{A bird hatched in an undeveloped state, requiring care and feeding by the parents}
(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ
"...And that's how things wrapped up, and here we are." I finished.
Doctor Selmy tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair thoughtfully. We'd taken the previous seating arrangement in Selmy's office. Myself on the couch, him in the easy chair. There was the water and the glasses on the table. Doctor Selmy tried to impart something to his space that comforted those that visited him. He was known to offer a few snacks and sweet drinks from the small refrigerator behind his desk. I'd seen crayons and paints in a cabinet.
There was an oil painting over the desk. A street corner and apartment block in red brick. Old fashioned wrought iron railing, trees out front on the sidewalk. It didn't look like something I could see him buying. Maybe a patient painted it? It was good.
The painting... I hadn't seen the painting last time. Or maybe I'd overlooked it. I might have, the last time I had been here was right after Benny died. Now that I felt like looking, I was actually seeing things I'd never noticed before. Was there a metaphor in there?
I wasn't sure.
Doctor Selmy set down his notepad. "Taylor, that's amazing."
It had certainly been something. An adventure, maybe? Something.
"I'm very proud of you," He said, "Taylor; I want you to understand that. What you did was very brave. You may have saved those girls' lives."
"Who was he? Nobody tells me anything, every time I ask..."
Doctor Selmy gave me a grim look, "I don't know."
He was... Telling the truth. My shoulders slumped.
"... I can promise you I am going to be asking questions." Doctor Selmy continued, "But I warn you, a lot of information on patients falls under Doctor-Patient confidentiality and is compartmentalized to protect both you and others, and that limits what I can reveal."
"Thank you." I said. It wasn't much but it was something.
Doctor Selmy leaned back, expression thoughtful, "Can you sense him now?"
I hadn't thought to try. I touched on my power, looked for people I was familiar with. I picked out the ones closest, Doctor Selmy, strong. Another strong one nearby, Doctor Yamada and another mote- very faint. She was counseling a patient, I think?
Further away, Charnel, Nick and Heather, and other motes less familiar. I could map the wing; I almost thought I could count how many people were in the cafeteria...
My senses extended further still, but the further I pushed the murkier they became. I had a general impression to about fifty feet, I guessed, without any additional familiarity clarifying. Was that because I'd used my power on my hearing? But there was more- I followed my sense out, picking out points that were stronger. My room and the hallway it sat on, for one.
There was also the strong impression of my cell from solitary, and a vague sense of some portions of inpatient processing. Those were two floors up, a faint network of hallways and rooms I had walked through once or twice in-between. A handful of motes familiar enough to register but not enough to identify... I blinked, that was worlds more than I could manage in power testing.
I looked further.
Secure containment I could also sense. I could sense Mimi and Elle down there, both motes very strong and bright in spite of the distance. I could tell them apart, and even sense a faint impression of emotion from Mimi...
And on the edge of that, I could just barely sense that searching intelligence far, far below me. That sense of something lurking, something trapped, and little else. But distant, indistinct.
"I-I can. Just barely."
Doctor Selmy hmmed, "Interesting."
I thought it interesting as well. Had my range increased, or was that more a factor of how little I had pushed my power previously? When I'd arrived, power testing had suggested I could gain limited prescience over something I came into contact with. But the most I had ever managed was a vague awareness when an apple I'd inspected was bitten into, and the range was very short.
I'd noticed some things were clearer since then, but I'd thought that was practice allowing me to get more out of my power, but this was something new. I... Was not sure what caused it.
Of all the things I'd considered, that was not something I thought would... surprise me so much. It mattered. I sulked. It was irritating. And ironic. Ironically irritating. If I'd had more control of my powers maybe my arm would never have been burned...
But then, if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have gotten to know Mimi or Elle nearly as well. I blinked, that reminded me, "Do you know if Mimi and Elle could have lunch with me sometimes?" I asked.
"That is a significant request, Taylor." He said solemnly, "Mimi's been here awhile, and she has a very mixed history. There will be a lot of opposition to allowing her the kind of freedom you're asking for, opposition on many levels."
I raised my chin a little and met his gaze. Doctor Selmy wasn't trying to intimidate me or dissuade me. My power hinted at -Pleased, surprised; did not anticipate me reaching out; wants to encourage efforts- tempered with what I almost wanted to call a cynical edge. My power gave the impression of... an awareness of limitations.
But... He wasn't saying no, either. That was really all I could expect, though not all I had hoped for. And he was a very experienced member of the counseling staff, if anyone would know what was or was not possible, it would be him.
"Thanks." I sighed.
Doctor Selmy smiled wryly, "Chin up. We'll see what happens."
I gave him a very serious look, considering. "Mimi doesn't like her therapists." I blurted.
If the change of subject surprised Doctor Selmy, his reaction was muted, "How so?"
"Well... She said they couldn't help her. She said they wanted to test her and test her, but couldn't do anything for her." I said, "She... Got angry when I asked her."
Doctor Selmy nodded slowly, "It isn't exactly a secret, and both Burnscar and Labyrinth have been at Alchemilla for some time. I... Am not at liberty to discuss the particular circumstances of them coming to be here, but their stay here has not been an easy one. While I cannot promise your meal schedule- Burnscar's been shuffled around too much to promise you anything there. I can ask who her therapists are. I can ask her therepists, see if I can start working with Burnscar and Labyrinth."
"You'd do that?"
"I have a few open slots in my schedule. Director Foster thinks I'm getting on in years, and I can't handle some of the more energetic patients." He tapped his cane on the floor demonstratively, "Thinks he is being 'subtle' dropping hints about my being past a due date... I've outlasted three directors, and Foster is retiring."
He fixed me with a conspiring twinkle in his eye, "Did I tell you? I have been offered a wheelchair here once by a young orderly, his first day on the job. Thought I was a visitor. Poor boy nearly fainted. I told him, 'maybe when I'm old'."
We both laughed.
"Thanks Doctor Selmy."
"Not at all, not at all." He stood. He opened the door for me and showed me out.
"Thank you for talking with me." I said.
"The pleasure was entirely mine." He replied, "I will look into getting some schedules rearranged."
He paused, and fixed me with a look of great gravity, "Don't forget, Taylor, you have the power to turn all of this into strength. You've already shown me you can do that. There are others here that still need to see that in themselves, too."
(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ
Group therapy that evening was a mixed bag again. A boy with brown hair and a limp. He wore blue and had a very sour expression. Another, a girl with pigtails and a scarred face, she wore orange. A girl with red curly hair that cowered, shrinking in on herself the longer I looked at her, and a smaller boy, both in blues. Mostly unfamiliar faces. But one face was familiar and immediately stuck out to me-
"You're alive!"
Heather threw herself at me with a squeal, rocketing across the room alarmingly and nearly giving me a heart attack.
"Oh shit this is so awesome," She yelled, "Everything turned into a castle, and then it turned into an industrial park, it was rad and so much shit got broken! We were getting guys dumped all over the place from the high-security levels, you know?"
Oh did I ever. I gave her a weak smile. "It was... Exciting, wasn't it?"
"It was great!" Heather gushed, "I haven't had this much fun in months!"
I stopped and turned to look at the others. The girl with the scars, she... had a smile carved into her face, someone had cut her cheeks open from her lips and up over her ears- and she was missing an ear lobe. The girl returned my stare silently until I looked away, unnerved.
"She's afraid of us." I heard her whisper to herself.
I laughed weakly and sat down next to Heather. The curly redhead looked to be slowly working herself up to a mental breakdown and the group meeting hadn't even started. I took a deep breath and tried to think positively. The Doctor this week was Doctor Ferris, a young woman with blonde hair kept tied at the back of her head. She wasn't as nervous as some I'd seen, but there was a definite tension in her shoulders, and her lips were a thin line.
We all introduced ourselves.
The boy with the limp and the sour face was Pendant. The girl with the scars that whispered to herself was Tagout. The jumpy redhead was Solace. The smaller boy in blue was Copperquick.
"All right everyone, I know we've had a very eventful week." She smiled; it showed a lot of teeth and the whites of her eyes. This woman was tense. "Would anyone like to go first?"
She looked around the circle. Her hands clutching her notepad were white knuckled.
My senses pricked with emotions. I was surrounded by fear, anger. Heather was the only one smiling. Shoulders hunched in, heads lowered, body language closed and furtive.
It... occurred to me that I might be a little out of touch with what had happened in the chaos. Since I'd woken up I'd been taken directly from the infirmary to see Mom and Emma, and then asked to see Doctor Selmy. I'd decided to go straight from that to my group meeting. I had no idea what had happened since I was out.
Labyrinth's power disrupting the precariously balanced world of Alchemilla might very well have had a wide-ranging ripple effect that would be sending aftershocks through the patient population for months.
I turned my attention back to the room full of teenagers and tried to get a feel for their powers. Solace gave the impression of vigilance, or alertness. A Thinker probably. Maybe something to do with danger or she could see the future, or possible futures. Precognitive, that was the word. Pendant was a little more difficult- his power had something to do with splitting something else. Copperquick had something to do with speed and... Direction. I think.
"Tagout, why don't you start?"
Tagout, the last one, the girl with the face cut into a giant grin... she was hard to read. I frowned and focused on her. My impression was jumbled, unfocused; it kept changing from one thing to another- muddled out until it was useless. I tried, but my unfamiliarity made what I was pulling off her confused, too abstract for me to make much sense of. There was some trick to it, or, no- I suspected her power had a drawback. Maybe her strange moods hinted at it? There was some kind of mental aspect, but also a physical one...
And what was up with her eyes?
Her power was a presence, it filled in her mind. It felt like a wild animal tugging at a leash, Tagout was pulled along with it each time.
As if she felt my power focused on her, she looked up and returned my stare. The scars on her face turned her smile into a rictus grin. I looked away.
"I-I can." The redhead stuttered.
"Thank you, Solace. I understand how hard that is for you. Go right ahead."
She took a couple quick breaths.
"Um, I was in crafts when it happened." she said.
No one from her therapy group had gotten washed down any supernatural drains into caves. The Nurse in charge had kept them together and calm until security and the relief force from the Protectorate had reached them. Solace had avoided most of the chaos. But listening her, she sounded like she was never more than a moment away from a complete nervous breakdown.
Solace fidgeted, her eyes darted around the room, never still. She flinched every few words and as she talked, the topic drifted away from the past week, and turned to the reason she was at Alchemilla in the first place. She suffered from crippling panic attacks and paranoia. I was right; she had a Thinker power- some kind of very invasive danger sense.
"Doctor Warren's been helping me through it." Solace giggled nervously, "I, um, I'm doing much better. I've been working on my breathing exercises, and that seems to be helping." I nodded and muttered in commiseration, fearing for her nerves.
"Thank you, Solace." Doctor Ferris said, and Solace let out a breath of relief.
"Would someone else like to talk?"
"Oh, me! Me!" Heather said, raising her hand.
Doctor Ferris' smile rose another few notches on the forced scale. "Yes, Glassboom?"
"Yeah, everything's been awesome since Labyrinth threw her party!" Heather said with a grin, "Elephant's been a riot; I knocked her over this morning!"
Heather laughed loudly, stomping her feet.
"Glassboom," Doctor Ferris said, tiredly, "Please don't antagonize Elephant. You've been told before-"
"Oh, come on! Pushing buttons is like the only thing to do around here!" Heather said, "I've been bored out of my skull for weeks!"
Doctor Ferris frowned, "Glassboom, not everyone appreciated having their week turned on its head. Please, your turn is up."
"At least I didn't spend my turn shivering in fear." Heather said, looking at Solace, "Solace is a scaredy cat. Aren't yah, scaredy cat?"
Tagout turned her cut-up grin on the whimpering girl, who wilted even more. "She is afraid of everything. Afraid." Tagout said, and looked at Heather, "She knows."
"Glassboom, Tagout- please, keep this civil." Doctor Ferris stood, "Glassboom, your turn is up."
Solace just sat in her chair, legs drawn up to her chest, rocking slowly. Tagout muttered to herself, "Why is she afraid?" Tagout asked, and then replied, "...She is in pain?" Pause, and she answered her own question again, "They are. Hours from now." Pendant and Copperquick scooted away from her.
Oh. Okay. Um.
"Auspice, it's good to see you back with us. Would you like to go next? Remember, please be positive." Doctor Ferris' smile had started to look a little desperate.
"Oh. Um, okay." I mumbled, gathering my thoughts. What did I want to say? I risked a quick glance around the circle. A couple muttered greetings and limp hellos.
"Last week was really... Rough." I said, "I got hurt. By another patient."
I took a breath and let go of my arm.
"Being here at Alchemilla has... It's been..." I swallowed, "It's not been easy, but I think it's helped me."
I took a deep breath. In my mind's eye, I felt Doctor Selmy's comforting hand on my shoulder and the memory of his words. I could feel every eye in the room on me.
"I've... I've met people here, people who have it much, much worse off. So much worse than me. It's helped me gain some perspective. I appreciate the people I have rooting for me, and, and what I have."
I stopped, breathing deeply. I sympathized with Solace. I hated talking in front of people.
Doctor Ferris smiled, and it was an actual, honest smile, "Thank you, Auspice. That's wonderful to hear."
Tagout was looking at me with her head tilted to one side. Solace looked surprised and a little confused. Pendant and Copperquick both just looked confused.
Heather mutinously looked away, scuffing her slippers on the carpet.
(•͈⌔•͈ ﾂ
My group meeting broke up after a relatively uneventful hour. Pendant and Copperquick left immediately. Heather left right after they did.
I'd caught her in her little game, and now she wouldn't talk to me. I tried to not feel hurt.
I stayed, it was going on half an hour past, but I had nowhere to be. Doctor Ferris gathered up her notepad and the tray of cookies and soda- mostly gone now. Tagout was listlessly drinking a soda, and Solace had taken a plate, two cups of soda, and backed herself into a corner that let her watch the whole room after I caught Heather trying to drop cookie crumbs into her cups.
"Thanks Doctor Ferris." I said, trying to inject a little more energy into my voice. I was feeling worn down, but it was nothing compared to what I was picking up off of her.
Doctor Ferris gave me a smile, and squeezed my shoulder, "Thanks yourself," She said, "I didn't miss how you helped me keep a lid on Glassboom; and I really appreciated your comments Auspice."
I smiled and laughed nervously. I wasn't looking forward to talking to her about that.
I opened the door and stepped outside, looking back as Doctor Ferris tried to rally the final two girls.
"Come on Solace, Tagout." Doctor Ferris said.
Solace squeaked, "N-not safe, it's, um, not safe!" She pointed at me, "Nothing's safe, no one's safe. Not safe."
Doctor Ferris looked at her, then turned and looked at me. The confusion on her face mirrored my own. Tagout laughed.
I could sense... A lot of activity from her power. Nothing like what I'd managed with Mimi or Elle, but I could tell it was active. I looked around the hall, but it was empty. I touched my power- looking at the impression, letting it expand out into the room around me. I didn't sense danger nearby, so I turned my attention to the map and the distant motes of people in my head.
Well, there were three nearby, I had a vague impression of powers, but they weren't particularly familiar.
They were down the hall... I stepped away from the door, following the impression. Down the hall, there was a small lobby, a kind of bay between offices with a vending machine and couches. The floor... was splattered with paint? Ink? It looked like someone had taken a bucket of ink and upended it on the floor; it was splattered black all over. There was a line of it further down the hall, wall-to-wall right across the floor. I gingerly stepped around the ink, something about it made me wary; my power hinted at... awareness. Was it some kind of tripwire?
The front panels of the vending machines were opened, and a garbage bag full of sodas sat beside one-
Something landed on my shoulders, my instinctive reaction was to step back until I hit the wall. I choked and grabbed- it was a segmented band, and it moved against my throat like living wire. I gagged, flailing.
My power flooded my senses-
-glee, malicious intent, infantile and petty, and alien; not human-
I clawed at my throat. A jointed construct with four appendages wrapped around my throat.
"Marionette!"
I threw myself back against the wall, and felt the band shift.
-strong, but flawed; detached with the correct application of leverage-
I wrestled with them, pulling at them- but they wrestled back. The force that held them together was too strong for my fingers to find enough purchase. My blood was starting to roar in my ears.
I managed to clear a gap and sucked in air greedily, but the vice closed again on my windpipe.
Down the hall, Doctor Ferris had noticed what was happening, she was screaming, she had some thing out on a lanyard. A panic button. She was calling for security. Solace was nowhere to be seen, but Tagout was standing in the hall, watching me in fascination.
My power supplied a wealth of information- flooding me with suggestions, how to best escape. Weaknesses and the structure of vital components- but it was too heavily armored, the same kind of composite organic polymer Charnel was made of. I only understood what it was telling me in snatches and starts, and dark was starting to cloud my vision. Power, how it was powered- what generated the force -I latched on to that, and reached up. Wrenched-
"You wouldn't dare!"
-and popped it off.
Air!
I gasped as the pressure finally vanished all at once. Choking and gasping as the thing clattered to the floor in pieces. I tried to catch my breath.
"No! How dare you!" I looked down at the object I had pulled off, still grasped in my fist. It was about the size of an apple and most definitely a porcelain doll head. It was painted white, with little pink dots of blush on its cheeks, brown hair in a braid, it glared up at me. "Wipe that idiotic look off your face." It said.
I yelped and dropped it. Then felt silly for being startled, and gave it a kick.
"Hey- ow!"
The head bounced down the hall and landed at the feet of Lizard Prince, who was standing there, smiling at me.
"Prince! Help!" the errant head cried from the ground. Adding a little surreal vertigo to this strange little confrontation. "Majesty, I was wrongfully attacked by a sociopathic hoodlum." The head complained, "She attacked me without warning. Without Provocation."
He- Lizard Prince - turned his hand so the head could see me. Its beady little red eyes widened, "Yes! That's her! She ripped my head off; I demand we rip her head off, it's only fair."
"I dunno, she got a point." Prince said, quirking an eyebrow, "What do you say, Inkling?"
That was all the warning I got before something burst from the ink-covered wall. She swiped at my head, and I ducked away. A stream of the ink that gave Inkling her name followed her lunge, arcing up over the wall, and me.
I skidded to a stop, splattered in ink. Inkling stepped to the side, right into a trail of ink. There was a flicker of movement, she fell into the ink pool, and then Inkling darted out of another right beside me. She swiped at me again.
I yelped and rolled away, only for a stream of gummy threads to wrap around my feet, pinning them to the floor.
"Now, now, let's not get clever." Lizard Prince said, "Marionette, please?" He held out her head so she could see her body. The reaction was immediate and like magnetic attraction- the scattered segments and ball bearings jumped from the floor, rearranging and sorting themselves in their sockets. Fully assembled, she was a bit more than a foot and a half tall, and promptly dropped to the floor. She landed on all fours, stood, and gave me a baleful glare.
"Hey, you were the one who attacked her, Marionette. You didn't have to do that." Lizard Prince admonished, he looked at me, "Sorry about that, just looking for a bit of fun. Marionette can get carried away."
I massaged my neck, unsure of what to say. Inkling offered Marionette a short dress like an actual doll's, in orange. It was a little nonsensical, under the cloth her body was modular segments and ball sockets. There was nothing to see. I concentrated on her, narrowing my power's focus. She had some kind of stranger power. I could see her, but she made no sound. Some kind of perception filter? And how had I been able to wrench her head off, if she could reassemble herself like that? Was there a finite amount of force she could exert across all the segments of her body?
I could hear running feet.
"Time to go!" Lizard Prince said, lifting the garbage bag full of snacks and sodas over one shoulder. He looked at me and smiled, winking once, turning on his heel amid Marionette's bitter protests, Inkling followed. I sat up, feeling a little cheated and confused, while they ran down the hall.
They nearly made it to the end of the hall before a young woman in green met them. She was wearing a costume with a leaf and vine motif. As I watched, two more of her stepped around the corner. I couldn't be sure at this distance. Reading them at that range was spotty, and I was sure I'd never seen them before. But I was almost certain they were identical in every way. They were the same height, had the same hair, moved with that same odd stiffness.
"Surrender, Lizard Prince!" One said.
Kudzu. I knew that costume… that was Kudzu. Los Angeles Protectorate, a cloner. I blinked in surprise.
"Shit, Protectorate!" Inkling said.
Lizard Prince raised his hand, sending out a stream of sticky threads at the clones. The stream caught all of them, for a moment I thought that would be all. Instead three more clones popped into existence a moment later and began running toward Lizard Prince and Inkling. Then there were six, then nine.
"Go, Prince!" Inkling said, raising both hands and spraying all nine Kudzu, as well as most of the hall. Lizard Prince jumped straight up grabbed the ceiling and started running back along the ceiling upside down. Inkling dove into the ink-coated wall, which rippled like water. The parts of Marionette's body clattered to the floor amid a spray of ink, only to rise into the air and reform around one Kudzu's throat. The Kudzu clones hesitated a moment, and then the ground under their feet betrayed them. One tripped, then another, their legs pulled out from under them. I could sense Inkling moving rapidly throughout the splattered ink.
With a half dozen Kudzu occupied trying to contain Inkling, Lizard Prince ran across the ceiling above me uncontested, back towards Tagout and Doctor Ferris, the garbage bag swinging bellow him. Then Tagout leapt up and latched on to him. I could tell it took him by surprise. He wobbled for two more steps before whatever power kept him adhered to the ceiling failed and they both fell to the floor in a heap.
Tagout disentangled herself first, lacking the bulky bag. But when she jumped onto the wall much as I had seen Lizard Prince do before, I took notice. When she raised a hand and glued the garbage bag to the floor with the same sticky threads as Lizard Prince it clicked- she was a power copier?
Lizard Prince abandoned the garbage bag, limbs elongating to avoid Tagout's spray, and retaliated with a sweeping motion that sent threads from Tagouts shoulders down to her knees- completely encasing her. Doctor Ferris retreated and slammed the door shut, but Lizard Prince wasn't paying her any mind. The garbage bag full of cans and packages flew across the hall, cans rolled everywhere. At the other end of the hall, Summer Holiday turned the corner and skidded to a stop, black hair framing her face. She was livid- I could feel her emotions from where I lay, and immediately raised both hands towards Lizard Prince.
He retaliated by raising his hands and spraying her with a stream of threads. But they never landed; instead Summer Holiday released a steam of lights, like a roman candle, multicolored lights darting out and impacted his threads. They exploded in a star-burst of light that left spots dancing in my vision.
When I could see again, Summer was in his face, fists shining like flares, sending up a shower of sparks and a sound like a thunderclap every time a punch landed. I ducked.
One of Summer Holiday's concussive punches sent Lizard Prince flying, and his arms snaked out, much too long, to grab her ankles. Summer went head over heels, and turned it into a flip. I think she'd have landed it, but her prosthetic gave out under her, sending her to one knee. I followed Lizard Prince's trajectory to find him landed in a tangle of Kudzu. At least half a dozen. I could see three more pinning Inkling to the floor, all four splattered with ink from head to toe. Inkling's hands were cuffed behind her back, and she now wore a blindfold. Given that she wasn't struggling, I guessed she was unconscious. Two more Kudzu were struggling with a third, who was looking blue in the face- Marionette's components were still wrapped around her neck and arm.
I thought that was it, but Lizard Prince wasn't done just yet- his limbs were like rubber, and twisted free of the Kudzu, leaving behind more of the sticky threads. The Kudzu were a tangled mess.
Four more Kudzu appeared immediately, chasing him. But he didn't get far- Summer's kick caught him in the gut and bent him double. She bent down, caught him by the head and flipped him over her shoulder. One of the couches in the lobby caught him and cushioned his fall, flipping over on him. Lizard Prince snaked out, his whole body a long thread squirming loose, but it was too late, the Kudzu dogpiled him. He thrashed, freeing his head, but there were too many- at least eight piled on him now. Summer Holiday walked right up, and lifted her hand, which glowed white to his face. Lizard Prince's eye widened a moment before she snapped her fingers.
The sound left my ears ringing, and the light dazzled me. When I blinked my way past the spots in my eyes, Lizard Prince was limp and safely secured in a straightjacket. Someone bent down beside me, and I refocused- it was Summer Holiday.
"You okay, Auspice?" Summer asked.
"Uh, yeah." I said, glancing down at the sticky threads still pinning my legs to the floor.
"Hold on, kid, I got that." Summer drew a knife from her belt, and started cutting, "Sorry about this."
"No, it's... Fine, I guess." I said.
"Right," My legs were free, and Summer offered me a hand up, I took it gratefully.
"What was that about?" I asked.
Summer looked like she'd bit into a lemon, "Lizard Prince. He's done this before, though I never imagined he'd be this bold. Or stupid."
The lobby was a mess, the couches toppled, little magazine table crushed, stray cans of soda and bags of peanuts strewn everywhere. Ink covered everything, I looked down at my hands, I was smeared with it everywhere. Doctor Ferris was crouched beside one of the Kudzu, helping free Tagout. At least a dozen Kudzu clones were packed into the hall.
Summer turned to one of the Kudzu, "Do you have Marionette?"
"Already got her." the Kudzu pointed. One of the Kudzu had the discarded garbage bag in one hand. Suspicious movement stirred within.
"Let me out, bitch!" Marionette's voice came from the bag. The Kudzu shook it, hard, "Hey!"
"Good," Summer pulled a radio off her harness, "I have Prince, Inkling, and Marionette in admin. What's your status?"
Another voice replied, male, unfamiliar, "Quilt, Frog, and Prowler here. I'm guessing they were the distraction."
"I agree." Summer said, "I have Kudzu for transport, we'll be headed down to medium security now." She hooked the radio back onto her harness. Summer caught me staring, "Don't worry, kid. I don't think he's going to be pulling this stunt again."
I noticed Summer was limping a bit, favoring the side with her missing leg, "Are you all right?" I asked.
"This? It's nothing. It's actually kind of refreshing." She smiled and whipped a stray lock of hair out of her eyes, "Really takes me back..."
"Fuck."
We both glanced towards the Kudzu hefting Lizard Prince.
"Damnit." He cursed, blinking, "What was that for? All we wanted was some stupid soda."
"Then you should have surrendered when we asked you to." Summer said firmly, "It's your own damn fault."
"Hey, can you blame me?" He grinned. I could sense his cajoling, his nature as a charmer- he was used to using his good looks, and charming his way when his power failed him.
"I don't think you're going to be my problem much longer anyway." Summer said, "Your case review got bumped up. Turns out, monthly vandalism didn't endear your to the administration." She punctuated the last bit with a smile that Prince seemed not to find particularly reassuring.
Summer turned to me, "Can you make it back to your ward? I might need to ask you questions later, but this is probably under control. I'll let maintenance know about the mess, they'll have it covered."
I nodded, "Yeah. Okay."
Summer smiled and followed the troop of Kudzu as they toted off their captives.
I watched them go, feeling strangely... melancholy. It had been exciting, but... I hadn't done anything but get stuck in Lizard Prince's string. Walking back up the hallway, my foot kicked something- I looked down. The can was dented, but the seal was good... I picked up the soda. I could sense the pressure inside. I wouldn't be able to open it for awhile- not unless I wanted to get sprayed with soda.
I held on to it, for later.