Chronos, Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – Probability

The prospect of how I was going to track down Paradoxical was still on my mind as got to work. Once I’d set up for the day, I did a quick, ad hoc ritual to try and focus time in my favor. It was a simple use of tarot cards to try and focus the magic into ‘pulling forward’ timelines where something I wanted happened.

Chronos’s   Knowledge (Arcane Lore) check: 1d20+20 = 30 (Success)

Finished Ritual

Gathering   Talisman

Probability   Control 20 – Minimum   Result 20

Flaws:   Limited 3 (Only to make Paradoxical come to him), Uncontrolled

Drawback:   Focus (Talisman)

Descriptors:   Magic, Time

Cost:   9 PP

I felt a pulse from the talisman, telling me that it was already working, so I slipped it into my pocket, and left it to do its work. This was the first time I’d tried using magic to do something like this, so I did not know how effective it would be. Normally, I didn’t really do anything like ‘tracking’. I was the villain, after all, not the hero, and tracking down other villains wasn’t really my thing.

Oh, sure, I’d meddled in crimes being committed. That was how I got my reputation for having my fun with the superheroines and supervillains, after all. But I never tracked down any of those people. I just listened on the police scanner, and, when I heard about crimes in progress, I slipped over to the scene and, if there was a lady that suited my tastes, I stopped time and had my way.

Well, only if the lady was ‘in the business’. That was one line I made sure not to cross. Oh, taking advantage of superheroines, supervillainesses, and a few female cops and minions didn’t exactly endear me to any of the powerful women in the city, but I didn’t do any of that with civilians.

There was a reason for that, of course. You could be one of the most horrible human beings on the planet, but so long as you tried to limit collateral damage to just those in the business, then people accepted it, for the most part. Didn’t mean they wouldn’t try and take you down, of course, but it wouldn’t be anything personal, for the most part. Simply business.

Involving civilians in any real way changed the rules. The superheroes and cops would start moving heaven and earth to get you once civilian casualties started piling up. If it got bad enough, the villains would actually team up to hunt you down, just to take the heat off, if nothing else. Sometimes, they’d even work together, just to make sure you went down hard.

That had actually happened before. Clown Crime Cyndicate was a group of clown-themed villains, and they were a few sandwiches short of a picnic, to say the least. They started off small, with harmless gags like cream pies to the face while they robbed a store, but each time they had to push the thrills higher. Eventually, they were terrorizing people with exploding cream pies, acid-spraying flowers, ‘toy’ guns that shot poison cocktails, and more. All in the name of getting the next big laugh.

They went too far. One day they hit a shopping mall, and it was a massacre. The next day, the leader of the Clowns was all tied up in front of the police station, begging to confess to all the crimes they’d ever committed. The rest of the Cyndicate had been completely wiped out. Messily.

No one ever knew who did it, but whoever hit the Cyndicate wanted to make sure that both slasher and body horror fans had nightmares about the way the Clowns died. The impalements were probably some of the kindest deaths in the bunch. Certainly, it was kinder than what happened to the three Clowns (other than the leader) who survived. Those three got made into a human centipede, with the legs and arms of the dead clowns sewn on. They died a couple days later. The cops and supers went on live television and said that the Clowns must have fallen down the stairs, and they were closing the investigation.

Since I was very much allergic to pain and suffering, I took that as the object lesson it was meant to be, and avoided targeting civilians. I wasn’t an idiot. Just because I knew I could probably outrun the stings didn’t mean I was going to poke the hornet’s nest.

At any rate, the point still stood that I had absolutely no experience tracking someone down. The closest I could do was freezing time for as long as it took to go door to door through the city, searching everywhere for the guy. That struck me as a profoundly stupid way to go about things, honestly. I might be patient, but that would be pushing even my limits. Plus, if there were anyone in the city who could move through frozen time, the weeks it would take to check the whole city would be more than enough time for them to find me.

“Hey, Remy! You got a minute?”

I looked up to see Susan Black, one of the main librarians for the aboveground part of the library. Setting down the book I had been pretending to read, I smiled at her. “Of course. I was just doing a little research. Nothing I can’t put aside for a bit.”

“Really, what kind of research?”

I chuckled as I closed the book. “Oh, just some light reading on summoning rituals of the of the ancient Eastern sorcerers. It is a fascinating subject, since some of them went beyond conjuring familiars or the like to fight for them, and actually summoned independent entities.”

“Huh. That does sound interesting. Wouldn’t mind summoning some help to clean around the house. Never seem to have the time or energy to get to it and keep it done, you know?”

I grinned. “Well, I can definitely see the appeal, even if I don’t usually have that problem.” Leaning back in my chair, I asked, “So, what’s on your mind?”

“Oh!” Susan shook herself out of the fantasy of never needing to clean again, and said, “Well, the girls and I were all thinking about organizing a bit of an outing after work. Basically, going out bowling, or maybe do karaoke?  We haven’t figured it out yet, but we wanted to know if you’d like to come along?”

“I don’t have anything planned. Who else would be going?”

“Well, Linda, Tracy, Janice, and Bethany have all said yes. And me, obviously. Then there’s you, if you’re coming. Should be enough to have a good time, no matter what we’re doing.”

“Oh, my! All six of us, out on the town? And without supervision? Are you sure that Liberty City can handle that?”

“Oh, you! You act like we’re some kind of hooligans!” She laughed, and said, “Anyways, we were thinking that it would be a great chance to do a bit of a bonding exercise, since Linda only started last month. And Bethany could use something to get her mind off things.”

I sensed there was something more to the story. Perhaps the talisman was already starting to work? Putting on a concerned expression, I asked, “Did something happen? I might not be one of those flashy mages you see in the news, but I still know enough that I could cook up a curse or two, if someone’s troubling her.”

“You know, that might not be such a bad idea. Bethany, well, you know how she isn’t really one for relationships? A couple years ago, before you started working here, she was in a bad way, thanks to her no-good boyfriend. Turned out that the rat bastard was a supervillain. One of the nastier ones.”

“Oh, dear. How did she break it off? Did she get the police to help her?”

“No. She tried, but she couldn’t. Every time she tried to call the cops, or tried to leave him, or do anything he didn’t like, she’d suffer accidents. Never anything that could be proven, you understand. Just random accidents. One in a million chance. But when one in a million chances kept happening to her, she got the message real quick.”

I whistled softly. “What caused it? And how did she get free? I assume she managed to get out somehow, since she’s here, and all.”

“The Protectors finally managed to bring him down. Their magic-user, Black Hat, managed to connect the dots without tripping whatever power her boyfriend used to keep her in line. Apparently, the string of accidents caught his attention.”

I nodded slowly. “And, let me guess, the villain’s name was Paradoxical, right? I read in the paper that he was caught shortly before the Pulse. I saw the story this morning about how Paradoxical escaped Greenstone Penitentiary.”

“Yes,” Susan nodded fervently. “Bethany was in a right state when she found out. She’s convinced that Paradoxical is going to come after her! So, I wanted to try and organize a night out, to get her mind off things.”

“I understand completely. I’d be happy to help out with such a cause. In fact, since we’re going to be taking her mind off things, then why don’t we do bowling right after work, and then go to that Korean place on South Street? They have dinner, drinks, and karaoke. I can call and reserve a room, if you like?”

“Oh, you mean Iron Wok Grill? I love that place! And I know one of the guys there. He’ll get us a place, no problem. And Tracy knows someone at the bowling alley on Second Terrace. We can handle the setup. I just wanted to be sure that you would be coming. I know you say you’re not a combat magician, but, well, you’re the only one of us that has any kind of powers, so I know Bethany will feel better with you there.”

“Well, I might not be the dashing knight, but how could I say no to an appeal like that?” She smiled at me, but I could tell that there was something else she wanted to ask. “Are you sure there isn’t anything I can do to help prepare, Susan?”

She blushed, shaking her head. “Oh, you always see through me, Remy. But, yes, there is something I wanted to ask. Is there anything you can do to help Bethany out, like what you do with those charms every year?”

I considered that for a second. “I suppose there are a few things I could do. But it all depends on what you’re asking for. The protections from disease aren’t that complicated. I can take care of those fairly quickly. But if you wanted something more permanent, or more complex, then things become more problematic. Maybe before the Pulse it would have been simpler, but now, permanent changes require some kind of sacrifice.”

“I understand. And no one is expecting miracles from you, Remy. But it would really help Bethany if she had some kind of protection, you know?”

I sighed, and nodded my head. “I may be able to do something to help. But you’ll have to make sure that Bethany is one hundred percent on board with this. If I had a couple weeks, I could create something safer, with less risk. But so quickly? Bethany will have to be willing, and she’ll have to be willing to sacrifice something to the binding.”

“Um, what kind of sacrifice are we talking about? Not the kind involving dark altars or anything like that, right?”

I chuckled. “I would say you have been reading too many stories, Susan, but there are rituals like that. No, there shouldn’t be anything gruesome, like chopping off hands, or the like. But the two methods I know of for a quick, long-lasting protection, involve either blood, or sex.”

“S-sex?” Susan’s eyes went wide, and her cheeks flushed.

I smiled at her. “Not everything in those… adult depictions of wizards and mages and the like is fake, no. But the intimacy that comes with the act helps bring down barriers, and leaves one more open to the kind of changes I would have to do in order to change what is on her System information.”

Leaning back in my chair, I shrugged. “That is the easier way, and I don’t mind saying that I, myself, would enjoy it quite a bit more. However, I can understand if she wouldn’t want that. I know I am not exactly fit for the cover of those romance novels you ladies enjoy so much.”

“Oh, stop it, Remy! You’re more… distinguished than those ruffians!”

I laughed at that. “It is kind of you to say, but that’s up to Bethany. And in the likely event she does not want to sully herself with the likes of me, well, I would have to put more effort into overcoming her resistances, which means I would need more power, and that is something that could only be done by marking her in some way.”

“Oh, my. You mean like a tattoo?”

“Something like that. Plus, the cut needed to get the blood for the rite, and the loss of whatever she gave up to take on the immunity. But the marking would be small, and I could put it somewhere out of the way. It would look like a tattoo to anyone who hadn’t studied the mystic arts, but any of them would know that it was a mark of change.”

Susan looked as though she was starting to sweat, with how flushed and bothered she was looking. “Oh, my! I’ll go talk to Bethany now. Do you—do you know when you might be ready?”

“If she agrees, we could do that before the end of day. Preferably earlier, since the ritual will take time to perform, no matter which method she chooses. We still want to make it to bowling in time to get a couple games in before dinner, after all.”

“I’ll go talk to her right away!”