Pain and fatigue started assaulting every fibre of Calvin’s entire being. His eyes started throbbing and his vision blurred at the same time, a sharp ringing in his ears turned the world into a muffled soundscape, every scrap of air that flowed through his blocked nose burnt inside his lungs— every sense in his body reverberated with freezing numbness and scorching heat.
He felt like a rag. He felt like he was getting twisted, drained of every bit of everything inside of him.
Then, the nausea.
“Ugh,” Calvin grunted as he went down to his knees, both from the sick and from the sudden waves of exhaustion.
“What just— Cal!” Quinn’s voice rang and pierced through the ringing in his ears.
He wanted to lie and tell her that he was fine, but the bile making its way up his throat had a different plan. He emptied the current contents of his stomach onto the floor, the disgusting acid stinging his throat and his mouth even after the deed was done.
“Are you okay? Were you hurt anywhere?” Quinn asked, summoning a red box that was filled with syringes and bandages of different kinds.
“It’s— ugh, it’s fine. Just… this happens all the time,” he lied. The last time he threw up because of this weird 'mental debuff removal’ was in the elevator with Lightspeed. 'Super Information,’
Super Information
Super Name None Super Attributes Super Status Alive, Spirit-severance, Chronic Fatigue(Spirit, Mind, Body), Burnout(Spirit, Mind, Body), Essence Strain(Impervious Pebble, Colour Control)
Super Body 2 (+1 Plain White Shirt)(-1 Burnout)
Super Quest Road to Heroism III, A True Hero's Name, An Unknown Power Super Mind 1 (-1 Burnout) Super Points 5
Super Spirit 3 (-1.3 Burnout, Spirit-severance)
Super Powers
Impervious Pebble Gourmand's Insight Color Control Jumper Vigilant Aegis Unknown
Super Information
Super Name None Super Status Alive, Spirit-severance, Chronic Fatigue(Spirit, Mind, Body), Burnout(Spirit, Mind, Body), Essence Strain(Impervious Pebble, Colour Control)
Super Quest Road to Heroism III, A True Hero's Name, An Unknown Power Super Points 5
Super Attributes Super Body 2 (+1 Plain White Shirt) (-1 Burnout)
Super Mind 1 (-1 Burnout) Super Spirit 3 (-0.3 Spirit-severance) (-1 Burnout)
Super Powers
Impervious Pebble Gourmand's Insight Color Control Jumper Vigilant Aegis Unknown
“Holy shit—” Calvin couldn’t help but curse, seeing the amount of maladies on the panel.
“What? Are you okay?!” His friend worriedly grabbed his face. “Cal!”
“I— I’m just tired. Really fucking tired,” He said as he took another furtive glance at the panel before swiping it away. “So, do you remember?”
She flinched at his question, her shoulders slumping as a tired sigh escaped her lips, “Yeah.”
Calvin sent her a glance through his blurred and spinning vision, deciding after a moment to keep quiet and leave her to process the memories that probably rushed to her in an instant. He turned his attention to the sick on the floor, feeling himself about to barf from the graphic sight.
He took out a bunch of towels from his pocket, flinching at the sharp pain that came after using that tiny bit of will.
'This is going to be annoying,’ He thought, wiping his own mess while opening up panels to figure out what the debuffs were.
Super Help
Chronic Fatigue(Spirit, Mind, Body) The Super has pushed themselves beyond their limits, resulting in a state of persistent exhaustion that will linger for an extended duration. This affliction significantly reduces the Super's overall effectiveness and ability to use their Superpower and gives an additional affliction: Burnout.
Super Help
Burnout(Spirit, Mind, Body) The Super’s reserves have been depleted past their limits, resulting in a state of debilitation. This affliction limits the user’s ability to gather their strength.
Will last until Fatigue is removed.
Super Help
Essence Strain(Impervious Pebble, Colour Control) The Super overloaded their control of their superpower. This affliction leaves them with less control over the superpower for a period of time.
'For fuck’s sake,’ He almost blurted out a curse, only to be stifled by a sting of pain in his head. 'Would a point in Super Mind help?’
Wanting to do away immediately with at least one of the pain in his body, he willed the system to put Super Points towards Super Mind. An instant numbness came in his head as soon as he did that— like the hydraulic press that was smushing his brain was suddenly turned into a giant clothespin.
It still hurt, but not even nearly as much as before.
“Haah…” Calvin sighed in relief. 'Finally able to think properly… and immediately realize that might have been a waste of fucking points. Damn it.’
“Cal?” Quinn called out. “You sure you’re okay?”
“I told you. I’m just really tired,” he whispered, the fatigue hitting harder now that the adrenaline was leaving his system, “like 'how am I still conscious’ tired.”
“Was it because of the… thing you did to me?”
“Maybe. I didn’t expect it to be this bad.”
“Since when could you even do that?”
“Since the start,” Calvin answered, remembering his first time meeting Sam. The smuggler was bound on the ground, slurring his words like he was overdosing on some drug until he accidentally touched and somehow made the effect disappear. “I don’t usually do it— I mean, it’s not like there were plenty of chances to…”
“I see…” She muttered. “It’s good that you can.”
“What do we do now?” Calvin asked, fighting through the sick. “Why are you so calm?”
“What are you expecting?” Quinn asked, her smirk audible from her tone.
“I don’t know, panic? Like a normal person?”
“Shock comes first, you know,” she said before chuckling darkly. “I’m the daughter of one of the Seven, Cal. That kidnapping from before wasn’t even the first time. And this little event won’t be the last.”
“Little?” He echoed, his voice turning sharper.
“I— sorry, I wasn’t trying to— I just meant…”, she shook her head, taking a breath to calm down, “Look, it’s going to be fine. We don’t have to do much other than to report it to someone who can do something about it.”
“That’s— that makes sense.”
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“Did you think we were going to investigate it ourselves like it was some sort of children’s detective show?” Quinn chuckled, poking his cheek.
“…no,” He lied, grabbing her finger. “I just— I don’t know, I can’t think too straight. I feel like shit.”
He felt Quinn pat his hand before letting go, “We need to note everything we remember first before I can send a report.”
“Can’t we do this tomorrow?”
“Will you remember tomorrow?”
“Ouch.”
The two then started corroborating details each one could remember. Calvin was fully aware the entire time so he was confident with the general description of the two assailants. The only obstacle was the drowsiness attacking him every second. Luckily, he was able to push through, fueled by anger as he relived the moment in his mind, and anxiety as he felt unsure of what was going to happen after.
Surprisingly, Quinn still beat him by the specificity of the details she could remember.
“That’s cheating, you remember because of the flashbacks,” Calvin grumbled, having sat himself up and against the bedside.
“Flashbacks? That’s not how this works. This isn’t a movie, Cal,” She refuted, scoffing.
“How the hell do you even remember— Gait? Cloth patterns? Weight?! Fucking weight?”
“Approximate weight,” Quinn corrected him. “Based on his dimensions.”
“Based on how fat he looked, you mean,” he corrected, raising a judging brow, “he might be wearing tinker tech though? Ones that change how you look— I mean their voices were obviously garbled to hell, and the other person literally looked like a walking shadow. Who’s to say the creep wasn’t also changing his appearance?”
“Wow,” She clapped. “Our Cal is doing some critical thinking? I’m so proud.”
“Shut up,” He groaned. “Be serious. This is dangerous.”
“I am serious. You need to relax a bit,” She patted his shoulder. “People smarter than us will think about that too, so you don’t have to worry about everything. I still wrote down whatever might identify them, just in case.”
“Identify…”, Calvin’s brows raised as he remembered the last thing he did, “I used [Colour Control] on the man’s jaw. He should have something like a birthmark there now? If it worked.”
“Did it work?”
“I felt it working, at least. But I’m not sure if it’ll work through Tinker Tech. Or that it’ll look like what I wanted it to look like.”
“Hmm,” She paused in thought for a moment, tapping her watch. Lightly shaking her head after, she sighed and pursed her lips, “That’s good, but I don’t know… it might expose your power. Maybe it’s better not to write that one in the report.”
“How would it expose me? Don’t I always change your clothes’ colours anyway?”
“You have a point, but… I just want to be careful. They won’t take my clothes to investigate, but that man will be dissected in every way possible once he’s caught.”
“You’re really sure they’ll get caught?”
“'That woman’ will make sure they won’t have a better choice.”
“Good thing they cleaned her statue, then?” Calvin chuckled. “If they’re going to 'dissect’ him anyway, won’t it still be dangerous? They'll still probably find that birthmark I put on him?”
“I know, but I just want to be careful. If you ever find him first, try to remove it if you can, just to be safe.”
“I think I'll be a bit too busy panicking if that happens.”
He never actually thought about the scenario that an object changed by his [Colour Control] would be discovered and somehow traced back to him. He made a mental note to ask Dox if it was possible. If anyone could do it, it’d be her. And if anyone could make it impossible, it'd also be her.
'Reminds me, I should tell them… and that bat-wielding woman too.’
“What next… ah, the bugs. Beetles made of gold and glass.”
“Scarabs,” He specified.
Quinn wrote it down, “That should narrow it down if they’re a known villain.”
“Bugs that somehow could copy superpowers.”
“Just like you.”
“Did you just call me a bug?”
She chuckled, “The one with the speaker— what was his name? The owner of the power?”
“You know him too, from the kidnapping. Trovik. Low-level telepath gimmick,” he remembered Sebastien’s words.
“His name sounds stupid,” she remarked. “One was a healing bug, according to you, and the other one, the one that coincidentally broke—”
“—not coincidentally,” he interrupted, not wanting to leave the credit to luck. He gave her a peace sign, “Pebble power.”
“He didn’t notice your pebble?”
“I made it invisible.”
“You can make it invisible— oh right. You’re a cheat.”
“A cheat that had to sport a headache trying out something new in the middle of a life-or-death scenario and successfully stopped the evil supervillains from copying your overpowered vibration power,” he sassed, crossing his arms and feeling unappreciated, “Which is the real cheat, by the way.”
She smiled, patting his arm, “Thanks for that, Cal.”
“You’re welcome,” He nodded haughtily, grunting as dizziness immediately assaulted afterwards. “Ugh…”
“But you saw the limitations, right? I was practically helpless during that,” She said, a frown forming on her face. “The power is absolute, but we aren’t.”
“Yeah…” He made a note to rethink his linear viewpoint of powers.
“Scarabs,” Quinn said again, refocusing the conversation, “you said it had a weird chunk of meat inside, right?”
“Right,” he nodded nonchalantly before jolting, “hatchling.”
“What?” She frowned.
“They— well, the man said it was a hatchling. Or a hatchling sample, I’m not sure. But I’m sure he said it was a hatchling. You didn’t hear that part?”
“The memories are still foggy, Cal.”
“He said it when the beetle that bit me 'overloaded’. Something about a waste of a hatchling, I think? I can’t think of anything else but that weird meatball.”
“This…”, Quinn muttered, typing faster on her watch. “I think this might be bigger than I thought.”
“Ya think?” Calvin scoffed. “They infiltrated what was supposed to be one of the safest places in the city, have the ability to copy superpowers, and also literally assaulted students— and just now is it bigger than you thought?”
“I know it was big, okay? I just— this is different. Anything regarding experimenting with hatchlings is… it’s not just illegal. It’s taboo. morally reprehensible.”
“Why?” Calvin couldn’t help but ask.
“You want a history lesson now?”
“Never mind,” he laid his head back.
“Long story short, some people messed with the wrong things and now there’s a giant deer roaming around the world, throwing city-destroying fireballs towards every major civilization it comes close to.”
“I really should read up on hatchlings,” Calvin muttered.
“Read up, but don’t even think of touching any of them.”
He smirked towards her, before poking the unconscious Ina behind them, “touched a hatchling.”
“Dummy,” She rolled her eyes.
“Hatchling…” Ina groaned, making the two jump. “Queenie? Cal? What are you two doing in my room?”
“Uh…”
He turned to Quinn with a look in his eye trying to telepathically ask whether or not they should brief her about what happened less than an hour ago. The pink girl immediately deciphered his gaze and sent him a death stare while shaking her head almost imperceptibly before pursing her lips in the general direction of the door.
“It’s my room, dork,” Calvin finally spoke after a second.
“Your room? What—”, Ina groggily sat up and started looking around, “Oh. It is your room. What am I doing in your room? What is Queenie doing in your room?”
“I’ll take her back,” Quinn said, standing up to dust herself off. Calvin was about to offer to carry her when she scooped Ina up in her arms, effortlessly lifting the girl who was a head taller than her before turning back to him. “I’ll send the thing. Don’t talk about it with anyone else.”
“I’m not that stupid,” He grumbled.
“Reminds me of when we first met, Queenie,” Ina whispered, snuggling up against her neck.
“We can’t text?”
“Too risky,” she shook her head, “get some sleep, Cal.”
Quinn left the room, leaving Calvin on the floor with a bunch of vomit-stained towels. He let out a tired sigh, contemplating for a moment whether or not it would be worth the effort to climb up the bed.
“Hope I actually do get some sleep,” He grumbled, crawling up the bed. “Ugh… why is this still wet? Goddamn it Ina.”
----------------------------------------
Alicia grunted as she swam further through the river of time flowing across the immediate spaces she was in right now. Wisps of consciousnesses flowed against her, most were too faint to give more than a tingle of emotion, but some were bright enough to show an entire picture.
She gingerly picked those bright enough, while keeping in mind the total amount she encountered on the way.
'That has to be more than a thousand,’ She thought before recoiling as she received another dose of overly vivid emotions of fear and relief as a wisp brushed too close. “Shit…”
“Memo? You finished yet?” A voice behind her asked, breaking her out of the flow.
Rather than frustrated that she got interrupted, Alicia breathed a sigh of relief. She stood up and turned around, looking flatly towards the hero behind her.
With a black leather coat, a blue velvet vest, a black silk shirt, and a pair of skin-tight pants, the woman’s super suit exuded an air of professionalism, which immediately broke whenever she spoke. Her magician 'theme’ was completed by the black top hat, the ornate masquerade mask, and the opulent wand in her hand.
“It’s not that easy, Dom,” Alicia shook her head, taking out a handkerchief to wipe off the sweat almost dripping from her forehead.
“Looks like it,” Matterdom looked her up and down, “you’re sweating like a faucet.”
“Too many consciousness— what are you doing?”
Matterdom had come close, reaching over to her with her magician’s wand. With a single tap of the colourful glass tip, Alicia felt every drop of sweat clinging onto her and her dress immediately evaporate.
She breathed freely, feeling the refreshing coolness of the air around her, “Huh, that’s… thanks, Dom.”
“So, how many went through? That’s what you were doing, right?” Matterdom asked while looking forward.
In front of them was a literal hole in the wall, large enough to fit a car through. Normally, such examples of casual property damage weren’t even worth the effort to investigate. It usually was the work of some supervillain faffing around. Or a superhero with more money than wits.
This particular hole, however, wasn’t on a building.
It was on the outer wall. On the barrier that was supposed to be the first layer of defence against anyone or anything that had ill intentions against the city. The first shield of the people and the first bell to be rung and alert Vanguard to anything attacking.
“A thousand, at least. This break wasn’t made yesterday. I’m not sure it was even made in the same week,” Alicia sighed, massaging her temples.
“At least? You can’t see exactly?”
“It’s a liminal space, a place of transition… and a very weird one at that. The consciousnesses that pass through here vary in both ends of the spectrum of awareness— some are too faint to see, while others are too bright to look at. At least I won't get overwhelmed, but I also can't count everything accurately.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Just think of it like swimming up a river, trying to count all the fish that pass by. Some are small, some are big, most are tiny.”
“Big boss isn’t going to be happy about that.”
“Have you ever actually seen Sky happy?”
“Oh? It’s just 'Sky’ now, huh?” The voice Alicia had begun hating the most rang from behind her. “Where did the 'Sir’ or 'Mister’ go, Memo?”
“I’d call you 'slave driver’, but Destructo told me off the last time I said it,” She quipped, crossing her arms.
“Report,” He said, ignoring her.
“Like you weren’t creeping on us,” Alicia rolled her eyes towards the hero.
Pulling on her power, she grabbed the nearest wisp of consciousness and spread it out over the area. The world was suddenly painted a dull sepia and the surroundings were immediately populated by people frozen in time. Every person wore rags, every child looked scared, and all of them were looking forward towards the city with both relief and anxiety.
“I can never get tired of seeing your power at work,” Matterdom whispered, making Alicia smile imperceptibly.
“Migrants,” Sky assessed. “From the southern peninsula, from what they’re wearing.”
“I don’t see it,” Alicia’s brows furrowed.
“The flower patterns on their clothes,” he gestured towards a woman’s dress, “A mixture of Sea Hibiscus, Goldenrod, and various orchids, the ones specifically only near the sea in the south. There are many fishing villages there, I suspect one of them might have a run-in with a hatchling. I’ll need to get someone on that.”
“Woah,” Matterdom couldn’t help but be impressed. “But a thousand of them?”
“At least,” Alicia corrected, pulling on another wisp of consciousness. The people were replaced with ones wearing leather and fur. “And it’s not just them. These people are just from three days ago, from somewhere completely different. I can see more from further, but it’s too faint to bring out.”
“Exiles from the Northern Tribes?” Sky sounded surprised. “That’s… impossible. The way is too dangerous even for them.”
“Unless they got help,” Matterdom offered. “Smugglers?”
“Can’t you go further back? I want to see how the hole was made,” Sky asked.
“I would have already done it if I could.”
“Damn,” Sky cursed internally. “It’s likely not smugglers. Every smuggler operating in the city is accounted for.”
“Every smuggler is accounted for?” Matterdom repeated, feeling like she just misheard his words.
“Most are even subsidized. It was supposed to help us know who’s coming in and out of the city, and also to prevent exactly this from happening… but here we are.”
“How was it supposed to prevent this?”
“Desperation can throw morals and sense out of the window. Making smuggling illegal… it’ll just make them poke holes into the city. Dangerous holes. They’ll start to demand more egregious fees from their 'customers’ and generally just make everyone in the process more and more desperate as everything becomes impossible. So we let them do it in broad daylight— not literally speaking— and under supervision. Keeps their rates low, low enough for anyone actually desperate to be able to afford it.”
“We just let them in? Just like that?” Memo asked, the information obviously new even to her.
“Why not? We have plenty of space, plenty of food, plenty of water— and it’s only going to keep becoming more abundant as more tinkers awaken. More people, more potential workforce, and more potential supers.”
“And more potential villains and criminals?” Matterdom added.
“Call me an optimist,” Sky shrugged. “Anyway, as I said, we were doing that to stop this from happening. I can’t imagine how it’ll go reported as is to the Councils.”
“Why would they do this, though?”
“That’s what I want to know too…” Sky said, sighing.
Matterdom snapped her finger, “It can’t be Steel City?”
“It’s too obvious… I don’t know, I feel like it’s way too on the nose. Even for them,” Sky scratched his cheek, “there’s something brewing inside the city. I don’t know if this is related, but it’s certainly not helping us. An influx of unregistered citizens… I can only imagine what the modus is.”
“Can’t you find out who these people are?” Matterdom asked, gesturing to an uncovered face in the crowd of frozen memories. “Ask Oracle or something?”
“Most of them are going to be inside Outer city, which is eighty per cent forest with sprinklings of villages and farms all over. If they go near the border to Inner city, sure, we might find them. But it’s too big and there’s too many to look for. Oracle’s not a miracle worker,” Sky shot down that suggestion. He turned to Alicia, looking apologetically, “Alicia—”
She groaned, “I haven’t gotten a wink of sleep for two days, Sky.”
“You’re needed back on campus. A criminal might be operating on the inside. We need you to find out who as fast and as discretely as possible,” Sky ignored her. “I’m as tired as you, kid, but we signed up for this.”
“Slave driver,” She muttered.
“I’ll come with her,” Matterdom volunteered.
“No, you have an exhibition with Frostbloom before lunch. Rank four villain— I forgot her name. The one with exchangeable robot parts.”
“An exhibition? Right after Rockstar?”
“It’s exactly because of Rockstar. People got spooked— you already know how it goes. I don’t like it any more than you do, but even I can’t do anything about it.”
After a lengthy pause, she sighed and gave in, “Fine.”
“You’re going with Puffer and Missmoke,” he turned to Memo, “make sure no one knows you’re there, okay? Avoid everything, even our own surveillance system. It might be dangerous for the kids that reported it if you get caught.”
“Haah… can’t it wait at night?” Memo grumbled.
“If ASAP meant that, sure,” He said with a tired stare. “It doesn’t, by the way. I’ll take care of things here, just go.”
“It’s just one thing after another…”