McSwazey

Volume 2: Chapter 212 — Dark Clouds

Dan debated chasing after the fleeing vigilante. Dragging her to safety had been a snap decision made in the moment. He couldn't stand the thought of the young woman getting splattered across the alley by the incoming SPEAR Team. Nikolos, Dan was more ambivalent towards. His actions had endangered dozens of civilians out of paranoia and spite. T...

Volume 2: Chapter 211 — Teenagers

Dan did not teleport directly into the alley with the dangerous vigilante and injured vigilante hunters. Instead, he appeared on the roof above, crouched low in case the lunatic below had partners. He could see smoke rising from the ground level, and car alarms were blaring. Within a second of appearing his veil had lanced out across the roof, t...

Volume 2: Chapter 210 — Confrontation

Dan briefly considered calling in a bomb threat to the school. Then, realizing how insane that was, he considered dropping a threatening letter on the principal's desk. Finally, he turned on his brain and called Agent Carver. She picked up on the second ring.

"Carver," Dan said, jumping his portals to keep up with the moving vehicles. "I'm...

Brief Update

Hurricane Beryl rolled into town. I've got no power and my house flooded. Next chapter will probably be a bit delayed while I deal with this mess. Thanks for your understanding.

Volume 2: Chapter 209 — School

Her name was Micaela Sanchez. She was sixteen years old, mixed Chinese and Hispanic ancestry, and her father had passed away when she was seven. Her uncle on her mother's side had occasionally helped raise her until he was killed in a robbery some four years ago. She had no close family besides her mother; certainly none in the city. Her grandpa...

Volume 2: Chapter 208 — Geometry

In retrospect, Dan had no idea how graphs work. His idea was simple in both meanings of the word, in that it was not complicated to execute, and it was apparently thought up by a simpleton. This is how it played out: First, Dan found himself a rail map of D.C. The city's rail system was shaped like a loose vortex, where a bunch of rails congrega...

Last time on the Law of Averages...

A/N: The summary, as promised. Next chapter out tonight.

Dan is investigating a United States senator named Meriwether Madison, at the behest of Anastasia Summers. He's an incredibly old and entrenched politician whose policies align closely to the People's. He's also a Natural who exhibits control over plant life.<...

Interlude — The Starving Animal

A/N: And we're back. Thank you everyone for your patience. We should now resume our regularly scheduled posting. Next week I'll have a recap summary of recent events in addition to the normal chapter to remind everyone what's happening. In the meantime, have an interlude that requires less context.

2024-06-01 01:27:02 +0000 UTC View Post

Taking a two month break

Hello everyone. Let me start this off by saying I'm sorry for the poor rate and quality of chapters the past few months. Honestly this whole arc of the story has been like banging my head against a wall, over and over. I know where I want things to go, but the details just aren't coming. I've just been pushing out chapters without enough thought...

Chapter 207 — Sausages

It was like watching sausages get made, Dan thought. He wondered if Vigi-Buster fans knew how hollow and fake their favorite show really was. The security supervisor didn't seem to mind, but he was too busy being star-struck to examine the situation. The whole ordeal was incredibly synthetic. From start to finish, not a drop of reality intruded ...

Volume 2: Chapter 206 — Fanboy

Unfortunately, the surveillance cameras of other transit stations were only accessible onsite. Dan and Carver were forced to head off towards the vigilante's predicted final stop, some twelve miles away. Every second cost them, as their overt approach would spawn rumors that would eventually reach the ears of someone important. Fred the security...

Volume 2: Chapter 205 — Subway Blitz

Gaining access to the Metro cameras wasn't quite as easy as Dan had hoped. Carver's influence as an FBI agent wasn't unlimited, and as she was not officially working on the D.C. vigilante, pulling footage from the transit authority proved to be a pain in the ass. Most of the problem was petty obstructionism. It was difficult for Dan to identify ...

Volume 2: Chapter 204 — Reality TV

Dan was often confronted by the boundless stupidity of human nature, but this might be a new low. The alley where the D.C. vigilante had been seen was fenced off with orange construction cones, three large bouncer-esque figures barely holding back a small horde of civilians from breaching through. Past the mouth of the alley, a news van was park...

Volume 2: Chapter 203 — Sleuthing

The D.C. Vigilante was being hunted by the police department, the FBI, possibly Anastasia's mooks, and Dan himself. It should've come as no surprise, then, when a random civilian was the first person to get footage of the vigilante in action. The shaky-cam video was taken by a gawking passerby as the vigilante dropped down on a mugging-in-progre...

Volume 2: Chapter 202 — Favors and Influence

It took Dan a few days to arrange a meeting with Emily Carver, the federal agent who he'd helped raid the Evo Church. The real chore had been tracking her down. Unlike Jeremy Rawls, he had not swapped contact information with Agent Carver before they separated. That's not to say she was uninterested in networking, only that she had much more imp...

Volume 2: Chapter 201 — Catching Up

"I hoped to track him down myself," Freya growled after Dan finished his story. His friends were all caught up on the month's events with the Evo Church, though he had left out his misadventures spying on Senator Madison. As far as Connor, Freya, and Gregoir were concerned, Dan had been asked to investigate the Church of Infinite Evolution by An...

Volume 2: Chapter 200 — Biceps and Baby Oil

The introduction was a fairly simple one. There was workout equipment spread out all across a gymnasium floor; every machine for every muscle group imaginable was brought in from Gregoir and Dan's home gyms. They were spread out like display platters, polished up and wiped down to a gleaming shine. Near the center of the arrangement was a simple...

Volume 2: Chapter 199 — Marketing

It was late in the day. Gregoir's trainees were cooling off after a hard workout, while Abby and Connor were casually throwing punches at each other in the center of the ring. Dan idly watched them from the sidelines as he chatted with Gregoir. The larger man was coated in a thin layer of sweat from the day's exercise, though he was breathing no...

Volume 2: Chapter 198 — Teaching

"We should spar again sometime," Connor told Dan, as he helped him into his gloves. "I've been practicing. And not just with this lot, but some of Uncle Cornelius' friends."

"I'd hope so," Dan mused, adjusting his helmet with his free hand. "You can't run with the wolves come night if you spend all day sportin' with the puppies."

Con...

Volume 2: Chapter 197 — On Stage

A/N: Sorry about the delay. Got Covid again. Zero stars, no improvement from last time, cannot recommend the experience.

Gregoir Pierre-Louise had set up what might generously be described as a training camp for his small cadre of prospective recruits, a group of teenagers consisting mostly of wannabe vigilantes...

Volume 2: Chapter 196 — Going Out

A/N: Sorry about the delay, everyone. Lots of work and lot's of writer's block. I squeezed out this little bit here just to get things moving again. The next few weeks should be better.

Dan's immediate impulse was to check on Nikolos Andeno, but the boy was sitting in his classroom at school. Dan's veil con...

Volume 2: Chapter 195 — Masks

A/N: Sorry this was so delayed. Had a really rough week.

Dan picked up a fresh bag of flour before heading home. He reappeared in his pantry and shelved the heavy sack, before wandering into the kitchen and finding Abby making coffee. She was in a loose t-shirt and pajama pants, pretty much what she'd...

Volume 2: Chapter 194 — Unearned Acclaim

There was a brief, heated debate over comms about the merits of violently persuading the church Elder to give up whatever secret phrase was required to stand down Edict's mind control. Arguments were put forth about practicality and legality, though not morality. In the end, it came down to a matter of risk. They had to assume if there was a sta...

Volume 2: Chapter 193 — Considerations

Dark corridors of steel and stone stretched out for hundreds of feet before them, shadows tinted in shades of green and grey as night vision compensated for the lack of light. The two mobile prisoners stumbled blindly forward, hands cuffed behind their back, while Carver wheeled Charleston along in his chair. She was flanked by her two squad mat...

Volume 2: Chapter 192 — Skirmish

The hardest part was making space for Edict's wheelchair. They could've carried the man, limp as he was, but dragging around a fully grown adult male was a harder prospect than the movies made it seem. Even with super-strength, which half the agents present had, it was an unwieldy burden at best. Given the imminent threat of zombie assault, it w...

Volume 2: Chapter 191 — Zombies

"Carver," Dan said, feeling a surreal sense of calm descend upon him. "We've got zombies."

Carver paused in her wrestling match with her nephew. She looked up at Dan, then unceremoniously hip-tossed her blood relative to the ground. He laid there groaning, arms cuffed behind his back, as Carver approached the door. Dan motioned for silence...

Volume 2: Chapter 190 — Crowd Control

Eddie Charleston did not react to his old alias. His blank stare was focused squarely on the tile floor. A line of drool ran down his chin and formed a dark spot on his shirt. One of the priests flinched at Dan's words, while the other jabbed a finger in his direction.

"This is a restricted area!" the priest bellowed. "Identify yourself!"<...

Volume 2: Chapter 189 — Calling an Audible

There was a wall where there wasn't a wall. Dan stood in front a vertical plane of sheetrock, and ran his fingers across its dappled surface. It was a surreal experience, when his eyes and his veil reported conflicting sensations. This was clearly an unassuming corner of a small meeting room. There was nothing at all abnormal about it. Not his e...

Volume 2: Chapter 188 — Trick Room

Dan reiterated to himself that this was not supposed to be a raid. He accepted an armored vest from Agent Carver, along with a matching helmet. It was his first experience with SPEAR level gear, and he was pleasantly surprised by how the padded interior adjusted itself to his head. The hardened glass visor flickered, and a HUD appeared, automati...

Volume 2: Chapter 187 — Balls and Backing

Dan had originally assumed it would take a few hours to get together a team capable of raiding a literal cult. He was quickly proven mistaken when Agent Carver put together a combined task force of DCPD and federal agents within thirty minutes of hearing his testimony. It was an outrageously quick assembly, the speed of which was apparently fuel...