Published at 28th of October 2025 4:27 pm

Chapter 33 Roll Call (Isaiah POV)

This chapter is updated by JustRead.pl

What did Nobody say? Vivienne asked.

He said that hes stuck in a BNA lockdown because Havok and Virtue are fighting against the Villains Syndicate. He told me to go there to meet him and take advantage of it, I answered.

Oh hell yeah. Then lets get going, Vivienne said, getting up off the chair shes sitting in.

He said just me.

Vivienne stops and looks at me with an odd expression before sitting back down.

Congratulations, Hotpants. Youre about to see whos under the mask, Vivienne said, grinning.

So you do know who he really is. I always assumed, but felt it rude to bring up. Does Kai know? Is that the secret you all have been keeping? I asked, voicing the thought that had eaten away at me for weeks.

Ive always known; I met him the night he started all this and tracked him down. And before you go and get your panties in a twist, chill, Hotpants. Nobody was forced to tell Kai because of Technologica. Hes choosing to tell you, and you already know how important anonymity is to him. Take the win, youre the first person hes ever chosen to tell.

I cant help but smile at that. It isnt that he likes them more than me; he didnt have a choice with those two. The first person to earn the right to know. The only one to deserve to know.

What should I expect? Whats he like, the real Nobody? I asked.

Youve already met him. Youll understand what I mean once you get there. Now get out of my sight; Im jealous as shit you get to fight Virtue for a second time before Ive fought her once. And youre going against a goddamn dragon, fuck you, Vivienne laughed.

Stay mad, bitch, I teased. I look Vivienne right in the eyes. I wont let anything happen to him, V, I swore.

Dude, relax. You should know by now that Nobody likes to plan out things in advance and control every variable, but that guy's a hell of an improviser. If hes choosing to stay in a warzone, then hes got a plan, she said, waving me away.

I nod at her and burst into a smoke cloud, flying through our base and into the sky. The shopping district is thirty-five minutes away by car, but Im going to make it there in less than ten minutes by flying. Im so happy. He trusts me. He trusts me with his most important secret: his identity. I cant wait to meet him. Jetting across the Quinstin skyline, I look down at all the little dots of people below me. Up ahead, I can see the signs of the battle between Havok and the Villains Syndicate all over the city. Gashes through buildings from his wings, frozen cars, wire strung between buildings, and intense flames that the fire department is desperately trying to fight. There are civilian bodies as well as other, more disturbing signs of battle, but I just dont give a fuck about any of this. This city only matters because it matters to him.

I soar right over the perimeter that the BNA has erected. Theyre out in force, armored trucks, Tinkertech weapons, and squads of agents. I spot a few Special Agents below me and make note of their positions relative to the fight. Never want to get caught with your pants down unless youre trying to get fucked. The level of destruction at the shopping district means theres plenty of smoke spiraling off all the fires burning, so I arrive unnoticed. Havoks in his smaller form, and Virtues rocking a new mask that looks much better on her. The Villains Syndicate is much more tragic-looking. Edgelord rejects, theater kids who somehow made it through life without getting their weirdness beaten out of them. We need to bring back bullying. Wannabe social media stars creating snuff films for their bitchless loser fan base.

I stop moving, hiding in one of the many columns of smoke emerging from the shopping district. I should take in whats going on. He might want information. My smoke cloud sees in every direction, and Im able to spot six of the seven current members, but Im betting the seventh is also here. That sneaky fuck. Echochamber is a Caster who can store attacks done by nearby Neuvohumans and recreate them, but he can only store one attack from each Neuvohuman, and he retains them for only an hour. He doesnt wear a mask or bother hiding his identity. Instead, he has thick white carnival makeup all over his face with painted black circles around his eyes, and black lipstick giving him the look of a Chelsea grin. Hes chubby, short, and bald. Very penguin-coded. Hes dressed like a ringleader of a circus, with pinstriped pants, a bloodstained waistcoat, a faded maroon tailcoat, and a tophat that matches his pants. His weapon is a pair of elbow-length gauntlets that feature sharpened screws protruding from them.

Next up is Reverso the Clown, who somehow, doesnt have the stupidest fucking name of the group. Hes a Manipulator whose power is kinetic redirection. He can only redirect things three feet off course, and it only works on physical objects or attacks. The man is abnormally tall, standing over seven feet tall and muscular, like a circus strongman. Hes larger than I am, which is a significant feat, but Im bigger where it counts. The clown doesnt wear a shirt, instead wearing an abhorrent fusion of a strongmans unitard and clown pants, all while being the ugliest colors imaginable: Pantone brown and mustard yellow. Its polkadot, but the dots are actually made of two arrows twisting around each other in opposite directions. A point in his favor is that he doesnt wear clown shoes, opting for black boots. But then he loses that point because he has a homemade, creepy clown mask with fangs, wrinkles, and fake hair that is made out of dodgeball rubber. My costume wont be anything like that.

Thats where the circus theme ends, because Snare is just a goth girl whos never seen the sun. She is the palest person Ive ever seen, including Echochamber in his makeup. Her roots are black, but shes dyed stripes of blue into her hair. Her hair is up in a ponytail held together with a giant midnight blue bow. Leather corset, laced tight to prop up her exceptional chest, underneath a long-sleeved fishnet top. Low-waisted leather super shorts, fishnet stockings, and mid-calf platform boots covered in buckles. Shes sexy, in incredible shape, delicously curvy, and murderously crazy, but thats not a deal breaker in my opinion. The crazier the brain, the crazier the brain. Shes a Manipulator who can create and control metallic strings. She also seems to have a couple of secondary effects of her power, allowing her to have incredible balance when standing on the strings and a slight increase in strength.

Null is a Neutralizer who is immune to powers that come in contact with him. His power has a ton of caveats and eccentricities. He doesnt actually shut off or block abilities the way most Neutralizers do. He is immune to Virtues lasers and Havoks flame breath, but if Miles manipulated a nearby fire into a fireball and threw it at Null, it wouldnt dissipate because his power didnt create it; it was a naturally occurring flame. The same goes for superstrength and Shifter forms; he cant affect them. A nightmare for a Caster, but useless against my glocks. He wears a tasteful white suit, tailored to fit him perfectly, and a white cloth mask over his head, featuring red Xs and a frown stitched into it. He carries around a taser cane as a weapon. Will Nobodys power work on him?

The one currently facing off against Havok is Revenant, a Shifter who turns into a possessed suit of medieval armor. Almost as big as Vs Shifter form, the rusted steel armor is covered in spikes to the point it looks like a reverse iron maiden, with a tattered cobalt cape that trails behind him. Through the gap in the visor, you can see the cold blue wisps that are his eyeballs, but theres nothing else inside of it. Contrasting with his armor is the double-sided war axe he wields, which is made of silver with pulsing blue veins. The blades have thick layer of ice over them, which ties into the powerset of the Shifter form. Revenant has a chilling effect on the area around him, a roughly ten-foot radius, and his axe can freeze whatever it touches. Even though hes a set of living armor, the actual armor itself isn't extraordinarily durable, and thats how hes been defeated in the past.

The final member I can see is Rotshot, a psychotic woman dressed like she escaped the psych ward at a Ren Faire. Wearing dyed deerskin pants with thigh-high leather boots. She looks like a forest elf archer, complete with arm braces, buckled corset armor, and a dark wool cloak. Everything she has on is a differed shade of muted green or brown, except for the white wolf skull mask strapped to her face. Only her weapons are modern; shes got a bandolier of throwing knives, a quiver, and a recurve bow. Shes one of the longest-serving members of the Villains Syndicate and might be a true believer of their proclaimed creed. Shes an Alter who can charge inorganic objects she touches with a toxic rot that is passed on to any organic target it hits. The crackpot crackshot.

The only member I cant see is Looking Glass, but shes around here somewhere. Shes a Traveller who can traverse through glass. Her costume is meant to look like Alice in Wonderland, but it ends up looking like a heroin addict cosplaying Little House on the Prairie. Shes painfully unclean, barely lucid, and seems like shes trying to be the poster child for anorexia. She puts the ED in unwashed. They're a unique-looking group, but there is one thing that they all share across their costumes: each wears a camera somewhere on their person to stream their point of view. The action heats up as Revenant takes a swing at Havok, who flies backward to avoid the frost axe. He keeps backing up to avoid the swings, but he doesnt see the wall of wires that bite deep into his wings, slicing them. He drops to the ground, wings too damaged to fly, as Snare is walking across the wire like a tightrope.

Youre making this boring, Snare complained from above him.

Stop running and fight me. Ill mount your head on my wall of trophies to show off, Revenant said.

Havok doesnt respond, ignoring their taunts. His tail thumps against the street, sending some of the broken rocks jumping off the ground. The Capes tail strikes out like a whip, launching them at the female Cowl. Snare isnt ready, and gets hit in the thigh, knocking her off. She tumbles toward the ground until a spiderweb of wires catches her, slowing her fall. She set that up ahead of time. And after forcing Havok to engage by blocking off the remainder of the street. Snare has a good mind for tactics. She starts giggling, rolling around on her web. Havok rushes Revenant, getting too close for the Cowl to maneuver his weapon around. He hammers punches into the chestplate, pushing him back and away from the wall of wires. Revenant clearly isnt used to weaponless combat, and hes paying the price for it. The knight tries to block, but Havok wrests the axe from his hands, throwing the weapon away. The Cape opens his mouth, and a jet of flame engulfs Revenant. He keeps it going for over a minute, and Snare makes no moves toward helping her teammate. God, shes hot.

Havok is probably the only Cape that I hate. He represents everything Miles talks about, but for me. Both of our triggers resulted in a reptilian body, but he got to turn it off. He got to have a career, friends, colleagues, and go out on dates. If it werent for a chance meeting, Id be stuck as a monster for the rest of my life. He got to be normal, and I didnt. Even though my days as Constrictor are over, a part of me loves seeing the Villains Syndicate hurt him. What about the other Cape? I spot the gold and white coloring of Virtues costume as she faces off against the other four Syndicate members.

Rotshot is perched on top of an overturned bus, firing arrows at Virtue that are being blocked by her cape. Reverso is engaging her in hand-to-hand, well, more like hes deflecting her attacks and not landing any of his own. Null and Echochamber are off to the side of them, both men useless against the young Cape. That doesnt stop them from spouting bullshit, though.

Come on, Reverso, quit clowning around, Null shouted.

For those just tuning in at home, we have quite the show today. We started out trying to slay a dragon, and we were making good progress. Until this rotten bitch showed up and spoiled our fun. So now, my wonderful companions, Rotshot and Reverso the Clown, are going to teach her a lesson, Echochamber said, chuckling to himself.

Its a standstill. I can meet him now. I spot the Crepuscolo Boutique, and its in rough shape. The roof is half collapsed, the front of the store is completely gone, and theres a truck inside the store. The surrounding stores are even worse; some of them have been completely flattened. I keep an eye on the ongoing fight between the Capes and the Cowls as I travel down toward my destination. I slip through the cracks down into the building. Its dark in here; the power must be out. My heart is pounding, and my palms are sweaty. I am equal parts excited and nervous to meet Nobody. This is a man I would follow into hell if he asked me to. The man who cured me of my curse, who gifted me a renewed lease on life, a second chance for greatness. I would do anything for him. Anything.

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