PWP: 5.4 Scale (Patreon)

Scale 5.4

Bryce Kiley

2010, December 5: Brockton Bay, NH, USA

I wanted to fight. So, I goaded her into making the first move.

It wasn’t hard considering I knew exactly what buttons to push. For all her aggression and angst, she wasn’t a complicated person. ”Not everything needs to end in a confrontation, Shadow Stalker. There is more to life than your silly predator-prey dynamics.”

“Fuck you, asshole. You think being some pussy-ass thinker’s sock puppet makes you better than me?” she asked, brandishing her crossbows. They were pretty neat, repeaters that held what looked like four bolts or so.

“Shadow, stand down!” her nominal leader barked. “We’re not supposed to engage him.”

I offered them a carefree shrug. “Are you not? That’s good, I don’t really feel like beating up Wards. You know, supposed to be a hero and all. The GOAT would give me an earful if I did.”

“I’d kick your ass, Creed,” Shadow Stalker growled.

“Hmm, are you sure? You’re a bit of a one trick pony who’s somehow convinced herself that she’s an apex predator. Newsflash, Shadow, life doesn’t follow the law of the jungle. Hell, the jungle doesn’t always follow the law of the jungle either. Strength isn’t determined by who you can beat down.”

“Shut up! You think you know me?”

“I do. Or, The GOAT does. You’re so focused on being the strongest that you’ve lost the plot. What exactly do you want to achieve with that strength you’ve supposedly earned? Or maybe that’s the wrong question? Are you focused on being strong? Or simply desperate to not be weak anymore?”

“Shut your mouth.”

I offered them an innocent shrug. “You know, I heard that powers are twisted reflections of our desires. So, who exactly are you running from?”

To her credit, Shadow Stalker was fast. She’d dedicated countless hours in the shooting range and it showed. Her crossbows whipped up and loosed full salvos in my direction. Not bad, eight bolts total as fast as she could press the trigger. Clearly, she’d been given the good stuff.

The bolts would have bounced off the Germa fibers anyway, but I made a show of swishing my cape around, catching them in the fabric and flinging them aside. I held out my cape like a matador posing before the bull. That was what I was doing after all, goading the bull.

“What the hell, Shadow?” Aegis yelled.

“He’s a criminal. I’m taking him in. That’s what real heroes do so you can get off my back, boss.”

Perhaps, before Damascus, I might have been more cautious. There was no question that Sophia was a highly athletic girl, arguably a well-trained fighter and marksman. She used her power well and was a veteran when compared to many capes who didn’t survive their first active year.

There was also an aggressiveness in her actions that was absent in the rest of the Wards, an eagerness to enact violence that gave her the edge against most people. Because that’s what fights came down to sometimes: whoever was more willing to harm was often the one who won.

And yet, for all her aggression, she had nothing on Arsalan or Flygon. She wasn’t the kind of cape entire teams were built around, nor did she have the experience of a veteran in a police state. The bone-deep chill that overwhelmed the Damascus sun, the thrill of a life or death battle that sent itchy shivers across my skin, it just wasn’t there. Sopha Hess, for all her relative skill, lacked gravitas.

I let out an exaggerated sigh before sinking into a loose combat stance. “So angry, and for what? It’s not good to be too gung ho, you know. Don’t be so eager to make enemies or dismiss people. Who knows? The pebble you've kicked aside might actually be a diamond worthy of the queen’s crown.”

“Shut the fuck up, Creed. You don’t know anything.”

“Very well. I’m sure The GOAT will chew me out for this, but I don’t mind, really. If they didn’t want me fighting, they should have told me nicer things to say. Let’s call this a friendly spar, hmm? I promise I’ll pull my punches. And hey, who knows? Maybe you’ll learn something.”

Sophia saw red. I was pushing all her buttons. Calling her out. Implying she was weaker than me. Saying she was a coward, running from her past. She was a bully, and bullies didn’t take well to challengers.

She twisted her wrist a certain way that reloaded her crossbows from her wrist-mounted quivers. It actually looked well-practiced, fluid and smooth like something straight out of an action movie.

Four more bolts made their way towards me. “Fuck you!”

Aegis tried. I almost felt bad for him. He was a good man and a decent enough friend at school. I didn’t envy the paperwork he’d have to write because of this. Alas, I didn’t pity him enough to spare Shadow Stalker her asskicking. Besides, the more impulsive she appeared, the more likely she was to be placed under a psych eval.

I slapped aside one crossbow bolt and swirled out of the way of three more like a matador, black cape fluttering in the wind. “Try something else, Shadow, a direct attack like that won’t reach me. Oh, and feel free to join in, Aegis. I’m sure you could use more practice fighting other capes. I’m versatile enough that I don’t mind showing my hand a bit.”

Aegis looked conflicted. This situation had escalated far beyond the soft sell he was likely tasked with. Carlos struck me as the dependable sort, someone who tried his earnest to care for his subordinates and enforce the rules. That stupid nonsense with Stephanie and Homecoming aside, he had a good head on his shoulders.

However, though he had the makings of a great leader, he was a teenage boy at present. He didn’t have nearly enough experience to handle unexpected developments well.

Then, he must have received new orders, permission to engage, because he squared his shoulders. He hovered back into the air.

“I’ll take you up on that,” he said with a firm nod. “Don’t regret this, Creed.”

I laughed. At least he was nice enough to declare his attack, unlike a certain grumpy “predator.” I tapped the side of my helmet. “Hit me with your best shot; I can take it.”

With the inclusion of Aegis, this suddenly got a lot more… recreational. I wasn’t just beating on a mentally unstable child. Now, it felt like a true training exercise. Despite Shadow Stalker’s piss ‘n’ vinegar attitude, no one would walk away with more than a few bruises and a shattered ego from this fight.

He launched himself at me with a classic Superman pose, fists outstretched and body flat as a plank. He was fast, moving more like a car on the freeway than a human.

I laughed and remained still. Sure, I could take to the skies and skate circles around him. It would also let me run out of range of Shadow Stalker’s crossbow, but that would defeat the purpose of this spar. So instead, I met Aegis head on, punch for punch.

His fist crashed into my helmet with a dull thump. If it wasn’t for Crown Chimera making footholds of hardened pyrobloin behind me, I would have been thrown back like a skipped stone. As it was, I felt my head snap to the side with the force. Yes, this was a good stress test for the limits of the Germa Expansion Suit.

Aegis was strong. He wasn’t as strong as Victoria with her force field-assisted strength, but I definitely felt that punch. As a self-biokinetic, Aegis could ignore the natural hormones and inhibitors in the body that limited its maximum output. The stories of mothers lifting tree trunks off their children? He could do that, do it constantly, and with zero consequences.

At the same time, I caught his other hand by the wrist and allowed his forward motion to turn my body. My elbow came up with the spin just as Crown Chimera kicked off, allowing me to deposit a disgusting amount of force into his chin as he flew by. Really, my spinning counter was rather sloppy; muay thai was one of the martial arts I picked up through the Inorganic Net, but I’d yet to fully integrate it into a seamless style of my own. For the most part, I favored capoeira as it fit the storm rider’s reliance on kicks.

Still, one couldn’t argue with the force. Aegis was moving at highway speeds. My counter, using his own momentum, was comparable. And all of that came from a man in armor enhanced by the best of Germa 66 technology.

Suffice to say, it would have been a killing stroke for absolutely anyone that wasn’t a brute. The loud sound of snapping bone rang across the rooftop. Aegis’ head cracked further than ninety degrees as his spine folded almost entirely in half from my elbow. Even Shadow Stalker paused, taken aback by the sudden violence.

I looked up at Aegis. Seeing his crushed chin and broken neck was unnerving, doubly so because I knew he’d be fine in a second. He held out a hand in the universal sign for time-out.

He reached up for his face, grabbed his head, and wrenched it back into place with a crack that made me shudder. I’d literally twisted my own spine to pieces while practicing my Road but I doubted I’d ever get used to that sound.

“You good?” I asked. Regenerator or not, that couldn’t have been fun.

“Ah, yeah, are you? I decked you pretty hard there,” he said, almost shyly. It must have been rare for anyone to go toe-to-toe with him like that. He probably thought I’d dodge at the last moment, use his momentum against him to throw him aside.

“Yup. I can keep taking hits like that no problem. Might leave a bruise, but it’s fine. Wanna keep going?”

He paused, no doubt hearing from console. “Yeah, that’s fine. I won’t hit you with force I can’t take in return.”

“Agreed, that’s just good etiquette. Don’t worry, I can heal Shadow if we break her.”

“Fuck you, asshole. You’re the one who’s going to sleep,” the prickly Ward shot back. But there was less venom in her tone than before. Oh, she was still pissed at me for the comments earlier, but there was a hint of respect in her tone now.

‘Leave it to her to decide that breaking her leader’s neck makes me less of a loser,’ I thought sardonically. “Great, on three?”

“Three,” she said, ignoring the countdown completely to shoot me again.

I didn’t mind her poor etiquette. Hell, I’d expected it. Expecting the asshole to be an asshole made her more predictable.

This time, I dodged one bolt and snatched another out of the air, doable with a gravity child's Twinkle Eye and some subtle assistance from Psychic. I then used it like a shiv to deflect the other six like something straight out of a kung fu movie. As she did her little wrist-flourish to reload, I rushed forward at roughly the speed Aegis used, brandishing the bolt against the flying brick.

Aegis impressed me yet again. He backhanded my wrist aside and replied with two jabs to my chest while my guard was open, sending the air whooshing from my lungs.

Crown Chimera kept its forward momentum even as my torso was suddenly punched in the opposite direction. The opposing forces launched me backwards in cartwheels that made me feel like a sock in the dryer. Then my biomass gyroscope kicked in, centering my sense of balance.

I twisted like a cat in the air before launching a heel kick at the concrete fence that encircled the rooftop. Spiderweb cracks spread across the barricade as seastone skates met the comparatively fragile material, putting a stop to my cartwheeling.

Just in time, another bolt was fired my way, from the side this time. I caught that too and now had two bolts to use as shivs. If nothing else, Sophia had a good sense for battle; I wouldn’t have been able to catch that without my biological augments.

I decided to kick things up a notch. It wouldn’t do to let them think they could corner me.

“Mirage Road: Fogbank!” I cried, stomping the ground. A plume of vapor cloaked my immediate area, making it impossible to see. That worked for me. I had no trouble operating in Dust Devil’s sandstorm and this was no different.

“The fuck? You’re not a cartoon character, dumbass,” Shadow Stalker shouted. “Stop shouting attack names!”

“Gotta stay on that storm rider brand, Shadow.”

“The fuck is a storm rider?”

“Anyone who rides an AT, finds his own Road, and aims for the Gram Scale is a storm rid-” I ducked rather than keep talking, avoiding a clothesline from Aegis. I cooed, “Aww, look at you two, keeping me chatty to find me in the fog. Good tactic, predictable though.”

“God, don’t you ever shut up?”

I chuckled and used the Expansion Suit’s texture module to turn myself into Aegis. Then, following the 3D map provided by my solid sense type, I skated beside Shadow Stalker.

“Ignore him, Shadow,” I said, tweaking my voice. Really, with the fog, texture module, and voice modulator, this was just plain unfair. “You know he’s trying to get a rise out of you.”

“Yeah, fucker’s worse than Clock.”

I clutched my heart as though I’d been shot. “Ow, come on, now. I’m at least a little funny, right?”

“What the fuck are you talking ab-Gah!” she let out an oddly cute gasp when I kicked her lightly in the shin. I then reached up, grabbed hold of her hood, and yanked it down over her metal facemask. “What the fuck, Aegis?”

“Don’t trust your senses, Shadow,” I said sagely. “The mist lies.”

“Creed, you son of a bitch!”

She tried to punch me in the throat but I leaned back out of the way. She then used my off-center position to kick me between the legs. Bitch wore steel-toed boots; she knew exactly what she was doing.

Joke’s on her though, I couldn’t lose my balance, ever. I brought my left knee up in time to kick her inner thigh, just above the knee, redirecting her shin away from my precious family jewels. 

“Really? A nut-tap? You’re way too brutal for a hero, missy,” I chided. “And that language. What would your darling fans say?”

“Piss off, fucktard.”

I faded back into the mist, just in time to avoid Aegis, who’d probably followed the voices. “Shall we play a game of cat and mouse?”

“Shut up!”

“Although, I suppose the question here is who is the cat, and who is the mouse?”

“Sit still and let me shoot you!” she howled. She fired at where she last heard my voice, her bolts began flickering black to phase through my armor, but I was long gone.

That was one thing I didn’t want to risk. Her power could be deadly and though I was confident in my ability to heal myself, the sedative might pose a problem if I didn’t study it first.

I took the chance to snatch a few out of the air, putting them inside my expanded hip pouch for later analysis. They could be mundane tranquilizers, or they could be a cocktail made by Armsmaster. I didn’t know and finding out ought to be a fun time.

“Nope, that’d be boring, Shadow. You can’t call yourself a huntress if your prey sits still for you, can you?” I skated towards her but was forced to dodge when Aegis swept in with a haymaker.

He was getting used to navigating in the fog. Had he developed echolocation? Or maybe he was seeing heat signatures in infrared like a pit viper? Whatever his adaptation, good for him, this would be vital training if Burnscar ever came to town; the smoke and fog were quite similar for a man who didn’t need to worry about smoke inhalation after all.

I still needed to punish him for missing though. This time, I opted to grab his arm and collar as he flew by, twisting in place in a textbook judo throw to hurl him at Shadow.

“Heads up, Shadow!” I called.

“Shit!” Shadow yelped. She turned into a plume of black smoke that contrasted vividly with the pale mist around us. Aegis flew through her, scattering her for a moment before she pulled herself together. “Asshole!”

I couldn’t help it. “A little quick, but don’t worry, Aegis. I hear it’s natural the first time inside a woman.”

He swerved and caught himself before giving me a deadpan stare. “Shadow’s right. You’re worse than Clock.”

“Lies and slander! I’m at least as funny as Mouse Protector!”

“Trust me, she’s not funny at all either.”

“You Protectorate types are just too stuffy. No wonder she left.”

“Whatever, Creed. Let’s end this.”

“As you please. I think you two have plenty to dissect later anyway. I’ll stop pulling my punches then, okay? Just a little.”

“Pulling-You’re holding back?”

“More than you know,” I said with a dark chuckle. I leaned forward into a cat-like crouch. “Well, here I come!”

Then, I moved.

Psychic aura encased the bolt in my hand, correcting the imperfections in my aim as I hurled it like a throwing knife at the grumpiest Ward. I was no marksman but at this range, with Psychic, I didn’t need to be. It was a bit like guiding an RC plane, really.

That was followed immediately by a Thunder Wave from my offhand. I hadn’t used that move in the city in a while; I wondered if they even remembered I could. Then, just in case she dodged both, I dove into a loping lunge at about half my max speed, twisting in the air into a roundhouse kick.

Shadow, over-reliant on her power, simply turned into a black fog in response.

“That’s not going to work, dumba-aahhh!” she shrieked, her taunt turning into a cry of agony. She’d phased through the first bolt, only for the Thunder Wave that followed to wreak havoc on her gaseous form.

‘That answers that question,’ I thought. ‘Or maybe she never read my file. I wouldn’t put it past her.’

She spasmed in place and solidified once more. I aborted my kick and caught her gently. It wouldn’t do to give her a set of broken ribs while she was barely conscious. Sophia was a bitch and she honestly deserved an asskicking, but I was trying to send a positive message here. I couldn’t have the Protectorate thinking I was overly violent, even if I could heal her shortly after.

I held out a hand to Aegis for a time-out and waited for her to regain her bearings. Then, with another bolt I caught, I pricked her arm. “Night night, Shadow~”

The Wards leader looked at me warily. “Right, you have tasers in your gloves. How did we forget that?”

“They’re not tasers. And probably because I don’t usually make a habit of showing off.” I said with a carefree shrug. I placed her against a concrete wall in a sitting position. I didn’t know how long she’d be out for, but the PRT wouldn’t give her a tranq dart that she herself couldn’t handle. “I’m kicking your ass out of the kindness of my heart here, Aegis. I mean, in lieu of going in for power testing.”

“Joy,” he said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

“So, care for a slugfest? You might get some real data about my capabilities.”

“I’m good, thanks. I wasn’t the one who wanted to fight in the first place. I really can’t convince you to come in?”

“Not a chance.”

“But you’re serious about being a hero.”

“I am. You keep questioning me like you don’t want me to be a hero or something. I mean, I wouldn’t mind being your dastardly nemesis either. Should I rob a bank? Ooh! I can send some cryptic letter to the Forsberg Gallery saying I’ll steal a painting at midnight in three days!”

“No, that’s… Look, take this as a warning, alright? We’ll accept that you’re sincere until you break the law. But if you do, all bets are off.”

I ignored the thinly veiled warning. Trust the PRT to insist on “speaking from a position of strength,” even after losing the fight. “Yeah, yeah. We’re done here then?”

“I guess we are.”

“Good, because this patrol’s been a bust. I mean, I had plans, you know? Targets and objectives of my own. Well, ciao~”

I stomped down on the ground, creating another plume of mist that obscured his vision. The moment I was out of sight, I became invisible and dashed away.

X

That evening, I pored over the information SAINT dug up for me this past week. SAINT, as usual, was phenomenal. He had done as I’d bid and gotten me everything related to Coil or Thomas Calvert, everything.

Unfortunately, that completeness of his investigation turned out to be a bit of a mixed blessing. SAINT had included everything, from the quarterly financial reports of Coil’s many shell companies to the documents of incorporation to emails and text messages. There were hidden transactions made with what I assumed were mercenary companies, monthly payments made to an entity that might be Toybox, as well as millions of unrelated documents.

As it turned out, evil organization or not, not even Coil’s faction could escape the banality of the daily grind. The overwhelming majority of SAINT’s collection was worthless, emails bitching about one boss or another, considerations for a new coffee machine for the break room, that sort of thing. At a conservative guess, there was nearly eight terabytes of information here.

I was no investigator or auditor. SAINT didn’t have any skills I myself couldn’t provide. Sorting through this would be an absolute bitch and a half. I let out a quiet sigh and got to work.

“SAINT, mind helping me make sense of all this data?” I asked.

“Gon, pory-gon,” he pulled his head out of the bowl of toasted almonds that had been his reward and nodded.

“To start, let's divide the information into two groups: Coil and Calvert. If the company, bank account, or asset is associated with Coil, put it in one folder. If it's something Calvert did in his civilian identity, put it aside for later. We have to pay lip service to the unwritten rules, so we can't act against those assets, at least not immediately.”

“Gon.”

“Yeah, I know. They're the same person. Still, even just Coil's data will be plenty to work with for now.”

“Porygon,” he trilled and got to work.

Coil was a relative newcomer to the bay as far as gangs were concerned; he was not a Brockton legacy like Kaiser. Following Ellisburg, he probably found out about Cauldron over the course of months or years. And I knew he spent a few years gaming the market with his power to pay Cauldron back.

That still meant he'd been in the city for three or four years. It was all way too much information for me to filter through manually, especially if I wanted to be productive in other areas.

So I then had SAINT disregard all of Coil's assets who had been terminated over the years. And then I had him sort his personnel by the seniority they held in his organization.

Bit by bit, I was pruning the massive tree that was Coil's gang. By the time I turned in for bed, I had a far more manageable map of Coil's contacts and financial resources to look through.

Author’s Note

Whelp, FFnet is down so I guess I can not update publicly this week. ¯\(ツ)_/¯

Sophia’s predator-prey mentality is played up in fanon, but it’s also a wonderful way to get on her nerves. That fight did change its tone as it went on, and that’s intentional.

Carlos was able to keep up with Rachel’s dogs, which all move at “highway speeds.” I’m going to put that tentatively at ~50mph. He also doesn’t tire and has “hysterical strength” active at all times. The guy doesn’t get enough credit for how great his power actually is. Yes, he gets bodied by Bryce here, but “not as good as anime tinker hax” isn’t anything to be ashamed of.

In other news, Sophia is a bitch even when she’s “playing nice.” I hope I painted some contrast between Sophia and Carlos’ attitudes.

Bryce is a troll. A well-meaning troll, but a troll nonetheless. I don’t know why, I like writing characters who are a little dickish.

Once again, I don’t actually know anything about computers. It’s honestly gotten to be a bit of a problem because my company wants me to take on more of an IT focus, a background I simply lack. I fixed Coil's network to ballpark ~8 terabytes. He'd have shit he stole from the PRT, security footage of his own base, and a major company's data in Fortress Construction. I think that's fair-ish, right?

All I know is that Coil should have something like “three” networks by my estimate: contacts and assets he uses as Thomas Calvert, contacts and assets he uses as Coil (Accord, Toybox, etc), and a closed system which stores his most pressing secrets to prevent thinkers/tinkers from hacking him into oblivion.