26

I flew through the wall of the warehouse, my bubble shield protecting Cheshire and I as we ripped through the thin metal like it was aluminum foil. I was instantly glad that I took that approach because a moment later explosives fixed to the roof and wall went off, throwing me against the ground from the force. Thankfully my shield stayed up.

Using my wings to keep me steady inside the shield, I was able to get a good look at the gang members surrounding me before the explosions full cleared. I reach out with my magic, grabbing the guns out of their hands and pulling them all into one tight ball. It only took a small measure of force to bend them out of shape and making into on ball of metal.

Their next attempt was to launch their Kinder gas and Brute nets. The nets didn't bother my shield at all, but it was a drain on my magic. It would better if I could drop it sooner than later, I decided. I flew higher, getting above the extending cloud of Kinder gas. The gas was dense, staying near the ground and it would only be ignited once everyone was out of the way. With that in mind, I wasn't prepared to give them a chance.

I considered trying to form a spark with my magic, but the idea of what the gas might do to someone inside of it made me hesitate a moment. Instead, I thought of the idea of blowing the gas away. Immediately, I felt my magic shift into my wings. I let my magic weave with the air, letting it move freely for the most part. I felt it connect with my wings and then I gave them a flap.

A massive pair of earthereal wings visible only to me pushed a wave of air forward that shoved all the of the Kinder gas away. As the gas cleared, I saw all of the gangers were gone. With a frown, I descended a little to get a better inspection.

"They used the gas as cover, knowing you would avoid it," Cheshire said.

"Cover to do what?" I asked, letting my hooves touch the ground.

"Go underground," Cheshire said simply, moving to slide off my back. "This building has a basement, they probably expanded it on top of that."

"Why go underground?" I asked. "Wouldn't that make them more trapped?"

"No," Cheshire said. "Besides the fact that they have tunnels to take them out through other buildings, they want us to chase them."

"Oh," I said, my eyebrows furrowing. An idea formed in my head and my magic twitched. "Where did they go in at?"

Cheshire raised an eyebrow at me and started to walked over to one corner of the remains of the warehouse. She took me to a metal trap door fixed into the floor.

"Careful," she warned. "They have a bomb set up on the other side."

I nodded to her and focused my magic, letting it pour out of my horn without attempting to control the form it worked in. It spread out, coating everything around me in its invisible energy that gave me a sense of everything it touched. With little resistance, it sank through the gaps in the trap door and filled the corridor below.

I felt it move around some men standing a good distance back from door, holding more guns in their hands. I focused on the details, trying to get a sense of the to contents on their belts. Then I found their Kinder gas canisters and opened the seals with a brief flicker of my telekinesis.

I waited until they had run out of my range to get away from the gas before taking several steps back from the trap door, Cheshire right behind me, and throwing it open with my telekinesis.

I was left wondering if they actually meant for the explosion to be that big or if that was a result in having that much gas filling a hallway. The concrete floor around it had caved inward in the general path of the hallway underneath it. Walking back up to it, I reached out and levitated the rocks and debris out of the way.

There was no one in the hallway below, though there were scorch marks extending down the side of it. I looked at Cheshire for her opinion on the matter.

"Too tight," she said with a shake of her head. "We'd be at a disadvantage if we go in at all. We can call Glory Girl, let her lead the way. But I don't think going in would be such a good idea."

"But we can't let them have any chance to escape," I said, putting my hoof on the ground.

"Well, we can patrol the other exits," Cheshire suggested. "Collapse them maybe."

"No need girls!" We heard a voice behind us.

There was a man in a business suit, slicked back hair, and a general air of business. He held himself casually, one hand in his pocket the other held up close to him. He was a something of an older guy, maybe in his late thirties or early forties.

"Walked here from the other building exit," Cheshire muttered to herself.

"Max Clay, at your service," he introduced with a bow. Immediately, I reach out with my horn to grab him.

"Ah, ah, ah!" Max said, wiggling his finger at me as I lifted him off the ground. "I suggest you look at your partner before you do that."

Hesitantly, I looked at Cheshire.

"Fucking snipers," she swore just moments before red dots appeared on her person. Immediately, I dropped Max and pulled Cheshire closer to me before throwing up a shield around myself. I felt my magic take a hit of exhaustion. It wasn't enough to be a problem, not yet anyway. But the shield was draining on me faster than I would have liked. I only had a limited amount of time to resolve this. If I hit him with a rock in the next few seconds I think I could manage two teleports. One to him, then one away from the snipers. Cheshire could bring him down from there. I just needed-

"Nova," Max said loudly. "I just have one thing to say to you. Adkins S Montgomery is Ragnarok."

[Alert: Omni-Negate shard and host invoked]

[Temporary deactivation invoked]

External administration failing.

[Warning: External energy becoming volatile]

External administration losing control.

[Attempting to rectify]

[Notice: Failure. Going forward with deactivation.]

External administration gone.

Applying changes gleaned from external administration.

Rectifying efficiency caps imposed by external administration.

Increasing Alicorn instincts.

Reinforcing magic bonds.

Intensifying Friendships.

I suddenly felt magic thunder through my body like I have never felt it before. It was like floodgates of pure adrenalin exploded into my magic circuits and started making magic with a passion. It wasn't like before where the magic lingered there, begging to be used. It was like… some sort of restriction had been lifted from me.

My magic exploded from my horn and coated several blocks in its energy, allowing me to find the snipers. I crushed their guns with my telekinesis and dropped my shield. I grabbed Max and lifted him off the ground and into the air.

"Oh," he said. "Well, that wasn't supposed to happen."

"I get the feeling you should be more worried than that," I warned. I felt an irrational spike of anger at the fact he pointed several snipers at my friend. He was going to hurt for that.

"I should be," Max agreed. "But I've been in enough situations like this before that it simply doesn't quite take hold anymore."

"Bullshit," Cheshire said. "He's just gotten really good at hiding it." Max gave a shrugged and said nothing.

[Notice: Reactivation]

Warning: External administration attempting to regain control

[Attempting to administrate external energy]

Frustration. Resistance.

[Partial success.]

Correct expression found: Horseapples.

Suddenly I felt my magic leaving me as quickly as it came. No, scratch that. Quicker.

"Cheshire!" I shouted right before my magic cut out and I was forced to drop Max.

"I got him!" She yelled back, darting forward with a burst of speed that impressed even me. She caught him out of the air, spun him around once, and then shoved his face into the ground.

"Okay, okay! I get it, you got me." Max said around a face full of concrete. "My evil plan is foiled, curse you and what not. I would have gotten away with it too if it wasn't for you meddling kids and your talking horse too."

"Really?" I asked, planting a hoof in front of his face.

"Really." He answered. "Now, I would suppose you would be willing to give me sanctuary in exchange for information?"

"Why would-" I stopped myself as I realized what he said. "Sanctuary? You want protection?"

"Well, it would have been pretty dumb to come out here by myself in front of a god tier cape otherwise," Max said.

"And the snipers?" I asked accusingly. "And that phrase?"

"A show," Cheshire said, her eyes widening behind her mask slightly. "The snipers would be able to watch but unable to hear you hand yourself over."

"Is that a Thinker power? " Max asked, sounding cheerful despite neither looking it nor having a reason to be. "Well, that certainly makes this easier. Although, that show was mostly for the benefit if I encountered hero or the rare villain that was going to give me to PRT custody. Wouldn't want my employer to have a reason to shank me, which makes me doubly glad it was you that found me. PRT prison is dull anyway."

"And what makes you think I won't cart you off to jail?" I asked, my frustration growing.

"Several reasons," Max said, attempting to squirm under Cheshire's grip. "First, do you really trust the PRT to be able to handle me? After everything they've done? I guarantee, you send me there and I'll either be free and back in control or become a tied up loose end in a week.

"Alternatively," Max said, his words becoming a little more hurried. "For the last ten or fifteen years, I lived with the knowledge that I might one day be a loose end and have taken a great many steps to make sure I had some leverage to get my protection. Granted, I thought it would have been Coil, he would have been an easy sell on the information. But you are just as good, if not better."

"He's telling the truth," Cheshire said.

"Is his information worth it?" I asked seriously. I could not seriously believe I was considering it. But one part of his words nagged me. I honestly couldn't trust the PRT with him. It was just like he said and more. If he got this information to get himself a deal with a villain, then I doubted he was even going to drop hints with the PRT where his employers appererntly had men.

"He thinks it is," Cheshire answered.

"I would hope so, but you better come to a decision a little quicker than that." Max pressed. "I'm quite familiar with my men's response times and needless to say, my window is closing rather quickly so I'll just skip to the ace in my sleeve. Or rather, the safety deposit key hanging from my necklace."

Without hesitation, Cheshire adjusted her grip on him to get the key he was referring to. It was less of a necklace and more of a thin leather strip with the key dangling in the centre of it. Cheshire looked at it a moment and suddenly wrapped Max in a choke hold. He struggled for a few seconds before passing out.

"Why did you do that?" I asked.

"Safer to transport him like this," she answered quickly. "He wasn't lying about the response times, and if I'm not mistaken you're running low on magic so we need to get out of here."

"But I-"

"There's no time," Cheshire hissed, tossing Max onto my back with her enhanced strength before climbing on herself. As soon as she was on I saw gang members rounding the corner.

"Ah, horseapples," I said, taking off as fast as I could. I heard some bullets ringing behind me, but I was traveling fast enough I was leaving an afterimage trail behind me. I took us above the city as fast as I could, quickly getting higher than the skyscrapers.

"Where are we going?" I asked Cheshire as soon as I had taken us a safe distance.

"Your house!" Cheshire shouted over the wind. "Panacea can grow a prison cell for him like she did for herself yesterday."

I nodded and turned that direction. There was still a massive gang fight happening all over the city, and I wanted nothing more to be part of it like I already have been today. But I wasn't going to be able to do anything until I chugged down some potions to restore my magic. Besides, between the two bases I had crushed already plus the one that we got Max Clay, their leader for all intensive purposes, I was fairly sure I had done a good amount of heroing today.

And then several explosions erupted across the city.

They weren't explosions in the traditional sense. They were like massive bubbles, each one about the size of a large building, letting me see them clearly from where I was. There was one at The Docks, one near Winslow, one where I was pretty sure the mall was it, and one on The Boardwalk. They all had a light blue colour to them, except for the one on The Boardwalk that appeared to be filling with snow.

"Alright," I muttered. "Apparently not enough heroing for the day."

"Is he awake yet?" I asked the moment I teleported back into our living room, Cheshire riding on my back.

"I can wake him." Panacea answered.

"Not yet," Cheshire told her as she slid off my back. "We have to listen to this first." She held up the recording device we had found in the safety deposit box just twenty minutes ago.

As much as I want to get back out there and fight whoever made those weird bubble things and the giant blade forest the Kaiser was making around Shantytown as gang members and Protectorate attacked him, we had something to take care of that was arguably just as important. But as soon as we were done here, I would fly straight to The Docks and make sure my father was okay.

"What is it?" Panacea asked.

"I don't know just yet, but whatever it is Max seems to think it's important enough to bargain his life for, among other things." Cheshire took us over to the table and sat down. Panacea sat next to her. I, now being a little too big to comfortably sit in the chairs, chose to stand.

"We ready?" Cheshire asked, reaching for the play button. We nodded once and she hit the button.

"Hello," Max Clay's voice said out of the device's speaker. "This is Will Holden operating under the alias of Max Clay for now and the foreseeable future. It's October 21st, 2004. My recording device is a wire I'm wearing that is transmitting back to a separate device. In the event I am to die, this recording will get sent to several people. If you are listening, that means you're one of those people. That said, here is evidence file number three.

"I got the only lead on the boss I probably ever get. It's risky, and on short notice, but if I pass it up I might never learn. The boss who paid my bail and has been forcing me to learn to, well, to fight parahumans. Just like the ones that exposed me, they had said. But I know honeyed words when I hear them. After all, that was my job before all this crap happened to me." The was the sound of a car door slamming and then the sounds of a busy street and car flying by.

"I'm approaching the hotel right now, they're hosting some event so it should be easier to slip in and get where I need to go. I just need to trick the front desk into giving me a room key. I'm going to hush up on the details now and assume you get the picture. Can't be attracting attention by talking to myself now can I?"

The sound changed as he entered a building, the distinctive sound of a electronic doorbell playing as the door opened. We listened intently as he got the lady behind the desk to give him a new key card for the room he wanted. He did this by paying someone fifty bucks to distract the lady when he answered his phone, which he did as soon as she asked him for some important information. I presume he took the moment to check her computer for the right answer.

There was more walking and the sound of elevator music before Cheshire hit fast forward. If anyone would know where to stop it would be her. She released the button and the sound of shuffling came from the recorder.

"Come on, come on," Max, or Will now I guess, mumbled under his breath. "If I have to search the whole freakin Presidential Suite just to find some dirty on this guy I'm not going to happy. Can't even find his real name. 'Mr.Smith', fakest name ever."

There was a few minutes of more shuffling around, more covert searches and the ruffling of papers when Will suddenly swore under his breath and started running somewhere. The sound of a door closing was heard just as Will stopped moving.

"Here we are Mr. Archer," A distinctly high-class British accent said. "Now that we're in the comfort of your room, would you like to discuss that small problem I've been trying to talk to you about all night?"

"Not yet Carson," A curt man's voice answered, Mr. Archer I guessed. "Tell me the passphrase first."

"As you say, sir, 'Adkins S. Montgomery is Ragnarok'."

"Good, you may continue." There was the sound of a clinking glass and the sound of a liquid being poured into something.

"Well sir, I simply was questioning your spending in regards to The Sentient."

"What about it?"

"Sir, as much hope as we have for The Sentient, the kind of spending is going to bankrupt the company."

"Not overnight it won't," Mr. Archer responded.

"Ah, true sir, but in a matter of years, it will. The Sentient are an enormous strain on your checkbook, and I advise you reconsider this recent purchase. After all, all the money you put into that Kinder gas of yours wasn't cheap."

"Your advice is appreciated Carson, but unwanted. Proceed with the purchase as ordered."

"But sir, you are going to kill the company."

"Quite honestly Carson? Fuck the company."

"I do beg your pardon!"

"Carson, I don't give a damn about this company anymore. It exists solely to fund The Sentient, once they have completed their purpose I'll have no need for it anymore."

"Mr. Archer," Carson stressed. "I worked with your father to help build this company, and when he passed it on to you I promised I would help you maintain it and grow. Have you already forgotten that? I was there for you when you triggered, and covered for you when you were out in costume, and there for you again when you met Adkins for the first time. But ever since-"

"It doesn't matter!" Mr. Archer yelled, the sound of a glass shattering a moment later. "I don't give a damn about my father, or this company, or fucking Adkins! All that matters is The Sentient."

"I see sir," Carson said in a defeated tone. "Then, might I suggest you reconsider your goal for The Sentient?"

"For what reason?"

"Well sir, while your goal of taking over one of those cities is certainly possible with the plan you've laid out, holding on to it is another matter entirely. If it were a cape, they might condemn the area, but these are normal humans. As soon as you have a grip on a city, the military is going to come in and take it from you."

There was a soft laugh from Archer. "Normal humans fixing what parahumans can't. I can almost live with that ending."

"Sir? Do you actually want The Sentient to succeed?"

Archer paused a long time before answering. "Of course I do, but I don't think it matters in the end now does it? Either it all works out or it goes down in flames. But no matter which way, I've made my mark on the world. My perfectly human mark."

"Archer, do you expect me to stand by and let you throw your life away for a cause you don't even care if succeeds?"

"Frankly Carson, I don't expect you to do anything. I want this to work, and at the same time, I don't care if it doesn't. Because even if our plans are somehow stopped, I will have given hope to all the humans in the world. And if me, my father's company, and The Sentient themselves have to burn to get there, so be it."

"Well Mr. Archer, I am bound by duty to stop you. Your father wouldn't let me do otherwise."

There was a pause from Archer, then he said, "No, I suppose he wouldn't." Suddenly, a gunshot rang out loudly from the recorder followed by a heavy thump.

"I'm sorry Carson," Archer stated. "You were a good family friend, but I don't have room for friends anymore."

Cheshire reached out and hit the stop button. She glanced up at me and said,

"There isn't anything else."

"So… That's him?" I asked. "That's the person responsible for all of this?"

"I… don't know," Cheshire said with a frown. "My power wasn't working during that entire exchange."

"What?" I asked, shocked.

"I don't know it was just… off." She said weakly.

"Like when they use the passphrase?"

"No," she answered with a shake of her head. "When they use the passphrase it's like my power comes to a complete stop, screeching to a halt. Those people just didn't exist as far as my power was concerned. Every attempt I made to try and understand them only lead to my power getting redirected elsewhere." Cheshire paused and considered something for a moment.

"Wait, you can hear the passphrase can't you?" Cheshire said shooting me an odd look.

"Uh, yes?" I said, unsure of how to answer.

"That name, Adkins, it has something to do with it doesn't it?"

"Yeah, its part of a whole name, along with a statement of who that person is." I figure that would probably be the easiest way to communicate it. Besides, every time I hear it I feel magic surge inside of me and that could quickly get annoying, if useful. I would ask Cheshire about it, if I thought she would be able to parse through all the magic details.

"Hmm," Cheshire said thoughtfully. Her eyebrows furrowed together as she poured more brain power into it. "Adkins. Adkins. What's the rest of the name?"

"Adkins S. Montgomery," I answered. Cheshire quirked her lips.

"There is something there, barely enough to notice. I can hear the name, and if I wasn't paying attention I might not even notice that it was resisting my power. What is the second half?"

"Is Ragnarok," I told her as I felt more curious as she worked through it.

"There it is again," Cheshire said, a little bit of annoyance creeping into her voice. It's small, something that would only be noticed if someone was paying attention to it. It must be…"

"Uh, Cheshire," Panacea suddenly said, almost surprised me as she had been quite the whole time. "What is it?"

Cheshire let out a frustrated sigh. "Alright, straight guesswork, no power involved, it's some sort of Stranger/ Trump cape. Someone who's name is Adkins Montgomery, and someone who is also R- Ah fuck!" Cheshire suddenly grabbed her head. Instinctively Panacea reached out to touch her, but Cheshire waved her off.

"No, I'm fine," She said bitterly. "Alright, that proves it. It is some sort of Stranger/Trump power linked to those two terms. There can be a lot of different ways to think of Ragnarok. And there can be more than one Adkins Montgomery in the world. But there can only be one person who is both, and that is how the power takes effect." Cheshire let out another sigh. "But again, that is just me using normal deductive abilities, so don't think of it the same way as my normal deductions."

"No, it makes sense," I said with a nod. "But it really only raises more questions."

"Fucking tell me about it," Cheshire complained. "Can we just forget this for a moment, I risk giving myself a Thinker headache just by having each part of the phrase in the same stream of conscious thought."

"Alright," I said, feeling a little disappointed that we couldn't continue this. It was all very interesting, and the idea it might put us right at the very centre of this whole Sentient nonsense made me a little hopeful. Max's, er, Will's paranoia paid off. Speaking of which…

"I think it's time we had a talk with 'Will'." I stated.

***

Max's, or Will's, or whatever his name was, cell was some sort of bio-creation Panacea whipped up. It sat in the corner of my basement, reaching to the ceiling. It white, wood-like substance of some sort. Maybe ivory? Could she make ivory out of plants? Well, it would hold him anyway.

Panacea reached through the cell bars and touched Will on the cheek for a brief second before pulling back, his eyes flying open a moment later. He paused and looked around as he tried to make sense of his surroundings. He rubbed his eyes a bit before letting out a stretch.

"I take you've probably heard that recording by now." Will stated when he finally came to terms with where he was.

"We have," I said evenly. I wasn't sure why, but Cheshire was letting me lead this one. Maybe she was still suffering from whatever that was a little bit ago. I wasn't complaining though, it liked being able to confront him on this. "What else do you know?"

"Oh, what don't I know?" Will said, taking a sitting position. "But before we get into that, let's discuss my deal."

"You're deal?" I asked with a raised eyebrow. "You lead a terrorist organization, ordered the death of one of my friends, and you think you get a deal? After already playing your trump card?"

"You know," Will said thoughtfully. "I always wondered about that expression, because even if I've played my trump card, that doesn't change the fact that I might still have a four of a kind in hand."

"What are you getting at?" I asked seriously.

"What I'm saying Nova, is that I've been a lot of things in life and the labels you put on me are not the first or the last." He leaned forward and gave me an intense look. "I've been a college dropout, a failed father, a used car salesman, a thief, a con man, and prison gang leader. And when the man you now know as Mr. Archer pulled me out of prison and put my talents to use, I became a motivational speaker for the cause of humanity. Not long later I was in charge of Boston's recruitment campaign. After that, I became head of The Sentient's Brockton Bay conspiracy. And if you really want to pin the death on me, I was also the man who ordered the death of Rune. However, with every single one of those roles I've played, I've always done it to survive. But there is one thing I've had the potential to be for years." He held out a hand symbolically. "A man about to help someone else kill dozens of parahumans to impose some strange hybrid of the French Reign of Terror and Stalinism."

For the first time since I've encountered him, and actual frown overtook the perpetual smug expression on his face. His gaze fell slightly, only for his smug look to return a moment later. However, it didn't seem quite as natural as it was a moment ago.

"You see, it's all great sitting at the top of your own citywide gang and conspiracy. It was even great to tell people about our cause, the cause of making humanity great again. To make humanity important in spite of capes, just like the Thinkers that put me away." Will let out a small laugh. "You know, that is actually the line they used when trying to recruit me?

"But I'm getting off topic. I've been in the game too long to expect my position, regardless of how I felt about it, to actually stay to me. To actually think the people in charge cared enough about me to not have me killed. One day I might make a mistake, I might say the wrong thing to the wrong person, they might want to rotate my ever ageing body and get a fresh face, or I might get captured by the PRT and Archer won't think I'm worth the trouble of saving and we'll just have me killed. Either way, I was doomed to fail the moment I was sprung from my prison cell. But I wasn't about to take it sitting down.

"I start pushing for information, which is how the recording you heard came to be. I sought to know the very things Archer didn't want people to know for the express reason I wanted to know them for. And I learned so, so many things. That recording? You might have noted it was evidence file number three. There are thirteen in total with all sorts of juicy details. And all I ask is permission to remain in your specific custody for the foreseeable future."

"That… was really long," I said dryly.

"Sorry," Will said with a shrug. "Monologues have sort of been my job for the last couple of years. It's a force of habit."

"Anyway," I said, moving past that, "What can you have that could be valuable enough to justify us keeping you around. Not only did you kill my friend and part take in a massive conspiracy that is still ravaging the city, but you're also kind of annoying. It is really not worth my time."

"Not worth your time, huh?" Will asked curiously. "Then I suppose you don't want to know about our capes?"

"Doesn't that go against the human supremacy thing," I countered. He gave me another shrug.

"True, but we have to train our men to be prepared for everything. And I mean that in the most literal sense, as we are training normal men to fight capes. So let's just say that the training is all not all that kind to those unlucky enough to be a foot soldier. I've learned of over thirty people triggering during training, and those are just the ones I know about. On top of that, because the 'morals' we 'taught' them, almost all of them went to join the Protectorate. In fact, no small portion of the PRT's Think Tank comes from Thinkers we made. I know we've cut ties with most of them, but there are always those few…" He trailed off.

"And you expect us to take care of you in the meantime, and we're supposed to think you're not going to try to get free at any point after that?"

"Free?" Will laughed. "Nova, I haven't tasted freedom since I accidentally got my high school sweetheart pregnant around twenty years ago. And frankly, I'm not sure I really care about it anymore."

I didn't have a response to that, so I just turned and looked a Cheshire. Her expression was hard to read, some mix of incredible interest and frustration.

"I think it's worth it," she said. "If you want, I'll stay here and learn what I can while you go out and see what you can do about the city."

I nodded and looked at Panacea. "Okay, but I could use some backup."

"Me?" She asked, a little surprised.

"Yes," I said with a nod, giving her a little smile. "There are still plenty of other gang members to hit, and I'm ready for this day to be over."

***

A/N: It is equal parts annoying and fun to write a character who enjoys making and giving monologues. Aside from that Max, or Will, is a smug asshole. It is his resting expression for almost everything he is feeling. He has used it so much in the role for The Sentient that he has learned to use it no matter what emotion he is feeling. Sometimes he uses it as a mask, sometimes he uses it as a coping mechanism, sometimes he uses it honestly. There aren't a lot of things that make him drop that demeanor.

That said, there was a line I wanted to include but didn't see a place to put it without ruining the flow of the dialogue, so I'm just going to put it at the end here as a really short omake or snippet:

"Wow," I said. "Do you have any other personality trait than smug asshole one hundred percent of the time?"

"Trust me," Cheshire said, interrupting him before he could speak. "It is his natural state of being."

Finally, there might not be a chapter tomorrow as I go in for surgery in a couple hours and I'll probably be too out of it to get a new one written in time.