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A Colorful Month

Part 5

For Taiko

By Draconicon

Whatever caused the slow-down of craziness in his life, Nor was thankful for it. A week passed during which the only interaction he had with the Council was a surprise meeting with the Baron after a little parade that went down Main Street - the boar was apparently there for Pride, go figure - and a single glance at a mouse that was as wrapped in red as possible. It could have been the Man in Red, or it might have been someone else. He wasn't sure, but he wasn't going to discount the possibility of it being his contact.

Regardless, crime had dropped for a time. There was something about the middle of summer that allowed for some breaks in the needs of villains in heroes, giving them the chance to just rest for a bit before the rest of the summer got started in earnest. That, and the floats and parades and gatherings that happened through June just seemed to be...well, something of an equalizer, allowing Novus Ager to come together a bit in ways that the rest of the year just didn't quite manage.

Nor even participated for a change, going on a march in the parade with some of the other heroes. He ended up walking with a number of people that he knew by sight, if not by name, and more than once ended up spending time with Shore Guardian. It was almost like the orca kept finding where he was by magnetism, somehow, because it wasn't like he searched him out.

Not all the time, at least.

He didn't think he was, at least.

It was after the third march in five days, and after a rather hazy night out at a club, that Nor found the world coming knocking on his door again. He was making his way home from the club, stumbling a bit as his memory started working on its latest restoration of himself, when he heard a familiar voice.

"You know, Nor. I thought you were a bit smarter than this."

The mule groaned, slowly turning on his hoof. Standing behind him was the Man in Red, the white-masked mouse crossing his arms slowly, tapping his foot and spinning his bejeweled cane.

"Smarter than what?"

"Oh, I don't know. Walking the street, all off your game? Spending extra time with people you don't know so well? Putting yourself at risk with the Council members coming out of the woodwork?"

"I can take care of things."

"Yes, like what happened with the Baron, for example?"

"We're on good terms."

"I saw, it was very good terms. Good terms for the construction workers that got hired to fix the damage, for sure."

"There wasn't very much."

"Because this is Novus Ager. Because he wasn't trying very hard. And because you are so uniquely lucky that there is always a way out of things for you." The mouse shook his head. "There are others still to come, Nor. And some that are already here."

"You're not exactly hard to spot, you know. It's not like any of you try to put in effort to hide."

"So far."

"Please. Like I'd mistake you for anyone else."

The mouse slapped a palm across his mask, facepalming. Nor shrugged, turning to leave. He was having a good time for once, and he didn't want to listen to this. Besides, he...

He didn't want to think about having to deal with more of the Council just yet. There was a certain amount of fear there, fear that was lingering longer than it usually did. And that worried him more than he had expected.

I do actually deal with consequences. I swear.

But Murder's chat had lingered over the week despite all the different distractions that he had found for himself. It didn't matter how many times that he enjoyed a good walk through the city. It didn't matter that he got to hang out with the other heroes. It didn't matter that he and Shore Guardian had gone out to a fetish club and -

Nor stopped in his tracks, blinking twice as the slight high-haze that he'd been working through finally cleared, and he remembered standing on a stage in nothing but the tightest leather shorts that he had ever worn in his life. He remembered shaking his ass for a huge crowd, getting dollar bills stuffed down his shorts, and even getting his cock fished out and stroked. The mule slowly reached down to the back of his jeans - he was in hero-state still, but he had normal clothes on - and he found a few bills still back there.

...How...when...

He shook his head. That was something that he could investigate in his own time, when the Man in Red wasn't staring at him with those empty eye-holes in the mask. Nor pulled his hand back from his ass cheeks, turning to look at the mouse again.

"What do you really want?"

"I want you to stay safe."

"Why?"

"One, Olag cares about you enough to worry. And I do not need a bear driving himself up the wall with worry about you right now."

"Glad to know you care so much about his well-being..."

"I care more than you think. Two. You're a useful tool here, and I like to keep those around."

"Tool. Thanks."

"Three. You did me a favor. And now, I'm trying to repay that favor by keeping you intact."

"Uh-huh. How'd it go keeping the worst of them away? Oh, right, you didn't, Murder still showed up on my fucking doorstep."

"She's not the worst."

"She's Murder! How the hell is that not the worst?"

"She can only kill you. That's a very mild power compared to all the others that are out there."

"Killing's bad. Very bad."

"Is it as bad as turning you into a villain, Nor?"

The mule's mouth dropped open. He sputtered, but the mouse just pushed forward.

"There are members of the Council, very powerful members, that can turn reality on its head. You've seen the obvious ones. There's more coming. I'm trying - and I'm stressing this, trying - to help you keep your head above water so that you can deal with the ones that I can't pull off in a different direction. Not all of them work alone. Some of them send minions first. And if you are going to leave yourself open to that, then there's only so much that I can do."

"What, you think that -"

"I'm saying that anyone that you don't know intimately has a chance of being someone dangerous. Okay? So, be smart. Think about what's going to happen."

"..."

"I'm doing my best, Nor. I've juggled three of them away from you already. I'm not sure how much more I can do, but I'm trying. Don't make me waste my time if you're not going to take it seriously, too."

"...Sorry. I'll do what I can."

"Do that." The mouse turned, paused, then looked back. "But if you want to keep shaking your ass on the stage, go ahead. That was fun to watch, I have to admit."

"Get out of here."

"Heh, I'm going, I'm going..."

As the mouse walked around the corner and disappeared, Nor shook his head. He would have been angry, but there was a part of him that knew that the mouse was right.

Much as she was scary, she wasn't THAT bad, he thought, remembering the black-furred mare and her garden. She was strange, she was creepy, but she didn't actually do anything bad...except break everything that I thought I knew about the world...

Nor sighed, leaning against the building behind him. All things considered, he knew that he was getting off light. He had managed to piss off a group of criminals that were on the level of demi-gods, and so far, all that had happened to him was getting punched across a city and being made to visit someone's creepy garden off on some faraway plane. Considering what the pair of them had been capable of, he had to admit that the other possibilities of punishment were far more severe.

But the mouse was right. Not every villain was interested in a direct confrontation. Some of them did like to use minions, and...and it was possible that he was dealing with one right now.

No way. Shore Guardian isn't like that.

He remembered how it had felt to march with the orca in the Pride parade, how the orca had looked in that soft-pink Hawaiian shirt and tight shorts, how they'd shared a glass of rosé afterwards just to celebrate doing it. There was something...warming about the other man, and he doubted that there was any villainy there, nor any mischief of the sort.

Then again, he still didn't remember how they'd gone from that to being in a fetish club, or what had happened to take them from the fetish club to the dance club afterward. He rubbed his forehead, trying to sort through some of the other memories, but what remained was probably still in the quarantine part of his mind.

Ugh...

For the first time in a while, he actively regretted that part of his process. No matter how many times that had saved him from mind-affecting villains, it meant that he was lacking information now, and that meant that he was moving forward with less than a full deck. He didn't know what had happened to him, why he had done what he'd done, and he was scared that his mind was already trying to filter out the emotional impact that it might have had. Murder's chat about what he did to himself, the self-curation, still made him rather angry with himself in comparison to what he had thought of himself before.

Something had obviously happened, but he refused to believe that there was some kind of villainy there. Shore Guardian was a good man. Good.

Shaking his head, Nor turned to continue down his path. He made his way to the train station, climbed the steps to an elevator, and then pushed the button. Not up, but down, heading from what had been a skyscraper stop the day before to an underwater station today. The lake-view that was just past the glass on the station ground was quite beautiful, even this late at night, and he rather appreciated the chance to be somewhere calm, somewhere peaceful.

He leaned back against the glass wall as he waited for the train to come. It was going to be a long night, he could already tell, and he doubted that he'd be able to find some peace tonight. It was a good thing that he didn't need to sleep-sleep in order to feel rested, or he would have been in deep -

"A very annoying place for a station."

Nor froze. That was not something that the average person from the city would say. Nobody from Novus Ager even noticed that the stations were out of place, most of the time. The few that did, like him, didn't really complain about it, but accepted it. Only someone that was from outside the city really noticed it and got annoyed by it.

Another one? Already?

He turned slowly, to his right. A languid Persian cat stepped away from the glass wall behind her...no, through it, he realized, his eyes going wide as he realized that she had just stepped through the glass, leaving the water behind. She wasn't even wet. He sputtered, gesturing at the water wall, then at her, and then at it.

She didn't react. Instead, she tossed her head fluff backwards, idly pulling at the edge of sky-blue gloves that were so long that they might as well have been sleeves, then adjusted a gown that ran down to her ankles. It was darker, deeper, looking almost like a deep sea-blue that was on the verge of turning into something else. She flicked her tail, then fixed him with a stare.

"Hmm. A typical mule with atypical attributes."

"Which one are you?" Nor muttered, keeping his voice down.

"And one that thinks that he's allowed to talk before I'm done. Mules don't have mouths, do they?"

"Mmmph - mmph?!"

Nor grabbed at his face, his eyes going wide as he realized that his mouth had actually disappeared. He tapped his cheeks, his nose, his face, only to find that there was nothing between his nose and his chin, no line where his mouth might have opened, nothing. She had just told a lie, and it had become real.

The Persian continued to look him over, tapping her chin with a mostly disinterested look on her face. She hmmed, she hummed, and she sighed as he felt his own panic rising.

"Joined with a creature of off-planet origins. Likely holding some small mental pocket that keeps reality in check for him. Noticing things that are quite bothersome to others, and -"

Nor gasped as his Hard Memory restored his mouth, huffing and puffing. For the first time, the Persian's eyebrow raised in slight surprise.

"And with enough of a hold on a personal reality that he can overcome my abilities. Well, at least that offers something interesting."

"What...what did you...what did you do to me?" Nor managed to ask through his pants for breath.

"Hmm. You're clever. You work it out."

She strode past him, her tail flicking irritably across his chest as she glanced around the rest of the station. The train was slowly coming in as she crossed her arms, staring up through the glass at the water outside.

"A city that changes, yet never hurts its citizens. Something of an anomaly, particularly for something ostensibly autonomous rather than directed. So, perhaps, one must think that it is directed. One must assume that there is something behind it, shifting things around for its own amusement, but with enough..." She tapped her chin. "No, not benevolence, for such power doesn't inspire that, does it? No, no...it's not benevolence that keeps the citizens safe, then. Then what would inspire such power to take such care?"

"What are you talking about?"

"A mystery, I suppose. Could you just lose your mouth again?"

"No."

"I suppose you wouldn't. And a simple lie would not quite work against someone like you, when you can - oh, I know..."

"What?" Nor asked as the gray-furred, blue-gowned feline turned. "What are you -"

"A simple test...something I imagine will cause quite a few ripples through this little reality."

"What - wait, don't -"

"Super-powers don't exist in Novus Ager, do they?"

Nor collapsed backwards, feeling a pulling at the back of his head, in his core, everywhere through his body. It was like something had just reached back through time and space, something that was trying to pull something not just out of him, but out of his entire sense of self, out of something that had developed over time. It felt like he had multiplied for a split second, like he had become hundreds, thousands of Nors, each one on the verge of collapsing as the part of them that allowed them to be super was being taken away.

He saw that part of him never coming.

He saw it coming but killing him during the merge rather than coming together with him.

He saw it taking him away and using him as a subject rather than a partner.

He saw so many different possibilities that would fulfill the lying question that there had never been a super-power in Novus Ager, and it almost ripped him apart to feel it happening again and again and again -

Reset.

He fell to his hands and knees, the mule shaking from head to toe as he managed to breathe again. It was back, the quarantine, the shaking feeling of something else there, the memory of himself as not Denith, but Nor. Nor. Nor.

As he breathed slowly, he lifted his head. They weren't underwater anymore. They weren't up high, either. They were on the ground, slightly under street level, where a normal train station might have been. The train was pulling in, and he realized that people were bumping into each other more than usual. They stumbled, they tripped, they ground shoulder to shoulder in a way that wasn't right for Novus Ager people. They even looked confused for a moment, almost like something had changed for them but they didn't know what.

Something...something's wrong...very wrong...

He got up, making his way into the train, only for the other figures around him to stare at him like he was some kind of freak. Why? He was famous across the city?

Or was he? The stranger had said something about there not being super-powers in Novus Ager, and that...that...

I've not been a super-hero? he thought. No...no I haven't...

He still had his super-powers, his memories, but his actions as a super-hero had been erased by her question, her lie. She had turned it into something else. He squeezed tight around the bar over his head, riding the train and ignoring the staring that went on.

Don't change...don't change...don't change...

For the first time in his life, the city didn't change. Not once. The train didn't shift tracks, the buildings didn't move, the streets didn't rearrange. Nothing happened that would normally be part and parcel to being in Novus Ager. He saw no heroes through the windows in the distance, saw nobody leaping from building to building or fliers moving from place to place. No transformed beasts running along the walls of other buildings, no web-slings, no gadgeteers...nothing.

Or at least, nothing like what he'd seen before. Here and there were dots that might have been someone, but they were far enough off that he could never be sure.

By the time that they reached his station, he was all but hyper-ventilating. He ran out of the station, only to be met at the base of the steps by both Choin and Shore Guardian. The panda and the orca rushed him, both of them hugging him, and Nor shook from head to toe as he realized that there were two others that remembered something.

"Oh thank god. Thank god...thank god..."

He almost collapsed into their embrace, holding them as tight as he could manage as he trembled from head to toe. He looked up at the sky, half-hoping that the revelation would bring more supers back, but nothing of the sort happened. Shore Guardian patted him on the back, then broke the hug. Choin lasted a bit longer, but then the panda shook his head.

"Something's wrong."

"I know," Nor muttered. "And I know who's responsible."

"That's good, because I don't even know what's wrong. Wanna share?"

"Someone - someone met me at the station. A female feline," he said. "All dressed in blue - it doesn't matter. She said, 'Super-powers don't exist in Novus Ager.'"

"But...they do. You do. He does," Choin said, nodding at the orca. "We...we all know that..."

"Not everyone. And when she said that, I almost lost my powers."

"Almost?"

"Something kept them in me, but not sure what. But...well, look at the sky. At the city. At everything."

The city felt broken without the supers that had called it home, but there was something that went deeper than that, something that felt like it had been shattered way down at the core of the city. Had the city itself been a super? Or was it something else that had been affected by that power?

Shore Guardian shook his head.

"Well, if that's the case, that's the case. We'll just have to take care of her, won't we, little guy?"

"I'll take care of her. Somehow."

"Nor, this is bigger than just you. You really wanna try that with the way that she's already fucked with the world?"

"...Fair point."

"What about me? What can I do?" Choin asked.

"You stay home. If you remember, then she might come after you next, and I don't want to lose you."

"...I can do that. Don't like it, but I can do it."

"She's messed with reality here. I don't think you can do much about that, even if you didn't have your mind messed with."

The panda nodded, and they shared another hug before Choin started jogging back home. Nor kept an eye on his boyfriend for a few seconds, making sure that the panda was going back to where he needed to be. Shore Guardian broke the silence.

"He's got a cute ass."

"Tell him that later; he might let you take it further."

"He's open to that?"

"We're...complicated."

"Heh, sounds more like you got it figured out."

"Heh, I guess. But, uh...not permission, just so you know."

"I know. I'll earn that, if it comes to that."

"..."

"You wanna get moving?"

"Yeah. Yeah, let's get moving."

Finding the blue woman ended up being easier than he expected. She seemed to go everywhere without a hint of stealth. Apparently, she didn't need to bother to hide herself, as she seemed to just go where she liked without difficulty. Several times, he actually caught sight of her muttering about how walls were permeable, really, and more lies about reality that became real when she simply spoke about it.

Her lies were terrifying, because they became real. He kept almost catching up with her, and so did Shore Guardian. More than once, they were right on her tail just before she disappeared again.

It took them tracking her all the way to a stock exchange building to finally find her taking her time. Nor knew that she wasn't stymied, but rather, she was interested in playing with the room, almost like she was fascinated with something there.

That was the other thing that he had noticed while they were chasing her. The longer that she was here, the more intrigued she seemed to become, and the more that she took her time to really get into wherever she wandered to. The Persian had gone from looking bored to looking intrigued, and now that they were here at Solstice Stocks, she seemed most interested of all. She stared up and around, tapping her chin as people moved, though she had a strange sort of shift and twitch style of moving now.

"What's going on?" Nor muttered.

"Search me, but we're not the only ones paying attention," Shore Guardian said, nodding towards a crocodile that was moving through the crowd. "I think he's figured out that she's something special."

"Not a good thing..."

"You want me to take care of him?"

"Please. Quietly."

"Heh...I can do that."

"You sure? You're kind of a big guy..."

"So's he. But I know how to be subtle when I need to." The orca winked. "Leave it to me, little guy."

Nor took a slight spank for his troubles, watching the orca disappear into the crowd. The crocodile walked up to the Persian, chuckling as he did, and Nor did his best to blend in with the crowd as they chatted.

"Heh, why, ma'am, I see that you're here without an appointment," the crocodile said, bowing his head ever so slightly. "But that just won't do. Someone as well-to-do as yourself would be far better suited with someone...experienced."

The woman in blue said nothing, merely glancing at the ceiling, and then at the numbers. She tapped her fingers together, muttering to herself as the crocodile moved around to stand in front of her again.

"Allow me to introduce myself. I am Kayne Oneill."

"Yes, yes, the one that goes around groping others between time-stops," the Persian muttered.

"...What?"

The crocodile looked utterly shocked in that moment, and Nor couldn't blame him. Time-stops?

"You must be mistaken, ma'am. Besides, even if I were of that bent, I'm sure that you'd have no trouble from me."

"Hmm? Oh, not right now, certainly."

"...Pardon?"

The Persian rolled her eyes, turning to face him directly. They paused for a moment, then were on opposite sides of the room. The crocodile was marching for her again, but this time, he was stopped in mid-motion by Shore Guardian. The orca gently pulled the crocodile off to the side, keeping Kayne busy for the moment. The woman in blue almost didn't seem to notice, instead turning back to the numbers running across the screens overhead and tapping her fingers to her palms, almost like she was counting something.

Might as well try, Nor thought, taking a deep breath as he approached her. The Persian cat didn't even look back at him, not even when he was in swinging range. He reached up to tap her on the shoulder -

He was behind her again, still walking towards her, about to come in range again. He lifted his hand to tap her shoulder -

He just started to move towards her again, this time at the same time that Kayne and Shore Guardian were walking away. He managed to reach her this time, and he gagged at the disorienting flow of time that nearly threw him off his feet. The Persian sighed.

"Another interruption?" she muttered, turning around. She blinked. "You again? I thought we had dealt with that?"

"I...remember," he muttered through the heaving feeling that was surging through his guts.

"Yes, you do. I can see that. And so do a few others. The crocodile, a few other minor supers here and there...not so minor if they can overcome Deception, it seems," she said, chuckling. "This city is truly full of surprises. Including this little pocket of time energy. Quite fascinating...nearly fascinating enough to put up a fight over."

"Don't."

He was surprised at how tired he sounded as he said it. He felt...off. He felt like he had been drained, pushed further than he expected. And it wasn't just the reality-bending going on; it was the feeling of forcing himself to keep standing up when there was a substantial part of him that just wanted to lie down and let someone else take care of it, some part of him that wanted to rest and be taken care of himself.

But he still stood there, still held his hand against her shoulder. He shook his head slowly.

"Don't push this. This is Novus Ager. What this is...this isn't what we are."

"...Oh, now isn't that interesting," she said, cocking her head to the side. "There's been others, hasn't there?"

"You guys have been poking their heads around for days. Don't you know?"

"No, no, it's more than that. They've been here already...before the Baron...Maybe at the same time as MiR and LiL..." She tapped her chin. "Hmmm...someone else has a stake out here..."

"What are you -"

A thrumming sound that felt almost like the power coming back on echoed through the ground, and then through the air. The time fluctuations grew stronger, pulsing around them, becoming something almost like fractal images that reflected them in and out, forward and back through time. For a brief moment, the entire chamber was filled with more of them, with other versions of them.

The Persian feline looked around, shaking her head slowly.

"Apparently, there's someone that's a little more major that still has powers, too...I wondered if that was the case."

Nor was too busy keeping his footing and his head on straight to really pay as much attention to her as he liked. The Persian turned to face a shadowy figure on the wall, one that loomed larger than life and looked almost like he might have been a hallucination. She had a contemplative look on her face, one that seemed like she was almost considering the challenge rather than backing down.

Then, before Nor could say anything, the female looked back at him. She shook her head in vague annoyance.

"And just when it was getting interesting..."

"Make it right," he muttered.

"I think that your feline friend is already hard at work doing that very thing. Can't you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

"I suppose it might be a stretch to think you could feel that, too. But it doesn't matter. I've seen what there is to see...for now."

She looked over her shoulder at the shadow of the tiger, chuckled, and shook her head.

"But you..." The blue-gowned female smiled. "You and I should talk. And soon. Remember me, oh Tiger of Time. The Duchess in Blue. Deception."

" Get. Out."

"I am, I am," she said lazily, turning back to Nor. "But think about what I said. You are touched by more than you think."

"Mmmph...lies..."

"The downside, I suppose. Nobody believes you when you actually tell the truth."

The Persian shook her head, stepping away from the time-affected square in the center of the room. She muttered something, and disappeared.

Nor twisted again, finding himself back at the front door of Solstice Stocks. However, there was no sign of Shore Guardian. He wanted to step inside, but at the same time, he didn't. He was tired. Very, very tired, for some reason, and he wanted to rest. He leaned back against the building and closed his eyes. For now, he'd take a nap, and after that, he'd see how he was feeling. And maybe by then, the orca would be done dealing with Kayne.

More and more mysteries...more and more terrifying people...

He was starting to worry about what would come next, at this point. He thought Murder would have been the worst. Deception had made it much, much worse. What else was out there, he wondered? What else could be done?

The End

Summary: Nor has a little time off before more of the Council starts tracking him down. This time, a blue-gowned woman.

Tags: No sex, fetish memory, Nor, Novus Ager, Colorful Council, series, superhero, super powers, superpowers, mule, persian, feline, orca, crocodile, callback,