The tour bus was a lot smaller than it was back when I was one of the capes hirable for this tour, but still quite large. Just like back then, it was specially designed with a more open layout, the seats placed at the sides so that everyone could look at each other while they expelled their meaningless inane babble.
Paying top dollar to hang out with heroes only to not see them between stops would be considered a waste of money for many, especially the sorts of clowns rich enough to afford it. Feeling so important that these busy superpowered demigods stop patrolling the city and get down to your level was a major draw of tours like these after all.
I looked over the group, the heroes wearing their big smiles and pretending to be interested while all of the rich brats talked about this and that. I was lucky that Scarescholar wasn't really the social type. The less I had to interact with anyone the better.
I looked down at my borrowed body's gadget belt. The main reason I chose Scarescholar to Possess was that as a support hero with a non-combative power in a somewhat popular and successful team, he would have been equipped with special gear meant to incapacitate and knock out different kinds of enemies. Once a team raked in enough cash to afford the tech, outfitting the Supports was usually the first thing that was done in order to make them both more useful in action as well as more marketable to an audience. And these guys? They could definitely afford it.
The Yellowbrick Society had been a minor but already locally popular group back when I was running for president of Loretto's High School Heroics Club.
One of the things that made them stand out and was no doubt a big help in them retaining their fanbase over the years was that unlike most long-lasting hero teams there had never been a roster replacement ever since their formation. The only permanent shift in their line-up was the retirement of their previous leader, Mage Queen Ozma, which left her brother, the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, in charge.
Beating a team like theirs, as long as there were no deaths or major injuries, civilian or heroic, would get me just where I wanted to be. Enough notoriety to establish myself as a genuine full-on villain, but not enough to become a serious threat in the eyes of the public. That had been my goal since the very beginning. I would be able to get by like this for the rest of my life. Maybe join one of the more harmless villain groups, or even form one perhaps. But to achieve that, this run would have to be executed without a hitch.
So far everything had gone smoothly for the most part, but something that I had not foreseen was throwing a little wrench in my plan. Just a little one though.
Despite being in the body of someone with supernaturally heightened intelligence I didn't feel any smarter. Now, it's difficult to feel out your intelligence on the spot, but I had developed a little trick to figure it out in a reasonably short period of time. It was maybe a bit unorthodox, but it was the best I could come up with.
It took me about two minutes to mentally solve a simple Sudoku grid without writing anything down. Sudoku wasn't the be-all-end-all determinator of human intelligence, but it mostly relied on quick maths and pattern recognition so timing the difference in solving speed seemed like a good, quick, and simple enough baseline test to me.
So whenever I was about to Possess a brainiac I would memorize three simple unsolved grids beforehand to solve while in action. So far it had always yielded the expected results, but this time I saw no marked improvement.
While this could be for a number of reasons, there was one that was by far the most likely. Scarescholar probably had an Esoteric Enhancement.
Whether the power of an Enhancer was esoteric or not didn't really matter 99% of the time. A boost is a boost after all. The only situations in which this particular sub-subcategory was noteworthy or relevant was when it came to specific synergies with certain spells or powers. Powers like mine.
A Physical Enhancer has an enhanced body. Whatever trait is boosted is tied to their actual person. An Esoteric Enhancer has an enhanced...for lack of a better word, let's call it 'soul'. Officially it is labeled 'Essence', but I never liked that term.
If a person with physical super-strength, for whatever reason, were to get placed into a new powerless body, they would just be a regular person. If someone with esoteric super-strength was placed into a new powerless body, they would keep all of their enhanced physical abilities.
If Scarescholar really was an Eso, then that meant that despite being in control of his body I did not share in his Power. And while this was not a runbreaker, it would definitely make things more difficult than I had expected.
"....that right, mister Scarescholar?" I heard, making me refocus on my targets. I had watched about two hours of recent-ish Yellowbrick Society PR material to get a good grip on Scarescholar's current hero persona. It seemed like nowadays he was a lot calmer and more reasonable and had moved on completely from his past "Dismissive Arrogant Know-It-All Who Secretly Cares A Lot" character. A bit of a shame, really. I had enjoyed that Scarescholar a lot. More personality.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
I sat up straighter and fixed my puppet's glasses, before letting out a little cough. Regardless of my appreciation of his former character, I always hated the way Scarescholar spoke. "I am profoundly contrite. It seems I was somewhat lost in my own scattered thoughts. Would you be so kind as to reiterate that?"
The young girl who I assumed asked that question looked at my vessel's teammates somewhat confused. I didn't think that what I said was all that complicated but I had to keep in mind that English was not these tourists' first language.
One of the heroes, an older man in a very well-made but still odd-looking lion costume laughed. His mask was fashioned to look like a realistic lion's head and covered just the top half of his face. Everything below the nose was visible, framed by the teeth of the lion's jaw.
Guardlion had the ability to become durable enough to withstand almost any attack as long as he tanked the hit to protect someone else. While Scarescholar was secondary support, coming up with plans and using his gadgets from afar, Guardlion was primary support, throwing himself in front of his teammates and endangered civilians to shield them from especially devastating attacks.
"He said he's sorry and asked you to repeat the question." he bellowed, grinned widely, and gave me a slap on the back. "Talk normal for these folks. You know they ain't from 'round here." But his mood deflated again quick. "She asked about Herald Queen Angelica."
I clenched my fists.
"Do you think she'll have to retire or be out of commission for long? And who would take over if she did have to quit? Dear Johanna here-" He points at the girl, a blonde with glasses, most likely from the Nordic Alliance. They all seemed to be. "-thinks it'd be Honeybadger."
My face darkened upon hearing that name, but luckily Scarescholar's outfit covered his head so none of them noticed. Honeybadger...
I knew I couldn't risk wasting time by getting lost in my thoughts again, no matter how much I wanted to just let my emotions take over for a bit. In every promo material I saw Scarescholar only very rarely took the time to think before answering, so I had to keep pace. I turned to Johanna.
" Well.....while it's veritable that Honeybadger is the one who has been part of the Enlightened roster the longest in juxtaposition to Herald Queen Angelica, you can't forget that King Clover, like Angelica, has been the official joint-co-leader since the unfortunate cessation of The One's existence, so it stands to reason that he'd be the one to surmount if she should be forced to hang up her cape."
Johanna looked at Guardlion, who laughed again while Tin Triumph shook her head with a smile and answered in his stead.
"Crow says that King C. would take over 'cause he's the same rank as Angie." TT's voice sounded strange, very raspy and metallic, yet still somehow full of life and emotion. It gave me a headache.
I looked the shiny uncanny nude woman over. Only her face had features, the rest of her body was nothing but smooth silvery skin. Unlike her fingers, her toes seemed to be stuck together and she had the anatomy of a Barbie doll. Unlike a Barbie doll, however, her hair looked more like one solid block of metal vaguely shaped like a hairstyle that was glued to her head after assembly.
Well....I say assembly, but according to her profile, she was born like this. Couldn't imagine giving birth to that myself. I mean, I'm sure I'd love my child, even if it was made of tin; It'd just be a bizarre delivery is all I'm saying. Anyway, she had always kind of creeped me out, but she was a fan favourite so she had to be doing something right.
Johanna nodded. "I guess that makes sense. But I always thought that...what was it again in English...Oh, seniority! Yeah, I thought seniority was super important in hero teams."
"That depends entirely on the team, my dear." the Wizard of Oz interjected, stroking his iconic handlebar mustache. "T'is certainly true for a whole lot of us, Heroism attracts the vain like moths to a flame after all. But the Enlightened have always played by their own rules."
He was dressed like an archetypical stage magician, top hat, cape, wand, etc. The main standout point was the costume's glittery green color scheme and the curtain-like design of the cape.
Despite being the team leader, he was an often underrated foe, with many villains not taking him seriously since his only power was the creation of harmless illusions. But unlike most Illusionists, he was not a support. To the contrary, he had been an active front-line hero since he debuted and his one-on-one apprehension rate of 94% spoke for itself. He definitely knew what he was doing, but for our success, I was banking on the fact that Possession was too rare a power to be at the forefront of any hero's mind, even his.
The only one of the Yellowbricks who had yet to speak was Dame Dorothy, a woman clad in a full suit of armor. It looked very heavy but according to her profile was actually deceptively light.
Instead of the usual silver, it was almost fully light blue throughout, except for the sollerets. The left solleret seemed almost out of place, being the only piece that was the familiar tried and true silver, while the right one shone a brilliant ruby red.
Her face was always hidden behind her helmet and she very rarely spoke, making her feel more like a decorative suit than a living breathing hero at times.
Johanna looked back at me and I continued.
"But that is impertinent to the point. If Angelica had been mortally wounded we would've been told by now. I am fully aware of course that hero death cover-ups are a presently popular recurring conspiracy theory but I urge you to keep in mind that The One's unfortunate passing was reported on immediately and if any death would've been covered up it would've been his. If Angelica is not back by next month I'd verbally express she'll stay out for a while, but I'm plausibly sure that she'll be up and flying again in no time."
I tried to purposefully tone down the difficult words in order for Johanna to have an easier time understanding. Old Scarescholar wouldn't have done this but this modern one seemed the type.
"That's what I thought. If Angelica turns up in a few days like I keep telling you, you owe me 20 nordiskas, Jo." a young man from the tour group laughed, elbowing Johanna lightly.
"Shut up." she replied with a chuckle and the rest of the group joined in.
The moment was interrupted by the driver cursing and abruptly hitting the brakes. Everyone turned to look out of the front window, the unwelcome sound of complaining and general chatter from the tour group filling the bus.
Outside lay the reason for the abrupt stop, a car. But it wasn't just a case of reckless driving that led to this situation. The car was empty, both passenger- and driverless, and was lying on its side in the middle of the street. It was definitely not driven there.
The cause of its abrupt appearance was floating high above it in the air. A black-clad woman with a sinister smirk sat on top of a cheap messy broom, her legs dangling as if she was either bored out of her mind or overflowing with childlike excitement. I smirked behind my mask. Finally. Jess had arrived.
Time to begin.