Chương 16: Bk 1 Ch 15: Confessions

"A church?" I ask, amused by the audacity in spite of myself.

"A community center," corrects Mr. Sterling.

"But yes, the building in question was previously a church."

"Alright, I'm listening. Convince me."

"There are several advantages. Nonprofits are inherently well-suited to money laundering, as they can easily accept cash donations and are also tax-exempt. The primary purpose of a community center is to provide space to other organizations, which means it requires few dedicated employees of its own. The property is quite cheap for its location, as the building is useless for any other purpose.

Demolishing it would add expense, and several members of the local neighborhood also oppose the property being developed and are attempting to tie the city up in zoning regulations. Stepping in to 'save' it would generate a considerable amount of local support. I believe several members of the Sun Eaters are also already affiliated with groups which could make legitimate use of the space, justifying their involvement.

I doubt your, ah, particular taste in music would be appreciated by the neighborhood, but providing a venue for acoustic performances would likely be much better received."

"How do we actually get money back out of the center, though?" I ask.

"At first, you largely wouldn't. Even at a discounted price, purchasing the property will still require a loan, so most 'donations' would initially go towards paying it off. In the time it takes to pay the loan, further nonprofits can be created. Once the property is fully yours, the excess money can be donated to these additional nonprofits in a loop, with a bit being siphoned off at each step. The complexity makes the money difficult to trace, as the police would need separate warrants for every organization."

"I'll take your word for it," I say dryly.

"So an investment, essentially, with the only immediate benefit being a centralized location to meet and operate from?"

"Correct. But the slower you establish a money laundering network, the less likely it is to draw suspicion. Better to start early." I nod slowly.

"I'll have a look at the place tonight and let you know." The address is in southwest Franklin, right in the middle of my claimed territory, which is convenient. I find it without any trouble. The building is a lot smaller than my old church, probably seating no more than a hundred. It's white, with the usual sloped roof and a small decorative steeple at one end, and partially dug into the hill. Several large trees surround it, providing a bit of privacy from the neighboring houses.

I fly around it a couple of times, then land in the back, the locked door yielding to a small gravity field. The bottom floor is taken up by a kitchen, bathrooms, a couple of offices, and some empty storage closets. The second floor, level with the parking lot out front, is the actual church, a single large room. The pews have all been removed, but there's still a small stage at one end built into the structure itself.

Yeah, I can see the potential here, and I have to admit that the idea of using an old church as a money laundering front definitely amuses me. It'll be a significant investment, but actually operating it will cost almost nothing beyond maintenance, and renting it out will bring in a nice little bit of legitimate income. More importantly, it'll start tying the Sun Eaters into the community in a way that'll make us harder to dislodge.

Raiding the building that hosts the local after-school club or whatever is real bad publicity. Getting everything organized to create the nonprofit drives home how useful a centralized meeting place will be. We end up gathering at Anna's house, since she's expressed interest in the project. Mr. Sterling's charcoal gray suit looks very out of place surrounded by her psychedelic wall hangings, but no one makes any comment.

Aside from them, there's a couple of her subordinates, one of Jess and David's subordinates, and a couple more from one of the dealers who joined more recently. Among them, they have connections to several local bands, a yoga group, a modern dance group, and some sort of new-agey spiritual thing, all of which are potentially interested in renting the space. I don't contribute a whole lot, since this is mostly outside my area of expertise. Mr.

Sterling has already filled out most of the necessary paperwork to create the Fern Street Neighborhood Community Center, but suggests waiting a little before filing it. To make it look more natural, they'll first contact some of the locals trying to do the exact same thing and get them on board with a slightly sanitized version of our plan. There's a possibility we might even be able to get financial help from the city, which would honestly be hilarious.

Everything seems to be pretty much in order, so I give it all my stamp of approval and leave them to it. The lack of anything for me to personally take care of leaves me feeling a bit restless. Right now, all I can do is wait: Wait for Valkyrie or Surf 'n Turf to make their next move, and wait to find out whether Apollo managed to take the next step. Alex helps me pass the time.

I've even come to enjoy going over to her place for dinner; it's a nice change from boxed mac n cheese, and being fussed over is honestly kind of nice too, at least in small doses. Still, it's a relief when Friday night comes, and especially a relief when Apollo arrives right on time. I can tell right away it's good news.

"So how'd it go?" I ask immediately.

"It worked! Just like you said it would!" he says, grinning broadly.

"Told ya," I say, grinning back.

"Tell me about it."

"Well, I said I wanted to talk to Mr. Fletcher first thing on Monday. It went pretty much like you guessed, they told me he was busy and he'd see me when he could spare the time, so I told them I wasn't healing anyone until he did, and suddenly he could spare the time. First he tried to tell me the security was for my protection, so I asked him what they could protect me from that I couldn't protect myself from. Then he tried to threaten me. He…

he showed me this big list of stuff I'm supposed to have done, it was all made up or exaggerated, but he said he can have me declared rogue and have my talisman taken whenever he wants."

"I… Honestly, I almost chickened out, but it also pissed me off, you know? Like… I really did try and do everything they wanted me to, you know? And instead of a thank you, I find out they've been lying about how I'm unstable behind my back. So I told him to go ahead, but I'm gonna have a pretty hard time healing anyone without my talisman.

He tried a little more, said he could have someone from a strike team watch me while I worked and I'd be locked up the rest of the time, but that's obviously a bunch of bull, he doesn't have the authority to order strike teams around. And, you know, every minute I was sitting in his office, some rich customer was wondering why his arm hadn't been regrown yet, so eventually he gave in.

Agreed that as long as I keep doing my job, he won't say anything about what I do the rest of the time to ABRA or- or my parents, cause they'd probably tell ABRA anyway." I keep grinning, even though on the inside I'm fuming. I'm definitely going to do something about Mr. Fletcher at some point. Honestly, I'd probably call this a win for him; Apollo is still working the same ridiculous hours he was before, and now he's doing it a lot more willingly. But I'm pretty sure Mr. Fletcher won't see it that way.

I know his type, he'll take the slightest pushback against his abuse as a personal insult. He'll be looking for ways to get revenge. There's not much he can do for now, though, and it's a big win for Apollo too, even if he still has a long ways to go. So I say, "You did good. Congratulations."

"Thanks. I… Couldn't have done it without you. Really."

"Hey, I wasn't even there. All you needed was a little nudge in the right direction. Glad I could give it, though. And…" I hesitate for a moment, then nod slightly.

"I think you've proved I can trust you not to spill your guts out. So…" I drop my transformation.

"Hi, I'm Gabby. Nice to meetcha!"

"Oh!" He stares at me for a couple of seconds. I don't rush him; I won't demand that he unmask to me as well, but I'm pretty sure he'll follow my lead, and he does. A brief flash of white light passes over him, leaving behind a kid wearing a button-up shirt, slacks, and glasses.

"Uh… I'm Elliot. Nice to meet you, too." I step forward and shake his hand, grinning.

"You know, your costume actually does a better job of hiding your identity than I thought it would. The glasses really sell it. I assume they're fake?"

"Yeah," he says, nodding.

"You, uh, look a lot different that I expected too, with your hair down and stuff." Suddenly, his eyes widen.

"Wait, I remember you! Aren't you that girl from the fair? The one who asked Chimera, to, uh…"

"To sign my boob?" I ask. He blushes, and I cackle with laughter.

"I was wondering if you'd remember."

"Were you… were you already a magical?"

"Sure was." He laughs, shaking his head.

"I can't believe you did that. Huh. I guess that stuff you said to me makes a lot more sense now. How… How'd you know something was wrong, just from talking with me for like two minutes?" I shrug.

"I'm good at reading people's moods. It was… kind of a necessary skill, growing up. Took me a long time to master, but I had a lot of motivation."

"Oh. Yeah." He's quiet for a few moments.

"I think I'm starting to get why you don't want to register. I wish I could just leave, like you did. But I dunno if I could handle it anyway, even with magic."

"You'll get there," I say confidently.

"You were pretty young when you got magic, weren't you?"

"Yeah. Just turned thirteen," he says.

"It never really occurred to me that I might want to hide it. I thought…" He trails off, shaking his head.

"You don't have to tell me about it if you don't want to."

"No, I… You told me about how you got magic, so fair's fair, right?" He takes a deep breath.

"My parents have always… had high expectations, I guess. Like, even before I got magic, I never really had a whole lot of time to myself, I was always going to all these different lessons and stuff. I didn't really like any of it, but I liked it when they told me I did a good job, and if I didn't do a good job, well… I didn't like that much.

I'd been taking piano lessons for about three years, I think, and my very first recital was going to be for my eighth grade graduation, my parents had pushed the school hard to get me a spot. But when I got up there in front of all those people, I just… froze up. Forgot everything, forgot how to even read the music. After about a minute, they pulled me off the stage. My dad…

my dad spent the entire drive home screaming about what a disappointment I was, how I was never going to amount to anything, told me I was grounded for the entire summer."

"Then that night, while I was lying in bed crying, that's when they showed up, right there in my bedroom. Asked me if I wanted to become a magical boy. I didn't even think about it, I agreed instantly. I thought it would fix everything, that my parents would forgive me for messing up my performance when I told them. And I guess it kind of worked, for a while. They were really happy, and even happier when ABRA figured out that I could use my magic for healing.

No one ever even asked me what I wanted to do, they just told me they'd signed the contract with Mr. Fletcher and I'd be working at the Gottfried Clinic instead of all the stuff I used to do, and sometimes at the hospital for the good publicity. I just went along with it because I wanted them to keep being happy. But once the money really started coming in, they started leaving a lot more, traveling all over for business, until I wouldn't see them for more than a few days a month.

One time I asked if I could go with them, and they yelled at me for being selfish, told me to think of all the people who wouldn't get healed while I was off on vacation, so I didn't ask again."

"I started getting sick of it eventually, but I didn't really know what to do. Eventually, when I was fourteen, I got it into my head that I was gonna become a secret superhero. Everyone knew I was a healer, so no one would suspect I was also going out and fighting crime at night, right?" He shrugs, laughing a little.

"Kinda dumb looking back on it, in more ways than one. After a couple of weeks, I managed to stop a robbery. Felt really great about it, so I kept going back to that part of town. Guess the robbers were in the Nightstalkers, because Umbra found me just a few days later. I… I dunno if you ever saw her, but she's terrifying. Like, completely crazy. I didn't stand a chance, I thought she was gonna kill me for sure, she had me completely tied up with her whip-sword and everything.

She ended up letting me go, told me I was too pathetic to be worth the trouble. I was too scared to keep it secret, so my parents found out. After that, I was pretty much convinced that I should just do what they told me, that they really did know what was best for me. At least until I met you, I guess." He stops talking, and the silence lingers for a couple of seconds. Then, I step forwards and hug him. He's surprised, but after a moment, he hugs me back.

"It's gonna get better now," I tell him.

"I promise."

"I… Thanks." We spend a while longer just chatting. As promised, I invite him to a party; conveniently, there's one planned for tomorrow night. It takes a little badgering, but he eventually agrees to come. I point out that even if ABRA somehow finds out what he's up to, going to a party is about the most normal teenage reason he could possibly have for sneaking out, vastly less concerning than training with an unregistered magical like me.

We do still spend a while training as well, and he's definitely gotten better. His magic has improved to the point that he can actually attempt to tie me up in brambles during the fight; I even let him succeed once before I start actively using my magic as well to escape. I give him my number before I leave so we can stop relying on fixed meetings to stay in touch. The party's in far south Franklin this time, right on the edge of town.

The kid hosting it goes to Pine Creek, no one I know, but he's friends with the Sun Eaters' dealer at the school. I ride over with Alex, getting there a little before ten. The house itself is big but not huge, but the property is a good three or four acres, mostly trees. There's a big firepit in the yard out back just like at the last rave, with a dozen or so kids already sitting around it. We beat Cassie here this time, but she shows up ten or fifteen minutes later with Tyler and a bunch of other kids from West.

I'm pleased to see that Anja finally accepted one of my invitations; it seems like she's finally starting to do a bit better. I notice Ryan also shows up separately, probably also hearing about it through the gang. Apollo (or Elliot, I remind myself) gets there around ten thirty. I've been keeping an eye out for him, so I notice him pretty quickly when he nervously wanders into the backyard.

"Hey, Elliot! Over here!" He immediately comes over, looking relieved.

"Glad you made it, no trouble finding the place?"

"A little, but I figured it out eventually."

"Cool. Guys, this is my friend Elliot. Elliot, this is my girlfriend Alex, my best friend Cassie, and this is Tyler, Laurel, Katelyn, Anja, Lisa, and Shane." Greetings are exchanged all around.

"I think we've actually met once before," says Cassie. Then she leans over and whispers something in his ear. He immediately blushes, so I assume it was something about signing her boob. I probably should've asked her to be a little more discreet; hopefully he isn't annoyed that I told her who he is, but I couldn't have really hidden it when she already knew I was secretly meeting with Apollo.

"Don't think I've seen you around, you go to Pine Creek?" asks Tyler. Elliot shakes his head.

"No, I actually go to Saint Maria's."

"Oh, huh, what's that like?"

"I guess it's fine," he says, shrugging.

"They don't really make that big a deal out of the whole Catholic thing, you have to take a couple credits of theology but that's pretty much it. I dunno, I went to public middle school and it never really seemed that different to me."

"How'd you meet Gabby?" asks Kate. I reply for him.

"We met over the summer, and then just kinda kept running into each other randomly."

"Right on," she says, nodding.

"You want a screwdriver? There's still some vodka left, right Ty?"

"Lil bit, yeah. Could open the rum now, too."

"I'd do a shot of rum," says Shane.

"Yeah, me too," I add.

"Babe?"

"Sure," says Alex. With general consensus, Ty produces the bottle of rum and starts pouring it out into red party cups. Elliot is clearly a little apprehensive, but just goes with the crowd like I figured he would. Good; it'll help him figure out how to let loose a little. We all say cheers and down our drinks.

"How do you, you know, get this stuff?" asks Elliot after a minute.

"Ask Cassie, she's the one who knows people," says Tyler.

"Trade secret," says Cassie, winking.

"But if you want anything, I can hook you up." Elliot blushes again.

"Oh, no, I was just curious." Cassie grins.

"Well, you never know if you don't ask, right?" Next to me, Alex snorts.

"Wouldn't have thought he was Cassie's type," she whispers.

"No accounting for taste," I reply, grinning slightly. I'm pretty sure the only thing that's special about Cassie is that she's the only straight girl here that knows who Elliot really is. She keeps flirting with him pretty heavily as the night goes on and we all get drunker. At some point, I find myself sitting on Alex's shoulders while Cassie sits on Elliot's. Everyone laughs and cheers as we try to knock each other off.

I'm way stronger than her, of course, but even drunk, Elliot has good enough reflexes to scramble back every time I manage to land a good shove and keep them both upright. I still figure we'll probably win, but then Alex suddenly stumbles, and we both go down backwards with surprised yells. She lands on me, and we spend a moment untangling ourselves.

"Damn. Tripped on a fucking root or something, you okay?"

"Yup, all good," I say, shooting a suspicious look at Elliot. He doesn't notice, too busy doing a little victory lap with Cassie. Out of petty revenge, I yank one of his feet out from under him with a gravity field, and they go down as well to roars of laughter.

"Shit, sorry," says Elliot, shooting me an equally suspicious glare. I grin back.

"You should be," says Cassie.

"I think I hurt my, uh, my… bone. In my leg. Uh huh. You better carry me to the bathroom so I can have a look at it."

"Oh, uh, o-okay," says Elliot. Poor kid, he probably really does think she got hurt. He easily picks her up in a princess carry, and Cassie waves cheerfully as he carries her towards the house. We cheer and whistle.

"You know, come to think of it, I think I might've hurt my leg bone too," I say to Alex.

"Well, I think the bathroom's gonna be occupied for the next little bit, but I hear going out in the woods is good for hurt leg bones. Want me to carry you?"

"Uh huh." She does. We head out away from the fire and into the surrounding trees. It sounds like we aren't the only people back here, so she keeps walking until we can't hear anyone nearby. I kinda hope she'll push me up against a tree, but instead she sits down at the base of one with me on top of her. Well, that's fine too. At least she doesn't hesitate at all to kiss me. We make out for a few minutes, slowly getting hotter and heavier.

Eventually she slips her hands under my shirt and breaks the kiss; I raise my arms slightly to make it easier to take off. But instead of just doing it, she asks, "Is it okay if I take this off?" This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. I can't suppress a flash of irritation.

"I… Yeah, go head." She doesn't.

"Is something wrong?"

"... No, it's fine. Go ahead."

"It's okay if you're not comfortable, we don't have to-" I push myself back, standing with an exasperated sigh.

"Look, let's just head back to the fire, okay?"

"I… Okay, if that's what you want." Even more irritated, I turn and start walking away. She stands too, but instead of following, she says, "Gabby, wait a moment." I stop and wait.

"I'm not sure what I did to upset you, but I'd appreciate it if you'd tell me so I don't do it again." I huff another sigh, turning back to her.

"It's… it's nothing. I'm just… being stupid. Don't worry about it."

"I am worried about it. And whatever it is, if it's bothering you, then I don't think it's stupid. Come on, talk to me." Dammit. I can't really put her off when she's finally started doing what I wanted.

"I… You don't have to ask permission for every little thing, okay? It's alright if you just… do stuff. Or if you, um, if you… make me do stuff."

"... Oh." She blushes. I'm glad she doesn't have supernaturally good vision to see me blushing, too.

"I, uh… I just worry about doing something you don't like. I… feel like I should be careful, cause I'm like, you know, a lot stronger than you." No you're not, I don't say.

"I, um, I think you'd have to go pretty far to find something I don't like. If you… if you just, you know, do something to me, I think I'm probably gonna like it even if I maybe wouldn't have asked for it. Actually, um… I think I might like it more if I wouldn't have asked for it." She takes a deep breath and lets it out.

"... Okay. I've, um, I've read a little bit about this kind of stuff. There's this thing called the traffic light system. Um… If you like what's going on and you want to go further, you say green light. If you like what's going on but you don't want to go any further, or maybe one specific thing is making you uncomfortable, you say yellow light. If you don't like what's going on and you want to stop right away, you say red light.

That way you can, uh, let me know how you're doing while still, you know, leaving me in charge." … Huh. I guess it figures that people have run into this problem before and found solutions.

"Yeah, that makes sense."

"But the most important thing is communication. Like, I had no idea how you felt until you said something. If you want me to just do stuff without asking when we're, you know, in the middle of things, then it's extra important that you talk to me before and after. You don't have to be embarrassed about it, people like what they like."

"... Yeah. Sorry. I guess I probably should've said something sooner." She steps up and hugs me.

"It's fine, no big deal. Can't learn to walk without falling down a few times, right?"

"Right. I'll try and do better about telling you when I'm annoyed about something."

"Good girl," she says, patting me on the head. Something extremely interesting happens to my insides, like my stomach and everything below it just got replaced with molten chocolate. Every trace of lingering irritation and embarrassment vanishes in an instant. I look up at her, swallow, and say, "Do… do good girls get rewards?" For a moment, she freezes. Then she licks her lips and says, "I dunno. You've been a bit of a bad girl too, haven't you?

I think you need to make up for that a little more before you deserve a reward. What do you think?"

"... Green light," I whisper back. We're subjected to plenty of laughs and teasing when we come back to the fire a significant amount of time later. None of it bothers me even slightly. A few of the others have vanished; Tyler and his girlfriend Laurel are gone, and so is Anja. Cassie and Elliot are back, though; Cassie looks smug, while Elliot looks like he got hit over the head with a brick. I take a seat next to her and smirk.

"You know, when I asked you to help make sure he had a good time, I didn't mean you needed to go that far," I whisper.

"Who said anything about need? He's cute!" she whispers back.

"Did you and Alex need to vanish off into the woods for half an hour?" Eh, I can't really argue with that.

"Just be careful with him, okay?"

"Sure. I already told him not to expect anything long-term. He's a sweet kid, but there's no way it'd work out." I nod.

"Yeah, alright. Just, uh, make sure Will never fucking finds out about this." She laughs and agrees. It's starting to get a bit late. I'm still planning on staying for a while, but Alex declines to have another drink since she's driving home, and I follow her lead. A mellow end to the evening sounds nice, just sitting and chatting with people for another hour or two. I catch Elliot staring off into space with a big, loopy grin on his face a couple of times, which makes me feel good too.

He's still got a ways to go, but I don't think there's any chance of him falling all the way back into full self-hatred after tonight. My head jerks up before I'm even fully aware of the reason why, interrupting my musings. I register the threat in the same moment I register what I'm looking at. Seriously, this shit again? At least I'm not in the middle of a set this time. I quickly put any miscellaneous thoughts aside and get my game face on, because things are about to get complicated.

Valkyrie's armor reflects the light from the house and the fire, and her leg peaks out from the slit in her full-length light blue skirt as she bursts out from the trees. She glows blue, and then the blue light separates into a perfect copy of her, which rushes off to the side. Three additional copies follow quickly follow, spreading out to encircle the yard. Shouts and a few screams fill the yard as everyone else notices her arrival as well. A few people try to run.

The clones intercept them, not as fast I can move, but still much faster than a baseline human, blocking any escape.

"Everyone listen up!" she yells.

"I'm here to clean up any drug dealers at this party! If that's not you, then you have nothing to worry about! Everyone get inside, stay calm, wait for the police to get here, and everything will be okay!" Jesus, what the hell is wrong with this chick? Even if she's on a crusade against drugs specifically for some reason, this is about the stupidest possible approach she could take. A single drunk, scared teenager panicking is all it'll take for someone to get hurt, maybe even killed.

The cops are not going to thank her for this; even if it somehow doesn't turn into a disaster, it still might be enough for ABRA to decide she's too much of a loose canon to be worth recruiting. Hasn't she figured out the people she's arresting aren't actually going to jail yet? She must have seen- Fuck. Where's Ryan? I quickly scan the yard, and I'm not surprised when he isn't there. He might just be inside the house, of course, but I have a real bad feeling that he isn't.

A few more people try and make a break for it, and the clones throw them back.

"I'm serious!" she shouts.

"Just- just do what I tell you, and everything will be okay!" Fuck, fuck, fuck, this is bad. There's already a teenager panicking, and it's her. The whole group is shuffling nervously backwards towards the house. I locate Elliot, put my hand on his shoulder to get his attention, then lean over and whisper in his ear.

"Listen to me. I think she already screwed up and hurt someone. I'll deal with her, I need you to try and find whoever she hurt and help them if you can. Search the direction she came from. Can you do that?"

"I- Yeah, I got it," he says, nodding. I nod back, then speak up a bit louder.

"Come on, let's get inside and try and get out through the front!" I don't wait for anyone to agree, turning and hurrying towards the door, not quite running. After a moment, the others follow me. A few other kids have the same idea, creating a bit of a traffic jam, but I push my way through. Inside, people are starting to freak out as news spreads, but the growing chaos works to my advantage.

I'm both fairly small and a whole lot stronger than I should be, so I'm able to force my way past the milling crowd filling the hallway pretty rapidly. Emerging into the living room, I locate the stairs, then glance back to make sure I've broken line of sight with the others. Not seeing them, I dash upstairs. The hallway is lined with doors, and I start checking them one by one. The first one is a bedroom, and the couple using it yells at me to get out. The second is an office, and it's thankfully empty.

I throw open the window, yank the screen out of it, transform, and shoot out into the night. I gain some altitude first, so I won't be seen, then loop around towards the far end of the backyard. There's still a couple dozen kids outside, now corralled by only three of Valkyrie's clones; she probably sent the fourth around to block the front door. She's trying to force them inside, but some kids I don't know aren't cooperating, shouting back at her.

I'm glad I was so quick, I don't want to see what she'd do if she got desperate and frustrated enough. Luckily, all of my friends have already followed me inside, especially Alex. If anyone was going to recognize me, it would be her. The most important thing is to get Valkyrie focused on me and away from everyone else. Also, this is my first real public appearance, and I want to get it right. A big entrance it is, then. I drop down to hover directly over the fire, about twenty feet away from Valkyrie.

The burning logs float upwards along with the bricks lining the pit and start to spin, accelerating and expanding into a flaming ring orbiting me.

"You," I announce, "were not invited." Valkyrie spins before the first word is even finished, her sword and shield appearing with glimmers of light. A moment later, every eye is fixed on me. No one says anything for a few seconds, processing this new development. The smart kids realize that shit is about to go down and start pushing their way inside as fast as they can, but most stay frozen, too far out of their depth to react immediately." You," spits Valkyrie eventually, with a surprising amount of venom.

"You're her, aren't you? God dammit, why now!?"

"You know who I am?" I ask curiously. Her three clones turn away from the crowd and form up next to her, identical weapons appearing in their hands. A moment later, the fourth one comes tearing around the side of the house to join them. I let out a small breath of relief as more kids realize they might want to be somewhere else right now and start slipping away. At least the first disaster's been averted.

"I don't know your name, but I know what you've done," she says. Behind my mask, I narrow my eyes slightly. That sounds personal, but a personal grudge against me doesn't line up with any of Valkyrie's actions so far. There's something going on here, something that gives me a bad feeling.

"My name is Schwarzschild," I tell her after a moment.

"And I think you should be more concerned with what you've done." She flinches, hard enough that I can see the movement even with her face fully covered. Shit, looks like my instincts were right. I hope Elliot hurries.

"I- No. No, it doesn't matter now. This is your fault, all of it! And I'm going to make sure you face justice for it, you murderer!" Then, before I can tug on that thread, she attacks, launching herself towards me along with her clones. Everything except the fight falls away. She's weak, probably even weaker than Firestorm was, and I've grown considerably stronger since then, but failing to take her seriously would still be a mistake.

I dodge upwards, letting her pass under me, but leave the ring of burning debris where it is. She raises her shield to defend, so I nudge it sideways into one of the clones instead. The clone raises its shield as well, and the spinning debris slams into it. Bricks shatter and burning logs splinter in clouds of sparks, but after blocking a bit more than half of the ring, the clone disintegrates into a cloud of blue light. As I suspected, they're not nearly as tough as she is. Can my magic affect them directly?

I try to slam another into the ground, but nothing happens even though there's no sense of resistance. They must not actually have any mass, even though they act like they do. Disappointing; if she'd experimented with her magic even a little, she'd probably have realized the only thing stopping them from flying is her assumption that they can't. Still, I can't just stay in the air myself if I want to end the fight. I throw the rest of the debris at another clone, then dart down myself towards a third.

She lands and kicks off towards me, but she's too slow to reach me before I reach the clone. My spearblade carves straight through its shield with barely any resistance, and it puffs into blue light as well. So does the other one under my barrage of debris. But even as she launches herself at me again, more blue light forms around her, manifesting into a new clone. The limit is on how many she can have at once rather than how quickly she can remake them, then.

I juke to the side, avoiding her lunge, and slash through the last of the original clones. She's closer now, though, and another lunge closes the distance. I block her slash with the haft of my spear, the weapons clashing with a flash of blue, white, and black. She takes my retaliating strike on her shield, releasing another flash. So her shield does fully count as part of her weapon, then.

Dodging away from her next slash, I aim for the clone instead, but it dodges as well instead of blocking, either because she ordered it to or because it's capable of learning on its own. Continuing the motion, I spin into a low slash at her legs, which she jumps over, then deflect her return thrust. Another clone steps out of her, and she covers both it and herself with her shield.

As we exchange another flurry of blows, it becomes clear that I'm both faster and physically stronger than her, not massively, but noticeably. Spinning my spear vertically, I land a hard blow with the butt on the bottom edge of her shield. Like I hoped, it's knocked upwards, out of position. Continuing the spin, I slash my blade upwards into the opening. She scrambles backwards, awkwardly trying to deflect me with her sword instead, and both clones dart in to distract me. I ignore them, lunging forwards.

Despite the awkward angle, she still manages to deflect my strike enough that I only graze her with the tip of my spear. It cuts through her skirt and leaves a small gash on her upper leg, a minor injury even for a baseline human, but I still feel it cut into her magical resistance as well. My strike doesn't come completely for free. I continue the spin, whirling around to slash through one of the clones. The other one drives its sword into my back.

It hurts about as much as getting scratched by a cat, the tip of the sword scraping down my back rather than penetrating, but her clones' weapons carry a faint echo of her real weapon's power. My own magical resistance has been damaged by the strike, just a hair, but the clones are still a real danger. Annoyingly, it manages to jump away from my return blow, and she's already forming another one to replace the one I just dispelled.

I can probably end the fight if I just keep pressuring her and accept a few minor cuts from her clones in exchange, but that feels sloppy. The problem is that there's nothing convenient around for me to use my own magic on, but I can fix that. I disengage, shooting away towards the forest. She pursues, probably thinking she's hurt me worse than she really has. There, that tree should do, a smallish fir tree with a trunk about a foot across. I slash straight through it as I pass by, landing a few feet behind it.

My largest gravity field isn't big enough to cover the whole thing, but it's still plenty to send it crashing down on her as she follows. She tries to dodge, but I adjust my aim, and it slams into her like a freight train. Branches snap, and even the trunk itself splinters as it impacts her shield. Only one of her clones manages to avoid the blow, and I dispatch it easily as I dash back towards her. Slicing through the branches around her with her sword, she manages to jump clear, stumbling as she lands.

Magicals are tough but not invincible, and her resistance has already been slightly damaged. I wouldn't be surprised if that hit at least fractured some bones. That'll heal within just a minute or two, of course, but she doesn't have a minute or two. I'm already on top of her, and she scrambles away as I knock her shield aside again, just barely managing to avoid my spear. Blue light surrounds her as she starts to form a new clone, but now I've got plenty of material for my own magic to work with.

I jump over her, forcing her to raise her raise her shield as I slash at her from above. Simultaneously, I hurl a large section of the shattered trunk at her. It catches her in the chest, knocking her flat and annihilating the half-formed clone. She manages to turn the fall into a backwards roll and springs back to her feet, but her shield is out of position to block my next slash. She tries to block with her sword instead.

I put my full strength into the blow and crash straight through, slicing a deep gash into her bicep. Even as she chokes back a scream, she manages to bash me with the edge of her shield. It hits a lot harder than it should, knocks me several feet backwards and even damages my resistance a bit, but it's a minor injury. I expect her to run, prepare to go after her. Instead, she's standing her ground, her shield back up in front of her. For a moment, she does nothing.

Then she does scream, not in pain, but in anger and frustration, and she charges. I'm surprised, but I'm not caught off-guard. I float to the side, avoiding her attempt to shield bash me again, and slash low at her legs. She jumps over it, but I'm already spinning into a follow-up strike, slamming her with the butt of my spear in midair. She blocks it, but it still spins her around, and she lands awkwardly, her injured arm collapsing as she tries to catch herself with it.

For a single long instant, she's completely exposed. Her back is to me, and I'm in the perfect position to strike. I could kill her with a single thrust, her resistance is too badly damaged to protect her. There's no time to consider; I simply act, only becoming aware of the decision after I've already made it. My spear easily slices through her breastplate, cutting a gouge below her right shoulder, but it's small and not too deep, no worse than the one in her arm. It's not even enough to break her transformation.

It doesn't need to be. A gravity field slams her into the ground. What's left of her magical resistance tries to fight back, but I'm powerful enough to overcome it even without completely breaking it. That's important, because if I broke her transformation, she'd probably bleed out within minutes. I might need to kill her anyway, of course, but…

My instincts are telling me that I shouldn't, that there's something important going on here I need to understand first, something right on the edge of my mind that I haven't quite had the time to grasp. After a few seconds, I float her up into the air, spinning her to face me. I keep my spear raised, but she makes no move to attack, just hanging limply.

"... Fuck," she mutters after a moment.

"Should've listened. Fucking useless, just like always." I tilt my head, staring at her. The feeling that there's something here intensifies, but I still can't quite place it.

"Do you surrender?" I ask after a moment. She laughs, bitterly.

"Oh, so I get to surrender? What's so special about me? Or am I supposed to believe you gave my brother a chance to surrender too, before you murdered him?" …Ah, fuck.