Pho interlude
The moment she was gone I dropped all of the rocks and let my magic run free to find her. After about five seconds of letting my magic explore every corner of the street, I realized I wasn't she wasn't up here. Instead, she was under the street in the tunnels where flood waters would be routed through. I could feel an entrance point in range and I doubted Glory Girl would be able to go after her before she was too far gone. With a sigh, I shook my head and looked at Glory Girl who had just landed with Clockblocker sliding promptly sliding off her back.
"Who was that?" Glory Girl asked.
"Trouble," I answered, perhaps a bit more melodramatic than I intended. I shook my head. "But she's gone now."
"A shame," Clockblocker said. I turned to look at him and found him bent over the gang member the mystery girl had shot. He had backed up against the wall and was trying to put pressure on his wound while we talked around him. Rather odd for a gang member. Most were a touch on the arrogant side and would be screaming about their rights or just obscenities.
"Piggot might have gotten off my case for that whole fiasco with Assault if we stopped Crossbow." Clockblocker continued. "Either way I'm going to have to call this in, followed by a lot of paperwork. Fun." He added the last part sarcastically and wiped out a phone.
"Speaking of which," I said hastily before he could start dialling. "What has happened to Assault?"
Clockblocker paused and I got the impression he grinned behind his mask. Actually, even with how little I've met face to face with him, I know he was grinning.
"Oh, Assault? Piggot was inventing new forms of punishment. Literally, she was contacting other PRT directors to see if she could get clearance to invent new forms of punishment. We actually had to get Battery, Armsmaster, Aegis, and Miss Militia to talk her out of writing to Director Costa-Brown to legally redefine the word 'punishment' in the PRT. It would have been pretty funny if Assault didn't dig in his heels more."
"How do you escalate after that?" Glory Girl asked curiously. Clockblocker shook his head.
"I don't know, but he would have and it wouldn't have been pretty. But thankfully Battery talked him into making an apology and Miss Militia talked Piggot into not flaying him alive and giving Glenn Chambers complete creative freedom over his costume and branding." Clockblocker shuddered.
"Glenn Chambers?" I asked.
"You don't want to know," Clockblocker answered.
"Hey guys?" the gang member suddenly said. "I'm psyched you all are having a good time catching up and all, but you think you could make that call now? I really would like to have this arrow removed."
"Oh yeah," Clockblocker said, looking at the forgotten phone in his hand. "I'll just go do that."
"You're awfully compliant for a gang member." Glory Girl said. The guy shrugged her off.
"I ain't done nothing wrong," he said. "As far as I'm concerned, I'm going in for questioning and then I'm filing a lawsuit against whoever that cape was. Besides, Boss says we got to play nice with the heroes if we get caught."
"How considerate," I said dryly. "Why don't you tell us about them why we wait."
The gang member let out another shrug and looked away before answering.
"Not much to say. They offer protection from the other gangs and don't ask much in return, which is nice given the other two choices. They offer good pay for some labour, another plus in this city. Past that we don't do much."
"What about your name," I pressed. "The Workers are white and gold, so what about your black and purple?"
"Oh," he said, a little surprised. "We're The Doctors. We work this area."
I took a mental note of that. There was only one area I had marked off that was close enough here for The Doctors to take for themselves.
"What were you guys doing here?" Glory Girl asked. She was floating casually and looking down on the lot of us as she spoke, giving her winning smile as she did so.
"Just patrolling the area," the ganger answered indifferently. "Believe it or not we were actually supposed to take this area because we were supposed to take this area to see if we could draw the crossbow vigilante out and get some information on her. I guess we got that."
"Speaking of which," I interrupted. "What was it that your friends used to get away? They shouted Plan Ghost and dropped a bunch of gas. Some sort of Tinker tech?"
He shook his head. "Just normal gas, depending on what you call normal. We got tons of it. Plan Ghost is a default plan for any cape that physical attacks go through or just don't affect. The idea being that the Kindle Gas would either get into their lungs or, in the case of Fog and our crossbow thug, get in their body as a whole. Then they set a small spark that takes them out."
"You're awful talkative," Glory Girl observed.
"Like I said," he stated. "We were told to play nice. That and I'd rather not annoy Collateral Damage Girl."
"If only half of the other gang members were as compliant as you," Glory Girl sighed. At that moment, Clockblocker came back.
"Alright, they want me to stay with him while they send local police comes to pick him up." He told us. "You guys want to head on out and keep patrolling?"
"Patrol without you?" Glory Girl asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Heh, never. Just come back and get me in fifteen minutes. Besides, I know you just love me hanging on your neck."
Glory Girl rolled her eyes and start rising in the air. She looked down at me and smiled.
"You need a lift?" She teased. I smirked in response.
"Hardly," I answered, flaring my wings outward. I jumped a little to get going and gave my wings a few flaps. I took a chance and attempted to hover in place. That was thankfully easier than landing.
Glory Girl looked stunned for a moment then grinned. "Race you to the Medhall building!" She disappeared before I could protest. Wishing I could swear, I turned in the air and flew after her.
***
The rest of the night was filled with more action than we thought there would be. The Doctors were clashing with gang members back and forth all over the place, and they were showing the Kindle Gas wasn't the only tool in their belt. They left a lot of strange marks everywhere they went, most of the time it was oddly patterned scorch marks. But on occasion they found some containment foam. Besides the occasional attack from Crossbow, the nickname Clockblocker gave her, there weren't any parahuman fights. But we had shown up enough times that people had noticed my presence, the first step making people now who Nova was. Tomorrow I would go out on my own and do more than just patrol, I'll hit the gang warehouses.
Going after them like that would paint a target on my back, but I was kind of surprised there wasn't one already. Armsmaster wasn't discreet in saying that I was the one that took Hookwolf and Rune down, I had more than expected some E88 have come after me once word got around that I had been out tonight. I was more surprised they hadn't. In fact, there hadn't been any E88 parahumans out at all. Odd.
After we dropped off Clockblocker at the PRT building, I ended up racing Glory Girl to her home. Not sure how she keeps talking me into races, but after near two hours of patrols, I was getting pretty good at the flying. I was even getting decent at the landing. Turned out it was easier to land by dropping straight down and taking the impact on all four hooves.
Glory Girl suddenly came to a stop in mid air and I had to flare my wings outward to jerk to a stop. The speed I was travelling at caused the wind to jerk on my wings violently, but my wings were stronger than they looked.
"Something wrong?" I asked as soon as I managed to draw myself to a stop.
"Just remembered I have to pick up Amy from the hospital."
"Oh," I said. I had almost forgotten Panacea and Glory Girl were related. "Isn't it rather late to be working?"
Glory Girl shook her head. "She actually works later than this, normally. I was actually a little surprised that she was stopping so soon tonight even though she slept in this morning."
I smiled. It felt good to know she was actually following through on things. And considering there was a distinct lack of rock through legs, I was too. This was a little easier than I might have made her believe.
"I'd come with you, but it's getting late," I told her glumly. It was just past midnight and I was getting progressively more nervous with the idea of Lisa and Dad being alone in the house. And if either were staying up to wait for me, I wouldn't want them to stay up much longer.
"Alright, I'll see you some other time then?" She asked with a slight smile.
"Sure," I answer as I turned in midair to face my house.
"'Kay then, see ya." I heard flying off in the other direction and started flapping my wings forward.
***
I sneaked back into my yard much the same way I had the other night, letting out a sigh of relief to find that the mischief house with rather active occupants was still and quiet tonight. Confident that nobody was around or awake to watch at this hour, a slid into my backyard and grabbed the few dozen plants Lisa had left out by the back porch.
I brought them over to the area where the grass had been growing wildly for the past year. Neither Dad nor I had ever bothered to come out and try to do any upkeep of the area, causing it to become weed choked and the grass to grow almost a foot tall.
Setting the plants down, I grabbed as much dirt as I possibly could and pulled it up. The dirt as far as I could tell was about twice to three times the weight of me as had to be upward of two hundred pounds. I felt it sucking the magic out of my like it had poked a hole in a container. I flipped the mass over so the dark, untouched soil was facing upwards and the tall grass was hanging upside down. I quickly dropped it back into the hole I made before my magic ran out.
Using my telekinesis, I dug out a spot for each plant simultaneously before lifting them all up and placing them in the holes. That would make it easier to have a constant source of plants coming in.
With that quick chore done, I made my way into the house. I found Lisa passed out on the couch, a blanket strewed across the floor like she had thrown it off in her sleep. Gently, I picked it up with my magic and place it on top of her. I didn't see my father anywhere, so I assumed he had gone to bed. I briefly wondered how long Lisa had to spend talking to my father to get him to go to bed without staying up and worrying about me. In fact, I wonder how long they had just talked to each other about her staying here. I had no doubts Lisa had convinced him relatively quickly, considering how fast she had me bringing her to my house and letting her use my shower.
Strange girl.
With a sigh, I made my way to my room. I had a busy day, needless to say. Between the plants and the patrol, I had done more than enough to make tired enough to almost fall asleep the moment I hit the pillow. I nearly forgot about becoming human for the morning.
***
Coil sat at his desk, a live camera feed streaming to his computer. He was looking at an old house, one that clearly hadn't been all that high quality when it was bought. But it was the house the girl had disappeared into.
Coil took a breath and then he split the world.
In one reality, he sat there and did nothing. His men waited for him to give any order, but he didn't. Not yet anyway. He waited.
In the other world, he spoke in his radio and said, "Move in, capture the girl. Spare the others."
On the screen, a second camera feed appeared. The first feed came from the man driving the van, the second came from the officer leading the home invasion.
Calmly, Coil watched as the officer pushed into the house and started searching. They were all dressed in FBI uniforms as their cover and they were hardly silent. When they found themselves inside the living room she had bolted up from the couch as was running for the door. One of the other men moved forward and grabbed her, moving fluidly to strike her in the temple. She crumpled to the ground.
The back door swung open and Nova stood there in shock. One of the men raised their gun to fire, but as he pulled the trigger a bubble of silvery purple light surrounded Nova. A second later, the camera feed cut out.
Coil turned to the other camera feed and watched as the roof ripped off the house and very different Nova rose out of it. She was larger, hair mane twice in size and glittered. The remains of her house swirled around her, wrapped in the energy that surrounded Nova. The horse noticed the van and the pieces of the house moved forward and then the feed from the van cut out.
Coil erased that reality and split the world again. This time, in the first world he told his men to withdraw and come back to base. In the second world, he told his men to wait twenty minutes then do a stealth infiltration using the prepared sedative to take her out quietly.
Once again, two camera feeds came up. This time as his man moved into the house they crept up to Lisa where she slept on the couch. The officer watched one of his men reach forward with the sedative when Lisa's eyes flew open and she let out a scream. The man grabbed her and jabbed the syringe in her neck, his hand clamping over her mouth. But it was too late. Coil caught a glimpse of Nova on the camera. Her eyes had turned a solid silver and her horn was glowing brightly. Then the feed cut out.
Coil destroyed that world with a sigh. It wasn't the first time he had attempted to get to her. But each time Nova appeared to notice almost instantly. It appeared there was some sort of connection between the two, something that allowed Nova to feel it when Lisa was in trouble or injured.
It irked him that Lisa eluded him because of a single cape. But that was alright because he knew where Nova lived. He knew her identity. There would be more chances in the future. For now, he would turn attention elsewhere.
He opened up another tab on his computer and pulled up the reports from the men he had inside The Workers, The Doctors, and the Pedites, and Industry. After a few minutes of reading his knuckles began to turn white as his grip tightened on the arms rests of his chair.
There was nothing. Nothing on them at all.
***
A/N: So, I'm think of making the next chapter a PHO interlude but I'm kind of on the fence with it. PHO interludes tend to work better once the main character had done something particularly flashy. But between the things with Assault and her recent appearances with Glory Girl and Clockblocker and the fact that she is an adorable cartoon horse, there would certainly be enough chatter to be reasonably interesting. Eh, we'll see.
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♦Topic: Apology My Boss Didn't Force Me To Write.♦
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay Discussion (Public Board)►Personal
Assault (Original Poster) (Confirmed Cape)
Just want to apologize to Nova for the insensitive photo and live stream I took of her first night out (Found here and here, respectively). But besides that, Nova's pretty sweet right? Took out Hookwolf and Rune first night out.
(Showing Page 9 of 23)
► The Chronicler (Veteran Member)
Just one question… WHAT THE EVER LOVING HELL? She's a goddamn horse! At first I thought this was some sort of joke but she been up everywhere in recent days. Is she some sort of Case 53?
►Kvothe24
@ The Chronicler, I think we have to assume she is. There is no way she could be a horse like that not be some sort of 53.
►Aria^2
Okay, she is a horse. The last eight pages have been freaking out about that. So how about we freak out about her powers? I mean seriously, she can fly, she can make a shield, she has telekinesis that can pick people up! Just check out this video from a a time when she broke up a gang fight between ABB and Industry. Link
►SamIAmNot
@ Aria^2, Holy Hell! She didn't just pick up a guy, she freakin threw three of them!
P.S. Anyone else notice she and Glory Girl hang out a lot?
►The Chronicler (Veteran Member)
@ SamIAmNot, Yeah, you're right. People have see them on patrol together six times the last two weeks. Then there is this video of them hitting a Merchant drug house, and this video of them getting in a fight with Oni Lee, and this video of them demolishing a drug warehouse. Literally.
I honestly didn't think there could be a hero better at destroying things than Glory Girl.
►GstringGirl
I wonder if we should give them a name like 'The Glory Duo' or 'The Justice Pair'.
►Chrome
@ GstringGirl, Those names are cringy as hell, but to be fair most pair names are. Anything beats 'Glory Horse' I suppose.
►Eolian57
Well, if no one is going to say it then the duty falls to me; I ship it.
►ArchmageEin (Guy in the know)
Goddamn it @Eolian! We almost made it ten pages without shipping two capes together. This is why we can't have nice things!
►Eolian57
I regret nothing.
(Page 10 of 23)
►GstringGirl
Can you even ship them? I mean, one is a horse.
►Kivlin2
@ GstringGirl, It's the internet, anything is possible.
►S_Nova
@ GstringGirl, It's Alicorn actually. And I'd rather you didn't
►Kvothe24
@ S_Nova, Wait? How are you here? You don't have FINGERS!
►Assault (Confirmed Cape)
She has magic fingers.
►Chrome
Godammit Assault
►Eolian57
Assault you glorious bastard.
►Glory_Girl (Confirmed Cape)
Sadly, from what I've seen, he isn't that wrong.
►S_Nova
Glory Girl why?
►Eolian57
Trouble in paradise *wink* *wink*
(Page 21 of 23)
►The Chronicler (Veteran Member)
Getting back on track, has anyone else seen "The Glory Gals" (still think that is a stupid name) anywhere?
► Xx_Void_Cowboy_xX
Nothing new, but has anyone notice that Nova seems smaller here than she does in this video? Is she growing bigger?
►Chrome
Ah, Void_Cowboy. It's been awhile since I've seen you bringing power speculation to a thread that isn't the power spec thread. We hardly see you anymore, something going on?
►Xx_Void_Cowboy_xX
Not much, I've just been Working.
And what do you mean nothing to do with it? This thread was about Assault's apology and has devolved into random talk about Nova. And what about your question about what I've been doing? What place does that have on here?
►Tin_Mother (Moderator)
@ Xx_Void_Cowboy_xX, It is still power speculation and should be kept to the appropriate thread, thank you.
►Kivlin2
But you know, I think Cowboy is right. Nova looks like she is a foot taller between photos.
►Chrome
@ Kivlin2, I thought we just said that should go to the power spec thread.
►Kivlin2
I'm not speculating it to be part of her power, I'm just saying that she does in fact seem bigger. Maybe she actually growing older?
►Bosdrid (Veteran Member)
@ Kivlin2, In just two weeks? If she is actually growing older she'll be dead in a year at that rate.
►Chrome
@ Bosdrid, Yeah, but the physiology of case 53s like that don't follow any rules we know of.
♦Topic: The Workers, Doctors, Industry, and Pedites?♦
In: Boards ► Places ► America ► Brockton Bay Discussion (Public Board)► Gang activity
Answer Key (Original Poster) (Girl in the know)
So anyone catch what's going on with these new gangs? They just popped up out of nowhere, which granted isn't that strange in this city, but they seem more organized than even the normal gangs. What gives?
(Page 1 of 3)
►Aku-42
I'm not sure but they seem to be on top of things. I saw them fighting with E88 this morning and they absolutely destroyed them.
►bothad
You got proof of that Aku-42
►Aku-42
@ bothad, go outside in Brockton Bay. There have been gang fights everywhere since Hookwolf went down. All you have to do is go near Doctor territory and you'll more than likely hear something.
►Char
You know, small gangs like these guys pop up all the time but normal disappear by now. Why are they sticking around?
► Loki_Lo
@ Char, because the Empire has its hands full dealing with the ABB pushing into their territory. Once things calm down between them or the four become too much of a nuisance the two big gangs will crack down on them.
►Char
@ Loki_Lo, I might believe that if the Empire had been actually fighting the ABB. Look, here shows that Lung, Oni Lee, and some sort of Tinker have show up eight times in the last to weeks to take territory. But this shows that Empire capes have only showed up once. What is the Empire doing? They're getting their butts kick and aren't even fighting back.
(Don't get me wrong, I don't like the Empire but I'd rather not have the city controlled by equally racist Asians.)
►Ekul
Char has a point, the Empire has been noticeably absent and not just in regards to the ABB. The Pedites have gotten very aggressive. Last week my sister's block was controlled by E88, but yesterday the Pedites show up at their door asking for protection money. Granted it was about a thrid of what the Empire was asking, but still.
►Loki_Lo
@ Ekul, I won't pretend to be an expert in gang tactics, but if I had to guess the Empire thinks it can't go toe to toe with Lung without Hookwolf so they're waiting for the ABB to over extend themselves into their territory before striking back. Then the ABB will be spread too thin to stop them.
►Ekul
@ Loki_Lo, Really? They have Menja and Fenja, not to mention Kaiser. Between Purity all the other capes they have they could easily take the ABB.
►Loki_Lo
All the more reason to let them tired themselves out fighting the normal humans in the gang.
(Page 2 of 3)
►Snake_eyes
But what are they even on about? I haven't even seen them recruiting anywhere, has anyone else.
►Ekul
@ Snake_Eye, I didn't realize until you pointed it out, but your right. My sister is near the Pedites and I know someone else by The Workers and neither seem to be actually recruiting anyone. Strange.
►Chrome
But we know they've got to be recruiting somehow. They do have members after all, and a lot of them. In fact, now that I think about it, how did know one notice them before? That is a lot of people in those gangs and no one seemed to notice them.
►TotallyNormalGuy
This is incredibly weird, but if anyone knows how to join up let me know. I might be a touch unhappy with my arrangements right now.
►AllSeer (Veteran Member)
Hmm, @ TotallyNormalGuy just made my realize something. Aren't these gangs a total win for Brockton Bay? Like before if you were white you were forced into the Empire and if you were Asain you were forced into the ABB, and that happen no matter what you believed. These gangs are taking in people all over the place, shouldn't more people be flocking to them if for no other reason to to get away from the other two gangs?
►Chrome
They might, if they knew where to sign up at. Honestly if they started having open sign ups they might soon out number the other two gangs in normal people, and wouldn't that annoy them?
►Snake_eyes
Chrome, I think you're forgetting that human power doesn't mean much in the face of parahumans. And we have seen any of The Four's parahumans.
►Chrome
We haven't seen them, but we know they're there. Plebeian, Proletarian, Civis, and Sapien. And oddly enough, aren't Plebeian and Proletarian basically the same thing?
(Also, The Four? As that what we're calling them?)
►Allseer (Veteran Member)
Maybe they're Thinkers or Tinkers? In this video they seem to use some sort of flammable gas. And here The Workers seem to use metal nets.
►Chrome
I doubt any of those were Tinker made, flammable gas is hardly a new invention and making nets has been around forever. What I find more interesting was how they used those to take capes. Did you see Oni Lee catch on fire here? He keep cloning himself and the fire followed him. Fucking hilarious.
Also, where are they getting all that stuff? They don't seem to be collecting nearly as much money as the other gangs.
(Page 3 of 3)
►Answer Key (Original Poster) (Girl in the know)
I don't know about that, but do you guys think they are working together? I know their territories are far apart from each other, but I have found a single source showing them fighting with each other.
►Chrome
I don't think they were at first, if they had been working together they could have taken much more territory working together. But they might be now, it makes too much sense that a bunch of the lesser gangs would band together to help each other against the much larger gangs.
►Snake_eyes
Chrome, I don't know. The overlap in some of their names are rather strange.
►Chrome
The over laps on appears with a few of them, not all. Probably just a coincidence.
***
So I'm sorry if this wasn't the quality for PHO interludes your used to, the PHO interlude generator doesn't work on my tiny little chromebook and my main laptop is still getting fixed. If it is a real problem for some people I'll replace it as soon as my main laptop is getting fixed.