Thankfully, it didn't take long for the police to arrive at the rundown gas station. When they did, they quickly set up a perimeter before taking the criminals away. According to the officer who seemed to be assigned to us, due to the amount of drugs on location, they had every intention of sticking around and investigating the area. They quickly set up shop and began going over the gas station with a fine toothcomb, apparently looking for any link to other locations they could find.

The liaison also explained that the ABB had more or less been off-limits to them since Lung and Oni Lee had been protecting them and because it meant they were technically out of their jurisdiction. Now, however, it was clear they had no cape support, which meant they could start really pushing in on them without running afoul of capes or the PRT.

I barely managed to keep my mouth shut about how utterly ridiculous that was. I didn't blame them for not wanting to get involved with capes, but not investigating them at all?

They also congratulated Crow and me on a fantastic bust, naming some mind-boggling numbers when describing how much the drugs were worth and how much we had just cost the ABB. It was a staggering number, but both Crow and I could feel it was just the beginning.

We left about thirty minutes after the police showed up at the scene, after giving our statements and doing a broad perimeter sweep around the gas station to make sure they didn't have any surprises waiting for them after we were gone. Once we were done with them, we made our way to the trade-off point, where we would meet with our patrol replacements.

Today, it was Laserdream and Manpower, the latter of which arrived floating on one of Laserdream's shields. After our initial greetings, we went over our latest raid, which surprised both of the New Wave members.

"You're pushing them hard, huh?" Laserdream asked, playing with a strand of her hair. "I suppose it's good news the police are finally picking up the ball... but that's gonna rile them up pretty badly …"

"You need to warn us next time," Manpower pointed out with a frown. "If they are riled up and spoiling for some revenge, we should have come prepared with a large group."

I considered his words and quickly realized he was right. The ABB would be extra agitated, and there was a good chance they might try and take it out on one of the patrolling teams. Thankfully, the solution was rather obvious.

"I'll lend you a pair of golems," I said, gesturing to my four nonliving warriors. "They should more than make up for the extra agitation."

"You'd just lend them to us?" Laserdream asked, sounding surprised.

"With some ground rules in place, yes," I agreed with a nod. "They should be able to keep a decent pace, and you can use them as heavies, moving shields, anything you need. In all honesty, I should have been letting you guys use them the whole time, I feel silly for not doing this before."

I spent about twenty minutes giving Laserdream and Manpower the rundown on how to use the Golems. I added them to the user list with a drop of blood from each, but I also added the command that only I could authorize certain levels of violence. Basically, they wouldn't be able to go all out on normal humans. Once I layered a few more cautionary orders, they left to head out on their patrol, leaving Crow, myself, and my two golems alone in the alleyway.

"So what do I have to do to get me a golem bodyguard?" Crow asked as I prepared to teleport us away.

"Do you really want one?" I asked, lowering my spellbook to look at her, eyebrow raised. "They would clash big time with your whole stealth schtick. I can do a lot, but a stealthy golem... that might be beyond me at the moment.

"No, I know, they would slow me down," She admitted, shaking her head. "Could you do anything to my crowbar?"

She reached behind her back to pull out the crowbar, which I had honestly forgotten she carried. I frowned and considered it for a moment, shrugging half-heartedly.

"Probably? But it wouldn't be anything special, it's too artificial, my m-mojo doesn't work well like that."

Crow leaned forward in a way that told me she was looking at me intently. Her crude, odd choice of weapons remained in her hand as she looked at me.

"You were gonna say magic, weren't you?"

"What? No, of course not. I'm not one of those delusional-" I started, only to stop when Crow poked me with her weapon. "Really?"

"Don't lie, I can tell," she said, shaking her head. "You were gonna say magic. Besides, you've already messed up before, calling your stuff 'casting' and 'spells.'"

"... Fine, yes, I call it magic," I relented, rolling my eyes. "Can you blame me with how it all works? My chanting and rituals?"

"...no, not really," she admitted with a shrug. "It's still funny, though. Gonna trade notes with Myrddin? Maybe run off with that villain group? I bet they would love to meet you."

"The Adepts? Yeah, really not up for joking about that," I said, shaking my head. "Them showing up to sniff around eventually is not too far-fetched. If I had known about them earlier, and doing so wouldn't horribly handicap me, I would have worked a lot harder to pretend to have normal, not weird trump powers."

"You think they would come here?" She asked, pulling back, now sounding serious. "Just to see you?"

"It's a possibility," I admitted with a frown. "They like to investigate powers that are weird or seem even vaguely magical. In the grand scheme of things, there are worse villain groups, but I still wouldn't want them here."

"Damn… that's all Brockton Bay needs, another group of villains."

"What do you think is going to happen now that the ABB ain't a factor?" I pointed out. "Or when we start taking down the Empire? The safer we make the city, the more likely people start coming here to expand or make a name for themselves."

"So we signed up for an uphill battle, huh?" she said with a frown, sitting on a turned-over trash bin, looking a bit strange in her full cloak. "That's bullshit."

"Well… I'm hoping to have a solution," I admitted, Crow's hood turning to look at me. "I'm not really sure what it's going to end up looking like, but I'm working on it."

"Why not just make more golems?" she asked, confusion in her voice. "I think they might actually be more effective than me."

"Well… think of a golem as a forklift or some other piece of heavy equipment," I said with a frown. "They make life much easier for the people who know how to use them. But for everyone else, they just aren't ready for it, and they will probably end up doing more harm than good. The golems have safety features, but they aren't foolproof. There is only so much crap I can stuff into their cores before they start losing the first stuff I put in. In the end, just like heavy equipment, the level of safety depends really on the user, and while I trust Manpower not to accidentally order one to crush a car with people still in it, I can't say the same if I make thirty of them and distribute them around the city, you know? I'm still working on a solution, but I will get there eventually."

We talked a bit more about my golems, about how I made them, and some of their limitations before we finally realized we were just sitting in an alleyway, fully dressed up, shooting the shit. After that, I teleported us much closer to the Docks Community so Olivia could head home. After saying goodbye, I finally teleported back home to the forest.

When I arrived, Kali was using her golem to garden among the food trees. As I greeted her, I realized that not only was she adding cute stone pathways, flowers, and other nice additions to the small orchard I used for a good amount of my food, but she was also maintaining the spells I used to make them produce more food. I was surprised how easily she had managed to do that, as those were sensitive spells that would kill the plant in hours if not properly maintained.

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"Wow, Kalil, thank you for taking care of that," I said with a smile. "One less thing for me to worry about. Are you sure you're saving enough energy, though?"

She stood and dusted off her knees, the wooden, almost dryad-like golem stretching as if she was flesh and blood. She then took my hand and placed it against the bark of the closest tree. It took a minute for her to explain with images and feelings, but she "showed" me how the magic I had pumped into the plants was slowly spreading and leaking, a natural process.

It was clear that, even with her working to maintain the orchard, she was more than making up for the absorbed mana. She then showed that every tree building I made did the same, each tree like its own little mini mana spreading generator. Alone, they weren't much, but as the compound grew, so did the amount of energy she gained. It wasn't groundbreaking, as I was feeding her much more by wearing my mana-leaking necklace when I was at the compound, but every bit helped.

Plus, it made me feel better about spending my downtime working and adding to the compound.

After Kali was done giving me a tour of the orchard area, which was now more of an orchard garden than anything, I sat down in the common area, starting a fire to keep warm. The day had been around average, but now in the forest, with the sun getting lower, I could feel it getting a bit colder, even though it was still late afternoon.

I was just settling in with my notebook, ready for some more brainstorming, when a familiar feeling came over me.

I was getting my quest.

Like my previous quest, it snapped into place suddenly, leaving me feeling off-center for a moment. Thankfully, it passed quickly.

"Oh fuck!" I shouted, jumping out of my seat and running through the compound. "Son of a bitch!"

"What is it?" Alya asked, pulling in around

"My quest kicked in!" I shouted, despite really not needing to. "Miss Militia is getting ambushed by fucking Hookwolf and Cricket. Considering my quest is keeping her alive, I would say they are our for blood."

"What? How did that happen?" She asked, sounding confused

"I don't know!" I responded before grabbing my mask and pulling it over my face, quickly pulling on my overcoat before I mentally yanked on my staff.

I was standing by the ritual platform, stuffing my feet into my boots, when my staff appeared beside me just in time for me to snag it. My spell book, which had been lying in my holster on the ground, snapped free and slapped into my hand. With my costume now hastily on, I ran towards Troy and jumped on his back. I waited only a split second for my two golems to grab onto Troy before I immediately shouted the activation phrase.

"Goodbye!"

Troy and I vanished from the compound, the instant teleportation carrying us to ABB territory. Unfortunately, I wasn't familiar with the specific spot that my quest was leading me to, but I got close.

"Let's go, Troy!"

I shouted, leaning forward and slamming my magic into him, his body glowing and his hooves sparking as he dove forward, racing down the street, bounding between cars. Behind us, my golems followed, barely able to keep up with my reckless, enhanced speed. Now was not the time to be concerned about traffic, and we left more than a few scratches behind as we ran.

I gripped on tightly to the handholds built into Troy's side, his living wooden body growing around my staff to keep it from being torn free of my grip as we moved, running full tilt down one street, then a second, before finally seeing the first signs of the fight.

First was a smoking wreck of a motorcycle, which I vaguely recognized from our late-night meeting. I passed by damaged cars, torn-up asphalt, and people running and screaming as I kept pushing Troy. Finally, we swung around the last corner, charging into a back lot parking area, which was blocked around all four sides, save the entrance. There, I could see a handful of Empire goons, led by a rough-looking man and a scarred woman. Past them, I could see Miss Militia standing behind a broken and rusted car.

Without slowing down, I aimed Troy at the rough-looking man, letting him go full tilt. We barely made it inside the lot before people spotted us, turning and shouting as we barrelled through the group. E88 goons jumped out of the way, only for Hookwolf to turn and take Troy to the face, just as I jumped off his back. I used the ability of my boots to conjure a platform, letting me jump twice over the remaining goons, before landing smoothly next to Miss Militia.

The Protectorate heroine was holding her summoned weapon, a large trench shotgun that flickered and smoked slightly. Her uniform was scuffed and cut up, and I could see some blood welling through her clothes and her arm. I immediately quick cast some general healing into the heroine. I also got to see why she wasn't trying to run. A black man, face bloodied and cut, was sitting with his back against the rusted-out car. He was in rough shape, so I immediately cast some healing spells at him as well.

"Miss Militia, you alright?" I asked, standing up from the man, watching as my golems came tearing around the corner, stopping when I whistled for them to hold off

"I've been better." She admitted, as we both watched Hookwolf take chunks out of Troy, even as the construct ran away. "Good to see you."

"Same. Any reason we should hang around?" I asked, whistling for my golems to engage. They quickly attacked, shoving and punching goons that tried to stop Troy from escaping. The construct was down a leg and a chunk of his neck, but with his core intact, he would be fine.

"Assuming you mean teleporting to safety?" She asked, racking a shell as one of the closest goons stepped forward. "Please, by all means."

"Fantastic, hold on tight."

I grabbed the still-injured and unconscious man's hand before Miss Militia grabbed my shoulder. I whistled loudly, knowing the golems and Troy would be able to outrun anyone here, before tapping my staff on the ground again and shouting

"Goodbye!"

Once again, in just a flash, we vanished and reappeared just in front of the PRT headquarters, namely the bench by the front entrance. Immediately, Miss Militia pulled her radio from her hip and started talking into it. She quickly informed whoever was listening she had been safely extracted and that the rescue team was free to engage or return to base. She then collapsed backward onto the bench, her conjured weapon flitting to a pistol, slipping into her hip holster.

While she was doing this, I knelt beside the unconscious man, scanning and making sure he was okay. I chanted a few short healing spells better tuned to his injuries, making sure he was fully healthy before taking a seat beside Miss Militia. She was still listening to her radio, though not saying much as others took over the situation.

"So... how far away were reinforcements?"

"Way too far," She admitted, looking over at me. "Thanks for the save."

"Happy to help."

Even as we talked, PRT agents poured from the headquarters front entrance. They rather uselessly secured the area before starting to ask their questions. I sighed and leaned back on the bench, realizing that, unless I wanted to pull a repeat of the last time I was here, this was probably going to take a while.