Chapter Seventeen: Ya'll ready for this?
March 18, 2011
Friday couldn't come fast enough for Dennis. For one thing, it was Friday, which was the best day of the week, in his opinion. Secondly, he had talked to Dean and Fi, and they were going to do an early three-man patrol into a zone of neighborhoods frequently disputed by the ABB and Empire. Missy was scheduled for console, and had agreed that it was a good idea to do a single three-person higher risk patrol so that they could work out any kinks before switching over the whole team. At Dean's suggestion, Jason had also been alerted to the plan so that he could be on alert level three, which was to say that he wasn't suited up or rescheduling his day, but he was aware that he might be on call at any moment.
They met on the Boardwalk, putting in a nominal appearance and then walking toward the streets they'd identified. Gallant hovered about a foot off the ground to increase his range of vision, while Contract and Clockblocker paid closer attention to those walking near them.
The third reason that Clockblocker was looking forward to Friday was the opportunity to talk to Contract, knowing that she couldn't just leave for her room. "Can I ask you something?" he ventured as they turned off a main street to walk between two buildings, checking for any evidence of previous drug use that would indicate sellers frequented the area at other times of the day.
"Sure." Contract didn't look up from where she was crouched to shine a flashlight behind a dumpster.
"Why did you move into the base?"
That made her look up in slight confusion, then alarm. "I really can't get anything past you, can I? I'm sorry. I didn't mean…" she trailed off.
"Then it was because of our deal on Tuesday," Clockblocker verified.
"Yes."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
She shrugged. "Habit, I guess. I'm used to being around my brothers. Both know my costs well enough that they know when I'm not telling them everything and both have guilt complexes a mile wide, so if I choose not to say anything, they assume that I'm protecting them and we all just leave it be. They hate when I sacrifice for them, but they know I do it because I love them. I didn't really think about it. I'm sorry. Seriously. I didn't mean to hide anything from you."
Clockblocker nodded. He'd actually guessed that it was something like that. Fi seemed to be the type to suffer in silence, and he figured she'd clammed up to spare him any possible guilt. He'd asked Gallant if he should just let it be, but Dean was a major proponent of letting emotions out and working through them, rather than letting them fester. "We'll work on it together."
"I'd appreciate that," she said over her shoulder as they left the tiny alley and met up with Gallant who had gone over the building to check the roof and scout ahead. Gallant gave him a discreet nod as he descended, which Clockblocker took to mean that Contract's emotions seemed a little steadier. Gallant had explained to Clockblocker that Contract had a concerning tendency to slide mercurially from one emotion to the next, and they were hoping that as she built trust and camaraderie, she could steady out a little.
"I saw a pair of Asians that might be drug dealers leaving the next block over in a hurry as soon as they spotted me. Definitely ABB colors," Gallant reported.
"Vista?" Clockblocker checked on instinct.
"Copy that," a voice in their ear buds confirmed. "You're clear to engage."
They walked at a fast clip to the next intersection as Gallant drifted ahead at a slightly faster pace. It took three blocks to catch up to the suspicious characters. Once they were close enough, Clockblocker called out authoritatively, "Stop there, sir. In the hoodie." As a matter of fact, both of them were wearing hoodies. They glanced at each other on reflex, which allowed Gallant to get in front of them and drop down, while Clockblocker and Contract came within a few steps of striking distance.
"Where are you two headed in such a hurry?" Clockblocker barked out at them while they glanced nervously at the capes surrounding them. Now that they were closer, Clockblocker doubted that they were drug dealers. More likely, the two were new recruits or maybe just wanna-bes. They were too skittish to be actual drug dealers or hard-core gang members.
"Just gotta get home," the one on the right said.
"Game starts in ten minutes," the shorter guy on the left added hastily.
"Have you ever sold illegal substances?" Contract snapped out, abruptly.
"No." The one on the right answered immediately, taking a reflexive step back away from her sharp tone. The one on the left didn't answer, instead glancing to the left to see if he could slip past them into the street.
"What were you doing in this part of town?" Clockblocker followed up immediately, keeping the pressure on.
"Just shopping," the one on the left said, looking at his shoes. It was so obviously a lie that it was almost sad. These two hadn't been selling drugs, but they had been getting into trouble of some sort.
"What'd you buy?" Gallant asked from behind. Both boys flinched.
"Didn't find anything," the one on the right mumbled. Left-y nodded rapidly.
"Time's up guys," Vista told them over their ear buds. Ward guidelines suggested that any confrontation that didn't bear fruit in the first two minutes should be abandoned in search of more effective places to spend their energy. Clockblocker ignored her. He and Missy had often grumbled that the two minute guideline was stupid, and he was interested to see what he could get.
"Oh, can I see your watch?" Contract asked over the top of Vista's voice. She must have turned off her ear bud. Contract reached over so quickly even Clockblocker was a little startled, catching hold of left-y's left wrist to look at his watch.
"Hey!" Left-y started to protest, but Contract cut him off. She spoke slowly, calmly, looking straight into the eyes of the teenager she'd grabbed.
"You know, my uncle used to have a watch like this. Well, he had one until a thug noticed it and shot him, just so he could take it. Took them six months to catch the guy. Would have been a lot longer, but my daddy, well, he wasn't about to let his brother's murderer get away. Turns out the scumbag was a gang-banger. Took the watch to pay a tribute he owed. My daddy took his shotgun, kicked in the door of one of their dens, and killed every dealer inside. All to get his brother's watch back. He spent twenty years in prison for it. Then he gets out and starts tracking down the rest of them.
"One day he's following this lieutenant and he goes to ground with a couple of nobodies, just low-on-the-pole toadies. And my daddy kicks their door in too, takes his .45 pistol and shoots the lieutenant before he can even get up from the couch. Then he turns to the two nobodies, who start begging for their lives. They never hurt anyone. Never stole or sold a single joint, or pimped a single girl. They were just fans, really, no more than 15 years old. I'm not proud to say it, but my daddy shot them too. One after the other, clean through and through." Contract stopped, and just kept looking at Lefty, who's wrist she was still holding.
After a long moment, she continued her story. "Course, they were lucky, because he only shot them in the shoulder. Crippled them for life on the right hand side. That's the danger of being in a gang, he told them. You become a part of everything that gang does. And sure, sometimes the gang protects you, and provides for you, but sometimes the gang paints a target on your back.
"Now, I don't know who you are, or what you're doing in this part of town. But you want to run around looking like a gang member, wearing gang colors in gang territory, you better be prepared for the consequences. Next time it might be more severe than a chat with a couple of superheroes." Contract dropped her hold on the boy's wrist, but he didn't move. His friend was frozen too, both of them stuck just staring at her.
Suddenly, she smiled softly, and reached into a jean pocket. She held out two business cards. On one side was her PRT issued contact information, while the other already held a scrawled autograph in blue ink. "A memento, for your trouble. You'd best get home if you want to watch the game."
Each of them hesitantly reached out to take a card, then Gallant backed off to allow them both to leave, and they hurried away, throwing glances over their shoulders.
The Wards watched them go quietly, until they turned a corner. Then Gallant voiced what they were both thinking. "What the heck was that?"
Contract shrugged casually. "A bluff."
Clockblocker felt himself exhale in relief. Her tone and storytelling had drawn him in, making him far tenser than he realized. "So you just wanted to scare them straight?"
"Yep. And start a little misinformation cover for my family. But mostly I wanted to shake them up. ABB thinks they're untouchable because Lung is untouchable. I think it's not a bad idea to remind them that most of their gang is made of normal humans."
"And this was your best strategy?" Clockblocker asked, surprised. Clockblocker had developed some respect for Contract's tactical ability, given her successes with Taylor, Sophia, and even himself. Now he wondered how much of those circumstances had worked out because of luck, rather than her own skill.
"No, this was spur of the moment. I just wanted to scare them a little, make them think about the life choices they're making." Contract shrugged again.
"Well I think it worked," Gallant told them both. "They were sort of skeptical at first, but by the end they were honestly scared. And then when you offered them your autograph, that totally threw them off. They were a mix of scared and thoughtful when they left." Clockblocker filed away that the strategy had worked, even if it was unconventional. He'd wait to talk to Contract about whether she was relying too heavily on luck. Perhaps she was simply a better profiler than he was and had read something in the teens that he hadn't seen.
Contract nodded to acknowledge Gallant's praise, but didn't gloat. "Well, maybe it did some good. I doubt they're going to up and quit because of a single conversation, but maybe we planted a seed. At least, I doubt it did any damage." Clockblocker bobbed his head as he considered that. When viewed as a low-risk high-gain move, the conversation made much more sense.
Contract gestured back to the street. "Shall we?" They turned and walked perpendicular to the street the two ABB members had left down, assuming that they would be warning those they saw that the Wards were in the area. By walking in a different direction, however, they might be able to surprise a few criminals.
They passed a couple blocks in silence, nodding to civilians and smiling at younger children. Ahead of them, people started to turn off the street they were using or hurry more towards their destination. Clockblocker sighed to himself; his was not an uncommon reaction to the police or official heroes in poor neighborhoods because even honest people didn't want to encounter government employees. Perhaps by doing more patrols in the area and hopefully doing more good, the Wards could start to turn that perception around. Gallant drifted further north, closer to neighborhoods that were undisputed Empire territory, hoping that they'd be less alert, and Clockblocker and Contract followed.
This time, she started the conversation. "How did you pick your name?"
Clockblocker glanced at her, feeling a small blush of embarrassment, but she seemed to be honestly curious. "Well, I wanted something with the word clock. I liked the way Clock sounded as a nickname, though it's never really caught on with the Wards so far. I stumbled upon Clockblocker early in my brainstorming and it stuck out to me. It was memorable, it was funny, and it made me feel more like an adult. Before my dad got sick I was a big jokester.
"You haven't seen that as much because I've been stressed over him, and then over the team new dynamics and responsibility, but six months ago? 'Clockblocker' told you most everything you needed to know about my personality. And I liked that it would sort of stick it to the PRT. To be honest, I still like that it makes PR squirm. I'm not a huge fan of the official control and protocols, which don't seem to really be designed to help us.
"Do you regret it?"
"No. I may be growing up, but I don't ever want to fit into somebody else's mold. I like that the name is mine and no one else had a say in it. Why?"
"Something Glenn and I talked about."
"Yeah. Gallant said you were pretty upset. We didn't hear everything, but you two weren't exactly quiet. Everything okay?"
"Oh. It's two different topics." She sighed. Clockblocker half expected her to ignore his inquiry and pursue the name topic she had raised, but she didn't. "He was pushing my buttons to try to get me to slip up. Instead my temper slipped off its leash. He flat out said that he thought it should be my responsibility to deal with the other two Endbringers and that just… it jerked my tail something fierce."
"Why?"
"It's been a building frustration for a while now. I hate the ingratitude I've seen since erasing Behemoth. I did the impossible, saved thousands, probably even millions, of lives, but most of the PRT and Protectorate just take it in stride. No thanks, nothing. Just more demands. And I hate that I couldn't kill the other two if I wanted to. I've never been good with being helpless."
"They didn't thank you?"
"Not really. That's part of why I didn't tell anyone about the cost. I meant to, please believe me. I knew I'd never be able to keep it a secret and I didn't really want to. But when no one thanked me, or asked how I was doing, it just made me furious. I figured I'd have to end up a Ward because I couldn't go home, but they were intent on railroading me into it from the very beginning. It just curdles my blood."
"I admit I've never heard that phrase before," Clockblocker interjected hoping to dissipate her tension. She laughed quietly, so he counted it as a win.
"I picked it up from my brothers. They've been all over the continental US and no small part of Canada, so who knows where they found it?"
"It makes for a vivid image."
Contract grinned. "I know. I like it."
"So Glenn was pushing you purposefully," Clockblocker summarized. "Was there anything else?"
"What do you know about Company?"
Clockblocker shrugged. "Triumph has mentioned him once or twice since you showed up. He's a thinker of some sort, right?"
"Yes. He is especially adept at understanding people and the relationships between them. He's the ultimate manipulator. Fortunately, my resistance to thinkers in general seems to have stood up to his prolonged scrutiny, but I can't count on it. Glenn all but admitted that he provoked me about Behemoth because Company put him up to it. Glenn seems like a stand-up guy, so I hate that he would go along with it. I hate that everyone goes along with it. I know the PRT practically conditions people to listen to thinker bullshit, but I can't abide Company. I hate the way he meddles, I hate never knowing who's reporting to him. "
"Well, I'm not."
"Thanks." She grinned at him, wide and genuine. "I figured you weren't but it's nice to be sure. And I know it's not everyone, because Armsmaster is working with Dragon and I'm pretty sure she's only loosely reporting to him. But you're the first to actually come out and volunteer it."
"Just like that, you trust me?" Clockblocker teased, but she met his eyes solidly.
"Yes. I do trust you." The statement carried a lot of weight, and Clockblocker was glad when she glanced away and changed the topic. "Which brings me back to the original question. I'm considering a name change. What do you think about Sacrifice?"
Clockblocker felt himself grimace, reflexively, even before he answered. "Not a fan. What made Glenn suggest it?"
"He didn't. In fact, he doesn't like it either. I just don't like Contract. It was never supposed to be a permanent name. Behemoth surprised me, and I gave the wristband the first name that came to mind. That just happened to be my PHO cape name."
"Well, I think Contract is better than Sacrifice."
"Duly noted. Thanks for the honesty."
"Guys," Vista chimed over the ear buds, "we've got a PHO report of Hookwolf sitting on a street corner about a mile north of your current position."
"Any ideas?" Gallant asked over the network. Contract answered immediately, so maybe she hadn't turned her ear piece off after all.
"He's challenging us. Three Wards isn't routine, so he's probably heard about our little experiment. He's waiting to see if we'll engage him."
"Then he's probably got back-up waiting out of sight," Clockblocker finished the thought aloud, already planning two moves ahead. "If we don't engage, we could pass it off as simple ignorance. Two ships passing in the night."
"He'd probably challenge the next patrol directly." Contract warned. "We're out here to try to nip this stuff in the bud, not let it fester."
"I'm game," Gallant chimed in.
"Aegis just went to suit up and stand by," Vista told them.
"Your call, Clockblocker," Contract told him. "Technically, there are warrants for his arrest. We would be legally correct to try to take him in. But he might be a little more than we can realistically swallow, especially if he brought backup. A loss on the first day out isn't exactly the start we're looking for. It's your decision."
Clockblocker nodded to acknowledge that he agreed with her assessment. They might be able to take Hookwolf, depending on what Contract brought to the table, but it was a big gamble with relatively little pay out even in the best case scenario. On the other hand, he didn't like putting the problem off to the future. It just didn't sit right.
"Let's do this. We'll start off verbal, asking him what his business is. We don't start anything physical. We leave that ball in his court. And if you see a chance for bloodless victory, Contract, you take it, but don't over extend yourself." She nodded to acknowledge the order as Gallant returned to their position so the three could approach together.
Hookwolf was standing at the corner of an alley and a street with semi-regular foot traffic, talking to an older man who might be a drug dealer and two young men who were obviously muscle. There were no civilians in sight, so he'd been standing there for a little while. All four skinheads looked up as the three Wards walked calmly up the street, and they stopped talking, but they didn't move otherwise. They just watched them walk closer. It was a little unnerving.
As they got closer, Clockblocker tried to recall exactly what Hookwolf had looked like in the pictures in his briefing file. It seemed like he was a little less human than he normally was outside of combat. Was he eager for a fight? Or was he nervous, perhaps because he didn't have backup close at hand?
Clockblocker stopped when they were at a range where they'd need to raise their voices just slightly to hear each other clearly. He wanted space to maneuver in. They were technically outnumbered, but Gallant was the most mobile person on the field as the moment and he wanted to hold onto that advantage.
"Hookwolf!" Clockblocker pitched his voice to carry, even though the villain was already looking at him steadily.
"Clockblocker," Hookwolf returned evenly. His eyes flicked to Clockblocker's left, where Contract had stopped just a touch behind him. "Contract."
"Neo-Nazis." She said it so calmly that they might not have heard her, except that their smiles turned a little predatory and satisfied, so they probably had. Before they could respond, she continued. "What particular business brings you out here with a warrant on your head?"
"Who's going to enforce it? You?" Hookwolf sneered back.
Clockblocker could almost feel Contract shrug into the silence before she answered. It was amazing how casual she could be, when she wanted to. He had to force himself not to fidget, and he could hear Vista's slightly heavier breath on the comm, but Contract sounded completely cool.
"Personally, I far prefer to scalp skinheads like yourselves, but the PRT took my best hunting knife and they haven't given it back yet. Answer the question. What brings you rats out of the sewer?"
"Looking for you, sunshine," Hookwolf sneered at her. "Kaiser would like to invite you to have dinner."
Contract laughed, and it actually sounded honestly amused. Hookwolf seemed to take that as her answer, since he snarled and launched himself at her.
Hookwolf may have made the first move, but Gallant was tensed and ready, and intercepted him with a bolt of yellow light. Hookwolf hit the ground short of the group. He didn't seem to climb to his feet so much as partially reform already in a combat position as his body became more canine than human.
Clockblocker darted forward in an attempt to tag him before he could fully recover, but Hookwolf snapped and lunged forward, several hooks and loops of metal springing to the fore. Clockblocker pulled back reflexively, which gave Gallant another opening. This time Gallant's blast was a dark, vivid blue, which Clockblocker recognized as depression. Gallant managed to sustain the blast for nearly two and a half seconds, before Hookwolf rolled out of the light's path, trying to position himself to come at Gallant from the side. Gallant saw his strategy and rose up into the air sharply. Clockblocker took advantage of Hookwolf's mistake as the villain went past him, tagging him on the lower back.
And just like that, it was over. If Gallant hadn't gotten up high enough, the fight would have gone differntly, because he would have been in Clockblocker's way. Instead Hookwolf had been forced to adjust his trajectory in mid-attack, pausing for just a second while he was within Clockblocker's range.
Clockblocker took a moment to breathe deeply, then he realized that he'd lost track of Contract in the chaos.
A grunt and a wet slap drew Clockblocker's eyes back towards the other gang members. The drug dealer was down, nursing an ankle that was at least bleeding and likely broken; one of the thugs was slumped unconscious against a brick wall and the last was in a chokehold with his face slowly turning red. Clockblocker watched as he scrambled at Fi's arm with one hand while swiping at her face with the other. She didn't even flinch, just kept the pressure up for another couple seconds until his hands dropped away, still.
She lowered him to the ground almost gently and set about zip tying his hands together.
"Vista," Contract barked over the comms, "camera check. We got any other company in the area?"
"I'm not seeing anything. The PRT is on their way."
"Good. Keep a sharp eye out."
After they secured the normals, Contract approached Clockblocker where he was standing behind Hookwolf in case the villain unfroze early. She pulled a roll of thick twine out of who-knew-where. "If we drape this over our friend, and you freeze it, could it act as a cage?"
"For as long as it's frozen."
"Better than nothing, right?"
Clockblocker nodded, surprised at the simplicity of the idea, and a little disappointed he hadn't thought of it before.
"PRT is 8 minutes out." Vista supplied helpfully. "Statistically, it unlikely he's going to be frozen long enough. Additional freezes would help that."
They uncoiled the string over Hookwolf in a criss-cross pattern, then Clockblocker froze it. When they were done, Clockblocker examined their handiwork. "Next time I'll bring a sheet."
Contract nodded thoughtfully. "I can actually think of a number of ways for a sheet to be useful. Or at the very least, a large towel. A sheet might become too much like a razor when frozen, but a towel is thicker." Clockblocker acknowledged the point.
"So what did you pay?" he asked in his best casual voice.
"Nothing."
He looked up sharply to meet Contract's gaze. "It's the truth," she insisted. "I didn't need a power, so I didn't pay a cost."
"Those two bouncers each weighed at least twice as much as you."
"It made them slow," Contract deadpanned.
Clockblocker couldn't tell if Contract was being deliberately calm to be infuriating, or if it honestly wasn't a big deal to her.
"You beat them? Unarmed?" he double checked, just to be sure.
Gallant walked up and spoke before she could answer. "They weren't unarmed." He waved handful of evidence bags which held four knives and a gun.
Contract rolled her eyes. She actually, legitimately, rolled her eyes. "They weren't expecting Hookwolf to jump the gun. I was. I broke druggie's ankle on my way past him, which made his knife pretty irrelevant. Tweedle Dee," she pointed to the enforcer who had been slumped against the wall, "had the gun, and he got it out of his holster, but he didn't get the chance to bring it up. He was so focused on it that I was able to slip his knife out of his belt and use the handle to strike a pressure point.
"Tweedle Dumb hesitated when he heard Druggie's ankle break. He hesitated again just after that, because I kept Tweedle Dee between us until he dropped. By then he had a knife out, so I kicked it out of his hand and then used the follow through to hit his knee. He tried to flip me, but I leveraged it to land behind him where I could apply a sleeper hold. Easy-peasy."
The PRT van pulled up before Clockblocker could follow up on that summary action report.
The next hour was hectic. They'd lucked out, and Hookwolf stayed contained until they could foam him, but then there was the paperwork and formalities that came with four arrests and a full contact fight. The Wards had miraculously made it out with nothing more than bruised knuckles, but it had been sheer luck.
It was good enough for Renick and Armsmaster, who switched from allowing the change in the Wards' schedules to encouraging it. But Clockblocker couldn't stop dwelling on how fortunate they had been. Hookwolf had chosen to go out without backup, or else his backup had decided not to show. Hookwolf had also made a single poor tactical lunge. If it wasn't for those two mistakes, someone could have been badly hurt. On the other hand, they had provoked a response from the Empire Eighty-Eight which was far more than the Wards normally managed, so in the end Clockblocker decided to count it as a win, spell check his report, and go find his fellow Wards.
Jason had made a good point about the value of casual time in building teamwork, and with Triumph and Aegis graduating they had a good excuse for a party. Hopefully, the rest of the Wards were willing to clear their schedules for a Friday evening.
Dennis was looking forward to celebrating.