The Serenoid document was driving me crazy. I still couldn’t really interpret it, I mean, their symbols translated to a conceptual language that didn’t match anything on earth, and the only points of linguistic convergence existed in the realm of energy manipulation which was still mostly guesswork to me.

There were a few things that were pretty obvious, though. Warnings were emphasized in the text, with much darker-printed words and pictures to show what the warning was, and I think I managed to puzzle out the Serenoid equivalent of an exclamation point. Wee.

One of the things I had recognized, though, was warnings about forming an early core. Essentially, it looked like an extremely high essence environment involved, not only running the risk of developing cancer, birth defects, and all the other modern society risks we run today, but also creating a monster core, that could be advanced by… ugh… destroying other high-essence creatures, and possibly even eating them.

That was what Sabrina had been talking about. I could sort of understand why purity cultivators would look down on those who hunted down and literally ate the meat of essence-rich creatures, at least if you put humans on the list, and considering those who developed monster cores… basically most alphas, as some kinds of chaos monsters.

Did that mean that the alphas who were known for progressing to higher power ranks were cannibals? Or that they ate the meat of radioactive Kaiju? I… might be able to do that, to safely eat Kaiju meat, I mean, but I had a sneaking suspicion that it was a combination, a little of column A and a little of column B.

Supposedly, there were ways of deteriorating a monster core if it wound up inside of you, either through alchemy or some kind of absorption to keep whatever essence it possessed, but I had no idea if doing something like that would strip me of my abilities permanently.

I shook my head and returned to listening to the guest instructor for Game Theory. It was a lot different than I had expected since it also included a lot of law enforcement information. Apparently ‘game theory’ was not only about military tactics, since as alphas, we only occasionally participated with the military when dealing with Kaiju, but when it came to policing, well, there were a LOT of rules.

“Remember that even though you may be called upon for law enforcement assistance, you are still civilians. Yes, you can make a citizen’s arrest, and in some ways that gives you a lot more leeway, but it can also cut your throat if you are stupid.”

“If you saw Metalstorm out of costume, walk into a house, what would you do? You,” he waved at Lurker who smiled brightly at him.

“I would go in and capture him, and haul him to the police station. Citizen’s arrest, since regular police would need to call in a super team for someone like that.”

I tried to avoid snickering, since Metalstorm was one of my alter egos, technically a magnetokinetic, since most of the signs of a magnetokinetic were trivial to simulate, either with my abilities and a good bit of armor decorations or with tech toys.

Officer Wilkins looked directly at me, his brow raised. He was a cop, not an alpha, as game theory often had guest speakers that were solidly grounded in the real world instead of the aery heights of alpha culture, “Do you disagree?” he asked, looking directly at me.

I sighed, “Can I plead the fifth?”

He shook his head, “Not unless you would be incriminating yourself. Why, do you have something you need to confess?”

I shook my head, “No, I just didn’t want to sound like a smart-ass.”

He glanced at Lurker, “Do you mind?”

She shook her head, “Not at all. If I have a grudge, I’ll challenge him.”

He grinned at me, “Please, feel free to unleash your inner smart-ass.”

I nodded slowly, “Lurker would be very very lucky if she didn’t spend the next twenty years in an alpha penitentiary. And by lucky, I mean she had better have a brilliant lawyer, tens of millions of dollars to pony up for a settlement, and that Metalstorm is desperate for money.”

“Why?” Wilkins asked.

“Because a civilian only has the right to intrude if they have reliably witnessed the commission of a violent crime. Otherwise, that is breaking and trespassing. If she heard someone screaming for help from inside, it would be a reasonable operation, but just witnessing a fugitive isn’t enough for a citizen to justify that response. A citizen might not need a court order, but enforcing the law is not our job.”

“Secondly, you have just broken the mask law in the harshest and most premeditated manner. Cops can perp-walk an unmasked cowl legally, as long as they did not personally unmask him or her, but a civilian doing it will not only break the mask law, but if they are witnessed doing it they will also run afoul of doxxing laws… which are both a criminal and civil liability. That means civil awards in excess of five million dollars, easily.”

“Thirdly, if you grab him, you have just committed assault and battery. If he is a known felon, say… someone escaping from a holding facility that’s already been charged with a crime, civilian violent apprehension is perfectly legal, especially if you have been deputized, which a lot of alpha heroes have been. Otherwise, you just attacked someone without just cause.”

“Add to that kidnapping, if you take him to the police station, unlawful imprisonment if you cuff him or prevent him from escaping in any way, and a continuing list of aggravated assault… And if you use your powers at any time to commit any of those crimes, each of them becomes a class three felony with a mandatory five-year minimum consecutive sentencing.”

I shrugged, “If you do that, your only real hope to stay out of prison is to bribe him and hope he’s forgiving, and won’t press charges. Even if you have foiled every one of his plots, and you guys got into brutal fisticuffs every single encounter, even if he is a smirking asshole that taunts you while he’s not wearing a mask about your inability to touch him, he’s technically right.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Lurker looked at me closely, her vivid lilac eyes set off against her dark skin, even beneath the black domino mask. “You seem to know an awful lot about that.”

I shrugged, “I was in school for corporate logistics. One of the most important courses involved how to legally defend yourself and your property against mask attacks. We also had a lieutenant that carefully and repeatedly explained how and when force was legally applicable, by a civilian security force, even if that security contained alphas.”

What I didn’t tell her was that I had to learn the applicability of those laws inside and out. One of the most important lessons for someone playing the role of the bad guy was exactly how far not only you could go in a scheme, but also how far the heroes were allowed to go. Hotshot had taught me a valuable lesson, after all. There was a very thin line between a hero and a vigilante, and he’d tried to cross that line.

Lieutenant Wilkins laughed, “Looking for a job with the Alpha Auxiliaries after graduation? You did your research… I am certain I could put in a good word for you.”

I shook my head, “No sir. I’d rather fight giant Kaiju and murderous villains. A police officer’s job is far too dangerous for me.”

He grinned and nodded, “Good job, smart-ass.”

***

“You know you are getting a very strange reputation. Between the suits, your kidnapping, and what happened in the match, no one knows what to think, and you are starting to make people very nervous.”

I grinned at Senpai Bob, “I probably shouldn’t be enjoying this, but I sort of am. The more time goes by, the more I start to realize that my plans were small, my mind was small, my ideas were small, and my world was small.”

“What do you mean?”

I shrugged, working on a new stance. It was technically stolen from Savate, rather than pure Tai Chi, but I wasn’t built like someone raised in China on a diet of rice and soybeans… there were basic physical differences in how certain bodies were designed, and I leaned more toward flexible and durable power than rapid grace.

Yes, my shtick was about taking a hit, and if I had to steal techniques from kickboxing, Savate, wrestling, or even Escrima or Capoeira to effectively take and return hits, that’s what I would do… not to mention, once you figured out how to visualize your power flow, whatever exercises you chose took third place behind visualizing and flowing your essence through its effective patterns.

“You said you knew my history, what do you think I meant?”

He chuckled, “Isn’t that my job? To answer questions with thoughtful riddles that force you to recognize truths?”

I shrugged, “Only in bad anime and chop-socky movies. It also helps if you pull an Uncle Ben right around the time I need a boot in the metaphorical ass. Right now, I am on the verge of something amazing, so I think a boot in the ass would disrupt my concentration more than lighting a fire under me.”

“I think.” he said, his broad face crinkling for a moment as he levitated above the floor like a kung-fu master, “That you are considering your prior job before you came to the school, and seeing how you could leverage that experience into training opportunities for your team and showcasing some of the projects you have been working on.”

“Damned perceptive for a meathead.” I smiled slightly. “You are going to wreck your own reputation for slamming your head into problems until they are fixed.”

He nodded, “Are you asking for permission?”

“Permission for what?”

He chuckled, “Permission to head off-campus dressed up like a third-rate villain so you can do whatever it is that you want done outside of the island?”

I shook my head, “Of course not. I wouldn’t dream of putting that sort of responsibility on your shoulders. However, when I do head off campus dressed like a first-rate villain, I am merely letting you know in advance that I will be heading into action with a few select members of my team in order to obtain important supplies for our power growth.

“Wait, you are really going to dress up like a villain?”

I grinned, “What does a villain look like? My team will be dressed in nonstandard costumes, specifically test armors, unless we get very very lucky.”

“Very lucky?”

I nodded, “Yeah, I am trying to coax an instinctive cyberkinetic to build the software systems, but I don’t really have anything to offer her. Or at least, I have no idea what she wants.”

I nodded, “Well, I asked her team leader, who said she would talk to her, but so far no dice. Frost Phoenix was thinking maybe if we offered her a prototype she might be more favorable to negotiation.”

“Have you spoken to the coder yourself?”

I shook my head, “No, she’s shy, and she’s a second-year transfer student so we are not on the same floor.”

He looked at me like I was a particularly stupid dog that couldn’t figure out how to roll over. “Every once in a while I mistake your paranoia for actual experience. And then you do something like this and remind me you are unbelievably ignorant.”

“What do you mean?”

He grumbled at me, “I should force you to figure this out on your own. You and… what was her name?”

“Frost Phoenix.”

He nodded, “You are potentially rich and she knows it, have an incredible power rank, and could potentially boost other’s power ratings and become very famous. You’ve been training her on how to expand her power pool and increase the flexibility of her energy transfer, and most importantly you are reasonably pleasant to look at.”

I nodded, “Right…”

He grinned, “And she didn’t leave the leadership of her team to join yours. That means she’s ambitious. Do I really have to spell it out?”

“Wait, you think she’s intentionally keeping me away from Quiet Code?”

He shrugged, “No, I don’t, not in particular, but I also think you have some very curious blind spots. You will go on a bender to accomplish something you set your mind on, and then give up at the slightest provocation in another area.”

I nodded, “You have very good points. Can I get out of here?”

“Why?”

I looked at my watch, “Because Network has to be in class in forty-five minutes, and I need her for something.”

He grinned, noticing I seemed to be energized and focused on a task again. “Fine. Just don’t hurt anyone. You seem to be pretty good at escaping trouble, but if you are not in class by the beginning of next semester, I’m calling the truant officers and sending you to your room without dessert for a week.”

“Hah. Hah. Wait, can you do that?”

He nodded, “You and several others with momentum-related powers create gravitational anomalies when you use transit abilities. I can track those anomalies. You really don’t want me to try and stop you when you are traveling dispersed, though… it might not have any effect on you when you reconstitute, or you may be missing pieces.”

I actually doubted that very much. He could probably prevent me from successfully reconstituting if he maintained a singularity field, he was not a quantum manipulator… he could no more strip away parts of my own memory and ability to blueprint myself than he could read minds.

But I didn’t need to tell him that. I had a trip to plan for, right after our mid-terms.