Tcr 23) The Horror Show

I looked around wildly through my foggy corpse vision trying to figure out what was happening.

Other than people either freezing in place or running away screaming because of T-Rex letting out a roar of pain as he pressed his larger then accurate but still undersized arms up to clutch at the sides of his head.

Manifest was leaning up against a check out impulse rack knocking candy bars and weird Asian snacks down as he moaned.

Shimmer, well she was still on her feet, but not looking too happy. “It’s a mental attack. I’m glad I’ve been working on my mental defenses. I told you guys. Remedial training for everyone.”

I heard Fable’s voice on the ear plug every one of my Trooper bodies had stuffed in their right ears. “I’m good and I taking command. I’m dropping Medusa to Rank 1 to keep the doors locked down, and I'm sending in the Sherwood gang to look for the Mental.

The door dinged behind me as Robin Hood, Little John, Friar Tuck, and a bunch of lesser known characters to anyone whose father hadn't read the older but less commercial stories to his daughter every night when she was growing up, streamed past. All unseen by me.

Arrow knocked, and quarterstaffs in hand.

The Merry Men didn't have any powers, but they could still interact with the real world at least as well as any other armed reasonably fit forest outlaws.

No one worth taking seriously criticizes getting medieval on a Mind Bender.

I patted Shimmer on the shoulder and pressed the machine taped onto my ride's throat. "Sorry boss, but what they're doing can burst blood vessels in your brain. Your lives are at risk."

"It's time for the horror show."

Walking forward while ignoring the teen's protests, I hopped up on the Greeter's podium while making the gargling sound that passed for a Talon Trooper scream as loudly as I could.

Then I pulled off the helmet and mask. Fully revealing the blue skin and the gaunt, dry rotted face of the clone's corpse in its full glory.

Teeth were missing from leeching the calcium from them to repair structural bones. The flesh had gone to a thin film to show the skull below the pasty blue skin. The whites of the eyes had gone almost black from the preservation fluid bursting from the small veins on the surface of the eyeball.

I looked down at my phone and turned up the volume on the app for the electrolarnyx.

"Hello, boys and girls. Somewhere behind a set of your staring eyes is a Mind Bender who is currently killing people that I like. So I suggest to everyone here. Cover your eyes and lie face down on the ground, because I don't like any of you."

Seriously. Every single person in Concentric City can get at least a private one bedroom apartment, rent free, or even more if they have a roommate, partner, or family.

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Free health care. Free utilities. Free internet. Free phones with unlimited use. Even free meals at the Arcologie's cafeterias. Pretty decent food at that.

And anything you wanted to buy was cheap as well, at least anything you would buy in the way of basics like groceries or clothes.

Flash mob shoplifting. I hate to sound like an old grump. But get a job! Core is having to use AI controlled robots to care for the elderly and other crap jobs all around the city. And every one of those jobs are up for grabs to any person who wants to take them over and make themselves useful.

Granted, they're not great jobs, that's why education is free. Want something better than a then a low level, part time job? Earn it.

Of course, I wasn't shouting any of that at the mostly young crowd of shoplifters, but thinking about it was putting a look on my face that was inspiring a bunch of people to at least get down to their knees with one hand over their eyes.

Mind bender usually need to see their targets.

Many others were down on the ground with both of their hands covering their eyes after dropping everything they had stolen. All of them eager not to have to look at the dead thing glaring back at them.

But one short woman who had gone beyond just being curvy who was wearing a brown Core Value employee polo was squinting at me in concentration. As if trying to fry the brain of someone who was only here in spirit, while their actual mind was several miles away.

Someone I couldn’t see made her gut visibly sink in as she got punched hard enough to break her concentration.

Probably Maid Marion, the others would have made her do it rather than hit a girl.

In the sudden silence, I could clearly hear Manifest say “Oh thank Nazzy.” and I found out what a dinosaur sounded like when it sighed in relief.

I dropped the helmet and mask as I began clicking the remaining upper and lower teeth of my ride together rapidly.

Remembering my promise to Shimmer and our PR person not to demand “Brains” in my most creepy voice, I just let out another guttural scream as I leaped the twenty feet between me and the Mind Twister, landing in front of her just as she looked back up from the gut shot.

Looking her in the eyes, I tapped the corpse's throat. "Run…"

She ran.

I heard Shimmer on the earbud telling me, "Don't hurt her, just get her isolated so she can’t target people.” Rolling my eyes, I waved a hand over my head in acknowledgment.

The Mental definitely didn't have any Ranks in any sort of physical enhancement, or any regular exercise from how slow she ran. I easily got ahead of her a couple of times as I herded her towards the front door.

I’m not familiar with the layout of the backrooms of a Core Values store. So I was concerned that any door I chased her through might have staff members or uninvolved shoppers hiding behind them.

While outside we had someone who could take her down without force and who was also immune to the Mental's power.

I could have just hit her to take her down myself as well, but the mood I was in, I was pretty sure I wouldn't hold back as much as I should.

I guess this is something else I can talk to my therapist about.

A few people tried to tackle or trip me as I chased the Mind Twister towards the front door. Either they were people involved in organizing the flash mob who were working with her, or possibly just people with good intentions trying to save her from the fast zombie chasing her around making horrible noises from laughing with no vocal cords. The cops could sort out who was which.

Unseen Merry Men which had been pacing me unseen the entire time took care of them, fairly gently as well.

Robin Hood was a pretty child friendly story after all.

The Mental finally ran out the front door, came to a sudden stop, and then toppled face first onto the cement as Fable dismissed the Sherwood gang and focused all her power on Medusa.

Mission accomplished.

Except for the after mission review watching the security cam recording of the chase. Manifest giggling, T-Rex’s grunts of approval, and Fable’s wide eyed and earnest look of fake support severely undermining Shimmer’s lecture about everything I had done wrong.

She was letting me have both barrels of breaking down how my choices had gone way overboard and made the entire team look bad. As well as hurting the Mice’s chance of getting recognition as people by working in an official capacity as my sidekick.

Ouch. That one stung.

All of that with fully projected emotional feelings of her very real disappointment and a cold indifferent anger.

“Sorry.”

Shimmer folded her arms. "No. Sorry is what you say after we see how the media is going to play this."

Scorn didn’t bother to drift over to sit and talk for a while when I got home that night, but she did send Fafnir and Muffin over for pets and ball throwing.

Dealing with super powered animals is so much easier than people.