Chapter 81
A Darker Path
Part Eighty-One: Making Connections, Making Preparations
[A/N: This chapter beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]
Wednesday Evening, March 9, 2011
Dallon Household
Amy sat in front of her computer, wishing she was like normal people and could just pick up the phone to call her girlfriend without second-guessing (and third-guessing, and fourth-guessing) herself. They'd had several very nice conversations, but it was always a struggle for her to initiate the call. Even sending a text felt like she was pushing Sabah to answer immediately. So it was down to this, the least intrusive way she could think of to get a message to her girlfriend, short of sending postcards.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Parian
From: TheRealPanacea
Subject: Double Date on Friday Evening?
Hi. I was wondering if you wanted to go out on a date on Friday evening, if you were interested? I've heard Flechette's getting a weekend pass up from New York, so we could maybe invite her and Spitfire along as well.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: TheRealPanacea
From: Parian
Subject: Re: Double Date on Friday Evening?
I'd really like that. I'll talk to Spitfire about it, see what she thinks.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Parian
From: TheRealPanacea
Subject: Re: Re: Double Date on Friday Evening?
Sure thing. If she and Flechette already have plans, I don't want to step all over them.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Spitfire
From: Parian
Subject: What do you think of a double date Friday night?
Panacea's suggested a double date; her and me, you and Flechette. I like the idea, but what do you think?
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Parian
From: Spitfire
Subject: Re: What do you think of a double date Friday night?
Um, okay, wow. I'll ask Flechette, but I can't see any problems with it.
Do you think maybe Panacea will give me tips on what superheroes like to do on dates?
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Spitfire
From: Parian
Subject: Re: Re: What do you think of a double date Friday night?
Excellent.
The same as everyone else, I guess?
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Flechette
From: Spitfire
Subject: So, Parian contacted me …
… and she's told me that Panacea wants to know if we're okay with going on a double date with her and Parian, on Friday night. You up for it? I mean, it's okay if you're not. We can totally go on a date with just the two of us if you'd prefer that.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Spitfire
From: Flechette
Subject: Re: So, Parian contacted me …
Actually, I think it might be a good idea. I have no idea of the dating options in Brockton Bay, and it'll be a great way to find out the best places to take you for the rest of the weekend.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Flechette
From: Spitfire
Subject: Re: Re: So, Parian contacted me …
Awesome. I'll let them know.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Parian
From: Spitfire
Subject: Re: Re: What do you think of a double date Friday night?
Flechette says it's a great idea. See you Friday evening.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: TheRealPanacea
From: Parian
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Double Date on Friday Evening?
Spitfire says Flechette's good with it. Let's do this thing.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Parian
From: TheRealPanacea
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Double Date on Friday Evening?
Awesome. Can't wait to see you again.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: TheRealPanacea
From: Parian
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Double Date on Friday Evening?
Me too.
Amy leaned back in her chair, letting out a long sigh of accumulated tension. It had only taken a few minutes for Sabah's reply to get back to her, but those had been the longest minutes she'd ever had to live through.
Then the reality struck her. I'm going on a double date that I actually want to be on!
"Vicky!" she called out, bouncing up from her chair. "She said yes to the date! What should I wear?"
Thursday Morning, March 10, 2011
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Dragon
From: Atropos
Subject: Need a favor
Hi there!
So, I'm going to need to briefly borrow someone from the Birdcage, around 2 PM east-coast time. Won't take more than ten minutes, and I'll bring them back in one piece. Mostly.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Spire
From: Atropos
Subject: Scapegoat
Good morning.
I need you to do me a solid. Can you have Scapegoat pulled out of school early today? I need him in costume and ready to go by ten to eleven your time. I promise to return him in even better shape than I got him, and with a hell of a story to tell.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Atropos
From: Dragon
Subject: Re: Need a favor
*sigh*
*kneads non-existent forehead with imaginary knuckles*
You are aware that your message simply serves to raise more questions, right?
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Dragon
From: Atropos
Subject: Re: Re: Need a favor
All you need to do is ask. I'm an open book. The text may be written in a Language Man Was Not Meant To Peruse, the artwork might move around when you're not looking, and there may be suspiciously worrying stains on the pages, but totally open book.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Atropos
From: Spire
Subject: Re: Scapegoat
Wait, what?
Who is this?
Is this really Atropos?
What do you need Scapegoat for?
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Atropos
From: Dragon
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Need a favor
Yes, thank you. I got it.
Who?
What do you need them for?
What do you mean, 'mostly' in one piece?
Why are you asking permission, when we both know you could probably go in there and grab whoever it is without me having a say in the matter?
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Spire
From: Atropos
Subject: Re: Re: Scapegoat
Well, if I'm not her, I'll be in a ton of trouble when she finds out I'm using her name in vain.
Go ahead. Ask around.
Toodles!
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Dragon
From: Atropos
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Need a favor
Teacher.
He will be assisting me (voluntarily or otherwise) in prepping to End a significant problem.
If he decides to be a problem, he may end up learning a lesson about kneecaps. Also, I don't promise that he won't end up being more of an ass than he is right now. I do promise not to kill him.
Because the actual favor is for you to make sure nobody important finds out that I briefly absconded with him. Some people can be so *picky* about stuff like that.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Atropos
From: Dragon
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Need a favor
If I ask what the significant problem is, will I get a straight answer?
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Legend
From: Spire
Subject: Help!
Someone I'm pretty sure is Atropos just contacted me and asked if she can 'borrow' Scapegoat. What do I do?
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Dragon
From: Atropos
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Need a favor
The monster at the end of the world.
Mwahahaha.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Atropos
From: Dragon
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Need a favor
All of a sudden, not so curious.
Okay, ten minutes. No more.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Spire
From: Legend
Subject: Re: Help!
This has happened before. The outcome has always been positive. I strongly suggest you do as she says.
Note that she'll get her way whether we cooperate or not, but this way we stay in her good books.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Dragon
From: Atropos
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Need a favor
You're the best.
PRIVATE MESSAGE
To: Legend
From: Spire
Subject: Re: Re: Help!
Understood. Will comply.
1:40 PM, Brockton Bay
The Cape Formerly Known as Damsel of Distress
"Cutting!" shouted Ashley. She glanced to the left and right, then sent a two-inch-thick beam of annihilation through the concrete slab and out the other side. Cutting off the beam, she stepped to one side. "Clear!"
Genesis' latest creation lumbered into her workspace. Looking rather like a giant spider had had illicit relations with a tortoise, the projection was low-set, with a long crane-like limb that extended twenty feet above it. Dangling from the limb was a tentacle and claw that looked remarkably like a cable and hook. Turning its body, the projection swung the claw over and latched it through the hole she'd burned in the slab, gripping it tightly.
"All-righty." Ashley bared her teeth in an atavistic grin. She was damn powerful, and it was time to show everyone on the Betterment Committee just how much faster she could do the job if she was given free rein to do it her way. "Ready?"
The projection extended a secondary limb and gave her a thumbs-up. It had taken her most of the lunch hour to talk Jess into helping her out like this, and now she finally had the chance to prove that she knew what she was doing.
It wasn't like she was about to go back to being a villain—the praise she was getting from other members of the Betterment Committee, as well as the ongoing therapy, made that less and less likely all the time. Not to mention that doing so in a city even close to where Atropos had any interests was a quick way to becoming a grimly amusing cautionary tale.
However, the urge to cut loose and prove her superiority was inexorably building within her again. It was time to show the guys how a real cape got the job done, with flash and style. She checked again to make sure there was nobody behind her cutting zone—Mr Hebert had impressed the need for that on her, and she respected the hell out of him—then glanced around to check where the truck was.
There it came, trundling along the road below, with a full load of rubble. Well, almost full. There was still room for some on top, in her opinion. (Which in situations like this was the only one that counted).
"Cutting!" she shouted again, and manifested her power to slice the overhanging concrete slab off the rest of the building they were currently dismantling. It cut through neatly, and dropped away, then swung sideways as it hit the end of the cable-tentacle, the gripping hook-claw holding tight. Holding her breath, Ashley waited until the slab was at the right point. "Now!"
When the claw let go, the slab sailed out in a graceful arc, which terminated in a tremendous crash as it landed on top of the rest of the rubble in the truck.
"Yes!" As Ashley pumped her fist in triumph, the truck skidded to a halt in a billow of dust, rocking from side to side. She watched, grinning, as the driver got out and looked around in confusion. Damn, I'm good.
That was when she heard the foreman bellow from behind her. "Ash!"
Danny Hebert
Many things could've gone wrong with Ashley's little stunt. There were several ways the flying slab of concrete could've damaged the truck much more severely than the minor damage to the suspension that it actually incurred; hitting the cab would've flattened it, killing the driver as well. Falling short would've had it bouncing or skidding into the side of the truck, rolling it and doing considerable damage as well as risking serious injury to the driver. Going over would have risked injury to the workers on the far side of the road.
Danny was determined not to let any of that happen, so he made sure the airborne slab landed squarely in the back of the truck, where it could do the least amount of damage. He also knew that the section foreman, Gary by name, was going to yell at Ashley for it, and that she was going to yell right back. Taylor had texted him earlier, explaining that this needed to take place, but also that it would be a good idea for him to intervene before things escalated too far.
Skidding the Betterment Committee work vehicle to a halt, he leaped from the vehicle and hustled up the temporary stairs set up to get people to the higher level of rubble. From the looks of it, he was just in time.
Danny wasn't quite sure if Gary considered Ashley to be safe to yell at, despite the stylised icons for destruction on the sides of her hard-hat to remind people they were in the presence of a Blaster cape, or was just lost in his anger. Whichever it was, he was stomping up to Ashley, red in the face and getting redder by the second.
In this context, 'Ash' wasn't just an abbreviation born of familiarity. Derived both from her name and her ability to utterly destroy the things she blasted, it was her workplace nickname, stencilled on both her hard-hat and high-vis vest. While she'd begun to respond to it in a positive fashion, that had the potential to change. Especially given the way Gary had just yelled it at the top of his lungs for all to hear; and he wasn't done yet.
"You stupid careless grandstanding little moron!" he bellowed. "What the good goddamn fuck do you think you were doing?"
Between Taylor's warning and his own power, Danny knew exactly how she would react. Drawing herself up proudly with the light of battle in her eyes, she let fly in Gary's direction; thankfully, with words only. "Showing short-sighted weak-sauce idiots like you how to really clear all this shit! If you'd just get out of the way—"
"Short-sighted? Weak-sauce?" Danny knew if Ashley had been repentant, Gary might have eased his approach, but her defiance only served to fuel his rage. "Okay, that's it! You're done on this site, and if I've got anything to do with it, in the Committee—"
"Okay, I'll take it from here." Danny stepped in between them before the heated words could escalate to a conclusion that Gary might not survive to regret. "Gary, step back now. Ashley, take a breath."
"Did you hear him?" Ashley was still mightily pissed off. "He called me a moron!"
"Did you see what she did?" demanded Gary. "She could've killed—"
"Gary, step back and shut up!" snapped Danny. "Yes, I know what she did. Yes, I heard what he said. Gary, I decide who gets booted by the Committee, nobody else. Ashley, come with me. We need to talk."
He paused just long enough to make sure each of them was going to do as they were told, then turned and headed back toward the steps. Without looking, he knew Gary was staring at his back but fortunately any desire to escalate hostilities with Ashley came second to the knowledge that Danny was not fucking around. He also knew that Ashley was following him, while treating Gary to the finger behind her back.
By the time he got down to ground level, she was alongside him, having jumped down two or three steps at a time. Her attitude with him was in stark contrast to the antagonism she'd displayed toward Gary; while she wasn't meek, she was definitely showing respect. "So … am I booted?"
"No, you're not." He strode over to the Committee vehicle he'd arrived in; the dust cloud he'd kicked up while arriving was only just now dissipating. "Get in. You're off the site for today."
"What?" Despite her protest, she was already heading for the passenger side door. "But nobody got hurt."
"Ashley." He met her eyes as she climbed into the vehicle, making certain she was listening. "People could absolutely have gotten hurt, but I know exactly why you did that. It's the same reason you became a supervillain in the first place. You've always got the urge to push boundaries, to show everyone around you that you're better than them. Even when you know deep down that you really shouldn't. Yeah?"
She blinked. "I … guess I do, yeah. But I am usually better than everyone around me. How'd you know that, anyway? You been talking to my therapist?"
"No." He played his trump card. "Atropos told me. She's going to be meeting you at home."
As expected, Atropos' name caused her eyes to widen. "Shit. But you said I wasn't being booted for this. She hasn't even given me a warning."
"You're not being booted." Danny started the vehicle. "She just needs you to help her with something, and to help you out at the same time. Because we both know the only time she's not getting two things done at once is when she's doing more."
"Oh." He could literally see the relief wash through her body as she collapsed bonelessly into her seat. "So, what she wants me for doesn't have anything to do with what I just did?"
He chuckled as he let out the clutch and started off down the road. "I'm pretty sure she doesn't give a damn." It was close enough to the truth for his purposes, and Taylor's.
Ashley
Mr Hebert pulled the work vehicle to a halt outside Ashley's apartment building. "I'll see you tomorrow," he said. "Don't be late."
"But what about Gary?" she asked. "If he gets in my face again …" Shit will happen. She knew it would.
"Gary's not in charge." His tone was unshakeable. "I am. It's not something you're going to have to worry about."
He hadn't steered her wrong yet, so she climbed out of the work pickup. "See you tomorrow, I guess."
Making sure her boots were clean, she swiped herself in through the front door. The elevator doors opened promptly; as she rode up to her floor, she allowed the familiar surroundings to soothe her. The other tenants knew her face and she theirs, though she didn't really consider them to be her friends. Merely people who lived in the same building: at best, tolerable strangers.
Despite the warning that Atropos would be waiting for her, her train of thought came to a screeching halt when she actually saw the dark-clad figure waiting outside her door. Since starting work with the Betterment Committee, her stark fear of Atropos had gradually morphed into extremely wary respect. Her shift in fortunes was technically due to Atropos, so whatever she was needed for, it seemed likely that Ending her wasn't on the agenda.
"Ashley." Atropos straightened up from where she'd been leaning against the door frame. "You're looking good."
Ashley came to a stop before her, wondering what was going on. "Atropos. Mr Hebert said you needed my help with something."
"That's correct. Can we chat inside?" Atropos gestured to the door of Ashley's apartment.
Ashley was relieved to hear that Mr Hebert had it right. Plus, the idea of helping Atropos with something, as opposed to being the subject of one of her projects, had her intrigued.
"Sure," she allowed, and tapped the reader with her card to unlock the door.
Within was the home she'd started building for herself; pictures on the wall and a decorative tablecloth that she'd liked. In pride of place in front of the TV was a comfortable armchair that she'd ordered flat-packed and painstakingly assembled herself. The compressed material she'd taken from the Woad Giant hung across two hooks, as a reminder of how far she'd come.
Atropos entered and looked around with the occasional small nod. "Cozy. I like it."
Ashley closed the door and dropped her hard-hat on the table, then removed the high-vis vest and hung it on a hook. "You didn't come here to critique my décor. What's up?"
"That's true. I didn't." Atropos returned her attention to Ashley. "You'll recall how I brought together several capes to deal with your power problems. Well, I'd like to do that again, with you as one of the capes. There's a particular problem that I'm going to need to deal with in time, and you're the most likely to help me succeed. But to make that work, you need your powers boosted, and before I arrange that I'm going to have to ask your permission."
Ashley waited until she was finished before replying. "A boost to my powers? What sort of boost, and what sort of duration are we talking about?" She recalled how well Atropos had organised the last such venture. Even as she asked the question, she had to wonder exactly what sort of problem Atropos was facing that she needed assistance from Ashley's powers, especially boosted.
"Mainly range. Lots of range." Atropos gestured. "As for duration; we'll have to see. Possibly indefinite."
"Are they going to have to take my hands apart again? And what about drawbacks?" Ashley could not deny that she was interested in the 'lots of range' concept, but she was also fully aware of the downsides that could come with such changes.
"Not this time, no. It'll be a power thing from beginning to end. And yes, there will be a drawback." Atropos raised a finger. "However, I will also arrange to have it Ended before it becomes an issue."
"Drawback?" Ashley didn't like the sound of that.
"Not something that'll be an issue." The subtext was unmistakeable. Not something I'm going to tell you about.
"Okay, so what kind of a problem do you need help with?" Ashley wished she'd asked this one first.
"A world ender. One that's almost as good at killing shit as I am, but none of my finesse." Atropos sounded far too blasé about it, but that was her all over. "What do you say?"
Ashley considered her response. Apart from their first problematic meeting, her dealings with Atropos had been overwhelmingly positive. Getting control over her powers was a huge uptick to her quality of life, then ending up in the Brockton Bay job had kicked that into high gear.
She was gradually teaching herself how to cook using the stove in the kitchen, and exploring the range of microwave meals available from the convenience store in between times. Regular meals and sleep, and being able to bathe daily and put on clean clothing, had made such an astounding difference to her circumstances that she was hardly able to relate to what she recalled of herself, back in Stafford. Her energy levels were up, and she'd actively enjoyed the last few days of work with the Betterment Committee.
But right here, right now, Atropos was in her apartment, asking for assistance. Every other time Ashley had seen her on the news or in the footage or even in person, she'd exuded an air of being totally in control of the whole situation, with everyone dancing to her tune. Here and now, she wasn't telling Ashley what to do. She was asking.
Treating Ashley like an equal.
Never before had someone who had clearly bested Ashley followed up by offering a hand to help her to her feet. Atropos had done that. Now, she was raising Ashley to her own level, simply by asking instead of ordering.
Ashley knew she would've obeyed an order, but she would've also resented being directly told what to do. This, right here, right now, was outside her experience. If she said no, she suspected Atropos would simply accept it and walk away. There would be no punishment, no backlash. Atropos didn't operate that way.
Once upon a time, Atropos had put a gun to Ashley's head and ordered her to leave Brockton Bay or die. Ashley's rage had been just a little less intense than her terror, so she'd gone. Now, there was no gun, and she felt neither rage nor terror.
If she'd said this to me then, I would've told her to fuck off, just to stick it to her.
But things had changed. And the idea of getting a power-up was kind of interesting, especially since Atropos was the one arranging it, so she barely hesitated before nodding. "Sure. Let's go save the world."
"Excellent. Just so you know, the portal has a four-second duration."
"What portal?" Just as Ashley asked the question, the portal in question appeared, taking up what would normally have been the bathroom door. "Oh. That portal."
"Three." Atropos stepped through, long-coat swirling behind her.
There's no way I'm backing out now. Taking a deep breath, Ashley followed.