Mush was… depressingly easy. A slow, rather plodding hulking mass versus a fast, maneuverable and long-ranged flyer? I could literally just hover above him and rain down light bolts until the man stopped moving.
Although, despite being part of the Merchants, Mush wasn't completely stupid. By leveraging his weight and arms, he could lift heavy objects and chuck them at me. Though they were by no means fast enough to actually pose a threat. And if he tried to spin around to gather enough speed, it was easy for me to snipe his arms and make them snap, sending the weights flying through the street.
"Man. I thought you'd be… harder?" I muttered as I continued raining down blasts upon blast on him. I was keeping it to mostly weaker strikes since the stronger ones are likely to punch through the squishy flesh underneath. However, the weaker blasts also didn't seem to be doing much in terms of damage.
Another mass of trash flew into the air and a quick strafe made it soar over my head. Clenching my fists, I unleashed a blast that punched straight through Mush's shoulder, sending broken fragments everywhere. The arm connected to it fell off and Mush yelled out a cry of anger. Frowning slightly, I watched as junk slowly recomposed and pulled themselves into a new limb.
Though I guess I could applaud his tenacity. He was really trying to sell the fact that he was trying to attack me to prevent me from noticing the ambush.
Oh right. There was an ambush. Did I mention that?
Like I mentioned above, I was his worst match up given that I could reasonably stay out of reach while raining hell on him. So there must be another reason why he was fighting me. Loremaster provided that he also really wasn't putting his all into the fight despite his words and actions. So then why wasn't he?
He was saving his strength then. For what? Either because he was injured but that couldn't be right. If he was, then he wouldn't pick a fight in the first place. Or he was waiting for reinforcements. I found that the latter was the more likely scenario. So, while fighting and flying around, I kept an eye on the surroundings.
With Savant's Understanding granting perfect recall, I could easily spot and pick out small differences in the surroundings and use them to figure out the position of all the 'hidden' helpers. So far there were only four over the course of five minutes. I thought there'd be more but I guess these few were just in the area I suppose.
Dodging another ball of trash, I knew that it would take at least another seven seconds before he could gather enough mass to throw another trash ball, and another six to bring it to speed to actually be a threat. Making note of all the hidden Merchants, I quickly fired off short beams of light to those locations.
Two were caught off-guard as the laser blasts punched straight through their hidey-holes. The force rocketing them back and slamming their bodies into ventilation shafts and cracking rather painfully against concrete. One was peeking out and dodge immediately as I fired. He did manage to get away slightly, though the beam caught his leg instead and snapped the knee with a sickening crack.
The last Merchant was the most unfortunate, like the previous one, he saw the attack coming and moved out of cover. But not entirely. Instead he raised his pistol in an attempt to fire back, only for the laser blasts to catch him straight in the arm. Fortunately, it was a palm blast rather than fists like the previous two. Unfortunately, it still caused his arms to collapse and pull the trigger.
I grimaced as the gunshot echoed out through the air. A thin line sliced across his cheek as his pants rapidly darkened. Staring at him, he looked straight at me before sprinting away, his gun forgotten on the rooftop.
Glancing at my fists, I let out a low whistle. "Okay… fist blasts are still stronger than I thought." I was pretty sure they weren't dead. Most of the force of the blast should have bled off when breaking the walls between it and them. However, there wasn't any guarantee that they wouldn't just bleed out on the rooftops.
Their screams echoed through the relative silence of the Boat Graveyard, earning the ire of the current parahuman with me. "You bastard! You'll pay for this!" Mush launched another boulder of trash at me. "The Merchants will–"
I hovered a little lower before hitting the trash heap with a double fist blast. The combined force pierced straight through and caused it to crumble apart long before it could strike me. "Buddy. Pal. You're the one who attacked me. I was minding–" I blasted another trash pile apart. "–my own business here."
Now that the ambush was thoroughly broken, I now needed to ensure that they didn't die. Would be pretty annoying if the PRT labeled me as a villain because of it. But now I had to take down Mush non-lethally as well.
Well, bashing my metaphorical head against the wall wasn't going to make this any faster. Dodging around, I kept to Mush's blindspot while pulling out my taser. Taking a few potshots, bits and pieces of his covering were blown apart, revealing a rather exposed man underneath. Looping around, I tried to tase the man but trash kept breaking the link between the taser and his skin.
He was instinctively pulling trash to cover himself even while being shocked… I continued to circle around, while occasionally tasing Mush when I spotted an opportunity.
"You fucker! I'll be sure to drug you up and feed you to the fucking–" Another blast to cut him off, this time I swept my laser across his body, carving a trench across his 'armour' and pushing him back. Stowing my taser away, I took advantage of his momentary disorientation. Shooting forward, I used my gloves to knock away bits and pieces of his armour as well as any errant attacks coming my way.
Stopping just before his body, I pointed my palms directly at Mush's main body. "See ya." I muttered as I activated both gloves. The resulting blast slammed into the center mass of Mush's golem body, before pushing through and expelling his rather pudgy-looking human form out. Without Mush to hold its form, the trash monster rapidly crumbled apart.
Hovering over, I looked over Mush's body and grimaced. Pink-skinned goblin indeed. How the hell did genetics even make this? My lips curled in disgust from the stank as well. It felt like ten times worse than a garbage bin and it seemed entrenched in his body as well. The man was naked as well which I wasn't sure was better or worse for me.
At the very least, he wasn't showing his junk in the air.
He looked pretty out of it as well. Nudging him with my foot showed no reaction and I wasn't really willing to touch him more than I should. His chest was still rising and falling too so he wasn't dead. Pulling out my taser, I shot Mush a few times and his body shook but no response either.
Good.
Checking on the gangsters, most of them were still alive. The two who were slammed into other objects on the rooftop were gone. The broken leg dude had crawled a distance away but gave up moving any further. And the piss boy had run off somewhere. There was a thin trail of… fluids leading out but I wasn't about to follow that right now.
Landing by the broken leg dude, I raised an eyebrow as he pointed a gun at me. I kept my Pixie Dust up the moment I sensed any intention to harm and my gloves kept glowing with crimson light as I floated closer to him. "Are you serious?" I asked dully. "Drop your weapon."
The man swallowed. I could feel him getting unnerved and so I just needed to put a little bit more pressure onto him and…
He shivered and tossed the gun aside. "I surrender!"
Good. I picked up the gun and tossed it aside, skidding across the rooftop. Not gonna touch a junkie's gun. Looking back over to him, I tried to figure out what to do with him. I had zero medical skills and the knee was jutting out of his skin at an awkward angle. But outside of a thin trickle of blood, it didn't seem like he was bleeding too badly. The man took deep breaths as he stared up at me in fear. Cocking my head, I felt his fear spike as I pulled out my phone and dialed the emergency hotline.
"911, what's your emergency?" The operator's voice came over the phone.
"I got a cape fight, down by the Boat Graveyard. Someone's knee broke at an angle and is jutting out of the skin…" I trailed off.
"You're the one who broke it!!" The man rather loudly screamed.
"And you're the one who tried to ambush me with guns. I'm well within my rights of self-defense." I replied. "Anyway, I'll need an ambulance and maybe a police car." I rattled off the address and hung up.
Turning back to the man, I was about to tell him to stay put when I heard a loud engine noise in the distance. And it was getting louder by the second. Narrowing my eyes, I took back up to the air and quickly scanned around.
The Celestial Forge awakened yet again. Latching onto the lowest star of the Lewd Magi-Tech Constellation, I got 'Research'. Just research. Which improved my ability in mixing Magic and technology. Well, when I eventually got around to dealing with Thoth's Notes, I was going to be quite busy I suppose.
My eyes quickly caught sight of what could be reasonably described as an affront to vehicle design. Eight wheels, four large and four small, with a chassis that looked to be three different chassi(? chassises?) welded together like a Frankenstein's Monster and an engine that didn't so much as 'rumble' as it did alert everybody within a four block radius of its presence.
Not to mention the weaponry. Just from a glance, there was something like a tank cannon jutting out from the top as well as several machine guns and enough spikes to put a porcupine to shame. Grimacing, I quickly started circling around as the cannon swung around to take aim at me.
"You limpdick–" I tuned out the voice of Skidmark as he started shouting through what I expected was a speaker system somehow embedded into the vehicle itself. Taking aim, I maxed the output of the gloves and unleashed a bright crimson beam that slammed into the… vehicle's shield. A shimmering blue dome appeared around the vehicle, causing the beam to break apart and scatter or slide off without any visible damage.
Skidding to a halt, the entire vehicle lifted up slightly as the momentum carried it before collapsing back down. I could hear the suspension system absolutely dying as it bounced on its springs and every part of my body prickled at the sound of metal screeching. Throwing a few more short beams, the forcefield rendered it mostly ineffective.
"I need to figure out how it works then." I muttered to myself.
A small group of Merchants spilled out from the vehicle, and quickly ran over to the pile of trash I left Mush in. Cursing, I was sorely tempted to stop them but I didn't particularly care about Mush given his power set. Instead, I was a lot more interested in Squealer's car. And maybe Squealer herself.
A vehicle based tinker, coupled with my Forge-given tank, sounded like a great match. And would certainly give my tank a lot of staying power in higher-tier fights. Like say in major battles with highly destructive abilities being thrown around.
But first, dealing with the vehicle itself.
The shield was the biggest problem. Currently, my best weapon against it wasn't doing much to it, and if that was the case, I doubted my taser would do any better. Dodging the main tank cannon, I saw the air ripple for a moment before it slammed straight into my body.
An incredibly loud and destructive boom rocked my head, knocking me out of the air and deafening me to the world. Wincing, I reached up to feel a trickle of blood running down the side of my ears. Working my jaw, I could feel Gourmet Cells repairing the damage as vague noises started to fill the absolute silence.
Okay, so they had a sonic cannon. Not sure where that came from…
With Pixie Dust, I immediately started moving the moment I had recovered enough to do so. Just a second later, another ripple impacted the area I was in, kicking up dust but otherwise incredibly hard to spot. Skidmark was shouting… something, though I wasn't paying too much attention to it. He was probably gloating about 'his' sonic cannon as if it wasn't Squealer who made it.
Getting in close, several guns pointed towards me but swept my hard light beam across the surface, knocking all of them awry. Spinning around, I launched another sweep towards the Merchant team who was recovering Mush, knocking them onto the ground. Glancing at the massive tank-truck, I dodged out of the way as it suddenly barreled through and punched a new hole in the warehouse behind me. Watching it pull out, the tank barrel spun around and reoriented itself as best as it could at me.
However, by sticking closer, it was impossible for its barrels to aim directly at me. Instead, Squealer had to constantly try and reposition herself. However with Pixie Dust's maneuverability I could easily stay close like a fly on a glue trap.
Wait… That wasn't quite right…
Ah whatever, it was hard to get rid of me.
Anyway, I grabbed onto the underside of the vehicle which was a lot less protected. I could tell that the metal here was a lot thinner compared to the shell above me. And for good reason. Why would anyone even try to strike a massive tinker behemoth from below? Who would even dare go underneath such a thing? Plus with a decent clearance and high speed, it would be pretty hard to strike it with a mine. Assuming that Squealer didn't already put in anti-mine countermeasures.
Charging up my glove, I started blasting hardlight beams straight into the underside. However, surprisingly enough, the hardlight only dented the metal underside rather than punch straight through it. Taking another aim, my body lurched as the vehicle suddenly accelerated, taking me with it.
Hanging on for dear life, I cursed in my heart that I didn't have any inertia dampening effects as Squealer swerved and drifted in a vain attempt to get me to dislodge. Turning off Pixie Dust wasn't an option since the sudden turns would definitely force me off, but keeping it on wasn't an option either. If I kept it on, the constantly shifting directions would pretty much pulp my brain in my skull as it constantly rapidly accelerated and slammed into a halt.
I had to restrict the Pixie Dust to keep my body light enough so I could actually hold myself in place and yet keep my body heavy enough to not get flung around like a ragdoll. While I was handling that, I was still also blasting into the underside, watching the metal give out slightly more with each attack.
The vehicle proceeded to barrel through several more warehouses, blowing apart steel and sending debris underneath the wheels that I had to dodge. Pressing against the underside, I continued to force the metal to give way as I kept an eye on all the shit that was heading towards me.
"Cocksucking piece of–" Oh I guess Squealer had joined in the screaming match. The metal groaned and finally gave out. And I started blasting apart all the more delicate machinery inside.
Immediately I could feel the vehicle suddenly die in terms of power. The wheels lost their transmission from the engine, suspensions suddenly gave out, and all sorts of failures piled upon one another. Including the shaft that allowed the driver to steer.
The hulking mass, without any of its wheels, lost grip on the road and started sliding across the road. I could exactly see where we were going but I stuck close as the kinetic energy bled off. The sound of a hatch opening caught my attention before two people struck the asphalt. Pressing my hand to the vehicle, I started applying Pixie Dust across the surface of it, negating some of its weight before flying out from underneath.
A small thing, but I didn't want to get caught by one of its wheels and suddenly have a lung punctured in four different places.
Landing on the ground, Skidmark was already layering his acceleration layers on the ground while Squealer was… doing something. And like I had learnt from Leet, a tinker without their equipment was a sitting duck. So instead of waiting around and learning what the hell she was doing, I raised my hand and fired off a quick blast at whatever she was holding in her hands and at Skidmark.
I remembered that Skidmark's power had some ridiculous potential, capable of even stopping Endbringers from moving with enough layers on the ground. However a small problem with it was the set up needed to actually create a strong enough field. I wasn't sure if it would affect hard light. I expect so given that it could also deflect bullets which wouldn't be touching the field directly, plus hard light actually has some 'mass' to move around in the first place.
However, we wouldn't be finding out today as Skidmark was forced to dodge out of the way while Squealer, who wasn't quite paying attention, was struck by the beam. A loud crack echoed out as she screamed in pain and dropped her device onto the floor. Sending a few more beams at Skidmark, he was forced to keep dodging or be struck down.
Unfortunately, I had zero restraining device, so I had to keep my attention split between Skiddy and Squealer. And with Squealer already injured and basically fangless, I decided it was easier for me to keep her in place with a threat of another hard light blast versus Skidmark who was relatively healthy. Or at least as healthy as a drug addict could be.
"You'll pay for this! The Merchants will make your–" I cut him off with another crimson blast, not really giving a shit about whether it struck him or not. But it spooked him enough that he scurried off.
Turning my attention back to Squealer, I took a glance over her clothes. Or I guess her… well not really lack thereof. She reminded me quite a bit of Amaya with a general disregard for clothing. Though it certainly felt like Squealer was doing it out of a lack of proper clothing rather than any actual desire to show off.
She was wearing a torn crop top that was very clearly ripped open from the front to expose her sizable breasts. Her once-white bra was poking out from underneath, stained with black streaks and splotchy and discoloured in others. She was also wearing ripped jeans, again with holes revealing stained panties underneath and looked to be held together by… well not hopes and dreams. Maybe crack and delusions? The only thing that looked serviceable was a toolbelt that hung around her waist carrying wrenches, pliers, and other tools and parts to jury rig repairs.
As for her mask… it was a shitty domino mask that barely clung to her face and caked with dirt.
All in all, it was a pitiful display.
"…limp-dicked shitface!" Her chipmunk-esque voice reminded me of Harley Quinn. If Harley Quinn was drugged to the gills and also insufferable to listen to. It also made her a lot less threatening, sounding more like an overgrown child throwing a tantrum with words she heard her parents used.
I seriously reconsidered if I should bother with her.
However, before I could make a decision, I spotted two people flying through the air. Both wore white suits but one went with a clear violet and indigo accent while the other had a red and magenta accent. Floating down, I recognized the red girl as Crystal while the other was likely her mother, Sarah.
They also looked really alike. As one should probably expect from a mother-daughter duo. Sarah looked a little different than when I had met her in the mall, her hair was done up a little differently, with a hairband and her fringe falling over one of her eyes. And her bodysuit was tight against her body, showing off her curves rather prominently.
Lady Photon on the other hand had short cropped hair stopping just past her chin as opposed to her daughter's longer hair which stopped well past her shoulders. Her suit was also slightly different, looking a little more padded and her body looked a lot more mature with wider hips and a more motherly look to them.
"You're the one who called?" Lady Photon asked me as she gave me a quick once over.
"That's right. My name is Erstein." I replied. I could see Crystal stiffen slightly as I spoke, clearly recognizing my voice. Looking over, I zoomed in slightly to her face before retracting. "And of course, Lady Photon and Laserdream of the New Wave?"
The Celestial Forge awakened as we were made our brief greetings. Fumble Spotter was a perk from the Safety Quality Constellation and it made me capable of idiot-proofing my creations. Some weird abuse or exploit in my devices? Not anymore. Unclear or generally confusing controls? Nope! You could reasonably get a five year old to operate it. Though personally, I wouldn't recommend that at all.
However, something weird occurred with the Celestial Forge as all the energy was pulled out. Something called… "Remnant Energy Purging"? The Celestial Forge's platform hummed for a moment before spitting out a sudden length of energy.
What the fuck?
I… guess I have more energy to work with now.
Laserdream had pulled out some zipties to bind Squealer with while Lady Photon gave me the whole spiel about being a solo cape, blah blah blah. I was only half paying attention to it while she talked. Nodding along, I waited until it was over to respond.
"I understand. However, I won't be joining the Protectorate for the time being." I replied easily.
Lady Photon nodded. "I understand. Just know that the offer still stands in the future." Nodding, that was the end of the conversation. Glancing over to Laserdream, our eyes met and I stared at her for a moment before looking away. Crystal didn't seem to be the type to be confrontational about secret identities, and I doubt she would tell anyone about her suspicion.
In any case, it did throw a slight wrench into my plans to get closer to her. Or maybe not? It was hard to tell.
Heading over to the wreck of Squealer's vehicle, I saw Laserdream float slightly behind me. Glancing at her, I stopped just before the mess of metal and asked, "Keeping a watch on me?"
Laserdream took a moment to respond. "N-no! Uh– Just… um…"
"Just joking, don't worry about it." I walked over to the chassis and looked over the tangle of pipes, pistons, and valves that formed the engine. Poking around, Hammer Jammer slowly started to decipher the components while Reclaimer peered through to find any and everything that might be useful, either for research or repurposing. "Say, you're in university right?"
"Um… yea?" Laserdream floated a good distance away from me.
"Is it fine to stay up this late?" I vaguely gestured to the sky. "Does BBU even have an exception for 'cape business' or will they mark you as absent if you don't come in?"
Laserdream hummed for a moment, thinking if she should reply or not. "Well… tomorrow I don't have any morning classes so I can afford to sleep in. And as for absenteeism, I can get excused if there's an emergency call from the PRT, like a large-scale villain attack or something similar. Other than that, it would be my fault for not managing my time well." She shrugged.
"Ah, I see." I nodded. "No special exemption for being a superhero?" I cocked my head slightly as Laserdream shook her head. "Unfortunate."
We made some small talk as I was pouring over Squealer's ride. The tinkertech behind it was quite intriguing. Especially with the way the Shard altered certain materials to create the shield generator and other esoteric phenomena. Unfortunately, I wouldn't have time to truly research it until I got it back to a workshop, if the sirens were to tell me anything.
I nodded and replied to another one of Laserdream's questions almost offhandedly as I reached into the engine and ripped out a component. And watched as coolant for the radiator started leaking out. "Hm." Hammer Jammer took this new information into account as I started dismantling the engine block.
Seeing that I was starting to break down the vehicle, Laserdream piped up. "Its policy that unknown tinkertech should be left alone until they can safely remove it from the premises to a safer testing are– what did you just do?!" She yelled in surprise as my gloves lit up and punched the bolts holding the engine in place into metal shrapnel. Along with a portion of the engine. I should probably tell Amaya to fix that.
Without the bolts holding a portion of the engine in place, half of it sagged down as the metal of the engine groaned in protest. Half a second later, the metal gave out as the engine sheared itself in half and plummeted straight to the ground with a loud bang. Luckily, Lady Photon had escorted Squealer away so she didn't have to see me butchering her ride.
"So about that policy…" I glanced over to Laserdream who sighed and shook her head. "I don't suppose you'll report me?"
Laserdream bit her lip. "Well…" She shook her head. "If you're willing to join the hero's side." She tried to sound a little confident. "I'm sure I could close an eye for you."
"Hah!" I broke into a wide smile. A sudden and evil thought popped into my mind that I immediately decided to act on. Channeling a little Carnal Artist, I leaned in close to Crystal's face. Enough that she would feel my breath tickling her ears. "I might take you on that offer, Laserdream."
Pulling back, I used the key to link the car door to my base and immediately close the link after I came in. Collapsing onto the floor, I took in a deep breath as I looked over the haul of Squealer's materials that I had brought with me.
"Tomorrow. I'll handle it tomorrow."
A/N: Introducing a new mechanic! Called Remnant Energy Purging. Essentially due to how I do edits to the chapters, there is a discrepancy between how many points is owned and how many points should be 'in circulation' to speak. So this would close that gap. Somewhat. It won't happen very often and won't produce more than 100-200CP per activation so don't worry about any stupidly large Point dump for seemingly nowhere.
In universe, its the Forge clearing its system of any small remnant energy that it has accumulated within the System. Hence the name.