AN: This story is a sequel to "A Jagged Ride with the Owl," with a lot of direct connections to "Tit for Tat" and "Along Came Anansi." "An Adrienette Anthology" chapter 7 also provides some background information for this story. The connections are strong with this one!
To Dragon Lord Draco: This is pretty much what you suggested in your review on "Along Came Anansi," but I'd actually written this a while ago! Alya's definitely not going to be happy if Anansi is going out alone, but she's also going to respect her (much) older sister. Remember, they aren't typically dealing with the same caliber of villains now that they were back when Hawk Moth was around. The vast majority are common thugs.
Rena Rouge crouched atop an apartment building, taking in the scene from the street below in the glow of the streetlights. A drug dealer and his handful of runners and muscle had been camped out on a street corner all day, until a figure in a muted yellow full-body suit had appeared just before sundown.
The vigilante – Anansi – had begun by grabbing the largest of the drug dealer's two muscle guys around the neck, cutting off his windpipe and dragging him into the small walkway between two apartment buildings. Rena Rouge's enhanced hearing had only picked up a single muffled grunt following his disappearance. Anansi next appeared on the other side of the building and grabbed one of the dealer's runners in the same manner. Unfortunately, when she had gone to grab a third, her luck had run out. A customer had pulled up at just that moment, pointed to where she was creeping up behind the dealer's other muscle guy, and screamed. They had all turned to follow the customer's finger, and Anansi had barreled into the crowd with fists and feet flying.
Rena Rouge snorted as the last couple criminals tried to catch Anansi between them. Anansi simply sidestepped so the one standing in front missed her head and caught the other thug in the jaw. That man went down like a marionette with its strings cut, leaving Anansi with a single assailant: the drug dealer himself. Rena Rouge stood up, turned her head in either direction to work the kinks out of her neck, rolled her shoulders, and leapt from her perch. As she sailed across the street, she watched Anansi knock the dealer to the ground so hard the back of his head slammed into the sidewalk. She feared she had mistimed the jump, but breathed a sigh of relief as the dealer lifted his head and blinked against the bright lights above him.
"You know they need to be conscious if they're going to answer our questions, right?" Rena Rouge landed a meter in front of where Anansi loomed over the dealer and allowed her momentum to carry her through a forward roll. She sprang to her feet right in front of Anansi and held out her flute to block Anansi's kick to the dealer's head.
"I don't remember inviting you to this party, Foxy," Anansi retorted. She sent Rena Rouge an angry glare, though the anger didn't quite reach her eyes. "I told you last time, I work alone."
"Says the battle-hardened vigilante who teamed up with the Owl and 'Guitar Hero' a couple weeks ago," Rena Rouge shot back at her, suppressing a snort. "The Owl was practically swooning after your little team-up, you know. He wanted matching outfits and a dedicated patrol night with his two favorite teammates!"
Anansi shook her head. "Are you serious? I told the Professor it was a one-time deal…"
"And anyways," Rena Rouge continued, "I thought the point of this was to get information. How are you planning on getting that information if you give him a concussion?"
"I was going to ask him questions between beatings," Anansi muttered. Rena Rouge snorted. "But if you think you can do a better job of getting information from this weasel, be my guest. Just remember, when you fail, I'll be happy to step in and… squeeze it out of him…" Anansi cracked her knuckles for emphasis.
Rena Rouge winked at Anansi, who quirked her lip into a half-smile while the dealer was looking down the street for help. As Anansi slid back into the space between the buildings to check on her other unconscious prisoners, Rena Rouge knelt next to the drug dealer, whose eyes still looked dazed and unfocused. She slapped him, hard, across the face to get his attention. "Still with me, dirtbag?"
The dealer looked up in surprise which quickly turned to confusion. "Wha–?"
"He's alive," Rena Rouge commented, smirking. "I suppose I should congratulate you: you lasted marginally longer against Anansi than the last drug dealer she took down. Of course, that's not saying too much; that coward wet himself the moment he saw her and started begging for his mother! Still," she continued, stroking her chin thoughtfully, "it's no mean feat to stand up to Anansi like that. I'm inclined to be nice and not let her finish the job by knocking you out. She won't be happy about that, but…"
The dealer furrowed his brow deeper in confusion as she talked, though she could see the seeds of doubt and fear in his eyes. She gave him an evaluating look and grinned at him, channeling as much of Chloe's condescension and arrogance as she could. The terror in his eyes that he couldn't mask showed that the look had worked as intended.
"No, I don't think I'll let her at you again… yet," she told him, "but that only holds as long as you tell me everything you know. Let's start with a name. I can't just call you 'hey dirtbag,' can I?"
The dealer was silent for a moment, but at a look from Rena Rouge he wilted. "Pierre."
"See, that wasn't so hard, Pierre," Rena Rouge said conversationally. "Now let's try another question: where do the drugs come from?"
"Colombia," he retorted.
Rena Rouge nodded to him as though defeated. "I suppose that's technically correct," she admitted. "To be honest, I'm not overly concerned with how the drugs get into the country." Seeing his look she added, "Don't get me wrong: I'm sure the police will have plenty of questions for you about the drug trade – if Anansi doesn't break in your teeth so you can't answer their questions, that is. No, I'm more interested in your organization. How did a nice guy like you wind up in a job like this?"
"Internship." He gritted his teeth, though Rena Rouge could see his confidence slipping.
"Your mother must be so proud. So who was it that recruited you for this… 'internship'?"
"Just – just some guy," he tried.
"Thing is, Pierre," Rena Rouge informed him, "I can tell you're lying. I'm guessing the person who recruited you is a little more important to you than 'some guy.' I'm guessing you're still close with them. My guess? You still work for them." Seeing the look on his face she quickly corrected herself. "No… you used to work for him, but now you don't. And you're not happy about that, are you?"
"How the hell could you possibly know all of that?" Pierre demanded. His eyes grew wide and Rena Rouge could hear the hitch in his breathing.
"I've been tuning my BS detector," she explained. "I got sick of listening to and falling for people's pathetic lies – so embarrassing – so I decided to develop a new superpower. Of course," she added, "the old one's pretty good, too. And if you don't cooperate, I might have to use it on you…"
She leaned back to consider. Watching his face, she saw more of his confidence leaking out. His posture, which had gotten more confident, had weakened as his shoulders sagged further and further.
"Let's talk about who your boss is," she finally said. "This guy who kicked out your old boss: he have a name?"
"I-I can't…"
"Sure, you can," she assured him, "because you don't have a choice. I'm going to get these answers from you; it's only a question of how much effort it will take for me to get them. And whether you'll need new underwear or not afterward. So who is he?"
Pierre slumped in defeat. "His name is Levebvre. He killed our old boss and took over a month or so back. Now he's calling the shots."
"Is he the one who gave you the lynchpin?"
"What?"
"You have a lynchpin in your pocket," she repeated. "I see the outline. Is this Levebvre guy the one who gave it to you?"
He clamped his mouth shut and refused to speak.
Rena Rouge shook her head in disappointment. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. I didn't want to do this, but you're not leaving me much choice." She laughed at the look he gave her, his eyes straying toward the alley down which Anansi had disappeared. "No, I'm not giving you to her, though by the time I'm finished you may wish I had.
"No, I think I will test out my ability on you." She stood up and paced around him where he lay on the floor. "I'm sure you know about Cat Noir – Cataclysm is his thing: unlimited destruction. Queen Bee can hit you and immobilize you, then there's nothing you can do until it wears off. Taureau Dechaine could break you in half with his bare hands and throw you from her to the Atlantic, and that's without even using his special ability. Viperion, now he could slap you, over and over again for hours on end, and you wouldn't remember a thing. Me? I can't do any of that. But what I can do is make anything I want come to life. So tell me, tough guy, what are you most afraid of?"
He looked at her with sheer panic in his eyes. Nonetheless, he didn't say a word.
"Some people are afraid of snakes," she told him, watching his face for a reaction. "Others, it's spiders. Some people are absolutely terrified of heights. But not you. You're not afraid of anything of those things, are you? No, I think you're afraid of something much more mundane… So tell me, are you afraid… of the dark?"
The look Pierre gave her was enough of a confirmation for Rena Rouge to lift the flute to her lips and blow a quiet note in his face. A thick black bubble congealed out of the flute end and covered his head. He immediately went rigid before his limbs started quivering in fear.
"Breathe," she instructed him. "It's not solid; you're not going to suffocate." She sat down near his head. "It's amazing: I can turn anything into reality. If you were afraid of being eaten by a dinosaur, I could make that happen! The light thing is so much simpler – thanks for that, B-T-dubs. But you can bring back the light very simply: just tell me everything you know about the Lynchpin."
"Please–" he whimpered. "I-I don't know anything! Levebvre gave us all lynchpins after he took over. He said it was like a secret club thing or something. Messed up, huh? I really don't know why! He-he said his boss has a thing for them."
Rena Rouge nodded in understanding. This "Levebvre" may not be the Lynchpin himself, but we're probably getting close to the top. "Pierre," she said quietly. "I'm disappointed. I already knew all of that. I was hoping you would give me a little more. If you won't say anything for me, say it for the light… you want the light to come back, don't you?"
"I-I swear I don't know anything else!"
"Mr. Sun isn't going to be happy with you…" Rena Rouge started whistling "Here Comes the Sun" mournfully.
"No! Wait! He-he said something yesterday! We're supposed to be looking for a junkie hacker. Goes by the name of 'Spider' 'cuz he's got his feelers all over the Web. Even has a spider web tattoo on his face to emphasize the name. If he shows up at any of our corners, we're supposed to send him back to the boss. But that's it! That's all I got for you!" Pierre started thrashing around inside the bubble.
Rena Rouge calmly knelt down and popped the Mirage bubble with her finger. Pierre blinked owlishly against the sudden brightness of the streetlights. "See? That wasn't so hard. Thank you for your cooperation." She waved toward the alley, and Anansi appeared. "Now Anansi will bring you down to the police station. I believe you have a hot date with a detective who's going to be very interested in some of the information you didn't want to give me! Just remember… Mr. Sun is counting on your honesty…"
Pierre blanched and gulped as Rena Rouge pulled him to his feet.
"This one give you anything?" Anansi muttered in her ear.
"Not much," Rena Rouge told her. "But it's more than what we had."