Disclaimer: I own nothing but my original characters and works; all other characters and worlds belong to their respective owners. I'm just playing with them.
Betad by
Guild of Gamers: The Card Master
Chapter 13: The First Battle
— Quest Section —
Should Corvo deal with Squealer?
No, it'll get handed anyway.Yeah, send a monster to support whoever is dealing with them.Yeah, but call it in first and support whoever is being sent. (40%)Yes, but have Contessa make sure he gets permission.
Should Charlie visit Taylor in the hospital?
Yes, and tell her about Emma's therapy/alley experience (55%)Yes, to get more details.No, it's not worth getting involved.
– Emily Piggot –
"Can you repeat that?" Emily asked, her tone clipped as Clockblocker gulped slightly.
"Erm, Corvo is requesting permission to assist Miss Militia with Squealer?" Clockblocker asked more than stated, well aware of how she saw Wards actively going against their orders and Shadow Stalker and Corvo were supposed to be diverting their patrol to avoid the fight entirely.
She had a refusal on the tip of her tongue, before she paused and sighed (without the mic on so Clockblocker couldn't hear it). Corvo had shown signs of having no real interest in actually doing any heroism, so having him actively volunteer was interesting. Was it because it was targeted at 'his' concession stand? Or was he just thrill-seeking?
He at least asked for permission, unlike Shadow Stalker who often just went off her patrol path as she pleased. Repeated punishments had done nothing to curb her 'individualism' as the Youth Guard rep put it. She preferred 'outright disobedience'.
If she refused, Corvo would probably obey. He wasn't the type to want trouble, showing signs of having a conflict avoidant personality. That said… the PRT wanted to keep him for as long as possible and allowing him to fight the weaker Capes to get a taste for heroism wasn't a terrible idea. Squealer was no real threat to him if he kept his distance, which his monsters allowed him to do. Mush was seen in the area but again, it was Mush and Miss Militia could handle them both alone.
"Granted. Have him and Shadow Stalker meet with Miss Militia at the Concession Stand. They are to follow her orders without question, am I clear?" Emily asked, as Clockblocker remained silent for a moment. She knew why. If it was anyone else, she'd be saying 'absolutely fucking not, do as you were told'.
"Understood," Clockblocker finally agreed, and she could hear a hint of resentment that he tried and failed to hide.
It was always going to happen. If they treated Corvo like any other Ward, they'd lose him the moment he 'graduated' but if they treated him differently, the other Wards would get pissy at it. She couldn't treat them all like him because the last thing she needed was the entire Wards thinking they could do whatever they wanted.
– Charles 'Charlie' Barnes (Corvo) –
"This is some bullshit," Sophia grumbles, clearly pissed even if she's getting exactly what she wants. The idea that she's been told no when she was a vigilante before she 'joined' the Wards, but my inexperienced ass gets an almost immediate 'sure, go play with Squealer' is pissing her off more than she wants to admit. She seems to be aiming that anger at the PRT, but I can tell there;s some bitterness aimed my way as well.
"Yup. Figured they'd let me get away with it," I snort, fully admitting I was testing the PRT. I wanted to see how much leeway I actually have and going 'yeah, you told me to leave but what if-' was a good first step. Plus, I have a feeling my powers will grow through my actions and I want to test it on an easy target.
Arriving at the meeting point, I spot Miss Militia in her combat fatigues, her weapon in the form of a revolver at her hip.
"Corvo and Shadow Stalker, reporting," I say with a mock salute, getting her to crinkle her eyes in what I think is a smile, the bandana hiding her expression.
"Squealer is still inbound. Her vehicle is invisible, but it's also suspected to be a literal bulldozer that she's driving through a city so tracking her isn't hard. We've cleared the roads from her to us to minimise injuries and property damage," Miss Militia explains easily. "No sign of Skidmark, but intel says Mush is following behind. He's a coward, if we take down Squealer he'll run rather than fight."
"Understood. How long do we have?" I ask.
"A few minutes. Tinkertech or not, Bulldozers aren't known for speed. We should expect it to be heavily reinforced, which is Squealer's usual design philosophy. If she hasn't made it to be fast, she's made it to be incredibly tough," Miss Militia answers. "As a reminder, neither of you are to directly engage her. Squealer isn't overly dangerous but she usually has a gun and is often high enough to forget she isn't meant to use it against heroes."
"I'd rather not get shot by a junkie, yeah," I agree plainly. "She doesn't tend to have any fancy shields or anything, right?"
Miss Militia pauses, before shaking her head.
"Her preferred form of defence is several other cars worth of scrap metal welded on as armour. It's ugly, but is does work," Miss Militia explains. "I've never seen her use forcefields but this is a Tinker and really, you never know what they are going to show up with. You have an idea?"
"Something like that, yeah," I say, smiling slightly under my mask.
– Hannah/Hana (Miss Militia) –
She didn't really approve of Corvo and Shadow Stalker being here, but she also knew why Director Piggot had authorised it. In truth, Shadow Stalker herself was useful against Squealer because she could phase her bolts through the armour to damage the internals,
And Corvo was cautious enough, granting himself Arcane Flight to take to the skies and avoid the main danger. Corvo didn't really need to be here, as he could cast through his summons but she understood that he was a teenage boy. No matter how composed and serious he tried to act, the idea of cape fights was always going to appeal to him.
That said, she was glad he was being smart about this. He made a plan almost immediately, and while it wasn't anything too complicated, it showed he had a tactical mind instead of just wanting to drown his opponents in monsters. The fact that he also made the plan around her showed he wasn't a gloryhound who wanted to land the final blow.
She respected Colin a lot, but every plan he came up with had him doing the heavy lifting and fighting the villains himself while other people were sent to deal with civilians, gang members or weaker villains. Dauntless once joked that it wasn't a very efficient plan and Colin genuinely looked like he was about to attack him for it.
The rumbling of Squealer's latest abomination made her pause, getting ready to carry out Corvo's plan. As much as they had to treat him with kid gloves to make sure he stuck around, she wouldn't have gone through with a plan she didn't think was viable, his pride wasn't worth anyone's life. But, she had to admit that he came up with a very effective plan to deal with Squealer.
Standing in the road, she paused at the sound of the bulldozer getting closer. It was still invisible, of course, but it was hard to miss the signs of the approaching bulldozer and more importantly, Corvo had done a little littering. Nothing major, of course, but he'd taken some empty drink cans from the Concession Stand and Hana watched as they 'mysteriously' became utterly crushed. Squealer, living in the Boat Graveyard, likely didn't even notice the trash that was giving Hana a realtime location of her invisible ride.
The trick to fighting Squealer was to disable her ride or simply remove her from it. She'd fight, of course, but once out of her rides she was just a drug-addled woman with poor balance and no real muscles or combat skills. Hana began walking toward the ride, and Squealer wasn't the type to change directions because someone was standing in her path, probably putting the pedal to the metal. Oddly enough, this wasn't Hana's first time being run over by Squealer.
Thank God for Panacea.
And yet, as the cans continued to get crushed, Hana made her move and burst into a sprint straight toward where she knew Squealer was before she focused and went translucent. Ghostform was an entirely unfair power against most people, but for Squealer herself? It was a complete counter as the insides of the bulldozer appeared in front of her as she passed through the vehicles front and reappeared inside the cabin, rematerialising as she landed in Squealer's lap, her handgun snapping up and pressing under Squealer's chin as the Tinker froze in shock and confusion.
"Park it," Hana ordered, mildly amused at Squealer's confusion. When Squealer was harmless if you could get to her, the ability to simply phase into the vehicles was a hard counter. Squealer did have a gun, but Hana kicked it away as it was just sitting on the passenger seat. Honestly, the complete lack of firearm safety was horrific.
"The fuck?!" Squealer shouted, blinking rapidly as if she would vanish. How high was Squealer? Her eyes were dilated, and she had clear jitters. "I've had dreams like this."
Hana paused, blinking as Squealer copped a feel of her ass before she rolled her eyes and dug the gun in deeper, using her over hand to slap away Squealer's groping hands. Yeah, she was completely wasted. God, she hated dealing with the Merchants but at least it was Squealer instead of Skidmark.
"Turn off the invisibility," Miss Militia demanded, and Squealer hesitated for a moment but the large revolver currently pressed under her chin made her reach around Hana and press a… big red button on the dashboard. Why wasn't she surprised? As they became visible again, she saw Corvo gesturing and in an instant, the bulldozer was trapped inside a capture sphere, with Squealer and Miss Militia along with it.
As far as cape captures went, this was practically flawless as Hana strongarmed Squealer out of her ride (ignoring the other woman's cursing and slurs). She'd gotten used to being called slurs, and really… Squealer never got the race right. It was hard to be offended when you were being called a slur for a race you had literally zero connection to.
"Skiddie is gonna fuck you all up, Barracks Bunny," Squealer grumbled as her hands were cuffed behind her back. That was a pretty good one, she'd admit. It was surprisingly creative for a Merchant. "Then he's just gonna fuck you. Maybe you'll be less of a bitch with that stick up your fat ass replaced with a cock."
And there it was. The characteristic elegance of the Merchants. Sexual harassment was par for the course when dealing with these idiots. The sound of another vehicle made her pause, turning to see a muscle car of Squealer's design (looking like it came from a scrapyard, and took half the scrapyard with it), speeding down the road with a golem of trash riding on top.
"See? Skiddy is gonna fuck you up, bitch," Squealer squealed. "I'm gonna enjoy watching the boys break you in-"
Was it classified as excessive use of force to physically gag captured villains? Mush wouldn't attack alone, so it had to be Skidmark at the wheel. Annoying. Her theory was proven correct as blue forcefields started appearing on the road, each one causing the muscle car to go from fast to insane… but what was his plan for stopping?
How high were they? Had there been another Merchant party because this was reckless even for them. Even Squealer froze, seeing her own creation driving toward them at speeds it certainly couldn;t stop at, letting out a squeak as Miss Militia acted fast and dragged her back into the bulldozer, putting the armour between them. Squealer put up some resistance, but not enough to stop Hana from pulling her clean through the other side, grabbing Squealer in a fireman's carry and putting distance between herself and the bulldozer.
As she moved, she paused and wondered why it hadn't crashed yet, looking up to spot Corvo hovering above the ground with his hand outstretched.
– Charles 'Charlie' Barnes (Corvo) –
I think I just saved Skidmark's life, as I finish dismissing his speed-fields. What exactly was his plan for stopping? Sure, it's a reinforced ride but he was driving it directly at the bulldozer. With his speed taken away, I focus again before I look at the Mush. With the sudden change in speed, he's been flung off and sent rolling forward but he's a giant ball of trash and scrap so he's fine…
So Tiny makes him a small ball of trash and scrap, shrunk down to the size of a basketball as he rolls a bit further and Sophia rushes forward, unwilling to sit on the sideline anymore. The urge to tell her to pick on someone her own size hits, but I'm pretty sure she would.
Instead, I watch as Skidmark crashes into the side of the bulldozer, having tried to turn but just drifted right into the wall, the door opening as the 'leader' stumbles out of his ride. Ugh, I can smell him from here.
"Oi! Get down here you cunt-fucking-"
Frogify.
Yeah, I'm not dealing with that.
Watching Skidfrog try to hop away, creating a speed field to launch itself further, I wonder what it means that the frog Skidmark seems better with his power than the human one as he leaps from field to field. Still, I don't need to be faster as I time a Capture Sphere until he's midleap and can't change direction, watching him splat against the inside, bouncing around wildly. It's kinda funny, but I don't think the PRT would let me keep him in a terrarium.
"This is Corvo to Console, Skidmark, Mush and Squealer are in custody. Requesting a van," I say simply, finally landing as I lower the sphere and look at where Sophia is holding Mush at arms length. I can't see her face but I know she's scowling.
As Miss Militia brings the suddenly quiet Squealer around, I look around in amusement. So, this is what Cape fights are like? If they're all so easy, I guess I can try some out. A nice minor workout.
Cards Granted: Artificer Class. Artificer's Dragon. Artificer's Assistant.
[Artificer Class] - Enchantment
Grants the Artificer Class to a target, at Level 1. This card then goes on a long cooldown (based on Blue and Colourless Mana production) until it can be used again.
[Artificer's Dragon]
Type: Artifact Creature (Dragon)
Effects: Flying. Empowers other Artifact creatures.
[Artificer's Assistant]
Type: Bird
Effects: Flying. Artificer's Assistant reduces production and upgrade time and efficiency when assisting an Artificer. Increases the power of Artificers it is assisting.
That bird has a wand. Also, that's just a whole ass clockwork looking dragon mech. Neat.
Sophia said Kid struggled to finish any of his projects, right? Because my power is telling me that Artificer/Tinker are interchangeable… wait, did I get just the power to literally create Tinkers out of nothing? As in, as many times as I want as long as I get more Blue mana to bring the cooldown down to a more reasonable level?
As we wait, and Miss Militia praises us for our work, I know full well what I'm doing when I'm free. This sounds like a Contessa situation if I've ever heard one. I do need to be careful, because I don't think classes can be taken away once granted and I think the cooldown is a couple of weeks or so at the moment. Sounds like a lot but a new Tinker every two weeks means 26 new heroic tinkers in a year.
Would they have their own specialities? My power thinks so. That's uhh… a lot. What happens if I use it on someone who is already a Tinker? Do they get a new Speciality? Does their current spec get stronger? They get it at level one but they can level up.
Armsmaster is either going to hate me or become my best friend.
"Your powers are bullshit," Sophia scoffs as we watch Miss Militia greet the PRT troopers.
"Yup," I agree happily as Banehound rubs his head against my legs. Sorry boy, feeding villains to you is seen as 'excessive' for some reason. Still, they seem less eager to run with him staring at them… drooling.
She goes to speak, before going silent again. She broods a lot, but I get the feeling she's genuinely scared of me. Maybe it has finally occurred to her that I can just 'nah' her entire powerset then stick her in a capture sphere. I get the feeling she gets off to being the biggest badass around, and she just saw firsthand how easily I could no-sell her.
As the shift comes to an end, I frown to myself. I think it is time I got to the bottom of whatever is going on with the trio, and as much as Emma is willing to do just about anything to get my favour, I can't trust a damn word out of her mouth.
No, I need both sides to this story.
– Taylor Hebert –
The buzzing of her swarm was still nearly overwhelming, as she shunted her various emotions to the swarm. The advantage to being in the hospital for so long was that she had plenty of time to practice. There were far more bugs in a hospital than you'd think from such a sanitary environment.
Working out the sights and sounds they were feeding her was still a work in progress, identifying individual people was hard through the eyes of a bug. Still, she had enough control to see someone heading for her room. It wasn't her father, who she could recognise quite easily at this point, or any of the staff. A fly buzzed against them, hitting their visitors pass before it was swatted away.
A knock at her door made her pause, wondering who the hell would be coming to visit her. She had no friends and if it wasn't her father, she had no idea. It was a guy, fairly tall, with red hair. Could it be Alan Barnes, coming to threaten her into silence with lawsuits? Her voice wasn't as steady as she wanted as she called them inside.
She was close, in her guess, as the door opened and Charlie Barnes entered with an odd look on his face. He had his hands in his pockets, dressed up in a nice shirt and suit jacket.
"Hey, Taylor. Surprise?" Charlie said, looking amused for a moment.
"Charlie? What are you doing here?" Taylor asked, not entirely friendly as he closed the door and approached, slumping into the chair her dad normally used without responding. "And why are you all dressed up?"
"Oh, this? Work. I'm interning at my dad's place, and it has a dress code," Charlie waved off. "And I'm here because something is deeply fucky at the moment, and nobody seems to have all the pieces to this puzzle. I want to know what happened between you and Emma."
Taylor paused, giving him an uneasy look, wondering if this was some trick. Charlie never did anything to her, but he also didn't do anything to help her. Then again, Emma was always far more subtle when her brother was around. It was why the library was her safe space. The trio wouldn't follow her inside if Charlie was there, usually with Greg and Sparky.
After a long moment, she began to speak. She explained the summer camp and how Emma was utterly different whens he came back, all the bullying and tormenting Emma and her lackeys had done. Her voice picked up as she spoke, growing more incensed and bitter even as she shunted most of her emotions to her swarm. Charlie just listened quietly, frowning to himself as she reached the Locker incident, before he finally sighed and ran a hand through his hair.
"Emma went through some bad shit while you were away. Near-kidnapping and rape at the hands of some ABB thugs. She got very lucky, saved by a passing vigilante at the last second," Charlie admitted, watching her go silent. "Long story short, it fucked her mind and she came up with some brilliant might makes right, survival of the fittest mindset to cope, aided along by Sophia Hess, because neither girl has ever heard the word 'therapy' apparently. Dad fucked up, kept it all secret from Mom, me and Anne. Honestly, I thought the week she spent locked in her room was because you two had some big falling out and you were at each other's throats when you returned so I never had a reason to doubt it."
"That doesn't excuse any of the shit she's done," Taylor hissed, even as her traitorous mind wondered if everything would have been fine if she just hadn't gone to the camp. Maybe Emma wouldn't have been wherever she ran into the ABB?
"No, it doesn't. Does explain some things, though," Charlie pointed out. "All this shit came out recently, and I told Mom who is making Emma go to therapy. She might even be changing schools. I saw a pair of Clarendon High and Immaculata High leaflets on the kitchen counter. Emma is… fucked in the head, to be honest. Like, however bad you think she is, multiply it by ten. She's just a good actor."
"What about Sophia?" Taylor asked, and Charlie paused.
"Also fucked in the head, but in a different way, I think. Something ain't right about that girl," Charlie admitted with a snort. "As for what is up with her? Hell if I know. She's definitely got some alpha, might makes right bullshit going on."
Yeah, that sounded about right. It was always 'you're weak, Hebert' and bullshit like that. She hated that Taylor didn't fight back but hated if Taylor fought back even more. Fucked in the head sounded about right.
"What do you want, Charlie? Why come here?" Taylor asked suspiciously.
"Honestly, I hate mysteries," Charlie admitted. "Emma needs some professional help, and I'll be telling Mom all this shit. Actually, maybe you should? Dad would try and brush it under the rug but he's already in hot water and you used to basically be family."
Talk to Aunt Zoe, for the first time in over a year? That… didn't feel like a good idea. Or maybe it was, she honestly wasn't sure. Going to adults had done a grand total of fucking nothing for her so far.
"They should be in jail," Taylor said, gritting her teeth as Charlie paused.
"Honestly, probably not. No offence, but even as a legal intern, I can say with relative confidence that the worst punishment would probably be suspension and a black mark on their records. Taking into account their age, social standing, Sophia's track star career and a lack of tangible evidence and witnesses, you'd be lucky to see them get a month suspension, especially since they all have clean records at the moment," Charlie explained. "Trust me, people have gotten away with far worse through the power of family connections and being good at sports. Our legal system is fucking weird and you'd have one hell of a fight on your hands to make anything more than that stick."
In the back of her mind, she did vaguely remember some football quarterback getting away with rape because he had 'so much life ahead of him' that shouldn't be ruined because of 'one mistake'. It sucked, but she didn't have the money for a lawyer good enough to get them a serious punishment and while she had her journal, it was all her word. The entire school kept giving Emma alibis, keeping her out of trouble.
"It's not fair," Taylor said, her rage pushed to her swarm.
"Is anything?" Charlie asked with a wry smirk. For the briefest moment, she felt a blush forming before that too was shunted away. He'd been her first crush, and while she'd not thought about him like that in months, he was still a very good looking guy.
Even if he was marred by his resemblance to Emma. She could even respect him wanting to get to the bottom of what was going on with his sister. She could tell something was on his mind, that he almost said something several times before stopping himself as they sat in silence for a moment, contemplating how bullshit the world was.
— Quest Section —
Should Charlie reveal his powers to Taylor?
YesNo
Author's Note: Sorry for the delays (this was due sunday, not thursday holy shit). It was a mixture of Black Flag Resynced being pretty fucking fun, recovering from dental operations (british man has bad teeth joke here, also fuck wisdom teeth, had to have four removed and that sucked) and me travelling (family not Disney, much to my sorrow).
Also I was being lazy. That too.
Written: 16/07/2026