Broker

The Soul: an inviolable core surrounded by layers of ego, identity, spirituality, and karma. Karma was the combined external experience of the self - one’s actions, experiences, choices, and impact on others. The soul was the self, a blueprint of not only one’s identity but their very being; their spiritual DNA. A wound on the soul reflected on the flesh when the cut was deep enough. As one's experiences and impact increased, so did the karmic weight of the soul. This outer skin became thicker, more for him to cut through. More for him to tear.

Monsters had no souls, no karma. The average person had so little karmic weight that his threads barely cut skin. But karmic behemoths like Ishtar? Like Liberty? Oh, he could peel their flesh like an apple.

Riot hung in the crater that had been created by his own body. His arm twitched, his leg shifted, his head rolled forward, and he yanked himself free. He landed on his feet and let out a wet, shuddering sound. It was somewhere between a sob and a chuckle, grotesque, but he didn’t care. Their perceptions of him didn’t matter. He could change them, after all. All he needed to do was touch them once. He stepped through the cloud of dust, and his fingers twitched within his metal gloves, the gift from Craftsman that turned his beautiful threads invisible.

The threads whipped around him, his own karma unraveled into a weapon he could use. His eyes were fixed on the person in front of him; his lips trembled, his body shook. He didn’t know if he was excited or terrified. The Companion. She’d hit him like a truck, but she’d hit him. His lips curled up into a smile as he focused on her. Now, what does your karma look like-

Nothing.

His eyebrows shot up for just a moment before dropping down again. He squinted and glanced down at her gauntlets before glancing up at her again. Magical gear, some kind of manmade equipment or dungeon reward? My ability didn’t bridge the gap. Interesting. Another rule I hadn’t been aware of. That’s fine. His eyes flicked from her to Ishtar, and he suppressed a giggle, staggering back a step to catch his breath. The Queen of Villains lay crumpled against a table as blood pooled around her, her gauntlets and boots leaking red. She’s still alive. I felt resistance partway through. Does she have some kind of karmic ability too? How many does she have?

His eyes moved to the man crumpled on the ground. His body was twisted and broken, as if he’d collided with something hard and had been bent in half by a terrible force. Riot chuckled. Karma was experience - what he did and what people did to him - he’d just moved his own experience elsewhere. He flicked his eyes towards the other people in the room.

His eyes fell on his most dangerous asset first. Drastic had stepped forward from the wall, flames snaking from his lips. Brushing past him had been all it took. The others? A handshake here, a fleeting touch there, and he’d managed a dozen lumps of meat to move his experiences onto. That didn’t mean all of them had been so easy to ensnare, though. The most dangerous villains present had been all but unapproachable without showing his hand.

Tenebra was on her feet, a narrow stage microphone slipping from her sleeve that she brought to her lips, her red eyes glimmering with barely restrained bloodlust. Next to her, Charon stood slowly and had drawn the blade from his cane, his razor blade teeth snapping once as his eyes gleamed. Riot almost wanted the man to lash out. One touch and he could kill the man in an instant; the others were a tougher sell, but Felwinter had told him about the wound she’d delivered. Yes, one of you make a move… I’ll start a riot with the others. A melee will-

“Companion, hold. Don’t let him touch you.”

His eyes flicked back towards Ishtar, that echoing, etheric voice coming out of her helmet in a shuddering gasp. She could talk? After he’d torn her arms and legs apart? She knows the rules of my ability. How? I can see her karma. We’ve met before. I never thought about it that way. She’s been watching me. He felt the connections he’d established with brief brushes and touches around him - the threads between him and the villains at the party. He tugged at them a little. I’ve already done the maximum damage. A little chaos to escape and-

“He reflects damage onto others around him. Everyone, out.”

His eyes widened, and he looked towards Ishtar again. He flicked his eyes out towards the villains, and his trembling lips thinned. The ‘new’ Masque had been standing near the buffet table with a black-gold flame in her hand that she extinguished with a scoff before turning away. Tenebra snarled and took a sharp breath, only for her boss, Charon, to grab her by the arm and shake his head. She scowled and slipped backwards, her eyes flicking amongst the others.

He felt their eyes on him. So many eyes. So many were looking at him. He shuddered out a laugh and stepped back as the villains at the party shifted in their seats and rose to leave. Some of them started walking towards the door. His threads snapped out and grabbed onto his connections to them.

He tugged.

“I think they’d like to watch,” he chuckled and turned a tear-streaked eye directly on Ishtar’s face. “I’m suddenly very interesting to them, after all,” he hissed as he glanced towards a wide-eyed Saleh.

Saleh looked sick, his eyes fixed on his father’s trembling form. He looked up at Riot and then at Ishtar. Then he looked at the others. “Ishtar,” the young master said shakily, “we can drag the others out.”

Riot’s eyes flashed, and he started to curl his fingers again.

“Don’t bother. They’ll react violently if you try to move them, I’m guessing,” Ishtar rasped. “The rest of you, get out. Don’t give the hero ammunition.”

Riot swallowed. How does she KNOW? he thought, his lips trembling. His fingers twitched anyway as the other villains started to file out. Saleh hesitated, looking between Riot and his Father.

“Boy. OUT. Take your brothers with you,” Ishtar snarled. Saleh shot her a withering glare and retreated, cowed as his siblings followed suit with various levels of reluctance. Riot smirked as he felt his thread on Broadside tug once.

Abandoning your subordinate? That’s cold, Saleh.

That left only the dozen or so he’d managed to touch at the party - nobodies besides the irritable Drastic - but that was plenty. After all, she cared enough to try to send them out in the first place, didn’t she? His wobbly lips curled up into a grin as his eyes turned back on Companion. The mysterious, veiled villainess raised her fists, planting her feet. He choked out another laugh and moved, darting towards her. Just one touch! I just need one touch to see your Karma! Then I’ll rip you to shreds!

His hand snapped out towards her shoulder, and she shifted back. Heat bloomed off of her body and seared against his skin only to fade as soon as it came. Someone nearby let out a gasp of pain. He laughed, and she cursed under her breath. She pivoted and drew her fist up towards his ribs. He moved into it, and she stopped, pulling back as he dipped low and swept out his leg. She hopped over it, and her knee bent on instinct, combat training nearly overriding intent again. He laughed and snapped his hand out toward the hesitating limb.

Another rush of heat, and she got some distance. His fingertips singed and then soothed, more experience sent elsewhere. He laughed and darted after her. She was impossibly strong. That near-kick had carried the weight of death behind it. She would have kicked his head off, or, well, someone else's head off. As long as he held the other’s attention and kept their bonds nice and tight, she wouldn’t dare harm him. Not while her mistress fretted over the lives of things.

Fine by me.

—

Ishtar’s arm twitched as she chewed through another batch of berries. Her limbs were regenerating so slowly. She snarled at the pain as it wracked through her again. Soul damage was agony. Since when could he do something like this? She gasped as she kept her eyes on the fight. She knew he’d studied every facet of his ability with almost obsessive intensity during the camp - an effort to not repeat his past accidents, he’d told her. What a joke.Was this one of the applications that he’d found but kept close to his chest? Her eyes shot towards the crumpled man. All applications of Karma. Brilliant. Does he have a limited range? He’s only Heroic ier. There has to be drawbacks.

Companion danced with Riot. He snapped his palms out towards her with reckless abandon. He had barely adequate martial arts that he made up for by Companion being restricted from simply crushing him. He dove and weaved around her, trying to get his hands on her. As she flipped and snapped out hesitant kicks and punches to try to drive him back, trying to trigger a human reaction to impending pain. He threw himself at the blows, and Companion was forced to pull back to avoid indirectly killing the villains that Riot had turned into curious observers. Common sense was overridden by a shift in perception.

Most of them she couldn’t care less about, but a few of them were allies. Drastic was still a few steps from the wall, his shoulders hunched as flames ripped from his mouth in silent fury, his eyes fixed unerringly on Riot. She could see the supervillain’s jaw clench as he tried to will himself out of the pull he was under. She concentrated, but the pain in her soul throbbed as she tried to do anything more than simple tricks with mana. She cursed, hunching over slightly. Damn it. Recover faster!

That is a deep pain, Erina rasped into her mind, drawing her out of her thoughts momentarily.

Are you okay? Sonya asked as the pain throbbed through her again.

I am fine, sister. Just glad you reacted in time. That was a close call, Erina hissed in time with those throbs of pain. That brat…

I know. I should have known. I felt Deus ex Machina responding to him, but I didn’t even consider that it might be him lurking around, Sonya thought, infuriated. But why is it reacting to him like that to begin with?

A warbling laugh drew her attention as Riot dove beneath Companion’s leap and tried to grab her leg. A flash of heat and sunlight blasted her horizontally, and another one of the villains in the forced audience let out a hiss of pain. There has to be a limitation, she thought. What is his limitation? She focused on the events leading up to the fight as she created another cluster of berries in her mouth, chewing fast. Her limbs throbbed as bone and sinew continued to take shape beneath her gauntlets and boots. So damn slow! Soul damage…

Her eyes narrowed, and she closed them. She had her own karmic ability. She’d used it to defend against his attack, and she’d used it to see the karmic value between herself and others. Maybe she could use it on herself. She took a few quick breaths and concentrated. Once I’m standing, you brat, I’ll get the others out, and then you’re mine. You’ll be the first New Herald I kill.

Deus Ex Machina thrummed.

—

Companion shifted back, one step, two steps; she ducked and weaved as the boy lashed out at her. A flare of heat caused him to flinch where a heavy punch would draw him in like a magnet. Her eyes narrowed behind the veil. How am I supposed to stop him if I can’t hit him? she thought. He looks so fragile; if I could just get one good hit in! She hopped atop a table and took a few dancing steps back as he leaped onto it as well, landing on his side and pushing himself forward with his hand. His feet slid towards her ankles, and she leaped backwards again, planting an armored palm on the ground and flipping back up.

He was back in her face in an instant. Wide eyes were wild with feral delight, rainbows flickering in his irises as that stream of tears trailed down his cheek. His wobbly grin grew wider, curved and terrible like a Cheshire cat. She took two more steps backwards and glanced up at the ceiling. I’m getting close to the wall; he’s herding me, she thought and threw herself to the right. He clicked his tongue and dove at her with another shaky laugh. She rolled beneath him and forced herself not to snap-kick back at his gut. Another missed opportunity to put him down.

“Using people as shields!” she shouted.

“I don’t want to hear ethics complaints from a villain!” he cackled back as he landed on his feet and charged towards her again.

His palm snapped out towards her, and she reacted as it neared her veil. Her armored hand swept out to send his hand to the side. She cursed inwardly, only to watch his eyes widen and then narrow as they briefly flicked towards the gauntlet. Something about the gauntlet. The contact didn’t work. She snapped her other hand out and grabbed him by the shirt, planting her feet and spinning before hurling him away from her. One of the nearby villains groaned as Riot bounced off the ground and rolled once before snapping back to his feet.

She popped her neck and flexed her fingers. She steadied her stance and felt Levi shift inside her gown; he’d remained still this whole time. He’s getting restless. I don’t know what would happen if Riot hurt him. Calm down, little one. She stepped back and made a move of brushing her hands off to pat the reptile on her thigh while she held the bespeckled psycho’s gaze. “...Something wrong, Riot?” she growled.

Riot chuckled and tilted his chin up. “Wanna make this more interesting?”

Her eyes narrowed, and she watched his gaze flick towards the hunched over form of Erebus. His fingers flexed, a trail of blood streamed down from his nose, and she heard the villains around her leap to their feet. Her eyes widened, and she moved, darting towards Erebus and throwing her arms up in a cross as a gout of dragonsfire from Drastic and attacks from the other villains peppered her body. She willed her scales across her skin beneath her gown as she planted her feet on either side of Erebus’ crumpled back, soaking in the damage.

“BASTARD!” she bellowed.

“For His Majesty?” He laughed and lunged. “WHATEVER IT TAKES!”

She whirled, gritting her teeth and threw her hand out to slap away another one of his attempted grabs. Something brassy slammed into her wrist and sent her arm out wide. She gasped, her eyes flicking towards a straining Broadside with her hand planted against the wall.

Touch.

“GOT YOU!” He howled, and she threw herself backwards. She felt something wrap around her arm and pain unlike anything she’d ever felt before seared through it down to her very core. She wrenched her arm back, and the limb separated at the elbow, taking a gauntlet with it. She kept getting distance, her limb already regenerating. A dragon's vitality and Baldur's Body speeding recovery even from this level of damage to a rapid clip. She slid to a stop a distance from him.

He stood next to Erebus, a foot on the big man’s trembling back. Erebus still hadn’t moved from whatever Riot had done between him and Sonya. She glanced towards her mistress and met Ishtar’s gaze. Her friend’s fingers twitched. She was almost recovered. She looked down at her own bare hand, the skin slowly growing back as she looked up towards Riot and raised her fists.

Riot stared at her hand and then looked up at her. His laugh was… completely insane. ”Wow! You are tough!” His fingers danced like spider’s legs as he entered his fighting stance again, one boot still on Erebus’ back. A taunt. An insult.

He sneered. “I wonder how much more that soul of yours can take?”

—

Sonya soothed her own soul, focused inward as she looked over something she’d never taken the time to perceive before. A latticework of markings across a sphere within her mind’s eye. Symbols, the structure of her abilities, the design of her very self laid bare. There were deep cuts and furrows across it, portions of her abilities severed. She ran a mental hand over the injuries and felt the pain ebb a little more each time, cuts across metaphysical flesh closing. She choked out a breath as the throbbing in one arm eased, then another. She felt her fingers flex and felt more of her abilities come back online.

Her eyes snapped open, and she threw a hand out. Portals wrenched open across the room beneath the feet of the villains. She concentrated on Erebus as well, forcing a portal open beneath him, and a low, bestial rumble rattled from within his chest. Her hand jolted back as if burned, the portal stuttering beneath him. Damn you, Erebus. Now’s not the time for pride! Open your domain! Vines wrapped around his body and sprouted white flowers.

Riot hopped away from him as the vines lashed at his legs as well, his eyes wide with surprise. She ignored him. She had to get Erebus out so he could be treated. She clenched her fist, and the vines tightened. Erebus groaned and fell through the portal at last.

The moment he was out of sight, she turned to her friend. “COMPANION!” she shouted. “KILL!”

Deus ex Machina howled as the villains fell through holes in space and vanished from sight. She felt the tug on her ability, that eerie, sourceless pull. Whatever she'd done in her arrogance that day in that visitation room, it was bearing fruit. Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on novel•fire.net

Ahead of her, Riot pulled back to tear another limb off of her friend, while she snapped a fist towards his side. Blood sprayed as her fist collided with his body, and he bent in half with a psychotic laugh before launching off to the side and skipping off the ground like a thrown pebble against water. Companion landed on her feet, her arm already regenerating. A low growl rumbled from her as she raised her fists again, but it wasn’t hers. Ishtar glanced towards Riot’s still form.

Finally a solid hit. Now to get my legs-

Her breath caught as Riot slowly rose to his feet. His body was unharmed. She blinked as she felt strength come back to her legs and willed herself into the air. She set her jaw and clenched her fists as her full power came back online. How is he okay after a fucking hit like that? she snarled. Who did he-

Oh no.

Ishtar felt her own joints creak as her eyes shot towards Companion. She grit her teeth and endured it, her cybernetic body far tougher than the brat’s. She looked back at him as he brushed his hair back and sneered.

Somewhere, far away, a dragon roared.

Riot laughed.