A Waken 13.6
The more I thought about it, the angrier I became.
Noelle wasn't out to mess with me. She wanted something and she was probing the city for information. The questions were mundane, but one of the things she said stuck with me. I did everything without any help? The way she emphasized that word—help—was weird, as if she didn't believe it.
There were a number of disturbing possibilities to why someone might ask that question.
She couldn't be a pet. Dinah checked all the capes entering the city. None of them were blanks in her possibilities. Then what did that make Noelle? An agent for someone else, or a more directly interested party? Maybe, mundanely, she was just fucking dangerous.
Either way, this couldn't be ignored and I couldn't sit on it.
Going after Parian in her civilian life was crossing the line I explicitly gave. Everything else just took her from threatening to too dangerous to indulge. Very fucking dangerous. There was something behind her face. Something that set my nerves on edge and it went beyond her acting creepy.
I pushed the door to the workshop open, asking, "Where is she now?"
"She has engaged a taxi," Veda said. Odd word choice. "I project her course to be Captain's Hill."
"Lafter," I called as I reached the bottom of the stairs. "You here?"
As I entered her voice answered, "Yeah." She came from around the corner, pulling her costume up her body. "What happened?"
"Façade broke the rules," I snarled.
"We found her engaging in an unclear interaction with Parian," Veda clarified. "I've delivered Sabah Ibnat Salah to the PRT. Lieutenant Ramius has taken responsibility for her and will inform her family of the incident."
I nodded.
Give Murrue a few minutes and she'd have Sabah secured in quarantine. As safe there as anywhere and with near no ability to threaten others. Best I could do for the moment with the question of Noelle's power hanging over our heads.
"Bring up all of Dinah's possibilities regarding the Travelers." I turned to my array of monitors, grabbing the costume tossed on the table and throwing off my clothes. "I want to read them over real quick. See if we missed something."
"What are we going to do?" Lafter asked.
"I told you." I tapped at the keyboard to check on some of the tests going on in the basement. Nothing there needed my attention. "We're punching the Travelers. If necessary, we'll drive them out of the city or arrest them trying."
Fortunately, Veda didn't lecture me about taking the day off.
I started looking over Dinah's previous answers, but that didn't offer much. Really, why would it? If Noelle's original plan was to stalk around town going after capes, she'd spend weeks looking mostly harmless in Dinah's possibilities. The battle-related questions were mostly self-evident given what powers I knew about. The only real stand out is that they didn't help me deal with Façade because she never seemed to be alone. Ever.
"Veda, call Vicky and Armsmaster. Ask them to check around and see if anyone in the Protectorate, Wards, or New Wave has talked to an abnormally friendly petite blonde in the past few weeks. Check with Missy too."
Veda answered by stating, "That is a disconcerting possibility."
I should have made specific plans for a master to come to town. Maybe Noelle wasn't a master, but still. There were so many unmasked capes in Brockton Bay now. It was a perfect target for someone who wanted to control others. Discerning possibility was an understatement.
I'd fix that later.
"Get ready," I said to Lafter. To Veda, "Do we have eyes on the other Travelers?"
"Genesis does not appear in public often," she replied. "I have tracked Ballistic and Sundancer periodically. Currently, Ballistic should be at their home base and I have sighted Sundancer at the Boardwalk."
"Near Parian's shop?"
"No. She is at the Boardwalk Arcade. I have recorded her at this location on several occasions."
"It is so creepy, but so cool, we can do that," Lafter noted.
Then she was apart from the rest of her team?
Good.
Out of the three—maybe four if we included our Stranger—Travelers I knew, Sundancer was the most dangerous. With Sundancer out of the way, we need only worry about Ballistic getting a good shot off.
I finished pulling my costume on and reviewing the old possibilities when the garage door opened. Exia flew into the room with a cooling wind. Lafter climbed into Kyrios and settled herself, and I turned toward my suit. Once inside, I called Dinah to get the answers to my questions.
"Something's changed," she said.
Of course something has. "What?"
"Not sure," she said. "If you hadn't seen her, she goes back to the other Travelers. That's what most of the possibilities showed me."
Kyrios followed behind me, and when we pulled up Queen fell in ahead of us as we turned toward Captain's Hill.
My eyes narrowed. "And the others?
"Fights. Armsmaster is there, and Dauntless. The Gundams. Bakuda. I asked what happened if she touched you too. Those got really weird. Fires and smoke. Lots of fighting with capes I didn't recognize."
My hands flexed against the controls.
Her power did work by touch. How did using it on me lead to a fight, though? Wait.
"You said capes you didn't recognize? As in none of us were there?"
"No. I also noticed something new about Genesis," Dinah explained, but I was a bit distracted.
The fuck is going on?
If she could master me, why wouldn't she? Realistically, as much as Veda could lock down my suits and probably keep me contained in such a situation, she'd go deal with the master herself. She wouldn't sit on the sidelines. She'd go after the master manipulating me.
"Any idea where this fight is?"
"Not Brockton Bay, but Armsmaster and Miss Militia were there."
Somewhere close then. Within their range. The mountains? Well, the best way to stop it from happening was to deal with the Travelers now and not let Noelle touch me. I didn't really need more evidence that the girl was up to no good and needed to go.
"Is Facade still in that taxi?"
"Yes," Veda answered, "but it has changed course and is now headed west. She got out for a moment and used another payphone. Sundancer has begun moving."
Making a run for it, or something else?
"Ballistic and Genesis should be at the hideout. We'll take them first while Sundancer and Façade aren't there. Watch out for Ballistic. Dinah's seen him break through our armor."
Lafter broke off, guiding Kyrios right while I pulled up. I took aim at a fairly newish, but clearly abandoned, building just off the exit to the highway. A condo building, rather than apartments. Probably a project some developer started and abandoned when they realized it wouldn't work.
I sent Exia into a dive and switched to the sonic cameras.
Ballistic rose from his seat on the couch, reaching for something at his belt as Lafter charged him from the window.
Before he could use his power, I came straight down from above, slamming through the roof and the floor above Ballistic. In a split second he turned toward me, raising his arm. A Fang darted in front of Kyrios and fired once. The beam knocked his aim off target and the stake shot past me and slammed through the ceiling as I drove the man into the ground.
Lafter came through the wall, showering the room in glass shards while I grabbed the cape by his collar and forced him to the floor. He grunted, and did so again when I lifted him up and threw him back down.
"Was he in here playing Playstation?" Lafter turned to the TV. "Pft. He would be playing Final Fantasy XIV."
"Even I know that game's terrible," I said. I lifted the man off the ground by his shoulder. He wasn't bad looking, actually. Jocky build, short brown hair, bit of a pronounced brow. Shame he was friends with an asshole. "Where's Genesis?"
"Tell us and we only hurt you nine tenths as much," Lafter offered.
Ballistic didn't offer a quick answer.
I shot him.
His body went limp after a brief recoil and I dropped him on the floor. Binding his arms behind his back and hogtying him should keep his power unusable. He needed to throw or hit things to use it.
I looked around the building, but I didn't see Genesis.
"Check the basement," I said. "I can't see down there from here." Kyrios reversed while I shifted my attention elsewhere. "Where are Façade and Sundancer?"
"I have lost sight of Sundancer," Veda revealed. "She has entered a clothing boutique." Changing into her costume? "Façade has exited her taxi and is now going nort—"
sys.g_h[n]/ signal lost
Signal lost? "Navy?"
"I have lost contact with him." Outside the building, Veda turned Queen and began to ascend. "One moment."
In the meantime, Yellow caught up to us. He touched down and jumped from his cradle to begin binding Ballistic.
With Red and Purple in Hartford supporting Aisha and Black, and Green having gone with Parian to the PRT building, I didn't have nearly as many Haros on hand as usual. White was across the city with Dinah. Pink was following Sundancer.
That gave me a sinking feeling suddenly, though I couldn't put my finger on why.
Something was very wrong. What was the point of the payphone? I would assume Genesis would be waiting to answer it. She should have been back by now and warned Ballistic. Why was he in the room playing a game?
More than that...
"Navy has been destroyed," Veda said.
How? "Show me."
A feed from Queen's eyes appeared on my HUD, but I didn't see as well as Veda. I needed to squint to see Navy's remains, and the remains of his cradle, on a rooftop further south. Looked like he crash-landed and then something hit him again and knocked him across the roof. I could see a small trail of debris.
The Stranger? Did they have a rifle? What better person to park by a phone to wait for an emergency call than a man no one would notice or remember afterward…
That didn't add up either.
"Um, Taylor."
"Lafter?"
"Yeah, so I don't think Genesis is here."
I switched my HUD feed to Kyrios' eyes, and looked at the massive hole in the basement. No, not dug. Looking at the edges, it looked more like something melted the hole. Sundancer? The damage didn't look recent, but it went down into the sewers and then kept going a bit.
If there was an escape route why didn't Ballistic use it?
I turned around. Women's clothes littered the floor past one doorway. Peeking into the room beyond, I found suitcases. They were disheveled, as if people actively lived out of them.
"Lafter, come back to me. Yellow, go follow the sewer and see what you can find."
"Away, away!"
"Veda, there's another woman in the Travelers." How many did that make? Six? Or Dinah's right.
"How can you tell?" Lafter asked.
"Because there's three different cup sizes up here. Has Sundancer moved?"
"She has not left the boutique," Veda confirmed.
I grabbed the hogtied Ballistic off the ground, turned toward Lafter's hole, and flew outside to join Queen.
I only wanted to hit the Travelers. Force Facade to learn a lesson, or drive them out if she didn't.
But this…
"We're taking her. Send Pink inside, warn an employee to evacuate the building. Find Sundancer and try to keep sight of her. If we hit her fast enough she won't have time to make a big sun."
Why destroy Navy, but not Pink? Someone with the aim and ability to hit one could hit both. Where was Genesis? Was Noelle just saving herself and leaving the other Travelers to suffer my wrath?
The list went on.
"Sundancer is gone," Veda stated.
I turned to Queen. "Where?"
"She is gone," Veda said. "I am unsure how. Pink attempted to confirm her location but she was not in the changing room the cashier pointed out. The room in fact is devoid of any sign anyone had recently been present."
A teleporter?
The Travelers couldn't possibly have so many hidden capes no one knew about it.
The Red Hand boasted a few teleporters, and someone who could use a rifle. Had they made a deal while I wasn't looking to back each other up? That wouldn't fit with what I knew of the thieves. They liked avoiding heroic attention and I gave them a free pass so long as they didn't cause too much ruckus.
"We're backing off," I decided.
Weighing Ballistic in Exia's hand. Sundancer vanished. Genesis appeared completely absent. The Stranger might be wandering town and could be anywhere.
There were too many unknowns and the questions kept stacking up.
Losing one member of their team would be a bloody enough nose to hang my hat on while I regrouped to figure things out.
"Take Queen high, find Facade again and follow her. Dinah and I will try to find a question that gives us a clearer answer."
I turned Exia and started flying back to the factory. Kyrios followed after me and Queen started to rise as Veda moved south.
The first explosion cracked into the air then.
Far behind me.
I stopped, spinning Exia about and looking at the rising column of smoke and fire.
Kyrios drifted. "Isn't that—"
"Bakuda," I mumbled.
This is Noelle.
I didn't know how or why, but it was her.
She set it all into motion. She was doing things exactly how I did them. Plans within plans. Distractions to keep attention somewhere else. A thinker all along?
"Dinah," I called. "Where is Noelle right now?" Give me a street sign. A building. Anything. "Veda, find her!"
I propelled myself toward the blast, dropping Ballistic on a rooftop as I went. He'd keep there until someone picked him up. I started dialing Bakuda, grimacing as a call came in from Murrue at the same time.
"One moment," I said to Murrue.
Bakuda took her sweet time answering.
"This is not my fault," she snapped. Another explosion cut through the Trainyard, blasting apart an old station. "I know it looks bad—"
"Just tell me what's happening!"
"I'm being attacked by a T-Rex!"
I blinked. "What?"
"I'm telling you, it's a fucking T-Rex!"
Exia dove and I skimmed over the old gravel yards surrounding rusted rail lines. Emerging from the smoke, I slammed my feet into the ground and stared.
It was huge. Reddish along the spine with green and yellow scales across the body. The bulky head stood out from a thick neck, massively out of proportion with the rest of the body, notably the tiny little arms. A thick mane of feathers sprouted from the neck and spine, and the tail sported spikes that didn't fit the beast's image at all.
Still, it looked like a—
"Holy shit she's fighting a T-Rex." Behind me, Lafter landed less than gracefully.
"That's what I said!" Bakuda shouted.
She turned a small but beefy looking flare gun at the thing and fired. The explosive flew under the T-Rex as it rose up on its legs, and a roof across the street exploded into a twisting spiral that popped and showered everything in sharp shrapnel.
The creature lunged, belly scraping over the ground. Its maw opened as the bulk of its body lurched toward her and Bakuda's boots ignited. She flew up and over, letting the beast push itself forward with its hind legs.
This is not how I imagined my day going.
I fired every thruster I had and slammed into the dinosaur. "Why are you fighting a T-Rex?!"
Bakuda rolled as she hit the ground. "I was minding my own business!"
She wasn't in her costume. She wore jeans and a jacket, and the mask on her face was a cut down version of her regular one. Had she just been walking down the street?
The creature responded to my tackle by throwing its weight against me. Exia fell over mid-air, and the ground started to get closer fast. Kyrios came from the side, projecting a shield from its right arm and hitting the beast's head with the particle wall. It also pushed the two story tall monster back and let me pull free before it crushed me.
I switched the com over to Murrue while I righted myself and flipped the Buster sword forward.
"Bakuda's being attacked by a T-Rex!"
I swung the sword at the creature's leg.
It had to be Genesis. This was her power straight up, but why the hell was she attacking—oh fuck.
"Come again?" Murrue asked.
"Genesis is attacking Bakuda," I said quickly. The T-Rex didn't flinch as I hit it in the ankle. The thing kept moving, as if the injury meant nothing.
"And she's a T-Rex?"
"Yes!"
I pushed off from the beast and swung my sword. The monster cape jumped back, the blade cutting into her side and spilling nothing at all. No blood. No guts. Just a gash in the side.
How much damage can she take and keep going?
"This course of action is questionable," Veda noted.
"I don't know," Lafter hummed rhetorically. "I've always wanted to fight a dinosaur!"
Kyrios caught the dinosaur's tail and held on as it swung her around. Bakuda fired her grenade launcher. The explosion blasted the ground next to the T-Rex's right leg and its balance faltered. Lafter swung Kryios about and fired the suit's thrusters, yanking the massive body back and into the open area of the railyard.
I threw Exia into its side again, pushing Genesis through the wall and into the street.
"She means this doesn't make sense," I snarled. "What kind of plan is this?"
Noelle couldn't be that close yet. This was too far away from where we last saw her, but the rest of her team? I checked on Yellow and he was following the sewer lines north. They would branch though.
Still, it took me maybe thirty minutes to pull… Except for those thirty minutes, Sundancer was on the Boardwalk and Ballistic was playing games in his room. Why send Genesis to attack Badkua except as a distraction. Distraction for what?
"Facade is somewhere dark," Dinah revealed. Had she asked the question on her own? "Or she's a baby in a hospital. Mostly somewhere dark. It's not a blank."
"Somewhere—"
"I think she knows how my power works. I can't say what I see if she's in a place too dark to see anything."
"Sundancer then. Where is she in five minutes?"
The T-Rex jumped, or rather it stomped. The creature's head bashed into me, throwing Exia into the sidewalk while Kyrios opened fire with a barrage of beams. The blasts didn't do anything. They scored and scorched, but Genesis just kept moving, grabbing hold of Exia's leg in her jaws and swinging.
I grabbed hold of my longsword and stabbed it into Genesis' eye.
The creature flinched, but only for a moment.
"Laughter, stakes!"
The shields on Kyrios' arms opened. She didn't aim. She just pointed and pulled the trigger.
Three solid E-Carbon stakes shot out of the holes. Most missed. One hit a building, bounced down into the street, and then back up into the Dinosaur's throat. I stabbed my sword into the snout and pried Exia free. The other two stakes bounced back—because Lafter's power apparently considered probability irrelevant—and cut into one of the giant body's ankles.
Thinking quickly, I turned as the creature fell and fired my pistol at Bakuda.
She ducked, the beams cutting through the air over her head.
She flinched at first. I fired again and she caught on. She started running, pulling her launcher to her shoulder. Exia darted back, and then up, avoiding the bomb and letting it explode into the T-Rex-shaped cape right as her leg gave out.
We did have an illusion to maintain.
I came about in the dust, watching as the form began to dissipate into the air.
Kyrios kept both shields pointed. "Um, is she dead?"
"No," I replied. I zoomed in, watching as the body just disappeared. "It's a projection. Genesis isn't a shape-changing monster cape. She's a projection maker."
"Called it," Dinah gloated.
Good to know.
Then Genesis might be the third woman. They didn't have a sixth cape, they just had a projection power no one knew was a projection power. That's the kind of trick I pulled with Veda. Hide one asset by pretending they're another, different, asset.
"Taylor?" Murrue asked.
"It's not over," I murmured. "Facade set something in motion." From the first phone call? "This isn't coincidence. She called Genesis and sent her to attack Bakuda."
To draw us north, obviously… To escape? Did we simply hit Ballistic faster than she thought we would? That didn't explain why he was playing games instead of running. How did she even know where to attack Bakuda on a moment's notice?
"Dinah, where's Sundancer?"
"She's on a street somewhere. She's in her costume. I saw Ballistic there too. No signs or buildings I recognized. Looked like the Docks."
That could be anywhere, and it still didn't explain how she slipped away from Pink with no witnesses.
"Veda? Noelle?"
"She is not here."
"Protectorate is coming," Murrue said. "Dauntless, Triumph, and Stratos were already on patrol. They can be to you in a few minutes."
Protectorate is coming?
The Travelers didn't claim territory. They didn't stake claims in cities or try to carve out their own corner of the underworld. They didn't even seem to commit the typical crimes most villains were known for. The only thing they were famous for was never staying in one place and becoming involved in fights that didn't make any sense.
And whatever Noelle's power did, it worked by touch.
When Noelle first started fleeing from me, she went closer to the PRT. Why go closer rather than further away?
Genesis was a projection cape… Could she make copies of other capes? That's why Sundancer disappeare—Dinah saw Ballistic with Sundancer.
Turning quickly about, I looked toward where I dumped Ballistic. He was gone. The zip ties used to bind him were laying on the roof, as if their former wearer simply vanished. Just like the Stranger.
Projections of capes. Did Genesis do that in addition to T-Rex's?
Noelle's cape name is Façade.
The attack on Bakuda was a distraction. If Noelle wanted anyone out of all this to come out in the open, she didn't want the tinkers and the shaker in an armored suit. And now I was agreeing with Piggot; for once.
Fuck the Travelers. Fuck the situation.
"Murrue," I said. "Pull the Protectorate back. This is a trap. Façade is trying to lure capes out so she can use her power on them!"
All those chaotic fights suddenly made sense.
Noelle could copy capes she touched and project them, among other things. Maybe she copied a cape who could project other kinds of things. The fights were just a means to an end. Noelle didn't want to master anyone or take over the city. She wanted to expand her power.
She's a Trump.
Brockton Bay was one of the cape capitals of the country despite its small size. We were loaded with heavy hitters. Stratos, Miss Militia, Labyrinth and Vista. Just on the face of it, being able to copy any of them would be a dream.
The Stranger was probably some cape she copied and used to get information on capes' habits and behaviors. It would make it easier for her to approach them or figure out their real identities.
Everything else going on was a distraction.
It was exactly how I did things, and I knew myself well enough to know the best way to win was to refuse to play.
Noelle clearly had a practiced pattern, but this was sloppy. I startled her when we crossed paths. She threw things into motion before she was ready. If we simply backed off now and waited, we'd have a better chance to strike. Especially now that I knew what her power was.
"Veda, regroup." Queen banked sharply in the distance and came back my way.
"Tagg wants to know Bakuda's status," Murrue said.
"Baku—Bakuda isn't the problem right now!" Wait. "Murrue… Have the Travelers been to New York before?"
"Last year. Why?"
I thought back, remembering what Tagg said the one and only time the two of us talked. Win the war, he said. That's how he viewed his job. A soldier prosecuting a campaign, not a law enforcement officer trying to maintain peace or administer justice.
No.
I rose up a few dozen feet and looked down the city's roads. I gawked at the sight of several PRT vehicles still moving north, Dauntless overhead. I thought she came to Brockton Bay for me, or for the capes, or for something. If her motivations were all so much simpler, did she come because she knew Tagg?
"Let me talk to Tagg!"
Veda signaled that the line was switching over and she isolated it from Bakuda, Dinah, and Lafter.
"What are you doing?!" I snapped. "We don't know what powers Noelle has copied and you're throwing people like Miss Militia and Stratos at her!"
There was a sigh on the other side of the line, and my heart shot right into my skull.
"If we take the events as they appear," Tagg began, "then sparking a confrontation with Bakuda is merely bait to lure everyone north, so that the Travelers can turn the fight into chaos and then utilize Façade's power to start copying capes, yes?"
"The vans are still moving, Tagg!"
"Let her spring her trap. The Travelers don't have the numbers to fight Celestial Being and the Protectorate. A cape as strong as what you're suggesting is already too dangerous to ignore."
I pushed on the pedals and threw Exia forward. Idiot.
"We can hit her when she scrambles to recover! You're playing into her hand!"
"She might go to ground if we don't take her now. This way we already know what she's going to do."
No he didn't. We didn't know what capes Noelle could project and they could have any number of powers. Did her projections act independent of her, or did she direct them? I knew she could maintain at least two; the Ballistic and Sundancer from before were both fakes.
No.
Three. She could make three. Navy got blown away by something while Sundancer and Ballistic were seemingly elsewhere. I'd almost accuse the Travelers of not even existing, but I saw the clothes. There had to be at least three real capes in the group, and Ballistic probably existed too.
"This plan is clearly rushed," Tagg continued. "If Façade were smart she'd never have initiated it in such a slapdash manner. She's off kilter. Given your reputation, I'd think you would be all for seizing the initiative."
Idiot.
It's not bold to walk into an ambush you know is there. It's just stupid, especially when the other side has cards you don't know anything about!
I lined up with the road the vehicles approached on and started looking. Queen flew toward me on a parallel line. The suit slowed for a moment, drawing my eye away as Veda swung the suit around and started to circle back.
"Veda, have you found—"
"Watch it!" Kyrios turned, firing a stake from one shield and a beam from the other.
I spun, shooting up higher into the sky just in time to avoid the beak diving at me. Because that made sense. I batted the beak aside with my shield, watching as a taloned hand grabbed at Exia's chest and drove my suit to the ground. I hit the street hard, my breath escaping my chest for a moment as the freaking griffon reared up and swiped a spiked tail at Kyrios.
She really is smart.
Now there was a fight within sight and the Protectorate would come! Being off her game didn't stop her plan if the suddenness of it put everyone else off their game too. She didn't need to control every detail if she controlled the flow.
"Tagg, this is stupid!"
"Hold your position," he said.
I thrust my longsword at the beast. The creature wheeled about, a fanged beak snapping as Kyrios tried to catch its neck in a claw. Exia broke forward and tackled the thing, sending it into a spiral and back into the street.
Lafter and I both fired, and I shouted, "Keep it busy!"
Leaving Lafter to handle whatever the griffon was, I launched Exia back into the air.
The Protectorate convoy was close now. If there was an ambush, it had to be within the next five blocks. Fucking Tagg wasn't giving me any choice but to rush the ambush before it could spring itself.
"Veda?"
"I have located an open manhole cover," she said.
I looked up Queen's position on the city map.
"Take the building at the corner here"—I pinged it on my HUD—"I'm going to hit this one."
I dove, switching back to the sonic cameras.
There were people around. This was a busy part of the city, right at the border of the Towers and the Docks. Most of the buildings stood occupied; stores and homes. Cars were on the road. Pedestrians on the street.
Looking to structures offering the best view, I started searching. The first building was an apartment complex. A woman in a kitchen. Children. A man at a desk. Another standing at a win—
Exia exploded forward, tearing through the brick wall as I swung my longsword upward.
I instantly saw the difference between a real person and one of Noelle's copies. The copies were like dolls. They moved. They acted. It was all uncanny though, slightly off. Their faces and eyes were too passive.
You're real.
Ballistic spun, his fist already recoiling from punching something. The window behind him shattered as I swept into the room and struck him across the chest. Down the street, the vehicle at the front of the Protectorate line blew open, the engine tearing itself apart as whatever Ballistic hit tore through the engine block.
I swept my leg forward and brought Exia's elbow down toward the man's collar. He kicked at the ground, and an alarm went off as something tore through Exia's leg. He fell at the same moment, avoiding my blow as his hands reached for one of the pouches on his chest.
I swung my leg forward as he hit the ground, kicking the man into a wall. I swung my longsword again, projecting a wall of green particles from the tip. Ballistic's voice cracked. He rolled with the kick, grabbing a piece of debris and throwing it as he moved.
Exia's shoulder jerked back as whatever Ballistic threw went right through the armor and out the other side. It also threw the arm off, sending the particles I cut into the air over the man's head rather than into his chest.
He mumbled something as he scrambled back. Told her? Told who what?
Outside, something exploded.
Damn you Tagg!
I brought Exia's foot down on the floor as Ballistic finally got into his pockets and kept going. The floor gave, blowing up and then down into the apartment below.
Ballistic fell with the debris. I slammed my shield into his body and swept him aside. The man flew out of the broken window to the left and I chased him onto the street as the room continued collapsing behind us.
A massive light began shining in the street behind the Protectorate and PRT convoys. Dauntless fired his arc staff at it, but Sundancer's sun was already larger than a beach ball and melting everything around it. Except the girl herself of course.
She moved slowly down the street. Deliberately. It gave bystanders plenty of time to get out of her way and even let the PRT troopers and Triumph get out of the wrecked van.
I spotted Stratos off to the side, using his power on the side of the vehicle so two troopers could get to the driver.
Exactly what Noelle wanted.
I spun on Ballistic, but he simply laid on the ground clutching his side. Just as I prepared to bring the sword down, something slammed into Exia's side and threw me back. The armor right of my chest impacted, pressing against my side.
A second fucking Ballistic walked out of a nearby alley and I threw myself into the air as the clone threw another rock through the air. I turned my pistol on it and fired at the same moment a trio of Fangs spun down from the air. The barrage knocked the clone to the ground and then it was simply gone.
No dissipation or fading away like with the T-Rex. Lafter was still fighting the Griffon behind me.
"Veda," I called. "Grab Stratos and fly him away."
Queen dove, grabbing the man as he turned his hand toward Sundancer's sun. She grabbed him unceremoniously and pulled herself back up.
"What are you doing?" Tagg asked.
"Countermanding your stupidity!"
"You don't give the ord—" Idiot.
I turned toward Triumph, dodging objects thrown by both Ballistics.
Switching to the outside speakers, I called to Dauntless, "Pull back!"
The man stopped in the air for a moment, hesitating. Queen flew behind him with Stratos in hand.
"What about the Troopers?" he asked.
"Façade isn't after troopers!"
And if she tried to attack them to draw us back in, Lafter and I were protected by armor. We could cover the retreat, especially with Sundancer trying not to hurt anyone.
People were fleeing the area, going out back doors and down alleyways. There was no one just standing still and watching nearby. Sundancer's sun covered most of the street, but she kept stopping. She let people go down alleyways. She let cars pull out of their parking spaces. I watched her stop and stand still as one man was pulled free of some rubble, only advancing once they'd gotten a few feet further back.
She was just making a roadblock and—
Why was I no closer to Triumph, and why was Stratos back on the ground? How hadn't I moved at all since I started?
Another object hit me in the back, pitching Exia forward. I spun about, firing my pistol as my suit hit the ground hard. Ballistic took cover behind some debris and threw another stake into the air. It shot over my shoulder and in the rear camera I watched as Triumph's leg was blown away. He collapsed with a scream—unpowered—and Stratos quickly spun around and pointed his finger at Ballistic.
Then he wasn't facing Ballistic anymore.
He was facing back the other way, toward Sundancer and turned to see Triumph on the ground. Confusion spread over the parts of his face I could see, and two troopers came forward to pull Triumph back behind the truck.
On the other side, six men emerged and advanced, guns pointed past me. I forced Exia up, letting Ballistic's next shot hit my shield as the troopers advanced behind me and then they weren't behind me.
Double damn you Tagg!
"Shaker!" I shouted. "Time effect. It keeps reverting things back"—the troopers came around the corner again, as if repeating exactly what they'd done before on a loop—"a few seconds?"
"We know," Murrue said. "You've said that twice already."
"We're gathering Miss Militia and the Wards," Tagg snarled.
Stupidity on top of stupidity is still stupidity! Noelle had a cape who could fuck with time. I'd triple damn Tagg, but what good would it do?
A moment later, an explosion to my right drew my eyes. Queen barreled out of the building, tackling a teenage boy into the ground. The clone vanished, and the Fangs shot out and fired. Ballistic was hit in the chest, and Sundancer dropped her sun in front of her to absorb the shots. I came about, charging the former and kicking him across the street. I chased as his body rolled, spinning Exia around and flipping the man into the air with the broad side of my longsword.
He hit a wall hard and collapsed into a heap.
"We're leaving," I snapped.
It was like fighting the Butcher, except Noelle could hide somewhere while letting clones do her dirty work.
"Ballistic is down," Tagg said in a commanding tone. "Sundancer is clearly trying not to hurt anyone. If Façade is disabled she can't generate any more copies and we can wrap them up."
Except we didn't know what capes she'd touched or how many clones she could deploy or how far from her they could move.
Searching around with the sonic cameras, I didn't see her. If I were to bet, I'd guess she had a teleporter. Someone who could move her clones from wherever she was hiding to where the fighting was. That would also give her the chance she needed to touch someone with a simple opening.
"Ignore Tagg!" I snapped over the open com. "Sergeant! Yes you! Gather your troopers and retreat down that alley! I'll cover you!"
I left the real Ballistic on the ground and flew to Stratos. Dauntless was overhead, shooting his Arclance at Sundancer. She rotated her sun around to block the bolt, and then seemed to split it momentarily as the Fangs tried to hit her from the other side. Fire poured out of the sphere and surrounded her, blowing the GN beams away before they hit.
To Stratos I said, "Let's go, before this gets worse."
The man looked at me, and I heard Tagg snarling something.
Stratos tapped the side of his head. "Well, my com isn't working."
The nearby sergeant helped one of his men up. "That puts the senior-most cape in charge."
"Then I say we leave." Stratos grinned grimly. "It's been awhile since I was reprimanded."
Thank you!
Up the street, a crash echoed. I looked in the rear cameras as Lafter drove the Griffon into the ground by its neck, the claws of one shield holding it firm as the other pulled a wing off from its body. The creature began to break apart as she dodged a strike from its tail.
Ballistic still wasn't moving.
Best time to retreat and regroup we—
Exia flipped into the air, and so did everything around me. The air came crashing down and I hit the street and rolled. A trooper almost got crushed as I spun toward a building. I drove my sword into the ground and arrested the tumble, narrowly avoiding pancaking the man. Overhead, the damaged PRT van careened into the building anyway, sending brick, glass, and wood showering around us.
Fangs cut through the air and fired. I followed the beams to a woman in plain clothes. The woman didn't move, standing like a doll as walls rose from the ground. They chipped as the beams hit, but held. They joined dozens of other small platforms, pillars, and shapes that now occupied the street.
That's Agnes Court's power.
I recognized it instantly… Was Noelle associated with the Elite?
Queen darted forward, crashing into the wall and grabbing the clone through it. At the same moment, a second sphere of burning light appeared on the rooftop above, and another Sundancer dropped down. Veda dodged to the side and out of my sight, but the Agnes Court clone was burned into blackened bone before vanishing.
The two Sundancers slammed their suns down, completely blocking the road on either end.
Around me, troopers scrambled to their feet, and Stratos fired his power at the closest sun. The black spheres did nothing to the burning orbs. Pushing Exia up, I saw Dauntless flying back into the air and—
I stared, watching as Façade rose from Triumph's side.
I spun toward her, closing the distance with a quick burst from my thrusters.
She turned to look at Exia, a satisfied smile on her face.
And then she was gone, replaced by a cinder block that clattered to the ground.
My eyes shot wide open at that.
Magic Hat?
A moment later I wasn't on the street anymore.
I threw my feet forward, arresting my momentum before I hit the framework of an unfinished wall.
I made out the construction site quickly. Somewhere in Downtown from the tall buildings around me. Scaffolding rose up around me, and Noelle had a clone of Magic Hat. That's how she could vanish so quickly from where we last saw her.
It was the Market Tower. The building Squealer blew the top off with her robo-tank. Of course it was. From the vantage point, Noelle and her clone could see the whole city, and with all the cement bags, bricks, blocks, and steel beams around, there were plenty of things to swap for people.
And she'd brought me here.
All of that crossed my mind as I spun around, pointing my longsword at Noelle as the weapon expanded into its carbine form.
"Are you insane?!" Ballistic snapped from his supine position. Sundancer knelt over him, trying to keep him from rising while a woman in a suit and top hat stared vacantly. "Why is she—"
"Because," Noelle said with a small smile, "Taylor and I have gotten off on the wrong foot."
I fired. Noelle was replaced with a bag of cement that exploded on impact. The bag exploded, spilling cement mix into the air.
I didn't waste the free smokescreen.
Switching to Sonic cameras, I blew forward and hit the Magic Hat clone as hard as I could. The projection disappeared, and I spun about to hit Sundancer with the flat of my Buster sword. She grunted and toppled over and I took aim again.
"Wait!"
Noelle raised her hands in the cloud. Not in my direction, which was interesting. Did she not directly control the clones? If she did, using cement mix as an escape option was pretty dumb.
"We're not enemies!"
Noelle coughed in front of me, one hand lowering to cover her mouth. Sundancer wheezed on the ground nearby. Ballistic saw me—I was standing right over him—and I gave him a swift kick in the side because I was thinking.
"I can tell you everything you want to know about Cauldron!"
The fuck is my life right now?
Flipping my Buster sword back, I grabbed Noelle by the collar, lifted her up—she screamed "Wait!"—and slammed her into the ground.
I turned my longsword on a pile of bags and fired. The cement mix exploded, shrouding the open rooftop in dust and continuing to obscure me. I saw two more figures standing passively behind me. One was looking toward the city, and the other roughly in my direction.
Three clones then.
Turning my attention back to Noelle, I snarled.
She said Cauldron—Faultline's little conspiracy theory of someone selling powers. Why would she bring that up like that?
"My patience is at zero," I said firmly. "Make it concise."
The girl grasped at Exia's hand.
"Not here."
I poised Exia's other hand to strike. "Three."
"They're watching you. They think you're a threat to them, like Cranial was. Hero tricked Miss Militia into spying on you!"
I froze.
Coming up with a response to that was probably more telling than I'd hoped. Almost anything I said would either take the bait or play into whatever she was trying to do. Not responding at all probably did the same.
Hero tricked Miss Militia into spying on me? I could only think of one reason why Hero would get anyone to spy on me.
"When I touch a cape, I get a look in their head," Noelle said. "I can see what they remember, if it's important to them. I was just going to start with Triumph and work my way up but I got everything I hoped for on the first go! He's one of them. Cauldron, or whatever is left of it."
Faultline is going to rub this in my face.
"And they're scared of you, Taylor. They all think you've been to the other side and talked to your agent!"
My eyes went wide behind Exia's faceplate. Agent. Other side. Administrator?
"Cranial did," Noelle continued, "and she went crazy. That's why they killed her."
If Cauldron or whatever they called themselves knew all that, and Noelle learned it when she used her power on Triumph… How does she know to even look for any of this?
The cement dust began to pull away on a breeze, exposing Noelle's face plainly. She wasn't smiling anymore. No, she looked angry. More than angry. She looked furious.
"We're not enemies, Taylor," she repeated. "We both know they have to be stopped, and the other one too."
Other—"What other one?"
Noelle leaned up, anger spilling out of her face like water. When she said the name, I could taste the venom in her voice.
"Teacher."
