--Ex Machina--
Chapter XXIX: Misappropriation
Even as the room in front of us descended into conflict and cheers and chaos, I looked over at Viktor.
"Can he do that? Is that even possible?" I asked, looking to them for confirmation to what my social suite told me about what Skidmark thought he was saying.
Viktor nodded slowly, while Tattletale brought a hand to her temples.
"He wasn't lying," Viktor said, even as he stepped closer to the entryway to the small maintenance hallway, drawing a pair of knives from where they had been sheathed at his thighs. "Or at least," he amended, "he thinks he's telling the truth."
I shook my head and looked back over the crowd at The Merchant's leader. He was stood on the stage, leaning over the railing laughing as dozens of small groups of four or five Merchants had clustered together inside the 'ring.' The leftovers desperately struggled to find backup. Before my eyes, one of the small groups surged forward and enveloped a lone straggler, throwing him to the ground between them and battering him with kicks to the sides and face.
I had to tear my attention away and focus on our immediate surroundings. Despite being outside the ring, where the bulk of the frenzy was located, we weren't entirely safe. Almost as many people were outside the ring as were in, and many were fighting just as fiercely as those who were inside the arena.
Across the room, a pack of almost a dozen merchants prowled around like a pack of rabid dogs, bodily displacing any stragglers they came across into the ring. Even as I watched, someone was picked up and tossed over the glowing barrier, his body accelerating into another Merchant, knocking the both of them to the floor.
Without really consciously realizing it, I had shifted toward the entrance of the hallway, along with Viktor, and was clenching my batons in my hands. Skidmark's stage was too far away to try making a break for through the writhing mass of fighting Merchants to try and obtain the canister or vial, even with Rune's extended reach.
I was almost caught off guard by the half dozen or so Merchants quickly approaching from behind me, but luckily even in the low light, my rear optical sensor managed to let me see their approach before they could get too close. I whirled around, batons in hand, and crouched below the wild swing of a leaden pipe. I struck the lead Merchant in the knee, sending him to the ground as his support gave out.
The remaining Merchants rushed me as their leader fell, but all conveniently fell over one another as the one in front's leg abruptly spasmed, causing him to trip to the floor.
A discreet handful of steel ball bearings skittered along the floor, pushing the rear two toward the shimmering blue and purple lines in front of us before they could get to their feet, while between my batons and tranquilizing darts, I was able to subdue the remainder. I glanced back at Regent and Rune behind me and gave both a nod of thanks.
I looked over at Viktor, who was dispatching his own cadre of merchants, a pair of knives in hand as he warded them off. In opposition to my attacks which, while painful, wouldn't leave any real lasting damage, Viktor apparently had no qualms with more debilitating injuries. As I watched, he struck out, carving a long, shallow, cut into the forehead of one of his attackers, causing blood to well up and spill down into his eyes, blinding the man. Without hesitating, Viktor kicked the man in the stomach before he could regain his senses, knocking him onto the floor and pushing all the air from his lungs. He didn't get up.
It went on like that for several minutes, Viktor and I holding back whatever Merchants got near our hallway, incapacitating them with the support of Rune, Regent, and occasionally Grue, who were stood behind us. Over time, I got a few bruises and shallow cuts from Merchants landing lucky hits with knives or chains, but nothing I didn't trust Othala to help with once this frenzy was over. As I caught sight of one of the few remaining groups on the outside of the ring and saw them begin to meander towards us, I crouched down, readjusting the grip on my batons and-
I was suddenly someplace else. I couldn't perceive anything, but the place still felt familiar. Like it was something I'd forgotten, that had once been very important to me.
Suddenly, two massive creatures bloomed into my vision. The pair spiraled around each other, as their forms folded in and out of reality, exposing facets that had never been there before but had always been present. Around and around, the two beings, the size of small planets, filled my perception with their dance, until nothing existed but their shifting infinite forms. I reached forward as I saw a shard, a continent folded into a pebble, break off from one of them. I saw the piece descend, falling down toward the earth and impact-
My eyes opened, or rather, I saw through them again. The Merchants I had seen approach earlier were closer, but paying no attention to us anymore, their vision firmly towards the ring, where all the fighting had abruptly stopped.
Skidmark stumbled towards the mic on the stage, looking like he had just woken up from a long sleep, or more likely, a bad trip.
"Seems like one of you rugmunchers just earned your stripes," he said, visibly woozy but with an excitement in his voice that would be infectious, if he were less disgusting.
The crowd started to slowly clear around a young man who was shakily making his way to his feet, faint white wisps of smoke trailing from his eyes, nose, and ears. Suddenly from behind him, someone whirled, swinging a lead pipe toward his head. The boy flinched, and a circular sphere of white light appeared, just off to the side of the attacker.
The boy scrambled back, while the other Merchant stumbled, almost like the blast had pulled at him from the side. Once he recovered his footing, he charged again. The boy screamed as he backed up, and another flash manifested, this one intersecting the Merchant.
When it faded away, the man's weapon, along with the arm holding it and half his torso was just… gone, a circular section of his body completely carved out. The man collapsed to the ground, bleeding out, but nobody paid him any attention, as Skidmark walked back up to the microphone.
"Step up lad, now that that assboil's taken care of, I'd like to welcome the newest member of the Merchant's upper circle. First thing though, you're gonna need a name."
As the boy stood there silently, probably in shock, I started creeping forward, out of the hallway. I stepped up the small pile of wincing or unconscious Merchants that had formed during the brawl and roughly pushed them to the side, against the wall with my leg, clearing the path.
I glanced behind me, Rune had followed me out to take a closer look, while Viktor was watching over the room, one hand resting on the pistol that was still holstered at his hip.
"Scrub!" Skidmark suddenly shouted out exuberantly, evidently pleased with himself for his talent with names that was nothing short of visionary.
The boy seemed unsure, but eventually nodded and stepped toward the stage, the shimmering lines on the floor fading as he stepped forward.
"No point in you swilling this though," Skidmark said, indicating the steel canister and glass vial which was still sitting on the stage, "Wouldn't do shit fuck all. Pick someone."
The newly christened Scrub turned, looking over the crowd, but whatever he said was drowned out by the sound of fissuring concrete. As one, the whole room looked up to the ceiling, just in time to see a roughly circular section of the roof fall to the ground, everyone in the vicinity of where it landed scrambling out of the way.
An orange figure dove from the hole in the ceiling, descending the thirty or forty feet and landing near the back of the stage. I recognized Newter from reports and pictures as he leapt toward the canister.
A shimmering band appeared before him, forcing him back from the vials, but he turned with the shift in his momentum and launched himself at the Merchant capes still stood on the stage.
As debris began to circle around a slip of a girl, her thin black hair whipping around her, Newter reached out and hit her in the forehead with the palm of his hand. She collapsed almost immediately, and the orange Case 53 caught her and lowered her to the ground.
I looked around me as I noticed the room start to get more illuminated. Along the crumbling walls, burning torches began to appear, and the walls around them slowly shifted to rough cobblestone.
Labyrinth I realized, just as I heard footsteps from behind me. I turned to see Viktor, Othala, and the three Undersiders (Grue helping Tattletale walk as she clutched her head between her hands) behind Rune and me.
"We need to get out of here," Viktor said, indicating an area of wall behind us that had still been untouched by the transformation to medieval gothic architecture.
Rune seemed to get his meaning, because she stepped forward and touched the wall. A second later, the section tore itself away, leaving enough room to pass through.
If things were any less hectic in the main room, I'd have cringed at our complete abandonment of any pretense of subtlety, but judging by the walls rising from the ground, forming a massive labyrinth in the atrium of the mall, separating the Merchant capes from each other, I'd say the time for that had come and gone.
Regent wasted no time in hopping through the newly-formed hole. Grue followed him through, still supporting Tattletale, who was leaning on his shoulder, muttering something about gods and toddlers and parasites.
I looked behind me, we weren't far from the stage, but even now I could hardly see it, ivy-covered cobblestone walls kept forming and shifting and falling, as if by random. I caught a brief glimpse of a cape in a welding mask and red body-armor picking up the shiny steel canister. Behind her, several of the Merchant's capes were being held off by gouts of flame or viscous liquids.
I looked around for the loose vial, but couldn't see it anywhere. Assuming it was taken somewhere, I turned back to the hole just as Viktor helped Othala through. He stepped through himself and looked back. His face morphed into a rictus of alarm and he began to look around hurriedly.
I looked around myself, trying to find the cause of his concern, and realized that I couldn't see Rune. I started searching for my friend's tag in the over the chaos in the main room. Looking for a vantage, I turned and jumped onto the nearest of Labyrinth's walls, the propulsion blasts in the soles of my feet helping me clear the twelve feet with ease.
From my position, I could see Faultline's crew forming up around her, steel canister in hand. Several of the Merchant's capes were unconscious, though Faultline seemed uninterested in capturing or containing any of them as long as she had the canister.
I spotted movement out of the corner of my eye, and turned to see Rune rapidly descend on a piece of sheet metal. She landed near the gap she had made earlier, which already had thin ivy beginning to stitch across it, growing thicker every second. I jumped off my perch as I saw Faultline turn and touch the wall behind her, a perfect arch cutting into the cobblestone.
I landed softly and brought out a small knife from one of my fingertips, easily slicing through the ivy. Rune nodded at me and slipped through, me following not far behind.
Outside was remarkably quiet, compared to the frenzy inside the mall. Out of the corner of my vision, I could still see the odd fleeing Merchant running this way or that into the night, but most were still trapped inside the temporary cathedral that Labyrinth had transformed the ruins of the mall into.
Rune and I walked forward to where the others were waiting and stood next to where Othala and Viktor were standing. Without a word, Othala stepped forward and lightly touched my arm, and I could feel the quick burst of regeneration fixing up the cuts and bruises I had sustained inside the mall.
Viktor shot a quick glance at Rune, as if to question her brief disappearance, but looked back when Tattletale stepped toward the four of us, drawing everyone's attention. She tried to smirk, but winced halfway through the motion and settled for a sly smile instead.
"Well that was certainly something of an unexpected turn of events," she said, a slight weariness creeping into her voice. "I think, though, that that's plenty of excitement for the evening."
There was a general (if begrudging on Rune's part) consensus following her words. Before anyone could add anything else, Rune reached down and touched the ground beneath her feet. A roughly circular section of asphalt tore itself out of the parking lot beneath us and floated a few feet upwards. I looked down at the former Undersiders.
"Thanks for your help tonight," Grue rumbled out. I just nodded in response as our ride continued to ascend into the sky and turn back towards home.
--Ex Machina--
The flight home was fairly quiet, I suspect out of a combination of the rushing wind and everyone's exhaustion at the hectic events.
It gave me plenty of time to reflect, though, as I looked out over the city, sitting on the asphalt, my legs kicking over the edge. From our position, high above the rooftops, I could see clearly the destruction that continued blighting my home.
Reconstruction efforts were still ongoing, of course. Because of Lung's actions in forcing Leviathan back into the bay instead of fighting in the city proper, the damage caused by the floods and tidal waves made up the majority of the destruction in the city. Because the destruction had been mostly limited to those buildings without adequate foundations or distance from the shoreline, Washington had given the decree that the city wasn't to be condemned, and that reconstruction efforts were to be continued.
Progress was still slow though. Despite my best efforts, there was still rubble to be cleared and roads that were smashed to pieces. It didn't help that all along the way, repair and construction crews were harried by Merchants, scattered remnants of the ABB, and others.
And thinking through all that I couldn't help but feel that I should be doing more. That I hadn't done enough with my repair crew when I worked with them. That I hadn't done enough for the field hospital, when all I could reliably do to help was to provide bio gel for the doctors so they could more easily treat burns and lacerations.
I couldn't stop the thought, that horrible, niggling thought, that I couldn't do more to save my home. That I wasn't good enough, and that-
I shuddered. I wasn't good enough. I wasn't good enough.
I started to remember. Remember the last time I had these thoughts, even as I had tried to force them back for months. For two years, I had been thrown away, pushed down, rejected, and ultimately almost killed by my former friend because I wasn't good enough.
I don't know when I started shaking, because I didn't notice it until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I breathed in, feeling the oxygen flood my system as it filtered through my lungs and into my bloodstream, monitoring its levels to distract myself as I calmed.
For a few seconds, that's all I could bring myself to do. Just breathe in, breathe out. When my heartrate finally fell, naturally, not out of any override, I looked up, and I saw it was Rune, her hand on my shoulder steadying me. Letting me know I wasn't alone anymore.
I looked up at my friend, she shot me a soft, comforting smile before looking away, focusing on keeping us afloat. I turned my gaze back over the city.
This time, I looked harder, and in between the rubble, and the destruction, I saw where people had repaired. I saw a makeshift bazaar, the stalls abandoned for the night. I saw a small field clinic, the lights still on as the Red Cross administered aid to those who needed it. I saw camps, where the displaced, their homes swallowed by the sea banded together, surviving until they could thrive.
The people of Brockton Bay were strong, and they wouldn't let something like an Endbringer break their spirits. Not when they'd survived decades of economic downturn and gang warfare.
I smiled to myself. This too, we'd endure, as we always have.
We might even rebuild the city to be better than it was before. We'd rebuild, we'd come back stronger. Make it better than it was before.
--Ex Machina--
We deposited our requisitioned chunk of parking lot a block or so away from the house and walked the rest of the way. With the way the night had been going so far, I half-expected Oni Lee to come leaping at us out of the shadows, but luckily we made it back unhindered.
We filed into the kitchen, dropping into seats around the table or breakfast bar by mutual consensus. After a few seconds, I broke the silence.
"Well, that was fun, I guess."
Victor looked over at me, the barest of smiles turning up the corners of his mouth. "We certainly learned a few valuable things," he said. "In addition to maintaining relations with an ally possessing vast resources and dealing quite the embarrassment to the Merchants, even if it's unlikely they know about our presence."
Odette nodded "Faultline certainly made quite the entrance, didn't she? I wonder what their interest in those vials was, besides the obvious." She said, her voice soft and thoughtful. "Unless they were just looking to expand their roster, there's got to be some reasoning for them to show their hand so dramatically."
"And that still leaves the question of the origin of Skidmark's 'superpowers in a can,'" I remarked. "Both where they came from and how he of all people got his hands on them."
Everyone sat thoughtfully for a few seconds before Brooke broke in, her words measured, trying to avoid the river of words that sometimes manifests when she's excited.
"Well," She began slowly. "I'm not sure about their origin, or how the Merchants got them, but I bet we could learn something from studying it a little, no?"
I looked over at her in confusion, and her carefully steeled neutral expression slowly morphed into an impish smile as she reached into a pocket of her robe.
When she withdrew her hand, she was holding a stoppered glass vial, a strange purple liquid sloshing around inside.
--Ex Machina--
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