If you haven't yet, go back one chapter and read 13-12. Otherwise you're going to be lost.
Suntan 13.x
Saturday, July 30
The bathroom rang with the echoes of Taylor's accusation.
"Um," Kayleigh said, breaking the disturbing silence. That was apparently all she had to say because she fell quiet again immediately afterwards.
Laura sighed and leaned against the sink. "Well. That went… badly."
"I, um, I'm sure she didn't mean that. About leaving you to die."
It was hard to hold back the snort that wanted to escape, but Laura managed it. Kayleigh had not seen the look in Taylor's eyes as she made that threat. The anger, the disgust. In the heroine's mind, by refusing to come to the aid of the normal people stuck on this island, Laura had lowered herself to somewhere around or below the level of pond scum.
And she could not exactly argue against that opinion.
That was not what Kayleigh needed to hear, though. She did not need to know how close Taylor had been to trying to melt Laura's face off. Kayleigh, even after years of knowing her, still had a slightly romanticized view of cape life. It was a view Laura had gone to great lengths to preserve. Her friend, her sister in all but blood, was an optimist and an idealist who somehow thought that everyone had a spark of good somewhere inside them. She did not need to see the dark and brutal underbelly of humanity.
So instead of disagreeing and disabusing Kayleigh of the notion that this was something that could be patched up, she simply said, "Maybe. Hey, can I get a little privacy? Just for a few minutes."
Kayleigh looked at her with narrowed eyes. "You want me to go away so you can mope, don't you?"
"I don't mope!" Laura immediately denied. She didn't! "I just… need some time to think, okay? And I bet your parents are going to start looking for you soon if you don't head back."
The other girl sighed in exasperation but walked out the door, flicking a knowing glance at her as she passed. "If you're not back in ten minutes, I'm dragging you out of here."
Ten minutes. Ha. As if ten minutes would be enough time for her to figure out what in the world she was going to do about all this.
Taylor – Calamity Witch – thought she was too selfish and too cowardly to help out defending the resort. That was not the case at all, though Laura could see why Taylor thought that was what was going on. It was not that she did not want to help. She did!
She just couldn't.
The Fallen were among the largest villain organizations in the United States. They had, apparently, beaten back an entire branch of the Protectorate and kidnapped its members as they tried to escape. This was the kind of group that was suicide for someone to fight all on their own. And Taylor expected her to hold them off by herself?
She shook her head. Taylor had a dangerous blind spot, one she did not think the taller girl even knew about. It was obvious from the way she had talked on the beach. Taylor made social calls to the Triumvirate. She collaborated with Dragon to Tinker. She had the raw strength to make an Endbringer hurt.
Laura would be the first to agree that Calamity Witch was a powerful cape, easily in the top tier. She deserved to be on such casual terms with the big name capes. The problem was that she saw her power and the power of those she associated with and had convinced herself that it was the norm, that all capes had this much power at their fingertips.
She was wrong.
Wrapping her arms around herself, Laura thought about trying to fight a team of the Fallen like she had seen breaking into the spa and could not help the shiver that ran down her spine. It was impossible. Her powers were not so strong that she could hold them off, not if her life depended on it and definitely not as casually as Taylor seemed to think she could.
It was one of the first things Jotunn had pounded into her head when she joined up. Could her ice blasts cause property damage? Sure. Could they stop a Brute from breaking her in half? Keep a speedster from slipping behind her and stabbing her in the back? Stop a Master from taking over her mind and turning her into nothing more than a puppet?
Hell no.
Her ice was on the weak side of powers. That had been proven in the ring time and time again by Jotunn and Pounce and Solaire. The only cape she could regularly beat was Angel Dust, who as a Tinker should not be fighting in the first place anyway. She was no Alexandria, no matter how much she had wanted to be when she was little. If anyone shrugged off her attacks and got close, she was nothing more than a regular teenaged girl. She would be defenseless.
At least against Leviathan, there were much more tempting targets he could go after, especially since her powers had done absolutely nothing other than give the flying bricks something to hit him with besides their fists. She would be the only cape here for the Fallen to focus on.
Those were just the immediate dangers, too! Taylor was an independent cape. If someone figured out who she was, who were they going to attack to get back at her? Samantha? An image of the animalistic woman covered in the blood of the Maras came to mind, and Laura shook her head. If anyone tried attacking Samantha to get at Taylor, that would not be a fight. It would just be natural selection in action.
Her? She had a team. If she revealed her powers in such a public display, it opened up all of Winter Hill to reprisals. Any dumb normie who took a picture or video and posted it to the Internet would be painting a target on her back for the Fallen to take a shot at, and that shot would come at Winter Hill's expense. They would know it, too. They would know that she was putting herself and her own interests, even if those interests were to protect other people, in front of the gang's. It would be seen as a betrayal.
Winter Hill did not treat traitors kindly. She had not yet had her powers when Malachite tried breaking off from the gang and taking part of their territory for himself, but she had heard what happened. They would not butcher her for this, of that much she could be sure, but they would still cast her out so any revenge was her own to deal with. The other members of Winter Hill were not her friends, she had been honest to Taylor about that, but they were still all she had. She did not like her chances if she was thrown out in the streets to watch her own back.
She had no delusions that Jotunn would step in, either. He cared for her, loved her, but if he had to choose between his gang and his daughter, everybody who knew him knew which one he would pick.
No matter what Taylor thought of her choices, she had good reasons for them, Laura told herself with a sniff. Nor was it just self-interest. If she died, which was too possible not to consider when fighting the blasted Fallen of all capes, who was going to stand guard over the people who paid Winter Hill to provide them with protection? None of the other capes were interested. Pounce had actually laughed at her when it came out that she routinely spent her free time patrolling their territory and making sure things were calm and safe, that there were no muggers or rapists lying in wait down dark alleys. Jotunn, once he heard, had never told her to stop, but he never told anyone to help out either. Between nobody else caring and them making it clear that the Protectorate were not welcome on their turf, she was the only protector those people had.
Laura took a deep breath and held it for a moment. She was doing the right thing. She knew it. Taylor and Samantha would have to deal with this themselves. It was not as if they did not already have everything well in hand, not if Taylor's comment about killing some of the Fallen was anything to go by. All they had to do was overpower a group of villains who no one smart was willing to fight head on because they were so strong that nobody could stop them.
All they had to do was keep dancing one step ahead of certain death or worse.
She punched the door, then again and again. Only when her hand ached from the abuse did she stop and curl up on herself. She would not cry. She did not deserve to cry.
Because Taylor was right. The bitch was one hundred percent on the nose. She wanted to help, wanted to help out the only person Kayleigh had ever forced on her who might actually get it and understand her life, but instead she was standing here in a bathroom coming up with every flimsy excuse under the sun why she should not when the reality was so much simpler.
She was just too much of a weakling and a coward.
"Everyone seek shelter," a voice came from the speakers outside. "The Fallen are approaching this building. I repeat, everyone seek shelter. All guards assemble in the main lobby."
Laura tried to laugh, but the sound was quickly choked out by a sob. How fucking perfect! Here she was, trying to save her own hide, and as a result she had just killed them all. Taylor's prediction was about to come true sooner than either of them expected.
Someone knocked on the door, and she forced her face into an expressionless mask. Thankfully it was not Kayleigh who walked through the door, but a little kid. It took a minute for her to recognize the blonde girl as Taylor's cousin. Something that started with a 'c'. Cassie, that was it! It took a moment for the reality of her situation to sink in, and Laura almost laughed.
Great. If the Fallen did anything to Taylor's cousin and did not kill Laura in the process, Taylor sure as hell would finish the job for them. "I don't think this is the best hiding spot, kid," she told the girl in a gruff voice.
"Hiding from the Fallen is not my primary concern," Cassie said in that weird way of speaking she had. Seriously, did her mother shove a dictionary down her throat when she was born or something? "Even if it were, I have alternate options." The girl scanned her with baby blue eyes and frowned. "You are distressed, but not just about the Fallen attacking us. Something else. What is it?"
"I'm not upset," she muttered petulantly.
"Of course you are not." At least the girl had sarcasm down pat. Cassie grabbed her hand, and her eyes grew wide.
Laura pulled away from the creepy nine-year-old and scowled. "What the hell? You don't just go grabbing people and shit like that—"
"How much do you wish to assist Taylor?"
She blinked at the strange question. "What?"
"You wish to assist Taylor in fighting against the Fallen. I can see that." Cassie put her hands behind her back and swayed back and forth. "You also would prefer not to reveal your powers or your identity. What would you be willing to do if I said I could turn that desire into a reality?"
Creepy. Crazy. Both those words crossed Laura's mind, but what finally stuck was 'scary'. "What the fuck? How do you know that?"
"I know much. You have yet to answer my question."
"Well, it's a weird question, isn't it? I've got some little girl talking about fighting the Fallen and acting like I'm a cape or some shit."
A smirk settled on Cassie's face. "I am no little girl."
Laura opened her mouth to argue that was exactly what she was when she started glowing. That glow turned her entire body into white light, and Laura had to shield her face. Once the light showed ended, she lowered her hand to find a tiny person with pure white hair and wings drifting in front of her. "As I said," the fairy-like creature said with Cassie's voice, "I am no girl. I am the intelligence forged by Dragon from the remains of the Simurgh. I am the angel who sees the past and the future. I… am Cassiel."
She was insane. That was the only explanation that made sense. She had some kind of nervous breakdown when the Fallen attacked and was now totally bug-fucking nuts.
"Be not afraid," the fairy said with another smirk, "for I come with glad tidings. You wish to fight against the Fallen. I can aid you in this endeavor."
Laura bit her lip. If she was insane, which was definitely the case… then did it really matter if she listened to whatever offer this was? It was all in her head anyway, right? "How?"
"We would merge for a short time. You would have access to my abilities and my knowledge, abilities that would serve as your weapons."
…Was it bad that she wished this was real, if only because it sounded like the answer to all her current problems. Still, the idea that a little creature, fairy, Ziz-baby, whatever would be capable of doing something like this was hard to swallow. "And this would make me strong enough to fight off the Fallen?" she asked in a cautious voice.
Cassiel giggled darkly, the sound putting to rest any doubts Laura had about her relation to the Hopekiller. "Have no concerns about that, Cailleach. If it is power you seek, then power shall be given to you."
Warnings about making deals with devils ran through her head. This was the kind of thing her common sense yelled at her was a terrible idea. She should run out of this bathroom screaming at the top of her lungs because everything about this situation should scare the living daylights out of anyone with two brain cells to rub together.
…And she was so tired of being scared.
"Ah, fuck it. You know what? Let's do this." She stretched her hand out and let Cassiel land on her palm. After a moment, she frowned. "How, uh, how do we do this?"
"Open your mind to me. It is as simple as that." The mini-angel started glowing again. "Also, you should brace yourself. This will feel a little weird."
"What do you mean, weird?"
Cassiel shot into her chest in a streak of light, and Laura fell to the ground as something suddenly coursed through her body. It was something comfortable and soothing, like her mother's bedtime songs when she was just a little kid. And yet, it also felt like new strength surging into her limbs. It felt like a piece of herself being opened up and revealed for the first time, a piece she did not know was missing.
«This is your magic,» Cassiel's voice said from inside her own head. «Few people have the capacity to use it. It is the same power that makes Taylor such a formidable fighter. It is within you as well.
«You will have time to luxuriate in this feeling later. Right now, we must find you a weapon with which to fight. Something you can manipulate through my telekinesis with ease.» The angel laughed. «In fact, I have the perfect idea.»
xxxxxxxxxxxxx
"This is a bad idea."
«It will be fine.»
"No, seriously, it's an awful idea."
«Laura, you underestimate me and yourself. Both these actions irritate me, but the former in particular. Everything will be fine.»
"I don't think you're—"
«Just throw the weight!»
Laura looked down at the twenty pound weight they had borrowed from the gym in the process of assembling her disguise. If a dozen sheets could even be considered a disguise. She looked out through the window again at the absolute mess that had filled the lobby, regular people fighting against Mastered people in a no-holds-barred melee. Even if the 'good guys' won, this was going to be ugly.
A flash of orange caught her attention, and she looked to the left to find none other than Taylor, still in her Cinder disguise, and Samantha charging into the fray. The orange turned out to be some kind of odd Tinkertech energy blade Cinder was using to drop people like flies.
«I suppose if you have elected not to fight, we should end Unison,» Cassiel said in a bored voice, her mood a 180-degree turn from her previous impatience. «Taylor is here, after all. You can go back to pitying yourself and wallowing in your fears—»
"Shut. Up!" Reaching out with the power – the magic – Cassiel was channeling through her, Laura picked the weight off the ground and hurled it at the window. The metal disc hit the glass and shattered it into thousands of shards.
«Good. Now jump through!»
Laura forced herself not to think about what she was doing and sprinted at the opening. "If I die, it's your fault!" she snapped at the little devil nestled somewhere inside of her. Jumping up and curling into a ball to make sure her shoes cleared the broken glass, she brought her arms up in front of her face and did her best not to scream as she fell.
Her body moved without her control, and when her feet hit the ground she pushed off to turn her fall into a roll. «You will not die from this,» Cassiel promised her. «Now. Just as we practiced.»
The girl did her best not to roll her eyes. Taking her eyes off the enemies rushing at her was a dumb idea, something she had been trained not to do, but Cassiel really needed to learn not to call one single attempt at snapping sheets with telekinesis 'practice'. Still, now was not the time to gripe. She unraveled the sheets wrapped around her arms and flung her hands out, the movement helping her guide the telekinesis she was using to throw the sheets at the Mastered people and pulling back at just the right time snap the ends in their faces. She muttered to her passenger, "You're sure this is going to work?"
«I am. Purson's Master ability takes time to settle. When it is fresh, sufficient trauma to the head to render someone unconscious will end his control.»
So she had to knock all these people out. Simple enough. Untwisting the sheets she had hit them with, she wrapped the ends around their heads and smacked them together. If she had to hit their heads hard, she might as well make it a two for one kind of deal.
"They're Mastered!" Cinder yelled at her as if she had somehow missed that little fact. "Take them down, but don't hurt them too much!"
"I know!" she yelled back. Quieter, she asked, "Any chance you can use that precog of yours to help me out?"
The fairy snickered at her, and the world abruptly slowed down. «If I might borrow terminology from you, I am the fucking Simurgh. The future is my bitch.»
Returning her attention to the people trying to hurt her, she blinked as they kept moving at half speed. They also had echoes or something similar in front of them that they looked like they were chasing down. She asked for this, Laura reminded herself, and pulling off more of the sheets wrapped around her chest and head she cast them out to wind around the ankles that were going to be where she was aiming. A tug dropped several of them onto the hard tile floor.
The sheets streaming from her hands lashed themselves around the shoulders of a big guy barreling towards her, and she spun on her heels to get enough momentum to throw him across the room. Was there an easier way to do this? Targeting the Master himself, maybe?
«It is worth an attempt,» Cassiel said, catching her by surprise. Laura then felt a flash of exasperation, though she knew it was not her own. «I am inside you. I can hear your thoughts, as could all mages should you wish them to do so. Regardless of whether incapacitating Purson would stop his victims, it would prevent him from making more. He is… Oh. Sneaking up on Taylor.»
He was what?! She turned her head to find the shadow echo of a cape dressed all in white running at Cinder's back. Oh, no. Taylor getting Mastered? That would be bad. He was too far away for her to hit with her sheets. The only power she had that could stop him was something Cassiel could not provide.
To hell with it, Laura decided as she stretched out her power to latch onto the patch of floor where his echo was running. If he managed to snag Taylor, they were all dead anyway. Purson's real body stepped on the trapped spot, and she clenched her hand closed.
Spikes of ice longer than she was tall burst out of nowhere and punched through him like needles fixing bugs to a pinboard. It looked for a moment as though he was still giving it a go of ensnaring Taylor, but then his head drooped and the other cape went back to somehow nonlethally whacking people with a scythe blade.
«Behold, the world did not end because you used your powers.»
«Shut up,» she thought at Cassiel, somehow sure the winged brat had heard her. A spin sent the edges of her sheets circling her to wrap around the heads and hands of the Mastered people and throwing them onto the ground where another flick knocked their heads against the floor.
«All I have done is point out— Be careful!» Once more her hands – her whole body, really – moved against her will and turned her to the left. A cloud of something or other was coming towards her at a decent speed for this slowed down world, and Cassiel moved the ends of the sheets in a bizarre dance.
Laura was about to ask just what she was doing and why it required taking control of her body with an assault rifle started firing. She winced, preparing herself for the worst, only for the ends of the simple sheets around her to deflect the bullets into the bodies surrounding her. «Thanks.»
«You are welcome to mention your gratitude again at your leisure.»
«…You do know the phrase is 'don't mention it', right?»
She could almost feel Cassiel blink. «Where would be the fun in that?»
Before she could offer any kind of retort, yet another voice, this one sounding like Taylor, barged into her head. «Stop the other cape in white!»
Hearing all these voices was not helping to convince her she was not crazy, but she passed her next question to the angel on her proverbial shoulder. «Any idea where he is?»
Cassiel gave her a mental head shake, however strange that was to feel, so Laura had little choice but to get a better vantage point. Finding that point involved jumping up and onto the shoulders of one of the Mastered vacationers and from there hopping onto a column before before wrapping a sheet around it to hold herself tight. Was increasing her physical abilities part of this bargain, she had to wonder, because if so she might be willing to let the little Barbie doll stick around.
«I am worth far more than some simple child's play thing,» Cassiel protested, «and I am not enhancing your body. I can, however, use my telekinesis to negate part of the pull of gravity on you to enhance your jumps and slow your fall. Also, I see our quarry.»
The cape in question was in the back of the room, looking around himself as though he was seeing or hearing something terrifying that only he knew about. He was not actively engaged in the fight, which normally would mean he was all but a noncombatant.
Or, considering he was a member of the Fallen, just meant he was stupid.
Once more he was too far away for Laura to hit him with her sheets, but her eyes landed on something laying on the ground. It would be a good experiment if nothing else.
«Oh, yes. Laura? Do it. Please. You have to do it.»
That was all the temptation she really needed. A wave of her hand launched the twenty pound weight at high speed to collide with the cape's face. Down he went, out cold and apparently covered in blood. Was he supposed to be that much of a wimp?
«Not in the slightest. He gave Taylor substantial difficulty due to his danger sense. I can only presume that due to us focusing my precognition like this, it created enough psychic interference that he could not predict from where the threat was to come.»
Something exploded in the middle of the room, and Laura had just enough time to glance over and see that Taylor had mutilated another cape in blue when the ceiling collapsed to let in a bunch flying lawmen.
«Not a moment too soon,» chimed in Cassiel. «They can handle the clean up. We need to rid you of the evidence so you will not be questioned as a cape. Trust me, you will be in Master/Stranger lockup pretending to be a civilian for long enough already.»
Not dealing with the Protectorate any longer than absolutely necessary? That was a plan she could get behind.
In many ways, Laura is in the same situation Theo would have been in had he Triggered while Kaiser was still running the Empire. She needs a hug.
Silently Watches out.