Chương 2760: 6.1
Tomorrow would be the day that I returned to school and while one part of me was eager for it, the other more pragmatic part was dreading it. I had been friendless for so long that I didn't know how to make friends anymore. The Wards I felt didn't count, they were Heroes, it was in their nature to be friendly.
Outright strangers though? Well, as hellish as Emma, Madison and Sophia had been, it was the constant sniggers, comments and hostility that eroded my will. It wasn't until Triumph had commented how much I talked that I realized how starved I had been for social contact.
It was odd that I hadn't gotten any messages from the PRT as of late, not even a hello from the other Wards. The absence was especially pronounced since my entire life had revolved around doing Wards training as of late. I figured a part of that was Armsmaster being away with my armor. I'd probably get more chances to hang around the rest of the Heroes like Miss Militia once he came back.
Speaking of Miss Militia, she got some interns to send me a bunch of maps onto my phone that would lead me to a bunch of libraries. I decided to pay them back with sweet rolls which turned out to be a huge hit. It was around this stage that I had discovered that I had a sort of grassroots fanbase which revolved around the baked sweets after I had given them a basket back when I first joined. The interns were at best eager to help me and outright fervant at worst.
I kept telling myself that this wasn't the start of some sort of cult.
Still, the weekend despite being free of any Parahuman influence (besides mine of course) was relaxing. I spent the rest of my spare time outside of the Rig using the bus to visit the libraries and despite the books being hit and miss in the powers department I was still able to feel the Elation at least five times! FIVE TIMES! If this was how much power I could gain in a single weekend then there was no telling how powerful I'd be by the time I was an adult!
I made myself tougher as usual but also decided to increase my stamina after that one instance where I missed the bus and had to run after it. I failed to catch it and was forced to wait for the next which as anyone who lived in Brockton Bay knew was a terribly long wait. As always the Elation needed a direction, so I channelled them into ways to make my potions more potent, to make my blocking ability better and just to spice things up, my Veil. With all these improvements to my abilities I almost felt like Eidolon! Now all I had to do was figure out how to fly and the fantasy would be complete.
Maybe I could convince Armsmaster to build me a jet pack?
Well, that was a nice thought and all but I really had to get back to studying the books at the libraries.
With Browbeat's debut said libraries were rather empty, at least until the Sunday at least. Honestly I tried to avoid TV, internet and even radio. Even thinking about a debut that could've been mine was depressing. I told myself that I wanted to get the news directly from the source itself but even I couldn't believe that lie. I told myself that I was going on a media diet! Only the most wholesome of books for my consumption! Or more specifically, for my Elation!
"Man, that was hilarious!" Someone shouted at their friend as I put away another self help book. I was about to tell them to quiet down in the library when the next few words stalled my thought process. "I can't believe the Undersiders got all the Heroes like that!"
My blood ran cold and if I had a mirror, I wouldn't be surprised to see a pale face. The two friends walked off out of earshot leaving me to my ruinous imagination. Was that why the PRT hadn't contacted me recently? Was everyone dead? Would I turn to face the Rig only to find a crater with Tattletale dancing over it?
No.
That would be ridiculous, the Rig was fine. I could see it's force field from the Library's window and from what I could tell, it was completely undamaged. Even if there was a crater how would I even see it? The water would cover it up! But what about everyone else? Why else wouldn't they call me?
I frowned. Maybe I hadn't made a good first impression after all. Did they think I was too ugly? Was that why someone ordered PR to put a bright yellow triangle on me? To distract them from the rest of my face? Was I annoying? Why hadn't they told me anything?
I needed answers. I could track down the two friends and ask them but anything they had would most likely be exaggerated. I had to find a better source.
I glanced around before leaving the library as boring old Taylor. It wouldn't do for the cameras seeing me enter but not leave. As empty as the area was, there were still people around. I didn't want people to catch me talking to the PRT on the phone, I'd have to find somewhere more private to turn into Vim.
I began wishing that I had a guide. The maps that were on my phone didn't have enough detail to give me good hiding spots. So I improvised, I wouldn't say I wandered around at random until I found the perfect spot but that's pretty much what I had done.
The abandoned alley way I found myself in was dirty of course but isolated, safe from listening ears or prying eyes. There were a few windows here and there but they were boarded up, abandoned. The dead end was blocked off by a dilapidated wooden fence held together by more graffiti than nails.
With my inventory I put on my leather armor. Once again, I was the amazing Vim… minus the yellow triangle. I looked over my leather form, the material creaked ever so slightly as I crouched down, activating my Stranger power. I nodded, satisfied with the change.
I didn't want Tattletale or any other villain finding me in my civilian identity while I called the PRT.
Or more specifically Armsmaster.
Dialling his number I waited impatiently, shuffling back and forth with the Veil still active. I was aware that he might not even be back in Brockton Bay yet, that he could still be at the Tinker review with my Steel Armor.
However, he was the leader of the local heroes. If anything happened to them or the Wards, then there was no doubt in my mind that he would know about it. Eventually I got diverted to voicemail. It had no customized greeting, just a generic voice that asked me to leave a message.
"Hello, it's me Vim, I just wanted-"
*Ting*
" to ask if-"
*Ting* Okay what the hell was that?
"- wait a second…." I lowered my phone for a moment.
*Ting*
It was the sound of something metal hitting the ground.
*Ting*
It was coming closer! I was still using my Veil but I backed myself into a more shadowy section of the alley regardless.
"Come out, come out wherever you are!" A voice called out. Footsteps followed, not just one but multiple. It was a group of young thugs, all around my age. They wielded an assortment of steel bars ripped from fences, baseball bats and in one case what looked like a broken lamp, it's jagged glass tips refracted the sunlight menacingly.
I suppose that counted as a light weapon?
"Oh god…." I whispered to myself in horror. "I've turned into Dad." Puns and all…. Not that he made many puns recently now that I thought about it.
"Hey girly come on out!" They weren't Asians so it meant that they weren't the ABB, some had black skin so they couldn't have been Nazis either so that just left the Archer Bridge Merchants. However none of them looked high or on drugs. I suppose they could've just been a smaller gang of thugs as well, hard to tell.
"She ain't here Tommy." Lamps complained. "You sure you saw her runnin this way?"
"Dude, shut it!" He spat back. "I saw her and I'm tellin you she has that new fancy phone!"
I looked down at said phone, still in my hands as my Veil continued to conceal me. I noted that I was still on the call to Armsmaster's voicemail. I wisely hung up and put the phone away.
"No way Tommy, that phone is like, thousands of dollars, what kinda ghetto ass bitch has that kinda cash but still wears shit like that!" Ghetto ass bitch? "Sides, it looked more like a guy with long hair." Guy with long hair? THOSE ASSHOLES!
"Who you call Asshole?" Oh shit, I said that outloud! They all turned to me and recoiled in surprise. Shit, they saw me enter and here I was in leather armor! They'd know who I was!
"Where'd dat girl with the long hair go?" Couldn't they tell I was the girl with the long hair? Wait a second…. Whenever I equipped my helmet my hair would get smooshed inside. From their perspective, I had nothing in common with stupid ass Taylor. I was now Vim! It was kind of depressing how easily they separated my two appearances but I suppose I couldn't blame them. I should've been more careful.
"I helped her escaped!" I lied. They glanced around the area looking for the supposed escape route. I assumed they found what they were looking for since they seemed to look over at the same place. I glanced back quickly and found that the wooden fence covered in graffiti had a few planks missing, the gap was large enough to squeeze through but not much else. "Now, are you all going to surrender quietly or are we going to do this the hard way?"
None of them approached me, which I found odd. There were six of them and only one of me. From their perspective I was also unarmed while they had varying degrees of weaponry.
"I ain't tangling with no Cape!" Lamps announced.
"How do you know it's a Cape? Maybe they like cosplaying, I ain't gonna shame people's hobbies." Another replied. "Dem animes are the shits."
"Dude, we're in Brocktin Bay!" Another pointed out. "Yous gotta be retarded to Cosplay here!"
"Maybe he is retarded?" Lamps lowered his weapon. "I mean dat clinically, not a way to put down people."
"Nah, I getchu, my brother has dat shit but he be wicked smart with numbers." Were they going to fight me or not? "He does like tax returns!"
"I'm a Cape!" I interrupted them all by producing a flame in my hands. It was harmless of course but they didn't know that.
Without a word Lamps ran off. His friends instead of feeling betrayed followed suit.
"Hey! Get back here!" I shouted after them. My first encounter with thugs and they didn't even want to fight! What the hell!? What about all those stories of idiots with baseball bats trying to ambush and beat up the literally indestructible Alexandria? Why couldn't I get criminals like that? Why did I have to get the smart ones?
Running around the corner I found that my extra stamina was paying off. However, they began splitting up forcing me to choose one over the other. I needed range and my flames were useless. I decided to chase Lamps and soon we found ourselves on a long streets with nowhere else to go but forwards unless he decided to break a window.
"STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM!" I always wanted to say that.
I pulled out the bow I had gotten oh so long ago back at the sports store. While I had no formal training with the thing, I figured all I had to do was pull back the string and let go. How hard was that going to be? Lining up the shot I took aim and released.
*Twang!*
The arrow struck the ground in front of him and he flinched. I only had the sports arrows that came with the bow so I didn't want to hit him directly.
"STOP OR THE NEXT ONE GOES THROUGH YOUR KNEE!" He skidded to a stop before dropping his lamp, raising his hands in the air before dropping to his knees.
"I surrender!" He called out from his meek position. "Just don't shoot me!" I nodded, approaching his kneeling form.
Murmurs began reaching my ears. It was at this stage that I noticed that we had something of an audience. People were watching from the windows of the street with phones and cameras in their hands. I needed to call the cops to bring him in so I reached into my inventory to grab my phone but stopped.
The thugs said it themselves. That phone was worth a lot. How many other people would have one like it?
"Can someone here please call the police? Tell them I have a thug who tried to gang up to-"
"Oh my GOD IT'S VIM!" A high pitched squeal announced. Wait… they knew my name already? A little girl, no older than ten ran up to me giving me a huge hug around my leg. This was new to me and despite how uncomfortable I was with the situation I resisted the urge to shake her off.
"Janet!" An older woman shouted before dashing onto the street.
"Uhh, h-have we uuh met?" I asked confused. Janet I noted refused to let go of my leg. I tried to gently pry her off but such attempted resulted in a more restrictive hug. If it weren't for the fact that I was a brute, I was sure that she would've broken something by now.
"You saved Daddy!" She smiled brilliantly at me. "Fixed his arm!" Oh, this must've been around the time I helped Armsmaster with the search and rescue. The fact that she was so happy to see me must've meant that her father was a real nice guy.
"Janet, you can't bother the nice Hero." The mother turned to me. "Thank you, really, we owe you so much." I glanced to the side and noticed that Lamps was beginning to creep off. I shot him a glare and he froze. I turned my attention back to the little girl.
With a bit more corralling eventually the barnacle known as Janet had released her grip on me.
"Thank you Vim!" Janet called out before dashing off, no doubt to stress out her mother more.
"I uh… buuuh… you're welcome." I shook my head free of the distraction and went back to the task at hand. I had to restrain the criminal! Bringing out some spare leather strips I began tying up Lamp's hands. He hadn't moved an inch since his first attempt but I wanted to be sure just in case.
"You uh… you not gonna shoot me like Shadow Stalker?" Shadow Stalker? Why would I do that? I think I remembered something about her being a vigilante at one point being overly reckless with her arrows. Joining the Wards and getting Tinker Tech ammunition to knock people out would've been a godsend for her. I made a mental note to ask Armsmaster to give me some of that to.
"No, I'm not, I promised you I wouldn't." I assured him. "I'm going to do this right and arrest you normally."
"Don't you have to read my rights or something?"
Did I have to? I was pretty sure I did. "You have the right to remain silent!" I looped another length of leather around his wrists. "You have the right to a…." Actually I wasn't sure what came after that. Emma would know though, her dad was a lawyer after all. A lawyer who could pay the school off to ignore my abuse, to let it go. If I died by accident I bet he'd be the reason why Emma would go free.
"Ow ow ow!" Cries of pain brought me back to reality and I noted that I was tying the leather too tightly.
"Sorry…." I apologized. I wanted to make sure he couldn't escape, not cut off his hands. He just grimaced and while he didn't make any move to escape he still looked like he'd rather be anywhere but here.
Eventually the cops came and took him off my hands.
"You a Hero?" One of them asked me, approaching with thinly veiled suspicion.
"Uhh, a Ward actually." I answered honestly. "I'm Vim…"
"Really? Didn't see you at the debut yesterday." I winced at that.
"I uhh, wasn't there." I admitted.
"Aren't Wards supposed to travel in pairs?" He asked.
"Uhh well, I wasn't on an official patrol." I explained. "It just… kinda happened."
"You went on an unofficial patrol in complicated looking leather armor on a whim?"
"What? No, I...." Here was the part that I had to lie. "I noticed someone in trouble so I put on my outfit and helped them out."
I could see that he didn't believe me so I quickly unequipped my bracers and put them back on. His eyes widened in either understanding or at such obvious use of parahuman ability.
It was then I got the message from Armsmaster on my phone, it rang loudly and I quickly picked it up to check it. The message was short, simply asking me to come to the Rig. The message should've filled me with joy, it told me that Armsmaster was back! I glanced over to the policeman who was trying to grab my attention again. So why did it feel like I was in trouble?
"So, Vim was it?" The officer asked. "What crime did this gentleman commit?"
"Uhhhh….." What did he do? "He tried to rob someone?"
"You saw him corner someone?"
"Well, kinda?"
"Vim, we have to have something more concrete than kinda." He shook his head. "Bloody overeager capes…" Another cop rushed over and whispered something into his ears before they nodded and turned back to me. "Well, we can only hold him for questioning at most. As for you? Well Officer Thomas just got off the PRT line and can confirm that you're an official Ward."
"Wait? You weren't sure?" They didn't believe me? What the hell? I tightened my grip around my bow. Here I was trying to put away a bad guy and they don't even think I'm a good guy?
"Sorry if we don't take your word for it, a bunch of Capes pretend to be a part of the PRT to get away with stuff all the time…. Not that you will, I'm guessing that Aegis and the Director are gonna chew you out for this." I cringed at that. Yup, that's why I felt like I was in trouble. Was this why Armsmaster wanted me back at the Rig? I dutifully answered the rest of the officer's questions all while the public took photos of us.
Yeesh, this wouldn't be good for my public image at all.
======================
Canon Omake: Intern-kun's Pov.
"So, here are the list of libraries!" I told her handing over the phone. She looked it over with a smile at first that slowly turned into a frown.
"Look's like you guys are missing a few." She commented. "The one closest to my house isn't even here."
I coughed awkwardly. Miss Militia had been very clear that we were only to provide libraries in 'good' areas. We didn't want a Ward walking alone in their civilian identities around potential gang territory.
"Sorry." I told her. "That's the best we can do…" She paused for a moment before smiling.
"If you give me more map points, I'll give you some ~Sweet Rolls~ just for you." I paused, digesting what she just offered me. I remembered them, I remembered the Sweet Rolls. She brought in a small basket after she first joined and I had been lucky enough to grab one. They were originally just for the Wards but she also made enough for us as well. It was heavenly.
I glanced around and it struck me that I was seriously considering disobeying Miss Militia's orders just for some baked goods. I knew I was a glutton but this was just plain silly. I hoped that she wasn't some sort of Master who used baked goods to get people to do her bidding.
No, that was silly, what kind of power involved food? I made up my mind. I'd help her!
"Okay, give me the phone, I'll do it!" Vim's grin widened as she punched the air in victory.
I hadn't asked her how many Sweet Rolls I was going to get but in my mind I would get at least three. Anymore would be a bonus. No one else must know… Especially not Miss Militia.
What was the worst that could happen? It's not like a bunch of thugs would corner her and beat her up because of this?
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Canon Omake: PHO extra!
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♦Topic: Not Circus from the park!
In: Boards ► Cape sightings ► Brockton Bay
► LovelyTpot(Original Poster)
Posted on April 21th, 2011:
Hi, does anyone remember that Cape sighting last week? THe one with Armsmaster and that other Cape we thought was Circus? [LINK] Well, turns Out its a new hero! Check out the pictures here [LINK] of her working with the police and putting away this thug! More pictures here:
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► poorpoorrichman
Replied on April 21st, 2011:
Oh, he's got a bow, any relation with Shadow Stalker maybe?
► Madman10
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
Maybe, but look at the guy in cuffs, doesn't look hurt at all.
Now look at the ground, that lamp looks smashed. Did Vim hit that?
► MRANGRYCAPSLOCK
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
That's an indoors lamps i think, kinda odd why it's outside.
Oh yeah, I remember the old thread. Bagrat mentioned that her name was Vim. She wasn't at the other Ward's deubt though. BAGRAT! Since she's out on patrols now, can you tell us what her powers are?
► Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
Can't say too much sorry. But I can tell you she's pretty cool and knows how to bake a sweet roll. Her powers will be revealed at her Debut soon.
► Ekul
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
What's a sweet roll?
Also, pleeaaaase tell us about his powers early?
► Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
@Ekul They're heaven is what they are.
As for power rating they are deliciousness 10
► XxVoid_CowboyxX
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
Damnit Bagrat and your NDAs! But seriously lets go through the list of what we know.
She was shown to have a Hammer Space like Circus.
Shoots fire like Circus.
Could either be a guy or girl based on appearance.
Are we sure this isn't just Cirucs?
More speciically Circus got captured, was abotu to go to the Birdcage but then she was like:
"Wait! Don't send me there! I'll work for you!" and this is all just a big conspiracy to turn a villian into a hero as part of a plee deal? I bet this isn't the first time it's happened!
[User has received a warning for this post]
► Tin_mother (Moderator)
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
XxVoid_CowboyxX Please don't speculate on Cape identities. As you aren't trying to figure out their real civilian identity I won't give you an infraction, but this is dangerously close. You have been warned.
► Pis4Peguin
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
OMG look at this photos! Adorable! Little Girl luvs VIM!
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► Ekul
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
@Pis4Peguin
Jesus! Mah heart!
► Madman10
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
@Pis4Peguin Okay that's fuckking adorbs
► mahRUNES
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
@Pis4Peguin That's a lot of pictures.
► UserWishedForThumbs
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
@Pis4Peguin So is Vim's leg like a kid magnet?
► Bagrat (Veteran Member) (The Guy in the Know)
Posted on April 21st, 2011:
@Pis4Peguin Well it's official, not only does she make the best Sweet Rolls but kids also love her. She is now my favorite Ward, sorry Clockblocker!
End of Page. 1, 2, 3, 4
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