Chapter 7

As the battle cooled down after Incarnate took care of unpowered mobs, the distinct sound of a motorcycle announced her arrival, the cape known as Miss Militia. Alice frowned in displeasure. Partly because they were late, only arriving now, and partly because she didn't like Protectorate in general. Sure, there were good ones like Vista, and Legend, how he presented himself in the media were true, but the entire organisation just rubbed her in the wrong way. In her opinion, they were just a bunch of fakers.

The motorcycle just stopped at a distance from her and a woman in military garb, coupled with an American flag as a mask, got off from the vehicle. She looked at the battlefield critically and finally settled her gaze on her.

With her gaze as stern as ever, Alice wondered if she had trained to stare like that, she spoke, "are you the one who is responsible for this?"

"Yes," Incarnate replied with her usual voice as she ruthlessly suppressed the giddy feeling that rose within her.

'Damn Taylor and her chronic hero worship,' she thought even as she imitated a statue.

"I see. This is impressive. Within a single battle, you have managed to defeat two heavy hitters of the merchant. Now, are you willing to come to PRT headquarters to report the incident?" She asked.

"How about….. No?" Incarnate replied.

"I am afraid we aren't asking, sir," she replied. Her weapon changed a few times to high-calibre guns. Incarnate paused in her step. She wasn't impressed. She looked right into Miss Militia's eyes and saw that they were laced with nervous tension. With a heavy sigh which set the military theme heroine to the edge, she quelled her anger.

"No. No matter how many times you ask or how you ask, my answer will still be no," Incarnate replied, making her stance known to Miss Militia and whoever was behind her.

She continued, "you are welcome to try of course, but know this, whatever you do it will be meaningless. This is not mere arrogance, this is the fact, just as the sky is blue, the water flows, and the fire burns. Well then, I am leaving". With that speech, she made her dramatic retreat.

'What a waste of my time,' Alice thought as she flew around aimlessly. She forgot that she was the entity with the most time in this world. Before long, she stumbled upon a robbery scene. A bunch of E88 mobs were harassing a Hispanic shopkeeper. Alice huffed. There is always a bunch of trash like those around. Small as specks of dust yet have an ego the size of a planet. A perfect description of humanity. Mush was the literal trash golem, but these guys were equally rotten, if not more. With a flex of her will, a group of marble balls flickered into existence. She etched vector runes into them, put in some energy, and let them go. Marbles slammed into the unsuspecting bodies of gangbangers and went out from the other side. At this, Alice winced a little. There is little chance they would come out from this unscathed, and alive.

'Great! Now, those white hats will hunt me down and strong-arm me into joining their little club. And in my denial of doing so, we would escalate, and finally, I would have to defeat the entire Protectorate. Hmm, I wonder if Eidolon could survive in molten metal. I read Alexandria can be suffocated at that sketchy conspiracy fo-" a blast of air hit her, moving her a few dozen feet and taking her out of her musing

Incarnate stared at the cause of this. A man wearing loose-fitting pants and a metallic tiger mask. He was also topless, which, in Incarnate's opinion, was utterly foolish. She was immortal, and she still wore nearly indestructible armour! She searched through her memories for such a figure. The man was Stormtiger and a member of Empire88, a gang of Neo-Nazi based in Brockton Bay and one of the three biggest gangs in the city, which was proving to be an annoyance. Still, Incarnate looked at the mask. It looked very familiar. She was sure she had seen it somewhere. When she was young. A glint flashed through her eyes. She remembered now. She was once again hit by an explosive blast of air. Incarnate just shrugged it off casually as she lowered herself.

"Isn't that mask from Power Ranger," Alice asked. Stormtiger paused.

I

"Fuck you! You son of a bitch," that was his reply.

"Hey, I was just curious," she was rewarded with an explosive blast of wind to the face. Fine, if he wanted to play like this. She stretched her palm and a fire rune flickered. She put on some power so as to not kill him by accident and fired it. His response was a claw-like air to the fireball and in an unexpected twist, the fireball exploded in a rush of fire which returned to her side. It was very hot. She frowned a little. Metal rods sprang into existence as she flung them, forgoing runes and just with raw power. Stormtiger also wasn't without means. He desperately dodged her projectiles using his aerokinesis. He can dodge three or four but how about ten, twenty, even hundreds. From the beginning, his victory wasn't but a dream. After Incarnate was done, the ground was like a hedgehog, metal rods of all sizes protruding from the ground. Incarnate stretched out her hand and clenched her palms. Metal rods float together into one liquidy sphere, which then slammed into the stilled figure of Stormtiger and transformed into a cage. And a water ball to wake him up. It won't be a pleasant experience for him. And property damage. She looked at the damaged street. Yes, that too. Thankfully, even Brocktonites were smart enough to leave when she started throwing things. So, there is that.

She refocused her attention toward the cape and said, "Look at you. How fitting. After all, animals like you belong to the zoo," Alice mocked the trapped cape.

"Let's see if you can still laugh like this when Kaiser gets you, you knight wannabe," he snarled.

"Then let him come if he dares. At least, I wouldn't have to waste my time finding him this way," Incarnate said while taking off into the air.

All in all, aside from minor annoyances, today is a producti- Oh crap, she forgot to search for a place to live while losing in typical Brockton Bay drama. Alice sighed in exasperation. She had half a mind to just dream up a house already. Brockton Bay is ridiculous. In her defence, she was excited after the whole Dockworker crusade thing yesterday. She felt giddy just thinking of all the chaos that would cause. Besides, they were her father's friends, his people, and similarly, she held them in a somewhat friendly position. Furthermore, they are doing this because of Danny. The least she could do is to help them. And now she was feeling a bit guilty about how she thought of them back then.

With a thought, Alice dissipated her emotions. It wouldn't help her to fall into a depression spiral.

'I should go see them and see how they are doing,' she thought as her trajectory changed to dock.

At the dock, dockworkers are running around, some are training, and some are checking their weapons and other things like medical supplies. In other words, preparation mode. However, something didn't add up. DWU is a dwindling organisation. Sure, they were somewhat of a big thing before however, even in their prime there was no way for them to gain this many weapons and supplies.

'I should ask them about this,' Alice thought to herself.

Alice slightly decreased her energy injection and slowly lowered herself to the ground. All the dockworkers who witnessed her stopped in their tracks, and one of them quickly ran toward what seemed to be a reinforced building. Soon after, the man she recognised to be Kurt came out.

"Incarnate," he nodded courteously.

"Dockworker man," she responded. Kurt visibly cringed at the nickname.

"Kurt, please call me Kurt. Seeing as we are somewhat of an ally now. After all, that weapon you give, it was pretty potent, to say the least," Kurt warily said and from his posture, it was pretty clear to her that he was tense.

"Relax, I have no ill will toward you. What I only want from you guys is a bit of entertainment and of course, chaos," Alice put out her palms to placate them yet instead of the intended effect, this just got them to be tenser. She quickly withdrew her hands, this was awkward.

She coughed into her hands and asked, "So Kurt, I have a question, where do you get them?"

"Excuse me?" Kurt was confused.

"These weapons and supplies. Come on, Kurt, everyone who knows Brockton Bay knows that dockworker isn't what it once was. There is no way you would be getting this much support no matter how many bridges you burn or no matter how many favours you have. So, tell me honestly. What is going on?" Alice asked while crossing her arms. Kurt went silent for a moment.

"Well?" I press him a bit more. After thinking for a while, he sighed.

"There is a small-time villain called Coil. When he heard what we were preparing to do, he offered us help and being as we are, we have no choice," Kurt answered.

"And the price?" Alice prompted.

"He wants to rule the city or its underworld after we are done," was Kurt's answer. Incarnate bristled at the reply.

"And you accepted it?!" she felt rage begin to sprout inside her. Still, she kept herself calm.

"What can we do? It's not like we can refuse his offer. We know it is wrong, but for this to be successful, we need every support we can get. We decided it is the lesser of the two evils," before adding in a bitter note, "not everyone can be as powerful as you after all".

"What you are doing is just hypocrisy. I pity you. Once proud dockworkers famous for keeping the dock gang free are now reduced to mere goons. How pitiable," was the response he got. The words filled him with shame. Shame for how low he had fallen, shame for how he had disgraced Danny's legacy, and shame for how he had failed his co-workers. And all the shame he felt turned to anger. Anger at the world, the government, the gangs and most of all this cape in front of him, standing straight in the air, wearing elegant and intimidating armour as if a god looking down at mortals, this sight filled him with rage. Too much rage.

'How dare he?! He didn't know what we had been through. He didn't know how we felt. He didn't know how desperate we were?! So, how dare he judge us?!' A burning gaze bore into the imposing armour. At that point, he was greeted with a sight so profound and vast.

[DESTINATION]

[AGREEMENT]

[TRAJECTORY]

[AGREEMENT]

Alice looked at the man dazed for a while and came back to sense only with a scream of rage, and he jumped nearly 10 feet into the air leaving the ground in cracks to punch her.

Alice could only confusedly say, "What?"