A Rat's Guide to Glory

You have an idea. It is a very stupid idea, but it may work. Just like String Office just called in someone stronger to deal with the threat, you will try to do the same.

"Hey, Harry!" You try to shout over the mayhem, but your voice is drowned out easily. You try twice more before feeling too silly; another of your allies is torn apart while you make an idiot of yourself. At least one Fixer actually laughs, but everyone remains focussed on the fight.

Maybe you should invest in an augment to your voice next.

Sighing, you wait a little while until Harry hugs another Fixer dead and turns around. Once his eyes point in your direction, you wave at him and beckon before opening your arms somewhat. Harry pauses for a moment in surprise, enough time for your allies to leave more bleeding lines across his side and cheek.

Then he smiles, opens his arms wide, and charges forward.

"Are you mad?!" Someone shouts while the others run away from you; there is no time to answer, you need the right timing.

Harry passes the distance you set and you leap back, confusing him. He slows down with a frown, but you beckon him again; it is still too loud to speak, so you do not even bother. This is a stupid idea and would not work on anyone sane, but this guy is anything but. His head tilts for a moment before he comes at you again.

You repeat this twice more and trip over a piece of rubble, only to be caught in strong arms and-

---Switching Timeline---

You repeat this once more and barely get out of his next attempt to hug you. A step to the right makes him lunge past, then you leap over his head before he has fully turned. Your goal is the other fight with Harumi in it. Louis killed a quarter of her opponents by now, but they still stop her from digging away.

The crunch of boots on stone makes you jump right, only to get caught and-

---Switching Timeline---

The crunch of boots on stone makes you jump left, barely getting clear of Harry's charge. He barrels along into another Fixer distracted by Louis, grabbing them from behind; they barely have time to scream before breaking apart. The noise alerts everyone and more Fixers fall back while you weave past Harry and toward Louis. She bears thin, razor sharp claws stained with crimson. Her head-flower glows erratically.

The moment you glance back to check for Harry, those claws slice through your gut and you are left to bleed out swiftly.

---Switching Timeline---

You stay ready and watch her carefully, but also listen for footsteps; the noise level went down as more people stay back to watch the madness unfold. Louis' gaze flicks over your shoulder, then she lunges just as Harry charges your way. Perfect.

Crouching down, you leap as high as you can in a bid to dodge both. A sharp pain tells you that you failed, your body screaming as fire runs through your left arm. You almost drop your weapon and the severed limb falls away; the agony barely keeps you moving and some part of you acknowledges that you underestimated Louis' speed.

At least she was caught in Harry's arms below. You are still falling as he begins to squeeze, apparently unconcerned by whom he hugs. Louis hisses and claws at his back, but she does not die like your allies. Her bones creak and flesh tears, but only some blood flows.

Harumi catches you out of the air with a huff and lands some ways away. She drops you about as soon as she is on solid ground and another Fixer helpfully hands you your arm. That does not help trying to balance with it suddenly missing from halfway down your shoulder.

"That was stupid and it shouldn't have worked," Harumi comments while the two Highlight Heroes still hug it out; you do not have the brainpower to answer her right now, too busy biting down on the pain to not scream. Nobody will care even if you do.

"You done," Louis asks with clear contempt. Her dark voice almost carries in the silence, underlined by the moans of the dying. "Let go."

There are purple bruises and bloody tears along her back when Harry lets go, but she is still alive. Several bloody gouges run across his back as well, courtesy of her claws. Where she glowers however, Harry beams. "Alright, let's-" "Heroic interrupt!"

Which is when Maria arrives from above, her shout not yet complete when her gaudy pipe smashes through Louis' skull like an overripe melon. A wave of dust follows the impact and Harry guards his face from the shower of gore. Maria hops back a few metres and brandishes her pipe. "Sorry I'm late," she calls behind herself, "I was on the other side of the District! But now I'm here and you... uh."

She interrupts herself at the sight of Harry. His arms have lowered and a faint gleam covers his entire body; you can do little beside squeezing shut your bleeding wound as you watch his expression morph into something enraptured.

"You," he whispers as his eyes soak up Maria's appearance. The blunette takes a step back in alienation, revealing purple strands in her mane that you did not really notice before. Harry steps forward and the glow intensifies. "Youuuu!"

"Me?"

"Youuuuuuuuu!"

And he lunges, intent on embracing her as well. Maria rears back and everyone braces; those in the direction she faces leap aside just before the pipe comes down in a blur of motion. Harry barely manages to raise both of his arms in an X-shaped block and catches the weapon; the ground shakes and cracks under the force of it, another wave of dust is blown for several dozen metres.

Maria looks down at him in surprise; even you wonder how he is still alive.

"Huh," she makes before rearing back and slamming the pipe into his side. Harry is sent flying, only to be caught in the chest when Maria appears in his path and swings again. The glow around him intensifies as he goes flying the other way, only to cut off when Maria shows up there as well and smashes in his skull.

The wet noise of flying viscera hitting the ground is all that breaks the sudden silence. Maria strikes a pose and flicks that pipe of hers, which seems to buck and throw off all the blood and pieces of bone clinging to it. There is a quiet cheer before people get to work sorting through the rubble and identifying the dead.

"You should get that looked at," Harumi comments with a nod to your arm. You can only roll your eyes in response, well aware of the fact. As much as you want to go through peoples' pockets, the arm comes first.

One of the surviving String Fixers thankfully points you toward a nearby clinic that offers reattachment services. The work drains your wallet dry, but you rather have no money than no arm. Others who lost limbs are already there or come in as you wait, the arm thankfully put in a provided stasis capsule.

Scavengers of various sorts picked clean the entire area by the time you return. Most Fixers are gone beside Harumi, Maria, and the two surviving String Office members. Others begin to trickle in from the subjugation of Highlight Hero HQ around that time and the rubble is being cleared by Grade 9 Fixers.

"I will not say you did a smart thing," the String Operator tells you about as soon as you join their small group. He huffs softly at the look you give him. "But I can tell you know that yourself. And as much as we call it stupid, it did work. So good job."

"I already heard," Maria adds. She hops in excitement and raises a hand for you. "Come on, put it here! You did good protecting the other Fixers, Ciel!"

You awkwardly give her the high five, trying not to shudder at the proximity. Even if it feels nice to be praised, you know full well it was stupid. Nobody else will thank you for it. The fact you are still alive is a miracle. There is really only one thing you can tell Maria, though: "Thank you."

"Well," Harumi rains on her parade with a nod to the destroyed buildings, "String Office is probably done for, though. Any plans for the future, sir?"

The Operator offers a minute shrug while Maria pouts at Harumi. "Nothing concrete, but I am not done for. String Office still has a dozen Fixers and there was insurance on the office space. We will recover in time."

"Ohhh," Maria joins in, attention taken from Harumi. "I heard Fixer insurances are scams. Are they actually good?"

"Every insurance is a scam until something happens." The Operator shrugs again and motions for his razed office. "Things like these don't happen often, but they can end a career if you aren't insured."

You and Maria nod along; the fact she asks questions similar to your own makes you feel a certain kinship, even if her smile is still alienating in a far different way from Harry's.

"Either way," the Operator finally returns to the subject at hand, "that should be it for the Highlight Heroes. Your job is complete, so you can take tomorrow off. Unless I misremember, your train tickets are for the day after tomorrow and the hotel is still paid until then. And now I need to get started on paperwork."

He takes his leave with a long-suffering sigh, one you can kind of understand at the prospect of paperwork.

Maria looks after him before turning to you and Harumi; from this close you can tell her eyes are yellow behind the red-rimmed glasses, somewhere between gold and amber. "I guess it's time I get going, too. Thanks for the hard work, you two. I hope you keep doing good."

"We will," Harumi lies and you both raise a hand to bid her goodbye. Maria's lips quirk up some more and she leaps onto the nearest roof before running off. Harumi waits until she is out of sight before shaking her head. "Weirdo. This isn't the first Feather I heard about becoming a Fixer, but she's definitely the weirdest. 'Doing good'."

You snort as well, but still have to wonder about her behaviour. "Maybe someone that strong can actually think about it?" you reason. "You know, like the Red Mist?"

Harumi shrugs at that as you begin to walk. "I never met her, but I always thought people must be making that stuff up; there's no way a Color like her would lower prices for people who couldn't afford her otherwise. Who does that?"

"That would be a lot of people making up the same thing," you argue. "I know what you mean, but there must have been at least some truth to the whole thing. Fixers live and die by their reputation and hers was incredible. I mean, I heard of her long before I became a Fixer myself."

"Same, maybe you got a point there."

You fall silent at that point, each ruminating upon the vanished heroine. You never met the Red Mist either, but her reputation preceded her across the City. Had you been younger during her glory days, someone may have told you a bedtime story about her like you heard some parents do for their kids. Maybe Maria aspires to be like her, similar to how you were inspired by the Purple Tear?

In the end you can only sigh and put the matter aside. It is unlikely you will see Maria again unless you go looking for her.

You and Harumi dodge street vendors selling various dishes, partly as a safety measure and partly because you personally have no money to afford anything anyway. It feels odd to be broke again, but the practice to keep some money at hand paid off in spades today. You definitely do not want to repeat that experience even though you are already resigned to the fact that you will.

"Where did you hide the stuff?" You ask Harumi upon returning to your room at the hotel and finding the window repaired. She points to the bathroom... which is empty. None of the gear in sight.

You stare in abject confusion, then look to an equally baffled Harumi. "I, I put it in there," she fumbles. "I swear I did." She weaves by and starts checking as if to make sure it is really not there. "I put it all in the bathtub and drew the curtain, so why...."

She mutters to herself while you retreat with a sigh. So much for selling the stuff and maybe affording another augment. No sudden windfall for you this time, especially with the extra costs you had.

You pull out your report and get to work distracting yourself from the setback. A decent chunk is already done, you just have to finish with today's events. Harumi comes by at some point, saying something about asking around and seeing if she can figure out what happened.

The actual course of events comes to you half an hour into your solitude; you are not stupid even if she had you fooled in the moment. And now you know why Monroe wanted to kill her, too; the unsubtle hints, applying to your greed to see how you react. They went about it the wrong way and died for it, but chances are Harumi tricked them out of money as well. She is a good liar if nothing else and you can do nothing about it unless you want to ruin your reputation; looting the dead is not part of the job or your report, it is a personal, unspoken agreement between Fixers. Claiming she stole when nobody else is left and your word stands against hers will get you nothing.

It is deviously smart, you would praise her skill at screwing people over if this had not hit you. Or maybe she is just good at rolling with the punches and exploiting opportunities; you gave her a golden one there.

But this also makes you a little angry. Not this smoldering hate you still feel when thinking about the Index, but a spark of heat that goes past annoyance. You all but killed Monroe for her sake and she immediately turned around to screw you over. You are just as angry at yourself for failing to notice until it was too late, but there is no helping it now.

Looking out the window, you find the sky tinting orange; evening is growing near. You scowl at the sky and work the fingers on your recently reattached arm. There is a window for revenge; maybe she even believes she has you fooled, that you are some sucker who falls for this flimsy story. There are two nights left to get rid of her somehow.

But do you really want to risk it? Harumi may also be Grade 7 like you, but she is more experienced and better augmented. If she catches wind of it she will probably win a fight. You could just let it lie, try to get word to pass around behind her back, and find some other way to spend tomorrow.

Your mind wanders to Maria and her odd demeanour at that thought; she is creepy in a weird sense, but at this point she saved your hide from one of the top five dumbest things you did in your life. You would lie if you said this vibrancy she has to herself is not intriguing, too. It is a dangerous thought but maybe she is genuinely friendly. Completely insane, that is a given, but still.

Alternately, though you have no money to go shopping or anything, you could also see about finding some loot of your own along the way. Recoup the loss from Harumi's theft without confronting her.

The silence is an old companion, even if you can faintly hear the crowds buzzing outside. It surrounds you, disturbed only by the scratching of pen on paper. You get back to your report for now; the reward for this job will at least cover your expenses and put you out of danger, but it could be better. Much better even. But that is for tomorrow, right now you want to get this report done.

Tomorrow you will....

---

[] Take revenge on Harumi

[] Hang out with Maria

[] See about 'finding' some more loot of your own

[] Do something else? (write-in)

---

-Death Counter: 4 -> 7
-Ciel's Wealth changes from "Barely Afloat" to "Broke"