It should have been a dark and stormy night. That was the first thought to come into the mind of Cassidy Evans as she stood at the edge of an alley just across from a run-down and barely operational motel out on the edges of Detroit. But it was neither dark nor stormy. The sun was high in the sky, shining brightly against a complete lack of any clouds. It was a completely beautiful day, totally going against narrative convenience or structure.
Cassidy herself would not have stood out in the least had she been seen standing there in the shadows of the nearby buildings, aside from the fact that she seemed to be lurking. The teenage girl wore an outfit of jeans and a t-shirt with a dark hooded windbreaker over it. On the other hand, she also would not have been at all recognizable to anyone outside of her family, given people who were not her parents or brother would only see a fairly nondescript blonde girl of completely different facial structure than she actually had. That, of course, was thanks to her mother’s illusion-casting power. A power so strong that her mother could cast it on her and Cassidy could then go anywhere in the city while still being under its effect, as long as it was occasionally renewed in person.
Her mother had a very strong power. So did her father. Her brother… not so much. He wasn’t Touched at all. But while the Summus Proelium orbs had entirely skipped Simon, they had not skipped his sister. Cassidy had a strong power too, which was part of what made her so useful and accepted despite her young age. Well, that and her intense devotion to both her family and their cause. A devotion that had led her to this point, watching that motel across the street.
Her scanning eyes eventually located what she was looking for. A single room on the upper level of the motel opened and a man in a nondescript outfit of his own stepped out. To most people he would have appeared to be any other down-on-his-luck salesman staying in the cheapest motel possible. He wore a rumpled suit that couldn’t have cost more than fifty bucks, and was juggling coins in his hand while counting them as though to make sure he had enough for the vending machine he was going toward. At a glance, he would appear to be no different than any other person stuck staying in a place like this.
But Cassidy knew better. She saw the way he carried himself, the way his eyes scanned the lot below, alert for any threats. His posture, his build despite the poor quality of the suit, all of it led to one thing. This guy was former military or police. He was a trained bodyguard. That much was obvious. He was the sign she was looking for, proof that she was in the right place.
Well, that and the fact that he matched the picture she’d been given.
Just as the man's scanning eyes moved across the street, his head rising to look toward the spot where she was, Cassidy stepped sideways. Her body passed through the solid wall next to her. But she didn’t come out inside the building itself. Instead, the girl appeared on the far side of the street, within the grounds of that same motel. In fact, she emerged directly below the upper walkway where the man was still standing. With that single step, her body entered the wall of the building on one side of the street, and exited through the wall of the motel room directly below the man who had just started to look in the direction of where she had been.
No one saw that, of course. She had scanned the whole area to make sure the practically empty motel had no one else within line of sight, and the heavy curtains were drawn across the large windows of the nearby rooms. And even if they had, they would only see the illusion of what she looked like. It would’ve been annoying if someone interrupted, running out to see how she’d done what she had just done, but not the end of the world. Any commotion that alerted the man above her wouldn't be enough to save him.
And there was no commotion anyway. There was nothing. Listening intently, Cassidy heard the man above clear his throat before taking another few steps toward the vending machine. He fed coins into it and was making his selection. While he did that and the ancient, rundown machine began to rumble as it processed and began to dispense his choice, Cassidy’s hand dipped into her pocket. She produced a short, slightly curved metal band. In one motion, the girl slapped it against her own forehead. Instantly, the band extended to encircle her entire head. Then it expanded up and down, forming a nearly completely smooth metal helmet with no indication of any facial features. At the same moment, identical bracelets on her wrists that were previously hidden under the sleeves of the windbreaker expanded into metal gloves over her hands. Tugging the hood of her black windbreaker up with one hand left the fairly creepy visage of a completely smooth silver metal mask framed within that dark hood.
A costume or even a mask like this wasn't actually needed to hide her identity, considering the illusion. But adding another layer of secrecy and protection was important, given how vital her family’s secrecy was. Plus, it just made her feel right. You didn’t do things like this without a mask.
By that point, the vending machine above had given a dull thunk as it dispensed the bottle the man had requested. Cassidy immediately pivoted to face the wall behind her and stepped forward. This time, she emerged through the wall above her previous spot, just on the far side of the vending machine, toward the room the man had come from. She heard him barely a couple feet away, crouched to take the bottle from its slot, and even saw his feet. As he straightened and started to turn, she stepped sideways into the left wall of the vending machine itself, emerging through the right-hand side of it just as the man finished turning to where she had been. With his back now to her, he began walking to the room he had left as Cassidy peeked out from behind the machine to watch him.
Smiling slightly behind the metal mask, Cassidy produced a quarter from one pocket and slung it sidelong into the wall next to her. It came out of the same wall much further down, just behind the man before rebounding off the metal railing right there with a loud clang. The instant it struck, she quickly hopped through the vending machine wall, emerging through the door of the motel room that had been just in front of the man. He had already spun toward the sound, a pistol appearing in his grip as he faced the spot the sound had come from. That put the man’s back to her as Cassidy appeared directly behind him. Her hand rose, just as the man seemed to sense her presence and start to turn. But his reaction, while quick, was still too late to do him any good. A long, thin blade had already emerged from the back of her metal glove. It pierced the man’s neck, sliding right through to the front of his throat before he could even finish turning. He was dead before he even knew what was happening. As he fell, Cassidy stepped back and looked at the floor of the walkway. The man’s body hit and passed through it, ending up in the alley across the street where she had been standing before. She would have to get it cleaned up later before he could be found, but for now, the body was out of the way. No one would pass through that alley anytime within the next few minutes. And that was all this would take.
With the man dealt with, Cassidy casually glanced up and down the walkway just in case. There was no sign of anyone. The maid would not be doing a walk-through of this area for at least another hour. Satisfied, she retracted the blade back into her gauntlet with a twitch of her hand before pivoting back the way the man had come from. The motel room right there at the far end still looked quiet and empty. But she knew better. Striding quietly that way, she approached the room while listening. Sure enough, the sound of the quiet television inside was audible through the thin walls, and she could see the flicker of it through a narrow crack between the thick curtains. She couldn’t hear the people inside, yet knew they were there. Two of them, if her research was correct, and it usually was. There was another bodyguard similar to the first, and the actual target. The former would be wondering where his partner was any second, so she had to move quickly. This whole thing would be a lot easier if she did it before anyone inside got suspicious.
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The curtains were drawn tight across the large window next to the door, but still had a small crack she could glance through to see just barely inside. It was only a very narrow view of the inside wall next to the door, but that was enough. With that image locked in her brain, she positioned herself in front of the door and knocked a few times. Then she watched the light visible through the peephole until it had gone dark. Someone was right there looking out at her. Before they could react to seeing the metal helmet, she drove her fist forward. The blade popped out of her gauntlet and went into the door. But instead of going through the door, the blade emerged from that narrow bit of inside wall next to the door that she had gotten a look at a moment earlier.
The blade met flesh and she heard a wet gurgling sound from the other side. Rather than retracting the blade as the body fell away from it, she extended it all the way over to cut a bit of the curtains. The moment the blade cut away that small part of the fabric, she could see into the room. There was a wider view of the wall that was just enough for her to step into the door and out through that wall just beside the body of the man who was gurgling and coughing up blood on the floor. His gun lay beside him where he had dropped it. Without pausing to think about it, she drove the blade down once more to silence his gurgling.
Meanwhile, the woman that she had actually come here for was scrambling up off the bed. Her mouth was opening to scream while she scrambled to grab a pistol lying on the nearby table. But Cassidy didn’t give her time to do either. From the far side of the room, she turned and lashed out, kicking into the nearby wall. Her foot went through the wall to hit the table, knocking it over and sending the gun to the floor where the woman couldn’t grab it. At the same time, her fist lashed backwards toward the nearby door, passing through that and out of the wall next to the woman’s face to collide with her throat. The scream that had started turned to a violent choking sound. Still, it wouldn’t be enough to draw attention.
The dark-haired woman dropped to the floor on her hands and knees, struggling for breath. Meanwhile, Cassidy checked the room to make sure they were alone, taking a quick few steps to look in the bathroom before returning. By that point, the woman had recovered enough to start reaching for the gun nearby on the floor. But Cassidy simply stepped down hard into the floor, sending her foot up through the floor next to the gun to kick it aside. Then she kept walking that way.
Finally getting a decent look at the masked figure walking toward her, the woman sputtered (in a voice that was still weak from being smacked in the throat), “Wh-who--but you’re… you’re just a kid. You’re just a kid, what’re you--why--”
Stopping next to her, Cassidy spoke. “Hi. Name’s Votary. Do you know what that means?” Her voice was conversational. “A lot of people think it means ‘someone who voted’ or ‘someone who helps people vote.’ But actually, it's like… the devoted follower or advocate of something. A zealous believer or sworn adherent, that kind of thing. So, knowing that, you should know that I'm pretty loyal to something. I mean, that's my name. And do you know what I'm loyal to?” Crouching down, she spoke a little more softly. “The Ministry.”
Hearing that, the woman started to sputter excuses, but Cassidy (or Votary) cut her off. “You found out about the Ministry, huh? Then you thought it would be a good idea to try to extort them. Threatening to go public with what you found out.” Looking across the room toward the dead body and then back to the woman, she conversationally asked, “How's that working out for you?”
Giving a violent shudder, the woman shook her head and quickly blurted, “N-no, listen, listen, we can make a deal. I have a daughter, I have a little girl. She has powers. Really strong powers. Your people need powers like that, right? I can help you get her on your side.”
With a sigh, Cassidy shook her head. “Seriously, Mrs. Amor--or is it Miss? Never mind, it really doesn’t matter. You’re right, you do have a daughter. And we’ll take good care of Izzy. But we don’t exactly need you around to do that. In fact, you’re kind of a detriment to the whole situation. You’re a bad mother, and a really stupid criminal. I mean honestly, trying to extort people like us and then staying in the city?”
“Wh-why?” Mariana Amor stammered. “You’re just a kid. You can’t be older than Izzy. Why would you--why would you be like this?” Her eyes were staring toward the corpse of her former hired bodyguard.
“One, I’m older than I look,” Cassidy informed her. “And two… let’s just say that a few years ago my best friend and his family were murdered by people trying to take down the Ministry. Hell, it was so traumatic my family almost erased my memory. But I got powers first, and that changed things. Now? Well, now I make sure that what happened to Anthony never happens again. Anyone who might be a threat to my family or the people I care about? They don’t get to be threats for long. And you… you made yourself a threat.”
“I’m not--I’m not a threat,” Mariana insisted. “Look, I’ll leave, you can keep Izzy, you can keep all of it. I don’t care. Take her, make her one of you, whatever you want. I won’t say anything, I won’t do anything. Who’d believe me anyway? It’s fine, okay? It’s fine, you do whatever you need to. I’m not a threat, how could I be? I couldn’t do anything, I couldn’t convince anyone. I’m nobody.”
“Finally,” Cassidy put in, “we agree on something.” With that, she put her blade through the woman's throat while covering her mouth as the scream started to come. Waiting till she was fully dead, the girl retracted the blade and rose.
She walked to the window, glancing out to make sure there was no unexpected company. Her gaze focused across the street into the alley where she could just barely make out the body of the first man. Under her stare, the ground under the body and the floor next to her were connected, and she was able to reach down, grab the corpse, and pull it through to the room so he could join his partner.
Now that the body that had been in the alley wouldn’t be found, Cassidy pivoted to walk over to the bathroom. There, she washed off the metal gauntlets in the sink, then took a towel, soaked it down, and wiped off the front of the helmet where blood had splattered up onto it.
Once she was clean, the girl then began to methodically look through the room itself. It took about twenty minutes to do a thorough search, finding every piece of evidence or information that Mariana had gathered in her attempt to blackmail the Ministry. All of it went into a small trash bag that had been helpfully provided by the motel itself, before she tied it off and set the bag on the nearby bed to wait for a moment while she did one last scan. Cassidy was pretty sure there was nothing else to find, but it never hurt to double-check things, no matter how certain you were.
A few minutes later, she was finally satisfied. Even then, however, the Ministry’s cleaners would do their own thorough search when they came to deal with the bodies. Still, Cassidy didn’t want to be embarrassed by having missed something important. Her brother would never let her hear the end of it.
Tapping the side of the helmet, she activated the phone function and told it to call Newsome. It wasn’t the man’s real name, but that was what he went by in the field. Once he answered, she spoke. “It’s Votary. She’s dead, with two accomplices, just like you thought. No extra paperwork.” Paperwork, in this case, was a euphemism for unexpected witnesses that had somehow gotten into the situation and had to be silenced one way or another. “I’ve got what she had, but make your men strip the room just in case.”
“Understood,” came the flat response. “Anything else?”
“We still have eyes on the daughter?” Cassidy asked.
There was a brief pause before the answer came. “Yeah, she’s at the friend’s house. Still thinks her mother’s on a trip. You want us to pick her up?”
“No,” Cassidy answered. She gave one last look around the room, then grabbed the evidence bag and walked into the door. A second later, she emerged into the alley where she had first started, tapping the button that would retract her helmet and leave her face exposed (albeit still covered by the illusion). “I’ll talk to Izzy myself.
“I think the two of us could be great friends.”