Saturday March 6th?, 2010
I wake up, my mouth feels dry and gravelly, and there's a horrible taste in my mouth. A burning itch is on my arm, and something is poking me repeatedly in the backside. I open my eyes, and I'm greeted with the sight of dirty gritty pavement, lines of trash, a brick wall with graffiti on it, and warm daylight. I see my own body lying face down in an alley. Someone is poking me with a stick. Free camera is on.
What the fuck?
The poking of my backside resumes and I focus my camera on the assailant. Observe. the controls feel sluggish. What the fuck? Why the hell am I lying face down in some alley way with Free Camera on? I switch back to my normal view and prop myself up.
"Yer alive." A voice says as the poking stops.
I sit up and turn around. "What the fuck?" I verbally say what I have been thinking. Last thing I remember clearly was ditching my escort at the train station who insisted I wasn't allowed to leave until my non-existent fake father picked me up. After that it gets hazy, I recall trying and failing to get a cab to take me to Brockton Bay, but don't recall why. I remember a fight between a cliché sexy green alien, the Green Giant from those vegetable commercials, and a bunch of rejects that looked like extras from a Mad Max Movie. Did any of that happen or was it a bad dream?
Well, judging from this guy's appearance and the shopping cart filled with odds and ends next to him, he's some homeless dude. Reading his Observe confirms it. He's still holding the stick, but stops waving it around.
"Thought I found a body. It happens sometimes, especially over wintah. People on the street freeze to death sometimes." The man says in a thick Boston accent. "Othah-wise yah be a bit young to get black-out drunk in an alleyway."
"It's spring. Where the fuck are my clothes?" I ask, finally standing up. I was in nothing but my underwear, which felt…wet.
"Nah, spring's not till the equinox, couple weeks away still. If yah been here all night, folk probably stole 'em."
"Where am I and what day is it?" I ask, fearing the worst. How long was I unconscious? How did I get unconscious and why can't I remember what happened last night?
"Boston, it's Saturday"
"The sixth?"
"Yeah, Coppers are on the way, called it in at the store across the way"
I don't need that extra complication. At least I'm still in the city and it's only the next day. My inventory is still present, but… "What's your name?" I knew it but…
"Olly."
"Turn around, close your eyes, and count to one hundred."
"Why should I? I don't want you taking my stuff. Coppers probably give you a blanket or such…"
I put my hand behind my back and summon a twenty from my inventory, then show it to him. "Cause I'll give you this."
"Where did?..."
I summon another one. "No questions, you found and saw nothing." Olly turns around and starts counting.
I inventory the dirt and grime off myself and equip a new set of underwear and clothing. I put the two twenties under a rock where I was standing and stealth my way out of the alley. I'm in an extremely run-down commercial area, filled with pawnshops, payday loan places, and liquor stores. There's a mess of notifications waiting, but I pause before opening them when I spot some guy wearing my costume trench coat down the street. I tag him with Observe as he spots me and runs the other way.
I run across the street after him, but stop after I skim his summary. It's not worth it. I need to know what the hell happened last night. He's just another down on his luck homeless guy that needs my coat more than I do. I can steal a better one later anyway. The burning itch on my arm comes to my attention again and I glance down. It looks hideous. What the hell is this and where did it come from? Status Effects
Festering Wound: STR -0.10 CON -0.50 ALU -0.25 COM -25.00
Exotic Parasitical Infection: CON -1.00 LUC -2.00 DOD -2.00 ATK -2.00 COM -25.00
Something that has a luck penalty? Fucking weird. Just what is this thing? Held at a certain angle in the sunlight, the wound on my arm glitters with a metallic sheen intermingled among a massive splotch of discolored skin I thought was a bruise on my good arm. I can still use my arm, but damn is this itchy, distracting, and immensely uncomfortable. It hurts, but it's a dull burning ache, more annoyance than a hindrance, but that's with a 75% pain resistance my powers give me.
Some people on the street are staring, so I duck into an alley again. I make sure there aren't any surprise muggers waiting inside. With no eyes on me, I equip a long sleeve shirt to cover the wound up and resume wandering. I find a run-down Dunkin' Donuts and step inside. I glance at a wall clock as I head toward the bathroom. It's nearly 8:15 am. Unanswered notifications pulse at me but I need to know what this is, and what the hell happened last night.
I remove my shirt in the stall, Parapedia the status effects, and Observe the wound itself several times.
Manifested parasitic organisms? Former Major Bruise? Did it heal? It doesn't look healed. Well, this at least confirms it is still only skin deep, and that Avatar is working properly regarding that. It has a timer and doesn't have the permanent tag, but something is wrong. The timer goes down then goes back up again, hardly making any progress.
Shard Fragment? This meant it came from a parahuman power like that wasn't obvious from how it looks. If I go to a doctor the PRT will get called. At least it also says Avatar and Disease resistance is working, but, 64 days? Fuck that. At least it also doesn't have a permanent tag and the timer isn't acting weird. Also what the hell is COM? Oh, right I forgot. Comfort attribute, which I turned off notifications for almost everywhere. Stupid useless thing. Still, these effects are cutting that stat in half alone. That fucks with my concentration and makes lots of skills harder to use.
There isn't much else for me to do. I almost scratch it but stop myself, and pull out bandages from my inventory. My HP is full, any fake blood, scabs, or bruise voxels have long since faded. Actually are bruise voxels a thing? Maybe not, as they don't separate off my body.
I put some OR gloves from my inventory on my hands. The wound feels rough but isn't actually open. Did I heal it while unconscious sealing that shit inside? If it's not open skin why is it still called a wound? This system doesn't make any sense! Yeah, because powers don't make any sense.
I'm getting distracted. I wrap the 'wound' up. The Comfort penalty goes down a small amount, and the Allure penalty goes away now that it's covered up by a bandage and a shirt.
I go over my inventory. Where did all this fruit come from? Ignoring that for now, nearly everything is still present. The most important things, Julia and Nathan's guns, Bonesaw's brain wave thing and legless spider bot, and all my tools, food, and camping stuff.
No wait, my golem snakes are gone. So is my hand-ax, bat, and entire makeshift costume. If I got in a fight, I would have worn it and would have been wearing it while robbed in the alley. Are people so desperate to steal the costume right off a cape? Except it doesn't look like a costume so much as normal clothes, boots, trench coat, and motorbike pads and helmet. Fuck, my watch is gone too. I can't keep that in inventory without constantly fixing the time when I take it out. Everything not in my inventory except a pair of dirty underwear got stolen. Means I had my weapons and my snake golems out and lost them somehow. Definitely had to have been in a fight.
The train arrived at just before 5 pm last night, so what the hell happened to me in the last 15 hours?
Notifications
Your Disease Resistance skill has increased by 1
You are suffering from the Status Effect 'Sedated'
You are suffering from the Status Effect 'Unconscious'
Your Drug & Poison Resistance skill has increased by 1
Your Disease Resistance skill has increased by 1
'Severe Exotic Parasitical Infection' has been downgraded to 'Exotic Parasitical Infection'
Your Disease Resistance skill has increased by 1
The Status Effect 'Fungal Spore Infection' has been removed
The Status Effect 'Memory Inhibition' has been removed
Your Drug & Poison Resistance skill has increased by 1
The Status Effect 'Sedated' has been removed
The Status Effect 'Unconscious' has been removed
That's only what happened while I was unconscious. It's not everything and brings up more questions. The bad taste in my mouth is still there. I wash up, head back into the store, buy a jug of chocolate milk, and a half dozen donuts. I sit at a tiny table and open up my status, notes, and FRAPS.
My notes interface catches my eye first. A new file entry titled README is next to the file I keep my power notes in.
Plant People? Teeth? Blasto? Who in the hell are those people? Looks like I typed that in a hurry, given the number of typos and the unfinished sentence.
FRAPS yeah, duh, I was getting to that. It's always on, should tell me everything
FRAPS indeed had a record of or whatever the hell happened. I rewind a segment back to the last thing I clearly remember after arriving at the train station.
I hesitate before hitting play. The first thing my note said to do was leave town. This is fifteen hours of footage, even if I end up watching it at double or triple speed and fast forward through boring bits, that will take hours.
Well, I can give it several minutes at least, enough to finish my breakfast. I watch myself have an awkward conversation with the train station escort, who is annoyed at my 'father' not showing up on time to pick me up. He won't let me leave. Apparently, I ask to go to the bathroom and I quickly change and distract him, then slip back out again, ditching him as I stealth my way out of the station. At least that matches what I vaguely remember. FRAPS doesn't record my thoughts.
Now I'm wandering about the city spamming Observe, hailing cabs, and getting rejected when I ask if they can take me to Brockton Bay. It's over an hour and a half drive to get there, and they don't want to do that trip this late in the evening. Some can't even leave the city because of company policies. Others suggest trying tomorrow morning, well it's tomorrow so maybe they will now. I've finished eating and it'd be better for me to watch through all this on a ride out of town.
So find a cab. I gather up my stuff and head outside. There's not any around, nor do I find any as I walk down the street. Fucking Shatterbird destroyed the phone I bought from Julia, and my replacements are not smartphones. I can't just look them up on the internet. Hell, I haven't even been able to get online in a while. Phone book? Where the hell do I find a phone book in the internet age?
Still haven't seen any cabs, must not be a popular area for them to hang around at. I move the FRAPS playback windows to the corner of my HUD. It looks like after giving up on cabs last night I was making my way… somewhere. Subway? I'm staring at a map from some kiosk. Am I looking for places I might have to sleep or stores to steal from? A notification occurred in my FRAPs playback and my past self looked at it. Looks like I got an Observe level increase after all the grinding. I dismiss it and keep grinding away as I come across what looks like a Farmer's Market in some empty lot near a subway entrance. That's kind of odd, it's a bit late at night, past 7:30 according to the FRAPS timestamp, for something like that to be open still.
Back in the present though, I wander into a convenience store. "Do you have phone books?"
"No," says the cashier in a foreign accent. "You going buy something?"
"I just need to call a cab." I look around but don't see any advertisements for any cab companies either.
"There is payphone by Laundromat across street, but it might no work."
"Thanks, but I have a phone. I just don't know the numbers to call." I'd have to start using my minutes, but that was bound to happen.
"Call 411"
"What?"
"411 for information, they give you numbers and addresses."
"Huh, okay. Thanks." I didn't know that. Cause of amnesia or cause I never had to use it before? I go back outside then realize a fight is happening in my FRAPS playback. I rewind, back to what I missed, and resume at normal speed.
Some of the Observe actions I take in my playback reveal the fruits and vegetables in this market aren't quite normal, but some kind of tinker-tech grown produce. The attention I focused on the very busy weed and mushroom drug dealers in the corner must have led my past-self to conclude something odd was going on. More Observes reveal that a lot of the customers are homeless or down on their luck, but get cheap food from the produce sellers. My past-self does another round of Observes, carefully this time instead of spam grinding, noting that the sellers at all these stands are minions affiliated with Blasto. My past-self apparently feels inclined to buy a few tinker tech grown produce. Must be where some of the fruit in my inventory came from. That's when the mysterious windowless black panel van pulls up and pours out a horde of Mad Max movie extra rejects.
I pause the playback. Whatever happened in the fight, I survived it. I still need to get out of the city. I call 411 on my flip phone and get several cab company phone numbers texted to it, then I call them until I find someone that will send me a cab to take me to Brockton Bay. Still have to wait thirty minutes for them to get here though. I resume play on the FRAPs and watch the fight unfold as I wait.
****?
Far too many men wearing identical armor that could possibly fit in the van come spewing out. They run into the crowd, kicking and punching customers and stall sellers, and knocking over tables. I tag one with Observe.
I had to pause the playback to get a better look at the Observe record. My past self only gave time for a glance before dismissing the thing and diving for cover. Some of the sellers pulled out guns and everyone scrambled to getaway.
The rest of the info on the clone wasn't informative. It had no complex skills, motivations, or feelings. There was a rapid decay status effect which explained the behavior I saw next. I summoned armor and weapons from my inventory to defend myself. The clones swarmed out, first making direct hand to hand attacks, but swiftly lost coordination. They had been yelling and cursing coherently before devolving into stupid moans as they slowed down, and they then resorted to just running into people and clawing and biting out near randomly. Why didn't my past-self pull out Nathan's gun and shoot them? It still has ammo. Too many civilians in the way?
Instead, I was fighting my share of them with my hand-ax. They were becoming stupider with every second that passed. Notifications kept piling up, and I seemed to have been in enough of a frenzy to not bother saying 'Power Strike' subvocally. I really need to fix that habit. The overhead tags of the clones were falling in level, but whoever was making them kept making fresher, not so stupid ones. My Power Strike hits were pulping the extremely stupid ones, though armor, making them fall down in a single hit. Their bodies, armor, and clothing appeared to be disintegrating. I don't even think their clothing and armor were separate objects. I slammed my hand-ax completely through the helmet and skull of one that was standing still drooling like an idiot. It evaporated before its body hit the ground. That little resistance shouldn't have been possible. Whatever was affecting them turned their armor, flesh, and bones into Jello.
That's a potential XP farm. I wonder if my past-self thought the same thing because why the fuck didn't I take the chance to get out of there right then? My HP wasn't at max, I took hits from clone attacks and a stray bullet. The area around me was free of clones and I could leave. I hear one of the stall sellers yell into a phone at someone.
"It's the Teeth! They're raiding us!"
I hear myself yell in response "Somebody better call a dentist!" I detect what I think is the resonance of a speech skill activation in my voice.
The battle pauses for a moment at that. The hordes of spree clones were wearing leather, motorcycle helmets, and variations of cliché recycled tire armor, and sports padding. They were decorated with spikes, teeth, skulls, and bone motifs. It wasn't that different from my own minus the tire pieces and macabre aesthetic. However, there were a couple of individuals that were distinctly not like all the others, even if similarly dressed. One was a burly guy who looked right at me and cracked his knuckles, right as my power decided to play a.
"You fucking making fun of us you little shit?" The Butcher yells, face red with rage. Some notifications fire off in my HUD, but my past-self ignores them. I'm pretty certain he just tried to use a power on me right then. I'll have to review all my notification logs later.
"That tickles, was it supposed to do something?" My past-self says while tagging the Butcher with an Observe. God damn it, my trolling flaw is going to get me killed! This guy is over level 1000!
Well, maybe it was useful for some people. A lot of the bystanders and minions caught in the battle take the opportunity to flee during the short lull brought about by my brazen taunt. I guess Blasto's minions weren't that loyal.
Before I could glance at the window that comes up, he disappears. I hear a massive explosion in the audio playback and light showing that it happened behind me. My point of view suddenly stumbles forward. My past-self dismisses the Observe window, stands up, and turns, but only has time to raise my uninjured arm, my sleeve already shredded with cuts and the explosion, to block a fast punch the Butcher throws at me.
It connects, my block doing nothing. My POV goes flying backward across the lot, through a vegetable and fruit stand, and stops suddenly, arrested by my impact on the wall of an adjacent building. Given the amount of HP that hit just cost me it should have knocked my arm completely off if not for Avatar. My POV falls again down in the pile of fruit I got knocked through and I hear my past-self moan on the ground as more whole and smashed fruit fall down on me from the impact I just made.
It was enough to block my view as I got buried in them, but when I see something in the video background, I rewind and replay. A green-skinned giant, easily nine feet tall, makes a Kool-Aid main impression through a wall of a building on the far side, then piledrives the butcher into the pavement while more Spree clones head in my direction.
My inventory light flashes go off as my past-self unburies himself via dimensional effects. The unanswered notifications went up even more. Just don't get in a fight again moron your HP is not looking good now.
I guess my past-self agrees as stealth gets turned on and I attempt to slink away. I'm munching on, what is that an apple? A few HP isn't going to do squat. Nor is the stealth because the damn song is still blaring.
Yeah, that didn't work. I get swarmed with spree clones and take them out while the song continues. I lost my hand-ax when I was knocked into the wall. My past-self has pulled out my bat instead. I pull snakes out of my inventory and set them onto some of the clones. After most of the clones are pasted, a man with wolfish features snarls at me before turning into a giant dog thing.
I tag him with Observe, then he roars. My HUD flickers, notifications fire off, and the recording abruptly ends.
****?
What the fuck? Where's the rest? Shit, where's the rest of it, do I have more? I crawl through my interface of FRAPS recording, and find what I think is the next one, and start to load it up when I hear a car horn. I look up and see my taxi. Has it been half an hour already?
"Hey, somebody call a cab?" The driver yells.
I'll look at the rest on the drive over, good thing no one else can see or hear my playbacks. I just wish I could turn the song crap off. I think my power just does that to screw with whoever I'm fighting against, and to screw with me. Yeah to screw with everyone, damn troll.
"That's me, to Brockton Bay right?"
"Yes, it's $165. You got any luggage?"
"I know, and no luggage," I say as I climb into the backseat.
Do I keep watching fraps, or review my notification log history? I must have looked at them at some point after the battle because they weren't pending as unread when I woke up this morning. The driver had been saying something, but I hadn't been paying attention.
"Sorry man, not being rude, but I need to concentrate and listen to an audiobook for class, just let me know when we cross the Brockton city limits." I lie as I pull my MP3 into my pocket from inventory and insert the earbuds. I don't want to chat for the next hour and a half. I just want to get through the damn FRAPS to find out what else happened to me.
I get the FRAPS video restarted and it opens up with my past-self staring at the face of some green-skinned woman with thin vine-like strands of hair. Her face, despite the green skin tone, was actually very pretty or would be if it wasn't contorted into a vicious snarl. Also, she was holding my past-self up by the neck against what I assume was the wall on the building trying to strangle me while blowing yellow dust in my face. I pause so I can get a better look at her details.
She was wearing a dirty white tank top and cut-off jean shorts. She had brown eyes, but not normal brown, the whites were brown. The iris and pupil were present, but not easily visible. The iris was almost the same shade as the brown surrounding it. Her lips were a dark reddish-green and her teeth were mostly flat and beige tinted, except for her exaggerated canine teeth.
I resume play, and my past-self must have tagged her with Observe as the window popped up and then was dismissed right away. I pause again and do a quick check over my cape database, I see new entries for The Butcher, Animos, Poison Apple, and Blasto. Why isn't the sexy green alien chick in there? I rewind a bit back before I dismissed the Observe window.
Well, that's…interesting. She's strong and tough. There is more but that all that fits on the screen. She isn't in the cape database because she isn't a cape, just a creation I suppose? Siberian wasn't either. I guess I never tagged whoever made the Spree Clone's cause he's not in there either.
I resume playing again. It's been only seconds since my HUD came back on. I'm not sure how long she had me against the wall. My past-self has one hand trying to get her grip loose, which isn't working. I can hear myself grunting while she hisses. I draw my good arm, well not so good know after it blocked Butcher's punch, back and punch her right in the nose. I must have added Power Strike because I hear a sharp crack, and greenish-brown sap comes flying out of her face and her head snaps back. She screams, and lets go with one hand to cradle her nose, but doesn't falter and still has her other hand on me. This time my past-self drew both my legs up, planted them on her stomach, and power kick pushes her away with both feet. This knocks her backward and she released me letting me fall to the ground. She stumbles backward and falls on her ass while I gasp for breath. She pulls her hand away from her face, and a long sticky string of sap-blood stretches out connecting her hand to her nose. Then I notice in the video that two of my golem snakes attack her. One wraps around her feet and the other her neck. She reaches for them, but I power dash over and power strike kick her ribs again, knocking her off her feet again.
"Fuck me! That was like kicking a solid log!" my past-self screams in frustration. Hmm, I probably don't know the stats, in the real-time fight, I closed the Observe window too quickly. She's probably a brute, hell she had an armor 3 with only a crop top? Definitely a brute, Apparently I settle for stomping on her hand next, to prevent her from yanking the golem off her neck as it constricts tighter, then I move away.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Maybe I'm finally doing something smart this time, and getting the hell out of there? Nah, I know they captured me, so something happened. My view takes in the scene. There are civilians, dead mushroom men, and spree clones disintegrating on the floor. Some are still fighting each other. The normal humans that could have all fled. The green giant, some mushroom men, and the Butcher are still slugging it out.
Several spheres then smash into the pavement, breaking apart and releasing a yellow-green cloud of gas. I think my past-self is holding their breath but some notifications fire off anyway. I hear a woman's voice in the playback.
"They got a fucking new cape?" the woman yells, my past-self manages a glance just before a green glass sphere strikes me in the head and breaks apart into a new cloud. A new starts blaring at the onset of another cape fight. Seriously? Can't you just stop that shit already?
In the video, all I see is the overhead tag, the smoke obscures the rest. Probably why I swap to my 3rd? person view, but she smacks me with more spheres.
"Your friends are leaving you!" she yells at me.
"My Friends? What the fuck is with this shit? That's twice now that I've---" I'm cut off as a darker green sphere smacks past-me in the mouth and I cough. She keeps hiding in the gas cloud staying away from me while I try to stumble around and dodge the spheres, which keep adding more gas when they break on anything. The video picks up explosion sounds of the butcher teleporting and that giant still fighting but they seem to start fading. I dispatch two mushroom men that attack me, but each time I hear my past-self try to speak he chokes on gas. Minutes into the fight I swap to free camera mode to rise above the gas cloud and spot her. I power dash through the cloud and clothesline her. She goes down hard and screams. Not a brute, then.
"Little Woad come! Guard me." Poison Apple screams.
I'm out of the cloud and have swapped back to first-person view, "Do you see any damn skulls or spikes on me? I’m not with---" I duck two more flying spheres aimed at my head. "Fuck this" My past-self screams. I summon a watermelon out of my inventory directly into my hands while they are above my head and chuck it at her. It hits her dead-on, she manages to raise her arms to shield her face but it knocks her over backward and she slams the back of her head into the pavement and stops moving.
"Oh, shit…" I hear my past-self mumble quietly. As the song cuts out. Hell, it didn't even have time to finish. If the fights don't even last the length of the song what is the goddamn point of playing them?
My past-self tagged her with Observe and was in the middle of making sure she wasn't dead when nine feet and four-hundred pounds of green flesh grabbed me in a massive bear-hug from behind and tried to squeeze the breath out of me. It wasn't the sexy green alien babe, or I guess I should say, sexy green plant-lady either.
No, sexy green plant lady was now walking through a dissipating green cloud, holding a couple of destroyed golem snakes, hissing, grunting, and pointing at me and the concussed, unconscious Poison Apple. The Teeth's van had driven off at some point, and there were sirens steadily getting louder in the distance. I presume Avatar was the only thing making me not get crushed, but I hear my past self having trouble breathing. She gets right up in my face, then lip-locks me right as Mr. Green Giant loosens his crushing hug and I inhale deeply. I inhale a lungful of yellow pollen which makes more notifications start firing off madly, while my vision blurs. Maybe she should have had the poison song. That was not how I wanted to see myself get a first kiss, and given what I read earlier it was kinda squick. I hope I used inventory to suck that shit out of my lungs.
I fast-forward through seventeen minutes of blackness. My past-self must have decided to play possum. When vision is restored, I'm in free camera mode inside the back of a moving van in a parking garage. I'm still being held tightly by Mr. Green Giant. I finally got a good look at his overhead tag and tag him with Observe.
He was another plant-humanoid creature thing. Unlike Sylvia II, he was just big and stupid. Didn't even have human-like feelings or motivations. Just massive STR, CON, and HP. I cannot fight him. Turning my Observes onto Poison Apple, she was alive but in bad shape.
She was lying on the floor of the van on a tarp, the back of her green hood was bloody but not soaked. They probably should not have moved her, but how smart are these creatures anyway?
Bruised Brain, fractured skull, and major concussion are some serious problems. Sexy plant lady was driving the van. She was driving it badly, as in, she did not know how to drive. Fuck technically I don't either, but at least I know the basics. She is going very slowly and bumping the cars and walls as she attempts to maneuver out of the parking garage.
The video shows I switched back to first-person view and opened my eyes.
"You have to get Poison Apple to a Hospital or she might die." My past-self says out loud.
Sexy plant lady tries to hit the brakes, hits the accelerator instead, and the van lurches forward into a wall, coming to a sharp stop. She turns around and hisses at me. The big guy squeezes me harder and my past-self grunts.
"Do you understand English? Can you use a phone? Call Blasto, do something. Can you even use a phone? You don't know how to drive, but she isn't going to make it at this rate." She mouths something and makes hand-gestures.
"I don't know what any of that means. I can drive though. Tell me where to go or get a phone or something." What is my past-self's angle here? Besides being let free. Sexy plant lady turns back and drives the van down the ramp to the next level, too quickly but manages to brake and come to a stop before we hit the wall again. "Blasto is going to be very upset with you if she dies. Let me help."
I watch as this time she actually gets out of the seat, grunts at the giant to release me, and points at the driver's seat. My past-self gets in the seat and I do a far better job of driving the van than she does. She sits in the passenger seat and points at directions until we are down the street. As she directs me to pull up to a garage door, Poison Apple starts moaning in the back. She had been unconscious for almost half-an-hour.
"Who in the fuck are you!" A male voice shouts from an intercom by the garage door.
Sexy plant lady starts making gestures at what must be a camera, but my past-self speaks up. "Poison Apple has a severe concussion and a fractured skull, she needs to be taken to an Emergency Room."
The garage door opens suddenly and a Hispanic man with a pump shotgun jumps out and points it at the driver's side window. He is wearing a simple domino mask over his eyes and a surgical mask over his nose and mouth. He is wearing a set of scrubs, a lab coat, and sneakers.
"Whoa, man! Chill!" my past self says.
"Keep your hands up and don't move," Blasto says.
"Easy, I just don't want anyone to die." I tag him with Observe and dismiss it.
Sexy plant lady had already opened the passenger side door and jumped out. I hear in the video the rear doors being opened. Poison Apple is still moaning incoherently but she's trying to form words now at least. "Out!" Blasto says after he opens my door and gestures to the ground with a shotgun. My past-self slides out, hands still raised.
FRAPS doesn't record my thoughts so I wonder what I'm thinking here. An Observe window pops up detailing the shotgun then goes away. I could tank a shotgun blast. My HP was low, 3/4th? gone from the prior fights. I could probably have tanked one point-blank shotgun blast but maybe not more than one. Plus there was the 1000+ level Little Woad climbing out of the back of the van behind me.
"Little Woad, grab him," Blasto says.
Green arms come down over the video feed and I see my past-self getting picked up off the ground. Blasto ducks inside the van and looks in the back.
"Honey you okay, holy fuck what happened?"
"Muhhh head, water…melon"
"Don't talk. Lock him in the cage. I'll deal with him later! Little Woad, Guard Cage" Blasto shouts as he drives the van off.
Mr. Green Giant carries me inside. Sexy plant lady makes gestures to him and he dumps me in some big metal cage. She shuts and locks the door, then closes the garage door as well. Mr. Green Giant sits on the floor and stares at me.
"Well, now what?" My past self says. "Neither of you talk. Want to play charades? No?" My past-self rattles the cage door, and Little Woad growls, so I sit back down. I watch myself go through Observes over the cage, the lock and everything nearby, even the building. My past-self turns around to notice Sexy plant lady watching me as well.
"Hi." I must have waved to her, she waves back. "Sorry for punching you in the nose, and kicking you and all that. When you strangle someone, expect them to fight back." She touches her nose, there is still a bit of dried sap on it, but it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would have. Her crop top is even more stained now. My past-self must have decided to re-open an Observe window to watch her feelings and motivations update in real-time.
"Blasto is neglectful, doesn't treat you very well does he?" She puts her hands on her hips and cocks her head. "Do you have a name?" She holds up three fingers, then holds up seven fingers. "Three, Seven, thirty-seven. That's a number, not a name. Blasto didn't even give you a name? He calls Little Woad by a name." Little Woad grunts at the sound of it. "Do you even know where you come from?" She walks over to a large item with a tarp on it and pulls it off, revealing a large tank. An Observe window opens showing it to be a tinker-tech cloning vat. She points to it.
"Do you think of Blasto as your father or something?" She looks at me weird, then starts playing with the dried sap on her shirt, peeling it off. She pulls a hunk of clay out of her jean-shorts pocket, and then takes a bite out of it.
"Hey, is that a piece… did you eat my…?" Her Observe window feelings switch to bored, and she wanders off. My past-self swaps to free camera mode and follows her. She goes into another room, turns on some UV lamps, sits on a couch underneath them, picks up a game controller, and starts playing Triumvirate Gold Edition.
My past self finally gets around to addressing the massive pile of unread notifications. I decided to review my own log of them as well to double-check.
There was the first fight with the spree clones.
+165 XP, for killing Spree Clone 9
+137 XP, for killing Spree Clone 11
+137 XP, for killing Spree Clone 7
+110 XP, for killing Spree Clone 15
+110 XP, for killing Spree Clone 12
+55 XP, for killing Spree Clone 8
+27 XP, for killing Spree Clone 4
Those were interspersed with lots of damage notifications me and my past-self ignored. Then there is whatever it was the Butcher tried to do to me, which didn't work.
The Status Effect 'Excruciating Pain' has been partially negated by Gamer's Mind
The Status Effect 'Excruciating Pain' has been partially negated by Damage Resistance (Physical): 'That Didn't Hurt'
The Status Effect 'Excruciating Pain' has been downgraded to 'Minor Pain'
The Status Effect 'Mindless Rage' has been negated by Gamer's Mind
The Status Effect 'Minor Pain' has been removed
Then the Butcher teleported behind me and punched me into a wall.
-168 HP (2 Resisted) [Concussive Damage]
Your Damage Resistance (Sonic & Concussive) skill has increased by 1
-662 HP (26 Resisted)
-530 HP (26 Resisted)
Your Damage Resistance (Physical) skill has increased by 1
You are suffering from the Status Effect 'Severe Exotic Parasitical Infection'
The Status Effect 'Severe Exotic Parasitical Infection' has been partially negated by Gamer's Body
The Status Effect 'Severe Exotic Parasitical Infection' has been partially negated by Disease Resistance
Your Disease Resistance skill has increased by 1
Now that was a nasty set of damage that represented the majority of my lost HP. Why is my past-self not eating to gain some back, or using inventory to get out of the cage even though Mr. Green Giant is watching… oh HUD shows there is a camera on me. Butcher was the one that gave me the festering wound. That matches his power set.
Then I had the second fight with the Spree Clones,
+137 XP, for killing Spree Clone 28
+110 XP, for killing Spree Clone 21
+82 XP, for killing Spree Clone 27
+82 XP, for killing Spree Clone 31
+55 XP, for killing Spree Clone 34
+27 XP, for killing Spree Clone 19
That was followed up with getting roared at by Animos.
Your Null Resistance skill has increased by 1
Your Null Resistance skill has increased by 1
I likewise skimmed out the spamming quantity of messages about my levels and abilities going wonky as a result of nullification, and the corresponding ones when the effect wore off.
That brought me to my fight with Sexy plant lady.
Your Disease Resistance skill has increased by 1
+264 XP, +2 Plant Affinity, for defeating Green Ivy
Your Drug & Poison Resistance skill has increased by 1
I actually defeated her? How? Did my golems knock her out? Did I only tell them to subdue? Whatever, more useless affinities. Then my fight with Poison Apple and those Mushroom men.
+440 XP, for killing Mushroom Man 2
+440 XP, for killing Mushroom Man 5
+330 XP, +1 Plant Affinity, for defeating Poison Apple
You have gained an Achievement: Parahuman defeat: Poison Apple
Did I ever observe tag those mushroom men? Did they have thoughts or were they a mindless minion?
The Green Giant grabbed me at this point, and I dismissed all the spammy notifications about getting passed out from Sexy plant lady pollen. It turns out I did inventory out the pollen but it had already done its effect. Then I had my chat with them and drove like two blocks. Apparently that got me a skill increase.
Your Vehicle Operations skill has increased by 1
There were still plenty more logs that had yet to happen yet,
My past-self starts spam grinding Observe on everything in the Tinker's lab to pass the time. From everything I was seeing he was a skilled tinker, but worrisome. Cloning? Growing creatures rapidly? A lot of the lab equipment was sub-par though. I presume he makes most of his money selling tinker-tech grown drugs and produce in that market that the Teeth raided. That was a lot of grind, two hours that I fast-forwarded through, there is probably good bits of info that I can sift through later, but I need to get through this thing in a reasonable time, and there are still 10 hours unaccounted for.
I stop fast-forwarding when I see Blasto has returned and started talking to me. After pacing and muttering to himself for a minute, he turns and asks my past-self, "Who the hell are you? Who are you working for? And why the hell were you there tonight?"
"I haven't picked a cape name. I'm not working for anyone, and I was shopping for produce. Is she going to be alright?"
"If she wasn't, I wouldn't have asked you any questions, I would have just shot you in the head and turned your corpse into plant food. I don't believe you. Did Accord send you?"
"Who the fuck is Accord? Look man, you sell cheap food to the homeless, rather noble of you. I didn't even know that place was associated with you. I'm a bit transient right now. Is it really that hard to believe I was just a customer doing some grocery shopping? The Teeth attacked me!"
"You threw a watermelon at my girlfriend's head."
"Your girlfriend tried to poison me!"
"She thought you were with The Teeth!"
"I was too busy choking on fumes to get much of a word in!"
"What the hell am I going to do with you?"
"Let me go? Chalk this up to a big misunderstanding? Let bygones be bygones? I saved your girlfriend's life by convincing your plant lady chick to let me drive here."
"She shouldn't have done that! You're not supposed to know where my base is! I don't even let my regular gang members know where this place is. Oh my God, she took the tarp off this? Why did she take the tarp off this? That's just great." Blasto rants as he puts the tarp back on the cloning vat she removed earlier.
"Hey, I won't tell anyone, I promise. I'm just passing through anyway."
"Don't you know any of the damn rules?"
"No, I keep hearing mention of them but nobody has them written down or anything."
"They're not written. Respect a Cape's secret identity, their homes, and their private lives. Keep family members out of conflicts. Don't go lethal. No widespread attacks on civilians. This is effectively my home." Blasto says gesturing to the space around him. "Now I have to deal with you being here, that's a breach. I should kill you for this, her being alive is the only reason I haven't."
"What? What happened to not going lethal. Those all sound like guidelines people only choose to follow when it's convenient for them. I've had more than enough encounters where capes tried to straight-up kill me including tonight. I was in my civvies when the Teeth attacked me!"
"She would have just knocked you out with the gas."
"How was I supposed to know that? When it didn't work right away she went to something worse. I was just trying to knock her out and get away too you know? Her splitting her head open on the pavement was an accident. Also, don't tell me that Teeth gang respected any of that. There were bodies still on the ground of that market when we drove off, civilian bodies."
"Why the hell am I telling you any of this shit? It's not going to matter. I need to figure out what the hell I'm going to do."
"Maybe teach plant lady how to drive? And talk? Or use a phone?" My past-self shouts after Blasto as he walks away but he ignores me.
A few minutes later he comes back with a tarp and throws it over the cage. "Oh, come on! Let me out man" my past-self yells in annoyance. I switch to my free camera and ignore the tarp as I follow Blasto with it anyway, but he just starts tinkering up something, and eventually I get bored and focus back on the cage lock, now that Little Woad can't see me messing with it.
I fast forward through repeated failed attempts to pick the lock from tools in my inventory, and me munching on fruit to gain a bit of HP. I periodically use the free camera to check on Blasto who looks like he is rapidly growing some kind of mushroom plant. Another one of those Mushroom men maybe? No, I saw the logs that haven't happened to my past self yet. He's going to use that on me.
It took my past-self over four hours to succeed in getting the lock open, but it was ultimately pointless as Little Woad hadn't stopped staring at my tarp draped cage, and Blasto had finished whatever he was tinkering on and was headed this way.
My past-self must have relocked the cage because Blasto didn't notice when he ordered Little Woad to grab and hold me down again after unlocking the door. Stuck in the iron grip of the giant again, my past-self was helpless as Blasto forced a breathing mask over my head.
"This is going to knock you out, and when you wake up, you won't remember the last 24 hours." Blasto then proceeded to gas my past-self with anesthetic and fungal spores which, according to Observe, had some kind of memory affecting property.
"This isn't cool man, not at all."
"It's either this or you eat a bullet."
"What happened to not going lethal?"
"This is me not going lethal. Holy shit man, how much do I have to give you to knock you out? And what the hell happened to your hand and arm?"
My past-self shrugs, but starts crawling through notifications. "Hand got injured in some other cape fight before today, the arm is from the Butcher punching me into a wall."
"Yeah brute as suspected, that's why it's taking so much. Butcher isn't even supposed to be here, I thought he was in New York." My past-self continues to quickly clear out his notifications.
You are suffering from the Status Effect 'Fungal Spore Infection'
The Status Effect 'Fungal Spore Infection' has been partially negated by Gamer's Body
The Status Effect 'Fungal Spore Infection' has been partially negated by Disease Resistance
You are suffering from the Status Effect 'Memory Inhibition'
The Status Effect 'Memory Inhibition' has been partially negated by Gamer's Mind
Your Disease Resistance skill has increased by 1
Your Disease Resistance skill has increased by 1
Your Drug & Poison Resistance skill has increased by 1
"That infection crap the Butcher leaves on people will clear up in a few weeks," Blasto says absently. "Not that you'll know that."
"Whaaaat gooood is tellin' me that if I wooon't remember?" My past-self slurs.
"Just leave town as soon as possible when you wake up."
"Mayyyybeee, leaaaave a note in ma pocket…" I say as I frantically start typing up the hurried note I read this morning before swapping to free camera, moving high up to get an overhead view of the inside of Blasto's warehouse and presumably passing out.
This is quite interesting as FRAPS kept recording. So if I am in free camera mode, FRAPS will still see stuff. I normally don't do this when I go to sleep because I can't close my eyes in anything but first-person mode, and trying to sleep with my eyes open is annoying.
Blasto ties me up and puts me back in the cage, and tells Little Woad to guard me again. Then wanders off with Sexy plant lady, but I can't follow with my camera because my past-self is unconscious, so no one is driving the controls. He comes back an hour later and they finally drag me into the van and head to the alley. My camera is up high enough that it stays outside and above the van as they drive to the alley where they dumped me clear across the other side of town.
I get bits and pieces during the drive as he argues with someone on the phone on the drive over, about losing assets, drugs and money from the Teeth's raid, while lamenting about getting set back and expressing annoyance at his creations being so stupid as to bring someone back to base.
I fast forward through an hour before I pause again to watch homeless people show up and strip me of clothing. Then I fast forward again several hours past sunrise into the late morning. I resume normal speed when I see Ollly show up in the frame. He pokes me with a stick several times, even checks my breathing then wanders off before coming back again several fast-forwarded minutes later.
The recording ends.
If Blasto did leave a note in my pocket it got stolen with my clothes.
"Hey, we're in Brockton city limits." The cab driver says. "Where to?" I pull up my notes where I kept Julia's address and give him directions. He drops me off at the end of her street. I pay him $165 plus another twenty for a tip.
I start walking down the sidewalk toward her grandmother's house…
Simon's Character Sheet:
Name: Simon Clarence Anderson
Alias: Potter, Stasis
Gender: Male
Age: 15
Ethnicity: Hispanic, Native American, German, Scandinavian
Race: Human (Parahuman)
Class: Teenage Runaway / Rogue
Faction: None
Money: $115.13
Title: Gentleman Thief
Level: 28 (79.20%)
XP: 77256
Primary Attributes
STR: 18 (-1.05) 16.95 (0.00%)
AGI: 25 (-1.25) 23.75 (4.16%)
CON: 60 (-3.78) 56.22 (76.08%)
INT: 30 (+0.00) 30.00 (1.72%)
PER: 12 (+0.00) 12.00 (64.04%)
WIS: 22 (+0.00) 22.00 (67.95%)
CHA: 14 (+0.00) 14.00 (28.53%)
LUC: 15 (-2.00) 13.00 (79.82%)
Unspent Points: 14
Secondary Attributes
Health Pool: 3300/3300
Stamina Pool: 2040/2040
Mana Pool: 10500/10500
Stress Pool: 489/520
Attack: 21.65 (-1.00) 20.65
Speed: 3.29 (+0.00) 3.29
Dodge: 21.67 (-1.00) 20.67
Armor: 0.4 (+0.00) 0.4
Carry: 169.5 (+0.00) 169.5
Allure: 4 (-0.38) 3.625
Status Effects
Teenage Acne: ALU -0.50
Alluring Charm*: ALU +1.00
Stylish Outfit*: ALU +0.50
Fractured Ribs: STR -0.50 AGI -0.75 CON -1.50
Bruised Organs x4: AGI -0.30 CON -0.75
Severed finger: STR -0.15 CON -0.02 ALU -0.13
Partially-severed finger: STR -0.10 CON -0.01 ALU -0.13
Broken Hand: STR -0.20 AGI -0.20
Butterfly & The Bee: DOD +1.00 ATK +1.00
Festering Wound: STR -0.10 CON -0.50
Exotic Parasitical Infection: CON -1.00 LUC -2.00 DOD -2.00 ATK -2.00
Bruised Neck: ALU -0.13
Visage of a Wuss: ALU -1.00
Skills
Max Slots: 68
Free Skill Slots: 21
Artistry: 10 (85.89%)
Athletics: 13 (10.89%)
Basic Academics: 9 (0.00%)
Computers: 10 (11.23%)
Crafting (Cooking & Brewing): 1 (0.00%)
Crafting (Stone & Pottery): 10 (5.67%)
Create Mana Golem: 13 (23.72%)
Damage Resistance (Corrosive): 2 (89.83%)
Damage Resistance (Electrical): 3 (24.35%)
Damage Resistance (Fire & Heat): 6 (79.26%)
Damage Resistance (Ice & Cold): 8 (0.00%)
Damage Resistance (Physical): 14 (66.29%)
Damage Resistance (Sonic & Concussive): 2 (8.81%)
Disable Device: 12 (63.76%)
Disease Resistance: 21 (96.76%)
Disguise: 4 (67.98%)
Drug & Poison Resistance: 29 (31.67%)
Empathy: 15 (90.42%)
Firearms: 1 (5.00%)
Gamer's Body: MAX (0.00%)
Gamer's Interface: MAX (0.00%)
Gamer's Mind: MAX (0.00%)
Journalism: 1 (0.00%)
Language-English: MAX (0.00%)
Language-Spanish: MAX (0.00%)
Mathematics: 4 (0.00%)
Medicine: 3 (48.67%)
Meditation: 13 (92.28%)
Melee Weapons: 5 (14.73%)
Null Resistance: 18 (38.97%)
Observe: 32 (17.21%)
Parahuman Lore: 13 (26.55%)
Power Dash: 6 (55.16%)
Power Strike: 10 (40.85%)
Programming: 10 (0.54%)
Psychology: 5 (12.61%)
Science (Biology): 1 (53.22%)
Science (Chemistry): 1 (0.00%)
Science (Earth): 1 (0.00%)
Speech: 11 (25.51%)
Stealth: 15 (11.34%)
Strategy: 6 (74.76%)
Survival: 2 (67.65%)
Thievery: 12 (72.60%)
Unarmed Combat: 5 (33.13%)
Vehicle Operations: 4 (0.00%)
Video Games: 26 (16.74%)
Unspent Skill Points: 0
Perks
Free Perk Slots: 1
Gaia's Blessing: Mana Pool and Mana Skill access
Gaia's Attunement: Elemental Affinity access
Light Sleeper: Need only 5 hours to get fully rested
Mana Reserve: Bonus MP per level increased by 25%
XP Whore: +10% Level XP
Fast Recovery: x4 HP, Stamina and healing regeneration speed (Free at 50 CON)
Toughness: Bonus HP per level increased by 50%
Quick Items: Retrieve and place items in inventory instantly w/out using the window
Flaws
Selective Amnesia: We had to make room for stuff in your head
A Bit of a Troll: Sometimes you just can't help yourself
Unnatural Curiosity: Can't always resist the urge to find stuff out
You still look like a Wuss: Even with a few extra muscles, you still look like a wuss.
Wanted by the S9: You think they'd forget? Git gud, skrub
Affinities
Earth: 8
Water: 4
Plant: 5
Lightning: 3
Fire: 4
Air: 1