Another Heart: Emotional Win
Thanks to Major and Knol for their excellent help as always!
_
Dean could say a few things about the human mind.
It was messy and chaotic and it was often beautiful, everyone was different in the smallest of ways.
"Listen, there's been an incident at the Burk Hotel, just... just get back to the PRT. Any issues, radio command and wait for help." Triumph said as he lowered his phone down to his side, his voice sounding... heavy.
Dean himself felt heavy, his spine stiffening at oppressive aura. He didn't trust himself not to choke at that moment, such was the strength of Triumph's, Rory's emotions.
Slowly, carefully, Dean took a few steps back away from the cape with the lion helmet. If Rory noticed he didn't give any indication, he just turned and ran, his phone back at his ear.
"Am I the only who feels like today has just been one thing after another?" Chris asked, slanting his hover board so he was flying at the same fast walking pace Dean was setting, his hover board sending out small bursts of light every so often and a sound Dean could only describe as 'sci-fi'. As he floated along, Chris folded his arms behind his head, appearing relaxed to match the grin on his face, revealed by the folded away sections of his helmet. The storm of pale yellow and dark orange sparks hovering around him told another story though.
Both of the Wards were, for the first time in quite a long while, without supervision. Their daily patrol with a Protectorate member, Triumph in this case, was intended to promote the image of safety and strength. Where gangs sprayed tags and had members walk around bearing their colours, the PRT and Protectorate patrolled. Armoured vans armed with containment foam sprayers drove down the streets, and heroes walked on foot. It was flag bearing, plain and simple, and usually it was the pair of Protectorate heroes back at the rig who ended up seeing any action that arose. Because while their patrols deterred crime and bolstered the morale of the average civilian, they weren't usually in a position to rapidly respond to a crisis. Still, they were the good guys and this was them drawing the line in the sand.
Today though their patrol had been interrupted when Triumph answered a call and went ramrod straight.
Dean recalled how Rory had felt; alarm, resignation and fear.
Of course it wasn't so simple and clean to see as that, emotions never were. No, as complex as a persons emotions were it would be impossible to see them as simple colours, because no only ever felt only one thing. So when Rory received that call Dean saw his aura change to flashing white darkening with purple, dark blue bolts winding through it. The emotional feed-back had made Dean himself go rigid in alarm.
That was the hazard of being an empath; reading someone's emotions was a two way street in some ways. Dean could see how people felt, about him, about others, about life itself if one asked the right questions. And while most people were a chaotic mess, if someone was overcome suddenly with a strong emotion it could take Dean by surprise, force him to react in kind with retaliation or support. Even happy emotions could make Dean feel off balanced if they caught him off guard, like having a bright light shone in your face.
But in costume, in his sleek tinker-made power-armour, he tried to always be ready for the bursts of colours and phantom sensations that accompanied them. Because he was a hero and being paralyzed with indecision wouldn't save anyone.
Looking at Chris he winced. Dean had nothing against the guy, quite the opposite in fact. Chris, and most Tinkers, he would guess, were more chaotic than most even at the best of times. Only Sophia had been worse to patrol with in the past, but at least she was settling down now. Her emotions were typically boredom or curiosity these days, occasionally she was even relaxed when he saw her instead of the constant miasma of barely suppressed anger she had carried around constantly before. Dean could still sometimes catch glimpses of that shadow in Sophia's head, the a flash of dark red seeping out, but it seemed more controlled, chained, only appearing when Sophia seemed very worked up or if someone mentioned the Merchants.
Dean wasn't going to ask, some things were too personal to share. Even with your team mates.
Still,he hadn't answered Chris yet, lost in his own thoughts as he had been, and the other boy was looking at him for an answer now. So clearing his throat Dean replied.
"No kidding, the recent gang flare ups from the Empire, the preparations for Lung's transport to the Birdcage, Canary's trial, Über and Leet attacking it, the current search for Canary and Keynote, then whatever set Triumph off a minute ago. And now we're being sent back to the rig by ourselves? I mean, I know we're not kids, but I get the feeling that Piggot won't be happy with Triumph for this." Dean replied slowly, mentally ticking of each weird occurrence that happened today. It had been more than most.
Chris snorted making Dean raise an eyebrow.
He could see the humour clearly enough in his friends aura, but not the reason behind it. Because simply knowing how someone felt didn't tell Dean why they felt that way. He wasn't a mind reader. And he was extremely grateful for that. Emotions were bad enough at times, knowing exactly how someone felt about you, or each other, and how their emotions so often didn't correlate with what they said or did… Dean didn't want to know the words that were left unsaid, the actions left untaken. He was sure that would drive anyone mad.
Still, he shot a look at Chris who smiled back like he'd just heard a good joke.
"You 'get the feeling'. Sorry, it's always funny to me when you say that, aren't you always getting the feelings?" Chris asked, the smile on his face stretching wider, his boredom temporarily banished by amusement.
Dean, had a slight chuckle himself at that. He supposed it was an odd turn of phrase for someone like him.
"I guess I do, but you know what I mean. What do you think happened?" Dean asked, watching a group of tourists draw nearer to them on the sidewalk. The cameras dangling from the adults necks and the bug eyed looks of the children made the fact that they were tourists rather obvious. They even stopped and ogled at them, hands reaching for cameras.
It was the only the third time this had happened this week, but with the summer on its way, Brockton Bay's mild climate, relatively nice beaches just down the coast, and it's high cape population made it something of tourist city. While Brockton Bay may not have had the most capes of any city, that would be New York, they had the highest per capita ratio of capes to normal civilians and thus a relatively high chance of meeting one in costume. Helping that were the PRT tours, where people could meet some of the Wards and occasionally a Protectorate Hero face to face. Brockton Bay even had a new draw card this year, the Dollhouse and it's two resident capes were always there in one place and easy to find, and two of the few public Rogues still in operation.
So as summer approached, even if it was only late spring, the city was slowly filling up with folks taking a quick holiday to somewhere cheap, grabbing their chance to meet a real life super human.
As they approached the tourists at a light jog, Dean eyed the bubbling blue cloud coming off them, a touch of purple from some of the mothers, and mild grey from most of the kids. It all came together to form a thin haze around them.
Excitement, fear and envy. It was sad that Dean saw these emotions far more than happiness, even in response to seeing a Hero.
Chris, of course, floated forward as they approached, every move exaggerated and energetic as he waved and posed, his brightly coloured armour and friendly smile made him popular, especially with the younger kids.
Dean's own space-knight armour was less approachable, as the shining silver gave him a more aloof air, and the full face helmet made him less personable.
Still, even as Chris chatted with the kids and posed, Dean politely stood with his arms behind his back while the two families took their pictures. Then as the kids started begging Chris to tell them a story Dean nudged Chris's board, causing the other Ward to wobble slightly as Dean whispered to him.
"Come on, I want to get home sometime today." Dean said as he moved away from the cocktail of emotions.
Chris sighed and moved slightly faster to keep up as Dean resumed his light jog.
Catching up, Chris gave dean a sour look.
"Just because you're in a rush to go see your girlfriend doesn't mean we rush. I happen to like being outside the rig or school for once." Chris said pointedly.
Dean snorted at that.
"We're currently at the edge of an area of a gang that just lost their leader and is being pretty aggressive as a result against, well, anyone. With the PRT pushing them on one side, and then Empire pushing the ABB from the other side I'm actually surprised we haven't seen anything. Every corner we come up to I half expect to see Oni Lee fighting Alabaster in the street, but yeah, it's Vicky that's making me move faster." Dean said, joking mostly but at the same time not at all. Dean felt uneasy being in what was essentially enemy territory, far from back up, and without one of the adults to supervise them, even Rory who had been a Ward up until two months ago. The pricklings of paranoia were making him watch every shadow and alley mouth, only the absence of emotions indicating that there was no people in them keeping him calm.
Chris hummed at his last comment.
"Huh... who'd win?" Chris wondered aloud.
Dean rolled his eyes, of course that is what Chris would focus on.
"If Oni Lee didn't have any of Bakuda's bombs like he did last week? And there were no reinforcements for either side? Alabaster, but only if he got extremely lucky otherwise it's a draw. Oni Lee can blow Alabaster up all he wants, but Alabaster will be fine in three seconds." Dean said resignedly settling into the routine. This was an old game of the Wards, one he was starting to grow tired of but played just the same.
'Who would win?' Or as Sophia referred to the discussions, 'The versus forum.'
It was a way to pass the time mostly, but it did often get them thinking about how the capes that lived in Brockton Bay would interact; who would be more dangerous in what situation, how different powers could interact, what things would a cape exploit. Sometime they even argued which Cape was more powerful, though recently they'd made a new rule. When asking 'who could beat villain X' you were no longer allowed to pick Keynote. Trumps were bullshit. Trump 7's were very bullshit. Trump 7's that permanently acquired new powers and could also grant their allies power boosts were beyond bullshit… Dean also realized he'd been hanging around Dennis a little too much lately.
They never used themselves though; it would have caused bad feelings if the outcome wasn't flattering. Or nightmares.
Chris looked contemplative at Dean's response, mouth twisting to the side.
"Hmm. I dunno. I think if Oni Lee can keep Alabaster trapped or bury him under rubble for more than three seconds before he croaks it, then he could win by trapping Alabaster." The floating ward said speculatively.
Dean thought about that.
"It would need Oni Lee to be... extremely clever." Dean said disbelievingly.
Chris put a hand to his chin in thought.
"You're right... Scratch that last statement. Oni Lee is good at only two things, exploding and running." Chris said in agreement. Then Dean saw Chris's eyes focus on passing people and shop windows as he spoke.
The cloud of colour around Chris rapidly began to flash. Dean quickly looked away, looking too hard at Chris when his mind set off was painful. The way his emotions would surge, how everything would heighten and rapidly shift. Dean could almost feel the rush of excitement and bitter disappointment that followed.
Armsmaster only did this occasionally.
It took a while for Dean to figure it out, mostly because Armsmaster did it so infrequently. But once, during an extremely bright light show, Chris had rushed off to his workstation and the rest of the Wards hadn't seen him for the rest of the evening. The next morning though, Missy had confirmed, the tinker emerged from his workshop with the beginnings of his hover board.
Not the same one he rode now, the current iteration of the hover-board was nothing like the original. Chris had stripped it down and rebuilt it so often that the current board didn't have a single component in common with the original, and rarely even its most recent predecessor.
From that, and when he finally saw Armsmaster enter a similar state, Dean realized that the sudden emotional shifts, the flashes of joy and desire, were inspiration. He now understood that what he was seeing in the clouds around Chris and, to a lesser extent, Armsmaster was the effect of their powers. He was literally seeing their powers at work.
And from that Dean had realized something else, something he and a few other parahumans had in common. Tinkers could never turn off their powers. On good days they could push it back or aside, on bad days though, they were consumed by it.
So when Chris saw something mechanical or odd, even a toy race car once, it triggered a response in his brain as his power fed him designs. It was interesting to watch for a few seconds before it hurt Dean's eyes and brain, one of the few ways Dean had found he could get a so called 'thinker headache'.
During those times, like now, Chris would become consumed by a single dirty gold emotion for a few seconds before dark greenish swept through him.
Everyone in the Brockton Bay Protectorate knew Chris hadn't found his specialty yet.
It was a sore spot for Chris, Dean could read it in the other boys emotions. But in his opinion, Chris had built laser guns, a hover-board, power armour, and all the tools needed to make and maintain them. And that was besides all the other cool but rejected tech Chris had that had failed to get PRT certification for field use. Chris was hardly the flop or useless team mate the tinker saw himself as.
Still, at Chris' request Dean had tried to help the younger boy, sticking by him in one very long tinkering session where Dean would try to see which of Chris's inspirations and ideas would last the longest or go show up the brightest, in an attempt to see if they could cheat and see what inspired Chris the most.
Lasers, flight, hand held tech, Hero inspired, Armsmaster inspired, heat, metal, light, gravity... Nothing. Nothing was different. Just a dead end.
Chris built some cool stuff, but he just... hit a wall, couldn't go any further. He lost focus and the majority of his projects ended up as unfinished parts in various boxes around the room, waiting for Chris to strip them down and recycle the components.
Worse, for all that effort which amounted to nothing for Chris, had been Dean's fist introduction to the world of migraines and his first thinker headache.
Snapping out of his thoughts Dean returned to the present, and continued with 'who would win?'
"Exploding and running is what's kept Oni Lee alive and out of custody for so long." Dean said. He was about to say something more when a noise came from Chris.
It was an odd squeal like a rubber tire on a polished wood floor.
Chris fumbled around his waist and pulled out his phone while Dean looked at him inquisitively. Then with a click, the phone lit up and a woman's voice came out of the speaker.
"We got a call about a warehouse on Caster street. Couple guys claiming Hookwolf is fighting Keynote inside, over." The woman said, her voice crackling with static like it was on a short range radio.
Chris bit his lip as he shut the phone, then he glanced at his fellow Ward.
Dean stared at him and then at the phone. Both were covered in a cloud of blue and orange.
"The hell was that?" Dean finally asked in a harsh whisper, though he didn't know why he was whispering, they hadn't done anything wrong… Had they?
Chris cleared his throat nervously.
"It's the local police dispatch... I rigged my phone to pick up the signal when I was bored, had to install some extra parts, but it was good. I turned it on after Triumph left; I was wondering if I could find out why he ditched us." Chris explained, but he didn't look Dean in the eye… visor… as he spoke.
Guilt. The dull yellow of guilt washed through Chris.
Dean sighed, wishing he could rub the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"Kid, the police never stop your phone should be going crazy with requests and dispatches." Dean said exasperatedly.
Chris shrugged.
"It's using a word match program, only gives me the dispatches with certain names in the call. Hookwolf was one and Keynote, who I recently added, was another. Spent a restless night just programming them in, but come on, we can go help." Chris said suddenly moving a lot faster, a trail of blue excitement trailing after the tinker as he shot down a side alley, away from the road back to the PRT.
Dean groaned before chasing after him.
"Kid!" Dean shouted and Chris stopped at the far end of the alley as Dean caught up.
Panting for a moment Dean plunged on before Chris could speak.
"No Kid, we can't help. I'm already on thin ice with Piggot for the Lung thing and I don't want another strike against me so soon." Dean said a bit breathlessly.
Chris just looked around, agitated.
"So what? We leave Keynote to fight Hookwolf? No offense, but that doesn't seem like something I can sleep with at night." Chris said, his voice hard and annoyed.
Dean could see his point, both in his words and the swirling red blue with bright red and dark purple.
"I think you're underestimating Keynote, but... Yeah I don't want to leave her to Hookwolf either, he might not be alone." Dean said with a sigh.
This was a bad idea. He knew it, Chris knew it and everyone with common sense knew it. What he should do is call it in, even though they'd just order them back to HQ as they simply didn't have the man power to send in help with everything going on today.
Damn Über and Leet!
So Dean knew what he'd be ordered to do. He knew it was the smart thing to do. It was the thing anyone sane would do… But...
He was Hero.
Dean Stanfield was a Hero. Vicky wouldn't hesitated to rush in there, but Dean often suspected that was more so she could punch someone than help people. The point stood though. Heroes helped, and damn the consequences. Wasn't that what Clockblocker had said when he'd led them off to fight Lung?
Chris snorted.
"What's the worst that can happen? They fire us?" Chris asked with a grin.
Dean gave a weak glare at him.
"No, we end up with the same timetable as Shadow Stalker. I don't want to be stuck on the rig all day doing paper work, learning how to master the command station and end up doing dishes because I'm bored out of my skull."
The image of Sophia elbow deep in soapy water, a pile of cleaned dishes next to her, was something Dean was sure would haunt him to his dying day. Domestic and Sophia were two realms that should never have crossed.
Chris paused before nodding slowly.
"She did seem a little high strung when she ran out of books to organize..." Chris muttered, trailing off contemplatively. Then he shook his head flicked through his phone, bringing up a grid map of the city, highlighting a section and zooming in.
There was very little waiting time. Protectorate phones were pretty solid, able to access any available data network if needed.
Chris nodded before looking up at Dean.
"The warehouse is only a short walk from here, we can be there before anyone notices, say that we heard a disturbance and investigated, found Keynote needing backup. Easy!" Chris said excitedly.
Dean blew out a sigh, Chris's excitement was infectious.
Literally.
For anyone else that would be a figure of speech, for Dean, he could see the cloud of blue spreading out and he could feel his own emotions shifting in response. He may not be able to see his own emotions, but being an empath did make a guy a little more in tune with his own emotions, a little introspective as it were.
Then Chris leaned forward and his board shot off, heading deeper into the area referred to as the Train Yard. It was a part of the city very similar to the Docks, even deriving it's name in a similar matter. The docks was the area where the business and warehouses that supported the shipping docks had been. Similarly, Train Yard was the area that had contained the now abandoned train yard, and all the businesses and warehouses that had supplied it.
Dean quickly ran after Chris, metal boots pounding the concrete.
As Dean caught up with him, Chris shot the silver clad Ward a grin.
Dean just glared at him.
"You excited about fighting Hookwolf or something? I didn't know you hated the guy, what did he do to you?" Dean wheezed, as he ran, feet clanking on the sidewalk as Chris flew unhindered just in front of him, relaxed and easy. It made Dean a little jealous, clad as he was in two-hundred-pounds of powered armour even if said power made it feel like a mere 20.
More, flying was an awesome power. Dean had always wanted to fly, to soar through the air like Hero or Legend… More though, Dean really wanted to be lazy and not walk everywhere. And there were a lot of people in his life that could fly, just to rub it in his face. Vicky, Aegis, Chris...
He'd bet even Keynote could, if not now then in a month or two. Bloody trumps.
Chris laughed as they kept going.
"Besides the fact that he's an Empire goon? That he killed Frontline? Nah, don't really care about Hookwolf. What I really want to see is Keynote, her weapon to be more specific. I want to see how it works; maybe it runs on a nano-tech, like a collective of nano-machines? Or it could be that heat, fire and ice, can be created theoretically with sufficiently advanced electromagnetic control over infrared waves." Chris said as the wind began to whistle through the flared plates of his mouth guard, forcing him to close them.
Dean felt Chris's emotions spike as he ran through different ideas running through the tinker's head as they turned another corner, startling the pedestrians walking there as they ran and flew by.
"Still hung up on that tinker theory of yours? She summons things Kid, she's a Miss M type. No tech required." Dean said, grateful for the many laps he did at base. Daily exercise wasn't a requirement for a Ward, but it was recommended and the PRT did offer a lot of options for those interested.
Chasing a floating tinker on foot made Dean feel good about that choice.
Chris just waved him off as Dean struggled to keep pace.
"Only one way to find out!" Chris yelled as he picked up more speed.
"Kid, slow down!" Dean yelled back as the red and gold Ward sharply turned the corner to the street that had the warehouse where Keynote was supposedly fighting Hookwolf.
Dean pushed everything into running, head low and legs pumping.
When he got to the corner, Chris was nowhere to be seen, but Dean didn't slow down to look, he knew where Chris would be. The warehouse sat behind a sliding metal fence that had seen better days. Suddenly there was shouting and Dean ran at the fence. As he ran he raised one hand and let loose a multi coloured blast at the chain link fence, the metal rattled violently and Dean fired another.
The fence popped off at one hinge, it was only cheap metal after all. Jumping and tucking his legs in, Dean slid through the loose hole he had made, landing hands first and transitioning into an awkward forward roll which brought him back to his feet.
Thankfully, the armour he'd bought from Armsmaster was smooth, and the joints well seamed, so the broken fence never caught on anything.
Turning, Dean broke into a run again, rushing past a guard box, long deserted. Reaching the corner of the warehouse he stopped to catch his breath for a moment and to centre himself.
Then he turned the corner and…
Dean took a deep breath, trying to stop his heart from exploding as he slid back into cover. Poking his head out again, Dean looked at where the shouting had been coming from.
"-a prank?!" Chris yelled, voice and aura coloured with anger.
Assessing what he was seeing, Dean decided it had to real, his imagination wasn't that bizarre. So he stepped back around the corner to watch his tinker friend shouting at two men in bizarre suits, one a deep blue while the other was a dark red.
And the domino masks.
Taking stock of the situation Dean realized there was no way for him to circle around in time if the pair turned violent. While the two guys didn't seem aggressive, more defensive really, he needed to be able to provide Chris with support if they did turn aggressive.
"It isn't a prank, if we wanted to prank someone, we wouldn't still be here, would we? We'd have phoned in from somewhere else or run away. We're telling you, in case those ears of yours don't work, Hookwolf is going metal storm in there. This isn't our usual gig." The blue one said snootily.
Dean's mind clicked as he watched the blue suited cape talk; bad posture, odd hair style, male partner.
Leet.
There was surprisingly few young male villains in Brockton. Only Grue really sprang to mind. The jury was still out on Circus and Regent.
So that meant the other cape dressed in the red suit, more maroon really, had to be Leet's partner in crime, Über.
Über and Leet, the video-game villains. Leet was… just standing there, with Uber standing behind him, arms raised and at the ready in case Chris pulled something. Leet was pointing angrily at the warehouse, looking like he'd run any second or fly into a screaming rage. His aura was very confused.
Which given they were heroes and they were villains. It was understandable really, fight or flight.
Then Dean looked at the warehouse and blanched.
Dean was told he didn't see auras or emotions, not really. The best way the PRT could describe his power was that Dean could see the neurons and chemicals in the brain and the way they interacted, and his power interpreted that into the kaleidoscope vision he saw to present the information in a way he could understand.
The explanation basically went that when people feel happy, their brains release certain chemicals and fire certain neurons, and Dean's powers showed it represented as a colour coming off the person like a gas. Therefore each colour was just the way his power interpreted each electro-chemical state and he simply correlated the colour with emotion using experience.
This was mostly true and held with what Dean knew of his power except for one thing.
Objects and places could have auras too.
It was rare, very rare even, but if an object was near a constant source of emotion, if it was associated with one particular emotion strongly enough, that emotion would imprint upon it. The object would have it's own aura of the emotion it represented to it's owner. Sometimes it was a wedding wing, a family heirloom like grand pa's watch, a favourite shirt worn at every opportunity… even a building if the emotions were strong enough.
It was for that reason Dean didn't go near hospitals. Ever. While he was fine in the maternity ward, if he ever looked sideways and caught sight of some of the other wards, such as the ICU… They made him violently ill. Thankfully most objects lost any emotion they'd acquired in after only a little while, and it seemed to take years to really build up a semi-permanent colouring for any inanimate object.
And the important part of that was…
The warehouse was red.
The building oozed a deep red, like old fresh blood. And there were lots of grey flashes and dark blues thrown in, even the odd streak of black. To Dean's eyes building was literally bleeding. It was like those videos you saw back in the environment ads, where it shows huge factories belching black smoke, tainting the world around them… And this warehouse was doing just that, belching red smoke. A product of endless pain and countless deaths.
It was misery incarnate.
Gulping harshly, Dean looked away and walked forward stiffly, trying to ignore the warehouse the best he could.
Über saw him approaching and nudged Leet.
As Dean approached he saw that both villains looked the worse for wear and the feelings coming off them were... chaotic to put it mildly.
The blue cape shut up and looked at Dean, causing Chris to step to the side, forming a triangle between them.
"Took you long enough, these asshats are the ones who called in the report." Chris said, no trace of humour left in his voice or aura.
Leet snarled and pointed... Keynotes weapon at Chris?
How had he got hold of it? Had these two idiots beaten Keynote?!
Leet glared at the pair of them from behind his blue mask.
"So? It doesn't make it any less true. You going to help her or you want to stand around here and run your mouth?" Leet snapped waspishly gesturing angrily at them while keeping the Keyblade pointed in their direction.
Chris also stared at the Keyblade, just now realizing it's presence when Leet waved it at them.
"That's... Keynotes." Chris said, sounding unsure.
Leet looked down at it and snorted.
"I wish. Couldn't even put a scratch on her. This is one I built, it's pretty solid. Does all kinds of cool stuff." Leet boasted proudly.
Uber rolled his eyes.
Chris smiled, a little sardonically.
"Great, when you get arrested, I'll ask the bosses if I can dismantle it." Chris said smugly.
Leet's eyes almost bulged out of his skull and his aura flared with the dark red of anger as he pulled the Keyblade closer to himself protectively.
"The fuck did you say? You ain't getting your amateur hands on this." Leet snapped.
Then it was Chris's turn to looked pissed.
"That's rich coming from you. At least when I build something it doesn't burn my eyebrows off." Chris retorted.
Dean looked at Uber, who looked back and shrugged.
Tinkers.
Leet barked a laugh at that, short and harsh.
"Please, at least I know why they exploded. I can tell even from all the way over here that half your equipment is trash. It's all unfinished! Seriously, do you even know what you're doing? You haven't even connected the bloody power leads poking out of you armour into anything!" Leet said, eyeing Chris's armour and hover-board.
Dean winced even before Chris processed the insult. Being called incompetent by Leet of people... That had to sting.
"At least, I'm not a joke! No one takes you seriously." Chris spat acidly.
Leet idly swung the weapon in his hands.
"A joke with a Keyblade. I only needed one look at it to get this far, but I bet nothing is coming together for you even with all the footage you PRT goons must have." Leet taunted, his feelings of happiness and confidence rising, colouring his aura a more pleasant hue.
There was a sound like grating steel and suddenly a streak of yellow energy shot out one of the windows near the top of the warehouse.
"Was that... lightning?" Dean asked perplexedly.
Über nodded.
"Keynote shoots lightning now." Über said nonchalantly.
Dean eyed him and blinked, the entire chaotic field of emotion was actually Leet's. Uber was...
Mellow yellow.
Chris and Leet stared at where the lightning had been then promptly turned back to each other, intent on finishing their spat.
Dean pointed at Uber.
"What now? You running away?" Dean asked guardedly.
Uber shrugged.
"We called you, so we already went above and beyond our usual standards." Über said and put his hands in his pocket, staring at the warehouse, as if he too could see the cloud of pain and death.
"Don't feel right to leave Keynote hanging when she was so sporting. Let us talk to our fans and everything." He murmured.
Dean noticed a slight rise in a emotion from the taller cape, something other than a calm yellow.
Indecision, it was sort of... brownish.
Still no sirens, everyone must be on the other side of town for the trial. Or maybe dealing with whatever Rory had rushed off to.
Looking back at the pair of arguing Tinkers Dean shook his head and looked back at Über.
"If you're running away, go. We can't hold you and investigate, and frankly, Keynote is more worthy of our attention than you two." Dean said sharply.
Uber sighed.
"Lead the way big guy, we surrendered to Keynote anyway. Plus, we left our camera watching her. I don't think she needs our help... more than she needs us to clear the area." Uber said,
Über's words threw Dean off. Clear the area? These two were…
"You're... helping? Why? You're villains!" Dean asked incredulously, his loud retort finally making Leet and Chris stop snipping at each other for a second.
Über took the chance and caught Leet's eyes, glanced at the not-Keyblade then back to Dean.
"It's a new game, a new show. It's called Life, and the only rule in it is shit happens." Über replied.
Dean didn't sense glee or anger or even amusement.
Uber felt... resigned to the fact he was going to help.
Dean nodded at this. Work with what you had, and if they escaped afterwards, it didn't matter. Not really. Dean would prefer twenty Über's and Leet's running around compared to having one Hookwolf on the streets.
"Grab your Tinker and I'll grab mine, if you help I can pass it on if you surrender afterward that you cooperated and helped us save Keynote." Dean offered.
Uber snorted.
"I'm telling you. It ain't Keynote that needs saving, it's Hookwolf... and the dogs." Über added after a moment's thought.
That made Dean pause.
Dogs?
What dogs?
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