“I…”
It was too much. I focused on my earring, touched it with one hand, felt the matrix change. I came back into focus and looked at Fail. He was waiting. His expression was impassive, betraying little of the curiosity behind his hardened eyes. But it did betray it.
This seemed unreal, the situation with Fail being what it was. That I had agreed to talk about my manifestation. Then again, everything since I manifested felt just a little unreal.
“You said that your dad died when you were seven, right?”
He nodded.
I breathed, going further back than I liked. “Did Sofie ever disappear for a bit?”
“No.” Fail said. “Yes. When?”
“Around six.” I said. Fail thought, then nodded.
“Right, so Dad took that bad when it happened. The whole house fell apart, though I barely remember it. I went hungry one night, hadn’t eaten all day, so I went outside looking for food. But I didn’t have any money, and still hadn’t gotten it through my head that some places didn’t serve kids. I got chased out of a few places. I ended up wandering until the morning light, but I got lost.
“Eventually someone stopped me and asked where my parents were.” I paused as a memory of me bawling to a stranger flashed through my mind. “I answered, but they weren’t able to contact my dad. I didn’t have a Vphone on me and I definitely didn’t remember the number. I don’t even remember the address. But I know I was in Vancouver when I left the house. That person stopped me in Salt Lake City.”
“You’re lying.” Elsbeth told me.
“You aren’t.” Fail knew.
“I’m told I was a big deal.” I continued, allowing a trace of dark mirth to shine through. “There were calls made to all kinds of Nevilles in the area, asking if they had lost a Michael Barker. None of them had, so I was put into foster care. That’s when I was accepted by Emma and Mark.”
“Do you think…” Fail trailed off, then smirked.
“What?” Elsbeth demanded.
“A call was definitely made to my house. I wonder what came of it.”
I shrugged. “Nothing, obviously. They weren’t missing a Michael Barker.”
His mouth pulled into a short grimace. “True.”
“So I suddenly became a middle child, which was a learning experience.” I continued. “I got a younger brother, Jay, and an older sister, Tessa. Tess was three years my senior and made my life a genuine hell after I turned ten. Jay had a room and stayed in it. We all had our issues, mine being abandonment. Go figure.
“Mark was an IT guy. He worked remotely almost exclusively, so he was always around. Honestly, he was a much better dad than Daniel was.” I didn’t pause to let Fail react. “Emma, on the other hand, was always on the move. Always doing something, always getting others moving. She was a force of nature that showed up once every week or so and filled in all the cracks that happened to have formed in her absence. She kind of became my hero.”
“She sounds really cool.” Elsbeth told me. “Why didn’t you mention her?
I smirked. “Cool doesn’t even begin to cover it. She was an awesome mom, not an actual hero. And she was only the cool mom because she showed up for the parts where she could be cool and nothing else. Tess always hated that about her.” My smirk faltered. “Anyway, Mom was an assistant director, a fully fledged 1st AD. She was brought on for high budget ads and television series, the works. It meant gruelling hours, which is why she was always away. But sometimes she’d kidnap me away from Dad and take me on set.
“It was great, but I had to jump through so many hoops to do it. Sign NDAs I didn’t understand, meet the producers and fool them into believing I could behave, hand in my Vphone anyway, and so on. I would tear through set in between takes, usually far away from the camera, and play games with the actors. I got told off a few times for that. Sometimes Mom would give me an RT and have me yell at everyone on set. Do her job for her, basically, but only if they were a day ahead and the producers were okay with it. I’m pretty sure she was grooming me to be an AD, she was talking about putting me to work over the holidays to get me adjusted.”
I totally could have, regardless of if I wanted to. Even from a young age I understood that nepotism was the way to go places in the working world.
“How long did that last?” Fail asked.
“From eight to sixteen.” I answered easily. “The last time I was on set was… four, almost five months ago now.” I disappeared into my earring for a bit, then snapped back into attention when Elsbeth held my hand.
“Sorry, Elsbeth. Skin is weird for me.”
Her eyebrows went up in surprise, then down in realisation at the same time her cheeks lit up a fraction. Her hand was quick to remove itself, then she gripped my wrist through my sleeve. That was better so I didn’t say anything.
“Then…” It was hard to say. Saying it would make it seem more real that it did. If I backed down now, it would all feel like a dream when I went to sleep tonight. If I didn’t… I didn’t know what would happen. Would I ever sleep again?
Probably. But not voluntarily.
But I’d already danced around this issue several times as a hero. It wasn’t something that I could keep tip toeing around. Not when the countdown only had three months left.
Now was as good a time as any.
“Quetzalcoatl.” I finally said. “The Calamity came down and destroyed everything.”
Elsbeth squeezed, which I took minor solace in. Fail wasn’t interrupting.
I skipped to the end. Best to tell this out of chronological order. I wouldn’t reach the end if I told it in sequence. “They weren’t able to kick it out in time, you know.” I was talking more to Fail than Elsbeth. “The presence of the Eclipse took a permanent toll on the region. It’s stuck in a drought now, even when it’s night there’s light shining on the ruins of Salt Lake City. It’s intense enough that Great Salt Lake, which is half in and half out is on a permanent incline now. The water evaporates that quickly under that sun. It’s certainly not the largest lake in the western hemisphere anymore.”
Fail’s eyebrows furrowed. His power must have been telling him about something crazy. The situation I was about to describe certainly was.
“There were so many heroes in the skies, it was almost like an alien invasion. I saw Queen Freeze, I think. She stopped a building from falling on some people.”
Elsbeth gave a sombre smile.
“But yeah, where was I when it started? Asleep at school, actually. I missed the early shouts, but the sirens that went off woke me up. I was bleary eyed and alone in a classroom. Even the teacher had run. I could hear hundreds of footsteps charging down the stairs. I called everyone on my contacts, but only got through to Tess. We agreed to meet in the city, there was a lot of cover there, and it would be less crowded than the shelters and was halfway between where each of us were. Since the Eclipse goes for crowds, it seemed like the best course of action.”
I paused, taking a breath. I needed to disrupt the story.
“One thing about Quetzalcoatl that doesn’t get talked about much is just how fast it is.” I continued with a wavering voice. “It flies and it’s one of the fastest fliers normally, sure, but it can decide to turn it up to eleven at the drop of a hat. I remember seeing it as just a tiny shape on the horizon, and then a moment later it was going through a skyscraper at least three miles away. And I do mean through. Its tendrils are genuinely able to burn through everything except Archangel’s light. I saw three heroes die in that maneuver, to say nothing of however many more died from the collapsing building.”
“Is this you manifesting?” Fail asked. I nodded confirmation. He tilted his head, thinking. “That doesn’t make sense. Manifesting takes a while, and the case studies put most manifestations outside of crowds. Almost never in the wake of a Calamity.”
“It’s actually real common after Scathach.” Elsbeth told Fail.
His expression told me his power had already informed him of that.
I didn’t start talking again. I didn’t want to.
“Michael.” Elsbeth squeezed my arm.
I looked at her, trying to communicate something with my eyes. She looked lost. She didn’t know what to do. My free hand went to my piercing and took it off. Time to muddle the order of the story again.
“I was given this by my family.” I said, holding it up. “I’m not sure whose idea it was, but it was Emma that gave it to me. It’s just brass and green glass, but it’s all I have left, really. Of them.”
I fumbled a bit putting it back in.
“What happened?” Fail asked, shaking the box again.
“I saw Tess.” I said, making eye contact but ‘looking’ at the earring rather than Fail’s reaction. “Saw her, at the theatre. A villain or hero slammed Quetzalcoatl into the ground somewhere nearby. When it was regaining its wings it struggled, smashed through the building we agreed to meet in. I was far enough away to be safe…”
I couldn’t say it, that Tess wasn’t.
“I called my contacts again after that. I got in contact with Mark and Jay. They told me to meet them somewhere. But by the time I got there the place was destroyed. All around me heroes were yelling at me to get moving to safety. I saw Quetzalcoatl dive directly into one of the shelters. Heard the screams over everything else.”
I didn’t hear the screams as I said that. I had forgotten how they sounded, so that was one thing.
“Michael.” Elsbeth nudged my arm. I had stopped talking.
“Mom found me at some point, I don’t remember exactly when but I do remember her talking about how she had fled a shelter to look for us. Then it was just us. We were running together, going from building to building, trying to dodge into shade when it intensified the sun. Our luck ran out eventually. Quetzalcoatl went straight through the building we were hiding in and it collapsed. When…”
I didn’t want to say the next part. Didn’t want to relive it.
“When I came to Mom was next to me, her body partially covering mine. Protecting me from falling rubble, but I was pinned. I couldn’t move, much. All I could do was close her eyes and yell.”
I laughed suddenly. This had become a pity party for me. For both of me. The dark humour took my attention away from the feeling of phantom blood that had spilled onto me.
“So yeah, no shit there I was. Pinned underneath my mom’s corpse and a whole lot of rubble. The worst part was that there was a hole in the rubble that let light through. Through it I heard the howls of the Calamity, the frantic yelling of heroes and villains trying to work together, and the sounds of death. That wasn’t why it was the worst, though.
“The worst part was actually what came after Quetzalcoatl was fought off. The hole let me see out, but it also let light in. Quetzalcoatl’s light.” I paused as Elsbeth face winced. I continued my explanation for Fail’s sake. “It hurts more than it burns, but it can kill if you fuck around in it. If your body falls outside when the Eclipse is there, it becomes a dark shadow on the concrete, if that. I was stuck in a confined space, unable to move and with a shaft of this light hitting the side of my chest. I only got away without a mark because it hit my shirt. It still hurt like hell.”
“Did that start you manifesting?” Fail asked, then grimaced, learning the answer.
I breathed. “Shockingly, no. It was after what might have been a day had passed and when the second rescue crew of the day passed by without noticing me that it started. Left and right swapped every few seconds.”
“For me, everything suddenly started pulling me.” Elsbeth said. “I got pulled out of my bed.”
Fail shook his head. “Wow. Way to make me feel bad about seeing fruity colours. How else will you make me feel inadequate about the worst days of my life?”
I offered an empty smile and waited.
“Michael.” Elsbeth squeezed my arm. “What happened next?”
I closed my eyes. “Emma started talking.”
I could recall the sound, but not the words. The emotion, but not the message.
It was my most frequent dream.
“I can’t remember it very well.” My voice caught on the lie. I could remember it in perfect clarity from a visual perspective. Fail picked up on that and swore under his breath. I wondered how much information his power had supplied him with regarding that scene. I was afraid to see Elsbeth’s reaction.
“Eventually she stopped.” I said, barely saying anything at all. “By then, any corner I looked at was painful, I was constantly aware of an impossible mixture of heat and cold in my legs, and my awareness had developed.”
I opened my eyes again. “I screamed until I couldn’t, then I kept trying. After what felt like an eternity I suddenly knew how to use my power and started moving rubble around. Emma’s… uh, body… It was the first thing I affected with it. I emerged from the rubble and saw the destruction. Then I blinked and I was outside the city in a refugee truck. That’s where I lost time.”
“Jesus fucking christ.” Fail was slack jawed.
Elsbeth released my arm and tackled my side with a hug. She held on more tightly than I expected.
I continued more easily now, “I didn’t really know what was going on, but I wasn’t in a state to talk, or even walk. I just stayed on until the last stop. Then another refugee convoy passed through and I got on that one without thinking about it. Eventually there weren’t any more convoys and I was over there.” I pointed to a spot across Lake Shane.
“CPS found me after a week of living in the refugee camp and set me up with my current housing, Kathrine, who is trying really hard to replace my mom. She already had three other girls,- young girls, I should stress- but one of them lost her family to Scathach. The only reason I was officially allowed to stay was because we would supposedly help each other through our issues.” I shrugged. “Which I suppose we have, in the minor scheme of things.”
“What’s her name?” Elsbeth asked, still hugging me. Her voice travelled through my skeleton, which was a strange feeling. But it was par for the course for the girl.
“Sofiya, it has a Y.”
“That’s not far off.” Fail commented, not talking about the Y.
“I don’t think about Sofie much.” I told him. “I barely remember her.”
Fail shrugged at the point. “She doesn’t measure up to Emma from your point of view, but she has her charms. Letting me live with her and cooking me food is one of them. Anyway, your life seems to have been filled with a mite more action that mine has been, which leads me to wonder… Which one of us is the imposter?”
A chill fell over us. Elsbeth turned her head to look at Fail, but still hadn’t released me. I wasn’t complaining, but I wasn’t sure what to do with my arm.
“Me, obviously.” I declared.
Fail frowned, but he wasn’t reacting like he did when I lied. He wasn’t sorting through new information, either.
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Elsbeth made a sound, like she had just been told there wasn’t going to be any dessert. Come to think of it, I barely touched my pancakes from earlier.
“Why?” Fail asked.
“I have no idea.”
“There should be an explanation.” Fail drummed his fingers on the table, which grabbed my attention. “Cloning experiment. No. Mirror dimension. No. Freaky plan put in place specifically to freak me out. No. Cloning, but not an experiment? No. Alternate or divergent dimension.” He shook his head. “There’s no goddamn explanation.”
“We used to be the same person.” I said. “Does that get a reaction?”
Fail shook his head “No, which is what makes no damn sense. Are you a me that travelled down a different timeline, then got snapped back? No, that doesn’t make sense because your hair is different. Something was different about you from the start.”
“Failed cloning?” I tested.
“No, and don’t phrase it as a question.” Fail told me. “It makes my power work funny.”
“Alright” I frowned. “How about this? An accident.”
“Half truth.” Fail told me. “Which it shouldn’t be. Except it’s intentional. Except it’s intentional for a certain point of view.” He deflated. “I’m thinking this is a blind spot.”
“Blind spot?”
“The boyfriend is one, I can’t even get a hit on his name.” Fail explained. “I’ve put that down to manifestation fuckery. Quantum physics gets pretty weird for me as well.”
“So you came here for nothing.”
He gave a one shoulder shrug. “Kinda. I came here for you. To meet you, specifically. Though it’s nice to meet you as well, Lucidity. If I make a friend in the Sentry, then I’ll consider this a day well spent.”
Elsbeth nodded without releasing me. I still wasn’t sure where to put my arm.
“Can you do me a favour and not mention any of this to the Regulation?” Fail asked. “I like my facade as a normal person. I put a lot of effort into maintaining it.”
I shook my head, recalling one of the documents from Voidling’s care package. “Not a chance in hell. You and I are an anomaly by Regulation guidelines. I think there are around sixty of them now? Point is, I’m a hero and there exists rules that I have to follow.”
Fail pondered for a moment. “Sixty seven.” He said.
“Sixty seven what?” Elsbeth demanded.
“They’re up to A-67.” He elaborated. “Give them a month or two and we’ll be A-69.”
I didn’t have a response for that. Elsbeth did though.
“What’s so good about sixty nine?” She asked innocently.
I looked down at her. How to address this? She was twelve. Had she gone to health class for that kind of thing yet? Probably, I did when I was nine. This was just a gap in knowledge, most likely.
My train of thought was interrupted when Fail came to the rescue.
“Ask the question in sex education.” He told her.
Not quite to the rescue, then. But at least it wasn’t on me.
“Oh.” Elsbeth said, then. “Oh.”
“How about I’ll trade with you, then.” Fail said, pulling my attention away from Elsbeth.
“Eww.” Elsbeth physically shivered, still thinking about it. I could feel it through my clothes.
“I’m not trading on this.” I deadpanned.
“Hear me out, I’m not a villain.” He paused for a moment to check my reaction. I didn’t react since I knew that already. “You’ve won a question from me already, but I’ll trade another for some time. At least until we can be Anomaly 69.”
“We’ve been talking plenty.” I said.
“That’s because I wanted to get to the bottom of this. That stuff was something I was interested in. I don’t talk about stuff when I’m not, and if I do, I’m usually alone. You can use one of your two questions,” He raised two fingers and wiggled one to punctuate the point. “To get me to talk about something I’m not interested in. I’ll get to the bottom of things with you, and expand your knowledge until you’re satisfied, or I decide you’ve learned enough to cover a full question. I might pull out on the exposition early, but you’ll always have an answer.”
He lowered his fingers. “Don’t you have something you’ve always wanted to know?”
Several things, actually. Why did Quetzalcoatl destroy my life? Who was the guy that reverse mugged me and why did he do it? Why did Zephyr have it out for me? Most of those things were recent, now that I was thinking about it. Everything before the Calamity just didn’t seem to matter.
Those questions were echoes from a different life.
“Elsbeth.” I said, getting a reaction from the girl who was still hugging me. I brought my arms down and started extracting myself from her grip. “What do you think?”
“What about?” She asked, straightening up now that we were separated.
“It goes without saying that the deal is true for her as well.” Fail interjected.
“As it stands, the options are this:” I raised a finger as I stated each point. “Go to the Regulation and report on everything we just learned, or hold off for a bit and get an accurate answer to a question each. Any question.” I lowered my hand.
“I can do that myself.” Elsbeth pointed out.
“No.” Fail shook his head. “You can’t.”
“I can do anything I can imagine.” She told him bluntly.
“Not here and it won’t be as accurate.” Fail rebuked. “I know things, and I can know the reason behind them with enough time. I don’t need to know the context, that’s on you. But if we get things in the right context then I am effectively omniscient.”
I measured his expression and body language. No winces. “He didn’t lie.” I said, still looking. Still no wince. I didn’t like it, but that was the truth.
“Um.” Elsbeth chewed her cheek, the scarred one.
“You don’t need to ask the question right now.” Fail added. “I’ll give you guys my number and you can put me in your recurring contacts as Oliver. Just ask it any time. Make sure you let me know when you want me to answer your question before you ask it. You won’t lose anything by waiting a bit.”
My finger twitched. He said that because we didn’t lose anything from waiting to tell, but put it in the context of us thinking up a question we wanted answered. He was making his offer seductive enough that I could see Elsbeth was having second thoughts.
“Michael.” She was addressing me. “There’s this thing about… Queen...” Elsbeth trailed off, looking incredibly conflicted.
That did it, we were waiting for the next anomaly.
I stood. “I’m going to go and think by myself for a bit. I have at least one question I want answered right now, Fail.” He grinned when I used his moniker. “El, I’m just going over there. Wave when you’re done.”
Elsbeth murmured, “Don’t call me El.” But there wasn’t any energy in it. I gave her a squeeze on the shoulder and walked down to the water. Far enough away that I couldn’t hear them talking but close enough to keep an eye on them.
I looked down the path we had taken to get here. There was someone sitting on a bench that was almost outside of line of sight. They were too far away for me to make out too many details, but I could see they were wearing a baseball cap and a face mask that sick people were supposed to wear when they were outside. I couldn’t tell if they were male or female from the angle. They were clearly obscuring their face intentionally.
As I was looking at them, they turned their gaze towards mine and our gazes met. I considered waving, but decided against it. There was something familiar about them, but I couldn’t place exactly what. Had I seen them before? I cast my mind back and realised this was the second time I’d seen them today. They had been near the cafe Fail had walked into after me.
I didn’t realise it straight away because they hadn’t really stood out, they had been doing their job well. They were likely the villain Fail had brought along with him.
They looked away from me and I returned the favour.
I found myself looking in the direction I had pointed earlier. I recalled the situation I had been in, too despondent to do anything except when I was reminded that it was time to eat. Back then it hadn’t been my stomach doing the reminding.
Then I turned to the SRT. From where I was standing I couldn’t see the one side that had glass windows, so the building looked like a very tall bunker. Zephyr was in there, recovering from the wounds I had given her. She thought I killed Clothesline and had used Meretha to try get a read on me, but it backfired.
Blinker was in on it. He probably wasn’t there right now. Being a Sentry, he was likely in Bitopia, the twin peaks of education. Always using the number two as a symbol. They had students there, and they also had underage heroes.
Underage heroes who were, frankly, disappointing. It wasn’t just them either, the Sentinels and even members of the Regulation had failed me.
It didn’t make any sense.
Even if this conspiracy against me was because of Fail existing at the same time that I did- no. That wasn’t enough. There were enough differences between Fail and I that the connection couldn’t be construed as something sinister, or if it was, it would have been brought up with me already. The Regulation didn’t know that Fail had powers, he had said so, and had a tendency to wince whenever a falsehood was dropped.
No, it was something else. But what?
I was shaken from my thoughts by someone yelling my name and I turned to see Elsbeth walking towards me. We met each other halfway.
“I’m going to leave.” She told me, her voice quivering. The energy that was normally in her eyes had been drained. She seemed shellshocked, but the way she carried herself had intent. Anger.
That set off alarm bells in my head. I was concerned, obviously. More importantly, I wasn’t ready for her to leave yet.
“Are you going to do something stupid?” I asked, my voice deceptively even.
“No.” She shook her head. “I need to visit a rock.”
“Rock?”
“Memorial.”
It must have been related to her question, which must have involved Queen Freeze. She probably died in the air, which left little chance of Queen’s body being recovered if Quetzalcoatl had intensified light afterwards. That’s why there was a memorial instead of a grave.
“Hey.” I crouched down to match her height and spread my arms in a welcoming gesture. Elsbeth looked like she needed a hug. She realised what I was doing and stepped into the embrace with a lot less energy than she had tackled me with earlier.
I counted to ten in my head. “Do what you need to. Probably would be a good idea to clean up in the dream afterwards, eh?”
Elsbeth gave a flat laugh. I didn’t get what she was laughing at and started extracting myself from the hug. She stepped back looking distracted. Her hair was a little disheveled from all the hugging.
“Off with you now.” I said, pushing her further back.
She made it a step before she lost her balance. Elsbeth yelled in surprise as she fell through the ground. That was good, I hadn’t been sure if she would fall through or not. I was probably going to get an earful about that later.
I went back to Fail, who spoke before I could. “Hoo boy, was that a mess.”
“My first question.” I said to him as I took a seat. I didn’t really want him telling me what Elsbeth asked about. Fail wasn’t the one I wanted to hear that from.
“Ask away, imposter of mine.” He said mysteriously, drawing his fingers into an arch.
“Who killed Clothesline?”
Fail gave a smug laugh. “I figured that one out on the day. It was Satellite, obviously. I can tell you how he did it, why he did it, and what enabled him to do it. I’ll even throw in the freebie that he’s getting away with it. No consequences.”
“Please.” I said. “Do all that and answer my second question. How do I make sure he gets punished properly for this?”
“Didn’t you hear me? I just said that you don’t.” Fail’s grin was animalistic. “But you can get the same result by publicly exposing the evidence of his other two murders.”
~~~
I touched a leaf of the bush and sighed in relief. There was a small weight caught within its branches. I tried to remove friction from the bush, but failed to do anything. It was alive, so my power didn’t work on it. Of course.
Instead of having the phone slip out and picking it up with minimal effort or mess, I reached into the bush the old fashioned way and felt around until I got a good grip on the phone. Thanks to my power it only took a few seconds to grab ahold of it, rather than the good half a minute or so it would have been otherwise. Phone in hand, I jumped the fence back onto the sidewalk, earning a look from a passerby. I kept my attention on the phone and they passed without saying anything.
People like them were what was wrong with Graceland. The ones that just stood by and let things happen. I had thought the street was relatively deserted, given the time and hadn’t expected to be caught. That person had caught me, and I should have at least been made to make a run for it.
They probably thought I was a Courtesan picking up a package or something, since this was their territory after all. They just didn’t want the trouble. Again, things were wrong with Graceland. It hadn’t shown at first, but more and more I was starting to recognise the tears at the seams.
I pushed those thoughts to the side and opened the Vphone. It was on 96% battery, which surprised me. Normally Vphones had better battery life. Regardless, and since it didn’t matter, I opened the texts and checked for new messages. There were a few.
How could you stand back like that? Prism lost his anger because of you! Now he’s going to turn out the same way Blinker did. If I ever see you again, I’m treating you like you were the one who killed Clothesline. Face it, you probably were. - Received 22.05
Ignore that, Spinnerette gets protective of her teammates. I’ve talked her down for the time being, but we seriously need to talk. - Received 22.13
You there? - Received 22.16
This can’t wait. - Received 22.17
I’m calling you. - Received 22.17
There was a missed call on the phone’s notifications.
Shit. Did you get caught? I’m having Spinnerette check now. - Received 22.18
I’ll admit I’m a little frazzled after tonight. If I got you caught, I’m sorry. If Unshaken is reading this, have you got it out of your system yet? I’d love to have a catch up. You could continue to be incapable of shaking me. Credit where credit is due, you were electrifying tonight. How’s Charlie? - Received 22.20
Don’t read into that Charlie, I still don’t care about you. - Received 22.20
Go back three seconds to before you were hurt. - Received 22.21
Would anyone care to tell me why Zephyr is in the sick bay right now? - Received 22.25
I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love that she’s there. Just want to know why, since she wasn’t part of the whole warehouse thing. - Received 22.26
It’s a head scratcher. - Received 22.26
Yeah, I was really glad I’d discarded this phone. Waterlad would have ruined everything for me. Regardless, I started typing out a message in reply.
I can’t meet with you for obvious reasons. You’re lucky I dropped this phone away when I did, because I would have been screwed otherwise. Be more careful in the future. Two things: The first is what happened to Zephyr. She used Meretha to try and get me to confess to killing Clothesline, which backfired since all I wanted to do was throttle her. Now you’re going to tell me how you knew she was there. Two: Clothesline was killed by Satellite. I have it under good authority and you are the first one I’m telling. This didn’t come from me. - Sent 09.35
The response came a few minutes later. I took the time to start walking to my next destination. I was just wandering when I was typing that out, and was actually headed in the wrong direction.
What authority. I need to know. - Received 09.38
A Smart one. - Sent 09.38
This time the reply took a while. I put my ear pods in and started some music.
I’m going to follow up on this and get back to you. In the meantime you should know something. - Received 09.50
Sting was at the warehouse. The Courtesans were holding him there. - Received 09.51
It wasn’t consensual. - Received 09.51
That brought a frown to my face.
Do you know why? -Sent 09.51
No. - Received 09.52
But a teammate saw green lights inside, and found some discarded beads. - Received 09.52
Greenflame. - Sent 09.52
You know what that means… - Received 09.52
Damn it, let me be dramatic. - Received 09.53
Was she with Sting at all? - Sent 09.53
I don’t know I wasn’t inside, as you were undoubtedly aware. - Received 09.54
Just letting you know things that might let you help us long term. - Received 09.54
I need to go. Spinnerette is getting antsy. - Received 09.54
Thanks again. - Received 09.54
Do me a favour and don’t kill him. - Sent 09.55
? - Received 09.55
Right. You don’t like murder. - Received 09.55
I’ll do my best. - Received 09.56
I let Waterlad have the last word and put the Vphone away. I didn’t miss how Waterlad had neglected to explain how he had information from the SRT, but I’d follow up on that later. I had other things I wanted to focus on. Soon I arrived at a post office and bought four cards, as well as a pen. I wrote the same message in each of them and put them in envelopes, each with a different address.
The first was to Scar’s Advent, a hero group I hadn’t had any interactions with yet. The second was to the Heroes of Yesterday. The third went to the Gray Apostles, and the last went to the SRT. Before I sent each of the letters I gripped each of them in between two knuckles and removed all friction from them. The letters slid out of my grip as easily as all the grease slid off of the letter, thankfully leaving the ink behind. I touched the letters with the back of a finger to confirm I had achieved what I wanted to, then did the same with the envelopes.
When I mailed the letters, I removed all the friction from the envelopes again to drop them into the mailbox.
Then I went home.
Kathrine was beside herself when I got home. The message from Rosie hadn’t done much to assuage her worries, which I had assumed would be the case. Rosie had specifically used the words ‘contained for the purposes of safety’ to describe my situation. I don’t know if that was Rosie herself, or her sending a dictated message, but my suspicion was on the latter. The way the AI spoke was calming and soothing, not borderline hostile.
I gave her my version of events. It was censored from the worst stuff, of course. I wasn’t about to tell my guardian I had attacked my superior because I was influenced by a whisper without even being asked for consent. Then I asked her to call me in sick for the day, and trudged to the kitchen for food, then trudged outside to rest.
It was my first mostly normal day in a while.
I spent it outside in a chair, staring into the distance. Shoes off, feet touching the small deck. Feeling the entire house with me outside it. I couldn’t be in anywhere right now. Claustrophobia wasn’t something that I developed after Salt Lake City, which was weird, given the circumstances. I guess I broke in other ways. I didn’t want any potential reminders of the worst of it.
Today, more than other days, the box was open and its contents were spilling out. I was powerless to stop it.
It would have been easier if it wasn’t so damn sunny.
~~~
When I was having dinner my phone buzzed. It was the one I wasn’t supposed to have. Instead of a message, it was a link to a website I didn’t recognize. Another message followed.
Make sure you’re watching in thirty minutes. - Received 18.46