I awoke slowly and rolled over, not wanting to get up. Several groggy-filled minutes later, I stumbled out of bed bleared-eyed to the bathroom. Taking a long pull of water and splashing my face a few times, I got to work on getting ready for the day. Cooking breakfast while brushing my teeth was a novel experience; however, several minutes later, I sat down and ate oatmeal while taking sips of water. L
ooking over my Grimoire, I saw that I had six healing potions again and tucked one in my pant pocket. Setting my bowl and cup in the sink and looking around at the mess of my apartment, ritual circles made out of dried glowing faintly, clothes on the floor, and a sink with dirty dishes.
Stretching, I got to work, setting my dirty clothes in a pile to be washed, pulling out the often used sponge. I cleaned up the blood and tucked the now mana-filled ruby away. Finishing up by tidying my bathroom and having a quick shave.
My attempt at a mustache needed to be cleaned up. Looking over my apartment with satisfaction, I picked up my clothes and headed to the washer and dryer that the condo had on site.
Dropping my clothes in the washer and set it to run on fast. Humming a little to pass the time, a woman clad in loose-fitting clothes, long blonde hair, and circles under her eyes came up with a bin full of clothes.
"You're new here," She said, giving me a tired but broad smile
"That I am," I replied, extending a hand for a shake. Balancing the bin on her hip, she gave me an enthusiastic handshake before counting.
"Well, it's nice to have you here. My name is Jessica. I live a few doors down from you. If you need anything, don't be afraid to holler." Flashing a bucktoothed smile back, I replied.
"Thanks for the offer. I'll let you know if I need help. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask either."
"Course, we help each other out around here, 'sept Ronald but he's an old drunk, so don't bother to listen to his gloom and doom."
The washer gave a small ding; pulling the sopping wet clothing, I placed it in the dryer and started it on fast. The waiting soon turned awkward as the conversation topics had dried up.
Picking up my now dry clothes, I gave Jessica a slight nod on my way back to my apartment. Closing the door with a harsh bump from my hips, I lay the clothes on my bed and, after a few minutes, hung them up in my now much more cramped closet.
Flipping through the Grimoire, I knew I would need a power source for my magecraft. I had the language portion down as I spoke german and the knowledge portion due to the eight years of information held within my mind and the book. My current issue was of power, and while I could bootleg it with gems and Formalcraft, that wouldn't be sufficient in any situation that required quick action.
I had a few options. I could continue using my blood to kickstart my rituals and use the city's mana for the rest; however, that would throw up a huge red sign that a magus was here. While I didn't know if that would be detectible by people in the city, I wouldn't put it past Armsmaster or Dragon to have some sort of sensor that could find out where I was doing my rituals.
The other option would be sacrifice, using the life force of a person or animal to conjure a boost of mana that would power most rituals almost instantly. The downside is that I would need to murder something for that power, and while animals were easy to acquire, living people were not.
I froze as a thought crossed my mind. Shards are massive living supercomputers that could power reality-defying powers for hundreds of years. Eidolon lasted decades with a jury-rigged shard and was considered the most powerful man in the world.
What power would somebody like Lung's hold? The new plan was to find a parahuman and figure out what I could do with the energy from a shard. As I was pacing around, I could feel the book burbling with more energy that soon faded away, the potential having grown slightly more significant.
Wrenching my thoughts back on track and riffling through my apartment for my mechanical pencil and notepad, I started to list who would be the easiest to find. Top of the list was Kaiser, aka Max Anders, and he would be in the Medhall building most of the day; the wards were at either Winslow or Arcadia High.
I knew that Vista was at some other middle school; however, kidnapping a Ward was right out. The Fallen could do that because they had Mama Matthers who would stop any attempt to rescue the kids. Taylor Hebert would most likely be at home in the docks or Winslow. Amy would be at the hospital, Arcadia, or home, and Victoria would be with her.
I didn't know where members of the Protectorate lived, and attacking the Rig was suicide right now. Lung and Oni Lee would be around the Asian community, which was massive and take too long to search.
Pissing the Empire off while a noble endeavor would likely have me end in a body bag before the end of the week, so they were out. The Merchants weren't big yet and were still hiding underfoot, and getting on Coil's radar would earn me a job with a 9mm retirement policy. Chewing the end of my mechanical pencil, I looked over my notepad while mulling over a plan.
It looked like my best bet was to find one of the Merchants; however, that would be difficult without a method to track them. Flipping back through my notepad to the list of civilian identities.
I had written down under Merchants was Sherrel Baily for Squealer and Adam Mustain for Skidmark. A ritual would be able to lead me to them as long as they were within a few blocks; the lack of materials from either of them would reduce the scope and efficiency of the ritual.
Pulling out the barebone supplies, I needed two things. The first is a method to take the parahumans out without killing them. While my knife plus a healing potion could do the trick, it was too risky as the potions healed one mortal wound, which would set us back to square one if they weren't tied up before the potion was applied. I also didn't know enough about medicine or using a knife to disable somebody without killing them.
The second option was to figure out how to get Hypnotism to work and then hypnotize them. The issue with that plan was that I needed to get Hypnotism to work, which was hard because my only method of Magecraft right now was Formalcraft which was either instant effects or long-term effects over an area.
The knife worked because it was a simple reinforcement, and I knew a smidgen of Jewelcraft to kludge together a ritual to store power in a gem even if the ratio was awful.
Grabbing my Grimoire and flipping to the Magus Education page, I settled down for a read on how to attempt my goal. Around 45 minutes later and 2 two pages from my notepad, I had a solution.
I would need to carve a small ritual circle into an object to hold a gem filled with mana near it and say a code phrase. This solution brought up its share of issues: where could I get something that. would hold up to the rigors of mana passing through it, but I could also carve into.
Although technically, writing was carving a minor groove into paper, and while it would be single-use, if I were fast enough, I could get both of the parahumans before they could react. Step one would be to acquire all the ritual ingredients which I had in my flat.
The next step was to set up both rituals because once I finished them, I would be one a ticking clock, which according to my newfound knowledge, would last around two to three hours for the pages and about twice that for the locater. Lastly, walk around the docks to find where exactly Skidmark and Squaler were located.
Laying out a sheet of crisp paper inside a circle of my blood, I wrote Tiefschlaf, which meant deep sleep, in my blood and placed my ruby on the first paper.
"Come old ghosts soak this paper with sleep come and soak come and soak!" I chanted in german, my voice resonating and bouncing off the small walls of my flat. The symbol on the paper started to glow as the ruby dimmed slightly. Quickly I set aside the first paper and repeated the process on the second paper causing my gem to dim to around fifty percent brightness.
Stowing the papers in my hoodie pocket, I got to today's second and more difficult portion. I pulled out an old compass that I had found in an old cabinet. I then flipped it over and started to write two names on the back, this time in pen, as using my blood would link the ritual to me.
I chanted again, setting the compass on the counter inside the original blood circle and my much-diminished ruby to empower the papers.
"Reveal these two find them where they have hidden reveal the living bring me to them"
Breathing slightly harder, I reached out and picked up the compass. The needle was pointing towards the docks into the city instead of north. Walking around in my apartment failed to change that, and my mouth curved into a slight tight-lipped grin.
Sliding on my shoes, hoodie, and side bag, I walked outside, closing and locking the door behind me. Compass in hand, I started to walk the streets of Brockton Bay until the compass could get a full lock onto the location of the two capes.
While walking down a primarily abandoned street mirrored by empty warehouses and empty alleys, I felt the book start to grow a new page and, at the same time, felt a burning in my chest.
Stumbling into a nearby alleyway, I pawed for my Grimore as my gaze grew hazy. My chest felt like something deep inside me had been lit aflame. Flipping to the new page, I felt the burning start to course through my body as strange weightlessness came over me. The new page was labeled Bullet Patterns, and as the burning petered off, I started to read intensely.
My Grimore describes how Monsters could use magic and I being a Monster, had an innate understanding of White Magic, which is using one SOUL to conjure attacks to strike at an opponent's SOUL directly.
Sliding down the wall as my breathing grew heavy. I cupped a hand over where my heart would be (dust and magic). I felt a faint pulse as if a heart was beating; however, holding my fingers, my wrist didn't elicit a response, and after holding my breath for a few minutes, my fears were realized several times over.
I was a monster in body and SOUL. A single well place strike with the proper killing intent, and I would fade away like the dust I was made of now. However, as I held out my hand and thought of my trigger (a flick, click, and flame), my hand held a small knife; it was light, and after letting go, it vanished into the air.
That meant I could use that eight-year Magecraft education that was crammed into my head. While most of it focused on Formalcraft, I still was proficient at the other basics. Running through a few other tricks, I determined that while I could feel a small tug at where my heart used to be, I could use a decent bit of Magecraft before becoming tired.
Continuing down my path, I followed the compass until it reached a warehouse filled with lights and sound. Creeping closer, I put an ear to the wall I listened in.
"Alright, listen up, you shitcrumbs!" A voice shouted out
"We all know the difficulties of dealing with the other cumstains that prevent us from selling." At that, there were muted sounds of affirmative.
"So here's the plan; Squealer here will take us to the Empires Storehouse. Once they grab everything and toss it in the tank, it's time to sell and party!" At that, the sounds grew louder as people started to move around inside the warehouse before the voice cut back in
"Don't forget if anybody asks who did this, let them know it was the Merchants!"
It seemed I had interrupted the merchants heading out to steal drugs. Taking a peek inside the room, I knew I was outclassed, holding upwards of fifteen people, not counting the two capes. While I could fight well with my new magic, a single hit could put me down, and I didn't possess the skills to use my Magecraft in active combat.
However, taking another peek, this room seemed to be well kitted out for a simple hideout, and it was likely that the merchants would come back here to divide up the spoils of war. Hearing footsteps approach my entrance, I ducked into a nearby alley as I heard a massive vehicle starting up.
With a noise not unlike the roar of a loin noise, a behemoth of a tank almost flew out of the entrance, and belching smoke started to barrel into the inner city with a laughing Skidmark on top.
I knew that I would have to act quickly to plant a trap that would catch all of the Merchants when they came back. I knew from Papyrus that attacks could stick around after he conjured them, and I hoped that was the same here.
I took a brief moment and soon, floating next to me were several german words, all paper-thin and laying themself on the ground around the warehouse. Laying the schlafen words down took an hour after filling in the in-between with blood. Tossing aside my third healing potion, I applied one of the imbued paper at my feet inside a smaller circle linked up with the larger circle. I then settled in for a long wait.
Powers Gained
Bullet Patterns:Magic is part of being a monster- It's literally a part of you! As such, all monsters have at least a rudimentary understanding of White Magic- That is to say, they can use magic to attack. Like almost all magic, this magic directly attacks the SOUL of an opponent and does not actually physically harm them- They might show bruises, cuts, or other superficial signs of damage, but otherwise the pain is all felt on a spiritual level. Since magic is so tied to their being, a monster's innate magic is invariably representative of their personality or appearance- A frog-like monster might use flies to attack, a skeleton might use bones, or a dog might use... dog-shaped attacks. This innate magic is typically rudimentary and easy to avoid, but many monsters prefer to use their bullet patterns as a way of expressing themselves rather than use them as actual attacks.