Pacifista

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

---

The bell sounded out with the usual clatter of chairs and rustling of bags. “Bye Mrs. Grey!” “Byeeee!” “Goodbye Mrs. Grey.” It warmed her heart to have even a handful of her students offer farewells. She liked it even better when they weren’t so rambunctious or forgetful, but what could you do? “Who forgot their shoe?!” she called down the hall, a pair of feet running back to grab it, roughly putting it on before taking off without a word of thanks or apology.

Sitting down, there was one student left, having taken advantage of Jean’s means of lending an ear. Antonio sat in his tank top, head bowed. Jean took her seat and turned her chair, leaning slightly forward with her forearms on her legs and hands loosely clasped. In the silence she glanced at the drawer she kept her phone in, heart pulsing as fears and anxieties reared up, but she kept her cool and resisted the urge to check it.

“You said that if we tell you something bad we wanted to do we wouldn’t get in trouble?” Antonio finally spoke, his words weak.

A light sense of dread crept in. “I said that, and no one’s gotten in trouble for talking to me.”

Antonio was still uneasy, but after he was quiet for a minute or so he went to his backpack. He returned with a kitchen knife about eight inches long. Jean kept neutral. Easier done than said when she’d been lightly aware of it all day. “Is that from your kitchen?”

Fear spread on Antonio’s face. “Are you gonna tell my mom and dad?”

“If they don’t know you have it then you just need to put it back and there won’t be a problem. But that’s only if they don’t know.” Antonio normally tried to be tough in class, dismissing assignments and not putting any effort in. The scared boy in front of her was almost unrecognizable in a way. Reaching into her desk, she pulled out half a pack of Nutter Butters, her intended sugar break for the rest of her post-school work. He let out a low whine, taking them with shaking hands before devouring them as fast as he could. Halfway through the last one, he stopped to break down. It took all of Jean’s effort to hold back her own tears.

He spoke through his sobs. “M-May c-c-called me sk-skinny d-during PE yesterday a-and I was mad s-so I b-brought the knife t-t-to stab her.”

Taking a breath to steady herself, Jean reached out and put her hand on his knee. She wasn’t sure if it was for his sake or hers. “A-and I’m o-only sk-skinny because my p-parents don’t feed me!”

That was the cry of help Jean had been looking for. She’d known. How could she not? She didn’t give him a snack on a whim. But to randomly give him food usually would have been an odd look, and Jean didn’t want to be on the receiving end of suspicions she couldn’t easily dispel or invite unwanted claims of favoritism or 'getting to close'. Mind reading was something even she felt was off putting, more so than her mutanthood. But now, in this case, it was no longer a concern.

Jean’s stomach was mixed with relief at the weight starting to lift and anxiety at what was coming next, a scenario she’d spent more than a few bus rides grappling with. When Antonio started to calm just a little bit, Jean said, her voice wet, “We’re going to get you help, okay? I’m going to get Mr. Grant and Mr. Satou, okay?” The former the most veteran teacher of the school, the latter the Vice-Principal. Even if Jean knew what to do, deferring to her seniors as a the most junior was the smart play. You can’t do everything yourself, Scott had told her some time ago when they were still figuring out their domestic situation. She’d been trying to take it to heart. You’re not in trouble.”

A quick call on the school lines had the two older men at her door in minutes. Jean stood back as they took over the situation. Sadly it wasn’t the first time either of them had dealt with abuse cases. Wouldn’t be the last for any of them either. Thanks offered to Jean, they took control of the situation and moved Antonio to a different office, and hopefully had something a little more substantial to offer food wise. Jean was left at her desk, leaning back and taking a moment in the empty class to just...unpack everything a little. Some time later, there was a knock on the door with a soft voice following. “You okay in there?” Mrs. Herb was always the strictest and firmest with Jean, which was why this soft tone rendered her nearly unrecognizable.

Wiping at her eye and finding a bit of errant moisture, Jean insisted, “Yeah, I’m okay. Gimme five more minutes.” There were some footsteps as she took her up on that. Not sure if she’d return, Jean blew her nose before daring to check her phone, her source of anxiety for the past school day. She’d been seen this morning when she lifted the truck, and she’d spent the whole day waiting for her life to crash down around her. It was a risk she’d been prepared for, but at this point she thought it might be better for the other shoe to just drop, no matter what else came down with it. The lack of service was a funny coincidence that would stem the movement of that knowledge, but it was only a matter of time. It wasn’t as though everything was down. She still had wifi. And a fresh kind of anxiety as she saw a message from the last person she expected. The contents struck a special kind of fear in her.

...

Can you be more vague?! She leaned back in her chair and let out a shrill groan through her teeth. Her mind first jumped to Firebird, her heart leaping the same distance out of her body, but that wording didn’t feel right it that’s what she was asking about.

...

If Jean wasn’t so mentally tired then she’d have rolled her eyes, a state away from whatever was going on. Her mom was closer to the whatever it was then her, probably, but in that small town the big cities felt closer, Jean guessed. But as she checked the link she watched a wave smash into Liberty island, bodies hitting the water. The unnatural occurrence led to discussion and postulation that it wasn’t going to be the first time either. Jean put her phone down and tried to push it from her mind but the images kept coming in flashes to her brain. A quick search and she found it was only 170 miles straight to New York, so if she…

You can’t do everything yourself. She heard in her head again. Leaning back in her chair she massaged her temple. It was stupid: even if she went there’d be nothing she’d be able to do, right? But if the situation got worse and she wasn’t there...was she really going to make an interstate flight on a whim?

“Jean?” Mrs. Herb was back, concern evident on her face as she poked her head in. “What’s the matter with you?”

“O-oh, it’s just, uh, there’s something going on in New York and i-it’s a little...much, right now, after, you know, everything.” Her breath was shaky as she exhaled, rubbing her fingers back and forth on her forehead.

Herb’s firmness seemed to regrow itself as she straightened her back, the small woman with curly white hair standing over Jean in her chair. “Yeah, I saw. I saw more than you’d want me to see.” Those words knocked Jean out of her daze, her mind going in other directions. “I didn’t come here for that, I came here to check on you. You did the right thing, and Antonio’s going to get the help he needs. But if there’s something else you should be doing, or somewhere else you should be, then that’s up to you to figure out. No one else.”

Jean stared, picking up exactly what she’d feared from surface thoughts. She hadn’t recognized Mrs. Herb in traffic earlier, but she’d recognized her. Jean gaped, stammering out nothings until she finally committed. No half arsing it. “Y-yeah, yeah. Thank you!” Reaching under the desk she pulled out an extra satchel before sliding open the window and hopping out. Mrs. Herb looked around carefully, nearly swearing before shaking her head and starting for the door. Just as she moved to leave, there was a rush from the window. Jean plucked her phone and a half empty plastic water bottle from her desk, poking around in a drawer for a missing snack before locking eyes with Mrs. Herb. “Sorry, forgot...” Trailing off, she went back to the window. “Sorry!” Jean went off into the sky once again.

Herb shook her head. “What are we gonna do with you?”

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

---

Horns blared in the rising morning heat. The gridlocked Baltimore downtown wasn’t the natural result of bad urban planning, but the unfortunate side effect of a big rig having been overturned, the exhausted driver having failed to hit the exit properly and crumbling a divider, spilling out the contents in the form of dry retail groceries. Police had stopped the freeway as they attempted to get a tow truck to maneuver the trailer out of the way, but it was going to be hours before the situation was resolved, and tensions were running high.

Traffic officer Edward Treant was starting to get a headache from all the cars wailing, the smog buildup an irritant thrown onto the pile. He was as sick and tired of all of this as anyone. He wanted it to be over, he wanted to go home, get some ice cream, and catch up to House of the Dragon. He thought about the big man up in Metropolis, the Central City blur, and envisioned himself waving away this problem some how. Pulling out a pen, he pressed it between his fingers as hard as he could.

Nope, still a normal human. But it didn’t hurt to check, right? Every so often. Just in case.

Pulling out his phone to try and check a couple things, turned away from the road so as to not aggravate anyone more than he already had, his meandering was interrupted by the screech of metal against asphalt. His phone clattered to the ground as he turned about, stepping back as he feared a fed up driver had tried to push past only to hit something else, eyes shooting wide as he realized that the big rig had started to lift from the ground. Ed’s mouth hung open as he watched it float, moving off of the roadway and onto the shoulder, more goods spilling from the trailer. The driver, mercifully unhurt and loitering nearby, waved his hands without rhyme or reason, about as lost as anyone. Then, Edward saw a figure in green and gold with flowing red hair, flying above, her eyes locked down on the truck as it moved. In less than a minute it had been moved completely, safely out of the way. Then the foodstuffs and goods shivered and rose, similarly floating out of the way. Everyone in sight watched with jaws on the ground.

Once the way was clear, Ed managed to find his composure again, heart leaping as he felt freed from this whole mess. “Alright, let’s get things moving again!” he called to his peers, who joined him in resuming the flow of traffic.

“Can you put it on it’s wheels?” The driver called out to the flying woman.

“Oh! Yeah, sorry!” she responded, waving her hands in motion to keep away. The truck hovered up again with another scraping sound, slowly revolving before parking itself the right way up. With its side mirror missing and unknown damage done, it wasn’t going to be moving for a little while, but at least he had a place to sit in more shade while he waited for transport. After a little more cleaning, she floated down to where Ed was. “What was that, telekinesis?”

She gave a smile tinged with apprehension and embarrassment. “Yeah, uh, the name’s Firebird.”

“I’ll throw it into the report. You were a big help today, and it’s good to know that heroes are doing more than just fighting terrorists and nutjobs. I mean that’s good and all but, you know, the little guy needs help too, not just banks being robbed.”

“I was in the area, so...” She had an awkwardness as she turned to the road, a number of rubbernecks slowly coasting by with eyes and phone cameras on her. She gave a little wave, Ed noting her nervousness and reddening cheeks.

“You local?”

“Oh, yeah, I was trying to get home but the bus was stopped, so I thought, well, I have my costume! As good a time as any.”

“I mean, keep up the good work.”

“It’s just, I gotta show the world, you know? That maybe a mutant with a conscious isn’t that rare!”

Ed’s chest tightened at the mention of Firebird being a mutant. He kept it from showing on his face, but he noticed her demeanor shift anyway. He knew it was wrong to feel that way, it’s not like anyone could control whether or not they were a mutant, it mattered that they took their inhibitors and kept themselves under control, and this lady was not. This kid, honestly. She couldn’t have been out of her 20s. But that she had been using her powers made Ed’s day going forward look a whole lot brighter, even if he was left with a sunken feeling he couldn’t shake.

She added. “Sorry. You saw the Stark thing?”

“Yeah, uh, you heard about what happened to them right?” Her expression went quizzical. “Stark died in an accident I think, or they think, and Trask has been missing for a while. A lot of his systems have been fucky.” He grabbed his phone off the ground and held it up to illustrate his point.

Firebird clapped her hands over her mouth, eyes wide. “Oh...oh my god! I...oh, I haven’t been following the news lately. I didn’t know!” Hands moving to the sides of her temples, she let out a long breath. “Oh that’s embarrassing,” Eyes starting to find focus, she added, “I thought my Google docs were being weird yesterday.”

Ed shrugged, pretty sure Trask didn’t work for Google. “It happens.” Giving a nod, he suggested, “Anyway, you should probably get going.”

“Oh, right. Uh, k-keep up the good work, officer!” With a sloppy salute, she took to the air once more, slipping off into the horizon and eventually passing out of sight. Ed let out a long sigh of his own. He himself was a member of ‘Baltimore’s finest’, but now his home city had a hero of its own: a child with too much power and no idea what she was doing. But dammit her heart was in the right place. Ed cold only hope it stayed that way.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

<Snipped quote by Half Pint>

This is just one part, of something that will happen once or twice so I wouldn't be in a massive panic just yet.

My goal is to try and facilitate interaction in ways that are manageable (not too many people at once), but also fun and work witn the stories YOU guys want to tell.

@Sep

Jean could very well be up for it after my next post (provided the timing allows for her telekinetic flight from Baltimore) but if there's a lot of interest I might wait for later to keep it from getting unmanageable.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

<Snipped quote by Sep>

I'm absolutely sticking with Wolvie. Jonah I'm struggling with; I had a concept I liked, but I kind of shot myself in the foot by setting him up in a way that keeps him from interacting with other characters, and I feel like I went way too edgy-for-the-sake-of-edgy with my first couple of posts, so now I just feel kinda gross trying to write him.

@AndyC

Damn, that's a shame, Hex Rider posts were some of the ones I've most enjoyed reading in the game so far (and that's with some stiff competition, mind).

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

---

“Look, we don’t get many aliens so I’m just a little paranoid okay? It’s not like the Men in Black are gonna swoop in or anything.”

Koriand’r looked down the alleyway they were currently catching their breath in, as though their pursuer might meander by. “Is Lobo not a man wearing black?” She looked up too, as the mention of swooping called attention to the Gloam hawks on her planet that rather liked to divebomb her people in fruitless attempts for food. “But I should reiterate, I still do think those questions tal vez fueron demasiado invasive.”

The was a thump from above, two boots hitting the edge of the building, Lobo looking down on them with his hook in hand. The two got up and started to run for the exit. “Oh, don’t leave on my account. I’m reeeeal accommodatin’.” He leapt from his spot, just a hair too slow as he ended up behind the two as they fled down the road.

“And why are you speaking Spanish! I don’t understand Spanish!” Gar yelled, checking over his shoulder as Lobo levelled his weapon at them.

“¿Qué? ¡Wha!” Koriand’r let out a cry as a chain looped around her ankle. With a jerk, she flopped through the air, Lobo dragging her back. She flew against his pull, but with every pump of his arms she got closer and closer. Her starbolts didn’t do anything but momentarily obscure parts of her vision.

Going ape, Garfield’s four limbs tore across the hot asphalt, two silverback arms slamming right into Lobo’s chest. Bracing against him, Lobo didn’t even budge, slamming his forehead down. It hit the leathery hide of an elephant, Garfield raising his tusks to catch under his shoulders and lift him from the ground. Thrusting his elbows into Garfield’s face and eyes to little noticeable effect, he growled, “Are you a keezy martian? You’re one rock too far and way to deep in my fraggin’ business!” Throwing his hook aside, he raised his fists and slammed them down, Garfield staggering. He lurched his head, tossing Lobo down unceremoniously, the bounty hunter clumsily standing, letting out a few choice curse words as he watched Koriand’r disentangle herself from his chain. In the foreground, Garfield’s size shifted again as he turned into a striped tyrannosaurus rex. Planting his hand on his hips, Lobo sneered, “Try me, bastiche.” Toothy maw wrenching down, Garfield bit down and lifted Lobo up, shaking him like a dog might a favored chew toy. Curling to the side, he whipped his body, flinging Lobo down the road, the man crashing through a window into a 7/11.

“Yeah, how’s that for size?!” Garfield laughed with a smug look. Koriand’r floated to his side while Lobo stood from the wreckage without a scratch on him. Garfield deflated.

“He has proven quite invulnerable, and as long as he has his astronave, no puede escapar.”

“Something something you can’t escape, okay...well shit what do we do then?” Daring to take a few steps towards Lobo, Garfield dared, “Hey big boy, what’s with the made up words? ¿No habla ingles?”

“That’s Lobo to you kid: the Main Man. And guess what? All words are made up.”

“...Touché.”

“WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!” Reaching out, he pulled a streetlight from the ground with a gut wrenching groan, the metal crumpling under his hands. Pulling it back much like as if he were holding a baseball bat, once in the air its circular motion was more like a boomerang. Garfield managed to avoid being a deer in the headlights for just long enough to duck. Koriand’r took it in her arms, twirling with it before her foot found purchase on the ground. She pivoted, the streetlight flung right back at Lobo. It bent against his frame in a way Garfield must have seen in Looney Tunes. He was half expecting Lobo to pick it up and twist into a balloon animal, but instead he brushed it off like it were a chunk of dirt.

“You should be more careful: there are people of your world still here.” Garfield looked around at her words, seeing a car that had tried to pass by the jammed traffic empty itself like so many before it, a pair of men running off. In the crushed front of the building Lobo had come from, a terrified looking store owner gawked at the unfolding scene in horror. Giving the girl a look of aw and respect, Garfield gave a nod, before calling, “Throw me at him! Just don’t let me spin or I’ll get dizzy.”

Koriand’r’s eyes widened as he leapt at her, shifting to the form of a turtle in its shell. Pulling her arm back, she let him loose at the steadily approaching Lobo. He waved his heavy arm to swat him aside, only for him to slow his motion as he shrunk in size, the arm going wide. A small dart frog stuck to Lobo’s face, his red eye glaring down at the green amphibian before his tongue whipped out and smacked him in the eye. “Gah! You Earth bastiches are really-” Garfield turned into a cobra, striking Lobo’s nose and latching on, his long form wriggling. “Annoyink.” Trying and failing to grab at the flailing snake, his grunts turned into growls before he finally found his grip, yanking him off.

Koriand’r leapt in at that exact moment, her fist knocking Lobo square on the nose. Garfield slipped from his grip, landing as a dormouse before turning human once again. Lobo flipped end over end, landing on his front a meter or so away. Massaging his jaw, cobra fangs unable to pierce Lobo, Garfield admitted, “Well, if poison doesn’t work then I’m out of ideas.”

Getting back to his feet, Lobo’s smile was gone. “Good, cuz’ I’m bored.” Garfield felt a mixture of relief and fear, unsure of where to settle. Lobo decided for him, sticking two fingers in his mouth and letting loose a shrill whistle. There was a following silence, the three waiting in standstill.

“Last chance to kiss your keisters goodbye and come quietly.” The revving of an engine could be heard from the next block over.

“Even if my fate is inevitable, I refuse to give in to you.” Koriand’r took a fighting stance. Matching her mood, Garfield took the shape of a cheetah, baring his fangs in a growl.

The space bike pulled up to his side, the eyes facing down his quarry. Without looking, he reached for a long side compartment. “Your funeral.” The blade of a knife stuck out Lobo turning to see as his hand had failed to cleanly grasp what he’d been looking for, only for the knife to lodge itself between his teeth, point jabbing towards his throat. Grabbing at the blade while a bunch of muffled curses flow, the compartment opened, as did the one on the other side, an array of guns and blades floating out and training themselves on Lobo. A black energy enshrouded each and every one of them. Yanking the knife out and getting to his knees, he looked between them, trying to find a the head responsible so he could smash it to a pulp.

“Nice bike. What sound do you think it’ll make when I have it rip through the hole I’m about to make in your stomach?” Garfield’s heart leapt as he saw Rachel. “Don’t be too excited to see me. I don’t care about the girl, I’m just here to protect my investment.”

“Yeah, me too. You ain’t special.”

“Uh, maybe we try diplomacy?”

Koriand’r looked between her aggressor and her fresh faced savior. “With whom?”

“...Gooood question.”

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

---

“Hungry?”

Leech damn near jumped out of his shoes. Scrambling around in the dark, he blinked as his eyes struggled to take in the new light from that mutant bitch turning on the lantern in his home.

“Fuck you! Get out of my house!” It had been two days and this bitch was back to darken his fucking day.

She gave a non-committal shrug, holding up a brown bag with grease marks showing through. “Guess I’ll have to enjoy my midnight snack alone.” She started to move past him, the scent of meat and oil catching his nose. His stomach cried out. He’d eaten, stumbling across one abandoned Happy Meal left on the bench, ice cold. His home wasn’t exactly freezing, but a bit of warm food made plenty of difference in comfort. “Leave that.”

“Uh-uh,” she chided. Leech lunged a hand out to the bag but she carefully kept it away. “We talk or I walk.”

Moments later, Leech took a bite, meat and tomato juices drizzling through the edge of his lips and down his chin. He took a moment to let the warmth soothe him, his eyes closing as he savored the taste. He knew it wasn’t much of a good meal: the oil and fat and salt was a decadent pleasure, one he’d had plenty of times before. Every Friday night his family had gone out for food, and he always treasured those times, even if the recollection was inevitably followed by pain. But that was then and this was now. In his dingy room littered with rat shit and the constant underpinning smell of dirt, sweat, and mildew, to have that all overwritten for even just a moment was heaven.

Swallowing, he looked to see the woman watching him, smiling lightly. “Fuck you.” She smiled and giggled into her food, which only pissed Leech off more. But he did have a question. “Did you just fucking get here? How is this food still hot?”

Cheek full, she replied, “I can make fire with my brain.” She nodded to the edge of the room where a couple cockroaches had curled up, roasted to death. “I’ve been scaring off the rats too.”

“Just fucking kill them.”

The lady got awkward. “I know they’re just pests but, like, it’s different with mammals. I remember when I first discovered that power and I was just lighting little fires and putting them out. I did it to a cat and the cry it let out still haunts me too this day.”

Leech’s jaw dropped. “You lit a cat on fire?!”

“No! I mean it got a little singed, it was just a little spark! I put it out as it ran away, I’m sure it was fine!”

“Literal sociopath.”

She huffed at his remark, burying her face in her food. After she swallowed, she admitted, “I know your story. It was an accident. It happened when I read your mind last week.” Leech felt his skin crawl. “I try to keep from going any deeper than surface thoughts. I can tune them out, or even quash them pretty heavily if I focus, but back then I was pretty desperate. I’m sorry.”

Leech felt his eye twitch. “Be sorry then.”

“Have you ever thought about trying to find your parents?”

“Nope.” He said firmly, hiding the lie behind a wall of disdain. Of course I have you stupid bitch. He’d imagined ideal senarios that wouldn’t come true, because if they’d been possible he’d have never been abandoned in the first place. He imagined the worst cases. He imagined finding them dead, killing them himself, finding that he had a new younger sibling, one who hadn’t been cursed with the X-gene like himself. He’d wondered if they did have another kid only to abandon it when it turned out to develop an inescapable mutation. If he had someone else like him, maybe he didn’t have to be alone. He looked up to the woman, the only human he’d really talked to in what felt like a lifetime and realized that’s exactly what she wanted, the mind reading cunt. “You really think anything would change even if I found them?” He felt like spitting, but that’d waste the flavor.

“I think something has to change. I hate that this world is like this. I teach 4th grade and some of those kids are barely literate. Some of them are so terrified of going home and I can’t call Child Protective Services because without good evidence or timing I might only make it worse. The drug problem, the housing problem, the Key Bridge… God did you hear about Stark and Trask?” Fucking who? “War Machine? Sentinels? No?”

Leech sneered, “Just put on your cape and go fix everything.” He put his attention on his fries, his desire for warm food outweighing the fullness of his stomach.

She let out a long sigh. “I can fix some things. I was looking into shelters. If you don’t feel safe going to a youth homeless shelter, there’s an LGBTQ+ shelter that might be safe. I can talk with the owner on your behalf if you want.” Leech visible cringed. It was like worms were running down his spine. The woman glared at him. “Really? You’re in a position to be a bigot? It’s not like there are any mutant shelters around here. People prefer to act like they don’t exist.”

“Yeah, I fucking know that dumbfuck.” She winced, running the back of her wrist on her forehead. “This is the best I can get, right here.”

“Good enough to shoot up a school over?”

Leech felt his insides roiling. For all the anger he could muster when he worked himself up, he did realize that in this moment he was able to relax. He hated to admit that. Crumpling up his paper and shiny wrapper with the last tidbits of his food, he sneered, “Food’s gone, talk’s over: get out.”

She took the last bite of her burger, her fries still on hand. Swallowing, she said, “Just...can you please try? Just give it a shot? Even if it doesn’t go perfectly it’s better to try.”

“Easy for you to say, Supercunt.”

She closed her eyes, before scooping up her food and heading out. Stopping in front of him, she calmed herself before saying, “My name’s Jean.” She left. Leech fumbled into a seated position, clicked off the lanturn, his anger not calming. In fact it only seemed to get worse as he ran through everything he’d said. Even his gross, flat, green nose could still smell, and the grime still remained, the food largely reminding him that there were other things in the wider world for his senses to enjoy than what he’d settled for here.

---

Outside, Jean had floated a ways away, finding the rooftop of a closed shop, situating herself in a spot guarded from the wind before finishing off the rest of her meal. Brushing against her jacket pockets carrying a couple doses of naloxone, her mind raced with possibility as she considered the endless problems with a city as impoverished as Baltimore, so much well beyond what someone with a cape could solve. But she could solve some. Despite talking up her goal to Scott, she was still waiting for the day she’d put on her costume and go into action. Sure, she was constantly busy with work and child rearing and domestic duties and trying to help ‘Leech’, but when was she going to make her debut? Was there just going to be a convenient fire or accident or supervillain attack for her to swoop in and help with? Was she just going to wait forever for the ‘best opportunity’ until her goal became a shameful, embarrassing memory she never acted upon? There was a lot to be afraid of. She’d never really been one for violence, and had no idea how she’d respond to a gun pointed at her. She’d never tested the limits of her powers. They only had so many savings, so if her exploits lost them one of both of their jobs they were going to be in a bad place. But her own words echoed back at her, rebounding in her head during her flight home.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

---

“Jesus FUCK.”

“Can you keep it down? This is a library.”

Rachel didn’t even look up from her tome as the woman who gave birth to her came into their home’s private study. The shock faded from the older woman’s face before being replaced with anger, then apathy. Angela Roth demanded: “What are you doing back here?”

Rachel mused, “We haven’t said more than a sentence to each other in over four years. I don’t have a problem keeping it that way.” Out of the corner of her eye she looked over her mother’s slovenly appearance: long unkempt hair, a once beautiful face locked in permanent scowl, skin paler even than Rachel’s, a T-shirt in need of cleaning and sweat pants even in the middle of the day. To think this pitiful shell had once found Trigon’s embrace…

“Shouldn’t you be out dooming us all? You know that doing what he wants is just going to leave you dead.”

“I know, and I don’t care. You’re the one who abandoned me in spirit: why should you care who picked me up? Or are you just mad that I haven’t ended your pitiful life yet?” Angela’s scowl was etched more deeply onto her face. “Blessed with a greater purpose and you just spat on it.”

“Greater purpose? Greater purpose?! He’s a termite. An oversized bug acting out. There’s no depth, no secret, no greater meaning.” The room darkened. Rachel’s cloak drew across her body. “He just does whatever he wants because he has the power to do it. You’re just another fucking pawn in his game.” Rachel’s form seemed to swell, the shadows consuming all. Tendrils drew up from beneath her cloak as she turned on Angela, who backed away. Her venom still spewed out. “You think you matter to him? You’re a speck of dust. He’ll forget you long before he leaves this universe a graveyard.” Rachel loomed over Angela. Her eyes glowed red, and two more appeared, then another two. Angela’s scowl broke, fear evident in the trembling of her legs. She backed against the next bookshelf as Rachel drew ever closer. “I’d have killed you if I could. I should’ve, but I didn’t have a choice.” Rachel reached her arm out, and Angela flinched, dropping to the ground. She grabbed a book that had been a little outside of her reach and floated back, Angela collapsing to the ground as the room returned to normal light. Her breath came too fast for her to get any air, tears rimming her eyes. Some trauma resurfacing, Rachel assumed, but she didn’t care.

She flipped through the pages. “Did you think I was going to kill you? No. I’m going to let you live to see dear father again. I’ll just have to imagine your horrific death until then. Maybe I’ll have him tell me what he plans on doing to you so I won’t have to imagine it.” While Angela started to gather herself, a handful of books flashed dark, Rachel pulling them close and stacking them up. Some magic tomes, some normal literature, all of interest to her and her mission.

Starting for the same window she entered in, her mother spoke from her spot on the floor, her voice still weak. “I didn’t have a choice. You still do.”

Rachel scoffed. “The illusion of meaningful choice runs deep, doesn’t it?”

---

Approaching the hotel, ducking from building to building, phasing through structures, and floating over vacant streets to avoid any annoyances, as she approached she realized that Garfield’s emotional presence was gone. On one hand that meant her trip had been partly wasted, unless she stumbled across another familiar candidate later. On the other hand: good riddance.

Floating into her window, she plopped her books down before using her magic to scoop up the remote, uninterested in whatever news program Garfield had rudely left on before ghosting her. Or at least, that’s what she thought as she moved to the power button, stopping to watch the coverage of a live superhero situation elsewhere in town, the streets soaked from a collapsed water tower. A familiar green animal shifter was in the think of it, one of three unidentified agents of the situation’s chaos. Finger hitting the red power button, even when the TV was off, she couldn’t stop staring into the black reflection of the room on screen. She looked to the pile of books, then back to the screen, unable to run from the high probability that Garfield hadn’t run away from her at all, but run into that situation as soon as he noticed it. Nails digging into her palm, that thought irritated her to no end. Throwing her hood back over her head, she floated right out the window from which she came and streaked through the sky into the day.

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

Just a thought, and I'm not sure if I will do it, but would Cable be an option to play as?

@Theyra

Well, ultimately, it depends on what you’d want to do with him. If he’s Nathan Grey-Summers then he’s technically already showed up in the game as a toddler. If he’s someone else (like Niles Cable) or re-imagined to be another character then I don’t think there’d be any concern (unless the GMs would have something to say about it, I'm chiming in as someone who's technically already written Cable into the game). If he is Nathan though, then I’d have to think about what that means for Jean, since a big part of her motive in becoming a hero is making a better world for him to grow up in, so Cable existing as a time traveler from a doomed future would imply that Jean’s on the wrong path, (depending on how it’s handled), and I’m not sure I want to drop that implication before she’s even debuted as a hero.

One Piece: The Devil's Due (Always Accepting!)

RICO

---

“We’re not coming in even if we hear gunshots, so don’t say we didn’t warn you.”

“Okie dokie artichokie.” Rico ran to the doors of the Sundown Inn.

“If you say that in front of him he will definitely try to kill you!” The Sunstrider warned, to no avail. Shaking his head and looking to his partner, he remarked, “We definitely messed up, right?” He only received a hapless shrug in response. “Ah Helios…”

SOLBOOM. The door opened with a bang, Rico’s entry making it swing to slam against the wall. The music stopped cold, performers looking at Rico with terror. The locale was largely empty. Aside from the music performers and bartender, there was only one patron, sipping at his drink, his mess of dirty blonde hair over his eyes. A gold eye shot a dark look at Rico. “We’re fucking closed.”

Rico ignored him completely. “Hey there mister prince chaos man! Some guy named Dave hired me to be your bodyguard. My name’s Ric-”

In a mere moment he faced down the barrel of a gun. Aztec let his tongue loll out of his mouth, grin sadistic. “Didn’t ask.” Rico opened his mouth, but the gun fired. The musicians and bartender flinched, the latter going for a mop.

Rico, however, was still standing. “You guys really like to do that here, huh? Can you at least be quieter about it?” Aztec kept firing until his gun was empty, each bullet making Rico’s body spark, each spark dropping Aztec’s smile slightly. “You should save those bullets for the assassins, they aren’t gonna do much against mebrglkh.” Rico sputtered as Aztec threw his drink in his face. “Oh god it’s in my mouth what is that flavor it’s so gross eeeugh.” As he stuck out his tongue, eyes closed. Aztec’s mug came down on his head, glass shattering with a scream of glee from the young royal. Rico collapsed to the ground, and by the time he got the blood out of his eyes well enough to see, his ward had flown the coop. “Oh bitch.” The bartender, musicians, and chair visibly relaxed with Aztec gone.

“...Chair? The seat that had been behind the stool Aztec rested on stiffened back up. Rico grabbed it and picked it up, finding it heavier than normal. One of its arms reached past him, grabbing another chair and bashing Rico over the head. It turned to splinters, Rico dropping the chair out of shock. “What the what?!”

The chair was not a chair, but a man pretending to be a chair. Limbs and body covered in thin plywood, he ripped his hat off, revealing a human face and torso that was relatively flat. “You little snot I’ve been waiting here for him to let his guard down for hours! I need the hit money to buy a bigger house! My current one can’t fit both my wife and all my chairs. It’s either this or a divorce and I’m too old to play the dating game again!” [Mahoghanie Cherie Blakwood, “The Chairman”, Bounty Hunter]

“Hit money… You’re trying to whack the prince!” Rico said from his prone position. Blakwood grabbed another chair and bashed Rico with it. Wood clacked against wood as he ran away. Rico rolled onto his back before jumping to standing again. Wiping his face with his sleeve, he sprinted off after the Chairman. Once he was outside, his legs lit up and he awkwardly floated down the road in his pursuit. “Frightful Tianlong!” Coming down from his long jump, he held his elbow out, slamming right down on Blakwood. Splinters flicked one way or the other as The Chairman was crushed into the dirt, unmoving. Standing, Rico reeled, calling, “Got yer ass-man right her oc’iffers!” Shaking his head, he cried, “Which way did the prince go?”

---

CATHERINE CORIANDER

---

“It’s because God’s blood runs through the Heavenly Dragons that they rule us all. God lives within nature, within all of us, as long as we let Him in. The Dragons are closest to God and thus hear his will more strongly.” The elderly woman in the nun’s habit was rather animated as she paced back and forth in front of the podium in Melody Island’s church. About the same height as Coriander, she was on the portlier side, her cheeks full, a few locks of gray hair poking out from under her coif. “The Western Dragon Will Faith believes that the Heavenly Dragons are Gods in themselves, that they should not be seen as fallible or human. The Devil too can live in the heart of any human. That’s the Devil Devil, not Avalon the Devil. We must keep our faith strong to keep the Devil at bay! The Heavenly Dragons exterminated his bloodlines, but that doesn’t mean he can’t return in spirit.”

Coriander nodded along, the kids at her side trying to keep pace with the discussion. Sorrel adjusted his glasses. “My dad was talking about how the Heavenly Dragons are dangerous. They can turn you into a slave…”

Mother Basil gave a slow nod of understanding. “That they can. It’s not as though they only enslave bad people either. But it’s not as though a storm only endangers the evil. God acts through nature, but he wasn’t angry at us a couple months ago, was he? We need the water too even if the lightning is scary. The Heavenly Dragons can hurt good people and good families, but we need their guidance to keep the world running! For as many as they might hurt, there are so many more than can be safer for them. They aren’t completely deaf to the Cardinals and Templars, and that any of us here could walk among them on Marie Geoise is a miracle in itself. I think that compared to nature, we might be luckier with the Heavenly Dragons. They can discriminate, or have biases. To some this might be cruel, but to others it’s a blessing. To be a husband or bride of a Heavenly Dragon is the highest honor a human can achieve! To join one’s own blood in holy union with the descendants of Gods: what more could one ask for?”

Coriander wondered, “Wait, does the King Chauderkind Harvine XIV have Dragon blood?”

Basil shook her head. “No, he doesn’t have holy protection. Even if he did, the Marines couldn’t spare the manpower: kings are meant to protect themselves.”

Coriander looked fuzzled. “Then why are they kings? We’re different from the Heavenly Dragons because we don’t have God’s blood in our veins, but why is their blood holy?”

Basil stared for a moment, before admitting, “That is a great question. I don’t actually know, myself.”

“Eehhhh!?” Coriander and the kids exclaimed. “Mother Basil doesn’t know something? I thought I could trust you!” Sorrel gawked.

“W-we can still trust her, no one knows everything!” Peppermint reasoned.

“It’s like she’s not even a person anymore…” Rue muttered.

“Hush you,” Verbena grouched.

“This is why it’s good to ask questions! I’ll come to an answer in due time. In the meantime, I think you’ve been here long enough.”

“Yay!” There were a few cheers, the kids thanking Basil for the sermon before taking their leave. Coriander was the only one to stay behind.

“Do you think I could find the answer, Mother Basil?”

The woman chortled. “I would like to see you try! But you can’t divine it from the air, that will just create another interpretation and schism our faith.”

“I wasn’t going to do that!” Coriander gasped in horror.

“Then how?”

“...I gotta go, thanks Mother Basil.”

“Have a good day, Coriander.”

There was a slight pang in her heart as she took her leave of the church. Seeing the kids further along the forest path, she didn’t feel like catching up with them. They’d go off and find their games. If they really wanted to see Coriander they’d find her no sweat. Instead she headed home, head abuzz with postulation and speculation alike.

Entering her home, she saw her dad by the window, nose deep into a book. Wanting to change, she gave a quick greeting before moving to go upstairs.

“Coriander, there’s a surprise waiting on your desk~” Hyssop teased.

“Thanks dad,” she said with relatively low enthusiasm.

“It’s not a book this time! I’m sorry, I thought you’d love ‘Farming Traditions of the Islesselsi Isles’! You’d wanted to know more about wheat!”

“I was just making small talk about your job, you could have just told me...” Coriander muttered as she closed the door to her room. Spotting an envelope on her desk, she sidled over, throwing her veil and coif onto the chair as she read the name of the sender. Her shocked scream echoed through the house. “HAKU?!” Unable to contain herself, she grabbed it, hopping up and down in her spot before scanning the room for a letter opener. Ungracefully opting to use her teeth and fingers, she read the letter with glee.

Dear Coriander, this is Haku.

I’m writing this letter to keep in touch, as I had many things to tell you but couldn’t due to our parting.

It’s been weeks since we’ve left Tune Town, and East Blue is quiet as ever so there hasn’t been much going. I'm, however, told that we’ll be dropping by an Island that serves good food. East Blue cuisines are a bit too heavy for me but Cadog insisted that it's simply my taste bud that's the problem.

I humbly disagree, hardtack and water alongside mites are a fine meal on its own.

Nevertheless, it’s these quiet, boring days I find rather pleasant as I’ve not recall seeing such peace in other seas. My hometown included.

It might be months by the time this letter reaches you. I have many things to share, alongside stories on the Dev, the greater part of the world.

Such as the legend of the Dragonslayer of Wano, forty seven bandits, and felling of the Mountain God.

But for now, I’m healthy and hale, and I wish the same for you, Peppermint, the kids and Mr. Burnet.

Signed
Haku

Positively ecstatic, she was already considering what her response might be before remembering she was getting ahead of herself: she had to show Burnet and Peppermint the letter too! Rereading it, her mind wandered to earlier in the day. The letter in her hand gave her an idea, a way she might find the answer to her question. She just had to ask! If there was anyone who would know why kings were holy, it would be the Godheads of this world themselves!

Ultimate One Universe: Emergence

@Lord Wraith Did...did you just make an app for Blood so you could backdoor Danny Phantom?