Little Guinevere looked up to the tall figure standing before her expectantly, her small body surrounded by dead carcasses of the wild beasts that prowled their world. "See, Nito? I told you that I could do it!"
The grotesque amalgamation of death and entropy simply stared at her with those hollow eyes in silence.
The faint huffing of a boar echoed throughout the bloodstained meadow as the massive animal rose unsteadily to its feet. A swift flick of her borrowed blade and Guinevere ended the poor pig's misery. She shot a glare to Nito.
"I know, I know. Never turn your back on your quarry… but I thought that I got it! I got all the others…"
A thin, pale arm –one of many –patted Guinevere on the head in demeaning consolation.
Guinevere scowled beneath her mask. "Don't start."
Heedless of the young one's warning, a bone rattling echo sounded through the meadow. A cloud seemed to pass over the sun, hoarfrost radiating out from the thing's many feet, and the forest fell silent.
Not a bird or insect dared break the deathly quiet.
Well, Guinevere didn't care what the forest thought, she liked Nito's laughter –it happened to rarely that she had taken to comparing them to her daddy's smiles.
Now if only Nito wasn't laughing at her.
"Peace, my dearest sister," Nito smiled the vacant, deadened smile. "I meant you no harm."
Guinevere's scowl faded and she sighed an impetuous sigh. "I know. It's just… I just want… out, you know? It all feels so… crowded."
Nito cocked his head in confusion, his black aura idly swirling about his body and reducing all the frozen plants that it grazed to ash. "Our kingdom stretches toward the horizon and beyond, little Guinevere. If we were to separate, our family could roam a thousand years and not encounter each other once."
"But what about –"
Nito's swirling aura stilled as he realized Guinevere's concern. "Ah, the other lands. You would save them?"
Guinevere refused to meet his knowing gaze, suddenly fixated on how her claws gripped the cold, bloodsoaked dirt underneath her feet.
Nito sighed and leaves fell to the ground with his exhale. "You are young… perhaps you will change your mind."
Guinevere felt a rock crumble to pieces under the sudden strength of her grip.
"But just in case… perhaps it is time that I move ahead, and begin to introduce warfare into your tutorship. There are years enough between now and your adulthood, but one can never be too careful about these things."
Guinevere's violet eyes snapped up to meet Nito's in surprise.
"What? Did you think that this Earth was always under our sole dominion? Someone had to remove the squatters out when our lord first arrived."
xXx
Assault looked out to the bay. Not the city, but the actual bay. The coarse sea breeze mixed with the sound of waves on the beachfront? It was… peaceful, if he ignored the tense sort of quiet that Brockton had going for it lately.
He didn't know what happened between Mr. Union and Mrs. Coldheart, but everyone around the building had been given a memo. It hemmed and hawed a lot, but the bare message of the thing was to be as friendly as possible to the new cape Guinevere and try to soft sell her a pitch to the Wards –with an emphasis on the friendly part.
Who knew that Piggot even know the phrase "soft sell." Almost made him wonder if it was written by another person, and if she had to simply grit her teeth and approve it. Assault sighed heavily, taking comfort in the sight of the bay even as he did his level best to ignore the rusting carcasses of old boats that poked out of the ocean's surface like the jagged remnants of spires from a lost civilization.
Really, the politics of this job were the worst part of turning toward the Light Side. The focus on PR and appearances, the subtle machinations that the brass liked to play their hand at –and did they really think themselves that careful?
Still, Puppy had been right. His methods as Madcap hadn't worked and he was actually making more of a difference as Assault than he had ever thought possible. As Assault, Ethan had been able to push for more leniency towards new triggers –Icarus had been able to take advantage of that work, thankfully enough –and he had worked closely enough with Mr. Union (call-me-Danny) once upon a time, with silent approval from Miss Militia, who had a way of making the Red Tape of Bureaucracy… bend around her. Practically worth another Thinker designation in its own right.
But sometimes, Ethan's hard work didn't seem to amount to anything substantial… not when Canary was facing an express pass to the "Baumann Parahuman Containment Center." Assault resisted the urge to snort in derision. It was the Birdcage. A life sentence where you were at the mercy of madmen, murderers, and the politically inconvenient.
It was a death sentence without the luxury of the title.
And Canary would be sentenced there.
All because the poor woman had an unfortunate power, a panic attack, and an abusive boyfriend. Not that the courts would care, of course. All they cared about was that a parahuman had Mastered a non-cape, ex-boyfriend into killing himself –regardless of the actual facts.
…Icarus wasn't taking the news very well.
And then there was this whole "Endbringer-Daddy" and "dragon-girl daughter" business. Ethan was tempted to write it off as being beyond his paygrade…
But then he remembered the fragile smile in that girl's eyes after her father left her.
The way her voice trembled subtly under the echo of her words.
If that was how the man treated his "most favored" of all his kids, then Assault really didn't want to know how he treated the others…
Fuck, now he wanted to punch that maybe-Endbringer-maybe-Case-53 in the face.
Maybe Puppy was right, maybe he'd make a half-decent parent… one day.
Eventually.
But for now, Ethan was more than willing to take the midnight patrol –Velocity was around here somewhere, no doubt just a quick radio-call away –and look out at the sea.
"My family did not have this back home."
Speak of the devil and lo, a lost-looking girl will appear.
"Hey Guinevere, how're you holding up?"
xXx
Short chapter, but I wanted to go ahead and get it out while I had the time. Tell me what you think? Reviews are encouraged and appreciated!