Grim Cooperation
Worm/Dark Souls
1.1
-Avoid Left-
"Long way it is then." I muttered to myself.
I wondered what they had had planned for a few minutes as I took the long way out of school, slipping out an emergency exit.
The alarm it was meant to trigger had been broken for years, and I hugged myself as I walked past the cluster of students huddled around the area, far out of the view of the street and any windows of the school.
The smokers and allegedly worse ignored me like much of the school, only here it was more of a comfort than a cause of despair.
I made it off school grounds without any incidents thanks to my warnings, only having to duck behind a wall to dodge being spotted by one of Emma's 'friends'.
They had rarely managed to catch me since I had Triggered, but they tried to make up for it when they did so avoiding them became more important the longer it had been since they had.
My power made it easy enough though, Orange messages were scrawled across the floor and walls, I just had to read the signs and sometimes interpret them, since they seemed to be limited in someway, like having a small list of generic words and having to choose the best words from that to get their point across.
The source of whatever they were seemed to have a similar 'taste' to me though, so they were not that hard to figure out.
I boarded a bus to the downtown area shortly afterwards.
It had been a few days since my successful night out.
It still brought a grin to my lips thinking of it.
Tonight I planned to scout out for Faultlines Crew, they apparently either ran, or had an arrangement with a club somewhere in downtown.
Unfortunately, no-one seemed to bother mentioning where 'The Palanquin' was, and asking for the location seemed like an unnecessary risk on PHO. No location from my google search either.
So today I was going to have a walk around the area in the daylight, and have a look for the club.
I didn't plan to approach them until I had followed up on the rumors, but it seemed like a good idea to scout their base in advance, and if it was a club I could just walk in the door rather than need to have a Shade try infiltrating.
The mental image of it, a 6-7 foot tall, heavily armored and glowing figure trying to sneakily climb in a window like some sort of ninja made me laugh to myself out loud as I stepped off the bus.
I flushed at the looks I was getting for the laugh and quickly walked away from the bus stop.
It took me about half an hour of walking around, not seeing much of my messages before I came to the top of a hill, feeling rather irritable.
-Behind You-
And there it was.
I find it hard to believe I hadn't spotted that before it was pointed out to me, but nothing was lit up at this time in the afternoon, so I guess it is excusable.
After berating myself, I examined the event listings outside and quickly found a flaw in my plan of subtly observing the inside of the club.
A notice stating 'ID required for entry'.
That was going to be an issue, I may be tall, and I might not have the best figure, but at the same time I obviously was not 18, and of course I had no ID that would contradict that fact.
This could be an issue…
5 minutes later, I had a makeshift solution, if one that was not going to be anywhere near as informative as my previous one.
I will admit, my main reason for disliking this path is the headache it is going to give me when I start it up, but beggars can't be choosers.
I headed back down the hill to the bus stop, and memorised the route back to the Palanquin.
A good few hours later, well after sunset I returned, having jogged from home after confirming that Dad was sound asleep.
I was very thankful for the running I had taken up once I realised that I was the weak point of my powers, since the club was quite some distance away from home.
I stepped into the alley 2 buildings down from the club, glancing around for any looker-ons, but I spotted none.
I needed to be sure though, so I focused, and sought more than the glimmer of orange that I could see out on the pavement.
The ground, and the wall in front of me lit up.
-Safe, but quick-
-Try Here!-
-Now! All!-
All of them? There must be something, or someone nearby. I hurried, worse case it was Faultline herself, and I didn't fancy having a building dropped on me.
I shook my head and nodded to the messages, and to myself I suppose, and crouched down to trace a word into the ground, then repeated it twice more as the first lit up in a silver glow and expanded to a circle of shadowy light.
Three seconds later I was surrounded by heavily armored Shades in the dingy alley.
Wait
I walked from the alley, checking both ways, ignoring the building pressure in my temples.
Five minutes later I was sitting at a bus stop, and gave the order.
Move to nearby buildings, make your way to the rooftops, get as much vision of the club as possible.
I checked in on each Shade one at a time as they moved to rooftops, my first had found a fire escape they could use.
The second had just broken into an abandoned building, and apparently scared the hell out of some rats but had gotten to the top floor easily and had a view of the front entrance so I ordered it to stay rather than trying to climb from the balcony.
The third, when I switched to it's point of view, was ignoring a pair of cowering teenagers and was making its way to a ladder. Damn it I really wished I could talk through my Shades.
Scare them
I watched from behind it's visor as the glowing sword was lifted into view and gestured towards the pair, causing them to flee the alley rapidly.
Enough, up the ladder
Sword sheathed it climbed the ladder and made it to the roof easily.
Now was the more difficult part.
Watch and Stay
I closed my eyes and opened all three other sets of senses available to me, the combination giving me near complete coverage of the club along with a spike of pain behind my right eye.
After a second to adjust, I had them alter their positions to be less visible from the ground, their shadowy forms blending into the night sky and darkness with ease.
I took the chance to alter my position, moving from the bus stop to an abandoned building on Lords Street, that the orange warnings marked as -Safe Here- and pulling a bottle of water, a pack of paracetamol and a sandwich from my rucksack.
I downed a pair of tablets,washed them down with some water then reopened my Shades sense's and settled in for a long watch.
About 3 hours later, after watching an impressive amount of people make their way inside the club, and nearly nodding off to the faint music I could hear emanating from it through my nearest Shade, I saw a rather obese man leaving the club.
He was bald and appeared to have several scabs on his exposed skin, when paired with his incredibly pale skin, it left him looking… honestly, looking like something from a horror film from Earth Alpha.
I wouldn't have paid him any more mind, but in my reading on Faultlines Crew a Cape had come up, Gregor the Snail, one of the monstrous Capes, a Case 53 as they were known.
And he was heading to the building my second Shade had taken up in.
Damn it, I needed to get closer, I can't see the signs when I was using the borrowed senses of a Shade, and I didn't want to risk engaging a Cape, especially one that I was considering joining!
I had covered half the distance, dropping my bottle and the half a sandwich I had left into my bag when he stopped in front of the building and spoke without any real emotion in his tone.
"Please come out, we know you are there."
Damn it, damn it, damn it!