Worm

by wildbow

  “Semantics. My point stands.”

  “Then let me raise my own point,” he said. “What am I supposed to do, if I’m not using my power? The whole bit with tripping people up, knocking them down, making them drop shit? It’s not exactly grade A material as superpowers go.”

  “I’m saying we discuss it as a group before enslaving someone.”

  “And if there’s a window of opportunity?” he asked. “A chance to capture someone on the fly? Do we just let it slip by because you want to host a debate?”

  “No,” I sighed. “You could capture the person in question, we hold them for long enough to talk it over, then we let them go if it isn’t appropriate.”

  He shrugged. “Which doesn’t do a damn thing to ease people’s suspicions if everyone’s watching their friends, seeing if anyone’s dropped off the map long enough to have been captured and converted. I’ve been there. Maybe not on this scale, but I’ve seen it happen, the paranoia.”

  “Right. And your little plan here has started that ball rolling. Whatever we do from here on out, people are going to be spooked enough that they’ll see the mind controlled where they don’t exist.”

  “Fear is good,” Tattletale said.

  “Paranoia isn’t. If our enemies are backed into a corner, they might do something stupid. You yourself said how Victor was willing to attack us if we cut him free, even if it put himself and his teammates in grave danger. And he’s not dumb.”

  “He’s not brilliant either,” Regent said. “Just saying, but having a power that gives you brains doesn’t necessarily mean you’re smart.”

  Tattletale gave him an annoyed look, then turned to me. “I can understand your frustration. You feel like we just set ourselves back on a city-wide scale for a relatively minor gain.”

  I shrugged, “Pretty much.”

  “Except our enemies are already banding together to attack us. Having Regent as a target doesn’t change anything except taking the focus off of more important members of the team,” she said.

  “I see what you did there. A little quid pro quo,” Regent muttered.

  Tattletale stuck out her tongue at him, then turned back to me, “And people are going to be scared to take him out if it means releasing Shatterbird. Picture yourself in their shoes. It’s not a comfortable position to be in if you’re itching to retaliate.”

  “It’s not a comfortable position to be in anyways, even with him on the team,” I said, glancing over at Shatterbird. Not that we hadn’t taken countermeasures, but… yeah.

  Tattletale looked as well. “But the main thing I was getting at is that we’re working towards something here. We got Victor. Bully for us. But you’re probably wondering why.”

  “Just a little.”

  “Remember our attack on the PRT headquarters? We walked away with data. Data Coil and his best people couldn’t crack.”

  I nodded.

  “I think Victor could pull it off.”

  “Okay. Still not convinced.”

  “Hear me out. I told Coil that, and that got his attention. I had something of an idea that Victor, Rune and Othala were looking to leave the Chosen, so I floated the idea to Coil that he could make them an offer.”

  “I’m not so sure I’m a big fan of that idea.”

  “I don’t think they’ll accept. But if they do, I think it’ll work out for us anyways. But I’m getting off topic. The important thing isn’t recruiting them, but letting them know in a roundabout way that we’re involved with Coil and Coil’s involved with us.”

  I nodded. Outing Coil and his relationship to our takeover, maybe possibly. There were advantages to that. It would divert attention from us and maybe distract him.

  “Point three. Just a theory, but what if Grue could borrow Victor’s power and get some permanent boosts?”

  “Just as an idea? It’s interesting. You brought this up with him?”

  “No. Imp said he was resting when I called to ask. I figure it can’t hurt.”

  I nodded.

  “So we’re getting the data, we’re possibly outing Coil, and we’re putting a skill vampire in a situation where he’s surrounded with some very skilled people. Like a kid in a candy shop, I doubt he’ll be able to keep from drooling. Coil won’t let Victor get in situation where he can pick up anything special unless he agrees to join, that’s obvious enough. Except I’ve talked to Minor, Senegal, Pritt and Jaw, and they’re willing to give him a little something in the way of exclusive skills he wouldn’t otherwise have access to, in exchange for a few small favors.”

  “Like?”

  “Like getting a read on Coil’s talents and skills, perhaps. I can’t say for sure, but I’m thinking Victor could tell us what Coil’s day job used to be. Enough of a starting point that I can dig up more details. Know your enemy. And with a guy that versatile, I can think of several ways he could be useful.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “Okay?” she asked.

  “Okay. Yeah. I wish we could have talked about this before, but I’m willing to accept that we’ve been through a hell of a lot, and you’ve put up with a lot of demands from me. If you think this is a good idea, if you’re certain about this, I can accept that.”

  She nodded once, “Thank you.”

  “And me?” Regent asked. “No ‘I have faith in your judgement’?”

  “I really don’t,” I admitted.

  “Pshh. After everything I’ve done for you.”

  “Hm?”

  “Nevermind,” he said, chuckling. “I’m going to catch a ride to Coil’s and handle this next bit. Wonder how long he’ll hold out.”

  “I’ll come too,” Tattletale said. “I want to see how this plays out.”

  “If you don’t need me, I’m thinking I’m going to head back,” I said. “Take care of my people.”

  Tattletale nodded and gave me a short wave as she climbed into the back of the second truck.

  I wasn’t thrilled, but I could deal. I felt relieved to have a window of time to do what I needed to do. It wouldn’t be relaxation, but more moving on to the next point on my priority list, handling the stuff that absolutely positively needed to be handled. Making sure my dad was protected from Coil was a big one, making sure my people were both protected and equipped to protect themselves from the Chosen was another. I needed to get my equipment in order, and the costumes finished, make sure I touched base with Bitch so our recent good relationship didn’t fall apart, and maintain the lines of communication with Tattletale and Coil so I was up to date on upcoming events.

  “Do me a favor?” Someone asked from behind me.

  I spun around, drawing my knife. It was just Imp. Damn it.

  “What?” I asked. “Where’d you come from?”

  “I stayed behind to keep an eye on Night. Winking instead of blinking so I didn’t lose sight of her. And you don’t even remember that I was doing it. Fuck. Ungrateful bastards. I had to run the last block so I could be sure you didn’t fly off before I could ask.”

  “You could have phoned.”

  She shook her head. “You heard what Tattletale said. Coil might be listening in over the phones. We don’t mention anything we wouldn’t want him to overhear.”

  “And you don’t want him to overhear this favor?” I asked, hating myself even as I opened my mouth.

  How was I supposed to get a handle on everything if I was posed with two more crises every time I got something done?

  Interlude 15 (Donation Bonus #2)

  He pummeled the bag, one hit after another. There wasn’t any real rhyme or reason to his strikes. Only his training persisted, hardwired into his brain: the joints of his hands were stacked, his weight shifted back and forth over the balls of his feet, and the room was filled with the muffled thumps of fist against vinyl.

  His dad would be yelling at him right about now, shouting at him about how he was risking injury. Didn’t matter.

  Just needed to hit something.

  Needed to relea
se. To feel some relief, push himself to a point where he was too tired to think.

  Except all he felt was a mounting frustration.

  It spooked him, just a little. He couldn’t help but wonder if this was his new default state. If this was how he’d be for the rest of his life.

  He twisted his body to strike the bag with a roundhouse kick. The bag swung from the chain.

  He turned away. Sweat streamed down his body, his hands were shaking, and he couldn’t control his breathing.

  “Jesus, bro. You look like you’re going to have a heart attack.”

  He snapped his head around to see Aisha in the doorway. Cognitively, he’d known who she was the second he’d heard her voice, and he recognized her at a glance. Still, that initial alarm that came with being surprised sang through his nerves, not a momentary sensation, but a thrum of tension that wouldn’t go away.

  She didn’t seem to notice. It was like they were two different people in two very different scenes. She had her mask in one hand, her black scarf loosely piled around her neck.

  For a half second, he could see Bonesaw standing there instead, about the same height, dress, bloodstained apron glittering with tools and wide eyes darting about, taking in everything in her surroundings as if there was inspiration or tools to be found anywhere.

  He blinked, hard, and that fleeting image slipped away. It wasn’t the same. Aisha’s investigation of the area was casual, comfortable and idle, surveying his room. At the top floor of the headquarters he shared with her, his room had a punching bag, weight bench and sink in one corner, a bed and a stand for his costume in the opposite corner, and a television placed where he could watch it anywhere in the room. Not that there was much available in the way of channels.

  “You’re back,” he grunted. “Didn’t tell me you were going.”

  “You mean I didn’t ask permission. No. I totally wanted to hang around here with you wound as tight as a new clock.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” he said, still panting for breath. His chest hurt. He stepped over to the sink and splashed water on his face.

  “Sue me. Not like I’ve ever seen a wind-up clock. Not like you’ve ever seen one either. Don’t pretend you’re so much more civilized.”

  “Grandpa had one.”

  “Really?”

  He only nodded, still trying to get his breathing under control. This isn’t just the exercise. Something else. Can’t let her see it.

  “Still good to see…” he had to pause to catch a breath, “You’re okay.”

  “Of course I’m okay, dumbass. Nobody knows I’m there.”

  “Not good enough.” He began peeling off his gloves.

  “I’ve got the costume Skitter made me. I had no idea she was wearing something like this,” Aisha pulled at the fabric between her fingers, stretching it. “It’s so smooth and so light, I thought she was bullshitting about the fact that you couldn’t cut it. But I tried and she was right. It’s crazy. But yeah, I’m as safe as any of you. Safer.”

  That’s not saying that much. He examined his hands, where the skin was torn. Blood had welled out from the open wound and been pressed into the creases and pores. He turned on the tap again and put his hands under, washing where his skin was raw and bleeding at the knuckles.

  “Jesus fuck,” she gasped, looking past him to his hands. “Any time I’ve spent in the gyms, it’s ’cause Dad dragged me there, so I wasn’t paying attention so much as I was looking for the nearest exit. But I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to be bleeding like that.”

  What was he supposed to say to that?

  “Why did you do that to yourself?”

  “Just trying to tire myself out.”

  “You’re already tired, you dumbass! This isn’t going to improve the situation. How long were you fucking hitting that thing? The entire time I was gone?”

  I’ve handled worse, he thought. He’d meant it as a joke, a moment of personal humor, but the amusement didn’t come.

  “Incision here… saw through the breast bone, there we go. You’re cooperating so nicely! Not that you have much of a choice. Oh, here. This part is always cool. See, the ribs are flexible, and with the sternum separated, a little bit of help from Spider thirty-three here, they unfold like a bird slowly spreaaaaading its wings.”

  He leaned over the sink, gripping the edges. That pressure in his chest was getting worse.

  Her tone changed. “Hey, seriously, are you okay? You’ve been breathing really hard for a bit now, and now you’ve gone really quiet for, like, a minute. I didn’t use my power, either, so I know it’s not you ignoring me because of that.”

  He bit back the harsh retort, telling her to shut up, to stop being annoying and go away, that he wanted to be alone. If he did, she would; she’d run away from home six times in four years, had gone from their mother’s house to their father’s, back to their mother’s and then to foster care. Every time, there was a reason, some argument or incident that had pushed her. Any excuse would do, even a criticism at the wrong moment. The child services workers would put her somewhere else, praying for some stability that she would never have. She was flighty, like a wild animal that would bolt at a loud noise. That might forever be the case.

  If he lashed out like he had with Taylor, he doubted Aisha would forgive him so readily.

  “I’m okay,” he lied. “Tired.”

  He couldn’t scare her away like that, but he was afraid he would, anyways. Couldn’t trust himself like this, feeling like he was on the verge of snapping.

  The fact that he was spooked over the idea only contributed to the problem, compounded that restless anxiety that seemed to have nestled deep in the core of his body, which gave him more reason to worry. An endless cycle.

  If he were more rested, he knew, more rational, he could break the cycle, deliberately focus on something else. He’d hoped the exercise would help there. It hadn’t.

  He flinched as a hand settled on his arm.

  “Hey,” Aisha said. “Zoning out again.”

  “Mm.”

  “I was going to go out on a patrol near the school. Tattletale said there’s some leftover members of the Merchants hanging around over here, thought I’d scare them off. Maybe see if I can drive them into Ballistic’s territory, if I can’t push them out of the city.”

  “Don’t antagonize him,” Brian said.

  “Just saying, he’s better suited for a straight-up fight, and these guys are low-level mooks. We want them to panic, to see there’s no place to go.”

  No place to go.

  “I’ll come,” he decided.

  “No!” She said, with a little too much emphasis. “No you won’t. I’m perfectly capable of handling this. I’d stay to keep an eye on you, if I didn’t think it would do more harm than good.”

  “Alright,” he conceded. “Alright. Some quiet sounds good.”

  “I don’t want you doing this again, okay?” she gestured toward the bag, then his hands. “Really, it’s more than a little creepy. I know I don’t have a nurturing nature, like, at all, but I’m gonna feel pretty terrible if I come back and you’re a bloody mess.”

  “Oh,” Taylor’s voice, a croak. “Oh, Brian.”

  He winced.

  “Poor choice of words,” Aisha said. Quieter, she added, “Sorry.”

  “We shouldn’t be going anywhere alone,” he said. He was only now feeling like his breathing was getting under control.

  “Tattletale did. Skitter did. Regent sort of did.”

  “Tattletale and Skitter can see trouble coming. Regent’s got Shatterbird so he’s not alone.”

  Aisha shook her head. “Which doesn’t do him any good if he gets shot. Shatterbird would get free, and then everyone loses.”

  Don’t want to argue. Don’t want to get too deep into this. There’s already too many things to keep track of, too many variables to consider. “Hopefully everyone has more common sense than that. He really should be keeping her in containment u
nless she’s needed.”

  “We were taking on the Chosen, and some of Purity’s people. It’s all good. We picked up Victor, and Tattletale’s hoping you’ll try your power on him, see if you can’t pick something up.”

  Brian nodded, “After.”

  “So I’m gonna go now—”

  He grimaced. “I don’t want you going alone.”

  “I’m going with Regent. Relax.”

  Not sure that makes me feel better. “Not sure that’s the company I want you to keep.”

  He was well familiar with the annoyed look that flashed over her face before she forced it away. She said, “It’s fine. He’s your buddy, and our powers actually work well together. You and me, we can’t… what’s the word?”

  “Synergize.”

  “We can’t synergize. I do my thing, you do yours, but we get in each other’s way. You blind me, I wipe myself from your memory. With Regent and me, I can set people up for him to mess with, give him a chance to use his power. Or we mix it up a little, so I spook people, then he uses his power to make them feel like they’re being pushed around while I deal with others, to freak them out. Or I go in first and then give him word on what’s going on.”

  “You’ve been out with him before,” he realized.

  “Couple times. Just doing what you asked, not going out alone. You weren’t exactly up to it.”

  He looked down at his hands and picked off a peel of skin.

  “Um. So yeah. You stay right here, try to take it easy?” She sounded a little tense.

  “Yeah,” he replied.

  “Maybe we could go for a walk later? Check on one of the ‘rents?”

  It sounded so unlike her. He could count on one hand the number of times she’d been this conciliatory and gentle. He couldn’t remember a single case where she’d acted like that when she hadn’t wanted something.

  Brian forced a smile. “Maybe. You go. Be safe.”

  He was both relieved and terrified when the door shut behind Aisha.

  So many things were like that, now. Bad with the good, or just plain bad.

  Didn’t realize she’d been out with Regent. Need to catch up on things.

  He flexed his hands, feeling the pain where he’d damaged himself, and made his way into what he liked to call the war room.