Chapter 75
A Darker Path
Part Seventy-Five: Pulling Back the Curtain
[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
Bianca
The picture on the screen cut out as Atropos stepped through yet another portal. Bianca looked around at the sound of a footstep, to find the black-clad killer standing alongside her throne. "That's every major resistance group calling-carded," Atropos observed. "You done? Because I am."
"Not quite yet." Bianca stretched while remaining seated. The feeling of power was intoxicating. Having such a potent force as Atropos begging for her time was exactly as it should be, and exactly as it would be, until she had no further use for the killer. "My Court has yet to finish their evening meal. Once they return, we will send people to each of the bases that you hit, to find the names of every last surviving member of the resistance, to bring them to my presence. And then, you will stand alongside me as I address the world. They must learn that my rule is paramount, once and for all."
"I didn't agree to that." Atropos' voice was mild.
Bianca chuckled indulgently. "I don't give a shit if you did or not. It's what I'm saying is going to happen, so it's going to happen."
"You're making a mistake, but you do you." Atropos took off the camera and put it on the small table, then perched in the chair opposite Bianca, one booted foot up on the seat with her hands clasped around the shin. "So, I've got to ask. How do you see this playing out? Where's the win condition in all this for you? If you keep pushing people down and treating them like disposable tools, you have to know that sooner or later you're going to run into someone who can push back harder and sharper. What do you do then?"
"It'll never happen." Bianca shook her head to indicate just how wrong Atropos was in her assumptions. "I'm the most powerful person in the world. The strong rule; the weak submit. That's how it goes, in nature and society. There's nobody stronger than me, so I'm the one who gets to tell everyone else what to do."
"I've run into that mindset before." Atropos' tone was dismissive. "Can't say I'm a fan. But let's go with that. Let's say your plan A is 'be stronger than everyone else'. What's your plan B? And plan C?"
"I don't need another plan!" Bianca wanted to grab Atropos and shake her, to force her to understand. "If my Mastery does not work, I use my telekinesis. If that doesn't work, I use my force field and boost one of my other powers. What part of 'I am the strongest' do you not yet understand?"
"And when you run into someone like me, you take hostages, is that it?" Atropos' voice was deceptively mild. "Because that's so brave."
Bianca flushed when she realised that members of the Court were filing back into the room and had heard the last retort. "I needed you for a task that you were specifically good at, so I went and got you." She sniffed. "Had I wanted to merely kill you, rather than bend you to my will, you would already be dead."
"Hmm. Might not have been as easy as you think." Atropos let go of her leg and sat up in the chair. "Did you ever stop to think I might have allowed you to take me? So we'd end up here, in your throne room, with cameras trained on us all, broadcasting this to the world?"
"Really." Bianca let her scorn fill her words. "My people are loyal to me. They would not activate the cameras, nor begin a broadcast, unless I gave the word. And I have not given the word."
"You sure about that?" Atropos' shears were suddenly in her hand. She started twirling them back and forth in a near-hypnotic pattern.
Bianca stared at her, then up at the cameras arrayed around the room. They should have been dead and dark, but tiny red lights glared from each and every one. "What's happening?" she shouted. "Who turned on the cameras?"
"Not the question you should be asking." Atropos hadn't moved, save to keep twirling the shears back and forth, back and forth.
Bianca pointed directly at the nearest camera, so the person controlling it would have no choice but to know who she was addressing. "Turn the cameras off! At once!"
"And that wasn't even a question. You're really missing the point, here." Twirl, twirl. Back and forth, back and forth. The polished metal glittered in the bright lights of the room.
With a surge of anger, Bianca decided to make her will known in no uncertain terms. The red lights hadn't winked off, so it was time for stronger measures. Glaring at the camera, she brought all her telekinesis to bear on it, so it would rip free of its mounting. That would show Atropos who was in charge.
Absolutely nothing happened.
Bianca blinked. That wasn't right. She poured all the enhanced power into it that she could, and tried again.
The camera continued to exist unharmed, undeterred by her attempts to destroy it.
"And your next question should be, 'what happened to my telekinesis', right?" Atropos gestured encouragingly with her free hand. "Come on. You can do this. Figure it out."
Bianca came to her feet as the mocking tone ignited an epiphany in her mind. "You!" she shouted, pointing accusingly at Atropos. "You did this!" She wasn't quite sure what Atropos had done, or how she'd done it, but it had to be her.
Slowly, derisively, Atropos clapped as she stood up as well; the shears went away after one last twirl. "I knew you could get there. Yeah, I did it. Those people running the cameras? Resistance. I teleported them in there while we were sitting and talking. They're, uh, not quite as dead as I led you to believe."
"But you shot them!" Bianca was having trouble adjusting to what Atropos was telling her. Was this all some gigantic trick? Was Atropos trying to con her into surrendering? "I saw it!"
Suddenly, Atropos was holding a pistol in one hand and a ballpoint pen in the other. The pen began twirling between her fingers like a living thing. "Yeah, I did, but I'd already modified my ammunition so it barely punctured flesh, and I always shot to hit bone. Also, if you strike just right with the blunt end of a pen, you can semi-paralyse the diaphragm, leaving the victim unable to move. That's what I was doing to everyone nearby before the picture came back on after each jump. It wears off after a few minutes, but in the meantime, especially if I've shot them, they look really dead. The ones I had to shoot afterward, I did the same to them while pretending to check their pulses. Then I left calling cards with instructions to wait for a portal to open." She gestured, making the pen and pistol vanish again. "Meanwhile, you saw exactly what you wanted to see."
Atropos
"But what did you do to my telekinesis?" demanded Goddess. "My force field? What have you done to me? Did you hypnotise me, to make me think I was weak? Tell me!"
"Hah, no." I grinned under the mask. "You never looked up Bastard Son, did you? If you'd asked the idiots you've got in the dungeon, they'd tell you that I killed his powers then let his previous followers chase him down. And you let me loose in the kitchens. I found what you'd be eating for your evening meal, and … added a little extra prep. Your Court," I gestured to the ex-capes staring at me like chickens at a cobra, "have permanently lost all access to their powers. Which means the only remaining member of your cluster … is you."
"I still have my power!" There was an air of desperation in her voice, as though she was trying to convince herself that this was enough. Her head came up then, and her lip curled in triumph. "And I have your hostages! Reverse it all now and kill those broadcasting, or they die!"
I knew Riley and Theo were okay, but even before Bianca gave the order, I knew Emma was in danger. Her guard was jumping the gun. Flipping open the panel, I typed in the coordinates and hit the button.
Emma
"Repent," Emma urged. "Prostrate yourself before Our Lady in Darkness, and she will spare you."
"Shut up, will you?" The guard turned to look at the TV screen mounted on the wall. Dark and blank until now, it showed an image of a woman clad in blue and white facing off against Atropos. The woman looked arrogant and confident, while Atropos was impassive as ever. "I want to watch this."
"So, I've got to ask." Atropos sounded almost bored. "How do you see this playing out? Where's the win condition in all this for you?"
Emma felt a grin stealing across her face. Atropos never asked questions she didn't know the answer to. When the woman in blue stated boldly that she got to tell everyone what to do because she was stronger, Emma shook her head. It was evident that she'd never heard of Sophia's fate. As the conversation progressed, Emma became more and more certain that the woman in blue had no idea what was happening, and Atropos knew more than she was letting on.
And then things started going wrong, for a very specific definition of the word. By now, Emma was well acquainted with Atropos' specific brand of chaos, so she recognised the glorious cascade of mishaps for what it was. The guard, on the other hand, seemed to lack the pattern recognition to understand what was going on, and kept muttering that his 'goddess' would defeat the unbeliever.
It was only when Atropos patiently explained how she'd subverted Goddess' entire plan, as well as her regime, that the penny finally dropped for the guard. Turning to Emma, he pointed at the screen. "Tell me that she lies! Tell me that she cannot have done what she says!"
"Haven't you heard a word I've been saying?" Emma rolled her eyes. "Atropos saw your 'goddess' coming a mile away. She's done, and you're done. Give up now, and I'll—whoa!" As the guard pulled his knife and advanced menacingly on her, Emma backed away. "Trust me, you do not want to do this!"
"I serve the will of my Goddess." The gleam of light on the steadily weaving blade made the guard's resolute tone even creepier than it would normally have been. "If her decree means that I die, then I die. But you will die first."
Emma tried ducking one way, then another, but the bastard had arms like a gorilla on steroids, and he inexorably backed her into the corner. Okay, Taylor, any second now.
Nothing happened, save that the blade drew back, preparatory for a slash or a stab; Emma didn't know which, but she knew it would be bad, and she didn't want either one to happen. Adrenaline flushed through her body, making the movements seem to be in slow motion. Atropos! Come on! Quit screwing around!
The blade came in, lethally gleaming. Terror flooded through her. Our Lady in Darkness, I beseech you! Help me!
Suddenly, she fell backward as a hand hauled on her shoulder, the knife-point barely pricking the skin of her stomach before it lost contact again. Sprawling on her back in the middle of a large room, she looked up as her Lady in Darkness levelled a shotgun at the portal she'd just fallen through. The shotgun boomed, sending echoes throughout the room, then the portal vanished.
Atropos
Stepping to Emma's side, I reached down to help her up. "You okay?" I asked.
"I live or die at Your whim, my Lady," she replied dreamily as she came to her feet, and I snapped my head around to stare at her. For a moment I wondered if she'd hit her head and gotten a concussion, then I recognised the look in her eyes.
Great. One more thing I can lay at the feet of this idiot. I just about had Emma snapped out of it, and now we're right back where we started.
"Well, let's work on living for the time being, okay?" I levelled the shotgun at Goddess, who was smirking openly at me. "As for you, do you honestly think you've won? The word's going out. Resistance will be flooding into the city. Your Master effect is not going to hold them at bay."
"I forced you to choose," she exulted with a cruel little smile. "You may overcome me, but you will forever remember and rue the day that you condemned two of your own to death to save a third. Is she truly worth it?"
"Emma?" I didn't look away from Goddess. "You can ask her yourself. She'll probably tell you that she's not. But you're working under a misapprehension here. You think the other two hostages are dead?"
"How could they not be?" Bianca laughed harshly; her eyes gleaming with malice. "The child and the boy, murdered by your action, if not by your hand. Do you think they hated you for not saving them while they begged for their lives?"
"Nope. Because I know something you don't." I put the shotgun away. "You see, your low-rent thugs screwed up big-time. The kid they grabbed? That wasn't Aisha. They grabbed her cousin Riley. Better known as Miss Medic." I glanced across at Emma. "You didn't hear that."
"I hear and see nothing that my Lady in Darkness wishes me not to," Emma promised.
"And so?" asked Goddess. "What is a healer to do against a gun and a knife?"
"You'd be surprised." I snapped my fingers, and the portal formed near me. A moment later, the thug who'd been guarding Riley stepped through, with Riley riding on his shoulders. His head was mostly shaven, and she had her fingertips inserted into glove-like ports in his skull. The portal closed behind them as she stared around. "Hi, Riley," I said. "You doing okay?"
"Uh, yeah." She looked guiltily down at the guy she was puppeteering. "I can fix him, honest. I swear, I'll put him right back the way he was."
"Don't sweat it," I said. "Sometimes, you gotta do what you gotta do. We're still waiting on Theo, anyway." I tilted my head as a distant thunder echoed from outside. "And here he comes now."
I was pretty sure Theo just wanted to blast his way in through the roof once he figured out where we were, but he restrained himself enough to find an entrance. The doors were shut, but I heard a whooom that marked their demise. Then he came onward, alternately walking and flying until he reached the room we were in. He drifted across the floor about ten feet up with jets flaring from the backs of his legs, then came in for a reasonably smooth landing, metal boots clanking onto the floor. The flight-jets retracted into the legs once he was at rest, in a way that would've made Armsmaster reach for a drawing board. In his hands was a massive rifle-like weapon that looked like it could bring down low-flying aircraft.
"Riley, you're okay," he said with evident relief, his suit amplifying his voice to a solid baritone. "I was really worried." He paused, staring at her. "Wait, are you a cape?"
"Long story." She grinned at him. "I'm really glad you're okay too."
"Nice suit," I said admiringly. "The plasma cannon looks pretty cool as well." It was at least four feet long, with glowing lines along the barrel. I could see the influence of several science-fiction artists in it.
"Thanks," he said automatically. "Did you know what was going to happen?"
"Not all of it, not beforehand, but enough to make preparations." I nodded toward Goddess. "Meet the idiot who thought she could put one over on us. You might call her the local version of Hitler, complete with 'master race' ideology."
"You!" snapped Goddess, and I was pretty sure she was exerting her Master ability as hard as she could. "Kill Atropos! Now! You will be greatly rewarded!"
The plasma cannon, which had been pointing at the roof, snapped down into line. As the two-inch-wide muzzle aimed directly at Goddess' head, the lines on either side of the barrel glowed a brighter and brighter orange until they were almost white. At the same time, a concomitant hum rose from the weapon.
"Go ahead," Theo said, his voice loaded with quiet menace. "Give me another order. Please."
"At ease, Theo." I strolled forward, pushing the immense gun aside with one finger. "I think she's got the message. Now for mine. Release your Mastery on everyone. Now."
"Or what?" she sneered. For someone who could die at any moment, she had a great line in bravado, though I suspected a large chunk of it was because she simply didn't believe we'd kill her.
Which made her an idiot of the highest degree, but I already knew that part.
I drew my shotgun. "You may recall I mentioned how Shins are now a privilege? This morning you had three. Now you have two. Do what I say, or that number is going to go all the way to zero."
"And I won't fix you up," Riley added, from her perch atop her current ride. "This guy said a lot of very mean things to me, and I'm pretty sure they came from you."
"You wouldn't—" Goddess began. I didn't let her finish. The word 'dare' went unsaid as I fired the shotgun, blowing her left tibia clear in half and fracturing the fibula. Her leg was blown out from under her and she spun around, face-planting on the marble floor tiles. I'd made sure not to hit any major blood vessels, but there was still a mess on the floor as she screamed and writhed and puked in agony. From the smell of it, she'd soiled herself, too.
It wasn't a pretty sight, and the cameras were catching everything.
"Riley?" I asked. "Make her lucid, at least?"
"I can do that, sure." Riley made her man-puppet kneel down, then she hopped off and trotted over to where Goddess was making an inelegant spectacle of herself. "Theo, help me hold her still?"
"Sure." Theo made the plasma rifle vanish—in itself a neat trick—and leaned down. One metallic hand held Goddess' upper body still, and the other kept her leg immobile while Riley worked her magic. In a remarkably short time, she had the bleeding under control and Goddess was blinking up at me, at least able to focus.
"So," I said, racking the shotgun with supreme menace. "Do you honestly think I won't deprive you of your last Shin?"
It took her all of half a second to make that call. "N-no," she quavered, cringing away from me.
"Good." I aimed the gun at her one remaining pristine leg. "So, as I was saying, release every last one of your slaves, and you get to keep it."
"But … the mob … they'll tear me to pieces." She looked around wildly for a way out. Unfortunately, she had nowhere to go. She barely had a leg to stand on, as the saying went.
"You should really have thought of that before you started all this. I mean, I did warn you."
"No, you didn't!" she blurted. "You gave me no chances at all!"
I sighed. "I asked you how you thought you were going to survive this. I told you that you'd regret it. I even explained that I'd bring you down the same way I did with Bastard Son. I gave you every warning possible. Now release them. I'm not going to ask again."
The memory of the recent pain shone darkly in her eyes as she relaxed her power. I felt the subtle pressure stop, and all around me the Court shifted slightly. My threatscape also altered; every last enthralled member of the population watching this on their TVs ceased to think of me in the unkindest of terms, and shifted their ire to the one who had Mastered them.
"Alright then." I holstered the shotgun and drew my shears; at the same time, I palmed the container of power-nullification gel that I'd used to dose the food in the kitchens, and touched up the blades of the shears with it.
Goddess stared up at me as I loomed over her. "What are you going to do with—ow!" She cowered back, clutching at the cut I'd inflicted on her hand. "I did what you told me to! Why did you do that?"
"I killed Bastard Son's powers." Twirling the shears to flick the blood off them, I re-sheathed them. "Weren't you listening? Did you honestly think I wasn't going to do the same to you?"
"You didn't have to blow my leg off!" she screeched.
"Yeah, I did." I grinned, though she couldn't see it. "You needed taking down a peg or two." Turning, I addressed the cameras. "Citizens of Earth Shin! As you can see, your self-styled Goddess has been brought low. In case you were unaware of who I am and where I'm from; I'm Atropos, from Earth Bet. She brought me here to eradicate the last of the resistance cells fighting for your freedom, but I had other ideas."
"So, what are you going to do now?" called out one of the ex-servants, who were currently eyeing the ex-Court in a very unfriendly fashion. "Will you be taking the throne in her place? Ruling us as she did?"
I shook my head. "Nope. I will be leaving very shortly, and taking my friends with me, just as soon as their belongings are returned to them. What you do from here on in is up to you, but I strongly encourage you to rebuild your governments with the aim of promoting equality and equity for all. Nobody, cape or otherwise, should be a second-class citizen."
"They forced rule over us!" shouted another onlooker, boosted by shouts of agreement around him. "Why should we not do the same to them?"
I let a harsh note creep into my tone. "Because that will just guarantee that the friction between you will continue forever. They will push back, just as you are pushing back now."
"And we will keep them down forever!" It was the same man. "We have the numbers, and they no longer have her!"
"No, you won't!" I pointed at him. "Capes come from you! Capes come from humanity! What would you do if laws were written making capes into second-class citizens, and then the very next day, you got powers? Would you meekly submit to the rules you helped write, or would you pretend to be normal? Pretend not to have powers? Because powers will come out! When your friends and neighbours turn against you because you're one of the enemy now, do you give yourself up? Do you run away? Do you join the other new capes who are also unjustly accused, and fight back? Do you start this whole conflict all over again?"
Silence greeted my words. I paused for a beat, then gestured at the defeated Goddess. "She thought she could build a dictatorship and rule the world, oppressing all below her. Normally I wouldn't care what you do with yourselves, but you have access to Earth Bet. So if anyone tries to start a war that might spill over into my world, or even worse, just straight-up tries to invade us … I will be back. Equality and trade gets you a damn sight further than oppression and war."
I stopped talking, and waited. Nobody seemed willing to challenge me on what I'd said, and in just a few moments, one of the ex-servants dashed up to me with three small cloth bags. In them were two phones (I guessed Theo's and Riley's), some incidentals, and a bunch of Goth-style jewellery. There were no prizes for guessing who that bag belonged to.
While we'd been waiting for this, Riley had been reversing the surgery she'd done on the mook who'd ended up as her personal transport. He wasn't pretty by the time she finished, but that was fine: he hadn't been pretty to start with.
"Okay," she said, wiping her hands off. "I'm done. We can go now."
"Excellent." I nodded at Theo. "Might want to de-armour, so you don't draw any attention when we go back through."
"Okay." One piece at a time, his armour went away to wherever he kept it, leaving him standing barefoot on the marble palace tiles. Riley immediately hugged him, and he returned the embrace.
"Wait!" Goddess—Bianca, now that she was entirely without her powers—struggled up onto one elbow. "You lied to me! You said the name of Goddess would be celebrated across the world! You said there would be a public holiday! You said!" For someone facing imminent death from the mob that she'd enslaved—an entirely appropriate death, in my opinion—she sounded quite unhappy at the perceived slight.
"No, I didn't." I turned to face her. "I'm pretty sure there'll be a public holiday to mark the occasion of getting rid of you. And maybe you've forgotten, but Atropos is also the name of a goddess."
"Take me with you!" Her eyes were wide with desperation, and she strained to pull herself up by the arm of her raised throne. "I'm begging you!"
"Sorry, you don't have a valid passport. But hey, how's that 'being stronger than everyone else' thing working out for you right now?" I touched the brim of my hat. "Toodles."
The portal formed in front of us; Riley, used to this, led the way, with Theo right behind her. Emma needed no urging to follow on, and I brought up the rear. The last I saw of Goddess was the look of abject terror on her face as more and more enraged commoners flooded into the throne room.
Not my monkeys, not my circus.
Theo
Following Riley, Theo stepped out onto the footpath outside what he belatedly recognised as the apartment block he was now sharing with Riley, Brian and Aisha. Overhead, the sun seemed to be showing mid-afternoon. "Wow, we're home," Riley said. "That's it? I mean … that's it?" She stared at Atropos apprehensively. "What I did back there …"
"You did what you had to." Atropos put her hand on the shorter girl's shoulder. "I will never condemn anyone for defending themselves. If you'd gone all cackling and power-mad, I would've had words to say, but you pulled yourself back."
"Oh." Riley blinked. "Thanks. I … I hadn't considered it that way."
Atropos nodded. "Just remember: now you know you can keep yourself in check, it's up to you to do that for yourself."
"I will." Riley's eyes were shining. "I promise. Thank you."
"I have faith in you." Atropos gestured at the building. "You two should get inside. Brian and Aisha will be worried, and Director Renick won't be much better off. Losing a Ward on his second day as Director? Not a great start."
Theo raised his hand. "Should I, uh, join …?"
"That's up to you," Atropos advised him. "Though you could do a lot worse. Some of the Wards are transferring out of town, so there'll be more chances for one-on-one training from the heroes that are staying behind."
"I'll help!" Riley declared. "C'mon, Theo. Let's go!"
He let her grab his arm and drag him inside. Once they were in the elevator, she turned to him. "Okay, spill. How did you Tinker up that armour so fast? Where did it go? How did you even do that?"
"Whoa, whoa, wait," he protested, putting his hands up. "I don't want to have to explain all this twice over, so how about you go first? How long have you been a cape?"
Oddly, she clasped one arm with the other and looked off to the side. "Since … um, since before I started living with Brian and Aisha."
There was something going on there, but he didn't care much about the details. "So you're …" There was only one candidate for the skills he'd seen Riley use. "Miss Medic, right?" Then another piece of the puzzle fell into place, and he facepalmed. "Argh, and Brian's Tenebrae. Why didn't I see that? I grew up in a cape household!"
"Yeah, but shush. Nobody's supposed to know that."
There was one more thing he needed to know. "So, is Aisha …?"
"Nope." Riley grinned suddenly as the elevator doors opened. "Boy, is she gonna be mad at you. You just got here." And you've already got powers, she didn't have to say.
"I didn't mean to!" he protested, but he didn't resist as she dragged him out of the elevator and along the corridor. "It just happened!"
"Yeah, good luck explaining that to her." They stopped in front of the door, which seemed to be newly repaired. "Okay, is my key in here?" Riley started digging into the bag Atropos had given her.
"Look, I'll just knock." Theo took a deep breath, and rapped on the door. "Are they even—"
The word 'home' was never uttered as the door was yanked open. Brian stood there, anxiety written all over his features. "Has there been any—" The look of shock transforming to delight on his face was something Theo would always remember. "Aisha!" he yelled, even as he scooped up Riley and held her tight. "They're home! They're back! They're here!"
"They're what?" Aisha was suddenly in Theo's face, then she grabbed him and held him tight. "C'mere, you big lug! Where've you been? We've been worried sick!"
Where Riley's first hug hadn't been quite enough to make him cry, Aisha's unabashed expression of affection did the trick. Tears cascaded down his cheeks as she dragged him inside, holding him all the while. She only let go to grab Riley and give her an even more intense hug, while Brian took the opportunity to subject Theo to a back-cracking squeeze that left him decidedly short of breath.
"Okay, what the hell happened?" asked Aisha, a few minutes later. Brian was on the phone to Ms Brown, passing on the news with as much excitement as he ever showed. "We came back to find the door kicked in and you two gone. The PRT, Armsmaster, cops with sniffer dogs, everyone's been through here. Where did you go, what happened, and how did you get back?"
Theo and Riley shared a glance with each other, and Riley began to giggle. "You are honestly not going to believe it," Theo warned.
"Try me," Aisha challenged. Theo saw that Brian was also listening in.
"So, a power-mad despot from an alternate Earth managed to concoct what was possibly the stupidest plot that's ever been devised," Theo began. "And trust me, I know power-mad villains and their plots."
"Oh, come on. How stupid could they be?" Aisha gestured toward the closest window. "We live in Brockton Bay. We've had some really fuckin' stupid villains here."
"They kidnapped Atropos," Theo and Riley said in unison.
Theo watched as Aisha shared a look of horrified fascination with Brian. "Okay, yeah," she conceded. "That's a stupid plan, alright. So, how badly did she fuck them up?"
Taylor
Emma and I stepped out of the portal outside the Barnes residence. "Well, here we are," I said. "Safe and sound."
"You have delivered me once more from evil, my Lady," she responded. Apparently not noticing my grimace under the mask, she looked up at the house. "Do You think they'll have noticed I was even gone?"
"Possibly not," I conceded. "Especially since you left your phone behind. They probably think you're with the other Followers."
"You do not know, my Lady?" She looked at me quizzically.
"I don't automatically know everything, Emma," I explained patiently. "My power doesn't fill me in on every detail of everything that's around me. I don't even get all the details of a path I'm following, just what I need to do to make it happen. I knew you were in trouble from the moment the guy drew his knife on you, but I also had other stuff going on."
"And yet, despite all the trouble I have given You, You chose to rescue me." She frowned. "What happened to the man who was attacking me?"
"Shot him in the bomb," I replied briefly. "He became a crater about half a second after the portal closed."
"Ah. A fitting end." She tilted her head slightly. "And how long before all this happened did You know it was actually going to happen?"
I led the way up the driveway. "Check my last PHO post. Look for the sentence starting with 'Be informed'. Look at the first letter in each word of that sentence."
She nodded earnestly. "I will do that, my Lady."
"Okay, enough." I patted at the air. "I get it. I rescued you, your faith got a sudden boost again. Just … can we lay off with the 'my Lady' stuff? I don't look for worship, and I don't want it."
She began to say something, then she must have noticed something about my attitude, and corrected herself. "I will try … Atropos."
It sounded fake as fuck, but it was a start. "Thank you." Raising my hand, I knocked firmly on the front door.
It didn't take long for it to open; Zoe Barnes stood there, staring at us both. "Oh, thank goodness," she said. "I was wondering where you were. Hello, uh, Atropos. I hope Emma hasn't been too much trouble?"
"No more than usual," I told her, carefully pitching my voice so she wouldn't recognise me as Taylor Hebert. "There's been a little bit of an adventure, but she can tell you all about that herself. Toodles." The portal formed behind me, leading back home, and I stepped backward into it.
Danny
Cherie raised her head from where she'd been reading quietly on the sofa. "Taylor's home."
"Thanks, hon." In the kitchen, Danny put aside the paperwork he'd been dealing with—even with his power doing the heavy lifting to ensure that nothing went badly wrong, there was always paperwork to do—and looked over at the basement door as it opened. "Hi, Taylor. Good day?"
Taylor pulled off her hat and mask, and shook her hair out. "Well, it's definitely been an interesting one."
End of Part Seventy-Five