Little Hunter
It took time to find the information she wanted.
The machine accepted her queries and returned answers. Of a sort. Some didn't make any sense.
It took a bit of time to realize the first problem was her spelling because her spelling was that bad.
Why did K's sound like C's and why were C's close in sound to S's? English.
Seemed most humans struggled with spelling, though. The browser kept asking what she meant and usually offered the correct query. After the first few tries, her spelling slowly improved.
Her answers came in time.
There was no news concerning her father. Not 'new' news. English.
The memorial was placed while she still lived in the city by the Dockworkers, not that she recalled ever hearing about it. Her mother wouldn't let her out of sight by the time it happened. Maybe Annette knew. Maybe she didn't.
An old bitterness rose in Nanku's throat, but she swallowed it.
Kurt.
She recognized that name. He'd worked with her father at the Union. They were friends. Searching his name showed he still lived in Brockton Bay as the new head of hiring. Perhaps he knew something the internet didn't.
If nothing else, he might help her locate her mother. Former, mother.
The camp was a far more bizarre story.
"Nilbog?" Nanku asked.
Nilbog, the internet told her.
Nilbog massacred the camp. Nilbog created the creatures. Nilbog did all of it.
"Who the fuck is Nilbog?" She searched. "What is Ellisburg?"
A city in New York overrun by a monster creating cape, she learned. It happened when she was young. If she'd heard of it at the time, she didn't remember.
Monsters massacre a camp, and everyone assumed a cape did it.
Thinking of it, that made sense. More than aliens. Surely the massacre was investigated. A story would have emerged. A false story that people would believe.
It wasn't like anyone could have asked Nanku. Pe'dte certainly hadn't informed anyone on Earth. Once the world believed the 'Goblin King' started attacking outside his domain, the world decided he was too dangerous to ignore. The battle lasted months according to the internet, occupying hundreds of articles, videos, and news reports.
People died.
More deaths because someone decided to mess with what they didn't understand.
Fortunately, the world seemed convinced of its answer. Nilbog was killed, and the world declared victory. Justice done.
Nanku knew better, and in that, she took solace.
Her prey was still out there. She could do it herself. She could make it hurt.
That good news almost overshadowed the two names she found amid all the reports.
Naomi and Thomas.
They survived.
Nanku barely remembered them. Only their names brought them from some forgotten corner of her mind, and they lived. The two who ran off the moment things got bad got through or somehow escaped.
That was pleasant news. More pleasant than Nanku thought it would be.
The Black Warrior wins every battle eventually. There was something in fighting it off a day longer. It was why hunters hunted. To dance the line between life and death. Naomi and Thomas danced well.
There was far more on the entire topic of the camp than Nanku wanted to read on a phone. She'd find a computer. Somewhere she could sit with a bigger screen. Knowing her quarry remained free—thinking itself safe—was enough for now.
She only wanted to check a few things.
Nanku tried to search for the icon Pe'dte provided, but she couldn't find it.
The two letters simply weren't enough. There were many logos and company names, insignia, and iconographs. Too many. She had no way of knowing which one was the one she wanted.
Not so easily, at least.
Another thing she might have better luck with if she could talk to someone. As extensive as the internet was, her interface was rudimentary. The phone's screen was tiny, and her thumbs pressed the wrong buttons often. Also, her spelling remained poor.
It was annoying.
But, she'd made her kill, and she had her prize.
It would be cruel to her prey to waste it. Even if he disappointed her in the end.
Nanku tried searching for her mother. Annette Hebert no longer worked at the college. Not as far as Nanku could tell. She wasn't listed as faculty.
She supposed that would be too easy.
One article mentioned Annette and Taylor Hebert, in reference to the 'Summer Camp Massacre.' An opinion article about 'the unlucky mothers of Brockton Bay.' Her own was spoken of passively, like a mockery. Just another unfortunate soul in a city gone wrong.
City gone wrong.
An odd description for how much tamer everything seemed to be.
Turning her head, Nanku tracked a pair of men walking up the stairs of the building. They'd started on one floor in an apartment and had continued up since. There was only one floor left.
With a quick mental command, Nanku directed the Twins to drag their kills out of sight. They were messy eaters, but it was dark on the roof. The men weren't in a rush. They probably wouldn't look much.
Hopefully.
Nanku slipped back into her shroud and remained in place as the door opened.
"—aying that you gotta stand up for yourself!"
"I'm trying, but she's fucking terrifying!"
The men were young. A few years older than Nanku herself. They wore disheveled suits and held beers in their hands. Their movements were sluggish. Eyes slightly dilated.
Drunks again.
"She's the best attorney in the city!" the first said. "Just suck up the worst, calculate, and make your move."
"Make my move?" They moved toward the roof and the second produced a small box from his jacket. "She's fucking married, and she's hot, but she's twice my age."
"No. No." The first waved his hand and took one of the cigarettes. "No, you wait for something little. Something she's only slightly agitated about."
A lighter was produced. "She's agitated about everything."
"Just trust me. Wait until she's only slightly agitated, and stand up to her. For yourself. She'll respect you, so long as it's not something she's really pissed about. If she's really pissed about it, she gets more agitated."
The second man shook his head and set his beer on the roof. "How do you work for this woman?"
"Um, because she's Carol Dallon?"
Nanku cocked her head as the men started smoking.
Carol Dallon.
She recalled the second name more than the first.
Slipping away quietly, Nanku waved Dusk and Dawn back. They'd eaten enough, and she needed to control their food. If they ate too much, they'd grow too large to control with her power, like their mother.
Dallon.
Nanku turned the name over before shrugging.
She chose to retreat and dropped back down onto the street. She typed in the name 'Carol Dallon' and remembered. New Wave. One of the hero groups in the—Nanku leaned forward, reading again.
Amy Dallon, in Remembrance
New Wave quiet amid uncertain scandal
Phage defeated in climactic battle
Echidna's legacy
Nanku blinked behind her mask. Most of the articles mentioned names and events she'd need to look deeper into. Whatever had happened, it seemed like the capes in the city had changed a lot in ten years.
One name mentioned in one of the articles stood out. A single line. An offer of 'support' and a request to reporters to be respectful.
Like a spark, Nanku's fingers started typing again.
Alan Barnes.
Alan Barnes worked with Carol Dallon.
Surely someone so famous couldn't hide so easily. A lawyer had a business. Businesses had phone numbers, and phone numbers had addresses. If she could find Carol Dallon's office, maybe she could find Uncle Alan, and if she found Uncle Alan, she found Emma and Aunt Zoe.
They might know where her mother was.
Nanku didn't have to look far.
Alan Barnes, Attorney at Law
Partner at Princely, Dallon, & Barnes
So, he still worked with her!
Nanku rose and committed the information to memory—and her mask's recorder for good measure. That done, she threw the phone into the nearest dumpster.
She'd find something with a bigger screen that was easier to use before continuing.
At the sound of a splat, Nanku turned as Dusk and Dawn fell atop the corpses.
"Always flying your food into the air and dropping it on the ground."
Many of the creatures on their world were hard-shelled but small. Small enough, Dusk and Dawn's species could lift them and turn gravity into an advantage. It was an evolutionary tactic. Not a terrible one. Gravity was an easy weapon to use with some creativity.
Unfortunately, it made a mess.
"You've had enough. Get back."
Nanku didn't need to speak, but she liked talking to them. The clan could be lonely at times, even among those that accepted her fully as Pe'dte's adopted daughter. Dusk and Dawn were good listeners. Just barely intelligent enough they could read her moods and feelings.
It helped deal with disappointments. Like prey who just gave up.
Pulling a canister from her belt, Nanku sent Dusk to retrieve the third corpse. She'd never been much for collecting bones. She preferred other trophies. Things she could use.
She'd gotten her use of the men.
With a flick of her thumb, Nanku popped the top of the cylinder open and gently turned it to the side.
The viscous blue fluid poured onto the first corpse.
A few drops were enough.
On contact, the flesh bubbled and foamed. A soft hissing filled the air as foam spread and consumed the corpse until there was nothing left. Nothing at all. It wouldn't do to be discovered this early because she left a mess.
…
Nanku turned and retrieved the phone.
She went back, looking over the articles again.
How did they know that creatures caused the massacre? Any kind of creature.
Naomi and Thomas got away, but they left so early into things. Just ran, before anyone had seen what was causing the disappearances. For all they knew it could have been anything, and Nanku doubted they'd survived a direct encounter with the R'ka.
Maybe they saw something but…
She'd killed some of the R'ka. Pe'dte and her sons the rest. When it was over, Pe'dte and Taylor were the only ones still alive. Pe'dte gathered every corpse. Every piece of evidence. She used all the fluid she could carry to destroy every trace of the Yautja or the R'ka. Even the dead campers and counselors.
Or did she miss something? How did the local enforcers figure out enough to pin it on Nilbog?
Nothing in the news or articles clarified. They didn't even define the creatures Nilbog presumably created and unleashed. They simply blamed Nilbog.
Two months after everything happened.
Some cape named 'Weaver' came up in several articles.
Nanku searched the name.
Parahumans Online.
Nanku tapped the link with her thumb. That website she remembered. She used to spend hours on it, looking at news and pictures. Anything she could find about capes and parahumans. Her and Emma.
Parahumans Online Wiki: Capes ► Active ► North America ► Protectorate
Weaver
Alignment: Heroine
Team: Protectorate
City: Brockton Bay, Vermont
Joined: 2007
Status: Active, Protectorate ENE
There was a picture of her. A tall thin woman with long dark hair and a simple costume. Not skintight, but flattering. The pants were baggy and tucked into knee-high boots with steel tips. She wore a short jacket over her shoulders with a high collar, and her mask covered her face entirely with a plain faceless facade.
Like many thinkers, Weaver's power is not openly acknowledged by the Protectorate or PRT. She has been involved in many high-profile missing person cases and murder investigations, suggesting her abilities include some form of crime scene analysis or information gathering.
A cape who could look at a scene and find information?
A hunter of her own sort.
She might be a complication, but that was the game in the end. Hunters were always hunted in turn. It wouldn't be fair otherwise.
Someone to keep an eye out for… Maybe someone to bait to know exactly what she was dealing with.
Capes.
She'd been too hasty. Refocusing, Nanku looked for the names of other capes in the city. She'd find details later or directly observe them herself. For the moment, the names sufficed.
New Wave, the Protectorate, and the Wards. Many of the names were not familiar.
Brandish, Lady Photon, and Manpower seemed too few for New Wave. Whatever happened with Amy and Victoria Dallon, probably. The Protectorate she remembered was led by Armsmaster, but he wasn't in Brockton Bay anymore.
The internet listed the Brockton Bay Protectorate as Miss Militia, Assault, Battery, Dauntless, Weaver, Grace, and Laserdream.
Nanku could swear that last one used to be part of New Wave.
Villains.
Villains would be good to know. Her father was always saying they kept trying to get into the Dockworkers. If Nanku had a first guess, one of them killed her father. Or one of their bad blood lackeys.
She quickly hoped not.
Undersiders? Red Hands? Accord? Nanku didn't know any of those names.
She searched, and her frustration grew.
The ABB and the Empire 88, the big gangs she'd known as a child, were indeed gone. Apparently, the city still had Nazis in the form of the Pure—the bodies behind her certainly seemed to have the right marks—but the names weren't familiar to her.
Save one.
Iron Rain.
She couldn't think of anything, though. The name was just familiar. Maybe Victor and Othala too. Stormtiger maybe? Rune. Crusader. Fenja and Menja. She didn't know any of them.
The research on so many villains was going to be exhausting on such a tiny screen.
She'd do it somewhere more accessible.
Discarding the phone a second time, Nanku finished the task of destroying Dusk and Dawn's leftovers.
In the shadows of the alley, she only waited for a brief time. The bugs in the surrounding buildings gave her a good idea of where people were and where they were going. No one was coming out into the alley. Even if they did, it was too dark.
The bodies would be completely consumed within a matter of minutes.
Scaling the buildings once again, Nanku returned to the rooftops and looked out over the city.
Dusk and Dawn fluttered to her side, and she crouched to give them another rest.
"Still need the police station," she thought aloud. "Might have something the internet doesn't know."
She remembered enough to know the enforcers in Brockton Bay didn't tell the news everything.
"The PRT might know something too," she realized.
If they thought Nilbog was responsible for the camp, then they'd have gotten put in charge, right? She was pretty sure that was how it worked. Nanku considered retrieving the phone again but shook her head.
"Later."
She had a whole year. She didn't want to take her time, but there was no immediate rush.
An order to all things, Pe'dte always said. Never run before you can crawl.
Nanku had some money. That would come in handy.
For now, she needed to finish surveying and recording the city. She'd only covered the northern side and downtown areas. Maybe two-thirds of the full cityscape.
Turning to the east, the sun wasn't set to rise just yet.
There was enough time to finish her patrol. Once she did, there'd be time to sort out her priorities.
"Dad's murderer, and the one behind the R'ka," she said aloud. "Find mom. Goals."
Her fingers scratched at Dusk and Dawn's necks. "Shelter, a source of food. Somewhere to hide while I sleep. Necessities. Uncle Alan. Emma. The Police. PRT. Kurt and Lacy. Clues."
If she had her way, she'd leave Naomi and Thomas out of it. They'd already survived. That was enough for them.
A hunt was a hunt.
She remembered far more than she thought she would. That was good. She'd only been ten when Pe'dte took her, but she was smart enough or old enough to remember what she needed. She had places to start.
Her first kill had been profoundly disappointing, but she'd given the man a clean death. An honorable death.
It was more than the R'ka gave anyone.
At the thought, Nanku stood and faced the mountains. The dark peaks loomed to the east of the city, lit by only a few winding roads and estates.
She stared at the mass. In the night, and against the city lights, the landscape was indistinct, but she knew it was there. The place Taylor Hebert's life ended and Nanku's began.
She'd visited her father's grave to make a promise.
She could visit theirs too.
Nanku dropped back down into the alley again, retrieved the phone again, and found a website called 'Goggle Maps.'