I trailed off, but I kept one eye on him to see if there was any hint that he knew about Coil’s plans to terminate my future. There was nothing. I couldn’t see his face, but nothing had changed in his posture, his stride or overall body language.
“You’re not going to stop digging and get off my case here, huh?” He asked.
I was mentally categorizing him as very similar to Bitch in many respects. He was smarter, though, and the weapons he wielded in a discussion were less about threatening imminent harm than, what? Setting himself further apart from me? Breaking ties, categorizing me as an enemy in his head and making dealing with him harder in the future?
It would explain why there was a schism between him and the other members of his group.
“If you ask me to? I’ll back off. But…” I made the call on the spur of the moment, as I might with Bitch if I were positive she wasn’t about to hit me. ”I think you and I would both agree that you’d be admitting I’m right if you did.”
“That’s dirty.”
“Sure.”
“So what do you want to know, then? Shall I divulge my deepest, darkest secrets?”
“I’ll settle for knowing why you’re all so angry at Trickster, why you specifically are angry at him.”
“Nope. Can’t say.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“Won’t. We made a deal, and that deal means we’ve kept some stuff from Coil, even. I’m not about to tell you.”
“I don’t need to know specifics.”
“You don’t need to know the general details, either.”
“Not really. But maybe you need to tell me? One of your teammates said they were awfully lonely, and they’re closer with the rest of the team than you are. Maybe you’re lonely too, nobody to vent to?”
“I’m a guy. We don’t do the whole emotional sharing thing. You trying to channel Tattletale here? Why are you so intent on getting the details, here? This isn’t just curiosity or wanting to know your coworkers.”
Because so much hinges on my ability to get you on board against Coil.
I didn’t have a good response, so I fell silent. We continued walking down the streets towards the crater-lake, our footsteps sloshing in the shallow water.
“He took everything from us,” Ballistic said, breaking the silence.
“Trickster?”
“Trickster. When everything started falling apart, he stepped up to make the calls. Bad ones. And now the group is all we have left. No friends, no family, no home to go back to, no goals beyond fixing Trickster’s fuckups.”
I was thinking of how it had come out that Sundancer was reluctant to use her powers because of the damage she’d done in the past. Civilian deaths? Had they included their own families? Had Noelle been included in that?
It might explain why they were so gun-shy about using their powers to their fullest potential and why they’d been so insistent on keeping Noelle locked up when we were up against the Nine.
He went on, “The others might hate Trickster but they still respect him. Or they don’t respect him but they don’t hate him either. Probably more the former than the latter. But I don’t have any love for the guy, I don’t have any respect for him either, and I seem to be alone in that.”
“So where do you go from there?”
“Now we’re back to square one. I already explained. Money, being feared, respect and living in comfort as a badass watchdog.”
“All that stuff about hating him, blaming him for ruining your life, and you don’t want any revenge on him?” I asked, as casually as I could manage.
“No. I’m with the group for one reason. I stick with shit. Not going to turn on the guy. I agreed to this thing with Coil because I thought it’d be a way to get back some of what we’ve lost, maybe. But all I see is my teammates getting all starry-eyed with hope while Coil feeds us empty promises. Saying Tattletale will find an answer, or he’ll make a request to some major scientists in parahuman study. And of course there’s no answers.”
“There could be.”
“Nah. Why would he give us what we want if it means losing our services? But I don’t really care anymore. I made a deal with Coil and I’ll stick that through until I have a good reason not to. Way I figure it, fuck my team, fuck Coil, but it’s not worth confronting anyone over if it means I’m wasting the remaining two years of my life trying to get another gig this cushy.”
“That seems kind of claustrophobic, setting those restrictions on yourself, letting things with your team drop by the wayside. Being all alone?”
“Won’t be alone. Figure I’ve got enough cash and respect I can get groupies. That’ll do for the next couple of years. Unless you’re going to argue there’s some point to a committed, long term relationship when there’s no long term?”
I sighed. There was no point in continuing this. I could tell that Ballistic wasn’t going to budge, and I didn’t have a ‘good reason’ to convince him to join us.
We crossed several city blocks in silence. When we’d reached the lake Leviathan had created downtown, we began to walk around to the north end to Dolltown.
“So how are we doing this? Attack strategy?” Ballistic asked.
“Any chance you’ll let me make the first move?”
“And take all the credit?” His voice hardened.
“I’ll let you take half the credit if I’m successful. You can take all the credit if I fail.”
“Nope.”
“What?”
“I get what you’re doing. You want to make us Travelers look bad. Get yourself a bigger slice of the pie somewhere down the road. More respect, more power, and you’re doing that by wedging yourself into everything, getting hyperinvolved. Gotta be in first place.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Right. Then explain why you’re going overboard with your territory.”
“I’m getting the job done, taking care of my people.”
“Nah. It’s more than that. There’s something driving you to work that hard. You’re looking to supplant us.”
He’d stopped walking. I paused and turned to face him.
He chuckled lightly, “I don’t blame you for it. I mean, it’s pretty scummy, when we’re supposed to be working together, but I get that you want to be on top.”
“We are working together.”
“I may be taller and in better shape than average, but I’m not dumb. You think I didn’t catch the wedge you were trying to drive into our team? Sounding me out for any hard feelings I might have for the others?”
Shit. This sort of thing was Tattletale’s field, not mine. Now it was going south fast, and I could imagine how this would explode in my face.
I cleared my throat a little and clarified, “I was sounding you out because it was clear you did have hard feelings for the other members of your team, and I wanted to give you a chance to talk about it.”
“Ah, so the creepy bug girl is really a softie in the end,” his voice was laced with sarcasm. ”No ulterior motives at all.”
“Whatever,” I said. ”Nevermind.”
“So fuck you,” he said. ”No, I’m not giving you first dibs on this doll woman. Second I see her, I’m taking her out of action and making it a hundred percent clear it was all my doing. You’ll get what you wanted, which you said was to see the territory, and I get what I want, which is to finish up my territory so I can kick back.”
This wasn’t how I wanted things to go on any level. I could have groaned in frustration. Instead, I sent out a command to my bugs and took a deep breath.
“Okay,” I told him.
“Yeah?”
“But I think I’ll stay out of the line of fire. I get the impression I offended you, so maybe we give each other some breathing room? Avoid getting shot?”
“I wouldn’t jeopardize the setup I’ve got with Coil for that. But maybe it’s best you do stay out of the way.”
I nodded and turned to go.
Okay, so no mole ins
ide the Travelers.
I could still hope to achieve something here.
Using my bugs, I tracked Parian’s movements within Dolltown. She was moving quickly, joined by a small collection of people. Many were shrouded in cloth, leaving me to guess if they were real people or something new she’d done with her creations.
I drew out directions with my bugs, guiding her away from Ballistic. She didn’t listen at first, but that changed when Ballistic fired off his first attack, creating a deafening crash. From the sound of it, he’d done something to send a car flying into a building. A moment later, he did it again. I walked faster. I could call Atlas to me, but I didn’t want to get spotted in the air.
Dolltown was ugly. It had been hit hard by the Nine and the fight between them and Hookwolf’s army. There were scars on the buildings where Hookwolf had struck, holes and marks in the wall where Purity had fired her beams. Menja had done some damage here and there, with some handprints marking various pieces of architecture where her gauntlets had bit into stone and metal.
I pushed open a doorway and stepped into a ruined building. Parian faced me. Her mask had a crack in it, and there was blood staining her worn frock. She was surrounded by a half-dozen of her remaining people, each of whom wore masks and costumes. A life-size doll, a man who was wrapped in fabric to the point that he looked something like a mummy, a little girl in a skintight suit of flannel with holes cut out for the eyes, one blue and one green.
Did Parian have capes working for her? Or-
No.
They were the people Bonesaw had done surgery on. The ones she’d altered to look like members of the Nine. They were covering the faces and bodies Bonesaw had given them.
“What do you want?” Parian asked.
“To negotiate,” I said.
“Your buddy isn’t too interested in negotiating, by the sounds of it,” she said. She flinched as another crash sounded somewhere nearby.
“I took a gamble here, warning you about him. He wanted to hurt you, make you into an example. I don’t operate that way.”
“Don’t think I can trust you on that.”
“You’ll have to. Because I’ve gone around Ballistic’s back, I’m kind of counting on you hearing me out, because if I fail here, it’s going to fuck up things with this alliance my team has with the Travelers.” And with Coil.
She glanced around. I could sense someone moving nearby. One of her people, sneaking up behind me. No gun, a light search with my bugs told me, and more of the same cloth costume the other Dolltown residents were wearing. I ignored my potential assailant. I could handle an attack from a knife. I’d just need to be on guard in case they aimed to club me over the head.
“I know about the person that’s circling around to ambush me,” I said. ”Can we just talk, without someone trying to hurt me?”
“What are you wanting to talk about, then?”
“You got dealt a raw hand. The Nine targeted you, like they targeted some people I care about. People I love. That’s not fair. So I was thinking, I’ve got a lot of money. I have access to resources. I know it’s not much, it’s not really enough, but maybe we could get doctors for your friends and family. Fix what’s been done to them.”
“And what would you want in exchange?”
“Join my team,” I said. ”I-”
“No.”
“Listen,” I hissed the word, “It’s the best way to guarantee safety for everyone here. It gets Ballistic off your back. Even if you avoid him today, he’s going to level half of Dolltown, and he’ll come back tomorrow to level the other half. Everything else would stay the same, you’d have the same freedoms, only we’d supply you with everything you need. Not just rice and fresh water, but good food. Medical care. Proper shelter. All you need to offer is lip service and we can fix so many of the things that have gone wrong here.”
The person behind me stepped closer. I turned to keep an eye on her and she lunged in that same instant.
Three spikes of metal were sticking out from between her fingers, like improvised brass knuckles. When she punched them into my shoulder, they went straight through my costume, piercing through the bone as though they were hot knives and I were nothing but soft butter. She swept my feet from under me and pushed me to the ground.
“The lady said no,” Flechette told me, one hand holding me down, the other hand raised to strike me again.
15.06
Not my brightest move, I had to admit. The problem with acting like I was tough enough to shrug off an attack from a knife wielder was that the illusion failed pretty damn hard when I actually got stabbed.
I’d been relying too much on my costume.
“If I see a single bug, I’ll be forced to use this,” Flechette said, angling the spike of metal in her hand so I could see it better.
“Isn’t that going too far?” Parian asked, her voice small.
“No,” Flechette said. Her hand was still poised to strike the second I moved.
“She was just talking.”
“She just talked to Panacea, if you remember. And I told you before, the last time Glory Girl was seen was in her company. I’ve explained what happened after that.”
“You think she did it?”
Did what?
“I think the thinker-seven on her team might have. Running theory is that Tattletale has a clairvoyance that lets her see weak points. Finds the points to attack in people, security systems, patrol routes, reverse-engineers the results to get general information.”
Okay, she’d hit the key points, but sort of got it backwards.
“That was Jack,” I said. ”Jack was the one who got to Amy.”
“Occam’s razor. Most likely answer is often the correct one. Or something like that,” Flechette said, ”Is it going to be Jack, who has powers we already know? Or is it going to be Tattletale, who has set down more than enough precedent for that kind of behavior and a still-unknown power? It fits what your group’s trying to do, taking over the city for yourselves. And I should point out that records do seem to point to people being left devastated or ruined wherever you go. Panacea, Armsmaster, the Slaughterhouse Nine-”
“You’re complaining about us taking out the Nine? And that wasn’t all us. It wasn’t even mostly us. That was everything going to hell and people with issues getting pushed past their limits. We were only involved because we’ve tried to help every step of the way.”
“You think she was going to do to me what she did to Glory Girl and Panacea?” Parian asked.
“I’d say the possibility exists,” Flechette said. “And that’s reason enough to be very careful.”
Damn this. ”I’m not trying to fucking corrupt or psychologically traumatize Parian. Or anyone else! Yes, we’re trying to take over the city. Yes, we’re currently working on eliminating the competition-”
“Mm,” Flechette murmured, her expression hard.
“But that’s not why I’m here, not exactly. It serves our goals just as well if I recruit Parian. It’s one person out of the way, and it gives us a way to help people who need it.”
“So you say.”
“Fuck, I hate it when people do that. ’Everything you say is a lie, including any protests or arguments over the fact that you’re a liar.’”
There was a crash, further away than the last. Ballistic had headed in a different direction. For the moment, at least, we were out of harm’s way.
“You’re sort of well-known in the community for being deceptive and underhanded.”
“Because of what Armsmaster said at the hospital?”
“In part.”
“Is nobody paying attention to the fact that he was seriously bent in the head? To the point that the Slaughterhouse Nine thought he was a good candidate for their group?”
“Mannequin targeted Armsmaster to mess with him. It’s his M.O.. He goes out of his way to attack and ruin tinkers and other individuals who could do something for society.”
“I love how the so
-called ‘good’ guys get to revise events to make stuff more convenient for them.”
“It’s a perk. People tend to trust your version of events when you’re doing what’s right,” Flechette said. The spike she gripped between two fingers tapped against my throat, but didn’t pierce the fabric. She wasn’t using her power or she could have killed me.
“You’re implying that you guys are doing what’s ‘right’ that much more often than we are.”
“That should be obvious.”
“And you really believe that?”
“Have to.”
“Do you know why Armsmaster was arrested?”
“He wasn’t.”
“Unofficially arrested, then. Do you know why he was cooped up in the local PRT headquarters, with no official title or role?”
“He was in therapy for his injury. He lost an arm.”
“I know. I was there when Leviathan tore it out of the socket. I applied pressure to the wound to try to stop the blood loss. But that’s not why they locked him up. They could have given him an administrative position if it was just an injury, and they didn’t.”
“Maybe they did. It’s not like either of us were there when the decisions were made.”
“With no job title? They didn’t list one for him, and with the state of the city, they could have leveraged his reputation alone to boost morale, just by saying Armsmaster was in charge of the local task-forces.”
“There’s emotional stress with permanent injuries, too.”
“Plenty of people under just as much stress, if not more, after the Endbringer hit. But I’ll admit your perspective’s better than mine,” I said, looking up at her. ”You joined the Wards just in time to see the aftermath of Gallant and Aegis dying. How did they handle that? If the PRT was that accommodating with Armsmaster, I’m sure they arranged for therapy and time off for all the Wards.”
“Yes to therapy,” she said. ”No to the time off. Too much to take care of.”
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