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Rating:
Mature
Archive Warning:
Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Category:
Gen
Fandoms:
Parahumans Series - Wildbow亜人 - 三浦追儺 & 桜井画門 | Ajin - Miura Tsuina & Sakurai Gamon (Anime & Manga)
Characters:
Taylor Hebert | Skitter | WeaverDanny HebertBrockton Bay WardsLisa Wilbourn | Tattletale
Additional Tags:
Canon-Typical ViolenceCanon-Typical Body Horrorshard-altered psychologytags to be added as we go
Language:
English
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Timballisto's Curated Works
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Published:2019-05-24Updated:2020-03-11Words:99,568Chapters:29/?Comments:226Kudos:730Bookmarks:266Hits:29,369
(Restricted) The Shadow Over Brockton Bay
Temeritous
Chapter 9: Lich 2.3
Chapter Text
It was Thursday, a couple hours after another incredibly dull day of school. Patrol was due to start soon, and I needed to be in costume even though I was on Console.
I felt it - heard it - the moment the atmosphere changed in the main room. My sensor picked up a sudden silence in the usual pattern of conversation. I replayed what I'd heard but not paid attention to.
"She can hear you." Dennis had said.
"What?" Carlos asked.
I kept spraying on Coryn's face-paint. Once I got her face, wings, and feet she'd put on the cloth part of her costume.
"She can hear through all her Dust, not just Coryn. I'm pretty sure she's always listening, right Taylor?"
I broke up a few sensors to send a storm of Dust ruffling through Dean's homework papers, lying finished in a neat pile on the table.
"Jesus," Dean leaned back. "Okay, hi."
Finished with Coryn's costume, we both came out of the girls' locker room.
"How long have you been able to do that?" Carlos asked.
I watched Dennis with a sensor. Would he contradict me? "Since Monday. I figured it out when I was trying to track down the sniper."
Carlos's nose wrinkled, and then he grinned. "Well, that's great! Have you told Piggot or Armsmaster yet? They can get your ratings upgraded - "
"I'd rather not," I interrupted. He seemed surprised. How to phrase this? "I… had some difficulty with the system at my old school, and after hearing about what happened with Challenger and Armsmaster I don't think the PRT is much different. I like all you guys, I trust you. I don't really trust them."
"Uh, who's 'them'?" Dean asked.
Missy rolled her eyes. "The PRT, duh."
"Right," I nodded at her with a small smile, which she returned. "Look, I want you guys to know because it could affect something in a fight or on patrol. It doesn't really affect the PRT, except that I can hear things I shouldn't."
"Then you can listen in on stuff you shouldn't," Carlos interjected. He wasn't really angry, I thought, just confused.
"Should that matter? I'm not listening in on private conversations, just the stuff to do with me and you guys. They're supposed to be acting in our best interests. They shouldn't have secrets from us, about us. What could I overhear that I shouldn't already be allowed to know?"
"Then why listen at all? If you think they're telling us everything?" Dean, this time. I'd figured he would have the biggest attachment to authority. People like him always did.
"I hope they are. So far, that's held true. I just want to know if that changes."
"Like what? What do you think's gonna happen?" Dennis, but he was… worried.
"I don't know. All I do know is that… look at what happened to Shadow Stalker. We don't know what she did, or what they did with her. Anything could have happened. Anything could happen to Chris, tomorrow, and we might never know what because they decided not to tell us. Doesn't that sound wrong to anyone else?"
Chris finally looked up from his hoverboard and said, "Huh?" He'd apparently missed the entire conversation thus far. "What's happening to me?"
"If they didn't tell us, it would be because it was none of our business," Dean said weakly.
I just shot him a look.
He looked down and sighed. "Yeah, okay. I get your point. Still, it feels… wrong."
"You don't have to do it," I told him. "You just have to not do anything about it. Not doing things is easy."
I'd been through a whole week of console training shifts with one of the other Wards on hand as a teacher, and I had thought that that was tedious. It turned out that without another person to distract me, it was even more boring.
I resorted to forming and reforming Coryn, experimenting with making her claws and talons as sharp as the knife I'd made for Hookwolf. I could do it, but it wasn't her default shape and I could tell she'd go back to her blunter version outside my range.
Console duty was maddening. There were only a few screens in front of me, when I knew I could watch hundreds more with the exact same amount of effort. The stream of data was a dripping faucet compared to what I needed to feel engaged. In desperation, I had sensors peering down every street and alley in my range around PRT HQ, trying to distract myself. I was also sitting at the table finishing my homework while Coryn manned the Console itself, the wireless comm headset over my head.
I heard through the comms and saw through Coryn's eyes on the cameras: Multiple disturbances reported along Harrow Street, a police car in pursuit of a fleeing sports car.
"Go check it out," I said to Aegis and Vista, directing them on a likely intercept course. "Be careful, there's been reports that the car does weird things. Doesn't look like one of Squealer's though."
"Shame," Vista said, "I owe her one."
I grinned, staring down at my trig homework for a moment. Then I realized I should probably get up and get to the Console in person, or I might go the same road Armsmaster had been down.
I watched through the traffic cameras as the fleeing car careened down the street, swerving wildly. I saw why a moment later, when I paused the video on a good shot and saw that the guy in the front seat wasn't holding onto a steering wheel: he was holding up a video game controller, elbows raised level with his shoulders, staring with concentration at the road. Next to him was another person; both wearing masks.
"Aegis, Vista, it's Uber and Leet. They're probably doing a racing game theme this time."
"Costumes?" Aegis asked.
I checked the still again. "Not really. They look like regular people, wearing really fake regular people masks. I'm calling in Clock and Kid Win for your backup, their eta is just after yours."
"Please tell Clockblocker to remember physics when he's freezing things," Aegis said. "Or he might think it's a good idea to freeze the car while the people inside are still going forty an hour."
Yes, that would be very unfortunate. I relayed the orders to Clockblocker, who called Aegis a name that sounded very much like Clock's, but missing a letter.
"Should I relay that message, Clockblocker?" I asked, injecting some sweetness into my tone. I'd heard Vista talk to them like this, and it seemed to work.
"Sure, he knows what he is," Clockblocker said.
I didn't actually repeat it. I have zero interest in saying that over our recorded comms.
The traffic cameras didn't catch her, but I knew when Vista got there by the way reality started warping. The street stretched out like taffy, the car suddenly slowing to a crawl compared to its surroundings. She bent the street into a bowl, keeping the car from turning off, and then started tilting it up.
The display of power was breathtaking. I'd sparred with Vista, or at least Coryn had, but she was in her element with a bigger area and bigger targets.
Uber and Leet spilled out of the car doors just as the front end started warping. They immediately pulled out weapons, some Tinkertech that looked like a grenade launcher and another resembling a machine gun.
Aegis pulled their attention, landing on top of the abandoned car. The police pursuit had stopped at the end of Vista's warped space, the officers disgorged from the cars and creeping slowly forward.
I switched over to their communications for a moment, telling them that the Wards had it under control and to stay back. It was PRT protocol to keep the regular police out of a cape altercation: they didn't have the training to deal with capes, or to coordinate with friendly ones.
It was something of a rush to watch them back off at my command, but I put that to the side. I needed to focus on Aegis and Vista.
"Put down your weapons," I heard Aegis say to Uber and Leet, standing with his shield up.
I couldn't hear the response, but I saw Leet taking aim at him with the machine gun while Uber pointed the launcher back at the police.
"Guns, guys? You know what bringing guns does, right?"
"Sure, I'm stalling. It's not like you can escape, though."
There was a moment where I watched Leet respond on the cameras but still couldn't hear it. Then I watched him shoot at Aegis, and Uber fired at the police.
But whatever he launched didn't go down the street toward the police. It flew out of the back of the launcher, behind him, rising up….
"Shit!" I heard Vista cry out, and then her line went dead.
I hit the red button on the Console, connecting it to Vista's last known location. I said, "Go."
Coryn melted into Dust and filtered out of the base through the air exchange, leaving her costume behind.
Aegis had ducked behind his shield, letting it take the spray of gunfire. He hadn't seen the grenade launcher's target, but he heard Vista's exclamation and then the emergency broadcast I'd hit. He jumped straight into the air for Vista's position, letting Uber and Leet scramble away - back into their car. The street was already melting back into its normal shapes, not a good sign.
I've done everything I can. I can help more by being right here right now.
Repeating it to myself didn't make it feel any more true. The room was suddenly freezing cold and absolutely silent, even though the Console was still making all the same noises it had been moments ago.
Until Aegis' voice crackled through the speakers, "She's alright. She's okay."
"What happened?" I demanded. I couldn't see a thing of the rooftop they were on. "What was it?"
"No idea - some idea. There was a thing before you joined, Clockblocker faced Leet and couldn't tap him out for some reason. Armsmaster said they might have come up with a way to absorb his power's effect. Vista just looks like Clockblocker froze her and everything around her."
"I didn't!" Clockblocker and Kid Win, finally in range. "And Aegis, don't tell anyone."
"Don't tell anyone what?" I asked. It didn't sound like he was talking about the time-frozen Vista.
I could hear a grin in Aegis' voice as he said, "You two are looking really cozy up on Kid's board."
"Shut up! That thing doesn't have seatbelts! Man was not meant to fly, you freaks!"
He had just begged to go flying with Coryn a few days ago, but perhaps it was different on a hoverboard.
"How long until she unfreezes?" Kid Win asked.
"Look at the stuff on the edges, it's falling down. I think the effect is fading."
I breathed out a sigh of relief, cancelling the emergency call with a short recorded explanation that would go out to the responders. My heart was only now beginning to calm down, and somewhere out there I'd told Coryn to hunt down Uber and Leet, thinking Vista was dead.
Don't kill them, I thought to her - I wasn't sure how our communication really worked, but I thought she could get messages from me. Then I remembered the heart-pounding fear, and not being able to do anything about it. But you can scare them a little.
"What about Uber and Leet? Console, can you see them?"
I flicked through traffic feeds, faster than most people would be able to see. I could check every screen at once, after all.
"I've got nothing here. Some sort of disguise or a safe-house, I think." I tried to sound disappointed, frustrated, and it wasn't difficult. I wanted to be out there, in the middle of this, not sitting behind a computer screen.
But I had faith in Coryn, and that was the next best thing.
It knows everything she does, but rarely does the knowledge matter. Even if you could teach calculus to a bird, the bird would never have a reason to use it.
It doesn't resent her control, nor enjoy it. It knows these feelings, but they also don't matter; it cannot feel them. It feels what she feels, when she feels strongly enough. Or when she pushes the feelings into it.
Right now, it's angry. Anger without hot blood to pulse, without teeth to grind or breath to be stolen; not the kind of anger a human being would recognize. It knows where to go to pick up the trail, and it's prepared to search for as long as it takes - until she calls it back.
The anger lessens as it reaches the street she saw. Don't kill them, she says. Just make them afraid.
It considers what she knows of fear. The dark, the unknown, the enclosed spaces. Being hunted.
Yes, it can do that.
It knows everything that she does, but it also knows some things that she doesn't. Things that she hasn't puzzled out yet, things that are hidden from her… for now. It follows the scent of death and fear, the scant trail of Dust, that its targets leave behind them. They have killed, not many, but even one leaves a mark. The Dust remembers.
The car driving down the street at a sedate pace looks nothing like it used to, changed by some mechanism. It can still seem them inside, two figures outlined in the dark, the only people in the world right now. It folds its wings and dives.
The car bounces and screeches as it lands on the roof, claws digging in. Puncturing the thin metal skin and the barrier beneath. It makes its claws as sharp as she showed it how to, dragging its fingers through the metal, rending three perfect parallel lines in it.
There's shouting from inside, the car swerving. It cocks its head, but it knows they aren't scared enough yet. When they truly feel fear, they'll be able to see it.
It goes silent and still, waits for the targets to settle. It flicks one leg down the side of the car and pulls the handle, rattling it because the lock is engaged.
More screaming. It lets go of the door and begins to systematically smash spider-webs into the windshield of the car. When the whole pane threatens to collapse, it switches again to prying the car door off.
The car comes to a stop with a hard turn and the brakes screaming, lifting up onto two wheels for a second. The doors fly open and the targets scramble out, calling out to each other. They want to group up, their fear will be lessened because they'll have someone to share it with.
It splits itself in half, even though this hurts . She has showed it the advantages of changing shape, and like her it is willing to suffer for the objective. One body for each of the targets, to harry them and keep them apart… make them afraid. Alone, in the dark, chased into a corner by a shadow they can't see. Until they can see it.
Then it will return to her.
Coryn hadn't returned by the time the patrols got in, and was still missing when I stepped out into the cool night air to walk home. Covering for her absence wasn't as difficult as I'd feared; the others assumed that any floating thing was representative of her, and I had enough spare Dust to make the cloth part of her costume float.
She returned to my range when I was in sight of my house, flying high above. I seized control, a wave of relief sweeping over me - why? I hadn't been afraid - and brought her down to me.
"How did it go?" I asked her, smiling a little. Vista and Aegis had been able to walk off their adrenaline, but mine had left me shaky at the Console. I still felt like there was a fight I was missing.
She was holding something hooked onto one talon, I saw. I made her lift that foot, and pulled off a blood-spattered scrap of denim, the hem of someone's jeans going by one edge.
"They're still alive, right?" I asked, knowing I couldn't get an answer.
I don't want anyone to die. I know better than most the fragility of life, how precious and protected it must be. If I kill someone, I want them to deserve it. After all, I'm in a unique position to be able to take the time to consider it.
I spent a long moment staring down at the scrap, and then looked up at Coryn. "I guess I just have to trust that you do what I tell you." No different from sending her to guard Rune.
Speaking of which; I released her from my control again, prepared to send her to her night duties.
"Scared, alive."
I froze, wide-eyed. "Come again?"
"Scared, alive. They live."
Coryn could talk. If I stopped controlling her, she could talk. Was she sentient? Was I Mastering the ghost of a real person?
No, she was made of Dust - my Dust. I'd manifested her, she was mine to control. Still - "Do you not want me to control you anymore?"
Her bird-head cocked to the side, gazing at me with a blank lack of understanding.
"How alive are you?" Nothing, no response. "If I left you standing right here, no control, no orders, what would you do?"
She crouched down on her long legs, wings folded back, eyes staring straight ahead at me, as still as a statue. And that seemed to be my answer: if I didn't tell her what to do, she'd stay right here, unmoving, until I told her differently.
"Go guard Rune again. Stay hidden."
Coryn left again, and I was still holding a bit of denim with blood on it; blood belonging to Uber or Leet. If the world was fair and just, and heroes outnumbered villains, I would be able to hand this to the PRT and track down their civilian identities.
I've known for a long time that if you want justice, you have to make it yourself - or grow beyond it.
I tossed the scrap into someone's overgrown hedges, and kept walking.
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