“Okay, so could somebody please explain to me why we're actually here?”
The person asking that question was Whamline. And ‘here’ was the staff parking lot for one of the local arenas. Which, for the current week, had been filled with dirt and was being used to host a massive monster truck show. It was the most popular (and profitable) of its kind in the state each year, and this time was no exception. Every event had sold out all week long. At the moment, however, all was eerily quiet. It was almost midnight, and the last event of the day had been over for a couple hours. The audience was long-gone, as were the drivers. The whole place was locked up and dark.
In fact, the only people visible anywhere around this place were the Minority members themselves. Whamline and the rest of the youth team were standing together in a loose circle, looking around the empty lot that surrounded them.
All four Syndicates were here, the one who was solid at the moment speaking up to answer their teammate’s question. “You know why we're here, Wham. The invitation.”
“You mean this one?” Whamline held up his copy. It looked like a birthday card, with a bunch of monster truck and smiley face stickers all over the front and the words ‘You’re Invited!’ embossed across it. When opened, further details of, ‘Ford Field, Friday May 20th, Midnight. If you don’t stop me, I will steal the most important thing in the stadium. If anyone other than the invitees show up, I will flood the governor’s house with stink bomb juice. Ask Mister Police Chief Gary Conners.’ That was followed by a big tongue-out smiley face sticker. And finally, ‘I’m not supposed to be out very long after midnight, so please don’t be late. Love, Joyride. PS - Please ask the condiment condominium concessions people to leave a bag of the caramel popcorn by the stand cuz I really like that stuff. Okay thanks bye!’ Those last three words were written very tiny in scrunched up lettering that tilted sideways against the bottom corner of the card.
After giving everyone else a chance to look at the invitation yet again, Whamline continued. “So, I ask again, why are we here? Sorry, what I mean is, why are we the only ones here. Why are we listening to her? She's a villain, right? And now she’s told us exactly where she's going to be. Why don't we have a whole group here ready to bring her in? We should have a whole army of guys right around the corner waiting to fill this place and take this crazy girl into custody.”
Wobble shook his head. “You saw the warning there. If anyone else shows up, she’ll flood the governor’s house with stink bomb stuff. See that bit about the police chief? She already did it to his house a couple weeks ago, after he put out that statement that said she was just a silly little girl who would be arrested soon.” “It was more than that,” That-A-Way pointed out. “She told them she was going to do it, so they put a couple guards on his house, and she still managed to flood the place. I talked to a cop who was one of the guards there, and they never saw anything. They didn't know anything was wrong until it started seeping out from under the doors. And it really smelled bad. The governor had a chance to find out about it, and he doesn’t want it to happen to his place.”
“Besides,” Carousel noted, “the girl isn’t that evil. She’s more wealth retrieval.” There was already an assortment of random objects in miniaturized form floating around her. Carousel had come prepared.
“What she said,” another of the Syndicates agreed, gesturing that way. “Joyride isn't the type to set up snipers to take shots at us, or blow up the room we’re in or anything. If it was a more dangerous villain, you know they'd find another way.”
A third Syndicate continued. “But it's Joyride. The worst we'll get is embarrassed, and we can survive that. Plus, if we can catch her, maybe we can talk her around to our side. Do you have any idea how useful having someone like that could be? She's been able to do all this stuff basically by herself and with what she stole. If she was with our team, we could turn her powers to the light side, or whatever.”
Whamline muttered, “Yeah, maybe you can survive being embarrassed by an eight-year-old because it’s all split up between four of you. Any embarrassment the rest of us get is one per person. For you guys, it’s like, one-fourth. Totally different.”
“I’m not sure that’s how that works,” one of the Syndicates noted dryly before adding, “And what, are you saying you're afraid to face this girl?”
“Afraid?” Whamline echoed. “I wouldn’t say afraid. Appropriately cautious, sure. She may be a kid, but you said it yourself she’s really effective. Err, one of yourselves said that, I forget which one.”
Three of the Syndicates pointed to the one who had actually said those words, and that one nodded. “Yup. And now we’re going inside to talk to her. She wanted us here for a reason, maybe it was to find out how hard it would be to join up. Probably not, but we could get lucky. Only way to find out is to go check. Ahem, Raindrop?” He looked that way, to their silent, youngest teammate. “You wanna lead the way?”
After hesitating slightly, the small Star-Touched gave a short nod. She pivoted on one foot, staring at the arena ahead of them before squaring her shoulders as she started to walk that way. The others followed after, all of them keeping their eyes open for anything unusual. When it came to the girl they were about to confront, you never knew what would happen. Each of them was keenly aware of the story about how Caishen had been instantly and unexpectedly teleported across the city to where her own daughter was with several thugs, within moments of Joyride leaving that scene. A whole series of tests had been done, but no one could figure out how the girl had done that so quickly. Needless to say, plenty of people were nervous about the idea that anyone could be teleported anywhere in the city at the drop of a hat. Especially when it came to the thought of that ability ending up in the hands of anyone more dangerous than Joyride herself. That was a real concern, which was another reason why it was hoped that playing along with this little… whatever it was would give the Minority members a chance to talk her around to their side. The very fact that she had specifically requested their presence gave some hope that it was possible.
As they approached the arena, two of the oversized doors meant to allow staff in and out abruptly opened, seemingly on their own, to reveal a brightly lit corridor beyond. It led directly into the arena proper, the wide hall with its large doors intended to allow access straight from the employee lot to the main stage. Or, in this case, to the main dirt pit.
The Minority members all stopped to exchange looks with one another before proceeding onward. As they passed into the wide corridor, the doors closed behind them. As before, there was no indication of what, or who, had done so. But with a loud clang, they were left in the hall, and the only way to go was forward.
So, that was what they did. Footsteps echoing along the open space around them, the group strode together toward the arena proper, with Raindrop still in the lead. The three intangible Syndicates split off to float through the walls in order to search the rest of the building. After all, it had never been said that they couldn't do that. As long as the only people searching were specifically members of the Minority, they were still following the rules.
Eventually, the group emerged into the dirt arena. All of the vehicles within had been moved, the city not willing to take the chance of allowing Joyride to steal them. Not that it was certain that those for what she had meant by the threat to steal the most important thing in the arena, but it was a risk no one wanted to be responsible for. Those trucks could be quite expensive, even the ‘normal’ ones. There were also a few with incorporated Touched-Tech, which easily could have been what she was referring to. But they were all gone now, which of course the girl had to have known would happen when she made the threat in the first place. She was young, but they all knew she wasn’t stupid. There was something else going on here, and none of them knew exactly what it could be.
“I’ve never had interest in such events,” Carousel murmured, her gaze passing over the ramp-formations in the dirt, along with the various junker cars that had been left out to be trampled or jumped over. “Quite frankly, I fail to see the sense. It all seems far too loud, from both trucks and crowd.”
“It’s actually a lot of fun if you can get into it,” Wobble replied, looking out over the empty stands as he searched for any sign of their quarry. “But yeah, also really loud. It's a lot of crashing metal, a lot of chaos, a lot of screaming… it’s just a lot in general. Wouldn't really blame you for not being into it. But for those of us who are, it's pretty sweet.”
“Have you been here this year?” The Syndicate who had stayed with them was looking that way, his voice curious. “I mean, without me?”
“Sorry,” came the chuckled reply, “But hey, if you're interested, I wouldn't mind going again. Maybe we could all make a big trip of it before the place shuts down. Still got another couple days. You know, assuming there’s still an actual show after all this.”
“The offered inclusion to such an event is greatly appreciated,” Carousel informed him without looking that way, “But if waiting for me, your breath should stay unbated. Not to discourage your interests and hobbies, I simply prefer queuing within my gaming lobbies.”
The others started to say something to that, but they were interrupted by the lights abruptly going out. For a brief second, the group was left in darkness. Then a series of spotlights came on, illuminating them where they stood. Immediately, they spread out to avoid being clustered up, and the spotlights separated to stay on each of them.
“What--” That-A-Way Started to say, before her words were drowned out by a noise. It started as a low chuckle, broadcast through the public address loudspeaker in a way that made it sound as though the sound were coming from every direction. Slowly, that chuckle rose into a booming, maniacal laugh that would have made the Wicked Witch of the West even greener than usual with envy.
Syndicate tilted his head, focusing on what he could get from one of the other versions of himself. Then he looked to the others. “It’s not coming from the main announcement box. Place is empty, but there’s some sort of machine hooked up to--”
His own words were cut off then, as just as abruptly as the laughter had started, it halted. Eerie silence returned for almost five seconds, before an actual voice filled the arena through the same loudspeaker, volume turned high enough to make the words echo. “Welcome! It’s so nice to see people who can follow directions properly!”
“Yeah, ahh, could you turn it down?!” That-A-Way shouted, rubbing a hand against the side of her head. “We can hear you just fine! Wait, can she--”
“Is that better?” The response was still loud, but at least manageable. And, curiously, Joyride actually sounded concerned. “I didn’t ask you to bring earplugs or anything, and hearing damage is dangerous. Can you hear me?”
The entire team exchanged glances before Wobble spoke up. “Uhh, yeah, can you hear us?”
“Yay!” came the response from all around them. “Okay, good! Now, hang on, where were we? Oh yeah!” The actual words were replaced once more with maniacal cackling, followed quickly by the spotlights spinning around wildly for a few seconds.
“Goooood evening, Minority! And welcome to a game I like to call, ‘Which Of You Is A Dirty Lousy Cheating Thief!’”
“Uhh, what?” Once more, the assembled group looked at one another. That time, it was Syndicate who found his voice first. “What are you talking about?”
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The spotlights stopped spinning around, returning to focus on each of them as Joyride continued. “Well, I think it's pretty self-explanatory in the name, isn't it? We're here today to find out which of you is a dirty thief.”
“I uhh, think you may be a little confused,” came the response from Carousel. “It’s you by whom the laws have been abused. We are not thieves, dirty or clean. That’s you, from your demeanor I glean.”
There was a brief pause before their ‘host’ spoke up. “You're fun, I really hope it isn't you. But I know it's one of you!”
“Look,” Wobble spoke up, “We don't know what you're talking about, sorry. Why don't you come out and we’ll discuss this whole thing. If someone stole something from you… I mean, we can help you get it back.” He glanced toward the others before shrugging helplessly while continuing. “But I don't think anyone here took--”
He was interrupted as Joyride’s voice boomed once more. “Last week you all investigated a break-in at a pharmacy on Plymouth. I left something there, and one of you found it. You stole it and you never told anyone else. You didn’t report it, you didn’t turn it in, you just kept it. And now, I want it back. But, you know, I can be reasonable.”
As she said that, a new spot light appeared. It illuminated a small metal shed, like one that would be stuck in the corner of a backyard, sitting twenty feet away with the door sitting open to reveal an interior that was lit up. A single, small metal box was the only contents. The shed had not been there before the lights went out.
“Everyone can go inside, one at a time, and the one who stole from me can put the item in the box,” Joyride explained. “When you close it, I'll take the item and nobody on your team will know. It can be our little secret.”
Once again, the team looked at one another. A collection of confused shrugs passed between them before That-A-Way spoke. “We told you, none of us stole anything. If we'd found something at a crime scene, we would have turned it in. We don’t want to fight, Joyride. We just want to talk.”
“I did talk,” came the response. “I’m giving you all a chance to do this the easy way. Any takers? Going once… going twice…”
The spotlight on the shed flickered, and during one of its ‘down’ seconds, the shed itself vanished as if it had never been there. It was as simple as if the entire structure had vanished in a blink, leaving no trace.
“Okay then.” Now Joyride sounded, if not angry, at least less pleasant. “I guess the thief wants to do this the hard way.”
The moment she said that, the lights went out completely. The team was left in total darkness. Syndicate started to blurt a command, but before more than the first syllable could leave his mouth, a brand new spotlight appeared. This one was much larger than the others, Illuminating something at the far end of the arena. Something enormous, which had not been there a moment earlier.
“Hooooly fuck.” Whamline managed, as they all stared at the new arrival. “Did uhh… did you guys know she had one of those?”
‘One of those,’ in this case, was a monstrous machine. The thing was clearly built out of old vehicle parts, some of them rustier than others. It stood a good twenty feet tall at the head and fifty feet long. Its base body resembled a metallic Tyrannosaurus Rex, back covered by a hard shell with spikes all along it that was more like an ankylosaurus. The shell itself appeared to be made out of old truck campers with various thick slabs of metal welded to them, while a series of exhaust pipes extended from the back of the monster’s head, which were expelling various colored smoke. A long club-like tail extended from the machine, swinging back and forth dangerously. The ‘club’ had been formed from a construction site wrecking ball. Finally, the machine’s dinosaur influences clearly didn’t end at the Rex and ankylosaurus combination. Along the front of its head was a thick metal frill as though protecting its neck, along with three long metal horns jutting out from the face. Both clearly inspired by a triceratops.
“Minority!” came the sound of Joyride’s voice. This time, rather than coming from all around them, the voice was clearly projected from the machine itself. “Say hello to Toto! Toto, say hello!” Immediately, the robot dinosaur tilted its head back and gave a deafening roar, accompanied by a blast of fire that shot high into the air from its mouth. Its heavy clubtail slammed into the nearby dirt ramp, collapsing it entirely and sending a spray of earth flying in every direction. Simultaneously, a new burst of multi-colored smoke shot from each of the half-dozen exhaust pipes jutting out from behind its head, while much larger clouds of matching smoke were launched upward behind the machine from hidden pipes on the ground. The large spotlight flashed repeatedly, and then the thing lowered its head and began to race toward them, footsteps pounding heavily along the ground. A second later, the rest of the lights came on to illuminate the whole dirt arena.
“Right.” Voice cracking a little bit as he stared at the thing, Syndicate swallowed before turning back to the others, lowering his voice to a whisper. “Okay, she wants us to fight, so let's fight. Way? Get her out of there.” His hand rose, pointing toward the Rex’s ‘head’, where a small figure could be seen perched inside a driver’s seat, watching them through windshield-like eyes. “The rest of us will play her game.”
So, they all spread out as the mechanical chimera dinosaur charged. Raindrop rose into the air, floating upward. Whamline created a pair of long energy coils from his shoulders, which slammed down into the ground to lift him upward as well, heading toward the left. Wobble launched himself upward and to the right with a blast of vibrations from his palms. And Syndicate turned intangible, racing straight forward toward the base of the monster.
Meanwhile, That-A-Way’s form turned into a blur of motion, as she raced up and to one side to put herself to the south-west of it.
Still raised to the level of the monster’s head on two of his energy coils, Whamline threw his arms outward, projecting a couple more coils to grab onto the metal rex’s left side. The coils yanked hard to pull the robot over. Meanwhile, Wobble flipped over in the air to the right side before sending a powerful blast of vibrations that way, intended to help knock the machine in the direction that Whamline was yanking. Simultaneously, Raindrop sent a spray of water to soak the machine down. If the other two could knock it over, she would ensure it fell slowly enough to avoid hurting its occupant.
Carousel, standing right where they had started, sent a barrage of random items flying toward the thing’s windshield as a distraction. A chair, a heavy table, a clock, a metal pipe, various things she had collected on their way over to the arena.
Then there was Syndicate, who was still intangible. Reaching the bottom of the machine, he threw himself right up through one of the feet and into the machine proper, producing a knife once he was inside the cramped interior of its leg. There, he turned tangible once more (turning one of his distant duplicates ghost-like for the time being) before reaching out to start cutting visible wires.
Finally, once she reached a good position, That-A-Way took a quick look back toward the machine. Sparks were flying from one of its legs where Syndicate was, and the thing was starting to tilt over in the direction Whamline and Wobble were attempting to shove it. Raindrop was still floating, thoroughly soaking the monster down so she could slow its fall once it hit the point of no return.
With a quick smirk, Way focused on her power. The thing was to the north of her now, so her teleportation was in business. Instantly, the girl vanished, reappearing just inside the machine’s head, hands reaching out to grab the driver.
It was a dummy, complete with a note on the helmet that simply read, ‘Nice Try.’ There was no living person there. Way realized that just before a sudden flash of light struck her. The next thing she knew, the girl was lying face down in the dirt a good forty feet away. A second later, she was joined by Syndicate, who had also been teleported out of the machine to land beside her with a yelp.
Meanwhile, Whamline’s coils that were gripping and yanking at the thing’s side were met with a couple of its own, these ones made of metal and emerging from a pair of holes that slid open. The robot’s own coils caught hold of Whamline’s and, with a quick snap, sent the boy flying out into the stands, near one of the private viewing boxes.
Simultaneously, that giant T-Rex/Triceratops head opened its mouth, sending out a new burst of fire, which immediately melted the objects that Carousel was using to distract it. Then its head turned to face Wobble while the boy was dropping out of the air after another blast of kinetic force. Its club tail swung upward just as the monster let out a terrible screeching roar, a focused blast of sound that made the boy grab the side of his helmet with a yelp. He windmilled through the air, falling toward the ground. But before he could impact, the tail finished its swing, rising up just enough for Wobble to fall on it so that he wouldn’t hurt himself. It dropped immediately, allowing the armored figure to collapse off one side with a grunt.
Raindrop, meanwhile, found herself surrounded by more of that brightly colored rainbow smoke, shot from the exhaust pipes along the machine’s back when it bent its head forward. The smoke was thick, blinding the girl and making her cough repeatedly. It felt thick, disorienting her until had to focus on flooding the area around herself with a heavy spray to clear the air. It didn’t work, however, as the smoke simply seemed to grow thicker, even sticking to her costume and helmet. She had to drop back to the ground, coughing a bit more.
Laying on his side in the stands where he had been thrown, Whamline looked up. He could see the rest of his team reorienting themselves. But, more importantly, the boy saw a familiar figure through the window of the nearby private viewing box. A snarl escaped him before he quickly scrambled that way. He would finish this right now.
An instant later, the door of the box slammed open, kicked inward by a powerful blow. “Hey, little bitch,” Whamline snapped as he came through. His hand was raised with a glowing metallic box resting in his palm. The box was about six inches across, dark blue with a handful of red blinking lights. Wires were exposed on one side, and it had three small glass bulbs along the opposite side from the wires. “You looking for this?”
Spinning away from the viewing window, Joyride gave a gasp of surprise. As always, she wore the same red bodysuits with slightly dark armor panels, black boots and gloves, and a black cloak (which was perpetually billowing no matter how little wind there happened to be), over a smooth, nearly-featureless black helmet with two glowing red lights where her eyes would be.
“Hey!” the girl blurted, starting to lunge that way as she saw the device in his hands. “That’s mine!”
She never reached him however, as a sudden energy coil appeared, smacking into her from one side to send her crashing into an assortment of comfortable chairs with a yelp.
“Nah, I’m not playing that game anymore,” Whamline snapped. “Those guys out there, they might be okay with letting some snot-nosed, pathetic little bitch playing dress-up humiliate them, but I’ve had enough. You think you’re so big and bad? How many people have you killed, brat?” His voice lowered dangerously, as he took a step toward her fallen form. “Because I guarantee..” Six energy coils appeared, four of them grabbing the various chairs that surrounded her before violently knocking them flying to either side, while the remaining two yanked the girl up by her wrists and left her dangling in front of him. “It’s less than me.”
“Fewer,” Joyride mumbled under her breath, voice barely audible.
“What?” came the incredulous demand.
“I said, fewer. You mean fewer. You should get it right.” Lifting her head as she was left to dangle there by the coils tightly gripping her wrists, Joyride met his gaze. “And there’s a few differences between your sort of villain and my sort. I have some things you don’t.”
“Yeah?” Snarling the word, Whamline stepped closer. “What’s that?”
Joyride’s voice was matter-of-fact. “Style, standards, a super-cool dinosaur robot… and adequate media coverage.”
As those words left her mouth, a dozen television screens came to life all around them. Each was broadcasting live news coverage from several different local stations, showing a view from hidden cameras inside the very room where they were standing. Whamline’s own damning words about having killed people were repeated from all sides. A second later, the feed from the cameras inside the room was clearly cut out, as the view went back to showing previously scheduled programming. Including a couple bewildered-looking late night hosts.
With a flash of color and a distortion that filled the air, Joyride vanished from being gripped in those coils. She reappeared directly in front of Whamline just long enough to grab the box from his hand with a sly, “Fooled ya.” Then she vanished again before reappearing on the far side of the room.
“You--” A strangled, violent scream escaped Whamline as he began to lunge that way, only to be brought up short as one of the other Syndicates caught him by the arm. The other two (beyond the one who was still out in the arena), came up on his other side. All three gave him hard looks.
As soon as he saw them, Whamline lashed out with a quick punch that way. But his fist whiffed through the suddenly-intangible figure of the one who had grabbed him, just as another turned solid to press a device against the side of his neck. There was a burst of electricity, and the boy jerked, spasmed, then collapsed to the floor where he lay still.
“He’ll be okay?” one of the Syndicates demanded, gaze focused on Joyride.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, like the note you found said, it just knocked him out,” came the response as she distractedly looked up from examining the box she had taken back.
“You could’ve just come to us, told us you saw him steal it, and the other stuff you found out when you investigated him,” another Syndicate flatly pointed out. “Instead of putting it in that note for one of me to pick up, and then doing… all this.”
“But how boring would that be?” Joyride demanded, sounding thoroughly offended by the suggestion. “This was fun.”
Glancing through the window to see that the so-called Toto had disappeared, leaving the rest of his team staring up toward the viewing box where they were, the solid Syndicate murmured, “You could really join us, you know. And with this guy showing his true colors, I think we have an…” He turned back at a cough from one of his other selves, only to find Joyride had vanished. “-- open slot?”
“No thanks!” Joyride’s voice filled the room. “I’ve got my toy back, that’s what matters. Oh, and thanks for sending all those neat Touched-Tech monster trucks out of the arena. I picked a couple of my favorites to strip apart so I could get every piece I needed to really upgrade Toto for our next fight. Wait til you see what he’ll be able to do when I finish that!
“See ya soon, Minority! Ahahahahahahaha!”