by wildbow
“No,” Brian said. “I know what you’re about to say, because we talked this over. It’s a bad idea.”
“Let’s hear it,” Trickster spoke up, leaning forward. Brian scowled, and Aisha smiled wickedly.
“The biggest threat from these guys is that they could strike at any time, from any direction. So why don’t we spy on them? We find out where they are, and then we keep tabs on their movements. I can handle one shift, Genesis does the next. They won’t notice me, and Genesis can stay concealed.”
“It’s far too risky,” Brian said. “You joined this team so I could stop you from getting yourself killed.”
“It would be nice to know what they’re up to,” Trickster cut in.
“They won’t even know I’m there.”
“You think they won’t know you’re there,” Brian said. “There’s a distinction there. It’s important, and it could either lead to a minor advantage—”
“A huge advantage,” Aisha said.
“—or it could lead to you being turned into a human test subject for whatever fucked up idea Bonesaw had recently,” Brian finished, ignoring her.
“No! I got a power, and it’s a useful power. Except you don’t want me to use it, because you think it’s going to stop working all of a sudden, or someone is going to see me—”
“Dragon saw you,” Brian said. “And you’re only alive because she doesn’t kill people.”
Looking at Brian and Aisha, I knew this discussion would get worse before it got better. I cut in before either of them said something regrettable. “Imp. It’s a good idea, but they do have a way of sensing you. Cherish can sense emotions, and if Dragon is any indication, your power primarily works through sight, hearing and touch. Like Grue’s. She can probably find you and track you down.”
“We don’t know that,” Aisha said.
“It’s a pretty good educated guess, I think. I know you want to be useful, but we can make more use of you if you’re with us, going up against someone like Mannequin or Shatterbird, who are far less likely to be able to see you. Help us defend ourselves.”
“This sucks!”
“Imp,” Grue said, as he glanced at the others at the table and frowned, “We’re in the company of our employers and our peers. Let’s stay professional and discuss this after.”
“Professional? You asshole, you’re the one who’s refusing to use my talents because I’m your sister. I’ve been on the team longer than Skitter was when you guys were robbing a bank and fighting the ABB.”
“You’re younger, and she’s more level-headed—”
“Enough,” Coil said. It served to shut them both up.
For a few seconds, anyways. Aisha scowled. “Enough is right. I’ll see you guys later.”
“Hey!” Brian stood from his seat.
I think I wasn’t the only one to look up at him and wonder why. He looked at us, similarly confused, and then sat down just as quickly as he’d stood.
Lisa looked pensive. I nudged her and asked, “You okay?”
“Yeah,” she replied. Then she looked at Coil, “Hey, while you’re asking for suggestions, I have an idea?”
“Anything helps.”
“You think you could get your hands on some surveillance hardware? Skitter’s working on some new costumes, and I was thinking we could have something like small cameras mounted on our masks or helmets.”
“I can inquire with my usual suppliers. Why?”
“Well, we’ve got one teammate that’s sort of hard for the rest of you to keep track of, and I think it might help. And if nobody objects, I’m kind of wanting to take a less hands-on approach from here on out. I’ve batted a pretty low percentage as far as injuries over the last few months of action… Glory Girl, Bakuda, Leviathan, now this incident with Jack. If I had a means of communication and the gear to give me some eyes on the scene, I think I could be more useful.”
Coil looked at Brian.
“I gave you a hard time about your having to take the same risks as the rest of us, back when you first joined, but I think you’ve done your share. So long as you’re contributing,” Brian said.
Coil nodded. “I’ll see what we can prepare.”
Lisa smiled a little, using only the one side of her mouth.
* * *
Our canine mounts raced through the streets with impunity. The glass that covered the roads, the lack of windows, windshields or working dashboards in the few cars that still ran all contributed to the glacial pace of traffic. There was little for the dogs to watch out for, no moving vehicles and few bystanders. Every stride the dog took made the bag I was carrying bang against my hip and made every injury I had explode with pain. I clenched my teeth and endured it. There weren’t many other options. I could hardly complain to Bitch.
Bitch was well in the lead, and there was a kind of aggression to how she rode. She pulled ahead, evading cars by only a couple of inches, forcing them to swerve, and she goaded Bentley faster with kicks and shouts.
We hadn’t raised the topic of Bitch and her nomination for the Nine. I think the others hadn’t wanted to add tension and the possibility of argument or violence to the already complicated situation. I know I hadn’t. My last real interaction with Bitch was when we’d parted ways after the fight with Dragon. I’d told her we were even, but there had been some anger and hurt feelings on both sides. I was the last person she wanted to have grilling her.
Bitch made Bentley slow to a walk as she reached my territory. It still took us a good thirty seconds to catch up.
Using my power, I signaled Sierra and Charlotte. Grue, Bitch and I climbed down from our dogs and then led them forward.
“Mannequin slipped by you once,” Grue said. “You going to be able to keep an eye out?”
“I had some ideas, but I’m running low on resources,” I said. “Let me see what I can do.”
Genesis began to appear a short distance away, near Bitch. A blurry, beige and yellow, vaguely human-shaped figure coalesced into being. The shape then sharpened into features and alter in hue until there was the figure of a teenage girl, vaguely cartoonish. By the time we reached her, she looked indistinguishable from a regular girl. She had auburn hair, freckles, and thick glasses. A small smile touched her face as she stretched her arms and legs.
“Everything good?” Grue asked her.
“Good enough. I’m going to keep this shape until Coil’s people can deliver my real body. Then I’ll need to recuperate some.”
“Sure.”
Bitch scowled at me. Bastard, her puppy, stood beside her. He had received the brunt of her power, and looked roughly as large as an adult great dane. The features were different from her usual dogs. The spikes had more symmetry to their arrangement, and the muscles looked less like tangles. It tugged briefly on the chain that led from her hand to its collar, and she pulled back sharply. It didn’t pull again, though it was easily powerful enough to knock her over.
My people met us as we entered the neighborhoods where my lair and the barracks we’d set up were. Sierra and Charlotte were in the lead, the three ex-ABB members behind them. The O’Daly clan stood at more of a distance, all either members of the family, friends or romantic partners. Other, smaller families filled in the gaps. My ‘gang’ numbered nearly fifty people in total.
“Holy crap,” Genesis said.
“It’s why we wanted to set up base here,” Grue said. “Skitter’s the most established of us.”
“I’ve been focusing on structural repairs and building when I’m not helping my teammates,” Genesis said. “I don’t have many threats to get rid of, and it was the best way for me to be productive. And meanwhile you’re further than I expected to get in half a year.”
I couldn’t bring myself to feel proud. “I guess I’m motivated.”
Genesis whistled, looking around. There were some looks of confusion as she strode forward into the crowd. I suppose it was unusual for a teenage girl to be in the company of three known supervill
ains and a mass of monstrous dogs.
“Sierra,” I said. “Status?”
“We’re nearly done with the second building. There isn’t a lot of elbow room, so we’ve been cleaning up the road.”
“Good. No trouble?”
“Not that I know of.”
I pulled the bag from over my shoulder and handed it to her. “Distribute these to the people in charge of the various groups. Work it out so you can pass on messages quickly, and get any necessary information to me asap.”
“Okay.” She grunted as she took the bag.
“Genesis,” I spoke. “You said you were doing some rebuilding?”
She slapped her stomach, “Made some mortar, just a matter of sticking stuff back where it’s supposed to be, if it’s obvious enough.”
“Want to see what you can do, before your body gets here?”
She nodded and headed off. My minions rapidly backed away from her as she began dissolving.
“Charlotte?”
“Yes?”
“How set up is the building you guys were working on?”
“Mess is cleaned out, but we haven’t moved much in.”
“That should be fine.”
“We ready?” Grue asked.
I turned to face him and Bitch. “Just about. Bitch, there’s a space set aside that we can use for your dogs. We’ll patrol through the various territories in an hour or so, stop by your territory and pick up some supplies for them, and you can bring your dogs here.” I had to resist adding an ‘if that’s okay’. Firmness would work best with her, even if it did carry the risk of provoking her.
“Fine.”
“Good,” Grue said. “Let’s go rest and eat. We can wait for Genesis and the other gear Coil’s dropping off.”
I had enough bugs nearby to start setting up my early warning system. With the assistance of a horde of flying insects, I began guiding spiders through various points of my territory. They drew out lines of silk across alleyways and doors, windows and rooftops. I couldn’t spare the spiders, so I placed ants on each line. They would feel it if there was a vibration, not as well as the spiders, but well enough.
Ten thousand tripwires for Mannequin to navigate past.
My expectation was for the lines to maybe give me an early warning of Mannequin’s approach, sometime in the coming hours, maybe in the dead of night.
I didn’t expect to find him in the span of a minute. A figure on a nearby rooftop was striding through the webs and avoiding the bugs.
I stopped. “Mannequin.”
Everyone else froze. Even the dogs seemed to mime their master’s stillness.
But he was already leaving, moving with surprising swiftness as he pushed through another few lines of webbing at the edge of the roof furthest from us. A second later he was on the ground, moving through an alleyway.
“We could go after him,” Grue asked.
“We couldn’t catch him, I don’t think,” I said. “And he may be trying to bait us into a trap. Or maybe he wants to loop around while we give chase and kill my people. Shit, I didn’t think he’d come so quickly.”
“We weren’t exactly inconspicuous.”
I frowned.
Mannequin was on guard for a trap, enough that he’d probably noticed the tripwire and decided to retreat. Mannequin and I had an estimation of one another, now. Neither of us wanted a direct confrontation. Both of us would be wary of traps or trickery. He was a tinker, he would have prepared something to ward against the tactic I had employed last time. Topping it off, amassing people to please Coil had the unfortunate side effect of making me more vulnerable to Mannequin’s attacks. He could hurt me without even getting close to me, the second I let my guard down and gave him an avenue for attack.
The only ambiguous advantage we had over him was that he was working with a time limit. He needed to test Bitch and get revenge on me, in addition to dealing with all of the other candidates, and he had less than forty-eight hours to do it.
I wasn’t so sure that was a good thing. It was beginning to dawn on me what we were in for. Forty eight hours of being on the edge of our seats, unable to sleep deeply, constantly watching for attack from Mannequin or from Hookwolf’s contingent.
When we were done, we faced seventy-two hours of the same thing. We’d be that much more tired, that much more likely to make a mistake. Then we’d have to do it again. And again, and again. Eight rounds in total. From my altercation with Mannequin, I knew we wouldn’t make it through even the first few encounters without some loss, some injury or casualty. By the time the eighth round of testing rolled around, what kind of condition would we be in? What condition would my territory be in?
I’d initially seen Tattletale’s deal with Jack as a good thing, a miniscule chance at success, with some drawbacks and negative points.
The more I dwelled on it, the more daunting it seemed.
“You okay?” Grue asked me.
“A little spooked,” I admitted.
He set a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll make it.”
Speaking from the perspective of someone who had gone toe to toe with these guys, I wasn’t so convinced.
Snare 13.2
“Aisha’s not here,” Grue informed us.
He locked the door to his headquarters and climbed on top of Sirius. Bitch and I were astride Bentley and Lucy, respectively, and Bastard was on the end of a chain that Bitch held.
“Did you give her a job before you left for Coil’s this morning?” I suggested.
He shook his head, “No. I make notes, and I make her take notes too. Keeping track of that girl is a nightmare.”
“Tattletale’s working on her idea,” I said. It felt ineffectual as reassurances went. In the hopes of elaborating on the thought, I added, “Maybe she’ll be able to keep track of Imp and stay in touch with us, to keep us informed.”
“Maybe. You done a sweep of the area?”
I shook my head. “Need another minute. I’m trying to be thorough in how I check each area for enemies, and Mannequin can see my bugs, so I have to use silk lines to try to catch him. It’s slow, and I definitely don’t want to miss him. Also, it would be nice to grab some bugs to build up and replenish my stock.” I let bugs gather on Lucy’s back, depositing spiders and large beetles. The dog didn’t seem to mind.
“Right. Good.” Grue looked at Bitch, “We’ll finish checking out my territory, stop in yours to help you with whatever you need to do for your dogs, then we’ll pass through Tattletale’s area on the way back to Skitter’s.”
“I don’t really care,” Bitch said, looking off into the distance. I was pretty sure she was deliberately looking away from me. It was as though she wanted to pretend I didn’t exist.
Grue looked at me and shrugged.
This wasn’t going to work. She was too distant, and that was dangerous. Not that it wasn’t risky to try to address the problem. It still needed to be done.
Making sure Bitch wasn’t looking, I tapped two fists together and then pointed at her.
He shrugged again. He didn’t get it?
Drawing from the bugs I had stored in my costume, I drew out words in the air with the bugs flying in tightly controlled formations. ‘Confront her’.
He hesitated.
‘Be leader,’ I wrote. Then I changed the words of ‘leader’ to ‘honest’.
“Bitch,” Grue spoke.
“What?” She snapped her head around to face him. Her eyes flicked over to me and narrowed slightly before they returned to him.
“This whole thing with you not talking? It’s not working.”
“So?”
“So cut it out. Or at least explain what’s going through your head.”
“What I think is my business.”
“No,” I cut in. I couldn’t help it. “You’re a member of the team, and if you’re thinking about joining the Nine, then that matters.”
“I’m not!” She snapped.
“But?” I added.
/> “What?”
“You’re not thinking about joining them, but…?” I let the question hang for a second. “Something is eating you up.”
“Did you not hear what I said about my thoughts being my business?”
“Bitch,” Grue warned.
“What?” She clenched her fist, and I think the dogs could see something in her body language, because they tensed too. She said, “Fuck it. Pisses me off when you get on my case. Leave me alone.”
She kicked Bentley lightly in the sides, and the dog began walking. She kicked him again, and he started running.
Lucy and Sirius wanted to follow, so it thankfully didn’t take much effort to get them moving. Bitch wasn’t riding as fast as she could, so it was clear enough that she wasn’t trying to escape. She wanted space, and she was angry.
I glanced over my shoulder at Grue. How the hell were we supposed to handle this situation?
My phone vibrated at my back, and in my effort to avoid falling off Lucy, I wasn’t able to get at it. I fought to make her obey me and stop by pulling on the chains and wrenching her right, then left. She finally halted, and I took the opportunity to grab my phone. I’d missed my window.
It started vibrating again.
“Yes?” I answered.
“You guys busy?” Lisa asked.
“Just patrolling our territories to make sure that the Chosen aren’t up to anything,” I said. A droplet of water fell on the lens of my mask. I looked up at the overcast sky. Rain?
“Listen, you know that I’ve got some people working for me, passing on info, right?”
“Sure. Bryce is one of them, right?”
“Right. Well, I’ve got all of them keeping an eye out for capes and known faces.”
“Known faces? Like the members of Empire Eighty-Eight who were outed?”
“Like them. Or Jack, or Bonesaw. But that’s not what this is about. Senegal just dropped by Coil’s base, and he’s passing on information from one of my scouts. They saw Panacea at one of the shelters in Ballistic’s territory.”
“I’m not entirely sure I follow.”
“All of New Wave live southwest of the Towers, the nice part of downtown. Neither of their houses were hit by the worst of the waves, and none of the Chosen or Merchants are stupid enough to attack them, and they wouldn’t succeed if they were. You following me, now?”