Chương 20: R&R Ch. 20 — Rend and the Renegades

Nicholas was on edge. He was supposed to be celebrating, especially because Jasmine had banned his first idea of testing the new limits he had now that he was level two. Though the reason for his nerves was obvious. Jasmine, for her part, was much the same. It was the same reason for both of them. There was someone in their room. A super. Stronger than both of them put together.

"Run?" Nicholas asked as Jasmine pulled out her gun, coat and hat. She would have preferred her other setup, but there was nothing to be done. This gear took seconds to prepare once it was out of her soul space. Not minutes.

"You don't want to fight?" Jasmine asked quietly.

"I am driven, not stupid. He's got more than twice the power we do combined." Jasmine considered it for a moment. Being able to fight up was important. Kind of. Her grandma didn't need to fight up. But everyone else had to. Jasmine wondered if her grandma ever had to. It wasn't as if there were any records back then. Well, there were records before her. And lots after. The world had been busy during the initial stages of supers. And new powers had risen and fallen like the sun.

Her grandma had made a name for herself wiping out armies. Not slaying dragons. Though Jasmine wasn't sure where the dragon rug came from.

"They're not here to hurt us," Jasmine finally said as tumblers clicked into place. It was clear they couldn't be; that would mean they snuck in through all the defenses. Whoever they were, they were with an approved purpose.

"I still don't like it," Nicholas grumbled. They both felt it when the energy in their room changed from tranquil inaction to preparation." Barrier" A silver dome of energy surrounded Nicholas and Jasmine as the world twisted and standing before them was a man.

"You two do realize I could hear you, right?" He said, putting his hands on his hips and striking a hero pose. It would have been much more effective if he wasn't in basketball shorts and a t-shirt that said 'can't touch dis'.

"Really?" Nicholas asked, still keeping his barrier up. He was unfortunately certain it would crumble in the face of an attack from this man, but it was still the principle of the thing. His space had been invaded by a stranger. And he had gotten no warning for it. As soon as he was strong enough, he would get his revenge.

"Yup, could even feel your power through your veil." Nicholas glared.

"It is a good veil; my fortification just focuses on my senses." He said, holding his hands up defensively. Jasmine was still holding her gun despite being the one that pioneered saying they were probably safe.

"Who are you?" The red-headed man threw his head back laughing.

"Well, I am Rend, and I came here to scout you to be my mentees and join my team, Renegades."

"Rend, Retort, and Retribution on Renegades? Did you just pick us for the name branding?" Nicholas asked, still leaving the barrier up.

"Yes."

"Then no, we don't need someone like that teaching us," Jasmine said, stepping forward.

"We know just how many people are looking at the chance to teach us, or supposedly doing it. So if you don't actually want to teach us, then you can leave."

"You two really broke through the barrier and are second stage already," Rend said, unconcerned about their statements as he studied the duo.

"I had thought it was a sensory item."

"Just now," Nicholas said, dropping the barrier. It was pointless, and it seemed like they were moving towards an actual conversation.

"Great, that means I'm not even breaking the rules a little bit. So, do either of you have a plan for what kind of fortification you'll do? You both have the signs of having a meditation method so I imagine so?" Rend asked as they moved into the suite. Jasmine chattered about her family's build plan while Nicholas tried not to let his eyebrow twitch at the sight of his food being eaten. Nicholas had a vague idea of what they were talking about.

While your senses opening up were the main part of reaching level two, there were some other notable benefits. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. The first was being able to now fully perceive your power. You could mess with the qualities of the energy to some degree, and he had a plan for that. To increase the potency or density of his power. If every scrap of power got him farther than it would normally, that would be incredible.

And you could start tempering your body for the evolution at the next stage. On top of getting stronger, faster, tougher, all the generic superhuman qualities you could get a little more. Jasmine had explained her body was going to develop the ability to operate without a soul. And that any soul damage attacks would be taken on her body instead of her soul so that only she was taking the soul attacks. Unless someone could pierce the defenses, of course.

"And you Retort?"

"I was planning on increasing how much power my body can handle being funneled through it at once. I wouldn't need to change anything for my training." Rend clapped his hands together.

"Excellent. I don't see any reason to advise you on where to go in that direction."

"For a mentor, you're not trying hard."

"Well, you haven't accepted me yet. And besides, I can't tell you what path to walk. Jasmine's was decided for her, and you got here on your own. So if you think that's the tool you need, who am I to argue?" Rend said cheerily.

"So why us?" Jasmine asked, settling down onto the sofa while Nicholas sat in one of the lounge chairs.

"Because you're a pair of equals who want to go to the end. And I want to change things." Rend said simply.

"And I thought it would be hilarious to tweak the nose of whoever your patron is." Nicholas considered quietly as Jasmine made sounds similar to a gasping fish at the idea someone wanted to tweak the nose of her grandma.

"You two are strong, and even on your own you could get far, but the road is lonely. That's why you two formed a team, isn't it? Wouldn't it be great to have a team full of people who were planning on reaching the end?"

"Yeah," Jasmine whispered.

"So you want to form the twelfth pinnacle?" Nicholas asked quietly. That was the real question. Nicholas wanted the power to change things, but to do that you needed power beyond the pinnacles. Maybe being the twelfth would tip the scale, but he doubted it.

"Why would I want to be part of the twelfth? Seems like a shitty situation for everyone if that were the case," Rend asked, winking. Jasmine and Nicholas stared at their prospective mentor.

"Well, I got to get going. Astra and I need to do some paperwork to get this to move forward since I was just first in line to meet you. okay bye!" And then Rend vanished.

"Did we even say no?"

"No, we did not."

"Are you upset?"

"Yes, but he seems interesting enough. Besides, it'll be great inspiration for when I can take my vengeance." Nicholas said, smiling darkly. Jasmine said a silent prayer to Rend, hoping he could keep ahead of Nicholas. Domain types were historically worse than most at punching up, but she doubted her friend would follow that track.

"So, do you need to upgrade any of your weapons?" Nicholas asked, moving to the kitchen. He was hungry, so it was time to make dinner.

"Not really, I just need to feed some of my current soul into them so that they naturally evolve. We can do the rings first?" Jasmine asked, following him.

"Sure," Nicholas said, deciding what he wanted to eat. He was leaning towards potato soup, but there could be something calling out to him. Jasmine grabbed his hand gently, feeding her soul into the rings.

"You know you could have waited for me to take the rings off?" Nicholas said as he pulled out the ingredients." Dice" He wasn't a huge fan of using his powers for stuff like this, mostly because it took time to build words and doing them this way was slow. But when his hand wasn't his own to use, that made dicing ingredients difficult.

"I uh forgot?" Jasmine said once she finished pouring a bit of her soul into the rings. Ranking up wasn't going to fully heal your soul, but there was little better for it than doing so, and she had a lot of soul energy. Though upgrading all of her items would probably tap her out. Which meant no new surprises.

"Do you want to unveil something new or upgrade all of your old stuff?" Nicholas asked his hands now free to work.

"No idea, I like all of my current stuff, but showing off something new would be great. And now that we have our senses, I can make something that I wouldn't have been able to handle before." Jasmine said, hemming and hawing internally as she tried to decide.

"Do the new thing; it sends a stronger message. We are evolving and growing stronger, not just a better version of who we were." Nicholas said, turning that advice inward. He had a word that could work for that. It was originally supposed to be something of a parlor trick so he could use it to show off with children, but maybe he could push it farther now.

"Would you help me pick out which design to start working on? Want to do this as a team," Jasmine said halfway to their study so she can grab her notebook.

"Yeah, I would love to. We can do it while I'm working on dinner." Nicholas agreed.

"I would love to hear your thoughts on what I should do with the word I'm working on. Wouldn't do for only one of us to show off a new trick."

Rend now in his full costume lounged in Astra's office picking his teeth with a sword the size of a toothpick. Astra knew better than to think it was an actual toothpick, though. Rend wasn't on her level, but he could injure her in no small part thanks to that sword.

"You realize I have to punish you, right?" Astra sighed, looking at her old friend. They had served together a few decades ago when they were the same tier. They should still be the same tier. If only Astra had defended their team properly.

"Nope, they're both rank two so you don't have to worry about that," Rend said, kicking his feet up.

"Really?" Astra asked, not surprised. After the debacle that was Nicholas rending his own soul, she figured it would happen soon, but that it was now was a surprise. She hadn't felt anything. That meant they had both ascended smoothly, and that was even more worrying. Supers who sprinted made fast progress, but they often stumbled, forced by their own screw-ups to slow down. She had hoped that Nicholas cutting his soul to shreds would have told him to slow down.

But they had sprinted ahead anyway and had done so without problems.

"You know who Jasmine is, yes?" Astra asked quietly.

"How many soul specialists are there with amber portals? I'm well aware." Rend scoffed.

"She won't do anything so long as I train her adequately. It'll be centuries till they reach tier eight at the regular pace so she won't care." Astra hated that it was a good point. She mostly hated it because it was the kind of point that meant Rend would continue to do whatever he wanted.

"I will push this through. But don't do anything stupid. They're strong enough that they'll come back for you if you hurt them." Rend was beaming at that.

"I can't wait."