Chapter 21: Tide’s In

Chapter 21: Tide’s In

***Perry, 8 years old***

Perry gasped as motes of light swirled around Mom’s garden, seemingly rising out of the ground where the moonlight struck the sweet-smelling blue flowers she spent so much time on.

“This is magic,” Mom said, looking down at Perry’s complete awe with a happy smile as the lights swirled around them, illuminating her rock T-shirt and jeans as they swept past her body.

“Magic happens when two or more compatible essences interact, and a ritual is preformed, creating magic. In this case, the essence of moonlight and lunar lotus, and the ritual is allowing them to interact. A very common and benign magic.”

“Wow, it doesn’t look common.”

“No magic is common,” Mom said with smirk and a shrug “Buuut some are more common than others.”

“This is so cool,” Perry said, waving his hand through the floating motes of light. “but if it’s mixing two essences, how do you use magic without anything at all?” Perry had seen her clean the house with a snap of her fingers, after all.

“That’s the trick, isn’t it?” Mom said, kneeling down and holding out her palm.

“Mages from my world figured out how to create essences inside ourselves.”

Above her hand, a mote of light sprung into being, exactly the same as the motes of light around them, except this one didn’t waver or drift like the others. Instead, it hung directly over her hand.

“Ooo,” Perry reached out and poked the mote of light, which shattered into dozens of tiny fragments that flew away on the wind. “How do you do that?”

“Well, about a thousand years ago, Pecholard the Studious –“

“Pek-o-lard?” Perry asked incredulously, not sure if he wanted anything to do with it if it sounded that silly.

“It’s a different language, grow up.” Mom rolled her emerald eyes. “Anyway, Pecholard discovered that the magical effects that wizards spent hours and hours to mix and create were the result of the essence contained within the objects, and not necessarily the object itself.”

“Uhuh,” Perry said, nodding, although not entirely getting it.

“Sooo. Pecholard the Studious found a way to synthesize pure essences by incorporating various spirits into one’s Attunement. By feeding these symbiotic spirits a small fragment of your own Attunement, they produce pure essences on demand.”

“Symbiotic? Like a parasite?” Perry asked, sticking out his tongue.

Mom glanced to the side. “Well, kind of, but not gross. Anyway, Pecholard ushered in a new era of Magecraft, although most mages were terribly limited as a human’s Attunement can only support a couple Essences. Most mages had to stick to one or two simple spells.”

“But you,” Mom said with a mischievous smirk. “You’ve got enough Attunement for something truly special.”

“Really?” Perry asked.

“You remember that trip we took to the top of the mountain when you were five?”

Perry shook his head. “It was...cold?”

“That’s fine. Let’s just say I did a ritual that...enhanced your Attunement. I didn’t want Dad’s Dull blood to be a handicap, after all.”

While Perry was mulling over the implications, Mom pulled out a little glass vial of...something. It was a viscous liquid that glowed in a fascinating rainbow of colors.

“What is that?” Perry asked, his attention captured.

“This...Is the spirit of a legendary mimic, able to produce any essence on demand. Up until now, it’s been passed through our family as a treasure, because nobody’s ever had the Attunement to control it.”

“But I do?” Perry asked incredulously.

“Honey, you had more than enough before we even went to the mountain, much to my surprise. Drink this, and you’ll be the most pow – you’ll...be able to start your training.”

“Is it...gonna hurt?” Perry asked.

“No, no, you won’t even feel it.” Mom said, shaking her head.

“Okay,” Perry said, taking the vial of multicolored, flourescent glowing liquid from Mom and prying on the cap.

He couldn’t get it off.

“Here,” Mom said, taking the stoppe out of the vial before handing it back to him.

“You’re sure this is safe?” Perry asked, glancing up at Mom.

“Sweetheart, I’ve done this three times,” Mom said with a hint of exasperation.

“Okay...”

Perry shrugged, tightly closed his eyes and knocked back the glowing concoction.

******

“There you are. You’re okay now.” Mom said, her faintly glowing thumb coming off his forehead.

“M-Mom?” Perry rasped, confused at Mom suddenly being so close to him. He glanced to the side and spotted a Lunar Lotus shedding glowing motes of light beside him.

I’m on the ground? My throat kinda hurts, and my clothes are super wet. And there’s a bloody handkerchief in her pocket.

“What happened?” Perry asked.

“You’re a mage now, is what happened,” Mom said, beaming. “Don’t worry about the sweat, it’s normal. We’ll get you a change of clothes when we get home.”

“O-okay.”

“Wanna learn your first spell!?” Mom said, her brows raised with excitement.

“Do I!?” Perry exclaimed, sitting up, all questions abandoned with a mental shrug.

“Alright, so tonight you’re going to learn the Light spell. can you guess what it’s made of?” She gave him a mischievous smile.

“It’s lunar lotus and moonlight essence, isn’t it?”

“Clever boy. Indeed it is. I made this garden to teach you your first spell.”

“h-how do I do it?” Perry asked.

“Here,” Mom said, taking a couple sunglasses out of her purse and handing one to Perry while she put on the other one.

She waited until Perry put his own on.

“I can’t see anything.” Perry complained. It was night time after all.

“You don’t have to. Take a deep breath.” Mom said, doing so herself.

Perry took a deep breath.

“Focus on the smell of the lunar Lotus. Focus on the sensation of the light of the moon on your skin.”

Perry felt something inside him react, combining into a sizzling river of pure potential. He brought it out to his palm.

“Now this will take a while, but if you do it right, you should feel –“

FLASH!

A blast of light nearly blinded Perry through the sunglasses.

“Ow, men’zat pekvath benaan forza!” Mom cursed in her home tongue before fixing a smile on her face. “That’s fantastic sweety, but try to do only a little bit, okay?”

“Okay,” Perry said, nodding as he blinked the dark spots out of his eyes.

“So how you do it is-“

FLASH!

Mom had her hand in front of her eyes this time, but Perry got himself again.

“So that stream of energy, pinch down on it until only a little bit gets by, okay?”

“Okay.”

This time, Perry clamped down on the sensation, only letting a little bit out past his palm.

A wavering mote of light appeared above his hand.

John White

Lifeless, Perry threw on some clothes and shambled out to breakfast.

“What’s wrong, baby? You look like you died and an evil spirit is controlling your body.” Mom said, watching his lurching gait with concern.

“I wish,” Perry muttered, handing her the phone as he collapsed into the seat.

He glanced over at where Heather was eating cereal in the massive T-shirt she’d crashed on his couch in.

“You now have fifty thousand dollars more than I do.”

“Hah,” Heather chuckled, nearly spilling milk from her mouth.

“Oh,” Mom said, scrolling through the list of damages. “OOoooh,” She handed the phone over to Perry and went back to peeling a grapefruit. “Ask your father, he’s got more experience with property damage.”

“Eh?” Dad asked, pulling the newspad out of his face. “I heard my name.”

Perry showed him the phone.

“Oh. Just buy the place. The repairs listed here cost more than the value of the facility. Should save you a cool quarter-mil. Fix it up at your own pace then resell it.”

Perry’s eyes widened, and he looked back and forth between the phone and his dad.

“I can do that?”

“Trust me, most owners would be happy with getting all their money back rather than being forced to spend months and months making repairs then trying to attract business to a place that has a history of exploding.”

His dad hid his beak-nose behind the newspad again.

Feeling like his soul was coming back to his body, Perry called back John White.

After a brief conversation and a confirmation text a few minutes later, Perry glanced back up at Heather with the smuggest expression he’d ever had the pleasure of producing.

“I now have a hundred and fifty thousand dollars more than you.”

“Ea a ick.” Heather said around a mouthful of cereal.

“And property taxes on a liability no one will buy from you.” Dad said from behind his newspad.

“I’ll take what I can get,” Perry said, just relieved he wasn’t in crippling debt already.

He glanced over at the Tidewatch, which was worryingly high.

High Tide was close.

Case in point was sitting across from him, devouring her cereal like an animal.

“You think of a Super name yet?” Perry asked.

Heather scoffed. “I always thought I’d get fire powers, or darkness powers, or turning into a ghost or something...not this.

She held out her arm, which went floppy. After they’d cut her out of the armor last night she’d just kind of...stayed floppy. It was obviously a Trigger, because everyone else Perry had ever shot with Dregor’s flaccidity had recovered.

“What the heck am I supposed to do with this!?” Heather demanded, waving the floppy arm around.

“Could call you Flaccid-Girl.” Perry said with a hint of schadenfreude.

“That reminds me of Morph.” Mom said, polishing off her grapefruit. “Have you tried experimenting?”

“Experimenting? All I can do is get floppy. Turn myself into a puddle. Whoop-de-doo.”

“Have you tried making some parts of you harder?” Mom asked.

Heather frowned, her expression darkening as she concentrated.

A wavering spike made of Heather-stuff was exposed as her forearm melted away.

“Wicked.” She said, an ominous smile blooming on her face. The way the morning sun lit up her hair like a halo made the smile all the darker by comparison.

“You should be able to become a fairly proficient shapeshifter with enough practice.” Hexen said, taking away everyone’s dishes.

Heather’s excitement dimmed as she was made aware of the similarities to her father.

“Your dad’s all gross and meaty though,” Perry hastily interjected. “You’re totally different. Cute, and rubbery.”

Did I just call her cute? Perrythought, freezingup as Heather cocked a brow at him.

“Perry, you’re on dishes.” Hexen called from the kitchen.

Oh, thank you Lord.

“Well, gotta go do those dishes.” Perry said, retreating ASAP.

Girls were scarier than supervillains.

***Later***

Perry inhaled the sweet, nostalgic scent of discharged C-4 and concrete rubble. It reminded him of the smell his dad always had coming home from ‘work’ when he was younger.

“Take that in,” Perry said, inhaling deeply. “That’s the smell of property ownership.”

“Smells like diesel exhaust,” Heather said, glancing over at all the U-haul trucks being frantically loaded by civvies evacuating the area before more bombs went off.

“That too,” Perry said, nodding as he mentally measured the lot.

“We’ve got what, a day before High tide?” Perry asked. The question was practically meaningless, as true High Tide was nearly indistinguishable from a couple days before or after.

They didn’t have much time at all before the prawns came.

“We can put the shop over here,” Perry said, “The arena over here. The prison cells and mutating vats over here.”

“What are you talking about?” Heather asked, glancing up at him curiously.

“I mean, I didn’t wanna put my lair in the exact same place, but I own this place now. I gotta work with the hand I’m dealt.”

“No, I mean, whaddya need an arena, prison cells and mutating vats for?”

“How about just a shop.” Perry offered.

“Better.”

“Leading to a vast network of underground-“

Heather punched him in the shoulder.

“ow,” Perry said, rubbing his arm as he surveyed the property. Step one was bulldozing all the damaged storage units then transporting the scrap to a scrapyard...

Or could I melt the steel sheeting down and use it for myself? Probably be cheaper than buying it new. For me, anyway.

For that, Perry needed a big furnace, a bulldozer, and a way to process the scrap.

Rather than buy a bulldozer, he could make a floating armament to fulfil the same function, for about an eighth the cost of renting one.

Perry took another deep diesel/C-4/rubble breath. In a matter of weeks, he’d have a workshop that would put his dad’s to shame.

New Quest: Make a proper lair!

Reward: 300 XP, Lair.

Perry’s musings were cut off as sirens began to roll through the city.

He and all the other civilians craned their necks to stare at the wall.

Atop the wall, red lights were spinning as a nerve-wracking siren invaded their eardrums. For the first time in twelve years.

“Tide’s in,” Heather said beside him.

“Yup,” Perry said, breaking out in a cold sweat.