I know, I know, another late update. Sorry I dropped the ball on this one.
I blame Transistor (and the ongoing plot-bunny that is my Transistor crossover).
Snip #15
"This!" I exclaimed as the alarm continued to ring. "I know this! It's an Endbringer alarm!!"
Tailor Hebert looked at me before her eyes widened as the idea sank in.
"An Endbringer's coming here!" I continued. "An ENDBringer! It's going to burn Brockton Bay to the ground! Or sink it! Or… or… do horrible things to it!"
I could imagine what it would do here. I could picture the devastation.
I could remember my hometown, which was not even in Leviathan's path. The empty lots where there used to be rows of houses. The mud and silt everywhere. Everything, buried as if it never existed.
I noticed movement, and looked up in reaction. I watched as Tailor walked a few steps away from me, enough to bring her to the entrance of the alleyway. She calmly looked out into the streets beyond and then looked back at me again.
I would be lying if I said I was just as calm as that girl. I would be lying if I said I was even half as calm as that girl.
If I was honest with myself, I would also be lying if I said I was calm at all.
"Don't you get it?!" I continued to panic, moving forward and grabbing onto her. I shook my startled partner as if to emphasize my point as I continued talking, "I can't beat an Endbringer! Nobody can! Entire groups of capes get destroyed by Endbringers all the time! What am I going to do!? Where am I going to go!? I most certainly can't scratch him! What am I going to do!? Where the hell am I… what?"
My near panic ground to a halt as Tailor slowly and deliberately facepalmed.
I must have perceived something very wrongly.
Panic replaced itself with confusion. I mean, I was right, wasn't I? Endbringers, you know? Big killing things that ends things? Unstoppable rampaging monsters? They're always Horrible, with a capital H, yes? How could I be wrong? How could I be possibly…
"Simon," Tailor spoke through her fingers. I could hear the sigh accompanying her words, "an Endbringer alarm is a loud, multiple klaxon system installed all over the city. They go 'whhhooooo', and are much louder. This is just a set of ringing bells."
Oh. "Oh." Oh boy.
I scratched the back of my head with one hand as I felt my expression change from horrified to sheepish.
"Erm… ok." Do I ever felt as silly as I do now?
Tailor reacted, looking out from between her fingers with an annoyed expression.
"Sorry about just now." I continued.
"Are you seriously this bad?"
"Erm, what?"
"You don't know anything about capes, their rules and the PRT, and mistook a simple bell for an Endbringer alarm. And despite that, you want to fight all the villains and clean up Brockton Bay?"
"Yes." I said immediately. There was no shame in telling the truth.
"How!? How can you do that when you don't know anything?" she hissed.
"That's actually why I need your help." I countered. "I know I don't know anything here in America, and how your government does things. Especially the way you deal with capes over here.
"The Sentai-Rangers, the Red Storms, Silver Kaze, the Black Masks, to name a few groups and solos 'masks' back in Cape Capitol, Kyushu, it's so very different from where I come from. Back there, wearing a costume there was … showmanship, advertisement. An advertisement of purpose, a sign of being assigned a great duty, a declaration of being selected for something greater than all of humanity. 'Here I am, so and so! Lay praises upon me, for I am given the mandate of heaven itself!' And the people will do so, holding them up on a pedestal, with almost religious fervor for some."
"But the flip side of that comes with this overwhelming need to serve, to sacrifice all of themselves for the needs of everyone else. The capes back where I come from were willing to throw everything aside to help the people, and I mean everything, to serve however they perceived the public needed their help. Sometimes, they will even throw away the very concept of good and bad if the crime is heinous enough. Even the Yakuza capes will help the police fight crime, you know?"
"Over here, the idea, the feeling of having powers is so… different. So individual, prideful and… alone. The culture here and the capes themselves, I just don't get it. That's why I need a local guide." I finished, gesturing at Tailor. "That's why I asked for your help."
"Wait, back up. 'Yakuza' is the Japanese name for organized crime, is it?"
"Yes."
"The capes of criminal syndicates help the police fight crime?" She said, an astonished look on her face.
"Yes. It's a bit funny sometimes. And not all of them, not all the time, but it happens."
"But… they're criminals!"
"Tailor," I said, suppressing the lecturing tone trying to make its way into my voice, "When you get to my age, when you learn more about the world around you, you'll find out that the world is not colored in black and white. You really can't judge people only by their labels. Just because they're called 'bad guys' does not mean they're really bad."
"That, it still doesn't make sense!"
"It wouldn't, not for a while." I replied wisely, before changing the subject. "Anyway, I hope the bell's not something urgent. What's that about?"
"Oh, it's from Brockton Bay Central Bank. I think they're getting robbed in broad daylight."
We looked at each other. The alarm continued to ring.
"What?! You got to say these things earlier!!" I exclaimed, turning around. "Let's go!"
"Let's… wait, what? No!!"
I jarred to a stop just before I exited the alleyway. Turning my head around, I asked. "No?"
"It's a bank robbery!" she began, "There're criminals in there! We can't just barge in there without a plan!"
"Of course we can! Let's go!!" I was eager to get started.
Oh look, another facepalm.
"Ok, what am I missing?" I asked, putting away my annoyance for another time.
"It's a bank robbery, so there obviously are…?"
"People who need to be saved!"
"And robbing the bank are…?"
"Villains who need to be beaten!"
"And they may have…?"
"Knifes. Maybe guns. Sometimes a superpower or two may be involved."
There was a pause, as a frown became puzzlement, "… And if you storm in there?"
"They'll either run away, or fight me." I replied confidently.
Tailor's second palm joined her first, on her face. "It's like herding a baby. An idealistic BABY. Like talking to… to… to Greg-lite. Oh god, deliver me from this madness. Look, Simon," she put down both hands, looking at me straight in the eye as she spoke, "have you considered that they would harm the hostages if you kick down the bank's front door??"
"They wouldn't dare!" I exclaimed, horrified.
"That is exactly what will happen if you bash your way inside!" Tailor continued my education loudly. "Brockton Bay's full of capes, so it's very likely they'll bring some of their own, or something to deal. And either way, they will keep their hostages close as leverage! They may even have a bomb in there! We can't just barge in blindly! If we do so…"
I must admit, the thought had never really crossed my mind. But now that the possibility was presented to me, it was clear as day what the consequences could be. I mean sure, that had always been an option for the desperate. But…
I felt homesick.
"Ok, ok." I surrendered. "Criminals here are vicious bastards. But there's still that robbery. I doubt even American capes will let villains get away with this, right? What do they do in these situations?"
"… I don't know." she replied, stumped. "They… plan on what to do next?"
"Well then, let's plan. What are we going to do?"
There was another short pause of ringing-interrupted silence as we pondered. Then Tailor suggested, "well, there are my bugs…"
***
Five minutes later, we were still hidden in that alleyway. It had also started raining.
And I had never felt as useless as… no. There were a few instances where I felt worse. But this certainly ranked in the top ten.
"I think I got it." Tailor said beside me, her eyes closed in concentration as she tapped on a map she had drawn using the alleyway's garbage and debris. "All the people I can feel have been moved to the bank's main hall, here. Most of them are lying down on the ground along the walls. I'm guessing those are likely hostages. Only seven people are doing anything at all, four in the vault here, and three moving in and over the hostages. I'm guessing those are the villains who are robbing the bank."
"It's easy to tell powers are involved just by looking at the shadows covering the windows. Also, there's this funny thing floating above the main hall, here, and also three more gigantic things moving up and down the bank. There will always be two staying in the center of the room, here and here, and they occasionally switch with the monster in the vault."
She opened her eyes. "Assuming different powers for different capes, we have at least Shadow and Monsters, maybe more. We're going to have to assume seven different powers to be on the safe side."
This certainly ranked in the top five of me feeling useless.
"So, any plans?" she asked, looking expectantly at me, all out of odds from her earlier confident leadership.
"How long can you keep track of them?" I asked. "And their hostages?"
"I have tagged them with houseflies. So, as long as they're in range I can sense all of them, all day long."
"Your range, how far is that?"
"Maybe the block behind it, or maybe a little more. It depends."
"Ok, then we wait. Our job here should be helping the innocents," I shuddered as I spoke, thinking of what could have happened, "and not beating the villains. We will wait for an opportune time to strike.
"I don't know how good I really am against a cape right now, so seven possibly powered opponents may be a little too much for me. Maybe when they're leaving the bank, we might get lucky and spot them splitting up or something. I just hope they do not take some of the hostages with them."
"That would suck." Tailor agreed. Her eyes closed again as she suddenly concentrated once more. "Si… err… Mister Spartan? Something's coming. They just landed in front of the bank. I think… there are six of them."
I carefully looked out of the alleyway, shoving the annoyance of Tailor's corruption of Sentai Spartan's name to one side.
Tailor was correct.
From the narrow view I had, I could see three of them. An obviously good guy dressed all in a white skintight costume with interlocking panels of glossy white body armor. To his right was a tanned youngster with a rust red costume overlaid with a shield emblem and with silver-white trims. Further to the right was an even younger child in a white and green costume with a skirt, full of wavy swooping lines.
"The wards are here." Tailor said from where she was, looking over my shoulder.
"Wards? What are…"
"Please tell me you at least know who the Wards are?" There was annoyance mixed into the question.
"I know them." I looked at Tailor; her annoyance still showed on her face. I continued, "Your version of a powered youth group, attached to the Protectorate. There are six of them in the local Wards branch. That's Clockblocker, he freezes things. The girl's Vista, she stretches space. And that's Aegis, the current leader. I don't see Shadow Stalker and Kid Win." Before you start, I did not forget BROWBEAT.
"The one with the red costume's Aegis, not Clockblocker."
"... right. But what are they doing here? Your Protectorate is in the habit of exposing kids to dangerous situations?"
"I donno. Practice for their future jobs in the Protectorate, maybe?"
"Never mind, I'll ask more about this later. How are our villains reacting?"
"Badly, I think. I can't hear them clearly, but there seems to be some loud sounds between small groups of them. Oh, and some of the hostages are moving. The villains are dragging them to the front door… There's some kind of speech… Here they come."
I heard something slammed from around the corner. Moments later, I saw eight people coming into view, running down the stairs of the bank. Aegis exchanged a look with Clockblocker, who signaled back for a moment. The armored teen turned back, "Everyone leaving the bank! Get down on the ground now!"
Moments later, a pebble barely larger than my palm struck the child leader square in the middle of his helmet. He fell.
Unnatural darkness covered everything immediately after.
"Shit." I said. I had seen that shadow before.
"Shit." My partner in heroism mirrored. "Six of the villains just made it out of the bank, and their monsters too. They're going to fight the wards!"
"They're going to get outnumbered, even without Aegis being taken out." I pointed out. "Wait, isn't Aegis's powers being strong and able to survive anything?"
"I don't know? He's ok? Maybe he fell in surprise?"
"Where are the bank robbers right now?" I asked.
"Erm… about… there, roughly." She pointed, before she realized where she was pointing. "They're already in the Ward's ranks!"
"Ok then." I stood up. "Tailor, you don't have a costume, so stay here and stay hidden. It's time for plan B."
"What's plan B?"
"We improvise." I said to her. And then I was gone from the alleyway.
***
Special thanks to Ovoid Orca and SealedDaemon for showing up to help with Beta support. And hidden betas astral_avenger, Logos, Enohthree and Sar.Saraneth too.
They each get an Honorary Degree in Grammar Nazism *.
* Issued by the great college of… erm… a hole in the wall somewhere in Dubai, India. Not recognized by most learning institutes and businesses, for some odd reason. For astral_avenger, Logos, Enohthree, Sar.Saraneth, I'm sorry, but I got reamed by the Deans over at UWAA at attempting to attach their name to this degree...
