I'm HALPING!


Part Twenty-One: Coming to a Head


[A/N: This chapter commissioned by Fizzfaldt and beta-read by Lady Columbine of Mystal.]


That Night
Danny


"So, Ellisburg's … done?" Danny slid a slice of lasagna onto a plate and handed it to Zach. "Just like that?"

"Thank you, Danny. Yes, just like that." Zach took the plate to the table and sat down. "In the end, it was quite easy. I supplied Director Piggot with the appropriate tools, and she proved extremely adequate to the task."

"You should've seen it, Dad." Taylor accepted the next plate and sat down beside Zach. "It was like a war movie, only better. They didn't stand a chance."

"Now I'm kind of sorry I missed it." Danny wasn't as much of a war movie buff as Kurt and Lacey were, but he did like a good one. "You sound like you've been busy, cleaning up around the place."

"Yeah, but it's a fun kind of busy." She took a bite of lasagna. "Mmm, that's nice. So, anything interesting happen while we were out and about?"

Danny raised his eyebrows, wondering if she was punking him. "What, Zach didn't tell you?"

Zach had the grace to look abashed. "I apologise, Taylor. It did not seem important enough to tell you about until after dessert. My sister decided that Leviathan should not be having all the fun, so she visited the city today, to have some fun of her own."

Taylor frowned. "There was nothing on TV about an Endbringer alarm."

"That is because it did not go off," Zach explained. "Your local villains Uber and Leet were in the process of setting up a game of Battleship in the port with the ships we refloated, when she challenged them to a game of Dance Dance Revolution."

"Wait," said Taylor. "She was here in Brockton Bay, and nobody reacted?"

"Ah. Again, I apologise." Zach smiled ruefully. "I neglected to explain that she asked me to lend my ability to keep people thinking everything was fine while all this was happening. She has assisted us with her abilities several times now; turnabout is fair play, is it not?"

"Well, true." Taylor tilted her head. "Now I'm just a little unhappy that I missed it." Then there was a flicker of light from her glasses and she blinked. "Oh. Oh, wow … holy crap, these are just like 3-D glasses. It's like I'm there."

"They are whatever you need them to be, Taylor." Zach applied himself to the lasagna. "I will say this much, Danny. Although I do not have a strict need to eat, I am greatly enjoying the meals that I have been eating since I arrived here. I am left to wonder if my brothers and sister would still have caused the damage they have if they had been formed able to enjoy food."

"Peace through superior cooking skills?" Danny thought that was hilarious. "Well, it certainly would've been easier to keep them from wrecking cities. Though Behemoth does seem the type to keep going back through the buffet line, just saying."

Taylor giggled. "At least Leviathan would never have to worry about refills for his water pitcher." Her attention returned to whatever her glasses were showing her. "Wow, that's some stage she built."

"It really was." Danny and the other Dockworkers had heard the music from the Association headquarters. As it was coming from down near the waterfront, they'd piled into cars and gone to investigate. It had indeed been a huge DDR stage, with appropriately scaled dance platforms; one for Uber and one for the Simurgh herself. Massive screens hovered above the stage, showing the footwork of each of the 'contestants', while Leet ran the console.

At the time, he had wondered why nobody ran screaming when they saw it was the Simurgh in attendance. Initially he'd suspected they thought it was an illusion of some sort ginned up by the video game geek pair, but Zach had just confirmed his later surmise.

Over the next several hours, while maybe ten thousand people arrived from all over Brockton Bay (the music carried a long, long way) Uber and the Simurgh engaged in a DDR dance-off. They started with relatively simple songs, then escalated to ones that left Danny wondering if the composer had suffered a stroke halfway through.

All in all, the footage of the event was promising to be Uber and Leet's most popular video. The lead had been swapped back and forth between the pair all the way through, up until the Simurgh scored one point extra to win a dead heat. Then she'd bowed to the crowd, touched two fingers to her forehead in vague salute to Uber, and taken off vertically, disappearing into the sky overhead. Slowly, giving the pair time to get out of the way, the stage had disassembled itself into its component parts, while the screens had lowered themselves to ground level before shutting themselves off.

(Danny had checked afterward, and apparently all the requisite paperwork for the outdoor event had been filed beforehand, including the names of the participants, and nobody had noticed).

In the aftermath, Uber and Leet had made an announcement. "We've had a great run but all good things come to an end, and when the actual Simurgh participates in one of our shows, it's kind of a hint that it's time to fold our tents and disappear into the night. You've been a great audience, Brockton Bay. Thank you very much."

Interestingly enough, although Danny had spotted a few heroes and other law-enforcement personnel in the audience, nobody made a move to stop the villains from leaving. For the most part, it seemed they'd been looking at each other and asking, did that really happen? Not unlike the audience members themselves, for that matter.

While Taylor watched the show, fast-forwarding or rewinding by tapping the rim of her glasses, Danny chatted with Zach about what else they'd been doing. They ended up going into the living room, where Zach performed one of his bullshit Endbringer stunts and threw footage up on the new big-screen TV so Danny could watch the events of Ellisburg for himself.

It was, he decided, a fitting end to an interesting day.


Taylor
Arcadia
The Next Day


"Taylor! Zach!"

I looked around in mild surprise as Amy came out of the crowd and hit Zach with a full-on flying hug. He weathered it well, taking a step back so she didn't come to too sudden a halt, then steadying her on her feet. "Hello, Amelia Claire," he said cheerfully. "You seem happy today."

"I had the best day ever, yesterday," she confirmed. "This guy came out of nowhere and had a car accident right in front of me and Vicky, and we helped, and we got it right, and nobody asked me to heal him! They knew I didn't have powers, and I know I didn't tell them!" Her smile spread right across her face.

"You did something, didn't you?" Glory Girl drifted down from above, her expression somewhere between exasperation and resignation. "It was just like when nobody cared that you beat me arm-wrestling. You make it so people just see what you want them to see."

"Very good," he praised her without an ounce of irony. "It is a perception filter, of sorts. Not many people are able to even notice it."

"Tell me about it," I said dryly. "I'm pretty sure I only spot it when you make it obvious." Like the time he'd flat-out told the news lady he was Eidolon's son, but used the perception filter thing to make her disbelieve it.

"Well, however it happens, it works for me." Amy beamed at me as she let Zach go. "People know I used to be Panacea, and they don't care that I'm not anymore."

Vicky still didn't look thrilled. "I care. If someone comes after you to get at New Wave, you don't have any powers to protect you, and I won't always be there."

"This will not happen." Zach's voice was firm. "There are no cape gangs left in the city worthy of the name. The ones who have not already been captured or turned themselves in have either left town or are preparing to do so. The unpowered adherents to those gangs are already beginning to drift away, as they are no longer guaranteed cape protection from the consequences of their misdeeds. None of them would dare attack Amelia Claire for her affiliation with New Wave, because I say so." His last three words held a weight and gravitas that made me feel they should be engraved in stone.

Amy blinked. "Uh, wow. Thanks. You didn't have to do that."

"Yeah, he actually had to." Vicky put her arm around her sister's shoulders. "He took your powers away, so making sure you weren't left vulnerable was the right thing to do." She eyed Zach keenly. "I've been doing a lot of thinking over the last day or so, and following what you've been up to. When I made you arm-wrestle me, did you influence me to do that?"

Zach gave her an approving look. "I did not force you to do it, if that is what you are asking. I did influence your thought processes so that you saw me in an unfavourable light and were certain you could best me, despite what you knew of my actions to that point. But your choice to insist on a contest of physical strength was just that; your choice."

"So you didn't force me into it, but you set me up and let me take the fall." Vicky didn't seem as angry as I expected her to be. "All so you could talk to Ames. Were you intending to take her powers from the beginning?"

"That was one option," Zach replied frankly. "If I could have assisted her in solving her personal issues without removing them, that would have been another one. But they were at the root of too many such issues, and so removing them turned out to be the simpler solution."

"Oh, absolutely." Amy raised her chin, a beatific expression on her face. "You have no idea how much of a weight's been lifted off my shoulders with all that. The only expectations on me are what everyone else has got. I don't even care anymore if my biological dad is a supervillain, because I know I'm not going to become one myself."

I recalled what Marquis had said in the Birdcage; without that, her comment would've made a lot less sense. "Well, that's definitely a good thing too," I observed.

"So why were Amy's problems so special?" Vicky made a circular gesture, as if to indicate the school and the city beyond. "I don't see you spending one-on-one time with any other capes to solve their issues."

"Amelia Claire's problems were the most immediate," Zach explained. "If they went out of control, she would have posed a danger to Taylor's happiness and well-being. Taylor and I have also nipped other problems in the bud that you were unaware of. As I said, there are now no cape gangs extant in Brockton Bay, and the few remaining independents are making arrangements to move along."

"Well, that's going to make things a little quieter around here," I noted. "Though Dad says Lord's Port being back in operation is really going to be a shot in the arm for local industry." I smirked. "Some shipping companies are going to be upset, though."

Amy and Vicky both looked at me, curious, but Vicky got in the question first. "Why?"

"Some of those ships had cargo on board when the port was closed off," I explained. "They could've come in and spent their money to reopen it then reclaimed their property, but so they couldn't be held responsible for that, they officially relinquished ownership to anyone who wanted to perform salvage. Not a bad deal in their eyes, given that most of the cargoes had been ruined by seawater and were literally unsalvageable by that point."

Amy got the point first. "So, when Zach did his percussive maintenance and re-floated the ships, nearly all the cargoes went back to as-new," she realised. "So, whoever got the salvage rights …"

"Mainly the Dockworkers," I confirmed with a grin.

Vicky let out a bark of laughter. "Which means the Dockworkers now have possession of a whole lot of valuable cargoes that they can sell off to interested buyers. Well, that's a good start."

"Not just the cargoes, but the ships they're sitting in, too," I reminded her. "The Dockworkers don't have much use for a bunch of ships. They prefer that someone else send the ships to them."

"Well, damn." Vicky shook her head. "That'll be a cash injection of eight figures or more into the Dockworkers' account. All this in aid of the 'keep Taylor happy' effort, huh?"

"Just gonna say, it's definitely working," I pointed out, choosing not to point out how Dad himself was now richer to the tune of just under a hundred million dollars. "Just by the way, you don't seem to be overly upset that Zach modified your feelings about him."

Vicky shrugged. "I was gonna be, but then I thought about it. There's a lot of people I've decided I didn't like that I forced a confrontation with, and I'm pretty sure more than a few of those were unfair on my part. Hell, maybe I didn't even need more than a nudge to do what I did. And anyway, I'd prefer he made me think I didn't like him, as opposed to making me think I did like him."

Amy raised her eyebrows. "Mature thinking? Not leading with your fists? Where's my sister, and what've you done with her?"

"Yeah, yeah, yuk it up." Vicky crossed her eyes and blew a raspberry at Amy. "I know damn well there's absolutely nothing I could even touch him with unless he let me. And you're happier than I've seen in a really long time, so I'm not gonna argue with results."

"Aww, thanks, sis." Amy gave Vicky a hug. "You say the nicest things."

"Only 'cause they're true." Vicky ruffled Amy's hair playfully, just as the first bell rang. "Oop, gotta get to class."

"Yeah, us too." I gave them both a nod and a smile. "See you at lunch?"

"Definitely." Vicky gave Zach a level stare. "No arm-wrestling or tapioca. Just saying."

Zach gazed blandly back. "Of course not. There is no longer any need for either one."

And off we went to class.


Coil


Calvert had been expecting to be directed back into the continental United States, but instead he was travelling west. Following instructions from his phone (which he also noticed hadn't needed to be charged in days) he and Creep had left the vehicle in the long-term parking lot at the nearest airport and caught a plane.

For some reason, he'd expected the animated corpse to zip up his body bag and allow Calvert to take him through as checked luggage, but that wasn't to be so. Nobody seemed to look twice as the dead man, complete with corpse-white skin, black nails and bullet-hole in the middle of his forehead, shuffled in the partially unzipped body-bag up to the check-out counter along with Calvert himself. It utterly failed to surprise him that two boarding passes were already waiting for them, under the names of C. Oil and C. Reep, or that the passes actually got them onto the plane.

Calvert took the window seat—if he was to be jerked hither and yon across the landscape, he was going to do it on his own terms—and settled in for the ride. On receiving the boarding pass, he'd looked at the destination and discovered that it was Anchorage, Alaska. What he was needed for in Alaska, he had no idea, but he figured he would find out.

Beside him, Creep obediently buckled his lap-strap, accepted a complimentary packet of peanuts from a politely oblivious flight attendant, and sat there munching on the nuts. Calvert tried to avoid thinking about exactly why Creep would need to eat, and what was going to happen to the nuts once they were ingested. Instead, he looked out the window at the tarmac and waited patiently for takeoff.


Taylor
That Afternoon


Zach and I strolled out of Arcadia (Arcadia! I still had trouble believing that!) alongside Vicky and Amy. It seemed the blonde genuinely wanted to make amends with Zach, because now she was trying to figure out just how strong he really was. Amy and I were exchanging amused glances at Zach's less than fully informative answers. From all appearances, Amy was positively blooming since Zach had taken her powers away; she was wearing bright clothing and had a much more confident step.

"I am not as strong as my older brother, but I am stronger than my sister," Zach told Vicky. "I am about as strong as my second-oldest brother. However, his arms are much longer than mine, so he can apply more leverage."

"But how strong is that?" pressed Vicky. "I know I can bench-press a cement truck, and you're stronger than that. A whole semi-truck? How many tons?"

"I have never tested my strength to its full, Victoria Dallon." Zach seemed oblivious to her frustration; I personally couldn't tell if he was pulling her leg or not. "The question has never come up until now."

"Come on, Vicky." Amy hid a smile. "Not everyone is as obsessed with exactly who's stronger than each other as you are. Leave the poor guy alone."

"But what if you went up against the Endbringers?" Vicky was nothing if not persistent. "It's always a good idea to know just how strong you really are."

Zach gave her a bland look. "Why would I battle the Endbringers?" he asked. "They are not attacking anymore." Turning to me, he held out his elbow. "Are you ready to go, Taylor? We have more important things to do, today."

"Sure." I linked my arm through his. "See you later, guys. Have a good one."

"Wait, wait!" Vicky raised her voice but she didn't try to physically stop him, which just proved she could learn. "They aren't attacking anymore? What do you mean by that?"

"I mean they are not attacking anymore," Zach responded, as if he'd said nothing at all out of the ordinary. "Have an enjoyable evening." Scooping me into his arms, he took a step, then stopped. "Taylor, I am about to exceed the speed of sound over a great distance."

I nodded. "Thanks for the warning. Let's do this."

We blurred away.


Amy Dallon


"Speed of sound?" demanded Vicky. "He can jump across the city and beat the speed of sound on foot? How is that even fair?"

Amy rolled her eyes, though she was more amused at the situation than she let on. "This again? Seriously, Vicky, I thought you'd learned your lesson about Zach by now. That boy makes his own rules. If someone says he can't do something, he does it anyway. Just to prove he can. And if it's about Taylor's well-being, he breaks the rules even harder."

"Hmm." Vicky frowned, clearly discontented but unable to do anything about it. "Okay, fine. What did he mean about the Endbringers not attacking anymore? Was he just pulling our legs, or does he know something we don't?"

That was definitely a huge question to ask and answer. "I honestly … have no idea," Amy confessed. "Taylor says he doesn't lie. If I had to choose, I'd bet on him knowing something we don't. I mean, there was that Uber and Leet thing yesterday. If it wasn't a fake Simurgh, I mean."

Vicky blinked, discontentment giving way to confusion. "But … if that's true, it would be fantastic news. If he knows something like that for certain, why isn't he shouting it from the rooftops?"

Amy could only offer a conjecture for that one. "He doesn't seem to be all that interested by it."

"But … why not?"

"That's something we're just going to have to ask him when we see him next."


Taylor


It was night-time when Zach stopped and let me down. Or rather, it was night-time where Zach stopped. We hadn't been moving for more than a few seconds, but all I'd gotten was an impression of blurred speed over water, followed by a flickering landscape going by too fast to pick out any details.

I felt dry earth crunching quietly under my feet, and I frowned. "Where are we?"

"We are in northern Africa," Zach said happily, just as my glasses popped up a latitude and longitude reading, then displayed a wireframe globe confirming Zach's explanation. "The one we are looking for is just over that hill. Could you take us to the top, please?" He pointed behind me, and I turned to see a low hill. Normally, I would've needed the glasses to pick it out against the starry night, but there was a distant glow framing it, reminiscent of city lights or a car's headlights.

"I can do that," I agreed, and took hold of his arm. A moment later, I had fixed on a location, then I triggered the teleport.

We arrived at the top of the hill, and I saw exactly what he was talking about. In the distance was a roiling mass of fire and smoke. I would've thought it was stationary, but my glasses enhanced the image to show me a long trail of charred destruction leading away from the constantly regenerating explosion.

"Wait," I said. "That's … uh …" Memory failed me, but my glasses didn't; the name ASH BEAST scrolled up one of the lenses, followed by a brief dossier. "Ash Beast," I concluded a moment later. "We're here for his powers?"

Zach smiled happily. "This is a good thing for him, and a good thing for us," he agreed. "He cannot turn his powers off at all. He has been alone ever since he Triggered, walking and spreading destruction."

"Ouch." I winced. "That's got to suck in so many ways." I made sure my jacket was zipped all the way up. "Do we teleport into the middle? Or what do you want to do?"

"We will jump to the edge of the effect," Zach said. "And then you may do the rest."

"Oh, okay." I pulled out the Idiot Ball. "Are we going to need this?"

He nodded, looking pleased. "Yes, Taylor. Your presence will make this much easier."

"Cool." His words gave me confidence and made me feel less like I was a fifth wheel. "Let's do this."

The jump was only a short one; we landed just a few yards short of the leading edge of destruction. As it advanced slowly toward us, I hefted the Idiot Ball. My eyes couldn't see through the fire and smoke and dust, but my glasses pinpointed a humanoid form in the centre of it all. Flicking my wrist, I threw the ball.

It crossed the distance in a fraction of a second, struck true, and arced up back toward me. At the same time, the ongoing chaos before us faded away to nothing. Only the presence of the blackened, destroyed land showed that Ash Beast had ever been there. Zach moved from my side and back again so quickly I didn't have time to react; when he returned, there was a young man of Middle Eastern appearance with him.

The guy looked maybe twenty, but it was hard to tell with his long hair and scraggly beard. His clothing was beyond ragged, basically hanging off his body. As he gaped at us, Zach produced a robe out of nowhere and hung it over the guy's shoulders; he clutched it around his body, affording him a moderate level of modesty.

When he spoke, it was in a language I didn't know (not surprising; English and high school Spanish do not a polyglot make) but then my glasses started translating for me. Because of course they did.

Who are you? How did you do that? Am I free? How long has it been?

"I cannot speak his language," Zach said. "Your earpiece will allow you to communicate with him."

"Oh, okay." Somehow, I'd expected Zach to call on his sister to help out. "Yeah, he's just asked who we are and how we did that. Also, he wants to know if he's free of his power, I guess, and how long it's been."

Turning to the man who had been Ash Beast up until thirty seconds ago, I cleared my throat and concentrated on telling my earpiece to do what Zach had said. A notification popped up on one lens of my glasses: Translating.

"We're friends," I said. "I'm Taylor and this is Zachary. Your power is currently on hold, but we can take it away permanently if you want. I'm sorry but I don't know how long it's been, exactly. Years, I think."

As I spoke, the earpiece emitted an audible hum; the guy's eyes widened with recognition and he listened intently to what I was saying.

Yes, yes, please take it away, he said, nodding urgently for emphasis. So far have I walked, so many things I've destroyed. I had thought I was going mad, that I would walk until the world ended.

I gave Zach a nod. "He says he's okay with you taking the power permanently. But … is it just me, or is he really lucid for someone who's just effectively come out of solitary after years without seeing another person? He thought he was going mad. Has he?"

"He is not exactly sane, no," Zach confirmed. "I am manipulating his perceptions so he believes he is conversing with a hallucination." Stepping forward, he placed his hand on Ash Beast's forehead then pulled back again; a shining image of a lion-headed man stepped forth, attached to Zach's hand.

While Zach bundled up the power, I moved over to the now ex force of nature. "Let me help you," I said. "Let me heal your pain."

If you can, please do it. His face was twisted with anguish. Or kill me. I deserve to die.

"I'm not going to kill you." I put my hand where Zach had, and felt the shape of his tortured mind. His thoughts were fragmented, only Zach's influence keeping them all pointed in the same direction at the same time. Carefully, I reassembled his shattered psyche, smoothing out the scars and giving him a dash of hope for the future. His memories of being Ash Beast I dulled and made distant, so he wouldn't drive himself mad again with guilt.

When I lifted my hand, he fell to his knees, staring up at me with almost religious awe.

Who are you?

"I'm nobody special." And I wasn't. Zach was the one who did all the amazing stuff. I was basically along for the ride. "Just … you've got a second chance, okay?"

A heavy backpack and a large canteen sloshing with water dropped to the ground beside the guy. "Tell him there is food and other supplies in the pack," Zach said, then pointed. "And if he walks in that direction, he will reach the nearest town in about a day."

I passed on the instructions, then turned to Zach. "Okay, I'm ready to go. Are we done here?"

He smiled at me. "We are done here."

"Cool. Where are we going now?"

He scooped me into his arms. "We are going south."

And we blurred away again, across the arid landscape.


The Man Once Known as Ash Beast


Hashim stared at where the European teenagers had been standing. Or perhaps they'd been American; he could not tell. What he could tell was that they were as he had been, touched with powers beyond those of mortal man. Opening the pack, he found food both fresh and dried, as well as sturdy sandals and more clothing to go with the robes.

Eating his first food in he knew not how many years, he almost moaned in pleasure at the taste of fruit on his tongue. Almost, he could have thought it a dream, except that even in his waking hallucinations food never tasted of anything but ash. The canteen was at hand, and he unscrewed the top and took a long drink, more pleasure exploding throughout his body.

Once he had sated his immediate appetite, he dressed himself properly and slid his feet into the sandals. The pack went on his back and the canteen over his shoulder on its strap. The direction the girl—Taylor, she had called herself, though he likened her more to one of the malaikah for her mercy and healing—had pointed out was easy to follow. As he moved off, an odd thought kept intruding into his head.

She had a really nice jacket.


Coil
Alaska


Calvert honestly would not have believed the Russian mafia had such a presence in Anchorage if he hadn't seen it for himself. Once he'd hired out the rugged 4x4, the apparently aimless route he'd been instructed to follow through the city had taken him past one location after another where it was clear to someone with his training exactly what was going on. But neither had he been told to stop and do something about it; just take note and move on.

Even here, the local PRT office can't keep on top of things.

They headed out of the city up past the Knik Arm then turned northwest, with Creep croaking the occasional direction or even just pointing. Calvert began to suspect what was going on a little before he saw the barriers across the road. Still, the instructions hadn't said to stop, so he kept going.

The PRT trooper who waved him down looked harried and irritated, quite likely because he was sick of idiot tourists coming north at this time of year. Calvert rolled the window down, letting in a blast of freezing air. "What's the situation, officer?"

"The situation, sir, is that this area is a no-go zone. There's a dangerous parahuman up ahead, and nobody is allowed past." The trooper didn't say you dumbass but Calvert heard it clearly anyway.

He frowned. The only problematic cape who might be in this area of the world would be … Ah, shit. Sleeper. That was a problem, alright. His powers worked well against normal people, but S-class threats who created storms that ravaged the landscape were another thing altogether.

His phone pinged, and he glanced at it. Turn around and drive back half a mile.

"Right, then. Sorry to have disturbed you." He worked the 4x4 in a rough circle, then drove back down the road, keeping an eye on the odometer for the half-mile mark. When he reached it, he didn't need the gesture from Creep to turn off into the barely visible side-road.

As they trundled down the oddly clear track, a sudden crack from behind made him jump. Looking in the rear-vision, he saw that a snow-laden branch had fallen on the road, conveniently erasing the signs that they'd turned onto the side road. This was not even close to the weirdest thing that had happened to him so far; he kept driving.


Taylor


It was still night-time when we stopped, so I figured we were still in Africa. Apart from the surrounding area being a little more fertile, I had no clues as to where we were; at least until my glasses gave me latitude and longitude. We were down near the Tropic of Capricorn.

Once Zach put me on my feet, I stretched and shook out my arms. "I'm guessing there's a reason we're here," I said. "But I'm not sure what it is."

"Before, we faced a monster all unknowing," Zach said. "This one knows what she is and does not care." He pointed along the shallow valley in which we stood. "We need to go five miles four hundred thirty-two feet that way, and sixteen feet higher in elevation."

As with every other time he'd given me instruction like that, I somehow knew exactly where we needed to go. Taking Zach's arm in mine, I triggered the teleport, then blinked as we appeared in the middle of a bunch of buildings. Somewhere off out of sight, a generator thudded away gently, providing the sharp electric light visible here and there.

Across the way from us, a dreadlocked woman with an immense skull-headed sinuous shadow beside her faced down a bent old man.

—we have nobody to spare, the old man said, his words appearing on my glasses like before. Please, we need everyone to help in the fields.

The woman took a step forward, and the crocodile skull raised up alongside her to tower over the old man. Her voice, when she spoke, was sharp-edged and arrogant. You agreed to the bargain. My protection comes at a price. If you cannot choose someone to give their life, I will.

I knew who the woman was even before my glasses outlined both her and the living shadow in light, and provided names. "Moord Nag," I whispered to Zach. "She wants him to provide someone as a sacrifice, but he's saying they can't spare anyone from working in the fields."

I knew how this was going to go. She would murder the old guy, then anyone else she felt like, before moving on. Back home in America, Moord Nag would be a villain on the scale of the Nine. Here, she was a warlord who literally subsisted on slaughter.

Zach stepped forward, and I moved with him. "Excuse me!" he called out. "Have you heard the one about why firemen wear red suspenders?"

The old man's head snapped around to stare at us, as did Moord Nag's. Even the crocodile skull seemed to blink a few times, as if to say where did you come from?

Dutifully, I repeated what he'd said, allowing my earpiece to translate my words.

What is this? demanded Moord Nag. Who are you, and why are Americans in my territory?

"She wants to know who we are, and why we're here," I murmured, then raised my voice. "This is the end of you gouging more out of these people than they can pay," I told her. "I'm Taylor and this is Zach. He doesn't bother following rules very often."

Zach grinned, though the expression seemed to have a few more teeth in it than normal for him. "Tell her that if her pet snake can get me, it can have me." He spread his arms wide, the epitome of harmlessness.

I repeated his words, and the woman's gaze narrowed. His terms are accepted. I will also be taking your jacket. I like it.

"Yeah, that'll be the day," I muttered, then raised my voice to normal speech levels. "Come and get it."

Scavenger, said the woman. Feed.

The shadow-creature lunged forward, its crocodile-skull maw opening wide. Despite knowing exactly what Zach could do, I was almost worried for a moment. He put out his hand and caught it by the bottom jaw, then pulled it to him. I watched as he began to fold it up like a gigantic napkin, the skull swirling and spinning within the shadowed body.

Scavenger! shouted the woman, her voice sounding panicky for the first time. Back to me!

"It is too late, you know," Zach said almost conversationally. "If you had chosen to be nice about it, we might have done this away from witnesses. But now, everyone is going to see you lose your power." He wasn't even out of breath as he wrestled the shadow-snake into submission.

I repeated his words for her benefit, and she fixed on me. You. You did this. I will kill you.

The large knife came out of nowhere. She started toward me, blade gleaming in the electric lights. I didn't know much about fighting and Zach was occupied, but that didn't matter; my jacket gave me all the capability I needed. With the toe of my sneaker, I teased a rock free from the ground and flicked it into the air. Catching it without even looking, I threw it hard. Moord Nag was three yards away when the rock caught her just above the right eye, sending her over backward onto the ground.

Zach finished packing up the power and made it disappear, then looked admiringly at what I'd done. "That was very impressive, Taylor. My sister gave it nine and a half out of ten, but she always downgrades anything that does not use telekinesis."

People were peering out of dwellings as I linked my arm through his. "Because of course she would. Was that all, or did we have more places to go?"

"Oh, just one more place," he said cheerfully. "It will even be daylight!"

"Good." I glanced back at Moord Nag as she began to stir, shaking her head groggily. "Do we need to do anything about her?"

"Not unless you want to." Zach's tone was supremely uncaring. "She will either learn to run very fast in the next few minutes … or she will not."

I considered that, then decided it really wasn't my problem. "So, are we running, jumping or teleporting?"

"We can teleport if you wish," he said generously, and pointed a little west of what my glasses told me was due north. "We need to travel nine thousand, six hundred and thirty-four miles, one thousand two hundred and seventeen feet that way. Our elevation will be three thousand one hundred and twenty-three feet lower."

That was a sight farther than I'd ever teleported in one shot before, but I didn't want to let Zach down. Taking a deep breath, I let the glasses throw me up a map. It seemed we were going to … "Alaska? Why are we going to Alaska?"

"There is another powerset I require." Zach's tone was relentlessly cheerful. "This is all part of the plan for keeping you safe and happy."

I liked being safe and happy, and Zach was very good at managing that part of his job, so I decided not to argue the point. Besides, everywhere I went with him, I met all sorts of interesting people. Fixing the coordinates in my mind, I triggered the teleport.

We went from night to broad daylight, from slightly muggy warmth to bone-deep chill, all in the same instant. Almost immediately, I saw weird gusts of wind, almost rainbow-hued, picking up snow and swirling it around. Questioningly, I pointed.

"Your ball," Zach said immediately. He pointed to the north. "There is just one parahuman in that direction. Throw it, now."

I did as he said, and the ball whipped out of sight almost immediately. A second later, as Zach put his arm around me, I saw distortions crowding out of the air and the rainbow hues thickening visibly. And then the landscape around us exploded into fire and smoke.

"Zach?" I asked. "What's going on?"

"Sleeper has come to Alaska," he said in his matter-of-fact tone. "While he is on the North American continent, he is a threat to you. He detected our arrival, and the fact that you launched the ball. I am using Ash Beast's power to protect us both."

"Both?" I blinked. "Can't you just … no-sell his power, like every other one?"

"It is extremely potent," he explained. "My sister, for one, would not be strong enough to withstand it. While I might be able to protect myself, I would not be able to keep you safe before I overcame him. But with Ash Beast's power to stand between him and us, we merely have to wait."

"Wait?" I asked. "Wait for what?"

As an answer, he dropped Ash Beast's power. We stood in a circle that had been devastated by fire and explosion, but the forest beyond was equally destroyed; trees brought down to ground level and shredded into toothpicks. "For your ball to get to him," he answered me with a grin.

Scooping me up in his arms, he moved yet again; when the world came to a halt once more, I saw a human figure gesturing, rainbow hues starting to emerge from his hands and arms. The Idiot Ball was hovering beside him, caught in the rainbow aura. I began to get an inkling of what Zach had meant by 'extremely potent'.

Zach held out his hand and the black shadow snake billowed forth, a Tyrannosaurus rex skull forming for its head. It lunged for Sleeper, clamping its jaws down on him and wrapping its shadow-body around his. Eyeing the struggling figures, Zach moved closer, reaching for a trailing wisp of rainbow-stuff. I couldn't do anything physical without leafing through the little black book, but I could use the powers inherent in the items I was wearing.

Twice Sleeper tore Scavenger in half and reached for Zach, and twice I used my Gray Boy bracelet to rewind time. I hadn't used the ability to cause pain before this point, but now I hammered Sleeper with it, over and over. He roared in anger and fought back, gradually but inexorably gaining the upper hand again.

A tendril of the half-visible rainbow-stuff came licking out at me, and I dived frantically to the side—


Coil


Calvert pulled the 4x4 to a halt at the top of a low range of hills. There was no more road to be had, so he turned off the engine and let the silence crash in again, broken only by the ticking of the hot metal as it cooled. "What now?" he asked.

Creep turned to the back seat of the hire vehicle and pulled aside a canvas cover to show something that Calvert was pretty sure wasn't part of the lease arrangement. It was a rifle, but oh what a rifle. This wasn't some piddly little .308 or even a .50 calibre affair. No, this baby had a barrel wider than anything he'd ever seen before. If he had to make an estimate, it wouldn't fall far short of an inch of interior bore.

Climbing out of the vehicle, Calvert opened the back door and slid the massive gun out, noting that the scope was of a type that would let him count the ass hairs on an elephant at two miles. He grunted as he hefted it, then looked around. There was nothing to shoot except trees and snow. Even if he flushed a rabbit or fox, one shot from this thing would render it into a fine spray of pink mist, spread over about ten square yards of forest.

That was when the storm roared into being, not five yards away. "Jesus fuck!" Calvert stepped back involuntarily, bringing up the rifle but still having no available target. He'd attended the PRT briefings about Sleeper's storm, and how nothing could withstand it. Even the toughest capes were likely to die. He wasn't about to shoot into it at random, just in case he drew Sleeper's attention.

And then, just as suddenly, the reality-warping waves of rainbow-hued energy subsided, leaving a devastated landscape before him. He didn't need Creep's gesture; he knew damn well that where he was required to be was within Sleeper's radius.

Swearing under his breath, he humped the rifle up the low rise until he reached the very summit, then brought the rifle up so he could peer through the scope. A twinkle of rainbow light caught his off-eye, and he swung the scope and zoomed in.

There he was. Zachary, the agent of Calvert's destruction. Right alongside him was the Hebert girl, wearing a high-fashion jacket. Both of them were battling Sleeper, throwing everything they had at him … and he was still winning.

He dropped to his knees right where he was. One hand unfolded the bipod so that when he went forward onto his belly on the slushy ground, the rifle was supported. His shoulder rolled forward to make firm contact with the butt of the rifle, and his eye fell into line along the scope again.

He worked the bolt and chambered a round while he steadied his breathing. In … out … in … out.

The scene swam into view as he wriggled around minutely. He automatically adjusted the scope for the range, then slid his finger into the trigger guard. The crosshairs fell onto target as he breathed in; he held for a moment and breathed out.

Just as he stroked the trigger, a flicker of rainbow movement lashed out toward the girl.

The rifle bellowed, a truly massive flare bursting out in all directions from the muzzle-brake. Calvert barely felt the kick as he tried to keep his eye to the scope.


Taylor


I fell and rolled frantically, but it was like a living thing. Once, twice, three times, it struck at me, annihilating dirt and rocks in its path and carving divots in the ground. Another was wrapped around Zach, the Scavenger shadow nowhere in sight. Zach's eyes sought mine, and I knew he was trying to tell me to teleport away. But my glasses had fallen off, and I couldn't fix on a target that would let me save Zach as well.

And then Sleeper's head … exploded.

There wasn't just a genteel spray from one side, like I'd seen in movies when someone got shot in the head. His entire head just … went missing. Zach and I were both splattered with the remains; I was absolutely going to need a shower after this. A few seconds later, as I was sitting up and looking around, I heard the distant thunder of what had to be a rifle shot.

"Wow," I said, getting up and going to help Zach to his feet. "Are you okay? What was that?"

Zach smiled as he began gathering in Sleeper's power, skein after rainbow-sheened skein of it.

"Someone else my sister has in play. He has been very useful."


Coil


Calvert watched as the boy finished doing what he was doing. Turning, Zachary looked directly at where Calvert lay on the hilltop and raised his hand in a wave. Reflexively, Calvert lifted his own hand in an answering wave. A moment later, boy and girl were both gone, vanished into the aether.

Standing up, Calvert picked up the rifle and began lugging it back toward the 4x4. He didn't know for a fact that he'd need it again, and his shoulder felt like one huge bruise, but he was going to call today a success.


End of Part Twenty-One