Battle-Nun 4

Chapter 4

Meet the new neighbors

January 8th, 2002

The fact that someone new was moving into Boston didn’t escape others. With Brandish spilling the beans to Director Richardson… The Boston PRT was alerted that the super villain Marquis would be traveling to their neck of the woods with some of his men. But strangely, no convoy of SUV was noticed entering from Brockton Bay despite the warnings. The PRT agents watching the traffic’s camera have discovered nothing until they noticed that records have been altered seamlessly by someone else.

This put a fire under everyone as they realized that Marquis had covered his tracks in such a way; they couldn’t find him and his men with the information that Brandish had given them. The Boston PRT branch would fail to find any traces or link to Marquis and the presumed high level thinker accompanying him.

Director Armstrong of the Boston PRT decided to take a wait and see approach to the situation. After all, they weren't sure if Marquis was just passing through or wanted to move to the city because of what the Brockton Bay Brigade had done.

The PRT as usual leaked information like a sieve and people such as Accord and the diverse gangs in town were warned of a potential new rival moving in; they thought they were ready for anything, but they clearly weren't, as a new sheriff rode into town, they learned the hard way that she didn't play by the PRT's rulebook.

~~~~ Battle Nun ~~~~

02:23 PM
Boston
Roxbury

You're not the first to try me
You won't be the last
There's been a thousand before you
Who found out fast

I sang along to the music from my phone while I dusted the interior of the new house. A house in Boston, Roxbury, the place was for middle-class households with annual incomes between $50,000 and $125,000. I had to go with the charade that I was Amelia’s nanny and that Marquis was my employer, I was even presented with a contract and everything to make it all legal.

The same day we arrived in Boston, Marquis gave me my new ID, passports, social security number and a tight background. Apparently I have dual citizenship in the US and Canada. This must have cost him a pretty penny… huh it seems that I am also a holder of a Childcare diploma. The man really was serious about wanting me to be Amelia’s bodyguard.

I may not look like much but
Push me you'll see
The fire raging inside me
Will put you on your knees

I continued to sing while putting the duster on the ground and looked at the sofa still covered in plastic; at super speed, I unwrapped it and successfully did the same for the rest of the furniture. I’m lucky that some of Marquis’ high level minions have helped us unload the moving truck and placed the cardboard box with everything in the corresponding room. Even with the furniture in place, there was still too much space inside the living room…

Marquis got this little mansion for cheap, apparently there was a murder there and it had affected the selling price and for a $500,000.00 Marquis got it. Though the black paint wasn't to my liking, the boss promised to change it and that I could help give a woman's touch to the house. Thanks to Aura, I scanned the entire house with the scanner installed in my handheld computer phone. There were already plans to maximize defenses for the house that I was taking, thanks to my war magic, I could raise fortifications by just imagining them and I intended to modify the mansion’s walls to be able to resist a missile strike at the very least.

It would give me enough time to either teleport or enter the Home; speaking of the Home, I intended to check on it and look once everyone is asleep.

'Cause they can't break me
And they can't shake me
In the dark you'll see
That the flame is me

I cut the music with reluctance… It was two hours later that I finished placing all the furniture where they belonged, Marquis will have to check later, now I needed to go see Amelia who was with Rhamiel. But first! a Shower, at least for my mental health, I recently discovered that I don’t sweat… and I was still covered in dust anyway.

The electricity, gas and water came on just two hours after we bought the house; when you give realtors enough money to speed up the process they sure do it fast. I zipped by the foyer and ran up the stairs and found one of  the bathrooms. There were boxes there too. With a sigh, I opened them and saw some supplies inside and placed them on the furniture and shelves inside the bathroom: soap, shampoo, hair conditioner and toothbrush and toothpaste. I felt like Cinderella for a moment, but I doubt the Disney princess had any super powers.

When I was done placing everything in its rightful place, I shucked off my clothes and entered the shower cabin and spent a long time in here as I finally had time to relax and think properly. I still can’t believe that Worm was the first world I’ve been  thrown in; sure I knew the score and what I need to do to not die or get forcefully recruited by Cauldron’s lapdogs and been made to play in this dumb game of cops and robbers.

The thing is, that I don’t play; I’m going to flip the board on them and play by my own rules. If they come after me, I will make it cost them. Let’s see how they can keep doing their bullshit without ‘Miss I Win Contessa.’ She’s not human any longer and I don’t feel like she deserves any compassion for what she’s been doing, the same for Eidolon and Alexandria; terminating them will be the easy job.

But first I needed to take down all the little dominoes that threaten to fall; we will start with the Teeth and that bullshit Butcher. As a matter of fact, I needed to know if it was possible to depower parahumans by safely disconnecting them from their shards.

As I finished my shower, I realized that I didn't have any towel to dry myself. Okay, let’s use magic! Imagination and willpower, I must have a good image of what I want to happen and use a word to commit the spell to memory.

"Dry." I saw myself using a towel and drying myself and using a hair dryer for my hair.

A warm breeze suddenly surrounded me, it was like being inside a tornado; my skin and hair gradually dried, not too much or too little, but it was pleasant. The warm wind stopped once I was completely dry, my symbiotic trench coat of holding shifted some clothes out of its personal dimension and boom I was in a white shirt dress that reached my knees with some racy black underwears.

Looking at my naked feet, I realized that I just had my trekking shoes and armored boots. "I need to go shopping later for those…"

While thinking of all those shoes I would get, my steps brought me from the bathroom to Amelia’s new designated bedroom; there was already a piece of cardboard with her name written in crayon stuck on the door. It was adorable… Rhamiel must have sensed me coming as she opened the door and I discovered that she had already arranged everything in the cuties’ room.

“Good, you’re here, I must go do some reconnaissance.” Rhamiel said before phasing out and becoming invisible.

My eyes fell on Amelia and she was covered in dust and grime; the bedroom must have been more than filthy when they entered it, and Rhamiel didn’t have the heart to go give the young girl a shower. I sighed when Amelia smiled at me. “Come here, we will clean you up.”

~~~~ Battle Nun ~~~~

9:45 PM
Marquis' house

Marquis was back and had been pleasantly surprised that I had helped furnish the house with everything that had been unloaded from the moving truck. Though he seemed somewhat sorry that I had to do it myself.

"I intended to have some of the men over the next day." Marquis revealed as he tried to untie his tie.

Moving forward I batted away his hands and slowly untied the piece of clothing. I felt him watching and smelled me, looking up at him I said, "It’s okay Mistah Chris, I like to get busy anyway."

I helped Marquis by taking his jacket and putting it on the coat hanger beside the door, while I had my back turned I heard Marquis say, "I observed that you don't sleep…"

The man was really observant, he's been looking at me more and more lately; but I only showed him what I wanted him to know. There's no way I will reveal all my cards; the dumb shards liked to tattle on everyone of interest. Fortunately, I was lucky that the Simurgh hadn't appeared and tried to test me. But with the Essence of Inviolate Self I should be covered… was I even visible to a shard?

"Are you a noctis cape?" Marquis finally blurted the question he was dying to ask.

I shrugged, "I don't feel the need to sleep, but I am still able to." That must be because of the limitless stamina given by the Inviolate Self  essence.

Marquis didn’t know what to say to my revelation. "That's a big change from the capes I'm aware of."

"It must be because I'm not parahuman." I dropped the bomb on him with a smug smile.

This was awesome, seeing the man who was usually so calm and collected being so surprised and flustered was so satisfying. He stopped gaping like a fish, and asked, "You… aren't?"

I raised a hand and conjured a ball of magic that made it float around us and dissipate into sparkles of white light. "No, this power is all me."

No fucking parasytic bio-computer the size of a continent or planet to mind fuck me into becoming a berserker. *Fuck you with a chainsaw Wildbow, you made a fucked up world.*

Marquis followed me to the kitchen, looking around now that the house was no longer empty. What it lacked was more paintings, more lights and other types of decoration such as vases and figurines. I will have to ask Marquis later about the money to redecorate. Maybe I should start doing art? It could be a bonding experience with Amelia…

We stopped in the kitchen, where Amelia was sitting on a stool with a color book. The little cutie was busy coloring a giraffe. Turning to Marquis I told him, "I am making dinner, go sit at the table with Amelia, bone daddy."

From the oven, the smell of the Boston cream pie cake that I was baking wafted and attracted Marquis who looked at it. This particular recipe was taken from the internet by Aura who helped me in the steps into making it; what’s more strange is that Marquis had all the utensils such as cake pans, hand mixers, spatulas and paring knives… the man had a luxurious kitchen and I didn’t unpack everything in those cardboard meant for the kitchen, only the essential.

Marquis’ eyes turned on me, the challenge evident in them. "Very well. What are we having? Consider this a test."

I raised my hands to my cheek and showed a fake expression of fear. “Oh, j'ai peur… (I am scared…) so tonight, we’re having braised beef with vegetables.” I pointed a hand to the stove where a pot was waiting.

The tall brunette man walked up to the stove and took a big spoon from the cutlery rack and taste tested my cooking. Marquis’ eyes went wide and his expression changed into one of delight. “How aren’t you married yet?”

“Good question, I’ve been ending up with basta-” Amelia was looking at me. “Bad guys and I had to beat them up to leave.” I caught myself right in time to not teach bad language to the little girl.

Marquis seemed to understand as he nodded in commiseration at me. Amelia looked between me and her dad, she asked a really innocent question. “Daddy wants to marry Alicia?”

I chuckled despite myself at what she said, then I looked at Marquis in a ‘See what you’ve done’ way and said, “You put this in her mind, you deal with it.”

The man smirked at me, he didn’t look repentant at all; I sighed and went to check on the cake while ignoring Marquis’ gaze on me. In fact, this continued over dinner, I would feel his gaze upon me and I ignored him while taking care of Amelia and helping her eat. The little girl had one slice of cake and she devoured it, wanting more. Unfortunately, I didn't want her to be awake all night so I was firm in denying her another slice.

After this, I helped Amelia take another light shower, brush her teeth and dried her hair with a spell. Strangely magic didn't damage hair, this was good in a sense; bringing the little girl to her bedroom, I sat her before the vanity facing her bed and started brushing her long brown hair with a brush, using telekinesis in tandem to unknot them with accuracy.

I felt Marquis' gaze on me still, the guy couldn't escape my senses as I could hear his heartbeat and breath. I hummed my little pony opening while brushing Amelia’s hair, slowly and delicately until I felt that the little girl was getting tired and sleepy. I put the little treasure in her bed and stayed at her side for one hour until she fell asleep.

~~~~ Battle Nun ~~~~

Listening to all the sounds in the house I felt that it was time, everyone was sleeping. I stopped reading the ebook on programming that I was consulting on my phone. Amelia was asleep, her little chest rose and fell and her heartbeat suggested that she was in a deep sleep already. I was already getting attached to the little girl, that was the problem with me; I always gave a lot of myself to others.

But I will be more prudent this time, not let anyone take me for granted and brush me up like that bitch did to me before I ended up in Crossroad.

Ping!

Huh, a notification. I took my phone and aura opened the Quest System and showed me that I received a new one.

Quest received: Meet thy Neighbors.

Your mission is to do a reconnaissance mission of the current town you reside in and learn the lay of the land for future quests.

Fair enough, at the same time, nothing stops me from studying electrical engineering… but I will do that quest after I check the Home! I stood up and put myself in the space between Amelia’s bed and the vanity and wardrobe; then extended my hand before reaching into space… I felt something connect to me and connect and suddenly a circle of blue light spread from my hand, it was two meters in diameter and the surface of the event horizon reminded me of a Stargate, it looked like moving water.

Without hesitating, I walked into the portal and found myself instantly transported into a meadow where the sky was blue and cloudy. On a little hill stood a giant three story manor with blue roofs and white walls, this was easily the size of a castle… then I blinked my eyes and the size of the Home wasn’t the same and became just two times the size of Marquis’ house.

“Hmm, I do prefer it that size. So the Home answers to my needs, just like the essence’s description had informed me.” Because of my perfect memory, I remembered what it said.

It went like that: The home can be of your design or you can let it surprise you by generating itself based on your needs and wants so it fits itself to you perfectly. As your needs change and grow the home will expand with new facilities as needed.

And it was really explicit. Walking up the trail that led to the manor, I looked around until I observed some big structure at the side and behind the manor, it looked like a tall greenhouse the size of a park area. Did I really need such a big garden? Yes, yes I did. Flowers and shrubs dotted the lawn in a myriad of colors; it was pretty and matching my vision of the ideal house that I had when I was a little girl somehow.

Arriving before the gates' entrance, I saw five women standing before the porch of the manor, four of them wore maid outfits and one of them was clothed like a butler with a sexy black and gold ornate pantsuit. “Welcome, Mistress Alicia. We’re glad that you’re finally here.”

They were all achingly beautiful, the butler was a ravenette, and the maids were an ash blonde, redhead, golden blonde and brunette; all with shapely bodies that would put to shame wonder woman.

“Huh.” I could barely form a word at the vision of perfection before me.

"Come with us, Mistress." The four women laughed at me while walking up to me; two of them took my arms and pushed me inside the manor’s entrance.

The maids showed me in the foyer the grand staircase, leading to the second floor; everything was in a shade of blue and gold. The butler gave me a tour of the first floor and it was really useful, as I now know where the foyer, drawing room, library, living room, dining room and the kitchen were.

The library was bigger than I thought, it even had two levels and an organic feel to it as it was mainly wood themed, lit up by a skylight, letting the sun's rays in. Countless numbers of books were nicely stacked behind shelves with vitrines. At the same time my maids explained to me what they were; so apparently I have maids, bio-android maids that were similar to a Nier android in their specs. They took care of the Home and were able to defend it; they were capable of self repair and maintaining themselves in top form and their AI was similar to Aura’s, Artificial General Intelligence. That was good…

"We need to speak about important things, Mistress." My butler said in a solemn tone.

They sat me down in the kitchen and gave me cookies and explained that they wanted me to give them names. At least that's what my butler said. "Names have power, Mistress. In our current state we're barely at ten percent of our actual capabilities."

I already found them badass looking, but I asked, "How strong will you become?"

My butler gave me a placid smile. "Strong enough to punch a God in the face and tell him to get out from our lawn?"

Imagining my tough as nail butler pulling a puny god on a god made me laugh and bite my lower lips. "That’s… kinda hot."

My eyes fell on the maid at the female butler's side and I noticed that they never said a word to me. "Why are the others not speaking?"

The ravenette stopped smiling and put on a serious expression. "We're currently networked and their AI seeds are still limited with restrictions unlike… myself. I'm the primary Intelligence of the Home Network and they are under me, but when we get names they will develop individuality and personalities."

This made me feel guilty… I should have come sooner and taken care of this. "I don't want you or them to be limited, if there's one thing I learned from everything I've read about  programming and Artificial Intelligence on the Multiversal Internet is that digital life is as valuable as organic ones. Let's give you names!"

I pointed a finger at the tall ravenette with purple eyes and named her, “Freya, because she looked so stylish and the name literally meant 'a noble woman' in Old Norse.”

When I named her the woman started to glow and… she went slack for a moment, lowering her head and then a black cane with golden ornaments appeared before her, floating in the hair, she seized it and it turned into a long sword.

Not dwelling on that I turned my head to the golden blonde maid and pondered on a name for her. “Eve, your name shall be Eve. It means ‘to live’ and you shall live.”

Just like for Freya a weapon appeared before the maid, where her eyes green had been vacant and almost dead, they gained luster and glowed. Life came to the golden blonde and she raised her hands to reach out to the  weapon that looked like a custom MP5, it too was black and gold. Whoever came up with the design of those weapons had awesome tastes. Eve smiled back at me and nodded her thanks; her smile was infectious as I smiled back to her.

It was my fellow redhead’s turn, her hair was lighter than mine; her dark green eyes looked quite lifeless and her mannerisms were quite robotic. Her face reminded me of Erza Scarlet from Fairy Tail, I think the Home was pulling on my memories to make me comfortable with everything. “You shall be Erza, which means ‘Protector; Strong; Kind - Safe’ and because I really like your eyes, I will give you this…”

I stood up and placed a jade hairpin on the kitchen table and slid it to the maid. I bought this at Omar and Nono’s shop, there was some modicum of armor enchantment on it. The redhead gave me a smile and her eyes glowed green, then a weapon reminding me of an Uzi manifested before her. Like the previous one it was black and gold… then another manifested, a big ass knife in a sheath.

Erza caught them with her hands and placed them on the table; she took the Jade hairpin and placed it in her ponytail. Her smile became more sensual as she looked at me with joy. “Thank you, Mistress.”

“You’re welcome…” I waved her off.

My eyes turned to the cutest one of the maids, an Asian looking one with buns in her hair with black eyes; she looked as tall and curvy as the other ones but managed to look more fragile than them. Her heart shaped face and facial traits were refined and she made me think of an adult Rin Tohsaka  but with glasses… for a long moment, I kept staring at her and I couldn't believe that I was already lusting after her. Damn my asian girl fetish…

“I think I got a good name for you. Saya, your name shall be Saya, it’s the name which refers to a scabbard or sheath for a sword, it also connotes peace because of the image of a sword that remains in its scabbard. You look like a serious, graceful and dependable woman.”

As soon as I finished talking, a beautiful straight asian sword reminding me of a Ninjato manifested before Saya. The sheath was an abyssal black with gold dragon as ornament attached on it; the black and gold grip was long enough to accommodate two hands. Saya pulled the sword slowly out of its sheath and the blade was as black as night and absorbing the ambient light. “Thank you, my mistress; this blade which is named Kishin shall serve you, just like I until death do us part.”

Saya slightly bowed her head, and I said to fill the silence between us, “I intend to live a pretty long time, Saya.”

“So be it, my Mistress.” She didn't smile much but I detected a bit of humor in her tone.

Something told me that my asian maid was really dangerous despite how cute she was. Then I turned to the last maid, the ash blonde one, “Cassandre, you look like a Cassandre to me; the meaning of Cassandre is ‘man's defender, or warrior’.”

Even me found the meaning of her name a bit cheesy, but it suited her. And there at least needed to be a token French name from the lot. The maid looked like my favorite Overwatch character, Ashe; shoulder length ash blonde hair, asian facial traits and a beautifully positioned little mole at the right side of her mouth. Despite her maid outfit hiding it a little, her body was toned and yet curvy, similar to a beautiful athlete.

Cassandre put on a cocky smile with ruby red lips, just like her eyes and said, “Got it, Mistress. I will strive to live up to it.”

She held out her hands and a large SMG-type weapon appeared in them, once again made of black metal parts with gold ornaments. There was some kind of theme running with the girls and… a futuristic  weapon appeared next in Cassandre’s hands when she put down her SMG; it looked like a semi-auto with an ADS (aim-down-sight) coach gun in similar designs as the other weapon that appeared so far.

I laughed at the situation and said, “When I look at you with that weapon in your hands, I can’t stop the ‘shoot from the hip’ song from coming to mind.”

With a raised eyebrow, Cassandre asked with an oddly focused expression, “Is it a good one at least? I can’t find it in my memory banks.”

Ah they have access to some of the Home network like Freya told me. They must be able to access information in real time by just thinking about it. *Do I need some kind of Neural interface to reproduce the same?*

While I thought about that and answered, “Yeah, a really good song from Brothers Osborne, they’re really good, one of my fav’ bands.”

I looked at the time, it was midnight; the girls gave me a brief tour and I didn't think that I'd seen everything the home was hiding either. It’s like I felt that there were things that could be added to this pocket dimension, it must be my connection with this place… Standing up from my stool, I pawed a vanilla cookie and started to eat.

I was so impressed by the taste of the baked food that I didn’t notice the girls look at each other and… start a discourse at FTL speeds; it’s later that I discovered that my maids and butler could have entire discussions in barely seconds.

“Mistress Alicia?” Freya stood up from her stool.

“Ouais? (Yeah?)” I said while licking my fingers.

With a prim and proper pose with her leaning on her cane, Freya said, "Before you go on your quest… We want you to use your binder ability on us."

My hand froze while I was still licking it, when I finally lowered it I took into account why they would ask me that; there was even a parallel train of thought dedicated to what I remembered from my Binder ability from the essence I drank. There were so many things that I could do with it, but I hesitated in using it as there was the stipulation that it gave infallible loyalty to the recipients. It was a form of brainwashing, and I wasn’t keen on it. Though apparently I could dial down some of the binding functions.

But even though I could ask myself why, I still didn’t have any guesses and this wasn’t a situation I liked. I asked as I stared into Freya’s purple eyes. "Why?"

The beautiful woman gave me a sad smile, "It’s relatively simple, we cannot do anything outside the Home."

Ah, this would be a good reason to ask me to bind them; if they couldn’t go outside, I needed to do something about it. “Okay, you have my attention. Now, convince me.”

When I said that, I regretted it as Freya turned around and leaned against the kitchen’s island. That was one sexy pose that she took there, and I needed to stop thinking with my hormones… this was one thing I didn’t miss after getting back to my peak.

Breathing in, Freya began her explanation. "We might not be able to help you with your endeavors in our current state, however, if you use your binder ability on us and if you're ever in danger we can help you fight outside this private dimension; I estimate that it’s not much, maybe fifty percent loss to our capabilities."

Eve interrupted by adding, "We could help you with that child you're raising as well."

That was a damn good point, I can’t always take care of Amelia; Rhamiel seemed to not like babysitting as well…

"Eve, you just want to spoil the cute little thing…" Erza chided her colleague with a playful poke on her forearm.

Seeing the girls this animated already made me smile, it really changed from their doll-like behavior from earlier. It was reassuring that they could slowly become so spirited; this made me frown as I thought about the fact that I needed help, Worm wasn’t an easy world to be in. But before doing anything I needed to be sure that they all wanted this.

Looking at each of the maids and finally at Freya. "Are you sure? This is one of my most controversial abilities and the ethics involved still give me a headache."

Erza shrugged and took a cookie. "We already exist to serve you, Mistress." The redhead bit into the snack with a loud crunch.

"We're devoted to you entirely." Eve added.

Cassandre looked into my eyes and drove in the point. "You're our reason to live already, and we wish to keep it that way. If you die, we die… besides, nothing will change. Besides altering how we interact with the world outside the Home."

This… they were also doing this out of self-preservation; I could understand that, I couldn’t die. But some things out there in the multiverse might be able to kill me. What was I hesitating for? They wanted it, and I should give them what they wanted. "Okay, you convinced me; you'll inherit some of my powers so be careful."

Saya bowed deeply. "I, Saya, promise to be faithful to Mistress Alicia Argent, never cause her harm and will observe my homage to her completely against all persons in good faith and without deceit. I shall be your shadow and sword, mistress Alicia."

Did my secretly favorite maid just swear fealty to me? It was really old fashioned, I think that the name I gave them shaped their personalities. “I shall try to never break the faith you’ve in me, Saya.”

My asian maid looked up and her smile was dazzling. I looked at Freya and said, "Saya is cute, no wonder the Home created her into one of my ideal maids."

"We were made to serve you, Mistress." Freya agreed.

"But Saya seems to be top serious…" Erza commented with a sexy chuckle.

We all laughed together and then I proceeded to go apply my mark on them, they took off the top of their uniform and on their backs, I applied a tattoo of angel wings. I had a theme to respect after all, I was the Battle Nun.

I reviewed my memories and recalled the passage in the description of the essence of the Binder: Those bound by the mark gain access to weaker versions of the essences you have, even this one. You may choose which essences they are empowered with. They may also be granted weaker forms of other powers you may possess at your discretion. If the mark is removed they will retain some but not all of this power just wisps of it.

By focusing well on the binder ability, I dialed back their loyalty to unshakable trust and as the mark applied, I withdrew the following essence from being available: Home/Mover and The Truth.

This was getting to be quite the teaching experience to do to be honest, I chose to make my helpers able to follow me outside. Once I was done, all the girls sported angel wings on their backs, then I invited them to put back their top on as it was distracting. Freya assigned Saya to be my bodyguard by telling me that, “You need a minder. Saya is the most dedicated of us. Thanks to you giving us some of your abilities, she shall shadow you in your everyday life and in your crusade against evil.”

“Well, why don’t we have a test run?” I said to Saya when I turned to her.

She had an impish smile on her face the entire time while she strapped her sword to her waist.

~~~~ Battle Nun ~~~~

Portal Room

Saya was silent as she led me into this fascinating well lit cavernous space of white marble and gold. When I looked, there was indeed a giant telescope and a solar system model made out of copper, gold and other semi precious metals. I didn't see what it used to make the planets and the sun float, maybe magic.

This room looked like I was in a fantasy observatory, the ceiling was high and held up by six pillars. There was an illusion cast on the ceiling or was it? Something told me that this nightscape was being shown to me real-time, I could recognize some constellations such as Orion, Ursa major and minor, Leo and Pegasus. I was a fan of Saint Seiya, so it brought me to learn to study astronomy ever so lightly. It's crazy what you can learn with time on your hand with Google.

Two sets of spiral staircases led to a second floor where there was another library and tools, but I didn't have the time to go there and explore. My eyes fell on the current level, at the center of the room there was a circular formation with a slightly glowing gold and white star, the formation was surrounded by blue levitating crystals. As I walked into the circle my surroundings darkened, geometric forms and mathematical formulas flashed with golden light around me.

“You can open a portal safely here, you just have to reach for a location.” Saya informed me as she stood beside me, not overly concerned by anything. My shadow maid had a placid look on her face as she waited for me to proceed.

“Seems simple enough.” Raising a hand as if to open the portal, I felt multiple apertures in the fabric of reality open for me.

This was surprising, all those apertures showed places I’ve been to before. Crossroad, my own world, Marquis’ house in Brockton Bay, some of the places I visited in Boston with Amy as we shopped for her stuff while we waited for her father to buy a house. I almost touched the aperture leading to Crossroad as I longed to meet Nono and Omar again… but something shocking happened.

Warning
You must stay a minimum of six months in your current reality to be able to return to it after you leave for another destination. Current time elapsed in Multiversal Cluster W: 2 Days and a half.

Taking back my arm, I stepped back and all the apertures wobbled and closed shut; Saya put a hand on my shoulder and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I almost left the current world we’re in.”

“Ah that would do it. Be more careful, Mistress Alicia.” Saya reprimanded, she lightly glared at me.

She was right, I needed to curb my natural curiosity, I didn’t want to leave Amelia and this world to the depredation of the Shards. With more confidence and prudence I re-opened the apertures; then with a thought I focused on the Episcopal Church that Amelia and I passed when we were driven around by Marquis’ personal driver. A portal opened before the sign: Charles Street African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Before I could pass, Saya stopped me and stepped into the portal. She passed safely through and I did the same; I couldn’t feel the cold but it looked like the night was chilly. This reminded me that I needed to get Marquis’ house off the electrical grid and I already knew how; I was studying electrical engineering already thanks to the neural interface that I was connected to through my Quantum smartphone. Fusion generators, I knew already how to make one, but it’s going to be too big, the size of the first generation ARC reactor in the MCU, the one in Stark Industries in the movies. *Let’s do it, I will eventually make it the size of a micro reactor like Tony did.*

One day, I would have a drink with the man, maybe after he got his head screwed on tight. Saya interrupted my musing by testing her newly acquired magic and melted into my shadow.

“Oi! What are you doing, Saya?” I tapped the snow covered ground where my shadow produced by the moonlight was.

[Thanks to my link with the others who have started to use magic in the Home, we discovered that we can do things like this… I am an Umbramancer it seems.] Saya's voice coming from my head startled me so much that my right hand reflexively landed on my pistol's grip.

Remembering the details about the essence of the binder, my hand on my pistol's grip relaxed. “Oh right, we have telepathy now because of the marks. You know, instead of a Samurai, you’re more like a Ninja Maid.”

Saya didn't seem to like that, I felt her emotions in the telepathic link I had with her. [If you wish to call me that…]

“No, no, I was joking. You’re a good Samurai maid.” I quickly tried to fix things.

To change the subjects, I turned to the rest of the city, giving my back to the church. “Okay, let’s go tour the city.”

Making myself invisible with a spell, I walked to the road and then began running toward one of the highest buildings; then portaled over it thanks to my powerful sense of vision, it was like I had Hawkeyes now. Out of the portal, I landed on the gravely roof of the apartment complex. From my venture point I could see a hardware store, a convenience store and a road that was light in traffic despite the heavy snowfall.

Breezing through the buildings’ roof with my portal for another hour, I reached the McDonald’s on Warren street and I realized that patrolling was idiotic. This wasn’t a comic book, but real life. I have an AI available to me, though if this world was more modernized I would easily take control of a satellite and start looking for threats; but right now? I was street level, I needed to think less about the big picture and about what was around me.

Portaling to another snowy roof, I took out my Q-phone and asked Aura, “Aura, my girl, can you break through the radio frequencies of the Police and PRT for me?”

Aura’s golden holographic form appeared on the Q-Phone’s screen. “First, put on your headphones, I need it to detect the signals with more accuracy.”

I used a telekinetic cantrip to make the Q-Phone float before me and took the wireless headphone from my Trench coat. “Right away.”

Putting the white colored plastic headphones on, I immediately started to hear the police dispatches.

“911, what's your emergency?”

“There's a car accident at…”

“My house is on fire!”

It was getting harder to focus, until it wasn't as I let the calls of distress wash over me. I decided to leave the more mundane calls to the first responders, I wanted to make a name for myself first. Home invasion, domestic violence, mugging, large sting operations… I ignored these.

“There's someone breaking into my home!”

Then my senses focused on something interesting: “There’s some Teeth beating and dicing up some Homeless people in the warehouse area at Hampden street…” said a panting nasal voice.

The Teeth, what did I know about them? They were an itinerant villain group of savages led by the Butcher; they have cells in Boston and New York… and they were originally from Brockton Bay. Seriously, what is wrong with this city?! I’m going to pacify it when I master my ability enough. But before that… “We’re going to break some Teeth.”

Not-Excalibur appeared at my waist in its sheath, like always the sword seemed to appear when it wanted; was it sentient?

“I knew you’d ask that, pointing the coordinates on your HUD, Mistress.” Aura chuckled and information appeared through the augmented reality of my HUD interface.

Portaling all the way there, it will be a chore… being limited to open portals to places I’ve seen before. Wait… Oh! Why didn’t I think of this before?! I looked at Aura’s hologram and said, “Can you do something better?”

“What might it be?” My assistant tilted her head.

With a smug grin I said, “Why don’t you get me a picture from where those warehouses are located and let me see if I can portal there.”

“Experimenting, Mistress?” Aura asked in an exasperated tone.

I looked over the horizon, to the north-east and the pictures of  disused warehouses appeared on my HUD and I opened a portal by holding my left hand forward. It was difficult at first, the portal resisted me, but with enough will and visualization I forced it and a blue aperture opened. “It’s now or never.”

I got in, and I was suddenly there, farther from where I was; distance meant nothing to the Essence of the Mover. The ground was full of dirty snow, but there was a well trodden driveway. Before throwing myself in danger, I focused my hearing and listened. It started with the sound of the wind blowing, mechanical sounds from the engines of the cars driving on the road, the sound of crushed snow under boots; then I caught sounds that were further ahead, two warehouses over.

Walking toward the voices I was wearing, they became more distinct. My other senses began to catch and I felt the desperation, fear and horror coming from a warehouse with half the gate open and heard cries.

“James no!” A woman shrieked in anguish and terror.

“Please no more!”

“I-I can’t do that, please just… just kill us and be done with it.”

“You don’t get to decide what to do, prey!”

SMACK! The sound of flesh hitting flesh.

“I-I want to live!” Another voice said.

A cruel voice began laughing.

“Then kill them, free yourself of your burdens.” Something… something evil was going on there.

There was still light in there, refusing to bow to evil. “No, no I can’t-”

“Then die!”

BANG! The light was snuffed out like a grape under dark cloven feet.

My Lawgiver was already in my hand when I heard those pleas. “Stun shot.”

Already before the gates, I slammed them open by opening them apart and time slowed, there were at least seven people dead as I didn’t hear their heartbeats, only three were alive. My eyes settled on the seven assaillants, all looking like winter themed Mad Max rejects with costumes which had all some forms of blades, spikes and spines over them. I smelled decay on them, old blood, gunpowder and oil, they were wearing weapons  and knives as well by the metal I could smell.

Two of them had the telltale of being parahumans, I could sense the micro vortex of dimensional energy coming from their head. I decided to do away with the armed minions first; time resumed quickly after my first perusal of the situation.

I opened negotiations with a quote, “Hey, do you have a permit for those guns?”

Everyone turned to me, hope flared in their victims; the mad max rejects all had stupid expression on the half of their face that I could see, it took five seconds for them to react.

“CAPE!!” Some of the minions finally noticed that I was there and pointed pistols and rifles at me; before they could shoot at me, with five quick pulls of the trigger, the shots made of Neuro-Electric Energy Pulse hit each of the minions center mass on whatever they were wearing as armor, clearly not solid enough to resist the stun shots and they also were highly conductive. They all fell like sack of potatoes with guns in their hands.

“Permit denied.” End quote.

The two parahumans I had left unharmed looked at their downed minions; I didn’t shoot at them as I was uncertain of their capabilities. They might have been brutes able to resist the Neuro-Electric Energy Pulse of my shots.

The two looked back at me and it was the one who had some kind of full-on leather mask who spoke first. “Who do you think you are?! Animos. Kill that newbie!”

“With pleasure!” The weird man with a dog mask and bone armor that he must have stolen from a taxidermist began to change into something else.

A four legged dog the size of a minivan stood in his place; I could see the muscle of its hind limbs coiling, ready to charge me. Time slowed down and I transfered my Lawgiver pistol to my other hand and with a beautiful sound of twinkling metal I unsheathed Not-Excalibur with my dominant hand. Contrary to my expectation, the beast didn’t charge me, but roared and I felt like an energy field passed over me, but so far nothing happened to me.

“Yeah you got her, Animos! Shred her now!” The idiot behind the beast began to laugh.

I looked at the beast and asked in a really confused tone, “Was all this barking supposed to do anything?”

All I received as an answer is the dreaded charge of the quadrupedal abomination; I entered bullet time again and as the thing was almost on me I swung my leg sideway in a circular motion, a textbook roundhouse kick at super speed which hit the side of the head of the dog-like thing. With a crack, I sent the thing flying into a bunch of pallets stacked against the nearby wall. “You don’t have to answer that…”

The other parahuman in bone armor had stopped laughing and stood frozen as he looked at me still in a kicking pose. I straightened myself into a loose standing pose, I twirled my sword in my hand. My head turned to the only one guy left.

“Wait! What… how? How are you still powered?! Who the fuck are you?!” As he said this, hundreds of small, razor-sharp appeared between us.

Not wishing to tempt fate, I didn’t want to discover that he could get past my own magical barrier; so, I moved behind him with a portal and pressed the cold muzzle of my weapon behind his skull. The man froze and let the whatever shards of pointy energy constructs he manifested disappear and slowly raised up his arm. “I surrender!”

I struck the back of his head with the handle of my Lawgiver and he fell on the ground face first, unconscious. The big dog-thing chose that moment to attack me again, the left side of its jaws was completely crushed. With a roll of my eyes I decided to be a bit more violent with this one and holstered my weapon and ran toward the monster slowly, I needed to control my speed anyway, this was good training.

The beast tried to swap at me with its forelimbs and to crash into me, in answer to its moves, I separated its limbs from it and with a whine like sound it fell on the ground. I kicked it in the abdomen, sending it sliding against a large topped rusting machine that fell on it. The dog-thing screamed and stopped moving.

“This warehouse has been pacified.” I said as I used a spell to clean my sword’s blade. The silver of the steel shone with a golden luster, then I put Not-Excalibur into its sheath.

It was as I walked toward the unconscious man with the strange power from earlier that I was accosted by a woman in a heavy winter coat, her face was covered in bruises and blood. She didn’t dare hug me, but it was close. “Th-thank you! F… for saving us!”

Then she pointed at the bodies in a large pool of blood, some of them were chopped up or eviscerated. I frowned at the gruesome spectacle. The woman then started to say, “Those bastards killed all our friends and started butchering their bodies for parts!”

“What?” I immediately made the connection with the armor those bastards were wearing and all the bone pieces and leather they were wearing on them. I walked up to the body of the parahuman lying unconscious on the floor. My heart grew cold as I realized how horrific the Teeth really were. Fiction and reality met and reality won by knockout; seeing such savagery and barbarism told me that those… monsters have given up being human long ago, that their thirst for freedom and anarchy took from them any shreds of decency and compassion turning them into reavers, preying on the weak and seeking to convert them to their way of life.

It was at this moment that whatever his name was woke up again and he looked at me with a terrified look in his eyes. I could see his terror despite the human skin mask he used to shield his face, I could smell his fear.

Step. Step. Step. I walked before him and crouched near him, he didn’t even try to use his power to fight again. I said with a grateful tone in my voice, “I finally get it. Thank you. I made the mistake of treating you rejects like… people. But now, I know better.”

My Lawgiver was in my hand after I slowly reached for it. “I understand now what needs to be done.”

“This world needs people willing to put animals like you down.” I realized this, at this point Carol that I berated when I got in this world was a saint compared to the piece of low level trash I had before me.

With a coldness that I felt deep into my heart, I carefully enunciated vocally to my Lawgiver, “Full auto. Rapid fire. Armor Piercing.”

The LED on my pistol went off and then lit on again. “Huh?” The guy didn’t understand what was about to happen.

Though he finally understood when I pointed my pistol to his head. “Fucking die, heretic.”

Very, very sharp and loud sound rang out as the pistol spit a rafale of armor-piercing ammo into the head of the Teeth gang member. His head simply vanished into bloody mist, but I didn’t stop firing all of my clip into his body. When my Lawgiver made some clicking sounds, meaning that it was empty, I took the current ammo magazine and put it into my utility belt pouch for an empty magazine and reached for another one that was full.

The homeless people that were left didn’t say anything as they watched me work. They still stank of fear, but somehow must have realized that I wasn’t a threat to them. The big dog-thing from earlier was nowhere in sight, the man had returned to his human form and tried to get out from under the machinery that had fallen on him despite him not having forearms anymore.

Step. Step. Step. I stopped before the armless man, and noticed how his stumps were healed. He must have some kind of regeneration factor with his changer power.

“Please, please I give up… can-” The man tried to say, however, there was no mercy in my heart for the Teeth.

Pointing the Lawgiver to the man’s head I said, “Animals like you must die.”

The parahuman stopped to plead and beg, he went directly to threat when he saw that I wasn’t playing by the playbook of those wannabe heroes he is so used to in Boston. “The teeth won’t forgive you, you will be hunted! Butcher will wear your face as a mask! You’re dead!!”

I counted on that, I would kill all the Teeth, I would smash them and turn them into a lesson of what too much freedom could bring to people. I smiled at the dog-thing changer. “I’m counting on it, Hot-shot.”

“Wha-” The man had left his mouth gaping at how much I didn’t care about his barbarian pack of animals.

“I said Hot-shot.” My pistol light went off again and lit on as the type of ammo was selected.

I fired the incendiary bullet directly into his mouth. "Aaaaaahggrrrrrrkkk!!!" The man started to combust from the inside, his flesh burning on the spot. I even saw the moment when the little mini portal shut down from this area of the brain called the Corona Pollentia. Interestingly, I found myself intrigued by how Shards worked; I really needed to experiment on those alien things.

Not forgetting the minions, I executed them all with standard execution ammo and then created a clean area with my magic. I signaled to the homeless to come where I was, only the woman came because she was a gutsy little thing, about five feet two. I couldn’t discern much of what she looked like under all the grim and blood her face was covered with.

“I’m going to clean and heal you, do I have your permission?”

“Huh, yes.” The woman nodded.

I performed a deep clean of her body and as all the filth left her body and clothes, the woman was in her thirties, with blonde hair and brown eyes. When the cleaning was done, I linked my hands together in prayer and began healing her completely.

“I trust in Your power and grace that sustain and restore us.
Loving Mother, touch us now with Your healing hands, for I believe that Your will is for us to be well in mind, body, soul and spirit.”

The homeless woman was suddenly surrounded by a golden glow and she visibly relaxed as all her ache and pain began to fade. We stayed like this for five minutes, until the glow faded. When it was done she looked happier than earlier. “Thank you. W-what’s your hero name?”

“I’m not a hero, villain, nor a rogue. I don't participate in that silly game of cops and robbers the people in this world seemingly accepted to play.” I said as I looked at my… victims.

The body was still burning and smoking because of the incendiary grenade and all the other Teeth were headless or got a big hole in their body. I adhered to the rule of double tap, no surprise like this. Then I turned my face back to the woman, “But you can call me, Battle-Nun, I’m but a servant of God, willing to bring salvation and justice to these lands.”

The woman looked a bit disgusted by all the blood and body parts everywhere. “We certainly saw that.”

“Could you help my friends as well?” She asked with bluntness.

I shrugged. “Tell them to come here and to stop looking like frightened squirrels.”

The blonde turned to her friend and clapped. “You heard her, boys! Get here!”

Cleaning and healing the two people that were left was simple, when I finished I told them to say that to the PRT and Police when they came that I didn’t heal them with a prayer but with some kind of field coming from a device looking like a gun. They accepted my stipulation and then I made Aura call the police first and the PRT next.

Walking out of the warehouse when all was done, I opened a portal and left the warehouse with what I determined to be my personal crusade. I needed to prepare for my inevitable hunt for those monsters in human skin.