The Protagonist System

199 Out On The Town Part Three

Sophia Hess sat on her bed in the PRT HQ and cursed her luck. For some reason, they had reopened the case with Veder to check the facts and her new boss Miss Militia had been tearing though her cape phone, her personal phone, and then all the records at school.

Emma Barnes and Madison Clements had also been picked up, so there was almost no hope what she had been doing to Taylor Hebert wasn't going to come to light. That was bad, because committing any crime was going to violate her parole and she could be chucked into juvie or real jail at any time. Madison was the weakest of them and she would break first.

Before Sophia could decide she was going to chance slipping through one of the walls to escape, said wall exploded inwards. She didn't panic as she rolled out of the way and went shadow to let the debris pass through her, then she reformed and braced for a fight... and mentally told herself to fuck off because there was an 8 foot tall naked amazon woman with green skin in front of her.

“HEBERT SMASH!” The thing said and a big green fist moved almost instantly to crush her.

Sophia went to shadow and let the fist pass through and reformed as soon as the thing moved their hand back. She jumped backwards herself and went shadow again, phased through her room's door, and activated the alarms she knew were there to keep her inside. The electric sting forced her to reform and she landed and turned and ran.

“RAARRRHHHH!” The thing said and smashed through the door and part of the wall.

Vista jumped off of the couch and stared at the thing as she stretched the distance between Sophia and the big green monster woman to 100 feet instead of 5. “What the hell's going on?”

“I don't know! That thing attacked me for no reason!” Sophia lied and ran for the exit door and hit the button. A buzzer rang and she cursed. It wouldn't open if there was a breach of the walls.

“HESS LIES! HURT HEBERT!” The green amazon woman yelled, seemed to kneel, then she was suddenly across the hundred feet instantly and Sophia went shadow as the monster tore through the vault-like door like it was tissue paper and disappeared from sight.

Vista hit the emergency alert, even though that technically wasn't necessary. There were three other alarms going already. “This is the ward, Vista. Requesting an all PRT cape response for a new A-class threat.”

That set off a much different response as the call was sent out to all PRT ENE employed capes in the Protectorate's local branch.

“MAKE PAY!” The amazon woman yelled as she ran back into the room and tore through another wall when Sophia dodged the attack.

“You're making her wreck the place!” Vista shouted and used her power again to stretch the distance to the threat by several hundred feet, then she pushed herself and soon reached her mental limit of a thousand feet. “I can't hold her back for long!”

“I'm not going to stand still and let that thing kill me, pipsqueak!” Sophia shouted back.

Miss Militia, Armsmaster, and Velocity entered the Ward's relaxation area and saw the wrecked place.

“Hurry up and kill it before it kills me!” Sophia said and changed to shadow to move behind the heroes and hopefully out of the creature's sight.

“Hess no hide! Smell you!” The amazon woman yelled from very far away. She tore out a huge section of wall and threw it at them.

“Everyone down!” Miss Militia ordered and nearly everyone dropped to the floor.

Vista ignored that and stretched the space upwards at the last second. The chunk of wall slammed into the ceiling and went up through it as if it wasn't there and kept going. “Oops.”

“At least you didn't send it downwards.” Miss Militia said and changed her gun to a wire mesh net-firing gun. “Reduce the distance to the target on my order.”

“She doesn't need to!” Sophia said and rolled out of the way as the amazon woman yelled and leapt, crossing the distance as if it wasn't there.

Miss Militia fired the net and caught the monster in mid-air and it yelled and tumbled head over heels as the electricity fired off. The bundle landed on the floor, just missing Sophia, and rolled through the final wall of the room and crashed against the refrigerator of the Ward's kitchenette.

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“Armsmaster! Full tranquilizers and tasers!” Miss Militia ordered and changed her own gun and fired at the green creature as it struggled to tear through the electrified net. It was razor sharp and the more she moved, the more it cut her, and her green blood poured out of her wounds. “Aim for the cuts if you can!”

They both fired off their rounds as the creature struggled, yelled, and screamed in frustration, then the drugs started working on her.

“Don't stop! Keep firing!” Miss Militia ordered and the two of them advanced on the downed form and pumped her as full of tranquilizers as they could before Armsmaster ran out of ammo.

The creature's movements started to slow down. “Hess hurt Hebert... make Herbert angry.”

To everyone's surprise, the large muscular form started to shrink as it calmed down. The green tint started to fade from her skin and her skin healed from the multiple cuts.

“Hebert only want... left alone... be... hero...” The figure said as she returned to her normal size.

“Fucking Hebert!” Sophia exclaimed and ran over to start kicking the unconscious girl.

Miss Militia didn't hesitate to shoot Sophia in the back several times and dropped her. “Armsmaster, check the structural integrity of the rooms and then building. If there's no way to brace it temporarily, order an evacuation of the night personnel. I'll call the director to report this.”

Armsmaster nodded and went to do his job. He regretted losing the top job and the prestige it gave him; but, he had a lot more time to tinker now. At least they hadn't slashed his tinker budget.

*

The man called Nilbog, the Goblin King, sat on his throne and all was good. He had his kingdom, all his favorite subjects to admire and adore him, and no one from outside bothered to try and interfere inside his city anymore.

A portal opened behind him and a ghostly figure floated through. If anyone had been able to see it, they would have screamed and run from it, because it was the visage of walking death known as Glaistig Uaine, the Fairy Queen. When she touched you, you died. If you had powers, she gained a shade of you and a copy of your powers.

Nilbog died a happy man and his power became the shade's. A moment later, every creation within the walled city of Ellisburg, fell apart into the various pieces of flesh used to create them. Another moment later, the failsafes were disabled and the viruses and plagues died, as did the mutated plants and the airborne germs.

Everything Nilbog had done, was undone, and Glaistig floated back through the portal.

*

Dinah Alcott stared at the pretty portal. “I've been waiting for you.” She said and took the hand that came through the portal and shook it. She caught her breath for a few seconds and then a bright smile spread across her face. “Thank you, Greg. Thank you so much.”

“No problem, Dinah. Try to not get into too much trouble, okay?” Greg asked her.

Dinah laughed, her voice high and happy. “You said that without laughing!”

“I've been practising.” Greg said and let her hand go. “See you.”

“Bye!” Dinah said and waved as the portal disappeared. She sat down on her bed and the smile on her face didn't diminish as she asked herself the odds of having a great day tomorrow. Her head didn't throb as she received the odds as 98.6%, despite that being the tenth question she asked herself that day.

When Dinah asked about if she could join New Wave when she was older, the 100% answer made her giggle, because her next question was about if she would have a handsome boyfriend. The 96% answer made her heart flutter and she hugged herself, because she couldn't wait to go to high school in two years to meet him.

*

A portal opened and a basic cell phone was dropped in the middle of Eagleton, Tennessee. A spider-like bot that used to look like a rock, unfolded and crawled over to it. The phone was probed several times, then scanned, then ten more bots disguised as other things swarmed over to the thing and quickly converted it into a fellow subservient AI.

(question) The new member sent.

(response) Those around it answered.

(what does “magic is the best EMP” mean) The cell phone asked, as that was the only thing in its stored memory.

The flee response was automatic and much too late. The shrinking charms ended and the magical explosion blew apart everything within a mile of the epicentre. The magical energy itself had immediately propagated in a sphere shape and expanded instantly, scrambling and shutting down everything within a five mile radius.

It was much more than the 3 miles necessary to cover the town, just in case a few of the AIs had managed to escape and were in hiding nearby. The PRT troopers on the walls were angry as they lost all of their monitoring and recording equipment. All of their electronic devices had crashed and wouldn't restart, not even after someone brought in a car battery that hadn't been in the blast radius.

By the time they sent someone out to call the main PRT base for help and evacuation, the fabled Machine Army was no more.

*

Mama Mathers, the leader of the Fallen and a master that could see out of anyone's eyes she saw, hear through any ears that heard her voice, and feel through anyone she touched, stared as a veritable horde of Fairy Queens roamed through her compound and touched everyone.

Her idiot of a son named Valefor had tried to command one of the ghosts and died immediately, then fifty of his ghosts appeared and they commanded everyone to gather together to be harvested.

Mama Mathers had been left for last, because everyone that had died, she had felt it, and now it was her turn.

“Don't worry, your power is going to be put to good use.” A male voice said just before she died.

All the ghostly figures faded away and left a single Glaistig Uaine that floated through the portal to go to the next destination. China and the Yangbang. Their cape slave ring only lasted a few minutes longer than the Fallen had, then the Gesellschaft had fallen, too. Now the Empire 88 Nazis no longer had a European faction backing them, not that they would hear about it before they were hit, too.

With a virtual army of ghostly capes and their powers to use, the crime syndicate named The Elite lasted barely a minute. The roaming enchanted forest was burned down and all the capes eradicated.

After that, it was all smaller and less important individual threats that needed to be visited and taken care of before they became a problem, like Blasto in Boston, Bakuda, March, and Ravager in New York, and a stop at the parahuman mental institute where they put capes that couldn't handle their powers, and they were fixed.

Lastly, a quick visit to Faultline's crew and giving Labyrinth's power a tune-up. That young woman had suffered being lost in her power for long enough.

*

“Ow.” I said and rubbed my head as I took a break and sat down to relax on the top of the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada. I had been hopping all over the world for most of the night, dealing with existential threats, and it was goddamn exhausting. The sheer amount of powers I had collected was ridiculous as well, with a lot of them folding into each other and enhancing what I already had.

The disappointing thing was that after every power modification or death, no matter how prolific the positive Karma gains were, they were immediately lost because of the previous uses of the powers. That was also why I was saving Heartbreaker for last, because of how his particular power worked. There was a method to my madness and I had to do things this way on purpose.

I had already taken care of the worst of his children, the murderers, the rapists, the mind-erasers, and the ones too broken to be reformed. All that was left was the man himself, the progenitor of mindrape and brainwashing himself. My final stop before that was to destroy the Dragonslayers and the kill switch they had for Dragon. The world needed her a lot more than they needed mind-addled idiots like Saint.

I took out a bottle of cold soda and opened it. My Danger Sense went off slightly, so I wasn't worried. I took a drink and waited for a minute, then I saw a 7 foot tall blue woman wearing small crystal shards covering her bits as she flew up from the ground. She had a large crystal horn on her forehead and I knew who she was. I took out another bottle and held it out to her as she floated up to be level with me.

“Good morning, Narwhal.” I said and popped the top off the bottle for her. “I'd offer you a beer if I wasn't underage and you weren't on duty.”

Narwhal gave me an odd look, barked a laugh, and accepted the bottle of soda. “What are you doing here, Atlas? This is pretty far from Brockton Bay and New Wave.”

I took a drink and relished the cool feeling as it went down my throat. “I'm not sure if I can tell you the truth without compromising my mission.”

Narwhal took a drink and floated over to land beside me and sat down to hang her very long legs over the side of the railing like I was. “Can you tell me why?”

“Only if you ensure that the most valuable tinker in the world isn't listening in right now. If she is, or can hear at a distance, or has a camera on me to read my lips, then I can't say anything... for about half an hour. After that? I'll tell the both of you what I know.” I said and took another drink.

“Why that long?” Narwhal asked and took another drink herself.

“Same answer.” I said and she gave me a pointed look. “Really, Narwhal. If I mention even one thing, my mission will be ruined before I can do anything about it. I'm not trying to be cryptic on purpose, I genuinely fear for the consequences.”

Narwhal sighed and kicked her legs out and back, like a child on a swing. “If you weren't so handsome, I might try to pressure you.”

I glanced down at her legs and back to her face. “With your thighs?”

Narwhal laughed. “I doubt you can handle these babies.” She said and slapped one of her thick thighs.

“I let Glory Girl punch me in the face as hard as she could and all I did was turn my head.” I said and took another drink. I did not elaborate or say she also wrapped her super strong legs around my waist and ground herself against me without restraint.

Narwhal caught her breath and stared at me, apparently guessing what I didn't say.

“I stopped here for the view and to take a break. The next half hour isn't going to be fun.” I said and finished off my soda, stuck a small piece of paper to it, and flicked it out into the air.

“Hey, no littering!” Narwhal exclaimed and darted out and down to catch it, just like I knew she would. When she looked back to where I had been, I was gone.

*

“He's a slippery one.” Narwhal said as she floated there. “Did you see him fly away, Dragon?”

“No, he just disappeared. I've replayed the footage and he was there in one frame, was a twisting mass in the next one, then he was gone in the third one.” Dragon said over her hidden earpiece.

“Teleportation?” Narwhal asked and turned the bottle over. The piece of paper he stuck to it had a note that said Atlas would meet her at her office in 25 minutes.

“None that I've ever heard of or seen records of before.” Dragon said.

“Well, he is a fresh trigger.” Narwhal said.

“It wasn't on his registration form.” Dragon said.

“Do you think he left it off on purpose?” Narwhal asked.

“Yes, and unfortunately I have to report it, because he committed criminal trespass with it.” Dragon said, her voice sad.

Narwhal sighed at how much of a stickler Dragon was about little things like that. “Can you fudge the details a little? We could keep it to ourselves and use it as a hidden asset when necessary.”

Dragon sighed. “I have to ask if that's an order or are you only implying it?”

Narwhal sighed again. “In my authority as the heads of the local PRT branch and The Guild, I order you to fill out the report as vaguely as possible and file it with my branch, in the PRT Head only section, and do not file it with anyone else.”

“Done.” Dragon said, happily.

Narwhal shook her head at her quirky friend. “I should head back to the office to wait for him.”

“I'd like to be there as well, except I'd rather monitor any cape activity I can find and figure out why Atlas didn't want me to know what it was.” Dragon said.

“Don't hurt yourself by overthinking that too much.” Narwhal said with a chuckle. “I'll leave this line open for you to listen in.”

“Thank you.” Dragon said and didn't say her friend's words had just helped lift her burdens considerably. “Have a nice flight back.”

“I always do.” Narwhal said and did a swan dive off of the top of the tower and waved to the people in the spinning restaurant before she flew off towards the Guild HQ. If the briefing Atlas promised was anywhere near as interesting as meeting him was, she was going to enjoy that, too.