Hopebringer

Plenty of people get dragged into situations they really don't want to be in by ROBs, but very few get chosen by ROB's for more than basic amusement. I was unlucky enough to be one of them. Now I'm in Worm with a mission to save the world. Unfortunately, raw power isn't what works around here.

And we're back. Nothing to say here, other than enjoy!

Chapter 13

Now that Tattletale was firmly on our side, I set her to work with Nero, Chiron and Valerie to get started on a plan to deal with Coil while avoiding all of his booby traps. The problem was determining which of said booby traps were real and which were misdirection. Lisa had taken one look at the list we had and determined that at least half of what was on it was false information, deliberately leaked to potential security risks to keep the authorities away. The problem was figuring out which half was bullshit and which half was true since all of them had the potential to have some pretty unpleasant fallout, sometimes literally.

"The data bombs and blackmail are most likely real," said Lisa, "He had me gather a fair amount of data on a number of important people that would definitely qualify. I'm not to sure about releasing the names of the Empire though. That would bring way to much heat if he wanted to use the chaos to get away."

"He'd most likely make it seem like a different group released the data," said Chiron, "Maybe the PRT?"

"Possibly," said Valerie, "I suspect it would depend on the circumstances and who was available to act as a catspaw. What about the rest of them?"

"I can see Coil installing a self destruct function in his base," said Lisa, "Its located somewhere under the business district, so setting it off would cause a lot of chaos and distract any would-be pursuers."

"Not to mention kill hundreds of people," growled Nero, "The more I hear of this Coil the less I like him."

"Believe me, your not the only one," growled Lisa, "I think we can safely say that these are unlikely to be true."

She tapped the stack that contained the information on Tinkertech viruses and a possible mini-nuke.

"Coil is petty enough to use them if he was captured, but hes also arrogant and likely thinks that its unlikely to actually happen, what with all his plans, connections and power," she said, "Plus, he wouldn't want to use anything that had the risk of catching him in the backlash and releasing those Tinkertech viruses would get EVERYONE on his ass."

"Can we be sure though?" I asked.

"Completely? No," said Lisa, "I'd need to get more information."

I nodded sagely.

"So in other words, we still have absolutely nothing," I said.

Lisa groaned as she dropped her head to the table.

"The fucker knows me too well," she said, "He set up his information security so even I can't be completely sure what's real and what's fake without more information it's impossible to get."

"And I'm not confident I can get into his computers without being found out," grumbled Valerie, "I'm good, but my legend was tied to mechanical creations, not programming or hacking."

"I don't think my Imperial Privilege Skill is useful for this," said Nero, "Computers weren't exactly something I studied after all."

"I could probably boost you with a Command Spell, but I don't think using one for this would be such a good idea," I said with a sigh.

We all fell silent as we stared at the pile of files and notes piled up on the table.

"Why don't you ask for help?" asked Astolfo, who was lounging back on the couch.

There was a moments silence as we all stared at the pink haired Rider, before I let out a groan and facepalmed.

"And that is why you keep an idiot around," I said, "They tend to see what you miss."

"Your welcome!" chirped Astolfo.

"Alright, Val, you get in contact with Dragon," I said as I got to my feet, "She owes us a favour and should be able to figure out something to help. Worst comes to worse, we can get some equipment inside with Jacks help."

"Shame we can't just have her slit Coils throat," grumbled Lisa.

"Yep, but since we don't know if things will start exploding if we do, its best to hold that back as a last resort," I said as I sat back and rubbed my eyes, "Damn, I need a break."

"Thats probably a good idea," said Valerie, glancing at her watch, "Besides, Taylor will be here soon."

As if to prove her point, the door opened to reveal the hallway of our apartment and Chiron leading a shocked looking Taylor through the portal.

Taylor glanced between the building in front of her and the paper on her hand and frowned. This...didn't really look like a place a Cape would make their base. It looked like a completely normal apartment building. Then again, Adrian did have a Tinker on his team, so it wasn't impossible that she could have done something weird to hide their activities. After a moment's thought, she shrugged and walked up the steps. She'd get her answers soon enough.

She scanned the numbers on the plate next to the door and, after finding the right one, pressed the button next to it. There was a pause before a voice came from the speaker above the plate.

"Tepes residence," it said, "How can I help you?"

"Um, I'm looking for Adrian?" said Taylor, "He invited me over to visit. My names Taylor Hebert."

"Ah, right, he mentioned you," said the voice, before the door buzzed and opened, "Come on up."

"Thank you," said Taylor, before releasing the button and stepping through the door into a nicely decorated and fairly well maintained lobby.

A quick trip in the elevator later and she found herself on the right floor and quickly found the door. She knocked and a moment later, it opened to reveal a tall man with long hair.

"Hello Miss Hebert," he said, "Please, come in."

He stepped to the side as Taylor took the invertaton, looking around with interest at the nicely furnished apartment. She took a few steps in, then turned back to the man and took a closer look.

"Your...Archer, right?" she asked slowly.

The man paused and glanced back from where he was doing something with the door.

"Thats correct," he said, "Adrian said you were observant."

"Um, thanks," said Taylor, "Where is Adrian?"

"He isn't here right now, but he asked me to bring you along to the base when you arrived," said Archer, "Right this way."

He opened the front door again. Taylor frowned, then froze as she saw what was on the other side of the door, her jaw dropping in shock when she saw that, instead of the hallway, the door now opened into what appeared to be a meeting room of some kind.

"W-what the hell?!" she spluttered.

"One of Rulers more useful creations," said Archer, "It cuts down on a lot of commuting time. Please, come with me."

Taylor followed the man through the door as the small group that was sitting up the other end of the table.

"Perfect timing Chiron," said Adrian as he got to his feet, "We were just about to take a break."

"Um, if your busy I can come another time," said Taylor, more than a little shocked by the sudden change in scenery.

Then she recognized the blonde girl who was sat at the table and did a double take.

"Lisa? What are you doing here?" she asked, "Unless…"

Her eyes went wide.

"Holy shit, your a Cape too?!" she yelped.

Lisa blinked, then snorted.

"You know, most people wouldn't blurt that out," she said, "People can take it...badly."

Taylor blushed.

"Um, sorry," she said.

Lisa shook her head.

"No, its fine," she said, "Frankly I'd be more surprised if you didn't figure it out considering. You could have mentioned she was coming though."

Adrian shrugged, looking mildly amused.

"I didn't know you knew each other," he said, "I guess Rin introduced you?"

"Yep," said Lisa.

Taylor frowned.

"You mean Rins a Cape to?" she asked.

Lisa stared at her for a moment, then snorted again.

"Thats my shtick," she said.

Taylor blushed and ducked her head. Then jolted it back as a pair of green eyes suddenly appeared directly in front of her face.

"Ah, so this is the Taylor Hebert we've heard so much about," said Saber as she slowly circled Taylor, making the tall girl squirm slightly under her gaze, "You certainly have good taste Praetor."

"I'd say its not like that, but you wouldn't listen," said Adrian.

"Of course its not, I'm the only one for you!" said Saber, "Still, this won't do. These clothes don't suit you at all, it looks like your trying to hide in them."

Taylor paled as she saw the look on the blondes face, a look that she'd seen on Emma's right before the redhead dragged her out shopping.

"A-ah, no, I like these clothes," she said.

"Nonsense, your a pretty girl and you should look the part!" said Saber, seizing Taylor by the hand, "Come along, this won't take long."

"Um, help?" said Taylor as she was dragged away.

"Sorry Tay, but I know better than to get in Sabers way when she gets like this," said Adrian, "Just enjoy it. Oh and Saber, no cosplay or maid outfits."

"Don't worry Praetor, I know what I'm doing!" called Saber over her shoulder.

"I think I'll come along to," said Lisa, "Could be interesting."

"Et tu Lisa?" thought Taylor as she was dragged away to her doom.

Brad Meadows, better known as Hookwolf was an interesting man. Not a nice one, not in the slightest, but definitely interesting. Despite his many years as part of the Empire and his use of profanity and racist slurs in general conversation, he didn't actually believe in any of the crap spewed by his comrades. To him, all Humans were the same, whether they be white, black, asian or anything else. So long as he got to either fight or shed blood, he didn't care who he was tearing apart. Had he been born into any other era, there's a good chance that he would have eventually found himself as an inhabitant of the Throne of Heroes.

Or dead in a ditch after jumping into the wrong fight.

Either way, this outlook meant that he was perfectly willing to work with just about anyone if it meant he could get a good fight. And one of the best fights he could think of at the moment was with the brat Alucard and his little friends. After all, they was clearly strong and would be either excellent additions to the Empire or potential threats to be removed. He was practically salivating at the thought of the upcoming fight.

However, the first job was finding information on the group and that meant visiting his informant, hence why he was entering the very last place anyone would expect to see the murderous Cape. A Church.

Brad ignored the odd looks he was getting from the few people in the building as he made his way up the aisle and entered the confession booth.

"Welcome child, have you come to confess your sins?" said a soft and surprisingly youthful voice from the other side of the divide.

Brad scoffed.

"You know as well as I do that my sins won't be going anywhere," he growled.

"The Lord forgives all who ask for it," said the priest.

Brad grunted.

"Oh, very well, ask your questions," said the priest.

"Alucard and his friends," said Brad, "I need information on them."

"Oh my, you certainly like to live dangerously, don't you Mr Meadows?" said the priest with an air of amusement in his voice, "Are you sure you don't wish to confess? Chances are you'll be meeting the Lord soon enough if you go up against them."

"You don't think I can take them?" growled Brad, flexing his fingers and feeling his blades shift under his skin.

"No," said the priest simply, "None of them have shown anything close to their full power and any one of them could squash you flat."

Brad growled again, dearly wishing he could just choke the bastard out or, preferably, shred him to bits. However, he knew that would end badly for him. The priest wasn't a Cape as far as he knew, but he was incredibly skilled and wouldn't hesitate to kill Brad if it came to a fight.

"That said, they do have a weakness," said the priest, "Alucard. He's the...linchpin of the team you might say. Kill him and the entire group will fall apart."

"I see," grunted Brad, "Fine, I'm done."

He stood and left without another word, leaving the priest sitting there alone.

"Of course, they'll probably kill you before they fade, but thats no real loss," he said, "Assuming you can actually manage to kill him."

The priest smiled softly.

"Hmm, I wonder how this will go down?" he mused, "I should go watch. It could provide some interesting data for Master."

He stood and ducked out of the confession booth, heading deeper into the Church to gather his equipment, just in case.

Amy Dallon was in a good mood. It was a feeling she wasn't really used to, but one she could definitely get used to. Things still weren't perfect at home, her Fathers depression and her own...issues with her sister saw to that, but they were much better, enough that she'd agreed to pay a visit to the new Healer in town without much issue, if only to stop Carol from worrying. The only thing she was addicted to was nicotine and caffeine after all.

Still, it couldn't hurt and it could be interesting to meet another Healer.

The three Dallon women eventually stopped in front of a building that looked slightly less run down than the others around it with a large chalice painted on the door.

"Is this the place?" asked Carol.

"Looks like it," said Vicky, "I guess we just knock…?"

Before any of the three women could do so though, the door opened to reveal a girl in a white dress with red hair that covered her eyes and a weird headset that included a bronze horn and looked like something out of a steampunk setting. She was also holding a rather large mace with an ease that suggested that she was a lot stronger than she looked.

The New Wave Capes froze as the girl looked around at them, somehow giving off the air of a curious, floppy eared dog.

"Eve, quit stalling and bring them in!" called a familiar voice from inside.

Eve glanced over her shoulder, then back at the Dallon women and nodded.

"Hnn," she said and beckoned them inside before vanishing.

Carol, Vicky and Amy glanced at each other, then Vicky shrugged and, with the confidence of a high level Brute, entered the building. The other two shared an exasperated sigh and followed.

Inside, they found themselves in what appeared to be a meeting room of some kind with doors leading off to the side. One of the doors was open, letting the smell of cooking and a faint singing float out.

Sat in the chair at the head of the table was Alucard, looking slightly amused by something. The girl who had opened the door was off to the side, crouched beside a planter of flowers and poking at one of the blooms for some reason.

"Afternoon ladies," said Alucard, "Have a seat. Tea? Coffee?"

"I'd rather get down to business," said Carol, "I know that you said that there was nothing to worry about, but I don't like the idea of my Daughter being under the effect of whatever this is."

Alucard sighed and nodded.

"I guess I can understand that," he said, "That said, I wasn't kidding when I said that there was nothing to worry about. Panacea might be suffering from an addiction, but whats affecting her is Glory Girls aura."

The reaction was predictable.

"WHAT?!" shrieked all three Dallons.

"T-that can't be right!" said Vicky, looking rather pale, "My Aura doesn't affect my family and its only temporary!"

"True, but your forgetting two things," said Alucard as he cleaned his ear out, "Number one, Panacea isn't your sister by blood and two, the people who ran those tests weren't around you every day."

That drew Vicky up short.

"Think about it," continued Alucard, "Panacea is around you damn near all the time, at home, school, out on the town and so on. Hours of uninterrupted exposure since you got your powers. Even assuming that the effects wear off pretty quickly, if its constantly reinforced then the results are inevitable."

Vicky was shaking her head, looking rather like she'd been punched in the stomach.

"No, that can't be true," she said, "Tell him Ames...Ames?"

Amy wasn't listening though, not when she was to busy trying to decide if she should be relieved or horrified by the revelation. As insane as it might sound, it put a lot of what she'd experienced over the years in a rather harsh and horrible light.

Vicky went pale and shot over to the other side of the room, looking rather pale and shaking slightly.

"Right, before this can get to messy, lets all calm down and think about this calmly," said Alucard, "Glory Girl, you aren't really at fault here. Your Aura defaults to on, correct?"

Vicky nodded shakily.

"So, even if you could shut it off entirely when you were awake, its doubtful that this could have been avoided without Panacea sleeping in a different building," he said, "Not only that, but the damage will be easy to fix and I can adjust Panacea so she is actually immune to it."

Carol narrowed her eyes.

"Modify her?" she asked, "And what do you mean you? I thought this...healer was a friend of yours."

Alucard snorted.

"Ah, that was a little white lie," he said, "You see, my power isn't actually what most people think it is. Its actually Animancy, the ability to control the principle of life."

"Your a Biokinetic," said Carol.

Alucard snorted again.

"Not even close," he said, "I'm as far beyond Panacea as she is beyond that idiot Nilbog. That said, its close enough that it'd still make the PRT panic and I have no real interest in dealing with that mess. Plus, healers without backup tend to get recruited or killed. Its doubtful that anyone could actually manage to hold me for long if I wanted out, but its a lot easier in the long run to establish myself as a powerhouse before revealing that aspect of my powers."

Amy nodded despite still being distracted sorting out her feelings regarding this whole mess. It was very true that healers tended to be even more valuable targets than Tinkers, to the point that when she first debuted there was a number of attempts from the Empire, the Elite and even a member of the Fallen who attempted to recruit her, as well as one idiot who tried to grab her of the street. It...had not ended well for him.

"All that aside, fixing the issues caused by Glory Girl's Aura is easy, as is making it so that Panacea won't be affected by it in the future," said Alucard, "If you don't want me to do that, I won't, but I do suggest that you let me. Otherwise, this will be a temporary solution at best."

"Please do it," said Amy before her mother could speak.

Everyone turned to look at her.

"Amy, are you sure about that?" asked Carol.

Amy nodded.

"Yes, I am," she said, "I...I don't want to feel like this any more and like he said, if he just removes the addiction, its a patch job at best. Besides, he trusted us by telling us about his real power. I think I can extend some trust back his way."

"Theres a bit of a difference between telling us about an iffy power and letting him mess with your brain though," said Vicky, sounding rather worried.

"I know, but I still feel like we can trust him," said Amy.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," said Alucard, "Alright, lets get started."

Amy nodded and moved over to sit in the chair Alucard indicated to. A moment later, the other Biokinetic rested his fingers on her temples and she felt a rather bizarre sensation flow into her head.

"Hnn, you really need to cut down on the caffeine and cigarettes," he said, "I know that your powers can deal with all of the toxins and unpleasant buildups, but its still not healthy. You also need to get a few proper nights sleep and cut back on the stress. Your backs coiled like a spring."

The odd feeling flowed through her body, causing her tense muscles to loosen enough that she slumped slightly in the chair with a sigh of relief as the aches she never even noticed were washed away. Suddenly she had a very good idea of why so many people enjoyed the affects of her power.

The sensation quickly faded and refocused on her head again as Alucard started muttering to himself. There was a brief spike of pain, then the rather worrying feeling of something shifting around, followed by a sensation that was even odder than the first one that almost felt like it wasn't actually affecting her body, despite coming from inside her head.

"Glory Girl, do you mind flaring your Aura?" asked Alucard.

Out of the corner of her eye, Amy saw her sister start slightly, then nod. A moment later, Amy felt an odd pressure on her head, but otherwise didn't feel anything close to what she'd normally experience under Vicky's Aura.

"That'll do thank you," said Alucard and the pressure faded.

There was a moments pause as the odd feeling once again spread over her body, before receding entirely and Alucard removed his hands.

"There, your done," he said, "I also gave you a general tune up, although I wasn't kidding when I said you need to cut back on the stress. That more than anything else was what weakened your immune system enough to let you come down with the flu."

Amy nodded.

"Yeah, I got it," she said.

"Hey, if you can fix brains, do you think you can do something to help Dad?" asked Vicky suddenly.

Alucard glanced at the blonde and looked thoughtful.

"Possibly," he said, "Theres a limit to what I can do with brains without risking more trouble than its worth. I am willing to try, so long as the patent knows the risk, but I'm fairly sure that clearing up the physical causes of his depression would be fairly simple."

The three Dallon women glanced at each other. Mark's depression was a well known issue, their nature as unmasked Capes meant that it was nearly impossible to keep things like that from the public, so it wasn't all that surprising that the other Cape knew about it. Alucard looked thoughtful for a moment, then smirked.

"Alright, I'll give it a shot," he said, "I wouldn't feel right not doing it anyway. That said, in exchange, how do you feel about New Wave giving my group a hand taking down a Villain?"

Carol frowned.

"Which Villain?" she asked, "And why us? Why not the Protectorate?"

Alucard's smirk widened.

"Because the PRT and Protectorate are so riddled with spies that if I did ask them for help, the villain in question would likely book it. They are cleaning house, but the annoying pest has enough backup plans that they have to be very careful not to set of a trap or something. To make matters worse, we have a stack of reports about three inches thick of possible doomsday weapons hes got stashed in his hidden base, ranging from a self destruct that would flatten half of downtown, to Tinkertech bioweapons that could sterilize the city if they were released and no idea of whats real and whats misdirection."

The three Dallon's gaped at him.

"Yes, thats pretty much the usual reaction," deadpanned Alucard, "As you can probably imagine, hes a lot more dangerous than anyone had thought based on his past actions."

"You still haven't told us who it is," said Carol, looking a little shaken.

"Coil," said Alucard, "The man is smart, dangerous and utterly amoral. We are making plans to deal with him as soon as possible since he has plans for the city which I highly doubt will be pleasant for anyone."

"I see," said Carol, looking thoughtful, "I can see why you'd ask for help in that case. I will however have to talk with the rest of my family first."

"Of course," said Alucard, "We're still collecting information anyway…"

"Annnnnd we're done!"

Everyone turned as one of the doors abruptly flew open to reveal Saber with another, rather smug looking blonde with bottle green eyes and a tall girl with long, curly black hair, glasses and a bright red blush. She was wearing a brown jacket and skirt, tights and brown shoes, along with a blue necktie that suited her rather well and was more than enough to make Amy look twice, before realizing she was staring and looking away.

Alucard stared for a moment, then sighed and gave a thumbs up.

"Looking good Tay," he said.

"Um, thanks," said the girl, "But I'm…"

She looked up, spotted the three New Wave Capes staring at her and let out a startled squeak.

"I did the best I could, but I still want to get her a proper wardrobe," said Saber, apparently not even remotely bothered by the slightly tense air.

"Alucard…" said Carol, looking slightly angry.

"Don't worry, the walls are soundproof," said Alucard, "This is Taylor, a friend from school, Taylor these are...well, they probably don't need any introduction."

There was a pause, before Vicky shrugged, grinned and zipped over to Taylor.

"Hi, I'm Vicky," she said, "Nice to meet you Taylor!"

Taylor looked more than a little taken aback.

"I, um, hi?" she said.

"Are you sure its safe for her to be here?" asked Carol as Vicky proceeded to pull of her usual Hurricane Victoria act that never failed to make its victims look very confused, "This neighbourhood isn't the best…"

"Not to worry, we brought her through a portal Ruler made that leads between my apartment and the base," said Alucard, "And with all of us here its perfectly safe. Besides, its not like anyone would be dumb enough to attack us…"

A loud crash from outside cut him off mid sentence.

"HEY ALUCARD, OPEN UP!" roared a voice Amy immediately recognized from outside.

Alucard scowled as he moved over the table and pressed a button on the surface. A screen popped up above the table showing Hookwolf, Cricket, Rune and Crusader arrayed outside, along with a number of thuggish looking goons.

"Well, I guess I should learn not to tempt murphy," growled Alucard, "This is going to be a pain, I can tell."

Well, as much as I wanted to get the fight done this chapter, it appears that murphy has kicked my ass as surely as he has Alucards. Next time though. That and Taylor gets a rather odd experience. Hehe, that'll be fun. I do apologize for the cliffhanger though, as I said, it wasn't planned, it just happened to fall this way.

So yes, not all of Coils backups are legit, but theres enough evidence for their existence that they still can't run in blindly. That said, dealing with Coil won't be much further off, if only because I'm getting as sick of him as Alucard is.

Is Taylor being a bit candid with throwing out her conclusions as to who she figures out are Capes? Maybe, but shes among friends and was noted for being a bit of a blabbermouth before Emma gave her psyche a good kicking.

Ohhh my, it seems that we have a Judas Priest wondering around. I bet you can guess who he is.

Taylors new outfit is the female Hakuno's during Extra and Last Encore. I was looking for inspiration when I noticed that she and Taylor were rather similar and couldn't resist. To be clear, Saber doesn't have any actual memories of Hakuno, but its not impossible that she has a little echo of her still left.

And with that, I'm done. I do have to admit I'm not entirely pleased with this chapter and something about it doesn't feel quite right. If you notice anything, please let me know. Until next time, don't forget to leave a review!