A/N: Sorry for the delay between chapters, this one's a little longer I think. I'm more than halfway done now, Conventions should be nine parts long in total. Again, thank you so much to everyone who's taken a moment to favourite or review, your words have always brought a smile to my face.
"There is not enough wine in the world, Helen, for me to ever forgive you."
"Nikola, I'm surprised you aren't enjoying yourself."
The main floor of the convention was far more crowded than Magnus had expected. She'd always had the vague impression that Henry was an exception, and that most of those who attended an event like this would be more like a certain claims adjustor she'd once met. But Gearcon seemed to attract all sorts, and the crowd here wouldn't have looked out of place in an open street somewhere but for the costumes. They were young and old, fit and out of shape, poor and successful, men and women and families with children in tow wearing their own little costumes.
"Enjoying myself? I'm surrounded by the very definition of the teeming masses, they're like locusts. With worse fashion sense."
"I'm actually finding it rather heartening. Think about it, every one of these people made the conscious decision to leave their ordinary lives and embrace the impossible, even for just one weekend. People from all different walks of life. They saw things that were strange, and thought they were fascinating instead of dangerous. I always feared the world would never be ready to know about abnormals, but it might just prove me wrong yet."
"Very poetic." Tesla pushed in closer to Magnus to avoid a beanpole-thin man in a papier mache diving helmet who was rushing to get past. "Any sign of our party crasher?"
"Not yet." Magnus was confident the mercenary woman would turn up sooner than later, she couldn't afford to lay low for long. She and Tesla were circling around the convention floor, spiraling closer to the central theatre space where the artifact was on display. "Well, you may have a point about their fashion choices, I could do without the constant reminders of that horrible thing you used to have on your face."
They'd already passed at least a dozen men (and a few women) dressed up as the historical mad scientist, complete with his former signature facial hair, and the real Nikola Tesla cringed at the remark. "I had that moustache for decades, Helen, and none of you ever told me how hideous it looked."
"Well you were so proud of it!" Magnus elbowed her old friend in the side, grinning. "When you came back to Oxford that one autumn and showed it off, why, none of us had the heart."
"You know I only kept it for so long because you once told me it was dashing."
"Well I lied. You look much better without it."
Nikola leaned in closer still, warm breath raising the hairs on Helen's neck. "So glad you've noticed" he whispered, inches from her ear.
Magnus was so distracted that she almost missed it, a flash of blonde hair and black leather through the crowd that looked familiar. "Nikola" she said at barely more than a whisper, but she didn't need to explain for him to understand. He snapped back to attention, his superhuman senses focused once again on the crowd.
"There" he said, spotting their target through the masses. The abnormal mercenary saw them only a second later, and soon both parties were on the move. Running through this sort of crowd was impossible, but the abnormal pushed and ducked and headed for every open space she could find, leaving Magnus and Tesla to try and do the same to keep up. One glance between the old friends was all it took to communicate that they'd split up, one person squeezing through the crowd alone was easier than two trying to stay together.
The mercenary finally pushed through to the few meters of open space in the centre of the wide convention hall floor, where there were no booths or displays to attract the crowds. She broke into a full run, with Magnus hot on her heels. The abnormal was faster, but Magnus had won fights against far stronger opponents with brains over brawn. What were her resources here? Henry had spent countless hours as a teenager giddily explaining his Comicon experiences to her, even if that had been over a hundred years ago by her reckoning and she hadn't been paying as much attention and she could have been. Still, he'd painted her a picture of what these things were like, and she had to believe that gave her some knowledge of the terrain.
Helen Magnus took a risk, because risks were what let you win impossible fights.
"Halt, villain!" She'd had two centuries to perfect projecting her voice, and she was sure half the convention had heard her first booming remark. To emphasize the point she drew and fired her stun gun, aiming high above the crowd where the energy would dissipate harmlessly before it hit the ceiling. The mercenary looked back at her like she was crazy, but she wasn't the only one who was staring.
"We're ending this here, just you and me" Magnus continued, and the crowd actually applauded when she fired another shot at the ceiling. The abnormal realized what was happening now, the crowd of convention attendees had closed in around them and blocked off all escape. Magnus couldn't rely on Tesla getting through to help now, but her opponent was left without anywhere to run.
The abnormal launched herself at Magnus, relying on superior speed and strength over finesse. Magnus ducked and rolled, producing another cheer from the audience. The abnormal hissed as if in pain, wincing at the sound. Enhanced hearing too, good, that would make fighting in a loud environment like this almost unbearable.
She landed a shot on the mercenary before she'd had a chance to recover from the charge, it would take a few more like that to bring her down but Magnus couldn't risk turning up the setting with so many humans around. It did slow her, though, when she attacked again her reflexes were more on par with a well-trained human's. They traded a few close-quarters blows, each one riling up the audience further and enraging the abnormal. Great for making her careless, but the one vicious blow that did strike Magnus sent her flying all the way to the edge of their makeshift stage. Her gun slipped from her hands, clattering to the ground some four feet away.
The abnormal was above her before Magnus could recover her weapon. "You're right, this does end here. Good try, sweetie, maybe you could have beat me if your friend hadn't run off to hide."
Magnus couldn't see his face in the crowd, but when she felt the cold metal of her weapon fly into her hand she knew the abnormal had just fallen for the same trick twice. She had the gun held, pointed, and fired before the mercenary even realized it was there, three solid shots right in the chest with enough juice to bring down a full-sized elephant.
The crowd went wild with applause, not the reaction that Magnus was used to after a fight. She got to her feet and stared down at the fallen abnormal, gun still pointed at the mercenary's chest just in case her power set included a fast metabolism as well.
"Al...right" said the abnormal. Damn she was sturdy, still conscious after all that. "You win, it's yours."
"And you won't come after us again?" Magnus tried not to look relieved, it was a three hour drive to the nearest Sanctuary and she hadn't fancied packing this woman into containment. Letting her go would mean trouble another day, but now that she had a face and a reputation to follow the scientist was certain she could catch up once the artifact was dealt with.
"Wasn't... sure I could disarm it in time anyways. The damned thing's your problem now, I'm out. You have my word."
Disarm? Magnus followed the abnormal's gaze, in all the commotion they'd run right into the room around the centre stage. Up on the raised platform, blocked off by pylons and a pair of volunteer guards, the Praxian artifact was on display. But what was supposed to be a centuries-old piece of broken technology was now lit up and glowing a vivid orange, with a counter on the front displaying time remaining in the dead city's ancient language. If the artifact's more violent features were working as well as its clock, in ninety minutes the entire convention and half the surrounding city were going to be destroyed.
"Ladies and gentlemen, we will now commence clearing out the centre stage room" the hall's loudspeaker crackled overhead while Magnus was still staring at the active bomb. "Please proceed to the nearest exit and clear space for the setup volunteers. Gearcon Masquerade will be starting in one hour."
