Well, now isn’t she just marvelous? That new ability is fancy too, very pretty. He thought with a smile, admiring the killing mae that he had created. He wondered why he hadn’t thought of it before. Was it because of the guide? He turned away from her and gave her a gesture of dismissal. A polite nod was her only response as she slipped away and joihe crowd. It wouldn’t do to stay off to the side too long, himself especially. He was the man of the hour, after all. Most Promising Hero of the camp. Well of course I am, it goes without saying. He smirked and shot a gowards Bck Lotus and Sonya. The two of them were talking with Crusader’s family as if nothing had happened. Not even an eyebrow out of po gestures to signify that they noticed anything. Looks like it holds up against Bck Lotus’ senses, I figured it would but that was… a long one.
He didn’t want to admit how draining it was to broadcast his cheat over so many people at once, but it really was. All the more reason to get stronger. Effort is needed. I o internalize that. The cheats are not enough. I need more abilities too. I wonder if there’s a cheat for that. The magic sword and work well enough but they’re just items I created. He sniffed and crossed his arms. “You e out now,” He said patiently.
A heartbeat, and Riot stepped out from within the dojo, his face pale and his shoulders sagging a little. “Yes sir?”
Otis gnced his way, “You did good work, well done.”
Riot pursed his lips and looked away, “That was… wrong.”
“Your point?” Otis asked, “It aplished what I wanted. She won’t be thinking about turning on me or being disobedient any longer. How did you do it? I’m curious about your ability.”
“You already had a karmid with her because of the things you…” he trailed off, “the things you did to her,” he said sourly. “She and her brother obviously had a strong ooo,” he cleared his throat and adjusted his gsses, “I tugged on their bond and fahe fmes, made him mgressive towards her than usual and amplified her sensitivity.”
Otis nodded along, “And then?”
“And then when you intervened, I just twisted the boweewo of you, adjusted it slightly so that instead of her seeing you as a malefactor, there ening to see you as a new foundation to rebuild herself on. Her mind did the rest,” he tensed, “With your help of course, sir.”
Otis brightened, “Very well done, I like it, I like it a lot, we should work together more often.”
“If you say so,” Riot grumbled.
Otis threw an arm over his shoulder, “Oh Riot! You’re such a funny guy! A real riot, get it?” he chortled, “You almost sound like you don’t want to work with me. After all I’ve done and am going to do for you. Not very nice, you know?” he ehe question with a poiare in the younger man’s dire.
Riot shrank a little, “Wasn’t my iion, holy. W for you is a dream e true.”
“Of course it is!” Otis ughed and pat his back, “Good that we’re on the same page, Riot! You made an excellent teammate for the dungeon run.”
“You didn’t need any help, sir,” Riot pointed out.
“True,” Otis admitted, “But every little bit helps, and I prefer to maximize my ces in a dungeon. Self preservation is important!”
“You sound like Miss ovna,” Riot said, gng sidelong at him.
“Do I now?” Otis gasped, he chuckled again, “Well, I see her as something of a mentor, you know. Admire her. Look what she’s doh herself with just that silly ocur power of hers. Isn’t it great? If I didn’t know aer I’d think she was the main character of this story!”
“Story?” Riot asked.
Otis waved a hand, “Nevermind, I’m just rambling. A powerful new Herald has joined us, Riot. We should celebrate while we ,” Otis said and started walking towards the crowd with him. “Speaking of Sonya, by the way, I thought she and Bck Lotus were os. They seemed so te the beginning of camp. What do you see?”
“They slept together retly,” Riot said ftly, his face turning a little red.
Otis narrowed his eyes, a small smile crossing his lips, “Did they now? Would that be a problem for Miss Mint?”
“Doubtful, Miss ovna is fairly open about her non-monogamy, sir. It’s in all the tabloids and she owns it without any shame. Give time I saw her and Miss Mint, the new Chairma think anything ill of it,” Riot said and adjusted his gsses, “It’s not a worthwhile leverage point, if that’s what you were looking for.”
Otis clicked his tongue, “Fooey,” he sighed and leaned a bit harder into Riot, “That mind game was tiring! Aill have this silly tour to do and then final prep for the graduation tomorrow m,” he went on with a roll of his eyes, “I just want to get out of here and crush a few vilins already, you know? Get my legend started!”
“Not much longer, sir,” Riot said, “We’ll be in New York soon.”
Otis let out a wistful sigh, “Ah, New York, it’s been a while. I wonder how that detective I met is doing. He had a good eye, you know. Almost saw through one of my disguises,” he paused and frowned, “ime I see him, I’ll tear those eyes out ahem to him,” he snarled.
Riot swallowed audibly as they he crowd, a few people turning to wave a greeting to him and Otis. “R-right,” He mumbled as Otis’ mask of genteel heroism went right back up without missing a beat.
–
The television flickered as the el switched over to the news. The anchan to speak and Mimir frowned. French, right. He grumbled and his eyes fred to life. The words transting in his head the moment he heard them. It was an odd dissohat he still was getting used to, hearing the transtion yered just on top of the native nguage. He wasn’t sure if he really heard it or if his mind was pensating for what amouo self-inflicted telepathy. It didn’t matter, he supposed, as long as it worked.
“Across the world, the graduation ceremonies for the first wave of Hero Training Camps have begun. Notable leaders from across the Hero unity have made appearao address the graduating css and ence them in their steps,” the anchan, “We bring you to the Angers camp at the site of the deissioned observatory, there, in the absence of Guildmaster Abreo, Vice-Guildmaster Lu DuCast also known as Braque, has e to speak on behalf of the French Hero Collective and the Paris Guild.”
“Braque? Like the hunting dog?” Addison said from behind him, walking around to sit down and hand him a cup of coffee. He took it and o her. It was just the two of them while Hellion was with Max learning how to handle himself in a fight.
“Mm,” Mimir grunted, “He’s predominantly active at night, from what I’ve dug up so far he cims that his ability works best then. He’s just using the cover of darko ceal the appearance of his creatures.”
She clicked her tongue, “I see,” she murmured as the red-haired Australian sipped her own drink, “ you get a read on him like this?”
“My reading ability only works out to nine paces,” Mimir said.
“Nine paces?” She turowards him, “You never mentiohat. Isn’t that kind of vague? Who’s paces?”
“Mine,” Mimir said, “Nine is an important o hology, Odi nine days hanging from the ash tree, eps before Thor’s death, nine realms ected by the World Tree,” he expined as Lu settled behind the podium on the s. The sleek haired man smiled thinly at the crowd, his gaze casting over them. He wore a perfectly tailored suit and- Mimir froze and leaned forward. “He’s gohrough some more ges. It’s going to be harder to hide his nature.”
“Huh?” Addison grunted and leaned forward to peer at the s, “Yeah, his skin is darker and… redder? Wait, what’s up with his eyes?”
“His pupils are stretg out lengthwise, like a goat,” Mimir said.
She wrinkled her nose, “Disturbing.”
“He’ll get it under trol,” Mimir said, “Before it bees drastiough to draw attention.”
“How do yht,” she stopped herself a quiet as Lu began to speak.
“It is su honor to be here,” Lu begaing his hands on the podium, “If only I’d had a bit more warning about my boss’ departure to the Dharan Exclusion Zone! Maybe I would have prepared a spee time!”
The crowd ughed and he leaned forward, “I don’t think I o have written anything down to know what to say, here,” he said as he sed the graduates present. “Today, I will be given the solemn duty of presenting you with your hero lises. From this day forth, you will be charged with the defense of your fellow man and the pursuit of humanity’s future!” He raised a finger, “Because that is what you are. You are the future,” he decred, “In more ways than you think. Every day more and more light-touched are awakened and there are fewer and fewer people left behind.”
Mimir’s eyes narrowed as he took in the faint micro expressions on the man’s face. Speaking from a pce of loathing, are you?
“Left behind, but not fotten of course!” Lu crified, “They are as much human as you are. But you have bee something more, haven’t you? And that quality es with a responsibility! You bear the responsibility of safeguarding them, of making sure that their daily lives are as peaceful as they were in the past, before the fsh.”
“Hypocrite,” Addison snarled, “He’s going to be blowing smoke out his ass the eime, isn’t he?”
“Probably,” Mimir muttered, “Not much we get out of this and I wasn’t able to find a way to get into the ceremony to get a direct line of sight with him,” he grumbled as the speech went on. More p and thickly veiled allusions to normal ‘humans’ being lesser than light-touched. All of that talk coated in the sweet veneer of duty and glory. Mimir was starting to get nauseous.
“I’m ging the el,” Addison sighed, “We aren’t getting anything we don’t already know from this,” she checked her phohe Ameri graduation is avaible.”
He was half way through a sip when she snatched up the remote and ged the el. He swallowed and coughed, “W-wait!” Too te.
There she was, on the s. That tiny figure with white hair fluttering behind her as she stood on a stage behind a podium, all smiles beh those glowing pink eyes. He felt his throat begin to tighten as his fingers formed a white-knuckled grip on the mug. He cleared his throat a few times, trying to shake off the sensation as the deal worked its magi him. Damn it. If I could just figure out a way to get her to ask me a favor, then I wouldn’t be having this problem.
“I wrote a speech for today,” Sonya began with a small smile as she ran her fingers over a small stack of papers in front of her, “It was a long one. Might even ruime,” shot an apologetic smile to the crowd, “I figure you all are probably hungry. I know I am, could go for a burger or something,” she sighed dramatically before she gri the crowd, “You ever have one of those cravings that you just ’t get out of your head?” She asked.
“What oh?” Addison mumbled, eyes fixed on the s.
“Well apparently there are about thirty or so people sitting in front of me who kly what I’m talking about,” she said, “An all ing desire, a feeling deep in yut, a driviion that pushes you beyond your limits to bee something greater than you were before. A craving,” She swept her eyes over the crowd again, “To bee a hero.”
“Today, you bee heroes. Today, you start a path that will lead you through trials and tributions that will make the st ten weeks seem insequential. It is not an easy path. It is not a safe one. You chose it anyway,” she smiled warmly, “And I could not be more proud of you. You learned, you ged, you grew stronger, and you fought with all yht to get to this point. Now, here you are,” she ran her fingers over the speech again and looked down at it thoughtfully, pausing as if she was getting choked up, “Ready to take on so much weight on your shoulders.”
“Humanity is strong,” she said, “Humans learn, adapt, we struggle and we overe. We strive to bee better at whatever we set our minds to. We could have fallen in ourselves after the fsh, society could have broken down. Instead? We thrived. You thrived. You represent the greatness humanity has to offer. Because with those powers of yours set aside, we are all still people, humans, and we’re in this together. You are now the pilrs that will hold humanity up and carry us into the future,” she stood up straighter and raised her hand to her heart, “So on behalf of all of Humanity and on behalf of the Pandora ittee, thank you finning your service, and gratutions!”
Appuse rose up from the crowd as Sonya ined her head and shifted the papers around on her desk, “I will now be calling the graduates o a time to be presented with their lises along with any parents uardians to receive their trainee nyards. This will symbolically represent them leaving their civilian life behind to bee Heroes, dedicated to the service of the human race.”
She cleared her throat, “Ollie Anders, please step forward.”
Addiso out a whistle, “Huge tonal difference,” she said as she sipped again at her drink, “Love that woman, she really has her heart in the right pce for humanity.”
Mimir just grunted, his expression frozen in a mask of impassivity. He couldn’t even ge his facial expression this time. He fought for trol of his body, but it was just no use. This was far worse than when Addison had fronted him iunnels.
“It’s wild, she just came out of nowhere, but if it wasn’t for her things would be so much worse, wouldn’t they?” She said, “Say what you want about the heroes, most of them are fake, yeah, but she’s done a pretty damn good job…” she trailed off and gnced his way, “You used to live in New York, right?”
He frowned a little and focused on anything other than that evil woman. Calm dowhe versation py out. She’s perceptive. His body rexed, “Yeah, I was a detective,” he said and sipped at his drink.
“You ever see her in person?” She asked, curious.
“I did,” he said ftly, “I’ve actually met her a couple of times. We spoke before hero day while I was ag as a for the Pandora ittee.”
“ht,” she nodded, “You mentiohat. That was how your…” she paused, “...sorry, shouldn’t bring that up.”
He sighed, “It’s fine,” he said and leaned forward, fog his mind on his coffee to keep his head clear. He couldn’t say or do anything that would cause his tract ter and ruin his ces here.
“So what’s she like?” She asked, “Is she just as wacky as she seems?”
He froze, his body and mind log up for a moment. It took several seds for him to clear his throat and shrug, “She’s got the best is of the world at heart,” he said, “o her people.”
Addison narrowed her eyes, “What was that?”
He turned her way, “Hm? Nothing,” he said, trying his best to keep a straight face. Any facial expression, any twitch, any hint and he’d push it too far. He’d gotten away a little with revealing that he’d met Ishtar si didn’t ect her with Sonya, but this was dangerous territory. If he tried to circumvent the trauch it might break. Would she know? Would he lose his powers? What if she brought hell down on the Vigintes because of the breach? She wasn’t above exterminating a threat with extreme prejudice.
Addiso out a breath and rubbed her neck, “Alright,” she said but seemed to eye him a bit longer befetting to her feet. “I’m gonna go do some research,” she said, “You uh… enjoy your coffee.”
“Thanks,” he said a out a breath.
I hope that was enough.
