Chapter Text
My mind flicked to my Pumps and I blew some charge, with a flash of speed and agility I leapt out of the way of the incoming spear-thrust. Unfortunately for me, the other ghost behind me stabbed my arm which really fucking hurt. I'd already had to blow some charge on my Pumps to avoid the first Nazi ghost barrage (what a fucking sentence, I hate Brockton) and it hadn't even saved me from the Nazi ghost reserve strike!
Ignoring that, there was a spear-wielding ghost trying to chop off my arm and another one trying to just stab me through my torso, as boring as that is. Sorry, *Nazi* spear-wielding ghost. Fucking Empire, Fucking Brockton, Fucking dad choosing to live here. I tipped my hat and burned some charge creating a blast of colorful smoke around me as I cartwheeled away from the shit-head's ghosts.
In another puff of smoke behind a nearby car, I emerged. I swung at the bastard with slugger, his ribs making an interesting (grotesque) noise as I hit.
You know, I might as well go all in.
I swung again and burned some more charge, my core burning slower and slower. As the bat hit I got to see a truly beautiful sight; The Nazi launched into the sky, a perfect home run.
"So, how were your Nazis tonight? Mine were all stabby-ghosty." The alley was filled with skinheads of various descriptions lying unconscious on the pavement.
Her skirt swished and her visor flashed as she turned towards me. "More low-level recruits subdued with minimal effort. The gang members seemed to underestimate me."
Despite the fact that she came up to base of my tits she scared the hell out of me. I scanned the downed and the area surrounding them for items. "V, you know that every sensible gangster in the city is terrified of you, right?"
She was definitely frowning now, it was tricky to tell before behind her professional mask but now she was definitely unhappy or something. I was interested in why that would be but something was buzzing on the edge of my senses and I wanted to find it. "I'm not sure that that's correct. Most gang members don't seem to think much of me."
I snapped back towards her, "They just don't get it V, they can't rub their cells together and understand that the space-warper is an incredible threat that can literally change the entire battlefield." That seemed to mollify her a bit, but I dunno how happy I could make her with just words.
She stared as I crouched down to rummage in the leaves and trash at the edge of the curb, the lights above flickering. She sighed some tension away, "I guess, as much as it's handy that they don't look at me as a big threat it's annoying. Nobody but you and Big V seem to get that I'm one of the most powerful parahumans in the city." She looked kinda sheepish, though it was kind of hard to tell behind that visor.
Nothing important that I could find in the gutter. "I dunno," I said, standing up and moving towards Mr. Glowy-Pockets, "it sucks to be underestimated but hey, you knocked 'em out no problem!" I flashed a grin at her, "Soon they'll be too scared of you to get anything done."
I rummaged through the pockets of Captain Concussed the Neo-Nazi. I swear my power was resonating with something in here, and it felt big. Something crinkly and fragile mashed under my hand as I palmed his jacket's breast pocket.
"Find something?" My neck snapped towards her. I had sighted my bounty, it felt powerful in a new way but I couldn't let her know about that if I wanted to move forward.
"No, at least nothing I think is worth taking." The words felt harsh in my mouth, the smell of the detritus in the curb and the gutter hitting me now that my search was done and making me feel sick.
She nodded, the light reflecting off her visor and the stress lines on her features making her look 24 instead of 12. "Understood, hopefully you'll find another one soon."
I felt bad about lying to her, but there's no way I was going to give up on this opportunity. "Yeah, god knows somebody has to do something about these fucks." Crusader moaned and then hissed as he came to, presumably because of the ribs tickling his lungs. I gestured with my open hand towards the Nazi, "These guys think people should just roll over and die because they're 'subhuman' for no reason."
She nodded again, "Absolutely. Did you call this in to Console? I didn't have the time due to the number of combatants I was facing."
I blanched, thankfully she couldn't see that because of my mask but, y'know, it was still there. "I did not, I was fully engaged in combat with the enemy ma'am." I flashed a grin, hoping it would land well with her.
She nodded slowly, "Well, we best call it in now. At the very least," she flashed a grin back at me, "daddy dearest is probably worrying."
Her grin widened until it was truly threatening. Ah, it didn't land well.
The lights of the police cars flashed and the sky flashed as they and Dauntless arrived at the scene. His stupid fucking armor glinted pale and golden in the streetlamps as he touched down on the dirty asphalt, trash fluttering away. He turned towards me immediately, helmet crest glinting, "Gimmick, how did your fight go?"
I could hear the little creak in his voice, the concern I knew he felt but it just pissed me off more. I was glad my mask covered my face.
"It went fine, sir."
He tensed, lance going up in a blur of light, and I tensed in response.
"Vista and the console's report included you using unnecessary force, that's not a good look for the Protectorate." He crossed his arms and his nose seemed to crinkle under his helmet's nose-guard, though it was hard to tell, I was mostly working off of how I knew his face moved. No matter how I added it up he seemed somewhere between disappointed and pissed. Either way, what little concern he had was completely gone.
"Sir," I swallowed my rage and fell back into dad's 'professional posture' ROTC bullshit, arms crossed behind my back, "while my force may have been excessive in a standard case Crusader had just attempted to either kill or maim me. While he was presumably relying on the local hero community's association with Panacea to make sure I didn't die I was still in mortal peril and judged my actions reasonable. I had planned to stop after one strike but was still faced with aggression from the enemy parahuman's projections and thus moved in for a second and final strike. I did not expect to do so much harm to him however I did know that Rune and Othala were in the area to support him."
He stared me down for what felt like minutes, hard to read behind his helmet but tighter than could be good for me.
"Alright," he finally said, "don't make those gambles in the future. Even if Rune and Othala were in the area, such force could have killed or maimed Crusader." He still looked pissed, those weird tendons in his neck standing out a bit.
I swallowed my anger and nodded, "Yes sir. Understood sir."
Dauntless looked down at me, "Do better. I know you can."
My anger felt like the first bit of acid in your throat before you vomit. It felt like poison could rip off my tongue. I hoped it would hurt him.
"Yes sir, I will."
School was lame as hell, I could usually keep up but it was so fucking boring. You go in, you half-listen to the teacher while playing some stupid game on your phone under the desk, you eat lunch and talk with people, you do more of the first, you go home. At least talking to people was fun, it was always hilarious to watch Chris try and keep his cool when people talked about the Wards. Dennis usually did and alright job but he liked to crack jokes that made him sound either like a Ward or an absolute loser who paid attention to every little thing we did, he usually managed to pull off the second but holy shit was he going to fuck up some day. Carlos was reasonable, but he's the most milquetoast man in existence so who cares. Victoria and Dean were so obvious that I'm genuinely shocked that that they haven't been found out yet, thankfully the allure of the potential throuple or love triangle helped along by the PR department really kept that one under wraps. Speaking of the guy, he wouldn't stop staring at me, bad opsec from somebody who was theoretically a professional.
"So, how are we all feeling today?" His beaming face panning around the group but definitely holding on me.
"Well," Chris began grinning madly, "I finally figured out a way to think about integrals that works for me. Hopefully that'll help me get my calculus grade out of the gutter."
"Rad!"
"Nice."
"Sweet!"
"Good job man!"
"Mm."
The chorus of voices from around the table chimed in, my own "Cool", was lost in the shuffle. It and Amy's lackluster "Mm", being the standouts. It was cool for the dude that he figured out a new way to do math or whatever but as petty as it was I couldn't help but feel that he didn't understand how trivial it was for him in the long term. Any Ward who managed to toe the line for the length of their conscription was set for an, if not cushy, decent job with the Protectorate once they finished. Even if he stayed at his level of passable tinkering and mediocre patrolling and didn't do jack shit to get better he'd manage to coast. Tinkers and Trumps had it easy as far as career progression inside the Protectorate went, scalable powers that grew with time were impossible for them to turn down as assets. Either way, he and I were bound to them for the foreseeable future so long as the course continued.
"And what about you, Addison?" Dean turned his beatific smile on me, evidently expecting me to know what he and the others had been talking about.
I flashed a grin at him, "I'm sorry man, I totally zoned out there. What were you talking about?"
I just know he was creeping on me with his fucking emotion sight bullshit. It's not like he can turn it off but I know for a goddam fact based on how much time he spends around Amy that he can ignore it.
"Oh," he simpered, "we were just talking about how our weekends went."
I cocked my head like I was actually thinking about it, "It was fine, I guess. Nothing too interesting, read some, watched some TV, the usual."
He had the audacity to look at me, disappointed, "Well that sounds nice, you should come out with us some time on the weekend if you're not up to much! I don't know how much you caught but we saw that new movie and went to Dante's for pizza after."
"Yeah man, sure. Shoot me a text next time you're gearing up and I might head out with you."
He smiled, "Glad to hear it, right guys?"
The table mumbled their approvals and invitations, making me feel oh so welcome to take up their time and have them take up mine.
It was finally time, after months of bullshit, to set off on my own. I had my shitty first-timer costume, the Pack a Day, the One Way Ride, and the Candle of Ides in my pockets. I was finally ready to go out on my own and make a new name for myself away from Gimmick and Dauntless. Finally I could shine as myself.