Heroic
Page 52
The spot was about Galenor, the veteran hero. They were glorifying him, honoring him when he deserved no such thing. They talked about like he was the greatest thing to walk the planets since the gods.
I sneered at the television. Galenor was like all the other fake heroes that were left. No one had even come after Leric for him, yet the organization was supposed to keep an eye on them.
An idea popped into my head. I could take Galenor down. Show everyone that he wasn't really the hero everyone thought he was. He was hardly ever doing anything, every so often you would come upon an article or a spot of him or another of the old school of heroes stopping an incursion, but nothing more.
I would show what he really was. He could make a difference, he was literally as powerful as a nuclear warhead, yet when was the last time he had done anything for the little people?
I smiled. The media would kill for this kind of, I could get rich and take down a liar at the same time.
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Six
I didn't go to work the next day, nor did I go on patrol. They didn't deserve my attention. My hand throbbed dully, but I would be damned before I turned to Kani for help ever again.
I had jut returned from a walk, contemplating my future steps, how I would approach the future. Hero work was fake, there had been no retaliation. I wasn't even sure that the Hero Guild run even knew about him. Bah.
I flung the door open to his apartment, letting it slam into the wall as I stepped through. The force was strong enough to send the door back, closing it after me. If the landlord didn't like it, what could he do about it? I could hardly throw him out.
I chuckled at the idea.
The television was on. I hadn't been on when I left. I reached out with my power, intending to turn it off, when I felt something else. It wasn’t like anything I had ever sensed before. It was more complex and rich than any electronic before it, even AIs. And it was far, far more powerful.
I sprinted out the door, wanting to catch whatever it was. I stormed down the stairs following the faint traces I could pick out. They were losing me. I landed on the ground and burst into motion.
I rounded a corner and caught just a hint of a dress and long gray hair. The sight froze me in my steps. It reminded me of Madam Mireaux.
I tried to follow the trail, but my hesitation had cost me, and she, if it really was her, had already left me behind.
Reluctantly, I returned to my still apartment, the sound of the television the only sound coming from it. I had long since resigned the house AI to irrelevance, I took care of most of the day to day, when I was sitting on the couch.
The TV was running a spot on an Incursion. Some Wild Beast that reminded me of a dog, but slightly different. They called it a wolf, though it was hardly similar to the wolves I could find pictures of on the Internet, though most of them had been from before the Wild Surge, not enough horns.
The spot was about Galenor, the veteran hero. They were glorifying him, honoring him when he deserved no such thing. They talked about like he was greatest thing to walk the planets since the gods.
I sneered at the television. Galenor was like all the other fake heroes that were left. No one had even come after Leric for him, yet the organization was supposed to keep an eye on them.
An idea popped into my head. I could take Galenor down. Show everyone that he wasn't really the hero everyone thought he was. He was hardly ever doing anything, every so often you would come upon an article or a spot of him or another of the old school of heroes stopping an incursion, but nothing more.
I would show what he really was. He could make a difference, he was literally as powerful as nuclear warhead, yet when was the last time he had done anything for the little people?
I smiled. The media would kill for this kind of, I could get rich and take down a liar at the same time.
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Seven
The towers weren't as isolated as I often caught myself thinking. Carneweyr, the city, as in all the Towers, suffered mostly under great birds of prey, as the most common form of Incursions.
This meant that travel directly from one Tower Level to another wasn't happening. The first one they'd built hadn't lasted a month, and it had taken more than three months to make.
Since then the city had resorted to large intricate tunnel systems. Travel through them was allowed by the use of High-Speed Trans Tower Units, more commonly known as Tracers for the pretty lights they traced at full speed.
I had done some research the day before when I had decided to reveal Galenor. He was most commonly spotted in Thösi Tower. I had never actually been there, but he was spotted at least once a week in the tower since there wasn't an exact system to his appearance, I knew that I would just likely have to go multiple times.
I walked to the nearest Tracer station a few miles away, it was a few miles away, but I didn't mind walking. I quick check with my TPS, and I found my way to the station, now came the long wait.
It honestly surprised me that there were people who lived and worked in two different Towers. The few times I had traveled to a separate Tower it had always been a huge pain in the ass. Long travel times, was the biggest complaint, though the last time I traveled with a Tracer I had been a kid, and an hour was too long.
I knew that the trip was supposed to take approximately an hour and thirty minutes. Not too bad all considered. I hadn't ever taken the time to think how colossal Wi'nayar was as a city, in history class there had been discussions of old cities supposedly they weren't even half as big.
The tracer was packed, filled to the brim with people. First, it had to a kilometer or four down to the ground level. Another four straight down, to get under all the massive foundations of the towers.
Then we would travel six of the eighteen outer Towers, with occasional stops that managed to happen at the same time and place as another tracer, which just so happened to be traveling to some different towers. There was some overlap, but it was relatively smooth.
It was early morning when I disembarked from the tracer, at the Thösi Tower’s 8th Level.
Galenor had most commonly been spotted on the 9th, 8th, and 6th Levels, but there I hadn’t got a clue, which one it was going to be this time, or even if it was going to be today, so I just picked 8th.
So I kept regularly checking the Web for Galenor spottings, which was disturbingly common, I even found some about myself.
There had been some considerable measure of outrage that people would be tracking the whereabouts of heroes, but since the villain demographic had shrunk dramatically and the more violent villains seemed to have disappeared entirely, it wasn't that big of a problem anymore.
Though I could see how a villain tracking a hero through these websites, could easily be foiled. Just have the hero or one of their partners spam the sites with sightings, and everything was ruined. Easy.
It wasn't long before I found one of the internal tunnels that Thösi tower was named after. The entire roof of the tunnel was lined with something like glass, except it refracted the light oddly, like a kaleidoscope. Thösi meaning beautiful in the old tongue, which was something of a tradition for cities in Carneweyr, before the country fell to the Wild Surge.
It was one of the most awe-inspiring scenes I would ever come across, according to the Web.
The purple, blue and green light interacted beautifully, creating magnificent patterns of light that messed whit my eyes. The only thing that messed with them more was the young girl that had her nose in her phone as she walked through it like it was an everyday occurrence. Which to her it probably was, I realized.
It took nearly two and a half hours before he was spotted. If I was honest, a lot of the time was spent waiting on the Web while I walked through various tunnels. It was while walking through just such a tunnel when my phone pinged in my pants. On old fashioned instinct, I reached in for my phone, pulling it out of my pocket.
I hadn't been keeping a careful track of my surroundings,
and I just about walked into someone, which wasn't that bad, now that I was no longer nearly two hundred kgs of heavy steel.
"Whoa, there son." Rumbled a pleasant baritone. "I know the tunnels are beautiful, but you're going to wanna keep an eye on your surroundings." The man winked at me, from behind his mask as he walked away.
I stared for a moment, standing in the tunnel holding my phone in one hand. I brought the screen up, to find a picture had been taken with, not of Galenor.
It was actually Galenor holding the phone, smiling in the lens with the one arm around the owner of the phone.
In the background, I could see a tunnel in which an unremarkable man in baggy clothes was staring in wonder at the tunnels. The only really remarkable feature about him was his deep black midnight hair.
I looked up from the phone to see the mighty frame of Galenor walking out of the tunnel and taking a right.
I’d literally stumbled into Galenor.
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Eight
The towers weren’t as isolated as I often caught myself thinking. Carneweyr, the city, as in all the Towers, suffered mostly under great birds of prey, as the common form of Incursions.
This meant that travel directly from one Tower Level to another wasn’t happening. The first one they’d built hadn’t lasted a month, and it had taken more than three to built.
Since then the city had resorted to large intricate tunnel systems. Travel through them was allowed by the use of High Speed Trans Tower Units, more commonly known as Tracers for the pretty lights they traced at full spreed.
I had done some research the day before, when I had decided to reveal Galenor. He was most commonly spotted in Thösi Tower. I had never actually been there, but he was spotted at least once a week in the tower, since there wasn't an exact system to his appearance, I knew that I would just likely have to go multiple times.
I walked to the nearest Tracer station a few miles away, it was a few miles away, but I didn’t mind walking. I quick check with my TPS and I found my way to the station, now came the long wait.
It honestly surprised me that there were people who lived and worked in two different Towers. The few times I had traveled to a different Tower it had always been a huge pain in the ass. High travel times, was the biggest complaint, though the last time I traveled with a Tracer I had been a kid, and an hour was too long.
I knew that the trip was supposed to take approximately an hour and thirty minutes. Not too bad all considered. I hadn’t ever taken the time to consider how huge Wi’nayar was as a city, in history class there had been discussions of old cities supposedly they weren’t even half as big.
The tracer was packed, filled to the brim with people. First it had to a kilometer or four down to the ground level. Another four straight down, in order to get under all the massive foundations of the towers. Then we would travel six of the eighteen outer Towers, with occasional stops that managed to happen at the same time and place as another tracer, which just so happened to be traveling to some different towers. There was some overlap, but it was relatively smooth.
It was early morning when I disembarked from the tracer, at the Thösi Tower’s 8th Level.
Galenor had most commonly been spotted on the 9th, 8th and 6th Levels, but there I hadn’t got a clue, which one it was going to be this time, or even if it was going to be today, so I just picked 8th.
So I kept regularly checking the Internet for Galenor spottings, which was disturbingly common, I even found some about myself.
There had been some large measure of outrage that people would be tracking the whereabouts of heroes, but since the villain demographic had shrunk dramatically and the more violent villains seemed to have disappeared entirely, it wasn't that big of a problem anymore.
Though I could see how a villain tracking a hero through these websites, could easily be foiled. Just have the hero or one of their partners spam the sites with sightings and everything was ruined. Easy.
It wasn't long before I found one of the internal tunnels that Thösi tower was named after. The entire roof of the tunnel was lines with something like glass, except it refracted the light oddly, like a kaleidoscope. Thösi meaning beautiful in the old tongue, which was something of a tradition for cities in Carneweyr, before the country fell to the Wild Surge.
It was one of the most awe inspiring scenes I would ever come across, according to the Internet.
The purple, blue and green light interacted beautifully, creating magnificent patterns of light that messed whit my eyes. The only ting that messed with them more, was the young girl that had her nose in her phone as she walked through it like it was an every day occurrence. Which to her it probably was, I realized.
It took nearly two and half hours, before I had a spotting. If I was being honest, a lot of the time was spent waiting on the Internet while I walked through various tunnels. It was while walking through just such a tunnel, when my phone pinged in my pants. On old fashioned instinct I reached in for my phone, pulling it out of my pocket.
I hadn't been keeping a careful track of my surroundings and I just about walked into someone, which wasn't that bad, now that I was no longer nearly two hundred kgs of heavy steel.
“Whoa there son.” Rumbled a pleasant baritone. “I know the tunnels are beautiful, but you’re going to wanna keep an eye on your surroundings.” The man winked at me, from behind his mask as he walked away.
I stared for a moment, standing in the tunnel holding my phone in one hand. I brought the screen up, to find a picture had been taken with, not of Galenor. It was actually Galenor holding the phone, smiling in the lens with the one arm around the owner of the phone. In the background I could see a tunnel in which an unremarkable man in baggy clothes was staring in wonder at the tunnels. The only really remarkable feature about him, was his deep black midnight hair.
I looked up from the phone to see the powerful frame of Galenor walking out of the tunnel and taking a right.
I’d literally stumbled into Galenor.
Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Nine
It took me a whole fifty-four seconds before my mind sprang into gear. I'd found Galenor, now all I had to do was watch him. I hurried through the tunnel after him. Taking the same turn he’d done.
There he was.
He wasn't human, at least he wasn't built like a human. Not really.
He looked like every straight woman wanted their hero to look like. He was tall, though not inhumanly so, I’d even seen a few people taller than he was. He was muscular without being brutish.
He looked like the perfect cross between a cat and a dog. Big, strong but also lithe and agile. His form rippled with more muscles that I was sure a man should have, he was one hundred percent magic based.
That didn't explain why he was walking around though. I had expected that he would be flying since you know he could. I had thought I would need to use every bit of capability, power, and energy just to keep up. Instead, here he was, walking around like an average person, except everyone greeted him.
Fewer people than I expected to stopped to take a picture with him. Though it really wasn't that surprising, there were literally hundreds of thousands of images of him online.
He wasn't shy about it, it was rare that you could earn money from his pictures since he was literally so accommodating.
The only time it seemed to be impossible to stop him was when there was ‘Business to handle!’, which he would quickly set off to catch, stop or end, before either departing, or waiting for the police.
At least that’s how he handled it in the old days. Not a lot of crime going on in Thösi Tower anymore, so he was rarely spotted doing anything other than meeting people.
As we were walking, Galenor was about seventy paces in front of me, there was a car accident. Literally, one of the nearby cars had an accident, something started clicking loudly before it turned off.
A frantic young woman jumped out of the car. "No, no no!" She cried, rushing around to the ba
ck and opening it up. "Dad's going to kill me!" I was stunned, how trusting would you have to be to lend someone something so valuable as a car?
“Would you like some help?” Galenor asked, approaching. “I had some experience with cars, maybe I can help you.”
She stared open-mouthed at him as he closed the distance with her. “Thank you.” She said in a quiet tone. I almost couldn't hear her, so I had to get closer. I slowly walked closer watching the exchange, there were multiple other people like me, who were watching, but plenty of people were also ignoring it. Very few people were outright stopping and staring.
“Ah!” Galenor said, his voice pleasant and soothing. “See this bit here, this appears to be the problem.” He opened a pocket on his belt and pulled out a roll of thick gray tape. “It should be relatively easy and cheap to replace, but for now…” He leaned further into the car, tape in hand. “This should do for getting you home.”