CHAPTER 1 – IMPOSSIBLE DREAMS

She pulled the quest up for the tenth time in the last hour.

QUEST – IMPOSSIBLE DREAMS

Accomplish what they said could never be done by a lowly meta from the orphanage. Become one of four new trainees chosen by the Vigilant.

Defeat four combatants – ¾

Difficulty – Hard

Rewards – Admission into the Training Program of the Vigilant.

It still made her feel boneless in anticipation and disbelief. She was really here, her, Emilia Ward, Code Name – Arc, against everything she had ever been told, every wall and obstacle put in her path, every person that tried to hold her back. A smile tickled her lips as she thought of Lacey, her bestie growing up. She had been the one to come up with Arc. The first time Lacey said it, Emmy was in love. It was perfect.

They were back to back besties against everything life had to throw at them since they were toddler high. And in the Orphanage of the Lost, the one and only orphanage in the US. specifically for metas, that was gold. She felt tears start to come but shook them off. Vigilants don’t cry. They were the shields of humanity.

Thinking of her bestie made her sad. She had had the same dreams as Emilia but Lacey was a common meta. She had really weak manipulation of air as her Birth Power Set and really weak Meta Attributes to go along with it. Some day, once Emmy was big, she promised herself she would figure a way to get Lacey involved. Before Emmy left, Lacey vowed, and double pinkie promised, to choose Hero at her first Evolution, and become a Vigilante. She knew she had to help however she could.

They had both spent their entire lives dreaming about being a Vigilant, and their entire lives putting the sweat in to make it happen. Lacey hadn’t even gotten out of the local competitions but she didn’t hold an ounce of jealousy over it. She had been Emily’s biggest cheerleader through locals and when she hit regionals, she was there, in her corner, voice hoarse from all her screaming. And when Emmy had done the impossible and won, Lacey, eyes bright, arms holding Emmy for all she was worth, a waterfall of tears and emotion from both girls. She still remembered when she had gotten on the oh so fancy private jet to be brought here, to the Fortress, the home of the Vigilant, Lacey waved and waved, her big beautiful smile shining. She thought both their arms would fall off with all the waving. And here, here she was, on the doorstep. She could just imagine Lacey giving her the hard look she took when she was on the serious, telling her. ‘Go get it.’. She couldn’t keep the smile off her face at the thought.

She still had an hour until she would face her toughest test. They weren’t told who won or loss, who they would be going against, didn’t even know who the other candidates were. They had been kept in total isolation in regionals specifically for that reason. They were then brought in separately, taken to an orientation with one of the Vigilant’s Mortal Administrators, then brought to their room. It was a mystery wheel that would be spun however it was spun. She had to be ready for anything.

Her last opponent had been a pain in her rear. His name was Ox and he was a Physical meta as if the name didn’t hold a huge signpost telling everyone. To be honest he could have been named Tinkerbell and it would of still been obvious to anyone with eyeballs. He had been close to seven feet tall with horns and the face of well, an ox or bull, gray fur over his entire body. She actually felt bad. Metas that had morphic changes had a rough time ever fitting into any normal society, and were locked out forever from having any kinda hidden identity. Emmy had never had any interest personally in a secret identity. She was an orphan and the only two people that she cared about were metas and could handle themselves plus who would hide this cool tone chic that was her. Chuckles.

Back to the ole’ Ox. Luckily his Birth Power Set was all about Strength and not a lot of Body. She had taken him down with some smart hits, and a lot of them. He had still clipped her with one of his charges towards the end, breaking her shoulder, probably would of done a lot more if she hadn’t created a shield at the last second before impact. In fact, with her Potency, the shield had taken the hit fine but until she learned how to create a shield large enough to cover all of her, she had to take the unintended smacks. She had broken her shoulder when the kinetic force from the blow had sent her through the air, slamming into the wall of the arena, with the shield, uh, on the wrong side of her body.

She needed to get better at that and a lot of other things but her Control and Potency just weren’t there yet and neither was her Geometric Shape Ability. She could still only focus on one creation at a time unless they were really small and was limited in how large an object she could manifest. She smiled to herself. She knew some day her telekinetic abilities would be able to do more, so much more. She had faith, she had always had faith, no matter what anyone else thought. Luckily the Vigilants knew if they wanted the best of the best they couldn’t let their candidates stay broken. Enter, Paladin.

Happy as a clam in her heart for him, and his presence at the Trials. His ability to heal almost any injury was a boon she wouldn’t trade for anything. No wonder he was a part of the Alpha Squad of the Vigilant. Only the Omega squad was higher with people like Sky Dragon, Blue Light and the others. She would have been in a world of hurt after that last fight if not for him.

She flexed her shoulder and it felt tippy tippy top on the big top. She chuckled. She was still blown away. Paladin was a legend, one of many she would meet if she could win this final fight. And he had been so nice to her, that was the real kicker. He was a large man, especially in his vaunted silver armor, dark smoldering eyes, chiseled chin, bronze skin. Oh my, steamy under the suit thinking about it. Not as big as the Ox fellow she wiped the mat with but still, at least 6 and a half feet and had to be pushing 250lbs of pure muscle. Her first super crush. She felt like she was twelve instead of sixteen. She was disappointed in one spec. He hadn’t been wearing the greatsword he was known for, Grayblade. It was rumored Sky Dragon had made it for him, which made sense. He was the Vigilant’s resident tech genius and Co-Leader along with Hyppolita. Granted, he really didn’t need to wear a giant sword to heal candidates but still it would have been so cool to see it in person. Win some, lose some. She just had to kick booty and win this thing. Do that, and every dream she ever had she would see real. She sighed...she still had fifty something minutes to go.

After every round of fights they were brought back to their room and told to stay there. It was two days between each fight. She had been burning time in an ever slowing spiral for two whole days. Her eyes took in the spartan space. A simple one person cot against the far wall, the bench she was currently sitting on. A data pad with an enormous catalog of books to read or vids to watch. A separate bathroom with a nice shower. Another adjoining room connected to the one she was in, a practice space with weights and a powered treadmill if needed or wanted. The best part, a part that made her giddy as a toddler with a lollipop, an advanced vending printer. It could make almost any kind of food she could think of or drink, well, except alcohol. That part of the machine had been blocked off. She wasn’t gonna lie and say she hadn’t tried the first day, and every day since. Her smile grew. What could she say? She was sixteen and full of curiosity, living on the edge. More giggles. She wish Lacey were here. The laughter would be rolling hard on the be bop of pop. She would of loved that phrasing.

Emmy stepped to the wall and put her hand on it. Within moments, a full length mirror materialized. She took in what God gave her. She was 5’9” and a half, the half, the vital part of the equation. She used to say 5’10” but then would feel guilty for lying so the half was a must. She was slender but six years of combat training and her muscles were taut wires. Thank God for Billy Bruise. The Orphanage didn’t have the funds to teach their metas anything but a standard mortal education. No training halls, no combat training, ugh. Her eyes dialed the phone number back to the mirror before she got lost in depressionville.

Her dark onyx skin carved out her African American heritage for all to see, only broken by the emerald green eyes that said there was something else spinning in her backdrop, something exotic and mysterious. Everyone loves mystery. Instead of the tight curls many people with her heritage sported, her dark black hair was straight as an arrow with light waves at the ends if she let it grow long enough. She always had most of it clipped back to stay out of her eyes. Between the eyes and the hair, people were kept on the back foot to her origins, which as an orphan, was a good thing.

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She wore the light combat suit all the competitors had been given, the silver sword and shield symbol of the Vigilant on her chest. It covered her from neck to feet, with matching combat boots. They were tight fitting and left little to the imagination. The only thing she was missing was what she called her War Coat. She had saved every penny she had doing odd jobs around the Orphanage and for local shops and had bought it when she was fifteen. It was on the cot and she never fought without out. It was a thick leather trench coat lined with a steel mesh that added another 4 Body when she wore it. It should have been way out of her reach but it was from a store called Uncle Bill’s Armory, owned by a retired Vigilante by the name, of well, Bill, Billy Bruise back in the day when he fought crime. He had been everything to her and Lacey, surrogate father, trainer, mentor, grumpy old man, name it and he was it. Uncle Billy, the man of men.

Lacey and her had been hanging at his his shop since they were eight years old and found it on one of their many secret spy escapes from the evil lab they called the Orphanage. At first he acted like they were irritants he wanted to go away but that quickly spun into happy smiles mixed with grunts whenever they showed their faces. They would sit for hours listening to all his war stories and helping him around the shop whenever they had time to do so. Then when they hadn’t stopped bugging him for a week straight to train them, he finally caved and relented. Five days a week, two hours in the morning before school and two hours at night after school. Her eyes misted thinking of the grumpy gold mine. She knew what she had gave him for the coat was maybe a tenth of what it was worth. It meant a lot to two orphans to know he had their backs all day any day. He had been right next to Lacey for most of the Regional competition and had actually been the one that gave her a ride to let her cheer on her friend.

Her eyes went back to the mirror as she turned and twisted, checking every angle on how the suit fit her, like she’d done at least twenty times a day since the first. Call it the appreciation of appreciation. She giggled. She was small chested but had hips and a booty to balance her femininity card. She had caught some eyes now and then, that was a coin in the coin slot, done and done. The combat armor offered some protection, a light armor rating that boosted Body by 2 when worn. A lot and not at the same time. As far as mortals go it would stop a lot of mundane weapons and certainly the strength of most but when one was fighting metas, the category of light armor, nailed the hammer or, did she get that right, duh, hammer to nail, whatever. Between her War Coat and the bodysuit it gave her 6 Body making her E0 which was damn good in her opinion for a Level 5 sixteen year old who hadn’t even got to her First Evolution yet. It took a lot more as one lit up the Ranks. At Rank E it cost two to jazz up 1 and every Rank thereafter it bumped by another 1. Grind to the double grind. In fact it made her bring up her Meta Tablet which she had done every single day like for, forever.

Code Name – Arc

Real Name – Emilia Ward

Type -- Meta/Mental

Level – 5 (Copper)

Age – 16

Birthright -- ???

Main Power Set – Telekinesis – Unevolved (Rare)

Secondary Power Set (First Evolution) – N/A(Chosen at Bronze Rank)

Tertiary Power Set (Final Evolution) – N/A (Chosen at Gold Rank)

Physical (Strength) – F5

Physical (Speed) -- F6

Physical(Agility) -- F6

Physical (Body) – F6 (E0 Combat Armor /War Coat)

Mental (Acuity) -- F5

Mental (Will) -- E0

Mental (Cognition) -- F6

Meta (Potency) -- E3

Meta (Capacity) -- E0

Meta (Control) – F9

Powers – Abilities

Telekinesis – Geometric Object Creation – Level – 4

Skills

Hand to Hand Combat – Level 4

Melee Weapon Training – Level 3

Parkour – Level 3

Stealth – Level 2

Surveillance and Investigative Procedures – Level 2

Combat Acrobatics – Level 2

Equipment – Vigilant Combat Armor -- +2 Body War Coat -- +4 Body.

Her entire life since she could remember nothing had ever changed with the ??? after the cray cray that was Birthright. She knew Lacey didn’t even have that category and no matter what she did she couldn’t figure out what it actually was. When she started gaining Levels once she hit puberty and was Awakened she at least had the empirical evidence that it gave her extra attribute gains. She pulled up her power set by itself.

Telekinesis (Rare)(Per Level / +2 Meta – Potency Points +1 Mental -- Will Points + 1 Meta – Capacity Points)

So at the very least the ??? gave her a +1 Point in her Control and at Level 3 she had gotten an extra +1 Point in her Will and Capacity. It used to drive her and Lacey nuts attempting to figure it out. At one point they had even brought Uncle Billy into the Sherlock Investigation and he had no idea either. And he was seriously close to a hundred, which when he had first told them that they thought he was full of it, though, they did know metas aged a lot slower then mortals, the Orphanage had taught them that much. Still it was hard for the girls to get their minds around it. Uncle Billy looked as if he was fifty at the outside. In this regard though he was a blank slate and his only commentary was. ‘You’re just a fucking weird kid.’. While funny, it was entirely unhelpful.

It was her Birth Power though that truly set her apart. Getting a Rare power set off the kick was well, beyond even rare. She researched it. Rare born metas was maybe ten percent of the entire meta population, and Epic, almost non existent. She shut down the mirror and went and sat down on the cot, pulling her War Coat into her lap. It was her armor but well, also, her binky. It calmed her. It was her shield against the world.

Her thoughts raced back to the Orphanage of the Lost, her beginning. It wasn’t all bad. There were several mortal workers there that truly cared and were very good to her. They were just understaffed, underfunded and way past the recommended capacity. They offered nothing to actually help a meta become a Hero. No combat classes, no physical training, nothing. They had several public school teachers for mortals who taught general ed but that was it, all she wrote. If it weren’t for Uncle Billy their dream would have been dead in the cradle. He was the girl’s Omega, the beginning and the end, plain and simple.

Some orphans lost their parents and family in the Long War, which had been going on between the Citadel and the Vigilant for close to a hundred years, others, for whatever reason, just abandoned. Lacey was the former, Emmy, the latter. Many fellow orphans had laughed at their desire to be Vigilants. With the end of the Long War several years ago, many thought there was no need anymore for the Vigilant. People had tunnel vision and short memories. After the utter crushing loss of life from the Night of the comet itself, when at least half the world’s population was gone overnight or in the aftermath, then another third of the population in the world bending battles during the Long War, people were fooling themselves if they thought there was no need for the Vigilant. Even four months ago, Arctic, one of the strongest Vigilant that existed, part of the Omega Team itself, disappeared, no body found.

Yep, people were setting themselves up on a ‘T’ for a home run smash to death on a short shrift if they thought the Vigilant were obsolete. Emmy would win this last fight, become a Vigilant, and show them the hard meaning of truth. She smiled at herself with her word play, even if it was just in her head. She didn’t even register her eyes closing or falling to pillow, War Coat draped on top of her.