Riverside City Chronicles | Book 1 | Riverside City [Capes & Cowls]

by VanDerHeyden, Paul C.

  “JEN, can you tap into the surveillance system here?” Jin asks quietly.

  “It would take a while, but yes,” JEN replies.

  Jin groans, “Fine, I’ll do it myself. JEN, code mode.” A black panel appears in front of Jin in AR. The panel rapidly fills with lines of code, “Nightmare, scan the area for mental signatures, I don’t think we’re alone here. I’ll need about a minute to get through this firewall, even at my speed.”

  “Got it.” Nightmare opens up her senses and starts scanning the area for mental signatures. She starts scanning the castle and finds nothing after 30 seconds. “No one is in the castle itself.”

  “Move on to the garages and manor house behind the castle. Someone is here, I can feel it.” Jin is rapidly flexing his fingers in odd patterns, no holographic keyboard evident.

  With a larger pulse of her power, Nightmare scans the grounds and garages with no issues. The manor house on the other hand is warded, and the wards don’t match the ones she found on the castle itself.

  “Got it!” Jin blurts out. “JEN, scan these feeds and report any signs of intelligent life.”

  “Scanning now.”

  Nightmare looks concerned. ‘Jin, the back manor has warding on it that I can’t get through.’

  ‘Is it like the one on the castle?’ Jin asks hopefully, though he knows the answer.

  Nightmare shakes her head. ‘No, it’s much harder, more brute power, less finesse.’

  “Incoming energy bolt, take evasive action now!” JEN alerts Jin and Nightmare quickly, instinctively Jin rolls to the right and pulls Nightmare with.

  A bolt of green energy shoots past Jin’s back as he shields Nightmare from the attack.

  “Where did that come from?” Jin yells.

  JEN replies, “Manor house, Northeast corner, I’m scanning the database for a match on the super now...It’s Mrs. Manhattan, Level 2. I recommend calling in backup, should I do that?”

  Cracking his knuckles, Jin’s voice drops. “Nope, this will be done long before they arrive anyway.”

  A man wearing black robes, a pointy hat, and sitting on a broom floats up behind Jin and Nightmare. “Finally, some action. Sorry little Cape, I’ve been here a while and I’m bored. That’s bad for you, because when I get bored I forget to hold back.” With a flick he waves a stick in his hand and yells, “Earthbind!”

  As Jin turns around to look at the person talking, he feels his body being pulled toward the ground a lot faster than gravity does.

  “JEN, who’s this Harry Potter wannabe?” Jin shouts as he hurtles toward the ground.

  “Maligknight, Level 2, powerset includes a multitude of magic spells. Known for brute force attacks on medieval castles and manors. I strongly advise calling for backup. May I do that now?”

  Nightmare, ignoring JEN’s request to call backup, pushes off of Jin and floats on her own, “I’ll take care of this nerd, you go after Mrs. Manhattan.” She winks and turns to face Maligknight.

  “We should stay…” Jin begins protesting before another energy blast shoots past his arm, singing his scales. “Nevermind, I’ll be back as soon as possible, stay safe.”

  The wind buffeting Nightmare loosens a few hairs from her braid as she squares off with Maligknight. “You’re going to regret messing with my ride, Potter. I promise you that much.”

  Chapter 58: Maligknight, AKA Broom Guy

  God, I love that girl. It’s killing me that I can’t stay up there and protect her, but she’s got this. I know she won’t let me down.

  Jin decides to focus on the immediate threat of Mrs. Manhattan. He holds his body in such a way that directs him toward the ground behind the castle. He starts to spin, gently at first, then incredibly quickly using the flames from his hands to generate the rotation.

  As Jin hits the ground his impact leaves a small crater with a hole about two feet across at the bottom leading down for a bit and then toward the manor behind the castle.

  “JEN, powerset and proclivities of Mrs. Manhattan please.”

  The ground above Jin shakes as Mrs. Manhattan pounds the ground with energy blasts, some of the energy even enters the tunnel behind him, it glows for a bit before exploding violently.

  “Mrs. Manhattan, Level 2, powerset includes control of nuclear energy. Energy bolts, energy nova’s centered on herself, and absorption of electricity and fire based attacks. She is never found without her servant Lady Brooklyn.

  Lady Brooklyn is a Level 3 on her own, but her ability to enhance Mrs. Manhattan has yet to find it’s limit. Boosters are particularly dangerous in concert with other Supers. Otherwise, she can generate a large electric shock, but lacks the ability to deliver those shocks without touching the target.”

  Jin shakes his head as he spins toward the manor house, “Oh, that’s it? Okay, no problem.”

  Well shit, this is going to be tougher than I thought. I can’t just blast her with a firebolt and move on. I’ll have to go with a stone shot.

  “Another known associate of Mrs. Manhattan is Mr. Manhattan, last seen two years ago after a defeat at the hands of Jolly, Hellion, and Kiloton. He is a Level 1 threat on his own. Powers include complete energy absorption, any non kinetic energy entering his sphere of influence is under his control, I am going to...” JEN goes silent.

  “JEN?” Jin asks, but nothing happens. He sighs. “Well that answers that I guess, I’ve got a Level 2 confirmed, a Level 3 likely, and a Level 1 potentially on target. What the hell did I get myself into?”

  ___

  Laughter greets Nightmare before a blast of cold strikes her bubble. “Don’t speak of that weak mongrel in my presence! I am an Archmage of the 13th order, not some sniveling child with the power of ‘Love’”, his obvious disdain for the term showing through, clear as day, to someone with Nightmare’s skills.

  After a quick check of her bubble, she finds it still unharmed, Nightmare looks back toward Maligknight. “Who else am I supposed to compare you to with that getup? You’re no Elminster, Dresden, or Milamber, that’s for damn sure. How about I call you Broom guy, is that better?”

  “I’ll have you know that these vestments are all powerful artifacts. I have the Pointed Hat of High Wizardry, Broom of Flying, and Wand of Power, how could one of your caliber understand the greatness of these? You can’t, so you should just die now.” Maligknight waves his wand and a red bolt of energy, about as thick as a sewing needle, shoots out and sticks itself halfway through Nightmare’s bubble, almost touching her nose as it stops. “How did my sure fire kill spell, Death Spike, not kill you?”

  Despite the danger Nightmare is in, she seems to thrive in it. “Do you want me to tell you where you went wrong or should I just take care of you now?” She uses her psychokinesis to grab the Death Spike and hold it, ready to throw, outside her bubble, three small balls of ice form on the back of the Death Spike.

  “What do you mean, my spell defense is perfect. Even Mr. Manhattan can’t hurt me when I’m like this.” Maligknight smirks. “He tried just the other day, but he couldn’t do anything. I even trapped him in the guest house, taking the castle proper for myself, as is my right as an Archmage.”

  Got you, thanks for that.

  ‘Jin, Mr. Manhattan is in there, be safe,’ Nightmare sends before focusing on her prey once more.

  Nightmare begins spinning the Death Spike beside her, slowly at first, then faster. “I wonder how you defend against your own attacks?” With a push, partly using her control over Water and partly using her psychokinesis, she sends the spike toward Maligknight with all her might.

  Shock fills Maligknight's face before he quickly pulls up on his broom to rise farther into the air. “You really think that will be enough to stop me? How foolish!” He laughs for a moment before he hears a cracking sound. “What’s that? You missed me completely!”

  Nightmare laughs. “If I was aiming for your chest, yeah I missed. I wasn’t aiming for your chest, look down.”

  A look of horror crosses Maligknight
’s face. “You bitch,” he says as he begins falling, his broom turned into a mass of splinters by the ice balls from Nightmare’s previous attack. She had the spike shoot through the center of the broom, leaving a bit of ice every foot or so along the broom’s length.

  “Have a nice fall!” Nightmare says as she watches him fall and crash into the ground. She checks his mental state and sees that he isn’t dead, but knocked out cold.

  Wow, he really is a tough one, that was a hell of a fall. I’ll take care of him later, now to help Jin!

  Chapter 59: Mister, Missus, and Lady

  ‘Thanks for the heads up Nightmare. I figured that out when all my electronics stopped working, I’m about to surface in there. If you hear anything bad from me, call in backup. The three of them would kill you in seconds in there, you may have Awakened, but as a Mind your body isn’t much stronger than it was before.’

  ‘What do you mean three? Mr. and Mrs. Manhattan I know about, who’s the last one?’ Nightmare’s tone doing nothing to contain her panic from Jin’s trained “ear”.

  ‘Lady Brooklyn is almost definitely going to be in there, she’s probably going to have been charging them for the last few weeks at least, this is going to be dangerous, but I should be fine. Love you.’ Jin cuts off the contact and focuses.

  I’ll tunnel up, hopefully I end up directly in front of Mr. Manhattan, if I can take him down first, I have a much better chance against the other two. I really wish I’d spent some more time working on this, it’s so much slower than flying or running. I wonder if I can speed it up? FOCUS Jin!

  With a surge of will and a lot of contortion, Jin tunnels up toward the center of where he can feel three moving bodies. Time seems to slow down as his brain speeds up.

  Tremorsense helped find the targets, now to figure out which one is Mr. Manhattan. There’s one by the outside window, that’s Mrs. Manhattan, I can ignore her for now. The other two are very close together, one is sitting and the other one is standing. I wish I had at least looked at the Cowl Catalog with Nightmare, perfect recall would at least give me a chance of having seen something about this pair. No hesitation, time to make a decision.

  Jin bursts through the floor under the seated figure, a glance at the pink boot of the person he’s punching tells him that he picked the wrong target. “Well, I had to take you all down, might as well start with the Booster.” With a surge of flame from his feet, Jin’s punch soars up through the fiberglass chair Lady Brooklyn was sitting on behind Mr. Manhattan.

  The crunching noise from the chair does nothing to mask the cracking noise as Jin’s fist shatters the pelvis and right femur of Lady Brooklyn. With a scream she falls to the side crying, she screams, “I’ll kill you for this!” She falls limp, but still breathing.

  Jin takes in the room and sees that he’s in an ultra modern living room, complete with statues in obscure shapes that don’t make any sense and the obligatory fireplace in the middle of the space despite the fact that the fire inside is so insulated that no heat actually escapes it. The floor looks to be made up of large pieces of marble.

  Mrs. Manhattan is standing at the window, Jin notes, he’s moving so fast that she hasn’t even had the time to turn around yet. She stands around medium height with tight blonde curls framing a decidedly pinched face and her ears stick out like teacup handles. She is pale skinned with a full black bodysuit that is stretched to its limits, yellow gloves complete her ensemble. On the back of her gloves are black biohazard symbols.

  After he scopes out Mrs. Manhattan, Jin turns to see Mr. Manhattan’s fist flying toward him, it crackles with green energy as it clips Jin with a zapping and cracking noise. Jin would have gone flying if Mr. Manhattan hadn’t grabbed him by the neck and held him up in the air before him, squeezing none too gently.

  Mr. Manhattan is a tall, dark skinned man with round glasses and a shaved head. He is wearing a suit matching Mrs. Manhattan, though his gloves are white and his biohazard symbols are yellow.

  “This is who we’ve been waiting for?” Mr. Manhattan asks, his voice a deep bass.

  Mrs. Manhattan turns around and sees Jin held up in the air by Mr. Manhattan, she squeals. “Yes! You’re the best dear, we’re going to be paid so well for this job! We can finally retire to that island you always talk about. Now we just have the annoying bumblebee outside to bring in and we should be able to call in the retrieval team.”

  Mr. Manhattan’s blank face doesn’t change. “Strange that they’re willing to pay so much for a runt like this. He can’t even be 18 years old yet. Nevertheless, take down the last intruder, they’re not paying us for her, so kill her to get rid of the witness, same with the bratty wizard.”

  Skipping over, Mrs. Manhattan hops up and kisses Mr. Manhattan on the cheek. “You got it dear, I’ll take care of that annoying bumblebee and then show you how grateful I am.” She looks seductively at her husband and shakes her sizable ass jauntily.

  “That’s...gross,” Jin chokes out through Mr. Manhattan’s grip. “Get...a room.” He tries to use his flight to escape the Cowl’s grip, but nothing happens.

  Holy crap, how strong is this guy? I can barely breathe and I can’t seem to move at super speed anymore...damnit! He must have absorbed my speed, Fire, and strength, JEN did say he absorbed energy, he must be able to absorb powers. That explains how he grabbed me and can hold me up like this.

  If I could talk with his hand on my throat, I would tell him he could find a replacement wife at any big box store on a Monday, but that’s not the case right now.

  Jin stretches out his toes and barely touches the ground.

  Oh good, at least I can still use tremorsense, so I have that going for me, but I’ll only have one shot at taking him down before he takes Earth too.

  ‘Kat?’ Jin sends, almost hoping not to get an answer.

  Immediately, ‘Theo? I still can’t get into the manor house, the ward is falling, but I’m still looking for the anchor to take it down right away. You told me to never use our real names in a battle like this, why the breach of protocol?’ Kat asks, her worry no longer hidden.

  ‘I’m in a bit of a spot, I’m down to Earth powers, stone skin and the like, but I’m a bit hung up so I thought I’d tell you again how much I love you.’ Theo’s mental tone is calm. ‘I’m going to do something dumb here, so I hope you can forgive me. Oh, and they’re targeting you now, get clear my love.’

  ‘THEO?!?!’ Kat asks frantically, but he doesn’t respond.

  With a newly cleared head Jin focuses on the only offensive power he has left, Earth. His eyes dart around and settle on the marble flooring of the room he’s barely touching. He reaches out and feels that the slabs are a foot thick. He can feel the echo of heat that formed the stone, the densely packed grain set millions of years ago aching at having been cut to act as flooring. He resonates with the stone and feels it’s reaction to him. The resonance is strong, stronger than any other material Jin has ever interacted with.

  I think I can use this, but if anything goes wrong, I’m a goner.

  “Ooh, I think I hit her this time! She’s wavering in the sky, though she seems to be determined to get in here. Oooh! I wonder if they’re a couple?” Mrs. Manhattan jumps up and down as she blasts blindly out the window, surprisingly agile for such a large lady. “I can’t wait to see her cry when she sees him like that, promise you won’t kill her until I get to watch her cry dear.”

  Mr. Manhattan stands as still as stone, his face still passive. “Anything for you dear.”

  “Yay! I’ll just wing her so she can see him beaten up before I blow her head off.” She looks out and starts blasting faster. “Gonna wing me a bumblebee!”

  No time like the present I guess. Man I hope this works.

  Jin focuses the rest of his draconic energy and starts pouring it into the marble under his dangling feet. His energy pours out of his toe tip and into the floor, slowly at first, then faster, like a floodgate opening. After a few moments Jin can tell that it’s time fo
r his Hail Mary.

  Jin grins. “Boom…motherfuckers.”

  The room erupts into a storm of marble shrapnel, visibility is reduced to less than a foot in front of everyone but Jin, who can “see” using the chunks of marble his energy is infused in. Almost immediately Jin “sees” Mrs. Manhattan get hit in the head by a particularly fast moving six inch piece of marble. She hits the ground and doesn’t get up.

  Serves her right, I can’t wait to put her in prison for this. No one talks about killing my loved ones and gets away with it.

  Lady Brooklyn fares even worse, the explosion takes her body and pierces it through over 30 times, leaving her body mangled and unmoving. Unwittingly, Jin killed for the first time today.

  She didn’t deserve to die, she was just a flunkie, a glorified battery booster. I’ll have to deal with this later...I don’t have time to feel bad right now, seeing as I’m still hanging in the air.

  Despite being pummeled and stabbed by marble from all angles, Mr. Manhattan doesn’t even move.

  The storm of marble subsides and Mr. Manhattan’s only reaction is to raise Jin a foot higher in the air.

  Mr. Manhattan looks over at the crumpled form of Mrs. Manhattan and the mangled body of Lady Brooklyn. After a moment, his grip tightens around Jin’s neck.

  “I’ll take half pay if I get to kill you. You hurt my wife and killed my booster, do you know how hard those are to find?” Mr. Manhattan’s grip tightens even more, Jin can no longer breathe.

  Jin’s eyes flash red for a second before subsiding to their normal gold.

  “You’ll be putting my grandson down now,” a faintly familiar voice says from behind Mr. Manhattan.

  Mr. Manhattan continues squeezing tighter for a moment before his entire body goes limp, after a moment he begins snoring loudly. Jin falls to the ground, coughing and rubbing his throat. He can feel his powers flowing back into him, the feeling is one of elation.