The top floor of Brockton Central Bank was quiet. I'd had to find an open window to warp inside, which landed me in a janitor's closet.
I had been expecting some big fancy office, I won't lie. Seeing brooms and a vacuum instead of some overpriced couch with overpriced shitty art above it was jarring. Where was the overly-large desk? The chair that was compensating for something?
Bankers were supposed to fill a stereotype. But I supposed that giving as little space as possible to the cleaning staff fit. I'd find the offices later.
Anyway, the floor was quiet. Not silent – there were heaters humming. But too quiet for the executive floor of the largest bank in Brockton Bay. Surely one secretary would be typing something or fielding a phone call.
My mental map told me there wasn't anyone on this floor. Which made sense, but still. The space felt… like it should feel different.
Brockton Central was the largest bank in the city, connected to the largest bank in the state. Even though banks had (apparently) gotten way stingier, growing up in Brockton Bay meant hearing people complain about not getting loans anyway. Gangs here had exasperated what Endbringers had started all over the world.
One of the few things on the news I remembered in the time after Mom died was Earth Aleph's global financial crisis. In hindsight, it was hilarious. Banks lending too much? Well, just import some Endbringers. Let them attack a city every month and soon enough even normal mortgages are a nightmare to get. That and technology research were the two things dad complained about whenever the economy was discussed on the news. Aleph designed smartphones and pumped out an endless supply of movies and music. Here on Earth Bet, we got very good at bunker construction and emergency supply logistics.
I shook myself out of my funk and stopped staring at the screen showing real-time stock market trends. No one was on this floor. Get a move on, Taylor!
"Floor 6 empty." I let go of the mic toggle. Aegis replied that nothing obvious had changed in the lobby. Not that they could see anything inside.
Avoiding the elevator, I warped past the fire escape doors – which felt like squeezing – and warped down the stairs instead of walking. I didn't want to make any noisy echoes in the quiet.
My mental map showed one static person-shape in an office. Nothing on the rest of the floor. I warped down another two flights of stairs to check floor 4. While I was focusing my footsteps and mental map, I quickly ran through ideas for what to do if I ran into one of the Undersiders.
Since Grue's power blocked my mental map, removing my mobility, I'd probably have the most trouble with him. If I ran into Grue, I should warp out and call for backup. Glory Girl or Aegis might be able to catch him if I pointed where the static was in his darkness.
Regent seemed the easiest. He could disrupt me, but taking him by surprise – from behind for example – would be simple.
Hellhound's dogs would be a problem. I'd seen blurry photos of them while researching in the past weeks. (Console duty was boring 90% of the time.) Still, as long as I warped around them and got the master, I should be okay. The dogs should stop without their controller.
Teleporting made PRT doctrine on taking out most non-brutes surprisingly simple.
The last member of the Undersiders was Tattletale. The PRT thought she was a thinker, so taking her out first would deprive them of information. Whatever information her power dealt with. I hoped she wasn't precognitive. That would explain how the Undersiders had escaped every single encounter they'd dealt with before. But Vista's idea about secrets sounded likely.
Also, fun fact, a lot of capes named themselves after their power. And thinkers were stereotypically arrogant enough to think they were being clever.
Floor 4 came up empty on my mental map, so I warped back up to 5 and into the corridor. Reporting movements to the team, of course. Ignoring the weird sensation of warping through (around? under?) a door, I stepped towards the occupied office.
The door was open, and my mental map showed the static-person typing on a computer. Maybe someone had been in the bathroom and was just really oblivious. I'd learned from the Merchants encounter though. Scouting should be thorough. I peeked round the doorframe.
"Hey, come in!" Tattletale said.
I stared, dumbfounded.
The supervillain was just sitting there. Typing on someone's computer, scribbling on a post-it note, then typing more. Dark-blonde hair hanging over her shoulders and around her face, which was partly covered by a black domino mask. She was wearing a skin-tight lavender bodysuit with some black lines on the front and arms that were mostly obscured by the large monitor on the fancy desk between us.
"Hey, new Ward, just standing and staring is rude. Come in or go tell on me to the teachers." A smirk best described as fox-like – vulpine, my Mom's voice reminded me in her 'uni professor' tone. Tattletale still hadn't looked up from the computer, fingers darting across the keyboard and eyes flicking across the screen.
My hand fell to Kid Win's old taser as I stepped into the office. The room was fancy, decorated in a way that tried to be minimalist but splurged on a few opulent details. My blood buzzed as I halted just past the doorway, ready to pause or warp away at a moment's notice.
Tattletale still hadn't looked up from the computer. Her typing hadn't slowed either. I stared as she switched out a USB. A supervillain, sitting in an expensive office, and not monologuing?
I felt like she should be doing something. Hell, I should be doing something!
A twitch of my jaw to toggle the mic made Tattletale hold up a walkie-talkie – finger over a button. "I said come in or tell on me." She finally looked up. "Can't have your cake and eat it too." The grin was now accompanied by bottle-glass green eyes that mocked me. "How about we have a little chat, huh? Get to know each other before getting too aggressive." She was still typing, eyes flicking back to the screen. "Sound good?"
My mind raced. This was an opportunity for intel. We knew the least about Tattletale, so anything I could learn here would help my team fight the rest of the Undersiders. And if I kept her occupied – or even captured her! – then the fight as the Undersiders tried to leave would be a walk in the park. We would gain information, and the Undersiders would lose it. And a member.
I toggled my mic off and Tattletale – staring at my face – set her radio on the table next to the computer's weirdly-shaped ergonomic mouse.
"Tattletale, you are under arrest for bank robbery, destruction of property, and numerous acts of larceny and theft. If you surrender, it will reflect positively on –"
Tattletale was laughing. My palms registered pain from my nails pressing too hard into the skin. I took a step forward but she held up a hand – I paused – to wave me off. I unpaused and grabbed the taser on my thigh. She wasn't a blaster but I should be ready for anything.
"Sorry, just, wow. Actually, no. Not sorry!" She stopped pretending to wipe her eyes. "You really shouldn't believe the stuff they teach you in hero school. Not very useful in the real world." The vulpine grin came back. "Oh, stop sneering. You don't have the moral high ground here, Ms Merchant Mutilator."
I had to consciously stop myself from stepping back. How did she know – thinker. That was her game. It seems Vista was right. She knew secrets.
"Moral high ground? You're a villain." I started focusing on my mental map and biology sense. Gallant had said that sometimes I make the thinker part of his power weird when I was splitting my focus. I also checked the rest of the Wards, who were a mix of [waiting], [ready], [wondering], and [impatient].
"Ah yes, I'm a villain. The robber to your cop. The 'bad guy' in the game our world is playing." I heard the finger quotes, the mockery in her dismissive tone. She jotted something down on another post-it, then started ejecting a number of USBs. "Did you know that I've never physically hurt someone? I have lines I won't cross." I scoffed. Like she wouldn't cross any line if she had to. Tattletale's smirk grew. "I don't hurt people. But you do."
Okay, fuck Tattletale. Maybe she would need a gag when I bundled her into the back of a PRT van.
"Sorry honey, I'm not into that." Tattletale's voice dripped with toxic sweetness.
What? Oh she meant – no! I wasn't going to roleplay some – this was a bank robbery!!!
"Not into that either, but I'm sure you'll find your person." My back teeth ground together at her infuriating smirk. The only thing stopping me from tasing (or punching) her in the face was my shock at her insinuation. Her smug expression told me she knew it.
I upped my glare from 'death' to 'burn in hell'.
"Besides, hero school should really teach you that evidence is needed to determine guilt. Which means…" She clicked a few things then hit enter triumphantly. "The worst crime I've committed today is trespassing!"
Tattletale had been stalling. And I'd let her… delete evidence of whatever she was doing? Of whatever she'd just done? Didn't matter, I'd waited too long – exactly what I'd promised myself not to do.
I needed to distract her and warp behind.
"Why trespass here and not the bank vault then? What's the point of being a villain if not for money?" I watched her carefully, trying to feel the best spot between her and the back bookshelf wall to warp to.
"Oh, that's simple," Tattletale smirked, lowering her hands and spinning the chair to sit sideways. "Everyone wants power, but money –"
I warped behind her then spun from the bookshelf, drawing my taser –
– and getting hit by the chair she'd shoved backwards.
I kicked the over-engineered chair back towards the table then turned and – fuck – paused.
Tattletale was standing at the edge of the desk, a pistol in her hand. Pointed at my face. The dark hole in the barrel suddenly felt more ominous than Grue's darkness ever could.
"As I was sayingggg, money isn't power." The mocking drag to her words hadn't changed but her green eyes were hard. "Which your power is an example of, all by itself." Her stare suddenly intensified, eyes flicking over my body. "See, no amount of money can make you a parahuman. Each of our powers are unique. I read minds, and you…" Tattletale's grin widened. I felt a sinking feeling. "You, Seneschal, have secrets. Because you aren't just a teleporter, are you?"
I stayed paused, eyes focused on where the dull metal barrel of Tattletale's pistol was pointing at me. (At my head.) The supervillain stepped around the desk, reversing our original positions. Then kept talking while placing USBs and post-it notes into pouches of a utility belt slung across her hips.
"Oh, you've got a breaker and a mover power. Time-based, and… hah, spatial displacement teleportation…" She started laughing again. Still staring at me with those mocking eyes.
Being paused meant I was safe. But I was also unable to move. Unable to focus back on the mission because Tattletale was just like Emma. A pretty girl, acting friendly, then revealing my secrets and laughing in my face.
"You're a trump. Getting powers from the other Wards. That's a pretty juicy secret, you know."
The feeling of being paused too long started poking at my attention.
"I think we should make a deal. Power to power. You've got a lot of secrets, and I bet –"
I was done with Tattletale. In the split second between me unpausing and warping, I saw her face blanch. Which made the satisfaction of driving my taser into her side even better.
Except, instead of collapsing, she just gasped and stumbled. Despite my knowledge of Kid Win's tech, I checked the power level – yup, set to knock a normal human unconscious. I glanced back up to find Tattletale pressing her back against a wall, pointing that pistol at me again.
I was getting annoyed by not being able to move while invulnerable to gunshots.
"You think I wouldn't guard against tasers with Regent on my team?"
Okay, I was getting pretty done with Tattletale's damn smirk.
"But ultimatum: You've got secrets, I know them. I won't reveal your real power if you let me go."
NOPE. I'd spent too much of this encounter not acting.
I unpaused and warped – out into the corridor. To position myself and warp back on Tattletale's right side. PRT training taught me that its basically impossible to aim a weapon at someone at your weapon-hand's shoulder. They were right.
Then Tattletale taught me that tasing someone in that shoulder can make them drop their weapon.
I kicked her in the leg, then warped and put my foot on the gun. "You can tell all the tales you want inside a cell." I said, charging the taser again.
Her eyes widened and her smirk froze. A month of sensing my own biology let me notice the stiffness and in her right arm. She was still feeling the taser (good). Her costume wasn't completely insulated then. Good – that was the good thing.
"So that's it, huh? Petty schoolyard tactics. You don't like me, you want control, so you get me alone at lunchtime and beat me up?" Her voice was teasing, hinting. Pretending not to be dark.
I narrowed my eyes. She was trying to get under my skin. But she was a villain. I was a hero. This didn't matter because I was going to arrest her.
"Yeah, that's right. Crowd me into a corner and kick me while I'm down." Smirking, eyes expectant. Like she was still judging me. Laughing at me.
Tattletale had to be the most annoying villain in the city. Or the country. Maybe if the taser hit skin she'd finally fall unconscious.
"See, I really think you wanted to be a hero. Good intentions. You're not the only one, you know?"
Even if Tattletale donated everything she robbed to charity, I was still going to–
"Shadow Stalker thought she was a hero."
I growled. She was still stalling!
I needed her unconscious. Warp beside her, tase her in the shoulder again, then in the hand once she–
"Didn't they teach you not to talk to the thinker at hero school?"
Fuck safety training. I was tasing her in the head.
"Resorting to physical violence –"
I warped next to her, tased her shoulder again. Hearing her choke on her words felt good. She hunched down, hiding against the wall. I charged the taser and–
"–r-real bully behaviour." Horror crawled up my spine – no, no I was a…
"You're n-not a hero, j-just someone looking to h-hurt people and be right."
She'd croaked the words out. Fighting her throat to speak. I remember doing that myself after Sophia punched me in the gut too hard.
(I wasn't a…)
I stood there as Tattletale groaned and straightened up. "I watched your introduction speech, you know?" Her voice was still a little hoarse, but the tone of triumph was unmissable. I wanted to be angry again. It would be easier than… this.
(I didn't want to hurt people, it was just about protecting… my city?) (It wasn't just about protecting myself… was it?)
I could have arrested her immediately. I could arrest her now. As soon as I'd realised she was a villain and not some oblivious shmuck I could have tased and zip-cuffed her. But I'd… (attacked like an animal – like some feral thing beaten too many times with a stick – but words hurt more than stones and…)
I hadn't even realised I was angry.
"The whole speech was obviously written for you. Propaganda through and through. But your one bit of honesty? Your single moment of actually standing for what you believe in? Well, I thought you meant it. If your whole 'not being a bystander' thing is just an excuse to beat people up, then save it for the gangs. The Undersiders are robbing a bank that's fully insured. No one will actually lose any money. We're not even hurting anyone. You want the 'bullies of this city'? Go punch some gang members." She tilted her head. "Cause putting people in hospital isn't very heroic."
I felt numb. And empty. But the empty was a tornado, shredding my self-accomplishment to pieces.
Tattletale dropped the smirk. "Come after me or the Undersiders too hard? Then everyone will know that you're more than just a teleporter."
I watched her as she walked back to the desk and clicked a button on the walkie-talkie. "Hey A, tell Grue I'm coming back down now. If he starts complaining, you can wait near the elevator for me."
Her voice had changed completely. No mocking, no dismissive laughter, no targeted cruelty. She sounded professional and… reassuring.
I… fuck. I hated that she could sound nice. She was a villain, she was supposed to be evil. She was evil. She'd just torn me apart.
Tattletale couldn't sound nice.
But what she'd said. (Had I needed the wake up call?( (No, I was fine.) (The Merchants were an accident.)
Just before… I had been acting… (like Sophia) too aggressive. I'd been angry. I was still angry! FUCK TATTLETALE!!
But I wasn't going to be a bully. I had to be a hero. A real one. Not someone who just beat people up with the government's permission.
Tattletale looked up at me, green eyes and vulpine smirk taunting. I was going to let her go. And she knew it.
"Even if you didn't start a war, you're still a stain on my city." I couldn't tell if my words were more furious or weary.
"Awh, but I prefer to think of myself as a beauty spot." Tattletale's momentary niceness was definitely gone. If I hadn't seen it I wouldn't have believed it.
The villain straightened from the desk and walked around the edge of the room. She waved, barely a waggle of her fingers, from the door. "Ta ta!"
Furious or weary, I just wanted her to stop. (Her voice kept echoing in my head saying things that weren't true.)
Maybe that was why I let her walk down the corridor. Maybe that was why I warped into the corridor after her instead of reporting back to my team. Maybe that was why I watched her watch me as she waited for the lift.
I stood watching her, still numb (empty) (filled with sharp things that cut at my lungs), in the fancy bank corridor.
The lift doors opened, and she stepped inside. Gone from my vision, but still a static shape on my mental map.
I was going to let her go. I already had. But… Maybe I could get more information. Salvage this. (Make hearing her words fucking worth… something.)
Regardless, my map showed me relative distances on the top of the lift. I warped. The elevator shaft was dirty. Unseen. Forgotten by everyone in their normal working lives. We started moving down and, well, there's a lot more vertigo when you can see the walls rushing past.
I didn't have the effort to make some metaphor between this space and my current mood (or life).
But then Tattletale started speaking into her radio.
"So the gangs started the war today." "No I didn't know before." "If I knew I would have called this off – Of course I didn't fucking plan this! We only had two days!" "Look, the Wards are outside – Yes! All of them!" "I was told the heroes would be busy today, okay? I didn't know how or why and I didn't question it because I was trying to make this safe for all of us!" This time the crackled radio reply was audibly angry.
"It's not my fault the Boss threatened your – fine!" "Just, ugh, tell the kid to meet me at the lift. You're probably freaking him out." Tattletale swore and clipped the radio back to her belt.
Oh.
My head spun. The Undersiders hadn't known about the gang war. And this heist had been… rushed? Grue was being threatened somehow? And the Undersiders had a boss.
This was… an opportunity. (Worthwhile.) (Purposeful – like years of being beaten down hadn't been.)
Letting Tattletale go had served a purpose. Information gathering. She'd told me my secrets – manipulated me. But I had some of the Undersiders' secrets now too.
She wouldn't – she couldn't – hold things over my head anymore. I had leverage too. Mutually assured destruction, right?
I was jolted, physically, from my suddenly racing thoughts when the lift slowed. It really doesn't feel as smooth when you can see the brakes and the cables.
The lift doors opened to reveal a static-person waiting on the other side
A boy's voice asked something in a language I couldn't understand.
"Hey, hey." A pause. "You're not bad. Even if the heroes are outside – even if we do fight them, you're being good, right? Protecting your family. Remember, what's important?" Her voice was nice again.
"That's right." I couldn't understand what the boy had said but apparently Tattletale could. "Big man of the house, getting money to help your family against the ABB. You do this, you're safe. They're safe."
The boy's voice was firmer now.
"Exactly. The TV might call you a villain, but they don't know the truth. You're protecting your family."
A short response, energised. Purposeful. How had Tattletale twisted this… kid to villainy?
"Alright, go back to Grue – or Regent – and tell them I'm staying here to call the Boss. Just to get some answers, okay?" A static arm reached out to the smaller static-person's top half. The smaller person turned around and walked out into the bank lobby – which was still mostly nothing patches thanks to Grue's darkness.
Tattletale's static-arm reached out again and pressed a button. The lift doors closed.
"You heard all that?" I held my breath. "Yeah, you did." Tattletale chuckled. "We may be robbing a bank, but the heroes really have other things to worry about. Like war." (The heroes. Was I even one of them?)
Other things to worry about. Maybe Tattletale should worry about other things.
"He's only 13, you know? ABB thugs knocked in his front door and were going to take his mother and sisters cause the family didn't earn enough to pay protection and eat."
Oh. He was a kid. Two years younger than me, I guess. But… no he was a child. And the gangs (bullies) had taken from him. Now he could fight back and…
I got it. I hated that I got it. But that was him. Tattletale might have her own reason, but she'd been a villain for a while. Never tried not to be. Was on a team with a murderer.
"How about you just let us escape, huh?" Her voice was still teasing, but… inauthentic. She wasn't trying very hard.
She and I both knew her free pass was over.
Tattletale didn't call anyone. Just opened the lift doors and walked out.
I warped back up, stretching, squeezing, onto the fifth floor. That much of a distance, plus the lift door, had been another squeezed feeling, but I hadn't seen any of the other floors and my mental map didn't expand much in enclosed spaces.
Walking back to the janitor's closet, I smiled (tried to). Tattletale hadn't escaped freely. I knew about the Undersider's fifth member. My mission had been to scout, and that had been successful. Information, gathered. Secrets… traded.
I kept smiling (trying to) as I warped into the closet, then back down to a nearby roof.
I looked up at the clouds blowing in from the bay and kept smiling (it felt fake). We were going to capture the Undersiders.
"Seneschal to Wards. I'm coming back. And I managed to learn some things."
[Author's Note: So this is one of the chapters I (rightly) got some criticism for about giving out idiot balls and shoehorning plot - feel free to suggest how I could fix it up and maybe I'll rewrite it one day but for now you'll just have to deal with something I wrote nearly 2 years ago.]
[Feedback is very appreciated, so pick this apart if you want to haha]
"Alright. Okay." Aegis was feeling slightly [concerned]. All of the Wards were.
I'd reported my encounter with Tattletale over comms. Standing on the office building roof, facing away from the open window I'd used to enter the bank.
It had gotten overcast while I was inside. I couldn't decide if Brockton Central Bank's gargoyles were crying or laughing at the sun hiding away.
"So, the Undersiders have a fifth member and Tattletale was using a manager's computer. Did you, ah… learn anything about her power?" He didn't have to be hesitant around me. I could take it. I was tough. I'd faced worse.
"Yeah. No. Maybe." I contrasted the visual appearance of the gargoyles with how they 'looked' from the relative distances on my mental map. "Don't know how it works, but she knew more than she should. She knows we're all here. And she knows my real power. Claimed to read minds."
That gargoyle was missing an ear. I couldn't see it with my eyes, but the distances of the break looked like it had broken it off. Lightning? Or old damage from a cape battle? Did it matter? (Was I desperately finding anything to distract myself with?)
"Alright. Let's go with social thinker then. And change the plan, just in case." Aegis paused. I waited. He was still [worried], but [prioritising]. Good. (My nails were digging into my palm.) We needed to… act. Heroically. (Not angrily.)
The other Wards had been on the team for a while. They'd know how to act heroically. Especially Aegis – he was the leader. Or Vista – she was experienced.
They'd have known what to do when facing Tattletale. They would have acted. Not gotten angry. Not made a mistake. Not revealed their secrets. Not… Not… (Not gotten curious and not been played like a fiddle.) Not…
"Seneschal?"
"Mm." My mental map was interesting but so was the emotions of the Wards but they were [worried] so I focused on how my lungs were adjusting to the faster-than-normal movements of my diaphragm so I still had the necessary oxygen levels.
"You okay?"
Oh.
Oh. My lungs slowed their expansion and contraction.
Was that why they were worried? That was… nice. Of them – my team. I… was trying not to remember Winslow when people (pretty popular girls) were mean to me but nice to others.
Trying not to think about that. But Tattletale had shoved a dagger through my heroism. One of those serrated military ones. Designed to make someone bleed – going in or out.
"Just thinking." Which was true. But the Wards – my team – grew a little more [worried]. No, we needed to focus. That was what I was doing. Focusing. On… the bank heist. (Self-analysis later, Taylor, come on!)
"You didn't get any hint at the newsider's power?" I felt some of my team resist the urge to facepalm at the nickname Clockblocker kept using for the fifth Undersider. (I shut my eyes and unclenched my fists.) The other groans that sounded over comms made me feel just a little more connected.
"No hints. Just hope it's not another shaker." Fighting the Undersiders would be simple – if you could fight them. They were apparently escape artists through and through. We had to prepare. "What's the new plan?"
"Well, we're trying to hem them in regardless. We'll try to take them all out as quickly as possible, so anyone getting close, be on guard for anything." Aegis sounded collected, reasoned, confident. "You should focus on Grue, Seneschal. If he pops up, take him down. Otherwise… hang back. Keep watch and help if anyone needs it."
I hated this new version of the plan. Not just because my role was backup. Backup meant waiting, meant standing by. (Meant… avoiding the fight I wasn't sure if I trusted myself in.)
I hated the plan because we didn't know what the Undersiders were going to do. Not having information meant walking into traps. Into ambushes. Into danger. (Into evil grins in Winslow corridors.) (Into a supervillain in a fancy office.)
"Come join me and Vicky! We're like three rooves away from the bank!" Vista. My friend. [Friend]. Who was [excited] and [ready] and a little [caring]. I could feel two static shapes across the street and… three rooves away from the bank entrance.
I warped across rooftops.
"Hey." I said, after appearing next to Vista. She got a little [startled] but didn't show it, only looking at me with pursed lips and [careconcernuncertainty]. I let out a breath and shrugged at her. She was my [friend], but I wanted to think about something else.
During this, Glory Girl had literally jumped into the air and turned, hovering a few feet above the roof. Fists raised.
She looked so strong. Regal. An angel about to descend and smite evil from the earth. Statuesque – as beautiful and implacable as marble. I was awed. Vista was [awed]. The being of might and grace and power looked at me and I felt myself straightening to show this majestic woman that I was worthy of her gaze. I waited eagerly as she opened her mouth to say: "Oh you're a teleporter. Right. Sorry."
Vista was no longer [awed]. Glory Girl was no longer an angel. Just a flying girl, relaxing from a fighting stance that looked weird in mid-air.
Aura. Glory Girl had an aura. That made people respect her or fear her. I…
I shook my head, hoping the dark feeling of violation would lose its grip and fall out. But Tattletale's verbal knife was serrated (I'd already been messed with today). I pushed it aside and focused on the mission. And my mental map and the Wards emotions and my biology which was readjusting from the… huh. Her aura stimulated… neurotransmitters? I had no clue which ones – I could guess which veins and nerves were doing things but brains? Hah, nope.
"Hey, so I'm Glory Girl. You teleported off before, which is pretty cool," she smiled wide and open, "tell me how that works!"
I looked at Vista. She turned back to me, then titled her head in [confusion]. Ugh. I mouthed 'does she know' then tapped my head. Then tapped the taser Kid Win had re-given me. And she [got it].
"Hey, did Gallant tell you anything about Seneschal?" No Missy-Vista! You can't just ask things! She'll mock y–
"Well, I know what happened with the Merchants," her voice had soured, but picked back up, "and you didn't break Squealer's truck by just teleporting."
Maybe Glory Girl wouldn't mock her. They were friends – had nicknames – after all. Good. Missy didn't deserve to go through (betrayal) that.
But did I trust Glory Girl? Victoria Dallon? Someone who'd enthusiastically welcomed me to Arcadia then never talked to me again?
I didn't know. On one hand, my secrets were already on the table. On the other hand, that table was Tattletale's and I hadn't given them willingly.
"How does your power work?" My question was academic. Driven by curiosity about another parahuman whose power I couldn't relate to (curiosity about whether she'd trust me first).
"Right. Ah… okay! So everyone knows about the flight, of course. I think I'm the fastest flyer in the bay – maybe Purity is faster but I'm not going to have a friendly race with a Nazi. Ex-nazi? Nazi but not in the Nazi gang nazi?" I blinked. My clenched hands slowly relaxed as she kept rambling. "And flying is the coolest thing ever. According to Crystal – that's Laserdream by the way – I can do corners faster too." I had to lessen focus on my biology to keep track of the rapid explanation.
"Don't know why my flight is better. But my forcefield is the interesting bit! See, I'm not actually invulnerable like Alexandria." Oh. She was trusting me. Oh. "If I get hit hard enough it, like, has to recharge. But it comes back quickly, which is still basic invincibility!" Sounded a lot better than the power I got through Clockblocker. At least she could be safe and move. (And fly – I'd always wanted to fly. To be a real hero that saved people and wasn't some angry vicious–)
"But it's kind of permeable. Selectively, I mean. Like I dove into the bay on purpose one time and came back dry. Not a single drop touched me. But showers still work, so I think it's some unconscious danger sense. I've tried testing it out further and I can allow things to touch me if I think about it. But otherwise," she put her hands together, not quite touching, "forcefield."
I had to admit, I was impressed. The only Ward who'd thought about their power that much before I came along was Vista. And Kid Win, but he was less thinking and more getting distracted by projects he hadn't been able to finish before. So, Glory Girl wasn't a blonde stereotype. That gave us better odds against the Undersiders. And explained why all the other Wards liked her.
"What about your aura?" Had she not mentioned it on purpose? Opened up about everything else to distract me?
"Oh yeah, that makes people awed or terrified. Not a wide effect, but really useful against normal gangers, you know?" I was suddenly reminded that this was the second real thing I'd done as a hero. Glory Girl had had powers for years. And could go patrol whenever she liked. Her and Vista had experience. I was just a newbie. (And I'd already made mistakes – again.)
"Actually," Glory Girl went on, "I've found that there are a lot of different reactions to fear. Like some people freeze, some people run, and some of the worst gangers attack. Like, you're scared and you attack?" She snorted. "I'm invincible, idiot – good job breaking your hand."
Hadn't she just said that she wasn't invincible?
"So, even if you don't say anything else, how does your teleport work?" Glory Girl had never actually come down from the air and had transitioned into a sitting pose, occasionally swinging her legs.
I described my warping as spatial displacement then had to go into more detail about my mental map. Except I did that all absentmindedly, shifting my main focus to my understanding of nearby relative distances to 'look' at the battlefield.
Vista still had her 'bridge of doom' in front of the bank. A spindly stretch of tarmac that turned down on either side, two massive pits separated by a thin wall acting as a bridge people were supposed to walk atop.
Aegis was with Gallant. And Clockblocker, who by now had laid out his paper barricade. A4 sheets hung in the air some overlapping, some with gaps, but forming a wall of time-frozen paper. The world's strongest and most temporary palisade. He'd even added crenelations to the top. Clockblocker's static-shape walked back and forth along the fort, brushing fingers over the paper to renew the time on his creation.
Kid Win was in the air now. And utilising his new Switch Suit. He'd gotten the approval at the start of the week and shown it off then (and immediately had more ideas for upgrades), but seeing it now was different.
The connection ports on his suit weren't empty now. Red and gold plates, glowing circular forcefield projectors, wrist-mounted laser pistols, a drone-controlling antenna plugged into the side of his visor, and more. All of which had been back in his workshop and not at Arcadia or in the van. When He'd first walked into the central area of the Wards' Base, Clockblocker had laughed at how the base Switch Suit contained less tinker gear than Kid Win's previous armour. Then Chris had teleported an auto-targeting laser rifle onto his shoulder, and we understood that he'd changed his game entirely.
Sure enough, I saw the suspiciously flat pauldrons that Kid Win's laser rifles would appear on.
He was keeping the hoverboard – at my suggestion, cause I knew he'd build anti-gravity modules for his legs and back. But better to pretend. And hopefully Tattletale had a limit on how many secrets she could rip out of people.
"Alright. That's really useful. And similar to what little V said." Glory Girl. "And Dean said the new Ward was a thinker –" I turned all my attention to her – what did she know? What had Dean said about me? "– woah. Uh. Gallant, I meant…" She glanced away. "…Sorry. Different subject, okay. Let's try and figure out Tattletale then."
Hmph. I refocused on my mental map and my team's emotions while relaying what Tattletale had said (minus taunts). Vista was more [concerned] and [caring]. And was looking at me. I met her visored gaze. I don't know what she was looking for – or what I was looking for – but I gave her a smile (successfully) and gestured down at the bank.
Vista nodded and shrunk space to punch me lightly on the shoulder. Yeah. I should take my own advice. Emotions later, deal with C-list villains now.
Or deal with C-list villains when they decided to come out of the bank. Even the backup PRT van had gotten here and they take ages.
"Well, she definitely wasn't reading your mind. One of my parahuman lecturers talked about how telepathy is impossible. Like you'd need a brain five sizes bigger to handle it." Glory Girl was still swinging her legs in mid-air. She sounded proud of her knowledge. Which was fair – Gallant had said she took a uni course.
"That makes sense. Its probably the same for all thinkers." I said, thinking about how I focused my attention.
"Damn. That's true." Victoria straightened, putting her legs down and obliterating the illusion of an invisible chair. "And your thing with sensing relative distances! I mean its probably not as complicated as a brain, but there's no way the Corona Pollentia can do that by itself."
Glory Girl was thinking now, drifting lazily to the side in a slight curve. She had a point, but trying to figure out where powers came from or how they work led to three options: giving up, saying it was God, or ending up in conspiracy land where government brain surgery at birth was the most reasonable suggestion. Because I'm pretty sure I wasn't abducted and replaced with an alien.
"Also, they've been trying to see if there's a correlation between powers and where the corona is located. Amy says mine is near my motor cortex with a sticky-out bit to the hypothalamus. Motor cortex makes sense for flight and –"
I stopped listening to Glory Girl at the same time as Vista's head snapped up. I warped to the edge of the roof and stared down at the bank's entrance.
"Hostages sighted exiting the bank." Aegis confirmed what Vista and I had sensed.
"Hey, what's – ah, finally!" Glory Girl had flown up beside us.
The three of us looked down as bank customers, who had been trapped for at least 20 minutes, stepped hesitantly out of the dark abyss of Grue's power. And balked at the twin chasms in the street ahead of them. More people walked out behind them. Then a few more – a "Move! Let us out!" and a few shoves – and then someone old got pushed and fell forwards.
"Fuck." Vista's [compassion/resentment] and [disgust] at the crowd matched my own feelings pretty well. As did her [resignation] as the twin pits of the 'bridge of doom' collapsed upwards, reforming a smooth pavement. The old person still hit the concrete. But they didn't fall into a massive pit on the way down.
The rest of the crowd rushed forwards, streaming across the pavement. Darkness billowed out of the bank behind them – only the first clump of people stayed ahead of it (and they ran all the harder).
"Okay team, try to direct civilians to the sides. Don't attack yet." Aegis had flown forwards above the crowd and turned his mic off to call down at the mild stampede.
Gallant walked ahead as well, using the speakers on his power armour to command the crowd.
Clockblocker was running to the side to untie the string he'd set up as a trap for Hellhound's dogs.
The crowd eventually got the gist and parted around the paper fortress. Which Clockblocker [frustratedly] abandoned as the darkness churned closer.
We all waited. [Expectant]. [Ready]. [Anticipating]. [Anxious]. [Vigilant].
The static – the crowd – had mostly dispersed, people running to their parked cars. Or calling loved ones. Or apparently turning around to film things. Because Brocktonites were like that.
Eventually, Grue's darkness sat in the middle of our Vista-made battlefield. The smoke-like substance (darkness should not have substance) dripped and evaporated away from the bank's front wall.
Vista swore again as we sensed/saw the broken entranceway. Glass doors were shattered, bricks gouged and knocked out onto the street. Rent and burst, the doorway was. Like massive beasts had bulldozed their way through.
My mental map expanded into the bank lobby. "They're not inside." Vista said – over comms and next to me. Glory Girl swore this time.
Darkness sat, stagnated, and swirled in the middle of our arena. The Undersiders, with who knows how many civilians, were inside. Somewhere.
I glared at the black void. We couldn't just fire inside. So, more waiting. But at least we could surround them this time.
"Kid Win, you go above. Clock, stay with Gallant. Vista might be able to give you an opening and you can make cover until then. Vista and Seneschal, stay on the roof and assist. Tell Glory Girl to focus on the dogs or try and separate Grue if you can't Seneschal. I'm going to dive with flashbangs to flush them out." Aegis was [confident]. [Sure]. [Willing] and [selfless]. The hero I should be.
The others sounded affirmatives and Vista told Glory Girl the plan.
Aegis and Kid Win flew up above the centre of the void. Our team leader grabbed two of the flashbang grenades attached to his belt, then dived.
I imagined a 'sploosh' sound as the darkness swallowed him.
I felt Aegis push past his [nervousness]. A little spike of [success] coupled with [uncertainty] and [hope].
Then two seconds later: [frustration] [regret] [despair].
I toggled my comms. "I don't think that worked. Aegis ran into trouble."
"Aegis?" Gallant. "Aegis come in."
"Crap." Clockblocker. "Does Grue's power mean we can't hear his replies? Or he can't hear us?"
That felt shitty and inconvenient enough to be true.
"What's up? Aegis is in trouble?" Glory Girl sounded serious. No cheerful questioning and thoughtful musing now.
"Aegis tried to get Grue with flashbangs from inside. Something went wrong." I focused my mental map, tracing the wispy edges of Grue's power. And – yes! A gap in the…
The darkness lifted.
It was strange to see supervillains in the sunlight. Well, it was cloudy, but supervillains are supposed to skulk around in the night. Dusk at the very earliest. Not boldly stand in a spatially-expanded street in the early afternoon. In front of the bank they just robbed.
The Undersiders did fit the ragtag look of most minor villain gangs though.
Tattletale, who I'd already seen, was still in that lavender bodysuit. But what had been abstract black blocks in our fight were now visible as a large 'T' and smaller 't' splayed down her torso. The pistol was on her utility belt. Even from a distance, I could tell she was smirking.
Grue, standing next to her, was dressed in black motorcycle leathers. Bulky, on top of an already bulky person. He was taller than the rest of the undersiders, not an inch of skin visible underneath his costume or the skull-face-painted motorcycle helmet he wore. His power – dark, smoky, dripping darkness – drifted and oozed out from under and around the white skull.
Regent was behind and to the side of the others. If the PRT didn't know he was a guy, I would have been hard pressed to guess anatomy behind a flowy white blouse and black leggings. A white venetian mask covered his face – I could just make out a thin silver crown linked to the mask, resting atop short black curls.
A shorter boy was on Tattletale's other side, quite close to her. An oversized brown jacket with silver stripes hung off his frame, with a black shirt and tan pants underneath. He had a motorcycle helmet of his own – but it looked like he'd buried it in a desert. The new Undersider. A boy. A child. Trying to stand tall but fidgeting and almost hiding behind Tattletale. Trying to be brave.
The fourth member of the original gang, Hellhound, wasn't even wearing a costume. Which made sense since her identity was public. Rachel Lindt. (A murderer.) Heavy fur-collared jacket, short hair, large boots, and a cheap plastic dog mask – like the ones you get at dollar stores. She had a hand raised, pressed against…
I'd seen them on the news. Dennis called them monster dogs. But to see them in person, not pictures? Hellhound's… hounds… were massive. Larger than cars. Covered in bony plates, bony spurs, literal bone spikes. All asymmetrical – one shoulder like a horrific porcupine, the other completely armoured. Sections of exposed muscle, tensing as they growled. The sound coming from their mouths belonged to subwoofers; a rumbling, hair-raising, gut shaking warning so deep I felt it more than heard it. Their snouts were elongated, bone plates and calcified skin like mismatched scales. The teeth certainly reminded me of an alligator.
And, of course, their tails were prehensile. Slowly whipping through the air, spikes and ridges quivering. These creatures were… brutal. Barely even canine. Just raw mass and meat and bone and danger.
There were three of them. More than enough to silence any excitement in the crowd waiting back near the PRT vans.
I knew my team had been more aware of Hellhound's monsters, but even Vista, Gallant, and Kid Win were [intimidated]. Especially since the dog – monster – next to Hellhound had Aegis in its mouth.
The Wards Leader punched the monster in the snout then used his flight to twist around and slam his other fist into its eye. The thing just growled and – I felt cold – bit down. Shook him like a chew toy. Aegis' head bounced off the pavement.
Red dripped onto the pavement. Out of its mouth. From between jagged, misaligned, gory teeth.
Someone next to me choked on a gasp.
"I'm fine guys, don't worry." Aegis yelled across the battlefield. But it was too wet and wheezed to hold any reassurance. Yet… he wasn't [worried]. Or [concerned]. Or anything similar. (He felt [distantly pained].) Just [resigned/resolved]. "The dog's strong but you –"
"Grue!" Tattletale shouted, pointing at Aegis. Just as my team leader pulled the pin on the flashbang grenade he was hiding, he (and the head of one of the monster-dogs) was covered in darkness.
Red kept dripping. (The distance between each drop and the small puddle ground kept changing.)
Fuck. The dogs were intimidating but we needed to act. "Target Grue and Tattletale. We shut them down and we can pick the rest off. Go!" My team jumped at my words. Our leader was out. Hopefully temporarily, but someone needed to take charge. Lead. Direct.
Kid Win darted forwards on his hoverboard, spark gauntlets firing.
Glory Girl shot down from our roof like a bullet.
Clockblocker ran forwards.
Vista shortened distances in front of Glory Girl and Clockblocker and narrowed the field. Hemming the Undersiders in.
Gallant raised his hands and sent a barrage of chromatic balls of energy at the villains.
I stayed on the roof.
And a dog-monster jumped in front of the Undersiders, cracking the pavement – bone and spikes and ridges blocking my teammates' attacks.
Darkness billowed out, like smoke or steam on a timelapse. Clockblocker disappeared into the void.
A grating crunch from below – Glory Girl's bullet-dive towards the Undersiders had somehow resulted in her crashing into the pavement like a speeding train. She was standing up, appeared fine, but the ankle-deep crater in the concrete showed just how much force she'd hit the ground with.
She flew up again, drifting back and circling. Kid Win hovered higher, then flashed with [panic] as his leg jerked sideways. I knew that he only managed to stay on his hoverboard by activating the anti-gravity modules on his suit. During that, Glory Girl rocketed forwards again, slamming into the massive beast that was guarding the Undersiders. The monster, as big as a van and who knows how heavy, was completely knocked over – slamming into the ground with a yelp as deep as the thudding impact.
Glory Girl laid into the beast – using her flight to give extra weight as she pummelled its shoulder. Until another dog charged and rammed her back into the air. Aegis, who was in that monster's mouth, (and now out of Grue's darkness again), used the distraction to partially free himself. But his [frustration] spiked as the dog kept a bite-hold on his leg. It shook its head and slammed Aegis down into the pavement. Glory Girl flew in from behind but got smacked away by one of those too-long too-flexible spikey bone-tails.
Something weird happened on my mental map. Distances forming as the debris near the busted bank door… fragmented. The space between the new tiny sections shrinking so rapidly that I'd almost missed it. I looked over to see what was going on (with my eyes).
The fifth Undersider had run backwards to the bank entrance – the kid in the oversized brown jacket – had his hands held up and out, framing a compressed clump of building materials. The whirling matter was shrinking in on itself despite more fragments separating from the brick walls and concrete pavers.
Then the whirling stopped, leaving a head-sized ball. That launched towards Kid Win as the kid threw it like a shotput. It hit my teammate in the chest a millisecond later.
I watched as the forcefield over Kid Win's chest fizzled and failed. His surprised shout came over comms. "Crap! Watch out for the new cape! He's a blaster!."
From the rooftop I saw him holster his spark pistols and reach back to unplug the back forcefield module. Kid Win replaced the front one and activated the teleport to send it back to his workshop. His [fright] faded as [determination] and [impatience] rose. Along with just a little [excitement].
Atop the squared pauldrons, two stubby cylinders teleported in. They swivelled backwards as long barrels appeared in sections, pointing upwards. I'd seen these laser rifles before. Auto-targeting, guided by the drone linked to the antenna plugged into his helmet. The barrels tilted downwards and fired a salvo of bright bursts into the dog that had Aegis' leg.
The dog stumbled, jerkily uncoordinated. I knew repeated fire from those rifles could stun an elephant. In theory.
Kid Win fired again as Glory Girl was again redirected off course by Regent – plunging into Grue's darkness like a stone into oil. A dog jumped after her, then jumped upwards, following the heroine out the top of the void.
The dog monsters had less static somehow, but since I could see the distances on the edge of their… (hide? Bone? Open-air muscle?) I wouldn't complain. Anyway, I could tell how deep the craters in their sides from Glory Girl's punches were. She was not holding back – and yet these massive beasts were taking it.
And Regent kept stopping her from dodging around them.
"Kid Win, target Regent!" Aegis yelled out. He was [focused] now, despite one of the dogs dragging him around by the leg. Darkness spread back towards him.
"Judas, guard!" Hellhound's harsh voice barked across the battlefield. One of the dogs' heads snapped up before it bounded over to where the stocky supervillain was pointing – Regent.
Glory Girl was stopped from flanking by another shotput from the new Undersider. The ball of compressed debris shattered on impact this time, brick and slivers of the bank's stone façade splintering down like shrapnel. Glory Girl lowered the arm she used to block it. She didn't look hurt – it was hard to see from far away – but her shock was evident.
The other ball had fallen to the ground, leaving its own crater in the pavement. Would each one do something different? What was this new villain's (kid's) power?
And where was Grue? That was what I was waiting for – what the Aegis' plan had recommended. But what if he never came out of his darkness? It was what I would do if I had his power. And Clockblocker was in there too.
Tattletale was still next to Regent, both of them now running over to the kid. She'd been pointing and directing her teammates – but not loudly enough for me to hear up here.
Suddenly, five thin chromatic beams swept across the battlefield. Gallant trying out a trick. Each beam a different emotion, designed to disorient. Sure enough, I watched as the static-shapes of Tattletale and the new Undersider stumbled and fell groaning on the pavement. Regent stopped – stock still – then turned and waved his hand. Gallant's next attack also swept upwards, catching Kid Win and Glory Girl, both of whom sagged in mid-air. Kid Win's violent surge of [sadangryfrightenedlonelynauseous] faded as his vomit fell the length of a building story and splattered on the Vista-expanded pavement. But he was still reeling from the friendly fire.
Glory Girl shot towards Regent, who bowed at the waist. Glory Girl suddenly dipped down and went headfirst into the ground. Gallant's beams went through the Undersiders again, from the other direction so he could avoid catching his girlfriend again.
Regent ducked behind a monster-dog, but Tattletale and the new villain were hit again. And – yes! – I felt the bottom of Grue's darkness evaporating again. If Gallant had hit him, th –
A feral scream tore across the street. It sounded like pain and hurt and rage. Hellhound straightened from where she'd fallen from Gallant's emotion beams. Shaking, she screamed again and spat blood and bile from her mouth. Still, screaming, she pointed at us.
She'd given her dogs a verbal command before – did she train them? – but pointing and yelling seemed to be enough.
One dog ran at Gallant, except the distance between them elongated, stretching like taffy. The dog still ran, claws gouging the pavement.
Another dog jumped up at Glory Girl, who punched it in the face. It landed and did a kind of pirouette to swipe with its tail. She grabbed the tail and started dragging it to one side before a whirling ball of fragments flew towards her. She dropped the dog's too-flexible tail and flew up, easily dodging it. What? Why was that one slow? Because it hadn't condensed much?
The dog holding Aegis' leg let go. Our leader quickly flew up to escape but the dog jumped after him – higher than seemed possible – and bit…
In that moment all I could think about was that the crunch should have been louder. But it wasn't. The panting of the other dogs and shocked gasp from the crowd at the edge of the extended section of the street was louder. Which really felt wrong.
I mean, the dog bit him in half.
When the beast landed, Aegis' lower body fell out of its mouth.
The legs tangled as they hit the ground. Both halves of Aegis were still static-y. Which was good because he could get healed (and because I didn't want to know the distances inside his stomach cavity).
Our leader was… [shocked]. [Avoidance] and [necessity] shoved that down. He reached for his cracked helmet and – [irritated] – flew over to Kid Win, who said: "Aegis is fine. He said to focus on the Undersiders, he's getting healed." Feeling [defeated] and [restrained], Aegis swooped down and picked up his legs. The dog didn't stop him. Hellhound was no longer screaming.
The darkness had mostly cleared now, except for a much smaller pooling void where Grue was. It started growing again, flooding along the entire side of the street below Vista and I.
But Clockblocker was free. He ran towards the Undersiders with [vindication] and [vigour]. Vista, [compartmentalising] beside me, shortened the distance till he was almost upon the Undersiders.
That got the rest of us into gear. Aegis flew back to the PRT van and Panacea with [regret] while Gallant pinged comms. "My power doesn't work on the dogs. And I think Hellhound has some psychological problems – people shouldn't get react like that to being frightened. Also," he panted, "Vista can you help me circle round and lose the dog?"
Kid Win opened fire with his laser rifles again. And pulled out his spark pistols to add to the barrage. The salvos of crackling light peppered the dogs, strafed the expanding cloud of Grue's darkness, then swung back towards the Undersiders.
Tattletale's static-shape straightened and stepped closer to Regent. She pointed upwards. With a laugh, the renaissance-dressed villain threw his hands up at an angle then waved them around.
Kid Win copied him, spark pistols firing wildly in the air. [Despair/loss/anger]. From above, my mental map noted the distance between Kid Win's targeting drone and the ground getting shorter. Quite quickly. My teammate flew up to catch his drone.
Clockblocker had been stalled, trying to tag one of Hellhound's dogs while the new Undersider lobbed balls of compressed stuff at him. The kid was creating a ball in each hand now, each smaller, but solidifying quicker. Clockblocker kept pausing his clock-shield to block the weirdly heavy balls, which hit his shield then dropped straight down to crack the one-big-expanded-paver.
Glory Girl was dealing with the new Undersider's other throwing hand as well as the third dog. Billowing clouds of darkness kept surging up towards her whenever she tried to circle around the bone-muscle monster. They lingered too, so Glory Girl was slowly ending up further away from the rest of us.
Kid Win had caught his drone and clipped it to his belt. He was now fiddling with something on his arm – and [satisfaction]; the shoulder rifles swivelled with his finger. Manual controls.
Aegis was out, but we weren't. And he'd given me permission to advise in a crisis, which… a fight was close enough. And I was told to stay on the roof. I could do this much at least.
"Kid Win and Gallant, strafe Grue's darkness. If you get him then the Undersiders can't escape. We can whittle them down." Their [determination] rose at my words.
Lasers and five chromatic beams swept the black void. Then both jerked in different directions. Regent could affect more than one person. Fuck.
Clockblocker felt [pained] then felt nothing. Kid Win felt [dismayed] then [distraught].
Gallant felt [concerned]. Then Vista felt [sadangryfrightenedlonelynauseous]. Then Gallant felt [awful].
I looked at my team from the rooftop I'd warped to the instant my mental map showed those beams moving upwards. Although maybe the dark blue [sad] ray did catch me.
I looked at Clockblocker, unconscious from Kid Win's laser rifles. At Vista, sitting knees-to-chest and not looking at where she'd thrown up her lunch.
I looked at the Undersiders. The swath of roiling darkness within which Grue was… somewhere. Hellhound, whistling at her 'dogs'. The new Undersider, still standing near the bank entrance, throwing/launching those weird, condensed balls at Glory Girl, who kept dodging – in the wrong directions. Regent, who was laughing and giving Gallant the middle finger. Tattletale was being held up by Regent's other arm as she clutched at her head and kept speaking too lowly for me to here from up high.
Aegis had said I could advise if we were in a crisis. This was so far into crisis I didn't care what the boundaries of 'advising' were.
"Kid Win. Gallant. Alternate fire and be ready to stop at any moment. If Regent gets one of you, the other starts shooting immediately. He's not limited to one person at a time but he might need to focus on you or recharge. Vista, try to get the Undersiders away from Grue's power. And shift rooftops to breathe if you need to."
"No. I'm good. I can do it." My [friend]'s [resentment] and [resolve/insecurity] might not be the healthiest motivators, but right now I'd take what we could get.
"Alright. I'm going to get Clock out of there." From what I'd seen from Aegis, leading our team meant keeping people safe and on track. I'd gotten my teammates on track, now I had to keep them safe. (Staying on the roof was pointless.)
I warped down next to Clockblocker. He was sprawled forwards, hanging by the arm strap of his still paused shield. Shit. Kid Win had made this, so I knew how it worked. But if Clockblocker's power was affecting it, I couldn't get it to shrink back down to watch-form. I stepped over my teammate's body and looked at – no I couldn't pull his arm free either. I still tugged at the paused watchstrap.
I glanced up and saw the new Undersider's fleck-painted motorcycle helmet staring at me. One arm was pulled back, power collecting fragments to condense as I watched.
Dammit. I knew this kid was only here to help his family. But surely he could have come to the PRT. Even if the police didn't care about parts of the docks (or did care but in a racist way), he could have joined the Wards. Like me.
But he was helping to rob a bank. And actively fighting against heroes.
His arm came forwards. I paused a millisecond before the (hyperdense?) brick and concrete sphere hit my chest with a 'thunk' and dropped downwards.
"Don't attack!" Tattletale shouted.
I unpaused to glance at her in surprise – only to see her eyes widen as Clockblocker's shield fell to the ground.
Did my unpausing cancel Clockblocker's power? Or was that just impeccable timing? Or – no, focus. I hit the button to retract the shield and kneeled to roll Clockblocker onto his side. I hooked my arms under his armpits and started dragging him backwards. There might be a quicker or easier way of doing this, but I didn't have super strength and we needed to move.
Vista helped me out by shortening and lengthening distances, so the Undersiders were across the battlefield after only a few steps. But my mental map showed an emptiness encroaching from the side. I looked up to see Grue's darkness roiling across the extended street.
I hoisted Clockblocker further into my arms and kept carry-dragging him backwards. At least my mental map meant I didn't have to keep looking behind me. I stepped it up, hoping Clockblocker wouldn't mind the deep scuffs on his boot heels, but Grue's darkness was encroaching even faster.
"Vista, can you get me away from Grue's power?" If I could get Clockblocker to Panacea, he'd be back in the game. Being two down meant the Undersiders outnumbered us now, anyway.
"Uh, I'm a little," she was [distracted] and slightly [overwhelmed], "there's a lot going on, so, uh – shit! Sorry Vicky. Okay –"
"Vista needs line of sight! Grue, fill the air!" Tattletale's shout sounded both distant and immediately close, from her position near the bank's front and from my…
"Oh. Its transmitting now. Well, hello Wards! Those of you who are left anyway. Did you know your brawny leader's head is more solid than his helmet? Or that –"
"Switch to channel two." I really, really wanted Glory Girl's power in that moment. To fly forwards and just hit Tattletale in the fucking face so she would shut up.
No. Breathe.
"I'm moving rooftops." Vista. Teammates. Focus (spread it out, pay attention, don't get tunnel vision, don't get angry). "I need to see things and Grue's shoved his power straight up. I'll try to keep it away from Kid Win, sorry Seneschal." She was [apologetic] but [adapting] to the new fight. I could cope, my teammates needed support too.
The Undersiders had been working to limit us, I thought. Keep people occupied so we couldn't overwhelm them. I hated that it was working.
My musing was cut short as emptiness filled the air of my mental map. I looked up and saw utter darkness forming a giant wall. Dividing the battlefield. Vista and Kid Win were on one side. Glory Girl bursting up out of a fading dark cloud, before diving towards the bank entrance. Gallant was not too far behind me, sending larger torso sized emotion-blasts towards a dog-monster that was still chasing him. The larger blasts were knocking it off balance, but it was still eating up the distance between them.
My team was separated, each of them facing growing [panic] or [frustration]. I looked back at Gallant. He couldn't hold off the dog. I looked forwards. Grue's darkness was roiling towards me again. I couldn't outrun it. I kept hauling Clockblocker backwards.
"Yeah, changing channels really didn't do anything for you. Like, at least have code words for that. I'd guess them of course, but you're not even trying to give me a challenge. Seriously, just let us leave and we'll stop embarrassing you." I couldn't see Tattletale through Grue's power, but I knew that that tone of voice came with a smug vulpine smirk of arrogance and cruelty and…
Okay. The Undersiders had done enough.
Hellhound, Regent, Grue, and Tattletale. The kid might be doing this as a last resort, but the rest had gone too far. If Hellhound's dogs had bitten any other person, she would have become a murderer! Again!
I unclenched my jaw and shifted my breathing. Deep. Calm. Heroic. Not angry. Not… Sophia.
I scanned the battlefield, shifting my focus across the individual skirmishes that our confrontation had devolved to.
Tattletale was helping the Undersiders manage my teammates. Aegis was still shut down. Glory Girl's static-shape kept having to dodge the fifth Undersider's attacks. Because of Regent, who was foiling every charge or attack against his teammates. Kid Win had landed on another roof… fiddling with his drone? Tinkering in the middle of a fight?! Vista was now on the opposite side of the expanded street, as [frustrated] as everyone else that we'd lost control of this fight. Clockblocker was still unconscious in my arms as the darkness flowed forwards.
They were… winning. Ruthlessly.
I wasn't going to forget myself and hurt people. But… I could do more than wait for Grue or lead in a crisis. (Or stay on the roof.) I had six powers, effectively. Being backup was none of them.
My mental map and emotion sensing did help me lead and direct my team. But I didn't have to do that passively. Hell, I'd been thinking about this very conundrum at lunch before we got called for this.
Surely there was a middle ground between passive and aggressive? Not staying back but not charging into the fight.
Active?
Active. Not attacking; assisting my teammates. (The few that were still in the fight.)
I wouldn't be a bully, I would just…
I would stop standing by.
I would act.
I lowered Clockblocker to the floor and warped backwards, glaring at the darkness as it covered my teammate.
Gallant's [fear] turned to [panic]. I warped in front of him and paused. The dog-monster's jagged teeth and ridged jaw barrelled into my back. The dog-monster's chest ran into my back too. When the beast collapsed, I looked over my shoulder. Its lower face was partly in its lungs – or where its lungs would be if it wasn't just pure meat and more bone.
I didn't know if its neck was broken, but that didn't matter. Gallant was [relieved] but that tinged again with [worry] when I turned back to stare into his visor. "Strafe Grue's darkness. He's splitting us up and we need to regain control of this mess."
One of Hellhound's dog-monsters was parked between Gallant and the Undersiders, so he couldn't hit Tattletale and Regent again.
Gallant's [worry] grew. But he was also [determinedly resigned]. When he started doing what I said, I warped up to Kid Win's roof.
"You need to distract for Glory Girl. Regent's forcing her to take hits from the new Undersider."
"Holy shi-uhh, I'm fixing the drone so I can target the Undersiders from further away. So Regent can't make me a liability." Kid Win was [tinkering], [shocked], [frustrated], and [regretful].
Fine. That would help. If he did it quickly. I didn't have time to convince him anyway. Glory Girl needed a distraction.
I warped down to the bank entrance. A startled yelp, a pulled back static-arm, and a ready-to-throw compressed-brick-ball made me warp to the left. A glass window on the bank's front shattered, along with other destructive sounds from inside.
The newest Undersider shouted again. I looked at him, a kid, playing at villainy rather realistically. Grabbed my taser and thumbed the charge.
Then teleported behind Regent and jabbed forwards – nerves in my arm fired, electro-chemical pulses originating from nowhere and overriding messages sent from my brain – and tasered myself in the thigh.
Electricity raced through my body. Through nerves, muscle tissue, veins. Under skin, over bones. My vision whitened. My biology sense told me my knees and lower face had a blunt impact. Limbs: boneless. No, unresponsive. Neural pathways overloaded.
Getting tasered by a tinker-made weapon sucked.
But I needed to act. I felt my motor neurons increase their sensitivity as sensory neurons adjusted in other ways. Sight returned in blurred shapes and blended shades. I got my arms beneath me and heaved myself up. Constant adjustments across my nervous and muscular system made me wonder if my shared power from Aegis let me master my own body. I didn't think I could move without it.
"Okayyyy, you said she was only a brute when she couldn't move." A voice – someone's – my ears were adjusting too – was questioning. More electricity started arcing across my back and my nerves all… turned off.
And on again. "–Aegis' power applied to a normal person. I think." A young woman was groaning in pain. No, two were. I think one of them was me. "So maybe don't tase her again. I've got too much of a headache to figure out how she's moving, but it's definitely not healthy. And we need to get out of here. Call Bitch."
I warped away. Somewhere. Got up. Seeing was hard. Even my tongue felt numb. My own static-shape moved how I wanted it to, but jerkily. My mental map would guide me. I wasn't done.
I warped back. Taser charged, lunging at the figure in front of me. My fingers spasmed and the taser bounced, sparking on the floor.
"Got you… and you! Double kill." I had to ignore Regent's mock army voice and whatever he'd –
Vista felt [sadangryfrightenedlonelynauseous]. [Despaired]. My mental map showed the street snapping back to its natural distances and dimensions. Side streets and alleys existed again. The Undersiders could escape.
No. NO.
I swung my other arm forwards and tried to grab with both hands at different heights. I grabbed something – the static-shape of Tattletale. Shoved forwards, toppling us both to the ground.
"Ghgg!"
Sharp incisions on my fingers. Teeth marks. I pulled my hand back (skin tore I didn't care) and grabbed at her waist. Electricity ran through one arm and my nerves spasmed. My vision blurred to uselessness. There was no pain. Only recognition of damage.
I held on with the hand that still worked.
Paused. Before Regent could tase me again. My mental map wasn't available so I couldn't tell if he tried.
"FUCK!" Tattletale wasn't happy.
"Its just a belt, leave it Tats." Regent didn't care.
"No! No, there's important stuff in there, I need – put these in your pockets!"
"You'd rather she grab your ass?" Regent sounded like he didn't care either way.
"Fuck you." Tattletale wasn't happy. Something – her body – shifted away from me.
"Can they trace it back to us?" Echoey voice "…Tattletale, can they trace it back to us?" Harder echoes.
"No. Fine. Gah! Let me…" Tattletale was doing something?
"You said Velocity was coming. We need to go."
"The dogs are ready." Echoey voice was grumpy now.
"Done." Something moved in front of my face. "Let's, just… get me to some aspirin. Or anything stronger." Her head hadn't hit the ground hard, had it? That would be such a shame. And I was fine cause it was the ground's fault.
Noises of beasts, grunting and scraping the ground.
Then even my slowly recalibrating eyes went dark. Light stopped bouncing off my retinas. The world went quiet. Colder.
[>[>/^\<]<]
I unpaused when my lungs started screaming. Jerky breaths. Not smooth. Inefficient. My body compensated.
Something fluttered on my numb tongue.
Oh. There was something in my mouth. Couldn't see it. Something bulky in my hand. Couldn't see that either. The world was a void.
Dark. Like there wasn't any light to shine.
Silent. Every sound cut off from the others.
Cold. As if the sun thought there were other planets more deserving.
I laid on my back. Tricky to tell which way was up. All I could feel, was down.
There was nothing.
A lack.
Only the names in my head. [Aegis]. [Vista]. [Clockblocker]. [Kid Win]. [Gallant].
(I tried to ignore their emotions.)
Me. [Seneschal]. I was one of them.
We were a team.
We'd brainstormed and come up with new tricks. We lost. Why?
Because we couldn't see. Or talk.
Because we were separated. Singled out. Targeted.
Because our leader was out from the start.
Had we even tried to work together?
[>[>/^\<]<]
The darkness felt empty.
[>[>/^\<]<]
Grue's power faded. There were still clouds covering the sky.
I looked at the thing that was left in my mouth. A note. I opened it. And felt… enough things to feel sick.
The note went away – into my pocket. I looked at the thing on the ground next to me. Tattletale's utility belt. Unclipped. Gun and radio gone.
I opened the containers. Stared at another post-it note. Fumbled with shaking, shuddering hands to unfold it. Felt sick again. Put the list of PRT passwords back. Put the belt on the ground.
Stared at the clouds. They were too blurry to find any shapes in them. Though maybe I was just out of practice.
I had a friend now. [Missy Biron]=[friendship]=[Taylor Hebert]. I remembered that friends looked at clouds together.
Something white with yellowy shiny bits came down from the clouds. "Hey! Glad you're… you don't look okay. Velocity!"
Missy had other friends. Did she watch clouds with them? Or her parents? Did her Mom still talk about things from when she was small? Smaller?
I didn't know anything about Missy's home life. I should ask her. But clouds were easier right now. They left, but they came back. Maybe clouds were better than people. I was sorry I hadn't practiced being friends with the clouds.
A red blur appeared next to me. The sudden breeze was nice. Do capes with superspeed sweat? I wasn't sweating. But I had some nerve damage. No real tissue damage though – scraped skin at most.
Clouds. (As substantial as our 'win' today.)
I was definitely out of practice finding shapes in them. Maybe that one looked like [worrydefeatangerfailureblameself-disappointment]. My mental map didn't reach the clouds, so I couldn't tell.
Things got bright.
"Okay, her pupils aren't responding. Maybe a concussion. Take her back to your sister."
I got picked up. By static-bars. Arms. I looked at white-yellow-shiny person. The clouds were… buildings moving… oh. Flying.
Flying was nice.
Nicer than a lot of other things.
Not as nice as winning.