Second Sin: Little Red and The Wolf (Pt. 3)- Explanations

--- Mercer ---

(Ugh, I just know I’m going to regret this.) He couldn’t help but sigh as he set Kennedy’s Comm into his helmet, and rigged it for one way so that he could hear her but she couldn’t hear him.

“Alright, I’ve got a line on where to go.” He told the girls, as he got back to them.

“And where is that?” Scarlet asked, with a glare.

(Still not happy I see.) “It’s the Covenant headquarters near the Way.” He shrugged, not pointing out that he’d known where it was before talking to Kennedy.

“And where exactly is ‘the Way’.”

He blinked at that. (Right, so they’re not from this city. Good to know.)

“Sinner’s Way, or more officially Saint’s Way, is the city district we live in.” He explained, before going into a little more detail. “It’s roughly two square miles of land with a population somewhere between twenty and thirty thousand, if you include the homeless and uncounted citizens. And as far as the city’s Masks are concerned it’s more or less my territory, with me being the expected response if anyone is caught doing something… let’s call it bad.”

“Like eating people?” The Malcontent smirked.

“Eh, I only would’ve killed you if you were eating kids.” He admitted in full honesty, before thinking about it. “Then again you are right on the line of being considered an adult, -at least as far as the streets go- so I might’ve given you a kid pass and some other food options before shooting you in the back of the head with a napalm round when you weren’t looking.”

Both of the teens just stared at him.

“What?” He asked, honestly confused.

“You just admitted you were willing to kill me.” Scarlet told him slowly, sounding equally confused about something.

“If you purposely killed a kid.” He nodded, before shrugging. “Honestly, I’d expect the same if I ever purposely killed a kid, and would be deeply disappointed if no one went after me with lethal intent.” (Though given how that kill warrant worked out, I probably would end up disappointed by the end of everything…)

Both of the girls continued to stare at him.

He gave them until the count of twenty to get over it before pointing to a nearby fire escape. “So are we going or what?”

---

“You know you’d be there already if you weren’t insistent on avoiding every camera on the way there.” Kennedy told him after a few minutes of them running through the streets. “I’m guessing your grappling bracers are broken too?”

“I’m not really in a position to be swinging around, but I can still scale a building.” He admitted, seeing it as a decent cover for hiding Scarlet and Bell.

“Lovely.” Kinsley sighed. “I don’t suppose I can talk you into letting one of the Vigils help you can I? I know you’ve got something with Safeguard and Swansong.”

“Nope.” He told her with a glance towards the Malcontent sisters. “And I only work with those two when the Way is burning down and I’ve got no choice.”

“And what are you going to do if these guys try to run?” Kennedy argued. “Like you said you’re not at full mobility right now.”

“Then I’ll just borrow a ride.” He shrugged, knowing that him borrowing a car would be no help at all in that scenario.

Kinsley was quiet for a moment where he just knew she was pinching the bridge of her nose. “Committing grand theft auto is not a valid answer.”

“Eh, it’s the Way I’m sure I can find someone who is currently stealing a car.” He assured her. “I’ll just steal it back from them if your morals are too squishy for a standard carjacking.” Not that he’d ever steal a car from someone who wasn’t a criminal and (I just remembered that without my old helmet I don’t have that program that tells me if a car belongs to a known asshole or not…)

That put a slight hitch in his plans. (Not that I’m going to tell her that.)

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Either way, Covenant is usually fairly reasonable so I’m sure if they are involved I can talk them into giving me the guy responsible for this mess.” (In exchange for not burning the building down with them inside of it.) “And if not I’m surprisingly good at negotiations.” (Aggressive negotiations that is.)

He could feel Kinsley’s exasperation through the comm.

“Fine, but if the one responsible gets away from you I’m calling someone in and you may not like who.” Kennedy warned him.

“If it’s Vigilance I’m downloading a terabyte of porn to your hard drives while you’re at work.” He warned her back.

Her exasperation grew and it made him stronger.

“Who are you talking with?” Bell asked him, earning a curious look from Scarlet who apparently unlike her sister couldn’t hear through his helmet’s silencers.

“Nightwatch.” He answered. “She’s another vigilante, and while she’s not the best at field work she’s probably the best Overwatch in the state.”

“Overwatch?” Bell repeated.

“It’s a combat class, er, the different types of units on the field.” He tried to explain. “Overwatch is an out of field Support unit who mostly covers information gathering and processing.”

“So if this Nightwatch is an Overwatch what are you?” Scarlet asked with a look.

“Technically I’m an Adept.” He answered though knowing that they wouldn’t understand what that meant he continued. “But on most Sanctuary and Guild paperwork I’m labeled a Scrapper, an Infiltrator, a Marksman, and a Tactician.”

“Isn’t that four classes?” Scarlet frowned.

“The class system is about how you’re supposed to respond to a given threat.” He elaborated. “In my case, Scrapper means don’t let me in melee range but if I am I’m not the most durable, Infiltrator means I’m stealthy and they should keep their guard up, Marksman means I’m good at shooting people so don’t let me keep a distance, and the Tactician is because of this time I rigged a place with explosives.”

If anything, Scarlet's frown seemed to grow more prominent. “If you’re a Scrapper and a Marksman, how is someone supposed to fight you?”

“Ideally the best solution for a Scrapper/Marksman is a Blaster/Bruiser, durable enough to take a beating but with widespread enough attacks that they can’t be dodged.” He offered.

Scarlet seemed to chipper up at that for some reason.

(Probably figures she’s a Blaster/Bruiser and that she can take me if it comes down to it.) He realized, before snorting at the thought. (As if that’d happen, I’ve taken down dozens of each combat class, being a Blaster/Bruiser just means I’ll hit her harder in a fight.)

He wouldn’t burst her bubble about that just yet though.

“What are all of the, uh, combat classes?” Bell asked him curiously.

“Oh, uh, there are the… three main categories of Offensive, Tactical, and Support. Then each of those have four categories, with Offense having Bruiser, Scrapper, Marksman, and Blaster. From there Tactical has Tactician, Infiltrator, Puppeteer, and Slaver, while Support has Guardian, Medic, Scout, and of course Overwatch.”

“But, um, wouldn’t Scout and Overwatch be more of a uh, Tactical thing than not?” Bell frowned.

“Yes, on paper.” He agreed, trying to acknowledge her point. “That said, in practice no, since Overwatch isn’t a field unit so it becomes more Support than Tactical. Then Scout involves a couple of other things that make it more a Support-Infiltrator than an active combat unit and is more about spying on the enemy and extracting objectives than attacking them. ”

Bell nodded following along in a way that told him she was the more… intellectually minded of the two sisters.

“Alright, looks like you’re finally there.” Kennedy cut in through the comms.

“Hold up one second.” He told the girls before unmuting himself towards his fellow Vigilante. “You got something for me?”

“Yes and no.” Kinsley answered. “Shortly before each of these kids was kidnapped there was a white fog creeping through that part of the city at night. During which several people reported hearing the sound of monsters, but when Sanctuary went to investigate they found nothing. Not even a residual trace of any known Deviant Anomalies.”

“So what a kid is responsible for this fog and Covenant is searching for them?” He guessed, while trying to remember why ‘white fog’ and ‘monsters’ felt like something he’d set to flag in his head.

“That’s a valid theory, in which case you’re right and there’s something else going on here that Covenant is trying to deal with without letting the guild or Sanctuary know about.” Kennedy pointed out.

“Which fits for them.” He reminded her. “They may play nice with Sanctuary and the Guild but they only pass off jobs to them when it’s low level busy work that’ll make them look more cooperative than they really are.”

“True.” Kennedy admitted. “Still when it’s something this hard to cover up they usually come clean rather than drawing attention to themselves like this.”

“Must mean it’s something big, dangerous, and their fault.” He concluded, eyeing the unassuming entrance to the Way’s branch of Covenant.

“I’ll keep digging for now, but hopefully that’ll give you something to start off with them.” Kinsley told him. “If you really want me to help out with this, don't mute the comms on your end while talking to them.”

“I’ll keep it active when I find someone of value.” He assured her before hanging up.

Turning back to the girls he considered how to play this.

He knew for a fact Scarlet was getting antsy about being left behind or sidelined, so if he left her out she was liable to go rogue and sneak in on her own or ditch him completely which would be arguably worse in the long run. This combined with the fact that leaving Bell -who as far as he could tell wasn’t the most combative person- by herself was just asking for disaster, and he didn’t like his odds of asking Scarlet to babysit her sister for a third time.

(Meaning I don’t really have a choice in taking them with me…)

“Alright, Covenant’s Club is just inside that building over there, what the three of us are going to do is walk through the door and talk this out. No matter what happens I need you two to stay calm, and stick close to me. Don’t wander off or else they might think you’re snooping instead of having a friendly chat.”