Free 1.4

Brockton Automotive Salvage didn't have any buildings near the entrance so I crouched under some trees in sub-zero temperature, keeping one eye on my phone and the other on the scrap yard. Every hour or so I dissolved and rebuilt Spider-Monkey to fight off the cold. Even if I couldn't feel the cold it still affected me.

It was surprising how different a stakeout was than tailing someone. While tailing there was something to focus on, and the knowledge that, eventually, they'd lead me to what I wanted. But here I didn't even know if I was wasting my time. How often did the Merchants come to this yard? Daily? Weekly? Monthly?

I ground my teeth together. Patience.

At least I had my phone. The internet was a great source on possible stealth forms. Turns out that the chameleon's reputation was overstated. Octopuses—octopi? Google agreed with either—were amazing. While chameleons only had a limited color palette and the change related to their emotions, octopi employed active camouflage and even changed the texture of their skin.

Details on how they did it were scarcer on the ground. I could probably get Leet to design it, but, well, the point of a secret stealth form was for it to be secret.

I was trying to look up the relevant textbooks and research papers when my phone died. Less than two hours on a full charge. Lithium batteries didn't handle cold well. I made a mental note to bring hand warmers next time.

With the phone gone so was my method of timekeeping.

I switched to practicing. I couldn't work on the gelatinous cube because of its blindness. Which was a shame as I had a few ideas to try out. So I worked on Griffin.

Trying to fix Griffin's musculature was a headache and a half. Even with the smaller size I still had to install extra muscles in a manner that didn't interfere with the front paws movement. But adding the wing muscles made the form barrel chested and ungainly.

Removing the digestive system I lengthened the lungs and shrunk the ribcage, making room for more muscles. Now it was difficult to breathe. Swapped the bidirectional lungs for unidirectional. Better.

I still couldn't fly, but I could flap my wings and even do a controlled glide. Should almost be morning now. I Changed to Sauron and drifted over to the nearest bank. 12:27.

This was going to be a long night.

Staying awake became more and more difficult. I had to keep interrupting practice to fly and clear my head. The bank's clock seemed to keep slowing down. Every time I saw it it changed less than the last.

Finally, at 6:00, I called it a night.

I did the morning sweep over my territory, then returned to base. My head hurt and all I wanted was sleep, glorious sleep. Tucking my head under a wing I drifted away.

Woke up in the afternoon. Mind felt fuzzy, unfocused. Loud Mouth Bertha had already left her apartment. I did a quick sweep of where I'd seen her last, but couldn't find her.

I could try to find another dealer. Or I could call today a wash.

I called it a wash. Landed on a roof and Changed to Ophillopholant. I lay down, soaking in the sun, the city's white noise rocking me to sleep.

I woke three hours later, refreshed.

With rest came enlightenment: I was doing this all wrong. If Squealer or Trainwreck were buying from the yard then they might not come in at night. I'd have to run 24-hour surveillance on the yard and still might miss them because of Squealer's damn cloaking systems.

No wonder Armsmaster told me.

Unsure of what to do, I decided to watch the yard from 9:00 to 1:00 for now. I could spend that time practicing at least.

I could buy surveillance gear, but trying to use tech to spy on Tinkers seemed like a bad idea. Or was I overestimating them?

Another, shorter night spent watching the yard gave me nothing but another dead battery.

I followed Loud Mouth Bertha and continued trying to puzzle it out. The supply lines and the workshop. If it was beyond my abilities to find one, I could search for the other. Oh, and hey, my wall map could finally have a legitimate use as I listed and eliminated all the warehouses in the docks.

My noon phone check showed a message from the PRT. They invited me to a monthly S-class threat briefing. Interesting. I sent an RSVP back and flew back to Loud Mouth Bertha's restaurant of choice: Pizza Hut.

I like pizza as much as anyone, but everyday? That could not be healthy. I was almost doing her a public service, following her around like this. When she keeled over I'd be there to call the ambulance.

Gunfire interrupted my musings. A street over an old beige sedan had slowed down and a man half hung out of the window, shooting at a group of Merchants on a street corner.

The Merchants hit the deck, and thankfully the shooter missed, bullets impacting the wall behind the Merchants.

The car pulled away, tires screeching, the gunman still hanging out the window. Bastards. I couldn't stop a moving car, at least not without endangering pedestrians.

I followed, keeping a careful watch on the car to make sure they couldn't get rid of the gun. A block later they slowed down to the legal speed limit.

They continued heading out of Merchant territory, making their way back to ABB turf. I couldn't go back to get my cell phone so I'd either have to use one of the punk's cellphones or carry them to the authorities.

Of course the PRT wasn't really set up for this sort of rapid retrieval. They'd send a van but that would take at least fifteen minutes. Fifteen minutes where I would be in ABB territory standing over ABB gang members.

The PRT could pass it on to the BBPD. I'd lose the bounty. Considering the fire arm used, probably another one in the car, I'd rake in maybe a hundred if the PRT took this. But the BBPD did not get along with the PRT. So even if I was willing to lose the bounty there'd probably be no help from that direction.

Leaving the option of carrying them to the PRT. Through ABB territory with a pissed off dragon and suicide bomber. Also not viable.

No. They messed with people on my turf. They might have been Merchant lowlifes, but they were my Merchant lowlifes. These thugs were not getting away with this.

When they stopped at a stoplight I dove for the hood of the car, Changing on the way down. As much as I wanted to do Cube the lack of communication and fingers forced me to stick with Spider-Monkey. Not the cute little version, but version 1.0. Bigger, meaner, nastier.

I hit the car with all six points of contact. The car's front bumper hit the pavement with a screech, the rear jumped up six inches. The thugs were already screaming. Good. The driver was hitting the gas pedal. Not so good.

Before he could accelerate I dropped down, grasping under the tire well, and then threw myself backwards. Car versus four hundred angry simian pounds: the car tipped over on its side.

That hurt. Even with the dulled pain response that really hurt. I looked down at my feet, the soles were a bloody mess from being dragged along the road.

With another push the car rolled onto its roof. Crouching down I 'smiled' at the occupants. "Phu-one, puh-lease?"

They were upside down held in place by seat belts. Good, safety matters. The shooter twisted around trying face me, gun outstretched.

I punched the door moving the entire car several inches and putting a sizable dent in the door. "Bad. Phu-one."

"Right, here. Just take it." The shooter dropped the gun and reached into his pants pulling out a smartphone.

"Guh-ood. Stay." I reached in and pulled out the gun and phone. Just like Laserdream taught me, I checked the safety, ejected the clip, and pulled back the slide ejecting a bullet. The gun made safe, I set it aside.

Now for the hard part.

"PRT hotline. This is Judy. How may I help you, sir or ma'am?"

"Gryphon—" smooth as silk, I'd practiced my own name endlessly "—here. Ah-rest. Duh-rive by." I looked up at the street signs. Oh, that was just unfair. "At Al-gu-on— no, I whuh-ill spuh-ell it."

"That won't be necessary. I can pull the location of your phone. You are at Algonquin Boulevard and Pasadena Street, correct?"

"Yes." They could do that? I had no idea that they could do that. Where had I called the PRT from? Had I called them from my base? I couldn't remember. Didn't matter. Nothing I couldn't replace if it was raided. Except for my phone... which they used to track me.

"There will be a van there shortly, Gryphon. If you could stay on the line until it arrives."

"Yes."

I stood next to the overturned car, patiently waiting. I'd pushed it over to the side, enjoying the driver moaning about his paint job.

Keeping watch for capes coming from the roofs I didn't even notice the police cruiser until it stopped perpendicular to me.

The cop dove out of the door and drew his gun. Keeping the cruiser between us, he pointed the gun at me. "Freeze. Place your hands behind your head and get onto the ground."

Keeping the phone next to my ear I slowly raised my other three arms. "Hero. Gryphon. On phu-one with PRT."

He didn't take his gun off me. Letting go with one hand he reached blindly into the car and picked up the radio. "You just stay like that. Dispatch, Unit One Seven. Have an ape here claiming to be a hero: Gryphon. Can you get confirmation from the PRT?"

"Don't worry, Gryphon," Judy said on my phone. "We're contacting the BBPD now."

We waited like that. My hands behind my head, him holding me at gunpoint.

"Is a hero, copy," He finally stated. Holstering his weapon he walked over. "Sorry about that. It's just with the, well all of the," he gestured at the overturned car and my monstrous form.

"Fuh-ine." I pointed at the car and the gun. "Duh-rive by. Thuh-ree blocks."

"I can take them from you, if you want," he offered.

I'd miss out on the bounty, but it probably wasn't enough to snub the BBPD. "Jodie, that fuh-ine with you?"

"That would be fine, Gryphon. Calling the van back now. Have a pleasant day."

"You too," I said and hung up. "They are yours," I told the cop.

"Great, can you, you know?" He formed his hands over an invisible ball and rotated it.

I nodded and looked down. My feet were too bloody to get good traction. I dissolved and reformed again as Spider-Monkey, I should really rename this variant. Squatting I started rocking the car back and forth and then with a heave flipped it over.

The thugs seemed to be impressed. Or scared shitless. Not literally, or at least I didn't smell anything.

I loomed while the officer searched them and put them in the backseat.

"We're going to need a statement from you."

"PRT has phu-one num-buh-er."

"Right, we'll just schedule a time then."

Deed finished I lifted off. I'd lost Loud Mouth Bertha in the hullabaloo. Another day wasted.

I already spent yesterday dicking around. Today there was stuff I needed to do: recharge my batteries, set up to film my EntLift videos, and work out that horror series with Über and Leet.

Fortunately Über and Leet had nothing scheduled for the afternoon and agreed to meet up at their warehouse. I landed and Changed into Spider-Monkey.

Leet looked up from a giant robot he was building. Ornamental unfortunately, he didn't have the materials to make it combat capable. "Hey Gryphon."

"Hey." I waved.

"Got the sarinx working?" Über asked from behind me.

I nearly jumped out of my skin. How did he do that? "Yes. Wuh-ark-ing on it."

"Right. How flexible is it? If I gave you a sound could you replicate it?"

"Not yet." I waved at the warehouse. "Want to rent studio."

"For that EntLift of yours?" Über asked.

I nodded.

"No need to rent. We'd be happy to loan you anything you need," he said.

I shook my head. "No. No chah-rah-ty."

"Okay. Fine," he sighed. "We can rent you some space and if you're interested we have some old equipment we could sell you."

Leet rappelled down the side of his robot. Giving it an affectionate pat he walked over. "Got a list made up here for the series. Already removed the stuff you said you couldn't do." He handed me a small stack of paper and we started to go through it creature by creature.

I wasn't a big film buff and I never really played video games, so I'd never heard of half these monsters. After I admitted my ignorance Leet pulled out his laptop and we spent the afternoon looking at movie monsters.

I didn't get what the big deal was about Leet's favorite monster. Some black aliens with dick shaped heads. It was obviously a guy in a rubber suit crabwalking. I voiced my opinion and that set Leet off on a long spiel about the atmosphere of the film and how I was a philistine. Not my fault I only saw a thirty second clip of a guy crabwalking.

The later films imported from Aleph had better aliens at least. Alien: Resurrection having the best clips. Another opinion I shouldn't have told Leet.

The entire list was odd. A gorilla in a space helmet that was actually a robot, multiple types of zombies, a monster dog that was half mouth, monster bugs, demons, he listed over three hundred movie and game monsters.

I marked the ones on the list I was already contracted for from my EntLift—only six, most of the donators wanted cute or beautiful—and the ones I couldn't do or wouldn't do. As awesome as Godzilla might be, he was too similar to Endbringers for me to be comfortable with.

I also wasn't sure whether it counted as nudity if there was no skin. I ended up vetoing that one anyway. Not sure how child porn laws related to me, but there was no point in taking any chances.

The dynamic duo liked Griffin and I scheduled a studio time for Wednesday before saying good-bye.

Five o'clock. Time enough to take a short nap before going back to the scrapyard. Huh, message from Crystal. Panacea wanted to see me. We arranged a meeting on top of the hospital. It was next to a nice park with some good trees. I could take a nap there before going to the stakeout.

Laserdream, Glory Girl, and Panacea waited for me on the roof. I circled and alighted on the railing lining the roof, raising a wing in greeting I hopped from foot to foot. I wanted my nap, darn it.

"I just need to talk with Gryphon for a moment." Panacea walked over to me, when Glory Girl followed she added, "Alone."

She checked over her shoulder to see if they were watching and looked back at me. "Taylor."

My mind blanked, my body froze.

"I thought so. How could-"

I ran, let go of the railing and fell, recovering halfway down into a dive. I was never going back. Never going back. What could I do? Had to escape. Run. Go away. I couldn't leave. Get away. This was my home.

I flapped hard, climbing. It was dark now. Even if New Wave tried to follow they wouldn't be able to see me.

Had to escape. Stop. Think. Think. Calm down.

Maybe I'm over reacting. Phone. Had to check my phone. Talk with her. Went back to my phone.

Messages:

Crystal - Are you alright? Why'd you leave?

Panacea- Are you there? We need to talk.

Panacea - Talk to me or I'm telling your family.

I turned the phone off. I wouldn't be forced back. I was never going back. I needed my body. They couldn't force me back without that.

And then what? A place for it to stay. Cheap hotel. I had cash. I could always get more.

Had to get my body.

I dissolved. Beep. I counted. Beep. On the tenth beep I opened my eyes. Panacea sat looking at me. Shit!

I quickly shut my eyes.

"Saw that. Can we talk now?"

I could make Spider-Monkey, grab my body and be out of there, but could I beat Panacea setting off the alarm? And she was within touching range. Glory Girl had given me the whole spiel on how awesome Panacea's powers were, if she touched me then, to quote Über, 'Game over, man, game over.'

"Sure," I rasped. My throat hurt. I lifted my hand—difficult, so weak—to my face there was a tube running into my nose. Uncomfortable, but surprisingly not painful.

"What the hell, Taylor-"

"Gryphon," I choked out.

"This is what? Some lame attempt to run away from home? To have all of your needs taken care of while you're off playing hero? What the hell are you thinking?"

"None of your business."

"I disagree. I'm bound by patient confidentiality and I can't unmask you to the other doctors, but that doesn't mean I can't tell your guardian."

"Just leaving." I lifted my hand to my mouth, biting on the heart monitor's clip.

Panacea jabbed the machine before it could start squealing. "Like hell you are. You're going to lay right there and explain." She stood, glaring down at me.

Forming an enlarged Spider-Monkey I grabbed-

I woke up with Panacea touching my body's face. I tried to move, but she'd paralyzed Spider-Monkey.

"Get rid of that before someone sees," she ordered.

I obeyed and dissolved Spider-Monkey, opened my eyes to see her looking down at me. Trapped. The room was too small, hard to breathe, shallow breaths. 'I can do this. Keep breathing. The door is right there, the windows there. Breathe, Gryphon.'

I felt a rush of calmness, my body dropped away and I floated on the sheets. I looked up at Panacea. "What?"

"I tranqed you," she explained. "Now then, Gryphon, why?"

"I can't go back. I just… I can't."

She took the remains of my arm in her hands. "I can heal you, you know that."

"That's… that's not it. I'm worthless. They don't want me. I should vanish, disappear. I did." I yawned. The pillow was so soft and warm. I hadn't slept in a bed for so long.

"Are you worried about the people who did this?" Panacea asked. "We can arrest them, or, or move you away from them."

"The hallway, it was full. Not a single person cared enough to get me out. To get help. Nothing. Paper, the paper, it said, 'no witnesses.' Worthless, not worth helping."

"Yes, you are. You're Gryphon, you can't let them win."

"They already won." I yawned. It didn't matter. None of this mattered. "I'm not going back."

"What about friends or family? Think about what you're doing to them."

"No friends. Dad's better off without me."

"I'm pretty sure he disagrees. This… goddammit, I can't not tell your father."

"No. No. You can't tell him. Can't tell anyone." I'd made plans before. Researched, made contingencies, almost all of which were useless now, but… "I turn sixteen in June. Please, I can drop out then. Just give me until then, please," I begged.

She worried her lip. She was thinking about it. "April. You'll have missed too much school to catch back up, and you'll still have to go through physical therapy. You won't have to go back. After that, if you want, I'll heal you."

That… was probably the best deal I was going to get. "Agreed." She turned to go. "Wait," I mumbled. "How'd you find me?"

"I did a checkup of long term patients. A coma girl who's actually awake with a corona gemma," seeing my confusion she added, "the part of the brain that controls powers—arrives here the same day that Gryphon appeared, wasn't that hard to figure out."

Bad luck and incomplete information, but I should still be safe here, unless Panacea's nightly visit alerted someone.

"No one—" I yawned "—think it odd that you're still here?"

She rolled her eyes. "Your cover is fine. I come here at night occasionally. No one will think anything of it."

"Last question, can you wake me back up?"

"Stimulants and depressants don't mix and I don't do brains. Sorry." She didn't sound sorry.

"Fine. Just carry me out then." I couldn't keep my eyes open. I Changed, forming Kitten on top of the bed, and sprawled there.

I felt Panacea pick up my limp form and give me a brief hug. "Sorry, instinct. You would not believe how hard it is for me not to baby talk right now."

Comfortable and warm I drifted away.