Little Hunter
Dusk and Angelica sat on either side of Alabaster.
They took turns batting him back and forth. Usually, with the sharp end of something. Nanku would have just killed him, but maybe she could use him in some other way. She could always hunt him again later.
In the meantime, letting the monster dog and alien insect shut him up kept the annoying little bigot busy. If not entirely quiet.
"Should we be doing that?" Cassie asked with a pointed finger.
"He's an asshole," Hellhound stated. Bluntly.
"And he thinks he's immortal," Nanku added.
Cassie looked over. "Um. He is immortal?"
"Nothing is immortal."
Nanku kept her eyes on Hellhound. She still had two dogs flanking her while Angelica and Dusk played 'maul the Nazi.' All three animals had stopped growing but remained tense and constrained only by whatever discipline their master instilled into them.
Across from her, Nanku sat with Dawn, hand gently feeling around the crack in her shell. The wound was not serious. The kind of injury her species endured and walked off regularly with basic roughhousing.
She would heal in flesh. Her instinctual pride might take longer to mend.
Even as Nanku soothed her, the insectoid snarled and clapped her mandibles together, leering at her canine counterparts.
Cassie pointed. "Maybe you should reel your giant bug monster in?"
Nanku didn't reply.
Dawn was reeled in. No one could truly master an animal. Any animal. Not even with Nanku's power. She could only suppress the will of primitive minds, why Dusk and Dawn retained their senses of self and instinct even while under her sway.
Nanku sensed Hellhound understood that from how she kept a constant watch on her own animals.
They were living things.
And all living things were free. It was why her Clan barely tolerated her use of hunting hounds. Even with the excuse of her power, to some, it went against the standard ethic of a hunter to respect life. Any sense of control was an illusion and transient. As life itself was transient.
Cassie was no threat. Just a glorified dog handler. Not a warrior or hunter. That was fine but consequently of no interest to Nanku.
Hellhound, however…
Victor's power was enough to tell him someone was near, and he figured out where she was, but far too late. Alabaster's power made him complacent. Killing him was more practical than anything. The Protectorate and the Wards lacked the will to carry through in a hunt even when they'd located prey.
Hellhound?
Hellhound was different.
Nanku could see it in her skin.
"My eyes are here," the girl growled.
"Oh." Cassie's face turned red. "Is that why she's staring at you?"
Nanku didn't know what they meant. What did eyes have to do with it?
"You're different."
Hellhound gave no response, but her eyes were puzzling. There was a mind behind her brutish facade. A real mind. One that knew the edge of living. Nanku could see it in the way the girl carried herself, especially with someone like Cassie—who sought coddling and protection from others by nature—in the room.
"You have scars," Nanku clarified, curious if Hellhound would pick up on the meaning. And she didn't mean the shoulder stained with blood.
Cassie had insisted on removing the girl's jacket and bandaging the injury. The tank top she wore underneath exposed muscled arms lined with scars. Most were from blades.
"So do you."
"Mine are bigger."
"What do you win?"
Nanku wasn't sure she picked up on the meaning, but maybe that was her fault. Though Hellhound's last response wasn't a bad one.
Her swarm kept watch, the majority still drawn in together. Pressed against the windows and walls of the building, ready to flood in and cover Nanku's attack or escape. For the moment, they watched for signs of treachery, but nothing had approached their little get-together since Cassie made a phone call and a little truce was established.
That was an hour ago.
"When will she be here?"
"Don't know."
"You're a poor liar."
"She gets here when she gets here."
Nanku kept her face even since they could see it.
"Are you really her kid?" Cassie asked.
She'd seen Weaver's face. That much was clear.
"People pay for that!" Alabaster said. "Come on, one cam—"
Dusk and Angelica started their game again, tearing into him and ripping the man apart.
"The first one is dead," Hellhound declared, anger entering her eyes. "Been dead a long time."
Nanku huffed. "Where's the body?"
Hellhound huffed back.
They definitely knew her mother. Nanku wondered what they knew about Taylor. The basics? Details? Enough to know why she might fear returning home?
…
Did her mother?
The thought soured Nanku's calm mood. Brought back doubts and bitter resentments. It was muter than before. Duller. She wasn't interested in branding blame or accusations at the woman, but she was curious.
She wanted to sit with the woman and talk.
Mother and daughter. Without a gun pointed at her head or having to prove she was who she claimed.
She swept the streets and alleys again. Still no sign of anyone. Her mother, or betrayal.
"Come on!" Alabaster shouted. "Get some bikinis and do some mommy dau—"
Nanku flicked a shuriken from her belt and flung it.
"Disgusting," she grumbled.
"Nazi," Hellhound replied.
She caught the weapon as it spun back and flicked the blades back into the disk.
Cassie grimaced. She didn't have much of a spine, but she was used to blood. Seeing it, at least.
"She your hench"—a car approached. Nanku kept her head straight, though her voice faltered for a moment—"man?"
"Henchwoman," Cassie corrected. "Girl power."
Nanku searched the car's interior.
Two figures. Both women. One tall and thin in the passenger's seat with long dark hair.
She's here.
"Henchman is sexist," Hellhound declared.
"Never heard of it," Nanku replied mutely.
She searched once more. Looked for anything. Guards. Armed men. Other vehicles. There was a busy road at the edge of her range, but nothing that caught her attention. Did that matter? With Vista's power, they could drop a lot of people on her all at once. Laserdream could be flying overhead.
Nanku called Dusk back to her. The bug skittered over, drawing Hellhound and Cassie's attention. The monster dogs, too. Angelica followed, moving behind her master and the other two dogs flanking her.
The parahuman tilted her head at the sound of an engine.
Cassie turned. "Let me look."
She wandered toward the door and peeked through the window.
"They're here," she announced.
Nanku stiffened.
"If you lied," Hellhound said coldly, "we start where we left off."
Dusk and Dawn shook their wings and snarled.
The dogs reciprocated, snapping their jaws and growling deep in their large chests.
"What did I miss?" Alabaster. "Nothing sexy I—"
Nanku's lips twisted, and she flung her shuriken again.
The door opened as the blades sheared through Alabaster's neck, and her mother stopped dead as the weapon spun back and slapped into Nanku's hand.
In retrospect, Nanku should have just killed him.
He'd regrown body parts magically. Endured any loss of blood. Nanku never saw him do it while impaled, and she'd left him impaled long enough to count the seconds down.
Nanku bet a spear through his heart would kill him if she left it there.
She flicked the blades of her shuriken back and inhaled.
Her mother stood stock still, staring at Alabaster's—briefly—beheaded corpse.
The woman dressed casually in plain clothes but wore Weaver's mask over her face. A blonde followed behind her, brow cocked and a domino mask over her eyes. Nanku found the use of those meager masks funny. They seemed insufficient to cover anything. Certainly not when her biomask could reconstruct the face properly.
And she wasn't wearing her biomask at the moment.
Luck is an asset, too.
Nanku dismissed her.
She focused on her mother.
The woman's mask hid her face, but Nanku had a feeling.
Something had changed. Her body language held none of the anger or the defensiveness. She was trepidatious. Uncertain. Afraid.
"You know," Nanku said.
The woman's answer came slowly. "I know."
With a huff, Nanku drew herself up. She stood fully and let Dusk press into her side while Dawn curved ahead of her feet. The two bugs snarled, wings fluttering and mandibles clapping.
Her mother reacted to them.
Tense and unsure.
"Those the things that killed everyone at the camp?" the blonde asked.
Is that what her mother thought?
"No," Weaver declared firmly, to Nanku's surprise. "They're not."
Hellhound also stood, visibly relaxing as Weaver stepped around her. Even the dogs relaxed. Angelica sat and panted, giant spiny tail wagging. They liked Weaver. Hellhound seemed to defer to her, a bit. Cassie smiled and waved, taking the chance to slip quietly outside.
Nanku tilted her head.
Her mother's fingers tensed at her sides.
"Boooo!"
Every head turned.
Alabaster swung in his bindings.
"Boooo! Make out!"
Nanku started to move, but the blonde rushed across the room.
"I'll take care of that," she said.
"Nah," Alabaster replied. "Look like you have a gag re—"
She pulled a gun from somewhere and shot the man twice.
"Tattletale," Weaver chided.
"What? He's immortal!" She looked at the lines and frowned. "Huh. How do I—"
Nanku tapped the computer on her arm, and the anchors holding the line unspooled. The corpse slapped to the ground, and Tattletale stumbled back.
"A little help Bitch?"
Nanku frowned. She'd done enough to help, and she wasn't—
Hellhound moved, waving her dog named Sunny along and directing it to drag Alabaster away like he was a ham. The man got one word off when his power activated. Tattletale shot him again and started talking with Hellhound.
The other two dogs remained, watching Weaver and Nanku.
Besides the beasts and the Twins, it was just them.
There was still no apparent trap outside. Nanku would think Vista would be using her power already. What else would they be waiting for?
"No gun?"
Her mother tensed. "I—I'm..."
Bitter. Again.
Nanku scratched Dawn's head behind the plate of her skull. The bug rattled and curled her scything talon limbs in. Her mother watched warily.
"Where did you make those?" she asked.
"Wherever."
Tinker. Right. It was the logical assumption for anyone seeing her equipment. They wouldn't think she got it from an alien race any more than they'd assume Dusk and Dawn were aliens, too. Tinkered creations were more logical.
Nanku tilted her head.
Nilbog. That's what Tattletale meant. She was asking if Dusk and Dawn were the Nilbog creations everyone on Earth assumed massacred the camp.
Well, she'd deal with that in a moment.
"Nothing to say?"
"Not sure what to say," her mother replied. "Taylor—"
"Nanku."
She set her lips in a line.
"My name is Nanku." She softened slightly. "It means 'little hunter.'"
Again, the woman was silent.
Nanku was sympathetic.
She'd seen the pain on Pe'dte's face for years, and the Yautja hid pain far better than humans.
The two dogs snarled as her mother moved. Dusk and Dawn reacted, but Nanku pulled them back and maneuvered the twins behind her. They didn't like it, but if the woman wanted to hurt her, there'd be a Protectorate army somewhere already.
Nanku held herself still and didn't budge as her mother embraced her.
"I'm so sorry," she whispered. "For—I… I'm sorry."
The woman leaned in, arms closing around Nanku's shoulders.
She tensed, wary of a trick. Dusk and Dawn watched her back, but her mother's hands only clasped together and pulled her closer. Nanku's face found her mother's collar. She still wore the same perfume. Nanku had forgotten it, but it came to mind immediately.
"You're sorry?"
"Yes."
…
That was a complicated feeling.
Her mother's grip tightened. "You're you."
"That's what I told you."
"I—Oh god, I pointed a gun at you."
"It's fine."
"No, it's not."
"I knew you weren't going to shoot."
"She's not replacing you. I—I didn't even plan to have Rose. She just happened."
By the Black Warrior, "Don't tell her that."
Her mother scoffed, shoulders relaxing. "Didn't exactly plan to have you either. My luck with birth control is an outlier."
There were things no child was meant to know.
Her mother took a deep breath and pulled back. She checked to the side, but Tattletale and Hellhound had dragged Alabaster away. With the onlooker gone, Annette He—Annette Whoever, removed her mask and cupped Nanku's jaw.
The woman's eyes traced the lines of her face. Searching.
"What?" Nanku asked.
"You look like him."
"Who?"
"Your father."
Nanku pursed her lips. She didn't particularly care to aspire to womanly qualities, but the idea of looking like a man was weird.
But that was a good enough opening.
"I came back for him."
"The first thing you did was go to the memorial."
How did she know that—Thinker. Right. "Do you know who did it?"
Her mother tensed.
Nanku glared. "Do you?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Peace of mind."
Her mother's brow tensed.
"And Nazis are trying to kill you."
~ ~ ~
"How the hell did she even manage this?" Lisa patted Alabaster's cheek.
He talked into the socks in his mouth, and not a word of it was understandable.
Rachel preferred it when they were letting dogs and bug monsters tear into him. Alabaster had it coming.
Lisa stood up and looked at Rachel's shoulder. "You're hurt."
"I'm fine."
Lisa checked the bandages anyway. Because, of course, she did. Rachel simply let her. It was faster than arguing how stupid it was.
The wound barely hurt. It was deep enough it should hurt, but Rachel didn't know. Numbing chemicals in the bug spit or something. She was more worried about infection than the blood. She didn't know where those thing's mouths had been.
"She attacked you?" Lisa asked, her face serious.
"She tried."
"Cassie seemed okay."
"She's tough. She'll be fine."
"Not everyone is as tough as you, Ra—"
Rachel scowled.
She hated it when Lisa thought she needed to talk down to her.
Lisa at least cut herself off.
"Cassie is fine," Rachel insisted. "She's tough."
"You can be oddly maternal, you know that?"
"Whatever." Rachel looked back. "That really her?"
Lisa's expression darkened. "Yeah. That's her. Weaver confirmed it herself."
"How?"
"We can go back out and see if she'll tell us."
Rachel would laugh if it was funny. "This is a distraction."
Lisa kept her face even, and her expression muted. She was good at that but not as good as she thought she was.
"It's her daughter, Bitch. The one she thought dead. You remember what she was like when we first met her."
Rachel didn't dignify that with a response. She wasn't dumb. Of course, she remembered.
"You're both distracted."
Got a hold of herself at that. It was a start. "We need more information. You know Rain is too immature to really be—"
"Who cares?" She'd heard the excuse. It changed nothing. "They take streets. Hit our people. Sell drugs to kids."
"Running in blind will ruin everything."
"Doing nothing is ruining everything."
"We have to buy time."
"I'll buy it."
Rachel let the challenge hang. It was obvious. She didn't know why Lisa didn't see it. Rachel had talked to Alec, Aisha, and Foil. They all saw it. Even the Wards should be able to see it.
Sitting back and doing nothing was setting them up to fail. Now 'Taylor' was here, and Weaver was distracted. Everything in Brockton Bay that worked worked because of Lisa and Annette. They kept the peace. They maintained the strained bounds of unity, holding the city's capes—hero and villain—together and keeping the peace.
They were the city's rulers.
Every other cape followed their lead, especially with Accord and his troublemaking in the grave with him.
They couldn't keep sitting back and watching the Pure do whatever it wanted. Kids. Drugs. Dogs—
"Rachel," Lisa snapped. "I know you want to save those dogs, but it's a trap. They are baiting you, Bitch."
Rachel glared into Lisa's eyes, and Lisa tried to act demure. Alabaster began squirming and talking into his gag.
"I know," Rachel stated bluntly.
"Then you know you can't just blunder into them. You—Wait, did you come back here to go behind our backs? You did!"
"And?"
Rachel wasn't dumb.
She didn't like being treated like she was.
"You know better," Lisa whispered. "Don't give them what they want."
"You've forgotten how to be a villain."
Lisa's reaction was pale-faced and open mouth.
Rachel felt bad for the comment, but it was unavoidable.
"Reacting doesn't win streets."
Rachel motioned for Angelica to follow her, and she left Lisa to puzzle it out. She was good with words. And she had her power.
If Brian were still alive, he could have insisted on the lesson. But Brian was gone. Aisha and Alec were content to let others lead. Foil and Parian kept themselves distant, and the other groups allied with the Undersiders preferred not to fight for streets. Lisa and Weaver—everyone—fought hard to make Brockton Bay something more than a bloodbath.
They won it, and they didn't want to give it up.
They didn't want to accept the Pure had already stolen it.
Rachel scowled.
They didn't want to accept Rachel could change too.