Chapitre 147: D&D
An image of a great fiery explosion greeted her on one page, and on the other was written 'The principal fundamentals of Evocation.'
Another page over and there was a skull and other macabre images, alongside which was 'Moral necromancy in the armed peasant era.'
And from there, there were other pages, pages with strange names, brief introductions and then incantations. All organised into 'schools' of magic, and despite how preposterous it all was...
Magic Missile
A spell favoured by both the journeyman and the master alike, the humble Magic Missile is the apprentice Evocation Wizard's first introduction to the potential applications of many fundamentals of the school. Creating a number of bolts of pure force energy, one should never underestimate the value of these unerringly accurate missiles, which have a wide range of applications beyond merely self-defence---
As just a first example.
And the problem was... a certain sensation in Taylor's gut told her that if she read the metaphorical magic words, quite decidedly non-metaphorical Magic Missiles would fly from her hand. She turned the page, now that she had read the page the knowledge of the 'spell' was in her head, ready to go. Stuck there.
It was indeed a simple incantation, barely difficult at all.
But there were other things that were a lot more complex.
Flipping forward dozens upon dozens of pages, she randomly landed at another spell, one from the 'Conjuration School'
Storm Step
A spell of value to any journeyman Wizard in a sticky situation, Storm Step transforms the caster into elemental lightning capable of directed locomotion to areas within eyesight. It goes without saying that this creation of Professor Henryk Jaengel is a valuable creation for any Wizard caught where he doesn't want to be, or in need to cross a perilous gap. Especially if said wizard wants to give anybody in the way quite the shock!
Why was her author-self making puns?
Aaaand that was another ability locked in her head... either of these two 'spells' were probably a Parahuman power in itself, but she had access to potentially dozens of them, and all she needed to do was consult this book and bam, they would all be prepared in her head.
For a day?
Yes, a day, again she had no idea quite how she knew for sure that it would last that long, only that she did, in much the same way she knew that an apple would fall to the ground if she dropped it, or the sun would rise tomorrow.
It was just how things worked.
But still.
She needed something she could test, an ability that she could use... something to prove that this was not all the result of some hideous mental breakdown that had been afflicting her for the last few weeks. Sure, just because a probably delusional part of her brain was telling her that just by saying these magic words the effect would happen didn't mean it really would, did it?
She flipped through more pages. Fireballs, creating her own miniature Planes of existence, raising the fucking dead and fusing them into a larger form of undead---what the actual fuck!
She just wanted something god-damn simple!
Oh, wait... okay, this might be something, Animate Tools. A 'cantrip,' supposedly the most simple of these abilities possible, so casually easy that it was almost insulting to make use of at her level of ability.
... Where was this confidence coming from?
Either way, the important thing was that she had direction, and the ability to test things out now. She just needed to actually get around to doing so.
With the words memorised in her head, Taylor made her way downstairs.
Her father was out, she had the time she needed to take out a dust pan and brush from under the sink and after setting them down, and feeling very silly indeed, she pointed a finger at them. Like a dweeb, she spoke the magic words, fully expecting nothing to happen but somewhere, deep down, hoping against hope---
Taylor "eep'd" loudly, hopping back as the brush leapt from the pan, shaking itself off almost like a small dog coming out of the rain. The pan began hopping along the floor as the brush set to work, dragging itself around as if guided by some manner of invisible hand. With narrowed eyes, Taylor watched as the pair of implements industriously set to work, going section by section of the room, sweeping up the dust bunnies and other bits of detritus that had amassed.
It made her think of that one Disney film where Mickey was the Wizard's apprentice and made all the mops and brooms set to work cleaning things up, only this was actually real.
She had to rub her eyes to prove to herself that she was indeed seeing what she was seeing.
She had a power---
No, she had magic.
Oh god, she had magic that could do things like raise the dead, cross dimensions and blow up city blocks!
"Okay, okay, think logically..." and now she was talking to herself, like a crazy person. A crazy person with magic spells at her fingertips.
She needed to work out a game plan, she needed to decide what the hell she was going to do with herself. She had a spell book and knew how to use it, the first thing she really needed to do was understand exactly what the full capabilities of those spells were, right? Knowing was half the battle! And from there she would work out the course of action, she would be proactive, maybe there would be things in there that could help her everyday life, maybe she could be a hero.
The fact that the first spell she found when she went upstairs was 'Fleshworm Infestation' did not inspire confidence.
A few days later...
She had done it.
It had taken another week, but Taylor had managed to read through the entire of her spell book. Committing her evenings to making her way through the vast, esoteric, and at times horrifying selection of spells and powers at her command had been a rather nerve wracking experience. She had half expected, on a few occasions, for somebody to bust down her door and arrest her for learning how to instantly flay a person alive, or implant an unavoidable Geas that a person had to fulfil or suffer the consequences.
But nothing had happened, and she knew what she was working with.
On the plus side, she had plenty of options.
The downside was that she had too many options.
A lot of them were kind of stupid, or so ridiculously situational that she could never really imagine using them. From her own innate understanding, she only had so many spells that she could memorise for the day, the more difficult they were or the more dramatic their power, the more limited they were. The book had even listed them by such 'levels' within each school as it were, the higher levels the more powerful, but fewer, she could cast.
Also, some of the spells needed specific components, components that were so ridiculously specific that she had no idea how to even go about getting hold of them, but at the same time, she could eschew a lot of them if they were not too expensive...
But still, where the hell did you get a reliquary from! She wasn't about to try to raid the Vatican!
Reaching up, Taylor massaged the bridge of her nose, trying to soothe her her aching eyes, made weary and tired from her extensive researching into her new abilities.
Okay... okay, she needed to make a list or something and narrow down what would be universally useful to her in her day-to-day life.
~~~~~
Magic made school a lot easier.
Stuff being stolen from her bag?
Arcane Pocket allowed her to create a miniature extradimensional space inside her, well, pocket, into which went a lot of her school supplies and homework. Her various bullies could do whatever they wanted to her bag because it no longer had much of importance inside it. She barely needed to go near her locker either to retrieve her things now, which historically had been a moment of vulnerability that people could make use of.
Of course, they could still mess with her work and homework as she did it or handed it in, but there were ways around that. Making sure to deliver it right into the teachers' hand went some small way to helping.
It was harder to be scared of a trio of teenaged girls when one could rip out their hearts from across the room.
Taylor didn't, of course.
Not because that would be evil, and she was a good person whilst they were not, more that it would take effort. What need did she have to mess with something that couldn't possibly defend itself against her? Something that held no real threat also held no power over her.
Class came to its end.
Stepping out of the classroom, she could hear, faintly, footsteps following.
What would it be, the Sophia arm grab? The heckle and call?
She glanced over her shoulder.
Oh my, it was all three of them plus hangers on, well, wasn't that exceptional. Not as special as her, her magic made her superior to them and their petty efforts at harassment.
She didn't even need grand spells for this, mere cantrips would do.
Ghost Sound.
"Barnes and Hess!" came a commanding shout from down the hall in a masculine voice, startling the girls behind her. it made them pause in place to check for the speaker. Being break, the corridor was utterly full of people, and so it was difficult to tell exactly who it was that could have called out to them, but it was all that Taylor needed.
She was good at slipping away and avoiding people before she gained her magics.
But now...
Quickened Oath of Anonymity.
In the second or two that the girls were distracted by the shout, Taylor slipped away, putting the hood of her jumper up and burying the lower part of her face into the zip. So long as she didn't let anything too identifiable about her appearance show, nobody would be able to work out who she was.
Well, they might be able to, but it would be very difficult to see through her magical disguise.
In this way, Taylor slipped away, unnoticed by the students going about their journey from classroom to wherever it was they were headed. It didn't matter too much to her where they ended up, only that she was fine.
Her efforts to remain under the radar were so extreme that she had taken to casting Mind Blank daily, a spell to protect her from being espied or sensed from afar with Parahuman powers, just on the off chance that somebody could look into her. No Thinker would happen to notice a random string of coincidences and perfectly intuit who she was, no precognitive Capes looking into the future and seeing the consequences of her future plans.
Seeing as her Oath of Anonymity would last for two hundred minutes, she had plenty of time to find a place to sit and eat her lunch in peace.
And so she did.
~~~~~
It wasn't just spells.
There was other knowledge.
She hadn't realised it at the time, but she knew how to make other things.
Wondrous Items filled with magical power and things like potions and staves.
Were it not for the fact that her various spells worked, she might have had reason to doubt their veracity. But she was already using her magic on a daily basis to avoid her bullies and make her life easier. The house had never been so spin and span now that she had a veritable army of sentient tools taking care of chores like that! She had spontaneously created food via Heroes Feast for her father after long days at work that had utterly revitalised him. Hell, she had used telekinesis to utterly ruin Emma's day by tripping her up and making her land in a puddle...
It was unrivalled.
She had such potential, she could make such an impact.
But not yet.
She needed more things before that, she needed to fully outfit herself, which brought her back to the problem in hand. Those wondrous items and staves needed components and money, a lot of it.
Taylor needed thousands, even tens of thousands of dollars worth of precious metal to create the things that would allow her to reach her full potential, and much as she didn't wish to admit it, she wanted to do that. Now that the potential of this new world had been cast open to her, now that she realised all the things she could do, it was painful to look back at what she had been. The slave who has tasted freedom will fight all the harder for it, the poor man who is now rich will struggle ever more zealously to keep it for themselves.
Meek and weak.
Bullied and put upon by people who she could reduce to atoms or shrink down to no more than a bug and squash with ease. Imagine if she cast Baleful Polymorph on Sophia to transform her into a little mouse! Imagine a curse that made everyone see Emma as the ugly, horrible person she was on the inside!
Ah, so this is what they meant when they said that absolute power corrupted absolutely...
She wasn't so divorced from it all to not recognise such.
Taylor was on a risky road right now, similar to how drugs were a pathway to dangerous things, so was her power. Her magic wanted to be used, and she wanted to do so.
But with time.
She needed to create things once more.
Right now, money and the esoteric components she needed for spells were her limitation. Magic could sort the former, and money could fix the latter.
In her all consuming drive to acquire what she needed, in her need to become a figure of power and heroism, she could commit a few evil deeds. Was it evil to take gold from people who just kept it in a big basement, who had it written down on sheets of paper as something possessed, but not necessary? What use does gold even have, beyond as jewellery and superconductors? Certainly, large national banks have no need for vast reserves of gold, it's just something kept around for them to brag about, right?
Neither did the US government, really.
Oh sure people could talk about gold being a backing for the dollar, but the gross domestic product of a nation can fluctuate so easily and there is no mystical pot of ever shrinking and increasing gold around that matches it! No, it was all a big scam really, and all that gold was going to waste, why not put it to better use!
Fortunately, her spell book had an entire section dedicated to Divination magic.
She didn't have the money or components for grander spells that would give her lots of information... but she didn't need it.
The spell Locate Object only required a forked twig taken from a tree, lasted for twenty minutes and allowed her to 'scan' for the nearest item of a particular sort she could envision, and with her level of power its full range was about one-thousand two hundred feet. She cast the spell before she got on the bus to school, and throughout the journey she kept constant track of the largest source of gold bars in the city.
Unsurprisingly in a city like Brockton Bay, there were hardly a huge number of them available. Most notably, there were a number in a private residence near Medhall, the next largest collection was in Brockton Bay's Central Bank.
But that didn't matter.
With an almost comically sized burlap sack stowed away in her rucksack, Taylor sneaked out to go and commit a heist.
In truth... it was surprisingly easy.
The bank had the greater supply, but any gold was the goal and a private residence was probably a lot less well protected... was her thinking. She didn't expect the place to be a god-damn gated community, but swallowing her nerves, Taylor prepared for what was to come.
She had magic, she could do this.
She cast her first spell, Invisibility, which would last for twenty minutes.
She gave a brief, perhaps self-conscious glance down to make sure that she was, indeed, invisible even to her own eye, and having done so, she advanced on the front gates.
Knock as a spell took care of any locked doors, and had no real cost beyond a few seconds of time, and she advanced rapidly in the direction she needed, upstairs and through more doors, all the way to the top of the building. She had more gum arabic ready if it was needed, but fortunately the journey up to the room in question only took a minute or two.
She glanced at the name plaque on the door;
Max Anders
Huh... she was robbing the head of Medhall? What kind of need did he have for solid gold bars? Well, different folks different strokes, she guessed. She had no need to meditate on the matter further as she unlocked the door once again with Knock and stepped in. Being night, she could only presume the man in question was in the apartment; indeed, she could hear snoring from a distant room, and quiet as a mouse she closed the door behind her and began sneaking further in.
The gold was stashed in a gap behind a wardrobe near a closet with a safe. Smart, any robbery would focus on the safe first rather than looking behind the furniture, but of course, Taylor was wiser than that.
Removing her bag, she took out the burlap sack and cast Bull's Strength on herself.
It was a simple spell, making her so much stronger and making it all the easier to lift the heavy gold bars from where they were hidden. Carefully placed in the sack, she lifted the first, which had to weight a good twelve kilos, and put it into the sack. Where the hell did Anders even get these, they looked like proper bars from Fort Knox or something!
The second and third bar joined their brother in the sack, and that was all the man had. It was by no means a small amount of money, but her little goodie back of precious metal now weighed about eighty pounds, more than her actual body weight! It was a good thing she had planned for this.
Ant Haul, a simple spell that tripled how much a person could carry, and combined with Bull's Strength... well, she was hardly going to win any world records, but she could carry her ill-gotten gains that much was for sure!
Yeeeep, fucking heavy.
She managed to just about get out of the apartment complex before her spell faded, and swiftly cast it twice more as she scarpered all the way back home.
Taylor would need a lot more money, but this was enough to begin her work to get more.
The three bars were worth just under two-hundred thousand dollars, and there was a lot that she could do with that.
~~~~~
Taylor had a lot of money now.
And numerous ways to spend it... but it would take time if she transformed her bedroom or basement into a magical workshop and laboratory, and worse, it could be discovered.
She loved her father to death, but if he were to find out, what would happen? Would he blab about it to others, perhaps bring down the PRT on her head? She had no need for such an organisation, they would simply attempt to fetter her ambitions and hold her back from her true potential.
No, she needed a solution, and fortunately, she had one.
Create Greater Demiplane.
it was a miniature world of her own creation, small and beautiful.
A simple, grassy green field set within an expanse of space and stars that never moved or altered, overflowing with life and bounty, and in its centre, a mansion worthy of somebody of her abilities. With time, she would stock it with all the things she needed, just for now making the miniature pocket dimension permanent with Permanency ate heavily into her gold stockpile... but it was worth it.
Even as she walked through the verdant meadow surrounding the mansion, she smiled at her creation.
The most important quality of the place was not the home or the inclusion of gravity, rather, it was the alteration of time within it, namely, that it was timeless. Within it's bounds time did not pass properly, she would not need to eat, drink or sleep. Ageing and disease held no power over her in this place.
She was eternal here.
The only problem with such a quality was that you were protected from those things only so long as you were in the plane, the moment you stepped out of it, it all caught up with you.
You could spend ten years or more inside the pocket dimension without eating, sleeping or ageing, but the moment you stepped out it all caught up with you. It was a cruel trade off that many a lesser mind would fail to appreciate, catching them out the moment they stepped out.
But Taylor was no apprentice or journeyman, she was a master, with the knowledge contained in her book and innate to her now that she had embraced it, there were plenty of ways around such things.
With an incantation, she cast another spell.
Time Stop.
It was the very grandest tier of magic, and stood just under Wish as her most powerful spell.
In a timeless plane like this, a spell like Time Stop lasted as she willed it; if time could not advance within the timeless plane, then no matter how long she spent here, it would be no more than minutes in terms of consequence.
It was a flagrant bending of the laws of the world to such a degree that it was bordering on abuse, but wasn't that the nature of magic and powers in the first place anyway? More to the point, she did not really care,
What were the laws of the world to somebody who controlled them as she did?
In the frozen time of a timeless place, Taylor began set to work, creating objects from nothing, tools and workstations, conjuring food and water, furniture and all the decadence she could imagine. The impermanent nature of conjured things was permanent here, the limits imposed on a lot of her magic were reduced to the point of insignificance. Even the normal limitations of her spell casting, like the limited amount she could use a day, were gone.
She could sleep in frozen time to regain her magic, and then get back to work.
And she had so much work to do.
Once everything was in place, she put her craftsmanship to good use and began to create.
A Headband that enhanced her already vast intelligence.
A Cloak of Resistance that granted her superhuman resilience to other magical or Parahuman effects.
Gloves that would let her catch and throw back any ranged physical object fired at her.
So much to create, she had to be tactical with her use of gold, even with just under two hundred thousand dollars worth she would not be able to create everything she wanted... but she could create more than enough for a second shopping trip.
That was one trip into her permanent pocket dimension, but it was hardly the last.
Taylor had a lot of books to catch up on, a lot of reading (at four times normal speed with the benefit of the Skim spell) in particular. Petty annoyances like homework were less of an imposition when one had forever to do it, and combined with some of her new items that pushed her intellect and other abilities far beyond conventional human limits.
Now, would she go to Harvard or Oxford?
Did she even need to consider?
It was hardly as if her future was now dictated through the performing of mundane work, when she could infinitely generate food and drink from her own willpower, when she could live forever and commanded such power at her fingertips...
When Taylor had spent a comfortably long period of time within her Demiplane (long enough to read her way through a small library of material, relax and be a bit of a slob) she finally got around to putting herself to better use.
That was to say, making Brockton Bay a better place for most people living in it.
She had given it a lot of thought. Literal months worth, if one wanted to be specific. Enough time to make her costume and do her research, magic accelerating her own thoughts and putting together pieces, and now she could afford to begin enacting change. Now, whilst there were plenty of ways to go about doing so, from the macroeconomic to the dealing with specific problems, she rather felt like stretching her metaphorical legs.
Creating a pocket dimension in which she was effectively an immortal and omnipotent being was all well and good, but it didn't really solve a lot of her other problems in life, which was to say, problems that existed beyond her Demiplane.
And there was a lot of stuff in the Material Plane that she rather cared about. Like her house and her dad. She would move the latter into the Demiplane, but he would probably struggle to entertain himself without the Dockworkers Association to take care of.
Plus, she needed more money, she had used almost all of the gold she had stolen from Max Anders, and she was rather considering making some manner of Scrooge McDuck style pit of gold coins.
Not to dive into, that would be stupid and probably break plenty of bones.
Just to appreciate, really, not like gold had many other purposes.
And thus, having spent a good two years in her Demiplane, Taylor stepped out and normal time resumed---
Man, she really needed to decorate her bedroom more, it was so plain compared to her mansion.
She'd get on it later.
For now, she had work to do.
~~~~~
Actually finding nefarious villains and dastardly neer-do wells was another problem entirely.
Brockton Bay may be a hive of scum and villainy (well, it didn't have an official HSOV status like Gary, Indiana or several other cities) but that hardly meant that epic clashes between rival gangs happened on a daily basis, it was simply every few days instead.
As a result, she had time to twiddle her thumbs before her big debut, time that was spent productively robbing the Brockton Bay Central Bank of its supply of gold bars and finishing off her costume. The robes took her weeks of work, she was very proud of the design, and the solid gold mask that allowed her to permanently see anybody who was invisible or hiding through supernatural means would also be a tremendous boon as well!
However, at last, she managed to chance upon a villain fight!
Well, she extensively abused Divination magic to foresee with decent accuracy the next best opportunity, but still, there was a chance that it wouldn't work, so yup, she totally chanced upon it whilst on a patrol. She totally didn't teleport out of nowhere a minute before the fight was due to begin.
It was time for her to make her grand debut, and she would not waste the opportunity.
On one side was the delightful duo of the PRT, the red and blue warriors of stability and justice in Brockton Bay, Battery and Assault.
And on the sides of Brockton Bay villainy were members of everyone's favourite hate sinks and frequent source of questions (namely, 'why hasn't anybody dealt with them yet?') the Empire, with the line-up of Stormtiger and Cricket, and in the distance Hookwolf. It was quite a display of force really, from Taylor's (extensive) research, having a trio of Empire capes turn up spontaneously like this was quite a showing.
Oh, and there were also a few Empire grunts as well, almost painfully stereotypical in nature and in the distance.
Something must have gone down, but that was unimportant.
What did matter was that Hookwolf was in the background transforming as she appeared, whilst Assault and Battery were gearing up to engage, but were not yet so close that Taylor would have to risk firing at them.
Dispelling her Invisibility spell and dramatically revealing herself off to the side between the two groups, Taylor allowed a moment for them to notice her, although she supposed the dramatic flowing robes and golden mask would help that along (and perhaps a few subtle bits of magic to magnify her presence).
Enchantment magic was interesting, but it was also something that Taylor was rather keen to stay on the right side of... she was not sure if she would use spells like Life of Crime, Mindwipe or Reckless Infatuation. There were far too many ways for her to end up like Heartbreaker if she did. But there were plenty of other spells that she could use for her benefit! Things that would push others to greater heights, like Heroism, Serenity or even Hold Person!
She was somewhat tempted to make use of the latter two here, Serenity would hurt anybody attempting to cause harm to others, whilst Hold Person would simply stop them from being able to act, and she could use it on multiple people at once!
But she needed to send a message right now.
Put her foot down immediately.
"Huh---"
"Who's that---"
Taylor raised her hand, thumb and middle finger pressed together as if about to snap them even as she cast her first spell.
Time Stop.
Even if it was just a few seconds, and she could only be so sure of how long it would last, she had the time to set the things up for her little display that would hopefully go on to make others reconsider their life choices.
Delayed Blast Fireball.
No point throwing a normal fireball in stopped time, it was not like somebody could be hurt in such a condition. No, you had to time the fireball to explode the moment time resumed.
The spell created a little bead of flame that stopped just in front of Cricket and Stormtiger's faces. It was no larger than a fist, a miniature explosion just waiting to go off, and at her level of mastery, it would certainly be a fireworks display indeed. Both of the empire Capes were fast and agile opponents, but were they faster than an explosion?
Time resumed.
Taylor snapped her fingers, although the sound of her doing so was drowned out---
BOOM!
She really should have expected a blast of that intensity, really.
Windows shattered, car alarms went off as both of the tiny beads of fire exploded in a twenty-foot radius, utterly annihilating both Parahumans caught up in their flames and leaving sizable craters in the ground as well.
Even a small distance away, Taylor's robes fluttered back dramatically from the shockwave.
The battlefield was paused, the Protectorate pair were staring in her direction.
"Well, that was quite an explosive debut," she said, idly, then kicked herself for making the pun.
The smoke was still rising from the giant craters that had been blasted into the street, the tarmac was all warped and wet and... man, melted tar actually smelled terrible. Note to self if she ever ended up casting Tar Pit, stand down wind of it---
A sound of metal on metal.
Oh, Hookwolf was still around, wasn't he?
And charging.
In a nice, straight line as well... had he never heard of strafing? Well, it made it all the easier for her.
She pointed at the charging figure.
Maximised Disintegrate.
The beam of green light hit Hookwolf as he was bounding towards her, leaping through the air in a great body of sharp metal and claws that would utterly shred her.
Instead of being pancaked, a cloud of dust hit her. Within a second the molecular bonds composing the several tonnes of metal fell apart, the stain upon Brockton Bay that was Hookwolf was carried on the wind past her as a cloud of dust.
For a long moment, there was silence, it was almost a little anticlimactic, really.
Or she wasn't thinking about it right, and it was very dramatic indeed, the two sides looking at one another, the tension of the Protectorate heroes encountering a potential new threat for the first time that had so decisively dealt with three of the more notable and brutal villains in the local scene.
She resisted the urge to say 'another one bites the dust', she could only damage her new reputation so much with the puns.
Instead, she dusted herself down and glanced towards Battery and Assault.
"Hey."
She waved.
Battery flinched at the sound of her voice.
"I'll leave the clean-up to you guys, unless you want me to do something about this lot?" she asked, gesturing towards the Empire grunts. Panicked and very high-pitched squeaking and pleas for safety filled the air as the skinheads all crowded behind and around the red and blue duo as if attempts to use them as a living wall.
Assault glanced behind him towards one of them, and Taylor could almost sense the raised eyebrow there.
"Yeah, we'll handle them," he shouted back, with a sort of faux enthusiasm whilst also keeping his voice very stern, as if to warn her from trying to do anything dangerous.
"Good... Well, I'll be going then." No need to hang around if the heroes had a handle on things, and if she stayed too long, then it would ruin the impression she was trying to leave.
She turned around, which was probably a bad habit she would need to break, and prepared to teleport away.
"Hey! What's your name!?" it was Battery asking, no doubt it would need to go on a report somewhere when the pair got back. Actually, Taylor felt rather curious as to what the PRT would make of her little display right now, well, she supposed it was a little bombastic in nature, but there would be plenty more to come, of course.
Pausing a moment, she replied.
"Hm? Oh... call me Archmage."
It was the most fitting name really, she had been so busy preparing things that she had given the matter little real thought, as odd as that may sound.
There was so much to do in this world, and even with as much time as she had, something like a title did not really matter without the results to back it up.
~~~~~
Despite attempts by the PRT to find the mysterious new player in Brockton Bay, Archmage, Armsmaster had not expected for that person to find him instead.
Quite how they managed to speak right into his ear one day was a matter he sorely wanted to know; he had looked around, suspecting some manner of Master power, but it appeared to have been no more than a message sent from afar, and a new entry on the rapidly growing rating sheet that was giving conniption's to various Watchdog members. The Protectorates best Thinkers, even those with limited precognitive abilities, could not even sense or work around the strange Parahuman who had so casually dealt with three of Brockton Bay's more problematic capes.
It was like they did not exist at all.
Which was frankly horrifying in itself.
And yet, here Armsmaster was, standing alone on one of the platforms of the Protectorate Headquarters (or, as locals called it, the Rig) in Brockton Bay's eponymous water body.
And then---
They were there, having appeared from nowhere. A previously documented teleportation power, robes billowing in the strong coastal winds that whipped the Protectorate Headquarters at this time of year.
"... Archmage, I believe?"
"Indeed."
The same voice that had been reported, that of a young female.
A teenager, or a young woman? It was impossible to tell purely from appearances, she had a golden mask over her face. Her body was garbed in robes luxuriously decorated in ways that indicated either hundreds of hours of hard work or some degree of Tinkertech. In her hand she had a staff, a twisting thing of polished wood and some manner of shimmering crystal set in its top.
"I wanted to speak with you briefly about something, I have an offer that might be of great interest to you," Archmage declared.
Well, this was certainly refreshing.
Quite honestly so, there was little prevarication about the matter at hand, no over the top introductions or anything else. Straight to the point with introductions and getting down to the matter at hand, which was something that he could appreciate.
Still an offer... information? An offer could be something very simple or a lead in to more complex things, like making requests or demands in exchange, a gentle introduction before the hard tacks came out.
"You will listen to my offer, and I suspect you will accept."
The sheer presumption rankled him, but he was a professional. He was recording all of this, and people on the other end were watching keenly.
"Is that so, and why is that?"
"Unlimited time and materials to Tinker and do your work."
It was a simple enough answer, but it made his jaw tense. His various programs, such as the truth telling one did not function on this person, it was as if he was speaking with some manner of statue.
Archmage might be a Stranger based on this all, but he had seen videos that also indicated half a dozen other ratings.
So for the moment, he would humour her.
"Explain."
"Among my innumerable abilities---" said with utter confidence "---I have created a localised 'pocket dimension' in which time does not flow, one steps in and no time passes here in Earth Bet. Inside, one needs no food, drink, even sleep, although one should partake in those if only to remain alive upon exiting. Either way, I am more than able to generate near infinite materials, food and drink to sustain those inside. For money, I can make ones for yourself as well."
Archmage extended a hand, palm open, as if making an offer to him.
"I have studied the power classifications; Tinkers like you need time and materials, time and materials often difficult to come by. I can give you that time to work away, imagine the things you could create. Weapons to fight crime, advanced systems that need years of dedicated focus to work on, even something to fight Endbringers."
What on earth could he say to that at this moment?
This was big.
Bigger than big. It was huge, and whilst her remark about 'remaining alive upon exiting' was deeply concerning, it would be ridiculous to deny that his interest had been piqued. He would be turning away potentially a colossal boon not only to himself, but Tinker's as a whole if what she was saying was, indeed, true.
On the side of his vision, Dragon was sending him some manner of message, the Director was also saying something into his ear.
"If you need a moment, I shall grant it," Archmage said, as if to remind him of her existence. As if the strange woman who seemingly possessed the sort of powers that had been the dream of every Tinker for the last thirty years thought she might have been forgotten about in the interim.
"A moment would be appreciated."
He was honestly impressed that he was able to control his tone in such a way.
"If it would help, I could perhaps provide a demonstration of what I am promising, I am afraid that only the people who come with me would be able to see it, but if nothing else you could time how long you are gone and establish the veracity of what I am claiming."
It was logical.
it would be the burden of proof... it was also a risk.
He was rapidly developing a headache from all the voices in his ears, keeping track of them all was getting exhausting already---
A minute later, a somewhat out of breath trooper arrived with a body cam, which Archmage looked down at with a long pause perhaps indicating incomprehension, before she took it.
"I see. Well, I can hardly expect you to trust me yet," she said with a shrug, struggling to attach it to her long and flowing robes before evidently giving up on doing so and simply holding the system in her hands. "How long does the battery last?"
"Around twelve hours."
"Huh, neat. Well, I'll make sure to spend about that long in there then, although to you, it will barely be a second," Archmage said in a manner almost conversational.
"Um-hm... I'll get going now---" and then, with a number of strange words, the woman ripped a portal in reality. For a second, Armsmaster stared through to the other side, seeing a wildflower meadow surrounding a rather opulent looking manor house.
With a wave, Archmage stepped through.
Only to step back out just a second later, humming something (his music recognition system in his visor informed him it was 'Golden Brown' by The Stranglers).
"Here you go," she held out the camera... the little flashing light on the side that indicated it was turned on, was off. "It ran out of battery, lasted eleven and a half hours, if twelve was promised then you guys need to sue or something. Anyway, I'll let you look through all the footage, to be honest, I spent most of it reading and ambling about so you might need to fast-forward it all, but yeah... I'll come back here tomorrow to see if you are interested or have more questions?"
He nodded, grabbing the camera off her when it was offered.
"Thank you, Archmage."
A little courtesy could go far, even in strange situations like this.
"I'll see you tomorrow, then."
And then she was gone, leaving Armsmaster atop the rig with the little recording device in hand and a slew of voices in his ear questioning why he didn't ask more questions.
He had a long day ahead of him, didn't he?
~~~~~
With everything going on, Taylor was a busy bee.
A bee that was rolling in temporary and very lucrative contracts with the PRT and Protectorate. She wasn't quite on the way to making the Scrooge McDuck gold pool (apparently it would take $20 trillion dollars worth of gold to achieve) but it still handled a lot of her more minor expenses in her life!
Her first 'expenses and costs' bill for her work had raised a few eyebrows and questions about some of the things she was charging for, but they were getting pocket dimensions and her expertise in such things!
Honestly, some people just don't recognise a good deal when they see one.
In the last week, she had set up four Greater Demiplanes around the continental US, appearing from nowhere via Greater Teleport at the appointed time and then taking various notable Capes into the pocket dimension and setting up the required portals, timelessness and shaping of it to the needs of the groups that had paid for her services. The Protectorate of Los Angeles in particular was very specific in terms of its needs; an especially large space for Tinkering, but also secure facilities for the temporary containment of dangerous criminals with high Blaster ratings.
Taylor really did not need to know exactly what the Cape scene was like that could justify their desire for her to cast permanent Walls of Force surrounding this prison cell on all sides, along with Alarm spells and other defences.
They also wanted a Teleport Trap to make sure any attempts to sneak in through extradimensional means would not work... which cost them another twenty-five thousand, for a grand total of nearly a quarter of a million dollars.
Although being the generous (and entrepreneurial) spirit that she was, Taylor was also offering deductions for signed autographs of heroes.
She was building a collection.
Narwhal, statuesque stunner that she was, had laughed (actually laughed!) at her demand for an autograph and then signed not just her book, but also a picture of herself to go inside it!
However, all this hard work that took little real effort and generated her an incredible income did not stop her from taking care of the simpler things in life, or her daily and weekly rituals.
A small amount of incense, a mirror made of solid silver and ten minutes of peering into it and performing the little ritual required to cast Fortunes Path.
It was a simple piece of Divination magic, not even that difficult, but potentially observing minor or major events, good or bad that would occur within the next week was nothing to sniff at! Knowing is half the battle, and Taylor was very keen to keep this good thing she had going on right now going.
Unfortunately, the vision presented by the silver mirror was very clear in terms of what it had to show her.
Taylor glowered at the neutral face of the Simurgh that stared back at her, no song carried through the mirror of course, but there was a wealth of smaller details that she picked out.
It was difficult to pick out exactly who was in the brief snippet of the fight she observed, but there were details in the background, distinctive buildings that she could rely upon. No others like that in the world, right? And there, that piece of art---former art, the Simurgh was due to smash it to pieces, but right now, it still probably existed, right?
With a dramatic turn and flourish of her robes (she was slowly working to increase her ability to be dramatic in a scene, it was only appropriate for an Archmage like herself!) she departed her Demiplane and re-entered the real world.
Discarding her outfit and most of her gear, Taylor made her way downstairs to the living room, turning on the TV and going to the news channel.
No emergency reports about the Simurgh.
Good.
That piece of modern art she had seen in that scene, it had to be one of a kind, especially in its location, and unless there was the incredibly unlikely scenario that it had not been erected, it should still be there.
Discern Location was a potent spell that could find anything, or anyone, no matter the distance they were. Unless they were guarded by a spell or power as potent as her Mind Blank, there was nothing in the world that she couldn't find. It took a good ten minutes to cast, but by now she was used to spending extended periods of time stood in one place, murmuring under her breath to channel the arcane powers at her fingertips.
She had a result.
Canberra, Australia.
~~~~~
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone