Battle Nun 2

Chapter 2

Welcome to the land of Despair

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With a Fwoosh! I was expelled from the portal like a missile, I landed on my ass in a living room. I was quickly on my feet and looked around for the exit points and cataloging threats. I put my hand on the pommel of my sword, ready to unsheath it; the house looked lived in, but it was in shambles as if people had been vandalizing it. Tables, paintings and other furniture were broken, there were scorch marks on the carpet as well.

Focusing my senses, I listened to my surroundings. The house looked like one of those luxurious log cottages you see rich people inhabit in winter. I heard crashing noises coming from the upper floors.

Bang! Crash! "Marquis! Surrender!" I heard a feminine voice shout.

I smelled ozone, blood and light… it was weird but I had synesthesia as an ability now, some weird stuff was bound to be sensed.

"Never!" This time a male voice shouted back.

From my trench coat, my visored helmet surged and slotted over my head, hiding my face; the HUD linked to my quantum computer smartphone. I ran toward the noise coming from upstairs; my gait was fast, I practically flew over the stairs until I reached the master bedroom where six people in white outfits were surrounding a man covered in bone armor.

I unsheath my sword and the noise attracts the attention of everyone. The six people in white turned to me and one of them with a costume of white and orange with a crossed-blade symbol aggressively came forward with a weapon made of light looking like a hammer. "Who the hell are you?"

Eh, I feel like I ended up in some kind of cage fight played by Luchadores playing a role. Everyone was masked and wore some kind of costume. I lowered my sword, blade directed to the carpeted floor. "No, who the hell are you…? And what's with the costumes? Did I end up at a Halloween party? They do look tacky."

“Look who's talking, Miss Highlander.” One of the men in white quipped.

Oh that was a good one, I must look like the highlander with my sword out and trench coat. The man covered in bone armor pointed his bone scythe at us in anger. "How many of you have invaded my home?!"

The woman who addressed me earlier shouted in frustration, "Get the hell out of here newbie, this villain is under arrest and-"

With a silky laugh, the bone armored man interrupted the bitch. "Really Brandish? You invaded my home and now you treat me like a criminal?"

Home invasion, I clicked my tongue and looked disappointingly at the bitch in white and orange. "He is kinda right you know? Home invasion is a really bad thing, so you’re the villains in the story."

Another pretty woman, who didn’t feel as bitchy as the first one cried out, “No, we’re the Brockton Bay Brigade we-”

Talking over her impassioned speech I said, “Are you with the police? Do you have a warrant? J’ai entendu (I heard) that you Americans need that to enter a presumed criminal’s home.”

That shut up everyone and the combat settled for a moment. No one could say anything, what they were doing was illegal, a home invasion; there’s also the fact that they were all losing, they were covered in bruised and bleeding wounds and their costume might have seen better days. I was tempted to heal them, but they were clearly in the wrong, something told me that what they were doing was evil; that they were misguided.

Sighing, I relaxed my grip on my sword;  they must have realized that what they’ve been doing was bad.

“Ah, you don’t have it.” I said aloud.

But of course, there’s always some motherfuckers who are always trying to ice-skate uphill. The blonde bitch with the tacky mask and laser weapons had to double back with her stupidity.

"You're with him! Arrest her too." The woman, Brandish said as if she had realized something and she materialized a large hammer in her hand.

I rolled my eyes. "Mademoiselle (Miss), I just got here, and I-"

I didn’t expect her to attack me at the same moment. I don't know how but some invisible barrier snapped around me and stopped the blow of the energy hammer cold.

I looked at the iridescent red light of the barrier blocking the bitch from hitting me. "Hey, um… was that supposed to hurt?"

Brandish hissed. "Another villain tinker!"

She was about to strike me again when I batted away her energy weapon with Not-Excalibur and kicked her in the stomach; I heard some ‘crack’ coming from the bitch. It was at this point that everyone who wasn’t the bone guy attacked me at the same time. Time slowed down to a crawl for me as everyone looked like frozen statues. I quickly realized that my senses were so sharp and my brain was so powerful and fast that I perceived time differently.

Better than that? My body could follow how fast my brain was; I walked to the charging people and on my HUD in big letters appeared, "The wheel of fate is turning."

I started with the men, they were the fastest and strongest physically; I knew they were strong enough to take a hit or two. The man with yellow lightning bolt designs received a sucker punch in the solar plexus and a roundhouse kick to the face; the one with a white costume with padding and helmet received a simple clothesline… then my head turned to the guy with white costume and a golden star at the front of it who had already started using an energy projectile coming toward me. I slapped him hard.

The two remaining women I don’t know what I wanted to do with them, but I chose to just bitch slap them as well. Strangely, the man in bone armor stood there, doing nothing and not attacking me at all. Time resumed and everyone fell to the ground or smashed against the walls or got embedded into the ceiling. Ouch, I needed to get a handle on my strength.

Walking toward the bone guy, he put himself into a defensive stance; but to reassure him, I sheath my sword and turn to the defeated invaders.

"So what's the deal here?" I asked the bone guy.

Staying silent for a moment the bone man with curly brown hair warily looked me up and down. Seemingly reaching a decision or plan or whatever, he began to say, "They dared to attack me while I was having dinner with my daugh- um, yes they attacked me, they were in clear breach of the rules. We don't attack people in their home…"

I looked from the bone man to the group of people in white; this situation strangely reminded me of something. It was like it was on the tip of my tongue; despite my mental upgrades, it seemed that I still needed concrete information to connect the dots. Then my mind latched on what bone daddy said, "Wait, wait, bone daddy. What rules? I am new here? Did I land on a world with special rules?"

It was possible that I landed in the DC or Marvel universe because of the special powers those people displayed.

The man stared at me with a startled expression."Bone Daddy?... nevermind… You don’t know the unwritten rules?"

I looked at him blankly. Did that fucking sword land me in Worm?! And that guy I just helped? He is Marquis? And I just landed in this world while he was being attacked by the idiot Brigade? I just landed on that shithole and… wait, I need more information before starting to rant.

“I’m new to the cape life, I wasn’t aware of any rules.” I waved his question away.

Marquis looked at my outfit and how high quality my gear was I guess. “Your costume is of extreme quality, are you a tinker?”

“Not yet.” I answered Marquis, let’s not give the guy any info.

Looking down, I saw Brandish crawl toward us silently. Sighing I placed myself before her and turned her over with one of my boots. Brandish aka Carol Dallon; in the work of the deranged author of Worm and in the fanfics she’s a really dumb and self-centered woman who transferred all her hate for a dead man onto a new one, then on his daughter that she kidnapped.

Brandish looked balefully at me and asked with venom, “W-what do you think… you’re doing? Why… are you helping that man?”

I stayed silent and looked with pity at the woman wracked with trauma and was suffering from neglecting her mental health. I’m really surprised that her sister didn’t help her see a shrink at this point.

“He is a criminal!” Brandish spat.

Sigh. “Bitch please, if he is a criminal then what are you? You’ve been targeting that closet behind him for how long. Don’t you know what’s inside?”

I turned to Marquis who looked surprised, I mouthed the word ‘Thinker’ to him and he began to laugh. The man turned his back to us and opened the closet and bent over. Tilting my head, I commented aloud, “Oooh, nice ass.”

With a laugh, my eyes turned to Bitch Brandish and her eyes went wide as she looked at the little girl in Marquis' arms. “So, Miss hero, why were you trying to kill Bone Daddy’s little girl? She was in that closet!”

“What?!” Lady Photon had the time to stand up and her left cheek was completely swollen.

She looked between me to the dad and daughter. Amelia was crying and holding onto her daddy for dear life. It wasn’t time to speak to her yet, I needed to capture them all.

“This injustice will not stand!” I shouted and theatrically took my machine pistol, a Lawgiver. Bought it for cheap at one hundred thousand credit with a lifetime of Ammo and maintenance service; Omar knew what to recommend to a girl.

I passed the Lawgiver on Stun-Shot only and fired at Lady Photon and Brandish. They lost consciousness immediately, poor Lady Photon fell face first on the floor. Walking toward the men, I shot them as well.

On my HUD "Flawless Victory" appeared. Whoever programmed this on my combat interface was a geek.

“The righteous are always victorious” I said as I switched on the safety of the pistol and twirled it to sheath it at my right thigh.

I turned to Marquis who looked at me as if I did something bad. Huh he must think they're dead, but I reassured him by saying, “Don’t worry, they aren’t dead, just stunned.”

He still looked like a fish out of water… whatever.

~~~~ Battle Nun ~~~~

(Marquis aka Christopher Beauvilliers)

Brockton bay
January 06, 2002
Marquis’ chalet

Christopher watched as the incredibly dangerous woman started to… heal the members of the Brigade by crouching next to them and praying. He could scarcely believe what he was seeing; unfortunately, reality was cruel as he saw Brandish’ bruised chest visibly start to heal as a golden glow enveloped her body.

The woman was ruthless in her methods and graceful in her movements; she gave the impression of being innocent and pure. Her costume barely covered her womanhood as well, she looked to be between eighteen to twenty-five; she didn't seem to be an idealist and seemed more street wise and aware of the shades of gray of their society, contrary to Brandish and her posse.

When she was finished healing everybody, she took some kind of electronic manacles from… her coat and started restraining the so-called heroes. This was one of the reasons Christopher has chosen to not join the Protectorate, they're all about PR and Control and bamboozling the population. Having his personal fiefdom to do as he saw fit was better for the city and its citizens; but lately he has been getting too much into the villain role stereotype and it had almost cost his little treasure her life.

If that comely and dangerous woman hadn’t shown herself, he doubts that this little altercation with the Brigade would have ended well for him.

“Now here they are all nicely tied up.” The woman grinned and stood up with her fist on her hips, looking proud.

She turned to Christopher, trench coat billowing behind her; she stared at him with an expectant gaze. The brown haired man sighed and finally asked the question she expected, the woman was really eager about all this strangely. “What do you intend to do with them… Miss?”

“Me? Call me Battle Nun! for now and… well I want to speak to that nice Lady.” Battle Nun pointed to Lady Photon. “She seems to be the most sane compared to her sister, the rabid bitch.”

This was news to Christopher. “How do you know they’re… siblings?”

The woman just shrugged and pointed to her nose with a finger. “They smell related.”

Battle Nun’s threat ratings jumped up considerably. The woman was even more dangerous than he believed; she was a powerful thinker, a healer, a brute and a mover! Then Crhistopher looked at her equipment… ‘Is she one of those grab bag capes I heard about?’

If this woman’s senses were as acute as she said, the unwritten rules were a complete joke to her. The fact that she didn’t even know about them in the first place made her even more of a loose cannon. He felt the burning need to mentor her and teach her about the rules… the simple fact that she saw no problem with helping him was strange; or maybe she did it because of little Amelia? Battle Nun had looked rather angry about Brandish targeting the closet.

“You can smell blood relations?” Christopher’s voice went a bit higher as surprise struck him.

“Well yeah, come on, help me get her into another room, we need to speak to her.” Battle Nun with nonchalance.

The woman needed to be more aware of the situation, Christopher pointed at the remaining bound heroes at their feet. “I apologize but I  must stay with Amelia and guard the others, I wouldn't want them to escape or attack again.”

“Ah merde (Ah shit), I need you here. Ok wait a moment.” She raised a hand to tell him to wait.

Battle Nun bent the knee, joined her hands together; Christopher watched as the same golden glow that had surrounded the Brigade engulfed the woman. She began to utter a prayer, “Our Father, who art in heaven, I summon thy celestial soldiers. Rhamiel, Jael and Shamsiel come out!”

BOOM. A hole in the fabric of reality exploded in the room in a circular portal of light and almost immediately three people stepped out of it. Two men and one woman, wearing white and blue clothes with sparse pieces of gold armor; they held onto gold and silver spears with feather decoration. Battle Nun stood up and at the same moment, the three people kneeled before her, lowering their eyes.

‘Correction, Battle Nun is a trump. Now she has projections… or are they?’

~~~~ Battle Nun ~~~~

(Lady Photon aka Sarah Pelham)

“Wake up.” A voice commanded.

Sarah’s eyes opened and she came to awareness, only to find the woman who kicked all their asses in a second before her. The blonde flinched and tried to stand back, only to be stopped by a hand on her shoulder who kept her seated. Sarah looked up to see Marquis in his bone armor. The heroine closed her eyes and… despaired.

She knew that this had been a bad idea, but Carol was so bullheaded about it. She wanted Marquis gone as if he was her personal demon to defeat; and Sarah had been rather lenient on her sister since their kidnapping and had given her some slack… but somehow her sister had become worse, her sister has developed severe trust issues and an unhealthy black and white view of the world.

“Are you going to kill us?” Sarah found herself asking the two villains.

No one said anything for a little while before laughter sounding like wind chime broke the silence. The dangerous woman then smirked at Sarah. “There’s no use murdering you and your heathen idiot Brigade, Lady Photon. If I wanted to kill you all, I would have done so earlier.”

Sarah shivered as the beautiful voice uttered such hard cold facts; she looked at her hands and the manacles restraining her, then she recalled how wounded she was earlier. All her wounds and aches have been healed…

“Who are you? No one with your power level exists in town.” Sarah’s eyes bored into the helmeted woman.

If she was one of marquis’ people, all their previous altercations would have ended up being one sided beatdowns. The woman in black shrugged, “That you know of.”

Marquis spoke for the first time. “Indeed, there’s parahumans in the city who keep their heads down and want none of those parahuman games we’re playing.”

The heroine didn’t want to think about that, some uber powerful parahuman who content themselves to live day to day normally. She glanced at the woman in black, she didn’t look that dangerous at first, but when you experienced the type of attack she could dish out, she looked more like a human shaped nightmare. Sarah recalled the memory of the woman simply blurring around and striking them all at the same time; she was clearly a exceptionally powerful mover and a brute.

Now that Sarah knew that they wouldn’t kill her, she relaxed somehow but was still wary; turning to Marquis she asked, “She’s one of yours, Marquis? Or is she the mother of the kid we almost accidentally killed tonight?”

The woman in black leaned forward, her voice cold like ice. “If little Amelia had been my daughter, you would all have been killed on the spot, rules or no rules.”

With a dark chuckle, she continued on her rant. “Not that you seem to care about them after attacking Marquis in his own house.” Sniff. “I smell that you’re a mother yourself, you have like one… no two kids. What would you do if I or Marquis went to your home while you’re having dinner and started poking holes in your house? Would they survive it?”

Sarah froze, this implied that the woman knew exactly who the Brigade members were, or that she had bullshit thinker power alongside her already bullshit mover and brute powers to find out who they were.

The blonde heroine's confidence and mood crumbled like a house of cards. “Please no, don’t… I will do anything, please!”

Sarah began to tear up and struggled to stand up and throw herself on the ground to beg. The dark costumed woman crossed her legs and watched the sorry state of Sarah with a dull glare. “Just like I thought. You were not ready for the consequences of your actions; why did you do it?”

“Please, please I will do anything.” The heroine begged.

Marquis sighed and pushed the woman farther on the sofa. “Lady Photon, we don’t kill kids; Battle Nun was just showing you why what you did was… foolhardy.”

Sarah was relieved to hear that… her kids were her treasures; she’d kill for them, she’d also abandon the hero's life if those two asked it of her. “I… I should never have listened to Carol.”

“Had you done this to Kaiser and his group, I’m sure that you’d all have been executed publicly to fuel his propaganda machine after he revealed how you broke the rules or worse...” Marquis wasn’t surprised that the idea to come after him in his civilian life was from Brandish, the woman who has become his most rabid antagonist as of late.

“As a matter of fact Lady Photon, we’re here to de-escalate the situation. But more importantly to talk about your sister.” Battle Nun said.

Sarah didn’t find her name villainous at all… the fact that this parahuman knew that brandish was her sister made the blonde heroine realize that, “You already know everything…?”

The heroine understood that the woman was humoring her by not calling them by their given names; of all day they had to attack when a bullshit tier thinker was in town. To further aggravate her, Battle Nun explained, “I have a limited form of precognition that allows me to see certain things from the past and future of people I hunt, something I call the penance stare.”

By using that name to describe her ability, Battle Nun implied that she just had to look at someone to know things about them; this was a chilling revelation, and bad news for the cape scene in Brockton. The woman in black trench coat added, “I know who you are, what you’d have done after taking down Marquis and how you’d have dealt with little Amelia… And I’m not impressed with Brandish at the moment.”

Sarah didn’t know what to think about all this. “This… Why aren’t you using your powers to help people? You could do so much.”

The woman looked at Sarah as if she was an idiot. “Wow, you’re such a fucking optimist. It’s a miracle you have lived this long…” Battle Nun shook her head. “News Flash, Photon Mom, that’s what I am doing right now, aren’t you people too? I'm going to help you reign in your sister before she get herself fucking killed. Though, I’m still of the opinion that we should put her down as she would never rest until she puts Marquis in the Birdcage.”

Battle Nun looked at Marquis, “Are you sure we can’t just kill her? The woman is damaged.”

Marquis replied with a firm, “No.”

Sarah was suddenly happy that Marquis was there and that he was the more reasonable of the two. Battle Nun’s gaze refocused on Sarah. “Your sister sorely needs help; she would have abused little Amelia because of the hatred she has for Marquis.”

The blonde heroine wanted to be skeptical to say that those were all lies that Battle Nun was spouting. But there was something in her voice that made Sarah listen to her. The woman was so confident, so sure that she was right that the heroine couldn’t dismiss what she was revealing.

“Have you never asked yourself why she’s so dead set on taking him down?” Battle Nun asked Sarah in an animated fashion.

Sarah had asked herself the same question for a long time; Marquis was curious as well, he leaned against the sofa Sarah sat on. The blonde heroine shook her head… “No… I have no idea.”

Battle Nun linked her hands digits together and said bluntly, “It all comes down to that kidnapping and the one responsible for your trigger. You remember that nice man who took care of you in that basement and who she trusted but had decided to kill her?”

Sarah closed her eyes… and remembered how nice that man has been; she never trusted him, but her sister had. “Yes…”

It all became clear to Sarah, Marquis was a nice man; and she could see how her sister may have switched that man to marquis. Battle Nun continued to speak, not sparring Sarah’s feelings for one moment. “Your sister needs a shrink, she has stockholm syndrome and deep seated trust issues. She doesn’t even love the man she married, she chose him because he was ‘safe’ to be with. Brandish transferred her hatred from that man onto Marquis because he reminded her of him. She's attracted to him because he wasn’t a typical villain bent on killing everyone around him, because he has that code about not killing women and children and to minimize collateral damages.”

Closing her eyes, the heroine listened; she reviewed her sister’s interaction with Mark Dallon… and she didn’t see that same spark she had with Neil in Carol’s relationship. Thinkers were a scary existence like that, and made you aware of the truth that you no longer could hide from.

The woman stood up, her pistol holster then came into view for Sarah; the heroine gulped realizing how big it looked. Battle Nun cracked her neck and sighed. “I’m tired of this, we’re going to set you and your team free; I hope that you’ll get your sister the help she needs. If she comes back, I think I will need to off her for good. Too bad… that her little girl would be motherless if that happened.”

Sarah shook her head desperately. “Please don’t do it, I will... I will handle her.”

Battle Nun nodded. “Good. Oh and yeah! Because you’re my favorite heroine so far, I will give you a free divination.”

Sarah raised her bound hands. “Ah no, I’m good.”

The woman gave the heroine a wicked smile. “I insist. I don’t care if you believe me or not.”

“Very… well.” Sarah wanted to leave and go to hug Neil and their children and to put an end to this fiasco; and more than anything she wanted to be out of there, the Nun was clearly crazy.

Battle Nun's next words shocked Sarah to her core. “That New Wave movement that your sister and you thought about, forget it.”

No one should know about this and it hammered the fact that the woman was genuine, a real precog. “How do you- ah yes, precognition.”

She nodded. “Yeah, if you unmask to everyone, in six months Fleur, your kids and Carol’s kid dies. Kaiser orders a hit on your entire family.”

Sarah attempted to stand up but was kept seated again by Marquis. The heroine desperately asked, “Can you tell me more?”

The Nun smiled. “No. That’s a free spoiler. Now get out of my sight and stop playing that cape game, you got kids who need you.”

Sarah will listen to that advice, she had to!

~~~~ Battle Nun ~~~~

Rhamiel, Jael and Shamsiel deployed their white angel wings and used their magic to transport all the BBB. I watched as they flew at slow speed toward downtown Brockton; then I turned toward Marquis and looked at him. Nothing was said for a moment as the man was leaning against his house’s entrance door frame.

Looking her and down the suave man’s voice rang out as he spoke. “I must say that I’m impressed in how you handled yourself, Battle Nun.”

Scratching behind my head, I said, “Aww, you’re welcome. I would do anything to make a kid happy. Amelia deserved better than to end up kidnapped by that horrid bitch.”

I had to spout a lot of bullshit to make Lady Photon listen to me; well I kind of have a limited precog ability as I knew everything about this world’s setting. I will have to adapt now that I fucked canon without lube.

Marquis straightened his posture and slowly walked toward me, he asked in a curious tone. “I realized that you’re not from here; are you from Canada? You have that French accent…”

“I’m not from this dimension.” I cut him out by telling the truth. I somehow trusted this man more than I would the protectorate or any other criminal and I needed help to get money and credentials to live for however long I needed in this world.

Marquis stopped walking. “Ah.”

“Can I bunk with you for a bit?” I shamelessly asked.

It took the man ten seconds to answer me as he looked me in the eyes, or at least tried to; my helmet was kind of in the way.

The man began to chuckle and said in a jovial tone. “Sure, you saved my Amelia's future after all… but I have a better idea, why don’t you join me and my organization?”

Yeah no, Pass. I'm not going to become a villain. “Huh, that’s all and good but I’m not into that criminal organization thing.”

The man snapped his fingers and said, “Then could I interest you into becoming Amelia’s live-in governess for a while? We’re going to move to Boston effective tomorrow.”

Meeting Amelia officially and taking care of her? Sign me up. “Oh that I can do, I need money and an ID to be able to live here for a while.”

I guess I could charge Marquis for any healing he might ask me for his men on the down low. The man nodded and added, “This could be arranged, oh and healthcare and pay could be further negotiated.”

Healthcare? I don’t need that bullshit, even more so from a place like America who bleeds dry their people. “I can heal myself…”

Marquis raised his hand to stop me. “Battle Nun, maybe you shouldn’t advertise that you can do so; the PRT and other criminal organizations might hunt you down to get ahold of you…”

I shrugged. “And they will be defeated if they come after me, but I get what you mean… I accept your offer. That’s why…”

I took off my helmet by letting my magitek coat assimilate it in its hood. My face was visible to him, he gaped at me as I got my lustrous red hair from my trench coat’s large hood and I introduced myself. “I am Alicia, nice to meet you Marquis.”

The bone armor retracted into Marquis’ body and I saw what he looked like. *Damn.*

He had long hair that draped on his shoulders, he wore a simple shirt and black pants and his shoulders, hips were all distinctly masculine, and his voice was confident and deep. “Please, my name is Christopher.”

Panty dropping man ahoy! It was at this moment that my angel minions chose to perform a hero landing around me in a clear protective formation. I think I needed to have a handle on them and my own powers before using them like pack mules…

Time to study.