4.3
- Pronouns
- She/Her
4.3
Kid Win's costume had been partially replaced with mismatched pieces of dark-coloured PRT gear that fit in pretty well with his red-orange costume. Black went well with most things, but it obviously wasn't his usual gear. He looked like a homeless person's coat, where they'd sewn on patches of whatever material they could find even if it didn't match with the original material. A necessity more than a fashion choice.
His hoverboard kicked up dust as he reached the ground in front of me. People were looking at him with a mix of awe and hatred. I'd been speaking to the people from the shelter, some of them blamed the heroes but when I asked how they could have done better, they didn't have answers. As he landed he kicked a pedal on the edge of the hoverboard that caused the whole thing to teleport away in pieces.
He waved at the people around him before turning to me. "Raccoon Knight. Got anywhere private we could speak?"
I looked around. My new camp had a lot more visitors than the old one did, meaning there weren't that many private places. We were only around the corner from the shelter – which was more of a big tent than an actual building – so I had to keep Elel de-activated so she didn't end up glueing lookie-loo who came to see what I was doing. I craned my head around to look at the street behind us. It was empty enough.
"How about there?" I pointed.
"Uh, sure," Kid Win said as he began to walk over.
I followed along by his side, waving down a concerned-looking citizen who I had recently given a coat. Grateful people liked to protect the person who helped them. Although I had only been here for a short day, I had plenty of thankful people, especially those who worked in the overcrowded shelter. Food was scarce, and so were clothes, making two of my many services extremely useful. My ability to fix things had never been handier to have. I even managed to get some cars working, though the roads wouldn't allow for much travel with most of them being flooded or smashed or blocked by the gangs.
Once we were a decent distance away, Kid Win stopped me with a hand gesture. He looked around to make sure no one was close.
"Here," he held out a small plastic box with wires attached to it. "Thought you might want her back. I didn't even want to take her from you."
I took her in my hands, holding onto her as if she might leap out. "Elel," I said.
"I would give you Efef back as well, but…"
"But what?"
"She kinda exploded. Sorry."
"Exploded?!"
"More like burned out, but she isn't going to work any time soon. After I tried to pull her out of your microwave setup the whole thing overloaded and set fire. Since I made her with the same stuff they shove in batteries, we had to treat her like toxic waste."
"Oh."
My world felt a little bit less bright knowing Elel no longer had her sister. I'd found them as a pair, and even when they were taken away from me I at least got to turn Elel's sunglasses into parts for the sonar scan. Efef never had that luxury since they didn't let me take anything but my armour and weapons with me.
"Yeah, sorry," Kid Win frowned. He looked behind us at the camp. "Nice setup you've got. Is that a sonar tower?" he gestured with his thumb towards the metal framework tower I had the new Elel setup on.
I nodded.
"Cool. How do you stop it from bursting everyone's eardrums?"
"It's technically not sonar, just the same idea. The whirly thing at the top," I pointed to the weather-vane-looking piece of metal that was spinning in the breeze near the top of the tower, "detects people by using air pressure–"
"Kinda like Stormtiger?"
"Yeah, exactly. But that'd detect everyone at once, so that part," I pointed to the cloth bag nestled inside the crisscrossing metal pipes between the three metal poles, "is what I call the bellows. It makes a big blast of wind that the detector can read from."
"Then what, it rings the bell and the turret aims at people? What does it shoot?"
"Glue. You're right about the bell, wrong about the turret."
"I wouldn't mind a restock of that glue, by the way, it's been useful for my builds."
"You'd need to get me the resources, I'm running low right now, but okay."
"I can do that. Same as before?"
At my nod, he continued, "What was I wrong about?"
"The turret detects people by blood, not by fake sonar."
"By blood? Oh, maybe by scent?"
"Exactly. I gave it a smelling system that can detect tiny little differences in the blood of people in range. For anyone whose blood is in the machine, it won't glue them up."
"Sounds like it might fall apart on siblings, but the design is neat for what you're working with."
"Thank you," I grinned at him. He smiled as well.
"I also came here to tell you stuff. Two things," he held up two fingers. "One, Vista is sorry about snapping at you. Though she isn't ready to see you yet or even admit that, so pretend I never told you."
"Okay. I didn't blame her, by the way. We lost… we lost a lot of people."
Kid Win frowned, "Yeah… In more positive news; we found Panacea. Though it's a whole thing and she isn't ready to start healing again. Speaking of, don't suppose you've seen Stalker around?"
"No, I haven't seen her. I'm glad Panacea is okay."
Kid Win shrugged, "That's fine, we'll find her eventually. Watchdog says she's still in town, we're just not sure where. Panacea hasn't opened up much, but she mentioned Tattletale spoke to her. We're not sure of their motives right now, so maybe keep your distance if you see the Undersiders. And that's all the information they wanted me to deliver. How're you, Meds?"
"I'm okay. As okay as you can be after all of this. I'm sorry for leaving I just ne–"
"You don't need to apologise."
"I feel like I do."
"Well, I don't want an apology, so tough nails. You're still out here helping, even if it's not by our side. I mostly just miss talking shop with you. Oh, Armsmaster woke up, as well."
"That's good. How's he doing?"
"He's on a lot of pain meds, but everyone is treating him like a hero so I think he's managing. Doctors have high hopes for his recovery, and Panacea being back means it might be sooner rather than later. She might even get to your legs like she promised."
"She promised that?"
"Kind of," he wobbled in hand in a so-so gesture, "She bumped you up her list pretty far since Glory Girl begged her to help, but I think she puts Wards on priority anyway," he shrugged, "Last I saw her, before… before this," he gestured around him, "she seemed like she just wanted to stab everyone around her. She was so tired she fell asleep while I was rambling about the potential of quantum computing."
"I've never met her. I only spoke to Glory Girl a few times. She got in trouble because she met me in civvies, then I got distracted and we just never ended up talking again."
"Yeah, Gallant told me about it. I like your forge, very… rustic. Guess I'm too used to sci-fi crap. Does it work okay?"
"I've been using it to make stuff that I need in good condition like spikes. They're basically just big nails, really. What I really wanna do is make spears for everyone."
"Spears? You planning on making a militia?" he chuckled.
"I thought it might protect people from the gangs. I don't know how well it translates from fantasy to reality, but in medieval times they used spears because anyone could use them. Swords require too much training."
"Fantasy?"
"Yeah, it might be unrealistic. I just thought it seemed like it might be true."
"No, wait. Do you think knights are make-believe?"
"Of course. Did you think they were real? Magic and dragons aren't real either, Kid Win, sorry to break it to you."
Kid Win's mouth hung open before he grinned at me. "Dragons and magic? Not real. Knights, spears, medieval times, all that jazz? Real. People really did run around with swords and spears and live in castles and stuff."
"That can't be right," I couldn't believe it. Why would they put them alongside wizards, dragons, and fairy creatures? "Then why did my book put them with wizards? I even watched a movie where they made up a whole fantasy island called Britain. That same movie had aliens!"
Kid Win laughed, hard. "No, Meds. England is real, you can see it on maps. Where'd you think New England came from?"
"They named it after a real England? I just thought they liked the fantasy name a lot, like the last name Griffon!"
He laughed again, "Holy shit, I need to tell Vista about this."
"I'm not making fun of you, Knight," Kid Win's voice turned serious in an instant. "It's okay that you didn't know. Just a funny misunderstanding, yeah?"
"I… I guess."
"No need to guess. Look, I won't tell Vista unless you let me. We're friends, Knight, or at least I think we still are."
I bobbed my head, "I think so. I would like to get to know you more. I feel like I barely knew any of you," I rubbed my right arm.
"Sure, we can hang out sometime out of costume," he looked around before continuing, "'cept it might be awhile. Little busy with things. Hey, at least we get to hang out in costume. You should patrol with us, we could always use the extra hands."
"That sounds nice. Would give me a good chance to gather stuff that's further out."
"Cool. Well, speaking of it, I've gotta get back to it before Vista takes out the Merchants herself. Oh, keep an eye out for them, they're a lot bigger than they used to be. I've had to stop them from doing some… horrible things. Maybe spruce up the defences here with Elel?"
I thanked him for the warning and he took off on his hoverboard. If the Merchants were gathering new members, that meant Trash Man might still be around for me to get my revenge. Better defences for the shelter sounded like a plan, and with Elel back in hand that should be a breeze. I'd need to defend against more than just physical attackers, especially if the Undersiders started having bright ideas. I suppressed a shudder at the thought of Skitter trying to fight me. I'd made preparations for her after our first encounter, and I could only thank my lucky stars I hadn't needed to use them yet.
Figuring out how to mark 'friendly' people from 'enemies' might be difficult. Maybe I could just ask the people around here for a blood sample and keep using that system? Then if they needed to let someone new in, I could teach the people who were using the shelter how to add people. Except someone might try to sneak in a mean person. If I only teach the system to the workers, it might not be so bad. Workers were less likely to want someone who was looking for trouble to come in.
They also definitely needed to be armed. Finding marshmallows in the ruins of Brockton Bay has been hard so far. My meagre supply of containment grenades was running low already with only five of them left. Using so many of them against one person hadn't been my brightest idea. Someone at the shelter might know where a convenience store is still standing, preferably one that has been blocked off and not looted. My glue was a little easier to make but harder to make throwable.
I mulled it over for a while as I organised some of my materials.
New plan; Teach the workers the blood detection system and get the blood of all the people who are at the shelter. Then, start with arming the people around here with spears, just in case. After that, find marshmallows.
As a makeshift solution, the spikes made for okay spears. Just strap one onto a long stick and it would work okay for stabbing. I'd need to make something sturdier in the future, but I felt a little better about leaving the people I was supposed to be protecting for the afternoon. Getting their blood hadn't taken much convincing, they'd all seen the types of people roaming around and were thankful for the defence.
I needed supplies to keep them safe, which meant unfortunately leaving them by themselves for a little bit. There was a deep feeling of unease in the pit of my stomach at the thought of someone attacking the shelter while I was gone.
Rain began to trickle down, pitter-pattering against my armour. A little rain wasn't going to stop me from my task. A middle-aged man called Derrick from the shelter told me the location of a mall that hadn't been hit too hard by the waves. He seemed nice, if a bit jumpy, so I decided to trust his intel (that's spy speak for information). Going out alone probably wasn't my best call. So long as I didn't tell Mom I had ventured out this far from the shelter she wouldn't be upset. Was it lying if you just didn't tell someone something?
The mall was a gigantic building with Weymouth Shopping Centre in giant metal text bolted above the doors. I'd been here a few times, mostly around the back where they kept their dumpsters. It was close to my old mom's apartment but she always told me that if I went inside I would be trampled to death by a million people. No crowds were here now, I wasn't going to be trampled to death.
As I got closer I could hear smashing noises echoing through the wide empty walkway that made up the majority of the inside of the mall. Someone was here, though it wasn't a crowd – it didn't sound like that many people. I couldn't see anyone through the glass doors, but I could see something thrown out of one of the stores that lined the edge of the mall. Whoever it was, they were making a mess. Glass lay littered almost everywhere, along with various bits of trash, and even a few mannequins that had been ripped apart.
The automatic doors didn't slide open as I approached. Dede's spearhead acted as a decent enough crowbar to pry them open. I tried to sneak as best as I could, making sure to avoid stepping on any of the broken glass. I held Fufu in my left hand, stabilising her against my shoulder so I could hold Dede in my right at the ready. Since Fufu was on a strap, I could drop her at a moment's notice to grab Dede in both hands.
I heard a voice talking inside the store that was currently being smashed to bits. Adjusting my radio didn't let me hear them any better, they were speaking in hushed tones and the loud crashes that interrupted them weren't nice to listen to at a high volume.
I had only heard one person's voice, at least I think I did. Was it better to call out to them rather than sneak up?
My question remained unanswered as a woman exited the building. She looked like she was ready for the beach more than the chilly weather of Brockton Bay, with her tank top that ended below her chest in a line that looked like it had been put into a paper shredder and her jean shorts that would barely count as underwear. As she turned to look at me, I could see her face had a ton of makeup, it reminded me of the owner of one of the hotels near my house, her name was 'Madame Clara' and she was nice to me, even if she smelt like smoke.
The woman stared at me for a while before half-shouting, "Now who the fuck are you supposed to be?"
"Um, my name is Raccoon Knight. I'm a Tinker, I was looking for supplies. I'm not here to stop you from doing… whatever it is you're doing. What are you doing?"
She licked her lips before spitting to her side. "This whole fucking place didn't have a single goddamn carburettor, can you believe it? Decided to trash it a little as revenge. Didn't even have sparkplugs."
"Oh! I have sparkplugs," I searched through one of my coat's many pockets to find them. I found three in total, one was a bit too rusty to probably work. "You can have them if you want. I don't really need them."
She eyed me with suspicion. "What's the catch?"
"No catch. Just wanted to help. What do you need them for?"
"Knew there was a catch."
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I was just curious."
"Make up your fucking mind!" she stomped over to me and snatched them out of my hand. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"What's a 'Tinker' anyway? Made up a whole title to say you like to tinker with stuff?"
"It's the PRT classification of parahumans who can do what I do, which is make cool devices, stuff out of sci-fi," I swapped Dede to a new head to show her off. The woman flinched back before realising I wasn't going to hurt her.
"Looks like junk, ain't sci-fi… I guess that makes me a 'Tinker' too."
"Oh!" I looked away, covering my eyes with my hand. "I'm so sorry."
"What're you talking about?"
"You don't have a mask on."
Through my fingers, I saw her patting her face. "Motherfucker. I knew I was forgetting something." She ran her hands through her messy blonde hair, "Well, whatever, fuck it. We gonna have a problem here?" she squared her shoulders and stood up a little straighter.
"I'm not looking for trouble. I won't tell anyone about your face."
She stared at me for a bit before shrugging. "Alright, fine. Got any fancy gadgets that'll help me find what I'm looking for?"
"Nope! But I could help you look if you help me find what I'm after."
"Mutual agreement. Alright, wicked, that works. What're you after Raccoon Girl?"
"Marshmallows."
"Are you fucking shitting me? Marshmallows?"
"They're useful, and I can use them for a ton of different things."
She shook her head muttering something I didn't catch, "Whatever. I'll help you find your candy, little baby, just find me my shit first," she stretched out a hand for me to shake, "Deal?"
I grabbed her hand and shook. "Deal."
'S' as the woman told me to call her, didn't seem that interested in talking. Whenever I tried to start a conversation, she would grunt or give me a one-word response. Maybe not talking with someone who might be a villain was a good idea, but there was a curiosity burning at the back of my brain that wanted to get to know her more. I'd never directly interacted with a cape who wasn't part of the Protectorate, Wards, or New Wave, and I was interested to see how her life worked as an independent. Except, I'd seen her face, and she didn't want me to piece together who she was as a cape, because then I could tell people I knew her face. What could I even do with just knowing her face? It wasn't like I'd remember what she looked like later on or even be able to describe much aside from the bright makeup she wore or the clothes. If she stopped wearing makeup or did a different style, I wouldn't recognise her at all.
I didn't have spare masks in my coat, an oversight on my half. I'd given the few domino masks I'd managed to take with me to Bert, Dash, and Abi so they could operate without people knowing who they were. I also told them to style their hair differently, and to wear clothes they wouldn't usually wear to make them different from their civilian personas. The PRT had told me to carry myself differently in costume, which wasn't too hard to do since I felt more confident when I was being Raccoon Knight. Hopefully, that advice would make sure no one else would put two-and-two together on their identities, I still felt horrible about that man seeing their faces and knowing their names. They'd get back to me on their codenames the next time we met up.
I spotted a sleek, red car in the middle of the mall on a raised platform that was surrounded by a rope attached to golden poles. When I pointed it out to S, she jogged over and flung open the trunk. Her face dropped.
"Fucking shitstains."
"What's up? And why is there a car here? Did someone drive it in here?"
"It's a show car, they do raffles and shit. Look at this," she gestured to the engine block.
I peeked inside. The engine looked useful, each part hummed with ideas of what I could use them for. Maybe I could make transport to make future trips easier. It'd need to be all-terrain to get over the rubble and… oh, I understood. "It's broken."
"Yeah, no shit," she kicked the bumper.
"I could fix it."
"So fucking could I. I know engines, I know how to fix them without your charity," she got closer to me, jabbing a finger towards me.
I held my hands up to show I didn't mean any harm, "I was just offering, wasn't insulting you. I didn't know what you were capable of."
She stared at me for a long moment then grunted. "Sorry. Just had a rough day. Tired of everything going wrong at every possible moment. I needed a win," she sighed. "Well, nothing for it. Let's go find your marshmallows, Raccoon Girl."
"Really? Don't you wanna fix this?"
"I'll do it later, get moving already."
I grinned even if she couldn't see it. Honestly, I hadn't expected her to follow through on the promise, I was just happy to help even if I didn't do much.
Finding a candy store didn't take much time at all. A lot of it had been looted already. Candy tended to have a longer shelf life than most food even if it wasn't the best for protein and such, so it made sense people would stockpile it as a 'just in case' food. We found a few packs of marshmallows still on the shelves. I gathered them into a backpack.
"Don't these places usually keep more stock in the back?" S said.
"They do?"
"What do you think happens when they run out? They gotta sell more of this crap."
"I hadn't really thought about it."
"What're they teaching kids in school these days?" she muttered, shoving her way past the counter to go through a door labelled 'Employees Only'.
"I didn't go to school," I informed her as I jogged to catch up. The door led into a hallway that led to two more doors. The first we tried looked like a break room with chairs, tables, and an empty fridge with its doors flung open. They had a countertop as well but no appliances.
The second door we tried was locked.
"Fuck," S spat. She took a step backwards, pressing her back against the other side of the corridor, before trying to kick the door below the handle. It bounced in its frame but didn't open. A few kicks later she gave up. She looked over at me. "Don't fucking laugh at me. Shit worked on TV."
"I wasn't gonna laugh? I might be able to get us in."
"Then why didn't you say so before I almost broke my foot!"
"You seemed like you knew what you were doing."
She shook her head, stepping aside to let me try. I fished a small mason jar wrapped in paper out of one of the inner pockets. The acid inside sloshed around as I unwrapped the jar. A plastic spoon handle acted as a spout, sticking out of the top of the metal lid. I pulled back the tiny latch that stopped the acid from flowing out of the spout while it was in my pocket, and then I poured a drop onto the lock, being careful to not get any on my armour. As the drop fizzed against the metal, I closed the latch and began to wrap the whole jar back up. One drop should be more than enough.
The acid popped and crackled as it enjoyed the delicious metal meal. S watched the acid eating away at the metal with a look I'd often seen on Kid Win when he was tinkering. After a minute, the acid had eaten enough of the metal for the lock to fall out of the hole and onto the floor. I withdrew a stick to poke the lock further down the hallway. S shoved open the door and whistled.
"Nice stuff. Might make some for myself."
Beyond the door was a small room crammed with shelves that were also crammed with boxes.
"Hit the jackpot here. If you want candy I guess," S said, rummaging through a box.
I left her to it, scanning over the labels on each box. I wasn't sure why the owners would just abandon all of this, they could have retrieved it to sell somewhere else. With the amount here, I could make more than just marshmallow grenades. All of the gummy candies here alone would supply me with more collagen than I would ever need for healing paste. I'm sure there were materials in the rest of the boxes that would be useful as well. What could you turn chocolate into, I wonder?
A box of marshmallows presented itself, hidden away at the back of a row of shelves like it was trying to hide from me. I ripped it open to see a whole box stuffed full of packets of marshmallow goodness. Perfect.
A loud crash interrupted my thoughts. The roar of an engine blasted through the mall, louder than any car I'd ever heard.
"My ride's here!" S said. She left the room, chewing on a red liquorice stick.
I wasn't sure if I should follow, but hiding might give the wrong impression. I followed S out, making sure to hold onto Dede but keeping her low to show I didn't plan on attacking whoever had arrived.
As we stepped out of the candy store, S waved at what could only be described as a monster truck. Exhaust pipes jutted off it, spewing black smoke as the driver sped towards us. A slanted metal pyramid had been bolted to the front, similar to what you saw on the trains at the trainyard. It shoved aside the stands, informational screens, and other mall stuff that stood in its way before screeching to a sudden stop in front of us. Two men were sitting on the back of the truck bed, one closer to the turret that had been strapped onto the car.
They jumped down just as S said, "Hey, babe!" she waved to the driver as he kicked open the door.
He was wearing a simple costume that looked more like jeans and a t-shirt than anything. I could tell it was a costume from the mask he had over the top half of his face, and the cape that he had to tug free from the bottom of the seat. A logo had been spraypainted onto the t-shirt, but I couldn't tell what it was supposed to be, it just looked like squiggles.
He smiled at her, his teeth didn't look healthy then his smile dropped as he looked over at me. "Who's this cocksucker?"
"Chill," S stepped in front of me. "Just some kid looking for sweets. No harm to us."
"Fuck you mean 'no harm to us', bitch? She's seen your fucking face."
Another man with a gaunt face rounded the truck from the passenger's side door with a baseball bat in hand. The two men who had leapt down went back to grab their own weapons, a crowbar and a piece of plywood. All three of them were wearing coloured bands around their wrists.
"She's just a kid, Skids. She ain't gonna tell nobody."
"Don't tell me what she is and isn't gonna do, skank. Hey, cocksucker," he moved his head so his chin pointed towards me, "got a name? Or should I just call you a skank too?"
"Raccoon Knight."
"The Ward?" he screeched
"She's a Ward?" S said. "You didn't tell me that," she jabbed a finger towards me.
"I left! I'm not part of the Wards anymore. I'm independent now."
Skids sneered at me. "You gonna go crawling back to that speedy prick with my girl's identity?"
"No, I promise I wouldn't tell anyone."
"C'mon, Skids. Let's just go."
"Shut up, bitch," he shoved her aside to get closer to me. "We got a real problem on our hands here, 'cause I don't believe you. One. Bit," he spat, literally spat, I felt the saliva hit my helmet. Good thing I was already drenched from the rain.
"I just wanted to get some supplies. S helped me, I wouldn't repay her by telling people her face."
"Her name is Squealer, you fat little piggy."
"Skids! I gave her a fake name so she wouldn't piece it together!"
"Shut up I know! She needs to respect your name, she needs to know it so she realises who she's fucking with. You get that girl? We're the motherfucking Merchants, the baddest motherfucking gang this side of the motherfucking East Coast. We'll turn you into a goddamn slurry if you mess with us. Got it?"
I already agreed I wouldn't do it, so I just nodded. His threats were kind of pointless. Mouse Protector told me that some people were like birds, they puffed themselves up to make themselves seem bigger than they were.
"Fucking say it, shitstain."
"I got it. I won't tell anyone I've seen her face, like I said before, I never planned to."
"Don't tell me what I already know, cocksucker! Just get the fuck out of here before I change my mind."
I pointed to the store behind me with Dede, "But, I need to get my marshmallows."
"What did I just say?! Get the fuck out of here before I commit some goddamn infanticide!" He whipped his hand out to point towards the entrance to the mall they had smashed through.
Squealer frowned but didn't say anything.
I needed those marshmallows to help save people, same with the gummies. There might not be an opportunity like this again, most places were ransacked already.
"I can't. I need those supplies."
Blue fields appeared around me in a ring as Skids stepped backwards. Squealer yelled something incoherent, but I was already moving. The fields shoved me back as I tried to sprint through them, sending me toppling to the floor. I swapped Dede to her airblast head and fired towards Skids but the shot was reflected as well, slamming into my breastplate. It didn't hurt, the blast wasn't that strong, only close to a punch in strength. I shoved a hand towards the field and found it stronger than when I had run into it. The field became darker and darker as it become harder to push through.
Aiai warped the floor but didn't move the fields. The twisted space looked strange with the fields folding in and around it. My brain hurt just looking at it. I let go to conserve her battery. If push came to shove, I could use her to get… no, I couldn't hurt him.
I swapped back to the spearhead and brandished Dede. Skids laughed. He told his men to surround me as he walked over to a planter pot that had been filled with small rocks. He scooped up a handful before walking back, while never taking his eyes off me. Maybe it required line-of-sight? Could I break it somehow? If only I had a flashbang.
"You think you're hot shit? Think you can make demands of the motherfucking Merchant leader? You're just a stupid cunt."
Squealer grabbed his arm, "Skids, she's just a kid! You can't fucking kill her."
Her arm slipped off his as it glowed blue and she stumbled backwards. "Don't tell me what I can't do, skank."
"Don't fucking call me a skank!"
"Shut up!" he gestured creating a field beneath Squealer's feet that sent her stumbling further back.
I tried stabbing the field to no effect. Kicking didn't work either and it showed no heat on Elel's vision. I wasn't sure what to do, my panic made it harder and harder to think.
Skids hesitated, holding the rocks just outside of the field. His men looked unsure, too. They were standing off to the side, holding their weapons at the ready as if I could get out of the field. If they thought I might, didn't that mean there was some way to break out? Line-of-sight was potentially one, what could be the other?
I couldn't really think of a way out, but I did manage to think of a plan if he did throw the rocks. Based on how his power worked they would probably hurt a lot when they were flung at high speeds, possibly even going through my armour. My backplate could inflate to act as a parachute, it might be enough to slow the rocks down.
Squealer tackled him, sending them both tumbling to the ground in a heap. They rolled away, both of them cursing up a storm. The field didn't stop existing, but I could see the colour fading in intensity. The man with the baseball left to try to get Squealer off of Skids. After what felt like an eternity, I managed to push through the field. It felt like walking in high winds.
The crowbar-wielding man sprinted towards me, giving me barely enough time to escape. As soon as I was free I slammed Dede down towards his knee, ducking as I did so to avoid the crowbar. He toppled to the floor with a scream, the crowbar clattering against the tile as he dropped it. His friend with the plywood slammed it into my side, but my armour took the brunt of it. The force of the hit caused me to stumble to the side. As I stumbled closer to the field, I lashed out with a blind swing that managed to hit him in the hand, sending the plywood flying. He stepped back, grabbing his hand. I kicked the man on the floor while using an airblast from Dede to send the crowbar away from him.
The baseball bat wielder kicked Squealer off the top of Skids. I ran forward, using Aiai behind me to increase the distance between the two men I'd taken down and the new fight. I skidded to a halt, stopping just in time to stop a baseball bat from colliding with my face. Squealer managed to get up before Skids, who had blood trickling from his mouth. She kicked his head like a football.
I dodged another swing of the bat and made some distance so I could fire Fufu towards the man. The shot went wide, and so did my second. I cursed as he slammed the bat right down onto Fufu. The bottle ammo holder crunched before flying off, sending stink pellets everywhere. The PVC pipe that was her barrel splintered as the bat collided with it. I dropped her out of instinct to stop the bat from hitting my fingers.
I grabbed Dede in both hands, then fired three consecutive punches of air into the man's stomach. He keeled over but didn't drop the bat. A field appeared, shoving Squealer away from Skids. She toppled backwards, slamming her back against the wall of a store. She seemed uninjured. A quick check over my shoulder showed that one of the two men was dragging the other man towards their vehicle.
Skids rolled to his feet, stumbling as he steadied himself upright. Squealer bolted through one of the stores, disappearing from sight.
Skids smirked at me, "Looks like you're on your own, possum-cunt," he coughed hard, and a little blood spluttered out. "Fucker."
I stepped my way around his field towards the store Squealer had escaped through, keeping an eye on the men nearer the vehicle and Skids and the baseball guy. Skids slapped a hand onto the back of the baseball-wielder. "You good, Roach?"
Roach nodded, standing himself up, "Winded me real good. But I'm good."
I threw one of my remaining marshmallow grenades towards them while they were distracted. Skids waved a hand and the marshmallow veered off-course, sending it sailing harmlessly to the floor where it inflated to beach ball size.
I shuffled closer and closer to the door, hoping to make a quick break for it. If he placed a field, I'd bolt immediately and just hope no one hit me in the back.
"Should we stop her?" Roach asked.
Skids stared at me for a long moment. He shook his head. "Leave her. Let's go," he spat blood on the floor before heading over to his vehicle. I took my chance to run out of the store.
The doors leading out into the parking lot were still opened up, one of them had been cracked below the handle by a boot. There weren't many cars here, and the few that remained had broken windows. I approached one with a familiar blonde woman inside.
She had pulled wires from out below the steering wheel and was twisting them together. Squealer looked at me with a startled expression as she heard my footstep on the tarmac.
"Oh, just you. Thank fucking god. Where's Skidmark?"
Skidmark? Skids? "Uh, he left, let me go."
"Alright. Get in, we need to get the fuck out of here, now," she said as the car rumbled into life.
I ran around to climb into the passenger side. A moment later and we were driving through flooded streets. She seemed to know a path that avoided the roads in bad condition and the roadblocks people had set up. Now that I thought about it, the Merchants were probably the ones who set up those roadblocks.
She bit her lip and tapped her fingers against the steering wheel as we drove through the city.
"So… where's your hideout or whatever?" she asked, her eyes glancing over at me for a split second.
How am I going to explain this to the people at the shelter, let alone the Protectorate?
I pushed my face into my hands. This was going to be a long night.
Kid Win's costume had been partially replaced with mismatched pieces of dark-coloured PRT gear that fit in pretty well with his red-orange costume. Black went well with most things, but it obviously wasn't his usual gear. He looked like a homeless person's coat, where they'd sewn on patches of whatever material they could find even if it didn't match with the original material. A necessity more than a fashion choice.
His hoverboard kicked up dust as he reached the ground in front of me. People were looking at him with a mix of awe and hatred. I'd been speaking to the people from the shelter, some of them blamed the heroes but when I asked how they could have done better, they didn't have answers. As he landed he kicked a pedal on the edge of the hoverboard that caused the whole thing to teleport away in pieces.
He waved at the people around him before turning to me. "Raccoon Knight. Got anywhere private we could speak?"
I looked around. My new camp had a lot more visitors than the old one did, meaning there weren't that many private places. We were only around the corner from the shelter – which was more of a big tent than an actual building – so I had to keep Elel de-activated so she didn't end up glueing lookie-loo who came to see what I was doing. I craned my head around to look at the street behind us. It was empty enough.
"How about there?" I pointed.
"Uh, sure," Kid Win said as he began to walk over.
I followed along by his side, waving down a concerned-looking citizen who I had recently given a coat. Grateful people liked to protect the person who helped them. Although I had only been here for a short day, I had plenty of thankful people, especially those who worked in the overcrowded shelter. Food was scarce, and so were clothes, making two of my many services extremely useful. My ability to fix things had never been handier to have. I even managed to get some cars working, though the roads wouldn't allow for much travel with most of them being flooded or smashed or blocked by the gangs.
Once we were a decent distance away, Kid Win stopped me with a hand gesture. He looked around to make sure no one was close.
"Here," he held out a small plastic box with wires attached to it. "Thought you might want her back. I didn't even want to take her from you."
I took her in my hands, holding onto her as if she might leap out. "Elel," I said.
"I would give you Efef back as well, but…"
"But what?"
"She kinda exploded. Sorry."
"Exploded?!"
"More like burned out, but she isn't going to work any time soon. After I tried to pull her out of your microwave setup the whole thing overloaded and set fire. Since I made her with the same stuff they shove in batteries, we had to treat her like toxic waste."
"Oh."
My world felt a little bit less bright knowing Elel no longer had her sister. I'd found them as a pair, and even when they were taken away from me I at least got to turn Elel's sunglasses into parts for the sonar scan. Efef never had that luxury since they didn't let me take anything but my armour and weapons with me.
"Yeah, sorry," Kid Win frowned. He looked behind us at the camp. "Nice setup you've got. Is that a sonar tower?" he gestured with his thumb towards the metal framework tower I had the new Elel setup on.
I nodded.
"Cool. How do you stop it from bursting everyone's eardrums?"
"It's technically not sonar, just the same idea. The whirly thing at the top," I pointed to the weather-vane-looking piece of metal that was spinning in the breeze near the top of the tower, "detects people by using air pressure–"
"Kinda like Stormtiger?"
"Yeah, exactly. But that'd detect everyone at once, so that part," I pointed to the cloth bag nestled inside the crisscrossing metal pipes between the three metal poles, "is what I call the bellows. It makes a big blast of wind that the detector can read from."
"Then what, it rings the bell and the turret aims at people? What does it shoot?"
"Glue. You're right about the bell, wrong about the turret."
"I wouldn't mind a restock of that glue, by the way, it's been useful for my builds."
"You'd need to get me the resources, I'm running low right now, but okay."
"I can do that. Same as before?"
At my nod, he continued, "What was I wrong about?"
"The turret detects people by blood, not by fake sonar."
"By blood? Oh, maybe by scent?"
"Exactly. I gave it a smelling system that can detect tiny little differences in the blood of people in range. For anyone whose blood is in the machine, it won't glue them up."
"Sounds like it might fall apart on siblings, but the design is neat for what you're working with."
"Thank you," I grinned at him. He smiled as well.
"I also came here to tell you stuff. Two things," he held up two fingers. "One, Vista is sorry about snapping at you. Though she isn't ready to see you yet or even admit that, so pretend I never told you."
"Okay. I didn't blame her, by the way. We lost… we lost a lot of people."
Kid Win frowned, "Yeah… In more positive news; we found Panacea. Though it's a whole thing and she isn't ready to start healing again. Speaking of, don't suppose you've seen Stalker around?"
"No, I haven't seen her. I'm glad Panacea is okay."
Kid Win shrugged, "That's fine, we'll find her eventually. Watchdog says she's still in town, we're just not sure where. Panacea hasn't opened up much, but she mentioned Tattletale spoke to her. We're not sure of their motives right now, so maybe keep your distance if you see the Undersiders. And that's all the information they wanted me to deliver. How're you, Meds?"
"I'm okay. As okay as you can be after all of this. I'm sorry for leaving I just ne–"
"You don't need to apologise."
"I feel like I do."
"Well, I don't want an apology, so tough nails. You're still out here helping, even if it's not by our side. I mostly just miss talking shop with you. Oh, Armsmaster woke up, as well."
"That's good. How's he doing?"
"He's on a lot of pain meds, but everyone is treating him like a hero so I think he's managing. Doctors have high hopes for his recovery, and Panacea being back means it might be sooner rather than later. She might even get to your legs like she promised."
"She promised that?"
"Kind of," he wobbled in hand in a so-so gesture, "She bumped you up her list pretty far since Glory Girl begged her to help, but I think she puts Wards on priority anyway," he shrugged, "Last I saw her, before… before this," he gestured around him, "she seemed like she just wanted to stab everyone around her. She was so tired she fell asleep while I was rambling about the potential of quantum computing."
"I've never met her. I only spoke to Glory Girl a few times. She got in trouble because she met me in civvies, then I got distracted and we just never ended up talking again."
"Yeah, Gallant told me about it. I like your forge, very… rustic. Guess I'm too used to sci-fi crap. Does it work okay?"
"I've been using it to make stuff that I need in good condition like spikes. They're basically just big nails, really. What I really wanna do is make spears for everyone."
"Spears? You planning on making a militia?" he chuckled.
"I thought it might protect people from the gangs. I don't know how well it translates from fantasy to reality, but in medieval times they used spears because anyone could use them. Swords require too much training."
"Fantasy?"
"Yeah, it might be unrealistic. I just thought it seemed like it might be true."
"No, wait. Do you think knights are make-believe?"
"Of course. Did you think they were real? Magic and dragons aren't real either, Kid Win, sorry to break it to you."
Kid Win's mouth hung open before he grinned at me. "Dragons and magic? Not real. Knights, spears, medieval times, all that jazz? Real. People really did run around with swords and spears and live in castles and stuff."
"That can't be right," I couldn't believe it. Why would they put them alongside wizards, dragons, and fairy creatures? "Then why did my book put them with wizards? I even watched a movie where they made up a whole fantasy island called Britain. That same movie had aliens!"
Kid Win laughed, hard. "No, Meds. England is real, you can see it on maps. Where'd you think New England came from?"
"They named it after a real England? I just thought they liked the fantasy name a lot, like the last name Griffon!"
He laughed again, "Holy shit, I need to tell Vista about this."
"I'm not making fun of you, Knight," Kid Win's voice turned serious in an instant. "It's okay that you didn't know. Just a funny misunderstanding, yeah?"
"I… I guess."
"No need to guess. Look, I won't tell Vista unless you let me. We're friends, Knight, or at least I think we still are."
I bobbed my head, "I think so. I would like to get to know you more. I feel like I barely knew any of you," I rubbed my right arm.
"Sure, we can hang out sometime out of costume," he looked around before continuing, "'cept it might be awhile. Little busy with things. Hey, at least we get to hang out in costume. You should patrol with us, we could always use the extra hands."
"That sounds nice. Would give me a good chance to gather stuff that's further out."
"Cool. Well, speaking of it, I've gotta get back to it before Vista takes out the Merchants herself. Oh, keep an eye out for them, they're a lot bigger than they used to be. I've had to stop them from doing some… horrible things. Maybe spruce up the defences here with Elel?"
I thanked him for the warning and he took off on his hoverboard. If the Merchants were gathering new members, that meant Trash Man might still be around for me to get my revenge. Better defences for the shelter sounded like a plan, and with Elel back in hand that should be a breeze. I'd need to defend against more than just physical attackers, especially if the Undersiders started having bright ideas. I suppressed a shudder at the thought of Skitter trying to fight me. I'd made preparations for her after our first encounter, and I could only thank my lucky stars I hadn't needed to use them yet.
Figuring out how to mark 'friendly' people from 'enemies' might be difficult. Maybe I could just ask the people around here for a blood sample and keep using that system? Then if they needed to let someone new in, I could teach the people who were using the shelter how to add people. Except someone might try to sneak in a mean person. If I only teach the system to the workers, it might not be so bad. Workers were less likely to want someone who was looking for trouble to come in.
They also definitely needed to be armed. Finding marshmallows in the ruins of Brockton Bay has been hard so far. My meagre supply of containment grenades was running low already with only five of them left. Using so many of them against one person hadn't been my brightest idea. Someone at the shelter might know where a convenience store is still standing, preferably one that has been blocked off and not looted. My glue was a little easier to make but harder to make throwable.
I mulled it over for a while as I organised some of my materials.
New plan; Teach the workers the blood detection system and get the blood of all the people who are at the shelter. Then, start with arming the people around here with spears, just in case. After that, find marshmallows.
***
As a makeshift solution, the spikes made for okay spears. Just strap one onto a long stick and it would work okay for stabbing. I'd need to make something sturdier in the future, but I felt a little better about leaving the people I was supposed to be protecting for the afternoon. Getting their blood hadn't taken much convincing, they'd all seen the types of people roaming around and were thankful for the defence.
I needed supplies to keep them safe, which meant unfortunately leaving them by themselves for a little bit. There was a deep feeling of unease in the pit of my stomach at the thought of someone attacking the shelter while I was gone.
Rain began to trickle down, pitter-pattering against my armour. A little rain wasn't going to stop me from my task. A middle-aged man called Derrick from the shelter told me the location of a mall that hadn't been hit too hard by the waves. He seemed nice, if a bit jumpy, so I decided to trust his intel (that's spy speak for information). Going out alone probably wasn't my best call. So long as I didn't tell Mom I had ventured out this far from the shelter she wouldn't be upset. Was it lying if you just didn't tell someone something?
The mall was a gigantic building with Weymouth Shopping Centre in giant metal text bolted above the doors. I'd been here a few times, mostly around the back where they kept their dumpsters. It was close to my old mom's apartment but she always told me that if I went inside I would be trampled to death by a million people. No crowds were here now, I wasn't going to be trampled to death.
As I got closer I could hear smashing noises echoing through the wide empty walkway that made up the majority of the inside of the mall. Someone was here, though it wasn't a crowd – it didn't sound like that many people. I couldn't see anyone through the glass doors, but I could see something thrown out of one of the stores that lined the edge of the mall. Whoever it was, they were making a mess. Glass lay littered almost everywhere, along with various bits of trash, and even a few mannequins that had been ripped apart.
The automatic doors didn't slide open as I approached. Dede's spearhead acted as a decent enough crowbar to pry them open. I tried to sneak as best as I could, making sure to avoid stepping on any of the broken glass. I held Fufu in my left hand, stabilising her against my shoulder so I could hold Dede in my right at the ready. Since Fufu was on a strap, I could drop her at a moment's notice to grab Dede in both hands.
I heard a voice talking inside the store that was currently being smashed to bits. Adjusting my radio didn't let me hear them any better, they were speaking in hushed tones and the loud crashes that interrupted them weren't nice to listen to at a high volume.
I had only heard one person's voice, at least I think I did. Was it better to call out to them rather than sneak up?
My question remained unanswered as a woman exited the building. She looked like she was ready for the beach more than the chilly weather of Brockton Bay, with her tank top that ended below her chest in a line that looked like it had been put into a paper shredder and her jean shorts that would barely count as underwear. As she turned to look at me, I could see her face had a ton of makeup, it reminded me of the owner of one of the hotels near my house, her name was 'Madame Clara' and she was nice to me, even if she smelt like smoke.
The woman stared at me for a while before half-shouting, "Now who the fuck are you supposed to be?"
"Um, my name is Raccoon Knight. I'm a Tinker, I was looking for supplies. I'm not here to stop you from doing… whatever it is you're doing. What are you doing?"
She licked her lips before spitting to her side. "This whole fucking place didn't have a single goddamn carburettor, can you believe it? Decided to trash it a little as revenge. Didn't even have sparkplugs."
"Oh! I have sparkplugs," I searched through one of my coat's many pockets to find them. I found three in total, one was a bit too rusty to probably work. "You can have them if you want. I don't really need them."
She eyed me with suspicion. "What's the catch?"
"No catch. Just wanted to help. What do you need them for?"
"Knew there was a catch."
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I was just curious."
"Make up your fucking mind!" she stomped over to me and snatched them out of my hand. "Thank you."
"You're welcome."
"What's a 'Tinker' anyway? Made up a whole title to say you like to tinker with stuff?"
"It's the PRT classification of parahumans who can do what I do, which is make cool devices, stuff out of sci-fi," I swapped Dede to a new head to show her off. The woman flinched back before realising I wasn't going to hurt her.
"Looks like junk, ain't sci-fi… I guess that makes me a 'Tinker' too."
"Oh!" I looked away, covering my eyes with my hand. "I'm so sorry."
"What're you talking about?"
"You don't have a mask on."
Through my fingers, I saw her patting her face. "Motherfucker. I knew I was forgetting something." She ran her hands through her messy blonde hair, "Well, whatever, fuck it. We gonna have a problem here?" she squared her shoulders and stood up a little straighter.
"I'm not looking for trouble. I won't tell anyone about your face."
She stared at me for a bit before shrugging. "Alright, fine. Got any fancy gadgets that'll help me find what I'm looking for?"
"Nope! But I could help you look if you help me find what I'm after."
"Mutual agreement. Alright, wicked, that works. What're you after Raccoon Girl?"
"Marshmallows."
"Are you fucking shitting me? Marshmallows?"
"They're useful, and I can use them for a ton of different things."
She shook her head muttering something I didn't catch, "Whatever. I'll help you find your candy, little baby, just find me my shit first," she stretched out a hand for me to shake, "Deal?"
I grabbed her hand and shook. "Deal."
***
'S' as the woman told me to call her, didn't seem that interested in talking. Whenever I tried to start a conversation, she would grunt or give me a one-word response. Maybe not talking with someone who might be a villain was a good idea, but there was a curiosity burning at the back of my brain that wanted to get to know her more. I'd never directly interacted with a cape who wasn't part of the Protectorate, Wards, or New Wave, and I was interested to see how her life worked as an independent. Except, I'd seen her face, and she didn't want me to piece together who she was as a cape, because then I could tell people I knew her face. What could I even do with just knowing her face? It wasn't like I'd remember what she looked like later on or even be able to describe much aside from the bright makeup she wore or the clothes. If she stopped wearing makeup or did a different style, I wouldn't recognise her at all.
I didn't have spare masks in my coat, an oversight on my half. I'd given the few domino masks I'd managed to take with me to Bert, Dash, and Abi so they could operate without people knowing who they were. I also told them to style their hair differently, and to wear clothes they wouldn't usually wear to make them different from their civilian personas. The PRT had told me to carry myself differently in costume, which wasn't too hard to do since I felt more confident when I was being Raccoon Knight. Hopefully, that advice would make sure no one else would put two-and-two together on their identities, I still felt horrible about that man seeing their faces and knowing their names. They'd get back to me on their codenames the next time we met up.
I spotted a sleek, red car in the middle of the mall on a raised platform that was surrounded by a rope attached to golden poles. When I pointed it out to S, she jogged over and flung open the trunk. Her face dropped.
"Fucking shitstains."
"What's up? And why is there a car here? Did someone drive it in here?"
"It's a show car, they do raffles and shit. Look at this," she gestured to the engine block.
I peeked inside. The engine looked useful, each part hummed with ideas of what I could use them for. Maybe I could make transport to make future trips easier. It'd need to be all-terrain to get over the rubble and… oh, I understood. "It's broken."
"Yeah, no shit," she kicked the bumper.
"I could fix it."
"So fucking could I. I know engines, I know how to fix them without your charity," she got closer to me, jabbing a finger towards me.
I held my hands up to show I didn't mean any harm, "I was just offering, wasn't insulting you. I didn't know what you were capable of."
She stared at me for a long moment then grunted. "Sorry. Just had a rough day. Tired of everything going wrong at every possible moment. I needed a win," she sighed. "Well, nothing for it. Let's go find your marshmallows, Raccoon Girl."
"Really? Don't you wanna fix this?"
"I'll do it later, get moving already."
I grinned even if she couldn't see it. Honestly, I hadn't expected her to follow through on the promise, I was just happy to help even if I didn't do much.
Finding a candy store didn't take much time at all. A lot of it had been looted already. Candy tended to have a longer shelf life than most food even if it wasn't the best for protein and such, so it made sense people would stockpile it as a 'just in case' food. We found a few packs of marshmallows still on the shelves. I gathered them into a backpack.
"Don't these places usually keep more stock in the back?" S said.
"They do?"
"What do you think happens when they run out? They gotta sell more of this crap."
"I hadn't really thought about it."
"What're they teaching kids in school these days?" she muttered, shoving her way past the counter to go through a door labelled 'Employees Only'.
"I didn't go to school," I informed her as I jogged to catch up. The door led into a hallway that led to two more doors. The first we tried looked like a break room with chairs, tables, and an empty fridge with its doors flung open. They had a countertop as well but no appliances.
The second door we tried was locked.
"Fuck," S spat. She took a step backwards, pressing her back against the other side of the corridor, before trying to kick the door below the handle. It bounced in its frame but didn't open. A few kicks later she gave up. She looked over at me. "Don't fucking laugh at me. Shit worked on TV."
"I wasn't gonna laugh? I might be able to get us in."
"Then why didn't you say so before I almost broke my foot!"
"You seemed like you knew what you were doing."
She shook her head, stepping aside to let me try. I fished a small mason jar wrapped in paper out of one of the inner pockets. The acid inside sloshed around as I unwrapped the jar. A plastic spoon handle acted as a spout, sticking out of the top of the metal lid. I pulled back the tiny latch that stopped the acid from flowing out of the spout while it was in my pocket, and then I poured a drop onto the lock, being careful to not get any on my armour. As the drop fizzed against the metal, I closed the latch and began to wrap the whole jar back up. One drop should be more than enough.
The acid popped and crackled as it enjoyed the delicious metal meal. S watched the acid eating away at the metal with a look I'd often seen on Kid Win when he was tinkering. After a minute, the acid had eaten enough of the metal for the lock to fall out of the hole and onto the floor. I withdrew a stick to poke the lock further down the hallway. S shoved open the door and whistled.
"Nice stuff. Might make some for myself."
Beyond the door was a small room crammed with shelves that were also crammed with boxes.
"Hit the jackpot here. If you want candy I guess," S said, rummaging through a box.
I left her to it, scanning over the labels on each box. I wasn't sure why the owners would just abandon all of this, they could have retrieved it to sell somewhere else. With the amount here, I could make more than just marshmallow grenades. All of the gummy candies here alone would supply me with more collagen than I would ever need for healing paste. I'm sure there were materials in the rest of the boxes that would be useful as well. What could you turn chocolate into, I wonder?
A box of marshmallows presented itself, hidden away at the back of a row of shelves like it was trying to hide from me. I ripped it open to see a whole box stuffed full of packets of marshmallow goodness. Perfect.
A loud crash interrupted my thoughts. The roar of an engine blasted through the mall, louder than any car I'd ever heard.
"My ride's here!" S said. She left the room, chewing on a red liquorice stick.
I wasn't sure if I should follow, but hiding might give the wrong impression. I followed S out, making sure to hold onto Dede but keeping her low to show I didn't plan on attacking whoever had arrived.
As we stepped out of the candy store, S waved at what could only be described as a monster truck. Exhaust pipes jutted off it, spewing black smoke as the driver sped towards us. A slanted metal pyramid had been bolted to the front, similar to what you saw on the trains at the trainyard. It shoved aside the stands, informational screens, and other mall stuff that stood in its way before screeching to a sudden stop in front of us. Two men were sitting on the back of the truck bed, one closer to the turret that had been strapped onto the car.
They jumped down just as S said, "Hey, babe!" she waved to the driver as he kicked open the door.
He was wearing a simple costume that looked more like jeans and a t-shirt than anything. I could tell it was a costume from the mask he had over the top half of his face, and the cape that he had to tug free from the bottom of the seat. A logo had been spraypainted onto the t-shirt, but I couldn't tell what it was supposed to be, it just looked like squiggles.
He smiled at her, his teeth didn't look healthy then his smile dropped as he looked over at me. "Who's this cocksucker?"
"Chill," S stepped in front of me. "Just some kid looking for sweets. No harm to us."
"Fuck you mean 'no harm to us', bitch? She's seen your fucking face."
Another man with a gaunt face rounded the truck from the passenger's side door with a baseball bat in hand. The two men who had leapt down went back to grab their own weapons, a crowbar and a piece of plywood. All three of them were wearing coloured bands around their wrists.
"She's just a kid, Skids. She ain't gonna tell nobody."
"Don't tell me what she is and isn't gonna do, skank. Hey, cocksucker," he moved his head so his chin pointed towards me, "got a name? Or should I just call you a skank too?"
"Raccoon Knight."
"The Ward?" he screeched
"She's a Ward?" S said. "You didn't tell me that," she jabbed a finger towards me.
"I left! I'm not part of the Wards anymore. I'm independent now."
Skids sneered at me. "You gonna go crawling back to that speedy prick with my girl's identity?"
"No, I promise I wouldn't tell anyone."
"C'mon, Skids. Let's just go."
"Shut up, bitch," he shoved her aside to get closer to me. "We got a real problem on our hands here, 'cause I don't believe you. One. Bit," he spat, literally spat, I felt the saliva hit my helmet. Good thing I was already drenched from the rain.
"I just wanted to get some supplies. S helped me, I wouldn't repay her by telling people her face."
"Her name is Squealer, you fat little piggy."
"Skids! I gave her a fake name so she wouldn't piece it together!"
"Shut up I know! She needs to respect your name, she needs to know it so she realises who she's fucking with. You get that girl? We're the motherfucking Merchants, the baddest motherfucking gang this side of the motherfucking East Coast. We'll turn you into a goddamn slurry if you mess with us. Got it?"
I already agreed I wouldn't do it, so I just nodded. His threats were kind of pointless. Mouse Protector told me that some people were like birds, they puffed themselves up to make themselves seem bigger than they were.
"Fucking say it, shitstain."
"I got it. I won't tell anyone I've seen her face, like I said before, I never planned to."
"Don't tell me what I already know, cocksucker! Just get the fuck out of here before I change my mind."
I pointed to the store behind me with Dede, "But, I need to get my marshmallows."
"What did I just say?! Get the fuck out of here before I commit some goddamn infanticide!" He whipped his hand out to point towards the entrance to the mall they had smashed through.
Squealer frowned but didn't say anything.
I needed those marshmallows to help save people, same with the gummies. There might not be an opportunity like this again, most places were ransacked already.
"I can't. I need those supplies."
Blue fields appeared around me in a ring as Skids stepped backwards. Squealer yelled something incoherent, but I was already moving. The fields shoved me back as I tried to sprint through them, sending me toppling to the floor. I swapped Dede to her airblast head and fired towards Skids but the shot was reflected as well, slamming into my breastplate. It didn't hurt, the blast wasn't that strong, only close to a punch in strength. I shoved a hand towards the field and found it stronger than when I had run into it. The field became darker and darker as it become harder to push through.
Aiai warped the floor but didn't move the fields. The twisted space looked strange with the fields folding in and around it. My brain hurt just looking at it. I let go to conserve her battery. If push came to shove, I could use her to get… no, I couldn't hurt him.
I swapped back to the spearhead and brandished Dede. Skids laughed. He told his men to surround me as he walked over to a planter pot that had been filled with small rocks. He scooped up a handful before walking back, while never taking his eyes off me. Maybe it required line-of-sight? Could I break it somehow? If only I had a flashbang.
"You think you're hot shit? Think you can make demands of the motherfucking Merchant leader? You're just a stupid cunt."
Squealer grabbed his arm, "Skids, she's just a kid! You can't fucking kill her."
Her arm slipped off his as it glowed blue and she stumbled backwards. "Don't tell me what I can't do, skank."
"Don't fucking call me a skank!"
"Shut up!" he gestured creating a field beneath Squealer's feet that sent her stumbling further back.
I tried stabbing the field to no effect. Kicking didn't work either and it showed no heat on Elel's vision. I wasn't sure what to do, my panic made it harder and harder to think.
Skids hesitated, holding the rocks just outside of the field. His men looked unsure, too. They were standing off to the side, holding their weapons at the ready as if I could get out of the field. If they thought I might, didn't that mean there was some way to break out? Line-of-sight was potentially one, what could be the other?
I couldn't really think of a way out, but I did manage to think of a plan if he did throw the rocks. Based on how his power worked they would probably hurt a lot when they were flung at high speeds, possibly even going through my armour. My backplate could inflate to act as a parachute, it might be enough to slow the rocks down.
Squealer tackled him, sending them both tumbling to the ground in a heap. They rolled away, both of them cursing up a storm. The field didn't stop existing, but I could see the colour fading in intensity. The man with the baseball left to try to get Squealer off of Skids. After what felt like an eternity, I managed to push through the field. It felt like walking in high winds.
The crowbar-wielding man sprinted towards me, giving me barely enough time to escape. As soon as I was free I slammed Dede down towards his knee, ducking as I did so to avoid the crowbar. He toppled to the floor with a scream, the crowbar clattering against the tile as he dropped it. His friend with the plywood slammed it into my side, but my armour took the brunt of it. The force of the hit caused me to stumble to the side. As I stumbled closer to the field, I lashed out with a blind swing that managed to hit him in the hand, sending the plywood flying. He stepped back, grabbing his hand. I kicked the man on the floor while using an airblast from Dede to send the crowbar away from him.
The baseball bat wielder kicked Squealer off the top of Skids. I ran forward, using Aiai behind me to increase the distance between the two men I'd taken down and the new fight. I skidded to a halt, stopping just in time to stop a baseball bat from colliding with my face. Squealer managed to get up before Skids, who had blood trickling from his mouth. She kicked his head like a football.
I dodged another swing of the bat and made some distance so I could fire Fufu towards the man. The shot went wide, and so did my second. I cursed as he slammed the bat right down onto Fufu. The bottle ammo holder crunched before flying off, sending stink pellets everywhere. The PVC pipe that was her barrel splintered as the bat collided with it. I dropped her out of instinct to stop the bat from hitting my fingers.
I grabbed Dede in both hands, then fired three consecutive punches of air into the man's stomach. He keeled over but didn't drop the bat. A field appeared, shoving Squealer away from Skids. She toppled backwards, slamming her back against the wall of a store. She seemed uninjured. A quick check over my shoulder showed that one of the two men was dragging the other man towards their vehicle.
Skids rolled to his feet, stumbling as he steadied himself upright. Squealer bolted through one of the stores, disappearing from sight.
Skids smirked at me, "Looks like you're on your own, possum-cunt," he coughed hard, and a little blood spluttered out. "Fucker."
I stepped my way around his field towards the store Squealer had escaped through, keeping an eye on the men nearer the vehicle and Skids and the baseball guy. Skids slapped a hand onto the back of the baseball-wielder. "You good, Roach?"
Roach nodded, standing himself up, "Winded me real good. But I'm good."
I threw one of my remaining marshmallow grenades towards them while they were distracted. Skids waved a hand and the marshmallow veered off-course, sending it sailing harmlessly to the floor where it inflated to beach ball size.
I shuffled closer and closer to the door, hoping to make a quick break for it. If he placed a field, I'd bolt immediately and just hope no one hit me in the back.
"Should we stop her?" Roach asked.
Skids stared at me for a long moment. He shook his head. "Leave her. Let's go," he spat blood on the floor before heading over to his vehicle. I took my chance to run out of the store.
The doors leading out into the parking lot were still opened up, one of them had been cracked below the handle by a boot. There weren't many cars here, and the few that remained had broken windows. I approached one with a familiar blonde woman inside.
She had pulled wires from out below the steering wheel and was twisting them together. Squealer looked at me with a startled expression as she heard my footstep on the tarmac.
"Oh, just you. Thank fucking god. Where's Skidmark?"
Skidmark? Skids? "Uh, he left, let me go."
"Alright. Get in, we need to get the fuck out of here, now," she said as the car rumbled into life.
I ran around to climb into the passenger side. A moment later and we were driving through flooded streets. She seemed to know a path that avoided the roads in bad condition and the roadblocks people had set up. Now that I thought about it, the Merchants were probably the ones who set up those roadblocks.
She bit her lip and tapped her fingers against the steering wheel as we drove through the city.
"So… where's your hideout or whatever?" she asked, her eyes glancing over at me for a split second.
How am I going to explain this to the people at the shelter, let alone the Protectorate?
I pushed my face into my hands. This was going to be a long night.
This week has been stupid hot and my brain is basically a puddle, so forgive me if this chapter is a bit rambly at times.
In other news, I wrote another snippet where Taylor has a Thinker power inspired by the prediction system from 'Your Only Move is Hustle' - You can check it out here: bee's Random Snippets with no Rhyme or Reason - Chapter 4 - bee_jpeg - Parahumans Series - Wildbow [Archive of Our Own]
Thanks for reading, as usual.
In other news, I wrote another snippet where Taylor has a Thinker power inspired by the prediction system from 'Your Only Move is Hustle' - You can check it out here: bee's Random Snippets with no Rhyme or Reason - Chapter 4 - bee_jpeg - Parahumans Series - Wildbow [Archive of Our Own]
Thanks for reading, as usual.
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