"Do you think you could…" Claire looked around. "Convince Director Piggot to let Vista come back out for patrols?"
Her current partner for the day, Assault, glanced over from where he was driving. Battery frowned from her passenger seat in the patrol car. The decision had been made to start paring Claire with non-flyers so that her ability to portal people would be most useful.
Hmph. I should be with Jim.
"Piggot's pretty pissed," Assault said, his voice serious.
That wasn't a good sign.
"And I can't say I don't understand why. Her first action, on hearing that her friend had been Butchered was to go out and try to find her, as a civilian, without telling any of us." Assault frowned, merging into traffic. "She's either smart enough to play in the big leagues, in which case she's getting off lightly, or she didn't understand, in which case she needs to learn it."
Battery rolled her eyes. "And before you ask, Assault is being so uncharacteristically serious because she tried to turn on the little kid charm with him, when the I'm a soldier like you didn't work. Problem is, that got Assault into thinking about what the Butcher might do to a little kid."
Claire winced.
"So is she clawing down the walls at your place?" Assault asked.
"Nah," Claire said. "She's happy to be there. Now if I could get her parents to…" Claire fell silent. I don't know what to do about that… Mom and Dad, for all they had put some loads on her, would never act like Vista's parents did. Claire pushed the pang away, reminding herself that they were safe.
"How do you handle it?" Battery asked, curiously.
"We eat, either out or in, then usually some of our friends come over for homework or TV parties," Claire said. She sighed. "And I'm having to help Vista on her school. Vista's pulling C's in math and if she slips to a D, she's going to be restricted even more, but we're working on it…"
"And the straight-A student will help her keep her grades up?" Assault asked. "Oh wait, straight A student who is also a College student at 16?"
"How did you—"
"A little halftroll was bragging on his girlfriend's behalf. Already got the credits to graduate from high school, I heard."
I'm going to kill Jim, right after I kiss him.
"But on that, Vista's been asking if Probability can come on out…"
"No," Battery shook her head. "Ignoring everything else, the danger of some lunatic managing to kill her… We have no idea if Panacea's changes would last through a jump."
"Right," Claire said, deflating. "She does want to talk to people her age who, you know, know."
"Not a lot around," Assault said. "I—well, will you look at that. Someone is actually trying to rob a store."
Claire blinked and stared. Yep, there were people running out of the store's smashed doors with cases of booze. "Do they even see our vehicle?"
"C'mon, Shadowdancer," Assault said. "You've been spoiled by your high flying life in the Bay. It can't all be glorious battle against incredible odds. Sometimes it's just realizing…"
"That people are that stupid," Battery said. "Console, we've got a smash and grab, no capes, but we'll detain for the BBPD."
"Confirmed." As they were saying that, Claire started casting her spells, purple tentacles rising from the ground and lashing out of the men.
She's got a point, but this is… Claire sighed. Well, it would be good practice.
Before I spoke with Director Piggot, I went out in my civilian clothes. It was time to visit Mom. The graveyard was quiet at this time a day. For a while, some people liked to come here and smoke or drink…
My bugs had quickly put an end to that.
I knelt down, using the trowel I brought for these days to make certain the grass was kept back from her marker.
"Well, Emma's been remanded to psychiatric care." I paused. "I'd dreamed of all the terrible things that I could do to her, but…" I shook my head. "It was so stupid. If Mr. Barnes had gotten help, if Sophia hadn't been a bitch, if Emma hadn't latched…" I fell silent for a moment. "But it's done. I don't expect to ever see her again, so if she gets better, fine, if not, fine."
I laughed, softly. "I killed a man. I didn't like it, but I don't regret it. He never sowed anything but pain and sorrow, and I saved a lot of people. But now…"
A suicidal cape. Unless your name was Lung, that's what trying to lay claim to the old ABB territory would be. And maybe not just from the E88. Plenty of the little Asian gangs were remembering that they were Korean or Japanese first. There had been fighting, and I knew Onna-Bugeisha wasn't any Lung. I knew a great deal about her in fact.
"I've put my protection over her, but I'm not that powerful either. I choose my fights, leverage them for maximum impact, but a fight between me and Hookwolf in the middle of the street only goes one way."
"You underestimate yourself." The voice was casual, amused.
I spun around, jumping as I pulled every insect, including the wasps from the nests I'd planted around the graveyard.
And how had he snuck up on me? Nobody had done that…
But he wasn't any Cape I was familiar with. He was wearing a top hat, black tail coat, and sunglasses. One hand held a cane with a skull on it, the other a cigar.
I could smell it now. But how had I missed him…
"And why are you talking to that bag of bones in the ground," he said. "She was a looker, but now? Leave the dead to the earth…"
That was enough. I sent my bugs after him, roaring around him… but they didn't touch him.
A projection?
"Who are you?"
"Who am I?" He spread his arms. "The Baron Cimitière at your service," he said, his voice adopting an unfamiliar accent. "Baron Samedi has a message for you… A powerful death is coming to the City of Blood." He chuckled. "New Orleans, for you white girls."
"City of…" I stopped. It would be best to humor the crazy cape. "So why tell me, why not the PRT?"
It took everything I had to not start when the walking stick smacked into the ground directly in front of me. "They don't come to a grave every few days. They don't talk to the dead. You do. We're still weak, and it takes a powerful lot of effort to talk to you…"
"Weak?" I tilted my head. Find out everything you can. Piggot would want to know about this new bunch of Adept-lite capes.
"The witch, the monster and the wizard, back where they come from, there's a powerful lot of faith." He inhaled, like he was sniffing some fine flower. "Gods and devils, aspects of creation… I'm just one face… From Gods of humanity to Seklos and Galen…" he paused. "The hopes and dreams, the souls of a billion, billion worlds…"
"And that's important—"
"You mind your betters, girl!" He paused. "You'd better remember this. The girl or the wizard will understand, when the time is right." He took a drink from a goblet that just appeared in his hand, enjoying my annoyance. "Here, the skies are silent. All those dreams, those billion, billion worlds are dead and gone. Something came for 'em, plucked 'em from the vine, and now the otherworld is thin and quiet. Before the hole opened between our realms, it was all I could do to manifest a whisper…"
"What came for them?" I asked.
He chuckled. "How should I know? None of 'em had time to do more than scream, 'an their gods and spirits went with their believers. Nothing with a soul killed 'em. That much I know."
"But you tell the witch girl—when she sees the little death, look above it, and see the Great Death that drives it away. See… and Understand it. Because the door goes both ways, and she don't wanna know what'll happen if the Great Powers of her realm get involved…" He paused. "Now, you gonna spend more time talking to those bones, or are you going to give 'em my message? Let the dead rest in peace, girl."
"I'll go to them," I said. Whoever this… person was, he'd clearly outed me. "But if you ever disrespect my Mom again, I'll find a way to take you apart and I'll grind your bones into dust." My insects rose up around me, a great cloud, but the man didn't say anything, just made an exaggerated bow to me before he laughed and just… Faded away.
I spent the next several minutes looking for him… but there was no sign anyone else had been in the cemetery with me.