8.2
Aisha Labourne
The people moved like a bunch of zombies. She sat by the wall, watching them all begin to file out, police and PRT foot-troopers escorting them. She and Mr. H were in section G, she'd been hitching a ride with him to visit Taylor when the sirens went off.
Quiet guy, but kinda nice, offered to buy her a soda when they stopped at the gas station.
They'd heard the sounds outside. Hell, she wouldn't be surprised if assholes over in New York had heard the sounds outside. Thunder, rain, waves, explosions, and God only knew what that high pitched shriek had been.
She stood there, rubbing her legs that had all but fallen asleep in the cramped shelters. She and Mr. H had both tried to call, him Taylor and her trying to call Brian.
Between the storm and the rain and the sheer thickness of the Fortress shelters that were meant to survive freakin Behemoth levels of radiation neither of them were able to get calls out. And walking out of a shelter to make a call was beyond stupid. Endbringer Shelters were huge, five stories underground, each about five hundred square yards. But they had a limit. And once that limit was reached those big, massive doors weren't opening for anyone.
So here they were. Waiting. Him for Taylor and her for Brian and Taylor. They were both capes, and her brother was stupid enough to volunteer for this crap because of 'reasons' and it was,'t not like the PRT was gonna let Tay sit this one out either.
Danny fingered his phone, trying to will signal bars to appear on the shining little blue screen.
He looked to her. "How're you feelin?"
She shrugged and smirked "Could be better. Could be worse-" She was about to open her mouth and say that 'At least I'm not those guys out there' when she stopped herself, preventing both feet from ending up in her mouth.
He nodded. "Yeah umm… Look I gotta look for Taylor so as soon as we get out of here…" He paused, trailing off. "After I find her I'll take you wherever you want to go but. Taylor first."
She nodded. "Yeah, sure." Not like she'd go back to her mom. And Brian was a big boy… he'd be fine. Hell, he'd be finding her, not the other way around.
"Section G, open it up!" She heard a voice just beyond the walls. She perked up, looking as the hard, five foot thick tinker-tech plastic door was opened.
As one, all the people stood up, ready to start leaving before the PRT troopers stopped them.
"Please remain seated ladies and gentlemen. We will shortly begin the process of allowing you all to leave. But for the time being we're only for one specific individual." The trooper paused looking at a piece of paper. "Specifically a Mr. Daniel Hebert. Mr. Daniel Hebert if you are in he-"
"I- I'm Daniel Hebert." Mr. H. stood up suddenly, raising his arm.
The trooped beckoned him closer. "Sir. Please come with us."
She half expected him to start moving. He reached back and took her hand instead, pulling her by the hand as he negotiated his way through the crowded room.
"What's going on?"
"No idea sir. They just told me to come down here and get you."
"Get me for what? Is…" He stopped, evidently realizing that he was about to say his daughter's identity, no matter what he called her in a room full of two-hundred plus strangers.
The trooper shook his head. "No idea sir. Above my paygrade." He turned and began to march out, Danny and Aisha following, all the other troopers making a hole in the crowd for them.
As they made it up to the first level, and out to the exit, Aisha noticed that the crowd had stopped moving almost entirely. Must have been a hell of a holdup outside.
"Here, put these on." One of the guards that had been waiting near the entrance shoved some raincoats into their chests. Aisha put it on, so did Mr. H. They could hear the hiss of the rain over nearly all other sounds out there, even the people, and the waves and even the helicopters.
When they finally made it outside, Aisha finally noticed why everyone had stopped.
Well… Because everyone had stopped. They were all just stopped dead, staring at something in the city.
So was Mr. H apparently, given that she smacked right into his back when he stopped moving.
Jeez what the hell is up… with…
All the thoughts fled her mind as she found what exactly everyone was staring at…
It… was...
(X)
Insight
Leviathan… Leviathan buried up to his chest in ash and the near shredded bodies of the capes Taylor had brought back to life. A grim macabre cairn to monumentalize the very spot where he'd finally died.
At the foot of this place was the woman, the one Alexandria had pulled out of thin air. The Thinker that apparently had the superpower of logistics down to a bloody science given how she was, quite literally, ordering everyone with an efficiency she, and everyone else, considered completely inhuman.
She was definitely some kind of Pre-cog. Or a super-Thinker with some kind of 'super planning'. She'd heard that Accord fellow had something like this. Maybe she had something similar.
It was surprising to find out that Alexandria only knew a little more than she did. A very little more. The reason she'd gotten the opposite impression was because of the confidence she'd picked up in her body language.
The only reason that confidence existed was because of the woman with the fedora hat. Whoever she was, Alexandria trusted that she'd be able to find out exactly where Taylor was and very likely what happened to her.
Given what she'd seen so far, her confidence was rightly placed.
The woman had started assembling teams from seemingly random amongst the volunteers. Legend had gotten to step forward. Teams of two, three, sometimes four. The Truce was still in effect but to see established teams of heroes and villains broken up and grouped together with strangers that they'd never met before today, and waiting long intervals, sometimes as long as fifteen minutes, to send them off had made her have doubts at first.
But then as the calls came in and the woman simply answered her phone, followed by hanging up and a second later getting another call, as if timed, telling them exactly what they had to do and how they had to combine their powers to achieve whatever results they were looking for, all the while spitting out coordinates to new teams as though she plucked them out of mid air. Definitely some kind of super planner combined with a pre-cog. That's the only explanation she had for it.
The question her power had to answer was why.
They were looking for Taylor, obviously, but this didn't make sense.
At first she thought the woman was just tossing as many capes out there to look as she could. But that obviously didn't hold up with her giving specific instructions in phone calls later.
But then why was she sending them out to so many different places at once?
The only explanation her power was offering didn't make any sense, that Taylor was somehow in all these places simultaneously.
Unless she was pulled apart by a hundred horses, that made absolutely zero sense. Even for all the usual nonsense she had to filter through.
She bit at her nails, equal parts irritated, anxious, curious, and worried. "Goddamnit. Figure this out Lisa."
When the fedora wearing woman exchanged some words with Alexandria, she saw the woman call to Miss Militia and look to her.
Looks like she was just paired up with someone.
Now if she could just figure out what the hell they had to do…
(X)
Weld
Weld slogged himself through the muck and the grime of filthy, flooded streets.
His progress was slow, the only thing that helped him was his ability to scale over obstacles like debris and ruined buildings. Using his armband to navigate to the coordinates that he'd been given.
It wasn't as bad as Leviathan's torrential storm. But slogging through waist deep water was still slogging through waist deep water. It was slow at the best of times.
Even during the ash storm and the dark when he'd actually been rushing to get away with everyone else; he didn't manage to run fast enough. He actually had to be teleported by some Mover he didn't even know. If not for that timely save, the pyroclastic-like dark fog would have caught up with him well before the line of strange silver Knights.
Could he have survived it? He wasn't sure. Whatever Taylor had done had killed Leviathan.
He was tough, but he wasn't Endbringer tough.
As he made his way through the city, it was decidedly odd that he was the only one that Thinker woman had sent off alone. A lot of others had been paired off, but apparently this job just needed a Brute or something.
Of course, he had… no real idea what the hell he was doing out here but he'd call in once he made it to the coordinates for more instructions.
As he began climbing the hill to Concord Heights, the incline was a welcome sight. An island in a sea of garbage and water.
Finally he could move like a normal person again.
He made his way up the hill, finding houses with the windows shattered and the insides all a mess. Leviathan's waves had been more than tall enough to get here.
When he made it to the tallest point, the metal Case-53 looked around, searching. He double checked his armband. Yup, he was at the right and proper coordinates.
He moved to reach into his gear to call back to the HQ, who's spotlights he could see from here through the faux night.
He waited, listening for a response when his eye caught something along his periphery.
He turned, like… a heat mirage in the distance but up close instead… there was just… something there, in the air.
He reached for it, looking to touch the thing with his bare hand.
As his fingers brushed over the strange distortion he felt a strange warmth on the metal that was his flesh
"Case 53s have to deal with people being afraid of them, or treating them differently. So yeah. I'm asking."
If the voice wouldn't have been enough to startle him enough to jump, the sudden sight of Taylor, standing not two feet away from him certainly would have done the trick.
"Ta-"
He stopped, something was wrong.
Taylor was nearly transparent, her body made out of wispy, thin trails of white smoke, vaguely taking the shape of her armor. If not for her voice, he would have just thought her to simply be some cape like the Empire guy Fog.
He stared at her, and she at him.
"What's wrong? Why don't you answer?"
Answer?
"Taylor… do you know where you are? Do you know who I am?"
She said nothing for a time. When she turned away and looked around, he couldn't tell if it was curiosity or fear in her body language.
"Was Browbeat afraid? Or resentful? Is that why he left?"
Browbeat?!
"Taylor… I'm not Browbeat… I'm Weld…" He said slowly. "Do you remember me Taylor?"
She looked to him, as though just realizing he was there.
"Case 53s have to deal with people being afraid of them, or treating them differently. So yeah. I'm asking."
He shook his head, confused, before he remembered where he'd heard this before.
He thought, trying to remember how he answered.
"Yeah… well… I have it easier than you? I don't remember anything 'before' so there isn't a different for me."
"What was your first memory?"
"I…" He paused, unsure if this is what he should be doing. What the hell was wrong with her? "I woke up in a drug house in Foxborough. The dealers tried to shoot me. I punched em."
"You...You…"
She paused and for a second he thought he'd done something wrong.
"You killed…" She said. Said. Didn't ask…
"I… I remember you… I remember…" She paused, one hand rising to what he could only guess was her head.
"Weld… your name is Weld…"
He smiled. "Yeah. Yeah that's good Taylor! That's me."
Her head bowed, staring at the ground. He couldn't be sure if she even noticed the rain.
When she glowed, he was caught just as surprised as when she appeared, and the next thing he knew she was gone, completely disappearing.
Except… for a tiny glow.
A sliver, no bigger than a fingernail… it was on the ground, glowing like a fluorescent bulb.
He reached down, hand hovering over the light, unsure of what to do.
When he finally touched it, being as delicate as possible in his grip in order to pick it up, he was surprised that it felt warm. Not just...warm on his skin. That was simple. His body could measure temperature like any other. Perhaps even better considering the nature of metal.
But… beyond that. Like sitting by a fire. It wasn't sensation. It was emotion.
The little fragment seemed like a flame, fluttering and flickering. He was almost terrified the rain was going to snuff it out.
He cupped his hands over it, the tiny shard and rushed into the nearest house, looking to get out of the rain. He'd call for a Mover to get them there. No way was he gonna risk her by slogging through the city with her like this.
(X)
The fog was thick, she could not have seen beyond her own hand if she had the mind to try
As it was, her mind was muddled in a fog just as thick, confused and disoriented, wandering listlessly in the thick forest.
She listened, heard sounds, the crunching of feet on grass, the snaps of twigs. But she could see nothing, found nothing.
She didn't need rest. Not now. Not like this. But she did not know what else to do. Did not know where she could go.
She found something. A tree that looked like a wall at the end of the path.
She sat at the base of it, her memories and thoughts… they were blank.
Her memory was nothing more than shards of cracked glass, out of context, faces and places that felt as though they should be significant but weren't… they were nothing.
Melting away like wax, the features dripping off of faces.
Her past. Her future.
Her very light.
None had meaning.
And… she didn't even care…
She held no purpose no place or reason for even existing…
She wasn't sure how long she sat there. The sun had not moved from its place in the sky… but… it felt so much longer than that…
She tried to count. Tried to remember what it was to count.
Numbers, how many numbers had to pass by before the sun would move?
But her thoughts were struggling through mud, rushing headlong into walls of missing memory.
When she heard footsteps she didn't even look up from her feet.
"Confound it. Got another one of the damn things up here."
She heard the words, and struggled to think of what they meant, to try and remember who was talking, or to even remember the voice.
When her vision of her feet was abruptly interrupted by blue, her attention was finally brought out of the effort of counting.
"Oh for god's sake."
The blue pulled away and she followed the pretty color back with her eyes.
It was a sword, big, wide and very very blue, the tip drawing away from her as the blade was placed on someone's shoulder.
It was a man. She remembered that… and he had a beard, and a helmet.
She remembered all those things and what they were.
But the clothes… she could not remember what they were called. But she did remember that it was… weird. She hadn't seen someone wearing clothes like his. Was he important? Is that why he dressed weird?
Important people dressed weird.
She heard more footsteps, "What is it Benhart?"
Another voice. Not a man… a… girl…
She was a girl too!
But she was confused. The girl had a voice of a girl, like her memory said she should but her face was stern and sharp and it had a beard and mustache, like the man with the pretty blue sword.
She was also very pale...
She also had a very pointy hat...
"Another fog ghost, only this one doesn't have the courtesy to die a second time when its stabbed."
A ghost. She knew what ghost's were… maybe. Were there ghosts here? Were they angry?
"Odd." The pale-man-woman said before turning to look over her shoulder. "Do you have any ideas? It's sitting in front of the door."
"Maybe try asking nicely?"
Another voice. That was two now… no… no that was wrong…"
When she found the… third? Yes. Yes the third! That's what he was. A third voice-
It was a man, like the first one. She couldn't see his face though. He had a helmet on. Was that rude of him?
His clothes were made of metal. Metal with green. Weird like the first man with the beard.
Maybe he was important too.
"You can't be serious." The woman said incredulously.
The man in the armor moved his shoulders, then, stepped closer. He moved his hand. Waving maybe?
"Excuse me. But… you're sitting in front of the door."
Door… a door.
She looked up, up, and behind her.
Wasn't this a tree?
It looked like a tree…
Or was she remembering it wrong?
"Yes. That door. Could you let us pass?"
She looked back at the armored man. Was he smiling? It felt like he was smiling.
Oh… she was in the way…
She moved to the side… and sat back down.
"Thank you." He said before looking to the others. "See. That wasn't so hard."
The bearded man snorted. "Yer sayin that now. We'll see how pleased ye are when the wee ghost jumps up with some thrice damned ghost dagger and stabs ye, or curses, ye, or sets ye on fire, or whatever means of killing she's got."
Where are these ghosts he was talking about?
The other man waved him off, stepping forward to where she'd been sitting. He pulled a ring from his pocket, placing it on a place in the tree's trunk.
Then, just like that, the tree split down the middle and began to pull open.
As it opened, the bearded man-woman stepped forward, so did the one with the pretty sword, both walking through it to the place beyond.
The one with the armor stayed though.
It was the woman who noticed after she'd stepped… she couldn't remember the number of steps.
"What are you do- Oh no. No. You are not-."
"Oh come on! What's the worst that could happen?"
"Creighton. Or would you prefer that snake Pate? Or did the blows to the head finally knock out your sense?"
"Oh come on. Those two were clearly crazy. She's not so bad!"
"Which you definitively know after three sentences? Name one thing in this forest that hasn't tried to kill us!"
"Vengarl!"
…
"The head… the head with no limbs. The one who's headless body did infact try to kill us the very next day in the ruins?"
"Now you're just being unfair."
"You know what, fine If she murders you in your sleep I might just decide to help her, you've more than earned it."
"I'll help them both." The bearded one shouted as he kept marching ahead. "Bloody idiot."
The armored man ignored them, stepped closer and knelt down. Right in front of her.
"Do you have a name?" He asked.
A name…
Does she have a name?
She… she should… she did…
"Ta-Taylor…"
My… my voice.
I hadn't remembered the sound of my own voice…
"My name is Taylor."
I… I felt like he was smiling. But it was a sad one.
"At least you know your own name... You're different the other spirits we've found in these woods."
"...I… don't know. I… don't remember others… just me."
"Hmm. Do you need a place to go?"
"I… I don't know. I don't know anything…" I muttered, my memory as empty as the fog as I clutched at my head. Don't make me think. It was easier to not think. Easier to not care...
"Come with me then." I look at his hand.
When I grasp his hand… I look into his helmet, seeing just the barest hint of his eyes, finding them crinkled into a kind smile.
"Just follow behind me, and don't mind them." He indicated to the two bickering swordsmen. "Trustworthy as they come."
She stood and followed.
And at the same time, somewhere else, she followed someone else, a woman in robes of forest green who grasped and plucked at the shards of her mind and soul and pulled them close, slowly making her whole, piece by piece, bit by bit as she, the pieces of her, wandered through these wretched unraveled kingdoms.
