Alpiane held out her hand, and after only a moment of hesitation I took it. She turned my hand over and placed my mask in it, then released me and returned to the couch, letting herself drop almost bonelessly onto it. Caterwaul placed the tissue pack on the table near me and went to whisper something in Alpiane's ear while helping her get her wig back in place, while Backchannel got up to bring a small waste paper basket to the floor beside me.
"You have a friend waiting for you outside, do you not?" Alpiane asked suddenly. My eyes jerked to her, and she raised her hands in a calming gesture. "'Twas smart of you to bring backup," she continued, approval in her tone. "Invite her here, should you and she wish, though I will not be offended if she chooses not to join us."
I blinked, uncertain how to take that. My eyes drifted to Caterwaul, her playful smile freshly-returned as she cocked her head. "I hear much," she said, and I detected the faint traces of a French accent in her voice. "You and your friend were within earshot for me. I confess, though, that I do not know who she is, beyond the name you used that I shall not repeat, nor did I know either of you was relevant until you reached the club's doors."
My hackles started to rise at that, but I forced myself to calm down and accept the implicit olive branch. First, I put my mask back on, soft fabric and firm metal covering everything below my glasses, the sensation grounding me. I then pulled my phone out and swapped from the still-active call (output muted, of course) to texts.
Me: Well?
NotTheGoddess: fk idek
NotTheGoddess: hate what a btch she was jus now
NotTheGoddess: but still
NotTheGoddess: dont seem lik a trap
NotTheGoddess: fk it
NotTheGoddess: got a good shot at em fromhere, but good faith i guess
I smiled. I knew Soph could text with good grammar if she wished; anything else was basically poking fun at me. She'd even slipped up and spelled things right a few times there. This time, though, it cheered me up.
Me: You're joining us, then?
NotTheGoddess: yuh comin thru ceiling
My smile grew.
"She'll drop in soon," I said as I tucked my phone away. "Like, literally. Through the ceiling. So don't, uh, yeah."
Backchannel looked upwards, then let out a bark of laughter. "She really is," he said, his voice a rich baritone. He rose once again from his couch and pulled a chair out from the table to place beside me.
"What arms does she bear?" Alpiane asked. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed her subtly brush the back of her hand against Colibri's forearm before clasping her hand in her own, fingers interlaced. Colibri didn't visibly relax, but she did reciprocate the gesture.
"A crossbow with a variety of different bolts in her quiver and some knives." Backchannel glanced to Alpiane, who nodded. "Feel free to join us, Miss."
A moment passed, then another, during which I filed away the fact that the man apparently had some form of see-through-walls perception power. Then a shadow dropped through the ceiling, not above the chair, but angled towards it, coalescing into my girlfriend just in time to land expertly, instantly affecting a casual lounging posture. I smothered a laugh at her antics, while letting my eyes take in her costume: a cloak of darkest blue over what had originally been a set of motorcycle leathers, which had been tailored to fit her frame and reinforced in key places. Her mask was matte gray and took the form of a woman's face, lips quirked into a faint smirk that, depending on the angle she held her head, could be either playful or slightly cruel. Mom's work, that.
Sophia, Shadow Stalker, held her pistol-like crossbow pointed firmly at the floor, her finger resting on the trigger guard. It was loaded and drawn; a clear warning, and one that saw the tension in the room rise tangibly. She must've sensed it, too, because she was quick to pluck the bolt from its place. She still held it, ready to load her crossbow at a moment's notice, but the display helped ease the tension, to my relief.
The crossbow was just a sidearm for her, really, but it served better in tight quarters like these than her main weapon, which I knew she was keeping collapsed and hidden under her cloak.
Alpiane had a glint of recognition in her eye as she inclined her head in greeting. "Well met. Shadow Stalker, I presume?"
It was subtle, and Soph was doing her best to cover her reactions with an unflappable façade, but I knew her well enough to spot the mix of increasing tension and surprised pride in the lines of her shoulders. "You've heard of me?"
Caterwaul's hand came up to not-quite-conceal a sudden grin, though her teammates' reactions were even more subdued. But it was Colibri who answered, speaking up for the first time this meeting. "We researched all known parahumans in the city before coming here, as we do wherever we go, regardless of whether or not we intend to do any jobs." Her voice was surprisingly soft for how no-nonsense her demeanor was, but it still carried a stern note. Had I not been looking the right way, I likely would've missed Alpiane subtly brushing her knuckles against Colibri's.
Soph's shoulders drooped, but I could tell that hadn't stung her pride too badly. She'd come a long way from the aggressive, antagonistic girl she once was, and it warmed my heart to see.
Alpiane hummed thoughtfully. "If I recall correctly, your power lends itself well to stealth and infiltration, yes?"
"... Why do you ask?"
"I have the rough beginnings of a plan that should lead towards locating Annette, and Miss Grimoire's presence would ease its completion." She smiled pleasantly. "You seem quite the loyal ally to her, the type to not let her head into danger on her own. So, 'twould be simplest to assume you would accompany her, should she lend us her assistance in this endeavor. Thus, you must be accounted for."
Sophia seemed taken aback by that, but I couldn't spare much thought for that with my mind occupied by what Alpiane had said. "Y-you know a way to find her already?" I asked, sudden, desperate hope filling me.
"Calm, calm," she urged gently. I suddenly realized I'd all but lunged out of my chair in my urgency. As I flushed and sat back down, she continued, "As I said, it is the rough beginnings of a plan, one that I've been putting together in case I found no leads here. I still need to finish piecing it together, then give it a great deal of polish before I would be comfortable calling it a plan in truth."
"But you said I could help?" I all but pleaded, hating myself a little for how I sounded.
Alpiane nodded. "As Annette's daughter by blood, your mere presence would ease certain obstacles I expect we would encounter. With that said, obtaining the means to locate her would necessitate traversing dangerous areas. I will need to take great care when planning so I can keep you as safe from harm as possible." She paused, then smiled apologetically. "Forgive me if this sounds patronizing, but you two are still children. I will not have my conscience, or those of my team, weighed down by either of you being maimed, or worse."
I couldn't help but shrink in on myself. I was a child, a fact rubbed in by how I was the shortest person in the room at only a little over five feet. Even Sophia was a couple inches taller than me. There was some consolation in the fact that Mom was a good head taller than Dad, who was by no means a short man himself at six feet; Mom had assured me that I'd have a dramatic growth spurt in my future, one that'd see me shoot up like a weed. But I still had a few years to go before then.
My height wasn't the true issue, of course. I was self aware enough to know that. The real issue, though…
Alpiane leaned forward. "I will need to know as much as the two of you can tell me about your powers and abilities, if you are to accompany us."
I jolted in my seat as I found my spiraling train of thought thoroughly derailed. "I…" I looked at Shadow Stalker, my eyes on the lenses of her mask. She tilted her head in a wordless question, and after a moment I inclined my head towards her, telling her she should go ahead.
And so she did, telling Alpiane the broad strokes of how her power worked, the brief moments of intangibility, and how that related to her choice in weaponry. By that point I was listening with only half an ear, already well familiar with what she was saying and more besides. The rest of me was busy reminiscing about how she'd managed to get so very good with combining her power with her chosen weapons. Her shadow state only stayed with a projectile for a fraction of a second, and her powers did not come with an enhanced sense for timing and distances. She had to develop those skills all on her own, and the amount of work and effort she'd put in to hone her fighting style made me so very proud of my girlfriend.
I brought the entirety of my attention back to the present as she wrapped up her brief explanation, noting that she hadn't mentioned her shadow state's weakness to electricity. So, she was still cautious of these people, not that she was wrong to be.
Alpiane turned her attention my way, motioning for me to proceed. I took a calming breath and began, "I'm still something of a neophyte in the art of the Summoner, but I am by no means helpless. How much do you know about it? Given it's from your homeland, and you know Mom."
She gave me a weak smile. "Not nearly as much as I would like. Summoners went from exalted champions of the Empire to reviled enemies of the realm before I was born. Those that weren't hunted down and killed went into hiding. Nigh all of what I know that isn't propaganda I learned from Annette." She laughed, a soft chuff of nostalgic humor. "She told me she was one without prompting, that I might have blackmail material over her to equal what she had over me. Despite her having every reason to exploit me for all I was worth. 'Twas only natural that we became friends in short order." She sighed fondly. Her team, despite doing their best to not react overtly, seemed unfamiliar with this story.
"... Your relationship with Mom was based on mutually-assured destruction by way of blackmail?" I asked, both thirsty for more information about my mom's past and slightly afraid to learn more.
Alpiane waved her hand lazily. "Our homeland was wont to celebrate many of the atrocities it wrought, and yet the facility to which we were assigned, and the research performed within its walls, was kept highly secret. 'Twas not an environment conductive to healthy relationships." Her smile turned wry, bitter. "Allag was a generous mother to her people. She left no belly unfilled, no man unemployed. No land unconquered. No hand unstained." She cocked her head. "Ah, but we have strayed from our topic. Mine apologies. Your Carbuncle, Beryl, was it? I know from Annette that it is capable of some modest violence, and is capable of a few support magicks, but last I knew there are no eikons anywhere on this star. Without capturing the essence of an eikon, you would have nothing to summon, no?"
"I, ah…" I hesitated. "Actually, I have three egis, from three different eikons, that I can summon." I clasped my hands, rubbing my thumb over the joints of my other hand and feeling the texture of the skin there.
Alpiane blinked. Then blinked again. "... Might I ask how?"
"Mom, ah, had some crystallized aether samples from what she called the 'Warring Triad', and she had me sit in a room, well, more of a closet, really, that she lined with aether-insulating material, and filled the room with a portion of a sample, and had me focus on it until I claimed the egi. We only did it with one sample at a time, with a couple weeks between each session, because she said I had to 'let things settle', and because she had to line a new closet in a new building each time."
Alpiane's lips parted midway through my explanation, only for them to press together in a tight line as she clenched her jaw once I'd finished. Then, over the space of a couple seconds, all emotion seemed to drain from her face, leaving her face decidedly blank.
Caterwaul was giving me a faintly horrified look for some reason. Colibri's masked gaze was boring intently into me, while Backchannel just looked vaguely uncomfortable.
Alpiane muttered something under her breath, too softly for me to catch anything other than my mother's name, then shook her head. "The Monsters of Meracydia, eh?" she said with a wry huff of laughter. "I cannot say the might of an egi at our side would be aid I would reject, even if you are, to my eye, as yet unblooded."
I cocked my head as I filed that reaction away to revisit later. "So, where is it that we'll be going to go look for leads on finding Mom that we'll need to be able to fight?"
"Ah." Alpiane's expression snapped back to seriousness. "Our destination lies in western Connecticut."
"Wait," Shadow Stalker interjected, "don't tell me you'll be taking us all to break into the Menagerie?"
"Close! But not quite," Alpiane replied with a small smile. "We will not be infiltrating the main buildings of the Litchfield Containment Zone and Research Facility. Rather, we shall enter the Containment Zone proper, with our goal being the Fissure at its heart, or rather, what lies beyond it."
.o.o.o.
"It's fucking crazy is what it is," Sophia grumbled as we walked side by side. We'd changed back into civilian clothes, with my robes and book stashed in a backpack, and her costume and weapons in a duffle bag. "I know they've got a way past the walls, but even discounting that, and the defenses, and the on-site capes, there's still all the fuck-wild monsters waltzing around in there."
"I know, hon, you've said so a dozen times by now, I swear. I'd almost get the impression you didn't want to go," I teased.
"If you're going, I'm going," she replied, her tone firm and serious in its finality. "I refuse to let you go along with this insane plan if I'm not there to watch your back."
I stumbled, only saved from falling by our clasped hands. "I, um, okay," I managed through my sudden blush.
She let the opportunity to tease me go, and instead fiddled with her phone with her free hand, sending off a text. We stopped in front of a door, waiting, and soon it opened.
"Hey," Emma said softly as she leaned on her crutches while holding the door open. The glossy black surface of her prosthetic leg reflected the street lights' glow, and I felt a twinge in my chest at the sight. "Come in, come in. Tell me how it went!"
