1.6 Alliance Part 8

“Let’s go!” exclaims Glowbug as she holds Legacy against her chest as they flight into the air via an energy field surrounding them.

So this is flying without armour? Feels strange. And interesting. I kind of like it. Minus the pressing up against Glowbug’s chest. That is annoying.

They fly through the kitchen and down the corridor before entering a bedroom. Legacy assumes it is Alexandria’s.

This place is about three quarters of the size of my basement and it only includes her bed, a couple of desks and several wardrobes. All this space for her personal use without having to put any of it aside for necessaries such as food and storage. Alexandria is a lucky person.

“So, this is Charlotte’s bedroom,” says Glowbug as she drops Legacy on Alexandria’s massive bed, “I know the bed is a bit big, but she can afford to have a queen sized bed.”

It is about the same size as the table and the chairs. It is very big.

“The boxes of Charlotte’s old clothes are in the corner,” says Glowbug as the others also enter the room, “She was planning on donating them to charity, but I’m sure she won’t mind giving some away to you if they fit you. You can call me Nicola by the way or just Nic for short.”

“Well, if you girls are going to play dress up on Guardian, I’ll leave you to it,” says Shift as he exits the room, “My sympathies by the way Guardian.”

What does he mean?

“I’ll watch,” says Flamefly as she hops down on the bed as well while Pathfinder leans against the wall next to the door.

“Let’s start with underwear,” says Glowbug or Nic as she prefers to call herself, “You seem like a C cup like Charlotte was.”

More of Glowbug’s yellow energy tendrils emit from her and pick a pair of skinny jeans from the top box.

“Actually, would you like to try these on first?” asks Glowbug, “It would probably be awkard than stripping you naked.”

“You think,” mutters Pathfinder under breath.

“I don’t care to be honest,” replies Legacy, bemused by these events.

I don’t even know what all this ‘dress up’ business is. Or why Glowbug would want to see me naked.

They go through most of the Alexandria’s old clothes when Legacy is internally interrupted by her companion.

You got a message in your armour from Scott.

Okay.

“How are things going?” asks Alexandria as she enters her bedroom.

“We gone through most your old clothes,” replies Glowbug, “Guardian is your old size and body shape so they fit really well.”

“I can tell,” agrees Alexandria as she looks Legacy over, “Nice dress Guardian. It looks really good on you.”

Legacy looks down at herself. She is currently wearing an aqua silk dress that is close fitting to the point Legacy feels she might be just a bit big for it. The sleeves are long and narrow while the skirt only goes down to just above her knees. The dress is tight around her waist and hugs her hips and thighs.

I prefer my armour. In a fight, my mobility would be restricted, especially around the upper legs and this dress offers no clothing.

Agreed. Armour is much better and more practical than this dress.

“I have to check my messages,” says Legacy, “It will only take a moment.”

Legacy uses her power on her armour. The companion is correct and Scott has sent a message to her armour.

Gears called. He found the location of supervillain supplying the fake technology in addition to a potential mafia target for you and Protector to take out.

The rest of the message only contains the data about the two places. What do you think I should do?

Tell Alexandria and her team about the first bit of information, but keep the second bit second so you and Cain may act on it later.

Okay.

“Done,” says Legacy, “I have some information on the person supplying the not-technology weaponry.”

“Really?” asks Alexandria, “Wait, how did you just check your message? You just stood still for a second.”

“She is a technopath Charlotte,” points out Pathfinder with a slight shake of her head.

“Oh, right,” says Alexandria, flushing slightly, “So what do you have on them?”

“Gears sent me their current location,” says Legacy, “I can send it to your phone if you want.”

“That would be great!” exclaims Alexandria, “I would get to take down a supervillain. The government has had my brother arrest so many already while I’m stuck here in Chicago. He’s actually how going after another one down in Houston with Lightbringer.”

“Won’t we need to go and get arrest warrants or anything?” asks Flamefly.

“Nope,” says Pathfinder, “The designated supervillain Armsmith has already got an open warrant for his arrest due to him supplying criminal elements with dangerous weaponry. We got after him using the information supplied by Gears and Guardian, we are just acting on a tipoff. While Armsmith might try to get out of it by claiming that we acting on illegally acquired information from another wanted individual whom we are not arresting. But I doubt the government will let Armsmith off so easily. They’ll lock them up one way or another and the public won’t mind as long as a dangerous supervillain is safely locked away from them.”

“How did you all figure all?” asks Glowbug.

“My power,” declares Pathfinder, “It lets me figure stuff like this out as long as I have enough information. Plus I read the reports we get sent. Doing that sort of thing is surprisingly helpful.”

“But the real question here is do we bring Guardian along or not?” asks Glowbug.

1.6 Alliance Part 7

“What does that include?” inquires Guardian, “I never done that before as far as I can remember.”

“What? Don’t you have any friends or anything?” asks Glowbug.

“I do,” replies Guardian, “There is Gears, Sentinel and Alexandria.”

“You can call me Charlotte,” says Alexandria as she blushes, “It isn’t like, well, everybody knows who I am so it doesn’t matter if you call by my real name or codename.”

“I understand,” replies Guardian.

“You know, it would easier to socialise if you took your armour off,” says Flamefly.

“I can do that,” replies Guardian, “As long as you don’t try to arrest me like Alexandria tried to earlier.”

“Is that why-” Alexandria starts to ask only to stop as Pathfinder lets out a grunt of pain,

They all turn to look at her and Pathfinder looks embarrassed.

“I tried to use my power on Guardian,” explain Pathfinder sheepishly as she half looks away from them, “But it went all funny and wasn’t working. She was disrupting it somehow and making it wonky and weird.”

“I am not doing anything that I am aware of,” replies Guardian, “So if I am interfering with your power, it is a passive effect.”

“That is interesting,” says Alexandria, “But please you take off your armour. I promise that none of us will try to arrest you. Even though we are supposed to.”

“That is good,” replies Guardian as she uses her power to make her armour come off, “I would probably severely damage this room and injure some of you in my escape.”

I’m glad that I was able to convince Leo to make it so my armour could be automatically removed. While I don’t use that function per say, it means that I can use my power to don or remove my armour.

“How exactly could you do that without your armour?” snorts Flamefly.

“If I told you, you would be able to prepare for it and that option would no longer remain valid for me to use,” replies Guardian as the armour finishes coming off, leaving only the helmet on her head.

She removes her helmet and looks around at the group. Legacy doesn’t wear much beneath her armour, only a white tank top and black cycling shorts. Both are close fitting so that the armour can go on top of them.

“Definitely not an Aphrodite,” mutters Glowbug as she snuggles up against Legacy, “Perhaps a Bellator like Gemma?”

“What are you talking about?” asks Legacy as she notes how uncomfortable close Glowbug is.

“Your Enhanced rating,” says Alexandria, “The majority of superhumans some sort of physical change to them when they get their powers. It is permanent and seems to be a separate change to their powers even if it happens at the same time that they get their powers.”

“There are different types of Enhanced as well,” says Shift, “The most common are the Adonises and Aphrodites. Basically focusing on beauty with physical enhancements being secondary. Adonises such as myself are male while Aphrodites are females. Aphrodites and Adonises also have some supernatural beauty comforts as none of us girls have to worry about body hair, sweating or bras anymore. Bellators are those that while they are more handsome or beautiful, it is in a more practical and normal manner. Compare Gemma to Charlotte or Nic.”

Shift indicates towards Pathfinder, whom Legacy assumes is Gemma. As she looks at Alexandria and Pathfinder, Legacy admits that she does notice the difference in physical appearance between them.

“So as you can see, Vanessa, Nicola and I all have at least E cups while Pathfinder is only a C,” explains Alexandria using terms that are meaningless to Legacy, “Not only that, but we Aphrodites don’t need bras and lack a lot of body hair from the neck down. But while they might lack beauty compared to an Adonis or Aphrodite, Bellators have a lot internal improvements to their body such as better healing, speed, reflexes, toughness and other stuff like that. Adonis and Aphrodites also have those improvements, but they are weak compared to Bellators.”

Ah, Gears must be a Bellator. But I don’t think Cain or I have that sort of power. I’m certain my technopathy is my only power while Cain has had any physical changes since he has gotten powers.

That is correct. You have not undergone any physical changes due to me. You do have other abilities than technopathy.

What are they?

Not yet.

“The last two ratings are Abnormals and Monsters,” says Shift, “Abnormals are those that are mostly human, but have some inhuman traits while Monsters are clearly... monstrous. For example, Metal Man was an Abnormal due to his metal skin.”

“Given how your figure isn’t good as mine and you’re clearly not an Abnormal or Monster, you have to be a Bellator,” says Glowbug as she gives Legacy a light punch to the chest.

“I don’t think I have an Enhanced power,” says Legacy, “I’m certain technopathy is my only power.”

“Are you sure?” asks Shift.

Yes.

“Yes,” Legacy tells him, “That is what my companion says.”

“Your companion?” inquires Glowbug.

“That is what I call the source of my power,” replies Legacy.

That is correct right?

Indeed it is.

Good. It would have been embarrassing to get that wrong.

“Is your power sentient or something?” asks Pathfinder.

Yes.

Of course you are.

“Of course,” says Legacy.

“Seriously?” demands both Shift and Glowbug and Legacy nods.

“I’m going to have to tell my brother and the others,” says Alexandria suddenly as she floats to her feet, knocking both Legacy and Flamefly off the couch, “You called your power your companion right?”

“Yeah,” replies Legacy as Glowbug uses tendrils of yellow energy to help Legacy back up.

“I got to go,” says Alexandria.

“Sure,” says Glowbug, “Mind if we let Guardian try on your old clothes? She looks about your old size.”

“Go ahead,” replies Alexandria as she floats into the balcony, “Not like I’m going to use them anyway.”

“Great,” says Glowbug as she clasps her hands together and smirks at Legacy.

1.6 Alliance Part 6

They all look over at Guardian as she opens enters the building properly. The door was locked, but Guardian solved that obstacle the moment she made contact with it.

So my armour doesn’t block my power when I need to make physical contact. Good to know.

“Hello,” says Guardian as gets out her new bio-scanner.

The others begin to greet her in return, but stop as Guardian begins to scan them. She does the Alexandria’s trio first as since they are bunched up together, Guardian can get them all in just a single scan. She follows it up by scanning the boy and ends it with a scan of the bewildered practical girl.

“Urr, what was that?” asks practical girl.

“A biometric scan,” replies Guardian as she sends the data to Leo

He can use better than I can. Leo and Jaylyn do like to collect any information they can get their hands on.

“That-,” starts the practical girl before hesitating, “That feels like an invasion of my privacy.”

What on Earth is an invasion of privacy?

“I’m sure Guardian didn’t mean to do that Pathfinder,” says Alexandria with glance at practical girl 

before looking at Guardian, “Right?”

“That is correct,” replies Guardian.

After all, I can’t mean to do something if I don’t know what that something is.

“Still, I don’t feel comfortable with her having my biometric data,” complains Pathfinder.

“Here then,” says Guardian as she tosses the bio-scanner at Pathfinder.

“Umm, sure,” replies Pathfinder, a bit surprised as she catches it.

“You’re just giving it away?” asks the girl in black and yellow.

“It isn’t like I can just make a new one,” replies Guardian, “I only made that one less than an hour to go.”

“But what about the data?” insists the girl.

“I have already sent it off,” says Guardian.

“Oh,” says Pathfinder as she stops fiddling with the bio-scanner’s touch screen, “I guess that is no point in having this then.”

“It is still useful,” disagrees Guardian.

“I suppose,” mutters Pathfinder.

“Let’s move onto the introductions now ,” says Alexandria as she grabs a hold of Guardian’s hand and begins to pull her to the centre of the room, “We all know who Guardian is and what she is known to be capable of so we don’t need to cover that again. And I don’t believe Guardian knows who we all are.”

“No, I don’t know who you all are,” confirms Guardian, “Actually, I know who you are Alexandria, but other than that, no.”

“Well, I’m Glowbug,” says the curvaceous girl in the black and yellow spandex, “I’m a class B energy projector and the second most powerful member of the team.”

“What exactly these classes?” inquires Guardian, “You, Alexandria and Gears have all mentioned them, but I don’t know what they are.”

“Oh, they’re the new way of measuring how strong a power is,” explains Alexandria, “You see there some pretty major jumps between different levels of power so the experts have been able to divide them up into different classes. D Class is the least powerful class with the powers of that class being within the range of that normal tech can do. They also generally have realistic limitations. C Class is the next step up. The powers of that level are definitely superhuman and have less natural limitations. While they can be countered with mundane technology, it is pretty hard to do so. B Classes like myself and Glowbug are the really powerful and are pretty much impossible to beat via mundane means even they coordinated and well planned. A Class are the top of line powers and the parahumans with those powers are outright impossible to defeat with mundane methods short of WMDs. Even D and C Class parahumans can’t take on an A Class one. Within those classes, sometimes a plus or minus is added to show that they are particularly weak or strong for that level. For example, while I am not quite A Class, I am stronger than almost any other B Class so I’m rated B+. That makes sense to you?”

“Yes it does,” says Guardian as she and Alexandria sit down on the couch.

“Let’s continue with introductions,” says Alexandria as she puts her feet up, actually use her power of flight to have them over mid-air, “So you know me and Glowbug has already introduced herself.”

“I am Shift,” says the older teen boy as he takes a seat opposite them, “I can teleport up to a metre in any direction through anything with a three second cool down. I also have C Class super speed along with the ability to switch between different types of sights such as thermal, ultraviolet and other types like that.”

“I’m called Flamefly,” says the black haired girl as she sits down next to Alexandria and Glowbug plops herself on the couch right next to Guardian, “I’m a C Class Pryokinetic with the ability to create my own flames. I also have flame powered flight, fireproof and can unleash bursts of immense heat from my body.  I also have a bunch of D+ abilities such as super strength, super speed, super senses, self-healing, super toughness and enhanced reflexes. Oh, and I can track people by their heat signatures.”

“I’m Pathfinder,” says Pathfinder as she continues to take off to the side, “I can calculate the right...path to achieve something. It can be something physical such as an destination or something metaphysical such as the best course of action, what an opponent will mostly likely do or figuring the out an answer to a question.”

“I am Guardian,” says Guardian, “And I’m a technopath. So now what?”

“We have fun and hang out I guess,” says Alexandria as she puts her arms around Guardian and Flamefly.

1.6 Alliance Part 5

It is forty eight minutes after five o’clock when Legacy checks to see if she has gotten a reply from Leo yet, just as she finishes modifying an old set of power armour for Cain. It turned out that the difference in size between them was a significant factor and that resulted the old suit being broken apart and Gardium being used to fill the gaps.

Legacy grins as she sees that she has received a reply from her partner and friend.

I’ll try and figure how Cain’s power later or at least if he has any physical improvements. I would complain about recruiting about consulting me first, but I have done the same. One of my old friends has become a C Class Brick and has kept it secret. I convinced her to join me. I’ll get started on armour for both her and Cain.

By the way, I come up with some codenames for their costumed identities. Defender for Allison and Protector for Cain. They fit in with the theme of non-descriptive, but heroic sounding names such as Guardian, Sentinel and Sentry and don’t reveal anything about their powers.

In other news, Jaylyn has made some serious progress on our new base below Lake Michigan. While it won’t be completely done until several months time, it should be operational within another week, two at most.

So we got another member to add to our team. We’re going to have to come up with a name soon. With Cain and Defender, that makes a total of six of us. What does Leo mean by C Class Brick? Alexandria mentioned that she was B+ Class while I was C Class earlier?

Ask Alexandria about them.

Good idea. How should I reply to Leo?

Express your approval getting another member and the progress on the new base. Ask him about getting a name for the group.

Good ideas.

Following the advice of her companion, Legacy incorporates her approval into her reply and ends it off by asking for ideas on what to call their team.

Let’s see... only ten minutes to go until six o’clock. I might as well leave now. I’m sure Alexandria won’t mind if I arrive a bit early.

Legacy dons her helmet again and Guardian exits the basement, making sure she isn’t spotted before flying off into the air. Guardian certainly doesn’t need anyone finding out about the basement before Leo and Jaylyn are done with the new base.

The Clarkson Penthouse is on the other side of the city to Legacy’s basement, but with her KEP boots, it is only a few minutes long flight.

Guardian finds her way of flying interesting. The way that the KEPs boots are point determines her direction while the minor KEPs on her front and back allow her to go up or down while pointing forward or even just keep her from being pulled down by gravity.

Alexandria should consider herself lucky that her power basically works be just ignoring gravity. Then again, it could be considered that I’m lucky to be able to fly as the vast majority of people on this planet can’t. Here I am an only three minutes early.

Guardian lands on the balcony of the penthouse and glances inside. Scattered around the main room is a group of five.

While Guardian only recognises Alexandria in her costume, the others are just as distinctive and are clearly superheroes as well.

Chatting with Alexandria is a pair of girls, one wearing black full-body minus the head spandex with yellow as a secondary colour. Her blonde hair flows down to her shoulder and there is a smile on her face. Her figure is as curvy and shapely as Alexandria’s.

The other is wearing red shorts, an orange tank top with yellow boots and gloves made of what appears to be fireproof material. On her face is a yellow domino mask that doesn’t really hide anything while her black is loose on her back. Her curves are as grand as those of Alexandria and the other girl.

I wonder why so many superhumans are physical impressive and beautiful? Perhaps it is an aspect on their powers that improves their bodies.

In the kitchen is an older teen, but not quite an adult, boy in white and blue spandex, also covering his entire body minus the head. His physique is also rather grand with lots of muscles with short dark brown hair just ruffled in just the right way to make it look very good.

The last member of the group is another teenage girl off to the side of Alexandria and other two, clearing listening in on their conversation without actually being part of it. Her body is tamer than the rest with only an above average figure similar to Guardian’s.

Her costume seems more practical as well with dull dark green spandex covering her body while she wears brown gloves and trainers. Her grey mask actually fully covers her face and has goggles on top. She also seems to be quite lean and fit.

“Guardian is here,” declares the practical girl.