The Omega Shuffle Story Arc: 5.5

I closed the door as quietly as I could. Thankfully, Dinah was finally asleep. As I leaned against the door I checked the time on my omni tool. Twelve sixteen. It was after midnight and here I was, hiding out in the Boat Graveyard, still in costume, looking like I had just survived a small war. My hand paused as I ran it through my tangled hair. I didn't call Dad. With everything that had happened, I completely forgot all about my promise to keep him sort of in the loop. He was going to be furious when I finally faced him…

I lightly thumped my head against the cold steel of the door at my back. This situation was so much more than I knew how to deal with. As I looked across the room, I couldn't help but think that as my night kept getting weirder that at least it wasn't getting any more dangerous.

Yet.

My eyes fell on Leet kneeling behind one of Chatika's access nodes. Wire snippets and bits of computer tech all around him as he carefully soldered connections in circuit board he was working on. Uber was typing like a maniac at a monitor a few feet away occasionally muttering something to his friend.

I sighed before pushing away from the door heading to the kitchen. I needed caffeine.

"You guys want any coffee?" I asked.

Uber stopped long enough to lean back in his chair. I winced as his necked popped sickly in contrast to his moan of relief at it doing so. "Man, I do."

Leet only grunted, which I figured to mean he did as well. I walked into the kitchen area taking down three cups, filling them with the last of the coffee. I didn't even think about it before making a fresh pot.

As I busied myself with the task, I once again looked at the two guys in Sebastian's… living room? CIC? All this time hanging out here and I still didn't know what to call this place.

Neither did I know what to expect when I thought about who might have been under the mesh masks they wore, was it only earlier this afternoon? Seemed like so much longer since I met with them.

Uber looked like just about any white guy I'd ever seen. No distinguishing features that made him stand out. Brown eyes, dirty blond hair not done in any particular style other than short enough to not be a bother. Not really plain but I wouldn't call him good looking either.

As the coffee gurgled away, I sweetened our cups while I turned to Leet. I had to say I was honestly surprised to realize he was Samoan. At least, that was what he said earlier at the beach when I first saw them both unmasked. Then again, I shouldn't have been. I'd just never really thought about it I guess. Still, Leet had dark hair, dark eyes. Not really sure what color they were. Kinda lean but I knew that from before. The glasses he wore didn't really seem to fit him but I wasn't really anyone to judge there.

I quietly handed the guys their coffee before taking a seat where I could watch them both. Sitting still and not helping a hysterical young girl calm down allowed my thoughts to drift to earlier in the evening. Being trapped, my escape, hearing and sensing what Sebastian was doing to the soldiers that hunted us. Then our harrowing escape. It was a long and terrifying run through town as we tried to get to the beach. I jumped at every noise and every shadow seemed to have a man with a rifle hiding in it. However, that was just my paranoia messing with me since we managed to get to the boat unmolested.

Which is where we linked up with Uber and Leet. Sebastian contacted them during our run. By the time we made it to the rendezvous, they were already waiting with the things Sebastian told them we'd need.

"How's the girl?" Uber asked bringing me back to the present.

My sip of coffee shored up my flagging spirits as I slowly put my thoughts in order. "Sleeping. Thank you for bringing her clothes. I can't see us cleaning her old ones enough to salvage them."

Uber nodded into his cup. "No problem. My sister... doesn't need them anymore anyways. The girl looked better after you got her cleaned up."

"Her name is Dinah, and yeah, she looked a lot better. No obvious injuries. A few cuts, some abrasions. Nothing serious that I could find. Though I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about that stuff," I answered to his hinted question.

I noticed Leet look up from the board he was inspecting for a moment before slotting it back into the machine. A small dot blinking on the back of his hand let me know he had a com channel open. "Shepard, I'm set up here."

"Good, I'll be up in a moment," Sebastian answered through the relay in their omni tools.

I watched as Leet closed the panel finally picking up the cup I set by him and taking a long drink. He gave me a smile in thanks as he stood wobbly to stretch the kinks out of his legs.

I shook my head taking a drink from my own cup as my eyes turned to the main vid screen. It was broken into several different news feeds showing the same scene from multiple angles. It was safe to say that our outing did not go unnoticed by the Protectorate or the local news stations.

Three buildings burned merrily. The streets were choked with debris, overturned vehicles as well as several craters. Fire and Rescue walked through one scene or another mingling with various police officers and of course several Protectorate heroes. I swallowed thickly as one of the cameras zoomed in on several bloody sheets shrouding lumps that could only be one thing: dead bodies.

"Jesus, looks like a fucking war zone," Uber noted as if he was talking about the weather.

"No shit. Man, bet the Protectorate is shitting themselves over that. Hasn't been a scene like that in B since… what, couple of years? Back when Lung first came to town?" Leet asked.

Uber nodded. A small part of me wanted to throw up knowing I played a part in that but I forced that feeling down. I would do it again to save the girl. It might not have been very 'heroic' of me to think that, but then again, I wasn't exactly what you would call a 'model hero'. Hell, I wasn't even a good villain. At this point I didn't even know how to classify myself anymore.

The sound of screeching metal brought my eyes from the vids to Sebastian. I watched as he closed the heavy ships door behind him before immediately moving for the coffee. He looked better than he did on our run, but I could still see the way he favored his left side. His fresh shirt hid the bandages that wrapped around his midsection and shoulder from bullets that got through his defenses but other than a slight slowing of his gait, he didn't seem too affected by his injuries. Something he had to assure me of several times before we managed to get to the safety of our base.

I swallowed thickly as I once again realized, things could have been so much worse. A shiver raced down my spine as the memory of Grue shooting me flickered across my mind's eye. The sound of the gun, pain of getting hit, and the absolute relief that I wasn't dead. Again, I pushed those thoughts away. Instead, I stood moving to the coffee pot to refill my cup. "How's it going?"

"It's a good thing they retreated when they did, I would have hated to have left behind the eezo you found. I have the largest sample refining below. Since it's not pure eezo it won't take long to go through it all and things will really start advancing. Leet's finished the repairs to Chatika. I'll get her back up in a bit. He cannibalized what we needed from some of his old tinker projects. Should be even better than what I had in mind and will be faster. He assures me it won't be hard to maintain," Sebastian answered.

I looked him over carefully. His face was drawn, more haggard than I'd seen him before. Even considering he used to charge his own system. My eyes tracked the small cuts around the left side of his face. From what, he didn't tell me but I pulled bits of rock out of each one earlier. "I think you look worse than I do."

A slow smirk grew on his face. "So, no modeling for a while then. Probably for the best. Besides, some women think scars are sexy."

I rolled my eyes. As I stirred my coffee I tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear. It took a few moments of silence between us before I could build up my courage. Even still, my voice was barely over a whisper. "So… a date?"

Sebastian had his cup raised to his lips froze for a moment as he realized what I said. I bit my lip as I waited anxiously for him to say something. It seemed to take a very long time as I watched him rub the back of his neck. "Ah, well, you know… probably shouldn't have suggested, ah you know. That in the middle of a firefight but…"

"But?" I prompted him.

"Think you guys can tell us what is going on now?" Uber asked as he turned to us.

"Yeah. Looks like you two dragged us into some serious shit," Leet added.

Sebastian looked to me apologetically. Finished with my coffee I nodded resisting the urge to sigh. Though his timing could have been a lot better, they did deserve to know what we got them into. Once all of us settled at the table Sebastian started explaining. We'd already told them about saving the girl led to the attack earlier, but didn't get much into it.

I half listened as Sebastian gave those details but eventually tuned him out. I didn't snap back to reality until he bumped my shoulder to get my attention. "You alright?"

"Oh, sorry. Just tired. What was the question?"

"The kid tell you anything about why those guys were chasing her?"

"Some." I started to explain. "She was pretty spooked when she finally woke up. Took a while to settle her down enough to made sense." I looked down at my coffee. "I was right. She's a precog."

"For real?" Uber asked. I don't think he would have been more surprised if I jabbed him with a fork.

Sitting next to him, Leet shook his head. "And why are we not just handing her over to the Protectorate? They can help her better than we can. I mean, we're villains!"

Ignoring the villain comment, I answered him. "I asked her that. She told me there was an eighty-three point something percent chance that if we did that the cape hunting her would capture her."

Uber whistled through his teeth. "So, she sees the future through percentages? Man, that's a fucking broken power. No wonder this guy wants her so badly. Think of all the things you could do? I mean, win the lotto and know the stock shifts even before they did it! Fucking anything really."

"Did she mention the void again?" Sebastian asked me ignoring Ubers ramblings about how much money we could make.

"Apparently, we're in it somehow," I explained. "Whatever it is, blocks her power and the power of the guy chasing her. Kinda like a blind spot I guess. She doesn't know what causes it, just that we're somehow at the center of it…"

"Wait, so the army guy, he's a thinker too?" Uber interrupted again.

"According to Dinah; yeah. She says he can be in two futures at once. It's why she couldn't outrun him for very long."

"What does that mean, 'be in two futures'?" Leet asked me.

I shook my head not really understanding it any better than they did despite the fact I was the one she explained it too. "She says that each future is separate. Like, I don't know, multiple time lines maybe? She explained it like roads that keep splitting based on decisions we make. What we do splits things but no matter which way we go, we don't know what would happen if we chose to go the other way. We are in each 'future' but we don't know what is happening in either. Dinah says she can't actually see any of those futures, but her power gives her a percentage breakdown of the probability of which road will be taken. The guy chasing her? Dinah says that guy can see what is happening and choose between which roads he likes best. Whatever this void is stops all that, hence why she doesn't want to go home, or to the Protectorate."

"Fuck…" Leet muttered as he leaned back rubbing his face. I nodded at the sentiment. It pretty much summed up our situation. After a moment of silence Leet looked at me. "You're not going to let this go, are you?"

I shook my head. "We're all she has."

"Are you brain damaged?" Uber half shouted. "This guy's got an army. I mean a real army! Okay, I don't think much of the Undersiders, but if he's got one cape group working for him who's to say he doesn't have more? Or can't get more. What are you going to do? Take on half of Brockton Bay by yourself?"

I frowned as I shook my head. "If that is what it takes, then yes. I'll fight him on my own if I have too. I'm not letting him get his hands on Dinah. Aside from the fact that she's just a kid, what do you think he's going to be capable of if he actually gets his hands on her? More importantly, if he's willing to kill for her, what do you think he's willing to do to force her to cooperate?"

"You won't be alone," Sebastian stated firmly.

"Look, I'm not saying this isn't a fucked up situation," Uber broke in. "but have you actually thought about this? According to what you just said, this guy has some kind of stupid time split shenanigan power or something. How are you going to stop a guy who can just shift realities to one where he didn't lose?"

"Dude," Leet chuckled. "Shenanigans? Really? How long have you been waiting to use that word in a real sentence?"

My smile wasn't as wide as Leets, but I instantly felt the tension in the room drop at his comment. Uber just looked pissed that Leet derailed him but it was Sebastian who spoke up. "That would explain a few things. A considerable advantage, but not unbeatable. We would have to be very careful, extremely precise putting just the right events into play…"

The humor drained from Leet as he leaned into the table interrupting him. "And you need to be fucking crazy too."

"Not to mention you're going to need a crew as bullshit crazy as you are," Uber stated shaking his head.

"Who'd you have in mind?" Leet finished with a half ass smirk on his face.

I blinked surprised while Sebastian laughed. I narrowed my eyes. "That almost sounds like you're in."

"Of course we're in." Uber actually looked offended.

Leet nodded which prompted me to question their decision. "Why?"

The tinker looked to his friend receiving a shrug in reply. "Aside from the fact that we'd do it anyways? I mean, we're villains, but we're not that fucked up."

I nodded, waving my hand for him to continue.

"Project: Sir Isaac Newton."

I don't think I could have been more surprised if he asked me to sleep with him. I frowned looking to Sebastian. In turn he answered my unspoken question. "They saw a few of the files you printed while you were out testing for eezo."

"And what do you want out of that?" I asked not really sure I wanted to know.

It was Uber who answered. "Let us build it. We'll even do it to the specs Shepard has on file, follow whatever regs you give us but we want to be a part of that."

"Okay, I still don't see why," I asked still confused.

"It's like this," Leet broke in. "Yeah, our theme has always been video games because, let's be honest, video games fucking rock. Not just because they're fun, but because they're all about what we don't have. Newton changes all that and we want to be a part of it; to build it, and when it's done, be on it."

"Wait, you're willing to up against Shenanigan guy, face the possibility of being hurt or more likely killed, just to work on Sebastian's pet project?" I asked more than slightly confused. It even sounded worse than it did in my head.

"Matriarch, have you read the project?"

"Not as such. I know it's a bigger undertaking than Project Undine is. What's it about?"

Leet grinned. "It's about the deadliest son of a bitch in space."

What the hell did he mean by that?

"Ahem." All three of us turned to Sebastian as he brought us back on topic. "I don't have a problem with that as long as it doesn't interfere with Project Undine. Aside from our current problem, getting the bay back in its feet has been our priority for some time now."

Both capes nodded with pleased smiles on their faces. I shook my head still not understanding but figured I'd get caught up once Chatika was back online. I looked back to Sebastian as he continued.

"But, before we get to that, recruiting. I have a couple of people in mind that I think can be persuaded to help. But I'll need a couple of things before I can approach them."

"What do you need?" I asked seriously.

"First thing I need is to talk to Gamble, I'll need his help to find one of them. Remember when I told you about the neutrals? I'll need Gamble to help me find one he mentioned to me in passing a few months back."

"Do you think you can convince someone who doesn't want to be a part of the cape scene to jump right into it? Especially with our current problems?"

"Maybe. I won't know until I ask."

I leaned back into my chair nodding. It sounded very farfetched, but he seemed confident. "Okay, the second?"

Sebastian rose from the table walking back into the kitchen. There he picked up a newspaper before folding it and returning only to drop it in front of me. I looked at the article before snapping my head upward to look at him in horror. He couldn't be seriously suggesting what I think he was suggesting...

His smile formed fully sending a chill down my spine. It wasn't quite feral, but there was something predatory in it that almost made me wonder if I should be looking for the exit. "I need a bigger gun."

"Dude, haven't you pissed off enough people?" Uber asked after he looked up from the newspaper.