Chapter 4: Best-laid Plans

The Servant

1 Hour ago

She was the only person he knew who could truly make him feel shame. He had been yelled at by protestors who wanted him whipped and dragged through the streets, sneered at by politicians who conspired to bring him down from power, and been told by families of the Fallen Many that they hoped his soul never found rest. He did not care what they bayed. But the humiliation he felt under Ejan's gaze was more than anything they could ever have made him feel.

Ejan's face was twisted into a tragic diorama. One of her eyes had been torn out of its socket, and a scar ran from underneath her eyepatch, across her face, to her left ear, which had been cleanly sliced horizontally. Her right cheek bore a brand depicting the gauntlet emblem of the Blue Empress and an open mouth would reveal her lack of a tongue.

Even on her ruined face, her one eye burned with the Fires of Judgement.

Luis placed the package on the table in front of Ejan. "It's a new outfit. They've become quite fashionable among high-society now. It's inspired by the flowing outfits of the Lone Sands, but with more solid colors, less patchwork."

Ejan stared up at him from her seat at the dining table and tipped her head in a slight nod. She gave him no more acknowledgement, returning to her soup.

Luis watched his sister for another second. He felt that he should say something to her, but - as always - his tongue latched to the roof of his mouth, unable to formulate anything that would be right. He could spin conversations however he wanted in any other place, but here any topic of conversation was like trying to commune with a statue.

The only thing he could say that might make her respond, make her look upon him with anything other than a glare, was an apology for what he had done. For serving Goddess, and later her government, after one of her personal servants had maimed Ejan. But that was the one thing he would not do. His service had brought him the opportunity to shape this world, and that was not something he would apologize for. He would speak for those she had harmed. That was his redemption.

Luis turned his back on Ejan and walked towards the doorway.

The normally quiet nighttime in the High Spirit housing of the Capitol was nervous tonight, as the alarm warning of the Simurgh's presence had left most of the inhabitants awake despite the late hour. Hopefully the last person Luis needed to see would be among them.

Luis left the dining hall, the package unopened on the table as he strode into the hallway, lined with a carpet adorned with images of red eagles. He turned left, and walked down its length, his head bowed. At the end of the hallway, there was a cased opening leading to a rarely used game room, and just before it, on the left left hand side of the hallway, a small undecorated door. Battered, with its red paint chipped off in places.

Luis removed his necklace, holding the plain brass key in his right hand. He inserted the key into the door's lock, and walked down the creaky stairs that it opened to reveal.

The stairs lead to a small basement room, unfinished, its walls and floors barren of any decoration. The only objects in the room were a dusty exercise machine and an old ornament. Made of mahogany wood, it was carved in the image of a tree sapling whose branches ended in snakes, some with open mouths, frozen as though they were striking at prey.

There was another door in the room, and Luis opened that one with the same key. This room was made as a living space, and it included a bed, desk and screen, all plain but comfortable.

A man of more than forty years rested on the bed, awake but unmoving.

The use of capes on Earth Shin had been rare following Goddess' disappearance. Virtually all the most powerful had been under her alignment, and there was a deep-seated distrust of any capes, even new powers, among the population. The Founders, ever mindful of optics and the tightrope they walked in the government, had renounced using capes without majority approval by the governments. Most of the capes who did serve one faction or another were firmly held by hawks who had fought against Goddess.

The Founders were correct to be mindful of public perception around using capes.

Their failure, Luis had always thought, was not considering the benefits of secrecy.

"Hello, Adam," said Luis.

Luis' pet cape leapt to attention with ease, propelling himself upright, and pressing his right hand to his left chest as quickly as he could manage. It was unnecessary, but Luis had learned that there was no persuading him to lessen the formality.

Adam's hair was graying early, but he was otherwise fit. He was taller than Luis, and his gray eyes shined with vigor.

"I could have called you, but I was already headed this way to speak to a few individuals I need the support of, and I figured I may as well deliver my gift to Ejan and give you instructions while I was here.

"As you are hopefully aware from the emergency alerts, the creature known as the Simurgh just attacked Shin. She has left a variety of Tinkertech in the region near the portal to Gimel, and due to a series of bad decisions by our governments, Amar has been entrusted to meet the Wardens' delegation there. Seeing as this is a recipe for a catastrophe, I want you there to monitor things and report anything significant to me. You should have already received the coordinates."

Adam nodded. "I will head there right away." His voice was crisp and official, but he smiled like a child. It didn't sit quite right with Luis. While it was great that Adam followed orders, the fact he did it with constant enthusiasm and broad smiles was unsettling to him. Better than insubordination, sure, but people were supposed to follow orders with some hesitation, not unbridled enthusiasm.

Adam was powerful. Perhaps he didn't have the destructive power or incredible control of some capes, but a man who could disappear into the ground and travel across the world in hours was impressive. Yet, he was unambitious, devoid of any drive or desire to be something. There were some, like Goddess had been, who were powerful and driven to use it.

Luis considered himself driven, even if he was weak. Yet there was something unsettling about someone so powerful who didn't seem to care what he could do with it. For a while, Luis had been scared, but he had parsed Adam's voice and what he said, and it was clear that there was no sinister desire hiding behind his crisp salutes and childish smiles.

"Thank you. While I have a few men embedded among Amar's forces, I frankly doubt that they will have the ability to properly inform me as long as they are under his eye. Don't do anything rash or reckless. Simply observe what happens there."

Adam headed to his nightstand and pulled out a handgun, which he holstered on his belt, and a blue and white mask that he placed over his face. He gave one last salute. With a faint sound, he slipped into the floor.

Luis watched Adam disappear. He would need to return to the other Founders now for if things went wrong. Which, frankly, was exactly what he expected. Gabin's grief at the loss of his daughter had ruined his ability to make decisions, and Luis had been unable to stop him from pushing the Coalition to send Amar and his soldiers- real, trained soldiers, not those puppets of Goddess- to meet the Wardens. They had been cursorily told to avoid fighting unless necessary, but Luis wouldn't trust Amar to avoid getting an itchy trigger finger if a machine sparked or the Dallon sisters spat at each other.

Luis nearly jogged back to the Capitol building. Things were getting well out of hand, and without the Giants to serve as a unifying point between the government's factions, things would only grow more uncertain.

We're navigating the rapids, approaching a waterfall, we've lost our cannons and they're still trying to throw rocks.

It was time to see if anything could be salvaged.

Antares

From the sky, Victoria could see Dinah Alcott huddling with the troopers. They leaned around her, whispering to her. Alcott extracted herself from the huddle. "Okay," she said, her voice quiet and wavering. "Okay," she said again, stronger. "The courses of action we are going to take are simple. Contact the Founders. Get Miss Militia and Legend. Pacify the area. After we do so, I will bring in my additional capes, and we will enter the Simurgh's graveyard over there."

"Are you sure?" asked Chevalier. He had turned his body to better address Dinah, but he still kept his cannonblade and one eye pointed at Amar.

Dinah withered under Chevalier's gaze for a second, but stood herself taller. "It is safe. I get your concern, but I can assure you of that."

Dinah facepalmed, her fingers vigorously massaging her forehead above her blindfold. "Listen, Citrine has decided to trust me on this. Do I need to call her? I can call her." Dinah paused for a second, freezing herself in place. Then she fumbled into her pocket and pulled out a phone. "I can call her right now and prove it."

"Then prove it."

Dinah nodded, and Victoria noticed she had already placed her thumbs over the phone's screen before Chevalier had said a word. She punched in the numbers quickly, although Victoria could see her hands shaking. Dinah then rushed towards Chevalier, holding out the phone. At her height, she couldn't hear what sounds came out of it, but Chevalier nodded to Alcott.

Victoria lowered herself towards the ground, landing near Chevalier.

"Glad you're here Antares," said Dinah. Without hesitation, she pointed at Chris. "Where are Miss Militia and Legend?"

Chris tilted his head, his emaciated form twisting in an unnatural way as his neck turned close to a half-circle. "Did the odds really say that this was the best way to get that information?" he asked and gave a wheezing laugh. "They're fine," he said. "They're piled up in the command tent."

"Are you expecting me to believe that you managed to immobilize Legend?" asked Chevalier incredulously.

"Look, even he's not all that tough when his lungs are full of drugs that bring his powers down to nothing."

"Shin's capes attacked us after you went into the command tent," shouted Precipice. "Did you do that?"

Chris chortled again, as though he found the entire scenario a hilarious joke. "I just told Amar here what had happened on the other side of the Simurgh's playground, and he decided that meant you all needed to be taken out of the action for the time being. Not really a particularly smart course of action, if you ask me, especially since it seems like Antares here has to crack a few skulls the instant she isn't allowed to be the fucking hero, but it's what he wanted."

Victoria could feel his gaze turning to her as he said that. His words were the same goading as when she had visited Shin for the first time with Breakthrough, his resentment the same as when she had visited the community center and he had responded by attacking her motivations. Every word was a barbed hook designed to catch into her flesh and tear.

For now, she ignored him. He wasn't worth confronting.

"Okay," said Dinah. "Next, Precipice, Tress, head into the tent to retrieve Miss Militia and Legend. There is a small element of danger. Tress, you should enter first, with Precipice doing so once you have given an all-clear."

"I want to speak with Antares first," said Sveta.

Dinah bowed her head for a second. "Okay, you….. And Precipice can speak to Antares." She paused for another second. "But no more than 4 minutes. That's the maximum I can allow."

Sveta walked over to Victoria, stealing a glance backwards towards Dinah, who was approaching Tattletale, her rifle still pointed at the back of Wyvern's head.

Victoria lifted herself off the ground slightly, floating towards Sveta.

"Are we going to play along with this, Antares?" asked Sveta.

"First things first, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Sveta. "Nobody managed to get a shot in at me."

"And you, Precipice?"

"Yeah," said Rain. " I didn't even get a scrape! One of my mechanical arms broke, but it should only take a moment or so to repair it."

I guess the world really is on the verge of ending.

"Okay," said Victoria. "Then I guess we have to go along with her."

"And are you okay?" interrupted Sveta. "Don't think you're going to get away without saying anything about how you're doing."

"I made it out as good as both of you did," said Victoria. "Sucks that we're being dragged around like this though."

"I honestly prefer this to our last visit to Shin," Rain said, unscrewing a bolt on one of his mechanical arms. "I don't like fighting people like this, but I'd rather do it than get locked in some prison with people who hate you, cameras operated by people you can't see watching you the whole time, you know."

"Yeah," said Victoria. "It's a pretty good visit, all things considered."

Sveta made another glance towards Dinah, who was speaking to Chevalier now, gesturing at the heroine accompanying her while he watched stoically.

"You don't like this do you?" said Victoria.

"No," said Sveta. "I don't. I know Dinah's different, and she didn't do… this to me, but it just reminds me too much of her. The way she shows up and decides to run the show, because she knows best and we wouldn't understand.

"I get that," said Victoria. "Look, I'm not enthusiastic about this either. We saw what can happen when Dinah's plans go wrong. But the Mayor has decided to trust her with this. It's a delicate situation, and I'm not happy saying this, but I think we should do what she says."

"And if she's wrong?"

"Then we'll do what's right."

Rain took a step back from Sveta and Victoria, and Dinah popped up beside him, her troopers near her.

"Precipice, Tress, I take it that you're set now?"

Victoria got the impression Sveta had wanted to say something else, and her eyes narrowed with displeasure, but before she could say anything, Rain interrupted with a cheery "all ready."

Sveta said nothing.

"Did you have something you wanted to say, Tress?" asked Victoria.

Best not to bury what she thinks.

Sveta delayed for a second. "No," she said, finally. "I'm good to go."

Hopefully she really is okay with this.

I know I'm not. Not entirely.

Tress entered the command tent. Not fifteen seconds later, she shouted out an "all clear," signaling Precipice to follow her in.

Again, Dinah huddled with the troopers, the cape that accompanied her standing to the side. The cape was a slim woman whose costume was evocative of the tight and gaudy spandex of a pre-Scion comic book hero, but with a professional designer's touch rendering it pleasing to the eye, its muted blue-green colors highlighted with complementary slashes of orange along the shoulders and knees.

"In order to contact the Founders in the way most likely to prevent incident, Luis of that faction should be contacted directly. We were already able to persuade the captain of the local security forces not directly controlled by Shin's governments to stand down upon our entrance," said Dinah. She pointed at Amar's translator, who was still huddled near him. "Your commander has a line of communication directly to Luis. I know he has shared it with you. Be prepared to contact him, but only do so under my supervision."

Next, Dinah pointed at Victoria. "You will travel into the Simurgh's Tinkertech." Her forehead wrinkled for a second. "With Cryptid. He will be sent ahead of you. You will ensure the soldiers in the zone aren't hostile. Assess the situation there, but do not enter."

Victoria felt uneasy about it. She knew what she had agreed to, but part of her still felt uneasy about trusting the lead of a girl, who, less than twenty-four hours earlier, had left Wardens headquarters rejected by its authorities, who had boosted and supported people who had planted car bombs and demeaned her and her friends on television and in public. And she took charge like Contessa had in Cauldron's compound, yet insisted that the bogeyman was leading them down a path to catastrophe.

Following orders was part of being a hero. But this was a strange situation to be following orders in, listening to a girl she didn't trust - with no formal authority - barking out a sequence of commands she barely understood.

But it's the best chance. For now anyways.

Victoria turned towards Chris. "You first." Chris lifted himself into the air, not bothering to respond with anything more than a grunt. His flight was ungainly and ragged, his wings beating with great effort in slow arcs. She held back behind him as he flew over the Simurgh's Tinkertech, dropping noticeably as his wings lifted up on each flap, unevenly pulling himself higher into the air each time as he brought them down. She could have passed him in seconds. She settled on following behind.

The Tinkertech that had been deposited by the Simurgh shared no central theme. Even when built for different purposes, most Tinkertech made by a single individual had commonalities that were clear when they were placed side-by-side. Anything from Kenzie's specialty of boxes, to even similarities in color and texture could be found between different pieces of work by the same Tinker, but the pieces strewn across the ground bore no such similarities.

The largest devices Victoria could see were easily 20 feet tall. One was a prism, while another was an amalgamation of piping reaching into a glowing orange core, each pipe leading away from the core only to feed back into it. Smaller devices were scattered around, some resting on the ground, others embedded into the soil, embodying a seemingly endless variety of contraptions. A sack suspended on stilts in the ground pulsed like a heart, leaking white fluid through a tear, while nearby a propeller whose blades ended in drills crackling with green energy rotated listlessly. However, most of the devices seemed devoid of power, resting without any hints of life.

It didn't take much time flying over the Simurgh's ruins before it became clear what had caused Amar's swift actions. Sitting over a region of disturbed soil, she could see the glow that had caught her attention earlier. It was indeed a portal.

However, the portal was no longer open. Its face was sealed with a mixture of ice and enlarged vines which blocked any view of where it led. They spilled into the air and ground outside it, and a region with a radius of roughly twenty or so feet outside the portal where the ground was coated with the ice.

Chris landed without so much as looking back at her. He barked orders to the soldiers without any hesitation. The soldiers seemed hesitant to listen to him. One got belligerent, shouting in his face in a tortured mixture of English and his native language, but Chris was able to cow him by approaching him and rearing on his legs to loom over him.

Once the soldiers had listened to Chris, Victoria landed, a safe distance away from the portal. "What happened here?" she asked. The portal hummed quietly, cutting the silence of Shin's soldiers.

"I'm not sure what else there is to say," said Chris. "A portal opened in the middle of the ground."

"Is that all there was to it?"

"Well, there is one more thing, I guess."

Victoria wished she could see his expression. Chris was hardly emotive when he wasn't in one of his forms, but she could at least tell something from that, unlike now, where his inhuman expression was utterly inscrutable.

"Your sister is right on the other side of that portal," he said, his voice dripping acid. He didn't seem satisfied about it though. It was hardly like he was rubbing it in her face, but more like he was contemptuous of Amy.

Thank you, Kid Cassandra.

Fuck me.

"So, we're walking towards the science tent, and then Amy sees some flashing lights and, in what I have to assume was some kind of mind-control, ran right up so she could see whatever piece of crap was blinking. I mean, she hasn't exactly been on top of things lately, but I never thought she'd deteriorated that much. Next thing that happens, that portal opens right in front of her, and she is through it before I can even explain how much of an idiot she is being. Apparently she was fine and said that everyone on the other side was friendly, but Ehajmar here let his trigger finger get the best of him. He shot one of the people on the other side."

Christ, is every soldier here desperate to turn everything into a shootout?

Victoria looked to the portal, and the barrier that prevented her from seeing to the other side. Amy was there, just out of reach. As far as she was concerned, she would be best kept that way, but she could already hear Dinah's voice as she pointed her finger, ordering the portal blasted open.

"We've got at least a few minutes, assuming that Dinah's precious plan doesn't go belly-up," said Chris. "I hope you're prepared for this."

Victoria couldn't make sense of his gaze, and again wished for something more human.

Does he really want me to be ready, or is he mocking me because he is willing to let Amy have her way?

A warm night breeze blew as Victoria stared at the portal. Soon, she should ask the soldiers if any of the soldiers could tell her more details about what they had seen on the other side and how the portal had been sealed. But for now, she stared into the opaque ice. This time, she wouldn't be alone with Amy. She wouldn't be trapped, forced underneath her mercy. Her heart pounding, she steeled herself for what would come next.