The next day, Ms. Liberty pulled up outside my house bright and early in the morning—damn all Saturdays, anyway-piled me into her car, which had huge seats, by the way, and drove the two of us out into the country to an old farmhouse that probably hadn't seen a coat of paint at any point since Scion first appeared over the ocean.
"Like your father suggested," she said, "I've set up a number of different magical fields and spells for you to try to track and sense. We'll start with your trying to find each one, and seeing how long that takes. Then, when I decide you've had enough time to get used to sensing different types of magic, I'll create an obstacle course, and you'll run it."
I blinked, and then turned, and stared at her.
"An obstacle course?" I asked, disbelief in my voice.
"That's right," she said. "Wizards are squishy. Despite how flexible magic is, we're naturally inclined to be Blasters, Thinkers, and Shakers. Not Brutes or Movers. We can't take a hit like a Changer, and we can't just shut down our opponents like a Trump, and the mechanics of magic mean that we typically can't conjure an endless army of minions to fight in our place. All of which means that we can't rely on our opponents not getting close enough to hit us. Add that to the fact that everybody knows that the best way to handle a Master's minions is to take out the Master, and you're going to need to move, and move quickly, to get away. Not to mention being prepared for close combat. So...an obstacle course. We'll be running it a few times a week, in addition to your morning run, so you can build up some muscle, and get used to sensing and responding to things quickly. And yes, I will change both the nature of the obstacles, and the magic you'll need to be sensing, on a regular basis."
"Oh," I said, sighing. "I guess I'd better get started, then."
She nodded.
"Alright," she said. "Let's start with making sure you can sense the magic in the first place. Now...close your eyes, and try to sense the magic around you."
I stared at the mice dancing in a tiny circle around me, and then looked back up at Ms. Liberty.
"That...could be a problem," I told her. She gave me an unimpressed look, and I shrugged.
"I'm not picking up anything, unless they're involved," I told her. "I've tried everything I can think of, but...without the mice, or the rats, or the squirrels, or whatever, I'm not sensing anything."
Ms. Liberty sighed.
"Well," she said, sounding like she was trying hard to be philosophical, "I have been told that your magic would almost certainly manifest itself through your powers. I suppose that this is the living proof of that."
I shook my head, and reached out to my mind to release the mice, who all promptly sat down, and stared up at me.
"This is going to be a problem," I repeated. "I'm pretty sure I can't afford to have a bunch of mice meditating, or chanting, or even doing a sacred mouse dance whenever I need to try to sense magic. If for no other reason than because it would be a ridiculously cumbersome way to operate in almost all circumstances. I need to be able to do this on the move, not just when I can take the time to set up and prepare."
"Yes," Ms. Liberty said, her tone shifting towards the thoughtful. "And even if you can get it so that you don't need to do much in the way of setup, you will likely need to be able to move for more than a few city blocks in any given direction."
She appeared to have come to a decision about this, as she nodded, and the gave me a direct look.
"In the meantime," she said, "There should be a few loaves of bread in the farmhouse kitchen. I would suggest that you feed the mice, and then get ready to try and make a run on the obstacle course. I want to see how well you can maintain this connection, once you've got it started."
I blinked, and turned to stare at the abandoned-looking building behind us.
"Why would there be loaves of bread in that house?" I asked her. "I don't think anybody's lived there for years."
She gave me a visibly amused smile.
"Go inside and find out," she told me.
The obstacle course was awful, of course. I mean...okay, you know all those movies you see, with the awful training sequences that new recruits in the military supposedly go through. I think Ms. Liberty watched all of those movies. And she took notes. And then she sat down, and thought long and hard about how she could make it worse.
She threw spells at me. She set up little magic landmine-type traps. She rigged up artificial mud pits, and water pits, and walls for me to climb, and trees for me to swing between, and stuff to crawl under, and...and it was awful. No two ways about it. No wonder they kill people, in the Army. By the time you've run through a course like that a few times, you're probably ready to kill anybody who gets between you and a hot shower.
I was pretty sure that, by the time I got home, I was going to have to pitch these clothes in the trash, rather than try to wash them, they were so dirty. Well...okay, I was going to wash them, because clothes are expensive, and I don't want to throw some of my favorites out, but, still. It's the principle of the thing.
And then, when I got back to Ms. Liberty's car—the towels covering the passenger seat made a lot more sense, now—there was a message on my cell phone, which Ms. Liberty had insisted that I shouldn't take on the obstacle course, because magic and electronics don't really mix...and because I would likely lose it, I suspect. I mean, come on. I can carve runes into rods or staffs (or is it staves?) to help focus magic, it shouldn't be that hard to put runes on my cell phone to disperse or repel magic, right?
Ms. Liberty got a really funny look on her face, when I asked that question. I'm not sure why.
Anyway, there was a message waiting for me. From Tattletale, not from Dad. Which was...worrying. Dad calling would have been unusual, possibly bad, but also just as likely not, since, given the ongoing legal circus surrounding our suit against Winslow (because Dad was good at a lot of things, but bluffing wasn't one of them), it might just as easily have been good news as bad. But Tattletale? Somehow, I didn't think that Tattletale was going to be calling to give me good news, or to offer to hang out.
Carefully, I punched in the instructions to play her message, and held the phone up to my ear.
"Hey, Inverse," came Tattletale's voice. "We're...ah...I'm feeling kind of bored right now, and I don't really have anything to do for the next little bit. Want to hang out?"
I stopped, pulled the phone away from my ear, and stared at it, before pushing the button to replay the message.
Sure enough, it was the same on the second playthrough.
Okay, so I was wrong. Guess that'll teach me to try and guess a villain's motives.
Slowly, I pulled the phone away from my ear, and stared at it.
Why on Earth would a cape want to just...hang out? I mean, even villains have to eat, right? Shouldn't she be...I dunno...planning their next heist? Or something?
The blank screen of the phone didn't answer me, and I sighed, before bringing up Tattletale's number, and telling the phone to call her.
"You want me to join your gang?" I asked her, staring at her blankly.
"Yeah," the lavender-costumed villainess—I don't know how I confused her costume for grey and black, that first night—said confidently. "That's about the size of it."
"Why?" was the next word out of my mouth.
Tattletale seemed to hesitate, and then got up from the table at the coffee shop where she'd insisted we meet.
"Hey, wanna go take a look at the park?" she asked, instead of answering. "I hear there's supposed to be some kind of festival setting up. Let's go take a look."
Huh?
I mean, seriously, what did that have to do with me joining a gang?
Eventually, she got me up, and moving towards the nearest park. It wasn't a big place, really, just an empty spot where four or five streets met, that wasn't big enough for houses. So somebody had put a couple of swings, and a jungle gym, and some seesaws, and some benches and tables there, and called it a day.
There was no festival being set up, there. Not that Tattletale seemed to care.
"So," she said, her voice quiet, as we walked. "Two things. Three things, actually, but two that are really important. First of all, Lung."
"What about him?" I asked. "He got picked up by the Protectorate, and now he's in custody. Right?"
"Right. But...thing is, now that he's awake? According to my sources, he's pissed as hell, and swearing revenge on 'that bitch with the lightning bolt' as soon as he can find you."
I frowned, at that.
"But he's locked up," I pointed out. "The PRT's got him, right. So I shouldn't have to worry about that, right?"
"Assuming he stays locked up, no," Tattletale said. "But the thing is, with a high-powered cape like that? There's very few ways to lock him up and keep him locked up. And almost all of those ways involve using cells that are specially built for the job. And there's only so many of those cells available."
"So? Are they all full, or something?"
"No," Tattletale admitted. "But...everybody knows where they are."
"So what...oh."
"Yeah. Oh. Word is, the capes who work for Lung? Nobody's seen them at all for the last three, maybe four days. Word has it that they're planning something big."
I frowned, and tried to remember who could be working for Lung. I knew about most of the capes that the Empire used, of course, but I'd had other things on my mind last weekend, and the week before, so I hadn't really delved too deeply into what capes the other gangs might have at their disposal. I mean, I knew the basics, of course, everybody did, but that wasn't the same thing as keeping track of the latest about them. And last I'd heard, Lung only had one subordinate, a teleporter named Oni Lee, who was rumored to be an absolute psychopath with the absolutely adorable trick of leaving short-lived clones of himself behind when he teleported. Which had to make pinning him down while he attacked an absolute nightmare. But that had been months ago, before I'd Triggered, and before the magic had gotten free, and Ms. Liberty had showed up, and I hadn't had time to keep up with things since then. With the rate that capes kept cropping up in this town, who knew what could have changed?
"Who else does he have?" I finally asked. Heck, for that matter, who else did he need? Nobody was crazy enough to fight Lung. Even the Empire tended to tread lightly around that part of town unless they already knew he was busy elsewhere.
"Oni Lee you know about," came the response. "We mentioned him to you when we met. He's a stone-cold killer, wears a demon mask. Got a nifty little trick where he teleports, but leaves a short-lived clone behind him when he does. He likes to use it for suicide attacks, or to just overwhelm enemies with the sheer number of attacks he can launch. Very handy with a gun, a knife, or a grenade. Very nasty, very ruthless, suspected in a couple dozen murders, and God knows how many injuries and other attacks that never get officially reported to the police. Supposed to have showed up with Lung when Lung first arrived and started welding the Asian gangs together. The new one is Bakuda. Nobody knows where she came from, but she's a Tinker, and a fairly dangerous one, at that. She seems to specialize in bombs. Big ones, little ones, little ones that explode like big ones, and bombs that have even weirder effects."
"So why is it a problem if nobody's seen them for the last few days?" I finally asked. "If they're that dangerous, maybe that's a good thing?"
Tattletale turned, and looked at me, and sighed. For a moment, she looked almost pitying. I just gave a helpless shrug.
"It could happen!" I said defensively.
"This is Brockton Bay," she pointed out, and I could feel myself wilt.
"Right," I said with a sigh. "What was I thinking. Of course they're planning to break him out of jail."
"And when he gets out-" Tattletale started, before I cut her off.
"I know," I said, probably sounding a bit dejected, "he'll be looking for me."
"Right. And this time, I don't think you're going to get another ambush in on him," she said. "Not if he's got people out actively looking for you. That's the advantage of having an established gang, I'm afraid. Which means that you're going to need backup."
"Which means the Wards," I said.
"Which could be a problem," Tattletale said. "Because they told you that there's something keeping you from joining, didn't they?"
I whipped my head around, and stared at her.
"How did you know that?" I asked. She just looked smug.
"Easy," she said. "You were patrolling alone a week ago, you don't have backup already, and you didn't know about Bakuda and Oni Lee not being seen lately. That's the kind of stuff that they brief the Wards on pretty regularly, just in case. But you're a hero type, so if joining the Wards was an option, you'd have already done so. And since you don't seem to have any qualms about asking for help, that probably means you already asked the Wards about joining, and they told you no, not yet. Right?"
I just stared at her, utterly flabbergasted, and her smug expression grew into an outright smirk.
"I thought you couldn't use your power on me, or something!" I finally said accusingly.
"No, I can't use my power to figure out about things you do with your...magic...whatever. The rest is just simple deduction, and I'm good at that. Even without my power."
"Oh," I said. "I guess that makes sense."
"Of course it makes sense. It's me. And I always make sense. I'm awesome like that."
"And so humble, too," I said, putting as much fake admiration as I could muster into my voice.
"Well, when you've got the skills, the truth will out, no matter what you do," she said, giving me a...well, a slightly different smirk. "No need to hide under a bushel, and all that."
"Right," I said, dryly. "So what's your point?"
"My point is that you need some backup. And we need a heavy hitter."
"Why? Last I saw, you guys were doing a pretty good job handling the gangs. Well, except for Lung, anyway, and everybody has problems with him. What could you be looking at that would need a heavy hitter?"
She shrugged.
"Something bigger, obviously," she pointed out.
"Like what? The Empire's out, since they get their money out of town too fast for it to be at risk. If you're right, the ABB don't have the capes on hand to stop you right now, even without a heavy hitter. And the only reason nobody's marched into the Merchants' territory to bankrupt Skidmark is because nobody knows where he keeps his money."
And they'd tried, too, I was sure. Not just the Undersiders, but everybody had tried to bankrupt Skidmark. They had to have, if they wanted anybody else to respect them as villains. Not only were the Merchants the sort of scum that other gangs claimed gave criminals a bad name, but they only had three capes, and two of them were a joke. If it wasn't for Squealer, and the fact that she was known to have built at least one actual tank for her boyfriend, nobody would ever have taken them seriously. Unfortunately, she had built a tank, and, worse, nobody could seem to find that tank to deal with it. And every so often, the Merchants would get pissed, and do a drive-by shooting in a tank just to make the point that they still had it, and everybody would back off.
The closest anybody had ever come to finding the Merchants' tank was back when it had first showed up, when one brave policeman had given them a speeding ticket for doing forty-five miles per hour in a twenty-five mile per hour zone. Which, astonishingly, Skidmark had actually paid. Or so local legend had it.
"That's because we're not supposed to be targeting a gang this time," Tattletale said, slowly. "Look, before I tell you anything more, I need to to ask you something. Your teacher. For the magic, I mean. What's her name?"
I blinked, before I narrowed my eyes at her.
"Why do you ask?" I asked her, my voice low.
"Because I need to know," she said, simply.
"Why?"
She sighed, and gave me a flat look.
"Can't you just trust me?" she asked, and I gave her a flat look right back.
"Right," she said, deflating just a little. "I guess not. Okay. Thing is, we've got a spider problem of our own, if you know what I mean. And I need to find somebody who could help us get an exterminator. You with me so far?"
I blinked, and then gave her a close look.
"I suppose so," I said, carefully. "But if you're looking for some names, my Dad usually handles-"
"I don't need names," she interrupted me, her voice tight. "I've already got an exterminator in mind. Only problem is, I need to prove I can pay their rates, or they won't come out to our place."
I gave her a blank look, at that, and she sighed, and rolled her eyes, like she was waiting for me to get the hint.
"What kind of spiders are you talking about?" I asked her, finally.
"Big ones," she said, looking around again. "Bigger than I like to think about. And they've been spinning webs for...a long time, now. It's getting kind of hard to move around, by now."
"I see," I said, trying to sound wise, and probably just sounding clueless. "So...how do I fit into this, then?"
"We need to rob a bank," Tattletale told me. "And we need you to come with us, so we have a chance in hell of getting away afterwards."
I blinked.
"Even though I want to be a hero?" I asked her, and she rolled her eyes.
"Just...trust me," she said. "Besides, there's a lot of money in this for us. Money you could probably use, if you know what I mean."
"How much money?"
"Double whatever we get, or twenty-five grand. Whichever is larger."
I blinked, and shot Tattletale a look at that, but she returned a bland faced expression.
"That is an impressive amount of money," I admitted.
"Great!" she said, standing up. "I knew we could count on you! We'll see you Friday at around lunch time! I'll send you a text with the location!"
It wasn't until I got home that I realized that I'd never told her Ms. Liberty's name.