Chương 14: R&R Ch. 14 — Not so Caped Crusaders

Darlene was currently taking a break from slaughtering her enemies to get the most recent update on her granddaughter and her pet project. It had been a shock last week when they had gotten a perfect score. That wasn't just unprecedented but unheard of. Follow that with the Retort clip going around, and she was going to have a hard time making sure that they would stay where she could push them. The plant she had been intending to mentor them wasn't even tenth in line to train them once they broke through.

Odds were whoever was first could be bought, but it was an irritant. Jasmine wasn't wearing the armor the two had designed a decade ago but something that was clearly an original design. Even with it secondhand through a recording device, her senses were keen enough to see where soul degradation had happened. And why the girl had insisted on dressing up like a cowboy was beyond her.

But Darlene still watched as the two flew around the arena, her gun leading the way as it shot bullets that practically howled with purple energy. Darlene's ability didn't work on those with tainted souls, so she hadn't known how to train Jasmine for that eventuality. That the girl was doing it already was a good sign, even if she found magical guns and bombs to be an inelegant solution. Their family had the power to warp the fundamental makeup of someone's soul and make it manifest.

And her granddaughter decided she would make a bomb? Nicholas was the more interesting one to watch. You only needed a moment to learn how a spellslinger worked, and until Jasmine brought out something special, she wouldn't have surprises. The nascent world shaker was another matter. He had yet to ever channel two workings at a time, and she couldn't tell if it was an inherent limit or a self-created one.

He was using his ability to change what direction was down to fly and using the same up and down combination to take down most enemies. But just like Jasmine, he had a new trick." Barrier" The young man's command rippled through the air as an orb of crystalline light wrapped around both heroes as an energy lance crashed into them. With their super suits and whatever protection charms Jasmine had made on them, she doubted they needed the extra help, but better safe than sorry.

Jasmine unloaded on the ones farther away from the duo as Nicholas crashed into the ones that had ineffectually slammed into his barrier." Impact" They all flew away as if shot from a cannon. It wasn't a creative solution to offensive lack, but with how her granddaughter was using her power she couldn't fault him for going with the simple one. Darlene continued to watch, only taking breaks when people other than her wards were on screen.

Whether because they didn't want to risk the harm of doing it again or they were bribed not to without the call, they couldn't kill them all. It was for the best that the two of them weren't spending too much effort to show off their new capabilities. A new word, sure, and new weapons, but neither of them was that much better than they had been the previous week. And she could tell that her coat and hat had abilities in them either, but they hadn't come up yet.

"They're doing well," her aide said as the video ended.

"They're doing well at the first tier, which is meaningless; they don't even matter to the world until they get to the fourth," Darlene said with a huff. She would not be excited about something as simple as this. She had seen many promising supers do well in the first tiers only to fall apart. Her family line was littered with them. The odds were that Jasmine would be another failure attached to her name.

"They might reach the fourth tier by coasting on this; however, from their popularity, they'll get a lot of options to travel," her aide said. Begrudgingly Darlene would admit that it was a good point. If the duo got to travel a lot, that would solve the belief and karma issues that most failed to acquire. And truthfully, she didn't think the insights needed were that difficult to manage; she had done them on her own centuries ago.

"Have you found out who the current first slot is for being their mentor?" Darlene asked, still irritated that someone had forced her to change her plans.

"A man named Rend, a C-Rank with a spatial ability. According to his file, he has never lost against anyone at or one tier above him." Darlene hummed for a second before summoning a fairy from her soul storage.

"Spy on this Rend. Don't get caught," she ordered the fairy. The fairy vanished through a tear in space. Darlene could feel her attention being pulled away. Armies wouldn't slay themselves, and her break had been relaxing. Even if it was doomed to fail, it was nice to see one of her creations succeeding early. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. As Darlene stood, the air rippled, and her living armor amassed on her flesh, leaving only the iconic form of Brynhild.

One of the eleven pinnacles. And considered one of the nine tied for first place in strength. Reality trembled at her will as she flew into the sky, the gates to her army opening in brilliant amber hues.

"The Beyonders of the deep have decided that they wanted to take my territory." Brynhild called as her army of the damned marched out, each a beautiful valkyrie.

"Destroy them all." She gestured towards the enemy forces and, with a roar through the fabric of reality, her forces flew forward, abilities and weapons burning with a kaleidoscope of light. She hated dealing with Beyonders. They always cost her more than she could recover. It wasn't like they had souls she could turn into valkyries.

Nicholas and Jasmine were in respective changing rooms trying out their super costumes for the first time. Next week they would get the chance to battle in them, so they wanted to make sure everything was right now. Nicholas stepped out of his room to take a look at the mirror and the techs in the room to make sure that everything was in order. It looked more or less how he had expected it too, urban fantasy mage meets techwear the only really super part of it was the domino mask.

But it had everything he wanted; he had been the one to design it like this. It was easy to move in, had a bunch of pockets so he could put things in them, and the jacket was cozy. He also thought the blue, white, and silver color scheme worked well.

"Looks good," Nicholas said, nodding to the people that brought his hair-brain scheme into reality.

"Thank you." Jasmine poked her head out to take a look at Nicholas.

"Why do you get a jacket with cool straps? Also, it's not very superheroey; you look like a sci-fi wizard."

"Because I asked and didn't you say your costume was just going to be your armor?" Nicholas asked, laughing.

"Yeah, but now we're going to confuse everyone. I'm in fantasy novel magic armor, and you look like a space wizard. How will people know we're heroes and not just weirdos in cosplay?" Jasmine complained.

"Most heroes are weirdos in cosplay."

"Good point." Jasmine ducked her head back into her changing room to finish putting on her own outfit before sauntering out and striking a pose.

"How do I look?" Jasmine's costume was much more traditionally superhero of skin tight and leaving little to the imagination. And to contrast Nicholas's costume design even further, hers was done in red, black and gold.

"Really?" Nicholas asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Don't you get started with me. It needs to fit under my armor, so yeah, that left some problems." Jasmine huffed, crossing her arms. Nicholas mulled that over for a second before nodding.

"Fair point. You look nice."

"Awww, I'm sure you say that to all the girls in super suits."

"I've literally never said it to anyone else before." Jasmine laughed before an orange portal opened next to her, and she pulled out a pair of boxes, one wrapped in blue and silver and the other red and gold.

"I brought presents!" Nicholas caught the blue and silver box before looking at Jasmine bashfully.

"I'm sorry I didn't get you anything."

"Well, in our superhero partner counseling, I'm going to be real upset. But no biggie, figured with my power being about preparation I should do this." Jasmine waved it off. Seemingly off the hook, Nicholas opened the box to reveal a pair of rings. Even with his limited knowledge, he could tell they were like Jasmine's hammer, objects imbued with a power.

"Rings?"

"Well, you don't have your ears pierced; otherwise, we could have had matching earrings," Jasmine said, putting the studs in her ears and shaking her head from side to side.

"So what do they do?" Nicholas asked, slipping the rings on his left hand. They were sized perfectly. Nicholas decided it was better if he didn't think about it.

"Better than the temporary charms I made for the test. Protection, and yours are compatible with your power so you can fuel them yourself without me needing to hold your hand every few minutes," Jasmine explained. Nicholas cast his awareness into the rings and found, just like last time, he could activate them if he wanted, but he now had the option to fuel them. The sense was clumsy, but everyone had assured him that his senses would be much better come the next tier.

He activated them, and a pair of interlocking barriers formed around him. But there was something missing.

"Did you make them so I could add my barrier to it?"

"Yeah, should I not have?" Nicholas let the active effect dissipate, leaving only the passive protections on.

"No, it's amazing. I just don't know what to say."

"Thank you, dummy is usually a good one."

"Thank you dummy."

"Rude." Before the two of them could bicker, the fitting had ended, the supers in charge of actually designing the costumes having done their job during the duo's conversation.

"Please change back into your regular clothes so we can make the final modifications. You'll find your super suits in your room in two days," Seam said, fighting back a yawn. This was always their busiest time designing and making every student's suit. Nicholas and Jasmine both gave their signals of agreement before returning to the respective changing rooms and returning to their regular clothes.

"So, should I wear the rings always or only when in costume?" Nicholas asked as they made their way to the training room they had booked.

"I'm always going to be wearing the earrings. I've had enough random attack stories that I never want to be totally defenseless." Nicholas, who had been just about to take off the rings, looked at her, looked back at the rings, and then put them back.

"That's a good point."

"So what made you decide you wanted to work on hand to hand combat?" Jasmine asked, hands clasped behind her back as she walked backwards to look Nicholas in the eye as they talked.

"Because I suck at it?" Nicholas offered.

"Yeah, you're terrible. If it was you versus a paper bag, I would bet on the bag."

"Unfortunately, same."

"But you mostly want to do battlefield control, right? Do you really need to have the skill to fight?" Jasmine asked. It wasn't that she didn't agree with Nicholas's decision, but she definitely didn't understand it. Though that was par for the course with him at this point.

"If I'm going to fight at your side and control the battlefield, it probably would be good if I knew how to fight at the bare minimum." Nicholas said as they entered the training room. Jasmine was glad she had given him the rings. It was much more okay to beat up your friends when you gave them protection magic so they didn't get hurt too badly. The protection magic didn't stop Nicholas from ending their session covered in bruises.

"That sucked."

"You were doing alright by the end." Jasmine said, mostly not lying, as she pulled him to his feet.

"Yeah, same time tomorrow?"

"Yes!"

"Should I be concerned you want to beat me up every night and are excited for it?" Nicholas asked, stepping away from Jasmine as she emoted happily.

"It's not because I want to beat you up," Jasmine scoffed.