrupting the lesson -mostly- on accident. The teacher turns to watch me as I float in to my desk. He calls out, "Mister Taylor. You're late."

I blink then tilt my head, "Mister Suthren. You're observant." and proceed to pull out my book. While shard introduces herself to whoever happens to sit behind me, resulting in a startled sound and lots of staring. About students; I know I'm a little oblivious, but I could -swear- there are more students here than normal.

Mr. Suthren is glaring at me. "Put that away. You shouldn't be using your powers in school."

I sigh, and boredly say, "Shard isn't my power, she's my sister. If you're upset give me detention and get on with the teaching thing."

He's glaring, I wonder if he just has a problem with parahumans or if I just personally irritate him for some reason. Eh, I don't care. He gets on with the lesson after a bit longer and Shard continues to introduce herself, meaning I'm the -only- person paying attention to the lesson. Great. I'm going to have to spend the day on the ceiling again... Ack, I narrow my eyes at Shard, she just pulled my ear because she needs me to move to finish introducing herself to the class. I roll my eyes, but when it comes to Shard, I'm kind of a pushover.

My desk floats silently into the air and several people hold back snickering. I float quietly to the center of the room while watching the teacher write more things on the board. Shard gets to finish introducing herself and sits on my shoulder satisfied so I can float back to my place. Before I land, Mr. Suthren turns around and sees me hovering back to place so glares at me again. The rest of the class Shard spends on the desk of the person behind me 'chatting' away. Meaning she was expressing herself through exaggerated motions. I think she's telling the story of what happened this morning, but without having been there it just looks like she punched herself in the foot then knocked on doors and played hopscotch with friends.

The strangest thing for me though, normally I can feel people's auras and differentiate among them, today I felt like if I tried hard enough I could reach -through- their aura. Didn't want to try it here in case bad stuff happened.

The -other- odd thing, I could practically -feel- the buzzing of the electricity in the wiring of the walls. Very strange feeling. Maybe it came with being able to sense molecules?... I don't think that's right but it's all I can figure, unless it had something to do with that grey orb from the robot level?... no way to know I guess.

Ugh I was bored. Class just isn't as fun as playing with mana. Still, I was already taking it easy in class and -now- I'd missed a day this week and last week. I needed to pay attention or I'd end up having to retake the class - especially if I'd already managed to piss off the teacher.

Lots of note-taking, a couple of requests of some kind people who let me borrow -their- notes for a moment, along with a quick spell and filter to move lead from my pencil to my paper in the same pattern their lead was on theirs, and I had the notes for yesterday and anything I missed. Along with a request to make a couple of copies for the nice people's friends. I -did- ask a favor and it's not like copying the notes was all that hard once I had the spell built.

A few pages of note copies and lots of glaring from Mr. Suthren later, the class let out. So I grabbed my stuff while Shard made an attempt to personally wave 'bye' to everyone. A few jerks tried to grab her, but it would be like trying to catch a caffeinated dragonfly. A moment later there was a lot of commotion as everyone tried to talk to me or Shard at once. This was the -perfect- opportunity. I cast my Sonic Shield and adjusted it to block -all- waves instead of just the dangerous ones. That's better.

I proceeded to ignore everyone and head to my next class, the one with Dean and Carlos. We don't have assigned seating in this class so I took a seat in the middle - the downside was it put me next to Carlos, he was staring at me. Oh, he was staring because he was talking. I cancel the Sonic Shield to at least hear what he has to say. "Can you repeat that? I had the world muted."

He blinks. I'm not sure he fully believes me, but he decides to go ahead and repeat himself. "Hey Will, are you okay man?"

I tilt my head when I see Shard tackle/hug Dean much to his surprise then turn back to Carlos, "Yeah, I'm fine. Just slept in."

Carlos looks at me incredulously, "You were-!... you weren't here yesterday at all."

I shrug, "I slept in -really- late."

Carlos is trying for 'comforting' now I think, "Um, y'know I'm here if-" and Dean to the rescue with a hand on Carlos' shoulder to interrupt. Hurry Shard, use distraction! Shard Fairy Face Hugs Carlos just as he turns to look and yelps as a glowy teal thing is -suddenly- in his face. I nod to Dean in thanks who is on the verge of laughing when he realizes my entire desk is slowly floating into the air. I don't go -too- high, I want Shard to be able to reach the whole classroom after all.

Everyone comes in, -many- people are looking at me with dumbfounded expressions, and again, it seems we have more people than I remember. Eh, whatever, more people for Shard to 'talk' to. A few moments later and everyone is being -very- loud as everyone is trying to talk over everyone else. I'm getting annoyed. The sonic shield would be okay, but I -do- need to do well in my classes. I dust off my emotion infusion skills and spread [Calm]. Interestingly the effect is almost immediate as the din starts to die down quickly. Dean is staring at me. Eh, oh well.

Shortly after I manage to calm everyone down a little, Mrs. Anthels comes in. She doesn't even look up as she puts her materials on her desk, though when she looks up and sees me about five feet in the air she tilts her head. "Gravitational problems?"

I shake my head, "I wanted a better view."

She smirks a little, "Well, you're ruining the view of those behind you." She seems thoughtful then nods to herself, "Will, I'd like to speak with you in the hall for a moment."

I roll my eyes, I really hope this doesn't turn out like Mr. Suthren. Then again, if it does I'll just get detention. Again. Probably for 'disrupting the class' or something. Shard follows along since she can't leave my aura. She sulks on my shoulder since she hadn't finished introductions.

Mrs. Anthels follows me out and closes the door. Immediately she says, "I know what you're thinking, but you're not in trouble." This makes me raise an eyebrow. If I'm not in trouble then what? She continues saying, "I'm going to be blunt. You're Oblivium. Even if you say you aren't I'll say it doesn't matter because you have his powers." She watches me for a moment to see if I would argue.

I shrug, "Okay, so let's say I have his powers?" I prepare a shield and get ready to use my new Dodge Spell to get away if things go wrong, I've been ambushed too many times in the past two weeks to not be prepared. Sure it'd be dumb for her to attack me in school, but not -everyone- is sane.

She grins, "-he- can make shapes and attach them to people right?" She pulls out a picture.

A few minutes later the teal form of Napoleon Bonaparte stepped into the classroom to the surprise of -everyone-. I follow along behind and retake my seat with a grinning Shard, who then continues her introductions. Napoleon stands with his back straight and a dismissing look at the students. It's fairly obvious the clothes aren't moving -quite- right, but it works well enough. Napoleon then begins describing one of his battles, why they took that route, etc. and that's what surprises the students even more, the tone of the voice is that of a man's and -mostly- fits him, though the accent isn't right and he seems to be trying not to laugh. The whole thing held up for most of the class, though one time when 'he' slapped the desk to emphasize that section of his story, the glove I had made disappeared in a flash of light, leaving the normal hand of Mrs. Anthels. 'Napoleon' hides the offending hand in his coat for the rest of the lesson.

I have to admit, it made the lesson -much- more fun. It also let me practice my spells a bit and gave me ideas on some things I could do later. Most of the class wasn't sure what to think at first, but started getting into the lesson after a while, though there were some, as there always are, that refused to pay attention no matter what happened. I didn't get any extra credit out of Mrs. Anthels for it, but I did get her to agree to give me some leeway due to my extracurricular activities - as long as I helped her out like this once in a while. She's one of the teachers that wants to make things fun but the regulations of the school keep her from doing anything, like painting the classroom, this was a wonderful work around.

Once the class ended I wasted no time and used my Dodge Spell to practically -appear- six feet in the air then zipped out the door horizontally over everyone's heads. Once outside I hugged the ceiling to avoid everyone as I headed to lunch. Mrs. Anthels would be wearing the Napoleon 'costume' for only a little while longer, but she knew if she wanted to get rid of it, just a little force would destabilize the different sections of it.

I hovered through the lunch line (walking is overrated), this time accepting my meal properly instead of having a lunch lady throw it at me, though she grinned and asked me how gravity was treating me, I just shrugged and told her it was making up its mind, then took my tray and walked up 'invisible stairs' to the non-existent second floor to the laughter of the lunch lady that had asked me about gravity troubles.

I set up a sensing sphere a little smaller than my aura that would activate my flight spell if Shard hit the edge and go in her direction. This left me floating around like a balloon after Shard as she introduced herself to -everyone-.

Sophia is glaring at me. There -might- be some concern there. Though I'm betting it's just frustration at having to deal with the PRT about my being missing for a day. Then I notice she's looking behind me. I turn my head just enough to catch that Victoria is heading my way. Time to engage my secret weapon, Sonic Shield up! Ah, blessed silence. I focus on my meal and ignore the floating talking girl. Ack, I can feel her 'inspiration' aura pick up. Time to put up my Astral Shield. Huh, I need to work on my targeting, my tray was encompassed in it. Oh well, it should stop grabbing it when I leave it here.

A moment later the floating talking girl has paused, like she's waiting for an answer, I continue with the ignoring, and now I think she's talking louder because someone just flinched. Oh that isn't good. She's talking with Shard, who, no doubt, has just somehow managed to explain I've put the world on mute. Suddenly floating talking girl has disappeared, but before I can breathe a sigh of relief the collar of the back of my shirt is grabbed and I'm being dragged through the air. I glare at the piece of -mostly- weightless chicken that has floated off my plate. Stupid inertia. I use a small boost to toss it back to me and attempt to catch it on my spork, only for the girl to yank suddenly to place me down lower, which makes the chicken leg hit me in the face. I grab the offending chicken leg in a shell and -place- it on my tray, then use Filter to clean chicken juices off my face.

When I take stock, I've been turned around so now I'm 'sitting' at the end of the hero table. Eh, whatever. There's two people I don't know, I'd guess they're the two Wards I haven't met, but other than them there's Dean, Carlos, Panacea (can't remember her first name) and Victoria who seems to be animatedly introducing me to everyone. Shard takes a... well, not a seat, but a -place- at an empty spot at the table, from her expression I'm getting that she's thinking something along the lines of 'I'm a hero too!'. Dean looks between Shard and me a few times before saying something to Carlos. Then I get punched. The nice thing about flight is gravity doesn't try to hold you so direct impacts just push you along, the down side is inertia still exists so they still hurt, just not as much. I glare at the owner of the offending feminine fist as I'm floating backwards. It appears Victoria is tired of being ignored and has progressed to 'physical diplomacy'. Then the edge of my 'Shard Sense Bubble' detects Shard and it pulls me back. Victoria is talking again. Now she's making gestures showing that if I don't listen she's going to punch me again.

I sigh. "Fine." and I disperse the Sonic Shield and flinch slightly at the sudden increase in noise. Was the cafeteria -always- that loud? "Alright, mute is off. Say whatever was so important."

Dean interrupts pointing at Shard, "She's -real- isn't she?"

I blink for a moment, then look at him like he's an idiot. Then Shard gets in his face and starts 'chastising' him.

Victoria smiles at Shard's antics, so does Panacea. Victoria turns to me saying with absolute certainty, "You need to let us treat you to dinner."

I shrug, answering, "No thanks, I'm grounded for being late to dinner last night." then finish up my mashed potatoes. Dean and Carlos are looking at me like I grew a second head, Panacea is talking to Shard, and Victoria looks at me in disbelief.

Victoria speaks up, "But why? You were-" Dean coughs, loudly, reminding her... Ooooh, Victoria isn't supposed to know that huh? Yep, there it is, Carlos and the other two are giving him a -look-. So this happens often then.

I answer the first question, "I was late for dinner, thus I am grounded. Shard's not though, she said she's going to be on time for yesterday's dinner."

One of the two I don't know, he looks like the 'joker' type, waves Shard over, introduces himself as Dennis and gets one of Shards patented Fairy Face Hugs, then he whispers something to her, she then disappears underneath the table for a few moments, but shows up back at her 'seat' a few seconds later. The one not named Dennis just looks like he wants to talk to me but can't bring himself to say anything.

Victoria refuses to be dissuaded, "No, you saved my sister -twice-, you're letting us take you to dinner."

I shake my head, "No, if I let everyone I saved treat me to dinner I'd never have any free time."

Carlos and Dennis are trying not to laugh and Panacea looks uncomfortable.

Victoria tries again, batting her eyelashes a bit she changes her body language just enough to appear demure, "But... I thought you said I was your -favorite-?"

I deadpan, "I lied." causing Dennis to bark out a laugh and the facade Victoria held fell apart instantly and she seems to be thinking. She turns to Panacea and whispers and she shrugs but says something back.

Victoria gets an evil gleam in her eye and turns to Shard, "Shard, would you like to come out to dinner with us tomorrow?" and of course Shard doesn't even think about it. Instant excitable agreement... maybe I can stick Shard with mom for this?... no, mom would probably see right through my attempt to get out of social interaction, and with two girls at that... Though I'm pretty sure they're dating Carlos and Dean, I'm not sure my mom would care, if nothing else it's a chance to embarrass me.

I sigh and resign myself to it as Victoria appears victorious. Panacea still looks uncomfortable though.

Shortly after that the bell rang, and when I floated off to head to class I saw Carlos turn around to reveal a 'kick me' sign that's suddenly appeared on his back, much to Dennis' amusement. I just smirk and go about the rest of my day.

The rest of the day was pretty typical, no fun teachers. Though I did use my power rather blatantly and lots of people got fairy hugs because: Shard.

The last class though, I was called to the office. I assume they figured out I didn't have my phone anymore. I mentally cursed again, now my blackmail photos of Rune, Stormtiger and Miss Militia are gone... maybe I can excavate the base and find my phone?... yeah, I'll skip heroing tonight for the sake of my blackmail photos.

After class I avoid the crowds and come to the office only to be forwarded to the PRT offices. So I fly out of school and head that direction. I'm assuming I'm either getting to regale them with my wonderful story or they're going to take credit for our rescue of lots of people and my rescue of Panacea, if she said anything about it. I'm not sure she could avoid it though, Oni Lee -did- blow out the wall there. I smirk a little, sure he escaped, but I doubt Panacea healed all he wanted, and I'm -certain- he has a really nasty burn as a reminder not to mess with me.

When I get to the front desk of the PRT building I realize, apparently I no longer need an escort since I'm part of the Backup Buddies. I wave to the guy and sign in as 'Teal Man', let them sort it out, and I fly off down the hall to the meeting room I was told to go to.

None of my group are here, so I guess this is about me alone. I -do- see Agent Hutchison though, he doesn't look overly happy. When he sees me come in he closes a folder and puts down a recording device and turns it on saying, "Good afternoon Oblivium. You didn't give a report for Monday evening's activity and you've been out of contact since. We need a report of what happened, then we'll have a review. Understood?"

I sigh, figures. Guess I'll have to put off finding my phone for a bit. "Understood Agent Hutchison. Where would you like me to start?"

Hutchison says, "At the start of the operation."

So I explain in detail. No, not really, it went something along the lines of, "I shocked the crap out of Rune and Stormtiger, then watched Hookwolf brawl with Stalker, then things exploded so we tried to keep people from getting hit with buildings. That's when Oni Lee showed up and I set him on fire for bringing grenades into a hospital, then I ran from Glory Girl, then there was a ball of plasma, and tires and a poisonous bird. They brought me down, but Shard tried to steal their van. I woke up underground with a snake man, then somehow the place exploded and I dug myself out carrying a crazy person and a doctor along. While naked."

He blinks -very- slowly. That's when he notices Shard waving at him. He blinks again then hesitantly waves back. He turns his eyes back to me and says, "Who's Shard?"

I tilt my head, "My sister."

He looks like he might want to cry. "You don't -have- a sister."

I point at the offended Shard, "Of course I do. You even waved at her."

He rubs one temple like he has a headache, "Okay, I'm just going to go with it. Next, you didn't say anything about Bakuda."

I shrug, "Of course I didn't, I was told to avoid ABB territory so I did. She blew things up without any assistance from me."

He's glaring now, "Then -why- is her workshop a crater?"

I roll my eyes, "I have no idea, maybe she dropped a high powered unstable grenade?"

He's now rubbing his temples with both hands, when he stops he just stares at me and says, "You're on temporary leave pending an investigation. Bakuda was murdered after personally attacking your home, the three E88 captures escaped after you were seen saving them from a damaged PRT vehicle - though Miss Militia says she released them to assist with the injured so you should be safe there. You also went solo during your rescue attempts when the regulations say you need at least one other person with you, you fought with Oni Lee resulting in severe damage to a hospital during an emergency situation then disappeared for a day, after which you demolished a construction site resulting in the loss of life of the hired personnel." He sighs, "I'm not -accusing- you of these things, but these are the reports and there -has- to be an investigation. It's just the rules. Lastly, we need to give you a medical exam."

I shrug, "I understand, the investigation has to be done so I'm -officially- benched. But I feel fine, don't need an exam, so -no-. Also I had Shard with me the whole time, she's a member of the Backup Buddies." Shard nods, of course she is.

Hutchison shakes his head, "Not just officially, you aren't supposed to go out in costume until this is resolved. and you -have- to get the exam, it's part of the gig." I don't point out that he ignored the Shard comment.

My eyes brighten, I say excitedly "So wait, if I go out in costume and decide -not- to take the exam, do I get fired?"

He looks at me funny, "No, you get put on probation."

I deflate a little, "what if I ignore probation? Can I be fired then?"

He's still giving me that look. "You might be transferred. But if the investigation comes back damning and you continue to disobey orders you'll end up like Shadow Stalker, a choice between juvenile hall or being a Probationary Ward."

I nod fully understanding, "Got it, well then, see ya, I gotta find my phone and I don't want to be late for dinner." I walk over to the window and Filter a circle out of it... but as I start to, I feel some sensors all through the glass. Microscopic wires... I adjust the ones I was about to Filter out and just push them to the sides and touch them to others so they have links around the circle. Looks like a system that triggers when a wire is severed. Once I've successfully bypassed the security from the inside, I fly off to find my phone in the remains of the collapsed base of Snake man, leaving Hutchison cursing and shaking his head muttering something about a 'security upgrade'.

Shard is upset with me. I apparently should have brought my -own- recorder so I could look cool too.

Thinking over the 'meeting' I laugh to myself. That stuff only works when you -want- to work with the PRT. Now that they know I'm not the leader I can be troublesome and either tolerated or cut loose, both work for me. Hell, even if they set me up as a villain I won't care because it won't affect my home life, and who's going to take 'catching me' seriously? I answer myself, "Armsmaster would. Oh well, he's the only one."

When I reach the collapsed base it's partitioned off by crime scene tape. I try to use Infuse to scan for things but the base is too deep. I play with an idea for a bit and set up a sensor that will construct an image for me based on the soundwaves I pulse through it. Differing densities will throw off the reading, but I just need something vague. I carry the construct around and start pulsing a single wave through it in differing locations, letting it read the returning wave strength. It takes a bit and I have to ignore some fuzziness but I get a pretty good idea of where the hallways and rooms are.

Once I find a fairly clear location that looks like it'll hold up, I use Filter to dig down to a hallway in the base. Once I get most of the way there I realize I can't keep sending the dirt up and out, my control range just isn't large enough and I don't have the spell's movement of materials automated, so I work this the hard way. I filter out as much as I can carry, then fly out and deposit it, then go again until I get low on mana, wait to recharge, then continue.

It takes a good while, but eventually I reach the hallway I was aiming for that looked like it had a storage room close by. I use my little wave-pulse scanner and infusion to make sure where I want to Filter won't just cave the place in on me, and I ensure Filter doesn't disassemble anything that might be useful. In my search I come to something -incredibly- surprising. I detect someone -alive- down here via aura. I go ahead and construct my basic shields, Laser, Astral, Filter and Deflection. I can add the others if I have to. I make my way over to the aura in a straight line since I can just cut through the walls. Sadly I'd have to melt some of the material to make structural supports if I wanted to reinforce all this, and -that- is much harder than just separating the molecules.

A short time later, I've made my way into a pristine vault that houses a girl. Well, mostly a girl. From her hips down she's a nightmarish abomination. Eh, who am I to say that, she might be an alien and -I'm- the one that looks like a nightmarish abomination. Either way, not what I'm looking for. She's surprised to see me but I just sigh and walk back out the way I came scanning the walls for my equipment. Why did Snake need such a big base!?

Nightmare girl sounds scared, she yells, "Hey, wait!".

I roll my eyes and call out over my shoulder, "No! I'm on probation, I can't do any heroing or I'll get fired!" There, that's a good excuse. Ack! Shard grabbed my ear again. ugh. Alright, I walk back to the hole I made. "Sorry, Shard wants a hug, I'll be out of your hair once she's satisfied."

Shard proceeds to hug the terrified nightmarish girl, I see a pulse of energy when the girl yells, "No, don't!" and the girl's aura pushes through Shard, then pulls back, creating a bubble of aura... that corresponds with a bubble of flesh at her nightmarish lower half. It ejects a fleshy copy of Shard, like, fully. The tendrils that represent her wings are mimicked in flesh, and her fire-like hair is too. looks kinda creepy. It also looks very dead.

The girl is crying but Shard ignored the horrifying display and is back sitting on my shoulder. I whisper to her, "Astral Shield next time, alright?" Shard nods in agreement, apparently the infusion into her didn't feel good. Well, I needed to experiment anyway. I walk up and poke one of the tentacley portions of the girl, I had my Astral shield up but I needed to see how it'd hold. Interestingly the strength gradually increased trying to push its way through my shield. It had infused part of my hand was still getting stronger while my shield was draining my energy. Once it got to my wrist the girl seemed to realize I was touching her and she -yanked- herself backwards. The infusion that had been in my hand went with her, wrapped itself into a ball and popped out a hand that went *splat* when it hit the floor.

I shrug, "Neat party trick. See ya." and I walk back into my manufactured hallway while the nightmare girl was left staring at the hand, apparently dumbstruck.

After I had recovered mana and decided to continue my search, Nightmare Girl called into my tunnel, "Um... I'm Noelle... do-... Do you think you could make the tunnel a little bigger?"

I call back, "I'm Oblivium, but I'm not rescuing you, like I said, I might be fired if they think I'm out heroing. Still... I -could- make the tunnel a little bigger." Besides, now I have an easy place to put all this dirt. So I widen the tunnel on all sides -carefully- and filter the debris into the vault, allowing Noelle to follow me around. At one point she reaches over and hesitantly touches my arm and pulls away. Her aura didn't have a chance to even push at my Astral Shield. Oh, right, probably no human contact with that ability. Touching someone must be a novelty.

I roll my eyes to myself then say, "Noelle, do you want a hug? A real hug, not a fairy hug."

She stares at me for a moment then says, "But... I'm a monster..."

I shrug, "So that's a 'no' then?"

Her eyes widen and she shakes her head, "No!, no, I-... I want a hug?" Now that she thinks about it she seems a little confused.

I nod and float up even with her upper body, triple layer my Astral Shield and disable my Deflection and Laser Shield to help with the load, then give her a hug, probably the first one she's gotten since she triggered. Her aura is fighting -angrily- against my shields, but it'll take a while for it to break through to any meaningful degree. I just hold the girl as she squeezes me tightly and starts crying. I feel kinda bad since I'm not much of a 'comforting' type of guy. Shard is hugging her too, having made her own Astral Shield, but she has to let go sooner.

After a full minute I feel my reserves starting to get a bit low so I pat her back to let her know that's the end of the hug, I need to breathe. She gives a tight squeeze and lets me go to wipe her eyes. I give her a small smirk, Shard must be rubbing off on me. Then I wait a bit for mana to recover and start scanning again.

I make a couple more tunnels before Noelle asks, "Oblivium, What are you looking for?"

I keep scanning as I answer, "My stuff. The guy kidnapped me and stripped me naked, I blew a hole in his wall and I think he wanted to do everything possible to keep me from escaping, so he blew the place up... or maybe I hit some secret security measure... or maybe my parents did... Either way, my stuff should be around here -somewhere-. Mainly I want my phone, I've got some funny pictures on it."

She's staring at me in complete disbelief. "You came down here, risked your life and saved me... because you wanted funny pictures?"

I shake my head, "I've already told you, I'm not saving you, I just happened to want to make slightly larger tunnels during my search because... um... I'm claustrophobic. Yeah. I can breathe so much easier now, uh huh." I hear a 'Snrk', then go about my scanning and tunneling. I'm getting worried, all these tunnels are going to make this place -really- unstable.

A short time after that I -finally- manage to get what seems to be a warehouse that seems to house something that looks vaguely like my staff. A short breather and a couple of Filters later and I have my staff, my phone, my clothes and my pack. I throw the clothes and phone into the pack but I put the others on. "Ah, that's better."

Noelle tilts her head with Shard mimicking her. Shard has been giving her short hugs every minute or so and has seemed to make fast friends with Noelle. Noelle asks, "So, what are these photos that are apparently -not- life saving?" She's getting it now.

I produce my phone and notice I have seventy-four missed calls. Impressive, apparently I'm popular. I'm -also- glad that locker in the warehouse was so secure or the screen would have cracked. I pull up the picture of Miss Militia glaring at me while pinned by a foamed Hookwolf and show Noelle, "Things like that!"

She starts laughing, "You -seriously- stopped to take a picture when she was stuck?"

I nod, "When else would I get the opportunity? Now come on, I want to get out of here before the place comes down around our ears. Been in that once today already." And I walk over to the hole I made to get down here in the first place. There I stop to recharge to full mana and turn to Noelle, "I'm going to launch us up with one big burst, I'll need you to brace yourself as best you can, alright?"

She nods and centers herself in the hole. She weighs... quite a bit I'm sure, more than my regeneration can handle, meaning I'm -very- limited in how long I can keep her up. Once I'm ready I nod to her and she stiffens up. I make a fully charged construct under her with a fully charged flight spell on it to push as hard as I can in one burst, Then I set it all off and launch myself after the screaming nightmare girl. I have to do the supercharged flight spell on my construct one more time to get her out of the hole, but we land on the surface and I'm only -almost- drained. I also notice it's already dark, I was down there for a while...

Noelle is shaking a little, not sure if it's terror, happiness or what. Eh, she'll be fine, I wave, "Well, this is my stop. See ya Noelle."

She whips around and yells, "No! Wait! what- I - I can't touch anyone, I... I don't have anywhere to go..."

I shrug, "Who says you can't touch anyone? it just makes bits of them or whatever, that'd be great if someone needed a limb re-grown. Get in good with Panacea or something."

She shakes her head, "No, they... If I touch anyone normal, I make a copy of them, and they're always mean. Evil. They want to hurt everyone."

I narrow my eyes a little then nod, "And I don't think they have raincoats in your size." I sigh and consider my options here. This is too much trouble to deal with. I can pass her off to the PRT, maybe they could make her a suit or something that keeps her from touching things. I'm not willing to stick Shard with her for the foreseeable future and training her to use her core enough to block her power even for a few seconds would take forever. "Give me a minute." I sit mid air and think.

I could try that new 'reaching through someone's aura' thing and see if I can do anything with it... Noelle's body is filled with that alien aura, hers tastes like chaos and is a dark blood red. Her normal aura exists but only in a core in the middle of her body. Alright, I'm going to try it. If I can connect safely, maybe I can do something.

I get out of the 'thinking pose' and speak up, "Noelle, do you know how to meditate?" She nods. "Alright, then hold out your wrist." She looks confused but holds out her left wrist. I pull out a small bit of rope and unwind a bit of it to have a thin strand I twist up and heat to attach to itself, then I get the last three marbles I have in my pack and use Filter to put a tiny hole through them and grind them away a bit while using the bits I've taken and using heat to melt them down to make a smooth curved shape that should fit nicely over her wrist with a hole through the center. I run the string through the hole and tie the 'bracelet' around Noelle's wrist. She looks at me a little funny but I hold up a finger to have her wait. "Now, meditate. If you feel anything that isn't pure dark chaos, let it in." She nods.

I close my eyes and press my aura into hers, building up a network like I felt Monday night. The 'feel' has to be a gradient from my teal to Noelle's green. I have to hold out all 'chaos' using the astral shield while allowing 'Noelle' through. After a while of trial and error I manage to just -barely- touch her normal core. It's a tiny thing, it looks like it could break at any moment and it's being eroded by the chaos around it, that can't be good. Well, I won't be able to fix -that- right now, but I can fix the first problem... I think. I bind a battery orb to the solid part of the bracelet, with it being larger I can fit a decent sized battery into it. Before I bind it I create a leech tether with a condition so it will only eat mana as long as there is surplus and I hold the end against Noelle's core. I continue the enchantment by attaching a reversed skin-tight Astral Shield to the battery, centered on Noelle. Then I use Noelle's core to change the 'feel' of the whole enchantment to match her core's feel. I can mentally 'see' them gradually changing green. I hold the whole thing until they match her perfectly, then I remove the network and I feel the whole thing make a true -connection- to her core, but I feel my own mana reserves sinking quickly. Her secondary core was trying to eat through my Astral Shields that whole time.

She opens her eyes incredibly confused. She had been sunk into that state with me. I point to her wrist. "It'll start glowing as it fills up from your regeneration, which isn't much by the way, when your... ability tries to lash out that'll block it until it runs out. The longer you stay touching someone the stronger your ability pushes. It's a band-aid fix, but as long as you're careful you should be okay with people casually brushing against you."

Noelle smiles brightly, "Thank you!" and she gives me a quick, tight hug, then pulls away and stares at the marble structure on her wrist in awe.

I give an 'urk!' at the hug, but then I continue the explanation, "Don't take it off, if it leaves your skin the whole thing will break and I'll have to build it again." I sigh and mutter to myself, 'you weren't supposed to get involved in anything, what are you doing?' and pull out my notebook - another reason I wanted to go recover my stuff. I tear out a corner of a sheet that I wrote my phone number on and hand it to her. "If it breaks, or something changes, give me a call. I don't want a bunch of -Evil- nazis running around. The normal ones are bad enough."

She smiles and gives a nod, then starts looking around. I think she's deciding on where she should go. I just wave, "See you around Noelle." And I fly off home. Ugh... I'm -so- grounded.