1.4
Ugh, my head felt like Sophia played it like a drum. Aaaand things felt a bit chilly. Okay, time to take stock. I cracked my eyes open, I seemed to be in a warehouse with my left ankle handcuffed to a pipe close to the ground but it ran a good 8 feet along the wall before dropping back into the concrete. I'm also sitting on the ground and only wearing boxers. Oh, right. I was kidnapped. Five guys were deeper in the warehouse, four sitting around a cheap table with my folder of design sketches on it and one guy standing near the warehouse door. I couldn't get a great look at them but I think one was Mr. Tire Iron guy.
I let myself rant in my head for a good five minutes about idiots and stupid ideas like playing off a toy as tinkertech, brilliant. Once I finished my rant I went over some options. I wasn't being closely watched so I -could- make a run for it, but it would require quietly doing something about the handcuffs and escaping unnoticed. As far as I could tell the only door was being guarded... unless I wanted to open the giant shipping door which is probably about as silent as a herd of elephants. Okay, so that leaves diplomacy, fighting, or play the damsel in distress and hope to god someone can find me. I had a feeling these guys would be about as diplomatic as a particularly intelligent fungus. Maybe it was the attempted murder followed by stalking and kidnapping. Alright, that left fighting. I can -probably- manage fighting to disable, but then my 'secret identity' would be out before I even started. Then again who's going to believe these guys? Besides... if I do it right I may be able to manage it without them knowing who it was, or at least how it was done.
I kind of want them to ask me to build the stuff on the table so I can explain they kidnapped me to build a self loading toaster. Oh well, getting out of a life and death situation versus a bit of comedy, getting out of the life or death situation at all costs wins. I start crafting my Force Shield but keep it low power to keep the power orb invisible. Once the fighting starts I can fill it with mana. Next I create a small plate against the tooth latch of the handcuffs so I can open them. Finally I need to do two things at once, luckily They're pretty easy. Create an oval of light that just has to last a few seconds so it looks like a portal, and at the same time create an armor shell of light around myself so it'll move with me and pump it with mana so it'll last a good thirty minutes or until I dispel it. Yes it's silly, but it's not like there was a costume laying around for me.
I take a deep breath then build spells as fast as I can. The training has really payed off, I feel almost twice as powerful as I was Sunday, due to both growth and efficient spells, the Force Shield helped confidence too. I unlatched the handcuff from my ankle then released the spell for the oval 'Portal' at the same time light built up around me all at once. The entire warehouse suddenly flooded with light, one of the guys fell over backwards cursing (he was drinking and had already been leaning back on the back two legs of the chair), The others all looked up and for a few precious seconds they were at a loss, their meal ticket just been kidnapped from them by some Purity wannabe. Those couple of seconds I used to crank up my shield to max power leaving a glowing orb of Foxfire floating around me.
I let the smug roll off me as I start rapid casting high powered Foxfire at them without so much as moving my arms, each shockwave was like a punch at high end human levels. They scattered cursing and one screamed at Mr. Tire Iron "Damnit Leo! you said no one would come for the prick!"
I scored a solid hit to one guy's jaw and he went down like a sack of potatoes. The next blast hit the gun of another guy and blew it out of his hand towards the back of the warehouse and broke his finger. The pain staggered him enough for me to catch him with the next couple of shots, one to the stomach and one to his jaw. The guy by the door dove outside. The guy that had fallen out of his chair flipped the table to use it as cover. The last guy was running toward the door and blind firing at me. I need to work on aiming at moving targets, but I eventually brought him down, but more due to pummeling him with six shots all over and less to do with any sort of precision. One of that guy's bullets connected with my shield, flattened and fell, I breathed a sigh of relief to see it held up. It took a little over a quarter of the shield's power out. I refilled the orb that was floating along beside me as I walked toward the man still hiding behind the table. He heard me walking and when I got close he stood up and pointed the gun at my head yelling "DIE you son of a bitch!" and fired. He went white when he saw a flash of solid electric teal appear for a split second in the bullet's path only for the bullet to flatten and fall to the ground. The light *Plink* sounded like a death knell.
My fist wrapped in a solid shell of mana as I said "I cast fist." 'heh, always wanted to say that.' then stepped in and swung with a boost empowered punch to his sternum. I was surprised when I felt his ribcage give with a *crack* and he was tossed backwards a solid eight feet. "Shit... Would almost feel sorry for the guy if he didn't deserve it." I smiled and almost started laughing, it was actually pretty exhilarating to really cut loose and go all out, well, within non-lethal range anyway. I felt powerful. Just four days ago these guys absolutely terrified me and now I hardly had to worry. Hell I barely had to move. "Yeah but they're just normal people. If I'm going to get into this I'll need a hell of a lot more to deal with all the shit out there..."
I tensed when I felt someone behind me. My aura had grown but that was still really close without making a sound. I spun and jumped back creating a high powered Foxfire over my shoulder and took a fighting stance, only to see someone fairly short and dressed in black aim her crossbow at me, which seemed to have a real arrowhead, vicious, and she said "Take the shot, I dare you. I'm a ward, asshole."
I dispersed the Foxfire but kept my shield up and raised my hands. "Ah, well that makes this easier, these guys kidnapped a guy they thought was a tinker, probably because of those designs" I tilted my head toward the scattered scratch-paper and napkin 'blueprints'. "I saw them dragging the kid in here so I popped in to give him a hand, he should be on his way home now."
I could almost hear her growl, that was a little strange. Maybe she was upset I took the guys down? She asked "What's your name? I can't just put 'Shitty Purity meets Myrddin'".
My brain locked up. I need a name and it's something that could just STICK forever, and now I have to come up with something off the cuff. I couldn't get my mind in gear so I grabbed the first name that came to mind, I barked it out in my nervousness "Oblivium!... Erm... can we make that 'Tentatively Oblivium'?"
She scoffs and finally lowers her crossbow. "Figures, a rookie. You let one of the fucks get away. I had to hunt the bastard down. I've been hunting these guys for a few days, they caused some trouble in merchant territory a few days ago. Idiots tried to sell a toy gun and called it tinkertech. Place got shot up when the deal fell through."
I nod, from what I could tell these guys were pretty dumb, apparently smart enough to track me down and get into my locker at school without getting noticed though. That's unnerving. "Alright, I'll let you... Tie them up or whatever you do, I have to get going." I felt my aura, it had refilled during the talk. Satisfied I turned around and aimed myself at the door.
The girl spoke up "Hey, take one of these, they'll chew me out if I don't give you one." She was holding up a card that apparently had info about joining the PRT and a couple of phone numbers. Heh, professional capes have business cards.
"Eh, how about no but if anyone asks me I'll say you gave me one?" As she started to speak up I had already hit myself with a mid power full body boost, it took all I had just for my legs to keep up with the burst of speed, but it was definitely faster than sprinting. I dashed into an alley and thanked my luck the guys had left me with my shoes. I dashed in and out of alleys until I finally found one that was both uninhabited and had no prying eyes. I dispersed the shield and light aura, leaving me looking like your average every-day streaker wearing only boxers and shoes. Oh well, nothing for it. I start jogging home and hope no cop grabs me. That'd be a hell of a note, kidnapped and stripped only to get away and have a cop try to grab me for indecent exposure.
My luck held and I managed to get home without any further incidents beyond some staring, gossiping, giggling, etc. Somewhat expected. When I stepped inside I called out "Mom, dad, I'm home!". My mother was holding her phone, standing in the entryway and giving me the guilt glare only mothers can manage... though that lasted all of two seconds before she realized I was only in boxers.
The glare changed to confusion followed by resignation. "Alright, get dressed, then we're having a family meeting where you're going to tell us what happened in detail." I nodded and headed up to my room to grab some clothes and started debating with myself about what to tell them. It's not like I don't trust them. I guess I didn't tell them about my power because of general paranoia, if no one knows no one can say anything, but now Taylor knows anyway and it'd probably be easier on me in general if my parents knew about it. Besides, they have pretty much gotten to the point that they let me make my own choices. Who knows, maybe they can help me train.
I came downstairs to the living room. When my parents looked at me I raised my hands to forestall any questions. "Before we start, I have something to tell you." I point at my mother knowing that look "I'm not gay. Rather, I'm teal." The second they spend puzzling that out I make a ball of Foxfire. They both look thoroughly shocked for a solid minute as I let them absorb the new information and fit it into their worldview. Mom holds her hand out to dad. He sighs and pulls out his wallet and hands her a $20. I laugh "And what was that bet?"
Mom took the opportunity with a big smile "He said the glow under your door was you welding. I bet him you were playing with yourself." Both my father and I choked.
I had to hide my face in embarrassment "Mom, you can't say things like that!"
Dad recovered saying "I'm surprised you haven't gone blind and grown hair on your palms. I hear that happens if you do it too much."
I just let my shoulders droop "You two are terrible role models, no wonder I turned out the way I did."
Dad looks to mom "So, our son can make fancy glowy green-blue christmas lights. Think that'll save us money this year?"
Mom gives him a considering look then says "We can work that out later. We'll have to put off the teasing until after he explains why he got home both practically naked and late."
Taking that as permission I started my story from the events that opened the power to the situation that happened in the junkyard and how that mini-gang stole the toy they were convinced was tinkertech (Dad cracked up at that), then on to Taylor figuring out, though I had to fudge some details here. I did promise Taylor I wouldn't tell anyone her secret after all. They already knew about the Sophia stuff so I skipped ahead to tonight where the same guys from the junkyard that stole the toy gun kidnapped me because they had gotten my designs for a self loading toaster and assumed I was a tinker, possibly with some feelings of revenge mixed in based on what I heard from the ward I met tonight, my father informed me it was Shadow Stalker. Tinkers are incredibly valuable since their tech can be used by anyone so the guys thought they'd make it big somehow... maybe they thought they'd sell me or something. That inevitably lead to the fight, which seemed to both impress and unnerve my parents. I gave them a few minutes to let everything sink in.
My father was the first to digest the story, "Alright Will, what's your plan? Join the wards, stay rogue, make your own team? God forbid join a villain group or gang?"
I shrug saying "Honestly I hadn't thought about it much, was more focused on trying to get to the point I could protect myself when it inevitably gets out. I guess I'd prefer to stay rogue just so I can do my own thing. Once I get strong enough I want to do away with the secret identity nonsense, it just seems like too much crap to keep up with. I guess that's more up to you guys though. I don't want to get you guys involved in a bunch of crap if I piss someone off, and I'm really good at doing that apparently."
Mom spoke up "Will, you'll need to keep the secret identity for more than just our protection. If you don't have one you're basically always going to be on call, something happens around you people will be pissed if you don't do something about it even if you can't. I know you don't care for other people's opinions but it -will- affect you."
I nod understanding the situation, even rogues are default 'heroes' when in costume. "Alright, so I need a costume because boxers and light just don't work for me. And having a costume would at the very least let me practice without the whole 'revealing my identity' thing."
Dad looked thoughtful "I dunno, you'd think it'd be freeing"
Mom nods "If I could fly I'd -so- go that route, no perverts in the sky."
Dad gives her a look "If you could fly there'd be one."
Mom glares at him then looks at me "Give me a bat." and she holds out her hand. I shrug and comply making a bat with the consistency of nerf foam and a large core in the handle so it'll last several hits before dissipating. She smiles and thanks me before beating my father with it until it turns to wisps of light. "That's actually pretty relaxing".
My dad, not much the worse for wear other than messed up hair, says "Will, we'll support you whatever you choose, but you have to talk to us when you need a hand alright? I'll talk to some guys I know, I think I can get you some tinker made ballistic cloth and a bunch of optical fiber for looks. If your mother can work up the motivation to bring out her sewing skills and you can stop playing with yourself long enough to get some designs down I think we can manage to get some plastic parts and hollow frameworks made, I'll bet we can get you a cool looking costume within a week or two."
Mom nodded then said "On a slightly more immediate note. Let's head to the police station and pick up Will's stuff. I doubt they'd be keeping his clothes and phone as evidence."
I jump up and disperse the Foxfire I still had floating around "Yeah, and they might give me my notebook back and you guys can add some ideas to it."
The trip to the police station was pretty straightforward. We had to wait a good while and I had to give a statement and identify the guys that had kidnapped me. The one I had punched was in the hospital with two broken ribs and some fractures. When asked about the 'blueprints' I had to explain it was a combination bread maker and toaster that auto loaded two slices of the baked bread when you hit the lever. Not exactly the most dangerous device in the world. I'm starting to think Lady Fate is just trying to screw with me and get me a Tinker 1 rating. Once the statement was sorted, questions asked, and it being confirmed that they keep the blueprints as evidence, I got everything else back.
The trip home we talked about some ideas on stuff I could do to practice and came up with a list of other commands to try to get working. My father was more interested in the 'design of spells' while my mother just wanted me to use the spells, she didn't care about all the technical stuff. Once we got home she grabbed my ear and dragged me to the basement and told me she was locking me in there until I could fly and bring her with me, all the while dad was laughing... Right up until she locked the door with both of us in the basement.
Dad looked at me "You can open that without demolishing the door right?"
I averted my eyes "Erm... not really, I have to have a very clear image of what I'm making. The complexity of a key is difficult enough I doubt I'd get it perfect in the first place, but I also don't know what the shape of the key -is-"
He spent the next five minutes banging on the door yelling for mom to let us out.
After that everything was pretty much back to normal, we had dinner then I went back to my room and did my meditation training until bed. I laid awake for a while pondering where life was going to go from here. Thinking about it I guessed a lot would depend on the meeting with Taylor this weekend.