It took a few minutes for everyone to sort themselves out. Once everyone was through gawking at their sudden change of scenery, everyone began squaring off. The Undersiders were grouping together, their backs up and looking hostile; Glory Girl was hovering in a corner, looking like she was fighting the instinct to try and arrest the Undersiders; the new Warcrafted were scattered about looking back and forth between everyone and looking confused, and Bayleaf and Hemlokk were more or less in the middle, making 'calm down' motions and trying to keep everything from getting seriously agitated.
"Before we go anywhere here," Bayleaf was saying, "I need everyone to pull up a chair and calm down. It may not look it but we're all on the same side here."
"You'll excuse me if I don't share the sentiment," Regent said drolly, looking square at Glory Girl. She flipped him the bird. He tipped the head of his jester's staff at her… then started in obvious surprise when nothing happened.
Bayleaf caught the byplay. It seemed Glory Girl's new tiara worked both ways. Interesting. Let Regent wonder why his power suddenly wasn't working.; it'd probably help keep him in line.
Rachel and her dogs both started growling. A much louder, deeper and MUCH scarier growl slowly drowned them out; the dogs whimpered and dropped to their bellies on the floor and Rachel turned three shades paler. She sat down on the floor abruptly. Once they all looked like they were behaving, Hemlokk let the growl fade away. "We're trying to help you," Hemlokk said to the girl. "Don't do anything to make that change."
Bayleaf looked over at Hemlokk, surprised. "I've been practicing," she muttered, crossing her arms and flicking her ears in embarrassment. She didn't take her eyes off Rachel or the dogs.
Grue cleared his throat… an odd sound with that strange reverb his shadows gave it. "Not to sound ungrateful for that bail out," he said. "But why are you helping us?"
"A question I'd like answered myself," Gallant said, stepping forward from behind Vicky. Several people yelped.
"How did you come along?" Bayleaf said, surprised. "How did you know we were teleporting??"
Gallant shrugged. "What was there to know?" he said. He looked at Glory Girl. "I saw where she went and I followed."
For some inexplicable reason, Hemlokk snickered. "What?" Gallant demanded.
"Tell ya later," she said, smothering a giggle.
"That doesn't answer MY question," Grue said.
"I'll answer it for ya," Aisha said, stepping around the Comm center and marching up to him. "'Cause I ASKED him to!"
"Aisha!" Grue yelped. "What are you doing here with him?"
"Bailing YOUR sorry, stupid ass out!" she snapped. She punctuated her sentence with a slap to the top of his helmet. "You need to be more responsible, Aisha!" SLAP. "You need to get your ACT together, Aisha!" SLAP. "You can't just run around doing whatever you WANT, Aisha!" SLAP. "Is THIS how you were going to 'make our lives better,' you overgrown musclebound Jackass? Becoming a VILLAIN? Starting a GANG? You RETARD!!" SLAP SLAP SLAP.
Grue ended up grabbing both her wrists and holding them to stop her slapping him. "There were extenuating circumstances," he protested to everyone at large. She started kicking him in the shins. "OW!"
"I'll extenderate your circumstandings, you IDIOT!"
"As entertaining as this is..." Regent said, his voice filled with amusement, "This isn't helping..."
"Aisha!" Bayleaf barked. Loudly enough to make the rafters ring and everyone else jump. Rachel's dogs even cringed down lower to the floor. Aisha stopped kicking and stood there fuming. Bayleaf let out a sigh and took a deep breath. "Brian Laborne, oldest of two children. Mother is a drug addict, Father is… less than optimal. Triggered when he came to his mother's house and found one of her boyfriends-- who had abused him in the past-- was now attempting to abuse his little sister." Grue made an abortive choking noise. "Is currently struggling to take custody of his sister in order to remove her from the toxic environment, but is at loggerheads with the system. Was approached by Coil, and offered leadership of a new supervillain team in exchange for help working through the child welfare system and a job so he is-- at least on paper-- legitimate."
"Bayleaf--!" Hemlokk exclaimed, appalled.
Bayleaf ignored her and pressed on. "Aisha already pretty much exposed him, Hemlokk. Might as well pull the rest of the bandaid off. Rachel Lindt!" Rachel's head snapped up.
"Aka Bitch, aka Hellhound. Uneducated, illiterate, essentially autistic. Abandoned by her mother when very small, put into child protective services as a borderline feral child. Put in a series of abusive foster homes, culminating in a final one where she Triggered when her sadistic bitch of a foster mother tried to drown a stray puppy Rachel had adopted in the backyard pool." Several of the listeners made tiny sounds of shock and sympathy. "Unfortunately while Rachel can turn those dogs into the monsters you've seen, she cannot automatically control them; she has to train them, the same as anyone else. And the puppy was untrained. It mutated into a monster the size of a compact car that mauled her foster mother to death, badly injured all the other foster children in the house and then destroyed the building. Railroaded by the legal system, from whom she escaped. Lived as a fugitive and low-level violent criminal until being recruited into the Undersiders with the promise of safety for her and her dogs."
Tattletale eyed him. She started to smirk and say something… but then her smirk faded. "You didn't get that off the internet," she said, sounding worried.
His next words made her worry even more. "Not YOUR internet, no."
"Regent. AKA Alec… born Jean-Paul Vasil, son of Nicholas Vasil, Heartbreaker." The name alone was enough to send a chill around the room.
Regent shrugged carelessly, but anyone could see the casualness was faked. "Nothing anyone else hasn't guessed."
"True enough. Or that you're the fourth of his children to manifest… due to him torturing you over and over to the brink of insanity with his emotion-controlling powers." Regent was immobile as a doll. "As it is, you're effectively a high-functioning sociopath because he literally burned out your ability to feel strong emotions, including empathy. Wanted for several rapes and murders which your father forced you to commit. You have the power to seize control of another person's body… the little "uncontrolled spasms" thing is just a cover. Once you've been exposed to someone long enough, tinkered with their nervous system with those little tweaks and jerks enough-- we're talking several days, here-- you can puppeteer them, see through their eyes, hear through their ears, make them move and speak and do whatever you wish… while they retain full awareness of it all.
"You're terrified that the PRT will find out the truth about your power and find some excuse to throw you into the Birdcage… or that your father will find you and come take you back."
"Got it in one," Regent said, flipping his jester's mace end over end. Noone was fooled by his attempt to sound casual. Noone missed the burning intensity in his eyes.
Bayleaf turned his merciless eyes on Tattletale. This was going to be the hard one.
"Tattletale. AKA Lisa Wilbourne..." Tattletale got a half-smirk..." NOT her actual birth name." Her half-smirk rapidly disappeared. " Born Sarah Livsey. NOT a psychic or a precog; instead has what is essentially a turbocharged capacity for deductive and inductive reasoning, enabling her to basically "cold read" anyone or anything.
"Triggered when her brother committed suicide, and her parents blamed her for his death when she said she thought she'd noticed something wrong--"
"Stop it," Tattletale said.
"Once her parents figured out her power, they began exploiting it, using her abilities in business trades, on the stock market, and get-rich-quick scams. She finally grew sick of being exploited and ran away…."
"STOP IT!" Tattletale pulled her gun and aimed it right between Bayleaf's eyes. He didn't even blink.
"She then demonstrated just exactly how smarter she was than everyone else," he said sarcastically, "by coming to Brockton Bay and using her powers to completely drain the accounts of several rich and powerful men in a row, pocketing their wealth and leaving a trail through the local economic underworld like a blindfolded elephant. At which point she was approached by Coil, who made her an offer at the point of a gun-- "
Hemlokk suddenly appeared behind Tattletale and snatched the gun away. She held the furious girl effortlessly in a one-armed grip. "Stop it, that's enough!" Hemlokk said, her voice full of fear. She could smell the surprise, the fear, the swelling anger coming off the other Capes in the room. "Bayleaf, unmasking a cape is serious--"
"Yes. Serious. Serious as the end of the world, isn't it." His eyes never left Tattletale's. "I don't have time, the world doesn't have time for us to play masquerade party… To sit around pussyfooting, pretending that we can't figure out who each of us is. And I'm certainly not going to sit here pretending NOT to know what it is each of you wants or needs fixed so that we can get down to saving the world.
"I'm not unmasking anyone here. I'm letting you know what I know. I'm laying all my cards on the table face up."
"I don't see you spilling YOUR life story," Tattletale said coldly.
Bayleaf sighed and threw himself into one of the overstuffed chairs he'd tossed about the place. He began to speak. "Bayleaf. Also known as Skinwalker, the Giving Tree, the Demon Tiger, the Night Owl, Wonder Walrus…. And I'm probably forgetting a couple."
A chorus of "whats" went up. He couldn't help grinning. "Real name? Adrian… Smith, I think. Born in an alternate universe-- no, not like Earth Aleph, Earth Aleph is an alternate dimension of this world. I'm from a LOT farther away.
"I was… picked… from my homeworld by an extradimensional being I know as 'The Agent,' to serve as an Actor in this reality. Given a whole new life, a clean slate. Granted a suite of powers, and dropped-- literally-- into Brockton Bay, with a pretty massive mission: to save the world."
"And pretty much everyone here is going to be in the middle of it in some way or another."
The elf-boy, who was sitting on the floor indian style and playing with the glowing plants, raised his hand. "I can.. I can like, testify to that," he said. "I got the same deal. Well, except for the whole 'nother universe thing, I'm a local boy, heh. But-- okay, endless cosmic plane, talking glowy light thing, let's make a deal, all of this sounding familiar to anybody else? Anybody?" He raised his eyebrows and waved his hand a little, trying to get a response.
The paladin raised his gauntleted hand. "Um, same for me," he said.
The male panda held up his hand, silently. The female started to, then looked upset and confused.
Glory Girl raised her hand. "I've seen some of the evidence," she said. "Guys, trust us, this is only the beginning of the weird."
"But why don't I remember this?" MeiMei said. She gestured to herself. "I mean, I believe you-- I mean after THIS-- but…"
Bayleaf nodded, not quite frowning. "That's just the first of my questions. I was told that I was to be the only one here-- and that Hemlokk was a huge exception to the rules….
"Aisha, go order up about… eh, a dozen pepperoni pizzas, and six jugs of coca cola," he said. "use the mad money in the coffee can. Oh, and call Panacea, see if she can stop by. Wouldn't hurt to have everyone get a checkup after all that happened." He pulled his legs up into his chair so that he was sitting crosslegged. He settled into a lotus position and closed his eyes.
"What's he doing?" Grue said. Then he gulped audibly as the wolfman suddenly went as transparent as green glass.
Aisha looked at Bayleaf, then over at her brother. "From the look of it-- callin' tech support."
Aisha had just finished placing the order with a very understanding and accommodating (see: cape friendly) pizza place that Glory Girl had clued Bayleaf to some time ago when Bayleaf suddenly became opaque again and opened his eyes. "Okay, everyone, this… okay this is going to take a bit more… everyone, everyone sit in a circle. Come on," he said impatiently when some of them hesitated. "You want answers, this is it. Sit, sit, sit… You, uh, Shen was it? Sit in the center of the circle. This is going to take both of us."
"What do you want me to do?" Shen asked as he sat on the floor facing the worgen.
"Remember how to do a Zen Pilgrimage? You're going to lead the way for the rest of us."
Shen looked alarmed, but he nodded. He shifted back and forth, folding his legs in a lotus position. "Couldn'ta done this a couple weeks ago," he muttered as he folded his legs over each other. He sat up, back straight, hands resting palms-up on his knees and closed his eyes. The others muttered for a moment, but fell silent in astonishment as he slowly began to rise off the stone floor. He floated a foot off the floor, lights swirling around him, and slowly turned as transparent as glass.
"Everyone, join hands," Bayleaf said. He smiled as he felt Hemlokk's paw slip into his own. "Oh come on, what, you're afraid of getting cooties? Join hands already." Everyone obeyed. Even Rachel complied; her dogs stuck their heads under her arms and into her lap. Bayleaf closed his eyes and started reaching out to the Emerald Dream.
Hope this works like he said--
Bayleaf opened his eyes. All of them were there, sitting in a circle around the Pandaren monk. They were all dessed in simple homespun tunics and breeches. To his left was a wide flight of stone steps that ascended gently up a rolling hillside to the patio upon which they all sat. To his right stood an enormous oriental temple, story after story of white stone walls and ornate, gabled red tiled roofs and gilded eaves. He could hear the splashing of a fountain somewhere, and the wooden tones of bamboo wind chimes.
Everyone else looked around and saw it too; gasps of surprise and awe filled the air. A faintly glowing figure, like a man made out of neon tubes, came out of the front doors and approached them. Welcome to the Temple of the Five Dawns, it said. Or, well, Mister Shen's personal edition thereof. Do come inside.
The group of young heroes and villains got to their feet. Rachel's dogs stayed close at her heels, but they were eagerly sniffing everything in reach. Glory Girl was hovering and looking in all directions; it was obvious she wanted to fly off and start exploring as much as the dogs did.
They all started to walk inside when one of the young men yelped. What is it? The entity asked.
"My mask! My costume!" Gallant-- and it was obviously Gallant from his voice-- said. He actually tried to cover his face with the collar of his peasant shirt.
Bayleaf rolled his eyes, caught between amusement and irritation. "Dean Stansfield, blaster/master combo, boyfriend of Victoria Dallon, need I go on? It's a little late in the day for all that. Even without insider knowledge, four of us here could identify you by scent, one of us could figure out your PIN number and favorite ice cream flavor from your microexpressions, and the rest have already guessed from the way you two act around each other in AND out of costume. You're not nearly as subtle as you think, you two." Vicky and Gallant blushed at each other.
They all went inside. The interior was even more beautiful on the inside than the outside. An enormous fountain stood in the center of the floor. A giant bronze statue of a Pandaren seated on a turtle and holding an oriental parasol over his head dominated the fountain; water fell in a steady shower from the multi-domed ceiling high above, splashing off the bronze parasol, down the statue and into the pool below. Braziers full of coals and incense burned at the four corners of the pool, and four floating masked creatures-- one made of water, one of fire, one of air and one of earth-- hovered about it. Floating around the statue were a handful of glowing dollops of light, seemingly of the same stuff as their guest. They darted about the statue, playing tag with one another and with the four masked elementals. The capes could hear the elementals and the light-flecks laughing, high and childlike.
Children? Come down here and say hello to your clients. Agent's voice had a certain tone of worn patience Bayleaf couldn't quite place…
Wait. Children??
The lights left their elemental playmates and came soaring down to greet them. Four in particular split up and began hovering over the four new Warcrafted. Vindicator! Shen! Shar'Din! Lei Ling! They danced about their heads, cheerful and hyper as toddlers.
"Friend?" the paladin said.
Yes, it's me, Greg! The light said, strobing brightly.
"Greg? Greg Veder?" Hemlokk and Bayleaf said in astonishment. It has to be said, regrettably, that Hemlokk's voice was laden with more than a touch of disdain.
You didn't recognize him? Agent asked them with a hint of amusement.
"I thought he sort of smelled familiar," Bayleaf said. "But..."
And you? You were his classmate for two years, Agent teased Hemlokk.
"The last time I saw him his neck wasn't almost as thick around as his head!" Hemlokk said, waving her hand at Greg's taller and rather heavily muscled form. Her hands suddenly darted to her mouth. "Oh my gosh. It's been weeks… and I remember hearing somebody at school say you'd gone missing-- I didn't give it a thought.."
Interesting isn't it? Agent said idly, interrupting. How what is epic drama and tragedy to one person is an unimportant bit of gossip to anyone else… he seemed to give her a meaningful look. It was hard to tell with his blank, glowing face.
"That's where you've been? Dealing with-- this?" she said.
"Uh, yeah," Greg said, scratching the back of his head. "Couldn't exactly go home like this… they woulda just wanted to put me in the Wards, assuming they believed it was really me."
"What's wrong with the Wards?" Gallant said a trifle defensively.
"Uh, we'll get to that in a minute, honey," Glory Girl said with a grimace.
"Do, uh, do I know you?" Greg asked Hemlokk, more than a little confused.
Hemlokk looked at Bayleaf and half-groaned, half-whined. Bayleaf sighed and nodded. Resigned, Hemlokk drew a deep breath and transformed back to Taylor Hebert.
"TAYLOR?" Greg stammered. Taylor could almost see the marbles plinking into place in his head. He looked over at Bayleaf. "You're… a relative of hers, then?" Was it her imagination or was there a hint of hope in there? Was he hoping he still had a chance? Ew. "Actually we just started dating," she said, taking Bayleaf's arm. Maybe a little hurriedly.
Bayleaf gave him a grin and turned back into Adrian Smith. "Sorry, fella," he said. The poor kid actually looked crestfallen.
"Oh. I see. I figured-- you know, same powers, and, um, you looking after her like a big brother and all--" he managed to force himself to shut up and looked away before he stuffed his foot further into his own mouth.
Tattletale suddenly snapped her fingers. "Hebert!" she said, pointing at Hemlokk-now-Taylor. "That girl who got stuffed in the locker last month..."
"Not something I like recalling, but yeah," Taylor said a trifle curtly.
"Man, I hope the skanks who did that got theirs," Lisa said soberly.
Adrian put an arm around Taylor's shoulders. "We're working on it," he said, his voice grim.
MeiMei… now LeiLing. For crying out loud, another name?… looked around, shook her head and snorted. "Boy if my parents could see me now," she muttered. "Hanging out in a Chink temple with a couple of coloreds and a heeb-- they'd crap themselves in five colors."
The light orbiting her head formed a tiny fist and bopped her on the head. LeiLing! Be NICE!
"Excuse me?" Aisha said, hands on hips.
Shen, on the other hand, groaned in disgust and recognition. "Hello, Rune," he said. "Long time no see."
"LeiLing" gawped at him. "How did you…." she squinted, then her jaw dropped even further. "Theo?"
Shen waved a paw, a sarcastic smile on his face.
That actually brought several people up short. "How in hell did you recognize him like that?" Aisha said in confusion.
Leiling shrugged as she looked for words. "Dunno, it's just... if anyone was going to become a panda, Theo was that sort of guy?" she said.
"It's Pandaren, by the way," Shen said frostily. "And the name is Shen. Max Anders can go sit and spin, he wants to claim he has a son anymore, stupid Nazi bastard. Feel free to go kiss his feet like the rest of E88."
"Wait wait wait," Grue said. "Rune? As in 'throws chunks of street at people' Rune, the Nazi girl cape?" In growing horror he added, "And Max Anders is a Nazi??"
"He's KAISER," Shen and LeiLing said.
Grue had to sit down on a nearby plinth. "Coil got me a job at Medhall," he said.
"Medhall is just a front for Kaiser to launder money... and to give E88 a supplier of high end yuppie drugs," Shen said with a snort. "And if Coil got him to hire a black man for anything more than scutwork, it was so he could use him later as a scapegoat for something. You'd be amazed how many tax scams Max Ander's gotten out of by blaming some lowlevel minority worker for "misfiling" stuff or "embezzling" or the like." He shrugged. "The Feds start sniffing around for proof of tax evasion or fraud or whatever, and suddenly Medhall finds a low level worker who turns out to be a 'former' supervillain? Custom-made fall guy."
"He got me a job as a rent-a-patsy," Grue said, holding his head in his hands. "Coil, you bastard..."
He wasn't the only one feeling like a sap. Greg was standing there facepalming. "You're telling me I tangled with LUNG to rescue a Nazi Supervillainess in distress," he said bleakly.
"Hey, EX Nazi, EX villainess," the Pandaren girl snapped. She sank from angry to sad and petulant, and turned away from the others. "I'm… just not good at it yet, okay?"
Grue was outraged, Greg was humiliated, but Gallant was horrified. "Max Anders is Kaiser?? I-- we've gone to cocktail parties with that man-- oh man, Triumph is going to freak, his father is the Mayor..." he paled. "And Anders on a handshake basis with...." realization spread across his face..."Thomas Calvert in the PRT…"
"Who is actually the villain Coil." Tattletale finished for him.
Gallant's oath was thunderstruck as it was heartfelt. "Way too many things are making sense," he said.
Perhaps we should begin at the beginning, Agent said. As you can see, there are… many intertangling issues here. What I have to explain to you all about this situation requires some back story...
Everyone sat back down and listened. Agent proceeded to get them all up to speed, starting from the Cosmic Space Whales and the malfeasance of Cauldron, the double-agent status of the Triumvirate, and going all the way down to the petty ambitions of Coil. It was a shaken and shattered crowd of young capes by the time he was finished.
... Which brings us to here and now, he finished. And our… new recruits. Perhaps you all should… take some time to walk the grounds, tour the temple… digest what you've already learned. Maybe those of you with Agents take time to discuss things with them, ask any questions you still have lingering. All of them got up and dispersed-- some of them looking more unsettled than others.
And I believe you two have more than a few questions for me, he said to Bayleaf and Hemlokk.
"Yeah," Bayleaf said. "I was under the impression it was, well, one Agent to a world, or reality, or whatever. That Taylor's and my situation was due to unique circumstances." He pointed at the childlike lights dancing about the new Warcrafted. "So what's all this?"
Bayleaf got the distinct impression that Agent was facepalming. You do recall that I had to beg, borrow and wheedle every "Quatloo," as you call them, to fund yourself and Taylor's Agent contract, correct? he said. Well, I borrowed a considerable amount some time back from my er, relatives.
"Oh dude," Shar'Din said, shaking his head. "You never never never ever borrow money from family."
Anyhow, Agent said. Due to the… irregularities in this particular Job, My debts to those family members got called in.
"Those members being?" Bayleaf said.
Agent gave off the "facepalm" aura again. My nieces and nephews. Their parents were rather irate… but my nieces and nephews didn't want repaid in Quatloos. They asked for-- and received-- a share in the projected profits from this particular venture.
"And the rest of your debt to them?" Bayleaf said.
A special dispensation that the Rules Lawyers agreed to. They wanted Actors of their own. He gestured at the four new Warcrafted present. And I am their… Chaperone, I believe would be the appropriate term, for the duration.
"Agent?" Bayleaf asked with apprehension. "How old are your nieces and nephews?"
The oldest is… Twelve.
"Twelve what? Centuries? Millennia? What?"
Years.
Bayleaf made a choking noise. "What?" Hemlokk whisper-screamed.
They are fully bestowed with the knowledge of an adult member of our race, Agent hastened to add. They just lack… practical experience. This will be, in fact, their first Agency.
"Ah, good, no way that can go wrong," Bayleaf said. He was having a bit of trouble breathing and things were going fuzzy around the edges...
Hemlokk steadied her slowly panicking boyfriend as he teetered in place. "No, no, the other Warcrafted, they can come to you for advice, right? Or send their Agents to you?" Hemlokk said.
Agent paused for a very, VERY long time. Within limits.
"Well, it could be worse--" she started to say.
Bayleaf hastily laid a hand over her mouth. "Never ever say that," he begged. "Murphy and his agents are always listening." She nodded. He removed his hand. "I'm guessing that this little shindig is another rule-stretcher," he said. "We've got several people who aren't Agents or Actors here."
You are correct. In the future you will be unable to bring anyone other than fellow Warcrafted to the Emerald Dream, or to the Temple of the Five Dawns. The only reason they are permitted here now is they are being approached by my nieces and nephews even now and offered similar bargains to your own.
"What?" Hemlokk stepped in front of him, forcing him to halt in his walk down the temple steps. "You mean we're going to be leaving here with--" she counted on her fingers. "Six MORE Warcrafted?"
It would be ideal in some regards, but-- no. My best projections are that most of them are highly unlikely to say 'yes.'
"Most," Bayleaf said.
Most. But there are two in particular among your number who are… more damaged than the others. And they are almost certain to take one of my nieces or nephews up on their offer. They will need your help, for it will be possibly the most traumatic choice of their lives.
Glory Girl floated up to get a better look at the fountain statue, while Gallant sat down and rested on the rim of the pool. It was a rather likable statue, she thought; he looked like a very cheery and huggable sort of panda. Pandaren, right. She ought to remember that. Cultural respect and all that, as her mom would say.
As she floated there, the artificial shower pattering on her force field, one of the smaller lights, one of the "nieces or "nephews", floated up to meet her. Hello! It chirped.
"And hello to you too, Junior," she said.
Oh, that's a good name. Junior. I like it. May I keep it?
"Sure, why not?" she laughed. "So what brings you up here?"
You wanna make a bargain?
"A what?"
A Bargain. Like Bayleaf or the others made.
"Oh, you mean… you want to become my Agent? You give me powers, I go out and save the world for you?"
Yup! With a sound like rustling paper, a window opened in the air next to Junior, and images started flipping past of various alien races. There are all sorts of neat races from Azeroth you could be… and all sorts of power sets. You could be a mage or a fighter or a paladin or---
For a minute, she almost considered it. A cool new set of powers… and maybe a hot new bod to go with it. Those night elves looked pretty smoking, if you didn't mind the glowing eyes or the crazy long ears. Or the blue skin…
But then she started thinking about the tradeoffs. Like no longer being human. Or being something that lived hundreds or thousands of years, while her family and loved ones… didn't. And she remembered somethin about Bayleaf, that he might have to leave Earth Bet sometime in the distant future, maybe even have to go to Azeroth…
She shook her head. "No, I don't think so," she said. "I'm pretty happy with who I am, and I like my powers the way they are, especially since Bayleaf's helping me fix them so they work right. I'd probably better not press my luck." She sobered a bit. "And I don't want to leave my family behind through old age, or because I had to go to another planet, or something like that." She shrugged. "Besides, I'm sort've already on board with the "saving the world" thing…so thank you, but no."
Oh. Aw, poop.
"First try, huh?" She laughed and patted the little blob of light on its top. "Don't worry, you're a charmer… you'll get an Actor someday."
"I…. I'm going to say no," Gallant said.
Are you sure?
"Nobody's really sure about anything, I don't think," Gallant said to the little light. He looked up at his girlfriend, soaring carefree around the vaulted ceiling of temple. "But I've got a loving family, a beautiful girl, a pretty decent purpose in life….I got it pretty good right here. No sense in getting greedy."
Lisa felt her hands tremble at the possibilities. Power. Some of the options the little light-entity were offering were staggeringly powerful. Coil… people like Coil… could never touch her if she could fling fire from her fingertips or stop time or teleport. She'd lost count of the times she'd dreamed of having a real power, the kind like Alexandria had, that would let her crush the evil bastard's skull in her fist like it was paper mache'.
But he had people like that under his thumb, too. If Tattletale had been a brute or blaster instead of a thinker, she never would have seen him coming. He would have just given one of his mercenaries a sniper rifle loaded with cape-killer bullets, then used his "Heads I win Tails you lose" power to split the timeline again and again till he got one where she didn't manage to duck in time.
And according to the entities, they had enemies waiting that made Coil look like a joke. Enemies with all the brute power they could ever want, but had thinkers to lead them. It was going to be brains over brawn, right till the very end, and Tattletale was going to need every ounce of brains she had in her arsenal. And tragically, none of the Azeroth powersets even remotely resembled a Thinker power.
"I'm sorry," she said to the light entity. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to pass."
"Okay, why don't I remember any of this?" Lei Ling said, upset. "Why don't I remember making this deal-- with you-- choosing to be a PANDA WOMAN, for-- just… just what happened? What went wrong?"
it's all my fault, Pitti Sing said, distraught. When I gave you your new powers and form, I-- I made a mistake.
"A mistake?" that certainly chilled the girl formerly known as Rune to the bone. "What sort of mistake?"
You know about the Shards, Pitti Sing said. She was so upset she was fluorescing indigo. Uncle Agent told us that all the new Actors for this world had to have a fake Shard… like a disguise… to fool the Entities. When I gave you your new powers it was fine. But I put the fake Shard on BEFORE I removed the real one.
"And…?" Lei Ling pressed.
And it made the real Shard explode, Pitti Sing concluded. It knocked you out and sent you back to the baryonic plane. I lost you! I couldn't detect you! I was so worried! Here, please, let me fix that broken memory bit-- She formed a tiny hand and reached out.
"No wait I--!!" Lei Ling started to protest. But Pitti Sing's hand reached into her head and… actually, it was quite soothing. Like a cool towel on your head on a warm day. Then there was sort of a little mental click, and memories came flooding back.
Her frustration. Her depression. Her guilt and confusion over the things her family believed that they said were wrong were right were wrong against the whole world said they weren't true she could see they weren't true but--- and then the dark, midnight colored plain, and a little light offering her a shot at a whole new life away from her "clan" and their distortions and clever words and hypocrisies… and power, even greater power than she'd had before, so that noone could push her around…
She formed a fist, and a tiny homonculus of earth and clay formed at her feet and began trundling around. Hell of a ways from just heaving rocks around.
Are you better? The little light said. The little light she'd named Pitti Sing as a joke, and she'd joyfully accepted it as her name. Lei Ling wiped her eyes. "Yeah, I'm better," she said. "I'm more than better- I'm back, Pitti Sing." She let out a little laugh. "You never did tell me why you named me Lei Ling," she said.
It's much better than Mei Mei, Pitti said. That means "little sister" or "little pretty thing." it's a diminutive, and kind of insulting.
"And what does Lei Ling mean?"
It means "Thunderous Spirit."
Lei Ling considered her loud arguments and explosive temper. "Yeah," she laughed. "I think it suits me."
Bayleaf and Hemlokk were discussing their plans for the future with Agent when one of the younger lightlings came whizzing up. Uncle, please, I need help! My actor-- He zipped back and forth, indicating the direction they needed to go.
What is wrong with him? Agent demanded. They all could see Shar'Din up ahead, kneeling on the ground next to a small brook, curled up in despair.
I don't know, Uncle, Zippy said. I only told him more about the Blood Elves… and he became so overwhelmed with despair--
They reached Shar'Din. Hemlokk knelt beside him and awkwardly put her hand on his back, trying to pat him comfortingly. "What about the Blood Elves? Is that what he is?"
Bayleaf groaned as he realized the problem. "Yes. But Sparky told us he was a stoner, he's been trying to go clean for months. And all Blood Elves are literally, incurably addicted to magic."
Shar'din's shoulders shook. He sat up. He was laughing open mouthed so hard he couldn't breathe, but tears were running down his cheeks. "It figures," he gasped. "It friggin' FIGURES. I finally manage to kick the dope for good-- I literally get a magic genie who gives me a chance to CURE myself of my mental hook all in one go-- and I make the one choice that screws it all up! I go from being a stoner washout to being a CRACK ELF!" He started pounding the grass with his skinny fists, his face twisted in fury.
Enough! Stop that! Agent shouted in exasperation, startling them all. You are NOT an addict!
But uncle, Zippy protested. The Sunwell… the Wretched…
Agent let out a burst of staticky noise that in another species would be a sigh of exasperation. This is going to take some explanation. It's my own fault I suppose for not making sure you children were instructed in the differences between Azeroth's lore and the actual reality… sit, everyone, this will take a bit of explaining. The three organic lifeforms present obediently sat on the ground. Okay, to begin at the beginning, originally the Night Elves and the Blood elves were the same race. They formed their civilization around the Well of Eternity, a literal font of arcane energy that poured into Azeroth. A ghostly illusion formed in the air, showing tall, elegant elves gathered around a titanic font of power.
Long version short, the Legion-- a race of Demons-- broke into Azeroth through the Well of Eternity... Huge winged demons began flying up out of the font, attacking and destroying everything they could reach. ...destroying it and utterly buggering up the planet, shattering the continents, leaving a maelstrom in the middle of the ocean, Arcana inflow dispersed over the whole world, basic colossal mess. The Legion was defeated and driven off-- the illusory elves rallied; they and an army of other races drove the demons away-- but the elves mistakenly thought that the Well of Eternity's arcane energy LED the Legion to Azeroth-- so they outlawed all use of arcane magic on pain of death.
There were problems with this. First off, not everyone liked the idea. The elves split into two factions: the Night Elves, who chose to live a more primitive, naturalistic lifestyle… and the High Elves, mostly the upper class and nobility, who refused to let their civilization fall back to the stone age. The remaining elves split into two groups and walked away from one another. One became blonde and pale-skinned, the other gained dark blue skin and hair and glowing eyes.
The second problem was that they were a bloody magical race, and weren't bloody meant to live completely without magic. Many of them-- the old, the very young, the sick-- started keeling over dead. The High elves took off and rebuilt their civilization elsewhere, and created the Sunwell-- a miniature version of the Well of Eternity that gave them a new magical font, which they believed was 'blessed by the Sun.' The blonde elves gathered around a new, smaller font of power, hands upraised. The Night elves either toughed it out or found alternative, "Natural" magic energies… Like the ones that Bayleaf uses. Which they attributed to their moon goddess Elune. Blue elves were shown gathering around giant trees, pools, and the like, drawing energy off them.
"Aren't they essentially the same stuff?" Hemlokk said, frowning.
Congratulations, you just figured out something that hasn't dawned on the arcanists of Azeroth in tens of thousands of years, Agent said dryly. Blame it on theological and ideological differences, if you like. What a farce; countless centuries of argument and strife, effectively over which source of arcanus had the least cooties.
"But isn't fel energy actually radically different..." Shar'Din said.
Isn't Gamma radiation radically different from visible light? Or infrared? Yet they're all on the electromagnetic spectrum. The variables for arcana are more complex than mere wavelength, of course, but they're still on the same chart.
Anyway, Thousands of years go by, and then the Scourge-- the undead armies of the Lich King, an underling of the Legion-- attack. Skeletal ghouls arose on a frozen tundra, at the command of a terrible figure in spiked armor. They corrupt the Sunwell with Fel energies, and it has to be destroyed. The zombies swarmed over the magic font till it finally shattered and exploded. And the High Elves, now calling themselves Blood Elves as a memorial to all their people who died in the war, start dying like flies again. In desperation they devise a method known as Mana Tapping, which allows them to tap magical artifacts and creatures directly to quench their need for arcane energy. The view zoomed in on a single Blood Elf, who was kneeling over a glowing crystal. The elf raised her hand; power flowed out of the crystal and into her, making her glow with power and health... but the crystal crumbled to dust. She repeated the action with an exotic plant, then with a small, obviously magical reptile, with equally terminal results. The plant withered; the reptile died.
Ironically, about this time the Demons invaded again and the Night Elves realize that the Legion never needed the Well of Eternity to locate Azeroth… it was just one easy access point. All their precautions had been completely in vain. So they start bringing back arcane magic into their civilization again.
But I digress… the problem with mana tapping was that, if they over indulged it… or if they tapped into too much of the wrong sort of arcana… they were in danger of becoming what they called "the Wretched," creatures that were little more than arcana-craving ghouls. And Blood elves in their desperation were willing to tap into almost anything-- even Fel energies. The female Blood Elf was shown again, tapping more and more sources for power, plants, animals, crystals, ley lines, demonic artifacts, demons themselves, other people-- growing more frantic with each feeding... till she became a sunken, withered thing, no intelligence in her eyes, obviously corrupted by the energies on which she'd gorged.
It's only fairly recent in their history that they finally rebuilt the Sunwell, which now channels arcana and Light energies, the purity of the Light finally alleviating their symptoms, healing them and letting them begin the slow climb back to normalcy. But they are still dependent on it, and their ability to tap sources of arcana, for their physical stability and their lives. The illusion shattered in a cloud of sparks.
"Sure sounds like a bunch of addicts to me," Shar'Din said bleakly.
Agent pulsed his light, a metaphorical roll of his eyes. Shar'Din, is a diabetic "addicted" to insulin or sugar?
Shar'Din looked at him in bafflement. Shar'Din, the elves are naturally magical beings. Saying they were "addicted" to magic is like saying a newt is addicted to water! The reason for the divide between the Blood Elves and the Night Elves is that some of the elves have a higher tolerance for a low-magic environment than others. When they had their little cultural divide with the fall of the Well of Eternity, the natural sorting algorithm was that those who couldn't handle a low arcana environment went with the "High" Elves, and those that could stayed with the Night Elves. A few thousand years of selective breeding-- and inbreeding-- in this fashion led to the High Elves breeding out their bodies' ability to control its internal arcane balance…the same way a diabetic can't control their insulin balance.
The parallels go even further-- Too much sugar in the diet of a diabetic will make them sick or even kill them, but they still need sugar in their blood to stay alive. too much insulin will do the same damage to them. Or simply dealing with their cravings by stuffing their face with whatever random food is handy. A Blood Elf who overindulges in mana, or who is indiscriminate about what mana they consume, will risk becoming one of the wretched… after which it is a swift painful spiral to death, the same as a diabetic who doesn't monitor their insulin balance or who gorges on foods with a high sugar content. And don't even ask what happens when they try to quench their needs with Fel energy, it is NOT pretty.
Shar'Din gulped.
I personally recommend you continue tapping the paladin of the party about once a day. The energy he channels is the safest and "healthiest" for you.
Shar'Din frowned. "I didn't notice my spells being any weaker or making ME weaker when I was jonesing," he said. "Did they not use enough power to affect me, or what?"
The processes by which you channel mana, and by which you metabolize mana, are interconnected but distinct, Agent replied. Like the difference between drinking water and washing with it or bathing in it. It grants you greater power… but with an obvious disadvantage.
"So why do they call it an addiction?" Hemlokk asked.
Ignorance. Azeroth's healers can routinely perform outright miracles… but their medical knowledge is somewhat lacking. They have no grasp of the idea of "insulin balance," much less anything more subtle. Suffice it to say there are few if any surviving diabetics in Azeroth.
Bayleaf rubbed his chin. "Having Greg channel you some Light mana is a good stopgap measure," he said. "But if the three of us put our heads together, we might be able to rig you up something-- like a miniature Sunwell..."
Shar'Din's face lit up with hope. "You'd do that for me?" he said. "That'd be awesome. I really didn't wanna run around trying to suck magic out of things. I get enough weird looks as it is."
Hemlokk giggled. "Well, you're Alliance now," she said. "We ought to take care of our own, right?"
Brian Laborne laughed. "Ah, naww, man, thanks for the offer," he said, looking at the floating image of an orc. "But I got enough trouble being black without trying to deal with being GREEN."
"Aww, go for the moose people!" Aisha said. "You'd make a great moose man--" She stuck her thumbs to the sides of his head and spread her fingers, imitating antlers.
"Thanks, but no thanks," Grue told the disappointed little lightling while his sister laughed her ass off. "I like my face and body the way they are, thanks. The powers are shiny, but so's mine. Giving up being human… or even just giving up my old face and body for a different one… that's a little too high a price for me."
And what about you? The lightling asked Aisha hopefully.
Aisha cocked her head, finger on her chin, and considered the offerings. "I would make a pretty fly night elf," she said. "But naah. I've seen what having powers gets you-- it gets you on the front lines in every fight. And I ain't a front line fighter. I'll just say in my little Crow's Nest and keep oversight on y'all."
Shen sat on the highest balcony of the pagoda, looking out over the "landscape," ruminating over what he had walked into, what he'd become a part of. As he sat there, the paladin (Greg something,wasn't it?) climbed up the stairwell and sat down beside him. They sat there in silence for a while, each wrapped up in his thoughts.
After a while, Greg spoke. "Nazis, huh."
"Mmm hm," Shen said.
"Heckuva thing," Greg said.
"Yeah. Heckuva thing," Shen agreed.
"Kaiser's your dad? What's he like?" Greg was as curious as he was artless.
"Like he is when he's Max Anders. A jackass." Shen said. He grinned a little bit. "With an even bigger poker up his keester."
"Cast iron one too, I bet. Heh." Greg said.
Shen chuckled.
"That's gotta be… weird," Greg said. "The only girl like you-- I mean, the only other panda, er, Pandaren..." he shrugged and waved his hands around clumsily.
Shen's eyebrows went up. "I hadn't really thought about that sort of thing," he said. "But yeah, my dating options sorta went from 'slim' to 'none," didn't they." At Greg's look he said, "Come on. She's a Nazi bigot, and she's loud and rude and pushy… Man, I hope the Agents aren't trying to play matchmaker or anything. "
"Ex Nazi," Greg pointed out. Shen just gave him a look. "I'm just saying… she's trying to change." He looked down at his hands in his lap. "All of us are trying to change." He looked up. "That's why I became a paladin," he said.
"To change?"
"To force myself to change. To have something to live up to, you know?" He hesitated. "I'm.. I know I'm a loser. I mean, I stink at social stuff, and I always stick my foot in my mouth, and there are so many of these rules, you know? And if the guys aren't laughing at me they're knocking me around for making them mad, and girls look at me like they stepped in a turd in their open-toed shoe.
So I just sorta said "screw it," and just kept my head down, played my video games and trolled people online and just-- hid in my room and didn't do anything."
Shen nodded. "I sorta turtled up myself. The world's not a friendly place."
Greg shook his head. "It gets worse."
"How could it get worse?" Shen said. He hastily clapped a paw over his mouth.
Greg didn't notice. He had a faraway look in his eyes. "There was this girl..."
"It gets worse," Shen quipped, huffing a rueful half chuckle.
Greg didn't dispute it. He just nodded. "She was pretty, and she was smart and… and she was nice to me…"
"You fell for her just because she was nice to you?" Shen said. "That's not really a good reason to chase after someone."
Greg gave him a bewildered look. "Why do people always say that?" he asked, a little heated. "No really; why? It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. What else in the world could matter about a girl? Like "nice" is the most common trait in the world, when actually it's the rarest.
"Do you know how rare "nice", KIND girls are? I went to a school with over a thousand students and all the time I was there I found ONE!" he held up a finger, face full of anger. "ONE!"
"And yet everybody talks about me like I'm just "settling"... like I'd really rather have a hot chick that treats me like crap than a girl who just treats me nice. I'd rather have a poor, stupid, ugly girl who was NICE to me, than all the pretty, clever, rich, bitch-faced bitches in that school put together."
Shen leaned back from Greg's pointing finger. "You have a point," he confessed.
Greg's finger dropped. "Yeah well I even screwed that up," he said, the heat gone from his voice. "Oh I was always sticking my foot in my mouth around her, that sort of thing. Didn't know when to shut up. The harder I tried, the more she seemed to think I was a creeper. I knew, I could tell.
"But what really screwed it up? She was being bullied. Worse than me. But I never helped her, I never spoke up for her, I never had her back. I just kept my head down and hid. They finally bullied her so bad she Triggered. And only then, when it was too late, I found some guts and told off some of the people who were bullying her. They laughed at me, beat me up and threw me in a dumpster.
"That's when Friend approached me and made the offer. And I became a paladin."
"Where is she now?" Shen asked.
Greg pointed with his chin. "Out there, running around with her werewolf boyfriend."
"You mean--"
Gregg nodded, then he sort of laughed. "I never had a chance anyway, did I" he said. "Bayleaf… Adrian… he came out of nowhere. Looked out for her. Took care of her. The day she Triggered, he was the one who found her and rescued her. He's her knight in shining armor, for real." He looked doleful.
Shen gave him an elbow and a grin. "Well, you're a genuine knight in shining armor now," he said. "Oughta make finding your Lady Fair a little easier."
Greg grinned back and snorted. "Until I mess it up."
Shen shrugged. "You mess up, you get up, you try again," he said, getting to his feet. "That's the real difference between you and all those other kids at your high school who stood and watched while Taylor was bullied.
"You tried."
In the shade of the arched bridge, Rachel stared at the images floating in front of her. The writing underneath were gibberish to her, but she got a good idea of what the words meant from what the little light said and what the pictures did. She brushed over them with her fingers. "So I can't be another wolf," she said stubbornly.
Afraid not, the little light said. They put a cap on it. Uncle said if we put any more wolf people in there, the people in charge will panic and think you're a new race or something trying to take over and they'll try to wipe you out.
"That's stupid," Rachel growled.
Yup. Bossy people are stupid lots. Rachel nodded. In spite of herself she found herself liking the little light; he kept things simple and didn't use twenty words when one word would do. It was easier to understand him.
Sooo… what do you want? In general, I mean.
Rachel thought it over. "I want to keep my dogs. I don't want to forget how to understand them."
We can do that.
"But… I want to understand people again." She actually looked sad for a moment. "I hate being stupid, and I hate not understanding people. I'm not dumb, I know that I'm… broken that way. I want to fix that. I want to understand people too."
We can do that too! This is easy! The little light sounded pleased.
"Can you teach me to read?" Rachel asked curiously.
Yup.
"And do math? And all that other stuff? Just... plug it into my head?"
Yup yup. We can make it so you can read, and write, and do maths. And there are other stuffs we can teach you, like… he began listing off all the trades and skills in the game. The words scrolled past, with pictures.
Rachel tapped on several, stopping the scroll. "Those are good. I want to feed my dogs. And not waste stuff that's left over, so that one's good too. And that one…"
The little light was bouncing up and down like a ball with excitement (generating quite a bit of interest from the dogs, who were lying at Rachel's feet.) Okay! And now the big question: what kind of BODY do you want to have? The eagerness was palpable, even to Rachel. Images of all the possible female forms rolled past.
Rachel snorted. "Those teeth are stupid. That one looks like something wolves would eat. That one would have to crawl everywhere…" Her brow furrowed further and she grumbled in disgust. "And most of them looks like the painter wanted to have sex with them."
Little Light distorted briefly and made a sound that in another species would have been a spit take. Uh, most females want to look pretty, he said. Just like most males want to look handsome and muscley. It's normal.
Rachel shrugged and rolled her eyes. "I could care less," she said bluntly.
So…. What DO you want your body to be?
Rachel thought it over. "….Strong," she said.
Strong people didn't get pushed around. Strong people didn't get hurt. Strong people didn't get forced to do things they hated, or made to feel weak and helpless. Strong people could protect what was theirs. She could care less about looking pretty or sexy… those kind of girls always seemed to be weak or crying for help. Strength was what mattered.
Most of the images cleared away, leaving three. Rachel frowned and flicked two of them away. She was NOT going to be a moose, or a cow.
So that's it? Little Light said. That's your final choice?
"Yeah," Rachel said. "So do it."
Okay, here we go….!
The world began to spin, then went dark.
Alec stood at the high point of the ornate bridge, under a little pagoda roof. The cosmic firefly buzzed around his head. "So you really can do it?" Alec said earnestly, his voice kept low. "You can change me so my father can never find me again."
We can change you so much he could never recognize you, Firefly clarified. You'll be a whole new person. Even a whole new species. Nothing will prove you were the old you. Not fingerprints, not blood tests, not DNA tests.
"And... immune to his powers?"
Firefly formed a tiny hand and made a "so-so" motion. You'll be resistant at the very least. You said his powers only worked on humans? Well, depending on your choice, you won't be human any more… you'll be invisible to his powers, basically . And you've seen some of the things Bayleaf makes. That tiara that Glory Girl wears now makes her immune to you. You can have the skills to make things like that--
"I'm sold," Alec said. He hadn't missed that bit with Glory Girl and her tiara no-selling him. Having the ability to make magical gadgets that would no-sell his family's powers? Maybe even being totally invisible to them? A complete new identity that literally went all the way to the bone? So in.
There are catches though.
"Kind of figured," Alec said, with a longsuffering sigh. "Lay 'em on me."
First off, you will lose all of your current powers. Permanently.
Alec pondered that. No big loss. His Master powers were as much an albatross around his neck as anything. If he used them the "safe" way, they were incredibly limited. If he used them at full power… as a way to puppeteer people… it made him Birdcage Bait. Do not pass go, go directly to the inescapable man-made villain hell for the rest of your (assuredly very very short) life. Besides, he kind of envied Capes who could actually affect the real world, instead of just people's heads. All the way around it was a trade up. "Fine by me," he said.
Second… I think you ought to know: your father's abuse of you… damaged you. Pretty severely. Firefly formed a little hand and poked Alec's forehead. Here. But when you are transformed, all that damage will be fixed.
"Well, that's good isn't it?" Alec said carelessly. He sort of wished he had his scepter to toss.
It will be… very, very uncomfortable. For a pretty long time. And… some of the pain may never really go away.
Alec gave Cosmic Firefly a cynical look. "I spent the first fourteen years of my life with a man who thought child abuse and molestation was a fun pastime for the whole family, and a family entertainment center was a coffee table covered in cocaine. He didn't have to beat me because my unpowered siblings would do it for him… when I wasn't curled up on the floor screaming because he'd blasted my brain with enough fear to burst my heart. I can cope with a day or two of pain."
Cosmic Firefly made no response. The screen began to scroll, showing different races, classes and other options. Alec's finger darted out and stopped the scrolling. "Wait, what's this?" He read down the description of the class. A grin slowly spread over his face. "Oh, I like this one. What's the range on his powers?"
Firefly told him. Alec grinned even wider. On the longest-range abilities, over half again the range of his father. "Sweet." He clicked.
Are you sure? Firefly prompted.
"Oh, definitely," Alec said. He was not in the least interested in closing ranks with his enemies and whaling away with swords and hammers. As far as he was concerned, the sniper rifle was the pinnacle of military thinking.
And now, your new race?
Alec flicked through the options. He briefly considered the gnome… but then he saw the next one over. "Oh, too perfect," he said. You couldn't possibly get further from his old human self than THAT. Added bonus: the aesthetic would drive Tattletale bonkers. She'd nearly gone ballistic the first time she'd seen an Ewok; this would drive her completely round the bend. He tapped it, sealing his selection and his fate.
Done, Agent said suddenly. The two we forecast have taken the agreement-- they're transitioning right now. It appears our visit is over. The scenery in the distance began to blur, like rain running down a camera lens. Good luck on the next leg of your journey, and-- oh dear.
"What? What's wrong?" Bayleaf said.
It appears your new compatriots will require some crisis care, Agent said.
"Agent, what. Is. Wrong!" Bayleaf barked angrily. The other visitors to the Temple began vanishing one by one as the landscape grew more misty and indistinct.
As part of the transformation to a new form, all damage to the old form is repaired, including neural damage, Agent explained, his words coming faster. I do not think your new friends are prepared for the shock.
"What do we do? How do we help them?"
The same thing you do for any soul that is in pain, Agent said. Listen carefully, I will try to explain...
The Temple of Five Dawns winked out.
The entire group came to with a start. They were all seated in the same places on the floor in the Lost Workshop; their bodies never moving as they astrally traveled. Groans and yelps arose as limbs moved and circulation returned. "Awugh, my butt," Tattletale lamented. "My butt is dead. Killed at a young and tender age. Leave me alone, I'm in mourning for my ass."
Grue moaned, shook his helmeted head and held it between his hands. "Man, talk about a freaky trip," he said.
"I've had worse," Shar'Din noted idly.
"What the hell?" Greg exclaimed loudly, jumping to his feet-- then falling on his butt as his numbed legs refused to work. He was still armored; it sounded like a junkwagon falling downhill. Everyone looked in his direction and immediately saw what had set him off.
"What the--"
"Holy--!"
"You took the deal, didntcha," Tattletale got in. Sitting where Regent and Bitch had been before their little jaunt were two decidedly nonhuman creatures. They were wearing the bog-standard breeches and tunic of the newly warcrafted. One appeared to be a bipedal fennec fox with a fluffy tail, sand-colored fur and enormous almond eyes, barely three feet tall counting his oversize ears. The other was a powerfully muscled orc female easily eight feet tall, with green skin, A long ponytail of black hair, small pointed ears and tusks at either corner of her mouth. He had a wooden bow strung across his back; she wore an enormous hunting spear with a bladed point large as a shovel. Both were staring at one another and at themselves with gobsmacked amazement. The dogs were gathered around the orc, whuffling and sniffing and acting as if they should recognize her but were still confused.
The next moment a stack of pizzas came walking through the back door. "Ugh. Kids? The Pizza guy was out front; he was having trouble getting the door-bot to give him the roll of cash. I had to-- AUGH!" Much can be said in praise of Danny Hebert, especially given all the surreality that had been thrown into his and his daughter's life in a few short months. But noone is prepared to turn around and face an angry she-orc wielding a spear fit for skewering elephants at five foot range. The pizzas went one way, he went the other, as he found himself backed up against the far wall. Panacea had been entering right behind him; she found herself mashed against the wall in a more-or-less instinctively chivalrous move by Danny to protect her from the angry green rage-monster now standing and dominating the room.
Glory Girl actually managed to save most of the pizza boxes from hitting the floor; Gallant gingerly picked up the bag of sodas that Amy had dropped and carefully defused them by cracking the bottle caps open a hair.
"Who are they??" Rachel bellowed (and she was QUITE good at it now). Judas, Brutus and Angelica surrounded her, growling at the stranger. The rest of the group were scrambling in confusion. Bayleaf and Hemlokk jumped between the group and the new arrivals, holding their arms out to keep them apart. "Peace! They're friends! This is Danny Hebert and Amy Dallon…. Glory Girl's sister--"
"And my father!" Hemlokk added fervently.
Everyone paused for a breathless moment. "Daddy, Amy, these guys are… um, the new guys. Shen, Lei Ling. Vindicator, Tattletale, Grue-- Aisha's brother-- Regent and Bitch. That over there is Gallant. And you know Aisha and Glory Girl."
"Pleased to meet you all," Danny said carefully, his voice bobbling through several octaves. His eyes never left the tip of that spear.
Bayleaf kept his voice firm. "Everyone relax. He's in on the Big Secret just like everyone else in this room. And he's not going to unmask or report anyone. And that's Panacea behind him--"
"Hello," Amy squeaked.
"So there's no need for things to get hostile. Bitch… Rachel… put the spear down and take a seat." He locked eyes with the orc-girl. For a mercy, she backed down, calming down. "All right," she said. "All right." She went and sat back down next to Regent, who was still staring at his own paw-like hands. A whistle and a hand gesture and Judas, Brutus and Angelica lay down next to her… their heads up and eyes alert.
"What… is this?" Danny gestured at the new faces as he carefully sat down. "There's more of you, then?"
Bayleaf nodded. He was speaking before he realized it. He pointed his way around the group. "Shen. Pandaren Monk… think 'Jet Li' and you've about got it. Formerly Theo Anders, Max Anders' son." Danny Hebert gulped; he'd been informed of the uglier secrets of Brockton Bay and knew darned well who Kaiser was.
"Lei Ling-- I believe that's the actual name you decided on?-- Shaman. Controls wind, fire, lightning and earth, can create elementals to fight for her. Formerly Rune, of the E88. Lung thought she'd make a good status symbol to own." Bayleaf grinned malevolently. "He thought wrong."
"He was a baaaaaad boy," Aisha quipped. Snickers and explosive snortgiggles greeted that line. Danny just raised an eyebrow and let them keep talking.
"Shar'Din Belore. Blood Elf mage. Classmate of ours from Winslow. Tailoring and Enchantment? Excellent." Bayleaf gave the Blood Elf a high five. "We'll have the flying carpets rolled out in no time."
"Flying carpets??" someone exclaimed. Bayleaf pressed on.
"Rachel Lindt. Aka Bitch or Hellhound. Orc Beastmaster now. Her name now is Lok'Tara, which means strength. And this is--"
"Regent. But call me Fennek. " The foxlike creature looked up at them, its mouth twitching in an agitated smile. "I'm a… Vulperan… hunter now. Marksmanship. I took jewelcrafting and engineering, by the way. I want some of those cool toys you make, Skinwalker. The ones that protect your head, if you know what I mean.
"Y'see, my old man… my old man is Heartbreaker--" his hands started to shake. He let out a little panting laugh and his eyes filled with panic. "I ran away years ago. And he doesn't like it when his toys get away, and I'm pretty sure he could never find me like this but with what he can do, what he did, what he did to me before--" he started laughing, a quick, desperate giggling. "What he MADE me do, me and my sisters and brothers, even to each other why can't I stop remembering--!!"
Fat tears pooled up in his eyes and tumbled down, streaking the fur of his face. Whimpering and wailing, crying like a wounded puppy, he tumbled to the floor and curled up into a ball, his tail over his face.
Understandably his partners panicked. "Regent!" Brian said, half rising to his feet. "Regent--Fen-- Alec!"
Regent's sobs rose to a wail, then almost to screams. To everyone's astonishment the first to respond was Rachel. She knelt down next to him and began running her massive hand down his back. "Why is he hurting?" she demanded, upset. "Make him stop hurting!" Her distress was almost as shocking as Regent's.
Panacea darted forward and placed her hand on his head, between his furry ears. His screams turned to sobs and moans, then to quiet murmurs as he fell asleep. His hands and feet twitched in time to his dreams. "There," Amy said. "He should sleep for at least a couple of hours..." They could all see the pity in her eyes.
Rachel continued petting him. She looked almost confused at her own reactions. Grue looked at Bayleaf. The anger was almost visibly boiling off him. "What's wrong with him? What did you do to him!"
It was Tattletale who answered Grue's question. Shocked, she looked up from where she knelt by Regent's side. "It's because they healed him," she said. "They healed his mind and he wasn't ready for it."
Bayleaf took a deep breath and nodded. "This is the aftermath of a lifetime of physical, mental, emotional and sexual abuse. His father, Heartbreaker, abused him and his brothers and sisters almost constantly with his emotion controlling powers. Alternated between indulging him with every vice-- drugs, sex, whatever-- and torturing him into near insanity, all before he was ten years old. A lot of casual evil cruelty, but mostly just trying to get him to Trigger."
"Holy God," Danny said. It wasn't clear whether it was an oath or a prayer.
Bayleaf pressed on, grimacing. "Once he triggered… after a session where he was hit with enough fear to make a grown man's heart burst… his father started making him assist in his crimes. Kidnapping, rape, torture, murder, you name it. All under dear Daddy's guiding hand. All of that-- it almost completely burned out his emotional centers. He's a functional sociopath; that he's not just as big a depraved psycho as his Dad is a testimony to his mental discipline.
"When the Agents gave him a new body, naturally they fixed everything… including his cauterized emotional centers. All it took was a reminder of his father and the floodgates opened.
"He's going to be like this for a while," Bayleaf said. "He's basically reliving all his worst memories. And it won't stop until he's gone through all of them. There'll be mood swings, flashbacks… they told me it would be several days at least while he readjusts to having a full emotional range again. They said to stay close, offer comfort… try to keep him from shutting off his feelings; that would delay his recovery."
"Jesus have mercy." Grue muttered. "I knew he was screwed up, but--" He looked around and took off his helmet. "Might as well, secrets are a joke around here," he muttered. He looked over to Bayleaf. "So whats' up with Rachel? I've never seen her show a crumb of sympathy for… pretty much anything that didn't have four legs. This another blowout?"
"Regent wasn't the only one with a damaged psyche," Bayleaf confirmed in a low voice.
"We know," Tattletale said. "Her power screwed up her ability to understand anybody but dogs--"
Bayleaf scoffed. "Tats, you're the worlds greatest detective but when you're off you're REALLY off," he said, amused. She looked offended, then puzzled. "Lisa, dogs have been running with humans for tens of thousands of years. Man's best friend, remember? They have no trouble understanding human emotions and reactions at all. if anything they're better at understanding people than people are. It's what they're known for!
"Rachel's ability to understand human beings was broken long before she Triggered. Start with a probable case of asperger's, toss a childhood full of abuse and neglect on top of that, and she was already empathically burned out. She didn't understand humans, and she didn't care. Dogs though, dogs were okay. Her power amplified her ability to understand dogs-- but it didn't do a thing to her human empathy."
He huffed in amusement. "Not only has her autism and Empathy Deficiency Disorder been fixed, her new powers are going to make things really interesting. She's a Beastmaster now. That means she's going to find her natural affinity for dogs just got a whole lot wider. As in, she'll be able to tame and train almost anything in the animal kingdom."
"Anything?" Hemlokk asked curiously.
Bayleaf laughed. "In Azeroth there are hunters running around with Acidic Slimes as hunting companions," he said. "I think between her neurons being reset and her new broad-spectrum animal empathy, she's going to find it hard NOT to understand people… she might even be a better cold reader than Tattletale, eventually.
"For now though." he added soberly. "They're going to both be kind of fragile. Even without that fracas earlier today, you're going to have to lay low for at least a couple of weeks..."
Brian snorted. "You think?"
Lei Ling snickered. "Hey guys, Glorious Leader here thinks we ought to lay low for just a little while. Gee, I dunno..." Bayleaf looked confused as the undersiders snorted and cackled. "Here," Lei Ling said when she saw his puzzlement. "Let me make it easy for you." She looked around and found, of all things, a hubcap and set it on one of the worktables, next to where Gallant and Glory Girl were salvaging the pizzas. Then she pulled out a velvet bag, undid the string and poured the contents out into the hubcap. A stream of dazzling red gemstones rushed out of the bag.
Everyone standing gathered around the worktable. "Holy flaming craptarts," Glory Girl said. "Are those rubies? Real rubies?"
Lei Ling nodded. "My sale price to the Yang Ban," she spat. "Seems Lung convinced them that a 'tanuki' would be a great PR buy. Wow all the back-hill peasants back home."
"You're a tanuki?" Shar'Din said, frowning in confusion.
Lei Ling gave him a patronizing look. "Not a chance, honey, my balls ain't near big enough." Gallant nearly choked on a slice of pizza. Glory Girl proceeded to pound him on the back to save him. "I made my escape and I figured those babies were rightfully mine, so I took 'em. Lung's going to have himself a heap of Yang Ban trouble for a while."
"How do we know the Yang Ban won't come after you, instead?" Greg pointed out. Lei Ling looked a little ill at that thought.
Danny shook his head. "Not likely," he said. "This amount, the Chinese Union Imperial and the YangBan consider throwaway money. It wouldn't be worth the trouble to come back for it if they dropped it on the sidewalk, much less in hostile foreign territory with a couple of criminal gangs fighting over it. The guy was probably here in the states for a really big deal and decided to pick you up as a bonus. Hate to say it, young lady, but you were practically an impulse buy." Lei Ling made a strangling noise that boded ill for any YangBan members she might bump into in the future.
"Well, they might prove..." Hemlokk picked up one gemstone between her clawtips. It suddenly began to glow. "A bit more valuable to US than to the average purchaser."
Bayleaf chuckled at the round eyed stares from the Undersiders. He snagged a slice of pizza and a red solo cup of soda. "well, we've laid it out on the table," he said to Grue. "What do you plan on doing?"
"Plan?" Grue snorted. "The Undersiders are down for the count. From what you've told us that turd Coil was planning on throwing us under the bus anyway… individually or as a group, depending on what gave him the best advantage. We got no resources, no sponsor, and more than likely no lair… and since "Lok'tara' can't beef up her dogs anymore, we don't even have transportation. "
"Whereas we have all of the above," Bayleaf said a trifle smugly. "So what do you say we take a week or two to rest, recuperate, re-equip and figure out the next step: Getting Coil's boot off your necks?"