PomPoko
Chapter 7: To Help the Helpless?
As I rocketed away, my heavily-armed sidekick flying beside me, I contemplated my first meeting with the PRT and Protectorate. Honestly, I was pretty satisfied with the way things went. I had been ready for an attack, skepticism, disbelief, even being branded a villain or too dangerous to live, if that was the way things went. I had used queues from my Sociology power to put everyone at ease as much as possible, and I'm sure the air of honest authority I practically exuded in my Existence Manipulation bubble had helped smooth the way. As long as Armsmaster and crew didn't get scared and do an about-face between now and my appointment I should be golden.
One thing I had discovered; I needed more pure Thinker powers. I had gotten a ton of mileage out of Sociology so far, it's overlap into interpersonal relationships had probably saved my plan to be the next Eidolon/Scion. In retrospect, it was completely retarded of my to go in the way I had, almost completely unprepared from a social and planning perspective. I had gone to the PRT with a really shitty three-part plan: 1. Present criminals gift-wrapped on a silver platter. 2. Tell them some of what I could do. 3. Become accepted as the world's new golden boy.
Damn, that was stupid. Was all of this power making me lazy? I guess knowing that I could not rewind time and do it over, or alter everyone's memories, or just nuke the city if I went batshit insane was getting to me. I needed to keep my head out of the clouds and live in the real world. They needed me here, for christ's sake!
I stopped time mid-flight and tapped myself three times, Gifting myself and boosting three Thinker powers. The first was a called Rational Thought, which would show me the rational and logically sound solution to any and all areas I chose to apply it to. The second was called Complete Perception; it allowed me to perceive each piece of data that my senses took in entirely and in relation to all of the other pieces; I would be able to read people like a book and never miss a clue. The last power was Intuitive Understanding; it was a broad-spectrum power like Tattletale's, and would allow me to intuitively understand pretty much anything that I didn't.
I activated the three powers and frowned. I was going to need more Thinker powers, they informed me. I tapped my chest three more times, adding and boosting Interpersonal Communication, Complex Planning, and a power that could charitably be described as Social Engineering. Almost as an afterthought I tapped myself twice more, creating Politics and Game Theory.
I forwarded all of these new Thinker abilities to my clone Politician for his use. He had already made some connections and had a solid false identification. He had three interviews tomorrow for positions as a lobbyist.
… … …
I started the flow of time again, and seconds later I slowed. Kitsune shot past me, then looped around and came back. "Sorry about that PomPoko-ni. Why are we hovering above a school?" she asked.
"To rescue a girl who is being bullied." My Shadow Birds had witnessed Taylor Hebert, the main character of Worm and Savior of Mankind, being shoved into her locker toward the end of my meeting with the Protectorate, and I wanted to rescue her as soon as possible after she triggered. It was a terrible thing to let happen to a good kid like her, but if I fucked up on my mission then I needed Khepri as a backup. Taylor was the only person who I knew for sure who could pull it off.
"Wah! I hate bullies!" shouted Kitsune. "This mean boy named Jimmy Hu used to pull on my ponytail all the time, and he'd then run away when I asked why he did it. What an ass-face!" she huffed.
"Not like that Kitsune, this girl has had it really rough. Her best friend turned on her after her mother died and became her worst enemy. She has been constantly harassed, hurt, humiliated, and kept apart from all human contact for over a year. Her bullies are the most popular girls in the school, and they've made it so that no one else will even talk to her. She's nearly suicidal at this point, I think. We'll need to give her a lot of help." I sighed, it was going to be hard to stop myself from really punishing Taylor's bullies... Only my surety that they would get their just deserts kept me from it.
Well, that and the fact that they were just children… I really didn't like the idea of harming children. I did have an idea on what I could do to set them right however, and it would be both helpful to the world and poetic.
"Woah, that's awful!" said Kerako, "Why aren't we down there pulling her out of class and taking her to get ice-cream right now?" she looked agitated now, and close to tears. Shit, I didn't know that mentioning Taylor losing her mother would make her feel this badly. I should have, thought, Kerako had just lost both of her parents only months before.
"It's OK Kitsune." I said, wrapping an arm around her. I was actively shielding us from view so that we would not draw attention from the milling students below. "We'll definitely help her, but we can't just yet. I know that this is going to sound cruel, but the girl that we're here to help, Taylor, is down there right now trapped in her locker by her bullies. She's about to Trigger as a parahuman, and that has to be allowed to happen. I've seen a vision of a possible future and the power that she gets might one day allow her to save the world."
Kitsune looked stunned. Then she became rapidly angry. "But you can give people powers, right? Why can't you give her the power she needs to save the world instead of making her go through that. You didn't get your powers like normal, right? You've given me lots of clues, you know? And I've noticed, you're not all fucked up in the head with the alien mind control stuff that you told me about like a regular Parahuman, right?"
She looked at me searchingly, then nodded. "I'm going to go down there and save this Taylor girl right now PomPoko-ni. Will you help me please?" her voice, determined at first, had grown soft at the end, trailing off. 'Was it really necessary to let Taylor trigger?' I wondered. Would she even get the same power as before? As long as it was the Queen Administrator shard then she should be able to get it unlocked eventually, I thought, but I wasn't sure. What if she got some weird ability to her her escape her locker like Adminstration of Metal or something? Would that allow her to become Khepri?
The decision was taken from me, however, as I felt the multi-dimensional disturbance know as triggering start to begin far below. I froze time as soon as I got an inkling that it was starting. I reached out with my PM and unified Shard Manipulation powers, mapping out the approaching shard. It had no buds, of course, and it was massive compared to any of the shards I had previously studied. It was more than twice the size of all three of Kerako's original shards put together, and hers were on the larger side of what I had seen so far.
I started studying the shard's databanks, flinching when its encryption gave me pause. It was a completely different type of information storage than I had seen previously in other shards. I needed to add and boost Shard Decryption Thinker and Tinker powers to my Shard ability before I could fully read it.
If the other shards I had studied were cogs from a great machine that could operate semi-autonomously, then this shard was akin to the a complete machine that built, repaired, and even designed those cogs. QA had a massive database which I suspect contained information on most or all of the other shards' functions and abilities. It's own operating database was filled with the equivalent of administration tools, modification tools, and abilities to call the functions of other shards at will. With this one shard you could almost recreate any other shard at will, as long as something of the original remained. It was the ultimate Administration and support tool for Entities. It was both beautiful and horrible at the same time. I quickly copied the whole shard, and set my copy dormant for later study and modification.
Insect Manipulation was probably the lowest possible expression of this amazing shard's power. Taylor deserved more, I decided. I started time moving again, but at a glacial pace. I began shaping and prodding the shard, trying to get it to get it to express it's abilities to their fullest. This was much more difficult than working with other shards, it was almost as if QA was resisting me, fighting at every step as I worked on it. I found that I had started modifying the ability it was locking itself into at too late a stage to change the broad scope of the power it would give to Taylor, so I focused on broadening it as much as possible.
I wasn't able to modify the Queen Administrator's power to the degree that I could other shards, and Taylor's trigger conditions and state of mind had already locked QA into Biological Administration mode. Nothing I tried could change that, unfortunately. I focused on getting as much out of Biology Administration as I could, and eventually my efforts yielded a power that was less than I had hoped for from the awesomely powerful bio-computer, but much more than I had feared I would get once I had discovered just how advanced this shard was.
I had created a power much like the Shaper ability from the first Worm CYOA with a side of Power Manipulation tacked on. It had much less range than Shaper, variable, but usually a little over 11 meters. The user would also have the ability to permanently enhance, decrease, or modify Parahuman powers to a degree by interfacing with their shards and modifying their scope and output. It could also confer certain powers on any biological organism the user chose, including other humans, by artificially triggering them and allowing them to call functions from other shards through QA.
This new power was not Manton limited, and could be applied to its own user. It even included a function to shunt mass from the other dimensions via the dead Earth that QA resided on, allowing for the seeming ex-nihilo creation of organisms and the addition of mass to already existent lifeforms. It was linked to QA's own biological databases and computing resources, which added Tinker and Thinker aspects to the power.
I pulled the fixed version of the QA shard from Taylor to me, and then made a shardless copy. I placed the original QA into interdimensional storage next to the unlocked version of the shard, and the other shard copies I had. I then made a shardless copy of the power and placed a copy of that into Taylor, leaving one for myself. It would be interesting to play with it.
"Let's go get her Kitsune." I said, placing Kitsune onto my back and causing us to go invisible and intangible. I flew us down through the roof and the second floor, into the locker room where Taylor was trapped.
Kitsune, suddenly solid and visible, dexterously hopped off of my back, ears twitching and eyes wild. A long triangular plasma blade erupted from gauntlet above her clenched right fist. Her sharingan was active, twin commas spinning in each eye rapidly. Enhanced hearing quickly leading the young heroine to the ersatz prison, she blurred forward and slashed twice, causing the locker door to fall forward. Her blade quickly extinguished, she caught the lanky teen that poured forth from the enclosure on a putrid tide of filth.
"Hang in there Taylor!" cried Kerako empathetically to the soiled girl in her arms. Taylor looked to be unconscious. I gestured for effect, and the disgusting substances clinging both girls peeled itself from them and flowed into a hovering evidence bag that appeared out of nowhere. Another gesture, and Taylor was left immaculate and wearing a fluffy white robe, while her ruined set of clothing appeared in another clear evidence bag.
Several Shadow Birds had recorded the entire locker incident from multiple perspectives, including the three bullies chatting and laughing about their sick little magnum opus before, during, and after they stuffed poor Taylor into her own locker. I wondered if the recordings would be enough evidence to convict some or all of the students who knew what they were doing and kept silent; they were recorded as well. The physical evidence would add corroborate Taylor's claims.
I conjured some police tape and cordoned off the area, letting Kitsune lead a now shambling, semi-conscious Taylor toward the showers. She was technically clean, but if I were her I would want a hot shower anyway. I took a second to create and boost two strong powers, one to prevent Master effects from taking hold while warning the user that they were being targeted, and by who, and another power that would allow its user to prevent their body from being modified without their express consent. I sent copies of each to Kitsune and activated them. I didn't fear Taylor being malicious, I just wanted to prevent any mistakes made by a girl without knowledge or control of a particularly potent power.
I conjured an oversized smartphone for my oversized hands, and dialed emergency services. An operator quickly picked up. "Emergency services, please state the nature of the emergency." said a confident yet soft male voice.
I answered, my voice slow and firm. "This is the Independent hero PomPoko. We're going to need police and an ambulance at Winslow high school, single victim, assault and deprivation of liberty, maybe attempted murder. The victim was trapped in a gym locker filled with toxic bio-waste and insects for several hours. My partner got her clear and she's being cleaned up and given first aid but she's got lacerations and bug bites which are sure to be infected. She also appears to be in shock."
"Thank you Mr. PomPoko. Is anyone on the scene in danger? Are there any other capes besides yourself and your partner on the premises?" he asked, his voice more alert than before.
"Negative, to the best of my knowledge myself and my partner Kitsune are the only capes on-scene. We located a girl in distress via extra sensory power while flying near the school and moved to assist. We determined via post-cognition that the victim was imprisoned for over two hours, and have ID'd the perpetrators." I continued, hearing the operator typing rapidly in the background.
"We have not moved to arrest, as the perps are students and are presumably in class and unaware of our presence. Be aware, my partner are I are Case 53 capes, so do not be alarmed when you see us. I am a very tall man with a large bushy tail, and my partner is a young-looking female with fox ears and two tails." I finished.
"Thank you sir, we have police and ambulance enroute to your location. Please be aware that as per procedure we have contacted the PRT, and that they have a unit enroute as well." he said. "Can you please stay on the line with me while we wait?" he asked.
"Of course." I said. Kitsune returned with a much better looking Taylor, who seemed to be a bit more alert, but still drawn and exhausted. I really wanted to just heal her, but that wouldn't help the case against her bullies very well at the moment. Kitsune led her to a bench opposite of where I was sitting, and sat down next to the robe-clad girl. Taylor blinked owlishly when she saw me, and her mouth hung open a little when she noticed my tail. I smiled and saluted her, and she looked away. Kerako spoke softly to her, still holding her hand. Taylor was gripping it like a lifeline.
I continually scanned the rooms around us, glad to find that there was no physical education class in session right now. After a short time I sensed the police and PRT arrive, followed shortly by the Ambulance. I was waiting outside the entrance of the locker room, leaning up against the wall with my hands at my sides when the law enforcements officers arrived at my location.
A tall man in a PRT uniform walked up to me, smirking, followed by a police detective. "Well, you've been busy since this morning, haven't you?" said the PRT Captain I met earlier today. Police and PRT troopers had secured the hallway, keeping a crowd of students and teachers from coming closer.
"Hello Captain Smythe, nice to work with you again." I replied. I looked at the police detective standing next to the helmeted PRT agent, and held out my hand to him. "I'm PomPoko, Independant hero. Nice to meet you Detective." I said.
The detective, a man of medium height with a shock of red hair fading rapidly to silver, looked at my enormous hand warily for a fraction of a second but then steeled himself and clasped it, giving it a hearty shake. "Detective Reed, BBPD. Good to see a new hero afield." He spoke with a fairly deep voice that had a smoker's rasp. "What do you have for us?" he asked brusquely.
"Approximately forty five minutes ago I and my partner Kitsune were flying nearby when I was able to ascertain using a remote sensory power that there was a girl trapped in a locker in this school who was in heavy distress. We transported ourselves to her location and released her from the locker she had been imprisoned in. It was filled with various examples of toxic bio-waste, as well as a variety of bugs. I used a post-cognitive power I have to review what happened to the victim, and discovered that she had been sealed into her locker over two hours previous to our arrival. Her breathing was labored and she was in shock, covered in bruises, cuts, and bug bites, some of which are definitely infected."
I paused, noting the dark looks on both men's faces. Telepathy told me that they were both family men. "My partner, herself a teenage girl, helped the victim clean herself up, and bandaged the worst of the wounds, though we did not provide any advanced treatment. The clothes that she was wearing and the waste she was covered in was bagged up in case you need it."
"Shit," hissed Reed, his face reddening. "Lets go take a look." I got the feeling that he was taking the lead, as this was a civilian matter. The PRT was only here because I was the one who had responded to this incident and I happened to be a Parahuman.
We stepped into the locker room, the Detective's nose flaring as a look of disgust crossed his face. When he spotted the locker, overflowing with brown muck and used tampons, he scowled. "That's some sick shit," he mumbled under his breath. Captain Smythe mumbled something into his radio, and paramedics and police quickly entered behind us.
Kitsune was with Taylor on the other side of the locker room. The robe clad older girl was leaning against her, head on her Kerako's shoulder. Her eyes were closed, breathing regular. Taylor stirred as the paramedics approached, blinking her eyes rapidly. A short blonde paramedic helped her to her feet and bade to lay on a gurney. Kitsune squeezed Taylor's hand and whispered something to Taylor before she was wheeled off to the ambulance.
I noticed a gleaming red object in the girl's hand, something that looked like a blocky, oversized smartphone. I examined it with my powers and found that it was the unholy offspring of a cellular phone, a satellite phone, a supercomputer, and an electricity-throwing wireless taser. When I gave Kitsune a glance from the corner of my eye she smirked. A matching device hung from her belt on a short metallic-red chain.
"I want to stay in touch with her. She's seems cool, I think we're going to be great friends." she said smiling. I smiled at her, patting her head. Kerako had a good heart.
Kitsune and I stood together for a few minutes, as police bustled around the contaminated locker room, gathering evidence and taking pictures. A few minutes later Detective Reed walked over, followed by Captain Smythe. "You told the 911 operator that you have some idea of who the perps are? How does that work, and what evidence do you have?" he asked, a small spiral pad open in one hand, and a pen in the other.
"I've created a number of small invisible drones that are drawn to concentrations of people. They are designed to seek out and observe criminal activity and find people in danger. When they find a person in distress or a crime they report back with what they've found, assuming I'm in range of their transmissions. One of my drones heard the victim screaming for help and pounding on her locker, and moved to her location, then reported it back to me. Kitsune and I transported to the girl's location and rescued her." I stopped, holding out my forefinger. A single Shadow Bird shimmered into existence and landed on my outstretched digit. It looked like a regular bird, but it's eyes were glowing faintly, and it's feathers were vaguely metallic. It warbled in auto-tone.
"Once the victim had been recovered I reviewed the logs from all nearby Shadow Birds. Three of them were in proximity to the school, so I looked through the information they recorded and found a few pieces of footage showing three girls plotting to trap the victim in her locker, and then assaulting and imprisoning her."
Kitsune looked up at me, a spark of anger in her eye, "Her name is Taylor, not 'Victim'," she said.
"I'm sorry Kitsune, I'll remember that. Anyway, let me give you a copy of the relevant recordings." The Shadow Bird started heaving, it's beak pointed skyward as it's head moved up and down. It looked like a moma-bird getting ready to feed it's young. A bulge worked its way up the drone's neck, until it bent it's head to the side and coughed up a very small but otherwise normal looking USB data stick into my hand.
I wiped it off and handed the USB stick to Detective Reed. He and Smythe looked a little green, and Kerako was hiding a guilty smile. He hesitated, but then took it from me. "Fucking disgusting," he muttered quietly.
"If you would like, I can have the drone play a copy of the recording for you now?" I asked.
"Sure, that would save a bit of time. I'll still have to have the lab guys take a look at the data stick to verify its authenticity and check the timestamps of course." I nodded my assent, and then poked the bird shaped drone still sitting on my finger in the center of its chest. It's eyes projected a 3D holographic field in front of it, showing a list of commands. I pressed the "Video Playback" option. I selected a file. A full 3D recording started. I had an idea of what happened to Taylor in Worm, but I hadn't actually been watching when this incident went down earlier today. Two lawmen and two capes stared at the picture, entranced.
… … …
The video showed a crowded hallway with teenagers moving about, most of them getting ready for class. The date and time was shown on a small counter at the base of the holographic display: Jan 03, 2011 7:46AM. I tapped a section of the hall, zooming in on a small group of girls huddled together near a bank of lockers. "...just what an ugly little worm like her deserves." said a curvy redheaded girl. "It's going to be great, we're going to teach that loser Hebert her true place in the world." many in the crowd of girls surrounding the redhead giggled, though two of them walked off, looks of disgust on their faces. The rest, maybe a dozen or so, stayed. "It was Madison's idea, really," she paused, throwing her arm over the shoulders of a short, innocent looking brunette girl next to her, who was smiling sweetly, "but me and Soph set it all up right before winter break. The dumb little bitch didn't come in on the last day before we got released, though." A dark look crossed her pretty face. "So all of the used tampons from the girls rooms for a month, plus the dog crap from Madison's whole apartment complex, and all that gross shit Sophia stole from the dumpster in the back of the butcher's shop has been sitting there all… break… long…" she finished, laughing.
Several of the girls giggled with her. A fit looking black girl walked up from the redhead, coming into full view of the recording and standing beside her. Nearby, I saw Smythe tense up when he recognized who had entered the scene. "Hey Emma, you ready?" spoke the athletic black teen, "Hebert should be here any moment, I have Jen and Liza watching for her out front. Julia's ready to bring her to the locker room when she gets in, I told her to tell little TayTay that she has a present for her." she said, a wide grin on her face. "Oh, man, I can't wait. How long do you think it will be before someone lets her out?"
Emma smirked, and shrugged, "I dunno, who would even want to? It's not like anyone likes her." she said. The three walked off, their gaggle of followers behind them. I tapped the hologram, returning to the playback selection screen, and tapped a different file.
The scene resolved itself; the same locker room we now stood in, except filled with an improbable number of girls for such an early hour. I activated the playback.
A chubby blonde pulled a tall thin brunette by the wrist, past the swinging door and into the room. The brunette looked around, bewildered, and then seemed to shrink into herself a bit. "What's exactly is going on here, Julia?" she asked the blonde, who had stepped a few feet away. On the other side of a bank of lockers from her, invisible from Taylor's point of view, stood the three girls from earlier, Emma, Sophia, and Madison.
The blonde shrugged, "I told you, I wanted to give you a Christmas present. No big deal. Let me go get it from my locker, just wait here for a minute." The chubby girl walked away and around the corner, out of Taylor's view. She passed the three hidden girls, giving them a big toothy smile and a thumbs up as she did so. Sophia smiled, and stepped into the main part of the room.
"Well just lookie what we have here." said Sophia. "What brings you to the locker room, TayTay? Come here to grovel in front of your betters?" she asked playfully. Taylor backed away from her slowly. Sophia stalked forward, a dangerous look in her eye as she did so.
"I don't want any trouble Sophia, I'm just waiting for my friend." muttered Taylor, looking away.
Sophia moved in, smelling blood. She changed her angle of approach slightly, causing Taylor to turn so that she could keep an eye on the predator stalking her. This created a blind spot, and Emma snuck out behind Taylor, opening a locker quickly.
Sophia sneered at the tall thin girl in front of her. "I thought I told you, worm, that you aren't allowed to have friends. No one likes you, and no one ever will." There were chuckles from the other girls in the room, many of them recognizable as members of the crowd that had gathered for Emma earlier that morning. Taylor was shaking now, staring at Sophia as her tormentor moved toward her. Taylor backed up, turning to run, and came face to face with her open locker, Emma beside it.
The locker was filled with pure nastiness, insects and ooze falling out in waves. Girls all over the room held their noses and one gagged noisily then ran for the toilets. Madison stepped out from behind a row of lockers grinning madly, hand-in-hand with Julia, the chubby blonde girl who had arrived with Taylor. Julia had a look of amusement on her face.
Taylor eyed her locker, visibly flinching back, and then saw Julia walk out with Madison. "Julia?" she asked, a note of sadness in her voice.
"I'm sorry Taylor, I didn't actually get you a present," she said slyly, "But it looks like Emma there did," she joked. More laughter rang through the air, and Taylor's eyes started to water. Emma smiled like a crocodile, her eyes narrowed as she started at the lanky brunette shedding tears freely now.
"Emma, why?" she asked, her voice filled with sorrow. "We used to be like sisters…" she sobbed. Emma's face contorted in rage, and the room went quiet. Sophia wore a triumphant smile. I took a peek at Smythe; he was livid, his face bright red, eyes burning. His mouth was a hard line.
"Why? WHY! Because you're a fucking weakling, that's why." shouted Emma, "Even after all of the shit we did to you, even after I stole your mother's flute and destroyed it, even after we destroyed all of your homework and projects, took your school books, broke into your locker time and time again, even after all of the beatings that Sophia has given you... you just sit there whining with that stupid… fucking... WEAK… look on your face, doing nothing!" Emma's face was bright red, spittle flying from her lips.
The furious redhead stomped forward, grabbed Taylor's hair, and pulled. The skinny brunette went crazy, pulling away from Emma and simultaneously trying to kick her with her long legs. It was obvious that neither of them knew how to fight. Moving frantically, Taylor managed to smash the redhead's hand with her own, causing her to let go of her hair with one hand.
Moving quickly, Sophia charged up behind the pair. She grabbed the back of Taylor's jeans with her one hand, and her long hair with the other, then pulled. The brunette's head was wrenched back, a scream of pain leaving her lips, as Sophia stalked forward, toward the filth filled locker. Taylor, realizing what was about to happen, fought desperately. Emma slipped in next to her, and belted the struggling girl in the lip with the back of her hand, taking some of the fight out of her.
The redhead backed off, holding the door of the locker open for her friend as Sophia shoved Taylor's still struggling form inside roughly. Madison walked up to get a better view, giggling. Julia was in the back of the crowd, staring in shock at what was happening, her eyes wide. A few of the more squeamish girls had left the room. The rest of them looked on in amusement or curiosity. A few of the more sadistic girls were giggling and pointing.
After a few moments Sophia finally got enough of Taylor's body into the locker to start closing the door. "Close it Emma, close it now!" she shouted. Emma put her weight behind it, and pushed the door closed with everything she had. Letting go of Taylor, Sophia grabbed the door and helped her friend force it closed. When it clicked shut, she spun the built-in combination lock and chuckled, turning around and leaning against the locker, slumping.
"Damn, Hebert really didn't like her present, did she?" she asked, amusement clear in her tone. A round of laughter filled the room. Screams for help and loud banging sounds were coming from the locker now as the girl inside tried desperately to free herself. Loud retching sounds could be heard to emerge periodically. Emma sported a satisfied expression as she and Sophia left the locker room, followed by their cronies.
Julia stated behind, staring at the locker. A look of horror spread across her face as I stopped the playback.
… … …
The four of us stood silent. I was frowning, puzzling over the video I had seen. That was much worse than what happened to Taylor in canon… how did that even happen? Did the butterfly effect from my actions so far really change things that much? This was only the third day I had been in this world! I should have fucking looked at what the Shadow Birds were recording, instead of just sending pinging them quickly to get an idea of what was going on! Were the other choices I had made since I had been sent here equally as bad as this one?
Kitsune stood on her own, silent tears running down her cheeks. Detective Reed looked murderous, face red and fists clenched. Captain Smythe, on the other hand, had gone as cold as ice. He turned to look at me, and crystal clear words issued forth from his mouth, "I'm going to need a copy of this recording." he said. I made the bird cough up another, and handed it to him. As soon as he had it he stomped off, barking out something unintelligible which I supposed was a dismissal or farewell.
Detective Reed looked at me closely, "I'm gonna nail these sick fuckers to the wall, kids or not, just watch me," he snarled. "You got a phone number?" he asked. I created a business card and pulled it from the fold of my kimono, then handed it to him. "I'll keep in touch, we'll need to subpoena you for the hearing." he advised me.
"Of course, anything that you need from me Detective." I replied softly. Reed nodded firmly then turned and left, angry muttering following him.
We were alone. I knelt down next to Kitsune, looking her in the eye. "I'm sorry sweetie." I told her, "I didn't know that it was going to happen like that." Was that a hitch in my voice?
She looked at me, still crying softly for her new friend. "Was it worth it, Poko-ni?" asked the little girl bitterly.
I thought her words over for a long moment before replying, "I don't know."
