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Becoming the Dawn [Worm/Pokemon] Celestial Menagerie inspired

Reader mode
Turncoat said:
I wouldn't call it boring at all, I just didn't expect Purity and wasn't sure what to think about her inclusion. But that's about it from me.
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Ah. Just to be clear Dawn fucking hates Purity and they will never be friends. I know there's a lot of Woobie Purity in the fandom but this fic is not going that direction.
 
Nice. Hate that Purity is getting even that much from the MC, screw the Nazi bitch. She's far too much of a hypocrite for me to ever root for her. Glad to hear its not going woolie Purity route

Btw @BravelyFlying, would the situation be different if she had confirmed it was a Master or a Thinker? A lot of fics play off the MC encountering Lisa in her civies but that has to be a major breach of the Rules right? Using her power to sniff out weaknesses and vulnerabilities like that.
 
Kolarthecool said:
Hate that Purity is getting even that much from the MC, screw the Nazi bitch.
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Unfortunately she's the most powerful blaster on the east coast that isn't Legend and has a body count. Objectively Piggot made the right decision of just healing her so she'd leave.
Kolarthecool said:
Btw @BravelyFlying, would the situation be different if she had confirmed it was a Master or a Thinker?
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If she was a Master than the plan would've something like 'Evacuate the area and then send in the PRT agents trained in anti master protocols and not a woman who just started being a hero today and the ward whose not allowed to fight.'

If she was a thinker then it'd be 'minimised contact. Reduce vectors of information and then have local security escort them out.

They can't really arrest them because being a parahuman is ultimately not a crime. Existing is a public space with a thinker power is not a justifiable reason to reveal that your newest hero can unmask capes.
Kolarthecool said:
A lot of fics play off the MC encountering Lisa in her civies but that has to be a major breach of the Rules right? Using her power to sniff out weaknesses and vulnerabilities like that.
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Not really. Dawn is ultimately a hero she trades privacy for resources and teammates. Enemies knowing her powers is the cost of those things. Just like everyone knows what Dauntless does or Vista's manton limit.

She had no reasonable expectation of privacy at the public petting zoo she advertised.

It's kind of the difference between a 'hot' cape and a 'Cold' cape in India. She's a hot cape with hot cape benefits, she doesn't get to also have the benefits of being a cold cape. It's why she can't be a Protectorate member and use poison types.

That said she doesn't have to reveal every card up her sleeve, just some.

For Lisa even if she was in the crowd learning all she could that's not breaking any rules. That's her power it's literally her job to gather info on her enemies.

If she used say Dawn non existent civilian identity to blackmail her that would be breaking the rules. But if she learned about it and did nothing with it then it's fine. Dragon knew about Taylor for months and it's only when she did something with it that it became an issue.
 
hell ye, Purity redemption(?) that still shows her dark side, even if it isn;t redemption I still her being used since she is strong and useful. Good characterization plus good use of semi filler chapter. Excited for next 1
 
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Finds this and like it so far,have a few sticking points for me like them wanting to take her pokemon or the lack of payment because let's be honest. A healer should be getting a minimum 250k off the rip but I get why it was glossed over. The kayden thing was interesting direction but im here to see what happens.
 
Svn0one said:
... is it Ponyta?
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Ney, but Ponyta is one the 'Pick immediately' list.
TheToFu said:
have a few sticking points for me like them wanting to take her pokemon
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It's less them taking her Pokemon and more them borrowing Hattenna so they can doing the healing part for Dawn freeing her time so she can train and focus on things in Brockton Bay.
TheToFu said:
A healer should be getting a minimum 250k off the rip but I get why it was glossed over
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That's just the base Salary aka what she gets for sitting in her ass and doing nothing. Heroes get bonuses whenever they do any non mandatory PR events, Crisis points, capture villains or participate in S class events.

And it's big money too, Dauntless made $130,000 for guest staring in a tvshow one time and it's actually one of the reasons that lead to his divorce.
 
Cross posting this from SB as I feel like it sums up my thoughts on Purity pretty well.
While I'm not going to dispute Daryl Davis his methods unfortunately don't work for a known murderer that can destroy buildings.

Even if Purity, debatably, wants it to be better she's got no path to redemption or, at least, one she'll accept. Because even if she stops being racist that's of cold comfort to the families of the people she murdered.

The only real way she can meaningfully atone in societies view is by accepting responsibility for her actions by going to the birdcage and that's not going to happen.

Purity situation reminds me a lot of a PHO Sunday characters Diamond tooth. To paraphrase he was a cape that was stranded in Australia after attempting to join a villain group and now can't leave the country with his expensive costume.

And a commenter completely summed up his situation in a way that encapsulates my views on Purity

"From my perspective it sounds like you've already lost the ability to get out of this with everything you want. So now you have to choose what you're comfortable not getting. You could give up on your expensive costume and fly away right now. You could give up your secret identity and go to the PRT. Or you could sacrifice all reason and common sense, and throw yourself on the mercy of supervillains." - Glaistig_Painway

Purity has multiple contradicting desires that prevent her from ever redeeming herself. There is just no world where she: stays out of jail, keeps custody of her daughter, gets to continue her mission of cleaning up the bay, is no longer associated with Max, is forgiven for her crimes and gets to still be friends with her nazi buddies.

Because as a result of her decisions she's lost to ability to get all those things - If she ever had the ability in the first place.

She can at best pick two and even that's an ask. So she just … doesn't make a decision. Which is an understandable response but in the end prevents her from ever truely trying to be better.
 
Becoming the dawn 1.4 New
  • Threadmarks
    • "I'm going," I said with a forced smile on my face that would make All Might proud, "Don't get involved."

    Purity gave a tentative nod clutching her purse with one hand and the now redundant crutches in the other. We both knew she wouldn't be here when I got back.

    That was all I needed to turn on my heel and jog out disabled bathroom and into the corridors that all malls shoved their bathrooms in. I breathed a sigh of relief, the air somehow better now that I didn't have to share it with a Nazi.

    The hand that shook Purity's felt slimy and did my best to ignore it as I kept a steady pace to stop myself from bowling kids over if they came around any corners. Following in my steps my mon trailed behind, physically they might've been as strong as a person but they were still less than one feet tall and couldn't keep pace with my much longer legs.

    I dismissed both of them. Hatenna was too important to risk right now, I still needed her for Dinah and Impadimp was…well, Impadimp. He'd been remarkably well behaved for Purity but I didn't trust him to stay that way without the easy source of negative emotions that was Hatenna. Instead bursting from a light in front of me Rowlett jumped landing on my shoulder talons gripping tight to remain on. Razor sharp feathers ready to be shot out at a moment's notice.

    I wished I didn't have to consider that as an option. But Uber and Leet were Coils men, the people he sent undercover to Bakuda and who he used to try to kill Skitter with.

    And I just revealed I could unmask capes.

    I wasn't sure if he knew, wasn't sure if he was even Brockton Bay right now. A phone book told me that Thomas Calvert lived in Boston and I knew that he travelled between the upper-east coast cities frequently. For all I knew he was in New York or something.

    Whatever this was, it wasn't an assassination. Coil didn't roll like that, would never be so risky even in a disposable timeline. This had to be something that just coincidentally happened on the same day I met Purity.

    The curse of being famous I guess.

    But that didn't mean whatever he had planned was any better. After all, he still owed Cauldron a favour or two.

    Fidough appeared from the same flash and yipped as she ran beside me her croissant like tail wagging.

    "You good out there Triumph?" I asked into my radio.

    His response took a few moments too long and when it came his voice was panting, "Leets got some kind of freeze ray, non lethal and his minions need to spray some water on you first but if you can't break it you're pinned. Got me, got Charlie squad. Managed to blast myself free but the others are stuck."

    Charlie's squad was the PRT team that was the unofficial Wards babysitters and the team that represented the first two letters in PRT. They were nice people, with shiny suits and the latest gadgets meant to attract the people that couldn't trigger or wanted to be Batman.

    I couldn't judge, I mean who didn't want to be Batman.

    But it made sense they were targeted first, they might've been PR guys but they still had containment foam.

    "Fuck. What about the kids?"

    "Evacated. Kind of."

    Kind of?

    Making it out of the corridor that led to the bathrooms I could see what Triumph meant. Crowds of people were moving away from the playcenter in waves, a tide of families and friends keeping together so they wouldn't lose each other. But they weren't running for their lives.

    No, as Security guards were trying to direct people away and towards the exits. Instead, despite the villains attacking everyone went up the escalators in order to get a good view from the second floor.

    I glanced at the crowd. There wasn't a single person here in the mall that looked scared. Nervous maybe but they weren't terrified. Instead all I could see was people pulling out their phones and recording it like this was some kind of live performance.

    It hit me that this was what Tattletale meant before everything went to hell. The Game, what she called Cops and Robbers. This wasn't an attack by monsters, this was just some clout chasing by two losers that were going to get their asses kicked.

    They'd go home with a story, maybe brag to their friends how they saw a cape fight in person, maybe they'd donate to Uber and Leets website. But the important thing was that they got to go home in the end.

    "I see what you mean. The important thing is they're safe and out of the way. Your orders, Director?"

    "Triumph, try to free Charlie team if you can but your safety is the priority, flee if you need to. You're not a member of the Protectorate yet and until then the same rules for Wards apply. Dawn you're not cleared to fight Villains by yourself but an exception will be made here. Use your monsters to scout what other tinker tech they have and prevent them from escaping. Backup is fifteen minutes away, you just have to delay till then."

    Piggot's voice was calm and professional, not even holding a trace of her usual dislike of me in it. It was like that the barely hidden bigot Piggot was gone and in her place was Lady, the woman who'd survived Ellisburg.

    There were a lot of reasons to hate Piggot but I couldn't lie to myself and say she wasn't good at her job. Knowing that she was the one holding the reins on this brought me a measure of relief that wouldn't be there if I had to make the calls myself.

    "Got it boss," I said as I sent a command to one of my pokemom, "Triumph take Falinks and work with them to get Charlie squad-"

    "No," he cut me off, "Give me Duraludon,"

    I hesitated wondering what he meant. Falinks would've been faster and he should've known that. He read my files. Was he making a mistake?

    No, he was the one with eyes on the fight, it must've been for a reason.

    "Okay," I said, sending the order. From my tenuous link with my Pokemon I got the sense that a white and gold blob had started talking to one of them but I couldn't make out anything else, even with four of my pokemon in the same place I couldn't see any clearer.

    "Be careful. They've got about four minions spread out looking for you."

    Road clear of any people I tried to sprint as fast as I could to the petting zoo but only after a long moment that I realised that wasn't going to happen, as with burning lungs that felt like someone shoved hot pokers through them I ran out of breath before I even got halfway there and it was all because of my costume.

    The knight part of my costume might not have been real plate armour but it was still professional body armour woven with chainmail to stop bullets and blades with all the weight that it implied. I'd exercised regularly but that was more counting calories and slimming down then putting on muscle, I just wasn't built for this.

    Worse, these were new boots and I hadn't broken them in. The heel kept shaving at the back of my ankle so badly that I wouldn't be surprised if it was bleeding.

    The realisation that I wasn't strong enough for the job I've always dreamed of pressed deep on some old and barely faded scars that my conversation with Purity had pulled open. It was humiliating to the point that it burned.

    As if I needed another reason to hate my body.

    So instead of getting there as fast as possible but dead tired I slowed down to a medium jog. Breathing through my nose all I could smell was yeast as Fidough ran ahead of me, barking her head off like she was a guard dog and not a pile of dough with legs.

    She made it around the final corner that led to the pens before those barks changed into a cry of pain as a meaty boot kicked her in her face sending rolling along the floor. It took her a moment to stand up on her shaky legs.

    "What the hell!?" I heard a man's voice yell around the corner that sounded just as startled as I was. From the same man I heard as he pulled a cord and a motor started, the smell of petrol in the air.

    A spray of water like that from a pressure washer shot out from around the corner. But when it hit Fidough it might as well have been napalm as the spots it hit turned goopy, streaks of dough fell off her body in chunks as large as a child's hand.

    With one shot he almost killed Fidough.

    Without slowing down Rowlet jumped into my waiting hand and I tossed him forward like a shot ball. He flew through the air less like a bird and more like a lawn dart. Twirling through the air he threw his feathers at the person around the corner.

    The man yelled something else that I couldn't understand as by the time I got around the corner Rowlet had already jumped him, pelting him with kicks that kept him to the floor.

    "Get this fucking thing off me!" He yelled at me covering his neck with the back on his hands and he curled up in a fetal position.

    Further up in the middle of the pens Hakamo-o was fighting a giant muscled man in a red and gold body suit who was to my surprise managing to not get his ass kicked. Whenever he was hit the man bent around it like a tree in the wind. Aipom was fighting three guys in spandex and despite being only summoned yesterday she was holding her own, using Quick Attack to keep her distance, a combination of Tail Whip and Sand Attack to create openings before she took advantage of them with Stab boosted hits.

    Triumph was using Duraludon who was digging into the thick ice that coated Charlie team as a shield as he shouts waves of concussive blasts at a guy in a Megaman costume who shot balls of snow at him. When both blasts met in the air it was a draw with neither blast overpowering the other.

    Instead they stallmated, the snow falling out of the sky while absorbing enough of the energy that it barely tickled Megaman who could put more down range than Triumph and wasn't giving him the time to charge up a stronger blast.

    Falinks Protect would've bought him that time but I couldn't see them anywhere. They were completely missing from the battle and it worried me. I couldn't sense that they were dead so where were they?

    I wanted to run there immediately and help but I had to secure this guy first. Didn't want to get sucker punched by him later.

    The man on the floor was in a green skintight suit, like a very basic power ranger costume, on his head was a motorcycle helmet with a red dot drawn in the middle of the visor and next to him on wheels was an actual pressure washer.

    Not Uber or Leet, just a minion.

    It took a second for me to realise who he was cosplaying as due to how shit his costume was but after a moment I realised he was a Sniper Joe, a basic goon from Megaman that was the equivalent to a Kooper Trooper or Goomba.

    Glancing at the pressure washer it looked just like the kinds you see at a hardware store as I couldn't see anything that looked like a tinker had messed with it. But then again I wasn't a tinker so I couldn't say, on the back of it was a bright jerry can with a garden hose that siphoned it into the intake valve.

    Sniffing the liquid that came out of it all it just smelt like regular tap water.

    And yet it almost killed Fidough in one shot. It must've been because she was made out of dough. If Fluffy was enough to give the pokemon that had it a supereffective weakness to fire type attacks then being a walking sack of bread was enough for the same to be true for water.

    And she wasn't the only one of my pokemon that was weak to water. I was starting to piece together Coils' plan. Water for Fidough and Duraludon, ice for Rowlet and Hakamo-o. He wanted to embarrass me, even if I won the fact that if two of the least respected villains gave my pokemon so much trouble it would almost nullify any win I'd get.

    "Hands behind your back," I said, reaching into a pouch and pulling a round, metal slip. The man didn't comply but that was fine because I was going for his legs anyway.

    Stepping on the back of his thigh, just above the knee I looped the slip around his kicking ankle and pulled a line of metal cable from it, spotting a nearby fire extinguisher I wrapped the cable around it and pressed a button on the slip.

    The cable retracted, dragging the man across the floor and tying him to the wall. Even if he managed to pull himself free he'd be dragging the fire extinguisher with him. The tie was just one of those inventions that happened when superheroes had been around for two decades. It was meant to tie someone two to four stories up in the air like Spider-Man so that the PRT could get them but since I didn't have time for that so an impromptu ball and chain would have to do.

    "Fi, do, do," my doglike pokemon whined half her face glooping onto the floor. The smell sickeningly sweet.

    I clenched my teeth at the sight. Even if I wanted to, Hatenna couldn't fix this and would probably make it worse. Fidough dissolved into a burst of red light as I returned her to the mental box all my extra pokemon were kept.

    Something bubbled in the pit of my stomach, a cauldron of anger brewing at the duo for getting one over on me.

    Already I was one mon down with another missing. In the back of my mind I reached and poked at the growing charge trying to get a sense for how long it'd take to fill. It was only an hour away from being full.

    There was nothing to do but bear it. She wasn't my strongest anyway. As long as Hakamo-o was on the field it didn't matter how many of the others they defeated.

    I just couldn't imagine Hakamo-o losing.

    One minion down I reported it to the console and jogged forward into the play pen and it felt like I was stepping into the colosseum. The shadow of the mall faded leaving me standing in the light that streamed down from the windows on the roof, above the second story wrapped around like an octagon where various kids were watching down on me. I couldn't hear what they said when they saw me, the noise blurring together and drowned out by the blood pumping through my ears.

    Instead all I could focus on was Megaman.

    He wore something thicker than a bodysuit, a blue coverall that was a size too small showing off what he must have thought was an impressive muscle suit he was wearing beneath it and the very stuffed crotch section.

    On his head was a blue helmet like mine that extended to cover his eyes with a thin black visor. Over his right arm was a large cannon barrel that was obviously tinkertech. Slung over his back was a canvas bag.

    Everything about him was wrong and pissed me off. Megaman was supposed to wear spandex not coveralls, his face was supposed to be completely bare so the visor just made him look like a shitty Judge Dread knock off. It was a half assed effort and wouldn't get a passing grade on reddit.

    It wasn't the worst cosplay I'd ever seen. I'd seen grown ass men dressing like V-tubers before. But it was lacking something, it felt like the soul was missing.

    The golden snitch that hovered over his shoulder marked which member of the dynamic loser duo he was, if the cannon hadn't already.

    Leets head turned towards me hearing as I charged at him despite how much it ached, just to break the deadlock. But despite looking away his aim didn't suffer as he kept sniping at Triumph with unnerving accuracy.

    "Took you long enough to show up," Leet complained with a nasally voice, "What kind of hero no shows at her own event? You ruined our plan."

    I don't care shut the fuck up.

    He reached into his canvas bag and pulled out a water balloon. With a single hand he tossed it at me, the balloon more accurate than I expected from someone like him. My boots squeaked on the floor as I tried to juke it.

    Rowlet launched a quill at it. The balloon burst in the air, spilling water all over the floor and creating a large puddle between him and me.

    I twisted, Rowlet holding a wing out to bleed the momentum from my charge, us managing to stop just before the puddle.

    It might've looked like water but it just as easily been something he'd tinkered up. Withdrawal had liquids that didn't obey Newton so there was a chance Leet managed to do something similar that he hadn't shared with his goons.

    Rowlet tossed another quill at him but the blaster turned ninety degrees bending at the barrel and shot another snow ball at it. The grass quill didn't have the same power as one of Triumph's shouts and the snow barreled through it like it wasn't even there flying through the air straight at Rowlet.

    I blocked it with my gauntlet, the ball splattering into pieces. Strangely even if it was through layers of protection it felt lukewarm. Was it not real ice?

    His cannon automatically turned and fired at Triumph but it didn't matter.

    "Crud," Leet said in realisation before he was knocked off his feet by a wave of sound. The second he spent firing at me was enough time for Triumph to charge up a stronger blast.

    For about a metre or whatever the American equivalent was the nerd tumbled across the ground. The water balloons he still had in his back burst, soaking him in the same liquid he'd thrown at me. But since the canvas bag was waist height so when it burst, it, well.

    It looked like he pissed himself.

    The golden snitch fluttered above him, capturing in all the gory details.

    "Leet!" Uber yelled. He wore a comically large body suit coloured red and gold, he was big but not in a muscular way. Instead, like Popeye, parts of the suit were just swollen and bulging while beneath the suit was a normal, if lanky, person.

    But the most eye catching thing about him was the large, extended metal chin that was as long as his head was tall.

    A chin I recognised.

    Shit.

    Uber jumped but it was more like he fell upwards. Ten, twenty, thirty feet went by but he just kept rising till his head was almost hitting the glass windows on the ceiling above. He hovered there for a moment but I didn't stay to watch.

    I already knew what was coming.

    Instead I ran desperately towards Triumph and the trapped team. Seconds felt like minutes and the distance felt like miles. Even with burning lungs as I jumped over one fence I knew I wouldn't make it but I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I didn't try.

    The clanging of scales behind me was the only warning I got as two arms that were as strong as oak picked me up into a bridal carry and leapt forward. My stomach lurched as with six short leaps Hakamo-o covered more ground than I could manage in a minute of sprinting.

    Over his shoulder I saw Uber slam into the ground with enough force to create an impression on the ground. There was no noise that followed, no bright light. The only hint of something coming was the puddle Leet created rolling across the ground like it was being pushed by the wind.

    Hakamo-o's arms opened, dropping me onto the floor in front of Triumph. Pain burst through my tailbone from a hard landing. My ass apparently being the least armoured part of me.

    Glowing white hexagons formed in front of Hakamo-o's outstretched arms like planes of glass. It was Protect one of the moves he got when he evolved. Those glass planes joined together creating a wall without gaps not that it mattered as it just went around the barrier. A wave of pressure washed over me pushing indiscriminately. Fences smashed into the barrier as I rolled backwards like I was under the tide of a wave, only half remembering to tuck my chin into my neck and slam my hands on the floor to break my fall like Miss Militia taught me.

    I heard glass shattering and the shrieks of the kids on the second floor. With a growing dread I waited for those shrieks to turn into screams of pain but instead they transformed into cheers and heckles.

    In the dozen or some people I thought I could hear a kid mocking Leet for pissing his pants while another was yelling at me 'Hit the fucking gym you fatass,' which I wasn't going to lie to myself.

    That hurt.

    "Dawn," Triumph said, shaking my shoulder.

    "I'm fine," I grimaced as I pushed myself off the floor. My back and everything lower hurt just as badly as my pride did and my pride was feeling pretty bruised right now, "Today fucking blows."

    We were getting our asses kicked by the worst Capes in the city. If it was the Undersiders or Faultlines Crew I'd understand but them? It made me angrier than I thought possible. A pride I didn't know I had struck, I was dumped in the deep end with the strongest and walked away with what I considered a victory only to wade my way into the shallow end, my feet touching the bottom and still flounder.

    If I had a charge I would've said to hell with it and evolved Hakamo-o. See how they'd deal with a pseudo.

    "You're telling me," one of the PRT squad said. They looked like Mr. Freeze gazed in their general direction. Ice clung to their feet, pinning them to the floor where their heavy gear had down the rest leaving them splayed out on the ground where the ice had fused their jackets to the floor, others had been quick to pull their jackets off and were able to prop themselves up before the ice had got their gloves.

    "Eh, it could be worse," another said.

    The ones with the containment foam sprayer had unsurprisingly gotten the worst of it with thick layers covering every limb with special attention paid to the sprayers. Thick groves were carved into it by Duraludon thinning it out some but a precision machine he was not and he was only able to shave parts around their chest to free up their breathing.

    Though if this was them after Duraludon had chipped away at them I didn't want to imagine how frozen they'd be at the start.

    "Really, how could this be worse?"

    "It could be your hand that's on my ass."

    "Well my hand is on Rodrick's dick so maybe I do wanna feel your ass instead."

    Chuckles broke from the frozen soldiers, a warm laugh in all of them as they acted like this was just a casual day at the office. I suppose for them this was. No one had died yet, no one was going too and the only man eating monsters was on our side.

    This was Cops and Robbers. So why was I taking this so seriously? Why was I so mad that a couple of C-listers were kicking my ass. It meant nothing, in six weeks I'd have an entire team of Armsmaster level Mons and I could wipe the floor with them, in a couple months I'd have literal Gods.

    So why did I care so much then? I could only think of one reason.

    Because I wanted to be a Hero.

    And Heroes always won.

    I reached back and straightened the plume coming out of the back of my helmet. Glancing at Uber I saw he had taken the chance to go for Aipom that had been keeping his minions out of the fight.

    Aipom was able to keep out of his grasp by climbing up a pillar but that gave the Minions the chance to catch their breaths and wash the sand out of their eyes.

    "Leet's got an aiming system on that freeze gun, even if he doesn't see it coming it'll try to snipe any attack going his way. Uber got an invisible shaker blast wave when he stomps, Fast but it's telegraphed with intervals in between, he gets a four but we'll play it safe and assume a five. Triumph your thoughts?" I recited everything I saw speaking to the team and Piggot just as much as I was talking to him.

    Triumph's face fell in a well practiced focus. Behind his visor his eyes flicked to mine before they left me so fast I wasn't sure if he picked what I was saying. Five was the maximum I'd still be allowed to fight them. Once you got into the Plus Six levels on the threat rating that's when even the Junior Protectorate members were held back in favour of the people with more fights under their belt.

    If he disagreed with my assessment I'd have no choice but to begrudgingly take the loss.

    And I really, really didn't want to take this loss.

    "Uber's got a brute rating," He informed me of something I hadn't really seen, "he's not strong or tough but he's weightless and he rolls with the punches so hits that land don't have bite to them. Nothing the foam can't handle so that's Brute 3, Mover 2 since I don't think he can go anywhere but up. However I disagree with his shaker rating."

    I bit my lip, "What about it?"

    Don't do this to me man.

    "It's Leet tech," he explained, "The more he uses it the larger the chance it explodes on him and if that happens while he's in the air," he trailed off but I got the picture. He wouldn't risk that happening so another blast as large before was unlikely.

    "Shaker three then?"

    He nodded.

    "Understood Dawn. Backups nine minutes away, keep the villains occupied until then."

    "Same plan as before. Work on getting them free while I distract them till back up arrives. I'm taking Duraludon with me."

    Even as I said those words I knew they were a lie. I didn't plan on only being a distraction - I wanted to win. I was going to win.

    "Got it," he said, "I'll support where I can."

    "Good. Do you know where Falinks is?"

    "There," he pointed at their pen and the tube tunnels they'd be playing with the kids in. Their horns poked out the tops like a shark fin in separate parts of the tunnels. The fins were running around frantically as they tried to regroup but since they were all running trying to find each other that just met they roamed the tunnels just barely missing each other as they ran in circles.

    No-one ever said they were smart but that was just embarrassing.

    I didn't return them. It was better to keep them as a trump card against Leet and they weren't any more precise than Duraludon.

    "Wish me luck," I said standing up and straightening my dress.

    Charlie team and Triumph said their affirmations as I walked forward with both Dragon types beside me. In the shadow of the towering Steel type and with the clanging scales of my strongest I felt as confident as I could be. We stepped over broken fences and scattered kid safe padding. Most of it was damaged but not broken, the only exception being the Wii and the TV that had smashed into two pieces by the blast.

    Hakamo-o growled as we passed it. A hiss trapped in his throat that reverbated through his thick, golden neck armour.

    There was no way to hide my approach from the two villains so I didn't bother. Instead I leaned into it by making Hakamo-o stamp his feet and shake his arms as we walked like the beginning of his namesake as he worked up, boosting his strength for the coming fight.

    As we got close Uber with his gaggle of minions around him walked to stand beside Leet who stood there mean mugging us.

    "So I finally get to talk with our city's newest Princess. I was starting to think you were in another castle," Uber said, crossing his arms. God he sounded so lame. He used his power to give himself a perfect narrator's voice. The kind Duke Nukem would've been proud of but the effect was underpinned by the fact that by going out of his way and using his power to do that in the first place just made it just reek of insecurity instead.

    "Really calling her a Princess?" Leet snarked as he waved his cannon around at all three of us, "With how she hides behind all her animals I think she's more of a Dixie."

    His voice had a certain nasalness to it. A nastiness that compared to when Purity called me a Dyke. It forced me to remember that for as much as we both loved video games this was a man that beat hookers with a baseball bat.

    There were three ways I could've responded to being compared to a monkey.

    The first was the Dark Knight approach, all growls and menace. Dismantle them as a warning to the other villains not to mess with me or my city.

    The second was the Man of Hope's approach. I'd give them my biggest disappointed stare and tell them how much they let me and everyone in their lives down by acting the way they have. How they squandered their potential for good.

    I wanted to pick that option. I had so many dreams of what Leet could do with Dragons' help. He'd been given more options than really anyone not wearing a green cloak but I knew he'd never take it. I didn't need to have read the story to know he'd never take it. He'd lash out thinking I was looking down on him and maybe he'd be right.

    But that option was doomed to fail because I was not Superman. I didn't have the weight of power and a rep of a paragon behind me. I will get there but not today.

    So that only left the last option.

    I adjusted my posture to be more casual, a smirk that would have Tattletale jealous pulling across my face.

    "Someone that doesn't understand a thing about Megaman does not get to make video game insults," I shot back with my nastiest tone, "You think for a duo whose whole thing is video games you couldn't mess that up but I suppose that was too high a bar for you."

    The last option was the Web-slinger route. Be as annoying as humanly possible while backing out all the shit you talked.

    Leet bristled, his shoulders hunched as he shot me a filthy look visible even through the visor, "And what do you know about our mission."

    "I know you're doing a pretty shit job of it considering you're dressed as Megaman and yet you're working with a Robotmaster. Seriously Gutsman? Couldn't you have picked someone cool like Flashman?"

    "Who else gives me the chance to have this glorious chin," Uber said, completely unbothered by the jab, rubbing the aforementioned body part.

    "You're not the problem here," I said changing targets, "It's your loser partner that's ruining this, why the hell are you Megaman Leet? What happened to 'A sense of Justice beyond any compare?' He would never work with Robot Masters. Protoman is right there dude and he's worked with Doctor Wily before - What're you seriously gonna tell me you've never heard of Breakman before?"

    "Of course I have!" he snapped back.

    I snorted, "Sure, I totally believe you. Not."

    Leet gritted his teeth taking a step forward but Uber just grabbed him by the shoulder,

    "Don't let her get to you," Uber said.

    "I bet you only know those names because your boyfriend played the games."

    I just laughed in his face.

    "I could say the same about you, Leet."

    "Shut up," he roared, raising his cannon to aim at me. Rowlet snapped two feathers at him and the blaster automatic shot at the knives overpowering them like it had before them like it had before.

    Uber raised a leg but couldn't react in time as Duraludon smashed a fist into his chest. There was a sound like a tire being hit with a hammer as his muscle suit jiggled like wobbling jelly as he was pushed off the ground gaining about half a Duraludon in height before he fell slowly at the rate of seconds when it should've been in a heartbeat.

    Hakamo-o's tail lengthed in a sheath of purple energy and with a twist of his hips he slammed the tip against Duraludon's back. Whatever Uber was expecting I could guarantee it wasn't a forty kilo, leering steel type being launched at him with his arms wide like he was going for a bear hug.

    Duraludon caught Uber dragging him along for the ride as they two floated to the other side of the mall.

    "I think he's left behind you Leet," I mused.

    "I said shut up," he snapped before he shot a look at one of the minions. The one he glared at aimed a hose at us as the other two split. One dragged a pressure washer over to where Duraludon had pulled Uber while the other rushed me. A spray of water rushed over the top of them as me and my pokemon spread out into a sort of upside down triangle with me at the furthest point.

    That triangle widened as both Pokemon jumped in opposite directions to avoid the water, giving enough of a gap that the Sniper Joe could run between them without getting hit by either mon. I suppose given the choice between fighting the four foot tall martial artist dragon that could smash through a piano and the knife throwing owl it was only natural he went for me.

    I made a mental note to never use this formation again.

    He turned out to be a she as I discovered when she threw herself at me in a rugby tackle. I tried to dodge but she was faster, slamming her helmet into my stomach while she grabbed at the back of my thighs.

    My second fall of the day was remarkably gentler as my armour cushioned it. Sniper Jane got into the mount a second later and smacked a fist I barely felt into my chest while her mother pushed my head to the side forcing me to look away.

    Drawing back on what Hannah had taught me, Falinks appeared on either side of us as I released them. They cheered their little feet stamping in the ground.

    But before they could help, their leader the Brass issued an order and they ran to my feet ignoring the woman trying to beat me to a pulp and formed a line. I couldn't see why but the sound of Protect going up was familiar at this point and I could hear a spray of water hitting against a wall.

    "This is for that stupid monkey!" she screamed completely ignoring the new Pokemon as she kept hitting me in the same spot. She wasn't a weak woman and I felt each hit but it was dulled by the layers of protection. In this moment as I weathered the blows I felt distinctly relieved that for how much it annoyed me I was wearing armour worth more than some peoples cars.

    And this was the part of hero work I had trained for.

    With my padded elbow I wedged into the tender part of her knee and used to like a crowbar to push it away enough to get my leg free. She tried to adjust by pressing down even harder on my face but I grabbed that and managed to slide it off me. She fell and just barely managed to catch the floor with her elbow. Using my newly freed shin I pressed it against her ribcage and pushed with my hips tossing her forward into a half roll.

    I managed to do it not because I was suddenly a Jiu-jitsu master and more that she spent the last ten minutes being beat up by a teddy bear sized monkey.

    "Stay down, the money can't be worth this," I said out of breath. I ordered Falinks to stand guard around the woman as she laid on the ground as I staggered to my feet just in time to Leet aim at Hakamo-o the glass panes of a recent protect shattering to the floor.

    The gun hissed the tip freezing over with an icicle. A heartbeat later exploded into a cone of dense ice. The spread was wide enough that Hakamo-o couldn't dodge even if he tried to. So he didn't, arms extended he risked the double protect and got it, the hexagon barrier appearing in front of him thinner and smaller than it usually was.

    Would it have done anything if it had hit? I wasn't sure. Hakamo-o was totally bulletproof but it was still ice, or at least something similar. I suppose it was better to be cautious and not risk it.

    "I'm getting really sick of that," Leet hissed.

    "Pretty sure Uber's feeling the same about you," I called out tauntingly.

    "Stuff it!" He aimed at me. Three shots were fired and while I managed to block the first two there was no way to dodge the third or fourth.

    Snow blasted at me aimed straight at my mouth. I managed to close it just in time as the top layer of my lipstick, wetted by the moisture from my breath, froze together.

    I lurched back hands going to my mouth as I tried to pull my lips apart. My gauntlets were too wide and not having enough of a grip I opened my mouth as hard I could. The top layer of make up and skin peeling away as I spat it to the floor. Blood dripped down my lips and all I could taste was copper.

    "Mo-o!" Hakamo-o roared lept towards Leet, tail swiveling like a whip he struck leet across the fattest part of his thighs. Leet grunted in real pain as he was knocked to the floor.

    Hakamo-o leered at Leet, his reptile jaws barely an inch away from the villain's head. But despite that even through the pain Leets lips twisted into a smirk and I saw why. There was water dripping off the dragon type's tail forming a small puddle beneath it.

    Leet's legs were soaking wet, so when Hakaomo-o struck him some of that transferred onto his tail.

    Before I could order Hakamo-o away, Leet fired at the puddle. It froze instantly, ice travelling up the tail in fractals that swelled around the limb in a way that broke physics to form a cage that bonded him to the floor.

    Hakamo-o bellowed, a dragonic cry that echoed through walls of the mall boosting the sound like an amphitheatre. My strongest reared back his head giving me time to shoot an order not to kill him as Hakamo-o lashed out with a violet headbutt aimed straight at the blaster.

    The gun tried to kill Hakamo-o shooting him right in the eyes but my dragon wasn't level 40 for nothing and even as his eye froze over he smashed his crown scale down denting the gun and with his teeth ripped the barrel off it like one cracked a carrot in half.

    A spark flashed in the barrel, a bright light not unlike the one created by my power and when Leet heard it he let out a panicked yell. He scrambled backwards out of the reach of my pinned pokemon trying to get the blaster off his arm but the dent had broken it shut and he wasn't strong enough to tear it off.

    It was as I was staring at his face full of genuine fear as he clawed at his own invention that I remembered one crucial fact about Leet.

    His shard was trying to kill him.

    Damnit.

    I might've hated him for everything he'd done and everything he stood for but I wasn't willing to let him die.

    I ran forward as fast as my feet would allow.

    "How do I get it off you?" I asked the second I got close. I crouched down so that I was eye level and grabbed his arm with the blaster pointing it down at the ground between us.

    "What?" he asked voice frantic as he tried to shake me off him. He grabbed onto my arm with his good hand trying to push it off.

    I just gripped on tighter.

    "How do I get this off you safely?" I asked once again with a firmer tone. The snitch hovered nearby as if waiting for the chance to watch Leet die, with who was really behind the camera it wouldn't surprise me if it was.

    He paused as he glanced up at me, the visor held no trace of humanity in it but the clench tightness at which he held my arm told me everything.

    Leet took a deep breath, drawing a wince when the same light flashed in the barrel brighter than it was before.

    "Your owl thing, have it cut here and here," he said, tracing a line where the blaster connected with his costume. I did what he said Rowlet hopped over from where he was beating on the Sniper Joe jumped on my shoulder to get a good look at it.

    Rowlet pulled at his bowtie and a green grass like feather slipped free. He held it in his wing, the feather thrumming with power that was like Hakamo-o's Dragon Tail and using that he sawed down on the coverall.

    The sleeve got loose and I pulled hard, the canon sliding off his arm like a bracelet two sizes too small. Leet winced but held his breath.

    "Toss it!" He shouted the second he was free. Turning I threw it as hard as I could over to where Fidough's pen used to be. It smashed into the ground with a thud, the cannon whined as it and flashed some more before it died down.

    I spoke into my radio, "Director please be advised that there's unstable tinker tech in the middle of the play-"

    Rowlet's wing snapped wide and Leet cried in pain behind me. Looking behind I saw three quills embedded in Leet's hand and another through his boot. Seeing as there was no way Rowlet would just attack someone out of no-where that left only one reason he did that.

    "Did you seriously just attack me after I saved your life?" I asked incredulously.

    Hakamo-o growled.

    Leet cringed, "...No?"

    I was very tempted to kick him in his stupid, dumb, idiot face but through the power of good, justice and the Superman way I was able to hold off that thought long enough to pull out another cable tie and slipped it around his arms and ankles.

    If they were a little tighter than they needed to be then that was due to my inexperience and not any personal vendetta.

    I kept an eye on the other side of the battlefield as I worked to secure Leet, the combination of Rowlet and Falinks enough to secure the rest of the minions and Hakamo-o was within head but range to make sure Leet didn't try anything else.

    Duraludon flinched as the goon sprayed him with a bucket load of water giving Uber the chance to land a violent drop kick that hit like a truck knocking him back five paces. My pokemon tried to fight back by raising a club and bringing it down on Uber's head but it was so sluggish he might as well not even bothered.

    Uber evaded it easily with an admittedly pretty sick spin flip yelp as Aipom lept from one of the pillars and smashed right into his stomach glowing white with energy. It didn't hurt him but it knocked him spinning through the air where a Triumphs blast slammed him against a pillar.

    Duraludon ran to take advantage of the opening but the goon just hosed him down again and the dragon recoiled trying to get away from it. The goon just turned following Duraludon so the nozzle never left him and Duraludon reluctantly, and dare I say demoralised, walked through the water to get to Uber flinching the entire way.

    I bit my lips, tasting blood from the torn off skin.

    Duraludon was aquaphobic, very aquaphobic. It was something we tested in Boston but I hadn't realised it affected him so badly. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there and it was only my orders that kept him from fleeing.

    Damnit, I was gonna have to replace him if his evolution didn't get rid of that weakness.

    That realisation hit me hard, bumming me out. I liked Duraludon, he was my favourite but I couldn't risk using him if a water gun could take him out of the fight. Nevermind using him against Levithan.

    Leet grunted as I finished tightening the clasps on but I really couldn't be fucked to care.

    A light shone behind me so bright it felt warm. Alongside it came a sound like I was standing in front of an air turbine echoed through the mall. A sound I recognised.

    It couldn't be.

    I turned my head and saw that Hakamo-o was bursting with lights from every colour. A glow that engulfed him completely. A light I'd already seen once.

    In the lights there was a blob that morphed. Scales shifted till they were hanging off the body, the arms and tail extended almost doubling in size and changed its posture so that it was leaning forward like a gorilla on its knuckles. Even through the light and ice I could see as the tail grew four sets of three scales each larger than the one before it till the final ones were as large as cymbals.

    The light faded leaving spots in my eyes and when I blinked them away standing before me trapped in the ice wasn't Hakamo-o anymore.

    "Kommo-o," he greeted me, rubbing the ice off his face with his claws so that he could stare at me with red slitted pupils on white eyes. He glanced down to the ice on his tail and snorted. With an almost effortless heave he pulled his tail free and smacked it down on the ground, ice shattering across the floor.

    It wasn't just him. A shadow stretched across the floor and Rowlet emerged out of it like one stepped out of an elevator. Shadow Sneak, a move he shouldn't have until I invested another charge in him. Across the mall metal scraping screeched and turning my gaze to the source I saw it was Duraludon sharpening his arms against each other, metal shaving flying away and leaving the arms longer and sharper.

    Hone claws. Another move one of my pokemon shouldn't have till I invested another charge in him.

    It finally clicked and I wanted to laugh. I felt so stupid for not realising it in the first place.

    Pokemon could gain levels through battles. That was the whole point of Pokemon battles in the first place, growing stronger through trials and overcoming them.

    It only happened after I defeated Leet so that meant, what? That each villain was worth a charge for my Pokemon?

    Hehehe, Bitchin.

    It was being rewarded for something I was already going to do but I wasn't going to complain. In fact I was gonna make a shrine in the corner of my room because it made me that giddy.

    "Rowlet, Haka- Kommo-o," I corrected myself. The snitch floated around all three of us in dizzying moves trying to capture all the details, "Deal with Uber."

    The two nodded and Rowlet disappeared into his shadow zipping across the ground at speeds I couldn't track. Kommo-o however just jumped and in a single bound smashed the pressure washer that the Sniper Joe was using to keep Duraludon at bay with his tail.

    Rowlet emerged and fired a machine gun burst of glowing sharpened leaves at Uber, cutting holes in his jiggling suit. Maybe Uber could've fought back but that option was tossed out the window when Aipom threw sand in his eyes and both dragons grabbed Uber and pinned him to the floor. No matter how strong Leets tech was when a combined weight one hundred and twenty kilos of dragon was pressing down you weren't moving till they let you.

    "Shit," Leet groaned, laying his head on the floor, defeated, recognizing the same thing I had.

    I'd won.

    As if to demonstrate that fact Rowlet burst into the same rainbow light that Kommo-o just emerged out. I was too far to see how he morphed through the light but when the lights stopped standing there was a bird double the size of what it was before, the only thing it had in common with its previous form was the green bowtie it had around its collar.

    Dartrix.

    A pokemon so narcissistic that it would flee from a battle if it ever got dirty.

    I smothered a groan.

    Goddamn it.




    The freezing cold water hit me in the face like a truck. Wincing I made sure to press deeper into the floating ball as my lips went numb. A second later the feeling returned and I ran my tongue over where the skid had torn and found it smooth like I'd applied a fresh coat of lip gloss.

    Hatenna directed the lump of water over the rest of my body but it was of little use. I wore too many layers of armour for it to soak through properly. Though fortunately when I took off my boots and socks the freezing cold water was just what I needed to fix my aching feet.

    My boots had, in fact, rubbed the back of my heel till it bled. My fault for not wearing thicker socks I guess.

    "So is that water safe to drink?" Triumph asked. He leaned against the wall of the back of the PRT van with his helmet off, his dirty blond hair matted down with sweat. On his face was a small domino mask and clutched tight around his shoulders was Aipom.

    It seems she had a favourite human now.

    It was a good question that I didn't have an answer for so I just shrugged, "It probably is. Why?"

    "Throat feels itchy after shouting so much."

    The tip of Hatenna's witch-like hat glowed a deep pink as a small water bottle's worth of water split off the large floating bubble and flew over to Triumph.

    "Thanks."

    "Don't drink it, just rub it into your neck," I advised, "It'll soak through your skin just fine that way."

    Triumph although I supposed he was just Rory right now did as I said rubbing the water on his throat like he was massaging in a cream shivering at the cold and numbness as he did so.

    Once he was done the water floated out the back of the truck where Hatenna dropped it on the grass. Normally it would've evaporated in seconds, disappearing in the blink of an eye and it was still doing that but because of the Sea Incense wrapped around her neck courtesy of Aipom the Life Dew it was noticeably slower.

    The incense was something Triumph had found clutched in Aipom's hand after we wrapped up everything at the mall. We arrested the two villains, handed over the dangerous Tinker Tech to Armsmaster and left for our appointment at the Alcotts.

    I wasn't shocked to learn that Pickup still worked the way it did in the games though I'd admit I hadn't really expected it too. Did this mean that Pickup was how I was supposed to get Mega Stones or Z-crystals? They counted as held items but I wasn't sure, it didn't feel right and there was a lot about my power I still didn't know and having one question answered just gave me a dozen more.

    I wasn't even sure if I was going to remember this soon enough. For all I knew I was in a throw away timeline and everything that happened at the mall would disappear by the end of the day.

    "How's it looking?"

    I looked at the Alcott home. It was a two story house built out of white mason stone, with slanted gothic roofs and surrounded by a lush green garden with a single apple tree and an old iron fence around the property. A rich house but not gaudy, old money.

    Charlie's squad now freed from the ice walked in and out the house like ants through a hive. Through the open doorway I saw the team captain as she talked with Dinah's mother in the hall with the young girl watching on the stairways.

    Officially Charlie squad was here to investigate a potential break-in, at least that's what they'll be telling the neighbours. Really they were there to hide anything I could use to identify Triumph's family to protect his identity while also showing the rich taxpayers of Brockton Bay the PRT took their safety seriously.

    Two birds, one stone.

    "They're almost done."

    "You know, somehow hearing those words isn't the relief I was expecting."

    I glanced at Rory and my look must have said something because he sat up to explain.

    "It's like…When you're a kid you have all those family events there's always that one Uncle that is always there but you never really talk to? He's at every Christmas but when it's your birthday he's the last to arrive and first to leave so you spend so little time with him that he feels like a stranger, just one you're related to."

    "My mom had six brothers, I sorta get that."

    "Yeah," he nodded, "But you get older and you find out that it's because he could have a stroke or heart attack at any moment and your parents didn't want you getting too attached."

    I hummed, "Then he just becomes the uncle you expect to die."

    "Sounds kinda messed up when you put it like that but yeah. Now I have to shuffle some things around in my head now that he won't," he paused, "Well now that he probably won't."

    Pessimistic but he was sadly right. Until I stopped Gold Morning and the Endbringers everything was a big fat maybe.

    "I'm sorry about Challenger by the way."

    "What?"

    "About what I said about the Endbringers. I didn't mean to imply her death was a good thing."

    Rory shook his head.

    "You didn't Purity was just being a…" he paused trying to find the right words.

    I smiled, "You can say bitch in front of me. I've said worse."

    "Being the word you just said. Besides, Challenger would probably agree with you. She was that kind of Hero."

    "Sounds like you need to tell me about her sometimes."

    "I'd like that," he said, rubbing the ears of Aipom who giggled with a smile wider than a banana, "And if you ever want to talk about some of the other stuff you said I'm always here to lend an ear."

    My eyes flicked away from Rory.

    The Captain who'd been talking with Mrs Alcott gave me a thumbs up.

    "They're ready. Sure you don't want to come?"

    "Can't. The best way to keep a secret identity is not to let everyone who has a reason to brag know you're a hero."

    That's sad.

    It was always the part I hated about Superheroes, the drama regarding secret identities. It was annoying when Spider-man had to deal with it and it was sad here. J.J.J and New Wave was right, going maskless was more fun. Though, I couldn't say shit. It wasn't like I had anyone I needed to worry about anymore.

    I said goodbye and picked up Hatenna in my arms who took it without complaint. The tip of her hat tickled my nose as it drooped low, barely having the strength to hold itself up.

    Today had been tough on her. Well, it had been tough on me but it had been torturous for her. Between the mall with all its crowds and the bathroom with Purity it was the equivalent of chucking a kid with sensory issues in a Metallica moss pit.

    I'd thought she'd handled it well all things considered but I was beginning to think that she really hadn't and like Duraludon pushing to keep fighting despite the water he was afraid of so much it had been my orders that kept Hattenna from fleeing and that bothered me.

    My Pokemon weren't real. They had no flesh nor blood and they were the embodiment of their Pokedex entries and natures more than they were sentient beings but that didn't mean I liked them being in pain.

    I walked through the door into the hallway. The Squad captain whose name I really should learn one of these days gave me a nod and directed me into a small sunroom where Dinah's parents were waiting for me though their daughter was nowhere to be seen. In the corner of the room there was a christmas tree with tons of presents underneath.

    It shocked me that it was a real chopped down tree. I thought they were fake everywhere and the real tree was just something that only happened in movies but that might've just been the Australian in me.

    "Good evening," I greeted the two of them sitting down, "Mrs and Mr Smith was it?"

    They both frowned at the names but a glance at the Captain who nodded had them doing the same.

    "Yes I suppose we are. Not too sure about all the secrecy however," Mr Alcott said, adjusting his glasses. He wore chestnut framed ones to match his brown hair, with thick dork like lenses and a sweater that reminded me of a Ned Flanders kind of man.

    He didn't look like the kind of man that could drop dead of a heart attack at any moment but he was on that transiting point between one chin to two with a stomach that wasn't paper thin either.

    His wife dressed simply too, for her tax bracket anyway, wearing a white chiffon gown with a gold necklace and a matching gold bangle around her wrist. She had blonde hair that was in a bob style that went a little below her chin.

    "Don't complain," Mrs Alcott admonished her husband.

    "It's alright," I said to the woman before I addressed Mr Alcott, "I understand how you feel, I can tell you it's not fun on my end either. Just know it's for your protection and mine, people can get desperate when it comes to their health. In the very, very unlikely event the PRT has a data breach we don't have someone coming after you trying to steal whatever cured you."

    Notably they didn't really have a huge reaction to that. I guess when you had their net worth the threat of being robbed or kidnapped was nothing new.

    "So how does this work? Details were sparse," she asked.

    "Technically it's already started. Hatenna here passively heals ailments and conditions around her. As we speak and over the next thirty minutes or so your husband's arteries are being cleaned from all the plaque that's been building up in them as well as any other conditions he's got. After that's done Hatenna will splash him with a water that has regenerating properties - While it won't fix his heart that'll help with the strain that it's been put under."

    Hatenna probably could've used her newly acquired Heal Pulse to do it instead but I wasn't going to even try to justify using untested powers on a civilian to Piggot.

    "I see," Mr Alcott said scratching the corner of his chin with the face of a man that very much didn't, "Powers are as complex as they are miraculous."

    "Other conditions?" Came from the wife.

    I shrugged, "STD's, blood conditions, Alzheimer's, crippling migraines or just general headaches. Anything bad that you're not born with or isn't an injury with really."

    Healer was a really fucking powerful ability. Perfectly created by a God to go 'Nu-uh' to pretty much everything. Though most of it was just cartoons being cartoons or aura bullshit in the case of Ash I wasn't surprised that people in the Pokemon world were Superhumanlite with almost unlimited access to nurses with this power and more.

    It made me grateful to Hatenna that for all the thousand and Pokemon there were, I got to have one of the few that can truly help people as my first.

    "Enna," my pokemon whined, pushing herself into the couch to escape my feelings. It spoke at just how exhausting today had been that she hadn't instantly started crying.

    "I know it's easier said than done but try to keep calm. Strong emotions are stressful to Hatenna here."

    "But it'll cure me?" Mr Alcott asked, looking at the Christmas tree with the eyes of a man that had lost all hope and was finally seeing a glimmer for the first time in a long while. His wife reached over and grasped his hand in her own.

    How long had he been suffering? Forced to be a stranger even to his own family. How many Christmas' had he wondered would be his last.

    Too many.

    I nodded feeling the weight of those years, "Yes. It'll cure you."

    He took a deep breath as I pulled my phone out, set a timer for 30 minutes and placed it down on the table.

    "I suppose I should put on the kettle if we're going to be here for a while. Coffee?" Mrs Alcott said, pushing herself off the couch.

    The Captain and I declined.

    She left leaving us four to say nothing to each other until she came back five minutes later with two mugs for her and her husband joining in the same awkward silence that she left behind.

    It felt rude making small talk when he was grappling with his feelings so all I could do was run my fingers over Hatenna's witch hat.

    They hadn't reacted when I mentioned headaches so I supposed that meant she hadn't triggered. I wasn't sure how to bring it up.

    My eyes wandered over to the presents under the tree. There was no name tag on any of them but there was a lot for a family with one kid. Was Dinah a spoiled kid? So much of her had been tainted by Coil that she was barely the same person then she was at the start. Some part of me hoped she was. Kids were meant to be spoiled.

    The charge that had been building all day filled and a shiver ran down the back of my spine. It was like an alarm you never set went off and it surprised me every time.

    Grateful for the distraction I retreated into my power and after a moment of consideration to just put the charge into one of the Pokemon I already had I opened the literal gacha that was my chance for new Pokemon.

    Please be good. Please be good.

    That nebulous power in the back of my mind split into five distinct blobs.

    The first felt like something beaten into shape with a hammer. Molded or molted till the impurities were gone leaving the multi-limbed, multiple eyes creatures to skitter on through the ground. Steel and Bug.

    It was a good combination and I looked into it further only to find that there were no shapes that it could become or would come from. A single stage evolution. There were only two Pokemon that could be and I felt disappointed when it was the worst option.

    Like hell I was getting stuck with a Durant.

    The second was even. It had the same multieyed, multi limbed shape to it but it had a noxious feeling to it, like the bile in the bottom of my stomach as I leaned over my toilet fingers down my throat. Another Bug with the Poison type. It took me a moment to place it since there were just so many pokemon it could be but eventually I managed to clue together that it was Dustox.

    There were some Pokemon that I was willing to break the rules the PRT put on me. This was not one of them.

    The next gave me a jittery feeling but nothing more. A Monoelectric, I felt the shapes it could become and something tugged me in opposite directions. Three-stages with one ability that never changed - Something that gave me the feeling of swimming through the air and never being able to touch the ground.

    Electross.

    For a moment I considered it but thought better of it. It needed a stone to evolve and unlike an anime, zapping someone was very likely to kill them. It wasn't something I could use and still be a hero.

    The fourth was Mabosstiff, which I actually would've considered if it wasn't for the last one.

    Water. Would gain the flying type later and had a Mega that gave it the dark type. Gyarados.

    I was hesitant to pick that one. As cool as they were, they were one of the few Pokemon with a confirmed bodycount and were so devastating that they were basically a pseudo legend in reputation.

    But I had to pick them. Today had been a lesson in how weak my Pokemon were to water and a month an Endbringer was going to attack. I didn't know which one, in Worm it had been Ziz but if it was Levithan then half my team would be useless.

    I needed something that could be useful against both and a water flying type was just that.

    Hesitantly I picked Gyarados feeling the presence of Magikarp appear in the back of my mind watching through me like glass.

    At least I liked Aquaman.

    Mr Alcott glanced over my shoulder and said in a quiet tone, "Go to your room sweetie."

    I followed his gaze and saw a girl slowly making her way down the stairs. She wore a little elf shirt with a Santa hat on and clutched under her armpit was a large textbook.

    I tried to put on my blankest face as I saw the girl that killed Taylor in more ways than one. She was so small.

    "But I need help with my homework," she said.

    Her father raised an eyebrow at her, "Homework during the winter break? I think I need to have a discussion with your teachers if they're overworking you this much."

    "Not real homework," she said, "Just some revision for next year."

    "And I'm sure this sudden studious nature of yours has no relation at all to the Hero joining us today?"

    Who talks to an eleven year old like that?

    Was it just a rich people being rich thing? Probably. Then again there were thousands of Capes out there that had to dig deep into the dictionary to find a unique name so maybe that just had a knock on effect on the words people used.

    "...No?" Dinah lied lamely.

    "You were told to stay in your room while they're here. You don't want to interrupt their work," Dinah's mother said.

    "All they're doing is sitting around doing nothing."

    "That," Mrs Alcott said with the emphasis only a mother could, "Is not important here. You were told to wait upstairs Sweetie, please just go to your room and we can talk about this later."

    She frowned, "You're hiding something, again."

    The accusation hit her parents like a slap across the face.

    I was reminded that them hiding things from her was the source of her original trigger. I wasn't sure if I could blame them but Dinah clearly felt different.

    "That's not important right now."

    "Yes it is."

    "Go to your room now Dinah," Her mother said, not noticing the slip.

    "No, I want to know what's going on," Dinah said with a voice full of emotion.

    Hatenna tried to bury herself deeper into the couch, a soundless scream muffled into the pillow. I frowned, noticed what I was doing and forced myself to calm down. Hattenna had been through this twice today and I refused to let it happen a third time.

    Her mother opened her mouth to speak.

    "Okay everyone I think this is getting a little heated," I said, talking over whatever she was going to say.

    Maybe it was the authority that my costume gave me or the reminder that they had guests in the house but just by speaking they fell silent and listened to me.

    Dinah clutched her book while her mother took a long hard sip of her coffee.

    As stupid as it was I felt like they both were blaming me for the argument, as if I was the cause of it and not the underlying problems being the root of it all.

    I glanced at the phone using the time to organise my thoughts. If it was my kids I would've told her the truth, hell I was thinking of telling her the truth now. That her father was dying but I was going to fix him, to give her that at the very least.

    But I couldn't. I was constrained by the boundaries of being a stranger in their home, by the boundaries of being a hero and the boundaries of being a technical medical professional.

    "Do you know what my power is Dinah?"

    "You make those monsters right? I saw them on tv."

    "I can summon my friends, yes. Would you like to meet them?" I offered, "We can go to the backyard and take some photos with them."

    Dinah frowned.

    "That sounds like an excellent idea," her father said, a hand laid over his heart.

    Mrs Alcott gave a small nod.

    "Sounds great," I said standing up and walking to the backyard. Dinah and the Captain trailed behind me without a word.

    The backyard was smaller than I thought, a pool and the white tiles that surrounded it taking up a third and a large oak tree with a lot of limbs taking up the other third. A layer of snow covered the ground but not deeper than the soles of my boots.

    I rubbed a thumb over my lips unconsciously.

    "We're here," Dinah said, "Let's just get this over with."






    "Higher! Higher!" Dinah shouted in glee as Kommo-o tossed her up into the air. A small child might as well have weighed as much as a bag of grapes to him as when he let go she flew.

    She rose through the air till she was high enough that she could've stood on the roof of her house with her tippy toes. A moment of weightlessness before gravity pulled her back down where Kommo-o leaped to meet her with arms wide open. The power of Sky Uppercut enveloped the two of them so that when they landed the only thing that was hurt was the grass beneath them.

    "Again!" she begged the dragon type but he shook his head before he jerked his head at me and let her down gently.

    "My turn," I said, taking my chance to leap into my dragon's arms where he caught me in a princess carry.

    Sarah was right being a princess felt so fucking cool.

    I stuck my tongue out at the kid as Kommo-o snorted, the crown scales tittering and jumped. The wind whistled and all I could feel was a dizzying lurch as Kommo-o - To style on a preteen - did a triple back flip through the air.

    I regretted it immediately. It felt like I was in the middle of the dryer and the entire time I had no idea which way was up or down until Kommo-o let me down, a claw on my shoulder to keep me upright.

    A familiar nausea came and went as I pushed down the urge to throw up.

    "The crowd waits with baited breath for the judges score," I said looking down at the three girls.

    "Four out of ten. You look like you're about to puke" she snarked in the way only little kids could.

    "Then it's a good thing you're here. I can use your T-shirt as a rag and nothing would change."

    She scrunched her nose, "That's gross."

    Kommo-o led me over to the base of the tree where I sat down, head resting against the wood as I took a deep breath.

    Dinah followed me with twigs and snow crushing under her feet until she grabbed onto the lowest, thickest branch and with practice motions pulled herself up to sit on it with her feet dangling like a kid on a pew. Her face flush from the exercise.

    "So why are you here?" She tried to ask casually.

    My lips quirked, "Interrogating me when I'm off balance. You're quite the little detective."

    "Don't do that."

    "Do what?"

    "Talk down to me like I'm a little kid," she huffed, "I'm sick of it."

    "Sorry, old habit," I said, "How do you want me to treat you then?"

    She crossed her arms, "I want you to tell me the truth."

    "I'm sorry but I can't," I shook my head, "You'd have to talk with your parents for that."

    "They never tell me anything."

    "I know."

    "My dads dying."

    Her eyes lingered on me waiting for a reaction that never came.

    "You know," she accused.

    I nodded, "I do."

    "So is that 's why you're here. A visit from a hero to cheer up the girl whose dad is going to die. I hear they do that a lot when a kid has cancer."

    "Those are called crisis points and no I'm not here for that. You were told to wait in your room, remember."

    "Then what are you doing here?"

    I sighed, "I can't tell you."

    "Typical."

    I pushed myself off the ground and climbed a different branch so that we were eye level. I laid across the tree limb like a lounge and Kommo-o shifted, arms out ready to catch me if it broke.

    It was pretty uncomfortable. It wasn't a thick branch and I had to cross my ankles together to get a good balance on it, but it was necessary. I wanted this to turn from an interrogation into a conversation.

    "What do you know about your fathers condition?"

    "It's his heart. Something is wrong with his heart. Dad takes this medication called… Something. I found a bottle and I looked it up."

    I hummed. Smart kid.

    "It said he's only got a seventeen percent chance of living. Last year it was twenty-four. I…didn't find anything for the year after but I'm smart enough to know it's not getting better."

    She ducked her head down, hair falling like curtains to cover her face. She sniffled and in the cold it came out snotty. She rubbed it off on her green shirt.

    It was one thing to know that she would trigger because of those damning numbers, it was another to have the girl in front of me crying because she thought she was going to lose her father.

    Damn the shards. I could see why she got the powers she did and it disgusted me.

    But there was something wrong with what she was saying. I read up on her fathers disease and talked to doctors about whether or not Hatenna could cure it.

    And never once did I hear those odds.

    I licked my lips trying to find the right words to say.

    "Dinah… What exactly do you think is wrong with your father?"

    She sniffed, "He's got cancer. I dunno the stage."

    My eyes rose behind my helmet. As bad as Coronary Heart Disease was, it was not cancer.

    I reminded myself that for however smart Dinah was, she was still an eleven year old girl trying to diagnose someone from the internet. After this I'd have to talk with her parents about spilling the beans.

    "Dinah," I said in a gentle voice, "I need you to look at me please."

    Her hands wiped her eyes but when she looked at me they were still glossy.

    "Listen I can't tell you what's wrong with your father, legally I just can't. However, I can tell you with zero percent doubt and one hundred percent honesty that he doesn't have cancer."

    I paused letting her absorb that.

    A glimmer of hope dawned on her face.

    "He's not going to die," I said softly.

    She sniffed, "You promise."

    Slowly I took off my gauntlet undoing the straps with deliberateness. Dinah stared wide eyed at the tattoo on my arm. Before I reached out a single pinkie finger extended.

    "I promise," I said, "Cross my heart and hope to die."

    "You forgot the thousand needle part."

    "Well I don't like needles."

    "Then don't break your promise."

    Slowly she reached out and wrapped her own around mine. Her hands were so terribly small but she held on with a tightness that would make a man cry.

    I wasn't strong enough to protect the world from Zion, wasn't strong enough to defeat the Endbringers nor the numerous villains. All I could do was save this one kid's childhood.

    "I promise Dinah. He'll be okay."

    And for today, that was enough.



    • Day 27: Magikarp
    • Hakamo-o evolves into Kommo-o (Pseudo legendary whoo!)
    • Rowlet evolved into Dartrix. Lv 20
    • Falinks lv 10 to lv 20
    • Fidough lv 10 to lv 20
    • Duraludon lv 10 to lv 20
    • Aipom lv 5 to lv 15
    • Uber and Leet, more like Unter and Pwned.
    • Dinah gets to have a happy christmas
    • Coil has an unhappy christmas
    MVP: Aipom
     
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    • PRT Files - Kommo-o New
  • Extras
    • Author's Note: This includes some stuff Kommo-o will get but doesn't have access to right now. * will be used to show that.




    PRT Files: Dawn. (Master 7. Trump 9 Nine x Infinity)

    -Subfolder: Subject 3 'Kommo-o ' (Brute 5-7-8. Striker 4. Blaster 4. Mover 4-6. Master 3.)

    Note: Previous names: Jangomo-o. Hakamo-o.

    Age: N/A

    Height: 5'03"

    Gender: N/A (Dawn has been observed referring to it as a 'he' but no discernible sexual characteristics can be identified. Assumed to be personification and not indicative of sex.)

    Weight: 78kg or less.

    Appearance: Kommo-o is a bipedal monster that possesses features similar to the extinct dinosaur Theropoda. Covering its body are thick overlapping golden scales that are both durable and flexible.

    Capabilities: The upper limits of physical abilities and durability are impossible to define in field situations as Kommo-o possesses numerous abilities that either boosts it or weakens its capabilities when used.

    These abilities include:

    • The ability to shed scales lowering its weight to increase its agility without any reduction in durability.
    • The ability to injure itself severely by slapping its stomach, pumping its muscles and boosting its strength by a great amount.
    • The ability to shed scales to produce a powerful sonic blast at the cost of reducing its durability.
    • The ability to harden its skin to an iron-like durability.
    • *The ability to perform a fifteen to twenty second dance that increases its speed and physical offense.
    • *The ability to perform a Haka, injuring itself and boosting all its capabilities.
    However a baseline assessment can be made. Kommo-o is strong enough to knock over a dumptrunk, fast enough to run at 50 kilometers an hour, leap three stories, five with a running start and is largely immune to projectiles to an arbitrary degree.

    Testing revealed that Kommo-o (Then called Jangmo-o) possesses the ability to completely nullify or deflect any projectile going above an indeterminate speed or possessing above an indeterminate weight no matter where the projectile hit it. In theory this means a low weight, low velocity projectile could affect Kommo-o but because of the subjects innate durability the degree between 'Sufficient to hurt Subject 3' and 'Slow and light enough to go under its projectile negating power' is impossible to determine with conventional ammunition- If they don't overlap in the first place.

    Additionally Kommo-o is immune to sound based powers and any particulates such as thermite, poisonous powders and simple dust obscuring its vision. It also has the ability to conjure a protective forcefield roughly twice the size of itself that lasts for a few seconds. Every attempt to summon this field after the first is less and less successful however requiring a recharge period.

    Offensively Kommo-o's bag of tricks is smaller though no less effective. It has the ability to stand still for a period of time and then retaliate with twice the amount of damage it took within that amount of time. Hit opponents with its tail that knocks them back until colliding with an obstacle while coating them in a protective layer to prevent them from being injured. *The ability to produce various sound blasts. *Let out a war-cry that fills those that hear it with fear weakening their ability to fight or stare at them with a gaze that induces mild Runners dystonia like symptoms.

    [Note: Physical capabilities liable to change as in the future]

    Disposition: Kommo-o is a serious and effective fighter that takes the protection of its generator and assigned personnel seriously. It is unlikely to misbehave, roam or make a nuisance of itself.

    Those that are temporarily assigned Kommo-o should note however its ritual of performing a prefight dance meant to intimidate its opponent will prevent it from participating in any stealth operation and that once a fight has begun Kommo-o will be extremely reluctant to retreat from the fight.

    Public suitability: Yes.

    Future Plans:

    With its transformation to its final evolution, the discovery that each of Dawn's monsters that participated in the defeat of a parahuman receive a boost in power equivalent to a days charge and Kommo-o's sheer effectiveness as one of Dawn's more powerful monsters indicates that it is likely to participate in future battles it has been decided that more charges invested into Kommo-o will be redundant.

    As such there are no more plans to invest any more daily charges into Kommo-o at this moment.

    Armsmaster Notes: Everything said about Subject 4 applies to Subject 3 except with the negatives and positives accentuated. Its disposition makes it a poor squadmate when the situation requires descalation but is a valuable ally when the situation has progressed past that point.

    However with its inherent immunities I feel it would be wasted remaining solely in Brockton Bay whose villains it does not have a distinct advantage over. Instead I believe that just like Subject 1 has been assigned as a transferable medic it should be assigned as a strike force against villains possessing sound or projectile based powers such as the Red Choir in Kennet, Rhapsody in New York and Clamshell in Seattle.

    If it succeeds in subduing the villain then it grows stronger and if it doesn't the Protectorate gains intel and loses nothing due to Subjects 3 inherent immortality.

    On a more personal note Subject 3's immunity to sound based attacks is valuable if able to be replicated by Tinkers and implemented into Dragons drones. If possible this would allow Dragon to no longer be hampered by Slaughter House 9 member Shatterbird freeing allowing Dragon to assist in any future engagements with the Nine.

    [Restricted access: Level Four Clearance and above]

    Subfolder - Threat assessment:     Subject 3 - High threat.

    Note: As each monster's threat becomes more exponential and complex the more monsters there are, the full threat assessment of Dawn and her full squad of six manifested monsters are located under her own threat assessment. This document is to address Subject 3 only and will operate under the assumption that Subject 3 is the sole combatant.

    Kommo-o's complete immunity to ammunition, containment foam and intercity missiles make it a threat uncontainable by the PRT and must be handled by the local Protectorate.

    With a Threat rating of 7 all conflicts with Kommo-o must be done in teams of three at minimum. It is mandatory that the local Protectorate Leader - Armsmaster - must be present when dealing with such a threat.

    Unfortunately Kommo-o is completely immune to two members of the local Protectorate powers (Miss Militia, Triumphs), resistant to another's (Dauntless) and outside the scope of one's ability to engage (Velocity) limiting the team of possible heroes to Armsmaster, Assault and Battery.

    Local assets are approved to be asked for assistance. The hero team New Wave has three members that are a better match up against Kommo-o (Manpower, Lady Photon and Laserdream) and a reward of up to $25,000 can be awarded in order to gain their cooperation.

    If unwilling to assist, heroes from other cities can be assigned to address the threat. If he can be spared, Legend is the ideal Hero to deal with Kommo-o though his assistance should never be assumed as a guarantee.

    Without the ability to predict the future Protectorate rosters or other cities' crises a perfect team can not be determined however flying artillery, Aerokentics, Ice generators and Alexandria packages are preferable.

    Heroes that possess the power to shunt Kommo-o into another dimension, teleport it away or otherwise temporarily remove it from the battlefield are forbidden from using their powers on Kommo-o - Giving it time to increase its capabilities is not an option.

    One member of the squad must always be on the offense against Kommo-o at any given time to ensure that its protective barrier is recharging and prevent it from increasing its capabilities. Confirmation of the protective barrier use must be acquired before any significant attack is launched.

    One member of the squad must maintain distance from Kommo-o to prevent all members from being launched away by its tails effect.

    If Kommo-o manages to boost its capabilities significantly all Heros are instructed to evacuate, wait for the boost to die down and then continue the fight.
     
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    • I assume you only use Pokemon in the rolls, and the fake Pokemon that exist in Celestial Menagerie aren't part of the rolls here, right?

    In a way, I would be curious how she would react to something she has no idea about, but with this being Pokemon story, I doubt this is what you look for.
     
    Garganator said:
    I assume you only use Pokemon in the rolls, and the fake Pokemon that exist in Celestial Menagerie aren't part of the rolls here, right?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Yeah just Pokemon and not Fakemon. I did think of having this story be a regular CM fic but having read a few fics myself having to pause and look up was just too annoying.

    With just Pokemon everyone knows what they look like and what they can do. No need to waste time explaining it or have people crawl through twenty different wiki's.
     
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