Chapter 64

It didn’t take long to give the tour to my somewhat ungrateful guests.

Honestly, I should’ve expected Aisha to act the way she did - she was a fucking gremlin agent of chaos, cut from the same cloth my Cassie was, so random perverted comments like the miniature bomb she’d dropped over the phone should’ve been expected. Hidden Intuition made me extremely aware of the ticking time bomb of testosterone following behind me as I led the Undersiders through the Palace, but if the strength of his sucker punch meant anything, I knew that I wasn’t in any actual danger.

I’d slam him on his fucking neck if he tried me again, sure, but I didn’t necessarily wanna DDT Aisha’s only brother - without her permission, at least. Fortunately Brian wasn’t stupid, and any anger and wariness he felt for me stewed deep in his gut instead of burbling over. I didn’t plan to give more than one free swing.

The tour ended about half an hour later, with the six of us - me, Cassie, Lisa, Brian, Rachel, and Trainwreck - sitting in the lounge area of the main atrium. It had taken a bit of pestering from me to get Trainwreck out of whatever Tinker fugue that had him banging on that power armor in the garage, but the declaration of doggy company quickly had him taking the platform upstairs, where the metal knight made a bee-line for Rachel’s dogs. 

The surly girl had only just avoided kicking him in the face for invading their personal space, and it was only his obvious and deliberate care and gentleness that kept her civil, if extremely vigilant of any sudden moves.

‘Still gotta get him a cat,’ I reminded myself amusedly, watching him stare hard at Judas with an unblinking gaze. Behind us, hanging over the cozy nook we were all sitting in, a flatscreen TV silently played the Channel 7 news - showing some chubby blonde kid speaking in a courthouse.

My attention strayed back to the current conversation as a certain witch’s cape name was uttered.

“-believe that Panacea joined your team,” Lisa smirked, leaning her slim elbows on her knees and propping her chin up on her clasped hands. “Invictus is threatening the dynamics of Brockton Bay, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the big fish are getting a bit nervous. Especially New Wave. How’d you pull that off, anyway?”

“Hehehe…” Cassie leaned back into the couch we were sharing, casually buffing her fingernails against her shirt. The indentation of my body in the cushion made her sink in more, causing the petite girl to accidentally slide against my chest and ruin her cool image, but she recovered surprisingly quickly. 

Her eyes shone brightly when she glanced back up. “That’s really frickin’ easy to answer, blondie. We’re just built different.”

…

I held back a cringe, and Cassie’s lidded gaze darted up to me. “W-what are you groaning about?! You introduced that saying to me!”

“Amy joined Invictus ‘cause we were a better fit for her than New Wave. That, and she’s my girlfriend. Don’t know ‘bout the dynamics of the ‘big fish’, and I don’t really care. I’m just doing what feels right.” I took over the hacker’s role in the conversation, tossing my arm over the back of the couch and cracking my neck. Cassie huffed, but no one commented on how she leaned into my abs, burrowing her head against my skin with a shameless grin.

Lisa narrowed her eyes. Although I knew that I was closed to her powers, she may as well have been an open book for mine - the minute twitch of her jaw, the way she avoided looking at Cassie’s clinginess, and the slight flexing of her fingers against her chin… 

Lisa is curious. Lisa is impressed. Lisa is envious. Lisa is envious of your power. Lisa is envious of Cassie’s position. 

I knew what she was playing at, but I doubted she would get what she wanted. Invictus didn’t need a Tattletale.

“I get it,” the teenager sighed, unclasping her hands and straightening her back. Her bottle green eyes stared unerringly into mine, her lips pulled up into that wide, smug, vulpine smile. Only now, I could see just how fractured it was. How desperate. “You’re powerful, Jason-“

I noted her usage of my name, even though the apathetic look on my face didn’t shift. At her side, Brian pulled himself from his brooding staring contest with the wall to arch an eyebrow at his former(?) teammate.

“But like I said on the night you murdered that snake fucker Coil, the crazy shit you can do - the breadth of your potential… it’s wasted dealing with the street-level politicking and subterfuge. You need someone to handle the paper pushing and networking, and as capable as your team is-“ She shot a purposeful look at the drowsy e-kitten lazily nuzzling herself further into my arms, and the silently kneeling Trainwreck still stuck in a staring contest with Rachel’s dog.

Without skipping a beat, her voice low and serious, Lisa continued, “They don’t know the game like I do. I know I’m not super strong, or super fast, but that isn’t the playing field for Thinkers like me, is it? I work in information. Mind games. Taking miles instead of inches, and twisting people’s words and promises into weapons for us to use. Be honest with me; who in Invictus has that capability, besides maybe you?”

The silence was as sudden as it was electric. I tilted my head, gaze partially obscured by messy lengths of tousled white hair, and took my time observing the surprisingly well-spoken girl in front of me. As much as she tried to keep a poker face, overlayed by a facade of smug confidence, my sharp eyes easily caught the thin line of sweat drifting down her slim neck, into the latex of her purple bodysuit. Her jaw muscles flexed, her eyes wavering as they met mine. 

She couldn’t read me, and that made her nervous.

But she also wasn’t wrong.

I held no interest in playing the politics game with the PRT, or New Wave, or any other Joe Shmoe hero or villain group that waltzed in on Brockton Bay. I was a naturally manipulative person, I’d be the first to admit that - it was a given, considering how I grew up, and my powers only made it easier - but at my core, I was exceedingly blunt. I preferred to summon down lightning to smite my problems, or stick a spear in their guts and tell them to fuck off or shape up. And while that worked so far, who would be the one to handle the delicacies of interpersonal relations with other groups while I was gone?

Cassie and Amy would be coming with me, but even if they weren’t, neither of them were social creatures. Cassie was a perverted NEET who originally came off ‘cool’ because she was too shy and scared to show her real personality. Amy was antisocial as fuck, and quite possibly hated people more than Cassie did. Sherrel was the co-leader and I didn’t regret that choice, and she held an obvious charisma that reminded me of an alcoholic, small-town sheriff, but she was more like me than not - all flash and brawn, without much patience for delicacy. 

Only, I knew how to turn on suave mode. She didn’t.

Aisha and Trainwreck didn’t even count, and Rachel, if she ended up joining, would go right into the same category as those two - throw ‘em at our enemies and watch ‘em do work, but do not put them in a board meeting with Emily Piggot.

So what did that leave me with? 

Obviously, this desperate young girl sitting across from me right now, hankering for a job. Not in the field, but as some sort of… secretary? Spokesperson? I wasn’t desperate for more recruits right now, and honestly, I didn’t want to fill these rooms up with a bunch of semi-competent people just to do it, but something in the way that she laid it all out before me caught my interest. I liked logic and pragmatism, and while I knew Lisa wasn’t the peak of intelligence, even I had to admit that she was persuasive.

Maybe I’d leave the bag open a bit, see what comes out of it.

But first…

“Would you betray Invictus, Lisa?”

Her eyes glinted victoriously. “Of course not.“

Lisa is smug. Lisa is triumphant. Lisa is lyi-

CRACK.

Immediate, overbearing pressure filled the room as I unshackled the raging, celestial waterfall that was my mana. Lisa’s eyes, previously so cool and collected, nearly bulged out of her skull as her upper body folded forward, her chest colliding with her thighs with a loud, latex-covered smack. Over the past week I’d attempted to train this magical bastardization of Conqueror’s Haki, and although I still wasn’t sure of the intricacies of how it worked, I’d managed to get it to a state where I could focus it mostly on one area - in this case, Lisa’s portion of the couch.

Even then, I could feel Cassie, previously drifting off into a lazy sleep due to the warmth of my body, shudder and stiffen against my skin. Brian was the closest to Lisa, so he immediately broke into a cold sweat, his body unconsciously quivering as he leaned away. Trainwreck and Rachel, having been silently ignoring the conversation in favor of watching the dogs roll around and play on the floor, flinched and turned their attention over to us.

My lips twitched into a wry smile.

“Answer again, but consider your fuckin’ words carefully. If you lie, I’ll kill you.” I wouldn’t straight up murder her, of course, but overwhelming magic power had a way of scaring the dishonesty out of weaklings.

And Lisa was weak. Smart, but weak.

She barely managed a nod, fighting against the weight of about 10% of my maximum mana pressure(badass name still in progress), and instantly, the weight faded away.

“… W-what was that?” Lisa’s voice quivered shakily as she pushed herself off of her own thighs, a low whimper escaping her throat as her spine clicked back into place. It took only a glance for Hysh to work its way into her body, healing whatever pulled muscle my sudden ‘attack’ inflicted on her back. She flinched, and then groaned as several other aches and scrapes fled with the suffusion of golden energy.

“Magical pressure,” I shrugged, my arms still thrown over the back of the couch. “Don’t worry ‘bout it. Answer my question.”

Her cheeks were red, sweat visibly falling down her soft white skin, but there was no more smugness on the girl’s face - no, that small taste of my real power was like a bucket of ice cold water on what had previously been a small flame of triumphant confidence. I’d pulled the rug out from under her before she could secure victory, and that made her sloppy. It made her emotions easier to read.

“I- Ahem,” Lisa cleared her throat as her voice cracked, scrounging up what semblance of self-respect she could. When she spoke again, her voice didn’t waver. “I wasn’t lying when I said I wouldn’t betray Invictus. I’m not fucking stupid - I know how strong you are.”

“You don’t,” I responded easily, waving my hand, “But fuck it, that doesn’t matter. You’re still lying. Playing games. Stop that before I play harder.”

The threat sunk in like an anchor. Lisa bit her bottom lip, her sharp green eyes flashing from left to right as she tried uselessly to get a bead on anything to use. When neither her power or her own intuition was able to grab anything from my stoic visage, she scowled. “… I wouldn’t ‘betray’ Invictus for a shitty reason. Like I said; I know how powerful you are … or, at least how powerful you’ve shown yourself to be. And I like living, thank you very fucking much. Plus you guys have a ridiculous base, a dragon, and you can empower your capes - that’s a sweet fucking deal. But I refuse to be enslaved by another Thomas Calvert, so if it came down to it, and you were treating me like shit and abusing your power over me? Hell yeah I’d do my best to leave. And if that means betraying you, so be it.”

She needed a moment to breathe, which she covered by reaching out and grabbing her open can of coke with hands that still shook. Lisa glared at them, the tin bending beneath her fingers as she clenched it tighter, and the villainess brought it up to her dry lips.

I watched her for a moment, before glancing over at Rachel, who was staring straight at me with a determined glare.

“What about you?”

“You treat me and my dogs right, let us roam the mountain and collect more for our pack, and I’m loyal.” She grunted, crossing her arms over her chest and leaning back in the dining chair she’d dragged from downstairs. Clearly she hadn’t wanted to sit by her former teammates. “Keep us fed and protected, and we’ll fuck up whoever you want.”

“Hmmm…”

Rachel is weighing your dominance. Rachel is impressed. Rachel is being honest. 

Even from that brief exchange, I knew how best to handle the animalistic girl. She wasn’t drawn-in by long-winded speeches or positive affirmation, Hidden Intuition whispered in my ear. She was more wolf than human when it came to socializing, and for her, strength, dominance, and action spoke louder than words. Cowing Lisa was one thing and it impressed, but her eyes were still flinty. Critical.

Force of Spirit filled my mouth with liquid gold, its magic lighting up the synapses in my brain, and I allowed the instincts from the ability to guide my body.

My stoic face shifted into a grin, my white teeth on clear display, and I stood to my feet, gently setting Cassie down on the couch behind me. My posture was already firm, but I made sure my head was held high, shoulders pushed back as I walked past Rachel. She was forced to look up at me due to her seated position - something that grated on her on some instinctual, base level. Being beneath another person, beneath another dog was a sign of submission, and she wasn’t one to submit to someone purely because of their supposed power. I’d have to work for it, even if she didn’t even realize that her bestial instincts were testing me.

Raw aethyr pressed down on her shoulders, a weight like firm, strong hands, and the girl grunted as her ass smashed right back down into the seat.

My grin didn’t shift when she glared up at me, her thin lips pulling back into a snarl. I met her gaze evenly, not hiding the fact that that mysterious weight was me. I didn’t have to, and she wouldn’t appreciate the secrecy anyway.

“Stay sitting for now,” I drawled, my voice low. Her dogs had swung their heads around to watch me warily, cowed by the previous feeling of magical pressure I’d exhibited only a short few minutes ago, but I didn’t pay them any mind - not yet. The fact that the normally brash Rachel did nothing but watch me, her snarl lessening ever so slightly, showed that the move was the right one. “That goes for all of you. Trainwreck, stay and keep an eye on ‘em. Cassie, come with me to the Atelier.”

“Eyup.” The massive suit of armor grunted, standing to his full height effortlessly. With the Steed Stone attuned to his soul, the ease in which he could use his gear had increased significantly, what with the weight of all worn armor dropping to zilch. It was almost unsettling how fast he could make those pseudopods move his oversized metal limbs when he was really pushing himself. That rocket-powered suit of armor he and Sherr were working on would turn him into a mobile fucking Gundam.

As he moved to the side and crossed his arms over his barrel-like chest, Cassie was sliding off of the couch and hopping up to her feet, a loud yawn escaping her mouth. She stretched like a cat, her slim back arching and she clawed her hands up to the ceiling. “Ahhhhhn~. Alrighty right right, we’re gonna talk serious business, yeah?” she breathed, straightening up and walking to my side. “‘Prolly about Ms. Smuggy Smirk Face and Aisha’s brother.”

“We’re sitting right here,” Brian frowned, a haze of dulled annoyance crossing his pinched face at the mention of his sister. “And my name is-”

“She knows your name, Brian. Iris is fucking with you,” Lisa cut in, rolling her eyes boredly. It was easy to pick up the minute traces of envy her body language showed towards Cassie, but fortunately enough, it didn’t seem like it was jealousy aimed towards my romantic relationship - at least, most of it wasn’t. There was just a natural friction there, with Cassie’s role in my life giving her a lot of authority most wouldn’t have.

When the boy didn’t say anything more, her lips pulled up into that same Smuggy Smirk, and she looked over to me. “I know you know that I’m right, even if I might come off a little overzealous and try hard. All I ask is that you try to see it from my point of view, alright? Those Thinker powers of yours gotta be good for something. I know you saw my honesty.”

Rachel snorted, and all eyes turned towards her. Rather than shrink away from the attention, she bared her own fangs, a mix between a grimace and a grin making for a somewhat unattractive combination. At least she kept her teeth clean. “‘Honesty’. Funny. Already said my piece - I’ll show my strength in the fight. All she got are pretty words.”

“Because my position won’t be out patrolling on the streets anymore, getting friction burns from Fido One, Two, and Three,” Lisa deflected smoothly, crossing her legs and shooting a patronizing glare at her former teammate. It seemed like our presence, and that of Trainwreck looming over Rachel only a few short feet away, gave her the confidence to oppose the feral girl. “You wouldn’t understand that though, would you? It’s easier to try and bite your way out of every problem just because you have a little bit of power. Ironic, since you go crawling to the next ‘alpha’ you think can protect you. Brian wasn’t big and bad enough?”

The boy in question turned ashen, the knuckles in his newly healed fist cracking as he gripped the couch. “Aye, Tats, don’t bring me into this-”

“You wanna get your face torn off!?”

“You wanna ask for permission first… bitch?”

Four growls rippled through the air like the splitting of rocks when you crushed them, and I felt my annoyance rise. To my eyes, seeing Rachel Lindt lunge out of her seat and across the short distance towards a calm-looking Lisa was a motion that could’ve been done in slow motion for all that my brain cared. My senses were solidly placed in the range of superhuman even without my enchanted mask, and with the mask on, my reflexes were quick enough to dodge shit faster than the speed of sound.

A normal, moderately fit teenager had nothing on bullets.

Even then, with all the time in the world to defuse the situation, I didn’t act. Mainly because I saw the fruits of my magical labor beginning to show themselves.

Trainwreck acted immediately, his humongous bulk moving forward quicker than it had any right to move. Before Rachel could get more than a foot away from her chair, he was right there behind her, easily gripping both of her wrists in one massive gauntleted fist as he swung her around and slammed her face right back down into the spot her ass had just been occupying. The wood buckled but held, and Rachel let out a quiet, dazed groan as her brain rattled in her skull.

Subdued, if somewhat brutally.

Her three canine companions weren’t idle, though. They weren’t mutated by their mistress’ power, but they were still relatively large dogs in their own right. Feeding off of her aggression, two went for Trainwreck while the largest one - Angelica, I noted - darted for Lisa’s throat. It was gratifying, in those fractions of a seconds, to see that cool haughtiness crack for the umpteenth time as danger stared her so close in the face…

But now wasn’t the time for mauling, and my Cassie knew that.

The adorable sorceress stepped forward, and in a dazzling flash of blue light that was a strange mixture of magic and LEDs, her visor was covering her upper face once more - only this time, there was a minor difference. While her visor was unchanged, retaining its slick, vaguely magitech-like design, her hands were now clad in white and black gloves. Small pink ‘beans’ were cutely sewn into the fingers, resembling that of a cat’s, but the most notable part of the design was the bright, glowing blue crystals attached to the back of the palms.

Mana Crystals - or, at least, a bastardized version that I finally managed to create with Infusion and a nauseating amount of broken and now useless sapphire gems.

Artificial Mana Crystal (Uncommon)

A newbie artificer’s attempt at artificially creating what is completely natural in countless other worlds. By channeling mana inside, the user is able to use this Mana Crystal as a magical power source for enchantments, magitech, and all other manner of magical craftsmanship - though, keep in mind that it is an imperfect replica of the real deal, and thusly, inefficient. Overuse and overcharge will lead to the swift destruction of this item.

It had been hell trying to figure this one out, but Cassie’s eager and hopeful face was more than enough motivation to get it done. It took longer than even Amy’s staff, and after 48 hours of damn near constant experimentation, I’d done it - and I was certain that I could make more until we went to loot one of these ‘countless other worlds’. It had been the last thing she needed to complete her MagiLink, and seeing as the visor’s base was too small for the somewhat chunky crystals, she’d attached them to the back of her gloves and linked the two through magical Bluetooth.

I had no clue how that worked, but she’d seemed overjoyed, so I didn’t really give a shit.

“Bad doggy!”

There was a snap of fingers, the twinkling of bright blue mana glinting within the Mana Crystals, and then Cassie let out a loud, jubilant cackle as she slammed her right palm forward, a grapefruit-sized ball of light green magic flying from the open palm of her glove and slamming into Angelica’s side mid-lunge.

Calm, an Apprentice-level Illusion spell. Impressive.

As the dog abandoned its attack with a whine, claws clattering on the marble floor as it ducked its head and shivered, Cassie was already turning her attention to the dogs scratching ineffectively at a stalwart Trainwreck’s metal flank. 

“Hehe, this is kinda fun. Bang!” She grinned as she shot two more balls of pacifying magical energy at the angry hounds, each one slamming into their backs and sinking into their fur in rippling waves of soft green light. Like clockwork, they immediately backed away, whining and huffing in confusion as their instinctive aggression was quenched in a metaphorical bucket of ice cold water. 

Within seconds, the entire altercation was taken care of without me having to move an inch. Judging by Lisa and Brian’s wide-eyed stares and Rachel’s muffled curses, my companions had made quite the impression, too.

Good. I wanted everyone trying their best during the spar.

“Urgh- Get the fuck off me, shitstain! She was asking for it!”

“Fuck up, runt.”

CRACK!

The wooden chair made an ominous cracking noise as Trainwreck applied more pressure, and Rachel abruptly stopped struggling, a whine escaping her throat as he leveraged his superior physical strength and bulk. There was no showboating behind this act - no ulterior motive of displaying his dominance or brutality. For Trainy, this was simply him doing his job and roughing up some wild bitch that needed roughing up. His deep, gravelly voice was as emotionless and bored as ever.

If anything, that made his manhandling even more disrespectful.

As I silently stood at the mouth of the lounge, arms crossed over my chest, Lisa’s wide eyes caught mine. She opened her mouth to speak - probably to try and save face after yet another unsanctioned act of baiting and violence - but my lips were faster than hers.

“Silence.”

The unnamed Ulgu spell shot from my baleful silver gaze like a laser beam of writhing black smoke, and Lisa could only let out a choked off gasp as the magical darkness wriggled its way into her throat and nostrils, plunging her voice into nothingness. The next glare was not magical in its function, but the intent was clear.

Shut up and sit down before you die.

She didn’t need her powers to read the brazenly displayed threat in my face.

She shut up and stayed still.

“You can let go of her, Trainy,” I sighed, walking forward and resting my hand on Cassie’s head. She beamed up at me, her visor still bright and active on her face, and I just knew she'd been recording her first usages of her MagiLink - probably for later readjustment and calibration. My lips split into a proud, approving grin in spite of my annoyance, and I stroked my long fingers through her short bob. 

“Good girl.”

The hacker preened beneath my palm, gloved fingers wiggling as sparks crackled against their toe-beaned tips. “Oh trust me, Archmage Black…I know. Fufufu.”

Did she just-

… Whatever. Fucking weeb.

Trainwreck grunted his understanding, releasing his hold on Rachel and taking a clunky yet swift step back. She was immediately on her feet, hackles and fists raised as she squared up to the man who stood at least three heads taller than her. Her shoulders shook, a split lip leaking blood down her chin, but while there was fear in her glaring brown eyes, there was also an abundance of grit. Determination. 

Rachel is scared. Rachel is frustrated. Rachel is stressed. Rachel is confused. Rachel doesn’t know what to do.

She didn’t want to fight him, or me, but she wasn’t good at delicate situations. She was feeling cornered, both by Lisa’s picking at her insecurities and the danger my team and I exuded.

She felt like an outsider, filled with so many overwhelming emotions. There were a few magical ways to calm her down, and even more physical ways, but Rachel probably wouldn’t take too kindly to me manipulating her emotions, and she wasn’t really in my wheelhouse when it came to physical appeal…

I resisted the urge to sigh again.

Might as well get the party started, then. Cassie and I could talk about all of this later, and getting her opinion after she fought against them would probably work out the best anyway. Besides, Aisha had to be nearby at this point.

“Seeing as there’s a lotta tension that needs to be taken care of, and I don’t wanna have to punt you fuckers off Mount Invictus just yet…” I ran a hand through my hair, a smirk - this one noticeably darker than my usual roguish grins - forming on my lips. “Follow me to the Dojo. Let’s cut the bullshit and get this show started.”

Everyone perked up at that, but Brian looked aggrieved. “Is Aisha coming? … Are we fighting her, too? I won’t-“

“You will. And if you don’t take lil’ Imp seriously, she’ll fuck you up. Horribly. Now c’mon.”

Without glancing back at my unlikely crew of heroes and villains, I began heading towards the right wing corridor. Cassie was at my side immediately, humming a quiet tune beneath her breath as she swiped at holographic screens that floated in front of her, and it took the others a few more seconds to get up and follow me.

As we stepped through the threshold, another idle thought came to me.

“Oh- and one last thing. Fight amongst each other again and I’m stepping in. Physically. So stop trying my patience, eh? It’s disrespectful”

Grumbled and muttered acquiesces followed, but the volume heightened into a much more spirited agreement once my magical pressure breached through my core once again.

‘Good lil’ muggles.’

I was getting tired of these brats shitting on my fine hospitality. I was a good host, Grimmy-damn it!

__________________________________

Aisha leaned against the massive marble wall of the Dojo, trying - and failing - to rein in the snickers that threatened to escape her plump, traitorous lips. She probably should’ve expected it, considering the crying-laughing emojis Cassie had sent her after the brief phone call, but nothing in this literal hellscape of a world could’ve prepared her for this.

Brian. She was going to fight her fucking brother.

The thought shouldn’t have made her as excited as it did, but months upon months of locked-away resentment was starting to bubble its way back up her esophagus, and Aisha couldn’t find the inner willpower to resist. 

All of their recently purchased workout equipment had been pushed to the side of the room, and in the center, a large circle had been scorched into the floor with magical fire. Inside of this circle, carefully stretching out their hammies and arms, were the three she would rui- uh, defeat in polite and honorable battle - and across from them, looking decidedly unimpressed while playing on her phone was the ever adorable Cassie. Behind her, like a golem prepared to face off against his wizard’s enemies, was a stone-faced Trainwreck. His rocket hammer was held firmly in his oversized fist. 

Thinking back on it - the fact that Brian turned out to be Grue, the supposed leader of the Undersiders, didn’t actually surprise Aisha at all.

Honestly, she’d sorta figured it out already. When you were on the upper end of 6’7” and one of the few notable black capes in the entire city, there weren’t too many ways to completely hide your identity from your sister. Even if your super busy and self-involved job as a supervillain criminal thief made it so that you practically treated her like she didn’t exist. Wasn’t it ironic that, even with his meal ticket as dead as a doorknob and his professional life in shambles, Brian still found ways and reasons to not check up on her?

How long had it been since he visited? Two weeks? Three? He’d always hated Celia’s apartment, said it smelled like moth balls, weed, and bad decisions, but you’d think he would just try more. That he would stop seeing her as a problem to fix, a duty to uphold, and see her as his little sister who just wanted to fucking hang out with her busybody brother and go do totally normal sibling things, like - she didn’t know - hit the arcade or skip rocks over the ocean.

Or nah, that sounded boring as fuck. But it was the thought that counted, right?

No, instead she had to find out via a prolonged text from Cassie that her brother was gearing up to accept a ‘favor’ from Avalon in exchange for beating three of Invictus in a sparring match. 

It was so stupid she wanted to cry.

If he’d come back to check on her, he would’ve known that mom was doing amazing. That she’d gotten promoted to head hostess at Fugly Bob’s, had a pay raise of two dollars and fifty cents, and she’d been as clean as a whistle for multiple weeks now - proven, because Aisha forced her to take drug tests every Friday without fail. Then none of this would’ve happened, he could’ve quit his stupid failure of a supervillain career, and they could’ve been brother and sister again, without all the extra melodramatic bullshit.

Celia would never be his mother ever again, healing or not, but Aisha didn’t need that. She didn’t even want it, either. She just wanted…

She just wanted…

What did she want?

Power, to kick ass and be the best Nightblade (such a badass name) she could be.

Friendship, which Invictus had been giving her ample amounts of. Almost too much sometimes. Sherrel could get clingy.

And finally, fun.

Like kicking the ass of her idiotic brother and his motley crew of wannabe thieves.

‘Huh,’ Aisha thought, pushing herself off of the wall and tossing her black scarf over her shoulder. ‘Guess I don’t really need him. I want him to be my brother again, but it’s not like-’

It’s not like she needed his attention. Not when she had all that she had now. 

So all that was really left was the ass-kicking. Those were thoughts that she felt more comfortable thinking about.

A golden hilt stopped her in her tracks before she could walk forward and deactivate the memory-wiping facet of her power. Aisha paused, glancing down at the weapon poking against her sternum. The hilt was slender and gleaming, a burnished gold criss-crossed design that peeked through a silken sleeve of black cloth. Tied beneath the slim bronze guard were blood red tassels that seemed to blow in some mysterious, invisible breeze - short enough to not get in the way, but long enough to look fucking badass if the sword was swung. The beautiful weapon was sheathed in a simple black scabbard, the tip of it encased in the same gold that that the hilt was designed with.

Even without seeing the blade or knowing shit all about katanas, Aisha could tell that this one was masterfully crafted. Almost uncomfortably so.

And, of course, the man holding it out to her was…-

“Y’know,” she rested her hands on her hips, throwing a faux glare up at the smug-looking man. “If you keep giving us all this magical shit, Jason, someone’s heart is gonna break. Didn’t your mom ever tell you that gifts are the quickest way to a girl’s soul?”

“Nah, but Dating Sims did,” he smirked, raising the long ass katana and gently tapping her on the temple with the pommel. “Take her, see how she feels. I know you prefer knives, but Grimmy just gave me Masamune and I wanted to-”

Masamune, huh? Even the name was edgy as hell.

She loved it.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it! And thank you. I am not shameful enough to reject powerful artifacts from our very own magical sugar daddy. I’m pretty fuckin’ shameless, actually.” Aisha grabbed the sheathed weapon with both hands and yanking it from his hands-

Or, at least she tried to. He held it for only a heartbeat longer, purely to show that his hand didn't even move an inch, before releasing the scabbard and allowing her to cradle it in her arms. What a fucking show-off.

God, Jay was so fucking cool.

“Play it cool, ‘ight? This is a spar, so exercise restraint and don’t go for killshots; see this as training and a test for you, Aisha. Not that you’d try to kill your brother.” His unnatural eyes twinkled in that very particular way they did whenever he knew something that you didn’t.

Aisha snorted. “You’d be surprised. But I got you - no maiming, stabbing, gutting, slicing, or decapitating in a way that kills ‘em.”

Jason’s smug smile widened into a wolfish, unrepentant grin. “Yep. I’m on standby with healing, but take this seriously.”

“Aye aye.”

“Then good luck, lil’ Imp. Knock ‘em half-dead.”

…

It was crazy how one conversation with that man could dispel almost all of the gray smog clouding her brain. Aisha found herself smiling beneath her mask, whistling a jaunty tune under her breath as she cradled her new - possibly temporary - katana and made her way over to Trainwreck and Cassie. The cyber-sorceress glanced up at her approach, her visor glowing and on full display, and offered a small, comforting smile.

Aisha shot her with the patented finger-guns.

“Gah!”

And Cassie proceeded to fall onto her back with a gasp, much to the naked confusion of everyone else in the arena - except for Jason, who only shook his head and walked past the giggling duo.

As the hero stood in the middle of the circle, announcing the start of the spar…

Aisha unsheathed her new blade, placed the scabbard on the ground, and deactivated her power.

For just a moment.

Brian’s naked look of absolute surprise and horror was a treat she wouldn’t forget in a very, very long time.

And then those three cute pooches became the size of monster trucks, and Aisha had to lock the fuck in.

One hand holding the ridiculously light katana, the other sparking with electricity, the Nightblade crouched.

And with a surprised whoop, Masamune singing in her grasp, the Nightblade flew forward.

Like a gust of wind.

____________________________________________

Perk From Previous Chapter:

Masamune (Final Fantasy - 100 CP): A katana unparalleled in both sharpness and speed. Simply holding the blade increases your attacking speed by a great deal, letting you move like the wind for brief periods.

A/N: 

Sorry for the late upload! Wanted to get this out two days ago, but Lady Life kept hammering me in the ass and I only just remembered the safeword. Today we finish up the conversation between Avalon and the Undersiders, and then we get a small Aisha POV just as the spar is about to start! Can you guess who wins this battle?

Vote on the house, buddies.