I have to backtrack twice before I'm sure I'm on the right track. It's not much of a delay; I doubt it adds more than a minute to our travel time. But that doesn't stop the tension from ratcheting up each time I have to signal the fliers. Doesn't stop me from feeling like an idiot in front of everyone.
But then I catch sight of the skyline, while I'm trying to scout our next move, and memories of a resonant ringing bring me up short before I can teleport us away. That...is familiar. From here...I turn, and move us all across the street. "I've got it. Not very far."
No response, but Amy's grip tightens, and everyone else tenses. Two more 'ports puts us across the street from the warehouse. After a few seconds to consider, I take that extra step to put us on the roof. Shrugging off my passengers is more of a relief than I would have expected, but it's not something I can take the time to enjoy; I'm already scanning the area below us for any sign that the Tinker is here. I don't see anyone, but given the range of this particular power that may not be a good indicator. Still, probably the best I can do from here-
Lady Photon touches down, sharing a look with Brandish before turning her attention to me. "This is it?"
Right, right. Working with new people. "Yeah. I don't see anyone inside. Might just be out of range, but he might have moved on already." From what I know, he's done that a few times. I'm hoping that isn't the case here, but it's a possibility that I guess I...we...can't really discount. "I can probably put us inside somewhere out of sight, just in case."
"There's a door or two at ground level we could open up, too." Manpower nods toward the edge of the roof furthest from the street, motioning at Laserdream and Glory Girl. "We can go in loud, cover your entry."
A few muttered agreements; I don't really have a problem with that plan, so I just shrug when the others look my way.
"Get into position, then." When the three of them break off (and imagine my surprise when Manpower just steps off the roof), Lady Photon turns my way again. "Crow, do you need time to recover before we get started?"
I stop and actually think about it for a moment. "No. I'm good to go." Eager, actually. The sooner we get this over with, the better.
She gives me an appraising look before nodding in approval, lifting into the air again. "I'm going to join the others."
And then she's gone, moving down to ground level and slipping out of my range of vision just before my power fades. I look to the others for cues, but everyone is just sort of...quiet. It's not particularly helpful, but the fact that nobody seems worried is comforting, at least.
I really should just relax…
A beam of light flashes through the air from below; a single pulse that leaves me blinking away the shimmering afterimage and wondering why the hell someone is shooting lasers at the sky-
"Looks like they found their entry." Oh. That's why. I try not to wince as Brandish grabs my arm, as I adjust my grip on the crossbow and hold it out a bit so Flashbang can reach from where he's standing beside her. "Take us in."
Right. Just take them in…
"Hey, no worries, alright?" Shielder moves closer, turning his back on me and grinning over his shoulder. "Just keep me in front of you and you'll have your own personal force-field generator."
Yeah...fair enough. I manage a smile as I grip his shoulder shoulder. "Just try not to blast me if I have to drag you anywhere." Panacea rolls her eyes as she rests a hand on my outstretched arm, but doesn't say anything. So I can focus on-
-a spot below, half-hidden by stacked crates and dim lighting. A spot that really shouldn't be as familiar as it feels, but that's not something I'm about to question right now.
Brandish and Flashbang split up almost immediately; she moves ahead while he turns to cover our rear; there's a crash from across the warehouse, and they reorient on that. Of course, by then I've recovered enough to enhance my vision again, and I do just that. Still nothing, in any direction, except for a pair of flying figures on the very edge of my range. Glory Girl and Laserdream. So that crash was the rest of the team…
"I still don't see anything."
Brandish glances my way, brows furrowed. "The others?" I point, and she starts moving. "Stay alert."
Yes, because I wouldn't have thought of that…
Quiet, as we edge along the crates that block off the Tinker's 'workshop' area. It makes it much easier to hear Lady Photon announcing her presence and delivering what has to be a scripted speech. 'We're New Wave, we're here to arrest you'...I'm only half paying attention, to be honest. Too busy trying to look everywhere at once, to make sure this guy isn't trying to sneak up on us, somehow. I'm still not entirely sure how he ambushed me before, but it's not going to happen again. I'm not going to let it happen again.
Not that it seems too likely to happen here. There's still no response to the others' challenge, no sign that he's actually here...I hiss out a curse as we finally reach the 'workshop'. Most of it's been stripped; all the papers, most of the scrap, even the clothes and bedding, gone. The mirror is still there, standing in one corner, so it might not be a completely lost cause, but still…
"So, crazy flew the coop?" I shoot Shielder an irritable look, but he doesn't seem to notice...probably because of my mask. Dammit. "That was a lot of build up for nothing happening, wasn't it?"
"Don't let your guard down." Brandish snaps. "We still don't know that there's no one-"
There's a hollow thud, cracking glass. Light fills the room as New Wave reacts, force fields and hard-light weapons being brought to bear. It'd be impressive, if it weren't for the sudden ringing in my ears, the pressure in my head. I turn, without thinking, to squint at...
The mirror. There's a crack in the mirror.
Another thud-crack. A stabbing pain in my shoulder. I blink away my night vision, try to make sense of what I'm seeing as a figure on the other side of the mirror swings a sledgehammer and sends another few cracks spreading across the glass. That's...that's the Tinker?
The mirror shows the Void. He's in the Void...did he go through the mirror? And now he's breaking it. He's trying to get away.
My stomach clenches, and I find myself taking aim with my crossbow before I realize that...that isn't going to do any good. "What the fuck…" Another crack. That's...he's not just trying to get away. If this keeps up, he's going to get away.
He's right there, and he's going to get away?
"He's in the mirror!" I'm in front of it a second later, pressing a hand to the glass. Solid, unmoving. The impact of the hammer doesn't seem to even rattle the glass, but I still feel it. See the hateful look the Tinker shoots me a second later. And this close, I can almost hear him shouting at me as he pulls back for another strike. "Shit!"
"Crow!"
Brandish. She sounds angry...worried? Probably. But then Glory Girl is beside me, a scowl on her face as she grabs the mirror's frame. "It's some kind of portal?" I nod, because it has to be. "Can we move it?"
She answers her own question a moment later, when she yanks the whole thing to one side before the Tinker can bring his hammer to bear again. It teeters, for a moment, as she struggles to hold it upright...but there's no cracking glass. And the view through it has changed. That worked. But it doesn't help us reach him.
There has to be some way to do that. Some way for us to use the mirror. Otherwise, he wouldn't be trying to break it.
I drop the crossbow, grab the other side of the frame to balance the mirror again, and think. It's connected to the Void, somehow. But it's not something I can just step through, so...teleport? Inarrow my eyes, trying to focus past my quickly forming headache. A few more seconds to make sure, and I finally move-
-only for the mirror to crash to the floor as I reel back. The sudden pain is impossible to ignore; it feels like I bit down on a tuning fork. Between that and the pressure in my head...ugh. So that wasn't the smartest thing I could have tried. But it's not like I have a lot of options to explore here. Not when we're this close to catching...
"Victoria-!"
"Look, this thing isn't exactly easy to hold onto…"
Brandish bristles, and I wince away from the light that flares around her hands, squint against the brightness of the broadsword it forms. "Don't pick it up again! We don't know what it might do!"
"I know that the psycho-tinker's trying to smash it." Glory Girl just drags the mirror upright again, pulling it back a few more feet in the process. Still no movement on the other side. Is the Tinker even going to bother following it? "Hey Shielder, you wanna get over here and be useful for a minute or what?"
"On it." A shimmering force field forms around the mirror. It rises, turns…
And I finally get a good look at the back. The dull, matte gray marked by smears of crusted red-brown. Dried blood. My blood? It would explain the pounding in my head, wouldn't it?
It also gives me an idea. Probably a stupid idea, but the alternative is standing around like an idiot and letting a murderer get away.
I don't have anything sharp on me, but there are still a few pieces of scrap metal scattered around, and one of those pieces has to have a useful edge…
"Crow?"
Lady Photon lands behind me as I grab a twisted bracket off the nearest table. A couple of sharp points, and it seems solid enough...it'll do. I turn and brush past her, moving towards the mirror again. Yank up my sleeve to pull a glove off. "Bring it down here!"
The mirror drops again, the 'reflected' warehouse still plainly visible, even past the spiderweb of cracks. This close, I could swear there's light leaking through them.
It takes me three tries to open a cut on the back of my hand. By the time I've bled enough to actually get it on the mirror, the Tinker has circled around again. His eyes widen at the sight of me. Surprise. Fear? I hope so. He's got every right to be afraid right now.
The hammer cracks against the mirror again, along with the now-expected spike of pain. But I can work past it. I can focus on the feeling of power buzzing under my hand, and the Void just beyond. I can make this work, somehow. I have to make it work, in order to stop a killer.
I have to get through this thing.
AccEsSinG
"Crow, what the fuck are you doing!?"
A hand on my arm.
The world shatters around me.
And everything...
"Well. It seems you can learn after all."
...sort of tips.
I hit the floor, and-
xxxxxxxxxx
"C'mon, c'mon…this is so far beyond messed up and you do not get to slack off and leave me to pull your sorry ass out of the fire."
I open my eyes to see a ruined ceiling, the distinctive brightness of the Void outside, and Glory Girl kneeling over me.
…
"Shit."
"Fucking finally." She scowls, climbing to her feet and reaching down to grab the front of my coat. I hiss as she drags me into a sitting position. "We're in freakland, the mirror's busted, the Tinker fucked off, and I can't fly anymore." She grunts, keeps pulling, until I realize I should probably make myself useful and get my feet under me. "Also, you're fucking heavy. Tell me you know what's going on? Please?"
Do I know what's going on? "Was I...did I pass out?"
"For like thirty seconds." She waves toward a missing section of wall. "Look, at least tell me your powers still work? You pulled us in here, and this guy is still getting away."
I...I dragged us here.
Dammit.
I can't think of anything to say that will make that better, and I guess there isn't time to think of anything. I've already come this far…I take a deep breath, reach for my power-
-and grit my teeth against the pain. Sharp, stabbing...it fades quickly, but the lingering fatigue left in its wake isn't that much of an improvement. The fact that my powers are working at all is a relief, but…
It doesn't matter. I turn back to the broken wall, take a deep breath. "He went out through there?"
"Yeah." Glory Girl jogs up behind me. "You good to go?"
"Barely. But I'll manage." I pause, chew my lip...unholster one of my batons to offer it over. "Here."
She glares at it, for a second, but does accept it. "What am I supposed to do with this?"
"You said your powers were out, right?"
She grumbles and reaches up to tug at the front of my hood, before moving to grab my uninjured hand and drag me towards the wall. "Let's just go beat this asshole into the ground so we can start figuring out how to get out of here."
That's a goal I can get behind.
No more time to waste. There's a chunk of another building outside, tilted on its side; there's enough room there for both of us, and it should give us a good view of our surroundings. After a moment to brace myself for the pain-
-I take us there. It...isn't pleasant.
"Crap, you're not okay, are you?"
It's probably the fact that I'm having to lean against her to stay on my feet that gave it away. "I'm fine." Or I will be. Just a handful of seconds to recover...there are a few more shattered pieces of building and street scattered around us, but no real sign of the Tinker. "Was he teleporting?"
She shakes her head. "Jumping."
He was...jumping. Right. "Super-jumping?"
"Look, he has those Tinker-tech boots and apparently they make him jump really far. What do you want from me here?"
Super-jumping. That's fine. Actually, it's probably more helpful. I'd assume that there are more physical limitations on jumping than teleporting, after all. So, which way will he have gone? Not any of the dead-ends, probably not the farthest 'islands' hanging out there...a flicker of purple light catches my attention. There's...it looks like the front of a house, turned upside-down and set drifting.
It's hard to tell from this distance, but I think the door is open. Considering my past experiences with this place, that's probably a sign.
"Hold on."
Glory Girl's grip tightens, and I start bringing us closer. A shattered rooftop, a floating city bus, and a street corner next to a military checkpoint pass by, and the pain hits just a little harder each time. But I manage. The door is right there and, despite being set into a single wall, opens up into darkness.
"You want us to go in there?"
"Do you have a better idea?"
She sighs. "Not really."
I take us in. Slump against the nearest wall and wait for my eyes to adjust.
"So we went from 'Dali' to 'Fun house', huh?" Glory Girl nudges a ceiling lamp with her foot. "I swear, just when I think things can't get any freakier."
"Well here's hoping it's not going to get any worse." I push away from the wall and start moving. "We need to check this place out." I consider enhancing my vision, but reconsider almost immediately. Teleporting was bad enough…
The hallway opens into a kitchen, a living room. Both are obviously clear...but there's a purple glow coming from the second floor. I shuffle up to the edge of the stairway, stop just long enough to listen for movement, and climb down the railing to drop to the ceiling below.
"Seriously?" Glory Girl leans over the edge above me. "Just jumping down into the unknown?"
It's really not a time for jokes, but I can't help smiling. "It's sort of worked for me so far."
"We don't have three hours to talk about all the ways what you just said is wrong." I step back to give her space as she clambers down. "Where are we going?"
Considering the trail of out-of-place, purple lanterns leading down the hall...probably that way. Glory Girl picks up on it quickly enough, eyes narrowed as she clutches at the baton I'd given her.
Down the hall...all the doors are closed. Not helpful. We could try doing this room by room. Or I could suck it up and use my power-
I flinch away from something that hits my face. Something that drips on my face. I wipe it away with my left hand (the right is still bloody; I'll need to fix that at some point), step back and look up...at the stained carpet. The trail of black leading to the door furthest from the stairs. Is that…?
This is going to be bad, isn't it? I close my eyes, reach for the doorknob...it opens easily into a poorly lit bedroom. One look at the ceiling is enough to make me very thankful for the lack of illumination. "Fuck."
"What?"
I've seen the past in the Void, before. The future too, apparently. I'm not sure which of the two this is, but I also don't really feel like speculating. "Bodies."
"...oh."
Silence. Glory Girl turns away from the door, presses a hand to her face...I turn back into the room, do my best to focus on the floor...ceiling. Something other than the dark shapes in the room. "I don't think he's here. Let's check-"
A door opens, and I turn back just in time to see a figure disappear through a door on the other side of the room. It's him. "There!" I stumble over the top of the door frame, cross the room, and follow…
It's a hallway, all tile and clean paneling...flickering lights and solid, metal doors. I don't see him, don't hear him...dammit, how far could he have gotten?
"Ugh…" I turn to see Glory Girl slumped against the wall beside the door. "Oh man, what was that?"
There's a crack behind her, a seam between two places. Something pressing against it. Limbs reach past me to-
"I saw him come this way."
"You...right. Runaway killer." She shakes her head, straightens up, and looks around. "Wait, are we in the PRT Headquarters?"
Is that what this place is? No, wait, it doesn't matter. "Come on. We're right behind him, now." We just have to figure out...which direction we need to go. I mean, we could split up, but...no, never mind. Sticking together is a good thing. "Come on." I start walking. She follows.
No sign of him when we turn the corner, but it does look like the building is less intact in this direction; nothing much beyond it. Looks like a dead end. Dammit...I grab Victoria's arm and focus on the other end of the hall. The pain isn't quite as bad, this time, which I'll take as a sign of improvement.
"We're just chasing shadows at this point, aren't we?"
I wince. "Come on." There's actually a hall here, which means that he had to have gone this way.
And it does seem like there's only one route through this place. Blocked intersections, locked doors, exits that open into the Void...I'm pretty sure that with all the turns we've made, we should have crossed our own path at some point, but we never do.
I slow when turn a corner to find a PRT Trooper, standing frozen in front of an open door. Glory Girl nudges me, shoots me a questioning look; I nod, and together we move up. A quick glance inside…what the hell? "He's not in here...actually not in here." Not just hiding. "It's...Tattletale."
"What, seriously?" She pushes past me (and the frozen Trooper). "Oh what's this bullshit?"
It looks like a man in a PRT uniform attacking a handcuffed Villain in her cell. And it's pretty obvious that that's what it is. Even with her mask, I can tell that that expression is fear. The grip he's got on her arm...is that a syringe? That's a syringe. I move closer, try to get a better look at it.
And gain Its attention. So many eyes...watching. Calculating. It wants to know, and-
I shiver, look around the room again. "Come on, we need to keep moving."
"Hold on." Glory Girl is circling the pair, glaring at the scene. "Is this...this whole place is some kind of weird reflection, right? With the mirror and everything?"
She's sort of half right? "From what we've seen so far, it might be."
"Does that mean this shit is happening?"
Probably. Which is its own special category of fucked up. "We're still chasing a murderer." And the longer I stay in this room, the less I want to. "Can we keep moving?"
She bites out something that might be a curse, extends the baton in her hand with a snap, and storms back out into the hall.
And the crack behind her shudders. As if from an impact. It widens just enough for a connEctiOn to go tHrough-
"Fucking finally!" She lifts into the air on her next step; maybe the power outage was temporary? I...that's probably something I should question, isn't it? "C'mon. We're picking up the pace." She doesn't bother waiting for an answer, shoving my baton into my hands before sweeping behind me and hooking her arms under mine. "Hold on."
"Wait, what-?" I wince as she hauls me off my feet, and pull my legs in before she takes off along the hallway. She takes two corners in quick succession (and way more sharply than I'm comfortable with), and just barely stops in front of the elevator at the end of the hall.
The display shows that it's moving up. Considering everything else has been frozen? "He's on the elevator."
"Great." I manage not to stumble when she drops me, adjust my grip on the baton while she tries to drag the doors open.
It doesn't work. The doors stay shut, the numbers keep scrolling, and the elevator travels another four floors before stopping. Glory Girl looks ready to put her hand through a wall...until I step up and hit the call button. The elevator starts moving again. And, after a handful of tense moments, to doors finally open…
Into Winslow High.
"And we're going back to school, apparently." She darts forward, glancing back over her shoulder. "Come on. We're catching up, right?"
Right. "Let's go." She flies. I follow through the familiar hallway. Around the frozen students, past open classroom doors. Ahead of me, Glory Girl turns the corner-
"Hey!"
I guess we found him.
I'm beside her a second later, ice-pick to the skull be damned. It takes me all of a second to recover. To realize what I'm seeing. What Glory Girl is seeing. What the Tinker is...examining. He looks up, straight at me, before turning back to...me. The me that the Janitor is trying to ease out of a locker full of waste.
And behind him, a formless thing. Alien faces, open mouths, whispering, guiding. There's an angry chatter at my back…
"This place was a dream. Now it's not." His voice is hoarse, harsh, and I shiver. Because it doesn't sound right. "But it's still like a dream. And dreams reflect the dreamer, don't they?"
"Yeah, great." Glory Girl snorts, and rears back. "How about you let me put you to sleep and you can have all kinds of dreams."
She hits him at what has to be at least forty miles an hour, and he folds, his back hitting the floor. I can't do more than think about shouting a warning before he kicks up at her, planting a foot in her stomach; half a second later, there's a metallic crack, and she hits the ceiling.
I put myself beside him, push past the pain in the time it takes for Glory Girl to recover, and for him to start getting to his feet. But then his hand flashes out-
-something popping against the wall across from where I'd been standing. I stagger. Something hisses, there's a crash...and then that crack sounds again. I look up in time to see the Tinker sliding across the floor and into a growing cloud of smoke, while Glory Girl works to right herself.
He's hiding. I can't let him get away...I brace myself, and don't entirely manage to bite down on a cry of pain as I look past the smoke. It only takes a second to spot him; he ducked into one of the nearest classrooms...it looks like he's going for a window.
"This way!"
"Right!"
I charge through the smoke, Glory Girl right behind me. Through the door, mostly out of the cloud...he shoves the window open further, pulls himself onto the sill, and turns to look at us in the brief moment before he falls. Past what should have been the ground, out of my range faster than I can reach the window to try and get an actual line of sight.
Nothing. Just bright light and swirling fog.
He got away.
Glory Girl leans out beside me. She only lingers for a second, before turning around to kick a desk across the room.
I guess neither of us are very happy about this.
"I'm already getting really sick of this guy." I don't bother responding, as she turns to look out the window again. Another moment of tense silence, and she shoves the window frame hard enough to crack it. "Can you get us out of here?"
Probably. I got us in, after all. Got around whatever this guy was using to protect his escape route...only he escaped anyway. Worse...he saw the locker. He saw my face-
"I...help me find a mirror, I guess."
First we get out of the Void, then I start looking at this problem. After that, I can start worrying about fixing it.
Just...one thing at a time.