A Waken 19.5.A
Aisha strode over the back lawn and adjusted the bag hanging from her shoulder.
It was nice actually getting a chance to be invisible. Pretty much impossible now that Taylor was psychic or whatever. Sure only Taylor could do that, but still. It was the principle of the thing! Honestly, as if her powers weren't already bullshit. Some girls just have all the luck.
But enough about Taylor.
This was Aisha's time to shine. Or not shine. Whatever. She was finally out to do some real shit and not just skulk about like a secret agent.
Though she did like skulking about as a secret agent.
"We need our own theme song," she proclaimed.
"Kenny Loggins," Black suggested.
"Why on Earth would we have Kenny Loggins do our theme song when we have Canary on speed dial?"
"Class."
"Well, he's classic I'll give you that but no way he does it for free and we're not made of money. Besides, that's too James Bond. Totally cliché."
Kind of like a cult in the woods. That was definitely a cliché.
Walking over the grass, Aisha glanced over the buildings she passed. The whole place was like a giant log cabin convention. Roughly cut tree trunks stacked with crude doors and windows. The roofs were rickety and barely seemed to hold up. Stone chimneys on the sides or ends puffed smoke from their entire length rather than just the top.
"Someone around here needed to hire a contractor," Aisha declared.
"The woodwork is a travesty," Black agreed.
"How the mighty have fallen."
She spotted a few people out and about. Kids mostly, and most far younger than she was. More than a few looked really familiar even though she'd never met them. Lots of black hair, pretty faces, and sharp eyes. Oddly, they all seemed to keep distance from one another. As Aisha went she saw two almost cross paths and they turned like robots to avoid it.
"And that's just creepy…"
Black went from one shoulder to the other, looking intently at a security camera set in a tree. "Horror movie grade."
"That's all the cameras right?" Aisha asked.
"Yes," Veda answered.
"Never would have thought going low tech would be better security."
"I have been encountering this issue with increasing frequency," Veda complained. "Most have quickly learned that highly integrated networks are easy for me to infiltrate no matter how well secured. Even tinkers are switching to low-tech options as a form of simple security."
"Maybe that's why Star Wars has no internet."
Black turned. "What?"
"What?" Aisha asked back. "Come on. How many times have you watched those movies? They have no internet. How does Star Wars have all that tech and no internet? They don't even have wireless! R2-D2 has to plug into everything to do anything!"
"That," Veda began, "would actually make sense. A switch to higher analog systems to counter the inability of security systems to properly counter even a rudimentary and non-specialized machine's ability to penetrate."
"Yeah. That makes sense."
"We should discuss the implications later. For the moment, there is a master to deal with. Do be sure not to drop out of your power. The Foundation's counter-measure is ready to deploy, but I imagine it wouldn't make the experience any more pleasant."
"Yeah, yeah." She'd heard it all already and she wasn't that dumb. She glanced around and picked a good crop of overgrown bushes to set one of the last canisters in her bag inside. "Let's do this."
Continuing onward, Aisha approached a small cabin at the far end of the yard. It sat on a small hill and the roof was caving in on one side. A single light hung just outside the door, set on the ground and turned up.
Aisha grabbed it as she approached. She held the lamp up and knocked once. She waited two seconds. She knocked again.
Spy stuff. So cool.
The door opened slowly, and a small face with very familiar eyes looked out.
Aisha tended to think she'd seen most kinds of crap. A druggie mother in a place like Brockton Bay did that to a girl. She had to admit though, she hadn't seen everything.
The girl—no older than five—looked like she'd already seen too much and didn't care to see anymore. Like some part of her was dead inside. Worn out. Used up.
She looked like Aisha's mother and was far too young to look so worn down.
Concentrating, Aisha dropped her power. It was dark and late, so no one should be able to see her but, "Gotta be quick. Let's go."
The girl blinked but recognition flickered over her face. "Right."
She stepped back, leaving the door open as she retreated. Aisha stopped concentrating, vanishing back into her power and quickly entering the house.
The interior was obviously rustic. Lots of roughly cut wood from floor to furniture. Everything appeared handmade. Even the plates and cups on the table. Candles provided light inside and Aisha scowled at the complete lack of any electricity. The yokel fucker had power to spare for security cameras but no heating?
The cabin was freezing.
Across the room, toward a bed tucked behind some drawn curtains, the girl shook a woman's side.
And Aisha was going to stab someone.
The woman wasn't a woman. She was pretty and developed in the chest area sure, but she couldn't be much older than Lafter or Lily. Eighteen, maybe nineteen.
"Mom," the girl said in a deadpan tone. "It's time. Come on."
The girl was shaking like Aisha's mother after a bad weekend. And she really didn't need this. No one did.
"We shouldn't," she whispered.
"We have to," the girl retorted. She grabbed her mother by the wrist and pulled. "Let's go."
Aisha grimaced, quickly setting the last of her canisters just outside the door.
The girl managed to get the woman up while her back was turned and forced a bag into her arms.
"We have to go," she demanded. She grabbed her mother's dress in one hand and pulled.
"Your fathe—"
"We're going."
A shift in expression came over the woman's face and Aisha felt her stomach sinking all over again. The girl's dead expression seemed to grow a small bit deader. This time, when she pulled the woman followed like some kind of robot.
"That's a master power," Aisha grumbled.
"Yes," Veda agreed. "It is."
Aisha stayed in her power and followed as the girl and her mother left the house and vanished into the night. Crossing the yard wasn't hard for them. It was night but the sky was clear and there was just enough light to see through the cleared ground.
Plus, Aisha had the lantern.
Neat trick, while she held it no one noticed it at all or the light it cast. Yet, the light was still there and could be seen by.
Only at the far end of the yard as they approached the fence did Aisha turn the light off. She looked back, surveying the ground for any signs that someone was snooping around. Besides her, anyway.
She didn't see anyone and again removed herself from her power.
"Follow me," she whispered. "It's not far."
"Come with me, Mom," the girl commanded in response.
She followed behind Aisha, tugging her mother behind her. The dark was harder to see in but Black turned and flashed his eyes so the girl knew where to go. Aisha weaved her way down a short slope into the woods and then slipped through the hole they'd made in the chain link fence beyond the wooden one.
It took the girl some trying to get her mother to crouch and get through, but she did.
From there, they crossed a worn dirt road. Not ten feet later, the girl stopped, her eyes showing some emotion for the first time as Alec got up from his seat and approached her.
He looked down at her with a lazy gaze, his eyes the same color and shape as hers. Those eyes traveled quickly, hand gripping her mother's dress tighter. The girl looked from face to face, seeing the resemblance in the eyes and the chins of most present. Nearly all of them were slender in build with dark hair.
"Sister," Alec greeted, standing beside Nicholas and Noémie.
The girl blinked. "Kelly."
A myriad of similar voices greeted her and one of the other girls—Candy, Aisha thought—stepped forward from the group.
"We set up a tent," she said with nervous energy. "It's over here. You and your mom can wait there while we—"
Eyes turned and Kelly flinched.
"Stay calm," she ordered.
Quickly, her mother seemed to calm down. The surge of panic and fear vanished from her face. She seemed to lull back into that robotic and unthinking gaze, her eyes unfocused and her face calm. Beside her, Kelly looked away, face red and eyes deader yet again.
Aisha grit her teeth and looked over her shoulder.
Alec whistled. "She just does what you say? You can do that to people?"
Kelly looked up at her brother blankly. "Yes."
"Doesn't work on father?" Nicholas asked.
"No," Kelly said in a voice that made clear her fear.
She wasn't the only one. Some hid it better than others but even Alec's lazy smile failed to fully cover the nervous fiddling of the hand in his pocket. They were all afraid. Every single one of them. Even after years far from his tender care, Nikos Vasil terrified his children.
"Where is he?" Noémie asked in a thick accent.
As she asked the question, Florence came forward and unfolded a map Aisha had made a few days ago. She'd marked out the locations of most cameras, all the cabins, and where supplies had been hidden. Took her a bit. They didn't want to tip anyone off so she'd been avoiding the cameras rather than letting Black disable them.
Fortunately, the place didn't have good camera coverage. She did a lot of backtracking but not too much. As crudely done as her work was, she thought she did a pretty good job.
Kelly scanned the map and then pointed with her free hand. "There."
It was one of the smaller cabins on the edge of the little village.
Aisha's brow rose at that. She'd have thought daddy dearest would hang out in one of the larger cabins. At least one that actually had windows and was located by a pond. Seemed the kind of place a raging douche would hang out in.
Of course, Aisha hadn't seen the guy in charge at all. She'd wandered all over and only ever saw kids and a few women. She'd found it weird but assumed underground tunnels or some shit. Something James Bondy. Right?
"We go in from three sides," Nicholas proposed. "Activate the gas, then corner him before he can slip away."
"Just us," Noémie agreed. She glanced to Alec—Jean-Paul—and nodded her head. "He escaped before because his power still worked short term. That won't work on us."
Candy started leading Kelly away and of course her mother followed on command.
Aisha didn't want to think about it but that wasn't exactly easy.
She kept wondering what she'd do if that was her power. If she could make her mother stop getting high. Part of her rebelled against the notion. That was some fucked up shit. Making someone do something like that? Even she thought that was wrong.
At the same time, she wondered if it might save her mother's life and if things might be different if she could do it.
Fucked up shit.
"Fucked up shit, yeah?"
Aisha turned her head, looking up at Alec, though not as much as she used to. "One way of putting it."
She'd gotten taller over the past year. Taylor was going to have to make a new costume soon. Or… Well, Veda would, she guessed. Maybe.
Alec scoffed and smirked. "You getting emotional on me?"
Her first reaction was to crack a joke but… Shit even she couldn't make a joke about that. "She's never gonna be okay, is she?"
"Is anyone?"
Okay, that she could crack a joke about. "You're the ones dressed like Renaissance Fair rejects, you tell me."
"What's wrong with that?" Noémie asked. She looked down at her dress—Aisha resisted the urge to point out it looked a lot like Sovereign's—and raised her arms. "Is classy, no?"
"I'd pick you up off a misty London Street and take you into a back alley," Nicholas said.
Noémie sighed. "A Jack the Ripper joke? Really?"
Nicholas shrugged. "We fit the period."
"Can't you discuss wardrobes later?" Alec glanced at Aisha and then looked ahead. "It's raid night and I have things I'd rather be doing."
"You and your game references." Noémie turned, looking behind her. "Darlene." She nodded toward a girl with unruly black hair. "It's time."
The girl started moving, touching each of her siblings one after the other. She could link people together and let them share their senses, which Aisha had experienced twice. She admitted it was pretty useful but there was always a sense of… Well, Kelly wasn't the only one who'd never be okay.
Aisha had been around Alec's merry family for a bit now and she'd come and gone more than enough to notice. Some of them were their own monsters. Left to their own devices they'd probably be just as bad as their father. Maybe even worse, hard as that was to imagine.
But they were all smart enough to see the writing on the wall and know the trouble they'd get in if they went off and did whatever.
They wanted to get by. They weren't here for altruistic reasons. They wanted to survive. That didn't make the Heartbroken heroes, but did it mean they had to be villains? She'd say most of them weren't like that anyway. Alec wasn't exactly hero material, but the guy was happy to goof off and have mostly harmless fun, so who gave a shit? Leave him to his own devices and he was a chill guy to hang with.
Maybe they were fucked up, but who wasn't a little fucked up in this world? Lucky bastards if they weren't.
That's how it was sometimes. Not everyone could be Taylor.
You do what you have to do. You did it to live. To keep yourself in one piece. Not everyone had a rosey home with loving moms and dads to support them and take care of their boo-boos. Unless you were fucking shit up, who fucking cared if you were less than perfect or barely better than a total asshole?
There were real fuckers out there. Aisha had seen them. Heartbreaker's kids… What were they supposed to do with where they came from? It was a miracle they were sticking with the Wardens and playing hero at all.
It would be easy for the lot of them to just go be some hedonistic cult somewhere. With so many masters Veda or Taylor would be the only ones who could probably stop them.
But the Heartbroken weren't doing that. They were here and they came to stop their father once and for all. So what if some of them did it for themselves? What shits did anyone give so long as it got rid of their dad?
"You know what father will do when we come," Noémie whispered.
"Yeah," Alec responded. "He can shout and scream all he wants. He won't be able to do anything about it. Canisters all laid out?"
"Yeah," Aisha answered. "I got um."
"We're ready."
Toward the back of the group, Bough stood in a fancy suit of power armor with multiple arms sticking out of his back. He'd returned to a normal appearance like a lot of the Case-53s, and Aisha had to admit it didn't do him as many favors as it did some of the others. She supposed he was happy not looking like a bobblehead anymore though.
The mechanical arms manipulated several computers as he looked between the screens.
"System's ready," he replied. "Give me the go-ahead and I'll turn it on. Heartbreaker's power will be disabled so long as it's on."
Alec shrugged. "I'd ask if you were sure, but it worked before."
"We've improved the Foundation's original method," Bough explained. "Once we release the gas, it'll absorb through the skin and immunize everyone it touches."
"Only father's power will be disabled?" Nicholas asked.
"Yeah."
"Go—"
"No." Alec turned his head toward his brother. "None of that shit, Nick. Gotta think about what happens tomorrow, remember?"
Nicholas scowled, and Aisha could guess why just from the bitter and cold look in his eyes.
"Gotta wear the mask," Alec mused, "if you want to get by. Deal with it."
A few of the siblings lined up. Some seemed to support Nicholas. Others—most of them, including Florence and Noémie—lined-up with Alec. There were a dozen of them all together, minus Candy of course, and the two boys who didn't have any powers, Nathan and Roman.
Bough tensed, reaching for something at his belt while Aisha strolled between the groups and said, "Save the sitcom for when we got some cameras maybe?"
Nicholas seemed to do the math quickly and backed down. More than two-thirds of the 'family' weren't supporting him.
"Fine," he relented.
"Swell." Alec grinned lazily and sighed. "Fuck I want to get my dailies done. Let's hurry up and—"
"Let's not."
Heads turned. A few of the Vasils jumped. Mostly the younger ones. Alec, Nicholas, and Noémie simply looked up.
Aisha sighed. "Really?" She glared at Damocles. "Don't you got anything better to do?"
"Nothing better than arresting a band of psychopaths who should have all been locked up a long time ago," the masked woman replied. She drew the sword from her side and pointed it.
"Bold move," Alec commented.
"Oui," Noémie agreed. "Coming after us all by yoursel—"
She stopped looking down as Candy and Kelly ran back from the woods. Rather, Candy ran, dragging a struggling Kelly alongside her with a hand clamped over the girl's mouth as she flailed.
A dozen capes followed behind them.
Bough spun, the mechanical arms on his back raising and the hands at the ends opening up. Another half dozen capes came from his right and Aisha glanced back as a dozen more came from behind.
"Wow," she exclaimed.
"Overkill," Black agreed, turning back and forth. "Problem. Problem!"
Yeah… Sending thirty capes after a family of masters seemed like a really obvious boneheaded move. Even Teacher without his thinkers couldn't be that dumb. Which meant they had something up their sleeves.
Nicholas seemed to notice first. His face paled slightly and he glanced to Alec.
"Yeah, I know," Alec said. "This is going to be a real drag." He looked over the capes as they closed in but Aisha didn't really know any of them save Damocles. "Don't suppose you'll tell us who the trump is?"
"No one here," Damocles answered.
"Safeguard," Black identified. "Memphis Protectorate. Master."
No one responded to what the robot said. Aisha dropped into her power the moment the other capes started closing in and began moving away.
They had their own master with them? She guessed that made sense. One master to counter a bunch of other masters. Block their powers from working on anyone they were using their power on. That made sense.
And more than a few of the capes looked like brutes and shakers if Aisha had to guess.
"This is gonna get messy…"
"Don't suppose we can talk about this?" Alec asked, looking up at Damocles.
"We're here to arrest Heartbreaker!" Bough shouted. "Can't we work this out after—"
Wait. Aisha turned, watching as Kelly went limp and sunk to the ground when Candy held her arm out to one of the brothers. She lowered the girl and quickly moved to stand over her.
Where was her mom? Aisha didn't see her anywhere.
"You don't get to negotiate just because you can't master anyone," Damocles snapped. "Surrender and it'll probably look better when the courts deal with you."
"For what?" Noémie asked. "We were Wards. The Wardens—"
"Made a mistake thinking you could walk free," the woman interrupted. "Murders. Assaults. Rapes."
"Can we plead fucked up parental figure?" Alec asked.
"Maybe Legend and Hero will come running to save you again," one of the capes growled.
"That would be convenient," Nicholas agreed.
Aisha grimaced.
They weren't exactly wrong.
Alec told her some of the stuff he'd done as Hijack. It was fucked up shit… and try as she might, she didn't know how to feel about it. It was easy to write it all off to bad parenting, but she had her own experience with bad parenting. Then again, her mom didn't exactly compare to having Heartbreaker for a parent.
"You have ten seconds," Damocles declared.
Alec, Noémie, and Nicholas shared glances and Aisha could imagine the debate going on.
"This is ridiculous!" Bough shouted. "If anyone on Heartbreaker's compound hears us—"
"Step back, Bough," one of the capes behind him said. The tinker turned, clearly recognizing the voice of the woman. "Let it go and walk away."
This was so fucked up.
Aisha hated thinking about this crap. She wasn't a thinker! She wanted to stab assholes and maybe do a good deed or two. Yippee.
All this law and order crap so wasn't her style.
"We'll deal with Heartbreaker," Damocles replied. "High time someone did."
Aisha's hand gripped at her knife. "Really?"
"Really," Black replied.
"No."
Heads turned again, this time toward Alec and his lazy smile.
"We have some bones to pick with the old man," he replied. "Fucked up childhoods and such. Family stuff."
Noémie leaned toward him, whispering, "Jean—"
"How 'bout you turn around before we have to start punching you out?"
A few faces gawked. Alec grinned like a maniac. Aisha was impressed, but she'd be more impressed if he wasn't so obviously bluffing.
"You can try," Damocles dismissed.
"Why not?" Alec looked around.
"Or not," Nicholas grumbled, clearly less eager to go out in a blaze of glory.
"Come on." Alec pushed his hands into his pockets. "Besides. They're gonna do what they're gonna do. Might as well get our licks in while we can."
"I like my arms in one piece," Noémie retorted.
"And ten years in prison from now?" Alec asked. "Would you rather go quietly, or remember that one time you told the entitled prisses to get fucked?"
"Prisses?" someone asked. He looked around. "You're the ones dre—"
"Like Renaissance fair rejects," Noémie interrupted, watching Alec for a moment before looking away.
"We know," Juliet agreed.
Damocles tilted her head, then shook it. "Fine then." She raised her arm and pointed her sword down. "My preference anyway. You're all too dangerous to be left free. Justice—"
"Justice?" Aisha spat. "Horseshit."
"Imp!"
Someone shouted and pointed. A few capes turned toward her and Aisha ignored them. She glared up at Damocles, teeth grit behind her mask. She glanced toward Kelly and her still dead-eyed expression.
That's what power—a world where only power mattered—did to people. What it created. How it broke people down from the day they were born and left them with nothing but power or no power.
That was Heartbreaker's world.
It was Teacher's world.
A world that never changed because it broke kids first.
"More of the same," Damocles declared. "Mountains of breaking and entering, trespassing, and—
"Take your justice and shove it up your ass!"
Aisha inhaled, the heat building in her chest until it burst out.
"Shit it and call it soft serve," she spat back. "Save that crap for some other heartless bootlicker who gives a fuck! You're lucky Adi is listening to Taylor, otherwise, she'd have gone golden god of destruction on your punk ass for murdering her dad!"
"Scion—"
"Oh, like she would give a crap! You ain't fucking clean bitch! You think you got no skeletons in your trunk? That you never fucked up?" Aisha stabbed a finger toward Kelly, screaming, "High time what, you shit!? Where were you when this crap went down!? We found Heartbreaker in two months; how hard were you fucking trying?!"
Aisha drew her knife, cursing that she simply wasn't as good at talking stuff out like Taylor was. Was it books or something? Taylor read a lot of books.
"You don't care," she accused. "You don't give a shit what's just! You just wanna feel better about yourself! Like you're better when you're just the same as everyone else who stood by and did nothing while they had to survive! Fuck. You're less than better! You could have done something about it whenever you wanted if you really cared!"
Damocles—to Aisha's surprise—did actually look guilty for a moment.
"It's not an excuse," she said. "Two wrongs don't make a right and they don't get to walk away from what they did because of who their father is."
"Oh yeah," Aisha gagged. "Make it a teenager's job to defy fucking Heartbreaker! They're doing it right now and you couldn't care less! You don't care what they do now, only what they did when all they had was a shit dad and terror of what he could do to them! Pimping them out. Making them fuck people up because he wanted them to. You could have stopped it and you didn't!"
She maybe shouldn't have said that. Candy was basically the only cape Aisha had ever seen talk about her trigger event willingly, but that just drove home how messed up it all was. They were all so numb. Dulled out. Working twice as hard just to fit in and failing half the time anyway.
She didn't know if it was right—maybe it wasn't—but this shit was fucked and it could get fucked.
"This is bullshit," Aisha hissed. "You had a chance to get justice and you let it go! You don't get to come along now and decide who was wrong when you did nothing!"
That got a few reactions, but Aisha didn't care. She wasn't a brilliant person. She knew that. If her choices were wrong and wrong, then she might as well pick the wrong she liked more.
Not everyone got it easy, or even good. Sometimes you got dragged so far down there was no way up. She'd rather be declared a villain for siding with Alec and his siblings than leave them to the wolves. Taylor had the right of it. The world had fallen apart. Bad shit happened. People were left to the wolves and they did what they had to do to live. Prissy entitled shits didn't get to decide who was right and who was wrong when they didn't do anything about it or have to live it themselves.
Fuck'um.
She grinned and chuckled as the thought occurred to her.
Damocles was right.
Two wrongs don't make a right.
"You want to spin this eye for an eye shit let's go!" Aisha raised the blade, already dropping back into her power as Black spun a lightsaber over her head. "Whoever stabs the second eye out first probably gets to keep at least one of theirs, so fuck it! Eyes for eyes all around!"
"Not bad."
Bodies twitched and heads turned.
Green light exploded from the forest, and a Gundam raised its head.
"A little lacking in eloquence, but not bad."
How long had Taylor been there?
"Jean-Paul."
Alec cocked his head.
"Go."
The boy blinked, smirked, and turned around.
One of the capes charged from the line, moving so fast Aisha didn't even see him run. He was simply gone.
And then Taylor drove his skull into the road, slammed him down again, and then threw him into the air. He crashed somewhere she couldn't see, snapping trees in the distance.
One of Bough's arms snapped out and one of the computers behind him sounded. "Go!" he shouted as he turned to face the capes behind him. "Someone probably heard that!"
Alec started walking toward the fence, and his siblings followed. Only Candy remained behind, crouching over an unconscious Kelly as Bough moved to shield her.
Aisha hung back, dropping into her power as Damocles scoffed.
"You like collecting psychopaths," the woman mocked.
"One man's psychopath"—the Gundam's blade slid out—"is another man's victim. No one is blameless. No one is innocent. Heartbreaker was allowed to run free and ruin lives. His children shouldn't be punished for that."
"That's not the law," someone said in that tone that let you know they couldn't care less about anything but rules and ruley shit. "They—"
"I think people make the choices that make sense in their circumstances." Taylor turned her head, looking at Kelly. "And I think a child born to someone like Heartbreaker and raised under such circumstances can only be blamed for so much."
"Sad stories don't make saints," Damocles spat.
"And justice without mercy is nothing but revenge." A golden light shone from above and Damcoles jumped back. She looked up, grimacing as Administrator hung in the air overhead. "Shall revenge be our measure? I'm not sure you'll like it when your turn comes. No one's blameless in a world gone mad."
…
"Really?" Aisha complained. "You gotta one up me like that?"
"You made a good point," Taylor replied. "It's worth repeating."
The other capes stood still, some watching as Alec's siblings moved into the woods and the rest looking between the Gundam and Damocles. Which was about when Aisha did the math and gawked.
It was just her, Bough, and Taylor against thirty capes. One of whom apparently killed Scion with her sword. Taylor had a Gundam and she did like mentioning how she killed an Endbringer, but Aisha didn't exactly love their odds. Candy and Kelly were basically sitting ducks. Bough wasn't very mobile and she'd already noticed two capes glancing at her from the corner of their eyes.
So much for being impossible to know about.
God damn powers.
"Ignore her," Damocles declared. She turned away. "Move on Heartbreaker."
"That will put innocent lives in danger," Taylor pointed out. "Women and children who are here through no fault of their own."
"They'll be safe when Heartbreaker is dealt with."
"He's already been dealt with. You're picking a fight with no purpose."
Damocles began moving and the other capes started to follow.
Aisha could almost hear the disappointment.
"Shame," Taylor muttered. "Given the choice between right and what's stupid—"
The Gundam moved, wind whipping around Aisha and knocking her back. Above, Damocles screamed as her arm bent the wrong way, and Taylor swung her down toward the ground.
"—you picked stupid."
Damocles slammed into the ground. She flipped moments before impact, her legs collapsing under her as she braced for the crash that knocked a few other capes off their feet.
The woman pulled another sword from her back, one arm dangling from the elbow and twisted the wrong way.
"That's the line!" she snapped. "You and your dam—"
"That is the line," Taylor declared with a voice that cut right through whatever Damocles was saying. "We've been patient, but tonight you went too far."
The swords flashed, the blades turning green and shimmering around her.
"I determine that the Titans are sowing the seeds of conflict."
A few faces reacted and Aisha thought back.
Had Taylor ever said she wasn't still policing the world?
"You're taking over countries," Taylor pointed out. "You're attacking vigilantes and rogues on whims and harassing heroes because you don't like where they came from. It was one thing when you just wanted to be heard, but I see nothing here but the pursuit of your own aggrandizement and wanton disregard for the lives in the crossfire."
A grin crossed her face, and Aisha turned on her heels.
"The Titans will disband," Taylor ordered, "or they will be disbanded."
Damocles gawked as Aisha ran past her. "You can't—"
Watch me.
The words rang clear, despite Taylor's voice not saying them.
Two of the Titan capes actually broke and ran.
The rest got slammed into the ground as a wave of green force blasted through the forest. The air snapped, a golden light shining through the forest as Administrator appeared between Candy and Bough, projecting a wall of light around them and Kelly. She stood there, watching as Taylor kicked Damocles' other arm, snapping it and sending her sword flying.
"David's done paving the road of his ambition in innocent lives," Taylor warned, "And so is anyone who stands by him."
As Aisha went, she weaved between two capes. One was clearly a brute and she ignored her. The other was thin and scrawny. He held a hand out, fingers pointed forward at Taylor as her swords began spinning and cutting.
Aisha ran her blade behind his leg. The guy stumbled back and she popped out of her power to shout, "Hey shitface!"
The other cape turned, alarm crossing her half-masked face the moment before Taylor's elbow struck her cheek and sent her flying into a tree. The trunk snapped and Administrator blasted it before it could fall on the cape Aisha had cut. He was grasping his leg, stumbling around as splinters showered around him.
Aisha grabbed Black and threw him as hard as she could.
"Get decked!"
The robot smashed the man in his face then swung his saber down into his collar. The guy collapsed like a rag doll with a whimper and Aisha pulled a small cylinder from her belt and threw it.
The container exploded mid-air, gas blowing out and spreading a few gallons of Brian's power into the air.
Faultline had been smart to test how long his power lasted if you put it in a can.
Brian's power was useful.
Aisha paused, watching as a trio of blades swung through the air, throwing one cape back and pinning another to the ground. A fourth blade swung down, striking the woman in the jaw with the hilt before all four swung out and stabbed into a cape's shoulders. Taylor kicked the cape in the back, throwing him forward as her swords flipped him into the air at the same time she swung around.
Taylor killed an Endbringer.
She could fight thirty capes and wreck their entire world so long as Administrator guarded Bough, Candy, and Kelly.
With Brian's power spreading, the Titans capes started to stumble about.
That didn't stop Taylor. She flew into the cloud, her swords dancing about before firing a dozen beams into the air and peppering her latest victims with bruises.
Aisha wasn't needed here.
"Where's Kelly's mom?"
Black jumped onto her back and pointed his saber.
Without a word, Aisha sprinted into the forest.
She didn't know the girl. She didn't really know Kelly. The fact the girl had to use her power on her own mom to get her to leave Heartbreaker spoke to all kinds of fucked up shit even therapy probably couldn't fix.
Aisha didn't know how that was going to work out.
She only knew that the last thing she'd do was leave the girl with anyone associated with Teacher. That piece of shit couldn't be trusted to do anything.
Jumping over a fallen log and finding herself on a narrow hiking trail, Aisha ran down a switchback and spotted the vans.
A few men were scrambling, one talking into a phone while the others packed up television equipment.
Television equipment.
Fucking pieces of shit. What did they think this was, a fucking documentary?
Aisha ran between the vehicles. She checked the doors. The windows. She didn't know what happened but she guessed that Candy and Kelly were ambushed. They took Kelly's mom and not Kelly for a reason.
Aisha didn't trust their reasons.
She found the woman in a chair looking nervously as two men talked to her. She looked terrified as they bombarded her with questions.
"Where's Kelly?" she asked in a panicked voice. She wasn't really looking at the men as they held her down. "Where's—"
Aisha pulled the taser from her belt and jammed it into one man's side. The clattering sent him sprawling and spasming. When the second guy turned to look. She punched him in the groin and pushed him over.
Without looking back, Aisha grabbed the woman by the arm and pulled.
"Come on," she whispered. "Kelly's safe but we need to move."
The woman panicked. "Where—"
"She's fine."
As far as Aisha knew, the only thing on Earth anywhere close to as powerful as Taylor was Administrator.
Aisha looked up. Kelly had wanted to get her mother out in exchange for helping. Out of harm's way anyhow. The gas from the canisters Aisha had dropped were supposed to spread and knock out Heartbreaker's power. She'd camped close enough that Kelly's mother would still get a dose but Aisha didn't know if they were close enough now.
"This way."
She knew the woods fairly well. She'd been trolling around them for a week surveying Heartbreaker's little village. Some shouting started up as she led—"What's your name?"
"M-Miranda?"
"Right.
Aisha led Miranda around a hill and back, putting them relatively close to the compound with a view over the fences. There were shadows running around inside, and a big mass of movement that Aisha assumed was Alec and his siblings. They were closing on the cabin Kelly had pointed out, circling it and checking the surrounding dwellings.
Three of the Heartbroken could just knock people out without any lasting damage.
The plan had been to disable everyone to keep them from running around but it looked like things hadn't gone to plan.
"What's happening?" Miranda asked nervously. She was shaking and not because of the cold. "Where's Kelly?"
Aisha turned her head. The green light was illuminating the trees to their right. Occasionally the sound of something snapping or crashing echoed. Taylor was going easy on them if they'd lasted this long.
Damn softie.
"She's safe," Aisha promised. "Just wait a bit."
The woman didn't like that. She glanced around like she wanted to run and Aisha couldn't blame her.
"He's going down, you know. Heartbreaker? His kids—the older ones—came to take him away."
She watched, looking for any signs. She had no idea what she was looking for though. She had a taser still but Miranda had enough shit fucking her over. Aisha didn't exactly want to add to it.
"Kelly is safe," Veda said from Black, drawing the woman's attention to the robot. "She is being guarded by a very powerful cape at the moment. Give us a few minutes to clear the hostile capes from the area and you can see her."
"She's okay?" the woman asked.
"Yes."
Miranda's eyes turned, looking down at the compound as three taller shadows moved toward the isolated cabin as a group.
Emotions ran through her eyes. Confusion. Worry. Fear. Joy. Relief.
Aisha wasn't sure she wanted to try and imagine what she was dealing with. Someone reaching into your head and fucking with you? At least when Sovereign did it it didn't last.
Aisha crouched, one eye on Miranda in case she tried to make a break for it. She wasn't exactly happy with the idea of restraining her but they couldn't let the girl run around the woods in the dark. She'd get lost or hurt. Probably both.
Teacher did that too.
Reached into someone and completely fucked them. Changed them. Who they were. How they thought. What they were willing to do.
People can do such stupid, rotten, things.
And the worst part was the way it dominoed out and dragged everyone in until no one knew who fucked it up anymore.
With a sigh, Aisha reached for her phone and started dialing.
The line picked up halfway into the first ring as if he'd just been waiting by the phone for whatever reason.
"Aisha?" Brian answered. "What's up?"
Her voice hitched because honesty just wasn't how she did things. Honesty was a crock of shit. Everyone lied. Everyone cheated. Everyone did what they had to do. Everyone screwed up and tried to pretend they didn't.
In the scope of her experience, maybe that wasn't anything to hold against anyone.
"Aisha?" her brother called again. "You there?"
Miranda watched her nervously and Aisha cursed her impulsiveness but she was already here so fuck it.
"You know I don't really hold stuff against you, right Brian?"
Her brother didn't answer of course.
And screw it. In for a penny in for the pounding.
"I know I give you a hard time but it's just how I deal with stuff. You know that, right?"
On the second prompt, he did answer with a low, "Yeah. I know."
"Good." Good… Now what?
"What brought this on?" Brian asked. "Are you okay?"
Ever the worrier. "Fine. Just…" She looked out over the village, wondering how many more kids like Kelly were down there and how many more girls like Miranda. It was fucked. Super fucked. "Kind of realizing I haven't had it that bad… Because you were there."
"Oh…"
She quickly added, "And if you ever tell anyone I said that, I will tell your girlfriend about that time you said Newtype was kind of hot."
With that warning, Aisha hung up and stashed her phone.
A brief silence later, Miranda asked, "Who was that?"
"My dumb a…" Aisha trailed off and stopped herself. "Just my brother."
"Oh. Um. That's nice?"
"Yeah. Guess it is."
Taylor was right, though Aisha didn't have the words for it.
A fucked up world made fucked up people...
It wasn't the people who were wrong.