- Location
- The Great Beyond
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
Not much follow up I can do for you there. As for the "beg pardon" as a short form is that one of those American things? Like y'all, or fixin' to? Never heard anyone shorten it up here in Canada.
Beg pardon is certainly not something that would surprise me to hear.
I can't actually remember anything about Grue-Rachel interactions. Feel free to tell me more.
Grue Rachel interactions? Let's see what I can dig up pre-leviathan. Post probably less representative.
Next one isn't per se a Brian and Rachel interaction, but gives us something of his opinion.2.8 said:"Call off your dogs!" Brian shouted.
The largest of the dogs, an ugly Rottweiler or a mutt with strong Rottweiler blood, seized my wrist in its jaws. My knees almost buckled in response to the pain, which only worsened when it abruptly snapped its head to one side and wrenched my arm. I fell, and in a heartbeat, the other two dogs – a German Shepherd and a hairless terrier with a missing ear and eye – were on me.
The German Shepherd set to barking and snapping at my face, occasionally catching the hair that hung in front of my face to pull at it. The other started raking at me with its claws and nipping with its teeth, trying to find somewhere on my legs, body or backside that it could set its teeth into.
While those two were at it, the Rottweiler still had my wrist in its teeth, and it began pulling, as though it wanted to drag me somewhere. I grit my teeth at the pain and tried to think something I could do that would amount to more than curling up into a fetal position to protect my arms, legs and face.
"Call off the fucking dogs!" I heard Brian bellow, again.
A tooth or claw scratched my ear. I think that's what spooked me, because my composure broke and I cried out.
Just a second or two later, a much longer span of time than it sounds like when a pack of dogs is tearing at you, there was a whistle. Hearing the noise, the dogs abruptly backed off. The one eyed terrier offered one hostile bark followed by a long growl even as it walked away, as if it still had enough mean left in it that it had to let it out somehow.
Lisa and Alec helped me to my feet. I was shaking like a leaf. One of my hands gripped the forearm of my other arm, as much to stop the worst of the trembling as to cradle the injury. I had tears in the corners of my eyes and I was clenching my teeth so hard my jaw ached.
On the opposite side of the room, Brian was rubbing the back of one of his hands. The three dogs were sitting in a neat line ten feet away from a girl who was lying on the ground. The girl had blood running from both of her nostrils. I recognized her from the picture I had seen on her wiki page. Rachel Lindt. Hellhound. Bitch.
"I fucking hate it," Brian growled at the girl, putting emphasis on the swear, "When you make me do that."
Bitch propped herself up a bit, half against the wall opposite me, so she had a better view of the room. A better view of me. Seeing her in person just confirmed my impressions of her from her picture online. She wasn't attractive. An unkind person might call her butch, and I wasn't feeling particularly kindly towards her. Most of her features looked like they would have been better fit on a guy rather than a girl. She had a square face, thick eyebrows, and a nose that had been broken more than once – maybe broken again just a moment ago, given the blood trickling from her nostrils. Even as far as her physical build went, she was solidly built without being fat. The trunk of her body alone was bigger around than mine was with my arms down at my sides, just by virtue of having a thicker, broader torso and having more meat on her bones. She was wearing boots, black jeans with tears all over them, and a green army jacket over a gray hooded sweatshirt. Her auburn hair was cut shortish.
I took a deep breath. Then, speaking slowly so I wouldn't stumble over my words or let a tremor into my voice, I asked "Why the fuck did you do that?"
She didn't reply. Instead, she licked her upper lip clean of blood and smiled. It was a mean, smug sneer of a smile. Even though she was the one lying on the ground with a bloody nose, she somehow had it in her head that she'd beat me. Or something.
"God fucking dammit!" Brian was shouting. He went on to say something else, but I didn't really hear it over the buzzing of my power in my ears. I realized I was clenching my fist, and habitually forced myself to relax it.
Then, like I had done so many times over the past few days and weeks, I searched for a reason to justify why I was backing down. It was almost reflexive. When the bullies got on my case, I always had to take a moment to collect myself and tell myself why I couldn't or shouldn't retaliate.
For a few moments, I felt adrift. Around the same time that I realized I couldn't find a reason to back off, I realized I had already wrenched free of Lisa and Alec's support and crossed half of the room at a run. I reached for my bugs and realized I'd been using my power without thinking about it. They were already gathering at the stairs and by the windows. All it took was a thought, and they started flowing into the room in greater numbers. Cockroaches, earwigs, spiders and flies. Not as many as I might have liked, I hadn't been using my power for long enough to gather those from further around the neighborhood, but it was enough to count.
Bitch saw me approaching and raised her fingers to her mouth, but I didn't give her a chance to signal her animals. I kicked for her face like I might kick a soccer ball, and she aborted the whistle to cover her head with her arms. My foot bounced off of one of her arms and her entire body recoiled as she flinched.
Because I hadn't slowed down before reaching her, I had to use my hands to stop myself from running into the wall. A line of red hot pain ran down my arm at the impact, starting at the point where the Rottweiler had bitten my wrist. Reminded of the dogs, I glanced to my right, and saw the largest of them standing, ready to come to his master's aid. I brought a large share of my bugs in between myself and the beasts. The last I saw of them before the swarm blocked most of my view, the dogs were rapidly backing away from the swarm, startled.
Finding myself standing over Bitch, braced against the wall, I pressed the attack. Her arms were covering her face and chest, but I saw her exposed ear as a target and brought my foot down on it. Her head bounced against the floor, and blood bloomed from the top of her ear. The sight of the blood almost stopped me, but I knew that backing down now would give her a chance to set them on me again with a whistle. My toe found her exposed stomach, and as she drew her knees upward to protect her belly, I aimed a sharp kick between her legs. I managed to get kicks to connect firmly with ribs three times before she brought an elbow down to protect it.
I didn't get a chance to do any more damage, because the dogs had gotten over their fear of the bugs and were closing in, circling around me and Bitch as the swarm extended. I abandoned my assault on Bitch to step away and face them. I knew I could set my bugs on them, but something told me the dogs weren't about to yelp and run away while their master was being hurt. I might have the swarm attack them, but if the pain of the bites and stings didn't stop them, they'd attack me and I'd be in the same situation I'd been in a minute ago. I doubted Bitch would call them off a second time.
A shadow fell over my vision, like a jet black curtain sweeping in front of me, blocking my view of half the room and the dogs. It dissolved into wisps of black smoke a second later, and I was startled to see Brian right in front of me, between me and the dogs.
"Enough," he intoned. The little one-eared cyclops of a terrier snarled at him in response.
There was a sound I didn't recognize. It was only when Bitch tried again, more successfully, that I realized the first sound had been a weak attempt at a whistle. The dogs looked to their master and then retreated, still edging away from the swarm. I backed away a little as well, being careful to keep Brian between myself and the mongrels.
Bitch coughed, then raised her head to look me in the eye. She rubbed her ear with one hand, and her palm was red with blood as she pulled it away. As the German Shepherd approached her, she rested the same hand on its head. The other two dogs moved closer to her, as if they could protect her, but their attention was fixed entirely on me and Brian.
When a good few seconds had passed and Bitch had made no further overtures of aggression towards me, I sent an instruction to the swarm to make their exit. I could see Brian visibly relax as they faded into the cracks.
"No more fighting," he said, his voice calmer, "I'm directing that at you, Rachel. You deserved whatever Taylor gave you."
She glared at him, coughed once, and then glanced at the other two before turning her angry gaze to the floor.
"Taylor, come sit down. I promise we'll-"
"No," I interrupted him, "Fuck this. Fuck you guys."
"Taylor-"
"You said she wasn't cool with me joining. You never said she was pissed off enough to try and kill me."
Bitch and Brian started speaking at the same time, but Brian stopped when she started coughing. As her coughing fit subsided, Bitch looked up at me and snarled, "If I ordered them to kill you, Brutus would have torn out your throat before you could scream. I gave them the hurt command."
I laughed a little, just a little more high pitched than I would've liked, "That's great. She has her dogs trained to hurt people. Seriously? Fuck you guys. Count this as another failed recruitment."
3.1 said:"We'll leave the stitches in for about a week, I think, before we take them out," Brian said, "You can go to your doctor and have him do it, or drop by and I'll take care of it."
I nodded. A turn of the salt-water and seaweed scented wind blew my hood back, and I took a second to push my hair out of my face and pull my hood back up.
"I'm sorry for Rachel and that whole incident last night" Brian said, "I wanted to apologize sooner, but I figured it would be a bad idea to bring it up while she was in earshot."
"It's okay," I said. I wasn't sure it was, but it wasn't really his fault. I tried to put my thoughts into words, "I think… well, I guess I expected to have people attack me from the moment I put on a costume, so I shouldn't be surprised, right?"
Brian nodded, but didn't say anything, so I added, "It caught me a little off guard that it came from someone that's supposedly on my team, but I'm dealing."
"Just so you know," Brian told me, "Just from what I saw after you left last night and as people were waking up this morning, Rachel seems to have stopped protesting quite as loudly or often about the idea of having someone new join the team. She's still not happy about it, but I would be surprised if there was a repeat performance."
I laughed, a little too abruptly and high pitched than I would have liked, "God, I hope not."
"She's kind of a special case," Brian said, "I think that growing up the way she did kind of messed her up. No family, too old and, uh, not really attractive enough to be a good candidate for adoption. I feel bad saying that, but that's the way those things work, you know?" He glanced over his shoulder at me.
I nodded.
"So she spent a good decade in foster care, no fixed place to live, fighting tooth and nail with the other foster kids for even the most basic luxuries and possessions. My guess? She was screwed up before she got her powers, and with things happening the way they did, her powers pushed her into the deepest end of the antisocial pool."
"Makes sense," I said, then I added, "I read her page on the wiki."
"So you've got the gist of it," Brian said, "She's a handful to deal with, even for me, and I think she actually considers me a friend… or as much a friend as someone like her can have, anyways. But if you can at least tolerate her, you should see we've got a pretty good thing going with the team."
"Sure," I said, "We'll give it a shot, anyways."
3.3 said:"On what?" Brian asked. When Alec shrugged, Brian sighed and explained, "It's a horrible payoff for the amount of risk involved. There's three big superhero teams in this city. Figure there's another dozen heroes that fly solo, and we're almost guaranteed to get into a fight."
"So?" Bitch spoke for the first time, "We win fights. We won before we had her." She raised her chin in my direction as she said that last word.
"We won because we picked our battles. We wouldn't have that option if we were cooped up in the bank and waiting for them to come to us, letting them decide how and where the fight happened."
Lisa nodded and smiled as he spoke. I thought for a second that she was going to say something, but she didn't.
Brian continued, getting pretty passionate as he ranted, "We won't be able to slip away like we have when things got a little out of control in the past. Can't avoid the fight if we want to get away with anything worth taking. The bank is going to have layers of protection. Iron bars, vault doors, whatever. Even with your power, Lise, there's a limit to how fast we can get through those. Add the time we have to spend managing hostages and making a safe exit, and I pretty much guarantee that there will be time for a cape to get wind of the robbery and slow us down even more."
Alec said, "I kind of want to do it anyways. Hitting a bank gets you on the front page. It's huge for our rep."
"The runt is right," Bitch said.
Brian grumbled, "Not fucking up is better for our reputation in the long run." His deeper voice was really good for grumbling.
Alec looked at me, "What do you think?"
I'd almost forgotten I was a part of the discussion. The last thing I wanted was to rob a bank. Hostages could get hurt. The fact that it would potentially put me on the front page of the paper wasn't a high point, either, if I ever wanted to drop the supervillain ruse and become a hero in good standing. I ventured, "I think Brian makes a good case. It seems reckless."
Bitch snorted. I think I saw Alec roll his eyes.
Lisa leaned forward, "He does make good points, but I have better ones. Hear me out?" The rest of us turned our attention to her, though Brian had a frown that made it seem like it would take a lot to convince him.
"Ok, so Brian said similar stuff before, before we hit that casino a few weeks ago. So I was kind of expecting this. But it's not as bad as it sounds. The boss wants us to do a job at a very specific time. I got the sense he was willing to offer a fair bit if we went the extra mile, and I negotiated a pretty good deal.
"The bank robbery was my idea, and he liked it. According to him, the Protectorate is busy with an event on Thursday, just outside of town. That's part of the reason the timing is so important. If we act then, there's almost no chance we'll have to deal with them. If we hit the Bay Central, downtown-"
"That's the biggest bank in Brockton Bay," I interrupted her, half-disbelieving.
"So everything I said about them having security and being careful is doubly true," Brian added.
"If we hit the Bay Central, downtown," Lisa repeated herself, ignoring us, "Then we're hitting a location just a mile away from Arcadia High, where most of the Wards go to school. Given jurisdictions, New Wave won't be able to jump on us without stepping on the Wards' toes, which pretty much guarantees we go up against the team of junior superheroes. With me so far?"
We all nodded or murmured agreement.
"Figure that's happening in the middle of the school day, and they won't all be able to slip away to stop a robbery without drawing attention. People know the Wards are attending Arcadia, they just don't know who they are. So everyone's constantly watching for that. Since they can't have all six or seven of the same kids disappear from class every time the Wards go off to foil a crime without giving away the show, chances are good that we'd go up against a couple of their strongest members, or one of the strongest with a group of the ones with less amazing powers. We can beat them."
"Okay," Brian begrudged, "I'll accept that we'd probably do alright in those circumstances, but-"
Lisa interrupted him, "I also got the boss to agree to match us two for one on the haul. We bring in fifteen grand, he pays us thirty. Or he gives us enough money to bring our total up to twenty five, whichever is more in the end. So we could walk away with two thousand dollars and he'd pay us twenty three thou. So as long as we don't wind up in jail, we're guaranteed five thousand dollars apiece, bare minimum."
Brian's eyes widened, "That's insane. Why would he do that?"
"And," Lisa grinned, "He'll cover all our costs, just this once. Equipment, information, bribes if we want 'em."
"Why?" I echoed Brian's earlier question, disbelieving. Lisa was throwing around sums of money that I couldn't even wrap my head around. I had never even had more than five hundred dollars in my bank account.
"Because he's sponsoring us and it stands to reason he doesn't want to fund a team of nobodies. We manage this, we won't be nobodies. That, and he really wants us to do a job at that particular time."
There was a few moments of silence as everyone considered the deal. I was frantically trying to think of a way to try to convince these guys it was a bad idea. A bank robbery could get me arrested. Worse, it could lead to me or a bystander getting hurt or killed.
Brian beat me to it, "The risk to reward still isn't great. Five grand each for hitting what may well be the most fortified location in Brockton Bay and an almost guaranteed confrontation with the Wards?"
"Second most fortified location," Lisa countered, "The Protectorate Headquarters is the first."
"Fair point," Brian said, "But my argument stands."
"It'll be more than five grand for each of us, I guarantee you," Lisa told him, "It's the biggest bank in Brockton Bay. It's also the hub of cash distribution for the entire county. Said cash gets transferred in and out by armored cars on a regular schedule-"
"So why don't we hit one of the cars?" Alec asked.
"They have ride-alongs or aerial cover from various members of the Wards and the Protectorate, so we'd be caught in a fight with another cape from minute one. Same problems that Brian's talking about, as far as getting caught up in a fight, difficulty accessing the money before shit goes down, yadda yadda. Anyways, the Brockton Bay Central has cars coming in twice a week, and leaving four times a week. We hit on a Thursday just after noon, and it should be the best day and time for the sheer size of the take. Only way we're getting away with less than thirty thousand is if we fuck up. With what the boss is offering, that's ninety thou."
She folded her arms.
Brian sighed, long and loud, "Well, you got me, I guess. It sounds good."
Lisa turned to Alec. There wasn't any resistance to be found there. He just said, "Fuck yeah, I'm in."
Bitch didn't need convincing any more than Alec had. She nodded once and then turned her attention to the scarred little dog.
Then everyone looked at me.
3.3 while discussing Aegis said:"You don't, really," Brian said, "Best bet is to keep him occupied, keep him sufficiently distracted or stick him somewhere he can't escape. Trap him in a dumpster and throw it in the river, you can get a few minutes of relief. Which is all harder than it sounds. He's the team captain, and he isn't stupid. Rachel? Sic your dogs on him. A two ton canine or two should keep him out of our hair until we're ready to run."
"I don't need to hold back?" Bitch asked, her eyebrow quirked.
"For once, no. Go nuts. Just, you know, don't kill him. Alec? You're the backup there. Keep an eye on Aegis, see if you can't use your power to throw him off. Buy enough time for a dog to get its jaws on him and he's probably out of action."
3.3 said:"Oh, I didn't mean to sound like I was criticizing your plan-" I said.
"Our plan," Brian interrupted.
I didn't want to think of it that way. Instead, I said, "I'm a touch nervous, is all."
"You don't have to come," Bitch said, her tone a touch too casual.
"In all seriousness," Brian told me, "If you're having second thoughts…"
"I am," I admitted, "as well as third thoughts, fourth thoughts, and so on. But I'm not going to let that stop me. I'm coming with."
"Good," Brian replied, "Then we've got the rest of today and tomorrow to prepare. Taylor? You can meet me on your run first thing. I'll have a cell phone for you. You can text Lisa with anything you think you'll need, like those weapons you were talking about. Look up models and brands ahead of time if you want something specific."
"What's her number?" I asked.
3.8 said:"I'm going to be sore tomorrow," Grue groaned, as he recovered from strapping the bag of papers into place, "And we haven't even been in a fight yet."
"Sore and rich," Bitch spoke. I glanced at her and saw her grinning. It was disquieting. I'd only ever seen her sullen and hostile, so any smile would be kind of creepy. It was worse than that. Hers was the kind of smile you'd see from someone who had never seen one before and was trying to replicate one from what they'd read in books. Too many teeth showing, I suppressed a shiver and focused on the work.
We slid the third bag across the floor. Grue hooked it into the harness.
"We can't put any more on here without it being a problem," he decided.
"The weight is even?" Bitch asked.
"Close enough."
Bitch stood and crossed the length of the vault to where her creature waited. She rubbed her hand on Brutus' snout like you might see a horse owner do, except Brutus most definitely wasn't a horse. She was rubbing her hand on exposed muscle, calcified tatters of flesh and bone hooks that jutted out of gaps and knots in the muscle. She managed to look almost affectionate as she did it.
"Go, baby. Go," she commanded, pointing to the front door. Brutus obediently loped off to the front of the bank and sat, his prehensile tail absently coiling around the door handle.
"Hey!" Bitch called out, then whistled twice, alternating between short and long. The smallest of the dogs, who was only recognizable now by her missing eye, bounded towards us in her excitement. Some of the hostages screamed in alarm at the sudden movement.
I winced. I didn't want to think about the hostages. They were already heavy on my conscience, and they were constantly on the periphery of my attention, as long as I continued using the bugs I'd planted on them to keep alert for any movement or talking.
"That's the one you call Angelica?" I asked, to distract myself. "The name doesn't seem to fit with what you call the others."
"I didn't name her," Bitch said. As the creature approached her, Bitch slapped her a few times on the shoulder, hard. It didn't hurt the animal though – Angelica just lashed her tail in what I realized was a warped way of wagging her tail. Bitch snapped her fingers twice and pointed at the ground, and Angelica sat.
I had already partially filled a bag when Bitch rejoined me.
"She had previous owners then."
"Fuckers," Bitch swore.
"They were the ones who made her lose her ear and her eye?" I asked.
"What? You think I fucking did it?" She dropped the money she had in her and and stood up, clenching her fists.
"Woah, no," I protested, shifting my weight so I could move out of the way if she got aggressive, "Just trying to make small talk."
She took a step toward me. "Coward. You know you can't take me in a-"
"Enough!" Grue shouted. Bitch turned on him, her eyes narrowing.
"If you can't work over there, then take over here." His voice was steady, firm. Bitch spat on the floor and did as he asked, taking the offered crowbar from his hand as they passed each other. Grue took over the bag filling where Bitch had left off. We quickly got a rhythm down, and four more bags were filled in a matter of minutes.
"We want to stay to load up the third dog or run for it?" I asked Grue, then added, "No use getting greedy." I would be happy to leave as soon as possible. I wasn't interested in the money, and I definitely wasn't interested in going to jail for it.
"How much do we have?" he glanced over in Angelica's direction
3.8 said:Of our group, Bitch seemed the least daunted. "I can take them. Just let me go all out."
"We're not going to fucking risk killing anyone," Grue told her. "We're not maiming anyone, either. The plan stands. We have the money, we run for it."
Tattletale shook her head, "That's what they want. Why do you think they're lined up like that? We bolt with the money from any of the exits, the person on the roof tackles us, incapacitates us or keeps us busy while the rest close in. Look at how they're sort of spaced out. Just far enough apart that if we try to go between them, one of them can probably close in fast enough to nab us before we get away."
"With my power-" Grue started.
"They still outnumber us. There's at least five ways they could take one of us down while we're running, even if they were going in blind… and Vista's in the equation. Figure any distance we need to cover is going to be much farther than it looks, and things get ugly. It wouldn't be a problem if there weren't so many of them."
"Fuck," Regent groaned.
"We can't just stay here," Grue said, "Sure, they're getting cold and wet, but our odds aren't much better if we force them to come in here after us, and if we wait too long, the Protectorate might show, too."
"We have hostages," Bitch said, "If they come in here, we take out one of the hostages." Somewhere behind us, someone moaned, long and loud. I think they'd heard her.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. It was a bad situation, and worse, I was afraid it was my fault. I'd warned Armsmaster something was going to happen. I could believe that he'd told the teams to be ready to go out in force. Even worse, he could be the unknown person on the roof. If that was the case, and Tattletale caught on, I was supremely fucked.
Fuck.
"We need to catch them off guard," I didn't realize I was speaking aloud until the words left my mouth.
"Sure, but how are we going to do that?" Grue replied.
"You guys are masters at the getaway, right? So we change gears. We fight them face to face."
3.9 said:"The ones we sent out are staying put?" Grue asked.
I felt out with my power. The bugs I'd put on the hostages couldn't see or hear anything, and I wasn't sensing movement. "They're doing as we told them. They ran as far as they could before your power hit them, and then they lay flat on the ground, hands on their heads."
"Then I'm going," Bitch announced. She grabbed a bone spike that was jutting out of Judas' shoulder and heaved herself up to a sitting position on his back.
"No," Tattletale said, grabbing at Bitch's boot, "Wait."
Bitch glared down at her, clearly annoyed.
"That hesitation before Aegis gave the orders to the hostages… it didn't fit."
"If you've figured something out, spit it out," Grue spoke in his echoing voice, "We need to move now, before they get reorganized!"
"Bitch, you're going after Clockblocker. Stay away from Aegis, got it?"
Bitch didn't even respond, digging her heels into Judas' sides and ducking her head to avoid hitting it on the top of the door as they raced out.
"What the fuck are you doing?" Grue growled, "She's going-"
"They switched costumes. Aegis is wearing Clockblocker's costume and vice versa."
I would have liked to see the expression on Brian's face, but as Grue, his mask covered everything. He just turned his skull-helmet back to the window, silent.
It dawned on me how badly that could have fucked us. Bitch's dogs would have attacked the person they thought was Aegis, and gotten tagged by Clockblocker instead. In one fell swoop, we would have lost the majority of our offensive power.
Here comes another not involving them interacting but involving Brian's opinions on her.
4.1 said:"What? The sweater?" I asked.
"The sweater. The dog being carried. Rachel would be up in her face, telling that woman it's not the way a dog should be treated. Screaming at her, maybe threatening violence, if one of us didn't step in to handle things."
"It doesn't take much, does it?"
"To set her off? No it doesn't," Brian agreed, "But you gradually learn how she thinks, what pushes her buttons, and you can intervene before a situation happens."
Lisa added, "The big trigger for Rache is mistreatment of dogs. I think you could kick a toddler in the face, and she wouldn't flinch. But if you kicked a dog in front of her, she'd probably kill you on the spot."
"I'll, uh, keep that in mind," I said. Then, double checking that nobody was in a position to overhear, I figured it was as good a time to ask as any, "Has she killed anyone?"
"She's wanted for serial murder," Brian sighed, "It's inconvenient."
"If the courts actually gave her a fair trial, if she had a good lawyer, I think she'd get manslaughter at worst, maybe reckless endangerment. At least for the events that happened then." Lisa said, her voice pitched low enough that nobody else in the crowd would pick it up, "It happened just after her powers manifested. She didn't know how to use her abilities, or what to expect of them, so the dog that she had with her grew into the sort of creature you've seen the others become, and because it wasn't trained, because it had been abused, it went out of control. Cue the bloodbath. In the time since then? Maybe. I know she's seriously hurt a lot of people. But nobody's died at her hands since we've been with her."
Brutus the dog interlude said:"Bitch, hold up," speaks the scentless man. Scentless man makes Brutus nervous because he is big but he has no smell. But he is Master's alpha so Master stops and listens.
"You're going out?" the scentless man asks.
"Work," Master says.
The scentless man waits for something, then speaks again, "Are you okay?"
"Fuckin' peachy." Brutus knows Master only says fuck word like that when she's mad.
"I have a hard time believing that, to be honest. You were in pretty rough shape when I found you with Über and Leet's henchmen, and those guys from the ABB."
"I'm fine now," Master tells him. She sounds angry. Brutus steps forward, ready to growl to add own voice to hers, but Master tugs on leash just a little and Brutus stays quiet.
"When I found you, one of them had you tied to the ceiling by your wrists and was using you as a punching bag."
Master breaks eye contact. Brutus knows this is a sign that Master sees the scentless man as her alpha. When she speaks, she still sounds angry, "I fucked up. I was bored, restless, figured I'd walk Angelica and see if I could meet you guys where the money was. Someone recognized me and tailed me. I was stupid, I took my licks for it. I'm fine now, we have the money, all is well."
The scentless man sighs. Sounds a little angry as he says, "It's not… no, nevermind. No use getting into it. But what if someone recognizes you while you're walking him?"
"I'll fight back sooner, harder. Or are you going to tell me I can't walk my dogs anymore?" All of a sudden, Master is tense. Brutus can see it in her legs, hear it in her voice, feel it in her grip on the leash.
"I wouldn't do that," the scentless man replies, his voice quiet, slightly strained "And you wouldn't listen even if I did. Just… be careful."
"I can go?"
"Go. Enjoy your walk, both of you."
And the tension leaves Master. One small whistle and Brutus knows to follow. Down the stairs and out the door into the outside world. So many smells! So many sounds! So exciting!
But can't get too excited. Brutus is good boy. Doesn't pull on leash like Angelica still does. Master always makes angry clucking noise at Angelica on walkies.
Master is walking slower. Favoring one leg. Brutus is eager for walkies but doesn't pull on leash even if Master is walking slower.
5.2 said:Nobody, to date, had ever escaped the Birdcage, the name that had been coined for the supervillain prison in British Columbia. Hookwolf, though, had escaped on no less than two occasions while being transported there. He was a killer, and thought nothing of murdering people if they didn't fit the Aryan ideal.
He turned to look at our table, very pale blue eyes visible through the slits in his metal mask, "My complaint's with her."
"What's the issue?" Grue's voice was calm, but it looked like he was generating a bit more darkness around him than he had been, making himself look a fraction bigger. I wondered if he knew he was doing it.
"The crazy one, Hellhound, she-"
"Bitch," Bitch interrupted him, "Only the panty-ass heroes call me Hellhound. It's Bitch."
"Don't fucking care," Hookwolf growled, "You attacked my business. Set your fucking dog on my customers. Lucky I wasn't there, whore."
Grue gave Bitch a long look, then he spoke to Hookwolf, "That's the kind of risk you run, doing business in Brockton Bay. Capes can and will get in your way, hero or villain."
Hookwolf glared at him, "It's a matter of respect. You want to fuck with my business, and we're not at war? You let me know if you've got an issue, first. Let me decide if I want to move shop."
"You mean give you a warning I'm coming," Bitch spat the words, "That's the dumbest fucking thing I ever heard. Just so you know, moving to a different neighborhood won't be good enough. You open up another dogfighting ring, I'll be visiting that one too."
Oh, that's what she'd done. I glanced at Tattletale, then at Grue. I was getting the impression neither of them had known.
Kaiser spoke, "Is that a declaration of war, Undersiders? We just agreed to a truce, if you recall." He was utterly calm, a stark contrast to Hookwolf. Hookwolf was brimming with barely suppressed rage to the point that I could picture him leaping across the room and attacking us if someone so much as dropped a glass.
Grue shook his head. I think. I couldn't really tell with the way his darkness shrouded him, with his back turned to us. He answered, "Not interested in war, but I'm not going to stop my teammate from doing what she has to."
"You mean you can't stop your subordinate," Kaiser mused.
Grue didn't have a quick response to that. I suspected he couldn't say Bitch wasn't a subordinate without demoting himself in the eyes of the others at the table. Kaiser, Trickster, Faultline and Coil were all leaders. Grue took a leadership role when needed, but he wasn't in charge of us. Not exactly.
Grue clasped his hands in front of him, leaning forward with his elbows on the table. "It's not so unusual for a cape to have a pet issue. You should know that as much as anyone. How would your people react if you forbid them from harassing or hurting gays, Kaiser?"
"I wouldn't."
"Exactly. Same with her. Word gets around that you're someone who hurts dogs, she'll fuck you up. It's kind of common knowledge here."
"Not something I'd pay attention to. I'm more of a cat person." The sardonic comment elicited a few chuckles from the room.
"I think it's worth paying attention to if it leads to situations like this," Grue responded, his voice firm.
"I delegate to my underlings and trust them to keep track of minor details. Hookwolf has been out of town until recently. He must not have heard."
The bullshit was so transparent I couldn't help but wonder if he was baiting us.
"I'd like to resolve this peacefully," Grue reiterated.
Kaiser shook his head with the sound of metal edges scraping on metal, "Peace is always preferable, but I can't let an insult like this slide. We'll need restitution before this can be put to rest. Money or blood. Your choice."
Bitch made a sound low in her throat. She and Hookwolf weren't the only ones bristling. I looked at the table where Hookwolf sat with Fenja, Menja, Night, Fog, and Krieg, and everyone there looked visibly angry.
"Then let's sit on it until we're freer to give the matter our full attention," Grue spoke, "The truce is in effect, and we'll meet again when things are more or less resolved with the ABB." He looked to the others at the table for confirmation.
"We will," Coil replied. Faultline nodded.
"What do you say?" Grue asked Kaiser, "Set this aside for now?"
Kaiser nodded, once. "Fair. We'll discuss the matter further at our next meeting."
"That's settled then. Anything else?" Coil asked, "Issues, negotiations, requests?"
There was no reply.
Coil took that as answer enough. "Then let's conclude the meeting. Thank you for attending. Faultline, could I have a word before you leave?"
There was the sound of chairs scraping against the floor as the people at the table got up, Faultline and Coil excepted. Skidmark's group headed out the door to leave right away, while Kaiser and Purity walked to the table where their underlings sat with their drinks. The Travelers loitered around their table, not quite settling in, not leaving.
Grue returned to us, but he didn't sit.
"Let's go."
Nobody argued. We stood and left Somer's Rock. Skidmark's group was taking their time leaving down one end of the street, so, unspoken, we headed in the other direction, just to be safe. There was no doubt those guys were spoiling for a fight. They were the diametrical opposite of Kaiser, Coil, and Faultline. Hotheaded, reckless, unpredictable. They would start a fight, even knowing they would set every other gang in the city against them for abusing neutral territory.
We were a block away from the pub when Grue spoke, "Bitch. Do you understand why I'm pissed right now?"
"Why we're pissed," Tattletale added.
"I guess."
Grue paused, as if he was choosing his words carefully, "I want to be certain you know what you did wrong."
"Fuck you," she snapped, "I get the idea. You don't have to get on my case."
Grue glanced at the rest of us, then looked over his shoulder in the direction of the pub.
We walked in grim silence past three different stores before he lashed out. He grabbed Bitch by the shoulder, then pulled her backward to break her stride and put her off balance enough that she stumbled. Before she could regain her footing, he forced her bodily into the recessed area at the front of an old bookstore and shoved her against the door, his hand gripping her throat.
I looked towards the pub. There was nobody leaving, and nobody looking our way. Biting my lip, I joined Tattletale and Regent in stepping inside the alcove. I was praying Grue knew what he was doing.
For several long seconds, he just held her there, leaving her to claw for a grip on his arm and glove, kick ineffectually at his leg. Twice, as she looked like she had enough leverage to hit him harder, he used his grip on her throat to pull her forward and then shove her back against the door again, hard enough to give her coughing fits.
She didn't stop fighting as he spoke, his quiet voice hollow with the effects of his power, "I hate this, Rachel. That you make me do shit like this. That when I say things like that, I sound like everything I hate most in this world. But that's just the way you play things. It's the only time you're willing to listen. You hearing what I'm saying?"
Bitch jabbed at the center of his stomach, but he used the length of his arms to pull his body back enough to avoid the worst of the hit, while still holding on to her throat. He slammed her against the door again. "You hearing me, Rachel?"
She nodded sullenly, eyes darting in every direction but directly at him. He eased up a fraction, and she was able to gasp in a few breaths.
"Look me in the eyes," he intoned.
She did. His visor was just an inch from her face, and she couldn't actually see his eyes, but she stared steadily into the dark holes of his skull mask. I wasn't sure I could have, and he wasn't angry at me.
"You made me look bad. You made us look bad. I'm not pissed because of what you did to Hookwolf's business. That's you. That's your baggage, your shit. I get that it's par for the course with you on the team. I can live with that. You following?"
Another reluctant nod. Not breaking eye contact.
I peeked around the corner to make sure this conversation was still private. The Travelers were outside the pub now, but they were taking their time leaving. Trickster was smoking a cigarette through the mouth-hole of his mask.
Grue went on, "You know what you did wrong? You didn't fucking tell us. You let me fucking go in there and talk to those guys and get caught with my pants down. I had to fucking defend the actions of my team without knowing what the fuck people were talking about. It made me look weak. It made all of us look weak."
"You want an apology?"
"Would you mean it? I haven't heard a honest apology from you since I met you, and believe me, an insincere apology from you would only piss me off more right now. So it's your call. You want to try?"
Bitch didn't answer. I could see her square her shoulders, straighten her head, a change of posture that was subtly challenging.
"Christ, Rachel. This is your second major fuckup in the span of two weeks. Do I need to talk to the boss and-"
"Stop," Tattletale cut in, "My turn."
Grue dropped his hand from Bitch's neck and stepped away, folding his arms as he turned his back to her. What had he been saying before Tattletale interrupted? Do I need to talk to the boss and see if we can replace you?
If that was it, I could see why Tattletale had stepped in.
"You're frustrated, I get it," Tattletale spoke. Bitch was staring in the window of the bookstore, avoiding eye contact while she rubbed her neck. Tattletale went on, "You don't feel like you did anything wrong, and if you had another chance to do things over, you feel like you'd do everything the same way… yet people are pissed at you."
Bitch met Tattletale's eyes. Her tone was a combination of irritation and boredom, "And people are taking turns chewing me out and spewing psychobabble shit at me."
Tattletale waited, maybe to get her composure, to figure out another approach, or to use her power to dig for information she could use. Or maybe she was waiting to give Bitch time to think about how she wasn't helping herself any with what she was saying. I wasn't sure – I couldn't read her expression. She wasn't smiling or grinning like she usually did, though.
Tattletale's tone was more exasperated as she replied, "Fine. I'll cut right to the point. Both of your screwups this past week had to do with a lack of communication. If you'd called to let us know you were heading out to the money early, maybe we could have anticipated the ambush. If you let us know you'd messed with Hookwolf's dogfighting ring, we'd have been more prepared tonight. So open your mouth more. Talk to us, let us know what's going on. Alright?"
Bitch didn't respond, tension standing out on her neck, posture stiff, hands in her pockets.
"Think on it," Tattletale suggested.
I checked around the corner again. Trickster was still smoking his cigarette, but he was looking directly at us. At me. The gorilla-thing was too, but the others were looking at Trickster. I think he was talking. It was hard to tell.
"I think it's time to wrap this up," I informed the others, "Eyes on us."
We left the nook, with only Bitch's slumped posture giving any indication that anything had gone on. She trailed a few feet behind the rest of us. There was tension, and it wasn't all directed at or coming from her. Grue and Tattletale were walking slightly apart from one another. He either hadn't liked it when she cut in, or he was angry at himself, but something was bugging one or both of them.
Eh. Skimmed up through 6.3 finding what I could but not gonna bother further at this point.
