Two days after Velocity encountered Erebus.
...
Robert sat quietly on his desk, reading some papers, signing others, and generally minding his business; being the owner of his business has been a relief, so he cherished his job very much and did his diligence when it came to it.
This is why when his assistant Barbara knocked on the door to his office at 11 in the morning and entered shortly after nervously, a gun pointed at her head; Robert froze. The first thing he noticed was the gun; it was exquisite, an ornate six-shot double-action revolver with gold engravings on its grip and barrel, a roman 13 was especially eye-catching. To Robert, a gun nerd, it was nothing short of an artwork.
"Hi there" The elderly man who pointed the incredible-looking gun at his assistant cheerfully said with a huge smile on his face "Sit down dear Barbara, and don't try anything reckless please I would greatly dislike this situation to turn bloody"
"What do you want?" Robert blurted out while his mind raced, his thoughts wandering to the shotgun below the desk; the man, in turn, just smiled and pointed the still-standing Barbara to a chair nearby.
"We'll get to that, but first of all, I would advise against using whatever you have there. Keep in mind that I will not hesitate to shoot" He said and sat in front of Barbara, his gun still on her. "Simply put, I want to purchase some things from you. Don't worry I'll pay, but as I was explaining to dear Barb's here, I want everything right now, and I will be paying in Cash"
"What?" Robert asked involuntarily; those didn't seem like some unreasonable demands; why would he use a gun for that?
"What what? Anyway, here's what I want" The man pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and put it on the table. Seeing his hesitation, the man made a 'hurry up' motion with his gun.
Robert pulled the paper slowly and skimmed through it. It was certainly... extensive. It was definitely not something they would give out to some random person, money, contracts, and it would be taxed, but was it worth the trouble of using a gun to threaten them to get it? Robert didn't think so.
Seemingly reading his mind, the elderly man said, "I am in a bit of a hurry here. I need those items, and I WILL be getting them today. Now, it's either you will take the money and let me go my merry way or I may be forced to do something drastic"
As he said that, suddenly, the shadow of the man rippled and split into 7 dreadful smoky shadows that encircled the room.
"Cape!" Robert exclaimed and paled significantly. A man with a gun was dangerous, yes, but could still be reasoned with. Capes on the other hand...
Furthermore, the news was all about the Cape Erebus that used corrosive shadows to melt the entire prison and some gang warehouses for the past week.
As far as Robert was concerned, they were all mentally ill one way or the other. I mean who would voluntarily wear silly costumes and go out at night?
"What cape? I am not wearing any" The elderly Cape said jokingly.
The silence that followed was...interesting.
"Cough, cough. Anyway, get going. I don't have all day," the Cape coughed the awkwardness away and said.
Robert mulled over the situation for a moment before he slowly reached for his office phone "Boys, we have a big delivery today, I want..."
...
2 weeks later. Brockton Hospital.
"Mr. R Kennedy?" Ronald heard just as a 9-year-old child entered his room. The child wore normal clothing, had striking green eyes, and was of low height.
Deciding to humor the child, he replied "Depends on who's asking"
"I am," the boy said as he sat by his bed.
"And whom might you be?" Ronald lifted an eyebrow. Amused.
"I have gone by many names but you can call me Caspian"
"I see, and where are your parents Caspian?"
"Dead"
Ronald paused while the kid grinned unnaturally.
Before Ronald found a way to respond, the kid said "As much as I appreciate this banter, I have other things to do. So, lest cut through the chase, I can heal you. In turn, I want you to do some things for me"
"What?"
"What is there to be confused about? I can heal you unless you want to die of course"
Ronald opened his mouth and closed it again; it was such a strange situation that he didn't know how to respond.
And it was just about to get even stranger.
Hearing nothing from him, the kid sighed and suddenly began to convulse. The process was quick; Ronald had no time to scream for help before a handsome middle-aged man was in front of him.
Naked, since all his clothes were torn as he grew in size.
"Hello again; why don't we go back a bit? I understand that you came here for Panacea to heal you, yet she cannot do so since she is unable to operate on brains, am I correct?" The now grown man asked.
"Y-Yes," Ronald answered hesitantly; he tried to quickly calm himself.
"Good, well, I have no such limitations. I can heal you, and in turn, I want you to work for me for the following six months, pretty simple."
Ronald mulled over the offer for a minute before he said "What exactly do you want from me, and how will you be curing me from stage 4 brain cancer?"
He asked; he was dying soon, so he might as well.
The man smiled and pulled two syringes filled with a red blood-like liquid. "This is a piece of Tinkertech I made myself; if you accept my deal, I will use these two to treat you. The first shot will thoroughly go over your body to comprehensive health you while the second will target anything that wasn't treated by the first"
"So you are a tinker?" He asked, and the man nodded "What are the side effects?"
"There is none except that you shouldn't take more than 5 in a day"
"Very well," Ronald thought for a moment. "And who are you again?"
"I am a blood tinker; I go by Rose Bishop in some private Cape circles." That was a lie, but Ronald didn't know that.
"One last question, how will you guarantee I adhere to this deal of ours? After you heal me can't I simply run away?" Ronald found this question to be important for several reasons. The main one is that it would give him insight into the man's capabilities and his response to provocative behavior.
"I am glad you asked that!" Rose Bishop joyfully exclaimed; he then pulled a gold necklace out of nothing and gave it to him casually. "This necklace right here is something I call Oathbinder; the reason why I am sure you will not be running away is this little thing. It's a Tinkertech piece of jewelry with a singular use. Any oath sworn by the one wearing it will be witnessed by it. Breaking the oath intentionally in any way will result in your blood heating up to an unnatural degree until it is as hot as the lava in the course of 3 minutes. Needless to say, that would mean your death"
"Now when you say 'your'..."
"I mean, you will swear an Oath to go by our agreement using the necklace. Naturally, I will also swear to administer the treatment fully and never ask you of anything beyond your capabilities or anything explicitly harmful to another human," Rose Bishop said.
"Hmm, very well then, let's get started" Ronald accepted rather easily. After all, he was gonna die in little under two months anyway so he might as well serve a Cape for some time for his life. He didn't exactly know what a Cape would want help with but he was willing to do a lot for a chance to live.
He accepted easily, and that was why Tristan/Erebus/Caspian came to him out of the many who fell into similar situations.
"Here," Rose Bishop threw the necklace at him, and Ronald stumbled to catch it; being in a bed wired to different machines didn't help.
Begrudgingly, he put it on as he gave the Cape the stink eye.
Rose Bishop chuckled. Then he pulled a note out...out of his chest, literally. His chance opened up like a laptop and he pulled a paper out of it. Ronald thought he saw things in there as well.
Ronald smiled nervously and read the paper. It was the oath he had to swear "Seems like you came prepared"
"Of course I have. I am a professional," Rose, he was calling him Rose now, shrugged.
"Just wear the necklace and read the paper out loud, I made sure all that's written is fair"
Ronald looked at it and checked for any hidden meaning in the sentences or for anything that could be interpreted against his best interest.
Seeing nothing of such, he started to put the necklace on but had some difficulties doing so. So Rose helped him do it.
"You're quite good at this, you must be popular with the ladies, eh?" Ronald commented after Rose linked the necklace in one go. The piece of Tinkertech itself felt warm to his skin, like the heat of a hot summer day, and not the nice hot days either, more like those types of days that even the air feels soldering.
"I was"
"Was?"
"I am a bit old now for romance"
Ronald wanted to refute, but then he remembered that this Cape could change shapes, so he might have been talking to an old man.
"I see" Was all he said in the end. Then he began reading the paper "I Ronald Kennedy hereby pledge an Oath in the embrace of Sun God's Artifact to work under the Rose Bishop Caspian Hawthorne for the next six months starting today as long as he healed me from my illness and refrained from any and all orders that go against my morality"
With each word, he felt the necklace heating, but he persisted until the end. Then he pulled it off and dropped it on the floor panting.
Ignoring him, Rose picked up the gold piece and put it on "I Caspian Hawthorne hereby pledge an Oath in the embrace of the Sun God's Artifact to administer Ronald Kennedy with medicine that will fully treat his illness and to not endanger him or cross any of his moral boundaries while he worked for me"
Unlike him, Rose calmly removed the necklace and stashed it back on his...chest.
"So what exactly do you want me to do?"
"Depends, what do you find easier, acting like a Nazi? Or like a gay man?"
"_"
...
The Rig.
"So what do we get, Armsmaster?" Piggot asked him, a perpetual frown resting on her face. He glanced at the room and found it stacked to the brim, not just by heroes and wards but also by various PRT personnel of varying responsibilities. This briefing was evidently important even to them.
He nodded to her as he stepped up to widescreen and spoke, "The following is all the information we currently have on the Villain Erubus, the contingencies, and countermeasures to use in contact, as well as his activities since he was identified."
"First of all, Erebus, or Micheal James Duncan is a 29-year-old man who has lived in Brockton Bay for the majority of his life, he has no family members left aside from an aunt in Baltimore that he hasn't spoken with for the last 6 years, and some friends that are already monitoring, yet he didn't reach out to them at all since his Trigger Event"
"Secondly, his abilities and activities during the three weeks. First of all, we know that he is a Master." The screen changed into the image of his shadows.
"Capable of making shadow-like constructs that are extremely corrosive and deadly upon minimum contact, I, with the help of Dragon, have concluded that the corrosion effect is comparable to, if not more dangerous, than Fluoroantimonic acid, the strongest acid in the world. We have yet to find a conclusive way to deal with this, but we are, however, contemplating the usage of Teflon as a way of containing the Villain upon capture."
"Furthermore, I have been developing, with the help of Kid Win and Dragon, a humanoid drone that is greatly resistant to all forms of harm and relatively easy to create. If this project is successful it can be used even beyond Erebus as a way to combat Villains in general. It also solves our biggest problem of getting close to him"
"None of this would have been a problem if you just listened to and had someone snipe the asshole..." Shadow Stalker mumbled to herself thinking no one heard her. Armsmaster did and from the twitches of others in the room, he knew they did as well. He ignored it and continued.
"Additionally, Kid Win has been working on these," He said as the screen changed once more to show small iron balls. "Essentially, it's a Taser designed to immobilize a wide area, potentially entire groups. We have reason to believe Erebus shadows have a weakness to electricity but this currently cannot be confirmed, nevertheless, we can try"
Kid Win gulped and pretended he didn't notice Shadow Stalker's eyes skinning him alive.
"Secondly is his ability to envelop himself in this black construct resembling an ancient armor" The screen depicted the armor before a video started playing, in which an Asian man, likely ABB since Erebus has been attacking them almost fanatically, shot Erubus six times yet the armor was barely scratched.
"It is worth noting that while he can ignore small firearms, he is still affected by the energy in some way." The video replayed slowly, and it could be noticed that while the armor was not dented in the slightest, each shot did cause Erebus to stumble back a little.
"Furthermore, Erubus can transform into shadows..." Armsmaster said more, and the meeting continued for a while, but Arnold Palmer, a power analyst, was no longer paying attention. No, he was quite distracted by the hand reaching into his thigh from the side. It was the hand of his colleague Amanda, a gorgeous woman that he always admired secretly since she was married.
A notification on his phone went on and he steeled himself as he looked at it.
'meet me at your office, 🍆🍑' His heart skipped a beat, and he looked at her, only to see a playful expression; she then winked at him and made a come-along gesture as she excused herself from the meeting.
Arnold gulped and excused himself a minute later, trying to act nonchalant; while the meeting was important, he was a power analyst and did not strictly need to be there.
In his hurry, he did not notice the time pass as he entered his office and saw Amanda...naked on his desk gesturing to him to come closer. However, he sadly did not notice that the moment he stepped in, the back of Amanda split open and a man stepped out silently.
At the heart of Brockton's PRT, Rose Bishop curled up his lips.