Summary:
A small collection of events outside of Marie's PoV.
Chapter text
Interlude collection Volume 1
A young queen's rescue or how Amy moved out.
April 07, 2011, Dallon Household, Brockton Bay, 9:00 p.m.
Amy Dallon stared at the incoming swarm of insects with a mad smile on her face. Carol had pressed her luck too far and instead of breaking down or even leaving normally she chose to call Maeve. She had expected the girl to pop out of the woodwork, grab her and leave while cackling like a maniac, not bring the plagues of Egypt back to life and rush in.
In her mind it was a risk she normally wouldn't have thought of taking, but for the last 72 hours she had been almost chained to the emergency response hospital, and the one moment she took for herself to at the very least take a bath and relax for a few minutes Carol gets on her case about how she wasn't doing enough. How she should've been curing cuts and scrapes or even how lucky she was that she wasn't like her father, though the latter was only when Carol was deep in her cups.
The chittering swarm washed around her and she saw Weaver. To the outside observer she looked composed, but Amy knew better. She had seen the cousins bicker, she knew how to read their body language, and the stillness of hers told her that Taylor was more than pissed off. The humm of Carol's power drew her out of her introspection, behind her, her step mother stood, a brilliant sword of light in her hands.
"You dare attack-" Carol began to say, menacingly pointing her blade of light towards the swarm that threatened to devour everything around her.
"Oh shut the fuck up Carol." Tattletale said while riding a giant dog, Amy instinctively took a step back when Taylor grabbed her hand. That expressionless mask shook twice, " Wait… Is she on Maeve's side? " Amy thought and it must've shown on her face since Taylor nodded once and pulled her close. In her hands was an earpiece, and Amy put it on.
"Hello Miss Dallon, Belle here. Sorry for taking so long but we really aren't having the best times at the moment so, some delays are to be expected. Long story short, mom is in a coma. I've split myself to better handle all this crap that she did with her prescience and you should pay attention to what Weaver is going to be saying." Belle's synthetic voice sounded different from what she last heard.
" Wait, coma? And what does she mean she split up? " Amy's thoughts distracted her for a moment before she managed to focus on what Taylor was saying.
"Like my associate just said, Mrs. Dallon. Do not accuse us of breaking the rules. Especially after what you did that led to you getting Amy under your roof." Taylor growled out, her tone becoming glacial as she continued, "We are here because Amy asked us to save her from you."
"Save her? From me? I knew-" Carol began ranting, yet not a single person nearby cared.
"Silence!" Taylor interrupted with the choir of the chittering swarm roaring like an unholy maw, "Yes, save her from you. She is not her father, and she never will be. Listen, the official story is Panacea is taking a break, and we were hired to make sure she's not bothered."
"You think you're in any position to dictate terms?" Carol sneered, her blade glowing like a star. Amy instinctively backed away from her, from the corner of her eyes she could see something hiding amidst the swarm.
"Yes. We are, and if you don't believe me, let me tell you a nice little tale." Tattletale smugly states, her voice, while no higher than a whisper, is powerful enough to silence Carol. "It starts a few years back, Marquis is in his home calm, with his daughter. The alarm trips and he hides her, some so-called heroes bust in and get their asses handed to them. Yet one of them hears something, a whimper? Or perhaps something more? That same bitch moves to attack whatever it was, and if it hadn't been for Marquis, you would've killed a child."
"Stop it!" Carol managed to beg, yet no one cared about her distress.
"You threatened a child Carol. You don't get to play hero after that. And the worst part is, you didn't stop. On the surface you called Amy your daughter, but in reality? Whenever the press came up you said: daughter, not daughters, Vicky never Vicky and Amy." Tattletale continued, her smile never leaving her face, though Taylor interrupted her by saying, "This is how it will go, either you follow the script and get to look like a concerned mother for once in your life, or we take Amy and New Wave drowns in bad reputation. Your choice."
"Lisa, there's no need to reveal everything yet." Belle whispered into all their earpieces. Tattletale glared for a minute at Carol, taking in all the information that the broken woman gave her from just depowering her sword, and loudly sighed. Amy took one last look as her adoptive mother glared at the two women and turned away. In Amy's eyes, Carol had never looked more broken, and yet she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something they were forgetting as they left. That feeling turned out to be her sister.
It took Vicky 5 minutes to intercept them and it only took Amy half of one to stop her from doing something extremely stupid. Like attacking them.
"Ames…" Glory Girl said as Amy placed herself between Weaver and her sister in all but blood. Shaking her her head Amy said with a sad tone in her voice,
"Vicky, I'll be alright. I asked for them, okay?"
"I'll talk to mom and-"
"Vicky, please. Carol, she…" Amelia cut her off before Victoria could begin making excuses for her mother, "She's never going to accept me Vicky and I'm tired. Just so damn tired, every day, cure this, fix that. It's horrible Vicky, it's not even the damn tedium of it all! Right now there's a bunch of junkies that are high and dying, someone is wounded and only I can save them, someone is dying of Cancer, poison, loss of limbs, and whatever the fuck Echidna was! Vicky I can't… I just can't anymore." Amy ranted letting go of a small part of her rage. Of her anger, that had been building up until now. "Vicky please, I can't… Not anymore." Vicky stared at her sister for a moment before she shook her head and began flying away. Amy breathed out as she felt Vicky's aura leave her, she felt empty as they headed over to the docks hideout. It took her over a minute to notice that there had been a fourth person with them and if Bitch hadn't offered her a bottle with a potion she wouldn't have even known the woman had been with them.
By the time they arrived Amy felt better, the green potion had restored her stamina to full and for the first time they entered without covering her eyes. Grue and Regent talked with a girl, and Amy vaguely recognized as the cousin of Triumph. Though she didn't have much time to speak with any of them as an older looking Belle and another robot that looked just like her grabbed Amy and began dragging the healer over to a room.
" She did say that Maeve was in a coma. Do they think I can resurrect her? " She wondered as the door opened, the room was almost sickeningly clean, the furniture was covered in plastic, she could hear the faint humm of an air purifier over the hoarse whisper of the blonde girl.
"~By loving, I am reborn. Wishing to be loved, Im brought back to life.~"
Her voice cracked as a cough forced her to stop singing, dry lips and a parched throat were ignored by the girl. Amy could recognize the sight, the obsession that gripped her, and she felt something inside her heart be tugged as she saw the other girl. Marie or Maeve as Amy knew her, looked like a corpse, her body looked dangerously thin, there was barely any movement in her chest that could symbolize breathing.
"Please, if you can save her. If not, tell us." Belle said with pain in her synthetic voice and Amy merely nodded. She slowly approached the body and placed her hand on it.
[Damaged skeletal structure, damaged muscular structure. Blood flow is irregular, Pollentia and Gemma sizes are abnormal. Body adaptations are malformed…]
Her power listed down several dozen problems that she could fix if she got more bio matter. But before she could voice anything the robot that wasn't Belle brought a cart filled with several types of mushrooms, behind her Belle was carrying another cart full of mushrooms as well. All of them had been cut open and dried, however it was enough to let Amy work.
"You predicted this?" Amy asked with some bitterness in her voice, yet the almost corpse refused to respond.
"We are not sure if mother predicted this particular situation, but she did make sure to plan for something like this. And had you refused to aid her we also had a plan around that… Oh right, we haven't spoken, my name is Quinque, but you can call me Quinn." Quinn answered instead of Marie. "Oh and before you even begin to spiral into thinking you're just useful for healing, mom specifically asked to have you be our second to last resort. Last resort was Bonesaw and we really aren't prepared for the nine without her, at least not for a complete and perfect victory."
"You think you can take the nine?" Amy asked incredulously,
"We can kill Jack, Bonesaw, Manton, Sphere, Shatterbird and the Burnscar." Belle said with absolute certainty, "Crawler is more difficult, especially if we don't have access to the master sword or something that should kill it in a few blows… Actually, maybe we can just throw him to space or something."
"And Hatchet Face?" Amy asked,
"He's still alive? Huh… Well I'll just rip out his heart or something. He really isn't a threat." Quinn said while carrying even more dry mushrooms into the room.
"He can nullify powers!" Amy interrupted as she took more bio matter. " What the fuck? How deep does this damage even go? All these modifications… What did you do to yourself Maeve? Wait… Maton? As in William Manton? "
"And? Belle and I are mechanical. Mom could rip him open with her bare hands and a minor headache, aunty Taylor could trap him in a building and leave him to die. And that isn't even getting into what we can do if we have weapons on us." Quinn mentioned while Belle left to get more mushrooms to convert to bio matter. Taylor had entered the room and offered the other girl a potion while Amy worked on Maeve. The latter was slowly healing thanks to Panacea's powers essentially re adjusting her insides, Panacea marveled at the feat of biological engineering that was Maeve's body and wondered,
" What have I gotten myself into? " All the while the other girl kept singing, with near fanatical devotion. As if her voice would wake Maeve from her coma. It took a while but Amy was done after a few hours, it had taken up most of the weird mushrooms available, but Maeve was finally healed. "She'll wake in a few days, all that's left is for her brain to finish fixing itself." Amy mentioned as she slowly stood up.
"Thank you, Amy." Taylor said as she put a hand on the other girl's shoulder, "Emily, it's Quinn's turn to sing."
"I can still-" The girl began saying,
"We've almost exhausted our potion stores and you've been singing for hours." Taylor cut her off before she could begin, "Besides you owe us an explanation." Amy could practically feel the frost in Taylor's tone, she saw Emily sigh and massage her throat, her gray eyes looking over the sleeping form of Maeve for a second too long. "Oh and Amy, I got your room ready, Tattletale says your clothes will arrive tomorrow."
"Clothes?" Amy asked as Taylor gestured for her to follow. Walking down the hallway, she arrived at a door she could've sworn wasn't there before, inside was a simple room, undecorated with a desk, chair and a rather soft bed. A dresser was next to the far side of the room and a full body mirror was there as well. Amy sat down and Taylor began explaining.
"Yes You're staying with us. So a change or two of clothes is necessary." Taylor replied as she raised her gloved hand, a highly decorated circle adorned the back of the glove, "As annoying as my s… cousin is, she made sure that I would be able to use some of her things. Which includes using this little thing." She tapped the glove. "It took a while to get the formulas right in my head but it works and I don't need to depend on the stones anymore to fuel it. Anyways, if you need anything just say my name or call Belle, and or Quinn. Oh and remember that your phone's signal is scrambled to hell and back so if you want to call your sister or something you'll need to talk to Belle so that the base remains hidden."
"I see… So what did… Emily? Need to explain?" Amy asked and saw a change in Taylor's face, it was as if she was draining all emotions she once had, "Not much." Taylor replied with a voice that was as dead as the concrete beneath her feet.
"Just how she knows how the fuck powers work and why she's so obsessed with my cousin."
Being a PRT director is suffering or why most directors hate teenage parahumans with almost religious zeal.
April 13, 2011, California PRT HQ, During Maeve interrogation.
Rebecca Costa Brown stared at the scene developing before her. The parahuman known as Maeve reacted just as she expected, prideful, uncaring, and more than willing to over share.
"If your pitch is to join us or go to the birdcage, then send me there. You'll die screaming my name as I leave with the Fairy Queen and an army of undead parahumans." Maeve stated with eerie calm, Costa Brown shuddered at the mental image.
" Less than an hour to arrive there and kill the little shit. " She thought to herself even as she instructed Piggot to continue to push her. The girl continued her posturing, demanding kill orders and the removal of Shadow Stalker in exchange for something that could stop the endbringers. Normally, she would've dismissed such claims, but Contessa had backed the child before.
"And also if even a hair on my family member's head is hurt by you or your two idiots nothing short of Scion will stop me. And even then, I'll kill the golden idiot before killing you." Maeve said after finishing her reasoning for wanting Shadow Stalker gone. Rebecca stared at the child, the phrasing rang lots of warning bells in her head.
" Does she know? If so, then how? How much does she know? What can I do before she inevitably spills too much? " These thoughts distracted her, not for long, but just enough to be unable to tell Piggot to stop pushing. Within seconds, Maeve had escaped custody, and Rebecca was halfway through changing into her other uniform when a portal opened and a very unamused Contessa appeared.
"Step #45: Stop Rebecca Costa Brown from getting herself killed." She intoned coldly, her blue eyes blazing with barely constrained fury. Rebecca knew she was indestructible. The only one who had truly hurt her was Manton's projection, yet for a brief moment, she felt a chill in the air. She was made aware of her own mortality.
"I told you to leave Maeve alone." Contessa said with an uncharacteristic tiredness in her tone.
"She knows about the enemy!" Alexandria almost shouted in accusation. Contessa nodded and replied,
"Yes, arguably more than you or I. Her sight surpasses my own shard's by a significant margin. I do wonder if she has his path to victory given the raw strength of it."
"Then we grab her, and -" Rebecca started saying when Contessa silenced her by pressing her finger into her mouth.
"And she kills everyone. No garden, no corpse, no powers, and that's as much as she's allowed me or Kurt to see." Contessa interrupted her, cutting the idea short.
"Then we kill her." Rebecca spat out, and Contessa looked at her with pity.
"If you try, all you'll end up doing is killing Legend, and then she kills you. It'll be quick, and it will be very ugly." Contessa replied with absolute certainty, "Now check your emails. You have an offer that you will accept for all of our sakes. Door to Eidolon. And Alexandria, next time I will not ask, don't go near Brockton Bay unless there's an Endbringer or worse." And with that, she disappeared. Within seconds, the alarm for emails began ringing, and Rebecca saw a tiny golden butterfly carrying a small mail icon. Clicking on it revealed a simple mail,
{Dear Becky,
I hope this letter finds you well, I am one of the two Harlequins. Call me Quinn, by the way, just to make it easier for you to digest. Anyhow, did you know that your security is absolute garbage? It only took me half a minute to break it and get a better AI to write the code before doing anything hasty, like leaving for Brockton Bay. Or even thinking of pressing the alarm, yes, the one that your right index finger is going to press.}
Rebecca stared incredulously at the letter and grit her teeth at the fact that the damn thing was right. She wondered how badly she had been hacked before continuing to read.
{Now, someone with a nice hat should've told you that we are offering you a deal of sorts. This is a very simple contract, you are to stay the fuck away from Brockton Bay. Your experiment with Parahuman feudalism is done, it would've collapsed in a week at most. That also applies to everyone in your pot licking club, with the exception of Legend, who our princess admires, for some fucking reason. In exchange we, as in the entirety of our group, promise to hunt down the endbringers and kill the Warrior. Not a bad deal, right?
Oh and by the way, Alexandria, if you ever try to get a reaction out of her again, we will rip your head off. This is not a threat, it's a promise.
We would also like to thank you for your generous donation to the Mouse Protector For the Greater Gouda Charity. Your savings for the last few years and most of your operational budget for your black sites will be used to feed starving children all over America. Maybe even some of the orphans you created when you let Manton go.
And Becky as your friend we must say, your taste in clothing is terrible, your breath smells like rotten cabbages and you look like the result of several generations of family circles, not trees, circles. We hope that you live long enough to beg for the pain to stop and remember-}
"We are watching you." An unnerving synthetic voice echoed across the room.
{Yours in perpetual friendship,
Quinn, your local Master in the art of swinging the sword of Damocles.
P.S. Watch carefully what the princess will do tonight, and remember what our sincere hope is.}
Rebecca Costa Brown looked at her bank accounts and saw them painfully low, she didn't need to check the other accounts, Kurt would tell her soon enough. Her computer blinked on and off for a few seconds before turning into a live feed of the PRT base over at Brockton Bay. She saw how Alabaster was killed and how Victor was depowered. She saw one of the Harlequins look at the camera and nod her head. They knew she was watching, she felt a chill go up her spine as Maeve turned her head and stared at her for a second.
It was as if the girl was challenging her.
-April 14, 2011. 1:00 am PRT HQ, New York-
Keith stared at his computer, it was 1 in the morning and he was at work. He sighed as a rather simple email popped up. Sender was unknown, no return address, but it did have one file on it. It read: Maeve's promised security tips for paranoid parahumans and friends of a shitty over-hyped pot. Volumes 1-15.
Keith blinked, once, twice and looked around the empty office, the picture of his husband and their child smiled back at him as he began downloading the text file. He turned away as his computer began making noises not too dissimilar to a jet taking off and he looked out to the city. As much as he did in fact hate the fact that someone so young was forced to kill, he couldn't deny the results. The ABB was shattered largely thanks to Maeve and her friends, the Empire had shrunk to a manageable size and the Merchants were almost gone, their remaining members were now working under a thinker.
" Case 53 as well… Dammi Contessa, how much blood is on our hands? " He thought to himself as his computer began whirling louder, he took one look and swore as he saw the progress bar: 12 gigabytes out of 500 downloaded.
"Are you kidding me?" He asked the computer, and he received no answer. Sighing loudly he stepped towards the door and saw rows of paper, stacked to the ceiling and a small note stuck to the wall.
{Hiya Legend, sorry it took so long but I thought that you would enjoy having both a physical copy and a digital copy of the short and easy version of how to fix your security. And yes, I did include high definition pictures on both copies. So enjoy! I also fixed the coffee machine while I was at it.
Signed, Maeve.
P.S. Tell Rebecca to stop. I doubt Fortuna was enough to convince her.}
Keith looked at the pile of paper in front of him and the small cup of coffee that had appeared behind him and wondered if this was karma over everything Cauldron did. He took a sip of the coffee and thought, "At the very least it isn't overly sweet... Good blend."
April 14, 2011. 9:00am, Brockton Bay, Protectorate Rig-
"Are you serious director Piggot?" Jessica Yamada asked from the other side of the screen, the young psychologist looked frustrated over the request that the director had given her.
"No, that my grandfather Sirius Reginald Piggot the 3rd. Look Yamada, I know this isn't exactly in your wheelhouse, but you're very literally my only hope. Flynt, died earlier this year and she would've been my go to for psych profiles on parahuman, you're my best chance at understanding her." Piggot explained, the director of Brockton Bay was at her wits end. Every thinker tank that the PRT had access to and several they technically didn't, had all concluded the same thing, trying to predict or even understand whatever Maeve was, is an exercise in pain. They said it was like trying to paint a mural, but it kept moving and every odd second the mural would hit you in the face. So it made sense to ask someone who wasn't powered to try, and unfortunately there were very few people that bothered to try to understand the minds of parahumans. At least in the way Piggot needed them to.
"You do realize I specialize in therapy, right?" Yamada replied, her face clearly showing turmoil. On one hand she could use this, her current work at the parahuman asylum was not enough. They needed greater funding, and a director throwing their weight around would help a lot. Especially given the sheer variance between case 53 parahumans, the thought of Sveta's issues was a constant on her mind these days.
But at the same time the more she read on Maeve, which was hard not to do so given the young lady's rise in popularity over Echidna's death, the more she wondered if she was in the right line of work or is she should take up drinking as well as smoking. The girl acted like one would expect a parahuman to do so, loud, proud and very flashy. But it was all an act, she could see that in the fight against the Lung clones, at one point the girl simply moved , there was no hint of anything resembling her previous attitude. In addition there was the recording she received earlier today from Piggot, the girl was playing along from the moment she entered the building.
"Yes, and you're also one of the few people on this earth that knows how to handle some of the most extreme case 53's, beyond the realm of therapy and rehabilitation as well. Dr. Yamada, please, I'll pay you whatever you need, I just need to know what the fuck I'm dealing with here." Piggot begged and Yamada decided.
"... Fine. I'll be there next month and I'll build a profile with your staff, in exchange I expect more resources to be funneled to the clinics, asylums, and that the wards actually do their psych evaluations." Yamada said calmly, her eyes, voice and even posture refusing to betray the feelings she held back in her mind. She really didn't enjoy using someone's desperation to advance her own plans, but this was an opportunity she needed to take.
"... Fine. We can funnel our budget, I'll even put in a request with director Armstrong so that your current project is better protected." Piggot said before closing the video call, grumbling to herself over the lack of funds again.
"Sveta isn't a project." Yamada replied to the empty screen in front of her.
The budding mentat's guide to handling interpersonal conflicts.
-April 14, 2011-
Dinah
The handgun felt like a weight in my hands, I had chosen to come along, to risk my life. My costume was decisively simple, a body suit, a full face mask that even covered my hair, gauntlets on my arms that protected the hands and forearms and my legs had greaves. And the echo device that doubled as a storage space and portable shield.
[.00000000000000009% of death]
" Shut the fuck up. " I told my shard, ever since I got the upgrades the damn thing had been more talkative. Even answering questions that weren't stated. Fortunately the headaches were mostly gone when it answered stuff like this.
[No.]
" Prick… Wait, are you distracting me from what's going to happen? " I asked and it remained silent, though I could feel from the edge of my consciousness a hint of embarrassment. The comm picked up Belle's signal and we began the assault. The bombs that we had planted detonated with supernatural precision and Grue used his fog to cover us. I felt myself being dragged along and readied myself. The instant I saw light I took aim and fired. According to what Marie said this gun was one made by a company called Jakobs, it kicked like a mule, but it was accurate. The Nazi lost his left hand, the same one that had a radio, he screamed as he began to bleed out. I took a health stim (which Marie had assured me would keep them alive, but not much else) and injected it into the stomp. He would live, but the kick that I landed on the back of his head would guarantee that he wouldn't wake until after everything was over.
Taylor and Brian on the other hand were a terrifying combination, several hundred spiders bound several nazis within minutes while the rest began to scream as darkness overtook them. I couldn't see what was happening inside but given how Brian was very efficient at hurting them, I didn't need to use my power to guess what was happening.
"Chances of Rory being injured when he meets Crusader?"
[AAJDGZJNEGZKSNNEMSJSGDBEOMRG683ɇ46]
"Fuck! Okay right gotta talk to Marie, get her to agree and maybe I can change things. Right?"
[Acknowledged.]
" Chance of finding Crusader if I leave Taylor and Brian behind? " I ask even as the memory of what led me to joining them played in my head.
[95%. Bottom floor within 3 minutes.] My power helpfully provided and I moved. I didn't really understand what Marie had managed to do to me, to make it so that I could process so much information without burning out, but the one thing I was grateful for was the enhanced physical ability. I could sprint real fast now, not enough for a mover rating, but I'm in the ballpark of it.
"Going after Crusader!" I yelled back at them, from the edge of my sight I saw a column of bugs give me a thumbs up and fly ahead of me. I should've been more horrified by the chittering horde of various types of insects, but all I could think about at the moment was moving ahead. Each step, faster, and faster than the last. I could hear the screams of the various Nazis as Taylor's bugs tore into them. Some were bitten, others tied, even a few swallowed them and were on the floor writhing and coughing. Yet I kept going down, the hallway that connected to the next set of stairs was rather long, the walls weren't 100% straight,
[Danger 70%, left side.]
My power screamed at me as a false wall opened, the man had a shotgun, but my own handgun was already aimed at him; I pulled the trigger and the bullet smashed his hand into pulp. Before he could finish screaming I had already fired another shot, this time angled so that the ricochet would slam into the back of his leg. I left him screaming as I made my way down, more Nazi grunts, more bullets spent and less bullets to be used against a man with nearly unlimited ghosts.
The third floor of the basement was a barracks of some sort, small beds dotted the walls and Crusader stood in the middle alone. I took aim and fired at him, I would've hit him as well had he not had a ghost grab my hand at the last moment and shoved it away. It twisted my wrist until the gun dropped on the floor, away from me.
"Another little girl, pretending to be a hero. What a waste." Crusader said with pure contempt in his tone. I struggled against the ghost's grip before being tossed into the wall. A spectral looking lance tried to skewer me, but I rolled away from it and regained my footing.
[YUBBBKJJOUTRSMAR5833&ENTTRVOT3446ALRRVSDDON5578ES009876HEFJSSSSWI56786LL000889$^*!SA93*43VE655!!(&YOWQQWVMU]
My power screeched in my ears and I stumbled, the ghosts grabbed me and began to choke me. "Ah, just like your little leader, you're on the floor, dying. Bitches like you-" He proclaimed with sadistic glee. The man approached me with supreme confidence over what was going to happen, my eyes never stopped looking at the room and running the numbers. It was just a matter of waiting…
" Now! " I thought to myself as I activated the gauntlet on my right hand, Marie had told me it was a digistruct blade, but that she had modified it to allow a sort of pulse resonance with the Holtzman generator within the echo device. Marie had told me that it should be useful when trying to pop some annoying specters, but that it was for a few seconds, afterwards I would need to wait while the blades readjusted themselves to allow for another resonant reaction.
The blade struck the ghost on top of me and it screamed before popping. Another ghost tried to grab me, but it met the blade headfirst, as if it didn't register that it existed, Crusader screamed in pain as the ghosts exploded. Then I heard it, like metal slicing through bone and I saw Crusader's hand hang limply from his forearm. It was as if someone had cut all the muscles and bones, it hung loosely from his wrist.
[99.9% of survival if you grab the gun, now!]
It didn't need to tell me twice! I ran to the dropped pistol and fired. Again and again until I heard a click. Crusader's armor mitigated the impact, just a bit, he was bleeding profusely though. I grabbed one of the syringes and popped the vial straight into his neck. I watched his body go still, his breathing slow down and the blood stopped pouring out. It's not that I didn't want him dead, but I had a feeling Marie would make him wish for death.
"I did it! I beat him!" I exclaimed with laughter.
[We.] My power complained and I begrudgingly had to admit that it helped.
"Right, fair enough." I replied and from the door I came in, a wall of darkness surged out, thick roiling fog and soon after a swarm of bugs. I jumped out of the way as the spiders began tying up Crusader, Taylor and Brian emerged from the fog without so much as a scratch on them and I eyed them with some level of jealousy.
"So, what took you guys so long?" I asked
"Ah you know, I had to take in the sights, talk to the locals…" Brian began with some snark though his body language told a different story, he was tense and despite his mask I could tell, his eyes never left Crusader's body.
"And my little cousin wouldn't let you in without making sure you'd have more than a fighting chance." Taylor added while her eyes scanned the room. Within a few minutes Belle appeared, carrying a laptop, she opened it and Kaiser appeared on screen and soon after Marie came down. She was covered head to toe in blood, and gore. But she looked calm, she didn't even flinch at the sight of Crusader. Her voice was filled with venom, a bright light filled the room.
I look at Crusader, " Chances that he becomes a problem within the next 100 years? "
[0%] My power replies, it's voice shivering with fear at the girl who I had tied my fate to… I should probably rephrase that because Emily is jealous enough as it is. But before I'm able to do so my cousin appears, alongside Assault. Both seem shocked at Marie's appearance, the PRT are weird like that. Even I know that Marie is always covered in blood, one way or another.
" Showtime. " I think in order to calm my nerves. He recognizes my voice, I can almost see the puzzle pieces clicking inside his head as I play the part of a rogue.
-Interlude Collection Volume 1 End-
Notes:
I did promise an October update and the initial plan was to include this and the full chapter on the same day, but I'm still proof reading it and honestly I'll probably spend the next week or so rewriting it. So I once again ask for patience while I get my story done, and I do apologize for the delay, IRL shit ain't easy and I know that it isn't a good excuse, but it's the truth.
However the most important thing is for me to say thank you. All of you, every kudo, comment, really helps. Thank you for sticking with me for so long, you guys are the best.
Oh and do let me know if you guys prefer for interludes to be their own separate chapter or if you'd like them as part of the regular chapters when they apply.