Nightside bit feats (The Bride Wore Black Leather)

Hadleigh Oblivion can suck the life-essence out of things:

“You’re Hadleigh Oblivion, aren’t you?” said Charlotte ap Owen excitedly, waving for her camera-man to catch up with her.

Hadleigh smiled, produced a pale blue rose from out of nowhere, and held it up before Charlotte. He then brought the rose up to his mouth and inhaled steadily. The colour faded out of the petals, and we all watched speechlessly as Hadleigh breathed in the life essence of the flower. One by one, the colourless petals cracked and fell apart, falling in grey sprinkles to the floor. Hadleigh smiled and let the dead stem fall from his hand.

“That’s nothing,” said Dead Boy, passing by. “You should see what I can do with a fart.” -The Bride Wore Black Leather

Hadleigh Oblivion implies that King of Skin's powers are only "skin-deep":

And while he stood there, undecided, Hadleigh Oblivion strolled out of the crowd to stand before him. He smiled easily at King of Skin, whose eyes narrowed as he drew himself up to his full height. The whole ballroom was utterly still, utterly silent, as everyone watched, fascinated, to see what would happen.

“When are people going to realise that your power is nothing more than skin-deep?” said Hadleigh.

King of Skin flinched as though he’d been hit. I didn’t know what Hadleigh meant, but his opponent clearly did. -The Bride Wore Black Leather

John happens upon a share of the Mirror of Dorian Gray:

And then I almost dropped the shard as I realised what it was I was holding.

“What?” Bettie said excitedly. “What did you See?”

“Temporal energies,” I said. “This mirror shard is soaked in Time, in Time magic. I can actually see inverted tachyons, shooting up and down the broken edges.”

Bettie gave me a hard look, only slightly spoiled by her pouting mouth. “Yes, very nice, darling, very dramatic. But what does that mean?”

“It means, I know what mirror this came from,” I said, pulling a handkerchief from my pocket and carefully wrapping up the vicious-edged shard before tucking it very carefully into my coat pocket. “This is a sliver of glass from the infamous Mirror of Dorian Gray. You must have heard of it. It was up for sale at an auction-house here in the Nightside, not so long ago. Think of it: the mirror that reflected a man soaked in temporal magic. If a crazy magical man stares into you long enough, you become crazy and magical, too. This mirror soaked up Time, leaching the life from anyone who looked into it, and stored it. The perfect murder weapon because who’d ever suspect a mirror. The last I heard, the Mirror of Dorian Gray belonged to the Family of Immortals . . .” -The Bride Wore Black Leather

Further explanation of what it does:

“He said . . . he and his fellow surviving immortals grabbed a few things of value from the Family Vaults, before they escaped,” I said slowly. “I suppose in the haste of getting away from the Droods, they must have dropped the mirror. All Rogue got away with, was a single shard. Still powerful enough to steal someone’s years if you thrust it right into them.”

“A weapon that eats Time,” said Bettie. “The perfect weapon for killing immortals, darling, if you wanted to steal all their years and keep them for yourself. But why would Rogue need more years? He’s already immortal!”

“Good question,” I said. “I must be sure to ask him.” -The Bride Wore Black Leather

The Mirror doesn't work for permanently killing undead immortals, or beings that can be resurrected:

“And the Bride?”

“I didn’t hang around long enough to See it; but since they were both killed with the same weapon, it had to be him again.”

Bettie frowned. “Then why didn’t the mirror shard shrivel her up the way it did King of Skin?”

I thought about it. “Because . . . the Bride was made of dead parts, then brought to life. She only has a human lifetime; but when she dies, she can be brought back again, for another life. Thanks to the Baron’s handiwork, she’s basically . . . rechargeable. Technically immortal, but only one life at a time.” -The Bride Wore Black Leather

I'm including this X-Men film reference because it's too good to pass up.

He laughed in my face, then turned and plunged into the watching crowd. They shrank back with loud cries of alarm, but he was already in among them, his face changing as he flesh-danced. In the space of a moment, he was someone else, and in all the confusion no-one was able to say who he’d changed into. There was a general rush to the door, to get out of the ballroom. Hadleigh stood his ground, and raised one hand. Bolts of lightning stabbed down out of nowhere, striking again and again inside the ballroom, making a barrier between him and everyone else. The light was blinding, and the air stank of ozone. The rush to the door was over as soon as it had begun. Everyone stood very still, looking nervously around them, trying to spot the danger in their midst; but wherever they looked, only familiar faces looked back. Razor Eddie and Dead Boy forced their way through the crowd to join me. I looked at them both carefully.

“Oh come on,” said Dead Boy. “Who’d look like me if they didn’t have to?”

“Tell me something only you could know,” I said.

“All right,” said Dead Boy. “You’re a dick.”

We both laughed. Razor Eddie looked at me strangely.

“We both loved the X-Men movies,” I explained. -The Bride Wore Black Leather

That thing Hadleigh did to the flower? He can do that to people as well, including immortals:

“You can’t send him to Shadow Deep,” said Hadleigh Oblivion.

We all looked round sharply. None of us had heard him arrive, but then no-one ever does.

“Why not?” I said politely.

“Because he’s a flesh-dancer,” said Hadleigh. “He has control over every part of his body. He could probably ooze out of his cell through the cracks around the door. He’s far too dangerous to be allowed to run loose in the Nightside.”

He leaned over the unconscious immortal, grabbed his shirt front, and pulled Rogue’s face close to his own. Hadleigh inhaled deeply, and all the colour went out of Rogue’s face. Hadleigh continued to inhale, and the immortal’s face cracked and fell apart; and then every part of him collapsed into dust. Hadleigh straightened up, brushing dust from his hands. Several of the watching immortals were noisily sick. Dead Boy whooped loudly.

“You have got to teach me how to do that!”

Razor Eddie sighed. “Can’t take him anywhere.” -The Bride Wore Black Leather

The origin of the Sun King, as well as some examples of his powers:

“His real name was Harry Webb. No-one knew much about who or what he was before he came to America and made his way to San Francisco. Another young Englishman, walking across the USA, to see what there was to see. He found his way to Haight-Ashbury, and the counter-culture, and following the path of so many of the questing souls of those glorious days, he turned on, tuned in, and dropped out. We met when we crashed together in the same cheap boarding-house. I liked being among people who’d never heard of me, and we all sat and talked for hours about everything under the sun.

“So far, only another story of times past. But then one day, right at the height of the Summer of Love, Harry Webb went to the park and took what Timothy Leary would call an heroic dose of LSD. His mind expanded and exploded, and in that transcendental state . . . he made mental contact with Entities from Beyond.

“Now, a good many people said they did, while under the influence of the many and various mind-expanding chemicals of the day; but Harry really did. The Entities talked to him of many things, and he listened, and when he finally came down again, he wasn’t Harry Webb any more. He wasn’t human any more. He was transformed, he was transmogrified, he was the Sun King. The living god of LSD, the true Acid Sorcerer, the Miracle Man. Psychedelic rock and roll played around him wherever he went, manifesting out of nowhere—a glorious music that we could never remember or reproduce afterwards. He and his music led us through the streets of San Francisco, like a psychedelic pied piper. Hundreds, thousands strong, our minds blown and expanded by his very presence. We would have followed him anywhere, done anything for him. Lived for him, died for him. Oh yes, I was there, swept up in it all. He was our leader, our prophet, our guru. And all he ever wanted of us was that we should become like him, shine like him. He wanted to raise us all up, into all we’d ever wanted or hoped we could be. A world of turned-on, non-violent superhumans.

“The gentle knights, the lords and ladies of a new Camelot.

“He walked through Haight-Ashbury, and we followed after him, hundreds of thousands strong, singing Hallelujah. He healed the sick with a look, raised up the broken-spirited with just a word, turned on the straights and blasted everyone’s minds into something better. A living god, he walked in sunlight wherever he went, and miracles and wild happenings burst out all around him.

“The local authorities totally freaked out. The cops arrived first, with their uniforms and guns and night-sticks; and the Sun King stopped them in their tracks and stunned them with the truth. Of who they really were, as opposed to who they’d wanted to be. And some of them joined us, and some of them ran away to hide in the shadows, and some of them drew their guns and opened fire. But the Sun King smiled, and their bullets turned into flowers and fell out of the air.

“So they called in reinforcements, and they met us with armoured vans, and bigger guns, and water cannon; but none of them made any difference. The Sun King had no weapons; he was benevolence personified, and the natural world itself rose up to protect him. He . . . made you want to be better, to do better, by example. And through his presence, his example, we were.”

Julien stopped talking, his eyes far-away, lost in the past. I’d never heard him say so much, or speak so eloquently. Or talk about someone else the way most people talked about him. The Great Victorian Adventurer; the crusading editor of the Night Times; the man even his enemies admired.

“What happened?” I said. “What went wrong?”

“He went back to the park,” said Julien Advent. “And he raised up a huge and wonderful White Tower, with nothing more than a wave of his hand. It appeared before us, huge and magical, all complete in a moment, a Tower with no doors or windows. He walked through the wall and disappeared inside the Tower, shutting himself off from the clamour of the world, and his followers, so that he could meditate on what to do next, and commune with the Entities from Beyond. All the people came from far around, in their psychedelic clothes and pretty painted faces, with flowers in their hair and in their hands, and they sat around the Tower in endless ranks, closely packed circles spreading out for as far as the eye could see. All the beautiful people, the flower people, the good and groovy people. And there they sat, talking and singing, waiting patiently. Until the light went out of the day, and night fell over the park, and the White Tower blazed like a beacon. And still they stayed, eating and drinking, laughing and loving, dancing and singing in celebration of what they’d seen and the hope of new wonders to come. For twenty-four hours they waited for the Sun King to come out and lead them to glory.

“And exactly twenty-four hours after he disappeared into the White Tower, the Tower with no doors and no windows . . . after they’d all exhausted themselves and there was no more singing or dancing . . . the Tower disappeared. No-one saw it go. No sound or fury, no great explosions of colour; people looked up, and it wasn’t there any more. No trace to show it had ever been there. Strangely enough, there weren’t any tears or protests, no demands for explanations. Slowly, a few at a time, the people went away. And within a few days, most of them had forgotten about the Sun King, and everyone got on with their lives. The Sun King became another marvellous story from that magical time.” - The Bride Wore Black Leather

Time passed differently in the tower the Sun King was in:

The Sun King shrugged easily. “I never meant to be away so long. I never meant . . . that you should all have to wait so long. For my return. Time passed differently inside the Tower, while I communed with the Entities. They had so much to teach me . . . But Julien, I have to ask. What the hell happened? To the Dream, to everything we believed in? Why did it all fall apart without me? I was only ever the messenger, not the message! I was expecting all of you to take up where I left off and carry on. To make the new and glorious world we promised ourselves.” -The Bride Wore Black Leather

I dunno if this is useful or not yet, but:

“He’s beyond me, John. He always was. I only knew to come here because he told me. And if he could get inside my head that easily, he already knows everything I might plan to do against him.”

“You can’t be sure of that,” I said quickly. “Just because he has access to your thoughts doesn’t mean he has access to your mind. Or your soul. Come on, Julien, give it your best guess. Where should we go next?” -The Bride Wore Black Leather

John can't view the Sun King with his third eye:

“Okay,” I said. “Where do you think he’s gone now?”

“I don’t know. He hasn’t put anything in my head if that’s what you’re thinking. Can’t you find him, with your gift?”

“No,” I said. “I already tried. I can’t even look in his direction. It’s like staring into the sun. The light blinds me.” -The Bride Wore Black Leather

The Sun King claps once and heals/cures a bunch of people with various injuries and illnesses:

The Sun King looked around him, taking his time, taking it all in, the patients and the security people and the new place he’d come to. He shook his head slowly, frowning. And then he clapped his hands, once; and every man, woman, and child in the lobby was completely cured of whatever ailed them. Illness was banished, fading organs were repaired, injuries put right. The lame walked, and the blind could see, and each and every person had an apple in their hand. The lobby was suddenly full of whoops and cheers, tears and laughter and celebration. Patients danced with each other, and the security people lowered their guns, smiling foolishly. And the Sun King stood there, in the middle of it all, enjoying every moment of it. -The Bride Wore Black Leather

Apparently this same clap also killed several vampires, inhumans, and a bunch of people who were just really ugly:

“You have no more patients,” the Sun King said gently. “I cured them all. My gift to you.”

“Even the ones in Ward 12A?” said Princess Starshine.

“The unfortunates and the untouchables? The abducted and distorted? Oh yes, my princess, those most of all. There but for the grace of the Entities from Beyond, go I.” He paused, frowning slightly. “Well, when I say I cured everyone, obviously I didn’t include the vampires. Or any of the other inhuman scum. Or any of the really ugly people. No. I killed all of those.”

“What?” The princess looked at him shocked. “You killed . . . ? Who gave you the right . . . ?”

“I did!” said the Sun King. “Only the beautiful people belong in the marvellous new world we shall make.” -The Bride Wore Black Leather

The Sun King restores a sixty-something woman's youth:

He pulled his hand out of hers. She sighed and almost fell, as though some basic strength had been taken away from her. The Sun King dropped both hands onto her thin, bony shoulders, and he shook her, once. Dr. Benway cried out, in shock rather than pain, and all the years fell away from her. The Sun King laughed, took his hands away from her, and stood back to look at what he’d done. The whole lobby looked on in silent and respectful awe, at the beautiful young woman standing where Dr. Benway had been. Long blonde hair fell down around a flawless face, and Princess Starshine held up her hands and looked at them. Young hands, without a mark on them. She brought her hands to her face, and cried out again, at the untouched skin her fingers found. Someone in the crowd stepped forward and humbly presented her with a mirror. The princess looked at her young face with something like shock, as though she was looking at someone she only vaguely remembered. Someone she hadn’t seen in a long time. Her beautiful young face was full of awe and wonder. She lowered the mirror and looked at the Sun King with clear blue eyes; and he bowed to her without a hint of mockery.

“Welcome back, my Emily. My Princess Starshine, and my one true love. Welcome . . . all the way back. I am the Miracle Man, once again. Walk with me, as we did before in that far-off land, and embrace your power again. The living god and his living goddess, come to put the world to right.” -The Bride Wore Black Leather

...And then he ages her again:

The Sun King looked down on her, his face cold and disappointed. “You always did think too small, Emily.”

He waved his hand tiredly, and Dr. Benway was old again. She cried out once, as the years weighed down on her again, then she turned away from the Sun King, bent and withered with the renewed burden of age. She started to raise the mirror to look into it again, but she couldn’t do it. She let the mirror go, and it fell to the floor, and broke. -The Bride Wore Black Leather

For all his power, the Sun King is still physically the same tier as every other named human character in the setting:

“I’ll kill you!” screamed the Sun King, staggering blindly back and forth. “I’ll kill you all!”

“So much for peace and love,” said Julien. “It’s always sad, to see an old dream die.”

He stepped forward and booted the Sun King square in the groin. He put all his strength and weight into it, and the force of the kick actually lifted the Sun King right off the ground for a moment. He tried to scream, but the pain blocked his throat. He fell to his knees, all the strength and all of his breath knocked right out of him. He bent forward over his pain, air rattling in his constricted throat, tears streaming down his face from puffy, squeezed-shut eyes. He didn’t look like a living god any more. -The Bride Wore Black Leather

The Sun King can fill people with more power than they can contain:

“Don’t you laugh at me. Don’t you dare laugh at me! You wanted the power. Have it!”

The Sun King stabbed one hand at Julien, and a fierce light erupted out of his fingertips, hitting Julien in the chest like a lightning bolt. He cried out and staggered backwards, then the same terrible light blasted out of his eyes. Julien howled horribly, clutching at his face, and the light blazed right through his hands, outlining the bones within like an X-ray. The light shone out of Julien’s face, and out of his hands, and from his chest. He fell to his knees. He seemed to catch on fire from the light, blue flames bursting out all over him without burning or consuming him. His whole body shook and shuddered, as though he might explode at any moment.

Patients and security people scattered away from him, screaming and shouting. I had to fight my way through the press of bodies to get to Julien. There was no heat from the blue flames, only the terrible light blazing out of him. The Sun King laughed breathlessly. He was still holding himself as though something inside was broken, but his eyes had cleared, full of an awful laughter.

“He’s too small a thing to hold the power I gave him. He can’t control it, he can’t even hold on to it. Any minute now, the power will break loose and destroy this whole building and everyone in it. And that’s what you get, for mouthing off to a living god.” He looked at me, and sniggered. “Of course, you can stop all this, John Taylor. I left you a way out; because I am a kind and considerate living god. You can stop this; save everyone in the hospital. All you have to do is kill him. Kill your friend, kill the legendary Great Victorian Adventurer, and the power will return to me. But you’d better do it quickly, while there’s still time!”

He disappeared, still laughing. -The Bride Wore Black Leather

The Sun King makes the entire Nightside see what he wants them to:

And I went running, with horror at my heels.

•  •  •

Everywhere I went, people stopped to scream abuse at me. They threw stones and worse things. Some had guns, some had spells. I ran and dodged and ducked, trying desperately to work out where best to go, to hide from the whole damned Nightside. The word was out, to this side and that and sometimes even ahead of me. I’d been on the run before, back in my younger days, for various reasons, good and bad, but never anything like this. Julien Advent was a much loved and admired figure in the Nightside, far more than I ever was. I’d always thought it more important to be feared; and now my reputation was catching up with me, big-time.

I didn’t dare use my Portable Timeslip. Far too easy to track something that powerful. So I ran.

Why the hell had Benway called me a murderer? She was right there, she saw what was happening, she had to know why I did it. Unless . . . the Sun King was messing with her head. Making her see what he wanted her to see. I grinned savagely as I ran, a humourless snarl that had people falling back before me and hurrying to get out of my way. Things were finally starting to make sense. The Sun King was responsible for everything that was happening to me now, to keep me occupied, too busy trying to stay alive to stop him doing what he planned. That was why everyone was so ready to abuse and attack and pursue me, when normally most of them would have kept their heads down and concentrated on their own business.  -The Bride Wore Black Leather

The power of Razor Eddie's razor is unaffected by defensive magic specifically made to nullify such things:

I got up from the headstone, unhurriedly, and waited for him to come to me. I can honestly say it never even occurred to me to run, to use my gift to get away, even though that would have been the sane thing to do. He stopped at the very edge of the gravel path and stared at me as though he’d never seen me before. He hefted the shining razor; and it occurred to me that the razor’s magics shouldn’t work here, in the face of so many defensive magics. Instead, it glared more fiercely than I’d ever seen before. Fuelled by the rage of the god who held it. -The Bride Wore Black Leather

Eddie steps directly on a landmine and is completely untouched by the explosion:

I stepped deliberately off the gravel path, into and among the graves, daring Eddie to follow. I could See the hidden dangers, but he couldn’t, for all his Punk Godness. He didn’t even hesitate. He stepped off the gravel path and straight onto a land mine.

The explosion was deafeningly loud on the quiet, and a great cloud of pulverised stone and earth filled the air. Bits of gravel rained down like shrapnel. And Razor Eddie came walking forward out of the dust cloud, like a wolf out of hiding. Untouched and unscathed, like the murderous force he was. -The Bride Wore Black Leather

After John calls back a manifestation of the Hawk's Wind Bar & Grill, John learns that the Entities from Beyond removed it from Time and Space:

So I had no choice but to raise my gift again. It didn’t come easily. It was like lifting a dead weight, then forcing it to do tricks. But I made it work, through sheer will-power, and reached out with my gift to find the Hawk’s Wind Bar & Grille and call it back.

It really was only a ghost, this time. A grey, semi-transparent shape, its colours a faded memory, with transparent walls, through which could be seen dark human figures, standing or sitting at tables, very still. All the people trapped inside when the Bar was forced out of Time and Space. It was a very tenuous, very flimsy manifestation; but it was quite definitely there, right in front of me. I could sense its presence, feel its living, conscious thoughts . . . but I couldn’t understand them. The Bar might be a sentient thing, but it wasn’t in any way human. How the hell was I going to get any answers out of it?”

I turned to Dennis, but he was already shaking his head. “Wery sorry, Mr. Taylor, but I only work with deceased peoples.”

“Try!” I said, very coldly. “Because every damned soul in the Nightside is depending on us, right now, and if we screw this up . . .”

And then I stopped, as one of the dark figures inside the ghostly Bar rose abruptly from its table, then walked slowly through the Bar to the front door. None of the other figures moved, or even acknowledged it. The front door opened of its own accord, and the dark figure stood there, in the doorway. It looked at me. A cold hand took hold of my heart, and squeezed it tight. I knew that face. I hadn’t known Julien Advent back in the sixties, but he hadn’t changed at all. I wasn’t even born then, but he looked exactly the same. He spoke to me; but it was the voice and words of the Hawk’s Wind, speaking through the sixties incarnation of the Great Victorian Adventurer.

I could tell.

“The Sun King didn’t remove me from this reality,” said the Bar, through Julien’s mouth. “The Entities from Beyond did it.”

“The Aquarians?” I said. My mouth was very dry.

“That’s not their name. They removed me from the world because I’m the only part of the Nightside that the Sun King cares about. He went along with it because the Entities said it was important to remove the people held within me; but they lied.” -The Bride Wore Black Leather