Got the Grimoire, Chapter 64

Chapter 64

Sunday, April 10, 2011

I finished transferring one last charge to Dauntless. “And that’s all for today.”

Dauntless flexed one gauntlet and then summoned his Arclance. The already dangerous weapon was now in a league of it’s own, crackling with the potential for violence. I was excited for when Dauntless finally got a chance to use the thing for real.

“Thanks. Still having trouble rounding up all the objects?”

I grumbled something uncharitable towards the PRT’s R&D department. “They find your empowered items fascinating. Getting ahold of them is like pulling teeth sometimes.”

“Let me know if you need any help. I’ve also still got a bunch in my garage at home.”

“I will, I will.”

Shawn had so many items just laying around that it wasn’t practical to transfer all of their power to him at once. We were doing about twenty to thirty a day, his stamina not being up to the task of accepting anymore power than that. Still, it meant he was growing at a rapid pace compared to his usual. Piggot had been practically cackling at the idea of gaining another S-class cape for the ENE.

“You’ve been adding more to your armor, right?” I asked. I already knew that he’d been adding additional charges to his shield and Arclance, but I also wanted my teammate to be a bit tougher. Shields couldn’t cover everything at once after all.

He rolled his eyes at my now familiar question. “Yes, I’ve been making sure to upgrade all of my equipment somewhat evenly.”

“Good, just making sure. Wouldn’t want some random criminal with a rifle to get the better of you.”

“So you’ve said.”

There was also still the looming threat of Leviathan in the air that made me nervous for my teammates. Still a month out (assuming my knowledge still held true) but a lot could happen in that amount of time. I’d been boosting everyone whenever I had the chance, but all of my teammates only had so much to give. Turns out that federally allocated funds just didn’t count as much in value for some reason. My power was able to tell what was a genuinely a sacrifice from the person versus what was something that had just been given to them. We’d tested it by having three of my fellow capes all offer me differing amounts of money (since it was the easiest thing to acquire for government workers) and seeing how much energy it would give me.

The one who had given me the most, Battery, had gotten the least amount of power for what she’d offered. Assault had gotten slightly more power, though it had felt… diluted. Vista had offered just a hundred bucks worth of her paycheck. Somehow that had given me the most power of the three.

We’d tested again with Gallant, Armsmaster, and Miss Militia. Gallant had offered money from his trust fund, Armsmaster from his tinker budget, and Miss Militia from her pay. Once again my power seemed to sense that Gallant, while a genuine offering, wasn’t as much from a percentage perspective compared to what the other two were offering and the amount of power I could offer fluctuated in response.

Piggot’s ideas of having me eat up gold bullion died a sad death when we discovered that.

I was driven out of my musing as Shawn smacked me firmly on the back. “Up for a spar? I want to see what my gear can do with all the new charges.”

“Sure. Training room?”

He gave me a dry look. “I know for a fact what you can throw around is enough to level buildings. I’m also fairly certain that my Arclance is getting to that level now.”

“… I can take us to a desert?”

“That would probably be for the best.”

I focused for just a moment, summoned forth the necessary power and muttered my spell of choice before pulling my hands apart like I was pulling back a curtain. A tear in space appeared and Shawn donned his helmet before stepping through. I followed a moment later out onto the endless sand dunes.

Dauntless looked around for a moment. “Africa or Middle East?”

“Africa. Bigger, less of a chance someone accidentally gets in our way.”

Dauntless nodded. “Ever think about tackling the warlord problem here?”

“One world issue at a time,” I chuckled nervously. Dealing with the Endbringers was one thing. Dealing with an entire continent… that came with troubles of it’s own kind.

He nodded again and summoned forth the Arclance and held up his shield, energy radiating off of it. I allowed power to flow through my veins and light up my costume as I enhanced it’s protective qualities and prepared my own spells.

We stood in tense silence for a minute… Then Dauntless struck first, Arclance blazing as it swung for me! I had no idea of it’s initial baseline, but it extended well beyond it’s original size to reach out toward me and I could see a path of glass being carved through the sand as it headed for me.

I threw away my initial urge to block something that dangerous and instead flew backward into the air, feeling the crackle of ozone wash over my skin at the near miss. Dauntless kicked off into the air, boots blazing with their own energy as they propelled him into the sky. He had a kind of Namor thing going with how he flew, his boots being the focal point of his flight, as opposed to the more classic ‘swimmer’ pose favored by many fliers.

A pair of sharp jabs came at my face and I had to throw up a shield this time, the runic barrier flaring as it resisted the Arclance, but even with those two blows I could see the cracks flaring. It was by no means my strongest barrier, but the fact that Dauntless came close to breaking them so quickly gave me some pause at just how powerful he was going to be once he had all of his charges allocated.

Will he be stronger than me? What happens if he goes bad?

Dumb questions perhaps, but ones that popped into my mind anyways. I’d just have to trust Dauntless as so many had trusted me so far.

Tired of being on the defensive, I summoned up a stream of intense blue flames and sent it toward Dauntless’ face. He held up his shield and it warded away my magic easily enough, but it bought me time to get some distance and gather even more power. I held my hands apart just slightly and focused the power into a single point just between them, a small bead of brilliant light forming.

Dauntless paused once his vision cleared, the desire to attack or defend warring, before he charged, his flight already showing vast improvements. Where once he’d been the fastest Mover in Brockton aside from Velocity and Purity, now he was faster than the latter and almost the former’s equal.

I unleashed my power in a tightly controlled beam of focused light, intentionally aimed away from any vital organs. Dauntless saw the exercise for what it was though and swung his Arclance up to meet my spell in a brilliant flash that left spots in my vision. The resulting detonation of force also nearly sent me spinning through the sky, but I quickly muttered a few words that made the air into a cushion that settled me more gently upon the ground than gravity would have.

For his part, Dauntless was only thrown back a few feet by our two attacks clashing, the front of his armor scorched, but even as I was watching a shimmer ran through it and the metal began to take on it’s former polish.

“What now?!” I called up at him. “You have the advantage when we’re up close, but I can keep taking shots at you from down here or anywhere else!”

Dauntless tilted his head toward me thoughtfully, then I saw a smirk flicker across his face.

Ah hell.

I was just beginning to call my power up into a cloak around me when Dauntless switched his grip on his Arclance and threw the thing like a damn javelin. It flew far faster and smoother through the air than anything natural and struck my barrier with more force than anything else he’d sent my way so far. Electricity crackled around my shield and I had just a second to curse before the field shattered and the Arclance engulfed me.

Pain lanced through every nerve of my body and I was idly reminded of when I’d been tazed once, if amplified several times over. Through the haze of agony, I began to recite a spell, but the pain abruptly vanished as Dauntless held out his hand. The lightning that caged me flew back to him and reformed into the Arclance.

“How’d you like that new trick? A new nonlethal measure that just appeared,” the bastard said with smug satisfaction. For a brief moment, I shared Colin’s hatred of his guts, though perhaps for differing reasons. “It’s also pretty destructive if I use it a bit differently. Good if we ever encounter a ‘scorched earth’ scenario.”

“Let’s hope it never comes to that,” I muttered. “Don’t think you had me, I was about to get out of that before you recalled it.”

“I figured, cause you started glowing,” he said cheerfully. “It looked like it was going to be painful for me.” He hesitated briefly before continuing. “Also I felt like a dick using that move on you. I haven’t actually tested it on a live person yet and it looked like you were in a lot of pain.”

“I’ve had worse,” I half-lied. If I had, I’d repressed the memory. “But it’s a good trick to use against the bad guys, that’s for sure. Just uh… Don’t use it on any of the Wards.”

“Noted. Want to go again?”

I squeezed my eyes shut before drawing upon more of my mana. The air began to practically thrum with the weight of it.

My eyes snapped open I gave Dauntless my worst grin. “Bring it.”

***

Ethan suppressed another yawn as he dragged himself into the Rig’s locker room. His eyes still felt heavy, but he blamed that mostly on Sam, seeing as she was the reason he didn’t get a good night of sleep.

And not even for the fun reason! She’d been out on patrol and he’d been worried sick until she’d come home. They usually synced their patrols for just that reason, but once in a while things just worked out in such a way that they weren’t able to work together. Truly the worst kinds of days.

He opened his locker and began to pull on his Assault costume when Dauntless stalked in, his costume ragged and eyes bloodshot.

He began to take off his armor, only to notice Ethan’s curious look. “What?”

“You okay?” Ethan asked.

Shawn grunted and pulled off his helmet, revealing a black eye. As more of his armor was yanked off, Ethan spotted a variety of cuts and bruises. “Word of advice: Don’t piss off Mak when you’re sparring. He’s a vindictive little bastard.”

Ethan couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him. Nothing like another person’s misery to get the day started properly.

***

“I almost can’t wait for the next Endbringer,” I grumbled. “At least then I don’t have to hold back.”

Crystal smiled indulgently and rubbed my back soothingly. “There there. I know you could have taken on Dauntless easily, you just had to hold back. It’s totally not your lack of experience biting you in the butt. Totally.”

I tried to muster up a glare, but couldn’t at the innocent smile that played across Crystal’s face. “Fine, you got me. My powers give me phenomenal cosmic power, but that doesn’t make me any less of a rookie. Happy?”

“We’ll call it even. I don’t exactly like hearing about how you got hurt this morning.”

We walked hand in hand down the Boardwalk, my veil of privacy making sure that no cape watchers noticed Laserdream hanging out with a ‘normie.’ Crystal occasionally joked that half the reason we were dating was for the ability to avoid the paparazzi.

“Nothing permanent, it was just a spar,” I said. I took a sip of my smoothie before continuing. “Besides, I did way worse right back. Does that help?”

“Maybe a little,” she admitted. “Is that why we’ve never sparred? Because you get petty when physical pain is involved?”

“Probably. I also don’t like the idea of attacking you, even if it’s just for training.”

“That’s sweet, even if it’s incredibly belittling,” she teased.

I rolled my eyes. “Fine, one of these days I’ll take you out to the desert and we can shoot lasers at each other. How are your barriers these days?”

“Better than before, but still not as good as Mom or Eric. My beams are something else now though, I bet I could give Purity a run for her money now.”

“We can test that one of these days,” I promised. “I still remember what those felt like, I can give an accurate appraisal. And since we’re on the subject, do you think any of your family will be up for a boost?”

“Probably. Eric and Vicky almost certainly, Amy will probably say she doesn’t need one, my parents are a coin flip and Aunt Carol is almost a definite nope, she’s way too paranoid. Which might interfere with Vicky come to think of it.”

“Alright, well we can go over how that works next time I work with your family on patrol. It’s a bit of a weird process, but I’m sure they’ll pick it up.”

“Ooo, sounds culty. Are we going to sacrifice a goat to you?”

“I mean… You could…”

She started to laugh, only to stop when she noticed the expression on my face. “No way.”

“I’m very serious.”

“Your powers are freaking weird.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” I sighed.

We started to laugh only for my phone go off. The work one. At the same time, Crystal’s phone started ringing with multiple texts.

We glanced at each other, a bad feeling working it’s way down my spine. I started reading the alert from Console.

Console: To all available Protectorate members: Panacea and Glory Girl have been assaulted by unknown parahumans at Brockton Memorial Hospital. Converge and assist. Civilians are present. Parahuman villains believed to be in possession of mass destructive abilities and hostages. This is an A-class threat, respond accordingly.

Crystal and I shared another look before shooting off into the sky.

Someone was messing with our White Mage.

And they were about to get a lesson on why that was a tremendously stupid idea.
***
A/N: My thanks as always for your continued support. This month is going to be difficult, because I do most of my writing on the weekends and this entire month I have things going on, either guests from out of town or going out of town myself every single weekend, so it will be difficult, but I'm determined to keep a consistent posting schedule for you guys.