Got the Grimoire, Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Once I’d finished the necessary cosmetic modifications to Mimi, I moved onto the next project: Jack Slash.

I’d preserved his drooling shell for a good reason, rather than give him to Cauldron or the Faery Queen: Jack’s powers terrified me. What they could do, especially in Jack’s hands, was just pure bullshit to the highest degree. And if Jack died, then there was a high chance that his passenger would just seek out a new host. I didn’t want something like that just running around.

So I decided to do something dangerous. And perhaps, just maybe, something I could pull off against Scion in the future.

Because within his brain, via some kind of dimensional bullshittery, Jack Slash held a connection to the Shard labeled ‘Broadcast’.

And connections go both ways. And with magic, I could do a lot with connections.

I drew a ritual circle around Jack Slash, using runes I’d ‘learned’ at the Clocktower as well as-

Take my knowledge for this task, my host.

-other symbols that just appeared in my head, allowing me to create a barrier that not even God himself could see past. What I was doing could set Scion off early if he discovered it. I was counting on his little depressive phase to keep him from noticing what I was going to do, but the more help I had doing it, the better. I didn’t want to set him off before I was fully prepared, even if I was sure that I never would be. Once I eyed my work-

Amateurish, but I have high standards.

-and decided it was good enough, I began the ritual. A bit of Jack’s blood, mingled with my own, and liberal use of Lunatic Eyes to begin scanning the wavelengths all around us. It took a lot of careful observation, but I was patient and had a pretty good idea of what I was looking for.

Found you!

I followed the link with my metaphysical senses and then astrally projected myself down through the link that I had forged with Jack. One moment I was inside the basement of the Overlook…

And next thing I knew, I was staring down at a desolate Earth, a mass of crystalline flesh winding it’s away across an entire continent. The true ‘body’ of Broadcast.

I took a breath, then sent every iota of power that I could muster on short notice through the link with one simple command:

[DIE]

I watched in real time as my improvised curse struck the continent-sized mass and began to eat away at it, the flesh blackening before crumbling away, pure entropy attacking the parasitic creature that infested this locked away Earth. It tried to fight back, I could see sections of flesh restore itself before again falling to the curse. I watched in horrified fascination as it struggled as hard as any human might, mountains of flesh shifting to try and buy time, lumps of crystal the size of cities being cut off from the rest as if to try and stop a viral infection.

But I had lucked out this time. I had a feeling this wouldn’t work again as shards learned and adapted to my magic, but as a surprise attack and a first strike against one of what I considered to be one of the most dangerous passengers? I think it was pretty effective. I spent my morning just watching as the being died and felt… a bit sad. It was a fascinating life form, but as we were effectively at war, I didn’t have much choice.

When I blinked back to awareness of my own body, I grimaced when I saw the state Jack was in. Blood poured from his eyes and nose and he had finally stopped breathing entirely. So I couldn’t just do that to all shards because most of my new friends were parahumans…

Well, that was a problem for later. I had an appointment to get to and a new ‘friend’ to wake up.
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I surveyed my new apartment with a critical eye. It was nice enough from my limited experience. Lots of windows for natural light (I was already going through several ideas for wards or bounded fields to minimize the risks of being attacked at home), lots of open space, a kitchen that I made certain had lots of counters, and several modern looking appliances that came with the unit. Three bedrooms, two full bathrooms and a half bath for guests. It was surprisingly luxurious, but Brockton Bay had a weird economy and while a majority of the city was broke, there were certain neighborhoods and buildings that catered to those with more expensive tastes. Medhall was a multi-billion dollar company that made it’s home here after all.

Finding the apartment had actually been pretty easy, but getting them to rent to me? A bit more difficult. Most Asians in Brockton tended to fall into a certain category on the socio-economic scale and… well, building management was leery to say the least. I had to provide my last few paystubs from the PRT and give them the phone number of my supposed supervisor in order for them to be convinced that I actually made a stable enough wage to afford the place.

I was feeling rather lucky that I’d been able to do most of that online. At least let me get something productive done while Piggot had me locked down.

“What do you think, Mi?”

Mimi shot me a look of irritation. “I don’t like it.”

“Why?”

The girl formerly known as Burnscar gave me a look of irritation. “I don’t have a job, moron. Does your Pro- PRT gig really pay that well?”

“Yep. Not to mention the bounty money from taking out the Nine,” I added.

Mimi scowled, but kept on inspecting the place. I could see she liked it, but wasn’t used to the relative luxury of it. I didn’t know much of her early life other than that it was probably shit to end up with the trigger she did and the parahuman asylum. Oh and the cigarette scars. Frankly, I didn’t need to know. When I’d gone about my memory modifications, I’d done away with her time with the Nine, but I left the rest relatively intact. In her mind, she’d escaped the parahuman asylum and ended up a druggie on the streets of Brockton Bay before we met while I was still in college. She’d gotten clean and we were trying out the roommate thing since I was a bleeding heart and Mimi wasn’t above taking advantage, especially since in her mind she was a parahuman vigilante now and needed a safe place. A roommate with powers of his own who was actually a member of the Protectorate? Well that was just a bonus.

Did I feel bad about messing with her head? Oh undoubtedly. But it was that or feed her to Glaistig and her powers weren’t strong enough to be useful to the Faery Queen or Cauldron, so I took it upon myself to take in the ‘reformed’ villain. Not that she’d ever know. I placed a compulsion in her mind to basically ignore any similarities ‘Burnscar’ may have had to herself. We’d have to wait and see if the other modifications I’d made were good enough to keep her from going full psycho the instant she used her powers, but I was hopefully optimistic there.

“Mi? You’re being awfully quiet,” I nudged.

“Shut up. I’m thinking. And you know ‘Mimi’ is already a nickname, you don’t need to shorten it any more.”

“I already have a cousin who I call ‘Mimi’, so I’ll stick with Mi.”

She shot me a scathing look. “If you weren’t so fireproof…”

I smiled innocently and made another gesture. “Look, we each get our own bedroom and bathroom, then a room for guests. It’s perfect.”

“If you’re really making so much money, you’d be better off buying a house,” she said, still hesitant. “Not splitting a place with me.”

“Nah, I’m a young guy with a good paying job, but I don’t have ‘house’ level money yet, or I shouldn’t anyway. C’mon, it’s fine, not like this is permanent, just until you start making some money yourself. Crime fighting doesn’t exactly pay the bills.”

She tapped a foot as she continued to look around. “And you’re sure your girlfriend won’t mind you having a chick as a roommate?”

“Yeahhhhh, that might be a hard sell,” I admitted. “But Crystal is great, I think once I explain things, she won’t mind.”

I really was not looking forward to that conversation. Because I was going to have to be honest with her about what I’d done. Completely and utterly.

I just hoped she wouldn’t hate me afterwards. Aaaaaannnnnddddd now I felt Amy’s situation a bit more keenly. Even if she never had modified the minds of those she loved, she probably feared what their reactions might be if they knew that she even could.

“Hm… Fine,” Mimi said. “I’ll pay you back once I get the money though.”

“Mi, you really don’t-”

“I said I’ll pay you back,” she said stubbornly.

I rolled my eyes. “Fine.”

A timid knock sounded on the door. I went over and opened it, grinning at the woman on the other side. “You must be the decorator! Nice to meet you, Ms. Russel.”

Kayden visibly flinched when she got a good look at my face, but quickly had a professional mask back on. “Hello. You must be Mr. Inouye.”

Not a good look, Purity. “That’s me, but please, just call me ‘Mak’. C’mon in, my roommate and I were just getting a good look at the place.”

She followed me in warily and I noticed she neither extended the courtesy of a first name to me and seemed to untense once she spotted Mimi staring out a window. “So did you two just move into the city or are you long time residents?” She asked with an attempt at a conversational tone while she began to take her own look around the place.

“We’ve both been here for a few years, but I just got a new job,” I said casually. “Say what you will about the government, but they pay well.”

“Oh, you work for the city?”

“The PRT actually. I’m an analyst in the accounting department.” Playing to stereotypes could sometimes be fun and let me get away with a decent cover identity.

To her credit, Kayden didn’t bat an eye. After all, the PRT was a major employer in the city and we were close to their headquarters. “You look rather young for such an important job. You must be good at what you do.”

I laughed. “Hardly. We have multiple people doing the same job in the department just to make sure none of us screw up too badly. A rounding error could cost thousands of dollars when working with government funds, better to have redundancy than make a big error like that.”

“Of course,” she said absentmindedly, obviously more focused on her work than what I was saying. “What sort of aesthetic were we going for in this space?”

I walked her through the apartment, pointing out the room I’d already designated as the guest room, then Mimi’s and finally mine. I gave her a list of colors I wanted to work with and she made her own suggestions on what looked good with the apartments existing layout. I noticed a few times she tried to steer me towards cheaper options, probably thinking I couldn’t afford the more expensive stuff, but I would occasionally put my foot down, arguing that I needed quality furniture and I’d rather pay a bit extra for nicer looking decor than have to replace it in a year when the cheap stuff went out of fashion.Once I’d made it clear that I actually had money to spend, she got a lot more enthusiastic, seeing as that meant a larger payday for her. After more than an hour of discussion and ideas being thrown around, Kayden finally put together a design plan as well as a total estimated bill (including her fee) and presented it to me.

I knew instantly that she had upped her fee. I’d looked up ahead of time what interior decorators charged. It wasn’t egregious, but noticeable since I knew what to expect already. Well Rome wasn’t built in a day and racist tendencies weren’t uprooted after so short a time either. 

“Let’s do it.” I wrote out the check and handed it over with a smile. “Get to work as soon as you can. The sooner the place is ready, the better.”

“I’ll get right on it,” Kayden agreed. “Some of this will have to be shipped in from out of town, but most of it is available locally and I have a few contacts… Thank you for your business, Mr. Inouye.”

As soon as she was gone, Mimi scowled. “Bitch.”

I started. “What?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just something she said while you were in the bathroom. Wanna go grab lunch?”

“Sure thing. Pizza?”

“Long as it doesn’t have any pineapple on it.”

“Do I look like a heathen?”
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Kayden walked down the hallway to her apartment with a slight sag to her step. A whole day of work, well spent and well paying, sure, but still so little for so much effort compared to when she’d been a member of the Empire. And for a chink of all people too! She’d been almost certain he was an ABB member or something, the white girl with him either coerced to be there or perhaps he was her pimp. She had tried subtlety asking if she needed help, only to be met with sharp hostility. She sometimes wondered why she even bothered…

Because I need a career. I need to get out from under Max’s thumb. I need to stand on my own two feet.

She sighed and unlocked the door before pushing her way in. “Theo? I’m home.” She paused as a smell hit her nose. Alcohol. Not good. She didn’t keep any booze in her home other than the occasional bottle of wine. Nothing like what she was smelling now. “That better not be you, Justin, or else I’m calling the police.”

“No need for that, my dear.” Kayden froze. Dammit. Max. “Does Justin come around often then? I suppose my son could always use more male role models in his life. Perhaps it will inspire him.”

Kayden took a steadying breath, then calmly walked into the kitchen and began to put groceries away. “He’s the only one of the old crew who visits on occasion. What do you want, Max?”

Her ex-husband sat at her couch, an expensive bottle of whiskey and a glass that he must have brought himself sitting on her coffee table. “I can’t visit my own children?”

“You can, but you don’t. Where are Aster and Theo?” She asked with tightly controlled anger. The urge to become a being of pure light and burn the condescending look off of his face was growing stronger by the second.

“I sent them on a walk to the corner market,” Max said. “I needed to speak to you privately for a moment.”

“So get to the point then.”

“It’s nice to see that you haven’t changed.” He paused. “No, I take it back. You’ve actually started growing a spine.” He finished his glass and then stood, the liquor doing nothing to dim the fire in his eyes or tightly leashed rage in his posture. “I- We need your help. Not that of Kayden Russel, no, we need Purity.”

“You should have considered that before using up all of my goodwill,” she said, anger finally leaking into her tone. “You have more than enough pawns and minions, Max. Use one of them.”

He laughed, short and sharp, and utterly lacking mirth. “Our forces were nearly halved recently. The heroes have apparently started going for the kill.”

She froze. “Who…”

“Cricket and Stormtiger. Possibly Victor and Othala too. We were having a meeting of sorts. Most of us were there. Magus showed up, we fought, and now some of us are dead and even more in prison.” Max gave a slightly shrug. “I’ve been keeping it quiet so that Lung doesn’t get any ideas. The PRT are obviously keeping it quiet until they can find a way to put a positive spin on one of their dogs finally showing it’s true colors.”

Kayden felt her heart clench. She hadn’t liked either of Hookwolf’s crew very much, they were violent and crude, but Victor and Othala had been friends. “It’s not my fight anymore, Max. I no longer stand with the Empire.”

“Oh come now, your differences have always been with me, not the cause itself. How much of a difference have you actually managed to pull off on the streets all alone, hm? Have you been able to actually affect any change?”

Kayden thought of two young vigilantes she’d worked with, one of whom had directly admitted to being from an inferior race. Yet he’d shown courage and a strong sense of justice. More than some who laid claim to the title of Master race.

“I won’t work for the Empire anymore, Max. The other races might be barbarians, but there are whites who are just as bad. The Empire can be just as bad. I looked into some of our business operations more closely than you- No, closer than even I wanted to see. We hurt people, not criminals or rival gang members, but simple everyday people just struggling to get by like any other white citizen. Sure, they might have been more likely to turn to crime, but they hadn’t yet when one of ours beat them, stole from them, burned down their business. I believe in what the Empire stands for, but I can’t agree with your methods anymore.”

Max’s eyebrows raised with surprise, a contemplative look on his face. “Perhaps your Sabbatical did you some good after all… Regardless, I’m afraid I need the strength you bring to the table far too badly. Your own, as well as that of Night and Fog.” A look that Kayden did not particularly like entered his eyes. “During our fight with Magus, a particular combination of powers nearly took him down. With your raw power, combined with those two… We can end a very real threat to the Empire. I cannot take no for an answer in this matter.”

Kayden finally let Purity loose, the brilliant glow filling her apartment instantly. “I’m afraid you’ll have to.”

Max smiled cruelly, then very carefully held up an envelope. “I must insist.”

They sized each other up for a moment. Which would be faster, Kaiser’s blades or Purity’s beams of light?

Then Kayden allowed the glow to fade and took the envelope gingerly. Papers. Not even proving that she was Purity like she feared, but simple financial reports that painted her as unable or unfit to care for children.

“If you don’t do this for us, then I’m taking back my children,” Max said. “I don’t wish to do so, but this is important. Once Magus is taken care of, I’ll leave you alone for good, you have my word.”

He could do it too, she knew. He had the money, the connections. He would rip her life apart.

For Aster. For Theo.

She closed her eyes and fought back tears. She had wanted so badly to be a real hero. Then she opened them with cold resolve. “What do you need me to do?”
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A/N: What's this? Posting in the afternoon instead of late at night? I'm slowly improving!
Writing a racist who hasn't really changed all that much, but is kinda sorta trying (but not really) is weird. I hope I'm doing it justice and yes, Max is lying through his teeth to make his cause seem more justifiable to Purity. Now Mak has a new roommate, which is not the direction I was thinking of taking this at all, but as Mak says, he doesn't want to kill Mimi and her power isn't useful enough to justify handing her over to Cauldron's 'care', unlike Riley. So, he takes responsibility himself. Plus another member for his little vigilante crew. I'm sure that will go over really well. Also my justification not changing Mimi's name: I don't think the actual names of Slaughterhouse Nine members are super well known, with the obvious exception of Mannequin, but that's because he was an ex-hero. Even if they were well known, I almost feel like the media wouldn't use them, because better to make the person into more of caricature to more easily justify the kill order on their head. Dehumanizing them, as it were.