Robert Meta
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Brockton Bay's Marvelous Mage - Chapter Fifty Seven
🕑 Added 2024-11-12 16:32:31 +0000 UTCFor a moment, I froze like a deer in headlights, not entirely sure how to react. I wasn't exactly equipped to handle an emotionally unstable abuse victim, especially one who already seemed to dislike me. Unfortunately, I couldn't exactly tell her no. Not only because it would be an incredibly insensitive thing to do, but also because, as cold and calculating as it might sound, I needed her family's help. I forced myself to move, though she definitely caught my momentary panic.
I guess there was a downside to people being able to see my face.
"Yeah, sure, okay," I agreed before gesturing to the chairs on the front porch. "Why don't we sit down first?"
She nodded, and together, we climbed back up the stairs, sitting down in an old but functional set of wicker furniture. For a long moment, she was silent, chewing her lip and looking down at her hands as she fidgeted nervously. I considered speaking up and asking what she wanted to talk about, but before I could weigh the merits, she spoke up.
"So… I guess I should start by apologizing," She said, still looking down at her hands. "And also, I should thank you. I was… still am, kind of a mess. I… My therapist tells me I shouldn't feel guilty for my issues, especially since… the source was out of my control, but-"
She stopped, taking a long breath, calming herself for a moment before continuing. It had seemed, for just a moment, that she had been on the precipice of spiraling, but she caught herself. It took a few seconds for her to speak again, but when she did, she was slower and more deliberate with her words.
"I'm sorry for exploding like I did when you first came to see me," She said, finally looking up at me. "And thank you for healing me."
"I was happy to help," I said honestly. "And I accept your apology, even though I don't blame you. You are forgiven."
"Also, thank you for taking over my schedule," She said. "I know it's a lot, and you didn't want to be stuck in the hospital like I was, and I can't blame you-"
"Amy, I spend an hour a day in the hospital, that's it," I said, biting back a wince since it was clear she thought I was spending a lot more. "And I get paid for a good portion of it, too."
"What?" She asked, her body tensing up. "How? Why? But you-"
"By doing what, in my personal opinion, you should have been doing all along," I said with a frown, trying to be gentle. "I always heal children, but adults only get attention if they have life-threatening conditions or conditions that would result in long-term issues, like bad bone breaks or arthritis. Everyone else is treated by normal doctors. No sniffles, no hangovers, and absolutely no dumbasses who hurt themselves being stupid."
"But… that's still so few…"
"And yet, the mortality rate at the hospital is more or less the same as it was with you," I said with a shrug. "I'm even seeing people from out of town, just like you were. The list is shorter since I refuse to treat people who don't need it, but the people who need it are being healed. I mean, some might argue that my method is ethically correct because it means my time is more accessible for people who actually need my help, rather than bogged down with stubbed toes and black eyes."
The young woman seemed a bit lost listening to what I was saying. I had more, of course, the frustration of my own minor experience with the hospitals, along with seeing what they had done to her starting to come out. Thankfully, Alya blew a stiff breeze over me, catching my attention. I let out a long breath, letting the frustration go before I continued.
"What they had you doing was criminal, Amy," I said. "They should never have been working you that hard."
For a moment, she looked like she was about to argue before she stopped herself. She closed her eyes and seemed to be repeating something under her breath for a moment before sighing heavily.
"I'm not sure I agree, but I also know that… I might not have the best mindset for that right now," She acknowledged. "But thank you for helping either way."
"Of course, I'm happy to help," I assured her. "How have you been? Are you doing alright?"
"Yeah, you fixed me up, good as new. Better even," She admitted. "I'm... Well, I'm seeing a therapist that specializes in parahumans. I've been… I'm doing well, trying to find a hobby. It's been… chaotic around here, but we are doing okay. I was going to move in with Aunt Sarah, but… Well, you probably noticed that Carol wasn't around?"
"I did, yeah."
"Well, Dad kicked her out," She said with a small smile, a viscous and deserved look of satisfaction crossing her expression for a moment. "He is doing better, which reminds me, thank you so much for helping him."
"I'm just glad I could," I said honestly. "I want to scan him again before I leave today."
"He is good," She assured me. "No signs of backsliding. I can't heal brains, but I can see them."
"Right, okay. I still want to," I repeated. "Our powers work differently, so they might pick up something different."
"Sure, whatever," she said with a shrug. "Anyway, Dad realized Carol had been screening my calls, controlling who could contact me. We can't be sure, but it seems like she was doing it for a while, even when I was younger. That was the last straw for him, so he kicked her out. I… I don't know what's going to happen next, but… Thank you for helping make this happen."
"You needed help," I said with a shrug. "I wasn't about to let go."
She finally looked directly at me, and after a moment, she smiled before nodding and standing up. She then looked out over the driveway, focusing on Troy.
"Okay, enough of this weepy stuff," she said, sniffing once and wiping her eye, carefully not looking at me as she did. "Can I pet your horse?"
"Uh… yeah, of course," I said, standing as well, a bit confused about her rapid shift in demeanor. "Though, he isn't really alive."
"Looks pretty alive to me," She said, brushing past me to walk down from the porch. "His mane is still green."
"Well, yeah, I mean, the tree is alive, but he isn't sentient," I explained. "His movement is just a bit of trickery to keep it from standing completely still. Trust me, that ends up looking even worse."
She nodded and reached her hand out as she approached the golem, going slowly as if she was worried she would spook it. As she slowly approached, she turned her head for a moment, looking back at me. Still, being skeptical and cautious at moments like these was not a bad thing.
"How does he work?" She asked before focusing back on my mount.
"Well… there is a central core in his chest," I explained, wondering just how detailed I should get. "The tree itself I call living wood, which is basically just some enhanced oak."
"Enhanced?"
"Nothing major," I said, waving her off. "Just a bit stronger, tough, more resilient to harsh conditions. The wood is kept alive by… how much do you know about my powers?"
"Just what everyone does," She responded, looking back at me again. "That you're a grab bag and-"
Finally, after slowly approaching the wooden construct, she put her hand on the golem's back. The second she made contact with the wood, she went silent, her eyes going wide as she turned back to look at Troy. She stared blankly at where her hand met the wood for a good minute, long enough to make me nervous, before finally speaking up.
"I can feel the plant drawing resources from the core," She explained after a long moment. "Like its roots were set into it, and it's the most perfect source of everything it needs to thrive, and then some, but... I can't see where it's getting what it needs. Like it's perfectly hydrated, but where is the water coming from?"
After a minute or so of her mumbling to herself, her hand on Troy's back, she finally pulled back, shaking her head.
"I didn't expect to get much from it, but I thought I would get more than that," She admitted, biting her lip. "Your power makes even less sense than most. I've met Chlorokinetics before, and they… well, it usually makes more sense than that."
She gestured back at Troy, who was pretending to eat the Dallon's grass. This close, we could see that he wasn't actually tearing any up with his mouth, resulting in it looking much less natural.
"Sorry, but you're not the first person to tell me my power is weird, and you are almost certainly not going to be the last," I responded with a smirk before nodding back to the stairs. "I think it might be time to get back inside. I would like to get back on patrol for the night before the E88 gets any smart ideas."
"Pretty sure that's an oxymoron," She responded with a snort, before leaving the driveway and walking past me to the porch.
When she pulled the front door open, Victoria slid out, her head having been pressed against the door. Amy just let out a sigh as she looked down at her sister.
"Ummm… they sent me up to make sure everything was okay?" Victoria offered, Amy rolling her eyes in response.
"Sure, whatever, C'mon," Amy said, walking past her sister to return to the New Wave meeting room.
Once again, I followed Victoria back downstairs into the basement, this time carrying my vials. I put the box of vials on the table and explained the blood-letting process. I assured them they would be fine and I would heal the tiny injury when we were done. I could tell they were a bit unhappy with the low-tech methods, but Sarah agreed to go first to show everyone how it worked.
I quickly cast a numbing spell on her finger, followed by a blood-letting spell, and finally, a tiny quick-cast healing spell once the vial was filled about halfway. I quickly wrote her initials on the bottle before placing it on the table. After Amy confirmed she was perfectly fine, I repeated the process for the rest of the team. Once I was done drawing blood, I lifted up the boxed brick of containment vials.
"Alright, so I would also like to see if I could get some samples of your powers," I explained. "These vials are designed to… pull in and contain things that you normally wouldn't be able to, like sunlight or moonlight. I'm hoping I will be able to take samples of your powers to help the creation process and maybe even for some future projects of my own. It is obviously completely voluntary."
"How much will these 'samples' help?" Mark asked, beating Sarah to the punch by a split second.
"Well… honestly, that depends on what you want me to make," I admitted. "If you're looking to add a wildcard new ability to your repertoire… then any samples won't make much of a difference. However, if you're looking to maximize a strength or mitigate a weakness, then they could help quite a bit."
I spotted Eric's eyes lighting up when I mentioned mitigating a weakness, but he was the only one interested in that idea. If I remember correctly, Sarah, Crystal, and Eric all had the same powers, meaning they could conjure shields, cast blasts of light, and fly. Crystal could blast things harder and fly faster, but her shields were weak, while Eric's shields were much more formidable. However, his blasts and flight speed were significantly lower. Considering his age, it wasn't surprising that having weaker energy blasts and being slow would really get on his nerves.
The rest of the group was just very into the idea of suddenly having a new power or two. Thankfully, they were all open to donating samples, which ended in a small field trip outside, where the family could more easily show off their powers. I ended up taking samples of all of the shield barriers from the Pelhams, as well as their blaster abilities. On top of that, I also got a sample of Victoria's full body shield and a few very potent samples of Neils's electromagnetic field.
Unfortunately, there was no essence of flight among any of them, as none of them used any sort of thrust to fly. Their powers just seemed to move them as they wished. As far as I could tell, there was no sign of any force or field that allowed them to fly.
This would make granting Eric's request for faster flight a bit more complicated, but I was still confident. On the plus side, I was now very eager to add a second ritual layer to my overcoat and remake my staff.
Unfortunately, that was now on a long list of things to do, as I now had six more rituals to create and perform, which would probably take a few days. I was thinking of making my staff a high priority since I was really missing it already, and I would need as much power as I could scrounge together if I was going to be fending off or taking down the Empire.
When I was done getting samples from everyone, I did a quick health check on Mark. Mark's brain was doing much better, and his hormones were much more balanced and healthy. I cast another full body heal on him, just to fix a few minor things, which he thanked me for with a smile and handshake. He was still a quiet, understated man, but I got the feeling that was just his personality, not symptom.
I also checked up on Amy as well. She was doing much better as well, clearly getting much more sleep, though her body was still showing some signs of stress. The only sign of her previous poor health was the slight damage to her lungs, done from smoking. I had managed to heal most of it, but some scarring and staining remained.
I would have to work on that in the future, maybe see if I couldn't find some way to fix that.
With two new clean bills of health for the two people Panacea couldn't heal on her own, I finally left the Dallon house behind. The first New Wave patrol would be tomorrow, which just left tonight on my shoulders.
"Not like I was gonna get much sleep tonight with the new cycle kicking in," I said, Alya pulling in close around me as I talked. "How are you doing? Anything you noticed while I was busy?"
"Nothing really of note," She responded. "Streets around the house were quiet. This neighborhood is significantly cleaner than most parts of the city."
"That's how it usually works," I said with a frown. "Money gets more attention. Can't blame people like the Pelham's, though. They actually try to help, but you can't blame them for wanting to live in a peaceful neighborhood."
She seemed to understand, and after a few moments she spread herself back out around me, watching over a much larger area. I guided Troy through the streets, picking up a bit of speed as I headed for ABB territory. I would patrol until the sun went down and for a while after before retreating back to the compound.
I wanted to be home and safe while I tried to figure out what I was going to invest my points.
Comments
Michael Rojas
For real, cannon Skitter was a mess that kept making things worse via poor decisions to escalate things that did not need to be made a big deal, and refusal to even entertain that she could be wrong until everything went to shit. At least thats how I remember feeling about her.
Al
Hopefully she doesn't become Skitter
Primex
Is Carol going to enter a villain-era? Imagine her trying to hunt down the MC to his base only to keep getting lost in the woods not understanding why, lol
PeaceMaker03
Thanks for sharing. Is this a start of an alliance of non PRT connected hero’s? Skitter may be joining the entourage, after the MC’s helping her…..
Noob
Tftc
