《Creep》60. Remembering an Old Villain
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Tulpa had just woken up when his pager sounded from across the room. Standing in the warm daylight piercing through his apartment window, he held a bowl of cereal up to his lips, drinking the last of the milk. There was no urgency in his movement as he picked up the device, as he’d heard this noise before.
They’d been short-staffed ever since Ironbolt took off with Dupe and Fortitude to go pursue their damn conspiracy theory. Lately, it had just been he and Maximal at the station along with a few unpowered cops that Seraph brought in. Nice enough guys and, when armed with Seraph tech, they could just about make up for what was lost. At least as long as things stayed quiet, which they mostly did in Pensacola.
Hickory and his gang had been the biggest problem that South Alabama and the Florida panhandle faced. That power vacuum had yet to be refilled, thankfully. But it was only a matter of time.
“Somebody call in sick again?” Tulpa joked to himself. The last three times he had been paged in to fill someone’s shift, there’d been a particularly good concert in town. Those lazy contractors…
Standing half-dressed in the window, he froze when he read the message from Seraph. Just four little words.
“Report to Rift Gate,” he said, eyes going unfocused as he let the words process.
It was not a message he’d ever seen before, yet every Hero knew what it meant.
Maximal had been gone for several days now. He hadn’t said what he was doing, but word had reached the news. The Lich King had been beaten by an unknown team of insurgents… and some kind of sentient Kizmet that looked painfully familiar.
Tulpa had already figured it out, though. He knew what exactly was going on, and just thinking about it made his throat go dry.
“On my way,” he said to the device, per protocol. Immediately his icon lit up green, confirmed as active for duty. The clock was now ticking.
He was already down his stairs and dressed when he decided to belatedly check his phone for the news. While the engine cranked up, he scrolled quickly through Twitter looking for any mention of the ‘all hands on deck’ message.
He wasn’t surprised to see that every major Hero account he followed was reporting the same hashtag. ‘Ready for action’, they said. A common slogan to rally before a big event. In the past, it was usually reserved for Kizmet attacks.
Hastily, Tulpa put out the same message to his alter ego’s thousand followers and sped off. Straight for the nearest Rift Gate, an hour away.
By the time he arrived, all civilian traffic had been diverted to different roads already, leaving the highway eerily fully of Heroes and reserve soldiers. What people often forgot was that the vast majority of Powered individuals were not a part of the bread and circus of propagandized Hero work. They were more like National Guardsmen and had no secret identity at all.
The vast, six-lane highway which led directly into the Rift was now wholly reserved for military usage. With his mask put on, Tulpa flashed his badge at every checkpoint, growing closer to the ominous blue portal up ahead. Waiting to know more about whatever had summoned this growing army.
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He hadn’t been able to gather much more information while he drove, cautiously speeding and checking his phone. He’d texted every contact he had and all he knew was this:
Seraph had deployed the emergency mobile Rift system somewhere in the far Russian North. That meant that a massive portal had been hastily opened using machines deployed from orbit. It was experimental and risky, but now that the Great Storm was down Tulpa could only surmise that they’d secured the area well enough to give it a try.
What’s worse were the implications.
They intended to send just about every Powered and trained American they could get their hands on straight through that gateway and into the jaws of whatever lay beyond.
Up ahead, all the cars were being signaled to park off the side or middle of the road. Some were even being driven into ditches to make room. And out of so many regular vehicles, people in both civilian clothes and fanciful outfits were being ushered on foot towards the portal.
It was surreal, Tulpa thought.
Once parked, he reluctantly left his keys in the passenger seat and moved to join the rest of the Heroes in standing beneath the hot Florida sun, waiting in queue.
Most of these people would be given guns, he knew, as most of them didn’t crack a Class Four. But in a mass-scale conflict like this, there would be Boosters and the even rarer Crowd Support Types present, and so every Power counted in the end.
He could think of no historical precedent for having this many Supers in one place. Seraph had been shying from large scale conflict since the last disastrous attempts on the Lich’s stronghold, before his time. It had all just been high casualty, small territorial struggles against the lesser Barons since then. Defense, not offense, really. Focused mostly in the Middle East and North Africa.
As he stood gawking, one of the Heroes managing the line singled Tulpa out. “You there, move up! You’ve been requested for an expedited deployment.”
Tulpa didn’t know what that meant, but he obliged.
And so, he was led away from the pack. Not towards the Rift Gate itself, but into the administrative building which had been erected around it. As was the norm, these high traffic, major shipping areas had to have gas stations, office buildings, weigh stations, and so on.
Inside the beige entryway he was met by a mask he instantly recognized, leaning on the counter. At the man’s side were two spooks in black suits and somehow, Maximal himself.
The famous Hero, Strider, nodded to the Ward. “I heard you’re hot shit, is that right?”
“Sir.” He saluted. This was the military after all. “My sister is Egregore, sir.”
“Yeah, but what do you do?” Strider enquired.
“We don’t have a lot of time here,” Maximal griped. “Let’s just get him and go. You have better things to be doing, Strider, than vetting my Ward.”
“You put in the request to place him in a Class Two Legion, so I need to know that he’s legit. He hasn’t been officially tested,” the Hero shot back. “So I’ll repeat the question. What have you got, little man?”
Tulpa ruffled a little under the bombastic personality. These famous Heroes weren’t known for their humility and the last thing he was expecting right now was to be belittled by a minor celebrity. Still, he answered. “I generate a number of ghosts which I can divide or combine in strength. At their peak, they form a single controlled hologram which equals a Class Two in strength and durability.”
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“And what about you? What's the limitation on that?”
“I can pilot it from the inside, sir. So the short range doesn't hold me back or make me vulnerable.”
Maximal clapped his hands together. “Good. Can we go now? I’m eager to get back.”
“Sure. Fine.” Strider didn’t even have to touch the Heroes present in order to use his Power on them. That was how good he was.
In just the blink of an eye, all of them were teleported.
Through a strange black abyss, there was a momentary delay where Tulpa didn’t feel like he was anywhere. Instead, he was outside all time and space, able briefly to see things that he shouldn’t. Abstract, multidimensional shapes that represented places and histories. Concepts, even. Things that approached a metaphysical existence, merely by temporal aggregate. But before he could get a grip on them or stare too long, reality came crashing back, and it did so with a vengeance.
Tulpa found himself snapping into a cold and unforgiving wasteland, surrounded by miserable crowds of people shuffling through a deserted city. The army was not even halfway done gathering, he knew, but already there were too many soldiers for him to see through or count. They lined the streets and gathered in the open area just beyond the city.
"Stay frosty, guys." Strider disappeared before another word could be said to him, clearly too busy to do more than dish out a little harassment with his time. That left just Maximal and Tulpa amongst the throngs of Heroes, the latter beginning to shiver violently.
“You mind if I Power up?” Tulpa asked.
Maximal just gestured to the crowd. “You might as well. Everyone around you is a Class Two, including many Support Types. You may be near the front here, but this was the best I could do for you. You’ll be a lot safer than most of us.”
Once Tulpa had shrouded himself in his ghostly construct, he was comfortably protected from the cold. “What about you, Maximal? Where will you be? And what the hell is going on?” His anxiety had only grown over the hours of his drive, and now it was reaching a peak.
A dark look came over the Maximal's eyes as he explained then, his voice suddenly lowering. “A briefing is about to go out over people’s phones and pagers, but I can go ahead and tell you what’s going on. Creep has come back with a bio-engineered army, and he’s attempting to side with the Iron Tyrant. We can’t let him shift the center of Power like that, so we’re making our stand here. It's short notice, but this is the real deal, son. This is war.”
“Who’s we?”
“Everyone we could possibly get our hands on, including about four hundred thousand from the People’s Republic of China and King Solomon’s domain.”
“Jesus Christ,” Tulpa murmured, trying not to attract attention from all the Heroes around.
“I’m sorry it came to this. Just remember… You did the right thing back on that beach.”
Tulpa couldn’t help but doubt that, seeing everything before him. He could only shake his mentor’s hand and thank him for the help and the protection. “I’ll do my best. Stay safe, sir.”
“I’m sure you will.” And with that, Maximal took to the sky, disappearing among the low, nighttime clouds.
This was not how I saw this day going when I was eating my cereal, Tulpa admitted to himself.
His first thought after Maximal left was to get out of the crowds and move to one of the nearby rooftops. He could do so with one mighty jump, landing two stories up on the nearby abandoned building. From there he had a much better view of the fight which was about to take place.
The scale of it all was dizzying. For the first time in his life, he laid eyes on the Great Technicist of Japan’s handiwork. Kowareta’s Mechanized fighters, the Hunters, which each stood a hundred feet or better over the battlefield. How they’d even gotten them here so fast was beyond Tulpa’s imagination. Usually, they were stationed to fight the unusual number of Kizmets which assaulted the island nation. Now they were dedicated to one cause, just like everyone else.
This really was everyone, he realized. That included fighters from the Baron Kings, like the God of War and the Golden Dragon from Smiler’s domain, and the Master of Many from the African King, Nemesis.
If he didn’t know better, he’d almost think Ironbolt had been right about Seraph. They’d mustered help from the Kings so quickly that it practically screamed of a hidden alliance. But then at the same time, Tulpa could see from where he stood the Chariot of Solomon, burning through the sky. Clearly, Ironbolt would be here as well, working hand in hand with Seraph, his supposed mortal enemy. This gave more credence to a different idea. One which actually sat worse on his stomach.
And that was simply that the threat they faced now was beyond any petty struggle for Power. It was beyond squabbles for dominance and who would control the world order. It was about the very existence of the human race.
All of us, Powered and unPowered alike, he thought, joined in a unified effort. Walter really did go fucking crazy...
Tulpa grimaced.
God's a cruel bastard to give such a loser so much power.
For years people had been theorizing about an event like this. A Kizmet which brought the entire world together, just as they could bring Heroes and Villains together in America, on rare occasion. If the threat loomed large enough.
On the Horizon, he could make out the vague shadows of walking beasts. They looked like Scarabs and they were surrounded by other long-legged and flying horrors. Strangely warped lifeforms that sent a shiver down the spine of every Hero present.
Absently, he heard his pager beep with the briefing from Seraph. Everyone was getting into position for the fight, distant roar of jets beginning to sound.
Without thinking, Tulpa’s fist clenched.
“It’s time we finish what we started,” he said. "Fix God's mistake."
So we kill the Goddamn Creep.
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Across the Realms [Dropped]
Disclaimer: I'll leave this on here for anyone to read. The last time I uploaded a chapter was nearly a year ago, and to all the readers who still kept their trust in me after I came back from my umpteenth hiatus, I am sorry. I will not carry on writing this; I started off without the correct foundations of a novel, nor commitment to fully finish it and I do not want to lie to you all once again. Maybe one day, I may decide to re-write the novel, with a new basis or at least a comprehensive starting point with many of the narrative errors cleared up; but, till then, this is goodbye. And, once again, thank you for the motivation you gave me. Even now, I see many emails come through with people commenting. Goodbye. A child blessed by the Astral. An unprecedented destiny. Watch his path, as he marches up the stairway of Heaven. A March of a Sovereign. [Adventure, Wuxia, Martial Arts, Fantasy] This is a Qihuan novel; it has eastern and western fantasy elements. More often than not in Xianxia or Xuanhuan there is a severe lack of character development, being a western writer I'm changing that. My characters, from my totally unbiased view, feel fleshed out and actually have emotions. This is my first attempt at a novel, I'm writing as a means to better convey my thoughts. I will, hopefully, steadily improve chapter-by-chapter. I'm very open to feedback and constructive criticism. As one can see this is a cultivation novel, so you know how this goes. I've decided to jump-start the whole rags-to-riches scenario. He is strong from the start and is given the utility to do so. *The cover art is not my own, all rights reserved to the owner. I will take it down if necessary. *The style of the recent chapters is comparatively different than Chapter 1.
8 98300 Moons Till Disconnect (Gamelit)
Luck is a speedrunner who’s been transported into the world of Briarwood Rebirth, an MMORPG he’s been playing for 17 years. Yet things are not as they seem. The world feels like it's missing pieces, and NPCs do not behave like they should. There are 30 others like him who've been dubbed Chosen Ones, and they're just as clueless as he is. And what is the 300 day countdown to this so called "Disconnect"? Is this a dream? Or something else? (Rewrite of Bad Luck) (Updates every Monday and Friday)
8 524Essence of the Dragon
Saelina has had no say in her life, thus far. She's spent the last decade barely eking out a living, on the outskirts of Mahlein, courtesy of her former fiancée and his father, who've pushed her further and further towards starvation. She has done things most people would find beneath them and still she stands. Things change when she finds a wounded sorceress in the woods and decides to help the woman in the hopes of a hefty reward. Ezeas is a Nyxan scout, sent out to retrieve an important weapon, believed to be in the possession of a crafty sorceress. His country is on the brink of war and needs the help of the dragons, only given to those who posses a bit of the mystical beasts' essence .~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "If you did not have to limit yourself to...anything. What would you wish for? What is your truest desire, Saelina?" "Power." The answer came without deliberation or pause. "The power to never starve, to stand on my own, without someone holding me up. To reject whomever I want, whenever I want." Tahlisa's gaze became more intent and she moved close to her rescuer. "Say you had that power, right here, right now. What would you do?" Saelina smiled cruelly. It was a wholly new expression, yet it somehow made her features terrifyingly beautiful, Tahlisa realized. "I'd burn down the Tower and force the Harrows to watch as their home, their legacy turns to ash."
8 142The Cosmic and the Fair
When magic comes crashing into the world, humans are swept away. When they come trickling back, they are changed. Many of them have been transformed into elves, dwarves, trolls... and now one succubus. Magic is wondrous, dangerous, and inextricably linked to all living things. But succubi have to take it from other people, and for a succubus dropped far away from any communities big enough to sustain her, that's a problem. Luckily for Persephone Evans, she's got help. She has a fancy unique class and a companion. But both gifts come with strings attached, and why did she have to teach the succubus on her shoulder what 'consent' means? This is my first story! Note: The prologue differs wildly in tone from the rest of the story. I'm playing it safe on the tags. I don't think the story really deserves the profanity or gore content warnings, but the main character does swear and get hurt. That said, the main character is a succubus. Sexual content is a given.
8 94Le roi fou des hommes-arbres - Aventures des Arbolarbres(FR)
Histoire Fantastique pour adolescents et jeunes adultes Dans un pays où la magie est influencée par le cycle des saisons végétales de l'Arbé, de la Poussé, de la Germé et de la Floré, un jeune homme arbre (Arbolarbre) appelé Oak Quercus découvre son don de pour la magie, celui-ci provenant de sa longue lignée. Cependant, sa magie sera-t-elle suffisante pour arrêter le Roi Fou du peuple Arbolarbre, celui qui a enlevé toute sa famille pour les punir d'avoir élevé la voix contre ses impôts injustes ? Taxes qu'il cherche à utiliser pour lever une armée afin de conquérir les Royaumes Animaliers et assouvir sa faim de chair et sa quête d'mmortalité, s'opposant ainsi aux enseignements sacrés de l'Arbre-Dieu et de la Foi Végétale ?
8 166Pinnacle of "Creation" [Original book]
If could go through a new life in a magical world indefinitely through the same timeline, in which your every action changes the future of your story. You are the writer of your story, your every decision would accelerate the future events and change all outcomes, you could chose to destroy the fate of your enemies or you could turn them to your side in a newly written story of yours. This story is about a reincarnated young man named Li Bai, who is trapped in a vicious cycle of reincarnation every time he dies. The reincarnation is more like an uncontrollable time travel back to the age of 4 of reincarnation 1 in a different dimension. In this world people uses martial arts, cultivation and magic to show dominance. Out of the mist a VR game called, "Creation", stunned the world with it's peculiar design and cultivation enhancing system. The game world be refer as "second earth" by future descendant of this dimension. This is a mix match story of cultivation, magic and VR gaming (Sci-fi). This is original story.
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