We split up almost immediately after that. Lucent had to cut our practice time short so he could go back and report in about what had happened. And Carousel went off with That-A-Way to tell her teammates the story while heading in to give her own report. Because of course it made sense for Way to go with Carousel, at least at first. She did shoot me a look before heading off, mouthing for me to meet her here and that she would be right back. Clearly, she still wanted to get into whatever she’d sent the earlier message about, before all this happened.
I did have one thing to do while she was gone, though. Heading back to the bank, I helped the cops in the lot release the guys I had trapped with pink paint. Not that the would-be robbers were exactly happy about being arrested, but hey. At least we hadn’t completely failed to catch everyone.
Once that was done and I had sent in a statement about what happened with the Ten Towers Doephone app so it would be officially logged, I went back to the other roof and took a seat with my back to one of the air conditioning units. I needed a moment to catch my breath after everything that had happened. Part of me really still felt like shit for just letting those guys walk away with the stuff they stole, no matter how much I told myself that Lucent was right. Not getting into a brawl right there had been the right call. No matter how much the whispering voice in the back of my head went on about it being a mistake.
But no, backing off had been the right call. Maybe, maybe we could’ve handled the regular thugs who were surrounding us. Carousel might have stopped the bullets and even pulled some of their guns away. And I had my protective paint. Maybe between the three of us, even surrounded like that, we could’ve taken the Prevs. A group of ordinary guys with weapons against the three of us? We probably could have handled it. Probably.
But Sandon’s presence threw all that out the window. She was right there close to us, flanked by all those armed troops while already being one of the strongest and toughest Touched around. We just didn’t have anything that could have straight-up hurt her. And while we could’ve gotten creative, having to deal with her and her men was a bad combination. And that was before you added in the new Touched. Between the armed thugs, Sandon, and not knowing much of anything about the new guy’s power… yeah, starting a fight while surrounded by all that would have been one of the worst ideas imaginable. It would’ve gone horribly.
And yet… Yeah, I couldn’t shut out my traitorous little voice, no matter what sort of logic I tried to silence it with. Which made a heavy sigh escape me.
“Letting them get away sucks, doesn’t it?” That-A-Way spoke up while approaching from the other side of the roof. Clearly she had heard my sigh. “Believe me, I know what you’re feeling right now. And it never really goes away. I mean, it shouldn’t, right?” By that point, she had reached the spot where I was sitting, and plopped down next to me, drawing her legs up while looking out over the neighborhood below. “It should always feel wrong to let bad guys leave with what they stole, no matter how many times you tell yourself it was the only way.”
Snorting despite myself, I shifted a bit to look over at the other girl from behind my helmet. “Yeah, I guess you’ve probably been in that position a few times before, huh?”
I could see a very slight, humorless smile cross her face briefly. “Once or twice. The fact is that sometimes we’re outnumbered or outpowered, and we have to walk away. Silversmith always says–” She caught herself, face twisting into a slight grimace before pushing on. “Yeah, I know, but he’s not wrong here. He always says that it’s better to fight another day. Especially when all they have is material goods. If they kidnapped someone or whatever, it’s usually a different story. But if all they’ve got is money or something like that? Yeah, just let them go if you need to. He says money can be replaced, but we can’t be.”
My father’s advice, delivered through Amber, made a lump form in my throat. It wasn’t any different than the advice that my bird-dad had given. And yet, I just… somehow the thought of why he would be fine with letting bad guys escape with what they stole made the whole thing feel worse.
“I didn’t exactly help with that, did I?” Way was grimacing as she looked at me, shaking her head. “Sorry. I just… I’ve looked up to him for a long time. And like I said, he’s not wrong here. Even if he might have some ulterior motives sometimes about letting them walk away, it’s still not wrong. You guys made the right choice. Sandon would’ve chewed you up and spat you out. You’re not ready for her. Hell, I’m pretty sure I’m not ready for her. That’s… she’s too strong. And that’s coming from someone who can be invulnerable a quarter of the time and intangible another quarter.”
Finally finding a slight smile, I reached out and squeezed her arm. “Thanks,” I murmured before adding, “I just… you know, she outright said that they stole those things to help fund this gangwar. So every bit of fighting that goes on now, I’m going to wonder if it happened because we let them get away with the money to pay for it. If anything happens to Pack–I mean… La Casa are the ones fighting the Ninety-Niners, you know? If anything happens to her because they took the money I let them get away with to keep the war going…”
I could hear the way the other girl gulped. Her hand found mine, squeezing it firmly. “I know,” she murmured in a soft voice. “Believe me, I think about that a lot. Not just when it comes to this thing today. I think about it all the time.” Her tone made it clear that was an understatement. “But it’s her choice, and she puts herself in that position. She chooses to do this stuff, just like we choose our own way, you know?” She gave a long, heavy sigh before adding in an even softer voice, “Of course, that doesn’t mean I won’t try to make sure she doesn’t get hurt if I get the chance.”
With my face hidden, I watched the other girl for a moment. There were a few things I almost wanted to ask about her whole thing with Pack, but I held off on the basis of it not being any of my business. Instead, I simply replied, “Sorry, I… I know you’re right. But knowing that doesn’t really… umm, help, you know? Doesn’t matter how logical it is, everything the Ninety-Niners do from now on, as far as this war goes, I won’t… I won’t be able to stop thinking ‘they can do this because I didn’t stop them from stealing the funds they needed to keep this whole thing going.’”
“I know,” she murmured, giving a heavy sigh. “I get it. It would be a hell of a lot easier to talk her out of being on the bad guy’s team if we didn’t already know for a fact that there are bad guys on every team.” Pausing, she grimaced before amending, “Okay, maybe it wouldn’t exactly be easy. She does like her money and freedom. But still, maybe like.. a Sell-Touched? Wait.” Her expression shifted as thoughts of that ran through her mind. She was obviously considering whether it would be a good idea to suggest that Pack become a Sell-Touched as a sort-of midway point between her current villain alignment and something better. After all, Sell-Touched could play both sides of the field, as Cavalcade had made clear. It just took a little extra work.
Both of us thought about that for a minute, before I offered a hesitant, “I’m pretty sure she has friends over there that she wouldn’t want to walk away from that easily. Unless you’re thinking about–” I coughed, giving her a look of realization. “You’re not thinking about her walking away from her friends, you’re thinking about her taking them with her and making La Casa lose like… several Touched all at once.”
“It would be a pretty big deal, huh?” Way opened her mouth and then stopped, heaving a sigh. “But, if I bring it up, it’ll just make her think I’m trying to get credit for taking a bunch of La Casa Touched away all at once. I mean–I thought about that but it’s… it’s backwards, you know? I don’t care about that sort of credit–I don’t even… “ She closed her eyes and drew her legs closer to her chest, going quiet for a moment before murmuring, “I just want to know she’s okay. If she gets arrested, if she goes to prison for everything, I just–I mean I should want that, right? She’s a thief, she’s a villain. Outside of these deals we have, I should want her to get caught. But every time I think about what I would do if it came down to choosing to take her in or let her go, even outside of our whole situation with the Ministry, I just… I can’t figure it out. I try. Believe me, I seriously sat there for hours trying to figure out how I would react if we didn’t have to deal with this Ministry stuff and I had to choose whether to take her in or not. Part of that whole… ‘figuring out how I feel’ thing. But I just can’t extricate it like that. It’s–damn it. You know.”
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My head bobbed quickly. “I know. I mean, even without anything else, she’s… she’s a friend.” There was clearly more to it than that, but I didn’t want to make assumptions or push the other girl to admit anything she didn’t want to. “You care about her. And it sucks to think that someone you care about might need help. And–oh, uhh, Jae might need help.” It clearly wasn’t the best or smoothest topic shift, but the thought had just popped into my head while talking.
Giving a sudden double-take at that, Amber cough-sputtered a bit. It was kind of a weird reaction to have to something like that, if I was being honest. But maybe the sudden topic shift had thrown her off more than I thought. Or maybe she just wasn’t used to me bringing up civilian stuff while we were in costume. Which was totally fair, given how weird that whole thing was.
Either way, she gave me a sharp look, asking, “What do you mean? When did you talk to Jae? When did you even see Jae? She hasn’t–I mean, when did she–what did–what?” Yeah, definitely a weird reaction.
Setting that aside, given I had no idea what was going on there (maybe Jae really didn’t know about Amber being Touched and she felt guilty about that?), I simply told her what I had seen back at the grocery store. I explained the whole interplay between Jae and her step-adopted mother (or whatever the proper term for that would be), the welcome home party for her adopted father, all of it.
“It’s just father, you know,” Amber informed me. “Once someone is adopted, you don’t have to stick the word on the front as a qualifier. He’s her father. She’s her stepmother. Her siblings are her siblings, not her adopted siblings. They’re a family, like any other.”
“Right.” Coughing, I gave a little nod. “Got it, sorry. I just–yeah. The point is, I think Jae might need a friend today. Plus, you might want to make sure she’s really okay after that close call. Like I said, you don’t have to tell me if she actually knows about you being… you, but if she does, you can tell her that you heard about what happened from me and, you know, figured out who she was from the description. Or… whatever. I just mean you should check on her.”
“I will,” Amber assured me, without getting into any details. “Pretty sure she’ll be alright, but I’ll go over there later, before my patrol with Syndicate. And–” Abruptly, she snapped her fingers. “I can tell you about that thing now! Okay, no more distractions or interruptions. You’re not allowed to have some huge thing come up and take up all our attention for the next few minutes.”
“Uh, I’ll do my best?” I offered a bit weakly while glancing around. “I mean, I don’t see anything coming up, and I’ll try not to answer my phone or anything. But I really can’t–never mind. Ahem.” Shifting, I faced her directly. “You have my full and undivided attention. Go ahead.”
Giving me a look as though half-convinced that she was going to be interrupted anyway, Amber still hesitated before launching into an explanation. She told me about how a little while back she had been out jogging and saw some Asian people arguing outside of a sedan. There was one girl, around her age or maybe slightly older, who had been having an argument with the other three, older people. Maybe her relatives. They were all yelling in their own language, so Amber couldn’t tell what they were saying. And just when Amber had been thinking about stepping in, another car had shown up. A car with diplomatic plates. Yeah, it was Tomas’s father. At the time, Amber hadn’t actually known there was anything wrong with the man. She just thought it was strange that he was there. He had talked to the Asian people, calmed down the situation, then had the younger girl get in his car with him.
“And that’s where it got really… uh, different,” Amber informed me. “She became he. I mean, just before the girl got in the car, she shifted. Her hair, her face, her whole body. She turned into a boy like it was nothing. Just that easy, that casual. Believe me, I know transitioning has gotten easier with Touched-Tech, but this was more than that. She–I mean they’re either a shapeshifter, or a…. maybe they have their own personal Touched-Tech disguise, or–I don’t know. But I thought it was weird at the time, and now that you told me about Mr. Jackson, it–it feels even more weird. Something… strange was going on with that, you know?”
Nodding slowly as I ran that through my head, I tried to think and came up with nothing. “Yeah, I don’t know. I never heard my parents talking about anything like that. At least, I don’t think so. It doesn’t ring any bells. And I don’t– huh.” Frowning, I thought again before heaving a sigh. “God, I don’t know. Maybe we’ll find out more once we dig that tunnel to get into the mall base? Which, you know, having that Undermine guy’s power would sure help out a lot with that.”
Snorting, clearly despite herself, Amber retorted, “Sure would. All you have to do is go convince him to help. Shouldn’t be that hard, right? I mean, you can trust a total stranger, who happens to be an active villain and not in any way a friend with all your secrets. Easy peasy.”
My eyes rolled and I covered the front of my helmet with my hands. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. I’m just saying, if they’d been using a tech thing, we could’ve grabbed it. Would’ve made it easier. But hey, we don’t get to do things the easy way. We still need to do them. At least we’ve got help.”
“Yeah,” the girl agreed, “it’ll be easier with Raindrop and Pack there. And will your minions be there too?” The last bit was said teasingly as she nudged me, clearly going for a reaction.
“Uuuughh,” I groaned, shaking my head. “Don’t even–I don’t know. Maybe… maybe if I tell them we need to dig a tunnel somewhere but we can’t really tell them why or let them know where it is? I don’t–that doesn’t sound very fair, does it?”
“They’re minions,” she pointed out, “they’re probably used to not being treated fairly or being given all the information.” A small smile played across her face before she focused. “Anyway, the other option is that you tell them what’s actually going on. I mean, maybe not your real identity if you don’t want to. But about this Ministry stuff. At least then they’d be going into it–all of it with open eyes and all. They could choose to walk away before they end up getting in the sort of trouble that the Ministry could put them in just by working with you.”
Blanching, I shifted back and exhaled long and low before admitting, “Right, yeah, you have a point. I just don’t know if it’s a good idea to tell them more than–to tell them–I mean…” My face, still hidden, twisted a little as I tried to sort through my thoughts. “You’re right. I know you’re right. If they get involved in this and get hurt specifically because they didn’t know what they were getting into or how to protect themselves from it, I’ll never forgive myself. Hell, by that standard I should make sure Fred and Wren know the whole story too. I should–” I swallowed hard. “There’s a lot of things I should do. I’ll think about it. I’ll think about how to talk about it and how much I can tell them.” Pausing, I murmured, “Or if I should just tell them not to have anything to do with me. But something tells me that won’t come off very well. They’re already working with Wren. I–I gave them a chance. I told them they could have real jobs, and a chance to make their lives better. I can’t take that away from them. Maybe I could have them only work for Wren and have nothing to do with me, but you know that won’t work. If bad things go down, it isn’t hard to connect Trevithick to me. I just–it’s so intertwined and complicated.”
My eyes had closed by that point as I slumped backward against the air conditioning unit and let a heavy sigh escape me once more. “I have to think about all that. But I will. I’ll figure it out.”
“I know, it’s a pain in the ass,” Amber sympathized before adding, “And uhh, I’m probably not about to make it any better. Which–sorry. But I just want to let you know next I’m going to be looking into something else while we’re searching for information about the whole Ministry thing. More than just general information. It’s–it’s important.” Her voice cracked a little as she said that, making it clear how much of an understatement it was. “I just–I have to know.”
After looking at her briefly, I realized, “Your dad. You want to find out if they had anything to do with the guy who hit your dad getting away. You want to know if they accepted money from him to disappear and that’s why no one ever found out who–” Grimacing, I shook my head. “You know that could all be completely normal. A lot of hit-and-runs go completely unsolved. Especially with a stolen car, and–”
“I know!” the other girl blurted, before giving me an apologetic look. “I know all that, believe me. But I got the idea stuck in my head and now I can’t let it go until I know for sure. I have to find out if your parents deliberately let my father’s killer walk away. I just–I have to know for sure. Whatever it takes. So I’m gonna be looking for anything that has to do with him. My dad, I mean. They might’ve kept files or… or some other record, or someone else might’ve known and–and… Ugh. Someone will know the truth. I have to check. I just… have to.”
It was my turn to reach out and squeeze her arm. “I understand. I… I’ll help any way I can, I promise. But be careful, okay? Just–be careful. And don’t do anything drastic. We’ll figure it out.”
She murmured what was something close to an agreement, before the two of us sat there in silence for a minute or two. A minute or two which felt much longer, as we gradually turned away to look out over the neighborhood once more, lost in our own thoughts.
Finally, I pushed myself up. “Thanks for talking me through all that. I–it’s good to have someone to talk to.” Boy was that ever an understatement. I had no idea how I would’ve even kept as sane as I was right then without having her and Izzy. It really made a difference.
Rising after me, Amber offered a small smile. “Any time. I uhh, guess I should head back in now. Like you said, I should check on Jae and make sure she’s okay.”
“Yeah,” I agreed before turning to start walking to the edge of the roof. “And I need to get over to Wren’s to see how they’re doing with Lion. Can’t let my employees have all the fun. Besides, it’s probably about time I had a talk with Paige.
“I really need to ask her why she never mentioned that she has a sister who would come looking for her.”