As Bonesaw and Jack laughed my phone started ringing. The same lyrics to 'Sour Girl' repeat. Oni Lee's sounds of despair halted as I shoved my hand in my tool belt to retrieve the phone.
"That, Me. Devil, is probably Skitter", behind my mask, sweat stung my eyes as I looked up at Jack as he addressed me.
"This is- this is my girlfriend's ringtone", I blurted. It wasn't a lie but in the moment maybe I wanted to shade the truth a little, give it some sprinkling of camouflage. Skitter and Anne are one in the same yet for some insane reason I know that Jack doesn't know that but I was still remaining honest with Jack. Why am I being honest?
No clue.
"Aww", Bonesaw apparently found that either adorable or sad, I was more concerned how Jack would know Skitter would be calling me.
My brain started going off on the idea of a pound of nails and a pound of feathers. Hoping that maybe this information while obvious wasn't immediately obvious, and every second I had these two attention was a second Abuela and Annie were still alive...
Unless Skitter is calling because the rest of the Nine are tap dancing across her territory?
Shit.
"You may want to answer it, if you believe it's rude to have us waiting?" Jack spoke and pulled a knife from his waistband and started flicking it out at Oni Lee who barely dodged the swipes with flaps of his skin wings attached to his stupid head.
I slapped the phone to my head and my thumb hit 'answer', "Beautiful?"
"Attack on territory, warehouse near construction area. Come, now!" Her call ended abruptly.
I lowered the phone from my head, "Work site emergency. It sounds really bad. She made it sound urgent to see her, can I go?"
"Oh, a work site emergency? When Skitter should be calling you for help. Interesting."
"Yeah, Jack - wasn't Mannequin going to visit Skitter's territory to do what he does?"
MANNEQUIN? THE FREAK JOB TINKER WITH THE DOLL BODY!
Crap in a hat.
The two were bantering back and forth, grins growing on their faces as I stood there waiting to be dismissed.
The suspense was killing me.
I felt like a wolf, leg caught in a bear trap, and I was waiting for the hunters to decide to put me out of my misery or wander off so I could gnaw my leg off. Neither option was great but I'd prefer the option to run even if it was just into a different danger.
"Jack, I think we should let him go, I mean the trial hasn't even started yet."
"Tsk, doesn't know the rules, right?"
"Nope. It's not fun without the rules. You make up such interesting ones."
"Very true, Bonesaw. Alright, you're a strange little man but you can g-"
And I was gone, I zipped off and my brain tried to remember the big details in the fraction of a second it took to arrive at the work site.
No rules yet.
A trial.
Recruitment.
Involuntary.
Fun?
I watched as the ice white, lanky freak spun on the tip of its foot and long blades helicopterped around as its arms stretched out. Skitter dodged this attack and her swarm was dumping strands of silk into the vortex of tinker blades and psychotic energy.
My armored love dodged attack after attack, her telescoping baton her only weapon at hand. I stayed back a moment longer in my dust form and I could pick up Skitter humming to herself. Verbalizing the pattern of Mannequin's attacks to herself but her swarm was droning louder than usual to cover it up.
The tinker hadn't noticed my presence, his entire focus seemed to be on Skitter.
Taylor called for me to come, as much as I want to save her... she'd want to protect the people first, this - this was her buying them time, me time.
I heard an almost animal-like whine near me. My consciousness scanned the area around me before I realized the winds of my dust form was the source, vocalizing how I felt without my command.
Being a Parahuman was such a damn strange thing.
I swapped back to being a costumed Dust Devil.
"Get that fucker!" a scared but angry worker said, his shirt was off and pressed against one of the wounded. The soaked in red a stark contrast to the white of the graphic tee as they cradled the victim on the asphalt of the street.
I strode forward as the sunlight beat down on me. The Sky blue, winds blowing just right to cut through the material and help wick the sweat from beneath my tight costume. The air didn't circulate so well in the building, and watching Mannequin slash and dash at Taylor was making me furious.
Was he recruiting her? What was the point of attacking her? Her territory? It didn't make sense she was just helping people.
Jack, Bonesaw, now Mannequin.
Fuck.
Usually Shatterbird made a big entrance when they were ready to do their thing but she hadn't and Bonesaw said they hadn't made any rules. So maybe they're just reaching out, picking recruits - Oni Lee was one.
GET YOUR BRAIN ON TASK, ALCARAZ! DOES IT LOOK LIKE TAYLOR'S WINNING HERE?
I kept marching forward directly at Mannequin, getting the people huddled in the corners out of the way won't work so long as he's acting like one of those Japanese anime tops.
The freak slashed at Taylor and its head swiveled at me. It would be unnerving but I saw Oni Lee's head hovering like a hummingbird a couple minutes ago so I'm all stocked up on crazy today.
He kicked a leg out at me, the chains trailing the limb making a sound like Armsmaster's halberd accessory from my action figure. The blade stuck out from where the foot's toes should be and passed through my dust form. I materialized in a squat near his other leg that held his body up. I kick out bracing myself against the bloodied concrete and his body buckled as the heel of my foot connected
Mannequin reeled in his limbs and I dematerialized as they snapped into place. From my dust form I watched Skitter call people to her and use her armored body as a shield between them and the psychotic tinker.
Mannequin was - Sphere. A tinker who was working on saving the world from itself until an Endbringer attack. His name was Albert or Alphonse or something with an A.
Algernon?
I tried my best not to be noticeable but again the circulation sucked in the building so I was the only real source of wind filtering through.
His featureless head did not track me but his limbs did. The blade tips pointed in different directions like his arms weren't sure where to spear out next should I materialize in his range. I mean I just showed this asshole I can appear anywhere I want and he can't stop me. He can't fight me in a meaningful way, and considering Skitter held him at bay meant he'd have to go after the survivors here or duck out.
And this building was already cleaned out. It was mostly grit and dirt tracked in from people's feet that remained for me to work with. I'd have to leave to get material to make a body to fight properly. Instead, I was going to play reverse whack-a-mole and...
Like he could read my mind Mannequin swung both arms in wide arcs, letting his bladed arms pull the chains feeding out from his torso. Both arms making wide arcs in front of him making haphazard scissors to catch Skitter in their closing.
Just like the little arcade Mole I was armed only with my body and sudden surprising speed. I zipped over the crossing blades and dropped my full weight on the top limb as they crossed each other deflecting them downwards. The tips scraped and dug into the floor as Skitter dove forward and to the side. Her long arms pushed the people clear of the doorway and one of the tinker's toe blades slashed through my dust form as my breaker state saved me from certain impalement again.
WHERE DOES HE GET THE ENERGY TO KEEP THIS UP?!
Reeling in his arms, Mannequin walked through me and kicked at Skitter, who blocked the toe blade with her baton. I used the moment to materialize behind the tinker who elbowed me with both limbs and one caught me in the bone between the neck and shoulder. The hard, I guess, ceramic armor did it's job as I felt a sharp pain flare up when I ducked right before he twisted his upper torso to start spinning like a demented top.
Trying to keep my left arm up as I hunched down was incredibly and excruciatingly painful. Instead of trying to kill me, each follow up hit was him just trying to hurt me and I guess my power thinks pain is only temporary. Well, it sucks to be wrong cuz my damn left arm is becoming useless here.
My body jerked as I took a reversed knee to the leg. Mannequin was double or triple jointed, of course, and I collapsed to the floor. On instinct I fell to all fours and that was a damn big mistake as my left arm went weak and I almost ended up on my face under this ken doll crotch having bastard.
As we scrapped, I caught glimpses of Taylor helping get people out as I distracted the creepy ass serial killer. I really could not raise my left arm so I resorted to using my breaker state to appear and shove with my right shoulder or just kicking out with my legs to knock the tinker around and just harass him.
After a couple minutes I successfully pushed him into the middle of the building. By then over half the people stuck were led out by Skitter or had dashed out while I deflected attacks.
Suddenly Mannequin gave slack to his arms and shifted his weight from shoulder to shoulder as his arms started windmilling, blades scraping against the floor turning his whole body into a buzzsaw the flurry of blades and chain started herding the last of the survivors trapped in the building with us towards the corners of the back of the near empty storage building.
This attack left a tiny space to attack him from near the floor where the chain blades could not cut through his legs or the floor itself. It was going to be a risk even if I used my dust form to get past the blades and chains. It'd be like materializing inside of a wood chipper. There is no easy way out of this fight. So I just have to end it.
Somehow.
I swapped to my dust form and let my breaker state pick up the grit and particles Mannequin's attack is creating. I navigated through his blades and the gaps where his chains are feeding through are almost non-existent. I remember I can pass through the PRT tinker air filters by figuring out the weakness in their design. I use bits of my dust form to probe the gaps in his limbs all at once.
As I cram dirt and dust and grit into the small spaces the rotation of his blades and chain feed slows then starts locking up. I struggle to get inside his weird pods but it's no good. But I do notice the weight of his limbs start jerking the tinker around.
I backed out the grit from one of his chain feeds and the slack flew out sending the limb and blade into the rafters getting stuck in the metal rails supporting the roof. He tried to reel it back to himself but it actually yanked him up off his feet.
Strung up like a puppet I jam the concrete grit back into the fine gears, leaving the tinker dangling uselessly a couple feet from the ground.
Seconds pass as the freak occasionally tries to shake me loose. A leg or free arm twitching or bending at an odd angle to no avail. I had him, and he had me.
Stalemate.