Vector

“I assume the portal is where we left it, then?” Gil asked, “Care to walk with me while I check the other one?”

Rose pursed her lips. She was dressed in her suit, which was notably different from the unfused Flechette mostly in color. It was a dark blue, and bulky enough to hide what few curves his slender companion had.

“Yes, but it might be best if you weren’t seen with me in public.” She said after a few seconds of thought. “It will only be a minute or two, yes? Look away, please, and one of you kindly get me something to wear.”

She quickly unzipped her suit, stepping out to reveal practical underwear. Gil, being a gentlema by at least some definitions of the word, politely averted his eyes. In doing so, he didn’t see the process of her transformation. Though she’d certainly gotten a lot of mileage out of the ability to be literally everyone’s type, and even more out of the ability to inflame lust with a glance, both of those abilities paled next to the strongest power granted by her transformation into a succubus.

Her hair grew out and lightened into a dirty blonde mop, which looked vaguely disheveled at a glance but could be more accurately described as “tousled.” Her eyes shifted color to a light blue, and her skin lightened in color a few shades. Her facial features shifted just enough to be unrecognizable. Rose set her jaw in a grimace as her legs shortened with an unpleasant popping noise and her breasts expanded to use the excess mass. By the time Gil turned back around, he found a pretty but slightly gaunt young white woman in an oversized t-shirt and sweat pants from the Skyblock’s clothes pile. No one would mistake her for an Asian teenage superheroine.

“Damn.” Gil said, giving her a once over. “That’s certainly new. Is that what the succubus tag gave you?”

“Among other things.” She said, “I can also seduce most people no matter what I look like, as far as I can tell. I imagine this is more to ensure I don’t gain an unsavory reputation. Now then, shall we?”

“We shall.” Gil said. “Everyone, if we aren’t back in five minutes that means something went seriously wrong; you know what to do if that happens.”

The two stepped through the yellow portal into a dead end alleyway, behind a dumpster. It was around midday and the sun was out, so they didn’t have much trouble looking around. Gil didn’t know much about the city, so he was entirely reliant upon Rose to guide him. After checking a few street signs, she pulled out a printed map of the city and handed it to him. It was a rectangle that folded into quarters, about the size of Gil’s torso when unfurled.

“This is where your other portal comes out.” She said, pointing at the location in question, then hunting for a certain road name. “And this is the road we are on. We are in Merchant territory by the look of things. They holed up in a mall a few blocks that way.”

Gil couldn’t help but smile as a thought occurred to him. He focused on an idea for a moment, then laughed.

“Hah!” He said, “They never seem to think mathematics are worth scrubbing. Hey, do you see anywhere with a dry surface?”

Much of Brockton was at least moderately flooded, so it was a bigger ask than one might expect. Even so, they were able to wipe off the top of a dumpster for Gil’s purposes. He carefully placed the map down and oriented it as best he could.

“So based on the street, this is north, right?”

“Two degrees counterclockwise.”

Gil looked back at Rose quizzically.

“My powers give me enhanced spatial awareness. It’s mostly focused on trajectories, but it bleeds over into other areas.” She said, “What is the purpose of this exercise?”

“You’ll figure it out.” He said with a grin. “Especially since you just volunteered to do this part.”

He put down his transparent tablet, currently in “find” mode, and aligned it as best he could with the map.

“This one is associated with the powers in a can mission.” He said, “This one is for Nessa Biermann.”

“Menja.” Rose said, confirming his assumption. She extended the lines out as instructed, making each reach to the end of the map, with the obvious exception of the line indicating her own location.

“Good job there, by the way.” Gil said.

While Rose worked, he realized he probably wasn’t going to get a better opportunity. He fished in his robe and pulled out a small item that resembled a laser pointer. He’d thought for a while about what he’d do to solidify his hold on Rose; he really did like her, and he’d invested more into her than any other person in his retinue including himself. He’d settled upon the relationship shift; clean, quick, effective, and extremely unlikely to compromise her effectiveness.

At long last, he’d come to the conclusion that she was a truly old fashioned rich girl at heart; there wasn’t much reason to drag her into his bed beyond the obvious. Pacts would mean more to her than any fleeting emotion, and there was one that would all but assure open mindedness on her part when it came to more intimate encounters, as a matter of duty if nothing else.

Relationship start

Patron/client; built on mutual benefit and implicit threat, zero romantic interest, mild affection, moderate trust

Shift to

Married; lifelong formal alliance, merged ownership of assets, near-zero romantic interest, mild affection, moderate trust

“There,” she said, “It is done. So, care to explain today’s agenda? I told you I need to get back to my patrol. Chariot is fairly easy to manipulate, but I still need to check in regularly. They haven’t liked my ‘newfound impulsiveness.’”

“Of course.” Gil said, “It looks like I’ve got four official missions here.”

Gil tapped his tablet a few times and willed her to be able to read it. That seemed to work, as she was able to scan through fairly quickly while they walked through the skyblock to the blue portal. She didn’t stop at Brockton, either, quickly checking Barovia as well.

“Ah. Baba Lysaga? Hideous woman, but powerful.” She said thoughtfully. “I’m a bit surprised to find out she’s real. Mother used to scare Thorn and I with tales of her.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.” Gil said, “Now do the map again.”

She did so, smiling as she realized what she’d just done. The lines pointed at both Menja and the Powers in a Can crossed. Assuming the map was accurate and to scale, he had the approximate locations of both targets.

The Powers were in Merchant territory, inside of a particularly large building a few blocks away from the yellow portal. Nessa seemed to be in an unmarked building on the north side of town.

The two quickly scurried back through the portal, where Rose immediately stripped naked and started pulling her supersuit back on.

“Very clever, dear.” She said lightly. “It would appear that the powers are being held in the Merchants’ primary base of operations. It’s a large abandoned mall.”

“And Nessa?” Gil asked.

“Probably a safehouse.” Rose said, “The Chosen are not foolish enough to have a visible stronghold. If it does turn out to be a central base of operations, let me know. I can feed that information back to my team.”

She gave Gil a quick peck on the lips, utterly bereft of passion but full of familiarity. She also shoved a flip phone into his hand.

“It’s a burner, my number is in there.” She said. “My communications are monitored, so please don’t send me anything too incriminating. You do know how to use a phone, yes?”

Gil frowned, but nodded.

“I thought you were joining the adult team.” He said, “Are they really that controlling?”

“It’s a military operation, and an active war zone.” Rose said with a roll of the eyes. “Director Piggot is a hard ass, and she doesn’t want me transferred. I don’t know if she realizes I’ve been compromised, but I suspect this is approximately how she’d act if she did.”

“Are there any other options?” Gil asked, “I don’t know if we can afford to have you go completely Indy, but if you can’t operate…”

“There’s only one other superhero team in town; New Wave.” She said with a shrug. “They’re a family business, and they just got decimated with the Leviathan attack. I couldn’t join if I wanted to.”

Rose finished zipping up her suit. Gil looked at his mission log. New Wave was on the list of potential factions for his kingmaker mission.

“Tell me about them?” He asked, “I might be able to get you in, family or no.”

Rose raised one eyebrow, but decided not to waste time asking questions when the answers would come soon enough. She knew Gil’s quirks well enough to know he couldn’t keep a secret when he didn’t have to.

“Only four of them are still in fighting trim, all reasonably durable fliers with straightforward powers focused on direct combat. They also have a very potent noncombatant healer, and she’s mostly playing nursemaid to the sixth these days. He sustained brain damage in the Endbringer attack, which Panacea apparently can’t heal.” She said, “Their morale is critically low; I don’t know if they are worth investing in. Can you resurrect the dead?”

Gil waggled his hand, palm down.

“Sort of. I can probably fix the brain damage if they trust me enough to try. If I can’t directly, I can probably find someone or something who can.” He pulled out a strip of cloth and a tiny dragon figurine. “Here. Hopefully we can meet up again before the portal closes, but you’ll need these. The ribbon can turn into any outfit you can imagine; I need you to get Vista to wear it unless you can think of a better target. That’ll capture her and give her some new powers.”

“And the dragon?” She asked, tucking the items into her belt pouch.

“It massively expedites the process of joining an organization you have no business being in. Say, a family business you aren’t related to.” Gil said, smirking. “I think we might have more luck with you in an informal setting. We’ll need to work at it to expand her loyalties, but Vista can be our woman in the Wards. Once someone is in the retinue, I have a lot more options to influence them.”

“Alright; yes, that could work.” Rose said, “I hope you don’t intend for me to seduce all of them, though. I have kept things ambiguous with Missy, but I don’t think I can sleep with a whole family including a married woman. Not without you providing me with substantial assistance.”

“Deal, but it might be a good idea if you can get in close to at least one of them.” Gil said, “If it’s a family operation, you might be able to get away with ‘marrying in.’”

“Perhaps, if I’m extremely persuasive, I might be able to establish a precedent.” Rose said. “I doubt you’ll ever be a full member, given your limitations, but it might be good to build up New Wave’s forces somewhat.”

“One step at a time, dear.” Gil said, experimenting with a pet name. “And before you go, you should be aware that I intend to stay the night with Nessa if I can. Supposedly I’ll be hunted, almost certainly by super-powered individuals. I’m pretty sure I’ll know quickly if the skinheads are my designated enemies for the night, and if they aren’t they’ll probably pick a fight with anyone else that attacks their base.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Rose said. “The PRT might move in to contain the situation if a fight does break out, but I don’t know if I can make any promises we are stretched thin, and don’t make strikes into gang territory lightly.”

“Good enough.” Gil said. “Any chance we can meet up in the morning without raising too many eyebrows?”

“I think I can do one better, actually.” Rose said, then fell to the ground bonelessly.

Gil knelt down to put her in a more comfortable position, then looked around in confusion.

“Rose?”

“Yes, over here.” He heard her voice, just like old times. “I’m conducting an experiment.”

Suddenly, Candress yelped in pain, falling to her knees. She clutched at her face, prompting Keilnei to kneel down and check on her. Rose sat up and looked at the duo.

“Show me your face.” She snapped. “I don’t have much time.”

Candress’s hands lowered, revealing eyes that had changed substantially in the last few moments. They were still a bright, nearly acid green, but not in the elven style where the entire eye was a single glowing orb. Instead, she had eyes that could pass for a normal human’s at a glance. Her ears, too, had shortened and blunted enough to be hidden within her hair.

“A bit of a hack job, but I think you’ll be able to walk around without anyone assuming you’re a case 53.” Rose said clinically. “Apologies for the pain; that fades within a minute or so.”

“You can use your powers through people you possess?” Gil asked, already considering the implications.

“Obviously, Gil. You really do need to be quicker on the uptake.” Rose said smugly. “Keep my sword or skull on your person come dusk; I’ll help you through that if no other options present themselves. Now then, I really must go. Hold off on leaving through the same portal for a few minutes, please.”

She marked a few more relevant spots on his map, kissed him on the cheek, and swept away. She had a patrol to finish.