Chương 28: R&R Ch. 28 — The Tango of Info

Rend couldn't wait to see what his apprentices did. They had both looked so upset about their circumstances when he had told them. If he wasn't so much their better, he was sure it would have gotten them to strike. But alas, they had good heads on their shoulders. He would get them to attack him, eventually. Maybe Jasmine was the better target. Nicholas had refused his advances so far. Though he didn't want to poke her too hard. One didn't poke a pinnacle descendant lightly. Most never did anything.

Some reached the mid list languishing their days with the silver spoon in their mouth. Others went mad under the pressure and broke. Of those, the kind ones only ended themselves. The others? Well, Beyonders weren't the biggest thing around to fear. Well, they were. Beyonders could reach level nine. But there had only ever been nine recorded Pinnacles at any given time. The fact there were two groups who could fight on their level as equals was unprecedented. Rend figured another wouldn't be so uncommon.

In a century or two. There wasn't a world they could get it done faster than that, even if they ignored safety. And he wasn't going to do that. Better to temper them slowly. His definition of slowly. Rend turned his attention away from his pet projects as space warped around him. He didn't have permission to do that here, which meant someone else was doing it. Guess that meant it was time for the meeting.

He knew what was going on as one of the spatial manipulators his senses were particularly tuned for this kind of disaster but he always attended. It never got old to see people in their dress clothes glaring at him for his party attire. And now he had students to glare at him as well. Truly a blessed occasion.

There were several sets of eyes on the duo. Nicholas knew why, but it still irritated him. They were the new kids on the block in more ways than one. First, they were actually new F-rank superheroes. And they hadn't had their training here, so they were entire strangers to everyone here. Nicholas and Jasmine could both see the gaggle of young supers at one corner of the ballroom talking amongst themselves.

Most likely the recent graduates of their own training, though they seemed substantially closer knit than their own class had been. Though that had probably been their fault for how that happened.

"So you think we should stay together or split up and look for clues?" Jasmine asked through her communicator. The partial telepathic devices were their plan on how they were going to make sure nobody would know they were talking. Anyone with proper super senses wouldn't be fooled, but Rend had commented he couldn't hear them through it even with his enhanced senses. Which was going to be about as good as the duo could get.

"Split up," Nicholas replied after a moment to think.

"Good luck hug before I go?" Jasmine asked hopefully. Nicholas sighed, rolling his eyes, but he complied anyway, giving Jasmine a hug before spinning away and walking to a hero he vaguely recognized from the research he had done on this city. A rank four hero with some kind of supposed oracle ability that went by the name LongShot. Supposedly his speciality was to make a long shot and turn it guaranteed.

Nicholas doubted he was going to get anything from the man, but it was his best shot at getting it instantly, and he seemed relatively popular, as did all scout and oracle-powered supers in attendance. So Nicholas asking hopefully wouldn't be cause for concern. Jasmine, for her part, went to talk with her peers, all the peak F-rank supers who seemed scared to split up. She didn't know if any of them would know anything, but they looked like they could use a friend, and she was going to deliver.

"Who the hell are you, kid?" LongShot asked Nicholas as he stepped forward in the line that had formed around the supposed precog.

"Retort, newly minted member of Renegades," Nicholas said with a deliberate shrug. As if it didn't bother him or was merely an inconvenience instead of anything else. LongShot whistled before putting a hand on Nicholas's shoulder.

"I am so sorry, kid, you are absolutely ruined."

"That bad, huh?" Nicholas asked jokingly. LongShot nodded sagely.

"Rend is a strange one, tried to recruit me once, but all I saw when I looked was endless torment as I tried to keep up." Nicholas tilted his head to the side, thinking.

"I have no plans to struggle to keep up, but I can't say Rend is a great mentor so far, having done nothing but serve us burnt pancakes." LongShot laughed, throwing his arm around Nicholas.

"I like you, kid. Let me show you what you're missing and I can tell you why all the bigshots are scared shitless if you help me out a little." Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

"How would I do that? You seem far more capable than me?" Nicholas said, doing his best to not recoil at the person trying to invade his personal space.

"I need you to play the clueless new guy so that people can see I'm a nice guy helping out a rookie. Can you do that?" LongShot asked with a conspiratorial wink. Nicholas weighed the deal in his head for a moment before deciding that it was going to be enough for him.

"Oh, wow, Mr. LongShot, you can really help me out?" Nicholas asked, putting an inflection in his voice that made him sound younger. That and more naive.

"I knew you would be great, come on let's show you around I can introduce you to anybody who's somebody here," LongShot said, steering his new protégé around as Nicholas grumbled internally. This was ostensibly exactly what he had been looking for, but truthfully, it was the last thing he wanted to deal with right now. But at least now there was a prize at the end of all of this socializing instead of him getting nothing out of it. So he would play his part.

He animatedly chatted away, giving away secrets of his powers he decided were inconsequential. Asked questions of supers to share their tips and say how much he looked up to the ones that he did know. And most importantly, confess just what supposedly ails him and how his mentor was leaving him high and dry, claiming if he couldn't figure it out at the party then he wouldn't be worthy of training. Sympathy and flattery were getting him places, and LongShot had already confided in him that it was a wave coming.

And had hinted that there were more details being included. Actually, now that Nicholas was thinking about it, all the supers likely to know what was going on were being incredibly nice to the rookies in general. That seemed unlikely. Being kind was common enough, but this level of gentleness wasn't. Nicholas hadn't even tried that hard to sway LongShot. Unless they felt bad? Nicholas had a bad feeling as he put the pieces together.

Jasmine gaped as Nicholas chatted with someone more animated than she had ever seen him. He looked like he was having fun! He was talking to strangers and giving handshakes and hugs as he joked and complained about his woes. His expressions etched onto his face with damn near highlighter, it was so easy to read him. But wasn't he the same person she knew? Or was the Nicholas she was friends with the facade and this was the real one?

She was a little hurt that the thought crossed her mind, but she couldn't be positive. She would just ask.

"I didn't take you for a partier," Jasmine thought to him while sipping her drink as she moved closer to the other rank two supers in attendance. She had wanted to just walk straight in and start chatting, but that hadn't seemed like the best idea, so she was going to go slower.

"I'm not," Nicholas replied, his voice nearly dripping with venom while he animatedly talked about something. It was cheating that he could do both at the same time.

"But this was the best way to get information." Jasmine nearly snorted, but she managed to keep her composure.

"Well, wish me luck. I'm going in too."

"Luck." Jasmine had been hoping for something more, but she was still satisfied as she moved to one of the rank two supers on the outskirts of their group.

"Hey!" Jasmine said when she turned to her.

"I wanted to say hi. I was feeling nervous about this, so seeing other people like me really helped. So I wanted to say thank you!" Jasmine said, purposefully telling the truth. She abhorred lying, so she wasn't going to. She was nervous. And seeing other rank twos had helped. The girl she was talking to tilted her head to the side.

"You weren't at our academy, were you?" She asked brightly.

"I'm Twister, nice to meet you!" she cheered, giving Jasmine a hug. One Jasmine happily reciprocated, squeezing the smaller woman tight.

"I'm Retribution and yeah our mentor immediately dragged us here after we finished."

"Oh no, I'm sorry," Twister bemoaned, grabbing Jasmine's hand and pulling her to the center of the group.

"Hey everyone, this is Retribution! Her mentor forced her to move here right away, and this is her first night!" Jasmine wasn't sure if she was supposed to correct Twister or not, but she found it already too late as she was in a whirlwind of meeting new people, hugs, and handshakes abound.

"So why are all of you here instead of mingling?" Jasmine asked, hoping it was conversationally and not dickishly. A guy taller than Jasmine, who she was pretty sure had the moniker Lupine, gestured to a guy smaller than Nicholas hunched in the corner staring off into space.

"Constellation has been feeling bad for the past three days, and we're trying to be here for him." Jasmine wasn't jealous. She wasn't. But she really wished her soul wasn't green because the green with envy jokes hit so much harder. Besides Nicholas, nobody in their academy had talked to her really. And it wasn't like Nicholas was super close either. Yet here they are, all of them around one person to protect them despite having different mentors.

"What's wrong?" Jasmine asked, concerned, moving to Constellation and sitting beside him. Maybe he was the physical affection type? If he was Jasmine would hug him so hard to help the demons go away.

"Space is tearing," Constellation whispered.

"And it's loud as if an army is trying to rip through." Jasmine's world ground to a halt, and she knew what was going on. And if it was that loud it meant that they were on average stronger than Constellation. At least the equivalent of E-Rank maybe higher. It wouldn't be too high they hadn't started calling out-of-town supers, but still.

"When did it start?"

"Maybe a day ago?" Constellation mumbled, pulling his knees to his chest as he tried to presumably block out the noise. A day ago. Jasmine mulled that over. That was probably right though it could have been he started hearing it the moment he had broken through, but it wasn't like she could ask.

"Like it's already tore, is tearing, or is being stretched to tear it?" Jasmine asked. Constellation blinked.

"I don't think anyone's ever asked me that?"

"Well, it just seemed important to know so we can figure out how to fix it." At that, everyone was staring at Jasmine as if she had grown a third eye.

"You want to fix it?" Twister asked, having stayed close as Jasmine's basically ambassador.

"Well, yeah, I'm a superhero. Maybe I can't fix all of it, but I can fix a little bit, right?" Jasmine said in her best inspiration voice. At that, they laughed, and everyone seemed to relax.

"As if someone is stretching it, trying to find where it would tear." Constellation finally shared. Jasmine knew what was happening. A Beyonder wave was punching through. At least E-rank. And they would be here in who knew how long. A month, maybe two if they were lucky. Tomorrow if they were unlucky. Jasmine needed a way to punch up a full tier on her own. The odds that she and Nicholas would be able to work together the whole time would be low. How was she going to save them all?

As the lowest combat ranks, she and Nicholas would be in charge of the least important areas alongside the other f-ranks, but that just meant they were going to be in the most likely spot for casualties. Grandma Darlene had explained it once to her. They would be told they would be expected to fight the weakest enemies, but that wasn't actually true. The forces of the Beyonders would be mixed. They would defend the least important parts of the wall. Any rank could show up to fight.

And if Jasmine couldn't beat it on her own, she would be the reason people died.