Countless Joyful Dawns - Chapter ?? - 9: The Distraction (Patreon)

My plan had been simple and beautiful.

Encounter Empire capes.

Follow them while they reported back to their boss.

Follow the boss around.

See who he talked to, follow them around. Rapidly build up a network of who was involved with the Empire 88, and where they lived.

Roll them all up.

Except… that had all gone up in smoke.

Cellphones. How was I such an idiot that I forgot about cellphones!? He didn’t need to physically report in!

Argh! 

I’d been smart enough to include them in the ‘baiting’ half of the plan, but not enough to think ahead and consider that they’d actually use them to communicate! That’s what I got for trying to pull ops in a place with radically different technology level and culture. This was absolutely going into the after-action report. Maybe I’d buy a keg ahead of time, see if I could time it with the maximum number of people drinking at the same time. I could just hear the other Sentinels giving me a hard time over it - as they should.

And hopefully, they’d learn the lesson from me doing it, and not do it themselves in a situation where it got them killed. 

Fine.

I’d struck out on my primary goal against the Empire 88, but some of the secondary goals had gone off well. The whole thing had to strike a blow against the Empire’s pride and ego, the one thing they ran off of.

That much blood painting the streets? That much gore, caught on video? Me shouting that the Empire were cannibals?

That was the sort of spectacle that would’ve gotten people buzzing for weeks or months in Exterreri, and it’d be remembered decades later. Not quite sure if it’d have the same impact here - see again, different culture meaning things worked out differently - but I was hoping that it touched on enough elements of basic human nature that it’d still work the same.

I plotted, I planned, and I got a new plan for dealing with the Empire. Same basic idea, different execution. 

I flitted over to Armsmaster.

“Hey! What supplies do you need to make a working printer in here?” I asked him. He had slept since last night, right…? Right?

The perfectly neat cot and gigantic bags under his eyes suggested otherwise. Don’t tell me this guy was an obsessive workaholic…

“Why?” He curtly asked.

“I’ve got a plan to take down the Empire, but I need a printer.” I said.

“Use the one in the library.” He said, turning back to his work. 

I pouted.

“You’re not even going to try and give me an excessively padded list to get extra supplies in?” I said. “Not going to cannibalize the printer for parts once I’m done with it?”

I could see the gears turning in his head.

“One moment.” He said, turning on his workbench. I helpfully supplied him with ink and paper.

I had no idea what half the components he wanted were, but I figured I could hand the list to someone at an electronics store along with a pile of cash, and be done with it.

Packing up for the day, I opened the door to [Manor] and started to leave.

Which was when a flying punch headed straight for my face.

I sped my perception all the way up.

Three people were waiting for me. Three people so famous that I’d managed to hear of them in the short time I’d been here.

Alexandria, Legend, Eidolon. The Triumvirate. The three most powerful Classers - err, capes - that the Protectorate had.

I teleported around Alexandria, who kept right on going into my [Manor]. Momentum was a bitch, and she had been trying to tackle me into my home.

Instead, I closed the door on her, resisting the urge to yell ‘ole!’ and wave a red cape. She could have a lovely chat with Colin and Emily while I handled Eidolon and Legend. I wasn’t trying to arrest her, but maybe a bit of time to cool off would make a conversation more productive.

Speaking of productive conversations…

“Eidolon. You’ve got three seconds to leave. Two. One.”

On ‘two’, a portal opened up behind Eidolon. Not one of mine - and what was inside was fascinating. Endless white hallways, a few people, and lots of ‘oh gods where are the [Paladins] science experiments.’

A lady in a fedora grabbed Eidolon by his cape, and yanked him into the portal. It closed behind them, and I didn’t need to shoot Eidolon.

He was the single most dangerous cape around. With the right three skills, he could kill Night, or even subvert him! What flavor of Master skill whammy could he bring? What degree of Stranger bullshit could he pull?

Frankly, I should’ve just killed him on the spot. Hostile posturing, potential Master, that was a ‘go’ in my books. I was trying not to murder national heroes left, right, and center, that tended to get people less cooperative.

The last member of the team, Legend, blinked and looked around in surprise. Two of his teammates had been ganked through portals before the fight had even properly begun. I put my hands on my hips, teleported my ‘gud masc’ sticky note and put it on my forehead, and started to chat with the admittedly very handsome man.

“Can we try talking?” I asked. “Or are we going straight to another fight? Fair warning, I’m not sure I can hold back against you. I suspect I’d either do nothing to you, or kill you.”

Legend floated a little closer, making no overtly aggressive moves. Given that we both used Radiance - or something close enough - I wasn’t putting my guard down. I didn’t need to point, gesture, use my fingers or hand or anything to make lethal beams of Radiance. Legend probably didn’t either.

“Well, you did kidnap one of our directors, and the head of the local Protectorate branch.” He said. “You’d have to expect us to react.”

Ah, reason! Logical explanations! Talking! I could work with this.

I could also respect Legend’s position. ‘You tussled with high ranking members of our org, we’re coming down like the hammer of god’. Like when Acquisition’s kids got kidnapped, or when a Ranger team got taken out. We didn’t shrug and move on with our day - we sent a message. Usually consisting of a large number of Sentinels visibly descending on the area.

Which was what they were trying to do here. Given that three had become one in a matter of seconds, it wasn’t looking good for them.

“I object to calling it kidnapping.” I said. “I’m an officer of the law, they committed terrible crimes in front of me. I arrested them, and I’m returning them to face trial. If they’re found not guilty, I’ll release them.”

Legend didn’t look terribly impressed with my logic, but it was the contents that mattered, along with what I wasn’t saying. I was saying that I was following the law, and thus, could be reasoned with. I wasn’t making wild claims about ‘I’m going to rule the world’ or ‘they were in the way of my plans’ or ‘the birds told me to’, or any other utterly wild claims.

Seriously, I’ve heard ‘the birds told me to’ six times in my career. I even paid a full scholarship for an orphan to spend their life and classes studying birds and bird speech, just to see if there was a secret bird cabal trying to ineffectively take over the world.

He had a lovely life doing research on birds, and managed to advance the field in ways that had never been done before. However… nada on the bird conspiracies. They were bird brains, after all. Auri had objected strenuously to that characterization, and had done a whole dramatic funeral after he’d died.

Still. No points in the megalomaniac column, plenty of points in the ‘law abiding citizen’ column.

“Well, sorry, I don’t think I recognize where you’re from. You don’t have jurisdiction here either.” Legend said.

I threw my hands up in the air, in a ‘praise Ciriel’ way, not a ‘what nonsense am I dealing with’ way.

“Yes, thank you!” I said. “Look. I’m Elaine. I’m a Sentinel of the Exterreri Empire. Different dimension entirely. I’m trying to get back home. I was asking for diplomatic recognition when Emily and Colin tried arresting me for various things that meant I had to arrest them back. If you’re willing to point me towards the Department of State, I’d be happy to talk with them, get some sort of arrangement settled. I can work on getting home, we’re all happy.”

Legend frowned.

“And releasing Director Piggot along with Armsmaster? Also, are you holding a grudge against Alexandria?”

I frowned, and resisted shaking my head.

“I’m not going to say it’s impossible for them to get released… but it’s unlikely. I’m working under my own set of constraints, and the law’s fairly inflexible with what they did. I can work on finding a loophole or exception. As for Alexandria? If you can tell me that she’ll stop attacking me, sure. I was only planning on letting her cool down a bit while we talked… or fought… and with a bonus prison inspection. She can see that the conditions are… well, okay, I’ll admit I think the conditions are fine, and from what I know the conditions here are better than what you’ve got on average, but who knows.” I said with a shrug.

“Well, at least people can get out.” Legend tried to joke. I tilted my head… and kept going until it was almost on my shoulder.

“Get… out?” I said. “People should be able to get out of all prisons.”

He suddenly looked very uncomfortable.

Gods damnit. 

“Legend. Don’t tell me you have a one way prison.” I crossed my arms.

“Well… just the Birdcage.” He said.

“And when you discover someone’s innocent?” I said, before the rest caught up to me. “Wait, one prison? For everyone? Men and women?” I asked, my heart starting to tighten.

“It-” He started to say, before I cut him off. My helmet went on, my cape went off.

“Where is it.” I demanded. 

“North, in Canada.” He said. “The exact location’s secret.”

I snorted, holding out my hands.

“Well, arrest me and send me there.” I said, thinking of the dozen of horrors that had to be going on.

A mixed gender, one-way prison? That implied no guards, no wardens, nothing. And this was where they sent their Classers. No neat, clean execution for heinous crimes, no. Not exactly the basis for a civilized society to form.

I doubted birth control was properly used, if provided at all. Which meant there were a bunch of babies and kids - perhaps even adults, if it had been around long enough - that had known nothing but prison their entire lives.

I was willing to overlook a lot. I couldn’t fight the world’s ills. I wanted to just be focused on my singular goal - getting home.

But this?

It offended me on a deep, visceral level. I would not stand for it.

“Not with the people you’d be bringing along.” Legend firmly said. I rolled my eyes.

“I’m happy letting Alexandria out.” I said. “Plus, I’m completely confident in my ability to escape.”

Honestly, I was a hair less confident than I was claiming. Legend was still frowning, and I felt myself getting furious.

“Are you seriously going to fucking participate in the absolute atrocity that is the Birdcage when you have a chance to do something about it?” I asked in a clipped, dangerous tone of voice.

To his credit, he looked abashed.

“No.” He slowly admitted. “I can even help give you a few names we know are innocent.”

I beamed.

“Excellent! Alright, where am I heading?”

“Can you get Alexandria out first, please?” Legend asked. “You’re clearly confident, and a cut above, but I don’t want to risk my friend getting stuck with you.”

“Sure!” I said. “Anything I can tell her to get her to chill and be a little less aggressive?”

Legend hesitated again. For supposedly one of their top capes, he sure seemed to have confidence issues.

“I don’t think I can give you our stand down phrase.” He said. 

Made sense. I wouldn’t give a random Classer giving the Sentinels a hard time any of our passwords either.

“Alrighty! Well, let’s see if I can get things done with minimal damage to my property.” I said.

I cracked open the door to my [Manor] a hair, and teleported back in.

A bunch of fighting - Alexandria was a rank amateur who was far too used to punching down, and had no skills fighting someone just as fast, plus the whole ‘is a mortal, has only lived a few decades’ issue - and screaming later, quite a few harsh words, and a broken teacup later, and I’d managed to extract Alexandria out of my [Manor].

I did not like the woman. 

“Shoo.” I told her, once we were out. She was shooting me poisonous looks.

“As-” She started to say. I plugged my ears with my fingers.

“Blah blah blah can’t hear you.” I talked over her.

Did I mention I didn’t like Alexandria one bit?

Some frankly childish bickering later, and a dumb argument I eventually flew away from, we were finally on the move. Without the dark-towered woman in tow.

Legend was fast. Faster than I was, and his ability to turn into light made me immensely jealous. I wanted to get a Spirit skill and the eventual elemental transformation in Radiance. I just wasn’t there yet. Maybe studying him would help, but I couldn’t exactly ask him to sit still and let me prod him until I got the skill.

Well. I could, but I didn’t think I’d get anywhere, while revealing a little too much about my abilities. ‘Let me study you and get a major power up’ nooo that wasn’t going to work.

I estimated it’d take me two days, tops. Half a day of travel there, a day to run around collecting people, a quarter of a day to travel back, and a nice round up to account for any hiccups. Then it was back to dealing with the facism problem.

Brockton Bay wouldn’t burn itself down in that time.