Extraction 1
"Taylor! You're here! I'm taking you shopping!" Vicky said, taking my hand.
"What? No, I need to study," I told her. "It's almost exam season, and I'm planning on taking my one of my GED exams soon."
"Wait, already? When have you had time? Weren't you still, like, a Junior?"
"...sophomore..." I quietly corrected her. "I've managed to find time to study here and there," I said.
Actually, what had happened was that I was getting kind of bored. I had over a thousand brains spread across the city, in order to cover as much of it as possible. Many of my brains were still focusing on building and expanding, while others were still watching out for criminal activity for Abyssal to fight.
Even so, there was a lot less crime these days, mainly due to the aftermath of Bakuda's bomb threats. People still weren't sure if all the bombs had been found, so the streets were quieter than usual. That wasn't even counting the neighbourhoods that were generally much quieter anyway, like the suburbs on the outskirts of town.
In short, I had a whole lot of brains that were pretty bored. So I had found ways to occupy myself – aside from perpetual, incremental improvements to Tinkering, I was also doing my actual homework. My bots could read books for my other brains to interpret and understand.
"Honestly? How? Are you getting enough sleep? I know Ames had a bit of an issue before..." Vicky pointed out.
"Yeah! I'm sleeping just fine," I assured her. In fact, my biological body was getting a good eight hours each day. Actually, each of my brain copies also needed sleep, but with a few thousand of them, sleeping in shifts wasn't hard, so at least a part of me was awake at all times.
I was pretty sure I had a good chance of passing the exams this year if I tried, and that was without cheating. If I did cheat, using all my extra brains to look at my notes and textbooks somewhere else in the city while I sat in the exam room, I was pretty sure I could get top marks, if I was so inclined.
"Vicky, you really should learn from Taylor's example," Amy said.
"But I've already been studying all week!" Vicky complained. "Come on, we need to get out of this stuffy house!"
"It's not bad here..." I tried to say. Then again, I had just arrived. I suppose I would be a bit bored too if I had been cooped in here all day.
"The whole town's been shut down for a week! I heard they just cleared the mall to re-open, so let's go!" Vicky said. "It's our civic duty!"
"Our duty. To go to the mall." Amy muttered while rolling her eyes. "I didn't realize we were at risk of falling into the dangerous grasp of communism. Come, let us spend a whole bunch of money like good American consumers."
"Exactly! We have got go shopping, like the founding fathers intended for our great nation!" Vicky said, meeting Amy's sarcasm with equal and opposite enthusiasm.
"I'm thinking we could all use some more History review," I suggested weakly, but it was too late.
"Mom, we're going to the mall!"
"Just be back by dinner!" Mrs. Dallon shouted back.
"Don't fight it, she's unstoppable when she gets like this," Amy said to me.
"How are we even going to get there?" I asked. "Didn't your dad take the car for something?" I asked. I hadn't seen it in the driveway, at least.
"Ames, piggyback! I'll carry Tay-tay!" Vicky said.
"What am I, your jetpack?" Amy asked, even as she she obliged.
Vicky swept me up.
"Hey, what-" I protested, before we immediately took to the skies. I was frozen, afraid that even the slightest twitch would cause Vicky to drop me. We flew high above the rooftops, making a beeline for the mall.
We landed in front of the entrance of the mall. A few people pointed at us and took pictures, but it was more interesting to me how many people didn't. I guess there were just so many capes in Brockton Bay that seeing Glory Girl flying to the mall wasn't noteworthy for most people.
"So... what are we shopping for?" I asked.
"Clothes! An outfit or two for you!" Vicky said.
"For me? Why?" I asked.
Vicky just laughed. "Because I never got the chance to thank you properly for saving my sister's life. You deserve something nice for it. Come on, let's go!"
We walked inside. Well, more like Vicky pulled me in. While I more or less knew the layout of the mall, I rarely came here. It was the kind of place that Emma and her posse liked to hang out when they weren't making my life hell. I'd forgotten what shops there were around here, other than the big names. Fashion wasn't my thing either; most clothing stores were basically blind spots in my vision the few times I'd visited. Vicky, on the other hand, was just the opposite. She had memorized every single clothing store.
She pulled me into the first one, which was only steps from the entrance.
"I'm totally giving you a makeover today," Vicky said. "Your jeans are just way too baggy! Here, try this one on." She tossed a new pair of jeans at me. And another. And another. And a matching jean-jacket.
"Do I have to...?" I tried not to sound too ungrateful.
Vicky ushered me to the fitting rooms.
Five minutes later, I realized that Vicky must have had another hidden superpower; she just eyeballed my waist size through baggy clothing perfectly. Still, skinny jeans weren't my thing. Neither were pre-cut or pre-torn ones. They just didn't make sense to me. I wore jeans because they were comfy and durable, why anyone would pay so much money for something that constricted and pre-damaged made no sense at all.
With that store out of the way, Vicky moved us on to the athletics store. She insisted on getting me into yoga pants and sports bras, even though I didn't do any sports. For my daily runs, plain old sweatpants were good enough for me.
Half an hour later I realized we'd still only moved less than fifty feet from the entrance of the mall.
This was going to be a long day.
"Does she... do this often?" I asked Amy, during the brief pause we had while Vicky flew around the next store searching for more things for me to try on.
"Are you rethinking your decision to be a hero? Other people might get oh so grateful," Amy replied.
"I'm not apologizing for saving your life," I said adamantly.
"And I'm thanking you. Through Vicky," Amy said. Though she didn't seem that happy about it. Maybe she was feeling left out because her sister was so totally focused on me?
"Hey, why don't you do this with Amy?" I asked Vicky, as she arrived with the next set of clothes. I glanced at Amy, only to find her not where she was a second ago. She'd moved to hide behind a clothing rack, and she was shaking her head frantically, but it was too late.
"OH. MY. GOD. You two are like healer buddies! I could totally find outfits that complement the two of you! You two could look so good together! Why didn't I think of this before?"
"What have you done?" croaked Amy as we were both dragged to the next store.
I could only mumble a hopeless apology as we moved on to the skirts. "Come on, Tay. You still run every morning, right? You need to show off those legs!"
Given how Lisa had designed my Eunoia costume, I thought I should have been used to looking more feminine. But I guess it was a bit of a mental block there; as Eunoia I considered it a costume. A different character, a different personality. But Vicky was trying to buy clothes for me. In my mind I was still me, the gangly, ugly girl who went to Winslow.
I got reminded of that when I stepped out of the fitting room with a short skirt that Vicky had insisted was cute. And I heard laughing.
"Wow, it really is her," came a familiar sneer. "Jeez, Hebert. Just because you ran away from everyone who reminded you you're ugly doesn't mean you're pretty," Julia said.
My bullies were here, at the mall, as I should have expected. I suppose the post-bombing re-opening had tons of shopping addicts swarming the place. Emma was there, looking almost as pretty as ever. She'd worked with the haircut I had given her before, she somehow managed to rock the pixie-cut look enough to still hang out with the "pretty" girls. Despite her veneer of confidence, she wasn't leading the pack, though – maybe she lost some confidence without Sophia there. Madison was being rather quiet, though she was wearing a hat and making herself small behind the others. Maybe she was only confident when she was hitting on the creepy teachers like Gladly.
"Yeah, Hebert. Don't you realize we were doing you a service? Don't embarrass yourself, an ugly duck needs to wear ugly duck clothes," said another girl. Cynthia, maybe? I didn't remember her all that well.
Part of me wanted to run away again. Part of me wanted to just smash them into the wall, with Abyssal's help. Part of me wanted to run and hide. Part of me wanted to give them brain aneurysms. None of those were particularly good decisions, and I ended up freezing. Witty comebacks weren't my thing.
Then Vicky stepped out of the fitting room with Amy. It seemed like she'd practically forced her little sister into a skirt as well, and she was puling her towards the mirrors.
"Oh my god, it's Glory Girl!" Julia squealed. She ran over to chat with her or get an autograph or something. Cynthia and Lauren and whats-her-name all followed along, but Emma didn't.
I was still focused on Emma, as she was on me. I didn't even know what I was feeling right now, whether it was anger, or hatred, or indignation. How did she manage to get away unscathed? We stared each other down.
Emma was the one to speak first. "I figured as much. You finally got powers, but you're still no predator."
I was left somewhat speechless. Of all the things I expected her to say, it wasn't that. What the hell did she even mean by "predator?" Why the hell was I supposed to be one? "What are you even talking about, Emma?"
"I always knew you had it in you, Taylor. I tried to convince Sophia. Now that we finally pushed you far enough, you still do nothing with your power except hang with the undeserving sheep. You're just... you're just a... I was right to cut ties with you, Taylor. Even with powers, you're not a fighter. I am." She was trying to act big, but I could tell she was faking the bravado. More importantly, I had no idea what she was rambling about.
"Taylor. Who's this?" Amy asked. I didn't even see her walk up to me.
Before Emma could say anything, I spoke up. "She's the one who used to bully me at school, along with her little posse."
Amy's eyes narrowed. "Oh. She's the bitch you were talking about."
"You should be thanking me, Taylor! I'm the one who made you what you are today! You could have been a predator, like me!" Emma shouted back.
"I'm pretty sure no cape would thank someone for their trigger event," I answered dryly.
"Seriously? She's proud of diddling kids or something?" Amy asked. "Shit, Taylor, it's up to you to fix her. I don't do brains, especially ones that are that fucked up."
I almost laughed at that. "I think I'm starting to understand. They're dumbasses who think that, as along as someone else is losing, they're winning. No wonder they bullied me in school."
"Oh. You know, I'd call her a leech, but leeches actually have legitimate medical uses," Amy said.
I felt a hard slap on my shoulder, and noticed Vicky had flown over and put herself between us. "You and Ames are a perfect match!"
Vicky looked at Emma and scrunched her face in concentration. "I think I've seen you before... do you know her, Taylor?"
"Oh yeah. Let me introduce you to Emma, the Bitch."
"Wait. The Bitch?" Vicky repeated. I nodded.
Maybe it was Vicky's aura making me feel a little bolder, or just the fact that I knew Vicky had my back. I used to be alone at Winslow. But I had friends, powerful friends behind me now. Heck, I was powerful. I wasn't proud of having been bullied, no way. But I wasn't afraid of bringing it up to Vicky, letting her know the truth. It wouldn't hurt me any more.
"She's just kidding. We used to be best friends," Emma said nonchalantly. She was falling back to the old Winslow routine. It always worked on the teachers. "Taylor's always pulling tricks like that."
"We used to be best friends. Until she turned on me for no reason," I said.
"Ah. The traitor. I don't think we're going to get along. Get lost, girl." She turned to Julia and the other girls that she had been chatting with. She ripped away the notepads and phones from the girls. "Yeah, no more autographs. No selfies. Screw all of you, I didn't know you were wannabe villains."
Julia tried to grab her autographed note back from Vicky, only to fail miserably. "Hey, don't believe that loser. She used to make things up to complain about at school all the time! She's a dropout!"
Vicky flared her aura, flipping it to cause fear instead of adoration as she got angrier. "Don't talk about Tay like that. She saved my sister's life. What did you do last week? Chip a nail? No, wait, that's probably too traumatic for you, you would have triggered from that. If you want to pick on people who don't deserve it, join the Empire 88, so then I'll be allowed to beat the shit out of all of you." The extent of her aura had caught the attention, and support, of everyone in the store. Vicky's lambasting of my former bullies was very public. And while I was sure it was the aura nudging people to take my side, I was willing to take whatever victory I could get.
Turned out my former bullies had no resistance to Glory Girl's aura whatsoever. I think I ended up getting that skirt out of spite. I did have the money now, after all.
The one thing that I actually needed to buy while I was at the mall was a new personal phone. I still hadn't managed to buy one since the hospital got bombed. While buying a phone for myself, I decided that it was about time that I got a new burner phone as well, since Abyssal had a cash stash that wasn't being used. I decided to have Abyssal go buy one on the other side of town, just to be safe.
Although he may have scared the convenience store owner, he got the phone without a fuss. I sent a message to Lisa from my new burner to let her know about the new number. To my surprise, she replied almost instantly.
Help. Evacuating. Bayview towers. Heading to A's place.
Me and my other brains instantly focused on the area around Bayview towers. Was there something already happening? I kept a general surveillance of the streets at all times, and I hadn't noticed anything particularly strange. Lisa hadn't even told me where she lived, so I didn't know which unit she was in. If she was still inside.
My question was answered quickly when I saw Lisa climbing out the fire escape. I had Abyssal wait at the bottom for her. Before she even reached the alley, I saw an orange flickering coming from the windows of her apartment. Seconds later, the entire building's fire alarm started to go off.
"Yeah, couldn't leave behind evidence," she said as she hit the ground. "Could you keep an eye out for snipers?"
Snipers. I guess that meant she was finally trying to break away from Coil, and he didn't want to part on good terms. I had been concerned with literal street-level crime, mostly. Despite the number of flying capes in the city, most crime actually did take place on the ground. I had some coverage on some rooftops, but not a huge amount. While I got the bots into place, I decided it would be easier to coat Lisa in enough nanobots to stop a sniper bullet if it came down to it.
"What? Oh, jeez, Taylor, I didn't think our relationship had advanced that far yet. Not that I'm against it or anything," she joked as the bots crawled all over her. I didn't bother speaking as Abyssal. I'd have to meet up with her later in person.
For now, I was focused on making sure she got to my storehouse safely so that I could question her. I started to migrate bots from across the city towards the path between Lisa and her destination. I also needed more bots to start crawling up buildings or get carried by the wind, so I could see rooftops better.
Well, what did you know, there was a sniper. The weird thing was that he was wearing a PRT outfit. Was he actually PRT? Or a mercenary with a fake uniform? I was mostly certain he was fake, but the trouble I could cause if he was legitimately in the PRT wasn't worth taking him down right away. I would just keep a close eye on him.
Following the line of sight he had, it seemed like he was trying to find Lisa. He had her burning apartment in clear view, and he had noticed the fire. He rightfully assumed that Lisa was gone, and was scanning with his binoculars up and down the street.
He changed position and radioed someone, but I couldn't find his recipient. Whoever they were talking to, they weren't on the street or the rooftops. But it was obvious he wasn't working alone. I used Abyssal to signal to Lisa when it was safe to move, out of sight of the sniper I could see.
While Lisa had predicted Coil's mercenaries, I saw an entirely different group of people heading to intercept Lisa. Very white and tattooed people.
"Yeah, this way! I heard she was gonna out the Empire's capes. I figured, it ain't breaking the rules if you out her first, right?" one of the unpowered gang members was saying. "We're doin' a major favour for Kaiser. He'll reward us for this one."
Was Lisa seriously going to break the Unwritten Rules and reveal some villains' identities? It sure didn't seem like her... especially since she was the one who told me all about it. I'd have to ask her about it later. So many questions.
I directed Lisa down a street that I could see was clear, then sent Abyssal to attract the attention of the Empire gang.
"Eunoia! That's her! Eunoia!" I was still at the mall with Vicky, of course. I was used to her getting all the attention. I still didn't really know what to do with, well, fans.
"Um... hi?" I said. It was a young, Asian girl. She pulled her mother along, saying something that I couldn't understand.
"You saved my father! He was taken hostage by Bakuda. Thank you so much!" I didn't see her father anywhere nearby, but he was likely still recovering from the ordeal. Her mother said something to me and bowed; it wasn't hard to understand her gratitude.
"I'm sorry your family had to go through so much," I told her.
"It's okay. Dad is tough, and we know how to work hard. We had to move here after the Simurgh attacked Shanghai, and start from nothing."
Damn. I tried not to complain much about how my life sucked, but this helped put things into perspective. Emma may have been a bitch, but the Simurgh was essentially queen bitch of the planet. And this girl had lost her home, friends, and country because of that. "I'm sure you'll make it through this," I told her. Kind of inspiring to me, honestly. One of the people I would have to try to protect.
"I... um... mom also wanted to tell you something," she said, conferring with her mother in her native language. Her mother started crying uncontrollably, though she was still trying to tell her daughter something.
"What is it? Why?"
"She said she's sorry about her cousin. My uncle. Um... he was the one who, uh, died. At the hospital. Um. At the beginning."
Oh. Damn. Two men from the same family that had been forcibly implanted with bombs. Now this was a family that was going through tough times. I wondered how many other families Bakuda had kidnapped wholesale. At least the girl herself hadn't been a direct victim of the mad Tinker.
"She doesn't have to be sorry," I told her. "It was Bakuda's fault. He didn't have much of a choice in the matter."
"Um. I'll let her know. Thanks again," the girl said, while her mother tried to smile to me through her tears.
As they walked away, Amy sighed. "And I thought I got enough of that stuff at the hospital," she said.
I just stared at her. I wouldn't call her heartless, but... well, that was a bit blunt, wasn't it?
Amy just gave me a look, and shrugged. "What? Patients with long sob stories, they just waste my time when I could be healing more people. It's annoying, and it just slows me down."
"I guess... but it doesn't hurt to listen, does it?"
"Not for me, really. I'm a healer, and I don't do brains. If they wanted to vent their feelings, they should go see a counsellor. Now come on, let's finish shopping before someone else notices and we get a healing lineup..."
Meanwhile, two miles away, Abyssal was about to take on the gangsters. I sent a wave of bots out of the alley, so it looked like liquid smoke pouring out, cutting in front of the group. Abyssal stepped out into his artificial shadow, towering over the gang members. Given the angle of the sunset, his shadow loomed over most of them. This would be a pretty routine round-up. While they were shocked and awed by the mere presence of the giant knight, I spread the wave of darkness around their feet.
"Oh shit, it's the fucking Shadow Knight!"
"Go, go, call them!" They started running. Or at least, they tried to. The bots around their feet locked into place, tripping them instantly. Even so, two of them were desperately pulling out their cellphones instead of trying to free themselves. Probably calling for backup. It didn't take much to break the devices.
Abyssal gave each of the Empire thugs a bit of a thrashing. He couldn't give them stern words, and it wasn't as if they didn't choose the gang life. They weren't forced to walk down the street with baseball bats under threat of an implanted explosive. I didn't injure them enough to send them to the hospital, though. The last thing I wanted was to have to treat the very same people I had beaten up. Or give Amy more work to do.
At the mall, Vicky was teasing me about my first fan. Apparently the girl went to Arcadia, though she wasn't in the same grade as Vicky. She told me about a few of the other students who had approached her, thanking Panacea for saving family members' lives. Somehow, I didn't think I would have gotten the same reception at Winslow.
Hell, I could picture the bullies picking on the people who had lost family members in the bombing. I remember, once, Emma had tried to make fun of the fact that I cried when my mother died. I should have figured out she was irredeemable then.
Through my brief distraction, another one of my brains had to inform me that a giant boulder had smashed Abyssal into tiny fragments. Wait, not a boulder, but a large piece of asphalt. Who the hell had just hit Abyssal?
Where was Lisa? I checked on her just to make sure she wasn't in danger. She'd taken cover, because Abyssal was no longer escorting her personally, and was nowhere near whoever launched the chunk of asphalt. I couldn't afford to keep watch on her, while being ready to disable the sniper, and the other mercenary tailing her, and wherever the rest of the mercenaries were hiding.
I didn't have quite enough to make two Abyssals at once right now, not without losing my coverage of a large portion of the city. And I wasn't sure if I wanted to reveal that I could, either. Still, the mercenaries didn't seem to be doing anything at the moment. They couldn't track Lisa reliably, not with some of the hints I was giving her combined with her own power. If I didn't have to fight them, I wouldn't, for now.
Time to focus on the Empire capes, then. Apparently one of the gangsters' phone calls had gone through, and this was their backup. The girl who was standing on a floating rock must have been Rune. The guy beside her was... I forgot his name. He was the whitest white supremacist I had ever seen, though. White skin, white hair, white eyes - he didn't even have pupils. It was like he bathed in bleach or something. I also forgot what his power was, but...
Alabaster. Perfect healing every few seconds, another one of my brains reminded me.
...right. Nothing Abyssal couldn't handle.
"That was it? Kaiser said that this dude was harassing our members all week," Alabaster said.
"Maybe that's why he was mostly attacking our unpowered members," Rune replied. "All show, no go. I bet Cricket was exaggerating." I wanted to make a retort. Abyssal, hiding from them? They'd been hiding from me. Kaiser tried to pretend that he owned the city, but the city was mine. Or, it would be soon. Abyssal couldn't handle Lung, and probably not Purity either, but he was definitely among the top tier of capes in this city. He took down Bakuda, hadn't they heard? Then again, as white supremacists, they probably downplayed how dangerous the Asian cape was.
"Hey, Alabaster, Rune, give us a hand! This crap is really sticky!" the gang members on the ground shouted.
Rune floated the rock down and Alabaster jumped off. He reached down to one of the members to yank him away from the nanobots that were keeping him on the ground.
I knew this was my chance. As they gripped each others' hands, I sent a wave of nanobots towards the cape, trapping Alabaster's foot as well. Rune saw the movement and yelled at her partner, but it was too little, too late. He let go and quickly tried to do a backflip away from the spreading "shadow" of robots, but the ones that caught his foot locked in, causing him to stumble mid-jump. Even so, he twisted and still managed to recover and land on his other foot.
His fancy acrobatics didn't really matter. A whole bunch of the bots entered his bloodstream, and I prepared to make him fall unconscious like everyone else had.
And then, about a second later... my bots simply disappeared. A few of the bots that were still stuck to his clothing worked their way into his bloodstream again. Before they could even reach his brain, they simply disappeared. Vanished. I didn't just lose control of them, they just... ceased to exist.
Hm. So it was more than just regeneration. I thought it might have been a matter of simply harming him fast enough that he couldn't fully regenerate in time, but apparently his power didn't work that way. It was like he went back in time or something, and foreign objects like my bots were just eliminated from the universe.
At least I could still cover him with bots on the outside. I ensnared him with the bots, keeping him pinned down. The pile of bots took form as Abyssal in a kneeling position, with a hand already wrapped around his leg. Abyssal stood up, dangling him upside down. Even in that position, he showed no fear or hesitation and drew two guns, unloading both of them into Abyssal's face.
Okay, that was a little funny. I mean, he just saw Abyssal get blown apart by a giant slab of asphalt and smashed into powder. What did he expect the guns to do? The bullets stopped inside of Abyssal's helmet, doing very little damage. I didn't want him playing with dangerous weapons and possibly hitting some innocent people in the crossfire, so I slammed him into the ground. He didn't let go, so I smashed him down again and again, until the guns went clattering away.
I raised him up again.
Not even a scratch on his body. No blood. Nothing. Huh. That definitely qualified him as a high-level brute, even though he technically wasn't any more durable than a normal human. I wondered how much punishment he could actually survive.
Rune helped answer that question for me.
The same block of asphalt that she smashed Abyssal with earlier returned, pulverizing my hero to powder again. But with its speed, it also ploughed straight through Alabaster. The young man practically bounced off the half-ton slab, and then continued bouncing down the street before skidding to a stop.
I knew he had probably been bisected. Or worse, actually, since the half that got pinned under the slab was smeared across the street like a blood marker. I couldn't believe Rune would do that to her own partner so easily.
And then Alabaster was suddenly perfectly fine again. I didn't see him heal, or anything like that. The legs that were twenty feet away vanished, as did the blood and viscera that coated the street a second ago. All gone, cleaned up, like it never happened in the first place. "Ow," he said sarcastically.
"You're welcome," Rune replied.
"Guys, isn't it about time for you to head home?" I asked. Part of the reason was that I just wanted to get away from the mall. I was all shopped out, and the fans and crowds didn't help. There were people asking for my autograph, when I didn't even know how to sign my own autograph! Having to focus on all of them, and shopping, and Lisa, and the Empire fight... was actually a little more exhausting than I expected. I almost longed for the boredom I had felt this morning.
"Oh, right. Mom wanted us home by dinner, didn't she? Are you joining us?" she asked.
"Maybe? Let me call dad and let him know."
I phoned home. I checked with my bots to find out where he was – crap, driving home after a late day at the docks. He wouldn't be picking up the phone. He still didn't have his own cellphone, even though he had accepted that I needed one. So much for that. I made sure that there wasn't anything shady happening on the route home, either. No gang ambushes or cape fights.
And I checked up on Lisa, too. She was proceeding slowly, and I used my bots on her body to alert her when it was safe to move. The mercenaries had been confused, but every once in a while it seemed like they would pick up on her trail again out of nowhere. Either they had even more hidden agents than I anticipated, or they were way more skilled than I thought. Still, they weren't doing anything aside from watching. If they really wanted to kill Lisa, why weren't they even trying to attack?
While I was doing that, I did a quick survey of the rest of the city as well. A few street fights, some drug dealing, a break-in. Damn. I had sent too many of my spare bots to protect Lisa, and now I barely had enough left in the rest of the city beyond observation.
What was Mrs. Dallon preparing for dinner? Hm. Chinese take-out. I was totally in the mood for Chinese. Maybe I'd just go with them and call dad when he got home.
Multitasking wasn't hard, but it was kind of annoying to juggle.
Rune and Alabaster were separated by quite a distance. He would have to run back to her if they were going to escape together, or he'd have to get away on foot by himself. I was pretty sure he couldn't outrun Abyssal – his power didn't make him faster. So I would concentrate on catching Rune first, then maybe catch him afterwards.
I sent a wave of nanobots rushing underneath and past Rune.
Alabaster started running towards her as well.
"Stop! It's the shadow!" Rune shouted, pointing out the wave of nanobots I was sending forward. Crap, I was depending too much on the dim lighting, but from her angle, I guess she could notice them better. She started moving her own platform towards Alabaster, who quickly switched to a retreat.
I knew she would be able to move faster than the wave of nanobots or Abyssal could, and they'd get away. I stretched out Abyssal's legs and made him run faster, and his additional stride length allowed him get between them. He drew one of his swords. This time, I also made sure the sword was ready to cut, lining one edge with as many of the diamond-tipped bots as I could. Abyssal didn't even need to swing the sword; Rune flew straight into it, unable to change the direction of the slab of asphalt she was riding on fast enough. The diamond-toothed edge ground through the asphalt like a chainsaw through cardboard. The sudden deceleration combined with the surprise of a six-foot-long broadsword slicing its way towards her caused Rune to involuntarily depart from her platform.
With Abyssal's other hand, I grabbed Rune by the waist. I could feel her struggle, using her power against Abyssal. Interestingly enough, she was only able to "grab" a few nanobots at a time, flinging them away with her telekinesis. I think she was trying to lift Abyssal up off the ground completely, but she didn't realize he was actually trillions of separate bits working together. She quickly gave up when Abyssal brought the massive sword up to her throat.
"I... I give up!" Rune said quickly. She sounded young - maybe around my age. Still, that didn't mean she wasn't deadly. I could be deadly, too. And the sword against her throat wasn't so much a threat to her, but for Alabaster. I had my bots inside her bloodstream like the others, and I could knock her unconscious any time I wanted. She didn't regenerate like Alabaster did.
I looked towards Alabaster. I wonder if he was going to try anything, but he turned tail and ran. I could send Abyssal after him, but I wanted him closer to Lisa. I could also gather more bots from the surroundings to catch him, but I had just started to notice some heavily-armed men spread out over some rooftops. Possibly the mercenaries Lisa had been talking about, though they weren't doing anything just yet. Alabaster was running away; he wouldn't be a threat for the short term. I wanted to keep watch on the mercenaries.
I could feel Rune shake a little bit when she watched him run. Time for the little girl to go to sleep. I slowed her bloodflow to her head, and just like all the others, she fell unconscious a few seconds later. Now, where could I find some heroes to put her away properly?
I used the bots spread around to find the nearest Protectorate or Wards patrol, one that wouldn't take Abyssal too far from Lisa. I found two of them, Vista and Browbeat, about two blocks away. Abyssal kept a tight grip on Rune in his hand and dragged the other neo-nazis along. I didn't really bother to use my bots to infect them; it was too much trouble trying to control all the normal people. Capes were definitely worth the effort though.
"Where are you taking me?" Rune asked fearfully. Oh, she'd woken up again. Welp, time to knock her out again. My other captives also probably thought Abyssal was taking them into a dark alley to murder them or something. They started screaming for help. My first reaction was to shut them up, but then I realized I wanted the Wards to hear them screaming. It would get them running towards Abyssal.
"Kaiser... h-he, he won't let you get... get away with th-this..." one of the gangsters choked out. I ignored his empty threat. Abyssal continued to trudge through the alley, dragging the neo-nazis behind him.
It took me a while to figure out what Rune was so afraid of. I kept thinking that she was just deathly afraid of being arrested for some reason. It's not like she was going straight to the Birdcage. She wasn't Lung. It wasn't until I felt her cross her legs tightly and whimper that I realized what exactly had her so scared.
I was still thinking like a girl. A straight, teenage girl that was dragging Rune along after a fight. Even though Abyssal was a huge, aggresive, evil-looking male. Who didn't talk and was forcibly taking her into a dark alley. Whoopsies. I guess Abyssal was more effective at inspiring fear than I thought, even though it wasn't the kind of fear I had intended. Or maybe it was the Empire's fault - their members weren't above doing such things, and Rune may have normalized it. I wasn't going to break character just to reassure her, though. It was best just to hand her over to the Wards as quickly as possible.
Vista and Browbeat arrived at the end of the alleyway, following the screams. Browbeat was significantly larger and more muscular than he was a few minutes ago, though he wasn't anywhere near the size of Abyssal. As soon as they saw us, the distance between us immediately tripled.
I had to admit that Vista had good reflexes.
"Help!" Rune shouted. If she considered running and surrendering to the Wards a better option, I'd call it a win.
"Stop right there!" Vista shouted. To her surprise, Abyssal actually stopped. I didn't want to fight them, but I guess the little girl didn't expect the massive figure to actually listen to her. "Don't come any closer!"
"RUNE."
"What? I'm not Rune, I'm Vista! She copied my costume colours!" Vista shouted back. I facepalmed, although I didn't make Abyssal mimic my own movements. Instead, I had him lift the Empire cape so they could get a better look.
"That looks like..." Browbeat said.
"RUNE," I finished for him.
"Ah. Um... what do we do?" Vista asked. "It's an easy arrest, but we aren't supposed to go near him."
"I'm calling it in," Browbeat said. "Maybe Dauntless or someone can pick her up while we keep watch?"
I couldn't believe they were acting so useless right now. I had a known criminal bound and ready to be taken away, but they were just waffling about. I knew that if I just let Rune go, she could just levitate something and fly herself away at the first chance she got. And my method of knocking capes out only left them unconscious for a short time, otherwise I'd be risking actual brain damage. I didn't want her to wake up while the Wards were wasting time figuring out protocol.
Abyssal dropped her to the ground, where she crumpled into a heap. I did the same to the other members, and then dispersed Abyssal. I kept an eye on the situation to make sure they got captured, though.
"Uh, never mind, Console. He dropped the cape. Should... should we approach?" Browbeat was saying into his headset.
Vista cautiously reduced the space-stretching while Browbeat advanced forward. He was definitely wary of the dark alley, where it seemed like Abyssal could simply jump out from anywhere. Which, technically, he could. I was still keeping most of his bots in the general area in case any of the E88 members woke up and ran.
"Well, it's definitely Rune. And a few other Empire members," Browbeat shouted to Vista. Yeah, a couple of skinheads and one of them with a clear swastika tattoo made that an easy conclusion.
"Uh... I'm going to call it in," Vista said. "Keep watch on the cape."
While Vista was busy on the radio, one of the regular members woke up first. He realized what was going on, and considered himself blessed that Abyssal was gone, he tried to make a run for it. Browbeat was crouched down and placing handcuffs on the unconscious Rune. Still, even a handcuffed cape could be a very dangerous cape, and he was more worried that she would get away rather than the normal ones. He hesitated, wondering if he should risk leaving Rune unguarded versus capturing the escaping gang member.
I solved the dilemma for him.
I reformed Abyssal quickly, just in front of the escaping man, and punched him in the gut. It sent him flying back into the pile of bodies, retching and gasping. Vista and Browbeat only just caught a glimpse of Abyssal dissolving into the shadows again. I needed to turn my attention to the mercenaries.
"That's... creepy," Browbeat said. "Is he still here?"
"Probably? He's on our side, right?" Vista asked. "I think I'm afraid of the dark again."
"Well, Armsy said we need to stay away, but I have no idea what direction he is right now. Let's just start cuffing the rest of them," Browbeat said.
I kept some extra bots in the area until the PRT came to foam Rune and bring her in. Meanwhile, I changed my focus to the mercenaries. Now it looked like the mercenaries were watching Abyssal primarily, even though they didn't take action. Was their mission just observation? Is that all they did? No wonder they had been so terribly ineffective at the bank...
Lisa had arrived safely at Abyssal's safehouse. There was nobody else in the area, not even mercenaries, as far as I could tell. Then again, I only had bots in the streets; I couldn't manage to have bots inside every building, on every floor, in every window, and in every vehicle. There were still plenty of places there could have been mercenaries hiding. Still, nobody had actually tried to kill her, so I counted that as a win.
I could feel Lisa's relief through the nanobot armour coating. Most of my excess bots had been sent out for tonight's chaos, but they were returning for her protection. I had Abyssal wait inside. And enough to create a four-poster bed for her, one with bulletproof curtains. More bots also ensured all the windows and other entrances were sealed, and nobody would know she was hiding there.
"Talk to you in the morning," Lisa said as she crawled into the bed I made for her.
Meanwhile, Vicky had set me and Amy down at her home. "That was fun, wasn't it?"
I just smiled.
Author's Note:
Well, here it is. Funny thing, unlike most people, the whole coronavirus thing is making more work for me.
I had to tweak this a few times; I kind of wanted to show the coverage and multitasking power of Taylor but without making things too disjointed and chaotic for the reader. Still not quite sure if I hit a good balance.