Small Steps 1.4

Bitter

Rachel had spent the day at the warehouse with her dogs again. She didn't mind; she knew her dogs would be their first, maybe only, line of defense if the White Fang tried to take their warehouse back, and she liked her dogs more than she'd like dealing with people.

Her first dog on Remnant was one that Taylor found after searching for one, before they took the warehouse. The dog was male, a mutt, mostly sheepdog of some kind. The Undersiders thought they shouldn't name the dog or get too attached to it in case the dog died. The plan had reminded Rachel a bit of what happened to Rollo, which worried Rachel, but she reminded herself that Rollo didn't have anyone watching out for him, that her friends would be able to handle this dog. She was really glad she had been right.

The dog didn't get named by Rachel. After the fight with the White Fang, Aisha named him Zork. Rachel didn't like the name much, but Zork did, so she accepted the name. The next day, with Taylor's help, Rachel managed to find three more; she named them Boris, Blaine, and Lina. Boris was the smallest of the four dogs by a bit, maybe a terrier mix, reddish-brown fur. Blaine was a beagle, more or less, tricky to train due to fearful of everyone and quick to bite when trapped. Rachel figured he had lived in a bad household. Lina was a rottweiler bitch with a big scar over the left side of her face, ruining the ear and eye on that side. Rachel thought Lina was a bit like Angelica had been. She wondered what happened to Angelica, and Bentley and Bastard and the other dogs left in Brockton Bay. I'm sure Barker and Biter are taking care of them. Biter, at least. He likes dogs.

Rachel spent the first couple of days training the dogs, teaching them, making them trust her, and getting them used to transforming. By the end of the second day, she was confident she could change all four and none should attack her, each other, or the other Undersiders. The training continued. Lily helped; the two of them were almost always at the warehouse, to guard it. Their powers weren't as good at scaring people as Brian's or Taylor's could be, but they had a lot of force, and that was enough. They also had one of the scroll things Aisha had stolen. Lisa hacked them, and gave one to Taylor because she would be able to contact the others faster with her bugs. But until she could get out of whatever work they were doing and reach the warehouse, Rachel, Lily, and the dogs would need to hold the line.

Lily and Rachel didn't get along at first, because it took a while for Rachel to get along with anyone. But Lily was pretty good with dogs, listened to Rachel about them, and wasn't annoying, so it was fine. Lily tried talking with Rachel more than Rachel wanted to talk, but she learned quickly and stopped trying so much. They did talk some, though, and found a little in common. Lily did more of the finding than Rachel. She pointed out that the closest things they had to parental figures for most of their early years—Rachel's mom and foster parents, Lily's team leaders and PRT guardians—were usually absent or bad at being parents, and changed frequently, forcing them both to learn to function independently. Rachel thought that was kinda profound, but wasn't sure it mattered that much. If it had, why had one of them been a hated villain and the other a lauded hero? And if Lily was right, how close was one to having ended up like the other?

It didn't really matter, Rachel decided. Not only was it done, it was an entire world behind them. They could worry about that stuff when they were established. Right now...Rachel felt a kind of dread she hadn't felt since before Leviathan. Before then, she and the Undersiders were nobodies; afterwards, they took control, didn't have to worry about some other group just deciding to fuck with them. Even Coil—he had to work to fuck with them, and he died for it. Of course, then they got put in a weird world, which meant there was someone who could fuck with them even then.

The day went by. They got lunch, one at a time, and went back to what they were doing. The day kept going by, and eventually it ended. Sabah was sad when she got back, because she still couldn't find a job. Taylor was less sad, because while she hadn't found a job, she did find someone who would give her books in exchange for working. Lisa said she'd made progress, but wanted to wait until everyone was back before sharing the news. Alec and Aisha brought back money and one of the weird phones, but didn't say much about where they got it. They just said that the people who had it deserved what they did. Brian was bringing home dinner, but he didn't get back until a lot after everyone else, which made everyone impatient and hungry, but he got back eventually. Everyone ate, and Brian mentioned that he got a job at the docks. No one really cared, but some of them pretended to.

Then Lisa was ready to tell about her day. "I talked with Junior."

"And?"

"He seems interested in working with me. He thought the two of us would work together well—he had information, I have intuition. He's also interested in contact with a certain friend of mine who recently acquired a large amount of stuff he or she is interested in selling. Who wants to be that friend?"

"When and where would we be meeting him?" Taylor said.

"Eleven tomorrow evening, ideally, and not far from the warehouse."

"I'd probably be best," Brian said. "I'm big and intimidating, he shouldn't start anything stupid."

"True," said Lisa, "but given what you'd be doing, it might not be a bad idea to have a backup."

"I'll volunteer," said Taylor. "I should be able to be reasonably…criminal-looking, without the unpredictable problems that could arise if we sent, say, Alec as our representative."

"Hey!" said Alec. "The problems I'd cause are very predictable!"

Lisa said stuff about agreeing that Taylor would be a good backup. They also talked about other plans. If they got enough money from Junior, they might not need to get jobs so soon. Sabah didn't like the idea of giving stuff to criminals, but admitted she didn't know what to do with it, and that the money would really help. The others talked a bit more, then Brian, Taylor, and Lisa went off to plan, followed by Lily and Sabah. The others seemed worried about Brian, and argued with him about if he would go back to work tomorrow or not. He lost.

~0~

The next day came, starting much like the last. Rachel, Lily, Lisa, and Brian were staying, watching, waiting. Taylor was checking with the book place, Sabah was looking to see if there was any work she could do, and Alec and Aisha were going to try finding odd jobs or something. Lisa and Brian talked about Junior, while working to make the warehouse nicer. Rachel took care of the dogs; Lily was keeping watch, mostly. They had lunch, and it seemed like a normal day.

Lily called down to the others. She said she saw a bunch of workers diverting traffic and asked Lisa if that was weird. She looked and said they were probably White Fang, trying to clear out the area so they could use a bunch of force to take the warehouse without anyone noticing and calling the police. Brian started generating his smoky, oily darkness almost immediately; he couldn't do it as fast as he could before he was captured by Bonesaw, but he could still make a lot with time, and it moved a lot faster too. Lisa said she already called Taylor, so she headed to the roof with Lily, bringing some stuff to throw. Rachel gathered the dogs and some rope and cloth, then took them out a side door to an alley.

Rachel waited there. While she waited, she used her power on Boris and Zork. Asymmetric layers of muscle and plates of bone covered their bodies as they grew larger, larger than any dog, larger than Rachel, larger than small cars. She grew Zork until he was almost as big as her old dogs could go, but Boris didn't have as much experience so Rachel left him a foot shorter than Zork. Rachel did this quickly and got tired, so she had a minute to rest after. But then the White Fang, apparently deciding there weren't too many people around, attacked.

Almost ten animal-people in black hooded shirts, thick white vests, and gray masks ran at the warehouse from across the street, carrying machetes. Rachel sent her dogs out, whistling quietly. They weren't as well-trained as her dogs at home were, but they knew how to sit, come, drop anything in their mouth, and fetch. They wouldn't be able to do much of anything clever, but dogs knew to hurt people that hurt them.

Zork grabbed a White Fang, and all of the others started attacking him. Boris tried to grab another, but his target stabbed at his snout and backed away. The rest of them ran, and Rachel whistled—loudly enough that the dogs could hear, but not so loud that the Fangs would notice—ordering them to come back. They did, and Zork dropped a Fang at Rachel's feet. She quickly tied him up, gagged, and blindfolded him, ignoring the questions he asked before being silenced.

Rachel stared down the alley and across the street. The White Fang were moving. She couldn't see, but she could guess what they were doing. Either they wanted to circle the building, or they wanted to get away from where the dogs came from. Rachel used her power on Blaine and Lina, making them grow rapidly, and hoped the fight wouldn't last long enough for Boris and Zork to have problems. Once Blaine was roughly the size of Boris and Lina a little smaller, Rachel sat down against a wall and waited, listening for an attack and watching for some signal from Lisa.

A few minutes after the first strike, Rachel saw some trash being thrown from the roof of the warehouse and over the alley where she was waiting. She listened and heard the White Fang. Rachel sent Boris and Zork out front before following Blaine and Lina through the other end of the alley. Brian would be helping the dogs in front, it was probably safe for them.

There were something like a dozen there, most with machetes, but several had axes or pistols or other weapons. Rachel ducked behind a dumpster and sent Blaine and Lina out to fetch. Lina's long, bony tail whipped from side to side as she sprang at the White Fang, knocking several over. The White Fang members with guns shot her, to no effect; you couldn't really hurt Rachel's dogs once they transformed, unless you hit the sac in the middle where the dog's real body was or made a big enough cut through the hardened flesh to make the dog lose lots of blood. Blaine slunk around to the side before quickly lunging at a White Fang with an axe. His friend stabbed at Blaine with a spear, but it bounced off a bony lump in Blaine's hide.

About a dozen Fangs fled, mostly machete-men. The others surrounded the dogs. Lina continued to knock Fangs over with her tail and paws, but Blaine backed away under the pressure. The spear-Fang grabbed her friend and tried to pull him away from Blaine, but Blaine pulled harder; the spear-Fang lost her footing and was being dragged away with her friend. Several others started attacking Blaine, one shooting and others hacking at his bony plates. He got a few cuts, but nothing serious; it enraged Blaine, and he charged at the group.

Three Fangs ran, having reached their limit. Two more followed them, and soon the rest. The terrified animal-people scattered into the nearby streets. Rachel tried to call the dogs back, but Blaine was still angry and chased them for a minute. She brought those dogs through the alley and past the bound Fang, to the front of the warehouse, where darkness spilled out over the street. Rachel saw Zork, halfway in the shadows, shaking a person trying to hold onto his chainsaw. Rachel sent Lina and Blaine into the darkness. As she watched, looking for some hint about what was happening, she noticed a cloud of bugs gathering and going into the darkness.

Taylor's here.

White Fang members—dozens of them, maybe as many as thirty—ran out of the darkness. Brian let the darkness fade, and Rachel saw that Lina and Zork had grabbed one Fang each. She went back into the alley and dragged the bound one out front. Rachel dumped him onto the ground, removed his blindfold, and had the dogs drop the ones they had grabbed. They looked at Brian, who looked like a creature out of a nightmare. He was surrounded by a cloud of his darkness, and held some close enough to his body that he almost looked like he was made of it. Moreover, he was surrounded by a cloud of flying insects, flying around, shifting their movements slightly each time he moved.

"Leave," Brian said, his voice distorted by the noise-altering effects of his power and echoed by the insects' buzz rising. "Leave, and never return. Any of you."

One of them ran before Brian even finished his second statement. The other stayed long enough to get the bound one free before following.

~0~

Two a half minutes later, the present Undersiders (including Taylor) were in the middle of the warehouse, trying to avoid getting attention more than normal so no one would notice them. The roadblock and fight would make a lot of people interested. Lisa said that the White Fang had probably just tried to see what was going on. She thought they'd guess the Undersiders' power was growing quickly, and wouldn't be back until they could get a lot more people. This didn't make anyone feel better.

Life went on. They sold a lot of stuff to Junior. Alec got a comic book which he wanted to show everyone. The peace lasted a bit. Then Lisa ran home and said that Junior was dead, and Rachel immediately realized things would probably fall apart.