AN: Minor Editing Pass 5-30-24
The planning session we had had last night was an example of how, even with a precog on your side, it is hard to account for everything.
What I learned however was that the jogging idea was a good way to approach Taylor, but approaching Amy at home or at school was a recipe for disaster. Really the best way to talk to her would be on the roof of the hospital when she smokes. Lisa was hard to judge as what I was feeling at the time would affect what she took from the discussion, but she might listen. Apparently promising an end to thinker headaches was the best thing I could do initially. I was dubious, but Dinah admitted that the reduced thinker headache forming was already making her consider staying with me permanently. That was important, with how powerful her ability was already proving to be, I really wanted to encourage that outcome.
I felt something twist in my gut, but I pushed it away. I needed these girls and Damn did these girls need me. Everyone benefited here. My stomach stopped aching, but I ignored the remaining unease.
Miss Militia and Vista were much less likely, but my best chance would be contacting them during a PR patrol near the boardwalk. Ironically as long as I was in a mask they would treat me seriously while the rest were best to approach out of mask.
Portaling Dinah home I found a cat and let Dinah wander out of an alley petting said cat. Hopefully that would explain to any watchers where she had been for so long.
Returning to my apartment I showered. When I finally got out of the bathroom my phone said it was 6pm so I got dinner from a restaurant near the boardwalk and then returned. After entering my apartment I portaled back to my house and decided to sleep. My alarm would wake me up at 2am for the heist.
The heist itself was incredibly anti-climactic. I already knew that most jewelry stores move all of their important items to their back vault when they close each night so it was a matter of moments to move my scrying point to the back and reach through and grab both necklaces. After a moment I found a four carrot artificial diamond ring. Smiling to myself I grabbed that as well. I hesitated for a moment before I unscrewed the back of the vault and eventually fried the circuit board. Triggering the manual override I opened the safe and broke a window, grabbed the cash, before closing the portal. Hopefully they thought it was a tinker breaking into the vault who then left when they heard the cops arriving. Realizing that this store would have a security camera I quickly opened the portal back up before eventually finding said disks and yanking the entire thing through the portal and cutting the cords with a knife from the apartment. Already I could hear sirens surrounding the building. Hopefully that would be enough.
Sitting back in my apartment I sighed. It was time to do it.
This was the point of no return.
I just needed to rip my soul out of my body and stuff it in this diamond or ruby. Looking through the two and weighing the two out in my mind I realized that the artificial nature of the diamond didn’t seem to hurt it any. Apparently it was the ordered nature of the gem that really made it a good vessel for something as chaotic as the soul. Once again hesitating I put the ruby back and with some clever portaling I was able to get the ring to link through the front of the two combined necklaces. That seemed important for the future bindings. Regardless I opened up myself fully to the ring and started to pull.
Unlike the animals where I could kind of surround and sooth the soul, this was agony. I pulled and pulled finally leaving only a wisp connected through my portal to my body. Then I began the binding of my soul to the diamond ring.
When I was done I collapsed with the entire necklace assembly in my hands on the bed and slept.
I nearly slapped my phone into another portal when it started beeping that it was 6:30 am and time to try to catch Taylor on one of her runs. Sighing I got up and wattled towards the door before I realized I would need to portal to the apartment before I could use the bathroom. Sighing I did just that and it was only when I realized that I had left the necklace behind that I sighed in relief. My soul portals were working just fine. I really should have tested them a little better, but it was good to know they worked.
After some final prep and a final pop I ended up jogging down the road for two blocks before I was interrupted by a girl in Dark Brown and long legs passing me. I was glad to see she was older than I had feared. She was at least 16, maybe 17 or 18 which made me feel a lot better about this.
She didn’t seem to take any particular note of me, but I would bet anything she had a bug or two on me just in case. I followed along at a slightly slower pace for nearly two more blocks before she slowed down about to turn away. I called out before she could head down the next street as I figured this was my best chance.
“Do you happen to have any water?”
Taylor seemed to jump and her eyes finally met mine. “Uhhh…”
I could tell already that the girl was just as skittish as I had feared, probably starting to insult herself for sounding dumb or something. Deciding it was best to try to build her up as soon as possible while building some interest. I stuck out my hand while trying to breathe, playing up how tired I was. “Don’t worry about it if you don’t. You look like you know what you are doing, so you probably don’t need it.”
Taylor seemed to jerk herself out of whatever she was thinking and I could see a hint of red touch her cheeks before her body turned robotic and her face smoothed out. I winced internally. Wow, ok, so she is already doing the emotion suppression thing. I don’t think that is healthy. I probably should snap her out of it while trying to not be pushy. “Sorry I should have introduced myself first. I go by Max. I just started running and you look like you know what you are doing so I thought I would ask if you had any tips.”
Taylor seemed to break out of it and fidgeted a bit before shaking her head. “No, I… uh, don’t really. I have only been doing this for uh… a few months. Trying to get in shape… and all. And my name is Taylor”
Nodding like this was a completely normal way of approaching a conversation instead of drawing attention to the stuttering I smiled as I responded. “Right, makes sense although I doubt you need it.”
That seemed to draw Taylor up so I continued, head tilted. “You don’t seem to believe me.” Trying to make it obvious I was taking a quick look while smiling reassuringly. “Seriously girl, you are cute and you have legs for days. That isn’t even mentioning some pretty gorgeous hair. I bet there are tons of guys after you and probably a few girls as well.”
That finally seemed to shut Taylor down. Blinking rapidly she seemed to be warring with herself internally. When she finally shook her head I blinked like I was confused. Before she could start denying it I reached into my pocket and found a pen and receipt that I had left there for just this purpose. “You don’t seem to believe me. So here, this is my mobile number. Call or text me anytime you want to talk. If you want I will take you out for lunch or something.”
I watched as Taylor seemed to completely freeze up as I handed her the note. Looking down at it I brushed my thumb across the back of her hand and watched as the goosebumps rose on her arms. Trying to make sure she didn’t notice I decided it was best to start jogging away down the street she wasn’t going to start down and then paused. How large was her range again? Several blocks right? Damn. I was going to have to keep jogging for a while, wasn't I?
It was nearly an hour later before I felt safe to portal back to my apartment for a quick shower.
Walking out after my shower and then down to the corner cafe I was amused when I saw the headlines on a TV. Apparently the news was pretty sure there was a new villain around. Most people seemed to think either stranger or tinker. Either way that should work for me. As long as they thought I had to be at the location in question I shouldn’t need to worry about them tracking down a teleporter.
I paused. That was something that a tinker could absolutely detect with enough time. I cursed internally before sighing. I was going to have to obfuscate the signal. Grabbing a few dozen birds, cats, and dogs and turning them into liches with portals in their souls should make Armsmaster and Dragon’s readings confusing at best and useless at worst. Sighing again, I looked around. I guess I knew what I was going to be doing until Amy arrived at the hospital.
The animal wrangling was a lot easier than it would be normally. Scry down an empty street. Find an animal then before the animal even knows what is happening, widen the portal and grab the animal before yanking the animal into a cage. Another crystal shot glass down and then released the animal again. In the end I grabbed nearly 20 birds, 7 cats, and 6 dogs while I limited myself to 10 mice.
I consoled myself with the knowledge that this should make the transfer for my future wives smoother.
An hour after Amy arrived at the hospital in question I portaled myself up to the roof of the hospital, but sat down behind the door where the one camera I spotted wouldn’t be able to see me.
Luckily I had picked the shady side as it was another 40 minutes before I heard a teenage girl climb up to the roof and walk to the railing. From behind her oversized robes I instantly knew this was Panacea. Amy Dallon, or properly her name was Amelia Claire. Sighing again I decided it was best to just speak up.
“Hey Panacea.”
The girl whipped around so quickly she lost her lighter. Sighing I reached through my portal and picked it up and then reached through again to hand her the lighter. She jumped at first but after a moment she took the lighter and lit up and took a long drag.
“So what do you want? Are you sick or something?”
I sighed again and waived the question away. “Nah, nah. I just want to talk. I promise that nothing will happen to you or anyone else here regardless of what happens in this talk.”
Amy seemed to get even angrier at that. “So it is New Wave that you are after.”
I let myself slump. “No, seriously. I am not going to do anything to anyone. I seriously only want to help you and several other heroes before I leave.”
Amy seemed to consider this for a moment before holding out her hand walking forward. “Let me hold your hand, I will know if you are lying.”
Glancing up at her I patted the bench next to me and held out my hand. Amy sat down and held my hand before looking at me, eyes widening. “You aren’t a parahuman.”
I let my eyebrow rise. “I didn’t think you could tell so quickly.”
She seemed to flinch and instantly blurted. “I can’t do brains, just see them a bit.”
I squeezed Amy’s hand before she could say more. “I know a lot more of what is going on in this world than just about anyone else. But I want to be completely sure no one can hear us so I am going to portal this corner of a room halfway into a pocket dimension. It isn't completely cut off and you can leave anytime, but nothing we say will be able to get out with a dimensional anchor which I would have felt.”
I was a lot more sure about the process of making bubbles now. It took several mice before I was sure that the pocket dimensions were completely stable and safe albeit a little tiring for me to maintain. It was the difference between standing up and sitting, but it was there. However, even falling asleep or leaving them alone and doing my best to forget about them completely didn’t destabilize them. So, now I was sure, it was a much better solution for security.
The only thing was Amy would be completely unable to leave without my help. However, I had every intention of dropping the bubble the moment she wanted to leave so what I had said was technically true.
Amy seemed overwhelmed for a second, but after a moment she sighed. “Ok, talk away.”
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
Sighing, I started. “Do you understand the multiverse theory?”
Surprisingly, Amy took the idea that I was from an alternate reality where I knew about her life fairly well. However, she was shocked at first to hear she was the daughter of the Villain Marquis. That revelation might have been better saved for last as after that she seemed to be in shock for most of the rest of the discussion. I suspected she had been realizing why exactly Carol had treated her so badly her entire life. Ultimately, she didn’t even blink as I explained about what would happen to her if nothing changed.
The discussion went through her sexual attraction to her adoptive sister and her ultimate fate of snapping and trying to modify her sister’s mind to love her back. However this was after months of stress including having the town attacked by Leviathan with most of the town destroyed and then being personally targeted and manipulated and partially mastered by the murder hobos, the slaughterhouse 9. Yet despite all the mitigating factors she would send herself to the birdcage. She would languish there until she was called up to help Taylor save the world. Yet even after succeeding in the stupid hail mary plan she was treated as a criminal and spent most of the rest of her life alone with her creations.
There was a few minutes of silence while Amy looked devastated. Yet, before I could forget I also warned her heavily against repeating any of this to anyone.
It was finally when I started up and explained I was a soul mage that questions started popping up.
“You are saying that a soul is real? How do you know?”
I smirked. “Well for one. I was able to pull my own out and attach it to a diamond. I am now a bonafide lich. If my body dies I can just replace it. Additionally since I cut off my soul from almost all controlling senses I should be mostly free from mastering effects like Glory Girls aura. I actually got close enough when she flew you here to check. Her aura can make my body feel things, but I can overrule it almost completely.”
I saw Amy about to object so I held up my hand and continued. “I know you both want and don’t want the fact it is mind control to be true, but I will be blunt. You aren’t stupid Amy. It isn’t a direct control, but if you are given a kick of endorphins and lust every time Vicky is happy with you then you are addicted. There are no two ways about it.”
She frowned at that. “I can tell you aren’t lying but you could still be mistaken.”
I shook my head. “I will explain how I know soon, but for proof on how I can help look at my body, I am going to temporarily deactivate my connection and my body should just go brain dead. Then I will reattach my anchor and it will come back. I know it won’t prove anything about her aura, but it should prove my abilities and how I can cut off myself from my body’s inputs.”
Amy looked downright freaked out when I pulled the plug and straight up punched me when I attached it back. “Your whole body just shut down and froze. Like a person shot in the brain, all of the signals just started sputtering out.”
I squeezed her hand. “Look at me Amy.”
Taking a deep breath she looked up and swallowed. “I am asking for companions to leave with me. I will be blunt. If you accept, you will be safe in another reality when this one goes through its apocalypse. The world’s best precog says this world has at least a 70% chance of surviving if we leave the correct information, but we will die if we stay. I won’t directly kidnap you but I am going to get you away from your family regardless. You are stuck between your sister who has almost completely mastered you and your adoptive mother who is straight up emotionally abusive.”
Amy seemed wrung out and simply turned away to stare at the town slightly distorted by the dimensional shift.
I took a moment before I continued. “I want you to consider three things when I leave you. I will answer any questions you have now, but I will also get in contact again in three days to answer additional questions.”
After a moment Amy sighed and nodded so I spoke. “First things first. I want you to know I am a greedy man and I am going to be binding multiple women to me. Basically if I am going to be stuck navigating the multiverse I am going to have a harem of wives along for the ride. The things I am looking for are Intelligence, compassion, and power. You are at the top of all three categories. I want you not because you are Panacea, but because you are an incredible and beautiful woman. Any man or woman would be more than happy to have you as you are one of the best people in this world. The problem is that this world just beat you and Taylor down harder because of it.”
Amy seemed to be annoyed at first but froze up when I started complimenting her.
After a moment's pause I continued. “Second thing I want you to know. While I am greedy, I am going to treat my wives well. I truly want them to be happy and an eternity of exploring the multiverse, saving people, being surrounded by people who care for you, and kicking some ass is what is lined up for you if you come along. Regardless like I said, I am getting you out of this. You are burnt out. I think you know you need help, but you see the people around you and the social pressure to keep working and you just can’t. Let me tear you away from this. We care about you and we are going to make sure you care about yourself.”
At this point Amy looked up in the sky and breathed out, finally taking another puff on her smoldering cigarette.
I smiled as I squeezed her hand. “Finally I am going to be jailbreaking your powers. As I explained they are currently attached to a shard or crystal based supercomputer. However I am going to be pulling most of that and compressing it into our pocket dimension centered around your soul. So your restriction on manipulating your own body will be gone. It was only there in the first place to limit you as the shards want conflict.” I wasn’t sure how I knew that was the case, but I knew she would be able to use her power completely even if it was harder and would take longer without the shard support.
Amy snapped to look at me and I smiled. “Yeah, I know you have some body issues growing up next to Vicky, but I wanted you to know I find you attractive already before I let you know you could change things.” I paused for a moment. “I also plan on having you be in charge of letting the girls do whatever they like to their bodies. Just know that means, as long as you keep us healthy and physically ready to act you can do whatever you want about cosmetic changes to any of us if you have permission, including saying no. It is your body, your power, your choice.”
I got up but before I released Amy’s hand I smirked. “I know you are mostly attracted to women so I just wanted you to know…” Amy’s eyes narrowed as I smirked harder. “I am perfectly fine with my harem enjoying each other without me. Just as long as I can join in the fun when I return. I might even join in a female form if you can get me a body.”
Amy’s hand dropped away from mine as her face went beet red. Chuckling, I walked away Dispersing the dimension shift and opening a portal to my apartment. Turning for one more comment I found Amy was frowning, but her eyes had been staring at my butt.
She seemed to realize what she had done and went even redder. “I will see you later sweetheart. Pointing at a note card I had left on my seat I smiled. Call me if you want to talk sooner.”
I was glad Amy was sitting down as I was pretty sure a quarter of her blood was now in her cheeks. As I left I noticed her start to smile.
That is my second wife committed to join. She might take a few days to convince herself, but looking at her soul I was sure she was committed to joining me. She was mine.
The better news was after some quick googling to double check I had found out she was only a few weeks from being 19. I might have felt bad about pulling her away before her high school graduation, but the town would be destroyed by Bakuda before she could celebrate anyway.
However, I had to admit that while I felt slightly uncomfortable, a part of me was thrilled. I would have to be gentle as I was sure Amy would be extra nervous, but I smiled at the thought of finally getting a wife I could sleep with.
As I was just sitting down in my apartment to try to figure out how to approach Lisa I got a text from the burner that I had given Dinah.
Popping up the screen I looked down.
‘95% chance I will be taken in the next two weeks. I want you to do it now.’
I pulled up the keyboard and responded. ‘Are you alone and are you at home?’
After the affirmative I pulled her through my portal to my home’s basement. I then pulled us halfway to the next dimension and paused.
“Ok, we are secure.” I sighed and Dinah started to finally breathe.
Taking a deep breath I looked her right in her eye trying to make her understand the consequences of any decision here.
“You still have three fundamental options. One, I can promise to save you, or send help to you if you hold on to something I am anchored to. I recommend something simple like a small stone I portal directly into your leg. I do not think they can take you anywhere I can’t get to.”
Dinah shook her head. “94% chance of capture, coma, or death within the next year if I do that. Especially after you leave.”
I sighed. “Second option I didn’t fully explain before. I make you a lich so that you will be able to recover from whatever is done to your body. With some help you can probably even turn off your senses and I will still promise to help. This means he can’t really control you and you can’t be killed.”
Dinah once again shook her head. “81% I end up stuck asleep in my gem within a year and remain there until it is broken or you come back for me anyway.”
I sighed. “Final option. You are going to join me as a platonic companion for now. I will let you choose when you grow up if you are a wife or if you want to leave at that point. Either way I will take you away from here when I leave this world. Worst case scenario is we get Panacea to copy your body and let it get caught, making Coil completely sure you died.”
Dinah smiled. “I did my research today. I am about to turn 14 and it has only been in the last 300 years or so that betrothals weren’t made at my age. I don’t know if I will stay permanently. However, if I do the numbers say that, if I treat this as a big family, there is a 92% chance I will be happy with you and my sister wives.”
Smiling and ruffling her hair I reached out with my soul and slowly encompassed Dinah's soul with mine. The process was slow. Much slower than I had imagined. Dinah layed down on the bed and I sat down next to her once we realized it would probably be nearly two hours and I had to keep my hand on her chest the entire time. I probably could have sped it up, but I really didn’t want to mess it up.
Finally, it was done and I found myself smiling as I felt my very soul latch onto hers. Part of me wondered how it worked exactly. My rob instincts were quite clear that if one of us was still alive, soul intact, we would both eventually return. It just wasn’t clear how, especially since we would need new bodies. However, I really didn’t want to be testing anything like that.
That was good, but it wasn’t good enough for me as I wanted the ability to directly return her to life. The only way I knew I could do that was going through and making her a lich. Taking another deep breath I gently pulled her entire soul out of her body and gently placed it into the sapphire furthest to the left followed by pulling the sliver of the soul back and connecting it to her body. For some reason I found the best place to place the connection was right behind the eyes. I ended up fiddling with it for several hours. Still after the portals were set up, I sent the phylactery set safely back in my little pocket dimension and I hugged my future wife.
“Well, it is done. Regardless of what happens to this body, you will always be with me unless you ask to leave.”
Dinah seemed to tear up at that and turned to hug me.
I smiled and chuckled. “I am glad I have you, but I am still going to treat you as just a friend until you choose what you want to do when you are older. Yet I also want you to speak up if you want something. I want this to be a happy friendship too.”
Dinah’s hug increased again. “I like that.”
Smiling, I pushed her off of me and looked her in the eye while listening to my instincts. “Part of the issue with the move was I had to pull your powers into your soul. You should now be immune to thinker headaches as they were the way the shard limited you. However since it is your own soul powering the ability you are now going to be getting tired very quickly if you use your power too often.”
Dinah looked ecstatic at the first part, but slowly calmed down for the rest so I continued. “The other good news is that you should be able to turn it off if you practice. I would hope that might make Coil back off already once he realizes you aren’t answering questions anymore, but I doubt it.”
Dinah frowned and sighed. “97% chance he does not change his plans.” She then slumped. “Wow, I felt like I just ran a mile.”
I patted her head, “Yeah, I don’t think you are going to be rattling off hypothetical percentages more than a few times per day. You might even be more limited than you were previously.”
Before she could ask another question I pressed my fingers to her lips then patted her head like kid. “Rest for now, you have school in the morning.”
Dinah straight up pouted at me and I smiled in return. Opening up another portal she smiled at me. “93% chance that Lisa will come up and talk to you if you walk the boardwalk tomorrow at 10am.”
Smiling after giving my new friend a kiss on the top of her head along with whispered instructions to stay safe, I turned away. Opening another portal directly to my bed I collapsed on my newly laundered sheets.
That binding had actually been kinda tiring, but it also seemed to help something deep in my soul relax, like something had been slotted in the correct place. Like a pressure I hadn’t known I had was now finally relieved somewhat. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but while I wasn’t completely comfortable I slept much better with it present.
Interlude Amy:
Amy turned and thought as she walked through the hallways of the hospital. She knew Vicky would get annoyed that she had taken the bus down to do extra hours, but surprisingly enough this was actually kinda cathartic this time.
No longer was the prospect of spending the rest of her life healing ungrateful, unending masses of people the most likely direction of her life. She had the option now to do more. See more. Be more.
All away from Vicky and Carol Dallon. The revelation on who her parents were was unexpected, but made complete sense. How Carol was shaken by her kidnapping and had started to sympathize with her captors. Stockholm syndrome at its finest. Then, when those captors decided to kill her and her sister, she must have felt betrayed. Completely understandable.
Yet she had let that distrust color almost every facet of her life and Amy had felt the brunt of that distrust. Her life had been one where she was never trusted in anything. The only half hearted praise she had ever gotten was from her time at the Hospital. Hell Amy was half sure Carol had been reassured with how hard she worked herself because it meant that she was obviously too tired to betray her.
Finding another room with a woman with stage 2 breast cancer, she sighed and asked. “May I heal you?”
The woman’s shaky nod was followed by a touch, and about twenty minutes later she could pull away to see the husband holding his teary wife.
She felt a pang of guilt that she was considering leaving these people to die, but when no one thanked her or even looked at her while the nurse started gesturing to get her moving to the next room, she sighed.
The first hundred people she had healed were a miracle. The next thousand were grateful. The next ten thousand were glad they had managed to see her. Now it was just expected.
What made it worse was she knew that there was tinker tech that was being used to heal capes. Tinker tech that could be used to lessen the burden on her. Tinker tech that was deemed too expensive to extend out to the public.
At that moment, she could see it. There were already people criticizing her every time she took a break. Every time her sister took her out to go shopping. It would be the pressure of work while hiding her secrets that would make her crack.
Funnily enough, it was actually the knowledge that someone knew her attraction and hadn’t judged her for it that had lessened the pressure. The knowledge that being attracted to her pseudo step-sister, master power or not, didn’t make her literal scum. She could also admit here in the privacy of her mind that Max was right. She was being controlled, even if it was mild. Still, even the knowledge that if she broke then she would carry out some of her deepest fears didn’t actually hide the relief of knowing someone knew, knew and still cared about her.
She had been holding his hand and watching his body when he said it. There was no scorn, only sympathy and a little bit of attraction. Normally that would have made her bristle, but on him, it seemed genuine.
She paused and stared out the window over the city. She was going to take the offer for his soul surgery just to have a clear head again. She didn’t think she was instantly going to not be attracted to Vicky, but being able to make her own decisions was something she had wanted for as long as she realized her infatuation.
Plus, as she touched another gang banger and healed him of the effects of smoking crack in his lungs and the drinking damage to his liver before closing the stab wound to his wrist, she could admit she was bored. She was pretty sure she had seen this guy several times before and unless he got shot in the head or heart, she would see him again.
Then for the first time she glanced at the nurse accompanying her and hummed inwardly. A part of her could admit that being part of a harem might also not be too bad if the girls were hot. She was pretty sure she had thought both boys and girls were hot before Vicky had awakened her aura so that bisexuality might return.
Still, a small doubt ran through her head as she thought about Vicky. What if this was all just a ploy to get to Vicky through her? Max had been truthful when he said he wasn’t interested, but what if he could hide it? She doubted it, but what if.
Then, did she even want her sister there? It would destroy her sister’s dream of being a hero. Would she even be able to get over her crush on Vicky if Vicky was there the entire time?
Still, Vicky was her entire world. The sister that had stayed by her while Carol was being a bitch. The sister that had always tried to cheer her up. Another part of her brain decided to speak up then and remind her that it was this sister that had said nothing whenever Carol had decided to berate her for not healing enough. Then a quieter part of her brain decided to speak up. Was she the sister that might like the spotlight enough to keep her as a second wheel? No, that was stupid.
Healing another grandmother of a broken hip, she got a ‘thank you’ this time. It was sad that she usually only got thanked by the extremely young or the extremely old.
Taking a deep breath, she tried to center herself and get back to work. She would have to talk to her sister about her aura and her choices soon enough. Best not to think about it until then.