Paramount City never truly fell silent, but the early morning hours, just at sunrise, were probably as quiet as it got. So quiet that Lightforge's footsteps on the pavement seemed to echo up and down the streets. There weren't many people out and about at this time of day, but he figured that it was still worth the effort.
According to Cannoneer, he only had a couple of days to earn as much experience as possible before things went back to mostly player versus player. All the same, he'd headed away from Decker Row just to be on the safe side. There was no reason to be reckless.
Besides all that, he was a superhero now. This wasn't just a game anymore. Until he could find a way back to his own world, this place was home. It had people who were counting on him to protect them. He was out before the sun because there were people in need at all hours of the day and night.
As if in confirmation of his thoughts, there was a shout at the end of the block. A purse snatching, from the sounds of it. He leapt into a sprint, mentally forming his weapons as he moved. A woman in a dark suit, the victim, was calling out for help as a figure darted away down the street.
Dexterity was Lightforge's lowest stat. While not slow by any means, chasing down criminals on foot would never be his specialty. The thief, on the other hand, was very quick. Before stopping to think about how bad an idea it was, he reached out and launched his glowing dagger at the thief.
Honestly, it wasn't exactly a throw. It was more like he just let go and willed the weapon to go where he wanted. To his utter shock, it worked. The glowing dagger struck true, hitting the thief just between the shoulder blades. On contact it exploded into shards of light that immediately began to dissipate.
The sudden impact threw the thief off balance and sent them tumbling to the ground. They lost their grip on the purse and it spun away on the sidewalk. The thief scrambled to their feet and took one quick glance between the purse and the advancing hero. It apparently wasn't a tough decision. They ignored the purse and sprinted away with all the speed they could muster.
Lightforge could have pursued, but he slowed and watched the speedy thief flee. As soon as he was sure that the criminal wouldn't turn back, he leaned over and scooped up the abandoned purse. He grinned at the success and jogged back to the woman who'd shouted for help.
He put on his most friendly smile and held the purse out for her to take. She grinned as she took it and said, "Thank you. But aren't you going to chase that guy?"
"As much as I would like to catch the bad guy, heroes should focus on helping people in trouble. Are you alright?"
"Oh," she said, "Yeah, I am. That's… different. I don't think I've heard a hero talk like that before. At least not recently."
"Well, they should, and that's what matters to me. Would you like an escort to your destination?"
"Yes, I'd like that. Thank you."
"It's truly my pleasure. You can call me Lightforge."
"I'm Cindy Newsome. It's nice to meet you."
"Thank you. Now, where are you headed, Cindy?"
"Work. I work at HGY Consultants, over in Old Town. With all the craziness over on the Row, my cab wouldn't come within ten blocks of the place. They'll be looking for me just a couple of blocks from here."
"And I'll be right here to make sure you're safe the whole way there."
She smiled at him and they walked quietly towards her destination. Within a few minutes, he was waving as she drove away in a cab. He couldn't stop smiling; minor as it had been, this was the first time that he'd truly felt like a hero in this crazy new world. It felt good. It felt even better when he received the system message.
You have successfully stopped a purse snatching!
You have successfully recovered stolen goods!
You have failed to apprehend the perpetrator.
Total Experience gained: 15
Letting the thief escape had reduced the XP reward, but he'd known that when he did it. It had been the right thing to do. There was no shortage of crime in the area, so he should at least do things the right way.
As he’d done with his status screen before, he raised a hand in front of him and said, “Show me a map.”
A semi-transparent image of the surrounding area popped up in front of him. He tried to zoom out, and there was even a bit of detail to be seen, but not much. He would actually have to visit the other bits of the map in order to see more. That was alright, as he wasn’t in a rush at the moment. But he did need a place with some space to work.
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Before long, Lightforge jogged into a local park that was little more than a small grass field with a handful of trees along one edge. He smiled as he looked at it; it was perfect for what he was thinking.
He stood across the open space from the trees and summoned a glowing dagger into his hand. With a quick flip, he took hold of it by the point and focused on one of the trees. He raised his arm and smoothly brought it forward, throwing the dagger end over end like he’d seen in movies.
The sharp weapon twirled through the air along its flight path before sticking shallowly into the edge of the tree. Well, not his target tree. It was a tree nearly ten feet away from where he’d been aiming. Embarrassing, yes, but not altogether surprising. He had never tried to throw a knife before in his life. He had expected to be bad at it, and he was.
More than anything, the first throw had been a sanity check. He knew he wasn’t crazy, and the game hadn’t granted him skill with the weapons that he could summon. But that still left the mystery of his throw against the thief. It could have been blind luck, but he was dearly hoping that it hadn’t been.
With a little focus, he summoned another dagger and took aim again. This time he tried to reproduce what he’d done against the thief. Instead of throwing the dagger, he let it go and focused on where he wanted it to go. This time the knife flew point first, zipping through the air and slamming home on his targeted tree. It was dead center.
He grinned. Apparently there were advantages to summoning his own weapons. He tried to summon another dagger, but instead a buzzing sensation ran from his fingertips to his elbows. Confused, he looked at the skill icon in the corner of his vision. Beside the Light Dagger skill, there was now a small set of numbers that read "2 of 2."
Ah, so apparently that was his limit for conjuring weapons. He focused on the daggers still sticking into the trees and mentally dismissed them. They evaporated into motes of light, and the counter reset.
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He spent the next hour testing his conjured weapons. So long as he focused, they would fly straight and true for about 100ft. After that they tended to spin out before evaporating. He could even make them curve through the air, but only a little. It would make up for an off-target throw, but that was all.
He could also choose to have them stick like the sharp objects that they were, or to explode on impact like with the thief. At least, he could decide that in theory. He still wasn’t sure how to control it yet. Every time he thought he’d figured it out he just ended up proving himself wrong.
Then it was time for the shield. Once conjured, he confirmed that he could only create one at a time. He tried to dismiss and resummon it, only to find that he got the same tingling sensation as when he'd tried to make too many daggers. Checking his interface, he saw the problem. The icon was covered in a red "X" with a timer beneath it.
A cooldown timer. If he lost his shield, he couldn't instantly make another to continue protecting himself. But something didn't sit right; he pulled up the ability description.
Ability: Light Shield
* Summon a simple buckler made of light
* Shield will absorb damage until broken
* Shield durability scales with Aura
* Cooldown:
* After dismissal: 15 seconds
* After breakage: 25 seconds
Lightforge studied the entry, consternation growing on his face. The details about the cooldown hadn't been there when he'd first checked the skill. He was sure of it. But why hadn't it been there?
The mystery of it bothered him. While this world was nearly identical to the game of EHO, there were strange differences in bizarre places. Like the missions failing to reset or the skill description withholding information from him.
And, of course, there were the NPCs. By nature, NPCs were limited in how they could interact with the players and the world. All their dialogue was pre-written by a developer, and they operated on a very simple set of commands. That description didn't apply to either of the NPCs that he'd spoken to. Instead, they simply acted like people.
The train of thought was worrisome. Changes to the game mechanics were one thing; he could wrap his head around those. What if this were a completely different world that just looked like the game? Would it even be possible to tell?
With an effort, he forced the thoughts away. Let someone else worry about the existential questions of this new reality. He had other things to worry about. And now that he knew a few tricks, it was time to get back to work.
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Now that he knew how to really use the tools at his disposal, fighting crime should have been significantly easier. And it technically was. Once he got into a fight, it was a lot easier to win now that he didn’t have to worry about his own bad aim. The real trouble came from the other groups of heroes that were running around.
Now that he was further from Decker Row, the groups weren’t as tightly knit. They were more willing to split up into smaller teams to go after more crimes in progress. So while there were still plenty of alerts all around him, they were being monopolized by these groups.
Lightforge hadn’t tried to approach them; their methods still left a bad taste in his mouth. He couldn’t place his finger on what his problem was with them, but it was there. He would be content to work alone for the time being. There was plenty of crime to go around, at least for now.
He’d caught a couple of pickpockets in the act, which he’d handled with minimal issue. He could feel his confidence building with each encounter. No matter the differences from the original game to this world, it still acted like a game. And that meant that he could survive and thrive.
He turned a corner and saw something from the corner of his eye. When he turned toward it, he saw a young couple arguing at the mouth of an alley. A burly man and a thin woman were building up to a full-blown shouting match right there in the street. He considered the sight; it wasn’t a crime, though he might gain a few reputation points if he settled the pair down. He shrugged and started to saunter over towards them; it was at least worth a shot.
A sharp crack filled the air as the man slapped the woman across the head, hard. Her head snapped to the side and she crumpled like a ragdoll. The assailant glared down at his victim and spit on her before turning to walk away.
He found himself facing an enraged Lightforge. While the man was burly and looked like he could handle himself, he was dwarfed by the mountainous man standing before him, a glowing dagger held tightly in each fist. All the same, the criminal merely scoffed and said, “Piss off, cape. This is none of your–”
He was cut off as glowing daggers flew towards his face with blinding speed. He stumbled backward, awkwardly rocking back just in time to let the weapons pass over him. There was no time for him to regain his balance before Lightforge’s enormous frame came crashing into him, sending both to the ground with a sickening crunch.
The assailant was barely moving anymore, but Lightforge didn't even pause. New daggers appeared in his hands and he drove them home through the man’s arms. The man groaned, tried to scream, but was met by a glowing shield to the face. After two more such hits, He went fully limp, and Lightforge climbed to his feet without being particularly careful about what he stepped on.
His hands were shaking. No, not just his hands, it was his entire body. He forced down a few ragged breaths to calm down, which mostly worked. At the very least it helped him get the shaking under control.
As calmly as he could, he walked over to where the woman was still collapsed on the ground. He checked her pulse and, at the very least, she was still breathing. With a thought, he called up his menu. By default it showed his status screen first, but it did have other functions that he could tap into. For the moment he skipped over the map, inventory, and ability screens, finally settling on the "Tools" menu.
Normally, this was where he would have been able to change his settings, access his account info, and more. None of those options were available anymore. Without them, the screen seemed very empty.
Tools
* Emergency Services
* Distress Call
* Friends List
He touched the first option and settled down to wait. Behind him, a set of chains materialized around the fallen man, ghostly and mostly translucent. As soon as they settled around him, he glowed with a faint blue light and vanished in a flash. That meant that he was gone for good. Technically, the flash of light was supposed to take fallen criminals to jail, but that was mostly just flavor text. Although it was certainly possible that it was more in this strange new reality.
A couple of minutes later, he could hear sirens screaming down the street as an ambulance raced to his location. He waved them down and directed them to the fallen woman, who still hadn't stirred. The EMTs nodded in appreciation, but otherwise ignored him. His role was over.
With a few deep breaths, Lightforge turned away to leave and continue his patrol. He'd stopped the criminal, just like he was supposed to, but something didn't feel right. The whole thing didn't sit right with him. He wanted to clear his head, so he pulled up the system message from the interaction.
You have captured the perpetrator of an assault.
You have ensured the health and safety of an assault victim.
You have used excessive force.
Total Experience Gained: 20
The pit that was forming in his stomach dropped even deeper. An excessive force penalty. Those were supposed to prevent high level characters from poaching criminals that matched more evenly with low level heroes. The experience hit wasn't particularly significant; the reputation hit was the real problem. The first offense would zero out the gain. The next time it would make you lose points.
It had always been a point of contention among players. Most didn't mind, but there was a dedicated group who loathed the very concept. One determined player eventually decided to prove a point. They created a new character and maxed out their villain rating through nothing but excessive force penalties. That was supposed to be the point; that the character had only solved crimes, but was considered in-universe to be an irredeemable villain.
The game's developers were unmoved, and the system stayed. But it had apparently undergone some changes in this new version of the game's world.
Lightforge walked the streets in a daze as he replayed the “fight” in his mind. The scumbag had deserved some rough treatment, but what he’d done had gone beyond that. Knives to the arms, stepping on him, that was closer to torture than any just desserts.
In the moment, Lightforge had been overcome by anger. Nick's anger, built up over a lifetime of seeing things that he'd failed to stop. Anger that had fueled his love for EHO and his desire to do right by the people who needed help. The difference now was that he had the size and strength to act on that anger to devastating effect. He couldn't let the anger control him.
Lost in thought, he didn’t hear the hurried footsteps closing in behind him.